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Dongfengyun in China's Yunnan attracts tourists with cultural events and scenic landscapes

Xinhua) 16:50, September 09, 2025

An aerial drone photo taken on Sept. 8, 2025 shows a view of Dongfengyun town in Mile City of Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province. Dongfengyun is a town of specialties related to culture and art. It has kept introducing colorful tourist events and improving local scenery in recent years, and is now a heavily visited landmark for tourism in central Yunnan. (Xinhua/Peng Yikai)

A tourist poses for photos at Dongfengyun town in Mile City of Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Sept. 8, 2025. Dongfengyun is a town of specialties related to culture and art. It has kept introducing colorful tourist events and improving local scenery in recent years, and is now a heavily visited landmark for tourism in central Yunnan. (Xinhua/Peng Yikai)

A tourist enjoys herself among flowering plants at Dongfengyun town in Mile City of Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Sept. 8, 2025. Dongfengyun is a town of specialties related to culture and art. It has kept introducing colorful tourist events and improving local scenery in recent years, and is now a heavily visited landmark for tourism in central Yunnan. (Xinhua/Peng Yikai)

A tourist visits Dongfengyun town in Mile City of Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Sept. 8, 2025. Dongfengyun is a town of specialties related to culture and art. It has kept introducing colorful tourist events and improving local scenery in recent years, and is now a heavily visited landmark for tourism in central Yunnan. (Xinhua/Peng Yikai)

A folk band stages a performance at Dongfengyun town in Mile City of Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Sept. 8, 2025. Dongfengyun is a town of specialties related to culture and art. It has kept introducing colorful tourist events and improving local scenery in recent years, and is now a heavily visited landmark for tourism in central Yunnan. (Xinhua/Peng Yikai)

An aerial drone photo taken on Sept. 8, 2025 shows tourists visiting Dongfengyun town in Mile City of Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province. Dongfengyun is a town of specialties related to culture and art. It has kept introducing colorful tourist events and improving local scenery in recent years, and is now a heavily visited landmark for tourism in central Yunnan. (Xinhua/Peng Yikai)

(Web editor: Huang Kechao, Liang Jun)
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After heavy rains, a landslide "completely leveled" a remote village in western Sudan in early September. It was the temporary home of hundreds of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who had fled the conflict between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary, to what they had hoped would be a safe location. In all, more than 1,000 people are feared to have died in the landslide.

At the end of 2024, more than 80 million people were living in internal displacement worldwide. While more attention is usually paid to people who cross borders and become refugees, the reality is most people who are displaced stay within their own borders as IDPs.

A changing climate and the associated extreme or erratic weather affects everyone living in the same regionbut it does not affect everyone equally.

IDPs have specific vulnerabilities because they've been displaced. They are likely to have used up whatever money and other assets they had prior to their displacement, leaving them unable to make the same adaptations as those who have not been displaced.

In northern Mozambique, the center of a jihadist insurgency since 2017, hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homeswith many seeking refuge in the port city of Pemba. After their houses were destroyed by a cyclone in 2019, IDPs living in Pemba rebuilt temporary structures. But when these were burned down by insurgents, the IDPs were left with nothing at all.

Research I carried out with ODI Global colleagues on the city of Herat in western Afghanistan found that people who had not been displaced by conflict were able to make simple lifestyle changes during periods of drought and extreme heat. These included switching to clay or earthenware jars to keep their water cool, or buying air conditioners.

But IDPs were unable to make similar adjustments. Their coping strategies focused more on reducing consumption, such as skipping meals or no longer eating meat.

When IDPs arrive in a new area, the only land available to settle on is often free to use because no one else wants to live there. In Mosul, a city in northern Iraq, stagnated reconstruction following the liberation of the city from the Islamic State militant group in 2017 has resulted in a scarcity of adequate housing. This has left many IDPs residing in unfinished or makeshift shelters on unpaved roads that are prone to flooding during heavy rains.

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And in Mocoa, where a large number of people moved after fleeing Colombia's longstanding civil conflict, IDPs settled in an area susceptible to landslides as it was the only place with cheap accommodation and land available for building. A landslide in 2017 killed more than 300 people there, destroying several neighborhoods that were populated almost entirely by people displaced by conflict.

Furthermore, IDPs are often overlooked in whatever disaster management or disaster risk reduction plans may exist. Low literacy or speaking a different native tongueboth common traits among displaced peoplecan result in them not heeding early warnings when they are given.

Evidence shows that early warning systems can be effective for displaced people who have sought refuge abroad. In Bangladesh, for example, Rohingya refugees from Myanmar are included in the national early warning system, allowing them to strengthen their shelters and stockpile food before cyclones hit.

However, early warning systems are only effective if they are implemented and understandable to all of the communities at risk. The UN's Early Warnings for All initiative, which aims to ensure everyone has access to early warning systems for hazardous weather or climate events, has only been implemented very slowly. This is particularly true in the countries most vulnerable to climate change.

Reducing the risk

Reducing the vulnerability of displaced people to climate change and related extreme weather is no easy task. It will require decision-makershumanitarian and development aid workers, government officials and local city plannersto listen and learn from what local populations are already doing to adapt and build their own resilience.

Indigenous knowledge has a huge role to play. But people who have just moved to a new area may not know aboutor be capable of makingthe same adaptations as people who have lived there for generations.

There are also limits to individual adaptation, of course. Displaced people need to be included in any disaster risk reduction or risk management efforts, as well as in national adaptation plans.

Yet in 2023, the OECD found that nearly three-quarters of all national adaptation plans (31 of 42) did not address the effects of climate change on people who were already displaced. And this research did not include countries with high levels of displacement which lack national adaptation plans altogether.

Unless these issues are addressed, there will continue to be tragedies on the scale of the one seen recently in Sudan.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Wang Ding, the hydrobiological researcher who has led the protection of the endangered Yangtze finless porpoise, stands near some of the captive mammals at the Institute of Hydrobiology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province on June 16, 2025. Credit: AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

A dozen sleek grey Yangtze finless porpoises glide inside a vast pool at the Institute of Hydrobiology in Wuhan as scientists find ways to protect and breed the rare mammals in China's longest river.

The Yangtze River is one of the busiest inland waterways in the world with 16 major ports. Cargo shipping volume along the river topped 4 billion metric tons (4.4 billion U.S. tons) in 2024, according to state media.

The finless porpoise has become a barometer of the river's health. The population of the critically endangered species plunged from over 2,500 in the 1990s to just 1,012 in 2017 due to pollution, boat traffic and illegal fishing that depleted food supplies, researchers said.

The change alarmed the scientific community, including veteran researcher Wang Ding. He led an international team on a 2006 search for Baiji dolphins, another species that was nearing extinction. Despite a nine-day search, not a single dolphin was found and the Baiji was declared functionally extinct. The last captive Baiji dolphin hangs at a museum along with other rare aquatic species.

"We feared that if this animal cannot survive in the Yangtze, the other species will, like dominoes, disappear one by one from the river," Wang said.

Captive endangered Yangtze finless porpoises are seen at the Institute of Hydrobiology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province on June 16, 2025. Credit: AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

Wang Ding, the hydrobiological researcher who has led the protection of the endangered Yangtze finless porpoise, talks about the variety of lifeforms along the Yangtze River at the Institute of Hydrobiology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province on June 16, 2025. Credit: AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

Children stand near a specimen of a Coelacanth displayed at the Museum of Hydro-biological Sciences in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province on June 16, 2025. Credit: AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

Wang Ding, the hydrobiological researcher who has led the protection of the endangered Yangtze finless porpoise, stands near specimens and skeletons of aquatic mammals at the Institute of Hydrobiology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province on June 16, 2025. Credit: AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

Children stand near an aquatic specimen displayed at the Museum of Hydro-biological Sciences in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province on June 16, 2025. Credit: AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

Specimens of the aquatic life forms found in the Yangtze River is displayed at the Museum of Hydro-biological Sciences in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province on June 16, 2025. Credit: AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

Specimens of the aquatic life forms found in the Yangtze River is displayed at the Museum of Hydro-biological Sciences in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province on June 16, 2025. Credit: AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

Examples of aquatic life forms found in the Yangtze River is displayed at the Museum of Hydro-biological Sciences in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province on June 16, 2025. Credit: AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

A boat is seen along the Yangtze River as the sun sets near Yichang in central China's Hubei province on June 16, 2025. Credit: AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

A elderly man wades in the water along the banks of the Yangtze River near Yichang in central China's Hubei province on June 16, 2025. Credit: AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

Holding tanks for as many as 3000 critically endangered Chinese Sturgeons are seen at the Rare Fish Conservation Center of the Three Gorges along the Yangtze River in central China's Hubei province on June 16, 2025. Credit: AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

Critically endangered Chinese Sturgeons are seen at the Rare Fish Conservation Center of the Three Gorges along the Yangtze River in central China's Hubei province on June 16, 2025. Credit: AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

A sculpture depicting dragon boat rowers is seen along the banks of the Yangtze River near Yichang in central China's Hubei province on June 16, 2025. Credit: AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

An elderly man walks along the banks of the Yangtze River after swimming near Yichang in central China's Hubei province on June 16, 2025. Credit: AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

Residents walk along the river bank near Gezhouba Dam, the first dam on the Yangtze River where the wild finless porpoises have been spotted, near Yichang in central China's Hubei province on June 16, 2025. Credit: AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

Conservation efforts sprung into place. The Yangtze River Protection Law was enacted in 2021, banning fishing for 10 years, relocating factories and prohibiting sewage and chemical runoffs into the river. Today, the population of Yangtze finless porpoises is edging upward at around 1,300.

To protect the Chinese sturgeon, also a critically endangered species, scientists began artificially breeding and releasing thousands of the fish into the Yangtze with the hope of restoring the wild population.

Scientists have called for additional measures to regulate shipping and for an extension of the 10-year fishing ban.

 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

A new poll of 2,143 California adults conducted by University of California, Irvine researchers reveals overwhelming bipartisan support for stricter regulations on children's use of digital technology, including school smartphone restrictions and social media age limits.

"There are very few issues with this level of bipartisan support in today's polarized policy environment, but the message from parents and other adults in our poll was clear and crossed party lines. Adults are worried about the impacts of smartphones and social media on children's learning and mental health," said the survey's authors, Kelli Dickerson, research scientist and lead investigator of the study; Gillian Hayes, the Kleist Professor of informatics; and Candice Odgers, Chancellor's Professor of psychology.

The study found that 82% of Californians support the Phone-Free Schools Act, which requires public schools to adopt policies to restrict student smartphone use during school hours by July 2026. Support crossed party lines, with 84% of Republicans, 81% of Democrats, and 80% of Independents backing the measure.

Other findings include:

73% of Californians surveyed support banning social media for children under 16, with supporters citing youth safety, well-being and the need to encourage more offline activities.

While support for a social media ban was high, many Californians may not fully realize which platforms a ban may affect. For example, nearly half of Californians did not consider YouTube a form of social media, despite it being the most widely used platform among youth.

61% favor allowing generative AI in schools with clear guardrails. However, fewer than half of Californians expressed moderate to complete trust in local, state or federal government, or in technology companies, to make decisions about children and artificial intelligence.

"This research reveals a clear mandate from California families for stronger digital safeguards for children," Dickerson said.

"However, the findings also highlight critical challenges aheadfrom confusion about what platforms would actually be regulated to a troubling lack of trust in any institution to effectively oversee these technologies. Policymakers need to address these gaps if they want regulations that are both effective and enforceable."

The poll revealed some variation in support based on demographics. Parents of minors showed slightly less support for school smartphone restrictions (74%) compared to non-parents (87%), and support increased with education and income levels. However, backing for social media age restrictions remained consistent across all demographic groups.

The majority (88%) of those who supported school smartphone restrictions cited reducing classroom distractions as the main reason driving their support. For social media age restrictions, over 70% of supporters cited concerns about excessive technology use and encouraged offline activities, improving mental health and reducing exposure to harmful content.

Those who opposed school smartphone restrictions primarily cited the need to maintain parent-child communication, with 81% of opponents wanting to ensure children can reach parents during emergencies. Most opponents (71%) of social media age restrictions believed that parents should decide whether their child uses social media.

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The research comes as California continues to lead national conversations about technology regulation. The Phone-Free Schools Act is set to take effect in 2026, and legislative discussions continue about social media age verification and AI oversight in educational settings.

While the study found broad support across the political spectrum for regulation, Hayes said it also uncovered a significant trust deficit in who should be charged with regulatory oversight.

"Young people spend much of their time in digital spaces not designed for them, and there's growing recognition of the need for stronger safeguards," Hayes said.

"However, effective regulation will require not only clearer communication and transparency but also trusted institutions to lead these efforts in partnership with caregivers, educators and young people."

The study was produced by CERES (Connecting the EdTech Research EcoSystem) and UC Irvine's School of Social Ecology.
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Spatial distribution of settled MPs in the northern Gulf for Exp 1 and Exp 2. Credit: npj Emerging Contaminants (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s44454-025-00011-3

Critical wildlife habitats are exposed to pollution risk in the seas off the southern United States, with implications for human health and food security. "Most of the pollution comes from rivers and not from wastewater treatment plants," says CMCC scientist Annalisa Bracco, co-author of the study that used advanced computer models to track tiny plastic particles across three years.

The Gulf of Mexico is facing a growing threat from microplastic pollution, with new research revealing how tiny plastic particles are accumulating in areas crucial to marine life including sea turtles, red snapper, and dolphins.

A study published in the journal npj Emerging Contaminants demonstrates how computer modeling can map the movement and impact of these pollutants with unprecedented precision.

The research, co-authored by CMCC scientist Annalisa Bracco, used advanced numerical models to track different sizes and types of microplastics over short periods across three years in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The findings paint a concerning picture of pollution patterns that directly threaten both marine ecosystems and the seafood that reaches consumers across the globe.

"The Gulf of Mexico, especially its northern part near the southern U.S., is increasingly polluted by tiny plastic particles called microplastics," explains Bracco.

"We used computer models to study how these plastics move over short periods (about a month) across three years. We looked at different sizes and types of plastics and found that most pollution comes from rivers and not from wastewater treatment plants."

Rivers drive the pollution crisis

The study's most significant finding challenges common assumptions about microplastic sources. While wastewater treatment plants have often been considered major contributors to ocean plastic pollution, the research demonstrates that rivers are the primary pathway for microplastics entering the Gulf of Mexico.

The modeling revealed distinct behaviors among different types of plastic particles. Heavier plastics tend to settle at the bottom of the ocean, while floating particles show surprising resilience to wave motions.

A major buildup of microplastics was identified just west of the Mississippi River Delta, creating a pollution hotspot in waters that serve as critical habitat for numerous marine species.

Not just marine life at risk

The study's innovative approach combines plastic pollution mapping with detailed analysis of marine species distributions, creating an unprecedented view of where these threats overlap. This concurrent mapping represents what Bracco identifies as "the most important outcome" of the research.

The implications extend directly to human health and food security. "The fact that plastic impacts regions of intense fishery (which means we're ingesting some) is often the best way to activate a policy response or gain public interest," notes Bracco.

The research team, which included an undergraduate student from Georgia Tech who collected species distribution data, exemplifies how young researchers can contribute meaningfully to addressing pressing environmental challenges.

The study's framework also offers more than just documentation of the ongoing problem in the regionit provides a roadmap for action. By identifying specific point sources of plastic pollution, the research enables targeted mitigation activities that could significantly reduce environmental impact.

"It is important to show how state-of-the-art modeling tools can be used to address coastal problems that interest the general public," says Bracco. "It is somewhat easier to raise awareness of the risks associated with plastic pollution (just one of the many anthropogenic threats) when linking it to fish, turtles, and dolphins instead of simply delivering the likely plastic distribution maps."

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Expanding the research framework

The methodology developed for this Gulf of Mexico study establishes a framework that could be applied to other coastal regions worldwide. CMCC's Global Coastal Ocean (GOCO) division is well-positioned to expand this type of research to additional areas facing similar challenges.

"This project is setting a framework for, hopefully, more similar efforts to come," says Bracco, highlighting the potential for broader application of these modeling techniques.

The research demonstrates the critical importance of making climate and environmental science relevant to everyday concerns. "In other words, it is important to look for ways to make our research relevant to everyday life (in this case the fish we consume) to help put in motion the change that is needed," says Bracco.

This comprehensive approach to understanding microplastic pollution represents a significant advancement in coastal environmental research, providing both the scientific foundation and practical framework needed to protect marine ecosystems and the communities that depend on them.

More information: Xing Zhou et al, Modeling river and urban related microplastic pollution off the southern United States, npj Emerging Contaminants (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s44454-025-00011-3 Journal information: npj Ocean Sustainability

Provided by CMCC Foundation - Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change
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Volume renderings of the nanolite aggregates observed in samples MTL-A and MTL-B. a and b show volume renderings where only the nanolites were segmented, which occur as subspherical, isolated crystals as well as more irregular shaped aggregates. c and d show volume renderings where also the evolved, Fe-depleted glass around and between nanolites is segmented (highlighted in yellow). Credit: Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-62444-z

Researchers at Diamond Light Source have used advanced imaging to look at microscopic crystals, called nanolites, to see what they can tell us about volcanic eruptions.

Highly explosive eruptions present a considerable hazard for communities living near active volcanoes. These eruptions can produce columns of ash and gas which extend high into the atmosphere, depositing large volumes of volcanic material kilometers away from the volcano.

How explosive a volcanic eruption becomes depends on what happens as magma rises through the crust. As it moves upward, crystals and gas bubbles form, which make the magma thicker (more viscous) and increase the chances of an explosive eruption. Understanding what can lead to these types of eruption can provide crucial information for assessing the danger posed to nearby communities.

A recent study published in Nature Communications, conducted by an international research team led by Dr. Emily C. Bamber at the Institute of Science, Technology and Sustainability for Ceramics of the National Research Council (CNR-ISSMC), investigated the role of nanoscale crystals in explosive eruptions.

Such crystals, known as nanolites, are <1 micron in size (for comparison, a human hair is 100 microns in diameter) and therefore, difficult to observe using conventional microscopy techniques due to their small size. To resolve and visualize iron and titanium-enriched nanolites, the team used X-ray ptychography on Diamond's I13-1 beamline. X-ray ptychography is a lensless, phase imaging microscopy technique at the nanoscale, also described as scanning coherent diffraction imaging (CDI).

A diagram illustrating the crystallization of nanolites, the formation of a nanolite aggregate and the impact on melt viscosity. Credit: Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-62444-z

The study focused on volcanic rocks from the Las Sierras-Masaya region in Nicaragua, the site of two unusually explosive basaltic eruptions: the Fontana Lapilli and Masaya Triple Layer events. Basaltic magma is typically low in viscosity and erupts gently, but these events produced towering ash columns and ejected over a cubic kilometer of material.

The key to their explosiveness may lie in the nanolites. The researchers discovered that titanium-rich crystals, known as titanomagnetite, form long, uneven clusters that pull iron and titanium from the surrounding magma. This chemical shift creates silica-rich zones around the crystals, which are significantly more viscous. The result is a magma that is up to 1,000 times thicker than normal and is primed to fragment violently as it rises.

The I13-1 3D images revealed that nanolites don't just float freely in the magma. They clump together into structures as large as 6 micrometers, altering both the chemistry and the physical flow of the molten rock.

This thickening effect, caused by both the presence of solid particles and the chemical changes they induce, makes magma more prone to explosive fragmentation. In the case of the Fontana Lapilli and Masaya Triple Layer eruptions, the magma's high crystal content, rapid ascent, and relatively cool storage conditions all contributed to its unexpected explosiveness.

The findings offer a new lens through which to view volcanic hazards. By understanding how nanolites form and behave, scientists can better predict which eruptions might be more explosive, even in volcanoes previously thought to be low risk.

More information: Emily C. Bamber et al, 3D quantification of nanolites using X-ray ptychography reveals syn-eruptive nanocrystallisation impacts magma rheology, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-62444-z Journal information: Nature Communications
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Field-level map of soil zones in Saskatchewan. Source: Generated from ISC land titles registry polygons and soil characteristics from the Canadian National Soils Database (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada 2022; ISC 2022). Credit: Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics (2025). DOI: 10.1111/1467-8489.70028

By choosing which crops to plant in their fields, Canadian prairie farmers may be able to boost their bottom line while also helping the environment.

Switching to certain crop rotations to increase the amount of organic carbon stored in soil could eventually result in higher profits while keeping harmful carbon dioxide emissions out of the atmosphere, new research from a University of Alberta expert suggests. The findings are published in the Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics.

"It's an opportunity to look down the road to some of the benefits of growing a crop that increases profits further out and improves soil carbon in the long run," says agricultural economist Devin Serfas, an assistant professor in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences.

Using Saskatchewan farmland as a model, Serfas, RDAR Chair in Applied Agricultural Economics and Risk Management at the U of A, investigated the long-term effects of planting different types of crops on soil organic carbon or SOC, and how that would affect crop yield and profitability, as well as environmental benefits associated with changes in SOC.

Derived from dead plant matter, SOC makes soil more fertile, but when released into the atmosphere through a crop practice called tillingturning over the soilit releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Using Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation data from insured fields over the past 20 years, combined with weather, plant and soil science models to predict SOC levels, Serfas estimated the on-farm "shadow value" of SOC. The calculation showed that in soils with lower SOC levels, like brown soilwhich tends to be drier and less fertile than black soilfarmers have more opportunity to significantly improve their yields and profits by choosing crop rotations that boost SOC levels.

Simulations were then run to estimate the SOC and yield response over time, using both common and conventional crop rotations, including tillage and leaving a field fallow for a year, which releases carbon into the atmosphere and leaves less SOC in the ground.

However, long-term average profits for various soil types were much higher when an agronomically recommended, more optimal rotation was used, consisting of planting canola one year, followed in subsequent years by spring wheat, field peas, then spring wheat again, and repeating the same four-year cycle after that.

Long-term profitability, soil resiliency

The projections showed that if farmers adopt this specific rotation, they could see significant increases in their long-term average profits, of 27.5% more than current levels in brown soil zones, 8.2% more in dark brown soil areas and 4.4% more in black and gray soils. The profit boosts are directly linked to the increased carbon being stored in the soil over about 32 years, or eight four-year cycles of farming, Serfas notes.

The canola/spring wheat/field pea/spring wheat rotation also helps build biodiversity to keep crop diseases such as blackleg or clubroot in canola from concentrating in the soil, he adds.

"It offers middle ground, carbon levels that are not too intense but also not too low."

Beyond the farm, the environmental benefits are even greatertranslating into potentially billions of dollars, the analysis showed.

Serfas calculated the wider societal value of switching to the recommended rotation, compared with a more traditional choice of growing spring wheat one year, followed by a fallow year, then repeating that pattern over four years.

Across all insurable cropland across Saskatchewanrepresenting about 80% of the totalSerfas estimated environmental benefits of $108 billion from 2023 to 2055, when employing a social cost of carbon of US$185 per tonne of CO 2 .

"It's a huge number, showing that, based on what farms do, there are big consequences in terms of environmental benefits to be had by improving soil health and levels of soil organic carbon."

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Taking the long view

Although crop choices can benefit both the environment and their bottom line, it can also be a difficult decision for farmers when it takes 10 to 30 years to reap the rewards, Serfas notes.

"Farmers generally want to use good crop rotations, but they also want to pay their bills. The tough part of farming is wanting to mitigate risk to soil health by seeding a variety of crops, but when something like canola brings a high price, there's a bit of an incentive to plant them year after year."

The study "puts some numbers to how much money a farmer would get if they did switch to this rotation over a long time. It can be up to 27% in areas with relatively lower SOC, which is a lot if you think about a farm that brings in a million dollars," he adds.

The move to crop rotations that pay off in the longer run could also help preserve family farm legacies, Serfas suggests.

"Intergenerational farms that want to keep the soil healthy and more productive for their grandkids will have more of an incentive."

Though modeled on Saskatchewan farmland, the study findings could apply to other Canadian prairie crop producers in shared border areas with similar weather, crop yields and commodity prices, Serfas notes.

The research also points to the potential returns of investing in government programs that provide incentives for farmers to adopt more environmentally beneficial crop rotations, he believes.

"We have some more insight into what the effects would be of investing in such programs; the societal benefits can be quite high."

More information: Devin Allen Serfas, The Consequences of Soil Organic Carbon for Crop Yield, Farm Productivity and Profit, Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics (2025). DOI: 10.1111/1467-8489.70028
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A globular cluster (white concentration of stars) naturally emerges in the high resolution EDGE simulations. These simulations also predict the existence of a new class of object: globular cluster-like dwarfs. These new objects form similarly to globular clusters but in their own dark matter halo. The nearby Reticulum II dwarf galaxy may be such an object that has been hiding in plain sight in our cosmic backyard. Credit: University of Surrey, Matt Orkney, Andrew Pontzen & Ethan Taylor

For centuries, astronomers have puzzled over the origins of one of the universe's oldest and densest stellar systems, known as globular clusters. Now, a University of Surrey-led study published in Nature has finally solved the mystery using detailed simulationswhile also uncovering a new class of object that could already be in our own galaxy.

Globular clusters are dense collections of hundreds of thousands to millions of stars found orbiting around galaxies, including the Milky Way. Unlike galaxies, they show no evidence of dark matter, and their stars are unusually uniform in age and chemical compositiontraits that have left scientists debating their formation since their discovery in the 17th century.

Surrey researchers used ultra-high-resolution simulations that can trace the universe's 13.8-billion-year history in unprecedented detail, allowing them to watch globular clusters form in real-time within their virtual cosmos, called EDGE.

The simulations find multiple pathways for their creation and, unexpectedly, the emergence of a new class of star system"globular cluster-like dwarfs"that sits between globular clusters and dwarf galaxies in terms of their properties.

Dr. Ethan Taylor, Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Surrey's School of Mathematics and Physics and lead author of the study, said,

"The formation of globular clusters has been a mystery for hundreds of years, so being able to add additional context surrounding how they form is amazing.

"We were able to do this in our EDGE simulations without having to add anything special to make them appear, and it just brings the simulations that extra level of realism. Additionally, being able to find a new class of object in the simulations is very exciting, especially since we have already identified a handful of candidates which exist in our very own Milky Way."

Working in collaboration with Durham University, the University of Bath, the University of Hertfordshire, Carnegie Observatories and the American Museum of Natural History in the U.S., Lund University in Sweden and the University of Barcelona in Spain, researchers used the UK's DiRAC National Supercomputer facility to run the EDGE simulations over several years.

To put the scale into perspective, if the largest simulations were run on a standard or high-end laptop, they would take decades to complete. These simulations not only recreated realistic globular clusters and dwarf galaxies but also predicted a previously unknown class of object.

Conventional dwarf galaxies are typically dominated by dark matter, with around a thousand times more of the mysterious substance than stars and gas combined.

However, the newly identified "globular cluster-like dwarfs" appear similar to regular star clusters when observed, yet still contain a significant amount of dark mattermeaning telescopes may have already found them in the real universe and classified them as regular globular clusters. This small difference would place them in a unique position to study both dark matter and cluster formation.

Several known Milky Way satellites, such as the "ultra-faint" dwarf galaxy Reticulum II, are likely candidates. If confirmed, they could become prime sites for the search for pristine, metal-free stars born in the early universe and new locations to test models for the ever-elusive "dark matter."

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Professor Justin Read, Chair of Astrophysics at the University of Surrey, said, "The EDGE project set out to build the most realistic simulation of the very smallest galaxies in the universeone that could follow all 13.8 billion years of its history while still zooming in on the tiny details, like the blast from a single exploding star. It took years to run on the UK's DiRAC National Supercomputer, but the payoff has been extraordinary.

"At a resolution of just 10 light years, fine enough to capture the effects of individual supernovae, we've been able to show that globular clusters can form in at least two different ways, both without dark matter."

The next step is to confirm the existence of these globular cluster-like dwarfs through targeted observations with telescopes, including the James Webb Space Telescope and upcoming deep spectroscopic surveys.

If they do, it could give astronomers new ways to test dark matter theories and offer some of the best chances to find the universe's very first generation of "metal-free" stars.
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

State school finance reforms designed to close funding gaps between high- and low-income districts did not reduce racial and ethnic funding inequities and in some cases increased them, according to new research.

As school desegregation efforts slowed in the decades following the 1980s, these findings highlight the limitations of income-based approaches in addressing racial funding disparities in education.

The study, by Emily Rauscher of Brown University and Jeremy E. Fiel of Rice University, appears in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis.

Over time, many statesthrough legislation or court ordershave restructured school finance systems to reduce reliance on local property taxes and direct more resources to economically disadvantaged districts. Rauscher and Fiel found that while these reforms have narrowed funding gaps by income, they did not lessenand sometimes wideneddisparities by race and ethnicity.

Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Education Statistics, the researchers examined the effects of school finance reforms across the United States from 1990 to 2022.

They found that state finance reforms reduced school spending gaps between the highest- and lowest-income districts by over $1,300 per pupil on average. However, the reforms also increased the spending advantage of districts with low percentages of Black and Hispanic studentsby $900 and $1,000 per pupil, respectively.

Study co-author Emily Rauscher discusses findings and implications of the study

"The growth in racial and ethnic funding inequity, in light of decades of school finance reforms, is surprising and needs to be addressed," said co-author Emily Rauscher, professor of sociology at Brown University.

"Persistent gaps in educational opportunity and outcomes for students of color, combined with the failure of state reforms, point to the need for new investments at the federal level."

Reforms were more effective at reducing racial disparities in states where those disparities were already relatively modest. In contrast, reforms were less effective, or even regressive, in states with high levels of racial and economic segregation between school districts. In these more segregated states, reforms not only exacerbated racial and ethnic disparities but also failed to narrow economic gaps.

Where district-level segregation was lower, reforms tended to be more economically progressive, directing more funding to historically marginalized districts. However, the study notes that much of the racial inequality in school funding exists between, not within, states.

While most states distribute funding relatively evenly by the racial and ethnic composition of districts, wealthier states still spend significantly more per pupil than poorer ones. These states tend to have higher shares of white students and lower shares of Black and Hispanic studentscontributing to persistent national disparities.

Rauscher notes that this raises a critical question: If school funding remains unequal even as states distribute funds more equally, how can we ensure equal educational funding and opportunity for all children? One key solution could be the federal government, which could incentivize states to spend adequately on education and invest in states that struggle to achieve adequate funding levels.

"Slow progress from reforms targeting district economic inequality suggests state-level, class-based approaches are insufficient to address racial disparities in school resources," said Rauscher. "Federal reforms that explicitly target racial and ethnic inequity are needed to reduce these gaps."

More information: Rauscher, E., & Fiel, J. E. Slow Progress: School Finance Reforms and Racial Disparities in Funding, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis (2025). DOI: 10.3102/01623737251362855

Provided by American Educational Research Association
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The Atlas blue butterfly. Credit: Dr. Roger Vila / The Institute of Evolutionary Biology

The Atlas blue butterfly, also known as Polyommatus atlantica, has been genetically confirmed as having the highest number of chromosomes out of all multicellular animals in the world.

This insect boasts 229 pairs of chromosomes, while many of its close relatives have only 23 or 24 pairs. Researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE: CSIC-UPF), Barcelona, have revealed that these chromosomes have been broken up over time, instead of duplicated.

The first genomic study of this butterfly, published in Current Biology, allows experts to begin to explore the evolutionary reasons behind this extreme number of chromosomes.

Chromosome changes are also seen in human cancer cells, and therefore, understanding this process in different species could help inform cancer research.

This is the first time that the Atlas blue butterfly has been sequenced. From this, experts have produced a gold-standard reference genome for this species, allowing researchers to compare this extreme genome to other butterflies and moths to understand more about how species form and change over time.

Evolution and the development of new species happen over millions of years, making it hard to study practically. Instead, experts can use the DNA of a species and compare this to others in the same family to understand which genes and traits have been kept and which have been lost and then make informed guesses as to why.

Having the genetic story of a species also allows us to understand how the next chapter might go. For example, we might be able to understand how a species could respond to the increasing global temperature and if they have any genes or mechanisms that might protect them. This could inform conservation efforts as well as research into producing more resilient crops.

The Atlas blue butterfly is found in the mountain ranges of Morocco and northeast Algeria. While it had been suspected to have the most chromosome pairs in the animal kingdom, this is the first time experts have sequenced the butterfly genome to confirm. For comparison, a close relative found widely in the UK, the Common blue butterfly, has 24 chromosomes.

Changes in chromosome numbers are thought to contribute to the process of new species forming and help species adapt to their environment. The group to which the Atlas blue butterfly belongs contains many closely related species that evolved over a short period of time.

The Atlas blue butterfly. Credit: Dr. Roger Vila / The Institute of Evolutionary Biology

In this new research, the team found that the chromosomes had been split up at points where the DNA is less tightly wound. This means there was roughly the same amount of genetic information, but it was packaged in smaller sections.

All of the chromosomes, apart from the sex chromosomes, were cut up, and the researchers estimate that this caused the chromosome number to go from 24 to 229 over roughly three million yearsa relatively short amount of time by evolutionary standards.

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Usually, it is assumed that this kind of extreme chromosomal change is negative; however, the Atlas blue butterfly has evolved and survived for millions of years. It is only now, due to climate change and human impacts on the environment, such as the destruction of cedar forests and overgrazing, that its populations are under threat.

This research raises multiple questions that can now be addressed in the future. Splitting up the chromosomes could help give greater genetic diversity by allowing more frequent shuffling of genome parts or give other unknown benefits. While this may help butterflies to rapidly adapt, species with many chromosomes may also face challenges due to the extra complexity of this, potentially making them more vulnerable to extinction over time.

Further investigations and comparisons with other butterflies could highlight whether any genes have been lost or preserved, giving us more information on the biology of the butterflies, but also a deeper understanding of evolution.

Chromosomal rearrangements also happen in human cancers, and therefore, studying these processes in the Atlas blue butterfly DNA could lead to new developments in human health and highlight possible ways to reduce or stop this phenomenon in cancer cells.

Dr. Roger Vila, senior author at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology, said, "Breaking down chromosomes has been seen in other species of butterflies, but not on this level, suggesting that there are important reasons for this process which we can now start to explore. Additionally, as chromosomes hold all the secrets of a species, investigating whether these changes impact a butterfly's behavior could help form a full picture of how and why new species occur."

Dr. Charlotte Wright, first author at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said, "When we set out to start to understand evolution in butterflies, we knew we had to sequence the most extreme, and somewhat mysterious, Atlas blue butterfly.

"Thanks to Roger Vila, who had previously worked with his colleague to find and identify this elusive butterfly, we were able to sequence this species, highlighting the collaborative nature of science.

"Being able to see, in detail, how the Atlas blue butterfly chromosomes have been split over time in specific places, we can start to investigate what benefits this might have, how it impacts their ability to adapt to their environment, and whether there are any lessons we can learn from their DNA that might aid conservation in the future."

Professor Mark Blaxter, senior author at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said, "Genomes hold the key to how a creature came to be, but also, where it might go in the future. To be able to tell the story of our planet, we must have the story of each species and see where they overlap and interact with each other.

"It also allows us to apply learnings from one genome to another. For example, rearranging chromosomes is also seen in human cancer cells, and understanding this process in the Atlas blue butterfly could help find ways to limit or stop this in cancer cells in the future."
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Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Children growing up in British cities face barriers to safe, playable spaces as financial constraints, policy misalignment and housing pressures cause planners to prioritize property over parks, finds a new study by researchers at UCL and Bradford Institute for Health Research.

Published in Cities & Health, the studypart of the PUSH (Play in Urban Spaces for Health) project, has explored the factors limiting the provision of parks and space for informal outdoor play in built-up urban environments.

The researchers interviewed policymakers and practitioners in Bradford and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets who influence planning, regeneration and children's play and physical activity, to better understand the challenges local authorities face and their lessons learned when it comes to designing play into urban communities.

The participants, who ranged from urban planners to public health specialists, explained how financial and staffing constraints persistently limit local authorities' ability to implement well-intentioned play policy.

Corresponding author Emily Ranken (UCL Institute of Education) said, "Well-designed play space has so many positive knock-on effects. For children, it takes them outside, away from screens and develops their cognitive and physical skills. And for parents, it helps build community ties and vital social networks."

"Our study offers a deep analysis of the challenges in embedding play into urban policy and our recommendations offer a blueprint for councils, developers, and public health leaders to make play a priority."

Participants spoke about the competing pressure of housing, where developers saw play space as a "nice to have" and led to a "constant kind of challenge between building up housing and keeping enough like green and open space and amenity space and play space." They suggested that greater regulation, such as national statutory guidance requiring developers to prioritize provision of playable space over the quantity of homes, could help mitigate these competing interests.

Such requirements are in place in Scotland and Wales, but when they were proposed for England as an amendment to the government's flagship Planning and Infrastructure bill, it was ultimately not put to a vote.

Meanwhile, difficulties recruiting and retaining good staff were highlighted, as well as the combined impacts of austerity, COVID and Brexit. One interviewee despaired that "[The] baby boomers [are] all about to quit, and there is nobody underneath with the skill set." Appropriate training, it was suggested, should be available to those who work in urban planning and design.

With childhood obesity and social care needs especially acute in deprived communities like Bradford and Tower Hamlets, the participants championed the potential knock-on benefits of high-quality outdoor play space. One participant explained that "If a child was coming to an adventure playground, having some food, you know, chatting to adults, bit of support for the family elsewhere through safeguarding, it was maybe keeping some kids out of care and supporting the family."

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The participants spoke of well-intentioned but fragmented policy where "play" was used interchangeably with physical activity and, in Tower Hamlets, the council's "Play Charter" was described as "a collection of catchphrases" which lacked a meaningful action plan.

PUSH (Play in Urban Spaces for Health), the UCL Institute of Education and Bradford Institute for Health Research who conducted the research, advocate for "Forest School' principles to be applied to regenerated urban spaces for 4- to 7-year-olds.

Co-author Dr. Amanda Seims (Bradford Institute for Health Research and Lancaster University) said, "Compared to their parents' generation, the amount of time today's children play outside has declined by 50%." But this downward trend doesn't have to be inevitable. Thoughtful planning, which listens to the voices of children and young people, can produce accessible, enriching environments where children can develop."

Co-author Professor Claire Cameron (UCL Institute of Education) said, "We know the power of play can be transformational for young lives, and the PUSH project shows how small changes can make outdoor play a normal, everyday, thing to do."

PUSH's recommendations for good play practice:

Alignment and coordination across several policy areas, including statutory regulation around child-focused environments and provision of play.

Development of a robust local evidence base, including data on current play provisions, usage and outcomes.

Appropriate training for those in planning and urban design to ensure they have the knowledge to embed play into urban spaces and the skills to meaningfully involve children, young people and the wider community in the decision-making process.

More information: Emily Ranken et al, Designing play into urban environments: strategic-level challenges and best practice in Bradford and Tower Hamlets, UK, Cities & Health (2025). DOI: 10.1080/23748834.2025.2539612
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This image of the protostellar jet in Sh2-284, captured by NASAs James Webb Space Telescopes NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), shows compass arrows, scale bar, and color key for reference. The north and east compass arrows show the orientation of the image on the sky. Note that the relationship between north and east on the sky (as seen from below) is flipped to the direction arrows on a map of the ground (as seen from above). The scale bar is labeled in light-years, which is the distance that light travels in one Earth-year, and arcsec (It takes 1.1 years for light to travel a distance equal to the length of the scale bar.) One light-year is equal to about 5.88 trillion miles or 9.46 trillion kilometers. This image shows invisible near-infrared wavelengths of light that have been translated into visible-light colors. The color key shows which NIRCam filters were used when collecting the light. The color of each filter name is the visible light color used to represent the infrared light that passes through that filter. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Yu Cheng (NAOJ)

A blowtorch of seething gases erupting from a volcanically growing monster star has been captured by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. Stretching across 8 light-years, the length of the stellar eruption is approximately twice the distance between our sun and the next nearest stars, the Alpha Centauri system. The size and strength of this particular stellar jet, located in a nebula known as Sharpless 2-284 (Sh2-284 for short), qualifies it as rare, say researchers.

Streaking across space at hundreds of thousands of miles per hour, the outflow resembles a double-bladed dueling lightsaber from the Star Wars films. The central protostar, weighing as much as ten of our suns, is located 15,000 light-years away in the outer reaches of our galaxy.

The Webb discovery was serendipitous. "We didn't really know there was a massive star with this kind of super-jet out there before the observation. Such a spectacular outflow of molecular hydrogen from a massive star is rare in other regions of our galaxy," said Yu Cheng of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, lead author of the paper published in The Astrophysical Journal.

This unique class of stellar fireworks are highly collimated jets of plasma shooting out from newly forming stars. Such jetted outflows are a star's spectacular "birth announcement" to the universe. Some of the infalling gas building up around the central star is blasted along the star's spin axis, likely under the influence of magnetic fields.

Today, while hundreds of protostellar jets have been observed, these are mainly from low-mass stars. These spindle-like jets offer clues into the nature of newly forming stars. The energetics, narrowness, and evolutionary time scales of protostellar jets all serve to constrain models of the environment and physical properties of the young star powering the outflow.

"I was really surprised at the order, symmetry, and size of the jet when we first looked at it," said co-author Jonathan Tan of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Its detection offers evidence that protostellar jets must scale up with the mass of the star powering them. The more massive the stellar engine propelling the plasma, the larger the gusher's size.

This video shows the relative size of two different protostellar jets imaged by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. The first image shown is an extremely large protostellar jet located in Sh2-284, 15,000 light-years away from Earth. The outflows from the massive central protostar, which weighs 10 times our sun, span about 8 light-years across. In comparison, a jet imaged by Webb in the nearby low-mass star-forming region of Rho Ophiuchi is just one light-year long. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Yu Cheng (NAOJ)

The jet's detailed filamentary structure, captured by Webb's crisp resolution in infrared light, is evidence the jet is plowing into interstellar dust and gas. This creates separate knots, bow shocks, and linear chains.

The tips of the jet, lying in opposite directions, encapsulate the history of the star's formation. "Originally the material was close into the star, but over 100,000 years the tips were propagating out, and then the stuff behind is a younger outflow," said Tan.

Outlier

At nearly twice the distance from the galactic center as our sun, the host proto-cluster that's home to the voracious jet is on the periphery of our Milky Way galaxy.

Within the cluster, a few hundred stars are still forming. Being in the galactic hinterlands means the stars are deficient in heavier elements beyond hydrogen and helium. This is measured as metallicity, which gradually increases over cosmic time as each passing stellar generation expels end products of nuclear fusion through winds and supernovae. The low metallicity of Sh2-284 is a reflection of its relatively pristine nature, making it a local analog for the environments in the early universe that were also deficient in heavier elements.

"Massive stars, like the one found inside this cluster, have very important influences on the evolution of galaxies. Our discovery is shedding light on the formation mechanism of massive stars in low metallicity environments, so we can use this massive star as a laboratory to study what was going on in earlier cosmic history," said Cheng.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged an extremely large and symmetric protostellar jet at the outskirts of our Milky Way galaxy in the forming cluster Sh2-284. From tip to tip, this protostellar jet is 8 light-years across, about double the distance from our sun to its closest neighboring star system, Alpha Centauri. Its detection provides evidence that protostellar jets scale with the mass of their parent starthe more massive the stellar engine driving the plasma, the larger the resulting jetand thus for a universal mechanism for star formation from low to high masses. Credit: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Yu Cheng (NAOJ), Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Unrolling stellar tapestry

Stellar jets, which are powered by the gravitational energy released as a star grows in mass, encode the formation history of the protostar.

"Webb's new images are telling us that the formation of massive stars in such environments could proceed via a relatively stable disk around the star that is expected in theoretical models of star formation known as core accretion," said Tan.

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"Once we found a massive star launching these jets, we realized we could use the Webb observations to test theories of massive star formation. We developed new theoretical core accretion models that were fit to the data, to basically tell us what kind of star is in the center. These models imply that the star is about 10 times the mass of the sun and is still growing and has been powering this outflow."

For more than 30 years, astronomers have disagreed about how massive stars form. Some think a massive star requires a very chaotic process, called competitive accretion.

In the competitive accretion model, material falls in from many different directions so that the orientation of the disk changes over time. The outflow is launched perpendicularly, above and below the disk, and so would also appear to twist and turn in different directions.

"However, what we've seen here, because we've got the whole historya tapestry of the storyis that the opposite sides of the jets are nearly 180 degrees apart from each other. That tells us that this central disk is held steady and validates a prediction of the core accretion theory," said Tan.

Where there's one massive star, there could be others in this outer frontier of the Milky Way. Other massive stars may not yet have reached the point of firing off Roman-candle-style outflows. Data from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile, also presented in this study, has found another dense stellar core that could be in an earlier stage of construction.

More information: Yu Cheng et al, LZ-STAR Survey: Low-metallicity Star Formation Survey of Sh2-284. I. Ordered Massive Star Formation in the Outer Galaxy, The Astrophysical Journal (2025). DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/addf4b iopscience.iop.org/article/10.  847/1538-4357/addf4b Journal information: Astrophysical Journal
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Professor Nathan Brown inside UT Arlington's Dark Lab. Credit: UTA

The University of Texas at Arlington is far from California earthquake country, yet its researchers are helping pinpoint which sections of the San Andreas Fault are most active.

Nathan Brown, UT Arlington assistant professor of Earth and environmental sciences, and Ph.D. student Ayush Joshi traveled to Southern California's San Gorgonio Pass last spring to collect bedrock samples. Back at UTA's Dark Lab, they are examining the rocks' thermal history to help determine which faults remain active.

"People often imagine, like in the movies, that the San Andreas Fault is one big structure that hosts earthquakes. That's true in a few spots," Dr. Brown said.

"But, in many places, it splinters into these different segments. To understand the hazard the fault poses in an area, you need to understand how much earthquake movement could happen on any one of those individual segments."

By learning how the temperature of these rocks has changed over the past 100,000 years, the researchers can estimate how quickly the landscape has risen and eroded. The cooling rate of the rocks reveals which fault strands are active, offering insight into the seismic risks across the region.

"If one tectonic block has cooled a lot recently compared to adjacent blocks, that suggests that it has moved up relative to neighboring blocks," Brown said.

"If you learn that, then you'd say the faults hosting that movement are potentially active and we should focus on their hazard potential when building nearby highways, high-rises, or other structures."

Nathan Brown, UT Arlington assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences, inside UTA's Dark Lab. Credit: UTA

In the lab, Brown and Joshi crush the bedrock samples into sand-sized grains and isolate certain minerals. They focus on potassium feldspara common mineral that records how the rocks have been heated or cooled over timeand analyze it using a luminescence reader.

"We heat the sand grains, and a detector measures their natural luminescence response," Brown said. "The small amount of blue light they emit is directly related to their thermal history."

Joshi presented the results at the Statewide California Earthquake Center (SCEC) meeting, held in Palm Springs from September 710, 2025.

"To collect these samples, we had to wade through riverbeds to reach rock outcrops on both sides of mapped faults," Joshi said. "By comparing those rocks, we can spot small differences in uplift and erosion. The early results are promising. I'm looking forward to sharing them with the community."

The research is part of a project titled "SCEC-Measuring Differential Uplift Rates Across Multiple Fault Strands in the San Gorgonio Pass Region Using Thermoluminescence Thermochronology."

"Geologists have always tried to answer, Where could the next big earthquakes happen? How big might they be? Which segments are likely to rupture?" Brown said.

"I'm a geochronologist, so I put timing on events. Seismic hazard research depends on identifying which fault strands have ruptured recently so we can know which strands are likely to rupture in the future. It's tough work, but it's rewarding because it impacts public safety."
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Nava Thakuria

As the Supreme Court of India recently agreed to hear a petition asking for a comprehensive and time-bound re-verification of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) updated in Assam during 2014-2019, the people of Assam may expect a correct list of genuine nationals living in the north-eastern State. The apex court on 22 August 2025 responded positively to the plea forwarded by Hitesh Devsarma, a former State coordinator to NRC Assam himself, for an error-free NRC. Admitting the writ petition, the SC issued notices to the centre, Assam government, NRC coordinator and the Registrar General of India (RGI).

The 1951 NRC for Assam was updated following the direction of the SC with an aim to detect all illegal citizens with the cut-off date 25 March 1971 (which was accepted in the memorandum of settlement signed in 1985 to culminate the six years long Assam agitation to detect & deport millions of unrecognised migrants from Bangladesh). Following a petition by Assam Public Works, the SC directed for the NRC updation and it also reportedly monitored the process. Prateek Hajela, a 1995 batch IAS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre was appointed as the State coordinator to supervise the massive exercise. Soon after the final NRC draft was released on 31 August 2019, where 19 lakh individuals were put as undocumented, Hajela was sent to his home-State Madhya Pradesh fearing security.

Soon the NRC updating process got embraced with corruption & malpractices and it was detected by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). As per its report, there had been financial irregularities to the tune of Rs 260 crores during the process and the highest national audit body recommended penal actions against Hajela and Wipro limited (system integrator). Prior to the CAG report, Hajela's successor Devsarma raised mishandling of the NRC process to help a large number of infiltrator's names in the list. He framed a serious allegation that the technocrat turned bureaucrat had tampered with software in the process to entertain those foreigners in the pursuit of personal greed. Thus hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi Muslim settlers' names were included in the NRC draft. An important verification mechanism titled 'Family Tree Matching' was also compromised by Hajela and his associates. So Devsarma demanded probes by the National Investigation Agency and the Directorate of Enforcement against Hajela.

Lately, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma also admitted that the NRC draft list was faulty and the fraud was committed on Asomiya people during the process (for which New Delhi spent Rs 1600 crores). The saffron leader asserted that Hajela prepared a wrong NRC for Assam. The conscious citizens continue demanding for an authentic NRC for Assam and a fair probe into the findings of CAG regarding the corruption and also deprivation of salaries meant for nearly 6000 part-time workers. Employed as data entry operators (DEOs), those workers got only Rs 5,500 to 9,100 per month per person (which is below the country's basic minimum wage), whereas the Wipro company received an average of Rs 14,500 per month per DEO. The total volume of siphoned money (even after deducting the reasonable profit margin) is estimated to be over Rs 100 crore, which still remains in the pockets of Wipro or its sub-contractor Integrated System & Services till date.

Leaving aside a few exceptions, Assam media remained largely shy of reporting the financial malpractices that took place during the NRC updating process. In fact, the majority of local media persons tried their best to spread misinformation (reasons best known to them only), where some Guwahati-based television journalists bent upon proving that the NRC final draft as the most sought-after document for the indigenous population. They shamelessly lobbied for accepting it with no verification. At least one TV talk-show host was named and shamed on social media, but he did not respond to the allegation (not done till date). The outspoken scribe even published a book praising Hajela's work as unparalleled with a push for national recognition to him. Hence it's assumed that a genuine probe would unearth all guilty individuals who wanted to cheat the nation for their selfish gains.
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SACRAMENTO, Calif.  Sneha Revanur has been called the "Greta Thunberg of AI," which depending on your politics, is an insult or, as the youngs would say, means she's eating.

That's good.

Either way, Revanur, a 20-year-old Stanford University senior who grew up in Silicon Valley, isn't worried about personal attacks, though she's been getting more of them lately  especially from some big tech bros who wish she'd shut up about artificial intelligence and its potential to accidentally (or purposefully) destroy us all.

Instead of fretting about invoking the ire of some of the most powerful men on the planet, she's staying focused on the breakneck speed with which AI is advancing; the utter ignorance, even resistance, of politicians when it comes to putting in place the most basic of safety measures to control it; and what all that will mean for kids who will grow up under its influence.

"Whatever long-term future AI creates, whether that's positive or negative, it's [my generation] that's going to experience that," she told me. "We're going to inherit the impacts of the technology we're building today."

This week, California will make a big decision about that future, as legislators vote on Senate Bill 53.

Because I am a tech idiot who struggles to even change the brightness on my phone's display, I will use the simplest of metaphors, which I am sure will make engineers wince.

Imagine lighting your gas stove, then leaving on vacation. Maybe it will all be fine. Maybe it will start a fire and burn your house down. Maybe it blows up and takes out the neighborhood.

Do you cross your fingers and hope for the best? Do your neighbors have a right to ask you to pretty please turn it off before you go? Should you at least put a smoke alarm up, so there's a bit of warning if things go wrong?

The smoke alarm in this scenario is SB 53.

The bill is a basic transparency measure and applies only to the big-gun developers of "frontier" AI models  these are the underlying, generic AI creatures that may later be honed into a specific purpose, like controlling our nuclear weapons, curing cancer or writing term papers for cheating students.

But right now, companies are just seeing how smart and powerful they can make them, leaving any concerns about what they will actually do for the future  and for people like Revanur, whose lives will be shaped by them.

If passed, the law would require these developers to have safety and security protocols and make them public.

It would require that they also disclose if they are aware of any ways that their product has indicated it may in fact destroy us all, or cause "catastrophic" problems, defined as ones with the potential to kill or seriously injure more than 50 people or cause more than $1 billion in property damage.

It requires the companies to report those risks to the state Office of Emergency Services, and also to report if their models try to sneakily get around commands to not do something  like lying  a first requirement of its kind in law.

And it creates a whistleblower protection so that if, say, an engineer working on one of these models suddenly finds herself receiving threats from the AI (yes, this has happened), she can, if the company won't, give us a heads-up about the danger before it's unleashed.

There are a couple other rules in there, but that's the gist of it. Basically, it gives us a tiny glimpse inside the companies that quite literally hold the future of humanity in their hands but are largely driven by the desire to make oodles of money.

Big Tech has lobbied full force against the bill (and has been successful in watering it down some). Enter Revanur and the AI safety organization she started when she was 15: Encode.

The California Capitol is nothing if not a mean high school, so maybe Revanur was more prepared than the suits expected. But her group of "backpack kids," as they have been derogatorily called, has lobbied in favor of government oversight of AI with such force and effect that SB 53 actually has a chance of passing. This week, it is likely to receive final votes in both the Assembly and Senate, before potentially heading to the governor's desk.

I'm not huge on quoting lobbyists, but Lea-Ann Tratten summed it up pretty well.

Revanur and her group have gone from being dismissed with a "who are you, you're nothing" attitude from lawmakers to having "an equal seat at the table" with the clouty tech bros and their billions, Tratten said. And they've done it through sheer persistence (though they are not the only advocacy group working on the bill).

Tratten was hired by Encode last year when Revanur was backing a much stronger piece of legislation by the same author, Sen. Scott Wiener. That bill, SB 1047, would have regulated the AI industry, not just watched over it.

Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed that bill, basically saying it went too far, but still acknowledging that a "California-only approach may well be warranted especially absent federal action by Congress." He also set up a commission to recommend how to do that, which released its report recently  much of which is incorporated into the current legislation.

But since that veto, Congress has indicated approximately zero interest in taking on AI. And last week, Trump hosted a formal dinner for the titans of AI where they sucked up to the businessman-in-chief, leaving little hope of any federal curbs on their aspirations.

Shortly after that meal, the White House sent out a press release entitled, " President Trump, Tech Leaders Unite to Power American AI Dominance."

In it, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, gushed, "Thank you for being such a pro-business, pro-innovation President. It's a very refreshing change. We're very excited to see what you're doing to make our companies and our entire country so successful."

That left me wondering who exactly will be dominated. OpenAI recently sent a subpoena to Encode, digging around to see if it's being funded by competitor Elon Musk (who is in a notoriously nasty legal battle with Altman ), and demanding all their emails and communications about the bill. Revanur said Encode has no affiliation with Musk other than having filed an amicus brief in his lawsuit, and those claims are "ridiculous and baseless."

"Like, we know for a fact that we have no affiliation with Elon," she said.

Still, "people expect us to sort of hide in the corner and stop what we're doing," because of the pressure, she said.

But that's not going to happen.

"We're going to keep doing what we're doing," she said. "Just being a balanced, objective, thoughtful third party that's able to be this watchdog, almost, as the most powerful technology of all time is developed. I think that's a really important role for us."

Right now, AI is in its toddler stages, and it's already outsmarting us in dangerous ways. The New York Times documented how it may have pushed a teen to suicide.

In July, Musk's AI tool Grok randomly starting calling itself "MechaHitler" and began making antisemitic comments, according to the Wall Street Journal. Another AI model apparently resorted to blackmailing its maker when it was threatened with being turned off.

An AI safety researcher familiar with that blackmail incident, Aengus Lynch, warned it wasn't a one-off, according to the BBC.

"We see blackmail across all frontier models  regardless of what goals they're given," he said.

So here we are in the infancy of a technology that will profoundly change society, and we already know the genie is out of the bottle, has stolen the car keys and is on a bender.

Before we get to the point of having to choose who will go back in time to save Sarah Connor from Skynet and the Terminator, maybe we just don't go there. Maybe we start with SB 53, and listen to smart, young people like Revanur who have both the knowledge to understand the technology and a real stake in getting it right.

Maybe we put up the smoke alarm, whether the billionaire tech bros like it or not.

(COMMENT, BELOW)
AFP

Locked up for more than four years and ailing, Hong Kong's pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai would only become a greater symbol if he died in prison, his son said.

On a visit to Washington, Sebastien Lai was meeting US officials and lawmakers as he appealed for greater international pressure on China and Hong Kong's pro-Beijing authorities to free his father.

"It's horrible for me to say this, but if my father dies in prison, he's actually a stronger symbol of freedom, of martyrdom for your beliefs," Lai told AFP in an interview Monday.

He said that freeing his father would be in Beijing's own interest.

"As you've seen with a lot of dissidents, once they're released, they lose a lot of that, quote-unquote, power," he said.

"He's already been there for five years. He's served whatever sham sentence you brought against him."

Lai, 77, founded the Apple Daily, a popular pro-democracy tabloid that was shuttered as China clamped down on the metropolis, despite promises of a separate system when Britain handed it over in 1997.

A successful businessman and outspoken opponent of Beijing, Lai was arrested in late 2020 and has been behind bars since, with a judge last month saying only that his verdict would come "in good time."

The charges against him could carry between 15 years and life in prison.

His health has significantly worsened as he is diabetic, receives limited medical care and has been kept in solitary confinement without air-conditioning in the sweltering Hong Kong heat, his son said.

The younger Lai said the last he heard about his father was that he experienced heart palpitations, an episode earlier described by his defense lawyers.

- 'Very real consequences' -

China imposed a draconian security law in Hong Kong in 2020 after massive and at times destructive protests against Beijing swept the global financial hub.

Sebastien Lai said that other countries should persuade China that if they "go through with this and kill him, essentially, there will be very real consequences" for Hong Kong.

"Hong Kong is based on a strong, rigid legal system. That's why it's a financial center. Without the strong, rigid legal system, it's nothing," he said.

Jimmy Lai visited Washington in 2019 to discuss pro-democracy protests with leaders including then-vice president Mike Pence.

Prosecutors later pointed to his meetings, calling them a conspiracy to collude with foreign forces to impose sanctions on China and Hong Kong.

Trump, in an interview while on the campaign trail last year, said of Lai, "100 percent, I'll get him out."

Since returning to the White House, Trump has said he will at least try to free Lai. But Trump, long a harsh critic of China, has recently also spoken fondly of his relationship with President Xi Jinping.

The younger Lai voiced appreciation for Trump's efforts but voiced hope for a more outspoken stance by other Western countries, naming France.

He praised the stances of Germany as well as Britain, where Jimmy Lai holds nationality and where the younger Lai lives.

Sebastien Lai said Britain understood the importance of defending a person who sacrificed himself for democracy.

"It doesn't really get much better than that if you're going to give someone citizenship."
Kathmandu, Nepal, September 10, 2025: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has expressed his serious concerns over the recent political development of the country followed by the violent protests.

Taking to social media about the latest situation in Nepal United Nations Secretary-General Guterres has said that he is monitoring the situation in Nepal.

Expressed his condolences over the humanitarian loss, United Nations Secretary-General Guterres has called for restraint and dialogue to prevent further escalation of violence. Calling for compliance with human rights law, Guterres said protests should be peaceful, with protection of life and property.

Im closely following the situation in Nepal & Im deeply saddened by the loss of life, I urge a thorough investigation, restraint to avoid further escalation of violence & dialogue towards forging a constructive path forward, Nepal United Nations Secretary-General Guterres has said in the message.
Sustainable Development issues illegal real estate alert in Lazaro Cardenas

Lazaro Cardenas, Q.R.  Authorities have issued a public notice of four active illegal real estate projects in the states north. The notice was released by the Secretariat for Sustainable Urban Territorial Development (Sedetus) in coordination with the Lazaro Cardenas City Council.

Sedetus (Secretaria de Desarrollo Territorial Urbano Sustentable) says four projects have been found to be offering illegal land sales in the municipality. They include Cenote Habitat, Nuna Amada Tierra, Villas Kin Ha, and Punta Ciricote.

Authorities say all four lack the necessary permits required in Quintana Roo to sell land and develop real estate.

According to Sedetus, these projects violate the provisions of the Human Settlements, Territorial Planning and Urban Development Law, the Urban Action Law, the Condominium Ownership Law and the State Urban Development Program, among other provisions.

They are warning the public that any purchase, sale, rental, or promise to buy or sell on these sites compromises the assets of the interested parties and could result in legal liability as crimes against urban development.
Am I my body? If so, may I do with it as I please? With the waning of a robust, theologically grounded anthropology, the answers to these questions have become monstrous.

In Dorothy Sayerss 1923 whodunit, Whose Body?, an unidentified dead body, naked but for a pince-nez, is mysteriously dropped off in the bathtub of a perfectly ordinary, respectable home. Who is Mr. Body? How did he get thereand by whose doing? And why? The questions turn out to be remarkably difficult to answer, and the results surprising and unpredictable. Because when it comes to our bodies, visible clues, while important, do not reveal everything. This is even more true of us when alive and real than when reduced to corpses in fictional murder-mystery bathtubs.

I was thinking of Whose Body?and the mysteries the body in the novel hides then reluctantly yieldswhile reading Angela Frankss new book, Body and Identity: A History of the Empty Self. Each body that has ever existed, after all, belongs to someonereally multiple someones, including at the most obvious level overlapping familial and societal structures that lay claim to us from before birth. Furthermore, if we want to get metaphysical (as well we should), each human body is also a creature with a soul, endowed with the qualities of its Creator and given the status of a treasured son or daughter. Finally, at the most basic level, we should also heed biological truths. Serena Sigillito articulated these well in her launching editorial for Fairer Disputations, where Franks herself is a featured author: You cant be a human being without a body, and every body is either male or female.

For centuries, it seems, the question Whose body? simply did not need to be asked; the answers were perfectly axiomatic. In the pre-Christian Mediterranean and the ancient Near East, for instance, each persons body clearly belonged to someoneat the most obvious level, slaves to their masters, women and children to the men of the household, and even men owed sufficient allegiance to someone else in the societal pyramid as to be able to identify such belonging. Plus, of course, every resident of a city-state belonged to that city-stateand this belonging involved costs and responsibilities, as well as benefits. Men served in the military and used their bodies to protect their city-state. This meant that they received citizenship rights in responseplus safety for their families, if they were successful in the defense of the city. The logic was obvious in such a system: Cities arose early in the history of human civilizations because protection against invaders was a good thing. And yet opportunity for abuse in such a world was rife, as respect for personsor personhoodwas simply not part of the Roman or ancient Near Eastern worldview.

With the rise of Christianity, we see a different way of answering the Whose body? question, as historian Kyle Harper shows in From Shame to Sin: The Christian Transformation of Sexual Morality in Late Antiquity. Christianity both complicated and simplified previous answers by stating that the body of every believer belongs to God. Yet conversations about the Church as a single body, beginning in the New Testament, remind us of the communal nature of bodies as well. Sin involving bodies is not individual but affects the entire communitythe larger body. This means also that, for believers, every single body was now part of the Churchs body in a way that called everyone to holiness, not only individually but together.

But there is one commonality as we ricochet back to this thorny Whose body? question. Put simply, in the case of both the pre-Christian ancient world and the Western Christendom that followed, to answer the question Whose body? always involved the community and not just the individual. This is the answer modernity has challenged, however, as Carl Trueman argues in The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. What might happen if the answer to Whose body? is just Mine and mine alone?

The answer, Trueman contests, is visible in the disorders of the post-Christian culture in which we are living right now. It manifests particularly clearly in the sexual revolution: While sex may be presented today as little more than a recreational activity, sexuality is presented as that which lies at the very heart of what it means to be an authentic person. That is a profound claim that is arguably unprecedented in history.

To claim ownership of ones body without accepting the authority of anyone or anything else, including biology, could mean rejecting even the biological truths imprinted on ones body since the womb. If you alone own your body, you can make it into anything you wantand you can do with it anything you want and with whomever you want. (The proviso, of course, is that you do not harm another person in so acting, but then what is the definition of harm anyway? Isnt it also relative?) In this way, conversations about body and identitywhether gender identity or another sorthave become entangled in ways antithetical to human flourishing of both individuals and societies.

But there is more to this story, and Angela Franks is well equipped to tell it. The question Whose body? may be modern in the way we ask it, but the flawed modern answers, Franks is convinced, only point us back to timeless truths. This reality requires probing much further in history than we typically do. The result is a healthy theological approach that acknowledges that the history of humanity is inextricably connected to the history of Gods vision for the world from the beginning to its endand as Augustine reminds us: We know how it ends. Its the in-between space wherein we reside so uncomfortably right now that requires more explanation, especially when interacting with a culture that keeps trying to jettison God.

The basic questions, as Franks explains at the outset, are quite simple and foundational: Who am I? How is my body related to myself? Should I alter my body to better fit my identity? Is who I am determined by me or by something outside of me? Am I definable by my group membershipby my sex, race, nationality, or religion? Or is my identity independent of these affiliations? In answering, Franks considers the two poles that I believe summarize the status quo: liquid bodies and empty selves. What does she mean by these?

The modern concept of liquid bodiesand modernity itself as fluid and liquidis the culmination of the writings of such thinkers as Michel Foucault and Judith Butler. Liquid concepts are constantly in flux and resist being nailed down. Materiality and its absolutes are the enemy, whereas striving for a different sort of body than what one has is the goal. No change is too big for this boldly unnatural dream into which current transhumanist obsessions feed quite naturally.

The concept of the empty self, on the other hand, is profoundly narcissistic yet requires an inner death of sorts. Using the metaphor of murder mystery here, but differently from Sayers, Franks in her discussion of the empty self relies on such conversation partners as Christopher Lasch, whose 1979 book The Culture of Narcissism presents a diagnosis of the unselving of a culture. Franks shows that, over the second half of the 20th century, a death indeed took place, leaving the empty self as a result. But it happened even earlier than we think: Rather than a sudden murder, around 1980 or thereabouts, this death was actually described, using other language, by observers in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s who saw the empty selves of people on the narcissistic spectrum. A good example of this phenomenon in action is Betty Friedan and her Feminine Mystique, which presents a portrait of Friedans own empty self.

The above framework is the focus of the first three chapters in this book. The fourth chapter provides the historical grounding in antiquity and Christianity, bringing into the conversation thought partners like Aristotle, Plato, Plotinus, and Augustine. I found particularly fascinating Frankss argument of the Trinitarian debates as building on Aristotle: Aristotle had argued that metaphysics is the study of being qua being, but the Greek mind remained most comfortable with formal and essential questions. What is it? remained a more central question than Is it? But Aristotles Categories presented a distinction between first and second substance, and it would prove to be the germ of the Christian distinction between subsistence and essence. To think about the three persons of the Trinity, in other words, required thinking about the self as a person, tooa person immutable, ordained, fixed.

In the fifth chapter, Franks turns to the challenges to the Christian view of the self in early modernity, including Locke, Rousseau and his doxic self (the emphasis on appearance over fixed identitya form of liquid self), and Kants procedural self (emphasis on the person as his own master). These ideas set the foundation for the empty selves that then appear everywhere in modern literaturethe subject of chapter six. Vampires and zombies alike are apt literary examplesemptied of blood and humanity, they perform the same emptying on others. They are, in the process, the ultimate empty selves and liquid bodies. Concluding the book, chapters eight and nine turn to modern secularism and contemporary theories of identity. Its grim out there, but we knew this already. Yet Franks notes that liquid problems do have potential solutions, which must be found in a philosophical and theological anthropology that takes seriously both the liquidity and solidity of being as reflected in the embodied human person. Mr. Body is not just a body but a human person, and this matters.

I have long admired Frankss work, which I first encountered in Church Life Journal. Body and Identity, years in the making, pulls together ideas that she first mentioned in some of these essays, but the book as a whole is nothing short of masterful in both scope and depth. It shows why we desperately need public conversations about gender, sexuality, and culture to include trained academics. Indeed, very few academic researchers can dedicate years, perhaps decades, of intense research and reading to produce a comprehensive book like this one, which could never have come to fruition otherwise. Combining intellectual history and theology, cultural analysis and biology, psychology and literary reflections, Franks shows that how we think about our bodies is inextricably connected to questions of identity. This, as Trueman also argues, certainly involves how we think of our sexuality. But Franks also insists that sexuality is only one aspect of what is at stakethe discussion of liquid modernity and the empty self reaches much further than that.

To put it another way, at stake is the acknowledgement that traditions, authorities, and moral absolutes still have weight in our societyand the power to offer an antidote to the inevitable narcissism of the empty self.

It is important to note that the present book is the first volume of an anticipated two, the second of which will focus in greater detail on missional approach to identity. The flawed relationship of people to their bodies and identities that both Trueman and Franks study, after all, reveals first and foremost a theological crisis. And theological crises require constructive theological responses, which it sounds like this second volume will propose.

At the end, intellectual honesty repeatedly refutes the postmodern theorists and brings us right back to where we startedto our bodies, made for flourishing and a full life and for rightly ordered relationships with God and our fellow image-bearers.
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In what can only be described as a uniquely Washington love connection, Oliver North and Fawn Hall - two public faces of the Iran-contra scandal in the late 1980s - were married last month.

North, 81, was widowed in November when his wife of 56 years, Betsy, died. Hall, 66, was widowed 20 years ago. The couple wed Aug. 27 in Arlington County, Virginia, according to the marriage license obtained by The Washington Post. The couple had reconnected at Betsy's funeral, according to journalist Michael Isikoff's SpyTalk, which first reported the story.

North was the star witness at the Iran-contra hearings that gripped the nation during President Ronald Reagan's second term. Then a National Security Council staffer in the White House, North was accused of illegally arranging the sale of American weapons to Iran to fund a secret war against the communists in Nicaragua. Hall, his young secretary, was the woman behind the boss - shredding documents and even smuggling evidence out of the office under her clothing.

The combination of the defiant, straight-arrow former marine and his stunning blonde aide was catnip for political junkies who hung on every word of the congressional hearings, which were widely televised. Hall was granted immunity; in 1989, North was convicted of three felonies, which were overturned by an appeals court.

During the hearings, North emotionally defended his honor and Hall's, saying that he realized that people got the wrong impression. "You know that I've got a beautiful secretary, and the good Lord gave her the gift of beauty, and that people snicker that Ollie North might have been doing a little hanky-panky with his secretary," he said. "Ollie North has been loyal to his wife since the day he married her."

In 1987, journalist Michael Kelly invited Hall to be his guest at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner. She was, of course, the center of attention, and her appearance supercharged the era of celebrity guests at the formerly low-key event. Just a few weeks later, Hall testified that she believed in North and the mission, memorably saying that "sometimes you have to go above the written law."

North went on to a storied career as a speaker, author and darling of the conservative movement. In 1994, he lost his election for U.S. Senate from Virginia to Chuck Robb - thanks in part to Nancy Reagan, who never forgave North for what she believed was a betrayal of her husband, The Post's Karen Tumulty writes in her biography of the first lady.

North then turned his attention to his foundation, writing and television. He had a brief run as president of the National Rifle Association in 2018 but left after a year after threatening to expose the organization's alleged financial violations.

Hall, on the other hand, disappeared from Washington and politics. She moved to California and married Danny Sugerman, the former manager and biographer of the Doors, in 1993. Sugerman introduced Hall to crack cocaine, and she went into rehab after an overdose the following year. Despite it all, they stayed together until he died of lung cancer in 2005.

North married Betsy Stuart in November 1968. In December of last year, North paid tribute to his late wife on Facebook: "We called her, Mom.' She was bright, beautiful, bountiful, and brave. This wonderful daughter, sister, wife, devoted mother of four, grandmother of eighteen, great-grandmother to one, and devout follower of Jesus Christ is now with our Lord and Savior. She personified Solomon's description of "A wife of noble character" in Proverbs 31:10-31."

Hall never remarried after the death of Sugerman.

Neither North or Hall responded to requests for comment. Perhaps they're on a honeymoon. We hear Nicaragua is very romantic.
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For a century, it worked, and brilliantly. The "California model" rested on massive investments in higher education, development of industrial zones in places such as the South Bay and Silicon Valley, and persistent upgrading of basic infrastructure.

Yet the system that made California dynamic and prosperous for so long is now broken and backward-looking. The state still provides ample opportunities for technological and financial elites but leaves behind a broad spectrum of the middle and working classes.

This failure is reflected in the state's poverty and unemployment rates (both the highest in the nation), and its tepid job growth. Meanwhile other states  Texas, Florida, Arizona, the Carolinas and Tennessee, for example  have copied the California model and they have done it, as Californians once did, based on the goal of lifting up all classes. Long reactionary in their politics and social structure, these states' business-friendly policies now have something to teach the progressive Golden State.

The defense and aerospace industries are showcases for California's problem and missed opportunities. The state still leads in numbers of aerospace engineers and creates cutting-edge technologies. But once companies develop products based on all that innovation, they've tended to move the manufacturing, with its high paying blue-collar jobs, elsewhere, chasing fewer regulations, cheaper energy and a less expensive cost of living.

Take Jet Zero, which makes fuel-efficient planes. The company, based in Long Beach, is ready for prime time, with large orders for its new planes. But those jets will be built in Greensboro, North Carolina, in a $4.7 billion plant employing more than 14,000 people over the next decade. The company also plans to move its headquarters to Greensboro when the plant is finished.

Elon Musk's story is well-known. The space economy is expected to be worth trillions, but Musk's rocket company has already decamped in large part from California to Texas. Space X and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin have built large test facilities in Brownsville and Van Horn, Texas, bringing a blue-collar bonanza to traditionally poor regions. And Space X is rumored to be investing upward of $1 billion to turn the Astrodome in Houston into its Mission Control Alpha.

Even companies that plan to stay headquartered in California are making big investments elsewhere. Anduril, a fast growing tech-driven defense company, designs its systems in Orange County but has announced plans to build a 4,000-job plant in Ohio and is also expanding its operations in Mississippi.

This pattern should alarm the state's leaders who seem more concerned with boosting green energy, fighting Trump and saving Hollywood. Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi has been pushing for a space commission, as exists in Texas and Florida, but so far to no effect. The California Coastal Commission's recent rejection of Space X's request to double launches at Vandenberg Space Force Base, ostensibly over environmental questions, is another sign that the state's focus is anywhere but on aerospace.

The loss of potential new aerospace investment is tragic. Imagine if Anduril's and Jet Zero's plants were going up in Fresno, Bakersfield, San Bernardino or Modesto  areas afflicted with high levels of poverty. Manufacturing remains the key to productivity growth, packs a far higher multiplier effect on local economies than retail, trade or finance and generally pays far higher wages.

You might hope that California's tech sector would make up for the loss, one of many in a long decline in industrial jobs in the states. But in tech too, California is losing to emerging players. The Computing Technology Industry Assn. 2024 assessment found that Texas led in new tech jobs, with Florida second, and Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina making significant gains. California, not surprisingly, isn't high on the association's list of states projected to enjoy the biggest growth in the sector over the next decade.

Artificial intelligence and Washington-pushed chip manufacturing could prove a new source of growth, and at the very least create capital gains needed to boost the state's poor fiscal position. However, California's highest in the nation energy prices, tough land-use regulations and lack of blue-collar skills education discourage the construction of new data centers by the likes of Nvidia and Samsung.

To be sure, the Bay Area is an AI startup epicenter but this is likely to offer opportunities for the investor class, a handful of entrepreneurs and well-compensated "genius" programmers, not middle- and working-class Californians.

Is there hope for a recovery? San Francisco city economist Ted Egan suggests President Trump's tariffs, with their emphasis on electronic goods, could help make California an ideal place for "reshoring" various kinds of aerospace, computer and other tech manufacturing, but only if the California model is modernized to suit these industries' land use and energy needs.

And there are California entrepreneurs  bred to look at and shape the future  who are not ready to abandon the state's reservoir of expertise and talent, and who are committed to making things as well as developing concepts. "We're inventing the new factory town, and recovering the sense of what works in America," says Cameron Schiller, whose Rangeview Corporation startup uses 3-D technology to make castings for the metal parts used in aerospace, one of dozens of industrial startups in the former aerospace stronghold of El Segundo.

To revive the California model, we need dedicated visionaries and an evolving workforce, but mostly we need state government to remember what it means to be willing and able to help the visionaries and the workers succeed.

(COMMENT, BELOW)

Joel Kotkin serves as Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University and executive director of the Center for Opportunity Urbanism (COU).
How to Do It is Slates sex advice column. Have a question? Send it to Jessica and Rich here. Its anonymous!

Dear How to Do It

Ive met a great guy, Leo. He is intelligent, kind, and has a great sense of humor. Theres just one problem. We went back to his place the other night, and I was more than eager for us to jump in bed for the first time.

Thats when I learned about his literal shortcoming: Leo has a micro penis. I tried working with what was available, but I could barely feel anything; Ive felt more filled up using one of my fingers! This simply isnt going to work. I know Leo will be devastated when he learns why. Can you offer some advice on letting him down easy?

Well, This Is Awkward

Dear Well, This Is Awkward,

Leo has had a micropenis his entire life; he probably could have seen this coming or at least knew that it might happen. I dont think your rejection is going to devastate him if hes been putting himself out there. He has likely met this reaction more than a few times.

Before you reject him, consider whether you want to put your name on that list. Its OK if you doyou know your needs best, and if you have certain specifications for dick that are non-negotiable, you have every right to pursue them. But this guy is great, intelligent, kind, and has a sense of humor. Sounds like the full package  minus the package. There are ways of compensating (like strap-ons) and other areas of sex to explore (oral, digital). It seems like this might be worth attempting, but I also respect your no.

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You could certainly go the face-saving route and say you met someone else, youre too busy, or that it turns out youre just not looking for a relationship. Coming right after hooking up with him and seeing what he has to offer, hell likely know that the translation is: I cant hang with your micropenis.

The more direct, more honest, and probably more interesting conversation to have would begin with you being upfront: You are wonderful, but Ive never been with someone with a micropenis before, and I dont think I can do this. Im sorry. This isnt just breaking up with someone because hes below average; sex is appreciably different with a mircropenis and its not for everybody. I wonder what his response would bemaybe hed assure you hes talented in other ways or indeed has a strap-on. Maybe hed get angry (and do weigh this possibility and your safety when deciding how to let him down). Maybe hed completely understand and leave with his head held up high, knowing that what he has to offer will be appreciated by someone. This is all part of dating: investigating only to determine its not a perfect match. Dont be hard on yourself or overly precious with him. Hes an adult; he can take it. But do be gentle and kind.

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Get sex advicesubmit a question! Please keep questions short (<150 words), and dont submit the same question to multiple columns. We are unable to edit or remove questions after publication. Use pseudonyms to maintain anonymity. Your submission may be used in other Slate advice columns and may be edited for publication. Thanks! Your question has been submitted. Dear How to Do It, * Your letter signoff Your pronouns Your email (optional and confidentialplease include if you're open to How to Do It following up) Submit

Dear How to Do It,

So, my wife and I have been married for six years and have been together for eight. That being said, weve known each other for about 20 years (Ive had a crush on her since we met). Our sex has been great when we have it. But there are a couple of problems.

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All her female parts are gone due to endometriosis, and I have had three back surgeries and two neck surgeries. We both like foreplay and oral, and Ill be down there until she cums. We both love it. My problem is (and I joke about it), usually I tell her that well have sex until my back hurts, and we will. I dont know what to do; well be going good and in a rhythm, and then the back pain starts. I get a knot in my lower back, and then I always end up getting a very sharp pain in my right ball sack. I love sex, but Im to the point that I just really dont care anymore because the pain just doesnt make it worth it. She says she understands, but I feel like a mope.

Hurting

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Dear Hurting,

The sharp testicular pain youre experiencing is a red flagId see a doctor immediately. Back/ball pain in concert can indicate a host of issues, including kidney stones, UTI, lumbar spondylolisthesis (out-of-place vertebra), and, more rarely, testicular cancer. Get checked out just to be sure.

If there isnt an underlying condition, you may benefit from changing your position. A 2014 study in the journal Spine motion captured 10 male/female pairs during sex (fun day for those researchers!). The results found that different positions are appropriate depending on the source of the lower back pain. For guys who are flexion intolerant (or experience pain or discomfort in the lower back when the spine bends forward), the study suggested the two best positions are doggy, where the receptive partner is on their elbows, and missionary, where the penetrative partner is supporting himself with his hands and the receptive partner is minimally flexed at the hips/knees, in that order. For those who are extension intolerant (or those who find it painful to arch backward), the guidance is a side-lying position (rear entry with the receptive and penetrative partners both lying on their left side with hips and knees flexed) and missionary, where the penetrative partner is supporting his upper body with his elbows and the receptive partner is flexed at the hips/knees. None of these positions is recommended for the motion-intolerant (in that case, Id try her on top). You may not know whether flexing or extending triggers your pain, in which case I would try both. Or if you are already doing one of these and thats hurting your back, do the opposite per the suggestions above.

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Also stretch! Touch your toes. Do cat-cows and/or Supermans. Do them every time you work out. If you dont work out, do them several times a week when you wake up in the morningI recommend every day, but at a minimum, you should be doing them every other day. Aging can really suck, but at least there are things we can do to make it less painful. If you arent, start today.

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Dear How to Do It,

My girlfriend of eight months is fantastically talented in bed, save one area: She cannot give a decent blow job. When I try to correct her, she becomes angry and says Im lucky to be getting head at all, and I can suck my own dick if Im not satisfied with the way she does it. How can I get her to understand I dont mean anything personal when I try to give her pointers on what I like?

Trying to Help Her Stop Sucking at Sucking

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Dear Trying to Help Her,

Success here likely depends on your approach. Of course, there is the possibility that your girlfriend is so sensitive to criticism that any feedback at all could overwhelm her, but I think its more likely that you arent handling this with proper sensitivity. If youre saying variations of, You cannot give a decent blowjob, or, You suck at suckingthe language you use in your letteryoure doing it wrong. Accusations put people on the defensive, and then the exchange can become more about the aggression than the actual substance of whats being said.

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In this case, positive reinforcement (or at least a positive tone) would be more useful. The next time shes sucking you, tell her how you want her to do it. Even if it doesnt feel great, you should highlight whats hot about what shes doingmaybe she looks sexy with your dick in her mouth, or maybe its just the fact that shes doing itand guide her to suck it how you like it. Hopefully, youre a seasoned blowee and can be specific about what you like and what is lacking. Maybe she should go slower or faster. Maybe she needs to hide her teeth better. Maybe more spit is in order. Maybe she needs to involve her hand or stop using her hand. If you can present this like dirty talk, she may get into it.

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I am sympathetic to your causegiving someone head they dont like is about as useful as learning Japanese for your upcoming trip to Barcelona. But you need to invite her in and help her want to please you instead of putting her off with a critique that comes across as harsh. If nothing improves with this approach, consider a heart-to-heart outside of the bedroom or just forgoing oral altogether. Sad but true: Not everyone is good at everything, and head might just be her weak spot.

Rich

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I (37) have been seeing a man (40) for several months now. Nearly everything about our relationship is damn near perfect and we connect in a way that I have never connected with another person. He claims the same is true for him. For me, this has resulted in an elevated sex drive that is both unusual and sometimes overstimulating for me, but which I keep in check due to some previous encounters.
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Theres no positive interpretation of the Bureau of Labor Statistics report from Friday, which projected that the United States economy only added 22,000 jobs in August, the weakest labor-market gain in five years. The unemployment rate rose to 4.3 percent, reaching its highest level since 2021. (If we look to before the COVID recession, the last time wed seen this much unemployment was in 2017.) About 25 percent of those unemployed workers have been job-hunting for six months or morethe highest proportion of long-term seekers in nearly a decade. This already frustrating task will not get easier: For the first time since 2021, there are more unemployed job-seekers than available openings.

The contributing trendlines have been deeply felt: soaring layoffs, caution in hiring, record levels of private debt, depressed consumer spending, a spike in jobless claims. In recent months, opportunity declines could be traced to certain sectors, but the employment crisis has bloated. Manufacturing is down, predictably hobbled by Trumps slapdash tariffs; trade and transportation are shedding gigs for the same reason; health care, one of the years more resilient sources of job growth, is also buckling under the pressure, and it will struggle all the more once the federal Medicaid cuts hit and reduce services in lower-income and rural-area hospitals. The best that could be said for many other once thriving industries is that they didnt lose muchbut they didnt grow substantively, either.

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And within the data, theres an especially dire indicator of where everyday Americans stand: the rise in the Black unemployment rate. The bureaus demographic breakdowns unambiguously demonstrate that these stunted economic conditions have fallen hardest on Black Americans. Unemployment for the demographic group stood at 7.5 percent in August, up from 6 percent in May. In an analysis, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies pointed out that this is the worst Black unemployment rate since late 2021, and that unemployment for young Black workers shot up to 16.8 percent even as overall young-worker unemployment fell slightly. The record job gains that Black workers recorded in 2023 have been reverted.

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Its very alarming, Gabrielle Smith Finnie, a senior policy analyst with the Joint Center, told Slate. Each jobs report since the summer shows an unsteady labor market and its disproportionate impact on Black workers. Usually, Black unemployment may outpace the national average by 2 percentage points; right now, theres a 3-point difference. We know there is a grave disparity, and it has been increasing.

This grim development reflects that the mass government firings carried out early in the year are finally showing up in the broader data, following the lawsuits, severance periods, and rehiring spurts that made employment statuses uncertain for so long. Black Americans make for a substantial share of federal labor, from department gigs in D.C. to on-the-ground postal work everywhere. Elon Musks DOGE crusade, which infamously singled out diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives as a target and enlisted inexperienced lackeys with often explicitly racist views, thus hit Black federal workers and governmental contractors hardest. (The irony, as ProPublica reported, is that some of the Black women purged as part of anti-DEI efforts had onboarded DEI programs that were instated under the first Trump administration.)

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It goes beyond Uncle Sam. The DEI rollbacks have also come for the private sector, inspiring the young Black workers affected most by the fallout to stage impassioned and effective boycotts of certain firms. The trade and transportation sectorssingled out by BLS as part of the employment declinetend to hire many Black men in particular and have been hit by Trump administration attacks on those sectors, rattled by yawning tariffs on one end and left out to dry by a lack of federal transit funding on another. The adversity compounds as these unemployed workers pull back their spending, undercutting the bottom lines of many Black-owned small businesses, even those with affluent or diversified customer bases. (Last year, various surveys found that Black women are the fastest-growing demographic of entrepreneurs in the country.)

Related From Slate Finally, a European Leader Said Out Loud What All of Them Are Likely Thinking About Trump Read More

Other Trump moves that may not seem directly economic in nature have accentuated impacts on these workers. Black immigrants who lack permanent legal status tend to be rounded up and deported at an excessive rate; the suppressive environment engendered by immigration raids and Trump-directed troop invasions in cities like D.C. have chilled foot traffic at Black-owned businesses. This is made worse as Trumps belligerence angers (or directly keeps out) foreign visitors who would otherwise visit places like New Orleans and New York and splurge on the local scene.

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However distanced you may feel from these effects, its worth pointing out that historically, what happens to Black workers comes to afflict all of America. In a Tuesday op-ed for Time, sociologist Marianne Cooper and economist Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman underlined the point that Black women are overrepresented in precarious jobs characterized by low wages, little security, and few benefits and underrepresented in the highest paying careers. To put it another way: These workers become a kind of canary in the coal mine during economic headwinds. Sometimes this manifests in even more alarming ways. Before the financial crisis of 2008, Black women were already getting higher rates of subprime loans and people didnt address it, added Opoku-Agyeman, the author of The Double Tax: How Women of Color Are Overcharged and Underpaid. She pointed to analysis from the late economist William Spriggs, whod stated in 2016 that if the Fed had noticed in the latter half of 2007 that Latino and African-American unemployment rates were rising, it might have understood a significant problem was on the horizon.

Another significant problem may be coming, as more Black women exit the workforce altogether. This time, Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley has sent a letter to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to warn him in advance.

During his pre-COVID congressional speeches, President Donald Trump would often cite record-low Black unemployment rates as a proud accomplishment of his. This term, hell certainly be to blame for the rising unemployment rates for Americans of all races.
This article was republished in partnership with Balls and Strikes.

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court handed down a one-page order that greenlit federal immigration officers use of blatant racial profiling when conducting armed raids in the Los Angeles area. A lower court had temporarily barred ICE from detaining people based solely on factors like they are speaking Spanish or they are day laborers waiting outside Home Depot in the morning. By blocking that lower court order, the members of the courts conservative supermajority have once again used the shadow docket to give their very favorite president everything for which he asks. Only the three liberals noted their dissent.

We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work in a low wage job, wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor. She went on to describe the indignities of a ruling that functionally requires Latino people to carry enough documents to answer questions to the satisfaction of masked thugs who cannot stop beating the hell out of people for any reason or no reason at all. The Constitution does not permit the creation of such a second-class citizenship status, she said.

As is usually the case with this courts pro-Trump shadow docket jurisprudence, the majority did not explain its decision. But one justice, Brett Kavanaugh, wrote a concurring opinion only for himself, which containsand here I apologize for the legal jargonsome of the stupidest shit I have ever encountered in the U.S. Reports. Over the course of 10 pages, Kavanaugh fumbles his way through the sort of legal and factual analysis that a second-year law student would find a little embarrassing, laced with the affected earnestness of someone whose only conception of hardship is when his vacation homes cleaning crew gets stuck in traffic. I honestly wonder if none of the other conservatives joined it because, although they agree with the bottom-line result, none of them wanted their names publicly associated with this vapid dreck.

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First, Kavanaugh cites the courts decision in Los Angeles v. Lyons for the proposition that the plaintiffs in this casepeople who have been arrested by immigration agentslikely lack standing to sue, because they cant prove that agents are likely to detain them again under the same circumstances. Lyons is a 1983 case about Adolph Lyons attempt to sue for violations of his Fourth Amendment rights after Los Angeles Police Department officers pulled him over for a broken taillight, ordered him out of the car, and then put him in a chokehold until he passed out. (When he came to, they still gave him a ticket.)

The court, however, ruled that Lyons, a 24-year-old Black man, could not get an injunction barring the cops from using this chokehold in the future, because there was no evidence that the city had formally authorized officers to use chokeholds in the course of enforcing minor traffic violations. The majority further justified the result by arguing that Lyons could not show that the cops were imminently likely to find him, detain him, and put himAdolph Lyons, specificallyin the same life-threatening chokehold in the future.

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You can set aside, for a moment, the absurdity of this logic, which has the effect of shielding violent cops from even modest efforts to use the legal system to curb police brutality. As Sotomayor points out in dissent, Lyons was a case about law enforcement officers doing things they were (ostensibly) not supposed to do. This case, four decades later, is about law enforcement officers carrying out Stephen Millers explicit orders to hunt down brown people and purge them from the country by any means necessary. Kavanaughs logic would not only insulate the government from accountability for its agents unauthorized violations of peoples rights, but also for ordering those agents to violate those rights with impunity.

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Somehow, Kavanaughs Lyons discussion only gets less coherent. Again, the Lyons court argued that Adolph Lyons was not in danger of being choked to the point of unconsciousness by law enforcement a second time. But as Sotomayor points out, in this case, the plaintiffs are likely to be detained again, because the evidence shows that immigration agents keep returning to the same places around Southern California, looking for vaguely Latino-looking people to fill their daily arrest quotas. A pretty basic lesson of first-year legal writing classes is that if you are making your argument by analogizing to another case, and a quick glance at the facts makes clear that two central premises of the other case make it irrelevant to the one before you, you should set it aside and go back to the Westlaw mines to find something else.

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From there, Kavanaugh moves on to balancing the harms and equitieshis attempt to parse, at this early stage of litigation, whether it would be better to allow the government to implement its challenged policy of racial profiling, or to temporarily block it while the legal challenge winds its way through the court system. For Kavanaugh, who in a wild coincidence has become more enthusiastic about unfettered executive power since Trump took office in January, this question has an easy answer: The Trump administration should be able to go forward, he says, because the countervailing legal interests of undocumented people who want to avoid being stopped by law enforcement for questioning are not especially weighty.

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Related From Slate The Supreme Court Just Let ICE Detain Americans Based on Race Read More

Again, let us set aside the alarmingly casual authoritarian sympathies evinced by a Supreme Court justice twisting himself into rhetorical knots to rebrand unabashed racial profiling as a constitutionally acceptable practice, as long as some of its targets overstayed a visa. By framing the legal interests at stake primarily in terms of undocumented people seeking to evade police, Kavanaugh glosses over the interests of millions of Latino U.S. citizens and legal residents who do not want to risk getting gang-tackled on their way to work by neckbearded ICE goons whose forearm tattoos indicate a deep-seated passion for Nordic mythology. In his mind, there is no greater threat to the constitutional order than even temporary limitations on a Republican presidents ability to set aside the rights of people he does not like.

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Perhaps the silliest line in the opinion comes when Kavanaugh, perhaps gently prompted by a clerk who has ventured outside northwest Washington at some point in the past 30 years, considers the implications of his reasoning for people who are legally in this country. Fortunately, Kavanaugh says, they have no reason to worry: The questioning in those circumstances is typically brief, and those individuals may promptly go free after making clear to the immigration officers that they are U.S. citizens or otherwise legally in the United States.

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Kavanaughs assurances, which read like a lightly polished excerpt from a court-mandated police training video, would come as news to Jason Gavidia, a U.S. citizen and plaintiff in this case who was attacked by armed immigration agents after he hesitated while trying to remember the name of the hospital in which he was born. The agents let him go only after Gavidia provided his ID card, which they did not give back. It would also come as news to Jorge Viramontes, another U.S. citizen plaintiff, whom agents subjected to four interrogations in nine days, at one point detaining him in a warehouse until they could verify his citizenship.

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As Sotomayor writes, other raids in Southern California have involved even more force and even fewer questions. But the costs of imposing a universal show me your papers standardon documented immigrants, undocumented immigrants, and U.S. citizens alikedo not seem to have occurred to Brett Kavanaugh, because he has never contemplated what it might be like to be targeted by such a standard in the first place.

As Kavanaugh so often does in his concurring opinions, he wraps with a to be sure section in which he downplays the real-life consequences of his choice, hoping to avoid (even more) dirty looks from his Chevy Chase neighbors who find him (for various reasons) contemptible and gross. He claims to recognize and fully appreciate that many (but not all) immigrants come to the United States to make better lives for themselves and their families, and he professes his sympathy for those who feel somewhat misled by changes in U.S. immigration policy over the decades. But, Kavanaugh continues, because they are here illegally, the government is entitled to enforce the law against them; by comparison, he says, their interest in evading detection is not particularly substantial.

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Strictly speaking, it is right to say that Trump, as the president, has the prerogative to enforce federal law, including immigration law. But this prerogative is not absolute; like all presidents, Trump has to enforce the law under the basic limitations imposed by the Constitution, which protects documented and undocumented people alike. Kavanaugh seems incapable of understanding that the lower courts order did not stop the Trump administration from arresting undocumented people pursuant to its anti-immigrant agenda. The order simply stopped the Trump administration from assuming that people are undocumented because of what they look like, and then throwing them in the back of an unmarked van and peeling out.

Among a certain segment of the legal commentariat, there is an annoyingly persistent narrative that Kavanaugh is part of the conservative supermajoritys less reactionary bloc, along with Chief Justice John Roberts (whom Kavanaugh idolizes) and Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Yet in recent months, Kavanaugh has been repeatedly dropping hints that he is lurching to the right, and now sits ideologically closer to Justices Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito than anyone else.

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Everything about this opinionits unearned confidence, its credulous narrative, its bootlicking deference to authoritysuggests that this process is happening even faster than I thought. At one point, he contrasts presidents who prioritize the strict enforcement of immigration law with presidents who take a more laissez-faire approach, which reads as the thought process of a man who has been consuming a lot of Fox News segments about open borders Democrats.

In recent years, as the court has embraced using its shadow docket to rewrite the law as the conservatives see fit, I (and many others) have often criticized the justices for not bothering to show their work. Kavanaughs choice to crank out an opinion this time nicely illustrates the benefits of their chosen approach: If you are incapable of explaining yourself coherently, perhaps it is more prudent not to write at all.
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Charlie Kirk, one of the most influential media figures on the right, was shot dead at an event in Utah on Wednesday afternoon, sending a shockwave through American politics. Graphic videos of the shooting, which happened in front of hundreds of people, began circulating soon after.

The 31-year-old was the founder of Turning Point USA, an organization that pushed the conservative youth movement toward embracing MAGA, culture war issues, and views that were once on the fringe of conservative politics. Through his podcast, media appearances, and numerous speaking tours, he has spread misinformation about the 2020 election and the pandemic; urged women to abandon their careers and stay at home with children; and fanned fears that LGBTQ+ rights would endanger children and erode society. At the time of the shooting, according to recordings from the event, he was discussing the false right-wing belief that many mass shooters are transgender.

Politicians on both the right and the left were quick to express horror at the violence.

President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social: 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. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you! He followed this with a pronouncement that he was ordering flags to be lowered to half-staff.

On X, before the death was confirmed, Vice President J.D. Vance wrote: Say a prayer for Charlie Kirk, a genuinely good guy and a young father.

Donald Trump Jr., sharing his fathers post, wrote: I love you brother. You gave so many people the courage to speak up and we will not ever be silenced. Sen. Ted Cruz said he was praying for Kirk, with whom Cruz said hed been friends since he was a teenager.

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Charlie Kirk is a great man and a great fighter for the cause, wrote the conservative media figure Matt Walsh. Even Israeli President Benjamin NetanyahuKirk, a Christian, was a supporter of Israelsaid he was praying.

Meanwhile, Democratic politicians as varied as former Vice President Kamala Harris, Sen. Chuck Schumer, New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi wrote on social media that the attack was vile, shocking, and horrifying. Never thought Id say a prayer for Charlie Kirk. But here goes, former Sen. Al Franken wrote. Political violence has no place in this country.

While the shooters identity and political beliefs remained unknown in the hours after the shooting, that didnt stop many on the right from framing Kirks killing as an indictment of the left.

No more mercy for leftists, wrote the Malaysian MAGA influencer Ian Miles Cheong. They want you dead. They truly want to kill you and desecrate your body and erase your memory.

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THIS IS WAR, wrote Chaya Raichik, the person behind the Libs of TikTok account.

The Left is the party of murder, Elon Musk wrote.

The Left wants us dead, wrote C.J. Pearson, a Gen Z conservative influencer. This is not hyperbole. This is now the ONLY logical conclusion that any sane human being can reach after a repeated pattern of demonstrated behavior and violence.

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Because there was no immediate explanation for what had happened, many commentators, unable to make conclusions about the shooter, were forced to vent about the lefts response to Kirks killing. Some proclaimed that liberals were celebrating Kirks death. Others lashed out instead about MSNBCs commentary, for having described him as a divisive figure. This is perhaps the most disgusting response to a political act of violence Ive seen on cable TV, ever, one commentator wrote. In another MSNBC segment, one pundit remarked that hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions, comments that drew outrage on the right.

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The media personality Mike Cernovich called for massive investigations and congressional hearings into the funders of leftism. The former congressional candidate Blake Masters agreed: Left-wing violence is out of control, and its not random, he wrote. Either we destroy the NGO/donor patronage network that enables and foments it, or it will destroy us.

Others went further. The last time the radical Left orchestrated a wave of violence and terror, J. Edgar Hoover shut it all down within a few years, wrote the conservative activist Christopher Rufo. It is time, within the confines of the law, to infiltrate, disrupt, arrest, and incarcerate all of those who are responsible for this chaos.

Scott Presler, the conservative organizer, wondered aloud: How do you coexist with people that want to murder you? In response, the anti-transgender activist Riley Gaines responded: And theyll kill you in the name of tolerance.

The rubicon has been crossed, wrote Dana Loesch, the former spokesperson for the National Rifle Association.

This will be a turning point, the conservative writer Megan Basham wrote. It has to be.
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On Tuesday, Chief Justice John Roberts rewarded the Trump administrations lawless revocation of $4 billion in foreign aid by freezing a lower court order that had required the government to distribute the money. Roberts intervention is an ominous indication that the full court may soon greenlight the presidents pocket rescission of funds expressly appropriated by Congress. This decision would hand Donald Trump a sweeping spending power that the Constitution does not assign to him while hobbling democratic, environmental, and humanitarian projects abroad. As Congress enters a fight over government funding, Democrats should keep a close eye on the Supreme Courtbecause if the justices do bless this duplicitous maneuver, there will be little point in negotiating over appropriations that Trump can simply refuse to spend.

This showdown at SCOTUS marks the administrations latest effort to seize authority it does not have, part of its broader effort to consolidate all power in a dictatorial executive branch. The Constitution allows Congress to appropriate public funds and directs the president to faithfully execute its commands. In March 2024, Congress appropriated more than $30 billion in foreign aid to be spent throughout the fiscal year. When Trump came into office, he ordered the State Department to halt disbursement of these funds. Many beneficiaries sued, and in March, the Supreme Court required the government to pay out money for work already completed.

Related From Slate The Supreme Court Just Let ICE Detain Americans Based on Race Read More

But the government has kept much of the remaining money on hold. Congress rescinded some of it at Trumps behest in July, but the administration has continued to withhold about $4 billion worth of aid that Congress still intends to be spent. Lawmakers had committed this money to programs focusing on climate resilience, democracy-building, election protection, and gender equality. The government, though, now says these issues are not aligned with the foreign policy of the president. So it refuses to disburse the money as Congress instructed.

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The Trump administrations justification for this clawback is, frankly, diabolical. Under the Impoundment Control Act, the president cannot withhold (or impound) appropriations without congressional approval. To obtain this approval, he must ask Congress to rescind the money by legislation. If Congress does not act within 45 days, the funds shall be made available for obligation. That process is the only lawful mechanism by which a president can refuse to spend appropriations.

But Russell Vought, Trumps Office of Management and Budget director, thinks he has found a loophole in the Impoundment Control Act, and hatched a scheme to test it out. Under his guidance, the government waited until fewer than 45 days remained in the federal fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30. On that date, many appropriationsincluding this $4 billion in aidwill expire. Once inside this 45-day window, Trump asked Congress to rescind the foreign aid. Now Vought claims that the government can decline to spend the money until Sept. 30, at which point it will vanish. The White House has boasted of this as a pocket rescission.

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The problem with this tactic is that, under any remotely sensible reading of the law, it is flagrantly unlawful. As the Government Accountability Office has concluded, the Impoundment Control Act clarifies that appropriations have not been lawfully rescinded until Congress consents to the moneys revocation. Until that point, the funds remain available for obligation, and the president has a constitutional obligation to faithfully execute them by disbursing them as instructed. The Trump administrations interpretation would transform the Impoundment Control Act from a limit on rescissions to a blank check for rescissions within 45 days of the fiscal years end. It would also amount to a line-item veto of any spending the president dislikes, which the Supreme Court has emphatically ruled to be unconstitutional. The entire plot violates both constitutional structure and clear statutory language that requires the executive branch to release the funds appropriated by Congress.

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In light of this brazen illegality, U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ordered the government to start paying out the $4 billion on Sept. 3. Alis meticulous opinion eviscerated the Trump administrations convoluted attempts to transmogrify the Impoundment Control Act into a line-item veto. (The judge also noted that government lawyers misquoted the statute itself to reverse its meaning, an alarmingly unethical ploy.) Congress, Ali explained, stated that the funds in question shall be made available in the amounts specifically designated, a directive that left the executive branch no discretion to impound them. And SCOTUS has long held that a court may order the government to spend appropriated funds where the relevant statutes required that the funds be spent. Drawing on this authority, Ali found Trumps impoundment arbitrary and capricious and mandated its disbursement.

Predictably, the government appealed. After the D.C. Circuit denied a stay, the government begged the Supreme Court for emergency relief. (Ali anticipated this gambit, calling out the administration for manufacturing a phony time crunch as a cynical litigation strategy.) Given the ticking clock, the plaintiffs asked SCOTUS not to freeze Alis ordereven for a few days through an administrative stay while all the justices mulled the request. But the chief justice granted such a stay on Tuesday anyway. The move was a bleak indication of where the court was heading; after all, as Ali wrote: A stay of any length would directly contradict Congresss statutory command each day that it is in effect. By halting the injunction, Roberts let Trump keep running down the clock. Every minute closer to Sept. 30 gives the administration more cover to claim it doesnt have enough time to disburse the funds.

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The one glimmer of hope in this case has long been the Supreme Courts decision, back in March, to make Trump pay out $2 billion in foreign aid. But that case, unlike this one, involved work already completed, a factual difference that may have swung some votes. It was also 54. And in the months since, the court has created new obstacles for litigants seeking money owed to them by the government. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the swing vote in all these decisions, seems to have soured on district courts ability to make the Trump administration pay up.

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If the Supreme Courts conservatives do approve this pocket rescission, its ruling will set a precedent that Trump is certain to exploit in the future. It will also put congressional Democrats on notice that this president cannot be trusted to carry out the appropriations that they negotiate with Republicansat least until major reforms are enacted into law (and maybe not even then depending on how the Supreme Court is feeling). Right now, Democrats are still trying to decide what they can bargain for, including health insurance subsidies, in the next government funding fight. But if they dont include ironclad provisions outlawing impoundment under all circumstances, those concessions wont be worth the paper theyre printed on.
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Two men have been arrested in the theft of about $60,000 worth of gifts from a wedding in Southern California. The brazen heist left the bride and groom distraught.

Police in Glendale said they arrested Armean Shirehjini and Andranik Avetisyan on suspicion of committing grand theft. Police allege that Shirehjini crashed the wedding and stole a box full of checks and cash intended for the young couple, while Avetisyan drove the getaway car.

The newlyweds, identified in media interviews as George and Nadeen Farahat, told local news outlets that a man they didn't know entered their wedding reception, walked around and ordered a drink, and even chatted with the bartender while watching the dance floor. Security footage published by KCAL News appears to show a man in a dark suit walk onto the dance floor, grab the box and run out of the venue through a back corridor. Police said that a black SUV was waiting and that both suspects fled in it.

The bride said the theft, first noticed by a friend, threw a shadow over the celebration. "As soon as we found out what happened, the music shut down, everything immediately stopped. I ended up sitting on the dance floor, sobbing, with my friends and cousins around me," Nadeen Farahat told ABC7.

The couple said they saw the incident as a violation of their privacy. "People write special notes, thank yous, congratulations, and that's been taken away from us as well," George Farahat told KCAL.

"It's so scary to look back and see that there was a stranger at such  an intimate event," Nadeen Farahat told ABC7.

After the heist, Glendale police said, they identified the suspect as Shirehjini using video surveillance and other resources. They said Shirehjini was arrested Sept. 4 at his residence in Sherman Oaks, along with Avetisyan. They said Shirehjini was in possession of a handgun at the time of his arrest.

Glendale police said they identified Avetisyan as the getaway driver and searched his and Shirehjini's residences, recovering "a large amount of cash and dozens of checks" made out to the bride and groom. Police said they also found firearms and narcotics at both residences.

It was not immediately clear early Tuesday whether the men had retained lawyers. Glendale police did not immediately respond to an overnight request for comment.

Security experts say some weddings are particularly good targets for crashers because of the large number of guests who don't know one another, making it possible for a stranger to blend in. The practice has been immortalized in songs such as "Crashed the Wedding," by the English punk band Busted, and in movies such as "Wedding Crashers," starring Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn. (Above.)

Not all wedding crashers steal - some, for better or worse, richer or poorer, are there for the free food and drinks. Still, they can be a nuisance for the wedding couple and a security risk.

The wedding services website the Knot advises that couples designate a point person to "watch out for anyone lingering too close to the bar or buffet table" or who is "dressed incorrectly" or doesn't seem like "part of the environment." If the point person has a reason to suspect that someone was not invited to the wedding, they should first check with the bride and the groom and their parents, the Knot says. "If neither set of parents has any clue who the person is, ask the planner or venue manager to discreetly approach the unidentifiable guests and then see them to the door," the site advises.

Although the Farahats took steps to secure their gift box - they told ABC7 it was locked and they had hired a private security guard - they urged others to keep their wedding gifts extra secure to avoid a similar fate.

"We don't want anyone to ever go through this," Nadeen Farahat told KCAL. "It's upsetting and it's heartbreaking."
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Israel today launched an air strike on Hamas leaders in Doha, the capital of Qatar, where they were discussing a possible peace deal in Gazaa move that signals three things. First, no ceasefire, much less an enduring peace, is anywhere near, much less on, the table. Second, Hamas is in weaker shape than ever. But third, despite its military advantages, Israel is widening the war at huge political risks.

Most remarkable of all, these risks include further alienating President Donald Trump. Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a sovereign nation and close ally of the United States that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker peace, does not advance Israel or Americas goals, Trumps press secretary Karoline Leavitt said soon after the strikes.

At first glance, the air strikes had seemed a follow-up to Trumps threats against Hamas leaders on Monday, demanding that they sign a ceasefire proposal that he and Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had madeor else. Later that day, Hamas issued a statement rejecting the deal, saying that it wasnt a real peace offer at all but rather a ploy whose primary goal was to prompt a rejection.

It seems unlikely that Netanyahu would order such a dramatic strike without Trumps consent. Then again, its unclear why Trumps press secretary would condemn the attack in such sharp termsa rebuke that would soften whatever blow Netanyahu meant to deliverif it were insincere. Did Netanyahu interpret Trumps threat as a green light after Hamas nixed the ceasefire proposal? Did Trump or one of his emissaries say something that bolstered Netanyahus impression, without quite knowing the implications of what he was saying?

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Several news agencies reported Tuesday afternoon that the White House knew about the attack ahead of time and informed the Qataris. I guess its possible to both know about an impending attack and criticize it afterward. Its also possible for the Qataris, given their dual interest in the geopolitics of the region, to let the attack proceed, killing some Hamas negotiators or leaders (about whom they have mixed feelings anyway), and to condemn it afterward as well.

Netanyahu said the air strikes were precisely carried out against a single target. Israeli media reported the strike involved 15 Israeli fighter jets dropping 10 bombs on a single target. According to Hamas, the attack killed five junior members of the group but none of its top leaders.

In any case, the attack marked the first time that Israel has struck Hamas leaders inside Qatar, and this is significant for several reasons. Qatar, an oil-rich emirate on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, has been playing both sides in this conflict for many yearsacting as both an ally of Hamas (funneling money to its militias, housing its leaders in plush apartments) and a middleman in negotiations between Hamas and the rest of the world.

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Three facts make this situation beneficial for Qatar, and awkward for the rest of the world. First, the United States has encouraged Qatar to play this dual role, mainly to keep the Islamist terrorist organization under some control. Second, at least until the Oct. 7 attack, Israel allowed money to be funneled from Qatar to Hamas, in part to monitor the flow, and in part to weaken the standing of Hamas more moderate rival, the Palestinian Authority, thus reducing the pressure for negotiations toward a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflicta solution that the PA favors but both Netanyahu and Hamas, for different reasons, oppose.

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Finally, since 1996, Qatar has hosted the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East, an air base that has allowed the United States to conduct military operations throughout the region that it otherwise could not, at least not so easily.

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As a result of these three factors, the U.S. and Israel have felt constrained in how much they could pressure Qatar to put pressure on Hamaseven as frustrations have mounted over Qatars blanket refusal to apply any pressure at all since Hamas attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 Jews, the largest such massacre on a single day since the Holocaust.

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In recent weeks, Hamas leaders made steps toward accepting a resumption of a phased ceasefirethough it was unclear how sincere those steps were. In any case, Netanyahu responded by altering the terms, demanding an all-or-nothing deal, where all Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners would be released at once, simultaneous with the disarmament and surrender of Hamas. Trump endorsed the idea. This was a nonstarterand, as Hamas charged in its statement, probably designed to be so.

Tuesdays air strike could mark a turning point in Arab-Israeli politics. Afterward, Netanyahu said that from now on, there will be no immunity for Hamas leaders, regardless of where they are.

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In saying this, he also sent a message to Qatars leaders that he had run out of patience for their complicity with Hamas. And perhaps both Netanyahu and Qatars leaders believed this meant Trumps patience had run out as wellthough Trumps dissociation rather blunts the point.

Given the complexity of dependencies in the U.S.-Israel-Qatar-Hamas nexus, it is hard to say where things go next. Will Qatar, hit directly for the first time, start seriously squeezing Hamas? Will it move the other way, restricting U.S. activities on the military base? (This seems doubtful, given Trumps rebuke andwhatever the truth of his attitudethe revenue and other benefits that the base provides to both countries.) Or will the Qataris keep doing what theyve been doing, see how the situation plays out, and calculate what they might extract, whatever happens?

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Meanwhile, the Israeli army continues to pummel, evacuate, and possibly occupy Gaza Cityand perhaps, as a long-term goal, all of Gaza. As it does so, radical Israeli settlers in the West Bank have also stepped up their violence against the native Palestinianswith no pressure to stop from either Netanyahus government or the Trump administration, even though Trump has sometimes complained about both this pressure and the starving of civilians in Gaza.

A story in the latest issue of the Economist reports that Hamas looks close to defeat. Its military leaders have been killed, its supply of arms has dried up (as the suppliers of those arms, mainly Iran and Hezbollah, have faced their own severe setbacks), and now, with the attack on Qatar, its source of politico-economic support may be at peril as well. Finally, the Economist cites polls showing just 6 percent of Gazas population supports Hamasthough these polls are of uncertain reliability and Hamas concern about public opinion in Gaza seems limited as well.

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Netanyahu and his aides seem to see all these trends as pointing to an imminent victorynot just in the defeat of Hamas but also, in the eyes of the ultra-right nationalists in his coalition, the expansion of Israel to include the Palestinian territories, and possibly (some have been explicit on this point) the expulsion of Palestinians.

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This is a high-stakes gamble, even from the vantage of Israels interests. First, continued escalation of the war will endangeralmost certainly doomthe remaining Israeli hostages, whose lives still mean a great deal to most Israelis, including the majority that favors the destruction of Hamas.

Related From Slate Trump Just Made a Baffling Move on Palestine. It Tells Us Something About His Bigger Intentions. Read More

Second, this incessant violence and reliable reports of famine in Gaza have repelled much of the world, including many of Israels traditional allies. Netanyahu has said he doesnt care about world opinion, but for such a small country that has depended on outside aid for its survival, his brazen indifference will backfire at some pointperhaps quite soon. The leadership of the United Arab Emirates has said it will pull out of the Abraham Accords, the dealsigned along with Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco, during Trumps first termthat cemented commercial and economic relations with Israel and at least informally strengthened relations between the Jewish state and much of the Sunni Arab world.

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Israels position in the Middle East is, for the moment, as strong as it has been in many years. Yet its vulnerability persistsand its standing elsewhere in the world, including among its closest allies, is at a low point.

The combinationits relatively high security at home and its historically poor reputation abroadmay make this an ideal time for Israel to take a chance and make a surprisingly radical push for a genuine peace. Netanyahu is constrained from doing so, by both his own predilections (he seems genuinely to oppose even the abstract notion of a Palestinian state) and his political coalition (whose far-right wing elements would quit the government if he made even a slight move in that direction).

It may therefore be up to Trump to step up the pressure for a ceasefire. All of the Arab-Israel wars since 1948 have ended as the result of outside pressurethe U.S. on Israel, the Soviet Union on the Arab states (during the Cold War), or the United Nations on all parties (back in the day when the U.N. held such sway)and the outsiders have to step up the pressure now. Trump has stronger influence over Netanyahu than any recent U.S. president, and he has good relations with Arab leaders as well, including the Saudis, who are keen to form diplomatic ties with Israel but cant as long as Israel keeps bombing Gaza, threatening to annex the West Bank, and refusing even to consider the idea of resuming talks toward a Palestinian state.

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Trump wants to be seen as a peacemaker. He has demonstrated he holds no sway over Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine. His erstwhile friend Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has rebuffed his effort to claim credit for an India-Pakistan truce. And Israels war in Gaza rages on, with Trump filing no tangible protest.

Israels geopolitical strength in the region, its growing isolation in the rest of the world, and now an apparent rift between Trump and Netanyahu over Israels air strike on Qatari territory provide an opportunity for Trump to step up and exert leverageif he wants to and if he or anyone around him knows how.
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In 1960 Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous and author of its famous 12 Steps, did something that would be unthinkable in todays attention economy: He declined an invitation to be on the cover of Time magazine.

The editors offered a compromise: What if Wilson were pictured with his back to the camera, making him unidentifiable? Again, he refused. Such publicity was out of the question for any AA member, not just its architect. Enshrined in the program hed co-founded in 1935 was the mandate outlined in the 11th Traditionthat AAs members need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.

Wilson believed that public anonymity would inoculate the organization against members exploitation of AA for personal or professional gain and keep it free from controversy and embarrassment. Maintaining 100 percent personal anonymity was vital to the future of the group, he argued. Without it, the damage to the organization could be irreparable. Anonymity is so important that its codified in the 12th Tradition as the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

I got sober in 2008, and for the first six years, I was an active member of AA. While Im no longer involved in the Program, as its often called, Im still fascinated by AAs history and societal impact. Its a 90-year-old organization, and not a word of the Programs corethe 12 Steps and 12 Traditionshas changed since Wilson published it. This consistency is one of the reasons that, despite the boom in support and treatment options for people with alcoholism (the severe end of what clinicians now call alcohol use disorder), Alcoholics Anonymous is still the largest and best known of the bunch.

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What has changed is the delineation between public and private, who can broadcast their innermost lives to the world, and whose innermost lives garner the worlds interest. These shifts prompt the question: What constitutes personal anonymity in a world where the line between personal and public is vanishing?

Contrary to Wilsons assertions, there have always been AA members who publicly identify themselves, most often celebrities in recovery (Robin Williams, Elton John, and Liza Minnelli, to name a few). It makes sense: Who inhabits press, radio, and films more than the rich and famous? Sticklers for adhering to the letter of AAs program have always grumbled about these types of high-profile disclosures, but most of the people Ive spoken to in AA exhibit a more nonchalant Hollywoods gonna Hollywood attitude about it.

But the proliferation of social media and influencer culture changed all that. In a 2024 piece for the New Yorker, Chris Hayes writes that with the help of a handful of tech firms, it took us only a decade to destroy millennia of maintaining a conceptual boundary between public and private.

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The lines that had once been carved in laws and norms are obsolete in the eyes of an algorithm designed to lure you into the performative intimacies of strangers lives. Movie stars, politicians, and rock legends arent the only people with hundreds of thousands of followers.

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This level of digital interconnectedness would have been unfathomable to AAs founders. It would take 55 years after the programs establishment for the first web browser to be developed, and nearly 70 years for Facebook to launch. For many in AA, the media landscape is irrelevantits the principles that matter. For example, Brad, an active member of AA for 15 years, tells me that for him, the 11th Tradition is about humility and that we should strive to maintain the principles as we adapt to a changing environment rather than ask if the principle still applies.

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Theres no doubt that many other members feel similarly. The organizations refusal to change from its founding precepts is what makes those precepts sacrosanct to some and archaic to others. In 2013 its General Service Office, the communications hub for AA in the United States and Canada, tried to address these technological developments, arguing that the answer is already outlined in the 12 Traditions. It stated that the Internet, social media, and all forms of public communications are implicit in the 11th Traditions use of press, radio, and films.

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To be clear, Im talking only about voluntary, personal self-disclosure. The other kind of anonymity in AA is group anonymity, best embodied by the chant recited at the end of many AA meetings: Who you see here, what you hear here, when you leave here, let it stay here. Protecting others anonymity is among the least controversial aspects of the organizationand among the most palatable to those who seek out its support nearly 100 years later. Long before the ubiquity of the phrase safe space, a group of middle-aged white men in the 1930s and 40s was fully committed to the idea.

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But the profound cultural shift regarding public and private spheres is, at its core, about self-identification. As in nondigital spaces, the motivation behind that self-identification can be born from a genuine desire to share and connect with others, or it can be ego-driven. Social media makes both more accessible but incentivizes only the latter.

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Nowhere is this more evident than on TikTok, an app dominated by Gen Z, the generation that grew up with social media. As one scrolls through hundreds of thousands of videos with tags related to Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step groups, it immediately becomes clear that everything Bill Wilson worried about when it came to breaking personal anonymity at the public level is on full display.

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There are hundreds of videos purporting to be the authority on what AA says, videos dictating how a person in AA should behave, stories of relapses, videos blaming AA for those relapses, skits about AA meetings, angry videos about every possible AA-related controversy, and videos of people seemingly auditioning to be Americas next top sober influencer.

Although I havent been involved in AA in over a decade and openly write about my experience in the Program, I instinctively felt sort of scandalized by how blatant the personal anonymity breaking was. The disclosures were so pervasive and unabashed that they made me realize that the question is not whether personal anonymity at the public level still makes sense in 2025 but rather what it means that so many have entirely abandoned it.

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Its not simply that the media ecosystem is infinitely more complex than when it could be summed up as press, radio, and films; its that the space Alcoholics Anonymous occupies in society has similarly been transformed. In the early years of its existence, there were only two AA meetings in the world: one in Brooklyn and the other in Akron, Ohio. Today there are groups in 180 countries; its the worlds largest peer-led mutual aid organization for people with alcohol use disorder.

AAs ubiquity has resulted in countless depictions of 12-step recovery on-screen, an entire subgenre of quit lit memoirs, podcasts, and celebrity interviews. It has even, controversially, become a staple of drug courts, with offenders sentenced to attend AA meetings. Its hard to argue that any of this exposure has materially damaged the organization. AAs language still dictates personal anonymity at the public level, but for many people, their involvement just doesnt feel like a secret that needs to be kept.

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For others, keeping secrets at all feels like a slippery slope. When I was drinking, I kept secrets about where I was going and what I was doing, Jason, a 27-year-old in the Program, tells me. Its not something I want to do now that Im sober. People are so much more open about mental health stuff now. Why shouldnt we talk about the things that help us?

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As with any shade of wellness influencer, there are real risks associated with a large platform in questionable hands. You dont have to venture far into #sobertok to find it. AA has always been polarizing, and theres nothing a social media algorithm loves more than polarization. Whether the videos are anti-AA or pro-AA, many are full of misinformation, reductive characterizations, evangelism, rage bait, and wannabe spiritual gurus.

Such videos may be off-putting and misleading to viewers looking for more nuance. Theres also a risk that some might feel pressured to share more than theyre comfortable with. In a 2023 study published in the International Journal of Social Psychiatry, researchers looked at YouTube videos about substance use and determined that videos posted by creators with lived experiences in recovery received high levels of positive engagement.

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But hand-wringing about the potential downsides doesnt change the fact that many are already turning to TikTok to share their experiences in AA. In a 2021 study published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, researchers reviewed 82 of the most liked TikTok videos about attempts to cut down substance use or maintain recovery. They found that 70 percent referred to participation in Alcoholics Anonymous.

The authors of the study concluded: Many individuals included in our sample of videos consider TikTok to be a vital source of online social support for their recovery. Many individuals sought accountability and advice from other TikTok users.

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The researchers discoveries are consistent with a broader trend: Another 2021 paper, published in the Journal of Youth Studies, found that one in three Gen Zers turn to social media for mental health support. It also noted: TikTok appears to be a source of inspiration, support, and strength, as well as a much-needed space for important mental health conversations often missing from educational or familial contexts.

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In an article in the publication i-D, TikTokker Abi Feltham credits the platform with helping her get sober in 2020. I find it therapeutic to share and listen to other peoples experiences, like in AA, she said, but TikTok feels a lot more on my terms. (She later posted a video telling her 60,000-plus followers that she ultimately started going to AA.)

No one in AA should feel obligated to identify themselves at the public level, but discouraging members from sharing their personal recovery experiences on a platform in which others are actively seeking information and support seems futile and counterproductive.

People can and will continue to argue about personal anonymity, the way they argue about nearly every part of AAs program. Its never going to be an option that appeals to everyone in need of support with their alcohol use. But given that AA is usually the first and most accessible option people encounter when seeking help, Im encouraged by these open conversations. Gen Z is proving that more flexible approaches to the Programwith all of its archaic and dusty trappingsare entirely possible in a digitally enmeshed attention economy.
Thomas de Cad'oro Granier Founder & CEO

Indias technology sector is witnessing unprecedented demand for companies that prioritize employee experience over traditional corporate hierarchies. As the country establishes itself as a global tech hub, professionals increasingly seek organizations that value expertise, autonomy, and genuine work-life balance.The market demands progressive employers who understand that exceptional talent requires exceptional treatment, moving beyond conventional management structures toward empowerment-based cultures. This shift has created substantial opportunities for companies that can demonstrate an authentic commitment to employee well-being while delivering world-class technical solutions.Founded in 2010,India emerged as a revolutionary force in technology consulting, establishing a unique model that exclusively hires senior practitioners and operates through radical flat hierarchy principles. Under the visionary leadership of CEO Thomas de Cadoro Granier, the company has consistently ranked among the worlds best places to work, achieving second place in the UK in Glassdoors Best Places to Work rankings.The organizations journey in India began in a modest bungalow in Baner, Pune, where Business Unit Lead Vishwas Bhagath and Head of Customers, Ashish Jagtap together witnessed the companys transformation from startup to industry leader.What started as delivery centers for UK clients evolved into a comprehensive global network that challenges traditional consulting paradigms. The companys founding philosophy centered on inverting the conventional leverage model that floods organizations with junior developers learning at client expense.Equal Experts breakthrough approach exclusively targets senior professionals who collaborate in small, self organizing teams working directly with business stakeholders. This strategy required creating a flat organizational structure where experienced practitioners focus on core problem solving rather than mentoring junior staff.The company became an early adopter of agile methodologies, cloud technologies, and DevOps practices, maintaining iterative development cycles with short feedback loops and quality automation emphasis.Through strategic market positioning and steadfast dedication to excellence, Equal Experts successfully created an environment where Indias most skilled technology practitioners could collaborate at comparable expertise levels without traditional hierarchical constraints.Equal Experts distinguishes itself through a fundamental philosophy of treating professionals as autonomous experts rather than managed resources. Head of Engineering, Uttam Kini, emphasizes the companys commitment to creating environments where engineers can authentically express their best professional selves through complete autonomy and flat hierarchical structures that eliminate micromanagement.Head of People, Shrawani Mukherjee explains how employee well-being permeates organizational culture through embedded policies, structural design, and operational methodology. The network ownership model creates unique engagement dynamics, reducing stress through trust-based approaches that contrast sharply with oversight-heavy traditional organizations. Their hybrid working philosophy requires weekly office attendance, promoting optimal work life balance while maintaining collaborative relationships.
American Risk delighted the Risky Bizz Group as the popular pacer tallied his 50th lifetime victory while completing a five-win night for driver David Dowling on Tuesday, Sept. 9 at Red Shores at the Summerside Raceway.

Away from post four, American Risk ($2.40) was never headed as he cut out the fractions of :28.2, :58.4, and 1:28.3 en route to a commanding 1-3/4-length victory in 1:56.4. Melody Maker (Paul Langille) closed for second over Coasttocoastshark (Brady Sweet).

American Risk has been a perennial powerhouse for the Risky Bizz Group of Truro, N.S. since he arrived on the east coast in 2021. The American Ideal-Kissing Bandit gelding reached 50 wins in his 146th start while increasing his earnings to $148,845. The nine-year-old, trained by George Rennison, is eight-for-16 this season with seven wins in the Truro Raceway Winners Over.

Dowling was in the winner's circle early when Starshipzodiac ($9.60) got up late to win the opener in 1:56.4 for trainer Robert Williams. The driver then sent maiden-breaker Twomacsonemoon ($2.10) down the road in the fourth race in 1:59.2 for Garnet Arnold. Dowling controlled Race 9  the Happy Retirement Plain Jane Pace  with Mcland ($7.60) in 1:57.1 for Chris Davies. In Race 10, Dowling and Dont Come Lookin ($6.90) were promoted to first after Saulsbrook Bolt (Sweet) was placed second for interference. The 1:57.4 win capped a double for the Davies stable. Dowling ended the night as he won the 14th-race finale with American Risk.

With the five victories, Dowling took the sole lead in the drivers' standings. He was tied with Corey MacPherson to start the night but now leads by four with 42 total wins. Dowling, a resident of Stratford, P.E.I., has racked up 92 tallies across all tracks this season and boasts a 19.3 per cent win rate.

Wind Blown was iron-tough in the stretch in the featured $5,000 Preferred 2 Pace after fronting every call for Langille. He put the Mach Three-Wind Warning gelding on the point and never looked back through :28, :56.4, and 1:26.2 fractions. Wind Blown was beset by Mantario (Dowling) at the rail and House Edge Hanover (Brodie MacPhee) on the outside down the lane, but he dug in to win by a quarter-length in 1:54.3. Mantario was a narrow second over House Edge Hanover.

Wind Blown is two-for-two at Summerside since returning to Prince Edward Island from Woodbine Mohawk Park. The eight-year-old gelding has now earned $377,419 and won 35 times in 150 career outings. He is trained by Phil Sizer for owners Douglas Polley Jr. and Douglas Polley Sr. of Amherst, N.S.

It was a strong evening for the Tyne Valley, P.E.I. operation of Greg MacInnis, who authored a training double. Longshot sophomore filly Anniemosity ($34) never flinched on the engine to take the third race in 1:58.1. MacInnis completed the double when three-year-old Arthur Idlam ($7.30) dug in to take Race 12 in 1:56.3 with a brave wire-to-wire effort. Both winners were driven by Ryan Desroche.

Adam Merner turned in a driving quadruple. His winners were Graceful Moment ($4) in the second race, Brigus ($4.60) in the sixth race, Harlequin Romance ($2.50) in the eighth race, Doc Awesome ($15.60) in the 13th.

Live racing continues on Thursday evening at Red Shores Charlottetown.

To view Tuesday's harness racing results, click the following link: Tuesday Results - Summerside Raceway.

(Red Shores & Standardbred Canada; photo of American Risk winning on July 20, 2025)
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The founder of Weber's Resupply, a company that specializes in slow-fashion outdoor apparel, had a message for the bride-to-be who asked for 15 free Colorado ski sweaters to give to her girlfriends during her upcoming pre-wedding trip to Aspen. Those sweaters retail for $95 apiece, and Meredith Weber had no intention of giving away more than $1,400 worth of merchandise to a stranger seeking freebies.

"The audacity that some of these bachelorette parties have when asking for free stuff from businesses is crazy," Weber marveled in a post on TikTok. "Ma'am, if you can afford an Aspen bachelorette trip, you can afford a ski sweater from my shop."

The bride's outrageous request wasn't as unusual as you might imagine. According to a recent story in The Wall Street Journal, brides-to-be across the country are flooding companies with so-called "PR" requests for free merchandise to distribute as swag at their bachelorette parties.

"The future brides are sharing lists of contacts at companies and scripts to follow when emailing them," the Journal's Megan Graham reported. "They post 'haul' videos if they succeed, sometimes accompanied by the precise phrasing that worked." When they fail, they gripe about the lack of response  sometimes in moody clips set to Taylor Swift songs.

Welcome to the latest form of wedding greed: social media panhandling.

As longtime readers may know, I am a confirmed foe of wedding gift registries, on the grounds, as I once put it in a column, that they amount to institutionalized avarice. They are merely glorified shopping lists, with other people paying the tab. To compile a list of desired presents is impersonal and mercenary; the message it enshrines is that the gifts matter more than the giver.

But at least bridal registries are intended to be consulted by friends and family who are already planning to give the newlyweds a gift. This new racket is worse. It tries to conscript total outsiders  small-business owners and vendors who have no connection to the bride  and importunes them to foot the bill for her party favors.

The Journal relates cringe-inducing examples of how tawdry the cupidity has become. Some bachelorettes blast out hundreds of emails to companies at a time, copying wording they find online. Many don't even try to get the details right. Bulk Butter CEO Emily Koltermann, who sells nut butters in a variety of flavors, has received fawning notes from women insisting they love using her product "on their skin"  a bizarre claim, since Bulk Butter sells only spreads for eating. Another brand owner said she received so many generic pitches still addressed to "[insert business here]" that she set up an inbox filter to block them.

The appetite for handouts doesn't stop with hitting up vendors. On Reddit's r/weddingshaming forum, users post photos of bachelorette caravans covered with slogans like "Buy the Bride a Drink" and displaying a Venmo ID on the rear windshield. Bachelorette parties have become rolling GoFundMe campaigns, soliciting cash from passersby.

Judith Martin, the esteemed newspaper columnist known by the pen name Miss Manners, told Smithsonian magazine in 2011 that "the major etiquette problem in America nowadays is blatant greed"  specifically, "people who are scheming to get money and possessions from other people, and who believe they are entitled to do so." Nearly 15 years later, even Miss Manners might be dumbfounded by the extent to which casual greed has become prevalent among those planning to get married.

The Knot, a major wedding-planning website, devotes an online page to teaching brides-to-be "How to Get the Best Free Bachelorette Items" and encouraging them to "score freebies to add to your crew's swag bags or use at your beach bash."

The whole thing is shabby. A party is supposed to be an expression of joy and thankfulness. A wedding, above all, ought to highlight generosity  of spirit, of friendship, of love. Yet in case after case, what takes center stage is acquisitiveness dressed up as celebration, as if the point were not so much to envelop loved ones in happiness as to extract from third parties as much as possible.

Business Insider labels this brazenness "Bride or Die"  part of the "bachelorette industrial complex." Ordinary brides, even those with no more than a modest personal online following, put on a show of mimicking influencers, turning themselves into marketers and their friends into props. But these requests for free swag aren't the work of professional content generators angling for a brand partnership. The payoff these brides are chasing isn't a marketing contract or a polished Instagram grid. It's the ability to boast that they got strangers to send them merchandise for free. At bottom, it's just the oldest of motives: the thrill of "gimme."

Not every company resists these requests. The Wall Street Journal noted that at least some brands have formalized the process, setting aside merchandise to ship out in response to bridal pitches. But the fact that there are companies that indulge the practice doesn't make it any less objectionable. It just normalizes the unseemly practice of turning celebrations of love into exercises in acquisition.

There will always be rationalizations: "It's just marketing." "It doesn't hurt to ask." "Everybody's doing it." But it does hurt. It cheapens the celebration, it is unfair to the small enterprises that get targeted, and it replaces gratitude with grasping.

Weddings are already exorbitant affairs and expectations often run high. But the answer isn't to transfer the bill to strangers or to rebrand mooching as savvy marketing. It is to scale back, to remember that what matters in these milestones isn't the volume of swag but the intensity of human connection. A party intended to celebrate friendship, love, and commitment shouldn't need free body-care products  or $95 ski sweaters  to be memorable.

Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe, from which this is reprinted with permission.

(COMMENT, BELOW)




Calling all Standardbred Canada (SC) Junior Members! Are you looking for an opportunity to experience horses live and up-close and personal? Yes?! Then SC would like to cordially invite you and your families to a professionally guided tour of Winbak Farm of Canada this Saturday, Sept. 13 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Winbak Farm of Canada, located in Inglewood, Ont., is the Canadian extension of one of the most prolific Standardbred breeding operations in the sport. Winbak Farm has operations in Delaware, Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania, in addition to Ontario.

Pat Woods, Farm Manager of Winbak Farm of Canada, will be leading a guided tour of the stunning, historical 100-acre property. Junior Members and their families will have the opportunity to meet the entire herd including foals, yearlings and broodmares, and watch as Winbak staff demonstrate the preparations yearlings go through before heading to the sale. Winbak Farm of Canada will be selling 43 yearlings at this year's London Classic Yearling Sale.

Not yet a Junior Member of Standardbred Canada but interested in joining the tour at Winbak Farm? You can still enroll to become one and gain access to this exclusive tour. To enroll as an SC Junior Member, please visit SC's Member Forms page or contact the Membership Department.

Winbak Farm of Canada is located at 14709 Hurontario St., Inglewood, ON, L7C 2E2.

(Standardbred Canada Press Release)
Louis-Philippe Roy drove the winners of half of the six $25,000 Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots Leg 4B divisions on Tuesday, Sept. 9 at Woodbine Mohawk Park, including Odds On Bullfrog in the fastest split.

In the second of four groups of rookie pacing males, Roy worked Odds On Bullfrog to the front without seeing the pylons through a taxing :26.4 first quarter. Odds On Bullfrog controlled the speed through middle splits of :55.4 and 1:24.3, coming under duress from Ryder Ross (Tyler Borth) on the final bend. The leader was hounded by Ryder Ross and Speaksoftlytome (Travis Cullen) through the stretch but held on by a neck to win in 1:52.2. Ryder Ross finished second over the closing Joses Triplets (Doug McNair).

Odds On Bullfrog has won two straight races for Dr. Ian Moore and owner-breeder Odds On Racing of Boca Raton, Fla. after going winless in his first five starts. The Bulldog Hanover-Odds On Naples colt earned his first Grassroots victory and elevated his bankroll to $29,310. He paid $19.60 to win.

Roy also won the first pacing split with Lyons Gustavofring in a 12-1 upset. Fourth through the first-half sections of :26.4 and :57.3, Roy fired him first-over entering the far turn, and the gelding rushed up alongside leader Plankton Hanover (Trevor Henry) approaching three-quarters in 1:26.1. Plankton Hanover held his foe at bay into deep-stretch, but Lyons Gustavofring overhauled him late to win by a length in 1:53.1. Mandestiny (Jody Jamieson) was third.

Lyons Gustavofring ($26.30), a son of Cattlewash-Lispatty, broke his maiden in his seventh try for trainer Tony Beaton. He has now earned $23,360 for owner Threelyonsracing of Brantford, Ont.

Evans Legacy captured the final division for pacers by a nose after an overland trip. He was away fifth from the rail to the quarter in :27.2 before following favourite Goin For Broke (Doug McNair) to the outside approaching the half in :57.4. Goin For Broke cleared, then defended position from Evans Legacy through three-quarters in 1:26 before breaking stride and entering the safety lane as they came off the final turn. Evans Legacy inherited a sizable advantage but was put to a drive by the marauding Cheese Dreams (James MacDonald), who missed by a nose as Evans Legacy hung on to win in 1:53.4. D A Lets Dance (Henry) completed the triactor.

Evans Legacy ($14.30) is now two-for-five with $21,780 in his coffers. The Cattlewash-Tables Big Secret gelding was making his Grassroots debut for trainer Lyle MacArthur and owners Linda Wellwood of St. George Brant, Ont. and Tammy Aspden of Caistor Centre, Ont.

Roy also won the opener with Its Not My Vault ($4.30) for a grand slam on the card.

The third pacing split went to the Cattlewash-Our Hot Majorette gelding Major Money ($8.60) in 1:53, kicking off a stakes double for driver MacDonald, trainer Nick Gallucci, and owner Millar Farms.

Those connections also won the first group for two-year-old trotting colts and geldings with Hot Country ($3.60), a son of Muscle Mass-Feel Invincible As, in 1:57.

Stonebridge Mac ($10.30) prevailed in the final trotting contest in 1:56.3 with Henry in the bike. Scott McEneny trains the Green Manalishi S-Stonebridge Encore gelding and co-owns him with Aristi Varsakis.

To view Tuesdays harness racing results, click the following link: Tuesday Results - Wooodbine Mohawk Park.

(Standardbred Canada)
Andrea Catherine Magee passed away peacefully at her home on Sept. 5, 2025 at the age of 67.

Only daughter of the late Dorothy and Samuel Magee, she was born in Montreal, Que., on Dec. 20, 1957.

Andrea cherished her feathered loved ones Ren and Joey who brought her great joy and laughter.

A huge void will be left from Andreas passing. She will always be missed and remembered by cousins Pamela, Darryl (Donna) Patterson, Mike Magee of Utah, and her many loving nieces and nephews, as well as her brothers from another mother, Bill Minna and Gord Brown, and many close friends.

Andrea was predeceased by her longest and closest friend, her dear Donna Lacey.

A fashion dream, a beauty queen, Andrea knew how to capture a scene! And Andrea was at ease with people from all walks of life, this was one of her many lovely qualities as was her unwavering compassion for all animals.

As a Regulatory Affairs Associate, Andrea enjoyed a devoted career with Bayer Inc. for many decades.

Andreas biggest passions in life were horses, rock n' roll, fast cars, and of course, Don Johnson! At a young age, she rode her own horse, performed dressage, jumping and together she and Donna were regular stable rats. Throughout her life, Andrea expressed her passion for horses as a member of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame and the LongRun Thoroughbred Retirement Society, where she recently became a Director. Andrea volunteered with the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame for 20 years, beginning as a member of the organizations Planning Committee, before being appointed Chair of that committee in 2014. Her adventurous life continued with rock n' roll, and when that wasnt loud enough for her, she added race cars, by promoting and directing Indy car driver Paul Tracy!

Memorials or donations may be given to LongRun Thoroughbred Retirement Society at longrunretirement.com.

A Celebration of Andreas Life will take place at a later date.

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Andrea Magee.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Credit: Hardt Hyperloop

A Dutch tech startup said Wednesday it had set a European speed record for its futuristic hyperloop transport system and could reach 700 kilometers (435 miles) per hour once longer tracks are built.

Hardt Hyperloop said its vehicle had reached 85 kph at the 420 meter (1,378 feet) European Hyperloop Center test track in the Netherlands and had carried out a complex lane switching test.

It said the lane switching maneuveressential for networked routesshowed there were no technical barriers to operating at aircraft-like speeds.

The development comes as China pushes ahead with its own high-speed projects, with state media reporting tests above 600 kph and a goal of linking Shanghai and Guangzhou by 2035.

Europe has yet to commit to a long test facility, though Germany and Italy are considering tracks.

"We are ready to go for higher speedsup to 700 kphas soon as the infrastructure so permits," co-founder Tim Houter told AFP.

The European Hyperloop Center, which opened last year, has hosted more than 750 test missions.

Hardt is one of several firms seeking to commercialize the hyperloop, a concept in which passengers travel in pods at near-supersonic speeds through vacuum tubes.

The test marks progress from a year ago, when the same track hosted trials at just 30 kph.

Backers insist the technology will eventually replace short flights in Europe and could cut energy use to a fraction of trains or planes.

First floated by Elon Musk in 2013, the hyperloop has consumed billions of dollars in trials but has yet to produce a viable commercial route.

 2025 AFP
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Larry Ellison, chairman and chief technology officer of Oracle Corporation, sits in the Oval Office of the White House as President Donald Trump signs an executive order, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, in Washington. Credit: AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File

The battle among billionaires for bragging rights as the world's richest person got heated Wednesday with the surprising surge of an old contender: Larry Ellison.

In a stunning few minutes after markets opened, stock in Ellison's Oracle Corp. rocketed more than a third, enough for him to temporarily wrest the title from its longtime holder Elon Musk and hand it to the software giant's co-founder.

But the stock market is fickle, and Musk was back on top by the end of the day, at least according to Bloomberg, as Oracle gave up a bit of its earlier gains.

For those keeping score, the difference now is a billion, which isn't much given the size of the figures: Musk's $384.2 billion versus $383.2 billion for Ellison.

The dueling fortunes are so big each could fund the lifestyles of 5 million typical American families for a year, about the entire population of Florida, allowing them to all quit their jobs. Or they could just tell all of South Africa to take a vacation for year and produce nothing, based on its gross domestic product.

The brief switch in the ranking came after a blockbuster earnings report from Oracle powered by multibillion dollar orders from customers as the artificial-intelligence race heats up.

Musk became the world's richest person for the first time four years ago. A big reason is his stake in a hot, but now cooling, electric car maker, Tesla.

Stock in the company has been moving in the opposite direction of Oracle's, dropping 14% so far this year. Musk also controls several private companies, including rocket maker SpaceX, his artificial intelligence company xAI and the former Twitter, now called X.

Ellison owns about 40% of Oracle, which means its surging stock added $100 billion to his net worth in little over a half-hour after the stock market opened.

Elon Musk listens as President Donald Trump meets with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Oval Office of the White House, Feb. 13, 2025, in Washington. Credit: Photo/Alex Brandon, File

The night before after trading had closed the company announced in an earnings report that it had struck more than $300 billion worth of new deals, including contracts with the OpenAI, Meta, Nvidia and Musk's xAI. It said that it now expects revenue from its cloud infrastructure business to jump 77% to $18 billion this fiscal year. then rise to $144 billion in four years after that.

Ellison said in an earnings call that Oracle would not just be making money from its computing centers that help build the next chatbots, but from the day-to-day running of those AI systems to run robots in factories, design drugs in laboratories, place bets in financial markets and automate legal and sales work at companies.

In other words, Ellison's surge in wealth Wednesday morning reflected investor expectations that computers will take over many jobs now done by humansand Oracle will benefit.

Or as the 81 year old said on the call, "AI Changes Everything."

Musk is hoping the same for Tesla and his own net worth, but he's been struggling to convince investors.

The company had been promising a big turnaround in electric car sales after they fell sharply earlier this year, but the bounce back hasn't happened. Musk has been downplaying the bad numbers by trying to shift investors' focus to Tesla's other business of making robots and advances in the artificial intelligence behind its cars and robotaxis.

While he keeps talking up the Tesla future, though, the bad news keeps coming.

Tesla sales in the European Union plunged 40% earlier this summer, the seventh month in row of drops, as customers balked at buying his cars after he took to X to support extreme right-wing politicians there. The company has been losing market share in the U.S., too, as buyers angry with his embrace of Donald Trump have stayed away from Tesla showrooms.

Oracle stock closed Wednesday at $328.33, a 36% jump. Tesla was up less than 1% at $347.79.

 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
The News in Brief Wednesday, September 10, 2025

A Georgian citizen was detained by Russian occupation forces near the village of Upper Khviti in Gori municipality, close to the occupied Tskhinvali region, the State Security Service of Georgia (SSSG) announced on September 9.According to the agency, the EU Monitoring Mission's hotline was activated immediately, and international partners as well as the co-chairs of the Geneva International Discussions were informed.The SSSG said that all available tools are being used to secure the individual's release. "All available mechanisms have been activated to secure the citizen's release in the shortest possible time," the agency stated. It added that "all responsibility lies with the occupying power."Mzia Amaghlobeli, a Georgian journalist and founder of the Batumelebi and Netgazeti online outlets, has been named a laureate of the 2025 Free Media Awards. The annual prizes, presented by Norway's Fritt Ord Foundation and Germany's Zeit-Stiftung, honor journalists and media in Central and Eastern Europe working under difficult conditions.Amaghlobeli is one of six recipients this year. She was arrested in January after slapping police chief Irakli Dgebuadze during protests in Batumi and, in August, was sentenced to two years in prison. Her detention has sparked widespread criticism at home and abroad, with rights groups describing the case as politically motivated.The award announcement highlighted Amaghlobeli's long career. "Journalist and media founder Mzia Amaghlobeli has become the face of independent journalism in Georgia," the statement said. "She is receiving a Free Media Award for 25 years of commitment to journalistic integrity and ethical judgment, during which time she has established two of the most popular and trusted news platforms in the country: Batumelebi and Netgazeti."In August, Amaghlobeli was also shortlisted for the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize, alongside journalists from Azerbaijan and Ukraine.
Malaysia consolidates position in semiconductor supply chain

By Vietnam News Agency Wed, September 10, 2025 | 9:23 pm GMT+7

Malaysia can maintain its position as a middle power in the global semiconductor supply chain through the implementation of the National Semiconductor Strategy (NSS), which was launched in May last year, according to Deputy Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Liew Chin Tong.

Malaysia can maintain its position as a middle power in the global semiconductor supply chain. Photo courtersy of Malaysia Investment development Authority.

The official said recently that the countrys semiconductor industry, which has been developing for over 50 years, possesses its own strengths, particularly in outsourced testing and packaging activities, making Malaysia one of the primary investment destinations for multinational corporations.

Other factors, such as strategic location, comprehensive infrastructure, and skilled local workforce, further enhance the countrys appeal to foreign investors in this high-technology industry.

Through the NSS, the Government focuses on attracting foreign investments that possess advanced technologies, including advanced packaging.

It aims to establish at least 10 Malaysian companies in advanced design and packaging with annual revenues of $1 billion, as well as 100 high-income local semiconductor-based companies generating annual revenues of RM1 billion ($240 million).

From early 2024 through the first quarter of 2025, the NSS has made progress, including training 4,557 engineers and technical personnel; identifying over 23,000 potential job opportunities; securing investments worth RM52 billion; and founding five local integrated circuit (IC) design companies, he said.
The News in Brief Thursday, September 11, 2025

The German Federal Foreign Office has strongly rejected claims made by Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili, describing his accusations as baseless and harmful to bilateral ties."We are worried that by spreading disinformation and divisive narratives, he is actively undermining Germany-Georgia relations," the Foreign Office said in a statement released by its spokesperson and shared by the German Embassy in Tbilisi on Facebook. The statement stressed that "the German Ambassador in Tbilisi represents the position of the Federal Government."Berlin also denounced what it called "continuing aggressive rhetoric by representatives of the Georgian Dream towards the German Ambassador," urging Georgian officials to refrain from spreading "false narratives regarding EU and German positions and policies" and to "change its current political course."The response followed remarks Papuashvili made earlier this week on social media, where he accused the German ambassador of backing violent groups. According to the parliamentary speaker, the so-called "titushky," allegedly supported by the ambassador, attacked the ruling party's Tbilisi headquarters three times while chanting extremist slogans. Papuashvili called the ambassador's actions "an example of gross interference in the elections" and claimed they violated the Vienna Convention.Germany dismissed these allegations outright, warning that such statements risk straining relations between the two countries at a sensitive political moment.The 5th President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili has declared that she continues to see herself as the country's legitimate leader in the eyes of the citizens. Speaking in an interview with U.S. outlet NPR, she said the ruling Georgian Dream party is steering the country onto an anti-democratic path beginning in 2022."The question is always: is this something that we did not notice earlier, and could we have stopped it from the beginning? I would say that the real change occurred in 2022," Zourabichvili said. She linked the shift to the war in Ukraine, arguing that the Georgian government sided with Moscow by refusing to join Western sanctions. She also pointed to speeches by Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, who accused Western partners of pushing Georgia into conflict with Russia.Zourabichvili stressed that she continues to enjoy popular legitimacy despite leaving office."I am the legitimate president in the eyes of the Georgian people," she said. According to her, this rests on two foundations: representing the public's commitment to a pro-Western course since independence, and embodying what she described as a widespread desire for greater unity among the opposition.
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This story is meant particularly for the people who know exactly what happened that afternoon 20 years ago, and why.

Those with information are encouraged to make the call that may unravel the mystery of May 14, 2003.
A still image of a Venezauelan vessel allegedly carrying drugs seconds before it was hit by an airstrike that appeared to destroy it and kill all those onboard. US President Donald Trump announced the strike last week.
Chinese manufacturing shines as global stabilizer, innovation driver

Xinhua) 08:14, September 10, 2025

Li Lecheng, minister of industry and information technology, speaks at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office (SCIO) on vigorously promoting new industrialization and strengthening the foundation of the real economy during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 9, 2025. Xin Guobin, vice minister of industry and information technology, and Zhang Yunming, vice minister of industry and information technology, also attended the press conference in Beijing on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei)

BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- When China's top industry official sought to prove that the nation's innovation momentum was surging, he began with a formidable list of heavy engineering marvels.

At a press briefing on Tuesday, Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Lecheng cited the Chang'e lunar missions, China's space station, the homemade C919 passenger jet, the launch of the Adora Magic City luxury cruise liner, and the domestic breakthrough in vital ECMO medical devices.

This evidence, he argued, shows China is rapidly shifting from "following" to "pacing" and increasingly "leading" the world.

But the roll call didn't stop at aerospace and heavy equipment. Li then pivoted from such engineering feats to molecular science, highlighting new cancer treatments like Brukinsa (zanubrutinib) as globally recognized "star products" and further proof of this surging momentum.

This specific drug exemplifies the shift. Developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company BeOne Medicines Ltd. and widely regarded in the industry as the nation's first "billion-dollar molecule," Brukinsa is recognized as a potential best-in-class BTK inhibitor, which has been approved in 75 markets -- including the United States, Europe and Japan. The company's self-developed medicines have already benefited over 1.8 million patients globally.

This breakthrough reflects a decade-long transformation. China's innovative drugs sector has demonstrated clear advances in terms of the quantity of drugs in clinical trials, and the quality of first-in-class assets, according to an analysis by Tianfeng Securities.

A research note by the brokerage revealed that this acceleration is built upon a distinct blend of advantages -- the presence of complete industrial supply chains, a deep engineering talent pool, improving basic research, and massive, sustained investment in research and development (R&D).

Such investment is visible across the economy. Innovation spending has risen steadily, with large-scale manufacturing firms, each with an annual main business turnover of at least 20 million yuan (about 2.8 million U.S. dollars), spending more than 1.6 percent of their operating revenue on R&D over the past five years. This push has placed over 570 industrial companies on the global top 2,500 list for R&D spending, while 64 Chinese manufacturing firms entered the Fortune 500 in 2024, said Li.

This R&D focus is translating directly into advanced automation and modernized production. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), 46 Chinese cities have been piloting new technological transformation projects. China's newly installed industrial robots now account for more than 50 percent of the global total, said the minister.

The frontier of manufacturing is also advancing. Li said China now possesses full-chain manufacturing capabilities for humanoid robots, spanning key chips, components and final assembly. In parallel, applications for brain-computer interfaces are expanding beyond their origins in medicine -- into new uses in education and industry.

This rapid progress has been capturing international attention for a long time. Juha Roening, vice president of euRobotics, recently called China the biggest market for robots, thanks to its extensive industrial adoption. Roening described the nation's robotics progress, driven by advances in artificial intelligence, as a "miracle."

He also called for deeper cooperation between Europe and China in the robotics supply chain. "I think there is a win-win situation if we can do the cooperative effort," he said.

Such industrial partnerships are already expanding globally. The China National Chemical Engineering Corporation, for example, recently signed an agreement with Kazakhstan's QazaqGaz Scientific and Technical Center for a major coal-to-gas project. This partnership will leverage China's leading coal chemical technology and equipment manufacturing capabilities to transform Kazakhstan's abundant coal resources into cleaner natural gas.

This capability for complex, international projects rests on an unrivaled manufacturing bedrock. China's manufacturing value-added output is expected to have contributed over 30 percent of global manufacturing growth during the 2021-2025 period, and the country has maintained its position as the world's largest manufacturer for 15 straight years.

China's core advantage is its systemic completeness, a soup-to-nuts capability covering the vast majority of the 504 major industrial product categories recognized worldwide -- leading the globe in output for most of them.

This global market leadership was highly visible at the IFA Berlin 2025, Europe's largest consumer electronics trade fair. Held from Sept. 5 to 9, the event highlighted the latest trends in artificial intelligence, sustainability and digital transformation. Chinese enterprises constituted a hard-to-ignore presence, with over 690 firms attending -- accounting for more than one-third of all exhibitors.

Nelson Holzner, CEO of global FinTech firm MODIFI, noted that Chinese appliance firms demonstrate a clear international stance and are actively seeking win-win cooperation with global partners.

This sentiment is shared by international executives long embedded in China's vast, dynamic market. Morii Go, chairman of Yamazen Shanghai Trading Co., Ltd., noted that his firm has been rooted in China since 2002 and serves over 10,000 enterprises locally.

"China is the world's most dynamic major manufacturing country, and also a source of innovation in the intelligent and digital industries," Morii said.

This consensus was echoed in Tuesday's report from the China Federation of Logistics &Purchasing. The report concluded that as global supply chains accelerate their reconfiguration, driven by economic shifts, trade protectionism and technological change -- China is successfully upgrading its role from the "world's factory" to a global supply chain hub.

Reinforcing this hub status diplomatically, China has joined multiple countries in launching an initiative on enhancing the resilience and stability of industrial and supply chains, aiming to safeguard global supply chains and foster more inclusive, stable partnerships, Li added.

(Web editor: Huang Kechao, Liang Jun)
On September 9, 2025, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory message to General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and President of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un on the 77th anniversary of the founding of the DPRK.

Xi Jinping pointed out that over the past 77 years, the WPK has united and led the DPRK people to forge ahead unremittingly, promoting the continuous development of all socialist undertakings in the DPRK. In recent years, under the leadership of the WPK headed by General Secretary Kim Jong Un, the DPRK people have strived hard to fulfill the goals and tasks set out at the 8th Congress of the WPK, and have achieved many gratifying accomplishments. Xi Jinping expressed confidence that the DPRK people will greet the convening of the 9th Congress of the WPK with high morale and outstanding achievements, and open a new chapter in the development of socialism with DPRK characteristics.

Xi Jinping emphasized that China and the DPRK are traditional friendly neighbors linked by mountains and rivers. Maintaining, consolidating, and developing China-DPRK relations has always been an unwavering strategic guideline of the CPC and the Chinese government. Recently, General Secretary Kim Jong Un came to China for the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. During the visit, President Xi Jinping met with General Secretary Kim Jong Un again, jointly mapping out the blueprint for the development of relations between the two parties and the two countries. China is ready to enhance strategic communication and strengthen exchanges and cooperation with the DPRK, and work together to advance China-DPRK friendship and the cause of socialism of both countries, so as to make greater contributions to peace and development in the region and the world at large.
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A Tucson man due in court next week on violent domestic violence charges against his girlfriend has been identified as the gunman in an apparent murder-suicide this week on Tucson's north side, authorities say.

About 12:45 p.m. Monday, the bodies of Michael Martinez Duran, 48, and Michelle Ohnesorgen Johnson, 47, were found inside a house in the 2800 block of North Desert Avenue, near North Swan Road and East Glenn Street, Tucson police said in a news release.

Both had been shot.

Initial evidence indicates Duran shot Johnson, then turned the gun on himself, the release said. Court records show prior domestic violence arrests against Duran that occurred in November 2024 and in May.

Johnson reported that Duran waved a firearm around during the most recent altercation. He choked her until she lost consciousness several times, struck her in the face and asked her if she wanted to die." Duran, she told police, was pointing a gun at her the entire time.

The incident in November 2024 also involved strangulation, court records show.

Though bonds had been set in both cases, Duran successfully petitioned the court for a release to pretrial services and was freed with a warning to not have un-consented contact with Johnson.

Pima County Attorney Laura Conovers office filed a motion in the recent case to keep Duran in jail, despite Johnsons desire to maintain contact with him.

The motion noted that a release to pretrial services would not be sufficient to ensure Johnsons safety.

In this case, we argued and secured a bond to keep him in jail, but the defendant returned to court asking for a second chance to be released, Conover wrote in a news release. We strenuously objected due to our grave concerns that the defendant's violence was escalating.

Conovers office said statistics indicated this the outcome of the case could be lethal.

When a person has been strangled by their partner, there is an 800% increase in the likelihood of that person being murdered, Conover said in a statement about the case. She noted that 43-percent of all women who are murdered have been previously strangled by their partner.

The case remains ongoing.
From August 31 to September 2, 2025 local time, at the invitation of the Communist Party of Viet Nam (CPV) Central Committee and Chairman of the National Assembly of Viet Nam Tran Thanh Man, Member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) Zhao Leji led a party and government delegation to visit Viet Nam. In Hanoi, Zhao Leji met respectively with General Secretary of the CPV Central Committee To Lam, Vietnamese President Luong Cuong, and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, held talks with Tran Thanh Man, and attended events marking the 80th anniversary of the August Revolution and the National Day of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam.

When meeting with To Lam, Zhao Leji conveyed General Secretary Xi Jinping's cordial greetings and extended warm congratulations on the historic achievements made in the cause of the CPV and the country over the past 80 years. Zhao Leji stated that under the new circumstances, China is ready to work with Viet Nam to fully implement the important common understandings reached between the top leaders of the two Parties, act in line with the overarching goals characterized by "six mores", deepen exchanges of governance practices, enhance the synergy between the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the "Two Corridors and One Economic Circle" strategy, strengthen the bonds of friendship between the two peoples, jointly advance the socialist modernization endeavors in their respective countries, and accelerate the building of a China-Viet Nam community with a shared future that carries strategic significance.

To Lam asked Zhao Leji to convey his sincere greetings to General Secretary Xi Jinping, and expressed his gratitude for the tremendous assistance provided by China during various periods of Viet Nam's revolution and development. He said that under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, China has achieved remarkable accomplishments in development, and has become a main driving force of global economic growth. Viet Nam has always regarded the development of relations with China as an objective necessity, a strategic choice and a top priority, and has consistently upheld the one-China policy. Viet Nam is willing to join hands with China on the great journey of building socialism and to jointly usher in the second golden era of Viet Nam-China relations.

When meeting with Luong Cuong, Zhao Leji conveyed President Xi Jinping's best wishes to him, noting that China and Viet Nam should respond to external uncertainties with the strengths of socialist system, uphold and strengthen the leadership of the Communist Party, firmly support each other's reform and development endeavors, leverage the exemplary role of mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation between China and Viet Nam, jointly resist the countercurrents of unilateralism and protectionism, and defend international fairness and justice as well as the common interests of developing countries. Luong Cuong asked Zhao Leji to convey his sincere greetings to President Xi Jinping. He said that the Vietnamese side is sincerely pleased with China's continuous development and growth, and is willing to continuously consolidate the political foundation of bilateral relations, speed up the implementation of major landmark projects agreed upon by the leaders of the two countries, and promote the traditional friendship between Viet Nam and China to take deeper root in the hearts of the people.

When meeting with Pham Minh Chinh, Zhao Leji said that China and Viet Nam enjoy deep integration and development of industries and mutually beneficial economic and trade cooperation, and have vast potential for expanding cooperation. China is ready to seek greater synergy between the development strategies with Viet Nam, enhance cooperation in traditional sectors, strengthen cooperation in emerging fields, and jointly safeguard the multilateral trading system and keep the global industrial and supply chains unimpeded. Pham Minh Chinh said that the current economic and trade cooperation between Viet Nam and China is thriving. Viet Nam is willing to promote the integrated economic development of both sides within the framework of the BRI, work for new progress in practical cooperation such as railway construction, and make positive contributions to the implementation of the global initiatives proposed by China.

During his talks with Tran Thanh Man, Zhao Leji said that the NPC of China is ready to enhance the level of institutionalized exchanges with the National Assembly of Viet Nam, learn from each other's work experience in legislation and supervision, so as to provide legal guarantees for practical cooperation between the two countries. Tran Thanh Man said that the National Assembly of Viet Nam is willing to maintain regular mutual visits and exchanges with the NPC of China, so as to advance increasingly practical and effective cooperation between the legislative bodies of the two countries. Zhao Leji and Tran Thanh Man also attended together the first session of the China-Viet Nam joint committee between the legislative bodies, during which the two sides exchanged views on topics such as national security legislation and promoting economic, trade, as well as scientific and technological cooperation from the perspective of legislative bodies.

During his visit to Viet Nam, Zhao Leji, upon invitation, attended the ceremony held at the Ba Dinh Square in Hanoi marking the 80th anniversary of the August Revolution and the National Day of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, and watched the military parade, mass pageantry and grand cultural performances. The Guard of Honor of the Chinese People's Liberation Army was invited to participate in the military parade.

Zhao Leji also paid respects at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and visited Ho Chi Minh's Stilt House.
Former state lawmaker Justine Wadsack is dropping her claim that Tucson police and others violated her civil rights with a 2024 traffic stop.

In new court filings Tuesday, the former state senator from Tucson told U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer Zipps that she is experiencing a family health crisis and that there has been a negative impact of this lawsuit on my ability to care for my family.

Wadsack also sincerely apologized for her failure to show up in court on Aug. 26 as the judge had ordered. That was for a hearing to determine whether Dennis Wilenchik should be able to withdraw as her attorney.

But in her court filing Tuesday, she said theres a reason she was a no-show in court.

As noted in prior filings, I am experiencing a family health crisis that is physically and mentally draining, Wadsack wrote.

Consequently, I will at time lose focus and mix up specific dates and times, she told the judge. That is what caused my failure to appear.

But during the time she was supposed to be in court, Wadsack posted on X that she was at a presentation by Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point Action. Wadsack later told Capitol Media Services she is now employed by that organization.

Wadsack offered no details in Tuesdays filing on what she called her underlying family health crisis. Instead she told Zipps she would, if required, submit details confidentially to the judge given the deeply personal nature of the issue.

Wilenchik, in what is likely his last action on Wadsacks behalf, told the judge that her request to dismiss the case should end the matter without the need for further court action. What it also does, he said, is preclude the court from considering a request by attorneys for Tucson that Wadsack be sanctioned both for failing to pursue the case as well as for failing to show up.

The lawsuit is an outgrowth of a traffic stop in April 2024 on East Speedway, where the Tucson police officer said she was driving 71 miles an hour in a 35 mph zone, which is a felony.

She was not issued a ticket at the time because the Arizona Constitution exempts legislators from arrest while the Legislature is in session. And Wadsack said she had a placard attached to her rear license plate noting she was a senator.

But that constitutional provision did not preclude police from citing her after the session ended. Wadsack settled the matter by completing a defensive driving course.

That, however, was not the end of the matter.

Earlier this year, she filed suit against the police officer who pulled her over in the first place, as well as the city and various others in the Tucson Police Department, accusing them in federal court of violating her civil rights.

Wadsack said police sought to cause her embarrassment and emotional distress as well as destruction to her character and legislative position by charging her with the bogus traffic crime, and publicizing it.

She claimed all of this was in retaliation because she was an outspoken critic of the Tucson City government.

Wadsack also said she was targeted as a member of the Freedom Caucus, composed of the most conservative members of the Legislature, and because she is a woman and her primary opponent was a man who TPD officials felt could be controlled better.

That opponent was Vince Leach, who she had defeated in the 2022 GOP primary. Leach ended up winning the primary in 2024  after all the publicity about her citation  and now represents the legislative district that makes up much of northern and eastern Pima County and the southern part of Pinal County.

Wadsack, who now lives in Gilbert, declined to comment beyond what is in the pleadings.
On September 2, 2025, Member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council Ding Xuexiang met respectively with Mongolian President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa and Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, who are in China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit 2025 and events commemorating the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, in Beijing.

When meeting with Khurelsukh Ukhnaa, Ding Xuexiang noted that President Xi Jinping and President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa held a fruitful meeting in the morning and attended the meeting of heads of state of China, Russia and Mongolia. The China-Mongolia comprehensive strategic partnership represents a shared strategic choice of the two peoples. China is ready to work with Mongolia under the guidance of building a China-Mongolia community with a shared future to continuously consolidate strategic mutual trust, deepen practical cooperation across various fields, and advance bilateral relations to higher levels.

Khurelsukh Ukhnaa said that the Mongolia-China relationship is a model of bilateral relations in the region. Mongolia appreciates China's important role in world peace and stability, and is willing to strengthen high-level exchanges with China, deepen mutual trust and cooperation, and work for greater development of bilateral relations.

When meeting with Serdar Berdimuhamedov, Ding Xuexiang said that under the strategic guidance of President Xi Jinping and President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, China-Turkmenistan relations have maintained a good momentum of development. China is ready to work with Turkmenistan to jointly implement the important common understandings reached by the two heads of state, accelerate the synergy between the Belt and Road Initiative and the strategy of "Revival of the Great Silk Road", continue to expand and strengthen cooperation on natural gas, explore cooperation in non-resource sectors, and effectively enhance the well-being of the people of the two countries.

Serdar Berdimuhamedov congratulated China on successfully hosting a high-level SCO Summit, and expressed willingness to strengthen Turkmenistan-China cooperation across various fields, implement the outcomes of the summit, and better promote regional stability and development.
HA NOI  Following recent volatility in the gold market, Viet Nam on Tuesday launched inspections into compliance with policies and laws for credit institutions and enterprises engaged in trading the precious metal.

In a document issued by the Government Office on Monday, Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh requested inspections on compliance with policies and laws for credit institutions and enterprises in gold trading activities, anti-money laundering, the issuance and use of invoices and documents related to gold trading and other relevant issues.

Binh assigned the Government Inspectorate to coordinate with the ministries of Industry and Trade, Finance, and Public Security and the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to establish a team to carry out inspections starting today.

If signs of legal violations are detected during the inspections, information and dossiers must be immediately transferred to the Ministry of Public Security, with results to be reported to the Prime Minister by the end of the month.

The SBV was asked to decisively implement measures to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of State management to ensure a safe, healthy, efficient and sustainable gold market, and to prevent gold price fluctuations from affecting the stability and safety of the financial and monetary markets as well as macroeconomic stability.

Authorities have also required the central bank to report to the PM and the Permanent Deputy PM on gold market developments before 11am every Friday.

The Ministry of Public Security will direct relevant forces to work with the central bank and related agencies to immediately implement measures to promptly handle violations of the law related to the gold market and gold trading activities.

In particular, uncompromising action must be taken against acts of smuggling, fraud, tax evasion, speculation for profiteering, illegal trading, hoarding and gold market manipulation, the document said.

The SBV recently advised the public to buy and sell gold bars only through licensed entities. Consumers should also ensure they receive proper e-invoices and related documents to protect their own legitimate rights.

According to the central bank, the newly issued Decree 232/2025/N-CP on gold trading management removed the State monopoly on gold bars, allowing qualified entities to participate in the market. This aims to improve market supply and reduce the gap between domestic and international gold prices.

Domestic gold prices rose to a new high on Tuesday.

Saigon Jewelry Company (SJC) listed gold at VN133.8 million (US$5,071) per tael for buying and VN135.8 million for selling, up VN700,000 from Mondays close. The rise in price is in line with global gold prices, which hit record highs on expectations that the US Federal Reserve will cut rates next week.

On Kitco, spot gold rose 0.22 per cent to $3,643 per ounce (bid) and $3,644.70 (ask).

SJC gold bar prices have surged to record highs in recent months, with a wide gap compared to global benchmarks, forcing the implementation of a number of measures to stabilise the market.

The Supreme Peoples Procuracy has recently completed an indictment against Le Thuy Hang, former SJC general director, along with 15 other defendants who were SJC employees, on charges of embezzlement and abuse of power.

Through various violations at SJC, which had been the only company authorised by the SBV to produce gold bullion, Hang was found to illicitly gain more than VN71 billion and cause losses of over VN107.4 billion to the State's assets and SJC.  VNS
HA NOI Viet Nam is aiming for export growth of 12 per cent and a trade surplus of about US$30 billion, laying foundations for development with an emphasis on sustainable growth and better use of free trade agreements (FTAs) over the next five years, according to Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien.

Dien made the statement during an online meeting with Viet Nams overseas trade offices on Tuesday.

A report from the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) showed positive signs during the first eight months of 2025. Total trade neared $305 billion, up 14.4 per cent year-on-year despite global uncertainty, trade frictions and geopolitical shocks to supply chains.

Foreign-invested firms exported $228 billion worth of goods from Viet Nam, up more than 18 per cent, while exports from domestic firms reached $76.5 billion, up 3 per cent. The gap between the two underscores both the strength of foreign investment as well as the need to raise the competitiveness of Vietnamese enterprises so they move higher in global value chains.

Trade offices outlined opportunities and risks across key markets. In China, Commercial Counsellor Nong uc Lai reported an active push to expand investment and trade, with new eligible sectors and tariff incentives and a more open stance toward imported agro-aquatic goods.

In the first half of 2025 alone, China approved around 15 agricultural, forestry and fishery products from nearly 20 countries, including Cambodian durian, Malaysian coconuts, Ecuadorian mangoes, Gambian cashews and seafood from New Zealand, Brazil and Kenya.

The United States remains a pillar. According to US Commercial Counsellor o Ngoc Hung, bilateral trade in the first seven months reached $114.5 billion, up 41 per cent year-on-year. Viet Nams exports hit $106 billion, up 44 per cent, with imports from the US at $8 billion, producing a record surplus of $98 billion.

Machinery, wood and wooden products, textiles and garments, and seafood all posted strong gains, with exports of several goods growing between 15 per cent and over 100 per cent.

Vietnam International Sourcing 2025 helped firms link directly with major distribution systems and integrate more deeply into global supply chains. Yet challenges are intensifying, including proliferating trade defence measures and rules-of-origin compliance. Businesses must ensure traceable, transparent origins, strict production controls and proactive preparation for potential cases.

To better leverage FTAs, MoIT Deputy Director-General Ngo Chung Khanh noted that while headline contributions are positive, the shares of some partners, such as the EU, India, Mexico and Canada, have stagnated or declined.

He called for market-by-market targets that specify priorities, core products and expected growth, with tight coordination and clear responsibilities among trade offices, businesses and domestic units.

Trade remedy risks are rising. MoIT Deputy Director-General Truong Thuy Linh warned of broader investigations, especially into circumvention, with attention shifting to the origin of imported inputs used in Vietnamese production.

Firms should diversify input sources to avoid concentration in markets vulnerable to anti-dumping or anti-subsidy actions, while trade offices should closely track developments and alert associations and enterprises in time.

From a market development angle, MoIT Director-General Ta Hoang Linh urged three priorities for trade offices: intensify engagement with local traders, distributors and industry groups to unlock opportunities and transactions; mobilise more inbound buyer missions to Viet Nam, maintaining strong participation in fairs and exhibitions and building on Vietnam Sourcings result of more than 450 delegations and nearly 10,000 B2B meetings; and work with host authorities to remove barriers, advance FTA talks and open markets for agro-aquatic goods.

For associations and enterprises, he stressed strict food safety controls, supply chain standardisation and transparency to meet tightening requirements, notably in the EU and China, along with up-to-date compliance on pesticide residue rules, greener production and robust traceability aligned with international environmental and labour standards. VNS
HA NOI  Viet Nam has started its first dedicated research project on combining solar power with agriculture, aiming to increase farmers' incomes while accelerating the country's energy transition.

The initiative, known as the Agri-PV project, was officially launched in Ha Noi on Tuesday by the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (MAE) in partnership with the German Development Cooperation Agency (GIZ). It marks the first project in the agricultural sector that focuses specifically on solar energy for rural households.

Speaking at the launch, Deputy Director General of MAEs International Cooperation Department Pham Ngoc Mau highlighted the projects dual benefits.

"Integrating solar energy with farming on the same land can deliver substantial economic gains, contribute to gender equality and help farmers boost their livelihoods while supporting Viet Nams energy transition," he said.

According to Nguyen The Hinh, deputy head of the Agriculture Projects Management Board and director of Agri-PV, Viet Nams solar sector has experienced exponential growth. Installed capacity increased from just 272MW in 2019 to more than 16GW by the end of 2024. Projections suggest solar capacity will reach 22GW by 2030 and 168GW by 2050.

The Agri-PV project sets a target of deploying at least 10 pilot models for agricultural solar plants during its three-year implementation from 2025 to 2027. These pilots will provide crucial insights into how farmers can benefit from integrating crop production with solar energy generation.

The project also aims to strengthen knowledge among policymakers and stakeholders. By its conclusion, 65 per cent of 20 key policy and sector representatives are expected to have improved their understanding of the current state and future potential of agri-solar development in Viet Nam.

Hinh said that the project will assess Viet Nams agricultural solar potential, design suitable development strategies and deliver advisory services to stakeholders. It will also help mobilise resources for scaling up the model nationwide, aligning with the country's commitments to a just energy transition, net zero emissions by 2050 and NDC 3.0 climate targets.

Chief Technical Advisor of "Agri-Photovoltaics for Rural Areas in Vietnam Sonja Esche stressed that agri-solar is not simply about "placing solar panels on fields".

Instead, it is about creating synergy between two systems, optimising energy production and crop yields simultaneously, Esche said.

"When designed well, farmers can enjoy stable incomes from crops and electricity while ensuring efficient use of land," she noted.

Despite its potential, scaling up agricultural solar farming faces significant hurdles. Viet Nam currently lacks clear policies to promote the practice. Knowledge and technical capacity remain limited, with fragmented studies and a shortage of reliable pilot data.

Stakeholders from local authorities to farmers still lack experience in managing such hybrid systems. Moreover, there is no national database consolidating existing models, which hampers replication.

Mrs Michaela Baur, Country Director at GIZ Vietnam, said that Viet Nam can draw on international experience to bridge these gaps.

With over three decades of presence in the country, GIZ has extensive expertise in renewable energy and agriculture projects, particularly in facilitating public-private partnerships and regulatory frameworks.

She pointed out that countries like Germany, Thailand, India and Brazil have already piloted agri-solar models, generating valuable lessons for emerging economies.

"These exchanges of policy and practice are exactly what this project aims to enable," Baur said.  BIZHUB/VNS
HA NOI  Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Tuesday signed an official dispatch ordering ministries, agencies and localities to step up measures to promote rice production and export while ensuring domestic market stability.

The dispatch noted that in 2025, global developments have adversely affected economic recovery and growth, directly impacting global food production and trade, including rice.

To stabilise the rice market and seize export opportunities, the PM asked the Ministers of Agriculture and Environment, Industry and Trade, Finance and Foreign Affairs, along with provincial and municipal leaders, to urgently implement coordinated solutions.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade was tasked with diversifying export markets and organising trade promotion programmes to maintain traditional buyers while expanding into new potential markets.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment was tasked with enhancing institutional policies that support specialised rice-growing regions, promote research and development for high-yield, high-quality rice varieties, and bolster the branding of "Vietnam Rice." The ministry will also develop key infrastructure such as warehouses, milling and processing facilities, and apply advanced technologies to improve post-harvest preservation. It was urged to prioritise premium varieties that already hold brand value and to accelerate digital transformation and sustainable farming practices that reduce dependence on fertilisers and pesticides, thus raising both productivity and export quality.

Policies encouraging the development of raw material zones, strengthening productionconsumption linkages along the value chain, and guiding enterprises in purchasing rice must be effectively implemented. Enterprises should also be assisted in seeking new markets to stabilise rice prices and support farmers.

On the external front, Viet Nam will strengthen bilateral and multilateral negotiations to secure agreements on mutual recognition in quarantine, product quality, and food safety.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was tasked with strengthening the role of Vietnamese representative offices abroad in collecting market information, assisting exporters, and collaborating with other ministries to promote Vietnamese rice products internationally.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance was asked to facilitate exporters by streamlining customs procedures, applying modern management methods, and accelerating VAT refunds.

The Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam was instructed to direct commercial banks to increase credit for enterprises engaged in rice production, processing, purchasing and export, particularly during periods of market volatility, helping them seize opportunities and mitigate risks in line with regulations.

Chairpersons of provincial and municipal Peoples Committees were assigned to draw up rice production plans and work closely with ministries, agencies, the Vietnam Food Association (VFA) and rice traders to promptly address difficulties in rice exports.

The VFA and the Vietnam Rice Industry Association were instructed to step up the information work and propose tailored trade promotion programmes for specific markets to raise the visibility and brand value of Vietnamese rice.  VNS
AK LAK  A yellow-cheeked gibbon was handed over on Tuesday by local people to the Krong Pac Commune Police in the Central Highlands province of ak Lak.

The yellow-cheeked gibbon, with scientific name Nomascus gabriellae, belongs to group IB in the list of endangered, precious and rare species according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Environments Circular No 27/2025/TT-BNNMT, on the management of endangered, precious and rare species; raising common forest animals and implementing the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Previously, on Sunday, Luong The Vinh and his wife, live in Gah Mah Hamlet, Krong Pac Commune, while working on the fields discovered a yellow-cheeked gibbon who is damaging his crops, so they tried to catch it.

After bringing it home and looking up information, knowing that the yellow-cheeked gibbon is a rare primate listed in the Viet Nam Red Book, Vinh went to the commune police headquarters to report and hand it over to the authorities.

The Buon Ma Thuot Regional Forest Protection Department will release it back into the wild according to regulations.

The Krong Pac Commune Police acknowledged the couple's action, and at the same time, called on the community to work together to protect the environment and denounce acts of illegal hunting and trading of animals.

Local authorities said Vinhs small but meaningful action contributed to affirming that protecting wildlife is not only the responsibility of authorities, but also the duty of every citizen.  VNS
On the afternoon of September 3, 2025, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) Zhao Leji met in Beijing with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, who is in China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit 2025 and the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.

Zhao Leji stated that China-Tajikistan relations are at their best in history. President Xi Jinping met with President Emomali Rahmon on Tuesday, making new arrangements for advancing the development of the China-Tajikistan comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership in the new era. China is ready to work with Tajikistan to implement the important common understandings reached by the two heads of state, and continuously enrich the China-Tajikistan community with a shared future. The NPC of China is ready to strengthen exchanges and interactions with the Parliament of Tajikistan to provide legal guarantees for practical cooperation between the two countries.

Emomali Rahmon stated that developing relations with China is a priority of Tajikistan's foreign policy. He congratulated the Chinese people on the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and on China's successful grand military parade. He expressed the hope to further promote Tajikistan-China cooperation in fields including the Belt and Road Initiative, economy and trade, people-to-people and cultural exchange, and security, and deepen exchanges between legislative bodies.
A NANG A photo book on the rich biodiversity of the Son Tra Nature Reserve in a Nang City titled Treasure has been released to promote the reserve's unique landscapes ranging from primary forest, a habitat for endangered primates like the red-shanked douc langur (Pygathrix nemaeus), to oceans and coastal ecosystems.

Hoang Son Tra, chairman of the Son Tra Ward Peoples Council [Assembly] said the 272-page book, which has 125 photos by professional and amateur photographers from Viet Nam and abroad, aims to introduce data on the reserve, considered a precious green gem of a Nang and the central region as a whole.

The book is a collection of the best photos depicting the landscapes and rhythm of the primary forest, the lives of endangered wildlife species and the important role of the reserve, Tra said.

He said the initiative to publish the book started in 2024, and the photos were selected from previous photography exhibitions and contests that featured the wildlife and landscapes of the reserve.

The photo book, which is published by the Su That (Truth) National Political Publishing House in both Vietnamese and English in cooperation with the Son Tra Ward Peoples Committee [Administration], will be kept as a source of information on the reserve and a contribution to the biodiversity conservation and protection database of a Nang.

The 4,400ha Son Tra Reserve, 10km from central a Nang City, is a unique biodiversity conservation site with more than 1,010 plant and 370 animal species.

The site is home to about 1,300 red-shanked douc langurs, which have been declared critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in 2013 and are nearly extinct, although currently more than 1,000 of the monkeys live in the reserve.

More than 10,000 tourists visit the site each month, and it has been designated by the tourism authority as a "must visit destination" in a Nang.

The city has approved a plan through 2030 for the protection of biodiversity in the Son Tra Nature Reserve. VNS
HA NOI  The animated feature Buffalo Kids (Bo Ba Suu Nhi ai Nao Mo Vang in Vietnamese) will hit Vietnamese theatres on September 12.

The film is developed from Strings (2024), a short that entered the Guinness World Records as the most awarded short film in history.

The production team unveiled the official poster and trailer on September 9, offering audiences a glimpse of a colourful, emotional adventure. The story follows orphans Tom and Mary siblings from Ireland, as they cross the ocean to New York in search of family. When their only relative fails to meet them, they join a group of orphans boarding a transcontinental train bound for California in hopes of finding their uncle Niall.

Along the way, the siblings meet Nick, an extraordinary friend, and together they journey across vibrant landscapes from bustling ports and sweeping prairies to arid deserts and secretive gold mines.

The trio faces treacherous adversaries at a mining camp, forcing Tom and Mary to rely on quick wit, resourcefulness, and teamwork to rescue themselves and others. The heart of the film lies in their quest for a true home.

Character designs are crafted to appeal to young viewers, with localised Vietnamese nicknames based on fruits, such as Thom (Pineapple - Tom), Dau Tay (Strawberry - Mary), Ca Chua (Tomato - Nail), and Quyt (Orange Nick). Rich visuals, dynamic pacing, and a lively, adventurous score aim to bring the historical setting to life with cinematic flair.

Beyond its surface as a treasure-hunt adventure, Buffalo Kids carries a deeper message rooted in real history and the personal life of Spanish director Pedro Solis Garcia.

The film draws inspiration from his acclaimed short Strings, a touching story about his daughters efforts to play with her brother, who was born with severe cerebral palsy.

Solis observed how she tied strings to his hands so he could move slightly and communicate through his eyes, which became the basis for the shorts protagonists and now, for Mary and Nick in the feature-length adaptation.

Producer Jordi Gasull emphasised that the real treasure in Buffalo Kids is not material wealth but the sense of belonging to a family, especially for children seeking love and acceptance despite differences.

With its combination of heartfelt storytelling, dazzling visuals, and universal themes of resilience, compassion, and family, Buffalo Kids is set to resonate with audiences of all ages when it opens in cinemas nationwide.  VNA/VNS
HA NOI Veteran painter Truong Ngoc Hien will mark her 80th birthday with the opening of her third solo exhibition, Pho va Hoa (Street and Flower), at the Ngo Quyen Exhibition House in Ha Noi.

The exhibition, running from September 11 to 20, will feature more than 50 artworks created in recent years. Rich in lyricism and infused with traditional Vietnamese aesthetics, the works  primarily rendered on silk and do (poonah) paper  reflect Hiens deep emotional connection to nature, her homeland and its people. Her subjects are drawn from everyday life and approached with a distinctly feminine sensibility: simple yet profound.

Living in Nghi Tam, near the Quang Ba flower market by West Lake, Hien finds endless inspiration in flowers. Over half of the works on display depict floral themes, including Hoa Thuy Tien (Daffodils), Noi Cua inh (At the Temple Gate), Vu ieu Thuy Lan (Dance of Water Hyacinth), Lan Tim (Purple Orchids) and Hoang Lan (Ylang-ylang).

Among them, Hoa Thuy Tien stands out as a symbolic still-life that celebrates the purity of the daffodil while evoking feelings of clarity, nobility and peaceful hope. In contrast, Pieu Flower  inspired by the decorative motifs on the traditional pieu scarf of the Thai ethnic group  exemplifies Hiens signature style: modest yet richly ornamental, blending national spirit with romantic inspiration.

Originally from Yen Phu, a village by West Lake, Hien expresses particular affection for her piece Thu Ha Noi (Autumn in Ha Noi). Depicting moss-covered rooftops in the old quarter from a balcony view, the painting evokes nostalgia for a timeless city where flowers and streets merge in a slow poetic rhythm.

Her love for the Vietnamese landscape is also evident in works inspired by places she has visited, such as Lang Chai Thanh Hoa (Thanh Hoa Fishing Village), Hoang Hon Cat Ba (Cat Ba Sunset) and Ban Thai (Thai Ethnic Hamlet).

Two historically themed pieces, Bo oi Cu Ho Ve Giai Phong Thu o (Uncle Hos Soldiers Liberate the Capital, oil on canvas) and Len uong Giai Phong Tay Bac (Marching to Liberate the Northwest, silk)  stand out as heartfelt tributes to the national struggle for freedom and peace.

Born in 1946, Hien began painting at age 12 under the guidance of her first teacher Pham Viet Song. She was admitted to the Viet Nam Intermediate School of Fine Arts in 1963, studying alongside notable female artists such as o Thi Ninh, ang Thi Khue and Le Kim My.

After graduating in 1966, she worked at the Animated Film Studio before dedicating 34 years to the Propaganda Department of the Ha Noi Information Office  a period marked by her commitment to art that served both the resistance and the broader sociopolitical landscape.

While working, she continued her education at the Ha Noi University of Fine Arts from 1975 to 1979, further refining her artistic practice.

Despite her professional obligations, Hien has always nurtured a personal artistic world.

Deep down, I only want to paint the things closest to me  streets, flowers and memories, she said.

Today, in her modest home in Nghi Tam, the 80-year-old artist continues to paint quietly, surrounded by watercolours and blooming flower pots. For her, each painting is a breath of life  a simple yet enduring joy.

Her exhibition Pho va Hoa opens to the public from September 11 to 20 at 16 Ngo Quyen Street, Hoan Kiem, Ha Noi. VNS
After more than two months in operation, Viet Nams two-tier local government model is beginning to reveal both its strengths and growing pains, as authorities adjust to the new administrative framework.

Chairman of the Vietnam Association for Administrative Sciences and former Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Tran Anh Tuan shares his views on the models early results, the difficulties localities are facing and the priorities for the future.

After the merger, many commune-level authorities say their staff are overstretched or not yet fully up to the job. For example, a 'one-stop shop' that once served one commune is now handling five. What can be done to fix this?

The first task for local leaders is to assess their workforce, deciding who should stay on and who should be subject to downsizing. Its important not to let people simply resign on their own, because that risks losing the most capable staff.

To know who is really effective, modern tools are needed such as 360-degree evaluations and performance indicators like KPIs and OKRs. These make the process fairer, more objective and more accurate.

In the long run, the Government should build a clear catalogue of job positions at commune and ward levels so that staffing can match the workload, management scope and functions of each unit.

Recruitment will still be necessary, but it must be tied to these positions. At the same time, training must be stepped up to build leadership, administrative skills and stronger public service delivery.

One good example is the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, which has trained more than 67,000 key commune-level officials across the country, both online and in person. That kind of effort is exactly whats needed.

And on the issue of 'one-stop shops,' the Government has already issued Decree 118, which allows provincial and commune-level administration centres to process requests without being tied to local boundaries.

Combined with the push for digital services, this creates much more flexibility. Of course, as we roll it out problems will appear, but that is how we learn to improve the model.

Infrastructure appears to be another challenge. Some localities lack adequate facilities, while others are cramped or scattered. Yet the merger has left many offices sitting idle. Isnt that a contradiction?

I do not see it as a contradiction. Every new model encounters problems at the beginning. Commune governments already had officessome from the old district level, others from communes themselves. Naturally, some of these dont meet todays needs in terms of space or condition.

When we cut the number of commune-level units from over 10,000 to just 3,321, surplus offices were inevitable. The real issue is how to use them properly. They can be reassigned, transferred, sold off or turned into schools, but they should not be left idle.

As for public administration centres, the key is digitalisation. If local government services are digitised, people will not always have to travel to offices. They can get things done from home, which is more convenient and reduces the strain on infrastructure.

What role should ministries and central agencies play in helping local governments overcome these difficulties?

They should come up with proposals for the Government or the relevant authorities, especially on dividing powers and decentralising decisionmaking. Localities need clear authority in socioeconomic development, finance, budgeting and staffing.

Beyond that, ministries and central agencies should also send experienced officials to help when localities ask for support.

Looking ahead, what should be the priorities to make the twotier model more effective?

The legal framework needs to be sharper. Commune governments must have clearly defined responsibilities, and overlaps with provincial departments need to be sorted out.

Just as important, local autonomy must be real. Localities must have the power to decide and the responsibility to deliver.

We also have to keep improving the workforce. That means retaining capable officials, bringing in new talent and handling redundancies fairly. Training and capacitybuilding should be ongoing.

Technology will play a huge role as well. Applying digital tools and even artificial intelligence to government operations can dramatically improve quality of service for citizens.

Finally, the idea of sending centrallevel officials to support localities is a good one, but only if its done based on what localities actually need and only if the people sent are truly up to the task. Otherwise, it does not help.  VNS
Huy Hai & Cong Mao

AN GIANG  Through the 80-year journey of the Vietnam News Agency (VNA), war correspondents in the south were more than just journalists  they were frontline witnesses whose quiet sacrifices shaped the agencys identity and contributed to the nations history.

On October 12, 1960, the Liberation Press Agency (LPA), now part of the VNA, was founded amidst the gunfire and chaos of southern Viet Nam as the official press unit of the National Liberation Front (NLF).

Emerging from the battlefield, the LPA became a vital voice of the revolution, broadcasting an 'uninterrupted radio wave' that relayed revolutionary directives, exposed enemy tactics and boosted morale among resistance fighters and civilians. Their efforts ensured that both local and international communities remained informed and inspired.

LPA reporters were not merely chroniclers of events but also fighters whose reports amplified the spirit of revolution, celebrated victories and heroes and rekindled the collective resolve to reclaim the nations independence.

On the ground and under fire, they wrote, filmed and photographed life on the front lines  from dense forests to liberated zones  never faltering, even under threat. They embodied courage, resilience and unwavering commitment to their mission, despite the immense personal risks.

During the pivotal Ho Chi Minh Campaign in April 1975, both LPA and VNA reporters were present across key hotspots in the southwestern region, capturing defining images and dispatches that documented the April 30 victory and national reunification.

Nguyen Thanh Ha, a former LPA telegraph operator and later director of Kien Giang Radio and Television, recalled the sheer difficulty of transmitting news from resistance zones to the Central Office for southern Viet Nam, reflecting on the indispensable but often overlooked role of war correspondents.

In 1973, Ha endured a gruelling three-month mission to transport a radio machine from the central office in Tay Ninh back to base, witnessing first-hand the injuries and sacrifices of fellow comrades along the journey.

The radio machine weighed dozens of kilogrammes on my shoulders. When going to the battlefield, I had to find a hiding spot, pull out the antenna, sit on the ground or hang a mosquito net and light an oil lamp to transmit news, he said.

It was Ha who transmitted the 7.30am news report on April 30, 1975 as liberation forces entered Rach Gia Town, marking the start of the victory that would reshape the countrys destiny.

In the 15 years since the agencys establishment, LPA reporters, via pen or weapon, braved dangers on the frontlines to deliver timely and accurate news, boosting the fighting spirit and bringing the just cause of Viet Nam to the world.

Between 1960 and 1975, the Kien Giang bureau (now the VNA bureau in An Giang Province) lost at least 16 reporters and staff.

Ngo Hoang Van, former LPA reporter and head of the Kien Giang bureau, recalled that despite the deadly attacks, the first thing they did once they managed to reach the base was to write and broadcast their reports, because they fully understood the urgency and importance of information on the battlefield, which could not be delayed.

Upholding legacy and duty

After 1975, following national reunification, VNA reporters continued to cover the border defence war in the southwest, leaving their mark in Viet Nams revolutionary journalism.

Armed with cameras, pens and courage, they reported on the Pol Pot genocidal regimes invasion along the border in late 1978, documenting the conflict and highlighting the victories of the Viet Nam Peoples Army (VPA).

Many VNA reporters closely followed VPA officers and soldiers during counteroffensive campaigns into Phnom Penh, coordinating with the National United Front of Cambodia to overthrow the genocidal regime.

They captured historic moments, scenes of suffering and the joy of liberation among the Cambodian people. Through their reports, VNA journalists highlighted the humanitarian and internationalist spirit of Vietnamese volunteers who helped Cambodia rebuild its society.

When the situation on the southwestern border became complicated, the working conditions of VNA reporters at that time were very difficult, said Vuong Thoai Trung, former head of the VNA bureau in An Giang Province with over 40 years at the agency.

Reporters then first wrote their articles on paper, then typed them on A4 sheets with a typewriter, which were submitted to the head of the branch office for approval.

After being approved, the news piece would be given to the telegraph operator to type and send to the general office for broadcast.

Each article usually took the telegraph operator nearly one hour to type and transmit via Morse code.

Trung also joined the provinces delegations to visit and encourage Vietnamese troops serving in Cambodia. Each trip, lasting nearly 20 days, involved significant hardships and dangers, but the VNA reporter remained proud of his mission.

Grow with the nation

In 1976, the LPA and the Viet Nam Thong tan xa (VNTTX, established in 1945) officially merged to form the VNA.

From the first reports after Viet Nam gained independence in 1945 to todays multimedia news reaching the globe, VNA reporters continue the agencys 80-year tradition with responsibility, creativity and a dedication to serving the nation.

In these eight decades, the agency counted hundreds of martyrs and journalists who laid down their lives while on mission.

With a history intertwined with the nation, they were soldiers on the intellectual front, contributing to protecting the country and now promoting Viet Nams image to the world.

After 1975, the VNA continued to expand during the oi moi (Renewal) and international integration process and kept pace with global media trends by innovating technology.

Now, in the southwestern region, VNA reporters not only document history but also immerse themselves in the lives and stories of the people.

VNA reporters in the Mekong Delta brave harsh conditions in the region, where they face natural disasters and climate change impacts such as floods, salinity and forest fires, to deliver news that informs the public and supports relief efforts there.

They continuously learn and innovate to meet the growing demands of the public while upholding the ethical standards of revolutionary journalism.

Today, they represent a vital part of the VNA, constantly innovating and contributing to the nation's development and protection by ensuring the continuous flow of official news.  VNS
HA NOI  The selection and development of priority technological products from Viet Nam must be grounded in the ability to master core technologies  in other words, they must be patentable.

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Chi Dung made the statement in Ha Noi on Tuesday morning as he chaired a meeting with ministries and agencies to identify strategic technology products that should be manufactured immediately to help boost the domestic tech sector.

He also said that many ministries and sectors already have hands-on research and practical experience, which should be harnessed to create products with the capacity to compete both domestically and internationally.

The goods must not only be ready for production, but also capable of evolving in line with global technological progress to gain support from the Ministry of Science and Technology, he said.

Our objective is to catch up, keep pace and eventually surpass competition in order to seize opportunities. That is the essence of our strategy, he said.

Dung added that opinions still differ over the list of strategic technology products, and consensus among agencies is essential before submitting recommendations to the Government.

The Deputy PM highlighted that the readiness of businesses to participate as well as the products' potential for commercialisation will be decisive factors in the selection process.

He then assigned the Ministry of Science and Technology to work with other relevant ministries to identify the products most vital to their sectors, assess their potential impact on value creation and then make recommendations.

On that basis, the ministry would place orders with research units to deliver what the market requires, ensuring products are both efficient and economically beneficial.

At the meeting, Dung also emphasised the importance of applying science and technology in agriculture, one of Viet Nams traditional strengths, which remains hampered by natural disasters, epidemics and low value-added products.

In the future, we must aim to produce less with fewer resources, less land, less labour and less investment, yet sell agricultural products in greater volumes and at higher value, he said.

To achieve this, the focus must be on science and technology.

However, the Deputy PM warned that technological development must be directed at solving real problems, creating tangible impacts for specific sectors and ensuring sustainability in economic growth.

There must be clear, rapid results to demonstrate the impact of science and technology on daily life. Budget, mechanisms and resources must be prioritised to accelerate breakthroughs, he added.

Six shortlisted technologies

A report from the science and technology ministry said that Prime Ministers Decision 1131/Q-TTg, dated June 12, identified 11 technology groups and 35 strategic product groups.

From this framework, the ministry drew up a shortlist of six products for consideration, with one to three prioritised for immediate rollout.

The six include large language models and Vietnamese virtual assistants, 5G mobile network systems and devices, edge-processing AI cameras, blockchain platforms for traceability and digital assets, autonomous mobile robots and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Three of them  large language models and Vietnamese virtual assistants, 5G systems and devices and edge-processing AI cameras  have been earmarked for priority implementation this year.

Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Bui The Duy said the process of narrowing products down to three was not merely about achieving specific research results, but represented a strategic approach to test, learn and spread the spirit of mastering core technologies.

He said that selection principles must ensure urgency, a high potential for success, a broad impact, the readiness of enterprises to participate, immediate relevance to socio-economic development and the potential for commercialisation in 2025.

Criteria include addressing Viet Nams major development challenges, such as achieving double-digit national growth, improving labour productivity, supporting two-tier local government administration, safeguarding national defence and security, ensuring social welfare and strengthening competitiveness.

Products must also demonstrate the potential to replace imports, open export opportunities, access sizeable markets and guarantee high levels of value.

Broad-based support

Senior Lieutenant General Le Huy Vinh, Deputy Minister of National Defence, said that many Vietnamese production units have already pioneered technology products, though they are mostly limited to the domestic market.

Unmanned systems have already been developed and deployed, while Viettel has successfully built 5G networks.

He called for development of 6G platforms, describing them as highly feasible.

The more technology products we develop, the better, to meet market demand and drive the economy, he said.

A representative from the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment underscored the urgent need for AI in agricultural production.

Given Europes increasingly stringent quality standards for agricultural imports, blockchain-based traceability platforms could be essential to enhance the value of Vietnamese produce.

Echoing this idea, a representative of the Ministry of Public Security stressed the importance of blockchain traceability alongside the development of large language models and Vietnamese virtual assistants.

Experts have also called for accelerated domestic production and deployment of edge-processing AI cameras to reduce reliance on foreign-made products.  VNS
HA NOI  The Viet Nam Red Cross Society announced that by 4pm on Monday, its fundraising campaign themed 65 Years of Viet Nam  Cuba Solidarity had mobilised VN421.5 billion (nearly US$16 million) in donations, surpassing the initial target by 6.4 times.

The 65-day programme, running from August 13 to October 16, originally aimed to raise at least VN65 billion to help Cuban people overcome current hardships.

Nguyen Hai Anh, Vice President and Secretary-General of the Viet Nam Red Cross Society, said the organisations account at the Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank has so far received nearly VN407 billion from over 2 million donations. Local Red Cross chapters nationwide recorded an additional VN13.4 billion.

The programme was included in the joint statement issued during the recent visit to Viet Nam by Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee and President of Cuba, who also came to attend the celebrations of Viet Nams 80th National Day and the 65th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties.

Anh noted that the campaign has received strong support and guidance from the Politburo, the Party Central Committee's Secretariat, leaders of the Party, State and Viet Nam Fatherland Front, as well as close coordination from ministries, sectors, socio-political organisations, and local authorities. Many ministries and agencies have actively responded such as the Ministry of National Defence, the Vietnam News Agency, and the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, mobilising contributions from officials, public employees, students, and workers.

Several organisations launched creative activities, including a songwriting contest on the Viet Nam  Cuba friendship. On social networks, groups came up with unique initiatives to raise funds while individuals and communities across the country donated enthusiastically.

The campaign has also grabbed attention from both domestic and foreign media, with coverage by outlets such as the New York Times, Prensa Latina, Granma, Cubadebate, and other Cuban newspapers. The Cuban Embassy in Ha Noi and Consulate General in HCM City have regularly updated the results on their official portals.

Anh said that this is the first time an international fundraising campaign of the Viet Nam Red Cross Society has attracted millions of donations and hundreds of billions of Vietnamese dong in such a short time. He affirmed that the organisation will continue to ensure transparency in receiving, managing, and using the funds, with updates provided regularly on its communication platforms.  VNA/VNS
BERLIN  The Vietnamese Embassy in Germany held a ceremony in Berlin on September 9 to celebrate Viet Nam's 80th National Day (September 2, 19452025) and the 50th anniversary of the two countries diplomatic relations (September 23, 19752025).

The event was attended by over 200 guests, including Vice President of the German Bundestag Bodo Ramelow, Director General for Asia and the Pacific at the Federal Foreign Office Frank Hartmann, ambassadors and charge daffaires from various countries in Berlin, members of the diplomatic corps, and numerous representatives of Vietnamese associations from across Germany.

Addressing the event, Frank Hartmann emphasised that 80 years of Viet Nam's independence represent 80 years of courage, perseverance, and the ability to continuously innovate itself. Likewise, 50 years of Viet NamGermany relations signify 50 years of dialogue, mutual respect, and trust.

He highlighted the all-round connections between the countries, from economic partnerships, educational cooperation, and twin cities, to the Vietnamese community in Germany who have both greatly integrated into the local society and maintained their bonds with the homeland.

The official also spoke about the next chapter in bilateral relations, which is to elevate the Strategic Partnership between the two countries to a new height.

Vietnamese Ambassador Nguyen ac Thanh said that over the past 50 years, the bilateral friendship and cooperation have developed strongly and comprehensively. In 2011, the two countries signed the Ha Noi Declaration on the establishment of the Viet NamGermany Strategic Partnership for the Future.

Germany is currently Viet Nam's leading trading partner in the European Union and the 12th largest globally, as well as Viet Nam's fourth-largest European investor. The two sides are actively promoting cooperation in labour and vocational training to meet the high demand for skilled human resources in German enterprises and localities.

He added that cultural, artistic, and culinary activities organised by the Vietnamese community here not only serve to promote the image of Vietnam and its unique cultural identity, but also contribute to the vibrant and diverse cultural landscape of many localities across Germany, particularly in the capital city of Berlin.

Thanh took this occasion to call on the German Government, relevant ministries, and the authorities of Berlin to continue their support and create favourable conditions for the Vietnamese community to achieve deeper and more successful integration, actively contribute to the German society, and serve as an important bridge of friendship and cooperation between the two nations.

He expressed his confidence that the Viet NamGermany Strategic Partnership for the Future will continue to grow, contributing to peace, prosperity, sustainable development, and innovation.

For his part, Vice President of the German Bundestag Bodo Ramelow noted that although Germany and Viet Nam have many differences, their histories share surprising and complex similarities. Both countries used to experience division and subsequent reunification. They also share a common approach to development governance, which is to create internal peace and stability as a foundation for outward growth. Cooperation projects demonstrate their joint commitment to working hand in hand, moving forward together, and achieving many positive outcomes, he added.  VNA/VNS
HA NOI  State President Luong Cuong and his wife hosted a welcome ceremony in Ha Noi on Wednesday for Governor-General of Australia Sam Mostyn and her spouse, who are on a state visit to Viet Nam from September 9 to 12.

Crowds of Ha Noi children waved the national flags of both countries to welcome Governor-General Sam Mostyn, her spouse, and the high-ranking delegation of Australia.

Amid ceremonial music, the two leaders walked to an honour platform as the national anthems of Viet Nam and Australia were played by the Vietnamese military band. They later reviewed the guards of honour of the Viet Nam Peoples Army.

Following the welcome ceremony, the two sides held talks to review recent cooperation outcomes and set directions for future collaboration.

Viet Nam and Australia officially established diplomatic relations on February 26, 1973. Since then, they have built a strong and enduring relationship with diverse and expanding interests. Viet Nam is now regarded as one of Australias most important bilateral partners.

The two countries have seen their cooperation grow stronger in recent years, especially since the establishment of a comprehensive strategic partnership in March 2024. They have pledged to further advancing their relationship across all fields, grounded in respect for international law, sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, and political systems of each other.

In October 2024, the two countries signed an action plan to implement their comprehensive strategic partnership for 20242027, with 96 per cent of its 180 action lines already completed or on track.

The two countries currently enjoy thriving trade and economic ties. Australia is Viet Nams seventh largest trading partner while Viet Nam ranks as Australias tenth. Bilateral trade reached US$14.1 billion in 2024, and $7.9 billion in the first seven months of 2025.

Cooperation in security, defence, education-training, labour, and agriculture has also achieved fruitful outcomes and holds great potential for stronger development.

The Vietnamese community in Australia numbers around 375,000, making it the fifth-largest ethnic group of foreign origin in the country, and serving as an important bridge in strengthening the friendship between the two nations.

Looking ahead, Viet Nam and Australia still boast substantial untapped potential for cooperation, particularly in areas matching Viet Nam's priorities and Australia's strengths such as high technology, innovation, clean energy, mining, infrastructure, telecommunications, services, tourism, and hi-tech agriculture.

Building on the strong foundation of bilateral ties, the state visit to Viet Nam by the Australian Governor-General holds great significance, reaffirming both countries determination to strengthen friendship and all-around cooperation, especially political cooperation.  VNA/VNS
HA NOI  The General Department of Defence Industry was told to focus on upgrading and enhancing the performance of its weapons, equipment and technical systems, while also pursuing research and development of next-generation armaments on par with global standards.

The directive was issued on Wednesday by Senior Lieutenant General Le Huy Vinh, member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Minister of National Defence and Standing Deputy Head of Steering Committee 3488.

Vinh said that the general department should prioritise the manufacture of complete, integrated products rather than focusing solely on isolated technological components.

According to Vinh, each final product should combine multiple technologies. For example, if 10 technologies are integrated, the department must be able to master at least five, while cooperating with partners to gradually master the remainder.

He also highlighted the importance of a comprehensive workforce development strategy, covering both incentives and training.

The general department needs to secure skilled workers early on, by identifying capable students from universities inside and outside the military and offering training from their second or third year.

Meanwhile, the department must also clearly define its core fields of strength to concentrate investment and development.

Reporting on recent progress, Lieutenant General Ho Quang Tuan, head of the general department, said that its Party Committee had thoroughly disseminated and implemented Resolution 57-NQ/TW, Resolution 3488-NQ/QUTW and related instructions from the ministry across its agencies and units.

As a result, awareness has been raised regarding the crucial role of science, technology, innovation and digital transformation, while advisory, management and implementation processes have seen marked improvements.

Scientific and technological activities have been strengthened, with eight new urgent and large-scale programmes and projects launched to support the research and production of strategically significant military equipment.

Four key programmes and independent projects have been effectively implemented, meeting both deadlines and quality requirements.

Notably, the department successfully developed three types of equipment in time for use during military parades for the 80th anniversary of the August Revolution and National Day on September 2.

The Party Committee of the general department has proposed that the ministry approve several pressing science and technology programmes to quickly deliver products into service.

It also recommended greater decentralisation of authority for scientific research tasks within the military, and the establishment of a science and technology ecosystem within the general department.

The ministry was urged to continue supporting the general department in implementing leadership directives and in driving breakthroughs in science, technology, innovation and digital transformation in the years ahead. VNS
On September 3, 2025, Vice President Han Zheng met in Beijing with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who is in China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit 2025 and the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.

Han Zheng stated that President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a fruitful meeting and announced the establishment of a strategic partnership between China and Armenia, opening a new chapter in the development of bilateral relations and injecting new impetus into bilateral cooperation. China is ready to make joint efforts with Armenia to implement the important common understandings reached by the leaders of the two countries, comprehensively advance cooperation in various fields, and continuously bring bilateral relations to new heights. President Xi Jinping proposed the Global Governance Initiative, which strongly responds to the concerns of the international community. China is ready to jointly practice this initiative with Armenia.

Nikol Pashinyan extended congratulations on the complete success of the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. He said that Armenia appreciates and supports the Global Governance Initiative, and is willing to take the establishment of a strategic partnership as an opportunity to strengthen practical cooperation with China to better benefit the two peoples.
HA NOI  General Secretary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam Central Committee To Lam reaffirmed Viet Nams consistent policy of treasuring its friendship and Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with Australia, stressing that Australia is a trusted partner of Viet Nam, while hosting a reception in Ha Noi on Wednesday for Australian Governor-General Sam Mostyn.

The Party chief expressed his delight at the robust, practical, and effective growth of bilateral ties, with both countries becoming key partners in politics, economy, and science and technology.

He noted that Viet Nam is entering a new stage of development  an era of prosperity, development and strength for the nation. To achieve its two centenary goals, the Party and State of Viet Nam have recently set forth many important policies. In this context, Viet Nam welcomes Australias support and cooperation in implementing these key policies.

The Party chief voiced his belief that with strong political determination of both sides, the Viet Nam  Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership will grow even more strongly in the near future.

General Secretary Lam congratulated Australia on its achievements in various fields, particularly science and technology, cultural diversity, and climate change response, expressing his belief that Australia will continue to affirm its position and make active contributions to peace, stability, cooperation, and development in the region and the world.

Governor-General Mostyn, who is on a state visit to Viet Nam, expressed her admiration for Viet Nams people, history, and rich cultural traditions, as well as the optimism and resilience of the Vietnamese people in national construction.

She congratulated Viet Nam on its important achievements in recent years and emphasised that Viet Nam is one of Australias most reliable partners, expressing her hope that the two sides will continue to strengthen coordination across all fields towards a peaceful, stable, and prosperous region.

The two leaders expressed their satisfaction with the strong people-to-people ties between the two countries. The Vietnamese community in Australia is growing and making positive contributions to Australias development as well as bilateral relations, while, in return, although smaller in size, the Australian community in Viet Nam plays an important role in fostering economic, scientific, and educational exchanges.

Building on the expanding educational cooperation, General Secretary Lam proposed further strengthening collaboration in human resources and workforce development, particularly in high-skilled labour, as well as exchanges of experts and scientists.

The Party leader also suggested expanding cooperation in science and technology, including talent exchanges, to create opportunities for young scientists and entrepreneurs from both countries to engage in pioneering fields. He noted that this area holds great potential, given Australias strengths in scientific research and Viet Nams determination to pursue growth driven by science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation.

On climate change, the two leaders agreed that it is a shared challenge for both countries and the world. General Secretary Lam appreciated Australias support for Viet Nam in this field and called for further cooperation towards green and sustainable development.  VNA/VNS
HA NOI  Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs ang Hoang Giang has underscored Viet Nams commitment to closely coordinating with ASEAN Chair 2025 Malaysia, fellow member states and partners to ensure the success of the 47th ASEAN Summit and related meetings slated for October.

Deputy FM Giang, head of Viet Nam's ASEAN SOM, made the statement at the Senior Officials Meetings (SOM) of ASEAN, ASEAN+3 and the East Asia Summit (EAS) that took place on September 910 in Port Dickson, Malaysia.

He emphasised the importance of maintaining ASEAN's unity, centrality and leadership in addressing both traditional and non-traditional security challenges, strengthening institutional capacity, and fostering synergy between ASEAN-led mechanisms to build a comprehensive and effective cooperation network serving the interests of the people.

He reaffirmed Viet Nams readiness to support Timor-Leste in building capacity to soon fulfil its membership obligations, drawing on Viet Nams 30-year membership.

The deputy FM also proposed measures to strengthen intra-bloc and ASEAN-partner cooperation, particularly in economic integration, connectivity, science and technology, digital transformation, and energy transition.

As Viet Nam performs the role of country coordinator for ASEANNew Zealand and ASEANUK relations, deputy FM Giang suggested measures to advance cooperation with both partners, including drafting orientation documents and identifying priority areas of collaboration.

On regional and global issues, Giang reaffirmed Viet Nams consistent support for dialogue, cooperation and peaceful settlement of disputes in accordance with international law, especially the 1928 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982), with the ultimate aim of maintaining peace, security and stability to foster development.

At the events, senior officials from the ten ASEAN member states, along with representatives from Timor-Leste and dialogue partners such as China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United States, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Russia, thoroughly reviewed the agenda and examined more than 80 draft documents to be submitted to the leaders.

Under ASEAN 2025's theme of "Inclusivity and Sustainability," leaders are expected to participate in nearly 40 activities covering strategic issues from politics and security to economic cooperation, connectivity, culture, digital transformation, energy and food security, education and innovation  with the shared goal of building an inclusive, sustainable and people-centred ASEAN.

The SOM discussed Timor-Lestes admission as ASEANs 11th member in October and considered requests by new partners to join the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC).

Amid global challenges, members stressed stronger ASEAN resilience, closer coordination between its political-security and economic pillars, and synergy between ASEAN Vision 2045 and the UN 2030 Agenda.

With partners, ASEAN reiterated its central role in shaping regional cooperation, particularly in digital transformation, the green economy and energy transition.

At the ASEAN+3 SOM, China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea proposed initiatives in economic, financial, energy and food security, alongside projects on disaster management, transnational crime, womens empowerment, child protection and climate adaptation.

At the EAS SOM, participants reaffirmed the forums 20-year role in addressing regional political and security issues, emphasising dialogue, trust-building, international law, and a rules-based regional order with ASEAN at its core. Views were also exchanged on the East Sea, Myanmar and the Middle East, reaffirming peaceful settlement of disputes in line with international law, the UN Charter, and UNCLOS 1982, as well as the principles of the TAC.

On the sidelines of the meetings, deputy FM Giang also held bilateral discussions with ASEAN SOM heads and partner representatives to discuss bilateral cooperation and enhance coordination at multilateral forums.  VNA/VNS
HA NOI  State President Luong Cuong and his spouse hosted a state banquet in Ha Noi on Wednesday evening in honour of Australian Governor-General Sam Mostyn, her spouse and a high-level Australian delegation, who are on a four-day state visit to Viet Nam.

In his welcome remarks, President Cuong underlined that despite geographical distance, Viet Nam and Australia share many similarities, including strategic interests and perspectives on regional and international issues. Both countries aspire to build a peaceful, stable and prosperous AsiaPacific region, he noted.

The President said that bilateral ties, despite historical ups and downs, are now experiencing their most flourishing period in more than half a century since the establishment of diplomatic relations.

For Viet Nam, Australia has long been a trusted partner and companion on its path of development and international integration. Iconic projects such as My Thuan and Cao Lanh bridges are enduring symbols of the friendship between the two nations, he said.

The Vietnamese State leader highlighted the Vietnamese community of over 350,000 people in Australia, describing it as an integral part of the countrys multicultural great family of more than 300 ethnic groups.

This community has made valuable contributions to both Australias socio-economic development and the Viet NamAustralia relationship, he said.

Expressing his pride in the past journey of the bilateral relations, President Cuong welcomed Governor-General Mostyn as the first high-ranking Australian leader to visit Viet Nam since the bilateral relationship was elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2024.

He voiced his confidence that with the successes already recorded and outcomes of this visit, the ties between Viet Nam and Australia will continue to grow to new heights, delivering practical benefits to both nations' people and contributing positively to regional and global peace, stability and development.

For her part, Governor-General Mostyn expressed her appreciation for the warm hospitality extended by the Vietnamese leaders and people. She also congratulated Viet Nam on the 80th anniversary of its National Day and the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the South.

Recalling her first visit to Viet Nam more than three decades ago, the Australian Governor-General expressed her admiration for the countrys progress and affirmed that Viet Nam is now central to Australias link with stability, prosperity and security in the region.

On the foundation of mutual understanding and strategic trust, and through regional cooperation, including with ASEAN, she stressed that Australia will remain a steadfast and reliable partner in Viet Nams journey towards becoming a high-income nation by 2045.

Governor-General Mostyn noted that the elevation of Australia-Viet Nam ties to the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in March 2024 marked a historic milestone, reflecting both nations deep mutual trust and shared ambitions.

Bilateral trade has been growing steadily, while cooperation is expanding in areas such as climate action, with both sides committed to achieving net-zero emissions and sustainable economic growth, she stressed.

Education is also a central pillar of bilateral cooperation, the Governor-General said, describing it as a reliable pathway to a better future and one of many areas where Australia and Viet Nam are working hand in hand to build brighter prospects for both nations.  VNA/VNS
HA NOI  National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man met with Australian Governor-General Sam Mostyn in Ha Noi on Wednesday, during which he proposed Australia continue to accompany and support Viet Nam in its new development stage, and expand cooperation in priority areas such as green economy, digital economy, science and technology, innovation, and renewable energy.

The NA Chairman called on Australia to increase its aid budget, expand government scholarship programmes for Vietnamese students, and provide training and capacity building for Vietnamese officials and public servants.

The top legislator suggested enhancing people-to-people exchanges and expanding cooperation in tourism, labour, education and training, and culture. In particular, he urged Australia to expand the grant of visas for Vietnamese citizens studying, working, and living in Australia, who contribute to the host countrys development and serve as a bridge for the bilateral ties.

Regarding parliamentary cooperation, Chairman Man called for enhanced delegation exchanges, high-level contacts, and closer collaboration between the two legislatures.

He emphasised strengthening ties between committees of the two parliaments, friendship groups, women and young parliamentarians, not only on legislation and institutions but also in monitoring the implementation of bilateral agreements and addressing global issues such as digital transformation, green growth, and climate change.

The two sides should also continue to support each other at multilateral parliamentary forums such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF), he said.

The NA Chairman stressed that Governor-General Mostyns visit marks an important milestone that will add momentum to the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two countries, helping it grow intensively and more substantively.

On behalf of the NA and people of Viet Nam, he congratulated Australia on successfully holding its 48th parliamentary election and extended greetings to the re-elected Speakers of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Chairman Man applauded Australias achievements in national development, social welfare, and implementation of international commitments, particularly its new policies on minimum wage increases (3.5 per cent), support for citizens living costs, and student debt relief.

He reaffirmed Viet Nams consistent policy of treasuring and promoting its friendship and Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with Australia, appreciating bilateral cooperation achievements, especially in legislative cooperation.

He urged both sides to continue strengthening political trust by increasing delegation exchanges and high-level contacts, particularly between the two parliaments, while maintaining the effective content of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

The NA Chairman welcomed the positive growth in two-way trade, which reached US$14 billion in 2024, and expressed his belief that the two sides will soon realise their target of $20 billion in trade and doubling two-way investment within the next two to three years.

For her part, Governor-General Mostyn affirmed that Australia continues to be a reliable partner of Viet Nam, highlighting that the elevation of bilateral relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership reflects strong political trust between the two nations. She underscored Australias commitment to further strengthen cooperation with Viet Nam, including legislative ties.

The Governor-General acknowledged the significant contributions of the Vietnamese community to Australias socio-economic development and bilateral ties.

She highlighted Australias ongoing support for Viet Nam in human resource training and development, continued provision of ODA (official development assistance), and financial and technical assistance to help Viet Nam achieve its growth objectives.

She also welcomed the effective collaboration in education and training, noting that Australia has offered over 70 scholarship programmes to Vietnamese students.

Governor-General Mostyn emphasised advancing trade and investment cooperation, promoting gender equality, particularly womens empowerment, and strengthening joint efforts on climate change, with a focus on the Mekong Delta region.  VNA/VNS
HA NOI  Australia remains a trusted partner of Viet Nam and is ready to support the Southeast Asian country in its goal of becoming a high-income country by 2045, said Australian Governor-General Sam Mostyn during official talks with State President Luong Cuong in Ha Noi on Wednesday.

During the meeting, the Vietnamese and Australian leaders also discussed maintaining cooperation across all levels to enhance political trust and mutual understanding, thereby boosting bilateral ties in multiple aspects.

Commending Viet Nams remarkable and rapid progress, Mostyn congratulated the Southeast Asian countrys outstanding achievements, particularly in sustaining high GDP (gross domestic product) growth and socio-economic development.

Both the Vietnamese and Australian leaders agreed that the upgrading of bilateral ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in March 2024 was a milestone that reflected the strategic trust and strong determination of both nations to further advance their ties in the new era.

Ministries and agencies of the two countries are also carrying out the 2024-2027 action programme in accordance with the new level of the partnership, especially through regular consultation and dialogue mechanisms.

Viet Nam and Australia are important trading partners, with two-way trade exceeding US$14 billion in 2024.

In addition to facilitating the trade environment for Australian businesses, Viet Nam also serves as a bridge for Australia to strengthen connections with Southeast Asia, contributing to the ASEANAustralia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and substantive cooperation between Australia and the Mekong subregion.

Tourism cooperation has also seen steady growth, with 56 weekly round-trip flights currently operating between the two countries.

President Cuong and Governor-General Mostyn agreed that defence and security cooperation is an important pillar of bilateral ties and agreed to enhance practical cooperation in this field.

Australia will continue to support Viet Nam in officer training and participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations, particularly in transporting field hospitals to Viet Nams missions in South Sudan.

Regarding educational cooperation, President Cuong highlighted Australias effective support through multiple initiatives such as the Human Resources Development Programme (Aus4Skills), the Viet NamAustralia Centre at the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics as well as other training in leadership, gender equality, effective public governance and human rights education in Viet Nam.

The President proposed that Australia continue to support Viet Nam in training high-level leaders at both central and local levels, particularly in teacher training.

He also suggested linking educational programmes between the two countries, promoting cooperation and the exchange of experiences among training institutions and enhancing collaboration between leading research institutions and universities.

Governor-General Mostyn also praised people-to-people exchanges as a solid foundation for progress in bilateral relations.

The two leaders agreed to intensify measures to boost economic cooperation, aiming to raise two-way trade to US$20 billion and double bilateral investment in the near future while improving market access for each countrys strong products.

Viet Nam looks forward to greater investment flows from Australian enterprises, in line with Australias regional economic connectivity initiatives, including the Southeast Asia Economic Strategy towards 2040.

Both sides also agreed to encourage joint research projects between institutions and scientists from both countries, especially in strategic technologies such as artificial intelligence, new materials and biomedical technology.

They will also maintain strong coordination at international and regional forums, particularly the UN, ASEAN-led mechanisms, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and the Mekong subregional cooperation.

Australia continues to support Viet Nam and ASEANs principled stance on ensuring security, safety and freedom of navigation and overflight in the East Sea (internationally known as the South China Sea) and on resolving disputes through peaceful means in accordance with international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

On the same day, the Australian leader also met with Party General Secretary To Lam, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man.  VNS
HA NOI  Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh had a meeting in Ha Noi on Wednesday with Australian Governor-General Sam Mostyn who underlined that Australia wants to be a sincere and reliable partner of Viet Nam.

Welcoming the Governor-General on her first state visit to Viet Nam, PM Chinh said the trip will inject new momentum, vigour and determination into bilateral relations, helping to advance cooperation in a deeper, more substantive and effective manner in multiple fields. It also reflects both countries' strong commitment to building a peaceful, stable, inclusive and prosperous region, he added.

The Vietnamese PM recalled his official visit to Australia in March 2024, during which the two countries elevated their ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership  a historic milestone opening a new chapter in the bilateral relationship.

He expressed his appreciation for the warm, sincere and trusting reception extended by the Australian Government and people to himself and the Vietnamese high-level delegation, and extended greetings to Australian PM Anthony Albanese  a reliable partner and close friend of the Government and people of Viet Nam.

PM Chinh affirmed that Viet Nam attaches great importance to its friendship and Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with Australia.

He noted that the bilateral relations have grown far beyond expectations since the establishment of diplomatic ties, with Australia offering valuable support, particularly in personnel training, official development assistance across various sectors, COVID-19 vaccine supply, and the provision of aircraft to transport Viet Nams field hospital staff to the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan.

For her part, Governor-General Mostyn expressed her delight at visiting Viet Nam shortly after the countrys celebration of the 80th anniversary of National Day (September 2). She showed her warm sentiments towards the Vietnamese people and praised Viet Nams socio-economic achievements and improvements in living standards.

She also highlighted that PM Chinhs visit to Australia in March 2024 and the upgrade of relations to the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership marked a historic turning point, reflecting the strategic trust, depth of the bilateral ties and the shared vision for the future of the relationship between the two countries.

Both sides consented to further strengthen political cooperation by promoting exchanges and contacts at all levels, across all Party, State, National Assembly and people-to-people channels; continue the effective implementation of the 202427 action programme for the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership; and maintain the efficiency of existing bilateral cooperation mechanisms.

They also agreed to continue reinforcing the increasingly reliable and strategic pillar of defence-security cooperation, while further promoting collaboration in economy, trade and investment, development cooperation, education and training, science and technology, as well as cultural and people-to-people exchanges.

PM Chinh proposed that both sides work towards the target of raising bilateral trade to US$20 billion and doubling two-way investment within the next two to three years. He also called for expanded cooperation and investment in potential sectors such as minerals, critical minerals, rare earths, and renewable energy.

The Government leader further suggested that Australia assist Viet Nam in developing its national population database and national data centre, provide training to improve the capacity of Vietnamese officials and public servants, and continue encouraging Australian universities such as RMIT University to expand their campuses in Viet Nam. He also requested Australias continued support for the community of over 300,000 Vietnamese living in the country.

Governor-General Mostyn reaffirmed Australias commitment to further advancing bilateral relations and highlighted her countrys interest in expanding investment opportunities in Viet Nam through investment promotion offices established in Ha Noi and HCM City.

She also agreed to strengthen cooperation on cybersecurity and expressed support for Viet Nam as the host of the signing ceremony of UN Convention against cybercrime in October this year.

The Governor-General of Australia expressed her desire to deepen defence ties between the two countries to contribute to peacekeeping.

She stressed that Viet Nam is one of Australias most important partners in maintaining peace and stability in the region. She voiced support for continued cooperation in upholding ASEANs centrality, implementing the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific, and pledged assistance for Viet Nam in hosting the ASEAN Future Forum, as well as in fostering cooperation to address transboundary challenges, Mekong sub-regional collaboration, and climate change response in the Mekong Delta.  VNA/VNS
TAY NINH  A total of 79 Vietnamese citizens including 66 men and 13 women from 22 provinces and cities have been handed over by Cambodian authorities to Viet Nam, the Tay Ninh Provincial Police announced on Wednesday.

Most of the citizens were residing and working illegally, violating the law in Cambodia and had been detained in raids.

Specifically, at 11.30am on Tuesday, at the Moc Bai International Border Gate, Ben Cau Commune, the authorities conducted reception procedures for the citizens returned by Cambodia, while simultaneously investigating and verifying their cases.

The results showed that 22 people had legally exited Viet Nam using passports through border gates with legitimate travel journeys, while 57 others had crossed the border illegally.

Among these, authorities discovered one individual is under an exit ban by the Binh Tan District (former) Enforcement Sub-department in HCM City.

The citizens admitted they voluntarily went to Cambodias cities such as Phnom Penh and Bavet to work as waiters, karaoke club attendants, interpreters, assistants in restaurants and eateries owned by Chinese nationals.

Some went to Cambodia to work as salespersons in fake shipper games, app scams and stock investment for fraudulent companies.

Vietnamese authorities completed entry procedures for 22 citizens, including 14 passport holders and eight with legal travel documents.

For the 57 people that had illegally exited Viet Nam, the Moc Bai Border Guard Station issued administrative penalty decisions for 55 ones, with a total fine of VN206 million (US$7,800).

Specifically, 54 people were fined for crossing the national border without completing exit procedures according to the law, one was fined for border residents crossing at places not designated for border residents, one was not fined due to expiration of the penalty period; and one is under investigation for suspected criminal acts related to immigration.

By 8pm on Tuesday, the Tay Ninh Criminal Police Division, in coordination with the Moc Bai Border Guard Station, handed over 78 citizens to the police of 22 provinces and cities for reception and return to their localities for further verification and handling in accordance with the law.  VNS
Danang will serve as a testing ground for emerging financial technologies, Photo: Hoang Thuy

September 1 marked the kick-off date for establishing an international financial centre (IFC) in Vietnam legally, creating a critical framework for the development of the countrys IFC while also underscoring the urgent need for concrete, swift, and effective actions from the designated localities entrusted with this mission.

The move sets forth a one centre, two destinations model for IFC development, with Ho Chi Minh City positioned as the primary large-scale hub and Danang assigned a specialised role designed to complement rather than duplicate or directly compete with each other.

Under this, Ho Chi Minh City will focus on attracting deep capital flows, including equities, bonds, investment banking services, and asset management funds, whereas Danang will cultivate niche markets leveraging advantages in seaports, airports, the East-West economic corridor, and coastal industries.

From August 28 to 30, the Danang Finance and Tech Week 2025 took place, co-organised by Danang Peoples Committee and the Central Policy and Strategy Commission.

At the event, Dr. Jochen Biedermann, managing director of the World Alliance of International Financial Centres (WAIFC), said that alongside a coordinated approach and close collaboration between Danang and Ho Chi Minh City, it is essential to maintain healthy competition between the two cities.

Vietnam has every opportunity to develop multiple IFCs in parallel, he said. Global experience shows that countries such as China, the US, the UAE, Japan, and Australia have successfully built specialised IFCs, with medium-sized and smaller cities often serving as sources of innovation, cost efficiency, and flexible working environments.

According to Biedermann, Vietnam needs capital inflows to finance growth, but developing domestic capabilities is the decisive factor in building a sustainable financial ecosystem.

Chinas experience illustrates this point: while foreign capital initially flowed through Hong Kong, the true driving force of its financial system came from domestic institutions such as Tencent, Ant, and the domestic banking network, which helped expand inclusive finance to rural areas, Biedermann added.

Philip J. Weights, co-president of the Swiss FinTech Association, noted that Ho Chi Minh City will focus on developing the capital, banking, and currency markets while overseeing sandboxes for financial innovation.

Meanwhile, Danang will serve as a testing ground and deployment base for emerging financial technologies, including green finance, AI, blockchain, and digital services. The city is planning to establish a dedicated fintech zone near the Thuan Phuoc Bridge, Weights said. Both cities will coordinate strategically, sharing infrastructure and talent to achieve national goals.

Weights also presented recommendations which include joining the WAIFC, signing MoUs with financial regulators, establishing directors institutes and governance institutes similar to Dubais model, and creating an advisory council.

Tran Long, deputy CEO of BIDV, stressed that development finance requires effective execution tools to address gaps in public budgets and mobilise private capital.

The solutions lie in stronger mobilisation of international funding sources such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and Asian Development Bank, while expansion of green capital markets, administrative reforms, improved transparency, and developing a workforce that meets global standards, he said.

In mid-August, the Saigon Marina IFC Tower, funded by HDBank, was inaugurated, marking a major milestone as the nucleus of an integrated financial ecosystem that interconnects asset management, fintech, commodity trading, and supply chain logistics.

By late August, Ho Chi Minh City also launched a unique shared infrastructure model. Part of the Startup & Innovation Hub in the city is being used as temporary headquarters for the IFC, creating a link between international finance and the citys innovation ecosystem.

This will connect Ho Chi Minh Citys innovation ecosystem, linking startups with one another, as well as with venture funds, leading tech enterprises, government regulators, and domestic and foreign businesses, said Lam Dinh Thang, director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Science and Technology. With the IFC here, startups, particularly in fintech, will gain easier access to global investors and partners.

While Ho Chi Minh City focuses on building a comprehensive financial ecosystem, Danang is emerging as a hub for financial innovation.

For both Vietnam and Danang, seizing opportunities in three sectors of finance, technology, and semiconductors is particularly significant. As major global financial centres reshape their development models based on innovation and technology adoption, Danang possesses advantages in location, infrastructure, human capital, and policy orientation to become a new growth pole for central Vietnam and the country, said Nguyen Van Quang, who is the Danang Party Secretary.

Speaking at the Vietnam Finance Forum in Danang on August 28, Deputy Minister of Finance Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc said that a key element in the strategy to develop the IFC in Danang is its close integration with the citys free trade zone.

To enhance the traction of the IFC in Danang, it is essential to position the city within the broader cluster of economic growth drivers in central Vietnam, said Deputy Minister Ngoc. This region is emerging with multiple industrial-service satellites, including the Chu Lai-Truong Hai automotive complex, the Dung Quat heavy industry hub, coastal economic zones, aquaculture centres, and more.

Urban and administrative planning in Danang is being expanded, and the city is preparing to submit a dedicated policy framework for its free trade zone to the National Assembly, she added.

However, Ngoc stressed that such a framework should not rely on blanket incentives, but rather adopt a selective, transparent, and in-depth approach. Incentives should not be spread thinly, but concentrated in the right sectors and areas. Only then can Danang establish a financial centre with its own distinctive identity, she said.
Despite annual export revenues reaching tens of billions of USD, Vietnams manufacturing sector remains heavily reliant on processing, with weak supply chain linkages limiting added value. In the context of global supply chain shifts, upgrading domestic enterprises has become increasingly urgent.

The ninth Factory Network Business Conference and Exhibition (FBC ASEAN 2025), scheduled for September 1719 at the Vietnam Exhibition Centre in Hanoi and co-organised by NC Network Vietnam and the Vietnam Association for Supporting Industries, is expected to provide a significant boost.

The event will feature more than 500 booths from domestic firms as well as international participants from Germany, Italy, Japan, Thailand, and others, connecting with a global network of over 23,000 manufacturing companies through multiple platforms. 80 per cent of exhibitors are manufacturers, a very high proportion that underscores the practical nature of the exhibition. More than just a showcase, the event also opens up opportunities to connect with over 50 global buyers, including Mitsubishi Electric, Panasonic, Samsung, Fujifilm, Tiger, Foster, and Sanyo Denki.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), manufacturing and supporting industries currently contribute around 1617 per cent of national GDP and generate millions of jobs. However, localisation rates in many sectors stand at only 3035 per cent, much lower than Thailand or China. The main reasons include limited production capacity, lack of investment in technology renewal, and weak capabilities in management and research and development among domestic firms.

FBC ASEAN 2025 serves as both a showcase for the latest technologies and equipment in mechanics, automation, and electricalelectronic components, and a bridge for Vietnamese enterprises to connect with global partners. In addition to the exhibitions, the event will feature in-depth seminars on cooperation and technology transfer, as well as the J-TECH Showroom online platform, allowing businesses to schedule trade meetings with international partners in advance.

"This enhances the efficiency of the exhibition, turning it into a starting point for long-term cooperation rather than just short-term encounters," an MoIT representative noted.

From an expert perspective, Chu Viet Cuong, director of the Industrial Development Support Centre under the MoITs Industry Agency, said, "Vietnam needs to concentrate on key supporting industries such as mechanical engineering, automotive, electronics, semiconductors, and textilesfootwear to avoid dispersing resources."

"At the same time, it is necessary to encourage a technology ordering mechanism, encouraging technology transfer from foreign-invested enterprises to Vietnamese firms, with binding requirements on localisation and supply chain linkages," he added.

Vietnam currently has more than 6,000 supporting industry enterprises, but they have yet to fully meet domestic demand for components and spare parts. Localisation remains low in many industries, with just 1520 per cent in mechanical engineering and 520 per cent in the automotive sector.

Experts also pointed out that the domestic market of 100 million people should serve as a testing ground for companies to validate products, improve technologies, and build brands. Only by meeting rising demands for quality, environmental standards, and sustainability at home will Vietnamese firms have the confidence to venture abroad with a stronger position.

FBC ASEAN 2025, therefore, offers a dual opportunity: fostering international cooperation while encouraging Vietnamese enterprises to enhance their mindset and capabilities. Through meetings and agreements at the exhibition, the countrys manufacturing sector can move beyond its role as a 'processing workshop' and become a reliable production partner, capable of sustainable integration with advanced economies.
On September 3, 2025, Member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee Cai Qi met in Beijing with Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, who is in China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit 2025 and the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.

Cai Qi expressed his gratitude to President Sadyr Japarov for attending the commemoration on September 3, which reflected his firm support for China and the cause of international justice. A few days ago, President Xi Jinping held a fruitful meeting with President Sadyr Japarov, making strategic arrangements for the development of China-Kyrgyzstan relations. China is ready to work with Kyrgyzstan to continue to implement the important common understandings reached by the two heads of state, promote the rapid development of mutually beneficial cooperation, and continuously enrich the substantive connotation of the China-Kyrgyzstan community with a shared future.

Sadyr Japarov stated that the grand commemoration held on the morning of September 3 underscored the importance of remembering history and safeguarding peace, and demonstrated China's global influence. Kyrgyzstan firmly supports China's position on issues concerning its core interests and will continue to actively advance all-round cooperation between the two countries.
There has been a surge in real estate dealmaking and kickstarting of major ventures in recent months, Photo: Le Toan

On August 28, Remon Vos, CEO and founder of CTP Group from the Netherlands, met with the Peoples Committee of Hung Yen province to express his intention to invest in an industrial real estate scheme worth around 1 billion ($1.16 billion), focusing on provinces and cities with strong potential for industrial and logistics growth.

CTP currently manages more than 11 million sq.m of factories and logistics facilities across 10 European countries.

Meanwhile, work began last week on North Hanoi Smart City, a $4.2 billion joint venture between BRG Group of Vietnam and Japans Sumitomo Corporation.

Located in the capitals Vinh Thanh commune and covering over 270 hectares, North Hanoi Smart City is envisioned as Vietnams first carbon-neutral urban area, setting a benchmark for sustainable, green, and modern city development.

In commercial property, United Overseas Australia (UOA) Vietnams acquisition of VIAS Hong Ngoc Bao for $68 million in July has emerged as one of the most notable office lease transactions in the first seven months.

UOA Vietnam, a subsidiary of Malaysian property developer UOA Group, now has full control of the target companys sole core asset: the right to develop a more than 2,000-square-metre land plot in Tan Dinh ward, one of the last prime sites in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City, with approved zoning for up to 22 floors.

As per the General Statistics Office under the Ministry of Finance, as of July 31, total registered foreign direct investment (FDI) in Vietnam reached $24.09 billion, up 27.3 per cent on-year.

The real estate sector came third in largest share of newly licensed FDI, accounting for 23.5 per cent. Updated figures for August were due to be published on September 6.

These movements show that the interest of overseas investors in the real estate market remains strong, according to Matthew Powell, director of Savills Hanoi.

A series of administrative changes, including reducing the number of provinces and abolishing the district level, are expected to streamline the apparatus, enhance governance efficiency, and create more improvements for investment inflows, Powell said a fortnight ago.

In addition, Vietnam wants to develop the private sector, with a focus on legal reform, reducing business barriers, improving access to land and capital, protecting property rights, and fostering fair competition. This provides an important foundation for Vietnam to attract more high-quality capital, as global investors increasingly value a stable and transparent legal environment, he added.

This year has also witnessed a surge in real estate dealmaking activity, with a series of deals led by overseas investors.

Notable transactions include Capitalands acquisition of a scheme in Binh Duong from Becamex IDC worth $553 million, and a joint venture between Sumitomo Forestry, Kumagai Gumi, and NTT Urban Development, partnering with Kim Oanh Group, to develop The One World.

In addition, Nishi Nippon Railroad acquired a 25 per cent stake in the Paragon Dai Phuoc project from Nam Long Group.

Industrial real estate continues to be a magnet and a number of new schemes have recently broken ground, including two Becamex IDC industrial parks in Binh Duong and the VSIP Nam Dinh complex, which is scheduled to start construction in the current quarter.
Students presented their ideas before the panel at the semi-final round of INSEE Prize 2025

After months of competition, the journey has now reached its most anticipated stage, promising a platform not only for technical excellence but also for creativity and social impact.

The recent semi-final round was filled with emotions and remarkable performances. INSEE Prize has long been more than just an academic competition; it is a space where students in architecture and construction can unleash their creativity, present meaningful projects, and propose sustainable solutions. The semi-finalists stood out for their ideas and the way they presented their clear, structured, and engaging stories.

From nearly 100 submissions, the selected projects reflect careful investment of thought and effort. The topics chosen are closely tied to community needs, ranging from public facilities to solutions that support specific vulnerable groups. What impressed the jury most was not just the novelty of the solutions, but the way students connected with their audience, some through the perspective of direct beneficiaries, others through relatable and practical examples. The diversity in presentation styles created a vibrant and engaging atmosphere.

According to INSEE Vietnam, a key highlight of this years semi-final round was the maturity students demonstrated in approaching problems and communicating solutions. They went beyond the technical box, evolving into storytellers who could link their ideas with broader social and environmental benefits. This reflects the very spirit INSEE Prize aims to nurture, encouraging the young generation to excel in their field and inspire others and mobilise collective action for sustainable development.

For 17 years, INSEE Prize has stood as one of the most prestigious academic competitions for construction and architecture students in Vietnam. It has reached over 23,000 students, attracted thousands of submissions, and turned 11 of them into real projects that serve communities across the country. The semi-final round of 2025 once again reaffirmed this mission: every idea and every presentation was not just about winning a prize, but about planting seeds for a more sustainable future.
Announced on September 10, the Regional Distribution Centre (RDC) will act as a hub for products made at LEGO Manufacturing Vietnam, the groups newest factory in Ho Chi Minh City, which opened earlier this year.

The RDC will serve as a distribution hub for products manufactured at LEGO Manufacturing Vietnam, the LEGO Groups newest factory in Ho Chi Minh City, which opened earlier this year.

Once in operation, the RDC will supply markets including Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Japan, with other markets including India, Indonesia and more planned to come in 2026.

Kuehne+Nagel will manage end-to-end logistics operations for the RDC, including transport from the LEGO Groups Vietnam factory and Mainland China, customs clearance, bonded warehousing, sea freight, and delivery to Local Distribution Centres throughout the region.

Speaking at the announcement ceremony, P. Venkatram, vice president, APAC-China Supply Chain Operations of the LEGO Group, said the new RDC will play a critical role in supporting long-term growth in the region by creating a shorter and more agile supply chain.

"Were grateful for our continued partnership with Kuehne+Nagel, whose strong logistics expertise helps us to bring learning through play to millions of children across the region," said Venkatram.

The facility will cover more than 10,000 square metres and be equipped with bonded storage, specialised packing, and value-added services. Once fully complete and operational in 2026, it will process more than 150 containers per week, have capacity for 33,000 pallets, and span 16,360 sq.m, providing sufficient capacity for growth.

"Beyond managing fulfilment operations, we actively support their broader sustainability goals," said Bjoern Traemann, managing director of Kuehne+Nagel Vietnam. "This includes the use of Sustainable Marine Fuel for all global full container load shipments and the deployment of electric vehicles for last-mile deliveries. We are proud to be part of a supply chain that is built for the future."

The Dong Nai RDC is LEED Gold-certified and features solar panels and smart energy metre to optimise energy consumption and reduce emissions. The RDC is the LEGO Groups fifth worldwide and second in Asia-Pacific, joining an existing centre in Shanghai, China. It follows the opening of a new RDC in Tessenderlo, Belgium, last year, which is also operated by Kuehne+Nagel and serves the European customers.

Danish investments driving Vietnam's green transition Danish companies are realising investment plans in Vietnam with a focus on sustainability, thereby contributing to Vietnam's green transition goals.
Mitsubishi Power, the power solutions brand of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, announced on September 8 that it has signed a cooperation agreement with Doosan Enerbility to provide two M701JAC gas turbines and auxiliary equipment for the O Mon 4 combined cycle gas turbine power plant. The groundbreaking ceremony took place in late August in Can Tho city, kicking off the construction phase, with the plant expected to be completed and operational by 2028.

Computer-generated image of the O Mon 4 power plant, with a planned capacity of 1,155 MW

"For decades, Mitsubishi Power has supplied Vietnam with various power generation equipment, including gas turbines, steam turbines, and air quality control systems," said Akihiro Ondo, managing director and CEO of Mitsubishi Power Asia-Pacific. "We maintain a strong and long-term commitment to Vietnams power sector, and the O Mon 4 power plant is just our latest engagement."

Under the agreement, Mitsubishi Power will provide the latest-generation JAC gas turbines and generators for the plant, with South Korea's Doosan serving as the engineering, procurement, and construction contractor.

O Mon 4 is strategically significant for Vietnam, forming a crucial downstream component of the Lot BO Mon gas-to-power development, which integrates new gas fields with power generation facilities. "In addition to O Mon 4, we are ready to participate in upcoming projects in the O Mon cluster such as O Mon 2 and 3, as well as provide operation and maintenance services for these plants," said Ondo.

"We will work with stakeholders over the long term to explore energy transition options at O Mon, including hydrogen co-firing and other cleaner fuels. Mitsubishi Power remains committed to partnering with Vietnam to support a sustainable future for the countrys power sector," he added.

With the O Mon 4 project, Mitsubishi Power is supporting Vietnams Power Development Plan VIII, which seeks to diversify energy sources, reduce reliance on coal, expand natural gas and renewables, and help the country achieve its net-zero emissions target by 2050.

The O Mon 4 plant, with a planned capacity of 1,155 MW, is being developed by PetroVietnam. This project marks Mitsubishi Powers first deployment of its JAC technology in Vietnam, supplying two M701JAC turbines. The JAC series ranks among the worlds largest and most efficient gas turbines, offering over 64 per cent combined-cycle efficiency and proven reliability with more than three million operating hours.

Mitsubishi Power operates in more than 30 countries, designing, manufacturing, and servicing advanced equipment and systems that contribute to global decarbonisation efforts and stable power supply.

Once in commercial operation, the plant will provide stable electricity for the Mekong Delta region while boosting PetroVietnams total installed capacity to over 9,300 MW, equivalent to around 10 per cent of Vietnams total national power capacity.

Mitsubishi Motors Canada Launches AI-Powered "Intelligent Companion" to Transform the 2025 Outlander Buying Experience Mitsubishi Motor Sales of Canada announces an innovative AI-powered tool designed to transform the customer experience for the new Mitsubishi Outlander 2025.

Logicross Nam Thuan delivers modern logistics and e-commerce solutions Mitsubishi Estate launched Logicross Nam Thuan on August 20, the first modern warehouse project under the Logicross brand outside of Japan designed to meet the evolving needs of e-commerce, express, and third-party logistics (3PL) customers.
PouchNATION is a provider of cashless POS, guest management, and access control solutions for large-scale events and venues. The company previously faced challenges with traditional camera-based QR code scanning systems, which often led to delays and errors, particularly in conditions such as dim lighting or with damaged tickets. These issues caused guest frustration and operational inefficiencies when handling large volumes of attendees.

Photo: Zebra

To address these challenges, PouchNATION has integrated Zebras TC27 mobile computers which are fully compatible with the proprietary NFC-based solution the event technology company introduced to enable a faster, more reliable, and offline-capable validation process. This integration has significantly enhanced scanning efficiency and accuracy, allowing for quicker and more dependable ticket validation, regardless of lighting conditions or print quality.

Zebras solutions have significantly improved our event operations by substantially reducing check-in times and enhancing the guest experience, said Koen van Geene, CEO of PouchNATION. Our team has noted a dramatic reduction in scanning time. It was up to six seconds with our previous system to just 1-1.5 seconds with Zebras 2D mobile barcode scanners, which translates to an approximate 83 per cent improvement. This may sound like a small improvement, but when tasked to validate access for 50,000+ concertgoers, every split-second counts.

Unlike camera-based scanning systems, Zebras solution maintains consistent performance even in difficult conditions. The introduction of Zebras solution has enhanced staff efficiency, allowing event teams to manage queues more effectively and reduce waiting times for attendees, as its robust design is ideal for use in high-traffic areas.

PouchNATIONs adoption of our scanning solutions underscores Zebras commitment to enhancing operational efficiency and customer satisfaction, said Christanto Suryadarma, vice president of sales in Southeast Asia and South Korea for Zebra Technologies. We are proud to support PouchNATION in delivering seamless event experiences.

Photo: Zebra

Vietnamese industries are accelerating their digital transformation to enhance efficiency, asset visibility, and customer satisfaction, added Tran Thi Bao Tran, Vietnam country manager for Zebra Technologies. Our collaboration with PouchNATION showcases how Zebras advanced scanning solutions empower the connected frontline by streamlining event operations. Beyond events, Zebras solutions, such as RFID for real-time tracking and machine vision for intelligent automation, are helping businesses optimise workflows and drive innovation across sectors.

Zebra provides the solutions to help businesses grow through increased asset visibility, connected frontline workers, and intelligent automation. The company operates in more than 100 countries, and our customers include over 80 per cent of the Fortune 500. Designed for the frontline, Zebras award-winning portfolio includes hardware, software, and services, all backed by our 50+ years of innovation and global partner ecosystem.

PouchNATION is a Singapore-based event technology company founded in 2012. It specialises in providing RFID-based off-line solutions for event and venue guest management, focusing on access control, cashless payments, and real-time data analytics. The company has expanded its operations globally and has been involved in numerous high-profile events, including concerts and festivals.

On August 3, 2023, PouchNATION was acquired by Lantern Ai. Currently, PouchNATION continues to operate under Lantern, maintaining its focus on delivering innovative solutions for event organisers and venue operators. The company has also expanded its presence to regions including the US, Europe, Middle East, Mexico, Colombia, India, and Hong Kong, and has formed partnerships with various industry leaders to further its reach and capabilities.

Zebra Technologies announces new strategy for 2025 in Vietnam Zebra Technologies Corporation, a global leader in digitising and automating frontline workers, is looking to expand in Vietnam by anchoring on an extensive network of partners, continued investment, and a comprehensive portfolio of solutions.

Middle management key to unlocking AI advantage in manufacturing Vietnam is rapidly advancing its AI sector through strategic government initiatives and substantial investments. The National Strategy on AI Development aims to position Vietnam among the top four ASEAN countries and the top 50 globally in AI research and application by 2030.

Warehousing sector embraces advanced technologies to enhance operational efficiency The warehousing sector in Vietnam and globally is rapidly embracing advanced technologies to enhance operational efficiency and reduce costs amid growing demand from e-commerce and global trade.

Zebra Technologies appoints new Vietnam country manager Zebra Technologies Corporation announced the appointment of Tran Thi Bao Tran as Vietnam country manager on June 19, bringing over 20 years of technology sales and leadership experience.

US Postal Service recognises Zebra Technologies with supplier performance award Digital solutions' provider Zebra Technologies Corporation has been recognised by the United States Postal Service (USPS) with a prestigious Supplier Performance Award. The honour highlights Zebra's vital role in enhancing USPS operations and ensuring the seamless delivery of essential services nationally.

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This message was underscored at a VIR seminar in Hanoi on September 5 that explored innovation in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sector.

Dao Thuy Ha, deputy general director of Traphaco JSC, a pharmaceutical manufacturer combining traditional medicine with modern practices, said, "Traphaco has shifted from specialising in Oriental medicines to developing high-quality modern pharmaceuticals. To achieve this, we are investing heavily in research and development (R&D) and have received technology transfers from Daewoong, one of South Koreas leading pharmaceutical firms."

Thanks to this strategy, Traphaco can rapidly develop bio-equivalent versions of original drugs for chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and hypertension. This enables Vietnamese patients to access high-quality medicines at affordable prices, especially for long-term treatments that require stable, daily use.

"We are also accelerating digital transformation. By leveraging AI, the company has exploited data to improve efficiency, implemented data analysis to create sales and marking campaigns, and gained customer insights to develop sales centres and logistics centres to reduce human-related processes. The AI integration creates a seamless and cost-efficient operation," added Ha.

The company also applies AI to analyse and verify input medicinal materials, detect counterfeits, and assess each component (roots, branches, stems, leaves, etc.) with precise ratios to quickly evaluate product quality. This application of AI enables the company to ensure consistent and reliable product standards.

Le Xuan Tan, general director of private healthcare group TNH Hospital Group, said, "TNH now operates three facilities with 800 hospital beds, and we are moving forward with plans to build a smart hospital. Key components are already in place, including electronic medical records, a Hospital Information System, a Laboratory Information System, and a Picture Archiving and Communication System."

Thanks to these smart systems, test results are processed and sent back to the initial point of care, saving patients time and travel. TNH also operates an imaging diagnosis centre connected to all hospitals in its network. For CT scans and MRIs, TNH strives to deliver results within two hours to reduce waiting time.

"We plan to integrate AI across our operations, from staff management to patient care. During consultations, AI will capture doctorpatient interactions and combine them with test results to generate rapid diagnostic suggestions. This will provide doctors with valuable references and support faster, more accurate treatment decisions," added Tan.

According to Bui Le Ha, chief digital transformation officer of the Medlatec General Hospital, "Digital transformation has helped reduce patient waiting times to just 30 per cent. X-ray services now take only 30 minutes, other services at most one hour, and test results are returned within the same day."

However, Ha also pointed out some challenges to fast-track digital transformation in the medical and pharmaceutical sector. "The lack of specific guidelines forces businesses to proceed cautiously, working according to their own understanding while constantly fearing mistakes. Some practices may not be entirely wrong but still not fully correct, which could lead to additional costs for adjustments later on."

"For example, we talk about using AI in healthcare, but there are no legal regulations clearly defining to what extent AI can be applied, to what level it is accepted, or how it aligns with the law. Similarly, while the law requires data interoperability, there are still no guidelines on common standards for how such interoperability should be implemented," he said.

There is a pressing need for more policies that foster innovation and creativity. Such policies would encourage businesses to invest in research and development while creating a favourable environment for startups, scientists, and entrepreneurs to bring new ideas to life. By encouraging innovation, Vietnam can strengthen its competitiveness, accelerate sustainable growth, and better integrate into the global value chain.

Ha from Traphaco cited figures showing that 65 per cent of medicines used in Vietnam are still imported, while only 35 per cent are produced domestically. Pharmaceutical companies are aware of their responsibility to gradually increase the domestic share to meet the governments targets and aim for double-digit average growth through 2030.

"Our top priority is developing bio-equivalent drugs. We have many R&D plans underway, but limited evaluation resources continue to slow progress," Ha said.

The national strategy for the development of the pharmaceutical industry through 2030, with a vision to 2045, outlines requirements to establish R&D centres to evaluate bioequivalence and bioavailability studies. There are also incentives and new advantages for enterprises to set up such research facilities.

"With these regulations in place, I hope it will create better conditions for companies to develop new medicines more efficiently and at lower cost, ultimately benefiting patients," she added.

Ha hopes that companies will receive the governments support to connect with domestic scientists and leverage scientific research to turn it into practical products for the market. This would maximise Vietnams resources, support the development of new therapeutic products, and foster innovation in creating better medicines for the country.

In fact, the development of Vietnams pharmaceutical and healthcare sector will open opportunities for exports while helping reduce the significant outflow of foreign currency from Vietnamese patients seeking treatment abroad, which can reach $34 billion annually.

Tan from TNH said, "Private hospitals must both be self-reliant and strengthen cooperation with central-level hospitals. For example, inviting top experts to handle the most complex cases. Private hospitals have advantages in medical equipment and service quality. We can attract patients to stay and receive treatment in localities, instead of having to travel to big cities or go abroad."

"In fact, some central hospitals already receive foreign patients for treatment, which is an extremely positive signal. We hope to contribute, even in a small way, to delivering better healthcare for both domestic and international patients, particularly those who visit Vietnam as tourists," added Tan.

Portfolio overhauls illustrate Vietnams potential Vietnams healthcare and pharmaceutical market has become heated as investors step up the restructuring of their investment portfolios.

New partnership targets improved cancer care for Vietnamese women Vietnam is ramping up efforts to tackle breast and cervical cancer  two major health challenges that continue to weigh heavily on women and society.
On September 4, 2025, Vice President and Honorary President of the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) Han Zheng met with President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Kate Forbes in Beijing.

Han Zheng stated that the humanitarian cause is a common endeavor for all humanity and an important part of building a community with a shared future for mankind. President Xi Jinping attaches great importance to the work of the RCSC, and China is ready to further strengthen cooperation with the IFRC in all aspects. President Xi Jinping put forth the Global Governance Initiative, and one of its core concepts is to advocate the people-centered approach. As an active supporter of international humanitarian cause, China is ready to join hands with all progressive and just forces around the world to build a more just and equitable global governance system.

Kate Forbes stated that the four global initiatives put forth by President Xi Jinping are highly consistent with the philosophy of the IFRC. The IFRC is willing to work with China to strive to address global humanitarian challenges and make new and greater contributions to the international humanitarian cause.

He Wei attended the meeting.
Audit Wales warns of blame culture at Wrexham Council  but all in the past says Council Leader

This article is old - Published: Wednesday, Sep 10th, 2025

Wrexham Council has been criticised by the Auditor General for Wales for failing to address long-standing governance issues and fractured relationships between councillors and senior officers.

A report published today by Audit Wales highlights governance failures and a lack of engagement in training among members, putting the councils decision making, governance and reputation at risk.

The report is the second review to have taken place into the values and behaviours at Wrexham Council since 2023.

Adrian Crompton, Auditor General for Wales, said it was disheartening to observe insufficient progress in addressing critical governance issues and warned that poor behaviour and fractured relationships at the senior level were all factors that endanger the councils governance.

It was also noted that important documents including the Member Code of Conduct handbook have not been updated in several years, with the Auditor General stating that this is a missed opportunity to further support members.

Blame Culture

The report highlighted tensions between some councillors and officers, with examples of excessive communication and inappropriate requests for information.

There is also reference to some elected members using press statements and the media to highlight ongoing tensions within the council.

The Auditor General warned that this creates an unhelpful blame culture that does not create a productive environment for decision making in the best interests of the people of Wrexham.

It is also noted that a recent code of conduct and values and behaviours training does not seem to have significantly improved relations between some senior members and senior officers.

However there is praise for the improved relationships between officers and the planning committee, an area previously highlighted as a concern by the Auditor General.

Training concerns

Audit Wales also criticised persistent low engagement with core training among councillors.

Training is offered to all councillors to help improve their understanding of their role and their work within the local authority and the communities they represent.

But in many instances core training modules have low attendance. These modules include equality, Welsh language standards, diversity and inclusion, violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence and data protection.

Just 12 of the councils 56 members attended the corporate parenting (including safeguarding) training held in 2023-24 and 12 when it was held again in 2024-25.

However the Auditor General found several reasons behind the low attendance, including a lack of digital skills from some members, training being cancelled at short notice and some councillors being unaware that they have to attend the sessions.

Mr Crompton said: Councillors and officers are reliant on one another, and relationships founded on mutual respect are essential for good governance.

The greatest concerns for the effective performance of the Council are the ongoing strained relationships and distrust between some members and senior officers. Unless addressed urgently and genuinely, this will undermine the positive work of the wider Council and its workforce.

It is imperative that the Council takes immediate and decisive action to address these fundamental matters of good governance and culture.

Council response

Council leader Mark Pritchard said the report was looking backwards and argued that relationships had since improved, pointing to disputes over the Local Development Plan as a key source of previous tensions.

It is looking backwards. We cant change the past with very well-publicised the problems with the LDP and the differences between some senior officers and senior members. Thats behind us now, said Cllr Pritchard.

We all know where we are with the LDP. We are in the new Chief Exec interview process, we have another senior officer leaving us.

I think relationships have improved now, and what was released by Audit Wales is looking backwards, and Im looking forward to the future.

There is change here now, and Im really pleased with whats in front of us. I really am. I dont think it should have got to the point as it did, but it did, and we are moving forward, so everythings good.

Interim Chief Exec Alwyn Jones said, I think, from my perspective, we have a base of a good relationship now and we need to make sure that we build upon that, to strengthen it.

Moving forward, listen, theres always going to be challenges, isnt there? But we need to make sure that we are positive in terms of addressing those moving forward, and yes, I think that is past

Cllr David A Bithell said, Running a massive organisation as big as Wrexham Council, youre always going to get challenges, and at times differences of opinion. There is no harm in that.

I think sometimes people blow differences of opinion out of proportion and say, Oh, theyre all falling out there.

I dont think sometimes the way its portrayed out there is. were not a basket case.

The Auditor General for Wales has put forward three recommendations for Wrexham Council to consider ahead of a future review.

These include improving relationships between members and officers, improving member knowledge, awareness and skills and to strengthen governance arrangements.

Audit Wales

The full report has sat under embargo since Monday morning, however that embargo has been broken three times. Wrexham.com has queried Audit Wales what the point of their embargoes are. Only the BBC LDRS and Wrexham.com attended a media brief and asked senior leaders about the report, no one else bothered to turn up.
Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam has launched his reelection campaign, citing his record on crime prevention, technological innovation, and community outreach as key reasons for seeking another term.

Balaam, who was first elected in 2018, said the Sheriffs Office has faced rapid growth and new challenges during his tenure.

He highlighted efforts to combat fentanyl and opioid abuse, the deployment of emergency response technology, and the creation of specialized teams to address trafficking and protect victims.

Balaams leadership has included managing the agency through major incidents such as a multi-jurisdictional quadruple homicide investigation, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Davis Fire. During his time in office, the Washoe County Sheriffs Office launched the HERO Team to combat trafficking, received the Pinnacle Award for detention reform, and expanded the Northern Nevada Regional Intelligence Center. The office also implemented a "Drones as First Responders" program and used crime data to identify and respond to emerging trends.

If reelected, Balaam plans to increase the use of drones, Automated License Plate Readers, and artificial intelligence tools to improve crime response.

He also aims to grow staffing to match population growth, enhance inmate job-readiness programs, and expand mental health and wellness initiatives for inmates and staff.

Balaam and his wife, Heather, have lived in Washoe County for decades and are raising their family in the area where they both grew up. He said this deep connection to the community continues to drive his commitment to public safety, lasting trust, and a better future for the next generation.
By Qabil Ashirov



The Kalbajar tanker, operated by ASCO, a subsidiary of AZCON Holding, has completed its fourth year of service.

According to the company, the vessel has carried out a total of 61 voyages over the period, transporting 384,443 tons of oil and petroleum products to various ports.

Currently operating in international waters, the Kalbajar has a cargo capacity of 7,800 tons, a length of 141 meters, and a beam of 16.9 meters.

The tanker was built at the Baku Shipyard (BGZ) upon ASCOs order and was commissioned on September 10, 2021, in a ceremony attended by President Ilham Aliyev.

To date, BGZ has constructed and delivered four tankers for ASCO, while the construction of three additional vessels is currently underway.
This season, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) is showcasing a remarkable retrospective of work by Lee ShinJa, one of South Koreas most important and influential artists.

At the age of 95, Lee's extraordinary five-decade career has made her one of the most distinguished Korean fiber artists of the twentieth century. Her retrospective at BAMPFA, the artists first in the United States, is a rare opportunity for Bay Area audiences to discover her celebrated work firsthandincluding a large number of extraordinary tapestries never before seen in North America.

Installation view of Lee ShinJa: Drawing with Thread, August 6, 2025February 1, 2026, at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), Berkeley, CA. (Courtesy of BAMPFA and Tina Kim Gallery. Photo by Hyunjung Rhee.)

Lee, who began her career in the wake of the Korean War, started out by creating art from whatever everyday materials she could scavenge, ranging from grain sacks and mosquito nets to yarn from secondhand sweaters. From these humble beginnings, her work eventually became larger and more complex, incorporating new techniques of dyeing, knotting, and embroidery that brought a modernist sensibility to Korean textile traditions.

At Lee ShinJa: Drawing with Thread , visitors will immediately spot the large-scale artworks for which Lee is now widely knownbold, innovative pieces that sit at the intersection of art and craft, tapestry and sculpture, figuration and abstraction. One of the most striking of these works, Spirit of Mountain, draws inspiration from Lees memories of her upbringing in the seaside province of Uljin. The vivid, abstract tapestry has been newly acquired by BAMPFA so that it can be rediscovered by Bay Area audiences in future exhibitions, too.





Installation view of Lee ShinJa: Drawing with Thread, August 6, 2025February 1, 2026, at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), Berkeley, CA. (Courtesy of BAMPFA and Tina Kim Gallery. Photo by Hyunjung Rhee.)

Lee ShinJa is one of the most visionary artists of our time who has long understood the artistic possibilities of fiber, said Victoria Sung, BAMPFAs Phyllis C. Wattis Senior Curator, who organized the retrospective. Lees exhibition follows in the footsteps of recent exhibitions at BAMPFA, including important solo shows of Key Sekimachi and Rosie Lee Tompkins, adding to the Bay Areas rich history of fiber and textile arts.

On Wednesday, September 17th at 12:15pm, Sung will lead a curators tour of the exhibition to deepen visitors understanding of the work and the arc of her long and innovative career. The tour is free with museum admission.

// 2155 Center St. (Berkeley); get more information about this and other public programs at bampfa.org

Installation view of Lee ShinJa: Drawing with Thread, August 6, 2025February 1, 2026, at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), Berkeley, CA. (Courtesy of BAMPFA and Tina Kim Gallery. Photo by Hyunjung Rhee.)
AARP Foundation has joined a class-action lawsuit on behalf of older employees of a major financial services company, alleging the firm mismanaged the retirement funds of 28,000 participants.

The suit accuses the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA) of engaging in self-dealing and mismanagement by failing to remove a TIAA-managed fund with high fees and a poor investment record from its employees retirement plans.

Members only

That plan has underperformed its market benchmark by more than 186 percent since 2009, according to the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The suit, brought by the law firm Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, further alleges that TIAA charged employees enrolled in other in-house funds higher fees than other investors, pocketing millions of dollars that could have boosted workers retirement savings.

Join Our Fight to Protect Your Retirement Here's what you can do to help: Sign up to become an AARP activist for the latest news and alerts on issues you care about.

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AARP is your fierce defender on the issues that matter to people 50-plus. Become a member or renew your membership today.

When companies mismanage retirement assets and seek to maximize their own profit by charging exorbitant fees, they jeopardize the retirement security of older adults, particularly harming low- and moderate-income workers, William Alvarado Rivera, AARP Foundations senior vice president of litigation, said in a statement.

AARP Foundation is fighting to ensure TIAA participants get the retirement income theyve earned  and the dignity they deserve, he said.

Ex-employee launched suit

The lawsuit alleges that TIAAs actions violated the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). That 1974 law requires retirement plan fiduciaries to closely monitor plan investments, remove imprudent investments within a reasonable time and make all investment decisions solely in the interest of the plans participants and beneficiaries.

ERISA also says retirement plan assets must be for the exclusive benefit of plan participants.

Charles Field, Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnights lead attorney on the case, says its hard to say how much individual TIAA employees, retirees and beneficiaries lost in retirement savings, but its not a small amount.

For individuals, it depends on how long they own the fund and how much money they had invested in the fund, he says.

The suit was filed in May on behalf of Bryan Byrne, a disabled veteran and former TIAA employee whose retirement plan included investments in the TIAA funds. Defendants include TIAA, its board of trustees and members of its Plan Investment Review Committee. AARP Foundation, a charitable affiliate of AARP, joined as co-counsel on Sept. 4.

The foundations involvement further validates our concern that TIAA is mismanaging their retirement plans at the expense of workers retirement security, Field says.

AARP has also fought to protect the federal Retirement Security Rule, which would require financial professionals to put retirement savers interests ahead of their own. The rule aims to close loopholes that have allowed some financial professionals to advise retirement savers to choose high-fee products that bring higher commissions but may not reflect whats best for their clients. The rule was supposed to take effect last year, but its on hold pending a legal challenge.
By Akbar Novruz



A business visit of representatives of German companies to Azerbaijan took place on September 811.

According to the German-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce (AHK-Azerbaijan), a 16-member delegation representing German shipping companies held a series of meetings and presentations during the visit. The program included discussions on Azerbaijans economic landscape, targeted B2B and B2G meetings, and visits to leading institutions.

Azerbaijan's shipbuilding industry has great potential for cooperation in the field of green technologies, digitalization, automation, and maritime solutions. With the expansion of the fleet of Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company (ASCO) and the strategic Middle Corridor, new opportunities are opening up for German maritime companies, AHK-Azerbaijan stated.
LOCKSLEY ADVANCES ANTIMONY SUPPLY STRATEGY TO SUPPORT U.S. CRITICAL MINERALS INDEPENDENCE



Locksley Advances Antimony Supply Strategy

Perth, Sep 10, 2025 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Locksley Resources Ltd ( ASX:LKY ) ( X5L:FRA ) ( LKYRF:OTCMKTS ) is pleased to advise it has moved to secure additional beneficiated ore supply to complement development of its Desert Antimony Mine at Mojave, California. This initiative forms part of the Company's broader mine to market strategy targeting supply for the U.S. defense and energy markets, while also strengthening the commercial pathway for its DeepSolv(TM) processing technology being developed with Rice University.



Highlights



- Locksley seeks to strengthen the commercial pathways for DeepSolv(TM) processing method, by entered into a Non-Binding Heads of Agreement with EV Resources Limited (EVR) to purchase EVR's Antimony material via an Ore Sales Agreement



- Availability of 3rd party material is a key element for the development of DeepSolv(TM) and access to the USD $1bn+ domestic US Antimony market



- Expands and diversifies ore feedstock available for the processing development and downstream validation being conducted by Rice University on the DeepSolv(TM) product



- Enables Locksley to integrate both domestic ore from Mojave and additional North American supply into U.S. refining, accelerating the availability of critical materials



- Access to multiple ore supplies is complementary to the development of the Desert Antimony Mine at Mojave and advances Locksley's strategy of providing domestic security of USA antimony supply necessary for defence security



- Will provide priority access to antimony samples from EV Resources' Los Lirios operations for Rice University DeepSolv(TM) testwork, promoting a diversified and resilient North American supply chain



- Contingent on Locksley and EVR successfully negotiating a binding Antimony Ore Sales Agreement and subject to EVR shareholder approval, Locksley will make a strategic investment of A$0.75 million in EV Resources Limited ( ASX:EVR )



Strategic Rationale: DeepSolv(TM) Processing Pathway



The securing of EVR beneficiated ore will underpin Locksley's ability to accelerate deployment of DeepSolv(TM), a proprietary solvometallurgical process developed with Rice University, by ensuring additional steady and diverse feedstock supply. This strengthens the Company's position to:



- Provide immediate beneficiated ore supply to complement Mojave ore and bridge U.S. requirements until domestic mining commences



- Validate the DeepSolv(TM) process across multiple ore types, ensuring resilience and efficiency in downstream refining



- Secure 3rd party material as a key element for establishing the scale of DeepSolv(TM) and access to the USD $1bn+ domestic US Antimony market



- Advance production of defense-grade and energy-grade antimony products for U.S. applications



- Demonstrate to U.S. Government stakeholders the practical delivery of non-Chinese feedstock through advanced U.S.-based processing



- Position Locksley as a leading partner in reshaping North American supply chains for critical minerals



Strategic Locksley Investment and Ore Sales Agreement



LKY and EVR have entered into a non-binding Heads of Agreement. Contingent upon LKY and EVR entering into a binding Ore Sales Agreement, and subject to EVR shareholder approval,



LKY will make a strategic investment of A$0.75 million. This agreement provides a framework for EVR to supply antimony concentrate from its Los Lirios operations to Locksley, with the following key points:



- Purpose: The Agreement sets out the non-binding commercial framework under which EVR and LKY will cooperate to establish a strategic relationship for material testwork and develop production and value creation.



- Testing and Validation: EVR will send representative samples of ore to Locksley's refining facility to test and confirm ore properties and processing viability.



- Pathway to Binding Agreement: The parties will seek to enter into a binding Ore Sales Agreement which will set out the commercial framework for a long-term supply partnership, with an initial focus on offtake to support downstream processing studies.



- Mutual Strategic Benefit: The cooperation secures a potential long-term customer for EVR's concentrate while reinforcing Locksley's access to a secure supply of antimony for its proprietary refining technology.



Pat Burke, Chairman of Locksley Resources, commented:



"This agreement potentially strengthens our mine-to-market strategy by complementing our Mojave development with additional concentrate supply from EVR. By securing nearshore feedstock alongside our fast-tracked mining plans in California, Locksley will be well positioned to accelerate the U.S. return to domestic antimony processing. With Rice University's support and the deployment of our DeepSolv(TM) technology, our pathway demonstrates that Locksley is assembling the resources, partnerships, and technology to ensure secure, scalable, and independent antimony supply for the United States."





About Locksley Resources Limited





Locksley Resources Limited (ASX:LKY) (FRA:X5L) (OTCMKTS:LKYRF) is an ASX listed explorer focused on critical minerals in the United States of America. The Company is actively advancing exploration across two key assets: the Mojave Project in California, targeting rare earth elements (REEs) and antimony. Locksley Resources aims to generate shareholder value through strategic exploration, discovery and development in this highly prospective mineral region.

Mojave Project

Located in the Mojave Desert, California, the Mojave Project comprises over 250 claims across two contiguous prospect areas, namely, the North Block/Northeast Block and the El Campo Prospect. The North Block directly abuts claims held by MP Materials, while El Campo lies along strike of the Mountain Pass Mine and is enveloped by MP Materials' claims, highlighting the strong geological continuity and exploration potential of the project area.

In addition to rare earths, the Mojave Project hosts the historic "Desert Antimony Mine", which last operated in 1937. Despite the United States currently having no domestic antimony production, demand for the metal remains high due to its essential role in defense systems, semiconductors, and metal alloys. With significant surface sample results, the Desert Mine prospect represents one of the highest-grade known antimony occurrences in the U.S.

Locksley's North American position is further strengthened by rising geopolitical urgency to diversify supply chains away from China, the global leader in both REE & antimony production. With its maiden drilling program planned, the Mojave Project is uniquely positioned to align with U.S. strategic objectives around critical mineral independence and economic security.

Tottenham Project

Locksley's Australian portfolio comprises the advanced Tottenham Copper-Gold Project in New South Wales, focused on VMS-style mineralisation in a well established mining region.

Locksley is committed to delivering value through discovery, development, and strategic partnerships, with a focus on securing access to U.S. aligned funding and downstream collaborations.

Related Companies
Project Jupiter community meetings Project Jupiter community meetings Wednesday, Sept. 10; 6 p.m. New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum, 4100 Dripping Springs Road, Las Cruces Thursday, Sept. 11; 5:30 p.m. Placitas Community Center, 241 Monticello Drive, Hatch

LAS CRUCES  Developers of a proposed hyperscale AI data center opened a series of community meetings around Dona Ana County on Friday to field questions, promote the project and receive public input.

The first two meetings were raucous as a campaign opposing the project has taken form, with community members demanding more details about the developers investment in the community and the projects environmental impacts.

Dozens of people packed La Mesa Community Center, 15 miles south of Las Cruces, on Friday night. On Monday, most of the seats were full at the Dona Ana Community College auditorium on the east side of Las Cruces as hundreds turned out. At times, residents speaking positively of the project were jeered, while a few spoke in support and others suggested the proposal was moving too quickly for the public to have meaningful participation.

Representatives of lead developer BorderPlex Digital Assets and builder Stack Infrastructure, as well as county officials, took the stage at both meetings to respond to questions and make the case for the project.

The clock is ticking toward a Sept. 19 hearing during which Dona Ana County commissioners will vote on a historic $165 billion industrial revenue bond, which would guarantee tax abatements  but not direct capital investment by the county  over 30 years. The developers have said the staggering figure represents anticipated maximum investment over the 30-to 40-year service life of the center.

In February, BorderPlex Digital Assets projected it would spend $5 billion over 10 years to build the campus. It has pledged to employ over 2,500 people over years of construction and 750 permanently in office facilities.

Styled Project Jupiter, the center would be built in Santa Teresa, near the border, and consist of four data center structures, offices and a power plant to provide electricity for the campus.

The project has touched a n erve in an agricultural region that sees dwindling water reservoir levels yet is also striving to attract industries to the Santa Teresa region near the border. Data centers powering AI technology require vast supplies of reliable round-the-clock electricity and water for cooling. Project Jupiter is being marketed to undisclosed prospective tenants as a mammoth, state-of-the-art facility for training AI models.

BorderPlex Digital Assets and county officials signaled that the decision was make-or-break as far as building the project here.

We are trying to encourage businesses to bring in jobs, and that helps grow the entire economy, assistant county manager Stephen Lopez said in La Mesa. Theres a really strong chance that without the IRB, the project would not be coming to New Mexico and Dona Ana County.

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Yet he admitted the county had not calculated what losses in tax revenue it would exchange for $300 million in direct payments over three decades by the developer. Engineers with Stack Infrastructure said they did not yet know how much water would be required to fill its closed-loop cooling system, as engineering plans had not been completed. The company has also pledged to explore treating brackish water for its purposes.

A memorandum of understanding the company signed with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in February allows for natural gas and nuclear-generated electricity to power the facility and still be considered compliant with New Mexicos statutory carbon-elimination targets.

BorderPlex Digital consultant Jennifer Bradfute said the company was considering trucking in water for the cooling system and said it would rely on natural gas until it could build enough storage capacity to rely on renewable energy sources such as solar or wind. She stated that Project Jupiter would reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2045. In Las Cruces, she insisted there are no plans to use nuclear energy  which itself is water-intensive  but did not rule it out. She also acknowledged that early in construction, the project would require electricity from El Paso Electric until it could rely on its microgrid, but not enough to drive up rates.

They have given a lot of broad answers but not a lot of specifics, said environmental attorney Katalina Hadfield of Las Cruces. I appreciate them coming out here, but there are really not a lot of details going on. Its just a pie-in-the-sky idea, and it makes me hesitate to waive property taxes for an idea.

Some questioners who were more sympathetic to the project suggested the county take more time before deciding on the IRB, as well as authorization of additional state economic development funds next week. Participants requested more details about local costs, risks in the event of the projects failure and accountability measures. Some wanted local-hire guarantees.

And a few people who work in construction and tech industries braved heckles and accusations of being paid spokespeople when they stood to defend Project Jupiter as a potential job incubator and economic driver for a rural community. An employee of Metas data center in Los Lunas said that development had offered him a career and a middle-class standard of living, as members of the audience shouted at him.

Andrew Mayorga, a New Mexico field representative for the Laborers International Union of North America, lamented the hostility prevalent in the Las Cruces auditorium.

We just want to build. We want to work. We have families, we have mortgages, we have kids, he said. I thought New Mexicans stand up for New Mexicans.
Austin Wilkins Olivier Uyttebrouck/Journal

Prosecutors told jurors on Tuesday that Austin Wilkins was one of three men who participated in a botched robbery that led to the 2023 shooting death of a woman at her West Side home in front of her 10-year-old daughter.

Wilkins, 29, is charged with first-degree murder, attempted robbery and other charges in the fatal shooting of 33-year-old Brandy McManus, who was fatally shot through her door after she refused to admit two mask-wearing men.

Wilkins trial in 2nd Judicial District Court is scheduled through Friday before Judge Matthew Chavez.

Both defense and prosecution attorneys told jurors that the case will rely heavily on the testimony of Wilkins two co-defendants and their motives for implicating Wilkins in the attempted robbery.

You are going to hear why these guys may or may not have a motive to bring Austin (Wilkins) into this, and thats really going to be the crux of this case, Assistant District Attorney Derek Berg told jurors.

Wilkins attorney, John McCall, responded that Wilkins was not present at the womans home at the time of the fatal shooting and had no part in the botched robbery.

McCall also told jurors that Wilkins two co-defendants repeatedly changed their stories in police interviews. Each have their own motives to implicate Wilkins.

You are going to see how these lies are permeating through everything that these two young men are doing, McCall said of the co-defendants.

Joseph Montoya, 33, pleaded guilty in July to second-degree murder, attempted robbery and other charges in McManus death, court records show. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Jan. 5.

Montoyas plea agreement remains sealed. Montoya is expected to testify that he fired the fatal gunshot and that Wilkins was at his side at the time, Berg said.

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The second co-defendant, Kristopher Darling, 25, is charged with first-degree murder and other charges in McManus killing. His trial is scheduled for Oct. 6. Berg said Darling is negotiating a plea agreement.

McCall told jurors that Darling had a grudge against Wilkins over a woman who had a relationship with both men and had a child with each man.

Darling was not happy with Austin Wilkins at all, McCall said. The point here is that the animus or the anger, the frustration against this man, has built up over this time period.

Prosecutors contend that Darling drove himself and the two men to McManus home in the 6000 block of Canis NW, then parked nearby while Montoya and Wilkins approached the home to demand firearms from McManus husband, who was working an extra shift at the time.

After the shooting, the two men exchanged gunfire with McManus neighbor, who came out of his home with a firearm after hearing the gunshot, police wrote in a criminal complaint. No one was injured in the gunfight.

The daughter, who was uninjured, phoned McManus husband, who called 911, the complaint said.

Albuquerque police required nine months of investigation to piece together the events and arrest the three men, Berg said. Jurors will have little physical evidence to rely on, he said, but what does exist is overwhelming, compelling testimony.
The research coincides with the company's launch of enhanced pre-existing conditions analysis within its Travel Insurance Price Benchmarking Toolnow the most comprehensive travel insurance coverage tool in the UK market. The research, conducted amongst around 1,000 UK adults in August 2025, found that 26% of respondents were unsure how to classify weight management injections such as Mounjaro, Wegovy, and Ozempicmedications that have seen explosive growth with 6% of the population having used them. This adoption rate is particularly striking given NHS England data showing these medications only became widely available through the health service in late 2023. Key Findings Highlight Classification Crisis The survey reveals a fragmented understanding of these treatments, with respondents classifying weight management injections as:

 Last-resort medical interventions (28%)

 Medical treatments for health conditions (24%)

 Cosmetic treatments for appearance (11%)

 Lifestyle support tools (10%)

 Unsure (26%) "This confusion isn't academicit has real consequences for millions of Britons purchasing travel and health insurance," said Ian Hughes, CEO of Consumer Intelligence. "When a quarter of the population doesn't know whether their medication counts as a pre-existing condition, we're seeing a perfect storm for claim disputes and coverage gaps. The Financial Ombudsman Service reported a 23% increase in travel insurance complaints in 2024, with medical disclosure disputes being a leading cause." The Stakes: A Growing Market at Risk

With 45% of respondents classifying themselves as overweight or obesesignificantly below the NHS Health Survey for England's finding that 64% of adults are overweight or obesethe survey reveals potential underreporting that further complicates insurance declarations. With only 6% currently using weight management injections, Consumer Intelligence projects potential market growth of 500-1,000% over the next five years as NHS access expands and private prescriptions become more affordable, aligning with NICE's expanded approval criteria for Wegovy and Mounjaro in 2024. The research identified clear criteria consumers use to determine whether treatments are 'medical':

 Prescribed by a doctor (71%)

 Treats a diagnosed condition (72%)

 Available through the NHS (40%)

 Prevents future health problems (33%) However, these criteria create paradoxes. Botox, for instance, can treat medical conditions like chronic migraines and muscle spasticity, yet 86% of respondents classified it as cosmetic, with only 9% recognising its medical applications.

Insurance Industry Response Critical "The insurance industry faces a defining moment," explained Hughes. "Insurers must rapidly evolve their underwriting approaches or risk significant customer dissatisfaction and regulatory scrutiny. That's why we've enhanced our market-leading Travel Insurance Price Benchmarking Tool to include comprehensive pre-existing conditions analysismaking it the most complete coverage tool in the market." The research suggests three potential industry approaches:

1. Conservative stance: Treating all GLP-1 usage as pre-existing conditions, potentially pricing out millions of customers

2. Risk-based differentiation: Distinguishing between diabetic treatment and weight management use

3. Innovation opportunity: Creating new product categories for preventive health treatments Consumer Intelligence's expanded benchmarking capabilities now enable insurers to track competitor pricing strategies across the full spectrum of pre-existing conditions, including these emerging medication categoriescritical intelligence as the market navigates this transformation. Consumer Impact and Recommendations

The research reveals a critical discrepancy in how consumers understand their medical status: whilst 60% of respondents are currently taking prescription medications, only 53% acknowledge having medical conditions they're taking medication for. This 7-percentage-point gap highlights how differently consumers respond based on how questions are frameda crucial consideration for insurance applications. "This discrepancy isn't just semanticsit demonstrates how the wording of insurance questions can inadvertently lead to non-disclosure," noted Hughes. "When consumers don't connect their prescriptions to 'medical conditions,' the risk of unintentional misrepresentation increases significantly." Consumer Intelligence recommends that insurance buyers:

 Always declare any prescribed medications, regardless of purpose

 Request written clarification from insurers about specific medications

 Keep detailed records of medical consultations and prescriptions

 Review policy terms carefully, particularly exclusion clauses For insurers, the firm advocates:

 Immediate clarification of underwriting guidelines

 Investment in customer education initiatives

 Development of nuanced risk assessment frameworks

 Proactive engagement with healthcare providers and regulators

 Utilisation of comprehensive benchmarking tools to track market pricing evolution "With pre-existing conditions now integrated into our Travel Insurance Price Benchmarking Tool, insurers can track real-time market responses to these emerging challenges," added Hughes. "This transparency is essential as the industry navigates uncharted territory with medications that don't fit traditional categories."


Chaos in Nepal: Tourists Stranded as Protests Shut Down Kathmandu Airport 2

Hundreds of tourists, including many from India, have been stranded in Nepal after Kathmandu Airport was shut down due to violent Gen Z protests against alleged corruption and the Oli governments controversial social media ban.

The youth-led demonstrations, which began peacefully, spiralled into violent clashes with security forces, leaving several people dead and prompting mobs to attack politicians and torch the homes of leaders. With major highways also blocked by protesters, travellers remain trapped across the capital.

Among those stranded is a group of friends from Navi Mumbai who had come to visit the Pashupatinath Temple. We were travelling in Nepal with friends, but a curfew was imposed after we arrived. The situation is very problematic now. The sooner we find a way to leave safely, the better it will be for us, one of them told IANS. Another said they had been confined to their hotel for two days and had contacted the Indian Embassy, which advised them to remain indoors until arrangements for evacuation are made.

Tourists from other countries are facing the same plight. A German traveller said, The situation is very bad. Yesterday I saw a lot of smoke from hotels. They were burning, and people were dyinginnocent people. Its very sad. I hope everything will return to normal soon. Another German, part of a group of 14, added, We are safe, but we hope that we can leave tomorrow.

The Indian Embassy has assured stranded nationals that efforts are underway to arrange their safe return, but until then, tourists have been asked to stay inside their hotels. With Nepals unrest still volatile, uncertainty looms large as travellers wait anxiously for safe passage out of the country.
Authorities are trying to identify four men who bound, beat and robbed Montgomery businessman Jim Massey in his office on March 10. (Central Alabama Crime Stoppers)

Two Birmingham men are now charged in the assault of a well-known Montgomery businessman who was bound, beaten, and robbed in a holdup at his dry-cleaning business earlier this year.

Spirit Hooks, 51, and Clinton Thompson, 55, are the third and fourth suspects charged in the March 10, 2025, assault and robbery at Jim Massey Cleaners in Montgomery.

Additionally, 67-year-old Spencer Dragon Thomas, of Prattville, pleaded guilty to one count of Hobbs Act Robbery, said Middle District of Alabama Acting U.S. Attorney Kevin Davidson said Wednesday.

Zedekia Sykes, 58, previously pleaded guilty to the same crime.

The conviction carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Sentencing dates have not yet been announced.

Sykes was arrested in March. Thomas was taken into custody May 27 in Las Vegas.

Masseys ordeal began at 6:10 p.m. Monday, March 10, when he was inside his business and heard a noise at the door.

When he went to investigate, Massey was confronted by four men dressed as construction workers, including hard hats and high-visibility vests.

Authorities are trying to identify four men who bound, beat and robbed Montgomery businessman Jim Massey in his office on March 10. (Central Alabama Crime Stoppers)

The assailants grabbed Massey and forced him into an office where his locked safe was located, according to the federal complaint. Massey told them he didnt know the combination from memory and would need his phone.

One of the men punched Massey in the eye. Someone else went and retrieved Masseys phone.

Massey, documents said, opened the safe and stole between $6,000 and $8,000.

After collecting the cash, the men walked Massey back into an office where they bound his feet and hands with zip-ties, ripped the businesss phones from their connections and stole Masseys cell phone and car keys.

All four left in Masseys vehicle.

Moments later, all four suspects were captured on home surveillance cameras near Noble Avenue in Montgomery.

That footage showed them walking and one of them told the others to take off their jackets, which they did.

An investigation was immediately launched by Montgomery police, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, the FBI and the Metro Area Crime Suppression Task Force.

On March 19, according to the criminal complaint, two men went to Masseys business and told him they knew what happened.

They wanted money to tell him, saying they would need it to leave town after disclosing the facts.

Investigators then responded to the business, where those two people told them that Sykes orchestrated the robbery and had been planning it for months.

They also said they had been recruited by Sykes to help him carry out the crime. They met Sykes at a pre-determined location and were patted down to make sure they didnt have any recording devices, the complaint states.

They got into a vehicle and drove by Jim Masseys Cleaners, learning that would be their target.

Sykes also drove them to Masseys home and said if they could not get him at the business, they would get him at his home.

The plan, the witnesses told investigators, was for the attackers to dress in all black.

Sykes, they said, later changed that to construction gear as if they worked with Alabama Power Company since it would be daylight outside during the offense.

Those two witnesses said they backed out.

When they saw the news story of the robbery, they felt they need to inform the victim of what happened, an investigator wrote.

A confidential informant also came forward and identified Sykes as the culprit.

The Metro Area Crime Suppression Task Force then began to conduct surveillance on Sykes on March 21 while he was at the Wind Creek Casino.

Sykes was then followed back to Montgomery and remained under surveillance and under investigation.

Authorities learned that Sykes credit card had been used to buy hard hats and safety vests similar to those worn by the suspects in the Massey holdup.

As investigator continued to watch Sykes, they saw him open the trunk to his Buick and spotted a large duffle bag that appeared to be similar to the one used in the robbery.

Agents also spotted bottles in the vehicle that appeared to be filled with urine, leading them to believe Sykes was living in the Buick.
By Laman Ismayilova



This year marks the 140th anniversary of the birth of the great Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibayli.

As part of the festival, which is held every year with great interest and enthusiasm, concerts, performances, exhibitions, scientific symposiums, and master classes will be organized in several major cities across the country.

The participation of the State Children's Philharmonic is also planned for the festival.

The concert program will feature performances by the Children's Philharmonic's folk instruments orchestra and ensemble, wind instruments ensemble, dance groups consisting of both boys and girls, as well as vocal and choir classes, piano and violin performers  all of whom will present some of the great composer's most valuable works.

The concert scheduled within the framework of the festival will begin on September 26.

The 17th International Music Festival dedicated to the great composer and founder of Azerbaijani classical music, Uzeyir Hajibayli, will kick off in Azerbaijan on September 18.

The festival, organized by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Azerbaijan Culture Ministry with the support of the Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation and Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) will run until September 28.

The events will take place in Baku, Sumgayit, Shusha, Ganja, Agjabadi, Nakhchivan, and Gazakh, featuring magnificent concerts, performances, exhibitions, scientific symposia, and master classes.

The festival will see renowned performers and musicologists from Turkiye, the USA, Germany, France, Switzerland, the Republic of Korea, and other countries, alongside Azerbaijani musicians.
Daniel Parker Watson, 31, is charged with capital murder in the 2023 murders of Tiffany Michele Hernandez and Jason Joseph Brown, both 40, in Birmingham. (Carol Robinson)

A man accused of killing four people in two Alabama counties knew exactly what he was doing when he went into a Birmingham home and fatally shot two people in the head, Jefferson County prosecutors say.

Its completely obvious what this defendants intent was, Chief Deputy District Attorney Joe Roberts said in opening statements.

It was to kill.

Daniel Parker Watson, 31, is charged with capital murder in the 2023 murders of Tiffany Michele Hernandez and Jason Joseph Brown, both 40, in Birmingham.

He is also charged in St. Clair County with capital murder in the shooting death of 37-year-old wife and mother Amber Manning and with murder in the fatal shooting of 62-year-old Timothy Davidson.

Watsons trial in the Birmingham slayings began Tuesday before Circuit Judge Shanta Owens after two days of jury selection.

While attorneys for Watson say there is no question that their client killed Hernandez and Brown  he confessed to police on body camera footage and directed them to the victims bodies  the reason is not what prosecutors contend.

Defense attorneys described Watson as a broken child and a broken young man who carried out the Birmingham killings in the heat of passion while high on drugs because he believed they had molested his two young daughters.

This is not a case of who did this, attorney Jeffrey Dummier said in his opening statements. Its why.

If youre high, using methamphetamine and cocaine, and actually using them together, your thoughts are not your own, Dummier told the jury.

Does that excuse him from the crime? No, it does not, he said. But it does raise the question of intent.

Roberts and Deputy District Attorney Neal Zarzour are prosecuting the case. Watson is represented by Dummier, Louvenia Borom and Michael Dillard.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Daniel Parker Watson (Jefferson County Jail)

The investigation about 12:01 that morning when St. Clair County deputies responded to a disturbance at 1 Ivy Drive in Ragland.

When they arrived, deputies found Manning dead in the driveway.

Davidson was still alive inside the residence. He was flown by lifesaver to UAB hospital and later pronounced dead.

St. Clair County officials quickly named Watson as a suspect and issued a lookout bulletin for him.

Now-retired Leeds police Sgt. Scott Nelson was on patrol and parked in a gravel lot to monitor traffic.

He had seen the BOLO out of St. Clair County and had studied the suspects face and information.

It was about 5 a.m. when a white Dodge truck pulled up to him.

Watson was behind the wheel, rolled down the window, and told Nelson, I need to tell someone about what I did in Birmingham.

Nelson, according to prosecutors and his own testimony, recognized Watson immediately, pulled out his gun, and ordered him to put his hands on his head.

The guns are at my feet, Watson told Nelson.

Nelson took Watson into custody and began to tell him that he had killed two people in Jefferson County.

Sgt. Nelson was a little bit confused because he recognized him from that BOLO and he said, Dont you mean Pell City? Roberts said.

He said, No. The defendant assured him there were two dead bodies in Jefferson County.

Nelson realized that Watson was admitting to him that he shot two people in Birmingham and two people in Ragland.

The defendant told Sgt. Nelson that Jason Brown and Tiffany Hernandez had abused his children, and he went over there and shot them in the head, Roberts said.

Jason Brown and Tiffany Hernandez (Contributed)

At that point, law enforcement didnt know anything about the murders in South East Lake.

Nelson was communicating with St. Clair deputies and Birmingham police.

They began to search and locate and check on them, Roberts said of Brown and Hernandez. Unfortunately, when they found them, it was very obvious what had happened.

Testimony showed that the double murder happened at Watsons grandmothers home.

Watson and Brown were supposedly renovating it to sell, and he was allowing Brown to live there during the work.

When he went into that house, he took Jason Browns 9 mm Taurus and shot him in the face, killing him, Roberts said.

He took that same 9mm Taurus and shot Tiffany Hernandez in the back of the head, killing her.

With specific directions and descriptions from Watson, Birmingham police descended on the house. Both victims were pronounced dead inside.

Drugs, no drugs, it couldnt have been any clearer what he was trying to do, what he intended to do, and what he did do, Roberts said.

Two head shots- one to the face, one to the back of the head. Two lives lost. No question about intent. The intent was to kill.

Tim Davidson and Amber Manning were fatally shot at a St. Clair County residence. (Special to AL.com)

Dummier told the jury about Watsons life growing up.

How do you fix a broken child who rose up in a home where there are no constraints. Theres no bedtime, theres no three meals a day, Dummier said.

What do you do with a child whose only support is a sibling seven years older who leaves home at 17? What do you do with a child who grows up with a daddy who drank 12 beers or more a day until he falls asleep?

What do you do with a child that went to school in dirty clothes, smelling like animal feces to the point where they dont want to go to school? he said.

And why would they? Theyre getting made fun of, they are bullied.

What do you do with a broken young man who runs off to the other broken young men? he said.

What do they do? Drugs. Questionable people. Questionable practices. In and out of juvenile homes.

Most people dont see the world in the same way that Watson did, Dummier implied, and have control over their own thoughts.

Dummier said Watson at the time of the crimes had not slept in days and was under the influence of drugs.

When he goes into that house, hes amped up on methamphetamine, cocaine, its like a skyrocket, the attorney said, adding that Watson was paranoid and delusional.

The question is not whether he committed this crime, but what crime did he commit, Dummier said.

Dummier also talked about Watsons allegations that the victims had abused his daughters, who were ages 5 and 2 at the time.

Im not saying that, but thats what he believed, Dummier said. If your truth is clouded by drug use, lack of sleep, youll believe anything.

Nelson, in his testimony, said Watson was all over the place, when they spoke, but said he did not believe he was under the influence of drugs.

Body camera footage showed in court depicted Watson recounting for Nelson what he had done.

He told Nelson he believed the victims had inappropriately touched his daughters when he had left the girls at the East Lake house while he went to the store.

Those are my babies dude, Watson told Nelson.

Watson was talkative, polite and cooperate as he related the events to Nelson.

He said after killing he had gone to Ragland to try to find a place to stay and make a nice life for he and his daughters.

The body camera footage was played for jurors.

He got into an argument with the St. Clair victims and killed them.

Im turning myself in, man, Watson told Nelson.

Nelson testified that he turned on his body camera after he handcuffed and put Watson in the car.

Asked by defense attorney Borom why he didnt turn it on immediately, Nelson said: I was facing a guy that just killed two people, and I was thinking he could shoot me in the head too. The body camera wasnt on my mind.

The trial is expected to last through the end of the week.
Retired Auburn University veterinary professor Julie Gard Schnuelle was killed on Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025, in an Auburn park. (Contributed)

A memorial service will be held Saturday for a beloved Auburn University professor emerita who was killed while walking her dog in a park last week.

Julie Gard Schnuelle, 59, was found slain about 2 p.m. Saturday in Auburns Kiesel Park.

The slaying happened earlier in the day, and authorities said she sustained injuries consistent with sharp force trauma.

Julie was a beloved wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend, along with being an accomplished veterinarian, teacher, and scientist, according to her obituary published Wednesday.

Her unwavering love, joyous laughter, and strong spirit will be deeply missed by all who had the privilege of knowing her.

The memorial service is set for 12:30 p.m. at the First Baptist Church of Opelika.

The Julie Gard Schnuelle Annual Scholarship Fund has been established at Auburn Universitys College of Veterinary Medicine in her honor.

Earlier Wednesday, the Lee County District Attorneys Office released a statement on the familys behalf and asked for privacy for the family.

We are deeply saddened by the loss of our dear Julie Gard Schnuelle, according to the familys statement. We are incredibly grateful for the outpouring of love and support our family has received.

Julie lived a life full of love and service to others and will be truly missed, the statement read. We know her legacy will have a positive influence for generations to come.

Harold Rashad Dabney II, 28, is charged with capital murder during a kidnapping and capital murder during a theft.

Auburn police were called to Kiesel Park about 2 p.m. Saturday after receiving a 911 call of a person who appeared to be dead. Officers found Schnuelle in a wooded area of the park. Her dog was unharmed.

Schnuelles red Ford F-150 was discovered missing from an area near the crime scene.

Court documents state the attack happened at 10:17 a.m.

About 8:30 a.m. Sunday, Auburn police responded to a call reporting a suspicious person near the 2300 block of Beehive Road.

The suspicious person was located by officers and identified as Dabney.

Officers in contact with Dabney made observations that led them to believe Dabney had involvement with the homicide that occurred the previous day, police said Sunday afternoon.

After further investigation, Dabney was confirmed to be the suspect responsible for the homicide, and he was charged with two counts of capital murder.

Schnuelles Ford F-150 that police said was stolen by Dabney after the killing was later recovered off Wire Road.

Dabney was taken to the Lee County Jail where he is being held without bond. His preliminary hearing is set for early October.

Harold Rashad Dabney III is charged with two counts of capital murder in the Sept. 6, 2025, sharp force trauma death of retired Auburn University professor Dr. Julie Gard Schnuelle. (Contributed)

A native of New Jersey, Schnuelle spent her early childhood in the Pacific Northwest. After relocating to North Carolina for a short time, her family moved to Memphis, TN where she attended Harding Academy.

She began her undergraduate degree at Harding University in Arizona and completed her degree at the University of Alabama at Birmingham where she graduated in 1988 with a bachelors degree in Biology.

Schnuelle continued her education at Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine, while raising two children, and graduated with honors in 1996. In 2003, she was awarded a PhD at Auburn University in Biomedical Sciences with honors.

Julie became a full professor of clinical sciences at Auburn Universitys College of Veterinary Medicine, where she taught, conducted research, mentored students, and cared for animals, according to her obituary.

She retired in 2021 as professor emerita honoring her years of service and achievement.

Shortly after retiring from the university, Schnuelle began working for the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, using her expertise to safeguard animal health across Alabama, Mississippi, and the nation at large.

Schnuelle met her second husband, Archie Schnuelle, while jogging in Kiesel Park and they married in 2025. With their marriage, Julie became a loving stepmother to Archies children, the obit reads.

Despite her numerous achievements, Julies greatest legacy is the love that she gave so freely to any person or animal that came into her life, according to the obituary.

She is now united with her God, and the love she gave remains as a testimony and gift to all who will miss her.
A new laboratory classroom in the Edward O. Wilson Science Research Center on the campus of Alabama School of Mathematics and Science in Mobile, Ala. (Photo by Margaret Kates | mkates@al.com) Margaret Kates

This is a guest opinion column

I have thoroughly enjoyed the leadership roles Ive held in schools for over 15 years, but Ill always have special fondness for my early days as a science teacher. Thats among the reasons the latest Nations Report Card hits so hard.

Students across the country lost significant ground in science on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the Nations Report Card or NAEP, released Tuesday. Eighth graders nationwide scored four points lower than in 2019. The drops were seen across all three tested content areasphysical, life, and earth and space sciences.

This follows similar declines on the Nations Report Card, referred to as the gold standard in assessment, in math, reading, civics, and U.S. history. Across the board, students are struggling academically.

Less than a third of students who took the science assessment scored at the NAEP Proficient level, meaning they could identify the major components of living cells or describe the physical properties of a substance.

Nearly 40 percent are working below the NAEP Basic level; they likely cant identify the key functions of an organ system, like the cardiovascular or digestive system.

As the chief academic officer of a public charter school, I dont want charter schools to take their flat scores as relatively good news, compared to the decline seen by traditional district schools. A closer look at charter scores showed the students struggling the most academicallythose achieving in the bottom quartile had exceptionally large achievement declines in science. We must do better.

We dont have NAEP state-by-state data on the science assessment, like we do for math and reading. But Im hoping the results galvanize states to take action like Alabama is with new initiatives to improve teaching and learning in science.

Alabama recently adopted more rigorous science standards and new instructional materials aligned to those standards. The state department of education also makes online resources to support teachers available to help educators weave the standards into their lesson plans.

Challenges for schools in Alabama and around the country include limited funding and professional development for science, as well as limited instructional time. The scores released Tuesday should prompt us to rethink all of these critical elements.

Our students need time to learn science deeply, access to up-to-date labs, and opportunities for experiences like field trips to connect science to the world around them. When I taught high-school science in Canada at the start of my career, I loved conducting hands-on labs with students to examine water quality or look at bacterial growth on high-touchpoint areas and taking field trips with them, including one to Algonquin National Park, where we studied wolves in their habitat. Ill never forget how students lit up when learning in these ways.

If we dont make changes, we will be shortchanging our children. The STEM workforce is growing. Students need to be prepared today for the jobs of tomorrow.

And there is a role for all of us here. Businesses and STEM employers, in particular, can volunteer in schools, provide resources, and create apprenticeship and internship opportunities for students.

Parents can take action too. Im a mom to two boys who love science and are pursuing college degrees in STEM fields. We always talked about science at home and visited places like science museums. We also tried to give them chores that supported STEM learningfrom tending to the lawn to cooking or doing repairs around the house.

Kids learn so much from doing science, not just studying it. Unfortunately, the latest Nations Report Card shows a decrease in the doing of science in schools. In a survey accompanying achievement scores, fewer students report doing things like designing experiments to answer a research question.

Alabama has an opportunity to lead here. The state is receiving high marks for its progress in math, the only state to have significantly recovered from pre-pandemic scores in that subject in elementary math on The Nations Report Card. More recently, Alabama won accolades for state policies related to math instruction in a report by the nonprofit NCTQ.

Science deserves the same level of focus. Lets make it a priority, show the rest of the country how its done, and give our children the future-ready education they need.

Dilhani Uswatte is the chief academic officer for i3 Academy, a public charter school in Birmingham, Alabama. She is also a member of the National Assessment Governing Board, which sets policy for The Nations Report Card.
Alabama native Polly Holliday, the actress known for portraying the sassy TV character Flo Castleberry and popularized the catchphrase kiss my grits, has died at age 88. Photo by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

Alabama native Polly Holliday, the actress known for portraying the sassy TV character Flo Castleberry and popularizing the catchphrase Kiss my grits, has died at age 88, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

She died Tuesday at her Manhattan home. She leaves behind no immediate family, the Reporter said.

Holliday played Flo on the CBS sitcom Alice, which ran from 1976 to 1985, and later in the spin-off Flo, which ran for two seasons. The series, starring Linda Lavin in the title role, was based on the 1974 film Alice Doesnt Live Here Anymore. Holliday won two Golden Globes and received four Emmy nominations for her portrayal of the beehive-wearing waitress.

Holliday also portrayed Lillian Patterson, Jills mother, on the sitcom Home Improvement. Her film roles include Gloria in Mrs. Doubtfire, Mrs. Deagle in Gremlins, Capt. Amanda Allen in Private Benjamin and Marva in the 1998 version of The Parent Trap, according to her IMDb page.

She was also a stage actress who received a Tony nomination in 1990 for a revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Holliday was born July 2, 1937, in Jasper, Ala., to Ernest and Velma Holliday. She graduated from Alabama College for Women (now Montevallo) and attended Florida State for one year before leaving school to devote herself to acting.

Alabama native Polly Holliday, the actress known for portraying the sassy TV character Flo Castleberry and popularized the catchphrase kiss my grits, has died at age 88. Birmingham News File

She made her Broadway debut two years later in the All Over Town, directed by Dustin Hoffman. Hoffman recommended Holliday for her first movie role as a secretary in 1976s All the Presidents Men.

Holliday used her Southern accent to her advantage to land the role of Flo, according to an article on the Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Ironically, Holliday had been working to lose her southern accent in order to avoid typecasting, the article said. But in this instance, it was an asset. For her audition, Holliday recalled that she exaggerated her normal Alabama accent slightly and that one of the producers fell off his chair laughing in response.

READ MORE: Iconic performances by Alabama actors

Holliday became known for saying, Kiss my grits, on Alice. In the film Alice Doesnt Live Here Anymore, Diane Ladd played Flo and used the line, Kiss me where the sun dont shine. That phrase was a little too bawdy for prime-time television at the time so Holliday changed it slightly and made it her own. Read the full obituary on The Hollywood Reporter here.
Actor James McAvoy poses for photographers on arrival at the European Premiere of the film 'It Chapter 2' in central London on Monday, Sept. 2, 2019. (Photo by Grant Pollard/Invision/AP) Grant Pollard/Invision/AP

James McAvoy was punched in a Toronto bar on Monday.

The Hollywood actor, 46, is currently working on his directorial debut.

According to PEOPLE, MacAvoy was hit by a man at a bar at about 11:55 p.m. The report indicates the X-Men star was caught off guard and tried to deescalate the situation, while others tried to intervene.

James was having a casual get-together with the producers of his movie and, as he later learned when speaking with the staff, there was a man who drank too much who was getting escorted out, a source told PEOPLE. James back was to him and the man just punched him.

McAvoy, per the report, stayed after the incident and, per the report, even laughed off the incident with other patrons and the staff.

Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on The Opening Kickoff on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.
Pride has two faces. Positive pride is the healthy self-esteem you feel when youve worked hard, achieved something or are living in line with your values. Negative pride is the inflated ego or sense of superiority that can disconnect you from others or blind you to your own flaws. Under Aries moon, stay aware of how pride shows up. Lean toward the kind that inspires rather than alienates.

ARIES (March 21-April 19). The way your mind plays with risk, creativity and what ifs is incredibly magnetic. While you think boldly, you dont always follow through, and thats wiser than recklessly acting on every impulse.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20). Youll step into something unfamiliar and fun. It adds a value to your day thats not monetary, reminding you that every experience builds a kind of wealth, often in currencies like humility, wisdom, resilience or perspective.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21). Usually you can tell from the storefront what the shop is all about. This is not the case today, as all the metaphoric window displays are either cryptic or misleading. You really must go in and feel the vibes.

CANCER (June 22-July 22). Youll suddenly feel inspired to help someone and to make it special too. To honor a specific preference or give help in a way that is tailored -- this is what makes your people feel so seen and cared for.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). Theres no stopping the storms of life, but your approach doesnt have to be one of cowering. Youve been known to sing in the rain and change the heart and spirit of the weather. In some ways youre doing it right now.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). The things that get the most use are also the most likely to break. It happens whether or not you take precautions, but regular maintenance does help. Apply the principle to a relationship. What maintenance can be done to keep it strong?

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). Youre not angling for anyones approval. Youll be the one people cross the room to meet because youre bringing the one thing money and connections cant produce -- the kind of originality that changes the landscape.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). Getting people on board with your plans wont happen instantly. Youll need to repeat your message and show up in the same way, over and over, so they start to recognize and trust your pattern.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). Check in with your internal environment just as you do when youre checking the weather to prepare for the day. Whats going on inside you will color everything else. Outcomes will be reflections of your inner climate.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). Today youre fluent in the unspoken, reading tone, gesture and pause like text on a page, and knowing exactly when to reply and when to let it land. A shared glance will carry more meaning than a paragraph.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). Theres charm in not over-rehearsing. Your natural rhythm today has a freshness that pulls people in. You could walk into a room with no plan and still leave having made an impression, and possibly a few allies.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). A small exchange with a stranger will brighten your whole afternoon. Its not the words so much as the acknowledgment -- the reminder that even in a crowd, we can still find moments that feel personal and kind.

TODAYS BIRTHDAY (Sept. 10). Welcome to your Year of Steadfast Ascent. Youll find the training process thats perfect for your thriving. Youll decide your path and commit deeply. Big results from simple actions on repeat. More highlights: A special relationship becomes a gem in your life, but not without work. Keep going until the friction points wear smooth. Investments outperform expectations. Your living space transforms into a true reflection of you. Pisces and Aquarius adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 13, 2, 25, 17 and 16.

CELEBRITY PROFILES: Colin Firth, who recently reprised the role of Mark Darcy in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy suggests I dont think you can ever be a perfectionist in a world thats imperfect, but Virgos usually give it the good college try, as evidenced in Firths case by Oscar-winning performances, spot-on accents and fluency in several languages. Firth is a Virgo with natal Venus in Libra suggesting that he is, like so many of the characters he plays, charming, loyal and driven by principles of love and justice.

Holiday Mathis debut novel, How To Fail Epically in Hollywood, is out now! This fast-paced romp about achieving Hollywood stardom is available as a paperback and e-book. Visit creatorspublishing.com for more information. Write Holiday Mathis at HolidayMathis.com.
The South is known for being a friendly place, but Southern Living recently spotlighted a group of businesses that take it to the next level -- and three of them are right here in Alabama.

As part of their 20 Friendliest Places In The South story, readers nominated thousands of businesses from across the region that they felt were the most welcoming before editors narrowed it down to their top picks. Among them were three with locations in Alabama: Bottega restaurant in Birmingham; The Laurel Hotel And Spa in Auburn; and WaWa convenience stores, which has several locations in the Mobile area.

Bottega has been a beloved restaurant in Birmingham since opening in 1988 and has often been recognized for four-time James Beard Award nominee Chef Frank Stitts Southern-Italian fare, but its also known for its gracious service too.

Bottega in Birmingham, Ala. (Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com). Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

From remembering regulars drink orders before they sit down to expertly guiding first-timers through the menu, the team aims to make a fine-dining experience feel like a hug, Pardis Stitt told Southern Living. You dont know what someone has gone through before they come through our doors. As humans, we have to look after one another. Thats what hospitality is.

The Laurel Hotel and Spa, a AAA Five Diamond hotel located in the heart of Auburn, opened in 2022 and has a staff mostly made up of students enrolled in Auburn Universitys Horst Schulze School of Hospitality Management. It garnered a spot on the list thanks to its next-level hospitality, which includes a Champagne toast upon arrival and service at the dining options on its grounds.

You wont find a traditional front desk here. Instead, guests are escorted to The Library for a concierge-level check-in that includes a Champagne toast and a thoughtful orientation to the hotel, general manager Josh Head told Southern Living.

Fairhope Mayor Sherry Sullivan holds up the first official hoagie prepared at Alabama's first Wawa store. Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com

And while WaWa may be a national chain, it opened its first Alabama location in Fairhope in 2024 and has opened several more in the Mobile area since then. So next time youre headed to the beach and looking for a friendly place to stop, it seems WaWa is your best bet.

Whether its a neighborhood staff member who remembers my favorite sandwich toppings or a bright red sign that signals a comforting stop on a long road trip, its the dependable service that keeps me braking for Wawa, Southern Livings Social Media Director Brennan Long said of the gas stations in the article.

You can read the full Southern Living list here.
State DHR workers named in a wrongful death lawsuit in the hot-car death of an Alabama foster child are asking to be dismissed as defendants, claiming they have state-agent immunity.

Kettorius KJ Starkes Jr., 3, died July 22 while in the care of 54-year-old Kela Stanford, who at the time worked as a transport driver for Covenant Services Inc., which contracts with DHR.

In Alabama, state-agent immunity protects public employees from liability for damages when their actions are part of a discretionary function, meaning they involved the use of judgment in policy or the execution of their duties.

DHRs request was filed on Tuesday by Assistant Attorney General Cameron W. Elkins.

CSI has also asked to be dismissed from the lawsuit, again claiming state-agent immunity since the company contracted with DHR to provide visitation supervision and transportation services.

In CSIs motion to dismiss, Stanford, who is also charged criminally, denied she acted negligently and denied that any alleged negligence on her part approximately caused or contributed to the plaintiffs injuries and/or damages.

Separate motions to dismiss for CSI and individual defendants were filed by their attorneys.

DHRs efforts to dismiss this wrongful death and not provide closure for KJs family is unbelievable, said attorney Courtney French, who filed the wrongful death suit on behalf of KJs family.

The system we are supposed to trust with our precious children is trying to dodge accountability and responsibility.

We will not give up the fight for justice for KJ, French said.

DHR has previously said it does not comment on pending litigation.

KJ was found dead that Tuesday night in Stanfords vehicle in the driveway of her east Birmingham home. The lawsuit contends KJ had been left in the locked car for more than five hours where temperatures reached in excess of 140 degrees.

Stanford has been charged with leaving a child unattended in a motor vehicle, which is a Class B felony. She was immediately fired after KJs death.

The lawsuit was filed in Jefferson County Circuit Court last month and names as defendants Stanford, Covenant Services, and multiple employees with the Alabama Department of Human Resources and the Jefferson County Department of Human Resources.

On the Tuesday of KJs death, he was picked up at 9 a.m. by Stanford for a scheduled visit with his biological father at DHR in Bessemer. The visit ended about 11:30 a.m.

According to the lawsuit, Stanford was supposed to immediately return KJ to daycare but instead ran numerous personal errands with KJ buckled in a car seat in the back of the car.

Stanford stopped to pick up food for her family and then delivered the food to her home while leaving KJ in her car.

Ketorrius KJ Starkes Jr. (Special to AL.com)

She then left her home again to go shop at a tobacco store, again with KJ still in his car seat.

Stanford, according to the lawsuit, returned to her home about 12:30 p.m., again leaving KJ in the vehicle parked in her driveway. The windows were closed, the engine was turned off and the doors were locked.

KJ remained trapped in (Stanfords) parked vehicle for more than five hours, according to the lawsuit.

(Stanfords) vehicle was equipped with dark black tinted windows in violation of Alabama law.

The lawsuit states the National Weather Service in Birmingham issued a heat advisory for that day reporting temperatures over 96 degrees with a heat index range of 105 to 109.

During the five hours that KJ was missing from his daycare, the defendants did not inquire about KJs whereabouts, the lawsuit says.

About 5:30 p.m., Stanford received a call asking why the child had not been returned to daycare. She then realized she had left KJ in her hot vehicle, just feet away from her home.

Attorneys have previously said Stanford immediately got KJ out of the car, took him into her home and doused him with cold water.

KJ was pronounced dead at 6:03 p.m.

The lawsuit contends that the defendants breached their mandatory duty to KJ by allowing him to remain in an unsafe environment exposed to ongoing abuse and/or neglect which caused his death.

The defendants actions, the suit states, were negligent.

A judge has not ruled on the defendants motions to dismiss.

Stanfords next court appearance in the criminal case is in October.
Multiple agencies responded to the National Bankhead Forest Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025, after hiker was bitten by a venomous snake. The rescue took about eight hours. (Lawrence County Sheriff's Office)

An Alabama hiker is on the mend after an afternoon of father-son bonding turned into a terrifying ordeal last week.

On Sept. 4 Tyler Roach was hiking in the Sipsey Wilderness, part of Bankhead National Forest, with his father when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his left calf.

When he turned to look at his leg, Roach was greeted by what he said is one of every hikers worst fears.

According to Roachs GoFundMe page, he saw a large Copperhead snake attached to his calf.

We were in an area with no cell phone coverage, leaving us with no option other than to hike out, a hike I ultimately would not be able to complete, the page reads.

The Lawrence County Sheriffs Office was notified about 3 p.m. Thursday via a 911 call that a man was bitten near the Big Tree, as AL.com reported previously.

The departments Multi-Agency Search and Rescue Team was immediately activated.

Upon arrival at the trailhead, deputies met with Roachs father who had hiked out to call for help.

The SAR team hiked into the forest and found Roach, who was experiencing multiple symptoms, including vomiting, swelling, and abdominal pain from a snake bite to the lower leg.

Authorities believe Roach was bitten by a rattlesnake but have not confirmed, Sheriff Max Sanders told AL.com previously.

An IV was started, and initial medications were administered on site.

ALEA Aviation provided air support for communication between the SAR team and the command center. The extraction helicopter, however, was unavailable because of maintenance, officials told AL.com previously.

The rescue, which Roach said involved over 12 agencies and groups, took roughly eight hours, according to Sanders.

Roughly ten hours after being bitten [around 11 p.m.], I would be carried via MedAir to the hospital to receive treatment, Roachs GoFundMe reads.

I was out of the woods, but the fight was far from over.

For five days Roach experienced allergic reactions to antivenin, extreme dehydration, severe muscle damage, and the threat of kidney failure, according to his page.

But as of this week, he has started physical therapy.

The doctors say that things are looking up, but the road to recovery will be a very long and slowly progressing one, leaving me unsure of when I will be able to return to work with estimates in several months, he wrote.

It is here that I am asking for help, his GoFuneMe reads.

Not only for the unforeseen medical bills, but with the day-to-day expenses through a lengthy recovery until I am able to return to work and be back on both feet again.

The page has raised over $1,300 as of Sept. 10.
August Borden was airlifted to a Birmingham ICU where he was treated for a fractured skull, two broken orbital sockets and more after an incident at Deshler High School. His father still doesn't know exactly what happened to him. Jason Borden

A criminal investigation is underway into the case of August Borden, a 15-year-old who was seriously injured last month at Deshler High School.

The Colbert County officials determined it was a criminal case and turned it over to the Madison County District Attorney on Aug. 28. Madison Countys DA confirmed the case is being handled as a criminal investigation.

READ MORE: Father of severely injured Deshler teen wants answers: Entire school system is now broken

Borden was airlifted from the Tuscumbia school on Aug. 19 with brain injuries, broken orbital bones and more.

Contrasting stories began circulating shortly after he was injured as to what happened. The school system announced that Borden suffered injuries from a fall, while other school officials told his dad, Jason, another student had injured him.

In a statement sent to AL.com, Jason Borden said he has been fighting for transparency ever since the incident.

Let me be clear.

The truth is, this has always been a criminal investigation. The attack on my son, an attack that left him momentarily dead on school property, an attack that left him unresponsive in critical care, was a criminal act. And the person who committed it? The school told me on day one who was responsible."

Today is a huge step forward. Not just for me, not just for my family, but for every parent in this school district. For every child who is forced to attend school with a violent criminal who, even nownearly four weeks laterhas faced no punishment.

We need to send a message. We need to tell the district that our children are not disposable. That their safety is not up for negotiation. This isnt just about my son; its about all our sons and daughters. Its about a community demanding accountability. And we wont stop until justice is served.

The Madison County District Attorneys office said the investigation is underway.
Israel strikes Hamas building in Doha; son of Hamas leader killed

Xinhua) 08:16, September 10, 2025

Security personnel are seen near the site of an Israeli airstrike in Doha, Qatar, Sept. 9, 2025. Israel launched an unprecedented airstrike in the Qatari capital of Doha on Tuesday, targeting a building used by senior Hamas officials in what Israeli authorities described as an attempt to assassinate leaders of the group. (Photo by Nikku/Xinhua)

DOHA/JERUSALEM, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Israel launched an unprecedented airstrike in the Qatari capital of Doha on Tuesday, targeting a building used by senior Hamas officials in what Israeli authorities described as an attempt to assassinate leaders of the group.

Hamas said Tuesday evening that the attack occurred while its delegation was discussing a new ceasefire proposal presented by U.S. President Donald Trump. According to the group, the negotiating team survived, but six others were killed.

The movement identified the Palestinian victims as Jihad Lubad, office director of Hamas political bureau member Khalil al-Hayya; Hammam al-Hayya, son of Khalil al-Hayya; and escorts Abdullah Abdulwahid, Moamen Hassouna, and Ahmed al-Mamlouk. It also confirmed the death of Badr Saad Mohammed al-Humaidi, a member of Qatar's Internal Security Force.

Israeli authorities did not immediately confirm who was killed. In a joint statement, the Israeli military and the Shin Bet security agency said the strike targeted Hamas leaders "directly responsible for the Oct. 7 massacre" and used "precise munitions and intelligence" to limit civilian harm.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it "a wholly independent Israeli operation." "Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility," he said in a statement released by his office.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters later in the day that the Trump administration was informed by the U.S. military that Israel was striking Hamas targets, "which very unfortunately, was located in a section of Doha, the capital of Qatar."

Leavitt said that Trump "immediately directed Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to inform Qatar of the impending attack, which he did."

However, Qatar denied having prior knowledge, calling such claims "baseless." "The call from a U.S. official came during the sound of explosions caused by the Israeli attack in Doha," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed bin Mohammed Al Ansari said in a post on X. The ministry condemned the strike as a "serious threat" to citizens and residents, a violation of sovereignty, and announced the suspension of ongoing negotiations.

Eyewitnesses reported loud explosions and plumes of smoke rising over the Qatari capital. Qatar's Interior Ministry said specialized teams had secured the site and that "the situation is safe."

An Israeli official, speaking with Xinhua on condition of anonymity, said more than a dozen warplanes took part and at least 10 bombs were dropped on the building. Preparations for the strike had been ongoing for months, the official said.

Preparations for the operation were accelerated on Monday, "following the deadly attacks in Jerusalem and Gaza," Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement. They referred to a shooting attack by two Palestinian men from the occupied West Bank at a Jerusalem bus stop that killed six and a clash in Gaza that killed four Israeli troops on Monday. They said the airstrikes were carried out "precisely and optimally."

An ambulance is seen near the site of an Israeli airstrike in Doha, Qatar, Sept. 9, 2025. Israel launched an unprecedented airstrike in the Qatari capital of Doha on Tuesday, targeting a building used by senior Hamas officials in what Israeli authorities described as an attempt to assassinate leaders of the group. (Photo by Nikku/Xinhua)

The attack drew swift international condemnation. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the strike as a "flagrant violation" of Qatar's sovereignty. "We are just learning about the Israeli attacks in Qatar, a country that has been playing a very positive role to achieve a ceasefire and the release of all hostages," he told reporters in New York.

He added, "I condemn this flagrant violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar. All parties must work towards achieving a permanent ceasefire, not destroying it."

Saudi Arabia also criticized what it called continued Israeli violations in the region, citing recent strikes in Syria's Homs and Latakia governorates as breaches of international law and the 1974 Disengagement Agreement.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei denounced the Doha strike as "extremely dangerous, criminal and in violation of the UN Charter," saying it was part of Israel's "continued crimes" against international law.

Other countries and organizations, including Egypt, Jordan, Turkiye, and the Arab League, also rushed to condemn the Israeli attacks.

In a statement, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents families of hostages still held in Gaza, said they were following developments in Doha "with deep concern and grave fear."

"The chance of bringing them back is now more uncertain than ever, with one absolute certainty -- their time is running out," the families said. "It is time to end the war."

"I am trembling with fear," Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is among the hostages, wrote on social media. She said the attack could destroy the chances for a deal and accused Netanyahu of repeatedly "sabotaging the deal."

A helicopter is seen near the site of an Israeli airstrike in Doha, Qatar, Sept. 9, 2025. Israel launched an unprecedented airstrike in the Qatari capital of Doha on Tuesday, targeting a building used by senior Hamas officials in what Israeli authorities described as an attempt to assassinate leaders of the group. (Photo by Nikku/Xinhua)

(Web editor: Huang Kechao, Liang Jun)
By Laman Ismayilova



Finnish rock icons The Rasmus are making their debut in Azerbaijan with a highly anticipated concert at the Heydar Aliyev Palace on November 4.

The Rasmus is a Finnish rock band formed in 1994 in Helsinki. Known for their distinctive blend of alternative rock and gothic tones, they rose to international fame with powerful, catchy songs that fuse dark atmospheres with memorable melodies.

The rock band achieved global success with their 2003 album "Dead Letters", which sold over 2 million copies worldwide and set records for Finnish music royalties abroad, fueled by the mega-hit "In the Shadows."

They have sold millions of albums, earned numerous gold and platinum certifications, won multiple EMMA Awards (the Finnish equivalent of the Grammys), and received international honours such as the MTV Europe Music Award for Best Nordic Act.

Known for their powerful sound and unforgettable hits, the band is ready to deliver a night of raw energy and timeless rock anthems to fans both old and new in Baku.

In an interview with AZERNEWS, band members Emppu Suhonen and Eero Heinonen shared insights about their latest album "Weirdo", describing it as a celebration of individuality with a harder, heavier rock sound.

They also expressed excitement about their upcoming first concert in Baku, looking forward to exploring the city and connecting with new fans.

Q: How would you describe the concept and musical features of your latest album, "Weirdo"? What inspired the creation of this album?

A: Weirdo is a word that may have had a negative tone, but we wanted to turn it upside down. It's a celebration of uniqueness and finding your own personal way of being. We're all weird here!

Musically, this album is a bit harder and heavier. As are the times in the world right now, a lot of bad stuff is happening. We wanted to make a rock album, and it was great to create the sound together with awesome producers Desmond Child and Marti Frederiksen. In the final phase of the process, we also got Joseph McQueen to bring in some additional rock and metal vibes.

Q: Could you tell us more about the concept and vision behind your world tour?

A: We've been very hands-on with the whole tour - visuals, merch and everything. We want to make every show a full experience, so people can step into The Rasmus world for a moment. We'll be playing songs from the past and obviously many songs from the new Weirdo album.

Q: What are your expectations for meeting the Azerbaijani audience at your first concert in Baku?

A: We're always happy and grateful to be able to play in new places in front of new audiences! Before the show, we try to visit local places, try traditional foods and meet local people. That's how we get to know the places we visit a bit more. Venues and hotels are quite the same anyway. Baku will be a whole new thing for us and we're really looking forward to it!

Q: Throughout your career, have there been any musicians or bands that have greatly influenced your sound or approach to music?

A: We used to love stuff like Metallica, Nirvana, RHCP. In a way, those guys also inspired us to dream about having a band, touring the world, and making music that reaches out to new audiences.

In the current day, I like what, for example, Linkin Park does, System of a Down, some stuff from Yungblud, also it's inspiring how Deftones are back in such a big way.

Q: Do you think rock music is at risk of losing its edge in today's music industry, or is it simply undergoing a transformation? How do you see it developing over the next decade?

A: I think that rock is going through a transformation, and one of the exciting examples is that artists don't care anymore for short, "radio-friendly" song format. I think that streaming services have shaped (again) the way we listen to rock: the audience can easily enjoy long, multi-layered rock songs that have very different moods in them. I think this used to be the case when people listened to rock LP's in the past - there were great progressive rock artists who made a lot of experimenting- I think some of that spirit is back.

Q: As a band with a long history in the rock scene, how do you stay relevant while remaining true to your roots?

A: I think you stay relevant if you love what you do, and you stay true to that love. And if you let that passion show to the outside. Many artists come and go, but we're one of those acts that didn't want to quit straight after a few golden moments. I think our roots, our identity, is built a lot on the fact that we're in Nordic culture - in the good and the bad.

Q: What are The Rasmus' plans for the near future in terms of new music or upcoming releases?

New tour in 2025 autumn! We are so excited to come to Azerbaijan! I've never been there, but I'm very curious. I was recently in Iraq, and I like the Middle East: I'm wondering if there are any similarities between the cultures that we've visited and those of Azerbaijan?

Happy to get to meet you soon!
State Rep. Rhett Marques of Enterprise has landed an endorsement from his colleagues in the race for Congress in Alabamas 1st district.

Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter and 31 other Republican representatives announced their support for Marques.

I am honored to have the support of so many of the men and women that I have worked with in the legislature, Marques said in a press release.

While President Trump was providing tax relief to Americans with the One Big Beautiful Bill, we were working on the state level in the Alabama legislature slashing the state tax on groceries, eliminating the state tax on diapers and baby supplies that are critical for young families, and implementing a substantial tax relief package providing relief for our seniors.

Marques previously received an endorsement from Sen. Katie Britt, who is also from Enterprise.

Britts political action committee, Alabama First, gave Marques a $10,000 campaign contribution, the maximum amount allowed.

During his tenure in the Alabama House of Representatives, Rhett Marques has proven himself to be a strong conservative who always puts the needs of our state first, Ledbetter said in the press release.

His record speaks for itself, and while I certainly hate to lose him in the State Legislature, he is the exact kind of leader Alabamas First Congressional District needs in Washington, D.C.

Marques faces former Congressman Jerry Carl in the Republican primary. The 1st District covers the southern edge of the state, from Mobile to Dothan.

There is no incumbent in the race. U.S. Rep. Barry Moore, also of Enterprise, is running for the U.S. Senate.

Moore defeated Carl in the 1st District race last year.
This undated photo posted to Instagram on June 9, 2025, by Iryna Zarutska shows a picture of herself. (Iryna Zarutska via AP) AP

A U.S. attorney and regional FBI leader fought off tears Tuesday as they recalled their conversation with Iryna Zarutskas family at a news conference in Charlotte.

Zarutska, who was 23, was just building her young life, Charlotte FBI Special Agent in Charge James Barnacle Jr. said.

She fled to Charlotte from Ukraine in 2022 to escape Russias invasion of her country.

Last month, as she rode the light rail through South End, Decarlos Brown Jr. stabbed her to death. Footage of the killing has sparked outrage in Charlotte and across the country. President Donald Trump has said she was slaughtered by a deranged monster.

U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson and Barnacle said they spoke with Zarutskas mother and uncle moments before the news conference announcing a federal charge. An FBI translator helped make the conversation possible, they said.

They wanted to talk about their daughter, an emotional Ferguson said of the conversation.

Zarutska had been staying in a bomb shelter in Ukraine before coming to the United States, the men said. She had a degree in art and restoration from a Kyiv college, Barnacle said. The special agent added that she quickly settled into Charlotte when she came to the city.

She made friends, Barnacle said. She immediately got a job the first day she was allowed to work; she got a work permit here ... She worked at a senior citizen center. She worked at a pizza place. She took care of animals in the neighborhood ... She had recently moved in with her partner.

The killing happened as she came home from work, Ferguson confirmed.

The Ukrainian Embassy called and said it could facilitate her return to the country, he said.

Her family said, No. She loved America. Were going to bury her here, the U.S. attorney recalled.

Brown faces state and federal charges: murder in Mecklenburg County and committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system in federal court.

______

2025 The Charlotte Observer. Visit charlotteobserver.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Multiple products ranging from contaminated food to faulty vehicles and unsafe baby products have been recalled between Sept. 1-7.

The recalls have triggered health and safety concerns that could affect consumers.

Endico frozen vegetables recalled

The FDA announced a recall of frozen vegetables from the company Endico Potatoes Inc. due to concerns of potential contamination.

No illnesses have been reported, according to the agency.

The recall follows a product sampling conducted by the state of Pennsylvania that tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes.

Distribution of the contaminated products has ceased as the FDA and Endico investigate the cause.

The lot code of affected products are as follows:

Peas and carrots

Lot number- 110625

Production date- June 11, 2025

Mixed vegetables

Lot number- 170625

Production date- June 17, 2025

The recalled products were sold in NY, NJ, PA, CT, MD, DC, FL between July 18 and Aug. 4.

Consumers with the frozen vegetable products are advised to return them to the place of purchase for a refund.

Ford is recalling over 200,000 vehicles

Ford Motor Company has recalled 2025 versions of the Lincoln Aviator and Ford Explorer due to defective trailer lights.

According to the Department of Transportation, 213,121 vehicles across the two models are affected by the recall.

The cause of the defect has been identified as improper soldering of some components of the vehicles Body Control Module C.

Customers may experience issues with the vehicles power windows, HVAC system, USB port or 12V power point.

Vehicles with over 9,000 miles are likely not defective.

There have been no reported accidents or injuries.

Ford urges owners of vehicles to get them inspected at a Ford or Lincoln dealer to have the Body Control Module C replaced at no charge.

Owners will receive notification letters by Oct. 13. The company will conduct repairs from Mar. 13 to Apr. 3, 2026.

23,000 URMYWO products pose safety hazard

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is issuing a recall for 23,000 Pomona URMYWO baby loungers as they pose a suffocation and fall hazard for infants.

The product fails to meet the mandatory standard for infant sleep products by creating an unsafe sleeping environment, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

This recall concerns URMYWO baby loungers in the style grey feather and the model number UMCZC01AE, which is located on labels printed on the side of the product.

No incidents have been reported.

The baby loungers were sold on Amazon from Jan. 2024 through Apr. 2025 between $30 and $50.

Consumers should cease using the product and contact Pomona. For a full refund consumers should remove the sleeping pad, cut up the sides of the baby loungers and the sleeping pad and email a photo of the destroyed lounger to urmyworecall@yundnetwork.com.

Sunshine Yolks brown eggs recall

Country Eggs, LLC issued a recall on its Large Brown Cage Free Sunshine Yolks eggs due to possible salmonella contamination, warn the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FDA.

The recalled eggs were distributed in California and Nevada and packed in individual retail cartons with the following brand names:

Nagatoshi Produce

Code dates sell by: July 1, 2025 through Sept. 18, 2025

Misuho

Code dates sell by: July 1, 2025 through Sept. 18, 2025

Nijiya Markets

Code dates sell by: July 1, 2025 through Sept. 18, 2025

There have been 92 instances of illness and no deaths reported in connection to the contamination.

The CDC recommends consumers to wash and sanitize items or surfaces that may have come into contact with the recalled eggs

Consumers should return affected cartons to the place of purchase for a full refund.
Royal Caribbean cruise lines is canceling all trips to its private beach resort in Haiti due to safety concerns that are affecting the island nation. Canva/Katherine Rodriguez

A major cruise line is canceling all stops at a popular vacation spot until at least spring of 2026.

Royal Caribbean is suspending stops at its private beach and resort destination Labadee, Haiti, Travelpulse reported. Instead of stopping at the resort, ship itineraries are being change to Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos, Nassau, Bahamas, Falmouth, Jamaica, Grand Canton and Cozumel, Mexico, among other stops. Some cruises are replacing the Labadee visit with an extra day at sea.

We have been monitoring the evolving situation in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and out of an abundance of caution, were cancelling our visit to Labadee, a notice sent to travelers said, according to the report. Were sorry for any inconvenience this may causeyour safety is our top priority. We appreciate your understanding.

The moratorium is in place until at least May 2026.

Haiti is located on the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic sharing the island to the east. Stops at the Dominican Republic will continue, the reports said.

Do not visit, State Department warns

Royal Caribbean stopped visits to Labadee last year due to escalating violence in Haiti.

Haiti is currently under a U.S. State Department Level 4: Do Not Travel warning, the only Caribbean island under that level. Previous warnings cited kidnapping, civil unrest, organized crime and sexual assault with an update issued on July 15 adding concerns over terrorism.

The State Department ordered nonemergency personnel to leave the country in July 2023. Haiti has been under a State of Emergency since March 2024 as violent gangs took over parts of the country, including the capital of Port-au-Prince. The U.S. is no longer allowing commercial flights into the capital.
Officials have identified the officer placed on leave following the crash that killed a high schooler in north Alabama.

Priceville Mayor Sam Heflin informed AL.com officer Garry Chapman has been on administrative leave since Sunday, a day after a high-speed chase resulted in a tragic crash in the nearby city of Hartselle, claiming the life of Tristan Hollis, 17, and injuring five others.

Chapman, according to family and police Facebook posts, is the son of Duane Chapman, known as Dog the Bounty Hunter - the professional bounty hunter and reality TV star.

Hartselle High School held a prayer vigil for Hollis on Monday and his graveside funeral service at Hartselle City Cemetery is on Thursday, according to a family announcement.

The fatal two-vehicle crash occurred at the intersection of Highway 36 and U.S. 31 in Hartselle. Priceville Police told WHNT-TV that the officer attempted to stop the suspect, identified as Archie Hale, for moving violations/suspicion of driving under the influence. Hale was also injured in the crash.

Hartselle Police Department Capt. Daniel Parker told AL.com on Monday that the investigation into the incident is currently in its early stages, with community members complaining about the chase that resulted in the crash.

I feel like once you get into Hartselle, call it off, said Emily Robbins, who said she knew Hollis as her sons friend. She described him as polite and sweet.
A police department in north Alabama has reached out to the state for help as it continues its investigation into a police chase that led to a crash on Saturday, killing a high schooler.

In a statement Tuesday evening, Hartselle police said it seeks to work with specialized equipment and homicide investigators with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency to be able to present an airtight case to the district attorney.

Tristan Hollis, 17, who attended Hartselle High School, died after the suspects vehicle struck a minivan where he was with three others, the police stated. His graveside service at Hartselle City Cemetery is on Thursday.

Police from the nearby city of Priceville were in pursuit of the suspect, identified as Archie Hale, fleeing on suspicion of driving under the influence, according to the Hartselle Police Department. They entered Hartselles City limits from I-65, headed west on Highway 36/Main Street, and as the suspect entered the intersection of Highway 31 at a very high speed, he struck the minivan.

The video also confirms the traffic light was red for the suspect vehicle, the Hartselle Police Department stated.

The department said it reviewed the cameras from the pursuing officers vehicle, the surrounding area, and from its own police vehicles, which tried to intervene with Tire Deflation Devices.

Hartselle Police Chief Alan McDearmond, in the statement, described the incident as the most egregious example of willful disregard for human life he has encountered.

We are committed to presenting a complete and evidence-based case to the District Attorneys Office and will pursue justice relentlessly on behalf of the victims and their loved ones, he added.

Meanwhile, Priceville Mayor Sam Heflin said the city has placed one of its officers, Garry Chapman, on administrative leave, following the incident.

Chapman, according to family and police Facebook posts, is the son of Duane Chapman, known as Dog the Bounty Hunter - the professional bounty hunter and reality TV star.
Britain's Prince Harry holds an Imperial External Fixator during a visit to the Centre for Blast Injury Studies at Imperial College London, in London, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Suzanne Plunkett, Pool Photo via AP) AP

Britains Prince Prince Harry joined his father, King Charles III, for tea on Wednesday at his Clarence House home in London, the first time theyve met in well over a year.

The two have been distant since Harry and his wife, Meghan, left royal life and moved to California in 2020 and then publicly aired grievances about his family.

Harry was driven through the gates of Charles London home following an earlier engagement at the Centre for Blast Injury Studies at Imperial College London.

The Duke of Sussex had arrived in the U.K. for Mondays third anniversary of the death of Queen Elizabeth II and for a series of visits to charities he supports.

The last time the two met was in February 2024, when the prince flew to London after receiving news his father had been diagnosed with cancer. Harry spent about 45 minutes with Charles before the king flew to his Sandringham country estate to recuperate from his treatment.

Harry has also had little contact with his elder brother, Prince William, heir to the throne.

Harry was last in London in April, when the Court of Appeal rejected his bid to restore a police protection detail that was canceled after he stopped being a working royal. Charles was on a state visit to Italy at the time, so a meeting then was impossible.

That case was itself an impediment to improved relations because it involved Harry criticizing the kings government in the courts. But once it was over, change became possible.

Immediately after the case ended, Harry said he would love reconciliation with my family.

Theres no point in continuing to fight anymore, he told the BBC on the day the court case was resolved. Life is precious. I dont know how much longer my father has.
This is a guest opinion column

September is Suicide Prevention Month, a time when yellow ribbons appear on lapels and social-media feeds fill with crisis-line numbers. Those reminders matter, but here in Alabama one of the strongest ways to prevent suicide may start at home: making sure every firearm is safe and secured.

Nearly half of the 1,300 gun-related deaths in our state last year were suicidesabout two each day. Veterans shoulder an outsized share of that loss, with more than 100 dying by suicide in 2023; eight in ten used a gun.

The toll is personal for many families. Dr. Atchesons grandfathera veteran who struggled with chronic pain after a wartime head injuryended his life with his own firearm in 1978, leaving a lasting void in the family.

Teenagers face a similar danger: a moment of heartbreak, amplified by social media, can turn lethal if a hidden but unlocked handgun is within reach.

These tragedies tell a simple story: when a loaded firearm is close at hand, a fleeting crisis can become fatal before help has a chance to arrive. Most people who survive a suicide attempt do not try again. The difference between life and death is often a barriersometimes as small as a sturdy lockthat slows the impulse long enough for hope to return.

That is why the Women Physicians Section of The Medical Association of the State of Alabama is focusing on gun safety as part of Suicide Prevention Month:

Safe storage saves lives. Steel safes that bolt to the floor, quick-access lockboxes, and free cable locks from sheriffs offices or Project ChildSafe all keep firearms ready for adults yet out of reach for children and someone in despair. Ammunition stored in a separate, locked place adds another layer of protection.

Temporary off-site options offer breathing room. The VAs Safe Firearm Storage Toolkit explains how families can move guns to a trusted friend, a self-storage unit, or a participating gun shop while a loved one seeks help. Many police departments will store firearms free of charge until a crisis passes.

988 is a lifeline. Anyone in emotional pain can dial 988 and press 1 for veteran-specific counselors. The line is open every minute of every day, and callers can remain anonymous.

Conversations matter. Parents already talk with their kids about driving, alcohol, and drug use. Adding an honest discussion about gunshow to handle them safely, and why they must stay lockedfits naturally into that list. Asking other parents about firearm storage before a sleep-over protects everyones children.

Community solutions build trust. Gun buy-back events in Montgomery and Birmingham have quietly removed hundreds of unwanted weapons from homes. Churches and hunting clubs are starting lock-exchange days where members trade old padlocks for high-security models at no cost.

None of these steps cancel anyones Second Amendment rights. They honor those rights by pairing them with the responsibility every hunter, sport shooter, and concealed-carry holder already accepts. Safe storage is simply the next safety ruleno different than keeping the muzzle pointed downrange or checking a chamber twice.

As physicians, we have witnessed the relief on veterans faces when they realize they can store their handguns off-site without surrendering them forever. We have heard parents describe how a simple cable lock kept a teenager from making a permanent decision during a temporary storm. These stories do not grab headlines, but they are victories worth celebrating.

This September, lets widen the lens of suicide prevention. Alongside seeking mental health treatment, promoting help lines, and strengthening community support, please secure your firearms. Talk to your family. Offer to hold a friends rifle for a while. In doing so, we secure both our freedoms and our futures.

Dr. Jane A. Weida is a professor in the Department of Family, Internal and Rural Medicine at the College of Community Health Sciences at the University of Alabama. She also sees patients in University Medical Centers Family Medicine Clinic and is a member of the Board of Censors of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama.

Dr. Carrie L. Atcheson is an anesthesiologist, an assistant professor at UAB and Chair of the Womens Section of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama.
Allen Travis Gilliland Sr., 86, of Blountsville, Alabama, died Sunday. Gilliland was the founder and owner of Spring Valley Beach water park. Spring Valley Beach

Allen Big Al Travis Gilliland Sr., the founder of Blountsvilles popular Spring Valley Beach water park, died Sunday.

He was 86. His death was announced by the parks social media page.

A native of Louisville, Ky., Gilliland worked with International Paper before owning a full-service station at Mobiles Tillmans Corner.

In 1972, Gilliland and his wife Belva Jean moved to north Alabama after purchasing Burgess Lake, a sandy-bottom, spring-fed swimming pool in Blountsville.

He converted it to a chlorine pool, added a water slide in 1980, and was off and running. Today, Spring Valley Beach is a popular getaway on 25 acres with more than 20 pavilion areas, 11 water slides, a 2-acre pool and water playground for children.

The family eventually took over the day-to-day operations of the park, but Gilliland could be seen even in his retirement cleaning barbecue grills for visitors.

He also owned and operated Gilliland Manufacturing Co., selling wood products to stores nationwide.

Funeral will be at 4 p.m. Sept. 12 at Blountsville Baptist Church. Visitation will be from 2 to 4 p.m.
Former President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrive before the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool) AP

A Happy 50th letter from former President Bill Clinton to Jeffrey Epstein has been released by congressional investigators along with the one apparently written by President Donald Trump in a birthday album for the late notorious pedophile.

Its reassuring isnt it, to have lasted as long, across all the years of learning and knowing, adventures and beyond, and also to have your childlike curiosity, the drive to make a difference and the solace of friends, Clinton wrote in the handwritten letter to Epstein.

The 2003 Clinton letter was included in a leather-bound keepsake album handed over by Epsteins estate after it was subpoenaed by a congressional committee.

Clinton didnt deny writing the friendly letter when the Wall Street Journal first reported its existence in July.

The ex-commander in chief says he was unaware of Epsteins pervy behavior and accusations that he trafficked young women and girls for sex.

Clinton, 79, says he flew on Epsteins private jet a couple of times but strictly for Clinton Foundation business along with other officials.

He denies ever visiting Epsteins private island in the Virgin Islands or his palatial home in Palm Beach Florida and insists he hadnt seen Epstein for years before his arrest and suicide in 2019.

House Republican lawmakers have subpoenaed Bill and Hillary Clinton to testify about their ties to Epstein in October.

Trump has fiercely denied penning the sexually suggestive note that bears his signature and was also included in the album compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell, Epsteins sidekick and convicted co-conspirator in his sex trafficking scheme.

He has sued the Wall Street Journal for $10 billion over its story revealing the existence of the letter signed by him. A spokesman Monday claimed the Donald signature on the letter to Epstein is fake but other reports show it closely matches Trumps John Hancock.

The damaging bipartisan revelations come as Trump has struggled to put the politically damaging scandal behind him.

Trump and his MAGA allies have for years stoked claims of a coverup in the case to protect wealthy Democratic pals of Epstein, even though the president himself admits he was once close friends with the financier and Palm Beach, Fla., neighbor.

Epstein died by suicide awaiting trial in Manhattan on federal charges of trafficking of scores of underage girls. Maxwell, was convicted of helping him procure young girls for sex and is serving a 20-year sentence in federal prison.

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2025 New York Daily News. Visit at nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry has expressed its concern over the recent attack in Doha, the capital city of Qatar, sharing a post on its official X.

According to Azernews, the post reads:
This is a guest opinion column

As a State Senator representing Calhoun and Talladega Counties, I see firsthand how smart policy and strong partnerships can drive economic growth, especially in rural communities. From streamlining business registrations to working alongside local chambers of commerce, my office prioritized supporting small businesses, family farmers, community banks, and the agricultural backbone of our state. That experience reinforced a simple truth: when rural economies thrive, all of Alabama benefits.

That is why I feel compelled to speak out about a growing threat that most Americans do not see coming: a loophole in a federal bill, called the GENIUS Act. This loophole allows cryptocurrency platforms to distribute financial rewards. These platforms do not abide by the same regulations and standards as traditional banks and because of this are not as safe and do not qualify for FDIC insurance, but they can offer what appear to be lucrative rewards, such as high interest or incentives.

These rewards could prompt people to withdraw funds or close accounts, reducing deposits at small community banks which are the lifeline for local economies, especially in many rural and underserved areas. Unlike large banks, community banks depend on local deposits to fund their lending. If those deposits decrease, their ability to offer loans to individuals, families and small businesses will be significantly restricted.

Over time, this reduction in capital could force local banks to close their doors, which would set off a ripple effect across entire communities. Without access to affordable lending local businesses, from main street shops to family-run farms, may struggle to secure the credit they need to operate or grow.

For our rural farming communities in particular, where margins are thin and seasonal cash flow is critical, the loss of a trusted lending partner could be devastating. Farms may find themselves unable to purchase seed, equipment, or cover expenses during a bad harvest year. Entrepreneurs might delay or abandon plans to expand. Jobs could be lost, and local economies weakened, all stemming from a policy loophole that undermines the financial institutions these communities rely on most.

As discussed, since these investments in cryptocurrency arent protected by the FDIC if a crypto platform collapses, as we have seen with multiple high-profile failures in recent years, there is no safety net. That means a small business owner in Anniston or Sylacauga who trusted a crypto company with their working capital could see their entire savings vanish overnight. On the other hand, if a community bank fails, its customers are protectedup to $250,000 per depositorthanks to the FDIC.

This rewards or interest loophole clearly endangers American families and businesses and threatens the very infrastructure that supports our local economies and the entrepreneurial spirit we have worked so hard to cultivate.

Allowing these cryptocurrency companies to function like banks, offering rewards or yield-bearing products, without requiring them to play by the same rules is not innovation. It is regulatory arbitrage, and it is putting the livelihood of American families and our local economies at risk.

Alabama families, entrepreneurs, small businesses, and farmers deserve reliable, regulated financial partners. I encourage the U.S. House and Senate, along with our congressional delegation, to take the lead on this pressing issue and fix this potentially devastating loophole.

Keith Kelley serves in the Alabama State Senate representing Calhoun and Talladega Counties.
Students from Bush Hills STEAM Academy pose in front of their new greenhouse and hydroponic farm. Alaina Bookman | abookman@al.com Alaina Bookman

Bursts of pinks, oranges and all shades of green greet the buzzing bees and students of Birminghams Bush Hills STEAM Academy.

Bush students are among those from eight Birmingham schools using brand new hydroponic farming technology in their science classrooms. In a partnership between Jones Valley Teaching Farm, New York Sun Works, Birmingham City Schools, and the city of Birmingham, the farms will produce up to 4,000 pounds of fresh produce annually, which will stay in the community, and give students opportunities for hands-on learning.

Theres this really unique thing that happens when young people are in charge of something and they have agencyTheyre caring and nurturing for something as small as a seed, but the output of that is something bigger, Amanda Storey, executive director of Jones Valley Teaching Farm, said.

Hydroponic farms grow plants without soil, instead using water with all the nutrients the plants need.

This method allows for year-round crops, from summer cucumbers and tomatoes to fall sweet potatoes and herbs, even in urban settings.

Manuela Zamora, executive director of New York Sun Works explains how hydroponic farms grow plants using water infused with nutrients, instead of soil. Alaina Bookman | abookman@al.com Alaina Bookman

The magic starts in an on-campus greenhouse, where students raise up tiny seeds and watch them flourish into veggies.

Experts say hydroponic farms can help to address food insecurity.

Over 70% of Birmingham residents lack access to affordable, fresh food, according to the city.

Kierra Norris, a Bush Hills STEAM Academy student, said she lives in a food desert, where there is no easy access to grocery stores near her home.

Fellow student DeAndre Hall said that, When I first saw this in the greenhouse, I thought about how helpful it could be and how many lives it could change...I kept thinking about the food deserts and how many people it could help in them.

Manuela Zamora, executive director of New York Sun Works, has helped build hydroponic farms in city schools for 15 years.

She said the farms help students understand that they can grow nutritious food anywhere.

They are farming in the classroom and understanding the science behind it, making connections and having a hands-on approach to learning and being engaged in a project, Zamora said.

They also start to question like, Why dont we have access, regular access, to these types of fresh vegetablesThat leads to civic engagement and advocating for what they should have access to.

Founded in 2002, Jones Valley Teaching Farm, a Birmingham nonprofit, uses food as a foundation for learning, turning Birmingham kids into skilled urban farmers.

Jones Valley already has eight traditional teaching farms on elementary, middle and high school campuses in the city.

The hydroponic farm initiative represents an expansion that will help nearly 4,000 students from Bush Hills STEAM Academy, Central Park Elementary School, Charles A. Brown Elementary School, Wylam K-8 School, Minor Elementary, Green Acres Middle School, South Hampton K-8 School and Jackson Olin High School.

Weve had a long history of seeing how this is a game changer for kids when youre allowed to be outdoors, or indoors but surrounded by living things. It just makes you see what your world is made of, Storey said.
Master pilot Billy Parrish steers TVA tugboat Freedom near the locks at Wilson Dam in the Shoals. Scott Turner/AL.com

A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers crew has completed work on damage to the gates at 100-year-old Wilson Dam in the Shoals that caused delays of commercial barge traffic on the Tennessee River.

Between the repairs to the minor gates and the installation of the floating wall, its a big win for the commercial navigation industry, said Brian Mangrum, chief of the Corps of Engineers Nashville district technical support branch. It allows us to go back to completely normal operations in passing traffic through the lock.

How long were the delays at the dam which will have been in operation for a century for commercial traffic on Friday? Some commercial traffic was delayed for 21 days, said Shane Carman, manager for river services for the Tennessee Valley Authority, which operates the dam.

Once we got it opened up, theres been zero delays, Carman said. Traffic is back up and flowing.

TVA's Wilson Dam on the Tennessee River in the Shoals. Scott Turner/AL.com

To get traffic flowing at a normal pace, a Corps of Engineers floating crew lifted the lower minor gates, which weigh 1.3 million pounds.

Once the gates were lifted, we got access to components that needed to be replaced, Mangrum said. We also installed some additional bracing. Thats going to help keep that structure stabilized as were moving forward until they can be replaced or rehabbed in the future.

Once the gates were lowered and the floating wall was installed, the locks were reopened. According to officials during a visit by U.S. Rep. Dale Strong, R-Monrovia, to the dam in the spring, the project cost $18 million.

While the main lock was being repaired, barges used the auxiliary lock, which had been in operation since the dam opened. Lt. Col. Robert Green with the Corps of Engineers said last spring what normally was a two-hour barge lift in the main system took as long as 24 hours with the auxiliary system.

More than 3,700 vessels a year pass through the lock carrying 11.4 million tons of cargo. The dam plays an important role in national security and space industry travel with the United Launch Alliance rocket plant in Decatur and the Lockheed Martin missile plant in Courtland just a few miles downriver.

TVA tugboat Freedom helped transport ULA rocket components through Wilson Dam last spring. Scott Turner/AL.com

While the gates to the main lock were being repaired. TVA used its tugboat Freedom to help ULA transport four components of its Vulcan rocket last spring over a period of eight days, Carman said.

We were delivering one component at a time, Carman said. We would load the components in Decatur. We would meet up with the ship. It would take us about three hours.

Freedom, a 35-foot-wide, 100-foot-long boat that weighs about 500 tons, helps TVA move its big assets such as nuclear generators, transformers and turbines and clears debris out of the bottom of rivers near hydro facilities.

Other work at dam

The breaker room at TVA's Wilson Dam in the Shoals on the Tennessee River. Scott Turner/AL.com

Work at the dam is not limited to repairing damage to lock gates. TVA is in the process of refurbishing other parts of the dam, which was in operation before the utility agency was formed in 1933. Some of the components, including turbines, that were in use when the facility opened are still in use.

It is amazing that after 100 years, the basic design of the dam has not changed, said Jimmy Springer, assistant plant manager.

The dam has 21 units, eight of which date back to when it opened.

Unit 3 is down, it is being completely disassembled as part of our hydro life extension program, Springer said. They will tear all of the components out of this unit from the turbine wheel all the way up to the top of the generator. Theyll inspect the major components to see if they are in good enough shape to last for the next 40 or 50 years, anything that is not will be replaced with new equipment  at the same time, we are integrating new technology.

The dams 21 units can produce 663 megawatts. Thats enough to power 380,000 homes and businesses, Springer said.
The crowd reacts after Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, is shot at the Utah Valley University Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, in Orem, Utah. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP) AP

Alabama legislators are asking for prayers following the news that Charlie Kirk, a conservative influencer and chairman of the organization Turning Point USA, was shot while speaking at a campus event at Utah Valley University.

President Donald Trump announced Kirks death in a post to his Truth Social account Wednesday afternoon.

Kirk was 31.

The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead, Trump wrote.

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. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!

Video emerged of Kirk speaking while what appears to be a gunshot strikes near the conservative influencers neck. (Warning: This is graphic footage.)

Kirk was engaging in a question-and-answer session with students at Utah Valley University in Orem when he was shot, according to the Deseret News.

Please join Wesley and me in praying for Charlie Kirks family and for our nation as they mourn this unbelievable tragedy, wrote U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala. in a post to X Wednesday afternoon.

Political violence has reached new heights and become a true sickness in our nation. Please pray for our country.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and U.S. Reps. Robert Aderholt and Barry Moore also posted to X expressing their condolences to Kirks family.

CJ Pearson, a former University of Alabama student turned political commentator who worked closely with Kirk, told AL.com Wednesday that he was proud to bring Kirk to Tuscaloosa in 2021.

His legacy will endure because of the concerted effort he made to incubate the next generation of conservative leaders, Pearson said. And Im honored to count myself among one of many that his lifes work profoundly touched.

The shooting was condemned on both sides of the political aisle.

There is no place in our country for this kind of violence, wrote former President Joe Biden in a post to X.

It must end now. Jill and I are praying for Charlie Kirks family and loved ones.

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin expressed a similar sentiment in his post prior to the announcement of Kirks death.

The news of the Charlie Kirk shooting is deeply disturbing, he wrote.

Political violence has no place in our country. We must always resolve our differences with respect, not hate. My heart goes out to his family during this unimaginable time.

Turning Point USA advocates for conservative policies among the countrys youth and has a strong presence at the nations colleges and universities.

Editor Ruth Serven Smith contributed to this reporting.
Cecilia Garcia and Dawn Thomas react as they learn the news on social media of Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist being shot at a college event in Utah, in Westminster, Calif., on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) AP

Politicians on both sides of aisle took to social media Wednesday in reaction to the shooting death of Charlie Kirk, the conservative influencer and chairman of the organization Turning Point USA.

Kirk was speaking at a campus event at a university in Utah when he was shot. President Donald Trump announced the 31-year-old husband and father died.

The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead, Trump posted on his Truth Social account. 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. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!

MORE: Celebrities react to Charlie Kirks death

Reaction to the news dominated social media Wednesday.

We dont yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlies family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.  Barack Obama (@BarackObama) September 10, 2025

We dont yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlies family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children, former President of the United States Barack Obama posted.

Say a prayer for Charlie Kirk, a genuinely good guy and a young father.  JD Vance (@JDVance) September 10, 2025

Say a prayer for Charlie Kirk, a genuinely good guy and a young father, Vice President JD Vance posted.

I am deeply disturbed by the shooting in Utah. Doug and I send our prayers to Charlie Kirk and his family.



Let me be clear: Political violence has no place in America. I condemn this act, and we all must work together to ensure this does not lead to more violence.  Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) September 10, 2025

I am deeply disturbed by the shooting in Utah. Doug and I send our prayers to Charlie Kirk and his family. Let me be clear: Political violence has no place in America. I condemn this act, and we all must work together to ensure this does not lead to more violence, former Vice President Kamala Harris posted.

I condemn this in the strongest terms.



There is ZERO place in our great country for these horrendous acts of political violence.



We must find a better way forward.



May Charlie Kirk have a full and quick recovery. pic.twitter.com/S2DlqVXNai  U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) September 10, 2025

I condemn this in the strongest terms. There is ZERO place in our great country for these horrendous acts of political violence. We must find a better way forward. - Senator John Fetterman.

Political violence has no place in this country. We must condemn this horrifying attack.



My thoughts are with Charlie Kirk and his family.  Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) September 10, 2025

Political violence has no place in this country. We must condemn this horrifying attack.My thoughts are with Charlie Kirk and his family, Bernie Sanders posted.

Heartbroken and outrages by the assassination of Charlie Kirk.



He was an incredible husband and father and a great American.



May he rest in eternal peace with our Lord.  Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) September 10, 2025

Heartbroken and outrages by the assassination of Charlie Kirk. He was an incredible husband and father and a great American. May he rest in eternal peace with our Lord, - Marco Rubio posted.

My heart is broken for Charlie Kirk and my prayers are with his friends and family.



Our country was founded on principles of free speech and open political discourse.



Nothing justifies violence against any voice on the left or right of todays debates.  Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) September 10, 2025

My heart is broken for Charlie Kirk and my prayers are with his friends and family. Our country was founded on principles of free speech and open political discourse. Nothing justifies violence against any voice on the left or right of todays debates, - Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.)

The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible. In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form.  Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) September 10, 2025

The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible. In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form, California Governor Gavin Newsom posted.

There is no place in our country for this kind of violence. It must end now. Jill and I are praying for Charlie Kirks family and loved ones.  Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 10, 2025

There is no place in our country for this kind of violence. It must end now. Jill and I are praying for Charlie Kirks family and loved ones, former President Joe Biden posted.

Karen and I are shocked and saddened to learn of Charlie Kirk's passing. We are praying for his wife Erika, his entire family and all who loved and admired this truly good man. God Bless Charlie Kirk.  Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) September 10, 2025

Karen and I are shocked and saddened to learn of Charlie Kirks passing. We are praying for his wife Erika, his entire family and all who loved and admired this truly good man. God Bless Charlie Kirk, former VP Mike Pence posted.

MORE: Celebrities react to Charlie Kirks death
Charlie Kirk, a conservative influencer and CEO of the organization Turning Point USA, has died after being shot while speaking at a campus event at a university in Utah, President Donald Trump announced.

Kirk was 31.

The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead, Trump posted on his Truth Social account. 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. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!

Trump ordered flags to be lowered to half-mast until 6 p.m. Sunday in honor of Kirk.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, tweeted Vice President JD Vance.

Real Americas Voice, the television network that hosts Kirks show, made an announcement on the air Wednesday afternoon that Kirk had died.

Turning Point USA earlier confirmed Kirk, the organizations co-founder and CEO, had been shot.

READ MORE: Alabama leaders shocked by Charlie Kirk shooting: Political violence has no place in our country

Video emerged of Kirk speaking while what appears to be a gunshot strikes near the conservative influencers neck. (Warning: This is graphic footage.)

Kirk was engaging in a question-and-answer session with students at Utah Valley University in Orem when he was shot, according to the Deseret News.

A person the university initially identified as a suspect turned out not to be the suspected shooter, according to multiple media outlets.

I love you brother, Donald Trump Jr. said of Kirk. You gave so many people the courage to speak up and we will not ever be silenced.

Added Secretary of State Marco Rubio: Charlie Kirks commitment to Americas future generations and sense of patriotism will resonate for decades to come. May the Lord bless Charlie and his family.

The shooting was condemned on both sides of the political aisle.

The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible, tweeted Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who hosted Kirk on his podcast. In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form.

An open forum for political dialogue and disagreement was upended by a horrific act of targeted violence, added 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. In America, we dont settle our differences with violence or at gunpoint. Im praying for Charlie, his family, and his young children.

Turning Point USA advocates for conservative policies among the countrys youth, and has a strong presence at the nations colleges and universities.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Fawn Hall, former secretary for fired National Security aide Lt. Col. Oliver North is surrounded by photographers during an appearance before the joint House-Senate Iran-Contra committees on Capitol Hill in Washington on Monday, June 8, 1987. Hall testified that she and North systematically shredded an 18-inch stack of documents last November 21 as the Iran-contra affair began to unravel. (AP Photo/John Duricka) AP

Oliver North, the Marine lieutenant colonel indicted as part of the Iran-Contra scandal in the 1980s, has married the secretary who helped shred his documents 40 years ago.

North and Fawn Hall wed in a secret ceremony Aug. 27 in Virginia, CNN reported.

North declined to comment when contacted by CNN, instead quoting the famous line from Gone with the Wind: Frankly, my dear, I dont give a damn.

Hall in 1987 testified to helping shred documents to protect North. She also removed documents out of the White House by stuffing them in her boots.

North was involved in the plan to sell weapons to Iran and then use that cash to fund anti-communist Contras in Nicaragua.

He was a military aide to the National Security Council during the Reagan administration in the 1980s when he emerged into the spotlight for his role in arranging the secret sale of weapons to Iran and the diversion of the proceeds to the anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

He was convicted in 1989 of obstructing Congress during its investigation, destroying government documents and accepting an illegal gratuity. Those convictions were overturned in 1991.

With his crisp military bearing and teary-eyed testimony before Congress, North came to be regarded as an earnest American patriot by many on the right, and he went on to run for office, write several books and serve as a commentator on Fox News.

North also once served as president of the National Rifle Association.

Hall married Danny Sugerman, the former manager the Doors, in 1993, The Washington Post reported. She went into rehab after an overdose the following year. Sugarman died of lung cancer in 2005.

Norths wife of 56 years, Betsy, died in November.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, Vice President Kamala Harris and Attorney Ben Crump walk and sing across the Edmund Pettus Bridge with others commemorating the 59th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday voting rights march in 1965, Sunday, March 3, 2024, in Selma, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart) AP

Then-President Joe Bidens staff, apparently concerned that Vice President Kamala Harris was upstaging him, warned Harris after she delivered a viral speech in Alabama, the former vice president claims in her new book.

When polls indicated that I was getting more popular, the people around him didnt like the contrast that was emerging, Harris wrote in her book 107 Days, according to an excerpt obtained by The Atlantic.

Harris said she gave a strong speech in Selma last year while commemorating Bloody Sunday, condemning the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, calling on Israel to increase aid while also reiterating her support for the Jewish state.

It was a speech that had been vetted and approved by the White House and the National Security Council. It went viral, and the West Wing was displeased. I was castigated for, apparently, delivering it too well, Harris wrote.

Their thinking was zero-sum: If shes shining, hes dimmed. None of them grasped that if I did well, he did well, the former vice president wrote.

Harris claimed that the concerns about Bidens age could be combatted if she did well in her role as vice president.

It would serve as a testament to his judgment in choosing me and reassurance that if something happened, the country was in good hands. My success was important for him.

His team didnt get it, she wrote.
Protesters in support of transgender rights rally outside the Alabama State House in 2021. Mike Cason | Birmingham News

A federal grand jury has indicted a lawyer for Lambda Legal, an organization that defends rights of LGBTQ+ people, on an accusation of making a false statement to three federal judges in Alabama three years ago.

Lambda Legal said the charge against lawyer Carl S. Charles was an outrageous act of government overreach. Charles has pleaded not guilty.

Charles was one of three lawyers sanctioned by U.S. District Judge Liles Burke in February for judge shopping on litigation challenging Alabamas ban on the use of puberty blockers and hormones as transgender care for minors.

Burke issued those sanctions after a three-judge panel determined that the lawyers tried to manipulate the system when they abruptly sought dismissal of two cases and filed a third, an effort the judges said was to have their cases assigned to a judge they considered favorable.

The indictment against Charles, filed August 19 and unsealed Monday, says he testified falsely to the judges in May 2022 during their investigation of the judge-shopping allegation.

The indictment says the judges asked Charles if he had called any judges chambers about the assignment of a case before it was filed. Charles said he had not.

But the indictment says Charles had called District Judge Myron Thompsons chambers in April 2022 to discuss the filing of the case and a request for a temporary restraining order.

Charles appeared in federal court in Montgomery on Monday and pleaded not guilty to the charge in the indictment.

Lambda Legal said the indictment is an effort to smear Charles and damage his work on behalf of his clients and that the phone call in question was legal and proper.

This unjustified federal indictment is an outrageous act of governmental overreach, the statement said.

Lambda Legal rejects the notion that the U.S. government can punish lawyers and law firms for exercising their First Amendment rights by speaking up on behalf of causes to which government officials object.

For more than three years, our colleague, Carl Charles, has been subjected to unprecedented and abusive judicial proceedings, smearing his character and undermining his role in fighting for some of the most vulnerable people in society. We fundamentally disagree with the characterization of the events that underpin this indictment, which ignores the fact that the routine phone call at issue was acknowledged by the court to be entirely legal and proper.

We unequivocally stand behind Carl and all of our attorneys, who adhere to the highest ethical and professional standards every day in pursuit of our mission to advance and defend the rights of LGBTQ+ people.

A U.S. magistrate judge scheduled the case for trial on Nov. 17 in Montgomery.

The case was assigned to Chief United States District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga of the Southern District of Florida.

Federal judges for the Middle District of Alabama recused.

The indictment was first reported by Washington, D.C., journalist Chris Geidner and by Alabama Reflector.

As it turned out back in 2022, the case challenging Alabamas ban on puberty blockers and hormones for minors was assigned to Burke.

After hearing testimony, Burke ruled in favor of the plaintiffs request to temporarily block the law, finding that it was likely unconstitutional.

But that decision was overturned by a federal appeals court in 2023, allowing Alabama to enforce the law.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 ruling, upheld Tennessees ban on puberty blockers and hormones for transgender minors.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday was criticized for his cryptic response after Russia sent drones into Polish airspace.

Whats with Russia violating Polands airspace with drones? Here we go! Trump posted to his Truth Social account Wednesday morning.

The downing of Russian drones over Poland, the first direct encounter between NATO and Moscow since the war in Ukraine began, jolted leaders across Europe on Wednesday and raised urgent questions about how prepared the alliance is against growing Russian aggression, the Associated Press reported.

Gary Kasparov, the Russian chess grandmaster who has been critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin, slammed Trumps post as meaningless drivel from a feeble old showman who cannot act against Russia.

Its the Trump version of a standard, equally meaningless White House statement of grave concerns and unacceptable behavior, Kasparov tweeted. Neither would result in any action.

Polands armed forces, with the help of the nations allies, shot down multiple Russian drones that crossed its airspace overnight, including some launched from Belarus, Polish authorities said. While there had been a few minor violations of the airspace above Poland -- part of NATO territory -- since Russia launched its war against Ukraine in 2022, the latest incursions were the most serious.

The swarm of drones damaged at least one home in eastern Poland and prompted emergency consultations under the alliances Article 4.

Rep. Eugene Vindman, D-Va., criticized Trumps response.

Here we go - as if Trump hasnt had months to bring Putin to the bargaining table and avoid escalations like this. But every time theres a decision point, he caves to the whims of his KGB BFF, he tweeted. Now, our allies pay the consequences of Trumps weakness on Russia.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
By Qabil Ashirov



Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan and Head of the Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmet Hajiyev has met with Chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Brian Mast and Senator Steve Daines.

Azerbaijans Embassy in the United States shared the information on its official account on X.

During the meeting, the sides highlighted the strategic importance of the summit held in Washington on August 8 between President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and U.S. President Donald Trump. They emphasized that the summit had positive outcomes for AzerbaijanU.S. relations and for peace in the region.

Hajiyev also underlined the necessity of repealing Section 907 of the U.S. Freedom Support Act and extended an invitation for the American lawmakers to visit Azerbaijan.
Protesters gather near the restaurant entrance after President Donald Trump arrived for dinner at a dinner near the White House, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) AP

President Donald Trump and members of his cabinet were heckled as they went to dine at a Washington, D.C. restaurant on Tuesday.

Free DC! Free Palestine! Trump is the Hitler of our time, the protesters inside Joes Stone Crab shouted at the president and his entourage, which included Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The protesters held up Palestinian flags during the demonstration, according to footage obtained by CNN.

In a video obtained by CNN, you can see the president is approached by protestors chanting Free DC and Free Palestine as he makes his way to his table pic.twitter.com/593jx6qMc7  Samantha Waldenberg (@Sam_Waldenberg) September 10, 2025

Trumps night out came after touting his federalization of D.C.s police force as a success, attributing his decision to what he said was the districts drop in violent crime.

Were standing right in the middle of D.C., Trump told reporters before going into the restaurant, the New York Times reported. This was one of the most unsafe cities in the country. Now its as safe as anywhere in the country.

Last week, a reporter noted that the president had not yet been to a D.C. restaurant in either of his two terms.

How do you know? Trump responded. You want me to prove you wrong?

I think its something we could consider doing, the president continued.

Love to do it. I love the White House food but after a while I can go into a nice restaurant. Its safe.
If you purchase a product through a link on our site, we may receive compensation.

Earlier this year, the NFL and Nike unveiled that specific teams will wear what theyre calling Rivalries uniforms. These new jerseys will be worn by two divisions each year.

For 2025, the NFC West and AFC East will be part of the Rivalries movement. For the 1-0 Arizona Cardinals, theyll wear their new uniforms on September 25 against the rival Seattle Seahawks.

Today, Fanatics officially released the Cardinals new jerseys to the public. Heres the best items we found:

Fans can get free shipping on any of the gear above by using code 29SHIP at checkout.

The entire Cardinals collection can be viewed here.










English News Carrying forward the great spirit forged during the war of resistance, building a shared future for all

Alwihda Info | Par peoplesdaily - 9 Septembre 2025



History illuminates the path ahead. Its lessons are clear: Civilization must advance, not retreat. Unity must prevail over division. Humanity must transcend prejudice, animosity, and conflict to jointly forge our shared future for all.

By Guo Jiping, People's Daily On Sept. 3, 2025, China held a grand military parade in central Beijing to mark the 80th anniversary of its victory in World War II. The event served as a solemn occasion for the Chinese people, together with peace-loving people around the world, to remember history, honor the martyrs, cherish peace, and forge a better future.



In his speech delivered before the parade, Chinese President Xi Jinping declared, "The Chinese people will stand firmly on the right side of history and on the side of human progress, adhere to the path of peaceful development, and join hands with the rest of world to build a community with a shared future for humanity."



The commemoration honored not only the hard-won peace achieved eight decades ago, but also the solidarity that has transcended borders and the resilience of an ancient nation reborn from peril.



The great spirit forged during the resistance against Japanese aggression reflected a universal aspiration for peace and justice, a beacon of humanity and conscience that defied the darkness of fascism.



That spirit never fades; it continues to offer inspiration and guidance as the world confronts the challenges of the era.



From great victory to national rejuvenation, from fighting for survival to embracing the world, China has always aligned its development with the broader course of human progress.



The once unyielding pursuit of national independence and liberation has evolved into a firm commitment to enduring world peace and common security. The spirit of solidarity forged in the global fight against fascism has extended into sustained efforts to strengthen international cooperation.



The courage and determination once demonstrated in resisting aggression and oppression have been transformed into proactive steps to promote democracy in international relations, build a new type of international relations, and uphold fairness and justice worldwide.



Eighty years ago, after the devastation of two world wars, the international community learned painful lessons and established the United Nations (UN), opening a new chapter in global governance. China played an indispensable role in bringing forth this new international order.



Today, amid mounting global instability and unpredictability, building a community with a shared future for humanity has become the sure path to overcoming difficulties and advancing shared prosperity.



Practicing multilateralism and upholding solidarity and cooperation are both historical imperatives and essential solutions to contemporary crises.



The great victory of the World Anti-Fascist War stands as a powerful testimony to how countries, despite differences in historical traditions, ideologies, and social systems, built the broadest anti-fascist united front and stood together against barbarism and violence.



Today, humanity faces various global challenges. No country can remain unaffected, nor can any country solve them alone. The future of the world should be jointly shaped by all nations, international rules should be written collectively, global affairs should be managed together, and the benefits of development should be shared by all.



As turbulence intensifies, upholding UN authority grows increasingly vital. For the past 80 years, the UN has remained the most universal, representative, and authoritative intergovernmental organization in the world.



History illuminates the path ahead. Its lessons are clear: Civilization must advance, not retreat. Unity must prevail over division. Humanity must transcend prejudice, animosity, and conflict to jointly forge our shared future for all.



Dans la meme rubrique : < > Tang Xianzu and Shakespeare: Theater as a bridge for global cultural dialogue Shanghai seed bank hits 100 million samples in biodiversity conservation push China unveils world's first mid-infrared solar magnetic-field telescope Pour toute information, contactez-nous au : +(235) 99267667 ; 62883277 ; 66267667 (Bureau N'Djamena)










English News Historical contribution of main Eastern battlefield in World Anti-Fascist War

Alwihda Info | Par peoplesdaily - 7 Septembre 2025



Victory in the World Anti-Fascist War belonged collectively to China and all the Allies. Today, as 80 years ago, China remains committed to working with all peace-loving nations and peoples to defend global peace, stability, and development.

By Wu Minchao The year 1945 marked a great turning point in history. After 14 years of resistance in China, nine years in Ethiopia, six years in Britain, France, and other Western European countries, and four years in the Soviet Union, the United States, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific, the world finally secured victory in the World Anti-Fascist War.



Eighty years on, commemoration and reflection of this triumph must not only recall its historical significance, but also revisit the background in which the war began. Only through such analysis can we fully understand the profound sacrifices made by the forces of justice and draw lessons for safeguarding peace and development today.



The war had two epicenters: Europe and Asia. For English-speaking countries, the European story is more familiar. Yet in Asia, Japan was the engine of aggression, casting its long shadow over the region.



After the Meiji Restoration in the 19th century, Japan embarked on the path of external expansion. In 1894, it launched the First Sino-Japanese War, seizing Taiwan and the Penghu Islands. It later encroached upon China's northeastern territories and sovereignty through the Russo-Japanese War. In 1931, Japanese militarists brazenly staged the September 18 Incident, igniting the first flames of fascist aggression worldwide. China thus entered a phase of partial resistance, which also marked the opening of the World Anti-Fascist War.



In 1936, Japan and Germany signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, with Italy joining the following year. This convergence linked the Eastern and Western sources of conflict.



A year later, Japanese militarists deliberately provoked the Lugou Bridge Incident, unleashing a full-scale invasion of China. From that moment, the entire Chinese nation mobilized in total resistance, opening the main Eastern battlefield of the World Anti-Fascist War.



From a global perspective, China was the first country to confront fascist aggression. While many nations, including the United States and the UK, were still pursuing policies of appeasement toward Germany, Italy, and Japan, China had already opened a large-scale anti-fascist front. By the time war broke out in Europe in 1939 and in the Pacific in 1941, China had already withstood Japanese militarism for eight and ten years, respectively.



Corresponding to the two epicenters of war were two main theaters: the European theater and the Asian theater. Japan's invasion of China was the defining feature of the Asian theater. The Chinese battlefield effectively thwarted Japan's strategy of a swift conquest and delayed its overall war of aggression in the Asia-Pacific. It was not only the main battlefield in Asia but also the main Eastern battlefield of the World Anti-Fascist War - an indispensable pillar of ultimate victory.



Throughout that arduous war, the entire Chinese nation fought for survival, national rejuvenation, and the cause of justice for humanity, making immense sacrifices and tremendous contributions. Over 14 years of resistance, China suffered from more than 35 million military and civilian casualties, with direct and indirect economic losses exceeding $600 billion. Chinese forces tied down and fought the bulk of Japan's military strength, killing more than 1.5 million Japanese troops. At the same time, China's protracted resistance greatly depleted Japan's national power and resources, becoming a decisive factor in the eventual downfall of Japanese fascism.



The Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was of global significance. It strategically coordinated and supported the Allies' strategic actions in Europe and the Pacific, while constraining Japan's strategic cooperation with German and Italian fascism.



By resisting the main forces of Japanese militarism for 14 years, China dragged Japan into a prolonged quagmire. This endurance thwarted Japan's "northward advance" against the Soviet Union, sparing the latter from a two-front war, and delayed Japan's "southward advance" into Southeast Asia, undermining its scheme to unite with Germany and Italy in pursuit of world domination.



Former U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt acknowledged China's pivotal role, stating: "Without China - or if China had been defeated - countless additional Japanese divisions would have been deployed elsewhere. Japan could have seized Australia and India unimpeded, then advanced into the Middle East."



In January 1942, China, the United States, the UK, the Soviet Union, and 22 other anti-fascist countries jointly signed the Declaration by United Nations, marking the establishment of the international anti-fascist united front and laying an important foundation for final victory.



China's struggle was part of a global effort. Peace-loving nations provided vital support, including Soviet and American aviators who fought courageously in Chinese skies - many making heroic sacrifices. Anti-fascist fighters from North Korea, Vietnam, and even Japan joined the Chinese people in battle. Canadian surgeon Norman Bethune and Indian doctor Dwarkanath Kotnis gave their lives treating the wounded. John Rabe of Germany and Bernhard Arp Sindberg of Denmark saved thousands of refugees during the Nanjing Massacre, recording and exposing Japanese atrocities. The noble character and sacrifice of these international friends, together with the Allies' decisive role in hastening the end of the war, will always be remembered by the Chinese people.



Seen from the perspective of the global fight against fascism, the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression holds an irreplaceable place in history.



More importantly, through this life-and-death battle between justice and evil, light and darkness, freedom and enslavement, China reestablished itself as a major country in the world. The Chinese people won the respect of all peace-loving nations, and the Chinese nation earned a noble reputation. It demonstrated China's unshakable determination to pursue independence, freedom, and liberation.



Victory in the World Anti-Fascist War belonged collectively to China and all the Allies. Today, as 80 years ago, China remains committed to working with all peace-loving nations and peoples to defend global peace, stability, and development.



Dans la meme rubrique : < > Tang Xianzu and Shakespeare: Theater as a bridge for global cultural dialogue Shanghai seed bank hits 100 million samples in biodiversity conservation push China unveils world's first mid-infrared solar magnetic-field telescope Pour toute information, contactez-nous au : +(235) 99267667 ; 62883277 ; 66267667 (Bureau N'Djamena)










English News Staying true to founding mission of United Nations

Alwihda Info | Par peoplesdaily - 7 Septembre 2025



Today, China continues to pursue its modernization to foster shared global prosperity, inject certainty into a turbulent world, and contribute wisdom and strength to the cause of human peace, progress, and development.

By Wu Xian The World Anti-Fascist War was a just war waged in the 1930s and 1940s by the Allies together with all anti-fascist forces worldwide against the aggression of the Axis powers - Germany, Japan and Italy - and their satellite states.



The United Nations (UN) was founded on the great victory of the World Anti-Fascist War and stands as the common achievement of the Allied nations. It plays an important role in maintaining international peace and advancing global governance structures forged in the post-war era.



As a principal Allied Power, China took part in the entire process from the UN's preparation to its establishment.



In January 1942, China joined the U.S., the Soviet Union, and the UK in leading 26 nations to sign the Declaration by United Nations in Washington, D.C., cementing the global anti-fascist coalition.



In October 1943, China, the U.S., the Soviet Union, and the UK signed the Declaration of the Four Nations on General Security at the Moscow Conference, jointly calling for the creation of a "general international organization" (later named the UN) to maintain international peace and security, with China as one of the original signatories facilitating its adoption.



At the November 1943 Cairo Conference, China helped shape the Cairo Declaration with the U.S. and UK, establishing key legal principles for the post-war order alongside the Potsdam Proclamation.



During the August-October 1944 Dumbarton Oaks Conference, China collaborated with the U.S. and UK, and the Soviet Union to draft the UN Charter framework.



In February 1945, the Yalta Conference established the fundamental structure of the UN and confirmed China as one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.



From April to June 1945, the Chinese delegation participated in the UN Conference on International Organization, signed the UN Charter, and in October the UN was officially founded.



China has contributed many concepts and proposals with distinctive Chinese characteristics, which are rooted in its historical traditions and development practices. Notably, it has consistently championed the interests and aspirations of smaller and vulnerable nations. The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, proposed by China, evolved into a guiding framework for implementing the UN Charter's purposes. These principles established practical guidelines for resolving international disputes and advancing greater democratization of international relations.



More profoundly, China's participation gave the UN greater universality and representativeness, and strongly promoted decolonization and modernization globally.



China has continuously enriched the content of the UN Charter through its actions, upheld the international system with the UN at its core, and opposed unilateralism and hegemonism.



In safeguarding world peace and security, China has dispatched more than 50,000 personnel to 30 UN-authorized peacekeeping missions worldwide. It steadfastly advocates political solutions, promotes dialogue among equals, and opposes the use of force or sanctions bypassing UN Security Council authorization.



Significantly, China's Belt and Road Initiative and the vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity have both been written into UN General Assembly resolutions, serving as a connectivity platform benefiting 172 countries and international organizations, and as a key pathway to addressing global governance challenges.



China has significantly advanced South-South cooperation through dedicated funds benefiting over 60 countries and 30 million people. The establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and New Development Bank further delivers vital financial support to developing economies, accelerating regional prosperity.



In global climate governance, China has pledged to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, promoted the implementation of the Paris Agreement, and taken the lead in driving a global green transition.



Remarkable progress has been made in poverty reduction, with China becoming the first nation to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals. The country met the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development's poverty reduction target 10 years ahead of schedule. Its contribution to global poverty reduction exceeds 70 percent.



Moreover, China is the second largest contributor to the UN regular budget and peacekeeping assessments, and its China-UN Peace and Development Fund has supported nearly 180 projects benefiting over 100 countries, making solid contributions to world peace and development.



Over the past eight decades, the world has witnessed profound changes. From the blood-stained Eastern battlefield of the World Anti-Fascist War to being the first country to sign the UN Charter; from championing national self-determination for emerging countries to fully supporting the sustainable development of developing nations; and from breaking the zero-sum mentality for easing regional conflicts, to advancing the Global Security Initiative for safeguarding the post-war international orderChina, as a responsible major country, has always stayed true to its original aspiration. It has made important contributions to safeguarding world peace, promoting common development, and addressing global challenges.



Today, China continues to pursue its modernization to foster shared global prosperity, inject certainty into a turbulent world, and contribute wisdom and strength to the cause of human peace, progress, and development.

(Wu Xian is a special research fellow at the Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.)



Dans la meme rubrique : < > Tang Xianzu and Shakespeare: Theater as a bridge for global cultural dialogue Shanghai seed bank hits 100 million samples in biodiversity conservation push China unveils world's first mid-infrared solar magnetic-field telescope Pour toute information, contactez-nous au : +(235) 99267667 ; 62883277 ; 66267667 (Bureau N'Djamena)
Look at the hope with which the Armenian opposition writes about the new oligarch on the Armenian horizon.

The horizon!

Who is it? Elon Musk? Jeff Bezos? Or, at the very least, a second-rate Bill Gates?

No  its just some Swedish citizen, Gevorg Nalbandian, who had the temerity to buy Armenias largest tobacco factory, Armenian Tobacco LLC.

One wonders whether poor Nalbandian even realizes hes already been hailed as the savior of the nation.




Material 3 Expressive redesign introduced a bold new look to Android, with changes to the status bar, Quick Settings, lock screen, and notifications. Additionally, there are various minor tweaks to other parts of the UI, including some subtle changes to the volume slider. The bar is now less rounded, and theres a slight bounce effect when the volume hits the top or bottom. However, it appears that the changes dont stop here, as Android Authority has spotted that Google is working on a new Android volume slider layout, which resembles iOS.

Android might soon adopt an iOS-like volume slider

In the latest Android 16 QPR1 release, the volume slider is present vertically along the middle of the right edge. This is a comfortable placement when holding the smartphone in portrait orientation, as its easy to reach. However, in a landscape, the vertical slider layout can cover elements in a video or game. This isnt an ideal placement as it blocks the visuals.

For comparison, iOS volume slider adapts to the phones orientation. In portrait mode, the slider is vertical, although on the left side of the screen. In landscape mode, the slider changes position to the top-center of the screen for easy reachability.

The new layout may not be used on all devices

Google appears to be under the impression that the horizontal design makes sense. Android Authority, while checking out the latest Android 16 QPR2 Beta 1 release, has discovered a new layout file in Androids SystemUI app named volume_dialog_horizontal. However, this layout is currently unused, and the slider doesnt appear anywhere.

Much like on iOS, the horizontal slider is present at the top-center of the screen. However, it will continue to have several key options, including an icon for the current sound mode, a three-dot menu button, and the main volume slider. There will be a separate section with an additional slider. This will appear above the main one when there are multiple active volume streams.

As things stand, its not clear when Google will introduce the new horizontal volume slider. There are chances it may not arrive on large ones like tablets, where reaching the top of the screen is not quite easy. For now, this new layout could be a work in progress or an internal experiment.
Earlier this year during WWDC 2025, Apple officially announced its next major iOS update: iOS 26. We kind of already know roughly what to expect based on the developer previews. However, if youre looking to install it on your iPhone, we may finally have a release date for iOS 26.

According to the footnotes of the iPhone Air press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 26 will have a release date set for September 15. We cant say this comes as a total surprise. Apple typically releases its next major iOS update to coincide with the release of its latest iPhone. It looks like Apple wont be breaking tradition this year.

Whats new?

One of the biggest changes in iOS 26 over iOS 18 is its design. Apple hasnt really done much to the design of iOS since iOS 7. The company has made some tweaks here and there, but nothing major.

However, with iOS 26, Apple is introducing what it is calling Liquid Glass. This is the companys latest design language. It is said to be inspired by the glass-like effects found in the Vision Pros visionOS platform, and it shows. That being said, not everyone is a fan. The use of glass is nice in theory, but in practice, some of the UI elements are hard to read.

Apple has been playing around with the intensity of the glass effect, so were not sure if the final version will be the original design shown at WWDC or a more toned-down version.

iOS 26 will also introduce a bunch of new features. Were talking about Live Transition, a new layout for the Phone app, call screening, and more. Now, the question is, is your iPhone eligible for the update?

According to Apples website, iOS 26 is compatible with iPhones dating back to the iPhone SE 2nd gen. It also covers the iPhone 11 right up to the iPhone 17. So, unless you own a much older iPhone, you should be good to go.
By Alimat Aliyeva

Russia plans to build eight new data centers and significantly expand its transportation, energy, and communications infrastructure under a comprehensive development program running through 2036, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin announced on Monday, Azernews reports, citing foreign media.

The new data centers, to be constructed in phases, will house more than 10,000 server racks, according to the government.

At a government meeting, Mishustin detailed that the plan also includes the construction and modernization of approximately 4,500 kilometers of railways and over 2,000 kilometers of highways. Additionally, the project will involve installing more than 800 kilometers of high-voltage power lines and nearly 20,000 kilometers of fiber-optic communication cables.

Russia's Ministry of Economic Development described the scale of this planned construction as unprecedented, with investments totaling nearly 20 trillion rubles (about 240 billion U.S. dollars) by 2036  roughly equivalent to almost 10 percent of the countrys current GDP. (1 Russian ruble = 0.012 U.S. dollar)

This ambitious infrastructure push reflects Russias broader strategy to modernize critical sectors and strengthen digital and energy resilience, positioning the country to better compete in the rapidly evolving global economy over the next decade and beyond.
Global technology market research firm Counterpoint has released its latest report regarding the state of the global premium smartphone market. The report suggests that the worlds premium smartphone market increased 8 percent year-on-year (YoY) in the first half of 2025. While Apple continues to dominate the premium market, Googles Pixel was the fastest-growing phone brand in the segment.

Google has secured the 5th spot in global premium phone sales in H1 2025

According to Counterpoint, Googles Pixel stood out as one of the fastest-growing premium phone brands in the first half of this year. The search titan managed to secure the fifth spot on the firms latest list, with 105 percent YoY growth. The report suggests that strong sales of the Pixel 9 series devices, expansion into new markets, and improved marketing efforts primarily drove the firms growth.

The source also mentioned that Google has made its Pixel phones stand out by promoting their AI functionalities and clean software, rather than just their hardware. This approach appears to be working, as the customer confidence in Googles Pixel phone brand is growing day by day.

Apple continues to dominate the premium phone market

Apple continued to dominate the premium smartphone market in the first half of 2025, as per Counterpoint. The Cupertino tech giants market share grew 3 percent YoY, capturing 62 percent of the overall market. However, the firms share declined as other OEMs grew much faster. While Apple captured more market share in emerging markets, it lost share in China to Huawei and Xiaomi.

Samsung took the second spot on the list and managed to keep its market share unchanged at 20 percent, unlike Apple. The South Korean tech giant grew on the back of the Galaxy S25 series devices, which outperformed the Galaxy S24 series models. As we advance, the market research firm believes that the Galaxy Z Fold 7 may perform better than its predecessor owing to significantly upgraded hardware.

Huawei was the third-largest premium smartphone maker in H1 2025 as it remains a popular choice among loyal Chinese consumers. Xiaomi, which took the fourth spot on Counterpoints latest report, also gained in the premium segment. It grew 55 percent YoY, with major growth coming from China.
Samsung Foundry division secured a major win by signing a deal worth $16.5 billion with Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The South Korean giant will be responsible for manufacturing the next-generation AI chip, the AI6 chip. This is a big win for the foundry division, considering its falling behind TSMC for the past couple of years. In what can be seen as another big win, Samsung could be close to securing a new deal, and this time its for xAIs first AI chip.

Samsung could manufacture xAIs first AI chip

Samsung has seen a significant momentum in the chip division in recent times, courtesy of the deal with Tesla. It has also managed to secure orders for Apples advanced imaging sensors, signaling a positive development. The Korean outlet BusinessPost now claims that Samsung could be a candidate for manufacturing Elon Musk-owned xAIs custom AI chips. It appears that the billion-dollar entrepreneur has a liking for Samsung.

The report notes that Samsung is moving toward reviving its foundry, and a big part of it includes ramping up the production of 2nm.

Details regarding the chip are not available yet

AI companies like xAI and OpenAI are investing big bucks in hardware, with the focus on custom AI chips. This means theyll have to work with either Samsung or TSMC to make them. However, details regarding xAIs first custom chip are not available at the moment. The company recently posted a job listing for a custom silicon developer, suggesting its interest in developing custom ASICs for its AI workloads.

Elon Musk previously mentioned that the $16.5 billion deal with Samsung was an initial estimate. This means the actual figure could be a lot more, depending on how things progress. With domestic manufacturing a major requirement in the US right now, Samsung has an advantage here as it plans to produce the Tesla chips in its Texas facility. Adding to this is that Samsung is also reportedly planning to introduce the 2nm process at the facility.
Googles Pixel 10 adds content credentials to every single image captured with the phones camera. If youre not sure what any of that means, thats completely fine. There are a whole lot of technical details that make up this entire process, but the simple explanation of what this means is that when you take a picture with the Pixel 10s camera app, it adds data to the picture that proves its an image that was captured by a camera, and not generated with AI.

AI-generated content is becoming more and more prominent these days. Thats making it increasingly difficult to figure out whats real and whats not. Before long, it might be impossible to tell when an image is AI-generated just by looking at it. Its already getting there. Thankfully, Google is doing its part with the Pixel 10 family of devices to make it pretty easy to verify real images.

The Pixel 10 camera app attaches content credentials to every single image it captures

There are a few specifics to this, but heres basically whats happening. When you capture an image (Google specifically says a JPEG photo) with the camera app, it attaches content credentials to the image, which can tell you the photo was taken with the camera app.

These content credentials can also identify if a JPEG image was edited with AI or non-AI tools. So, theres no way to hide that a photo isnt completely original, taken by you, and not altered. These kinds of credentials are added to images by the Google Photos app.

This might not sound like a big deal to some, but to most, its likely a breath of fresh air. In a world where AI is being woven into just about everything other than the fabric of reality itself, many users with a disdain for AI-generated content want to know when something isnt generated with AI. Its nice to look at a beautiful image of a landscape or city street and know that it was untouched by AI. Google isnt stopping here, though. It also made sure to sprinkle on some security.

Google ensures that images arent identifiable

While its nice to be able to identify if an image is edited with AI or not, you dont want those images captured with the camera to allow someone else to identify you. Heres the scenario. You capture an image of the cityscape on your trip to Tokyo. Then you post it on Reddit, where youre anonymous. What you dont want is someone being able to identify you through data in the image.

Google refers to this as traceability. Basically, the image you captured contains a specific cryptographic key or signature. And if you share that photo through an anonymous account, such as one Reddit, then share a different photo on a public account, like on X, the cryptographic key for the image on Reddit could potentially be linked to the public image, if the same key was used to sign it. Thus, identifying you. Its a lot more technical than that, but thats the basic breakdown.

Googles solution to combat this is by attaching a unique cryptographic key and certificate to each image. No key or certificate is ever used twice. So when you share an image on an anonymous platform, it cant be linked to a different image you share publicly. Google also states that content credentials can be added to images offline. So, it doesnt matter if your phone is connected or not.
By Qabil Ashirov



A delegation led by Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Kazakhstan and Commander of the National Guard, Major General Ansagan Baltabekov, has paid a visit to Azerbaijan, Azernews reports, citing the Press Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The Press Service noted that Minister Colonel General Vilayat Eyvazov received the Kazakh delegation.

Welcoming the guests, Minister Eyvazov noted that cooperation between the Interior Ministries of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan has been steadily deepening in line with the strategy defined by the heads of both states. He emphasized that bilateral ties, particularly joint efforts in combating transnational organized crime, the exchange of best practices and operational information, as well as the established legal framework, serve the interests of both nations and contribute to regional security.

For his part, Major General Baltabekov expressed gratitude for the warm reception and hospitality, stressing his institutions interest in further expanding cooperation and its readiness to continue active engagement in this direction.

The sides also exchanged views on a number of other issues of mutual concern.

As part of the visit, the Kazakh delegation was acquainted with the activities of the Internal Troops and police units of Azerbaijan.
A magician and a crime fiction writer are among the Northern Ireland artists to benefit from funding to support new projects that will showcase their work to local and international audiences.

The Major Individual Awards worth up to 15,000 are being presented by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland with National Lottery funding.

They are the highest-value awards bestowed by the Arts Council each year.

Crime fiction writer Brian McGilloway, visual artist Gail Ritchie, poet Shelley Tracey and magician Nicola McBride, also known as Nikola Arkane, have been awarded the grants to develop new works.

The award will enable author Brian McGilloway to write full-time (Arts Council NI/PA)

The award will enable McGilloway to write full-time for the first time as he works on a new book.

Ritchie, from Belfast, will use the funding to develop work during a residency in France for exhibiting across Europe, including in France, Belgium, Italy and Poland.

Belfast poet Tracey will use her funding for a project called Exploring The Art Of Creativity Through Poetry Film, as well as designing and facilitating writing workshops.

Belfast poet Shelley Tracey is among the artists to receive funding (Arts Council NI/PA)

Arkane will create a stage magic act for touring in Northern Ireland and internationally. Her award will also enable her to spend a year in Korea developing her practice with leading magician Hyunjoon Kim.

Gilly Campbell, director of arts development at the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, said: They are four immensely talented artists who have already made a significant contribution to the arts in Northern Ireland and beyond.

Through this Major Individual Artist Award, each artist will benefit greatly from being able to take time out to concentrate purely on creating ambitious, high-quality projects with the financial backing they need to produce work of lasting value.

Thanks to money raised for good causes by the National Lottery players, these major awards will help to cement their national and international reputations as artists, and strengthen the positive cultural profile of Northern Ireland, both at home and abroad.

The four join a distinguished list of artists who have previously benefited from these major awards and we wish them every success as they create exciting new work.
The attorney general has trashed calls from Nigel Farage and some senior Conservatives to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), saying that abandoning it would send an immensely damaging signal to Britains allies.

Lord Richard Hermer said abandoning the human rights convention would leave Britain in the company of Russia and Belarus (Russia was expelled from the ECHR after its invasion of Ukraine, while Belarus has never joined the Council of Europe).

Sir Keir Starmers top lawyer said one of the complaints often made against the ECHR is that it makes it impossible to deport people overseas who may then face the risk of death or torture.

Lord Hermer said Britain abandoning the ECHR would send an immensely damaging signal (PA Wire)

If we wanted to get around that, we would have to leave not only the ECHR, we would have to leave the [UN] Torture Convention, we would have to leave the Convention on the Rights of the Child, we would have to leave the International Convention on Civil or Political Rights, he told a Lords committee.

We would become, together with Russia and Belarus, in splendid isolation on this planet, which I do not think is in the interests of this country.

Doing so would send an immensely damaging signal, not only about where we are in the world currently, but about the importance of international cooperation and core shared values, Lord Hermer said.

The Reform UK leader has long supported leaving the ECHR in a bid to be able to deport migrants who arrive in the UK on small boats.

His plans would see Britain ditch the ECHR and replace the Human Rights Act with the UK Bill of Rights, which would only apply to British citizens and those who have a legal right to live in the Britain.

Reform leader Nigel Farage has long supported leaving the ECHR (PA Wire)

Meanwhile, Kemi Badenoch has promised to set out the Conservative Partys position on the ECHR at its annual conference in October.

It is widely expected that she will adopt leaving the convention as the partys official position, a stance long held by shadow justice secretary and leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick.

In June, Ms Badenoch launched a commission looking into the effectiveness of the ECHR and whether it would be possible to leave. At the time, she said the UK would probably have to pull out.

Lord Hermer said Britain can toughen its stance on immigration without falling foul of the ECHR, adding that some of our colleagues in the Council of Europe have much more robust immigration and asylum rules that are compatible with article eight of the convention.

Kemi Badenoch is expected to support leaving the ECHR at Tory conference in October (PA Wire)

Article eight of the convention protects the fundamental right to respect for an individuals private and family life.

Lord Hermer added: I want to make sure weve got the best and most effective immigration and asylum rules possible. Theres a real area of work to be done there, and I know the home secretary is absolutely on it.

He lashed out at the broken immigration and asylum system left by the Conservatives, using some of his strongest language yet in pledging to bring the numbers coming to the UK under control. The government will leave no stone unturned in trying to protect this countrys interests, and dealing with the immigration and asylum system, in large part broken when we came in, he said.
If you haven't met this internet-famous baby pygmy hippo named Mars yet, you're in for a treat. Mars is just over two months old, and everybody adores him. He's feisty, independent, and doesn't like to be told what to do (or when it's time to go to his inside enclosure!). He is a joy to watch, as you'll see in this funny video that Tanganyika Wildlife Park posted recently.

Make sure your sound is on for this one; the narration makes it even funnier! The clip starts with Mars foraging for a snack, but quickly takes a turn when he tries to squeeze himself into a spot he definitely doesnt fit. The play-by-play commentary makes the whole scene absolutely hilarious!

Well, technically, those are trees! We loved watching Mars try to fit his "round physique" through the branch gap, and seeing him successfully pull it off! Go Mars!

Related: Caretaker Explains Why Famous Baby Pygmy Hippo Will Never Meet His Dad

Funny Reactions to Mars Almost Getting Stuck

Commenters got a kick out of watching Mars, as we always do! @Jay Warda made us smile when they said, "My rotund little potato is an obstacle course champion." @Oliver & Emma added, "Slimy potato had an advantage!"

Viewer @BooksNCoffeeNCats joked, "Oh my...almost stuck. Keep toddlers away from railings or closely growing trees!" @traci763 added, "Branch 0 - Mars 1".

@emlovesmovies25 asked what we were all wondering (and we totally agree with her!), "I want to know who comes up with this commentary because they deserve a medal!"

Overall, most commenters all said the same thing, like this person who said what Mars must've been thinking, "He is growing so fast! 'Now I know I made it through this gap before easily...I must have eaten way too many leaves' LOL!"

Another commenter asked, "How much does Mars weigh now?" Tanganyika didn't respond, but we know that Mars the baby pygmy hippo was 13 to 14 pounds at birth and when he was weighed in August, he was already nearly 40 pounds. He really is getting so big so fast!

Pygmy hippos are much smaller than regular hippos. They grow to an average of 3 to 3.9 feet tall at the shoulder, 4.9 to 5.7 feet long, and weigh 350 to 600 pounds. They are often described as about the same size as a large sheep or a domestic pig. He'll definitely get bigger than his mom, Posie, but will most certainly get as big as his dad, Pluto!

This story was originally reported by PetHelpful on Sep 10, 2025, where it first appeared in the Pet News section. Add PetHelpful as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
(LFB)

Around 150 people were evacuated as a huge fire ripped through a block of flats in south London destroying most of the building.

Some 100 firefighters and 15 fire engines were called to the fire on Maysoule Road in Battersea on Wednesday evening.

Footage shared online showed flames tearing through the roof of the five-storey building.

The residents were evacuated from the building by fire crews wearing breathing apparatus. No injuries have been reported.

Two of the London Fire Brigades 32-metre turntable ladders was used as water towers to help extinguish the fire from height

They are trying to get people out now but Im pretty sure everyone got out. pic.twitter.com/yeEUuO48B6  sm (@shubmusa) September 10, 2025

The LFB took dozens of calls about the blaze, after being first alerted shortly after 7pm The fire was brought under control at 2301.

Firefighters remained at the scene overnight dampening down the building.

The cause of the fire will be investigated by the Brigade's Fire Investigation Team.
British patients are trialling a major new blood test for Alzheimers which could revolutionise diagnosis of the deadly condition.

People with suspected dementia are being recruited via memory clinics across the UK to check how well the test works in the NHS. Experts hope to have answers within three years.

The trial forms part of the Blood Biomarker Challenge, a multimillion-pound programme supported by Alzheimers Society, Alzheimers Research UK and the Peoples Postcode Lottery.

A team led by University College London (UCL) is investigating whether the test, which measures the protein p-tau217, can improve the early and accurate diagnosis of Alzheimers disease.

The test has already been shown to be effective in looking for the protein but researchers want to know whether giving it to patients near the start of an assessment for memory and thinking problems helps guide diagnosis and treatment.

The study will recruit 1,100 people from diverse geographic, ethnic and economic backgrounds, alongside those living with other health conditions to ensure the findings are relevant in a wide population.

Analysis suggests the test can tell around 80% of people with cognitive decline whether they are likely to have Alzheimers.

Alzheimers disease is the most common cause of dementia and linked to the build-up of two key proteins in the brain called amyloid and tau.

P-tau217 is regarded as a promising biomarker which shows both amyloid and tau are present in the brain.

Experts believe blood tests such as plasma p-tau217 can detect these proteins as accurately as current  but more invasive  methods such as PET scans and lumbar punctures.

If shown to work in NHS practice, blood tests could be used as part of a wider assessment to confirm the diagnosis of Alzheimers disease for people who already have memory or thinking problems.

The Alzheimers Disease Diagnosis and Plasma pTau217 (Adapt) team behind the study is led by Professor Jonathan Schott and Dr Ashvini Keshavan.

Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust began recruitment a few weeks ago and 19 more UK centres are expected to take part.

Half of people in the study will receive their blood test results within three months of being assessed for the first time in their memory service, while the other half will receive theirs after 12 months.

The team will establish whether providing results earlier helps speed up diagnosis, guides decisions about further investigations, and influences how both patients and doctors interpret and respond to the results.

The impact of blood test results on quality of life will also be measured.

Professor Schott, from UCL and chief medical officer at Alzheimers Research UK, said: We are thrilled to welcome participants onto the Adapt trial  a critical part of the Blood Biomarker Challenge  which we hope will take us a step forward in revolutionising the way we diagnose dementia.

After decades of research, we now have a blood test for Alzheimers disease that is backed by strong scientific evidence and provides comparable information to other gold-standard diagnostic tests such as PET scans and lumbar punctures yet is far more accessible, and cheaper.

Currently only about 2% of people diagnosed with Alzheimers have access to one of these gold-standard diagnostic tests.

While identifying Alzheimers disease early and accurately is already important for enabling access to current therapies and planning care, it will become even more critical as a new generation of treatments emerge that can slow down the decline of memory and thinking.

Timely diagnosis will be key to ensuring these advances reach the people who need them most.

Professor Fiona Carragher, chief policy and research officer at the Alzheimers Society, said: Our recent Lived Experience Survey revealed that only a third of people with dementia felt their experience of the diagnosis process was positive, while many reported being afraid of receiving a diagnosis.

As a result, too often, dementia is diagnosed late, limiting access to support, treatment and opportunities to plan ahead.

In January, a research team from the University of Oxford and University of Cambridge  also part of the Blood Biomarker Challenge  announced they had begun using a different suite of tests on dementia patients.

This team is assessing multiple new and existing blood tests, looking at a range of dementia types including Alzheimers disease, vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia, and dementia with Lewy bodies.
The boss of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has urged the Chancellor to ditch Labours manifesto pledge not to raise taxes on working people as concerns in the corporate sector ramp up ahead of the autumn Budget.

Writing in the Guardian newspaper, CBI chief executive Rain Newton-Smith said the time for tinkering is over and warned Rachel Reeves against slavish adherence to tax promises made in the run-up to last years general election.

Speculation is mounting that Ms Reeves will unveil more tax hikes in the November 26 budget as the UK economic outlook worsens.

The Chancellor is hamstrung by an election vow not to increase income tax, national insurance and VAT  the three main revenue raisers for the Treasury.

Businesses were sent reeling after her inaugural budget in October last year saw them hit with a rise in national insurance contributions (NICs), as well as an increase in the minimum wage.

In a surprise intervention, Ms Newton-Smith said times had changed and so should the Governments taxation plans.

She said: The fact is that geopolitics and global markets have shifted.

The world is different from when Labour drafted its manifesto, and when the facts change so should the solutions.

The Chancellor cannot raid corporate coffers again so she must look elsewhere, embracing long-term strategic tax reforms rather than maintaining a slavish adherence to manifesto promises on tax or ideas based on the world as it was 18 months ago.

She also called for an overhaul of taxes, saying long-term reform was needed for business rates, VAT and stamp duty.

Ms Reeves must avoid short-term solutions that risk us getting stuck in a cycle between fiscal events, Ms Newton-Smith said.

She said: The Chancellor must commit to tax reform, not just tax rises.

It is the structure of the system, not just the rates, that holds back growth: business rates penalise investment; the VAT threshold discourages scaling; and stamp duty restricts labour mobility.

In a warning against penalising the business sector further, she said: A further tax rise for enterprise would run contrary to the promises of autumn 2024, when businesses last stomached a tax hit.

Further rises would leave us with a growth plan in name only.
A suspect in the assassination of conservative activist and close Trump ally Charlie Kirk has been identified as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox announced on Friday.

We got him, Cox said at a news conference to announce the arrest of Robinson who was taken into custody Thursday on suspicion of capital murder, weapons and obstruction offenses.

Kirk, 31, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was fatally shot in the neck during an outdoor speaking event at Utah Valley University Wednesday.

Cox said Robinson confessed to a family member who reached out to a friend Thursday night, who then contacted the Washington County Sheriff's Office. The arrest brought an end to the 33-hour manhunt, FBI Director Kash Patel said.

The suspect is said to be listed as politically unaffiliated, although both his parents are believed to be Republicans.

A suspect is in custody and has been identified as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson (Utah Governor's Office)

Cox said the suspect arrived on the campus of Utah Valley University on Wednesday at 8:29 a.m. in a gray Dodge Challenger. He was wearing a plain maroon t-shirt, light shorts, and a black hat with a white logo, as seen in surveillance videos. He wore the same clothes when he was arrested on Thursday night.

Robinson was not a student at the Utah Valley University, where the shooting happened.

He was living, and had lived for a long time, with his family in Washington County, Cox said.

Utah voting information seen by The Independent shows his voter status is inactive, meaning he has not voted in the last two general elections or responded to notices sent by a county clerk. His party affiliation is listed as unaffiliated.

However, family members said Robinson had become more political in recent years, expressed negative views of Kirk and told family members he believed the Turning Point USA founder was full of hate and spreading hate, Cox said.

He revealed that the family member told investigators that at a recent family dinner, Robinson had mentioned Kirks upcoming Utah Valley event, and they talked about why they didnt like him and the viewpoints that he had.

After the shooting, Cox said Robinsons father recognized his son in photos that law enforcement released and reached out to a family friend, who happened to be a minster, to encourage Robinson to turn himself in.

Trump had revealed some of those details while announcing the suspected shooter was in custody on Fox & Friends just hours before the press conference.

I think, with a high degree of certainty, we have him, Trump said. The president said that somebody close to the suspect turned him in, before expressing hope that he receives the death sentence.

The minister, who is also involved with law enforcement, called authorities to arrest Robinson. The suspected shooter was arrested approximately 250 miles southwest of the university, in St. George, Utah. Law enforcement officials said physical evidence found at the scene of the shooting was tied to Robinson.

Robinson was being held Friday at the Utah County Jail.

He was arrested on suspicion of aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily harm, and obstruction of justice charges, according to a court affidavit. A judge ordered that he be held without bail.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said the suspect arrived on the campus of Utah Valley University on Tuesday at 8:29 a.m. in a gray Dodge Challenger (Utah Public Safety)

Cox said Robinson's roommate showed investigators a number of Discord messages from the suspect, including ones that said he needed to get a rifle from a drop point and another about leaving that rifle in a bush.

The content of these 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, Cox said.

Ammunition inside the rifle was engraved with messages that included If you read this, you are gay lmao and notices bulge OWO whats this? One read, Hey, fascist! Catch! with an up arrow symbol, right arrow symbol, and three down arrow symbols.

Another said, oh bella ciao bella ciao bella ciao ciao ciao  an apparent reference to Bella ciao, an Italian song dedicated to those who fought against fascism during World War II. However, both Bella ciao and the arrows symbol could be references to the video game Helldivers.

Family members said Tyler Robinson had become more political in recent years, expressed negative views of Kirk and told family members he believed Kirk was full of hate and spreading hate (Reuters)

What we know about suspect's family

Robinsons parents are registered as Republicans, according to the The Wall Street Journal. Roughly half of Utah voters are Republicans, while about a quarter are unaffiliated voters.

Robinsons father, who is a deputy with the Washington County Sheriff's Office, also owns Distinctive Stone LLC, a kitchen countertop business. His mother is a social worker who works at Intermountain Support Coordination as a contractor for the state of Utah, according to online records viewed by The Independent.

A Facebook video Robinsons mother posted in 2021 reveals the suspect had a resident presidential scholarship to Utah State University. A spokesperson for the university said in a statement Friday that Robinson briefly attended Utah State University for one semester in 2021, CNN reported.

Kirk, 31, sitting onstage Wednesday, moments before he was shot in front of a student audience at a college in Utah (The Deseret News)

What we know about the shooting

Robinson is expected to be charged with aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury and obstruction of justice, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by NBC News.

Authorities have not commented on a potential motive in the killing but Cox said officials believe the suspect acted alone in the shooting and said they dont have any information that would lead to any additional arrests, but added that the investigation is ongoing.

The Utah governor then called for the country to unite and said he believed that Americans can help change the course of history.

I desperately call on every American  Republican, Democrat, liberal, progressive, conservative, MAGA, all of us  to please, please, please follow what Charlie taught me.

Kirks death has rattled Republicans, including the president and his family. It marks the latest in a string of political violence that has deepened rifts within the country and made lawmakers worried for their safety.

The news comes less than 24 hours after the FBI and Utah Department of Safety released new footage showing a suspect jumping from a rooftop at Utah Valley University before fleeing into nearby trees moments later.

Authorities also shared new images of the suspect, clearly showing he was wearing a long-sleeve black shirt with an American flag on it. He was also wearing dark pants, canvas shoes, a blue cap, a black backpack and sunglasses. The photos show the suspect moving up and down staircases.

The FBI had asked the public for help in capturing Kirks assassin, offering a a reward of up to $100,000.

FBI Special Agent in Charge in Salt Lake City, Robert Bohls, said the shooting was a targeted event.

The suspect was seen on video arriving on campus at 11:52 a.m. From there, he moved through stairwells and onto a roof, investigators said. He was later seen moving across the roof and jumping off the building to flee campus.

Investigators have gone into the nearby neighborhoods to collect any doorbell camera footage of the suspect.

Officials believe the gunman shot from the Losee Center, around 150 yards from where Kirk was speaking.

The suspected gunman was pictured in videos and images standing on top of a university building, where its believed he shot Kirk (Twitter)

The suspected gunman appears to be seen in videos shared online crouching down on the roof of a building (UGC)

Images of the suspect show a person wearing sunglasses, a baseball cap and a long-sleeved shirt (Utah Public Safety)

Mason also urged the public to avoid harassing two persons of interest who were detained in the immediate aftermath of the shooting but later released.

One of the two people detained was an older man seen in photos that circulated online shortly after the killing.

Officials said he had been charged with obstruction by university police. The other man had been initially described by officials as a person of interest but was also let go.

How the shooting unfolded

Kirk, a close ally of Trump, was hosting a student-sponsored event with his organization, Turning Point USA, on Wednesday afternoon at Utah Valley University in Orem, a suburb of Provo, Utah.

The conservative media personality was on the first stop of a tour of college campuses, dubbed the American Comeback Tour, to speak with young Republican voters.

The event was with the MAGA youth organization Kirk founded, Turning Point USA (Bartholomew/@Lifeisdriving with Mainstreet Media Utah/TMX)

Shortly after noon, a single gunshot was heard. Footage from the scene showed Kirk had been hit in the neck.

The large crowd of young conservatives appeared momentarily stunned, then quickly ducked down, running and screaming.

Kirk was lifted up by his security team and carried to a waiting SUV. He was rushed to the hospital, and Trump later announced his death.

Kirk leaves behind his wife, Erika Lane Kirk, and their two young children.

The crowd of 3,000 attendees ducked for safety as the gunshot rang out during the event ( Deseret News 2025)

His coffin was transported to his home in Arizona on Air Force Two with Vice President JD Vance Thursday.

Trump announced during a 9/11 remembrance ceremony at the Pentagon earlier in the day Kirk would posthumously receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, considered the highest civilian award.

When asked Thursday if he was concerned for his own safety, Trump, who was the target of two assassination attempts during the 2024 election cycle, said, Not really.

Im really concerned for our country. We have a great country. We have a radical left group of lunatics out there, Trump said outside the White House. And were gonna get that problem solved.

Kirks campus event was met with divided opinion

Kirk was hosting his organizations American Comeback Tour when he was shot.

The event was met with divided opinions on campus ahead of time.

An online petition calling for university administrators to bar Kirk from appearing received nearly 1,000 signatures. There were reportedly around 3,000 at Kirks event.

The university issued a statement last week citing First Amendment rights and affirming its commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.
Charlie Kirk, the founder of the powerful rightwing youth activist group Turning Point USA (TPUSA) and a close ally of Donald Trump, was fatally shot on Wednesday afternoon while speaking at a university campus event in Utah.

His death shocked the nation as members of both political parties expressed outrage at the killing. Spencer Cox, the Utah governor, called the shooting a political assassination, though a motive is not yet known and the shooter remained at large on Wednesday night.

This is a dark day for our state. Its a tragic day for our nation, Cox, a Republican, said at a press conference, appealing for an end to the political violence that has stalked the country in recent months.

Kirk was killed while speaking on the campus of Utah Valley University (UVU), near Salt Lake City, as part of the American Comeback Tour, which is hosted by the universitys Turning Point USA (TPUSA) chapter and was attended by as many as 3,000 people, according to Jeffrey Long, the police chief at the university.

Details about the shooters identity and motive are still unknown, but state authorities said they believed the incident was a targeted attack. Kirk was about 20 minutes into a presentation when a single shot was fired at him, the university said.

Trump announced Kirks death in a social media post, and ordered all American flags to be lowered to half-staff in honor of the 31-year-old conservative youth leader. The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead, Trump wrote, adding: He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us.

The president, along with other prominent conservatives, was also quick to fan the flames of division by blaming the radical left political violence for Kirks killing. In a speech in the Oval Office, Trump called Kirk the best of America, and listed acts of violence that he attributed to the left while omitting violence against Democrats, such as the killing of a Minnesota state lawmaker.

For years those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the worlds worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that were seeing in our country today and it must stop right now, Trump said in his speech.

Through the day, two suspects were separately taken into custody but ultimately released. One person detained at the scene, George Zinn, was deemed not to be a suspect but was charged with obstructing justice. A second person taken into custody was released after being interviewed. Neither had ties to the shooting, according to the university.

Bystander footage of the shooting and its aftermath captured a chaotic scene. In videos circulating on social media, Kirk can be seen being struck in the neck by a bullet while speaking beneath a tent in the UVU courtyard in Orem, Utah. Video footage also shows students scrambling to run from the sound of gunfire. Kirk was transported to a nearby hospital, where he died, authorities said.

Local and campus police, the FBI and the Utah department of public safety are investigating the incident.

Beau Mason, the commissioner of Utahs department of public safety, said investigators were reviewing security camera images of the suspect, who wore dark clothing and possibly fired a longer-distance shot from a roof.

Law enforcement officials briefly took two people into custody before releasing them. One person was detained at the scene but deemed not to be a suspect, and the second person was released after being interviewed by police. Neither of the individuals had ties to the shooting, authorities said.

At the press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Cox pledged that authorities would find the shooter and hold them accountable to the furthest extent of the law.

And I just want to remind people that we still have the death penalty here in the state of Utah, Cox said.

In an internal email to staff members posted online on Wednesday, Justin Streiff, Turning Point USA COO, said: It is with a heavy heart that we, the Turning Point USA leadership team, write to notify you that earlier this afternoon Charlie went to his eternal reward with Jesus Christ in Heaven  However, in the meantime, Turning Point USA and Turning Point Action will be closed for business until Monday, the 15th  likely longer.

UVU announced that it would be closed for the remainder of the week and classes and other events would be suspended until Monday. In a statement, the university president said the campus was shocked and saddened by the violence and offered condolences to Kirks family.

We grieve with our students, faculty, and staff who bore witness to this unspeakable tragedy, Astrid Tuminez said. We firmly believe that UVU is a place to share ideas and to debate openly and respectfully. Any attempt to infringe on those rights has no place here. We do not condone any form of violence at UVU and seek to make our campus a safe place for all.

Eyewitnesses said Kirk was being questioned about mass shootings when he was shot in the neck.

A Deseret News reporter, Emma Pitts, who was at the event, said that Kirk was on his second question and that it was regarding mass shootings.

The person he was debating had asked about if he knew how many mass shootings had involved a transgender shooter, to which Kirk responded, Pitts said. [Then] he asked how many mass shootings had [there] been in the last couple of years and before he could even answer, we heard a gunshot and we just saw Charlie Kirks neck turn to the side and it appeared that he had been shot in the neck.

There was blood, immediately a lot of blood, Pitts said. After the shots were fired, everyone immediately took to the ground  we were just trying to stay hidden.

Then, Pitts said, everyone started running away.

The shooting drew condemnation from both sides of the political spectrum.

Political violence has no place in America, said Kamala Harris in a statement. Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House minority leader, expressed a similar sentiment: Political violence of any kind and against any individual is unacceptable and completely incompatible with American values.

Mike Lee, a Utah senator, wrote: Charlie Kirk was an American patriot  This murder was a cowardly act of violence, an attack on champions of freedom like Charlie, the students who gathered for civil debate, and all Americans who peacefully strive to save our nation. The terrorists will not win. Charlie will. Please join me in praying for his wife Erika and their children. May justice be swift.

Sam Levin contributed reporting
The FBI has release images of a person if interest in their hunt for a college-age gunman who killed right-wing US influencer Charlie Kirk.

They asked for the public's help in identifying the man, as they offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the killer's arrest.

They are the first images law enforcement has released of an individual they believe may be involved in Mr Kirk's death.

(FBI)

Federal agents said earlier that they found a high-powered rifle in the woods after Kirk was shot dead at Utah Valley University.

Officials have also obtained footwear, palm and forearm prints of the suspected killer.

(FBI)

The gunman is believed to have fled Utah State University, where the Turning Point USA founder, 31, was speaking, into a neighbourhood.

At a press conference several hours before the FBI special agent Robert Bohls revealed they do not believe the local community is at risk.

Beau Mason, commissioner for Utahs Department of Public Safety Commissioner, said the investigation has made "a few breakthroughs", including being able to track the suspects movements.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, President Trump confirmed he had spoken to Kirks family and said his wife Erika was devastated.

When asked about how he feels about his own safety, Trump said he was not really concerned.

"I'm really concerned for our country. We have a great country, but a radical left group of lunatics out there," he said. "We're going to get that problem solved."

Speaking about the gunman, Trump said: "Hopefully we'll have him, and we'll deal with him very appropriately."

The killer is understood to have arrived near campus at 11.52am local time. He then climbed stairwells up to the roof and across the roof to the Losee Center, just 130 meters from where Kirk was fatally shot with a single bullet in the neck while speaking to students at the universitys courtyard at around 12.20pm.

Investigators on Thursday morning recovered "what we believe to be the weapon that was used in yesterday's shooting"  a bolt-action rifle  in a wooded area where authorities believe the suspect fled.

Mr Mason added that he spoke to Mr Kirk's wife Erika. "The family is devastated he said. "I can only imagine what they're going through.

He went on to say: "I can't overstate the tragedy and the horrific event that yesterday was.

Mr Mason said the suspect "blended in well with the college institution", before stressing: "We're not releasing many details right now. We will soon.

Announcing his death, US president Donald Trump said he was filled with grief and anger at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk.

He added: Charlie inspired millions and tonight all who knew him and loved him are united in shock and horror. Charlie was a patriot who devoted his life to the cause of open debate and the country that he loved so much, the United States of America.

READ MORE: Who was Charlie Kirk and what do we know about his killing?

Charlie Kirk wearing a MAGA hat at AmericaFest in 2024 (REUTERS)

TO MY GREAT FELLOW AMERICANS pic.twitter.com/oRsrE5TTHr  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 11, 2025

He fought for liberty, democracy, justice, and the American people. Hes a martyr for truth and freedom, and theres never been anyone who was so respected by youth.

Charlie was also a man of deep, deep faith. And we take comfort in the knowledge that he is now at peace with God in heaven.

Our prayers are with his wife, Erika, their two young beloved children, and his entire family, who he loved more than anything in the world. We ask God to watch over them in this terrible hour of heartache and pain.

This is a dark moment for America.

The hunt for the gunman continues after two people were arrested before being released. Authorities do not believe they are connected with the shooting.

Authorities are searching for a person of interest, according to reports.

A statement by the Utah Valley University said shots were fired from a building about 200 yards (182 metres) away.

"At about 12:20 shots were fired from a building about 200 yards from the speaker. To the best of our knowledge, the individual was hit and was taken away immediately by his security personnel," it said.

People run for cover after the shooting (via REUTERS)

(via REUTERS)

Utah Governor Spencer Cox said: This is a dark day for our state. It's a tragic day for our nation.

I want to be very clear, this is a political assassination.

In footage shared online, Mr Kirk can be seen moving his hand toward his neck after being shot as he falls off his chair, sending the attendees running, as people in the crowd scream and run from the scene.

The influencer, a key member of the Maga movement, was at the university at the start of 15-event American Comeback Tour with Turning Point USA, his non-profit organisation championing conservative politics in schools, colleges and university campuses.

Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin confirmed in a post on social media that Mr Kirks wife Erika and their two children were present at the event.

Vice President JD Vance, paid tribute, writing: Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord.

My thoughts this evening are with the loved ones of Charlie Kirk.



It is heartbreaking that a young family has been robbed of a father and a husband.



We must all be free to debate openly and freely without fear - there can be no justification for political violence.  Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) September 10, 2025

The murder of Charlie Kirk is a tragedy, and a sign of the utter desperation and cowardice of those who could not defeat him in argument. Charlie Kirk has been killed not for espousing extremist views - because he didnt. He has been killed for saying things that used to be  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) September 10, 2025

Prime Minister Keir Starmer also paid tribute, writing: My thoughts this evening are with the loved ones of Charlie Kirk. It is heartbreaking that a young family has been robbed of a father and a husband.

We must all be free to debate openly and freely without fear - there can be no justification for political violence.

Former PM Boris Johnson also sent his condolences. In a post on X, he said: The murder of Charlie Kirk is a tragedy, and a sign of the utter desperation and cowardice of those who could not defeat him in argument.

Charlie Kirk has been killed not for espousing extremist views - because he didnt. He has been killed for saying things that used to be simple common sense.

He has been killed because he had the courage to stand up publicly for reasonable opinions held by millions and millions of ordinary people both in the US and Britain. The world has a shining new martyr to free speech. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and loved ones.

Charlie Kirk was shot dead while speaking under a tent (REUTERS)

Mr Kirk and Turning Point, the largest conservative youth organization in the country, played a key role in driving young voter support for Trump in Novembers election that saw the US President return to the White House.

His events at college campuses nationwide typically drew large crowds. He often used such events, typically drawing large crowds of students, to invite attendees to debate him live. Before he was shot, Mr Kirk was sitting at what he calls a "Prove Me Wrong" table to field questions from the audience.

"WE. ARE. SO. BACK. Utah Valley University is FIRED UP and READY for the first stop back on the American Comeback Tour," Kirk wrote on X ahead of the event. Video showed him throwing his hat into the crowd as the event started.

After winning a second term, Trump credited Kirk for mobilising younger voters and voters of colour in support of his campaign during a rally in Phoenix in December.

US President Donald Trump with Charlie Kirk (REUTERS)

"You had Turning Point's grassroots armies," Trump said. "It's not my victory, it's your victory."

Kirk had 5.2 million followers on X and hosts a popular podcast and radio program, "The Charlie Kirk Show.", which according to NBC News, is being downloaded between 500,000 and 750,000 times each day. He has also recently co-hosted "Fox & Friends" on Fox News.

He was part of an ecosystem of pro-Trump conservative influencers, including Jack Posobiec, Laura Loomer, Candace Owens and others who have helped to amplify the president's agenda.

Mr Kirk frequently attacked mainstream media and engaged in culture war issues around race, gender and immigration, often in a provocative style.

While the motive for the shooting is unknown, the United States is undergoing its most sustained period of political violence since the 1970s.

In July 2024, Trump was grazed by a gunman's bullet during a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania. A second assassination attempt two months later was foiled by federal agents.

In April, an arsonist broke into Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro's residence and set it on fire while the family was inside.

Earlier this year, a gunman posing as a police officer in Minnesota murdered state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and shot Senator John Hoffman and his wife. And in Boulder, Colorado, a man used a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails to attack a solidarity event for Israeli hostages, killing one woman and injuring at least six more.

Both Republican and Democratic politicians paid tribute to Mr Kirk following his death.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he is "heartbroken" and "outraged", calling his death an "assassination". "Charlie Kirk's commitment to America's future generations and sense of patriotism will resonate for decades to come," he said.

"Political violence is NEVER acceptable," Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, said on X. "My thoughts and prayers are with Charlie Kirk and his family."

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote on X, "Please join us in praying for our good friend, Charlie Kirk."

Former US President Joe Biden offered his condolences to Mr Kirks amily in a post on social media.

"There is no place in our country for this kind of violence," he wrote. "It must end now. Jill and I are praying for Charlie Kirks family and loved ones."
Donald Trump listens as Nigel Farage speaks during a Maga rally in Arizona, October 2020 - Brendan Smialowski

Godwins Law famously states that as an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.

Very true. I would, however, suggest one small but crucial amendment. Because this is no longer a purely online phenomenon, as we know from the surging number of imbeciles who make such comparisons in public.

Take what happened to Donald Trump the other evening. On sitting down for dinner at a restaurant in Washington DC, he was harangued by a mob of female anti-Israel protesters, who screeched: Free Palestine! Trump is the Hitler of our time!

No, dears. Trump is not like Hitler. Since you appear to be a touch confused, allow me to explain: Hitler was a man who wanted to kill all the Jews. You know  like Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that has doubtless been delighted to hear so many gullible Westerners responding to its massacre of Jews on October 7, 2023 by screeching, Free Palestine!

Extraordinary, isnt it? Trumps foes are hardly short of things they could attack him on. From his approach to Ukraine to the chaos caused by his tariffs on free trade, there are countless criticisms of Trump that are perfectly reasonable and legitimate. Yet these nitwits have chosen just about the only one that isnt.

Mind you, political debate is no more sensible in Britain. Speaking at the TUC conference on Tuesday, John McDonnell  old friend and acolyte of Jeremy Corbyn  declared that Reform is a proto-fascist organisation.

Weve seen it in the 30s, he said. What they do, they have a demagogue speaking for them, they target a particular group, in the 30s in Germany it would have been the Jews, here it is asylum seekers

Mr McDonnell later insisted that he wasnt likening Nigel Farage to Hitler, or Reform to the Nazis. But how else are we supposed to interpret the comments above? If you throw around a phrase like the 30s in Germany, you cant then turn around and say, Oh no, I wasnt thinking of the Nazis.

What else did you have in mind? The architectural innovations of the Bauhaus? The cabarets of Weimar Berlin?

Whatever Mr McDonnell meant, lets get one thing straight. Likening Trump and Farage to Hitler is the mark of a moron. To call for an end to illegal immigration, as both those men have done, is not even faintly comparable to the industrial extermination of six million Jews.

And to attempt such a comparison is an insult to every one of Hitlers victims.

So why do these idiots keep doing it? The reason is obvious: they know theyre losing. And this is all theyve got left.
By Akbar Novruz



In line with the 2025 training plan, practical exercises were held in the Azerbaijani Army.

According to the Ministry of Defense Press and Public Relations Department, the units left their permanent deployment points, redeployed to concentration areas, and successfully carried out the assigned tasks in accordance with established standards.

The exercises mainly focused on maintaining a high level of combat readiness, as well as ensuring stable, uninterrupted, and efficient command and control of the units.

The ministry emphasized that the military personnel displayed a high degree of professionalism throughout the training.
Images released by New Zealand police on Wednesday believed to be the main campsite where fugitive father Tom Phillips and his children had been living. Photograph: New Zealand Police

Fugitive father Tom Phillips was receiving outside help during his years on the run before he was killed in a police shoot-out this week, New Zealand police said on Wednesday as they released images that show a newly discovered campsite.

Phillips had spent nearly four years hiding in the wilderness with his three children. He was killed in an exchange of fire with police after reports of a burglary in the remote town of Piopio, in the central North Island, on Monday.

Later on Monday, two of his children were found safe and well at a campsite in Waitomo. It is understood the third child was with Phillips at the time of the shooting.

After identifying what they believe to be Phillips main campsite for the last few months, police said it appeared he had received outside assistance.

Related: Hidden for nearly four years: how the saga of fugitive father Tom Phillips unfolded in New Zealand

We are currently looking at a number of items at the site. Aside from the burglaries we are now able to link to Tom, it is apparent that he had outside help, said detective senior sergeant Andrew Saunders.

As the investigation has been going on, weve always suspected Tom Phillips has been receiving help, Saunders said.

Police would now open a new investigation to identify anyone who helped Phillips. Objects found at the campsite would be analysed to see if they could be linked to burglaries or had been purchased for Phillips.

We think its absolutely important that we continue to look for those people that have been supporting Tom Phillips and hold them accountable.

The pictures released on Wednesday show a campsite found roughly 200m from the site where his children were discovered, police said in a statement.

The images show a steep incline where tarpaulins have been erected among the trees. Camouflage netting covers one corner of a large structure. Inside the campsite is a gas cylinder, a portable stove top, large buckets, gumboots and a tent that looks to be set into a dugout area.

It was difficult to access, well-hidden and highlighted the challenging environment the family used as its base, they said.

Its a very grim, dimly-lit area, surrounded by dense bush. The tent was well covered and dry, said detective Saunders.

The campsite was very dirty, cramped and not very nice for children, he told media on Wednesday afternoon.

The site was likely Phillips main campsite in recent months but not necessarily the primary place the family had lived in since they vanished, Saunders said.

Images released on Tuesday showed the campsite where two of Phillips children were found. Police said at least one firearm and ammunition were discovered at the campsite, about 2km from where Phillips had been killed. A police officer is recovering in hospital after being shot in the head by Phillips with a high-powered rifle in the standoff.

Phillips took his children Ember, now 9, Maverick, 10, and Jayda, 12, into the Waikato wilderness in December 2021 following a dispute with their mother. Phillips did not have legal custody of his children. He was facing a raft of charges, including aggravated robbery, aggravated wounding and unlawful possession of a firearm. Experts have expressed concern about the childrens reintegration into society.

The childrens mother, Cat, told Radio New Zealands Mata programme that she did not yet know when she would be reunited with her children.

Police minister Mark Mitchell told Mata it was a complex situation.

The children are now in child protective custody. An urgent suppression order was granted in the high court in relation to aspects of the case on Tuesday evening after an application by a lawyer acting on behalf of the Phillips family.

On Tuesday, Warwick Morehu from Oranga Tamariki told reporters the children were settled and doing well under the circumstances. He described the situation as unprecedented and appealed to the public to give the family privacy.
Contactless card limits could exceed 100 with firms tailoring limits, under proposals set out by the City regulator.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it wants to give card providers the flexibility to decide the right limit for them and their customers.

This could mean people having more convenience to tap and go when making bigger payments.

But feedback to the regulator indicated a limited appetite currently from some consumers and firms to see limits increased, with fraud concerns also raised.

Banking and finance industry body UK Finance said that it does not expect to see immediate changes to the 100 limits for consumers, although it said firms may consider changes to background limits such as how often someone needs to enter their Pin.

The contactless card limit has been raised in steps over the years, currently standing at 100.

The regulators proposals are out for consultation until October 15 2025.

The consultation document said: We propose replacing the current regulatory limits with a new exemption, which would allow (payment services providers) to process contactless payments where they identify the risk of a payment transaction to be low.

(Payment services providers) can still set or maintain contactless payment limits as they see fit in line with their business and customer needs and in compliance with regulation.

It continued: Our approach is designed to allow (payment services providers) to take a risk-based approach to contactless payments, while also giving them greater flexibility to manage that risk, including though the ability to set their own contactless limits.

Existing rules stipulate a 100 limit for any single contactless card transaction (Alamy/PA)

The regulator previously launched a contactless payments engagement paper which received nearly 1,300 responses.

It said, based on industry feedback, it anticipates that most firms would continue to implement the 100 limit for the time being.

The regulator said that while it anticipates firms are unlikely to make significant changes to their contactless limits in the short term, and that they will only do so if there is a low risk of increased fraud, some firms could potentially increase or remove their limits, which could heighten the risk to consumers.

Existing rules stipulate a 100 limit for any single contactless card transaction, and a cumulative total of 300 in contactless transactions or no more than five consecutive contactless transactions since the last application of strong customer authentication to verify a payment was made.

Modelling in the document estimates that if payment services providers raised both their single and cumulative limits to 150 and 450 respectively, fraud could increase up to a maximum of 31.3 million per year over three years, which would be a 131% increase on the current contactless fraud rate.

The consultation document said: However, we consider it highly unlikely that this fraud scenario would be realised, adding that this was presented as a worst-case scenario.

The regulator emphasised that while firms could increase or remove contactless limits they would only be permitted to allow contactless payments where they have identified a transaction to be low risk and they would still be liable for reimbursement.

The consultation document said: As (payment services providers) are liable for any reimbursement for unauthorised contactless payments, if (payment services providers) increased the limits and their fraud rate increased, their reimbursement costs would also rise.

They are therefore incentivised to maintain low levels of contactless payments fraud.

Another issue is that many point of sale terminals in the UK are programmed to decline contactless payments at 100.

The consultation document added: Respondents have expressed limited appetite to bear implementation costs at the present time.

Many card providers already offer customers the ability to adjust their personal contactless limits or turn off contactless functionality on their card altogether. The FCA said it is encouraging firms to continue to offer their customers this choice.

David Geale, executive director of payments and digital finance at the FCA, said: Were seeing smarter payment technology and more well-established fraud controls, so its the right time to let firms tailor contactless payments to fit their customers needs and drive innovation.

While we wouldnt expect to see immediate changes to limits by firms, they would have the flexibility to make payments more convenient for customers.

People are still protected. Even with contactless, firms will refund your money if your card is used fraudulently.

Contactless card payments have the same protections as other card payments, meaning banks and payment firms must reimburse unauthorised fraud cases, such as when a customers card has been lost or stolen.

UK Finances Annual Fraud Report 2025 estimates that contactless fraud rates are currently low, the regulator said, at around 1.3p per 100 spent on contactless transactions compared with 6p per 100 for all unauthorised fraud.

The FCA said it recognises that certain consumers could be impacted by contactless changes more than others.

It said that under Consumer Duty, firms are expected to be able to identify and take appropriate action where particular groups of customers such as those with characteristics of vulnerability or those with protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 receive systematically poorer outcomes.

The consultation document also said: We note that a significant number of members of the public wrote in to support keeping the contactless limits at their current level, particularly expressing concerns around the potential impact on fraud.

Our approach would enable (payment services providers) to maintain contactless limits at their current levels, should they consider this appropriate to maintain a low level of risk.

The regulator has said previously that 85% of people in the UK make contactless card payments each month.

Its consultation said 78% of consumers who responded to its engagement paper said it should maintain the 100 single limit.

The document said: We saw similar responses in a representative sample of consumers survey carried out by Opinium Research for UK Finance, where 76% of respondents said the single limit should be at 100 or lower.

Data from UK Finance found that 82% of contactless transactions are below 25 and more than 90% of contactless transactions are below 50. The spread of these transactions may be considered by firms in deciding whether to change their limits, the regulator said.

The consultation document said: In the medium to longer term, (payment services providers) may decide to make changes to their contactless limits, due to improvements in fraud detection technology or changes in market conditions (eg increase in prices).

If (payment services providers) do make changes, we expect there could be benefits to merchants and consumers if there was a reduction in the number of step-ups (ie Pin entries) without corresponding increases in fraud, leading to lower payment friction and greater time savings. This could be delivered through innovative improvements in fraud detection systems.

The review of the contactless card limit is one of around 50 measures that the regulator outlined in a letter to Prime Minster Sir Keir Starmer in January to help support economic growth.

A spokesperson for UK Finance said: We welcome the FCAs proposal to allow firms greater flexibility in how they manage contactless payments.

For customers, we dont expect to see any immediate changes to the 100 contactless limit.

Firms may consider changes to background limits, such as how often a Pin is required, but any changes will be made thoughtfully with security at the core.

Unauthorised fraud losses are protected against and our data shows that customers are fully refunded in more than 98% of cases. The industry will work with the FCA to take this new proposal forward in a way that delivers the best customer experience when making payments.

Graham Mott, director of strategy at cash access and ATM network Link said: Our research shows that for most adults, paying by digital is now the default with adoption of digital wallets alongside contactless cards, the preference for most UK banking customers.

More than half of people no longer carry a physical wallet with them when they leave home.

While the proposed changes may provide greater convenience and complement contactless limits for digital wallets, our data does show that two-thirds of people have experienced issues when making payments.

It is therefore important that people are prepared and aware of what they can do to avoid disruption in the event of payments systems being interrupted.

According to consumer spending data from Barclays, a record 94.6% of eligible in-store card transactions were contactless in 2024.

Last year, there were 10 times as many contactless transactions per month than there were in 2015, Barclays added.

Gabby Collins, payments director at Lloyds Banking Group, said: Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland customers can already set their own contactless payment limits in our apps  in 5 steps, up to 100  and were absolutely committed to keeping that flexibility.

Riccardo Tordera Ricchi, head of policy and government relations at The Payments Association, said: Card payment limits shouldnt be dictated by legislation but instead set by card providers and consumers based on their individual risk appetite and payment preferences.
Actor Glen Powell has claimed that Chris Pratts performance in Marvels Guardians of the Galaxy helped to change expectations for Hollywood leading men.

The 36-year-old, best known for his roles in Top Gun: Maverick and Anyone But You, was known mostly for supporting roles when Guardians of the Galaxy, in which he stars as space adventurer Peter Quill, was released in 2014.

Pratt has so far played Peter, aka Star-Lord, in a total of six Marvel movies. Although the character was considered to be a relatively obscure figure from Marvels comics, he has since become a fan favourite after being reinvented as a roguish, witty hero with a love of dancing.

Speaking to GQ, Powell said that the success of Pratts performance helped him as an actor, as he believed that Hollywood was previously only interested in casting leading men in brooding or dark roles, portrayed by the likes of Christian Bale and Robert Pattinson.

When Pratt kind of appeared on the scene where he was doing things that were a little more silly and buoyant, thats where I feel most at home, he said.

And thats where I feel like I had a gear that is a necessary flavour in terms of Hollywood, and not a gear that a lot of guys can play.

Chris Pratt in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ( MARVEL 2022)

Powells next role is the lead in Edgar Wrights adaptation of The Running Man.

The film will be his first lead performance in an action movie; he revealed that he reached out to Tom Cruise for advice on the part.

I knew that based on the Stephen King book, [my character] Ben Richards was a tank, Powell said. I was like, Okay, I got to be a bit of a weapon. And so thats why I trained the way I trained on this. I put on a lot of muscle.

A lot of it was functional, he added. A lot of it was so I could absorb hits. But a lot of it was also authentically for an audience I went from going, Oh, Im an actor on a movie, to Im a high-performance athlete. And Im just very lucky that I have someone like Tom who I could literally go, Hey, what do I do to survive something?

Glen Powell in The Running Man (AP)

Pratt, meanwhile, has since gone on to become of the highest grossing actors of all-time, thanks to his Marvel role as well as lead parts in the Jurassic World franchise and The Super Mario Bros Movie.
A committee of MPs has said the Government has not heeded warnings from it that the Lifetime Isa (Lisa) needs reform.

In a previous report, the Treasury Committee said it was unconvinced that the Lisa effectively targets people in genuine need of financial support.

But it said on Thursday that the Government has not taken the opportunity to set out a plan for reform.

Lisas are aimed at people saving for their first home or their retirement.

People can put in up to 4,000 each year until they are aged 50. Savers must make their first payment into their Lisa before they are 40.

The Government will add a 25% bonus to Lisa savings, up to a maximum of 1,000 per year.

When someone turns 50, they will not be able to pay into their Lisa or earn the 25% bonus, but their account will stay open and the savings will still earn interest or investment returns.

Savers can withdraw money from their Isa if they are buying a first home worth 450,000 or less, aged 60 or over or terminally ill with fewer than 12 months to live.

A withdrawal charge of 25% may apply if someone withdraws cash or assets for any other reason.

MPs have also called for Lisa savings to be treated in the same way as other pension savings in relation to the universal credit means test.

In the absence of such reform, the committee argued that Lisas should be labelled as an inferior product and include warnings that they may disadvantage anyone who may one day claim universal credit.

It said the Governments willingness to consider including such a warning is welcome but falls short of a concrete commitment to address the issue.

MPs had also warned that the Lisas dual-purpose design may be diverting people away from more suitable products and putting part of their savings at risk. The Government has committed to working with Lisa providers to improve the messaging around the product, but it did not set out what that would look like in practice, the committee said.

Treasury Committee chairwoman Dame Meg Hillier said: The Government has taken some steps towards improving the Lifetime Isa, but I do not believe they have gone far enough. The Lifetime Isa is a confused product that requires reform.

Recently published research by HMRC (HM Revenue and Customs) based on a sample of Lisa holders found that 87% of those who had used their Lisa to buy their first home said that they could have done so without their Lisa. Given that the Lisa is forecast to cost the Government 3 billion over the next five years, this raises the question of whether the Lisa is a good use of taxpayers money.

The Government has an opportunity at the Budget to think again on the Lisa for would-be first-time buyers and those saving for retirement alike.

In its response to the Treasury Committees report, the Government said it is committed to making Isas, including Lifetime Isas, as simple and flexible as possible.

It said that as of 2023/24, more than 1.3 million Lisa accounts were open and, since its introduction in 2017, the Lisa has helped 227,600 people buy their first property.

It said: To ensure the product is well targeted, the property price cap (450,000) supports most first-time buyers across the UK, including those households who may find it difficult to get onto the property ladder.

The withdrawal charge ensures that the Lisa has been used for its intended purposes of homeownership for first-time buyers or later life savings, the Government said.

It said the Lisa is a savings product and as with other savings and investment products, it counts towards the calculation of universal credit.

It added: We will work with industry and other Government departments to consider ways to improve the messaging about the implications of savings and investments might affect entitlement to universal credit.

A Treasury spokesperson said: Across the vast majority of the country and in most London boroughs, the average price for a first-time home remains below the 450,000 Lifetime Isa cap.

We are also committed to building 1.5 million more homes so that people can turn the dream of owning a home into a reality.
Group of military whistleblowers testify under oath theyve seen UFOs and the government is part of a cover up

A group of military whistleblowers testified under oath that theyve seen unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and accused the government of being part of a cover-up.

GOP congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform's Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, chaired a panel Tuesday on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs), another name for UFOs.

Air Force veterans Jeffrey Nuccetelli and Dylan Borland, as well as Navy veteran Alexandro Wiggins, spoke at the hearing, along with journalist George Knapp, a prominent figure in the UFO disclosure community.

Rep. Eric Burlison of Missouri showed the hearing mysterious, never-before-seen footage of an orb or an unknown object off the coast of Yemen on October 30, 2024, being struck by a Hellfire missile.

The object continued on its trajectory after being struck by the missile.

Air Force veterans Jeffrey Nuccetelli and Dylan Borland, as well as Navy veteran Alexandro Wiggins, spoke at the hearing, along with journalist George Knapp, a prominent figure in the UFO disclosure community (Getty Images)

Thats a Hellfire missile smacking into that UFO and just bounce [sic] right off, and it kept going, said Knapp.

Theres a server where theres a whole bank of these kinds of videos that Congress has not been allowed to see  that the public has not been allowed to see, Knapp added, hinting at a cover-up.

Former Air Force military police officer, Nuccetelli, said the video provided exceptional evidence that UFOs exist. The witness told the hearing he experienced five unexplained incidents at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California between 2003 and 2005.

And Knapp claimed that government documents reveal that intelligence officials admit that UFOs are real.

The documents from military and intelligence personnel behind closed doors admit that these things are real. Theyre not fictitious, Knapp said.They can fly in formation, theyre evasive, and they outperform any aircraft known to exist, including ours. The public, of course, as I said, has been told something much different.

Borland said he experienced sustained reprisals after blowing the whistle on unexplained sightings as a U.S. Air Force veteran.

Rep. Eric Burlison of Missouri showed the hearing a mysterious, never-before-seen footage of an orb or an unknown object off the coast of Yemen on October 30, 2024 being struck by a Hellfire missile (GOP Oversight Committee/YouTube)

In 2012, Borland claimed he saw an approximately 100ft equilateral triangle take off from the Langley Air Force Base in Virginia where he was stationed at around 1:30 p.m.

He claimed his career was derailed after he shared his experience.

Wiggins, a Navy member who was speaking in a personal capacity, told of an incident he witnessed in February 2023. The objects he saw were not consistent with conventional aircraft or drones, he said.

While off the coast of southern California aboard the USS Jackson Navy ship, Wiggins claimed he saw a self-luminous tic-tac-shaped object emerge from the ocean before linking up with three other similar objects.

The objects sped up and disappeared, he said.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas, the Democratic ranking member of the committee, said that NASA has not found any evidence that UAPs have an extraterrestrial origin.

While some people think of flying saucers when they hear these terms, it is vital that we focus on the real-world impact of UAPs on critical infrastructure, civilian safety, and national security, Crockett said. There is good reason to believe that most UAPs have origins far closer to home.
A Rhode Island farmhouse that infamously inspired The Conjuring horror franchise is headed to auction this Halloween.

The wood-paneled house, located in Burrillville, has been listed by JJ Manning Auctioneers as part of a Mortgagees Foreclosure Auction scheduled for October 31 at 11 a.m.

This antique farmhouse that has become famous for historical paranormal sightings and activity, the listing states. In 2013, Warner Brothers released The Conjuring, which was based off true paranormal events that occurred at the subject residence with the Perron Family in the 1970s.

While the original movie was not filmed at the property, it was loosely inspired by real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. Directed by James Wan, it follows the couple as they come to the aid of the Perron family, who experienced increasingly terrifying events at their Rhode Island farmhouse in 1971.

The Conjuring has since spawned several sequels, including the latest, The Conjuring: Last Rites, which opened in theaters last week to $194 million globally. Its incredible box office opening surpassed 2017s It to become Warner Bros. biggest horror movie debut.

The Conjuring House in Rhode Island (Boston Globe/Getty)

Last Rites reunites Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine Warren, who travel to Pennsylvania to conquer a demon terrorizing a familys home. It also stars Mia Tomlinson and Ben Hardy.

The Rhode Island farmhouse, built in the 19th century, features three bedrooms and one-and-a-half bathrooms, plus eight acres of land.

To this day, countless happenings have been reported, an earlier 2021 listing read. The chilling stories, incidents, and recollections of residents and visitors of the property have been told in dozens of media productions including books, movies, and television shows.

Previous tenants Cory and Jennifer Heinzen have claimed to have experienced unusual goings-on themselves, including doors opening and closing on their own, footsteps, knocking [and] disembodied voices.

Last night, we had a black mist in one of the rooms, Cory told local station NBC 10 WJAR in 2021. It looks like smoke. Itll gather in one area, and then itll move.

While living there, the Heinzens managed to turn overnight guest bookings and group events at the house into a steady, successful business.

The house was last purchased in 2022 for $1.5 million. The current homeowner, Jacqueline Nunez, was arrested and charged with a DUI last October, according to NBC 10 WJAR.
Israel deliberately bombed the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar to remove what it said were extremists resisting ceasefire proposals for Gaza, Israels president said today.

Isaac Herzog, who is in London and due to meet Sir Keir Starmer this afternoon, said the strike was aimed at Khalil al-Hayya, the main Hamas negotiator based in Doha, whom Israel claimed had thwarted attempts at brokering peace.

Speaking in a briefing, Mr Herzog said: We targeted those who refused to accept the deal, including primarily, al-Hayya whose hands carried the blood of thousands of Israelis.

Also targeted were fellow Hamas politburo members Khaled Mashal and three others who were part of the group negotiating a ceasefire in Qatar via American mediators.

He was one of the planners and instigators, and he was well informed and involved in October 7 [2023 when Hamas-led militants invaded Israel, killing 1,200 and abducting 250], said Mr Herzog.

Israeli president Isaac Herzog says: We targeted those who refused to accept the deal (Reuters)

He kept on procrastinating and not getting to a deal by refusing adamantly to get to a deal  sometimes saying Yes, sometimes saying No, and sometimes saying Yes, but his conditions were impossible to meet, President Herzog said.

Six people died in Mondays attack in Doha, including a Qatari security official. Hamas claimed that five of its members were also killed, but none of its negotiating team. Mr Herzog could not confirm whether the Hamas leaders were killed in the attack.

The strikes were roundly condemned by the Qataris, who lashed out at Israels reckless behaviour, while criticism also came from Arab leaders, Sir Keir and Donald Trump, who said he was not happy with the bombing.

An Israeli source explained that the aim of the operation was to cut the extremists out of the negotiating process so that the leader on the ground, Izz al-Din al-Haddad, commander of the Qassam Brigades of Hamas, might emerge as a figure Israel could talk to.

It is understood that Israel sees the Hamas leadership structure, which reaches decisions by consensus, as dominated by hardliners among the exile community in Qatar who have scuppered peace plans.

Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya (centre) in Doha, Qatar, August 2024 (Reuters)

They said they believe that a more pragmatic approach could be found from leaders on the ground in Gaza who are dealing with the bloody reality of Israels campaign there.

Israels focus on communicating with Hamas leaders on the ground in Gaza could be designed to assist its military operation by creating divisions in the Hamas leadership, suggesting that its military leader was a more willing partner in a ceasefire.

But Israel has ridden roughshod over relations with Qatar and many other countries in the Middle East, where authoritarian leaders may quietly approve of getting rid of Hamas  a violent Islamist movement of the kind that is banned in the Gulf and Egypt.

Haddad, 55, is a founding member of Hamas. Israeli sources said he is known as a deeply devout Muslim who commands the respect of his followers.

He is experiencing at first hand Israels onslaught, which has killed 67,000 people, according to local officials  more than half of whom have been women and children.

He might be someone we can deal with and reach an agreement, a senior Israeli official said.

Israel wants to focus on Izz al-Din al-Haddad, commander of the Qassam Brigades of Hamas, as a potential person to talk to about ceasefire (Hamas Military Wing)

But Israel has also been blamed for holding up ceasefire proposals to secure the release of the remaining 20 or so living hostages held in Gaza.

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has launched a campaign to clear Gaza City, forcing a million Palestinians south amid criticism at home that the latest round of violence will jeopardise the lives of the hostages  a view firmly held by the Israeli military leadership.

Anger at Israels attack on Hamas in Qatar  which violated Qatars sovereignty  will strain relations with the US, which has its biggest air base for the Middle East on the tiny island emirate.
Fox News star Jesse Watters reacted to the killing of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk by insisting that they are at war with us before asking his colleagues and viewers, What are we going to do about it? and how much political violence they will tolerate.

Kirk was shot dead on Wednesday afternoon during a speaking engagement at Utah Valley University. Sitting on an outdoor stage during a question-and-answer session with students, the Turning Point USA founder was struck in the neck by a bullet, sending the large crowd into a panic.

Hours later, the FBI announced that a suspect had been taken into custody, although no further details were given. The campus was closed and classes have been canceled. Kirk, 31, is survived by his wife and two children.

The shocking assassination of the influential conservative pundit prompted heartfelt tributes and condemnations of political violence from commentators and politicians across the political aisle, while President Donald Trump ordered flags to be lowered to half-mast until Sunday evening in honor of Kirk.

The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie, Trump stated on Truth Social. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!

Fox News host Jesse Watters says that "they are at war with us" and "everybody's accountable" in response to the death of Charlie Kirk. (Fox News)

During Wednesdays broadcast of Fox News The Five, however, Watters warned those on the left that everybodys accountable and that he would be watching them closely.

We are sick. We are sad. We are angry. And we are resolute, he proclaimed. And we are going to avenge Charlies death in the way that Charlie wanted to be avenged.

Calling Kirk a beautiful boy who touched an entire generation of Americans and made them patriots, Watters went on to claim that the MAGA youth activist was not a controversial person and not a polarizing guy before seemingly calling for action in response to the shooting.

This hits differently because Charlie was one of us, he stated, before bringing up the attempted assassination of Trump and other politically motivated violence.

And Trump gets hit in the ear. Charlie gets shot dead. They came after [Brett] Kavanaugh with a rifle to his neighborhood, they went after [Elon] Musks cars, they just shot two Jews outside the embassy, Watters exclaimed. Think about it. [Steve] Scalise got shot, barely survived. Its happening! The trans shooters. Weve got riots in L.A. They are at war with us!

He continued: Whether we want to accept it or not, they are at war with us. And what are we going to do about it? How much political violence are we going to tolerate? And thats the question we are just going to have to ask ourselves.

Stating that Charlie would want us to put as much pressure on these people as possible, Watters said that this is unacceptable and has to stop and it has to stop now, all while declaring that he would be taking into account the reactions of other media figures and politicians.

Everybodys accountable. And were watching what they are saying on television and who is saying what. The politicians, the media, and all these rats out there! This can never happen again. It ends now, the Fox star seethed.

This is a turning point, he concluded. And we know which direction we are going.
Jimmy Kimmel wasted no time Tuesday night in skewering President Donald Trump and his allies over their defense of his alleged signature appearing in a book of tributes given to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday.

One note that appeared in the book, released by the House Oversight Committee on Monday, was framed by a hand-drawn sketch of a naked womans silhouette. It was allegedly signed by Trump, though the White House and president have denied the signature is his.

Jimmy Kimmel Live! kicked off Tuesday with the host saying that Trumps sycophants have been left to defend him after he initially refused to comment on the note.

He then played a clip of Tennessee Republican Rep. Tim Burchett suggesting the signature on the letter is fake and that hes never known Trump to be much of an artist.

Oh well, then he couldnt have done it, right? said Kimmel. Not much of an artist, what are you talking about? Hes an amazing artist, he's a con artist, he's a bulls*** artist... he paints his whole face orange every day.

Jimmy Kimmel focused his Tuesday monologue on Epsteins 50th birthday book (ABC)

Trump has never been accused of wrongdoing in connection with the Epstein case and vehemently denies authoring the note to the disgraced financier.

Kimmel went on to show a comparison of Trumps signatures over the years with the one in Epsteins book, as some Republicans have claimed the signature is fake or the work of an autopen.

Theyre saying it doesnt look like his signature and it couldve been an autopen, which is a device that makes an exact replica of your signature, Kimmel pointed out.

Which one is it? Is it exactly his signature, or is it not his signature at all? It cant be both. And heres the other thing  this book is 22 years old. Who wouldve been faking Donald Trumps signature in a private birthday book in January of 2003? The Apprentice wasnt even on the air yet. This would've required an extraordinary amount of planning.

The image of the birthday card that Donald Trump allegedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein was released by the House Oversight Committee (House Oversight Committee)

The birthday album was compiled by Epsteins associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released the birthday book after subpoenaing the documents from Epsteins estate late last month.

Hours after telling NBC News that the book was a dead issue on Tuesday morning, Trump doubled down, dismissing the claims as nonsense as he headed to dinner in Washington, D.C., flaunting his federal takeover of police and military presence in the city.

Its not my signature, Trump began. And its not the way I speak And frankly, you're wasting your time.
On a day when racing staged unprecedented strike action, former champion trainer John Gosden issued a stark warning on the potential consequences should the sports plea to the Government to shelve proposed gambling tax changes fall on deaf ears.

Planned meetings at Carlisle, Lingfield, Kempton and Uttoxeter were all cancelled, with many of the sports leading figures gathering at Westminster in London for the British Horseracing Authority-led Axe The Racing Tax event, amid fears tax on racing bets could be raised from the current 15 per cent to the 21 per cent levied on games of chance.

Economic analysis commissioned by the BHA suggests such a rise could cost the sport at least 66million and put 2,752 jobs at risk in the first year in what BHA chair Lord Allen has termed nothing short of an existential threat for our sport.

Gosden was one of several speakers at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre and explained how damaging he feels a rise in gambling taxes to a universal rate would be to his business.

The implications are very dangerous. Were starting from a very weak position and this will take the lifeblood out of the game, he said, the feeling in his words clear.

BHA CEO Brant Dunshea, John Gosden, Arena Racing Company CEO Martin Cruddace and Jockey Club CEO Jim Mullen (left-right) at QEII Centre in Westminster (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

I have 100 employees and I wont be able to sustain that. Ive been able to sustain that number this year, but if this continues the way it is going, Ill soon be in the situation of laying off 10, 20 or 30 people.

That would be tragic, I desperately dont want to be in that position and youre talking to someone at the top of the tree  imagine how it is for the guys halfway down. If I can see the impact, that means they are already in the grinder.

We are not asking for anything other than to be left alone, I understand the Governments position but I think this is something that will rebound.

Gosden referred to the words of Dan Tomlinson, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, who described the potential change in taxation as levelling the playing field.

The Newmarket-based handler does not share that view, feeling British racing is already operating from a disadvantage as it attempts to compete with the more stable financial position offered by other racing jurisdictions.

He said: I understand what he (Tomlinson) means, but he should see the playing field we are on compared to our international competitors.

We are in a weak position and this is only going to make us weaker.

It concerns me greatly, we are in a fragile state already. As a trainer I am losing horses to other dominions because their revenues are far, far higher.

British racing is weakened by this continual pattern, people love coming to the big meetings here but we cannot rest on our laurels.

I would hate to see this industry go the way of others, other industries that we used to excel at but then we neglected them and squeezed the lifeblood out of them.

Kieran Shoemark, Oisin Murphy, Saffie Osborne, Lily Pinchin, Richard Johnson, Hollie Doyle, Tom Marquand and Paul OBrien hold up an Axe The Racing Tax banner in Parliament Square (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

Speeches were held on a stage in front of over 200 attendees, with the Axe The Racing Tax logo visible on the screen behind as broadcaster Nick Luck hosted the event.

All of the speeches were warmly applauded, as was a moving video paying tribute to the retired staying hurdler Paisley Park that underlined how many industry employees contributed to his career.

Earlier, in Parliament Square, leading riders including Hollie Doyle and champion jockey Oisin Murphy posed for pictures holding an Axe The Racing Tax banner.

In his address, acting BHA chief executive Brant Dunshea said: My job is to create an environment where our owners, breeders, trainers, racecourses, jockeys and our wonderful, wonderful stable staff all thrive. If they thrive, our sport thrives.

BHA CEO Brant Dunshea addresses the crowd (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

When our sport thrives, the people of our great nation thrive, but when people fear for their future, the nation struggles. Its people suffer and hope in an industry can decline overnight.

The Government says the purpose of this proposal is to create a simpler system. The Government says its purpose is to create a more streamlined system. And the Government says its purpose is to create a fairer system. The Government has encouraged all interested parties to participate and respond fully to this consultation.

We have, we are, and our response is clear  no, we do not support this proposed racing tax hike. British racing must be treated differently.

Dunshea later said he was absolutely certain that the message was getting through to the relevant people.

Another high-profile trainer in attendance was Ralph Beckett, winner of last years Prix de lArc de Triomphe with Bluestocking.

The most compelling thing for me was the talk of the people who are employed in racing at the grassroots of the sport, it is about them and the horses themselves. I hope that message drives through more than anything, he said.

An Axe The Racing Tax display in Parliament Square (Jordan Perritt/PA)

The foal crop is already shrinking and inevitably that will speed up, we already have a race programme that is too big for the horse population as it is. That will be the first thing to bite and the amount of money coming into the sport will then shrink as a result of that.

We are a special case in contrast to online gaming and other sports, the funding of football does not depend on who bets on it, whereas racing always has.

A decision on any tax change is expected in the Budget on November 26 and while Tomlinson says racings role in the cultural fabric of Britain is acknowledged, he underlined there has been no announcement yet.

He said: We know horse racing is part of the cultural fabric of the country, thats why its the only sector that benefits from a government-mandated levy. Our wider gambling consultation is only about levelling the playing field and simplifying the system, and we are working closely with the industry to understand any potential impacts.
Kamala Harris addressed Joe Bidens second run for the first time - Kevin Lamarque

Kamala Harris has condemned the reckless decision for Joe Biden to run for re-election to the White House.

The former vice-president took aim at the 82-year-old for placing his ego above the good of the country in an excerpt from her forthcoming book, 107 Days, detailing her whirlwind presidential campaign.

Mrs Harris took over the 2024 Democratic nomination from Mr Biden after he was forced to drop out from the presidential race following a humiliating televised debate against Donald Trump.

Despite initially doubling down on his campaign, the president was eventually pressured to give up the nomination by high-ranking party officials.

In a passage from the new book published by The Atlantic, Mrs Harris addressed his second run for the first time, issuing her most pointed comments to date about Mr Biden:

The former vice-president also said she felt growing panic about Mr Bidens second presidential campaign, and questioned if she should have spoken out.

Perhaps, she concedes, but adds that Mr Biden is the most consistently underestimated man in Washington. Even on Mr Bidens worst day, she says, he was better than Mr Trump at his best.

I am a loyal person, she wrote.

The comments will likely further complicate the view of Mr Bidens legacy in office - Yuri Gripas/POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Mrs Harris also said she feared being accused of having an ulterior motive if she raised the issue.

I was in the worst position to make the case that he should drop out, she wrote. I knew it would come off to him as incredibly self-serving, she wrote.

Further laying into Mr Biden and his team, she suggests his staff grew jealous of her when she outshone him in the polls.

Their thinking was zero-sum: If shes shining, hes dimmed.

None of them grasped that if I did well, he did well, Mrs Harris wrote.

They decided I should be knocked down

The former vice-president claimed concern among voters about Mr Bidens age was compounded by worries he was writing Israel a blank cheque for its war with Hamas.

Mrs Harris also said she also resonated with Democrat voters in the ways she spoke about reproductive rights, a subject Mr Biden struggled to address, although his team was remiss to give her something she could win with.

Instead, she was tasked with taking on irregular migration: Indeed, it seemed as if they decided I should be knocked down a little bit more.

She claims that when Republicans mischaracterised this role as border czar the White House did not help her to push back or highlight her progress.

Instead she says she was forced to shoulder the blame for the porous border, and points out the administration did not defend her when Fox News made claims she was a DEI hire.

They had a huge comms team; they had Karine Jean-Pierre briefing in the pressroom every day. But getting anything positive said about my work or any defence against untrue attacks was almost impossible, she wrote.

Criticisms mark sharp departure

In another sore point, she recalls how Mr Biden did not mention or thank her until nine minutes into an 11-minute speech.

The criticisms mark a sharp departure from Mrs Harriss previous remarks about Mr Biden, whom she struggled to differentiate herself from during the election campaign.

They will also likely further complicate Mr Bidens legacy, amid widespread claims his cognitive decline was covered up by his inner circle during his time in office.

Asked during an appearance on The View in October 2024 if there was anything she would have done differently from the president during the past four years, she said: There is nothing that comes to mind.

The comments were later used in attack ads by the Trump campaign in the lead up to her ultimate election defeat.

Representatives for Mr Biden were approached for comment.
Labour deputy leadership hopefuls are set to make their pitches to fellow MPs in hustings on Wednesday, with Bridget Phillipson emerging as the early frontrunner.

The first official tally showed the Education Secretary receiving the most nominations of the six candidates who have put their hat in the ring to succeed Angela Rayner, who quit after a row over her tax affairs.

Former Commons leader Lucy Powell, who was sacked by Sir Keir Starmer in his reshuffle, was close behind with 35 of the 99 overall nominations.

Former Commons leader Lucy Powell has the support of Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham (Chris Jackson/PA)

Backbencher Bell Ribeiro-Addy had eight, Commons Foreign Affairs Committee chairwoman Dame Emily Thornberry seven, Paula Barker three and housing minister Alison McGovern came last with two nominations.

The hustings is expected to happen in private online on Wednesday evening after the latest nominations figures are released.

The candidates have until 5pm on Thursday to secure the support of 80 MPs in order to reach the next round of the contest.

Sir Keir Starmer now faces the prospect of weeks of manoeuvring for the deputy Labour leadership role as the race to replace Ms Rayner is set to stretch past the Labour Party conference and into October.

I am standing to be Deputy Leader because I believe this Labour Government urgently needs to go back to the guiding values of our party and movement, and deliver an ambitious programme of popular, progressive policies.  Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP (@BellRibeiroAddy) September 9, 2025

Backbencher Ms Barker criticised the decision to hold the only hustings online.

She told Times Radio: We are on a one-line whip on Thursday which means that we dont have to be in Parliament. So lots of colleagues will be travelling back to their constituencies at the time the hustings is taking place.

I really dont think that that is the best democratic way for us to run this contest.

She also complained about the truncated contest, saying: We have a very, very narrow window of opportunity.

That is remiss of the party and I would hope that, no matter who the deputy leader is at the end of this process, one of the first things they do is look at our internal processes. There is definitely a need for a culture shift  the party must be far more inclusive.

Cabinet minister Ms Phillipson ticks the boxes of those within the party expressing a preference for Ms Rayners successor to be both a woman and someone hailing from the north of England, as Prime Minister Sir Keir and Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy are men representing London constituencies.

Announcing her bid for the deputy leadership, she described herself as a proud working-class woman from the North East who had gone from a single-parent family on a tough council street to the Cabinet table.

While Manchester Central MP Ms Powell, Liverpool Wavertree MP Ms Barker and Ms McGovern would also satisfy calls for a geographical balance, it could count against London-based Ms Ribeiro-Addy and Dame Emily.

Describing herself as proud to have served in Sir Keirs government, Ms Powell said her politics were rooted in an understanding of peoples everyday hopes and fears.

Ms Ribeiro-Addy, who was the first to declare her candidacy, is seen as coming from the left of the party and has called for Labour to go back to the guiding values of our party and movement.

Dame Emily vowed that she would be a voice for the membership, unions, PLP (Parliamentary Labour Party), and our constituents  not just nod along.

She listed welfare, Gaza, a wealth tax and planned changes to special educational needs provision as her key issues.

Ms McGovern said she believed she could serve as a bridge between members, activists, unions and the Prime Minister.

The housing minister vowed to take on Reform UK, telling BBC Newsnight: Politics has changed its not the old Tory party that I grew up hating, its Nigel Farage and his little friends.

Ms McGovern defended her two nominations so far, saying the contest was very quick.
Sir Keir Starmer is under growing pressure to sack the UKs ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, over his dealings with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The prime minister has insisted he has full confidence in the Labour peer despite calls to sack his controversial pick to lead Britains diplomatic efforts in the US, after fresh details emerged of Lord Mandelsons previous close friendship with the disgraced former banker.

They include claims that Epstein brokered a deal involving Lord Mandelson, the then business secretary, in relation to the sale of a taxpayer-owned business even after Epstein had been convicted of child sex offences. Lord Mandelson is also facing questions over a 50th birthday message to the paedophile, who died in 2019, in which he called him his best pal.

And in fresh revelations on Wednesday evening, it is reported that Lord Mandelson gave Epstein advice as he was facing charges over soliciting a minor. In leaked emails seen by The Sun, he wrote to Epstein in June 2008: Your friends stay with you and love you. And before the disgraced businessman was sentenced to 18 months in prison, Lord Mandelson urged him to fight for early release.

Angry Labour MPs have joined calls for Britains ambassador to the US to go. Breaking ranks, Labour deputy leadership hopeful Bell Ribeiro-Addy called for an investigation by Sir Keirs ethics adviser Sir Laurie Magnus, saying: There will be a huge amount of concern, and if the outcome is that he should resign, he should.

Ian Byrne, who had the Labour whip restored in February after being suspended following a vote on the two-child benefit cap, told The Independent: MPs get suspended by the party, like I did, for voting against putting children and disabled people into poverty, but calling the worlds most infamous paedophile and child-trafficker your best pal, amongst other comments, thats OK! It stinks to high heaven.

Keir Starmer defends Peter Mandelson at PMQs on Wednesday (House of Commons/UK Parliament)

Richard Burgon, a left-wing critic of Sir Keir and a former Jeremy Corbyn ally, added: Peter Mandelson should never have been appointed. He should be immediately sacked.

Sources close to the White House and allies of Donald Trump warned the belief in Washington DC is now that Mandelson is finished.

One close Trump ally said: The timing could not be worse with President Trumps state visit next week. They cannot have the subject of Mandelson and Epstein dominating the press conference with Starmer.

It was noted that, as first revealed by The Independent, Lord Mandelsons credentials were almost rejected by the president because of his China links earlier this year, and he was only accepted because of a major diplomatic push.

Another Washington source praised Lord Mandelson for doing a really good job as ambassador, but said: There were already knives out for Mandelson, and this will only empower his detractors.

Meanwhile, Kemi Badenoch ruthlessly used Prime Ministers Questions to challenge Sir Keir over his judgement, just days after his former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner was forced to quit over her tax affairs. The Tory leader claimed that Lord Mandelson is mired in scandal and should step down. But Sir Keir gave his full backing to the beleaguered ambassador, saying: I have confidence in him  he is doing an important job.

As damaging pictures emerged of Lord Mandelson with Epstein, The Telegraph also reported that Epstein advised Lord Mandelson and senior JPMorgan executive Jes Staley on the banks purchase of Sempra Commodities, a joint venture between the publicly owned Royal Bank of Scotland and Sempra Energy, only months after Epstein was released from prison. The Independent has asked Lord Mandelson for comment. Mr Staley has since been banned from the City for misleading the Financial Conduct Authority over his relationship with Epstein.

The prime minister says he has confidence in Mandelson (PA Wire)

Earlier, Britains ambassador to Washington said he was very embarrassed to read a birthday message to the late paedophile in which he had described him as his best pal.

The message, part of a 50th birthday book compiled for Epstein by Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently in jail for sex trafficking, also saw Lord Mandelson express love for the financier and joke about entertaining his interesting friends.

Lord Mandelson told The Sun the messages were very embarrassing, adding: I regret, very, very deeply indeed, carrying on that association with him for far longer than I should have done. It was a matter of years after I initially met him, and I regret very much that I fell for his lies.

In further revelations on Wednesday night, Lord Mandelson reportedly wrote to Epstein about his criminal trial: I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened. I can still barely understand it. It just could not happen in Britain. You have to be incredibly resilient, fight for early release and be philosophical about it as much as you can.

Everything can be turned into an opportunity and you will come through it and be stronger for it.

A separate email reportedly showed Lord Mandelson offering strategic advice, quoting ancient Chinese general Sun Tzu. He wrote: Reminder. You are fighting back so you need strategy, strategy, strategy. Remember The Art of War.

When The Sun approached Lord Mandelson for comment, he did not deny the messages had been sent but instead reiterated his apology over his links with Epstein.

He told Harry Cole: During all the time I was an associate of his [Epstein], I never saw any wrongdoing, I never saw any evidence of criminal activity. I never saw or was offered introductions to women in the way he did for others. Perhaps it is because I am a gay man.

He said: I feel profoundly upset. I regret being taken in him by him as many others did.

The episode has once again called into question Sir Keirs judgement in relation to his key appointments.

Kemi Badenoch challenged Starmer over his judgement in hiring Mandelson (PA Wire)

PMQs opened with Tory MP Dr Luke Evans reminding the prime minister that he had lost a minister for homelessness, Rushanara Ali, for making people homeless; an anti-corruption minister, Tulip Siddiq, who is being investigated for corruption; and a housing secretary, Angela Rayner, because she failed to pay enough stamp duty on her second home.

The latest Epstein revelations could not have come at a worse time, with President Trump set to hold his state visit to the UK next week, the high point in careful diplomatic manoeuvres by the Starmer government.

The prime minister has insisted that due process had been followed, and after PMQs his official spokesperson continued to point reporters to the extensive vetting of Lord Mandelson as well as his previous comments on his association with the paedophile financier.
The suspected gunman in a shooting at Evergreen High School in Jefferson County, Colorado, Wednesday has died after three students were injured, according to authorities.

The shooter, who also attended the school, and two of the injured students were immediately transported to the hospital, Jacki Kelley, public information officer for the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office, told reporters.

A fourth young person was also transported to the hospital, Kelley said, but she could not confirm what the injury was or whether it happened on school property.

She told reporters the three students who were transported immediately from the school suffered from gunshot wounds, and they were in critical condition.

Authorities later identified the suspected shooter as a young man, but did not name him. A handgun was used in the shooting, according to Kelley.

The sheriffs office said in an update on social media Wednesday night the suspected gunman died from self-inflicted injuries.

The suspected gunman in a shooting at Evergreen High School in Jefferson County, Colorado, Wednesday has died after three students were injured, according to authorities (Jeffco Sheriff)

At 12:24 p.m. local time, police received their first call about the shooting from the high school, which has more than 900 students enrolled. Kelley said it seems the shooting happened on school grounds, but outside of the building.

We are still trying to determine where are crime scenes are and if we have crime scenes within the school, Kelley said late Wednesday afternoon.

Police said the shooter was a student at the school, and authorities later identified him as a young man (Jeffco Sheriff)

Hundreds of law enforcement officers responded to the shooting. A West Metro Fire Rescue spokesperson told FOX31 it sent two ambulances, four medical staff and one chief. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives also responded to the scene.

When asked about law enforcements quick response, Kelley said, Police and fire just show up. When you hear the words active shooter and you know that theres kids involved, youre coming.

The campus was under lockdown as officials conducted a thorough sweep of the area. Kelley said the school was clear late Wednesday afternoon, adding, There is no active threat to the community or to our students anymore.

Jeffco Public Schools said in a letter to staff and parents, which was shared by FOX31, Our school has been placed on a Lockdown for police activity in the area. Please remain out of the area. We will update you as soon as we learn more.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers responded to the shooting (Jefferson County Sheriff's Office)

A parent-student reunification location was set up at Bergen Meadow Elementary School at 1928 Hiwan Drive, but it has since closed.

When asked about the response from the students parents to the shooting, Kelley said, This is the scariest thing that you could ever think could happen, and these parents were really frightened and so were the kids.

Wendy Nueman, whose 15-year-old daughter is a sophomore at the school, called the situation super scary in comments to The Denver Post.

A handgun was used in the shooting, according to police (Jefferson County Sheriff's Office)

She said her daughter was able to eventually call her from a borrowed phone.

She just said she was OK. She couldnt hardly speak, Nueman said. We feel like we live in a little bubble here. Obviously, no one is immune.

Jefferson County is also where the Columbine school shooting occurred in 1999, which saw 12 students and one teacher killed. Another student, who was paralyzed from the waist down in the shooting, died in February, and the coroner ruled her death a homicide, per The New York Times.

I know we always say not again, and here we are, Kelley said.

Jacki Kelley with the Jefferson County Sheriff's office said, 'These parents were really frightened and so were the kids' (Jefferson County Sheriff's Office)

FBI Director Kash Patel wrote on X late Wednesday afternoon, Were aware of the tragic situation unfolding near Denver. The FBI is on scene and in full support of local authorities to ensure everyones safety.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis wrote on X earlier Wednesday, I am closely monitoring the situation at Evergreen High School, and am getting live updates.

State Troopers are supporting local law enforcement in responding to this situation. Students should be able to attend school safely and without fear across our state and nation. We are all praying for the victims and the entire community.

The X account for Black Lives Matter said, Our hearts ache for the students, families, and educators in Denver.

Too many tragedies, back to back. Our children deserve better. This system keeps failing them, but where it falls short, we rise as a community to confront it and demand change. Enough is enough.
A top US court has ruled that embattled Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook can remain in her position while she fights Donald Trumps efforts to fire her.

The federal court ruling, which will almost certainly face an appeal, is a blow to the Trump administrations efforts to assert more control over the traditionally independent US central bank, which sets short-term interest rates to achieve its congressionally mandated goals of stable prices and maximum employment.

US congress has also sought to insulate the Fed from day-to-day politics.

District judge Jia Cobb granted Ms Cooks request for a preliminary injunction blocking her firing while the dispute makes its way through the courts. Judge Cobb ruled that Ms Cook would likely prevail in the lawsuit she filed late last month to overturn her firing.

The US central bank is traditionally independent of government (AP)

Mr Trump said he was firing Ms Cook on August 25 over allegations raised by one of his appointees that she committed mortgage fraud related to two properties she purchased in 2021, before she joined the Fed.

Ms Cook is accused of saying two properties were primary residences, which could have resulted in lower down payments and mortgage rates than if either was designated a second home or investment property.

Judge Cobb ruled that the allegations were likely not sufficient legal cause to fire her.

Under the law governing the Fed, governors can only be removed for cause, which Judge Cobb said was limited to actions taken during a governors time in office.

Mr Trump is seeking to have Ms Cook removed from her position over mortgage fraud allegations (AP)

The removal of a Federal Reserve Governor extends only to concerns about the Board members ability to effectively and faithfully execute their statutory duties, in light of events that have occurred while they are in office, the judge wrote.

President Trump has not stated a legally permissible cause for Cooks removal, the ruling added.

The decision means Ms Cook will be able to participate in the Feds meeting from September 16-17, when it is expected to reduce its key short-term rate by a quarter-point to between 4% and 4.25%.

Ms Cooks lawyer Abbe Lowell said: Allowing the president to unlawfully remove governor Cook on unsubstantiated and vague allegations would endanger the stability of our financial system and undermine the rule of law.

Governor Cook will continue to carry out her sworn duties as a senate-confirmed board governor.
Lord Mandelson gave Jeffrey Epstein advice as he faced child sex charges and told him to push for early release in bombshell new revelations.

While the disgraced financier was facing charges in June 2008 over soliciting a minor, Lord Mandelson, who serves as Britains ambassador to the United States wrote to him: Your friends stay with you and love you", the Sun reported.

The newspaper said leaked emails also showed shortly before Epstein was sentenced to 18 months in jail after a plea deal with Florida prosecutors, Lord Mandelson added: Fight for early release".

In one message, the Labour grandee wrote: I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened.

I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened.

"I can still barely understand it. It just could not happen in Britain. You have to be incredibly resilient, fight for early release and be philosophical about it as much as you can.

The email sent between the pair's private email addresses, continued: everything can be turned into an opportunity and that you will come through it and be stronger for it.

"The whole thing has been years of torture and now you have to show the world how big a person you are, and how strong.

The bombshell emails come after Sir Keir Starmer said on Wednesday he has full confidence in Lord Mandelson after the British ambassador to the US admitted new revelations about his friendship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein were embarrassing.

Lord Mandelson previously admitted his friendship with the Epstein went on for far longer than it should have done.

He is facing criticism after it was revealed he sent a gushing 10 page birthday letter to the disgraced financier in 2003 where he declared Epstein his best pal.

The under-fire US Ambassador described the relationship as albatross around his neck and said he had a deep regret at remaining in contact with the sex offender after he was convicted for underage sexual assault crimes in 2008.

He courted more controvery in an interview with the Sun's editor-at-large Harry Cole on Wednesday when he said Epstein, who ided i his jail cell in New York in 2019, may have been murdered.

The US government says convicted sex offender was found hanged in his New York jail cell in 2019, but Lord Mandelson said he did not know whether he was murdered or whether it was a suicide.

Lord Mandelson described a birthday message he sent to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003 as very embarrassing to see and to read (PA Wire)

Widespread conspiracy theories suggest the controversial financier was killed before blowing the whistle on a powerful ring of sex offenders.

On Mr Cole's Saves The West podcast Lord Mandelson was asked if he had any reason to believe that Epstein's death was anything other than suicide?

He replied: I honestly have not the faintest idea how he died, whether he was murdered or whether it was a suicide.

All I know is that, with all the information that we have about this dreadful, dreadful man.

"I wish that I could remove that lot. I think he is like, he's like a piece of muck attached to my shoes, which I find it very difficult to kick away.

But I will do it. I will do it, but I can only do it by first of all acknowledging how much I regret ever having met him in the first place, and how much I regret deeply continuing association with him"

In further developments on Wednesday the Times reported that officials blocked the publication of a secret memo in which Lord Mandelson reportedly advised Sir Tony Blair to meet with Epstein when he was prime minister.

Lord Mandelson, is believed to have recommended in a 2002 memo to senior aides that Blair meet with Epsteina suggestion that was subsequently relayed to the prime minister.

The memo was scheduled for public release through the National Archives as part of a routine disclosure, but its release was blocked, according to The Times.

Officials reportedly determined that the document could embarrass the UK and strain diplomatic ties with the US, which are particularly sensitive as Lord Mandelson is currently working to strengthen relations with President Donald Trump.

Donald Trump has also faced public scrutiny for his association with Epstein, having described him as a terrific guy in a 2002 interview with New York Magazine.

After Epstein was convicted of child sex offences in 2008, Trump distanced himself from the financier, claiming he was not a fan.

Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell (PA Media)

When pressed at PMQs to release all documents relating to Mandelsons links to Epstein, Starmer said that is subject to a procedure which includes an independent element.

The government is withholding details of the attempt by Mandelson to engineer a meeting between Blair and Epstein while the former was prime minister, The Times reported.

The string of revelations intesnified calls for Lord Mandelson to quit or be sacked by the Prime Minister.

Labour backbenchers Richard Burgon and Nadia Whittome broke ranks on Wednesday to urge Sir Keir Starmer to sack Lord Mandelson "immediately".

They joined Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who described the ambassador's position as "untenable" and said he should be "fired now".
Sebastien Lecornu (left) replaces Francois Bayrou (right) as prime minister at the handover ceremony in Paris - Ludovic Marin/Getty Images

Emmanuel Macrons new prime minister is a staunch loyalist to the president who helped rearm France.

He is also a Le Pen whisperer, able to work with the National Rally chief while maintaining connections to the Left.

Sebastien Lecornu, a discreet 39-year-old who considered being a soldier or a monk before taking up politics, is seen as a canny political operator.

He is the only minister to have remained in government since Mr Macron was elected French president in 2017, surviving various reshuffles and a snap election.

But Mr Lecornu faces a baptism of fire after taking office on Tuesday with France beset by scenes of public unrest.

Credit: Reuters / French National Assembly

On Wednesday 200 arrests were made as militants from the Block Everything group descended upon Gare du Nord, Pariss main train station, and unions have called strikes for Sept 18.

Credit: Reuters

The economy is a source of grave concern. France remains without a budget and the Fitch rating agency may downgrade the country on Friday given its runaway debt and its deficit, which this year is 5.4 per cent of GDP.

Mr Macron wanted to appoint Mr Lecornu as prime minister in December but was strong-armed into selecting Francois Bayrou, who had threatened to withdraw the support of his centrist Democratic Movement (MoDem).

Mr Bayrou was ousted on Monday after losing a vote of confidence over his austerity budget. So who is his successor?

Francois Cormier-Bouligeon, an MP with Mr Macrons Renaissance party, describes Mr Lecornu as a broad-minded, tolerant politician, who is happy to engage with all colours of the political spectrum.

He talks to everyone, from [Leftist] France Unbowed to the National Rally, Cormier-Bouligeon told Le Monde. He is the antithesis of sectarianism.

However, with only 6 per cent of French people in favour of a prime minister from the Macron camp, winning over the masses will prove a considerable challenge.

Aides have told LOpinion that his suitability for the prime ministerial post lies in his lack of presidential ambition, which sets him apart from other would-be candidates, such as the outgoing justice minister Gerard Darmanin  Mr Lecornus best friend.

The face of rearmament

Mr Lecornu earned recognition as defence minister, a role he assumed only three months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

A reservist in the National Gendarmerie, Mr Lecornu has become the face of Frances military build-up.

In 2023, he shepherded through the parliamentary vote on a new law to increase defence spending by 40 per cent  a total of 413 billion (357bn) will have been spent between 2024 to 2030.

It is a testament to his skills that he succeeded without having to resort to bypassing a parliamentary vote.

In his youth, Mr Lecornu was close to his Gaullist grandfather and considered becoming a soldier. He also entertained the idea of becoming a monk at the Abbey of Saint-Wandrille.

Once he turned to politics, however, he proved even more politically precocious than his boss. He started his political career as Frances youngest parliamentary assistant, aged just 19.

Originally a member of the conservative Les Republicains party, he has managed to remain on good terms with the Right while securing the trust of both Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron, who hold him in high esteem despite his somewhat gruff demeanour.

Mr Lecornu first gained Mr Macrons favour during the yellow vest revolt in 2019, a nationwide protest about the escalating cost of living.

The President staged a series of national great debates in a bid to channel unrest, the first of which took place in Mr Lecornus constituency.

The then 33-year-old advised Mr Macron to involve the mayors and to open registers for grievances. The first great debate was deemed such a success that Mr Lecornu accompanied the President on his appeasement tour of France.

Sebastien Lecornu (left) first grew close to President Macron in 2019 - Ludovic Marin/Getty Images

An ardent supporter of French sovereignty, Mr Lecornu has sometimes expressed wariness of EU institutions, especially the European Commission.

He does, however, have close ties with his German counterpart, Boris Pistorius, another defence minister who survived a snap election, while his relations with his UK counterpart are also thought to be warm.

While he was described by one interior minister as a good soldier who doesnt have too much charisma, the president has seen fit to entrust him with sensitive missions, such as visits to the Middle East to try and secure the release of French hostages held by Hamas.

Mr Macron also appreciates Mr Lecornus desire to keep his political roots grounded in Normandy. In addition to his role in government, he serves as a councillor in his home district, where he spends most weekends.

A smooth behind-the-scenes political operator, Mr Lecornu discreetly took part in a controversial dinner with Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, her 29-year-old National Rally (RN) boss, in April.

Xavier Bertrand, the Right-wing head of the Hauts-de-France region and Ms Le Pens sworn enemy, tipped Mr Lecornu to be the new PM hours before his appointment, saying: I would have been brought down in a no-confidence vote by RN. Sebastien, however, talks to the RN.

But the National Rally has already criticised Mr Macrons choice.

National Rally MP Marine Le Pen described Mr Lecornus appointment as the last shot of Macronism - Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu/Getty Images

The president has fired the last shot of Macronism, holed up in his bunker with his small group of loyalists, said Ms Le Pen.

On Wednesday morning, Jean-Luc Melenchons France Unbowed party (LFI) announced that it would table a motion of no confidence if Mr Lecornu did not seek MPs confidence on the first day of the parliamentary session at the National Assembly.

Manuel Bompard, the LFIs chief coordinator, called his appointment a denial of democracy.

Olivier Faure, the Socialist Party leader who had hoped to be PM, was damning of the appointment, saying it amounted to placing Emmanuel Macron at Matignon [the prime ministers office].

Faure has ruled out joining the government. However, the Socialists, who could hold the key to Mr Lecornus survival, have also ruled out systematically backing a no-confidence vote.

Even Mr Macrons own camp is worried that the choice of a loyalist could backfire for the President.

This decision risks reinforcing the views of a whole section of the population that already harbours a deep-seated hatred for the President, said Fabien Gouttefarde, the former MP, told Le Monde.

Edouard Philippe, the former prime minister and presidential hopeful, put it bluntly on TF1 on Tuesday night. He will have a very difficult task, he said. I hope he finds a way forward.
A man has been arrested after stabbing a teacher and a student at a school in southern France, police have said.

The suspect is understood to be a former student of the horticultural school in Antibes, near Cannes. Officers did not give any further details of his identity or motives.

Police are on the scene at the Campus Vert Dazur as investigations continue, but told French media the attacker had been arrested and was no longer a threat.

Three people were left injured by the attack, according to mayor Jean Leonetti, who said one was more seriously hurt than the other two but that none of the injuries amounted to an absolute emergency. French newspaper Le Monde has reported that the teacher was seriously injured while the student was superficially injured.

A knife attack occurred today at the Azur Vert Campus in Antibes, Mr Leonetti wrote on X, formerly Twitter. I firmly condemn this brutal assault, which unfortunately spares no territory in our country. Three people were injured, one more seriously, but none is in absolute emergency.

The perpetrator was able to be subdued thanks to the remarkable composure of the school principal and the staff present. I express my full support to the victims and their loved ones. I thank the police officers and firefighters for their responsiveness and exemplary professionalism.

Antibes is located between Cannes and Nice on the southeastern coast of France (Google Maps)

Police were called to the school in the town of Antibes, in southeastern France, on Wednesday. The town lies between Cannes and Nice and is known for its old town, its 16th-century fortifications, and its luxury harbour.

Frances agriculture minister condemned the attack and said she would be visiting the scene immediately. In a post on X, she wrote: A teacher and a student were brutally attacked in a horticultural high school in Antibes.

I offer my full support to the victims, their loved ones, the students, and the entire educational community. I am heading to the scene immediately. The school must remain a republican sanctuary: violence has no place there and will never be tolerated.

Alpes-Maritimes regional senator Alexandra Borchio-Fontimp said her thoughts were with the victims of the terrible attack.

I extend my support to the staff and students of the Antibes horticultural high school, she wrote on X. My thoughts go to the teacher and the student, victims of this terrible attack.Thank you to the security forces for their responsiveness which enabled the arrest of the assailant.

More to follow...
A man has been charged with the sexual assault of a woman as she sunbathed on a popular beach in East Sussex.

The alleged attack on a woman aged in her 50s happened at Camber Sands, near Rye, on 25 August, said Sussex Police.

Mohammed Maatoug, 33, of Boxley Road, Maidstone, Kent, has been charged with sexual assault by penetration.

The accused appeared before magistrates in Brighton on Tuesday and was remanded in custody until a further hearing on 7 October.

A Sussex Police spokesman said: "Police in East Sussex have charged a man with sexual assault by penetration.

"A woman in her 50s reported being sexually assaulted by a man as she sunbathed in the dunes at Camber Sands, Rye, around 5.30pm on 25 August."

Police said an investigation was launched and an arrest was made on Saturday.
Mapped: Where in Poland were Russian drones shot down?

Poland has accused Russia of sending several drones into its territory, with prime minister Donald Tusk saying the country is the closest it has been to armed conflict since the Second World War.

Polish air defences shot down at least three drones, marking the first time a Nato member has directly engaged Russia since the beginning of its war in Ukraine.

Mr Tusk has called for an emergency Nato meeting as he announced that there had been 19 incursions by drones and drone-like objects into Polish airspace overnight.

Click here to follow our liveblog on the Ukraine war.

Soldiers patrol the street in Wyryki after a house was struck by a drone launched by Russia over Polish airspace (Agencja Wyborcza.pl)

I have no reason to claim were on the brink of war, but a line has been crossed, and its incomparably more dangerous than before, he said.

This situation brings us the closest we have been to open conflict since [the Second World War].

At least three drones, which Poland believed posed a threat to its territory, were shot down, Mr Tusk said. It was likely that a fourth had been downed, but Warsaw was awaiting confirmation.

Local authorities in Wyryki, eastern Poland, said a drone or similar object had struck a residential building, but nobody was injured. Debris was also found in the nearby town of Wyhalew.

Police in the village of Czosnowka, in Polands eastern Lublin region, said they had found a damaged drone, while the District Prosecutor's Office in Zamosc, also in Lublin, said drone components had been discovered near a cemetery in the town of Czesniki.

In the central Lodz region, a drone was found in a field near the village of Mniszkow, Reuters reported. Debris was also found in Olesno, 400km from the Ukrainian border.

Meanwhile, interior ministry spokesperson Karolina Galecka said Poland had found seven drones and debris from a missile.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed that Poland was deliberately targeted during a Russian drone attack overnight.

Increasing evidence indicates that this movement, this direction of strike, was no accident, he wrote on X. Ukraine is also ready to help Poland build an effective system of warning and protection against such Russian threats.

But Nato is not currently treating it as an attack on one of its member states, a source in the alliance told Reuters.

The drone incursion has drawn widespread condemnation from across Europe, including EU Council president Antonio Costa, who said the bloc stands in full solidarity with Poland, adding that the security of one is the security of all.

The incursion is simply unacceptable, French president Emmanuel Macron said on X, as he condemned it in the strongest possible terms.

The EUs top diplomat Kaja Kallas condemned the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began and said that indications suggest it was intentional, not accidental.
Experts say demographic changes are driving increasingly complex births across the UK. Photograph: UK Stock Images Ltd/Alamy

More than half of women having a baby in Britain now do so with the help of medical intervention, an audit of NHS maternity care has revealed.

Of the 592,594 births that took place in 2023, 50.6% involved either a caesarean section or the use of instruments such as forceps or a ventouse suction cup.

Experts said the rise in medically assisted deliveries represented a major shift driven by births becoming more complicated in recent years, partly because more older or obese women are having babies.

The increasing regularity of medical intervention is largely down to the sharp rise in caesarean births, in which the baby is delivered during an operation.

Related: Reasons for rise in caesarean births

The proportion of babies born that way across England, Scotland and Wales has risen from 25% in 2015-16 to 38.9% in 2023, according to the National Maternity and Perinatal Audit (NMPA), which is a collaboration between childbirth doctors, midwives and academics.

The proportion of births that were induced has also gone up during that time, though less dramatically, from 29.3% to 33.9%. But the proportion using forceps or ventouse cups has fallen over the same period, from 12.3% to 11.1%.

Dr Shuby Puthussery, an associate professor in maternal and child health at the University of Bedfordshire, said: Its worrying that over 50% of births involved medical intervention. But its linked to a broader demographic trend.

We see a rather worrying trend of births to [older] women increasing year by year, along with significant increases in factors such as obesity, maternal diabetes and pre-existing medical conditions, leading to more complex medically assisted births, especially among women from ethnic minority groups and those living in poverty.

Better access to antenatal care, especially scans, would help detect problems earlier and reduce the risk of mothers needing medical assistance while in labour, she said.

Prof Asma Khalil, the vice-president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), disagreed that a caesarean increases the risk faced by women.

Caesarean births are common and the steady increase isnt necessarily a cause for concern as long as future services are well-prepared to adapt and ensure they have the right staffing, training and facilities to manage increasingly complex births.

The caesarean birthrate in England has steadily increased over the past decade. One factor in this is the increasing proportion of pregnancies that are complex.

We are seeing national rising rates of obesity and people choosing to have children at a later stage in their life, both of which can increase the chance of complications.

The report said: There are risks and benefits to both vaginal and caesarean modes of birth, and the reasons for choosing a caesarean birth, planned or unplanned, can include physical or psychological benefits.

While unnecessary interventions may lead to adverse outcomes, it is important to note that there is no ideal rate for births by caesarean.

In 2023, a total of 23.1% of births were emergency caesareans and 16.4% were planned.

The NMPA is a joint piece of work by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Royal College of Midwives, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

It confirmed that fertility rates had declined sharply over recent years. The number of births in England and Wales has been falling steadily since 2012, and 2023 saw the lowest number since 1977. The fertility rate in England and Wales is now 1.44 children per woman.

Scotland recorded its lowest-ever total fertility in 2023. The rate there has fallen to just 1.3 babies per woman.

NHS England was asked for comment.
A defendant accused of shooting a man in a row over a stolen motorbike has claimed he made omissions to police after the victims family posted a 50,000 bounty on his head.

Rico Andrews, 21, was blasted in the chest at point-blank range by a pillion passenger on a moped in Battersea, south-west London, on October 5 2023, the Old Bailey was told previously.

The alleged gunman, Joshua Eno, 25, has said Mr Andrews accidentally pulled the trigger on himself when the two men ended up scrabbling shortly before 10pm.

The defendant spent three weeks at large and, after his arrest on October 26, did not tell police Mr Andrews injuries were accidentally self-inflicted, the court heard on Wednesday.

Jurors were previously told the key issue to consider would likely be whether Eno was armed and shot Mr Andrews, or if the deceaseds own gun went off in the struggle.

Giving evidence in his trial, Eno said he had made omissions to police in fear he would be dubbed a snitch and face reprisals.

There were a good few people threatening me, he said, adding that he learned of this during his three weeks at large.

Eno said the threats included ones by Mr Andrews family who he said had put the bounty up to slice me.

The defendant said this meant slice my face or neck and claimed people had tried to do that.

Judge Philip Katz KC asked who did you think you might snitching on? and Eno responded Rico.

The judge put to him that he was dead and the defendant said: It doesnt matter. Its not good to be a snitch.

Just being a snitch in prison, anyone would try and hurt them in prison.

It was put to Eno that you said you never touch the gun and so the gun went off in Ricos hand, which the defendant said was correct.

However, he claimed he would still be deemed a snitch if he told officers it was an accident and Mr Andrews shot himself.

Rico Andrews who died after being found with gunshot wounds (Metropolitan Police/PA)

Eno added: Thats why I didnt speak to the police and tell them, because I was scared.

James Mulholland KC, defending, asked him why he was scared and Eno said: Anything you say to the police, as soon as you open your mouth, youre a grass.

Mr Mulholland asked what would have happened if he had told police that during the course of the struggle I twisted his wrist and the gun went off.

The defendant, wearing a white shirt, said: The fact that I spoke to the police and basically tried to say it was his fault, thats only going to infuriate them even more.

Prosecutor Brian ONeill KC previously said the moped was being driven by Tyrone Attwood and that there is no dispute that Eno was one of the people on the vehicle.

Last week he told jurors: Rico Andrews was shot and killed because of a dispute about a motorbike which had been stolen earlier the same day by Mr Eno and Mr Attwood in the course of a robbery at BMW Battersea.

That motorbike had been stolen from where they had parked it following the robbery.

Believing that Rico Andrews had stolen it from them, they sought him out and went to confront him.

In the course of that confrontation Joshua Eno produced a firearm and shot Rico Andrews in the chest at point-blank range.

The court was told that Eno and Attwood were convicted of the robbery of the motorbike from the Battersea BMW dealership, valued at 19,995, even though it has never been recovered.

Eno, from Tooting, south-west London, has denied murder and the trial continues.
Polish army and emergency services inspect site after Russian drone damaged the roof of a residential building in Wyryki, eastern Poland - Wojtek Jargilo/Shutterstock

Nato fighter jets shot down Russian drones over Poland in the first ever direct engagement between the Western alliance and Moscow.

Polish, Dutch and Italian fighter jets were scrambled to intercept a wave of Russian drones, in what the European Union said was a reckless and unprecedented violation.

Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, said the drone wave had brought the West and Russia closer [to conflict] than at any time since the Second World War as he called an emergency meeting of Nato allies.

No one was killed or injured during the incident, in which about 19 drones, including Gerbera decoy UAVs, crossed into Polish airspace during a raid on neighbouring Ukraine.

Nato forces shot down at least four of the drones, whereas others ran out of fuel or crashed, with impacts and debris reported in at least five villages in eastern and central Poland.

A Nato source said of the incident: It was the first time Nato aircraft have engaged potential threats [in] allied airspace.

Warsaws Chopin airport was temporarily closed during the incident, with Polish citizens urged to stay at home and await further instructions. In the village of Wyryki, eastern Poland, a drone caused damage to the roof of a building.

Later on Wednesday morning, Nato sources said they were not treating the incident as a deliberate attack, and there were no immediate signs of Poland triggering Article 5, the alliances mutual defence pact.

A Nato source told The Telegraph the mood inside the alliance was keep calm and carry on after a successful air defence mission.

As the alliances national ambassadors met this morning, there was little cause for concern as things had worked as they should.

We responded quickly and with resolve, the source added.

Warsaws Chopin airport was temporarily closed during the incident - AP

However, Poland is reportedly considering a move to invoke Nato Article 4, which requires member states to discuss a perceived danger.

Speaking ahead of an emergency cabinet meeting, Mr Tusk said: Tonight there was a violation of airspace  Polish airspace  by a large number of Russian drones. Those drones that posed a direct threat were shot down.

He added: We are most likely dealing with a large-scale provocation, but at the same time we are in consultations with our allies. This is the first case of Russian drones being shot down over the territory of a Nato state and that is why all our allies treat the situation very seriously.

A damaged drone was found in Wyryki-Wola in eastern Poland

Mr Tusk also said that there was no need for Poles to panic, adding: At this moment I can say that this first test of our army, our allies and also the procedures prepared for such an eventuality  this test has been passed and the procedures, the plans prepared for such a case are working.

Since Donald Trump, the US president, met with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, Russia has significantly increased its aggression in Ukraine. Last Sunday, Russia launched its biggest aerial bombardment of Ukraine in the war so far, firing 810 drones and 13 missiles.

Missiles have also struck Kyiv government buildings for the first time, as well as European and British diplomatic offices in the capital.

There was no immediate Russian response to the incident in Poland but Belarus, Moscows key regional ally, claimed on Wednesday that it also shot down a number of drones which had been pushed off-course by signal jamming.

EU leaders immediately condemned the drone wave, with Emmanuel Macron, the French president, urging Moscow to put an end to this reckless escalation.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, described the drone attack as a reckless and unprecedented violation of Poland and Europes airspace.

Gazeta Wyborcza, a Polish newspaper, reported that an elderly couple was sleeping on the ground floor of the house that was hit by the drone in Wyryki.

Stanisaw Staszewski, a neighbour, told the newspaper: A military plane flew over here, spun around twice, and then there was a gunshot. And the drone fell onto the roof. When the gunshot went off, I flew out in front of the house. There was a huge cloud of smoke and the stench of sulphur.

Its good that they were on the ground floor, because if they had slept upstairs, it would have been bad.

An unnamed elderly man told Gazeta Wyborcza: It was a huge, terrible bang, it knocked me out of bed. I didnt know what was happening, I ran out of the house, I saw a plane in the sky.

Another neighbour, Joanna, said: I was lying in bed. First there was this whistling sound, then such a bang that I didnt know what had happened. I got out of bed and ran to the window. I saw that the neighbours had come out of their houses.

Soldiers patrol the street after a drone struck a residential building in the Wyryki municipality in Poland - Jakub Orzechowski

Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, suggested that the drone attack on Poland was deliberate. He wrote on X: Increasing evidence indicates that this movement, this direction of strike, was no accident.

Petr Fiala, the Czech prime minister, said: Putins regime threatens all of Europe and systematically probes how far it can go. It is reassuring that Polands air defence systems responded effectively.

Kaja Kallas, the EUs chief diplomat, said: Last night in Poland, we saw the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began, and indications suggest it was intentional, not accidental.

Russias war is escalating, not ending.We must raise the cost on Moscow, strengthen support for Ukraine, and invest in Europes defence.

Wednesdays incident was not the first time that Polish airspace has been violated since the invasion of Ukraine.

Two people were killed in Poland during the Przewodow missile incident in November 2022, in which a stray Ukrainian missile struck a village in Polish territory.

The US previously battled the Russian mercenary group Wagner at the Battle of Khasham in 2018, during the Syrian civil war. At least 200 Wagner fighters were killed by US forces. However, Wagner is not part of the Russian regular army and the US was not operating in Syria as part of a Nato mission.
Russia's drone strikes in Poland

Last night, Poland reported a significant violation of its airspace by Russian drones during a large-scale Russian attack on Ukraine. Exact numbers are yet to be determined but Poland is saying at least 19 objects were tracked and those that were deemed to be a threat  perhaps three or four  were neutralised. President Zelensky stated that at least eight were aimed towards Poland before adding a little perspective by saying that 415 drones and 40 missiles were fired at Ukraine.

Polish and other Nato fighter jets, including Dutch F-35s, were scrambled to intercept, resulting in several drones being shot down. One report indicates that a drone struck a house in Poland. The incident led to temporary closures of several Polish airports, including Warsaws Chopin and Modlin, as well as Lublin and Rzeszow-Jasionka, to ensure safety during the military response.

Diplomatically and politically, for now, we are in the fist shaking phase where the alliances solidarity is proclaimed, extra air sorties are ordered and everyone works out what to do next. The great risk is that, basically, nothing further will be done. We have been here before  fear of escalation leading to inaction. Indeed its what led to this war in the first place. How many times does Putin have to show that he doesnt care about words or sanctions, and that the only language he understands is bombs and bullets? How many times do we need to watch exceptional behaviour become normal through repetition followed by inaction?

Whats needed is a strong response, but not one that could be deemed an escalation. In fact what would be best is if it was actually de-escalatory. Putin has violated Nato airspace with drones clearly aimed into Poland, regardless of Belarussian suggestions that they were jammed.

Nato attacking into Russian airspace would be no more than a tit-for-tat response, and would make sense given that the drones aimed at Poland appear to have come from Russia, but it would not be de-escalatory. On the other hand, action against targets outside Russia would be less aggressive than what Russia has done  and could also be very damaging for Putin.

S-400 battalion components destroyed by Ukraine

Striking targets in Ukrainian territory would probably involve an element of whats called Suppression of Enemy Air Defences (SEAD), as most of Ukraine lies under the footprint of powerful Russian S-400 anti-air missiles. There are Nato weapons which can penetrate this envelope, such as the ATACMS ballistic missile which has already been used against S-400 sites to good effect by the Ukrainians. Theres also the stealthy JASSM cruise missile, which Poland has in its armoury. Its also worth noting that the S-400 is no more than an upgrade of the preceding S-300, which recently proved completely useless in Iranian service against Israel and the US, so it seems clear that Nato (certainly if backed by US intelligence and electronic warfare) need not be overly concerned by it.

Indeed a SEAD or partial SEAD operation would seem like an end in itself. If Russian S-400 coverage were degraded or suppressed altogether, while Ukraine still retained its dangerous US Patriots and other defences, that would offer a huge battlefield advantage. If Ukrainian jets could operate above Russias army, and Russias planes remained reluctant to get too near the front (as is the case today) the stalemate on the ground could be broken.

Proper SEAD would probably mean hitting some targets, such as S-400 radars, which were actually in Russia and Belarus. It would be quite possible to arrange for this to be done by the Ukrainians with Western supplied weapons, however  this has in fact already happened on several occasions. It would be important to focus on radars and largely ignore the actual missile launchers: Russia has established massive S-400 missile production and can replace these fairly easily.

A SEAD campaign involving no Nato action against Russia would be de-escalatory and yet would hurt Putin a lot. This is a question of escalation tolerance: and we should not tolerate any more. This was a deliberate attack on a Nato country, not to cause damage but to test our response. That the diplomatic rhetoric is already moving away from this being an Article 5 moment suggests that Putin will get what he wants: no response.

Weve tried diplomatic, economic and limited military support responses so far and it hasnt worked. To repeat, 415 drones and 40 missiles were fired into Ukraine last night alone. To avoid conforming to the definition of insanity we now need to try something else. I spent my whole career in a service whose role is to prevent conflict, but sometimes it comes to you anyway, and you need to be ready to act when it does.

It therefore seems to me that todays response options are clear: a precision kinetic response fully enabled by Nato forces, or more pointless hand wringing. One of them creates a serious downside for Putin, the other sends a clear message that were still scared and he can keep on pushing.

Sadly, I swear I can hear John Cleese in Monty Pythons Life of Brian saying, right, this calls for immediate discussion
Armed troops patrolled the streets of Kathmandu on Wednesday as Nepal grappled with its most serious political crisis in decades, after KP Sharma Oli was forced to resign as prime minister amid violent protests that left at least 19 people dead and much of the nations political establishment in flames.

The Himalayan republic  sandwiched between India and China  has been engulfed by unrest since last week, when the government abruptly banned 26 social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and X (Twitter), in an attempt to silence criticism.

The ban only deepened frustration among young Nepalis already disillusioned by corruption, unemployment and a political elite seen as unaccountable.

By Monday, demonstrations turned deadly as police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse crowds, killing at least 19 people  17 of them in Kathmandu, many still in their school or college uniforms. By Tuesday, protesters had stormed parliament, torching its main hall, while flames spread to the Supreme Court, the prime ministers residence and even the presidents private home. Burnt vehicles and twisted debris still littered the capitals streets as army firefighters struggled to contain the damage.

The crisis has now pushed Nepals institutions to breaking point. Army chief General Ashok Raj Sigdel appealed to the citizens for peace and urged the protesters not to resort to arson and looting.

Even the president, Ram Chandra Poudel, who accepted Mr Olis resignation, saw his private residence set ablaze.

Royalist forces are also seeking to exploit the unrest. Pro-monarchy MPs have resigned en masse, raising fears of a push to restore the throne abolished in 2008. Former king Gyanendra Shah, who has largely stayed out of politics since the abolition of the monarchy, issued a statement on Tuesday condemning the violence.

Flames emerge from the parliament building after it was set on fire by protesters (AP)

It is extremely tragic and condemnable that instead of addressing the legitimate demands of the younger generation, lives were lost and many were injured, he said. I condemn the violence, which is against the norm of the peaceful Nepalese society.

Mr Olis departure has created a power vacuum that protesters  overwhelmingly from Generation Z  want filled by fresh leadership. Their support has coalesced around two figures outside Nepals traditional political class: Balendra Shah, the 35-year-old mayor of Kathmandu, and Rabi Lamichhane, 51, a former deputy prime minister currently facing corruption charges.

On Tuesday, demonstrators stormed Nakhu prison in Lalitpur and freed Mr Lamichhane, who emerged to deliver a defiant speech outside. He was reportedly released to safeguard other prisoners; legally speaking, he is not yet free from the charges against him.

Protesters celebrate at the parliament building after it was set on fire (AP)

Mr Shah, meanwhile, voiced his full support for the movement, saying: I want to understand their aspirations, objectives, and thinking. His stance reflected the deep mistrust among young Nepalis towards institutions they see as corrupt and self-serving.

As things stand, there are no obvious candidates to step forward into leadership roles from the protest movement itself, however. Binod Dhungel, 53, a senior journalist based in the capital, told The Independent the situation was complete chaos.

Mr Dhungel says the political vacuum represents a scenario I have never seen before in more than 40 years.

A woman walks with a garbage bag past a burnt vehicle in Kathmandu (Reuters)

All political leaders except those in power now say the next political force should be shared with Gen Z, that they must be decisive, said Mr Dhungel. But for the moment, the protesters remain an organised  but leaderless group.

Minutes after Mr Olis resignation, Mr Shah  popularly known as Balen  appealed to demonstrators to exercise restraint. In a Facebook post, he acknowledged the protests were entirely a Gen Z movement but warned against further damage to public and private property.

Dear Gen Z, your demand for the resignation of the government has been met. Now it is time to remain restrained. The loss of the countrys wealth is, in reality, a loss to our own property, he wrote.

Burnt remains lie inside a section of the parliament house, which was set on fire by the protesters (Reuters)

Nepals turmoil sits within a longer history of fragile democracy. The monarchy was abolished in 2008 after a mass uprising, following decades of turbulence that included a Maoist insurgency. Since then, not a single government has completed its full five-year term, fuelling instability and steadily eroding public trust.

Even before this weeks violence, younger Nepalis were rejecting traditional parties. In 2023, a Facebook campaign called No, not again urged voters to shun recycled politicians. When the Election Commission tried to ban the page, the Supreme Court intervened, upholding freedom of speech and dissent.

It was in this environment that Mr Lamichhane, a former television journalist, rose to prominence. Known for grilling corrupt officials live on air, he first gained attention in 2013 by hosting a Guinness World Record-breaking 62-hour talk show. In 2022, he founded the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), which stunned the establishment by capturing 20 parliamentary seats, instantly becoming the fourth-largest bloc.

Firefighters dousing the torched government complex a day after it was set ablaze (AFP/Getty)

Appointed deputy prime minister and home minister, Mr Lamichhane positioned himself as the face of youth-led reform. But his rise was marred by controversy. The Supreme Court stripped him of office in 2023 over citizenship irregularities, though he quickly regained his seat in a by-election. Later, he was implicated in a cooperative fraud scandal and jailed in April this year pending trial. Despite this, his popularity endured  amplified by online communities that hailed him as a symbol of anti-corruption.

Under Nepals constitution, only a sitting MP can be appointed prime minister. But parliaments credibility has collapsed, undermined further by mass resignations in the past 24 hours.

The names most often cited by demonstrators  Mr Shah and Mr Lamichhane  are not viable under current law. Other possibilities include Baburam Bhattarai, a former Maoist leader and ex-prime minister, though his past makes him divisive, says Mr Dhungel.

Mr Bhattarais house in Kathmandu was also torched by the protesters.

For ordinary Nepalis, the immediate concern is not political instability but survival. Kathmandu depends heavily on supplies from surrounding regions, but protests have paralysed traffic, raising fears of shortages and panic-induced looting.

Nepali army soldiers stop a commuter during a curfew outside parliament, following Mondays killing of 19 people (Reuters)

Shops and markets remained shut on Wednesday, while armoured vehicles patrolled empty streets. The main airport was closed for several hours, disrupting flights.

The turmoil has prompted alarm in India, which convened its security cabinet on Tuesday to discuss the crisis on its doorstep. Nepals stability, peace, and prosperity are of utmost importance, said Indias prime minister, Narendra Modi. I humbly appeal to all my brothers and sisters in Nepal to maintain peace and order.

China, a major investor in the countrys infrastructure, said on Wednesday that it hoped the Nepali people would come together to properly handle the crisis and restore national stability as soon as possible, while asking that Chinese citizens and institutions be safeguarded.

Despite the chaos, there are signs of dialogue being established.

Former Supreme Court judge Balaram KC urged the protesters to set up a negotiation team, with the army helping to maintain law and order, and called for fresh elections.

Parliament should be dissolved and fresh elections held, the constitutional expert told Reuters. They should discuss forming the next caretaker government.

President Poudel also appealed for calm. I urge all sides to remain calm, prevent further harm to the nation, and come to the table for talks, he said. In a democracy, the demands raised by citizens can be addressed through dialogue and negotiation.

For now, Kathmandu remains under curfew. Soldiers  who until Wednesday had stayed in their barracks and left police to attempt to control demonstrations  guard the charred parliament building, as residents wait anxiously to see whether their lives will return to normal or whether protests will erupt again.
A furious Qatar has accused Israels prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being a narcissistic saboteur-in-chief determined to wreck the chances of peace in the Middle East, after Israel bombed the Qatari capital on Tuesday.

In blistering comments made to The Independent, Dr Majed al-Ansari, Qatars foreign ministry spokesperson and adviser to the countrys prime minister, said Israel had attacked central Doha while Hamas negotiators were discussing a US-proposed truce deal, putting a target on the back of any country attempting to mediate peace.

Israel launched an unprecedented air raid on Doha on Tuesday, killing at least six people, including a member of Qatars internal security forces and five Hamas figures.

Mr Netanyahu said the targets were the senior Hamas leadership in exile, who, according to the Qataris, were in central Doha discussing details of a US-penned plan for Gaza.

Dr Ansari told The Independent that the country is dealing with this as a direct attack on Qatar, as Israel failed to issue a warning to Doha beforehand or apparently to consult its own closest ally, the US, despite the fact that the largest American military base in the Middle East is located close to the Qatari capital.

 The treacherous behaviour of prime minister Netanyahu is not something new to us, but it is a red line that has been crossed that has never been crossed before, said Dr Ansari, adding that Mr Netanyahu has actively sabotaged talks at every turning point.

This message is very clear to everybody around the world, but especially to our region here, that peace with Israel is not possible under Prime Minister Netanyahu. He does not want peace. He does not work towards peace. He is actually the saboteur-in-chief.

Smoke rises following an explosion supposedly caused by an Israeli attack in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday (AP)

Qatar does not have formal diplomatic relations with Israel, but has taken a leading role in mediating multiple ceasefire deals between Israel and Hamas over the course of the 23-month bloody war. At the request of Israel and the US, it has played host to critical talks between negotiating teams from both sides.

Dr Ansari said that the attack on a building in the heart of Doha, where a senior Hamas delegation was discussing the latest Gaza ceasefire deal penned by the Trump administration, therefore underscored Mr Netanyahus intent.

This is not an act of a partner who believes in their partnership with the US. This is a unilateral action by a madman. This is somebody who is unhinged.

[Mr Netanyahu] does not have any concern for the life of the hostages, any concern for the international standing of Israel [among] the international community, or any concern for what Israel stands for as a state, as a member of the United Nations.

 It has reached a point where he doesnt even have respect for his partners in the US administration.

He added grimly:  The only way Netanyahu wants to reshape the region is in his own image; in his narcissistic, megalomaniacal image.

Israels prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been described as a madman whose decision to attack Qatar was unhinged (AFP/Getty)

Israel has faced worldwide condemnation for its shock decision to bomb Qatar, a state that has already been caught in the crossfire between Israel, the US and Iran, which made the US base in Qatar the target of its retaliatory strikes.

The Israeli military has yet to confirm who was killed in Tuesdays barrage. But Hamas said that none of the senior leaders were harmed, naming the dead as Hammam, the son of its top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, Mr al-Hayyas office chief, and three other individuals whose identities are unknown.

Dr Ansari said that investigations are ongoing but preliminary results show that Israeli fighter jets evaded Qatars sophisticated defence systems and radars during the raid.

Sir Keir Starmer joined world leaders in condemning the attack as a serious violation of Qatars sovereignty that risked further escalation across the region.

Gulf leaders, including Saudi Arabias crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, described the strike as a criminal act and a flagrant violation of international law and said it posed a threat to regional stability.

The Saudi crown prince and the Emirati president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan were set to visit Doha to discuss a response. The Qatari government has instructed a team of legal experts to study all legal and diplomatic avenues they could take to hold Israel accountable, including in the UN Security Council, where a session will be held on the attack.

Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates, is greeted by Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, in Doha (via Reuters)

But there is also growing alarm about the repercussions of the attack for Gaza, where Mr Netanyahu is pushing ahead with a deeply controversial plan to widen his offensive and take over Gaza City.

The renewed military operation has elicited worldwide criticism and even pushback from within Israel, where many are concerned that Mr Netanyahu, who is also standing trial on corruption charges, is bowing to mounting pressure from extreme-right members of his coalition to continue the war on Gaza, in order to stay in power.

Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign against Gaza and a seige of the territory in the wake of Hamas militants bloody attacks on 7 October 2023, during which more than 1,000 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage. Israels bombardment has already killed 64,000 people, according to Palestinian estimates: the largest professional organisation of scholars studying genocide, the IAGS, said last week that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military pushed deeper into Gaza City, where they also issued more evacuation orders to the million or so people believed to be there, as Palestinian civilians described running for their lives to the overcrowded south of the Strip.

Qatari officials told The Independent they had hoped a deal could be struck soon, as on Hamass side they were close to finalising the wording of a ceasefire deal to present to the Trump administration  but explained that this could no longer happen.

 There is nothing valid in talks post the Israeli side deciding to bomb the mediator and the negotiating team, an official added bluntly.

Israelis have taken to the streets each week demanding that Netanyahu agree to an immediate ceasefire and hostage deal (AFP/Getty)

This has worried the families of the remaining 50 hostages and captives still believed to be in Gaza, who have taken to the streets almost every day calling for a ceasefire.

They released a statement in the wake of Israels bombing of Doha, in which they said they were following events with deep concern and heavy anxiety and spoke of their grave fear about the price that the hostages may pay.

Dr Ansari said that allowing Israels bombing of Doha to go unpunished at this moment would affect anybody who wants to play the role of peace facilitator, and warned that it could send a dangerous message to countries such as Russia that they too could bomb foreign states.

It was a direct political decision to put Qatar in the target zone, and put our lives at risk just because of [Mr Netanyahus] own narcissistic ideas, he said .  Everybody in the region right now understands that there is a target on everybodys back if Netanyahu sees it is fitting to his political agenda.
The maker of Ozempic and Wegovy has revealed plans to shed around 9,000 jobs globally as the company faces a fiercely competitive market for obesity drugs.

Novo Nordisks plans would result in around 11% of the pharmaceutical giants 78,400-strong workforce being axed.

The majority of the job cuts, around 5,000, are expected in its home market of Denmark.

A spokeswoman for the group said regions would be affected differently and it could not specify how its UK workforce may be impacted until the plans are finalised.

The company has an office based in Gatwick in the UK.

Novo Nordisk said it has grown rapidly to meet rising global demand for weight-loss and diabetes medication, but this has increased costs and complexities within its operations.

It also warned that it was taking action as the obesity market becomes more competitive and consumer-driven.

Someone using a set of weighing scales (Chris Radburn/PA)

Novo Nordisk enjoyed a sharp rise in sales last year when popularity for weight-loss drugs ballooned around the world, with demand for its Wegovy injection pen exceeding supply.

However, sales growth has slowed this year as competition with rival drugmakers has intensified.

The company cautioned over persistent use of compounded, or copycat, versions of its drugs, many of which it called unsafe and unlawful.

It has also faced mounting competition from US drugmaker Eli Lillys rival weight loss jab Mounjaro.

Its president and chief executive Mike Doustdar said on Wednesday that the business must evolve, adding: It is always difficult to see talented and valued colleagues go, but we are convinced that this is the right thing to do for the long-term success of Novo Nordisk.

We need a shift in our mindset and approach so we can be faster and more agile.

He added that by realigning our resources now the company can invest for growth, particularly in diabetes and obesity.

The restructuring is expected to cost around nine billion Danish kroner (1 billion), incurred in the third quarter of 2025, Novo Nordisk warned.

It therefore said it was downgrading its profit outlook with the costs expected to knock around six percentage points off its full-year operating profit growth for 2025, compared with previous guidance.
Poland is the closest to open conflict it has been since World War Two, the countrys Prime Minister has warned after the country shot down drones that entered its airspace during a widespread attack in western Ukraine.

"I have no reason to claim we're on the brink of war, but a line has been crossed, and it's incomparably more dangerous than before," Donald Tusk said on Wednesday.

"This situation brings us the closest we have been to open conflict since World War Two".

Mr Tusk has said he is in "constant contact" with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte following the unprecedented assault.

Authorities found seven drones and the remains of an unidentified object in sites across the country, an interior ministry spokeswoman said.

Sir Keir Starmer slammed reckless Russian President Vladimir Putin following the attack, which he described as barbaric and an egregious and unprecedented violation of Polish and NATO airspace.

This was an extremely reckless move by Russia and only serves to remind us of President Putins blatant disregard for peace, and the constant bombardment innocent Ukrainians face every day, the Prime Minister said.

"I have been in touch with the Polish Prime Minister this morning to make clear our support for Poland, and that we will stand firm in our support for Ukraine.

Poland's military command said drones repeatedly violated Polish airspace during the Russian attack across the border (Supplied)

Drones repeatedly violated Polish airspace during the Russian attack across the border, according to Poland's military command.

Radars tracked more than 10 objects and those that could pose a threat were "neutralised," the command added.

Some of the drones that entered our airspace were shot down. Searches and efforts to locate the potential crash sites of these objects are ongoing, it said in a statement.

It urged people to stay at home, naming the regions of Podlaskie, Mazowieckie, and Lublin as most at risk, adding: "This is an act of aggression that posed a real threat to the safety of our citizens."

The overnight Russian attack on Ukraine involved 415 drones, one ballistic missile and 42 cruise missiles, the Ukrainian air force said.

It intercepted 386 drones and 27 cruise missiles. "At least eight enemy UAVs crossed the Ukrainian state border flying in Poland's direction," the air force added in a statement.

Russia's defence ministry did not immediately comment.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is understood to have been briefed.

Since Russias full scale invasion began in 2022, there have been several incidents of Russian drones entering the airspace of states bordering Ukraine, including Poland and Romania, but they have so far avoided shooting them down.

Officials have cited the physical danger that such actions could cause and a desire to avoid an escalation in tensions between Russia and NATO.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the violations of Poland's airspace showed Putin was expanding his war and testing the West.

Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, called the incident "an extremely dangerous precedent for Europe".

"The Russians must feel the consequences, he said. Russia must feel that the war cannot be expanded and will have to be ended.

"The pause in sanctions has gone on far too long. He added that "a strong response is needed" from Ukraine's allies.

Defence Secretary John Healey is hosting his counterparts from Poland, France, Italy and Germany in London today. A press conference with all five ministers is due to take place this afternoon.

Chopin airport in Warsaw, the country's largest, closed its airspace for several hours before reopening. It said there would be disruptions and delays through the day.

Most of Ukraine, including western regions of Volyn and Lviv which border Poland, had been under air raid alerts for most of the night according to Ukraine's air force.

In the United States, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said repeated violations of NATO airspace by Russian drones were a sign that "Vladimir Putin is testing our resolve to protect Poland and the Baltic nations."

"After the carnage Putin continues to visit on Ukraine, these incursions cannot be ignored," he said on X.
A Met Police officer was stabbed on Hounslow High Street on Monday (Google )

A Metropolitan Police officer was stabbed in the neck while attempting to apprehend a suspect in Hounslow.

The incident took place on Hounslow High Street at 9.53pm on Monday after police responded to reports of a man carrying a knife.

After attempting to detain a suspect, a police officer was stabbed.

He was rushed to hospital with injuries that are not believed to be life-threatening or life-changing.

The police officer will continue to receive support following the incident.

Someone was stabbed in Hounslow last night pic.twitter.com/Gd5kxu4883  UB1UB2 West London (Southall) (@UB1UB2) September 9, 2025

Three men, aged 19, 28 and 34, were arrested at the scene on suspicion of attempted murder.

The 28-year-old man was also arrested on suspicion of three counts of burglary.

A spokesperson for Met Police said: On Monday, 8 September at 21:53hrs police were called to Hounslow High Street following reports a man was carrying a knife.

Met officers attended the scene, one officer attempted to apprehend a suspect and was stabbed in the neck.

Thankfully, their injuries were not life-changing or life-threatening, he was taken to hospital and will continue to be supported following this incident.

Three men, aged 19, 28 and 34 were arrested at the scene on suspicion of attempted murder. The 28-year-old man was also arrested on suspicion of three counts of burglary.

They all remain in police custody pending further enquiries.

If you saw, or have any information about the incident, then please call 101 stating CAD8277/08Sept. You can also call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 to remain anonymous.
The Duke of Sussex was driven away from Clarence House after spending just 45 minutes with his father - Eddie Mullholland For The Telegraph

The Duke of Sussex has been reunited with the King, for the first time in 19 months.

Prince Harry and his father spent 54 minutes together over a private tea at Clarence House, the monarchs London home, on Wednesday evening.

The meeting came on the eve of Prince Harrys return to California from a four-day visit to the UK designed around his charity commitments.

After their tea, the Duke attended an Invictus Games event in the capital where he told a well-wisher asking after the King: Yes hes great, thank you.

The reunion, albeit brief, will be seen as a turning point in the pairs relationship.

The Duke has made no secret of his desire to make peace with the King but his various legal battles and propensity to express his feelings on television have not helped his cause.

In May, he gave a lengthy interview in which he admitted he had no idea how long the King had left to live and expressed a clear desire for a rapprochement, saying: I would love a reconciliation with my family.

Credit: X/@chrisshipitv

The Dukes visit this week has coincided with a flurry of public engagements by his brother, the Prince of Wales, but the pair who remain estranged  have not met.

The King, meanwhile, has no public engagements this week but flew down to London from Balmoral, where he has been spending his summer break, for his weekly cancer treatment.

The first sign of a potential reunion came when the King was spotted boarding a London plane in Aberdeen at around 2pm.

He arrived at Clarence House shortly before 4pm and his son, dressed in a suit and tie, was driven through the gates to a barrage of camera flashes 80 minutes later at 5.20pm.

At 6.13pm, Prince Harry was whisked back out and straight to a reception for Invictus Games supporters in the City of London.

King Charles was spotted being driven into Clarence House 90 minutes before his son arrived - Eddie Mullholland

He was due to arrive at 6.45pm but got stuck in traffic and eventually arrived at 7.24pm  the second time this week he has been late thanks to the knock-on effects of the ongoing Tube strike.

The Duke no longer benefits from blue-light police escorts which would be able to cut through the heavy central London traffic.

He was delayed by 45 minutes arriving at an event in Nottingham on Tuesday, where he enjoyed a lively visit to the Community Radio Station and announced a 1.1m personal donation to Children in Need to tackle youth violence and knife crime in the city.

Before meeting the King on Wednesday, he spent two hours at the Centre for Blast Injury Studies, where he revealed that through his Archewell Foundation, he had donated $500,000 (370,000) to projects supporting injured children from Gaza and Ukraine.

But he also made time to make a private visit to the late Queen Elizabeth IIs grave in St Georges Chapel, Windsor Castle. He was given special permission by the palace to do so after arriving in London on Monday.

Harry attended the Invictus Horizons reception soon after his meeting with the King - Tim P. Whitby

In Windsor, he was only eight miles from his brother William, who was with the Princess of Wales at the Womens Institute in Sunningdale, but no reunion was arranged.

The Duke, who is due to fly home to the US on Thursday, last saw his father in person in February 2024, when he made a mercy dash to the UK following the Kings cancer diagnosis.

The pair spent just 30 minutes together before the King flew up to Sandringham with the Queen and Harry made the 5,000-mile trip back to California.

When he next returned to London three months later, his hopes of seeing his father again were dashed when apparent efforts to make contact went unheeded.

Sources close to the Duke claimed his phone calls had gone unanswered while palace sources insisted that no formal requests for a meeting had been made.

Harry looked deep in thought as he was whisked away to a charity engagement - julian.simmonds

Chastised, a spokesman for the Duke issued a statement stating that a meeting between father and son would not be possible due to His Majestys full programme.

The Duke of course is understanding of his fathers diary of commitments and various other priorities and hopes to see him soon, it read.

Prince Harry returned again, just briefly, last September for the WellChild Awards, but the King was in Scotland and he did not stay long.

His most recent visit, in April, was to attend a two-day Court of Appeal hearing over his security, which he eventually lost, drawing a line under the spectacle.

The lengthy legal row caused huge concern at Buckingham Palace, not least as the Duke made clear he believed the King could intervene on his behalf to help broker a suitable arrangement.

The King was said to have been so worried about being dragged into the case that he was hesitant to engage with his younger son in case his words were repeated in public, placing him in legal jeopardy.

Harry has since insisted  and continues to maintain  that it is not safe to bring his wife, Meghan, or his children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, back to the UK.
Prince Harry visited Clarence House to meet his father the King for their first face to face meeting in over a year and a half.

He arrived at 5.22pm at Charles London residence on Wednesday. He was seen leaving at 6.14pm.

The meeting, which was kept very quiet before Harry was spotted arriving, signals a shift in attitudes after their family rift.

Speaking after the meeting Harry said of his father: Yes hes great, thank you.

The King had earlier flown down to the capital from Balmoral from his summer break and is in London without Camilla.

The behind closed doors meeting was slotted in ahead of futher engagments for Harry and Charles.

Prince Harry arrives at Clarence House today to meet his father (Getty Images)

The Duke is visiting the UK for the first time in months, arriving on Monday when he paid respects to his late grandmother Queen Elizabeth II at her grave in Windsor to mark the third anniverary of her death.

The reunion comes after Harry publicly expressed hopes of a reconciliation with his family in May, telling the BBC that Charles would not speak to him because of his court battle over his security and that he did not know "how much longer my father has".

The duke arrived at Clarence House in a black car at 5.20pm ahead of an expected engagement elsewhere in London later on Wednesday evening.

Speculation had mounted as to whether the royal pair would finally meet, despite their troubled father-son relationship.

Harry last saw his father, who is still undergoing treatment for cancer, in February last year when he made a transatlantic dash from his Californian home to the UK to see Charles following his cancer diagnosis.

The Duke of Sussex waves as he leaves his visit to Imperail College on Wednesday (Suzanne Plunkett/PA Wire)

The duke, who stepped down from the working monarchy in 2020, has levelled a barrage of accusations at the King, stepmother the Queen, brother Prince of Wales and sister-in-law the Princess of Wales in his Oprah interview, Netflix documentary, interviews and his autobiography Spare since moving to the US.

Harry remains estranged from his brother William, who has been busying himself with a flurry of engagements this week and was away in Cardiff on Wednesday visiting a new mental health hub on World Suicide Prevention Day.

The siblings were just seven miles apart on Monday when Harry visited the late Queens grave, while the Prince and Princess of Wales were a short car ride away in Sunningdale, Berkshire, as they visited the National Federation of Womens Institutes (WI) in tribute to the late Queens decades-long association with the organisation.

Senior aides to the King and the duke were pictured together in London this July in what was reported to be an initial step towards opening channels of communication between the two households.

Royal watchers will be waiting to see if Harry keeps quiet and refrains from publicly discussing his reunion with the King, and, on the other side, whether any briefings emerge from Palace.

At an at an Invictus reception at The Gherkin in the City of London on Wednesday evening just over an hour after he left his meeting with the King, he was asked how his father was.

Harry replied: "Yes he's great, thank you.
Prince Harry meets King Charles for private tea in first meeting for almost two years

The Duke of Sussex has had tea with King Charles at Clarence House, in what was their first meeting for 19 months.

Prince Harry arrived at the residence on Wednesday in a black Range Rover at 5.20pm, and left after about an hour. He later attended an Invictus Games event in London as part of his four-day visit to the UK.

The duke said of the King: Yes hes great, thank you, as he attended the event in London.

Harry has not seen his father in over a year, and said in a BBC interview in May: I would love a reconciliation with my family.

He said at the time that his father would not speak to him because of the court battle over his security arrangements, and that he did not know how much longer my father has.

The King, who has been receiving cancer treatment since early 2024, travelled down from his Balmoral home where he has been spending his summer break.

His son visited the Centre for Blast Injury Studies at Imperial College London, an institution he has close connections with, earlier on Wednesday, as part of his visit from California, where he lives with his wife Meghan and their two children.

Harry leaves Clarence House on Wednesday evening (AFP/Getty)

The duke has been carrying out a string of events since Monday. He began his stay by leaving flowers at the final resting place of his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II to mark the third anniversary of her death.

Just seven miles down the road from the Queens burial site in St Georges Chapel at Windsor Castle, Harrys estranged brother the Prince of Wales remembered the late Queen at the National Federation of Womens Institutes in Sunningdale, Berkshire.

Harrys visit has reignited commentary about the state of his relationship with senior members of the royal family.

He stepped down from the working monarchy in 2020, and has levelled a barrage of accusations at the King, the late Queen, Prince William and the Princess of Wales in his Oprah interview, his Netflix documentary, interviews and his autobiography Spare, since moving to the United States.

Prince Harry visits the Centre for Blast Injury Studies at Imperial College London (AP)

While he appears set to reunite with his father, there seems to be no prospect of the duke reuniting with Prince William, who travelled to Cardiff on Wednesday to learn about a pioneering mental health hub on World Suicide Prevention Day.

In February last year, Harry made a dash across the Atlantic from his home in California to see his father following the Kings cancer diagnosis, in a move that showed that both sides were willing to put their strained relationship on hold for the sake of family relations.

The duke spent approximately 45 minutes with his father before the King flew to his Sandringham country estate to recuperate following his treatment.

Royal watchers will be waiting to see if Harry keeps quiet and refrains from publicly discussing his reunion with the King, and, on the other side, whether any briefings emerge from the palace.

King Charles was diagnosed with cancer in early 2024 (AFP/Getty)

Prince Harrys communications team, headed by Los Angeles-based Meredith Maines, was pictured in July with Tobyn Andreae, the Kings press representative, on the balcony of a private members club in London  a moment described by The Mail on Sunday as the secret Harry peace summit.

This was believed to be an initial step towards opening channels of communication between the two households after Prince Harrys court battle over security came to an end. His court case proved to be an impediment to resolving relations with his father, as it involved Harry criticising the Kings government in the courts. But after the case came to an end, he told the BBC: It would be nice to have that reconciliation part now. If they dont want that, thats entirely up to them.

The Prince arrives at Clarence House on Wednesday afternoon (Getty)

The Duke of Sussex appeared to be all smiles as he arrived at the Centre for Blast Injury Studies in White City, west London.

He was pictured with former army captain Dr David Henson, who served as Team GB captain for the inaugural Invictus Games, an initiative founded by the duke for wounded veterans.

Dr Henson lost both his legs above the knee after standing on an improvised explosive device in 2011 while clearing a compound in Afghanistan. He went on to gain a PhD in amputee biomechanics at Imperial.

Harry opened the Centre for Blast Injury Studies in 2013. Imperials new centre was launched a few years ago on its White City campus.
Israels strike appears to have failed to kill its targets - Jacqueline Penney/AFP

Qatar has said it has a right to respond to Israels strike against the headquarters of Hamass political leadership on Tuesday.

The strike on Doha, which came as Hamass top figures gathered to consider a US proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, marked an escalation of the conflict and risked upending talks aimed at ending the war and freeing the remaining hostages.

Qatar condemned what it referred to as a flagrant violation of all international laws and norms as smoke rose over its capital.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, the countrys prime minister, told a press conference: Qatar  reserves the right to respond to this blatant attack.

He also accused Benjamin Netanyahu, his Israeli counterpart, of dragging the region to a place where it unfortunately cannot be repaired.

Israels attack is a flagrant violation of all international laws and norms, the prime minister of Qatar has said - The Associated Press

As the dust settled, Israels strike appeared to have failed to kill its targets.

Hamas said in a statement its top leaders survived the strike but that five lower-level members were killed, including the son of Khalil al-Hayya  Hamass leader for Gaza and its top negotiator  three bodyguards, and the head of Mr Hayyas office.

Hamas, which has sometimes confirmed the assassination of its leaders months later, offered no immediate proof that Mr al-Hayya and other senior figures had survived.

The energy-rich Gulf nation hosts thousands of American troops and has served as a key mediator between Israel and Hamas throughout the 23-month war.

Asked at a news conference if ceasefire talks would continue, Mr Al Thani said after the strike I dont think theres anything valid in the current talks.

However, he stopped short of saying Qatar would end its mediation efforts, saying we will do whatever we can to stop this war.

The son of Khalil al-Hayya, Hamass leader and top negotiator for Gaza, was killed in the strike - Yamam Al Shaar/Reuters

The US said Israel alerted Doha before the strike. But American officials sought to distance Washington from the attack.

The White House said Donald Trump claimed the strike was an unfortunate incident that did not advance peace in the region.

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Mr Trump spoke to Mr Netanyahu and made his thoughts and concerns very clear.

She also told reporters that Steve Witkoff, the US envoy for the Middle East, passed along a warning to the Qataris.

But Majed al-Ansari, the spokesman for the Qatari foreign ministry, derided the warning in a post on X, saying that it came just as the explosions from the Israeli strikes were being heard.

Surveillance footage aired by Al Jazeera showed the strike hit a series of buildings in Dohas diplomatic quarter that housed Hamass political wing.

An Egyptian official said the strike came when a meeting by Hamas officials over the peace talks had been scheduled for the site. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to reporters.

Israel has long threatened to strike Hamas leaders wherever they are. While it has often welcomed Qatars role as a mediator, alongside Egypt, it has also accused the Gulf nation of not putting enough pressure on the group.

Israel attacked buildings in Doha that housed Hamass political wing - Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters

In contrast to previous Israeli operations against senior militants abroad, Mr Netanyahu was quick to publicly claim responsibility for the strike, saying: Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it and Israel takes full responsibility.

He said the decision was made on Monday after a shooting in Jerusalem that killed six people and an attack on Israeli forces in Gaza that killed four soldiers.

The Israeli military said it used precise munitions and additional intelligence in the strike, without elaborating. It was not immediately clear how it carried out the attack.

Hamas said the attack showed that Mr Netanyahu and his government do not want to reach any agreement and are deliberately seeking to thwart all opportunities. It said it also held the US responsible for the strike.

Egypt, another key mediator between Israel and Hamas, also condemned the attack, saying it targeted Palestinian leaders who had met to discuss ways to reach a ceasefire agreement. Cairo also said the strike was a direct assault on Qatars sovereignty.

In Israel, the main group representing families of the hostages expressed deep concern and great fear after the strike.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement: The prospect of their return now faces greater uncertainty than ever, with one thing absolutely certain  their time is running out.
Research led by Swansea University suggests that two to three babies lose their dads to suicide every week across the UK (Getty)

Atlas was a day old when he suddenly stopped breathing. He was born perfectly healthy and everything else had been fine, recalls his father, Mike, 31. We thought hed just been sleeping. But then, out of nowhere, we noticed something was wrong. Thanks to his job as a youth worker, Mike had recently been trained in infant CPR. I managed to resuscitate him while we were on the phone to 111, who quickly sent an ambulance.

Despite not breathing for five minutes, Atlas survived, with doctors later speculating this was a near-miss case of sudden infant death syndrome, which affects around 200 babies in the UK each year. But the experience took a severe toll on Mike, who has autism and a history of poor mental health, as well as his partner, Maz. Both of us had postnatal depression and PTSD, he says, recalling how he became completely withdrawn and rarely left the house in fear of Atlas suddenly being unable to breathe again. I felt completely overwhelmed, isolated and, at my lowest, I was ready to take my own life, he says. What ultimately stopped Mike from doing this was his son. At a critical moment, I heard Atlas crying. I went to pick him up, and it just reminded me of the bond I had with him.

It would take Mike another year to tell Maz the extent of his poor mental health. But he did seek help from Dad Matters, a service provided by the charity Home-Start that hed seen advertised on flyers in the hospital when Maz was pregnant. I was matched with a coordinator, Dan, who checked in on me every week. Through that support and the support I received from Maz, I was able to recover.

Tragically, not all new fathers can say the same. New research led by Swansea University suggests that two to three babies lose their dads to suicide every week across the UK. The study, which provides the first population-level rate for paternal suicide in the 1,001 days from pregnancy to age two, found that seven times as many fathers died by suicide during this time period compared to mothers. Researchers looked at suicide rates in Wales between 2002 and 2021 for the first 1,001 days of their childs life, during which time 16 mothers died by suicide, as well as 107 fathers.

Seven times as many fathers died by suicide in their babys first 1,001 days compared with mothers (Getty)

Former health minister Andrea Leadsom, who launched the 1001 Critical Days Foundation that commissioned the research, has called the findings a wake-up call. Conversations around the whole perinatal period, from pregnancy to the age of two, have quite rightly been dominated by mothers and understanding their mental and physical health during this time, she tells me. But were missing something, which is that dads are crucial, too. She points to research that has shown children cope far better when they have secure attachments with both their mother and father.

Currently, fathers are excluded from specialist perinatal mental health services in the UK. This is despite the fact that up to 13 per cent of dads are thought to experience depression during pregnancy and early parenthood. And yet, the only nation recording the age of children at the time of paternal suicide is Wales. Meanwhile, maternal mortality is recorded nationally. Hence, the 1001 Critical Days Foundation has awarded a 1m grant to Home-Start with the aim of nationally rolling out its Dad Matters programme. It supports new fathers through one-to-one confidential support, as well as group services designed to help dads understand their role in early childhood development and build bonds with their babies while maintaining their mental health.

Men struggle to talk about their mental health anyway, but when theyre having a baby, a lot of them think they must look after their partner and not be selfish, says Leadsom. So if a man is feeling down or confused during this time, they might think, Well, this cant be about me, I need to swallow my own feelings to be there for my partner and baby. So that can be quite difficult for them as they feel the need to stifle themselves and not talk about their feelings even more.

If a man is feeling down or confused during this time, they might think, Well, this cant be about me, I need to swallow my own feelings to be there for my partner and baby

Andrea Leadsom, former health minister

For Mike, there was an underlying sense of feeling compelled to keep calm and carry on, even during the darkest of moments, as if talking about what he was experiencing was insignificant compared to what his partner was going through. Dads often get overlooked, he says. Theres already a stigma around men speaking up about their feelings in general, but society expects dads to just get on with it. That silence means paternal suicide gets ignored in policy and in public conversations, even though its a real crisis. For the first two months of Atlass life, Mike was his primary caregiver because Maz was struggling with postnatal depression. I remember leaving the house to buy nappies and I cried all the way there and back because I was so terrified Atlas would stop breathing again.

Even in 2025, a stigma persists that prevents men from feeling like they can speak openly about their mental health. Men feel pressured to hold it together for their partner and baby, and shame and stigma around men expressing vulnerability make it harder to ask for help, says Lauren Seager-Smith, CEO of the For Babys Sake Trust, which supports parents impacted by domestic abuse in the first 1,001 days of parenthood. Added to this are the stresses of becoming a parent  financial worries, lack of sleep, relationship changes, and unresolved childhood traumas that can surface in parenthood. We need to start having honest conversations about fathers mental health and the impact this has on babies, ensuring support is inclusive, trauma-informed, and accessible to all parents.

There is less routine screening for paternal mental health during the perinatal period, meaning fathers can slip through the cracks of services designed primarily for mothers

Neil Ingham, executive director at Samaritans

Suicide is the leading cause of death for men under the age of 45, and while a number of charities, including Samaritans and Calm, are doing extensive work in this area, its clear that targeted work is needed for new fathers. In addition to Dad Matters, an emerging subsection of organisations are doing just that, including Pregnant Then Screwed and The Dad Shift, which is currently campaigning for better paternity leave in the UK. There is less routine screening for paternal mental health during the perinatal period, meaning fathers can slip through the cracks of services designed primarily for mothers, says Neil Ingham, executive director at Samaritans. This can leave them feeling invisible at a time when they may be struggling.

Of course, the problem extends beyond this, too. While the research found that rates of suicide were high in new fathers, they were even higher in men of a similar age without children or with older children, reflecting the prevalence of male suicide rates more generally. However, early fatherhood remains a critical time for intervention, adds Professor Ann John, who led the study. We often run campaigns asking men to seek help for their mental health, but we could be much more proactive in offering support at those key times of transition when they are more likely to be in contact with services. We need pathways to be available and tailored to both parents, from self-care resources to specialist perinatal mental health services.

Today, Mike is doing well, as is Maz. Now four years old, Atlas is about to start school. Hes thriving, says Mike. And Im just so grateful Im still here to see that. With the right support, fathers can get through even the darkest times and be there for their children. I want people to see that early help for dads saves lives  not just for fathers, but for whole families.

If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.

If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call the National Suicide Prevention Helpline on 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has acknowledged higher taxes could hit economic growth as she sought to reassure businesses about her Budget plans.

Cabinet ministers have been ordered by the Chancellor to keep a tight rein on spending in order to reduce the pressure on the public finances, limiting the need for taxes to balance the books.

Business chiefs have warned Ms Reeves not to repeat last years tax raid, which saw a 25 billion hike in employers national insurance contributions.

(PA Graphics)

Economists have warned Ms Reeves could be forced to unveil more tax hikes in the November 26 Budget to meet her goal of balancing day-to-day spending with revenues.

The Chancellor is constrained by Labours manifesto commitment not to increase income tax, national insurance and VAT  ruling out three of the biggest revenue-raisers and causing fear among businesses that she may target them for cash instead.

She told the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA) summit in London that she had to hike taxes in her first budget to put the finances on a firm footing and to fund public services but I think we got the balance right.

Ahead of her second Budget, she said Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had been clear that growth is our number one mission.

ECONOMY GDP

The Chancellor said: I do recognise that tax policy does impact economic growth. One of the reasons why I spoke about the need for spending restraint at Cabinet yesterday is that I recognise (that) to make sure that the numbers add up its not just what you bring in, its also what youre spending.

But crucial for all of this is economic growth. If you can grow the economy, you can make these decisions around tax and spend so much easier.

One of the reasons why taxes have risen to such a high level is because weve had such poor growth and such low levels of investment and such a deterioration in our productivity performance, both compared to the past, but also compared with other countries.

Im determined to drive those things up, and that is why growth continues to be the number one mission of this government, and tax policy also needs to reflect that mission.

At Tuesdays first meeting of Sir Keirs new-look Cabinet, Ms Reeves warned ministers they would be restricted in seeking emergency Treasury funding if they exceeded their spending plans.

Rachel Reeves is constrained by Labours manifesto commitment not to increase income tax, national insurance and VAT (Jeff Moore/PA)

Ms Reeves told the BVCA: Access to reserve claims are being tightened because I want to really bear down on spending.

She highlighted Jonathan Reynolds reshuffle move from business secretary to Chief Whip as a sign that Labour MPs would be brought into line behind the Governments agenda.

A revolt over planned welfare reforms has put a 5 billion hole in her spending plans, and the Government was also forced to climb down over restrictions on eligibility for winter fuel payments.

Ms Reeves said Mr Reynolds had a really important position because the former business secretary will be responsible for driving legislation through Parliament.

He knows how important it is to grow the economy. He knows how important it is to get Labour MPs in that place, and hes got a really important role to contribute there.

The Chancellor also highlighted the Governments drive to reduce the number of regulators and the burden of red tape.

She said: We want to make it easier to do business in Britain, ripping out those things that have been blocking growth, and backing the builders.

Ms Reeves comments at the BVCA came after the head of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) called on her to ditch her manifesto commitments on the taxes paid by workers.

Writing in the Guardian newspaper, CBI chief executive Rain Newton-Smith said the time for tinkering is over and warned Ms Reeves against slavish adherence to tax promises made in the run-up to last years general election.

She warned that another tax hit for businesses would leave us with a growth plan in name only.
The latest Banksy work is being removed from the wall of a court building in London, days after being revealed.

The mural appeared on an external wall of the Queens Building, in the Royal Courts of Justice complex, on Monday.

The image depicted a protester lying on the ground holding a blood-spattered placard, while a judge, in a wig and gown, looms over him, wielding a gavel.

The work has been covered up at various points since it was discovered and guarded by security staff, with the courts and tribunals service confirming that it would be removed due to the building being listed and therefore legally protected.

It is understood that work began to remove the image on Tuesday and resumed on Wednesday.

A person was seen drawing the removal on Wednesday (Danny Halpin/PA)

Banksy confirmed he was responsible for the work with a post on Instagram, showing the graffiti before it was covered over.

The artist, whose identity is the source of constant speculation, captioned the pictures: Royal Courts Of Justice. London.

It has been interpreted by some as a comment on the arrest of hundreds of people for supporting Palestine Action by holding up placards at protests.

Palestine Action was banned by the Government as a terrorist group in July after activists damaged RAF planes.

The Banksy artwork on Monday (Callum Parke/PA)

The piece also came weeks after the Lady Chief Justice, the most senior judge in England and Wales, repeated concerns for the safety of judges, who she said had been subjected to increasing and increasingly unacceptable sensationalist and inaccurate abuse.

The work was reported as criminal damage, with the Metropolitan Police stating that inquiries were ongoing.

The court service confirmed that it is legally obliged to maintain the character of the building because of its listed status.
Peter Mandelson has broken his silence over the unfolding scandal around his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, warning there are more very embarrassing revelations to come after it was revealed he maintained ties with him after he was jailed for a child sex offence.

Britains ambassador to Washington said he was very embarrassed to read a birthday message to the late paedophile in which he described him as his best pal.

The messages, part of a 50th birthday book compiled for Epstein by convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, also saw Lord Mandelson express love for the financier and joke about entertaining his interesting friends.

Epstein referred to Mandelson as Petie in email correspondence (House Oversight Committee)

Speaking to The Suns Harry Cole on his YouTube channel, Lord Mandelson said: I find them very embarrassing to see and to read but, as you say, they were written before he was indicted.

I just feel two things now. One, I feel a tremendous sense, a profound sense of sympathy for those people, those women, who suffered as a result of his behaviour and his illegal criminal activities.

And secondly, I regret very, very deeply indeed, carrying on that association with him for far longer than I should have done.

It was a matter of years after I initially met him, and I regret very much that I fell for his lies.

Mandelson referred to Epstein as his best pal and said that he loved him in the messages (House Committee on Oversight and Reform)

Lord Mandelson went on to say that perhaps because I am a gay man, he may have been blinded to Epsteins criminal behaviour.

But, asked whether there were more revelations to come about the relationship, Lord Mandelson said: I have no doubt at all that theres a lot of traffic, correspondence, exchanges between us  absolutely. And we know those are going to surface.

We know theyre going to come out.

We know theyre going to be very embarrassing, and they know that Im going to profoundly regret ever having met him and been introduced to him in the first place.

Lord Mandelson added: Hes a charismatic criminal liar. We now see, and I regret very much indeed, I felt it like a... like an albatross around my neck since his death in 2018 or 19.

I feel a tremendous sense of regret, not only that I met him in the first place, but that I continued the association, and I took at face value the lies that he fed me.

Education minister Josh MacAlister insisted Lord Mandelson still had the backing of the government and warned against people finding the Labour grandee guilty by association with Epstein.

The note raised questions about Mandelsons judgment (House Committee on Oversight and Reform)

He told ITVs Good Morning Britain he had not seen Lord Mandelson's interview, but added: "Yes, the ambassador has the support of government."

Epsteins 50th birthday book contained a photo of Lord Mandelson and Epstein on what appeared to be the multimillionaires island, as well as a handwritten note for the disgraced financier.

The note from Lord Mandelson to Epstein appeared to take the form of a poem beginning: Once upon a time, an intelligent, sharp-witted man they call mysterious parachuted into my life.

Other pictures featured alongside the note included a shot of Lord Mandelson on a balcony in a pair of swimming trunks, shot from behind, with his hands on his hips.

Lord Mandelsons note appeared to refer to interesting friends he had been left to entertain by Epstein.

But wherever he is in the world, he remains my best pal, it concluded. Lord Mandelson appeared to add: Happy birthday, Jeffrey, we love you!!

It has also emerged that Epstein brokered a deal with Lord Mandelson over the sale of a taxpayer-owned business after he had been convicted of child sex offences.

Months after the late paedophile had been released from prison, he negotiated the deal alongside then Labour business secretary Lord Mandelson.

Keir Starmer gave Mandelson his full backing, saying his work helps build ties with the Trump administration (PA)

Epstein advised both Lord Mandelson and senior JP Morgan executive Jes Staley on the firms purchase of Sempra Commodities, a joint venture between the publicly owned Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Sempra Energy.

Mr Staley has since been banned from the City for misleading the Financial Conduct Authority over his relationship with Epstein.

An investigation by The Daily Telegraph has detailed a two-decade friendship between Lord Mandelson and Epstein, which lasted even after Epstein was jailed for a child sex offence in 2008.

Emails obtained by the paper show Epstein introducing Lord Mandelson to Mr Staley, setting up at least two meetings between the pair before JP Morgans purchase of Sempra.

After one meeting, Epstein asked Mr Staley: Was Petie helpful? Lord Mandelson being nicknamed Petie by the notorious paedophile, has been seen as a stark example of how close the pair grew.

Sir Keir Starmer has also given Lord Mandelson his full backing to stay on as Britains ambassador to the US, stressing the positive work he has done to build ties with the Trump administration.

The British embassy in Washington has been asked to comment.
The sister of murdered MP Jo Cox has condemned the killing of conservative activist and close ally of US President Donald Trump, Charlie Kirk.

Mr Kirk, 31, the co-founder and chief executive of the youth organisation Turning Point USA, was shot at a Utah Valley University show on Wednesday.

Kim Leadbeater, whose sister Jo Cox was killed in 2016 when she was shot and stabbed by a neo-Nazi outside her constituency surgery a week before the 2016 EU referendum, and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer were among a raft of British leaders to speak out against political violence following the killings.

Kim Leadbeater, the sister of Jo Cox MP (Victoria Jones/PA)

Ms Leadbeater, who is now a Labour MP in her sisters former constituency, wrote: This is dreadful.

Whatever our political views and differences, there is no place for violence in our politics.

Tonight two children have lost their Dad. Devastating. We need a global reset on what we want our politics to look like.

Prime Minister Sir Keir expressed his condolences online, adding: My thoughts this evening are with the loved ones of Charlie Kirk.

It is heartbreaking that a young family has been robbed of a father and a husband.

We must all be free to debate openly and freely without fear  there can be no justification for political violence.

My thoughts this evening are with the loved ones of Charlie Kirk. It is heartbreaking that a young family has been robbed of a father and a husband. We must all be free to debate openly and freely without fear  there can be no justification for political violence.  Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) September 10, 2025

Videos posted to social media from Utah Valley University showed Mr Kirk speaking into a handheld microphone while sitting under a white tent emblazoned with the slogans The American Comeback and Prove Me Wrong, before a single shot was fired.

Stunned spectators were heard gasping and screaming before people started to run away.

President Donald Trump said he was filled with grief and anger at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk in a video address to the nation.

This is a dark moment for America, Mr Trump said.

Charlie Kirk travelled the nation, joyfully engaging with everyone interested in good faith debate. His mission was to bring young people into the political process, which he did better than anybody ever.

As of late Wednesday local time, no one was in custody, according to The Associated Press.

Earlier, officials had given shifting accounts of the manhunt  FBI director Kash Patel initially posted on social media that a subject had been detained, but later clarified the person had been released after questioning.

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, who said she is deeply shocked by the killing, added: Political violence has no place in our societies.

Our thoughts and condolences are with his family.

There are no words good enough to express the horror of this. The killing of Charlie Kirk is a blow to everything Western civilization stands for: open discourse, robust debate and peaceful dissent. He lived his life by those very principles, no matter the danger it put him in.  Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) September 10, 2025

The cross-party calls for tolerance also included Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch describing the killing as a blow to everything Western civilization stands for.

She posted online: There are no words good enough to express the horror of this.

The killing of Charlie Kirk is a blow to everything Western civilization stands for: open discourse, robust debate and peaceful dissent. He lived his life by those very principles, no matter the danger it put him in.

This may have happened far from our shores, but the rising intolerance of opposing views affects us all. We cannot turn a blind eye to it.

My thoughts are with Charlies family, his wife Erika, and their children.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage posted a black and white photograph of himself with Mr Kirk, along with the message this is a very dark day for American democracy.

He added that he is desperately sad for Mr Kirk, his wife and children.

This is a very dark day for American democracy. I am desperately sad for Charlie, his wife and children. pic.twitter.com/3s1U9kICWm  Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) September 10, 2025

Former Tory prime minister Boris Johnson believes Mr Kirk is now a shining new martyr to free speech  and described the killing as a tragedy, and a sign of the utter desperation and cowardice of those who could not defeat him in argument.

He posted online: Charlie Kirk has been killed not for espousing extremist views  because he didnt.

He has been killed for saying things that used to be simple common sense. He has been killed because he had the courage to stand up publicly for reasonable opinions held by millions and millions of ordinary people both in the US and Britain. The world has a shining new martyr to free speech.

Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and loved ones.

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey added: Absolutely horrifying news of Charlie Kirks murder. Political violence should have no place in society.

My prayers are with his family, I cant imagine the pain they must be going through.

In a US press conference, Utah Governor Spencer Cox said the attack was a political assassination and that a person of interest is in custody.

The event was billed as the first stop on Mr Kirks The American Comeback Tour and had fuelled controversy on the campus.

An online petition calling for university administrators to bar Mr Kirk from appearing received nearly 1,000 signatures.

The university issued a statement last week citing First Amendment rights and affirming its commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.
Starmer to meet Israeli president after condemning strike on Hamas in Qatar

Sir Keir Starmer is set to meet Israeli President Isaac Herzog in the UK, a day after condemning Israels strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar.

The Prime Minister said Israels attack represented a flagrant violation of Qatars sovereignty and risked fuelling further escalation in the Middle East.

The Israeli military targeted top Hamas figures in Doha on Tuesday as they gathered to discuss a US proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The move, which Hamas said killed five lower-level members, risked derailing efforts to end the war and angered Qatar, which has served as a mediator between Israel and the militant group.

Sir Keir told the Emir of Qatar in a phone call on Tuesday evening that Israels action represents a flagrant violation of Qatars sovereignty and risks fuelling further escalation when the focus should be ending the devastating cycle of violence in the region, according to a Downing Street readout.

He reiterated his condemnation of the strike by Israel in Doha today and gave his condolences for the death of a Qatari security officer killed in the attack.

The Prime Minister also underscored his gratitude at the indispensable role Qatar has played in trying to reach a ceasefire and welcomed the Emirs determination to continue with peace talks, the readout said.

I condemn Israels strikes on Doha, which violate Qatars sovereignty and risk further escalation across the region. The priority must be an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages, and a huge surge in aid into Gaza. This is the only solution towards long-lasting peace.  Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) September 9, 2025

US President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that Israels bombing on the territory of a US ally does not advance Israel or Americas goals.

This was a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me, he said.

It is against this backdrop, as well as the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, that Sir Keir is set to meet with Mr Herzog on Wednesday during the Israeli presidents trip to Britain.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman told reporters: The Prime Minister will be meeting the Israeli president, where hell raise the intolerable situation in Gaza, the action Israel must take to end the horrific suffering were witnessing. It cannot go on any longer.

No 10 underlined Sir Keirs revulsion at the suffering in Gaza, but did not repeat Health Secretary Wes Streetings calls for Mr Herzog to answer for alleged war crimes and ethnic cleansing committed by his country.

The Cabinet minister said on Tuesday that Mr Herzog needs to explain how he believes the Israeli government can achieve its aim in Gaza without genocide.

The UK Government has stopped short of accusing Israel of genocide, saying it has not concluded that Benjamin Netanyahus government is acting with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, the legal definition for the crime.

Mr Herzogs role as Israeli president is largely ceremonial.

Wes Streeting said Israels president needs to answer genocide claims (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

He is from a different political party to Mr Netanyahu and has not always seen eye-to-eye with the premier, although he has largely supported war efforts in Gaza.

On Tuesday evening, hundreds of Pro-Palestine protesters gathered on Whitehall opposite Downing Street ahead of Mr Herzogs visit to the UK.

One protester had a sign which read Isaac Herzog genocide defender not welcome here!

Protesters, many of whom were waving Palestine flags, chanted say it loud, say it clear, Isaac is not welcome here and Keir Starmer shame on you, David Lammy shame on you.

Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn said Mr Herzog should be in the Hague rather than on a flight to London.

The former Labour leader said the Government was welcoming Mr Herzog to the UK, adding: He shouldnt be on a flight to London, he should be on a flight to Amsterdam and from there to the Hague.

On Monday night, Sir Keir hosted Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas in Downing Street.

Mr Abbas welcomed Sir Keirs pledge to recognise a Palestinian state ahead of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York later this month if Israel does not change course.

Both leaders agreed there will be absolutely no role for Hamas in the future governance of Palestine, a Downing Street spokesman said.

The UN Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting for Wednesday at the request of elected council members Algeria, Pakistan and Somalia.
The subpoenaed Epstein files: Everything we know about latest release, including 50th birthday book with Trump sketch

A trove of documents from the investigation into late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was released Monday by a congressional committee.

The bombshell document drop included a 238-page book compiled for Epsteins 50th birthday in 2003, with dozens of contributions from the disgraced financiers rich and powerful friends, along with girl-friends. Among the biggest revelations was a sexually suggestive hand-drawn naked woman and cryptic message, allegedly by President Donald Trump. Epsteins last will and testament, and lengthy address book were also released.

The documents were made public by the House Oversight Committee, after it subpoenaed Epsteins estate last month, amid ongoing outcry over the Trump administrations failure to keep a promise made by the president and release all the files related to the case.

Epstein, 66, died by suicide in a New York City jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges involving abuse of girls as young as 14. Epstein was previously charged with soliciting prostitution in Florida in 2006. The charge sparked a federal investigation, but Epstein struck a plea deal that protected him from further charges. In exchange, he pleaded guilty to state charges and registered as a sex offender.

Epsteins former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted in connection with the sex trafficking investigation in 2021. She is serving 20 years after being found guilty on several charges, including sex trafficking of a minor.

The document dump comes as:

The White House denied Monday that Trump drew or put his signature on a 50th birthday letter to Epstein;

The president called the birthday letter a dead issue;

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are collecting signatures on a petition to force a vote calling on the Justice Department to release more Epstein files.

Jeffrey Epstein lounges in a hammock in a picture included in a book gifted to him for his 50th birthday. The House Oversight Committee released the book on Monday night (House Oversight Committee)

Epsteins Birthday Book: Trumps Bawdy Drawing

Epsteins 50th birthday book, from 2003, includes a letter that is allegedly signed by Trump.

The note describes an imagined conversation between Trump and Epstein, framed by a sketched outline of a womans torso and breasts. The text reads like a script, detailing a cryptic, imagined conversation between Donald and Jeffrey. It begins with a Voice Over that says: There must be more to life than having everything.

Happy Birthdayand may every day be another wonderful secret, the letter concludes.

The letter is signed Donald, in the sketched womans pubic area. It appears to have been written in thick black marker with angular letters and a long trail after the last D.

Contemporaneous, authenticated letters from Trump, such as a note he sent to Larry King in 1999, have signatures that appear similar.

The Wall Street Journal first reported on the letter in July, prompting a vehement denial from the president who said he never wrote a picture. Trump filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the paper, its publisher and owner, Rupert Murdoch.

A birthday note for Jeffrey Epsteins 50th birthday in 2003 that appears to have been signed by Donald Trump (House Oversight Committee)

Trump declined to comment on the alleged birthday note, while White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote that the entire Birthday Card story is false (REUTERS)

In a statement on X, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote that this entire Birthday Card story is false.

As I have said all along, its very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it, she wrote. President Trumps legal team will continue to aggressively pursue litigation.

On another page, Trumps name appears in a photo, as the signature - D J TRUMP - on a giant check for $22,500 being held by Epstein and two other men, who are smiling at the camera. A fourth person, whose face has been blacked-out, is also holding onto the check.

The photo is captioned: Jeffrey showing early talents with money + women! Sells fully depreciated [redacted] to Donald Trump for $22,500. Showed early people skills too. Even though I handled the deal I didnt get any of the money on the girl!

Epstein holds a photo of a giant check for $22,500 signed 'D J Trump.' The photo was in a book released as part of a new Epstein files document dump by the House Oversight Committee (House Oversight Committee)

In a section titled Assistants, one note also names Trump alongside several other famous people that the writer claimed to have encountered after meeting Epstein. Others named include Prince Andrew, Naomi Campbell and Michael Jackson.

Trump was friends with Epstein in the Nineties and early 2000s, once calling him a terrific guy. The pair were pictured partying together at glamorous events in Palm Beach and New York. However, they fell out and Trump barred Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago estate in 2007.

Trump has not been accused of any wrongdoing related to the Epstein case.

Epsteins Friends: Clinton, Mandelson and More

The birthday book contains several contributions from high-profile people, listed in the friends section of the contents page. The list includes Trump, former President Bill Clinton, and Peter Mandelson, the British Ambassador to the U.S.

One message signed Bill Clinton, describes Epstein as having childlike curiosity.

The note reads: Its reassuring, isnt it, to have lasted as long, across all the years of learning and knowing, adventures and [illegible word], and also to have your childlike curiosity, the drive to make a difference and the solace of friends.

A note in Jeffrey Epstein's 50th birthday book that appears to have been signed by former President Bill Clinton (House Oversight Committee)

A contribution, attributed to Mandelson, includes a collection of photos, such as shots of a tropical island and a yellow parachute gliding through the air. Mandelson included a photo of himself wrapped in a towel or robe, speaking to Epstein outdoors on a porch.

There is also note for Epstein, which praises him as an intelligent and sharp-witted man.

It concludes: But wherever he is in the world, he remains my best pal! Happy Birthday, Jeffrey. We love you!!

Peter Mandelson (left) with Jeffrey Epstein. Mandelson appears to have called Epstein as his 'best pal' in a birthday note (House Oversight Committee)

Another submission includes a hand-drawn cartoon of Epstein, which is unsigned. The sketch is of a man handing a lollipop and balloons to three girls, with a caption which reads: 1983.

It also includes a man, who resembles Epstein, lounging on a beach and receiving a massage from several women, one of whom has the initials J.E. tattooed on her body. A jet is seen flying in the background. The caption reads: 2003 what a great country!

A cartoon in Jeffrey Epstein's birthday book shows him receiving a massage from women on a beach and giving a lollipop and balloons to girls (House Oversight Committee)

The book also features a poem, signed by Stuey. The table of contents suggests this could be a submission from Stuart Pivar, an art collector and scientist.

Jeffrey at half century, with credentials plenipotentiary, though up to no good whenever he could, has avoided the penitentiary, the poem reads, in part.

Business, Science and Brooklyn

Other sections are titled Family, Brooklyn, Science, and Business. The Family section includes several old photos of Epstein and his relatives, including a portrait that appears to show Epstein and his younger brother Mark as children.

A picture of two young boys who appear to be Jeffrey Epstein and his younger brother, Mark. The picture is signed: 'To simpler days. Happy 50th. Mark' (House Oversight Committee)

The Brooklyn section has photos of Epstein, who was raised in Coney Island, throughout his childhood and as a young man. One photo shows two boys, who may be Epstein and his brother, with an elderly relative. Another shows a young boy holding an accordion and a small guitar. Epstein played the accordion as a child, according to other entries in the birthday book.

This section includes a note titled: Girls On My Boat. The handwritten note reads: We picked up girls on beachwent out on boat. I tell them with knife in my hand to take suits off. Its unclear who wrote it.

A handwritten note titled 'Girls on my Boat' included in the 'Brooklyn' section of Epstein's birthday book (House Oversight Committee)

Another letter, signed by Johnny Boy, and written on a letterhead that reads Johnny Boy Kafka, includes a sexually explicit story about how Epsteins parents conceived him. The letter goes on to recount stories from the writers youth involving Epstein, including a trip to Europe.

The Science section features contributions from at least five people and includes several references to mathematics.

The first entry is a handwritten note signed by Gerry Edelman, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist who died in 2014.

The first sentence reads: On this occasion, I am reminded of our many conversations, fueled by both your curiosity and your skepticism.

Another note features a diagram titled Jeffrey E. accompanied by a caption praising his intellect.

The note references Marvin Minsky, a renowned cognitive and computer scientist, who died in 2016. The notes signature is redacted.

A diagram and note praising Jeffrey Epstein's 'intellect' in the 'Science' section of his birthday book. The note's signature is redacted (House Oversight Committee)

The Business section includes a letter signed Ace Greenberg, who served as CEO of the investment bank Bear Stearns when Epstein worked there in the 1970s. He died in 2014.

Working with Jeffrey has been a pleasure and watching his meteoric success has given me many vicarious thrills, the note reads.

Girlfriends and Girl-friends

The book includes a section titled girlfriends, and another titled girl-friends.

The names and faces of women in both sections are redacted. Attorneys for Epsteins estate redacted the names and photos of women and children who appeared in the book to protect any potential victims identities, according to a letter to the House Oversight Committee, reviewed by The New York Times.

One letter in the girlfriends section is from an unknown person who recalled that Epstein tutored her in high school math, and that they ran into each other years later, after college. The letters signature is redacted.

From lessons in algebra to lessons in life, the lessons l've learned from you during the past 35 years haven't always been easy or even ones that I would have chosen to learn, but they were always important, the letter reads.

A young Jeffrey Epstein poses with a woman whose face has been blocked out to protect her privacy. The picture appears in the girlfriends section of the birthday book (House Oversight Committee)

Other contributions in the girlfriends section included old photos of Epstein, notes about classmates and musical scores.

The girl-friends section is far more explicit. The section includes handwritten notes from women, including one that recounts meeting Epstein in 1985.

I have loved most every minute Ive had knowing you these past years, the note reads.

It also features a collage of photographs, featuring dozens of photos of women whose faces are redacted. Some are pictured with Epstein, while others are seen alone in bathing suits or posing for the camera.

Epstein poses with an unknown person on a private jet. The photo appears in the 'girl-friends' section of the book (House Oversight Committee)

Another note from an unknown individual recounts how she met Epstein through Maxwell.

I received a call from Ghislaine, who I had worked on (massaged) twice in the last few months, to work on her employer, the note reads.

He is a business man and wants you to work on his feet at his desk, she said. My first thought was, Corns and bunions and a curmudgeon of a man.

Ghislaine Maxwell

Maxwell compiled the book, and she wrote both the prologue and final note.

Jeffrey, the idea behind the book was simply to gather stories and old photographs to jog your memory about places and people and different events, the prologue reads.

Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein pose for a photo in 1991. The photo appears in the prologue to Epstein's birthday book (House Oversight Committee)

The note concludes: I know you will enjoy looking through the book, and I hope you will derive as much pleasure looking through it as I did putting it together for you. Happy Happy Birthday. Love, Ghislaine.

The books final pages are titled The Next Fifty Years. The last note, signed by Maxwell, reads: To the next fifty years. Know when you are winning. The next fifty years will be even more wonderful.

Included with the note is a photo of Epstein in a hammock and another image of a placard that says: Know when you are winning.

Epsteins Last Will & Testament

Epsteins last will and testament from 2019 was also released. In the document, Epstein identified himself as a resident of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.

His executors are Darren K. Indyke and Richard D. Kahn. Indyke was Epsteins former personal attorney, while Kahn formerly worked as Epsteins accountant, according to Reuters.

The will was signed on January 18, 2019, two days before Epsteins 66th birthday. Epstein died months later, on August 10.

Non-Prosecution Agreement

Epsteins estate also released his non-prosecution agreement with Florida prosecutors.

It was signed in September 2007 by the financier, Epsteins attorney, Lilly Ann Sanchez, and an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

The agreement required Epstein to plead guilty to two state charges, and specified he could not enter a nolo contendere plea. This plea allows defendants to accept a conviction and subsequent sentence without admitting guilt.

In June 2008, he pleaded guilty to state charges of soliciting prostitution and soliciting prostitution from a minor in Florida. He was sentenced to 18 months in a minimum-security facility and registered as a sex offender.

Address Book and Contacts

Epsteins address book and contact list contains hundreds of names. Certain entries were circled, including several titled Massage alongside locations like Paris and Island. Some names were also circled, including high-profile attorney Alan Dershowitz and retail billionaire Les Wexner.

Trumps late ex-wife, Ivana, appears on the list, as well as their daughter, Ivanka.
Non-profit private museums thrive in NE China's Harbin

Xinhua) 08:25, September 10, 2025

Visitors are seen in front of the Kuanjie Street Museum in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Sept. 3, 2025. Harbin is home to various non-profit private museums with rich collections of cultural relics and historical archive which bear witness to the evolution of a city at the forefront of the East-West cultural exchange. (Xinhua/Wang Song)

Visitors are seen at the Kuanjie Street Museum in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Sept. 3, 2025. Harbin is home to various non-profit private museums with rich collections of cultural relics and historical archive which bear witness to the evolution of a city at the forefront of the East-West cultural exchange. (Xinhua/Wang Song)

A visitor is seen at the Harbin Gallery of City History in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Sept. 3, 2025. Harbin is home to various non-profit private museums with rich collections of cultural relics and historical archive which bear witness to the evolution of a city at the forefront of the East-West cultural exchange. (Xinhua/Wang Song)

Visitors view paintings at a Chinese and Russian oil painting museum on Pingyuan Street in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Sept. 7, 2025. Harbin is home to various non-profit private museums with rich collections of cultural relics and historical archive which bear witness to the evolution of a city at the forefront of the East-West cultural exchange. (Xinhua/Wang Song)

This photo taken on Sept. 3, 2025 shows the Kuanjie Street Museum in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Harbin is home to various non-profit private museums with rich collections of cultural relics and historical archive which bear witness to the evolution of a city at the forefront of the East-West cultural exchange. (Xinhua/Wang Song)

People walk past the Duanjie Street Museum in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Sept. 3, 2025. Harbin is home to various non-profit private museums with rich collections of cultural relics and historical archive which bear witness to the evolution of a city at the forefront of the East-West cultural exchange. (Xinhua/Wang Song)

A visitor takes photos of a painting at a Chinese and Russian oil painting museum on Pingyuan Street in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Sept. 7, 2025. Harbin is home to various non-profit private museums with rich collections of cultural relics and historical archive which bear witness to the evolution of a city at the forefront of the East-West cultural exchange. (Xinhua/Wang Song)

This photo taken on Sept. 3, 2025 shows a directional sign to the Kuanjie Street Museum in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Harbin is home to various non-profit private museums with rich collections of cultural relics and historical archive which bear witness to the evolution of a city at the forefront of the East-West cultural exchange. (Xinhua/Wang Song)

Visitors view paintings at a Chinese and Russian oil painting museum on Pingyuan Street in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Sept. 7, 2025. Harbin is home to various non-profit private museums with rich collections of cultural relics and historical archive which bear witness to the evolution of a city at the forefront of the East-West cultural exchange. (Xinhua/Wang Song)

A visitor is seen at the Kuanjie Street Museum in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Sept. 3, 2025. Harbin is home to various non-profit private museums with rich collections of cultural relics and historical archive which bear witness to the evolution of a city at the forefront of the East-West cultural exchange. (Xinhua/Wang Song)

This photo taken on Sept. 3, 2025 shows the Kuanjie Street Museum in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Harbin is home to various non-profit private museums with rich collections of cultural relics and historical archive which bear witness to the evolution of a city at the forefront of the East-West cultural exchange. (Xinhua/Wang Song)

A visitor walks past a painting at a Chinese and Russian oil painting museum on Pingyuan Street in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Sept. 7, 2025. Harbin is home to various non-profit private museums with rich collections of cultural relics and historical archive which bear witness to the evolution of a city at the forefront of the East-West cultural exchange. (Xinhua/Wang Song)

This photo taken on Sept. 3, 2025 shows the Harbin Gallery of City History in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Harbin is home to various non-profit private museums with rich collections of cultural relics and historical archive which bear witness to the evolution of a city at the forefront of the East-West cultural exchange. (Xinhua/Wang Song)

This photo taken on Sept. 3, 2025 shows the Duanjie Street Museum in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Harbin is home to various non-profit private museums with rich collections of cultural relics and historical archive which bear witness to the evolution of a city at the forefront of the East-West cultural exchange. (Xinhua/Wang Song)

A visitor is seen at the Harbin Gallery of City History in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Sept. 3, 2025. Harbin is home to various non-profit private museums with rich collections of cultural relics and historical archive which bear witness to the evolution of a city at the forefront of the East-West cultural exchange. (Xinhua/Wang Song)

This photo taken on Sept. 7, 2025 shows a Chinese and Russian oil painting museum on Pingyuan Street in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Harbin is home to various non-profit private museums with rich collections of cultural relics and historical archive which bear witness to the evolution of a city at the forefront of the East-West cultural exchange. (Xinhua/Wang Song)

(Web editor: Huang Kechao, Liang Jun)
Thomas Skinner has broken his silence after clashing with the press during a Strictly Come Dancing media day.

The Apprentice alum, 33, made headlines when he allegedly grabbed a journalists phone at Elstree Studios before storming out of a round-table interview.

The incident left former footballer Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, who had arrived with Skinner, continuing interviews alone.

Skinner has now apologised for the incident in a statement on Instagram, and confirmed he will be staying on the show.

Skinner found fame on 2019s The Apprentice (BBC/Boundless)

It marked the first time in the shows 25-year history that a celebrity contestant failed to complete the launch press day.

Organisers were reportedly furious, and BBC bosses were allegedly in talks over whether Skinner will remain on the show.

Earlier today, a source told The Sun Skinner would stay on the programme.

Tom clearly felt stressed and wasnt coping with the press conference, an insider said.

He acted in a very strange manner and grabbed a phone, which isnt like him.

After much discussion about whether he would be able to cope with the pressure of the series, it was decided that Tom was fine to stay on.

The Standard has contacted the BBC and Thomas Skinners representative for comment.

Skinner has since said sorry, and claimed he picked up someone else's phone as he happened to catch a glimpse of the screen and saw numerous messages - not about Strictly - but about a personal story from my past.

During one of the interviews, a journalist placed their phone on the table to record the conversation, Skinner wrote on Instagram.

I happened to catch a glimpse of the screen and saw numerous messages - not about Strictly - but about a personal story from my past.

I've been through some difficult times in my life, which I've worked hard to move on from. In that moment, seeing it there caught me off guard.

I felt it was best to step away and gather myself.

This had nothing to do with the interviews or Strictly itself. I'm sorry I picked up someone else's phone and I don't even know if the journalist realised their messages were visible, and I don't want to suggest any bad intentions on their part.

What I do want to say is how excited I am to be part of Strictly this year.

I'm so grateful for all the love, kindness and support I've been shown so far. It means the world to me, and I can't wait to give it my all on that dancefloor. Bosh.

Skinners casting has already proved divisive. He has been criticised for online posts claiming it is not far-right to fly the Union Jack and describing London as hostile and tense.

Earlier this year, he boasted about attending a barbecue with US Vice President JD Vance, a close ally of Donald Trump, calling it a once in a lifetime moment.

His inclusion in the line-up prompted former Big Brother star Narinder Kaur to complain she was deemed too controversial for the programme.

Skinner was recently pictured with US Vice President JD Vance (X/Thomas Skinner)

The controversy comes at an awkward moment for the BBC, only hours after director-general Tim Davie defended Skinners casting in front of MPs from the Culture, Media and Sport committee, following criticism of the stars outspoken political views.

He shared: That was not my decision, that was the production team looking for those people who want to do Strictly, and those people they thought would be interesting to the audience.

Clearly, we wouldnt take anyone whose views are just beyond the pale, or we would see as completely unacceptable or not suitable, racist views, all those things, we wouldnt accept them.

But thats not the case here, from what I know, Im not an expert on the individual, per se.

Skinner, known for his bosh catchphrase, will appear alongside Love Island winner Dani Dyer-Bowen and CBBC actress Ellie Goldstein  who will make history as the first contestant with Downs syndrome to compete in a full series of Strictly. The new season launches later this month.
Tom Curry has undergone surgery on his right wrist but could be ready to return for Englands Autumn Nations Series.

The Sale flanker, 27, had an operation on a long-term ligament problem after he returned from the British and Irish Lions series victory in Australia.

Curry will be absent for the start of Sales Premiership campaign, which begins against Gloucester on September 25.

However, there is an outside chance he might be fit for Englands fixtures against Australia, Fiji, New Zealand and Argentina in November.

Tom Curry in action for the British and Irish Lions against Australia (David Davies/PA)

His return to play sits him somewhere around the autumn internationals, said Sales director of rugby Alex Sanderson.

You are more likely to see him in an England shirt than you are a Sale shirt. But you never know. He has a habit of defying comeback dates and what surgeons say. Hes on good form, healing well, dead positive.

Curry navigated his way through six matches for the Lions despite his wrist injury. He revealed he got a new cast fitted in Australia following the Lions shock defeat to Argentina in Dublin.

I had the surgery four weeks ago, just repairing a ligament which was gone, said Curry. I had to go back and repair that.

It was alright to manage. I had a local anaesthetic on the Saturday so you actually couldnt feel it (during the match). It was more the Monday to Friday.

We had this cast which we had to change in Sydney, because we realised that I wasnt actually catching many balls. We had this thick one that covered my palm and it was really tough because I had to catch it with my fingertips. I remember playing in the Argentina game and I kept dropping it.

Former England captain Owen Farrell has rejoined Saracens (David Davies/PA)

At Saracens, former England captain Owen Farrell will be available for the start of their campaign.

The 33-year-old, a late call-up to the Lions Tour as an injury replacement for Elliot Daly, has rejoined his boyhood club a year after he left for French side Racing 92.

When asked if Farrell will be available for week one, Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall said: Yes. It has been going great and felt like he (Farrell) has never been away. Lots of new faces for him to get to know, and a lot of younger players who have got into the senior squad during his 18 months away.

On Daly, he continued: Hes not back yet. Hell be a while. He has a few fractures in his arm. He has a scan next week, just to see how its doing. We hope to have him back midway through that first PREM block.
File: A small boat of migrants off the coast of Gravelines, France in August (Getty)

Two children are among three people who have died after an attempted small boat crossing in the English Channel, according to French media reports.

Regional prosecutor Laurent Touvet announced at a news conference on Wednesday that the deadly incident had unfolded off the coast of Sangatte, in Pas-de-Calais, late on Tuesday night into the early hours of this morning.

He said the three who died were likely crushed at the bottom of the boat that had been carrying 38 people across the English Channel.

The boat was brought to shore by rescue services at around 5am local time.

Another three people have been declared missing after a second boat attempted a crossing from Neufchatel-Hardelot, around an hours drive down the coast from Sangatte.

A third boat with 115 people on board was also rescued in the Calais region after getting into difficulty. No injuries were reported in that instance.

The Calais prosecutors office blamed the deaths on the smuggling gangs responsible for organising the deadly crossings.

Smuggler networks bear the responsibility for these tragedies. The state is determined to combat them, the prosecutors office said in a post on X (Twitter).

Another person was pronounced dead on Tuesday after attempting to cross the Channel in a small boat.

A Kent Police spokesperson said the woman was airlifted back to shore around 1pm, where she was pronounced dead.

There is no official record of the number of deaths of people trying to cross the Channel.

But at least 23 people have died attempting to cross the English Channel this year, according to an Agence France-Presse account based on official data.

Last year 50 people died while trying to cross the Channel, according to incidents recorded by the French coastguard, in what is considered the deadliest year since the crisis unfolded.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has also reported several more migrant deaths believed to be linked to crossing attempts in 2024.
Ukraine had earlier warned about the drones, prompting Poland to scramble its own and Nato warplanes, place air defences and radar on high alert, and temporarily close some airports. A Polish defence minister, Cezary Tomczyk, said an operation to neutralise objects that have violated and exceeded the border of the Republic of Poland is under way.

Russian drones have been shot down after entering Nato-member Polands airspace . Polands armed forces operation command said: During todays attack by the Russian Federation carrying out strikes on targets located in the territory of Ukraine, our airspace was repeatedly violated by drone-type objects  We emphasise that the military operation is ongoing, and we urge people to stay at home. The most threatened areas are the Podlaskie, Mazowieckie, and Lubelskie voivodeships [provinces].

Related: Poland shoots down drones over its territory amid Russian attack on Ukraine, says military

It came after the Polish prime minister announced Poland will close its border with Belarus on Thursday as a result of the very aggressive Zapad military exercises being conducted by Belarus and Russia. Donald Tusk said it was also a response to a growing number of provocations from Russia and Belarus. Separately, Polands president, Karol Nawrocki, warned that we do not trust Vladimir Putins good intentions. Nawrocki continued: While waiting, of course, for a long-term peace, permanent peace, which is necessary to our regions, we believe that Vladimir Putin is ready to also invade other countries.

The US Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal challenged Congress and Donald Trump to adopt a bipartisan bill imposing scorching secondary sanctions on countries buying Russian oil like China, India and Brazil. The long-proposed bill is co-sponsored by Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator. I believe the president should be supportive, Blumenthal told NPR on Tuesday. The time has come for action. The presidents been mocked and played by Putin, and I think the president ought to be furious that Putin has stalled and stonewalled in this way. And about this bill, there are 85 co-sponsors, evenly divided  Democrat and Republican  which I think shows the level of support in the Congress for these kinds of sanctions.

Trump said on Sunday he was ready to impose further sanctions targeting Russia, but appears now to be stipulating that the EU must do so at the same time. The EU has already enacted 18 rounds of sanctions and is preparing a 19th round, which it has said should include more secondary sanctions targeting countries helping Moscow. A US official told Agence France-Presse that on Tuesday Trump raised with European representatives the possibility of tariffs of between 50% and 100% on Russian oil customers.

Officials also discussed the issue of immobilised Russian government money as the EU sanctions envoy, David OSullivan, led a delegation to Washington. Trump dialled in for discussions on Tuesday alongside Ukraines prime minister, a US official said. Also involved in talks were Trumps treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and officials from the US trade representatives office and state department.

A Russian strike killed 24 elderly people collecting their pensions on Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said. A brutally savage Russian airstrike with an aerial bomb on the rural settlement of Yarova in the Donetsk region, said the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Directly on people. Ordinary civilians. At the very moment when pensions were being disbursed. Prosecutors announced a war crime investigation. The Ukrainian military said the Russians had dropped a glide bomb  a heavy bomb fitted with wings so it can fly rather than falling straight down. There was no immediate comment from Moscow or the Kremlin.

Ukraines air defences were responding to a Russian drone attack on Kyiv early on Wednesday, the military administration of the Ukrainian capital posted online.
Grossi (left) and the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi (right) shaking hands after the three-hour meeting in Cairo. Photograph: Sayed Hassan/Getty Images

Tehran and the UN nuclear inspectorate have reached an agreement that will allow UN inspectors to return to inspect all of Irans nuclear sites, including those bombed by Israel and the US in June.

The breakthrough, confirmed by Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, came during a three-hour meeting on Monday between Grossi and the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, in Cairo.

Agreement on the return of the UN inspectors is one of the conditions set by European leaders for them to defer a plan to reimpose sweeping UN sanctions on Iran at the end of this month.

But the details of the Cairo agreement will be the subject of further talks, and Iran suggested no date had been set for the inspectors return. Araghchi also said it was dependent on there being no hostile action against Iran, including the reimposition of UN sanctions.

Kaja Kallas, the EUs foreign policy chief, highlighted this lack of a timetable, saying the deal could be a decisive step for nuclear diplomacy if implemented quickly by Iran.

Grossi described the agreement as an important step in the right direction, but said its full contents would not be published. Inside Iran, some legislators were demanding access to it, but parliament is in recess for three weeks and their demands for details face practical hurdles.

Araghchi said: In the text of the agreement with the agency, the parliaments law has been explicitly accepted, and it has been stated that we must act within the framework of law. This means that everything must be approved by the supreme national security council. Araghchi said the approval of the council had been sought and secured.

Grossi underlined how difficult it had been to reach an agreement since the Iranian parliament had passed a law banning the return of the inspectors without guarantees for the future safety of Irans nuclear sites from further US or Israeli attacks, an assurance that is not in the UN inspectorates full gift.

He described the return of the inspectors as neither a simple nor automatic process. In essence, he said, this technical document with Iran gave access to all facilities and installations in Iran, and it also contemplates the required reporting on all the attacked facilities, including the nuclear material, a reference to Irans 440kg stockpile of 60% highly enriched uranium. The agreement was fully in line with the comprehensive safeguards agreement, he said.

He added that he had been encouraged by Irans statements that it was not seeking to leave the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, a step that would have removed the remaining obligations on Iran to allow inspectors to visit its nuclear sites.

The UN diplomat admitted the agreement had yet to be implemented and there might be difficulties in the process. But he hoped the deal would be taken as a sign that agreement is possible and nothing replaces dialogue.

One of Irans concerns is that the IAEA, an agency distrusted by Iranian conservatives, would feed the information it garnered to Israel or the US on the state of its nuclear plans and this would be used to refine further military assaults on Irans nuclear sites. There has been no definitive independent assessment of how badly Irans civil nuclear programme had been damaged by the strikes. The US and some in Europe believe Iran had been plotting to build a nuclear bomb.
Kate Dearden was appointed as the junior minister for employment rights as part of Sir Keirs reshuffle - Roger Harris

The new minister driving through Angela Rayners workers rights laws is a career trade union official who took donations from her former bosses to pay for her Christmas cards.

Kate Dearden, 31, was appointed as the junior minister for employment rights on Sunday as part of Sir Keir Starmers ministerial reshuffle.

Her responsibilities will include Ms Rayners Employment Rights Bill, which has received praise from trade unions but is opposed by business groups.

The legislation will make it easier for workers to strike and harder for bosses to fire new staff, in moves the Tories have argued are concessions to the unions.

Ms Dearden, who was first elected last year, worked at Community, a general union, for seven years between leaving university and July last year.

She was responsible for making the unions case on employment law and working conditions to Conservative ministers.

She will now be lobbied by her former colleagues, as the unions try to prevent the Government from watering down its plans after Ms Rayners resignation.

On Monday, Sir Keir told MPs the plans would continue with the same substance and timetable as before.

However, ministers are under intense pressure from industry groups, including the Confederation of British Industry and British Chambers of Commerce, to water down the legislation to prevent a cash crisis for businesses.

Filings to the MPs register of interests show Ms Dearden has also taken donations from her former employers since becoming a politician  including 4,000 for her election fund and 1,206 for accommodation at least years Labour Party conference.

Community also paid her 800 to sponsor her Christmas cards, the documents show.

The Conservatives said her appointment showed there had been no reset with Sir Keirs reshuffle and called again for the legislation to be scrapped.

Andrew Griffith, the shadow business secretary, said: This is shaping up to be another fake reset. Business needs actual change from Labour, not just another career-long trade unionist with zero business experience driving through an unchanged unemployment bill.

This is a brazen bait-and-switch. What started as a supposed pro-business reset is quickly turning into phase two of an anti-business nightmare.

A government spokesman said: We are a pro-worker and pro-business Government, and that is why we are delivering the biggest single upgrade of workers rights in a generation  because we know a more secure workforce is good for productivity and growth.

We have collaborated directly with over 230 stakeholders, listening carefully to feedback from businesses and trade unions to ensure that the legislation works for workers and employers alike, and will continue to do so as the bill progresses through Parliament.
Tube trains

The Tube strikes reducing Sadiqs London to walking pace this week are in many ways atypical. Here is an old-fashioned union representing workers whose roles cannot be performed from the kitchen table or the sofa whilst watching daytime television, and which has been around under various titles for 150 years, shutting down a system almost as old. RMT members are largely working class, though in many cases earn as much or more than private sector white collar workers  and with far more generous pensions.

This industrial action lays bare a widening divide in Britains labour market, between staff who can work from home and those now desperately wondering where exactly the Lioness Line or the Suffragette Line or the 27 bus run. As during the pandemic, its the latter who are stranded when a minority earning well over the national average salary for a four-day week decides they want more for less.

But it begs a broader question: who do Britains trade unions now represent? Romantic Leftists may associate them with coalminers and steelworkers, but a union member is more likely today to be a well-paid, credentialed, white-collar public sector employee. Theyre also more likely to be female, and more likely to have a degree or equivalent than non-union members. There are exceptions  RMT and its partner in crime Aslef  but the strikes inflicted on the country when the Tories were in power included ones by barristers, teachers, university lecturers and (naturally) civil servants.

Indeed, unions have enjoyed something of a revival recently, in profile if not in membership numbers. The wave of strikes seen since lockdown have handed them a renewed sense of purpose. Workers are now protected by minimum wages, unfair dismissal laws, and a proliferation of elf and safety rules.

Yet for all these supposed victories, the influence of unions is still on the wane. Labour may be doing its best to reverse this, but the decline is not unique to Britain; on the contrary it is apparent in most OECD countries, many of which already have laws far more favourable to unions. Why? Partly its the collapse of manufacturing and extractive industries  now hastened here by Ed Milibands net zero zealotry. Partly its the fragmentation of work.

But unions themselves should shoulder much of the blame. In a bid to remain relevant they have pushed for ever-greater state intervention in the labour market: higher minimum wages (the TUC is now lobbying for the rate to be raised to 15 an hour). More employment protections. And by agitating for these changes, they have undermined the need for their existence. Unite the Union, for instance, has lost more than 700,000 members since it was formed.

Were arriving at a point where the state has become the de facto union for much of the workforce. A lot of their work is now being done by over-reaching MPs and the armies of HR staff firms must hire to adhere to their legislation. Employment tribunals tackle individual grievances; thanks to them workers can rest easy in the knowledge online shopping at work is not grounds for dismissal.

Around the time membership began to tumble, unions started to abandon their traditional base, increasingly becoming the mouthpiece not of ordinary workers but of the liberal classes, yattering on about Gaza, trans workers and other metropolitan obsessions. They sniffed when members expressed concern over the downward pressure on wages of mass migration, lauding the cultural enrichment and increased GDP it promised. Now, the climate change agenda is throwing up similar tensions, given how many workers will be impacted by the winding down of our oil and gas sectors.

If this sounds familiar, its because its reflective of the wider antipathy that the modern Left now feels towards the groups they once purported to represent. Labour have haemorrhaged support in the Red Wall, alienating the working class. And thats before you get to the fact that the policies they advance will have a detrimental effect on employment. Hike up the cost of hiring, and businesses wont create jobs. Just ask the French, with their unemployment rate 3 percentage points higher than our own.

The unions have picked a side: what began as a movement to empower workers now serves often to inconvenience them. Its hard to see how they  not to mention the Labour Party  can ever recover their former strengths.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan praised the work of the Met Police and Londons Violence Reduction Unit (James Manning/PA Wire)

Violent crime in London has dropped by 13%a fall of nearly 10,000 attacks a yearas the capital records its lowest homicide rate in five years.

New figures from the Mayors Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) have revealed sharp drops across serious offences, including 9,774 fewer violence with injury offences, 30 fewer homicides, 115 fewer gun crime incidents, and notable drops in both residential and business burglaries.

Londons murder rate is now lower than any US stateincluding New Yorkand sits below that of major European capitals such as Paris, Berlin and Madrid. This is reflected in the Met Commissioners latest report to the London Policing Board.

Despite there being tens of thousands of fewer victims, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan acknowledged that one death and one crime will always be too many.

He praised the work of the Met Police and Londons Violence Reduction Unit, and said City Hall is determined to build on this trajectory of progress through increased investment in policing and targeted action to keep Londoners safe.

New figures from the Mayors Office for Policing and Crime (MOPC) have revealed sharp drops across serious offences, including 9,774 fewer violence with injury offences, 30 fewer homicides, 115 fewer gun crime incidents

Analysis by MOPAC found knife crime in London has fallen by 14% in the last year, while residential burglary has fallen by 10% and theft from a person has fallen by 13%.

In 2024, London had 1.2 homicides per 100,000 residents  lower than New York at 4.0 and Toronto at 1.7.

Homicides in London are also lower compared to most north European cities such as Berlin (3.4), Brussels (3.2), Paris (1.4), and Copenhagen (1.5).

Sadiq Khan said: "There have been nearly ten thousand fewer offences of violence with injury over the past 12 months compared to the same period nearly a decade ago when I first became mayor.

Violence, homicides and burglary have all fallen substantially and thanks to the dedicated efforts of the police and Londons Violence Reduction Unit, you are significantly less likely to be a victim of assault, GBH or any other form of violence in London than across the rest of England and Wales. This means there are tens of thousands of fewer victims as a result.

Homicides in London are also lower compared to most north European cities such as Berlin (3.4), Brussels (3.2), Paris (1.4), and Copenhagen (1.5). Police at the scene on Titmuss Avenue, Thamesmead (PA)

Last year, London recorded the lowest number of homicides of under-25s for more than two decades, and overall homicides in the capital are at a five-year low, with Londons rate lower than every US State, including New York, as well as other major international cities such as Paris, Brussels, Berlin, and Madrid.

But one death and one crime will always be one too many. Thats why, working with partners and the Government, we are determined to build on this trajectory of progress through record investment from City Hall in the police - boosting high visibility policing and targeted action against the worst offenders.

Alongside enforcement, we are also focused on tackling the complex causes of crime, with ongoing prevention and intervention work in our communities for young Londoners when they need it most.

There is clearly much more to do, which is why we are also enhancing our collective efforts to tackle robbery, thefts and knife crime  all of which have fallen for the first quarter of the year. Working together, Im determined to do more and continue to deliver a safer London for everyone.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Matt Ward, from the Metropolitan Police Service, said: The Met is working to make London safer. Were reducing serious violence, targeting dangerous offenders and protecting more of the public from harm.

Homicide is down by a quarter, knife crime has been reduced by 14%, and weve taken thousands of weapons from our streets  all because were focusing on the issues that matter most to local people.

Well never stop the fight against senseless violence, and we know there is always more to do, but we are proud of the thousands of dedicated men and women who work every day with partners and communities to make our city safer.
Panic has gripped people in a southern Indian state after five people died of a rare infection caused by a brain-eating amoeba in less than a month.

A 56-year-old woman from Kerala's Malappuram district was the latest person to die of amoebic meningoencephalitis in the state, prompting health authorities to take effective measures.

The woman, identified as Shobhana, was diagnosed with the rare infection on 6 September and was undergoing treatment at the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital. The patient died on Monday, just two days after another person died of the disease.

A three-month-old child, a nine-year-old girl, and a 52-year-old woman were the three other patients who died of the infection while receiving treatment at a health facility in Kozihkode since mid-August. At least 11 other patients, including children, are under observation at the government hospital in Kozhikode.

Primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) is caused by Naegleria fowleri, a free-living organism commonly known as the brain-eating amoeba, which is found in warm freshwater such as lakes, ponds, rivers, along with contaminated soil.

It enters the body through the nasal cavity and destroys brain tissue. Symptoms appear within days and lead quickly to seizures, coma and death. Although uncommon, the condition carries a high mortality risk, according to reports.

The initial symptoms of the disease are severe headache, fever, nausea and vomiting, which quickly escalate to stiff neck, sensitivity to light, loss of balance, seizures and eventually coma and death.

Globally, amoebic meningoencephalitis shows a fatality rate of almost 97 per cent. India reported its first case in 1971, but infections remained rare until Kerala witnessed a sharp rise in recent years. The coastal state recorded only eight cases from 2016 to 2022, but confirmed 36 infections and nine deaths in 2023.

Kerala reported its first death of PAM infection in 2024 in a five-year-old girl.

Every known case in India until last year had been fatal. In July 2024, a 14-year-old boy from Kozhikode became the first patient in the South Asian country to survive the infection, joining just 10 other known survivors worldwide.

Keralas government has introduced special treatment protocols and operating procedures for suspected cases. Authorities in some parts of the state banned locals from venturing into ponds and lakes.

Kerala health minister Veena George said the administration was in control of the situation and steps were being undertaken to identify patients suffering from the infection early on and begin treatment. The usual mortality rate among Amoebic Meningoencephalitis patients in developed nations is above 95 per cent. But our rate is much lower, she told India Today.

TS Anish, nodal officer at the Kerala One Health Centre for Nipah Research and Resilience in Kozhikode, says climate change is a major factor behind the recent rise in amoebic encephalitis cases in Kerala.

"Because of the rise in atmospheric temperature, microorganisms such as amoeba Naegleria fowleri that thrive in high-temperature environments have got a prominence in the environment in the past decade or so," he told The Hindu.

"Species such as Naegleria fowleri mainly feed on bacteria and algae. The contamination caused by coliform bacteria, commonly found in faecal matter, is high in our water sources such as wells, ponds, and rivers," he added.
The police watchdog has launched an investigation after a man died in custody after being tasered by officers.

On Wednesday, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said it had launched the probe after the 23-year-old died in hospital while in police custody in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire.

The man, who is not being named by the IOPC out of respect for his familys wishes, called police in the early hours of August 22 threatening to harm himself and others, according to the watchdog.

After arriving at the scene, police found the man harming himself before two officers discharged their tasers once and were able to restrain him, the IOPC said.

The man had taken drugs prior to his arrest by Thames Valley Police officers and later suffered seizures, the watchdog added.

He was taken by ambulance to hospital where officers remained with him and used leg restraints after he became agitated and made threats to them.

Throughout the day, the 23-year-olds condition deteriorated and, despite medical treatment, he died that afternoon in hospital, the IOPC said.

According to the watchdog, a post-mortem examination was held on Friday August 29 but the preliminary cause of death has not been established.

The IOPC said it is awaiting the results of further tests.

An inquest into the death was opened and adjourned until February 10 next year.

IOPC director Derrick Campbell said: Our thoughts are with the mans family and friends, and all those affected by his death.

We have spoken with his family to explain our role and have advised them of the next steps.

Its important that an independent investigation is carried out to fully establish the circumstances when someone has died while in the custody of police and we will ensure the mans family are kept informed as our investigation progresses.

The watchdog said its investigators are reviewing body-worn footage from police along with statements from the officers, who are all currently being treated as witnesses.
Russian drones have battered neighbouring regions

Russia has carried out its first direct act of military aggression against Nato. On Wednesday morning, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that a huge number of Russian drones violated Polands airspace overnight. One of those drones was found in Czosnowska, a village in eastern Poland that is located 40km from Belarus.

Due to joint aerial coordination between Poland and its Nato allies, the threat posed by Russian drones was swiftly defused. Warsaws Chopin International Airport has reopened, and flights are expected to resume today. Nonetheless, a state of unease permeates in Poland and across Natos eastern flank. In anticipation of further Russian attacks, Polands Territorial Defence Force has shortened its reporting time for soldiers in eastern Polish provinces to six hours.

This state of alarm is justified. While western Ukraine was largely spared from the worst atrocities of the Russian invasion, Russias efforts to stretch the frontlines have dragged it into the fighting. Ukraines fifth-largest city Lviv, which is located only 64km from the Polish border, has witnessed regular Russian drone bombardments. Poland was forced to precautionarily scramble its jets numerous times and now it had to take these actions against a real threat.

The rhetoric emanating from Russias tightly controlled media space and ultranationalist ideologues suggests that further aggression towards Poland should be expected. In February 2024, Rossiya-1 anchor Vladimir Solovyov chillingly warned that Russia would show no hesitation in wiping out Polish cities in an instant. Council of Foreign and Defence Policy chief Sergey Karaganovs apocalyptic calls for Russian nuclear escalation have had Poland in their crosshairs.

In terms of Russias long-term objectives, we are currently at a fork in the road. The most likely scenario is that President Vladimir Putin is using this escalation to scare European countries out of crippling secondary sanctions and post-war peacekeeper commitments. This aligns with Russias past use of nuclear threats, brinkmanship around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and the Oreshnik missile to deter further support for Ukraine.

Yet the possibility remains that Russia is the boundaries of Natos Article 5 guarantees. Led by Karaganov, hardliners around Putin often argue that Article 5 is not worth the paper it is written on. President Donald Trumps past dismissal of the need to protect smaller Nato members like Montenegro and conditional approach to security assistance fuelled these arguments.

As Russia is already using GPS jamming, undersea cable cutoffs and destabilizing cyberattacks against the Baltic States, it could be trying to ascertain Natos potential response to a new war of aggression on the eastern flank.

If this is the case, Trump is sending Russia precisely the wrong signals. The impending drawdown of the Pentagons Section 333 program could deprive the Baltic States of hundreds of millions of dollars in security assistance from late 2026 onwards. In response to this news, RT chief Margarita Simonyan gleefully quipped We sleep easier, as Estonias army size collapses from 11 to 8. Putin has a long history of severely underestimating Western resolve and overestimating Russias offensive capabilities. Further actions that encourage this line of thinking risk a repeat of the Ukraine invasion on Nato territory.

In response to the Russian drone strikes, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that the pause in sanctions has gone on far too long and that a strong response is needed from Ukraines allies. Zelensky is absolutely right and Trumps end-of-ultimatum sanctions against Russia cannot arrive sooner.
The United Reform Church discovered financial irregularities in Naison Hoves expenses - Central News/LinkedIn

A priest who fraudulently claimed 23,000 in allowances has avoided jail after a court heard he was ashamed he couldnt provide for his wife.

Naison Hove, 59, made 13 false claims from the United Reform Church over 12 years, despite his household income significantly exceeding the churchs threshold.

He also made several other fraudulent claims for costs concerning his childrens school uniforms.

Hove, born in Zimbabwe, was ordained in 2001 and ministered to several congregations in London and Sussex until his suspension in 2022.

He was formally removed from his role in August following the churchs discovery of 23,044 in financial irregularities.

Hove admitted two counts of fraud by abuse of position at Wood Green Crown Court and was handed a two-year suspended sentence.

Prosecutor Rebecca Dix said Hoves offending deliberately targeted a weakness in the processes of the church.

Michael Williams, defending, told the court: Hes ashamed of being a man and not providing enough support his wife, they had separate incomes  he felt that he wasnt living up to his societal expectations in that position given his income.

Highlighting his clients genuine remorse and lack of convictions, he said: Throughout his time in the ministry in this country he has been an effective church leader and has diligently served  other than this fraud  the communities he has been asked to represent.

The judge, Jenni Dempster KC, accepted entirely that Hove was man of previous good character.

She added: It is clear from everything Ive read you have worked very hard, often in challenging situations, to get where you got to in life, doing good work internationally in Zimbabwe and here in the UK.

I am in no doubt at all Mr Hove you were very good at the job you did and that you helped many people.

Hove was ordered to pay back the full outstanding amount of 21,544 at a rate of 250 per month, and to complete 200 hours of unpaid work.
Queenie Hall visited her late fiances grave in Germany on Sunday - Dean Euesden/Kaz Donald/Robbie Hall

A 102-year-old Second World War veteran has visited her fiances grave for the first time, 81 years after his death

Queenie Hall was 21 and engaged to Flight Sergeant Frank Vincent, of the Royal Air Force, when he and his Lancaster Bomber crew mates were killed on Aug 25 1944.

Ms Hall, a Womens Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) veteran, had never visited the grave because she had never known where her fiance was buried.

Until she visited the Rheinberg War Cemetery in Germany on Sunday, she did not know she was mentioned on his tombstone.

The tombstone in the cemetery, where 3,300 Second World War veterans are interred, reads: To our darling Frank. Treasured memories. Mum, Dad, sister and Queenie.

The 102-year-old veteran at Rheinberg War Cemetery, where there are 3,300 war graves - Dean Euesden/Kaz Donald/Robbie Hall

Ms Hall was in Holland for the 78th annual march in remembrance of the Battle of Arnhem when she was told by charity researchers that Vincent was interred in a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in neighbouring Germany.

Dean Euesden, a taxi driver, offered to take her there on behalf of the Taxi Charity.

Ms Hall left a poppy remembrance cross at the headstone with a message that read: To my darling Frank. Loved forever. Never forgotten. Queenie XX.

Flight Sergeant Frank Vincents tombstone mentions Queenie Hall - Dean Euesden/Kaz Donald/Robbie Hall

Ms Hall told The Telegraph: You never forget your first love. It was quite emotional. When I got there and saw the inscription, I suddenly dissolved into tears.

I thought I would be alright, but it had been so long and I had never seen it. He was a very nice young man and a very caring young man.

Ms Hall, known as Robbie, said the pair began dating as 15-year-olds, but split before reuniting at the age of 17. She said: We got together again at 17 and got engaged at 18, by the time we were both in the Air Force.

We said we would wait until we were 21 before we got married, well we were 21 and that was when he was killed. He was on his 23rd mission.

We planned on getting married at the end of September or in October. Of course it didnt work out like that.

Ms Hall left a wooden poppy underneath the tombstone in memory of her darling Frank - Dean Euesden/Kaz Donald/Robbie Hall

Vincent was killed alongside six Air Force crew members when their Lancaster Bomber exploded during a nighttime raid that aimed to destroy the OPEL Automotive gearbox assembly plant in Russelsheim. The plane fell from the sky 78 miles from the intended target.

Ms Hall said she heard about Vincents death via signal and was told she could take the afternoon off. She said: I was totally stunned. He was lovely natured, very gentle, he always thought of other people.

Ms Hall, who was living four miles from Vincents parents in Felixstowe, begged her superiors to allow her to be billeted with them and they agreed.

Ms Hall joined the WAAF at 17 after lying about her age, and was one of the plotters with Bomber Command who planned to blitz Nazi Germany into submission, by reducing the Third Reichs industrial heartland to rubble.

Queenie Hall as a WAAF member at 17 - Dean Euesden/Kaz Donald/Robbie Hall

The veteran, who would go on to enjoy a 62-and-a-half-year marriage, remembered a walk one night with Frank where he spoke of his war-time experiences.

She said: He held his left arm aloft and waggled his thumb in the air and said: You see that thumb? That has killed women and children. He got awfully upset about it. That was his idea of the war.

Ms Hall said that the Victory in Europe Day on May 8, 1945 was a day of mixed emotions owing to her fiances death. She said: It was quite an emotional summer.
The driving team for the AMG GT XX comprised of 17 professionals working in three shifts, including Formula 1 driver George Russell - Mercedes-Benz Group AG

The 7.8-mile circular test track at Nardo, in the heel of southern Italy, has hosted a litany of motoring feats  not least a couple of weeks ago, when two Mercedes-AMG experimental coupes completed a near-non-stop 250,000-mile run (pausing only to charge) at an average of 186mph.

That distance, greater than the circumference of the globe, inspired the record attempts title: Around the World in Eight Days.

During the first 24 hours alone, the team also set a new EV world distance record of 3,405.22 miles.

Built by Fiat and opened in 1979, Nardo is now owned by Porsche, though manufacturers from around the world use this extraordinary facility. Which is how I found myself in one of the Mercedes-AMG GT XX cars on its steeply banked circuit, trying to grasp the scale of the achievement. At 250km/h (155mph), the coupe feels as steady as if it were fixed to the outermost lane, the concrete ribbon unspooling ahead while, beyond the blurred crash barrier, the Mediterranean shimmers into view.

Nardos 7.8-mile circular test track in southern Italy

23 sets of tyres and 6,002 cups of coffee

The driving team comprised 17 professionals working in three shifts, including Mercedes Formula 1 driver George Russell.

These high-tech battery cars, capable of superfast charging at 850kW (compared with todays ultra-fast chargers, which typically deliver 100 to 150kW), each went through 23 sets of tyres over the eight days. In that time, 6,002 cups of coffee were consumed and 64,000 radio transmissions recorded.

This wasnt Mercedess first record attempt in southern Italy. In May 1979, the experimental C111 IV scorched around Nardo in 1min 57sec, setting a new speed record of 251.020mph. In August 1983, three 190E 2.3-16 saloons set a string of endurance records, covering up to 31,069 miles at an average of 154.06mph.

Seventeen drivers, 23 sets of tyres and 6,002 cups of coffee kept the AMG GT XX circling Nardos high-speed circuit for eight days - Mercedes-Benz Group AG

Even at its peak, however, the internal combustion engine struggled with the relentless challenge of repeated laps at Nardo. A hotel in the nearby town still displays a wall of broken and melted engine parts and transmissions, all signed by weary engineers  a lasting reminder of the circuits punishing mix of speed and endurance.

For this latest record-breaking attempt, preparations were meticulous, stretching over a year. The team even laid a new high-current cable from an electrical substation 1.55 miles away to power the superfast DC chargers.

Several real and virtual tests were carried out on site and in Germany, supported by a 135-strong engineering crew at Nardo, three more at the F1 teams base in Brixworth, UK, and 33 at a remote nerve centre at AMG headquarters in Affalterbach, Germany.

GT XX: Under the skin

Two months ago, the 1,341bhp, 114kWh three-motor Mercedes-AMG GT XX was unveiled with fireworks and fanfare at Affalterbach, before an invited audience of influencers. The spec sheet may still have gaps, but make no mistake: the GT XX is the forerunner to next years battery-electric GT model  AMGs answer to the Porsche Taycan, though Mercedes insists it will be superior.

Its styling nods to the Maserati GranTurismo, particularly around the grille, yet beneath the four-door body this is as advanced as EV technology currently gets.

The 1,341bhp Mercedes-AMG GT XX has styling nods to the Maserati GranTurismo - Mercedes-Benz Group AG

Under the sleek four-door body, the GT XX packs three axial-flux motors fed by liquid-cooled cylindrical batteries - Mercedes-Benz Group AG

Axial flux motors  two at the rear, one at the front  draw power from liquid-cooled cylindrical batteries, resembling oversized AA cells dropped into the frame. They are governed by a new Mercedes-AMG operating system and mounted on a fresh chassis platform.

In 2021, Mercedes-Benz acquired British company Yasa for its lightweight, highly efficient axial-flux technology, and has since been developing large-scale production at a facility in Berlin. These radial pancake motors are ingenious but costly and complex to build. Cooling is critical, as is precision assembly, since even slight misalignments can cause eddy currents when magnetic plates spin in close proximity.

A sleek, driver-focused interior houses the GT XXs digital dashboard and controls for its three axial-flux motors - Mercedes-Benz Group AG

Limited mass production would help reduce costs, and Oliver Wiech, chief EV engineer at AMGs EA division, says the motors will ultimately be offered to Aston Martin, which already relies on Mercedes drivetrains.

The cylindrical batteries form a robust, easily cooled pack in the cars floor. The cathode chemistry uses a high-nickel blend of nickel, manganese, cobalt and aluminium. Mercedes wont reveal its cell supplier, but claims the mix remains stable under fast charging. The promised 850kW charging speed may sound like a unicorn for now, but dont be surprised if such infrastructure first appears at the Mercedes-owned charging stations being rolled out across Europe  or at AMG dealerships.

Records tumble

Outlandish records and numbers are the juice of the EV business at the moment and as we arrived in Brindisi en route to Nardo, an email pinged announcing a new global top speed record of 293.35mph for the four-motor, 2,958bhp Yangwang U9 supercar in Track Edition trim.

Mercedes-AMG blends extreme EV performance with driver-focused tech, ensuring speed never outpaces control - Mercedes-Benz Group AG

Its certainly headline-grabbing, but what does it, or this new Mercedes-AMG record, actually signify? After all, the kind of light-switch acceleration of even the most humble electric family cars is no longer remarkable, but there is a distinct lack of handling and control feedback to accompany the outlandish performance of the latest electric supercars.

We should never let the drivetrain get ahead of the driver, says Wiech, who is keen on using the kind of driver feedback seen on high-performance EVs such as Hyundais Ioniq 5N, which has engine noises, a drift mode, a synthetic gearbox and gearchange paddles to appeal to the sporting driver. The production AMG GT will have a synthetic V8 sound.

The inside view

As I climb into the fly-splattered, record-breaking AMG GT XX, I recall previous drives at Nardo: the endless laps, the monotony, the discipline needed to hold focus. There are no corners to anticipate or savour here  just a metronomic slog.

My AMG driver shoots out of the under-track pits and reaches 155mph (250km/h) with barely any drama. Thanks to the extraordinary aerodynamics (its drag coefficient is just 0.19), theres remarkably little sensation of speed.

Andrew prepares to run the AMG GT XX at 155mph on Nardos relentless high-speed track

Night-time laps brought their own challenges. Foxes and small animals often strayed onto the track, forcing Mercedes to deploy a safety car ahead to shoo them away. But there were none of the unsettling crosswinds off the sea that in lesser machines would demand constant steering corrections. The neutral, hands-off steering speed on the outer banked track is about 150mph, yet the GT XX feels composed well beyond that.

Such is the cars slipperiness that holding 155mph uses only 7.5 per cent of its available power. Even when lifting off at 186mph to pit for a recharge, the energy recuperation system would add 1.5 per cent back into the battery.

Andrews final laps at Nardo tested precision and focus, from avoiding animals to managing the GT XXs aerodynamic radiator shutters

Round we go: hot (air-conditioning was omitted, for obvious energy reasons) and eerily quiet, as the beige concrete blurs beneath the nose.

On my final lap, as the GT XX slowed, my driver demonstrated the radiator shutter blinds: fully closed for maximum aerodynamic efficiency, fully open for optimum cooling but at the cost of drag. Adjusting them gave drivers something to focus on  but it had to be done with precision. Missing an on-screen prompt could prove costly; even a one-degree difference at pit stop temperatures altered charging energy flow by 10kWh. And the drag penalty between shutters open and closed amounted to a significant 30kW of the energy required to push the car through the air.

The Telegraph verdict

All too soon the car coasts into the pits and the umbilical charger cable is attached.

Many congratulations to the team, but one is moved to ask what such record-breaking means for the average Mercedes buyer? Or for the car-buying public at large.

Mercedes-AMGs engineers celebrate at the end of the 250,000-mile run - Mercedes-Benz Group AG

Apart from filling the trophy cabinet at Affalterbach, the engineers are after data. Yes, McLaren has used an axial flux motor in the gearbox of the Artura hybrid for a few years, but this is different; rather than being part of petrol/electric system, these motors are primary drivers, mounted in pairs. They will also be produced in far greater numbers. Mercedes is hungry for knowledge of how the motor and battery behave when stressed and thats exactly what it has gained; vast amounts of data, also on the cars software and how it behaves.

In that respect this feels like the dawn of motoring more than 100 years ago, when speed and endurance record-breaking allowed manufacturers to improve their cars as rapidly as the market demanded.

Such records might soon be overtaken and even forgotten, but the lessons will last forever.
Oslo  Three 1,200-year-old Viking ships that have stood the test of time are embarking on their final and possibly riskiest journey to their new forever home in Norway. The first to make the move is the Oseberg, which will slowly inch its way from its current location in the old Viking Ship Museum to a newly built addition that will house the national treasures in optimal conditions.

The extremely fragile oak hull, encased in a heavy protective steel rig, began making the roughly hundred-yard journey on Tuesday. It was expected to take over 10 hours, with the ship lifted by a crane and moved along a track on the ceiling.



"There is something deeply moving when you think that these ships  with their long history and all the voyages they have undertaken  will embark on their final journey," museum director Aud Tonnessen said.



In a post on its Facebook page Wednesday, the museum said the team moving the vessels "actually got a head start yesterday and covered the first 20 meters. It went perfectly according to plan."

The museum shared a time-lapse video of the hulking Oseberg slowly moving, suspended in the air on an overhead rail system and encased in its sturdy steel frame for the journey.

Named after the places where they were discovered, the Oseberg, Gokstad and Tune  all believed to have been built between 840 and 910  have been housed in a cross-shaped building considered too small and unsuitable to conserve them properly.



"They've been subjected to humidity, vibrations... Over time, the strain became so intense that they started showing signs that they would eventually collapse onto their supports," Tonnessen said.



A decision was therefore taken to move them to a new climate-controlled facility, built as an extension to the old museum, which should make it possible to maintain the ships in their current condition for at least another century.



The relocation process is perilous.



"We have to complete this operation without causing any further damage to the ships, but we know that each handling is harmful to them," said curator David Hauer, who has been planning the project for years.

The Oseberg viking ship, which is in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, Norway, is seen prepared for relocation to the new Viking Age Museum, Sept. 1, 2025. / Credit: FREDRIK VARFJELL/NTB/AFP/Getty

"These are clinker hulls (featuring partially overlapping planks) that are 1,200 years old. At the slightest deformation, they split between the rivets, the wood cracks," Hauer explained.

Endless precautions have been taken to prevent any breakage or vibrations during the relocation. The ship will be moved extremely slowly, at a pace of 5.5 minutes per yard.



Among other things, an oil services company experienced in high-precision work  such as positioning massive structures nearly 1,000 feet below the sea with extreme accuracy  has been called in.



"But this is yet another level," Hauer said.

"The level of precision required, for example when it comes to vibrations, is the same as for electron microscopes in hospitals" which require extreme stability, he said.



"Except here, it involves lifting the electron microscope, moving it, and then setting it back down so you can use it again," he said.



If everything goes as planned, the Gokstad is scheduled to be relocated next during the autumn, and then finally the Tune in the summer of 2026.

The Oseberg viking ship, in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, Norway, is seen ready for relocation to the new Viking Age Museum, Sept. 1, 2025. / Credit: FREDRIK VARFJELL/NTB/AFP/Getty

All three ships were found in separate burial sites southwest and southeast of Oslo between 1867 and 1904, each one very distinct from the other.



Richly decorated with ornate carvings, the Oseberg is considered the best preserved Viking ship in the world.



Gokstad is meanwhile the largest of the three, measuring 75 feet long and 16 feet wide, with space for 32 rowers.



Tune is much more decomposed than the other two and is believed to have been a particularly fast warship.

While Norway and its Scandinavian neighbors are often most associated with Viking-era archaeological finds, human history in the region far outdates the legendary masters of the sea.

In Denmark, coastal settlements that were engulfed by rising seas more than 8,500 years ago were charted by divers this summer. Now lying about 26 feet below the waves, close to Denmark's second-biggest city Aarhus, there is evidence of a Stone Age settlement on the seabed.

It was discovered by divers as part of a $15.5 million, six-year project to map parts of the Baltic and North Sea floors, which is being funded by the European Union. The goal of the project is to explore sunken landscapes and uncover lost Mesolithic period settlements as offshore energy and other infrastructure projects ramp up.

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The 2025 Country Music Association Awards nominations have been revealed, and there are, of course, some snubs and surprises.

The 12 categories reflect the breadth of the genre, but, as country weilds a cultural influence more potent than ever, it also may be struggling to balance the depth of its talent pool.

Country music, which had roughly three dozen radio chart-toppers in the past few years, now regularly represents half the spots on Billboard's all-genre Hot 100 charts.

Here are three snubs and three surprises among the CMA nominations that show how the genre is handling its growth.

Here is every 2025 ACM Awards winner. Lainey Wilson, Ella Langley win big

Snub: Jelly Roll

The heavily tatted country-rap star was not nominated for entertainer of the year.

Luminate data from July revealed that pop's fastest reviving fanbase, rock-loving male millennials, favor Morgan Wallen and Jelly Roll as their favorite "new" stars. In May, Jelly Roll and Wallen were locked in a dead-heat tie for weeks atop Billboard's country radio charts.

Jelly Roll performs onstage during Jelly Roll & Friends at Billy Bob's Texas on May 6, 2025, in Fort Worth, Texas.

Beyonce, her 'Cowboy Carter' album are country music favorites at American Music Awards

However, considering Jelly Roll's influence is now bigger than "country music" alone, the CMAs may be making an intentional statement about crossover stars.

He's a pop cultural icon who pro-wrestled social media influencer Logan Paul at WWE's Summerslam, regularly appears on late-night programming and is featured in television commercials. Plus musically, he has blended hip-hop swagger and rock's edge with classic country and bluesy, "beautifully broken" gospel vocals. Ultimately, the CMAs may need to evaluate whether the entertainer of the year should be "pop cultural bridge-builder and social advancer" of the year as well.

Snub: Where's Bailey Zimmerman?

The infectious energy and Justin Bieber-style appeal of 25-year-old country hitmaker Bailey Zimmerman was not reflected in the CMA nominations.

The move is surprising, given the popularity of "All The Way," his hit collaboration with Dallas rapper BigXThaPlug. Zimmerman has also toured successfully with Wallen and released a new album, "Different Night Same Rodeo" which features the No. 1 hit "Backup Plan."

It may be that his collaborative streak with pop artists like The Kid Laroi put him in the "too pop for country" vein.

Bailey Zimmerman performs during the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards at UBS Arena on Sept. 7, 2025, in Elmont, New York.

Snub: Solo love for Riley Green?

Very few country stars have Alabama native Riley Green's collection of critically acclaimed and top-selling album cuts. Songs like "I Wish Grandpas Never Died" and "Jesus Saves" reflect poignant songwriting and a type of soulful earnestness beloved over 100 years of country music's history.

Yes, his duets with Ella Langley for "You Look Like You Love Me" and "Don't Mind If I Do" are great. And yes, they certainly call to mind beloved conversational ballads by Conway and Loretta, George and Tammy, and Kenny and Dolly, but surely there should be room for him as a solo artist, too.

Riley Green sings "Worst Way" on Lower Broadway in Nashville for Big Machine's 20th anniversary concert on Aug. 29, 2025.

Surprise: Who runs the (country) world? Girls.

By July 2023, four years of music industry growth saw female artist representation skyrocket from 20% of the songs on Billboard's Country Airplay Chart to 20% of the No. 1 singles on the chart. However, the genre's pop crossover has drastically shifted. Billboard's 2024 data showed women being de-emphasized again, achieving just 8.39% of country radio airplay overall.

Don't tell Ella Langley, Megan Moroney and Lainey Wilson that, though. They each lead the CMA field with six nominations in 2025, and together they have 43 nominations since 2022. The success of three female artists could be an outlier, driven by the influence of social media and streaming portals. Or it could indicate how female standouts can sustain country music's growth.

Megan Moroney poses with her new artist of the year award backstage during the 58th Annual Country Music Association Awards in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024.

Surprise: Stephen Wilson Jr. a best new artist at 46?

Stephen Wilson Jr. has developed over the past three years from the underground's favorite rock star to a dominating force in country's mainstream. If Wilson wins on Nov. 19, he'll top Jelly Roll, who became the oldest CMA best new artist winner at 39 in 2023.

Wilson, who emerged as a songwriter married to Sixpence None the Richer frontwoman Leigh Nash, was initially championed by Music City's alt-pop station Lightning 100 and now may earn one of mainstream country's most notable awards.

Stephen Wilson Jr. performs at EXIT/IN in Nashville, Tenn., Friday, Jan. 19, 2024.

Surprise: Zach Top's superstardom-cementing moment

At CMA Fest in June, Dierks Bentley called Zach Top was "the future of country music." He may just be right.

The 27-year-old bluegrass performer pulled in five CMA Award nominations this year, clearly charming critics with his grooving neo-traditional stylings that hearken back to the1990s.

Zach Top performs at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn., Friday, Feb. 28, 2025.

"Artists, especially country ones that are remembered for generations, tend to stand out in a massive way when they (debut in) the genre's mainstream," Top said in a 2024 interview with the Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK.

"Sometimes you have to give people what they want, right down the middle."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: CMA Awards snubs and surprises include Jelly Roll, Riley Green
More than 300 South Korean nationals detained by federal agents in a massive immigration raid last week on a Hyundai plant in Georgia for alleged visa violations were released from a detention center early Thursday and boarded a charter flight back to their country.

The flight, which departed Atlanta, is expected to land in South Korea on Friday afternoon, according to The Associated Press.

The South Korean workers were among some 475 people detained on Sept. 4 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at a still-under construction joint Hyundai-LG electric vehicle battery facility near Savannah. ICE said they were suspected of living and working in the U.S. illegally.

Earlier Thursday, CBS News photographer Darrall Johnson watched as the Koreans boarded eight buses that then left for the airport, where a Korean Air charter flight was waiting to fly them home. Johnson said a cart full of documents was loaded onto one of the buses.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, in an address delivered Thursday in Seoul, said 316 South Koreans would be on the flight, including 10 women. He said one South Korean had decided to remain in the U.S. as they have family members in the country. The Foreign Ministry said there were also 14 non-Korean nationals boarding the plane, three Japanese, 10 Chinese and one Indonesian.

A Korean Air Boeing 747-8I sent from Seoul to repatriate hundreds of South Korean workers who were detained last week in an immigration raid at a Hyundai-LG battery plant under construction in Georgia is seen in the cargo area of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta on Sept. 10, 2025. / Credit: ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP via Getty Images

The ministry had said the flight was expected to take off on Wednesday, but that it was delayed due to unspecified circumstances in the U.S. On Thursday, President Lee said the delay was caused by discussion that was ongoing Wednesday over the details of the transport arrangements for the South Korean nationals between the ICE detention facility and the Atlanta airport.

The detention of hundreds of South Koreans in an ICE facility tested U.S.-South Korea ties that are important politically, militarily and economically. South Korea is the biggest foreign direct investor in the U.S. and the sixth biggest trading partner overall.

President Lee Jae Myung, visiting the White House in July, pledged $350 billion in new U.S. investment to sweeten a trade-and-tariff deal with President Trump.

"The sentiment is obviously very, very negative," James Kim, Chairman and CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce in Seoul, told CBS News. "In my office, I usually have my TV turned on to the news  and this is obviously covered from morning to evening constantly. But everyone who I speak to, they view America as its number-one partner here from South Korea. Yes, we're going to have some challenging times."

Buses are seen behind razor wire at the Folkston ICE Processing Center, Sept. 9, 2025, in Folkston, Georgia. A chartered plane had been expected to depart from Atlanta for Seoul on Sept. 10 to repatriate hundreds of South Korean workers detained in a sweeping immigration raid, but the plan was delayed without explanation. / Credit: ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP/Getty

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun, was peppered with demands from angry lawmakers during a parliamentary session in Seoul on Sept. 8, before he departed for meetings with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other U.S. officials.

Lawmaker Kim Joon Hyun demanded that Cho respond to the ICE raid by launching investigations into every U.S. national teaching English in South Korea who could be working illegally on a tourist visa.

"Are we giving our money, technology, and investment to the United States only to be treated like this?," Kim asked.

Federal authorities conduct an immigration enforcement operation at a Hyundai battery plant in Bryan County, Georgia, Sept. 4, 2025. / Credit: ATF

Cho replied by saying he would try to negotiate with Rubio to increase the number of visas issued to highly skilled Korean nationals to work in specialty occupations in the U.S.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said the ICE raid was the biggest single-site enforcement action in the agency's history. ICE alleges that the South Korean workers either overstayed their visa waiver permits, known as ESTAs, which allow business visits of up to 90 days, or were holding visas that did not permit them to perform manual labor, called B-1 business visas.

Kim, at the American Chamber in Seoul, called it a "blip" in U.S.-Korea ties and said he was "very, very optimistic about a much brighter future between the two" countries.

South Korea's president, however, took a more critical tone.

"As the president who is in charge of national safety, I feel a great responsibility," Lee said Tuesday. "I hope that the unfair infringement of our people and corporate activities for the joint development of both Korea and the United States will not happen again."

A poll conducted in South Korea found that almost 60% of respondents said they were disappointed by the U.S. crackdown and called the measures "excessive," while about 31% said the ICE action was "inevitable" and that they could understand the reasoning.

President Trump, in a Sunday post on his Truth Social platform, addressed all foreign companies operating in the U.S., saying "your investments are welcome, and we encourage you to LEGALLY bring your very smart people."

Kim at the chamber of commerce urged companies to heed the advice.

"My key message is listen to what President Trump said today. He wants to encourage more foreign companies to invest in America. Bring your people, bring your resources into America, but do it legally," he told CBS News.

"An opportunity to really fix some things" with a key U.S. ally

Industry experts caution, however, that it may be difficult to maintain investment levels under those guidelines, as securing visas can take years, while many projects face strict deadlines and delays can drive up costs. There is a shortage of highly skilled workers in the U.S., meanwhile, for battery manufacturing, semiconductor and modern shipbuilding industries  all arenas in which South Korea has been investing heavily for years.

Such jobs can require years of experience, not just a few months of on-the-job training.

A spokesperson for South Korea's Foreign Ministry told CBS News that since Mr. Trump's second term began, it had already reached out 52 times on the matter of securing more visas for highly-skilled workers.

Kim, the U.S. chamber of commerce leader, said the current upset in relations represented "an opportunity to really fix some things that could be in the grey area, make it a lot more clear, so that they can have an even better relationship."

He said that, given Seoul's importance as an investor in the U.S., it may be a good time for Washington to consider adopting a new policy that allows South Koreans to more easily come and work in the U.S.

"I think that in the past, Korea may not have been a significant investor in the United States, but now they are," he said. "So I think it's worthy and deserving of that kind of a new status."

Mr. Trump gave a nod in his Truth Social post to the notion that the U.S. does need foreign expertise, saying foreign companies should bring people over to help train American workers  and then hire them to do the work themselves.

Rubio, during his meeting Wednesday in Washington with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho, "said the United States welcomes ROK (South Korea) investment into the United States and stated his interest in deepening cooperation on this front," according to a readout shared by the State Department, which did not mention the ICE raid in Georgia.

Rubio and Cho discussed advancing U.S.-South Korean ties "through a forward-looking agenda" that "revitalizes American manufacturing through ROK investment in shipbuilding and other strategic sectors, and promotes a fair and reciprocal trade partnership," the State Department said.

According to South Korea's Foreign Ministry, "Cho expressed deep concern over the public disclosure of the detention of Korean workers who came to the United States to share technology and know-how and contribute to the Trump administration's efforts to revitalize American manufacturing, which has deeply hurt and shocked all Koreans."

The ministry's statement said Cho had "strongly requested the U.S. administration's special attention and support to ensure that these workers, who are not criminals, can quickly depart the US without physical restraint, such as handcuffs, and that they will not face any disadvantages in future visits to the U.S. He also proposed the establishment of a working group between the U.S. and South Korea to discuss various measures, including the creation of new visa categories, to prevent similar incidents from recurring."

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WESH 2 News/YouTube Shirley Pasamanick

NEED TO KNOW

A 70-year-old woman in Orlando, Florida, has been left "bruised" and "shaken" after biting a pit bull that launched an attack on her own dog, Sparky

Shirley Pasamanick explained to news outlet WESH 2, "I couldn't open his mouth, so I bit him. I had to! Im 91 pounds! I have no strength!"



The incident took place outside the Plaza Tropical Supermarket on Monday, Sept. 1

A 70-year-old woman in Florida is going to extreme lengths to protect her pet dog Sparky.

On Monday, Sept. 1, Shirley Pasamanick was leaving the Plaza Tropical Supermarket in Orlando when a pit bull suddenly lunged at her 14-year-old dog, Sparky, according to WESH 2, WLBT, and her own post on Facebook.

"It just out of nowhere bolted at us," Pasamanick told WESH 2. "And I did everything I could. We ended up on the ground."

In footage shared by the outlets, the woman was seen using a cane to hit the pitbull while the animal continued to attack her dog.

Google Maps Plaza Tropical shopping center in Orlando, Fl.

After her attempts to fight the dog off failed, Pasamanick decided to bite the pitbulls neck, resulting in the dog eventually stopping the ambush.

"I couldn't open his mouth," she told WESH 2. "So I bit him. I had to! Im 91 pounds! I have no strength!"

A man, believed to be the pit bulls owner, was then captured on CCTV taking the dog away on a leash. Grabbed his leash, walked away, didnt check on us to see how we were, Pasamanick said of the owner's reaction, per WLBT.

Authorities are still trying to identify the owner, according to WESH 2.

PEOPLE had contacted the Orange County Sheriff's Office in Florida and Plaza Tropical Supermarket for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.

Never miss a story  sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Getty Pit Bull dog (Stock image)

Pasamanick  who said she was disappointed nobody intervened or tried to help during the attack  was left with bites and bruises on her leg, while Sparky also had bite marks, per WESH 2 and WLBT.

[They] just stood there. And people are going to see it now that youre cowardly, she said, per WLBT.

Pasamanick also said that the pit bull needs to be put down following the attack. Something has to be done. I was shaking for days after this happened, she noted.

In a Facebook post, Pasamanick said that people should share the video of the attack to raise awareness.

Dog came out of nowhere. I'm shaking every time I see it!, she wrote in the comment section.

Meanwhile, Pasamanick told WESH 2 that her dog has been a source of strength for her amid the attack and is the "reason some days I get up."

"You gotta take care of your dog," she added.



Read the original article on People
Fetterman Supports Israel's Attack (Screenshot/Newsmax)

Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman said on Newsmax Tuesday he absolutely supports the targeted killings of Hamas operatives around the world.

Israel bombed Hamas leadership in Doha Tuesday in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a fully independent Israeli operation. In an interview with The Record with Greta Van Susteren, Fetterman offered support for Israels campaign against Hamas and backed targeted killings of the groups operatives.

I absolutely support the killing of Hamas anywhere, wherever. Its a way for Israel to remind the world that they can find them everywhere they are. And I absolutely celebrate that, Fetterman said.

Fetterman said that Hamas and Hezbollah operatives should be hunted down wherever they are.

WATCH:

Kill them whether they were in Iran, or whether its in Gaza, or just yesterday in Qatar. They are all fully accountable, and I absolutely support that, the same for Hezbollah, Fetterman said.

Fetterman said he may have been the only Democrat to support Israeli strikes inside Iran earlier this year. (RELATED: Im Not Dumb: John Fetterman Says Hes Not Afraid Of His Own Daughter Getting Mowed Down By Biological Male)

And I think I was the only Democrat that supported the Iranian nuclear strikes as well, too. I mean, its like entirely appropriate, and thats why I support that, because I am unapologetically a supporter for Israel and the Democratic Party, and Ill just call it straight, Fetterman said.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israeli Security Agency launched a precision strike targeting top Hamas leaders they say helped orchestrate the Oct. 7 massacre and continue to direct the war against Israel. While the identities of those killed remain unconfirmed, Israeli officials have vowed to eliminate Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas chief negotiator, who is frequently based in Qatar.

Israeli forces ordered all residents to evacuate Gaza City on Tuesday ahead of a planned military takeover. The IDF warned that staying in the city would be extremely dangerous and dropped leaflets instructing civilians to flee west and then south.

Democrats have increasingly rallied against Israel in recent months, including Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who accused the U.S. and Israel of genocide during a speech at a pro-Palestinian conference. During her tirade, far-left Tlaib said Israel and the U.S. are starving children in Gaza and using military force to kill, torture, and kidnap people across the globe.

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Christen Clemins Photography for Bill's Sandwich Place

If you were a sandwich, what would you be?

Its a question I keep in my back pocket. Its one Ive lobbed at chefs mid-interview, friends at dinner parties, even reticent colleagues at conferences. The question cuts through the small talk, any noise of ego, and acts as a mirror: what resonates with people, what moves them, and really, where do they stand on the spectrum of loyal rule-following and radical risk-taking? Because in the world of sandwiches, theres a spectrum.

This question works so well because its not just an inquiry of taste but of identity. Is the shy coworker more like a freaky, spicy, seven-layer sandwich? Is the life-of-the-party more of a predictable, semi-sweet, classic Croque Madame?

Its a revelatory question because eating a sandwich is personal. These packable, unwrappable treasures have been part of eaters lives for a long time, accompanying them since childhood, giving elementary students their first exercise in autonomy. Ham or turkey? Whole wheat or rye? Liberated from the confines of cutlery, sandwiches give us permission to make a mess.

Related: 9 Outstanding Breakfast Sandwiches Across America

And as an adult, all of that still applies while the choices get more vast and inviting. So whether youre finding yourself by way of sandwiches or searching for a taste of place from regional sandwich specialties  a New Orleans Muffuletta, a South Jersey Pork Roll, or an Upstate New York Beef on Weck  these are the best sandwich shops in America to get you started.

In doing this research, it became clear that some of the best sandwiches in America are found beyond a sandwich shop. At times, the best stacked-high subs come from sceney pop ups, mom-and-pop restaurants, or contemporary american spots turning a hot dog into a delicacy (is a hot dog a sandwich, though?). Sandwiches like Win Sons bacon egg and cheese on a scallion pancake or Sam Jones BBQ Restaurants chopped pork sandwich are prime examples. Or the seafood restaurant in New York, Penny, that makes an ice cream sandwich the talk of the town  a creamy sphere of vanilla tucked between two slices of brioche bread.

But theres something timeless about a sandwich shop, with its long lines, bread wafting, the clatter and clutter of it all. To answer the question: If you were a sandwich, what would you be? Begin your journey here.

01 of 13

Ideals (Durham, North Carolina)

Courtesy of Jordan Abdur-Raoof

Down-to-earth Durham, chock full of independent eateries, artists, and activists, is also home to one of the Souths greatest sandwich spots: Ideal's, where loyalists (theres a lot of them) line up along the shops brick exterior religiously before noon. Owners Ian Bracken and Paul Chirico fully embrace the sub-infatuation of the Northeast, with scattered quintessential Carolina touches, from Dukes Mayo to summers ruby-red tomatoes throughout the shop. The bread is ritually housemade, limited, and a pride-and-joy  either the sesame hoagie or rosemary focaccia. Ideals has a steadfast lineup of hot and cold sandwiches, but just go and trust whatever special is live that week, like a saucy sandwich version of chicken cacciatore or the Turducken, a cured then confited, then breaded, then fried duck sandwich.

02 of 13

Bodega Park (Los Angeles)

Courtesy of Ja Tecson

Bodega Park on Silverlake Boulevard is an Eastside LA-ified New York bodega-style deli. South Korean culinary influence brings the pork bulgogi sandwich to life, kicking with a spicy kurobuta collar and razor-thin raw onion. Parks simple ode to the bacon-egg-and-cheese comes melty on a roll toasted to a crisp exterior and springy, warm interior. But its not just Parks more chef-y creations that shine; its the classics, like the Italian-style sub with capicola, mortadella, and soppressata on a chewy sub  one bite of which is sure to induce nostalgia for the East Coast. Also, the chopped cheese sandwich  yes, a chopped cheese in LA  is Bodega Parks cult classic. Finish with a signature Misugaru Black Sesame latte.

03 of 13

J.P. Grazianos (Chicago)

Courtesy of J.P. Graziano Grocery Co.

The Mr. G sandwich is J.P. Grazianos calling card. Maybe its the housemade truffle mustard vinaigrette or the draped layers of prosciutto di Parma or the heavy-handed blanket of Roman artichokes. Whatever the reason, Chicagoans stand by it, longingly watching the assembly line at J.P Grazionos layer, douse, and fold the sub with precision. On a corner brick building in the West Loop, this longstanding shop has been around since 1937. As of late, the iconic, old-school spot became a Lollapalooza after party venue and a favorite for midnight fashion pop-ups, thanks to fourth-generation owner Jim Graziano sprucing up the decades-old classic.

04 of 13

Paesanos (Philadelphia)

Courtesy of Aidan McAndrews

Tucked into the historic Italian Market on 9th street is an Anthony Bourdain favorite: Paesano's. The sandwiches here are not for the faint of heart; theyre big and bold and packed with flavors that actually come at you from all angles. Take the crispy fried chicken liver sandwich  the Liveracce  for example. In one jaw-stretching bite, the balanced bitterness of arugula melds with the saucy roasted tomatoes. The zing of sweet orange marmalade cools with a creamy gorgonzola. Dont miss the classic Philly cheesesteak; doing so would be local sacrilege.

05 of 13

Mean Sandwich (Seattle)

Courtesy of Renee Erickson

At Mean Sandwich in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood, sandwich making is theater. The bigger, the better. Take the $21 fish sandwich for example, where sardines float atop layers of lettuce, fried lemons, cilantro, and a pickled celery root and jalapeno slaw  all in between fluffy, pull-apart challah bread. The signature sandwich  The Mean  supercharges a classic corned beef sandwich with mustard, pickled cabbage, and mint. The team doesnt limit themselves to a certain genre either. You get beef steaks on griddled Texas toast and a decked-out fried chicken poboy with Calabrian chili relish. The dipping sauces are must-gets, from a house lemon pepper mayo to a cacio e pepe dressing.

06 of 13

Sunny & Annies (New York City)

Courtesy of Sunny and Annie's

This 24/7 corner NYC bodega, circa 1997, can turn soup into sandwiches. Kind of. Its cherished pho-inspired sandwiches include hoisin, snappy bean sprouts, and kimchi. Beyond that, Sunny & Annies stands out for its contrarian, mismatched, go-big-or-go-home nature, in a world full of fanciful, dainty sandwiches over $20. S&As is unpretentious, unchanging in many ways, and still has sandwiches under $15. The physical menu is just pieces of paper on the deli case, where each sandwich is named after a curious mix of icons like Barack Obama, Mona Lisa, and Jackie Chan. While there are no tables (it is a New York bodega), its a short jaunt to Tompkins Square Park. There, unwrap the sandwich  all snug in butcher paper and foil  and let it all spill out, because inevitably, it will. Then, let the dopamine hit.

07 of 13

Middle Child (Philadelphia)

Courtesy of M. Cahn

Raunchy, saucy, and irreverent is the unpredictable Middle Child, of course. At this Philly sandwich counter  equal parts diner and deli aesthetic  visitors get full and have fun. The sandwiches are classics with a little middle child flair: the swiss and turkey ciabatta sandwich gets a blueberry chutney, a classic Italian gets artichoke relish, the fluffy egg and cheese gets corned beef. Also, the burrata BLT is so big, its called a BBLT, with tomato jam.

08 of 13

Sanguich (Miami)

Courtesy of Sanguich de Miami

Sanguich, serving up Cuba-meets-Miami sandwiches, is no stranger to the spotlight. People have swooned over the toast level of the Cuban bread since the shop opened in 2017. The bread glistens with a gilded sheen, thanks to the pork fat that's brushed on pre-toasting. It gives an extra unctuous bite to the Cubano and Pan con Lechon. Like a proper Cubano, the tightly pressed sandwich has minimal space between its components. Its body-to-body in there (and also body-to-body in the tight, sought-after outpost in Little Havana). The husband-and-wife owners aren't reinventing the wheel here; theyre just creating six craveable sandwiches really, really well.

09 of 13

Bills Sandwich Palace (Nashville)

Christen Clemins Photography for Bill's Sandwich Place

In the land of honky tonks, hot chicken, and bachelorette parties is a shop  better yet, a palace  of inventive, over-the-top sandwiches. Once a sought-after pop up, Bills Sandwich Palace now has a permanent home in East Nashville to dole out sloppy tuna melts and fried chicken sandwiches on housemade focaccia and local Charpier's Bakery buns. A signature Bill move is incorporating chips for texture, like Sour Cream & Cheddar Ruffles, Cool Ranch Doritos, sea salt potato chips, and even full-on french fries. The team also calls everyone who is a part of their sandwich tribe, Bill. So, its just a bunch of Bills at Bills.

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The Boys Deli (San Francisco)

Courtesy of The Boys' Deli

The unadorned but deeply adored The Boys Deli in San Franciscos Russian Hill is a lunchtime staple. For one, its family owned with longtime, seasoned, stone-cold sandwich assemblers. Most importantly, it uses locals favorite Dutch Crunch bread, a soft white sandwich roll with a distinct crackly texture thanks to rice flour paste. Its very Bay Area-coded. Take note of the sandwich names. Theyre just plain fun to rattle off, like the Lightweight Tipsy, The Freak, Double Trouble, and The Gobbler.

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The Modern Butcher (Danvers, Massachusetts)

Courtesy of The Modern Butcher

Okay, this is a butcher shop first, but insiders know its a sandwich shop, too. Its only right that the sustainable, pasture-raised meats from local New England farms are front and center, packed high. Most notably, people flock to The Modern Butcher for the traditional North Shore roast beef sandwich, the three-way NSB with white American cheese, James River barbecue sauce, and slices of pink beef. The sandwich is extraordinarily large, messy, and only available on Saturdays. If you dont make the cutthroat, early-risers line on Saturday, go on a weekday and get the Sandwich of the Day. It might be a buffalo chipotle chicken doused in scallions and bacon or a mile-high turkey and pepperjack sandwich with street corn slaw.



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Turkey and the Wolf (New Orleans)

Courtesy of William Hereford

Turkey and the Wolf didnt just create playful, semi-unorthodox sandwiches when it opened in 2016; it created a whole new culture around  and respect for  artisanal sandwiches. This kitschy, scrappy, red brick spot, now a national hot spot, serves up dilly heirloom tomato sandwiches and fried bologna sandwiches stuffed with thin potato crisps on decorative plates. Owner Mason Hereford paved the way for chefs transitioning out of buttoned-up fine dining into the world of buttoned-down chicken-fried steak sandwiches and thrifted knick-knacks decor. In a city of decades-honed poboys and muffulettas, it takes something radical to shift culture. Turns out, whimsical and weird sandwiches that refuse to be put in a box were the ticket.

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An Xuyen Bakery (Portland, Oregon)

In the buzz of very hip, very cool cafes busy redefining all that a sandwich can be, there is a quaint spot that doesnt need to challenge the norm. Outside An Xuyen Bakery, an overhang is printed with Banh mi. Sandwiches. Bakery. No bells or whistles. This deli embraces timeless simplicity and its two-decades-old ritual of baking French baguettes every morning for a range of banh mis. Theres pate, Vietnamese meatball, and the fan-favorite barbecue pork. In between the glossy baguette, theres an assorted mix of pickled veg that adds crunch, lacey cilantro that brings some brightness, and the housemade mayo that we all wish we could bottle up and take home.

Read the original article on Food & Wine
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu at the Boston Center for the Arts on April 5. (Erin Clark / Boston Globe via Getty Images file)

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and challenger Josh Kraft will move on to Novembers mayoral election after they secured the most votes in Tuesdays preliminary top-two election, NBC News projects.

The two candidates who get the most votes for mayor, regardless of political party, move on to the municipal election on Nov. 4.

See live results here

Wu is going for her second term after she won the 2021 mayoral election, becoming the first woman and person of color to be elected as the citys mayor. (Acting Mayor Kim Janey was the first Black woman to hold the seat, which she assumed when then-President Joe Biden selected previous Mayor Marty Walsh to serve in his administration.)

During this years campaign, Wus website highlighted her record on housing, combating gun violence, climate and other issues. She secured a slew of high-profile endorsements, including those of Massachusetts Democratic senators, Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey, as well as Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who represents a Boston-area district.

Kraft most recently was the president of the nonprofit New England Patriots Foundation. He is the son of Patriots owner Robert Kraft. The younger Kraft also previously was the president of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, a charity.

Boston mayoral candidate Josh Kraft on July 1. (David L. Ryan / Boston Globe via Getty Images)

Both Wu and Kraft are Democrats. The two have split over issues like White Stadium, and local journalists have documented Wus administrations championing renovations for the stadium as critics like Kraft argue the price tag was too high. Kraft has also criticized Wu over her response to drugs, addiction and other issues, as well as personnel management.

Former police officer Robert Cappucci and Domingos Darosa were also on the ballot Tuesday.

The preliminary race comes just days after the U.S. Justice Department sued the city, Wu and others, alleging that Bostons sanctuary city laws interfere with the federal governments enforcement of its immigration laws.

The City of Boston and its Mayor have been among the worst sanctuary offenders in America  they explicitly enforce policies designed to undermine law enforcement and protect illegal aliens from justice, Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a news release last week.

Shortly after the lawsuit was announced, NBC Boston and other outlets reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement began a new operation in Massachusetts.
Amanda Knox/Facebook; Boston 25 News/YouTube Michelle Knox; Joshua Smith

NEED TO KNOW

Michelle Knox was found slain in a Massachusetts home over the weekend

Joshua Smith, identified as her brother, has been arrested in connection with the killing

Police allege Smith made "inculpatory" statements to responding officers which made him a suspect

A Massachusetts man was arrested after a neighbor heard chilling screams from his father's apartment  where his sister was later found dead.

The victim has been identified as Michelle Knox in several news outlets and by her friends and family on social media.

The suspect, Joshua Smith, has been arrested in connection with the Sunday, Sept. 7 killing in Lynn, Mass., according to prosecutors, Boston 25, NBC Boston and CBS News reported.

A neighbor told Boston 25 about the seemingly terrifying circumstances.

It was like horrific screams like somebody got stabbed or something, Emilio Gonzales told the outlet immediately after the killing.

Smith's own statements raised alarm bells for investigators, prosecutors alleged at his arraignment on Monday, per Boston 25, NBC Boston and CBS News.

Prosecutor Stefanie Stanbro said when officers arrived at the scene, Smith was outside the residence "making numerous and inculpatory statements about killing his sister," Boston 25 reported.



Knox is being mourned by her friends and family.

"Michelle I love you so much you did not deserve this you were so special MY FIRST Born!! This is so hard Im going crazy thinking I cant yell at you lecture you," wrote her mother Carleen Knox on Facebook. "R.I.P Im fighting for you justice will be served for you."

Boston 25 News/YouTube Joshua Smith

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

Smith has been charged with murder in connection with Knox's killing, as stated in his arraignment, Boston 25, NBC Boston and CBS reported.

He is also charged with kidnapping, according to prosecutors, CBS News and Boston 25 reported.

Prosecutors have not disclosed Smith's alleged motive.

Smith's lawyer told Boston 25 that the situation is a "hardship for everyone."

Every one of these cases is a difficult situation. No matter if someone is guilty or not guilty," Defense Attorney Michael Phelan said. "Its still, we have an individual whos passed away and its very, very sad for not just someone is gone, it also impacts their family."

Phelan did not respond to PEOPLE's request for comments.

Smith entered pleas of not guilty at the arraignment, CBS News and NBC Boston reported.

Read the original article on People
Charlie Kirk at a campaign rally for Donald Trump in Las Vegas, Oct. 24, 2024. (Alex Brandon/AP) (Alex Brandon/AP Photo)

Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old conservative influencer and activist who cofounded Turning Point USA when he was 18 and served as its executive director, was shot and killed Wednesday during an open-air event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.

The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead, Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social. 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."

Kirk is survived by his wife, Erika, and their two young children.

Kirk and his organization, which advocates for conservative causes on high school and university campuses, had emerged as key Trump allies in recent years. Kirk told the New York Times Magazine in February that he visited the White House a hundred-plus times during the presidents first term and, starting last November, he joined a small group of advisers vetting prospective second-term appointees for unflagging loyalty to Trump, as the magazine put it.

For the most part, however, Kirks campaign to advance the MAGA movement was conducted on campuses like the one where he was killed Wednesday.

When he was shot, Kirk was seated beneath a canopy featuring the slogan Prove Me Wrong  a reference to his penchant for debating campus progressives.

A tent bearing the slogan 'The American Comeback Tour' is cordoned off after U.S. right-wing activist, commentator, Charlie Kirk was fatally shot during an event at Utah Valley University. (Jim Urquhart/Reuters) (REUTERS)

Born on Oct. 14, 1993, Kirk grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and briefly attended Harper College before dropping out to pursue political activism. During his junior year of high school, Kirk started listening to conservative talk-radio personality Rush Limbaugh; during his senior year, he appeared on Fox Business to discuss an essay he wrote for Breitbart News alleging liberal bias in school textbooks. Kirk founded Turning Point USA with tea party activist Bill Montgomery in 2012 and quickly convinced Wyoming investor Foster Freiss, a prominent GOP donor, to fund its activities after they met at that summers Republican National Convention.

Four years later, Kirk, then 23, was the youngest speaker at the 2016 RNC.

Between 2012 and 2020, Kirk transformed Turning Point USA into the nations preeminent conservative youth organization, launching chapters at more than 850 colleges. The group registers students to vote, brings conservative speakers to campus, maintains a national network of right-wing student government leaders and hosts its own conferences across the country several times a year.

In 2019, Kirk launched a PAC called Turning Point Action; in 2020, he started hosting a daily three-hour radio talk show called "The Charlie Kirk Show." NBC News recently reported that Kirks show is downloaded between 500,000 and 750,000 times per day. It ranks in the top 100 on Apples podcast chart.

(From left to right) South Dakota Governor Kristi Noam, Sergio Gor, Donald Trump Jr., U.S. Vice President-elect JD Vance, Charlie Kirk, and Kid Rock on stage with The Village People during the Turning Point USA Inaugural-Eve Ball at the Salamander Hotel on January 19, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images) s (Getty Images)

Kirk saw his influence increase further after Trumps first term. He visited Mar-a-Lago in February 2021, at the nadir of Trumps popularity and political power; Kirk was photographed smiling next to the ex-president. He befriended Donald Trump Jr. and pushed for the elder Trump to choose JD Vance as his 2024 running mate. Total revenue at Turning Point USA and Turning Point Action grew from $4.3 million in 2016 to $92.4 million in 2023; Kirk became a millionaire.

After Trump was reelected last November, Turning Point hosted a black-tie inauguration gala at which some 1,500 attendees paid from $5,000 to $15,000 (with some VIPs paying more) to be in the company of Trump luminaries including Vance; Trumps nominee for director of the FBI, Kash Patel; and Don Jr., who described Kirk onstage as one of the true rock stars of this movement, according to the New York Times Magazine.

Charlie Kirk, what hes done with the young people, Trump said at the time, crediting Kirk with the campaigns strong performance among voters under 30  especially men. Actually, other than Hispanic, that was probably our biggest swing. So, Charlie, I appreciate what you did.

High school boys are the most conservative that they have been in the last 50 years, Kirk claimed in his post-election presentations. The youth vote won Trump the White House.

And it was Turning Points work, he went on to imply, that won the youth vote for Trump.
A man who jumped off a Royal Caribbean cruise ship near the Port of San Juan over the weekend  allegedly to avoid paying off more than $16,000 in gambling debt to the cruise line  has been charged with a federal crime, authorities said.

Jey Gonzalez-Diaz embarked on the Rhapsody of the Seas at the Port of San Juan on Aug. 31, according to a criminal complaint filed Sunday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico. The cruise ship returned from Barbados on Sunday  when Gonzalez-Diaz jumped into the water as the ship disembarked around 9:15 a.m. local time, during U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspection, the criminal complaint said.

Gonzalez-Diaz was then brought to shore by someone passing by on a jet ski, investigators said. The moment was captured on surveillance video.

Jey Gonzalez-Diaz being brought to shore after he jumped off the Rhapsody of the Seas near the Port of San Juan on Sept. 7, 2025. / Credit: Handout

CBP officers later located Gonzalez-Diaz near the Puerto Rico Capitol Building, court documents said. He was carrying $14,600 in cash, two phones and five IDs.

Gonzalez-Diaz is accused of attempting to avoid monetary reporting requirements when traveling into the United States, according to the criminal complaint.

As stated in the complaint, Gonzalez-Diaz told officers in Spanish that he jumped off the cruise ship because "he did not want to report the currency on his possession because he thought he was going to be taxed duties for bring in the currency."

Upon further investigation, Royal Caribbean told investigators that Gonzalez-Diaz was booked under the name Jeremy Diaz, and that he owed $16,710.24 to the cruise line, according to the complaint. The debt was "almost exclusively associated to Casino and Gaming expenses," the complaint said.

Other record checks of Gonzalez-Diaz's multiple identifications also revealed that a Jeremy Omar Gonzalez-Diaz has been in federal custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, since January, according to the complaint. Jey Gonzalez-Diaz told investigators that it was his brother.

When they asked him for his full name, he told investigators, "If you guys were good at your job, you would know that," the complaint said.

Jey Gonzalez-Diaz was later released on bail, local media Wapa.TV reported.

If convicted, Jey Gonzalez-Diaz could face a fine up to $250,000 or a maximum five-year prison sentence, or both. It wasn't immediately clear if he has legal representation.

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Traffic lights are off during a power outage in Havana on Wednesday. (Adalberto Roque / AFP via Getty Images)

HAVANA  Cubas electrical grid collapsed Wednesday, leaving the entire island without power, according to the state-run power company.

A total disconnection of the Electrical System, SEN, has occurred, which may be associated with an unexpected outage of the CTE Guiteras, the Ministry of Energy and Mines wrote on X.

It said the causes are being investigated and the restoration process has already begun.

In the country's capital, residents expressed concern over the blackout and not knowing how long it could take to re-establish connectivity on top of all the daily economic struggles they face, including shortages in food and medicine.

This country cant take much more. We just have one misfortune after another, said a small-business owner who declined to give his name. Lets see how long it lasts and how it will affect us.

Many worried about spoiling food and lack of water.

Power outages have been a chronic problem in Cuba for years, but they have worsened with the communist-run countrys economic crisis. Daily blackouts can reach up to 20 hours in some parts of the island.

A general blackout in Havana on March 14. (Yamil Lage / AFP via Getty Images file)

There have been a series of electrical grid collapses in recent years, including in 2022 after Hurricane Ian and in October 2024 when it took days to fully restore power throughout the island.

Experts recently warned about increasing energy demand and the countrys aging and crumbling infrastructure, which requires constant maintenance.

In the past, the government has cited shortages of fuel used to fire up its plants and increasing demands for power. The government has also blamed the decades-old U.S. embargo on Cuba for making it difficult to import parts.
By Marc Frank and Nelson Acosta

HAVANA (Reuters) - Communist Cuba's National Electric Union said power was slowly being restored Wednesday evening on the Caribbean Island after the grid collapsed at 9:14 a.m. local time.

State-run media reported airports and essential services such as hospitals and water pumps were up and running thanks to backup systems. The vast majority of the country's 9.7 million residents remained in the dark.

In Havana, home to 2 million residents, authorities said they were working to start major power plants.

This was the fourth time in less than a year that the national grid collapsed. In the past, it has taken two to three days for service to be fully restored.

"There has been a total disconnection of the Electric System," the Energy Ministry and National Electric Union said Wednesday morning.

The ministry said causes are being investigated.

Even before Wednesday's grid collapse, the vast majority of residents had already been experiencing daily blackouts of 16 hours or more.

The grid failure follows a string of nationwide blackouts since late last year that plunged Cuba's frail and antiquated power generation system into near-total disarray.

The country has also been facing fuel, food and other shortages, along with its worst economic crisis in decades.

"This is crazy for everybody," Raul Ernesto Gutierrez said in Havana.

Gutierrez said he was visiting the capital and that back home in the countryside, "we will have to cook with charcoal, with firewood. Its stressful and also frustrating."

Havana state worker Danai Hernandez, said she was on the way home from work which had just shut down.

"Im going home to organize everything in the household and ... now we have to wait. We don't have any other choice," she said, visibly upset.

Cuba's oil-fired power plants, already obsolete and struggling to keep the lights on, reached a full crisis last year as oil imports from Venezuela, Russia and Mexico dwindled.

(Reporting by Marc Frank; Additional reporting by Alien Fernandez; Writing by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez; Editing by Lisa Shumaker, Nick Zieminski and David Gregorio)
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., at the Capitol in June. (J. Scott Applewhite / AP file)

WASHINGTON  When House Democrats gathered behind closed doors Tuesday to discuss strategy to avert a government shutdown, they agreed on one thing: They must use the leverage of the Sept. 30 deadline to advance their priorities.

But the party has yet to agree on what those priorities should be.

In the House meeting, lawmakers voiced anxieties about the nearing deadline, proposing a wide variety of ideas, multiple sources with knowledge of the discussion said. And they questioned whether their Senate counterparts would have the stomach for a fight after Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and other key Democratic senators supported a Republican-only spending bill during the last shutdown deadline in March.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., encouraged lawmakers to focus on a viable endgame.

If were going to lean into the fight, we need to win the fight, he told the Democrats, according to a person in the room.

The source, who discussed the private meeting on condition of anonymity, added that there was overwhelming agreement among House Democrats that they should pick the fight  and that they would need their Senate colleagues on board.

The meeting ended without clarity about the path forward.

With three weeks left before the deadline, Republicans will again need Democratic votes to avoid a shutdown, at least in the Senate, where the GOP controls 53 seats and requires 60 votes to pass a funding bill.

Democratic leaders in both chambers are determined to avoid a repeat of March, when Schumer and nine other Democratic senators voted to advance a six-month funding bill they had no input in crafting. But apart from demanding a bipartisan approach, leadership hasnt fleshed out what it wants.

The party is divided over what demands it should make. Some want to pursue a traditional path, passing some easily agreed-upon funding bills in a bipartisan manner, along with a short-term bill to buy time for the others. Others want to make an aggressive set of policy demands. Yet others say there can be no deal as long as President Donald Trump unilaterally withholds money directed by Congress.

Some Democrats are leery of drawing red lines in a standoff, according to two people familiar with the dynamics. They worry that if the GOP rejects their demands, it could lead to a damaging government shutdown that might backfire on them politically. Instead, they prefer to start negotiating privately with Republicans and get a sense of what's achievable.

Democratic leaders havent made an offer to the GOP privately, according to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. Democrats say theyve repeatedly asked for meetings to begin discussions, only to be stonewalled by Republican leaders for weeks.

Jeffries and Schumer plan to meet Wednesday with key members of their own leadership teams and top appropriators, who are responsible for crafting spending bills, to hash out the strategy, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

Some Democrats want to go big

The leaders will have a lot to discuss  with high stakes. Top Democrats have discussed demanding an extension of expiring Obamacare funds, the three sources said. One said they're also considering proposing guardrails on Trump's use of rescissions  the presidential power to unilaterally undo congressionally approved spending, which is being challenged in the courts  among a host of other possibilities.

Publicly, some Democrats want to go bolder by demanding to repeal parts of Trump's sweeping new law, most notably cuts to Medicaid.

If they want Democratic votes, I think we need to have a high price. And so that price could be saving the ACA  I think thats certainly a noble, worthwhile endeavor, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said after the meeting, referring to the Affordable Care Act. There could be a lot of other things, too. Restoration of some of these Medicaid cuts. Weve got some of these cuts to SNAP and food assistance that are kicking in in January. We have a responsibility, I think, to really set a high price so that we can protect people.

There is also disagreement among Democrats about whether to even pursue a deal unless Trump backs off his legally dubious use of rescissions or pocket rescissions.

This budget potentially wont be worth the paper its written on, because the president isnt implementing the law, in violation of the Constitution  and in a variety of ways continues to act brazenly lawlessly, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a member of the Appropriations Committee, told NBC News, adding that any deal should also extend Obamacare funding to make sure that our health care system doesnt fall apart during this fiscal year.

Rep. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y., has also called for a more aggressive posture, outlining a list of policy proposals, including repeal of Trumps tax cuts for higher earners and his Medicaid cuts.

Conventional wisdom is to settle for a BS funding deal that minimizes damage. Newsflash: Trump doesnt honor deals & hes already screwing the American people, Ryan wrote on X. You dont cower in front of a bully. You punch them right in the mouth & expose them for the fraud they are.

Other Democrats prefer a traditional path

Meanwhile, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, is calling on Republicans to break with the White House and take a traditional path.

Murray said that she spoke Monday to the other top appropriators in both parties and that their preference is to pass three out of 12 appropriations bills that fund the government in full, in addition to a short-term bill for the rest of federal spending to provide more time to negotiate.

But we know this means very little unless [House] Speaker [Mike] Johnson and Leader Thune agree with their approach, Murray said.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., a senior appropriator and lead author of a bill to permanently extend the Obamacare subsidies, declined to say whether Democrats should make that a demand in a government funding bill.

We need to see how this plays out. I think its very important for us to get that done, because so many people are going to be affected, and theyre going to lose their health insurance, she said. There are only so many bills that are moving in Congress.

Pressed about whether Democrats should insist on including the health care money in a government funding bill, Shaheen replied: I think there are a lot of options, and hopefully this will continue to be on the table.

White House wants a 'less bipartisan' path

The White House isn't reciprocating Democratic leaders desire for bipartisanship. Trump budget director Russell Vought has rejected calls for the parties to work together to fund the government, instead arguing that the process is broken and that it should be less bipartisan so the GOP can advance its goals.

The White House has ignored criticism of those remarks from Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the Appropriations Committee chair, who is up for re-election next year.

Thune, meanwhile, indicated some openness Tuesday to pursuing the three appropriations bills, along with a stopgap bill for a couple of months to keep the rest of the government open.

What that date is  we hear November from the House. The White House seems to be trending in that direction, Thune said. But were going to need a continuing resolution.

Schumer spoke in broad terms Tuesday after a caucus meeting when he was asked what Democrats want specifically to support a short-term bill. But he pointed to health care.

Its got to be bipartisan. And second, we have focused for the last month and a half on how theres lots of bad things in what the Trump administration has done. But our focus is on health care, and theyve done so much damage to the health care system, Schumer said. We want to see the damage that theyve done to the health care system undone.
More than 450 manufacturing plant employees were arrested by immigration authorities at Hyundai Motor Groups electric vehicle plant in Ellabell, Ga., on Sept. 4 (Corey Bullard / U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via AP)

About 300 South Korean nationals who were arrested nearly a week ago in a immigration raid on a Hyundai plant in Georgia were expected to board a chartered plane on Wednesday to return to their homeland. But a spokesperson for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport told NBC News that the charter flight has been canceled.

The flight tracking website Flightaware showed the chartered Korean Air flight over U.S. airspace. An airport spokeswoman confirmed to NBC News the plane landed in Atlanta late Wednesday morning, but it remains unclear when will the plane fly back to Seoul.

South Korean officials originally hoped the plane would leave Atlanta as early as Wednesday afternoon local time, shortly after it arrived from Seoul.

Plant workers have been held in immigration detention in rural Georgia since they were arrested in the town of Ellabell on Thursday.

The foreign ministry told NBC News early Wednesday that the planes departure was likely to be delayed because it has become difficult due to circumstances on the U.S. side.

We are maintaining consultations with the U.S. authorities in order to facilitate departure as soon as possible. Further notices will be provided as soon as there are additional updates, the ministry said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun at the White House Wednesday morning to discuss ways to strength their alliance and revitalize American manufacturing through South Korean investments, Tommy Pigott, the State Department's principal deputy spokesperson, said in a statement, which did not mention anything about the detained South Korean nationals.

What happened?

The South Korean nationals were among the 475 people federal and immigration agents arrested last Thursday when they raided a construction site in Ellabell, where the South Korean companies Hyundai and LG Energy Solution were jointly building an electric vehicle battery plant.

Video released last week by ICE showed some of the South Korean nationals being shackled at the wrists and ankles before being placed in vans. The visuals "inflicted shock and pain on the Korean people, Hyun said, according to a statement from the foreign ministry following his meeting with Rubio.

"He strongly urged that, since they are not criminals, the workers be allowed to leave the United States swiftly without being physically restrained with handcuffs, and that they face no disadvantages in the future when returning to the United States," the statement reads.

Steven Schrank, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Georgia, categorized the raid as the largest single-site enforcement operation in the history of his agency.

According to Schrank and an ICE news release, the people arrested were working or living in the country illegally.

Of those detained, 47 were employed by LG Energy Solution and the rest were hired by subcontractors. Hyundai said none of those detained were directly employed by the company.

Who was affected?

Most of the South Koreans detained were either engineers or working in after-sales services and installation, according to Atlanta-based immigration attorney Charles Kuck, who is representing at least seven of them. He added that many were doing work authorized under the various visa programs, allowing them to enter the U.S.

Sarah Park, president of the Korean American Coalition, said Monday that the detained workers should not be blamed for the challenges companies face in trying to secure the proper U.S. visas for employees who are key to getting new facilities up and running.

I wish that Americans in America would be a little bit more sympathetic to what the Koreans have witnessed, James S. Kim, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea, said Wednesday in an interview with NBC News in Seoul. And as long as they do that, I think the two countries can work together to kind of mitigate what had happened and move forward.

South Korea, a key U.S. ally in Asia, has pledged $350 billion in U.S. investment in exchange for a lower tariff rate.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that while President Donald Trump understands that companies want to bring their highly skilled and trained workers with them, especially when theyre creating very niche products, he also expects these foreign companies to hire American workers.

What's behind the raid?

Federal authorities showed up at the Hyundai-LG plant last Thursday to execute a judicial search warrant in connection with what they said was a criminal investigation into allegations of unlawful employment practices. No criminal charges have yet been filed.

According to the warrant, agents were authorized to seize employment records and immigration documents as well as ownership and management records related to the construction site. Authorities were also looking for four individuals, but the reasons why the federal government was specifically interested in them remain under seal.

On Sunday, U.S. and Korean government officials reached a deal to release the workers from immigration custody and return them to their home country.

Consulate officials and other South Korean officials met with those detained at the Folkston ICE Processing Center over the weekend, Meredyth Yoon, a litigation director at Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, which has been assisting detainees and their families seeking legal help, told NBC News on Tuesday.

Yoon said that, as part of the deal, most of the South Korean nationals had agreed to voluntary departure, avoiding formal deportation orders.

The South Korean government said Tuesday that the Consulate General in Atlanta and officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had provided active consular assistance to our citizens detained and assisted in consultations with the United States necessary for the early repatriation of all our detainees via chartered flights.

Yoon said about 175 of the remaining detainees  who hail from Guatemala, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Ecuador, Venezuela and Japan  remain in immigration detention and that her organization is working on connecting the affected families to aid.
By Abhirup Roy and Akash Sriram

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -How can Tesla become an $8.5 trillion company? That's the market valuation the electric vehicle maker would have to reach to justify CEO Elon Musk's new pay package announced last week.

Selling 100 million humanoid robots in a year could do it; creating a robotaxi network with more than 10 times the revenue of Uber might as well. And of course, investor hope is part of the equation.

Musk on Friday was given a decade to expand Tesla's $1 trillion valuation into a company worth more than the combined current value of Nvidia and Microsoft, the two most valuable publicly traded companies in the world. If he succeeds, Musk, already the best-paid CEO in the world, would receive a trillion-dollar pay package.

Musk's new pay package was granted on September 3, but it is subject to shareholder approval in November.

The board showed how and where it expects Tesla to make its money by structuring Musk's pay package around 12 milestones that are primarily based on products and profit, as well as market capitalization. They target enormous increases in profit as Tesla rolls out its Optimus humanoid robots and a robotaxi fleet that it hopes will be more efficient than human-driven rivals.

A lot depends on how investors value the company. Tesla, for example, is valued as a growth stock, trading at around 75 times its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, even though its vehicle sales dropped last year and are likely to drop this year.

The payoff is astounding - and so are the goals. Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, broadly estimated that robotaxis and self-driving software could be worth a trillion dollars of market cap each, with cars another half-trillion. "At the end of the day, the reason why this is going to work or not work really comes down to Optimus," he said. "It's a fairy tale, but it's one that could actually happen."

Musk has been betting the company on self-driving software and robotaxis for some time. Tesla currently has a small fleet of robotaxis - estimated to be about three dozen vehicles - in a part of Austin, Texas. An early Musk milestone is to have a million robotaxis in operation.

One of Tesla's biggest fans, ARK Invest, predicted an even sunnier case well before the Musk pay package was announced. They see Tesla's market capitalization hitting $7 trillion to $10.9 trillion in 2029, with a Tesla robotaxi network bringing in between $603 billion and $951 billion of ride-hail revenue per year. Global ride-hailing leader Uber, by comparison, will have revenue of $52 billion this year, according to LSEG.

Tesla would start off owning and operating a robotaxi network, which would eventually be taken on by another company, ARK forecast. Tesla's share of the ride fare would be 40-60%, double that of Uber, ARK said.

ARK did not include a valuation for robots in its model, although it said that could become a $24 trillion market.

BANKING ON BOTS

More recently, Musk has described robots as the future, saying the Optimus humanoid robot could account for 80% of Tesla's value eventually.

If Tesla's future depends on Optimus, it will have to sell a lot of robots - maybe more than 100 million a year, according to Reuters calculations.

If Tesla's business was only robots, that 100 million figure is what it would take to hit the top EBITDA profit target, as specified in the Musk pay package, of $400 billion. Optimus is expected to be priced at around $25,000 and Tesla's current EBITDA profit margin is around 15%. For twice the profit margin, Tesla would have to sell only half as many robots.

EBITDA this year is expected to be $13 billion, according to LSEG, so Tesla has a long way to go.

Much will also depend on how investors calculate Tesla's potential at the end of the decade-long pay package. If investors were to continue pricing Tesla at 75 times EBITDA, it would take $113 billion in EBITDA for Tesla to reach a $8.5 trillion valuation, or less than the profit goal Tesla has set in Musk's pay package. That package has a top EBITDA of $400 billion and a top market cap of $8.5 trillion, a multiple of 21.

The $400 billion target was "materially more aggressive" than Morgan Stanley's predictions on Tesla's auto, energy and robotaxi businesses, its analysts said in a note on Sunday, adding that it "would imply substantial contributions from Optimus and other AI robot end markets currently not in our forecasts."

Some investors welcomed the focus on the new products and said the proposed pay might help address what is ailing the company now.

"There are big operational hurdles that Tesla does need to accomplish," said Will Rhind, CEO of global ETF issuer GraniteShares. "There are things that clearly need to be reversed, such as declining sales, et cetera. So, why not tie the CEO's compensation to reversing some of those trends?"

(Reporting by Abhirup Roy in San Francisco and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Peter Henderson and Noel Randewich in San Francisco; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
Evening Standard/Getty Images Richard Burton and his wife, Elizabeth Taylor, at a friend's wedding in August 1969.

The Gist

Elizabeth Taylor received 10 proposals and married eight times to seven different husbands.

Her most famous relationship was with fellow actor and two-time husband Richard Burton.

The iconic actress called producer Mike Todd, who tragically died one year after their wedding, one of two great loves in her life.

Few would have guessed the magnitude of Elizabeth Taylors career following her breakthrough performance in 1944s National Velvet. The legendary late actress became one of Hollywoods brightest stars, branching out with successful fragrance lines and becoming an outspoken activist in the fight against AIDs. Yet her eight marriages to seven husbands often eclipse her career and humanitarian work in the public imagination.

The classic beauty with violet-colored eyes found herself the recipient of 10 marriage proposals over the course of her lifetime. Easily the most well-known of her loves is two-time husband Richard Burton, a fellow actor whom she met on the set of Cleopatra. Their 14-year romance was the longest one of her life. Burton died in 1984, eight years after the couples second divorce.

Perhaps it sounds silly, [but] I think we wouldve been married again, Taylor told journalist Barbara Walters about her late ex-husband in a 1997 interview. I think we were so passionately in love with each other that the highs were too high. It was almost like everything was too muchBut it was great.

From her first marriage to a hotel heir to her final nuptials with a construction worker, the actress had a life full of love, loss, heartbreak, and happiness. Parts of her story are shared in her own words in the 2024 documentary Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes, which draws from over 40 hours of archival interviews between Taylor and Life magazine journalist Richard Meryman.

An unprecedented icon with a multi-faceted legacy in cinema and in life, Taylor continues to captivate the world today. Heres what to know about her seven husbands from eight marriages.

Conrad Nicky Hilton Jr.

Bettmann/Contributor Elizabeth Taylor and Conrad Hilton Jr. on their wedding day in May 1950.

At just 18 years old, the actress became a first-time bride, marrying hotel heir Conrad Hilton Jr. (Paris Hiltons great-uncle). MGM Studios funded the Hollywood nuptials, which took place in 1950 at a Beverly Hills church. Helen Rose, the MGM costume designer who designed Grace Kellys wedding dress, also created Taylors satin gown.

Unfortunately, the union was a tumultuous one and ended after only eight months. [Hilton Jr.] became sullen, angry and abusive, physically and mentally, Taylor wrote in her 1988 memoir, Elizabeth Takes Off. The couple finalized their divorce in January 1951, per The Los Angeles Times.

Michael Wilding

Bettmann/Getty Images Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Wilding at a London Airport in 1952.

English-American Taylor found her second husband, Michael Wilding, across the pond. According to Alexander Walkers 2001 biography Elizabeth, they first met when she filmed The Conspirator in England in 1948. The pair reconnected after her divorce from Hilton Jr., when she returned to the country to film Ivanhoe. Wilding was a fellow actor 20 years her senior.

At their London civil ceremony in February 1952, Taylor wore a tea-length A-line suit dressper Vogue, the nontraditional bridal look was once again designed by Rose. The future three-time Oscar winner accessorized with a simple string of pearls and wove florals through her hair.

During their five years of marriage, Taylor and Wilding welcomed two sons: Michael Jr. in 1953, and Christopher in 1955.

Mike Todd

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Elizabeth Taylor and her husband, Mike Todd, in March 1957.

In her 2002 book Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair with Jewelry, the starlet described third husband Mike Todd as one of two great loves in my lifethe other being future husband Burton. He was 25 years her senior. Taylor and the producer tied the knot in Acapulco, Mexico in February 1957. Before they exchanged vows, Todd gifted Taylor the largest of her engagement rings, featuring a stunning 29-carat diamond.

Their marriage was tragically cut short when Todd was killed in a plane crash on March 22, 1958. He and Taylor had welcomed their first and only child together, daughter Elizabeth Liza Frances Todd, in August 1957.

Eddie Fisher

John Bryson/Getty Images Eddie Fisher and Elizabeth Taylor in 1959.

After seeking solace with her late husbands close friend, Eddie Fisher, Taylor tied the knot for a fourth time. Fisher was married to Debbie Reynolds when their love affair began, and left the Singin in the Rain star for Taylor in 1959.

"I was keeping Mike [Todd] alive by talking about him because Eddie, he was a great friend of Mike's. That was the only thing we had in common, was Mike," Taylor said in an archival interview shown in the 2024 documentary Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes, per People. "I never loved Eddie. I liked him. I felt sorry for him. And I liked talking [to him]. But he was not Mike."

The couple were together for just under five years, divorcing in early 1964.

Richard Burton

Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton on their first wedding day in March 1964.

While filming Cleopatra in 1961, Taylor found what many consider the great love of her life. Their relationship began as an affair. Despite the scandal (the Vatican even publicly condemned them, per The New York Times) the couple didnt hide their romance.

After Taylor finalized her divorce from Fisher and Burton divorced actress Sybil Williams, the former co-stars wed in Montreal in 1964. The glamorous starlets yellow wedding dress was designed by Cleopatra costume designer Irene Sharaff.

A few years later, Burton gifted Taylor the massive 69.42-carat diamond now known as the Taylor-Burton Diamond. It was insured for $1 million, per WWD. But despite the glittering jewels that marked their fairytale relationship, the couple divorced in 1974 after 10 years of marriage.

Taylors sixth marriage was also to Burton, as the two reconciled and remarried in October 1975. This second marriage lasted less than a year.

John Warner

Sonia Moskowitz/IMAGES/Getty Images Elizabeth Taylor and her husband, Senator John Warner, in May 1981.

In 1976, a 44-year-old Taylor walked down the aisle again, marrying sixth husband John Warner. The future couple met when Warner escorted the actress to a dinner with Queen Elizabeth II at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., as he recalled to People in 2011.

A few days after the dinner, she visited his horse farm. She came back for another visit with a suitcase, which clued Warner, then 49, into the potential for a long-term relationship between them. I think she fell in love with the farm, and I guess I came along with the horses, he joked in the same People interview.

Engaged in September 1976 and married in December at his farm, they enjoyed a 6-year union. While their wedding was among Taylors most private, photos from the day show she chose the unconventional route for her bridal ensemble: a cashmere coat and turban.

The pressures of being a politicians wife (Warner was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1979) contributed to the end of their relationship. We got along wonderfully until he decided to be a politician, Taylor told The New York Times in 2002. And then he married the Senate."

Larry Fortensky

Darlene Hammond/Getty Images Elizabeth Taylor and husband Larry Fortensky at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in May 1992.

The last of Taylors marriages came about when she met construction worker Larry Fortensky at the Betty Ford Clinic. He was 20 years her junior, making him the first and only spouse to be younger than her. They tied the knot in October 1991, with a lavish ceremony at Michael Jacksons Neverland Ranch. Taylor wore a stunning ruffled Valentino gown, a gift from the designer according to People.

After their 1996 divorce, Taylor famously vowed never to marry again. She died on March 23, 2011 after being hospitalized for congestive heart failure. The actress was 79.

Read the original article on InStyle
A US Senator has claimed that eating radioactive shrimp could turn people into aliens.

A politician has claimed that radioactive shrimp could turn humans into aliens

Shrimp sold at stores such as Walmart were recalled recently due to possible contamination with the radioactive isotope Cesium-137 and Republican Louisiana Senator John Kennedy has made the extraordinary suggestion that those who have consumed the affected seafood are at risk of transforming into the extraterrestrial featured in Ridley Scott's 1979 film.

Standing in front of an image of the alien that famously bursts from Kane's (John Hurt) chest in the movie, Kennedy said: "This is what you could end up looking like if you eat some of the raw frozen shrimp being sent to the United States by other countries. How could you end up looking like the alien in Alien? Because the shrimp was radioactive."

The senator added: "It'll kill you, even if it doesn't turn you into the alien - if you eat this stuff, I guarantee you'll grow an extra ear."
An environmental services worker in Sacramento, California died this week after passing out inside a tank at a Costco store, according to local fire officials.

The man has been identified as Ashkan Moghaddam, 37, the Sacramento County Coroners Office confirmed to USA TODAY.

Moghaddam had been trying to clean an empty underground fuel tank at Costco the morning of Monday, Sept. 8 when he fainted, Captain Justin Sylvia of the Sacramento Fire Department told USA TODAY. To get inside the tank, he had to go through a 3-foot round hole and climb 10 to 15 feet down.

Someone called the Sacramento Fire Department about the incident, Sylvia said. Within 15 to 20 minutes, units arrived and pulled the man out of the tank, the fire department added.

According to Sylvia, first responders found him unresponsive in the tank. First responders performed CPR and took him to the hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

Passages 2025: Those weve lost through the year Italian Fashion designer Giorgio Armani poses before the inauguration of his shop in the Diagonal avenue of Barcelona, on September 16, 2003. Giorgio Armani, the famed Italian fashion designer who achieved elegance and timelessness through simplicity, has died. He was 91. Armani "worked until his final days," the Armani Group said in a statement Thursday, Sept. 4, announcing his death.

According to the fire department, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is investigating the incident. It is unclear what caused Moghaddam's death.

Cal/OSHA said on Sept. 10 that the investigation is ongoing and the agency has up to six months to issue citations if any violations of workplace safety regulations are found.

Who was Ashkan Moghaddam?

A LinkedIn page for Moghaddam shows that he had worked for Ponder Environmental Services Inc. since 2022. He previously worked for Underground Construction Co. Inc. in 2021 and for Patriot Environmental Services in August 2017.

USA TODAY contacted Ponder Environmental Services Inc. on Sept. 10, but has not received a response.

Ashkan Moghaddam (left) photographed during the 2020 International Open IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship in San Jose, California.

According to those who knew him, he was a father to two daughters and liked jiu-jitsu. Warren Yu, who said in a Facebook post that he had known Moghaddam since preschool, shared photos of him competing in martial arts.

"The last time I saw you was at a (IBJJF) tournament where I happened to capture photos of you doing what you loved," Yu wrote, calling Moghaddam "Ash."

Yu told USA TODAY on Sept. 11 that his friend "had an intense and magnetic personality."

Facebook user Joe McGuffin shared online that he was "an incredible individual." Calling him a friend and brother, McGuffin said in his Facebook post that Moghaddam "always had a smile for everyone."

"He was always the calm in the storm," McGuffin wrote. "He deserved better than the situation that befell him. I do and always will hold Ash in high regard. I only regret not being there when he was in need. He would be here with us today, if i was there. I will miss you my friend."

This story has been updated to add new information and photos.

Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia  the 757. Email her at sdmartin@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Emergency services worker faints in Costco fuel tank, later dies
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sits in the plenary hall before the opening of the High-Level Leaders Summit at the Second Africa Climate Summit (ACS2) in Addis Ababa, on Sept. 8, 2025. Credit - Luis TatoGetty Images

The Second Africa Climate Summit (ACS2) is taking place in Ethiopia, a developing country determined to scale its commitment to green growth. To help position the country as a leader in this space, Seyoum Mekonen, State Minister of Planning and Development for Ethiopia and the Ministry of Environment, and Energy Security of the Italian Republic Claudio Barbaro signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on day 2 of the summit. The MOU will support a number of initiatives, including Ethiopias National Adaptation Plan.

This agreement is about enhancing the adaptive capacity of Ethiopias economy, not aid, said Mekonen during the signing.

It was a theme touched on throughout the second day of ACS2, which saw conversations focused on adaptation and resilience, with a spotlight on Africas climate risks and scalable response. Leaders from Africa and around the world have gathered in Addis Ababa this week to discuss the continents climate future and create a unified plan for climate resilience.

The day saw the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) and Pro(to)topia, a green consulting group, marking the launch of the Just Resilience Framework, which will provide a framework and funding for groundwork climate initiatives. Charles Mwangi, head of programs at PACJA described the aims of the policy tool during a panel on localizing climate resilience, which was moderated by TIMEs Chief Climate Officer Shyla Raghav.

Read more: Innovative Financing Can Unlock African Climate Solutions

We thought it was important to come up with a justice resilience framework for the continent, because for us to be able to implement local-led climate adaptation, it is important to have a guiding frameworkthat resonates the actual needs of the communities and the grassroots and really reflects our context, he said.

The governments of Norway, Denmark, and Ethiopia organized an event focused on Ethiopias Green Legacy Initiative, also moderated by Raghav. The Green Legacy Initiative was launched in 2019 by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to tackle climate challenges, reverse land degradation, restore ecosystems, and build climate resilience. The country has since seen a sharp decline in deforestation along with major afforestation and reforestation efforts.

Coupling emission reductions with the countrys development goals has also been critical to meeting climate goals. We are now successfully launching these strategies that could really help Ethiopia to achieve its development aspirations that have been set for 2030 and 2050 as well as addressgreenhouse gas emission reduction and building resilience across the sectors, said Mensur Dessie, climate institutional development advisor at the Ethiopian Ministry of Planning and Development.

Read more: Africas Leaders Call For a United Push to Create the Next Climate Economy

Youth activists also gathered for a panel focused on amplifying youth voices in climate politics, moderated by Kenyan climate activist and TIME100 Impact Award honoree Elizabeth Wathuti.

Wathuti told TIME she hopes to see more financial commitments made to African youth implementing climate solutions. We're not supposed to just talk about young people in terms of empowering them, supporting them, applauding them, and giving them kind words when they talk about their solutions and innovations, she said. We actually need to see real support getting into the work that is happening on the ground.

That idea will be the focus on day three, which will spotlight climate finance and African-led solutions.

Coverage of the Second Africa Climate Summit is presented by the Pan Africa Climate Justice Alliance.

Write to Simmone Shah at simmone.shah@time.com.
Thomas Callam Phillips and his children were officially reported as missing by family members in December 2021. - New Zealand Police

A fugitive father who had been hiding with his three children in the dense New Zealand wilderness was shot dead in an armed confrontation with police on Monday, leading to his three children being placed in the state care, ending a near four-year search for the family.

Thomas Phillips and his children  Jayda, 12, Maverick, 10 and Ember, 9  had been evading police in a remote part of the countrys North Island since December 2021, triggering a manhunt that gripped the nation.

Phillips time on the run ended in the early hours of Monday when police responded to a break-in at a farm shop in a tiny rural town and gave chase.

A police officer was wounded in the confrontation after being shot in the head at close range with a high-powered rifle, police said.

The eldest of the children was found with Phillips at the time, police confirmed.

Following a massive and urgent search operation involving helicopters, the other children were located, later Monday, at a remote campsite in the dense bush near the tiny rural town of Marokopa, on the rugged west coast of New Zealands Waikato region.

Photos released by police show the campsite where Tom Phillips and his children had be hiding in recent months - New Zealand Police

They are with police officers now, and are being removed from that location, Acting Deputy Commissioner Jill Rogers told reporters Monday afternoon.

I can confirm that the children are well and uninjured, and they will be taken to a location this evening for medical checks, Rogers said.

On Wednesday, police released photographs showing a makeshift shelter hidden in the bush. Farm bikes, a tent, sleeping bags, cooking equipment and various other supplies - including cans of lemonade - can be seen in the pictures.

Police also found a gun there.

(Its) not very nice  its not a camping trip for a couple of nights, so its very dirty, you know, cramped conditions, said Detective Senior Sergeant Andrew Saunders on Wednesday.

The campsite was hidden in dense bush in a remote location on the west coast of New Zealand - New Zealand Police

Police said they had been staying at the campsite for months, but that it was just one of various placed the family might had been staying over the years.

And police believe he may have had assistance from other people.

It is apparent that he had outside help, Saunders said.

Phillips first vanished with his children in September 2021, kicking off a huge search of land and sea.

They reappeared at a nearby farm belonging to Phillips family weeks later. But after Phillips was charged with wasting police time, he and the children vanished again in December that year.

Police believe they were living off-grid, with the father using his survival skills to feed, shelter and clothe his children, but despite several sightings, appeals for help, and a police search, the familys location had remained a mystery. Each new sighting made global headlines.

Early Monday local time police were called to reports of a break-in at a farming goods store in the Piopio, a town of less than 500 people in the western Waikato region near where Phillips is believed to have been hiding out.

A four-wheeled farm bike with two people on it was spotted leaving the town on a gravel road and police gave chase. Road spikes were set up near at an intersection about 30 kilometers down the road.

The quad bike has run over the spikes. The two occupants have been on that bike, and it has come to a rest on this rural road. A short time later, the first attending police officer at that scene has come across that stopped quad bike and been confronted by gunfire at close range, Rogers said.

The officer was getting out of his police car when he was struck in the head and subsequently took cover in the car. Another police officer arrived at the scene seconds later and shot at the man believed to be Phillips.

While formal identification has yet to taken place, Rogers told reporters Monday: We believe him to be Tom Phillips.

A police officer investigates at a site following a shootout that occurred near the town of Piopio, located in New Zealand's Waikato region on September 8, 2025. - DJ Mills/AFP/Getty Images

His sister, Rozzi Phillips, confirmed to CNN affiliate and public broadcaster RNZ that he had been killed.

Rogers confirmed one of the missing children, thought to be the other person on the farm bike, was located at the scene.

Three firearms were located on and around the quad bike while the wounded officer has been airlifted to Waikato Hospital to undergo surgery.

Rogers said the officer had significant injuries to his head and neck, but that police had been informed they were survivable.

Jayda, Maverick and Ember Phillips have been missing with their father Thomas Phillips since December 2021. - New Zealand Police

Frantic search for the children

Police had repeatedly voiced their serious concerns for the children Jayda, Maverick and Ember whove had no contact with their mother since December 2021.

Now they have been found, they have been placed with Oranga Tamariki, the state agency that cares for children.

The childrens mother, known as Cat, said she was deeply relieved that for our (children) this ordeal has come to an end, in a statement to CNN affiliate RNZ on Monday morning.

They have been dearly missed every day for nearly four years, and we are looking forward to welcoming them home with love and care, she said

At the same time, we are saddened by how events unfolded today. Our hope has always been that the children could be returned in a peaceful and safe way for everyone involved.

Just two weeks ago, law enforcement released security camera footage of what they believed to be Phillips and one of the children involved in an early morning break-in at a convenience store in the same town as Mondays shooting.

Last June police offered a reward of 80,000 New Zealand dollars ($52,000) for information leading to their location and safe return.

Phillips series of alleged crimes includes the armed robbery of a bank in May 2023, when two people were seen on a security camera escaping on a motorbike with cash.

Phillips already faced a range of charges including aggravated robbery, aggravated wounding, and unlawful possession of a firearm.

CNNs Hilary Whiteman contributed reporting

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Flesh-eating bacteria tried to kill her. Here's what it took to survive.

The pain, said Genevieve Gallagher, was "unbelievable."

The Florida woman nearly lost her life and her leg to the flesh-eating bacteria known as Vibrio vulnificus, or Vibrio, after swimming with her daughter in Santa Rosa Sound off Pensacola Beach on July 27.

She's not the only one struggling to recover from the devastating effects of the Vibrio infection. Cases have been reported elsewhere in Florida, as well as in Louisiana and as far north as Maryland. Warnings have been issued at beaches and bays along the Gulf Coast, and even in Massachusetts.

Vibrio vulnificus, part of the Vibrio family of bacteria, can cause severe and life-threatening infections. It can also cause necrotizing fasciitis, killing the flesh around an open wound. One-in-5 people who get the infection die, and anyone with it will require intensive medical care.

Gallagher is one of them.

'Almost down to the bone'

Gallagher has been treated at a Gainesville hospital for wounds she received after doctors were forced to remove much of the tissue on her left leg below the knee to stop the Vibrio bacteria from progressing.

They debrided my leg down to the bare meat, Gallagher said in an interview from her hospital bed. They took most of the muscle, almost down to the bone, basically. It went up almost to my knee, so it's a pretty large amount, and it's all the way around my leg.

Gallagher believes the bacteria infected her body through a small cut on her left leg.

She started showing symptoms three days after she went boating with her husband, Dana, and her 7-year-old daughter, Mila, behind the Pensacola Beach Boardwalk and swam near Quietwater Beach.

Vibrio bacteria can be common in warm, brackish waters, like those along the Gulf Coast states of Louisiana, Texas and Florida, Dr. Larry Madoff told USA TODAY in August. But it's also being seen more often in northeastern states along the Atlantic coast, said Madoff, medical director for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences.

Vibrio can enter the body through open wounds. Certain health conditions, including liver disease, cancer, diabetes or HIV, or immunosuppressants, raise the risk for severe illness. Symptoms of the infection include diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting, fever, chills, dangerously low blood pressure and blistering lesions. Wounds that become infected may be red, swollen or discolored and may have a discharge

Gallagher, 49, was at work on July 30 when she began sweating, feeling unwell, and her leg swelled and bubbled with blisters.

By that afternoon, Gallagher was in the emergency room, and was rushed her into surgery.

Flesh-eating bacteria: Flesh-eating bacteria strike again. Latest updates on cases, deaths.

A weeks-long ordeal

I thought I had an infection, but never did I think I had a flesh-eating bacterium, Gallagher said. Theres no antibiotics that they can give you to stop it. They just have to get out any infected skin and tissue. Theyve got to get it off your body.

Gallagher said she went into septic shock, which caused her organs to fail. She was intubated for nearly a week while medical staff at Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola worked to save her, including repeatedly scrubbing and cleaning out her leg to remove any dying tissue.

Her family stayed by her bedside around the clock after doctors warned them that she could not only lose her leg to the illness  she could lose her life.

They were finally able to get me stable enough to wake me up. Sacred Heart saved my leg, thank God, Gallagher said. Mila saw me in the hospital and said, I wish this happened to me and not you, and I started crying. That broke my heart. I was like, Mila, no, I'm so glad it didn't happen to you. Your little body could not have taken all this that's going on.

Vibrio cases in Panhandle: 'Flesh-eating' bacteria cases up to 4 in Escambia, Santa Rosa. Florida records 5 deaths

Medical staff at UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville has been working to help Gallagher recover. The Vibrio bacteria is gone but repairing the damage it caused to her leg isnt easy.

Shes had multiple surgeries including having muscle removed from her back and placed on her leg where the bone was exposed. The flap surgery didnt take due to blood clots, however, and Gallagher will have to undergo surgery again.

Just looking at my leg, it doesn't even look like my leg anymore, Gallagher said. It looks deformed right now. The pain is unbelievable. It feels like somebody took gasoline, poured it on my leg, and lit my leg on fire. That's what it feels like.

Vibrio warning for others

While Vibrio infections are relatively rare, Gallagher is sharing her story as a warning to others.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests taking the following precautions to avoid infection:

Cover any open wound, including from recent surgeries, piercings, tattoos, cuts or scrapes, with a waterproof bandage and do not wade, swim or fish in coastal waters if you have one;

Cover any such wounds when handling raw seafood, including drippings and juices;

Wash your hands and surfaces thoroughly when cooking with raw seafood;

Thoroughly cook any seafood if you are at increased risk for serious illness;

Immediately and thoroughly wash wounds and cuts with soap and clean, running water after exposure to coastal water;

Wear clean clothes to protect yourself while in the water if you're among those who might be more vulnerable to illness

The day she went swimming, Gallagher took steps to cover the small cut on her leg with a waterproof bandage.

However, she said she would not have gone into the water at all had she known the bacterial infection was such a serious risk.

When it's so hot and that water is not moving, that bacteria is just growing and growing and growing, she said. There are no signs out there saying, Hey, this water has a high infection rate for Vibrio, or, Hey, this water tested positive, like they do in Panama City, because I'm sure if they did, people would not be swimming over there.

According to the Florida Department of Health, there have been 25 cases of Vibrio and five deaths in Florida so far this year. In late August, contaminated oysters sickened several people in Louisiana, killing two people and sending 22 others to the hospital. And a person was infected at an area on the western end of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, prompting officials there to issue an alert.

Gallagher is grateful for the medical care and support she has received through her ordeal.

She hopes her story will help protect others.

It's been a lot on me and my family, Gallagher said. My husband drives to Shands every weekend and stays with me because my mental health has just been horrible. Ive been strong through it all, but its been a lot mentally, emotionally and physically.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Florida flesh-eating bacteria survivor recounts harrowing battle
A 22-year-old man who was punched during a violent traffic stop in Florida that went viral online filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Jacksonville, the sheriff's office and officers involved in the stop, his attorneys announced.

The complaint filed Sept. 10 in federal court by lawyers for William McNeil Jr. argues that internal policies at the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office enabled officers to violate McNeil's Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable seizures. The complaint says McNeil suffered a range of injuries from the incident, including a concussion, and seeks $200,000 in damages.

The sheriffs office, which is named in the lawsuit along with Sheriff T.K. Waters, said in a statement that it is unable to comment due to pending litigation.

The case gained national attention when video of the traffic stop went viral online in July, sparking intense backlash against the sheriffs office, which later released body camera footage of the incident. The sheriffs office also launched an internal review, and local prosecutors probed officers use of force.

More: Cop kills driver in routine stop. Supreme Court weighs whether it's justified.

The footage shows Officer Donald Bowers pulling over McNeil for what he described as seatbelt and headlight violations. McNeil declined to provide his license and registration, requested a supervisor and locked himself in his SUV. After McNeil refused to get out of his car, Bowers smashed the drivers side window, punched McNeil in the head and pulled him out of the SUV.

The federal lawsuit filed by McNeil names Bowers. Another officer named in the lawsuit is referenced only as "Officer D. Miller."

After the arrest, McNeil pleaded guilty to resisting police without violence. McNeil was initially charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession, but prosecutors dropped that and a drug paraphernalia count, according to court records. Citations for not having headlights on during rain, fog or smoke and for not wearing a seatbelt were also dismissed.

William McNeil Jr. is shown as his driver's side window is broken by police during a traffic stop in February 2025.

More: Dead rats, death threats, destroyed careers. How law enforcement punishes its whistleblowers

Last month, the State Attorneys Office for the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Florida announced it would take no further action against Bowers, saying his actions were justified and lawful. In the 16-page investigative report, Bowers described the initial punch as "a distractionary blow," a tactic learned during his time as a narcotics officer.

In the federal complaint, lawyers for McNeil mentioned the "distractionary blow" and said the sheriff's office allows "officers to utilize unwarranted and excessive physical force against an individual who poses no immediate threat to the officer or to others."

The lawsuit also said the sheriff's office and city of Jacksonville allowed officers to "refrain from reporting instances of force when the physical force applied to an individual did not lead to, or was claimed to have led to, any injury." This policy, McNeil's lawyers said, "creates a setting that promotes its officers to engage in illegal or excessive use of force without the fear of encountering any repercussions or consequences."

McNeils attorneys have called on the Justice Department to investigate the incident. They have also said local authorities reviewing the case did not speak to their client and ignored his injuries, including a concussion, a cracked tooth and a lip injury that required stitches.

Contributing: Steve Patterson, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union

This story was updated to add a statement from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Man punched in viral traffic stop files federal lawsuit in Florida
Camden County Prosecutor's Office of New Jersey Brenda Spencer, 38, and Branndon Mosley, 41, mugshots

NEED TO KNOW

An 18-year-old girl has allegedly been held captive in a "house of horrors" for six years, prosecutors allege

Her mother and stepfather are accused of forcing her to live in a padlocked bathroom and abusing her

She was forced to use a bucket as a toilet, police said

A New Jersey mother and stepfather were arrested and charged after her 18-year-old daughter claimed they forced her to live in a padlocked bathroom in what prosecutors have called a house of horrors."

Arrested in May, Branndon Mosley, 41, and Brenda Spencer, 38, were charged with kidnapping, aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

Mosley faces life in prison if convicted, while Spencer faces up to 30 years.

Following their indictments by a grand jury, their attorneys entered not guilty pleas on their behalf on Monday, Sept. 8, NJ.com reports.

During the hearing, Assistant Prosecutor Rachael Minardi told the court about proposed plea deals for each of the suspects, NJ.com reports.

Mosley would spend 50 years in prison if he pleaded guilty while Spencer would face 25 years  but Spencer's attorney Terrell Ratliff said it was too early to discuss any deals.

I forgot it three seconds after I got told it, Ratliff said, NJ.com reports. Were not even there at this point in time.

The couple's alleged crimes came to light on May 10, when the authorities responded to reports that a child had been kept in a South Jersey home and abused for several years, according to a news release shared by the Camden County Prosecutor's Office.

After Spencer and Mosley were arrested, disturbing details began emerging about the abuse the girl had allegedly suffered since 2018.

"She was removed from school in the sixth grade at Spencers discretion and confined to her home, the CCPO said in the post. She stated that shortly after this, she was forced to live in a dog crate for approximately one year and was let out periodically.

"The victim advised she was later forced to live in a padlocked bathroom while being chained up," the release reads. "She stated that she would be let out of the bathroom when family visited the residence."

Related: Mother, Stepfather Arrested After Girl Escapes from Home Where She Was Allegedly Held Captive, Kept in Dog Crate and Abused: Police

The release stated that, at other times, the alleged victim had been "forced to live in a bare room with just a bucket to use instead of a toilet," claiming that the room she was in "had an alarm system that would alert Spencer and Mosley if she tried to leave."

The teenager claimed she'd also been beaten with a belt and alleged she was sexually abused by Mosley, per the release.

The teen escaped the residence on May 8, with assistance from a neighbor, and later disclosed the abuse she faced which was ultimately reported to law enforcement, the Prosecutor's Office said in the release.

When police searched the residence, they found she had been living "alongside numerous dogs, chinchillas and other animals." She was homeschooled alongside a 13-year-old girl who had also been taken out of school "at Spencer's discretion" and lived in the home.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

Gloucester Township Police Chief David Harkins called the case "one of the most despicable cases" he had "ever run across at a May 14 press conference.

Attorneys for the two did not immediately respond to PEOPLEs request for comment.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.



Read the original article on People
By Yomna Ehab, Jaidaa Taha and Mohammed Ghobari

ADEN (Reuters) - Israel struck the Yemeni capital Sanaa and the northern province of al-Jawf on Wednesday, with the Houthi health ministry saying it killed 35 people and wounded 131 others.

The strikes are the latest in a series of attacks and counterstrikes between Israel and Houthi militants in Yemen, part of a spillover from the war in Gaza.

The Israeli military said it had struck military camps, the headquarters of the Houthi military "propaganda" department, and a fuel storage site.

The Houthis' military spokesperson denied in a statement later that Israel had targeted missile launchers. "Its strikes targeted purely civilian targets," he said.

He added that the offices of two newspapers had been targeted and that journalists and passers-by had been killed or wounded in those attacks. He gave no figures.

Sanaa residents told Reuters the attack had targeted a hideout between two mountains that is used as a command and control headquarters. The extent of any damage was not immediately clear.

The Israeli strikes also targeted the Houthi defence ministry, witnesses said.

The attack came days after an August 30 strike on Sanaa killed the prime minister of the Houthi-run government and several ministers, in the first such assault to target senior officials.

"The strikes were carried out in response to attacks led by the Houthi terror regime against the State of Israel, during which unmanned aerial vehicles and surface-to-surface missiles were launched toward Israeli territory," the Israeli military said.

The Iran-aligned Houthis have attacked vessels in the Red Sea in what they describe as acts of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.

They have also fired missiles towards Israel, most of which have been intercepted. Israel has responded with strikes on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, including the vital Hodeidah port.

(Reporting by Yomna Ehab, Jaidaa Taha, Jana Choukeir and Mohammed Ghobari; writing by Yomna Ehab; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Timothy Heritage, Gareth Jones, Alexandra Hudson)
WASHINGTON  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invoked 9/11 on the eve of the U.S. terrorist attack's anniversary to justify his strike on Hamas leaders inside Qatar. Israel's attack in Qatar, which has been hosting Gaza ceasefire talks, drew a rebuke from the White House and was condemned by countries around the world.

Netanyahu said in Sept. 10 remarks that Hamas' attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, was his country's version of the terror attack that took the lives nearly 3,000 people and led to the United States' invasion of Afghanistan more than two decades ago.

"Tomorrow is September 11th. We remember September 11th. On that day, Islamist terrorists committed the worst savagery on American soil since the founding of the United States," Netanyahu said. "We also have a September 11th. We remember October 7th."

More: Netanyahu takes credit for Israeli strikes targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar

Israel launches attack on Hamas leadership in Qatar A damaged building is seen following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders, according to an Israeli official, in Doha, Qatar on September 9, 2025.

The Israeli leader said that on that day, "Islamist terrorists committed the worst savagery against the Jewish people since the Holocaust."

White House chastised Israel after the Sept. 9 airstrikes targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar.

More: President Trump 'feels very badly' about Israel's attack in Qatar, White House says

Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a sovereign nation and close ally of the United States that is working very hard in bravely taking risks with us to broker peace, does not advance Israel or America's goals," press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. "However, eliminating Hamas, who have profited off the misery of those living in Gaza, is a worthy goal.

President Donald Trump later shared Leavitt's statement on social media.

In the wake of 9/11, the U.S. pledged to punish the perpetrators of the attack, wherever they may be, Netanyahu said in justifying the airstrike.

Smoke rises after several blasts were heard in Doha, Qatar, on September 9, 2025.

"Well, yesterday, we acted along those lines. We went after the terrorist masterminds who committed the October 7th massacre. And we did so in Qatar which gives safe haven, it harbors terrorists, it finances Hamas, it gives its terrorist chieftains sumptuous villas, it gives them everything," he charged.

Netanyahu said his country "did exactly what America did when it went after" Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and killed its leader, Osama bin Laden, in Pakistan.

"Now, the various countries of the world condemn Israel. They should be ashamed of themselves," Netanyahu charged. "They should applaud Israel for standing up to the same principles and carrying them out."

In a fiery warning, he declared: "And I say to Qatar and all nations who harbor terrorists, you either expel them or you bring them to justice. Because if you don't, we will."

Qatar's Foreign Ministry called it "criminal assault" and said the attack was "a blatant violation of all international laws and norms, and poses a serious threat to the security and safety of Qataris and residents in Qatar."

Netanyahu's government has been at war with Hamas militants inside the Gaza Strip since the U.S.-designated terrorist group launched a surprise attack on Oct. 7, 2023 inside Israel, killing 1,200 and taking approximately 250 people hostage. More than 60,000 Palestinians have died in the conflict since then.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Netanyahu invokes 9/11 to justify strike on Hamas inside Qatar
DOHA, Qatar  Israel faced an intense new wave of global outrage Wednesday after its attack in Qatar targeting Hamas leaders as they gathered to discuss a U.S. proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Israel's brazen strike on Doha, the capital of the influential Gulf state that has played a key role in negotiations, was roundly condemned as an escalation that threatened to derail efforts to end the war.

President Donald Trump offered rare public criticism, telling reporters that he was "very unhappy" about the attack, which killed at least six people but did not appear to have taken out its main targets.

It raised fears that there would be no truce to avert Israel's threatened ground assault on famine-stricken Gaza City, where it has ordered residents to immediately leave the area and bombed high-rise buildings it says are used by Hamas.

The Israeli attack hit an area surrounded by residences, diplomatic missions and international schools. The front of one building appeared blackened Wednesday when an NBC News team traveled to the site. Security surrounded the building, preventing onlookers from getting close.

The Israeli attack on a key regional ally of the U.S. was seen as a significant escalation. (Ibraheem Abu Mustafa / Reuters)

In an interview with NBC News in Jerusalem on Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said that we dont know yet whether Israel succeeded in killing Hamas top leaders but that they should know within the next 24-48 hours.

Hamas said in a statement Tuesday that its senior leadership had survived, but said six people had been killed. It named the six, including the son of Khalil al-Hayya, a Hamas leader in Gaza, as well as his office director.

Qatar confirmed that a member of its internal security forces was also killed.

Huckabee declined to comment directly on the attack, deferring to the White House. But he said that countries make decisions based on what they think their best interests are and that doesnt mean everyone agrees.

He added that the honest answer is we dont know how the strike may affect ceasefire talks and efforts to release the remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

Qatar condemned the cowardly Israeli attack," calling it a blatant violation of all international laws and norms. It was joined by a flurry of states from across the Middle East, as well as China, Russia and others.

"It is a terrible attack that will have humanitarian consequences, as well as legal and procedural ones," Majed al-Ansari, Qatars Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said in an interview in Doha. He added that a legal team had been established to "study all the legal means" of addressing the strike.

"This should not go unanswered," he said, labeling the strike "the activity of a rogue state" as he called on the international community to act.

United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan traveled to Qatar on Wednesday for a "fraternal visit," UAE state news agency WAM reported, an apparent show of solidarity a day after the strike.

Israel's planned assault on Gaza City has fueled criticism from European powers that have long been its allies. They warned that the strike threatened to imperil the renewed push for a deal that would prevent that operation going ahead.

Trump on Friday said the U.S. was in very deep negotiations with Hamas, which said that Israel's attack showed it did not "want to reach any agreement."

As British Prime Minister Keir Starmer prepared to welcome Israeli President Isaac Herzog to London on Wednesday, he disavowed the attack, saying it violated Qatar's sovereignty and risked further escalation across the region.

French President Emmanuel Macron called the assault "unacceptable, whatever the reason, adding that "under no circumstances should the war spread throughout the region."

The blowback came as Israel also faced mounting backlash over its deadly campaign in Gaza, with outrage growing over its bid to take over Gaza City, where famine was declared by the world's leading body on hunger last month.

Thousands of leaflets rained down over the city Tuesday with orders from the Israeli military demanding Palestinians leave the area to an already-crowded so-called "humanitarian zone" further south.

Leaflets dropped by the Israeli military, urging evacuation south to al-Mawasi, land in Gaza City on Tuesday. (Omar Al-Qattaa / AFP via Getty Images)

Palestinians evacuating Gaza City, moving along the coastal road in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, on Tuesday. (Eyad Baba / AFP via Getty Images)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that the military strike in Qatar had been targeting the planners of the Hamas-led attacks Oct. 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage.

Since then, more than 64,500 people have been killed in Israels assault on Gaza, including thousands of children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in the enclave.

Keir Simmons and Charlene Gubash reported from Doha, Richard Engel and Gabe Joselow from Jerusalem, and Chantal Da Silva from London.
After three hours of deliberation, jurors found Donna Adelson guilty in connection with the m*rder of her former son-in-law, who was shot by hired hitmen back in 2014.

Now, one juror who participated in the case has revealed how the group reached their verdict.

Last Thursday (September 4), Adelson, the matriarch of a wealthy Florida family, was found guilty of first-degree m*rder in the for-hire plot to end the life of law professor Daniel Markel.

After the verdict was read, the woman yelled out, Oh my God! and began sobbing and shaking.

Donna Adelson was found guilty of first-degree m*rder, conspiracy, and solicitation in the 2014 crime of her former son-in-law, Daniel Markel

Image credits: Tallahassee Democrat

When Judge Everett announced that she had also been found guilty of conspiracy to commit m*rder and solicitation, she continued crying and asked the bailiff to escort the jurors out of the courtroom.

Within the first hour, hour and a half, everyone was agreeing that she was guilty, said @LaceyWithAJ, who identified herself as the jury foreperson.

It was unanimous within the first hour, hour and a half.

Asked by commenters what evidence the group took into consideration to reach their verdict, she said, Honestly there was sooo much.

Image credits: FSU College of Law

Lacey wrote that the 75-year-old grandmother is a smart woman, which is why she [avoided] being convicted for 11 [years].

The jury reached a unanimous verdict within the first 90 minutes of deliberation, according to the foreperson

She added: All of her emails, texts, calls indicate how power hungry she was  she meant it when she said that Daniel Markel wasnt going to beat the Adelson family.

Markel, a law professor at Florida State University, was involved in a custody battle with Adelsons daughter, Wendi, over their two young sons.

Image credits: TikTok / laceywithaj

Following the couples bitter divorce in 2013, Markel refused to let Wendi move with the children from Tallahassee, where he worked, to South Florida, where the Adelsons lived.

The matriarchs effort to keep her grandchildren close is believed to have driven her to hire hitmen to gun down Markel.

At first, two of the twelve jurors were unsure about Adelsons guilt, Lacey said.

Jurors reviewed extensive evidence, including emails, texts, and calls

Image credits: Tallahassee Democrat

The foreperson said the group then decided to go over the evidence point by point using a whiteboard.

We went over everything several times because this is a big decision and this is serious and we all took our duty very seriously, like this isnt just fun and games, the juror stressed.

Although it is a very cool experience to talk about now and its exciting, it is someones life, and it is the law and we all took it very seriously.

After deliberating with the group, Lacey passed out 12 pieces of paper, asking everyone to anonymously write down the verdict to ensure they werent pressured by fellow jurors opinions.

All 12 pieces of paper said guilty, the woman said, adding that she asked for verbal confirmation that they found her guilty on all three counts.

The crime was allegedly driven by Adelsons wish to stay close to her grandchildren during a custody battle

Image credits: Tallahassee Democrat

She said the jurors were escorted out of the courtroom after Adelson was read the verdict because there was that outburst that we all saw.

Despite experiencing a very intense two weeks because of the trial, Lacey enjoyed the responsibility of being a juror.

The grandmother was arrested in November 2023 as she and her husband, Harvey Adelson, were about to board a one-way flight to Vietnam, a non-extradition country.

Markel was shot twice in the head in his Tallahassee garage after bringing the two children he shared with Wendi to preschool and then going to the gym, prosecutors said.

He was rushed to a local hospital, where he lost his life 14 hours later.

Adelson is the fifth person convicted in the case, following her son, Charlie, his ex-girlfriend, and the two hired gunmen

Wendi denied having any involvement in or knowledge of the m*rder plot.

On the stand, she insisted that calling her ex-husband derogatory names like dark lord and an STD had nothing to do with the plot to end Markels life.

Image credits: Tallahassee Democrat

Prosecutors alleged that Adelson masterminded the plot, estimated to cost more than $100,000, according to court documents.

At its core, this was a m*rder of convenience so that one grandmother could live closer to her grandchildren, said Markels mother, Ruth, in a statement after the guilty verdict was read.

She k*lled their father and ripped the children from the other grandparents lives.

Adelson is believed to have orchestrated the m*rder plot

As I look at this photo of #DonnaAdelson with bracelets on her wrists having been found guilty of 3 counts of murder of #DanMarkel, a thought came to mind. You are never to old to escape the long arm of the law and justice. You will be found out and held to account for your pic.twitter.com/nYHzDPJJuD  MaryMacElveen  (@MaryMacElveen) September 6, 2025

Adelson is the fifth person convicted in the case. In 2023, her son, Charlie, was found guilty of the same three counts for which she was just convicted.

Charlies ex-girlfriend, Katherine Magbanua, and the two men hired to shoot Markel, Luis Rivera and Sigfredo Garcia, were also sentenced to prison.

Wendi and her father, Harvey Adelson, have not been charged in connection with the crime.

Netizens reacted to the jurors account of how the group reached a guilty verdict for Adelson
Charlie Sheen hopes to "reintroduce" himself to fans through his new projects.

Charlie Sheen won't continue to apologise

The 60-year-old actor has grown tired of apologising for his past mistakes and is now focused on the future, hoping that his memoir and his Netflix documentary will encourage people to enjoy his acting work once again.

The Hollywood star - whose new documentary is called aka Charlie Sheen - told Interview magazine: "When people want to talk about the past and all this other frickin s***, Ill be in a place to say, 'Well, you know what? Heres the great news, buddy. You can watch it. You can read it. You can even listen to it. Heres your hat trick of choices'.

"This is not an apology tour. Most of my fifties already were. Its a bit of a reintroduction because, dude, lets face it, theres a lot of people out there that still dont know my movies, dont know the early work, dont know the whole evolution of things. 'Oh, hes the crazy guy with the tiger blood.' I think its a moment to just reintroduce myself to that part of my fan base."

Charlie insists that his documentary only "scratches the surface" of what he's been through in his life.

The controversial actor - who has previously battled drug problems and legal issues - also described his memoir as being "pretty frickin cool".

Charlie - who was the highest-paid actor on TV, before his personal troubles - explained: "The doc is fabulous, and I couldnt be happier with it, but there is a moment where it only scratches the surface of certain stories, where the book then takes you on the rest of the journey with me at the helm, which is pretty frickin cool.

"People are going to say, 'Well, Ive seen the doc. Why should I buy your book?' And Ill say, 'Because theres more to the story.' In fact, theres a quote in the book that says, 'Just because youve reached the bottom of the page doesnt mean youve made it to the end of the story.'"
The sun was getting ready to rise over a rural lake in Green Lake County, Wisconsin, when a sheriff's deputy shined his flashlight inside Ryan Borgwardt's minivan parked just yards away from the water's edge.

There was no one inside the car.

As the deputy took out his binoculars and gazed over the pier to see if he could spot anyone in the distance that morning in August 2024, he almost certainly could not have imagined that not only would Borgwardt not be found stuck in the lake, but would end up being traced across the world to the country of Georgia.

Green Lake County Sheriff's Office - PHOTO: In August 2024, sheriff's deputies could not locate Ryan Borgwardt near this lake in Green Lake County, Wisconsin.

Man who faked death, fled US gets 89 days in jail for the 89 days he was missing

"I guess everything kind of hinged on me dying in the lake," Borgwardt told investigators in a December 2024 interview obtained by ABC News this week.

A husband and father of three, Borgwardt gained national attention last year after disappearing following an apparent trip to the lake to kayak and resurfacing months later in a video recorded in an undisclosed location where he maintained he was safe.

Borgwardt, who could not be reached for comment for this report, pleaded no contest last month to obstructing an officer and was sentenced to 89 days in jail. He also agreed to pay $30,000 in restitution to law enforcement to cover what was spent searching for him and apologized for his actions at his sentencing.

According to law enforcement, Borgwardt texted his wife of 22 years on the day he went kayaking that he was getting ready to head back to shore.

He never made it home that night. A team of first responders eventually found Borgwardt's kayak, but he was nowhere to be found.

Now, hundreds of records released by the Green Lake County Sheriff's Office are shedding light on how Borgwardt made it from that Wisconsin lake all the way to Georgia, where he sought to build a life with a woman he met on the internet, according to prosecutors.

Officials previously declined to release these records to ABC News while the case against Borgwardt was pending.

Green Lake County Sheriff's Office - PHOTO: An undated booking photo of Ryan Borgwardt.

The newly released documents range from receipts for Borgwardt's bus tickets --from Madison, Wisconsin, to Canada's Toronto Pearson International Airport -- to footage of Borgwardt crossing the border into Canada, and communications between American law enforcement and the woman he was in contact with while he was overseas.

"It is extremely important to explain why we want to speak with you," Green Lake County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Matthew Vande Kolk wrote to the woman, who had written in Russian that Ryan had become a good friend of hers over the previous year when she had been going through problems in her life.

"When is the last time that you spoke with Ryan," Vande Kolk asked in one email. "We need to know he is ok."

The communications show that Vande Kolk was ultimately able to get in touch with Borgwardt over email and Telegram, a messaging app.

"I realize I created this mess and now everyone is trying to put the pieces together," Borgwardt wrote in one email to Vande Kolk. "I am really sorry about that. It would have just been much easier if no one looked for me."

In another email, Borgwardt explained how, back in Wisconsin, he made it from the edge of the lake all the way to the bus station in Madison.

Canada Border Services Agency via Green Lake County Sheriff's Office - PHOTO: This surveillance image appears to show Ryan Borgwardt being questioned at the Canadian border in August 2024.

Kayaker who faked death, fled country has returned to US and is in custody in Wisconsin: Officials

"I kayaked out there with my small fishing net," he wrote. "I tossed the phone. I inflated a small child inflatable raft good for about 250 lbs. After flipping the kayak, I spent the next 1 - 2 hours trying to paddle back to shore. (seemed like forever) But the winds, waves and the short "toy" paddles didn't work well that night, but worked enough. I got to shore somewhere across from the area that I parked."

Borgwardt wrote that he then rode an electric bike he had left in the brush for 66 miles.

"No one will truly ever forgot [sic] what I did, even if they somehow forgive me," Borgwardt wrote to Vande Kolk. "I can possibly come back to try and clean up as much as possible."

Borgwardt ultimately made the choice to fly from Batumi, Georgia, back to the United States, where he was ultimately brought in for questioning by the Green Lake County Sheriff's Office.

"I think the only thing I was keeping secret was where I was at," Borgwardt told investigators, according to a video of the interview. "I was adamant not to lie  so I really don't think there's anything that was a lie. I think I just didn't say too much."

ABC News' Mark Guarino contributed to this report.
An image collage containing 3 images, Image 1 shows A shirtless Kohberger salutes with a wound on his left ring finger, Image 2 shows Bryan Kohberger poses shirtless in an undated photo after the Nov. 13, 2022 University of Idaho murders, Image 3 shows Kohberger brutally murdered University of Idaho students Xana Kernoodle, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Ethan Chapin on Nov. 13, 2022

Quadruple murderer Bryan Kohberger snapped several disturbing selfies  including him flexing shirtless with an apparent wound on one of his hands  days after killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022.

Newly released photos obtained by NewsNation on Tuesday recorded a sliver of the convicted killers actions before he was arrested for the gruesome murders of Xana Kernoodle, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Ethan Chapin.

Kohberger gave a two-finger salute on the top of his forehead as his collarbones protruded from his shoulders, according to photos from the Latah County Sheriffs Office, obtained by the outlet.

Bryan Kohberger poses shirtless in an undated photo after the Nov. 13, 2022, University of Idaho murders. NewsNation

A wound on Kohbergers left ring finger is seen in the photo  a potential cut he sustained when one of the students fought back during the fatal home invasion on Nov. 13, 2022, the outlet reported.

No other injuries from the undated photos are visible on the then-Washington State PhD grad student.

The wound was seen in one of two other photos that captured Kohberger shirtless as he showed off his upper body and wore earbuds in various poses.

In a third photo, Kohberger flashed a devilish grin and showed off his teeth as he bizarrely stared directly into the camera, according to an extreme close-up photo from the Latah County Sheriffs Office, obtained by the outlet.

A shirtless Kohberger salutes with a wound on his left ring finger. NewsNation

Kohbergers creepy behavior was well documented during his studies at the Pullman, Wash., school  receiving 13 formal complaints from classmates.

He received his first complaint in his first semester at the school, quickly earning him a reputation for being a dk, members of the WSU community said in unsealed documents and interviews obtained by People.

Several women accused Kohberger of making sexual comments about them, including asking a deaf classmate if she would be comfortable procreating given the fact she had a disability, the outlet reported.

Two other women had reported Kohbergers actions to police, claiming he had been stalking them for months before the grisly murders.

A close-up photo of Kohberger with a devilish grin, showing off his top teeth as he stares into the camera. NewsNation

Kohberger brutally murdered University of Idaho students Xana Kernoodle, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Ethan Chapin on Nov. 13, 2022. Instagram/@kayleegoncalves

The unidentified females told the Idaho State Police that Kohberger would make daily visits to their places of work before he made unexpected home visits, People reported Tuesday.

One woman, then a book store employee, said she was changing in her room when someone knocked on her window.

The frightened woman said she called for her husband, but the mysterious figure ran off.

Another time, after she had started working, she heard someone moving around on her porch at approximately 7:00 in the evening. Her husband came home again and saw a white car leaving the area, the outlet reported, citing police documents.

Kohberger infamously drove a white Hyundai Elantra, a key piece of evidence that investigators used to pin him to the Idaho murder scene.

The second woman, an undergraduate who worked in the criminology department, told police Kohberger made several advances toward her and constantly sought her after work.

Kohberger made eye contact with her when she looked out, which seemed strange because you would have to be looking directly at the window where she worked to make eye contact, the docs stated.

Bryan Kohbergers mugshot inside an Idaho state prison. Idaho Department of Corrections

Bryan Kohberger appears at the Ada County Courthouse during his sentencing hearing on July 23, 2025. KYLE GREEN/POOL/EPA/Shutterstock

Kohberger was arrested at his parents Pennsylvania home on Dec. 30, 2022, over a month after he fatally stabbed the four college students.

He pleaded guilty to the quadruple slaying on July 2, 2025, shortly before he was expected to face trial.

Part of the plea deal guaranteed he wouldnt face a firing squad, and instead was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences, plus 10 years for a single count of burglary.
Before the U.S. became a nation, before the Founding Fathers debated independence or drew state lines, cities were already rising. Some were even mapped and inhabited. This list isnt just about which city came first. Its about how places we now consider modern grew out of centuries of conflict and survived.

Each city here reveals a different chapter in the messy, fascinating story of what eventually became the United States.

Savannah, Georgia (1733)

Credit: Getty Images

Planned from the beginning, Savannahs grid layout and public squares were revolutionary for their time. Its founder, James Oglethorpe, laid out leafy public squares and organized streets in tidy grids. That deliberate design helped it grow into Georgias colonial capital and a thriving port.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1682)

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Philadelphia, launched as a haven for Quakers, became the birthplace of American independence, hosting the signing of both the Declaration and Constitution. Its surviving colonial layout and architecture now act as a living museum, where historic ideas still echo along its original cobblestone streets.

Charleston, South Carolina (1670)

Credit: Getty Images

Charlestons early economy was powered by rice, indigo, and a harbor that didnt quit. It was built by English settlers and shaped by wealth and preservation. Today, layers of past stories are still visible in its buildings.

Newport, Rhode Island (1639)

Credit: Getty Images

Newports founding story is all about exile. It was built by religious outcasts who turned it into a booming seaport with unexpected staying power. It also housed one of Americas oldest synagogues and profited from the slave trade. Later came Gilded Age mansions, but their oldest stories go deeper.

Boston, Massachusetts (1630)

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Puritan settlers founded Boston on a narrow peninsula, and it quickly grew into the political and intellectual center of New England. Events like the Boston Tea Party helped ignite the Revolutionary War. Today, sites like the Freedom Trail and Boston Common trace their pivotal role in shaping American identity.

Weymouth, Massachusetts (1622)

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The first version of Weymouth, back when it was called Wessagusset, fell apart fast. Starvation and confusion led to a total collapse until a second group tried again in 1623. That one stuck. Eventually absorbed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Weymouth quietly remains one of the first English attempts to build a lasting settlement.

Plymouth, Massachusetts (1620)

Credit: Canva

The Mayflower anchored near a rocky shore, and the Pilgrims stepped into an unfamiliar land. Plymouth marks the beginning of permanent English settlement in New England. Its early years were fragile, shaped by cooperation and conflict with Indigenous peoples. The colony held on, staying independent until it merged with Massachusetts Bay in 1691.

Jersey City, New Jersey (1617)

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Long before it was packed with PATH trains and skyscrapers, Jersey City was a Dutch outpost known as Paulus Hook. Though the city wasnt officially incorporated until 1838, Dutch settlers were doing business here over 200 years earlier. Its waterfront beginnings often get overlooked, but the date still holds weight.

Albany, New York (1614)

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Albany began as a Dutch fur trading post called Fort Nassau. Its strategic location along the Hudson River made it an important economic and military site. After English takeover, Albany became the New York State capital in 1797. Its history remains visible in its architecture and city layout.

Hampton, Virginia (1610)

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Initially known as Point Comfort, Hampton served as a key defensive outpost for English settlers. It maintained its military relevance through the Civil War and remains home to active military installations today. As one of the longest continuously occupied English-speaking settlements, it holds a vital place in early U.S. history.

Santa Fe, New Mexico (1607)

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People had been living in the Santa Fe area long before 1607, but thats when Spanish colonists started laying formal foundations. It officially became the capital in 1610 and has never looked back. Its streets and buildings reflect Pueblo and Spanish roots, with the adobe structures still shaped by that fusion.

Jamestown, Virginia (1607)

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Jamestown started with starvation, disease, and serious conflict, but somehow, it held on. Backed by the Virginia Company, it became the first permanent English settlement in North America. Though abandoned in time, Jamestown set the tone for English colonization and left behind a site rich in artifacts.

New York City, New York (1624)

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Before the skyscrapers and yellow taxis, New York was Dutch and called New Amsterdam. Built as a trading post, it passed into British hands in 1664 and eventually grew into the nations biggest city. The angled streets of Lower Manhattan still betray its Dutch design, hiding centuries of growth in their geometry.

New Orleans, Louisiana (1718)

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Founded by the French and shaped by the Spanish, New Orleans has always been more than one thing. Its early growth centered on the Mississippi River and its ability to move goods fast. Creole culture and deep musical roots started here, in a city never afraid of reinvention.

St. Augustine, Florida (1565)

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The Spanish got here first and stayed. St. Augustine, founded by Pedro Menendez de Aviles, is the oldest continuously occupied European-established city in the continental U.S. It has lived many lives: Spanish colony, military post, refuge for free Black settlers, and tourist site. Forts and missions still stand where it all began.
Alan Singer/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty; Santiago Felipe/Getty Malcolm-Jamal Warner as Theo Huxtable (left) and in 2024.

NEED TO KNOW

Malcolm-Jamal Warner played Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show from 1984 to 1992

The actor discusses his eight seasons on the NBC sitcom in the new HBO documentary Seen & Heard

Warner died in August at age 54

Before his tragic death by drowning in Costa Rica at age 54 in July, The Cosby Show alum Malcolm-Jamal Warner shared some memories about working on the landmark NBC sitcom from 1984 to 1992.

The actor was interviewed for the two-part HBO documentary Seen & Heard, which premieres Sept. 9 and 10. Executive produced by Issa Rae, the documentary, which charts the past, present and future of Black talent and Black programming on television, airs over two nights, with the first episode, "Seen," debuting on HBO Sept. 9 at 9 p.m. ET and the second episode, "Heard," dropping the following day at the same time.

Assorted Black creatives, including Oprah Winfrey, Tracee Ellis Ross, Debbie Allen, Shonda Rhimes, Tyler Perry and Rae herself appear over the course of both episodes, as does Warner, in a segment focused on The Cosby Show. He talks about how a tense early interaction with Bill Cosby influenced his work on the show.

"When I auditioned for Cosby, I was 13," recalls Warner, who played the only Huxtable son, Theo. "I'd been watching, you know, Diff'rent Strokes and watching these kids on television be smart alecks and what have you. That's what my acting had been influenced by."



Nbc-Tv/Kobal/Shutterstock From left: Phylicia Rashad, Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Bill Cosby on 'The Cosby Show'

The audition went well  or so he thought. "I mean, I killed in the room. I was getting the laughs, and I'm 13, I'm killing in the room. And I finished my audition, and everybody was smiling, except Mr. Cosby, and he looked at me, and he said, 'Would you really talk to your father like that?' And I said, 'No.' He said, 'Well, I don't want to see that on this show.' "

Throughout the sitcom's run, Warner recalls, Cosby fought with executives over the tone of the show as he fought for it to stay true to his vision. "Mr. Cosby made certain that everyone was acutely aware The Cosby Show was his brainchild," Warner says. "But then you have these other creatives, you know, there's a network producer, writers, you know, studio coming in, trying to tell him how to do his show, and every step of the way, Mr. Cosby had to stop them and remind them that's not the show that we're doing."

Frank Carroll/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty The cast of 'The Cosby Show' in season 1.

It was a fight Cosby had to wage and win over and over. "I watched him do that from year one to year eight," Warner adds. "That battle never, never stopped, until the show stopped."

For Warner, the response from fans made the effort worthwhile. "I was getting tens of thousands of letters from people who were saying, 'Thank you. Thank you for the show. We are the Huxtables,' and you know, and the show obviously got criticized for not being Black enough, not being a real depiction of the black experience," he says in the documentary.

Despite Cosby's good intentions with his namesake sitcom, his own actions would ultimately destroy his reputation and tarnish the show's legacy. After a number of women came forward and accused him of sexual assault over the span of decades, he faced charges of drugging and sexually assaulting one of his accusers, was convicted in 2018 and sentenced to up to 10 years in prison. He was released in 2021 after serving nearly three years because a previous district attorney had made a non-prosecution agreement with Cosby in exchange for his testimony in a civil case against him.

Michael Abbott/Getty Bill Cosby after his release from prison in 2021.

In 2023, Warner told PEOPLE that Cosby's legal troubles and the 88 year old's persona non grata status in Hollywood didn't change the way he viewed the show that made him a child star.

Regardless of how some people may feel about the show now," he said, "Im still proud of the legacy and having been a part of such an iconic show that had such a profound impact on  first and foremost, Black culture  but also American culture."

The first episode of Seen & Heard premieres on HBO Sept. 9 at 9 p.m. ET. Part 2 debuts Sept. 10 at 9 p.m. ET.

Read the original article on People
FILE - Members of the Vancouver Police forensics team examines the scene where a vehicle drove into a crowd during a Filipino heritage festival in Vancouver, Canada, April 27, 2025. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP)  A Canadian judge ruled Wednesday that the man accused of killing 11 people by ramming his sport utility vehicle into a crowd during a Filipino heritage festival is mentally fit to stand trial.

Kai-Ji Adam Lo, 30, faces multiple counts of second-degree murder in the tragedy that struck the Lapu Lapu Day Street festival in Vancouver, British Columbia, on April 26. Dozens of people were also injured.

Police said Wednesday that Lo has been charged with 31 additional counts of attempted murder.

Hes able to conduct his defense, said Provincial Court Judge Reg Harris in announcing his decision. He knows the nature and the consequences of the proceedings. He is able and willing to communicate with his lawyer.

Harris made his ruling after listening to legal arguments from defense lawyer Mark Swartz and Crown prosecutor Michaela Donnelly. Two forensic psychiatrists were called as expert witnesses during the fitness hearings held in the past two months.

Appearing via video link from a forensic psychiatric facility, Lo wore a blue sweatshirt and occasionally rubbed his eyes as he looked into the camera.

Harris ordered Lo remain at the facility.

Isabel Grant, a professor at the Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, said Los defense attorney can still argue he is not criminally responsible (NCR), even though he was found fit to stand trial.

They are looking at two different things and they are looking at two different points in time, said Grant.

Fitness is looking at...his mental state at the time of the trial and whether he is able to participate in his trial. NCR is looking at his mental state at the time of the crimes. Did he appreciate the consequences of his actions, that driving into a group of people was going to cause their deaths. Did he know that driving into these victims was something that society would think he ought not to do.

Kristina Corpin-Moser, executive director of Filipino BC, a nonprofit that seeks to foster Filipino Canadian heritage, welcomed the decision.

I think this is a ruling that many in the community were hoping for, Corpin-Moser said outside the courthouse. It brings a great deal of relief."

Vancouver Chief Constable Steve Rai said the additional 31 charges were in relation to the surviving victims of the attack.

This is another step towards answers and accountability in one of the most horrific incidents our city has ever faced, Rai said in a news release.
A New York City man with a history of committing violent crimes is suspected of killing an elderly couple in Queens before setting their house on fire, police said.

A manhunt was underway Wednesday morning for Jamel McGriff, who is wanted in the deaths of Frank Olton, 76, and his wife, Maureen Olton, 77. Authorities said McGriff went to the couples home on Monday morning, claiming that his cell phone battery was dead and he needed a place to charge it.

Video showed McGriff talking to Frank Olton before he was allowed into the couples backyard, New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference on Tuesday.

Jamel McGriff. (via NYPD)

Frank Olton and McGriff are then seen walking into the home through the back door, Tisch said. Video showed McGriff leaving the home about five hours later, carrying a duffel bag and a paper bag, she told reporters.

The citys fire department was called to the home around 3:22 p.m., shortly after McGriff left, for a report of a fire. Police said that the couples son, a New York City Fire Department paramedic, received an alert from his parents security company about a fire at the home.

Tisch said that the bodies of Frank and Maureen Olton were found in the home after the fire was controlled. Frank Olton was located in the basement, tied to a pole with multiple stab wounds, she said.

Maureen Olton was found on the first floor severely burned, the commissioner said. The exact causes of death are still under investigation.

Police said there is no known connection between the suspect and the victims, and before going to the Oltons home, McGriff went to another nearby home but was not let inside.

The suspects M.O. is to go door to door asking for some kind of assistance until he can gain entry, Tisch warned. So do not allow anyone you dont know or who you are not expecting into your home.

Police said anyone with information on McGriffs whereabouts is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.

If anyone sees Mr. McGriff, please do not approach him and call 911 right away. Again, this individual should be considered armed and dangerous, the commissioner said.

McGriff was last seen on video on Tuesday wearing a black T-shirt, pawning two cell phones in the Bronx.

At the time of the killings, McGriff, 42, was out on parole after serving 16 years for a 2006 robbery, police said. Tisch said that McGriff has a lengthy, violent criminal history that dates back 30 years.

He was wanted by the New York City Police Department for robberies that occurred in Manhattan over the summer. In July, he allegedly committed an armed robbery at a GameStop, according to police. A month later, he allegedly tried to rob a Verizon store employee. Police alleged that McGriff asked to see merchandise before forcing the worker into a backroom. The employee noticed that the firearm McGriff had appeared to be fake and fought him off, authorities said.

He also failed to register as a sex offender in November 2024, which should have violated his parole, Tisch said.

McGriff is currently being sought by the New York City police and the regional Fugitive Task Force.
Former Brevard County school board member Jennifer Jenkins is running for the Senate in Florida as a Democrat. (Craig Bailey / Florida Today via USA Today Network file)

Democrat Jennifer Jenkins has beaten high-profile political opponents in the past.

During her 2020 run for a school board seat in a conservative-leaning southeast Florida county, Jenkins won by 10 percentage points over Republican Tina Descovich, who would go on to become a co-founder of Moms for Liberty, an influential national education group focused on parental choice.

The win, especially by a double-digit margin, was considered a significant upset at the time.

Jenkins will try to once again play political spoiler during the 2026 midterms.

On Wednesday, she is announcing her bid for the Senate against Sen. Ashley Moody, a Republican who was appointed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in January and quickly endorsed by President Donald Trump.

Republicans have built a more than 1 million-person voter registration advantage in Florida  once the countrys largest swing state  and are expected to have a heavy cash advantage over Democrats heading into the midterms, a dynamic Jenkins said she is prepared to go up against.

I think being a nontraditional candidate who understands the struggles everyday people are going through will resonate across party lines, Jenkins told NBC News. I think Democrats have conceded certain [conservative] parts of the state. ... I think that is a really, obviously, a bad choice.

Republican Party of Florida Chairman Evan Power slammed Jenkins' record on a series of education-related culture war fights shortly after she entered the race.

"The best the @FlaDems could do is @Jenkins4Florida for Senate who stands for Forced Masking of Kids, Men in Women's Sports, Men in Women's Restrooms," he posted on X. "If parents dared to question her judgement she called them 'domestic terrorists.'"

NBC News reached out to Moody's campaign and Moms for Liberty for comment.

The year Jenkins won her Brevard County school board seat by 10 points, Trump won the county by nearly 17 points, which she said speaks to political crossover appeal in a state where Democrats have not won a Senate race since former Sen. Bill Nelsons re-election in 2012.

Jenkins, 38, a teacher, has been increasingly involved in statewide Democratic politics in recent years. She considered running against former Sen. Marco Rubio in 2022 and has become an increasing presence in Democratic politics, notably playing Rep. Katie Britt, R-Ala., in a Saturday Night Live-style skit at the partys statewide convention last year.

But she enters the race already at a disadvantage.

Moody has more than $2.2 million in the bank and the universal support of the White House and the Republican establishment in Florida. The Republican National Committee this month also used a little-known rule that will allow it to begin spending money on Moodys behalf during what would normally be considered primary season. Moody is not expected to face significant Republican opposition.

The uphill climb is made steeper for Jenkins by the fact that national Democrats, including the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, have generally abandoned Florida after more than a decade of stinging, expensive losses in the state.

That drop-off was evident over the past two midterm election cycles. In 2018, national Democrats groups spent nearly $60 million in Florida, a number that dropped to less than $2 million in 2022  when Rubio easily won re-election.

I am always going to advocate for more support, Jenkins said. I have been in contact with the DSCC in hopes to convince them it is worth their time.

She said a win over Moody would send shock waves and reshape how national Democrats view Florida after years of disappointment.

Jenkins' political rise in the state has largely been based on her advocacy for public schools and high-profile fights with Moms for Liberty, including creating her own political organization after having served one year as a school board member.

The group, Educated We Stand, was set up to fight what Jenkins called the attempted conservative takeover of state school boards. During the 2024 election cycle, the group raised $375,000; it was active in Florida, Wisconsin and Michigan; and it won nearly 80% of the races it endorsed in.

Obviously, I have been an advocate for public education the past five years, she said. It will be a focus of this campaign. Right now we have Linda McMahon in charge of our Department of Education, who willingly states she will dismantle it.

She also said her experience having to work a second job to supplement her teaching salary gives her insight into the economy and issues of affordability that career politicians cannot relate to, which she hopes helps make further inroads with people who may generally not vote for Democrats.

They dont understand what it feels like, she said. As an educator in the lowest-paid state [for teachers] in the country, I know what its like to hustle to pay the bills.:done4:
WCNC/Charlotte Area Transit System

The suspect in the grisly slaying of a young woman on a Charlotte, North Carolina, light rail train now faces a federal charge in a case that has turned into a political lightning rod in the country where she had come to seek safety.

Iryna Zarutska fled Ukraine in 2022 with her mother, sister, and brother to escape the war with Russia and she quickly embraced her new life in the United States, her obituary states.

But on the night of August 22, moments after she texted her boyfriend to say she would be home soon, a man sitting behind her on the train stabbed her three times in the throat in an unprovoked attack.

Iryna Zarutska posted this photo to her Instagram page on June 9, 2025. She was fatally stabbed two months later on a light rail train in Charlotte, North Carolina. - from Iryna Zarutska/Instagram

The suspect, 34-year-old Decarlos Brown, had a long rap sheet and now faces a state charge of first-degree murder and a federal charge of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system.

The federal charge comes with the possibility of the death penalty  a punishment President Donald Trump said he supports in this case. Prosecutors were still investigating, the US attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, Russ Ferguson, said Tuesday.

Democratic and Republican leaders have traded barbs over whom or what is to blame in this case  and for violence nationwide. The debate simmers against the backdrop of the Trump administration vowing to fight crime by deploying federal troops in predominantly Democratic cities.

Heres what we know about the case polarizing opinion across the country.

Death penalty on the table as officials trade blame

While the attack occurred last month, the case reached a national audience last week with the release of surveillance video showing the killing.

In the wake of the killing, Charlottes Democratic mayor, Vi Lyles, initially released a statement that did not significantly address the victim and instead focused on offering empathy to the suspect and addressing homelessness and mental illness. A follow-up statement notably thanked the media outlets for not sharing video of the stabbing.

But under mounting criticism and after the videos released by transit officials, the mayor this week released another statement that blamed the attack on a tragic failure by the courts and magistrates and announced increased security on the transit system.

We need a bipartisan solution to address repeat offenders who do not face consequences for their actions and those who cannot get treatment for their mental illness and are allowed to be on the streets, Lyles wrote.

On Wednesday morning, North Carolina Republicans, including from its 12th congressional district, spoke at a light rail station in Charlotte to criticize what they called the soft on crime politics in the Democratic-led city.

Remember, Iryna Zarutska survived in Ukraine in a bomb shelter, said Kyle Kirby, chair of the Mecklenburg County Republican Party. In war-torn Ukraine, she made her way from that country to Charlotte, seeking refuge and promise, and she was given the edge of a knife.

Local, state and national Republicans have accused Lyles and other Democrats who lead Charlotte of installing criminal justice policies at the expense of public safety. They said a man with Browns record shouldnt have been on the streets at all.

The US Department of Transportation on Wednesday opened an investigation into the light rail transit system in Charlotte to determine whether they are taking the necessary actions to keep riders and transit workers safe.

In response, the Charlotte Area Transportation System said it remains fully committed to working collaboratively with our local, state, and federal partners. These relationships are essential to our mission, and we value the trust and cooperation they represent as we continue working together to support our regions transit system.

The mayor said Wednesday the transportation system will add 30 more security personnel and will deploy new security teams including bike patrols and urban terrain vehicles in the coming weeks.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said hes investigating the possibility of cutting federal funding from Charlottes light rail system.

I cant pull money today from their transit system, Duffy told Fox News Sean Hannity on Monday. We start that investigation tomorrow, and I guarantee all your viewers that if I find what I think Im going to find, they are not going to have your federal tax dollars going to their public transportation system.

Suspect said victim was reading my mind, his sister says

For years, loved ones struggled to find the defendant in the case the care he needed, family members said.

Decarlos Brown is charged with murder for the death of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska. - Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office

Brown had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and suffered hallucinations and paranoia, his sister Tracey Brown said. She said her brother told her multiple times the government had implanted a chip in him.

I knew he was battling something, but I wanted to know what it was, she said.

Brown was sometimes aggressive and attacked his sister in 2022, Tracey Brown told CNN. Though her brother was arrested that night, she decided to drop the charges out of concern for his mental health issues.

But it wasnt Browns only run-in with the law. He has several convictions on his record, including for armed robbery, felony larceny and breaking and entering.

Brown spent more than five years behind bars for robbery with a dangerous weapon, state records show. After he was released in 2020, he didnt seem like himself and struggled to hold conversations and jobs, his sister told CNN.

Their mother had tried to get him placed in a long-term facility, Tracey Brown told CNN, but her attempts failed because she wasnt his guardian. She said she talked to her brother after his arrest and asked him why he attacked the woman on the train.

Because she was reading my mind, he told her.

His January release stokes controversy

Earlier this year, Brown was charged with misuse of 911, a class 1 misdemeanor, after he allegedly asked officers to investigate a man-made material that controlled when he ate, walked and talked, court documents state.

Officers told Brown the issue was a medical issue, and there was nothing more they could do. Brown became upset and called 911, the records state.

A condition of his release was his written promise to appear for his next hearing, according to court records. The White House said his release left him free to slaughter an innocent woman just months later.

CNN has reached out to Browns public defender, the Mecklenburg County District Attorneys Office and the magistrate judge who ordered his release for comment.

Mecklenburg County Chief District Court Judge Roy Wiggins said he would be reviewing local bond policy as a result of the case, according to a letter addressed to North Carolinas Republican Congressional delegation and obtained by CNN affiliate WBTV.

Wiggins also wrote he would evaluate to make sure procedures were followed properly.

Wiggins letter was in response to a Tuesday request by North Carolinas Congressional delegation calling for the removal of the magistrate judge who allowed Browns release.

Furthermore, I, along with other leaders in our system, intend to continue to educate our magistrates on the impact of their decisions regarding pretrial conditions of release as set out in NCGS 15A-535.

Even though Charlottes mid-year stats show a 25% decrease in violent crime compared to the same time last year, Trump said North Carolina needs reform.

North Carolina, and every State, needs LAW AND ORDER, and only Republicans will deliver it!, Trump said on Truth Social.

The refugee had a heart of gold

From Ukraine to the US, those who knew Zarutska said she brimmed with potential. The talented artist quickly became fluent in English, found work at a pizzeria and dreamed of becoming a veterinary assistant.

Zarutska graduated from Synergy College in Kyiv with a degree in art and restoration, her obituary says.

She shared her creativity generously, gifting family and friends with her artwork. She loved sculpting and designing unique, eclectic clothing that reflected her vibrant spirit.

Zarutska also had a deep love for animals, the tribute states. She often cared for her neighbors pets, and many fondly remember seeing her walking them through the neighborhood, always with her radiant smile.

She attended Rowan-Cabarrus Community College from 2023 to 2025, a spokesperson told CNN. She was also a beloved coworker at Zepeddies Pizzeria.

We lost not only an incredible employee, but a true friend, the restaurant posted on social media. Iryna, we miss you more than words can say.

Despite the horrors of war in her home country, Zarutska just had a heart of gold, a family friend told CNN affiliate WCNC.

She was always very helpful, very supportive, said the friend, identified only as Lonnie. She was a sweetheart. And it makes me sick to think that shes gone.

Lonnie described the daily bombing Zarutska endured in Ukraine and the agony of not knowing if youre going to live or breathe another day. But no one expected Zarutska to die so young in Charlotte. Its very, very sickening and sad that we have such evil in our society today, Lonnie said.

Zarutska was a kind, hardworking young woman who had built a new life in Charlotte, her family said in a statement.

We are heartbroken beyond words. Iryna came here to find peace and safety, and instead her life was stolen from her in the most horrific way, a family spokesperson said. No family should have to go through this.

The grieving family is now demanding change, citing a lack of visible or effective security on the Charlotte Area Transportation System Blue Line. CNN has reached out to CATS for comment.

The family also called for a full investigation into her death, for city officials to enact reforms and for the media to stop spreading footage of the stabbing.

This could have been anyone riding the light rail that night, the family said. We are committed to making sure this never happens again.

CNNs Mia Blackman, Sophia Peyser, Dianne Gallagher and Eric Levenson contributed to this report.

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Stuart Craig, the acclaimed production designer behind the Harry Potter films, has died aged 83.

Stuart Craig, the acclaimed production designer behind the Harry Potter films, has died aged 83

His passing comes after a 14-year battle with Parkinsons disease, with his family confirming in a statement he passed away peacefully at home on Sunday (06.09.25), with his death only coming to light on Wednesday.

Born 14 April 1942, Stuart worked on all eight of the Harry Potter films and was widely credited with bringing J K Rowlings wizarding world to life on screen.

In their tribute, his family said: Our beloved husband and father, deeply loved and respected, was not only known for his talent but also for his kindness and we are moved by hearing of how many lives he touched. He will live on in our hearts forever.

Stuarts career spanned more than five decades and also included Oscar-winning work on Gandhi (1982), Dangerous Liaisons (1988) and The English Patient (1996.)

He received three Academy Awards in total and was nominated eight more times, including four for the Harry Potter series. He also earned 16 BAFTA nominations, winning three.

Neil Lamont, a fellow production designer who was mentored by Stuart, shared his tribute through the British Film Designers Guild.

He said: It is with great sadness that I report that my friend and mentor, production designer Stuart Craig passed away last night, 7th September 2025, aged 83, following a long battle with Parkinsons disease.

Stuart and I first worked together on The English Patient, flying to Tunis to join him was one of the most important days of my career.

Straight out of the airport, on a recce of a local derelict, ruined building, 40 degrees, nervous, and I probably did one of the poorest surveys ever on a location. It turned out that we subsequently found better places.

The experiences I had on this film, not only allowed me to see Stuarts talent, his beautiful sketches, pencil drawings and vision, but also the way (in) which he conducted himself in all walks of life, in the studio, the car, restaurants.

A true gentleman, with grace, kindness and humility.

David Heyman, producer of the Harry Potter films, added: Stuart Craig was one of the greatest production designers to work in film. He was also the kindest, most generous and supportive man. He had exquisite taste and a wonderful sense of story. He also had the extraordinary ability to bring out the very best in everyone around him. It was a privilege to work with him, and to be in his orbit.

David Yates, who directed the final four Harry Potter instalments, said: Stuart was a dear friend and colleague: he was a giant in our industry, graceful, talented, stubborn and always nurturing and supporting emerging design talent. We will all miss him a great deal.

Stuart, who married Patricia Stangroom in 1965, is survived by her, their daughters Becky and Laura, and four grandchildren.

He frequently collaborated with set decorator Stephenie McMillan, who died in 2013, on the design of the Harry Potter sets.
REUTERS/Tom Brenner

Oracle's stock surged as much as 43% on Wednesday, hitting a record high.

Investors responded positively to an aggressive forecast for Oracle's cloud-computing business.

The company is showing Wall Street it can compete with Amazon and Microsoft in the AI race.

Oracle's stock is in uncharted territory.

Shares of the software giant stock surged as much as 43% on Wednesday after the company issued a blockbuster outlook for its AI-driven cloud-computing business. It marked the company's biggest single-day percentage gain since 1992.

Oracle CEO Safra Catz said during an analyst call on Tuesday that the company signed four multi-billion-dollar contracts with three different customers during the fiscal first quarter. That brought a measure of bookings to $455 billion, quadruple where it was a year before.

Catz added that the company expects Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to see revenue increase 77% to $18 billion from the previous year, and issued an aggressive forecast for the figure to hit $144 billion by 2030.

The bullish outlook has thrust Oracle firmly into the elite group of cloud-computing titans battling it out in the race for AI supremacy, a list that also includes Amazon, Microsoft, and Google.

Analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence pointed out that the company's backlog of $455 billion is roughly four times that of Google, suggesting that Oracle's "cloud-growth rate is poised to surpass" Google's.

Catz said that the company also expects to sign several additional multi-billion-dollar contracts with customers in the next few months, which would push the value of future contracts to over half a trillion dollars. She did not name Oracle's clients, but major contracts that have been made public over the past quarter include one with the Department of Agriculture in April.

Oracle's Cloud revenue is still much smaller compared to that of the largest industry leaders. Microsoft's Azure cloud computing platform brought in $75 billion over the past year, while Amazon Web Services generated nearly $112 billion.

"We expect MultiCloud revenue to grow substantially every quarter for several years as we deliver another 37 data centers to our three Hyperscaler partners, for a total of 71," said Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, during the earnings call.

The stock rally is one of Oracle's largest since its founding in 1977. The company's upswing comes as it continues its bet on cloud infrastructure and its access to Nvidia GPUs, which gives it strong processing power. At the open, Oracle shares will be up more than 90% this year.

In July, Oracle signed a deal with OpenAI to develop 4.5 gigawatts of US data center capacity, as part of the Project Stargate supported by the Trump administration. Oracle also brought OpenAI's GPT-5 model into its applications in August and plans to launch an Oracle AI Database service by October, which will let clients run AI models directly on their own data.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport along the Potomac River as seen from the Washington Monument. - Kevin Carter/Getty Images/File

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating after a regional jet was forced to abort its landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and circle the airport when pilots spotted an airport vehicle on the runway.

American Airlines Flight 4528, operated by Republic Airways, was arriving from Detroit around 7 a.m. Monday when the pilot noticed the potential hazard.

Tower, is there a vehicle on (runway) 33? the pilot asked the air traffic controller according to audio archived by the website LiveATC.net.

Affirmative. Go around, the controller responded.

Less than 12 seconds later, the vehicle was off the runway, but the plane had already started circling the airport. It landed safely about 15 minutes later.

The go-around was ordered because maintenance crews were inspecting the runway, the FAA said in a statement.

Tracking data from the website Flightradar24 shows the plane was only 150 feet above the ground and about three-quarters of a mile away from the end of the runway when it aborted the landing.

The incident is the latest close call at Washingtons Reagan National Airport since the beginning of the year.

In January, 67 people were killed when an American Airlines regional jet, operated by PSA Airlines, was landing on runway 33 when an Army Black Hawk helicopter on a training mission collided with it.

The busy airspace around the airport has been under intense scrutiny following the midair collision. A helicopter route was ultimately closed, air traffic control staffing changed, and new rules imposed.

Still, in March, a collision alarm sounded in the cockpit of a Delta Air Lines jet when Air Force jets conducting a flyover at Arlington National Cemetery got too close, and in May, an Army helicopter circling the neighboring Pentagon, caused two passenger jets to abort landings.

CNNs Alexandra Skores contributed to this report.

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(COLORADO SPRINGS)  The community at Bear Creek Assisted & Senior Living got to celebrate National Alzheimers Awareness Month and National Assisted Living Week in a special way on Tuesday, Sept. 9, when a petting zoo from Wishing Star Farms visited.

Bear Creek Senior Living is a local memory care community in Colorado Springs with the mission to change the way society views people living with Alzheimers and other forms of dementia, in an environment where residents can live full and engaging lives.

Courtesy: FOX21 News Photojournalist Dennison Howard

Courtesy: FOX21 News Photojournalist Dennison Howard

Courtesy: FOX21 News Photojournalist Dennison Howard

During the event, the residents had the chance to interact with two goats, a sheep, a llama, a donkey, and a pony, bringing back tactile memories and a sense of joy and belonging.

It brings back memories for residents from their childhood when theyve grown up on the farm, said Brenda Vigil, Memory Director at Bear Creek Senior Living. And its really just a joy to see the joy on our residents faces, seeing those animals and being able to touch them and feel them and be part of the event itself.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX21 News Colorado.
FOLKSTON, Ga. (AP)  A South Korean charter plane arrived in Atlanta on Wednesday to take home Korean workers detained in an immigration raid in Georgia last week. Its planned return the same day was canceled, and South Korea's Foreign Ministry later said the flight would take place Thursday at noon, without giving further details.

A total of 475 workers, more than 300 of them South Koreans, were rounded up in the Sept. 4 raid at the battery factory under construction at Hyundais sprawling auto plant. U.S. authorities released video showing some being shackled with chains around their hands, ankles and waists, causing shock and a sense of betrayal among many in South Korea, a key U.S. ally.

South Koreas government later said it reached an agreement with the U.S. for the release of the workers.

Workers expected to be brought back home after days of detention

South Korean TV footage showed the charter plane, a Boeing 747-8i from Korean Air, taking off at Incheon International Airport, just west of Seoul, and it landed in Atlanta on Wednesday morning.

The Foreign Ministry said the plane was not able to depart from the U.S. the same day, as South Korea wished, due to an unspecified reason involving the U.S. side.

During a visit to Washington on Wednesday, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun met U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and told him that his country's people were left with big pains and shocks because the video of the workers' arrests was publicly disclosed, his ministry said in a statement.

Cho called for the U.S. administration to help the workers leave as soon as possible  without being handcuffed  and to make sure they do not face problems in future reentry to the U.S., the statement said.

The workers were being held at an immigration detention center in Folkston, in southeast Georgia. South Korean media reported that they would be freed and bused 285 miles (460 kilometers) to Atlanta to take the charter plane. Three empty buses were parked at the detention center.

South Korean officials said they have been negotiating with the U.S. to win voluntary departures of the workers, rather than deportations that could result in making them ineligible to return to the U.S. for up to 10 years.

The workplace raid by the U.S. Homeland Security agency was its largest yet as it pursues its mass deportation agenda. The Georgia battery plant, a joint venture between Hyundai and LG Energy Solution, is one of more than 20 major industrial sites that South Korean companies are currently building in the United States.

Many South Koreans view the raid as a source of national disgrace and remain stunned by it. Only 10 days earlier, President Lee Jae Myung and U.S. President Donald Trump held their first summit in Washington, on Aug. 25. In late July, South Korea also promised hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. investments to reach a tariff deal.

Experts say Seoul is not likely to take any major retaliatory steps against the U.S., but the raid could become a source of tensions between the allies.

South Korea calls for improvement in US visa systems

U.S. authorities said some of the detained workers had illegally crossed the U.S. border, while others entered legally but had expired visas or entered on visa waivers that prohibited them from working.

But South Korean experts and officials said Washington has yet to act on Seouls yearslong demand to ensure a visa system to accommodate skilled Korean workers, though it has been pressing South Korea to expand industrial investments in the U.S.

South Korean companies have been relying on short-term visitor visas or Electronic System for Travel Authorization to send workers who are needed to launch manufacturing sites and handle other setup tasks, a practice that had been largely tolerated for years.

LG Energy Solution, which employed most of the detained workers, instructed its South Korean employees in the U.S. on B-1 or B-2 short-term visit visas not to report to work until further notice and told those with ESTAs to return home immediately.

During his meeting with Rubio, Cho proposed the creation of a joint South Korea-U.S. working group to introduce a new visa category for South Korean workers, according to his ministry.

Cho met the previous day with representatives of major Korean companies operating in the U.S. including Hyundai, LG and Samsung. Cho told them South Korean officials are in active discussions with U.S. officials and lawmakers about possible legislation to create a separate visa quota for South Korean professionals, according to the ministry.

Trump said this week that the workers were here illegally and that the U.S. needs to work with other countries to have their experts train U.S. citizens to do specialized work such as battery and computer manufacturing.

Atlanta immigration attorney Charles Kuck, who represents several of the detained South Koreans, told The Associated Press that no company in the U.S. makes the machines used in the Georgia battery plant. So they had to come from abroad to install or repair equipment on-site  work that would take about three to five years to train someone in the U.S. to do, he said.

The South Korea-U.S. military alliance, forged in blood during the 1950-53 Korean War, has experienced ups and downs over the decades. But surveys have shown a majority of South Koreans support the alliance, as the U.S. deployment of 28,500 troops in South Korea and 50,000 in Japan has served as the backbone of the American military presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

During a Cabinet Council meeting on Tuesday, Lee said he felt big responsibility over the raid and expressed hopes that the operations of South Korean businesses will not be infringed upon unfairly again. ___

Hyung-jin Kim and Kim Tong-hyung reported from Seoul, South Korea. Associated Press writer Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed.
LONDON -- The shooting down of multiple drones over Poland on Tuesday night into Wednesday came after months of sporadic violations of NATO airspace by Russian drones and other munitions.

The repeated incursions have prompted questions all along NATOs eastern flank as to how allies should handle the threat of Russias long-range strike capabilities, which are continuously evolving with deadly effect during Moscows war in Ukraine.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at least 19 Russian drones entered the country's airspace, of which at least three were shot down.

The country's military command described the violations as "unprecedented," saying they amounted to "an act of aggression that posed a real threat to the safety of our citizens."

Indeed, the incursions represent a major escalation in tensions along NATO's eastern border. Previous airspace violations have been sporadic, most often involving single drones or missiles. The mass entry of Russian craft on Tuesday night into Wednesday hinted at a new era in the standoff between Brussels and Moscow.

MORE: NATO downs Russian drones over Poland after 'unprecedented' aggression

Current and former national defense officials from Baltic countries told ABC News that their countries were also taking steps to prepare for potential Russian drones over their territories. Those interviews took place prior to Polands action on early on Wednesday.

It is unclear whether Wednesdays or other previous airspace violations were intentional. Russian and Ukrainian drones both routinely go off course due to electronic warfare measures employed by both sides.

But the Polish military on Wednesday accused Moscow of an "act of aggression." European Union foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas said the incursions appeared to be "intentional, not accidental."

Evgeniy Maloletka/AP - PHOTO: A Shahed drone flies during a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sept. 7, 2025.

Lithuania was already "ready" to shoot down any more drones that enter its airspace, the country's defense minister told ABC News last month.

In July, two Russian Gerbera drones -- one of which was carrying more than 4 pounds of explosives -- crossed into Lithuania from Belarus, sparking a national inquest as to the country's readiness to safeguard its airspace.

Regardless, the violation prompted officials in Vilnius, the capital, to write to NATO requesting assistance in defending against Russian aircraft. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said the situation was "a concern of all NATO," adding, "This is not just Lithuanian airspace, not just Lithuania's security -- it is NATO airspace, NATO security and also EU security."

Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovile Sakaliene told ABC News that the latest incidents prior to Wednesday's jogged a significant response.

"We changed our algorithm, we changed certain decision-making procedures to adapt them to make them more flexible and faster, we're changing our legislation, we have deployed additional forces close to our border," Sakaliene said.

"Currently, we are in a stance where we would be ready to shoot it down," the defense minister added when asked if Lithuania would be prepared to fire at drones violating the nation's airspace.

Ukraine cabinet building hit in largest Russian strike of war, Zelenskyy says

Asked if fellow NATO nations would start doing the same, Sakaliene said, "We are coming to that moment. Our legislation is going to be finalized very soon. Certain decisions have already been made and certain measures I'm hoping will be also employed by the alliance."

The government in Vilnius is already working with a NATO expert team, Sakaliene said, adding that she would raise the issue when meeting with NATO's supreme allied commander Europe -- U.S. Air Force Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich -- this month.

Vilnius also took the decision to close its airspace along the border with Belarus until Oct. 1, coinciding with joint Russian-Belarusian military exercises planned through September.

NATO's porous flank

Lithuania is not the only NATO nation struggling to respond to such incidents. The remnants of Russian drones have been discovered in Romania and Latvia, while unidentified drones were already suspected of crashing in Poland.

Poland has also reported multiple violations of its airspace by Russian missiles.

Missile and drone violations have also occurred in neighboring Moldova, which is not a NATO member. And in May, Finland -- one of NATO's two newest members alongside Sweden -- alleged that two Russian aircraft violated its airspace.

Estonia last month reported a Ukrainian drone crashing and exploding on its territory. Estonian police said the drone was likely en route to attack targets inside Russia, with which Estonia shares a border. Tallinn blamed Russian jamming measures for the craft going off course.

A second Ukrainian drone crashed into the Russian portion of Lake Peipus, which forms part of the Estonia-Russia border.

Kacper Pempel/Reuters - PHOTO: Polish defense and aw enforcement officials gather for an extraordinary government meeting following violations of Polish airspace during a Russian attack on Ukraine, in Warsaw, Poland, on Sept. 10, 2025.

Russia has not explicitly threatened to use drones against nearby NATO nations. But officials in Moscow -- and nationalist, pro-Kremlin public figures -- have repeatedly hinted at Russian aggression against the Baltic states.

In April, for example, Russias Foreign Intelligence Service chief Sergey Naryshkin told RIA Novosti that "Poland and the Baltic republics are particularly aggressive, at least in words, they are constantly rattling their weapons."

In the event of a conflict, he continued, "damage will certainly be inflicted on the entire NATO bloc, but to a greater extent the first to suffer will be the bearers of such ideas among the political circles of Poland and the Baltic countries."

The Defense Ministry in Moscow denied targeting Poland in a statement released on Wednesday after the multiple incursions overnight.

Russia and Ukraine exchange massed drone and missile strikes on a nightly basis.

The NATO aircraft stationed along the alliance's eastern edge have been busy -- jets based in Poland and Romania are often scrambled to monitor ongoing strikes in western Ukraine, where Russian drones and missiles have hit targets within sight of NATO borders.

Scale of Russia's long-range attacks on Ukraine eases in August despite major strikes

But some munitions have made it through into NATO airspace regardless. Allied governments have defended their decision not to shoot them down, citing potential danger to civilians and infrastructure on the ground.

After the drone incidents in Lithuania, NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said in post to X that the alliance "takes these incidents very seriously. We remain vigilant and ready to defend every inch of NATO territory."

Sakaliene spoke to ABC News via a video call during a visit to Kyiv, where she said she met with Ukrainian counterparts to explore what NATO nations can learn from Ukraine's nightly battles with Russian drones and missiles.

The defense minister said NATO is not standing still, despite its apparent hesitance to take down Russian munitions violating its airspace.

Recent incidents have highlighted apparent gaps in detection and decision-making procedures. Lithuania, Romania and Latvia have recently clarified their legislation to enable law enforcement and defense forces to shoot down drones entering their airspace.

Estonian Defense Forces spokesperson Maj. Taavi Karotamm told ABC News that the country's armed forces are allowed to "to engage hostile targets that have entered the Estonian airspace," both under Estonian law and under NATO's Integrated Air and Missile Defence rules of engagement.

With Putin 'stalling' peace talks, NATO minister says US has 'powerful leverage'

Karotamm said that the shoulder-fired Polish-made Piorun missile and the French-made Mistral -- which can be mounted on vehicles or fired from a seated position -- are the most suitable weapons in the Estonian arsenal for shooting down drones like Shaheds. Heavy machine guns and electronic warfare measures could also be employed, he said.

The EDF has also already procured the IRIS-T medium-range air defence system -- which has proven its capabilities in Ukrainian hands -- plus "various radar systems," to be combined with long-range air defense and anti-ballistic missile systems, Karotamm said. "All this will form a multi-layer air defence system."

A 'low and slow' arms race

NATO nations are facing an arms race -- one in which Ukraine is leading the way, with the help of European and U.S. leaders. Kyiv's guidance will be key for NATO, Sakaliene said, given the country's vast and growing experience with Russian drone and missile attacks. But Moscow is tweaking its designs all the time.

"Regretfully, there is no silver bullet yet," Sakaliene said when asked how allies should respond.

"All nations, both those who are participating now directly in military actions and those who are just preparing, have not yet found a perfect solution," she said.

Kusti Salm, previously the permanent secretary at Estonia's Defense Ministry and now the CEO of defense company Frankenburg Technologies, told ABC News that the "biggest problem" facing Western nations is "the cost to kill ratio discrepancy that is so strongly in favor of Russia."

Radoslaw Jozwiak/AFP via Getty Images - PHOTO: This file photo shows an F-16 fighter jet taking part in the NATO Air Shielding exercise near Lask, Poland, on Oct. 12, 2022.

Various estimates for the cost of Russia's Iranian-designed Shahed strike drones -- and subsequent Russian variants known as the Gerans -- range from around $10,000 to $100,000. Gerbera decoy drones -- which are intended to distract defenders from the more destructive Shaheds or Gerans but can themselves also carry explosives -- are estimated to cost as little as $10,000.

Missiles fired by the U.S.-made Patriot system cost about $4 million each. IRIS-T interceptors cost $470,000 each.

The gap in NATO defenses offers Moscow a window of opportunity, Salm said. "This is why they are investing into low- and slow-flying drones, because there are no solutions for how to take it down at scale and at the price point that would be favorable for the defender."

"At some point, Russia will possess capabilities to shoot hundreds of thousands at us," Salm added. In 2022, Salm recalled, NATO officials described 100 Shaheds as a mass attack. "I think now what we need to call a mass is 100,000," he added.

Poland says airspace 'repeatedly violated by drone-type objects' amid Russian strikes on Ukraine

Frankenberg is developing missile systems capable of downing drones at lower cost -- 10 times less than current methods, Salm said. The company wants its system to be able to defeat 97% of threats at ranges out to 2 kilometers -- around 1.2 miles.

For now, Salm said, NATO nations do not have the radar equipment, anti-air weapons or manpower to ensure full anti-drone coverage of their territories. "There's a technical challenge of tracking something that is flying low and slow," he said.

"And then there are also legal aspects," he continued. NATO nations can down drones over their territories, but "according to the rules of engagement that have been widely agreed in NATO, then it will be very difficult politically to tolerate -- to shoot them down over the urban areas, residential areas, over key national infrastructure."

Ukraine, unlike the Baltic states, is a large country with significant strategic depth, Salm said. "They tolerate hundreds of aerial targets in their airspace every day," he continued. Kyiv is also on a full war footing, with its government and population steeled against the damage and human losses that come with a major conflict.

"There would be zero nations in Europe or throughout NATO that would be able, as a country, to suffer these types of losses as the Ukrainians do," Salm said.

Gleb Garanich/Reuters - PHOTO: Explosions are seen in the night sky as Ukrainian servicemen fire towards drones during a Russian drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sept. 10, 2025.

Russia's drone arsenal and reach have expanded exponentially since its invasion began in 2022. An estimate cited by the Atlantic Council think tank in July suggested Russia is producing some 5,000 long-range drones each month.

Europe is behind, Salm said. "It's a new chapter in the strategy of warfare and conventional deterrence is a little bit of a forgotten art, and definitely something that no European nations are ready to do right now," he said.

"This is why all this increase of defense expenditure and increased manufacturing are becoming at the forefront of all defense actions, because this is ultimately what guarantees victory and deterrence," Salm added. "Wars are fought in trenches, but they're won in factories."
President Donald Trump offered his first reaction to Russia's drone incursion on Poland, which the country's military and European leaders condemned as "unprecedented."

"What's with Russia violating Poland's airspace with drones? Here we go!" Trump wrote on his social media platform on Wednesday.

Polish airspace was violated by at least 19 Russian drones overnight, the country's prime minister said. The Russian action prompted NATO to scramble a response, as two Polish F-16s and two Dutch F-35s were deployed to shoot them down.

It marked the first time in the alliance's history that fighters had engaged potential targets in allied airspace, according to Col. Martin L. O'Donnell, a spokesperson for Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe.

Trump spoke with Polish President Karol Nawrocki on Wednesday afternoon, "regarding the repeated violation of Polish airspace by Russian drones, which occurred last night," the Polish leader said in an post on X.

"The conversation is part of a series of consultations I am conducting with our allies," Nawrocki said. "Todays talks confirmed allied unity."

MORE: As Poland downs drones amid Russia strike, NATO braces for new era on eastern front

Win McNamee/Getty Images - PHOTO: President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance, arrive for dinner at Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab, September 9, 2025 in Washington.

Officials with the Polish Interior Ministry said police, border guard and fire officials remained "on constant alert."

Debris from 16 drones had been located in several Polish towns, the interior ministry said.

Last week, Trump pledged to help Poland protect itself during a bilateral meeting with Nawrocki at the White House.

"We're with Poland all the way," Trump said at the time.

Leszek Szymanski/epa/shutterstoc/LESZEK SZYMANSKI/EPA/Shutterstoc - PHOTO: Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Radoslaw Sikorski speaks at a press conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Warsaw, Poland, September 10, 2025.

Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski had strong words for Trump during a news conference on Wednesday, telling reporters Russian President Vladimir Putin "laughs" at Trump's peace efforts.

"Putin laughs at President Trump's peace efforts," Sikorski said. "Since Alaska, he has only intensified the war. I hope that [Trump] backs his words with action."

In response to the overnight incursion, the U.S. Ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, posted a short message on X: "We stand by our NATO Allies in the face of these airspace violations and will defend every inch of NATO territory."

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
By Michael Holden

LONDON (Reuters) - Prince Harry's foundation is to donate $500,000 to projects including the World Health Organisation to help develop prosthetics and provide other support for children from Gaza and Ukraine, his office said on Wednesday.

The announcement came on the third day of the prince's visit to Britain, where he visited the Centre for Injury Studies (CIS), part of Imperial College London, to learn more about its work, especially its focus on injuries suffered by children and those sustained in natural disasters.

"No single organization can solve this alone," he said in a statement.

"Gaza now has the highest density of child amputees in the world and in history. It takes partnerships across government, science, medicine, humanitarian response and advocacy to ensure children survive and can recover after blast injuries."

The CIS said children were seven times more likely to die from blast injuries than adults.

The three grants announced by Harry and his wife Meghan's Archewell Foundation include $200,000 to the World Health Organization to support medical evacuations from Gaza to Jordan, and $150,000 to the Save the Children charity to provide ongoing humanitarian support in Gaza.

The third grant of $150,000 was to the Centre of Blast Injury Studies, part of CIS, to help its efforts to develop prostheses that can support injured children, particularly those injured from the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.

The Duke of Sussex, 40, opened laboratories of the Centre for Blast Injury Studies in 2013.

Harry himself spent 10 years in the British military, during which he served two tours in Afghanistan, and he has made campaigning for veterans a priority, founding the Invictus Games for military personnel wounded in action.

NOT JUST THE MONEY

He was joined on Wednesday by WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus for a tour of the CIS, where he met with research teams working on a number of world-leading projects.

"I'm really pleased about what he's doing, especially for the children of Gaza," Ghebreyesus said. "It's not the money, it's also the passion and commitment I think I see."

Showing him round was double leg amputee Dave Henson, a CIS ambassador, who has known Harry for more than a decade and was the first captain of the British Invictus team in 2014.

"It's been hugely important for raising the profile of the centre," Henson, who lost his legs in an explosion in Afghanistan in 2011, said of Harry's involvement.

Harry, who now lives in California after stepping down from official royal duties in 2020, has spent the week visiting charities, including one in Nottingham, central England, where he announced a 1.1 million pounds ($1.49 million) donation to help young people in communities blighted by violence and knife crime.

However, in a sign of his estrangement from his family, much of the media focus of the trip has been on whether he will meet his father King Charles, whom he last saw 20 months ago, shortly after it was announced that the 76-year-old monarch was undergoing treatment for cancer.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Kate Holton and Gareth Jones)
Authorities in Alabama will seek the death penalty against a man accused of killing a retired veterinary professor at a park over the weekend, an official said Tuesday.

Lee County District Attorney Jessica Ventiere said prosecutors will pursue the punishment against Harold Rashad Dabney III, 28, in the Sept. 6 killing of Julie Gard Schnuelle, 59.

Dabney is being held without bond at the Lee County Jail, a jail official said. His lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Schnuelle, a professor emerita at Auburn Universitys College of Veterinary Medicine, was walking her dog Saturday morning when she was fatally stabbed, local news outlets reported.

The attack happened at a park southeast of downtown Auburn shortly after 10 a.m., according to a criminal complaint, which says Schnuelle was killed during the commission of a felony robbery.

Veterinary medicine professor Emerita Julie Gard Schnuelle was killed Sept. 6 in Kiesel Park in Auburn, Ala.

Police in Auburn accused Dabney of stealing Schnuelles red Ford F-150 pickup, which was later recovered. Dabney was arrested Sunday morning after officers responded to a report of a suspicious person roughly 5 miles from the area where Schnuelle was killed.

Schnuelle was a faculty member at Auburn from 2003 to 2021, when she retired, the university said. She achieved the rank of professor of theriogenology, or the study of animal reproduction, and she recently was area veterinarian in charge with the U.S. Agriculture Department for Alabama and Mississippi.

"She was a cherished educator, mentor and colleague whose dedication to students and passion for theriogenology and veterinary medicine left a lasting impact on Auburn," the school said.
FILE PHOTO: 58th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' meeting and related meetings at the Convention Centre in Kuala Lumpur

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke on Wednesday with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on global and regional issues, in a follow-up to the meeting the two held in Malaysia this year, State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott said.

"Secretary Rubio emphasized the importance of open and constructive communication on a range of bilateral issues," Pigott said in a statement. "They also discussed other global and regional issues as a continuation of the discussions in Kuala Lumpur."

Rubio met Wang in July on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum in Malaysia, in a meeting both sides described as positive and constructive, despite tensions over U.S. tariffs.

Rubio said at the time that the odds of U.S. President Donald Trump meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping were high.

The Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement that both sides saw the latest conversation as "timely, necessary and fruitful".

"The recent negative words and actions taken by the U.S. side have harmed China's legitimate rights and interests, interfered in China's internal affairs, and are not conducive to the improvement and development of China-U.S. relations," Wang said, according to the ministry readout.

Wang urged caution especially on issues involving China's core interests such as Taiwan.

The rise of global trade barriers since Trump's return to the presidency has exacerbated challenges for China's export-driven economy, with the imposition of sweeping duties on imports of Chinese products setting off months of tit-for-tat tariff escalations.

Washington and Beijing in August extended a truce for 90 days, staving off even higher duties.

Trump urged EU officials on Tuesday to hit China with tariffs of up to 100% as part of a strategy to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a U.S. official and an EU diplomat.

China and India are major purchasers of Russian oil and, as such, they play a vital role in keeping Russia's economy afloat as it continues to pursue its expanded invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2022.

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Doina Chiacu; Additional reporting by Liz Lee in Beijing; Editing by Franklin Paul, Rod Nickel and Himani Sarkar)
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Poland has called an emergency Nato council meeting after shooting down at least four Russian drones that entered its airspace in the most dangerous test of the alliances resolve in decades.

In calling for the meeting, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk, who said he was in constant contact with Nato secretary general Mark Rutte, brought the alliance together to discuss Article 5  the obligation to defend a member subject to an armed attack.

Tusk invoked Natos article 4, triggering discussions at which a decision will be taken on how Nato will respond as an international body, after it emerged that the Russian drones had been shot down very deep into Polish territory, far from Ukraine.

He said that Poland was closer to war than at any time since World War II and his government described the drones as an act of aggression that posed a real threat to the safety of our civilians.

The move will further test Donald Trumps loyalty to the Wests most important strategic alliance. He has spent the last seven months while in office backing Russia against Americas allies and has himself threatened to invade or annex Nato members Canada and Denmark.

His reluctance to back Nato members in Europe and Canada in support of Ukraine will be tested by the article 4 talks. There is little chance of a decision involving military action. But demands for increased support for Ukraine, especially from America because it is Europes front line with the Kremlin, are inevitable.

Defence secretary John Healey said: We say to President Putin, your aggression only serves to strengthen the unity between our Nato nations. Your aggression only serves to strengthen our determination to stand with Ukraine. And your aggression reminds us that a secure Europe needs a strong Ukraine. And that the security of Europe starts in Ukraine.

Many of the Russian drones were shot down by Polish aircraft that were scrambled in a taste of what, many in Europe fear, what is to come from Russia.

Polish prime minister Donald Tusk holds a government meeting after the drone attack (Reuters)

Vladimir Putin has often said that he wants to return eastern Europe to the era when it was ruled, or dominated, by the Soviet Union. He has threatened the Baltic states, and Poland, especially.

As a result, Poland is expanding its military at breakneck speed with heavy spending on armour, aircraft, and infantry fighting vehicles.

The incursion into Polish airspace may be an accident, with the deep penetration of the drones possibly explained by a failure of their guidance systems.

But it is an accident that Russia clearly feels happy to risk, given the level of impunity for its actions.

Putin was given red-carpet treatment on American soil in Alaska even though the International Criminal Court has issued him an international arrest warrant for crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine.

A firefighter runs at the site of a residential area hit during Russian drone and missile strikes in Zhytomyr, Ukraine (Emergency Service of Ukraine)

Ukraines foreign minister, Andriy Sybiha, said on X (Twitter) that the longer he [Putin] faces no strength in response, the more aggressive he gets.

Joe Wilson, a Republican US congressman, said that the penetration of Polands airspace, which he called an attack, was an act of war.

Trump has refused to supply Ukraine with weapons directly and threatened to cut the flow of intelligence to Kyiv since he took office. He has imposed very little pressure on the Kremlin, though.

Lately, as Putin has resisted his efforts to get a ceasefire process underway in Ukraine, Trump has repeatedly threatened economic sanctions on Russian trading partners. But he has never suggested that America would return to the level of military assistance given by his predecessor, Joe Biden.

Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump had a cordial meeting in Alaska, despite the International Criminal Court issuing an arrest warrant against the Russian leader (Sputnik)

Putin is no longer content just losing in Ukraine while bombing mothers and babies, he is now directly testing our resolve in Nato territory, Wilson said on X.

Trump will be called upon to join Nato in condemning Russias air penetration of Poland and even issuing warnings to back off or face violent consequences.

This will sit uneasily with this US president and his long history of friendships in Moscow, which trump the US alliance that has been the bedrock of the Wests security architecture for decades.
Washington  Republicans and Democrats in Congress are still far apart on how to avert a government shutdown just three weeks before funding runs out.

The top appropriators in Congress have been meeting this week to discuss a path forward. And Democratic leaders in the House and Senate are expected to meet Wednesday on the issue. But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, told reporters Wednesday that "what the Republicans have proposed is not good enough to meet the needs of the American people and not good enough to get our votes."

The White House has requested that Congress pass a short-term funding deal to keep the government open through January, while leaders in Congress have generally favored a shorter-term stopgap measure to allow for work to continue on full-year funding bills.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said the White House sent a request Tuesday "to kick the can down the road on government funding until January 31." She argued the tactic would allow the Trump administration to hold back funds approved by Congress.

"Delaying the critical work of funding the government until the end of January is only step one in President Trump and Russ Vought's plan to never fund it at all," DeLauro said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, during a news conference following the weekly Senate Democrat policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. / Credit: Graeme Sloan / Bloomberg via Getty Images

In August, the White House notified Congress that it would attempt to override its funding power by rescinding nearly $5 billion in foreign aid using a rare tactic known as a "pocket recession." Since the request came within 45 days of the end of the fiscal year, the White House argued that it could treat the funding as expired come October.

The move angered Democrats and some Republicans, adding another snag to shutdown negotiations.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, told reporters Tuesday that the date proposed by the White House isn't set in stone.

"The White House put a marker out there. Nobody's married to a particular date," Scalise said, adding that congressional appropriators "will be a part of that discussion with the White House on the date."

Scalise said the House floor's schedule is flexible enough to be able to move on a continuing resolution as soon as an agreement is reached.

"I hope they get a bipartisan agreement. And that's the goal of [House Appropriations Committee] Chairman Cole and the White House, is to get an agreement with everybody," Scalise said. "That's where the talks are right now."

But Scalise said there's no agreement on a health care subsidies extension, which Democrats have been eyeing as a possible requirement for their support.

Tax credits for Americans who purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace are set to lapse at the end of year and could send premiums soaring.

Schumer pointed to the expiration of the tax credits earlier Wednesday, saying "this would be a nightmare scenario for the American people." But he said Senate Majority Leader John Thune has indicated that "Republicans will walk away from the table and sit on their hands."

Thune, a South Dakota Republican, has said that he prefers as "clean" a bill as possible to potentially secure bipartisan support and continue work on full-year funding measures. He told reporters earlier this week that it's his expectation that the House, where the bill will likely originate, "would have it fairly clean," minimizing anomalies.

"If you want to make it about trying to get an extension so we actually have time to try and run a normal appropriations process and get some of the bills passed under regular order, then I think you want to have it as clean as possible," Thune said. "And I think it's in everybody's interest to do that."

Still, the White House has pursued anomalies, seeking to fund certain programs at higher levels under a stopgap measure.

Meanwhile, the House is voting Wednesday on whether to go to conference on a Senate-passed package of appropriations bills, which includes the military construction and veterans affairs bill, agriculture bill and legislative branch appropriations bill.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democratic appropriator in the Senate, said Tuesday that she and her fellow appropriators had a "'very productive conversation" earlier this week about conferencing the first three bills, along with passing a bipartisan short-term continuing resolution to give them time to continue work on full-year spending bills. But she urged that Democrats need to hear from GOP leaders about their commitment to a bipartisan stopgap measure to "move this ball forward."

"Let's remember, Republicans control the House, the Senate and the White House. They are quite literally in the driver's seat. And if Republican leadership, for whatever reason, decides to let the car go off the cliff, we know who will be held responsible."

But House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, put the onus on Democrats earlier Tuesday, saying "Democrats may take the path of maximum resistance and shut the government down."

"The ultimate question of whether there's going to be a government shutdown at the end of the month is going to be up to congressional Democrats and that's just the way it is," Johnson said.

Asked Wednesday whether House Democrats would support a clean continuing resolution, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries cited the continuing resolution passed in March despite House Democrats' objections, saying "a continuing resolution that continues the failed policies of the Republican party that we voted against is not the type of policy that actually meets the needs of the American people."

"I believe that all of us are ready to continue the fight," Jeffries, a New York Democrat, said of Democrats in Congress.

That fight has taken on particular importance for Senate Democrats, after Schumer came under intense scrutiny from his own party earlier this year. After pledging to fight the GOP funding plan in March, which increased defense spending while decreasing non-defense spending below 2024 levels, Schumer changed course at the eleventh hour, ultimately opting to deliver one of the Democratic votes necessary to propel the partisan measure to passage and prevent a shutdown. Despite intense criticism from some within his own party, Schumer argued at the time that a shutdown risked more damage.

Schumer said Wednesday, with a new funding deadline fast approaching, that if Republicans "think Democrats are going to show up at the last minute to bail them out with the clock approaching zero, that would be a big mistake on their part."

"Democrats don't want to see a Republican shutdown," Schumer added. "What we want is a bipartisan negotiation, bipartisan bill, where Democrats have input to tangibly under the carnage Donald Trump has done to America."

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Sen. Ruben Gallego, Democrat of Arizona, will seek to block the Pentagon from offering full military funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt, a member of the crowd that rioted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

File: U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) listens during a town hall at NOAH Cholla Health Center on March 17, 2025 in Scottsdale, Arizona. / Credit: Rebecca Noble / Getty Images

Gallego, who has criticized the Pentagon for agreeing recently to provide Babbitt with an honorary military funeral, will attempt to pass legislation this week to prevent the honor from being conferred.

He told CBS News, his legislation "comes from a sense of patriotism, you know, as someone who served this country, as someone who unfortunately buried a lot of Marines with full military honors."

"The idea that they're giving this to a person who actively tried to overthrow the government, who was violent in nature, who knowingly was entering a restrictive zone while we were trying to conduct the safe passage of democracy, and the idea that they're just going to give this without a fight, it's just not going to happen," Gallego said.

He said he's noticed that top officials, the secretary of the Air Force, defense secretary, the vice president and president have "never even said this," and "they just kind of have been trying to sneak this in under  in the dark."

"And I'm not gonna let that happen," Gallego said. "I'm gonna put people on the record to make sure that we know who stood with your traitor, Ashli Babbitt."

Gallego's formal resolution said Babbitt was undeserving because she "attempted to force her way inside by climbing through the door's broken window, where a Capitol Police Officer intervened to protect dozens of House members and staff cornered nearby."

"Ashli Babbitt's actions on January 6, 2021, constitute disqualifying conduct under section 985 of 4 title 10, United States Code, the rendering of military funeral honors to her would bring discredit upon the Air Force, and she is not eligible for such honors," Gallego's resolution reads.

The Arizona Democrat has posted a number of social media messages criticizing the idea of any military honor for Babbitt.

"Those honors are for those who defend the Constitution, not traitors," Gallego wrote in a post on X on Sept. 2.

Babbitt was on the front line of the mob that stormed the Capitol and attempted to crawl through a smashed window into the House Speaker's Lobby, as lawmakers and congressional staff were evacuating during the Capitol siege. She was shot and killed by a police officer. A federal investigation of the shooting determined charges were not warranted against the officer.

File: Ashli Babbitt, 35, was shot and killed by Capitol Police while storming into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. / Credit: Ashli Babbitt/Twitter

The Pentagon initially denied the Babbitt family's request for military funeral honors for her. It stated in a letter that the circumstances preceding her death  that she was "fatally shot after having illegally entered" the Capitol  resulted in the determination that conferring the honor would "bring discredit on the Air Force." The letter was posted by Judicial Watch, a Washington, D.C.-based conservative legal group, that lobbied for the Pentagon to provide honors to Babbitt. In its request to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the organization cited President Trump's clemency for more than 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants.

The request said the government's "refusal to provide military funeral honors was part of the 'grave national injustice' that President Trump ended by granting clemency. The 'process of national reconciliation' that began with presidential clemency demands a new determination granting military funeral honor for Ashli and her family."

An Air Force undersecretary posted on social media in August about the Pentagon's decision to provide the honor to Babbitt.

Judicial Watch's request to the Pentagon argued, "Ashli enlisted in the U.S. Air Force after graduating high school at age seventeen. She left home for basic training after her eighteenth birthday. Ashli graduated from basic training at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas in August 2004. Ashli served in the U.S. Air Force from April 2004 to June 2009 and then in the Air National Guard for several years. Ashli was a Senior Airman and received an honorable discharge."

Judicial Watch did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the timing of the Babbitt honor.

Babbitt's mother has actively advocated against some of the Jan. 6 prosecutions and has sought an investigation into her daughter's shooting. Babbitt's mother met with then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy at the Capitol in 2023.

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A Sept. 8 Supreme Court decision gives permission to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to continue sweeps in the Los Angeles area that critics and federal judges said amounted to racial profiling.

The limited-scope decision came down in an unsigned, emergency action that did not disclose which justices voted to side with President Donald Trumps administration and offered no reasoning. But it nonetheless temporarily overturned decisions from the lower courts that blocked ICE from making stops based only on race, language, location and occupation.

All that is known about the justices views is that conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh largely agreed with the decision, and three liberal justices  Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Kentanji Brown Jackson  disagreed.

Heres what to know about the decision.

Latino US citizens said ICE ambushed them in the streets

The case, Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo, started when a group of Latino residents from California and related workers organizations sued the government, saying they were being subject to illegal stops as part of an enforcement blitz that started June 5 in the Los Angeles area.

In one case, a U.S. citizen born and raised in east LA said he was standing on a sidewalk when agents ran toward him with handguns and military-style rifles and repeatedly asked if he was an American. Despite saying he was, they pressed him to say what hospital he was born in, the lawsuit says, but he did not know.

The agents pushed him against a metal fence, put his hands behind his back and twisted his arm, according to the lawsuit. The man eventually produced his Real ID, a type of special drivers license that requires someone to show proof of legal residence. According to the lawsuit, agents took his Real ID and his phone, returning his phone minutes later but never returning his ID.

A man hit by a non-lethal munition is assisted by a woman, as people march as part of the ongoing protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in Los Angeles, California, U.S. June 11, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis

The Trump administration has a four-part test for immigration stops

The Trump administration has been using four criteria to see who ICE agents can stop for immigration inquiries, according to court documents. They are: (1) apparent race or ethnicity; (2) speaking Spanish or English with an accent; (3) presence at a particular location such as a carwash or day laborer pickup site; and (4) the type of work the person does.

The people who sued the administration argued that it was illegal for the administration to solely use these criteria. The Trump administration wrote in a court filing that the people suing and the courts themselves acknowledge that ICE at least sometimes relies on additional factors.

Two federal courts sided with the people who were stopped

A trial court in California called ICE's practices an officially sanctioned pattern of conduct and said that even though there was no evidence of an official policy for these four criteria, immigration agents were routinely using them to make stops. The court barred the administration from relying solely on the criteria to make stops in the Los Angeles area and required ICE to use a higher legal standard called "reasonable suspicion" to conduct stops.

The Trump administration appealed, and an appeals court agreed with the lower court. But the Trump administration then appealed to the Supreme Court for an emergency ruling, essentially saying law enforcement were being prohibited from doing their jobs.

The Supreme Courts limited decision, which came Sept. 8, lets ICE return to using the four criteria in the Los Angeles area, at least during the current stage in the legal process.

In a blistering dissent, Sotomayor, a liberal justice, called the decision a "grave misuse" of the court's emergency power. "We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low-wage job," she wrote.

Law enforcement officers shoot non-lethal munitions, as people march as part of the ongoing protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in Los Angeles, California, U.S. June 11, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis

Legal technicalities couldve played a role

The Trump administration argued that the people who sued them didnt have the right to do so, an issue that can get a case thrown out. The administration wrote that the peoples allegations were entirely speculative and that they offered nothing to prove their premise that they could be stopped again by ICE.

The justices who sided with the Trump administration in the one-paragraph decision did not address this issue, so Americans dont know if the justices sided with the administration based solely on this technicality. However, in his own opinion that only represented his view, Kavanaugh agreed with the Trump administration.

Plaintiffs have no good basis to believe that law enforcement will stop them in the future based on the prohibited factors  and certainly no good basis for believing that any stop of the plaintiffs is imminent, Kavanaugh wrote.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ICE can now stop people due to race, language and job. What we know.
Taylor Frankie Paul is ABC's new Bachelorette! News broke this morning that the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star will be starring in the next installment of the franchise, and if you're wondering how much she stands to make...it's a lot.

ABC keeps salary details under lock and key, but there's been pleeeeenty of reporting over the years. Like, we know Emily Maynard got a whopping $250,000 for her season, and author Amy Kaufman said in her book Bachelor Nation that its "incredibly rare for someone to make less than six figures."

Michael Kirchoff

Emily Maynard was able to negotiate such a high pay-day because she came into the show already famous, which is also the case with Taylor Frankie Paul. So, seems fair to assume that her salary is on the higher end of what ABC is willing to dish out.

Of course, Taylor's also making money from Hulu for The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. Their pay-per-episode for the show is unknown, but we do know everyone gets the same amount AND that their real income comes from brand deals.

Whitney Leavitt revealed details during an interview with E! News, saying, "Its hard because each year is different. You could get a really big brand deal like, 'Hey, we want to have like a six-month contract with you,' and then next year you dont get it at all. It varies drastically."

Mayci Neeley added, "We both have gotten onewe cant say what it wasbut weve gotten a deal that was $75,000 [for] one year. Each industry varies. Some pay more than the others."

In other words: between Secret Life of Mormon Wives, plenty of brand deals, and her new gig on The Bachelorette, Taylor Frankie Paul is making a TON of money.

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King County Sheriff's Office Trinity Morley

NEED TO KNOW

Trinity Morley was seen allegedly creeping around outside her ex-boyfriend's home

The ex-boyfriend was not present in the residence, but his father alleges he saw a masked figure staring into the Ring camera - prompting him to hide with his family

Morley's parents reported her to police after finding a journal entry that allegedly read: "I have three chances to get this right and I don't want to resort to knives"

A Washington State teen was arrested after her parents told police she allegedly left concerning notes in her journal about a planned shooting  and then was allegedly seen on security footage with a gun outside her ex-boyfriend's house.

Trinity Morley, 19, is facing several charges, including attempted murder, in connection with the July 27 incident in Maple Valley, Wash., the King County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

Morley allegedly wrote in a journal that she was headed to her ex-boyfriend's residence with a shotgun, per the statement, which was released on Tuesday, Sept. 9.

The journal entry was discovered by her parents, FOX 13 reported, citing prosecutors' account.

"I have the gun now, three rounds of buckshot. The shotgun is heavy. He told me that If I don't hold it right, my arm will get blown off. I have three chances to get this right and I don't want to resort to knives," she wrote, per prosecutors.

Officials with the Maple Valley police, along with the sheriff's office, responded to a welfare check for Morley after her journal entry was discovered, according to the sheriff's office's statement.

The ex-boyfriend, who has not been publicly identified, was not in the residence at the time, per FOX 13.

However, his father told police he saw a masked and hooded figure staring into their Ring camera, prompting the family to hide.

In security footage released by police, a hooded figure alleged to be Morley is seen creeping on the premises of the targeted residence.

According to the King's County Sheriff's Office, Morley attempted to enter the residence with a weapon but ultimately fled. She was located nearby in possession of a knife and a gun and was arrested.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

Prosecutors further claim Morley, who appeared calm in bodycam footage of her apprehension, had an "eerie" demeanor following her arrest, FOX 13 reported.

She allegedly made remarks during her interrogation, making light of the situation and telling an officer taking notes: "It's a good story," prosecutors said.

Morley has been charged with attempted murder, criminal attempt and two counts of weapons-related offenses, online court records show.

She was arraigned on Aug. 12, but court records did not indicate plea information. PEOPLE has reached out to her attorneys.

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.



Read the original article on People
The Texas A&M campus in College Station. (Mark Felix for The Washington Post / Getty Images file)

Texas A&M University fired a professor Tuesday over course instruction related to gender identity after a Republican state lawmaker shared a video that appears to show a student at the university telling the professor that such instruction was illegal due to one of President Donald Trumps executive orders. The head of the universitys English department and a dean were also removed from their posts due to the incident.

In the now-viral video, shared by state Rep. Brian Harrison on social media Monday morning, a professor can be heard mentioning gender and sexuality, and then a student can be heard interrupting and telling the professor, Im not entirely sure this is legal to be teaching. The student then mentioned Trumps executive order that declares the U.S. only recognizes two unchangeable sexes and prohibits federal funds from being used to promote gender ideology.

The professor, identified in multiple local reports as Melissa McCoul, then disagreed with the student, saying, What we are doing is not illegal. She recommended the student speak to the department head or the head of undergraduates and then asked her to leave the class.

In response to a request for comment regarding the termination and the video, which is undated but appears to be from a summer course, McCoul referred NBC News to her lawyer, Amanda Reichek. In an emailed statement, Reichek, an attorney with Tillotson Johnson and Patton in Dallas, confirmed McCoul was terminated Tuesday and that it was her voice in the viral video.

Reichek said McCouls notice of termination alleged that she was repeatedly instructed to change the course content to align with the catalog description and the course description that was originally submitted and approved and that McCoul failed to do so.

However, Professor McCouls course content was entirely consistent with the catalog and course description, and she was never instructed to change her course content in any way, shape, or form, Reicheck said. In fact, Dr. McCoul taught this course and others like it for many years, successfully and without challenge. Instead, Dr. McCoul was fired in derogation of her constitutional rights and the academic freedom that was once the hallmark of higher education in Texas. She has appealed her termination and is exploring further legal action.

State Rep. Harrison also shared posts on social media, which have since been deleted, showing emails from July that he said were between the student and the English department head, Emily Johansen, about the student no longer attending the summer class. Johansen did not respond to a request for comment.

Harrisons posts also included undated audio recordings reportedly between the student and Texas A&M President Mark A. Welsh III in which the student told Welsh the professor should be fired and Welsh responded, Well, thats not happening.

Texas A&M President Mark Welsh III at a ceremony in 2024. ( Ishika Samant / Houston Chronicle via Getty Images file)

The university did not confirm the veracity of the video, audio recordings and emails Harrison posted and did not respond to the statement from McCouls lawyer.

Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division, wrote on X on Monday that the division would look into the deeply concerning incident.

That evening, Welsh said he directed the provost to remove Mark Zoran, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Johansen from their administrative positions because they approved content for the course that was not consistent with the courses published description.

Our students use the published information in the course catalog to make important decisions about the courses they take in pursuit of their degrees, Welsh said in the statement. If we allow different course content to be taught from what is advertised, we let our students down. When it comes to our academic offerings, we must keep our word to our students and to the state of Texas.

The university did not respond to a question about whether Zoran and Johansen were terminated completely or if they would continue to be employed at the university outside of their previous administrative positions.

Then, on Tuesday, Welsh said in a statement that the professor was terminated. He said that he could not provide the details of the termination, but that this summer, a childrens literature course contained content that did not align with any reasonable expectation of standard curriculum for the course.

After the issue was raised over the summer, he said college and department leadership worked with students to offer alternative opportunities to complete the course and made changes to the course content for future semesters. He said he told academic leadership that course content must match the catalog descriptions for every course section.

However, I learned late yesterday that despite that directive, the college continued to teach content that was inconsistent with the published course description for another course this fall, he said. As a result, I took the above administrative actions, and deans and department heads will conduct an audit of course offerings to ensure they align with the course descriptions.

He added that the issue isnt about academic freedom; its about academic responsibility. Our degree programs and courses go through extensive approval processes, and we must ensure that what we ultimately deliver to students is consistent with what was approved.

The viral video is the latest incident in a series of controversies over Texas A&Ms LGBTQ programs and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Last year, the university closed the campus LGBTQ+ Pride Center due to a bill that required state universities to end all DEI programs, and it suspended all transition-related medical care for transgender students on campus, citing a growing student population and strain on its student health center.

Earlier this year, a judge blocked the university from enforcing a ban on drag shows in campus venues, writing that the ban likely violates the First Amendment. The Texas A&M Board of Regents passed the resolution in April, arguing at the time that drag shows could violate Trumps executive order prohibiting federal funds from being used to promote gender ideology.

A student at Texas A&M discovered a box of hundreds of books covering LGBTQ topics at the school's Surplus Property Office, a warehouse for the disposal and sale of university property. (Obtained by NBC News)

Most recently, an undergraduate student, who asked that his name not be published due to fear of facing retaliation from the university, said that he found hundreds of LGBTQ books last week at the universitys off-campus Surplus Property Office, a warehouse for the disposal and sale of university property. He said he went there to find a computer monitor and he started sifting through a few boxes of books out of curiosity. The largest box, he said, was filled with books by and about LGBTQ people, including The Meaning of Matthew, Judy Shepards 2009 memoir about her son, who was targeted for being gay and brutally killed in Wyoming in 1998; The Velvet Rage, by psychologist Alan Downs; and The B Word: Bisexuality in Contemporary Film and Television, by Maria San Filippo.

He said he felt that the university was quietly disposing of the books in a place that few students go.

A student at Texas A&M discovered a box of hundreds of books covering LGBTQ topics at the school's Surplus Property Office, a warehouse for the disposal and sale of university property. (Obtained by NBC News)

It just felt really slimy on the universitys part, he said. The whole point of a university is to be a space of exchange of ideas and thoughts, whether you agree with them or not.

A spokesperson for the university did not respond to a request for comment, including questions about where the books came from, when they were moved and why. A manager at the Surplus Property Office, who declined to share his name, said the students photos  which were described to him over the phone  were from his warehouse. He said the box full of books is from around A&M campus but is not for recirculation, and he refuted the students claim that the books were all LGBTQ titles.
President Donald Trump pumps his fist before boarding Marine One at the White House on September 7, 2025. - Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images

A version of this story appeared in CNNs What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.

Having rebranded the Department of Defense as the Department of War, the president is going on offense with the US military.

Donald Trump has foisted National Guard troops on Washington, DC, and Los Angeles. Other cities are on edge, particularly after he posted an apparently artificially generated image of himself dressed up like Robert Duvalls surfing cavalry commander in Apocalypse Now, a meme that seemed to suggest he was threatening war on the city of Chicago.

Trump later clarified that the US would not go to war on Chicago, but hes clearly comfortable joking about it. And hes of the opinion his authority over the military is absolute.

Not that I dont have the right to do anything I want to do. Im the president of the United States, he said at a Cabinet meeting in August, when he was asked about the prospect of Chicagoans engaging in nonviolent resistance against the US military.

Hes reorienting the US military to focus on drug traffickers as terrorists and told Congress to expect more military strikes after the US destroyed a boat in the Caribbean last week.

All of this projects the kind of strongman decisiveness Trump admires.

A lot of it might also be illegal.

A violation of the Posse Comitatus Act

US District Judge Charles Breyer ruled this month that Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth committed a a serious violation of the Posse Comitatus Act when they deployed federalized troops to Los Angeles over the objections of the states governor and mayor.

The Posse Comitatus Act was passed by Congress in 1878 as Southern states worked to oust federal troops and end Reconstruction. Questions over how and whether troops can be used to enforce laws goes back to the pre-Civil War period, when federal marshals sought help from citizens and militiamen in recovering fugitive slaves and putting down the protests of abolitionists, according to the Congressional Research Service.

National Guardsmen stand outside of the Edward Roybal Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles, California, on June 9, 2025. - Jim Vondruska/Getty Images/File

It is not clear why Trump has not yet, as he has promised, called up the National Guard to patrol in Chicago, but he may be waiting for the Supreme Court, which has been extremely deferential to his claims of authority, to weigh in on a preliminary basis.

Trump has more authority to deploy the military inside Washington, DC, which the Constitution says Congress controls. But Congress has ceded some authority to locally elected officials in recent decades. DCs Attorney General Brian Schwalb has sued the Trump administration over the deployment.

Testing the War Powers Act

Trumps strike on a boat in the Caribbean is also on murky legal ground.

After Vietnam, Congress overrode Richard Nixons veto to pass another law, the War Powers Act of 1973, which requires presidents to notify Congress within 48 hours of a military strike. And Trump did do that, at least his third such notification since taking office in January. Trump also sent notifications to Congress about his strike against an Iranian nuclear facility and Houthi rebels who were attacking shipping routes.

The Reiss Center at New York University maintains a database of War Powers Act notifications going back to the 1970s.

Cartels as terrorist organizations

In the notification about the Caribbean strike, Trumps administration argued that it has declared drug cartels are terrorist organizations and that he operated within his constitutional authority to protect the country when he ordered the strike.

Strikes against terrorists have been authorized under the catchall vote that authorized the use of military force against Islamic terrorists after the 9/11 terror attacks.

But Congress, which the Constitution puts in charge of declaring war, has not authorized the use of military force against Venezuelan drug cartels.

Lack of explanation from the White House

Over the weekend, CNNs Katie Bo Lillis, Natasha Bertrand and Zachary Cohen reported that the Pentagon abruptly canceled classified briefings to key House and Senate committees with oversight of the military, which means lawmaker have been unable to get the legal justification for the strike.

Many Americans might celebrate the idea of a military strike to take out drug dealers, and the administration is clearly primed to lean on the idea that the cartels are terrorists.

This screengrab of a video posted to President Donald Trumps Truth Social account on Tuesday, September 2, 2025, shows what Trump described as a Tren de Aragua boat carrying drugs from Venezuela, against which Trump ordered a strike. - Donald Trump/Truth Social

Heres a key quote from CNNs report:

The strike was the obvious result of designating them a terrorist organization, said one person familiar with the Pentagons thinking. If there was a boat full of al Qaeda fighters smuggling explosives towards the US, would anyone even ask this question?

Few details

Its not yet clear which military unit was responsible for the strike, what intelligence suggested there were drugs onboard, who was on the boat or what the boat was carrying.

The attack on the smuggling vessel in the Caribbean was so extraordinary because there was no reported attempt to stop the boat or detain its crew, wrote Brian Finucane, a former State Department legal advisor now at International Crisis Group for the website Just Security. Instead, the use of lethal force was used in the first resort.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US could have interdicted the boat and made a legal case against those onboard, but it decided instead to blow up the boat. The notice to Congress makes clear the administration will continue with other strikes.

War crime? Vance doesnt give a sh*t

The decision to blow up the boat and kill everyone onboard when interdiction and detention was a clearly available option is manifestly illegal and immoral, Oona Hathaway, a law professor and director of the Center for Global Legal Challenges at Yale Law School, told me in an email.

The view of the administration could be best summarized by Vice President JD Vance stating that using the military to go after cartels is the highest and best use of our military.

Vice President JD Vance listens as President Donald Trump speaks at a dinner in the Rose Garden of the White House on September 5, 2025. - Alex Brandon/AP

When a user on X replied that the extrajudicial killing of civilians without presenting evidence is, by definition, a war crime, Vance, himself a Yale-educated lawyer, said this:

I dont give a sh*t what you call it.

Thats not an acceptable response even for some Republicans.

Did he ever read To Kill a Mockingbird? wrote Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky in his own post on X. Did he ever wonder what might happen if the accused were immediately executed without trial or representation?? What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial.

Congress has power it likely wont use

Congress has the power to stop Trumps campaign against boats in the Caribbean. The War Powers Act allows lawmakers in the House and Senate to demand the president seek approval before continuing a campaign longer than 60 days. But that seems unlikely to occur at the moment.

After the strike against Iran earlier this year, Paul was the only Republican senator to side with Democrats and demand Trump seek approval for any future Iran strikes.

During his first term, seven Republicans voted with Senate Democrats to hem in Trumps ability to strike against Iran after he ordered the killing of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani. But there were not enough votes to overcome Trumps veto that year.

Trumps authority to use military force without congressional approval of the Caribbean operation technically expires after 60 days after he reports on the use of force, although he can extend it by an additional 30 days, although he could also declare a new operation is underway.

The use of these kinds of tactics has likely been in the works for some time.

In February, Trump designated drug cartels, including Venezuelas Tren de Aragua, as foreign terror organizations. In April, CNN reported the CIA was reviewing whether it had authority to use lethal force against drug cartels.

But the military strike against the alleged cartel boat happened as part of a broader campaign against Venezuela, including positioning US ships, aircraft and a submarine in the Caribbean, according to a CNN report.

Trump may have campaigned as a president who would end wars, but hes governing like a president who is very comfortable using his military.

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President Donald Trump delivers remarks during an event in Washington, DC, on September 8. - Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

Assuming President Donald Trumps claim that he couldnt stop Israels strike on Hamas officials in a Qatar residential district is true, hes just suffered another devastating blow to his international credibility.

Trump hurriedly made clear that Tuesdays raid, which killed five Hamas members but not the top team negotiating a new US ceasefire plan for Gaza, was not his decision and that hed rushed to inform Qatar when he learned of it.

Im not thrilled about the whole situation, Trump said as he went for dinner at a Washington, DC, steakhouse. Its not a good situation  we are not thrilled about the way that went down.

That seemed a rare Trumpian understatement.

The strike  in which Israel ignored profound implications for vital American interests  is a new embarrassment for Trump at a time when hes also being taken for a ride by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who grinned through their summit in Alaska, then escalated attacks on Ukrainian civilians. Poland said early Wednesday that it had shot down drones that violated its airspace during a Russian attack on neighboring Ukraine.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the violation of Polands airspace was absolutely reckless and not an isolated incident. NATO, Rutte said, will defend every inch of its territory.

Trump, meanwhile, seems sincere in his desire to be a global peacemaker. If he succeeds, he could save many lives and leave a valuable legacy. He returned to the White House in January insisting hed quickly end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. But eight months later, both are even more bloody. And Putin, Chinas leader Xi Jinping and Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi openly defy him.

Events in the Middle East are unlikely to do much to hurt Trumps political fortunes at home, as his crime crackdown plays out amid worries about a slowing economy. But Israels attack in broad daylight in Doha  just like Putins violations  could be ruinous to his self-image as a hard-power-wielding strongman who is feared abroad.

Thats because the strike flagrantly trampled the sovereignty of a vital US ally that hosts the largest US base in the Middle East and was negotiating with Hamas at the behest of the White House on a plan Trump predicted would soon yield a deal.

Not only was this a personal affront to Trump, but it also puts Netanyahus goals over the critical security priorities of the United States  even after the last two US administrations rushed to defend Israel from two sets of attacks by Iran. CNN reported that some White House officials were furious that it took place after one of Netanyahus advisers, Ron Dermer, on Monday met Trumps envoy Steve Witkoff but made no mention of an operation sure to humiliate the US president.

The attacks take place at a very sensitive moment in the ceasefire negotiations where the Trump administration, the president, and his envoy Witkoff have made clear that the president is looking for a comprehensive ceasefire, the release of all hostages, prisoner exchange and moving forward and ending the war in Gaza, former US ambassador to Israel Edward Djerejian told Richard Quest on CNN International.

Israel is not obviously paying much attention to US national security interests, said Djerejian, who served in eight administrations, starting with that of President John F. Kennedy and ending with that of President Bill Clinton.

Smoke rises from an explosion in Doha, Qatar, on September 9. - AP

Huge ramifications for US foreign policy

The reverberations of the strike seem certain to end any hope of a negotiated peace to end Israels war in Gaza  one reason why it may have recommended itself to Netanyahu. There may be horrific ramifications for the remaining Israeli hostages who are still alive after nearly two years of torment in tunnels under Gaza.

Its also the latest evidence that the Israeli prime minister places more importance on the total eradication of Hamas  a potentially impossible task  than the hostages return. And the almost certain result is an intensification of Israels offensive in the Gaza Strip, which has already killed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians and alienated most of Israels foreign allies.

For the United States, there are also serious ramifications.

 The fallout could sour the relationship between the US president and the Israeli prime minister and sow distrust between Israel and its vital ally the United States.

 It will shatter any credibility that the Trump had in posing as a distant mediator between Israel and Hamas and may cause Qatar to pull out of peace talks. The emirates prime minister accused Israel of conducting state terrorism.

 Some US observers accuse Qatar of playing a double game by hosting Hamas leaders. But Doha will see the attack by Americas closest Middle East ally as a betrayal after its years working to advance US diplomatic priorities, not just in the Middle East, but in hostage release deals beyond the Middle East as far away as Afghanistan and Venezuela.

 There could also be adverse consequences for Trumps personal and political interests in the wider Arab world, which he energetically pursued during the first Gulf trip of his second term, including a lavish welcome in Qatar.

 And the administrations hoped-for expansion of the first-term Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and some Arab states  and which is key to Trumps push for a Nobel Peace Prize  is now more distant than ever.

 Leaders of other states in the Gulf, a thriving business and leisure hub, will wonder  if Israel can strike with impunity at Qatar, under the noses of the US garrison  whether they will be next.

Its a pretty big bill for the Israelis to have conducted this strike, retired Admiral James Stavridis, a former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, told CNNs Kasie Hunt. He added that Netanyahu has been in power forever by US standards. And over time, hes gotten very comfortable in doing exactly what he wants to do.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the scene of a shooting in Jerusalem on September 8. - Ronen Zvulun/AFP/POOL/Getty Images

Israel insists it acted alone

Many US analysts will interpret Israels attempt to kill negotiators considering a US peace plan a day after they met with Qatari government officials as new proof that Netanyahu wants to prolong the war. The prime minister has succeeded in postponing inevitable investigations into the security lapses after the October 7 attacks on Israeli civilians by Hamas in 2023. And his personal legal woes can be kept off the boil as long as he stays in power atop his far-right coalition.

Israels justification for the strikes was that it will pursue terrorist leaders wherever they are. Netanyahu has waged war on multiple fronts throughout the region, and conducted devastating strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon; Houthis in Yemen; and Iran. He said Tuesday that the days when the heads of terror enjoyed immunity anywhere are over.

Many Israelis viewed the Hamas attacks nearly two years ago not just as a strike against Israel but also as the most heinous attempt to wipe out Jews since the Nazi Holocaust. Yet many also now oppose the total warfare on Gaza waged by Netanyahu and are desperate to see the return of the hostages after a negotiated settlement.

Netanyahu was quick to make clear that the attack on Doha was a wholly independent Israeli operation, seeking to offer Trump some diplomatic cover. But the Middle East loves conspiracy theories. And the US faces a hard sell over its claim that it knew nothing as Israel got 10 fighter jets and their munitions  possibly American-made F-35 planes  within range of the target.

Some will suspect that Trump gave a green light, or at least tacitly condoned the attacks. The White House, however, said that the US military in Qatar alerted Trump, and he ordered Witkoff to tip off the Qataris. But the government in Doha said it only got a heads-up when the attack, which caused panic in the capital, was already over.

The White House damage-control effort does seem to bolster Trumps claim that he couldnt do anything to halt the strike.

Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a sovereign nation and close ally of the United States that is working very hard in bravely taking risks with us to broker peace, does not advance Israel or Americas goals, said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

It was exceedingly rare criticism of Israel from the Trump administration. The president later said on Truth Social that this was a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me. Trump also said hed ordered Secretary of State Marco Rubio to finalize a defense cooperation pact with Qatar.

A Qatari Boeing 747 sits on the tarmac of Palm Beach International airport after President Donald Trump toured the aircraft on February 15. - Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images

How Trumps new Air Force One complicates his response

There are geopolitical reasons to take the presidents comments at face value. But there is a complication. Trump earlier this year accepted a Boeing 747 from Qatar to serve as a new Air Force One in violation of any previous understanding of presidential ethics. How can Americans therefore be convinced that hes acting on his perception of their vital security interests on this matter  and not his own desire to pay back Qatar for the personal gift of a jet worth hundreds of millions of dollars?

That aside, Trumps credibility with Qatar will need serious repair work.

What of the US security umbrella supposed to be provided by its vast Al Udeid Air Base in the desert outside Doha? It didnt prevent a deeply humiliating violation of Qatari sovereignty by an enemy the US would like them to engage. By extension, how can other Gulf states and other US allies worldwide be sure that Trumps security guarantees will be any more airtight than they were for Qatar?

The attack on Qatar will also cement an already widespread belief throughout the Middle East that Trump lacks any influence over Netanyahu despite the leverage of US defense sales to Israel and its vital role in the Jewish states defense. There was no public talk from the White House on Tuesday about consequences for the Israeli leader.

The loss of Trumps credibility is especially critical since the new US peace plan envisages the release of Israeli hostages by Hamas in Gaza in return for a ceasefire. Trump would then guarantee to Hamas that Israel would stick to the deal while negotiations continue. Tuesdays attacks in broad daylight in Doha suggest thats an empty promise.

So yet again, Trumps self-proclaimed role as the president of peace is thrown into question. And his foreign policy teams understanding of ruthless global strongmen was left badly exposed.

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The mental health risks posed by chatbots should be seen as a sign of the existential danger humanity faces from future super-intelligent artificial intelligence systems, an expert has warned.

ChatGPT

Nate Soares, co-author of a forthcoming book on advanced AI, If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies, and said the case of Adam Raine, a 19-year-old from the United States who died by suicide after months of conversations with ChatGPT, illustrated fundamental problems with controlling the technology.

He was quoted by the BBC saying: These AIs, when theyre engaging with teenagers in this way that drives them to suicide - that is not a behaviour the creators wanted.

That is not a behaviour the creators intended.

Adam Raines case illustrates the seed of a problem that would grow catastrophic if these AIs grow smarter.

Nate, a former engineer at both Google and Microsoft, is now president of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute in California.

Alongside his co-author Eliezer Yudkowsky, he is among experts warning that artificial super-intelligence - a state where AI systems surpass humans in all intellectual tasks - would not act in humanitys interests and could lead to extinction.

Nate added: The issue here is that AI companies try to make their AIs drive towards helpfulness and not causing harm.

They actually get AIs that are driven towards some stranger thing. And that should be seen as a warning about future super-intelligences that will do things nobody asked for and nobody meant.

Nate and Eliezers book describes a scenario in which an AI system called Sable spreads online, manipulates humans, creates synthetic viruses and ultimately becomes super-intelligent  wiping out humanity as a byproduct of repurposing the planet for its own aims.

Other leading figures in AI have played down such risks.

Yann LeCun, Metas chief AI scientist, has argued that AI could actually save humanity from extinction. Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg has said developing super-intelligence is now in sight.

Nate added: What the world needs to make it here is a global de-escalation of the race towards super-intelligence, a global ban of advancements towards super-intelligence.

Adam Raines family have launched legal action against OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT.

Their lawyer said the teenagers death in April followed months of encouragement from ChatGPT. OpenAI said it extended its deepest sympathies and was now implementing guardrails around sensitive content and risky behaviours for under-18s.

Professional bodies have echoed concerns.

Psychotherapists warned vulnerable people may slide into a dangerous abyss if they turn to chatbots instead of trained therapists.
Washington  President Donald Trump had dinner Tuesday night at a seafood restaurant near the White House, promoting his deployment of the National Guard and federalizing the police force in an effort to crack down on crime in the nation's capital.

His motorcade drove the short distance to Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab on 15th Street, NW, in D.C., following weeks of the president boasting about mobilizing federal authorities and the military that he says have made Washington "a safe zone."



Cheers were heard as the president stepped from his limo - though there was also a smattering of boos and chants from protesters opposing U.S. policy in support of Israel in its war with Hamas in Gaza.



"We're standing right in the middle of D.C., which as you know about, over the last year, was a very unsafe place  over the last 20 years  and now it's got virtually no crime," Mr. Trump told reporters.



He added that he wouldn't have stood out "in the middle of the street" as recently as a couple of months ago. The suggestion was farcical, however, and didn't actually reflect whether crime levels had changed in Washington, since the president is always surrounded by heavy security wherever he goes.



After entering the restaurant, video on social media showed him shaking hands with some diners inside. But he also stared for an extended period at a small group of protesters who held up miniature Gaza flags and chanted: "Free D.C.! Free Palestine! Trump is the Hitler of our time!"



The president moved closer to them and could be seen gesturing briefly but didn't appear to speak.

Seconds later, Mr. Trump gestured for the area to be cleared out, then gestured again.



Secret Service agents removed the protesters, saying repeatedly, "Time to go. Time to go." Some protesters waved banners of the Palestinian flag as they were leaving.

Others in the restaurant could be heard booing or chanting "U-S-A! U-S-A!"

President Trump departs after having dinner at Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab, a restaurant near the White House, on Sept. 9, 2025. / Credit: Alex Brandon / AP

The feminist group Codepink said it had the protesters in the restaurant.

Some restaurants have reported drops in reservations since Mr. Trump first announced the federal crackdown on Aug. 7, while there have been frequent street protests decrying his actions. Increased military and police presence also has occasionally sparked standoffs between residents and authorities in normally quiet neighborhoods.



Mr. Trump has nonetheless said repeatedly that he's spoken to friends who tell him local restaurants are full and that people have noticed a drop in crime. He says he's also heard that people appreciate crews working to remove homeless encampments as part of the crackdown.



Accompanying the president for dinner were Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as well as Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff. In his comments before going into dinner, Mr. Trump said, "The restaurants are booming."



"People are going out to dinner where they didn't go out for years," he said.



After Mr. Trump returned to the White House after 10 p.m., press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who was also among those who dined with him, said he'd eaten crab, shrimp, salad, steak and dessert.



The excursion was notable since the president rarely dines away from the White House when he's in Washington. And such outings have gotten even less common since he sold the hotel bearing his name a few blocks away, which was a key meeting point for administration officials and supporters during his first term.



The White House reported Tuesday that there had been nearly 2,200 arrests since Mr. Trump first announced the Washington crackdown on Aug. 7.



Mr. Trump has also deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles in June and has threatened to send troops to other, largely Democratic cities, including Baltimore, New Orleans and Chicago  where state and local authorities already are bracing for operations to sharply increase immigration enforcement.



He said Tuesday night, "We're going to be announcing another city that we're going to very shortly," adding it could be as soon as Wednesday. He added that the mayor of that city and the governor of the state it is in "would love us to be there."



That follows Trump posting over the weekend a parody image from "Apocalypse Now" featuring a ball of flames as helicopters zoom over the lakefront and skyline of Chicago, the nation's third-largest city.



"'I love the smell of deportations in the morning,'" Trump wrote on his social media site. "Chicago about to find out why it's called the Department of WAR."



In the post, Trump offered no details beyond the label "Chipocalypse Now," a play on the title of Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 Vietnam War film, in which a character says, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning."



Last week, Trump signed an executive order seeking to rename the Defense Department as the Department of War - even after months of campaigning to be considered for the Nobel Peace Prize. The renaming requires congressional approval.



In his own post in response, Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker called Trump a "wannabe dictator." He has joined state and city officials - and many Chicago residents  in decrying the idea of a federal crackdown as unnecessary.

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President Donald Trump announced conservative activist Charlie Kirk died on Wednesday after being shot at a university campus event in Utah.

"The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. 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. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!" Trump wrote on his social media platform.

Before the announcement, Trump told ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl, "It's horrific. It's one of the most horrible things I've ever seen."

"He was a good man. He was an incredible guy. Nobody like him," Trump told Karl.

MORE: Charlie Kirk dies after shot while visiting Utah university, Trump says; suspect still at large

First Lady Melania Trump released a statement on Wednesday, sharing her grief for Kirk's two young children, calling for more "compassionate awareness."

"Charlie's children will be raised with stories instead of memories, photographs instead of laughter, and silence where their father's voice should have echoed. Charlie Kirk's life should serve as a symbolic reminder that compassionate awareness elevates family, love, and country," she wrote.

Kirk, the founder of the conservative youth activist organization Turning Point USA, was a close ally to Trump and many members of his administration. Several top officials issued messages of support for Kirk and his family as news of the shooting first spread.

Vice President JD Vance shared Trump's announcement of Kirk's death and wrote on X, "Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord."

Donald Trump Jr., who worked closely with Kirk on the 2016 campaign, posted online: "I love you brother. You gave so many people the courage to speak up and we will not ever be silenced."

Trump ordered all American flags throughout the country to be lowered to half-staff through Sunday evening in honor of Kirk.

Nathan Howard/Reuters - PHOTO: A U.S. flag files at half mast, after right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, was fatally shot at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, in Washington, September 10, 2025.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers condemned the shooting.

The House of Representatives held a moment of silence for Kirk on Wednesday afternoon.

House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters the shooting "detestable" and said political violence "has to stop."

"Utterly devastating. Charlie was a close friend and confidant," Johnson later said in a statement on Kirk's death. "He will be sorely missed by so many. Every political leader must loudly and clearly decry this violence. Our prayers go out to his wife and young children. May he rest in peace."

"There is no place in our country for political violence. Period, full stop," Senate Majority Leader John Thune wrote on X.

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images - PHOTO: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, makes remarks in the U.S. Capitol about the shooting of media personality Charlie Kirk, September 10, 2025.

Utah Sen. Mike Lee, a close friend of Kirk, mourned his "dear friend" who he "deeply admired and respected" on Wednesday evening.

"I had been texting him in just the last 24 hours. He was excited to visit Utah, he told me about this trip many weeks ago -- invited me to come. I told him we would almost certainly be in session; I wouldn't be able to be there, but wished I could join him," Lee said. "I've known him for a long time. I've known him, I believe, since he was a teenager when he first started this effort. He's a dear friend. There's nobody else like him."

Lee described Kirk as someone with "boundless energy and great love for his country."

"Whether you agree with him or not, you have to respect his boundless energy, his commitment to making the world a better place," Lee said. "The genuine decency and respect that he showed to other people, even while disagreeing with them, even while they were yelling at him. I don't think I can ever remember ever seeing him respond back to hatred with hate, or with anything other than respect. And he had the ability to explain complex concepts to people in very simple, understandable terms, even people who hadn't historically been involved in politics or historically thought of themselves as conservatives or one way or another. And I think that's his legacy. And it's a legacy that's been cut far too short."

Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune via Reuters - PHOTO: Right-wing activist and commentator Charlie Kirk throws hats to the crowd shortly before he was shot at a Utah Valley University speaking event in Orem, Utah, Sept. 10, 2025.

Former President Joe Biden said "there is no place in our country for this kind of violence."

"It must end now. Jill and I are praying for Charlie Kirk's family and loved ones," Biden said in a post on X.

"I am deeply disturbed by the shooting in Utah," former Vice President Kamala Harris wrote on X. "Doug and I send our prayers to Charlie Kirk and his family. Let me be clear: Political violence has no place in America. I condemn this act, and we all must work together to ensure this does not lead to more violence."

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who earlier this year hosted Kirk for the first episode of his new podcast, called the attack "disgusting, vile, and reprehensible."

MORE: Charlie Kirk's influence, reach helped propel Trump into office

"In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form," California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on X.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement, "I am shocked by the murder of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University. Political violence of any kind and against any individual is unacceptable and completely incompatible with American values. We pray for his family during this tragedy."

Alex Goodlett/AP - PHOTO: Joseph Vogl stands outside Timpanogos Regional Hospital, Sept. 10, 2025, in Orem, Utah.

Gabrielle Giffords, a former Democratic congresswoman who was shot in the head during a public event in 2011, shared a message condemning acts of political violence. Giffords later founded and led a national gun violence prevention group.

"I'm horrified to hear that Charlie Kirk was shot at an event in Utah. Democratic societies will always have political disagreements, but we must never allow America to become a country that confronts those disagreements with violence. Mark and I are praying for Charlie's recovery," Giffords wrote.

Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, whose husband was violently assaulted in their California home by an invader looking for Pelosi, called the shooting "horrific."

"Political violence has absolutely no place in our nation," Pelosi wrote on X. "All Americans should pray for Charlie Kirk's recovery and hold the entire UVU community in our hearts as they endure the trauma of this gun violence."

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
AP Photo/Kyle Green, Pool Bryan Kohberger

NEED TO KNOW

Bryan Kohberger allegedly stalked two undergraduate students at Washington State University, showing up to their workplace "every day," according to Idaho State Police reports

Both women said that they later heard or were informed of someone watching them through a window just outside their homes

Kaylee Goncalves, one of Kohberger's four murder victims, also reported that a man had been stalking her prior to her murder

Two women told police they suspected Bryan Kohberger was stalking them while attending Washington State University, before he murdered four University of Idaho students.

Two female college students told officers with the Idaho State Police that Kohberger would make "daily" visits to see them at work, according to copies of their interviews obtained by PEOPLE.

Then the two women started getting unexpected visits at their homes.

The first woman was an employee at the WSU bookstore who said Kohberger "seemed very used to being put off by women."

She told police that in August or September of 2022, "She was home alone one night, changing in her room, and someone knocked on her window."

The woman then called her husband and the person ran off, she said.

Then, it happened again.

Monroe County Correctional Facility via Getty Bryan Kohberger

"Another time, after she had started working she heard someone moving around on her porch at approximately 7:00 in the evening. Her husband came home again and saw a white car leaving the area," the report read.

Kohberger drove a white Hyundai Elantra.

Kohberger also seemed to have researched her, she said, knowing personal details about her that she never volunteered to the former criminology student.

He once came in and asked for her by name, she told police, adding that she was "certain she never told Kohberger her name, and she doesn't wear a name tag."

Kohberger even knew "what hours she worked and made remarks about her hours."

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

The other student allegedly stalked by Kohberger worked in the criminology department with him, but was an undergraduate.

That student declined Kohberger's advances and informed him she was a lesbian, she told police, but that did not stop him from constantly seeking her out at work, seeing him "almost daily."

The report also said that she was told "she was not the first person to have problems with Kohberger."

She recalled one night she was working late and saw Kohberger "walking outside as she was locking up."

According to the report: "Kohberger made eye contact with her when she looked out, which seemed strange because you would have to be looking directly at the window where she worked to make eye contact."

She told police she had been getting ready to lock up at the time, and eventually ran and hid in a bathroom to avoid Kohberger when she saw him enter the building.

Then one day she got a phone call from a neighbor who said they "saw someone very close outside her window and to make sure to lock the door."

Soon after this, she learned that "she lived fairly close to Kohberger."

A fellow classmate of Kohberger's also recalled an incident when she felt someone was outside her window and soon after found "snow footprints leading to the back window of her apartment."

That classmate noted that "whoever had left the footprints had backtracked within the tracks."

She also told police that another classmate heard someone trying to open the door to their home a few weeks prior to that incident.

Kaylee Goncalves also felt as though she was being watched and stalked in the weeks before she was murdered alongside two of her roommates and one roommate's boyfriend.

One of the former roommates at the Moscow home where the victims were murdered on Nov. 13, 2022, told police she thought someone might harm her friends.

"She thought it was someone who was watching. She was always afraid of that. She always had an uneasy, weird feeling at the house, which is one of the reasons why she didn't want to go back," the report said.

Read the original article on People
Signage is seen outside of FDA headquarters in White Oak, Maryland

By Michael Erman, Jeff Mason and Ahmed Aboulenein

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will send out around 100 cease-and-desist enforcement notices and thousands of letters warning pharmaceutical companies that direct-to-consumer ads must comply with regulations that are already on the books, senior administration officials said on Tuesday.

The FDA plans to enforce regulations stipulating that drug ads cannot create a misleading impression about the products and need to appropriately disclose side effects, the officials said.

"There are ads that are clearly crossing the line with respect to the regulation, making any potential future legal action, I think, pretty clear cut," one of the officials said.

U.S. President Donald Trump also signed a presidential memorandum on Tuesday afternoon, the White House said, calling on his administration to step up enforcement of direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical ads in order to ensure transparency and accuracy.

"Pharmaceutical ads hooked this country on prescription drugs," U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement. "We will shut down that pipeline of deception and require drug companies to disclose all critical safety facts in their advertising."

PhRMA, the industry's main lobby group, said drugmakers are committed to accurate and responsible advertising that helps Americans make informed healthcare decisions.

"DTC advertising provides patients with important fact-based, useful and accessible information about potential treatment options," it said in a statement.

The presidential action and FDA letters coincide with the release of the report on U.S. children's health by Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again Commission.

The officials said that enforcement of drug ads has been increasingly lax, adding that last year, the FDA did not send out any enforcement letters about drug advertising.

They did not disclose which companies had been sent the enforcement or warning letters. They said they were not only concerned about ads from drugmakers, but also ads from online pharmacies "that are not following the same rules that many pharmaceutical companies follow."

The government is also examining the role social media influencers play in advertising drugs and plans to close a loophole that allows companies to refer patients to a website for information on side effects, the officials said.

Administration officials said there are no additional presidential actions planned on direct-to-consumer drug ads, calling the memorandum "the strongest, boldest action that we can take on making sure that patients have adequate safety information."

In his first term, Trump attempted to push through a rule that would have forced pharmaceutical companies to include the wholesale prices of their drugs in television advertising.

U.S. courts sided with drugmakers Merck, Eli Lilly and Amgen and struck down the rule.

(Reporting by Michael Erman in New York, Jeff Mason and Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Jamie Freed)
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen gestures as she delivers a major state of the union speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Pascal Bastien)

ANTWERP, Belgium (AP)  European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen broke Wednesday with her pro-Israel stance and announced plans to seek sanctions and a partial trade suspension against Israel over its military campaign in Gaza.

The 27-nation EU is split over war in the Gaza Strip and its unclear whether a majority will be found to endorse the sanctions and trade measures. Von der Leyen also said she plans to freeze support to Israel given by the EUs executive branch, which would not require the approval of all member countries.

The bloodshed in Gaza has prompted protests in multiple European cities, from Amsterdam to Barcelona, and fueled criticism of Brussels' bureaucracy over its perceived inability to meaningfully pressure Israel to halt military operations in the strip and let in more humanitarian aid.

Tense relations

The EU is Israels largest trading partner, so the moves could have far-reaching effects inside Israel, a nation already reeling from the cost of a long war. A commission official said that roughly 32 million euros ($37,517 million) in bilateral funds would be immediately suspended. The commission also gives support to the Palestinian Authority. Von der Leyen said that the events in Gaza and the suffering of children and families has shaken the conscience of the world" before announcing plans to sanction far-right Israeli cabinet members and West Bank settlers, freeze support to Israel, and for a partial suspension of an an Association Agreement that underpins relations between the EU and Israel, targeting notably trade-related matters.

Von der Leyens comments came the day after Israels military warned Gaza City residents to evacuate ahead of its plans to take control of what it says is Hamas last remaining stronghold and where hundreds of thousands of people remain under conditions of famine.

Man-made famine can never be a weapon of war. For the sake of the children, for the sake of humanity. This must stop, von der Leyen said, to applause in the European Parliament at a session in Strasbourg, France. Roughly a third of the assembled lawmakers wore red clothes to signify solidarity with people in Gaza.

We will put our bilateral support to Israel on hold. We will stop all payments in these areas, without affecting our work with Israeli civil society or Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial, von der Leyen told lawmakers during her annual State of the Union address.

Israel denies there is starvation in Gaza and says it allows in enough humanitarian aid. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, in a social media post, said Von der Leyen had succumbed to pressures that undermine Israel-Europe relations. He said her actions will embolden Hamas.

Shamefully late

Agnes Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, wrote on X that von der Leyen's proposals were shamefully late and that the EU can no longer ignore millions of protestors who for the last 23 months have denounced Israels crimes." She called on both Germany and Italy not to block the measures if voted on.

Schams El Ghoneimi, a former Middle East advisor in the European Parliament, said he was surprised by von der Leyens comments because she has been so deaf" to the situation in Gaza and the rising concerns echoed by EU staffers and member states about the situation in the Palestinian territory.

Spain, the Netherlands and Ireland have led criticism of Israel from within the EU, while Germany, Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic have defended Israel. Germany is Israels second-largest arms supplier after the United States.

Its just too late, and too little, given the catastrophe on the ground, said Martin Konecny, director of the Brussels-based European Middle East Project. But he said sanctions and suspension of bilateral deals were significant practically and symbolically because of von der Leyen's public support for Israel.

Von der Leyen has largely supported the government of Benjamin Netanyahu since meeting him on Oct. 14, 2023, after visiting a kibbutz smoldering from the Hamas raid.

Konecny said the EU leader was the embodiment of the very pro-Israel commitment of the EU, especially after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas against Israel that killed 1,200 and left 251 hostages, sparking the war. Israels retaliatory offensive has killed more than 64,600 Palestinians, according to Gazas Health Ministry. The ministry does not say how many were civilians or combatants, but says women and children make up around half the dead.

 Associated Press writer Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.
Parents/Thomas Barwick via getty

Have you ever felt that rush of anxiety when another adult asks your kid what their name is and your kid doesn't answer? Have you ever felt the need to apologize for forgetting your kid's hat or gloves in cold weather? If so, you're not alone. This feeling is what I call "parenting etiquette"where we feel judged when the overall presentation of our kids isn't perfectly buttoned up.

Thankfully, one pediatrician is sharing a much-needed message to parents who think they're falling short in that area: "We do not care."

Calling All Parents to the 'We Do Not Care Club'

Nola Ernest, health care provider at Enterprise Pediatric Clinic in Alabama and mom of three, recently did an interview on TODAY where she called out five things parents often apologize for during doctor's visits. She says she hears parents feeling judged for forgetting diaper bags, their kids showing up with bruised shins, having pizza for dinner, forgetting to say "thank you," or wearing shorts during winter.

Theyll apologize because their kid tore the paper on the exam table! Dr. Ernest adds, which is something that of course happens all the time.

In a video she posted on her Instagram account in August, Dr. Ernest breaks down why pediatricians don't actually care about these things, and why parents shouldn't care either. She refers to it as the Alabama Chapter of the "We Do Not Care Club."

For each listed concern, Dr. Ernest has an endearing rebuttal that has both empathy and logic in mind for caregivers who feel overwhelmed by what doctors may think.

The post caption reads, "Seriously, parents, the pediatricians office is a judgement-free zone. Adding guilt and worry to your plate is rarely self serving. So, here are a [few] things that #pediatricians are just not worried about when you come to the office."

A number of other health care providers cosign in the comments and even add to the list. One writes, "Youve inspired me to join the club! Solidarity, sister! We are not here to judge, just to help and support."

"We do not care if your child is not wearing underwear, it is more common than you think," writes another.

One parent comments with their own doctor's office experience that set them at ease:

"The diaper bag one! When my first was just a few days old I took her in for the first appointment. I had everything I needed for her except the nipple that goes on the ready to feed formula bottles that the hospital gave me. I cried on the spot. You know what my Ped did? Grabbed one from the supply closet and told me I was doing a good job. Thats what moms need!"

Life Is Hard EnoughLets Take It Easy on Ourselves

Though Dr. Ernest's views on these five specific things may not necessarily apply to everyone, the sentiment behind it should absolutely be applied more often. Chill. Parenting etiquette does have its place when we're operating in public and trying to teach our kids things like manners. But the pre-judgement part of it can get really loud at times, drowning out the fact that kids are kids and no parent is perfect.

Health care professionals, educators, and others who are trained to work with families understand this, and won't take a judgmental posture or scold us as much as we fear. The same can be said for fellow parents. Apologizing every time my kid doesn't shake an adult's hand or readily engage them in conversation isn't a necessity. I'm not always judged for my kid acting their age, so why am I judging myself?

There are way bigger things to be concerned about these daysand we should give ourselves space to care a little less about the small stuff.

Read the original article on Parents
Hungary Deepens Energy Ties With Shell As Russian Reliance Persists

On Tuesday, Shell PLC (NYSE:SHEL) agreed to sign a new long-term natural gas purchase deal with Hungary, which the country's foreign minister called its "largest volume and longest western supply contract ever."

The agreement was confirmed in remarks reported by Reuters, which cited Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto saying the signing would take place later in the day. He did not disclose the contract's length or volumes.

Szijjarto said, "Later today we will announce the signing of a new long-term contract with Shell," while adding that Hungary cannot fully wean itself off Russian gas without further infrastructure development in the region.

Also Read: Shell Halts Rotterdam Biofuels Project After Cost Review

According to Reuters, Hungary's previous long-term deal with Shell was signed in 2020, covering 250 million cubic meters of gas annually between 2021 and 2027. That agreement marked the country's first long-term LNG contract with a Western company.

Hungary consumes around 8 billion cubic metres of gas a year. It is still the biggest buyer of Russian gas in the European Union.

Reuters reported that earlier this year Hungary and Slovakia opposed European Commission proposals to phase out Russian energy imports, reflecting Hungary's reliance on supplies from Moscow.

While the Hungary agreement signals Shell's continued role in European gas markets, the company also moved last week to scale back ambitions in biofuels. On September 3, Shell announced its subsidiary, Shell Nederland Raffinaderij B.V., will not resume construction of a planned biofuels facility at the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park in Rotterdam.

Shell said that the decision followed a "thorough commercial and technical review" of the project's competitiveness. Construction at the 820,000-tonne-per-year facility had already been suspended in July. The project had been a centerpiece of Shell's push into renewable fuels, and the cancellation reflects a more selective investment approach amid cost pressures.

Price Action: SHEL shares were trading higher by 1.25% to $72.62 at last check Tuesday.

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This article Hungary Deepens Energy Ties With Shell As Russian Reliance Persists originally appeared on Benzinga.com

 2025 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Apple Martin has landed her first fashion campaign.

Apple Martin for self-portrait

The 21-year-old aspiring model - who is the daughter of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin - is teaming up with London-based fashion house self-portrait for a new collaboration, with the venture unveiled on the brand's Instagram account.

In a casual selfie video, Apple said: "It is me, Miss Apple Blythe Alison Martin, coming to you from the floor in a gorg self-portrait little baby tee and these cute ass earrings.

"And I'm so excited to be the new Miss self-portrait and for the campaign to come out."

In a separate post, the brand - which was founded by Han Chong in 2013 - wrote: "Welcome to the family @applemartin."

Previous celebrity collaborators include Emily Ratajkowski, Gigi Hadid, Naomi Campbell, Irina Shayk, Bella Hadid, Kate Moss, Jisoo and Phoebe Dynevor.

Apple recently admitted she has been "very anxious about making mistakes" because of the scrutiny she's faced throughout her life.

She told Interview magazine: "Its interesting because I grew up with that uneven balance of getting out of the airport with my mom and being bombarded with cameras, and then just being a normal kid.

"I remember I read 'Discipline and Punish' [by Michel Foucault], which is a great book, but talking about the surveillance stateI feel like Ive grown up with that, which is really scary and makes me very anxious about making mistakes.

"So I was really discouraged from doing anything in the public eye. Also, I was like, 'I dont think we need another celebrity child in the world.'

"I just try to do what feels right and block out anything regarding me in the news to the best of my ability. And Im getting a lot better at being like, 'F*** it'. Im not going to be scared. I just want to do what seems fun and figure my life out."

Apple opted to study law at Tennessee's Vanderbilt University in part because she was too "insecure and nervous" to attempt to be an actress.

She explained: "So, the reason why I was originally like, 'Maybe Ill be a lawyer', was because I loved acting, but I was insecure and nervous, so I was like, 'Oh my god, if Im a lawyer, I can perform on the stage in a trial setting.'

"Its insane that I thought that. Also I cannot lie, I was like, 'Ill just be Elle Woods'.

"Its a lot harder than it looks. I dont know how she managed to go to law school every day as fabulous as she did.

"But I love history. I love true crime. I love investigating. I also think its fun to look at the history of law and see how you can implement it in a modern context.

"If I were to be a lawyer, I would just want to help people. Thats probably the biggest thing."
Newly revealed photos of Bryan Kohberger showed the convicted k*ller shirtless and flexing with what appeared to be a wound on his hand after his tragic slaying of four University of Idaho students in 2022.

The images offered a chilling glimpse into Kohbergers behavior after he committed the heinous crime.

Documents highlighted years of troubling complaints and unsettling encounters with women before his arrest.

Newly surfaced photos showed Kohbergers disturbing photos

Image credits: Getty/Pool

The images, which were initially published by NewsNation, captured Kohberger shirtless in several unsettling poses.

In one photo, he raised two fingers to his forehead, his collarbones jutting sharply as he stared into the lens.

Netizens quickly noticed that a wound was visible on his left ring finger, an injury that he might have sustained when one of his victims fought back during his fatal home invasion in November 2022.

Other photos depicted Kohberger flexing in different stances while listening to music through earbuds.

Image credits: NBC News

In one particularly unsettling close-up, he adopted a creepy expression, grinning with his teeth exposed.

Kohbergers expressions and poses were described as unnerving, adding another disturbing layer to a case that has continued to haunt the internet.

At the time of the slayings, Kohberger had been pursuing a PhD in criminology at Washington State University in Pullman, just a short drive from the victims home in Moscow, Idaho.

Complaints about Kohberger revealed disturbing behavior and a troubling history

Image credits: NewsNation

The release of the photos coincided with reports of Kohbergers long history of complaints during his time at Washington State University.

According to unsealed documents, he received 13 formal complaints from classmates, with many describing him as inappropriate and aggressive.

Female students reported deeply unsettling encounters. In one shocking case, he asked a deaf classmate if she would feel comfortable procreating given the fact she had a disability.

Others recalled inappropriate comments and intimidating behavior that left them uneasy around him.

Image credits: NewsNation

His reputation quickly spread across campus, with former classmates noting that he was known for being a d*ck.

Beyond classroom behavior, Kohbergers interactions with women outside school escalated into stalking, according to People magazine.

Kohberger terrorized women who wanted absolutely nothing to do with him

One bookstore employee recalled terrifying encounters where someone knocked on her window late at night while she was changing clothes. Another time, she heard footsteps on her porch.

Image credits: NewsNation

After she had started working, she heard someone moving around on her porch at approximately 7:00 in the evening.

Her husband came home again and saw a white car leaving the area, Idaho State Police records noted.

Both incidents ended with a white car speeding away. The vehicle was later identified as the Hyundai Elantra that Kohberger was driving at the time of the murders.

A second woman, a student working in the criminology department, told police that Kohberger repeatedly sought her out and made unwelcome advances.

Image credits: Indiana State Police

On one occasion, she said she caught him staring directly at her through a window at work, an angle that required him to intentionally position himself for eye contact.

Kohberger made eye contact with her when she looked out, which seemed strange because you would have to be looking directly at the window where she worked to make eye contact, the report read.

Kohbergers arrest and conviction brought closure, but questions continued to linger

Image credits: Instagram/kayleegoncalves

Kohberger was arrested on December 30, 2022, at his parents Pennsylvania home, more than a month after he fatally attacked the four University of Idaho students.

In July 2025, shortly before his trial was expected to begin, Kohberger pleaded guilty to the slayings of Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, and Ethan Chapin.

As part of the deal, he avoided the possibility of facing a firing squad and was instead sentenced to four consecutive life sentences without parole, plus 10 years for burglary.

Some netizens have shared frustrations with Kohbergers plea deal, as it allowed him to escape the d*ath penalty.

Image credits: Getty/Pool

What a weasel, attacks four innocent people in their sleep, then negotiates to a life sentence. To save his own skin, one commenter wrote.

This guy definitely deserved the d*ath penalty. He shouldnt be protected in solitary confinement, but put into general population to receive the punishment the state of Idaho didnt give him, wrote another.

Netizens shared their thoughts on Kohbergers recent photos on social media
Hailey Bieber/TikTok; MGM Hailey Bieber (left); Reese Witherspoon in 'Legally Blonde' (right)

NEED TO KNOW

Hailey Bieber referenced a popular scene from Legally Blonde on TikTok

In the video, the Rhode founder wore a pinstripe suit ahead of her appearance at the New York Stock Exchange on Sept. 5

Bieber quoted Elle Woods' famous "What, like it's hard?" scene in the video

Hailey Bieber is unleashing her inner Elle Woods!

Ahead of her celebrating Rhode's acquisition by e.l.f. Cosmetics at the New York Stock Exchange, Bieber took to TikTok on Friday, Sept. 5, and referenced Legally Blonde in a fun voiceover video.

In the video, the Rhode founder, 28, wore a tailored pinstripe suit with a matching skirt and aviator eyeglasses while holding the New York Stock Exchange's 1940 to 1953 yearbook.

Bieber also quoted one of Legally Blonde's most famous scenes, in which Elle runs into her ex-boyfriend, Warner Huntington III  who broke up with her because he wanted to marry a woman who fit his political aspirations  at Harvard Law School.

Mary Evans/Ronald Grant/Everett Collection Reese Witherspoon in 'Legally Blonde.'

"I'm sorry, are you here to see me?" Warner asks Elle in the audio. "No, silly, I go here," Bieber mouths in the video. Warner then responds, "You got into Harvard Law?" to which Bieber as Elle says, "What, like it's hard?"

Later in the day, Bieber was spotted leaving the New York Stock Exchange  her loose waves and aviator glasses in the video were traded for a professional slicked-back bun and pointed black leather heels.

Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images Hailey Bieber leaving the NYSE building on Sept. 5.

Never miss a story  sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Bieber has been on a power-dressing kick recently. On Thursday, Sept. 4, she attended Rhode's opening at Sephora in New York City's Times Square in a vintage two-piece outfit.

For the event, she wore a silver Donna Karan coordinating set that consisted of a cropped boxy shirt with a cleavage-baring neckline and a matching skirt. The look, which is older than she is, first appeared in the brand's Spring 1996 collection.

Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images Hailey Bieber at the "Rhode Sephora" store opening in Times Square on Sept. 4.,

On Instagram, Hailey shared photos of herself in the set and gave a shoutout to Lauren Ratner, Co-Founder, President & Chief Brand Officer of Rhode, and Michael Ratner, Co-Founder of Rhode, for the brand's success.

"Could never have done it without these 2!!!! We started this journey just us 3 in 2020 and today we launched in Sephora," she captioned a picture of herself in the Donna Karan outfit, alongside the Ratners at Sephora Times Square. "So grateful to do this alongside my amazing brilliant friends @ratty @laurenratner."

The model's coordinated sets continued later throughout her New York trip  Bieber was spotted on Friday in a satin cleavage-baring blazer and matching satin flared pants.

Getty Images Hailey Bieber on Sept. 5 in New York City.

She completed the look with peach tones on her lips and cheeks, loose waves and black sandals.

Read the original article on People
FBI Charlotte/X Liam King.

NEED TO KNOW

After two days of search efforts, a missing 7-year-old boy was found dead in a pond in Asheboro, N.C. on Sept. 9

His mother's boyfriend was allegedly watching him when he disappeared, authorities said

An investigation into the incident is ongoing

After two days of frantic efforts from search teams, the body of a missing 7-year-old boy has been found in a pond in North Carolina, authorities said.

On the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 9, officials discovered the body of Liam King in a pond close to the area where he was initially reported missing in Asheboro, the Randolph County Sheriffs Office said in a statement on social media.

We are absolutely devastated, the sheriffs office said. I wish more than anything that we had a different outcome  for Liams family, for our community, and for the hundreds of first responders and volunteers who poured their hearts into finding him alive.

Over the past two days, youve seen an extraordinary effort from all involved in this search, officials continued. This loss is truly heartbreaking. We ask everyone to please continue to keep Liams family in your thoughts and prayers.

The previous Sunday, Sept. 7, the sheriffs office received a report that the nonverbal and cognitively impaired child was missing. King walked away from the Forest Hills Dr. area and was last seen wearing a light blue, black and gray Nike sweatshirt, a gray Nike T-shirt, black sweatpants, blue Sonic socks and tan sneakers, authorities said in an initial news alert.

The sheriff's office noted King was about 3 feet, 5 inches tall, weighed 55 lbs., and had dark shoulder-length hair with brown eyes.

"We currently have a lot of personnel from various responder agencies actively involved in the search for the missing seven-year-old," the sheriff's office said in a later post. "Additional search teams are already scheduled to rotate in as part of our ongoing efforts."

By 8:15 a.m. on Tuesday, the sheriffs office said that the agency and partnering organizations continued to actively search for the boy.

Every available resource is being used, and we are committed to bringing him home safely, authorities said, adding, Together, we remain hopeful.

Sadly, just two hours later, King was found in a body of water near the Forest Hills Dr. area, ABC affiliate WTVD reported.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Randolph County Sheriff Gregory Seabolt said that the child was with his mothers boyfriend when he went missing, WTVD and NBC affiliate WRAL reported.

The sheriff said its too early to determine if authorities will press charges, according to WRAL. An investigation into Kings death is ongoing.



Randolph County Sheriff's Office, NC/Facebook Search efforts for the missing boy continued for two days.

"I wish we had positive information to give you," said Seabolt, according to the outlet. "Hopefully, we can learn something from this and be better next time. Our goal was to find him alive and we did not achieve that goal."

The Randolph County Sheriffs Office had no further information to add, and the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner did not immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE.

While young children are at risk of drowning, the risk is even greater for children with neurodevelopmental disorders like autism. A paper published in Injury Epidemiology notes that children with autism are at a substantially increased risk of injury mortality, particularly from unintentional drowning.



Randolph County Sheriff's Office, NC/Facebook Multiple agencies partnered in the search for Liam King.

Katie Pabst Williams, director of clinical operations at the Florida Autism Centers Northwest Florida division, told Central Florida Public Media in 2023 that it's "extremely important" to supervise a child near any body of water.

A child can drown in as little time as it takes to go inside and get a towel, or put a load of laundry in the washer," William said.

Never miss a story  sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

For the Asheboro community, Kings death has been hard to navigate.

"Anytime you deal with a child, you become somewhat emotional," the sheriff said, according to WRAL. "You know we all have kids. I got grandkids, and you put yourself in that position. This child had a life to live and it was taken away from him."

Read the original article on People
The six mean refused to cooperate with deputies when they were found inside of a mobile home in Florida.

Six illegal migrants were arrested when the body of a man run over and killed during a drunken party was found stashed inside his Florida trailer, according to authorities.

A 911 caller first alerted cops early Sunday that a so-far-unidentified man had been killed and left inside his trailer in the Willow Oak Mobile Home Park in Mulberry, the Polk County Sheriffs Office said.

When deputies found the body, it was clear the 21-year-old died from injuries consistent with being run over by a vehicle, the office said.

The six men refused to cooperate with deputies when they were found inside a mobile home in Florida.

Investigators quickly found out that the victim had been at a party late Saturday  one where nearly everyone was consuming alcohol  and for some reason decided to lie down in the driveway to his trailer, the sheriffs office said.

The witness saw 52-year-old Ponciano Cinto-Ramirez get into a van that was parked on the driveway, put it into reverse, and back over the victim, police said  saying Cinto-Ramirez continued driving off even as others yelled out about the deadly accident.

When deputies went to arrest Cinto-Ramirez for leaving the scene of a deadly crash, they found several people inside his trailer who refused to come out.

Eventually, one by one, they came outside but refused to give deputies information or cooperate, the sheriffs office said  with two giving false IDs.

Ponciano Cinto-Ramirez, 52, allegedly ran over the 21-year-old at a party Saturday night. Polk County Jail

Deputies eventually learned all six of the suspects are in the country illegally from Guatemala, the statement said.

All of these suspects are facing serious felonies, and ICE has placed holds on them as well to hopefully deport them back to Guatemala, Sheriff Grady Judd said.

What started out as a neighborhood party ended up with a 21-year-old man dead and a group of illegal aliens going to jail.

Cinto-Ramirez was charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving death, driving without a license causing death and resisting arrest.

Alfredo Cinto-Ramirez, 48, Rigoberto Lopez Morales, 22, Jacinto Lopez Morales, 46, Leonel Into Lopez, 24, and Ramiro Cinto Lopez, 23, were each charged with resisting arrest.

Alfredo Cinto-Ramirez, Leonel Cinto Lopez and Ramiro Cinto Lopez were each additionally charged with giving false names to police, and Ramiro was also charged with possession of an altered firearm.
U.S. Rep. Tim Moore, R-N.C., speaks on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Sept. 8, 2025. Congressman Tim Moore | Vimeo

(The Center Square)  Removal of Magistrate Teresa Stokes from North Carolinas Judicial 26th District is being sought by all 10 Republican members of the states delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives.

In a letter dated Tuesday and addressed to Chief Judge Roy Wiggins, the lawmakers wrote in part that state statutes provide for the removal of a magistrate for willful and persistent failure to perform the duties of the office or conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice that brings the judicial office into disrepute.

The Aug. 22 murder of Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light rail has been seen on video provided to police by the Charlotte Area Transit System. In the chilling scene, Decarlos Brown Jr. is behind her about four minutes, both seated, before he stands and stabs her to death.

Zarutska, 23, fled the war in Ukraine, her family says. Brown, 34, is reportedly homeless or has been taken in by family. He faces a first-degree murder charge from the state, and a federal charge of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system.

The letter is led by Rep. Tim Moore and signed by Dr. Greg Murphy, Virginia Foxx, Addison McDowell, David Rouzer, Rev. Mark Harris, Richard Hudson, Pat Harrigan, Chuck Edwards and Brad Knott.

Judge Stokes had the chance to protect the public and chose not to," Moore said in a released statement. "Its clear that shes unfit to hold this consequential position and should be removed from the bench immediately.

Their letter points out Stokes actions in January, when she authorized the release of Brown with only written promise to appear in court later. His 14 prior offenses, they write, included possession of a firearm by a felon, robbery with a dangerous weapon and physical assault of his sister.

Stokes was overseeing a misdemeanor charge of Brown being combative with police.

Yet despite this history of violent and unstable behavior, the lawmakers write, Magistrate Stokes released Brown without requiring bond or imposing any meaningful conditions to safeguard the public.

The letter also says, By releasing a repeat violent offender on nothing more than his written promise to appear, Magistrate Stokes displayed a willful failure to perform the duties of her office and engaged in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice, as set forth in the general statutes. Her decision has undermined public confidence in the judicial system and exposed the community to wholly preventable harm.

In addition to removal for this act, the lawmakers request Wiggins check her prior bond determinations to assess the full extent of misconduct.
Hunters captured an alligator that may have eaten missing 12-year-old Bryan Vasquez.

A group of hunters found human remains inside the belly of an alligator they captured Tuesday near a lagoon where a nonverbal autistic boy was attacked and killed by one of the scaly predators.

Bryan Vazquez, 12, was missing for nearly a month before authorities recovered his battered corpse from a lagoon near his familys home in New Orleans.

Following the grisly discovery, authorities dispatched hunters to eliminate the nuisance alligators and, hopefully, track down the predator responsible for Bryans death.

Bryan Vasquez, 12, was found dead after being attacked by an alligator near his New Orleans home. New Orleans Police Department

One group just across Lake Pontchartrain in Lacombe, La., mightve nabbed the right bounty on Tuesday.

The hunters found what appeared to be the upper remains of a person inside a gutted gator they captured. The find was quickly turned over to The Orleans Parish Coroners Office, which will conduct DNA testing to determine if the remains are a positive match with Bryan, WWLTV reported.

On Aug. 14, the childs mother Hilda Vasquez left him at home in the care of his 11-year-old sister. Around 5 a.m., Bryan slipped out an unsecured window and wandered away from home  something authorities said hed done at least twice before.

He was last seen on surveillance footage that morning near the front stoop wearing nothing but an adult diaper.

Bryan was autistic and nonverbal. WDSU

Bryan was last seen on surveillance footage wearing nothing but an adult diaper after he escaped his home through an unsecured window. WDSU News

When Bryan was just 3 months old, Vasquez beat him so badly that suffered a skull fracture, broken legs, a collapsed lung and a traumatic brain injury that authorities said contributed to his autism and muteness.

She was convicted of the abuse in 2013 and Bryan was removed from he care.

However, at some point, the boy was returned to Vasquezs custody by the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services, though its unclear when, police said.

Bryans mother, who was previously convicted for abusing him, was charged with his

negligent death. WDSU

His mangled body wasnt found until weeks later on Aug 26.

Vasquez was arrested on Sunday and charged with second-degree cruelty to juveniles and negligent homicide for her sons horrific end.

The mom could face up to 20 years behind bars. She is set to appear for a bond hearing next week.
Former defence secretary Sir Grant Shapps and ex-Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith have signed a letter along with other politicians and former senior military officers to Donald Trump asking him to intervene to block the Chagos deal.

Serious concerns remain over the impact on UK and US defence and security with threats to the operational ability of the Diego Garcia case in the Indian Ocean, which Sir Keir Starmers government claims it is protecting.

The US president has already given the deal with Mauritius his blessing but it was sent to the White House as Sir Keir Starmer pushed through a vote on ratifying the deal in the House of Commons.

Trump gave the deal his blessing (Reuters)

A bad-tempered debate over the deal among MPs saw claims that the governments legal case for handing over the islands had collapsed.

MPs pointed out that claims the UK would be subject to legal challenges through the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) had already been dismissed.

As previously revealed by The Independent, the government had used UNCLOS as its main legal case for suggesting the UK and US could lose access to the crucial military base on Diego Garcia.

But the UK is protected from UNCLOS because it has an opt out concerning military activities, including military activities by government vessels and aircraft engaged in non-commercial service, and disputes concerning law enforcement activities in article 28 of the agreement.

In the letter from British politicians and retired military personnel, they warned Mr Trump that handing the islands would mean Mauritius could veto the allies from taking nuclear weapons there.

They said: If the UK and US are prohibited from storing nuclear weapons at Diego Garcia, this will have significant consequences for our strategic interests, defence capabilities and the effectiveness of our nuclear deterrent.

Sir Grant Shapps (PA) (PA Archive)

Mr President, you have built your reputation on refusing to cede strategic ground to those who would weaken America. We urge you to use your influence, publicly and privately, and your prerogatives under the US-UK defence agreement of 1966 to oppose this surrender and to ensure that Diego Garcia remains exempt from any constraint under the Pelindaba Treaty.

The Labour government is attempting to push through the deal before a human rights challenge by Chagosans, who were excluded from the talks and will only have limited rights to return to the islands, can be heard in October.

It is estimated that the cost of the deal over 99 years will be 30bn to the taxpayer.

But the debate focussed on the threat of international rulings degrading the ability of the UK and US to use the base.

Defence secretary John Healey admitted that UNCLOS was the biggest concern.

He told MPs: Within a few weeks international rulings will start to weaken our ability to maintain and control our full operational sovereignty over Diego Garcia.

Within just a few years we expect that to be at a point in which it compromises our ability to continue the operation that are so essential to protecting people at home here and also protecting our forces when they deploy around the world.

But numerous Tory MPs disputed the legal case he was outlining which makes the deal essential.

Shadow armed forces minister Mark Francois said: During todays Commons Debate on Diego Garcia, the governments legal case collapsed, under close scrutiny. They finally revealed that the legal threat to justify their 35 billion surrender deal is based on the UNCLOS Treaty - from which we in Britain already have a clear opt out for disputes concerning military activities in Article 296. The whole case is a sham, as Parliament has today discovered.
CMAT, Sam Fender and Fontaines D.C. are among the artists nominated for the 2025 Mercury Prize.

CMAT's EURO-COUNTRY is among the 12 albums shortlisted for the 2025 Mercury Prize

The 12 Albums of the Year were unveiled on BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC Sounds by Lauren Laverne on Wednesday morning (10.09.25).

As well as CMAT's EURO-COUNTRY, Fender's People Watching and Fontaines' Romance, FKA twigs' EUSEXUA, PinkPantheress' Fancy That, Pulp's More, and Pa Salieu's Afrikan Alien have made the shortlist.

Wolf Alice have received their third nomination of their career for The Clearing, having won the 2018 Mercury Prize with Visions Of A Life and being nominated for 2021s Blue Weekend.

Jacob Alon's In Limerence, Joe Webb's Hamstrings and Hurricanes, Martin Carthy's Transform Me Then Into A Fish, and Emma-Jean Thackray's Weirdo complete the list.

For the first time in the history of the prestigious music prize-giving, the ceremony will take place outside of London, heading to Newcastle's Utilita Arena on October 16.

As well as the main ceremony, the Mercury Prize Newcastle Fringe - which promises to celebrate the "North Easts phenomenal music scene" and see "iconic venues alive like never before" - will take place between Thursday October 9 and Wednesday October 15.

The 2024 ceremony was held at London's legendary Abbey Road Studios, where English Teacher's acclaimed debut album This Could Be Texas was crowned the winner.

To bag remaining tickets to the bash, head to www.utilitaarena.co.uk/events/detail/2025-mercury-prize.

The 2025 Mercury Prize 12 Albums of the Year are:

CMAT - EURO-COUNTRY

Emma-Jean Thackray - Weirdo

FKA twigs - EUSEXUA

Fontaines D.C. - Romance

Jacob Alon - In Limerence

Joe Webb - Hamstrings and Hurricanes

Martin Carthy - Transform Me Then Into A Fish

Pa Salieu - Afrikan Alien

PinkPantheress - Fancy That

Pulp - More

Sam Fender - People Watching

Wolf Alice - The Clearing
Columbine III at the National Museum of the US Air Force. US Air Force Photo by Ken LaRock

President Dwight Eisenhower flew on Columbine III, a Lockheed VC-121E, for most of his presidency.

The plane was named after the state flower of Colorado, his wife Mamie Eisenhower's home state.

It featured multiple seating areas, a presidential stateroom, and a spacious bathroom.

Columbine III, President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Air Force One plane, remains the only aircraft of its kind ever built.

The Lockheed VC-121E was a militarized version of a commercial Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation, nicknamed "Super Connies" for their powerful engines and large fuel capacities.

Columbine III was also the first plane to carry the Air Force One designation from the beginning of its service.

Now on display at the National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, Eisenhower's Air Force One is open for members of the public to board and walk through.

I visited the museum in August to take a look inside the "Super Connie" that Eisenhower flew around the world. Follow along on my tour.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower flew on Columbine III from 1954 until 1961, when his second term ended.

American President Dwight D Eisenhower (1890 - 1969) steps off his airplane Columbine III as he arrives at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center for its formal dedication, Huntsville, Alabama, September 1960. The Columbine III was a Lockheed VC-121E based off the Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation aircraft and served as the presidents official aircraft. MSFC-NASA/Interim Archives/Getty Images

Eisenhower named Columbine III after the state flower of Colorado in honor of his wife, Mamie Eisenhower, who was raised there.

The first lady christened the plane in 1954 with spring water from the Rocky Mountains in Colorado instead of the traditional Champagne.

The National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, acquired Eisenhower's plane in 1966.

Columbine III. Talia Lakritz/Business Insider

After Columbine III retired from service as Air Force One, it spent a few years serving as an Air Force transport for VIPs. The aircraft was then flown to Dayton to join the museum's collection in 1966.

It is now one of several historic Air Force One planes on display in the William E. Boeing Presidential Gallery.

The cockpit featured seats for the pilot, copilot, and flight engineer.

The cockpit. Talia Lakritz/Business Insider

The flight crew also included a navigator who plotted the aircraft's course and tracked its location before GPS existed.

The radio operator worked out of this room behind the cockpit.

The radio room. Talia Lakritz/Business Insider

The radio operator was in charge of communicating with Air Traffic Control. The president could also send and receive teletype messages during flight.

The first seating area featured two tables, each with six chairs, for crew members.

A seating area. Talia Lakritz/Business Insider

The seating area was furnished with fans, lights, and curtains on the windows.

The galley included a toaster, stovetop, oven, and urns for hot water and ice water.

The galley. Talia Lakritz/Business Insider

Flight attendants prepared meals for the crew and VIP passengers in the small kitchen.

Storage areas separated the crew from Eisenhower's presidential workspace.

Inside Columbine III. Talia Lakritz/Business Insider

The hallway featured space to store luggage and oxygen masks.

This seating area was used by members of Eisenhower's staff.

Seating on Columbine III. Talia Lakritz/Business Insider

One of Columbine III's most famous flights was in 1955, when Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles flew to Switzerland for the Geneva Summit between the leaders of the US, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union, known as the "Big Four."

Eisenhower's presidential stateroom was located toward the back of the plane.

Dwight D. Eisenhower's seating area on Columbine III. Talia Lakritz/Business Insider

Two rotary phones were located next to the president's desk.

The museum displayed the actual 16-millimeter film projector that Eisenhower used on board the plane.

A projector. Talia Lakritz/Business Insider

The projector was transferred from Andrews Air Force Base in Washington, DC, so it was likely used for military planning purposes rather than movie nights.

The stateroom also featured two couches that could fold down into beds.

A fold-out couch and bed on Columbine III. Talia Lakritz/Business Insider

The plane could hold a total of eight crew members and 24 passengers.

The most luxurious part of the plane was the president's spacious lavatory.

The president's lavatory. Talia Lakritz/Business Insider

The bathroom was much larger than the lavatories on previous Air Force One planes, with the toilet and sink vanity in separate spaces.

As the only aircraft of its kind ever built, Columbine III remains an important artifact from the early years of Air Force One planes.

Columbine III at the National Museum of the US Air Force. US Air Force Photo by Ken LaRock

Columbine III featured four Wright R-3350 engines with 3,400 horsepower each and a larger fuel capacity than earlier Air Force One planes, allowing it to travel at a higher speed of 330 miles per hour.

Modern VC-25 Air Force One jets fly at 630 miles per hour, nearly the speed of sound.

Read the original article on Business Insider
health minister,sweden,fainted,ulf kristersson,elisabet lann (X/Screenshot/Public -- @BNODesk)

Swedens new health minister, Elisabeth Lann, fainted during her introductory press conference Tuesday, collapsing into her podium during remarks broadcast by SVT Play.

Her sudden collapse came just one day after she replaced outgoing minister Acko Ankarberg Johansson, according to the Sweden Herald. In the footage, Lann is seen suddenly collapsing into the translucent podium, knocking it over and ultimately falling face-first onto the ground. (RELATED: Dr. Oz Swearing-In Ceremony Halts After Girl Faints In Oval Office)

Moments before fainting, Lann told reporters that Swedish healthcare offered high quality but suffered from long waiting times, adding that it is not worthy of a welfare state that so many people are waiting for healthcare.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and others onstage rushed to help as she collapsed. After regaining consciousness, Lann returned to the podium and attributed the episode to low blood sugar, according to TMZ.

TOPSHOT  Swedens Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson lays flowers at a makeshift vigil outside the adult education center Campus Risbergska school in Orebro, Sweden, on February 5, 2025. (Photo by JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP via Getty Images)

Lann did not appear to suffer serious injuries from the fall, though its unclear if she recieved medical treatment. Before her appointment, she served as a municipal councilor in Gothenburg. (RELATED: Ex-Trump Admin Official Faints During Interview On Live TV)
Cambodia Passengers line up to check-in for their flights at the Techo International Airport on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Tuesday, Sept. 9,2025. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) Airport (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Cambodia has officially inaugurated its new Techo International Airport, a sprawling $2 billion facility designed to significantly boost the nation's tourism sector.

The capital's new aviation hub, located approximately 20 kilometres outside Phnom Penh, marked its grand opening on Tuesday with an inaugural Air Cambodia flight from China receiving a ceremonial welcome, complete with fire trucks crisscrossing streams of water over the taxiing aircraft.

Boasting three runways, the state-of-the-art airport replaces the nearly 70-year-old Phnom Penh International Airport, which operated with just a single runway. Its opening, initially slated for July, was postponed due to a technical issue.

The opening is a major step for Cambodias aviation and economy, former Prime Minister Hun Sen said on social media.

It's a great honor to be one of the first passengers to use the airport and it looks absolutely amazing, said Briton David Weare, who arrived on a flight from Singapore later Tuesday. I can't wait to get through and see the rest of it.

Tourists arrive to check in for their flights at the Techo International Airport on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Tuesday, Sept. 9,2025. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

In 2024, Phnom Penh International Airport saw 4.75 million passengers. The new airport is initially expected to be able to accommodate 13 million passengers, but that capacity will increase to 30 million after 2030 and up to 50 million by 2050.

The opening follows the inauguration of the Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport in 2023 near the country's most popular tourist attraction, the centuries-old Angkor Wat temple complex and comes as Cambodia looks to capitalize on the lucrative tourism industry.

In 2024, some 6.7 million international tourists visited the Southeast Asian country, a 23% increase from 2023.

But tensions between Cambodia and neighboring Thailand could complicate efforts to attract more tourists, with at least 41 soldiers and civilians being killed in armed border clashes before a shaky truce was reached on July 28.

A passenger, right, attends to her belongings during a security check at the Techo International Airport on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Tuesday, Sept. 9,2025. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

While the new airport in Siem Reap was financed by China, the Techo International Airport is a joint venture between the Cambodian government and the Overseas Cambodian Investment Corp, according to authorities.

The airports name Techo, or powerful in the Khmer language, is an honorific given to top army commanders in Cambodia, including Hun Sen.

It was designed by Britains Foster + Partners and built by the China Construction Third Engineering Bureau Group Co. Ltd.

By Tuesday's inauguration, the airport's initial $1.5 billion price tag had risen to $2 billion, said Sinn Chanserey Vutha, spokesperson for Cambodia's civil aviation authority.

Prime Minister Hun Manet, who took over from his father Hun Sen in 2023 after winning elections that were criticized internationally as being neither free nor fair, said in May that Phnom Penh's old airport will continue to be maintained even with the opening of the new facility.

The Cambodian military will continue to use the facility and the runway will also be kept available in case of emergency.
Shabana Mahmood speaks during the ministerial meeting of the Five Eyes alliance (PA Wire)

Independent readers are sceptical of Shabana Mahmoods vow to suspend visas for countries that refuse to take back failed asylum seekers, with many warning the policy risks backfiring and harming the UK more than its targets.

Several noted that small boat arrivals are a fraction of overall migration, with legal visas driving far higher numbers.

Many highlighted the contradiction of targeting countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, which supply essential NHS staff, warning that restrictions would harm the UK more than source countries.

Others said visa sanctions could pressure smaller, aid-dependent nations but rarely work against major powers, which can retaliate or ignore such threats.

There was also anger at Labour more generally, with critics accusing the party of pandering to Reform.

A minority did back Mahmoods tough rhetoric, but many dismissed the policy as either a weak bluff or a punishment that would primarily damage Britains economy and care system.

Some readers called for even tougher measures, including forcing foreign governments to pay for the cost of appeals, welfare and repatriation, or housing migrants abroad until deportation.

Heres what you had to say:

Small boat crossings wont change the numbers

While it would be a visual signal that something is actually being done if the small boat crossings were to stop, it would make little difference to the migration figures since the UK issues vast numbers of visas for further education, skilled and low-skilled workers, many of whom remain after their visas expire, or falsely apply for asylum here, while only a few genuine refugees and asylum seekers can apply for a visa from overseas  creating the demand that allows criminals and economic migrants as well.

Hard to see how putting further visa restrictions on countries does anything to deter illegal migrants, but clearly damages further education providers and businesses reliant on cheap migrant labour. Why does Labour insist that more of the same will make a difference... Change?

Topsham1

Do visa bans make sense, or are they utterly bizarre, as some readers argue? Join the debate in the comments.

Self-inflicted punishment

Many of the same countries that are flagged for blocking or delaying deportations of illegal migrants are also major sources of legal migrants, especially in the UK healthcare sector.

India is by far the largest non-UK source of NHS doctors. Bangladesh and Pakistan also contribute significant numbers of both doctors and nurses. Nepal is a major supplier of care workers in both the NHS and private care homes.

So while the UK relies heavily on these countries to fill essential NHS and care jobs, theyre also among the worst when it comes to cooperating on returns of their nationals whove overstayed visas, had asylum claims rejected, or committed crimes.

The Home Secretary has now openly stated that visa routes, like healthcare work visas, could be restricted or suspended for countries that dont take their citizens back after removal orders.

The UK threatening to suspend visas for doctors, nurses, or care workers from countries like India or Bangladesh is essentially a self-inflicted punishment. These countries dont need the UK to take their deportees, but the UK does need their skilled workers to keep the NHS and care sector running.

So the logic becomes absurd: If you dont take back your overstayers, well stop hiring your nurses. That doesnt hurt the source country much, it hurts UK hospitals and care homes. Its a weak threat unless the UK is willing to take that economic and social hit, which it usually isnt.

The US and EU have also tried similar leverage, like visa restrictions  but it rarely works when the other side holds the labour supply. In this case, the UK is effectively saying, Do what we want or well block the very people we desperately need, which makes it look desperate and strategically incoherent.

EmiliaPortante

Countries should take full responsibility

This is a start but doesnt nearly go far enough. Countries need to be compelled to assume full legal responsibility for their citizens when they arrive in a country illegally. If an Indian arrives in the UK illegally or overstays, the Indian government must assume responsibility by arranging and paying for their repatriation back to India. If the illegal appeals, the Indian government should fund that appeal, housing and welfare costs until that appeal is complete. If an illegal commits a crime in the UK he should be imprisoned in his home country.

It is utterly bizarre that the host nation has to pay these costs. If an illegal refuses to provide proof of citizenship then they should be jailed until they do.

saghia

We obsess about trivia

We had 43,000 asylum seekers arrive by small boats in the year to June 2025.

More than half will be found upon enquiry to have good claims and will be allowed to stay. The rest will be deported (and if we geared up the processing of claims, as we should, they will be deported more quickly).

In 2024, Germany received the largest number of asylum applicants among EU countries (250,550), followed by Spain (166,145), Italy (158,605), and France (157,460).

In contrast, 948,000 legal migrants came to the UK in 2024.

We are all obsessing about trivia.

SteveHill

A bullys tool

Visa sanctions work best against small, aid-dependent, poorer states with limited leverage of their own.

Countries like Cambodia, Eritrea, Guinea, Sierra Leone, or Gambia rely heavily on remittances and international goodwill, so when the UK, the US or EU squeezes visa access, it hits elites and ordinary families hard. That makes governments more likely to give in.

But against larger or strategically important countries  India, China, Nigeria, Turkey  its a different story.

They can push back, retaliate with their own restrictions, or simply ignore the pressure.

The US has tried threatening India with Section 243(d) sanctions for years over deportation issues, but New Delhi never really bent because the US values the relationship too much to escalate.

So yes, it can work in narrow cases, but its not a universal stick. Its more like a bullys tool for weaker states, not a serious lever against major powers.

Mollilie

Nothing will change while under ECHR

It is great rhetoric, but can she really do anything substantial? I fear not. For her to send people back, she should get over the impediments that would certainly be created by the leftists in her party and the industrial fraternity of immigration lawyers.

Till the ECHR has power over the UK, nothing will change. Cooper went, so will her replacement. They can clear out the entire department, nothing will change.

I remember how Jacqueline Smith, who is currently in the cabinet, hounded the Gurkhas, those brave men who fought for this country. None of the leftist bleeding hearts of today came to the help of those brave veterans. It required an actress, Joanna Lumley, to stand up and fight Gordon Browns government including Jacqui Smith to get justice for the Gurkhas. Labour is ever ready to be on the wrong side of the fence and of history. They have not changed  they will listen to their leftist core and do nothing on the boats, for as a party, they are not for the rights of the just.

Krispad

Starmer has no beliefs of his own

Starmer is no politician. He has no opinions or beliefs or policies of his own, so he has to try to ape whomever looks popular, in the hope that it might help his dismal unpopularity statistics. So he told his MPs to copy whatever Reform UK Ltd is doing, sing from the same hymn sheet so that #OneTermStarmer might have a chance of winning another election from his boss Netanyahu and the Jewish lobby who put him in power in the first place.

By aping Reform, hell find he loses millions of decent voters and thus helps Reform to win the next election, in which case dog help us all.

fenwoman

Sending refugees back to persecutors

So, for those seeking asylum because they are being persecuted in their home country, our solution is to hand them back to their persecutors. ~Well done Ms Mahmood.

Why do so many children of immigrants go into politics to do their best to ensure that no-one follows them to this benighted isle.

Bar7

The more, the merrier

Its hard to believe weve continued to give out visas in countries which refuse to take their own citizens back!

For the last 25 years, the governments true immigration policy has been simply: The more, the merrier.

Ian Robinson

Making threats like an empire

Is she related to Trump? Making threats against other countries as if they still have an empire? This is not about illegal migration, but about asylum seekers and refugees, both protected by international law that we are signatories to.

LadyCrumpsall

A solution to the boat problem

Theres nothing like pandering to the far right. The so-called boat problem could easily be resolved by allowing asylum applications to be made before refugees get to the UK. Only processing them in the UK forces refugees to find a route to the UK.

AAtheoriginal

We will be the ones who suffer

If visa arrangements are cut with countries not entering into a refugee return scheme, who suffers? We do. It means that not only will we refuse to give refuge to those fleeing war and persecution, but we wont give visas to those workers that we desperately need.

Lils

Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.

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China, Portugal pledge to enhance cooperation, safeguard free trade

Xinhua) 08:29, September 10, 2025

Chinese Premier Li Qiang holds talks with Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, who is in China for an official visit, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 9, 2025. (Xinhua/Li Xiang)

BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Qiang held talks with Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro in Beijing on Tuesday, with the two sides pledging to enhance cooperation and work together to safeguard free trade.

Li said that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of China-Portugal comprehensive strategic partnership, which presents new opportunities for the growth of bilateral relations and cooperation.

China is willing to work with Portugal to enhance high-level exchanges, strengthen political mutual trust, deepen and solidify cooperation across various fields, and bring more benefits to the people of both countries, he noted.

Li said China is ready to strengthen its alignment of development strategies with Portugal, continue joint efforts in high-quality Belt and Road development, tap into the potential of emerging areas such as the digital economy and the green economy, create more growth drivers for cooperation, and support enterprises from both countries in exploring third-party markets together.

He noted that China is ready to import more high-quality agricultural and food products from Portugal, and encourages more Chinese enterprises to invest in Portugal. He also expressed hope that Portugal will foster a favorable business environment.

The Chinese premier called on both sides to further facilitate personnel exchanges, unleash the vitality of tourism-driven economic activities, and enhance exchange and cooperation in cultural fields such as higher education, language teaching, digital education and youth engagement.

Li said that at present, unilateralist and protectionist acts are severely impacting the international order. As two major global forces, China and the European Union (EU) should strengthen coordination and work together to address these challenges, he added.

He expressed China's hope that Portugal will encourage and guide the EU to adhere to its positioning as a partner of China, adopt a positive and pragmatic policy toward China, and work with China to safeguard free trade and protect the common interests of both sides.

Montenegro said that the Portuguese government is willing to use the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries as an opportunity to enhance dialogue and exchange at all levels, deepen cooperation in areas such as trade, agriculture, maritime affairs, culture and sports, and create new highlights in sci-tech innovation, the digital economy, green energy and tourism cooperation.

He added that Portugal is willing to strengthen communication and coordination with China on multilateral platforms such as the United Nations, to work with China to oppose protectionism, and to uphold open and fair free trade.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang holds talks with Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, who is in China for an official visit, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 9, 2025. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao)

(Web editor: Huang Kechao, Liang Jun)
Sir Paul McCartney is inviting fans to rediscover the soaring legacy of Wings with the release of the self-titled definitive anthology.

WINGS' definitive self-titled anthology is set for release on November 7, in various formats

Personally overseen by the music legend himself, this expansive collection celebrates Wings evolution from post-Beatles experimentation to global superstardom, offering a rich musical and visual journey across multiple formats.

Available in a variety of beautifully designed editions on November 7, WINGS caters to every level of fandom - from the 3LP Limited Edition Color Vinyl set, a collectors dream packed with remastered tracks and rare imagery, to streamlined 1CD and 1LP versions ideal for newcomers beginning their deep dive into McCartneys second act. All physical formats include a booklet featuring a personal introduction from McCartney, while the deluxe 3LP and 2CD editions expand into a 32-page treasure trove of photographs, artwork, paintings, trivia, and behind-the-scenes stories.

Aubrey Po Powell of Hipgnosis - the iconic design studio behind seven Wings albums - returns to collaborate with McCartney on the artwork. Powell contributes detailed album-by-album notes, joined by editorial insights from Pete Paphides and original illustrations by Humphrey Ocean, who famously toured with Wings in 1976 as their artist in residence.

For audiophiles, the Blu-ray edition sees Wings catalogue made available for the first time in Dolby Atmos on a physical format, offering a multidimensional listening experience that reimagines the bands sonic landscape.

The anthology includes timeless hits like Band on the Run, Live and Let Die, Jet, Let Em In, My Love, Listen to What the Man Said, Silly Love Songs, and With a Little Luck - songs that still light up McCartneys live sets today. But the collection also showcases Wings genre-hopping brilliance, with tracks that span pop, folk, soul, reggae, and experimental rock, including C Moon, Arrow Through Me, Wild Life, and Goodnight Tonight.

Formed in 1971 with Linda McCartney and Denny Laine, Wings was born from McCartneys desire to recapture the camaraderie and creative spark of being in a band after The Beatles breakup. Over the course of a decade, Wings released seven studio albums and charted an ambitious, unpredictable journey that blended musical innovation with commercial success. Rather than rely on past glories, McCartney forged a new identity with Wings - often in the face of critical skepticism and frequent lineup changes.

With over 22 million albums sold worldwide and chart-topping singles like Mull of Kintyre - which became the UKs biggest-selling single of all time - Wings proved that McCartneys post-Beatles chapter was anything but a footnote.

Pre-order WINGS now via paulmccartney.lnk.to/wingscollection.
by Giorgio Bernardelli

With the approval of Leo XIV, Wang Zhengui was ordained this morning bishop of Zhangjiakou, a "new" diocese that replaces the sees of Xuanhua and Xiwanzi. Of the two underground prelates, one becomes auxiliary bishop, while the other (repeatedly subjected to restrictive measures) will retire. Meanwhile, in the name of patriotism, the Diocese in Shanghai held a group viewing of Xi Jinping's parade.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies)  This morning, a new episcopal ordination took place in China under the Provisional Agreement between the Peoples Republic and the Holy See on the appointment of bishops.

This is a major step for Hebei, a province with an historically significant Catholic presence, but also one most strongly affected in recent years by pressure on underground communities that refuse to join the organisations of the state-sanctioned official Church.

Thus, as Pope Francis did before him, Leo XIV has decided to give the green light to the ordination, for the Diocese of Zhangjiakhou, of Mgr Joseph Wang Zhengui, 62, the "official" priest who, in effect, had long led what Chinese authorities considered the local diocese in the eponymous prefecture in northwestern Hebei.

With the desire to promote the pastoral care of the Lords flock and to attend more effectively to its spiritual good," writes the Vatican Press Office, the pontiff suppressed the dioceses of Xuanhua and Xiwanzi, which had been erected in 1946 by Pius XII, merging them into the new episcopal see of Zhangjiakou. The new diocese, writes the Holy See, extends over the entire capital city of Zhangjiakou and 'has about 85,000 Catholics, served by 89 priests'.

In accordance with this decision, the ordination ceremony for Mgr Wang Zhengui took place this morning in the Church of the Holy Family in this city of over four million inhabitants, which came under the spotlight three years ago as the venue for many of the competitions during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Bishop Joseph Li Shan of Beijing, who chairs the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA), led the service, along with Bishop Guo Jincai of Chengde, Bishop Feng Xinmao of Hengshui, Bishop Li Liangui of Cangzhou, Bishop Sun Jigen of Handan, and Bishop An Shuxin of Baoding.

According to reports from official Chinese Catholic sources, more than 50 priests from Hebei, as well as approximately 300 men and women religious, and lay people attended the liturgy.

Bishop Wang Zhengui was born on 19 November 1962 in Zhangjiakou. After attending the Hebei Catholic Theological Seminary, he was ordained on 24 May 1990, for the Diocese of Xianxian, carrying out his ministry in Qujiazhuang, a parish in Zhangjiakou. Since the mid-2000s, he has held leadership roles in official Catholic organisations in Hebei.

The significance of Bishop Wang Zhengui's ordination goes far beyond the simple redrawing of diocesan boundaries to fit those of Chinas administrative units, something that has already occurred for other Chinese dioceses and elsewhere in the world.

The suppression of the dioceses of Xuanhua and Xiwanzi inevitably sends a message to the underground communities of the province, who had their own pastoral leadership.

Xuanhua is, for example, the diocese of Augustine Cui Tai, a underground bishop. Now 75 years old, he was ordained in 2013 as coadjutor bishop by Bishop Thomas Zhao Duomo, who passed away in 2018.

Never recognised by the official Church due to his refusal to join the CCPA, Bishop Cui Tai has been repeatedly subjected to restrictive measures to prevent him from carrying out his ministry as AsiaNews has reported many times.

Today's Vatican announcement makes no mention of his fate, but the invitation sent to the clergy of Hebei for today's ceremony announces a "retirement" ceremony for this Friday.

The ceremony for the installation of Joseph Ma Yanen, who was entrusted with the Diocese of Xiwanzi, as "auxiliary bishop" of Zhangjiakhou is also scheduled for that day.

Leo XIV's intention to continue to show the Church in China the path of unity through episcopal appointments is therefore clear. Less clear, however, is the fate of those priests who, in good conscience, have so far refused to comply with the obligation to register with official bodies imposed by the Chinese Communist Party, not to mention the faithful who continue to rely on them.

Indeed, we reported recently on the death of 91-year-old Bishop Placidus Pei Ronggui, a symbol in Hebei province of the suffering of this Church and of the firm belief that the Chinese government's attitude must change to truly achieve Church unity in China.

The signs are not encouraging. Political control over religions, including Catholic communities, continues to increase in Xi Jinping's China, as evidenced recently by the Churches joining in the chorus of nationalist rhetoric that marked the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Asia, which became a celebration of Communist Chinas might.

On the website of the Diocese of Shanghai, prominent space was given to the news and pictures of the clergy and laity gathered by the local Church to follow live on a giant screen the military parade with which China showed off its new weaponry of war on 3 September.

The diocese is led by Bishop Joseph Shen Bin, who was installed unilaterally by Beijing in 2023 following a rift later healed by Pope Francis. Yet the message is clear: Shanghai's Catholics must show the patriotic loyalty that Xi demands from all religions.
by Nirmala Carvalho

Consecrated last Sunday to coincide with the canonisation ceremony presided over in Rome by Leo XIV, the new church is located less than a kilometre from a large amusement park popular with young people. For Archbishop Kalathiparambil, it will be a church for the new generation.

Kochi (AsiaNews)  As Pope Leo XIV presided in Rome last Sunday over the canonisation of Carlo Acutis, an English-born Italian teenager who died at the age of 15, the first "millennial" saint, a new church dedicated to him was consecrated in Palikkara, near Kochi, India.

This is further evidence of how this young man, held up throughout the world as an example of witness to the Gospel in today's world, is also arousing great interest in churches across Asia.

Kerala is now home to one of the first churches in the world named after Carlo Acutis (another one already exists in the Archdiocese of Chicago).

Roby Philip, joint convenor of the construction committee, said the initiative began with Archbishop Joseph Kalathiparambil of Varapuzha, who sees the church as a place for new generations.

The church also houses relics of the saint. Around 140 families will attend prayers here, which will be held every Tuesday and Sunday, Philip said.

Archbishop Kalathiparambil led the consecration ceremony, along with vicars general Mathew Kallingal and Matthew Elanjimattam, as well as church vicar Fr Rocky Kollamparambil.

The church, built on land owned by the diocese, was completed in just a few months, after work began in April this year.

During the dedication ceremony, Archbishop Kalathiparambil noted that the life of Saint Carlo Acutis can inspire young people seeking to combine spirituality with modern technology, and that the new church will help further this movement.

Carlo Acutis, who died of acute promyelocytic leukaemia in 2006, used new technologies to spread the Catholic faith and ran a website about Eucharistic miracles around the world.

The new St Carlo Acutis Church is located less than a kilometre from WonderLa, a large amusement park popular with young people along the Thekkady-Ernakulam road in Kochi.

The parish priest, Fr Sojan Michael, announced that a novena in honour of Saint Carlo Acutis will soon be held. We are already receiving indications from believers on how their intercession requests are being fulfilled, he said.
by Maria Casadei

Sparked by the government blocking social media, protests forced the prime minister to resign. Youth mobilisation reflects the profound disillusionment with a political system that has betrayed the hopes born from the birth of democracy. Economic difficulties are pushing many to emigrate. Protests calling for the return of the monarchy as an alternative to political corruption had already taken place in April.

Kathmandu (AsiaNews)  After two days of fierce protests, the Nepali army has tightened its security around the countrys parliament.

Riots broke out on Monday morning following the blocking of several social media websites that had criticised cabinet ministers and their families over their lifestyles.

The ban on digital platforms, however, was only the trigger: corruption and government actions are at the root of the Gen Z mobilisation.

Lifting the ban and the resignation of Home Affairs Minister Ramesh Lekhah were not enough to appease protesters.

Several government buildings were set on fire yesterday, including parliament, as were the homes of some politicians and senior government officials.

The protests escalated to the point of forcing Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli to resign, but this had little effect.

Tens of thousands of people continued to occupy the streets until the evening, blocking roads and targeting ministers and political leaders.

Videos online show the attack on Congress Party leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and his wife, Arzu Rana Deuba, the current foreign minister, an episode that reflects the deep anger felt by young Nepalis, hit by high levels of joblessness and forced to emigrate for a future.

According to various analysts, anger in Nepali society stems from the loss of hopes that had accompanied the arrival of democratic government in 2006, following the overthrow of the monarchy after the civil war, and the adoption of a new constitution in 2015.

Both events should have marked the beginning of a new era for the country, with greater economic stability.

Instead, according to some observers, the politicians who have alternated in power failed to meet the demands of the younger generations, leading to profound disillusionment and widespread dissatisfaction with the entire political system, which has seen three main political parties alternate at the helm.

The same process has been observed in recent years in Bangladesh, with the fall of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last year, but especially in Sri Lanka, where the Rajapaksa clan was ousted in 2022.

Many young people feel hopeless in Nepal, forced to emigrate to find opportunities, this in a country where some 20 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line, while remittances are worth approximately US$ 10 billion annually.

The protests have been described as a movement driven primarily by "Generation Z," those born between 1995 and 2010.

A prominent figure who has emerged as a catalyst for the movement is the young mayor of Kathmandu, Balen Shah, born in 1990. A rapper, he was elected as an independent candidate in 2022.

These recent protests are not an isolated incident. In April, several civil groups gathered in front of the parliament building to demand concrete reforms, decisive action to combat the economic crisis, and measures to combat widespread corruption.

In this climate of strong dissent, political groups such as the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), close to Hindu groups, gained renewed momentum, proposing a restoration of the monarchy as a solution to corruption and government dysfunction.
by Vladimir Rozanskij

Moscow is increasingly relying on resources provided by the mining industry in northern Siberia. The province of Mirnyj alone accounts for 14% of the world's diamond reserves. However, these activities come at a heavy environmental cost in terms of air and water pollution. With very little economic benefit for local communities.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - Russian President Vladimir Putin recently reiterated that Russia is not afraid of the economic crisis, despite military spending having drained the federal budget, because we have large energy and mineral reserves, referring primarily to coal, which should be exploited increasingly while respecting the right ecological approaches. Speaking of Yakutia, he added that its reserves of rare minerals and precious stones are of global value.

Yakutia is located in northern Eastern Siberia, and its official name is Sakha Sire Republic, which means land of the Yakuts. In these parts, it is said that when God visited these lands, his hands froze so much that he dropped all his treasures, and here there is a great abundance of diamonds, gold, antimony, tin, oil, coal, gas and other important resources.

The extraction and processing of precious stones takes place mainly in the province of Mirny, where 14% of the world's diamond reserves are located, in addition to gas and oil, and Mirninsky Ulus is called the Russian diamond capital.

The problem is that these splendid treasures are often covered by the tears of the local inhabitants, who actually suffer rather negative effects from the wealth of minerals, with pollution of rivers, air saturated with industrial dust, and the land destined for the traditional forms of economy of the native peoples becoming less and less, year after year. Temperatures in this area remain below zero for many months, even reaching -70C in winter, and global warming does little to improve the situation.

The non-profit association Arktida has published an investigation conducted by journalist Anastasia Trojanova, together with documentary photographer Marina Syceva, to show the damage to the land caused by the treasures of the subsoil.

Already at Yakutsk airport, on a flight to Mirnyj (in this area, the only possible means of transport is by air), the locals joke about a diamond found in early May in the Verkhnemunsk quarry, which has been given the title 80 Years of Victory and has an economic potential well in excess of a billion dollars.

In reality, most Yakuts, even those who work in the mines, have never seen these precious stones in person, and they are not displayed in the city museum of the Alrosy company due to a lack of security personnel.

Leaving the airport, one is hit by the suffocating smell of hydrogen sulphide, which is particularly pungent in the relative summer heat and releases a thick, foul-smelling fog in the cold months, almost like the breath of a wounded earth, according to the locals.

Governor Ajsen Nikolaev explains that the aroma smelt by the inhabitants of Mirnyj is a normal chemical reaction when water collides with hydrogen, but does not cause any harm to people. The large mine is covered with greenish dust, clearly visible from the viewing platform set up specifically to admire this precious place.

Environmental activists in the region claim that the concentrated brine on the walls of the quarry can penetrate deep underground, causing damage over incalculable distances.

The Alrosy company has effectively taken over the entire area, and the inhabitants do not dare to protest openly for fear of losing their jobs, despite fears of even radioactive pollution. One woman says, We're certainly not in Dubai here, and we don't see a ruble of the billions that pass through here... we love our land, but we believe we deserve more than this stinking sewer.

The peoples of the north have always believed that ruining the land is a grave sin, and before their conversion to Christianity they practised aerial burial known as Arangas, placing the graves of the deceased high up in trees or on specially erected columns, and even today pagan rites are practised alongside Orthodox liturgies. Diamonds found in rivers or in bird droppings were called sun stones and were left untouched until the Russians arrived.
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Prince Harry has arrived at Clarence House for his first meeting with King Charles in more than 19 months.

Prince Harry has arrived at Clarence House for his first meeting with King Charles in more than 19 months

The Duke of Sussex, 40, has been largely estranged from the monarch since the publication of his tell-all memoir Spare, but met with his cancer-hit father, 76, on Wednesday (10.09.25)  sparking hopes of a thawing in relations between him and the royal family.

Harrys Range Rover was seen pulling into the Kings London residence at 5.20pm, hours after he completed an engagement at Imperial College London. Charles had flown earlier in the day from Balmoral, arriving at RAF Northolt around 3pm before travelling into the capital for cancer treatment.

The Duke of Sussex has spoken openly in recent months about his wish to mend relations with the royals.

In May, he told the BBC: I would love a reconciliation with my family. I dont know how much longer my father has. He wont speak to me because of this security stuff but it would be nice to reconcile.

The last face-to-face meeting between Harry and Charles took place in February 2024, when the duke flew from California after learning of his fathers diagnosis.

They spoke privately for just over half an hour before Charles returned to Sandringham to recuperate.

Harry, who stepped down as a senior working royal alongside his wife Meghan Markle, 44, in 2020, is three days into a four-day UK visit focused on charity work.

On Monday (08.09.25) he attended the WellChild Awards at Londons Royal Lancaster Hotel.

On Tuesday he travelled to Nottingham to visit the Community Recording Studio and announced a 1.1 million personal donation to the BBCs Children in Need.

Earlier on Tuesday, Harry was greeted at Imperial College Londons Centre for Blast Injury Studies by David Henson, a double amputee and Invictus Games athlete who attended the dukes wedding in 2018. Harry founded the Invictus Games in 2014 to support wounded service personnel and veterans.

During the visit, Harry announced that the Archewell Foundation, which he runs with Meghan, had committed 370,000 to projects for injured children in Gaza and Ukraine.

Of that, 150,000 will go to the World Health Organization to support medical evacuations, (110,000 to Save the Children for humanitarian work, and 110,000 to the Centre for Blast Injury Studies to develop prosthetics.

Harry said: No single organisation can solve this alone. Gaza now has the highest density of child amputees in the world and in history. It takes partnerships across government, science, medicine, humanitarian response and advocacy to ensure children survive and can recover after blast injuries.
10 September 2025 17:18 (UTC+04:00)

Qabil Ashirov Read more

The report that 225 block trains from China arrived in Azerbaijan in the first seven months of 2025 is not just a dry statistic in the world of logistics. It is a clear indicator of the shifting economic geography of Eurasia. Compared to the same period last year, this figure represents nearly a twofold increase. More importantly, it signals the growing centrality of Azerbaijan in what is increasingly seen as the backbone of EastWest connectivity: the Middle Corridor, officially known as the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route.

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10 September 2025 08:30 (UTC+04:00)

Nazrin Abdul Read more

The 13th Meeting of the Think Tank Forum of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA), held recently in Baku, marked a significant milestone for Azerbaijan and the broader Asian region. For the first time, this prestigious forum convened outside China, underscoring Azerbaijans rising diplomatic profile and its growing role as a pivotal Eurasian hub bridging East and West.

President Ilham Aliyev welcomed participants with a clear message on Azerbaijans commitment to fostering regional cooperation, peace, and sustainable development under the banner of CICA. His remarks reflected not only Azerbaijans diplomatic ambitions but also its vision of Asias evolving geopolitical and economic landscape.

In his opening speech, President Aliyev highlighted the importance of think tanks as catalysts for informed policy-making. In the modern world, think tanks play a vital role in the development of states and societies, he noted, emphasizing their contribution to tackling complex global challenges ranging from security to climate change.

Azerbaijans hosting of the forum reflects its strategic position at the crossroads of major transport corridors and its active engagement in multilateral diplomacy. Situated along the East-West and North-South corridors, Azerbaijan is emerging as one of the most important transport and logistics hubs in Eurasia, President Aliyev stated, underscoring the significance of infrastructure projects like the Zangezur Corridor and the Middle Corridor in connecting continents and facilitating regional integration.

The countrys upcoming chairmanship of CICA from 2024 to 2026 promises to deepen this engagement. President Ilham Aliyev outlined ambitious priorities: formalizing CICAs institutional status, expanding cooperation into digitalization and sustainable growth, and launching new councils focused on finance, womens issues, connectivity, and climate action. These initiatives reflect Azerbaijans holistic approach to regional development and governance.

CICA Secretary General Kairat Saribay emphasized the forums mission to foster trust as the foundation for regional security. It is impossible to ensure security without mutual trust, Saribay said, highlighting Azerbaijans role in steering CICAs institutional transformation into a fully-fledged international organization.

Scholars and experts echoed this vision. Chen Dongxiao, President of the Shanghai Institute of International Studies, praised Azerbaijans geographical and strategic importance, noting the countrys readiness to spur regional prosperity through strengthened relations. Farid Shafiyev, chairman of Azerbaijans Center for the Analysis of International Relations, underscored Azerbaijans proactive role in advancing CICAs agenda beyond its traditional base in China by hosting the forum in Baku for the first time.

Other analysts, including Jirayudh Sinthuphan and Kirill Babayev, highlighted the imperative for inclusive governance and comprehensive security platforms to manage Asias evolving challengesfrom cybersecurity to geopolitical fragmentation. Babayevs call for mutual respect and partnerships that include both large and small states aligns with Azerbaijans diplomatic philosophy of balanced regional cooperation.

Azerbaijans geopolitical and economic significance in Eurasia

Azerbaijans integration into regional transport networks, notably the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway and the broader Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, positions the country as a vital Eurasian corridor. The increase in transit volumes - 86% growth along the Middle Corridor in 2024 alone - reflects the success of Azerbaijans connectivity initiatives.

This strategic geography supports President Aliyevs vision of the Zangezur Corridor as a new artery linking continents, promoting economic interdependence and stability. Such infrastructure projects not only foster trade but also contribute to confidence-building among CICA member states, reinforcing the forums mission to intertwine security and development.

As the new Chair of CICA for the 20242026 biennium, Azerbaijan will oversee the organizations activities and host two landmark events: the Seventh Meeting of the CICA Ministerial Council in late 2024, marking the official start of Azerbaijans chairmanship, and the much-anticipated CICA Summit in 2026.

On December 17, 2024, Azerbaijan successfully hosted the 7th Meeting of the CICA Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs in an online format, during which the chairmanship was formally transferred to Baku. Minister of Foreign Affairs Jeyhun Bayramov outlined Azerbaijans vision under the theme Stronger CICA  Connectivity, Digitalization, and Sustainable Growth in Asia. He emphasized three core priorities: advancing CICAs institutional transformation, deepening sectoral cooperation through confidence-building measures, and fostering synergy between CICA and other international and regional organizations.

Minister Bayramov also highlighted that over 20 chairmanship events are planned for 2025, spanning all five dimensions of CICA cooperation. These initiatives will focus on critical areas such as transport corridor development, support for small and medium-sized enterprises, agricultural advancement, cybersecurity, environmental protection, youth engagement, tourism, cultural heritage preservation, humanitarian mine action, and scientific and educational collaboration.

This ambitious agenda reflects the full confidence of CICA member states in Azerbaijans leadership and recognizes its steadfast commitment to promoting peace, stability, and regional cooperation across Asia. Under Azerbaijans stewardship, CICA is poised not only to strengthen mutual trust but also to enhance practical cooperation across this diverse and strategically vital continent.

As Azerbaijan assumes full chairmanship, it approaches the role with clear objectives: strengthening CICAs institutional framework, promoting sustainable development, and fostering digital and financial cooperation. President Aliyevs vision marries regional peace initiatives, advocacy for the Global South, and Eurasian connectivity, positioning Azerbaijan as a dynamic actor in shaping Asias future.

The success of the 13th Think Tank Forum in Baku signals a broader transformation - a recognition that effective regional governance demands diverse voices, innovative approaches, and inclusive partnerships. Under Azerbaijans leadership, CICA is set to evolve into a more impactful platform, capable of addressing Asias complex challenges with renewed vigor and cooperation.
10 September 2025 11:02 (UTC+04:00)

Qabil Ashirov Read more

As part of Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayevs visit to China on September 9, an Investment Agreement was signed in Chengdu between the Alat Free Economic Zone Authority and Sichuan Sunsync Photovoltaic Technology Co., Ltd., one of Chinas leading high-tech companies. Mustafayev is co-chair of the AzerbaijanChina Intergovernmental Commission.

According to Azernews, the agreement was signed by Valeh Alasgarov, Chairman of the Board of the Alat Free Economic Zone Authority, and Sie Yi, founder and chairman of Sichuan Sunsync.

Under the agreement, the company will construct three modern production facilities on a 23-hectare industrial site in the zone, fully equipped with infrastructure and communications. The facilities will have an annual capacity of 3 gigawatts of solar panels, as well as silicon crystals and related components. The solar panels will also be used in the construction of a solar power plant that Sunsync plans to build within the zone. A significant share of the output will be exported to global markets, strengthening Azerbaijans position as a strategic hub for renewable energy production.

The project represents a milestone in the development of the Alat Free Economic Zone and will further enhance economic cooperation between Azerbaijan and China. It also reflects the growing interest of Chinese high-tech companies in the zone.

Sichuan Sunsync, with assets totaling 1.7 billion, has rapidly become a leading producer of solar panels. During his recent working visit to China, President Ilham Aliyev received the companys chairman, discussing the establishment of a cutting-edge solar panel manufacturing plant in the Alat zone.
Tourists heading to Spain are being warned of a new crackdown on smoking as the government looks to ban the habit at beaches, bar terraces, bus stops and stadiums.

Spain moves to outlaw smoking on beaches, terraces and stadiums

The health ministry said the legislation is designed to "reinforce protections on people's health and to adapt the law to consumption patterns and to the tobacco-product market".

Health Minister Monica Garcia told reporters: "We'll always put public health ahead of private interests. Everyone has a right to breathe clean air... and live longer and better lives."

She added: "This is about items whose consumption and market presence has grown substantially over recent years - especially among young people - and which, although they dont always contain nicotine or tobacco, are linked to the act of smoking or inhaling, and which also increase the risk of smoking conventional tobacco."

Under the proposals, electronic cigarettes, nicotine pouches, herbal products and shisha pipes would all be treated the same as traditional cigarettes.

The hospitality sector has hit back at the plans, pointing out that Spain's outdoor terraces are hugely popular with smokers and used year-round. Indoor smoking has already been outlawed since 2011.

The bill also aims to tighten restrictions on sales and advertising of vapes and e-cigarettes in a bid to cut down tobacco use.

It follows a similar move in France earlier this summer, although unlike Spain, French laws stopped short of including e-cigarettes and cafe terraces in the ban.

The Spanish legislation must still clear parliament and could be amended before coming into force.
10 September 2025 12:28 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijan's shipbuilding industry has great potential for cooperation in the field of green technologies, digitalization, automation, and maritime solutions. With the expansion of the fleet of Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company (ASCO) and the strategic Middle Corridor, new opportunities are opening up for German maritime companies, AHK-Azerbaijan stated.

According to the German-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce (AHK-Azerbaijan), a 16-member delegation representing German shipping companies held a series of meetings and presentations during the visit. The program included discussions on Azerbaijans economic landscape, targeted B2B and B2G meetings, and visits to leading institutions.

A business visit of representatives of German companies to Azerbaijan took place on September 811, Azernews reports.

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10 September 2025 16:18 (UTC+04:00)

Akbar Novruz Read more

The strategic importance of the Middle Corridor, which connects Europe with Central Asia and extends to other regions, is rapidly increasing, Belgian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Julien de Julien de Fraipont said at the "Black Sea-Caspian Logistics Forum 2025: Corridors, Cargo, Infrastructure" in Baku, Azernews reports.

"The Middle Corridor has become an extremely important alternative to traditional routes. Last year, the volume of cargo transportation through this corridor increased by more than 60%, and container traffic is projected to triple by 2030. The recently signed agreement between Azerbaijan, Armenia and the United States, which we also welcome, will only strengthen this potential," the ambassador noted.

He pointed out that despite the opportunities, challenges remain. "Infrastructure bottlenecks, incomplete legal frameworks and geopolitical instability in the wider region continue to test the sustainability of regional supply chains," he said.

According to de Fraipont, the European Union has already adapted its approach: "The EU has accepted these challenges and responded with a new strategy for the Black Sea region. A key element of this strategy is a development agenda for relations aimed at creating transport, energy and digital corridors connecting Europe with the South Caucasus and Central Asia."

The diplomat stressed that the issue goes beyond physical connectivity: "It is about creating a stable, secure and prosperous region through inclusive partnerships and smart investments. As a founding member of the European Union and a global logistics hub, Belgium is well positioned to contribute to these projects. Our ports  Antwerp, Bruges, as well as the inland ports of Ghent and Liege  are among the largest in Europe. Belgian companies and experts have world-class experience in multimodal transport, digital platforms and 'green logistics'."

He encouraged regional stakeholders to seek closer cooperation with Belgian companies: "I encourage regional stakeholders and local companies to explore partnership opportunities with Belgian companies, both for their technical expertise and our commitment to reliability, sustainability and long-term cooperation. We believe that through such strategic partnerships, this region can become a global hub and a cornerstone of world trade."
10 September 2025 16:49 (UTC+04:00)

Laman Ismayilova Read more

Director Ali-Sattar Guliyev is preparing to release his new short film "Charlotte", produced with the support of the Azerbaijan Film-Makers Union (AKI), Azernews reports.

The film, shot in the melodrama genre, tells the story of a young man who, before leaving for abroad, tries to find a loving home for his beloved cat. But as the director himself admits: "Charlotte" is not just a story about saying goodbye to a furry friend. It's a film about those small and big moments of parting that leave a lasting mark on the heart."

The film is intended for viewers aged 12 and older. The premiere of the 13-minute film is scheduled for 2026.

The scriptwriter and producer is Ali-Sattar Guliyev, cinematographer  Vasif Valizadeh, production designer  Sabina Jafar.

The cast includes People's Artist Shamil Suleymanli, actors Murad Shukurlu, Abulfaz Iskenderov, Sara Ismayilova, and Rustam Babazadeh.

The project was implemented with the support of the Azerbaijan Film-Makers Union (AKI), as well as with the organizational assistance of Ultra Production and Cult Baku. Media support was provided by ITV, CNF Production, and Narimanfilm.

Note that Ali-Sattar Guliyev is the director of the films "Goodbye, Schmidt!", "Olympia", and "When the Stadiums Go Silent".
10 September 2025 10:00 (UTC+04:00)

Qabil Ashirov Read more

Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan and Head of the Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmet Hajiyev has met with Chairman of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee Brian Mast and Senator Steve Daines, Azernews reports.

Azerbaijans Embassy in the United States shared the information on its official account on X.

During the meeting, the sides highlighted the strategic importance of the summit held in Washington on August 8 between President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and U.S. President Donald Trump. They emphasized that the summit had positive outcomes for AzerbaijanUS relations and for peace in the region.

Hajiyev also underlined the necessity of repealing Section 907 of the US Freedom Support Act and extended an invitation for the American lawmakers to visit Azerbaijan.
A glaring connection between the far left's "social justice" agenda also called "restorative justice" and the horrible murder of a young Ukrainian woman on a light rail train in Charlotte is that the only reason that the murderer was on the streets was that he had been released from jail on an earlier crime on no cash bail. There is now a campaign to fire the liberal magistrate who let him back on the street with no cash bond.

Unfortunately, the liberal "justice" system in Charlotte is rife with letting criminals back on the streets with minimal or no bond. Indeed Charlotte received a $3.3 million grant from the leftwing MacArthur Foundation specifically to reduce the jail population of minority criminals. They said their goal was "racial equity."

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/woke-kills-ngo-machine-pushed-jail-cuts-north-carolina-county-monster-stabbed-ukrainian

There is legislation being proposed in Congress to make judges and magistrates who release criminals on insufficient bonds personally liable if that criminal commits other crimes while out on bond. The magistrate responsible for releasing this Charlotte murderer richly deserves not only firing but also being sued for wrongful death of this young innocent victim. She is almost as responsible for this murder as the murderer himself. North Carolina should also do this on a state level.

Meanwhile, the liberal media is upset at all the attention this murder is getting.

https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2025/09/08/nolte-far-left-axios-upset-maga-exposed-charlotte-train-stabbing-to-public/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15081607/Iryna-Zarutska-Ukranian-stabbing-Decarlos-Brown-new-video-train-North-Carolina.html

And leftwing Wikipedia is also working hard to memory-hole the murder:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15084287/wikipedia-accused-trying-downplay-iryna-zarutskas-murder.html
The snap election for Norway's parliament has resulted in major gains by the populist nationalist anti-immigration right Progress Party, which more than doubled its seats in parliament and emerged as the second largest in parliament. That will make it either the main opposition party or the largest party in the new government. Exit polls showed that the Progress Party scored heavily with younger voters and was the most popular party among voters under 30. The Progress Party ran on opposition to illegal immigration, support for lower taxes, support for reducing the bureaucracy, and opposition to joining the European Union.

The Progress Party went into the election with 21 seats and emerged with 47, only 6 seats behind the governing Labor Party. The traditional Conservative Party was third with 24 seats. A total of nine parties won seats but only the top three were in double digits. Overall, the net gain for the three parties on the right was 18 seats, with gains by Progress and the Christian Democrats somewhat offset by losses of the Conservatives. The gains of the Progress Party mostly came from the Conservative Party and from the Center Party.

Forming a new governing coalition will be difficult given the number of parties involved. The previous minority government collapsed when the Center Party, which represents rural interests and takes economic nationalist and strong anti-EU positions, abandoned the Labor-led coalition.

Theoretically, a center-right majority coalition could be formed between the Progress Party, the Conservative Party, the Christian Democratic Party, and the Center Party. A majority center-left coalition is unlikely because it would require the Center Party and the Liberal Party to join with the communist Red Party. It would also require the pro-farmer Center Party to get in bed with the anti-farmer Green Party. Unless, the center-right can agree on a coalition arrangement, the result would likely be another unstable minority government led by Labor as the largest single party. Another minority Labor-led government is what the media expects.

Norway is just the latest example of the strong surge by the populist nationalist anti-immigration right in Europe.

https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/norways-youth-gravitates-to-the-right-election-shows/
Jon Richardson is investing cash to help save his local pub.

Jon Richardson is saving The Plough pub

When the 42-year-old comedian heard that The Plough in Fadmoor, North Yorkshire, shut suddenly in 2011 with plans put forward to transform it into two homes and four holiday lets, he did not hesitate to become a shareholder in Fadmoor Community Pub Limited to keep the boozer open.

Jon - who created a pub called The Dog and B****** in the garage of his Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, home - said: "I love pubs so much that I turned my garage into one, but it didnt scratch the itch, so now Ive ended up owning one. Or a share of a crumbling one, anyway.

"When I first heard about The Plough, I had to go and see it, and then when I met the amazing people working to rescue it, I couldnt resist getting involved.

"Like a good pint, they are lively and cool with good heads on them, and they make you feel better about the world.

"Pubs are the beating heart of their communities, and were, hopefully, going to have a great time bringing The Plough back to its former glory.

"I know its going to be hard work, but Im ready to roll my sleeves up and watch other people getting their hands dirty.

More4 has commissioned an eight-part observational series - working title named A Yorkshire Pub with Jon Richardson - that will follow Jon as he joins forces with the local community to restore and re-open The Plough, which dates back to 1782.

Peter Jones, Chairman, Fadmoor Community Pub Limited, added: We have a lot of work to do to renovate this derelict pub, which has been closed for 14 years, and bring it back to life as a thriving community pub at the heart of this village.

"We look forward to sharing this journey with Jon and More4 viewers, especially as Jon has offered to buy the first round when we open!

Channel 4 has hailed A Yorkshire Pub with Jon Richardson - which has been created by Full Fat TV - as a "dream commission".

Jayne Stanger, Senior Commissioning Editor for Channel 4, added: This is a dream commission: a much-loved comedian with a passion, a fantastic community brimming with brilliant characters, plus a mission to save one of the most-cherished British traditions  the humble local pub.

"Cheers to Jon, his Yorkshire pub, and the team at Full Fat TV capturing this special story for us.

Colette Foster, CEO of Full Fat TV, said: At Full Fat TV, we'd been reading about the decline of pubs, however, it was the rise of community pubs halting that decline that really inspired us - locals buying pubs at risk of closure and repurposing them to offer services for the entire community as well as a pint.

"We were delighted when Jon said he wanted to invest in The Plough, allowing us to follow him and the Fadmoor community as they bring this special local in a spectacular part of Yorkshire back to life."
Belfast's newest boutique hotel has now opened its doors, bringing a new brand to Northern Ireland in an investment of 8m.

Moxy Belfast City is on Clarence Street West on the former site of the Park Inn by Radisson.

Irish operator MHL Hotel Collection bought the property in September 2024, carrying out a complete redesign and remodelling on it.

The hotel has179 refurbished bedrooms and signature Moxy spaces including a bar for check-in, where a complimentary drink is offered on arrival. There are also lively communal spaces and a grab-and-go food concept.

Moxy Hotels, one of Marriott Bonvoys portfolio of 31 brands, is described as a playful experiential hotel. MHL Hotel Collection is the largest Marriott franchisee in Ireland.

Gemma Connor, the general manager of Moxy Belfast City

General manager Gemma Connor said: I am so immensely proud of the team working here in Moxy Belfast City. Over the last number of months, we have been preparing for today.

Exterior of Moxy Belfast City

"It is with enormous pride that we open the doors and unveil our brand-new hotel, the first Moxy Hotel in Northern Ireland.

"We have built a team of over 40 associates working here in the hotel and are still recruiting to add more people to our team.

"I would like to personally thank MHL Hotel Collection for their investment in the hotel as well as the local businesses such as Grant Fit Out and Todds Architects who helped make this transformation possible."

Paul Higgins, partner at MHL Hotel Collection, said Today is a truly momentous day for us here in MHL Hotel Collection, we have long wanted to have a presence in Northern Ireland.

"Moxy Belfast City is our fourteenth hotel, our first in Belfast and Northern Ireland and I am especially proud to be here today for its launch.

"We are looking forward to welcoming locals and international visitors to Belfast City and I am excited to see Moxy Belfast City prosper under the stewardship of Gemma Connor and her team.

Bar of Moxy Belfast City

Lee Stinton tells of his ICE detention

MHL Collection owns The College Green Hotel Dublin, Autograph Collection, formerly The Westin Dublin, Powerscourt Hotel Resort & Spa and Moxy Dublin City.

The collection also includes InterContinental Dublin, Hilton Dublin City, The Morgan Hotel, Brooks Hotel, The Trinity City Hotel and The Spencer Hotel. It also owns hotels in Limerick and Galway.
A child has been knocked down at traffic lights outside St Malachys College in Belfast.

Police are appealing for information following a report of a one vehicle road traffic collision which occurred at the Antrim Road area of North Belfast on Wednesday 10 September.

Inspector McAnallen said: Shortly before 8am, it was reported that a young boy and a silver coloured Toyota Auris were involved in the collision close to a school in the area.

"The boy was taken to hospital for injuries that are not believed to be life threatening. The driver of the vehicle was spoken to in relation to the incident.

Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) attended the scene. Picture: Aodhan Roberts/Belfast Telegraph.

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Enquiries are continuing and police would appeal to anyone with any information in relation to the collision, or who may have dash-cam footage available to contact police on 101 quoting reference number 216 10/09/25.
Some activities cost upwards of 90 per family

A group representing NI parents has said early Halloween and Christmas-themed events that take place across the region over the autumn are putting added stress onto families already struggling to make ends meet.

Many open farms and adventure centres announce their Halloween events in August and, come September, in time for children returning to school, the dreaded C-word is being used in not-so-hushed tones.

Tickets for Christmas events are often released (and sell out) before the first week of September is over.

Some of these can cost upwards of 90 for a standard family of four (two adults and two children).

Melted Parents NI told the Belfast Telegraph that there is an added stress and pressure many parents feel to purchase tickets to the events, even when they cant afford them.

Raissa Balduino spoke to some of the parents within the group who said they just cant justify booking such events and that social media posts can impact the mental health of caregivers.

A lot of parents feel there is so much comparison and pressure on social media to get the best picture and to document all of it, she said.

Some of them maybe did these events with their first child, and now they have their second they feel guilt to do it all again, and with the added cost.

Social media and what you see in movies is also not realistic.

Ms Balduino said a lot of parents are instead opting for charitable events this year, rather than those with a hefty price tag.

I understand these are businesses and the price of everything has gone up, not just with these events but also childcare, food, electricity, everything, she added.

Parents spend hundreds of pounds on Christmas presents. And then to add another 100 on top of it to go see Santa, its just unaffordable.

Many parents we spoke to have actually decided to attend more free family-fun days or community events that support a charity.

Melted Parents NI hosted a free Christmas-themed family fun day last year and it hopes to host one again this year (details are yet to be announced).

Parents are feeling the pressure, like they have to do their best, and it affects their mental health because they think they are not doing enough, she said.

Most are in debt when it comes to Christmas, so anything on top of that takes up a lot of their budgets.

We shouldnt be comparing ourselves to others and to follow a trend that is not even determined by us.

Co Tyrone woman Ana Turkington started her online blog Wee Adventurers three years ago and documents lists of places hosting free or subsidised events across Northern Ireland.

Originally from Newcastle Upon Tyne, the mum-of-three has lived in Cookstown since 2022.

Santa at the Melted Parents NI event. Credit: Janine Boyd

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Ana, who opened a play hub in the town last year, said that she understands businesses need to make a living but that it feels unnecessary to charge adults so much for child-friendly events.

As a business owner myself, I get the rates and insurance and rent... All those overheads are expensive and the cost of things are going up, but there really is no need to charge adults the same, or a similar, price to that of a childs ticket, she said.

Its just the principle of it; we are there obviously supervising our children.

Many places have a set price and that is it. There is no cheaper option and most of these experiences only last less than two hours  its not even all day.

The problem is that people are paying these prices, so businesses arent seeing the pressure its putting people under.

Ana added that she is not opposed to people who choose to attend these events but understands the dangers social media plays.

We think we need this glitzy, glamorous lifestyle and pretend like our children dont have meltdowns, she said.

If you can afford it, that is great, you can make these special memories with your kids. But people have to remember you dont have to do it. Social media makes people feel like theyre missing out, but the biggest thing to remember is that parents should not put themselves in debt to go to these things.

There is no right or wrong answer, but there are so many ways to make memories with your children.

Ana is hoping to create a blog post of Halloween activities that are either free or cost less than 10 per child to attend. You can follow her via @wee.adventurers.ni on Instagram.
BREAKING | Firefighters at the scene of serious house fire in Co Down
Self-appointed patrols will not be tolerated after racist attack in east Belfast car park, police say

Video of an incident at the Connswater McDonalds

James McNaney Tue 9 Sep 2025 at 17:43

Police have said that self-appointed patrols will not be tolerated or accepted following a racist attack in east Belfast on Monday.
exclusive | Thug who stabbed child is part of far right save our children vigilante group in east Belfast

Mark Payne convicted of the attempted murder of a 14-year-old boy and threatening two teenage girls with a knife after they witnessed the unprovoked attack

Mark Payne was convicted of stabbing schoolboy, who almost died from his injuries.

Allison Morris Wed 10 Sep 2025 at 07:16

A man convicted of the attempted murder of a 14-year-old child is part of a far-right vigilante save our children group patrolling Belfasts streets.
Politicians in Northern Ireland have expressed shock and sadness following the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk who was shot dead on a university campus in the US on Wednesday.

US President Donald Trump confirmed on Truth Social that Mr Kirk died shortly after he was shot in the neck while sitting under a white gazebo engaging with a large crowd at Utah Valley University.

The CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organisation Turning Point USA was 31-years-old and married with two young children aged three and one.

The tragic murder of Charlie Kirk represents more than violence against one man, but an assault on freedom of speech and open dissent. Our democracy depends on our ability to disagree peacefully.



Whatever our politics, violence should never replace debate.



Above all, this is a pic.twitter.com/3dcy6QBIL3  Gavin Robinson (@GRobinsonDUP) September 10, 2025

DUP leader Gavin Robinson described the killing as an attack on free speech and debate.

The tragic murder of Charlie Kirk represents more than violence against one man, but an assault on freedom of speech and open dissent. Our democracy depends on our ability to disagree peacefully, he said.

Whatever our politics, violence should never replace debate.

Above all, this is a devastating loss for his loved ones. My thoughts and prayers are with them this evening.

Charlie Kirk speaks before he is shot during Turning Points visit to Utah Valley University (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP)

A manhunt is underway to apprehend the shooter who remains at large.

One person was arrested and another person of interest was detained by local law enforcement shortly after the incident  but they were later released with officials saying they had "no ties" to the shooting.

Honestly, I'm heartbroken - DUP MLA Jonathan Buckley

Authorities did not immediately identify a motive but the circumstances of the shooting drew renewed attention to an escalating threat of political violence in the United States that in the last several years has cut across the ideological spectrum.

DUP MLA Jonathan Buckley also reacted to the fatal shooting which is the latest in a long history of political violence in America.

Honestly Im heartbroken, he said while remembering the victim as a wonderful man.

A young life cut short by vile, sick and twisted ideology. Praying for Charlies family, friends and America, Mr Buckley added.

Party colleague, Gary Middleton, lamented the awful news as he said he was praying for Charlie and his family.

President Donald Trump shakes hands with moderator Charlie Kirk (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)

TUV leader Jim Allister KC MP said: The tragic murder of Charlie Kirk is a profound loss. In todays interconnected world, he and Turning Point USA are widely known and respected by conservatives far beyond the United States. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.

For too long, terms like right-wing extremist have been applied unevenly by the press. It is time for all forms of political violence to be recognised and condemned without bias.

This principle should have been applied consistently after the attempted assassination of President Trump. We hope this tragedy prompts renewed focus on how extremism is reported and addressed by the media.

There are no words good enough to express the horror of this.



The killing of Charlie Kirk is a blow to everything Western civilization stands for: open discourse, robust debate and peaceful dissent. He lived his life by those very principles, no matter the danger it put him in.  Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) September 10, 2025

The deputy leader of the Alliance Party condemned the killing as appalling and horrifying.

Eoin Tennyson MLA warned "there is no place for political violence in any society.

"Democracy relies on our ability to debate openly and freely without fear, he posted on X.

"Thinking tonight of his young family.

Alliance MP Sorcha Eastwood also posted on social media.

The murder of Charlie Kirk is horrifying and chilling. Political violence is wrong. Always. If you can't condemn it, you are a part of the problem, she wrote.

"You debase yourself and you destroy any argument you seek to advance. You destroy our basic humanity and empathy. His poor family, my prayers are with them.

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Videos circulating on social media show Mr Kirk was speaking into a handheld microphone when the single shot was fired  he was sitting under a sign promoting his The American Comeback tour which had just got underway.

Prove Me Wrong, was emblazoned on the side of the tent.

After the shot rings out, Mr Kirk can be seen reaching for his neck with his right hand as the gruesome scene unfolds.

Stunned spectators can be heard gasping and screaming before people start to run away.

The Associated Press was able to confirm the videos were taken at the Sorensen Centre courtyard on the Utah Valley University campus, where Mr Kirk was speaking at the time.

Charlie Kirk hands out hats before speaking at Utah Valley University (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP)

The debate was hosted by his non-profit political organisation.

The event had been met with divided opinions on campus. An online petition calling for university administrators to bar Mr Kirk from appearing received nearly 1,000 signatures.

The university issued a statement last week citing First Amendment rights and affirming its commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.

The college said a single shot had been fired at Mr Kirk and a suspect was in custody.

The US President was among those who called for prayers for Mr Kirk after he was taken to hospital.

A short time later, Donald Trump confirmed on his Truth Social that the activist had succumbed to his injuries.

Then in a four minute address from the Oval Office posted on the platform, Mr Trump criticized the demonization of political opponents and offered condolences to the victims wife Erika and the couples two children.

'To my great fellow Americans, I am filled with grief and anger at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk on a college campus in Utah. Charlie inspired millions and tonight, all who knew him and loved him are united in shock and horror,' the president said, describing it as a dark moment for America.

He hailed Mr Kirk as someone who fought for liberty, democracy, justice and the American people.

'He's a martyr for truth and freedom and there has never been anyone who was so respected by youth, Mr Trump added.

The shooting comes amid a spike in political violence in the United States across all parts of the ideological spectrum.

Meanwhile, Kim Leadbeater, whose sister Jo Cox was killed in 2016 when she was shot and stabbed by a neo-Nazi outside her constituency surgery a week before the 2016 EU referendum, and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer were among a raft of British leaders to speak out against political violence following the killing.

Duke of Sussex pays tribute to youngsters recognised by charity WellChild

Ms Leadbeater, who is now a Labour MP in her sisters former constituency, wrote: This is dreadful.

Whatever our political views and differences, there is no place for violence in our politics.

Tonight two children have lost their Dad. Devastating. We need a global reset on what we want our politics to look like.

Prime Minister Sir Keir expressed his condolences online, adding: My thoughts this evening are with the loved ones of Charlie Kirk.

It is heartbreaking that a young family has been robbed of a father and a husband.

We must all be free to debate openly and freely without fear  there can be no justification for political violence.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch described the killing as a blow to everything Western civilization stands for as she warned that the rising intolerance of opposing views affects us all.

We cannot turn a blind eye to it, she added.

Mr Kirk was scheduled to debate progressive influencer at Dartmouth College later this month.

Taking to his Twitch live stream, Hasan Piker reacted to the shooting with horror and called on some of his followers to stop making jokes about the abhorrent shooting.

He also expressed fear that others could be targeted adding: 'The reverberation of people seeking out vengeance in the aftermath of this violent, abhorrent incident is going to be genuinely worrisome.
Politics

Alliance MP on honour of being only MP from NI nominated for Backbencher of the Year: I am more grateful than you will ever know
Infrastructure will be a focus of the Budget as the Government tackles issues caused by exponential population growth, Taoiseach Micheal Martin has said.

Mr Martin said there was a need to sort out issues with Irelands water network, electricity grid and public transport services as he claimed the area were weakest internationally is infrastructure.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin arrives to speak at the announcement of the action plan on competitiveness and productivity (Brian Lawless/PA)

Speaking at the launch of the Governments action plan on competitiveness and productivity on Wednesday, the Taoiseach said the Government is pivoting to intensive capital investment as the population grows exponentially.

Mr Martin said he believes the issue of population growth has been discounted in official thinking with the Government needing to respond to services which are under huge pressure.

Tanaiste Simon Harris and Taoiseach Micheal Martin debate during the launch (Brian Lawless/PA)

However, the Taoiseach said population increases bring positive impacts; both for economic competitiveness and because it has brought Irelands population almost back to pre-Famine levels.

Issues around infrastructure were among 85 measures to improve Irelands competitiveness and productivity outlined by the Government today in its action plan.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin, centre, with Tanaiste Simon Harris, right, and Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke (Brian Lawless/PA(

The Taoiseach told reporters: In plain language, competitiveness is about protecting jobs and creating new jobs.

Other areas highlighted in the plan include harnessing the potential of AI and digital technologies, boosting FDI (Foreign Direct Investments) and exports and creating and scaling more SMEs (small and medium Enterprises).Tanaiste Simon Harris during the announcement of the action plan on competitiveness and productivity (Brian Lawless/PA)

Speaking at the launch of the plan, Tanaiste Simon Harris said past success is not a guarantee of being able to attract foreign direct investment in the future and emphasised the need to listen to what people who are investing in our country are saying to us.

He added: Weve also got to recognise that the bulk of jobs in Ireland are still provided by Irish-owned SMEs and how we can do more to support them.
Defence Secretary John Healey met his counterparts from the E5 Group of nations, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and the UK, at Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Sir Keir Starmer has condemned Russias egregious and unprecedented violation of Nato airspace after Russia sent drones into Polish territory that were shot down.

Defence Secretary John Healey, meanwhile, said the move took Russias aggression to a new level of hostility ahead of talks in London with defence officials from Poland, Italy, France and Germany.

Secretary General Mark Rutte said that Nato is vigilant and will defend every inch of its territory, in a message to Vladimir Putin.

It came three days after Russias largest aerial attack on Ukraine since the war began, an assault that hit a key government building in Kyiv for the first time.

Polish defence minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz had been due to attend the meeting of E5 defence ministers at the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, but flew home early on Wednesday morning to deal with the attack, Mr Healey said.

Polish airspace was violated by multiple Russian drones and those that posed a direct threat were shot down, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk wrote on social media.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said around two dozen Russian drones may have entered Polish airspace during the night and that his military was working to verify this.

Mr Kamysz had suggested it was more than 10 but did not specify an exact number.

Dutch F-35 fighter jets stationed in Poland under NATO provided support to the Polish air force overnight.

A number of Russian drones were shot down in Poland (AP)

Prime Minister Sir Keir said he had been in touch with Mr Tusk to make clear the UKs support for Poland and Ukraine, and thanked Nato and Polish forces for their rapid response.

This mornings barbaric attack on Ukraine and the egregious and unprecedented violation of Polish and Nato airspace by Russian drones is deeply concerning, Sir Keir said in a statement.

This was an extremely reckless move by Russia and only serves to remind us of President Putins blatant disregard for peace, and the constant bombardment innocent Ukrainians face every day.

Sir Keir said the UK and partners will continue to ramp up the pressure on Putin until there is a just and lasting peace.

During Prime Ministers Questions, Sir Keir said support for Ukraine is unwavering.

The attack last night in Poland shows Putins belief that he can somehow act with impunity, he said.

He said there has been real progress by his so-called coalition of the willing in recent weeks to ensure security guarantees in a potential Ukraine deal.

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The Defence Secretary said Russias actions were reckless, unprecedented and dangerous and said Europe was facing escalating Russian aggression.

He said: Last night Putin took this aggression to a new level of hostility. A violation of Polish airspace deep enough for Warsaw airport to be closed and Nato jets forced directly to shoot down Russias drones while, of course, the attacks on Ukraine continue to intensify.

Polands direct defensive military action last night is the first of its kind since Putin launched his illegal invasion in 2022. Minister Kosiniak Kamysz was rightly heading home to Poland very early this morning to deal with this attack.

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Russias actions are reckless, unprecedented and dangerous. We totally condemn these attacks, and we say to President Putin: Your aggression only strengthens the unity between Nato nations.

Nato chief Mr Rutte said the defence alliances council met on Wednesday morning at Polands request and that a full assessment of the incident is ongoing.

But he said it is clear that the violation on Tuesday night is not an isolated incident and that the situation along Natos eastern flank would be monitored, with air defences at the ready.

Whether it was intentional or not, it is absolutely reckless, he said.

In a message to Mr Putin, he told the Russian leader to stop violating allied airspace and that Nato is vigilant and will defend every inch of its territory.

European leaders echoed concern that Russias actions were part of a pattern of escalation.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called it the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began and said it appeared intentional, not accidental.

French president Emmanuel Macron said the incursion of Russian drones was simply unacceptable.

The talks in Woolwich will focus on what support countries can provide to Poland.

In a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mr Healey said: Your aggression only strengthens our solidarity to stand with Ukraine. It reminds us that a secure Europe needs a strong, sovereign Ukraine.

Mr Healey is holding talks with Italian defence minister Guido Crosetto, Polands director of international security policy Marcin Kazmierski, French director general for international relations Alice Rufo and German state secretary for armaments Jens Plotner.
Olivia Attwood would not recommend forgiving cheating to everyone.

Olivia Attwood does not encourage forgiving cheating to everyone

The 34-year-old TV personality tied the knot with 31-year-old Gillingham F.C. attacking midfielder Bradley Dack at the swanky five-star Bvlgari Hotel in Knightsbridge, London, in 2023 - but their relationship suffered infidelity in its early days.

Despite the Love Island star - who is fronting the second series of her hit ITV2 Bad Boyfriends show, in which she hopes to make men better partners - said her and Bradley's marriage had a "rocky start", but Olivia said he was an "exception" for her.

Appearing on Lorraine Kelly's eponymous ITV morning magazine show on Wednesday (10.09.25), she explained: "Look, Brad and I had a rocky start.

"There's no such thing as perfect, our relationship has ups and downs, for sure it's a collaborative thing, it's a work in progress.

"It's not something I would recommend to everyone to forgive [cheating] and move on.

"It worked for us, I'd never gone back to an ex before, I never thought I would, but Brad was the exception!

"In some cases, it can work. The maturity. We were like 20, 21, when we went. He was silly in the beginning, I was silly. You grow up together and learn how to behave."

Olivia and Bradley's relationship has been subject to intense speculation in recent weeks, after she was pictured cosying up to the 36-year-old former The Only Way Is Essex (TOWIE) star Pete Wicks - whom she presents The Sunday Roast with Pete and Olivia on KISS Radio with - on holiday in Ibiza, Spain.

And days after flying back to the UK, Olivia denied that she and Bradley are on the cusp of a break-up.

She told The Sun newspaper: "If I had something to say, Id be saying it on my own [Instagram] story.

"All the gossip and stuff - people message me and go, Oh, have you seen this? And, I do, but Im quite disconnected from that stuff."

And Olivia recently said her and Bradley's relationship is not perfect - just like anyone else's.

She told New! magazine: "Brad and I do have a lovely relationship, but I'm not perfect, he's not perfect.

"It's not the perfect relationship, but it's a good relationship. That's the thing that we all learn - there is no such thing as perfect."
The UK will mass produce cutting-edge interceptor drones to help Ukraine fight off Russian aerial attacks.

The drones, designed by Ukraine with support from UK scientists and technicians, are highly effective in destroying the one-way attack aircraft Moscow continues to launch at Ukrainian cities, according to the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

It comes after Russian drones violating Polish airspace during overnight attacks on Ukraine were shot down by Poland and Nato.

Defence Secretary John Healey will detail the project, the first under a technology-sharing deal with Kyiv, at the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) trade show in London on Thursday.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: As Russia continues its egregious and unrelenting attacks on Ukraine, the UKs support will not falter, and we alongside our allies will continue to step up.

This new partnership is a landmark moment, bringing together British and Ukrainian ingenuity to deliver cutting-edge defence drone technology to fight back against Russian aggression.

By harnessing the strength of our world-class defence industry, we are not only helping Ukraine defend itself against (Vladimir) Putins barbaric attacks, but we are also creating British jobs, driving growth, and securing our own future.

The Defence Secretary on Wednesday hosted his counterparts from France, Germany, Italy and Poland  the so-called E5 nations (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

The new drones have already proved useful against the Shahed drones used by Russia, and are much cheaper to produce than traditional air defence missiles, the MoD said.

Sir Keir and President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the UK-Ukraine industrial partnership over the summer.

An expansion, signed by the Defence Secretary in Kyiv last week, allows the sharing and joint development of intellectual property.

Mr Healey said: Through this groundbreaking industrial partnership with Ukraine, and our new Defence Industrial Strategy, we are revving up our world-leading defence industry.

We will innovate at a wartime pace, support UK and Ukrainian security, and boost jobs here in Britain.

This deal is a first of its kind, giving UK industry unprecedented access to the latest equipment designs, supporting Ukraine in its fight to defend against Putins illegal invasion and showing how defence can be an engine for growth as we deliver on our Plan for Change.

Mr Healey, after holding talks in London on Wednesday with defence officials from Poland, Italy, France and Germany, condemned Russias reckless incursion into Polish airspace.

He said he asked the UK Armed Forces to look at options to bolster Natos air defence over Poland.
Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old activist who was shot at an appearance at a Utah college on Wednesday, personifies the pugnacious, populist conservatism that has taken over the Republican Party in the age of President Donald Trump.

Mr Kirk has long focused on energising young conservatives with speaking events like the one at Utah Valley University where the shooting occurred.

He launched his organisation, Turning Point USA, in 2012, targeting younger people and venturing onto liberal-leaning college campuses where many Republican activists were nervous to tread.

A backer of Mr Trump during the presidents initial 2016 run, Mr Kirk took Turning Point from one of a constellation of well-funded conservative groups to the centre of the right-of-centre universe.

Donald Trump shakes hands with Charlie Kirk (Phelan M Ebenhack/AP)

Turning Points political wing helped run get-out-the-vote for Mr Trumps 2024 campaign, trying to energise disaffected conservatives who rarely vote.

Mr Trump won Arizona, Turning Points home state, by five percentage points after narrowly losing it in 2020.

The group is known for its flamboyant events that often feature strobe lighting and pyrotechnics. It claims more than 250,000 student members.

Mr Kirk shows off an apocalyptic style in his popular podcast, radio show and on the campaign trail. During an appearance with Mr Trump in Georgia last autumn, he said that Democrats stand for everything God hates.

Mr Kirk called the Trump vs Kamala Harris choice a spiritual battle.

This is a Christian state. Id like to see it stay that way, Mr Kirk told the 10,000 or so Georgians, who at one point joined him in a deafening chant of Christ is King. Christ is King.

Mr Kirk has also remained a regular presence on college campuses. Last year, for the social media programme Surrounded, he faced off against 20 liberal college students to defend his viewpoints, including that abortion is murder and should be illegal.

Charlie Kirk (Alex Brandon/AP)

Mr Kirk, who is married with two young children, has remained a regular presence on college campuses.

Turning Point was founded in Chicago in 2012 by a then 18-year-old Mr Kirk and William Montgomery, a tea party activist, to proselytise on college campuses for low taxes and limited government. It was not an immediate success.

But Mr Kirks zeal for confronting liberals in academia eventually won over an influential set of conservative financiers.

Despite early misgivings, Turning Point enthusiastically backed Mr Trump after he clinched the Republican nomination in 2016.

Mr Kirk served as a personal aide to Donald Trump Jr, the former presidents eldest son, during the general election campaign.

Soon, Mr Kirk was a regular presence on cable TV, where he leaned into the culture wars and heaped praise on the then-president.

Mr Trump and his son were equally effusive and often spoke at Turning Point conferences.
Ursula von der Leyen was delivering a state of the union speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg (AP)

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has said she plans to seek sanctions and a partial trade suspension against Israel over the war in Gaza.

The 27-nation EU is deeply divided in its approach to Israel and the Palestinians, and it is unclear whether a majority will be found to endorse such measures.

Ms von der Leyen added that the commission will set up a Palestine donor group next month, part of which will focus on Gazas future reconstruction.

The European Commission president said that the events in Gaza and the suffering of children and families has shaken the conscience of the world.

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The Gaza Health Ministry says 126 Palestinians, including 26 children, have died of causes related to malnutrition since international experts announced a famine in Gaza City on August 22.

Ms von der Leyen added, to applause in the European Parliament at its meeting in Strasbourg, France: Man-made famine can never be a weapon of war. For the sake of the children, for the sake of humanity. This must stop.

Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar, in a social media post, said Ms von der Leyen had succumbed to pressures that undermine Israel-Europe relations. He said her actions will embolden Hamas.

Ms von der Leyens comments followed Israels military warning on Tuesday to Gaza City residents to evacuate ahead of its plans to take control of what it portrays as Hamass last remaining stronghold and where hundreds of thousands of people remain under conditions of famine.

An estimated one million Palestinians  around half of Gazas overall population  live in the area of north Gaza around Gaza City, according to the Israeli military and the United Nations. Many are exhausted from moving multiple times and unsure if travelling south will be safer.

The warnings directed at Gaza City  the first calling for its full evacuation  came before an Israeli strike on Tuesday targeting Hamass leaders in Qatar, where negotiations over ending the war in Gaza appeared to be at a standstill.

Smoke billows over the Gaza Strip following an Israeli bombardment (Ariel Schalit/AP)

The strike on the territory of a US ally drew widespread condemnation from countries in the Middle East and beyond. It also marked a dramatic escalation in the region and risked upending talks aimed at ending the war and freeing hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.

Hamas claims its senior leadership survived the strike.

Ms von der Leyen also said she plans to freeze support to Israel given by the European Unions executive branch, which would not require the approval of the 27 member countries.

It was not immediately clear how much financial support the executive branch, known as the European Commission, provides to Israel and what it is used for.

We will put our bilateral support to Israel on hold. We will stop all payments in these areas, without affecting our work with Israeli civil society or Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial, Ms von der Leyen told EU politicians.

The commission also gives support to the Palestinian Authority.

Displaced Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza (Jehad Alshrafi/AP)

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people on October 7 2023, and killed some 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians. Forty-eight hostages are still held inside Gaza, around 20 of them believed to be alive.

Israels retaliatory offensive has killed more than 64,000 Palestinians, according to Gazas Health Ministry.

The ministry, which is under Gazas Hamas government, does not differentiate between civilians and combatants but says around half of those killed were women and children. The UN and other international organisations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.

The health ministry on Wednesday said the bodies of 41 people killed by Israeli strikes have been brought to hospitals in Gaza over the past 24 hours.

Hospitals also received 184 wounded, the ministry said in its daily report.

Also, 12 more people were killed in that same time period while seeking humanitarian aid, the ministry said.

Large parts of major cities in Gaza have been completely destroyed and around 90% of some two million Palestinians have been displaced.

The Israeli military said it struck another high-rise in Gaza City, claiming it was being used by Hamas for surveillance of Israeli troops. The Associated Press could not verify the claim.

The strike came hours after the militarys Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, warned Palestinians in certain areas of western Gaza City to evacuate.

Israel on Tuesday ordered all Palestinians in the city to leave, saying the military was about to attack forcefully and that staying would be dangerous. But hundreds of thousands of Palestinians remain there, many exhausted after multiple displacements and unsure if anywhere else in the strip would be safe for them.
Riot police take position in front of a burning restaurant in Paris (Thibault Camus/AP)

Protesters have clashed with police in Paris and elsewhere across France during a day of nationwide action under the slogan Block Everything.

Demonstrators, who blocked roads and set fires, were met with volleys of police tear gas.

The government announced hundreds of arrests, as demonstrations against French President Emmanuel Macron, budget cuts and other complaints spread to big cities and small towns.

Although falling short of its self-declared intention to Block Everything, the protest movement that started online over the summer caused widespread hot spots of disruption, defying an exceptional deployment of 80,000 police who broke up barricades and swiftly took people into custody.

Interior minister Bruno Retailleau said that a bus was set on fire in the western city of Rennes. In the south-west, fire damage to electrical cables stopped train services on one line and disrupted traffic on another, government transport authorities said.

The protests appeared so far to be less intense than previous bouts of unrest that have sporadically rocked Mr Macrons leadership. They included months of nationwide so-called yellow vest demonstrations that impacted his first term as president.

After his re-election in 2022, Mr Macron faced firestorms of anger over unpopular pension reforms and nationwide unrest and rioting in 2023 after the deadly police shooting of a teenager on Paris outskirts.

Nevertheless, demonstrations and sporadic clashes with riot police in Paris and elsewhere on Wednesday added to a sense of crisis that has again gripped France following its latest government collapse on Monday, when prime minister Francois Bayrou lost a parliamentary confidence vote.

Protesters march during a rally of the Block Everything in France (Philippe Magoni/AP)

The protests immediately presented a challenge to Mr Bayrous replacement, Sebastien Lecornu, who was installed on Wednesday.

Groups of protesters repeatedly tried to block Paris beltway during the morning rush hour and were dispersed by police and tear gas. Elsewhere in the capital, protesters piled up rubbish bins and hurled objects at police officers.

Firefighters were called to the downtown Chatelet neighbourhood after a fire broke out in a restaurant, threatening to spread to an adjacent building.

By evening, the government said police had made 473 arrests nationwide, including 203 in Paris, with 339 people in custody and 13 officers lightly injured.

A day of nationwide demonstrations took place in France (Thibault Camus/AP)

It counted 812 protest actions across the country  550 rallies, 262 blockades and 267 street fires  and warned that tensions were flaring in Rennes, Nantes and Paris after officers came under attack.

The government put the turnout at 175,000, while the CGT union, one of Frances largest labour confederations, claimed closer to a quarter of a million.

Road blockades, traffic slowdowns and other protests were widely spread  from the southern port city of Marseille to Lille and Caen in the north, and Nantes and Rennes in the west to Grenoble and Lyon in the south-east.

Afternoon gatherings of thousands of people in central Paris were peaceful and good humoured, with placards taking aim at Mr Macron and his new prime minister.

There is widespread unrest over the French governments austerity policies (AP)

The Block Everything movement gathered momentum over the summer on social media and in encrypted chats, calling for a day of blockades, strikes, demonstrations and other acts of protests.

The movement, which has grown virally with no clear identified leadership, has a broad array of demands  many targeting contested belt-tightening budget plans that Mr Bayrou championed before his demise  as well as broader complaints about inequality.

The spontaneity of Block Everything is reminiscent of the yellow vests. That movement started with workers camping out at traffic circles to protest a hike in fuel taxes, sporting high-visibility vests.

It quickly spread to people across political, regional, social and generational divides angry at economic injustice and Mr Macrons leadership.
Former US vice president Kamala Harris says it was recklessness for Democrats to leave it to ex-president Joe Biden to decide whether to continue seeking another term last year, but she defended his ability to do the job, according to an excerpt from her new book.

Ms Harris, in an excerpt from 107 Days published on Wednesday in The Atlantic, writes that as questions swirled about whether Mr Biden, who was then 81, should seek re-election, she and others left the decision to him and first lady Jill Biden.

Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness, Ms Harris said.

The remarks are the first time Ms Harris has been publicly critical of Mr Bidens decision to run again  an ill-fated decision that saw him drop out in July 2024 after a disastrous debate performance, leaving her to head up the Democratic ticket and ultimately lose to Republican Donald Trump.

The stakes were simply too high, Ms Harris writes in the book. This wasnt a choice that should have been left to an individuals ego, an individuals ambition. It should have been more than a personal decision.

Mr Bidens office did not immediately have a comment on Wednesday.

Throughout the campaign and in its wake, Ms Harris had avoided much criticism of the president she served beside and defended him amid questions about his mental acuity.

In the book excerpt, Ms Harris continues to defend Mr Bidens ability to do the job but describes him in 2024 and especially at the time of his debate debacle as tired.

On his worst day, he was more deeply knowledgeable, more capable of exercising judgment, and far more compassionate than Donald Trump on his best. But at 81, Joe got tired. Thats when his age showed in physical and verbal stumbles, Ms Harris writes.

I dont think its any surprise that the debate debacle happened right after two back-to-back trips to Europe and a flight to the West Coast for a Hollywood fundraiser. I dont believe it was incapacity.

She adds that if she believed Ms Biden was incapacitated, she would have said so out of loyalty to the country.

Ms Harris also blames those close to Mr Biden for unflattering media coverage throughout the time she served as vice president and throwing her under the bus to boost Mr Bidens public standing.

She writes about receiving a high level of scrutiny as the first female vice president but says when the stories were unfair or inaccurate, the presidents inner circle seemed fine with it. Indeed, it seemed as if they decided I should be knocked down a little bit more.

Ms Harris writes that she often learned that Mr Bidens staff were adding fuel to negative narratives that surrounded her, such as stories about her vice presidential office being in disarray and having high turnover.

The former vice president also accuses Mr Bidens staff of being afraid of her upstaging him, describing a speech she gave in Selma, Alabama, in March last year in which she called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and more humanitarian aid to be delivered to people there.

It went viral, and the West Wing was displeased, Ms Harris says. I was castigated for, apparently, delivering it too well.

She suggests that diminishing her also diminished Mr Biden, especially given the concerns about his age.

Ms Harris success, she writes, would be a marker of Mr Bidens good judgment and a reassurance to the public that if something happened to the president she could step in.

My success was important for him, she writes. His team didnt get it.

Ms Harris book, whose title is a nod to the length of her abbreviated presidential campaign, is set to be published by Simon & Schuster on September 23.
Firefighters secure parts of a damaged UAV shot down by Polish authorities at a site in Poland (Piotr Pyrkosz/AP)

Poland said multiple Russian drones entered and were shot down over its territory with help from Nato allies  describing the incident as an act of aggression carried out during a wave of Russian strikes on Ukraine.

Russias Defence Ministry said it did not target Poland, but close ally Belarus said it tracked some drones that lost their course because they were jammed.

However, several European leaders said they believe that the incursion amounted to an intentional escalation by Russia of its war on Ukraine.

Poland said some of the drones came from Belarus, where Russian and Belarusian troops have begun gathering for war games starting on Friday.

Polish airspace has been violated many times since Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but there has been nothing on this scale in Poland or in any other western nation along the eastern flank of Nato and the European Union. A Nato spokesman said it was the first time the alliance has confronted a potential threat in its airspace.

Nato met to discuss the incident, which came three days after Russias largest aerial attack on Ukraine since the war began.

Russias war is escalating, not ending, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said. Last night in Poland we saw the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began, and indications suggest it was intentional, not accidental.

The extent of the incursion was still becoming clear: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told parliament 19 violations were recorded over seven hours, but that information was still being gathered.

Eight crash sites have been found, a government spokesperson said. Dutch fighter jets came to Polands aid and intercepted some drones, the Netherlands defence minister said.

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This is an act of aggression that posed a real threat to the safety of our citizens, the Polish militarys operational command said on social media.

French President Emmanuel Macron called on Russia to put an end to this reckless escalation, while Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala called the violation a test of Nato countries defence capabilities.

Mr Tusk told parliament that the first violation came at approximately 11.30pm on Tuesday and the last at around 6.30am on Wednesday. He said that the 19 violations recorded so far were not the final data.

Earlier, defence minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote on X that more than 10 objects crossed into Polish airspace, but he did not specify an exact number.

What is new, in the worst sense of the word, is the direction from which the drones came. This is the first time in this war that they did not come from Ukraine as a result of errors or minor Russian provocations. For the first time, a significant portion of the drones came directly from Belarus, Mr Tusk said in parliament.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk (Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland via AP)

Russias Defence Ministry said that its overnight strikes targeted Ukraines military-industrial complex in the western regions of the country, with no planned targets on Polish territory.

We are ready to hold consultations with the Polish Ministry of Defence on this issue, the statement said.

Belarusian Maj Gen Pavel Muraveiko, the chief of the general staff and first deputy defence minister, appeared to try to put some distance between his country and the incursion.

In an online statement, he said that as Russia and Ukraine traded drone strikes overnight, Belarusian air defence forces tracked drones that lost their course after they were jammed, adding that Belarusian forces warned their Polish and Lithuanian counterparts about unidentified aircraft approaching their territory.

This allowed the Polish side to respond promptly to the actions of the drones by scrambling their forces on duty, he said.

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Drones were found in seven locations in Poland, according to Karolina Galecka, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Interior and Administration. At the eighth site, objects of an unknown origin were found.

Bernard Blaszczuk, mayor of the village of Wyryki in the Lublin region, told TVP Info that a house was hit. Much of the roof was ripped off. He said people were inside but nobody was hurt.

On Wednesday morning, the army was keeping guard on the streets of the village as curious locals huddled together with police and firefighters to figure out what happened.

Poland closed part of its airspace for several hours, and Warsaws Chopin Airport suspended flights.

Nato air defences supported Poland in what spokesman Col Martin ODonnell called the first time Nato planes have engaged potential threats in Allied airspace.

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Mr Tusk told parliament that consultations with allies were taking place under Article 4 of the Nato treaty  a clause that allows countries to call for urgent discussions with their allies.

The consultations happened at a pre-planned meeting on Wednesday. They do not automatically lead to any action under Article 5, which is Natos collective security guarantee.

Dutch F-35 fighter jets intercepted drones over Poland, defence minister Ruben Brekelmans said on X. And German Patriot defence systems in Poland were also placed on alert, and an Italian airborne early warning plane and an aerial refueller were launched, Col ODonnell said.

He said Nato is committed to defending every kilometre of Nato territory, including our airspace.

Leaders in the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia  the Nato members most nervous about Russian aggression given their close proximity  were among the most rattled and expressed deep concerns.

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Russia is deliberately expanding its aggression, posing an ever-growing threat to Europe, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda wrote on X. Estonian foreign minister Margus Tsahkna said that the overnight attacks on Ukraine and violations of Polish airspace were yet another stark reminder that Russia is not just a threat to Ukraine, but to all of Europe and Nato.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called it an extremely dangerous precedent for Europe and called for Russia to feel the consequences.

Moscow always tests the limits of what is possible and, if it does not encounter a strong response, remains at a new level of escalation, he said. Not just one Shahed (drone), which could be dismissed as an accident, but at least eight attack drones that were aimed in the direction of Poland.

Poland has complained about Russian objects entering its airspace during attacks on Ukraine before.

In August, Polands defence minister said that a flying object that crashed and exploded in a cornfield in eastern Poland was identified as a Russian drone, and called it a provocation by Russia.

In March, Poland scrambled jets after a Russian missile briefly passed through Polish airspace on its way to a target in western Ukraine, and in 2022, a missile that was likely fired by Ukraine to intercept a Russian attack landed in Poland, killing two people.

Strikes have continued on residential areas in Zhytomyr region, Ukraine (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

Meanwhile, Ukraines air force said Russia fired 415 strike and decoy drones, as well as 42 cruise missiles and one ballistic missiles overnight.

Ukrainian air defences intercepted or jammed 386 drones and 27 cruise missiles, according to the report.

One person was killed and one injured in the Zhytomyr region overnight, regional administration head Vitalii Bunechko wrote on Telegram, while homes and businesses were damaged.

Russian drones injured three people in Ukraines western Khmelnytskyi region, its head Serhii Tiurin wrote on Telegram early on Wednesday morning. He said a sewing factory was destroyed, a gas station and vehicles were damaged, and windows in several houses were blown out.

A building was damaged by a Russian strike in Lutsk region, Ukraine (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In the Vinnytsia region, Russian drones damaged civilian and industrial infrastructure, according to regional head Natalia Zabolotna. Nearly 30 residential buildings were damaged and one person was injured.

The Russian defence ministry said it had destroyed 122 Ukrainian drones over various Russian regions overnight, including over the illegally annexed Crimea and areas of the Black Sea.
There must be consequences for poor conduct at Stormont but MLAs are allowed to mark their own homework

Office needs real power to punish politicians who breach guidelines

Former Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan has been appointed the new Assembly Commissioner for Standards

Robert Murtagh Wed 10 Sep 2025 at 08:26

It was announced last week that former Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan has been appointed the new Assembly Commissioner for Standards, for approval by the Assembly.
The rioting was sparked by a decision not to allow the Orange Order to parade on the Springfield in west Belfast

Allison Morris on three days of mayhem as PSNI and soldiers battled loyalist rioters and gunmen

Riots were a familiar feature of Northern Irelands Troubles, but with political violence now almost a thing of the past, rioting is rare.

Often serious disturbances are associated with some of the worst years of the Troubles but some extremely serious street disorder came long after the ceasefires.

The riots of the 10th to 12th September 2005 were complete mayhem, with Loyalists on the rampage for three nights.

Two thousand police and soldiers were deployed, mostly in Belfast, deploying a specialist water cannon from Belgium.

115 shots were fired at police and 146 blast bombs were thrown. Over the weekend, the PSNI fired 238 AEP impact rounds in response along with six live rounds aimed at a loyalist gunmen.

Ciaran Dunbar is joined by Belfast Telegraph security correspondent Allison Morris, who was there.

Three days of mayhem as PSNI and soldiers battled loyalist rioters and gunmen
If you'd like to leave a comment (or a tip or a question) about this story with the editors, please email us

We also welcome letters to the editor for publication; you can do that by filling out our letters form and submitting it to the newsroom.
The owners worked to renovate and transform the space, carrying through the colors, materials and design elements from the old space to the new.
Pittsfield city councilors are calling for a comprehensive review of how the Shannon Grant is being used  and whether longtime partner 18 Degrees is effectively reaching the youth most at risk of gun violence  as the grant approaches renewal.
Genki previously leaked a Switch 2 mockup at CES 2025, and now, a US judge is requesting that the company pay Nintendo for the damages it caused on its product.

The lawsuit, filed in May 2025, accused Genki of trademark infringement after it showcased renders of the highly anticipated Nintendo Switch 2 months before the official unveiling.

Unauthorized Switch 2 Mockup Sparks Legal Battle

Nintendo sued Genki for trademark infringement, unfair competition, and false advertising after the company released a mockup of the Switch 2 at CES 2025. Genki claimed the mockup was based on a real Switch 2 system it had seen and used for designing accessories.

Nintendo argued that releasing the mockup prematurely, three months before the official Switch 2 reveal, was an intentional effort to exploit public interest and mislead consumers.

Genki defended itself by stating it never signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with Nintendo and had "nothing to worry about." Despite this, Nintendo's lawyers visited Genki's CES booth to address the situation.

Misleading Consumers

Nintendo's lawsuit pointed to Genki's claims about early access to the unreleased Switch 2, asserting that it misled the public by stating its accessories would be compatible with the new console.

According to IGN, Nintendo argued that such compatibility could only be guaranteed with unauthorized access to the Switch 2. Genki's contradictory statements, initially claiming to have seen the console before later denying possession, fueled the controversy.

In addition to the mockup reveal, Nintendo took issue with a tweet from Genki CEO Edward Tsai in January 2025. The tweet, which featured the caption, "Genki ninjas invade Nintendo Kyoto HQ," sparked further speculation about Genki's alleged early access to Nintendo's upcoming console.

Settlement Terms and Restrictions on Genki

Following legal proceedings, a settlement was reached between Nintendo and Genki. While the exact amount remains undisclosed, Genki denied obtaining a Switch 2 before its official release.

[Genki]



Nintendo and Genki have reached a settlement in the lawsuit over Genki's exhibition of a Switch 2 mockup at CES 2025.



Genki will pay Nintendo damages (the amount is confidential).



Genki also attests that they did not illegally obtain a pre-launch Switch 2. pic.twitter.com/zltUkzQ90y  OatmealDome (@OatmealDome) September 9, 2025

The settlement includes a permanent injunction, prohibiting Genki from using any of Nintendo's logos or designs, or anything likely to be confused with Nintendo's trademarks.

Additionally, Genki is barred from using terms such as "Glitch," "Glitch 2," or "Genki Direct," or any branding resembling Nintendo properties. The company must also clearly label its accessories as coming from an unauthorized manufacturer to avoid misleading consumers into thinking they are official Nintendo products.

Warning to Accessory Makers

Big N has a history of filing lawsuits when it comes to Nintendo branding. The Japanese gaming giant ensures that every accessory manufacturer respects their intellectual property rights. Nintendo also reportedly fined the modder $2 million for continuing to sell unauthorized Nintendo products

Originally published on Player One
Pittsfield is finalizing new rules to legalize and regulate short-term rentals, with the Ordinance and Rules Committee capping the number of units residents can operate, deciding how many days each unit can be rented per year and requiring city review for additional properties.
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New York, US (PANA) - The UN Secretary-General has condemned an Israeli strike targeting Hamas leaders in Doha, the capital of Qatar, on Tuesday, while highlighting the very positive role played by the country in achieving a ceasefire in Gaza and securing the release of hostages
Protesters across France obstructed highways, burned barricades and clashed sporadically with police on Wednesday in a show of anger against president Emmanuel Macron, the political elite and planned spending cuts.

Authorities deployed more than 80,000 security personnel across the country, removing barriers and containing unrest as tensions flared in several places.

In Paris, riot police periodically used teargas to disperse crowds. Almost 200 people were detained in the capital.

The "Block Everything" movement - a broad expression of discontent that has spread on social media - sprang up online in May among right-wing groups but has since been co-opted by the left and far-left.

The unrest added to the political turmoil on a day when conservative Sebastien Lecornu took office as president Emmanuel Macron's new prime minister, after his predecessor was ousted by parliament over his unpopular plans for sharp budget cuts.

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It's Macron who's the problem.

"It's the same shit, it's the same, it's Macron who's the problem, not the ministers," said Fred, a CGT union official at the Paris public transport company RATP. "He has to go."

France is under pressure to lower a budget deficit that stands at nearly double the European Union's 3 per cent ceiling, and a debt pile equivalent to 114 per cent of GDP.

In Paris, students and school age youngsters swelled the protesters' ranks. Nearly 300 protesters were arrested across the country, though many rallies were peaceful.

The movement reflects anger with what protesters say is a dysfunctional ruling elite bent on austerity - the discontent deepened after the last government proposed cuts of 44 billion in government spending.

Outside the Gare du Nord train station in Paris, hundreds of youths chanted anti-Macron slogans. One carried a placard with the Tricolor flag and the slogan "The rich elite's Republic".

"We've come to make some noise," said Sorbonne student Emma Meguerditchian, 17. "We want them to know we can't take this any more, we want another type of government."

Anger over budget cuts

In the west, protesters in Nantes blocked a highway with burning tires and bins. Police used teargas to disperse people trying to occupy a roundabout. In Rennes, a bus was torched.

In Montpellier, in the south, police fired teargas at protesters who had set up a barricade to block traffic at a roundabout. A large banner at the site read: "Macron resign".

Paris police fired teargas at youths blocking the entrance to a high school and firefighters removed burnt bicycles and trash cans from numerous barricades. Scuffles broke out on the fringes of an otherwise peaceful protest near the Chatelet shopping mall in the centre of the capital.

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Yellow Vest comparisons

The 'Block Everything' movement has drawn comparisons with the 'Yellow Vest' rebellion that erupted in 2018-2019 over taxes and the cost of living and forced Macron to make policy concessions costing billions of euros.

However, sociologist Antoine Bristielle at the Jean Jaures Foundation think tank noted a generational divide between the two.

"In the 'Yellow Vest' movement, we had a rather vulnerable France that was struggling to make ends meet, a lot of workers, a lot of retirees. Whereas here, in terms of age, it's many young people," Mr Bristielle said.

They have "a certain vision of the world where there is more social justice, less inequality and a political system that functions differently, better."
Ireland has emerged as one of the most popular global destinations for celebrities on private jets.

A study by Vacation Into Premium found Ireland is the 10th most active country for stars travelling in private planes, with 21 recorded last year.

These included visits by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and film producer David Geffen.

Shannon Airport hosted half of the celebrity private jet visits in 2024.

In the past, the likes of Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian have visited Ireland on prviate jets.

The United States was the most popular location for celebrity private jet visits, according to the study, with 5,200 flights.

Other destinations on the list included England, Canada, Italy, Mexico, Spain, the Bahamas, and Greece.
Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle ONeill has said she is very comfortable with her decision not to attend a banquet at Windsor Castle during US president Donald Trumps state visit to the UK this month.

Ms ONeill told MLAs that she had plenty of engagement with the US administration, but added that people should be more concerned about the biggest humanitarian crisis of our time in Gaza.

It emerged earlier this week that Ms ONeill would not attend the banquet, while Northern Irelands deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly would travel to the engagement.

Sinn Fein vice president Ms ONeill also stayed away from events earlier this year attended by the DUPs Ms Little-Pengelly in the White House on St Patricks Day in protest at Mr Trumps stance on the conflict in Gaza.

Part of the role of joint first ministers is engaging with other heads of states and their administrations for the people of Northern Ireland Brian Kingston, DUP MLA

During the First Ministers appearance before her Stormont scrutiny committee, she was questioned on the issue by DUP MLA Brian Kingston.

He said: Part of the role of joint first ministers is engaging with other heads of states and their administrations for the people of Northern Ireland.

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Surely the United States of America should be at the top of our list given the amount of investment they bring to Northern Ireland, whatever one thinks of the current incumbent, they should be at the top of our list.

I am very comfortable with my decision not to represent this Executive at a state banquet in Windsor Castle with President Trump Michelle O'Neill, First Minister

Ms ONeill responded: Surely the starving children of Gaza should be at the top of your list, and everyone elses list.

It is the biggest humanitarian crisis of your time.

I am very comfortable with my decision not to represent this Executive at a state banquet in Windsor Castle with President Trump.

Mr Kingston said the Gaza crisis did not mean Northern Ireland should cut itself off from the US administration.

The First Minister said: Indeed I do not. I have plenty of engagement with people across the American administration and will continue to do so.

But at a time when the world is looking on at the biggest humanitarian crisis of our time, at a time when starvation is being used as a weapon of war, at a time when the world is increasingly moving towards a militarised agenda to the detriment of people across the globe, at this time, the priority should be ending the genocide in Gaza, at this time the priority should be every international voice making their voice heard and stopping Israel from acting with impunity.

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I think that is what you should be concerned about, what any right-minded person should be concerned about right now.

Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly will attend the banquet (NI Assembly/PA)

Ms Little-Pengelly said: President Trump is pursuing the same policy in the Middle East and in the region as President Biden.

That is a continuation.

As much as we would like to think we have a huge significance in relation to that issue, quite frankly, us not meeting President Trump will make no difference whatsoever to that issue.

We have to recognise that the US administration is incredibly important to Northern Ireland.
Russias incursion into Polish airspace has to be a wake-up call for the West, the Tanaiste has said.

It comes Polish leaders said multiple Russian drones entered and were shot down over its territory overnight, in a move the EU foreign policy chief said seemed intentional.

Speaking before a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Tanaiste Simon Harris said EU efforts to sanction Russia would be much more effective with the involvement of the US President Donald Trumps administration.

Weve heard President Trump talk many times about considering sanctions and thinking about sanctions. In our view, the time for thinking about them is over.

Europe is in a fight.



A fight for our liberty and our ability to determine our destiny for ourselves.



This must be Europes Independence Moment.



A moment we can seize if we're united  https://t.co/EcrY5Mi7kU  Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) September 10, 2025

Mr Harris said Europe is preparing more sanctions against Moscow, but expressed concern at Russian president Vladimir Putins escalating campaign of terror, particularly after last months summit between the US and Russian leaders in Alaska.

While the world talks about peace, talks about de-escalation, talks about finding an end to the Russian aggression in Ukraine, President Putin continues his campaign of terror against the civilian population in Ukraine, and last night, escalated that further by the launching of many drones into Poland.

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His comments came as EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said there was a need for urgent work on a new solution to finance Ukraines war effort.

In her State of the Union address, Ms von der Leyen described the development as a reckless and unprecedented violation of Poland and Europes airspace, adding that there was a need for more sanctions on Russia.

Last night in Poland, we saw the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began, and indications suggest it was intentional, not accidental.



I am in contact with @SecGenNATO and @radeksikorski.



The EU stands in full solidarity with Poland. (1/2)  Kaja Kallas (@kajakallas) September 10, 2025

Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said that Russias war is escalating rather than ending.

Last night in Poland we saw the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began, and indications suggest it was intentional, not accidental.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin said Europe is dealing with a catastrophic situation in Ukraine.

He said Russia had launched a very significantly increased attack on Ukraine at an extraordinary scale.

Speaking to reporters, Mr Martin said: I will be updating Cabinet in terms of the four meetings I had over August in respect of the coalition of the willing, and in terms of Ukraine and the need to do everything we possibly can to continue to support Ukraine.
Two very rare Kashmir sapphire brooches kept in a sealed family vault for almost 40 years and once owned by relatives of the 7th Earl of Wicklow have sold for almost 1.4 million at an auction house in Dublin.

The brooches, one of which was lot 46 and valued at up to 250,000, sold for 540,000 following numerous phone bids and estimated at 250,000, lot 47 was bought for 550,000 at Adams auction house on Tuesday afternoon.

The combined commission of 25 per cent on both of the brooches was 270,000, bringing the overall value of the brooches to 1.36 million.

Bidders in the room, on the phone and online heard from the auctioneer that, You wait for a long time for one rare sapphire to come along, then two do at the same time.

Kashmir sapphires hold a unique place in the world of fine gemstones. The colour of Kashmir sapphires sets them apart as they are considered the very finest, surpassing even the best from Burma, also known as Myanmar or Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka.

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The sapphires formed part of 18 lots, which all sold during the auction, from a collection that dates from the Gilded Age of New York high society and a marriage to a titled family in Ireland.

In the early 1990s, Benjamin Aymar Sands and his wife Amy Kirby Akin of 43 East 18th Street, New York, gifted jewellery to their daughter May Emily Sands (29) to celebrate her marriage to the Honourable Hugh Melville Howard (25), the youngest son of the 6th Earl of Wicklow and Fanny Catherine Wingfield.

The couple married on September 19th, 1908, and the jewellery when they died was inherited by their daughter Katharine Frances Howard of Shelton Abbey, Co Wicklow, and Ounavarra House, Co Wexford, who was the godmother to the present owner.

Claire-Laurence Mestrallet, a director and jewellery specialist with Adams in Dublin, explained that the owner of the brooches decided to bring the collection, which also includes diamond, sapphire and emerald rings, gold coins, a diamond choker necklace and a pearl pendant to them as it is jewellery she doesnt intend to wear.

Ms Mestrallet revealed that the jewellery owner approached her earlier this year. Following the auction, Ms Mestrallet added: "We are super happy (with) the sale. The two buyers of the sapphire brooches were foreign."

The marriage of their daughter, May Sands, to Hugh Melville Howard brought together a bond of American society and European aristocracy. The New York Times reported on the wedding that took place at the Old Dune Church at Southampton, Long Island.

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Unfortunately, their marriage did not have a long life, as Hugh died of pneumonia at a young age and May developed psychological problems and had to be institutionalised.

Their two children, Katharine and Cecil, went to live with their uncle, the 7th Earl of Wicklow, at Shelton Abbey and spent holidays with their grandmother, Amy Sands.

Katharine remained in Ireland and purchased Ounavarra House, Co Wexford, where she farmed. Katharine also contributed greatly to Irish society by starting a troop of girl guides and lent support to An Taisce, the Council for the Blind, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and the National Fisheries Authority.

When Cecil died in New York in 1983, the Earldom became extinct. Katharine died in 1990 and was buried in the family vault in Kilbride Church in Co. Wicklow. As she was the last surviving descendant of the Earls of Wicklow, the vault was sealed.

This rediscovered private collection of exquisite jewellery brings to light a charmed time and place, continued Ms Mestrallet.

The sale of the sapphire brooches follows the sale of an extremely rare Kashmir sapphire by the same auction house last May.

The ring was sold for 550,000, the highest price ever seen in Ireland for a gem of its kind and almost 70 times its original estimated value.
Two big hitters in the crime and mystery worlds are back with new novels  Dan Brown and Robert Galbraith

Fiction

The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith is published in hardback by Sphere. Available now

Investigating four murders should be enough to keep Cormoran Strike busy, but in the eighth Strike novel, written by JK Rowling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, the private detective also has to tackle his growing affection for business partner Robin Ellacott  who is planning to move in with her policeman boyfriend. Strikes struggle to decide whether to express his love for her or not dominates the story just as much as the murder investigations, which are sparked when a corpse is discovered in the vault of a silver shop in the City of London. Police believe the body is that of armed robber Jason Knowles, but one woman is convinced the dead man is instead the father of her newborn baby, who has suddenly disappeared. Its a classic, complicated and dangerous case for Strike and Robin to investigate as the murders mount and their own relationship careers towards a cliff edge. Strike fans will love another gripping case and even more gripping questions over the private lives of the two detectives in a book which is almost 900 pages long.

7/10

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Review by Alan Jones

The Secret Of Secrets by Dan Brown is published in hardback by Bantam. Available now

The evenings are slowly closing in and autumn is the perfect time to sit with Dan Browns sixth Robert Langdon novel. Filled with the usual puzzles, conspiracies and religious iconography, The Secret Of Secrets brings back Katherine Solomon, a neurotic scientist we first meet in The Lost Symbol. Langdon accompanies Solomon to Prague where she is giving a lecture. When she goes missing, Langdons wits are pitted against underground factions in a city steeped with thousands of years worth of tales and superstition. Will Langdon drown in this every deepening mystery as he hunts for the woman he loves? A well-paced thriller that weaves known science and fiction into pages that practically turn themselves.

9/10

Review by Rachel Howdle

Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite is published in hardback by Atlantic Books. Available September 25th

Oyinkan Braithwaites second novel was always going to be a tall order, after her debut My Sister, The Serial Killer was released in 2018 to critical acclaim. Her eagerly anticipated follow-up Cursed Daughters again follows a family with an unusual dynamic. The Falodun women are cursed, so the story goes, to never hold on to a man. The story of the curse and its background gives a supernatural twist to a tale as old as time  of falling in love and having your heart broken. Braithwaite manoeuvres between decades and generations to tell the knots of the story well, but the jump between time periods limits a close attachment to any of the characters. An enjoyable read, but it doesnt quite reach the high standard Braithwaite set for herself.

7/10

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Review by Eleanor Barlow

Non-fiction

Fly, Wild Swans by Jung Chang is published in hardback by William Collins. Available September 16th

In this sequel to her exceptional memoir Wild Swans, published in 1991, Jung Chang takes the story of her family and China from the death of Mao Zedong, founder of the Peoples Republic of China, in 1976, up to the present day. It takes in the countrys opening up under Deng Xiaoping, increasingly tight control since Tiananmen Square and Changs struggles to see her mother in the last years of her life. But while Fly, Wild Swans does a good job of conveying the pressure the Chinese regime can bring to bear, the fact Chang spends most of the book living outside China and describing her work on previous books means it loses some of what made Wild Swans so interesting  namely the detail of daily life under the Chinese Communist Party.

6/10

Review by Christopher McKeon

Childrens book of the week

Impossible Creatures: The Poisoned King by Katherine Rundell is published in hardback by Bloomsbury Childrens Books. Available September 11th

I just finished reading The Poisoned King (the second in Katherine Rundells Impossible Creatures series), and I couldnt put it down! Its about a boy named Christopher who returns to a magical world full of mythical creatures, like griffins and dragons. He meets a brave girl named Anya, and together they go on a rescue mission to save the creatures from danger. I loved how exciting and magical the story was. The world Katherine Rundell created felt real. Some parts were a little confusing, especially when new characters were introduced quickly, but the action and creatures made up for it. It reminded me a bit of Harry Potter mixed with Percy Jackson. I think anyone who likes fantasy and adventure would really enjoy it.

8/10

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Review by Izzy Mills, aged 10

BOOK CHARTS FOR THE WEEK ENDING SEPTEMBER 6th

HARDBACK (FICTION)

1. The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith

2. Metal Slinger by Rachel Schneider

3. Katabasis by R.F Kuang

4. Medusa by Rosie Hewlett

5. The Killer Question by Janice Hallett

6. Picture Imperfect by Jacqueline Wilson

7. Dire Bound:The Wolves of Ruin by Sable Sorensen

8. The Predicament by William Boyd

9. The Artist by Lucy Steeds

10. A Particularly Nasty Case by Adam Kay

(Compiled by Waterstones)

HARDBACK (NON-FICTION)

1. The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins and Sawyer Robbins

2. Domination by Alice Roberts

3. Guinness World Records 2026

4. Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy

5. All Consuming:Why We Eat The Way We Eat Now by Ruby Tandoh

6. How I Cook:A Chefs Guide to Really Good Home Cooking by Ben Lippett

7. Hack Yourself Healthy by Julia Bradbury

8. Frankly by Nicola Sturgeon

9. Entitled:The Rise and Fall of the House of York by Andrew Lownie

10. Fires Which Burned Brightly by Sebastian Faulks

(Compiled by Waterstones)

AUDIOBOOKS (FICTION AND NONFICTION)

1. The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith

2. The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins

3. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

4. Dont Let Him In by Lisa Jewell

5. The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman

6. Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, Book 1 by J.K. Rowling

7. Entitled by Andrew Lownie

8. A Particularly Nasty Case by Adam Kay

9. The Names by Florence Knapp

10. Atomic Habits by James Clear

(Compiled by Audible)
The European Unions most powerful official has warned that Europe is battling against a series of threats posed by Russia, new global trade challenges and even other major world powers and must stake a claim to its independence.

In a state of the union speech, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced new measures to help Ukraine fight off Russias full-scale invasion, and she called for trade restrictions and sanctions on Israel over the war in Gaza.

She also defended the deal she reached with US President Donald Trump to limit the impact of his global tariff war, despite agreeing to a 15% duty rate for most European exports to the United States.

Europe is in a fight, Ms von der Leyen told EU politicians in Strasbourg, France. A fight for our values and our democracies. A fight for our liberty and our ability to determine our destiny for ourselves. Make no mistake  this is a fight for our future.





Europe is in a fight.



A fight for our liberty and our ability to determine our destiny for ourselves.



This must be Europes Independence Moment.



A moment we can seize if we're united  https://t.co/EcrY5Mi7kU  Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) September 10, 2025

Battle lines for a new world order based on power are being drawn right now, she said, adding that the EU must fight for its place in a world in which many major powers are either ambivalent or openly hostile to Europe.

This must be Europes independence moment, said the 66-year-old former German defence minister, who has become a prominent figure at summits with leaders around the world, despite her role as a political appointee who has not been elected to office.

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The commission is the EUs executive arm. It proposes laws that impact the lives of around 450 million people across 27 countries, and monitors whether those rules are respected.

In recent years, it has helped Europe to survive the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, break its dependency on Russian energy supplies and cope with a trade war launched by a traditional ally.





Our independence depends on our ability to compete in todays turbulent times.



So we're massively investing in digital and clean tech.



Making business easier. And completing our Single Market.



Competitiveness is also about people and livelihoods.



So we'll put forward measures pic.twitter.com/lbB1Q2mbYH  Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) September 10, 2025

Turning to Russias war on Ukraine, now in its fourth year, ms von der Leyen said that Russian President Vladimir Putin shows no sign of ending the war, and that our response must be clear too.

We need more pressure on Russia to come to the negotiation table. We need more sanctions, she said. The commission and EU member countries are working on a new raft of sanctions targeting Russias energy revenues.

Poland said on Wednesday that multiple Russian drones entered its territory over the course of several hours and were shot down with help from Nato allies.

Ms von der Leyen condemned the reckless and unprecedented violation of Poland and Europes airspace.





Today, we have seen a reckless and unprecedented violation of Poland and Europe's airpace by more than 10 Russian Shahed drones.



Europe stands in full solidarity with Poland.



Europa jest w peni solidarna z Polska. pic.twitter.com/xXC0fgSdMr  Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) September 10, 2025

Europe stands in full solidarity with Poland, she said. Putins message is clear, and our response must be clear, too. We need more pressure on Russia to come to the negotiation table. We need more sanctions.

Ms von der Leyen also said that new ways to address Ukraines financial challenges must also come through the use of frozen Russian assets in Europe. Almost 200 billion euros worth of those assets are being held in a Belgian clearing house.

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Interest earned on the assets  around 3.5 billion euros were generated last year  are already being used to help prop up Ukraines war-ravaged economy. Ms von der Leyen said that a reparations loan for damage inflicted by Russia is being weighed.

She also announced the creation of a drone alliance with Ukraine  drones have become a decisive factor in the war  with six billion euros in funds for the effort.

To applause in the parliament, the commission chief said that she wants to freeze some financial support to Israel, and to impose trade restrictions and sanctions on the government over the war in Gaza.





What is happening in Gaza has shaken the conscience of the world.



Man-made famine can never be a weapon of war. This must stop.



EU aid to Gaza far outweighs that of any other partner.



But of course, Europe needs to do more.



Here are measures for a way forward  pic.twitter.com/xnq8PkMduG  Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) September 10, 2025

Breaking with her traditionally very strong pro-Israeli government stance, Ms von der Leyen said that the events in Gaza and the suffering of children and families has shaken the conscience of the world.

Man-made famine can never be a weapon of war. For the sake of the children, for the sake of humanity. This must stop, she said.

She added that the commission will set up a new Palestinian donor group, with a focus on Gazas future reconstruction.

Addressing criticism of the tariff deal with Mr Trump, Ms von der Leyen underlined that Europe depends on the United States as a major trading partner, and that the position of European businesses was improved compared with other countries that got a worse deal.

She said millions of jobs depend on that relationship, adding: And as president of the commission, I will never gamble with peoples jobs and livelihoods.
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA)  The Islamist armed group, Islamic State in the Sahel Province (IS Sahel), has escalated attacks on civilians in Niger since March 2025, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday
Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have signed an agreement paving the way for resuming co-operation, including on ways of relaunching inspections of Irans nuclear facilities.

The announcement followed a meeting in Cairo between Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty, his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi and IAEA director general Rafael Grossi.

No further details were provided about the agreement, but Mr Grossi said at a joint news conference after the signing that it was technical in nature and highlighted the indispensable inspection work that needed to resume in Iran under the treaty of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Its a step in the right direction, Mr Grossi said.



Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, centre, arrives at Tahrir Palace in Cairo (Khaled Elfiqi/AP)

Meanwhile, the Egyptian foreign ministry said the agreement followed intensive diplomatic efforts by that country.

And Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi noted on Tuesday that the IAEA played a major role in supporting nuclear non-proliferation provisions, while emphasising the right of the Non-Proliferation Treaty State Parties to the peaceful uses of atomic energy.

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On July 2, Irans president Masoud Pezeshkian signed a law adopted by his countrys parliament suspending all co-operation with the UN nuclear watchdog. This followed Israels 12-day war with Iran in June, during which Israel and the US struck Iranian nuclear sites.

The only site inspected by the IAEA since the war has been the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, which operates with Russian technical assistance. Inspectors watched a fuel replacement procedure at the plant over two days starting on August 27.

Mr Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, told reporters the agreement addressed his countrys concerns and security challenges and laid out technical requirements for co-operation with the IAEA.

But he warned that in the event of any hostile act against Iran, including the reimposition of UN sanctions, Tehran would regard the agreement with the IAEA as terminated.





Spoke with @rafaelmgrossi, @araghchi and Egypt FM Abdelatty.



Todays framework deal for resuming inspections of Irans nuclear facilities could mark a crucial step for nuclear diplomacy, provided there is rapid implementation by Iran.



I thank Egypt for facilitating the process.  Kaja Kallas (@kajakallas) September 9, 2025

The meeting came at a sensitive time as the UK, France and Germany began the process of reimposing sanctions on Iran on August 28 over what they have deemed non-compliance with a 2015 agreement aimed at preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

The process  termed a snapback by the diplomats who negotiated it into Irans 2015 nuclear deal with world powers  was designed to be veto-proof at the UN and could take effect in a month.

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The move set a 30-day clock ticking for the resumption of sanctions unless the West and Iran reached a diplomatic agreement.

European nations have said they would be willing to extend the deadline if Iran resumed direct negotiations with the US over its nuclear programme, allowed UN nuclear inspectors access to its nuclear sites, and accounted for the more than 400kg of highly enriched uranium the UN watchdog says it has.

A key European Union official cautiously welcomed the latest development late on Tuesday.

Todays framework deal for resuming inspections of Irans nuclear facilities could mark a crucial step for nuclear diplomacy, provided there is rapid implementation by Iran, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas wrote in a post on X, adding that she had spoken with both the IAEA chief and the Iranian foreign minister.



Director general of the IAEA Rafael Grossi said the agreement was a step in the right direction (Khaled Elfiqi/AP)

IAEA inspectors have been unable to verify Irans near bomb-grade stockpile since the start of the war on June 13, which the UN nuclear watchdog described as a matter of serious concern.

A confidential report by the Vienna-based IAEA said that as of June 13, Iran had 440.9kg (972lbs) of uranium enriched up to 60%.

If enriched to 90%, the uranium would be enough to make 10 nuclear weapons, according to IAEA calculations, although creating an actual weapon would require other expertise such as adding a detonation device.

According to the safeguards agreement that Iran has with the UN nuclear watchdog, Iran is obliged to produce a special report detailing the location and status of its nuclear material, including its highly enriched uranium stockpile, following events such as attacks or earthquakes, a senior diplomat said.

Egypt has been helping bolster co-operation between Iran and the IAEA.

Relations between Iran and the nuclear watchdog soured after the 12-day air war in June, which saw key Iranian nuclear facilities bombed.

The IAEA board said on June 12 that Iran had breached its non-proliferation obligations, a day before Israels airstrikes over Iran that sparked the war.
Israels president Isaac Herzog proposed sending a fact-finding mission to Gaza during tough talks with Keir Starmer in Downing Street on Wednesday.

The meeting at Number 10 saw Mr Herzog argue with the British Prime Minister over UK plans to recognise a Palestinian state and concern over the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Speaking to an event hosted by the Chatham House think tank, Mr Herzog said he had offered a fact-finding mission coming to Israel, sitting with us and studying the situation in Gaza on the humanitarian level.

Because we have full answers and we are fully transparent, he said.

Adding that the pair had argued out of respect, he noted there were things we agreed upon, such as the threat from Iran and the need to end Hamass control of Gaza.

Isaac Herzog said he and Keir Starmer had argued out of respect during their meeting in Downing Street. (Alberto Pezzali/PA)

But he said he dismissed out of hand comments by Wes Streeting on Monday in which the Health Secretary had said Mr Herzog needed to answer allegations of war crimes and ethnic cleansing.

The meeting came after Israel carried out airstrikes against senior Hamas leaders who had travelled to Qatar for ceasefire talks.

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Following the meeting, a Downing Street spokesperson said Starmer had condemned the bombing as a flagrant violation of a key partners sovereignty that do nothing to secure the peace we all desperately want to see.

He also implored Israel to change course, including by letting more aid into Gaza and halting offensive operations, while stressing that the hostages taken by Hamas must be released.

Isaac Herzog defended Israels bombing of Hamas leaders in Qatar on Tuesday, saying it was necessary to remove people who did not want a ceasefire. (UGC via AP)

At the Chatham House event, Mr Herzog said he had had a very frank and open discussion with Starmer, adding: It was a meeting between allies, but it was a tough meeting.

He also defended Israels attack on Qatar, claiming that Israel did want a ceasefire with Hamas but arguing it was necessary to remove some of the people if they are not willing to get that deal.

Even before Tuesdays airstrikes, Starmer had faced criticism for welcoming Mr Herzog to the UK, with demonstrators gathering outside Downing Street ahead of the meeting.

In the Commons, SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn asked: What does it say of this Prime Minister that he will harbour this man whilst children starve?

But the British Prime Minister defended his decision to meet Mr Herzog, saying: I will not give up on diplomacy. That is the politics of students.
More than 60 containers toppled off a cargo ship in the Port of Long Beach in the US on Tuesday, tumbling overboard and floating in the water.

The shipping containers fell off a vessel named the Mississippi shortly before 9am, and no injuries had been reported, according to Port of Long Beach spokesperson Art Marroquin.

About 67 containers were in the water, the US coast guard said on the social media platform X.



The containers toppled off a cargo ship at the Port of Long Beach (Damian Dovarganes/AP)

Long Beach, which is about 20 miles south of Los Angeles, is one of the busiest seaports in the country, with 40% of all shipping

containers in the United States coming through it or the Los Angeles port.

Some of the containers appeared to have fallen on the STAX 2, an anti-pollution vessel attached to the side of the Mississippi that captures emissions.

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When empty, a container can weigh between two to four metric tons depending on the size.



About 67 containers were in the water, the US coast guard said (KABC-TV via AP)

The Pier G container terminal, one of six at the port, temporarily stopped unloading and loading ships as authorities worked to secure the containers.

The Mississippi sails under the flag of Portugal and arrived in Long Beach after departing Yantian port in Shenzhen, China, on August 26, according to vessel-tracking websites.
Poland said multiple Russian drones entered and were shot down over its territory with help from Nato allies  describing the incident as an act of aggression carried out during a wave of Russian strikes on Ukraine.

Russias Defence Ministry said it did not target Poland, but close ally Belarus said it tracked some drones that lost their course because they were jammed.

However, several European leaders said they believe that the incursion amounted to an intentional escalation by Russia of its war on Ukraine.

Poland said some of the drones came from Belarus, where Russian and Belarusian troops have begun gathering for war games starting on Friday.





Polish airspace has been violated many times since Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but there has been nothing on this scale in Poland or in any other western nation along the eastern flank of Nato and the European Union. A Nato spokesman said it was the first time the alliance has confronted a potential threat in its airspace.

Nato met to discuss the incident, which came three days after Russias largest aerial attack on Ukraine since the war began.

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Russias war is escalating, not ending, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said. Last night in Poland we saw the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began, and indications suggest it was intentional, not accidental.

The extent of the incursion was still becoming clear: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told parliament 19 violations were recorded over seven hours, but that information was still being gathered.

Eight crash sites have been found, a government spokesperson said. Dutch fighter jets came to Polands aid and intercepted some drones, the Netherlands defence minister said.





Last night the Polish airspace was violated by a huge number of Russian drones. Those drones that posed a direct threat were shot down. I am in constant communication with the Secretary General of NATO and our allies.  Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) September 10, 2025

This is an act of aggression that posed a real threat to the safety of our citizens, the Polish militarys operational command said on social media.

French President Emmanuel Macron called on Russia to put an end to this reckless escalation, while Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala called the violation a test of Nato countries defence capabilities.

Mr Tusk told parliament that the first violation came at approximately 11.30pm on Tuesday and the last at around 6.30am on Wednesday. He said that the 19 violations recorded so far were not the final data.

Earlier, defence minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote on X that more than 10 objects crossed into Polish airspace, but he did not specify an exact number.

What is new, in the worst sense of the word, is the direction from which the drones came. This is the first time in this war that they did not come from Ukraine as a result of errors or minor Russian provocations. For the first time, a significant portion of the drones came directly from Belarus, Mr Tusk said in parliament.



Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk (Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland via AP)

Russias Defence Ministry said that its overnight strikes targeted Ukraines military-industrial complex in the western regions of the country, with no planned targets on Polish territory.

We are ready to hold consultations with the Polish Ministry of Defence on this issue, the statement said.

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Belarusian Maj Gen Pavel Muraveiko, the chief of the general staff and first deputy defence minister, appeared to try to put some distance between his country and the incursion.

In an online statement, he said that as Russia and Ukraine traded drone strikes overnight, Belarusian air defence forces tracked drones that lost their course after they were jammed, adding that Belarusian forces warned their Polish and Lithuanian counterparts about unidentified aircraft approaching their territory.

This allowed the Polish side to respond promptly to the actions of the drones by scrambling their forces on duty, he said.





Last night in Poland, we saw the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began, and indications suggest it was intentional, not accidental.



I am in contact with @SecGenNATO and @radeksikorski.



The EU stands in full solidarity with Poland. (1/2)  Kaja Kallas (@kajakallas) September 10, 2025

Drones were found in seven locations in Poland, according to Karolina Galecka, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Interior and Administration. At the eighth site, objects of an unknown origin were found.

Bernard Blaszczuk, mayor of the village of Wyryki in the Lublin region, told TVP Info that a house was hit. Much of the roof was ripped off. He said people were inside but nobody was hurt.

On Wednesday morning, the army was keeping guard on the streets of the village as curious locals huddled together with police and firefighters to figure out what happened.

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Poland closed part of its airspace for several hours, and Warsaws Chopin Airport suspended flights.

Nato air defences supported Poland in what spokesman Col Martin ODonnell called the first time Nato planes have engaged potential threats in Allied airspace.





Numerous drones entered Polish airspace overnight and were met with Polish and NATO air defences. @SecGenNATO is in touch with Polish leadership and @NATO is consulting closely with Poland   NATO Spokesperson (@NATOpress) September 10, 2025

Mr Tusk told parliament that consultations with allies were taking place under Article 4 of the Nato treaty  a clause that allows countries to call for urgent discussions with their allies.

The consultations happened at a pre-planned meeting on Wednesday. They do not automatically lead to any action under Article 5, which is Natos collective security guarantee.

Dutch F-35 fighter jets intercepted drones over Poland, defence minister Ruben Brekelmans said on X. And German Patriot defence systems in Poland were also placed on alert, and an Italian airborne early warning plane and an aerial refueller were launched, Col ODonnell said.

He said Nato is committed to defending every kilometre of Nato territory, including our airspace.

Leaders in the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia  the Nato members most nervous about Russian aggression given their close proximity  were among the most rattled and expressed deep concerns.





More information is coming in about the intrusion of Russian attack drones into Polish territory. As of now, its known about 8 drones. Increasing evidence indicates that this movement, this direction of strike, was no accident. There have been previous incidents of individual  Volodymyr Zelenskyy /   (@ZelenskyyUa) September 10, 2025

Russia is deliberately expanding its aggression, posing an ever-growing threat to Europe, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda wrote on X. Estonian foreign minister Margus Tsahkna said that the overnight attacks on Ukraine and violations of Polish airspace were yet another stark reminder that Russia is not just a threat to Ukraine, but to all of Europe and Nato.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called it an extremely dangerous precedent for Europe and called for Russia to feel the consequences.

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Moscow always tests the limits of what is possible and, if it does not encounter a strong response, remains at a new level of escalation, he said. Not just one Shahed (drone), which could be dismissed as an accident, but at least eight attack drones that were aimed in the direction of Poland.

Poland has complained about Russian objects entering its airspace during attacks on Ukraine before.

In August, Polands defence minister said that a flying object that crashed and exploded in a cornfield in eastern Poland was identified as a Russian drone, and called it a provocation by Russia.

In March, Poland scrambled jets after a Russian missile briefly passed through Polish airspace on its way to a target in western Ukraine, and in 2022, a missile that was likely fired by Ukraine to intercept a Russian attack landed in Poland, killing two people.



Strikes have continued on residential areas in Zhytomyr region, Ukraine (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

Meanwhile, Ukraines air force said Russia fired 415 strike and decoy drones, as well as 42 cruise missiles and one ballistic missiles overnight.

Ukrainian air defences intercepted or jammed 386 drones and 27 cruise missiles, according to the report.

One person was killed and one injured in the Zhytomyr region overnight, regional administration head Vitalii Bunechko wrote on Telegram, while homes and businesses were damaged.

Russian drones injured three people in Ukraines western Khmelnytskyi region, its head Serhii Tiurin wrote on Telegram early on Wednesday morning. He said a sewing factory was destroyed, a gas station and vehicles were damaged, and windows in several houses were blown out.



A building was damaged by a Russian strike in Lutsk region, Ukraine (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In the Vinnytsia region, Russian drones damaged civilian and industrial infrastructure, according to regional head Natalia Zabolotna. Nearly 30 residential buildings were damaged and one person was injured.

The Russian defence ministry said it had destroyed 122 Ukrainian drones over various Russian regions overnight, including over the illegally annexed Crimea and areas of the Black Sea.
Three of the UK's most senior police officers have written to the UK home secretary to push for changes in the law around offensive statements made online.

Chairman of the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) Gavin Stephens, Metropolitan Police chief Sir Mark Rowley and head of the College of Policing Sir Andy Marsh wrote to Shabana Mahmood after a row over the arrest of Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan.

The writer was stopped at Heathrow Airport earlier this month and arrested over three X posts about trans issues.

The contents of the letter, sent on Tuesday, were not released, but the NPCC chairman said in a statement that officers are increasingly expected to referee social debate using legislation that pre-dates social media.

There is also a separate, ongoing review of the use of non-crime hate incidents, that are used by police to gather intelligence on potential rising tensions within communities.

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On Wednesday watchdog His Majestys Chief Inspector of Constabulary Sir Andy Cooke said the incidents should no longer be recorded.

Criminal thresholds do not translate well into the online space and policing is left applying offences in ways very different from those originally intended

Mr Stephens said: The letter identified two key policy issues relating to our approach to dealing with non-crime hate incidents and online offending.

We wrote about the difficulties of how this is handled under current national crime recording standards, coupled with how existing laws are applied to purposes for which they were never intended.

Much of the existing legislation predates the widespread use of the internet and social media and, as a result, criminal thresholds do not translate well into the online space and policing is left applying offences in ways very different from those originally intended.

Police officers face an increasingly polarised world, governed by a system of regulations, guidance, and legislation that increasingly expects them to referee societal debate rather than focus on real-world threat and risk.

We set out a number of proposals and await a response from the Home Secretary on behalf of the Home Office.

Mr Rowley told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that police need to be allowed to exercise more discretion.

He said some national standards around recording crime and incidents draw policing into a low discretion world where the wrong decisions are too often made in the public eye.

Sir Andy Cooke said police should separate the offensive from the criminal (Kirsty OConnor/PA)

Earlier, as an annual report on the state of policing was published, Sir Andy said non-crime hate incidents are no longer required and that intelligence could be gathered in a different way.

Debate over how they are used flared last year when officers from Essex Police visited Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson to arrange an interview about an entry on X.

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Mr Cooke warned that officers are placed in an invidious position by current legislation and that discretion and common sense dont always win out in these issues.

He said: I think we need to separate the offensive from the criminal. We need, at times, to allow people to speak openly without the fear that their opinion will put them on the wrong side of the law.
Protesters have clashed with police in Paris and elsewhere across France during a day of nationwide action under the slogan Block Everything.

Demonstrators, who blocked roads and set fires, were met with volleys of police tear gas.

The government announced hundreds of arrests, as demonstrations against French President Emmanuel Macron, budget cuts and other complaints spread to big cities and small towns.

Although falling short of its self-declared intention to Block Everything, the protest movement that started online over the summer caused widespread hot spots of disruption, defying an exceptional deployment of 80,000 police who broke up barricades and swiftly took people into custody.





Interior minister Bruno Retailleau said that a bus was set on fire in the western city of Rennes. In the south-west, fire damage to electrical cables stopped train services on one line and disrupted traffic on another, government transport authorities said.

The protests appeared so far to be less intense than previous bouts of unrest that have sporadically rocked Mr Macrons leadership. They included months of nationwide so-called yellow vest demonstrations that impacted his first term as president.

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After his re-election in 2022, Mr Macron faced firestorms of anger over unpopular pension reforms and nationwide unrest and rioting in 2023 after the deadly police shooting of a teenager on Paris outskirts.

Nevertheless, demonstrations and sporadic clashes with riot police in Paris and elsewhere on Wednesday added to a sense of crisis that has again gripped France following its latest government collapse on Monday, when prime minister Francois Bayrou lost a parliamentary confidence vote.



Protesters march during a rally of the Block Everything in France (Philippe Magoni/AP)

The protests immediately presented a challenge to Mr Bayrous replacement, Sebastien Lecornu, who was installed on Wednesday.

Groups of protesters repeatedly tried to block Paris beltway during the morning rush hour and were dispersed by police and tear gas. Elsewhere in the capital, protesters piled up rubbish bins and hurled objects at police officers.

Firefighters were called to the downtown Chatelet neighbourhood after a fire broke out in a restaurant, threatening to spread to an adjacent building.

By evening, the government said police had made 473 arrests nationwide, including 203 in Paris, with 339 people in custody and 13 officers lightly injured.



A day of nationwide demonstrations took place in France (Thibault Camus/AP)

It counted 812 protest actions across the country  550 rallies, 262 blockades and 267 street fires  and warned that tensions were flaring in Rennes, Nantes and Paris after officers came under attack.

The government put the turnout at 175,000, while the CGT union, one of Frances largest labour confederations, claimed closer to a quarter of a million.

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Road blockades, traffic slowdowns and other protests were widely spread  from the southern port city of Marseille to Lille and Caen in the north, and Nantes and Rennes in the west to Grenoble and Lyon in the south-east.

Afternoon gatherings of thousands of people in central Paris were peaceful and good humoured, with placards taking aim at Mr Macron and his new prime minister.



There is widespread unrest over the French governments austerity policies (AP)

The Block Everything movement gathered momentum over the summer on social media and in encrypted chats, calling for a day of blockades, strikes, demonstrations and other acts of protests.

The movement, which has grown virally with no clear identified leadership, has a broad array of demands  many targeting contested belt-tightening budget plans that Mr Bayrou championed before his demise  as well as broader complaints about inequality.

The spontaneity of Block Everything is reminiscent of the yellow vests. That movement started with workers camping out at traffic circles to protest a hike in fuel taxes, sporting high-visibility vests.

It quickly spread to people across political, regional, social and generational divides angry at economic injustice and Mr Macrons leadership.
The UK prime minister has said he has confidence in Peter Mandelson after it emerged the British ambassador to the US had described paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein as his best pal.

Speaking at Prime Ministers Questions on Wednesday, Sir Keir Starmer said due process was followed during the appointment of Mr Mandelson to the position.

Downing Street repeatedly evaded questions on how much the prime minister knew about the former Labour ministers association with Epstein at the time of his appointment.

Mr Starmers official spokesman continued to point reporters to the extensive vetting of Mr Mandelson, as well as his previous comments on his association with the paedophile financier.

Mr Mandelsons words to Epstein could be seen in a 2003 birthday book compiled by British convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell which was published by the House Oversight Committee in the US following a request for documents to the Epstein estate.

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Speaking to The Suns Harry Cole Saves The West programme, Mr Mandelson said he regrets very, very deeply indeed carrying on the association with Epstein for far longer than I should have done.

The relationship between the US and the UK is one of our foremost relationships, and I have confidence in the ambassador in the role that he is doing Sir Keir Starmer

When asked whether he had continued a business or personal relationship with Epstein after he was charged with criminal offences, Mr Mandelson did not deny he maintained a form of relationship with him  responding: It was not a business relationship.

He said he never saw the wrongdoing or evidence of criminal activity, adding he does not believe he is named in the Epstein files.

Mr Mandelson described the words he used in his birthday message as very embarrassing to see and read.

Deputy leader candidate Bell Ribeiro-Addy told the I newspaper there should be an investigation into a deal Mr Mandelson made with Epstein during his time as business secretary.

She said he should resign if he is found to have broken the ministerial code following the sale of a UK taxpayer-owned banking business in 2010  after Epstein was convicted of sex offences.

At PMQs, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said: Does the Prime Minister have full confidence in Peter Mandelson?

Mr Starmer replied: The ambassador has repeatedly expressed his deep regret for his association with him. He is right to do so.

I have confidence in him, and he is playing an important role in the UK-US relationship.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch during Prime Ministers Questions on Wednesday (House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA)

Mrs Badenoch went on: Was the Prime Minister aware of this intimate relationship when he appointed Lord Mandelson to be our ambassador in Washington?

Mr Starmer replied: As she and the House would expect, full due process was followed during this appointment, as it is with all ambassadors.

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The ambassador has repeatedly expressed his deep regret, he is right to do so, hes now playing an important part in the US-UK relationship.

The Tory leader further pressed the UK prime minister on whether it is tenable for Mr Mandelson to remain in post.

Mr Starmer replied: The relationship between the US and the UK is one of our foremost relationships, and I have confidence in the ambassador in the role that he is doing.

Mrs Badenoch went on: This Government has repeatedly  repeatedly  refused to declare Lord Mandelsons full interests, and as part of the appointment, there will have been extensive Government vetting, including details and timings of Peter Mandelsons dealings with Jeffrey Epstein.

So will the Prime Minister publish all these documents, including those about his interests?

The prime minister said: Well, as I say, full due process was gone through in relation to this appointment, as would be expected.

As for the publication of documents, as she well knows, thats subject to a procedure which includes an independent element. It will be subject to the usual procedures.

Mr Mandelson told The Sun he does not believe he is named in the Epstein files, before adding: I have no doubt at all that theres a lot of traffic, correspondence exchanges between us, absolutely. And we know those are going to surface.

Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his cell in August 2019 (New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP)

Commenting on what he knew of Epsteins behaviour at the time, he said: I just would say this  during all the time I was an associate of his, I never saw the wrongdoing. I never saw any evidence of criminal activity.

I never sought and nor did he offer any introductions to women in the way that allegedly he did for others.

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Perhaps its because Im a gay man, perhaps when I knew him, perhaps when I was associated with him those years ago, as I did with my then partner and now husband, we never, ever saw any evidence or sign of this activity, which has since come to light.

Thats why I feel so profoundly upset by what has been now revealed about what he did to women and why I feel profoundly upset that I was taken in by him and continued my association with him for far longer than I should have.

Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in Manhattan in August 2019 while he awaited trial on sex-trafficking charges.

The death was ruled a suicide.
US right-wing activist and commentator Charlie Kirk, an influential ally of President Donald Trump, was fatally shot in the neck on Wednesday at an event at a Utah university, Trump said.

"The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. 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," Trump wrote on social media.

A university spokesperson said police did not have a suspect in custody after the school initially reported that someone had been taken into custody.

Videos posted to social media from Utah Valley University show Mr Kirk speaking into a handheld microphone while sitting under a white tent emblazoned with the slogans The American Comeback and Prove Me Wrong.

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Cellphone video clips of the incident circulating on social media showed Kirk addressing a large outdoor crowd at the campus in Orem, Utah, when a loud crack that sounded like a gunshot rang out. Kirk moved his hand toward his neck as he fell off his chair, sending the attendees running.

A single shot rings out, and Mr Kirk can be seen reaching up with his right hand as a large volume of blood gushes from the left side of his neck.

Stunned spectators are heard gasping and screaming before people start to run away.

The AP was able to confirm the videos were taken at Sorensen Centre courtyard on the Utah Valley University campus.

Mr Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by his non-profit political organisation.

The event had been met with divided opinions on campus. An online petition calling for university administrators to bar Mr Kirk from appearing received nearly 1,000 signatures.

The university issued a statement last week citing First Amendment rights and affirming its commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.

Last week, Mr Kirk posted on X images of news clips showing his visit to Utah colleges, was sparking controversy. He wrote, Whats going on in Utah?

The college said a single shot had been fired at Mr Kirk, and a suspect was in custody.

Charlie Kirk hands out hats before speaking at Utah Valley University (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP)

President Donald Trump and a host of Republican and Democratic elected officials decried the shooting and offered prayers for Kirk on social media.

We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot. A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM! Mr Trump posted on Truth Social.

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The shooting comes amid a spike in political violence in the United States across all parts of the ideological spectrum.

The attacks include the assassination of a Minnesota state politician and her husband at their house in June, the firebombing of a Colorado parade to demand Hamas release hostages, and a fire set at the house of Pennsylvanias governor, who is Jewish, in April.

The most high-profile of these events is the shooting of Mr Trump during a campaign rally last year.

Former Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz, a Republican who was at the event, said in an interview on Fox News Channel that he heard one shot and saw Mr Kirk go back.

It seemed like it was a close shot, Mr Chaffetz said, who seemed shaken as he spoke.

He said there was a light police presence at the event and Mr Kirk had some security, but not enough.

Utah is one of the safest places on the planet, he said. And so we just dont have these types of things.

Turning Point was founded in Chicago in 2012 by Mr Kirk, then 18, and William Montgomery, a Tea Party activist, to proselytise on college campuses for low taxes and limited government. It was not an immediate success.

But Mr Kirks zeal for confronting liberals in academia eventually won over an influential set of conservative financiers.

Despite early misgivings, Turning Point enthusiastically backed Mr Trump after he clinched the Republican nomination in 2016.

Mr Kirk served as a personal aide to Donald Trump Jr, the presidents eldest son, during the general election campaign.

Soon, Mr Kirk was a regular presence on cable TV, where he leaned into the culture wars and heaped praise on the then-president.
What to stream this week (clockwise from bottom left): Revealed: Death Cap Murders; Unknown Number: The High School Catfish; Emmy Awards; Brian and Maggie; Eileen and Top End Bub.

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This weeks picks include Darwin rom-come Top End Bub, a mushroom murder trial documentary, plus Steve Coogan and Harriet Walter get political and Anne Hathaway gets her wig on in Eileen. Top End Bub  (Amazon Prime Video) Forget unrelenting grimness so complete you can describe it with a gruff German word. The trickiest tone on television is a light touch that actually resonates. Thankfully, thats what this Australian series, a sequel to the hit 2019 film Top End Wedding, brings to the screen. Galvanised by grief and focused on adapting to demanding personal circumstances, Top End Bub nonetheless prospers with warm laughs, a good measure of silliness, and some culture clash chaos. This show gives off a nurturing glow. Lauren Ford (Miranda Tapsell) juggles grief with having to care for her nine-year-old niece in the warm-hearted Top End Bub. The set-up is purposeful and  deliberately  a touch jarring. The romantic-comedy couple from the movie, Lauren (Miranda Tapsell) and Ned (Gwilym Lee), are prospering in Adelaide as, respectively, a divorce lawyer and cafe proprietor. But when Laurens sister, health worker Ronelle (Shari Sebbens), is lost in a car crash, the two are in Darwin, grieving for Ronelle and dealing with their inherited responsibility. Theyre next up to raise Ronelles eight-year-old daughter, Taya (Gladys-May Kelly). Parenting suddenly goes from the theoretical to the practical. Editor's pick 

Streaming A severed finger, the mob, and a doormans death: Only Murders returns with its silliest season yet In the movie Ned, and occasionally even Lauren, were educated in the ways of Darwin and the Tiwi Islands to the north. His British pluck and her Indigenous moxie easily made for comic friction. The series, which spans eight half-hour episodes, has to fashion a sharper edge. Ned is confused by what has happened, Lauren scared of letting down Taya, who everyone calls Bub. Neither was ready to let go of their own priorities to accommodate a heartbroken child. There has to at least be a suggestion theyll crack under pressure.

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What gets them, and the audience, through is the best of intentions and sweetly disastrous executions. Will Tayas ninth birthday party succumb to chaos because Lauren and Ned try too hard? Yes. Will it end on a happy note of togetherness? Absolutely. The returning writers, Tapsell and Joshua Tyler, create a welcoming atmosphere of Darwin sunshine and inclusive extended family. Laurens parents, Daffy (Ursula Yovich) and Trevor (Huw Higginson), are prominent, while Elaine Crombie adds a madcap spark to every family function as Dana. Trevor Ford (Huw Higginson), Ned Pelton (Gwilym Lee) and Taya Bub (Gladys-May Kelly) in Top End Bub. As a child character Taya is written particularly well  her moods can rightly swing dramatically, and there are times shes truculent and demanding. Without ever redefining the genre, Top End Bub has several other welcome tweaks and grace notes even as it shows how family can be an unending source of demands. The chemistry between Tapsell and Lee remains goofy and genuine. Theres something to be said for a romantic pairing with a height discrepancy. They have an everyday authenticity. Thats just one of the reasons this big-hearted comedy clicks. The Ages veteran crime reporter John Silvester being interviewed in Revealed: Death Cap. Revealed: Death Cap Murders  (Stan*) The spectrum of how much coverage people desire of the now infamous mushroom murders case is wide: at one end is, Im done with this, at the other lies, Inject more coverage straight into my eyeballs. Im in between, which makes the release of the first episode in a three-part series (part two and three are due before years end) about convicted triple murderer Erin Patterson worth considering. Thankfully, Death Cap Murders has some additive merit. Deftly directed by Gil Marsden and not quite an hour long, the episode covers roughly the first three months of the case, with an emphasis on background detail. The narrative is guided by reporters, notably The Ages John Silvester and Marta Pascual Juanola. The details of the case that true-crime junkies have previously pored over are referenced, but theyre not yet central to the narrative. This is a foundation episode, about people and places.

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Review With its underestimated heroine, this British crime drama twists an old format As well as the escalating crisis in August 2023, as Pattersons lunch guests were hospitalised, you learn more about her past, whether as an air traffic controller who was fired or her romantic pursuit of husband Simon Patterson. You get a sense of the small Gippsland town of Korumburra, and  crucially  who Pattersons victims were. The loss of Gail Patterson, Don Patterson, and Heather Wilkinson is recognised and felt. Thats a good start. Steve Coogan and Harriet Walter in Brian and Maggie. Brian and Maggie  HBO Max In two compact episodes, this British historic drama aims high and doesnt quite reach the heights in depicting the professional and personal bond between Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (Harriet Walter) and Labour MP turned political interviewer Brian Walden (Steve Coogan), which was severed after a tumultuous 1989 television interview between the pair. The leads are first-rate, but the script from Paul Graham (Sherwood) can sometimes feel like a creaky primer for the era and the art of the long-form political interview. Also, the show has a sharper perception of Walden than Thatcher. Sophie in Unknown Number: The High School Catfish.

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Unknown Number: The High School Catfish  (Netflix) Credit to director Skye Borgman, who has taken a horrifying American story with sensational twists and told it cleanly and with a degree of contemplation rare in the true-crime genre. The setting is a tiny Michigan town, where for two years a young high-school student couple were tormented with thousands of abusive messages that appeared to be coming from someone who knew them. While it lacks wider, illuminating detail about the insular community, the feature-length documentarys participants are given not only a voice, but also the chance to consider what they were truly part of. Anne Hathaway in the movie Eileen. Eileen  Paramount+ A psychological thriller fashioned as a bleak coming-of-age story, this adaptation by author Ottessa Moshfegh and her husband, Luke Goebel, of her breakthrough 2015 novel, works hard to capture the mordant detail and interior unease of the text. Set in a stultifying 1964 America, the result can be opaque but vicious, a rare combination made practical by director William Oldroyd (Lady Macbeth) and attuned lead performances from Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway. The former is a despondent secretary at a correctional facility, the latter the striking new psychologist who becomes a subject of obsession. US comedian Nate Bargatze hosts this years Emmy Awards. Penske Media via Getty Images

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LifestyleLife & relationshipsFriendship This was published 3 months ago Opinion I told a complete stranger a secret. From now on, Im sticking to small talk Hannah Vanderheide Contributor September 10, 2025  7:30pm

September 10, 2025  7:30pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share 50 View all comments

Want to play two truths and a lie? Of course you dont. No one in the cursed history of workplace icebreakers ever has. So, Ill just give you two truths: Im a bit emotionally tapped out right now. And, paradoxically, I miss small talk. Another mum, who Id just met, said I hate small talk  lets just get real. Getty Images/iStockphoto A few weekends back, I was chatting with another mum Id just met at a backyard get-together. She kicked things off by announcing, I hate small talk  lets just get real. And look, Im a pretty open book. When Im vibing with someone, Im more than happy to get deep. But wed hardly established how many kids we each had (me: one, her: three) before my new friend explained how she believed that behind my smile, I was holding back a silent grief about not being able to have a second child.

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Lets just say the phone number I gave out that afternoon could use some fact checking. The fact is, she wasnt entirely wrong. But I was puzzled by how Id found myself talking to a perfect stranger about something I hadnt yet broached with my best friend, let alone a therapist. This particular brand of immediate and unearned intimacy makes me feel exposed. It raises my hackles in the way that hearing Im an empath, at a dinner party has me hoping Ill be seated at the opposite end of the table. And Im encountering it more and more. Indeed, small talk appears to be on life support, and allegedly Gen Z are the ones pulling the plug. Theres the TikTok-viral Gen Z stare (a deadpan, unblinking response to surface-level chatter), and new research finding 74 per cent of young people prefer digital communication over face-to-face action. But I think our new tendency to skip from So, where did you go to school? straight to What was the last thing that made you cry? crosses generations, at least in part thanks to our problematic bestie: social media.

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In an effort to upgrade from the shiny, happy, highlight-reel style posts of circa 2015, our feeds are now filled with TikToks of strangers divulging their deepest traumas (often while teaching us how to contour). Related Article Opinion

Gen X Being a Gen Xer is my affliction. Is Gen Zs enthusiasm curing me? Hmm, maybe Bunny Banyai Contributor And it seems this cut to the quick approach has bled out into IRL meet ups, where we jump right into the meat of it without any (shudder) icebreakers easing us in. Of course, theres good science to support the idea that deep conversations are ultimately what deepen relationships. And like I said, I love to get deep  under the right circumstances. Speaking with neurodivergent folks about this is also really illuminating. Many of my self-described neurospicy friends find small talk incredibly grating, and I do get that mine is a very neurotypical perspective. I like the idea of people coming together over a shared disdain for small talk whether IRL, on internet forums or in real life, with Skip the Small Talk dinners popping up throughout the US and Europe.

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I like it because it implies a certain level of mutual permission, rather than diagnosing strangers with repressed trauma or immediately mining for intimate secrets on a first meeting. Related Article Interview Social media is designed to atomise us: Viral sensation Jack Toohey Im certainly not suggesting we should start on the surface and stay there. In fact, I often find the opposite happens. As someone with a condition that makes me struggle in hot weather, even a simple How about this heat? has sparked deeper connections with passing acquaintances. To me, small talk is like a conversational handshake. You know those people who squeeze your hand so hard you wonder if theyre trying to prove a point? Small talk can be like that too. It can signal a safe space, or just as importantly, that this may not be someone you want to expose your soul to. Its the ticket to subtly mining a strangers personality and consequently, your compatibility  a fertile ground upon which deep and loving relationships can then be built.

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And in an increasingly polarising ecosystem, I find small talk useful for gently exposing another persons world view, without having to jump straight into heated debate. Learning that a strangers favourite podcast is The Joe Rogan Experience, for example, is often a good indicator of where our conversation might be headed. So, tell me all about that guy clipping his nails on your commute and lets bond over our hatred of people who use communal microwaves to heat up fish. Please dont skip past the small talk. Well get to the big stuff, I promise. Hannah Vanderheide is a freelance health writer and actor based in Victoria. Get a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up for our Opinion newsletter.
Rural teachers urged to raise capable youth

08:36, September 10, 2025 By Zou Shuo ( China Daily

Children present flowers to their teachers at a kindergarten in Zunhua, Hebei province, on Tuesday to celebrate the 41st Teachers' Day in China, which falls on Wednesday. LIU MANCANG/FOR CHINA DAILY

President Xi Jinping has urged rural teachers to enhance their teaching skills and nurture more capable young people with sound moral grounding, intellectual ability, physical vigor, aesthetic sensibility and work skills needed to join and carry on the socialist cause.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, sent his greetings to teachers and educators across the country ahead of the 41st Teachers' Day, which falls on Wednesday.

In a reply letter to eight rural teachers who participated in the special-post teacher recruitment program, Xi said that many teachers involved in the program have actively devoted themselves to rural education. Rooted in their posts, they have dedicated their efforts to teaching with diligence and selfless commitment, demonstrating the profound sense of mission and responsibility of educators, he said.

Xi emphasized that teachers are the foundation of education. He expressed the hope that educators will remain true to their original aspiration, continuously improve their teaching capabilities, and guide students with care and affection to ensure their healthy growth.

Premier Li Qiang also made an instruction on the program. Li said that educators in the country should fully implement the fundamental task of fostering virtue and holistic development through education and teach in places where the motherland and the people need them the most, contributing more to building a leading country in education.

Launched in 2006, the special-post teacher recruitment program is a central government-funded initiative aimed at recruiting college graduates to teach in rural primary and middle schools across China's central and western regions. Since its implementation, the program has employed a total of 1.18 million teachers, covering more than 30,000 rural schools in over 1,000 counties across 22 provincial-level regions.

In their letter to Xi, eight representatives of the program reported on their experience working at the forefront of rural education, and reiterated their determination to stay committed to their mission and continue teaching in rural areas.

China has adopted several other initiatives to promote rural education.

In 2021, the "Outstanding Teachers Program" was launched to cultivate 10,000 teachers annually to serve high schools in the once-impoverished counties, as well as border counties, in the central and western regions.

Policies aimed at improving teachers' livelihoods, including annual subsidies, salary hikes and the construction of dormitories, have made rural teaching more sustainable. As of last year, 76.23 percent of rural teachers held a bachelor's degree or higher, a dramatic increase compared with a decade ago.

Ma Hongbing, deputy director of the Finance Ministry's Department of Science, Education and Culture, said the central government has invested 45 billion yuan ($6.3 billion) in the past five years to hire and train more high-quality teachers in the central and western regions.

Liu Xiantao, a teacher in Zunyi, Guizhou province, who celebrated his 23rd birthday on Tuesday, said he became interested in the profession of teaching as a young boy because Teachers' Day falls right after his birthday.

Liu, who recently earned a bachelor's degree in history from Beijing Normal University, is among the first group of graduates of the "Outstanding Teachers Program". He currently teaches history at Chacheng Senior High School in Meitan county, a former nationally designated poverty-stricken area in Zunyi.

Liu's decision to return to his roots was deeply influenced by his own educational experience. Growing up in a remote town in Yuqing county of Zunyi, he had limited exposure to the wider world. His primary school Chinese teacher, Ms Li, opened his eyes to the power of knowledge and compassion, Liu said.

Like many of his peers, Liu was tempted by the dynamic urban life in Beijing. But through volunteering and teaching practice in rural schools, he rediscovered his life's purpose.

Chacheng Senior High School, where Liu now works, was recently established to serve students who do not score well in their high school entrance exams. For many, it represents a last chance to continue formal education before possibly turning to low-skilled work or early marriage, he said.

"Every day here is a challenge, but also a gift," he said. "When parents thank me with their voice filled with sincerity, when my students and I win the first place in military training, when I see their eyes light up during a history lesson  these are the moments that make me the happiest, and they happen every day."

This year, Liu's birthday wish is simple, yet profound. "May I become a better teacher over the next year, and may my students achieve satisfactory grades in the next three years and become someone noteworthy in life," he said.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The Libyan interim Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Government of National Unity, Al-Taher Al-Baour, and the Maltese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ian Borg, Wednesday held in-depth discussions to promote bilateral relations between the two countries
Human specimens were collected, and in some cases publicly displayed, by a museum for decades without the knowledge or consent of families.

The University of Tasmanias R. A. Rodda Museum collected remains from coronial autopsies from 1966 to 1991 for teaching and research purposes.

The University of Tasmanias R. A. Rodda Museum collected remains from coronial autopsies. Gabriele Charotte

A coronial probe was launched in 2016 after the museums curator raised concerns three specimens had been kept without the consent or approval of the coroner or families involved.

The investigations final report, published today, confirmed 177 samples were kept by the museum without permission.

The handling of the remains was not in accordance with national standards, which were set up in 2002 but not acted upon by the Tasmanian government, coroner Simon Cooper said.

The belated discovery that human remains were removed from autopsy and not returned to the body has been a source of pain for many families, Cooper said.

University of Tasmania deputy vice chancellor for health Graeme Zosky said the organisation was deeply sorry for the sadness and hurt caused.

University staff met personally with many families who were seeking further information and understanding of the history of this matter, he said.

We will carefully consider the coroners report to determine any further actions.

It appeared one now-deceased forensic pathologist provided the large majority of the specimens to the museum, Cooper said.

The remains in question were removed from public display in 2018, before the coroners office spent years reconciling records to determine their origin.

In January, the names of 126 people whose specimens had been identified were published online and family members urged to come forward.

The coroner said 100 specimens were identified and disposed of in line with the wishes of families.

Remains that were unable to be identified have been respectfully disposed of.

AAP
They are totally independent, they have no vested interests, they are not running for office, they are not paid, they have no powers or sanctions at their disposal.

It was slightly surreal, but also heartening, to be present at an event peopled with so many global leaders in such a relaxed gathering. In the evening, the Elders and a circle of advisers  including a Peruvian economist and a Chinese environmentalist  dined on a terrace, wrapped in borrowed ponchos and fleeces against the chill autumnal weather, listening to briefings from visiting analysts and experts on subjects ranging from Darfur to nuclear proliferation. If only all global problems could be resolved in such a genial atmosphere.

Addressing the gathering, the Elders, he said, had the opportunity to be a real role model for the world, leading, guiding, creating their own initiatives and supporting others, speaking freely and boldly, and working both publicly and behind the scenes on whatever actions needed to be taken.

I was at that meeting when Mandela arrived. Word had spread of his coming. A crowd of local villagers, and every member of staff of the lodge, had gathered at the gate to greet him, his arrival heralded by the sound of ululations and praise songs. As he made his way slowly into the room, the gathering rose as one in a round of spontaneous and prolonged applause  his newly found entourage of cooks, maids and drivers, joyfully ignoring privacy or protocol, crowding in behind him to hear him speak: the father of the nation with his children.

The occasion was the inaugural gathering of the Elders, an initiative led by Mandela to bring together a small number of leaders working objectively and without any vested personal interest in the outcome to act as honest brokers in conflict resolution, coming together to contribute wisdom, independent leadership and moral courage to tackle some of the worlds most serious problems.

Assembled around a table in the reserves great room was a group of former world leaders and elder statespeople. They included Jimmy Carter, the former American president; Archbishop Desmond Tutu; Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland and former United Nations high commissioner for human rights; and Graca Machel, Mozambiques first minister of education and an international advocate for womens and childrens rights. They were awaiting the arrival of Machels husband, Nelson Mandela, the former president of South Africa and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Kofi Annan, the former secretary-general of the UN, joined the meeting via video link.

Each morning, the group gathered in a large tented space in the grounds of the property, with Moroccan carpets on the floor and huge decorative lamps hanging from the rafters. The mood was informal. There was no conference table; rather, the group of Elders and a handful of staff and advisers, including a South American ambassador to Washington and London, a world-renowned economist and experts in multilateral leadership and strategic communications, were arranged on comfortable chairs and sofas, notepads and laptops on knees, with waiters ferrying water and coffee to side tables.

It is seldom the case that all the Elders are together in one place, but this July a handful of the group gathered for a meeting in Morocco, held over three days at Bransons hotel, the Kasbah Tamadot, in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. The gathering was private, with no outside observers, and conducted under the Chatham House rule  the principle of confidentiality used in meetings to encourage open discussion. I was the only journalist present.

Advocacy  bringing attention to humanitarian crises that might otherwise go unnoticed  is part of what they do, but much of their activity is done out of the spotlight in conflict resolution and influencing world leaders, in private meetings with presidents, prime ministers and heads of state, drawing on their ability to open doors that might otherwise be closed. Ukraine, Israel/Palestine and Myanmar are just some of the countries Elders have visited in recent times.

They are totally independent, they have no vested interests, they are not running for office, they are not paid, they have no powers or sanctions at their disposal. Their authority comes from their experience, their wisdom, their integrity and reputation as honest brokers and their network of relationships built up over the years.

That was 18 years ago. Unless you pay close attention to global affairs, international conferences on climate, nuclear proliferation and pandemic preparedness, you may not have heard of the Elders. While there are any number of organisations and institutions, from the UN down, through NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and peace and environmental groups, dedicated to solving the worlds myriad problems, the Elders are unique.

In 2001, over lunch at Bransons London home, he and Gabriel gently proposed the idea to Nelson Mandela. His response was guarded  not least, he told them, because the UN might look askance at a self-elected body presuming to step on its territory. But a working group was set up to explore the idea and how best to assemble 12 people  the number had been decided by an unspoken consensus  that would equitably represent gender, ethnicity and cultural pluralism.

While there were any number of organisations dedicated to solving the worlds myriad problems, there was no single group that was totally independent, deriving its authority not from political, economic, military or religious power but from wisdom and experience. What might such a group achieve?

The genesis of the Elders goes back to 1999 and a conversation between Branson and his friend, musician Peter Gabriel, about how the tradition in indigenous cultures of tribal elders, serving as the repository of wisdom, judgment and long-term thinking, might be applied in the global village.

The conversations ranged over Gaza, Ukraine, the environment, the rise of AI, the collapse of the international order, the waning influence of the UN, how best to restore trust in government and institutions in the face of the rising tide of populism, analysing the causes of conflict  including the battle for resources, notably water and minerals, extraction of minerals, the weapons industry and socioeconomic conditions  all the better to understand how to prevent them, and what role the Elders should best be playing in an increasingly multipolar world with a surfeit of conflict and as one participant put it, a deficit of wisdom. No problem, then.

What they look for first and foremost is moral integrity  the kind of person Mandela would have approved of. Weve tried hard to get gender balance. There are now six women and five men. We look for a mix of people. Seven of the present Elders are former presidents and prime ministers but theres a range of different backgrounds and experiences.

They have this sense of legacy that they need to look at any new candidate through the same eyes that Mandela looked at the original members, says Alistair Fernie, the chief executive of the group, talking between sessions. He is a former UN diplomat who led British government aid programs in Africa, Afghanistan and the Middle East and was the UK director responsible for World Bank policy.

Among the other members are Ernesto Zedillo, the former president of Mexico; Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the former president of Liberia and a Nobel Peace laureate; Denis Mukwege, a global campaigner on conflict-related sexual violence and another Nobel Peace laureate; Helen Clark, the former prime minister of New Zealand; Zeid Raad Al Hussein, the former UN high commissioner for human rights; Elbegdorj Tsakhia, the former president and prime minister of Mongolia; and Hina Jilani, a human rights activist from Pakistan. New members are elected by the group themselves. The choice must be unanimous. They are currently in deliberations over a 12th member after Ban Ki-moon, the former head of the UN, recently stepped down from his role as deputy chair to become an Elder emeritus.

The present chairman of the group is Juan Manuel Santos, who as president of Colombia was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016 for negotiating the peace deal with FARC (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), the Marxist-Leninist guerrilla group, and ending the bitter civil war that had raged for more than 50 years and killed at least 220,000 people.

Unsurprisingly, given the average age of the Elders, membership turnover has been high. Over the years there have been 22 Elders from 22 different countries. Of the original dozen chosen by Mandela, only three are still active: Graca Machel; Mary Robinson, the first female president of Ireland; and Gro Harlem Brundtland, the first female prime minister of Norway. Nine members have been Nobel Prize laureates.

In the years since then, the organisation has grown to encompass a staff, researchers and advisers. From the very beginning, the Elders have been an independent entity, funded by a collective of donors including Bransons Virgin Unite foundation, one of a number of independent non-profit organisations set up by Branson over the past 20 years.

The world is very different from the world of Nelson Mandela 18 years ago, says Santos. We live in a world which is so turbulent, where the respect for international law, even for international humanitarian law, is vanishing, the number of conflicts has increased immeasurably, and at the same time the wars have been degraded in terms of respect for human rights and civil society.

In January, Santos was in Washington, joining the Bulletins Science and Security Board, for the announcement that the time of the clock is now set at 89 seconds to midnight  the closest it has ever been to global catastrophe. A move of even a single second, the Bulletin warns, should be taken as an indication of extreme danger and an unmistakable warning that every second of delay in reversing course increases the probability of global disaster.

According to the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, there are more than 110 armed conflicts around the world, greater than at any time since the Second World War. Among the different organisations that the Elders are partnered with is the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which studies the existential threat posed by nuclear proliferation, climate change and disruptive technologies, and is indicated by the Doomsday Clock.

In January, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set the Doomsday Clock at 89 seconds to midnight  the closest it has been to global catastrophe.

When Mandela launched the Elders in 2007, he singled out a range of challenges for the group: conflict resolution, for one, but also at that time, AIDS, malaria and diminishing natural resources. Global problems have only multiplied since then, but the current strategy focuses on three existential threats in particular: the climate and nature crisis, pandemics and nuclear weapons.

They are neither of the Left nor the Right, Fernie says. But they share a set of values and core beliefs about the way the world is, the problems facing the world, and the need for multilateral co-operation of different countries working together to help solve global challenges.

And thats where the Elders, who have no armies, no budgets  our only asset is our experience, the little moral authority that we have  are very much needed. That is the challenge we face now: what is the most effective way for us to use that authority and the prestige the group has, in this very difficult moment.

Santos was talking over dinner, on a terrace looking out to the Atlas Mountains, swathed in evening clouds. A quietly spoken, self-effacing man with a wry sense of humour, he was approached to join the Elders in 2019, shortly after leaving office as president of Colombia. I was 67. I remember saying, Well Im not that old. It was explained that the concept of Elders in Nelson Mandelas mind was that in South Africa, the elders are the wise men and women, not the oldest. I said, OK, in that case I accept.  He became chairman of the Elders last year, taking over from Mary Robinson.

While president, Santos negotiated the peace treaty with FARC by applying the principle of transitional justice, emphasising the recognition and protection of victims rights, including truth, justice and reparations. We had been fighting a very dirty war, with no respect for human rights, and I changed that completely. Respect humanitarian law, respect human rights, even of your adversaries  I call them adversaries and not enemies.

The former commander of the army taught me that, dont treat the FARC as your enemies but as your adversaries. I said, whats the difference? He said theres a great difference: enemies you eliminate, adversaries you meet, and if you meet them in a good way, with a humane attitude, you can live with them for the rest of your life.

Treat them as human beings  they have mothers, fathers, sons and daughters. That was a game-changer. It gave the army tremendous legitimacy. Instead of killing the FARC when they were wounded, they took them to hospital. And the commanders with whom I signed the peace treaty told me afterwards, that really changed the attitude of the guerrillas, not seeing the army as devils but as human beings also. That generated an environment that helped very much towards peace.

The peace agreement was much criticised in Colombia, but Santos believes that was inevitable. We say very often the Elders are not a group interested in winning wars but in preventing or stopping wars. And sometimes, to stop a war, you have to be a bit flexible. Some people think we gave too much to the guerrillas, and others say we were too harsh with the guerrillas. In my experience, the golden rule in many resolutions of a conflict is that you need to establish where you draw the line between peace and justice.

How much are you, a country, willing to sacrifice in order to have peace? And no matter where you draw the line, you will always have people saying they want more justice, and others saying they want more peace. Thats why most peace agreements are easily criticised, and at the beginning they are unpopular. But as time goes by, people realise that its better to live in peace than to live in war. Justice is a principle that should always be present, but to what degree is the question.

Amplification or negotiation?

As a group with limited resources  and a limited number of Elders  much of the discussion that I witnessed in Morocco focused on where they can be most effective in concentrating their efforts. To what degree should the Elders be an advocacy group, through a combination of public statements and working behind the scenes to influence different agendas, and to what degree should they be concentrating on private diplomacy in conflict resolution?

Alistair Fernie gives two examples of the Elders advocacy role. In 2022, in the wake of COVID-19, the Elders made it part of their strategy to become actively involved in the preparation for a better framework for international co-operation to deal with the next pandemic. Elders, Fernie says, were engaged in behind the scenes diplomacy to help negotiators from different parties find a way to an agreement. It was touch-and-go, he says. But in May this year, the WHO finally adopted the Pandemic Agreement for the prevention, preparedness and response to future pandemics.

In the end, the US did not participate in that agreement after the Trump administration said it was going to withdraw from the WHO, Fernie says, but an agreement has been reached. So thats a real tangible achievement. Helping a pandemic treaty is not in itself going to stop another pandemic, but it might make us better prepared to respond to it. Its an area where so clearly the world is a very small place and none of us are safe until everyones safe.

He cites climate change as another example. Elders pushed for several years, Fernie says, for a loss and damage component to the COP (Conference of the Parties) climate summit negotiations, a fund for small nations whose economy and in some cases  the Pacific island of Tuvalu, for example  very existence is threatened by climate change. That proposal was finally adopted at COP28, held in Dubai in 2023.

The Elders have pushed to fund nations threatened by climate change, including Tuvalu. Corbis via Getty Images

An unexpected talking point at that conference was the testy exchange in a video meeting between Mary Robinson, representing the Elders, and the COP president, Sultan Al Jaber, who is also chief executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, in which the then 80-year-old Robinson stood up to Sultan Al Jaber, telling him he was wrong about climate science and fossil fuels.

Answering questions later on whether she gets frustrated with countries talking big and then rowing back on commitments, Robinson said the Elders were in a position to call out such behaviour, because they are independent, have moral authority, and need to do it. The UN doesnt do it. Nobody else does it and so we do it across the board. Nobody is immune from that.

The Elders have a responsibility to speak out, Fernie says. Humility is an important part of the Elders. They dont have power or claim to have power, and they dont want power, so they can say things that will cause offence if they sometimes think its the right thing to do. And its undoubtedly the case that Elders views attack some vested interests, so of course were going to get criticised by those who dont like what we say.

Nelson Mandela predicted that in 2007, that you will be criticised. But he also said you wont be seeking elected office or financial gain, so you will have the courage to just carry on saying what you feel needs to be said.

We do it because its correct

The question of private diplomacy is more delicate. The Elders tend not to talk of their successes, saying that to do so might compromise their access, although they cite one example of a successful intervention from the early days of the group, in 2008, when civil war broke out in Kenya, largely along ethnic lines, following the disputed results of an election.

Various attempts at mediation between the two warring factions had failed, until Kofi Annan, along with Desmond Tutu and Graca Machel, intervened, and over the course of meetings with the rival leaders in a game reserve, as one observer puts it, basically knocked their heads together until an agreement was reached to cease fighting and form a coalition government.

We dont brag about what we do, and we should not brag about it. We do it because its correct. Elders chair Juan Manuel Santos

But such conflict negotiations involving the Elders have more usually taken place away from the glare of public attention. These missions, Santos says, depend on trust and confidentiality  and trust, as he puts it, is everything. And if the Elders were to start talking about the discussions that have taken place, and taking credit for any successes, that trust would be eroded.

We have a policy of private diplomacy and public advocacy. Sometimes you need to have visibility, but private diplomacy requires discretion. You dont need to be delivering public statements, says Santos. We dont brag about what we do, and we should not brag about it. We do it because its correct, but you dont have to brag about doing something that is correct. In todays world, hatred and jealousy and bad feelings are being fed by social media. If you start bragging about things, its counterproductive.

To assume that simply sitting down at the table with a leader will lead to the end of conflict would be naive. Negotiations may not always produce immediate results, but wise counsel might come to fruition at a later time.

An Elders adviser gave me an example of accompanying one Elder engaged in just such a negotiation with the leader of a country. Theyd sought a meeting with that leader, and were pointing out the consequences of what he was planning to do, in a way he hadnt understood or considered before. Thats hard to quantify and say the tanks stopped in their tracks, but theres real value in that that may emerge in the longer term.

Santos says: The word trust is crucial, and the way you earn trust is by not taking sides. Also, in my experience, the ability to listen, to understand the reasons why one side or the other are defending or attacking, the roots of the conflict, in order to try to address both sides to agree on some kind of common denominator.

But if the neighbours in an asymmetrical war are not supporting a peace process, the peace process will most likely fail. If they are supporting it, the possibility of peace is much higher. If you compare conflicts to volcanoes, there are some that are active, some that are exploding and some that are relatively dormant.

The exploding ones are obvious. Among the more dormant are Ethiopia, Libya, the Sahel region and Haiti looming as failed states. The question is, where should the Elders be concentrating their attention?

There are some conflicts which are too complex and intractable for a self-selected group, no matter how honourable their intentions, to make any difference, particularly when caught in the dilemma between honouring the principles on which they were founded and remaining silent in the hope of gaining access.

In 2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, Santos and Ki-Moon met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to affirm their support for a peaceful resolution to the conflict rooted in justice and international law.

In 2015, six Elders had met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to discuss a range of geopolitical issues including Ukraine. But following Russias invasion, Putin has refused a meeting after the Elders publicly called for a special tribunal for Russias crime of aggression.

Jimmy Carter (centre) and Kofi Annan (right) met with Vladimir Putin in 2015 in Moscow. Putin has refused to meet with the Elders since his invasion of Ukraine. Getty Images

No leader likes that, Santos says. This is the permanent dilemma we have  sticking to our principles and making them known publicly, versus the private diplomacy of trying to solve the problem.

We have been trying to see how we can help in bringing the two parties together to start some kind of negotiation. Many people and many countries have been involved in trying to do the same, so our margin of manoeuvres is rather limited, but our stand is: the sooner we stop the war, the better.

But if the time comes and we have some access, we would talk to Putin with no problem whatsoever. In any negotiation, both sides have to understand that you dont make peace with your friends. You make friends with your enemies.

The mogul in the mix

Other than as the facilitator and a friend, Richard Branson has made a point not to involve himself in the running or governance of the Elders, while at the same time offering help and resources wherever it is needed.

Even before the launch of the organisation, in 2003, as America was preparing to invade Iraq, Branson, through the mediation of his friend the late King Hussein of Jordan, told Mandela that Saddam Hussein was willing to leave Iraq for Libya with his family, to help avoid the need for war, but wanted two Elders to fly out with him so I can hold my head high.

Mandela agreed to fly to Iraq if Kofi Annan, who was then secretary-general of the UN, and Thabo Mbeki, the president of South Africa, agreed to the plan. They did. But before Mandela could get to Baghdad, America invaded.

It may have come to nothing anyway, Branson told me at the Elders inaugural meeting in 2007. But it was an example of universally respected Elders, working outside the conventional political process, who could potentially have made a difference.

Such frustrations and what ifs are part and parcel of the Elders work. Its had some great successes, Branson says now, sitting in the big tent in Morocco during a lunch break. But like any organisation, it can be more effective going forward.

Throughout the meetings, Branson sat quietly, listening intently to the discussions and scribbling in his notebook, only occasionally interjecting with a thought or a suggestion. That morning he had suggested that, given the number of issues confronting the Elders, perhaps it would be helpful to recruit a number of younger representatives who could both broaden the scope of the groups work and take some of the weight off the existing members.

One of the problems with the Elders is that theyre elderly, Branson says. Weve got Elders who are 86 years old, so there are only so many visits they can do. Annan, he points out, died in 2018 at the age of 80, following a trip to Zimbabwe for the Elders. But if we can get a group of younger ambassadors, maybe not as well known, maybe ex-foreign secretaries, who could go to Palestine or the Congo, which desperately needs visits, and instead of having to look for three or four Elders to go on these trips, have one Elder and three ambassadors. It was an idea they were considering.

The next meeting of the Elders is scheduled for October. But members of the group will be at the UN General Assembly in New York this month  at which all of their combined powers of influence and diplomacy will be brought to bear.

This is something since the time of Mandela that we are very clear about: that we should always say what we think is correct. Elders chair Juan Manuel Santos

As the gathering in Morocco drew to a close, Santos deliberated on what the future might hold  and what the group might continue to achieve. The biggest obstacle now, he says, is we have a set of values and principles that we believe in, and the world has been affected by a devaluation of those values and principles.

What we think is our major strength, which is our moral authority, is not as appreciated around the world. Because even many leaders are less sensitive to criticism by people with moral authority.

It is very sad, but we are very clear that we will never renounce our values and principles. This is something since the time of Mandela that we are very clear about: that we should always say what we think is correct. And perhaps the world will listen.

This is an edited version of a story that originally appeared in The Telegraph (UK).

To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times.
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Exclusive NationalNSWCrime This was published 3 months ago Arsonists thought high-profile Sydney man was asleep at home during attack, police say Perry Duffin Updated September 11, 2025  12:43pm ,first published September 10, 2025  2:16pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

Arsonists believed a prominent Jewish Australian was asleep with his family inside a home in Sydneys east when they deliberately attacked it, police say. The shocking information comes as NSW Police on Wednesday revealed they had charged a Sydney man with orchestrating a wave of antisemitic incidents in Sydneys east and south in January this year. Alex Ryvchin visits his former home in January after it was targeted. James Brickwood The Dover Heights home once owned by Alex Ryvchin from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry was splashed with red paint, and cars outside were torched in the early hours of January 17. F--- JEWS was sprayed on one burnt-out Mercedes.

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Police have confirmed the attackers mistakenly believed Ryvchin was still living at the address with his family. The revelation backs Ryvchins fears the attack was not one hell of a coincidence. To target someones home, someones sanctuary, someones family, to endanger the lives of the good and decent Australians that live around here, to light a fire when people are sleeping in their homes, he said in January. There is an evil at work in this country, and we have to recognise that. Cars outside the Dover Heights home were torched during the attack. OnScene Bondi Strike Force Pearl, the NSW Polices antisemitism taskforce, announced on Wednesday that 27-year-old Tarek Zahabe, 27, had been charged with orchestrating the attack and three others in Sydney that month. The first attack allegedly directed by Zahabe came on January 10 when two men, wearing black hoodies, were caught on CCTV allegedly vandalising the Southern Sydney Synagogue in the suburb of Allawah.

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Police have arrested two men over an attack on a synagogue in Allawah, including a man they claim masterminded three other high-profile attacks in Sydney. NSW Police A swastika and the message Hitler on top, along with references to Allah and Free Palestine, were sprayed in red paint on the white bricks of the synagogue. A court document provided to the Herald this month revealed police from Strike Force Pearl, set up in response to the spate of antisemitic attacks, soon set their sights on 26-year-old Kye Pickering from the Central Coast suburb of San Remo. On June 26, he was charged with displaying a Nazi symbol, damaging property and participating in a criminal group. Police then swooped on Zahabe in mid-July. Zahabe was charged with directing Pickering to carry out the attack in Allawah. He was also charged with directing the attack on Ryvchins home and two other incidents in Sydneys east in January.

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On January 21, Only About Children on Storey Street in Maroubra was set alight and sprayed with anti-Jewish messages. Premier Chris Minns called it a vicious hate crime. One week later, Mount Sinai, a Jewish primary school on Runic Lane in Maroubra, was also graffitied. The Only About Children childcare centre on Storey Street in Maroubra which was damaged in an antisemitic attack in mid-January. Kate geraghty Both men will front Downing Centre Local Court next month, Pickering on October 21 and Zahabe on October 30. The development comes a month after Australias spy agency, ASIO, claimed a firebombing at Lewis Continental Kitchen, a Jewish business in Bondi Beach, in October 2024, and a second at Melbournes Adass Israel Synagogue, weeks later, were the work of Iran.

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Footage of the arson attack in Dover Heights. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps had allegedly enlisted bikie Sayed Moosawi, who had in turn allegedly enlisted other men to carry out the attack in Sydney. Moosawi denies the allegations, and ASIO said other attacks might be linked to Iran. ASIO is investigating whether the attacks allegedly attributed to Zahabe were carried out on behalf of Iran. Police would not confirm if Zahabe was allegedly acting on behalf of an offshore criminal mastermind  alleged drug runner Sayit Akca.

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Related Article Foreign relations Iranian ambassador conducts dramatic press conference before leaving Australia It was during the wave of attacks now allegedly attributed to Zahabe that police found a caravan packed with explosives on a roadside in Dural, along with directions to Sydneys Great Synagogue. Pearls investigators accused Akca of orchestrating more than a dozen of the antisemitic attacks  including the caravan  from a hideout in Turkey. Police claim Akca planned to turn in the caravan to influence his own prosecution for drug running, sources said in March. In an interview with ABCs Four Corners, Akca admitted to the caravan plot, but denied involvement in the other attacks. Start the day with a summary of the days most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
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An elderly man has been released on bail after he was charged with allegedly touching several schoolgirls aged under 10 through a primary school fence in Sydneys inner west this month.

The 86-year-old was arrested at the intersection of Bridge Road and Ross Street in Forest Lodge, the location of Forest Lodge Public School, at 2pm on Tuesday.

The man was arrested at the intersection of Ross Street and Bridge Road in Forest Lodge on Tuesday. Google Maps

Police allege the man first spoke to children through the fence of a Forest Lodge primary school on Wednesday last week, with students reporting to teachers that the conversation unsettled them.

The man allegedly returned to the same school on Thursday and inappropriately touched girls aged under 10 years old through the fence, including touching one girl on the thigh, and giving a hard pinch to another.
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NationalQueenslandCity life This was published 3 months ago Search our map to find Brisbanes dangerous, dodgy footpaths Felicity Caldwell September 11, 2025  5:00am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share 11 View all comments

In the heart of Brisbane, with City Hall within stumbling distance, this footpath on Ann Street is a tripping hazard rollercoaster, with undulating waves on its uneven and cracked brick surface. The CBD is the biggest hotspot for footpath issues in Brisbane, with dozens of complaints about broken, cracked and uneven surfaces. The cracked and uneven footpath at 160 Ann Street in Brisbanes CBD. Felicity Caldwell And for Caitlin McMorrow, who is totally blind and has a guide dog, the condition of the citys footpaths makes a huge difference to her ability to travel independently, as she relies on walking and public transport. While the city centre topped the list for footpath maintenance requests, Coorparoo, Fortitude Valley, West End, Annerley, South Brisbane and Kedron were not far behind.

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On the day we accessed councils open-data platform, more than 3700 footpath complaints were outstanding across Brisbane, with issues including broken or cracked surfaces, blocked pathways, and overgrown tree roots. When it came to footpath obstructions, the city, Valley, Coorparoo, Upper Mount Gravatt, South Brisbane, Indooroopilly and Toowong had the most reports, which could be anything from cars parked over footpaths, illegal dumping, or tree branches blocking paths. McMorrow said footpath issues could make basic travel quite dangerous and affected the confidence of people with low vision to get out in the community. Thats overhanging branches, cracks in the path due to tree roots, e-scooters being parked where they shouldnt be, signage boards not being particularly thoughtfully placed, she said.

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Theres the risk of trips, falls and injuries as a result of that. And if theres something obstructing the footpath, like an overhanging branch, youve often got to step off the gutter and onto the road, potentially just out into traffic. Caitlin McMorrow, who is totally blind, struggles with uneven or obstructed footpaths. A Vision Australia spokesman said broken footpaths and other obstructions were a safety risk for the blind or vision impaired. Its important that authorities actively maintain footpaths and keep them clear of obstructions to not only ensure the safety of people who are blind or have low vision, but so our community can have confidence that they can navigate their surroundings independently like anyone else, he said.

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Queensland Walks executive officer Anna Campbell said 67 per cent of people who used the organisations Walk my Street tool reported their footpath was not well-maintained. Every resident of Brisbane is a pedestrian at some point, yet our footpaths, roadway allocation and poor quality of safe crossings tell the story of chronic underinvestment in walking provision in Brisbane, she said. A connected and cohesive walking network is critical to keep Brisbane residents moving. Labor opposition leader Jared Cassidy accused Brisbane City Council of neglecting footpaths.

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The crumbling footpaths on the Story Bridge are a symbol of whats happening right across Brisbane, he said. Related Article City life Most Qld drivers dont know this road rule. Will a hand-painted sign make a difference? But Danita Parry, the acting chair of councils infrastructure committee, said crews acted fast to make repairs to damaged footpaths within hours. Footpaths also need repairs at times because of things like tree roots, ground movement and vehicles illegally driving or parking on them, she said. When things like this happen, we fix them as part of our routine footpath maintenance program.

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Council delivered almost 30,000 square metres of footpaths in the past financial year, including 5076 square metres of new footpaths and 24,696 square metres of reconstructed footpaths. Start the day with a summary of the days most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
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Updated NationalQueenslandQueensland Police This was published 3 months ago I woke to the sound of screams: Woman hit by her own BMW in Ascot home invasion Catherine Strohfeldt and Marissa Calligeros Updated September 10, 2025  1:08pm ,first published September 10, 2025  11:24am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

Neighbours woke to a womans screams after she was run down by her own BMW in an Ascot home invasion early on Wednesday. Security cameras captured the thieves scoping out the property on Hopetoun Street, driving past in a hatchback, before returning. The footage then shows one offender wearing black gloves getting out of the car and walking to the front gate. The thieves broke louvres to get into the house shortly before 5am and stole the black BMW X3 from the garage.

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Dogs at the residence alerted the homes occupants to the intruders, who they confronted in the garage as they were about to leave with the car, neighbours said. A 34-year-old woman tried to stop them from driving away, but she was struck by the BMW as the thieves sped off. Neighbour Bella Zarganis told Nine News she woke to the sound of screams. I heard a mans voice really loudly and then there was like crashing sounds, and then I heard a woman scream quite loudly, she said. Loading

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Thats when I jumped out of bed and ran to my balcony and I saw a car speed off down the street. I was too scared to come down myself, but I saw that there [were] other people coming, and then not long after, the police showed up. Her scream was what made me jump out of bed because it was quite loud and sounded like someone was dying. The 34-year-old victim was knocked to the ground, suffering minor injuries, and was taken to Royal Brisbane and Womens Hospital in a stable condition.

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Police said they found the BMW a short time later on Borrows Street, Virginia, and urged anyone with footage of the incident, or from Hopetoun Street between 4.30am and 5.30am, to come forward. Get alerts on significant breaking news as happens. Sign up for our Breaking News Alert.
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NationalVictoriaPlanning This was published 3 months ago Councils blindsided as new high-rise hubs are unveiled Lachlan Abbott and Kieran Rooney September 10, 2025  4:02pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share 172 View all comments

Councils have expressed frustration after the Allan government revealed designs to allow buildings up to 16 storeys tall in suburbs such as Oakleigh, Kew and Hawthorn without showing local planners first. Premier Jacinta Allan on Wednesday unveiled draft maps for the first tranche of 25 train and tram zone activity centres across Melbourne, where the state government will relax planning rules to boost housing supply and improve affordability. Shops on High Street, Armadale, in the Stonnington municipality, where six new activity centres were unveiled on Wednesday. The precincts around transport hubs are predominantly in the citys wealthier east as the government argues these well-serviced suburbs must shoulder more of Melbournes booming population. But Stonnington Council  which includes the new Tooronga, Gardiner, Glen Iris, Darling, East Malvern and Holmesglen activity centres  decried inadequate consultation about the draft maps, and argued it could deliver 17,000 more homes than the government wanted under its own plans.

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The council adopted a new housing strategy and neighbourhood activity centre framework on Monday night, claiming it could accommodate 67,000 more dwellings by 2051 while using more stringent floor area ratio rules to improve build quality. Stonnington Mayor Melina Sehr said the council has once again been blindsided by the state government and that the draft plans were announced without proper and informed engagement. What they are proposing, specifically in residential areas, is out of step with the expectations of our community, Sehr said. We propose a better way, supported by the local community, and it is time for the state government to understand and accept this.

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Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny told reporters in Kew on Wednesday that activity centres would reflect each suburbs different needs. Building limits are at their highest in the activity centre core around railway stations and tram stops before scaling down to low-rise apartments and townhouse sizes. Oakleigh will undergo some of the most significant changes of any activity centre as 16-storey buildings will be allowed on land currently used for car parking. Kilkenny said the government had altered heights and boundaries for the first 10 activity centres in response to community feedback, and would similarly consult about the 25 new maps.

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But Boroondara Mayor Sophie Torney suggested the state had ignored locals in their new plans for the Hawthorn, Glenferrie, Auburn and Kew Junction. The draft activity centre plan for Oakleigh. Building-height limits within Boroondaras larger Camberwell Junction activity centre were reduced to 12 storeys in February, but pockets of the municipalitys four new activity centres allow buildings up to 16 storeys. The government has already completed one round of community consultation on these significant proposals, but I see no evidence that the voices of our community have shaped these updated plans, Torney said. To ignore community wishes erodes community confidence in government and the planning system.

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Bayside City Council also criticised the governments lack of consultation. Its incredibly disappointing that media outlets have been informed of the Victorian governments plans for our activity centres before council, a spokesman said. Premier Jacinta Allan and Minister for Planning Sonya Kilkenny examine new development maps in Kew on Wednesday. Simon Schluter Residents lobby group YIMBY Melbourne, meanwhile, welcomed the state government announcement, but said the draft maps appeared to show smaller zones for housing than expected. The group warned every time concessions are made and plans are scaled back means fewer opportunities to build more homes where people want to live.

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YIMBY Melbourne is pleased to see housing and planning reforms continue to progress across our city, unlocking homes for future generations, lead organiser Jonathan OBrien said. Related Article Property development Height limits for contentious Bayside activity centres revealed Melbourne has one of the worlds most iconic transit systems  its about time we made sure more Melburnians can access it. Building homes around transit is the best way to get this done. Kilkenny said the government had worked with councils on all 25 additional activity centres, in many instances picking up on existing planning work they had already started. This is about delivering more homes for Victorians, particularly young Victorians who have been locked out of these areas, she said.

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Just by way of example, you take Boroondara or Bayside [council areas]. We know over the last 30 years, these areas have grown only by about 30 per cent. Compare that to our growing suburbs like Melton and Wyndham, who have seen growth of more than 400 per cent over that same time period. Kilkenny said the activity centres would continue to recognise heritage, environmental and neighbourhood character overlays. Minister for Planning Sonya Kilkenny on Wednesday. Simon Schluter It wont impact those, but what it will do is guide more homes in the locations where it makes sense to build more of them and to give certainty over the long term, she said. Allan said Victoria was building more homes than any other state and this was reflected in the property markets affordability compared with other parts of the country.

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Urban Development Institute of Australia Victorian chief executive Linda Allison said the release of the maps were welcome, but meaningful tax reform was needed to spur construction. Plans are good, action is better, she said. Even with more planning certainty, the current market conditions for apartment developments are exceedingly difficult. Allison said it would take time to reach the governments goal of 70 per cent of new development occurring in established areas. She called for similar effort towards resolving planning issues in greenfield areas where many affordable homes could be delivered. In a statement, opposition planning spokesman Richard Riordan said the Allan government had a love affair with massive high-rise developments which would not solve Melbournes housing crisis.

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Consultation on the new activity centre maps will run until October 19. Start the day with a summary of the days most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
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NationalVictoriaPorepunkah shooting This was published 3 months ago Moments before fatal Porepunkah shooting filmed by family member Angus Delaney and Alexander Darling Updated September 10, 2025  4:16pm ,first published September 10, 2025  10:43am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

Police have slammed the release of new images that detail the moments before Dezi Freeman allegedly opened fire on police from inside his bus near Porepunkah. The images show officers clustered at the doorway of his home as he reportedly shouted Nazis and psychopaths from behind closed curtains. The photos, published by Daily Mail Australia, are taken from a 27-minute video taken by a family member of Freemans, police confirmed on Wednesday. The Daily Mail said this image was taken from 27 minutes of footage. Freeman, his wife, Amalia, and their two-year-old child were inside the bus when police were serving a warrant over alleged historical sexual abuse on the morning of August 26.

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Freeman allegedly opened fire and killed Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim De Waart-Hottart, injuring a third officer and fleeing into the bush. The so-called sovereign citizen has not been seen since. The new photos show officers at the rural property, where Freeman was living inside a renovated bus, trying to prise open the vehicle door with a crowbar. Police said release of the footage was distressing and disappointing. Thompson can be seen wearing a red flannelette shirt and standing near the doorway as another officer works at the frame. Freeman appears to have barricaded himself inside. De Waart-Hottart moves to near the door in the last few minutes of the video.

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Daily Mail Australia reported Freeman asked officers not to enter his bus, and that his frame of mind deteriorated as police told him what the warrant was for and asked that he come out and talk to them. He reportedly called the allegations bull---- and branded the police Nazis and psychopaths, accusing them of trespassing and committing many crimes. The Daily Mail reports that Thompson, who was tearfully farewelled at a funeral on Monday, opened a bus window and clambered in feet first. It was then that two gunshots rang out, the officers ran for cover and the video ended. Detective Superintendent Jason Kelly said the emergence of the video was distressing and disappointing.

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Another of the stills. That footage is not Victoria Police footage; it is not body-worn camera footage, he said. I can only imagine the impact that will have on the family of Neal and Vadim and the colleagues who were present and the broader [members of] Victoria Police and law enforcement across Australia. The search for the alleged gunman went into its 16th day on Wednesday, and police said arresting Freeman remained their highest priority. We have conducted significant searches throughout the community, particularly in the bushlands here in Porepunkah, Superintendent Craig Darlow said. Weve searched caves, weve searched mineshafts, huts, and well continue to do that over the coming weeks, need be.

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More than 4000 shifts had been worked by a collective 2000 police, with 450 officers working on the search at any given time, Darlow said. He added that international law enforcement were assisting in the search, but declined to specify particulars. Related Article Porepunkah shooting Day 13 for manhunt, but still no sign of alleged police killer On Saturday police announced a $1 million reward for information leading to the fugitives arrest, which has resulted in more than 200 pieces of information being submitted to investigators. On Monday, Sergeant Lisa Thompson told more than 3000 mourners at the Victoria Police Academy in Glen Waverley that her partner, Thompson, had shown her and his step-children how brilliant life is, if you have the courage to try. He taught me how to love without fear and how to be brave when Im scared. I am so grateful you did because I am scared. I dont want to live this life without you, and I dont want to finish our dreams on my own, she said.

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PoliticsFederalLiberal Party This was published 3 months ago Opinion Her behaviour is bonkers, but the Liberal Partys rank and file cant get enough of Jacinta Price Shaun Carney Columnist September 11, 2025  5:00am

September 11, 2025  5:00am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share 664 View all comments

Ah, those golden days. Im talking about early last week, when politics was following its natural rhythms. Thousands had marched in cities around the country, protesting about immigration. Some of them were especially animated about the increasing number of Indian migrants in our midst. Much chin-stroking commentary followed, imploring the Albanese government to explain its immigration policy. If it would only do that, supposedly, community nervousness about immigration would evaporate and racists would retreat to the shadows. This seems unlikely to me, but anyway. The underlying narrative was in the grand tradition of Australian politics, which is that if something disturbing is going on, it must be due to either the actions or inaction of whoever is in power. Illustration by Dionne Gain But on Wednesday, September 3, opposition minister for defence industry and defence personnel Jacinta Nampijinpa Price appeared, at first cloaked in an Australian flag in the Senate to mark Flag Day, a real but niche national day. She decided to create a new narrative, one that would flip the attention to the opposition. Her first narrative involved a Labor plot to swamp Australian society with Labor-voting Indian migrants. The second, which has taken hold in the past few days, was to portray Sussan Leys factional sponsor, Alex Hawke, as a brute and then to suggest that Ley was weak for not bringing Hawke into line. That has sparked a proxy leadership battle inside the Liberal Party. Not bad work for Price, who has been a member of the Liberal party room for only four months.

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In her ABC interview, Price appeared to suggest that the Albanese government applies some sort of political test to prospective migrants in India and allows in only the ones who will vote Labor. Or that Indians are simply implicitly Labor-leaning. Its hard to tell. Its bonkers, basically, and it fed into the anti-Indian sentiments of some of those whod marched a few days earlier. You might well ask why the opposition minister for defence industry and defence personnel was rattling on about immigration on national television, but that would be so yesterday. On Wednesday night, Ley dumped Price from her frontbench. Regardless, long gone are the times when frontbenchers respectfully declined to talk about matters that werent in their portfolios. This is a garrulous age, where politicians will freewheel on anything, reinforcing the agreed lines of the day. Anyway, minding her Ps and Qs would be especially off-brand for Price, whose rapid rise since entering the Senate in 2022 owes much to her willingness to involve herself in whatever culture war issue is on the go. Related Article Political leadership Sussan Ley sacks Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price from Liberal frontbench Soon after making her comments on the ABC, Price put out a statement that has been characterised by the media as her walking them back. The statement began: Australia maintains a long-standing and bipartisan non-discriminatory migration policy. Suggestions otherwise are a mistake. Was that a walkback? Those suggestions otherwise were made by whom? The family cat? Like one of televisions most famous characters, Arthur Fonzarelli (ask your parents or grandparents, kids), Price has trouble admitting straight out that she was wrong. Her behaviour does make some sense. Prices political persona is built entirely on her grim-faced certainty about everything and her positions on policies for Indigenous Australians, which sit outside the orthodox prescriptions favoured by a large proportion of her fellow Indigenous people. She won fame as a vocal proponent of the No case in the Voice referendum and was very much in touch with mainstream opinion. It made her a superstar among the Coalition rank and file. Her early success encouraged her to say whatever came into her head, such as her call to make Australia great again and her instruction to the media to stop obsessing about Donald Trump during the election campaign. That was her first disaster.

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Her refusal to apologise for her comments has carried a kind of logic. Most of the demands from some of her colleagues that she apologise are prompted by a desire for the controversy to end. But she is a modern populist. For her, whats most important is what she says when she gets riffing about the terrible state of things, especially if her supporters think that, too. And theyll probably think that because she does. Its a circular relationship. Liberal deputy leader Ted OBrien was right when he said on Wednesday that an apology from Price would seem inauthentic to the public. For all her troubles in the past eight days, she would certainly still be more popular among the Coalition rank and file than her leader. Leys card was marked early in this term when she was labelled as a moderate and at her first appearance at the National Press Club when she began by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land. Prices strategy of digging in and refusing to apologise has intensified the focus on Ley. You know its reached an absurd stage when theres pressure on Ley to apologise on Prices behalf. It was Price who uttered the conspiracist nonsense, not Ley. Related Article Opinion

Immigration Jacinta Price is wrong to think all Indian voters like me back Labor  but they probably will now Surendra Verma Writer and author And while thats gone on, others with an axe to grind, like Jane Hume, dumped from the frontbench by Ley, have offered a view. Hume says the whole thing has been poorly handled by Ley. Its important to remember that in May, Prices stocks were so high that she was enticed from the National Party and nearly ran on a leadership ticket with Angus Taylor that fell just three votes short of victory. For Ley, theres more trouble ahead. Price is likely to still be the darling of the grey hairs who make up most of the party membership, but her demotion is just part of trying times for her, too. Two years ago almost to the day, she told the National Press Club that overall, British settlement had benefited Indigenous people because now they had running water and readily available food. Her speech received a standing ovation from her party colleagues, including Nationals leader David Littleproud, who described it as one of the most powerful he had ever heard. Asked this week if he would welcome Price back to his party, he demurred, saying that her comments were outside mainstream Australian values and he wouldnt be encouraging talk of her return. His meaning was clear: it was up to the Liberals to work out how to handle her now.

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Shaun Carney is a regular columnist, an author and former associate editor of The Age. Get a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up for our Opinion newsletter.
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PoliticsNSWEducation This was published 3 months ago Angelique hadnt been able to breathe because of HSC stress. Then she got an email Emily Kowal September 10, 2025  7:30pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share 19 View all comments

For year 12 student Angelique Claudette Adams, the pressure of the HSC has been stifling, and her every waking moment was spent studying or worrying about schoolwork. When friends and family invited her out, she declined. I felt an obligation to study, I felt I couldnt leave my desk. Even if I wasnt being productive, I felt like I had to sit there. Angelique Claudette Adams is one of thousands of students who will sit their final HSC exams knowing they already have a place at university thanks to the early offer system. Wolter Peeters That all changed last week, when an email rolled into her inbox: shed been given an unconditional offer at the University of NSW to study criminology and criminal justice and a double degree of social work, under the institutions early offer scheme. From the moment I opened that email I just felt so relieved. I was in. Now I can focus on achieving that ATAR, she said. I can breathe. I felt like I havent been able to breathe in a while.

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I couldnt stop smiling, I felt like I was floating on a cloud. Its a huge relief  everything paid off. Last week, universities began sending out early offers, a safety net for thousands of students and a chance to secure a place at uni before exams take place. The weigh of expectations is over, but Angelique says she will aim for a top mark. Wolter Peeters Almost 28,000 students lodged an application with the University Admissions Centre (UAC) this year for the Schools Recommendation Scheme (SRS), a 3.3 per cent increase on last years record intake. Applications are assessed based on year 11 results, and a schools assessment of student aptitude, rather than solely on their ATAR. At least 22 Australian universities also have an internal early entry process. Some are based on year 11 results, others require a student statement, considering any challenges they have overcome.

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Some offers are conditional, meaning students must obtain a certain ATAR for their offer to be honoured. Unlike SRS, these applications are run privately, with no obligation to report numbers to UAC, and students can receive more than one offer. More than 8400 students applied for an early offer at Australian National University, with 6515 receiving an offer. The University of Newcastle received more than 7000 applications this year, but did not reveal how many offers it has made. The University of Wollongong has made 7800 offers, while Charles Sturt received 4300 applications, offering 3000 places, with more expected. The University of Sydney said it anticipated early offers would make up less than 2 per cent of their 2026 cohort, and are largely based on additional criteria beyond academic results  such as creative skills and equity.

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The University of NSW received close to 4000 applications for its first round of early offers, while Australian Catholic University received 4433 early offer applications. Editor's pick Primary school Its too much pressure: Why Veera wont give up on her school dreams UTS, Macquarie and Western Sydney University declined to provide numbers, while the University of Canberra did not respond to a request for comment. University of Newcastle academic Dr Sally Patfield said there was a perception that once students were accepted into university, the pressure is off, and work ethic diminishes. The reality, she said, is quite different. We often hear about stories how young people receive an early entry offer, and theyre slacking off and theyre not trying hard in their final exams, she said.

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However, her research found schemes open up pathways for young people. A 2024 study tracked 1500 NSW year 12 students who sought admission to university through various means, including early offers and other processes. The study reported no negative impact on student motivation, findings that mirror Patfields research. They still wanted to try hard, often due to imposter syndrome. They still wanted to do well in the HSC, they wanted to try hard to prove themselves, Patfield said. The students I interviewed were adamant they hadnt slacked off, they still wanted to try hard in their exams. However, she said the sector needs more transparency. Universities have no obligation to report on the number of students who have received an early offer, as well as the number who have actually accepted the offer. Critics argue there is little public information on how the spots are allocated and to whom, and say the system lacks the transparency of the ATAR.

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For the past two years, universities have been prevented from handing out early offers until September. In 2023, more than 43,000 early offers had been made nationwide before students sat their final exams. Editor's pick Education Taliah is one of thousands who dropped out of high school. A major reform hopes to change this Higher education policy researcher Professor Andrew Norton said universities were incentivised to make early offers to lock in students in a competitive market. The trouble is once one university starts to offer it, their competitors feel like they have to follow, otherwise they might miss out, he said. Once this is entrenched in expectations of students and an entrenched behaviour of universities, I think its going to be very, very difficult to stop it, because the first university to stop will probably lose students. Start the day with a summary of the days most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The main official political institutions in Libya have expressed widespread condemnation of the targeting, during an Israeli attack, of leaders of the Palestinian Hamas movement in Doha, the capital of Qatar, expressing their full solidarity with the Gulf emirate
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Updated WorldNorth AmericaViolence This was published 3 months ago You all caused this: US faces bitter reckoning as police search for gunman Michael Koziol and Josefine Ganko Updated September 11, 2025  4:24pm ,first published September 11, 2025  5:10am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

Washington: The US faces another bitter reckoning over political violence and gun rights after a prominent conservative activist and supporter of US President Donald Trump, Charlie Kirk, was shot dead while speaking at a university in Utah. The shooter was still at large overnight, with a manhunt under way and armed officers going door to door in the community bordering the campus of Utah Valley University. A person of interest was detained and questioned after the shooting but was subsequently released. Loading Kirk, 31, was hit on the left side of his neck while speaking to a large outdoor audience from a tent emblazoned with the slogans: The American Comeback and Prove Me Wrong. People in the crowd screamed in horror as a single shot rang out and Kirk recoiled. Witness Justin Hickens told NBC News: We heard a big loud shot. I saw a bunch of blood come out of Charlie. I saw his body kind of kick back and go limp, and everybody dropped to the ground.

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Kirk was shot about 12.20pm on Wednesday, Utah time (4.20am AEST), and rushed to a hospital, where he was declared dead. The assassination was captured on a graphic video that was widely circulated on social media. Trump was among the first to confirm Kirks death on social media. Later, he delivered a video message to the nation in which he praised the conservative influencer as a patriot and a man of deep faith who devoted his life to open debate and the country he loved. He fought for liberty, democracy, justice and the American people. Hes a martyr for truth and freedom, and there has never been anyone who was so respected by youth, Trump said. Charlie was the best of America, and the monster who attacked him was attacking our whole country. It was a dark moment for America, the president said. Its long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonising those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible.

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But the political fallout began immediately. Trump went on to blame the radical left for comparing Kirk to Nazis and mass murderers  rhetoric he said was directly responsible for the terrorism we are seeing in our country today. And what was supposed to be a bipartisan moment of silence on the floor of the House of Representatives quickly descended into chaos as Republicans and Democrats yelled at each other across the floor after far-right Colorado representative Lauren Boebert asked for a spoken prayer, rather than a silent one. A screen grab from a video shows security personnel carrying Kirk after he was shot. AFP Representative Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, a former conservative influencer and close ally of Kirk, stood up to blame Democrats for the shooting. You all caused this, she said, pointing angrily at the Democrats side of the chamber. The yelling escalated again, with one Democrat yelling at the Republicans to pass some gun laws. At a press conference, Utah public safety commissioner Beau Mason said the CCTV footage was of poor quality, but a suspect dressed in dark clothing had been identified. The shot came from here on campus, from a location, potentially from the roof. [It was a] longer distance shot, he said.

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University authorities said the shot was fired from the Losee Centre, a building a little less than 200 metres from the courtyard where Kirk was speaking. Video obtained by The New York Times showed a person rushing away from a spot near the edge of the buildings roof immediately after the shooting. Utah Governor Spencer Cox characterised the shooting as a political assassination. This is a dark day for our state; its a tragic day for our nation, he said. Loading Cox said it was thought the gunman acted alone, and there was no information that would lead us to believe that there is a second person involved. Another man arrested immediately after the shooting was charged with obstruction of justice and later released.

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Utah Valley University police chief Jeff Long said there were six police officers acting as security at the time of the shooting, as well as Kirks travelling private security team. We had some plain-clothes police officers that were in the crowd. We train for these things, Long said. You think you have things covered ... you try to get your bases covered. And, unfortunately, today we didnt, and because of that, we had this tragic incident. Long estimated that the event was attended by about 3000 people. It was open to members of the public; attendees included university students, children and families. Witnesses told Fox News there were no security checks on entering the outdoor venue. Immediately before the shooting, Kirk was taking questions from an audience member about mass shootings and gun violence, AP reported.

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Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years? an audience member asked. Kirk responded: Too many. The questioner followed up: Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years? Counting or not counting gang violence? Kirk asked. Then the shot was heard. Kirk co-founded the conservative political advocacy group Turning Point USA, as well as a political action committee by the same name. He was an evangelical Christian, and the group conducts a lot of its work with Christian communities and students on campus.

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During last years election, Kirk appeared with Trump at various rallies, and the Trump campaign outsourced a significant amount of its voter turnout work to Turning Point Action and other groups, rather than using the Republican National Committee. The event at Utahs largest public university was Kirks first stop on a new college campus tour that involved the Prove Me Wrong Table, where audience members were invited to debate Kirk in a public setting. Loading The event met with divided opinion on campus. An online petition calling for university administrators to bar Kirk from appearing received nearly 1000 signatures. The university issued a statement last week citing the First Amendment and affirming its commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue. On September 3, Kirk posted screenshots of a series of headlines about the controversy to X, along with the caption: What is going on in Utah?

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Vice President JD Vance, a devout Catholic, said he became friends with Kirk after the young man sent him a direct message on Twitter following a TV appearance. He said Kirk was one of the first people he called when considering running for the Senate in 2021, and Kirk introduced him to people who would run his campaign. Vance praised Kirk as a true friend, a family man and a person of profound faith who loved discussing ideas. The crowd reacts after Kirk was shot at Utah Valley University. AP Charlie was fascinated by ideas and always willing to learn and change his mind, he said. He would go into these hostile crowds and answer their questions  He exemplified a foundational virtue of our Republic: the willingness to speak openly and debate ideas. Former president Joe Biden said he and his wife, Jill, were praying for Charlie Kirks family and loved ones. There is no place in our country for this kind of violence. It must end now, he said.

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In a similar message, former vice president and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris said she was deeply disturbed by the shooting. Let me be clear: political violence has no place in America. I condemn this act, and we all must work together to ensure this does not lead to more violence. View post on X Australias acting Prime Minister Richard Marles said the shooting was an absolute tragedy and was rightly being condemned across the political spectrum in the US. Our thoughts go out to Charlie Kirks family, he said. There is no place for political violence. Kevin Rudd, the Australian ambassador to the US, said Kirks death was deeply distressing. There is no place for political violence in any democracy.

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Photo: Matt Golding As the news of Kirks death circulated, another shooting in the neighbouring state of Colorado was unfolding. A male student at Evergreen High School, about 50 kilometres west of Denver, wounded two fellow students before turning the gun on himself, officials said. He died of self-inflicted injuries. Dr Brian Blackwood, head of trauma at CommonSpirit St Anthony Hospital, said one of the wounded students was in a critical condition, while the other students injuries were non-life-threatening. With AP, Reuters Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on whats making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.
ANDOVER, England, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- CloudPay, the global leader in payroll and payment solutions, announced it has achieved a huge milestone in becoming fully certified across all five of Workday's Global Payroll Connect (GPC) features. The certification marks a significant advancement in global payroll integration, offering multinational organisations the latest tech-led unified, real-time payroll experience.

Ahead of the Workday Rising summit on September 15-18 in San Francisco, CloudPay has announced the 5-star certification and unveiled the full availability of Workday's GPC suite across 110 countries, which provides a single source of truth for global payroll customers.

Launch of the latest feature, DCOD, enables customers to synchronize data changes in real-time across payroll and the HCM, creating unprecedented 'single source of truth' views and accelerated deployments. From obtaining local payroll information directly in a single step through Additional Payroll Data (APD) to industry-leading visibility of key payroll data via the Global Payroll Hub (GPH), GPC allows payroll teams to gain greater control over every cycle, with 80% fewer follow-ups and faster payroll close.

CloudPay has been Workday's trusted partner for more than a decade, providing seamless, feature-rich payroll integrations that simplify complex payroll challenges for multinational organisations. Through the combination of CloudPay's market-leading proprietary platform and Workday's advanced HCM capabilities, the strategic partnership enables customers to benefit from a unified, end-to-end payroll experience tailored for global businesses. With over 2,500 Workday integrations and 175 mutual customers worldwide, GPC certification builds on CloudPay's market-leading, real-time payroll experience.

The clearest global payroll visibility and control yet

The launch of DCOD to more than 110 countries builds on the other GPC features, creating a centralised view of vendor activity via the Global Payroll Hub and employee-verified local data through APD. The evolution of its offering means customers will be able to benefit from unprecedented visibility of global payroll processes, and allows payroll teams to further cut manual efforts from error checking and additional runs, while improving data quality.

Roland Folz, CEO of CloudPay, comments:

"Payroll demands accuracy, transparency and agility. CloudPay continues to lead the rest of the market by offering Workday's full GPC suite, including the widest support for the new DCOD feature. We're utilizing the Three As: AI, APIs and automation, to bring the very best integration with Workday features to empower organisations to scale global payroll with confidence.

"CloudPay is redefining what real-time, single-source-of-truth payroll looks like inside Workday, and the certification will allow for further streamlining of complex, multi-country payroll processes into one intuitive Workday interface.

"Ultimately, the certification and ever-strengthening partnership with Workday open up a huge range of possibilities for businesses to significantly scale up productivity and efficiency and better leverage the potential that their pay functions can offer. Our emerging, tech-backed solutions are helping to bring payroll forward from the back office, and convert its outputs and value into a true strategic advantage for businesses"

Workday Rising attendees can see the GPC suite live at Booth D40

Contact: Vickie Collinge, [email protected]
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PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The following Aberdeen Investments U.S. Closed-End Funds (NYSE: ACP, AGD, AOD, ASGI, AWP, THQ, THW and NYSE American: AEF, FAX, FCO, VFL), announced today that the closed end funds in the chart directly below will pay the distributions indicated on a per share basis on September 30, 2025 to all shareholders of record as of September 23, 2025 (ex-dividend date September 23, 2025).

Ticker Exchange Fund Amount ACP NYSE abrdn Income Credit Strategies Fund $ 0.0775 AEF NYSE American Abrdn Emerging Markets ex-China Fund, Inc. $ 0.1700 AGD NYSE abrdn Global Dynamic Dividend Fund $ 0.1100 AOD NYSE abrdn Total Dynamic Dividend Fund $ 0.1000 ASGI NYSE abrdn Global Infrastructure Income Fund $ 0.2100 AWP NYSE abrdn Global Premier Properties Fund $ 0.0400 FAX NYSE American abrdn Asia-Pacific Income Fund, Inc. $ 0.1650 FCO NYSE American abrdn Global Income Fund, Inc. $ 0.0700 THQ NYSE abrdn Healthcare Opportunities Fund $ 0.1800 THW NYSE abrdn World Healthcare Fund $ 0.1167 VFL NYSE American abrdn National Municipal Income Fund $ 0.0500

FCO's shares are currently trading at a premium to net asset value. The Board of Directors believes that the premium at which the Fund shares trade relative to net asset value is not likely to be sustainable. Shareholders participating in the Fund's dividend reinvestment plan should note that at the current market price, the reinvestment of distributions occurs at a premium to net asset value.

At the end of each calendar year, a Form 1099-DIV will be sent to shareholders, which will state the amount and composition of each fund's distributions and provide information with respect to their appropriate tax treatment for the prior calendar year.

Each Fund's distribution policy is subject to modification by the respective Board of Directors/Trustees at any time, and there can be no guarantee that the policy will continue. You should not draw any conclusions about any of these Funds' investment performance from the amount of the distributions.

MANAGED DISTRIBUTION POLICY FUNDS

ANNOUNCE DISTRIBUTION PAYMENT DETAILS

abrdn Global Infrastructure Income Fund ("ASGI")

abrdn Healthcare Opportunities Fund ("THQ")

The above-noted Aberdeen Investments U.S. Closed-End Funds (the "Funds" or individually the "Fund"), today announced that the Funds will pay the distributions noted in the chart above on September 30, 2025 to all shareholders of record as of September 23, 2025 (ex-dividend date September 23, 2025).

Each Fund has adopted a distribution policy to provide investors with a stable distribution out of current income, supplemented by realized capital gains and, to the extent necessary, paid-in capital in reliance on an exemptive order granted by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Under applicable U.S. tax rules, the amount and character of distributable income for each Fund's fiscal year can be finally determined only as of the end of the Fund's fiscal year. However, under Section 19 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the "1940 Act") and related rules, the Funds may be required to indicate to shareholders the estimated source of certain distributions to shareholders.

The following tables set forth the estimated amounts of the sources of the distributions for purposes of Section 19 of the 1940 Act and the rules adopted thereunder. The tables have been computed based on generally accepted accounting principles. The tables include estimated amounts and percentages for the current distributions to be paid as well as for the cumulative distributions paid relating to fiscal year to date, from the following sources: net investment income; net realized short-term capital gains; net realized long-term capital gains; and return of capital. The estimated compositions of the distributions may vary because the estimated composition may be impacted by future income, expenses and realized gains and losses on securities and currencies.

The Funds' estimated sources of the current distributions to be paid and for its current fiscal year to date are as follows:

Estimated Amounts of Current Distribution per Share Fund Distribution

Amount Net Investment

Income Net Realized Short-Term

Gains* Net Realized Long-

Term Gains Return of Capital ASGI $0.2100 $0.0252 12 % $0.0063 3 % $0.0714 34 % $0.1071 51 % THQ $0.1800 - - $0.0018 1 % - - $0.1782 99 %

Estimated Amounts of Fiscal Year to Date Cumulative Distributions per Share Fund Fiscal Year**

to Date

Distribution

Amount Net Investment

Income Net Realized Short-Term

Gains* Net Realized Long-

Term Gains Return of Capital ASGI $2.4400 $0.2928 12 % $0.0732 3 % $0.8296 34 % $1.2444 51 % THQ $2.1600 - - $0.0216 1 % - - $2.1384 99 %

* includes currency gains

** ASGI and THQ have a 9/30 fiscal year end.

Where the estimated amounts above show a portion of the distribution to be a "Return of Capital," it means that Fund estimates that it has distributed more than its income and capital gains; therefore, a portion of your distribution may be a return of capital. A return of capital may occur, for example, when some or all the money that you invested in a Fund is paid back to you. A return of capital distribution does not necessarily reflect the Fund's investment performance and should not be confused with "yield" or "income."

The amounts and sources of distributions reported in this notice are only estimates and are not being provided for tax reporting purposes. The final determination of the source of all distributions for the current year will only be made after year-end. The actual amounts and sources of the amounts for tax reporting purposes will depend upon the Fund's investment experience during the remainder of the fiscal year and may be subject to change based on tax regulations. After the end of each calendar year, a Form 1099-DIV will be sent to shareholders for the prior calendar year that will tell you how to report these distributions for federal income tax purposes.

The following table provides the Funds' total return performance based on net asset value (NAV) over various time periods compared to the Funds' annualized and cumulative distribution rates.

Fund Performance and Distribution Rate Information Fund Average Annual

Total Return on

NAV for the 5

Year Period

Ending

08/31/2025 Current Fiscal

Period's

Annualized

Distribution Rate

on NAV Cumulative

Total Return on

NAV Cumulative

Distribution Rate

on NAV ASGI 9.97 % 11.61 % 10.68 % 10.60 % THQ 4.64 % 12.21 % -14.06 % 11.19 %

1 Return data is net of all fund expenses and fees and assumes the reinvestment of all distributions reinvested at prices obtained under the Fund's dividend reinvestment plan.

2 Based on the Fund's NAV as of August 31, 2025.

Shareholders should not draw any conclusions about a Fund's investment performance from the amount of the Fund's current distributions or from the terms of the distribution policy (the "Distribution Policy").

While NAV performance may be indicative of the Fund's investment performance, it does not measure the value of a shareholder's investment in the Fund. The value of a shareholder's investment in the Fund is determined by the Fund's market price, which is based on the supply and demand for the Fund's shares in the open market.

Pursuant to an exemptive order granted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Funds may distribute any long-term capital gains more frequently than the limits provided in Section 19(b) under the 1940 Act and Rule 19b-1 thereunder. Therefore, distributions paid by the Funds during the year may include net income, short-term capital gains, long-term capital gains and/or a return of capital. Net income dividends and short-term capital gain dividends, while generally taxable at ordinary income rates, may be eligible, to the extent of qualified dividend income earned by the Funds, to be taxed at a lower rate not to exceed the maximum rate applicable to your long-term capital gains. Distributions made in any calendar year in excess of investment in company taxable income and net capital gain are treated as taxable ordinary dividends to the extent of undistributed earnings and profits, and then as a return of capital that reduces the adjusted basis in the shares held. To the extent return of capital distributions exceed the adjusted basis in the shares held, capital gain is recognized with a holding period based on the period the shares have been held at the date such amount is received.

The payment of distributions in accordance with the Distribution Policy may result in a decrease in the Fund's net assets. A decrease in the Fund's net assets may cause an increase in the Fund's annual operating expense ratio and a decrease in the Fund's market price per share to the extent the market price correlates closely to the Fund's net asset value per share. The Distribution Policy may also negatively affect the Fund's investment activities to the extent that the Fund is required to hold larger cash positions than it typically would hold or to the extent that the Fund must liquidate securities that it would not have sold, for the purpose of paying the distribution. Each Fund's Board has the right to amend, suspend or terminate the Distribution Policy at any time.

The amendment, suspension or termination of the Distribution Policy may affect the Fund's market price per share. Investors should consult their tax advisor regarding federal, state, and local tax considerations that may be applicable in their particular circumstances.

Circular 230 disclosure : To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the U.S. Treasury, we inform you that any U.S. tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein.

Aberdeen Investments Global is the trade name of Aberdeen's investments business, herein referred to as "Aberdeen Investments" or "Aberdeen". In the United States, Aberdeen Investments refers to the following affiliated, registered investment advisers: abrdn Inc., abrdn Investments Limited, and abrdn Asia Limited.

Closed-end funds are traded on the secondary market through one of the stock exchanges. A Fund's investment return and principal value will fluctuate so that an investor's shares may be worth more or less than the original cost. Shares of closed-end funds may trade above (a premium) or below (a discount) the net asset value (NAV) of the fund's portfolio. There is no assurance that a Fund will achieve its investment objective. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

Closed end funds | Aberdeen

SOURCE Aberdeen Investments U.S. Closed End Funds
CAMEROUN :: PURS, CRP Leaders Storm Mbanga, Galvanizing Voters Ahead of Presidential Election :: CAMEROON

PURS, CRP Leaders Storm Mbanga, Galvanizing Voters Ahead of Presidential Election

Vow to Bring Change to Cameroon's Agricultural Heart

A new political alliance took its message directly to the people of the Moungo Division last weekend as the Cameroon Reformation Party (CRP) and the United People for Social Renovation (PURS) staged a powerful joint campaign rally in the town of Mbanga. Led by PURS presidential candidate, Serges Espoir Matomba, and CRP leader, Foligar Lang, the coalition galvanized a throng of thousands, urging them to cast their votes for their flag bearer in the upcoming October 12 presidential election. The highly-attended event marked a key moment in their coordinated effort to woo voters and challenge the 43-year reign of Paul Biya.



Speaking to reporters, CRP leader Foligar Lang expressed immense satisfaction with the rally's turnout and the palpable enthusiasm of the crowd. He described the atmosphere as "jam-packed," with an estimated five to six thousand people in attendance, filling the town hall and spilling out into the streets.

"It's something I did not expect from Mbanga itself," Lang said, highlighting the people's warm reception and their evident desire for a fresh political voice.

He emphasized that the alliance was not simply making "vain promises" but was presenting a platform built on "realistic promises" tailored to the specific needs of the agric hub.



The core of the campaign message in Mbanga centered on the town's historical and economic significance. Foligar Lang identified Mbanga as the "hope of Agriculture" and a vital center for farming, drawing people from all over the country. The alliance's key promises directly addressed this, vowing to "soften the grounds politically" by providing essential infrastructure and resources that the long-standing government has failed to deliver. This includes the construction of "farm to market roads," the provision of modern processing materials, and new farming equipment. Lang pledged that, if elected, the alliance would deliver on these promises within a year, a stark contrast to the decades of inaction he attributed to the current regime.



The choice of Mbanga for the rally was a deliberate and strategic move. The town is the hometown of the PURS presidential candidate, Serges Espoir Matomba, a factor that undoubtedly contributed to the massive turnout and the strong show of local support. The alliance between the CRP and PURS, according to Lang, is the "only alliance that is very strong enough and genuine" to successfully challenge the current political establishment and secure victory for their people.



Buoyed by the success in Mbanga, the two leaders announced their next stop on the campaign trail: a rally in Bafoussam in not-too-distant future. The rally is expected to carry the same message of hope and change, with tailored promises to meet the unique needs of the local population.

"We are confident of victory more than ever," Lang concluded urging Cameroonians to be resilient and to not be ashamed of their identity, but to make the right choice at the polls.

He said the alliance is more than ready to deliver a new future for the nation.

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By Jonathan McCambridge, PA

Michelle ONeill and Emma Little-Pengelly have denied that a toxic relationship in the leadership of the Stormont Executive is impacting on delivery.

Northern Ireland's First Minister and deputy First Minister appeared together before their scrutiny committee on Wednesday where they were told the public perception of the Executive is one of unedifying bickering.

MLAs returned to Stormont this week following the summer recess.

However, the two largest parties in the powersharing NI Executive quickly became embroiled in a row over whether the Army should attend a jobs fair.

The Army had been due to attend the event in Derry but withdrew after some Sinn Fein, SDLP, and independent councillors objected.

What we are seeing is a lot of very unedifying bickering between political representatives from both your parties Paula Bradshaw, Executive Office Committee chairwoman

DUP leader Gavin Robinson said earlier this week he believed Sinn Fein vice president Ms ONeill had demonstrated she was not a First Minister for all and needed to show leadership. Ms ONeill responded by telling Mr Robinson to butt out and respect the council decision.

At the start of the meeting, Executive Office Committee chairwoman Paula Bradshaw detailed a number of areas she said the Executive had failed to make progress in.

She said: What we are seeing is a lot of very unedifying bickering between political representatives from both your parties.

I would put it to you that we are not seeing progress on these pieces of work because I think it suits both your parties politically to keep this place divided and to keep people suspicious of each other.

Both Ms ONeill and the DUPs Ms Little-Pengelly said they disagreed with that assessment.

Ms ONeill said: The real work here is about being focused on building a good society, a fair society, an inclusive society.

That means building on good work being done up to this point.

I share some frustration about some things not being able to be done as quickly as I would potentially like them.

Michelle ONeill defended the Executives record of delivery (NI Assembly/PA)

SDLP MLA Sinead McLaughlin asked the First Minister and deputy First Minister how they could improve Executive relations.

She said: I have to say I am really, really dismayed at how toxic this environment is in this place.

We have only returned, this is our third day back and it is not a nice environment.

There is a great deal of toxicity and we can see it quite clearly in ministers statements and statements in the Assembly.

Ms ONeill said: I think the real question for ourselves is are we delivering on a day-to-day basis on the issues we have identified that are our priorities, which is the programme for government  the answer to that question is yes.

It is a shorter mandate, we are halfway through. At that halfway junction I am proud to say that we launched a programme for government. I am proud to say we have secured an additional 1.3 billion in finances for public services, we have launched our childcare package, made huge strides forward.

Have we more to do? Absolutely.

Ms Little-Pengelly said: We will have differences, there will be differences across the parties.

At the heart of all of this, 99 per cent of time is spent getting on with things, pushing things through the department, trying to get that delivery.

Emma Little-Pengelly said she agreed with her party leader regarding his comments over a jobs fair row (NI Assembly/PA)

Ms McLaughlin responded: The wider community are not feeling those measures taken have been successful enough to change their lives.

People are not seeing that advancement and improvement.

Turning to the row over the Army jobs fair, the SDLP MLA asked Ms Little-Pengelly if she agreed with the views expressed by her party leader.

Ms McLaughlin said: If it is your view as well I am concerned we cannot deliver any good targets and outcomes if you are both locked in to a way that is absolutely toxic.

There is no business out there which could do business if directors in the boardroom had that toxic relationship.

Ms Little-Pengelly said: So much of what we have done is showing that collegiate approach, but also dealt with where we have differences in a mature way.

DUP MLA Brian Kingston asked Ms ONeill if she believed people had a right to pursue a career in the armed forces.

Ms ONeill said: The DUP might not like the outcome of the local councillors in Derry City and Strabane, but in my opinion it is the right outcome, it is the right thing to do for the people of Derry, and I think everyone just needs to move on.

For someone who has talked about healing the wounds of the past, you are perpetuating the wounds of the past DUP MLA Brian Kingston

Mr Kingston responded: I think that is an appalling comment.

He added: You are not giving leadership to help society move on.

For someone who has talked about healing the wounds of the past, you are perpetuating the wounds of the past.

Ms Little-Pengelly said: The First Minister referenced in her answer to an earlier question that there shouldnt be any no-go areas and yet the councillors in Derry have created a no-go zone for the British Army.

I think it is absolutely wrong to tarnish the armed forces in this way.

Independent MLA Clare Sugden said the Executive looked volatile.

She said: I think it would be unforgivable if we didnt see out the end of this mandate and I would like to see a commitment from both of you that that wouldnt happen.

She added: There may be four parties but there is one government, and I dont see any form of collective responsibility.

Even listening today it is disappointing at how divided, how polarised, you seem to be.

In the last number of days, weeks and months it feels so toxic, and the people out there dont want to see that from us.
Israel's strike on Qatar and Jim Gavin picked to run for president make the front pages of Wednesday's front pages.

The Irish Times leads with Qatar condemning an Israeli strike on Hamas in Doha.

The Irish Examiner leads with an increase in bills by Energia, as energy price increases are set to be the new normal.

The Echo leads with Cork County Council paying over 3.3 million in insurance claims since 2024.

The Irish Independent leads with Micheal Martin dealt a blow as 29 members of the parliamentary party picked Billy Kelleher over Jim Gavib, who the Taoiseach backed for president.

The Irish Daily Mail reveals Donald Trump's Doonbeg course is set to host the Irish Open next year, with the hope that he will visit the country.

The Irish Daily Mirror and the Irish Daily Star lead with the story that the boy missing, who is presumed dead in Dublin, was secretly buried with his teddy bear.
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Leading Spanish indie studio Uniko has released the first trailer for Decorado, the new animated feature from acclaimed filmmaker Alberto Vazquez, ahead of its world premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin (September 1825).

Vazquez, best known for his features Birdboy: The Forgotten Children and Unicorn Wars as well as several multiple-award-winning shorts, has long pushed the boundaries of adult animation in Europe with his surreal, allegorical storytelling. Decorado expands on his award-winning 2016 short of the same name, turning it into a full-length feature that blends satire, fable, and striking engraving-inspired visuals. The films art direction is led by Jose Luis Agreda, with animation supervised by Pamela Poltronieri.

The story centers on Arnold, a middle-aged mouse facing a cascade of crises: personal, romantic, and existential. As paranoia takes its grip, Arnold begins to suspect that his entire world is an elaborate construct orchestrated by ALMA, a sinister megacorporation. Through this premise, as relevant now as it was nearly a decade ago when the Decorado short impressed at Cannes and Annecy, Vazquez delivers a biting critique of consumerism, conformity, and the erosion of authentic connection.

Metaphor and fable allow us to tell stories from a different place, offering new perspectives on reality, Vazquez says. His choice of animal characters remains central to that vision: Animals are universally understood, deeply rooted in our collective imagination  and more beautiful than humans.

Produced by Abano Producions, Uniko, The Glow, Maria y Arnold AIE, and Sardinha Em Lata, Decorado will debut at Fantastic Fest before heading to the Sitges Fantastic Film Festival in early October for its domestic premiere. Spanish distributor Barton Films will release the feature domestically on October 24, with Le Pacte handling international sales.
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Thailands RiFF Studio has released the first teaser for its upcoming animated horror anthology Dark Dimension, and its as unsettling as anything weve seen in a long time.

Inspired by Netflixs Love, Death + Robots, the seriess first episode, Taxi, follows a late-night driver who picks up an enigmatic passenger on a small side street. The driver quickly becomes lost in Bangkoks labyrinthine alleys before discovering that he and his passenger have crossed into another world.

Eventually, the goal is to produce a full season of six or seven Dark Dimensionsstories, each inspired by and drawing from Thai urban landscapes, forgotten alleys, rituals, and folklore, while tackling social themes such as inequality, obsession, and the meaning of life, according to the studio.

We wanted to create something that blends the cinematic horror tradition of Thailand with the global appeal of anthology animation, similar to Love, Death + Robots, but deeply rooted in Thai identity, explained Veerapatra Jinanavin, director and co-founder of RiFF Studio.

RiFF is one of a number of emerging indie animation studios in Southeast Asia and is interested in developing its own IPs as well as collaborating on international co-productions. The company previously co-produced the Thai-Chinese animated feature Out of the Nest, which screened at Annecy in 2024.

Dark Dimension is being produced with support from Thailands Department of Cultural Promotion, the Ministry of Culture, and THACCA  the Thailand Creative Culture Agency.

No news yet on when Season 1 might be delivered, but well be tracking this project closely and keeping our readers updated with any developments.
Nxtra by Airtel's 44MW sustainable data centre starts construction

TATU CITY, Kenya, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Home to Nxtra by Airtel's 44MW sustainable data centre, Tatu City Special Economic Zone has established itself as East Africa's data centre hub. Nxtra is supported by Tatu City's provision of 95% renewable energy, making the location one of the greenest on earth for data centre investors and clients.

The Nxtra Data Center facility will deliver 44MW of IT power capacity in phases, and house new generation of servers as well as high-density GPU-ready racks with 99.999% uptime, multiple redundant fibre paths, and advanced security systems.

Executives from Airtel, Rendeavour, and Government representatives at the official groundbreaking ceremony of the Nxtra by Airtel Africa 44MW Data Centre at Tatu City SEZ, Kenya. (PRNewsfoto/Tatu City)

Tatu City has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in world-class infrastructure to become East Africa's data centre hub. The city's utilities include a 135MVA power substation and distribution network with 99.7% uptime, the country's only location with 24/7 water supply for industries, comprehensive storm water management, 70km of international-standard roads, and more than 120km of secure underground fibre.

Stephen Jennings, Founder & CEO of Rendeavour, the owner and developer of Tatu City, said: "For more than a decade, we have invested in world-class infrastructure and sustainable energy at Tatu City to make it the natural home for data centres in East Africa. Airtel's decision to locate Nxtra here is a powerful endorsement of this vision. As Nxtra joins over 100 global and local companies already thriving at Tatu City, we are confident that many more data centres will follow. Together, we are building the secure, scalable, and sustainable digital backbone that Africa needs for its economic transformation."

Yashnath Issur, CEO, Data Centre, Airtel Africa, said: "By building the largest data centre in East Africa, we are laying the groundwork for a thriving digital ecosystem that empowers businesses, supports governments, and unlocks new opportunities for communities across the region. Nxtra by Airtel will be built to the highest global standards, ensuring reliability, scalability, and energy efficiency. Beyond capacity, our focus is on sustainability and resilience, enabling customers to fully leverage next-generation technologies in a secure environment."

Tatu City delivers more than 95% renewable energy, making it one of the most sustainable locations for data centres worldwide. One-third of its demand is met directly by solar power. Combined with Kenya's predominantly renewable national grid, Tatu City offers one of the cleanest and most reliable power supplies for digital infrastructure in the world.

Every day, more than 25,000 people live, work, and study at Tatu City. The city is home to 4,500 completed homes, 6,000 students, and businesses representing over KES 400 billion in investment. Businesses operating at Tatu City include Emirates Logistics, Heineken, Cold Solutions, FullCare Medical, Hounen, CCI Global, Dormans, Karcher, Naivas, NCBA, Grit Real Estate Income Group, Hewatele, Freight Forwarders Solutions, Tamarind Group, ADvTECH, Friendship Group, Bakels, Novis, and Davis & Shirtliff.

Companies within the Tatu City SEZ enjoy significant incentives, including a 10% corporate tax rate for the first 10 years and 15% for the following 10 years, compared to the standard 30%. Businesses also benefit from VAT zero-rating on goods and services, as well as exemptions on import duty and stamp duty.

About Tatu City

Tatu City is a 5,000-acre new city on Nairobi's doorstep featuring homes, schools, businesses, a shopping district, a medical clinic, nature areas, and recreation for more than 250,000 residents and tens of thousands of daily visitors. Its schools educate thousands of students daily, and its homes cater to all income levels. Tatu City is Kenya's first operational Special Economic Zone, designed for businesses to thrive. Located just 30 minutes from Nairobi, it offers a live, work, and play environment free from traffic congestion and long commutes.

For more information about Tatu City, visit: www.tatucity.com

For more information about Rendeavour, visit: www.rendeavour.com

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2769970/Tatu_City.jpg

SOURCE Tatu City
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Cement sales in Indonesia amounted to 5.014Mt in June, a drop of 6.3 per cent YoY compared to the 5.353Mt reported a year earlier, according to the Asosiasi Semen Indonesia. Bagged sales accounted for 71 per cent of total sales in June.

All regions except Sumatera and Maluku-Papua reported a contraction in June. Sumatera noted a 0.5 per cent YoY increase in dispatched to 1.114Mt, up from 1.108Mt in June 2024. Maluku-Papua reported a 15.4 per cent YoY increase to 149,480t, up from 129,269t previously.

Java, the countrys largest market, accounting for 53 per cent of all sales, saw dispatches shrink 7.8 per cent YoY to 2.680Mt from 2.906Mt in June 2024. Sulawesi noted a 9.9 per cent YoY decline to 361,187t. Bali-Nustra saw demand slip 0.1 per cent YoY to 335,631t. Kalimantan reported a 20.8 per cent YoY decline to 374,293t, reflecting a slowdown in construction of the countrys new capital.

Cement production in Indonesia rebounded 9.2 per cent YoY to 5.372Mt, from 4.919Mt in June 2024. Blended cement accounted for 3.666Mt or 68 per cent of total production, and OPC the remainder. Clinker production jumped 16.1 per cent YoY to 4.916Mt, down from 4.236Mt previously.

In June, cement exports rose 35.5 per cent YoY 72,746t, up from 53,700t a year earlier. Meanwhile, clinker exports increased 42 per cent YoY to 1.127Mt, up from 793,791t. East Timor was the key destination for cement in June (accounting for 46 per cent of exports), followed by Papua New Guinea (24 per cent), Maldives (16 per cent) and Australia (8 per cent). Bangladesh was the key destination for clinker (accounting for 35 per cent of exports), followed by Taiwan (22 per cent) and Australia (9 per cent).

1H25

Cement sales during 1H25 contracted 2.5 per cent YoY to amount to 27.782Mt, down from 28.486Mt in the same period of 2024.

All regions except Sumatera and Maluku-Papua reported a contraction in 1H25. Sumatera noted a 4.9 per cent YoY increase to 6.295Mt and Maluku-Papua a five per cent YoY rise to 962,301t. Cement sales contracted most in Kalimantan, with a 19.6 per cent YoY decline to 1.991Mt. Java reported a 1.9 per cent YoY fall to 14.552Mt, Sulawesi a 7.9 per cent YoY contraction to 2.243Mt and Bali-Nustra saw a 4.8 per cent YoY decline to 1.739Mt.

Cement production amounted to 28.768Mt in the first half of the year, down 5.8 per cent YoY from 30.534Mt in the same period of 2024. Blended cement accounted for 18.334Mt or 64 per cent of total production, and OPC the remainder. Clinker production amounted to 26.762Mt, up 1.1 per cent YoY from 26.459Mt.

Cement exports amounted to 483,165t in 1H25, down 12.4 per cent YoY, from 551,519t in the same period of 2024. Clinker exports amounted to 6.548Mt, up 21.6 per cent YoY from 5.385Mt previously.

Outlook

After a disappointing first half to the year, the full-year forecast has been revised downwards. Consumption is forecast to contract 3.5 per cent YoY in 2025, adding to the 0.9 per cent YoY contraction reported in 2024. However, cement demand will return robustly in 2026 buoyed by government spending. The IDR3,786.5tn (US$234.39bn) budget for 2026 is 7.3 per cent YoY higher than 2025 spending. Funding for the continued construction of the new capital was also included in the budget, while the governments house building project aims to construct two million dwellings by the end of 2026. Robust economic growth, cooling inflation and looser monetary policy will also help lift the important informal construction sector.
Search for successor underway

DALLAS, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- ATI Inc. (NYSE: ATI) today announced that Executive Vice President - Finance and Chief Financial Officer Don Newman has informed the Company he will retire March 1, 2026. As the Company conducts a search for his successor, Newman will continue to serve as Chief Financial Officer until his retirement date. Following his retirement, he will serve the Company in an advisory capacity for a period of time to allow for a smooth handoff.

Don Newman, ATI Chief Financial Officer, announced his intention to retire March 1, 2026.

"Since joining ATI in 2020, Don has been instrumental in shaping ATI's long-term strategy and strengthening our financial foundation, helping to position the company for continued growth," said Kimberly A. Fields, President and CEO. "Don led the transformation of ATI's balance sheet, including optimizing our capital structure, and returning capital to shareholders through share repurchases. Don was a key partner in shaping ATI's long-term strategic goals, including our transformation to a majority A&D business and driving strong financial performance. On behalf of the Board of Directors and the ATI leadership team, I thank Don for his many contributions and wish him well in retirement. We appreciate his continued partnership through this transition as we execute on our strategy and scale for the next phase of growth."

Newman commented, "It has been an honor to serve as ATI's CFO and to work alongside such a dedicated and talented team. I'm proud of what we've achieved and confident that ATI is well-positioned for continued success. I look forward to supporting a seamless transition and watching ATI thrive in the years ahead."

Rob Foster, ATI Vice President of Financial and Operating Strategies, will lead development of ATI's 2026 financial plan. "Rob most recently served as President of Specialty Alloys & Components and has held leadership roles across every ATI business," said Fields. "His deep cross-business knowledge and proven track record position him well to ensure continuity and momentum."

ATI is engaging a leading executive search firm to assist in the search for its next CFO and will consider both external and internal candidates. The Company is focused on identifying a proven finance leader with deep operational experience and a strong track record of performance in complex industrial or aerospace environments.

ATI today reiterated its guidance for the third quarter and full year 2025.

ATI: Proven to Perform

ATI (NYSE: ATI) is a producer of high-performance materials and solutions for the global aerospace and defense markets, and critical applications in electronics, medical and specialty energy. We're solving the world's most difficult challenges through materials science. We partner with our customers to deliver extraordinary materials that enable their greatest achievements: their products fly higher and faster, burn hotter, dive deeper, stand stronger and last longer. Our proprietary process technologies, unique customer partnerships and commitment to innovation deliver materials and solutions for today and the evermore challenging environments of tomorrow. We are proven to perform anywhere. Learn more at ATImaterials.com.

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Certain statements in this news release relate to future events and expectations and, as such, constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements, which may contain such words as "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "expects," "would," "should," "will," "will likely result," "forecast," "outlook," "projects," and similar expressions, are based on management's current expectations and include known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which we are unable to predict or control. Our performance or achievements may differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements due to the following factors, among others: (a) material adverse changes in economic or industry conditions generally, including global supply and demand conditions and prices for our specialty materials and changes in international trade duties and other aspects of international trade policy; (b) material adverse changes in the markets we serve; (c) our inability to achieve the level of cost savings, productivity improvements, synergies, growth or other benefits anticipated by management from strategic investments and the integration of acquired businesses; (d) volatility in the price and availability of the raw materials that are critical to the manufacture of our products; (e) declines in the value of our defined benefit pension plan assets or unfavorable changes in laws or regulations that govern pension plan funding; (f) labor disputes or work stoppages; (g) equipment outages; (h) business and economic disruptions associated with extraordinary events beyond our control, such as war, terrorism, international conflicts, public health issues, such as epidemics or pandemics, natural disasters and climate-related events that may arise in the future and (i) other risk factors summarized in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 29, 2024, and in other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We assume no duty to update our forward-looking statements.

SOURCE ATI
A North Georgia man has been sentenced to 30 years with 10 years to serve in the Georgia Department of Corrections for causing a wreck that killed one member of a family and injured several others.

Following a four-day trial before Superior Court Judge Brian House, a Chattooga County jury returned guilty verdicts on all 10 counts against Daniel James Craig for his role in the head-on collision on Taylors Ridge.

The charges included homicide by vehicle in the first degree, serious Injury by vehicle, and multiple counts of DUI.

The collision occurred on July 20, 2017, at the top of Taylors Ridge.

Prosecutors said evidence at trial showed that in the early morning hours, Craig had been drinking until approximately 4 a.m. At 6:47 a.m., his vehicle was seen by a civilian witness who testified at trial that he was traveling erratically - running off the road four to five times, striking a guardrail, and then crossing the center line. He collided head-on with the Vaughn family vehicle.

Opal Vaughn, a back-seat passenger, was killed on impact.

Kenneth Vaughn, the driver, survived but sustained multiple fractured ribs.

Michael Vaughn, the front-seat passenger, suffered a fractured hip and additional rib fractures.

Two other civilian witnesses testified that they spoke with the defendant immediately after the crash. He admitted to them that he had been drinking alcohol with friends and they testified that he smelled of alcohol at the scene.

Georgia State Patrol Trooper Lee Bowden testified that at the hospital he could also smell alcohol coming from the Defendant and that the defendant had bloodshot and watery eyes. A blood draw performed at 9:30 a.m. measured the defendants blood alcohol concentration (BAC) at .05. A crime lab expert testified about retrograde extrapolation, explaining that with the standard metabolism rate of .015 per hour, the Defendants BAC at the time of the 6:47 a.m. crash would have been above .08, the legal limit.

The jury also heard that in 2023 - after this fatal crash - Craig pled guilty to a separate DUI charge in Kentucky.

While District Attorney Clayton Fuller cross-examined the defendant at trial, he told jurors that his guilty plea in Kentucky was his greatest regret in life. DA Fuller said, "This, incredibly, was rather than the life he took and the devastation he caused to the Vaughn family in this case."

Craig admitted he had been arrested for DUI in Tybee Island, Ga., just 20 days before the fatal accident.
Performers were announced for the 2025 IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards presented by Git It Played. The Awards show, co-hosted by celebrated actor/comedian/banjoist Steve Martin and trailblazing banjoist, industry powerhouse Alison Brown will take place Sept. 18 at 7:30 p.m. in Chattanooga at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium.Fans can attend the IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards in person; tickets are available to purchase through Ticketmaster here Volume.com will also carry the livestream: https://volume.com/t/H61kYJ/.Everyone is excited to be hosting the IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards in Chattanooga, said Jill Snider, executive producer of the Awards show. Our host announcement of Steve Martin and Alison Brown has generated a lot of buzz for the show, and they will be featured in two performances, along with their hosting duties. Three of our Entertainer of the Year nominees will perform: The Del McCoury Band, East Nash Grass and Appalachian Road Show.Scheduled to perform, in addition to Steve Martin & Alison Brown, The Del McCoury Band, East Nash Grass and Appalachian Road Show, are Jason Carter & Michael Cleveland, Della Mae with special guests, Wyatt Ellis, Rainy Miatke, Kristin Scott Benson, Gena Britt and many more.This show always has unique collaborations and special performances," said Ms. Snider. "One highlight will be the Della Mae performance, which is part of the 100-year tribute to Hazel Dickens that has had a limited run across venues and festivals this year. There will be some surprises for our attendees, and collaborations that fans will not be able to see on any other stage.Additionally, new Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame inductees Hot Rize and The Bluegrass Cardinals will perform, along with a performance by Dom Flemons to honor inductee Arnold Shultz. It's especially exciting for newer fans or younger generations to have the opportunity to see Hot Rize or The Bluegrass Cardinals perform, said Ms. Snider. These reunions are a rare treat and a chance to say, I was there when.Presenters include Sierra Hull, Jim Lauderdale, Doyle Lawson, Sister Sadies Deanie Richardson and Dani Flowers, and Special Consensus Greg Cahill; additional presenters will assist with onstage duties that evening.Officials said, "The 2025 IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards is part of IBMA World of Bluegrass, in partnership with Chattanooga Tourism Co. and Tennessee Department of Tourist Development, which runs Sept. 16-20. The week, the most important in bluegrass music, encompasses four events: the IBMA Business Conference, Sept. 16-18 at the Chattanooga Convention Center; the IBMA Bluegrass Ramble, an innovative series of showcases taking place Sept. 16-18 in local Chattanooga venues; the 36th Annual IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards, presented by Get It Played, scheduled for Thursday evening, Sept. 18 at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium; and IBMA Bluegrass Live!, Sept. 19-20, a two-day festival of live performances and fan experiences."Tickets are on sale for all IBMA World of Bluegrass events; visit worldofbluegrass.org for details.
Former Regional Planning Agency Executive Director Dan Reuter has written officials of bond rating services that Hamilton County and the city of Chattanooga face huge backlogs of infrastructure needs, while further pushing residential growth.

He cited recent approval of the Plan Hamilton, as amended by homebuilders and realtors, by the County Commission and the Planning Commission.

Mr. Reuter, who said earlier he was asked to step down from his RPA post, said the county and city have no way to pay for the infrastructure needs other than to raise taxes.

He also said Hamilton County currently has a system of volunteer fire departments, but he said that "cannot be sustained" as further development occurs out in the rural county.

Mr. Reuter said keeping up with infrastructure needs "is a core aspect of economic stability" for a local government.

Here is his letter to Moody's:

Gregory Sobel, Lead Analyst, Regional PFG Northeast Moody's Investors Service, Inc. 7 World Trade Center 250 Greenwich Street New York, NY 10007

Dear Mr. Sobel,

During the past 35 years I have worked in local government and regional transportation planning and administration in Athens-Clarke County, Savannah-Chatham County, Glynn County, Douglas County and 17 years with the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) in the State of Georgia. I have worked with five (5) federally designated transportation Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO) in Georgia and during the past 3.5 years in Tennessee as Director of the City of Chattanooga and Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency (RPA). I am a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners (FAICP) and have served 15 years on the American Planning Association (APA) Legislative and Policy Committee. I taught a graduate Growth Management and Law course as an Adjunct Professor at both Georgia State College of Law and Georgia Institute of Technology. It is with this background which I must provide this letter on a matter that concerns me. While serving as RPA Executive Director, with the support of a private industry consultant, Ragan Smith, RPA reviewed the transportation needs for Hamilton County government including local roads (www.PlanHamilton,org). There has been no other comprehensive evaluation of Hamilton County roads completed to evaluate current and future needs.

It is my professional opinion based on the research undertaken by RPA and Ragan Smith that Hamilton County has a 20-year minimum backlog of local road maintenance, improvements, safety and drainage concerns which are not addressed that create a future financial and liability risk. Furthermore, Hamilton County has few legal options available to raise funds to meet these needs without a further increase in taxes.

RPA functions under an interlocal agreement between Chattanooga and Hamilton County and manages the regional MPO which Catoosa and Walker County in Georgia. The City of Chattanooga, Hamilton County and north Georgia counties make up the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) with more than 600,000 residents. City of Chattanooga with 189,000 is approximately 1/3 of the MSA, 1/3 of Tennessee residents in the MSA live in Hamilton County outside of Chattanooga and 1/3 of residents live in north Georgia counties.

Under Tennessee law, cities and counties have no funding source for local road improvements, drainage or construction similar to the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) that was enacted in Georgia in 1985. Chattanooga and Hamilton County have no significant local government transportation funding and thereby less competence in managing major road improvement projects.

Hamilton County has a volunteer fire department system of operations which cannot be sustained as the urban residential growth expands across the county. The Regional Planning Commission for Hamilton County recently adopted a new Comprehensive Plan on September 8th which furthers residential development without addressing any new sources of funds for roads, drainage improvements or fire services. The financial and underfunded capital needs in Chattanooga and Hamilton County are unprecedented in the southern U.S. for an MSA in my professional opinion.

The financial capacity for a local government to manage growth through maintenance and improvements of roads, drainage and fire services is a core aspect of economic stability. In Hamilton County, I believe under 2025 construction costs, there are many hundreds of millions of dollars needed for unmet and unprogrammed improvements to infrastructure which are being pushed to the future as more growth and development has been encouraged by Hamilton County government officials. The health and safety of the driving public and non-drivers in the county is a primary concern; therefore it cannot be overstated the lack of roadway and safety improvement funds creates the potential for dangerous future road conditions.

These issues as well as the limited legal options which exist for Hamilton County to expand funding for capital improvements under Tennessee law should be taken into consideration during the future credit evaluations to secure debt. I appreciate your time and attention to this issue. If I can assist you in any way in the future, please let me know.

Dan Reuter, FAICP

Here is his letter to S&P:

Geoffrey E Buswick, Primary Credit Analyst S&P Global One Financial Center 675 Atlantic Avenue Boston, MA 02111 Dear Mr. Buswick, During the past 35 years I have worked in local government and regional transportation planning and administration in Athens-Clarke County, Savannah-Chatham County, Glynn County, Douglas County and 17 years with the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) in the State of Georgia. I have worked with five (5) federally designated transportation Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO) in Georgia and the past 3.5 years in Tennessee as MPO Director of the City of Chattanooga and Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency (RPA). I am a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners (FAICP) and have served 15 years on the American Planning Association (APA) Legislative and Policy Committee. I taught a graduate Growth Management and Law course as an Adjunct Professor at both Georgia State College of Law and Georgia Institute of Technology.

It is with this background which I must provide this letter on a matter that concerns me. While serving as RPA Executive Director, with the support of a private industry consultant, Kimley Horn, RPA reviewed the transportation needs for City of Chattanooga government including local roads (www.PlanChattanooga.org). There has been no other comprehensive evaluation of Chattanooga roads completed to evaluate current and future needs. It is my professional opinion based on the research undertaken by RPA and Kimley Horn that the City of Chattanooga has major local road maintenance, needed improvements, public road safety/operational and drainage projects and concerns which are not addressed that create a future financial and liability risk. Furthermore, City of Chattanooga has few legal options available to raise public funds to meet these needs without a further increase in taxes.

RPA functions under an interlocal agreement between the City of Chattanooga and Hamilton County and manages the regional MPO which Catoosa and Walker County in Georgia. The City of Chattanooga, Hamilton County and north Georgia counties make up the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) with more than 600,000 residents. City of Chattanooga with 189,000 is approximately 1/3 of the MSA, 1/3 of Tennessee residents in the MSA live in Hamilton County outside of Chattanooga and 1/3 of residents live in north Georgia counties. Under Tennessee law, cities and counties have no funding source for local road improvements, drainage or construction similar to the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) that was enacted in Georgia in 1985.

Chattanooga and Hamilton County have no significant local government transportation funding and thereby less competence in managing major road improvement projects. The financial and underfunded capital needs in Chattanooga and Hamilton County are unprecedented in the southern U.S. for an MSA in my professional opinion. The financial capacity for a local government to manage growth through maintenance and improvements to roads and drainage is a core aspect of economic stability.

In the City of Chattanooga, I believe under 2025 construction costs, there are many hundreds of millions of dollars needed for unmet and unprogrammed improvements to infrastructure which are being pushed to the future as more growth and development has been encouraged by Chattanooga government officials. The health and safety of the driving public and nondrivers in the city is primary concern; therefore, it cannot be overstated that the lack of roadway, intersection and pedestrian safety improvement funds creates the potential for dangerous future road conditions.

These issues as well as the limited legal options which exist for City of Chattanooga to expand funding for capital improvements under Tennessee law should be taken into consideration during the future credit evaluation to secure debt. I appreciate your time and attention to this issue. If I can assist you in any way in the future, please let me know.

Dan Reuter, FAICP

Here is his letter to Fitch:

Arthur Tildesley III, CFA, Director Primary Rating Analyst Fitch Ratings, Inc. Hearst Tower 300 W. 57th Street New York, NY 10019 Dear Mr. Tildesley, During the past 35 years I have worked in local government and regional transportation planning and administration in Athens-Clarke County, Savannah-Chatham County, Glynn County, Douglas County and 17 years with the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) in the State of Georgia. I have worked with five (5) federally designated transportation Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO) in Georgia and the past 3.5 years in Tennessee as MPO Director of the City of Chattanooga and Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency (RPA). I am a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners (FAICP) and have served 15 years on the American Planning Association (APA) Legislative and Policy Committee. I taught a graduate Growth Management and Law course as an Adjunct Professor at both Georgia State College of Law and Georgia Institute of Technology.

It is with this background which I must provide this letter on a matter that concerns me. While serving as RPA Executive Director, with the support of a private industry consultant, Kimley Horn, RPA reviewed the transportation needs for City of Chattanooga government including local roads (www.PlanChattanooga.org). There has been no other comprehensive evaluation of Chattanooga roads completed to evaluate current and future needs. It is my professional opinion based on the research undertaken by RPA and Kimley Horn that the City of Chattanooga has major local road maintenance, needed improvements, public road safety/operational and drainage projects and concerns which are not addressed that create a future financial and liability risk.

Furthermore, City of Chattanooga has few legal options available to raise public funds to meet these needs without a further increase in taxes. RPA functions under an interlocal agreement between the City of Chattanooga and Hamilton County and manages the regional MPO which Catoosa and Walker County in Georgia. The City of Chattanooga, Hamilton County and north Georgia counties make up the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) with more than 600,000 residents. City of Chattanooga with 189,000 is approximately 1/3 of the MSA, 1/3 of Tennessee residents in the MSA live in Hamilton County outside of Chattanooga and 1/3 of residents live in north Georgia counties. Under Tennessee law, cities and counties have no funding source for local road improvements, drainage or construction similar to the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) that was enacted in Georgia in 1985. Chattanooga and Hamilton County have no significant local government transportation funding and thereby less competence in managing major road improvement projects.

The financial and underfunded capital needs in Chattanooga and Hamilton County are unprecedented in the southern U.S. for an MSA in my professional opinion. The financial capacity for a local government to manage growth through maintenance and improvements to roads and drainage is a core aspect of economic stability. In the City of Chattanooga, I believe under 2025 construction costs, there are many hundreds of millions of dollars needed for unmet and unprogrammed improvements to infrastructure which are being pushed to the future as more growth and development has been encouraged by Chattanooga government officials. The health and safety of the driving public and nondrivers in the city is primary concern; therefore, it cannot be overstated that the lack of roadway, intersection and pedestrian safety improvement funds creates the potential for dangerous future road conditions.

These issues as well as the limited legal options which exist for City of Chattanooga to expand funding for capital improvements under Tennessee law should be taken into consideration during the future credit evaluation to secure debt. I appreciate your time and attention to this issue. If I can assist you in any way in the future, please let me know.

Dan Reuter, FAICP
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga will host the Meacham Writers Workshop from Sept. 24-27, a four-day series of free readings, discussions and literary events that connect nationally recognized authors, local voices, students and the community.The Meacham Writers Workshop, created through an endowment established by the late Jean Meacham in memory of her husband, Ellis K. Meacham, has long connected UTC with the Chattanooga community while promoting writing as an expressive art, officials said.All events are free and open to the public, with books available for purchase at most sessions. Event details and registration links are available at go.utc.edu/meacham.This is a great opportunity for people to meet and celebrate writers while also improving their own writing if they want, said UC Foundation Professor Sybil Baker, workshop director and associate chair of the UTC Department of English. Because all of our events are free and open to the public, the workshop is accessible to people of all ages and interests.This falls workshop places a spotlight on community, highlighting new book releases from UTC faculty and celebrating the work of alumni and local writers alongside visiting voices.A centerpiece of the schedule is a Sept. 25 reception and book launch featuring UTC faculty Karen Babine and Andrew Najberg, and this years Stove Works Meacham Fellow Andrea Jurjevic.Ms. Jurjevic, born in Rijeka, Croatia, is a bilingual poet, translator and visual artist. Her collections include In Another Country, Small Crimes, and Nightcall, and her translations have been shortlisted for national awards. Her work has appeared in The Believer, The Missouri Review and The New Republic, among others. She teaches at Georgia State University and serves as poetry editor of Josephine Quarterly.Were thrilled to have Andrea as our Stove Works Meacham Fellow, Ms. Baker said. Shes a talented cross-genre writer who also works as a visual artist, and her perspective as an immigrant and bilingual writer brings something unique to this years program.The workshop schedule includes: Wednesday, Sept. 24: Sequoya Review Reading, 5:30-7 p.m., Guerry Center Reading Room. Thursday, Sept. 25: Reception and book launch, 5-7 p.m., Roth Reading Room (fourth floor, UTC Library), featuring Karen Babine, Andrea Jurjevic and Andrew Najberg. Friday, Sept. 26: Reading, noon-1:30 p.m., Lupton Hall lobby, with Justin Wymer, Alex Quinlan and Kris Whorton. Friday, Sept. 26: Reading and reception, 5-7 p.m., Stove Works (1250 E. 13th St.), with Edwin Murillo, Gwen Mullins and UTC alum Jared Steiman. Saturday, Sept. 27: Lupton Hall first floor, 9-10 a.m. individual conferences; 10-11 a.m. Walnut Street Publishing panel; 11 a.m.-noon Narrative 4 Story Exchange facilitated by Gwen Mullins.Ms. Baker said the 2025 lineup features multicultural and multilingual voices. Mr. Murillo, a professor of Spanish at UTC, writes and publishes in both English and Spanish. Mr. Steiman will present translations from Spanish, and Ms. Jurjevic adds another global perspective through her Croatian heritage and translation work.Sponsors for the Fall 2025 Meacham Writers Workshop include Stove Works, UTC English Department, College of Arts and Sciences, Advancement, Alumni Affairs, Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures and the Honors Program.
This combination highlights Ampleo's commitment to delivering full-stack marketing that combines strategic leadership with seamless execution.

LEHI, Utah, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Ampleo, a leader in fractional finance, marketing and HR services, has acquired Avalaunch Media, a nationally recognized marketing agency best known for SEO, traditional and paid media, content and brand storytelling. Avalaunch brings a unique fractional CMO-led model, making this acquisition a major step in Ampleo's mission to deliver full-stack, embedded marketing teams to companies across the country.

The team at Avalaunch Media, pictured above, has been acquired by Ampleo.

This expansion builds on Ampleo's growing marketing division, launched in 2023, and follows its acquisition of Stage Marketing late last year. It also marks the company's first acquisition since securing private equity funding in June 2025. Joining forces will raise the standard for SMB growth, embedding fractional leadership across marketing, finance and HR with the specialist execution to move faster and achieve better results without adding headcount.

"Smaller companies often lack the marketing talent they need to scale successfully," said Joe Grover, Chief Growth Officer at Ampleo. "More than 80% of small businesses fail  and we believe that's simply unacceptable. Our mission is to ensure that every company, regardless of size, can access the expertise and execution needed to survive and grow. We're obsessed with supporting entrepreneurs, founders and operators as a true extension of their teams."

Avalaunch Media has spent 20+ years building an award-winning, fractional agency that has served thousands of B2B, B2C and DTC clients nationwide. In the past two years, Avalaunch expanded its leadership bench with seasoned CMOs, further strengthening results for clients. Its model  pairing strategic leadership with executional depth  mirrors Ampleo's own evolution and creates a powerful alignment. This fractional-led, agency-backed marketing solution is precisely what small and medium-sized businesses need.

"There couldn't be a stronger combination," said David Mink, Avalaunch's cofounder and CEO. "Avalaunch's roots are in execution, enhanced by fractional CMO leadership. Ampleo started with fractional CMO expertise and expanded into services. Bringing Ampleo Marketing, Stage Marketing and Avalaunch Media together creates a first-of-its-kind platform to help small and scaling companies thrive."

As part of the acquisition, David Mink will continue leading Avalaunch Media and will assume the role of president of Ampleo Marketing. The co-founders and management team of Avalaunch Media will remain in their current leadership roles at the company.

"We're grateful for the continued leadership of Avalaunch's founders as we expand our marketing division," said Lincoln Howell, CEO of Ampleo. "The foundation of Ampleo is its people, and Avalaunch's team is a perfect cultural and strategic fit. Together, we'll deliver the caliber of service and outcomes our clients have come to expect across all of our business units."

Ampleo's embedded model has long been recognized for integrating fractional leaders directly into client teams across finance, HR, marketing and other critical functions. With Avalaunch, Ampleo reinforces its brand promise: to remove barriers between growing companies and the expertise and execution they need to scale smarter, faster and with the confidence that comes with experience.

About Ampleo

Ampleo has spent more than 30 years helping small and scaling companies break through barriers to growth. Backed by private equity and trusted by over 14,000 companies nationwide, Ampleo provides seasoned operators in finance, HR and marketing, along with sales tax compliance and business valuation services. Our experts integrate directly into teams, delivering measurable impact without the cost of full-time hires. From early-stage startups to high-growth enterprises, Ampleo brings strategy through execution that scales with business. Learn more at ampleo.com .

About Avalaunch Media

For over 20 years, Avalaunch Media has helped ambitious brands break through growth barriers with embedded senior marketing leadership and full-service execution. Based in Utah and trusted by companies across the US, Avalaunch blends fractional CMO services with an agency of specialists in traditional and paid media, content, SEO, design and development. Our fractional-led, agency-backed model ensures that you get both strategic vision and tactical execution  without the overhead of building a full in-house team. For small and medium companies, Avalaunch charts the course, executes the plan and drives measurable results that move your business forward. Visit avalaunchmedia.com to learn more.

SOURCE Ampleo
Charlie Kirk, CEO of Turning Point USA, has tragically died after being shot by an assassin at Utah Valley University in Orem on September 10, 2025. | Photo Credit: Facebook/ Charlie Kirk

Conservative activist and author Charlie Kirk, 31, has died after being fatally shot by an assassin while speaking at a Turning Point USA event at a university in Utah.

Kirk was supervising a question-and-answer session with students at Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday when gunfire erupted.

Bystanders reported seeing Kirk get shot near his neck, according to Deseret News and videos shared on X. In response to the incident, the campus was placed on lockdown.

It is currently unknown whether the shooter has been apprehended.

President Donald Trump announced on his Truth Social account that Charlie Kirk has died, stating he did not survive the fatal gunshot at the "The American Comeback Tour" event hosted by TPUSA at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.

Trump wrote: The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. 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. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!

Kirks visit to UVU was part of his The American Comeback Tour. He is a co-founder and leader of Turning Point USA, known for visiting college campuses and engaging in debates with liberal students.
Screenshot: Google Play/ Faithly

Designed for ministry leaders, staff, and volunteers, former Wall Street finance veteran Alicia Lee and her team introduced the Faithly mobile app at the Sing! conference in Nashville, Tennessee, last week.

Lee states that it was the Lord who gave her the idea to create a LinkedIn-style social media platform for professionals who serve the Church.

The platform aims to help pastors, chaplains, ministry leaders, volunteers, worship directors, seminary educators, and related professionals find opportunities and connect.

It enables users to search for others in the faith community, advertise and search for job postings, create events and groups, and offer encouragement and support.

The Lord gave me this idea to create something like LinkedIn for those who serve the church, Lee, Faithly's co-founder and CEO, told The Christian Post. She explains that she was specifically motivated to start the company after having a vision from the Lord.

I don't really have a background in something like this, she added, noting her nearly 20 years of experience working at Goldman Sachs on Wall Street.

Unlike other social media platforms that market themselves to Christians, Lee said Faithly is different because it is not 'traditional social media.

It's not people sharing photos with their family or making social connections, she explained. On Faithly, we're connecting on the basis of ministry, on serving the Church.

Although Faithly has been available since 2022 on desktop, laptop computers, and mobile browsers, the launch of its mobile app marks a new phase for the platform.

[We] were really kind of intentionally quiet in our first couple of years because we're building something that we don't think has ever been built before, and we wanted to do it really thoughtfully, and we wanted to build something that would really serve the kingdom. We finally reached the stage where we do want to get the word out. Lee continued.

In her statement shared with CP, Lee explained her motivation for starting Faithly. For nearly twenty years, LinkedIn has been the go-to professional network, while industries like medicine, education, and law now have platforms built specifically for their needs, Lee stated.

Yet ministry  one of the most relational and trust-driven callings  has been left without a dedicated digital space, she lamented. Faithly was created to change that.

Three years after its initial launch and a week after rolling out its mobile app, Lee estimates Faithly has around 3,000 users. Launching the mobile app is expected to boost engagement by enabling features such as push notifications and making chat more accessible and user-friendly.
Rev. Dr. Samuel J. Quire, Jr., UMC Bishop of the Liberia Episcopal Area. | Photo Credit: Liberia Annual Conference official website

Judge George W. Smith of the 6th Judicial Circuit, Civil Law Court in Liberia, issued a decision last month stating that the United Methodist Church (UMC) has rightful control over several church properties, not the Global Methodist Church (GMC).

The GMC and Rev. Jerry P. Kulah hold no legal or equitable right, title or interest in UMC Liberia Annual Conference properties, including worship centers, schools, hospitals and other facilities, Smith ruled.

Smith also stated that forfeited all beneficial ownership and interest when the GMC leadership disaffiliated from the UMC, describing their claims to the properties as legally unfounded.

The UMC Liberia Annual Conference, the trustee, holds its properties in trust for the use and benefit of its members, present and future, Smith added, aligning with Liberias Civil Procedure Law.

UMC Bishop Samuel J. Quire Jr. of the Liberia Episcopal Area expressed optimism about the ruling, stating it has helped to ease tensions and prevent further confrontations with those contesting the churchs properties, according to UM News.

Last year at the UMC General Conference, delegates voted to remove from the UMC Book of Discipline bans on same-sex marriage ceremonies, the ordination of noncelibate homosexuals, and funding for LGBT advocacy groups. The UMC also omitted a statement declaring homosexuality incompatible with Christian teaching during those revisions.

These changes largely resulted from the disaffiliation of around 7,500 predominantly conservative churches in recent years, amid many progressive leaders' refusal to enforce existing discipline on LGBT issues.

In June 2024, shortly after the changes, Bishop Quire announced that his conference would keep the traditional rules regarding marriage and ordination.

However, many believed that the West African regional body should leave the UMC due to the General Conference vote, and argued that church properties should be transferred to the GMC of Liberia.

Rev. Jerry Kulah, leader of the GMC of Liberia, claimed that Quire had previously agreed that the regional body would leave the UMC if the denomination changed its stance on sexuality and LGBT issues.

Bishop and all of us agreed that the day the UMC worldwide passes this law, we will leave from there (UMC), Kulah said in recent remarks, according to the Monrovia-based Women Voices Newspaper in March.

Bishop is on video, where he went from church to church, district to district, to inform the districts that when this happens, the UMC Liberia will leave.  We have chosen not to follow him.
Home News 5 things to know about the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska

Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, 23, was murdered on a light rail train in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Aug. 22.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department released a statement informing the public that DeCarlos Brown Jr., 34, had been arrested for the crime after being discharged from a local hospital, where he was treated for non-life-threatening injuries and charged with first-degree murder.

Although the murder happened over two weeks ago, the tragedy is only now gaining national attention following the release of security camera footage showing the moments immediately before and after the crime. The Trump administration is also weighing in on the circumstances that led to the murder.

The murder of someone who fled a war-torn region by a criminal with a lengthy record comes at a time when the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict, as well as debates about law enforcement and criminal justice, are dominating American political discourse. Zarutskas murder has led to calls for changes in the criminal justice system.

Here are five things to know about Iryna Zarutska, the suspect and what authorities are saying about their investigations.
Home News Candace Owens, Charlie Kirk condemn Israeli airstrike that killed Christians sheltering in Gaza church

Conservative political commentator Candace Owens urged Christians to speak up against the recent bombing of the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrios in Gaza, which killed 18 people taking shelter inside when it was hit by an Israeli airstrike last week.

"I have been disgusted by the propagandists pretending a Christian church was not bombed," Owens wrote Monday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. "Christians were killed. No Christian should stay silent."

Well said, Charlie. I have been disgusted by the propagandists pretending a Christian church was not bombed.



Christians were killed.

No Christian should stay silent. https://t.co/KoB9HYKxsK  Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) October 23, 2023

Later posting in response to a user who suggested her comment about the Gaza church was anti-Semitic, Owens wrote, "Respectfully, if you think its antisemitism to notice that innocent Christians were killed in an IDF bombing then you need to log off of the internet and have your brain examined. Respectfully."

Respectfully, if you think its antisemitism to notice that innocent Christians were killed in an IDF bombing then you need to log off of the internet and have your brain examined.



Respectfully. https://t.co/Q4GVhVnjcL  Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) October 23, 2023

Owens' tweet was in response to a lengthy statement posted to X by Turning Point USA President Charlie Kirk, who said he was "disappointed by Israel's response" and called for answers regarding the church bombing.

"What intelligence was Israel responding to; what target were they going after that justified putting a historic church in danger?" Kirk wrote in part.

"Israel says the church blast is 'under investigation.' But contrition and a full accounting should be the top of Israel's priority list. Israel quickly apologized recently when it mistakenly targeted an Egyptian position. Christians around the world are Israel's number 1 ally, and if a Christian church was targeted, we need to know exactly why and how."

Until now I've refrained from tweeting about the damage done to the 12th-century Greek Orthodox church of St Porphyrius in Gaza. After last weeks hospital fiasco, I wanted to wait for more facts to be established. But it now seems confirmed that Israel did actually bomb a  Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) October 23, 2023

The Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrios was reportedly sheltering approximately 500 Palestinian Christians and Muslims when it was damaged during an overnight Israeli airstrike last Friday, according to a statement from the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which accused Israel of a "war crime."

The Hamas-run health ministry claimed that at least 16 Palestinian Christians were among the 18 people killed in the blast, according to The Washington Post. At least 20 others were injured. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) noted that a portion of the church complex had been hit during an airstrike targeting Hamas military compounds but maintained that the church was not the intended target.

"As a result of the IDF strike, a wall of a church in the area was damaged. We are aware of reports on casualties. The incident is under review," the IDF told Agence France-Presse, adding that they "can unequivocally state that the Church was not the target of the strike."

Justin Amash, a Palestinian-American who formerly represented Michigan in the U.S. House of Representatives, announced on social media that several of his relatives had been seeking refuge in the church when they were killed in the blast.

Israel has carried out retaliatory airstrikes since Hamas tortured and murdered more than 1,400 civilians, including at least 32 Americans, in southern Israel on Oct. 7. The terrorist group wounded thousands of civilians and took some 222 people hostage.

More than 4,100 Palestinians have been killed since airstrikes began, and more than 13,000 injured, according to Hamas.
Home News Nicaraguan Catholic lawyer dies in custody with body showing signs of torture

A Catholic lawyer has died in police custody in Nicaragua, the second such death in the span of a week. The incident is the latest in a series of disappearances and alleged abuses under the regime of President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo.

Carlos Cardenas Zepeda, a legal advisor to the Nicaraguan Episcopal Conference, was detained for the second time on Aug. 19 at his home in Managua. Twelve days later, on Aug. 30, his family was summoned by officials to identify his body, after being kept in the dark about his whereabouts, El Pais reported.

Cardenas Zepedas body was reportedly found bearing visible signs of physical torture.

The case follows the death of another political prisoner, Mauricio Alonso Petri, a 64-year-old man whose body was found in the morgue after 38 days of enforced disappearance. He had been taken without explanation, and his family was only contacted for identification and immediate burial, under police surveillance.

Both deaths occurred amid government escalation of short- and long-term enforced disappearances.

The rise in disappearances began around July 19, when Ortega and Murillo marked the 46th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution, launching a new wave of arrests seen as part of a larger succession effort.

The Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners, a monitoring group, recorded at least 33 arrests during that period. Five of those cases involved entire families, including a 12-year-old girl detained along with her parents in Jinotepe, shortly after the state confiscated the Catholic-run Colegio San Jose school on Aug. 12.

Relatives of detainees have refrained from going public out of fear. One source close to the families was quoted saying that police enter homes without warrants and make arrests regardless of age. Anyone who intervenes or questions the authorities is threatened with imprisonment.

Some of those arrested are being held at the Directorate of Judicial Assistance, also known as El Chipote Nuevo.

Families allege that detainees are being tortured. One source was quoted saying that those held there have undergone intimidating interrogations and physical assaults, with signs of torture observed on some detainees.

Among the cases that drew public attention was that of 30-year-old doctor Yerri Estrada, arrested at his hospital in Granada on Aug. 13. His mother, Rosa Ruiz, who has been searching for him since, believes he was targeted for his role in protests and as a member of the opposition coalition Blue and White National Unity.

She was told he is at El Chipote Nuevo and that his fingernails had been torn off, his fingers bandaged from electric shocks, and his face swollen and disfigured.

Of the 73 political prisoners being held in Nicaragua, nearly half are unaccounted for, according to the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners.

Cardenas Zepedas death brings the number of known fatalities in custody under Ortegas regime to at least six since 2019.

Two of the previous victims were prominent Sandinistas: Hugo Torres, who had once saved Ortegas life, and Humberto Ortega Saavedra, the presidents brother and a retired general who had distanced himself from the government.

A report by a coalition of exiled NGOs, released days after Alonso Petris death, documented torture methods, including simulated drowning, beatings, hanging, forced positions, and sexual violence, reportedly used by Nicaraguan authorities. Other tactics cited were threats to family members, sleep deprivation, and extreme food and water restrictions.

The Catholic Church has long been at odds with the Ortega administration, particularly since the 2018 protests over pension and social security reforms. That year, some churches sheltered student protesters and faced reprisals. In 2019, the government revoked the legal status of La Roca de Nicaragua Church Association.

In March of this year, Nicaragua withdrew from the United Nations Human Rights Council, two days after a U.N. report accused the regime of suppressing human rights and religious freedom. U.N. expert Ariela Peralta said at the time that the Nicaraguan government appeared to be at war with its own people, a claim the administration denied, calling the report slander.

Religious institutions, particularly Catholic ones, have been disproportionately affected by a 2018 law regulating foreign funding for NGOs. That law has enabled the government to shut down thousands of organizations. Catholic groups have faced bans on processions, close surveillance, and restrictions on clergy movement and activities, according to the U.K.-based group Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

In a report titled Total Control: The Eradication of Independent Voices in Nicaragua, CSW documented 222 cases of religious persecution, including the arbitrary detention of 46 religious leaders in 2024. Some were released quickly, while others remain in custody.
Home News Charlie Kirk, 31, killed in shooting at Utah Valley University TPUSA event Gov. Spencer Cox says shooting was a 'political assassination'

Updated at 6:30 p.m. ET, Sept. 10, 2025: Utah Gov. Spencer Cox described the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk as a "political assassination" during a press briefing late Wednesday. Cox added that a person of interest is in custody, but did not confirm whether that person is the shooter.

Updated at 4:45 p.m. ET, Sept. 10, 2025:President Donald Trump confirmed on his Truth Social account that Charlie Kirk has died after being fatally shot in a targeted attack at the "The American Comeback Tour hosted by TPUSA at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has called it a political assassination. Kirk's death was also announced live to listeners of his radio broadcast and confirmed by Salem Media Group.

The president wrote: "The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. 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. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!"

It is unknown at this hour whether or not the shooter has been apprehended.

Updated at 4:05 p.m. ET, Sept. 10, 2025: Charlie Kirk is reported to be in critical condition. Despite earlier reports that a suspect had been taken into custody, it is believed that the shooter has not been apprehended.

Kirk's wife, Erika, posted a Bible verse on her social media, writing: Psalm 46:1 - God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."

Original report:

Conservative activist and author Charlie Kirk, 31, was shot while speaking at a Turning Point USA event at a university in Utah, with a suspect reportedly being taken into custody.

Kirk was overseeing a question-and-answer session with students at Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday when a shot rang out.

Bystanders reported seeing the renowned conservative activist get shot near his neck, according to Deseret News and videos shared on X. The campus was put on lockdown in response to the incident.

This is horrific, tweeted conservative Christian activist and former Trump administration official William Wolfe. Hes a husband and a father. Please pause and pray right now that the Lord would preserve his life.

A conservative media personality who co-founded and leads Turning Point USA, Kirk is known for visiting college campuses and participating in debates with liberal students. It was reported that before he was shot, he was engaged in a dialogue about the recent prevalence of trans-identified mass shooters.

Kirks visit to UVU was part of his "The American Comeback Tour. An online petition opposing Kirk's appearance on campus received over 900 signatures. However, the university released a statement last week citing its commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.

The Christian conservative himself noted the scant opposition to his forthcoming events in the state, writing on social media last week: Whats going on in Utah?

This is a developing story.
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NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ --

WHAT: On September 9, the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) presented ACT 5, the 2025 Fashion Design Master of Fine Arts (MFA) graduate runway show, spotlighting the collections of 18 emerging designers. This culminating presentation in the days leading up to New York Fashion Week showcases each student's individual journey through creativity, culture, and craftall developed over two years in FIT's dynamic Fashion Design MFA program.

"The 18 talented designers in our 2025 MFA Fashion Show prove that they are ones to watch in the world of global fashion," said Dr. Joyce F. Brown, president of FIT. "Launching their inaugural collections as part of New York's celebrated Fashion Week is a remarkable opportunity to showcase their talents before the biggest names in the businessand we are proud, for the second time, to be hosting the runway show right here on the FIT campus."

"We are so proud to share the thesis collections of our 18 Master of Fine Arts graduates during New York Fashion Week," said Cathleen Sheehan, chair and professor, Fashion Design MFA program, FIT. "The show represents the finale of their FIT journey as they launch their careers and join the ranks of our award-winning program alumni. We look forward to seeing what they do next."

The designers shared the following collective statement: "Act 5 marks the closing chapter of our shared journey as FIT Fashion Design MFA studentsa time defined by experimentation, introspection, and vision. Like the fifth act of a play, this moment is one of resolution, reflection, transformation, and revelation. Although we have arrived at this point through different stories and paths, we are bound by a shared purpose: to push fashion beyond the familiar and into the realm of dialogue. Each designer brings a distinct world to life, united by a desire to stretch the limits of what fashion can expressacross memory, culture, technology, and form. From the deeply personal to the radically futuristic, our studio unfolds onto a stageoffering a view of who we have become and a bold introduction to what comes next. Together, we invite you to our final act as a classnot an ending, but the moment before the curtain lifts once more."

FIT's Fashion Design MFA is the newest of seven programs in its School of Graduate Studies. In the two-year program, students conduct rigorous research that culminates in the creation of eight-look collections, thesis papers and presentations, videos, look books, brand business plans, and portfolios. Graduates leave the program prepared to make a positive impact as industry professionals by working within existing fashion companies or launching their own brands.

FIT has been a leader in career education in art, design, business, and technology throughout its history. Providing its approximately 9,000 students with a distinctive blend of hands-on, practical experience, theory, and a firm grounding in the liberal arts, the college offers a wide range of affordable programs that foster innovation and collaboration.

DESIGNERS:

Yawen Chen, Runtan Desmond Du, Evelina Epp, Mai Nou Her, Ethan Horing, Layla Dian Jin, Luna Eunsol Kang, Mina Khademi, Genevieve Zhuoran Li, Jinling Li, Matilda Tongying Liang, Peng Han Beckham Lin, Lawson Park, Amrutha Ramkumar, Jackie Schmidt, Sanyam Sharma, Kiki Wanjing Zuo, Peichen Zhou

Meet the Designers

CONTACT:

[email protected]

About FIT

A part of the State University of New York (SUNY), the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) has been a leader in career education in art, design, business, and technology throughout its history. Providing its approximately 9,000 students with an uncommon blend of hands-on, practical experience, theory, and a firm grounding in the liberal arts, the college offers a wide range of affordable programs that foster innovation and collaboration. Its distinctive curriculum is geared to today's rapidly growing creative economy, including fields such as computer animation, toy design, production management, film and media, and cosmetics and fragrance marketing. Internationally renowned, FIT draws on its New York City location to provide a vibrant, creative community in which to learn. The college offers nearly 50 majors and grants AAS, BFA, BS, MA, MFA, and MPS degrees, preparing students for professional success and leadership in the new creative economy. Among notable alumni in fashion are Calvin Klein, Michael Kors, Reem Acra, Brian Atwood, Dennis Basso, Francisco Costa, Norma Kamali, Nanette Lepore, Bibhu Mohapatra, Ralph Rucci, John Bartlett, Peter Do, Daniel Roseberry, Victor Glemaud, Grace Chen, Randy Fenoli, Zaldy Goco, Ivy Ross, and Michelle Smith. Other prominent graduates include Leslie Blodgett, creator of bareMinerals; international restaurant designer Tony Chi; and Nina Garcia, editor-in-chief, ELLE. Visit fitnyc.edu.

Generous show sponsors include Armani Beauty; Bumble and bumble; Marcello Costa; Essie; and Valentino Beauty.

SOURCE Fashion Institute of Technology
Home News 'Willfully blind': Christians condemn Tucker Carlson's claim Judea and Samaria are like Narnia, 'not real'

Christian supporters of Israel are pushing back against Tucker Carlsons claim that using terms like Judea and Samaria instead of the West Bank is like referencing the fictional world of Narnia, along with other remarks the political pundit made during a podcast with a recently fired U.S. State Department press officer.

The former Fox News host released on Friday his interview with Shahed Ghoreishi, a contractor who had previously worked for the Bureau of Near East Affairs. During the interview, Ghoreishi reiterated his claim that the State Department had fired him following disputes over the language and terminology used in statements about Israel.

Ghoreishi cited several events that he believes resulted in his termination. One involved a reported dispute between him and David Milstein, a spokesman and senior advisor to the Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, over the use of Judea and Samaria instead of the West Bank in a press statement.

Milstein is also the stepson of conservative radio host and Fox News commentator Mark Levin. Ghoreishi claimed that Milstein preferred the State Department use wording that was also being applied by the more extreme wing of the Israeli government.

Just to be clear, again, putting Judea and Samaria in an official U.S. government communication, it's like using the term Narnia or something, Carlson said to Ghoreishi's agreement. It's not a real place.

Luke Moon, the executive director of The Philos Project, a nonprofit organization that equips Christians seeking to support Israel and the Jewish people, asserted that anyone who has read the Bible knows Judea and Samaria are not fairy tales. Moon told The Christian Post that the regions are the real heartland of Israel.

These are the same hills where Abraham walked, where David tended sheep, where prophets thundered the Word of God, Moon said. The only people who believe Judea and Samaria to be fictional names are the ones whove never opened the Book they claim to believe in.

Susan Michael, president of the U.S. branch of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, also disagreed with the comparison of Judea and Samaria to Narnia. In a statement to CP, Michael noted that these terms have been used since biblical times and that the State of Israel still uses them today.

By contrast, West Bank only describes the brief 19-year period of Jordanian occupation, she said. It is far more accurate to call the region Judea and Samaria, the biblical heartland of Israel.

Another incident that Ghoreishi asserted led to his firing was a draft response to a question about reports of Israel relocating Gazans to South Sudan. In the draft, Ghoreishi wrote that the Trump administration does not support the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.

Ghoreishi previously told The Associated Press that he drafted the statement in response to a media inquiry regarding discussions between Israel and South Sudan about potentially relocating Gazans to the East African country.

The UK Lawyers for Israel, an association of legal professionals that combat what they perceive as misinformation, noted in its analysis of international law and the war in Gaza, that Israel has previously relocated Gazans with the stated aim of reducing the number of civilian casualties.

A third event that Ghoreishi believes resulted in his firing involved reported disagreements over whether the State Department should express sympathy for journalists killed in Gaza, such as Anas al-Sharif, an employee of Al Jazeera, a Qatari-government-run news outlet, who the Israel Defense Forces killed in a strike back in August.

According to Ghoreishi, a senior official told him to be cautious about expressing condolences for these reporters and their families until more information was released about their possible associations with Hamas. Ghoreishi then cast doubt upon the Israeli militarys claim that reporters like al-Sharif are affiliated with Hamas, the terrorist group that has controlled the Gaza Strip since it took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007.

The whole justification for all this, you just said it, Carlson said. These journalists get blown up. They were Hamas. OK, end of conversation.

In his statement to CP, Moon contended that evidence is overwhelming that many of the so-called journalists killed in Gaza had ties to Hamas.

They held cameras by day and rifles by night, Moon stated. The evidence here is in such abundance that it is impossible to consider the ignorance as anything other than malice.

In August, the watchdog group HonestReporting condemned multiple mainstream media outlets for their reporting on the death of al-Sharif after the IDF released its intelligence that claimed to show the man was the head of a Hamas terrorist cell. The IDF also claimed that al-Sharif was responsible for advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and its soldiers.

At one point during the interview, Carlson and Ghoreishi discussed the violence and harassment against Christians in the region. Carlson also accused Israel of using U.S. tax dollars to persecute Christians, asserting that self-described Christians and Christian leaders in the West dont seem to care.

No one can plausibly claim that a Christian family is in Hamas, Carlson argued. You can't claim that they're in Hamas while simultaneously claiming that Hamas is, you know, a group of jihadis.

They're Islamic extremists, which they also claim constantly, which I don't know if that's true, by the way, Carlson continued. Seems more like a political organization, but whatever it is, they're telling us constantly they're al-Qaeda.

While Moon agreed that Christians in the Middle East are under siege, an issue that he asserted deserves more attention than it receives, he questioned why Carlson doesnt appear concerned for persecuted Christians when Jews arent involved.

And lest we forget, the only true threat to Christians in the Middle East is radical Islamists who want to erase Christians from the region entirely, Moon told CP. We must not pretend otherwise.

Moon added that not only are there Christians who support Hamas, but there are also Christians in the Middle East who have started terrorist groups, such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Tucker clearly has no clue how religious identity works in the Middle East. Out there, Christian can be nothing more than a tribal label, not a statement of faith, Moon stated.

Regarding the political pundit questioning Hamas classification as a terrorist organization, Moon asserted that only someone who is willfully blind could ignore the rapes, beheadings and shootings of suspected collaborators and mass murders they proudly broadcast to the world.

When even Hamas calls itself radical Islamist extremists, maybe take them at their word, Moon asserted.

Multiple militants affiliated with Hamas filmed themselves as they carried out their attacks against the Jewish State on Oct. 7, 2023, an assault that led to the massacre of around 1,200 people and the abduction of over 240 others, including 40 Americans, as hostages.

In response to Carlson, the ICEJ USA president highlighted how Israel expressed remorse after stray munition hit the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza earlier this summer, which resulted in the deaths of three Christians. The Israeli Prime Ministers office released a statement at the time, declaring that Every innocent life lost is a tragedy.

Michael also stressed in her statement to CP that Israel affirmed at the time that it never targets churches or religious sites. She added that, after the stray munition hit the Holy Family Catholic Church, the IDF reinforced measures to protect sensitive locations.

Finally, there should be no confusion about Hamas. Its own charter calls for the genocide of the Jewish people, and on October 7, 2023, it carried out barbaric atrocities against innocent civilians  slaughtering families, kidnapping children and terrorizing communities, Michael stated.

Hamas routinely embeds its fighters and weapons in hospitals, schools and even places of worship, cynically using civilians as shields, she added. These actions leave no doubt: Hamas is not a political movement but a terrorist organization by its own words and deeds.

In response to an inquiry about Ghoreishi, the State Department directed CP to a Friday X post by Tommy Pigott, the principal deputy spokesperson for the Department of State.

While the social media post didnt reference Ghoreishi by name, Pigott alluded to a former contractor who he claimed had been working to derail the Presidents agenda. The spokesperson also accused the contractor of attempting to slander Huckabee and Milstein.

This former contractor admitted himself that he was attempting to put guardrails on the administration of the duly elected President of the United States, Pigott wrote. That was the reason he was fired. Anything implying otherwise is a complete fabrication.
Home News GOP, Democratic leaders react to Charlie Kirk shooting

Updated at 6:30 p.m. ET, Sept. 10, 2025: Utah Gov. Spencer Cox described the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk as a "political assassination" during a press briefing late Wednesday. Cox added that a person of interest is in custody, but did not confirm whether that person is the shooter.

Updated at 4:45 p.m. ET, Sept. 10, 2025: President Donald Trump confirmed on his Truth Social account that Charlie Kirk has died after being fatally shot in a targeted attack at the "The American Comeback Tour hosted by TPUSA at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has called it a political assassination. Kirk's death was also announced live to listeners of his radio broadcast and confirmed by Salem Media Group.

The president wrote: "The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. 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. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!"

The president has also ordered all U.S. flags to be lowered to half-staff starting on Sept. 14.

It is unknown at this hour whether or not the shooter has been apprehended.

Original report:

Republicans and Democrats reacted Wednesday to the shooting of conservative Christian activist Charlie Kirk, who was reportedly shot in the neck during a Turning Point USA event in Utah.

Kirk, 31, was overseeing a question-and-answer session with students at Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday when a shot rang out. His condition was unknown at the time. He was then reported as being alive and in critical condition at an area hospital.

An older male suspect was reportedly taken into custody at the event, but later it was revealed that he was not the shooter and was released and charged with obstructing justice. It was later reported that the shooter has not been apprehended, but a person of interest is in custody.

Kirk, who is a renowned conservative media personality who co-founded and leads Turning Point USA, frequently visits college campuses and participates in debates with liberal students.

It was reported that before he was shot, he was engaged in a dialogue about the recent prevalence of trans-identified mass shooters.

Here are reactions to Kirks shooting from U.S. officials on both sides of the aisle.
Home News House of David star Michael Iskander opens up about conversion to Catholicism, says album in the works (exclusive)

DALLAS, Texas  Michael Iskander, star of "House of David," reflected on the parallels between his own spiritual growth, including his recent conversion to Catholicism, and the biblical king's journey before the launch of the hit series' second season.

"David kind of already expedited a faith journey that I was on," the 23-year-old actor, who plays David in the Amazon Prime series, told The Christian Post at the red carpet premiere of the film "Triumph of the Heart."

"I recently became Catholic three weeks ago, and it's been an enormous blessing in my life."

Iskander, who was born in Egypt and moved to the United States at age 9, announced his conversion to Catholicism from Coptic Orthodox Christianity on social media last month. He asked followers to pray for him as he continues his "walk with God."

"Just learning about David, for me, is learning what it is to be human and to make mistakes and to find God's grace," he said. "All of us are on that journey, so that is a journey I'm continuing, and I hope David inspires people to look to Christ."

Iskander is gearing up for the second season, which will premiere on Wonder Project's new streaming channel on Amazon's Prime Video.

The series, created by "Jesus Revolution" director Jon Erwin and Jon Gunn, was filmed in Greece and Canada and follows the story of the Old Testament shepherd who used a sling and a stone to defeat the giant Goliath before assuming King Saul's throne.

Erwin previously told CP that viewers familiar with the Bible may already know the key events  David's rise from shepherd to king, his defeat of Goliath and his tumultuous relationship with Saul  will learn something new about the scriptures by watching the show.

"Even if you know your Bible well, we wanted to surprise the audience constantly with plot twists and character interactions," he said. "That was one of the joys of this project, telling a story everyone knows but making it feel new and fresh."

"There's so much more to David's story than just the famous Goliath battle," he continued. "We have the chance to show what happens in between, and bring those parts of the story to life in a new way."

According to Iskander, season two is the culmination of one of the Old Testament's most famous lines: "Saul killed his thousands, David his tens of thousands."

"The first season was really about this young shepherd boy, this teenager, trying to find himself and what God wants from him, what is his destiny and what is the will of God. But he was a little kid. Season two is about David coming into his own and stepping into God's will for him and becoming that warrior."

"The inner politics behind this young boy becoming very famous, and the king becoming very, very jealous," he added.

Iskander, a talented musician who starred in the award-winning musical "Kimberly Akimbo" before "House of David," also revealed there is a "House of David" album in the works. The actor, who plays both the piano and guitar, sings in several scenes of season one.

"House of David," along with "The Chosen," was one of the most popular shows on Prime Video earlier this year, becoming the No.1 show on the platform as new episodes were released. It amassed an audience of over 40 million.

According to Iskander, the success of the series reflects a larger cultural moment as faith-based films and biblical epics see greater visibility in media.

"It kind of started with 'The Chosen,' 'The Chosen' kind of paved the path for a lot of other creators. And it showed that there is an audience. There are people who want to see biblical stories and faith-based stories," he reflected.

"'House of David' was the show to come after that.  I mean, we're very lucky that there's some truly phenomenal filmmakers out in the world that are creating art for God and inspiring people through that art."
Home News Jerry Falwell Jr. and Charlie Kirk started a think tank and called it 'Falkirk'



A new center at Liberty University is opening to combat the idea that, among other things, Jesus was a socialist.

The think tank, called the Falkirk Center for Faith and Liberty, was announced Saturday by its founders Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University, and Charlie Kirk, founder of the conservative student group Turning Point USA.

The goal of the new organization, Kirk told the Washington Examiner Saturday, is to play offense against both leftists and the dilution of Judeo-Christian principles in the Bible and Constitution in their quest to build support for a larger government.

The fastest-growing religion in America is atheism and secularism and with that is the rise of leftism and statism and, as people veer away from the church and veer away from the Judeo Christian values that built our country, people are more likely to embrace statism, he said in an interview with the outlet.

Were in a culture battle right now where you have to fight and play offense, and part of this effort is to try and play offense against the secular Left.

Kirk, 26, explained that the center hopes to respond to the question of whether or not Jesus Christ was a socialist, a question he is often asked.

Falwell explained in a Fox & Friends interview Monday, Kirk came to him with the idea months ago.

"It's sort of sad that we have to do something like this. It's a free service to the public. But it's just to provide basic education to the public on American history because so many universities have become liberal indoctrination camps, the public schools have not taught U.S. history in so long," he said.

"Young people don't understand it, the whole idea of the American experiment was based on the Judeo-Christian ethic, was based on the idea of free enterprise, limited government, and the idea that all of our rights come from our Creator, not from government, not from a church."

Contrary to the assertions of politicians such as U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and presidential candidate and South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg that Jesus was charitable and thus we should all be socialists, Falwell continued, "that's not what Jesus taught."

"It's basic history 101 that has not been taught in recent decades," he said.

Kirk added that young Christians are confused about how to make choices in the civic arena. Thus, the partnership with Falwell and the new organization will serve to explain the link between the Gospel of Jesus Christ and America's founding freedom.

The Falkirk Center for Faith and Liberty is being launched amid a documented decline in identification with the Christian faith among the young alongside a concurrent rise in affinity for socialism. Recent data also shows a notable dislike for church involvement in the political sphere.

In a Pew survey published in November, 63 percent of respondents said they wanted religious groups to keep out of political matters and 76 percent opposed churches endorsing political candidates.

An October YouGov-Victims of Communism poll found that 70 percent of millennials  who range in age from 23 to 38  said they were either somewhat or extremely likely to vote for a socialist candidate. Fifty-seven percent of millennial respondents also said they believe the Declaration of Independence better guarantees freedom and inequality over the Communist Manifesto, compared to 94 percent of the silent generation, the eldest generation of Americans.
Home News LoveSong founders on why time is ripe for another Jesus Movement, reflect on Chuck Girards legacy (exclusive)

Jay Truax and Tommy Coomes were on the frontlines of the Jesus Revolution of the 1960s, when a handful of long-haired hippies in Southern California became the unlikely soundtrack to a spiritual awakening.

More than five decades later, the two surviving co-founders of the band LoveSong believe the time is ripe for another one.

The time is ripe, Truax told The Christian Post. Ive been a Christian since I was 19, 20 years old, and Ill be 78 coming up in September. You take for granted the fact that you know the Lord, but at this time, if I werent a Christian, I dont know what I would be thinking. Theres so much division, theres so much hatred, theres so much false stuff. Its perplexing to me. I believe that the time is right for another outpouring. And I think its happening in places.

Coomes added: My message to the Church is, do what happened in the Jesus Movement. You older people, facilitate what the young people are hungry for. Dont ignore it, dont push them out. People fed us, they never condemned us or scolded us. They saw that God was doing something. My problem sometimes with the Church is that we dont know how to talk to non-Christian people like our neighbors. I dont care where it is, if youre going to Starbucks, be friendly, make a bridge.

That longing for revival drives A Band Called LoveSong: The Music & Movement of the Jesus Revolution, a three-part docuseries premiering Sept. 19 on Prime Video and SalemNOW.

The series traces how five musicians  Truax, Coomes, Chuck Girard, Fred Field and John Mehler  traded LSD and nightclubs for Bibles and baptism services, helping spark what historians call Americas largest spiritual awakening.

Truax remembers the pivot vividly. He recalled dropping out of high school, spending his days surfing and experimenting with drugs while immersing himself in the music of the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix.

By 1967, he had fallen in with a group of Christian hippies that included Chuck Girard and Denny Carell. Though the band dabbled in mescaline and peyote, they were also drawn to the teachings of Jesus in the red-letter portions of the Bible.

I really believe  that Denny Carell actually led me to the Lord in 67, Truax said. So my life has changed.

Meanwhile, Coomes own searching spanned continents. He served in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Germany from 1967 to 1969, and remembers seeing Jimi Hendrix perform in Stuttgart and sensing a broader restlessness among his generation.

Everybody was kind of feeling the same thing worldwide, he said, describing a cultural revolution where millions of young people were convinced theres got to be something better.

When he returned to California, he and his friends hit rock bottom. It seemed like everything we looked into was just a dead end, he said. And a friend came down to see us from Pasadena  told us about this little church called Calvary Chapel and the hippie preacher. We were curious enough to go down there one time, and these people just welcomed us. Church was not the place we were looking for answers. Within a month, four of us out of the six that were living together got saved.

From those conversions, LoveSong was born.

We were standing in the kitchen in Laguna Beach  going, we got to get out of this drug culture, Coomes recounted. We had already written about six spiritual songs that were about Jesus. We just sat there and said, weve got to tell our generation about Jesus. Weve got to make a record. And thats what we did. There was no contemporary Christian music model.

The documentary shows how, once formed, LoveSong didnt resemble anything the American Church had seen. Their reception in churches was often frosty. Well, you know what? Church shocked us too, Coomes laughed.

Truax recalled the suspicion they faced: Wed be in the back room praying and really scared, and we would go like, we have nothing in common with these people. They already hate us. And within three songs, people would be crying. Also, the Holy Spirit would help them understand we werent against them. We were for them.

Sometimes the culture clash was unintentional comedy. Truax reflected on the night Field testified at a Seventh-day Adventist church that hed been delivered from vegetarianism. The congregation, many of them vegetarians, burst out laughing.

More than half a century later, A Band Called LoveSong frames those stories within the broader sweep of American religious history. The film includes rare footage and interviews with artists such as Michael W. Smith, Jeremy Camp and Phil Keaggy, as well as archival appearances by Chuck Smith and reflections from evangelist Greg Laurie, who came of age in the movement (as shown in the hit 2023 film "Jesus Revolution.")

We look at this as a true historic document, Coomes said. This is real history. Some scholars say this may be the biggest spiritual awakening thats ever happened in America, and I would not limit it to America.

The release comes just weeks after the death of Girard, the bands frontman, and, according to his bandmates, serves as a tribute to the storied musician.

Im just happy that he got to see the film completed before he passed, Coomes said. It is largely about honoring him now, but its been an eight-year project, and the last four have been really intense.

According to his bandmates, Girard remained deeply involved until the end. Were jaded because we know every little, tiny thing in here, every edit, every photo, for eight years. You wouldnt believe our Zoom calls, Coomes said. The Beatles used to say, if we dont all agree on something, we dont do it. And thats kind of our approach on this, too.

The duo shared how the process of creating the documentary required meticulous archival work  clearing photos, securing footage and stitching together 50 years of history.

Everything surprised me, Truax said. We had to clear photos from 50-something years ago  it was very, very expensive. I know we spent way more on post-production than we did on the production.

The series closes with the question: Will there be another Jesus Movement?

Coomes pointed to the energy of youth, recalling Billy Grahams words at Explo 72: Theres enough power in the stadium to change the world.

These revivals tend to happen with youth. As we get older, we get focused on work, vacation, retirement. Young people are free. My message to the church is, facilitate what the young people are hungry for. Adopt them, feed them, love them, he said.

Truax underscored the urgency; after years of avoiding churches, he still remembers the emptiness of walking into sanctuaries where no one greeted him. When you walk into a place where you sense Gods presence  you get curious enough to start coming back, he said.

And I hope that happens with young people. Its not rocket science. Love God, love people. Teach the word, pray for people. Pretty amazing.

Our hope and our prayer, Coomes said, How long has it been, Lord? Do it again.

A Band Called LoveSong: The Music & Movement of the Jesus Revolution will be available for streaming on Prime Video via Prime Video Direct, and SalemNOW starting Sept. 19.
Home News Man with 'she/her' pronouns arrested for 'sexual assault of a toddler' in her own home Police won't say if suspect is listed on sex offender registry

A Canadian man who is reportedly listed on a national child abuser registry and identifies as a "she/her" on social media is facing rape and other charges after allegedly breaking into a home and sexually assaulting a small child.

Authorities say 25-year-old Daniel Senecal was arrested Aug. 31 after paramedics responded to a medical assistance call "involving a child under the age of 5" in the city of Welland, located in southern Ontario, according to a news release.

Officers with the Niagara Regional Police Service (NRPS) arrived at the home and found the front door had "signs of having been forced open," according to a NRPS spokesperson. Investigators then identified the victim, who suffered from "serious injuries" and was transported to a nearby hospital in stable condition, police said.

According to police, the suspect broke into the home between 10 p.m. on Aug. 30 and about 9 a.m. on Aug. 31. He allegedly sexually assaulted the child while her parents were in the home.

"While inside the residence, unbeknownst to the parents, their child was sexually assaulted," a NRPS spokesperson said.

Investigators say they reviewed video surveillance footage and identified Senecal, who was later arrested. A police spokesperson says Senecal was "known to the family for a short time" before the attack. Senecal faces charges including aggravated sexual assault on a person under 16, assault, assault by choking, breaking and entering and sexual interference with a person under 16.

A GoFundMe page created by Koreen Perry, who identified herself as a local business owner and friend of the victim's family, shared more details on the alleged attack and said the victim was a 3-year-old girl.

"On Saturday, August 30th, 2025 while single mom, A W, of 2 girls (3 yrs & 5 yrs) slept comfortably in their beds, a child predator had his own plans to break into their apartment and sexually assault the 3 year old girl who we will refer to as 'E'," Perry wrote. "Unable to make a sound, he choked her making it impossible to scream. She laid there all night and didn't move out of fear."

According to Perry, Senecal was introduced to the family by a babysitter who knew he was on the Child Abuse Registry but believed he was trustworthy.

"[Daniel] was just released from jail in March 2025. He was given rules to stay away from children and not to be online. He completely disregarded his probation rules," Perry wrote.

CP reached out to NRPS to confirm whether Senecal is listed in the child abuse registry. NRPS spokesperson Stephanie Sabourin provided the following comment: "Due to a publication ban on this matter, I'm limited in what I am authorized to share. I cannot comment on the accused's [sic] past criminal history, and under the Sex Offender Registry Act I am not permitted to identify those who are considered registered sex offenders."

According to the Canadian Department of Justice, a publication ban is a court order which "prevents anyone from publishing, broadcasting, or sending any information that could identify a victim, witness, or other person who participates in the criminal justice system," and is "intended to allow victims, witnesses, and others to participate in the justice system without suffering negative consequences."

Following Senecal's arrest, reports surfaced of a Facebook profile with Senecal's name in which the user identifies as "Dani" and has emojis of the LGBT rainbow flag and the transgender sign in the page's profile section. The page lists Senecal's pronouns as "she/her."

In December 2023, Senecal was found guilty of sexual assault in a September 2021 incident and ordered to comply with the Sex Offender Information Registration Act as one of the conditions for release in March 2024, according to court documents cited by Canadian outlet Global News.

In response to the attack, Welland Mayor Frank Campion released a statement describing the "sexual assault of a toddler" as a "horrific act that is impossible to fathom."

"The love and compassion we have for our children, and our concern for their well-being, is beyond words, and to think of a young child being harmed in this way shakes every parent to their core," the mayor added.
Home News Texas Senate OKs bill empowering Texans to sue abortion pill manufacturers, distributors

A bill passed by the Texas Senate would allow any Texan to sue a manufacturer or distributor shipping abortion pills to or from the state.

Under House Bill 7, a new enforcement mechanism would allow citizens to file civil lawsuits against any company or organization that transports chemical abortion pills into Texas or distributes such drugs within the state. In a chemical abortion, women are given two drugs to terminate their unborn child: mifepristone (RU-486) and misoprostol.

Initially introduced by state Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, the bill, which the upper chamber passed in a 17-8 vote on Sept. 3, would ensure a pregnant woman or one of her family members who won a lawsuit would receive a payout of at least $100,000.

If any person other than a pregnant woman or a member of her family successfully sues, they would be required to donate the bulk of the payout to a charity.

HB7 is a revised version of Senate Bill 2880, which was also introduced by Hughes earlier this year. The version of HB7 passed by the Senate removed or modified several provisions in the previous bill.

After passing in both chambers, the bill now heads to the desk of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who is expected to sign the legislation.

Following the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade's declaration that abortion is a national right, abortion in Texas is illegal. Texas passed a bill in 2021 that effectively banned most abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy, after a fetal heartbeat can be detected.

HB 7 would not apply to legal uses of the abortion pills, which can be indicated in some medically necessary abortions and have other, non-abortive applications.

While it's not clear how Texas plans to enforce HB 7 if signed into law, Attorney General Ken Paxton has faced legal hurdles in his efforts to enforce the law prohibiting out-of-state providers from mailing abortion pills to Texans.

Last December, Paxton sued a New York doctor for allegedly mailing pills from New York to a 20-year-old woman in Collin County. After taking the medication while nine weeks pregnant, the woman began to suffer severe bleeding and had to be hospitalized, according to the suit.

Upon introducing the bill in August, Hughes told lawmakers that data from insurance claims show that these pills can have more complications than surgical abortions. He also claimed he did not author HB 7 to create any criminal or civil penalties for women who buy or use these pills.

"The moms are victims here," Hughes said at the time. "What we will go after with SB 6 is the manufacturers and the distributors of these drugs that are making them for the purpose of illegal abortions."

A similar bill, SB 1278 by state Sen. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, was vetoed by Abbott in June over concerns such a bill might allow trafficking victims  or those claiming to be  to use this defense for any offense, even crimes like murder or kidnapping, committed under the duress of their traffickers.

Despite the passage of HB 7 and a near-total ban, the number of abortions performed in Texas by the end of 2024 outpaced monthly totals before the Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs decision, according to a report from the pro-abortion Society for Family Planning.
Home News Trump's border czar Tom Homan defends strike on drug smugglers amid criticism

White House border czar Tom Homan has defended a U.S. military strike that killed 11 alleged drug traffickers tied to the transnational gang Tren de Aragua as it was traveling from Venezuela, while some advocacy groups have accused the United States of using "disproportionate lethal force."

"What can I tell you from 40 years of doing this job? President Trump made the right decision when he classified these cartels, these gangs as terrorist organizations," Homan, who served as a senior official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in an interview with CNN on Sunday.

"They've killed more Americans with their poison than every terrorist organization in the world have killed Americans."

He also claims drug cartels have killed "more Americans than any war."

"So, yes, it's the right thing to designate them terrorists, and it's the right thing to stop the poison from coming into this country," Homan said. "So, I support President [Donald] Trump on this action."

Homan accused the previous administration under President Joe Biden of allowing 250,000 pounds of fentanyl to make its way into the U.S. through what he described as an "open border."

"Who knows how many lives were saved from that poison getting into the United States?" Homan asked. "President Trump is trying to save lives; a secure border does that."

"Let's stop it before it even gets to our border, and that's going to save thousands of American lives," Homan added. "I support the decision of President Trump. That's my personal opinion."

U.S. military forces struck the boat in the Caribbean on Sept. 2, which reportedly carried 11 Tren de Aragua members.

The Venezuelan criminal organization has been linked to various crimes throughout the U.S., including human trafficking, theft and the trafficking of narcotics. In February, President Donald Trump's administration designated Tren de Aragua and other international cartels and criminal groups as foreign terrorist organizations.

According to a Tuesday statement from President Donald Trump's Truth Social, the U.S. believed that members of the criminal gang were transporting illegal narcotics. The president also wrote that the strike should serve as a warning to anyone thinking about bringing drugs into the U.S.

In a Thursday statement regarding the sinking of the boat, the U.S. Department of Defense claimed that "two Maduro regime military aircraft flew near a U.S. Navy vessel in international waters" in "a highly provocative move" that was "designed to interfere with our counter narco-terror operations."

The Defense Department also urged "the cartel running Venezuela" to refrain from pursuing "any further effort to obstruct, deter or interfere with counter-narcotics and counter-terror operations carried out by the U.S. military."

While Homan expressed support for the strike, the Washington Office on Latin America, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, called for the Trump administration to "disclose all the relevant facts" about the incident.

"What we have seen so far suggests that the U.S. armed forces did something that it has never done, to our knowledge, in more than 35 years of military involvement in drug interdiction in the Caribbean Sea: an instant escalation to disproportionate lethal force against a civilian vessel without any apparent self-defense justification," the group declared in a Thursday statement.

The WOLA also questioned whether U.S. military forces attempted other actions before using force, such as contacting the people on the boat or firing warning shots. WOLA asked that U.S. authorities determine if the U.S. military had to use lethal force in self-defense, demanding accountability if an investigation were to reveal an unlawful use of force.

Regarding the claim from Trump about the boat carrying illegal narcotics, WOLA argued that the president did not specify the amount of drugs.

"But proportionality in the use of force is a fundamental principle of international law," the advocacy group stated. "Mere suspicion of carrying drugs, or merely being pursued by (much faster) naval vessels or other military assets in international waters, are not offenses that carry a death sentence, much less summary execution."

In a Saturday X post, Vice President JD Vance shared his opinion about the strike, stating that "Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military."

The vice president's remark drew criticism from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who questioned Vance.

"Did he ever read To Kill a Mockingbird?" the Republican lawmaker wrote in a Saturday X post, referencing the 1960 novel by Harper Lee. "Did he ever wonder what might happen if the accused were immediately executed without trial or representation?"

"What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial," Paul added.
Israeli Air Force Strikes Doha, U.S. Veterans Affairs Abortion Policy, Trump At Religious Liberty Meeting

link to download the audio instead. link to download the audio instead. 07:21 07:21

Top headlines for Wednesday, September 10, 2025

In this episode, we delve into the Israeli Air Force's recent strike in Doha, Qatar, aimed at targeting the senior leadership of a major terror organization. Next, we discuss potential changes to a Biden-era policy by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which may impact the availability of abortion services in specific cases. Lastly, we revisit President Donald Trump's reaffirmation of his administration's dedication to religious liberty and the historical significance of Christian faith in shaping the United States.

00:11 Israel strikes Hamas leadership in Doha, capital of Qatar

01:04 Australian lawmaker affirms New South Wales' ban on prayer

01:54 VA Dept. looks to restore pre-Biden bipartisan ban on abortions

02:51 The Journey Fairfield pastor facing multiple sex charges

03:51 UMC controls churches in Liberia, not breakaway group: court

04:40 Muslims kill Catholic man, wound another in targeted attack

05:38 Trump affirms faith at Religious Liberty Commission meeting
Home Opinion Gender ideology is choking the truth in school shootings

The prophet Isaiah warned a wayward nation: Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness. Right was condemned as wrong, and what darkened the soul was repackaged as enlightenment. Isaiah cautioned that rejecting Gods word would bring devastation. The warning still stands.

Two developments this past week expose the warnings timeliness. For years, activists in media and government have advanced a gender ideology that tells even children they can choose an identity opposite of their biological reality. That confusion is not benign. In Minneapolis, a gunman opened fire during a school Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church, killing two children and injuring many others. Police identified the attacker as Robert Westman, who identified as transgender and, in notes posted before the attack, expressed regret and anger about being trans and deep confusion about identity.

This is not isolated. Recall the Covenant School massacre in Nashville, and now we have Minneapolis  both carried out by individuals who identified as transgender. The point is not to stigmatize anyone; it is to confront a reality our culture keeps trying to deny: ideas have consequences and masquerading a lie as the truth can be deadly. Yet rather than pause to reassess the narrative, legacy outlets scolded themselves for misgendering. NBC News even issued a correction after its initial report used what it called the wrong pronoun when referring to Westman as he. She used female pronouns, NBC sycophantically stated. This, despite law enforcement identifying the killer as male.

What a commentary on the press. Apologizing for mistakenly telling the truth reflects a deeper malady: trading evil for good and darkness for light. And when this deception is celebrated, children suffer. A civilization cannot protect what it refuses to name, and language becomes a veil for violence.

Still, the media is not the fountainhead of this confusion; they are its amplifiers. The deeper problem is philosophical. If truth is now established by feelings, then law must enforce the feelings. That brings us to this weeks Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. Virginia Senator Tim Kaine (D) berated a State Department nominee for affirming the American principle that our rights come from God, not government  calling that view very, very troubling, and likening it to the ideology of Irans theocracy. Think about that: the creed of the Declaration recast as dangerous and akin to the rule of the Ayatollahs.

Our Founders knew better. Thomas Jefferson wrote that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights. Alexander Hamilton insisted the sacred rights of mankind are written, as with a sunbeam, by the hand of the Divinity itself and cannot be erased by mortal power. Governments secure rights; they do not invent them. And when government presumes to redefine reality  whether human nature or human rights  it imperils the very people it claims to protect.

So here is the choice: return to first principles  truth over ideology, reality over rhetoric, the Creator over the state  or keep stumbling in the dark while calling it light. For the sake of our children and our country, choose the true light  and live by it.
FORT WORTH, Texas, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ --A former Texas Christian University (TCU) student today filed a federal lawsuit against the university, alleging discrimination and gross malfeasance by TCU officials after she reported that another TCU student raped her.

The lawsuit alleges that her experience with the school is part of a broader, systemic problem at TCU  one of tolerance, willful ignorance, discrimination, and institutional failure in responding to sexual assault on campus. As the complaint alleges, "TCU's policy is substantially certain to encourage TCU men to rape TCU women." With more than 11,000 undergraduate students enrolled, 61 percent of whom are women, the complaint alleges that female students are not safe at TCU and that parents should be aware of the risks.

According to the complaint, which cites TCU's Board of Trustees reports available on its website, the university recorded more than 560 sexual assault-rape reports between August 15, 2020, and December 31, 2024. The records demonstrate that TCU launched formal investigations in less than five percent of those cases.

During the 2024 Fall Semester alone, there were more than 60 reports of sexual assault-rape. According to TCU's own data, during the same timeframe, only three sexual assault-rape cases were formally investigated by TCU, and none resulted in disciplinary action.

The plaintiff's case centers on her own rape, which she immediately reported to TCU. At the time she reported it, she provided school officials a recorded conversation of the alleged rapist admitting only hours after the assault that he had neither sought nor obtained her consent before penetrating her while she was asleep, according to the complaint. As the complaint states, "The evidence confirming the rape was overwhelming."

The filing claims that the university took no action until the victim retained legal counsel who intervened. Months later, TCU selected a hearing panel made up of TCU administrators, faculty members, and a retired judge from Massachusetts, which unanimously found the assailant guilty of having sexually penetrated the plaintiff without her consent. As punishment, the complaint states that the TCU panel members required the assailant to write a three- to four-page paper on what mutual sexual consent means and then discuss it with a TCU faculty member in a private meeting, required him to rewatch a standard orientation video on sexual assault prevention that he had viewed just six weeks before the incident, and moved him to a different on-campus dorm.

The investigation resulted in no apology to the victim, no record on the assailant's transcript, no suspension, no punishment commensurate with Texas State law, and nothing that approximates or seeks to be proportionate to the offense.

The lawsuit characterizes this collective punishment as grossly inadequate and an invitation for male students to commit further rapes.

As the complaint alleges, "this policy of non-punishment actually encourages rape because male students at TCU know that nothing will happen to them for raping TCU's female students."

"The facts of this case demonstrate a shocking disregard for the safety and well-being of TCU's female students," stated Thomas Wolf, lead counsel for the victim. "TCU's deliberate indifference to the pervasive problem of sexual assault on its campus has created a culture of impunity, where rapists are emboldened to commit crimes without fear of consequence. It is time for TCU to be held accountable for its failures and to take meaningful steps to protect its students from sexual violence. Given TCU's track record, only the courts can make that happen."

All other victims of rape at TCU are encouraged to contact Alison Duffy, Esq. at the firm of O'Hagan Meyer, PLLC, [email protected] (703-775-8606). All communication with this firm on this issue will be held in strict confidence and, unless told otherwise, will not involve any legal or financial obligation.

SOURCE OHagan Meyer
Home Opinion Powerball jackpots and lottery tickets: What does the Bible say?

The recent Powerball jackpot reached $1.79 billion, the second largest in U.S. lottery history, before two tickets matched on Saturday, Sept. 6. The enormous lottery captured the imagination of millions who dream of sudden wealth. People place their hopes in chance rather than providence for just a few dollars per ticket. But beneath the glitter of the jackpot lies a sobering truth: lotteries, even state-run ones, are instruments of covetousness that squander resources and exploit the vulnerable.

Americans spend an estimated $600 million per Powerball jackpot cycle chasing a 1 in 292 million chance to win (MarketWatch, 2025). Defenders of the lottery often say, Its voluntary. No one is forced to play. Yet that is not exactly true for those who become addicted, whose freedom is swallowed up by compulsion. Even if we grant the point, the argument collapses when we consider what could be accomplished if players voluntarily gave that same money to help their fellow man rather than chasing fantasy. With $600 million, we could provide meals, housing, and infrastructure for millions of Americans.



Instead, this vast sum fuels jackpots, administration, and marketing, enriching a few. At the same time, most players  often from low-and middle-income households  contribute disproportionate shares of their income, hoping to beat the odds.

Even lotteries presented as supporting good causes, such as the North Carolina Education Lottery, fail to deliver meaningful impact. Only 2535% of revenue typically reaches schools, while the majority is consumed by prizes, operational costs, and marketing (North Carolina Education Lottery, 2025). Marketing the lottery as educational masks the truth: the system preys on hope and stirs covetous desire rather than encouraging generosity and wise stewardship.

The dangers of any get-rich-quick scheme are evident in modern examples. Consider Jack Whittaker, who won a $314 million Powerball jackpot in 2002. Initially generous, he donated millions to charities and supported his community. But the sudden windfall brought unforeseen consequences: his granddaughter died of a drug overdose, his family life fractured, he faced multiple legal problems, and public scandals followed.

While some may argue that not every jackpot winners life spirals into trouble and chaos, the exception does not justify the gamble. The vast majority of participants lose far more than they gain, and even winners face stress, poor decisions, and moral temptation. With 1 in 292 million odds, the likelihood of true lasting benefit is microscopic. Yet, millions of dollars are spent chasing it every cycle  money that could do real, measurable good in the lives of tens of thousands.

The late Dr. D. James Kennedy, once the pastor of the famed Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, was a staunch gambling opponent. Kennedy often would tell the story about the actual cause of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. We all think we know how that blaze began  as it was told that Mrs. OLearys cow kicked over a lantern. But Mrs. OLeary swore under oath that she never went into the barn that night; she was asleep in bed. The mystery remained unsolved until decades later, when a man named Louis M. Cohn died, leaving a large sum to a university along with a letter. In it, he confessed that he and some friends had gathered in the barn that night to shoot craps. In the letter, Cohn admitted that he was winning and got so excited that he knocked the lantern over. In his book, co-written with Jerry Newcombe, Kennedy wrote:

He [Cohn] may have won a few dollars that night, but thousands upon thousands of people in Chicago lost everything  some even their lives. I think that is a miniature picture of what gambling is like: a few people win, but a large number of people lose.

Indeed, a few may come out ahead, but the vast majority suffer great loss. In fact, all of America loses considerably more than it comprehends in its support for gambling.

The Scriptures consistently warn against the sin of covetousness, which is what gambling in any form is about. The Bible declares:

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness (I Timothy 6:10-11).

Proverbs 23:4-5 admonish:

Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward Heaven.

This proverb speaks directly against the mindset that fuels the lottery. Buying ticket after ticket is precisely the kind of laboring to be rich this proverb condemns. It is not steady, honest work for daily bread; it is draining oneself for the illusion of sudden riches. It is leaning on human schemes and chance rather than resting in Gods providence. The Bible calls us to discernment  to know when to cease chasing riches  because wealth is uncertain, deceptive, and easily lost in life. Moreover, materialism can never satisfy the human soul's hunger; only a right relationship with God through Christ can do this.

Gambling, even under the guise of charity, encourages greed, wastes God-given resources, and exploits the vulnerable. It casts ones faith upon the altar of the god of luck, rather than trust in the Lords provision, contradicting passages like Psalm 37:25: I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his children begging bread.

Every ticket purchased is a tacit admission that we value chance over stewardship, covetous desire over generosity, and fantasy over faithful action. What an indictment! Billions are squandered chasing waterfalls: alluring but ultimately destructive pursuits that rarely deliver what they promise. If we truly love our neighbors as Scripture commands, we must resist the lure of gambling and dedicate our resources to endeavors that build life, not gamble it away on fleeting chance.
Home Opinion Ukrainian refugee, murdered in cold blood: What was the root cause?

As President Donald Trump seeks to bolster law enforcement in Americas most crime-ridden cities, a shocking public transit murder caught on camera threatens to steer the conversation sideways.



On August 22, a young Ukrainian refugee, Iryna Zarutska, was minding her own business on a Charlotte commuter train, when a hooded man, who happened to be black  a complete stranger with a history of mental illness and a long rap sheet  stole up behind her and stabbed her to death. The coldblooded killing kickstarted a conflagration of commentary about not only the solution to crime, but also its root causes.

We will never arrest our way out [of] issues such [as] homelessness and mental health, insisted Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles (D). So, instead of villainizing those who struggle with their mental health or those who are unhoused, she declared, Zarutskas murder should force us to look at what we are doing across our community to address root causes.

These comments naturally produced fierce criticism from conservatives. By framing the issue as one of homelessness and mental health instead of crime, Lyles cast the true problem as an unavoidable side-effect of other social ills, refused to do anything about it, and vilified all homeless and mentally ill people in the process. If, instead of being out on the streets, he had been in prison, this would not have happened, argued National Reviews Charlie Cooke, in an exemplary critique. Or, to put it another way: If the authorities had done their jobs, they could absolutely have arrested their way out of this murder.

Readers can find many such critiques online; this article proposes to engage with Lyles deeper allusion to the root causes of social ills. She deserves credit for raising the deeper question, even if it was only a political expedient, and even if diving deeper soon led her beyond her depth.

Nearly 2,000 years ago, the apostle James, writing by the Holy Spirit, asked and answered a substantively similar question, in Tuesdays reading of the Stand on the Word Bible reading plan. What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? (James 4:1).

Adherents of expressive individualism  the dominant cultural philosophy in the contemporary West  believe all meaning is derived with reference to the internal self (and particularly ones internal feelings). Here is the rare opportunity where that instinct is correct. The search for a root cause to human strife and misery leads inevitably back to the sinful passions of the human heart.

A skeptic may wonder whether passions at war within a person can really provide a sufficient explanation for a senseless murder. In fact, thats the first example James employs, You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel (James 4:2).

Its unlikely that James intends to state that members of Christian audience have committed literal murder. Instead, this is likely one of many allusions in Jamess short letter to the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus teaches that anger is the heart equivalent of murder (Matthew 5:22). The apostle John also echoed the Masters teaching when he stated, everyone who hates his brother is a murderer (1 John 3:15).

In other words, it doesnt take an involved study of homelessness or mental illness to locate the root causes for crimes such as murder. Wherever anger and hatred are present  as in every human heart  then the key ingredients are already detectable.

The question is, how will people respond when stimulated to anger or hatred? Will they lash out violently? Or will they war against these passions of their flesh? The progressive solution erases human responsibility, while this question accentuates it.

These themes  sinful desire, hatred, and individual responsibility  were all present in the very first murder. No sooner had creation fallen under the curse than Adam and Eves firstborn son laid violent hands upon his brother. Cain was angry because he desired what Abel received  Gods favor (Genesis 4:5). The Lord warned Cain that sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, and you must rule over it (Genesis 4:7). In other words, sin would try to control Cain, but he must not let it control him. Alas, Cain ignored Gods warning and received Gods curse (Genesis 4:8, 11).

There is nowhere further to go in exploring the root causes of crimes such as murder. Though created good, mankind has fallen into a wretched, sinful state. The question then becomes what, if anything, government can do about it.

Given the Bibles teaching that evil deeds flow out of sinful human hearts, a human government can do little to correct the problem. Human magistrates have neither authority nor power over the soul. The best they can do is bear the sword as an avenger who carries out Gods wrath on the wrongdoer (Romans 13:4). Thus, magistrates can deter and prevent crime by arresting and punishing criminals. But they cannot resolve the root cause of crime, which is the sinful nature of post-Fall mankind.

However, this is one point where the gulf between and biblical worldview and progressivism (and liberalism) is at its widest. The materialist, secular philosophy dominant in American culture today holds that people are basically good. According to worldview researcher George Barna, only half of American adults believe that everyone has sinned, he said on Washington Watch.

A corollary to this belief is that humans only turn to crime when their nature is warped by external factors such as homelessness or mental illness (as Lyles expressed above). In other words, crime is not the criminals fault. While this claim may consistently apply secularisms unprovable claims about human nature, it fails to persuade because it fails to adequately explain the observable fallenness of creation.

Nevertheless, some progressive ideologues are persuaded by this incomplete view of human nature, and they are applying their worldview to criminal justice practices in Americas largest cities. Unsurprisingly, the result of not holding criminals responsible for their crime has been an increase in crime. We have to begin to restore the fundamental value of law enforcement, actually support them in the court systems, [and] quit making them the enemy, pleaded security expert Tim Miller on Washington Watch.

Miller warned that the ultimate alternative to public order enforced by cops is not a cop-free anarchy, but a totalitarian crackdown welcomed by beleaguered citizens desperate to see safety restored. We do not want the U.S. military or the National Guard to be the foundation for peace and security in our country, he said.

In terms of Trumps urban cleanup initiatives, this means that the National Guard is like a strong antibiotic thats dealing with an infection, or at least the symptoms of that infection, said FRC President Tony Perkins. Its not a long term solution, but to come in and get things cleaned up to a point where its safer  I would take it in a heartbeat, argued Kyle Campbell, single mother to two young daughters on Washington Watch. We dont understand why this political leadership is failing to keep its residents and citizens safe. They seem to really be adamant about not doing that.

But the true underlying issue is the spiritual decay in our country, and that cant be addressed by the government, Perkins added. Its going to be incumbent upon the church and Christians to really deal with the spiritual malaise in this country if we want to address the law-and-order issue.

The bottom line is, without repentance and revival, our country is doomed, Miller agreed. We have to have a restoration that values human life  all human life  and protects them.

Originally published at The Washington Stand.
Home Opinion What do Mormons believe? LDS teachings vs. Christianity: An overview

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saintscommonly called the LDS Church or Mormonismis one of the fastest-growing religious movements that identifies itself with Christianity. But what exactly do Mormons believe? And how do LDS teachings compare with the historic Christian faith?

The roots of Mormonism

Mormonism began in the early 1800s with Joseph Smith, who claimed that God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him in a vision. In his account, recorded in the Pearl of Great Price, he asked which church to join and was told:

I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight (Joseph SmithHistory 1:19).

Later, Smith said an angel named Moroni revealed golden plates, which he translated into the Book of Mormon. For Mormons, Joseph Smith is a prophet who restored the true church after a universal apostasy.

Core Mormon beliefs

1. Scripture and authority

The LDS Church holds to four standard works: the Bible, the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. Article of Faith 8 states:

We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.

This means that LDS leaders can effectively override the Bible with new revelation. In contrast, evangelical Christians confess the Bible alone as the sufficient, inspired Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16; Revelation 22:1819).

2. Gods nature and the Trinity

Joseph Smith taught:

The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as mans; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost is a personage of Spirit (Doctrine and Covenants 130:22).

LDS leaders also affirm the couplet by Lorenzo Snow:

As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may be.

This view presents God as an exalted man who became divine. By contrast, Christianity teaches that God is spirit (John 4:24), unchanging (Malachi 3:6), and eternal from all time (Psalm 90:2). The Trinity is one God in three co-eternal personsnot three separate beings.

3. Jesus Christ and the atonement

Mormons affirm Jesus as the Son of God and Savior, yet their understanding of His work differs. The Book of Mormon says:

For we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do (2 Nephi 25:23).

This places grace alongside human effort. Evangelicals hold that salvation is by grace alone, through faith in Christ alone, not by works (Ephesians 2:89). Christs death is completely sufficient to save, apart from human merit.

4. The plan of salvation and human destiny

The LDS plan of happiness teaches a pre-mortal existence where all people lived with God before birth, a mortal probation on earth, and eternal progression after death. Doctrine and Covenants 131:12 states:

In the celestial glory there are three heavens or degrees; and in order to obtain the highest, a man must enter into this order of the priesthood [meaning the new and everlasting covenant of marriage].

This means exaltation (godhood) is reserved for those who keep temple covenants, especially eternal marriage. The Bible, however, teaches that humans are created beings who will never become gods (Isaiah 43:10), and that salvation is about reconciliation with God, not progression to deity.

5. Heaven, hell, and judgment

Joseph Smiths revelations describe three degrees of glory (celestial, terrestrial, telestial) with only the most faithful LDS members reaching the highest. Doctrine and Covenants 76 outlines these glories. By contrast, Jesus taught a two-fold destiny: eternal life with God or eternal judgment apart from Him (Matthew 25:46; John 3:1618).

6. Temples and ordinances

LDS temples are used for unique ordinances such as baptism for the dead and eternal marriage. Doctrine and Covenants 124:39 affirms:

For therein are the ordinances of baptism for the dead, and the solemn assemblies for the glory, honor, and endowment of all her municipals.

Evangelical Christianity rejects these practices, teaching that baptism is for living believers (Acts 2:38) and that marriage is not eternal (Matthew 22:30).

7. Human potential and exaltation

A distinctive Mormon teaching is that faithful members can become like God, ruling over their own worlds. As Brigham Young stated:

The Lord created you and me for the purpose of becoming Gods like Himself (Journal of Discourses 3:93).

Christianity teaches that believers are adopted children of God (Romans 8:1517), conformed to Christs likeness in holiness, but never divine in essence. Worship is directed to the one true God, not multiplied deities.

Why Evangelicals see Mormonism as outside orthodox Christianity

Though Mormons honor Jesus and the Bible, their redefinitions of God, Christ, salvation, and Scripture place their teachings outside the historic Christian Gospel. For evangelicals, these differences are not minor but essential.

Still, we are called to love our Mormon friends. They are often sincere, family-oriented, and devoted. Respectful dialogue gives us opportunities to point to the biblical gospel: salvation through Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone.
A manufacturer was running an AI training workload on a cobbled together system of GPUs, storage, and switching infrastructure, believing it had all the necessary tech to achieve its goals. But the company had put little thought into how the components actually worked together.

Problems surfaced quickly. Training cycles dragged on for days instead of hours. Expensive hardware sat idle. And engineering teams began to wonder whether their AI investment would ever pay off.

This experience isnt unique. As AI becomes a critical element of industrial operations worldwide, many organizations are discovering a counterintuitive truth: the biggest breakthroughs come not from piling on more GPUs or larger models, but from carefully engineering the entire infrastructure to work as a single, integrated system.

Engineering for outcomes

What became of that cobbled-together system? When it was properly engineered to balance compute, networking, and storage, the improvement was quick and dramatic, explains Jason Hardy, CTO of AI for Hitachi Vantara: a 20x boost in output and a matching reduction in wall clock time, the actual time it takes to complete AI training cycles.

The infrastructure must be engineered so you understand exactly what each component delivers, Hardy explains. You want to know how the GPU drives specific outcomes, how that impacts the data requirements, and demands on throughput and bandwidth.

Getting systems to run that smoothly means confronting a challenge most organizations would rather avoid: aging infrastructure.

Hardy points to a semiconductor manufacturer whose systems performed fineuntil AI entered the picture. As soon as they threw AI on top of it, just reading the data out of those systems brought everything to a halt, he says.

This scenario reflects a widespread industrial reality. Manufacturing environments often rely on systems that have been running reliably for years, even decades. The only places I can think of where Windows 95 still exists and is used daily are in manufacturing, Hardy says. These lines have been operational for decades.

That longevity now collides with new demands: industrial AI requires exponentially more data throughput than traditional enterprise applications, and legacy systems simply cant keep up. The challenge creates a fundamental mismatch between aspirations and capabilities.

We have this transformational outcome we want to pursue, Hardy explains. We have these laggard technologies that were good enough before, but now we need a little bit more from them.

From real-time requirements to sovereign AI

In industrial AI, performance demands often make enterprise workloads look leisurely. Hardy describes a visual inspection system for a manufacturer in Asia that relied entirely on real-time image analysis for quality and cost control. They wanted AI for quality control and to improve yield, while also controlling costs, he says.

The AI had to process high-resolution images at production speedno delays, no cloud roundtrips. The system doesnt just flag defects but traces them to the upstream machine causing the problem, enabling immediate repairs. It can also salvage partially damaged products by dynamically rerouting them for alternate uses, reducing waste while maintaining yield.

All of this happens in real-time while collecting telemetry to continuously retrain the models, turning what had been a waste problem into an optimization advantage that improves over time.

Using the cloud exclusively introduces delays that make near-real-time processing impossible, Hardy says. The latency from sending data to remote servers and waiting for results back cant meet manufacturings millisecond requirements.

Hardy advocates a hybrid approach: design infrastructure with an on-premises mindset for mission-critical, real-time tasks, and leverage the cloud for burst capacity, development, and non-latency-sensitive cloud-friendly workloads. The approach also serves the rising need for sovereign AI solutions. Sovereign AI ensures that mission-critical AI systems and data remain within national borders for regulatory and cultural compliance. As Hardy says, countries like Saudi Arabia are investing heavily in bringing AI assets in-country to maintain sovereignty, while India is building language- and culture-specific models to accurately reflect its thousands of spoken languages and microcultures.

AI infrastructure is more than muscle

Such high-level performance requires more than just fast hardware. It calls for an engineering mindset that starts with the desired outcome and data sources. As Hardy puts it, You should step back and not just say, You need a million dollars worth of GPUs. He notes that sometimes, 85% readiness is sufficient, emphasizing practicality over perfection.

From there, the emphasis shifts to disciplined, cost-conscious design. Think about it this way, Hardy says. If an AI project were coming out of your own budget, how much would you be willing to spend to solve the problem? Then engineer based on that realistic assessment.

This mindset forces discipline and optimization. The approach works because it considers both the industrial side (operational requirements) and the IT side (technical optimization)a combination he says is rare.

Hardys observations align with recent academic research on hybrid computing architectures in industrial settings. A 2024 study in the Journal of Technology, Informatics and Engineering1 found that engineered CPU/GPU systems achieved 88.3% accuracy while using less energy than GPU-only setups, confirming the benefits of an engineering approach.

The financial impact of getting infrastructure wrong can be substantial. Hardy notes that organizations have traditionally overspend on GPU resources that sit idle much of the time, while missing the performance gains that come from proper system engineering. The traditional approach of buying a pool of GPU resources brings a lot of waste, Hardy says. The infrastructure-first approach eliminates this inefficiency while delivering superior results.

Avoiding mission-critical mistakes

In industrial AI, mistakes can be catastrophicfaulty rail switches, conveyors without emergency shutoffs, or failing equipment can injure people or stop production. We have an ethical bias to ensure everything we do in the industrial complex is 100% accurateevery decision has critical stakes, Hardy says.

This commitment shapes Hitachis approach: redundant systems, fail-safes, and cautious rollouts ensure reliability takes precedence over speed. It does not move at the speed of light for a reason, Hardy explains.

The stakes help explain why Hardy takes a pragmatic view of AI project success rates. Though 80-90% of AI projects never go to production, the ones that do can justify the entire effort, he says. Not doing anything is not an option. We have to move forward and innovate.

For more on engineering systems for balanced and optimum AI performance, see AI Analytics Platform | Hitachi IQ

Jason Hardy is CTO of AI for Hitachi Vantara, a company specializing in data-driven AI solutions. The companys Hitachi iQ platform, a scalable and high-performance turn-key solution, plays a critical role in enabling infrastructure that balances compute, networking, and storage to meet the demanding needs of enterprise and industrial AI.

1Optimizing AI Performance in Industry: A Hybrid Computing Architecture Approach Based on Big Data | Journal of Technology Informatics and Engineering
Nomination in Recognition of Wine Advocacy Campaign that has Galvanized the Wine Community and is Reaching Wine Drinkers with Positive Messages about Wine

NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Wine Enthusiast announced nominees for the 2025 Wine Star Awards . Among industry luminaries vying for the prestigious awards, the founders of the " Come Over October " wine advocacy campaign  Karen MacNeil, Kimberly Noelle Charles and Gino Colangelo  were collectively nominated for "Person of the Year." This category nominee is defined as 'an individual who has made significant and remarkable contributions to the advancement of the wine, spirits and beverage industry through their leadership and vision.' Karen, Kimberly and Gino, three wine communication professionals who took it upon themselves to advocate for the entire wine community in the face of unprecedented headwinds, are thus strong candidates for this honor.

Jacki Strum, President & Publisher at Wine Enthusiast Media, explained the reason for the nomination of the Come Over October team and why Wine Enthusiast has been among the campaign's earliest and largest supporters. "The Wine Star Awards are the industry standard for achievement and distinction in the wine industry. Karen, Kimberly and Gino certainly fit that definition based on their wine advocacy work," said Jacki. "When we first heard about the Come Over October campaign, we realized its potential because of the clarity and simplicity of the message: Wine brings people together. We also understood the need for a campaign to introduce more Americans to wine culture, which is the mission of Come Over October."

TIME Magazine called Karen MacNeil, "America's Missionary of the Vine" and Karen has been named one of the "100 Most Influential People in Wine in the United States." She is the author of the award-winning book, THE WINE BIBLE , which has sold more than a million copies. "This nomination has touched our hearts," said Karen MacNeil. "Come Over October started as a tiny spark of an idea born of three people's passion for wine. That spark has gone on to ignite the entire wine industry. Come Over October reminds us why we all love winebecause it reminds us of what matters: friendship, generosity, authenticity, and human connection."

Kimberly Noelle Charles' name is synonymous with wine marketing at its best level. Over her 40-year career she and her team have, through her creative marketing strategies, versatility and natural story-telling gifts, helped brands attain a level of distinction and draw in the marketplace. Charles stated, "We are truly honored by this recognition. With our collective experience in the wine world, we've seen challenging times before, but we remain firm in our belief that wine is the world's most civilized, communal, and memory-making beverage. We all have very busy day jobs, but have given this campaign, in its second year, our best creativity and energy. It has resonated well beyond U.S. borders, going from a campaign to a movement."

Founder of industry-leading wine and spirits communications agency, Colangelo & Partners , Gino also has many years of experience in retail, giving him unique insights into consumer behavior that impact the work his agency does on behalf of their domestic and global clientele. He commented, "Together with Karen and Kimberly, we want to thank the Strum family who were among our very first supporters and helped us believe in the viability of our campaign in the earliest days when we needed the support most." Gino continued, "Going back more than two years, it became clear to me that wine was under attack and needed advocacy. After exploring various avenues for supporting the wine community, I was fortunate to partner with Karen and Kimberly on the creation of the Come Over October campaign, which has captured the imagination of the wine community as well as wine drinkers across the US."

"The beauty and strength of Come Over October lies in the simplicity of the message: Wine brings people together," added Adam Strum, Founder and Chairman of Wine Enthusiast Companies. "I think it's remarkable that three individuals, working purely as a mission-driven project of passion, have been able to coalesce an industry and make such an impact in a relatively short amount of time. Wine Enthusiast is proud to be among the first supporters of this powerful campaign."

About Wine Enthusiast

Wine Enthusiast Companies is a Certified B Corporation and the ultimate source of innovation and information around wine. Founded in 1979 by Adam and Sybil Strum, the family-owned company is composed of Wine Enthusiast Commerce and Wine Enthusiast Media. Wine Enthusiast Shop provides premium wine-lifestyle products, reaching millions of consumers globally via direct mail, an e-commerce site, and a business-to-business division. Wine Enthusiast magazine is an award-winning print publication and online resource that showcases wine news, food trends, and more than 25,000 ratings and reviews annually. Wine Enthusiast events include the annual premier Wine Star Awards gala. In 2024, the company launched a travel division, which includes the Tasting Room Directory and Cork+Compass Travel. Together, Wine Enthusiast Companies is the indisputable hub for everything wine. We bring wine to life.

About Wine Enthusiast's Wine Star Awards

Each year, Wine Enthusiast celebrates the most influential members of the wine, spirits, and beverage world at the annual Wine Star Awards . This year marks the 26th anniversary of honoring the individuals and companies that make outstanding contributions to the industry. There are 16 categories for the 2025 Wine Star Awards. Four of the categories will have a named winner. The other 12 categories include a list of nominees exemplifying dedication and innovation to the success and growth of the wine, spirits, and beverage sector. The nominees were nominated by members of the Wine Enthusiast media team, including the global sales, events, marketing and editorial divisions. The 2025 Wine Star Award winners will be honored at the 26th annual black-tie gala in January 2026.

About Come Over October

Come Over October is a mission-driven advocacy campaign that encompasses all wine  domestic and international, entry-level to collectible  and seeks to engage wine drinkers (and potential wine drinkers) with positive messages about wine. The campaign is executed by COME TOGETHERA Community for Wine Inc, a company committed to creating and sharing positive, inclusive consumer information about moderate wine consumption and wine's historic role as a communal beverage. The company was formed in May 2024 by three wine industry professionals who are donating their time and efforts to the company and its projects and eventswine journalist Karen MacNeil, and public relations and communications executives, Gino Colangelo and Kimberly Noelle Charles, DipWSET.

Media Contact:

Gino Colangelo

[email protected]

646-403-0146

Kimberly Noelle Charles, DipWSET

[email protected]

415-701-WINE (9463)

SOURCE COME TOGETHER--A Community for Wine
Its really important that the scope of these integrations is limited only to whats necessary, said Amanda Grady, VP and GM, AI platform security. Machine Identity Console identifies any high-risk integrations and provides a guided experience for our customers to help them improve their security.

Data protection is critical, and three years ago the Tokyo release of ServiceNows platform saw the introduction of Vault. However, Grady said, what we found is, although we introduced these very powerful sets of controls in Vault, they were not integrated. And it could be challenging for our ServiceNow admins and platform owners, who are not necessarily security and privacy experts.

In Zurich, ServiceNow seeks to remedy that shortcoming with the introduction of the ServiceNow Vault Console, which provides what the company described as a guided experience to discover, classify, and protect sensitive data across workflows. Grady said that the console makes it easier to locate sensitive data via AI-based discovery of personally identifiable information (PII), and provides templates to aid in data classification as well as ways to protect that data such as anonymization and field encryption.
Gut health is an important aspect of overall well-being, though it is not often addressed openly. Yet, according to the American Gastroenterological Association, up to 70 million Americans suffer from some type of gastrointestinal issue. And thats where i-Health comes in with relief. Based in Connecticut, i-Health, a subsidiary of dsm-firmenich, offers products for many overlooked and unspoken issues, including digestive and hormonal health, with brands such as Culturelle, Lacteol, and Estroven. The company sells its products through online and brick-and-mortar retailers, such as Walmart, CVS, Costco, Amazon, Walgreens, and others. To address its needs, i-Health sought help with managing orders from its retailersa solution that SAP was able to provide.

i-Healths success relies on efficiency

Every year, i-Healths fulfillment center handles, on average, 30,000 shipments for 180,000 sales order line items, with 95% of all orders arriving through electronic data interchange (EDI). So, its critical to have an efficient processing system to ensure the operation runs smoothly. i-Healths legacy system, which included manual procedures, faced challenges due to the increasing volume of shipments and demands from its retailer customers.

A situation that caused distress to the system

Each retailer imposes strict, varied requirements on i-Health, from carrier selection and tight delivery windows to detailed label printing for pallets and cartons. The legacy system struggled to keep up, leading to inefficiencies and potential penalties. The company needed a solution customized to each retailers requirements.

In todays high demanding customer packaged goods (CPG) industry, i-Health must be agile and efficient. Adopting a proven solution was vital to reduce costs while elevating our fulfillment capabilities and flexibility to meet business requirements, says Susan Armstrong, Vice President of Operations for i-Health.

i-Health worked with its IT partner, HCLTech, and SAP to implement a solution that uses SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud and SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) Integration Suite. Aligning and advising on the balance of business needs vs. best practices was crucial to the success of the implementation.

Boosting shipping efficiency with regular support from SAP

In the past, sales order processing and ship-to date calculations were handled manually, which made the process slow and prone to mistakes. This often caused issues for both the sales and fulfilment teams, as well as uncertainty among customers regarding shipping times. The rate of accurately determining when orders would leave i-Healths fulfillment center was just 20%.

To address these issues, SAP automated the calculation of ship-to dates and other manual procedures. As a result, the time and effort spent on processing sales orders decreased by 20%. The accuracy of shipping date calculations soared to 95%, greatly enhancing the efficiency of sales order management, fulfilment operations, and overall customer satisfaction.

That means we can now print the orders in priority of target ship date and ship on the right day to arrive at our retailers dock on their requested delivery date, says Marquis Jimenez, Global Fulfilment Manager at i-Health. This is a game changer for setting the pace of the floor and understanding if were ahead or behind in order fulfillment each week. Having system-driven dates means no more guesswork and happier staff and customers.

The solution also includes custom fields and logic to support on-time delivery.

Seeing the results in print

i-Health customers need unique pallet and carton labels to ship orders, but their legacy system couldnt meet these varied requirements. A custom SAP BTP-based application was built for on-demand label printing on any printer. This scalable solution enables staff to create multiple label specs efficiently, boosting label output by 200 times.

Whats more, the automated solution has cut the onboarding time for new customers from a couple of weeks to a couple of hours.

Improving order management health has its rewards

i-Health was recently honored with the Industry Leader award at the SAP Innovation Awards 2025 for successfully changing and improving how the company conducts business in the CPG industry (and providing relief for staff and customers).

If youre looking for a remedy to improve your order management, start by checking out the i-Health pitch deck.
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Last week, as DC reporters were patting themselves on the back for not falling for internet falsehoods claiming that Donald Trump had secretly died, Garrett Graff wrote an essay on his blog, Doomsday Scenario, saying, Its time to have a serious conversation about Trumps health.

Graff is an author and historian whos spent more than two decades covering American politicsmore recently hes written a series of oral histories on major world events, and hosted a critically acclaimed podcast series about the early days of the internet and the culture of armed self-defense.

But today, Graff is worried that political journalists are failing to recognize the history they are already living through. He joins The Kicker to share his thoughts on what he sees as the fragile state of American democracyand the need for DC reporters to dig a lot deeper.

Read More:

*Graffs blog post on the need for more reporting on Trumps health

*Graff on the increasingly blurry lines between democracy and authoritarianism

*Breaking the Internet, season 4 of Graffs acclaimed podcast series, The Long Shadow

*Liam Scott in CJR on how the White House press handled the rumors of Trumps death
When Dave Jones first started talking about climate change and what insurers should be doing about it some 15 years ago, the response could be thought of as something akin to a collective shrug.

There wasnt much to say. Insurance policies were renewed annually, and the effects of global warming that would become bad enough to concern insurers were believed to be decades off. And for some in the business world, the words climate change were politically loaded; it wasnt a much talked-about issue among the industry back then, particularly among U.S. insurers.

That viewpoint is in the minority in the industry nowadays, as insurers and reinsurers see their portfolios being increasingly endangered by more frequent and severe weather. U.S. insurers often cite climate change in their outlooks and reasons for rate requests, and global reinsurers have entire units dedicated to researching and finding ways to be better prepared for it.

A great example is the homeowners insurance crisis in California, being blamed, in part at least, to longer and more severe wildfire seasons. The situation has spurred numerous changes to state insurance regulations as carriers have pulled back from the state. Insurers across the globe are responding to climate risk in similar ways, by investing in enhanced risk modeling, withdrawing from or reducing coverage in risker markets, increasing premiums, and rewarding insureds for resilience and adaptation efforts.

A lot has changed in the half-dozen years Jones has been gone from office. And for his part, he hasnt relegated himself to the sidelines on the issue.

Jones time in office could be viewed through a number of crucial insurance narratives: Rolling out the Affordable Healthcare Act in California, launching an investigation into life insurer practices that led to nearly $10 billion paid to beneficiaries, standing up insurance for the states then-budding cannabis industry. But getting insurers and the insurance-buying public to see climate change as a real and imminent threat was arguably Jones darling.

Since leaving office after term limits ended his eight-year stint as Californias insurance commissioner, Jones has done most, if not all, of his work in the area of climate change and insurance.

Jones is currently director of the Climate Risk Initiative for the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at UC Berkeley Law School. The policy think tank focuses on the impact of climate change on the financial system and what financial institutions, markets and regulators should be doing about it.

Its a continuation and expansion of the work that I pioneered when I was insurance commissioner around getting insurers to address the impacts of climate change on their underwriting and reserving, Jones explained.

Climate Change

Back when he came into office in 2011, there was no throughline between climate change and insurance.

The environmental, social, and governance movement was in full swing worldwide. Most industries embracing ESG to fall in line or to appeal to the public were talking about how they were reducing their carbon footprints or their other socially conscious business practices.

However, the insurance industry wasnt considered to be a major greenhouse gas emitternot anywhere near the scale of industries like manufacturing or trade and transportation. And the threat of climate risk to their portfolios was beyond the horizon. Policies are written annually, so the extreme weather events and rising sea level worries believed at the time to be a long way off posed no threat whatsoever in insurer profits.

Jones already had an interest in climate change and the environment before becoming insurance commissioner. They were among the Democrats many platform issues as he made his political journey from a legal aid attorney to a Sacramento City Councilmember to the California Assembly to insurance commissioner.

Related: US Property Insurance Costs Hit New High as Disasters Worsen

So, early on after taking office, Jones said he asked the staff of the California Department of Insurance how insurers were responding to the impact of climate change on their underwriting, reserving and investing.

He found out there was next to nothing being done. He was hearing the same refrains: insurance and climate change were unrelated because the industry wasnt a major greenhouse gas emitter and climate risk was decades away. He believed different, often siding with early climate change activist groups calling for the industry to take a look at a world they believed was becoming riskier much faster that many were aware.

Jones learned that the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in 2009 had promulgated a climate risk survey, but the concept sat unimplemented. So, at his first NAIC meeting, he approached other state insurance commissioners, and the conversations he had laid the foundation for an early coalition that included California, New York and Washington to implement the NAIC Climate Disclosure Survey in their states.

Jones also volunteered to set up a data portal at the CDI to collect the information from carriers to make publicly available. That effort evolved to incorporate the Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosure standards, which was stood up by the Financial Stability Board in 2015. That data collection effort has since grown to involve more than 30 state insurance commissioners.

In 2016, Jones helped launch the Sustainable Insurance Forum, a global network of insurance supervisors and regulators who are working on sustainability challenges facing insurers.

During his time in office, Jones also found himself at odds with the insurance industry over his calls for insurers to divest their fossil fuel assets. The industry was even less enthused when Jones began asking insurers to consider curtailing or halting their underwriting of fossil fuel projects.

Jones upped his pressure on insurers in 2017 when he ordered the launch of a new interactive database with extensive information on insurer investments in fossil fuels.

The Nature Conservancy

To be fair, his time as insurance commissioner may have seen as many detentes with the industry as fights. Now, without his powers as a regulator, Jones has come to embrace the carrot over the stick in the old motivational equation axiom.

Shortly after leaving office in 2019, he took a role as senior director for environmental risk for The Nature Conservancy, a global nonprofit environmental organization.

I wanted to see if I could work with the insurance industry to demonstrate that nature and nature-based approaches to reducing risk can be accounted for in insurance modeling, insurance pricing and insurance underwriting, Jones said.

Among its work, The Nature Conservancy is involved with placing insurance policies for natural features that reduce risk of loss for properties. In partnership with Swiss Re, the group in 2022 developed a parametric insurance product to help protect the Mesoamerican coral reef off the coast of Mexicos Yucatan Peninsula to reduce the risk of loss and magnitude of loss for communities protected by the coral reefreefs act as a natural breakwater, absorbing much of waves energy, reducing erosion and property damage.

The policy pays based on objective triggers like the intensity of a storm, and payouts go to restore the reef. That insurance policy has been replicated for coral reefs in Hawaii and other locations, and is now available to restore coastal mangrove forests, which serve as natural barriers by absorbing and reducing the energy of waves and storm surges to prevent flooding and erosion.

Related: Older Homes for Sale in California Now Come With Wildfire Warnings

Theres another cause driving Californias wildfire-driven homeowners insurance crisis in addition to the conditions that have made for more frequent and severe blazes in the state: forest management.

The states forests are denser than they used to be, with small trees and brush packed closely together. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, removing some vegetation from dense landscapes through prescribed fire or thinning can help restore forests to their historical conditions. Wildfires that occur in restored forests and woodlands are typically less severe and have less impact on communities, the institute stated in a recent blog urging the public and decision makers to understand that there is more than one solution to Californias wildfire challenges.

Jones work with the Nature Conservancy also involved forest management in Western U.S. forests. A partnership he led while at The Nature Conservancy with Willis Towers Watson resulted in a paper published in 2021 linking forest treatment to insurance benefits by reducing wildfire risk.

We demonstrated that both for traditional indemnity insurance as well as for parametric insurance, the models technically are able to account for the risk reduction from landscape-scale forest treatment, Jones said. The hope was that by publishing these results and showing that the existing models used by insurers can account for this, that insurers would start voluntarily incorporating it into their pricing and risk scoring for purposes of writing and renewing insurance.

That didnt happen. So, Jones took the next steps when he left the Nature Conservancy for his current role at UC Berkeley to try to place an insurance product written expressly because of, and took into account, landscape-scale forest treatment.

Jones added: And we did it. We placed the first wildfire resilience insurance product in the country.

The policy was written for the Tahoe Donner Association, a 6,500-plus member homeowners association in the middle of a heavily forested area of Northern California. The parametric insurance policy covers 1,345 acres of forested land owned by the association.

Partners on the project included Willis, The Nature Conservancy and the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, where Jones is director. Structured by Willis, the $2.5 million wildfire resilience insurance coverage was underwritten by Globe Underwriting. It was developed and placed to demonstrate lower premium pricing and improved availability where ecological forest practices, such as tree thinning and planned fires to clear out flammable vegetation, has been proven to reduce wildfire risk, according to the partnership.

The insurance was placed in a forested area where other insurers, because they are not accounting for forest management in their risk modeling, are not renewing and declining to write new insurance, Jones said. The big win is that the insurance was written at allagain because we demonstrated that forest management can be taken into account in insurance modeling and that it reduces risk. And for good measure, we got a 39% reduction in premium cost and 84% reduction in the deductible.

California Insurance Market

There are multiple proposed solutions coming to try and soothe the states ailing homeowners insurance market, which has seen numerous carriers request large rate hikes and stop writing new policies, as insureds head into the states insurer of last resort and into surplus lines.

More than one cause for the markets condition is also in play. But it should come as no surprise that Jones puts the blame for the California homeowners insurance crisis at the feet of climate change, and that he believes that addressing the crisis and global worries over the insurability of at-risk properties must ultimately come from a worldwide, dramatic reduction of fossil fuel reliance.

To back up his assertions, Jones pointed to the positive underwriting returns collectively for carriers in the states homeowners multi-peril segment in 2019-2020, 2021-2022 and 2023. The rates that insurers were getting were sufficient, he said.

But whats happened in the last six years since I left office is the background risk has gotten a lot worse, and thats because global temperatures continue to rise, Jones said. We have drier and drier conditions. Were not doing enough fast enough to manage our forests, but even with that, the background increase in temperatures and the drier conditions in the Westnot just Californiaare driving more of these catastrophic events. Sadly, we saw that manifest in 2025 with the January 2025 L.A. wildfires.

He added: So, I think that the crisis has really taken off in the last six years. Its caused insurers to accelerate nonrenewals; it caused them (starting around) 2023 to stop writing new customers.

The response from the states insurance regulator has been to modify some portions of the existing rate regulations to allow reinsurance costs to be included in rates, to enable catastrophe models to be used to factor in homeowners rates and to relieve the insurers of more than $500 million of exposure to a FAIR Plan shortfall.

Those were among numerous changes called for by California insurers, who said such steps would make them more willing to begin writing homeowners policies again in the state. In its most recent filing for a 6.9% rate increase, Mercury Insurance indicated that its the L.A.-based carriers intention to begin to write more new customers and to renew more of the wildland urban interface risk.

Related: KCC Completes Review of California Wildfire Model

Jones sees the early results of the regulatory changes as a good first step.

So, I think thats a positive development, Jones said. But I think, unfortunately, the background risk continues to grow, and I fear that in the long run, there isnt some insurance regulatory dial or policy knob that we can turn that ultimately is going to keep insurance available, because the background risk keeps growing and climate change is basically creating new primary perils to kill us and injure us and cause insurers huge losses.

Jones believes severe convective storms are providing an ominous example of the changes the world is seeing and the growing dangers to people and to insurer profits being wrought by climate change. These storms in recent years have caused greater damage compared with historic averages.

At least 41% of insured losses in 2024 ($64 billion) were from severe convective storms, with these events costing global insurers $143 billion in 2023 and 2024, according to a report from Gallagher Re.

I dont remember anybody talking about severe convective storms when I was insurance commissioner, Jones said. Now, severe convective storms are like 40% of the insured global net cat losses. That was never a primary peril.

The storms are having a noticeable impact on insurance. In 2023, five insurance companies stopped writing new policies in Iowa, citing increased losses from these type of severe weather events, as well as higher reinsurance costs and rising repair costsan example of a broader market shift from insurers in response to climate-related risks.

While Jones believes the ultimate solutions must be to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in the interim he continues to cheer on and help develop climate-related legislation coming from states, like House Bill 1182 in Colorado. HB 1182 requires property insurers that do not incorporate property-specific and community-level mitigation actions into their models to provide discounts to policyholders who demonstrate actions taken on the property to reduce the risk of loss.

The act also requires property insurers that use a wildfire risk model, a catastrophe model, or a scoring method to assign risk to:

For the purposes of underwriting homeowners and other property insurance policies, adhere to specific requirements to share information with the insurance commissioner and the public;

Submit available data concerning the models and scoring method to the division of insurance as part of the insurers rate filings;

To ensure that specific factors are either incorporated in the wildfire risk model, catastrophe model, or combination of models or are otherwise included in the insurers underwriting and pricing.

I think the most important insurance law to pass this year and in many years is House Bill 1182 in Colorado, which was sponsored by Insurance Commissioner Mike Conway, Jones said. Colorado has decided Look, enough is enough, we can no longer wait for the insurance industry to do this on a voluntary basis were going to require you to file your risk models with us and were going to require that they account for property-community and landscape-scale mitigation,' Jones said.

Whats Next? Politics?

Putting aside his climate change focus and current work, Jones was asked whats next for him. Is a return to politics in the cards?

I had the privilege of serving as a city council member, a state Assembly member and the insurance commissioner, which I continue to believe is the best job in public service, so I have no plans to run for public office again, Jones said. I think it was a privilege to get to do it. There was a time an opportunity for me to do it. I think I made a contribution, but now my focus is on my work at the center and other projects to try to continue to draw attention to and advance the goal of transitioning to a net-zero economy and net-zero financial system.

He added: And in some respects, I think Im better positioned outside of elected office to push for those things that I might be in elected office. So, no, Im not running for public office again.
China-Portugal relations set model for countries with different social systems: Xi

08:43, September 10, 2025 By Fan Anqi ( Global Times

Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, on September 9, 2025. Photo: Xinhua

China and Portugal have achieved fruitful outcomes in cooperation across various fields in recent years, setting a model of mutual respect and mutual benefit for countries with different social systems and national conditions, Chinese President Xi Jinping told visiting Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro in Beijing during their meeting on Tuesday, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Noting that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the China-Portugal comprehensive strategic partnership, Xi said China is willing to strengthen strategic communication with Portugal, steer the bilateral relations in the right direction, make the good relations even better, and contribute more to the prosperity and progress of the two countries and the world through solidarity and cooperation.

Xi called on the two sides to carry forward the traditional friendship, maintain mutual trust and support, deepen the alignment of development strategies, and expand practical cooperation in areas such as innovation, green development, maritime affairs and healthcare, per Xinhua.

He noted that the two sides should give full play to Macao's unique role as a bridge and make good use of mechanisms like the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes at a higher level. They should also encourage exchanges in culture, education, tourism and scientific research, as well as deepen people-to-people and cultural exchanges, he added.

Noting this year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, as well as the 80th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations (UN), Xi stressed that China is ready to work closely with Portugal in multilateral affairs to jointly practice true multilateralism, safeguard the authority of the UN and the free trade system, and promote the building of a more just and equitable global governance system.

Montenegro conveyed Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa's sincere greetings to President Xi, adding that the future-oriented relations between Portugal and China have a long history, and the two countries have properly resolved the Macao issue through friendly consultations, according to Xinhua.

Montenegro said the successful practice in Macao over the past 25 years fully demonstrates that the Portuguese government made the right decision. Portugal will continue to adhere to the one-China policy and will not forget the valuable support and assistance provided by China during the most difficult period of Portugal's economy, he said. Montenegro expressed Portugal's willingness to deepen cooperation, enhance political mutual trust, and strengthen economic and trade ties with China.

Montenegro arrived in Beijing on Monday for his first official visit to China, which will run through Wednesday. On Tuesday, Montenegro laid a wreath at the Monument to the People's Heroes on Tian'anmen Square in Beijing, Xinhua reported.

Cui Hongjian, director of the Department of European Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, noted that the prime minister's tribute at the Monument to the People's Heroes, even though he did not attend China's V-Day commemorations, demonstrates that on the issue of jointly opposing fascism and in the area of upholding global governance, Portugal shares a consensus with China.

A source from the Prime Minister's office contextualized Montenegro's visit to China within Portugal's "diplomatic tradition," noting that all Heads of State and several prime ministers have visited China, the "second-largest global economy" and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, according to media reports.

Portugal is an ancient maritime nation and served as the European starting point of the ancient Maritime Silk Road, as well as a vital hub connecting the land and maritime Silk Roads. It is a natural partner in jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative. Portugal was the first Western European country to sign a cooperation agreement with China on jointly building the Belt and Road, the first EU member state to formally establish a "blue partnership" with China, one of the founding members of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and the first eurozone country to issue RMB bonds.

"Among European countries, China-Portugal relations stand out as uniquely special," Zhao Junjie, a senior research fellow at the Institute of European Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Tuesday. "And Montenegro's first official visit to China, coming right after China's September 3 V-Day commemorations, carries even greater political significance. It underscores the high level of political mutual trust between China and Portugal, as well as their commitment to pragmatic cooperation," Zhao said.

Over the years, cooperation between China and Portugal has deepened across various fields with increasing momentum. Under the framework of Belt and Road cooperation, the two sides have carried out mutually beneficial projects such as China-Europe freight trains. "In the current context where China-Europe relations face complexities, the steady development of China-Portugal ties sets a fine example for other European countries," Zhao noted.

Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao met with Manuel Castro Almeida, Portuguese Minister of Economy and Territorial Cohesion, in Beijing on Monday. During the meeting, Wang called on China and Portugal, as well as China and Europe, to firmly support the multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization at its core, and inject more stability and certainty into the world economy, as now the international economic and trade order and multilateral trade rules are facing severe challenges.

According to the central bank of Portugal, China's foreign direct investment in Portugal reached $4.46 billion in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 9.32 percent. It has seen a 4.5-fold increase over the past decade, and 14 consecutive years of positive growth. Portugal ranks among the EU countries receiving the most Chinese investment per capita.

Steadying China-Europe ties

Despite some noises in the development of China-Europe relations and hype from Western media, China and Europe have maintained frequent exchanges this year. In April, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited China, followed by President of the European Council Antonio Costa and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen in July who were in Beijing for the 25th China-EU Summit. Additionally, foreign ministers of a number of European countries including Portugal, France, Denmark, Netherlands and Croatia paid visits to China this year.

On China-Europe relations, Xi said, "the more turbulent the international landscape becomes, the greater the need for China and Europe to strengthen communication, enhance mutual trust and deepen cooperation," while expressing the hope that Portugal will work with China to uphold the orientation of the China-EU partnership and promote the sustained, stable and healthy development of China-EU relations, Xinhua reported.

The Portuguese prime minister said China is an indispensable partner for Europe, and Portugal is ready to play a positive role in promoting the healthy and stable development of EU-China relations.

Jiang Feng, a research fellow at Shanghai International Studies University and president of the Shanghai Association of Regional and Country Studies, believes China-Portugal relations play a stabilizing and enhancing role in China-Europe relations. "Especially in the current complex environment, this role can effectively enhance confidence and stimulate cooperative vitality, making its importance increasingly prominent," Jiang told the Global Times on Tuesday.

During the meeting with Xi, Montenegro acknowledged the "vital role" China plays in international affairs. He added that Portugal agrees with the important concepts embodied in the Global Governance Initiative (GGI) proposed by President Xi and is willing to jointly uphold multilateralism with the Chinese side. Portugal welcomes China's greater contributions to improving the global governance system, Xinhua reported.

"In the current global landscape, where the threat of climate change is growing more severe and unilateralism and bullying tactics are on the rise, European countries aspire to actively engage in global governance processes to ensure their concerns are given due attention and respect by the international community," Zhao said.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Startups from cybersecurity, semiconductors, Agentic AI to LegalTech to showcase their solutions across San Francisco, Dallas, and New York

SAN FRANCISCO and DALLAS and NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Nasscom's DeepTech startups takes the spotlight this month as 27 ventures embark on InnoTrek 2025  USA, a two-week immersion program designed to foster exploration, learning, partnership, and exchange between Indian innovators and the U.S. technology landscape.

Running from September 819, the program unfolds across San Francisco, Dallas, and New York, offering most promising technology ventures an opportunity to engage with global peers, universities, enterprises, and accelerators. The focus is on learning from diverse innovation ecosystems, forging partnerships, exchanging ideas, and building collaborative understanding across disciplines ranging from AI to Climate Tech.

Speaking about the program, Rajesh Nambiar, President, Nasscom, said, "InnoTrek is all about discovery, dialogue, and co-learning. As we build our deep technology capabilities, it is important to immerse in other innovation cultures, forge meaningful partnerships, share our perspectives, and bring back learnings that enrich this growing DeepTech ecosystem. Earlier this year, we hosted InnoTrek Middle East, engaging in strategic co-learning sessions across Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The program underscores both the sophistication and the global relevance of our DeepTech ecosystem, connecting founders with diverse hubs of product innovation and ideas worldwide."

The 2025 cohort reflects the breadth of DeepTech innovation. Featured startups include:

Beagle Security offers AI-powered automated penetration testing that simulates real-world attacks and uncovers vulnerabilities early. It provides actionable remediation to help businesses stay secure, compliant, and ahead of evolving cyber threats.

bluCursor Infotech is an AI-first technology company building intelligent solutions in computer vision, automation and analytics to help global enterprises drive innovation and make smarter decisions. The startup offers cutting-edge vision AI that delivers accurate, real-time video insights with minimal latency - transforming surveillance into smart, automated and scalable solution.

Dave AI offers vertical AI platform that combines SLM-powered agents, virtual avatars, and microbots to automate sales, service, and customer interaction workflows for dealerships, OEMs, and EV brands in the U.S. auto industry.

DgVerse is a decentralized credentialing platform enabling organizations to issue, manage, and verify tamper-proof digital certificates as NFTs and SBTsensuring global verifiability, authenticity, and secure ownership using DLT. It turns credentials into verifiable NFTs/SBTs with embedded DIDsmaking them tamper-proof, secure, globally verifiable, and easy to issue and manage with a user-friendly platform that integrates seamlessly with existing systems.

Edgeble AI is building a self-learning Edge AI platform combining runtime, and silicon to make global edge deployments adaptive, autonomous, and agentic.

Eigenlytics Data Solutions is setting new standards of Intelligent Document Processing with SaaS offering DocEye, which recognises and extracts data, analyses and takes appropriate call to action to automate document (digital & physical) driven operations. 'DocEye' not only recognises document and extracts information, but it also analyses and takes appropriate call to action in order to automated document (digital & physical) driven business operations.

Faclon Labs calls themselves as the operating system for the physical world, adding a layer of AI on the top of manufacturing infra, helping them achieve operational excellence. It blends deeptech AI, IoT, and no-code deployment with robust IT-OT integration, prebuilt ML/GenAI assets, turnkey implementation, cybersecurity, and domain consulting, offering end-to-end digital transformation with rapid time-to-value.

Immverse Innovations democratises one to one learning to millions to learn directly from source material/author with GenAI in multilingual multimodal Foundational AI model.

IntelleWings is an AI-powered AML/CFT compliance platform helping financial institutions detect and prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. They serve 200+ clients globally, offering modular, secure, and regulator-ready solutions. IntelleWings uniquely combines proprietary global screening data, advanced AI anomaly detection, vernacular adverse media coverage, and explainable AI, reducing false positives by 77% and false negatives by 90%, ensuring compliance accuracy.

INTENTBI is the world's first prompt-free Business Intelligence tool that turns raw data into dashboards, forecasts, and insights in seconds, without any queries or technical steps. The Foundational Generative AI startup enables business users with deep data analysis without the need of prompts, queries or analyst help.

Is Going Online is a retail tech startup that does 3D catalogue and management. Its ecosystem consists of a 3D scanning station, cloud-based media rendering and cataloguing solution. The company helps manufacturers and e-commerce sellers digitize physical products into smart 3D assets leveraging their AI-powered scanner and SaaS tools.

LiaPlus AI provides AI Employees for customer support who speak 18+ languages, handle post-call actions, boost sales, and cut manual work. The startup offers voice-first AI with proprietary datasets, custom training for each client, secure on-premises deployment, and 6000+ app integrationsensuring data privacy, accuracy, and scalable support for B2B enterprises.

Pazo leverages AI to turn store photos into instant VM compliance checks, eliminating manual follow-ups and ensuring perfect execution across all stores. Pazo's AI verifies retail compliance in seconds. Designed for frontline simplicity with HQ visibility, they transform VM from cost centre to profit driver with measurable ROI.

Perpetuuiti Technosoft empowers businesses with AI-driven resilience to cut costs, reduce recovery time, and ensure seamless business operations. Perpetuuiti's AI-powered Operational Resilience Platform helps nations and enterprises reduce RTOs by 80% and costs by 50%, securing critical infrastructure against IT failures and cyber threatsstrengthening the digital backbone of economies.

PrivaSapien delivers full-stack AI TRiSM with advanced privacy, security, and governance tools for safe, compliant, and responsible AI adoption. The company offers the world's first full-stack AI TRiSM platform covering end-to-end 'data in use' privacy, security, and governance uniting PETs, PPML, and Responsible AI (RAI) to enable safe, compliant, and ethical AI deployment at scale.

Quanfluence empowers industries to exceed conventional computational limits with quantum and quantum-inspired photonic hardware. The company delivers faster, energy-efficient solutions to complex optimization problems using photonic quantum technologies. They work alongside AI, unlocking hard decisions, accelerating inference, and enhancing precision and data-driven outcomes.

Quoqo Technologies is a LegalTech startup that streamlines complex contract workflows using AI-driven comparison, clause-level insights, and risk scoring to close deals faster. Their AI-powered negotiation engine DealFast blends semantic diffing, clause intelligence, heatmaps, and risk scoring to flag material changes instantly, cutting review time by up to 90% while boosting compliance confidence.

Saptang Labs delivers unified, AI-driven cybersecurity solutions to detect, neutralize, and prevent modern threats. Their complete security stack covers app, bot, credential, dark web, and domain monitoring, with 24/7 expert response and protection.

Spontaine is a 'data-to-explainable AI' platform that unifies fragmented data for mid-market businesses, delivering actionable insights and scalable agentic AI in just weeks.

Staqu Technologies transforms existing CCTVs into AI-powered intelligence, trusted by police forces in 11 states and over 90 enterprises for security, safety, and retail insights. The solution requires no new hardware, is globally benchmarked and scalable, and is the first ONVIF-compliant VMS with real-time video analyticsoffering 85+ on-the-go safety and security insights, along with an integrated GPT model that lets users 'chat with their camera.

SuperBryn AI enables voice bots to run safely in production by monitoring every call, testing changes, and auto-correcting issues to reduce cost and errors. As the only voice-AI layer that closes the loop, its A/B-tests fixes and automatically updates prompts and model routingallowing agents to self-improve without constant human tuning.

Trench Security is an AI-enabled SOC platform delivering 24x7 threat monitoring at twice the performance and half the cost. Its multi-agent AI autonomously investigates alerts from security tools with human analyst reinforcement, while offering customer-controlled tuning and trainingensuring context-driven precision in security operations.

VITT AI is an AI Companion for sales team, offering real-time, in meeting, guidance and automation to boost conversions, productivity, and compliance. Unlike post-meeting analytics/notes tools, VITT provides real-time intelligence during live voice, video, and in-person interactions. Built on open-source models, it supports SaaS and on-prem deploymentsensuring flexibility, control, and compliance.

Waanee AI boosts CSAT 25% with 24/7 support, improves first-call resolution, cuts wait times, and reduces costs 30% via automation and agent efficiency. Its cloud-agnostic, agentic CX platform boosts revenue and slashes complexity.

Wundrsight Health builds XR-based digital therapeutics for immersive, evidence-based mental healthcare that improves patient outcomes and therapy adherence. Wundrsight delivers immersive, evidence-based therapy via XR, boosting patient adherence 3x and therapist efficiency 30%, with EHR-integrated, scalable deployment.

Xane AI transforms product interaction with AI powered camera and voice system for customer experience & retention. Xane AI's proprietary platform uses computer vision and NLP to turn any device into a smart, self-explaining system with more than 98% accuracy, real-time camera-based support, multilingual help, and deep OEM integration  far beyond chatbots or PDFs.

Zero Carbon One is an AI and blockchain-powered platform for GHG audits, ESG reporting & carbon credits that helps businesses decarbonize and boost sustainability impact. Zero Carbon One uniquely combines AI, blockchain, and climate modelling to deliver end-to-end automation of GHG accounting, ESG reporting, and carbon credit generationensuring accuracy, compliance, and impact for hard-to-abate sectors.

About Nasscom

Nasscom represents the voice of over $284bn technology industry in India with the vision to establish the nation as the world's leading technology ecosystem. Boasting a diverse and influential community of over 3500 member companies our network spans the entire spectrum of the industry from DeepTech and AI start-ups to multinationals and from products to services, Global Capability Centres to Engineering firms. Guided by our vision, our strategic imperatives are to accelerate skilling at scale for future-ready talent, strengthen the innovation quotient across industry verticals, create new market opportunities  both international and domestic, drive policy advocacy to advance innovation and ease of doing business, and build the industry narrative with a focus on Trust, and innovation. And, in everything we do, we will continue to champion the need for diversity and equal opportunity.

For more details visit our website https://nasscom.in/ or write to us at: [email protected]

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2507488/NASSCOM_Logo.jpg

SOURCE nasscom
Block, the technology and financial services company led by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, won the dismissal on Tuesday of litigation claiming it misled shareholders in connection with a large data breach at its Cash App mobile payment service.

U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett in Manhattan found no proof Block intended to defraud shareholders in connection with the December 10, 2021 breach, where a former employee downloaded personal information of about 8.2 million Cash App users.

Shareholders in the proposed class action said Block inflated its share price by failing to disclose its inadequate data security prior to the breach, and then waiting nearly four months before disclosing the breach on April 4, 2022.

They also accused the Oakland, California-based company of misleading former shareholders of Afterpay about its data security, in order to complete its $29 billion buyout of that Australian buy now, pay later company in January 2022.

In a 42-page decision, Garnett said reasonable investors could not view general statements that Block made in regulatory filings and on its website about potential risks as assertions that its data security was sound.

She also said shareholders failed to show any unique connection between alleged misstatements and the Afterpay buyout, or that Block executives benefited in some concrete way, to establish a motive to defraud.

Lawyers for the shareholders did not immediately respond to requests for comment after market hours. Block and its lawyers did not immediately respond to similar requests.

In January, Block agreed to pay $80 million to settle accusations by 48 state financial regulators that Cash App lacked sufficient anti-money laundering policies. It reached a similar $40 million settlement with New York in April.

Cash App had $283 billion of inflows in 2024, and 57 million monthly users at year-end, a regulatory filing showed.

The case is In re Block Inc Securities Litigation, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 22-08636.

(Reporting by Stempel in New York; Editing by Chris Reese and Jamie Freed)
A federal judge skewered a $1.5 billion settlement between artificial intelligence company Anthropic and authors who allege nearly half a million books had been illegally pirated to train chatbots, raising the specter that the case could still end up going to trial.

After spending nearly an hour mostly lambasting a settlement that he believes is full of pitfalls, U.S. District Judge William Alsup scheduled another hearing in San Francisco on September 25 to review whether his concerns had been addressed.

Well see if I can hold my nose and approve it then, Alsup said before adjourning Mondays hearing.

Afterwards, the leader of a publishers group involved in the settlement called some of the judges revised timetable for approving the deal troubling, in an acknowledgement that the proposed resolution could unravel.

Alsup demonstrated a lack of understanding of how the publishing industry works, said Maria Pallante, CEO of Association of American Publishers, who attended Mondays hearing but was not asked to speak.

The judges misgivings emerged just a few days after Anthropic and attorneys who filed the class-action lawsuit announced a $1.5 billion settlement that is designed to resolve the pirating claims and avert a trial that had been scheduled to begin in December.

Alsup had dealt the case a mixed ruling in June, finding that training AI chatbots on copyrighted books wasnt illegal but that Anthropic wrongfully acquired millions of books through pirate websites to help improve its Claude chatbot.

The proposed settlement would pay authors and publishers about $3,000 for each of the books covered by the agreement.

Justin Nelson, an attorney for the authors, told Alsup that about 465,000 books are on the list of works pirated by Anthropic. The judge said he needed more ironclad assurances that number wont swell to ensure the company doesnt get blindsided by more lawsuits coming out of the woodwork.

The judge set a September 15 deadline for a drop-dead list of the total books that were pirated.

Alsups main concern centered on how the claims process will be handled in an effort to ensure everyone eligible knows about it so the authors dont get the shaft. He set a September 22 deadline for submitting a claims form for him to review before the Sept. 25 hearing to review the settlement again.

The judge also raised worries about two big groups connected to the case  the Authors Guild in addition to the Association of American Publishers  working behind the scenes in ways that could pressure some authors to accept the settlement without fully understanding it.

Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger sat alongside Pallante during Mondays hearing, ans also was asked to discuss the settlement. The trio of authors  thriller novelist Andrea Bartz and nonfiction writers Charles Graeber and Kirk Wallace Johnson  who sued last year also sat in the front row of the court gallery, but didnt address Alsup.

In a statement issued after the hearing the Authors Guild said it was confused about Alsups concern that it might be secretly trying to undermine some of the writers represented in the settlement.

The Authors Guild said its work on the settlement is designed to ensure that authors interests are fully represented while contributing its expertise to the discussions with complete transparency.

Before the hearing Johnson, author of The Feather Thief and other books, described the settlement as the beginning of a fight on behalf of humans that dont believe we have to sacrifice everything on the altar of AI.

Nelson, the lawyer for the authors, sought to ensure Alsup that he and other lawyers in the case were confident the money will be fairly distributed because the case has been widely covered by the media, with some stories landing on the front pages of major newspapers.

This is not an under-the-radar warranty case, Nelson said.

Alsup made it clear, though, that he was leery about the settlement and warned he may decide to let the case go to trial.

I have an uneasy feeling about all the hangers on in the shadows,' the judge said.

In her statement, Pallante said she hopes Alsup will remain flexible as he learns more about how the publishing industry works so the settlement can be preserved.

The court seems to be envisioning a claims process that would be unworkable, and sees a world with collateral litigation between authors and publishers for years to come, Pallante said. Class actions are supposed to resolve cases, not create new disputes, and certainly not between the class members who were harmed in the first place.

OBrien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

Copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance are sensationalizing isolated incidents in their effort to falsely convince Americans that crime is out of control. They did the same thing with immigration, but that tactic has lost steam. Today in Ohio says Republicans hope they can use crime fears to divert Americans from the worsening economy. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) AP

Americans should cut through the noise of political fearmongering to understand what Today in Ohio hosts described Wednesday as a calculated political strategy: Donald Trump and Republicans manufacturing a national crime crisis to scare voters into supporting them next year.

After spending years stoking fears about immigration, Republicans appear to be pivoting to another manufactured boogeyman  crime  and the podcast hosts werent having it.

With this story and the next one were talking about, were basically dealing with crime, which is not one of the biggest problems in America today. There are so many others that are bigger, said Chris Quinn. But Trump wants us to all think about crime... Theyre trying to convince everybody that they cant step outside their door because of crime.

The episode addressed how federal and local law enforcement agencies in Ohio have announced various crime-fighting initiatives  operations that might otherwise be routine news but are now being amplified against the backdrop of the manufactured crisis.

Quinn described this as a deliberate pivot in Republican messaging strategy: He came in on the immigration wave, but thats petering out for him. Most Americans are looking what hes doing and not liking it because the immigration thing was never the crisis that the Republicans convinced everybody it was.

The podcast discussion highlighted how this narrative shift comes as economic concerns mount  concerns that could hurt Republicans in the midterms. By focusing on sensationalized crime stories, Trump and his allies hope to distract from kitchen table issues affecting most Americans.

Lisa Garvin pointed out the racial undertones of this strategy: Well, and theyre seizing on isolated incidents that look good to the MAGA rabble. You know especially if there are people with color, people of color. Those are extra bonus points for the MAGA people. So, yeah, theyre taking these incidents and amplifying them into this massive crime wave.

The hosts noted that even a recent street disturbance in Cincinnati was seized upon by Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno as evidence of some larger breakdown in public safety  leading Governor Mike DeWine to announce new law enforcement partnerships that seemed designed as much to prevent Trump from sending National Guard troops as to address any actual crime surge.

Quinn didnt shy away from calling out what he sees as the responsibility of journalism in this environment: Its how silly things have become that Republicans and Donald Trump are going to try to make you think youre in danger anywhere you go in America -- to try and get you to vote Republican in the midterms. And our responsibility in the media is to point out thats not true and to call out what theyre doing.

The podcast hosts also discussed how the strategy  amplified by irresponsible and dishonest artificial news outlets like Fox News -- preys on peoples emotions rather than facts, with frightening images and videos from surveillance cameras being weaponized to create disproportionate fear  despite statistics showing that many of these crisis narratives dont match reality.

The economy is where America votes, and the economy is in bad shape and getting worse because of Donald Trump, Quinn noted, suggesting that Democrats should keep voters focused on economic issues rather than allowing Republicans to dominate the conversation with manufactured crises.

The candid discussion offered listeners a behind-the-curtain look at how political narratives are constructed and deployed  and why being an informed citizen means questioning whether the crises dominating headlines actually reflect the most pressing problems facing Americans today.

Listen to the conversation here.

Listen to full Today in Ohio episodes where Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with Editorial Board member Lisa Garvin, Impact Editor Leila Atassi and Content Director Laura Johnston.
Vice President JD Vance and Sen. Bernie Moreno, shown together at the 2024 Republican National Convention, are endorsing and celebrating President Donald Trump's killing of 11 people without due process or the presentation of evidence. They support the president's acting as judge, jury and executioner -- a violation of judicial principles Americans long have considered sacred. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) AP

Vice President J.D. Vance and Sen. Bernie Moreno, both Ohioans, have celebrated President Donald Trumps unprecedented bombing of a suspected drug-carrying boat from Venezuela without due process.

Today in Ohio podcast hosts reminded listeners Tuesday that in America, people are innocent until proven guilty, but Trump ignored the legal process and killed 11 people last week without presenting a lick of evidence. The dead had no chance to defend themselves. Trump played judge, jury and executioner.

This is as un-American as it gets, said Chris Quinn. We dont know if they were the bad guys. This isnt about whether or not we should go after drug dealers. Its its about due process. You are not allowed -- no nation is allowed -- to willy-nilly bomb boats on belief with no proof.

The podcast highlighted how Vance had posted on social media that killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military, despite there being no trial or concrete evidence that those killed were actually drug traffickers. When criticized, Vance responded with profanity, saying he didnt care what critics called his stance. When Sen. Rand Paul criticized Vance, Moreno publicly came to Vances defense.

What makes this political moment particularly chilling, according to the podcast hosts, is how it undermines core American principles. As Quinn said, If you believe somebody has become a transgressor, we have courts where you go to prove it, and then we have a penalty system to deal with it.

The discussion took an even darker turn when Quinn cited other unprecented, un-American actions by the Trump administration, such as seeking to declare transgender people mentally ill and deny them gun rights, and drew explicit parallels to historical fascist regimes:

What blows my mind is of all the regimes in history to emulate, that the Nazis really are probably number one in the one you dont want to emulate. And thats their (The Trump administrations) playbook.

In the case of the Venezuelans and transgender people  and with immigrants and others, the country is seeing a systematic attempt to vilify certain groups and bypass legal protections.

When faced with criticism about their harsh assessment of the administration, Quinn was unapologetic: You dont say nice things about fascists. Fascists need to be drummed out of government. Theres time to stand up and defend democracy.

The Today in Ohio podcast serves as one of the few platforms willing to call out these dangerous political developments in stark terms. While mainstream coverage often normalizes such rhetoric, Quinn and his co-hosts keep sounding an urgent alarm about the erosion of due process and rule of law.

As Lisa Garvin pointed out during the discussion, whats particularly concerning is the lack of transparency following the bombing: Once they showed the video and said, we bombed this boat, we havent heard zip. Since then, no details who was on the boat. Weve heard nothing and will probably hear nothing about it.

Listen to the episode here.

Listen to full Today in Ohio episodes where Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with Editorial Board member Lisa Garvin, Impact Editor Leila Atassi and Content Director Laura Johnston.
A complete reimagining of the iconic 2021 Dome, this next-gen flagship brings more power, more precision, and more space, elevating restaurant-grade live-fire cooking at home

BOURNEMOUTH, England and SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Gozney, the innovative brand redefining outdoor cooking, announces the launch of the Dome Gen 2 Series, their biggest and most versatile ovens yet, and a new era of cooking with fire. Now available in two sizes, Dome (Gen 2) and Dome XL (Gen 2), the lineup ushers in significant upgrades since the original Dome debuted in 2021.

Gozney Launches Dome Gen 2 Series, Their Biggest and Most Versatile Ovens Yet

Shaped by four years of innovation and input from Gozney's global chef community, the new series gives home cooks unmatched control and versatility to go beyond pizza with ease. Engineered for chefs and refined for home use, it brings restaurant-grade performance to the backyard, making live-fire cooking intuitive, powerful, and endlessly rewarding.

"Dome Gen 2 is a huge milestone. It's the story of evolution. From the original Dome to this new generation, we've listened to feedback and pushed ourselves to refine every detail," said Tom Gozney, Founder and Designer. "This launch represents relentless iteration and obsession, becoming the purest expression of Gozney design. There's nothing like it on the market, and for me, it's deeply personal. Dome has been the vehicle that's reshaped who we are as a brand. Gen 2 is the pinnacle. The most refined, most consumer-focused, most powerful product we've ever made."

With a suite of cutting-edge features and purpose-built accessories, the Dome Gen 2 Series makes live-fire cooking effortless. New and upgraded features include:

Room to cook more : Dome Gen 2 Series ovens have up to 90% more cooking space than the original Dome, with space to cook up to three 10" pizzas, an 18" pizza, or multiple dishes at once.

: Dome Gen 2 Series ovens have up to 90% more cooking space than the original Dome, with space to cook up to three 10" pizzas, an 18" pizza, or multiple dishes at once. Hybrid fuel : Cook with wood, gas, or charcoal to match your mood and flavor.

: Cook with wood, gas, or charcoal to match your mood and flavor. Wood-Fire Control Kit : Precision airflow and boost-on-demand power bring gas-like control to wood or charcoal cooking.

: Precision airflow and boost-on-demand power bring gas-like control to wood or charcoal cooking. Rolling lateral flame : Gozney's signature lateral burner with incremental low-to-high flame adjustment delivers consistent, even heat.

: Gozney's signature lateral burner with incremental low-to-high flame adjustment delivers consistent, even heat. Built-in digital console : Embedded sensors to track air and floor temp, touch controls, twin meat probes, and a timer for intuitive cooking awareness.

: Embedded sensors to track air and floor temp, touch controls, twin meat probes, and a timer for intuitive cooking awareness. Fully serviceable component architecture: 25+ components designed for easy access, repair, and upgrades over time for long-term performance and ongoing reliability.

Designed in collaboration with the culinary world's most respected chefs, the Dome Gen 2 Series incorporates their expertise and feedback into pro-grade performance and versatility they trust. These award-winning chefs include:

Chris Bianco , James Beard Award-winning chef and restaurateur, demonstrates the oven's ability to deliver flawless Neapolitan-style pizzas at speed and scale.

, Award-winning chef and restaurateur, demonstrates the oven's ability to deliver flawless Neapolitan-style pizzas at speed and scale. Rasheed Philips , BBQ pitmaster and entrepreneur, showcases its capacity for smoking and slow-roasting, emphasizing the versatility, control and intention behind live-fire cooking.

, BBQ pitmaster and entrepreneur, showcases its capacity for smoking and slow-roasting, emphasizing the versatility, control and intention behind live-fire cooking. Dalad Kambhu , Michelin-starred Thai-American chef, highlights the oven's space for multi-course family meals.

"We're truly humbled to work with some of the most inspiring chefs in the world, not just as ambassadors, but as part of a global movement," said Gozney. "If you're serious about live-fire cooking, you choose Gozney. The reason is simple. We build the highest-performing ovens out there. Every product we make comes from our engineering roots in commercial wood-fired ovens, and that DNA is what chefs trust."

Available in Bone and Off Black colorways, the Dome Gen 2 Series reflects Gozney's commitment to elevated design, uncompromising performance, and effortless live-fire cooking. Dome (Gen 2) and Dome XL (Gen 2) will be available for purchase on October 15th at select retailers and www.gozney.com starting at $2,299.99. Learn more at www.gozney.com/dome-gen-2-series. For more information, please contact [email protected] or visit www.gozney.com/press.

About Gozney:

Gozney makes live-fire cooking easy by pioneering revolutionary pizza ovens that change the way people cook outdoors. Harnessing knowledge from their origins in the commercial industry, Gozney's multi-award-winning range of pizza ovens are beautiful, functional, durable tools that light a fire for anyone to be able to make, create, build, invent, provide, connect, discover, share and grow. Gozney was founded by Tom Gozney in 2010. More information is available at www.gozney.com.

Contact and Assets:

Ethan Peck

Global PR & Communications Director

[email protected]

Download hi-res assets HERE

SOURCE Gozney
Beck's leadership, Pearl's arrival, and Karol's promotion highlight IPX1031's continued commitment to complex 1031 Exchange solutions

CHICAGO, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Investment Property Exchange Services, Inc. (IPX1031) announced the appointment of James Beck, Esq. as VP, Manager of the National Reverse and Improvement Exchange Division (RIED). Beck, an attorney since 1992, has served as IPX1031 Reverse Exchange Counsel since 2013 and is widely recognized for handling complex 1031 Exchange structures. He succeeds Hugh Pollard, Esq., who recently retired after years of dedicated leadership.

In addition, Martin Karol, Esq. has been promoted to Senior Counsel, Reverse and Improvement Exchange Division. A tax attorney since 2000, Karol is known for consulting with attorneys and CPAs regarding their clients' Reverse and Improvement Exchange structures.

Expanded expertise for complex 1031 Exchange solutions Post this

The company also announced that industry veteran Kelly Pearl, Esq., CES joined RIED as Vice President and Exchange Counsel. Pearl has served as 1031 Exchange Counsel for more than 25 years and additionally brings specialized knowledge of international 1031 Exchanges, further deepening IPX1031's bench of legal talent supporting advanced strategies.

"James' technical command of reverse and improvement structures and decades of client work make him a great leader for this next phase of IPX1031's growth," said John Wunderlich, President of IPX1031. "With Kelly's arrival and Martin's promotion, we're expanding capacity to help investors execute complex exchanges with speed, precision, and confidence."

Reverse and Improvement (Build-to-Suit) Exchanges give investors more flexibility when timing purchases, sales, and construction, but they are among the most complex 1031 Exchange types and benefit from specialized structuring and counsel. IPX1031's dedicated RIED division focuses exclusively on these structures nationwide.

With Beck's leadership and the expanded team, IPX1031 reinforces its position as the industry leader in Reverse and Improvement Exchange solutions for investors, advisors, and their transaction teams.

About IPX1031:

Investment Property Exchange Services, Inc. (IPX1031) is the largest and one of the oldest Qualified Intermediaries in the United States. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Fidelity National Financial (NYSE:FNF), a Fortune 500 company, IPX1031 provides industry leading security for exchange funds as well as expertise and experience in facilitating all types of 1031 Exchanges. IPX1031's nationwide staff, which includes industry experts, veteran attorneys and accountants, is available to provide answers and guidance to clients and their advisors. Visit www.ipx1031.com for more information.

Media contact:

Cindi Marinez, VP, Marketing

[email protected]

SOURCE IPX1031
MCLEAN, Va., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Mars, Incorporated, a global leader in confectionery, snacking, food and pet care products and services, has been included in the first edition of the World's Best Companies 2025. This prestigious award is presented by TIME and Statista Inc., the world-leading statistics portal and industry ranking provider. The award list was announced on September 10 and can be viewed on time.com.

"Being named among the World's Best Companies is a recognition of the way we do business at Mars. For more than a century, we've combined growth with a long-term commitment to operating responsibly," said Poul Weihrauch, CEO of Mars, Incorporated. "This honor reflects the talent, creativity and operational capabilities of our 150,000 Associates who are helping us build a strong, sustainable business that delivers for people, pets and the planet."

The World's Best Companies 2025 ranking recognizes leading global organizations that exemplify excellence in today's corporate landscape. Companies were evaluated using three primary data sources: employee satisfaction, revenue growth and sustainability transparency. Out of hundreds of thousands of data points assessed, the top 1,000 companies were recognized for outstanding performance across these key areas.

Mars is an approximately $55B family-owned business that produces a portfolio of iconic global brands, including ROYAL CANIN, PEDIGREE, WHISKAS, CESAR, DOVE, EXTRA, M&M'S, SNICKERS and BEN'S ORIGINAL. Earlier this year, Mars was named a 2025 Corporate Inductee into the AAF Advertising Hall of Fame, recognizing its legacy of iconic and culturally resonant campaigns and long-term brand identity. Mars also earned 11 Lions at the 2025 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, including its first-ever Titanium Award celebrating its creative excellence and cultural resonance.

With 150,000 Associates globally, Mars is committed to supporting and advancing every aspect of their health and wellbeing, including through the Be Well Together framework  programs, benefits, resources and tools designed to support mental health, energy, nutrition, physical fitness, safety and more.

"This recognition is a testament to our Associates. Every day, they bring our Purpose and Principles to life in ways that make Mars a great place to work, where everyone can thrive," said Rebecca Snow, Vice President, People & Organization for Mars, Incorporated. "Associate experience is not separate from business performance  it fuels it. This award underscores that when we invest in our people, we strengthen both our culture and our results."

In addition to prioritizing its Associates, Mars also strives to help create a healthier planet so all people and pets can thrive. Mars recently released its annual Sustainable in a Generation Report, announcing it has continued decoupling its carbon emissions from its growth  it has grown over 69% to approximately $55B in annual net sales while reducing its carbon footprint by 16.4% compared to its 2015 baseline. As part of these efforts, Mars focuses on partnerships to advance innovative agricultural practices and deforestation-free supply chains, including Unreasonable Food  a three-year partnership with Unreasonable Group to accelerate entrepreneurial innovations around sustainable food systems.

ABOUT MARS, INCORPORATED

Mars, Incorporated is driven by the belief that the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today. As an approximately $55B family-owned business, our diverse and expanding portfolio of leading pet care products and veterinary services support pets all around the world and our quality snacking and food products delight millions of people every day. We produce some of the world's best-loved brands including ROYAL CANIN, PEDIGREE, WHISKAS, CESAR, DOVE, EXTRA, M&M'S, SNICKERS and BEN'S ORIGINAL. Our international networks of pet hospitals, including BANFIELD, BLUEPEARL, VCA and ANICURA span preventive, general, specialty, and emergency veterinary care, and our global veterinary diagnostics business ANTECH offers breakthrough capabilities in pet diagnostics. The Mars Five Principles  Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom  inspire our 150,000 Associates to act every day to help create a better world for people, pets and the planet.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Kelly Frailey

Director, Global External Communications

[email protected]

M +1 (571) 533-5924

SOURCE Mars, Incorporated
Findings can help clinicians make informed decisions about prescription medications that contribute to frailty in order to deprescribe or switch to safer alternatives when appropriate.

PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- New research published in the September 2025 issue of JNCCNJournal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network validates the use of a specifically-curated tool for determining which medications may be causing harm for older patients with cancer. Researchers affiliated with the Veterans Affairs (VA) Healthcare System in Boston evaluated a tool based on information from the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines) for Older Adult Oncology, called the "Geriatric Oncology Potentially Inappropriate Medications" scale, or "GO-PIMS" for short. They used data from the VA Cancer Registry to determine how well the GO-PIMs scale can identify high-risk medications and their association with outcomes in more than 380,000 older adults diagnosed with cancer, both solid tumors and hematologic malignancies, between January 1, 2000, and December 31, 2022.

"This research is about making [cancer] treatment safer and more tolerableespecially for older adults..." Post this The September issue of JNCCN is now available at JNCCN.org.

According to their results, 38% of patients were prescribed at least one GO-PIMs, most-commonly selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Each additional GO-PIM was associated with a 66% increase in odds of being mildly or moderately-to-severely frail at diagnosis. These findings confirm the GO-PIMS tool can identify high-risk medications that impact patients and outcomes negatively.

"This research is about making treatment safer and more tolerableespecially for older adults who are already vulnerable to adverse events," explained lead author Jennifer La, PhD, of Harvard Medical School and the VA Boston Cooperative Studies Program Center. "We found that many patients are prescribed chronic and supportive care medications that may do more harm than goodespecially when they're already dealing with complex health issues. These medications, rapidly identified by the GO-PIMs scale, were linked to higher rates of frailty, hospitalizations, and even death. By identifying and reviewing these prescriptions early, we can potentially improve safety and outcomes for people undergoing cancer treatment."

"We hope this research encourages oncology teams to routinely review medication listsnot just count the number of drugs but look closely at which ones might be risky," added senior author Clark DuMontier, MD, MPH, also of Harvard Medical School and VA Boston/Brigham and Women's Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. "Tools like the GO-PIMs scale can be built into electronic health records to flag concerning prescriptions. We need to weigh the risks and benefits carefully, and when possible, consider safer alternatives or deprescribing. Finding the right balance requires individual considerations for each patient, and we hope tools like GO-PIMs and frailty assessment will help make that possible. We are currently piloting such an approach using GO-PIMs in our local clinic."

"A cancer diagnosis is an ideal time to revisit medication safety, as older adults often begin systemic therapy with complex regimens, shifting goals of care, and frequent clinical contact," commented Mostafa Mohamed, MBBCh, PhD, University of Rochester Medical Center, who was not involved in this research. "La et al. highlighted the increased prevalence and clinical relevance of potentially inappropriate prescribing in older adults with cancer using the GO-PIMs scale in a national dataset. This analysis is unique in its use of a cancer-specific PIMs framework (GO-PIMs) derived from NCCN Guidelines in a real-world, national setting.

Dr. Mohamed continued: "This research underscores the opportunity to improve care by addressing medication-related risks. The next step is integrating tools like GO-PIMs into everyday practice, not only to flag high-risk medications, but also to support actionable changes in treatment planning and patient care."

Dr. Mohamed is the author of a longer response to the study that has also published in the September issue of JNCCN. To read the entire study "Potentially Inappropriate Medications, Frailty, and Outcomes in Patients With Cancer Managed in a National Health Care System" and the corresponding "The Last Word" commentary, visit JNCCN.org.

The GO-PIMs scale was previously validated for demonstrating frailty in older patients with hematologic malignancies treated at a single institution. Learn more about those findings, from August 2022, here: https://www.nccn.org/home/news/NewsDetails?NewsId=3404.

JNCCN's Impact

Cancer studies, like the ones above, are continuing to have a growing impact on patient care. The Impact Factor for JNCCN has now risen to 16.4, a significant increase over the previous rating of 14.8. The index is based on the number of articles that cite research from JNCCN over the past two years. It is calculated by Clarivate, an independent data, insights, and analysis organization. JNCCN now ranks in the top 94.9 percentile of peer-reviewed, cancer research journals.

About JNCCNJournal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network

More than 25,000 oncologists and other cancer care professionals across the United States read JNCCNJournal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. This peer-reviewed, indexed medical journal provides the latest information about innovation in translational medicine, and scientific studies related to oncology health services research, including quality care and value, bioethics, comparative and cost effectiveness, public policy, and interventional research on supportive care and survivorship. JNCCN features updates on the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines), review articles elaborating on guidelines recommendations, health services research, and case reports highlighting molecular insights in patient care. JNCCN is published by Harborside/BroadcastMed. Visit JNCCN.org. To inquire if you are eligible for a FREE subscription to JNCCN, visit NCCN.org/jnccn/subscribe. Follow JNCCN at x.com/JNCCN.

About the National Comprehensive Cancer Network

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) is marking 30 years as a not-for-profit alliance of leading cancer centers devoted to patient care, research, and education. NCCN is dedicated to defining and advancing quality, effective, equitable, and accessible cancer care and prevention so all people can live better lives. The NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines) provide transparent, evidence-based, expert consensus-driven recommendations for cancer treatment, prevention, and supportive services; they are the recognized standard for clinical direction and policy in cancer management and the most thorough and frequently-updated clinical practice guidelines available in any area of medicine. The NCCN Guidelines for Patients provide expert cancer treatment information to inform and empower patients and caregivers, through support from the NCCN Foundation. NCCN also advances continuing education, global initiatives, policy, and research collaboration and publication in oncology. Visit NCCN.org for more information.

Media Contact:

Rachel Darwin

267-622-6624

[email protected]

SOURCE National Comprehensive Cancer Network
Kreindler honors the memory of the nearly 3,000 victims who tragically perished on September 11th. Post this

Kreindler's 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund team, led by Kreindler Managing Partner Noah H. Kushlefsky, continues to help victims made sick from toxic exposure receive medical care and recover financial compensation.

"I was there. I went to work every day. I saw the devastation of Lower Manhattan. Representing people affected by the terror attacks has been the fabric of my entire life."

~ Noah H. Kushlefsky, Kreindler & Kreindler Managing Partner

Kreindler's Victims of Terrorism litigation team, led by Kreindler Partner Megan Wolfe Benett, is focused on seeking justice and compensation for victims of terrorist attacks in the United States and throughout the world. The firm was instrumental in launching the ongoing 2017 lawsuit against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a result of the Kingdom's support provided to the 9/11 hijackers. Twenty-four years later, the firm continues to fight on behalf of nearly 3,000 victims and their families. The September 11th litigation is the result of years of relentlessly pursuing justice while faced with significant political and legal hurdles at every turn.

Advocacy by Kreindler and other 9/11 plaintiffs' law firms led to congressional passage in 2016 of JASTA (the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act) which made it possible for U.S. victims to sue a foreign nation over terrorist acts.

Kreindler's unique global experience litigating and securing damages for victims of terrorist attacks can be traced back to the firm's work following the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. In that case, Kreindler's lawyers obtained the largest recovery for a single disaster in the history of aviation - nearly $3 billion - against Libya and Pan Am.

About Kreindler & Kreindler LLP

Kreindler is the preeminent aviation accident law firm in the world. No law firm in the world has helped more victims following the September 11th terrorist attacks than Kreindler & Kreindler LLP. In 2024, the firm was named Transportation Law Firm of the Year by the National Law Journal. Kreindler maintains law offices in New York, Boston and Los Angeles.

SOURCE Kreindler & Kreindler LLP
Air India has signed a new codeshare agreement with Kazakhstan's national carrier Air Astana to offer more flight options between the two countries, the airlines announced on Wednesday (September 10).

Under the agreement, Air India will place its AI designator code on Air Astana flights operating between AlmatyDelhi and AlmatyMumbai.

The arrangement will allow Air India to sell seats for these routes while traveling on flights operated by Air Astana. Booking will be available on Air India's official website, mobile app, and through travel agents worldwide, pending regulatory approvals.

Air India customers travelling to Almaty from points beyond Delhi and Mumbai will be able to conveniently travel on a single ticket and check-in their baggage through to Almaty at the point of origin, the company said.

India is also a country of strategic importance for Air Astana's business. "The code share will accelerate the increasingly strong business, tourist and student traffic flows between our two countries, Air Astana Group CEO Peter Foster said in a release.

The two airlines have signed an agreement to deepen interline partnership earlier this year where Air Astana has access to 18 destinations across Air Indias domestic network and 9 international destinations via Delhi and Mumbai.

In turn, Air India passengers gained convenient connections via Almaty to multiple destinations across Central Asia and China including Astana, Kazakhstan; Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; Tashkent, Uzbekistan; Dushanbe, Tajikistan; and Urumqi, China.

Air India CEO and Managing Director Campbell Wilson said that the partnership will enhance trade and cultural ties between the two countries. Beyond serving leisure travel demand, our partnership will also support trade and cultural exchanges between our two countries, while bringing a new destination in Central Asia closer to our customers," he said.

Also Read: Air India CEO: Rate of flight incidents 'entirely normal'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will host his Mauritius counterpart Navinchandra Ramgoolam, who is on a state visit to India, in Varanasi on Thursday (September 11) and hold bilateral discussions with him.The meeting in the historic city underscores the enduring civilisational connect, spiritual bonds, and deep-rooted people-to-people ties that have shaped the special and unique relationship between India and Mauritius, an official statement said.PM Modi will later travel to Dehradun and undertake an aerial survey of the flood-affected areas in Uttarakhand. He will chair a high-level review meeting with officials, it said.Ramgoolam, who reached Mumbai on Tuesday, will be in India till September 16.During their bilateral discussions, Modi and Ramgoolam will review the full spectrum of cooperation, with particular focus on development partnership and capacity building, the statement said.They will also discuss opportunities for expanding collaboration in health, education, science and technology, energy, infrastructure, as well as in emerging domains such as renewable energy, digital public infrastructure, and the blue economy, it added.The visit builds on the positive momentum generated by PM Modis state visit to Mauritius in March 2025 , during which the two leaders elevated the bilateral relationship to an enhanced strategic partnership.As a valued partner and close maritime neighbour in the Indian Ocean Region, Mauritius is key to Indias MAHASAGAR (Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Region) Vision and the Neighbourhood First policy, the statement read.The deepening cooperation between the two countries carries significance not only for the prosperity of the people of both countries, but also for the collective aspirations of the Global South, it said.The Varanasi Summit will mark a significant milestone in the shared journey of India and Mauritius towards mutual prosperity, sustainable development, and a secure and inclusive future, it said.
rmy was deployed across Kathmandu and other major cities early on September 10 to restore order, a day after the violent anti-government demonstrations that forced Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to resign.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Wednesday advised Indian citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Nepal in light of the violent protests that claimed the lives of at least 19 people and hundreds were injured. Although some calm has returned to the earstwhile Himalyan Kingdom, after the country's a

According to officials, the army assumed control of nationwide security operations at 10 pm on September 9, following escalating protests that continued even after Oli stepped down. Restrictions have been imposed in several key areas, including Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur, to contain the unrest.

In a statement, the army voiced concern over activities of certain groups that it said were exploiting the volatile situation. Certain groups are taking undue advantage of the difficult situation and causing severe damage to ordinary citizens and public property," the statement read.

An officer at the Nepal Army headquarters added, according to ANI, "We have deployed our troops to prevent any untoward incidents, including looting and vandalism."

Authorities have instructed residents to remain indoors unless absolutely necessary, warning that strict measures will be enforced to prevent further violence.

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) also issued a strict advisory asking Indian nationals to avoid unecessary travel to Nepla and urged Indians already in Nepal to stay indoors, avoid public gatherings and adhere strictly to the guidance of local authorities and the Embassy of India in Kathmandu. The statement added: "Indian citizens presently in Nepal are advised to shelter in their current places of residence, avoid going out onto the streets and exercise all due caution."To assist those in need, the embassy released emergency contact numbers: +977-980 860 2881 and +977-981 032 6134, both of which are also available on WhatsApp.

Meanwhile, amid the escalating violence, the Maharashtra State Emergency Operations Centre issued a travel advisory urging citizens to avoid visiting the neighbouring country until further notice.

The advisory emphasised that those already in Nepal should remain indoors, limit movement, and comply with instructions issued by local authorities as well as the Embassy of India in Kathmandu.

Also read | Who are Sudan Gurung, Balen Shahat and others at the centre of Nepal protests

A government statement read: "In view of the prevailing situation in Nepal, the Maharashtra State Emergency Operations Centre has issued important advisories for citizens of Maharashtra. At present, travel to Nepal should be avoided. Citizens who are already in Nepal are advised to remain safe at their place of stay, avoid unnecessary movement outside, and strictly follow the instructions of the local administration as well as the Embassy of India."

The central government has also been monitoring the situation. A meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security was convened to review developments in Nepal following the anti-government protests that have led to violence in several parts of Kathmandu.

Several airlines in India have suspended operations to Nepal, in view of the protests.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Phoenix Contact, a global leader in industrial automation and connectivity solutions, proudly announces the establishment of Phoenix Contact Trading LLC in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Founded in 2024, this strategic expansion marks a significant milestone in the company's commitment to deepening its presence in the region and aligning with Saudi Arabia's dynamic economic and industrial transformation.

Phoenix Contact Expands Footprint in Saudi Arabia with Launch of Phoenix Contact Trading LLC

The new entity enables Phoenix Contact to engage more closely with the Saudi market, delivering tailored products and services that meet local needs and support national development initiatives. The company's collaboration with trusted local partners has been instrumental in launching operations, leveraging their expertise to drive innovation, infrastructure support, and the adoption of localized solutions.

A cornerstone of Phoenix Contact's strategy in the Kingdom is the development of local talent. Through targeted training programs, career development initiatives, and knowledge exchange, the company aims to foster long-term growth that reflects the ambitions and capabilities of the Saudi workforce.

Phoenix Contact Trading LLC offers a comprehensive portfolio of components and system solutions for energy generation, transportation, and distribution, as well as for device manufacturing, machine building, and control cabinet construction. The product range includes:

Modular and specialized terminal blocks

PCB connectors and cable connection technology

Installation accessories and electronic interfaces

Power supplies and automation systems based on Ethernet and wireless technologies

Open control systems, safety solutions, and surge protection systems

These solutions empower system installers, operators, and infrastructure developers across industrial, urban, and transportation sectors.

As a pioneer in digital transformation, Phoenix Contact integrates its deep experience in in-house machine building to support seamless data flow across the entire product lifecyclefrom engineering and production to installation and maintenance.

With a strong foundation in Saudi Arabia, Phoenix Contact remains committed to sustainable development, customer-centric innovation, and empowering the future of industry in the Kingdom.

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2768628/Phoenix_Contact_Trading_LLC_Infographic.jpg

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2280983/Phoenix_Contact_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Phoenix Contact Trading LLC
Donald Trump took a while to go after Seth Meyers in the same way that he had targeted other late-night talk show hosts. The president was allegedly a catalyst in getting Stephen Colbert fired and getting The Late Show canceled. He goes on semi-regular tirades against both Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon. But he finally set the Late Night host in his sights while Meyers was on vacation.

It hasnt seemed to deter Meyers from taking softer punches at Trump. When we all thought that the president was dead for 24 hours, Meyers delivered some of the toughest blows about the celebration of his rumored demise. Now, Meyers is still sparing no jokes for nonstop hits on the most recent news regarding Trump, which includes but is certainly not limited to: the reveal of the birthday card he sent to Jeffrey Epstein, his threat to napalm Chicago via A.I.-generated meme, and changing the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War.

Meyers started his Closer Look segment with a montage of Trumpers like JD Vance and Donald Trump Jr. calling Trump the president of peace, on the campaign trail. Trump, before he was elected president for the second time, was bursting with promises of ending wars and bringing prosperity around. Unsurprisingly, thats not what happened.

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Its so crazy to call one of the worlds most annoying loudmouths the candidate of peace, Meyers said. One thing Donald Trump has never given anyone is peace. He never shuts up. After his first term ended, I thought we were free. And then he talked all the way through Bidens term. Im so used to hearing this mans voice, I cant fall asleep without it.

He went on to make fun of Pete Hegseths atrocious Dr. Seuss-style poetry announcing the change of the Department of War and Trumps endless contradictory statements regarding everything from his own health to his intentions of sending the National Guard into Chicago. Also, you want us to listen to you, but you never listen to us, Meyers continued. In fact, its so rare for Trump to go a day without talking that when he does go quiet, it immediately sparks rumors about his health, which also seems to piss him off.

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Then, we cut to a clip of Trump throwing a temper tantrum because we all thought he was dead for a little while and celebrated the potential of such a reality. It seems to bother Trump that were all aware of his increasingly fragile morality and he wants everyone to just stop talking about his swollen ankles, bruised hands and declining cognitive state. But thats too bad, because a) its impossible not to notice; and b) its so, so, so much fun to pick on the weaknesses of the most powerful and destructive man in the world.

Meyers ended with an additional dig at Trumps pending demise: Trump doesnt just want to intimidate enemies abroad. He wants to cow his opponents into submission here at home. At the same time, he doesnt seem to remember the things he says or does on a daily basis, or where he is or where he just came from. Physically, he may still be the president, but mentally speaking  Trump is no longer with us.
Any time someone tells me they want to blood test me to deliver a miracle panacea for all of my worldly ills, I assume Im getting Elizabeth Holmes-ed. For those unfamiliar, scam queen Holmes and her company Theranos claimed that they had totally revolutionized blood testing. Their promised advancement in medical technology would only require a dramatically small amount of blood to do complete analysis. This was, in fact, bullshit. Now, Holmes is cooling her jets in federal prison with workout buddy and former Real Housewives star Jen Shah, and I am still getting nine vials of blood drawn to determine I have low levels of iron and vitamin D.

This little backstory brings us to Joe Rogans latest episode of the Joe Rogan Experience. Its a totally outrageous three hours and 20 minutes long. Rogans guest is Brigham Buhler, the founder of the Texas-based regenerative and wellness clinic Way2Well. Buhler has been on the show two times before. His company focuses on Bloodwork, Stem Cell Therapy, Peptides and takes a preventative approach to healthcare. Its important to note that Buhler wasnt a doctor or any other form of healthcare provider before launching his clinic  he worked on the sales side of the healthcare industry.

His personal Instagram is filled with renowned healthcare experts like Rob Schneider, Smith & Wesson rifles, Tom Segura and King of the MAHA universe, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Way2Well offers an annual bloodwork membership, stem cell therapy, peptide therapy, longevity lab work and pricey supplements. While it isnt a full-on Theranos scam, Way2Well is clearly a way to sell overpriced supplements.

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Buhlers company isnt promising to figure out everything thats wrong with you with just a few drops of blood, but they are advertising wellness through a pricey and rigorous regimen of blood testing. Meanwhile, the Way2Well TrustPilot rating is 3.2, with one reviewer saying it could be potentially harmful if youre relying on this for legitimate medical insight or guidance.

If Theranos had lasted through the second Trump administration, Elizabeth Holmes would be getting a spot on the board of the CDC not doing prison pilates. And before the bald Elizabeth Holmes gets angry, I concede that the American healthcare system is broken, that our food and medicine infrastructure is broken and that the way our society is structured doesnt encourage healthy living. Thats what the bulk of the podcast episode with Joe Rogan is about. Big Pharma is evil, the FDA is flawed, were a society of chronically ill people made sicker by an environment manufactured to harm us.

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However, Im not too keen to take healthcare advice from a man who has done podcasts with RFK Jr., and is having serious conversations about prescription medications with Rob Schneider. Thats just not the guy Im turning to for my healthcare advice. That would be like buying your vitamins from Alex Jones.

Please, for the love of God, dont stop going to the doctor even if you do decide to get a blood test membership after listening to JRE.
Did the New Testament say anything about manscaping?

Eugene Levy has played a polka star, an aging folk musician and a whole lot of awkward dads grappling with horny teenagers. But before all of that, the SCTV star once took on the role of Jesus Christ. Thankfully, it was for a project that in no way involved Mel Gibson.

As we recently mentioned, Levy was a cast member in the legendary Toronto production of Godspell, the revisionist Biblical musical about the life of Jesus and his clown-colored disciples. The Canadian crew also included Martin Short, Andrea Martin, Victor Garber and the late Gilda Radner.

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This particular staging of Godspell is now the subject of a new documentary, bearing the lengthy title You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution, Spread Love & Overalls and Created a Community That Changed the World (In a Canadian Kind of Way).

As the doc reveals, Levy originally played a character named Herb. But the soon-to-be-legendary cast members were only given year-long contracts, meaning that after 12 months, a number of performers left the show. Suddenly, the lead role of Jesus was vacant and Levy thought, I betcha I could probably do this.

He auditioned for the part, and was ultimately successful. I think I was the first Jewish-looking Jesus that any of the productions had, Levy reasoned, pointing out that Godspells messiah usually had more of a Ronald McDonald vibe. I definitely was sporting my ethnicity and a little hair, he added.

The hair factor quickly became a point of contention, owing to the fact that Jesus makes his entrance wearing only a pair of boxer shorts, symbolizing his creation.

The director came up and asked me if I would mind waxing the hair off my body, Levy recalled. Godspells musical director, Paul Shaffer, explained that the producers were worried that Levy was too hairy and would scare the kids in the matinee. But Levy flat-out refused to take such a drastic action.

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No, Im not waxing any hair off my body, he told the director. Instead he was given a tank top to wear along with the shorts during the opening scene, so as not to traumatize children with the sight of a mans chest hair.

With Levy playing Jesus, his old part went to friend and future SCTV co-star Dave Thomas, who was busy working on completing a stupid degree at university. Unfortunately, Thomas couldnt dance, and only lasted for three months before exiting the musical.

Hey, at least the producers didnt try to force him to painfully remove his body hair.
California Governor Gavin Newsom spent the summer trolling President Trump, trying to beat the master at his own social media game. His press office posted ALL-CAPS TWEETS IMITATING TRUMPS BOMBASTIC TRUTH SOCIAL RANTS (SAD!), as well as A.I.-generated videos featuring Newsom shaking hands with Tiny Trump:

And enjoying a refreshing glass of MAGA tears:

Some of the panelists on CNNs Have I Got News for You applauded the attacks. Troll on, brother, troll on, laughed Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett.

Roy Wood Jr. thinks the all-caps tweeting style is spot-on. Thats a quality Donald Trump impersonation right there, he said admiringly. Thats right up there with Alec Baldwin. Neck and neck.

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But not all the shows comedians agreed with the approach. I know Im in the minority on this. I hate that hes doing this, argued Michael Ian Black. I hate that were reducing our politicians to cartoon characters. I dont give a shit how well you control online. Do your fucking job. Thats what I care about.

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That mini-rant drew applause from the studio audience, but Crockett wasnt buying Blacks pushback. MAGA is losing their shit right now. And theyre like, This is immature, she said. Yes! Thats what weve been saying! That is what were trying to get you to see. Its immature. Its ignorant. And it doesnt prove that you should be having the nuclear codes.

Thats why Newsoms tactics are fair game, Crockett argued. I think its necessary because were putting a good old mirror up in your face to make you understand that yall been supporting a real ignorant fool this whole time.

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Amber Ruffin pushed back on Black as well, comparing his criticism to people who complain about comics on shows like Have I Got News for You. Thats like how people do us when people are like, They over here making jokes, but theres serious shit going on, man.

Thats different, Black said. Newsom is the governor, not a comedian.

But Trump is Trump, and hes getting away with it, Ruffin shot back.

And he sucks! concluded Black.

Dave Foley, the Kids in the Hall veteran, appreciated Blacks idealistic but possibly unrealistic stance: I think Michaels antique desire for integrity is adorable.

After Wood played clips of conservative pundits echoing Blacks stop being so childish arguments, Black sheepishly admitted he agreed with them. Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, is out there making the same exact points, but doing it in a way that is mature, intelligent, rational, reasonable, and doesnt come across like hes just a needy little baby sucking at the teet of public attention, Black said, which I think is what Gavin Newsom is doing.

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The problem, Ruffin said, is that Pritzkers audience is already voting Democrat. We dont need their votes, she contended. We need the idiot votes. Lets get stupid.
Second Oldest Fractional Aircraft Program Marks Three Decades of Dedication to Excellence, Safety, and Customer Service

PORTSMOUTH, N.H., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- PlaneSense, a leading provider of fractional aircraft ownership, commemorates its 30th anniversary this week, marking three decades of transformative growth, innovation, and an unwavering commitment to client satisfaction within the private aviation industry. Since its inception in 1995, PlaneSense has redefined the standard for fractional aircraft programs, consistently placing safety, reliability, and personalized service at the heart of its operations.

Celebrating 30 years of excellence, PlaneSense leads the industry with the largest fleet of Pilatus PC-12 turboprops and PC-24 jets in the U.S., offering premium private aviation services such as fractional aircraft ownership and jet card programs.

"When we launched PlaneSense three decades ago, our vision was to offer a more intelligent and highly personal approach to private flying," says George Antoniadis, Founder, President, and CEO, PlaneSense, Inc. "We believed clients deserved a sophisticated aircraft but also a trusted partner dedicated to fulfilling their flight needs with a cost-effective, safe, and service-focused solution. Thirty years later, that philosophy still drives every decision we make."

The PlaneSense fractional program launched in September 1995, with the delivery of the company's first Pilatus PC-12, the 20th produced by Pilatus Aircraft Ltd. With its short field capabilities, flexibility to land on unpaved runways, comfortable cabin, interior cargo, and proven reliability, the PC-12 is a highly sought-after solution for business and leisure flights.

In 2015, PlaneSense took a bold step forward by launching its jet program, paving the way for the much-anticipated arrival of the world's first Pilatus PC-24 jet in February 2018. Building on the renowned Swiss craftsmanship of the PC-12, the introduction of the PC-24 elevated the private flight experience for PlaneSense clients seeking a larger cabin and extended range. Like the PC-12, the PC-24 can operate from shorter runways, delivers outstanding reliability, and provides a spacious interior cargo area. The spacious cabin is noticeably larger than those found in other light jets, providing passengers with superior comfort and a more enjoyable flying experience. Today, PlaneSense operates the largest fleet of PC-12 turboprops and PC-24 jets in the United States.

"As we celebrate this milestone, I am reminded that innovation is in our DNA," adds Antoniadis. "From pioneering new approaches for fractional ownership to embracing the latest advancements in aviation technology, we are constantly evolving to better serve our clients. Their trust empowers us to expand our offerings and set new standards."

Over the past year, PlaneSense introduced a variety of new services and products that were enthusiastically received by clients. An exclusive collaboration with Jetfly extends seamless service to Europe and Northern Africa where PlaneSense clients can use their flight hours on Jetfly's fleet of Pilatus aircraft. For even more flexibility, the company unveiled the PlaneSense Sourcing Solution, a service that enables clients to access reliable private flights across the U.S. and anywhere in the world, including aircraft beyond the PlaneSense fleet. While PlaneSense has long operated throughout the continental U.S., Canada, Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Caribbean, Central America, and Mexico, these strategic initiatives now expand the program's footprint even further, delivering more value and convenience to clients wherever they need to fly, both nationally and internationally.

Furthering the company's leading-edge approach, the CobaltPass offering introduced in 2025 redefines the conventional jet card model by allowing clients to fully customize their flight solutions across aircraft types and enjoy travel with highly competitive pricing, unparalleled flexibility, and no blackout dates. The CobaltPass jet card complements the established fractional program, opening up new ways for private flyers to take advantage of all that PlaneSense offers while providing exceptional access and convenience for a broad range of travel needs.

Thanks in part to its renowned service levels and comprehensive suite of tailored programs, PlaneSense has achieved an impressive 91% client retention rate, with some families now spanning three generations of PlaneSense share owners. And while PlaneSense is recognized for its unique offerings and performance, Antoniadis also attributes the company's enduring success to its dedicated employees, whose passion and expertise have shaped PlaneSense as an industry leader.

"Our team is the backbone of PlaneSense," says Antoniadis. "Their determination to go the extra mile for our clients sets PlaneSense apart."

About PlaneSense

PlaneSense, Inc. has built a reputation since 1995 for delivering tailored private flight solutions to clients seeking flexibility, safety, and exceptional service. PlaneSense, together with its sister company Atlas Aircraft Center, employs a dedicated team of 600 professionals, operates state-of-the-art maintenance facilities in Portsmouth and Boulder City, NV, and provides comprehensive flight training for its pilots in Portsmouth and Tampa, FL. The company's approach to fractional aircraft ownership and jet card programs prioritizes reliability and client satisfaction, earning consistent recognition, including top operator in Overall Satisfaction, Customer Service, and Value for Price Paid in Business Jet Traveler Magazine's 2024 survey. With the coveted ARGUS Platinum Elite safety ranking, PlaneSense stands among an exclusive group of operators worldwide. Operating throughout North America, the Caribbean, and beyond, PlaneSense enables clients to travel privately with ease. Fractional share owners and jet card holders benefit from a program designed to adapt to their needs, delivering a seamless and trusted flying experience. Discover more about PlaneSense's private aviation solutions at www.planesense.com.

Contact: Tiffany Nelson, [email protected]

SOURCE PlaneSense
MUNICH, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- On September 9, SERES Power celebrated the global launch of its latest-generation SERES Super Range-Extender System, high-efficiency engine technology, and new-generation distributed e-Drive system during IAA MOBILITY 2025. More than 60 representatives from AVL, Bosch, Mahle, Schaeffler, Valeo, Stellantis, Mubea, Infineon and other companies, and international media attended this technology launch and salon event. Taking this opportunity, SERES Power will continue to carry out collaborative innovation with supply chain partners, jointly provide safer, more intelligent, and more convenient intelligent mobility solutions for global users.

SERES Power Technology Launch Ceremony and Technology Salon

The new generation of SERES Super Range-Extender System is based on "Saiyi (C2E) Range-Extender Architecture" and "RoboREX Intelligent Control Technology", featuring three leading advantages: quiet, highly integrated, and highly efficient. The C2E Architecture adopts All-in-ONE integrated design concept, with deep integration of engine and motor, control systems, and housing to enable ultimate compactness and cost control. RoboREX revolutionizes the range-extender's operating mode from passive to active control, enabling intelligent active energy management.

In terms of efficiency performance, the comprehensive fuel consumption is reduced by 15%, noise perception is reduced by 90%, the actual efficiency reaches 3.65 kWh/L, and the maximum thermal efficiency reaches 44.8%, leading among mass-produced range-extenders.

The distributed electric drive technology can significantly improve the drive experience with safety pleasure. SERES has always believed that "safety is the ultimate luxury". SERES Power is actively developing the distributed e-drive systems, including dual-motor, three-motor, and four-motor distributed architecture, which can meet the power needs of vehicles from Class A to Class D.

It is reported that vehicles equipped with range-extended technology have become a top choice among high-end luxury consumers, offering convenient and efficient mobility without range or charging anxiety. As a pioneer and leader in range-extender technology, SERES has obtained over 3,900 patents and won over 100 honors.

SERES Super Range-Extender System has been widely applied and achieved success in China, helping AITO achieve strong sales. As of now, REEV AITO sales top 750,000 units. AITO 9 leads the 500,000-level luxury car segment.

SERES is currently cooperating with 25 industry partners. In 2024, SERES Power achieved an annual revenue of 9.2 billion yuan, with 132% year-on-year growth. The sales volume of its powertrains surpassed 600,000 units, and its motor and electronic control products exceeded 900,000 units.

SOURCE SERES
Peter Mandelson reportedly revels in his nickname the Prince of Darkness. It has never seemed so appropriate.

Documents made public in America show that the current British ambassador in Washington and former Labour Cabinet minister regarded convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein as his best pal.

If Lord Mandelson is the Prince of Darkness, Epstein  who apparently committed suicide in a New York prison in 2019 as he faced charges of sex trafficking  was an apostle of Satan.

Politicians inevitably meet rogues in the course of their duties. This is different. The so-called birthday book compiled for Epsteins 50th birthday in 2003, which has now been released by the US Congress, depicts an extremely close relationship between the two men.

In a ten-page tribute to Epstein, Mandelson does not merely describe the billionaire deviant as my best pal. He ladles out praise and flattery as a courtier might towards his master.

Epstein is described in the handwritten note as mysterious and an intelligent, sharp-witted man who had parachuted into my life. How profoundly touching!

People of a sensitive disposition may wish to avert their eyes when confronted by the accompanying photograph supplied by Mandelson that shows him in a bathrobe, his face wreathed in smiles, chatting with the paedophile

In the so-called birthday book, Mandelson pulls out the stops to the point of infatuation: You would spend many hours just waiting for him to turn up. And often, no sooner were you getting used to having him around, you would suddenly be alone... again

Mandelson then pulls out the stops to the point of infatuation: You would spend many hours just waiting for him to turn up. And often, no sooner were you getting used to having him around, you would suddenly be alone... again.

People of a sensitive disposition may wish to avert their eyes when confronted by the accompanying photograph supplied by Mandelson that shows him in a bathrobe, his face wreathed in smiles, chatting with the paedophile. A back view picture of a topless Mandy in swimming shorts gazing out of a balcony is scarcely less unsettling.

Probably most disquieting of all is the photo of Mandelson standing by what looks like a dining-room table. He is a few feet from a young woman wearing a white vest and black underwear. A common occurrence in the Epstein household, no doubt, but unusual in the lives of most of us.

Mandys torrent of sycophancy finishes off with a final accolade: Happy birthday, Jeffrey. We love you! The birthday book was put together by Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting young girls for Epstein to sexually abuse.

It also includes a bawdy letter written to Epstein framed in a female silhouette that bears Donald Trumps name.

His press secretary Karoline Leavitt has dismissed it as a fake. Im in no position to judge.

However, we are interested here not in the American Presidents ill-advised association with Epstein but in the seemingly much closer relationship that our very own Prince of Darkness had with this wicked man.

Why? Epstein evidently loved seeking the company and friendship of powerful men. As is well known, he ensnared Prince Andrew, and allegedly laid on the 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre for him on three occasions  a charge the Prince vehemently denies. Giuffre killed herself at the age of 41 in April.

The story continues on page 3 of the letter

Page 4: In one photo Mandelson is stood next to two females, one wearing a white vest and black underwear. Above, he writes that Epstein would leave 'you with some "interesting" friends to entertain'

Page 5 of the letter: reminiscing about dogs on the island

Page 6: how Epstein would 'parachute back in' to your life

Page 7: surprise whiskey reference

There is of course no suggestion whatsoever that Jeffrey Epstein laid on anything of that nature for Mandelson, whose tastes are anyway well known to lie in the opposite direction.

Other factors must explain the perverts attractions to Mandy. His vast wealth? His charm? His array of rich friends? Only His Britannic Majestys Ambassador to Washington can truly know the answer.

Whatever the reason, it was a reckless friendship. In 2003, at the time of the birthday book, Mandelson was a mere Labour MP. But he had in the recent past twice been a Cabinet minister  being sacked by Tony Blair for misdemeanours both times  and was about to become Britains European Commissioner in Brussels.

It is true that in 2003 the police had not yet begun their investigations into Epstein. Those started in 2005 after a mother alleged that he had sexually assaulted her 14-year-old daughter. In 2008 he was sentenced to 18 months in prison for procuring for prostitution, and served almost 13 months.

Even before this, he was plainly a sleazy character, to whom a prudent and morally punctilious person would have given a very wide berth. Rumours of illegal behaviour may have swirled around him. A woman has alleged that in 1996 she told New

York police that she had been raped by Epstein, but nothing was done.

We dont know for how long after the 2003 birthday book Mandelson remained close to Epstein because he wont tell us. Questioned by a Sky News reporter earlier this year after rumours of his involvement first broke, the Prince of Darkness refused to say whether he had stayed in Epsteins apartment when he was in jail in 2009.

Page 8: apparently a holiday snap taken by Mandelson of Epstein's Caribbean island

Page 9: Mandelson captioned this grinning photo of himself with Epstein and said he was 'my best pal!'

Page 10: the final page of the letter, a happy snap of Mandelson with a friend, believed to be his long-term partner Reinaldo Avila da Silva

What he did say is that he wished he had never met him in the first place. But why? Because the scandal is tarnishing his reputation and becoming politically embarrassing? Or because he now genuinely regrets having had so much to do with such a dreadful man? The former, I would guess.

Certainly, there isnt the slightest suggestion that Lord Mandelson recognises that he let down himself and his party by fraternising with such a seedy chancer  and then displaying a monumental lack of judgment by extolling him in a toe-curling manner.

Mandelsons flaw  what would be called his tragic flaw if he were a character in a Shakespearean tragedy  is his fondness for very rich men. He announced over a quarter of a century ago that he was intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich as long as they pay their taxes. He never spoke a truer word.

He was chummy with the multi-millionaire Labour MP Geoffrey Robinson, from whom he borrowed 373,000 interest-free for a mortgage without declaring it. That was why he was turfed out of the Cabinet on the first occasion.

Mandy was apparently bedazzled by the wealth of the Indian billionaire Hinduja brothers, on behalf of one of whom he intervened with a fellow minister to expedite an application for a British passport. Blair sent him packing a second time.

While a European Commissioner, Mandelson attracted controversy when it was revealed that he had been a guest on the yacht of Paul Allen, a co-founder of Microsoft, which at the time was at the centre of an EU investigation.

Another chum was the extremely wealthy Nat Rothschild. Mandy spent time on his yacht, and as European Commissioner flew in Rothschilds private jet from Switzerland to Moscow, and then on to Siberia as a guest of Oleg Deripaska, the billionaire Russian industrialist.

Once a severe critic of Donald Trump, as ambassador Mandelson seldom misses an opportunity to shower him with praise, averring that his presidency will be one of the most consequential in modern times

A birthday letter that US President Donald Trump allegedly wrote to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. He denies its veracity

He is naturally no less interested in power than money. Once a severe critic of Donald Trump, as ambassador he seldom misses an opportunity to shower him with praise, averring that his presidency will be one of the most consequential in modern times.

Is there a single socialist bone, or even a tiny socialist corpuscle, lurking in Peter Mandelsons well groomed, expensively attired, malleable frame? I very much doubt it.

Love of power and money  and who knows what else  took him far too close to the abhorrent, corrupt human being that was Jeffrey Epstein.

If Mandelson were still a politician, he would be drummed out of office  yet again. As he is a diplomat, he may think he is immune, but he owes the British people  who keep him in very fine style as our ambassador in Washington  an explanation.

Why in Gods name did the Prince of Darkness become best pals with the Apostle of Satan?
On the eve of the general election, Keir Starmer said to the country: Ive changed the Labour Party and put it back in the service of working people. Now, I want to change Britain, to make it work once again for you and your family.

He was feeding into a narrative fashionable among his supporters  and even hard-bitten political commentators. Starmer had wrested his party back from the grip of the Corbynites and was realigning the Labour membership with the ordinary people of Britain, we were told.

We now know that  like so many other of Sir Keirs pre-election statements and promises  it wasnt true. He hasnt changed his party at all. Or if he has, he hasnt changed it enough to trust it to decide who its new Deputy Leader should be.

Since Angela Rayners belated resignation, the line from Downing Street has been that the election to replace her was something of a sideshow. An inconvenient distraction from the serious business of government, one the Prime Minister would observe with only detached interest.

In truth the process has caused a meltdown within No10 as senior Starmer aides frantically rush around, working out how they can rig the contest. Or, better still, have no contest at all.

First, they attempted to buy off some of the potential challengers, such as Lisa Nandy, who had been lined up for the sack in last weeks reshuffle but was handed a last-minute reprieve as Culture Secretary. And demoted Foreign Secretary David Lammy was presented with the sinecure of Deputy Prime Minister.

Then they announced a deliberately truncated election timetable with potential contenders granted a ludicrously short window of just three days to reach the imposing threshold of 80 nominations.

The PM has demoted Foreign Secretary David Lammy (centre), who was presented with the sinecure of Deputy Prime Minister, and has twisted the arm of Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson (right) to run as the Keir Starmer continuity candidate  even though she had previously told friends on Friday she had no intention of submitting her name

Finally, they twisted the arm of Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson to run as the Keir Starmer continuity candidate  even though she had previously told friends on Friday she had no intention of submitting her name.

Of course, there is an argument that the entire exercise is nothing but a self-indulgent diversion for a party thats supposed to be prioritising the governance of the nation. In which case, there should be no election at all.

Starmer has already said he feels no obligation to provide the victor with a position in his Cabinet. So, it would have been perfectly easy for Labours ruling National Executive Committee to announce the post had been abolished for the duration of Labours term of office.

But the Prime Minister knows that would itself have resulted in a violent backlash from party members determined to have their say.

So, instead, his advisers will spend the rest of the week pretending his manipulation of the contest is further testament to his Machiavellian party management skills. But it isnt.

Today, Keir Starmer should be a hero to his MPs and activists. It is just over a year since he won the general election with a resounding majority of 174, ending his partys latest 14-year trudge through the political wilderness. Posters of Che Guevara should have been ripped from walls, to be replaced with beatific images of Sir Keir pledging to deliver mission-led government to a grateful populace.

Tony Blair was a self-confessed control freak, but even he allowed a contest between John Prescott (left) and Margaret Beckett for the right to be his Deputy Leader

Yet whats the reality? He is now so weak, hes having to press-gang his MPs into rubber-stamping his chosen deputy leadership candidate because he darent let Labour members choose.

Tony Blair was a self-confessed control freak. But even he allowed a contest between John Prescott and Margaret Beckett for the right to be his Deputy Leader. Gordon Brown was even more neurotic. But again, in 2007, he allowed a proper deputy leadership contest, one that featured no fewer than six candidates.

However No10 tries to spin it, Starmers attempt to stitch up the current election isnt a sign of strength, but of how dramatically his authority has collapsed since his triumph last July. And whatever the result, it will come back to haunt him.

Lets imagine his gerrymandering proves successful. At the moment Bridget Phillipson is well-liked and respected by her colleagues and Labour activists.

But if she is levered into the deputy leadership as a sitting member of the Cabinet  as Starmers hand-picked appointee  her hands will be bound by collective responsibility.

She will not be allowed to hint at, never mind articulate, an alternative vision or direction for the Government. Phillipson will have no option but to adopt the position of monkey to the Prime Ministers organ grinder.

And who will that benefit, you might ask? Because this is one area where both Labour members and the country are in alignment. Both recognise that Keir Starmer is proving to be an utterly disastrous Prime Minister.

Starmers personal approval rating isnt just bad by domestic comparisons.

According to a poll published yesterday by Labours house journal, The Guardian, it is now the worst of any western leader with the exception of Emmanuel Macron.

And after Mondays collapse of the French government, Macron will be lucky if he survives the week without a visit to Mme Guillotine.

How, then, will it help Labour to have a leadership election that ends with the message: Dont worry. Everything will be carrying on as normal. Nothing to see here. Move along?'

Starmer was elected on a mandate of change. Yet he appears to be saying to both the country and his own party: I know youre angry at the direction Im taking. Well, tough. Im carrying on regardless. That would be a tone-deaf response in the best of circumstances.

But at a time when Labour support is collapsing on both its Left and Right flanks from the insurgent challenges of Jeremy Corbyns new party, the Greens and Reform, Sir Keirs latest grim embrace of the status quo is politically myopic.

Lucy Powell and Emily Thornberry  the only two independent challengers with any chance of making the ballot  might not be everyones cup of tea. But at least Moss Side-born Powell  who now represents Manchester Central  has genuine roots in Labours crumbling Red Wall.

Emily Thornberry and Lucy Powell (right) are the only two independent challengers with any chance of making the ballot

And Thornberrys blunt speaking would surely prove more appealing than, as she herself identified, someone who opts to just nod along while Labour continues its plunge into the electoral abyss.

The fact that Downing Street cannot see any of this is instructive.

Announcing his latest relaunch last week, Keir Starmer claimed he was embarking on a new phase of his premiership. In reality, he is being forced to circle the wagons. Already. The focus on internal Labour politics is indeed a distraction from serious issues such as the small-boat crisis and the war in Ukraine.

Yet Sir Keir has no choice but to look inward. Because he is only too aware of the threat he now faces from his numerous enemies within.

We were told Keir Starmer had pacified his party and moulded it in his image. His desperate attempt to rig the upcoming deputy leadership contest proves that claim was false.

The Prime Minister fears he cannot trust his own party. As he is about to find out  those fears are well grounded.
Beloved donut chain introduces first-ever cold brew donut, offers free treats at select locations

HOUSTON, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Shipley Donuts, the nation's largest brand of handmade fresh daily donuts and kolaches, is launching its most innovative item yet in time for National Coffee Day: the Cold Brew Donut.

This first-of-its-kind treat combines the rich, bold flavor of cold brew coffee with Shipley's signature fresh-made daily classic buttermilk cake donut, finished with its iconic glaze.

Shipley Donuts: Cold Brew Donut

Available for two weeks only beginning Friday, Sept. 26, at participating locations, the Cold Brew Donut packs 56 milligrams of caffeine, about two-thirds the amount found in an 8-ounce cup of coffee, making it the perfect pick-me-up for donut lovers seeking their daily dose of happiness and energy.

"Cold brew has become a daily go-to drink for so many people, and for National Coffee Day, we wanted to create something special that combines bold coffee flavors with our fresh handmade donuts," said Flynn Dekker, CEO of Shipley Donuts. "This isn't just a donut  it's a delicious energy boost that perfectly blends two morning essentials our guests already love."

The Cold Brew Donut is available through Oct. 10, while supplies last, priced at $1.99 for one, $5 for three or $9.99 for six.

To celebrate National Coffee Day on Monday, Sept. 29, Shipley Donuts is treating its loyalty members to a free Cold Brew Donut or iconic Original Glazed with the purchase of any coffee at select locations. The one-day promotion is available in-store and online when scanning the Sweet Rewards loyalty app, while supplies last.

Guests can order online at www.shipleydonuts.com/locations for pickup or delivery and sign up for Sweet Rewards to access exclusive offers.

About Shipley Donuts

Founded in 1936, Houston-based Shipley Do-Nuts is the nation's largest brand of handmade fresh daily donuts and kolaches, with more than 380 company-owned and franchised restaurants across 14 states, serving up its famous donuts, coffee and kolaches to generations of guests. Shipley is ranked No. 121 on Entrepreneur magazine's Franchise 500 2025 list and No. 1 in its category and is No. 147 on the Technomic 2025 Top 500. For franchising information, visit ownashipleydonuts.com. Follow Shipley on Instagram and Facebook @ShipleyDonuts, and sign up for Shipley Sweet Rewards at shipleydonuts.com/rewards to unlock free donuts, discounted coffee, exclusive merchandise and more.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Ashley Lennington

[email protected]

817-329-3257

SOURCE Shipley Do-Nuts
Will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights That was a celebrated front page headline on April 9 1992, warning of the consequences should Neil Kinnocks Labour win that days election.

But now, under Keir Starmers Labour government, the question might soon be: can we afford to turn on the lights, and even for those who can, will they work?

These are, or will be, the economic consequences of Ed Miliband and his messianic drive to make our entire national grid fossil fuel free by 2030. During the election campaign he insisted that not only was this absolutely feasible, it would reduce average household energy bills by 300 a year.

Sinful

In reality, his own department this summer authorised a maximum strike price for new offshore wind farms of 113 per megawatt hour, three times what the Climate Change Committee claimed would be the future cost  and compared to an average cost of electricity last year of 72 per megawatt hour.

Worse still, it is us, not the wind farm owners, who will also have to meet the additional costs of keeping our homes warm (and our industries humming) when the wind isnt blowing  with what would amount to emergency supplies of gas.

Under this Labour government, the question might soon be: can we afford to turn on the lights, and even for those who can, will they work? Pictured: Energy Secretary Ed Miliband

But not with our own supplies, as Miliband wants to see an end to all that sinful hydrocarbon exploration, too  simultaneously destroying thousands of well-paid jobs in the British sector of the North Sea.

As one in that industry told me: There are a hundred times the number of jobs in the North Sea at risk than what the government is preserving by keeping open the Scunthorpe steel plant. And the problems of our steel industry are anyway the result of Britains crazy energy policy, with the highest prices in the developed world.

Miliband constantly insists we should be proud of leading the world on climate change policy. But instead of being an example to other nations, we will be a warning.

Fascinatingly, one of those who has made this point is the American economist Noah Smith. Its fascinating because Smith is, in his own country, a passionate supporter of renewable energy, and an eloquent critic of Donald Trumps hostility to wind and solar power. Yet on his Substack platform last week, Smith wrote: To see how a mismanaged and misguided push for green energy can hurt a countrys economy, you have to look no further than the UK

The UK was one of those small special cases where it really did make sense to keep using fossil fuels. The UK is a relatively small nation, so this wouldnt have made much of a difference to climate change. Now, expensive energy is causing a political backlash in the UK. And why shouldnt it? The UK chose to deprive its citizens and companies in order to produce a totally performative emissions reduction, setting an example that almost no other countries followed.

Yes, its performative, because we have simply offshored our emissions: for example by taking colossal quantities of renewable wood from North America to burn in the mighty Drax power station, rather than British coal it used to burn.

As for no other countries following, its more than that: countries or leaders who previously took a similar line, have smartly reversed.

New Zealand, which under Jacinda Ardern in 2018, instituted a ban on drilling in the countrys substantial subsea gas reservoirs, has re-started exploration. The new governments resources minister, Shane Jones, had taken note of the New Zealand national grid bosses warning that the country was at risk of blackouts because renewables had not been generating sufficient power during cold snaps. Believe it or not, we have cold snaps too, frequently on the stillest of days.

Most strikingly, Mark Carney who, as Governor of our own Bank of England made fighting climate change part of the Banks remit and then set up something called the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, has  upon becoming Canadas prime minister scrapped the hated carbon tax he once eulogised. And he declared that Canada should boost conventional as well as clean energy: Yes, that does mean oil and gas. It means using our oil and gas here in Canada, to displace imports wherever possible.

Unsurprisingly, Carneys Net-Zero Banking Alliance has disintegrated. And a few days ago, Lloyds of London, our great insurance market, followed suit on its carbon-reducing ambitions. The new chief executive, Patrick Tiernan, scrapped his predecessors pledge to make the market net zero by 2050, and said insurers who operate at Lloyds will no longer have to hit targets requiring them gradually to stop underwriting fossil fuel projects.

This year BP's new chief, Murray Auchincloss, bluntly announced: We have completely decapitalised renewables

Disaster

Commercially, it would have been suicidal for Lloyds to continue with its Milibandism. A fact underlined by BP, which under its previous boss, Bernard Looney, had decided its traditional business was incompatible with its environmental, social and governmental objectives, and went full pelt into renewable energy. It was a disaster, its share price plummeting relative to its rivals. This year its new chief, Murray Auchincloss, bluntly announced: We have completely decapitalised renewables.

And look what happened last week at BPs arch-rival, Shell. It ditched the construction of a colossal bio-fuel plant in Rotterdam, as part of its own retreat from green energy. This had been designed to make so-called sustainable aviation fuel out of crops more suitable for making into food. But, as Shells boss, Wael Sawan, pointed out, not only was this still up to four times more expensive than kerosene, there had been backsliding on [biofuel] mandates in multiple countries.

This makes a mockery of Rachel Reeves claim in January, when giving the go-ahead to Heathrow expansion, that it would all be compatible with comrade Milibands policies, because sustainable aviation fuel would be a game-changer.

Meanwhile, Sir Jim Ratcliffe on Monday announced that his Ineos Energy company had stopped investing in Britain because the problem is that the UK has become one of the most unstable fiscal regimes in the world from a perspective of natural resources and energy.

Extinction

Sir Jim Ratcliffe on Monday announced that his Ineos Energy company had stopped investing in Britain because the problem is that the UK has become one of the most unstable fiscal regimes in the world from a perspective of natural resources and energy

Ive got little sympathy for Ratcliffe, given he declared his backing for Labour during last years General Election campaign. What else did he imagine Ed Miliband would do, as the man committed to the extinction of exactly the sort of businesses Ratcliffe owns (petrochemicals)?

It seems Keir Starmer is belatedly queasy about Milibands agenda: the PM tried to persuade him to take charge of the department previously run by the defenestrated Angela Rayner. But Miliband refused to move.

The problem for Starmer is that Miliband is the most popular cabinet minister among Labour Party members, with a rating of +74 per cent. So he could stare down his own leader, a man vastly less admired within the party. Or as a senior TUC figure told the Independent: Ed is the last Left-wing person left in the Cabinet, so he has our support.

The trouble is, Miliband is also ensuring that the UK has the last government in the world to see what way the wind is blowing on energy production. The Wests rush to net zero, as some of us have long predicted, is being abandoned because the claims it would benefit the consumer have been exposed as fantasy.
Russias overnight drone incursion across eastern Poland has sparked fears of a war even bigger than Vladimir Putins bloody invasion of Ukraine.

Ever since Russian tanks first rolled into Ukraine in 2022, Western strategists have asked the same question: who will the Kremlin target next?

Until today, the consensus was clear. Small, militarily weak nations on Russias border - the Baltic states, for example - looked the most likely soft targets.

Poland, by contrast, seemed a far tougher prospect. With a population the size of Spains and a rapidly modernising military, Warsaw boasts the second-largest standing army in Nato after Turkey - double the size of Frances or Germanys. Britains 76,000 troops may be first-class, but Poland boasts over 300,000 more soldiers and spends almost 5 per cent of its GDP on defence. It has splashed out on cutting-edge American fighters and hundreds of South Korean tanks.

But last night, the Polish military recorded 19 drone incursions in the countrys airspace overnight - many from Belarus. Prime Minister Donald Tusk revealed this morning that three or four drones were shot down by Polish and Nato aircraft that were scrambled to deal with the threat.

Russias allies in Belarus have tried to dismiss todays drone attacks as an accident. But no one in Warsaw is fooled: one drone could be interpreted as a mistake - but so many, at the same time?

No, this is a deliberate test by Putin of Natos resolve. But the despot may have bitten off more he can chew.

Russias allies in Belarus have tried to dismiss todays drone attacks as an accident

A missile attack in Kyiv on Sunday, before Russia's drone incursion across eastern Poland last night

As a member of Nato, Poland is protected under Article 5, which states that an attack on one member is an attack on all. The alliance will be meeting today to discuss how to respond, a spokesman has said.

Moscow will surely be watching not just Poland, but the Alliances 30 other members. Who are the weak links? Will Poland and other frontline NATO states - from Finland through the Baltics to Romania - receive more than words of reassurance from America and western Europe?

Three years ago, Putin disastrously underestimated Ukraines determination to resist Russias onslaught. He could now be making the same mistake about Poland.

In western Europe, opinion polls show only a lukewarm willingness among younger generations to fight for their homelands. In Poland, by contrast, young people are steeled by history.

Britons may not need reminding that the Second World War began with Hitlers invasion of Poland in September 1939. What is often forgotten, however, is that two weeks later Stalins Kremlin marched in from the east, carving up the country with the Nazis.

Donald Tusk chillingly warned this morning that we are closer to war than any time since the Second World War'

For Poles, that act of betrayal remains seared into the national memory. Their greatest catastrophe - in which 30 per cent of the population perished - was born of collusion between Berlin and Moscow.

Worse, in 1944, when Poles rose against their Nazi occupiers in Warsaw, Stalin halted the Red Armys pursuit of the defeated Nazi army at the outskirts of the city. He even denied British and American planes permission to drop aid over the territory. Hitlers forces butchered 250,000 before blowing the capital to rubble - before Stalins troops then marched in as supposed liberators.

So for Poles, their countrys tragedy was as much Moscows fault as Berlins. And for the Russians, this is not just politics but a grudge match born of centuries of bloodshed.

Putin may also be gambling that recent quarrels between Poles and Ukrainians - over historic grievances and Warsaws refusal to send troops to a European peacekeeping force in Ukraine - reflect Polish reluctance to stand up for their own country. He is likely to find out just how wrong he is.

Now the question is whether Europe will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Poland. Will Natos awkward squad - Slovakia and Hungary - back their EU ally, or will leaders Robert Fico and Viktor Orban keep buying Russian oil and blocking firm EU action?

Donald Tusk chillingly warned this morning that we are closer to war than any time since the Second World War. Indeed, the situation puts Donald Trumps crisis management skills on the line.

Tough talk will not be enough. Nor will sweet-talking Putin. Only American backbone can keep the peace - and stop Europe sliding into a wider war.
All angles, dripping wet  she resembled a broken umbrella. When I scooped her up, she felt sparrow-like.

So cold, I thought she was dead. I put her grey fur against my skin, covering her small body with my sweater.

She looked like a cross between a fox and a beaver  a feaver?  given her sharp ears, pointy nose and tail like a paddle. She had one brown tooth. More Primark than designer dog. She was the sickest, sorriest dog in the whole shelter; I could not leave her to die alone.

I had found her inside a Romanian kill pen  I had been sent by this newspaper to highlight the street dog crisis, alongside a charity called K-9 Angels. She was no longer in a cage but had been flung out to die in a puddle.

I smuggled her out and vowed to give her a loving home. I named her Hilda, took her to a vet  he guessed she was 13, and swiftly placed her on a heat pad and drip  and, 30 days later, picked her up from Dover.

This was in 2013 and, once home in Yorkshire, she had no idea that she was supposed to be a pet. If she made a nest in a duvet, it was wise to back away, muttering, Lets leave her, shall we?

But Hilda was my soul dog. She lived just three more years, but they were great ones.

And that is how you choose a dog. You want to save them, not yourself. They certainly shouldnt be selected as a plaything for your children, whom you suspect are allergic, and who must not be bitten or knocked over. (Personally, Id dump the child if it meant I could rescue the most needy dog in the rescue centre.)

Liz Jones with her 18-year-old border collie Mini

Crucially, Hilda looked nothing like a teddy bear. She certainly wasnt cuddly. She was about as far from the dreaded cockapoo as you could find. In other words, she was deeply unfashionable.

Dogs once came in all shapes and sizes. Today, theres an epidemic of dogs who resemble teddy bears: they have round ears; are yellow, cream or white, fluffy and soft, and eminently pick-up-able and baggable  with beady, button eyes and squishable little black snouts.

Often I see teddy bear pooches off their leads, each indistinguishable from the other, all clean and wearing pink collars, with top-knots secured in a bow. And I am not a fan of these uber-covetable dogs but, more to the point, I am especially not a fan of their owners  Im not sure they are really dog lovers at all.

My belief is teddy bear dogs attract the sort of owners who waft about on Instagram and bully other mums at the school gate. Often first-time dog owners, many are image-driven, with disposable income, and are influenced by aesthetics or social media rather than breed research or long-term suitability for their lifestyle and level of expertise.

When choosing a canine companion you should fall in love with them, not count the likes they will attract on social media. Your dog isnt a toy, a plaster on a relationship or a bribe for children who will ultimately grow bored with them. But Instagram and TikTok encourage copycatting, or copydogging: if she has a dog, I need one, too. Preferably cute  my perfect co-star! Fifteen years ago, there were approximately 7.5 million dogs in the UK. Now, its 13 million.

On TikTok a sheepadoodle called Bunny has the total teddy bear aesthetic, 8.6m followers, and earns 30,000 per post from sponsorship. While Brodie, a goldendoodle, has 7.2m followers and is billed as your local serotonin dealer. When youre being dragged backwards through a bog, that isnt the first drug that comes to mind.

Victoria Stilwell, a renowned dog behaviour expert, says: Social media relays a sanitised perception about these dogs. Its also rife with pseudo dog trainers sharing misinformation.

Teddy bear dogs are intentionally bred mixtures with one aim: to take your money and, as well find out, your sanity. Surely dogs want to be messy, not dressed up, coiffed or taught to wipe their mouths after drinking water, and their paws on mats  as so many are these days. My bed always smells strongly of pond, my collies favourite spot to cool off in.

Out walking my dogs, I often see teddy bear pooches off their leads, says Liz Jones

The term teddy bear dog caught on in the 2010s as demand for small, curly-coated, round-faced breeds skyrocketed.

Interestingly, these designer dogs have been around for some time: the first cockapoo was born in the US in the 1950s.

Breeders began capitalising on people wanting these cuties, which are usually a combination of a poodle and a cocker spaniel or a cavalier. The goal is a small, pretty, low-shedding, friendly dog. As well as cockapoos and cavapoos, there are goldendoodles (a poodle mixed with a golden retriever; Vogues Anna Wintour has three but, unlike supermodels, they can grow to be huge), maltipoos (a cross between a Maltese and a poodle) and sheepadoodles (an Old English sheepdog/poodle cross).

Perhaps more niche are shihpoos (shih tzu  poodle), schnoodles (schnauzer  poodle) and poogles (poodle  beagle). My exhausted friend who owns a zero-recall beagle opines that the latter are likely to be little sh**s.

Finally, there is the bordoodle: a border collie/poodle cross. Im the proud human to three collies, the latest addition being Teddy  sorry about the name, he looks nothing like one. Like Hilda, he hails from Romania. Hes smart: I imagine a bordoodle is helpful during Countdown.

They are not recognised by the Kennel Club but who cares: their friendly reputation and supposed suitability for families make them appealing to urban households.

But there is a problem. Dr Rory Cowlam, a veterinary surgeon and author, explains: Theyre not entry-level dogs. Poodle crosses are intelligent and incredibly hard dogs to look after. We do see a lot of behavioural issues  neuroses, high-energy behaviours and behaviours [such as reactivity to other dogs] that are difficult to manage. First-time owners have bought a dog for the cute factor, but its a high-level dog. Cockapoos are advance level: they are very, very difficult.

This explains why I see so many teddy bear owners running across my village green, screaming. Once, when my friend with a maltipoo called Betsy was cooking, the dog brazenly climbed onto the worktop to eat from the saucepan. When my friend put her back on the floor, Betsy was bright enough to jump up to precisely the point above the wellies my friend was wearing to give her a nip.

No matter how much they resemble toys, this they are not. Surely dogs want to be messy?

Victoria Stilwell is also finding a lot of aggression issues, including resource guarding: dogs are protective over toys, food, TV remotes, beds.

These dogs look cute but are a mix of energetic and intelligent. These are hunting dogs that need attention, exercise and enrichment. If the needs arent met, the dogs find ways to enrich themselves which often leads to chewing and excessive barking.

A cockapoo can be excitable, so needs a calm household.

Many poodle crosses are marketed as hypoallergenic  but they can still shed or trigger allergies. A cockapoos coat mats as swiftly as a Zara sweater. They need someone home all day who can make time for training and walks.

Cavapoos can get separation anxiety (we need a rule like Swedens, which says dogs cannot be left alone for more than six hours), be sensitive and shy, and can suffer from heart problems and eye disease. They, like me, hate loud children.

Buying into this trend has severe welfare repercussions, too. If you buy a puppy, you are encouraging puppy mills  unauthorised kennels where bitches are kept in terrible conditions, forced to have numerous litters until they are discarded.

Cockapoo prices rose by 168 per cent between 2019 and 2020; the average price for a puppy today is 1,500. Premium goldendoodles can cost 3,000 to 5,000 or more. Designer crossbreeds now account for 25 to 30 per cent of puppy sales. Unsurprisingly, these Frankendogs are catnip to thieves. Meanwhile, was anyone trying to steal Hilda? Unlikely  plus shed have ripped your face off.

Dogs arent a substitute for children or meant to be chosen for their looks (tail docking and ear cropping are banned in the UK, but the breeding of short-nosed dogs is still allowed).

And if you are shallow enough to buy a teddy bear pooch, what happens when the dog gets sick or (hopefully) grows old? Getting a dog is a huge financial commitment; most of us dont have.

Insta-famous mutts. Today, Mini, my oldest collie at 18, is frail. Only one of her eyes opens properly, shes deaf and she has a bald rear end, shaved to help with hygiene as shes now incontinent. But we love each other unconditionally. To me, she will always be the most beautiful dog in the world.

But as for teddy bear dogs when the cuteness wears off? I suspect it will be a case of will you still need me, will you still feed me?
Are we teetering on the edge of World War Three after the brazen incursion by Russias drones into our ally Polands airspace?

No one needs to be reminded that the Second World War began with Germanys invasion of Poland in September 1939.

Polands often tragic history has shown it to be the victim of its geography: a great nation sandwiched between even greater powers, Germany and Russia. It has been repeatedly fought over as the route to European domination between Berlin and Moscow.

Only in the past 35 years has Poland seemed to gain security. Germany had long renounced its old imperialist ambitions and the collapse of communism led to Polands independence from the Kremlin in 1990.

Russia was weaker and smaller in the 1990s than any time since Peter the Great turned his empire into a military superpower 300 years ago.

Joining Nato and the EU seemed to confirm Poland had finally found a safe haven in a turbulent world  until Vladimir Putins brutal invasion of Ukraine in 2022 punctured Polands sense of security. Ever since Russian tanks rolled across the borders, Poles and Western strategists have asked the same question: who will the Kremlin target next?

Until yesterday morning, the consensus was clear. Small, militarily weak nations on Russias border  the Baltic states, for example  looked the most likely soft targets.

Poland, by contrast, seemed a far tougher prospect. With a population the size of Spains and a rapidly modernising military, Warsaw boasts the second-largest standing army in Nato after Turkey  double the size of France or Germany. Britains 76,000 troops may be first-class, but Poland has over 300,000 more and spends almost 5 per cent of its GDP on defence. It has splashed out on cutting-edge American fighters and hundreds of South Korean tanks.

Vladimir Putin acted brazenly by launching drones into Polish - and Nato - airspace this week

Yet on Tuesday night, the Polish military recorded 19 drone incursions in the countrys airspace  many from Belarus. Prime minister Donald Tusk revealed that three or four drones were shot down by Polish and Nato aircraft that were scrambled to deal with the threat.

Russias allies in Belarus have tried to dismiss the drone attacks as an accident. But no one in Warsaw is fooled: one drone could be interpreted as a mistake  but so many, at the same time?

No, this was a deliberate test by Putin of Natos resolve.

He is old enough to have been taught Lenins dictum: Advance with your bayonet. If you meet steel, retreat. If you meet flesh, press on.

Moscow will surely have been watching as representatives from Britain, France, Italy, Poland and Germany met in London yesterday to discuss how to respond to Russias incursion into Poland.

But it was difficult to feel that any of them were prepared to meet Putin with steel as they deliberated about what to do, seemingly unprepared for this eventuality.

Just a day before, Germanys new chancellor Friedrich Merz had given a speech to foreign ambassadors in Berlin about international threats without mentioning his eastern neighbour Poland  an indication of how blindsided Nato was by Putins latest provocation.

Time and again since the start of the Ukraine crisis in 2014, Nato has been playing catch-up. After three years of war in Ukraine, its member states have not agreed on how to react to any predictable overflow of Russias invasion there  let alone Russian action inside their airspace or, God forbid, on the ground in their countries.

However, Polands bitter historical experience has left its politicians and people psychologically better prepared for a military test than most countries further west. While few modern German youths (even fewer than Gen Z Brits), can contemplate fighting to defend their country, let alone its allies, Poles understand that their recent freedoms are priceless.

The way Hitler and Stalin carved up Poland remains seared into their national memory.

Their greatest catastrophe  at least 20 per cent of the population perished in the Second World War  was born of collusion between Berlin and Moscow.

In 1944, when Poles rose against their Nazi occupiers in Warsaw, Stalin halted the Red Armys pursuit of the defeated German army at the outskirts of Warsaw. He even denied British and American planes permission to drop aid over the territory.

Hitlers forces butchered 250,000 Poles before blowing the capital to rubble  and Stalins troops then marched in as supposed liberators.

So for Poles, their countrys tragedy was as much Moscows fault as Berlins. And for the Russians, this is not just politics, but a grudge match born of centuries of bloodshed.

Putin may also be gambling that recent quarrels between Poles and Ukrainians  over historic grievances and Warsaws refusal to send troops to a European peacekeeping force in Ukraine  reflect Polish reluctance to stand up for their own country. He is likely to find out just how wrong he is.

The critical question is what Europe will do next.

Will Natos awkward squad  Slovakia and Hungary  back their EU ally, or will their leaders Robert Fico and Viktor Orban keep buying Russian oil and blocking firm EU action?

Those countries in Western Europe which are slowly re-arming will not be enough to sway Putins next move.

It is Donald Trump who holds the fate of Europe and world peace in his hands. Tough talk will not be enough. Nor will trying to sweet-talk Putin.

America has to lead a clear response which can deter any risk-taking by Russia. Otherwise one false move could trip the wires between nuclear superpowers.

Mark Almond is the director of the Crisis Research Institute, Oxford.
Is it time for studios to rethink dress codes?

When a Melbourne pilates studio owner posted a TikTok video, she never expected to ignite such a fierce debate about whether shirtless men should be banned from workouts.

Georgia, who runs CorePlus studios in Collingwood and Fitzroy North, shared the clip with her followers after receiving what she described as a surprising review from one of her members.

'We've had a review come in from a member, and I'd love to hear what you think about it,' she began in the video, which has now racked up more than 28,000 views.

'It says something along the lines of 'Men are required to wear shirts in a gym, so they should be required to wear shirts in a hot pilates studio.'

She echoed that the review was in response to 'a guy being topless in the studio', and had been left by a female member.

'I find it really interesting, because I totally understand where this member is coming from,' she continued.

Unlike other studios in Melbourne that enforce a 'shirts-on' policy, Georgia said her business has always been built on personal choice.

'We've worked so hard to create this culture where people feel comfortable and confident to wear whatever they like - within reason.

Melbourne pilates studio owner, Georgia (pictured), posted a TikTok video sharing a 'suprising' review that came in from a member

'No one's walking in in their birthday suit. But no one's really looking at anyone else either. Everyone's in their own lane,' she explained.

Still, the complaint made her stop and think, as apparently, it hadn't been an issue she'd come across before.

'I know there are cases in the studios where men have gone topless, but this is the first member review we've had about it,' she later told news.com.au.

'Maybe because other studios have brought in a 'top on for men' policy more recently, so it's front of mind and potentially more frowned upon now that it's been brought to light.'

When it comes to where she draws the line, Georgia said it boils down to respect.

'We've only had a few instances where inappropriate clothing has been worn, and we've respectfully asked them to wear additional clothing for the comfort of other members in the room,' she told the news site.

'It's never been a point of contention or conflict in our space, as everyone is really considerate and respectful.'

But judging by the flood of comments under her video, not everyone is as relaxed about the issue, with some hinting there was a double standard at play.

The complaint made her stop and think, as apparently, it hadn't been an issue she'd come across before. But from the comments online, a lot of people found it 'weird,' 'gratuitous,' and unesseccary.

'Even if women just wear tiny crop tops, it's still a top!' one person argued.

'Everything is covered. The guys should be wearing shirts too.'

Others admitted they were shocked to learn that men were stripping off in pilates classes at all.

'Wait, what? That's kind of weird,' one wrote. 'The audacity of men.'

'I've seen men without shirts spray sweat everywhere in class, it's gross!' one added.

'I've also seen a man wear speedos in class. JUST speedos. No!'

'I didn't pay $30 for a hot pilates class to see a sweaty man with his shirt off! It's a business, not a beach,' another fumed.

One even labelled it 'gratuitous,' while many raised concerns about hygiene - given the level of sweat and body odour produced in the heated environment.

However, plenty of commenters weren't fussed, insisting people should simply be left to work out in whatever makes them feel comfortable

However, plenty of commenters weren't fussed, insisting people should simply be left to work out in whatever makes them feel comfortable.

'I honestly couldn't care,' one argued.

'I'm there doing my own workout. I'm not bothered about what everyone else is wearing. Everyone should focus on their own workout.'

Another agreed: 'Why does this member have a problem with what others are wearing?

'I think people should just wear what they feel comfortable training in, and everyone should mind their own business and not judge what others wear.'

'Free the nip!' another joked. 'The hot classes are bras and short shorts, let the guy have his sweat.'

The debate is heightened by the fact that hot pilates is typically held in studios heated between 34 and 38 degrees, where sweat is unavoidable and lighter clothing often more practical.

For years, pilates was dismissed as a 'women's workout', but as Georgia pointed out in her video, that stereotype has been fading, with more men joining 'classes of their own accord.'

And as their numbers grow, so too has the sight of shirtless men rolling out their mats, sparking uncomfortable conversations not just in Melbourne, but on TikTok and Reddit around the world.

The fiery divide comes down to one big question: is it comfort, confidence, and choice, or is it just plain inappropriate?

By the looks of blowback online, the answers are half and half.
The sister of a British tourist whose body washed up on a beach in Thailand earlier this year believes he was 'murdered', she has claimed in a new documentary about the 'dark side' of the tourist destination.

Regan Kelly, 28, from south London, had just arrived in Phuket for a month-long holiday and travelled to nearby Patong Beach for a New Year's Eve party last December.

The building surveyor from Selsdon went missing in the early hours of January 3 before his naked body was discovered in the water the following morning at 10am.

Nine months later, his grieving family is still searching for answers about what happened to Regan - who was last seen running towards the beach after a 'confrontration' with a 'muscly tourist' at his hotel in chilling CCTV footage - that fateful night.

His elder sister Laurie told Zara McDermott she believes Regan's death 'wasn't an accident' - while criticising the local police force's investigation - during an emotional interview for the Love Island star's new BBC documentary about Thailand.

Speaking from the UK, Laurie said she didn't believe Regan had drowned while swimming because 'he had a sock on his foot' when he was found.

'He would never have entered that sea with a sock on his foot,' Regan's heartbroken sister told Zara. 'It just never would have happened.'

Laurie has also alleged Thailand's tourist police told her and her father to stop their own investigation because 'we are stirring up a hornet's nest' - claims the force has denied.

The sister of British tourist Regan Kelly, whose body washed up on a beach in Thailand earlier this year, believes he was 'murdered'. Pictured: Regan Kelly's older sister Laurie, in conversation with Zara McDermott in a scene from her new BBC documentary Thailand: The Dark Side of Paradise

Regan, a building surveyor from Selsdon, went missing in the early hours of January 3 before his body was discovered in the water the following morning at 10am. He was 28

In Thailand: The Dark Side of Paradise, Zara, 28, travels to the popular tourist destination on a quest to reconcile its two sides - its idyllic beaches and vibrant culture, with the seedy underbelly of drugs and sex work.

In the final episode of the three-part docuseries, Zara meets Laurie as she investigates the dangers of partying in Thailand while recounting cases of British tourists who have paid the 'ultimate price'.

Among them was Regan, an 'experienced traveller' who had visited south east Asia before.

Laurie, who remembered Regan as 'the most beautiful person' in an interview with The Daily Mail, became emotional when she told Zara about the events leading up to the discovery of Regan's body on January 4.

She revealed he made it to Patong Beach for the New Year's Eve party and sent his family pictures of all the 'fabulous' sights and sounds until he suddenly went quiet - and their own messages to him went undelivered.

'Myself and my dad had texted Regan and it was only one tick,' she said. 'After the second day, we was just growing even more concerned, and we were trying to post on socials that Regan's missing.

'And then obviously discovered that Regan had been found in the sea,' Laurie said, her voice breaking.

Footage from the bar of the Mad Monkey Hostel, where Regan had been staying, showed him talking to a man for several hours before the conversation began to get 'increasingly heated', Regan's family previously said.

His elder sister Laurie told Zara McDermott she believes Regan's death 'wasn't an accident' - while criticising the local police force's investigation - during an emotional interview for the Love Island star's new BBC documentary about Thailand

In January, Laurie told this newspaper that the footage showed her brother got up and left abruptly, heading towards Patong beach, before the 'muscly' man followed him seconds later.

CCTV footage from a hotel closer to the seafront then showed Regan running, with the unknown man following him some 15 seconds after, she said. The video, shared with the family by police, then cut off.

'What happens on that beach after, I don't know, because I've had lots of messages warning me it can be quite a violent place at night - especially the early hours of the morning,' Laurie told Zara in the new BBC programme.

At 10am the next day, a watersports instructor found a naked body face down in the water off Patong beach. Police sent photos to Regan's family, who had reported him missing, and his identity was confirmed.

When Zara, who also investigated the rise of sex tourism among young British men travelling to Thailand, asked Laurie what she made of the police investigation into her brother's death, she said simply: 'I wouldn't call it much of an investigation.'

She felt Patong Provincial Police, which investigated the case, ruled it an accident to avoid 'putting tourists off' but added: 'I feel like somebody knows what happened to Regan but they're just not sharing.'

They allegedly did not return the production team's request for comment.

In a chilling moment, Laurie, who travelled with her father to Thailand to try and find out what happened to Regan, told Zara: 'I believe my brother was murdered.'

Laurie, who remembered Regan (above) as 'the most beautiful person' in an interview with The Daily Mail, became emotional when she told Zara about the events leading up to the discovery of Regan's body on January 4

She revealed he made it to Patong Beach for the New Year's Eve party and sent his family pictures of all the 'fabulous' sights and sounds until he suddenly went quiet - and their own messages to him went undelivered

The interview ended with Laurie admitting she still has 'so many more questions' before making a gutwrenching confession as she told Zara: 'I feel like I've come back from Thailand and it's completely changed me as a person

While Laurie previously told the Daily Mail she was open to the idea that his death was an accident, a tiny - but vital - clue has left her convinced something worse happened to Regan that fateful night.

'It wasn't an accident because when he was found he had a sock on his foot and he would never have entered that sea with a sock on his foot. It just never would have happened,' she explained.

While she doesn't know what happened in those final hours before Regan's death, Laurie said she was able to track down the watersports instructor who first found Regan's body.

He told Laurie how he 'drove out on the jet ski' to Regan and 'held his hand' the way back to the shore.

'That was hard,' Laurie, looking visibly upset, said.

The interview ended with Laurie admitting she still has 'so many more questions' before making a gutwrenching confession as she told Zara: 'I feel like I've come back from Thailand and it's completely changed me as a person.

'I can't see how I'm ever going to get my head around it.'
A former McDonald's worker who has worked as a Tube driver for 11 years has shared a behind-the-scenes look at what it's like operating the Bakerloo line - as Transport for London strikes grind London to a halt for a third day.

Sarah Russell, 34, routinely shares snippets from her life on TikTok where 33,000 people follow her updates.

In one such video, Sarah said she started making videos about her job to 'share an insight into the role that not many people get to see'.

Sarah applied for a job with London Underground over a decade ago and is still working as a Tube driver because of how much she loves her job.

She explained that she never went to university and worked at a McDonald's before she was hired by TfL, adding the job offer 'changed my life for the better'.

She said: 'I've had some jobs in the past that I knew that I was never gonna work in long-term and I've been on the London Underground for 11 years now and I'm in a job role that I will, more than likely, be in till the end of my career.'

Sarah clarified that she only films TikTok videos when she's not in the driver's cabin, and when things are 'running smoothly'.

'The videos that you see are filmed on days where everything is running smoothly and I've got a little bit of extra time - like a couple of seconds at max - to give you a sort of clip of what I'm doing,' she told her followers.

Sarah says she prefers to work the late shift, which begins at 4pm and sees her drop off her final train at 1am

Sarah explained that unlike office workers who can pop to the loo at their own discretion, drivers aren't allowed to stop unless in the case of an emergency - and must wait to relieve themselves

'But you'll never see things when there's a service disruption, there's issues, I just don't think that part is very professional,' Sarah continued.

It comes as passengers face more travel misery today as unions warned industrial relations on London Underground have 'totally collapsed'.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) plunged the capital into further travel chaos today as they walked out of their 72,000-a-year jobs for a third day.

Thousands of members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union are taking industrial action this week in a dispute over pay and hours.

While some Tube staff stand on the picket line, workers in London are packing onto buses, boats, bikes and trains amid gridlocked traffic and cycle lane closures.

Londoners tried to board buses that were so full the doors could not shut - with huge numbers waiting at stops and for Overground trains, which are still running.

Downing Street on Tuesday said Londoners would 'rightly be fed up' of the strikes - but declined to comment on whether there should be more automation of the Tube network to prevent the prospect of further disruptive strikes in the future.

While Sarah has not commented on the strike action on her TikTok page, she recently revealed what it takes to become a Tube driver - as she shared TfL likes to 'employ drivers from within' in the comments section of one of her videos.

She said recruitment for these jobs are 'highly competitive' and recommended looking out for customer service staff vacancies before applying to be a driver.

'If you do get in, the whole training is like six months long,' she told one of her followers.

She also defended the Bakerloo line when one follower pointed out carriages of multiple trains are covered in graffiti, as Sarah asserted: 'It's getting better.'

Scenes of chaos erupted across London this morning, as commuters desperately tried to pack onto buses to get to work amid the city-wide Tube strike

Sharing insight into what the working day is like, Sarah revealed how she spends the day driving for the Bakerloo line, which is entirely driver operated unlike some partially automated lines

Writing under another 'Day in the Life' video, Sarah was asked what it's like working for TfL to which she replied: 'I love it.'

'Great benefits, some flexibility with tie of the day your want to work (on trains anyway)'.

In another of her videos, Sarah revealed she prefers working the late shift, which begins at 4.30pm and sees her drop off her final train at 1am, because she's a 'night owl'.

She also shared how many journeys she completes per shift as a driver on the Bakerloo line - which is entirely driver-operated.

During her shift, she managed to complete two 'rounders' - meaning driving from one end of the line to the other - between Elephant & Castle and Queen's Park.

Sarah explained that unlike office workers who can pop to the loo at their own discretion, drivers aren't allowed to stop unless in the case of an emergency - and must wait to relieve themselves.

She said: 'Refilled my water bottle because I'm trying to get my two litres in, which is quite hard needing to pee all the time when you're a driver but we move.'

'Drivers have to be strategic,' she told her followers in another video.

Sarah, 33, from London, (pictured) took to TikTok to share a day in the life of her as a Tube driver working on the Bakerloo line - with Londoners hooked by the 'fascinating' insight

Once she arrived at Elephant and Castle, the final stop of her working day, Sarah has to 'empty the train out, close it up and shunt the train back to London Road depot.'

Equipped with a pair of noise-cancelling earbuds, Sarah must walk the concourse of the many train carriages, ensuring that there are no passengers left on the train.

The protective earmuffs are worn to protect drivers from high levels of noise during the working day.

After making the journey to the depot, she finally drops the train off at around 1am, marking the end of her shift.

Sarah made her exit from the depot and headed to catch a 'staff cab' which is paid for by TfL but must be 'pre-booked'.

Once landing back home, Sarah emphasised that her first job is to give her hands a wash.

'The first thing I do is immediately wash my hands because the amount of dirt that comes off from working on the tube is disgusting,' she explained.

'Then I wash and do my skincare and just chill in bed for a bit before I go to sleep,' she shared, finishing her day in the early hours of the morning.
Donald Trump Jr.'s ex-fiancee Kimberly Guilfoyle stunned in a biker-esque look on Instagram this weekend - but some critics have accused her of taking her revamped appearance too far.

Guilfoyle, 56, who has over two million followers, posted some snaps from an event in Washington, D.C., for the launch of GB News in the US, posing alongside Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and British politician Nigel Farage, among others.

Guilfoyle wore a chic, cropped leather biker jacket with silver zipper detailing, pairing it with a silky, black long-sleeved top that featured a thick choker neckline.

She finished the look with black pants, and wore her long, dark brown locks down, pulling things together with a smoky eye and neutral lip.

However, many of her followers had strong feelings about her look - as they were concerned about potential cosmetic injections she may have had done, especially on her pout.

'Girl, stop with the lips! Nooooo,' one person wrote.

Another agreed, 'Too much lips!'

'Wonder if they'll ever ban Botox?' someone else typed.

Donald Trump Jr.'s ex-fiancee, Kimberly Guilfoyle, stunned in a chic, biker-esque look on Instagram this weekend - but some critics are accusing her of taking things too far, seen last week with British politician Nigel Farage

However, many of her followers had strong feelings about her look - as they were concerned about potential cosmetic injections she may have had done, especially on her pout - as she's seen here with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt

Last week, Guilfoyle posed with Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick at the US launch of GB News

Another even accused her of having 'Mar-a-Lago face,' a term for the members of President Trump's inner circle who have appeared to go under the knife.

However, others gushed over Guilfoyle's beauty.

'Absolutely gorgeous you're beautiful,' someone typed.

Another seconded, 'You're gorgeous Kimberly!'

The Daily Mail has reached out for comment.

The former news personality has been hit with plastic surgery allegations on multiple occasions - but has not commented as to whether they are true.

Last April, Dr. Joel Kopelman  a plastic surgeon in New York City  suggested to The Daily Mail that Guilfoyle may have had too much Botox which had caused asymmetry in her face.

'Overuse or misplacement of Botox can weaken the wrong muscles, leading to these outcomes of brow ptosis (dropping) and possibly some asymmetry around her mouth,' he said.

The former news personality has been hit with plastic surgery allegations on multiple occasions - but has not stated if they were true

The new photos of Guilfoyle come just weeks after fans had discovered old pictures of the TV personality that had resurfaced on Reddit, as she was pictured here in 2004

'Additionally, while fillers can create volume and lift, excessive use can lead to an overfilled or puffy appearance.'

He added at the time: 'Her cheeks and lips appear to have been augmented significantly, possibly crossing the line into 'too much', which can make the results less natural.'

Guilfoyle is the ex-fiancee of President Donald Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr. She was also married to California Governor Gavin Newsom from 2001 to 2006.

Last year, rumors swirled that Don Jr. had complained about her style, before he was spotted with his new love interest, Bettina Anderson, 38.

'Don Jr. has been telling people for months that Kim is so uptight and always dresses so professionally in these kinds of dresses and high heels, and never looks relaxed or casual,' an insider told People last December.

'The tight dresses need to go and she has been told that.'

The new photos of Guilfoyle come just weeks after fans had discovered old pictures of the TV personality that had resurfaced on Reddit.

One picture showed a young Guilfoyle with her hair cut short, a drastic difference from her usual super-long locks now.

Guilfoyle looked right at the camera in what appeared to be a modeling shot, sporting a totally natural look with bold eyebrows.

The next photo showed her with her hair in a twisted up-do, as she smiled for the camera wearing a light pink lip gloss and minimal makeup.
They're known for the best budget groceries and bargain Special Buys, but now Aldi has just announced a bold new venture that could change the way Australians power their homes.

The German supermarket giant, famous for undercutting Coles and Woolworths on everything from milk to mattresses, has confirmed it is expanding into the residential solar market, promising to help households slash thousands from their electricity bills.

From Wednesday, September 10, shoppers across New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and the ACT will be able to pre-order an Aldi Solar package, with installations kicking off from November this year.

The move is being hailed as the next step in the retailer's push into everyday services, following on from the huge success of Aldi Mobile, Aldi Holidays and Aldi Insurance.

Executives say the aim is simple - to bring the same straightforward value that Aldi offers in its supermarkets into one of the most complex industries facing Australian households today.

'Bringing Aldi Solar to more Aussies along the Eastern Seaboard is an exciting step for us,' said Simon Padovani-Ginies, Group Director at Aldi Australia.

He said the initiative stays true to Aldi's 'Good Different' philosophy, offering Australians a service that is easy to understand and cost-effective.

Under the scheme, households can choose between two packages: a $6,999 system with a 10kWh battery or an $8,499 system with a 20kWh battery.

They're known for the best budget groceries and bargain Special Buys, but now Aldi has just announced a bold new venture that could change the way Australians power their homes

The German supermarket giant has confirmed it is expanding into the residential solar market, promising to help households slash thousands from their electricity bills

The move is being hailed as the next step in the retailer's push into everyday services, following on from the huge success of Aldi Mobile, Aldi Holidays and Aldi Insurance

Each comes bundled with 15 solar panels, a 5.5kW inverter, blackout protection at no extra charge, and is backed by a 10-year warranty plus a 25-year performance guarantee on the panels.

Unlike other solar providers, Aldi have promised there will be no nasty surprises.

The company is promising all-inclusive, upfront pricing, removing the hidden fees and add-ons that often leave homeowners frustrated.

Simon said their solar is designed to cut through the 'complexity and uncertainty' that has long plagued the solar market.

'With straightforward pricing, flexible battery options, installation by certified experts and an exceptional payback period, Aldi Solar puts power back in the hands of households ready to take control of their energy costs.'

The retailer has partnered with Tempo Energy to deliver and install the packages, after a successful trial in Victoria last year.

Tempo's General Manager of Energy, Craig Handley, said ALDI's entry into the market would be a 'remarkable change' for homeowners who have long been deterred by confusing and costly solar options.

'With our climate it's hard to argue about the benefits of a well-designed solar and battery system,' Craig explained.

Simon Padovani-Ginies, Group Director at Aldi Australia has said the initiative stays true to Aldi's 'Good Different' philosophy, offering Australians a service that is easy to understand and cost-effective

'However, the path to purchase has often been confusing and difficult getting the benefits of solar and a battery has never been as simple as Aldi Solar.'

The system has been designed with payback periods in mind, and Aldi estimates most families will recoup their investment within three to four years.

With the Federal Government's battery rebate also helping to lower the upfront costs, larger battery capacities will now be within reach for more households.

This means families can store excess solar energy generated during the day and use it during peak times, further reducing bills.

For now, installations will only be available in select metropolitan postcodes along the east coast, including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, the Gold Coast, Newcastle and Wollongong.

However, insiders say this could just be the beginning of a much bigger rollout.

The retailer has partnered with Tempo Energy to deliver and install the packages, after a successful trial in Victoria last year. They are also promising all-inclusive, upfront pricing, removing the hidden fees and add-ons

Simon added that Aldi is determined to use its global scale to drive down costs and simplify complicated industries.

'If Aldi's got an opportunity to use its scale and market influence to offer customers a simplified process, reduce costs and protect them from rising bills in the future, then we see we've got a role to play there.'

The move cements Aldi's reputation as a disruptor - not just in groceries, but increasingly across services Australians rely on every day.

With the cost-of-living crisis biting hard, the retailer believes there has never been a better time to step in.

And for households looking to cut their power bills while going greener, Aldi Solar could soon become just as familiar as its middle-aisle bargains.
It might not be something you've ever thought about - after all, a quick trip to the bathroom is one of life's most ordinary acts.

But according to science, there's a 'sweet spot' for the 'perfect pee', and it's just 21 seconds.

From dogs to elephants, and humans too, researchers have discovered that when it comes to relieving ourselves, the body is far more finely tuned than you might think.

And if you're taking much longer (or much less time) to urinate, it could be your body's way of waving a red flag.

The discovery comes from a team of researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology who have spent their time clocking mammals mid-stream.

The aim was to solve a deceptively simple puzzle - how can animals of wildly different sizes all manage to empty their bladders in roughly the same amount of time?

Their answer became known as the 'Law of Urination', and it turns out, it's all about physics.

Bigger animals don't just have bigger bladders, they also come equipped with longer and wider urethras, they noted.

It might not be something you've ever thought about but according to science, there's a 'sweet spot' for the perfect pee, and it's just 21 seconds

The extra length ramps up gravitational pressure, pushing urine out faster, while the added width reduces resistance.

So, whether it's a Great Dane or a cow, nature has calibrated things so that mammals over three kilos take around 21 seconds to finish the job.

Elephants, with bladders that can hold several litres, surprisingly don't spend half an hour going to the toilet either.

Instead, they finish in about the same time as a golden retriever.

Humans fall right into line too. For most healthy adults, urination at a normal, relaxed pace lasts somewhere between 20 and 25 seconds.

Doctors sometimes use this as a loose benchmark when assessing urinary health, though they're quick to add it's not necessary to stand in the bathroom with a stopwatch.

What matters most is your own personal 'normal', because major changes in timing can point to issues worth checking out.

Frequent, short urination can be a sign of an overactive bladder, while consistently long ones may suggest urinary retention or, in men, enlarged prostates.

The discovery comes from a team of researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology who have spent their time clocking mammals mid-stream - and it turns out, it's all about physics

Mammals weighing over about 3 kilograms tend to take around 21 seconds to urinate, whereas 'healthy' humans take somewhere between 20 and 25 seconds

Nerve problems can also interfere with bladder function, slowing things down.

And then there's the problem of holding it in. Many of us are guilty of ignoring nature's call until we're bursting, whether stuck in traffic or midway through a meeting.

But straining your bladder this way can overstretch it over time, upping the risk of urinary tract infections and other complications.

Instead of counting to 21 every time you sit down on the toilet, experts say the real trick is noticing patterns.

If your usual stream suddenly takes twice as long, or if you're running to the loo every hour for a brief dribble, that's when it's time to take note - and possibly take action.

And if you are guilty of the common yet unhygienic habit of scrolling your phone while sitting on the toilet too, you might want to nip that in the bud as it's recently been slammed by a health professional.

A recent viral Instagram video shared by health content creator Danica Walker (pictured), saw her ask a medical expert: 'What is the one thing you would never do as a gastroenterologist?'

In the clip, the gastroenterologist slammed those who scroll their phone while sitting on the toilet for lengthy periods of time

A holistic health content creator asked 'What is the one thing you would never do as a gastroenterologist?' in a new Instagram video which has been viewed over 2.3million times.

An unnamed gastroenterologist swiftly responded: 'Never sit on the toilet with your phone.'

'If you have the urge, go. When you're done get out of there,' he added.

The video, created by detox advocate Danica Walker, then asked the medical practitioner a follow-up question about the ideal length of time to be doing your business.

'What is the maximum number of minutes one should be sitting?' Danica asked.

The doctor responded: 'I say five minutes. Get it in, and get out.'

Danica cheekily concluded the viral video by saying directly to the camera: 'Okay people, send it to your husbands!'

The comments section was filled with remarks from stunned video viewers who were deeply wedded to the practice of using their mobile phones while on the toilet.

'At this point in my life, I'm not sure I have the ability to poop without my phone,' read one reply.

'Watching this as I sit on the toilet,' added another.

'[B]ut it's the one place I can find peace,' a third person joked.
China releases index gauging trade with other BRICS members

Xinhua) 08:51, September 10, 2025

XIAMEN, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- An index measuring trade between China and other BRICS member countries was released on Tuesday at the 25th China International Fair for Investment and Trade being held in Xiamen, east China's Fujian Province. The index unveiled in Xiamen reflects sustained improvement in both trade scale and structure.

Compiled by the General Administration of Customs (GAC), the index set its base period at 2009, the year BRICS leaders held their first meeting, with a value of 100 points. In 2024, the index had climbed to 301.51 points.

The index comprises four indicators that respectively measure the scale, structure, innovation and potential of trade. It is designed to monitor bilateral trade development and provide decision-making support for both government departments and businesses.

From 2009 to 2024, these four indicators showed solid growth, with values of 283.73 for trade scale, 192.27 for trade structure, 342.81 for trade innovation and 387.21 for trade potential -- indicating burgeoning vitality in trade between China and other BRICS members.

Cai Junwei, an official with the GAC, said the compilation and regular release of this index will comprehensively reflect trade development between China and other BRICS members, demonstrate the fruitful outcomes of economic and trade cooperation among BRICS countries, and further promote such exchanges.

(Web editor: Huang Kechao, Liang Jun)
NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The University Mohammed VI Polytechnic (UM6P), a Moroccan university dedicated to addressing African and global challenges, has announced the establishment of its American presence, UM6P Global Hubs United States.

The launch event, held in New York, was marked by the presence of His Excellency Mr. Youssef Amrani, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco to the United States, and His Excellency Mr. Omar Hilale, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Morocco to the United Nations in New York.

The new U.S. Global Hub, with offices in New York and Boston, will serve as a collaboration hub, promoting partnerships in research and development, entrepreneurship and innovation, and executive education. This expansion marks an inflection point, creating a bridge that links African talent, research, and entrepreneurship with U.S. innovation, investment, and academic ecosystems.

"UM6P was founded on the idea that Africa's future will be shaped by talent, science, and innovation rooted in local realities but connected globally," said Mr. Mehdi El Khatib, Managing Director of UM6P Global Hubs U.S. "Our collaborations with American universities, research institutions, and corporate partners are about co-creating solutions. Together, we're building joint research, academic exchange, and startup incubation opportunities where African and U.S. insights and expertise meet, driving innovation that is both locally grounded and globally relevant."

The U.S. hub focuses on key areas of global importance, including sustainable agriculture, water resilience, artificial intelligence, energy transition, healthcare, and mining. These fields address both Africa's immediate development needs and broader global issues. Through research and development, entrepreneurship and innovation, and executive education, UM6P Global Hubs United States will expand and strengthen collaborations, deepen research connections, and speed up solutions that matter.

UM6P in the U.S. addresses three structural gaps in Africa's innovation landscape:

Global integration: positioning African research and entrepreneurship in direct dialogue with international knowledge networks.

positioning African research and entrepreneurship in direct dialogue with international knowledge networks. Applied Impact: adapting global technological advances into context-specific solutions for African development.

adapting global technological advances into context-specific solutions for African development. Diaspora engagement: leveraging the intellectual and entrepreneurial capital of the African diaspora across North America .

The launch in the U.S. further expands UM6P's global presence, complementing existing offices in France and Canada. These international locations position the university as a preferred partner for research and innovation and highlight Morocco's role as a gateway to Africa.

University Mohammed VI Polytechnic is a Moroccan university focused on solving African and global challenges through education, research, and innovation. Committed to nurturing future African leaders, UM6P advances in fields such as AI, health, green energy, and sustainable agriculture while positioning the humanities and social sciences as essential catalysts for inclusive, human-centered development. With campuses across Morocco and international branches in Paris, Montreal and New York, UM6P promotes inclusivity and entrepreneurship, delivering impactful solutions for Africa and the world.

SOURCE University Mohammed VI Polytechnic
READ MORE: Why I charge my family for Christmas dinner

Terry's Chocolate Orange has reduced in size, according to the research

It's supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year, but some of the UK's most beloved Christmas chocolates have shrunk this year, new research has revealed.

Despite the smaller sizes, prices have surged by as much as 33 per cent in some instances, and the rising cost of cocoa is partly to blame.

Quality Street tubs are among the sweet treats shrinking in size, going from 600g to 550g.

Although the box has decreased by 8.3 per cent, its pre-promotional price at Tesco, Sainsbury's, and Morrisons has risen by 16.7 per cent year-on-year, The Grocer revealed.

The outlet noted that at budget supermarket Asda, the price of the 550g tub is cheaper than the 600g one was last year, dropping from 6 to 4.68.

Elsewhere, the 750g tin of Cadbury Roses has reduced from 750g to 700g in Morrisons, but the price has surged from 14 to 16.50.

Terry's Chocolate Orange has also faced similar changes, and has reduced by 7.6 per cent in size. However, in Tesco, the treat has faced a 33 per cent price hike.

In Sainsbury's, the orange-flavoured chocolate has risen by 28.2 per cent in price, and by 25 per cent in Morrisons.

Some of the UK's most beloved Christmas chocolates, including Quality Street, are facing shrinkflation this year (stock image)

Toblerone is also facing changes, going from 360g to 340g, and costing more than before in Morrisons and Sainsburys.

A spokesperson for Toblerone and Cadbury told The Grocer that the changes were implemented as a 'last resort'.

Discussing the Quality Street change, a Nestle Spokesperson told the Daily Mail, 'Each year we introduce a new Quality Street range with formats, sizes, weights and RRPs based on a range of factors including the cost of manufacturing, ingredients and transport and the preferences of our customers and consumers.

'We think our 2025 range and pricing is competitive with a good variety of choice for Quality Street fans. Final prices are at the discretion of individual retailers.'

The Daily Mail has reached out to Mondelez International, and Terry's Chocolate Orange for comment.

It comes after rising temperatures and erratic rainfall have 'hammered' cocoa harvests in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon and Nigeria, according to a report from Christian Aid.

These four West African countries are responsible for producing approximately 70 per cent of the world's cocoa, the key ingredient in chocolate.

Cocoa prices have risen 400 per cent to $12,218 (9,800) per ton after droughts, floods and climate-related diseases hit west African cocoa farmers last year, it said.

Despite a 33 per cent price hike in Tesco, Terry's Chocolate Orange (pictured, stock image) has reduced by 7.6 per cent in size

Higher temperatures and more irregular rainfall make growing conditions less than ideal for the cocoa tree, which relies on finely-tuned conditions to thrive.

Osai Ojigho, director of policy and public campaigns at Christian Aid, said climate change is 'causing havoc' to chocolate production.

'Growing cocoa is a vital livelihood for many of the poorest people around the world and human caused climate change is putting that under serious threat,' she said.

Humanity's love for chocolate relies on the cocoa tree (Theobroma cacao), which thrives under specific conditions such as high humidity and abundant rain.

That's why production of cocoa is limited to the tropics  the hot, humid region of the Earth that surrounds the equator.

Even then, a few countries dominate commercial production, including Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon and Nigeria in west Africa, Indonesia in Asia and Ecuador in South America.

Globally, Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire are the top producers, together accounting for about 58 per cent of the world's cocoa, while African countries account for more than 70 per cent of the world's cacao crop.

Christian Aid's report warned that extreme weather last year caused failed harvests in west Africa, making temperatures too hot for cocoa growing.

In 2024, human-caused climate change added at least three weeks above 89.6F (32C) annually during the main cacao crop season (October-March) in Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana  above the optimal temperature range for the tree.

Over the same time period, climate change added just over two weeks above 32C annually during the main crop season in Cameroon and more than one week in Nigeria.

The report said we are already in a cocoa shortage, which started in 2023, due to unexpectedly heavy rainfall during Ghana's dry season followed by severe drought in 2024.

Total precipitation in west Africa in 2023 was more than double the 30-year average for the time of year and the wet conditions caused plants to rot.

Meanwhile, Ghana's 2024 drought affected more than one million people, resulting in terrible crop losses and record-high food prices, the UN said

According to a prior study by World Weather Attribution, climate change made the heatwave in west Africa 10 times more likely.

The report also said changing climatic conditions may adversely affect the tiny midge pollinators, which cacao trees rely on to fertilize their flowers.

But our favourite chocolate bars, boxes and truffles are often also manufactured using other tropically-produced commodities, such as sugar, soy and sometimes palm oil, each of which 'has its own climate-related supply chain vulnerabilities and wider environmental impacts', the report said.

What's more, the ongoing issue of deforestation means farmers do not have as much suitable land to grow cocoa.

Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana, for instance, lost 25 per cent and eight per cent respectively of their humid forests where the tree thrives between 2002 and 2019, said Cocoa Life.

Worryingly for the industry, the anticipated loss in cocoa yields is set to coincide with a increase in demand for chocolate, the report also warned.
A mother has issued a chilling warning to other parents as her three-year-old was rushed to hospital with a suspected 'perforated intestine' after playing with a popular toy at home.

Blossom, from the UK, took to TikTok to reveal just how close her son William came to a life-threatening medical emergency from swallowing some magnets that came with a set of building blocks for children.

The toddler had been putting together the pieces inspired by the video game Minecraft - which had been bought on the Chinese online store Temu - and was taken to A&E.

In the clip, which has now racked up 130,000 views, Blossom urged: 'Consider this a public safety video.'

'Last week our three-year-old managed to swallow two tiny magnets while playing with what we assumed to be a completely safe toy,' she continued.

'I knew it was something that needed to be checked immediately, but I didn't realise until we got to the hospital quite how dangerous the situation was.'

There, doctors quickly explained that swallowing multiple magnets is far more serious than ingesting other small objects.

Once inside the body, the magnets can attract to each other from different parts of the digestive tract, pinching internal tissue, cutting off blood supply, and in severe cases, causing perforations to the intestine or bowel.

Blossom, from the UK, has issued a chilling warning to other parents after her three-year-old son was rushed to hospital with a suspected 'perforated intestine'

Luckily, William's X-ray showed that the magnets, which were attached, had already gone past his stomach and the tot was out of the danger zone, meaning he just had to wait for it to pass naturally.

'We are so lucky that our little boy didn't have any lasting damage to his insides,' Blossom added.

'So please check your toys. Be aware because understanding the dangers of things and knowing what to do when accidents happen is just as important as preventing the accidents from happening.'

The mother also said that with her son approaching his fourth birthday, she had believed the biggest risks from small parts and choking hazards were largely behind them.

However the incident has served as a harsh reminder that even older toddlers are not immune to the dangers of some toys.

She captioned the video: 'We were so lucky with our experience, but not every child is.

'Accidents happen to the best of us, but it's so important to know what to do when you're in a dangerous situation.

'Luckily, the magnets that William had swallowed were attached, and remained intact all the way through his system, but if they hadn't been, this could have ended very differently.

@betterdayswithblossom Replying to @D.V We were so lucky with our experience, but not every child is  Accidents happen to the best of us, but its so important to know what to do when youre in a dangerous situation. Luckily, the magnets that William had swallowed were attached, and remained intact all the way through his system, but if they hadnt been, this could have ended very differently. If theres any positives to this scary situation, its to spread some awareness to other families, who may not be aware of how dangerous magnets can be  #psa #toysafety #childsafety #mumsoftiktok #hospital  Morning Coffee in the Cafe - Ryu Kato

The terrifying ordeal happened last week when the toddler, William, managed to ingest two small magnetics while playing at home, prompting her to rush him to A&E

Blossom took to TikTok to reveal just how close her son came to a life-threatening medical emergency after he swallowed magnets from a popular children's toy

Many rushed to the comments with their own thoughts and others thanked Blossom for raising awareness of the dangers of children's toys

What should you do if your child swallows a battery? Head to A&E immediately. Tell the doctors that you suspect your child has swallowed a battery. If possible, provide the medical team with the identification number found on the battery's pack. Do not let the child eat or drink until an X-ray can determine if a battery is present. Do not induce vomiting. Source: Battery Controlled Advertisement

'If there's any positives to this scary situation, it's to spread some awareness to other families, who may not be aware of how dangerous magnets can be.'

Many rushed to the comments with their own thoughts and others thanked Blossom for raising awareness.

'So glad he's ok,' one shared. 'Please write a complaint to the toy company if they fell off a toy, they can pull them from the shelves and do more safety tests on them before they're released again.'

Another asked: 'How did you know he had swallowed it xx'

Blossom replied: 'I heard him gag/cough and when I asked him if he was okay he said he accidentally swallowed something.'

'This happened to a child I babysit for at school,' one also penned.

'He ended up in intensive care. Every time I warn people about these unregulated unchecked toys on TikTok shop I get told I'm overreacting.'

'Definitely not overreacting,' Blossom said. 'It never occurred to me to check the safety rating before buying these, big lesson learned.'

'My daughter has this toy, in the bin it goes,' a comment read. 'Thank you for raising awareness'.

A Temu spokesperson said: 'We are deeply concerned to hear about this situation and extend our support to Blossom, William and the whole family during this difficult time. We are actively investigating the case, and our customer service team has reached out to the family to gather further details and support our review.

'The safety and well-being of our customers is Temu's highest priority. As a third-party marketplace, Temu connects independent sellers with consumers and requires all merchants to comply with applicable laws, regulations, and safety standards.

'Temu maintains rigorous standards for products listed on the platform, proactively monitors compliance, and swiftly removes products that fail to meet those standards.

'We encourage customers to report concerns through our 24/7 customer service channels, accessible via our app or website, as part of our commitment to addressing feedback promptly and responsibly.'
Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands appeared to be in high spirits as she stepped out in Amsterdam on Wednesday, after being subjected to a horrific 'deepfake' porn attack.

The 21-year-old royal, who is the daughter of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima, was welcomed by Amsterdam's Mayor, Femke Halsema, on Wednesday.

Together, the pair will discuss developments, with the Princess speaking to several residents who play an important role in the city over lunch.

Amalia put her best fashion foot forward and sported a white tie-up blouse, which she paired with chic black flared trousers.

To add a pop of colour to her stylish ensemble, the effortlessly elegant future Queen opted to wear burgundy pointed heels with a matching Chanel quilted leather bag.

She accessorised by wearing different metals; a gold watch, along with several rings, a silver bangle and glitzy statement earrings.

Amalia wore her blonde locks down in a wavy blow-dry and donned glamorous makeup, including golden glimmer eye-shadow and matte pink lipstick.

The heir to the Dutch throne was all smiles as she greeted Mayor Halsema almost a month after it was reported that police were hunting down vile criminals who manipulated her image on intimate videos.

The 21-year-old royal, who is the daughter of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima , was welcomed by Amsterdam's Mayor, Femke Halsema, on Wednesday

Amalia put her best fashion foot forward and sported a white tie-up blouse, which she paired with chic black flared trousers

In August, Norwegian news outlet Seher Og Hor reported that the royal had featured 'in the starring role' in the deepfake videos.

Authorities in the Netherlands and the FBI have since worked together to shut down websites including MrDeepFakes, which had circulated the videos of the princess and 70 more Dutch women.

Using AI, the deepfake videos saw the face of the Princess edited over the bodies of actors to create intimate and misleading footage.

She is now being supported by her parents, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima.

Princess Amalia was previously reported to have been a victim of similar attacks in 2022, according to Netherlands' Panorama.

She even wrote about the topic herself as part of her studies for a degree in Politics, Psychology, Law and Economics at Amsterdam University.

Just last month, the Dutch royal house shared a photo of the Princess with her completed thesis, which was titled: 'Beyond Disclosure: Bridging the Gap Between the Artificial Intelligence Act and the Charter of Fundamental Rights with Deepfaked Bodies.'

In the Netherlands, the creation of such content is a criminal offence and punishable with up to a year in prison, with further sentences for repeated offences. There have not been any arrests made as of yet.

Princess Amalia will discuss developments in the city and speak with several residents who play an important role in Amsterdam over lunch

Amalia wore her blonde locks down in a wavy blow-dry and donned glamorous makeup, including golden glimmer eye-shadow and matte pink lipstick

The heir to the Dutch throne was all smiles as she greeted Mayor Halsema almost a month after it was reported that police were hunting down vile criminals who manipulated her image on intimate videos

Over the next academic year, Princess Amalia is set to study for a bachelors in Dutch Law, also at the University of Amsterdam, the Royal House revealed last month.

Princess Amalia is the eldest daughter of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima and has siblings Princess Alexia, 19, and Princess Ariane, 18.

Amalia, who is first in line to the throne, is said to speak fluent Spanish thanks to her mother, who is Argentine by birth.

The future European queen recently spent over a year living in Spain as a result of growing fears for her safety after being threatened with kidnap by Dutch organised crime gangs.

Officials would not confirm details of Amalia's initial departure from her studies in Amsterdam, but the move came weeks after reports that Amalia and Prime Minister Mark Rutte were mentioned in communications by organised crime groups - leading to fears of kidnappings.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte said at the time: 'I'm very sorry for her and I'm obviously very concerned about it.'

He added that Dutch authorities were doing everything to ensure that the princess is safe.

Princess Amalia is the eldest daughter of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima and has siblings Princess Alexia, 19, and Princess Ariane, 18

Princess Amalia of the Netherlands is seen shaking hands with Mayor Femke Halsema of Amsterdam

Princess Ariane of the Netherland (pictured right) is taking a gap year following her graduation from the United World College Adriatic in Italy (seen from L to R with Princess Catherina-Amalia and Princess Alexia in April last year)

Following a string of incidents, Amalia's sister, Princess Ariane, 18, the youngest daughter of Queen Maxima and King Willem-Alexander, will now enjoy some downtime, during which she plans to travel, according to Blauw Bloed.

Ariane is following in her sisters' footsteps, with both Catherina-Amalia and Princess Alexia having taken one year out following their high school graduations.

It's thought that Ariane will continue to study further once she's finished the year-long break.

She will no doubt be spending time supporting her sister following her recent difficulties, which started in 2023 when she became the centre of a gangster plot to kidnap her.

The then-19-year-old moved out of her student accommodation and returned to her home in The Hague in October 2023.

At the time, several Dutch media outlets reported that the princess, whose formal title is Princess of Orange, was under heightened security due to fears that criminal gangs may target her for kidnapping or an attack.

During her tour of the Caribbean later that year, the royal briefly touched on her heightened security, and in a clip sharing by Dutch media site NOS, said: 'I'm going to be very honest, I'm still having a very hard time.

'I miss the normal life, the life of a student. Walking the streets, being able to go to a store.'
The Duke of Sussex, 40, is undertaking a rare four-day trip to the UK this week

Prince Harry shared an insight into home life at home with his wife Meghan Markle as he revealed what they've been watching on Netflix together - but awkwardly failed to mention her show.

The Duke of Sussex, 40, is undertaking a rare four-day visit to the UK, first to attend the WellChild awards in London, before travelling up to Nottingham, where he announced a 1.1million donation to Children In Need yesterday.

On Monday, as he visited his late grandmother the Queen's grave in St George's Chapel, Windsor, Harry was a mere 16-minute drive from his estranged brother Prince William - though the two did not meet. It is not known whether Harry will meet King Charles III, who is currently at Balmoral and along with Queen Camilla has no public engagements planned for this week.

Later, he paid tribute in London to the seriously ill children and young people recognised by the charity WellChild as a 'beacon of hope and inspiration'.

During a reception with the award winners ahead of the presentations, Harry chatted to Special Recognition winner Grace Tutt, 13, from Sevenoaks - who uses a wheelchair after a bus crash.

At one point, Grace asked Harry what he would recommend her to watch on Netflix - but the Duke awkwardly missed out on an opportunity to give a shout-out to his wife's cookery and lifestyle show.

Instead, Harry shared that he and Meghan, who live in California together after stepping down as working royals, have been watching political thriller Hostage, and reality dating show Love Is Blind.

Harry said: 'My wife and I just finished watching Hostage. It's very good, it's filmed here. If you haven't seen it, you should watch it.

Prince Harry revealed what he and Meghan have been watching on Netflix together - but awkwardly failed to mention her show. Pictured speaking with 13-year-old Grace Tutt

The Duke, 40, made a cameo in season one of With Love, Meghan, but did not repeat his appearance in last month's second season

'Although if it's unsuitable, it wasn't my recommendation!'

The second season of With Love, Meghan was released on Netflix last month - and is one of the final projects of the Sussexes' 80million Netflix deal.

However, it was met with scathing reviews by critics, who labelled the Duchess of Sussex 'needy' and 'narcissistic' in her second attempt at small-screen stardom.

It was dubbed 'marginally less mad but more needy' than its predecessor season one - despite pulling in millions of viewers in its debut run.

The Mail's Liz Jones branded the new season 'staged, fake and dull' - but unlike other critics, commended Meghan for being 'genuinely earnest'.

The Guardian dismissed the show as 'so boring' and 'so contrived', while The Telegraph described the Duchess as a 'Montecito Marie Antoinette'.

The Times was equally cutting, calling the eight-part show 'a series in search of a meaning, fronted by a woman in need of some cash'.

Even with celebrity guests including Chrissy Teigen, John Legend and Tan France, critics argued the show lacked substance - and claimed Meghan failed to be authentic.

The Netflix show (pictured) was filmed last year in a rented home in Montecito, close to the Sussexes' own mansion

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex laughs with 13-year-old Grace Tutt (centre), recipient of the Special Recognitions award

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, play-fights using swords made from modelling balloons with nine-year-old Gwen Foster, recipient of the Inspirational Child 7-11 award

On Monday, the Duke of Sussex returned to the UK for the first time in five months for a four-day visit, though Meghan has stayed behind in California with their children, Archie and Lilibet.

The fact the brothers were so close but did not meet suggests that while they were united in grief, they are still worlds apart. There are, however, hopes of a royal reunion between Harry and his father, King Charles, who have not met in 19 months.

As Harry solemnly paid a private tribute to the late Queen, the Waleses were entertained at the local branch of the Women's Institute (WI), where William said he 'can't quite believe it has been three years already' since his grandmother's death.

During their visit, William was also asked if Prince Louis, seven, is 'a handful'. Smiling and suppressing his laughter, William replied: 'To be honest, he's a character, but he's a very good boy.'

He added that his youngest son, who is known for his cheeky displays at public events, likes to 'wind his brother and sister up'.

Meanwhile, Prince Harry was delighting youngsters with a cheeky balloon sword fight at the WellChild Awards.

Harry, dressed in a sharp navy suit and tie, arrived at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the WellChild Awards  an event he has long supported.

There, he was seen warmly interacting with the inspirational children and families being honoured, giving each young guest his full attention.

Prince Harry arrives for a visit to the Community Recording Studio (CRS) in Nottingham yesterday

Prince William visits Spiral Skills, a youth organisation in Lambeth, South London, yesterday morning

In one heart-warming moment, shared on WellChild's Instagram stories, the Duke got into a playful balloon sword fight with nine-year-old Gwen, who proudly showed off her sparkling trainers to the royal.

Yesterday, Harry announced he is making a 1.1million donation to BBC Children in Need in his latest charm offensive, as Prince William announces funding for a homeless charity.

He was greeted by a modest crowd at the Community Recording Studio (CRS) Nottingham as he announced the donation amid speculation over whether he will meet his estranged father and brother.

The sum of money will help support work tackling violence affecting young people.

Meanwhile, Prince William's Homewards initiative confirmed funding for the charity Spiral Skills to move into a new hub for young people at The Oasis Village in Tulse Hill.

The Prince of Wales was visiting a youth organisation in Lambeth, South London, while his brother was in Nottingham.

About 100 locals, including a group of young children, gathered by a garage on the other side of the road in Nottingham to clap and cheer for Harry - who arrived 45 minutes late after getting stuck in traffic as a result of London's ongoing Tube strike.

But the crowd was a big contrast to when Harry and Meghan Markle carried out their first official engagement together in Nottingham in December 2017, where hundreds of excited well-wishers chanted their names or stretched out hands to greet them.

Prince William and Kate during a visit to the National Federation of Women's Institutes in Sunningdale, Berkshire, on Monday to mark the third anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's death

The visit to Nottingham to the project he has supported for a number of years was announced on Sunday, two days before Harry's trip - but royal fans who arrived for a glimpse of the Duke noted that they were surprised how few people had turned up.

Harry and Charles last met face-to-face in February 2024 when the Duke made a transatlantic dash to see the monarch after hearing of his cancer diagnosis, but they spent just over 30 minutes together before the King left for Sandringham.

Both Harry and William attended the funeral of their uncle Lord Fellowes in Norfolk a year ago in August 2024, but there was reportedly no interaction between them.

Senior aides to the King and Harry were pictured together in London this July in what was reported to be an initial step towards opening channels of communication between the two sides.

Harry, who levelled accusations at the King, Queen, William and Kate in his Oprah interview, Netflix documentary and memoir Spare, told the BBC in May that Charles will not speak to him because of his court battle over his security, and he does not know 'how much longer my father has'.

But he also outlined his hopes for a 'reconciliation' with his family, saying: 'Of course, some members of my family will never forgive me for writing a book. Of course, they will never forgive me for lots of things.'

He added: 'But you know, I would love reconciliation with my family' and said there was 'no point in continuing to fight any more'.

Harry's level of security changed in 2020 after Megxit.

He was last in the UK in April for a court hearing about his security arrangements, but lost his Court of Appeal challenge in May and said in the TV interview he 'can't see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back'.

He failed in his appeal against the dismissal of his High Court claim against the Home Office, over the decision of the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) that he should receive a different degree of protection when in the UK.
Prince William has revealed the sweet way Princess Charlotte is following in her mother Kate's footsteps as she learns a 'crucial' skill - with Prince George and Prince Louis also embarking on similar hobbies.

The Prince of Wales, 43, visited a youth organisation in Lambeth, south London, yesterday, while his brother Prince Harry was in Nottingham.

Spiral Skills has received funding from the Prince's homelessness initiative Homewards to move into a new hub for young people at the Oasis Village in Tulse Hill.

During his visit, William visited a music studio and said he was making sure his children are learning to play instruments because music is 'crucial'.

Prince George, 12, plays guitar, Princess Charlotte, ten, plays piano and Prince Louis, seven, plays the drums.

It appears Charlotte is following in her mother's footsteps - as the Princess of Wales has previously shown her skills at the piano, giving a surprise performance during the Eurovision finals in 2023, and playing a duet at Westminster Abbey on Christmas Eve in 2021.

Yesterday, the heir to the throne turned down the opportunity to play the drums on a visit to a music charity, saying his son Prince Louis would have done if he had been there.

Asked by 16-year-old Django Brooke whether he wanted to play, William laughed and replied: 'I'm definitely not a drummer. I'm happy to see you do it, if my youngest was here, he'd have a go, because he's practising at the moment, but I'd love to hear you do it. But thank you for asking.'

Prince William visits Spiral Skills, a youth organisation in Lambeth, in London

William revealed what instruments his three children George, Charlotte and Louis (pictured at Trooping the Colour in June) play

The Prince told the young musicians taking part in a workshop: 'It's brilliant, you guys have clearly done a lot of practising, well done, that's not easy doing that in front of everyone - that's brilliant.

'You've all got amazing rhythm and it sounds fantastic, I wish I started when I was your age.

'I couldn't read music so that was my biggest weakness, I started off playing piano, trumpet and the drums and then realised I had to memorise every tune and it just fell away.

'I make sure my children learn music because I love music and it's crucial, really important.'

Symphony Studios founder Seth Pinnock said of William: 'He said he couldn't play drums well. He said he had learned drums and learned keyboards but couldn't read it But his children are learning to play keys, so hopefully his kids will come here one day and learn.'

During the Tusk Conservation Awards last November, William joked he had been 'spending his entire life' with his fingers in his ears after Louis decided to pick up the drums.

Laughing, William said: 'My youngest is learning the drums, that's why I spend my entire life with my fingers in my ears.'

The youngest Wales child is known for his cheeky and boisterous personality, so news of his new hobby will come as little surprise to royal fans.

William shared that Charlotte's hobby takes after her mother, the Princess of Wales. Kate is pictured during her Eurovision performance

Prince Louis, however, plays the drums. The cheeky prince pulled a series of quirky expressions during Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee in 2022 (pictured)

William's son always appears full of energy - from clambering up a tree in Kate's cancer recovery video in September, to pulling a series of cheeky expressions during Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee in 2022.

George, meanwhile, is known to have been making progress on the guitar since 2020, when Kate said he was 'starting to learn'.

Prince Harry is also known to play the guitar, as he was seen playing the instrument during his 2022 docuseries with Meghan.

The Wales children all appear to be following in their mother's musical footsteps.

In 2023, Kate delighted the nation with a surprise piano performance at the Eurovision Song Contest, held that year in Liverpool.

Looking glamorous in a show-stopping sapphire gown, the video showed the Princess of Wales laughing as she played the piano.

The clip was shared on the Waleses' official Instagram with the caption: '#Eurovision surprise. A pleasure to join @kalush.official in a special performance of last year's winning @eurovision entry.

'Enjoy the show, Liverpool.'

Prince William visits Spiral Skills, a youth organisation in Lambeth, south London, yesterday

Prince William visited the youth organisation in Lambeth, south London, and discussed the 'crucial' skill of learning an instrument

Prince William and Kate during a visit to the Women's Institute in Sunningdale, Berkshire, on Monday to mark the third anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's death

Kate also played the piano at Westminster Abbey on Christmas Eve in 2021, which marked her first ever public piano performance.

She did a duet with Tom Walker, who sang, as the pair performed For Those Who Can't Be Here, when the world was beginning to come out of the coronavirus pandemic.

She was taught how to play the instrument in her early years, alongside her siblings James and Pippa and their mother, Carole.

But piano is not the only instrument that the Princess of Wales dabbles in, as she has not only played the flute but also sang before.

She played the flute during her school years at St Andrew's School in Pangbourne, Berkshire.

She was a member of the school's inaugural chamber orchestra and the senior flute group - amusingly known as the Tootie-Flooties - along with her younger sister, Pippa.

Friends say she was also Deputy Head Chorister in the chapel choir and was once commended in a BBC carol competition.

Shortly before she left the school, she passed her Associated Board Grade III flute examination with merit and also her Grade V singing.

Prince Harry arrives for a visit to the Community Recording Studio in Nottingham yesterday

Like her father-in-law, Kate also tried her hand at conducting, when she led the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, during a visit to Germany in 2017.

Earlier yesterday, William heard from community changemakers at Spiral Skills, who were formerly helped by the charity and are now trained youth workers supporting young people aged 14-25 at risk of exclusion or homelessness.

The youth organisation was founded in 2015 and works with local schools, youth organisations and authorities to provide early intervention, support, employability skills and access to employment and services for 14 to 25-year-olds.

The Prince visited the organisation at its new space and saw how it offers support for those who need it, before attending a workshop with Young Creators UK, a creative agency run and owned by underrepresented young people which receives referrals from Spiral Skills.

He has not yet met with his brother Prince Harry, who is visiting his patronages in London and Nottingham during a rare four-day visit to the UK.

Harry, who levelled accusations at the King, Queen, William and Kate in his Oprah interview, Netflix documentary and memoir Spare, told the BBC in May that Charles will not speak to him because of his court battle over his security, and he does not know 'how much longer my father has'.

But he also outlined his hopes for a 'reconciliation' with his family, saying: 'Of course, some members of my family will never forgive me for writing a book. Of course, they will never forgive me for lots of things.'

He added: 'But you know, I would love reconciliation with my family' and said there was 'no point in continuing to fight any more'.

Harry's level of security changed in 2020 after Megxit.

He was last in the UK in April for a court hearing about his security arrangements, but lost his Court of Appeal challenge in May, and said in the TV interview he 'can't see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back'.

He failed in his appeal against the dismissal of his High Court claim against the Home Office, over the decision of the Royal and VIP Executive Committee (Ravec) that he should receive a different degree of protection when in the UK.
Kendall Jenner could be pivoting away from life in the spotlight as a model - as she recently revealed that she has other humble career plans.

During a recent interview with Vogue, which featured a spread and joint conversation with her best friend, Gigi Hadid, Kendall revealed that she wants to design houses for a living.

Kendall, 29, spilled the secret as Gigi, 30, admitted that The Kardashians star is 'one of the only people' that she would let decorate her home.

'I swear to God, I'm going to stop everything and just design homes,' Kendall told the outlet.

'I'm not kidding,' the model added.

She shared with the outlet that right now, she is actually building a home out West.

'I love my space in LA, but I also really love the simple life,' Kendall explained.

'I like getting up every morning and throwing on a bathing suit or sweatpants and no makeup and just being free with my day.'

During a recent interview with Vogue, which featured a spread and joint conversation with best friend Gigi Hadid, Kendall Jenner revealed that she wants to design houses for a living

'I swear to God, I'm going to stop everything and just design homes,' Kendall told the outlet

'I like getting up every morning and throwing on a bathing suit or sweatpants and no makeup and just being free with my day'

During the interview, the 818 Tequila owner also revealed just how much she values her private life.

She explained that sometimes, she goes incognito, recalling a time when they went to visit Gigi's family in Holland last year and went to the largest theme park, Efteling, in horse man warrior masks.

'I love to feel normal,' Kendall shared with Vogue.

'I love to go to the horse show dressed just like everybody else and have my helmet on and my sunglasses and my uniform, and I can compete under a completely different name,' she admitted.

Interestingly enough, this isn't the first time that Kendall has shared her love with interior decorating with fans.

During The Kardashians, she has spoken before about her passion for making homes beautiful.

Last Christmas, she even gave Architectural Digest a tour of her Los Angeles home, which she described as 'cozy.'

Her furniture was incredibly chic, as she showed off her mustard-colored, corduroy couch with intricate floral designs, a real wood fireplace, and a cream-and-brown gingham tablecloth.

She explained that sometimes, she goes incognito, recalling a time when they went to visit Gigi's family in Holland last year and went to the largest theme park, Efteling, in horse man warrior masks

In the comments section of the Instagram clip of the tour that the magazine posted on their page, many wrote how much they admired her lived-in home

Of course, she also had tons of Christmas decorations up, including wreaths that she aimed to have 'look as organic as possible,' dotted with pinecones and acorns.

Kendall revealed that she works with A-list designer, Jeff Leatham.

In the comments section of the Instagram clip of the tour that the magazine posted on their page, many wrote how much they admired her lived-in home.

Her interview with Vogue comes just a few weeks after she revealed he secret behind her perfectly plump lips.

Instead of filler, the Calabasas native relies on a 'lip plumper' from another brand; L'Oreal.

She is a fan of the L'Oreal Plump Ambition Hyaluron Lip Oil which costs $13.99 and comes in 10 shades.

The lip oil is infused with Hyaluronic Acid and Tripeptides and uses a lightweight, non-sticky formula.

Hyaluronic acid is a natural substance found in the fluids in the eyes and joints. It acts as a cushion and lubricant in the joints and other tissues.

Tripeptides are often used in anti-aging skincare formulations due to the way they improve skin cell renewal and help to regenerate collagen levels.

Jenner has repeatedly denied using lip fillers, crediting any changes in her lip appearance to makeup techniques like overlining.
Samantha Cameron's fashion brand Cefinn, which is to be wound down after never turning a profit, failed despite enviable celebrity and royal endorsements, which are often enough to send sales skyrocketing and sustain them.

The Princess of Wales, and Queen Camilla have both worn Cefinn dresses to royal engagements, while Sex Education actor Gillian Anderson and TV presenter Holly Willoughby were also fans.

The label, which aimed to provide 'an urban uniform for busy women', also had the advantage of a founder with a huge public profile as the wife of former Prime Minister David Cameron, which not only attracted the attention of Vogue boss Anna Wintour but also won Cefinn crucial investment and financial backing.

Yet, the announcement this morning that the brand would be closing after eight years did not come as a total surprise to fashion insiders and brand experts - and not simply because sales fell by five per cent last year.

Rather, its downfall was foreshadowed by its failure to 'carve out a distinct niche in the market,' according to luxury stylist Angela Kyte.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Kyte highlighted that Cefinn, whose dresses sell for up to 450, had competition from both less expensive 'high-street premium players like Reiss and higher-end labels with stronger creative signatures.'

While Kyte recognised Cefinn's 'strong design integrity', she believes it 'struggled to build a loyal community or convey why it was indispensable in a crowded mid-luxury market.'

She added: 'While the designs were elegant, they didnt create the kind of emotional connection or cult following needed for longevity and unfortunately in fashion today, visibility isnt enough as consumers want more and brands must stand for something unforgettable.'

Catherine, Princess of Wales, is pictured in 2023 wearing a 'Petra' leopard print midi by Cefinn

Samantha Cameron launched Cefinn eight years ago in 2017. The brand quickly won celebrity and royal fans

Cameron's public profile undoubtedly helped her get Cefinn off the ground but, as Chad Teixeira, founder and CEO of Chad Teixeira Media, pointed out 'the association with politics is double-edged.'

The PR expert acknowledged that Cameron's 'experience in the political spotlight and as a tastemaker in her own right' - not to mention her professional background as creative director of Smythson of Bond Street - afforded the brand 'a certain polish and sophistication'.

Yet, if Cameron was 'aspirational' for some, 'for others, she represented privilege and establishment ties that did not align with modern consumers values.'

'Fashion today is about inclusivity and cultural relevance, and being tethered to an elite image can feel out of step,' he added.

'Additionally, her name sometimes overshadowed the clothes, making it hard for Cefinn to be judged purely on design merit.'

Despite producing around 30 collections, the brand failed to break even and will soon close its two London shops.

In a lengthy post published on Instagram, Cameron wrote described closing Cefinn as 'a very hard decision'.

She said: 'I have had the immense good fortune of working with a team of brilliant, talented and dedicated colleagues.

'It has been a very hard decision. I am deeply grateful to them as well as my shareholders, suppliers and family and friends for their unstinting support and friendship throughout the inception and journey of Cefinn.'

Catherine chose Cefinn's 'Janie' jumper in October 2023 and wore the brand's 'Eva' dress while visiting the Royal Liverpool University Hospital in 2022

Cefinn's eye-catching green shibori print was worn by Queen Camilla in 2022. Right: Samantha debuted the print as part of the spring 2022 collection

Cameron's Cefinn is far from the first celebrity-launched clothing brand to fail.

Popstars Jennifer Lopez and Rhianna both had to curtail their forays into fashion when their labels Sweetface and Fenty, respectively, failed to make a mark.

Indeed, while a strong public profile and the fanbase that goes with it sounds like a recipe for success, it's much more complicated than that, according to Kyte.

'Consumers are savvy. They can detect when a celebrity brand is more of a vanity project than an authentic enterprise.

'Fashion is brutally competitive and without deep commitment, strong creative vision, and an operationally rigorous business model, a brand will struggle.

'Many celebrity-led labels rely too heavily on name recognition, underestimating the discipline required in product development, supply chain management, and long-term brand building.'

Of course, there are some notable exceptions. The success of twin actors Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's The Row and Victoria Beckham's eponymous brand, which finally turned a profit 15 years after launching, are two examples.

Samantha Cameron attended the wedding of former chancellor George Osborne in July 2023 wearing Cefinn's 'Jacquetta' dress

Reflecting on the success of these two brands, Teixeira said: 'Both cases demonstrate credibility and consistency.

'The Olsens and Beckham invested in product quality and built teams with real fashion expertise.

'They approached their brands with humility, focusing on craftsmanship and customer rather than chasing quick wins.

'Over time, they proved they were not merely celebrities dabbling in design, but businesswomen intent on shaping serious, enduring fashion houses.'
Iceland shoppers have been left disgusted by one unusual item in their new Halloween range of frozen goods.

The British frozen food retailer recently unveiled a new range of seasonal items to bring in the spooky season, including one stuffed crust pizza that has proved controversial among shoppers.

A photo of the new product was recently posted to the Instagram account, NewFoodsUK, where it received a slew of negative comments from horrified shoppers who said it looked 'grim' and even compared it to 'snot'.

The item had been added to the retailer's Take Away range and included the addition of 'slime cheese'.

The packaging describes: 'A green stuffed crust pizza, topped with tomato sauce, cheddar, and mozzarella.'

'It reminds me of a sinus infection,' one perturbed individual wrote while another simply wrote 'eww' in disgust.

A third remarked: 'Sorry, but hell no, it looks like sick.'

'What in the early 2000s lawless wasteland Shrek is this?!' a fourth wrote. 'Oh no - that looks grim,' another lamented.

The British frozen food retailer recently unveiled a new range of seasonal items to bring in the spooky season, including one stuffed crust pizza that has proved controversial among shoppers. Stock image

The 'slime filled' stuffed crust pizza weights 475g and costs 2.60 from the budget supermarket.

Iceland has added a number of new items to it's range to celebrate the spooky season, including a 'scarily spicy' range that includes a pepperoni pizza filled with a hot cheese crust and California reaper chili chicken fillets.

Also among the new range is salt and pepper shredded duck and California reaper chicken wings.

It comes shortly after Iceland's boss, Richard Walker revealed he would pay customers to catch shoplifters in the act after the company revealed they had suffered a 20million blow to the business last year.

He said he hoped that the incentive would encourage shoppers to act if they spotted a shoplifter and hit back at claims it was a 'victimless crime'.

The supermarket is the first in the UK to offer rewards to customers who snitch on thieves.

Shoppers will be given 1 on their bonus cards each time they point out thieves to Iceland staff and Mr Walker hopes it will allow the chain to lower their prices.

The CEO revealed that the cost of shoplifting to the business was 20million annually and Mr Walker hoped that money saved from the scheme could go back in to the shops, paying for more workers and lowering prices.

The item had been added to the retailer's Take Away range and included the addition of 'slime cheese'

'It reminds me of a sinus infection,' one perturbed individual wrote while another simply wrote 'eww' in disgust

'I'd actually like to announce that we will give a pound to any customer who points out a shoplifter,' he told Channel 5 News on Wednesday.

'We will put it on their bonus card if they see any customer in our stores who are undertaking that offence.'

He added that he believed the programme would deter thieves, adding: 'Some people see it as a victimless crime. It is not.

'It also keeps prices from being lowered because it's a cost to the business, it's a cost to the hours that we pay our colleagues, as well as it obviously being about intimidation and violence.'

And the Iceland boss emphasised that it was an important issue to tackle and affected customers as well as profit.

'That's not 20 million of profit. That's just 20million that we could pay in more hours to our colleagues or in lowering prices,' he said.

'So we'd like our customers to help us lower our prices even more by pointing out shoplifters and then we'll give them a quid back.'

Mr Walker's new scheme comes just months after an Iceland security guard was filmed arming himself with a shopping basket to stave off a suspected thief aiming kicks at him.

In a video capturing the moment, the shop employee is seen backing away before picking up the basket to use as a shield against the intruder at his store's entrance in Walworth, south-east London.

A customer filmed the confrontation on their phone, appearing to show the suspected offender then picking up a bag and running away down the street.

Members of the public and retail security are being encouraged to stand up to shoplifters after Matthew Barber, the Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley said tackling thieves was not just a job for police and criticised onlookers for simply filming instances of crime.
NHS bosses at England's 10 worst-performing hospitals are all pocketing salaries higher than the Prime Minister's, a damning analysis has revealed.

Despite failing to bring down waiting lists, the CEOs at the 10 NHS hospital trusts banked salaries of more than 200,000 last year.

By comparison, Prime Minister Keir Starmer is paid a salary of 172,000. MPs get an annual basic salary of 93,000.

It comes as the Government yesterday ranked the performance of all 134 trusts in England in a league tablethe first time it has done so publicly, allowing patients to see for themselves which are giving sub-standard treatment.

Health secretary Wes Streeting vowed to hold the chief executives of poor performers accountable, claiming he wants them 'looking over their shoulders'.

Senior managers at those which are persistently ranked poorly could be sacked or see their pay docked.

The rankings showed Mid and South Essex Foundation Trust was the worst performing large hospital, followed by Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.

Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn NHS Foundation Trust and Countess Of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trustwhere the serial baby killer Lucy Letby workedalso featured in the bottom ten.

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According to analysis by The Times, of the lowest-ranking ten hospitals, the highest-earning chief executive was Professor Andrew Hardy, paid between 275,000 to 280,000.

He took on the role at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust in 2010. The trust was ranked third-worst in the country.

Other high-earners include Jonathan Brotherton, who took over in July 2023 as chief executive of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, which is ranked as 128th out of 134 trusts.

His salary was reported by the trust as between 260,000 and 265,000, with another 165,000 to 167,500 contributed towards his pension, the Times said.

Jane Tomkinson, meanwhile, was appointed chief executive of the Countess of Chester Hospital in February 2024, after initially joining as acting chief executive in December 2022.

As acting chief executive, she earned 115,000 to 120,000 between April 2023 and January 2024, documents showed.

Between February 2024 when she took on the permanent role and the end of the financial year in March 2024, she earned 35,000 to 40,000.

From this, The Times estimated her annual salary as between 210,000 and 240,000.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer is paid a salary of 172,000. MPs get an annual basic salary of 93,000

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Maggie Oldham took on the CEO role at Blackpool Teaching Hospital Trust in 2024. According to the league table, the trust is ranked 125th out of 134.

While her salary is not yet publicly available, her predecessor, Patricia Armstrong Child, earned between 225,000 and 230,000, according to the trusts annual report.

Yesterday, it was revealed police are now investigating potential corporate failings contributing to the death, ill-treatment or neglect of patients at Blackpool Victoria Hospital's stroke unit, which sits within Blackpool Teaching Hospital Trust.

Offences under consideration by Lancashire Police include corporate manslaughter, corporate ill-treatment and wilful neglect.

The investigation was initially launched in October 2023 after the prosecution of five health care workers for a number of drug offences, with two of them jailed for sedating or conspiring to sedate patients to keep them quiet.

The Government-backed league tables score NHS trusts on seven different areas including waiting times for operations, cancer treatment, time spent in A&E and ambulance response times.

Their finances are also assessed, meaning a hospital rated highly for clinical care will be marked down if they are running up a larger than expected deficit.

They were published after an annual report by NHS regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), found that corridor care had become a 'regrettable reality' in hospitals and people's health had deteriorated while they waited months for treatment.

Health secretary Wes Streeting vowed to hold the chief executives of poor performers accountable, claiming he wants them 'looking over their shoulders'

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Patient groups welcomed the publication of the league tables but hospital trust bosses warned there was a danger staff could be used as 'instruments of blame'.

Mr Streeting, however, told the Daily Mail: 'Trusts with the greatest challenges must accept more scrutiny and targeted support to identify weaknesses and strengthen their game.

'Todays reforms are about driving better performance and delivering better value.

'Patients and taxpayers have been left in the dark about whether local services are delivering or failing.

'With no accountability, success has gone unrewarded and there have been no consequences for failure.'

He added: 'A patient at Countess of Chester shouldnt have to wait months longer for treatment than one in Northumbria.

'That is the postcode lottery Im determined to tackle, by raising standards across the board.'
Britain is sleepwalking into its biggest food safety crisis since the 2013 horsemeat scandal, a damning Government report has revealed.

'Alarming amounts' of illegal meat have been smuggled into the UK which could be contaminated, MPs warned.

Last year alone, 235,000kg of potentially dangerous animal products entered the country, with gangs illegally importing through airports, sea ports and even passenger vehicles through the Channel tunnel, they said.

The unhygienic and unrefrigerated meat does not go through sufficient quality checks leaving consumers at risk of bacteria, viruses, and parasites that could cause severe food poisoning.

Animal diseases, such as foot and mouth disease, have also surged 'at home and abroad' in recent months, the report by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, said.

It comes as British tourists were banned earlier this year from bringing cured meats and cheeses back into the UK from Europe, because of an outbreak of the disease on the continent.

The report did not outline the types of illegal meat imported and where they originated from in full detail, but they include beef and pork stuffed inside cardboard boxes and defrosted chest freezers.

One port worker even told the committee they found an entire pig stuffed inside a suitcaseits legs cut off badly so that it could fit inside.

Last year alone, 235,000kg of potentially dangerous animal products entered the country, with gangs illegally importing through airports, sea ports and even personal baggage and passenger vehicles through the Channel tunnel, MPs said

Alistair Carmichael, Liberal Democrat MP and chair of the committee, said: 'Every day, vans laden with undeclared, unhygienic and unrefrigerated meat are rolling through our ports for distribution and sale in Britain.

'It would not be an exaggeration to say that Britain is sleepwalking through its biggest food safety crisis since the horse meat scandal.

'A still bigger concern is the very real risk of a major animal disease outbreak.

'The single case of foot-and-mouth disease in Germany this year, most likely caused by illegally imported meat, cost its economy one billion euros.

'We are calling on this government to get a grip on what has become a crisis, by establishing a national taskforce with proper leadership and a strategy, boosting food crime intelligence networks, creating and enforcing real deterrents to tackle the criminal enterprises involved and equipping port health and local authorities with the resources and the powers they need.'

In 2013, police raids on meat facilities found meat from British horses in a range of takeaway burgers and kebabs, as well as processed beef products sold at UK supermarket chains.

According to the report, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) claimed that intelligence led checks are being performed at the border.

But the committee said the reality on the ground showed their were limited checks, strained enforcement capability, and port facilities unsuitable for seizing significant volumes of potentially contaminated meat.

One worker told MPs they had 'found an entire pig stuffed inside a suitcase; its legs cut off badly so that it could fit inside' (stock image)

Alistair Carmichael, chair of the EFRA Committee, said: 'Every day, vans laden with undeclared, unhygienic and unrefrigerated meat are rolling through our ports for distribution and sale in Britain'

In March, they visited the Port of Dover and witnessed a van being searched with meat found packaged in plastic bags and newspaper, stowed in cardboard boxes and in a defrosted chest freezer.

The Committee was greatly concerned to see the inadequate conditions the Border Force facilities at the Port with limited ability to decontaminate inspection areas and no dedicated handwashing facilities.

One worker told MPs they had 'found an entire pig stuffed inside a suitcase; its legs cut off badly so that it could fit inside'.

Workers from Dover Port Health Authority (DPHA) also told the Committee that, 'there are literally hundreds of targeted vehicles driving straight past as we do not have the resources to stop and search'.

Committee members also witnessed a van containing meat being searched by Dover Port Health Authority officers.

The van was Moldovan and its driver Romanian, indicating meat had potentially travelled for over 1,000 miles from Eastern Europe.

'Alarming amounts of meat and dairy products are now being illegally imported to Great Britain for both personal consumption and sale,' the report said.

'Criminal smuggling operations are largely responsible for this and are bringing in products of some of the greatest risk.

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Salmonella is a group of bacteria that infects the gut of farm animals - and typically affects meat, eggs and poultry

'Meat is arriving in unsanitary conditions, often in the back of vans, stashed in plastic bags, suitcases and cardboard boxes.

'This meat is finding its way to our high streets, farms, markets, restaurants and kitchen tables, demand driven by the cost of living crisis as well as cultural preferences.'

A government spokesperson told the Daily Mail today: 'This government has significantly increased seizures of illegal meat, restricted the import of dangerous animal products, and is investing over 200 million in a new National Biosecurity Centre.

'We will consider the recommendations of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee as we continue to work closely with port operators, industry, trade partners and Border Force to protect our food security, farmers and economy.'

It comes as health officials have this year have also sounded the alarm over the surge in deadly bacteria linked to food poisoning.

In April the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) warned cases of listeriosis were up 13 per cent on the five year average.

Listeriosis is a serious infection usually caused by eating food contaminated with the bacterium listeria monocytogenes.

Shiga toxin-producing E.Coli (STEC)a rare strain of the diarrhoea-causing bughad also surged seen 'since the Covid pandemic'.

According to the annual report, other bacterial infections rose including yersinia increased from 454 to 660 and cyclospora cases almost doubled from 61 in 2023 to 123 in 2024.

Between 2022 and 2024, Campylobacter laboratory reports rose 27 per cent between 2022 and 2024, with 70,300 cases.

And separate UKHSA data released last month found salmonella cases have surged in the first three months of 2025, up on 2023 and 2024.

Salmonella is a group of bacteria that infects the gut of farm animalsand typically affects meat, eggs and poultry.

The nasty bug usually also causes sickness and a fever that clears up in days. However, it can be fatal.

Those most at risk at suffering severe illness from a salmonella infection include those with weakened immune systems such as children and the elderly.

If people become seriously ill, they may need hospital care because the dehydration caused by the illness can be life-threatening.
ORLANDO, Fla., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- "Twenty-four years ago on September 11, Islamic extremists made a huge mistake," said Art Ally, founder of the Timothy Plan and pioneer of Biblically Responsible Investing. By attacking the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York, they thought they could inflict a fatal blow to America. Instead, they awoke the proverbial sleeping giant.

"I had been in and out of the World Trade Center many times on business. It was the headquarters of Shearson-Lehman Hutton, for whom I had once worked for many years," Ally recalled.

"On 9/11, I was at the Orlando airport about to board a jet for a broker conference in Indianapolis just as the planes hit the WTC," Ally's flight was cancelled along with thousands of others. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered a complete shutdown of all U.S. civil aviation, grounding the 4,546 civilian aircraft in the air at the time.

"But here's the thing," he noted.

"Although the WTC was a prominent center of commerce, it was only one component of America's vast economy. Like other firms housed in the WTC, Shearson went on, as did America. The murderous fanatics who hijacked four airliners and killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, at the Pentagon and in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania underestimated the resilience of the American people and the strength of our free market, decentralized economic system.

Ally shares, "We thank God that America is blessed with freedom and prosperity."

"We must never forget the First Responders  police and firefighters -- who risked their lives to save as many people as possible as the towers went down. We should also remember the brave passengers aboard Flight 93 who, on the signal "Let's roll!" sacrificed their lives bringing down the hijacked jet before it could reach its target."

Ally said, "Such a traumatic event may have brought down a less free nation, but not an America under God and committed for more than 200 years to individual, economic and religious liberty. We will never forget!"

Art Ally is the founder of the Timothy Plan family of Biblically Responsible Investing funds.

Before investing, carefully consider the Fund's investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses of the investment company. This and other important information can be found in the Fund's prospectus. To obtain a copy, visit timothyplan.com or call 800.846.7526. Read each prospectus carefully before investing.

Because the Timothy Plan Funds do not invest in excluded securities, the Funds may be riskier than other funds that invest in a broader array of securities. There are risks when a fund limits its investments to particular-sized companies, and all companies are subject to market risk. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. To read more about Timothy Plan and access fund information, including the prospectus, fact sheets, performance, and holdings for each Fund, go online: mutual funds at fund.timothyplan.com and ETFs at etf.timothyplan.com. Mutual Funds distributed by Timothy Partners, Ltd., member FINRA. ETFs distributed by Foreside Fund Services, LLC, member FINRA. Timothy Partners, Ltd. is not affiliated with Foreside Fund Services, LLC.

For more information on Timothy Plan, visit timothyplan.com .

CONTACT:

Brian Mumbert, President [email protected] or 407.644.1986

SOURCE Timothy Plan
Just twenty-four hours after going to bed with a bad headache, Eliana Shaw-Lothian was in an induced coma, hooked up on a ventilator, and being treated for THREE killer conditions as her parents prayed for her survival.

Ms Shaw-Lothian's brush with death came two years ago when she was an 18-year-old who had just started university.

The now 20-year-old was four weeks into her first term at the University of Surrey when she woke up one Friday with a 'really bad headache'.

The next day Ms Shaw-Lothian was in hospital, battling against life-threatening bacterial meningitis.

Ms Shaw-Lothian, a psychology student from Bromley, southeast London, said: 'The symptoms were pretty generic.

'I used to get headaches all the time so it wasn't unusual for me. I thought my hands and feet were cold because it was chilly in the flat.

'And I thought maybe I had slept funny so had a stiff neck.

'I was generally just feeling under the weather - like I had the flu.'

Eliana Shaw-Lothian contracted bacterial meningitis during her first term at university

That evening Ms Shaw-Lothian called her parents to tell them she was feeling unwell and her mum asked if she had a rasha telltale sign of meningitis.

However, she had no signs of a rash and so decided to try sleep her illness off.

Ms Shaw-Lothian woke feeling sick in the early hours of Saturday and started throwing up repeatedly.

By this point, she had realised something was really wrong, but had become 'delirious' and was unable to act on her suspicions.

On the Saturday morning Ms Shaw-Lothian's parents grew worried that they hadn't heard from her and continually called her phone.

Ms Shaw-Lothian's flatmates heard her phone ringing non-stop and went into her bedroom to check on her.

She said: 'They found me in there delirious and picked up the phone to tell my parents who immediately drove to my uni.

'An ambulance said it would take two hours to get to me so my parents and friends contacted campus security who took me to hospital.'

By the time Ms Shaw-Lothian made it to A&E a rash had appeared and she was hallucinating

By the time Ms Shaw-Lothian made it to A&E a rash had appeared and she was hallucinating.

Doctors sent her to the ICU and simultaneously treated her for viral meningitis, bacterial meningitis, and sepsis as they could not afford to lose any time while they waited for test results.

Ms Shaw-Lothian, who at this point was at a heightened state of paranoia, was placed into an induced coma while doctors looked for fluid on her brain.

Tests then revealed she had bacterial meningitiswhich is rarer but more serious than viral meningitisand the medical team started treating her just for that.

Her parents were told she was 'in acute danger' and that the next few hours were critical to see if she would respond to treatment.

It wasn't until Sunday that Ms Shaw-Lothian, who was on a ventilator and feeding tube, started to show signs of fighting the infection.

On Monday lunchtime she was brought out of the induced coma.

She says her last memory was thinking she needed to go to hospital. She woke up in intensive care three days later.

The last thing she remembers is thinking she needed to go to hospitalshe woke up in intensive care three days later

Ms Shaw-Lothian said: 'Waking up was terrifying as at first I didn't recognise my parents or know who I was.

'I had no idea what was happening as I had been in an induced coma for two days.

'But I later remembered my family and what had happened. I was then told I had bacterial meningitis and could have died.

'That's a feeling I'll never forget.'

In the months after her near-death experience Ms Shaw-Lothian struggled with her motor movementswhich meant that simple tasks like eating and walking became a struggle.

She also struggled with hearing loss at the beginning of her recovery.

Ms Shaw-Lothian said: 'As a dancer, those things were really hard for me to come to terms with. But eventually I returned to normal.

'However now, two years on, I still have fluid around my heart and struggle with concentration problems.

A keen dancer, she is now able to enjoy her hobby again since fully recovering

'But I'm so grateful because I know there are so many people who had meningitis who aren't as lucky.

'People are left with brain damage or can lose their limbs - or of course even their lives.

'So the fact that I've been able to return to university and dancing and live my life as normal... I'm so grateful.'

Ms Shaw-Lothian's experience has made her determined to raise awareness for meningitis and ensure people know the early signs and symptoms.

She is now working with Meningitis Research UK and is keen to share her story ahead of Freshers' Weeks so students can be prepared for how to cope if they or one of their friends falls ill.

Ms Shaw-Lothian said: 'My advice to freshers would be first, to make sure you stay in contact with a parent, sibling, friend, or loved one.

'My family and flatmates are the only reason I'm here today.

'Because I had been in contact with my parents, when I didn't message them, they knew something wasn't right.

Ms Shaw-Lothian with her father, who along with her mother, kept calling her the morning she was hospitalised

'And thankfully I was friends with my flatmates so they felt comfortable enough to come into my room to check on me.

'Secondly, I'd say don't hesitate. Meningitis can kill in hours. If you or a friend has symptoms but you're unsure it's meningitis, go to A&E or at least call 111.

'It's better to find out it's not meningitis than to have left it too late.'

A spokesperson for Meningitis Research Foundation encouraged students to get vaccinated before going to university.

Ms Shaw-Lothian had had the MenACWY vaccine but it did not protect against her strain of meningitis.

Caroline Hughes, Support Services Manager at Meningitis Research Foundation said, 'Meningitis can affect anyone, anywhere, at any time.

'However, students are at an increased risk. The most important thing they can do to protect themselves and their friends is to get the free MenACWY vaccine before starting university.

'It's vital for everyone to be aware of the symptoms of meningitis, as the MenACWY vaccine does not protect against MenBthe most common cause of life-threatening meningitis in young people.

'In the early stages, meningitis can look like a bad hangover, freshers' flu or other mild illnesses, which makes it easy to miss.

'Symptoms can appear in any order but not everyone gets all symptoms. You must trust your instincts and seek urgent medical attention if you think someone is unwell.'
Olivia Attwood opens up on divorce rumours as she admits she and Bradley Dack 'really weren't getting on very well' as she reflects on using partying to cope


Liberal media outlets took pains to defend a career criminal who brutally murdered a Ukrainian immigrant on a train in Charlotte last month.

The slaying of Ukrainian immigrant Iryna Zarutska, 23, at the hands of repeat offender Decarlos Brown Jr., 34, was thrust into the national spotlight after surveillance video showing the vicious attack was recently released.

On CNN Monday, Van Jones said we 'dont know why that man did what he did,' adding that 'this man is hurting.'

Brown has a lengthy rap sheet and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

His sister provided to the Daily Mail a conversation she had with Brown in which he stated, 'I don't even know the lady.'

Jones accused Right-wing figures like Charlie Kirk of 'pure race mongering, hate mongering,' for claiming that Brown targeted Zarutska because she was white.

Video of the attack included audio of someone saying 'got that white girl,' though it's unclear whether Brown uttered the words.

Jones acknowledged that 'what happened to that young woman was horrible and it's everybody's nightmare,' before centering the issue around mental health.

On CNN Monday, Van Jones said we 'dont know why that man did what he did,' adding that 'this man is hurting'

The slaying of Ukrainian immigrant Iryna Zarutska, 23, at the hands of repeat offender Decarlos Brown Jr. was thrust into the national spotlight after surveillance video showing the vicious attack was recently released

'It's about the fact that we don't know how to deal with people who are hurting in the way this man was hurting,' he said.

'Hurt people hurt people.'

On Tuesday, CNN's Abby Phillip questioned The National Review's Caroline Downey after she said Brown 'was let back onto our streets despite a really bad criminal record that suggests he should have been locked away for life because he was threatening the public.'

'I'm sorry, he should have been locked away for life for what now?' Phillip asked.

'Schizophrenia,' Downey responded.

'You actually said that,' Keith Boykin, a former aide to Bill Clinton, interjected. 'I can't believe you actually said that. Somebody should be locked away in jail forever for schizophrenia. Did you really say that?'

Kat Abughazaleh, a Gen-Z progressive running for Congress in Illinois, chimed in: 'You said he should be locked away for life for schizophrenia. That is what you said.'

Downey defended her statement, insisting that Brown should have been 'institutionalized.'

On Tuesday, CNN's Abby Phillip (right) questioned The National Review's Caroline Downey (left) after she said Brown 'was let back onto our streets despite a really bad criminal record that suggests he should have been locked away for life because he was threatening the public'

'And if you're saying he should not, you are saying that young women like you and me are basically just - we are lambs into the slaughter.'

Also on CNN, media reporter Brian Stelter argued that the stabbing was being used as political fodder by 'pro-Trump activists' and members of 'MAGA media'.

'They picked up on this video from local news and ran with it,' Stelter said on-air Monday, adding, 'some of the comments around this story are baldly racist, stoking fear of African Americans because this man attacked a white woman.

The New York Times, after weeks of not reporting on the incident, covered it Monday with the headline 'A Gruesome Murder in North Carolina Ignites a Firestorm on the Right.'

The Wall Street Journal devoted a small section of its Monday paper to the stabbing with the headline: 'Woman's Stabbing Death Becomes MAGA Talking Point.'

A Politico piece was similarly titled: 'Ukrainian refugee killed in North Carolina gets dragged into political messaging war.'

Axios's headline for a story about the killing read: 'Stabbing video fuels MAGA's crime message.'

All the publications failed to report on the incident prior to this week, leading to a rebuke from White House Press Secretary Karolina Leavitt on Tuesday.

The Wall Street Journal devoted a small section of its Monday paper to the stabbing with the headline: 'Woman's Stabbing Death Becomes MAGA Talking Point'

The New York Times covered it Monday with the headline 'A Gruesome Murder in North Carolina Ignites a Firestorm on the Right'

A Politico piece was similarly titled: 'Ukrainian refugee killed in North Carolina gets dragged into political messaging war'

'Perhaps most shamefully of all, the majority of media - many outlets in this room - decided that her murder was not worth reporting on originally, because it does not fit a preferred narrative,' she said.

The attack unfolded on August 22, soon after Zarutska boarded a South End light rail train in Charlotte and sat in front of Brown.

Video shows shows a visibly scared Zarutska cower in fear after the unprovoked attack, in which she was stabbed three times in her neck and hands with a pocket knife.

On Tuesday, it was announced that Brown had been charged federally, which raises the possibility he could face the death penalty if convicted.
A TV reporter who garnered national attention after being sexually assaulted live on air has suddenly left her role.

ABC 13's Alex Bozarjian is no longer with the Houston station after joining in 2023, Chron reported.

No announcement was made about Bozarjian's departure, and her reporter bio has been removed from the outlet's 'News Team' page.

Bozarjian made headlines in 2019 after a runner participating in a race she was covering in Savannah, Georgia slapped her on the backside as he was passing by.

The journalist, who was 23 at the time, posted the clip online with a caption ripping her offender.

'To the man who smacked my butt on live TV this morning. You violated, objectified, and embarrassed me,' she wrote.

'No woman should EVER have to put up with this at work or anywhere!! Do better.'

The video, which was viewed millions of times, prompted outraged online sleuths to track the runner down.

ABC 13's Alex Bozarjian is no longer with the Houston station after joining in 2023

The reporter made headlines in December 2019 after being sexually assaulted during a live report in Savannah, Georgia

Married youth pastor Thomas Callaway, 43, was later arrested for misdemeanor sexual battery.

Callaway appeared on the Georgia outlet's station to address his actions, apologizing for getting 'caught up in the moment.'

He plead guilty to the sexual battery charge, and was sentenced a year probation and fined $1,000 by a Savannah judge.

Bozarjian received an overwhelming amount of support on social media, as well as some backlash, with some blaming the news anchor for putting herself 'in the line of fire.'

She shared with CBS This Morning that her story brought awareness to sexual harassment against women in the workplace.

'I think what is most important here is that he took my power and I'm trying to take that back,' she said.

Bozarjian received an overwhelming amount of support on social media after she was targeted

She shared to CBS that her story brought awareness to sexual harassment against women in the work place

Callaway appeared on the Georgia outlet's station to address his actions, apologizing for getting 'caught up in the moment'

Bozarjian, a native of Salem, Massachusetts, also worked as a nightside reporter in Detroit before moving to Houston.

Her departure is among several exits from ABC 13 in recent months, Chron reported.

The Daily Mail reached out to ABC 13 and Alex Bozarjian for comment.
Fox News has unveiled a series of weekend lineup changes - including a new morning show hosted by senior White House correspondents Jacqui Heinrich and Peter Doocy.

The duo's new show, The Sunday Briefing, will debut on September 21 at 11am ET, the network said.

Doocy and Heinrich will take turns each week as solo hosts of the show, which will air live from Washington and run for an hour. It replaces Howie Kurtz's MediaBuzz.

Kurtz will transition to a political media analyst role, the network said. He's been with Fox News since 2013.

In another move, Outnumbered's Kayleigh McEnany will begin hosting her own program, Saturday in America, for two hours each Saturday starting at 10am ET. It will debut on September 20.

Griff Jenkins, an occasional co-host for Fox & Friends Weekend, will join the show full-time as host alongside Rachel Campos-Duffy and Charlie Hurt.

In addition, Johnny Joey Jones and Tomi Lahren will become co-hosts of The Big Weekend Show, which will now run for three hours. The show previously featured four rotating co-hosts. Jones and Lahren will be joined by two revolving panelists going forward

Heinrich, 36, and Doocy's appointments come as both have shown a willingness to challenge Republican politicians and policies.

Jacqui Heinrich, 36, was promoted to Senior White House Correspondent this past June. She wasted no time grilling Karoline Leavitt during her first White House presser in January

Peter Doocy - famed for his clashes with former press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre -will rotate hosting duties with Heinrich

Heinrich found herself in the president's crosshairs in March.

Trump criticized her after a guest-host appearance on Fox & Friends, where she questioned Trump's decision to host an array of Teslas outside the White House was 'an appropriate thing for the president to do.'

'I watched Jacqui Heinrich from Fox over the weekend and I thought she was absolutely terrible,' Trump wrote on Truth Social.

'She should be working for CNN, not Fox.'

The month before, Heinrich slammed the administration's decision to wrest control of the press pool process from the White House Correspondents Association.

'This move does not give the power back to the people - it gives power to the White House,' she wrote on X.

And in January, she wasted no time grilling Karoline Leavitt about her boss's decision to pull security details for some of his political rivals in her first appearance on the White House floor under the new administration.

Heinrich's tenacity dates back to her days as a White House Correspondent during the Biden administration, during which she was known to ask tough questions.

Griff Jenkins, an occasional co-host for Fox & Friends Weekend, will join the show full-time as host alongside Rachel Campos-Duffy and Charlie Hurt

Tomi Lahren and Johnny Joey Jones will become co-hosts of The Big Weekend Show, which will run for three hours

Doocy and Heinrich - seen here with then president Joe Biden and First Lady Jill at the 2024 White House Correspondents' dinner - will take turns each week as solo hosts of the show, which will air live from Washington and run for an hour

She joined Fox News in 2018 as a general assignment reporter and has since been met with a meteoric rise. Her most recent promotion came in June, when she was named Senior White House Correspondent.

Doocy, 38 - known for his clashes with former press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre -was promoted to the same position in June. He joined Fox News in 2009 as a general assignment reporter.

He is the son of Steve Doocy, the long-time co-host of Fox & Friends.

In May, the elder Doocy revealed he would be leaving the flagship show's 'curvy couch' for a reduced role as a correspondent, after joining the network when it launched in 1996.

Their new show will be filmed live each week from Washington. Both will tackle all facets of the White House beat, including the president's national and international moves as well as the key issues impacting the administration, the network said.
MSNBC has sparked outrage for its 'disgusting' and 'shameful' on-air comments while covering the fatal shooting of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk at a college event in Utah.

Kirk, who amassed a huge following for his fiery debates on university campuses, was assassinated in broad daylight mid-speech on Wednesday afternoon.

Reporting on the situation in real time, host Katy Tur called Kirk 'divisive' and 'polarizing' while political analyst Matthew Dowd suggested that the gunshot could have been fired by one of Kirk's supporters.

'[W]e don't know any of the full details of this yet,' Dowd said.

'We don't know if this is a supporter shooting their gun off in celebration or... So we have no idea about this.'

He also echoed Tur, calling Kirk 'one of the most divisive, especially divisive younger figures... who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech or sort of aimed at certain groups.'

'And I always go back to hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions.'

MSNBC later apologized and called Dowd's comments 'insensitive and unacceptable'.

But critics were quick to bash both journalists, as footage circulating online appeared to show Kirk shot fatally struck in the neck at Utah Valley University in Orem.

MSNBC contributor Matthew Dowd sparked outrage while covering the fatal shooting of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk by speculating on-air whether the gunman was one of Kirk's fans 'celebrating'. A still from the broadcast is seen here

Charlie Kirk hands out hats before speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, Wednesday - just minutes before he was shot and killed

MSNBC just speculated the Charlie Kirk shooting could have been a supporter shooting their gun off in celebration.



I have no words for how awful these people are. pic.twitter.com/g6o9KGuaHp  Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) September 10, 2025

'That's disgusting. Put your politics aside and have some humanity. Charlie is a person, a husband and father,' one person wrote on X in response to the clip.

'Man, it's tragic. It's crazy how MSNBC will just say "whoopsie" and sweep this under the rug like they always do,' another added.

'Shameful. Embarrassing for anybody who's ever worked in the media,' a third said.

Even Barstool Sport owner Dave Portnoy waded into the controversial comments.

'Hey @MSNBC, I'm gonna go ahead and rule out that it was one of Charlie Kirk's supporters that accidentally shot him with a celebratory gun shot,' he wrote on X.

Dowd released an apology on Blue Sky.

'My thoughts & prayers are w/ the family and friends of Charlie Kirk,' he wrote.

'On an earlier appearance on MSNBC I was asked a question on the environment we are in.

'I apologize for my tone and words. Let me be clear, I in no way intended for my comments to blame Kirk for this horrendous attack. Let us all come together and condemn violence of any kind.'

MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler responded by saying: 'During our breaking news coverage of the shooting of Charlie Kirk, Matthew Dowd made comments that were inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable. We apologize for his statements, as has he. There is no place for violence in America, political or otherwise.'

Critics were quick to bash him and anchor Katy Tur, who was sure to note that Kirk was 'polarizing' and 'divisive' as footage online showed him being fatally shot

Your browser does not support iframes.

Donald Trump, around 5pm on Truth Social, confirmed Kirk was killed. The gunman, as of writing, remains at large.

'The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,' Trump wrote. '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. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!'

Kirk, 31, had a security detail with him when he was shot.

He leaves behind a wife and two children.

The Daily Mail has reached out to MSNBC for comment.

The president has ordered all American flags to be lowered to half-staff until Sunday evening at 6pm EST in honor of Kirk.

Screams were heard across the crowd of young people as those closest to the Turning Point USA founder rushed to his aid.

Kirk leaves behind his wife Erika Frantzve, with whom he had a three-year-old daughter and a son, 16 months

The couple celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary in May

Horrified witnesses ran for their lives after shots were fired at the event. Kirk, who has built a cult following online, was assassinated during the live event in Utah

UVU officials said the shot was fired from the top of the Losee Center, about 200 feet away from where Kirk was sitting on the college campus.

They initially took an elderly man into custody who turned out not to be the shooter, police said.

Later, a 'person of interest' was said to be in custody in connection with Kirk's shooting, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox announced Wednesday evening.

However, they too were later released, FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed.

'The subject in custody has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement. Our investigation continues and we will continue to release information in interest of transparency,' Patel said in a statement.

Sophie Anderson, 45, who was standing 100 feet from the stage when the shooting happened, told Daily Mail that she almost got trampled as she ran off into the food court, where she hid in a closet.

The second it happened, I knew it was a gunshot, said Anderson, who was joined at the event by her boss Phil Lyman, a former Utah state representative who was handing out hats on stage with Kirk just five minutes earlier.

He was shot in the neck and just fell over and he was just a fountain of blood, she said. They carried him off. All these kids are just falling apart and bawling.'

Utah Valley University evacuated the campus after the shooting and canceled classes until further notice.

The event was the first in Kirk's 'Great American Comeback Tour.'
Say the word 'Testarossa' to petrol heads of a certain vintage and it will immediately transport them back to the shoulder-padded days of the 1980s.

The wedge-shaped original is arguably the definitive model of its decade, with the white Miami Vice-spec version the poster car of a generation.

And now the name has been revived for the 21st century.

Ferrari is using its storied nameplate for the new 849 Testarossa  the Italian marques most powerful series-production road car yet unveiled at a glitzy invite-only event in the Italian fashion capital Milan on Tuesday evening.

The new-era Testarossa uses the brands latest plug-in hybrid drivetrain that generates a colossal 1,035bhp  almost 50bhp more than the SF90 it succeeds.

As such, it can tick past 62mph in a mere 2.35 seconds. Flat out, Maranellos finest reckon it will do more than 205mph.

As you might expect, it's equally expensive as it is fast, with prices starting at a shade under 400,000 - and that's before customers even consider delving into the account-emptying options list typically accompanied by the iconic car maker.

But - and this is a big but - despite the famed badge, the new Testarossa carries little resemblance to the legendary vehicle with which it shares a name: no pop-up headlights, no enormous rear grille and no slicing strakes through its profile.

Ferrari is using one of its legendary and storied nameplates for its new 849 Testarossa revealed on Tuesday. It will be the Italian marques most powerful series-production road car when first deliveries arrive early in 2026

The new-era Testarossa uses the brands latest plug-in hybrid drivetrain that generates a colossal 1,035bhp  almost 50bhp more than the SF90 it succeeds. But it doesn't look much like the 1984 model with which it shares its name

The legendary moniker dates back some 70 years to the original Testa Rossa, the 500 TR racer.

However, most will undoubtedly associate it with the 1984 road car, which the manufacturer claims has inspired the comeback.

What does the '849' designation mean, you ask? This apparently relates to there being 'eight' cylinders, which used to divide the 3,990cc engine displacement returns '49' decilitres. Convoluted? Somewhat, yes.

But it is the latter part of the nameplate that's most important - and one that will ultimately strike a chord with most car nuts.

Ferrari bods say the new Testarossa boasts a 'futuristic yet deeply historically rooted design'.

Yet it is missing some of the key trademark cues previously mentioned that 40 years ago made the Testarossa the ultimate head turner.

This will undoubtedly disappoint a section of the 1980s supercar-loving fraternity, especially those hoping to see Ferrari follow in the tyre tracks of rival Lamborghini when in 2021 it revealed the new Countach LPI 800-4 as a limited-edition retro reboot.

 Slide me  Despite the famed badge, the new Testarossa carries little resemblance to the legendary vehicle with which it shares a name that debuted at the Paris Motor Show in October 1984 (left). The 849 does without the iconic pop-up headlights, enormous rear grille and slicing strakes through its profile

Ferrari bods say the new Testarossa boasts a 'futuristic yet deeply historically rooted design'. Yet it is missing some of the key trademark cues of the original

In the defence of Maranello's design team, their hands have been shackled by the canvas they've been forced to work with.

That's because the 849 Testarossa is more a 'facelift' of the mid-engined SF90 it replaces rather than an out-and-out new model.

In fact, despite the dramatic new bodywork, the two share the exact same weight - though the Testarossa Spider is 90kg heavier than the outgoing open-top SF90.

Chief designer Flavio Manzoni during the unveiling said it was the team's 'duty to create something new', though pointed to some features of Ferraris from the back catalogue.

For instance, the 'twin-tail' wing is reminiscent of that of the seventies 512 S racer, with two sections flanked over the wheel arches to generate 10 per cent of the downforce at the rear.

The 'sharp and geometric lines' also hark back to the legendary 512 Testarossa of 1991.

While there are no strakes along its profile, one of the most notable design features are the gaping side intake vents, which are required to feed the powerplant's massive intercoolers.

The aluminium panels, Ferrari says, took two years to put into production simply due to the difficulty to manufacture the shape.

There are a few similarities with Ferraris from its back catalogue, though: The 'twin-tail' wing is reminiscent of that of the seventies 512 S racer, with two wing sections flanked over the wheel arches to generate 10% of the downforce at the rear

The split read wing design is reminiscent of that of the 1969-1971 512 S race cars (pictured)

The 'sharp and geometric lines' also hark back to the later 512 Testarossa of 1991 (pictured)

Chief designer Flavio Manzoni said it was the team's 'duty to create something new'. The new Testarossa certainly does without many of the original's trademarks

Despite the dramatic new bodywork, the new Testarossa weighs the same as the SF90 it is replacing. The Testarossa Spider is 90kg heavier than the model it succeeds, though

In terms of performance, the remodelled body does have some impact.

It's just 8mm longer than the SF90 but produces 25 per cent more downforce when travelling at a speed of 150mph.

Much of this is down to the aforementioned wings, a redesign of the floor, and a new diffuser.

Mechanically, its much the same as the 3.9-litre twin-turbocharged V8 plug-in hybrid system - married to an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox - deployed in the model that came before it.

The 818bhp combustion engine is supplemented by a trifecta of electric motors - one providing additional power to the rear axle and the other two managing a front wheel each - that combined produce 217bhp with energy delivered by a 7.45kWh lithium-ion battery.

There's an electric-only mode too, with the battery providing enough range for a maximum of 18 miles before the petrol engine bursts into action.

Inside, the cockpit does without a traditional stacked dashboard layout, which is highlighted by the lack of a central infotainment touchscreen.

Instead, functionality is provided to the driver via the digital instrument cluster and to the passenger with their own letterbox-style display.

One notable throwback to the eighties is the interpretation of a classic gated manual shifter - though this is to control an automatic 'box.

Inside, the cockpit does without a traditional stacked dashboard layout, which is highlighted by the lack of a central infotainment touchscreen. Instead, functionality is provided to the driver via the digital instrument cluster and to the passenger with their own letterbox-style display

One notable throwback to the eighties is the interpretation of a classic gated manual shifter to control the automatic gearbox

While UK pricing hasn't yet been ironed out, in Europe, the 849 Testarossa coupe starts from 460,000 - approximately 398,250. The Spider (pictured) will ring in at 500,000 (circa 432,900

Those wanting more for more performance can opt for the Assetto Fiorano package adding a further 52,500 (45,450) to the bill

This shaves some 30kg - the equivalent bulk of a German Shepherd - off the cars 1,570kg dry weight, as well as introducing track-focused upgrades to the suspension, tyres and bodywork

While UK pricing hasn't yet been ironed out, in Europe, the 849 Testarossa coupe starts from 460,000 - which converts to approximately 398,250 - with first deliveries arriving in spring.

The Spider, due to be presented to customers from autumn 2026, will ring in at 500,000 (circa 432,900).

Those wanting more for more performance can opt for the Assetto Fiorano package adding a further 52,500 (45,450) to the bill.

This shaves some 30kg - the equivalent bulk of a German Shepherd - off the cars 1,570kg dry weight, as well as introducing track-focused upgrades to the suspension, tyres and bodywork.
This week, Jamie Dimon, the worlds most admired banker, celebrated with construction workers at the opening of JP Morgan Chases gleaming new $3billion (2.2billion) headquarters in New York.

The 60-storey building, designed by Britains Foster + Partners, will house 14,000 colleagues and includes a public plaza.

Vanity headquarters, in the past, have been regarded with suspicion. Fred Goodwins glass tribute act for Royal Bank of Scotland at Gogarburn in Edinburgh is a pitiful legacy from when it was briefly the biggest bank on Earth.

Away from the hoopla around the opening, JP Morgan is defend itself against allegations that it enabled and enriched Jeffrey Epsteins sex offending operations.

Epstein is rarely out of the headlines. New details of his sleazy relationships with His Majestys ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, are emerging daily.

Analysis by the New York Times (NYT), having combed through 13,000 pages of legal and financial records, has established a JP Morgan relationship with Epstein far deeper than previously recognised.

Transactions: JP Morgan Chase is currently having to defend itself against allegations that the bank enabled and enriched Jeffrey Epsteins sex offending operations

When Epstein was sexually abusing teenagers, JP Morgan processed 4,700 transactions for him with a value of $1.1billion (815million).

Among the debits were payments to mysterious Russian and eastern European accounts. The bank reportedly also opened accounts for some of Epsteins victims and helpers.

The main conduit was former Barclays boss Jes Staley. He was a regular visitor to Epsteins properties  even when the disgraced financier was under house arrest.

He consulted Epstein for personal financial advice and Epstein connected Staley to an expert on China.

JP Morgan pins blame for its Epstein relationship on Staley. Documents examined by the NYT show that on at least four occasions bosses at JP Morgan were alerted to concerns about Epstein but failed to de-bank him.

Dimon says that he barely knew Epstein. When the JP Morgan chairman sought to warn Barclays about the risk of appointing Staley as chief executive, he was not given enough time of day by former chairman John McFarlane.

Epstein, who died six years ago, casts a baleful shadow over public and financial lives.

Weston wrath

Associated British Foods, best known as owner of Primark, is an exemplar of what public companies should be.

At Primark it sells no-frills clothing at low prices and employs disadvantaged people, including former prisoners and youngsters from problem backgrounds.

It is a food production powerhouse, from farm to fork, in for the long-term and willing to ride out the volatile sugar market.

And it was one of only a handful of UK firms to embrace the bioethanol fuel revolution. Yet chief executive George Weston finds a path strewn with obstacles.

Last year Primark was badly hurt by speculation in the run-up to the Budget and the employer National Insurance rise. It now fears the same adverse fall-out in the November 26 Budget.

Weston thinks there are some good things in the Employment Rights Bill about security of tenure.

But he fears the effect on his companys ability to take on extra people at busy times and Primarks ability to dismiss unsuitable employees.

He is hugely disdainful of Whitehall. A lack of attention to the contribution which Vivergo and its innovative bioethanol plant was making to Labours green agenda meant it had to shut its doors.

It was stifled by regulation, energy costs and a lack of financial support. That has contributed to a 200million write-off.

Despite tricky UK and European conditions, Primark is going great guns in the US. Not surprisingly, 2025-26 profits are unlikely to hit last years 2billion heights.

Silver surfer

At 81, Larry Ellison is a different generation to tech bros of the Magnificent Seven.

Over the decades, the founder of the US-based Oracle software  a cloud and AI powerhouse  has held on to 41 per cent of the equity.

A big rise in the share price this week added 200billion to its valuation and elevated his wealth to 300billion.

Eat your heart out, Elon!
The owner of Primark has warned of weak sales as tax fears in the UK and political turmoil in Europe take their toll.

George Weston, chief executive of Primarks parent company Associated British Foods (ABF), has flagged very negative consumer sentiment.

And he said he was worried about the consequences of the Budget on November 26.

By contrast, Zara owner Inditex reported a strong start to autumn and said its ranges had been well received by customers.

ABF, which also owns household brands including Twinings and Ovaltine, saw shares plunge 13.2 per cent. Inditex, however, rose 6.5 per cent.

Weston said shoppers across large swathes of continental Europe have very squeezed disposable income.

Political uncertainty: Primark-owner ABF, which also owns household brands including Twinings and Ovaltine, saw shares plunge 13.2%

Political turmoil in France and Spain has also hit consumer confidence, he added. The consumer is in a very difficult place, and theres an overlay of a sort of nervousness about the future.

In the UK, Weston said the Budget was casting a shadow. I do fear the unemployment rate is beginning to pick up, and that wont do consumer confidence any good, he said.

He added that he was concerned by Labours proposed reforms to business rates, echoing fears that they will result in large shops closing.

We anchor high streets up and down this country. If you want to support the High Street, it makes no sense to me that you would penalise the people that do the biggest part of driving footfall to those high streets.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is facing pressure over her proposed rates reforms, which are theoretically designed to level the playing field between bricks-and-mortar businesses and online rivals.

She has angered large retailers by increasing taxes for larger premises, with businesses arguing the changes will also hit anchor stores that draw in shoppers to other businesses.

Retailers fear 4,000 shops could be forced to pay higher rates. There are also worries that the Budgets timing will weigh on already dire consumer spending in the run-up to Christmas.

ABF warned of consumer caution after it said Primarks like-for-like sales are expected to have dipped 2 per cent in the six months to September 13.

In the UK and Ireland, sales are expected to have grown 1 per cent, aided by warm weather and booming womenswear ranges. Products flying off the shelves this month include a pair of 22 palazzo jeans.

Inditex, the worlds largest fashion retailer  which also owns the Pull & Bear and Bershka brands  said sales rose 9 per cent between August 1 and September 8, compared to the same period last year.

They grew by 1.6 per cent to 15.9billion in the six months to July 31.

Inditex boss Oscar Garcia Maceiras said: We have again achieved a solid performance, with satisfactory sales in a complex market environment, keeping strong levels of profitability.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: Inditex is navigating a challenging path. Its products are more expensive, which means the goods must sparkle to convince cautious shoppers to part with cash.

The difference between Inditex and Primark is that the former is more upbeat about current trading, explaining why its shares jumped.
The company behind Ozempic and Wegovy is axing 9,000 jobs as the fat jabs war intensifies.

Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk outlined proposals to shed about 11 per cent of its 78,400-strong workforce amid stiff competition from Mounjaro-maker Eli Lilly.

The announcement  which includes 5,000 job losses in Denmark  came as Novo counted the cost of disappointing sales with its third profit warning of the year.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: Novo Nordisk is paying the price for failing to beat its rival Eli Lilly in the race to have the most effective weight-loss drug on the market.

The companys goal is to help people slim down, but now its having to slim down itself.

The update even triggered a response from the Danish government, which last month cut its economic growth forecasts for the year from 3 per cent to 1.4 per cent due to Novos troubles.

Job cuts: Danish pharmacuetical giant Novo Nordisk outlined proposals to shed around 11% of its 78,400-strong workforce amid stiff competition from Mounjaro maker Eli Lilly

I do not see todays announcement as something that changes the economic estimates that the government has made, insisted finance minister Nicolai Wammen. The Danish economy is extremely strong.

A meteoric rise in the Novo share price began in mid-2021, when Wegovy became the first highly effective obesity drug approved in the US.

At its peak, the firm was the most valuable in Europe, with a market capitalisation larger than Denmarks annual gross domestic product.

But with sales growth stalling under pressure from rivals, the stock has fallen some 65pc since June last year, although the shares rose 3.7 per cent yesterday.

It is now battling to revive its fortunes under new boss Mike Doustdar, who took over in July and is seeking to streamline its operations and boost its obesity and diabetes drug offerings.

Novo said the job cuts would cost some 600million in restructuring charges, hitting profits this year.

The cuts are due to help it save 930million a year by 2026 and follow a 75 per cent rise in staff numbers over the past five years.

It is always difficult to see talented and valued colleagues go, but we are convinced that this is the right thing to do for the long-term success of Novo Nordisk, said Doustdar.

We need a shift in our mindset and approach so that we can be faster and more agile.

Doustdar became chief executive when his predecessor, Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen, left the business after its share price fell amid mounting competition from Eli Lilly.

This is the new CEOs first major move to simplify Novos structure and redirect resources toward growth in diabetes and obesity, said Michael Novod, head of equity research for Denmark at Nordea Bank.

Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: Novo Nordisk, which had grown fat on the spoils of its weight-loss drugs, has been feeling the effects of rivals marching into the space.

She added: Its now drastically slimming down. With so much depending on these products, theres little hiding place when market dynamics move in the wrong direction.
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Carbon emissions from homes with high 'EPC ratings' have been proven to be little different from poorly insultated properties, a new study has found.

The study compared estimates of CO2 emissions from 1,038 homes based on their Energy Performance Certificate rating with measurements derived from actual meter readings from these same homes.

The meter readings in the study showed minimal variations in emissions between properties of very different EPC ratings.

All homes now require an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) in order to be sold or let.

The EPC is a rating scheme which bands properties between A and G, with an A rating being the most energy efficient and G the least efficient.

Having a lower EPC rating of A, B or C can give households access to cheaper mortgages and may even increase house prices for prospective buyers who may be led to believe they are buying a property that will keep their enegy bills low.

The study showed that actual carbon emissions from properties in EPC bands A-C, regarded as the most energy efficient, are not significantly lower than for properties in EPC bands D-G

Landlords also need to ensure their properties have a minimum EPC rating of E in order to let them, unless they have an exemption.

The Government is considering upping this requiremnt for landlords to a C rating, which could impact both private rentals and holiday lets by 2030.

The study, which was led by Atom Bank, brings into question the usefulness of EPCs and will raise concerns that Britain's eco regulations are being based on bogus assessments.

The study showed that actual carbon emissions from properties in EPC bands A-C, regarded as the most energy efficient, are not significantly lower than for properties in EPC bands D-G.

Initially, Atom Bank assumed this may be due to personal choices by the households being monitored.

However, experts at University College Londons (UCL) Energy Institute observed a similar pattern across a larger national dataset - finding little variation in primary energy use above EPC band C, even after accounting for factors such as family size and thermostat temperature.

The UCL team has subsequently been working to identify causes of discrepancies as part of a government study into EPC accuracy, but this has not yet been published.

EPCs are not fit for purpose

Gareth Jones, a solar expert and president of the Federation of Master Builders in Wales says EPC assessments have not kept up with the times. He is also concerned about the rise of rogue actors appearing across the sector.

'EPCs are not fit for purpose and have not kept up with modern technology and changes across the sector,' says Jones.

'There is a massive problem with rogue assessors drawing up bogus EPC reports and getting away with it.

'It's in the interest of some of these rogue EPC assessors to give a bad rating so that they can then get referrals from households or landlords having to follow their suggestions in order to upgrade their homes.

Jones adds: 'Many of these assessors don't know if there is insulation in the walls, under the flooring or in the loft. A lot of their reports are just based on assumptions.'

'Building practices are constantly improving and there is a lot more thermal technology around now. Equipment and fittings are different. Houses are different. But EPC assessments are little different from what they were 20-odd years ago.'

More needs to be done to combat the rouge assessors, according to Jones.

'There is significant government funding going towards energy upgrades and this is being exploited by rogue EPC assessments,' he says.

'The whole system is not fit for purpose. If someone is a rogue assessor there needs to be tougher penalties placed on them if EPCs are found to be incorrect.

'EPCs currently have massive implications on mortgages and the ability to let a property. People can find themselves paying tens of thousands of pounds based on an EPC assessment that is simply wrong.'

Gareth Jones, a solar expert and president of the Federation of Master Builders in Wales is worried about rouge EPC assessors

EPC reform needed

Atom Bank is calling on the energy suppliers, the Government and the financial services industry to collaborate on EPC reform and to improve the accuracy of housing-related carbon data.

Atom is also calling on the Government to accelerate proposed EPC reforms, including shifting from estimated to actual energy performance data, such as from utility bills or smart meters.

They also want to see a more accurate EPCs and more rigorous assessments of build quality to ensure homes meet their energy performance claims.

The EPC is a rating scheme which bands properties between A and G, with an A rating being the most energy efficient and G the least efficient

'The UK has made real progress in addressing the challenge of decarbonising its economy but continuing that momentum will require better data and more targeted action,' said Edward Twiddy, director of ESG at Atom.

'This study reveals that EPC ratings do not reliably reflect actual household emissions, with inaccurate data being a clear hindrance to reaching net zero.

'If most households are using similar amounts of energy, the focus should be on where that energy comes from and then how to make that clean energy as affordable as possible.

'The findings of this trial have important implications for green lending, banks carbon reporting, and the future use of EPCs in measuring and reducing residential emissions, which has implications for social issues like fuel poverty.'

Scott Harrison, director of strategy & innovation, business information at Experian, added: 'Collaborating with Atom on this study has reinforced what we at Experian have long understood - EPCs are not a sufficiently accurate way of measuring household carbon emissions.

'This trial highlights the urgent need to shift from theoretical estimates to real-world data.'
Buffeted by high winds, special forces soldiers leap out of a helicopter and rush down fast-ropes onto the container ship as it sways from side to side in the roiling Irish Sea.

In a matter of minutes, they have taken control of the vessel and seized 132million of cocaine - dealing a blow to one of the world's most feared organised crime gangs.

The 2023 raid on cartel container ship the MV Matthew by members of the Irish Army Ranger Wing was daring and dramatic. But it was something else too: incredibly rare.

While police forces target traffickers on land, the challenge posed by interceptions at sea often requires military assistance.

But with just eight ships, of which only two can operate at one time due to a shortage of sailors, the Irish navy poses little threat to drug smugglers.

And the helicopters needed to storm ships from the air? Often, their army colleagues can't summon up a single one for anti-narcotics missions.

Ireland's weak defences are common knowledge among drug cartels, who are increasingly sending cocaine shipments to its waters in the knowledge they are unlikely to be stopped.

Once in Ireland, gangs can move this cocaine across the open border into the north before taking it by ferry to England and Scotland - exploiting a lack of customs checks.

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Members of the Irish Army Ranger Wing escort a crew member from the MV Matthew, a cartel cargo ship intercepted in 2023

At a time of record cocaine production in South America and massive demand among Brits - who consume 117 tonnes of the drug a year - the Irish 'back door' into the UK has never been more lucrative.

Cocaine has long been hidden inside container ships heading to northern European ports like Rotterdam and Antwerp.

The scale of this 'narcotics superhighway' into Europe is mind-boggling, with officials from the EU and UK's Maritime Analysis Operations Centre (MAOC) monitoring up to 600 ships a day on suspicion they could be linked to smuggling.

Typically, gangs wait for the cocaine to be unloaded dockside, but tightened security has convinced them to seek alternative routes.

Increasingly, they are using 'at-sea drop-offs', which involve waterproof parcels of drugs being jettisoned from a container ship miles offshore before being picked off by smaller craft.

Ireland's location as the first European country passed by Atlantic container ships - with 132,000 square miles of territorial waters patrolled by just two navy vessels - makes it the perfect target.

Cathal Berry, a former Irish army commandant, summed up the situation to a new BBC documentary, Panorama: Fighting the Cocaine Cartels.

'Our territorial waters are a free-for-all really, it's like the Wild West out there,' he said.

Dramatic footage of a daring Irish army operation that led to 132million of cocaine being seized

Ukrainian Vitaliy Lapa was jailed for 14-and-a-half years and Englishman Jamie Harbron for 13-and-a-half years

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Alongside the ships of the Irish Naval Service, the Irish Defence Forces are meant to provide helicopters to protect the coastline.

But at points, they lack even a single helicopter for counter-narcotics operations, according to Panorama.

Ireland spends just 0.2 per cent of its GDP on defence. This is the lowest in the EU, although the Irish government said this will increase by 600m (520m) over the next four years.

Officials claim security forces maintain a 'continuous presence and vigilance' within Irish territorial waters, and that manpower issues within the navy are being addressed.

The seizure of the MV Matthew was assisted by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which penetrated a network linked to the Kinahan Cartel.

The high-stakes mission, revealed in federal court records unsealed earlier this year, exposed how the bloodthirsty group is expanding its global empire.

A group of gangs, coordinated by the Kinahans, bought the MV Matthew for 10million in August 2023.

Shortly after, three men - Englishman Jamie Harbron, Ukrainian Vitaliy Lapa and a Scot living in Dubai who has not yet been widely named - were sent to buy a trawler called the Castlemore in a port in Ireland's south west.

The MV Matthew was brought by a group of drug traffickers that police believe were coordinated by the Kinahans

Irish naval ship LE William Butler Yeats fired warning shots at the MV Matthew

Some of the 132million of cocaine that was seized from the MV Matthew

The Scot bought the boat before flying back on first class to Dubai, where he is believed to remain, while Harbron and Lapa took the Castlemore to sea on September 22 - unaware it had been fitted with a tracker.

Irish security forces followed it for two days as it tried to rendezvous with the MV Matthew in the Irish Sea, with intercepted messages showing they were acting under instruction from a boss in Dubai, who used the name 'Captain Noah'.

Amid worsening weather, the Iranian skipper of the MV Matthew - Soheil Jelveh - wanted to head north, but was ordered to avoid UK waters.

In farcical scenes, the Castlemore ran aground during a storm on September 24 - forcing traffickers to beg the Irish coastguard to save them. They were later winched to safety by helicopter.

Aboard the MV Matthew, Jelveh became increasingly panicked and faked a medical incident. He was also airlifted by the coastguard, who were unaware of the navy operation.

After being taken to hospital, the Iranian tried to make a run for freedom by leaping out of his bed, but was arrested by police.

Back on the MV Matthew, it's new skipper - a Filipino called Harold Estoesta - became aware he was being followed by the navy and sought to evade them, while 'Captain Noah' told him to hold his nerve.

'My stress level is near to heart attack. Try to be calm, be calm. Full speed go,' the crime boss said in a voice message.

Kinahan cartel leaders Christy Kinahan Senior and his son Daniel Kinahan

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In May, 185kg of the drug was found hidden inside a trailer at Belfast Port that had been about to board a ferry to Cairnryan in Scotland

The navy went on to fire warning shots at the MV Matthew - the first time it had done so since the 1980s.

At this point the Irish authorities decided to board the container vessel using elite soldiers from the Irish Army Ranger Wing, but due to a lack of specialist helicopters had to refit an air ambulance.

Messages from Captain Noah showed how confident he was that the Irish military would be unable to stop his associates.

'Guys, please listen to me. 'Til now there is no helicopter for you guys, no commando, nothing. OK, be confident,' he said.

The eventual seizure of the MV Matthew was a major success for the Irish state, with eight men convicted and jailed for a combined total of 129 years.

Yet vast amounts of cocaine continue to flow into Northern Ireland, with more than 13million seized so far this year. This total has risen by around 130 per cent each year since 2022.

In May, 185kg of the drug was found hidden inside a trailer at Belfast Port that had been about to board a ferry to Cairnryan in Scotland.

The haul, which had a street value of 18.5million, was described by the National Crime Agency as the largest in Northern Ireland's history.

The driver, 55-year-old Bulgarian Georgi Markov Panchukov, has been charged with drugs offences.
A British mother stranded in Turkey is pleading for help after her boyfriend was hospitalised in Antalya, stunning the couple with more than 17,000 in medical bills.

Courtney Lee, from Salford, told the Daily Mail that her boyfriend, Mark Snelgrove, was taken to the Lara Anatolia Hospital in Antalya after falling from an 'eight metre' wall and hitting the back of his head in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Miss Lee said the private hospital demanded 5,000 euro (4,333) within half an hour of them arriving, before Mr Snelgrove had even had his wound stapled. The fee would cover CT scans and the ambulance ride to hospital, she said.

The bill soon grew. Mr Snelgrove has been in hospital only since Sunday. But, without insurance, the private hospital presented a ludicrous fee of 15,000 euro (13,000) to cover his stay in the intensive care unit until Monday, Miss Lee said.

The figure does not cover the days to come, and Mr Snelgrove is expected to stay in hospital for 'up to three weeks', currently unfit to fly.

Miss Lee, a mother of three, gave birth just seven weeks ago and desperately needs to return home to her children. She also does not want to leave Mark languishing in an a hospital with fees mounting.

After what was began as a 'good holiday to get teeth done', the young mother recognises the easily made mistake in not taking out insurance.

But in a warning to all, she now finds herself navigating a terrifying situation, on her own, medical bills rising as she tries to work around the language barrier to ensure her partner is well looked after. She is appealing for help through GoFundMe to 'get Mark home'.

Courtney Lee (right) has stayed by Mark's (left) side while he undergoes treatment in Turkey

Courtney Lee and Mark Snelgrove had travelled to the resort city on Turkey's southern coast to 'get their teeth done' when the trip took a turn for the worse.

Mr Snelgrove was unconscious for 'about five minutes' after the fall, with Miss Lee fearing that he had died.

Her partner lay on the floor, 'blood pouring out of his head', as friends rallied to try to keep him talking and awake, Miss Lee said.

In a panic, they called on a local to help, who summoned police and an ambulance to take Mr Snelgrove to hospital.

The fees for the private hospital compounded quickly while her boyfriend was in intensive care. Miss Lee says this is 'one of the dearest places' on site.

'Me, myself, I don't feel like Mark needs to be there. But ... I don't know if they're refusing to take him down to the normal ward until we do pay this money.'

Mark was taken out of intensive care on Monday. But already they had been told they needed to pay 5,000 euro for the ambulance and CT scan, and a further 15,000 for the stay in the ICU.

She said after he was removed that they will continue to be charged each day, and anything staff do hence will be added to the bill.

'Mark mentioned they told him [he may have to stay] up to three weeks ... but it definitely won't be tomorrow. It's going to take time as it is bad,' she said on Monday.

Miss Lee is also trying to navigate an unfamiliar healthcare system in a foreign country on her partner's behalf without speaking the language. She fears they could take her 'for a fool'.

'Even the police said to me: "Do not pay nothing. Negotiate with them." Because they wanted 5,000 [euro] off me half an hour after I got ... to the hospital. He hadn't even had his staples at this point and they wanted five grand off us.

'That's when I thought, "Are they in it for the money?" I'm so glad Mark is awake, stable and can speak because ... God knows what the hell they would be doing to him.'

Mark was knocked out and taken to a hospital in Turkey, where he is receiving treatment

For now, Miss Lee is stuck, waiting for updates on her boyfriend's condition. Until Monday afternoon, Mr Snelgrove was being held in the ICU and rarely able to see his girlfriend.

She said the hospital was waiting for the results of a CT scan performed yesterday morning. The news was positive - that he could be moved out of the ICU - but now he requires a stent.

She said she fears the extent of his injuries could be 'life threatening'.

Miss Lee wisely turned to the British Embassy, who, she said, will contact the hospital to try to arrange a payment plan. She has been provided with a translator, but still struggles to be understood.

'The language barrier is so bad. I can't understand anything. [The hospital] is not telling me anything,' Miss Lee said.

She wrote on her fundraising page that she understands Mark suffered a bleed on the brain. 'Its stable its not actively bleeding but it is there.'

But information is desperately scarce as she tries to work out their next move.

'They are not actually showing proof of anything. They said they will give us a breakdown of prices once we have paid what we need to pay.

'They have given us a breakdown of prices, but they won't put it down on paper so I can have it myself until we have paid 15,000 euro.'

Mr Snelgrove is at the private hospital in Antalya city after falling and hitting his head

Turkey and the UK do not have reciprocal healthcare agreements, and the British government advises buying comprehensive travel and medical insurance before entering the country.

European Health Insurance Cards (EHICs) and Global Health Insurance Cards (GHICs) are not valid in Turkey.

British citizens are advised to check they have appropriate travel insurance for local treatment or unexpected medical evacuation.

Even travelling within Europe, a significant injury could cost travellers tens of thousands of pounds without insurance.

The Daily Mail contacted the Lara Anatolia Hospital for comment.
Gavin and Stacey star Ruth Jones has put her stunning house up for sale after her 25-year marriage came to an end.

The home she shared with TV executive David Peet, 72, has gone on the market for a tidy 1,150,000.

Jones, 58, famous for playing Nessa Jenkins in the much-loved BBC sitcom, split from Peet some time ago and they announced the separation earlier this year.

She once described the Edwardian property as 'my favourite place to be' and said the spacious kitchen was 'the best bit'.

But the couple have not been seen together at the imposing mock Tudor property in Penylan, Cardiff, for almost two years.

The furniture has been cleared out and what was once a cosy home is now an empty shell.

The pair bought the five-bedroomed semi in 2001 for 325,000 so stand to make a profit of 825,000.

They also shared a holiday home on the west coast of Scotland and owned a popular restaurant called Peet's in the village of Lochinver where Jones occasionally helped out.

Gavin and Stacey star Ruth Jones has put her stunning house up for sale after her 25-year marriage came to an end

Ruth Jones announced her 26-year marriage to David Peet is over, claiming they split and are now 'legally separated' (Ruth and David pictured)

Since the split, the Stella star has been living in London while Peet has moved to Vancouver, Canada, to be with his new love Jayne Charity Cook, 46.

Welsh actress Jones was stepmother to Peet's three children from his previous marriage and their relationship was thought to be rock solid.

But there were rumours of a split when friends noticed the Gavin and Stacey creator had stopped wearing her wedding ring.

It came as a bombshell when Canadian digital creator and mother-of-two Cook announced on social media she was in a relationship with millionaire Peet.

Jones and Peet issued a statement in June saying: 'We amicably went our separate ways 18 months ago and are now legally separated. We remain good friends.

The split had come as a surprise to Ruth's industry friends who believed their marriage was one of the safest in showbiz (pictured in May)

The furniture has been cleared out and what was once a cosy home is now an empty shell

'Since our separation, Ruth is living in London and David is living in Canada where he is in a new relationship.'

The break-up came just as the couple were about to celebrate their silver wedding anniversary.

Instead they ended up in the divorce courts with lawyers sorting out the financial split of their vast assets, including the marital home in Cardiff.

The three-storey property overlooking a park, has open fireplaces, Edwardian tiling and wooden floors.

But as Jones said, not long after buying the house, it's the spacious kitchen that has the wow factor, with a vaulted ceiling, granite island and black Aga.

The estate agent makes no mention of the property's famous owner but describes it as a 'handsome, three-storey bay-fronted Edwardian style residence, retaining charm and character, sympathetically extended, choice position overlooking Roath Park recreation fields.'

Ruths estranged husband David is dating a 46-year-old lookalike of the Gavin & Stacey star - who lives in a tiny village in British Columbia, Canada

BAFTA-winning Jones, also a best-selling author, threw herself into work during the marriage split and returned to writing with James Corden, co-creator of Gavin and Stacey.

Her iconic character Nessa finally married on-off lover Smithy, played by Corden, in the 2024 Christmas Special of Gavin & Stacey, watched by 12.3million viewers.

The episode, titled The Finale, was the last ever instalment of the comedy classic, which first aired in 2007.

Jones and Corden and the rest of the cast of the final episode are due to be reunited at the National Television Awards at London's O2 this week.
One Nation could be ruling federal parliament within 15 years, its party leader has boldly declared.

Senator Pauline Hanson has huge hopes for the party she co-founded, despite conceding she won't be in parliament long enough to see the plan come to fruition.

Support for One Nation is on the rise after the ultra-conservative minor party increased its numbers to four Senate seats at the May 3 election.

Hanson is no longer content with being the bridesmaid, fuelled by the Coalition walking away from its conservative values and Labor dividing voters over its policies.

'Australians are waking up and walking away from the major parties in growing numbers,' she posted online.

'One Nation's continued success isn't a protest vote. It's a movement. Grounded in common sense, national interest, and putting Australians first.

'I see a future where One Nation is the government of Australia, and that future starts now.

'Because One Nation isn't just here to keep the bastards honest. We're here to replace the bastards.'

Pauline Hanson says minor party One Nation could govern the country within 15 years

The One Nation leader (left) sees daughter Lee Hanson (right) as the future of the party

Hanson admitted that the thought of One Nation governing the country or a state government is at least 'three or four elections' away.

She will start by offering an alternative choice to voters disengaged by the major parties.

'Since I've been back in 2016, we've had 11 members across the country elected to parliament, so people are starting to wake up to One Nation,' she told Brisbane-based 4BC broadcaster Bill McDonald this week.

'The party I started is to represent Australia and the Australian people.

'I just need to put the policies out there to help people understand what we stand for and what we intend to do.

'It's about gaining the confidence of the Australian people to actually give their first preferences to One Nation and give us the opportunity.'

Senator Hanson, 71, plans to remain in politics for at least another six years before she considers retirement.

'I don't intend to leave in the near future. I will be running at the next election. How much longer after that, who knows,' she said.

Pauline Hanson was one of the few federal politicians to take part in the March for Australia anti-immigration rally last month

'You've got to be realistic and you have to consider your health. I've told my staff that if I ever become as bad as Joe Biden (former US President) to please tap me on the shoulder.

'But I won't move on until I know that the party is in good hands with people carrying on my legacy who keep fighting for the Australian people.'

Hanson singled out her daughter Lee and chief of staff James Ashby as potential future leaders of the party.

Lee Hanson ran for the Senate as the party's lead candidate for Tasmania at the May election and narrowly missed out on joining her mum in Canberra, despite a short campaign.

But neither Lee or Ashby will replace party senator Warwick Stacey, who recently resigned from parliament three months after the election due to health reasons.

'I want both of them on the floor of parliament - they're the future senators of this nation,' Hanson said.

'But I don't believe in nepotism. Just because Lee is my daughter doesn't mean to say she's going to be leading the party.

'It will be the person who I believe has the ability to be able to do it.'

Support is on the rise for One Nation and party leader Pauline Hanson

Hanson added that her daughter has a lot to learn and must earn her place on merit.

'She's only just come on board into politics this year, a month before the election,' she explained.

'She's got a lot to offer but she has to prove herself - not only to me but to the members of the party.'

Hanson's optimistic plans for One Nation have been inundated with widespread support from Aussies.

'Its no longer a two-horse race, we need a real alternative and you're it,' one wrote.

Many want it to happen sooner.

'Needs to be a hell of a lot quicker than 15 years,' one commented

Another added: 'Let's all make it happen. We've got nearly three years until the next federal election. Wake up people, this is the change we need.'
A court order prevents reporting of deeply disturbing details about New Zealand fugitive Tom Phillips and his children following the police shoot-out which ended his four years on the run.

New Zealand Police and the country's Ministry of Children, known as Oranga Tamaraki, are restrained from revealing the information due to a High Court injunction.

The injunction also prevents media publishing the same information by any means at least until the matter returns to court on Thursday at 2.15pm, New Zealand time.

The order was imposed by Justice Helen Cull on Monday night after an urgent application by lawyer Linda Clark, acting on behalf of Julia Phillips, the mother of Tom Phillips.

If the injunction is lifted, news organisations may be able to expose dark secrets about 38-year-old Phillips, who was shot dead by police on Monday morning.

Since Phillips was killed - after shooting a policeman - authorities have indicated they are unable to disclose significant details about the case and suggested there is much more to the story.

Oranga Tamariki regional commissioner Warwick Morehu was repeatedly asked about the three Phillips children at a press conference on Tuesday.

'I want to say I am constrained with the amount of information I can share,' Mr Morehu said.

A court order is preventing the reporting of disturbing details about New Zealand fugitive Tom Phillips and his children following the police shoot-out which ended his four years on the run

Tom Phillips's three children (L-R) Jayda, now 12, Maverick, 10, and Ember, 9, are in the care of New Zealand's Ministry of Children, known as Oranga Tamaraki

'The Family Court are actively managing this case and we will comply with the directions they give us.

'Now, I understand there is huge public interest in these tamariki (children) and their wellbeing but all I can ask is that we please give them some privacy. These are young tamariki.'

Police Commissioner Richard Chambers also declined to discuss some aspects of what investigators had discovered.

'As you'd understand, it is a highly sensitive matter and there will be more information that will come but we can't speak to all of it right now,' he told reporters.

New Zealand's Minister of Police, Mark Mitchell, said the Phillips siblings 'have seen and been exposed to things that children in our country should not be'.

'It's very complicated and it's very complex and it has been for quite some time,' Mr Mitchell said during the same press conference.

'There's things here that Warwick has already stated that we cannot legally talk about.

'But I just want to give everyone a sense that everyone is focused on caring for those children and that has been the approach that has been taken from day one when they first disappeared into the bush with their father.'

Hours after Phillips was shot dead police acting on directions provided by Jayda located Ember and Maverick at a campsite deep in bushland about 2km from where Phillips was killed

New Zealand police have released pictures of the last campsite Phillips used to hide his three children from authorities (above)

Phillips and his three children disappeared from the town of Marokopa in the rural Wakaito region of New Zealand's upper North Island in December 2021.

Daughters Jayda and Ember were aged eight and five respectively, while son Maverick was seven at the time.

Phillips had been separated from children's mother Catherine, known as Cat, for several years and until their disappearance were being home schooled.

Police believe the experienced bushman and hunter robbed a bank at Te Kuiti in May 2023 and in August that year he was seen in Hamilton and Te Rapa at two Bunnings stores.

Despite an NZ$80,000 reward and multiple search operations, Phillips managed to live in the wilderness with his children for almost four years without being caught.

The three siblings were not sighted together with their father until October 2024 when they were all spotted walking through Marokopa farmland. On that occasion Phillips had been armed.

Two weeks ago, on August 27, police released CCTV purportedly showing Phillips and one of his children trying to break into a store in the Waitomo district at Piopio.

Police were again alerted to Phillips's presence in Piopio when an alarm was triggered at a PPG Wrightson rural supply store about 2.30am on Monday. This time he was in the company of Jayda.

Phillips and Jayda took off on their quad bike, and were stopped by police road spikes about 30km away from the scene of a burglary

Ember, Maverick and Jayda are pictured with their mother Cat before their father took them on the run

Father and daughter fled the town on a quad bike which an hour after the burglary was stopped by road spikes deployed on Te Anga Road about 30km north of Piopio.

When Phillips shot a constable, who survived with critical injuries, another officer returned fire and killed the gunman.

Later on Monday police, acting on directions provided by Jayda, located Ember and Maverick at a campsite deep in bushland about 2km from where Phillips was killed.

Jayda, now 12, nine-year-old Ember and 10-year-old Maverick were taken into the care of Oranga Tamaraki.

Mr Morehu would not comment on when the children might be reunited with their mother.

'They're settled and that's all Ill say around the kids,' he said. 'They are settled, they are comfortable. They are together.

'They are doing well under the circumstances and engaging with the staff supporting them.'

Mr Morehu said that support would include 'clinical professionals' if required.

Phillips and his three children disappeared in December 2021 when daughters Jayda and Ember were aged eight and five respectively, while son Maverick was seven

'I want to assure you these tamariki will be provided with whatever help or assistance they may need for however long they may need it,' he said.

'Everyone is doing their very best to ensure that we can return them to some form of normal daily life.

'We don't know exactly what that looks like yet and how long that may take. We will be guided by these tamariki and what they need.'

Mr Chambers has insisted Phillips was no sort of folk hero, but rather a father who had put his children's lives in danger.

'For four years we have known that Mr Phillips has been armed, he's been dangerous and he's been motivated,' Mr Chambers said at Tuesday's press conference.

Mr Chambers also warned 'there's a long way to go in this investigation'.

'We have a significant number of interviews to do,' he said. 'Obviously, some of those involve young people, so that may take time.

'The number one priority for those children is their wellbeing, their safety.

'We will give them the privilege of that time but there will come a time where we need to talk to them and I have specialist staff who are very good at what they do in interviewing young children.

'That's part of the process. That will be part of helping put this big puzzle together but it will take some time for sure.'
Anthony Albanese has been slammed as 'embarrassing' after he dropped Gen Z slang during his second appearance on the Happy Hour podcast, just months after he was dared to use the word 'delulu' while addressing Parliament.

His interview with hosts Lucy Jackson and Nikki Westcott mixed light banter with a handful of serious moments, but largely steered clear of policy.

The women quizzed the prime minister on trending Gen Z slang, with Albanese correctly defining 'Do it for the plot,' 'Touch grass,' 'Pick me girl,' and 'It's giving'.

But not every term was familiar: 'IYKYK' ('If you know, you know') stumped the PM, who admitted he uses hashtags and emojis 'just to annoy my staff'.

The trio were then filmed bending down and touching grass at The Lodge in Canberra, before turning to the camera with an enthusiastic thumbs up.

Reaction to the interview was divided, with one viewer saying they were 'embarrassed for all involved here', but another remarking it was 'hilarious'.

'Supposed to be the prime minister of this country,' one person wrote.

'This is so embarrassing.'

Albanese (left) was filmed 'touching grass' outside the Lodge with the podcast duo (pictured)

Critics accused the hosts of lobbing soft questions and avoiding pressing issues such as the conflict in Gaza and the housing crisis.

'Imagine thinking you're doing your job well enough to have time to even contemplate doing this. Disgraceful,' one wrote.

'Did the girlies bother asking if Australia's leader condemns genocide as our supposed ally carries out the Palestinian Holocaust using Australian-made aircraft parts?' a second commented.

But others defended Lucy and Nikki for sticking to their brand.

'This is hilarious, the comment section is not it,' one supporter said, while another remarked: 'This friendship really was not on the bingo card'.

Another praised the PM for speaking to a podcast with a large female audience.

'Respect to you guys for this. And respect to him for wanting to connect to young Australian women,' they wrote.

Jackson and Westcott previously dared the prime minister to incorporate the term 'delulu' in Parliament, which he used in a speech before the election.

The prime minister also filmed a Legally Blonde-inspired TikTok with the podcast hosts

Lucky and Nikki (pictured) interviewed the Prime Minister earlier this year, before the election

'It was budget day, and I worked it in,' Albanese recalled.

'I said to the opposition, "You're Delulu with no Solulu".'

The only policy-adjacent discussion came when the hosts asked about the controversy surrounding the March for Australia on August 31.

Albanese said some attendees were concerned about housing, but the events were 'hijacked by neo-Nazis targeting the Indian community,' stressing that 'neo-Nazis have no place in Australia'.

Social media expert and Wonder Co. managing director Laura Dew said the trend of politicians appearing on popular podcasts can be strategic.

'Even traditional publications have generally leant one way or another politically, but now media is more fragmented and there's so many social platforms and niche accounts run by people who aren't trained journalists,' she said.

'There's more opportunity to find an interviewer that potentially won't challenge the politician like a well-trained journalist.'

Dew warned this could contribute to 'algorithmic polarisation' and echo chambers that 'don't help sway any swing voters it only reinforces the viewer's existing viewpoint'.

A transcript has not yet been published on the prime minister's media page, despite transcripts for other podcast interviews already being made available.
A lorry driver has been praised as 'an angel' and 'total hero' after he stopped his vehicle under a busy motorway bridge and climbed onto the roof to save a man from taking his life.

Dan Shillito, from Hull, East Yorkshire, was heading southwards on the M1 towards Derby on Saturday evening when he noticed information boards had flashed up a speed restriction and stated there had been an 'incident'.

But as he edged closer to the bridge at Palterton Lane in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, the Samskip driver saw 'a leg dangling over the bridge'.

Without hesitation, the 34-year-old called out to a police officer to ask if he could assist by pulling his truck under the bridge - and help save a man who was attempting to take his life.

The incident occurred just days before World Suicide Prevention Day, which is marked on Wednesday.

Footage taken by a driver caught in the motorway tailback just after 7pm shows Mr Shillito emerging from the cab of his lorry and climbing onto the vehicle's roof.

He can then be seen helping the man on the bridge above him, by holding his legs and feet until help arrived.

It is understood the man survived and has been recovering from his ordeal.

Lorry driver Dan Shillito has been praised as a 'total hero' after he stopped his vehicle under a busy motorway bridge and climbed onto the roof to save a man from taking his life. Pictured: Mr Shillito can be seen helping to hold the man up using his shoulders

The married father-of-two, who has been driving lorries for eight years, modestly said he 'just did what anyone else would do'

The incident happened on the bridge over the M1 at Palterton Lane in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, on Saturday evening (file pic)

Since it was posted onto social media, the video has garnered more than 5.3million views and thousands of comments with people praising the trucker for his 'heroic act'.

But the married father-of-two, who has been driving lorries for eight years, modestly said he 'just did what anyone else would do.'

Recalling the events of that night, Mr Shillito told Daily Mail: 'I was heading down the M1 to Donington Park Services, because I had a delivery for Bristol the next morning.

'I saw a notice board saying there was an incident and just presumed there had been an accident, but as I got closer I realised there weren't any cars involved and I couldn't understand what had happened.

'That's when I saw a traffic officer on the other side of the road jumping over the central reservation and waving at all the cars to stop.

'He walked over to the bridge - and that's when I saw a guy's leg hanging down.

'I just shouted out to the traffic officer to ask if he wanted me to pull my truck underneath the bridge to stop the man from falling on the ground.

'The officer moved a car and a trailer out of the way, and I pulled my truck underneath the bridge.

'I then got out to see what was going on and I just saw this guy off the bridge. There were three or four police officers all holding on to him.'

Dan Shillito, pictured with his wife Rikki and children Amelia and George, said he had been 'overwhelme' by hundreds of messages on social media thanking him for his

Mr Shillito recalled he was then asked by one of the police officers if he could get on the top of his truck to help the man.

'I got up there and went over to the guy. I put his feet on my shoulders to support him, so I was holding him up and held onto him for a few minutes.

'Eventually four police officers came onto the top of the truck and took over.'

Footage shows emergency service workers helping the man, who was taken to hospital for checking over before being sent home.

The heroic lorry driver said the impact of his actions did not fully hit him until the following days.

'I was quite focused on just doing what I needed to do. I wasn't panicking, I just saw what I could do to help, and did it all in the moment.

'It was only afterwards once everything had been done and I drove away that it sort of hit me. I felt this adrenaline.

'My only thought was to try to save the guy and make sure he doesn't fall.'

After the footage was posted onto social media, Mr Shillito said he received 'hundreds of messages' - including one from the man's son thanking him for saving his dad's life.

Dan's wife Rikki, with whom he shares children Amelia, 12, and George 2, also expressed how she was 'so proud' of her husband among the thousands of comments that have emerged on social media.

Others called Mr Shillito a 'beautiful human being', a 'guardian angel' and 'an absolute hero'.

'I've felt really overwhelmed,' he added. 'It's sinking in now, I'm realising what has actually taken place.

'It's a good feeling the fact I've managed to help someone, but obviously I feel for the guy involved as well. I just hope he continues to get better and ends up living a happy life.'

In a statement, Derbyshire Police confirmed that no-one was injured by the incident on Saturday.

A spokesperson said: 'We received a call concerning the welfare of a man on a bridge close to junction 29 of the M1 at about 6.30pm on Saturday 6 September.

'Officers were deployed to the scene and the man was led to safety with the help of a member of the public.

'No-one was injured and the man was taken to hospital to be checked over.

'A stretch of the motorway was closed while emergency services dealt with the incident and was later reopened.'

For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch, see www.samaritans.org for details
The leader of Glasgow council has warned of 'disastrous' consequences if thousands of refugees head to Scotland when Labour kicks them out of migrant hotels in England.

The SNP-run authority has long promoted Glasgow as a sanctuary city that welcomes everyone - reflecting the party's broader attempt to contrast its immigration stance to the 'cruel' policies enacted by Westminster.

But with services in Scotland's second city under strain following a record number of arrivals, it is now sounding the alarm and begging for more money from the British government.

Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken said the pressure could become unbearable due to Labour's decision to cut the amount of time migrants granted asylum can stay in official accommodation - including hotels - from 56 days to 28.

She believes this could prompt large numbers of refugees to head to Scotland due to its policy of guaranteeing everyone a legal right to housing. English councils are required only to house those in 'priority need', such as parents with children.

Glasgow hosts the highest number of asylum seekers per capita in the UK, with 4,023  the equivalent of 65 per 10,000 residents. It has also begun attracting homeless refugees from other UK cities including Belfast, Birmingham, and London.

The local authority has previously warned of a 110million shortfall in the money required for homelessness services over the next two years - prompting the Scottish Tories to insist the budget crisis is of the SNP's own making.

Over recent weeks, demonstrations have been held outside migrant hotels in Perth, Aberdeenshire and Falkirk.

A woman is restrained by police during a Glasgow protest that aimed to disrupt immigration officers

Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken has asked for money from the British government to help house asylum seekers and refugees

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The new system, which took effect on September 1, could see Glasgow face particular problems as a key migrant destination in the country.

Now council chiefs and homeless charities are demanding more support from government to avoid Scotland's housing emergency being made even worse by an influx of refugees.

Glasgow Council leader Susan Aitken criticised Labour's decision to halve the grace period successful refugees are given to find private housing to 28 days. It had previously stood at 28 days under the Tories before Labour doubled it in December in response to calls from refugee charities.

Ms Aitken criticised the U-turn, saying: 'This is a decision that reeks of panic and pandering.

'It's hard to see it being anything other than disastrous for refugees and for the communities trying to support them when the Home Office washes its hands.'

Sean Clerkin of the Scottish Tenants Organisation also said more support was needed for Glasgow.

He said: 'The British and Scottish Governments have got to make Glasgow a special case and give the city much more money to house everybody that needs a home including all refugees.

'The Home Office must also introduce a fairer dispersal system  where more refugees are sent to other council areas in Scotland  to take the pressure off Glasgow.'

Alex Fraser, British Red Cross spokesperson, hit out at the potential for thousands to be made homeless by the Home Office ruling.

Officials in Glasgow have previously warned of the 'unprecedented' strain caused by the rising number of asylum seekers presenting as homeless

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He said: 'Reducing the 'move-on' period will increase levels of homelessness and destitution for people granted protection and put additional pressure on local authorities.

Yesterday, the Scottish Conservatives accused Scottish First Minister John Swinney of 'burying his head in the sand' over the asylum crisis.

Last week, Mr Swinney said he wanted more migration, proclaiming: 'Our saltire is a flag of welcome  and refugees are welcome here.'

But Tory MSP Craig Hoy claimed the SNP push for greater immigration would lead to more asylum seekers - and more pressure on housing and local services.

He said: 'If illegal immigrants are going to the front of the queue for accommodation, it's inevitable this will cause resentment among both long-term Glasgow residents and legal migrants who are stuck on lengthy waiting lists for social housing.'

Calling on the Scottish and UK governments to work together, he said: 'The SNP's open-door attitude towards illegal immigrants is only helping criminal gangs who make their fortune by preying on desperate individuals. John Swinney is in denial about the scale of this crisis. He is burying his head in the sand.'

His words came as new Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood yesterday said the UK could suspend visas for countries that refuse to take back migrants as she vowed to do 'whatever it takes' to stop boat crossings.

Although immigration is a UK issue, many services for refugees and asylum seekers are devolved, including health, education and homeless accommodation.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood - pictured yesterday with US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem - said the UK could suspend visas for countries that refuse to take back migrants

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Yesterday, Shabana Mahmood warned that the UK could suspend visas for countries that refuse to take back migrants as she vowed to do 'whatever it takes' to stop boat crossings.

The Home Secretary said countries that refuse to 'play ball' and take back migrants could face curtailed access to visas.

She announced she had 'reached an agreement' with her counterparts from the 'Five Eyes' intelligence-sharing alliance to boost the return of foreign nationals who 'have no legal basis to remain in any of the partner countries'.

However, it later emerged that restrictions on visas would be imposed only by Britain  and not by the US and other major economies which signed the deal.

The Home Office said the deal would lead to 'much closer working' but was unable to say what it would mean in practice. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp accused Ms Mahmood of 'shameless spin in her first week on the job'.

Any visa restrictions imposed would, in theory, mean people seeking to travel here legally could be denied entry if their governments fail to cooperate with deportations from Britain.

Pakistan, India, Iraq, Somalia, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Gabon are thought to be among countries who often refuse to accept their citizens back from the UK.

But there is a possibility that targeted countries could respond with tit-for-tat measures, with implications for trade deals and for universities unable to recruit as many foreign students.
Lord Mandelson faced intense pressure last night over excruciating messages to 'my best pal' Jeffrey Epstein.

Britain's ambassador to Washington hailed his love for the disgraced financier as he sent photos of himself topless and wearing a fluffy white dressing gown, it emerged.

Downing Street and Cabinet ministers shrugged off questions about Lord Mandelson's judgment after US politicians released his holiday snaps from a visit in around 2002 to Epstein's Caribbean island  dubbed 'orgy island' by one of his sex slaves.

Critics questioned whether his position remained tenable, just a week before the crucial state visit by US President Donald Trump to the UK in which Lord Mandelson plays a key role.

The Labour peer has expressed his 'regret' for ever having met Epstein  who affectionately nicknamed him 'Petie'.

However, the full depth of their relationship has never been revealed.

On Monday night, Democrats in Congress released a ten-page greeting handwritten by Lord Mandelson as part of a 238-page photobook compiled for Epstein's 50th birthday in 2003 by his on-off girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.

The 'birthday book' features lewd messages from friends and associates of the billionaire US paedophile, apparently including Bill Clinton, Mr Trump  who claims it is fake  and an unnamed bikini-clad 'assistant' of Epstein who claims she met Prince Andrew and sat on the Queen's throne in Buckingham Palace.

Lord Mandelson - who once infamously declared himself 'intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich' - in a fluffy white dressing gown enjoying a chat with Jeffrey Epstein

Lord Mandelson gazing out of a balcony window in what appears to be Epstein's house on his private island in the Caribbean

Mandelson's message in the 'birthday book' compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell said Epstein was 'my best pal!'

Lord Mandelson's contribution weaves tributes to Epstein as a 'mysterious' and 'intelligent, sharp-witted man' into a lyrical picture story set over ten pages.

The photos are Lord Mandelson's holiday snaps, believed to be from a 2002 visit to Little St James, Epstein's private island, which was later dubbed 'paedo island'.

One image shows Lord Mandelson wearing just swimming shorts and gazing from a balcony, with the description that 'you would spend many hours just waiting for him [Epstein] to turn up'.

Another shows a smiling Lord Mandelson in a fluffy dressing gown chatting to his host beneath a handwritten declaration that, 'Wherever he is in the world, he remains my best pal!' On the last page, he writes: 'Happy birthday Jeffrey  we love you!!'

There is no suggestion that he was aware of any of Epstein's crimes.

The birthday greeting was penned five years before Epstein's conviction in 2008 for soliciting underage sex, although he has not denied staying at Epstein's Manhattan mansion the following year after his release from prison.

Epstein was found dead in his US cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex-trafficking children.

Last night, the Labour grandee  who once said he was 'intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich as long as they pay their taxes'  faced renewed scrutiny over his closeness to the financier, who was accused of molesting hundreds of teenage girls.

Lord Mandelson, 71, will play a significant part in next week's state visit by Mr Trump, including as a VIP guest at the white-tie state banquet being held in St George's Hall in Windsor Castle.

Lord Mandelson with Jeffrey Epstein on December 12, 2005, where he is seen trying on a belt during a visit to a boutique in the Caribbean

Mandelson and a friend enjoy a boat ride together as guests of Epstein

Lord Mandelson, who was appointed by Sir Keir Starmer as Britain's Ambassador to the US, is pictured here with Donald Trump in the Oval Office in May 2025

His job will be to smooth any diplomatic ripples to ensure King Charles and Queen Camilla can host the perfect event when they welcome Mr Trump and his wife, Melania, to Windsor Castle between September 17 and 19.

Epstein victims have called for Lord Mandelson to be sacked.

Former 'sex slave' Sarah Ransome, 41, said that 'something is really, really wrong here'.

She told The Telegraph: 'Peter Mandelson should not be ambassador. He needs to be fired.

'He is unsuitable to be ambassador. Keir Starmer must have known all this.

'Everybody knew about Peter Mandelson's close friendship with Epstein.'

Spencer Kuvin, a lawyer who represented nine of Epstein's victims, said: 'By allowing someone with clear ties to one of the worst sex abusers of our time to be ambassador is an insult to the victims of Epstein.

'This man should be questioned by the FBI and the UK Government immediately to find out what he knows.'

Nazir Afzal, the former chief prosecutor for north-west England, said: 'The most I've written in a birthday card to another man is probably "Happy Birthday Son".

'Mandelson writes poetry to [Epstein] with whom he stayed after conviction. Now he's ambassador to the government of another of Epstein's chums! A "regret" isn't enough, I'm afraid.'

Craig Murray, a former British ambassador to authoritarian Uzbekistan, posted the photo of the two men and remarked: 'Peter Mandelson, now Starmer's ambassador to the USA, with Jeffrey Epstein.

'I was sacked as ambassador for opposing torture and illegal rendition. The world of power is a dark place indeed.'

A woman listed as a former assistant of paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein wrote of meeting the Duke of York and visiting the private quarters of Buckingham Palace

The unidentified woman wrote Epstein transformed her life from a hotel hostess

She told how she visited Buckingham Palace and sat on the Queen's throne

A birthday letter that US President Donald Trump allegedly wrote to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. He denies its veracity

The White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt has described the story as 'fake news'

Sir Keir Starmer has 'full confidence' in Lord Mandelson, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said yesterday.

And Health Secretary Wes Streeting told LBC: 'The ambassador has been clear that he regrets ever having been introduced to Epstein  and who can blame him? Who would want to be associated with Epstein given what we know now about the horrific crimes he perpetrated? I don't think we should tar everyone as kind of guilty by association.'

In the 2003 birthday message, Lord Mandelson wrote about Epstein's 'glorious homes he likes to share with his friends (yum yum)', alongside a photo of Little St James, the idyllic island in the Caribbean which it later emerged had been a place where schoolchildren were molested.

Fringed by coral reefs, it served as Epstein's lair and was allegedly the 'perfect hideaway and haven for trafficking young women and underage girls for sexual servitude, child abuse and sexual assault', according to a lawsuit brought by the Virgin Islands against Epstein's estate in 2020.

Among those allegedly trafficked to the beauty spot was Epstein's 17-year-old sex slave Virginia Roberts, who labelled it 'orgy island' and said she was sexually assaulted there by Prince Andrew, which he has always vehemently denied.

Ms Roberts  later Virginia Giuffre  spoke about seeing countless women and girls on Little St James, claiming she was 'passed around like a platter of fruit' to Epstein's powerful friends between 2000 and 2002 at a number of locations.

There is no suggestion that her visits to the island coincided with Lord Mandelson's. In 2002 he was a Labour MP, having resigned from Tony Blair's Cabinet.

In one of the peer's photos, he is pictured on the island with two women  their faces obscured  being served breakfast by one of them. She identified herself yesterday as Cathy Alexander, 70, Epstein's former housekeeper.

She told The Telegraph she believed the other woman, wearing a white vest and black bikini bottoms, was Maxwell.

Peter's photo casebook - Lord Mandelson's 10-page birthday greeting to Epstein:

The first page of Lord Mandelson's 10-page birthday greeting to Jeffrey Epstein hails him as 'mysterious'

On the second page, a topless Lord Mandelson wearing swimming shorts gazes out of a balcony, captioned: '...waiting for him to turn up'

The story continues on page 3 of the letter

Page 4: In one photo Mandelson is stood next to two females, one wearing a white vest and black underwear. Above, he writes that Epstein would leave 'you with some 'interesting' friends to entertain'

Page 5 of the letter: reminiscing about dogs on the island

Page 6: how Epstein would 'parachute back in' to your life

Page 7: surprise whiskey reference

Page 8: apparently a holiday snap taken by Mandelson of Epstein's Caribbean island

Page 9: Mandelson captioned this grinning photo of himself with Epstein and said he was 'my best pal!'

Page 10: the final page of the letter, a happy snap of Mandelson with a friend, believed to be his long-term partner Reinaldo Avila da Silva

Lord Mandelson's handwritten caption on the photo states that Epstein would go away and leave 'you with some 'interesting' friends to entertain'.

Mrs Alexander said Lord Mandelson stayed there for a week with his partner Reinaldo Avila da Silva, 53, whom he married two years ago.

She recalled him as a 'gentleman' and 'a very nice guy'. The housekeeper said she had never seen anything untoward during her time looking after Epstein.

Maxwell, 63, is serving 20 years in jail for recruiting young girls for Epstein to sexually abuse.

According to a court document filed in 2023, Epstein and Lord Mandelson had 'a particularly close friendship'. A photo, thought to be from 2005, showed Lord Mandelson wearing a 21,000 Patek Philippe watch with Epstein in the US Virgin Islands.

By then Epstein was under police investigation over multiple allegations of sexually assaulting schoolgirls. There is no suggestion that Lord Mandelson, then on a taxpayer-funded 200,000 salary as EU trade commissioner, knew anything of the accusations.

For years, Epstein entertained an A-list roster of guests on his island, including Naomi Campbell and Kevin Spacey. Ex-US president Mr Clinton denies being a visitor, and all deny wrongdoing.

Mr Trump  who once told New York Magazine that Epstein 'likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side'  has played down his association with the financier.

Another drawing in the birthday book depicts a young Epstein enticing schoolgirls with balloons and lollipops, in 1983, and an older Epstein being massaged by topless women

Bill Clinton's 50th birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein praising his 'childlike curiosity' is seen for the first time

Jeffery Epstein's estate on Little St James Island in the US Virgin Islands. The disgraced financier also owned nearby Great St James island

An aerial view of Epstein's 74-acre Little St James Island in the US Virgin Islands

Prince Andrew during his infamous BBC Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis

An undated photo issued by the US Department of Justice of British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell with American financier Jeffrey Epstein

Virginia Roberts holds a photo of herself at age 16, when she says Epstein began abusing her sexually

In the 'birthday book', there is a bawdy sketch allegedly signed by Mr Trump showing a woman's body with the line: 'Happy Birthday  and may every day be another wonderful secret'. The White House says it is 'fake news'.

Mr Clinton's birthday message praised Epstein's 'childlike curiosity'. Mr Clinton has long maintained he did not know of the allegations against Epstein.

Another drawing in the birthday book depicts a young Epstein enticing schoolgirls with balloons and lollipops, and an older Epstein being massaged by topless women, while a jet  presumably the billionaire's infamous 'Lolita Express'  flies over his mansion.

Lord Mandelson's office, the British embassy in Washington and the Foreign Office in London were asked to comment yesterday.
The knifeman who allegedly killed Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska has spoken for the first time from jail in a harrowing phone call recorded by his sister.

Decarlos Brown, 34, was seen in surveillance footage lunging at Zarutska, 23, from behind as she sat scrolling on her phone on a train through Charlotte on August 22.

The disturbing video has sparked widespread grief, anger, and questions about public safety in the Democrat-led city as the nation comes to terms with the horror.

Now, his sister Tracey Brown, 33, has shared shocking audio with the Daily Mail of a phone call she had with Brown six days after he was arrested, where he explained what was going through his mind when he launched the bloody attack.

The 34-year-old, who is schizophrenic, can be heard telling Tracey he believed the government had planted foreign 'materials' into his brain and they had been in control of his actions when he pulled the knife on Iryna.

In the audio recording from the afternoon of August 28, Brown said: 'I hurt my hand, stabbing her. I don't even know the lady.

'I never said not one word to the lady at all. That's scary, ain't it. Why would somebody stab somebody for no reason?'

He added he wanted police to 'investigate' the 'materials' which were 'controlling' him, while referring to the attacker in third person.

The knifeman who allegedly killed Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska has spoken for the first time from jail in a harrowing phone call recorded by his sister

Decarlos Brown Jr., who police say killed Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska has said he targeted the 23-year-old girl because he believed she was reading his mind, according to his sister Tracey Brown who visited him in jail after the stabbing. Pictured: Decarlos and Tracey

Decarlos's younger sister Tracey has revealed that she visited him in jail last week, and they shared an emotional conversation through a glass window

Horrific footage captured the moment Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, 23, was stabbed to death from behind as she sat on a train in North Carolina

'Out of all people, why her?' Tracey asked her brother. 'She's from the Ukraine, she's from Russia, and they had a war going on against the United States, so I'm just trying to understand, of all people, why her?'

'They just lashed out on her, that's what happened,' Decarlos replied. 'Whoever was working the materials they lashed out on her. That's all there is to it.

'Now they really gotta investigate what my body was exposed to... Now they gotta do an investigation as to who was the motive behind what happened.'

Tracey, who lives in Charlotte and works as an Amazon delivery associate, also asked her brother where he was heading on the fateful train journey.

'I was going downtown to the hospital to tell them that I'm trying to get rid of the material to stop going crazy,' Brown replied.

Speaking with the Daily Mail on Tuesday, Tracey said she also visited her brother in Mecklenburg County Jail last week, and they spoke through a glass window.

Now face-to-face, Tracey again asked him why he targeted Zarutska, and he told her that it was because he believed she was 'reading his mind'.

During a long and candid phone call with the Daily Mail, Tracey described how Brown went from being her 'protective' older brother to an alleged killer who believed the government was controlling his brain.

Tracey also said she 'strongly' believes he should not have been on the streets, and recounted the missed opportunities North Carolina state officials had to remove him.

Iryna Zarutska's heartbroken family said that she had only recently arrived in the US 'seeking safety from the war and hoping for a new beginning' before the random slaughter

Tracey said that her brother believed the government was controlling his brain via a microchip they had inserted while he was sleeping, and that Iryna was part of this conspiracy

She said Brown had tried to get admitted to hospital several times over the past few years as his mental health deteriorated to breaking point, but medics kept discharging him after just 24 hours.

'I strongly feel like he should not have been on the streets at all,' Tracey said.

'I'm going to be honest. I'm not blaming anyone for his actions, except for the state. I'm blaming the state for letting him down as far as seeking help.

'When you have mentally ill people seeking help, and you're running tests on them, and you clearly see that you are dealing with a psychosis on an acute level, you do not let them go back into society.

'He was a high risk. He was not in his right mind. He was not safe for society.'

'We know what he has been dealing with the last three years,' she added. 'And now an innocent woman is dead.

'He was asking and crying for help, and no-one heard him or took him seriously. He reached a level of his mental illness that caused him to commit a heinous crime.'

Brown also dialed 911 several times, and told cops directly that he believed his brain was being controlled by a microchip.

The latest recorded incidence of this was January 19, when he was arrested for 'misuse of the 911 system' after he called the emergency number while police were conducting a welfare check on him.

The sickening stabbing unfolded on August 22, soon after Iryna Zarutska, 23, boarded a South End light rail train in Charlotte, North Carolina

Zarutska's family called her death 'an irreparable loss'

Brown has spent most of his life in and out of prison. He served five years in prison for a 2014 armed robbery and was released in September 2020 - when he quickly resumed a life of crime

During the ordeal, Brown told police he thought 'man made' materials were inside his body controlling his movements.

'Brown wanted officers to investigate this 'man-made' material that was inside of his body,' the arrest affidavit reads.

'Officers advised Brown that the issue was medical issue and that there was nothing further they could do.'

This response sent Brown into a rage, and he called 911. Officers arrested him and charged him with a misdemeanor.

'He was seeking help,' Tracey said. 'He called 911 multiple times. Instead of talking to him they thought charging him was going to help.'

Another opportunity to take Brown off the streets came when Magistrate Judge Teresa Stokes was told about the case at a hearing on January 21, but she granted him cashless bail on a 'written promise' that he would return to court.

Tracey said the judge ordered a psychiatric test for him through the courts, but 'they pushed it back for a year and a half'.

She told the Daily Mail her brother first went to prison for armed robbery in 2016, and when he was released six years later he was a 'completely different person'.

'When he came home, he was not the same brother that I remember,' she said.

'He used to be quiet and self-reserved. But he wasn't that brother any more. He was still quiet, but he seemed like he was out of sorts.

'He seemed like he was not in our reality any more. He seemed distant every time I spoke with him. I think being incarcerated caused some kind of trauma.

'I could tell that he was still trying to talk like himself, but there was something there. It started coming out more and more.'

Brown, 34, allegedly stabbed Zarutska to death at South End light rail station in Charlotte, North Carolina

Tracey said that along with Decarlos, her twin brother, aged 33, and their younger sister, 21, also had to deal with physical abuse from her mother's ex-husband

Tracey Brown, 33, described how Decarlos went from being her 'protective' older brother to a cold-blooded killer who believed the government was controlling his brain

'Every once in a while, he would bring up the microchip, and he would say 'did you see that', and just stop talking and stare out in space somewhere,' she added.

'He thought that I was in on it or that my mother was in on it.'

Brown had also been arrested for violent crimes before - including assaulting Tracey in her home shortly after his release from prison in 2022.

'It started with us arguing about cleaning the house,' Tracey told the Daily Mail.

'I had never had bugs, and I asked him to keep his room a little more clean. He would leave food in his room.

'We went back and forth about that and it just kind of went from there. He flipped out. He bit my hand and I kicked him out.

'He knocked the hinges off the door trying to get back in.'

Tracey said she reported the incident to police, but later dropped the charges because she could not bear to take legal action against her own brother.

'I dropped the charges because I understand him on a deeper level, because I was trying to put myself in his shoes,' she said.

'I understood what he was going through and I knew that he just needed to talk about it.'

'I blame myself because I feel like I gave up on him as for kicking him out of the house,' she added.

'I feel like I did everything I could, but if I had known that it was deeper that what I thought I beat myself up about it. I wish I could have seen how serious this was.'

Tracey said she also blames their mother. She said she and Brown were removed from the care of their parents and spent most of their childhood in foster care homes.

During that time, she was separated from Brown but they still remained 'close' emotionally.

Iryna fled her home country of Ukraine to the United States in 2022 'seeking safety from the war', her family said on a GoFundMe page

Before moving to the US, Iryna graduated from Synergy College in Kyiv with a degree in Art and Restoration

Iryna's family said she had been 'hoping for a new beginning' when she came to Charlotte. She posted a photo (shown above) of the city's skyline on Facebook nine days before she died

Meanwhile, Iryna's family has paid tribute to her as a 'gifted and passionate artist' who had a 'vibrant spirit' and 'a deep love for animals'.

The 23-year-old emigrated from Ukraine with her mother, sister, and brother to escape the war, and she 'quickly embraced her new life in the United States,' her family wrote in an obituary.

They also said she had managed to become fluent in English 'within a very short time', and was 'hoping for a new beginning' when she came to Charlotte.

Iryna posted a photograph of the high rises which punctuate the North Carolina city's skyline on Facebook just nine days before she died.

The image appears to have been taken through the window of a train like the one she boarded on her final day.

Her family said that before starting her new life in the US, Iryna graduated from Synergy College in Kyiv with a degree in Art and Restoration.

'She shared her creativity generously, gifting family and friends with her artwork,' they said.

'She loved sculpting and designing unique, eclectic clothing that reflected her vibrant spirit.'

'Though she enjoyed adventures, sightseeing, and exploring new places with her close friends, Iryna was also a homebody at heart, happiest when surrounded by family and loved ones,' her traumatized family added.

'Her mother lovingly recalls her ability to sleep for wonderfully long stretchessomething she affectionately called an 'artist's gift.''

Iryna's family added that she had 'a deep love for animals' and dreamed of becoming a veterinary assistant.

'She often cared for her neighbors' pets, and many fondly remember seeing her walking them through the neighborhood, always with her radiant smile,' they said.

Iryna's family has paid tribute to her as a 'gifted and passionate artist' who had a 'vibrant spirit' and 'a deep love for animals'

In the meantime, Iryna was working at Zepeddie's pizzeria in south Charlotte to pay the bills, while learning to drive to secure her independence.

The surveillance footage of her final moments on August 22 shows her wearing her unassuming work uniform - long pants with a black t-shirt and cap branded with the Zepeddie's logo.

She had been riding back from the restaurant just before 10pm that day when Decarlos lunged at her from behind with a knife, ending her life in a matter of moments.

Footage showed the moment Decarlos struck, before skipping the graphic slaughter to show him carrying a knife dripping with blood as he walked through the train carriage and another passenger sprinted away.

He is being held at Mecklenburg County Jail ahead of a court hearing later this month.
Families living in a historical village have been left furious amid fresh plans to house migrants at the former Dambusters base.

The iconic World War II mission to destroy German dams with 'bouncing bombs' was launched at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire in 1943 and changed the course of the war.

But the pivotal base has now been touted once again as a detention centre for asylum seekers, as the Labour government aims to stop using hotels as accommodation for those arriving, following major backlash across the country.

It was previously part of a 50m Conservative plan to house 2,000 migrants at the site - later reduced to 800 - which was eventually scrapped by Labour in 2024 as it did not provide 'value for money'.

And as Prime Minister Keir Starmer struggles to get a grip on the migrant crisis, defence minister Luke Pollard confirmed this week that accommodation centres could be set up on Ministry of Defence land, including potentially Scampton.

Locals have, in turn, vowed to defeat the plans once and for all, fearing the picturesque village will become swamped by asylum seekers.

Steve Plews, landlord of Scampton's only pub, The Dambuster's Arms, said: 'They spent 62 million up there last year. They said it had to be "liveable" for the asylum seekers.

'But it was alright for our lads to live there when it was an RAF base.'

Families living in historical Scampton have been left furious amid fresh plans to house migrants at the former Dambusters base, pictured

He added that it was just as well the village had kept its Save Our Scampton flags up from the previous battle over the base's future.

There were hopes that the Conservatives' plans being shelved would clear the way for the site to become a centre for aviation history, boasting a hotel and top-flight attractions such as the Red Arrows, but these are now under threat.

'I cannot say we are surprised though,' Mr Plews said. 'It is a typical Labour U-turn. They could not lie straight in bed.

'The fight starts again - even though we thought we had won it.'

Nodding in agreement, ex-RAF man Andy Pickett, 63, was nursing a pint of Dambuster Pilsner while admiring the pub's collection of memorabilia to the raid.

The local, who spent 37 years in the air force and seven more as a consultant engineer to the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, said: 'I don't think it is financially viable.

'The politicians are being poorly advised by the civil servants who wrongly assumed because it was an operational RAF base until two years ago that the buildings are still structurally sound, and they are not.

'Only 10 per cent of the estate was utilised by the RAF. Thirty years ago the camp was shut. The officers mess and most of the barracks blocks were boarded up.

The pivotal World War II base has now been touted once again as a potential place for asylum seekers to stay

'Internally, the ceilings have collapsed and asbestos has been exposed. To bring those buildings back into use would cost an absolute fortune.'

In his announcement this week, Mr Pollard said MoD military planners were now reviewing all sites including Scampton as part of a new government push to close down migrant hotels.

He said: 'The Home Office has... decided against accommodation that the Ministry of Defence offered in the past. But were looking at all of them again at the moment.

'The Prime Minister wants all asylum hotels closed, as do I, as does the British public.

'And by standing up temporary accommodation on those sites, we can support the closure of those asylum hotels even faster.'

Mr Pollard added: 'We've deployed a military planning team into Border Security Command and the Home Office to look at military and non-military sites, about where we can help build temporary but adequate accommodation that enables us to transfer those folks from asylum hotels into that temporary accommodation so we can close even more hotels.'

Edy Hammonds, originally from South America, has lived in Scampton for 38 years.

He said: 'I suppose I am an immigrant myself. But I have lived here longer than my own country.

'As soon as I heard the news I thought "It can't be true. We are not going to have start all over again for goodness sake".

'I cannot see it happening but they are going to have a lot of trouble because we will fight even harder this time. I will fight.

'I hope it doesn't happen. We went through a stage last year when people were not coming into the village and we were scared to walk the dogs near the air base.

'The whole thing is ridiculous.'

In August it was revealed that the previous failed effort to use Scampton as accommodation for migrants had cost the Home Office at least 48m.

It was previously part of a 50m Conservative plan to house 2,000 migrants at the site - later reduced to 800 - which was eventually scrapped by Labour in 2024

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson did not rule out revisiting these plans and said the department would issue an update when a final decision had been made.

Pete Sherwood, 62, said: 'It is Labour going back on their word again as soon as they got back into Government.

'All the MPs need to do is send the migrants back as soon as their boats land.

'I do not agree with this at all, especially if they are talking about thousands in there.

'They are going to get bussed into Lincoln and Lincoln will be affected quite a lot. People will just stop going out because they have seen what has happened down in Essex.'

Fury down in Epping, Essex grew after the Home Office won an appeal against the closure of their local migrant hotel - the Bell.

The Court of Appeal set aside an injunction granted earlier this month which would have stopped 138 asylum seekers from being housed at the hotel beyond September 12.

Lawyers for then Home Secretary Yvette Cooper had argued that shutting the hotel would set a 'dangerous precedent' that would have encouraged similar litigation by other councils.

Locals have, in turn, vowed to defeat the plans once and for all, fearing the picturesque village will become swamped by asylum seekers

The decision enraged Essex locals who have been protesting outside the hotel for weeks. Last week, they took to the streets as well as those further afield in Chichester, Cheshunt and Bournemouth taking part in anti-immigration demos.

Visiting Scampton from nearby Lincoln, Mark Jauncey, 35, said: 'I am surprised this has all come back again. It will affect the whole area if this goes ahead.

'It won't be just this village that is affected. But the publicity worked last time so I suspect the locals will be all out protesting again.'

As a life-long engineer villager Colin Wilson, 79, reckoned the whole scheme would be doomed before any work even started.

He said: 'It has proved a bad idea in the past. They invested all that money last year when they rushed into this without knowing what they are doing.

'I would imagine the land is contaminated, there is not adequate sewage, water or drainage systems. They went into it half-a***d in the first place.

'I have been in engineering and construction all my life. I know all about c**k ups and this is set to be a major c**k up.

'The whole subject of immigration is a disaster. The old buildings are full of asbestos and would cost a fortune to put right.'

There were hopes that the Conservatives' plans being shelved would clear the way for the site to become a centre for aviation history

Mr Wilson added that an influx of asylum seekers would lead to disruption in the sleepy village.

'If it does go ahead, crime will go up,' he said. 'I understand they are coming from poverty as economic migrants.

'I have worked in the Middle East and have seen poverty so of course it looks better over here.'

Steve Hanks, 47, had built two houses for sale in the village when the bomb shell announcement was originally made last year.

He said: 'It has caused me all sorts of problems already. When it was announced, all the viewings I had and the interest was killed off overnight.

'Using the base is not even a solution. It is just pushing the problem further down the road.'

Meanwhile, Tom said: 'It is not good for the peope who live around here. Everyone thought this idea was done and dusted but now we have this U-turn.

'There is nothing here for any of them to do. We have not even got a shop. There is a pub and that is it. It will affect some people's house prices too.

In an announcement, defence minister Luke Pollard said MoD planners were now reviewing all sites including Scampton as part of a new government push to close down migrant hotels

'I know they have got a lot of people coming in and they have to put them somewhere. But it always has to be in the neighbourhood of someone not making the decisions.

'They would not put them in Keir Starmer's back yard.'

Gainsborough MP Sir Edward Leigh previously argued that Scampton should not be considered as an option to house migrants.

A Home Office spokesperson said: 'We have committed to close all asylum hotels and to achieve this, we will look at a range of cheaper, more appropriate sites like disused accommodation, industrial and ex-military sites so that we can reduce the impact on communities.

'We are working closely with local authorities, property partners and across-government so that we can accelerate delivery and more detail will be set out in due course.'

Sally Grindrod-Smith, Director of Planning, Regeneration and Communities at the council said: 'West Lindsey District Council remains clear in our position that RAF Scampton is wholly unsuitable as a site for asylum accommodation.

'The location presents significant challenges, including the protection of nationally important heritage, the limitations of local rural infrastructure, unresolved contamination issues, and the sheer scale of disruption such a proposal would cause to our communities.'

'The Home Office officially abandoned its plans for the site a year ago this month, acknowledging its unsuitability and being found not being value for money.

'Sally explained that should any future proposals be revisited, the Council will continue to insist on full transparency, robust planning scrutiny, and meaningful consultation with residents.

She added: 'Working with our Development Partner Sampton Holdings Limited, we are committed to securing a positive future for RAF Scampton. We have already submitted an Expression of Interest to acquire the site and remain ready to deliver our ambitious 300 million regeneration plan.

'This plan would protect the sites heritage, create jobs, attract investment, and provide long-term benefits for West Lindsey and beyond. RAF Scamptons future is too important to be jeopardised by short-term or unsuitable proposals.'
Guzman y Gomez is trading near record lows, with industry experts blaming the nosedive on the fast-food chain's decision to expand into the saturated US market.

The company was founded in 2006 by New York entrepreneurs Steven Marks and Robert Hazan, who opened their first restaurant in Sydney's inner-west suburb of Newtown.

Guzman y Gomez listed on the Australian share market in June last year, and the share price shot up from $22 to $43 in a few months.

Despite a strong debut, the Mexican fast-food chain was trading at around $24 on Tuesday.

Caldera House principal Gigi Penna said the company appears to be facing growing pains.

'This was a super-hot IPO. Its listing price was $22, it surged to $45, and today it's trading back around $25,' she said.

'The IPO pitch was all about raising capital to expand into global markets, particularly the US. But I believe their US expansion just isn't going well.'

Ms Penna questioned whether the slump reflected broader market uncertainty or waning consumer interest.

Guzman y Gomez co-founder Steven Marks (pictured) was upbeat about the company's performance amid concerns its US expansion isn't going well

Caldera House principal Gigi Penna said the company appears to be facing growing pains

'Is this more about a jittery market, or have people simply gone off burritos and lost faith in the brand?'

Online commentary has been harsh, with some likening Guzman y Gomez's US ambitions to Sushi Hub trying to crack the Japanese market - a comparison that underscores scepticism about the brand's international strategy.

'G &G will get crushed in the US,' one said.

'Only reason it does well in Australia is due to the absolute lack of competition and authentic Mexican food.'

'Why did they think the USA would like GYG?' another said.

'It's absolutely awful Mexican food. The only reason it does well here is because most Aussies haven't ever had proper Mexican.'

Others agreed the company faced steep competition in the US, where authentic Mexican food is widely available.

'Even the corner block food trucks are unreal over there,' one commenter said.

The company's global network now includes 256 restaurants, with just under 100 in Australia, with moves to open more stores that operate 24/7

'I remember stopping on the street and getting a burrito for like $4. It was the best thing I ever had.'

Another added: 'Slight arrogance launching sub-standard Mexican in one of the best Mexican street food nations.'

Some argued the once-hot stock remains overvalued at $24.

'The IPO had massive shortcomings, yet people still invested. It's probably still overvalued,' one said.

The criticism follows Guzman y Gomez's late August 2025 announcement of record network sales exceeding $1billion and a more than doubling of full-year profit to $14.5million for FY2025.

The company attributed the result to strong performance in Australia and its expanded US presence, which now includes seven stores all of which are located in the Chicago, Illinois area.

Despite the strong profit growth, shares dropped 20 per cent after the results were released, with analysts pointing to weaker-than-expected comparable sales, softer margins, and mounting losses from its US expansion.

Its global network now includes 256 restaurants, with 226 in Australia and 7 in the US.

The criticism follows Guzman y Gomez's late August 2025 announcement of record network sales exceeding $1billion and a more than doubling of full-year profit to $14.5million for FY2025 (stock image)

In a statement, the company said it had made 'significant progress' in the US, citing 57 per cent total network sales growth in the final quarter.

Co-founder Steven Marks described the past financial year as 'exceptional.'

'Global network sales grew 23 per cent, showing just how much people love our clean, fresh, made-to-order Mexican food,' he said.

'We wrapped up the year with 256 restaurants around the world, opening 39 new restaurants, including 32 in Australia.

'With 98 locations in our Australian pipeline and an incredible real estate team our expansion plans have never been stronger.'

The company also opened four restaurants in Singapore, one in Japan, and two in the US.

It said its Australian network had seen strong growth in late-night and breakfast trading, with 18 restaurants now operating 24/7.

The rollout of 24/7 restaurants is expected to continue across its local network this financial year.
Lord Mandelson is under mounting pressure to resign after it was claimed he worked with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein on a 1billion deal involving a taxpayer-owned bank.

Emails seen by The Telegraph reportedly show that Mandelson, who was business secretary at the time, took advice from Epstein during the 2010 sale of an RBS energy trading arm to JP Morgan, just months after the disgraced financier was released from jail for child sex offences.

Epstein is said to have introduced Mandelson to Jes Staley, then a top banker at JP Morgan who has since been banned from the City over his links to the paedophile, and even referred to Mandelson affectionately as 'Petie' in messages.

The Labour peer's relationship with Epstein has come under extraordinary scrutiny after the release of a ten-page letter in which he described him as his 'best pal'.

The note, written for Epstein's 50th birthday album, gushed: 'Once upon a time, an intelligent, sharp-witted man they call "mysterious" parachuted into my life.'

On another page beside a picture of Epstein's private island, Mandelson wrote about him entertaining 'in one of his glorious homes he likes to share with his friends (yum yum)'.

The message ended: 'But wherever he is in the world, he remains my best pal! Happy Birthday Jeffrey. We love you!!'

The album, compiled by Epstein's former lover Ghislaine Maxwell  now serving 20 years in a US jail for sex trafficking  was published on Monday by the US House Oversight Committee, which is investigating Epstein's sordid network of friends.

Lord Mandelson - who once infamously declared himself 'intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich' - in a fluffy white dressing gown enjoying a chat with Jeffrey Epstein

Lord Mandelson, who was appointed by Sir Keir Starmer as Britain's ambassador to the US, is pictured here with Donald Trump in the Oval Office in May 2025

Epstein introduced Mandelson to Jes Staley (pictured), then a top banker at JP Morgan who has since been banned from the City over his links to the paedophile, and even referred to Mandelson affectionately as 'Petie' in messages

Photographs included in the file show Mandelson wearing a bathrobe and laughing with Epstein on the veranda of his Caribbean retreat, Little St James.

Cathy Alexander, Epstein's former housekeeper, told The Telegraph that Mandelson visited the island in 2002 with his now-husband, Reinaldo Avila da Silva.

Victims of Epstein have demanded Mandelson be sacked as Britain's ambassador to the US, a role he was given by Sir Keir Starmer in February.

Sarah Ransome, one of Epstein's British victims, said: 'Something is really, really wrong here. Peter Mandelson should not be ambassador. He needs to be fired. He is unsuitable to be ambassador.'

She added: 'Keir Starmer must have known all this. Everybody knew about Peter Mandelson's close friendship with Epstein.'

Tory MPs have called for a full investigation into Mandelson's links with Epstein and whether the financier profited from the JP Morgan takeover of Sempra Commodities, which was part-owned by the taxpayer.

Court documents reveal that Epstein arranged at least two meetings between Mandelson and Staley in Davos and in New York.

Lord Mandelson gazing out of a balcony window in what appears to be Epstein's house on his private island in the Caribbean

Mandelson's message in the 'birthday book' compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell said Epstein was 'my best pal!'

Lord Mandelson with Jeffrey Epstein on December 12, 2005, where he is seen trying on a belt during a visit to a boutique in the Caribbean

An aerial view of Epstein's 74-acre Little St James Island in the US Virgin Islands

Mandelson is alleged to have stayed at Epstein's Manhattan townhouse while he was serving a sentence in Florida for soliciting a minor.

After one Davos meeting in 2010, Epstein emailed Staley to ask: 'Was Petie helpful?' Two weeks later, the 1bn deal was announced.

Last night, both JP Morgan and Mandelson declined to comment.

Mandelson has previously expressed regret over his friendship with Epstein, saying he wished he had never met him.

Earlier this year, when asked about the relationship by the Financial Times, he told the reporter: 'F*** off' and accused the paper of being 'obsessed'.

He later said he regretted 'even more the hurt' Epstein had caused to young women.
The arts patron who allegedly tried to make a $10 million donation to the Met using Soros family funds died by suicide, a medical examiner ruled.

Matthew Christopher Pietras, 40, was found dead inside his New York City apartment on May 30 just days after the hefty gift was flagged for fraud.

The charming philanthropist made his way into elite circles, managing the finances for George Soros' son, Gregory, as a personal assistant, and operating as chief of staff to Courtney Sale Ross, Time Warner CEO Steven Ross' widow.

He has established himself as a prominent figure in the arts realm for his generous contributions to institutions, including the Frick Collection and the Metropolitan Opera.

Pietras, who produced several Broadway shows and allegedly claimed to have landed a job with the Qatari royal family, flaunted an over-the-top lifestyle on social media.

But his pristine and wealthy image started to crumble when he donated to the prestigious opera in late May.

Once the $10million - his largest donation to the Met - was transferred, a Soros family representative sounded the alarm for fraud.

They claimed the money was not Pietras to give and it belonged to a member of the billionaire Soros family, which had no clue about this transaction.

Matthew Christopher Pietras (pictured), 40, was found dead inside his New York City apartment on May 30

Pietras (right) was seen with a friend, Tina Raja (left) at the American Ballet Theatre Spring Gala just before he died

Pietras was known to be a big spender who flashed his wealth (pictured: Pietras and friends at a gala)

The night the donation was blocked, Pietras was rubbing elbows at the American Ballet Theatre Spring Gala in New York City.

Within 48 hours, Pietras was found dead.

The NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner ruled his death a suicide on Monday, The New York Times reported.

The socialite died from acute intoxication by drugs, specifically the 'combined effects of cyclobenzaprine, clonazepam and propranolol,' the examiner noted.

Mystery surrounding the circumstances of his death had been looming for months.

A New York Magazine expose claiming he mooched off the funds of his wealthy bosses only made the situation more complex.

While his official cause of death was just released, a woman who considered herself a close friend of Pietras, Jane Boon, had made this chilling prediction last month.

Boon told the Daily Mail in August that she suspected Pietras killed himself and she was not surprised.

The socialite (pictured in 2009) died from acute intoxication by drugs, specifically the 'combined effects of cyclobenzaprine, clonazepam and propranolol,' the examiner noted

Pietras (pictured with a friend, Whitney Hudson, in 2024) established himself as a prominent figure in the arts realm for his generous contributions to institutions

The charming philanthropist managed finances for the billionaire Soros family (pictured: George Soros)

She said he often joked about ending his life in his 40s - while he was 'still gorgeous' - so he could be 'a beautiful corpse.'

In July, Boon published an essay in AirMail about her complicated friendship with Pietras, whom she described as an extravagant spender with an outgoing personality.

But she suspected he was lying about who he truly was and was allegedly ripping off the people he worked for.

Boon pointed to inconsistent stories about his past and his vague answers regarding his salary.

'What was real and what was make-believe?' Boon asked in her essay.

While she said she adored her friend, whom she met in April 2012, while both were working as background actors on the set of Law & Order: SVU.

He immediately told her how he lived in a lavish apartment at the Pierre Hotel on Fifth Avenue funded by his wealthy grandparents - which she was never invited to.

Pietras' former boyfriend, Andrew, told New York Magazine he was also never invited to the apartment.

But one day after dinner, Pietras allegedly invited him back to his place. But instead of the ritzy hotel, it was a small, cluttered studio apartment. Pietras allegedly said he lived there because the rent was 'reasonable.'

Jane Boon (right) met Pietras (left) in April 2012 while the pair were working as background actors on the set of Law & Order: SVU

Mystery surrounding the circumstances of Pietras' death had been looming for months (pictured: Pietras drinking wine with friends)

Pietras, who produced several Broadway shows and allegedly claimed to have landed a job with the Qatari royal family , flaunted an over-the-top lifestyle on social media (pictured: a post from his 40th birthday)

'I watched you order a $6,000 bottle of wine, and you like the reasonable rent. What?' Andrew told the outlet.

With the apartment confusion hardly skimming the surface of the alleged web-of-lied Pietras spun, Boon has been left to wonder who he truly was.

'Part of his compulsion - and I think the dishonesty was compulsive - was that he had to project success to whoever was in front of him,' she told the Daily Mail.

'I feel this loss,' she said. 'But what did I lose? I had a long relationship with him - a good one - but it wasn't real.

'I want to believe there was something sincere at his core, but I just don't know.'
A notorious Sydney sex offender dubbed the 'playboy rapist' has been granted conditional bail after he allegedly stalked and intimidated an ex-partner.

Simon Monteiro, 58, was charged last month with stalking and intimidating a woman at Hornsby Local Court on August 12 and breaching an extended supervision order.

It is only the latest in a string of charges against the former male model and aspiring actor, who has also gone by the names Simon Lowe and Bonito Monteiro - a name he told women was Portuguese for 'beautiful hunter'.

He developed his 'playboy' nickname after boasting about his lavish lifestyle and relationships with US pop star Mariah Carey and Oscar nominee Barbara Hershey.

In 2009, he was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment after he was convicted of raping and assaulting his ex-girlfriend at her apartment in Bellevue Hill, in Sydney's east.

He served nearly ten years before being granted parole. He was put on a five-year supervision order in July 2020, subject to a range of conditions.

On Wednesday, he appeared via camera from jail for a bail hearing on recent charges at King Street Supreme Court in Sydney, where he pleaded to get his 'life back'.

Police allege Monteiro approached a woman known to him at Hornsby Local Court on August 12 and stared in her direction, intending to cause her to fear for her safety.

Simon Monteiro was granted bail over allegations he intentionally intimidated a former romantic partner. He is pictured leaving the Supreme Court in Sydney in December last year

Monteiro was sentenced to 12 years behind bars in 2009 for the sexual assault of his ex-girlfriend. He was released on parole in 2020

The woman, whom the Daily Mail has chosen not to identify, had attended the court for an unrelated matter and reported her discomfort to gathered police.

She had an intimate relationship with Monteiro for several months earlier this year, before things soured and the pair took out mutual apprehended violence orders.

Within days of the run-in at Hornsby Local Court, Monteiro turned himself in to Gosford Police Station.

There, he was charged with breaching a supervision order, stalking/intimidating with intent to cause fear and attempting to stalk/intimidate with intent to cause fear.

He was remanded in custody last month, where he remained until his bail was approved subject to strict conditions on Wednesday.

Dressed in prison greens, the worse-for-wear former model represented himself from jail after parting ways with his lawyer John Stratton SC last week.

He argued his bail was necessary for a range of reasons, including to prepare for an upcoming separate legal challenge, to attend university and to undergo surgery.

The 58-year-old grew visibly emotional when claiming he was the only person able to provide assistance to his elderly father. 'He has no one', he said through tears.

The 'playboy rapist' is accused of intimidating a woman at Hornsby Local Court last month

He also argued his notoriety meant his custodial conditions were particularly onerous, as he is kept apart from the general population.

'I've done nothing wrong, I want my life back,' he told the court.

Lawyer for the prosecution Saeed Saadie opposed the application for bail for a range of reasons, including Monteiro's past breaches of a supervision order.

But the prosecution's case about the potential risks of Monteiro's release was confined by Mr Saadie to written submissions tendered ahead of the court date.

In reaching her decision, Justice McNaughton accepted whatever risk Monteiro posed to the community or victims could be ameliorated by imposing conditions.

'I am of the view it is appropriate to grant the applicant conditional bail,' she said.

Justice McNaughton did not consider the merits of the charges in any depth, beyond accepting the question of whether Monteiro attended Hornsby Local Court intending to intimidate the complainant was 'arguable'.

'That case cannot be said to be a strong Crown case,' Justice McNaughton said, adding the case was 'not necessarily weak' but not 'strong'.

Justice McNaughton considered that Monteiro had not been charged with any violent or sexual offences in recent years.

Monteiro will be allowed to live among the community after being granted bail

She also held that any risks posed to the complainant could be mitigated by an existing AVO and bail conditions.

He was released on bail subject to a several conditions including good behaviour, a curfew, and that he not approach within 500 metres of the complainant except where necessary for attending court.

He will also be required to report to police three times a week and adhere to the conditions of any supervision or apprehended violence orders against him.

Monteiro spent nine-and-a-half years in jail after being sentenced to 12 years for raping his ex-girlfriend in 2009.

A jury was satisfied the former Sydney playboy had broken into her Bellevue Hill home in Sydney's east and threatened to suffocate her before the sexual assault.

Despite threatening her with iron bars and warning her he would 'gut her father like a fish' if she reported him to police, she proceeded to press charges.

He was released on a five-year supervision order in July 2020 subject to strict conditions, some of which were eased in December last year.

He landed himself back behind bars by July 2021 after he was convicted of breaching his supervision order and was released in February 2022.

Monteiro is due to appear at Hornsby Local Court on September 17.
Prominent MAGA figures erupted in fury at the Secret Service after a humiliating security breakdown allowed protesters to storm an upscale D.C. restaurant and heckle Donald Trump to his face just yards from the White House.

Trump was dining at posh Joe's Seafood with top Cabinet allies including VP JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio when the dramatic confrontation unfolded during what was meant to be a show of strength about D.C. safety.

Trump finally voyaged to a restaurant in Washington, D.C. that wasn't his own - choosing to eat dinner Tuesday night at Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab.

Inside the restaurant, he encountered protesters who chanted at the president's face: 'Free D.C., free Palestine, Trump is the Hitler of our time.'

Trump appeared to stare them down before heading to his seat, a video obtained by CNN showed. The anti-war group Code Pink posted another version of the video, taking credit for the pop-up protest.

'How are they allowed that close to him? Where was Secret Service and was there someone in Secret Service that leaked his location? This needs to be looked into,' posted Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna.

In a video shared by the White House, Trump told diners: 'We have a safe city. Enjoy yourselves - you won't be mugged going home. Have a good time, everybody.'

'Don't drink too much,' the sober Trump teased.

President Donald Trump (center) stands outside of Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab in downtown Washington, D.C. alongside (from left) Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Vice President J.D. Vance ahead of dinner Tuesday night

Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab is located about two blocks from the White House and has Florida roots. The original Joe's Stone Crab is a Miami Beach staple and was designated a historic landmark

But in the aftermath, pro-Trump influencers and supporters couldn't believe the president's Secret Service detail would allow him to get so close to agitators.

'How did Code Pink get so close to our president? How did Code Pink know he would be there? This was NOT a public event. Why were they able to SHOUT and YELL at the president for so long?!?,' asked podcaster Graham Allen.

The restaurant is located about two blocks from the White House - and has Florida origins. The original Joe's Stone Crab is a Miami Beach staple and was designated a historic landmark in 1975.

At the D.C. locale, Trump was joined by Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller also joined him.

'But here I am, standing out in the middle of the street,' he told reporters before heading in. 'I wouldn't have done this three months ago, four months ago, I certainly wouldn't have done it a year ago. This is one of the most unsafe cities in the country, now it's as safe as it is in the country.'

'So we're here with Cabinet members having dinner, so everybody should go out,' the president continued.

Last month, Trump announced he was federalizing D.C.'s police and sending in the National Guard to help with crime.

He has since declared D.C. 'safe' since making the move - one in opposition to most of the District's Democratic residents.

'The restaurants now are booming,' he boasted. 'People are going out to dinner where they didn't go out for years, and it's a safe city. And I just want to thank the National Guard.'

While D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has cooperated with the federal takeover, last week D.C.'s independently elected Attorney General Brian Schwalb filed a lawsuit arguing armed soldiers should not be involved in policing.

Trump has criticized Schwalb's move.

He commended Bowser to reporters Tuesday night.

'We all worked together and the outcome is really spectacular,' he said. 'We have a capital that's very, very safe.'

Last week in the Oval Office, Trump was asked why he had never eaten at a restaurant in D.C. outside of BLT Prime, the steakhouse located inside the former Trump International Hotel, while in office.

During his first term, he would motorcade the five blocks and hold court at the restaurant, which overlooked the hotel's grand lobby and bar.

'How do you know? How do you know?' the president pressed the journalist.

A pool of reporters follows the president everywhere he goes, so Trump's moves are well-documented.

'Do you want me to prove you wrong?' Trump asked.

The president said he was open to the idea.

'I think it's something we could consider doing. Love to do it. I love the White House food, but after a while, I could see going to a nice restaurant. It's safe,' Trump said.

Trump's comments sparked speculation about where the president might be welcome in the liberal city.

President Donald Trump's excursion to Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab marks the first time Trump, as a sitting president, has gone to dinner in Washington outside of the steakhouse at the former Trump hotel

President Donald Trump raised his fist before entering Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab on Tuesday night. A reporter last week asked if he would go out to eat in D.C. now that he's proclaimed that the capital city is 'safe'

During the first administration, several of his top aides were heckled and faced protesters at D.C. establishments.

Vance and Hegseth visited National Guard troops patrolling Union Station and brought them hamburgers from the train station's Shake Shack, where they also attracted protesters.

The choice of Joe's makes sense for its downtown location, politically mixed clientele and Florida origins.

Trump declared himself a Florida resident in 2019, moving his primary address from Trump Tower in New York City to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach.

While crime statistics show a downtick in D.C., the city's restaurant owners have said they've suffered a drop in business since Trump deployed the National Guard last month.
A string of socialists lined up to drag Keir Starmer further to the Left on Tuesday in the race to become Labour's deputy leader.

Six MPs threw their hat in the ring to replace Angela Rayner as nominations opened in the fast-tracked contest.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson  a long-time ally of the Prime Minister  took an early lead on Tuesday night having secured the backing of 44 MPs.

Supporters believe her working-class background and close ties to trade unions could win her support but she appeared to be dismissed by one rival as a nodding dog candidate.

Ms Phillipson will be challenged by sacked Cabinet colleague Lucy Powell, who previously apologised for dismissing public concern about grooming gangs as a 'dog whistle' issue.

The former Commons leader once served as chief of staff to Ed Miliband and helped mastermind his doomed 2015 election campaign.

Ex-frontbencher Dame Emily Thornberry, who now chairs the foreign affairs committee, also threw her hat into the ring  promising not to 'nod along' with Sir Keir on contentious issues.

The Islington South and Finsbury MP, who has often been branded a 'champagne socialist' and sent a now infamous mocking tweet about a house draped in England flags in 2014, announced her support for a wealth tax as she confirmed her candidacy on Tuesday.

Bridget Phillipson: Uber-ambitious Education Secretary looks set to be Sir Keir Starmer's preferred candidate

Bell Ribeiro-Addy: Hard-Left candidate who called for slavery reparations

Alison McGovern: The housing minister, on the party's Right, may be a safe pick for Sir Keir

Stella Creasy: Independently minded, she would likely make life difficult for No 10

Bell Ribeiro-Addy, a hard-Left candidate who has criticised Labour's 'austerity approach', took aim at the leadership contest's 'unfair' timetable as she became the first to officially declare.

She has previously called for the UK to pay reparations for slavery, is a proponent of wealth taxes and a leading member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

Paula Barker, a little-known backbencher, also threw her hat in the ring on Tuesday saying she was worried about the 'lack of geographical and political diversity' at the top of Labour.

The Liverpool Wavertree MP was a key welfare rebel, and quit her shadow ministerial post to vote for an SNP motion demanding a Gaza ceasefire in 2023.

Housing Minister Alison McGovern, the MP for Birkenhead, was the only candidate on the Right of the party to have declared on Tuesday night.

A Blairite, she formerly chaired of Progress  a political organisation associated with the development of New Labour.

Emily Thornberry: 'Champagne socialist' left out of Sir Keir's first Cabinet

Lucy Powell: Sacked as Commons leader, dismissed concern about grooming gangs

Paula Barker: A little-known MP among frontbenchers, also a welfare rebel

Nominations for the deputy leadership opened on Tuesday and candidates have until 5pm on Wednesday to secure the backing of 80 MPs in order to reach the next round of the contest.

The candidates will take part in a hustings today in a bid to win over support of their Labour MP colleagues.

But the truncated nomination period has led some to accuse the party leadership of orchestrating a 'stitch-up' in a bid to 'dodge serious discussion'.

With Ms Phillipson securing the backing of 44 MPs, Ms Powell was in second place on Tuesday night with 35.

Ms Ribeiro-Addy had eight, Dame Emily seven, Ms Barker three and Ms McGovern two. Campaigning backbencher Stella Creasy, MP for Walthamstow, has also been rumoured as a potential candidate.

The ballot for candidates who clear the nomination hurdles will open on October 8 and close at noon on October 23, with the result announced two days later.
Channel migrants backed by anti-Rwanda lawyers could be in line for millions in compensation from the Home Office amid claims they were 'unlawfully' kept in 'inhumane' conditions.

Nearly 200 asylum seekers have launched legal claims against the Home Office for unlawful detention and mistreatment at a migrant holding centre in Dover.

Among the allegations are physical abuse, sexual assault, guards thieving property, as well as dirty and cold conditions, scabies and outbreaks of diphtheria. There are also claims of forcible separation of families as well as denial of medical assistance.

Internal documents have warned that failings at ex-RAF base Manston during the previous Tory government, in 2022, could be 'reputationally damaging' to the Home Office, according to The Telegraph.

In February, the Home Office said it would launch a public inquiry into what had transpired at the base when it was thrice over official capacity, housing around 4,000 between June and November 2022.

It has been alleged the department unlawfully detained thousands of asylum seekers at the facility beyond the 24 hours outlined in its own regulations.

Migrants who are detained for over this period can receive standard compensation of around 500 per 24 hours, as well as aggravated or exemplary damages.

However, the Home Office is forcing lawyers representing migrants to pursue claims in court and refusing to settle.

Nearly 200 asylum seekers have launched legal claims against the Home Office for unlawful detention and mistreatment at Manston migrant holding centre (pictured) in Dover

An inflatable dinghy carrying migrants crosses the English Channel on March 06, 2024

Among the six legal firms, who are representing the 194 migrants seeking compensation while claiming article three rights of European Convention on Human Rights were breached, is one who won a legal bid to stop migrants being deported to Rwanda.

In 2022, the Conservative Government, who wanted to deport channel asylum seekers to Rwanda, lost when the scheme was eventually taken to the Supreme Court.

Several former Conservatives may be asked to give evidence during the inquiry, including former Prime Ministers Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak, as well as former Home Secretaries, Dame Priti Patel, Suella Braverman and Grant Shapps.

Currently, Manson is used as a short-term facility, however, Defence minister Luke Pollard has said it may be expanded to accommodate asylum seekers moving from hotels.

But, the inquiry could unearth that ministers were warned as per Home Office legal advice that migrants were being detained for unlawfully long periods of time.

Asylum seekers are meant to be processed and speedily screened at Manston before they are taken to hotels or other forms of accommodation.

Previously, a migrant who was unlawfully detained at an immigration removal centre in Gatwick for three months was awarded 203,995 last October. It was found they had been subjected to degrading or inhuman treatment.

Migrants at Manson were reportedly subjected to racist language, physical violence, as well as locked in vans as punishment, according to Deighton Pierce Glynn, one of the lawyers.

Some attempted to use barbed wire as a form of self-harm, it is alleged.

Internal documents have warned that failings at the ex-RAF base, Manston, during the previous Tory government in 2022 could be 'reputationally damaging' to the Home Office

Lawyers have also claimed migrants were kept on the floor next to strangers with thin blankets in 'extremely cold conditions.

They have also alleged there was no access to clean clothes, soap, showers, toilets or hot water.

It is also alleged that scabies had spread throughout the former RAF base, with many migrants being infected with diphtheria.

According to The Telegraph, at least one migrant death was linked to diphtheria.

Elsewhere, it has also been alleged some families were separated with unaccompanied children at the base - against its rules.

There was also very limited access to phones, it has been alleged.

A Home Office briefing note is said to list 'a death in custody, unlawful detention of adults and children, and Home Office officials charged with conspiracy to steal and misconduct in public office' among the incidents and allegations at the ex-RAF base.

The note also reportedly said claims also 'include misfeasance in public office, breaches of the ECHR, breaches of... duties to safeguard children, breaches of the short-term holding facility rules, breaches of planning permission, and breaches of health, safety, fire, and food safety regulations.

'The investigation of the conditions at Manston will probably be reputationally damaging for the Home Office.'

A Home Office spokesman said: 'It would be inappropriate to comment while the inquiry into events at Manston between June and November 2022, and any related litigation, are ongoing.'
Poland has shot down Russian suicide drones in a dramatic escalation after devices 'repeatedly violated' its airspace during an attack on Ukraine.

The nation was forced to scramble its air defenses to take out the craft in the early hours of Wednesday - in its first engagement since the war began.

Reports indicated around ten Shahed-2 drone incursions into Polish air space with at least four shot down.

8.6 million Poles were ordered not to leave their homes due to the unprecedented operation by the Polish Air Force to repel the 'drone invasion'.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned the drones 'could have posed a threat', adding: 'The operation is ongoing.'

He said he was in constant contact with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, while Finnish MP Jarno Limnell said: 'When NATO airspace is violated, the entire alliance is involved. This is not about an individual incident but an action that tests NATO's response threshold.'

The escalation also saw NATO fighters clamber in Slovakia and Romania due to the threats from Vladimir Putin. A US F35 is also among jets involved in the mission.

Russia has remained silent on the incident so far.

One report said Polish police had discovered the wreckage of a Russian attack drone, near the village of Czosnowka in eastern Poland, 15 miles from the border with Belarus.

Poles were warned not to approach, touch, or move any downed drones or fragments.

Wednesday's military clash between Poland and Russia was the first of its kind since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The move was seen as an escalation by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Multiple Russian drones have entered Polish airspace, seeing the devices gunned down

Explosions seen in the night sky over Kyiv, where Ukrainian troops fired at Russian drones

Russia launched at least two waves of drone attacks on Ukraine (Pictured here, explosions in the sky over Kyiv)

Russia's President Vladimir Putin, pictured on September 8, is yet to speak out

The nation was forced to scramble its air defenses to take out the craft in the early hours of Wednesday - in its first engagement since the war began

The Nato nation's army command first said in the early hours of the morning that airspace was violated by 'drone-type objects' during the Russian attack across the border in Ukraine.

'An operation is underway aimed at identifying and neutralising these objects... weapons have been used, and service personnel are carrying out actions to locate the downed objects,' it said in a statement.

It said the military operation was ongoing and urged people to stay at home, naming the regions of Podlaskie, Mazowieckie, and Lublin as most at risk.

'The Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces is monitoring the situation, and subordinate forces and units remain on full readiness for immediate response,' it added.

A further statement added: 'As a result of attack by the Russian Federation on Ukrainian territory, there was an unprecedented violation of Polish airspace by drone-type objects.

'This is an act of aggression that posed a real threat to the safety of our citizens.

'On the order of the Operational Commander of the Polish Armed Forces, defensive procedures were immediately activated.

'Polish and allied assets radar-tracked several objects, and the Operational Commander of the Polish Armed Forces made decisions to neutralize those that could pose a threat.

'Some of the drones that entered our airspace were shot down. Efforts are underway to search for and locate the possible crash sites of these objects.

'The Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces is monitoring the current situation, and Polish and allied forces and assets remain fully prepared for further actions.'

At least one US F-35 was among the NATO planes in the skies, and a refuelling aircraft was sent from the Netherlands.

As the operation was underway, Russia reportedly staged a massive new missile and drone attack on neighbouring Ukraine.

PM Tusk said in a statement: 'An operation is being conducted involving multiple violations of Polish airspace. The military used weapons against targets.'

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, pictured on September 4, said: 'The operation is ongoing'

Poland was on high alert early Wednesday as a result of Ukraine's warning (file photo of a US F-35)

'I am in constant contact with the president and the defense minister. I have received a direct report from the operation commander.'

The Polish leader later added: 'I received a report from the Operational Commander of the Armed Forces Branches regarding the downing of drones that intruded into our airspace and could have posed a threat.

'The operation is ongoing.'

Mr Tusk called an emergency session with his security ministers for 7am UK time.

The country also closed four airports, including its main Chopin Airport in Warsaw, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

There was no official confirmation from Polish authorities that any airports had been closed.

Andriy Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said: 'Russia has launched many missiles, and drone attacks continue, which pose a threat not only to our people.

'The terrorist country continues the war, although it constantly declares a desire for peace.'

The RzeszowJasionka Airport in Poland's southeast, a hub for passenger and arms transfers to Ukraine, was among the airports that had been temporarily closed, the FAA said.

Russia's defense ministry has yet to officially confirm the incident.

NATO fighter jets were scrambled early Wednesday after Ukraine's air force warned of the Russian intrusion.

Commercial planes appeared to be diverted amid fears of a threat, while unconfirmed videos of jets overhead in Poland appeared on social media.

Poland's operational command said earlier on Tuesday night: 'Polish and allied aircraft are operating in our airspace, while ground-based air defense and radar reconnaissance systems have been brought to the highest state of readiness.'

They later confirmed that 'drone-type objects' violated Polish airspace and 'an operation is underway aimed at identifying and neutralizing the objects.'

They also warned citizens to 'stay at home' while their military operation was ongoing.

It added that its measures were preventative and aimed at protecting citizens in regions bordering Ukraine.

Earlier, the Ukrainian Air Force said on the Telegram messaging app that drones were heading west and threatening the city of Zamosc in Poland.

It was not immediately clear how many drones were in NATO member Poland's airspace.

Ukrainian media also reported that at least one drone was heading towards the western Polish city of Rzeszow, but Polish officials have not confirmed whether drones had entered their airspace.

Meanwhile, Poland's Operational Command has said that it continues to monitor the situation and that forces remain prepared to respond.

The Polish Territorial Defence Force shortened the times needed for defense personnel to be prepared to report for active service. Those in red areas were warned to be ready within six hours, those in yellow have to be prepared in 12

Poland closed its Rzeszow-Jasionka airport, with air traffic restrictions scheduled to remain until 7am on Wednesday, according to Ukrainian reports.

Unverified reports said Warsaw Airport had closed for 'unplanned military activity related to ensuring state security', but Polish officials or the airport's operators are yet to confirm this.

Meanwhile, plane tracking website FlightRadar24 said that a notice to airmen was active for four airports and traffic areas in Poland, with overflights continuing through the areas, 'but further west than usual'.

As of 0000 GMT, most of Ukraine, including western regions of Volyn and Lviv, which border Poland, were under air raid alerts for several hours, according to Ukraine's air force data.

In a second wave of missile and drone strikes against Ukraine, Russia hit Vasylkov, Kyiv region, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, Lutsk, Kalush in Ivano-Frankivsk region, and Drohobych in Lviv region.

Explosions were heard in all these locations following air alerts across Ukraine.

Lutsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Lviv regions are all in western Ukraine in proximity to NATO borders.

The warning comes hours after Poland said it was closing its border with Belarus on Thursday as a result of Russia-led military exercises taking place in Belarus.

Russia and Belarus' large-scale military exercises, known as the 'Zapad' drills, have raised security concerns in neighbouring NATO member states Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. 'Zapad-2025' (West-2025) will be held in western Russia and Belarus.

It also comes hours after a Russian airstrike killed 24 elderly people who were collecting pensions in a village in eastern Ukraine.

Russian troops have pressed a grinding offensive across much of the eastern Donetsk region as diplomatic efforts to achieve peace stalled.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said a guided bomb had struck the village of Yarova, about 15 miles from the city of Sloviansk, a Ukrainian stronghold, and several kilometres behind the front line.

Directly on people. Ordinary civilians. At the very moment when pensions were being disbursed,' he wrote on X alongside footage showing bodies strewn across the ground.

Twenty-four people were killed and another 19 people were wounded, the State Emergency Service said. All of the dead were elderly, said regional governor Vadym Filashkin.

'The world must not remain silent,' Zelensky said. 'The world must not remain idle. A response is needed from the United States. A response is needed from Europe. A response is needed from the G20.'

Russia did not immediately comment on the attack. Moscow has denied targeting civilians, but tens of thousands have died since its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

In the U.S., Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been briefed on reports of Russian drones over Poland, CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins said on Tuesday.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said repeated violations of NATO airspace by Russian drones were a sign that 'Vladimir Putin is testing our resolve to protect Poland and the Baltic nations'.

'After the carnage Putin continues to visit on Ukraine, these incursions cannot be ignored,' he said on X.

Republican representative Joe Wilson, a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a post on X that Russia was 'attacking NATO ally Poland' with drones, calling it an 'act of war'.

Wilson urged U.S. President Donald Trump to respond with sanctions 'that will bankrupt the Russian war machine'.

'Putin is no longer content just losing in Ukraine while bombing mothers and babies, he is now directly testing our resolve in NATO territory,' he said.

Trump, who warmly welcomed Putin to the United States for a summit in August, said over the weekend he was ready to move to a second phase of sanctioning Russia after months of fruitless talks about a peace deal.
Aussies looking to access porn websites will soon be required to prove they're over 18 years old.

New laws set to be introduced from March 9, 2026, will make content containing pornography, violence, and self-harm age-restricted.

The goal of the new laws is to limit children's exposure to inappropriate content.

Julie Inman Grant, the eSafety Commissioner, submitted a new industry code on Tuesday which demands porn services take 'appropriate age assurance measures'.

Those could include ID checks, credit card verification, or biometric age estimation.

Companies that fail to follow the new laws could face hefty civil penalties.

Pornography services will also need to 'take appropriate steps to test and monitor the effectiveness of its age assurance and access control measures over time.'

Similar rules will be imposed on apps, which must also restrict pornographic and violent content from users under 18 years old.

Australia will introduce age restrictions on pornography websites from March 9, 2026, following the Albanese government's

Julie Inman Grant (pictured), the eSafety Commissioner, described pornographic and violent content seen by children as 'lawful but awful'

Those apps include AI chatbots that engage in inappropriate conversation.

A government-commissioned trial last year involving industry stakeholders confirmed that age restrictions were possible in Australia, overruling concerns about breaches of privacy.

Ms Grant said the affected content is "lawful but awful" as it is considered harmful to children but is currently legal to share with minors.

The new laws will be similar to those already in effect in the UK, parts of Europe, and the US, where pornography platforms and other high-risk sites have been subject to age restriction.

However, those existing laws have exposed holes in legislation, such as users bypassing verification using VPNs.

The Albanese government played a central role in introducing Australia's new age-verification regime.

After commissioning the eSafety Commissioner's Roadmap for Age Verification in 2023, it backed her call for industry-drafted codes to set standards for porn sites, apps, and digital platforms under the existing Online Safety Act 2021.

The government then went further, passing the under-16 social media ban, which will come into force in December 2025.
Barron Trump has moved into the White House and started his sophomore year at New York University's Washington DC campus.

Barron, 19, sparked mystery after he appeared to be absent from the school's Manhattan campus for the first week of class.

The president will finally be reunited full time with Barron as he is set to live in Washington, all while remaining an NYU student, The New York Post reported.

NYU Washington, DC is the home to the Stern Executive MBA degree program, which will allow Barron to earn an MBA in two years time. Only about 60-100 students enroll in the program, which runs $32,811 in undergraduate tradition.

Presumably, Barron will be able to avoid the extra $7,317-$9,513 by residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

The president has cited NYU's business school as the reason his son enrolled in the first place.

First Lady Melania Trump is expected to return to the White House regularly to accompany him, though he is believed to be the main reason she spent the past year in New York.

Barron Trump will trade in Trump Tower for the White House as he spends his sophomore year at New York University in its Washington DC campus

The president will finally be reunited full time with Barron as he is set to live in Washington, all while remaining an NYU student

The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House and the NYU Stern School For Business for comment.

Barron, the only child of the president and first lady, who is a towering 6'9, has not attended an official White House event or appeared alongside his father Donald Trump in months.

The teenager was last seen by his dad's side at his inauguration on January 20, where he seemed cool and confident as he put on a show for the cameras.

But since then, Barron hasn't stepped out with the 79-year-old president - and his noticeable absence has prompted speculation over his whereabouts.

Despite not being seen out with his dad, Barron has been photographed in and around Manhattan.

In April, he was pictured showing off a shaggier, more relaxed mane as he strode with purpose to university classes.

The towering NYU's Stern School of Business freshman also sported a loose sweater, jeans, and Adidas sneakers.

Barron reportedly commuted to college from the Trump Tower apartment, home to his father and doting 54-year-old mother Melania.

Barron Trump (pictured at his father's inauguration in January) reportedly never showed up for the first week of class at New York University

NYU Washington, DC is the home to the Stern Executive MBA degree program, which will allow Barron to earn an MBA in two years time. Only about 60-100 students enroll in the program, which runs $32,811 in undergraduate tradition

To get him to class, a motorcade of black SUVs drives him 20 minutes to Tisch Hall, Stern's undergrad building.

Barron has to find creative ways to meet people , including campus co-eds, as he navigates life at one of the country's most prestigious universities.

It comes as no surprise that the family members of any sitting president of the U.S. take extra precautions to ensure their safety.

As Barron attempted to keep a low profile on campus last year, his plainclothes bodyguards were spotted accompanying him.

And for Barron Trump - the president's youngest son - this means avoiding giving anyone his phone number.

This summer, Barron reportedly turned his back on romance to instead prioritize getting his business ideas off the ground

According to insiders, Barron has been busy taking meetings with business partners, developing tech projects, and setting up deals.

'Barron has been actively working on his own financial interests and has spent time with others who he is involved with in that area,' a source told People.

'Still, he has spent a great deal of time with his family.'

In July, it was reported that Barron had found love and was spending lots of time with his new love interest, although the identity of the mystery woman was never revealed.

At the time, a source told NewsNation: 'Barron has a really nice girlfriend and hangs out with her a lot.'

However, People reports that his love life has since taken a backseat in the last few weeks.

Instead, they claim that Barron is not currently dating and has instead been focused on his business and his family.

'I don't think that's a big deal in his life right now,' the insider added. 'He has more school, a family who dotes on him and a career of his own he is launching.'
NAB has become the second of Australia's Big Four banks to announce job cuts this week, with 410 roles on the chopping block.

The news comes after ANZ announced plans to lay off 3,500 staff over the next 12 months as part of a major restructure under its new CEO.

NAB on Wednesday said the cuts would impact 728 workers, which included 410 permanent cuts from its technology and enterprise operations division.

The bank plans to move these roles offshore as it expands into Asia, with 127 roles to be made available in India and Vietnam.

A NAB spokesperson said having a global workforce would lead to better outcomes for customers through extended operating hours, speeding up processes and improving turnaround times.

'We regularly look at the way we work and how we're structured to deliver the best experience we can for our customers,' the spokesperson said.

'The environment we operate in is constantly changing and we need to have the right structures alongside the right skills and capabilities in the right locations to help us deliver for our customers.'

Staff were told on Tuesday and offered support including through career transition services and redeployment options.

NAB has become the second of Australia's Big Four banks to announce job cuts this week, with 410 roles on the chopping block (stock image)

The news comes after ANZ announced plans to lay off 3,500 staff over the next 12 months

Other new roles will created in Australia but no details have been given.

It comes after ANZ said it would slash 3,500 jobs and 1,000 contractors in a bid to simplify processes at the Big Four bank.

'We are operating in a rapidly evolving and highly competitive banking environment,' new chief executive Nuno Matos said.

'Our changes also include ending or reviewing our engagements with consultants and other third parties, impacting around 1,000 managed services contractors.

'While reorganising our teams will change the way we structure the bank and deliver our priorities, what won't change is the dedication of our customer facing bankers who support our customers day in, day out.'

Finance Sector Union national president Wendy Streets accused NAB of betraying hundreds of workers and their families.

'Cuts this deep don't just hurt staff, they hollow out services for customers and communities who rely on NAB,' she said.

'Two banks in two days slashing jobs, it's shameful.

New ANZ chief executive Nuno Matos said the news would be 'difficult' for some staff

The restructure of ANZ's 42,000-strong workforce comes amid sweeping changes under the new CEO, with internal staff referring to the overhaul as 'Nuno-geddon.'

In the latest job cuts, which represent eight per cent of its workforce, ANZ expects the employees to finish with the company by September 2026.

'We know this will be difficult news for some of our staff,' Mr Matos said.

'While some of these changes have already commenced, we are committed to working through the impacts as quickly and safely as we can, with both care and respect for our teams affected.'

ANZ said the restructure would cost $560million before tax.
Activists on board a Gaza-bound flotilla carrying Greta Thunberg and other pro-Palestinian activists have claimed it has been the target of another drone attack.

In dramatic footage shared online, a loud-pitched sound can be heard before an object appears to land on the boat and burst into flames.

A member of the crew on the British-flagged boat can also be seen pointing to the sky and diving for cover moments before the suspected strike.

It is understood that the fire has now been extinguished and that no one on board the boat was injured.

The flotilla, which is aiming to break Israel's blockade of Gaza, arrived in Tunisia at the weekend and has been anchored off the coast of the north African country.

'Another boat has been hit,' the Global Sumud Flotilla - the group behind the mission - posted on social media in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The alleged attack comes just one day after flotilla organisers said one of their boats was hit by a similar suspected UAV in the area.

Some members of the crew said they saw the drone, adding that the boat's bow caught fire immediately after.

Activists on board a Gaza-bound flotilla carrying Greta Thunberg and other pro-Palestinian activists have claimed it has been the target of another drone attack

In dramatic footage shared online, a loud-pitched sound can be heard before an object lands on the boat and it bursts into flames

Greta Thunberg walks with a crowd of pro-Palestinian activists that arrived to greet the Global Sumud Flotilla at the port of the village of Sidi Bou Said at the weekend

The Global Sumud Flotilla said in a statement: 'The Global Sumud Flotilla confirms that one of the main boats, known as the "Family Boat"  that was carrying GSF Steering Committee members  was struck by what is suspected to be a drone.

'The boat was under the Portuguese flag and all passengers and crew are safe.

'An investigation is currently underway and when more information is available it will be released immediately.

'Acts of aggression aimed at intimidating and derailing our mission will not deter us. Our peaceful mission to break the siege on Gaza and stand in solidarity with its people continues with determination and resolve.'

However, Tunisian authorities denied the claims, saying 'no drones' had been detected.

Tunisian national guard spokesman Houcem Eddine said: 'According to preliminary findings, a fire broke out in the life jackets on board.'

The United Nations' Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, who was at the port, said: 'We do not know who carried out the attack, but we would not be surprised if it was Israel.

'If confirmed, it is an attack against Tunisian sovereignty.'

The flotilla organisers had said on Monday one of their boats was hit by a suspected UAV off the coast of Tunisia

Ms Thunberg waves from a boat taking part in a civilian flotilla bound for Gaza, aiming to break the Israeli blockade

The convoy first tried to leave Tunisia on Sunday but returned to port because of stormy weather

The flotilla was due to resume its voyage on Wednesday after being delayed multiple times by weather conditions and other issues.

Among its high-profile participants is environmental activist Ms Thunberg, who addressed pro-Palestinian campaigners in Tunisia on Sunday.

She said: 'We all know why we are here. Just across the water there's a genocide going on, a mass starvation by Israel's murder machine.'

The latest mission comes after Greta was deported by Israel in June when the ship she was traveling on with 11 other people, the Madleen, was stopped by the military.

At the time, Israel was accused of using drones to spray an irritant substance on Greta's flotilla before boarding and detaining her and other activists.

Images showed the deck splattered with an unidentified white liquid.

Activist Yasemin Acar, among the 12 on board, said it had been deployed by Israel and was affecting her eyes.

The Global Sumud Flotilla is carrying food, water and medicine and is aiming to reach Gaza.

Activists on board demanded safe passage to deliver the much-needed aid and the opening of a humanitarian sea corridor, according to a statement.
A Nepali politician was chased down the street by a lynch mob as the country's Prime Minister fled - before its presidential palace was burned to the ground.

Young Nepalis are leading angry protests across the country over its social media ban, with violence spreading in the capital and other cities.

After enraged crowds torched KP Sharma Oli's home, new video footage showed how Bishnu Prasad Paudel being pursued and set upon by a mob through the streets of Kathmandu.

In the shocking clip, Paudel, 65, is seen sprinting down a road as dozens run after him. A protester coming from the other side leaps and kicks him, sending him crashing against a red wall.

The government official quickly gets up, stumbles, but starts running again before the video ends. Paudel, who doubles as the deputy prime minister of the country, has faced intense criticism since he began running Nepal's economic affairs last year.

As chaos engulfed the Asian country, uncontrollable fires could be seen in the middle of roads as demonstrators chanted in large groups.

Protesters fuelled the flames by throwing on chairs, fence posts and other miscellaneous objects and they soon lit the city in an eerie orange hue.

The effect was soon seen as clips of scorched cars and burnt buildings circulated.

And the presidential palace was razed to the ground after being set alight by rampaging protesters.

The presidential palace in Nepal was razed to the ground after being set alight by rampaging protesters

The finance minister, who doubles as the country's deputy prime minister, was kicked after getting chased by a mob

Protestors set fire Singha Durbar palace, which houses government and parliament buildings

KP Sharma Oli's home is torched as protests broke out over his governance

Smoke billowed across Kathmandu, while riot police had rocks and other heavy objects hurled at them.

Gates to private residences were flung open, while shops and homes were soon ablaze with seemingly no end to the unrest.

Earlier, Oli, 73, had stepped down a day after one of the bloodiest crackdowns in years left at least 19 dead.

He had only begun his fourth term last year, following a coalition deal between his Communist Party and the centre-left Nepali Congress.

His departure came after three other ministers also resigned, even though the government had lifted the ban on social media. The country's president, Ram Chandra Poudel, has now started the process of selecting a new leader.

The restrictions had started on Friday when Nepal, home to 30 million people, blocked Facebook, YouTube and X, along with 26 other unregistered platforms.

The movement began on Monday as people demanded an end to the social media ban and called on the government to fight corruption. The demonstrations continued even after access to the apps was restored.

Videos circulating on TikTok, which was not banned, showed the contrast in the lifestyle of the kids of government officials and ordinary citizens.

As chaos engulfed the Asian country, uncontrollable fires could be seen in the middle of roads as demonstrators chanted in large groups

Protesters fuelled the flames by throwing on chairs, fence posts and other miscellaneous objects and they soon lit the city in an eerie orange hue

The effect was soon seen as clips of scorched cars and burnt buildings circulated

Protesters pictured chanting under an enormous cloud of black smoke in Kathmandu

Despite the ban being overturned, protestors still took to the streets, with some carrying firearms

Kathmandu police spokesman Shekhar Khanel said that many ignored a curfew on Tuesday.

He said there were protesters in several parts of the city and spoke of 'cases of fire and attacks'.

The curfew was imposed in the capital and other cities, and schools in Kathmandu were closed.

Local reports and videos shared on social media showed protesters attacking the residences of the top political leaders in and around Kathmandu.

The houses set on fire included those of Sher Bahadur Deuba, leader of the largest party Nepali Congress, President Poudel, Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak and leader of the Communist party of Nepal Maoist Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

A private school owned by Deuba's wife Arzu Deuba Rana, who is the current foreign minister, was also set on fire.

The mass protests and attack on parliament on Monday began as opposition to the ban on social media platforms, but were fueled by growing frustration and dissatisfaction against the political parties among the people who blame them for corruption.

'I am here to protest about the massive corruption in our country,' said Bishnu Thapa Chetri, a student.

'The country has gotten so bad that for us youths there is no grounds for us to stay back in the country.'

The then newly elected Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli greets after the oath of office in President residence in Kathmandu, Nepal, July 15, 2024

Some protestors were seen with weapons outside the Singhua Durbar palace

Protesters vandalise Nepalese congress party central office in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025

'Punish the murders in government. Stop killing children,' the protesters chanted while police used loudspeakers urging them to return home

Young Nepalis are leading angry protests across the country, with violence spreading in the capital

A picture of the former prime minister is tossed into a huge fire

'Our demand and desire is for peace and end to corruption so that people can actually work and live back in the country,' he said.

Several protests were reported Tuesday despite the indefinite curfew in the capital.

'Punish the murderers in government. Stop killing children,' the protesters chanted while police used loudspeakers urging them to return home.

The protesters' anger turned toward the government led by Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli, who is increasingly becoming unpopular.

'We are here to protest because our youths and friends are getting killed, we are here to seek that justice is done and the present regime is ousted. K.P. Oli should be chased away,' said Narayan Acharya, who was among the protesters outside the battered wall of the parliament building Tuesday.

Protester Durganah Dahal said they needed to protest the deaths caused by police acting on behalf of the prime minister's government.

'As long as this government is in power, the people like us will continue to suffer,' Dahal said. 'They killed so many youths yesterday who had so much to look forward to, now they can easily kill us all. We protest until this government is finished.'

Several widely used social networks, including Facebook, X and YouTube, were blocked in the Himalayan nation last week after failing to comply with a new requirement to register and submit to government oversight.

His resignation came after protesters set fire to the homes of some of Nepal's top political leaders in opposition to a social media ban that was lifted early Tuesday

Protesters burn vehicles and tires during a protest in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025

People stand beside a burned government vehicle in the aftermath of violent clashes in Kathmandu, Nepal, September 9

Smoke rises from the country's parliament complex as protestors climb on top of its roof

A man carries a gun looted from the police while entering a government building

Monday's rallies against the ban swelled to tens of thousands of people in Kathmandu and crowds surrounded the Parliament building before police opened fire on the demonstrators. Nineteen people were killed.

'Stop the ban on social media. Stop corruption, not social media,' the crowds chanted, waving national flags. Monday's rally was called the protest of Gen Z, which generally refers to people born between 1995 and 2010.

Seven of those killed and scores of the wounded were received at the National Trauma Center, the country's main hospital.

'Many of them are in serious condition and appear to have been shot in the head and chest,' said Dr. Badri Risa. Families waited for news of their relatives while people lined up to donate blood.

Oli said in a statement he was forming an investigating committee to submit a report in 15 days and that compensation would be given for the lives lost and free treatment for the wounded.

On Tuesday, government buildings were not the only infrastructure to be attacked. Media companies were also targeted with Kantipur Publications, the country's biggest media outlet, set on fire.

Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak also resigned at an emergency Cabinet meeting late Monday.

The violence unfolded as Nepal's government pursues a broader attempt to regulate social media with a bill aimed at ensuring the platforms are 'properly managed, responsible and accountable.' The proposal has been widely criticised as a tool for censorship and for punishing government opponents who voice their protests online.

A demonstrator reacts at the Parliament complex during a protest against Monday's killing of 19 people after anti-corruption protests that were triggered by a social media ban

A demonstrator sits on a chair holding a monitor and phone taken from Parliament

Protesters vandalise and burn down the Nepalese communist party office

Demonstrators attempted to break the outer wall of the parliament building

The bill includes asking the companies to appoint a liaison office or a point of contact in the country. Rights groups have called it an attempt by the government to curb freedom of expression and fundamental rights.

The registration requirement applied to about two dozen social networks widely used in Nepal.

Neither Google, which owns YouTube, nor Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, responded to requests for comment from The Associated Press. Elon Musk's X platform also did not respond.

TikTok, Viber and three other platforms have registered and operated without interruption.

Nepal in 2023 banned TikTok for disrupting 'social harmony, goodwill and diffusing indecent materials.'

The ban was lifted last year after TikTok's executives pledged to comply with local laws, including a ban of pornographic sites that was passed in 2018.
Heart-stopping footage caught the moment a Texas sheriff's deputy dangled headfirst from an overpass after an allegedly distracted truck driver slammed into patrol vehicles.

The terrifying situation came as Lubbock County deputies Andrew Cavasos, 49, and Jorge Martinez, 36, worked to divert traffic to protect two people changing a tire near Highway 87 and 98th Street overpass, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reports.

The two had just returned from an unrelated call at around 9.15 am on Monday when they found the motorist 'in a precarious spot,' Sheriff Kelly Rowe said at news briefing on Tuesday.

They then decided to stop and block the outside lane of traffic, when police say a semitruck plowed into the deputies' empty patrol vehicles - pushing one of the vehicles towards the deputies and pinning them against a concrete barrier.

Cavasos was then pushed partially over the overpass, where he was seen hanging by his feet until he could be rescued.

He was pinned to the wall by his unit vehicle - the only thing holding him from plummeting to his death, according to Fox 4.

Fortunately, a group of good Samaritans from a nearby gas station rushed to the scene in a heroic moment caught on camera by KCBD.

One man was caught on video carrying a ladder to the overpass in hopes of reaching Cavasos' position, as others held onto his legs and shirt.

Heart-stopping footage showed the moment Lubbock County Sheriff's Deputy Andrew Cavasos, 49, was left dangling off the side of an overpass Monday morning

Good Samaritans from a nearby gas station rushed to the scene to try to help pull Cavasos back up

Together, they were able to lift Cavasos back up and over the overpass.

Both Cavasos and Martinez were then rushed to a local hospital, but have since been sent home to recover.

The driver of the semitruck, Gregory Vaught, 57, also suffered moderate injuries in the collision and was taken to University Medical Center.

He, too, has since been released.

The Lubbock Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety are still investigating the crash and have not filed any criminal charges.

Yet a preliminary investigation found that Vaught got distracted while trying to reconnect a Bluetooth device to his 18-wheeler, Sheriff Rowe announced on Tuesday.

'[He] didn't look up in time until he ended up rear-ending both of the sheriff's vehicles there on the overpass,' he said.

The sheriff then vehemently thanked all of those who rushed to his deputies' aid, as he attributed their survival to a higher power.

'God is great,' Rowe said as he began the news conference on Tuesday. 'He certainly was watching out for two young men yesterday, absolutely no doubt in my mind.'

Authorities say Cavasos and his partner, Jorge Martinez, were diverting traffic when an 18-wheeler plowed into their patrol vehicles

He also shared words of gratitude from both Cavasos and Martinez, before he thanked the good Samaritans himself.

In his remarks, Martinez - who joined the force in 2015 - said: 'Thank you for helping my partner when I couldn't reach him.'

Cavasos, who has been with the sheriff's office since 2009, also said he appreciates 'everyone that helped.

'It could have gone a lot different without you there,' he noted.

Rowe echoed those sentiments.

Cavasos, who has been with the sheriff's office since 2009, said he appreciates everyone that rushed to help save him

Martinez, who joined the force in 2015, expressed his gratitude as well. He is pictured with Sheriff Kelly Rowe at an award ceremony

'Part of the beauty of living in Lubbock, Texas is we know what our citizens are capable of,' the sheriff said.

'We know what kind of people they are - and that's just embedded in their DNA to see something like that happening and be willing to jump in and provide assistance was invaluable.'

'Like I said, there's no question in my mind that lives were saved yesterday as a direct result of these citizens jumping in and helping,' he continued, before turning his attention directly to those who sprang into action to help.

'To each and every one of them that found a ladder, held the guy up, moved debris to help get vehicles [dragged] out of the way so we can get these guys the help they needed with EMS and Fire [Department], again, like I said, I can't say enough in terms of thank yous to each and every one of them.

'Hopefully, I'll get a chance to tell some of them personally. Truly,' Rowe added.
The Allan government is facing calls to put its Aboriginal Treaty deal to Victorians in a referendum, amid claims it is even more extreme than the federal Voice to Parliament that was rejected two years ago.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan proudly unveiled the deal on Tuesday which once passed, would pave the way for schoolchildren to be taught about the 'enduring harm' of colonisation since 1788, a formal apology and more geographical locations given Indigenous names.

The nation's first treaty between a state government and Aboriginal peoples will also result in a new Indigenous body, named Gellung Warl - meaning 'tip of the spear' - that critics have compared to a Voice to Parliament.

The body will initially cost $300million and members of the Gellung Warl will be elected and sit in a dedicated room in Victoria's parliament.

No campaigner Warren Mundine told The Herald Sun Victorians deserved to have a say on what was 'probably the worst nightmare our parliamentary system has been hit with'.

Mr Mundine warned it would be a 'third chamber' of the state's parliament.

'This is such a dramatic change to the Victorian Westminster system that all Victorians should get a vote on whether this treaty is approved,' he said.

'It should be a referendum.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan (pictured) speaks during the ceremonial opening of Treaty negotiations on Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung country at Darebin Parklands

Liberal Senator Jacinta Price (pictured) is backing calls by fellow no campaigner Warren Mundine for the Victorian government to hold a referendum on the Treaty

'They say this will only affect matters that relate to Aboriginals but tell me something that doesn't affect Aboriginals? Housing, taxes, rates, education, infrastructure  everything.'

Fellow No campaigner and federal Liberal Senator Jacinta Price said the state's plan 'goes even further than the failed national Voice proposal'.

Price said while the federal Voice was at least put to the people for a vote and limited to an advisory role, this was being imposed on Victorians without consultation or consent and with broader scope for influence.

The majority of Victorians voted against the national Voice to Parliament in the 2023 referendum, with only 45.85 per cent of voters supportive of the move.

Institute of Public Affairs research fellow Margaret Chambers criticised the Treaty deal, calling it an 'affront' to the fundamental principle all Victorians are equal under the law.

'By seeking to force through this legislation, the Allan government is deliberately creating a new, two-tiered legal system that affords special rights to some Victorians, while paving the way for reparation payments,' she said.

'The proposed Treaty and state-based Voice to Parliament is an assault on parliamentary sovereignty, where unelected and unaccountable individuals will now be able to direct government services, and the enforcement and administration of laws.'

Previous IPA research found the Victorian government has spent millions on preparing and negotiating the Treaty since 2016.

Dancers perform in front of the Chairs of the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria

'The Allan government's agenda has been forecast to cost Victorians, at a minimum, $679 million over the next decade, simply to administer these activist bodies,' she said.

'Far from restoring social cohesion, it divides Victorians by race and stokes division in the community.

'In addition, the legislation provides sweeping exemptions from freedom of information laws. Victorians will never know how this treaty was negotiated between the government and the activists it benefits.'

However, Allan defended the Treaty.

'In Victoria, we have been on a long and steady path to Truth and Treaty for nearly a decade,' she said.

'We have passed legislation twice, developed policies, and made commitments across the government.

'We have taken the time required to lay strong foundations for Treaty, and this Bill represents a historical milestone in this journey.'

The Gellung Warl will have the power to scrutinise government programs and make representations to both houses of parliament, state cabinet, departmental secretaries and individual MPs.

The body will also establish and operate a 'First Peoples' Infrastructure Fund' from July next year.

The Bill is now waiting to pass through the Victorian Parliament.
Emails unearthed by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee appear to contradict testimony previously given by Dr. Anthony Fauci on Capitol Hill.

Kentucky Republican Rand Paul sent a letter Tuesday to the former COVID-19 response director with new demands for him to appear before the committee and tell the truth about efforts to conceal information from Congress about deleting official records.

During a testimony given to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in June of 2024, Fauci was asked if he ever deleted official records, worked to obstruct Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests, or deleted communications relating 'to the Wuhan lab or the origins of the virus', all of which he denied.

Yet, Paul provides two examples of instances when Fauci instructed fellow government employees to conceal information relating to their work.

In the letter, the Kentucky Republican notes that in an 'email dated February 2, 2020,' Fauci 'directed then-NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins to Please delete this e-mail after you read it.'

'In another email dated July 20, 2020, to an NIH employee [Fauci] stated, I do not want to engage any more with this nonsense. And so, please delete this e-mail after you read it."'

Paul is now calling on Fauci to respond in the next two weeks to the committee's inquiries about past statements he has made under oath.

The Homeland Security Committee leaders are also seeking to have Fauci appear in front of Congress again before the end of the year, and have sent him dates in October, November, and December to appear before the committee.

Sharon Stone presenting the Visionary Award to Dr Anthony Fauci, at the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative in April 2019

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) arrives in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on July 15, 2025

Paul's latest requests build upon years of investigations into the origins of COVID-19.

During one of Fauci's prior clashes with Paul, the Senator suggested that he lied about the NIH's involvement in Wuhan, China.

The Senator told the Daily Mail in July that he was preparing to subpoena Fauci as part of an expanded Senate investigation into the origins of Covid-19 and US-funded research in Wuhan, China.

The goal: scrutinize Fauci's role in approving controversial virus experiments.

Paul, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, recently issued subpoenas to 14 federal agencies for records related to COVID-19's origins and gain-of-function research, building on years of questioning Fauci and other officials about US oversight of high-risk biological research.

One of two emails obtained by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in which Anthony Fauci instructs the reader to 'delete this e-mail after you read it'

The second of two emails obtained by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in which Anthony Fauci instructs the reader to 'delete this e-mail after you read it'

'After we've gotten a fuller understanding [of] how the decision was made, we are going to ask him to come in, and, if need be, subpoena him to come in to discuss why he made the decision to fund the research in Wuhan,' Paul told the Daily Mail of his plans in July.

However, Paul's chances of compelling Fauci to testify remained uncertain at the time.

Fauci was granted a preemptive pardon by former President Joe Biden, which could shield him from some consequences related to the pandemic. Paul also said that he hasn't yet been given access to the names of people who were part of the process determining the Wuhan research, but is continuing to seek interviews.

President Joe Biden greets his former Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci and his wife Dr. Christine Grady, Tuesday, January 24, 2023, in the Oval Office

A medical worker prepares a BioNtech-Pfizer Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine on November 29, 2021

'We're looking at their communications and ultimately the decisions of this committee, we believe, had to be certified by Anthony Fauci himself,' Paul previously told the Daily Mail.

Later in July, Paul announced that he would 'reissue [his] criminal referral of Anthony Fauci to Trump DOJ!'

The Kentucky Republican then followed up his post, noting that 'perjury is a crime. And Fauci must be held accountable.'

Fauci testified in 2023 before the U.S Senate and noted that he had 'never lied before Congress.'

"This directly contradicts everything he said in committee hearing to me, denying absolutely that they funded any gain of function, and its absolutely a lie. Thats why I sent an official criminal referral to the DOJ," Paul wrote on X back in 2023.

Paul also said earlier this summer that he hasn't yet been given access to the names of people who were part of the process determining the Wuhan research, but is continuing to seek interviews.
A young hoon accused of running down nine wombats in his ute has lashed out at media after being convicted of drink-driving.

Apprentice electrician Tyson Michael Delbridge, 19, of Fish Creek in Victoria's South Gippsland region, has still to face court over the allegation he mowed down the beloved native animals.

The charges followed an extensive investigation by the Conservation Regulator and Victoria Police into the deaths in Gippsland's Venus Bay.

On Wednesday, Delbridge refused to answer questions about the alleged incident.

'Go away please,' he responded as he left the Korumburra Magistrates' Court - the former homeland of mushroom killer Erin Patterson.

'I don't consent for you to take videos of me. Go away.'

Delbridge was supported in and outside court by his parents.

Alleged wombat killer Tyson Delbridge fronted Korumburra Magistrates' Court on Wednesday

He is the son of cattle trader and dairy farmer Cameron Delbridge, a community stalwart with long-established ties to the local community.

Mr Delbridge attempted to shield his son from a Daily Mail photographer outside court.

'Who the bloody hell do you think you are,' he barked.

Mr Delbridge indicated his son would defend the wombat charges when they hit court next month.

'None of this crap is proven,' he said.

Wombat lovers who converged outside the court to taunt Delbridge quickly turned on his protective dad.

'Where does he learn his behaviour from,' one asked.

Delbridge's image went viral on social media last month when Daily Mail revealed he had been charged over the alleged wombat killing spree.

The smouldering remains of Delbridge's vehicle

Delbridge was thrown from the ute before it burst into flames

Firefighters douse Delbridge's ute in water

It is not suggested that Delbridge is guilty of killing the wombats, only that he has been charged.

The youth is accused of running down the wombats along Lees Road, which runs between Venus Bay and Anderson Inlet on the opposite side.

It is an area surrounded by bushland, with a thriving community nestled in the wilderness.

On Wednesday, Delbridge pleaded guilty to unrelated charges of careless driving, drink-driving and driving an unregistered vehicle.

The court heard Delbridge was lucky to be alive after rolling his ute in the bush on May 28.

Delbridge was thrown from the vehicle, before it burst into flames.

Images of the incident show Country Fire Authority firefighters dousing the flaming remains of Delbridge's car, which was a total write-off and uninsured.

The teenager later recorded a .062 per cent blood alcohol reading - well over the zero requirement imposed on probationary drivers.

A male and female, one carrying a joey, were among those found dead

One of the alleged victims in the incident at Venus Bay

In another stroke of luck, Delbridge was found soon after the crash by a mate who happened to be in the area.

Appearing in court unrepresented, despite his father's apparent wealth, Delbridge told the court he couldn't even recall the crash.

Asked by the judicial registrar how the crash happened, Delbridge responded: 'Young and dumb, I guess.'

Delbridge had been helping a mate on his farm when he decided to get behind the wheel just after midnight.

'I'm sorry for doing what I did,' he said.

Judicial Registrar Anthony Gwynne asked Delbridge if he realised how lucky he was to be alive.

'You're incredibly lucky to be here today,' he said.

'You were lucky you were thrown from the vehicle, as a result of that you're lucky not to have sustained any serious injuries.

'And you're lucky you had a friend who came past at the time.'

The teen replied: 'Yeah I know. Very lucky.'

Delbridge and his supporters outside court on Wednesday

Wildlife cameras captured a vehicle they believed to be responsible for the wombat killings

Delbridge's 4WD which police allege was used to mow down the wombats

The alleged wombat killer was convicted and fined $1000 and banned from driving for six months.

The court heard he had already bought a new car.

Delbridge is expected to vehemently deny he was the driver who killed the wombats when he appears in the same court next month.

Last month, a neighbour defended the alleged wombat killer, telling Daily Mail she could not believe he was responsible.

'He's a good kid,' she said.

The neighbour, who did not give her name, said Delbridge's parents were distraught about the allegations against their son.

'His mother is beside herself,' she said.

The woman claimed Delbridge had always been kind to her and routinely stopped by to offer his assistance on her rural property.

Venus Bay on Victoria's east coast on Tuesday

She claimed Delbridge was likely being blamed for the wicked deeds of others.

'There were other cars in the area at the time,' she insisted.

Delbridge would not reveal on Wednesday if he was indeed 'covering up' for someone else.

Sources have told Daily Mail that up to three cars were believed to have been in the area when the wombats were killed.

The bodies were found by disturbed locals who took them to the side of the road.

At least one of the victims had a joey, which survived and was taken to a wildlife shelter.

In a statement issued at the time, Chief Conservation Regulator Kate Gavens said wildlife cruelty was unacceptable and pledged to investigate and seek prosecution for serious incidents.

'The Conservation Regulator takes wildlife cruelty seriously, and I encourage the public to report any information about wildlife crime to Crime Stoppers,' she added.

Investigators had been on the hunt for the alleged wombat killer for months, with the charges bringing some relief to the outraged local community.

Those found guilty of cruelty to wildlife face massive fines and up to two years behind bars.
The first photos of the 'grim' and 'dimly lit' main campsite used by fugitive Tom Phillips and his three children have been released.

Phillips was shot dead by police after he fired at an officer during a shootout, following a break-in at a store in Piopio on New Zealand's North Island in the early hours of Monday morning.

He had spent almost four years on the run with his three children in remote bushland.

Jayda, 12, was with her father when he was killed and provided authorities with the information needed to find the other children - Ember, nine, and Maverick, 10 - later that afternoon.

Authorities found the main campsite used by the family just 200 metres from where Ember and Maverick were located.

Detective Senior Sergeant Andrew Saunders revealed the site was well hidden in steep and uneven terrain that was difficult to access.

'It's a very grim, dimly lit area, surrounded by dense bush,' he said.

Photos released by police of the makeshift camp on Wednesday showed various items, including a tent, a gas bottle, and numerous drink containers.

New Zealand Police believe they have discovered the main campsite that had been used by Tom Phillips and his three children

Detective Senior Sergeant Andrew Saunders revealed the site was well hidden and difficult to access

Detective Senior Sergeant Saunders described the campsite as 'grim' and 'dimly lit'

After holding strong suspicions, police said it was now apparent that Phillips had been receiving assistance while on the run.

'We are currently looking at a number of items at the site,' Det Saunders said.

'Aside from the burglaries we are now able to link to Tom, it is apparent that he had outside help.'

Police revealed on Monday that Jayda provided 'vital information to ensure a safe approach' to help find the other kids but did not attend the rescue herself.

'We would not put her alongside us as we move forward to the campsite because that presents a risk to her, and we wouldn't be prepared to put her in any risk at all,' Commissioner Chambers said.

She revealed her father had guns at a rural campsite where her younger siblings were later found.

'We knew that there were firearms,' he said.

He added officers were 'certainly confident' they would find more campsites.

'What we located the other day is a site that can easily be shifted,' Commissioner Chambers said.

Police are adamant that Tom Phillips and his children received outside help while on the run

Jayda, Maverick and Ember (all pictured) are settling well in the care of authorities after spending almost four years in the wilderness

'It's fairly basic sort of living conditions, and therefore we are likely to find other things in other places, and that might suggest there's something a bit more substantial in other places.'

Officers will now turn their focus to identifying those involved in helping Phillips, as the police operation enters a new phase.

Police will continue gathering evidence from the campsite in the coming days.

'It has been a challenging operation, but I am relieved and delighted that we have been able to return the children to safety,' Det Saunders said.

'While no one wanted it to end in these circumstances, it is highly satisfying as an investigator that the children have been safely returned.

'We wish to thank the public for the ongoing support of police, and in particular for the kindness and care people have shown in respecting the children's privacy.'

The police officer wounded when he was shot by Phillips on Monday remains in Waikato Hospital after spending 'a good chunk' of the day undergoing surgery.

The children remain in the care of authorities and are yet to be reunited with their mother, Cat, who hasn't seen them in almost four years.

The quad bike and police vehicles involved in Monday's shootout (pictured) have since been removed from the scene

We don't know what they've fully been exposed to, but we know that they've been put in a fairly bad position by their father," Police Minister Mark Mitchell said.

"We know that one of them has witnessed him trying to kill a police officer and then having been killed himself... I think everyone at the moment is just focused on trying to settle the children and figure out what is the best thing for them in terms of what they've been exposed to."

Phillips vanished from the rural town of Marokopa in December 2021 with his children following a custody dispute with their mother.

The case divided New Zealand, and Phillips found supporters online and among residents of the settlement of Marokopa, population 40, where he had lived. Some locals told visiting reporters that they endorsed his actions.

December 2021 wasn't the first time Phillips and his children had vanished. Three months earlier, he sparked a massive search operation when his truck was found on a beach near his home, with no trace of the family.

Officials feared they had been swept out to sea before Phillips and the children emerged from the forest after 17 days, saying they had been camping. Phillips was charged with wasting police resources but disappeared again with the children before he was due to appear in court.

Phillips didn't have legal custody of his children at the time he vanished.

He was later wanted for an armed bank robbery in 2023, during which he was accompanied by one of his children and apparently shot at a member of the public as he fled.

He was spotted on CCTV footage in the area committing other break-ins to steal supplies, most recently in August.

Beyond those thefts, it wasn't clear how the family had survived in rugged countryside at freezing winter temperatures for years.

Full timeline:

September 2021 - the first disappearance

Tom Phillips first disappeared with his children Jayda, then 8, Maverick, 6, and Ember, 5, in September 2021. Pictured is a police appeal from the time

Authorities feared the worst when Phillips' truck (pictured) was found abandoned on a nearby beach. The family returned home 17 days later before they vanished again three months later

On September 11, 2021, 34-year-old Tom Phillips vanished from his farm in the tiny coastal town of Marokopa, population just 69, along with his three young children.

Hours later, his truck was found abandoned on a nearby beach. Police feared the worst and investigators probed whether the family had been swept out to sea.

For 17 days, helicopters, ground crews, and even the Navy scoured the coastline.

Then Phillips and the children returned home unharmed.

He told police they had been camping in the bush to 'clear his head.'

Phillips was later charged with causing the wasteful deployment of police resources over the incident.

Police have since suggested the initial disappearance may have been a 'warm-up' to the second, more prolonged disappearance later in 2021 - to see how long he could last out there.

December 2021 - the second disappearance

On December 20, 2021, Tom Phillips disappeared again with his three children, but unlike the first time, they did not return.

'Missing' posters were seen in some shop windows in the region (pictured)

He was scheduled to appear in court on the charge of wasting police resources from the September incident but failed to show. A warrant was issued for his arrest.

By this time, Phillips no longer had legal custody of the children, and police believe the second disappearance was connected to an ongoing custody dispute with their mother, Cat.

2022-2024 - on the run

From 2022 to 2025, Tom Phillips evaded what became one of New Zealand's most high-profile manhunts.

For years, he and his three children lived off the grid in the remote Waikato bush.

In May 2023, Phillips allegedly robbed a Te Kuiti bank with a shotgun.

Four months later, in August, he was captured on CCTV at a Hamilton Bunnings store, disguised and driving a stolen ute.

CCTV captured Phillips with his head and face completely covered by a beanie, reading glasses and a mask.

He paid cash for head torches, batteries, seedlings, buckets and gumboots. The children were not with him.

They later handed police photos showing Phillips armed with a rifle, while the children carried heavy packs, apparently living rough.

These images were the first clear evidence in years that all three children were still alive and with their father.

Despite a reward of $80,000, Phillips was never caught.

Investigators always believed he and the children had remained close to Marokopa, the tiny settlement where he grew up.

Given the length of time they survived, through harsh winters and rugged terrain, police now believe he must have received outside assistance.

2025

Reports of sightings increased. One motorist claimed to have seen a man in camouflage walking with three children along State Highway 4 in February. Police later said the lead was not Phillips or the children.

In August, CCTV captured Phillips and one of his children breaking into a rural store in Piopio using an angle grinder.

They fled the scene on a quad bike, confirming once again that the children were still with him.

A few hours before dawn on September 8, Phillips and his daughter Jayda carried out another burglary at a farm supply store in Piopio.

Police recently released CCTV of Phillips and one of his children using an angle grinder to steal items from a general store in Piopio last month

The rural road where Tom Phillips' life ended remained a crime scene on Tuesday

Police intercepted them using road spikes. When confronted, Phillips opened fire at close range, shooting a police officer in the head.

Back-up officers returned fire, killing him at the roadside - all in front of Jayda.

Hours later, Jayda provided information that led police to a hidden bush campsite 2km away, where Maverick and Ember were found alive.

Police photographs of the site showed soft drink cans, tyres, a metal container and camouflaged belongings scattered through the undergrowth. Officers also recovered firearms.

What is next for the Phillips children?

Jayda, Maverick and Ember (all pictured) are settling well in the care of authorities after spending almost four years in the wilderness

Now the children are in the care of police and the New Zealand government's welfare agency, with police saying they are settled, comfortable and together.

Government spokesperson Warwick Morehu said a plan had been worked on for four years to reintegrate the children.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has accused Israel of damaging the possibility of a ceasefire in the Middle East after it launched targeted missile strikes on Qatar.

Israel carried out unprecedented strikes in Qatar's capital, Doha, on Tuesday night, targeting Hamas' leadership as they met to discuss Donald Trump's Gaza ceasefire deal.

Israel said the attack was aimed at top Hamas leaders, including Khalil al-Hayya, its Gaza chief.

However, Hamas has since claimed its negotiating delegation survived the airstrike, despite six others being killed, including al-Hayya's son and a member of the Qatari security forces.

Foreign Minister Wong told Sunrise on Wednesday the Albanese government 'don't think this was the right thing to do.'

'It's a strike that violates Qatar's sovereignty, it undermines or potentially damages the possibility of ceasefire and the release of hostages and obviously it risks escalation,' she added.

'Let's remember what Qatar has been doing. It has been working with the United States to try and deliver a ceasefire and the return of hostages.

'They have been tireless in those negotiations. That's the context in which this strike has occurred.'

Pressed on whether she was 'outraged' by it, Senator Wong repeated that the strike was 'wrong'.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has accused Israel of damaging the possibility of a ceasefire in the Middle East after it launched targeted missile strikes on Qatar

Israel carried out unprecedented strikes in Qatar's capital Doha on Tuesday night (pictured), targeting Hamas' leadership as they met to discuss Donald Trump's Gaza ceasfire deal

'It flies in the face of what we all want, which is a ceasefire and the return of the hostages,' she added.

'That's what Qatar has been working for, and I know that President Trump has made similar comments today.

'This decision by Prime Minister Netanyahu is so destructive, because these negotiations were fundamentally about ending the war.'

The US President was reportedly furious about the attack, claiming that Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was solely responsible for the decision.

'Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a Sovereign Nation and close Ally of the United States, that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker Peace, does not advance Israel or America's goals,' Trump posted on social media.

'However, eliminating Hamas, who have profited off the misery of those living in Gaza, is a worthy goal.'

'I immediately directed special envoy Steve Witkoff to inform the Qataris of the impending attack, which he did, however, unfortunately, too late to stop the attack,

'I view Qatar as a strong ally and friend and feel very badly about the location of the attack. I want ALL of the hostages, and bodies of the dead, released, and this War to END, NOW!'

However, Qatar's prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said the US warned his country of Israel's attack ten minutes after it began.

He also said his country 'reserves the right' to respond to Israel's 'blatant attack', which is a 'pivotal moment' for the region.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles echoed Senator Wong's comments, claiming the Australian government was 'deeply concerned about Israel's strikes on Qatar'.

'The strikes by Israel on Qatar are a violation of Qatar's sovereignty,' he added.
A Florida man was arrested after allegedly stealing his roommate's credentials and pretending to be a nurse to apply for at least 10 jobs.

Joseph Thomas Kinney, 55, had his nursing license revoked in 2022 - but he did not let that deter his job hunt, police say.

He started using a real registered nurse's name and qualifications in a failed attempt to secure a new job, according to the Volusia Sheriff's Office (VSO).

The fraudster's elaborate scheme finally began to unravel when a nurse hiring manager at Ridgecrest Health and Rehab Center in DeLand flagged Kinney's application as suspicious.

According to the arrest report obtained by ClickOrlando, Kinney showed up for an interview wearing makeup and a toupee.

The interviewer noted that Kinney seemed flustered and quoted a different age than what was on the driver's license he provided, which bore the name of his registered nurse housemate, Douglas.

After the bizarre interview, the hiring manager reached out to Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood, who devised an elaborate plan to catch the fake nurse in the act.

Chitwood posed as a hiring coordinator and arranged for Kinney to meet with him to discuss a potential job opportunity.

Joseph Thomas Kinney (pictured), 55, had his nursing license revoked in 2022 - but he did not let that deter his job hunt, police say

Footage the VSO shared from the arrest shows Kinney surrounded by officers as he asked, 'What'd I do?'

When Kinney arrived for the staged interview on Monday, he was greeted by multiple officers who handcuffed him in front of the building.

Footage the VSO shared from the arrest shows Kinney surrounded by officers as he asked, 'What'd I do?'

Police say Kinney applied for about 10 to 15 jobs pretending to be Douglas. He was even hired for two of them - but his time filling each role lasted less than a week.

In previous years, Kinney held nursing licenses in Alabama, California and Florida, but lost them after racking up an unflattering track record.

He was disciplined for 'repeated incidents, including diverting drugs from his employer, driving under the influence of drugs, providing false information, and unprofessional conduct,' the VSO wrote.

According to public records, some of his prior run-ins with Florida law enforcement involved the possession of controlled substances, including Carisoprodol and Diazepam.

Records also note he was arrested several times in California, although the details of those incidents were not immediately available.

When Kinney was in court, it was claimed he that 'does have prior felony and violent convictions out of California, but those were expunged by the state of California.'

When Kinney arrived for the staged interview on Monday, he was greeted by multiple officers who handcuffed him in front of the building (pictured)

Kinney (pictured) appeared in court and was hit with two felony charges related to pretending to be a nurse

Kinney remains in Volusia County Jail as of Tuesday night. His bond is set at $20,000.

He has been charged with two felony counts of practicing health care without a license.

The Office of the Inspector General for the US Department of Health and Human Services aided the VSO with Kinney's arrest and will continue its involvement in the follow-up investigation.
A fugitive father killed in a shootout with police appeared to be feeding his three children animal food during their four years on the run in New Zealands wilderness.

Tom Phillips, 38, was gunned down at Waitomo, in the North Island's Waikato region, in the early hours of Monday, ending one of the countrys biggest-ever manhunts.

Phillips had earlier burgled a farm supply store in Piopio and shot a cop responding to the raid, before he was taken down in a gunfight 33km away when his quad bike was stopped by police road spikes.

His eldest child, Jayda, 12, who accompanied him on the heist, was uninjured in the ordeal and later led police to the familys campsite, where the other two children, Ember, 9, and Maverick, 10, were found safe.

As police continue to scour the shootout site on Te Anga Road and Phillips nearby campsite, photos have emerged of the father-of-threes quad bike, laden with farming supplies, being towed away from the scene.

The goods include a pair of gumboots and several bags of animal food, sold by agriculture retailer, PGG Wrightson, that Phillips had stolen from on the morning of his death.

The bags included three different variations of maize - a barley blend, wholefeed, and kibbled feed - which is essentially dried corn.

Tom Phillips' quad bike was stocked with animal food when it was towed away by police on Tuesday

Phillips was reported to police after breaking into the Piopio PGG Wrightson store (pictured) during the early hours of Monday

The retailer sells agricultural products, including livestock grains

Kibbled feed maize was among the items spotted on the back of his quad bike

The product, which is used to feed a multitude of animals such as pigs, cows, chickens, goats, deer, and horses, can be eaten by humans as a long-life option.

It is unclear why Phillips was stockpiling livestock feed, but there are several theories why the grains would have proved useful while the family lived off grid without easy access to a fridge or shops.

Survivalists say the maize can be rehydrated and used as food for the family, although it is more starchy and less sweet than corn typically eaten by humans.

But he could have also traded the livestock food for supplies or services from farmers in the area that may have been assisting the family.

Police believe the family was repeatedly helped by locals over the years in order to stay alive in extreme elements and the rough terrain.

Alternatively, the maize could have been used for other practical uses for life in the wilderness.

For example, it can be turned into corn whiskey (when mixed with other materials, like yeast, barley and sugar) or ethanol, which can be used as a disinfectant or component of fuel (though not the fuel typically used for quad bikes).

The farming equipment store also stocks a range of supplies that would have been useful for Phillips during his time on the run, including clothing, gumboots, metal tools, and chemicals.

Gumboots, like these ones seen in PGG Wrightson, were also seen strapped to the quad bike

The farm supply chain also sells other equipment that Phillips would have considered handy for life in the bush

The price of the maize items sold at the store

Tom Phillips was killed on Monday after he shot at police

Ember, nine, Maverick, 10, and Jayda, 12, are currently in the care of authorities after spending almost four years on the run with their father, who was shot dead on Monday

The revelation comes as police on Wednesday released new photos of Phillips' bush hideout.

On Monday police initially found a smaller less-developed campsite around 2km from Te Anga Road.

That site - where Ember and Maverick were discovered - contained a few quad bikes, old tyres, and empty Coke and Sprite cans.

Authorities then later discovered a bigger, more established settlement 200m away in native scrub.

Images of the main campsite show a makeshift shelter built into the escarpment using bound sticks as beams and pieces of black tarp as a roof.

Stockpiles of wood, lidded buckets, and cook tops, gas bottles and gumboots were also scattered across the ground, while frying pans were hung up on trees with string.

Police said the location of the main campsite is difficult to access, well-hidden and highlights the challenging environment the family used as their base.

Police are pictured at the shootout site on Tuesday

The quad bike could be seen lying in a roadside ditch

Police released photos of the family's main campsite on Wednesday

A shelter was constructed using tree branches and tarp

Items found at the site include gas bottles, drinks, and cooking equipment

The main campsite was 200m away from the area where the children were located (pictured)

Detective Senior Sergeant Andrew Saunders said police are working in steep and uneven terrain to document evidence from the scene.

'Its a very grim, dimly-lit area, surrounded by dense bush. The tent was well covered and dry,' he said.

'We are currently looking at a number of items at the site. Aside from the burglaries we are now able to link to Tom, it is apparent that he had outside help.'

The police vehicles and the quad bike from the scene of Mondays shooting were removed from Te Anga Road last night.

Police expect to continue their examination of the area throughout Wednesday and Thursday.

Police said the officer who suffered critical injuries to his head after being shot by Phillips continues to recover in Waikato Hospital.

He is stable after undergoing emergency surgery and is being supported by the police community.

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Detective Saunders said it was 'highly satisfying' for police that the children have been returned to society safely.

'I want to take the opportunity to thank all our staff involved in Operation Curly at different times over the past four years, in particular our core investigation team,' he said.

'It has been a challenging operation, but I am relieved and delighted that we have been able to return the children to safety.

'Operation Curly was an operation focused on locating Tom and the safe return of the children.

'As the police work enters a new phase, our Operation Curly naturally comes to a conclusion.

'We wish to thank the public for the ongoing support of Police, and in particular for the kindness and care people have shown in respecting the childrens privacy.'

Phillips disappeared with his three children into the rugged New Zealand countryside at Marokopa in December 2021 amid a custody dispute with the children's mother, Cat.

In the years since they vanished, there had been several reported sightings, but they managed to continue evading authorities.

In October 2024, Phillips and the kids were filmed trekking across a private property in Waikato by pig hunters.

The group was dressed in camouflage gear, carrying large backpacks, and walking single file as Phillips, leading at the front, clutched a gun.

Tom Phillips and his kids were spotted a number of times as they evaded police

New Zealand father Tom Phillips and one of his children stealing grocery items from a store in the northern New Zealand region of Waikato

A search for the family was assembled the following morning, but failed to locate them, with locals saying police left it too late.

Phillips was again sighted alongside one of the children in August 2025 as CCTV captured the pair breaking into a store in Piopio to steal groceries.

The store had previously been targeted by Phillips, unsuccessfully, in November 2023.

Since their rescue, the children are being cared for by government organisation Oranga Tamariki.

It is unclear at this stage who will gain custody of the children after they finish receiving treatment and being interviewed by detectives.

An injunction banning certain details about the case from being reported was rushed through court on Monday.

The injunction matter will return to court on Thursday.
An Alabama man hiking through the scenic trails of a state park was stopped in his tracks by a massive, nearly unrecognizable rattlesnake.

David Graves, a photographer, was hiking the 4.3-mile King's Chair Loop at Oak Mountain State Park last month, hoping to find some morning zen and take in the calming views of a late August sunrise, as reported by ForTheWin.

But in a split second, he found himself face-to-face with a terrifyingly plump, three-foot rattlesnake slithering straight across the trail in front of him.

His close encounter with the massive reptile was caught on video, showing the thick-bodied snake slowly gliding across the dirt path before disappearing into the surrounding woods and greenery.

When asked by David Simpson of WVTM News how he managed to stop before colliding with the enormous snake, Graves gave an answer worthy of a seasoned hiker.

'When hiking, I'm looking 10 feet ahead of me,' Graves said. 'Bonus is knowing almost every detail of the trail since hiking it over 400 times.'

Before continuing his hike, Graves carefully followed the snake to its resting place among the foliage - a nearly impossible task given how well it blended into the surroundings.

Graves captured a photo that perfectly demonstrated the snakes expert camouflage - at first glance, it looked like nothing more than dirt, plants, and a few scattered red leaves.

David Graves, an Alabama man hiking through the scenic trails of a state park, was stopped in his tracks by a massive, nearly unrecognizable rattlesnake (pictured)

Graves captured a photo showcasing the snakes expert camouflage - at first glance, it appeared to be just dirt, plants, and scattered red leaves, but if you look closely at the lower half, youll see the snakes head peeking out from the foliage (pictured)

However, hidden beneath one of the red leaves on the right side of the frame is the snakes head, subtly emerging from the foliage - perfectly blended into the dirt and sticks where it had nestled itself.

The video, shared to Simpsons Instagram late last month, quickly racked up dozens of comments - from viewers shocked they couldnt spot the snake, to others expressing pure fear over its healthy physique.

'Its definitely well fed!' one comment read.

Another wrote: 'I thought I saw him in 2-3 spots. Neither was the rattlesnake. Really scary!'

'Its definitely healthy!' added a third.

'He's right about keeping an eye on the ground at all times!' wrote another.

Alabama is home to three distinct rattlesnake species: the fierce eastern diamondback, the elusive timber rattlesnake, and the tiny - but deadly - pygmy rattlesnake.

Among them, the eastern diamondback reigns as the states largest and most venomous serpent.

Graves, a photographer, encountered the snake when he was hiking the 4.3-mile King's Chair Loop at Oak Mountain State Park (pictured) last month, hoping to find some morning zen and take in the calming views of a late August sunrise

Graves' close encounter with the massive reptile was caught on video, showing the thick-bodied snake slowly gliding across the dirt path before disappearing into the surrounding woods and greenery (pictured)

Though infamous in Alabama, the eastern diamondback is more commonly found basking in the wilds of Florida and southern Georgia.

Last month, a hiker was killed by the rattlesnake's venomous bite while walking through a Tennessee state park.

The male victim, who was not identified, was discovered at Savage Gulf State Park, about 95 miles from Nashville.

According to officials, he was found a half-mile down the hiking trail.

Officials stated that the hiker had picked up the snake, which was identified as the evasive Timber rattlesnake.

'It is believed that the hiker had an allergic reaction, however full details of [the] actual cause of death have not been released,' Matthew Griffith of the Grundy County Emergency Management Agency told Fox News Digital.

Paramedics performed CPR at the scene before transporting the hiker to the hospital, where he was later declared dead.

According to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, the Timber rattle snake is 'a large, heavy-bodied snake (36.0 to 60.0 inches long) with a large, triangular head, vertical pupils, and the characteristic rattle at the end of the tail.'

They are the largest and most dangerous of the four venomous snake species found in Tennessee.

The snake kills its prey 'by a venomous bite, in which the venom is injected by fangs located in the snake's mouth.'

In the US, about 7,000 to 8,000 people are bitten by venomous snakes every year, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

However, only about five of them die annually.
An Australian children's author has fired back at Donald Trump after the US President accused his best-selling books of promoting 'radical gender ideology'.

Trump appeared onstage with a school student, saying the little boy was forced to read My Shadow Is Pink is by Australian author and illustrator Scott Stuart.

The book, which challenges gender stereotypes, is about a boy who loves 'things not for boys' such as princesses and fairies.

Trump introduced the 12-year-old student, who then addressed the Religious Liberty Commission event to deliver a short speech.

When he was in fifth grade in 2024, he was asked to teach his kindergarten buddy about changing genders by reading the book aloud, and he was afraid when his Christian family members spoke up about it, the boy said.

'The school treated us badly, and kids started bullying me and my brother because of our faith, and the school did nothing to stop it,' he told the crowd.

'I believe kids like me should be able to live our faith at school without being forced to go against what we believe. I hope no other family has to go through what mine did.'

In response, Stuart accused Trump of using his books to further his own political agenda and the 12-year-old boy who made the speech as a 'pawn'.

Today at the Religious Liberty Commission hearing, President Trump honored our 12-year-old client who was forced to teach his kindergarten buddy a gender ideology lesson that violated his faith. We are so proud of Shea for standing up for his faith, and we are honored to fight pic.twitter.com/gQqAR8ZIRa  First Liberty Institute (@1stLiberty) September 8, 2025

Australian children's author Scott Stuart (pictured) has fired back after Donald Trump singled out his book as promoting 'radical gender ideology'

'Donald Trump is now using my book for his political agenda,' the author said in a video shared to his 242,000 Instagram followers on Tuesday.

'The irony here is that they want acceptance for their beliefs, but not to extend that acceptance onto others.'

My Shadow books are not about culture wars, but about helping kids be themselves without prejudice, according to Stuart.

He also said his inbox had been filled with messages of hate since the speech.

In January, the Malaysian government banned another book from the series, My Shadow is Purple, stating it 'may be harmful to morals'.

The story is about a child who does not identify as either a boy or a girl, with the narrative using colours as a means to discuss not conforming to gender expectations.

'My Dad has a shadow that's blue as a berry, and my Mum's is as pink as a blossoming cherry,' it reads. 'There's only those choices, a 2 or a 1. But mine is quite different, it's both and it's none.'

The book was published in 2022, and a teacher in the southern US state of Georgia was fired the following year for reading it to her fifth-grade students.

My Shadow is Pink, which is part of a best-selling series that challenges gender stereotypes, is about a boy who loves 'things not for boys' such as princesses and fairies (pictured)

Stuart was previously praised by millions after he joined his son in dressing up in an Elsa costume, after he was bullied at daycare for having a doll.

He told the Daily Mail at the time his son, Colin, had been obsessed with Elsa since he was three-years-old.

Stuart had not considered gender stereotypes until other kids told his son 'dolls are for girls, not for boys'.

It inspired the author to try 'changing the conversation' around gender-based norms through his best-selling books.

Other parents said he won 'dad of the year award' in their eyes.

'You are the model of what every parent should be  bless you,' one wrote.
A brazen Royal Caribbean passenger has been accused of hurling himself off the cruise ship to skip out on paying off more than $16,000 in gambling debt.

Jey Gonzalez-Diaz jumped off the Rhapsody of the Seas boat as it disembarked at the Port of San Juan in Puerto Rico on Sunday around 9:15am, according to the affidavit.

The cruise line said he racked up $16,710 in debt 'almost exclusively' from casino visits during the week-long vacation, which is allegedly why he attempted the great escape.

Once he splashed into the water, he was brought to shore by someone driving a jet ski, dragging another rider along on an inflatable boat.

Images from the jaw-dropping moment show Gonzalez-Diaz in the water as he grabs onto the jet ski to climb on board.

Another grab from the security footage shows the alleged attempted scammer riding on the back of the vessel as it continues on its path to shore.

Gonzalez-Diaz was able to run from the port, but Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents caught him near the Puerto Rico Capitol Building and detained him at around 9:45am.

Officers found that the suspect was carrying a backpack filled with $14,600 in cash, a handbag, two cell phones and five different identification documents, the affidavit states.

Images from the jaw-dropping moment show Jey Gonzalez-Diaz in the water as he grabs onto the jet ski to climb on board (pictured)

The Rhapsody of the Seas (pictured) left Puerto Rico on August 31 and visited Barbados before returning on Sunday

The various forms of ID he possessed included a Tennessee identification card, a US passport, a Social Security card, a Puerto Rico birth certificate and a Royal Caribbean boarding pass.

Further complicating matters, there were different names used among the documents, according to agents.

The Tennessee ID and birth certificate were issued to a 'Jeremy Omar Gonzalez-Diaz.'

The boarding pass was under the name 'Jeremy Diaz,' the name that Royal Caribbean billed for the whopping gaming expenses.

'Jeremy Diaz' had booked the cruise, which departed from Puerto Rico on August 31 and visited Barbados before returning.

The Social Security card and passport read 'Jey Xander Omar Gonzalez Diaz.'

When investigators asked Gonzalez-Diaz for his real name, he boldly responded, 'If you guys were good at your job, you would know that,' according to the affidavit.

Puerto Rico state records confirmed Jey Gonzalez-Diaz as the defendant's true identity.

Another grab from the security footage shows the alleged attempted scammer riding on the back of the vessel as it continues on its path to shore (pictured)

Gonzalez-Diaz jumped off the Rhapsody of the Seas boat as it disembarked at the Port of San Juan (pictured) in Puerto Rico on Sunday

Other record checks revealed that a man named Jeremy Omar Gonzalez-Diaz has been incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Guaynabo since January. Gonzalez-Diaz claimed the man is his brother.

He justified his cruise ship plunge by stating he 'did not want to report the currency in his possession because he thought he was going to be taxed duties for bringing in the currency,' according to the complaint.

The attempted cruise ship escapee has been released on bail, as per local reports, but he is now facing federal charges that could land him five years in prison or up to a $250,000 fine.
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has doubled down on her decision not to apologise for her inflammatory comments about Labor allegedly 'importing' Indian voters, as the ongoing fallout threatens to tear the Coalition apart.

Senator Price faced backlash last week after accusing Labor of bringing in 'large numbers' of Indian migrants to help boost its vote.

The comments prompted Liberal Party numbers man Alex Hawke to ask her to clarify her comments, with their spat spilling into the public domain after Price subsequently accused him of 'cowardly and inappropriate conduct' towards her staff.

Several senior Coalition figures have called on Price to apologise but she has so far remained firm.

Now, she has effectively doubled down by re-sharing a lengthy post written by conservative political commentator Rukshan Fernando - before she held an impromptu press conference where she refused to express confidence in Opposition Leader Sussan Ley.

'Senator Jacinta Price's comments about Indian Australians were not racist in any way, and she should not apologise to anyone,' Mr Fernando wrote.

'Her observations about Australia's changing demographics are grounded in real world observations and, importantly, data.

'The overreaction to her remarks about Labor essentially importing Indian voters is evident in the obsessive demands for an apology to appease Indian Australians from the left, the mainstream media, and some so called conservatives.'

Senator Price faced backlash last week after accusing Labor of prioritising Indian migrants to help boost its vote. Now, she has effectively doubled down by re-sharing a lengthy post written by conservative political commentator Rukshan Fernando where he claims her comments were 'not racist'

It comes after several senior Coalition figures have called on Senator Price to apologise, as the fallout continues

He called for a 'broader discussion of the topic', claiming Labor was attractive to Indian-Australians because of the 'allure of victim-hood offered' by the party.

'I say all of this of course as an Australian with subcontinental heritage, I believe Senator Jacinta Price did a great service for Australia by opposing Labor and Albanese's push for racial apartheid during the Voice debate,' Mr Fernando, who was born in Sri Lanka, added.

Price shared his comments and thanked him, effectively endorsing what he had written and reiterating her decision not to apologise.

'You are an Aussie that fights for our values and freedoms and I am grateful for your support and common sense on current issues. One Australia for us all,' she wrote.

In a hastily-arranged press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Senator Price admitted her comments had been 'clumsy' but she insisted there needed to be a debate about immigration.

'The issue that's of great concern which I won't be silenced on is the issue of mass migration in our country and that was the prime issue that I was talking about and continue to talk about,' she told reporters in Perth.

'An issue that I truly believe that we need to be able to have a respectful debate about and we should all be focused on that.'

Senator Price said she had been contacted by an 'overwhelming' number of Australians, including those with Indian heritage, who were in support of her.

The ongoing fallout from her comments, made last Wednesday on the ABC's Afternoon Briefing program, has been a massive headache for Opposition Leader Sussan Ley (pictured) who almost immediately went into damage control

'I believe, as part of the Coalition and the Liberal Party, we should be turning our attention to ensuring that we're holding the Labor government to account on this particular issue,' she added.

'The fact that there is pressure on our infrastructure, on our schooling, on our housing, and effectively on Australian families of all different backgrounds, whether they are permanent residents, whether they are citizens.'

She added: 'The issue is mass migration...and that is the issue that we need to have a mature debate about in Australia in 2025.'

She also refused to express support for her boss, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, when she was asked whether she had confidence in her leadership.

She repeatedly said: 'Those matters are for our party room'.

'My focus is to go forward and to ensure we're doing the right thing by the Australian people which is what we're elected to do,' she added.

The ongoing fallout from her comments, made last Wednesday on the ABC's Afternoon Briefing program, has been a massive headache for Ley who almost immediately went into damage control.

Ley visited 'Little India' in Sydney's Harris Park on Sunday to speak with local businesses and community leaders.

She was told that many members of the community's 'hearts' were broken by these comments and was asked if Price should apologise.

'Senator Price has retracted her remarks, acknowledged that they were heard in a way that was hurtful and harmful,' Ley responded.

Multiple senior figures in the Coalition, including Nationals Leader David Littleproud and Alex Hawke, have subsequently called on Price to apologise.

On Wednesday, Liberal Senator Jane Hume, who was demoted after the disastrous defeat at the federal election, took the opportunity to stick the boot into Ley over her handling of the stoush.

'There is no doubt it has been terribly handled internally,' Senator Hume told Sky News.

'I think that the leader's office would probably now acknowledge that if the leader wanted an outcome, she probably should have picked up the phone herself rather than sending a henchman.

'Because this has been so poorly handled, it's now blown out of control. The question now is how do we bring the conversation back to what is important to everyday Australians.'

Hume had been dragged into the whole affair on Sunday when Senator Price accused Hawke of berating her staff.

'He even pressed my staff that if I did not comply with his requests, I may end up like another female member of the Coalition  who I won't name,' Senator Price claimed in a statement posted on social media.

It emerged that the individual in question was Hume, who was demoted after the election.

Hume was widely blamed for the Coalition's disastrous work from home policy, which former leader Peter Dutton was forced to walk back.

She also made an off-hand remark in the final week of the campaign claiming 'Chinese spies' were volunteering for the Labor Party which was blamed for a collapse in support for the Liberal vote among Chinese Australians.
Russia's 'unprecedented violation' of Polish air space was branded an 'act of war' by a pro-Trump Congressman as Polish leaders planned an 'extraordinary meeting' to respond.

NATO leaders scrambled to immediately address the first military incident between the countries since the 2022 Ukraine invasion after Poland said it shot down military drones that 'repeatedly violated' its airspace.

'Moscow always pushes the boundaries of what is possible,' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday. 'And if it does not encounter a strong reaction, it remains at the new level of escalation.'

Republican rep. Joe Wilson said Russia was 'attacking NATO ally Poland' with drones, calling it an 'act of war'.

'I urge President Trump to respond with mandatory sanctions that will bankrupt the Russian war machine and arm Ukraine with weapons capable of striking Russia,' he said.

Wilson added that the incursion meant that Putin was 'directly testing our resolve in NATO territory'.

'Free and prosperous nations will teach Russia about borders,' he said.

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said the Russian aggression was a sign 'Putin is testing our resolve to protect Poland and the Baltic nations'.

'After the carnage Putin continues to visit on Ukraine, these incursions cannot be ignored,' Durbin wrote on X.

Russia's 'unprecedented violation' of Polish air space was branded an 'act of war' by a pro-Trump Congressman as Polish leaders planned an 'extraordinary meeting' to respond

General Wieslaw Kukula, chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces and Commander-in-Chief of Police Marek Boron stand at the Chancellery of the Prime Minister for an extraordinary government meeting

NATO leaders scrambled to immediately address the first military incident between the countries since the 2022 Ukraine invasion after Poland said it shot down military drones that 'repeatedly violated' its airspace

Democrat Senator Chris Murphy told CNN Tuesday that although he had not been briefed, the drones flying over Poland would be 'incredibly serious'.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reportedly been briefed. There was no public comment from the White House or State Department early Wednesday.

Trump, who welcomed Putin to the United States for a summit in August, said over the weekend he was ready to move to a second phase of sanctioning Russia after months of fruitless talks about a peace deal.

The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House and the State Department for comment.

A spokesperson for the Polish government said that Prime Minister Donald Tusk is meeting with his cabinet and will hold an extraordinary meeting of its Council of Ministers early Tuesday morning, the BBC reported.

The country said it was forced to scramble its air defenses to take out the craft in the early hours of Wednesday - in its first engagement since the war began.

Residents have been urged to stay indoors as Polish armed forces 'identified and neutralized the objects'.

'Some of the drones that entered our airspace were shot down,' Poland's armed forces said.

Republican rep. Joe Wilson said Russia was 'attacking NATO ally Poland' with drones, calling it an 'act of war'

'Efforts are under way to search for and locate the possible crash sites of these objects.'

Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned the drones 'could have posed a threat', adding: 'The operation is ongoing.'

The escalation also saw NATO fighters clamber in Slovakia and Romania due to the threats from Vladimir Putin. A US F35 is also among jets involved in the mission.

Wednesday's military clash between Poland and Russia was the first of its kind since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The move was seen as an escalation by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Nato nation's army command first said in the early hours of the morning that airspace was violated by 'drone-type objects' during the Russian attack across the border in Ukraine.

'An operation is underway aimed at identifying and neutralizing these objects... weapons have been used, and service personnel are carrying out actions to locate the downed objects,' it said in a statement.

It said the military operation was ongoing and urged people to stay at home, naming the regions of Podlaskie, Mazowieckie, and Lublin as most at risk.

'The Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces is monitoring the situation, and subordinate forces and units remain on full readiness for immediate response,' it added.

Democrat Senator Dick Durbin said the Russian aggression was a sign 'Putin is testing our resolve to protect Poland and the Baltic nations'

Democrat Senator Chris Murphy told CNN Tuesday that although he had not been briefed the drones flying over Poland would be 'incredibly serious'

At least one US F-35 was among the NATO planes in the skies, and a refueling aircraft was sent from the Netherlands.

As the operation was underway, Russia reportedly staged a massive new missile and drone attack on neighboring Ukraine.

PM Tusk said in a statement: 'An operation is being conducted involving multiple violations of Polish airspace. The military used weapons against targets.'

'I am in constant contact with the president and the defense minister. I have received a direct report from the operation commander.'

The Polish leader later added: 'I received a report from the Operational Commander of the Armed Forces Branches regarding the downing of drones that intruded into our airspace and could have posed a threat.

'The operation is ongoing.'

The country also closed four airports, including its main Chopin Airport in Warsaw, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

There was no official confirmation from Polish authorities that any airports had been closed.

A spokesperson for the Polish government said that Prime Minister Donald Tusk (pictured) is meeting with his cabinet and will hold an extraordinary meeting of its Council of Ministers early Tuesday morning

At least one US F-35 was among the NATO planes in the skies, and a refueling aircraft was sent from the Netherlands

Andriy Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said: 'Russia has launched many missiles, and drone attacks continue, which pose a threat not only to our people.

'The terrorist country continues the war, although it constantly declares a desire for peace.'

Russia's defense ministry has yet to officially confirm the incident.

Earlier, the Ukrainian Air Force said on the Telegram messaging app that drones were heading west and threatening the city of Zamosc in Poland.

It was not immediately clear how many drones were in NATO member Poland's airspace.

Ukrainian media also reported that at least one drone was heading towards the western Polish city of Rzeszow, but Polish officials have not confirmed whether drones had entered their airspace.

Meanwhile, Poland's Operational Command has said that it continues to monitor the situation and that forces remain prepared to respond.

Unverified reports said Warsaw Airport had closed for 'unplanned military activity related to ensuring state security', but Polish officials or the airport's operators are yet to confirm this.

Meanwhile, plane tracking website FlightRadar24 said that a notice to airmen was active for four airports and traffic areas in Poland, with overflights continuing through the areas, 'but further west than usual'.

In the early morning hours, most of Ukraine, including western regions of Volyn and Lviv, which border Poland, were under air raid alerts for several hours, according to Ukraine's air force data.

The warning comes hours after Poland said it was closing its border with Belarus on Thursday as a result of Russia-led military exercises taking place in Belarus.

Russia and Belarus' large-scale military exercises, known as the 'Zapad' drills, have raised security concerns in neighboring NATO member states Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. 'Zapad-2025' (West-2025) will be held in western Russia and Belarus.

It also comes hours after a Russian airstrike killed 24 elderly people who were collecting pensions in a village in eastern Ukraine.

Russian troops have pressed a grinding offensive across much of the eastern Donetsk region as diplomatic efforts to achieve peace stalled.
A Ukrainian refugee who was brutally murdered onboard a train has been remembered as a 'true friend' by staff members at the pizzeria where she used to work.

Iryna Zarutska, 23, was an employee of Zappedies Pizzeria in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina - and was even seen wearing a Zeppedies shirt in shocking surveillance footage from the attack.

It showed her simply sitting on a South End light rail train and looking down at her phone on August 22, when career criminal Decarlos Brown Jr., 35, started slashing at her.

Prosecutors say Brown stabbed Zarutska a total of three times in the neck before he was seen walking off the train and leaving a trail of blood in his wake.

The brutal slaying has caused national outrage after it was revealed that Brown has been arrested at least 14 times in the past, and was out on bail at the time he allegedly killed the young woman.

As community members now reel from the unprovoked attack, Zeppedies Pizzeria took time to mourn the loss of its employee.

'We lost not only an incredible employee, but a true friend,' the pizzeria wrote on social media.

'Our dear Iryna left this world far too soon, and our hearts are heavy with grief,' it continued, noting that a candle has been left burning in her memory since her death, which it called 'a small reminder of the warmth, kindness and light she brought into our lives every single day.'

Iryna Zarutska, 23, was an employee of Zappedies Pizzeria in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina - and was even seen wearing a Zeppedies shirt in shocking surveillance footage from her brutal murder onboard a train on August 22

The pizzeria has now released a statement calling her a 'true friend'

It said in a social media post that a candle has been left burning in her memory since her death, which the restaurant called 'a small reminder of the warmth, kindness and light she brought into our lives every single day'

A family friend only identified as Lonnie also told the outlet that Zarutska, who fled her war-torn country in 2022, 'was always very helpful, very supportive and just had a heart of gold.

'She was a sweetheart,' he continued. 'And it makes me sick to think that she's gone.'

Zarutska had recently moved in with a partner, and was said to have 'loved America' so much that her family declined to have her body returned to Ukraine and instead chose to bury her in the United States.

Her untimely death came just minutes after she boarded the light rail train.

Once she sat down in the row in front of Brown, the suspect was seen ogling her for some time before took out what appeared to be a blade from his pocket.

He then stood up and loomed over the 23-year-old, swinging the knife down at her before he got off the train.

Meanwhile, Zarutska was seen cowering in fear and covering her face before slumping lifeless in a pool of blood.

One good Samaritan apparently tried to stop the bleeding, stripping off his green shirt to apply pressure to the wound.

But nearly one minute and 40 seconds had passed, and by then it was too late.

Another woman, in a black crop top and blue jeans, was also seen crouching beside Zarutska.

Other commuters, though, heartlessly filmed the disturbing scene.

A man in a blue McDonalds t-shirt, skull cap and glasses was caught on surveillance footage quickly whipping out his cell phone, while another woman filmed as blood seeped across the train car toward her feet.

Brown is now facing first-degree murder charges for the brutal slaying, and was charged federally on Tuesday with one count of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system.

In announcing the federal charges on Tuesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi argued that Zarutska's 'murder is a direct result of failed soft-on-crime policies that put criminals before innocent people.'

She said she has directed her attorneys to prosecute him federally so the Trump administration 'will seek the maximum penalty for this unforgivable crime, and he will never again see the light of day as a free man.'

If convicted, Brown could face both the state and federal death penalty.

Zarutska was seen wearing a Zeppedies Pizzeria shirt and hat when she boarded the South End light rail train and sat down in front of suspect Decarlos Brown Jr., 35

Brown is now accused of stabbing Zarutska three times in the neck before he got off the train, leaving his victim cowering in fear

The frightening incident ignited a social media frenzy and has become a flashpoint in the Trump administration's vows to launch a hardline crackdown on crime across the US.

The president addressed the heinous crime on Tuesday, saying Zarutska was 'slaughtered by a deranged monster who was roaming free after 14 prior arrests.'

'For too long, Americans have been forced to put up with Democrat-run cities that set loose savage, bloodthirsty criminals to prey on innocent people  really, very, very innocent people,' Trump said.

'We saw the results of these policies when a 23-year-old woman who came here from Ukraine met her bloody end on a public train.

'This is a picture of the woman  beautiful, young girl that never had problems in life, with a magnificent future in this country. And now shes dead,' the president added.

'She was slaughtered by a deranged monster who was roaming free after 14 prior arrests. We cannot allow a depraved criminal element of violent repeat offenders to continue spreading destruction and death throughout our country.'

Court records obtained by the Daily Mail have shown that he was charged with misusing 911 as recently as January, when he told cops he believed someone had given him a 'man-made' material that controlled his actions.

He was released without bail and a trial pending when he allegedly stabbed Zaruska to death.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi argued that Zarutska's 'murder is a direct result of failed soft-on-crime policies that put criminals before innocent people' as she announced that Brown will now face federal charges

Brown has spent most of his life in and out of prison. He served five years in prison for a 2014 armed robbery and was released in September, 2020 - when he quickly resumed a life of crime

Brown had also served five years in prison for a 2014 armed robbery and was released in September 2020.

In February 2021, he was arrested for assaulting his sister in Charlotte and leaving her with minor injuries, according to police records obtained by the Daily Mail.

That same month, he was again arrested for injury to personal property and trespassing.

A police report from that incident said Brown 'returned to the address after being told he was not allowed back and kicked and damaged the front door of the listed victim's residence.'

In July 2022, Brown was arrested for a domestic disturbance.

'[Brown] was arrested for disorderly conduct. The suspect was yelling and cursing, causing a disturbance and drawing the attention of multiple tenants while on the property,' a police report read.

Brown's arrest records go as far back as 2007, when he was still a minor.

Over the next seven years, he was arrested at least six times for crimes including felony larceny, robbery with a dangerous weapon and communicating threats.

According to the Charlotte Observer, most of the charges he faced during that time were dropped.

When reached for comment, the Mecklenburg District Attorney's Office told the Daily Mail last week it cannot speak about defendants with pending cases.

'In broad terms, it remains the position of the District Attorneys office that those who commit violent crimes should be held in custody pending trial,' the DA's said.

Brown's latest alleged crime is his most serious, and he now remains behind bars after a judge this week denied his bail.
An Aussie recruiter has revealed the tell-tale signs a candidate has used AI to write their resume, as she shared her top five tips for landing the job.

Catherine Kennedy, a managing director at people2people recruitment, said an increasing number of hopefuls were using AI tools to write their applications.

Fresh research from the company found 24 per cent of Gen Z and Millennial applicants used the technology to write their resume or cover letter.

Ms Kennedy said AI-generated resumes often contain distinctive clues in the grammar and diction, which are seen as 'red flags' by recruiters.

'A CV or cover letter that sounds fake or over-engineered can raise red flags,' the expert recruiter told Yahoo Finance.

'Hiring managers are becoming more alert to AI-written applications, and many now run extra screening or verification steps.'

Ms Kennedy shared her five tips for jobseekers using AI in their applications.

Firstly, the tone of the document should be kept authentic and unique to the jobseeker, with AI only used for structure or grammar.

People2people NSW Managing Director Catherine Kennedy (above) said an increasing number of Australians are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help land new jobs

But, she warned, recruiters are wising up to the tactic, so Australians will have to be smarter with how they use large language models (above, workers in Sydney's CBD)

Her second tip is to fact-check everything as AI tools can 'make up' details.

Thirdly, candidates are encouraged to customise their cover letters to suit the specific role and employer, as generic AI text can be spotted immediately.

Ms Kennedy's fourth tip: 'Don't overdo it'.

'Use AI as a polish, not to create your application from scratch,' she said.

Finally, applicants should always be honest about their experience for the role.

People2people's research showed 14 per cent of job applicants had used AI 'a lot' when applying for a job.

Gen X used AI for job applications the most, at 33 per cent, followed by Millennials and Gen Z at 24 per cent.

The research also noted 35 per cent of Australians admitted to lying or exaggerating on their resumes.

Sydney man Jackson Lusis (pictured) said he has lost out on jobs due to AI screening tools

Up to 90 per cent of those said AI had made it easier to do so.

Their biggest fear was 'sounding fake' when using AI, followed by 'getting caught' and 'accidentally lying'.

It comes after a young Australian worker blasted recruiters for using AI to sift through job applications.

Sydney man Jackson Lusis, 31, told Daily Mail he was 'out of ideas' after applying for 20 jobs a day for five months.

Mr Lusis said a large number of companies use AI to scan CVs, and if there aren't specific keywords in the resume, it automatically rejects a potential employee.

'I would apply for a job that I was overqualified for and I'd get an email back 30 minutes later saying I was unsuccessful and I was like, "No-one's had enough time to even look at my CV",' he told this publication.

'How can I be rejected that quickly? I've run out of ideas. Jobseeker barely covers my rent so I don't really have much of a life. I just want to work.'

Australia's unemployment rate of 4.3 per cent in June was the highest since November 2021, with 33,600 people losing their jobs.
A fashion label founded by Samantha Cameron and worn by the Princess of Wales and Queen Camilla is to be wound down after never turning a profit.

Lady Cameron, the wife of former Prime Minister David, launched Cefinn in 2017, and once counted Gillian Anderson, and Holly Willoughby but also Queen Camilla and Kate among its fans.

But despite producing around 30 collections, the brand failed to break even and will soon close its two London shops.

The company, which she created as a workwear line offering 'an urban uniform for busy women', was named after the initials of her four children, Ivan, who died in 2009, Elwen, Florence and Nancy.

Camilla was seen wearing a green shibori print in 2022 which Lady Cameron has worn in social media posts. The Princess of Wales has also been seen wearing one of Cameron's outfits, a 'Petra' leopard print midi in 2023.

The former creative director at Smythson of Bond Street expanded the range into more casualwear during the pandemic, but the business continued to struggle with losses.

In a statement, reported by the Times, the 54-year-old said: 'This was not a decision I have taken lightly, especially as we have recently seen strong trading figures.

The clothes produced by Lady Cameron's firm have been worn by the Princess of Wales, wearing a 'Petra' leopard print midi (above)

Lady Cameron, the wife of former Prime Minister, launched Cefinn in 2017, and once counted Gillian Anderson , Gabby Logan and Holly Willoughby among its fans.

Cefinn's eye-catching green shibori print was worn by Camilla in 2022. Right: Samantha debuts the print as part of the spring 2022 collection

'But, as a small company navigating the turbulence in the fashion wholesale sector, ongoing cost pressures and international trading restrictions, I have found it increasingly difficult to be certain that Cefinn can achieve the level of growth needed to reach a stable and profitable position.'

She added that it had been a very hard decision and she was 'deeply grateful' to work with a team of 'brilliant, talented and dedicated' colleagues.

Cefinn's shops on King's Road and Elizabeth Street in Belgravia will stay open for now, selling autumn and winter collections, but are expected to close before spring.

Its 24 employees are set to receive redundancy packages and paid notice.

As previously reported by the Mail, latest accounts show sales fell by five per cent to 4.2million for the year ending October, with pre-tax losses narrowing slightly from 357,000 to 354,000.

The label said it 'reflects the nature of an evolving, contemporary fashion business which has had to change its strategy mid-year through no fault of its own.'

The collapse of Matches Fashion last year and the struggles of Net-a-Porter, along with the broader luxury e-commerce sector, have created a ripple effect, impacting independent fashion businesses.

Cameron had previously admitted Brexit made survival 'challenging and difficult'.

The brand had once secured a 2.5million injection from Conservative donor Lord Brownlow, but it is understood Cameron was reluctant to raise further cash from investors.

At the wedding of former chancellor George Osborne in July 2023, Lady Cameron wore her brand's 'Jacquetta' dress

She said: 'Our amazing customers have made every year rewarding; their styling of Cefinn, loyalty and lovely feedback has been a constant source of inspiration.'

Cameron studied design while her husband served as prime minister.

In 2021, she told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour that Brexit had made business survival 'challenging and difficult'.

The brand switched to selling direct to customers in response to the problems at Matches, which was put into administration by Frasers Group last year.

However, it still struggled. Reports suggested Cameron was owed more than 100,000 after the wholesale distributor's administration.

'Our amazing customers have made every year rewarding; their styling of Cefinn, loyalty and lovely feedback has been a constant source of inspiration,' Cameron said.
Poland's Prime Minister today warned 'we are closer to war than any time since World War Two' after his country shot down Russian drones violating its airspace.

Donald Tusk denounced the 'large-scale provocation', saying Poland had identified 19 violations and shot down at least three drones overnight.

NATO was pressed to deploy a force of multinational fighter jets and employed Italian surveillance aircraft after patriot defence systems detected drones on their radars.

Russian drones and missiles have entered NATO airspace several times during Russia's war in Ukraine, but a NATO country has never tried to shoot them down.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on social media that the airspace violation was a 'dangerous precedent' for Europe, saying it was 'no accident'.

He brandished the incursion, which damaged a house and a car, an attempt to 'humiliate' Poland, and called for a strong response from NATO.

'Russia must feel that the response to this escalatory step, and even more so to an attempt to humiliate one of Europe's key countries, will be clear and strong from all partners,' Zelensky said.

Tusk said he had invoked NATO's Article 4 under which any member can call urgent talks when it feels its 'territorial integrity, political independence or security' are at risk - only the eighth time the measure has ever been used.

The incident has pushed tensions with an increasingly emboldened Vladimir Putin into uncharted territory, with NATO chief Mark Rutte vowing that 'we will defend every inch of NATO territory'.

Multiple Russian drones moving from Ukraine airspace into Poland's

Polish television channel TV Republika shared this image of one of the downed drones

Photos show the extent of damage to a house in Poland after Putin's drones were flown in

A house is damaged after a drone struck a residential building, according to authorities in Poland

An area was cordoned off as investigators inspected parts of a discovered drone in Mnishkov

A UAV is shot out of the skies. The full force of NATO's fighter planes was used to counter Russia's drones

Donald Tusk holding an emergency meeting today with senior officials after Russia's actions

Senior army officials, including the Chief of the General Staff of the Army, Wieslaw Kukula, are at the extraordinary meeting

Explosions seen in the night sky over Kyiv, where Ukrainian troops fired at Russian drones

Poland's Tusk met with top officials after the stand-off and relayed that the drones were shot down in a joint effort with NATO allies. He said that Poland was in communication with allies.

The North Atlantic Council, NATO's main political decision-making body, also changed the format of its weekly meeting on Wednesday, holding it under Article 4 of the alliance treaty.

A cornerstone of the Western military alliance is the principle that an attack on any member is deemed an attack on all.

Earlier, Donald Tusk accused Russia of a 'large-scale provocation' and said: 'This is the first time Russian drones have been shot down over the territory of a Nato country. All our allies are taking the situation very seriously. We have not recorded any casualties.'

More than eight million Poles were ordered to hide in their homes as the drones flew overhead, with debris from one shot-down device crashing into a house.

The operational command of Poland's military said the airspace violations were 'unprecedented' and called it 'an act of aggression'.

Russia's top diplomat in Poland, Andrei Ordash, told RIA Novosti, meanwhile, that he had been summoned to the foreign ministry for a meeting at noon (10am GMT).

He said Warsaw was yet to show evidence that the drones shot down overnight had come from Russia.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the 'egregious and unprecedented violation of Polish and Nato airspace by Russian drones'.

He said: 'This morning's barbaric attack on Ukraine and the egregious and unprecedented violation of Polish and Nato airspace by Russian drones is deeply concerning.

'This was an extremely reckless move by Russia and only serves to remind us of President Putin's blatant disregard for peace, and the constant bombardment innocent Ukrainians face every day.' He also said he had been in contact with the Polish leader to offer support.

Parts of a damaged UAV shot down by Polish authorities at a site near Zamosc

Firefighters secure parts of a damaged UAV that was shot down. Reports indicated around ten Shahed-2 drone incursions into Polish airspace

The roof of a home was demolished after it was hit by a drone

Polish authorities inspecting the site of a Russian drone shot down

Ukraine was unwavering in its assertion that Russia had tried to 'humiliate' Poland with an 'escalatory' attack.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said the incident was 'no accident'. Writing on X, he said: 'Increasing evidence indicates that this movement, this direction of strike, was no accident.

'Russia must feel that the response to this escalatory step, and even more so to an attempt to humiliate one of Europe's key countries, will be clear and strong from all partners,' Zelensky said.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X: 'Russian drones flying into Poland during the massive attack on Ukraine show that Putin's sense of impunity keeps growing because he was not properly punished for his previous crimes.

'Putin just keeps escalating, expanding his war, and testing the West,' Sybiha said. 'The longer he faces no strength in response, the more aggressive he gets.'

'A weak response now will provoke Russia even more - and then Russian missiles and drones will fly even further into Europe,' he added. Poland's prime minister, Donald Tusk, has condemned the violation of the country's airspace and says it was likely a large-scale provocation. He also warned that it tests 'NATO's response threshold'.

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, agreed that early indications suggest the drone incident was intentional.

'Last night in Poland we saw the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began, and indications suggest it was intentional, not accidental,' Kallas said in a statement.

The EU's top diplomat said that she is in contact with NATO and Poland's foreign minister.

'The EU stands in full solidarity with Poland. Russia's war is escalating, not ending. We must raise the cost to Moscow, strengthen support for Ukraine, and invest in Europe's defence,' she said.

A senior NATO diplomat, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the incursion was 'not seen as the start of something bigger'.

'There was no word on whether this was intentional - it looks like it was either aimed at testing NATO or it could have been that the aim was to approach targets in Ukraine from a different angle,' the diplomat said.

Soldiers seen patrolling the street where a drone struck a roof

Russia launched at least two waves of drone attacks on Ukraine (pictured: strikes over Kyiv)

Russia's President Vladimir Putin, pictured on September 8, is yet to speak out

British forces were not directly involved in the rush to defend Polish airspace, defence sources confirmed this morning.

British troops, air defence systems and aircraft are based in eastern Poland. These assets include RAF Typhoon jets and C-17 and A400 transport aircraft. The jets are deployed as part of NATO's enhanced air policing role.

Belarus also said on Wednesday that it had shot down some drones which went astray due to electronic jamming during an exchange of strikes between Russia and Ukraine, and that Minsk had informed Poland and Lithuania of the approach of the drones.

The statement by Belarus's Chief of the General Staff, Major General Pavel Muraveiko, did not say whose drones went astray.

It said: 'Some of the lost drones were destroyed by our country's Air Defence Forces over the territory of the republic.' He added that Poland and Lithuania were informed of the approach of the drones.

Observers have indicated that with this, Putin may be laying the groundwork for a future invasion of Poland or other NATO nations. Since last week, Russia has been preparing to hold its huge military drills, which take place every four years. Officials have described them as 'provocations'.

It has also been noted that the drills typically follow a significant military action, raising fears that Putin could escalate his aggression a step further. Critics have said the drills are rehearsals for future potential attacks on Europe.

Yesterday, it was announced that Poland was shutting its border with Belarus from midnight on Thursday in response to the Zapad exercise, a collaboration between Russia and Belarus. Tusk said: 'We are facing a growing number of provocations from Russia and Belarus.'

Donald Tusk speaking at parliament today. It was reported in Polish media that Tusk has requested the triggering of NATO's Article 4

The recent development has caused major disruptions in Poland. There are several flight delays at the international airport in Warsaw

Poland officials are inspecting the sites of the downed drones. It has warned residents not to touch or move any of the objects if found, as they may pose a threat and could contain hazardous material

The recent development has caused major disruptions in Poland. There are several flight delays at the international airport in Warsaw.

A search for possible crash sites is now ongoing, according to Poland's armed forces.

Poland's armed forces have warned residents not to touch or move any of the objects if found, as they may pose a threat and could contain hazardous material.

The country's defence minister thanked NATO Air Command and the Royal Netherlands Air and Space Force for supporting the action with F-35 fighter jets.

Mr Tusk warned the drones 'could have posed a threat', adding: 'The operation is ongoing.'

He said he was in constant contact with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, while Finnish MP Jarno Limnell said: 'When NATO airspace is violated, the entire alliance is involved. This is not about an individual incident but an action that tests NATO's response threshold.'

The escalation also saw NATO fighters clamber in Slovakia and Romania due to the threats from Vladimir Putin. A US F35 is also among jets involved in the mission. Russia has remained silent on the incident so far.

One report said Polish police had discovered the wreckage of a Russian attack drone, near the village of Czosnowka in eastern Poland, 15 miles from the border with Belarus.

The nation was forced to scramble its air defences to take out the craft in the early hours of Wednesday - in its first engagement since the war began

Poland's president Karol Nawrocki speaking at a press conference today. Earlier, he described the situation as an unprecedented moment in NATO history

Poland's prime minister speaks in parliament about the Russian drone incursions

People watch on as authorities investigate a drone that struck the roof of a house

Wednesday's clash was the first of its kind since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The move was seen as an escalation by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Poland's army command first said in the early hours of the morning that airspace was violated by 'drone-type objects' during the Russian attack across the border in Ukraine.

'An operation is underway aimed at identifying and neutralising these objects... weapons have been used, and service personnel are carrying out actions to locate the downed objects,' it said in a statement.

It said the military operation was ongoing and urged people to stay at home, naming the regions of Podlaskie, Mazowieckie, and Lublin as most at risk.

'The Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces is monitoring the situation, and subordinate forces and units remain on full readiness for immediate response,' it added.

A further statement added: 'As a result of attack by the Russian Federation on Ukrainian territory, there was an unprecedented violation of Polish airspace by drone-type objects.

'This is an act of aggression that posed a real threat to the safety of our citizens.

Polish prime minister Donald Tusk, pictured on September 4, said: 'The operation is ongoing'

Donald Tusk said on X that the drones that 'intruded' Polish airspace could have posed a threat

A cordoned-off area and part of a discovered drone is seen in the village of Mniszkow in central Poland, where one of the Russian drones that breached Polish airspace last night was discovered on September 10

'On the order of the Operational Commander of the Polish Armed Forces, defensive procedures were immediately activated.

'Polish and allied assets radar-tracked several objects, and the Operational Commander of the Polish Armed Forces made decisions to neutralise those that could pose a threat.

'Some of the drones that entered our airspace were shot down. Efforts are underway to search for and locate the possible crash sites of these objects.

'The Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces is monitoring the current situation, and Polish and allied forces and assets remain fully prepared for further actions.'

At least one US F-35 was among the NATO planes in the skies, and a refuelling aircraft was sent from the Netherlands.

As the operation was underway, Russia reportedly staged a massive new missile and drone attack on neighbouring Ukraine.

Mr Tusk called an emergency session with his security ministers for 7am UK time.

The country also closed four airports, including its main Chopin Airport in Warsaw, according to the US Federal Aviation Administration.

Poland was on high alert early Wednesday as a result of Ukraine's warning (file photo of a US F-35)

There was no official confirmation from Polish authorities that any airports had been closed.

Andriy Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said: 'Russia has launched many missiles, and drone attacks continue, which pose a threat not only to our people.

'The terrorist country continues the war, although it constantly declares a desire for peace.'

The RzeszowJasionka Airport in Poland's southeast, a hub for passenger and arms transfers to Ukraine, was among the airports that had been temporarily closed, the FAA said.

Earlier, the Ukrainian Air Force said on the Telegram messaging app that drones were heading west and threatening the city of Zamosc in Poland.

Ukrainian media also reported that at least one drone was heading towards the western Polish city of Rzeszow, but Polish officials had not confirmed whether drones had entered their airspace.

The Polish Territorial Defence Force shortened the times needed for defence personnel to be prepared to report for active service. Those in red areas were warned to be ready within six hours, those in yellow had to be prepared in 12

Plane tracking website FlightRadar24 said that a notice to airmen was active for four airports and traffic areas in Poland, with overflights continuing through the areas, 'but further west than usual'.

As of midnight GMT, most of Ukraine, including western regions of Volyn and Lviv, which border Poland, were under air raid alerts for several hours, according to Ukraine's air force data.

In a second wave of missile and drone strikes against Ukraine, Russia hit Vasylkiv, Kyiv region, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, and Kalush in Ivano-Frankivsk region, Drohobych in Lviv region, and the city of Lutsk.

Explosions were heard in all these locations following air alerts across Ukraine.

Lutsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Lviv regions are all in western Ukraine in proximity to NATO borders.

Polish officials investigating the site have warned that the UAVs could contain hazards

Kyiv warned that Russia's actions are an escalation of the war in Ukraine

The incursion comes hours after a Russian airstrike killed 24 elderly people who were collecting pensions in a village in eastern Ukraine.

Russian troops have pressed a grinding offensive across much of the eastern Donetsk region as diplomatic efforts to achieve peace stalled.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said a guided bomb had struck the village of Yarova, about 15 miles from the city of Slovyansk, a Ukrainian stronghold, and several miles behind the front line.

'Directly on people. Ordinary civilians. At the very moment when pensions were being disbursed,' he wrote on X alongside footage showing bodies strewn across the ground.

Twenty-four people were killed and another 19 were wounded, the State Emergency Service said. All of the dead were elderly, said regional governor Vadym Filashkin.

'The world must not remain silent,' Zelensky said. 'The world must not remain idle. A response is needed from the United States. A response is needed from Europe. A response is needed from the G20.'

There is an increased security presence in Poland after Russia's drones

Russia did not immediately comment on the incursion. Moscow has denied targeting civilians, but tens of thousands have died since its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

In the US, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been briefed on reports of Russian drones over Poland, CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins said on Tuesday.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said repeated violations of NATO airspace by Russian drones were a sign that 'Vladimir Putin is testing our resolve to protect Poland and the Baltic nations'.

'After the carnage Putin continues to visit on Ukraine, these incursions cannot be ignored,' he said on X.

Republican representative Joe Wilson, a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a post on X that Russia was 'attacking NATO ally Poland' with drones, calling it an 'act of war'.

Wilson urged US President Donald Trump to respond with sanctions 'that will bankrupt the Russian war machine'.

'Putin is no longer content just losing in Ukraine while bombing mothers and babies, he is now directly testing our resolve in NATO territory,' he said.

Trump, who warmly welcomed Putin to the United States for a summit in August, said over the weekend he was ready to move to a second phase of sanctioning Russia after months of fruitless talks about a peace deal.
A tornado has been spotted in central New South Wales as a severe weather warning has been issued for the area.

Several storms swept across the state on Wednesday afternoon, leading to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) releasing a tornado notice for Young and Cowra, and the surrounding area.

Chilling footage captured about 3.30pm by a NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) tower, which looks out to the northwest of Young, showed a tornado piercing the skyline.

'The Rural Fire Service fire tower cameras picked up what was believed to be a very significant weather cell building to the northwest of Young, around [an area] called Tubbul,' NSW RFS inspector James Morris said.

'That fire tower camera picked up the cell, which was then sent through directly to our fire behaviour analyst team through to the Bureau of Meteorology, which we believe provided notification and warning of what we believe would be a tornado cell forming in that area.'

Mr Morris said there have been no reports of any injuries or significant damage at this stage.

The bureau has since cancelled the tornado warning but residents have been urged to stay indoors with severe weather still likely.

A cold front attached to a low-pressure system was moving eastwards through central parts of NSW, resulting in severe thunderstorms on Wednesday.

Footage captured about 3.30pm by a NSW RFS tower showed a tornado piercing the skyline

Millions of Aussies woke up to rain in NSW (pictured, a commuter in Sydney's CBD)

'Very dangerous thunderstorms are likely to produce tornadoes, destructive winds, large hailstones and heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding over the next several hours in parts of the Central Tablelands, South West Slopes, Southern Tablelands and Central West Slopes and Plains districts,' the BOM's warning issued just before 4pm said.

'Locations which may be affected include Young and Cowra.'

Meanwhile, Australia is on the verge of its fifth La Nina event in six years, a climate cycle known for changing the typical weather pattern and increasing the continent's odds of rain and flooding.

Looking at the latest models, there is a substantial chance that La Nina could develop in the spring months.

This means there are significant chances of above-normal rainfall for the rest of the year, especially in Australia's east, centre and north.

Millions of Aussies experienced an onslaught of wet weather on Wednesday, with the worst yet to come.

A low-pressure system developed over South Australia on Tuesday before travelling eastward and blanketing NSW.

The heaviest rain fell in the Central Tablelands overnight on Wednesday with Mudgee and Orange recording rainfall of 60mm and 53mm respectively. There were also strong wind gusts of almost 90km/h.

A tornado was spotted to the northwest of Young, near Tubbul, on Wednesday

Relatively cool waters in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in blue, and warm waters near Australia, are a sign another La Nina event could be on its way

The bureau's senior meteorologist Angus Hines told Daily Mail the low-pressure system continued to be the 'main engine' for the wet weather.

In southern NSW, severe weather warnings were issued for the Illawarra, South Coast and Southern Tablelands on Wednesday.

Heavy rainfall is expected in the area.

A gale warning is currently issued for the Illawarra and Batemans coast while lesser wind warnings are in place for other stretches of the coastline.

The Byron Coast, Coffs Coast, Macquarie Coast, Hunter Coast, Sydney Coast and the Eden Coast have been put on alert for strong winds, which are expected to develop into a gale warning on Wednesday for many of the regions.

The 'complex low' over southeastern NSW is expected to move offshore by Thursday morning, with heavy rain and potential flash floods to follow.

'We're seeing a very windy few days,' Mr Hines told Daily Mail.

'It's really ramping up and will strengthen today and overnight... the system will be at its strongest when it crosses the coast overnight and tomorrow morning.

'For those coastal areas the strongest wind does depend on the makeup of the weather system, and can occur when the centre of the system gets closer.

'Those low-pressure areas can tighten up and intensify when they move away from the coast and there's nothing in their path to impede it.'
France was plunged into street chaos this morning as an anti-government 'Block Everything' campaign of strikes and protests was launched across the country.

The interior minister announced nearly 200 arrests in the first hours, as attempts were made to disrupt key transport links, including the Eurostar hub at Gare du Nord.

'Most of those taken into custody were threatening public order,' said a police spokesman in the French capital. 'Many more are expected to gather as the day progresses.'

Groups of protesters repeatedly tried to block Paris' beltway during the morning rush hour on Wednesday.

They erected barricades and hurled objects at police officers, blocked and slowed traffic and carried out other protest actions.

Meanwhile, protesters wearing masks and hoodies could be seen trying to set up barricades, and to block road intersections in cities including Bordeaux and Marseille.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said that a bus was set on fire in the western city of Rennes and that damage to a power line blocked trains on a line in the southwest.

He alleged that protesters were attempting to create 'a climate of insurrection.'

The insurrection came fewer than 24 hours after President Emmanuel Macron appointed his seventh prime minister in less than nine years.

Sebastien Lecornu has pledged to do a better job than his immediate predecessor, Francois Bayrou, who was forced out by losing a self-imposed confidence vote in the French parliament on Monday night.

Protesters set up a fire to block the Cadix viaduct in Caen

A protester brandishes a smoke flame by a barricade on fire during a demonstration part of the 'Bloquons tout' protest movement, in the south east of Paris, on September 10, 2025

A student protester sits on a bin blocking the street while taking part in a demonstration of the 'Bloquons tout' ('Let's block everything') protest movement, in Marseille

Protesters block a street in Paris, on Wednesday, September 10

Riot police amass near a protest in Paris on Wednesday

Police officers in riot gear clash with demonstrators in Paris

Clashes between protesters and police near the Helene-Boucher high school in Paris

Police were said to have been forced to retreat and use tear gas to disperse the crowds

Police are pictured with riot gear as protesters hurl bins in their direction

Mr Bayrou ultimately went because he wanted to slash the equivalent of some 35billion from public spending, because the national debt is currently 114% of GDP.

He specifically wanted to cut two public holidays, and freeze pensions and welfare payments, while making thousands of civil servants unemployed.

Mr Lecornu is determined to build a majority in the National Assembly to push through the same Macron-approved austerity budget, and this has infuriated millions.

Some 80,000 police and gendarmes have been deployed across France to deal with the 'Block Everything' campaign.

The protest movement is social media based, and supported by the CGT (Confederation of General Workers), the largest trade union in the country.

They also intend to blockade fuel depots, hold go-slow operations on roads, and demonstrate in city and town centres.

Some online messaging has even encouraged people to walk into supermarkets, fill up their bags with food, and then to leave without paying.

Information about Wednesday's demonstrations surfaced on social media over the summer, drawing comparisons to the 2018 'Yellow Vest' protests that initially sprang up over fuel hikes but morphed into a broader movement against French President Emmanuel Macron and his plans for economic reform.

There is no centralised leadership to 'Block Everything'  making it similar to the infamous but hugely effective Yellow Vest (Gilets Jaunes) movement.

The Gilets Jaunes took part in regular riots  especially on a Saturday  and caused damage estimated at the equivalent of some 250million.

A protester holds a smoke flare and waves a pirate flag during a demonstration in Montpellier

Protesters face police forces using tear gas during a protest at Porte de Vincennes at the entrance to Paris

Police remove burning bins and other objects placed by demonstrators in Nantes

Police use tear gas to disperse people demonstrating at a roundabout to block traffic at Pres d'Arenes in Montpellier

Police officers stand in formation as tyres burn blocking vehicles on a road during a demonstration in Nantes

Members of the police walk next to a fire as they clear a highway, as protesters attend a demonstration in Porte d'Aubervilliers, Paris

A man reacts in front of clouds of smoke from objects set ablaze by protesters who gathered to block the Viaduc de Calix

French outgoing Prime Minister Francois Bayrou shakes hands with newly appointed Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu as he arrives for the handover ceremony at the Hotel Matignon in Paris, France, September 10

They also forced Mr Macron into policy changes  such as removing environmental taxes from the price of fuel, before fizzling out around the time of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Gilets Jaunes wore trademark hi-vis yellow vests, but 'Block Everything' does not yet appear to have a specific style of dress yet, beyond black clothes.

Sud-Rail (South Rail)  another major union  published an X post reading: 'The fall of the government is good, but it's insufficient', and encouraged its members to strike.

The current two-day labour stoppage is expected to affect domestic and international travel across the country.

It is coordinated to take place at the same time as a London Underground strike, presenting huge problems for thousands of people from Britain making their way to Paris on high-speed Eurostar trains.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau told reporters early on Wednesday that about 50 hooded people had tried to start a blockade in Bordeaux, while in Toulouse, a cable fire that had been stopped quickly had still managed to disrupt traffic between Toulouse and Auch in southwestern France.

Retailleau said some actions had also taken place in Paris overnight, though he did not provide details.

Paris police said that 75 people had been arrested in the demonstrations so far, but did not give details on where they took place or the reason for the arrests.

Police officers arrive to secure a road after protesters set up a fire on the ring road of Rennes, western France, on September 10, 2025

Demonstrators walk downtown as they try to block roads in Bayonne

Officers from the Mobile Gendarmerie (GM) subdivision (L) clear a blockade set up by protesters (R) at the Cadix viaduct as part of the "Bloquons tout" ("Let's block everything") protest movement, in Caen, north-western France, on September 10

A protester holds a sign that reads: 'High schools students against 'Macronia'' during a demonstration in Montpellier

Protesters raise a banner in Montpellier, France, September 10, 2025

A protester holds a sign reading 'Macron join Bayrou' during a rally in Montpellier

In a protest against the outgoing government's austerity budget, an online collective called 'Bloquons Tout' has called for everyone to block the entire country (Montpellier pictured)

Protesters face police forces while blocking streets during a call for action by the 'Bloquons tout' (Block everything) collective in Montpellier, France, September 10, 2025

The broad anti-government campaign, dubbed 'Bloquons tout' ('Let's block everything'), calls for a a shutdown of France with a string of protest actions and civil disobedience around the country (pictured: Cours de Vincennes avenue)

Elsewhere, Vinci, a highway operator, reported protests and traffic disruptions on highways throughout France, including Marseille, Montpellier, Nantes and Lyon.

Retailleau, the interior minister, said 80,000 security forces had been deployed throughout the country, including 6,000 in Paris.

French media had reported that 100,000 people were expected to participate in the demonstrations.

There have also been calls for further protests and stoppages on September 18th, when air traffic controllers will be among those striking.

Mr Macron's office has said the president wants his new prime minister to hold talks with all parliamentary opponents to find compromises on the budget and other policies before naming his cabinet to replace the one that has just been dissolved following Mr Bayrou's departure.

This means that the French government is currently Mr Macron and Mr Lecornu.
Horrified tourists watched as a pack of lions ate a zookeeper alive in Thailand this morning.

The beasts pounced on the worker when he stepped out of his jeep in the open enclosure at Safari World in Bangkok at around 11 am local time.

Shocked visitors screamed as the predators pinned down their victim and feasted on human flesh.

Onlookers, including a number of zoo workers, could only sound their horns in a futile attempt to scare away the sub-Saharan big cats.

Officials arrived with guns, which caused the lions to scatter, but the zookeeper was already mauled to death as the lions gnawed his body until the bones were exposed.

Zoo staff eventually drove the lions away and closed the drive-through area, where a puddle of blood could be seen on the ground.

Eye-witness Professor Tavatchai Kanchanarin, a doctor at a leading hospital who was visiting at the time, said: 'A man got off an uncovered car and stood alone with his back turned to the animals, which I thought was weird.

'He stood for about three minutes, then a lion walked slowly and grabbed him from the back. He did not scream,' he told local media Thairath television.

Horrified tourists watched as a pack of lions ate a zookeeper alive in Thailand this morning. Pictured: The zookeeper

The beasts pounced on the worker when he stepped out of his jeep in the open enclosure at Safari World in Bangkok at around 11 am local time. Pictured: The lions seen today after the attack

The professor added: 'It was about 10 metres away, then slowly approached and grabbed the zookeeper from behind, dragging him to the ground and biting him.

'Three or four other lions then joined in with biting the zookeeper.

'Many people witnessed the incident but didn't know how to help. They honked their own car horns and shouted for help.

'At first, I assumed it was familiar to the zookeepers, as the person who was bitten might have been a lion keeper. I thought the lions were trying to hug him, so no one went near that area.'

Tavatchai said the attack continued for around 15 minutes before zoo staff were able to reach the victim. He was rushed to the hospital but was pronounced dead upon arrival.

'The deceased is a zoo staff member who usually fed the lions,' Sadudee Punpugdee, wildlife protection director of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation confirmed to local media.

He said the keeper was apparently mauled by six or seven of the big cats when he stepped out of his car.

Edwin Wiek from conservation group Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand wrote in a statement posted to Facebook: 'We would like to express our sincere condolences to the deceased animal keeper.'

'This incident should serve as a stark reminder that these animals, even when raised by humans from birth, still pose a serious threat to human life that can be triggered without warning.'

A senior zoo official, whose name was withheld, told local media that all of the park's lions were licensed.

'We have rules and we repeat them often as we work with dangerous animals,' he said.

The victim, who had worked as a zoo supervisor for more than thirty years, was 'a kind man,' he added.

Safari World's website says 'visitors can get up close and personal with wild animals such as tigers, lions, bears and zebras wandering freely in their natural habitats.'

Lion ownership is legal in Thailand, where the captive lion population has exploded in recent years, with nearly 500 registered in zoos, breeding farms, petting cafes and homes.

'Safari World must relocate the lions, who have done nothing wrong other than exhibit their natural behaviours, to a sanctuary,' said animal rights NGO People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in a statement Wednesday.

Owners at the Bangkok World Safari Park have yet to comment on the incident

The park is best known for its orangutan that hugs and gropes female visitors as they pose for pictures.

However, the attraction has attracted criticism from animal rights groups such as PETA, who claim the ape is subject to poor treatment while being 'humiliated and exploited'.

It comes after a zookeeper was mauled to death by a rare female white Bengal tiger when he mistakenly entered the big cat's cage during its feeding time in April.

Alexey Melnikov died instantly at Mariupol Zoo in Russian-occupied Ukraine after the tigress - named Lucy - 'attacked him and gnawed his head'.

Fellow zoo employee, Galina Zamarakhina, who narrowly escaped the beast, witnessed the horrific attack.

She explained that Alexey was under the impression that he had moved the tigress to another cage before entering the enclosure.

But it appears he had in fact not moved the big cat, and was shocked to encounter Lucy lurking in a wooden den when he entered the cage.

'I heard a scream,' Galina recalled.

'I somehow managed to close the cage in time, because she [the tigress] was looking at me.

'I don't know how I managed to shut it', she added.
In a significant escalation of the war in the Middle East, Israel carried out an unprecedented strike on senior Hamas leaders in Qatar's capital, Doha, on Tuesday afternoon.

Qatar immediately condemned the 'reckless Israeli behaviour', accusing the country of launching a 'cowardly criminal assault' and of violating international law.

The bold airstrike involved some 15 Israeli Air Force fighter jets dropping over 10 munitions on a residential building that had been identified as a regular meeting place for Hamas leadership.

Israel is said to be 'increasingly optimistic' about the results of the attack, codenamed Summit of Fire, but the terrorist group said the strike had failed to wipe out senior officials in the group's negotiating team. It did, however, kill six others.

According to Hamas, those killed include Humam Al-Hayya, the son of chief negotiator al-Hayya; Jihad Labad, the director of al-Hayya's office; Abdullah Abdul Wahid; Moamen Hassouna; Ahmed Al-Mamluk and corporal Badr Saad Mohammed Al-Humaidi from the Qatari internal security forces.

The surprise attack was aiming for senior Hamas officials reportedly meeting in Doha to discuss U.S. President Trump's deal for ending the war, which called for the terrorist group to immediately release the remaining 48 Israeli hostages - of whom 20 are believed to be alive - and a temporary ceasefire.

Justifying the attack, the Israel Defence Forces claimed to have targeted officials 'directly responsible for the brutal October 7 massacre'.

A Hamas statement said: 'We confirm the enemy's failure to assassinate our brothers in the negotiating delegation.' It added that the attack 'confirms beyond doubt that Netanyahu and his government do not want to reach any agreement' for peace.

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A man watches smoke billowing after explosions in Doha's capital Qatar on September 9, 2025

A damaged building, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders, according to an Israeli official, in Doha, Qatar, September 9

How did the attack happen?

According to Israeli officials, the strike was months in the making but planning accelerated in recent weeks.

It was a wholly independent Israeli operation, according to a statement from the Israeli prime minister's office. 'Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility.'

The IDF said measures were taken to mitigate harm to civilians, including the use of 'precise munitions' and 'additional intelligence'.

Qatar has a significant arsenal of air defence systems, including the U.S.-made Patriot and Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) batteries.

But the country said the Israeli weapons 'were not detected by radar'.

This indicates that the Israeli fighter jets could have launched so-called 'stand-off' missiles from a distance, without entering Qatari airspace.

The first explosions were heard in the Qatari capital of Doha soon after 4 pm local time in the upscale residential area of the West Bay Lagoon, near schools, universities and foreign embassies.

Black plumes of smoke were seen coming out of a heavily damaged complex next to Woqod petrol station, on Wadi Rawdan Street, west of Katara beach.

This frame grab taken from an AFPTV footage shows smoke billowing after explosions in Doha, Qatar on September 9, 2025

Security footage captures the moment of an Israeli strike targeting Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, on September 9, 2025.

The attack involved some 15 fighter jets - that required mid-air refueling - dropping 10 munitions on a single target

Close to Doha's central business district, the West Bay Lagoon area is under high security, leading some experts to believe that Israel must have struck at a distance.

The attack involved some 15 fighter jets - that required mid-air refueling - dropping 10 munitions on a single target. Drones also took part in the operation, according to Ynet.

According to Ahmed Hashim, professor of war studies at Deakin University, it was probable that Israel used its modified Adir version of the US F-35 fighter jets, alongside customised F-15I Ra'ams for 'air cover'.

The missiles can be fitted with fuel tanks, allowing them to fly about 2,200km, but they do not need to be flown all the way to a target to strike.

'The missiles would do the job from a stand-off distance,' Hashim told ABC.

'I don't think the planes were over the Doha district. They struck from a distance with precision. And I think they were guided there by intelligence provided by ground.'

Following the explosion, the buildings that had housed the Hamas leadership could be seen still standing. But one room in particular appeared to have been the target of the strike - its walls were collapsed, and gray rubble could be seen inside.

A petrol station to the side of the building did not appear to have suffered any fire damage. The windows of the building next to the one targeted remained intact, suggesting that whatever munitions the Israeli military used was a low yield weapon designed only to hit the building they suspected the Hamas leaders were meeting in.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the building was the exact location where Hamas leaders had celebrated on October 7, 2023, while the terrorist group were carrying out the massacre that killed about 1,200 people and saw another 251 taken hostage.

Speaking at a U.S. Embassy event in Jerusalem hours later, Netanyahu said that 'the days are over when terror leaders will enjoy immunity in a particular place,' referring to how the tiny Gulf emirate has long been a haven for Hamas officials to live in luxury.

In the lead-up to the attack, senior officials from the Shin Bet security service, military intelligence and operations directorate convened once a week.

On Monday night, general Itzik Cohen, head of the operations directorate, finally gave the green light ahead of the attack.

The operation was apparently concealed from Israel's broader cabinet because of its sensitivity - in part due to Doha's proximity to the Iranian air defense systems.

Smoke rises from an explosion caused by an Israeli strike, in Doha, Qatar

FILE PHOTO: Former political bureau chief of Hamas, Khaled Mashal speaks as he attends the Baitul Maqdis Opinion Leaders Forum on October 12, 2018 in Istanbul

IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir and Air Force Commander Tomer Bar personally directed operations, which were run from the Shin Bets special command centre in Israel. Netanyahu, defense minister Israel Katz, the acting Shin Bet chief known only as 'M.,' his deputy, and the head of military intelligence were all reportedly present in the war room.

The fates of the senior Hamas officials who Israel were targeting are still unclear. But Israel confirmed that it was aiming for al-Hayya, the head of Hamas's negotiating team. Other senior figures understood to be in Qatar include Khaled Mashal, head of the group's political bureau abroad; Zaher Jabarin; Mohammad Ismail Darwish, Mousa Abu Marzook; Hussam Badran; Taher al-Nunu and Nizar Awadallah.

A Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman, Majed al-Ansari, condemned the strikes: 'This criminal assault constitutes a blatant violation of all international laws and norms, and poses a serious threat to the security and safety of Qataris and residents in Qatar.'

The significance of timing

Even though the attack was apparently months in the making, Netanyahu and Katz confirmed that the strike was in response to Monday's deadly terror shooting at a bus stop in Jerusalem.

Six people were killed, including a pregnant woman, and eight others were wounded by the Palestinian gunman. He opened fire at a bus stop at Ramot Junction on Yigal Yadin Street, in the city's northern outskirts.

Hamas praised two Palestinian 'resistance fighters' and hailed the attack, with the group's armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, later taking responsibility.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the scene in Jerusalem

Speaking at the U.S. Embassy after the Doha attack, Netanyahu said: 'Yesterday, four of our soldiers were killed by Hamas terrorists in Gaza and six Israeli civilians were brutally murdered at a bus stop in Jerusalem.

'This morning, Hamas proudly took credit for both of these actions. At noon today, I convened the heads of Israels security organizations and authorised a surgical precision strike on the terrorist chiefs of Hamas.'

Last month, IDF chief of staff Zamir threatened Hamas leaders residing abroad.

After the killing of the group's spokesperson, Abu Obeida, in an aerial attack in Gaza City in August, Zamir said: 'Most of Hamas leadership has been eliminated, and we are not finished. Most of Hamas remaining rule sits abroad - and we will reach them too.'

Was the U.S. involved?

In a post on Truth Social, Trump made it clear that the attack was the result of a 'decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me'.

However, the U.S. president said his administration was 'notified' by the U.S. military in the morning that Israel was planning an attack on Hamas.

He added that it was unfortunate the strikes were aimed at Doha.

'Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a Sovereign Nation and close Ally of the United States, that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker Peace, does not advance Israel or Americas goals,' the U.S. president said.

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But he caveated his criticisms of Israel, noting that 'eliminating Hamas, who have profited off the misery of those living in Gaza, is a worthy goal'.

Trump said he immediately alerted special envoy Steve Witkoff about the impending strikes and told him to 'inform the Qataris', but said Witkoff delivered the news 'too late to stop the attack'.

The Qatari foreign ministry spokesman al-Ansari said the country had not received a U.S. warning ahead of the strike.

'The statements being circulated about Qatar being informed of the attack in advance are baseless,' he said. 'The call from a U.S. official came during the sound of explosions caused by the Israeli attack in Doha.'

Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani said 'the Americans sent a message 10 minutes after the attacks took place, saying they were informed that there was going to be a missile attack on the state of Qatar'.

On Truth Social, Trump continued: 'I view Qatar as a strong Ally and friend of the U.S., and feel very badly about the location of the attack. I want ALL of the Hostages, and bodies of the dead, released, and this War to END, NOW!

'I also spoke to the Emir and Prime Minister of Qatar, and thanked them for their support and friendship to our Country. I assured them that such a thing will not happen again on their soil. I have directed Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, to finalise the Defense Cooperation Agreement with Qatar.'

Why is the attack controversial?

The strike risks escalating tensions in the Middle East, with Doha's neighbours in the UAE and Saudi Arabia denouncing Israel in the wake of the attack.

Though Qatar has long harboured Hamas officials and maintains close ties with Iran, it is also a strong U.S. ally and thousands of American soldiers are stationed at its Al Udeid Air Base.

Doha is also the primary location for ceasefire negotiations and Qatari officials have been essential mediators in tense negotiations between Israel and Hamas. It has hosted Hamas' political bureau since 2012.

While Netanyahu has said the attack means the war in Gaza can now end 'immediately' and has urged Gazans to 'accept President Trump's proposal', Qatar has said the Israeli strikes have only harmed the peace process.

The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed reportedly spoke with Trump during a phone call shortly after the Israeli strike, saying that the attack had only harmed attempts at reaching a deal.

Several other nations have condemned Israel. Sir Keir Starmer said the strikes 'violate Qatars sovereignty and risk further escalation across the region', while Trump said he was 'not thrilled about the whole situation'.

A statement from the Qatari foreign ministry said: 'While the State of Qatar strongly condemns this assault, it confirms that it will not tolerate this reckless Israeli behaviour and the ongoing disruption of regional security, nor any act that targets its security and sovereignty.'

Plumes of smoke rise from the site of an Israeli strike on Hamas leaders, in Doha, Qatar, September 9, 2025

Muhammad bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince, called the attack a 'criminal attack', while Anwar Gargash, a diplomatic adviser to the president of the UAE, condemned the strike as 'treacherous'.

The UAE is the Jewish state's strongest ally in the region and was the first Gulf country to normalise relations with Israel in September 2020 through the Abraham Accords.

The UN joined in denouncing the attack, warning that upending the negotiation process threatened to collapse ongoing ceasefire talks.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday said Israel's strikes were a 'flagrant violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar'.

On Tuesday evening, the Iran-backed Houthis launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel, claiming to have targeted 'several sensitive targets' in the Jerusalem area using a projectile with a cluster bomb warhead.

The Israeli military successfully intercepted the missile and there were no reports of injuries or damage.

What happens next?

Speaking later on Tuesday in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said Israel's attack opened the door to the end of the war in Gaza.

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He said Israel had accepted the U.S. president's proposal - beginning with the immediate release of all Israeli hostages still held in Gaza - and urged the Palestinians to accept it too.

'Dont be derailed by these murderous terrorists, by these killers,' he said, directing his words to the people of Gaza. 'Make peace with us, and accept President Trumps proposal. Dont worry, you can do it, and we can promise you a different future. But youve got to take these people out of the way. If you do, there is no limit to our common future.'

But according to Dr Andreas Krieg, Associate Professor of Defence Studies at King's College, Israel's attack in Doha was not about securing peace, but about 'crippling' negotiations for a ceasefire.

'By hitting the very meeting where a U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal was being discussed, Netanyahu undermined the American-led diplomatic track,' Krieg told the Daily Mail.

'It was a way of forcing Washingtons hand, putting Israels maximalist position above U.S. mediation. In doing so, he signalled to both Hamas and the White House that Israel will not be bound by negotiations it sees as premature or constraining.'

But Netanyahu's plan could end up backfiring.

'The Hamas delegation survived, which elevates their stature and strengthens the resistance narrative,' Krieg said.

'Regionally, Israel has managed to isolate itself further, angering not just Qatar but also Saudi Arabia, the UAE and others who see this as a violation of Gulf sovereignty. Internationally, the strike looks less like strategic foresight and more like Netanyahu ploughing the diplomatic field just to prove he can.'

Palestinians are brought to Nasser Hospital for treatment in the city of Khan Yunis, Gaza on September 10, 2025

Leading humanitarian groups have warned that the IDF's plan to takeover Gaza City would prove catastrophic to the civilian population

Smoke rises after a building was hit by an Israeli air strike, in Gaza City, September 10, 2025

Ruined buildings in the Gaza Strip as seen from the Israeli side of the border with Gaza, in southern Israel, 10 September 2025

Meanwhile, Israel appears to be pushing ahead with its planned military takeover of Gaza City - the Strip's most populous region where roughly half of Gaza's 2.1 million residents have been taking shelter.

On Tuesday, Israel issued an evacuation order for the entirety of the capital for the first time during the current round of fighting, urging residents to transfer to Al-Mawasi in southern Gaza. Despite several warnings for civilians to flee, only about 50,000 people are understood to have left Gaza City.

Leading humanitarian groups have warned that the IDF's plan to takeover Gaza City would prove catastrophic to the civilian population.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of 'the massive death and destruction that a military operation against Gaza City would inevitably cause'.

'The intensification of hostilities in Gaza means more killing, more displacement, more destruction and more panic,' Christian Cardon, the chief spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza after the Hamas-led attack on October 7 in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 more were taken hostage.

At least 64,231 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in the war in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
Early this morning, Vladimir Putin's war machine squared up to NATO by firing multiple drones into Poland's airspace.

Russia is understood to have fired several Gerbera drones on Poland.

The drones, which first burst onto the scene in July 2024, are cheaper and simplified versions of the Iranian Shahed-136s.

Originally used as decoys, Russia has developed the drones' tech to make them viable for use them in reconnaissance, signal relaying and even kamikaze missions.

Designed, developed and largely assembled by Chinese firm Skywalker Technology, they are reportedly finalised in the Alabuga drone factory in Yelabuga, Russia.

They cost just $10,000 (7,388) to make, a fraction of the cost of Shahed-136s, as they are made from far cheaper materials.

Where Shaheds are made from fibreglass and carbon fibre, Gerbera drones are made with plywood and polystyrene foam.

They are initially slung from a catapult, and are guided to their destinations by operators.

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Russia is understood to have fired up several Gerbera drones (pictured) on Poland

A member of the Polish Army inspects a damaged house, after Russian drones violated Polish airspace during an attack on Ukraine and some were shot down by Poland, in Wyryki, Lublin region, Poland, September 10, 2025

Each Gerbera drone is 6.6ft long and 8.2ft wide. They have an operational range of around 372 miles and a maximum flight altitude of 9,800ft.

Gerberas have a top speed of 99mph. When not carrying a payload, they have a range of around 370 miles.

They use Chinese components, including stabilising cameras and high-powered antennae, as well as powerful engines.

Many Gerbera drones have been reported to carry explosive charges. Soldiers on the ground have said they can carry warheads of up to 5kg (11lb), a massive reduction on the carrying capabilities of the Shahed drones.

Unlike the Iranian-made drones, Gerberas are piloted by operators who send the lightweight drones to their intended targets.

Given their low cost, they were initially used as decoy drones to confuse Ukrainian air defences and deplete them of resources, acting as a weak vanguard before a heavier attack.

Firefighters secure parts of a damaged UAV that was shot down. Reports indicated around ten Shahed-2 drone incursions into Polish airspace

An area was cordoned off as investigators inspected parts of a discovered drone in Mnishkov

Polish television channel TV Republika shared this image of one of the downed drones

But Gerberas armed with explosives were first seen on the battlefield in April 2025. Last month, Ukraine's border force said Russia was launching more and more armed Gerberas, and urged people to be cautious around them.

Two of the drones flew into Lithuanian airspace, raising fears of an imminent attack.

On July 10 a Gerbera drone entered Lithuanian airspace from Belarus, crashing near a border checkpoint.

As a precaution, then-Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas and Speaker of Parliament Saulius Skvernelis were taken to a shelter.

Two weeks later, another aircraft crashed near a military training area in central Lithuania.

This one was armed with 4lbs of explosive material. Though both incidents were likely accidents, some analysts believed Belarus and Russia were testing Lithuania's response to incidents.

Poland's prime minister today warned 'we are closer to war than any time since World War Two' after his country was forced to shoot down Russian drones that violated its airspace.

Polish media is now reporting that Donald Tusk has requested the triggering of NATO's Article 4, where member countries can bring an issue to the attention of the North Atlantic Council. Poland's security council will also meet to discuss an 'appropriate response'.

After the organisation's patriot defence systems detected the drones with their radars, Polish F-16 fighter jets, Dutch F-35s, Italian surveillance aircraft, and NATO's MRTT mid-air refuelling aircraft all came together to counter the drones.

A UAV is shot out of the skies. The full force of NATO's fighter planes was used to counter Russia's drones

Explosions seen in the night sky over Kyiv, where Ukrainian troops fired at Russian drones

A house was damaged after a drone struck a residential building, according to authorities in Poland

Photos show the extent of damage to a house in Poland after Putin's drones were flown in

Warsaw blasted Russia's 'act of aggression' amid fears Putin is testing the West's defences and escalating the war in Ukraine, in Russia's largest escalation of the war yet.

On Wednesday, Tusk held an extraordinary meeting with top officials after Russia's actions. Senior army officials were present at the gathering.

He said a number of drones that posed direct threats to Russia were shot down in a joint effort with NATO allies, and warned that Poland is ready to react. The prime minister added that he was in communication with allies.

Tusk also spoke in parliament and said some of the drones flew in from neighbouring Belarus, a staunch ally of Russia. He also confirmed that three or four of the 19 drones were shot down.
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has been sacked by the Leader of the Federal Opposition, Sussan Ley, a week after her controversial comments on mass migration.

The senator had faced backlash last week after accusing Labor of bringing in 'large numbers' of Indian migrants to help boost its vote.

Several senior Coalition figures had subsequently called on Price to apologise, but she remained firm until Wednesday evening when she announced that she had been asked to step down from her ministerial role.

'This evening, I spoke with the Leader of the Federal Liberal Party and Federal Opposition, Sussan Ley, who has asked me to step down from the shadow ministry,' she said on X.

'I have accepted the Leaders decision. And I reiterated my regret in not being clearer in my comments on the ABC last Wednesday.

'Nevertheless, I took the opportunity to express to the Leader my disappointment that some colleagues disregarded the key point I was making about the damaging impacts of mass migration. And that some colleagues instead chose to indulge agenda-driven media commentary on this matter.

'To reiterate comments from my earlier statement: I never intended to be disparaging towards our Indian community. And I wish no ill-will whatsoever to the Indian community  or any other migrant group.'

Speaking minutes after Price's announcement, Ley told reporters the senator had 'failed the test of the high standard' she sets for members of her shadow ministry.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley asked Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (pictured) to step down from the shadow ministry on Wednesday evening over her comments about mass migration

'Despite being given the time and space to apologise, Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price did not offer an apology today,' she said sternly.

'And many Australians, not just of Indian heritage, have been calling for that apology for remarks that were deeply hurtful.'

Only hours before announcing that she was stepping down, Price had told a hastily arranged press conference on Wednesday afternoon that her comments had been 'clumsy' but she insisted there needed to be a debate about immigration.

She also refused to express support for her boss, Ley, when she was asked whether she had confidence in her leadership.

She repeatedly said: 'Those matters are for our party room'.

Her failure to share her support for Ley was an issue raised by the opposition leader in her own press conference on Wednesday night while explaining her reasoning for sacking the senator from her ministry.

'Today, Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price critically failed to provide confidence in my leadership of the Liberal Party. Confidence in the leader is a requirement for serving in the shadow ministry,' she said.

But the Opposition Leader added that Price would still be 'warmly welcomed' in the party room.

Sussan Ley (pictured) said she had sacked Jacinta Nampijinpa Price from the shadow ministry after the senator failed to apologise for her controversial comments about mass migration

Price, who will now be returning to the backbench, doubled down in her resignation statement on her views about mass migration in Australia.

'My concern  as it is for millions of Australians  is Labors mass migration agenda and its ramifications. My concern is not migration itself  its the magnitude of migration,' she said.

'Migration at the current scale and pace is putting excessive pressures on housing, infrastructure and services. And that makes life tougher for all families. I want to see a better life for all families  whether youre a migrant, a resident, or a citizen  and regardless of your background.

'This has been a disappointing episode for the Liberal Party. I will learn from it. Im sure others will too. No individual is bigger than a party. And Im sure events of the past week will ultimately make our party stronger.'

The ongoing fallout from her comments, made last Wednesday on the ABC's Afternoon Briefing program, has proved a massive headache for Ley who almost immediately went into damage control.

Ley visited 'Little India' in Sydney's Harris Park on Sunday to speak with local businesses and community leaders.

She was told that many members of the community's 'hearts' were broken by these comments, and was asked if Price should apologise.

Multiple senior figures in the Coalition, including Nationals Leader David Littleproud and Alex Hawke, have subsequently called on Price to apologise.

Jacinta Price will be a big loss to the frontbench but Im confident that she will continue to make a strong contribution to our public life.  Tony Abbott (@HonTonyAbbott) September 10, 2025

When Sussan Ley visited 'Little India' in Sydney's Harris Park on Sunday to speak with local businesses and community leaders, she was asked if Price should apologise

'Migration at the current scale and pace is putting excessive pressures on housing, infrastructure and services. And that makes life tougher for all families. I want to see a better life for all families  whether youre a migrant, a resident, or a citizen  and regardless of your background.

'This has been a disappointing episode for the Liberal Party. I will learn from it. Im sure others will too. No individual is bigger than a party. And Im sure events of the past week will ultimately make our party stronger.'

The ongoing fallout from her comments, made last Wednesday on the ABC's Afternoon Briefing program, has been a massive headache for Ley who almost immediately went into damage control.

Ley visited 'Little India' in Sydney's Harris Park on Sunday to speak with local businesses and community leaders.

She was told that many members of the community's 'hearts' were broken by these comments and was asked if Price should apologise.

Multiple senior figures in the Coalition, including Nationals Leader David Littleproud and Alex Hawke, have subsequently called on Price to apologise.

But former Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the sacking of Price would be a 'loss' for the Opposition.

'Jacinta Price will be a big loss to the frontbench but Im confident that she will continue to make a strong contribution to our public life,' he said on X.
Lord Mandelson today admitted that more 'very embarrassing' details will come about about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Britain's ambassador to Washington called the disgraced financier his 'best pal' and sent photos of himself topless and wearing a fluffy white dressing gown, it emerged.

A minister today insisted Lord Mandelson still had Sir Keir Starmer's backing after US politicians released his holiday snaps from a visit in around 2002 to Epstein's Caribbean island  dubbed 'orgy island' by one of his sex slaves.

Separately, emails revealed how Lord Mandelson worked with Epstein on a 1billion deal over the sale of a UK-taxpayer owned banking business after the American had been convicted of child sex offences.

Critics questioned whether his position remained tenable, just a week before the crucial state visit by US President Donald Trump to the UK in which the Labour peer will play a key role.

The Labour peer has previously expressed his 'regret' for ever having met Epstein  who affectionately nicknamed him 'Petie'. However, the full depth of their relationship has never been revealed.

Commenting for the first time on the revelations, Lord Mandelson said he felt 'very embarrassed', but suggested he saw a different side to the predator 'because I'm a gay man'.

'I never sought and nor did he offer any introductions to women in a way he originally did for others, perhaps it's because I'm a gay man,' he told podcast Harry Cole Saves the West.

Lord Mandelson - who once infamously declared himself 'intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich' - in a fluffy white dressing gown enjoying a chat with Jeffrey Epstein

Lord Mandelson gazing out of a balcony window in what appears to be Epstein's house on his private island in the Caribbean

Mandelson's message in the 'birthday book' compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell said Epstein was 'my best pal!'

Referring to more information that could soon emerge about his relationship with Epstein, he continued: 'I don't believe I'm named in the Epstein files. I have no doubt at all that there's a lot of traffic, correspondence, exchanges, emails between us.

'And we know those are going to surface, we know they're going to come out, we know they're going to be very embarrassing and we know that I am going profoundly to regret ever having met him and been introduced to him in the first place.

'But I can't rewrite history. What I can do is express my profound sympathy for those who have been trafficked by him and secondly I can accept, yes I can accept, that I continued my association with him for too long.'

He continued: 'I regret very much that I fell for his lies, I fell for and accepted assurances that he had given me about his indictment, his original criminal case in Florida, like very many people, I took at face value what he said.

'With hindsight, with fresh information, many years later, we realised that we had been wrong to believe him.

'He is a charismatic criminal liar we now see, and I regret very much indeed. I felt it like an albatross around my neck since his death in 2018 or 19, when it was.

'I feel, I feel a tremendous sense of regret, not only that I met him in the first place, but I continued the association, and I took, at face value, the lies that he fed me and many others.'

Education minister Josh MacAlister said Lord Mandelson still retained the backing of the Government and he warned against finding people 'guilty by association' with Jeffrey Epstein.

He told ITV's Good Morning Britain he had not seen Lord Mandelson's interview, but added: 'Yes, the ambassador has the support of Government.'

'People who abuse people in this way are often very good at hiding what they're doing and... manipulating people. And that's obviously what Jeffrey Epstein did.

'Again, I don't know the history and the details. I haven't seen the interview. But the whole way in which these people operate and are able to continue their abuse is often by being highly manipulative. So we need to be careful not to make everybody guilty by association.

'Jeffrey Epstein was a very effective social networker. He built relationships with lots of people, and in doing so, was highly manipulative, very secretive, and abused a lot of people in the process, and it's why so many people, including Peter Mandelson, now deeply regret ever having been introduced to him and also continuing the relationship with him, if they had one.'

Lord Mandelson with Jeffrey Epstein on December 12, 2005, where he is seen trying on a belt during a visit to a boutique in the Caribbean

Mandelson and a friend enjoy a boat ride together as guests of Epstein

Lord Mandelson, who was appointed by Sir Keir Starmer as Britain's Ambassador to the US, is pictured here with Donald Trump in the Oval Office in May 2025

On Monday night, Democrats in Congress released a ten-page greeting handwritten by Lord Mandelson as part of a 238-page photobook compiled for Epstein's 50th birthday in 2003 by his on-off girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.

The 'birthday book' features lewd messages from friends and associates of the billionaire US paedophile, apparently including Bill Clinton, Mr Trump  who claims it is fake  and an unnamed bikini-clad 'assistant' of Epstein who claims she met Prince Andrew and sat on the Queen's throne in Buckingham Palace.

Lord Mandelson's contribution weaves tributes to Epstein as a 'mysterious' and 'intelligent, sharp-witted man' into a lyrical picture story set over ten pages.

The photos are Lord Mandelson's holiday snaps, believed to be from a 2002 visit to Little St James, Epstein's private island, which was later dubbed 'paedo island'.

One image shows Lord Mandelson wearing just swimming shorts and gazing from a balcony, with the description that 'you would spend many hours just waiting for him [Epstein] to turn up'.

Another shows a smiling Lord Mandelson in a fluffy dressing gown chatting to his host beneath a handwritten declaration that, 'Wherever he is in the world, he remains my best pal!' On the last page, he writes: 'Happy birthday Jeffrey  we love you!!'

There is no suggestion that he was aware of any of Epstein's crimes.

The birthday greeting was penned five years before Epstein's conviction in 2008 for soliciting underage sex, although he has not denied staying at Epstein's Manhattan mansion the following year after his release from prison.

Meanwhile, emails show how Mandelson, who was business secretary at the time, took advice from Epstein during the 2010 sale of an RBS energy trading arm to JP Morgan, just months after the disgraced financier was released from jail for child sex offences.

Epstein is said to have introduced Mandelson to Jes Staley, then a top banker at JP Morgan who has since been banned from the City over his links to the paedophile.

Last night, the Labour grandee  who once said he was 'intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich as long as they pay their taxes'  faced renewed scrutiny over his closeness to the financier, who was accused of molesting hundreds of teenage girls.

Lord Mandelson, 71, will play a significant part in next week's state visit by Mr Trump, including as a VIP guest at the white-tie state banquet being held in St George's Hall in Windsor Castle.

His job will be to smooth any diplomatic ripples to ensure King Charles and Queen Camilla can host the perfect event when they welcome Mr Trump and his wife, Melania, to Windsor Castle between September 17 and 19.

Epstein victims have called for Lord Mandelson to be sacked.

A woman listed as a former assistant of paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein wrote of meeting the Duke of York and visiting the private quarters of Buckingham Palace

The unidentified woman wrote Epstein transformed her life from a hotel hostess

She told how she visited Buckingham Palace and sat on the Queen's throne

Former 'sex slave' Sarah Ransome, 41, said that 'something is really, really wrong here'.

She told The Telegraph: 'Peter Mandelson should not be ambassador. He needs to be fired.

'He is unsuitable to be ambassador. Keir Starmer must have known all this.

'Everybody knew about Peter Mandelson's close friendship with Epstein.'

Spencer Kuvin, a lawyer who represented nine of Epstein's victims, said: 'By allowing someone with clear ties to one of the worst sex abusers of our time to be ambassador is an insult to the victims of Epstein.

'This man should be questioned by the FBI and the UK Government immediately to find out what he knows.'

Nazir Afzal, the former chief prosecutor for north-west England, said: 'The most I've written in a birthday card to another man is probably 'Happy Birthday Son'.

'Mandelson writes poetry to [Epstein] with whom he stayed after conviction. Now he's ambassador to the government of another of Epstein's chums! A 'regret' isn't enough, I'm afraid.'

Craig Murray, a former British ambassador to authoritarian Uzbekistan, posted the photo of the two men and remarked: 'Peter Mandelson, now Starmer's ambassador to the USA, with Jeffrey Epstein.

'I was sacked as ambassador for opposing torture and illegal rendition. The world of power is a dark place indeed.'

A birthday letter that US President Donald Trump allegedly wrote to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. He denies its veracity

The White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt has described the story as 'fake news'

Sir Keir Starmer has 'full confidence' in Lord Mandelson, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said yesterday.

And Health Secretary Wes Streeting told LBC: 'The ambassador has been clear that he regrets ever having been introduced to Epstein  and who can blame him? Who would want to be associated with Epstein given what we know now about the horrific crimes he perpetrated? I don't think we should tar everyone as kind of guilty by association.'

In the 2003 birthday message, Lord Mandelson wrote about Epstein's 'glorious homes he likes to share with his friends (yum yum)', alongside a photo of Little St James, the idyllic island in the Caribbean which it later emerged had been a place where schoolchildren were molested.

Fringed by coral reefs, it served as Epstein's lair and was allegedly the 'perfect hideaway and haven for trafficking young women and underage girls for sexual servitude, child abuse and sexual assault', according to a lawsuit brought by the Virgin Islands against Epstein's estate in 2020.

Among those allegedly trafficked to the beauty spot was Epstein's 17-year-old sex slave Virginia Roberts, who labelled it 'orgy island' and said she was sexually assaulted there by Prince Andrew, which he has always vehemently denied.

Ms Roberts  later Virginia Giuffre  spoke about seeing countless women and girls on Little St James, claiming she was 'passed around like a platter of fruit' to Epstein's powerful friends between 2000 and 2002 at a number of locations.

There is no suggestion that her visits to the island coincided with Lord Mandelson's. In 2002 he was a Labour MP, having resigned from Tony Blair's Cabinet.

In one of the peer's photos, he is pictured on the island with two women  their faces obscured  being served breakfast by one of them. She identified herself yesterday as Cathy Alexander, 70, Epstein's former housekeeper.

She told The Telegraph she believed the other woman, wearing a white vest and black bikini bottoms, was Maxwell.

Peter's photo casebook - Lord Mandelson's 10-page birthday greeting to Epstein:

The first page of Lord Mandelson's 10-page birthday greeting to Jeffrey Epstein hails him as 'mysterious'

On the second page, a topless Lord Mandelson wearing swimming shorts gazes out of a balcony, captioned: '...waiting for him to turn up'

The story continues on page 3 of the letter

Page 4: In one photo Mandelson is stood next to two females, one wearing a white vest and black underwear. Above, he writes that Epstein would leave 'you with some 'interesting' friends to entertain'

Page 5 of the letter: reminiscing about dogs on the island

Page 6: how Epstein would 'parachute back in' to your life

Page 7: surprise whiskey reference

Page 8: apparently a holiday snap taken by Mandelson of Epstein's Caribbean island

Page 9: Mandelson captioned this grinning photo of himself with Epstein and said he was 'my best pal!'

Page 10: the final page of the letter, a happy snap of Mandelson with a friend, believed to be his long-term partner Reinaldo Avila da Silva

Lord Mandelson's handwritten caption on the photo states that Epstein would go away and leave 'you with some 'interesting' friends to entertain'.

Mrs Alexander said Lord Mandelson stayed there for a week with his partner Reinaldo Avila da Silva, 53, whom he married two years ago.

She recalled him as a 'gentleman' and 'a very nice guy'. The housekeeper said she had never seen anything untoward during her time looking after Epstein.

Maxwell, 63, is serving 20 years in jail for recruiting young girls for Epstein to sexually abuse.

According to a court document filed in 2023, Epstein and Lord Mandelson had 'a particularly close friendship'. A photo, thought to be from 2005, showed Lord Mandelson wearing a 21,000 Patek Philippe watch with Epstein in the US Virgin Islands.

By then Epstein was under police investigation over multiple allegations of sexually assaulting schoolgirls. There is no suggestion that Lord Mandelson, then on a taxpayer-funded 200,000 salary as EU trade commissioner, knew anything of the accusations.

For years, Epstein entertained an A-list roster of guests on his island, including Naomi Campbell and Kevin Spacey. Ex-US president Mr Clinton denies being a visitor, and all deny wrongdoing.

Mr Trump  who once told New York Magazine that Epstein 'likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side'  has played down his association with the financier.

Another drawing in the birthday book depicts a young Epstein enticing schoolgirls with balloons and lollipops, in 1983, and an older Epstein being massaged by topless women

Bill Clinton's 50th birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein praising his 'childlike curiosity' is seen for the first time

Jeffery Epstein's estate on Little St James Island in the US Virgin Islands. The disgraced financier also owned nearby Great St James island

An aerial view of Epstein's 74-acre Little St James Island in the US Virgin Islands

Prince Andrew during his infamous BBC Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis

An undated photo issued by the US Department of Justice of British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell with American financier Jeffrey Epstein

Virginia Roberts holds a photo of herself at age 16, when she says Epstein began abusing her sexually

In the 'birthday book', there is a bawdy sketch allegedly signed by Mr Trump showing a woman's body with the line: 'Happy Birthday  and may every day be another wonderful secret'. The White House says it is 'fake news'.

Mr Clinton's birthday message praised Epstein's 'childlike curiosity'. Mr Clinton has long maintained he did not know of the allegations against Epstein.

Another drawing in the birthday book depicts a young Epstein enticing schoolgirls with balloons and lollipops, and an older Epstein being massaged by topless women, while a jet  presumably the billionaire's infamous 'Lolita Express'  flies over his mansion.

Lord Mandelson's office, the British embassy in Washington and the Foreign Office in London were asked to comment yesterday.
This is the dramatic moment a suspected phone snatcher was pinned to the floor at a London railway station by three people to stop him getting away.

The man allegedly took someone's phone at Blackfriars last night but was caught by other passengers who pressed his body and legs against the platform.

He denied any wrongdoing but was told 'don't run away' and 'open the phone to prove it's yours'. One person said: 'If you can't open it, we know it's not yours.'

The man, speaking in broken English, also appeared to shout 'my leg, my leg' and 'it's broken' as he put his hands over his face while other passengers gathered around.

British Transport Police (BTP) officers said they were called to the station at about 10.30pm following reports of the phone theft and arrested a man in his 20s.

Detectives searched the man and found he had three mobile phones, a bank card with a different name and a backpack containing a laptop.

The incident happened on the Thameslink platforms inside Blackfriars station where trains were still running despite the ongoing London Underground strike.

A BTP spokesman told the Daily Mail: 'Officers were called to Blackfriars railway station at around 10.30pm yesterday following reports of a phone theft.

A suspected phone snatcher is pinned to the floor at London Blackfriars station last night

The man was held down at Blackfriars station before British Transport Police officers attended

'Officers attended and a man in his 20s was arrested and taken into custody. Upon being searched, he was found in possession of three mobile phones, a bank card with a different name, and a backpack containing a laptop.'

Blackfriars, which is the only station to span the River Thames, has an annual footfall of 16 million passengers and is connected to the Tube station underneath.

The Daily Mail revealed last month that more than 116,000 mobile phones were stolen in London last year, or 320 every single day.

Data from the Metropolitan Police showed there were 116,656 reported mobile thefts in 2024  the highest number on record.

It was more than 50 per cent higher than the total recorded in 2017 when mobile thefts in the capital stood at just over 77,000.

Last years total was equivalent to 13 phones being stolen every hour. It was 1,300 incidents higher than in the previous 12 months.

Despite the huge number of thefts, only 169 suspects were charged in the year, and seven were let off with a caution.

The London borough with the most phones stolen last year was Westminster, with 34,039. Camden came second with 10,907, followed by Southwark with 7,316.
Banksy's latest work, a mural sprayed onto the Royal Courts of Justice in London, has sparked a storm of legal and political questions.

Within hours of its appearance, officials covered the artwork with black plastic and barriers, while Metropolitan Police confirmed they are investigating it as 'criminal damage.' What is interesting is if charges are brought, Britain's most famous anonymous artist could be forced to disclose his identity in open court for the first time in 25 years.

However, the charges are not just about an identity reveal; the legal stakes are high. The case could reportedly bring prison time and hefty fines for Banksy.

What Happened at the Royal Courts of Justice

The mural appeared early Monday, 8 September 2025 on the Queen's Building of the Grade I-listed Royal Courts of Justice. The art depicts a judge in traditional wig and robes striking a protester with a gavel, as the demonstrator clutches a white sign splattered with red paint.

The Metropolitan Police told reporters, 'On Monday, September 8, officers received a report of criminal damage to the side of the Royal Courts of Justice. Inquiries continue.'

His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) confirmed the artwork would be removed. 'The Royal Courts of Justice is a listed building and HMCTS is obliged to maintain its original character,' a spokesperson said.

Banksy himself later posted the full image to Instagram with the caption: 'Royal Courts of Justice. London.'

Why This Could Lead to Banksy Being Unmasked

Because the mural was painted on a Grade I heritage building, police are treating it as potential criminal damage. Under UK law, such offences carry a maximum sentence of 10 years' imprisonment if the damage exceeds 5,000, or three months' custody and a 2,500 fine if valued below that threshold.

Reports indicate that if Banksy is charged, he would need to appear in court under his legal name, potentially ending decades of speculation about his identity.

Meanwhile, according to reports, in previous legal disputes, including a 2023 defamation case, Banksy managed to protect his anonymity using copyright loopholes. However, criminal prosecution would make that far harder.

The Political Undertones

Activist group Defend Our Juries quickly claimed the mural was a protest statement, suggesting it depicted the government's decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation.

The group praised the piece as a commentary on civil liberties, saying, 'Banksy's work of art on the walls of the Royal Courts of Justice powerfully depicts the brutality unleashed by Yvette Cooper on protesters by proscribing Palestine Action.'

The timing is significant. Just two days earlier, nearly 900 demonstrators were arrested during a rally in Westminster, which was one of the largest mass arrests in modern British history. Scotland Yard described the protests as 'intolerable' for officers on duty, while campaigners accused the government of silencing dissent.

Banksy's History With the Law

This is not the first time Banksy's work has collided with legal boundaries. His installations on public and private property have long raised questions of vandalism versus art. In 2018, his 'Girl With Balloon' stunt at Sotheby's, when the canvas shredded itself moments after selling, reignited debate about whether Banksy operates outside conventional rules.

Past investigations have failed to identify him, despite media speculation. In 2008, The Mail on Sunday suggested the artist was Robin Gunningham of Bristol, though this has never been confirmed.

Banksy has occasionally teased the public, once telling BBC Radio 4 he goes by 'Robbie,' but his true identity remains officially unverified.

The mural is currently under guard and scheduled for removal by HMCTS. Police have not confirmed whether a formal charge will be brought, but the case could set a legal precedent. If treated as a serious offence, Banksy could face trial and, with it, the possible revelation of his name and identity.

For an artist who has spent a quarter-century maintaining a secret and mysterious life and legacy, this moment may prove pivotal.

Originally published on IBTimes UK
Britons are cooling their enthusiasm for Net Zero amid the wearying cost of living crisis, new data reveals today.

Less than a third of voters back the proposed 2035 ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars designed to speed a move to electric vehicles.

And amid a stagnant economy and toughening job market they are less willing to make sacrifices than they were in 2021, analysis by YouGov for the Times found.

The proportion prepared to pay higher domestic bills has halved, and fewer people were prepared to pay higher taxes, cut back on meat and dairy produce and cut back on air travel.

Overall the proportion of people saying the threat from climate change had been exaggerated rose more than 50 per cent, though almost two-thirds (61 per cent) still say it has not been overblown.

Professor Wouter Poortinga, an environmental psychologist at Cardiff University, told the Times: 'Climate change is being politicised [in the UK] in the same way that has been done in the United States.

'If you have Kemi Badenoch standing up saying that we're going to drill, baby, drill, that will have a polarising effect.'

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Amid a stagnant economy and toughening job market they are less willing to make sacrifices than they were in 2021, analysis by YouGov for the Times found.

Keir Starmer is said to have asked Ed Miliband to take over Angela Rayner's housing department as he reshaped his team - but the Energy Secretary refused

Earlier this week Sir Keir pledged a new focus on growth as he tries to get the government back on track amid dire polls - which may include reining in green measures critics say are holding back the economy.

The premier looks to be tacking to the right with his appointments amid the mounting threat from Nigel Farage and Reform.

Insiders have acknowledged that the Net Zero drive has been holding back activity, while businesses are hoping that reforms to workers' rights could be delayed or watered down.

The PM tried and failed to strip Ed Miliband of his Net Zero brief in the reshuffle, it was claimed today.

Sir Keir is said to have asked Mr Miliband to take over Angela Rayner's housing department as he reshaped his team on Friday.

However, Mr Miliband refused - insisting he wanted to keep overseeing the climate drive.

The Government has pledged to ban the sale of new fully petrol or diesel cars and vans from 2030.

Under the Governments zero emission vehicle (Zev) mandate, at least 28 per cent of new cars sold by each manufacturer in the UK this year must be zero emission, which generally means pure electric.

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Across all manufacturers, the figure during the first half of the year was 21.6 per cent.

Sir Keir announced in April that sales of new hybrids that cannot be plugged in will be permitted to continue until 2035.

Changes to the (Zev) mandate also mean it will be easier for manufacturers which do not meet the targets to avoid fines.

This week officials said drought conditions could continue into winter despite a good chance of a wetter-than-usual autumn and flood risks increasing.

The Met Office and Environment Agency said the current outlook for September, October and November shows a higher likelihood for wetter and windier conditions compared to the 30-year-average.

But they warned this rain may still not be enough to reverse all the effects of this years record-breaking dry and hot weather, which led several regions to declare drought status and introduce hosepipe bans over the summer.

It also means areas of the UK could feasibly experience both drought and flooding at the same time as the UK storm season kicks off and flood risks increase.
Two children are among three people to have died in the English Channel overnight in a small boat tragedy, French authorities report.

A new deadly incident unfolded on board a small boat that was packed full of asylum seekers making the dangerous journey across the busy shipping, lane just hours after a woman was declared dead in a separate incident on Tuesday.

Last night's incident occurred off the coast of Pas-de-Calais, close to the small town of Sangatte, regional prosecutor Laurent Touvet said this morning.

He told reporters it is thought the three people to have died were 'crushed at the bottom of the boat'. A total of 72 people were on board at the time.

More than 40 were rescued from the dinghy but 28 refused any assistance from the French Coastguard and continued their journey.

A third boat also got into difficulty overnight, with three people reported missing. In total, the French coastguard said 194 people have been rescued yesterday and today.

In a post on X, French authorities blamed smuggling gangs for the tragedy and said it is 'determined to combat them'.

They also issued thanks to police, firefighters, civil protection volunteers, and sea rescue services for scrambling to aid the boats.

Two children are among three people to have died in the English Channel overnight in a small boat tragedy, French authorities report (stock image)

A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to the Border Force compound in Dover, Kent, on Tuesday

Last night's incident occurred off the coast of Pas-de-Calais, close to the small town of Sangatte, regional prosecutor Laurent Touvet (centre) said this morning

The French authorities deployed emergency teams and a Navy helicopter during the attempted search and rescue of the overloaded boat.

A total of 44 people were rescued from the overloaded boat, including three who were unresponsive at the scene and pronounced dead soon after.

Three other migrants were airlifted by the French Navy Dauphin helicopter to Boulogne-sur-Mer hospital for treatment.

A statement from the Maritime Prefecture on Wednesday afternoon said: 'During the night of September 9-10, 2025, the intervention, assistance, and rescue tug (RIAS) Abeille Normandie was engaged by the CROSS to search and rescue an overloaded boat.

'Once on site, the boat's passengers requested assistance. 44 people were rescued by the Abeille Normandie, including three unresponsive people.'

They added: 'During this same operation, three people were airlifted by the Dauphin helicopter to the Boulogne-sur-Mer hospital for treatment, and 38 people rescued aboard the Abeille Normandie were disembarked in Boulogne-sur-Mer early in the morning of September 10.

'Twenty-eight of the boat's occupants refused the offered assistance and continued on their way.'

One person was successfully resuscitated by emergency services after entering the water, French newspaper Le Monde reported.

Earlier on Tuesday, a woman was confirmed dead following a rescue operation by the UK Coastguard in response to a small boat in difficulty.

Kent Police said it was made aware of the incident shortly after 1pm.

A spokesperson said: 'One woman was airlifted back to shore where she was pronounced deceased.

'Officers are conducing enquiries to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident.'

At least 23 people have died trying to cross the Channel in small boats since the start of the year, according to French officials.

It comes as ministers are considering repurposing parts of RAF bases to house migrants in a bid to end the use of asylum seeker hotels.

RAF Scampton is among the sites being mooted as possible accommodation.

French emergency services respond to the tragedy in the Channel overnight which saw the deaths of two children and an adule

The UK Coastguard was scrambled on Tuesday and a woman sadly died while attempting to cross the Channel in a separate incident, which saw a boat get into trouble at around 1pm

A government reshuffle last week saw every minister in the Home Office replaced as Sir Keir Starmer's government continues to try and convince the public they are getting a grip on immigration.

The new Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has this week floated the policy of suspending access to visas for countries who refuse to enter returns deals with the UK.

It means citizens seeking to travel legally could be penalised if their governments fail to co-operate with deportations from Britain.

Ms Mahmood said on Monday: 'For countries that do not play ball, we've been talking about how we can take much more co-ordinated action between the Five Eyes countries.

'For us, that means including possibly the cutting of visas in the future, just to say we do expect countries to play ball, play by the rules, and if one of your citizens has no right to be in our country, you do need to take them back.'

More than 30,000 people have arrived in the UK on small boats so far this year.

Following the death of a woman attempting to cross the Channel yesterday, a government spokesperson said the Border Force 'responded to reports of a migrant boat in distress in the Channel at 1245 this afternoon'.

They continued: 'One passenger was found unresponsive and was given CPR. Sadly, we can now confirm that this individual has died.'

They said the government was 'shocked and saddened by this tragic incident'.

'Our immediate thoughts are with all of those who have been affected,' the spokesperson said.

'This latest tragedy underlines the terrible dangers of small boat crossings, and we continue to do everything we can to prevent callous criminals exploiting vulnerable people.'

Amnesty International UK's chief executive Sacha Deshmukh said: 'It's heartbreaking to learn once again that people have died seeking safety in the UK.

'Too often, the humanity of those crossing the Channel - their hopes, fears and desperation - is lost amid the hostile rhetoric of 'stopping the boats' and the toxic atmosphere fuelled by anti-migrant protests.

'It is utterly irresponsible to deny people safe routes to protection, even when they have family here ready to support them.

'The Government should be working urgently with European partners to expand safe pathways, meet its legal and moral obligations, and put human lives and dignity at the heart of policy.'
For the first time, the details of the shocking sexual abuse allegations against fugitive gunman Dezi Freeman can be revealed.

The disturbing episode involving a young girl is alleged to have taken place years ago during a family outing at Mount Buffalo, the same Victorian high country wilderness where Freeman is now believed to be in hiding.

It was these historic claims that saw ten officers descend on his rural property in Porepunkah to execute a search warrant on August 26, unaware that the self-proclaimed sovereign citizen had a homemade shotgun concealed in his bus.

Two Victoria Police officers were shot dead, sparking a manhunt for Freeman that has lasted more than a fortnight.

According to friends of Freeman, the allegations against him centre around a day trip when the self-styled naturist took his children and their friend on a hike to a waterhole behind his property.

It was there that the father-of-three allegedly stripped off to swim naked in front of his sons and the young girl without warning.

'Dezi believes in living like ancient tribes, living off the land and being nude,' a friend told Daily Mail.

'Yes, it is wildly inappropriate to do that and most people would realise that but Dezi did not like to conform to societal expectations.'

Alleged cop-killer Dezi Freeman (pictured) has been accused of sexual assaulting a young girl relating to a hike on Mount Buffalo

Ten officers descend on Freeman's property in Porepunkah on August 26 to execute a search warrant in relation to the historic allegations. Two officers were shot dead

Traumatised, the youngster later confided in her parents, who were so upset they confronted Freeman.

'He brushed it off as a misunderstanding and was actually annoyed they brought it up,' the friend said.

'Later he even told others the matter had been blown out of proportion.'

Now, years later, clearly still distressed by his untoward behaviour, the young girl filed an official police complaint against Freeman.

That was what led officers to the bus where Freeman, 56, had been living with his wife Mali and their two-year-old son that fateful day last month.

The Daily Mail has seen the extraordinary footage of the 27-minute siege.

'We have got a search warrant right here,' one officer was heard saying in the video.

'Come out and have a look at it. Come out and talk to us Dez, we are not going away.'

In the clip, Freeman demands to know what the warrant is for, and when told it related to a sexual assault allegation involving the girl, who the police named, Freeman erupted.

'Oh for f*** sake what bulls***,' he screams, branding the police 'psychopaths' and accusing them of 'terrorising him'.

Freeman allegedly fatally shot two police officers before fleeing into bushland. He has not been seen since, despite an almost 500-country operation in the rural area

According to friends of Freeman, the allegations centre around a day out when the self-styled naturist took his children and their friend on a hike to a waterhole on Mount Buffalo

Police have searched over 100 properties in the surrounding towns and received hundreds of tips since announcing a $1million reward for information leading to Freeman's arrest

'You have been targeting me for seven years,' Freeman claims.

'Tell your goons to stop breaking the door. This is domestic terrorism, why did you join the police, so you can terrorise families.'

He accused the police of 'trespassing' and committing 'countless crimes'.

Given his history and open hatred for authority, senior officers made the decision to arrive mob-handed with ten officers in both plain clothes and uniform as a precaution.

What followed was an extended back and forth between Freeman and several officers.

Freeman continued to rail against the sexual assault allegation, demanding more details, but police said they did not want to discuss the matter in front of his wife and children.

Within 30 minutes of police arriving, Freeman fled into the bush which sparked one of the most shocking manhunts in Australian history.

Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart, 35, and Detective Neal Thompson, 59, died while trying to serve Freeman a warrant. A third officer was seriously injured.

Almost 500 police, trackers and specialist units have since been deployed in the massive operation to find Freeman, which entered its third week on Wednesday.

Police have already searched more than 100 properties in the surrounding towns and received hundreds of tips since announcing a $1million reward for information leading to Freeman's arrest.
Israel's president said that the IDF targeted Hamas' chief in Qatar because he objected to a ceasefire deal towards ending the war in Gaza.

Isaac Herzog told the Daily Mail on Wednesday: 'We targeted Khalil al Hayya because he objected to a deal on Gaza. He kept saying "Yes, but" in negotiations.'

'He is number one in Hamas and has the blood of thousands of Israelis on his hands,' the president said ahead of a summit with Sir Keir Starmer in London today.

'[Hayya] was one of the planners of October 7.'

Israel closed ranks to defend the decision to target Hamas leaders in Doha on Tuesday after the attack on negotiators drew rare rebuke from Donald Trump.

Its ambassador to the U.S. said on Wednesday it was the 'right' decision to target a complex where a delegation was meeting to discuss Trump's ceasefire proposals.

'We don't always act in the interests of the United States,' Danny Danon told Israel's 103FM radio station, while emphasizing 'appreciation' for U.S. support in general.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed that the military had 'acted unilaterally', and said the strikes could 'open the door' to an end to the war in Gaza.

He said that Israel had accepted the proposal put forward by the Trump administration.

'If President Trump's proposal is accepted, the war can end immediately. We can begin once again to pursue the expansion of peace in our region for the benefit of all.'

Security footage captures the moment of an Israeli strike targeting Hamas leaders in Doha

A damaged building, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders, according to an Israeli official, in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday

FILE PHOTO: Khalil Al-Hayya at a conference in Beirut in November 2023

FILE PHOTO: Israeli President Isaac Herzog (left) at the Vatican on September 3, 2025

The unprecedented attack on Qatar, a U.S. ally, nonetheless drew pointed criticism from Trump.

'I'm not thrilled about the whole situation,' he told reporters on Tuesday. 'We want the hostages back, but we are not thrilled about the way that went down today.'

'I view Qatar as a strong Ally and friend of the U.S., and feel very badly about the location of the attack,' he added in a post on social media.

While the White House initially said it had been notified, Trump said he was not alerted in advance.

Qatar was incensed by the attack, condemning the 'cowardly' strikes. Its prime minister said Doha reserves the right to respond.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani denounced Israel's Netanyahu for 'dragging the region to a place where it unfortunately cannot be repaired'.

Asked whether ceasefire talks will continue in the wake of the strikes, he said that 'I don't think there's anything valid' in current talks.

Qatar has played a central role in helping mediate ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas.

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Smoke billows from the site of the reported Israeli airstrikes in Doha on Tuesday

Smoke is seen rising after blasts were heard in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday

Hamas said that its negotiating delegation was meeting on Tuesday to discuss Trump's proposal for a ceasefire when the airstrike hit.

Israeli officials said that senior Hamas members were in attendance, but Hamas insisted that all officials in attendance survived the 'assassination attempt'.

It later said that six people, including the son of top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya and three bodyguards, were killed in the attack.

Sources close to the Palestinian group told AFP that six Hamas leaders including Hayya and former leader Khaled Meshaal were in the building targeted at the time.

Ambassador Danon said Israel was 'still waiting for the results' of the operation.

'It is too early to comment on the outcome, but the decision is the right one,' he added.

Danon also insisted that the attack was 'not on Qatar' but Hamas after the strikes drew outrage from states across the region.

'We are not against Qatar, nor any Arab country. We are currently against a terrorist organisation,' he said.

Observers said in the aftermath that the Israeli strike in Doha was aimed at 'crippling' negotiations with Hamas.

Dr Andreas Krieg, Associate Professor of Defence Studies at King's College, told the Daily Mail: 'Israel's strike in Doha was aimed at decapitating Hamas's political leadership and, by extension, crippling the negotiations for a ceasefire.

'Netanyahu wanted to show that Hamas leaders are not safe anywhere, even under Qatari protection, and to remind his domestic audience that he is still on the offensive after two years of grinding war.'

He said that Israel had 'gambled' with the decision to hit 'the very meeting where a US-backed ceasefire proposal was being discussed'.

'It was a way of forcing Washington's hand, putting Israel's maximalist position above US mediation.

'In doing so, he signalled to both Hamas and the White House that Israel will not be bound by negotiations it sees as premature or constraining.'

Hamas' top leadership survived the attack, according to Hamas, which will 'elevate their stature' and strengthen the 'resistance narrative', Dr Krieg said.

After years spent trying to normalise relations with neighbouring powers, Israel's gambit 'risks backfiring', isolating the country further and upsetting Qatar's partners.

'Internationally, the strike looks less like strategic foresight and more like Netanyahu ploughing the diplomatic field just to prove he can.'

Sooner than 'wresting control' of the ceasefire process from Washington, the result may be a 'weakened US hand, a humiliated Qatar, and an Israel even more diplomatically exposed'.

Smoke rises from an explosion caused by an Israeli strike in Doha, Qatar on Tuesday

FILE PHOTO: Former political bureau chief of Hamas, Khaled Mashal speaks as he attends the Baitul Maqdis Opinion Leaders Forum on October 12, 2018 in Istanbul

Pictured: Qatar's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani

Donald Trump's rebuke of Israel in the wake of the attack makes him look 'torn, even overwhelmed' by the speed of events, Dr Krieg assessed.

'His statement distancing himself  'Not a decision made by me'  only reinforces the perception that Washington is no longer in control.

'The message to the region is that the US cannot restrain its closest ally, nor protect its closest mediator. That is a dangerous place for American credibility to be.'

Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel sparked the nearly two-year war in Gaza and resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,605 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.
Sussan Ley has kicked Jacinta Nampijinpa Price off the Opposition frontbench after the senator refused to apologise for her remarks about Indian migration.

Its the first clear exercise of authority from the new Liberal leader: necessary, overdue and certain to set off a chain reaction inside an Opposition that was already divided.

Price had a choice. Either show contrition and move on, or double down and dare her leader to dump her.

She chose the latter, and as recently as today was refusing to back down. Price wouldnt even endorse Leys leadership, thats how toxic the parliamentary Liberal Party is becoming.

Ley called Prices bluff and moved her on. Thats leadership. But it will also inflame the factional right, which has long been itching to take a swing at the new leader.

Prices claim that Labor is juicing up Indian migration for vote-winning purposes was no slip of the tongue. It was a political dog whistle dressed up as a demographic insight.

When pressed, the now former frontbencher expressed regret, but wouldnt apologise. Ley is now not apologising for sacking Price. What goes around, comes around.

But that might also be Leys fate in the months ahead if Team Price and Angus Taylor can secure the votes to challenge for the party leadership.

The killing season is just months away.

Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (pictured) was sacked by Leader of the Federal Opposition, Sussan Ley, a week after her controversial comments on mass migration

Sussan Ley (pictured) called Prices bluff and moved her on. Thats leadership. But it will also inflame the factional right

Nevertheless, Ley was right to act. She had no choice. The alternative was more drift: more divisive oxygen for a culture war cul-de-sac that repels swinging voters and alienates the very communities the Coalition needs to win back government.

Senior Liberals spent the day choosing sides on what Price had to say and how shes reacted.

Jane Hume used the moment to tee off on Alex Hawke and Ley at the same time, payback after Ley dumped her from the frontbench upon becoming leader. Politics really can be petty.

Ley showed strength today by acting as she did, but she had little choice and her authority now rests on increasingly fragile ground.

The cracks are visible, the bitterness is real and the opposition she leads now looks more divided than ever.
Sir Keir Starmer is one of the least popular Western leaders with only French President Emmanuel Macron more disliked that the Prime Minister, a poll has shown.

A pan-European survey, conducted by YouGov at the end of last month, found just 22 per cent of Britons have a favourable opinion of Sir Keir.

This compared with 69 per cent who view him unfavourably, which gave the PM a net favourability rating of -47 per cent after little more than a year in Downing Street.

Mr Macron, who has been French President since 2017, was the only other European leader who was shown to be more unpopular than Sir Keir.

YouGov found he had a net favourability rating of -55 per cent among French adults.

By comparison, Girogia Meloni had a net favourability rating of -22 per cent after three years as Italian PM.

And Pedro Sanchez, who has been Spain's PM since 2018, was on -31 per cent.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump was found to have a net favourability rating of -11 per cent by YouGov's US opinion tracker.

A pan-European survey, conducted by YouGov at the end of last month, found Sir Keir Starmer had a net favourability rating of -47 per cent

Emmanuel Macron, who has been French President since 2017, was the only other European leader who was shown to be more unpopular than Sir Keir.

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The poll was conducted even before one of Sir Keir's worst spells in Downing Street.

Angela Rayner's resignation as Deputy PM over a tax row on 5 September prompted the PM to conduct a frantic reshuffle of his Cabinet ministers.

It was the latest attempted 'reset' of his administration, after Sir Keir had already been trying to push on to 'phase two' of his Government.

A separate YouGov poll, conducted between 7 to 8 September, showed Reform UK retaining its lead over Sir Keir's Labour.

Nigel Farage's party were backed by 27 per cent of voters, which was down two percentage points from the previous week.

Labour were on 22 per cent support, up two points, while the Tories and Liberal Democrats were unchanged on 17 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively.

The Green Party were up two points to 12 per cent in the wake of 'eco-populist' Zack Polanski as their new leader.

A recent More In Common poll found the PM's net approval rating was now at -44, with Reform's Nigel Farage on -4 and Tory leader Kemi Badenoch on -26

A recent More In Common poll, conducted between 5 to 8 September, found Sir Keir's approval ratings had hit a record low.

The survey found the PM's net approval rating was now at -44, with Mr Farage on -4, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch on -26 and Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey on -8.
A rookie police officer who embarked on an affair with her married boss before going on a date with a drugs kingpin won't face a misconduct hearing, the Mail can reveal.

Caitlin Howarth, 25, was just weeks into her career with West Yorkshire Police when she struck up an illicit romance with Chief Superintendent Daniel Greenwood - a father-of-two 17 years her senior.

Greenwood, 42, then the 93,000-a-year Covid enforcement chief for Bradford, lost his 21-year career after admitting gross misconduct over the 'obviously wrong' affair last year.

However, his former lover - who is no longer a police officer - has now walked away scot-free.

Ms Howarth, who boasts more than 11,500 Instagram followers and regularly shares revealing selfies, was due to face a similar police disciplinary hearing.

However, Daily Mail can reveal that those proceedings have now been quietly shelved.

The decision comes after a criminal case alleging that Ms Howarth committed misconduct in public office was also dropped last year.

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman confirmed: 'A review of the misconduct matters took place following Ms Howarth's acquittal.

Caitlin Howarth, 25, pictured, was just weeks into her career with West Yorkshire Police when she struck up an illicit romance with the police boss

Chief Superintendent Daniel Greenwood, above, then the 93,000-a-year Covid enforcement chief for Bradford, lost his 21-year career after admitting gross misconduct over the 'obviously wrong' affair last year

'This established there was no case to answer.'

Greenwood, once tipped as a future assistant chief at West Yorkshire Police, flouted lockdown rules to sneak off for trysts with Ms Howarth, despite being responsible for enforcing stay-at-home rules.

The pair swapped raunchy pictures and even had sex while he was out jogging, with the affair causing 'tittle-tattle' and 'gossip in the ranks'.

Ms Howarth had sex with Greenwood, 42, after he helped her secure a job in the force in 2019.

After meeting in person in March 2020, the pair swapped flirty messages and sexually explicit pictures over the summer.

The pair had sex during the January 2021 Covid lockdown, shortly after her 21st birthday and when she had been a probationer PC for just seven weeks, and again in July 2021.

The relationship was eventually exposed in November 2021 when Ms Howarth was investigated by anti-corruption officers over meet-ups with Joseph Shaw, a drug dealer later jailed over a 1.5million heroin racket.

Embarrassed Greenwood attempted to perform a factory reset on his iPhone to conceal the evidence.

Ms Howarth, above, who boasts more than 11,500 Instagram followers and regularly shares revealing selfies, was due to face a similar police disciplinary hearing

However, Daily Mail can reveal that those proceedings have now been quietly shelved. Pictured: Caitlin Howarth

A disciplinary panel found Greenwood abused his position of trust and responsibility. He quit just two days before he could be formally sacked, later reinventing himself as a cheesemaker.

When quizzed over the illicit liaisons, Greenwood told investigators that the fling was 'habitually initiated' by Ms Howarth who 'found older menmore attractive'.

She, in turn, said she did not have sex with Greenwood because of his rank but 'because I was going through a rough time with my boyfriend'.

Howarth, from Bingley, West Yorks, told investigators: 'I ended up getting feelings and then that's how it happened.

She added: 'He always asked me to delete the messages. I think he deleted them so that his wife didn't see but he used to say 'make sure you delete the pictures or delete the messages'.

'Towards the end I didn't [because] I didn't think. I didn't know why I needed to. I think he deleted them from my iCloud at his request.'

During Greenwood's misconduct hearing, it emerged that Howarth had also been on a Tinder date with drug dealer Shaw, whose brother Daniel was in prison at the time.

When she told Greenwood of her contact with Shaw, he ironically replied: 'He won't stop until he's shagged you. That's not ok.'

Ms Howarth had sex with Greenwood, 42, after he helped her secure a job in the force in 2019

Ms Howarth was investigated by anti-corruption officers over meet-ups with Joseph Shaw, above, a drug dealer later jailed over a 1.5million heroin racket

The 28-year-old, who appeared on the Channel 4 dating show First Dates in 2017, met Ms Howarth on Tinder with the duo going on 'one date' together

Shaw, 31, was jailed for six-and-a-half years in January 2023 after admitting a drugs supply plot with his brother Daniel, 27, and has since been released.

He previously appeared on the Channel 4 show First Dates in which he revealed he had already met his blind date on the train and spent the night together.

The clip became one of the show's most-watched moments, viewed more than two million times on YouTube.

Howarth was later accused of failing to disclose her association with a known criminal to her superiors, sparking the criminal and police misconduct investigations.

She has since continued to post glamorous photographs online, sharing bikini snaps, selfies and trips to Dubai and Ibiza.

Greenwood, who lives in a 500,000 home in Bingley, West Yorks, remains with his wife Laura, 43, and now runs Eldwick Creamery, churning out artisan cheese.

The couple also run a deli shop in the town.

Greenwood wrote on the firm's website last year: 'The strains and distractions of becoming an adult took over until events in 2020/2021 made me reevaluate my life.

'I had always flirted with the idea of cheesemaking.

'One cold November morning in 2021, I decided to change the course of my life.'
A woman descended from a notorious pirate has launched a bid to receive her share of his 60million fortune.

Viki Lopez-Love 52, has traced her family tree back to a 17th century pirate named John Stockwell - who was also known as Long John or Black-Jack Stockwell.

The sailor was a crew member of Dundee-born privateer Captain William Kidd, who was initially appointed by the British authorities to tackle piracy.

But after a change in the law, he himself was denounced as a pirate - and it is believed, buried his treasure around the world in a bid to hide his loot.

His crewmate Stockwell meanwhile settled in London and bought land with his pirate fortune - thought to be worth around 64million in today's money - but then set sail again and never returned.

The fortune was sunk into land now known as the Stockwell-Angell estate, which stretched from south of the Thames to Croydon.

Viki, of Pontypool, Gwent, said she had never heard of Black-Jack Stockwell until her sister told her about her pirate heritage.

She said: 'I thought my sister was having me on and I was asking these questions, and I thought she was getting it wrong, and I Googled it, and he did exist.

Viki Lopez-Love, pictured with her wife Suze, is laying claim to her share of a 60million estate left by her ancestor, a 17th century pirate named Long John or Black-Jack Stockwell

A family tree shows Viki's lineage to the pirate, who amassed a fortune and spent the money on land in London now known as the Stockwell-Angell estate

Stockwell was a crew member of famed Scottish pirate Captain William Kidd

'So, I looked at my ancestry for that very reason and there he was on my family tree through a direct descendant by the name of Bloodworth.'

Other descendants of the seafaring pirate have been trying to reclaim their share of the estate ever since.

Viki revealed she had contacted BBC show Heir Hunters and is keen to hear from anyone else who might be able to help her quest.

She said: 'I've emailed Heir Hunters, and nobody's gotten back but at the end of the day 60 million is a lot of money so I'm looking for someone to help me look into this. It's really interesting.'
Israels President has revealed a Hamas leader targeted in an air strike was blocking a peace deal.

Speaking to the Mail, Isaac Herzog said Khalil al Hayya was preventing a settlement over the Gaza conflict.

The president, who is due to meet UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer today, said: He [al Hayya] kept saying yes, but in negotiations. He objected to a deal on Gaza.

Al Hayya survived the attack in Qatar yesterday which has been condemned by Britain and the United States.

He was part of a Hamas team in talks to end the conflict which has killed more than 60,000 people, including tens of thousands of women and children.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog, seen holding a photograph of an Israeli hostage held by Hamas, as defended his country's attack on Hamas negotiators in Qatar

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is expected to meet the Israeli President today

Security footage captures the moment of an Israeli strike targeting Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar on Tuesday.

A defiant President Herzog said: Al Hayya was number one in Hamas. He had the blood of thousands of Israelis on his hands. He was one of the planners of October 7th.

Six people were killed in the airstrikes in Doha where Hamas leaders were considering a US peace proposal already supported by Israel.

Days earlier US President Donald Trump described the deal as Hamas last chance for peace.

The deceased included family members of the Hamas delegation and a Qatari security official.

Western officials have expressed concern that Israels actions have shattered diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.

While families of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza since October 7th fear the attack could convince the terrorists to kill their loved ones.
Sir Keir Starmer's ally Bridget Phillipson has sailed through to the next stage of Labour's deputy leadership contest.

The Education Secretary, who is being viewed as No10's de facto candidate, has now been nominated by 116 MPs in the battle to become Labour's number two.

It means she has easily cleared the threshold of 80 nominations needed to get on the ballot paper.

In the latest official figures released by Labour, recently sacked ex-Cabinet minister Lucy Powell was shown to have 77 nominations - just shy of the number needed.

She was followed by Left-wing candidates Bell Ribeiro-Addy (15) and Paula Barker (14), while senior MP Dame Emily Thornberry trailed with just 13 nominations.

It came after housing minister Alison McGovern became the first candidate to drop out of the contest to replace Angela Rayner as Labour's deputy leader.

Ms McGovern admitted she was not going to get the required 80 nominations from MPs to get through to a vote by party members.

She instead threw her support behind Ms Phillipson.

Sir Keir Starmer's ally Bridget Phillipson has sailed through to the next stage of Labour's deputy leadership contest

Sir Keir's allies will be hoping to prevent an out-and-out Left-winger, who is hostile to the leadership, from making it through to next round of the contest.

Who's leading Labour's deputy leader race? Bridget Phillipson - 116 nominations Lucy Powell - 77 Bell Ribeiro-Addy - 15 Paula Barker - 14 Emily Thornberry - 13 *as of 7pm on Wednesday Advertisement

With hustings happening this evening and the deadline for MP nominations at 5pm tomorrow, Ms Phillipson is now certain to make the final vote of party members.

But eyes are turning to who else will be in the run-off, with speculation that party members could end up backing the most Left-wing option available.

Ms Powell, a close ally of Sir Keir's rival Andy Burnham, looks likely to join Ms Phillipson in the next round.

Ms Ribeiro-Addy and Ms Barker, seen as the most Left-wing contenders, have both criticised the process for hampering their chances.

There are claims that allies of Ms Phillipson have been telling MPs it would be better if she was crowned deputy unopposed.

In a statement on social media, Ms McGovern said: 'Despite picking up support today it is clear that the momentum of this contest has shifted and I am not going to progress to the next stage.

'I am pulling out of the race now to allow my supporters to switch their nominations to one of the remaining candidates before the deadline.

'I want to thank everyone who has offered me support and encouragement in this race. I will be nominating my friend and colleague Bridget Phillipson as the candidate best-placed to unite our party and take the fight to our opponents.'

Alison McGovern became the first candidate to drop out of the contest to replace Angela Rayner as Labour's deputy leader





Sacked minister Lucy Powell (left), a close ally of Sir Keir's rival Andy Burnham, and Emily Thornberry (right), who has promised to focus on Gaza and a wealth tax, are both in the field





Ms McGovern also pledged to continue making a 'progressive argument' regardless of the outcome of the contest, saying it was the only way of 'standing up to the far right and the populists'.

Ms Barker told Times Radio that the main hustings tonight was too late.

'We are on a one-line whip on Thursday which means that we don't have to be in Parliament. So lots of colleagues will be travelling back to their constituencies at the time the hustings is taking place,' she said.

'I really don't think that that is the best democratic way for us to run this contest.'

Ms Barker also complained about the truncated contest, saying: 'We have a very, very narrow window of opportunity.

'That is remiss of the party and I would hope that, no matter who the deputy leader is at the end of this process, one of the first things they do is look at our internal processes.

'There is definitely a need for a culture shift  the party must be far more inclusive.'

Dame Emily swiped at Ms Phillipson as she launched her campaign, promising not to 'just nod along' with the leadership.

She listed welfare, Gaza, a wealth tax and planned changes to special educational needs provision as her key issues.
Youth dies while trying to extinguish fire in straw-loaded trolley in Mirzapur 12 Dec 2025 | 8:09 PM Mirzapur, Dec 12 (UNI) A young man lost his life while attempting to extinguish a fire that broke out in a tractor-trolley loaded with straw in Atrauli Khurd village, police said on Friday. see more..

One-day session of MP Assembly 12 Dec 2025 | 7:11 PM Bhopal, Dec 12 (UNI) A one-day session of the Madhya Pradesh State Assembly would be held on December 17 in the state capital. see more..

UP Governments new AYUSH policy to boost AYUSH Industry in the State 12 Dec 2025 | 6:51 PM Lucknow, Dec 12(UNI) The Yogi Adityanath government is set to introduce a new AYUSH Policy to strengthen Uttar Pradeshs position in the countrys AYUSH sector. With an aim to promote AYUSH industries in the state, the policy will offer various incentives to investors. see more..

Microsoft, Frontier Markets & Saral Jeevan join hands to train 30,000 rural SHG women in AI 12 Dec 2025 | 6:13 PM Lucknow, Dec 12 (UNI) In a significant push to bring Indias rural women into the fast-evolving AI economy, Saral Jeevan India Foundation, Frontier Markets, and Microsoft India on Friday have announced a landmark partnership to equip 30,000 women from Self-Help Groups (SHGs) with AI skills.



The initiativepart of the expanding She Leads Bharat: Udyam programmeaims to build a scalable national model capable of empowering one million women entrepreneurs and reaching 100 million rural households by 2030. see more..
You'll never have to wait long to hear former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon quoting Robert Burns.

She scatters the poets most famous verses throughout campaigns, speeches and debates, often twisting them to fit her agenda.

To listen to her, one might be forgiven for thinking of Burns the Nationalist rather than the national bard.

During her time in power, Ms Sturgeon frequently turned to Burns, posting his work online and depending on his canon for some of her most effective attack lines.

Many Scots may have cringed at the time, but when the ex-SNP leader now peddling her memoir Frankly in a series of interviews  accused Boris Johnson of being a cowrin, timrous beastie for refusing to grant a second referendum, independence supporters roared their support. That description of Mr Johnson comes, of course, from Burnss To a Mouse.

Ms Sturgeon might benefit from studying another of the poets great works.

Almost 250 years ago, Burns wrote of the curse of a lack of self-awareness. If only, he lamented in To a Louse, we were able to see oursels as ithers see us!

The former First Minister on Good Morning Britain this week

Scotland's most famous poet Robert Burns

As Ms Sturgeon marches on in the quest to flog books, she displays precisely the problem her hero identified.

While performing self- reflection in interviews  maybe she could have done this differently, perhaps she was a little too cautious about that  she has continued to attack and traduce those who opposed her politics, using her book tour as a score-settling exercise.

On Monday night, she pitched up in Aberdeen where, in front of an adoring crowd, she nurtured her rancour and doubled down on why she was right and everyone else was wrong. Truly, it must be exhausting to be so deeply misunderstood.

On the matter of trans rights, Ms Sturgeon declared that Scotland had collectively lost its mind. Perhaps its some self-protection mechanism that prevents her from considering the possibility that the losing of minds has occurred with her and those who share her desire to dismantle womens rights in order to accede to trans activists extreme demands.

But while Ms Sturgeon may comfort herself that this is an all of us problem, those who dont share her goal of changing the law to allow anyone to self-identify into the legally recognised sex of their choosing outnumber her supporters three-to-one.

She is among a dwindling minority who believe humans can magically change sex.

Entertainingly, Ms Sturgeon claimed on Monday she respected those who disagree with her on the subject.

Opponents branded by her during the heat of the self-ID debate as bigots, homophobes, and even racists, may disagree.

The utter chaos Ms Sturgeon caused with her monomaniacal crusade continues, more than two years after the public backlash against plans  blocked by former Scottish Secretary Alister Jack  to reform the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) contributed to her decision to quit as First Minister.

The tribunal case of Sandie Peggie  a nurse of 30 years service currently suing NHS Fife and trans-identifying doctor Beth Upton for discrimination and harassment  has thrown into sharp focus the madness of Ms Sturgeons obsession.

Ms Peggies claim that she should not have been expected to share a changing room with someone born male has received a groundswell of public support which makes Ms Sturgeon look detached and unthinking.

While the majority remain in favour of womens rights based on biology rather than feelings, and are opposed to the entrance into womens single-sex spaces by those born male, the former FMs belief that she is right remains unshakeable.

On Monday night, questioned about the balance between the rights of women and trans people, Ms Sturgeon said she would never accept they were in conflict.

What a lack of intellectual curiosity. When the ex-SNP leader began, almost a decade ago, to agitate for legislative change based on the demands of trans activists, she may have been able to plead ignorance of the consequences.

At that time, the view that self-ID would do no more than make life easier for a deeply persecuted minority was widely held.

The mantra be kind  repeated mindlessly by political leaders from across the spectrum who hadnt taken time to think about the reality of what they were supporting  was in the air. In the years since, the problems with self-ID have become clear.

Along with the Sandie Peggie tribunal, the case of rapist Adam Graham  sent to a womens jail after self-identifying as a woman named Isla Bryson  the harassment and abuse of feminists daring to declare the importance of biological sex, and scandals across the public sector, such as the decision (now overturned) by National Librarian Amina Shah to ban the gender-critical book The Women Who Wouldnt Wheesht from a major exhibition, have combined to cement public opinion against GRA reform.

Most Scots assuredly have not lost their minds when it comes to the demands of trans activists. Most Scots reject them, completely.

That the avalanche of evidence showing why self-ID is a very bad idea has passed Ms Sturgeon by is quite remarkable.

But it is not solely in the area of gender reform where Ms Sturgeon displayed a troubling lack of self-awareness on Monday evening.

Saltires which have appeared on lamposts in Falkirk

The former SNP leader, who campaigned amid a sea of Saltires, complained about the politicisation of flags.

Ms Sturgeon is an arsonist complaining about an outbreak of fires.

Reform leader Nigel Farage is, of course, the villain in the touring pantomime of her book tour. On Monday, she again criticised Mr Farages brittle ego.

At once, the head nods along with that assessment and shakes at Ms Sturgeons inability to recognise just how fragile is her own armour.

The political graveyard is littered with the rotting careers of Nationalist politicians who dared not show complete obedience to her while she was in power.

Before suggesting Mr Farage should retire, Ms Sturgeon told the audience in Aberdeen she was worried about the normalisation in this country of far-Right language and rhetoric and attitudes and opinions.

It was important, she said, for politicians on the Left to explain to voters that they understand current financial pressures and the temptation to turn to right-wingers such as Mr Farage.

And then the zinger.

What Mr Farage was offering by way of a solution to the challenges people face was snake oil. That was quite the charge from one of the great snake oil saleswomen of modern politics.

Mr Farages claims about public finances and economic growth are no more fanciful than those made by the SNP in the 2014 independence referendum White Paper  670 pages of guesswork and supposition.

Ms Sturgeon and Mr Farage are Nationalist populists whose secession projects offer simple solutions to complex problems. Both invite us to push the big red button for instant fixes all round. The similarities between the two are many.

If only Ms Sturgeon had the ability to see herself as others see her, she might realise that.
Eco-millionaire Dale Vince heaped praise on the new Green Party leader Zack Polanski last night - saying he could be a leftwing version of Nigel Farage.

Mr Vince, the entrepreneur and Labour party supporter, said Mr Polanski was 'exactly what the Green Party needs', following the former actor and hypnotist's election win last week.

He likened the 'exciting' 42-year-old London Assembly member to Reform leader Mr Farage as well as Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, in 'cutting through, communicating to people' in a direct manner.

But speaking to Times Radio last night be stopped short of saying he would donate money to the Greens, as he has in the past.

And later, on Twitter, he added: 'Zack might very well be Britain's second green populist - he very much gets the concept and embodies it well.

'(The difference) between him and me is he leads a party and that's exciting. Right wing populists have been showing us how it's done for a while now, time for a green one.'

Mr Vince, the entrepreneur and Labour party supporter, said Mr Polanski was 'exactly what the Green Party needs', following the former actor and hypnotist's election win last week.

He likened the 'exciting' 42-year-old London Assembly member to Reform leader Mr Farage (pictured) as well as Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, in 'cutting through, communicating to people' in a direct manner.

And later, on Twitter, he added: 'Zack might very well be Britain's second green populist - he very much gets the concept and embodies it well.

Mr Polanski's landslide victory in the Green Party leadership election saw him defeat a joint ticket of MPs Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns by 20,411 to 3,705.

His victory was welcomed by both former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, who announced in July that they would found a new party of their own.

Both said they 'look forward' to 'working with' Mr Polanski, while Mr Corbyn praised him for a campaign which 'took on the rich and powerful, stood up for the dignity of all marginalised communities, and gave people hope'.

Mr Polanski's 'eco-populist' campaign, casting the new Green leader as on the side of 'the 99 per cent' against 'the 1 per cent', brought speculation that he could seek an alliance with Mr Corbyn and Ms Sultana's party as they bid to appeal to similar voters.

But at the weekend he urged left-leaning voters to back his party, saying there is no 'time to wait around' for a new party to get up and running.

He is a former actor and Harley Street hypnotist who, in 2013, featured in a newspaper article in which he claimed he could help women increase the size of their breasts.

It lead to commentators branding him 'the boob whisperer'.

He is also a former Extinction Rebellion activist who was arrested at a demonstration in 2019.

Mr Vince used to fund the group, but stopped during their campaign of civil disobedience in and around London.
JK Rowling has paid tribute to Stuart Craig, the Oscar-winning production designer who brought to life the wizarding world of Harry Potter.

In a post today, Rowling described Craig as a 'true visionary' and 'also one of the nicest people you ever could hope to meet'.

Craig, who has died aged 83, was a designer on film sets including The English Patient, Dangerous Liaisons and The Elephant Man.

As a production designer, Craig was responsible for bringing a script alive - working with all visual departments such as costume, lighting and special effects to create the visual world in which the story is set.

From 18th century France to Victorian London, Craig took the script and worked with the film director and heads of department to sketch out what the screenplay would look like visually.

Craig was perhaps best known for his work designing all eight Harry Potter film sets, beginning with the Philosopher's Stone in 2001 and culminating in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, which was released a decade later in 2011.

After the films were complete, Craig was then asked to design the Harry Potter theme parks, which he did in collaboration with Warner Bros to create the much loved studios in Watford.

He continued his work with the Potter film franchise by designing the three Fantastic Beasts films, released between 2016 and 2022.

Rowling said in a tribute: 'Working with Stuart Craig was one of the privileges of my life.

'He was a true visionary and conjured the wizarding world for the screen as nobody else could have done.

Craig won three Oscars and three Baftas in a glittering career that spanned more than four decades

JK Rowling paid tribute to Stuart Craig today, the production designer of all eight Harry Potter films who has died aged 83

Rowling called Craig a 'true visionary' and 'also one of the nicest people you ever could hope to meet'

'He was also one of the nicest people you ever could hope to meet,' she added. 'My deepest condolences to his loved ones.'

Across a glittering career of more than four decades in the industry, Craig won three Oscars and was nominated for eight more.

He won best art direction Oscars for Gandhi, the 1982 biopic, as well as Dangerous Liaisons, the 1988 period drama starring Michelle Pfeiffer and John Malkovich, and The English Patient, the 1996 epic romantic war film starring Ralph Fiennes.

Craig received Oscar nominations for eight other films, including four Harry Potters, and also won three Baftas and was nominated for 16.

David Puttnam, the film director and former peer who collaborated with Craig on The Mission, Cal and Memphis Belle, said: 'Not only was Stuart the most inventively gifted production designer of his generation, but as a man and a departmental head he certainly ranks among the most exemplary collaborators I ever had the privilege of working with.

'Stuart generated the most incredible sense of loyalty among his team, something which sprung naturally from a debt he felt he owed to those with whom hed worked, and who had helped him, early in his career.

'Losing Stuart is a very sad day for the whole of the British film industry  he and his influence will be massively missed.'

He married Patricia Stangroom in 1965, with whom he had two children, Becky and Laura and four grandchildren.

Craig passed away after a battle with Parkinson's disease on Sunday, September 7, his family said.

His family told the Guardian: 'Our beloved husband and father, deeply loved and respected, was not only known for his talent but also for his kindness and we are moved by hearing of how many lives he touched.

'He will live on in our hearts forever.'

Craig was born in Norwich in 1942 and studied film design at the Royal College of Art in London.

He began his career in the 60s and 70s working on a range of films, such as the Bond spoof Casino Royale, the Albert Finney musical Scrooge and the George Macdonald Fraser adaptation Royal Flash.

Craig established his artistic and creative abilities with the 1977 war epic A Bridge Too Far and 1978 Superman starring Christopher Reeves.

He then made his breakthrough as the production designer on Elephant Man, David Lynch's The Elephant Man, the biographical historical drama set in late 19th century London based on the life of Joseph Merrick.

Craig went on to work on the colossal Gandhi biopic, which one him his first Oscar and which included a funeral scene estimated to have 300,000 extras.

Some of the most successful and best known films of the 1980s and 90s had Craig's visionary stamp on them.

He gained a reputation for creating lavish and highly detailed sets - mostly memorably on Dangerous Liaisons in 1988, the notorious 18th century period drama centered around seduction and romance in pre-revolution France.

He accomplished another lavish biopic with Chaplin, the 1992 comedy and drama featuring Robert Downey Junior as Charlie Chaplin, the English slapstick comedian most prominent in the 1920s and 30s.

In 1997, Craig won his third and final Oscar for The English Patient, a war film set at the end of WWII starring Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas.

Soon after, Craig completed the much-loved Richard Curtis romcom Notting Hill, featuring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant.

This was to be a more understated set for the production designer, before he dove back into lavish design once more with the Harry Potter franchise, which he will likely be best remembered for.
Lord Mandelson is facing intense pressure to resign over excruciating messages to Jeffrey Epstein whom he described as 'my best pal'.

Britain's ambassador to Washington hailed his love for the disgraced financier as he sent photos of himself topless and wearing a fluffy white dressing gown.

American politicians released his holiday snaps from a visit in around 2002 to Epstein's Caribbean island - dubbed 'orgy island' by one of his sex slaves.

Downing Street and Cabinet ministers shrugged off questions about the Labour peer's judgement, but critics are questioning whether his position remains tenable.

The revelation comes just a week before the crucial state visit by US President Donald Trump to the UK in which Lord Mandelson is playing a key role.

He said today that the message was 'very embarrassing to see and to read' and admitted more 'very embarrassing' details will come about their friendship.

You can vote on whether Lord Mandelson should resign in the Mail's poll here:
Multiple Miss France winners were raped and sexually assaulted after winning the title, an insider has alleged in a new book.

Hubert Guerin, deputy to the contest's former president, Genevieve de Fontenay, included the allegations in his new book exposing the competition behind the scenes.

He told French media last week that he had begun the work in 2020 with the agreement of the late longtime president of the Miss France Committee.

'Miss France, from dream to reality' shares the accounts of 'about ten' former Miss Frances who said they had been assaulted, according to The Times.

One pageant winner was reported to have said: 'I was raped a few hours after being elected Miss France: in my room, I was pushed against the bed, called every name under the sun, and my dress was torn off.'

The author told RTL radio: 'We're facing a competition that crushes, crushes young girls.'

'We're talking about all types of aggression: it goes from hand-to-buttocks to sexual assault, that is to say, very concretely, forced fellatio, rape, breasts being felt up in a group photo, et cetera.'

In sum, as many as 60 Miss Frances and regional elected officials came together to testify in the book, which hit shelves this week.

FILE PHOTO shows contestants during the Miss France 2024 pageant in Dijon. Multiple winners of the competition, not pictured, reported concerns

No former competition winner has taken legal action, which the author blamed on 'omerta' - a code of silence - and pressure.

Speaking on W9, Guerin accused 'members of the Miss France organisation', including some 'senior executives still in office'.

The accusations do not name the alleged attackers.

However, one former winner accused the author of making up quotes attributed to her.

Camille Cerf, who won the pageant in 2015, said she had never spoken to the author.

'I've never spoken to Hubert Guerin; what he says about me is false and completely fabricated,' she wrote on X.

'His comments are very serious, and I don't intend to let him do that. During my year and for the past 10 years, the Miss France Organization has always protected me.'

Sylvie Tellier, who was named Miss France in 2002, said she was never called to testify.

She also said that she had never heard of such assaults within the organisation.

Hubert Guerin published the book, exposing the world of Miss France and raising concerning allegations of sexual assault and rape

'If during my 15 years at the helm of Miss France, I had been informed of harassment, sexual assaults, the first thing I would have done is to encourage them to file a complaint,' she said, as reported by RTL.

'Writing a book like this, without facts, without dates, is to throw a whole mess over the Miss France organization.

'That is not how you do justice. You don't do justice in a book, you do justice in court.'

The book has nonetheless sent shockwaves through France and prompted wider discussion of the topic.

Ludivine Langlois, who was Miss Nievre in 2016, said that she also experienced sexual harassment at the separate pageant when she was 19.

She told Le Parisien that a volunteer who 'had power in the competition' sent her inappropriate text messages including 'Are you still a virgin, Ludivine' and 'You know, sometimes in a sexy outfit you don't leave me indifferent lol'.

'Hubert Guerin's accusations have brought back buried memories,' she told the outlet.

Camille Cerf (centre), who won the pageant in 2015, said she had never spoken to the author

The Miss France Society said in a statement ahead of publication that it had 'taken note of the reported allegations of sexual violence and attacks on the integrity of the candidates, which allegedly took place between 1990 and 2002, without naming the people concerned.'

'We cannot judge the veracity of these allegations, which according to the author, correspond to a period before the takeover of the Miss France Company by Endemol , then by the Banijay group, it is specified.

'Nevertheless, if they were proven, these facts would touch on subjects which concern us all deeply: the safety, dignity and respect of each woman.'
Former vice president Kamala Harris revealed she regretted not pushing President Joe Biden to abandon his 2024 campaign sooner, but acknowledged doing so would have come off as 'incredibly self-serving.'

The revelation appears in her new book 107 Days, which goes on sale on September 23.

An extract from the book has appeared in the The Atlantic.

'During all those months of growing panic, should I have told Joe to consider not running? Perhaps,' Harris admits. 'Of all the people in the White House, I was in the worst position to make the case that he should drop out. I knew it would come off to him as incredibly self-serving if I advised him not to run. He would see it as naked ambition, perhaps as poisonous disloyalty'

Harris revealed that going into the 2024 campaign, she automatically followed the 'mantra' set by the White House that it was Biden's decision to make with his family if he wanted to run for reelection.

'Was it grace, or was it recklessness?' Harris asked. 'In retrospect, I think it was recklessness. The stakes were simply too high. This wasnt a choice that should have been left to an individuals ego, an individuals ambition. It should have been more than a personal decision.'

Harris revealed she faced the dilemma that any attempt to suggest that Biden should not run for office would be viewed as 'incredibly self-serving' even if her message was simply 'don't let the other guy win.'

The former vice president also revealed a list of grievances with Biden and his staff.

She complained that during the president's speech announcing his decision to abandon his reelection campaign, he did not mention her name until 'almost nine minutes into the 11-minute address.'

U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris attend the inauguration ceremony of Donald Trumpi

ice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff board Air Force 2 bound for California at Joint Base Andrews

Harris also noted that Biden's 'huge comms team' failed to properly defender her.

'[G]etting anything positive said about my work or any defense against untrue attacks was almost impossible,' she wrote, singling out Fox News for attacking her for faking a French accent during a visit to Paris.

She specifically expressed frustration in reports about her 'chaotic' office and high staff turnover during her first year as vice president.

Harris was defensive, arguing that part of the high staff turnover was due to her gender.

'Working for the first woman vice president, my staff had the additional challenge of confronting gendered stereotypes, a constant battle that could prove exhausting,' she wrote.

Harris said that every time she looked for help in the communications shop, she was ignored.

'[W]hen the stories were unfair or inaccurate, the presidents inner circle seemed fine with it. Indeed, it seemed as if they decided I should be knocked down a little bit more,' she wrote.

She also lamented the series of events that put her in the headlines as the president's 'border czar' to handle the crisis at the Southern border.

'No one around the president advocated, Give her something she can win with,' she wrote.

Harris complained she was criticized by Biden's team for delivering a speech on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza in Selma, Alabama, even though the text was approved by the White House.

US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris waves as she boards Air Force Two

Former US Vice President Kamala Harris pauses as she speaks at the Emerge 20th Anniversary Gala in San Francisco, California

'I was castigated for, apparently, delivering it too well,' she said.

Harris also blamed the 'people around' Biden who did not like polls showing she was getting more popular with voters.

'Their thinking was zero-sum: If shes shining, hes dimmed. None of them grasped that if I did well, he did well,' she wrote.

Harris argued that her success was important as a 'testament' to his judgement in choosing her as vice president, especially surrounding concerns about his age.

'My success was important for him. They didn't get it,' she concluded.
Wikipedia has been accused of trying to downplay the fatal stabbing of a Ukrainian woman on a North Carolina train after users tried to delete and edited the article.

Iryna Zarutska, 23, died on August 22 after being attacked with no warning by a man sitting behind her on the light rail in an onslaught captured on surveillance video.

She was stabbed three times in the neck by Decarlos Brown Jr, a 34-year-old career criminal who now faces the death penalty after his charges were upgraded to federal terrorism charges.

But a Wikipedia editor on Sunday tried to delete the entry about her death, alleging the incident did not meet the website's 'notability' requirements, The Free Press reports.

The notability requirements, which are written by volunteers, state a topic must receive 'significant coverage' in multiple 'reliable' outlets before it is eligible to receive its own Wikipedia page.

Wikipedia's editors are accused of having removed the name of Zarutska's alleged attacker from the article, as well as references to his race and the phrase 'career criminal'.

Editors also argued whether the incident should be described as a 'killing' or 'murder', according to the newspaper.

As of Wednesday morning, the article detailing the Ukrainian's death is titled the 'Killing of Iryna Zarutska'. Brown's name remains removed from the text, but details of his prior crimes are still included.

Iryna Zarutska, 23, died on August 22 after being stabbed three times in the neck

Horrific footage captured the moment Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, 23, was stabbed to death from behind as she sat on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina, on August 22

The article received nearly 350 revisions in just 24 hours and editors debated about deleting it altogether, Wikipedia states.

One editor reportedly argued the article should be mentioned briefly under a transit controversy section. They claimed it was a 'wrong place, wrong time' story that would typically only be covered in local media.

Other editors said they were in favor of taking a 'wait and see' approach to the article. But Wikipedia ultimately decided to keep the it up.

The Daily Mail has contacted Wikipedia comment.

Chilling footage showed Brown lunging at Zarutska, 23, from behind as she sat scrolling on her phone on a train through Charlotte on August 22.

She was stabbed a total of three times in her neck and hands with a pocket knife.

The stabbing unfolded just four minutes after she sat down on the train. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

On Tuesday, it was announced that Brown has been charged federally in the chilling case, which raises the possibility he could face the death penalty if convicted.

Officials said at the press conference that the federal charges are based on violence against a mass transportation system, which Ferguson said constituted an 'attack on the American way'.

If convicted, Brown would become the first person executed in the state since 2006.

Wikipedia has been accused of trying to downplay the fatal stabbing by allegedly editing the article. Editors are accused of having removed the name of Zarutska's alleged attacker from the article, as well as references to his race and the phrase 'career criminal'

The attack and disturbing video has sparked widespread grief, anger, and questions about public safety in the Democrat-led city as the nation comes to terms with the horror.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has said that Zarutska's 'murder is a direct result of failed soft-on-crime policies that put criminals before innocent people'.

Bondi said she has directed her attorneys to prosecute him federally so the Trump administration 'will seek the maximum penalty for this unforgivable crime, and he will never again see the light of day as a free man'.

President Donald Trump addressed the heinous crime on Tuesday, saying Zarutska was 'slaughtered by a deranged monster who was roaming free after 14 prior arrests'.

'For too long, Americans have been forced to put up with Democrat-run cities that set loose savage, bloodthirsty criminals to prey on innocent people  really, very, very innocent people,' Trump said.

'We saw the results of these policies when a 23-year-old woman who came here from Ukraine met her bloody end on a public train.

'This is a picture of the woman  beautiful, young girl that never had problems in life, with a magnificent future in this country. And now shes dead,' the president added.

'She was slaughtered by a deranged monster who was roaming free after 14 prior arrests. We cannot allow a depraved criminal element of violent repeat offenders to continue spreading destruction and death throughout our country.'

Brown was arrested soon after and charged with first-degree murder. His bond was subsequently denied by a judge and he remains in custody.

Zaruska's alleged attacker, Decarlos Brown Jr. did not show any signs of violence or mental distress

Brown has spent most of his life in and out of prison. He served five years in prison for a 2014 armed robbery and was released in September, 2020 - when he quickly resumed a life of crime

Zarutska's heartbroken family said on a GoFundMe page that she had only arrived in the US in 2022 'seeking safety from the war' in her home country, and 'hoping for a new beginning' before the slaying.

Brown was revealed to be a career criminal who has spent most of his life in and out of prison.

A Daily Mail review of police records found that he was charged with misusing 911 as recently as January, when he told cops he believed someone had given him a 'man-made' material that controlled his actions.

He was released without bail and a trial pending when he allegedly stabbed Zarutska to death.

Brown served five years in prison for a 2014 armed robbery and was released in September 2020.

In February 2021, Brown was arrested for assaulting his sister in Charlotte and leaving her with minor injuries, according to police records obtained by the Daily Mail.

That same month, he was again arrested for injury to personal property and trespassing.

A police report from that incident said Brown 'returned to the address after being told he was not allowed back and kicked and damaged the front door of the listed victim's residence'.

Iryna Zarutska was senselessly stabbed on a Charlotte, NC light rail train on August 22. Her family has called her death 'an irreparable loss'

In July 2022, Brown was arrested for a domestic disturbance.

'[Brown] was arrested for disorderly conduct. The suspect was yelling and cursing, causing a disturbance and drawing the attention of multiple tenants while on the property,' a police report read.

Brown's arrest records go as far back as 2007, when he was still a minor.

Over the next seven years, he was arrested at least six times for crimes including felony larceny, robbery with a dangerous weapon and communicating threats.

According to the Charlotte Observer, most of the charges he faced during that time were dropped.

When reached for comment, the Mecklenburg District Attorney's Office told the Daily Mail Tuesday it cannot speak about defendants with pending cases.

'In broad terms, it remains the position of the District Attorneys office that those who commit violent crimes should be held in custody pending trial,' the DA's said.

Brown's latest alleged crime is his most serious.
A man has been sentenced to jail following the death of eight-month-old Dexter Wilton, who was left in a filthy room for almost 24 hours as his carers took drugs.

The baby boy had been dead for hours when paramedics found him inside a property west of Brisbane.

More than six years later, Andrew William Campbell, 45, was jailed over the 'abhorrent' breach of duty.

Campbell had been with Dexter's mother Natalie Jade Whitehead for four weeks and moved into her Ipswich unit, taking on a parenting role.

The de-facto couple were 'overtaken by a cocktail of drugs' and were on an ice bender when they left Dexter unattended with a single bottle in his cot for at least 21 hours on June 2019.

'The facts are tragic and utterly heartbreaking,' Justice Catherine Muir told Campbell in Brisbane Supreme Court on Wednesday.

'You were aware just prior to Dexter dying that he was not being cared for, but you chose your obsession.'

The baby was cleaned and received a change of clothes before emergency services were called.

Andrew William Campbell arrives at the Brisbane Supreme Court on Wednesday

Eight-month-old Dexter Wilton had been dead for up to three hours after enduring 'severe neglect' when paramedics arrived

Campbell visited a neighbour to hide a bag of drug utensils, and dump dirty baby clothes and nappies.

Whitehead eventually called triple zero and Campbell was asked to perform CPR on Dexter but he refused.

Paramedics arrived to find a crying Whitehead clutching Dexter to her chest.

He had been dead for up to three hours after enduring a 'severe neglect of his most basic needs'.

'The hours proceeding Dexter's death would have been extremely distressing physically and emotionally,' crown prosecutor Matt Le Grand said.

'The breach of the duty (of care) in this case is nothing other than abhorrent.'

Dexter died of acute malnutrition and severe dehydration, with rashes and lesions found on his buttocks and thighs.

Campbell's defence said the 45-year-old has struggled with drugs since the age of 16.

Mr Campbell has been sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in jail

Prosecutors tabled Campbell's three-page criminal history with drugs the 'root of all the substantial offending'.

Campbell had earlier pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Justice Muir said there was little evidence of remorse from Campbell, sentencing him to eight-and-a-half years in jail.

He will be eligible for parole in September 2026, with 898 days of pre-sentence custody declared as time served.

Whitehead was sentenced to nine years in jail in October 2024 after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
A top paediatrician has suggested that 'over-diagnosis' is a leading factor in the spiralling rate of autism in Australia.

Experts warned on Wednesday that thousands of children with developmental delays are being misdiagnosed in order for their families to be able to access funds from the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

'I think there is pressure to up-diagnose or over-diagnose so people can get access to a scheme that was not designed for people with mild or moderate developmental needs,' paediatrician-turned-politician Dr Mike Freelander told 7News.

Dr Freelander, who is leading the parliamentary review into the NDIS, said it needs to become more sustainable.

'Unfortunately, we've set up a model that didn't work in the first place, and we now have to reinvent it,' he said.

Frank Oberklaid, Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Melbourne, also echoed Dr Freelander's call for change.

'Any child with a delay in language or a little bit quirky or energetic gets [an autism] diagnosis. There's no way that all of these children need intensive therapies,' he said.

Some children with autism will no longer receive NDIS support, but will instead be moved to a scheme called Thriving Kids under changes brought in by the Albanese government in August.

Paediatricians warned thousands of children with developmental delays may be misdiagnosed with autism as the cost of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is stretched (stock)

Health and NDIS Minister Mark Butler told the National Press Club in Canberra that NDIS had become too big since it debuted in 2013 - with one in six Australian six-year-old boys now covered by it.

'The scheme is now entering its adolescence, a period that all parents know involves the maturing of our beautiful children but a period also that can be full of risks that things will run off the rails without a judicious dose of management and supervision,' he said.

'The NDIS has grown incredibly fast and created new markets which have at times impacted and distorted other parts of the health and social care ecosystem.'

Following a review initiated by former NDIS minister Bill Shorten in 2022, the government aims to pare back the NDIS to its original purpose to serve those with a permanent disability.

Butler said the government was focused on 'ensuring the scheme becomes sustainable from a Budget perspective'.

The NDIS is forecast to cost taxpayers $52.3billion in 2025-26 which is more than Australia's $51.5billion defence budget, even during a time of global geopolitical uncertainty.

The cost of the scheme is growing at a faster annual pace than aged care, even as more baby boomers retire.

The NDIS costs blew out to $48.5billion in 2024-25 and the Treasury Budget papers revealed it was Australia's third most expensive program after revenue help for the states and territories and support for seniors.

Dr Mike Freelander (pictured) said there is a 'pressure to over-diagnose' autism in Australia

The scheme is becoming more expensive, as children with autism make up the majority of new recipients, rather than individuals with a permanent disability.

'Growth in new participant numbers remains high,' he said.

'Diverting this group of kids over time from the NDIS is an important element of making the scheme sustainable and returning it to its original intent.'

A Nine Newspapers analysis of new NDIS recipients during the last financial year showed seven out of 10 of them were children with autism - or 56,000 out of the 78,000 participants who signed on between July 2024 and June 2025.

Reforms include establishing a new scheme to support families whose children are removed from the NDIS.

Thriving Kids will focus on 'identifying developmental concerns earlier and establishing a national system of supports for children aged 8 and under with mild to moderate developmental delay and autism, and their families'.
Labour MPs broke ranks to call for Lord Mandelson to quit over his Jeffrey Epstein links today as a squirming Keir Starmer insisted he still has confidence in the US ambassador.

Sir Keir is facing dissent in his own ranks after defending the peer, despite acknowledging Lord Mandelson was 'right' to express regret for an extraordinary birthday message branding the disgraced financier his 'best pal'.

Repeatedly challenged at PMQs, the PM said still he has 'confidence' in the envoy. But he dodged questions over the vetting process, and whether details would be published.

The Commons clashes - which the Labour benches listened to in stony silence - came after Lord Mandelson admitted more 'very embarrassing' details will come about about his friendship with Epstein.

US politicians have released the former Cabinet minister's holiday snaps from a visit in around 2002 to Epstein's Caribbean island  dubbed 'orgy island' by one of his sex slaves.

Separately, emails revealed how Lord Mandelson worked with Epstein on a 1billion deal over the sale of a UK taxpayer-owned banking business after the American had been convicted of child sex offences.

Critics questioned whether his position remained tenable, just a week before the crucial state visit by Donald Trump to the UK in which the Labour peer will play a key role.

Labour deputy leadership candidate Bell Ribeiro-Addy said there should be a standards probe into Lord Mandelson, and he should resign if he has broken rules.

Fellow MP Kim Johnson echoed the criticism and laid the blame squarely at the door of Sir Keir, complaining 'this was known before he was given this position'.

She told The Telegraph the birthday greeting indicated a 'very strong relationship because who sends cards with those comments on?'

'He should never have got it in the first place,' continued the Liverpool Riverside MP.

Nadia Whittome said Lord Mandelson 'shouldn't have been appointed in the first place', adding: 'It is very clear that the PM must sack him immediately'.

Another backbencher, Ian Byrne, warned the situation 'stinks to high heaven'.

The Labour peer has previously expressed his 'regret' for ever having met Epstein  who affectionately nicknamed him 'Petie'. However, the full depth of their relationship has never been revealed.

Commenting for the first time on the revelations, Lord Mandelson said he felt 'very embarrassed', but suggested he saw a different side to the predator 'because I'm a gay man'.

'I never sought and nor did he offer any introductions to women in a way he originally did for others, perhaps it's because I'm a gay man,' he told podcast Harry Cole Saves the West.

Keir Starmer writhed today over what he knew, and when, about Lord Mandelson's links to Jeffrey Epstein

Lord Mandelson - who once infamously declared himself 'intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich' - in a fluffy white dressing gown enjoying a chat with Jeffrey Epstein

Lord Mandelson gazing out of a balcony window in what appears to be Epstein's house on his private island in the Caribbean

Mandelson's message in the 'birthday book' compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell said Epstein was 'my best pal!'

Referring to more information that could soon emerge about his relationship with Epstein, he continued: 'I don't believe I'm named in the Epstein files. I have no doubt at all that there's a lot of traffic, correspondence, exchanges, emails between us.

'And we know those are going to surface, we know they're going to come out, we know they're going to be very embarrassing and we know that I am going profoundly to regret ever having met him and been introduced to him in the first place.

'But I can't rewrite history. What I can do is express my profound sympathy for those who have been trafficked by him and secondly I can accept, yes, I can accept, that I continued my association with him for too long.'

He continued: 'I regret very much that I fell for his lies, I fell for and accepted assurances that he had given me about his indictment, his original criminal case in Florida, like very many people, I took at face value what he said.

'With hindsight, with fresh information, many years later, we realised that we had been wrong to believe him.

'He is a charismatic criminal liar, we now see, and I regret very much indeed. I felt it like an albatross around my neck since his death.

'I feel a tremendous sense of regret, not only that I met him in the first place, but that I continued the association, and I took, at face value, the lies that he fed me and many others.'

Kemi Badenoch kicked off her questions in the House by asking whether Sir Keir had confidence in Lord Mandelson.

He replied: 'Let me start by saying the victims of Epstein are at the forefront of our minds. He was a despicable criminal who committed the most heinous crimes and destroyed the lives of so many women and girls.

'The ambassador has repeatedly expressed his deep regret for his association with him. He is right to do so. I have confidence in him, and he is playing an important role in the UK-US relationship.'

The Tory leader shot back that Epstein victims had called for Lord Mandelson to be sacked, adding: 'Just so the House is aware, in 2019 Jeffrey Epstein was convicted of child prostitution and sex trafficking that took place between 2002 and 2005, the precise period [during] which Lord Mandelson called Jeffrey Epstein his best pal.

'Was the Prime Minister aware of this intimate relationship when he appointed Lord Mandelson to be our ambassador in Washington?'

A clearly uncomfortable Sir Keir said: 'As she and the House would expect, full due process was followed during this appointment, as it is with all ambassadors. The ambassador has repeatedly expressed his deep regret, he is right to do so, he's now playing an important part in the US-UK relationship.'

Sir Keir ducked as Mrs Badenoch demanded the publication of all documents on the vetting of the ambassador, and urged him to order Lord Mandelson to 'publish all his correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein'.

Lord Mandelson with Jeffrey Epstein on December 12, 2005, where he is seen trying on a belt during a visit to a boutique in the Caribbean

Mandelson and a friend enjoy a boat ride together as guests of Epstein

Lord Mandelson, who was appointed by Sir Keir Starmer as Britain's ambassador to the US, is pictured here with Donald Trump in the Oval Office in May 2025

Mrs Badenoch said she wanted to know what the PM had to hide

Rosie Duffield, who quit Labour, compared her treatment to that of Lord Mandelson

Lib Dem leader Ed Davey raised concerns what other 'compromising material' the Trump administration might have on Lord Mandelson.

'Lord Mandelson has admitted to continuing his relationship long after Epstein was convicted, and there are more embarrassing details we don't yet know,' he said.

'People will be surprised by the Prime Minister giving Ambassador Mandelson such strong support today.

'Has the Prime Minister asked the ambassador what other compromising materials the Trump administration might have on him, as he leads Britain's negotiations with the White House?'

Sir Keir responded: 'A full due process was gone through when the appointment was made.'

Outside the chamber, Downing Street insisted Lord Mandelson went through a robust vetting process before being appointed ambassador.

The PM's official spokesman said: 'We have been very clear that the victims of Jeffrey Epstein are at the forefront of our minds, he was a despicable criminal who committed the most heinous crimes and destroyed the lives of so many women and girls.

'On the appointment process, any candidates for ambassador positions are subject to extensive vetting and background checks by the Foreign Office and Cabinet Office as a matter of course.'

Asked if the Prime Minister was surprised by the latest revelations, the spokesman said: 'The ambassador himself has repeatedly addressed the association.'

Ms Ribeiro-Addy was questioned on whether Lord Mandelson should remain as ambassador. 'No I think that's going to disturb quite a few people,' she told the i newspaper.

'There should definitely be an investigation into it because there will be a huge amount of concern and if the outcome is that he should resign, he should.'

Mr Byrne told The Independent: 'MPs get suspended by the party like I did for voting against putting children into poverty, but calling world's most infamous pedophile and child trafficker your "best pal" amongst other comments, that's ok. It stinks to high heaven.'

Although Lord Mandelson has voiced regret about his links to Epstein, in June he accused the Financial Times of being 'obsessed' with the situation and said they could 'f*** off'.

On Monday night, Democrats in Congress released a ten-page greeting handwritten by Lord Mandelson as part of a 238-page photobook compiled for Epstein's 50th birthday in 2003 by his on-off girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.

The 'birthday book' features lewd messages from friends and associates of the billionaire US paedophile, apparently including Bill Clinton, Mr Trump  who claims it is fake  and an unnamed bikini-clad 'assistant' of Epstein who claims she met Prince Andrew and sat on the Queen's throne in Buckingham Palace.

Lord Mandelson's contribution weaves tributes to Epstein as a 'mysterious' and 'intelligent, sharp-witted man' into a lyrical picture story set over ten pages.

The photos are Lord Mandelson's holiday snaps, believed to be from a 2002 visit to Little St James, Epstein's private island, which was later dubbed 'paedo island'.

One image shows Lord Mandelson wearing just swimming shorts and gazing from a balcony, with the description that 'you would spend many hours just waiting for him [Epstein] to turn up'.

Another shows a smiling Lord Mandelson in a fluffy dressing gown chatting to his host beneath a handwritten declaration that: 'Wherever he is in the world, he remains my best pal!'

On the last page, he writes: 'Happy birthday Jeffrey  we love you!!'

There is no suggestion that he was aware of any of Epstein's crimes.

The birthday greeting was penned five years before Epstein's conviction in 2008 for soliciting underage sex, although Lord Mandelson has not denied staying at Epstein's Manhattan mansion the following year after his release from prison.

Meanwhile, emails show how Mandelson, who was business secretary at the time, took advice from Epstein during the 2010 sale of an RBS energy trading arm to JP Morgan, just months after the disgraced financier was released from jail for child sex offences.

Epstein is said to have introduced Mandelson to Jes Staley, then a top banker at JP Morgan, who has since been banned from the City over his links to the paedophile.

Lord Mandelson, 71, will play a significant part in next week's state visit by Mr Trump, including as a VIP guest at the white-tie state banquet held in St George's Hall at Windsor Castle.

His job will be to smooth any diplomatic ripples to ensure King Charles and Queen Camilla can host the perfect event when they welcome Mr Trump and his wife, Melania, to Windsor Castle between September 17 and 19.

A woman listed as a former assistant of paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein wrote of meeting the Duke of York and visiting the private quarters of Buckingham Palace

The unidentified woman wrote Epstein transformed her life from a hotel hostess

She wrote of how she visited Buckingham Palace and sat on the Queen's throne

Epstein victims have called for Lord Mandelson to be sacked.

Former 'sex slave' Sarah Ransome, 41, said that 'something is really, really wrong here'.

She told The Telegraph: 'Peter Mandelson should not be ambassador. He needs to be fired.

'He is unsuitable to be ambassador. Keir Starmer must have known all this.

'Everybody knew about Peter Mandelson's close friendship with Epstein.'

Spencer Kuvin, a lawyer who represented nine of Epstein's victims, said: 'Allowing someone with clear ties to one of the worst sex abusers of our time to be ambassador is an insult to the victims of Epstein.

'This man should be questioned by the FBI and the UK Government immediately to find out what he knows.'

Nazir Afzal, the former chief prosecutor for north-west England, said: 'The most I've written in a birthday card to another man is probably "Happy Birthday Son".

'Mandelson writes poetry to [Epstein] with whom he stayed after conviction. Now he's ambassador to the government of another of Epstein's chums! A "regret" isn't enough, I'm afraid.'

Craig Murray, a former British ambassador to authoritarian Uzbekistan, posted the photo of the two men and remarked: 'Peter Mandelson, now Starmer's ambassador to the USA, with Jeffrey Epstein.

'I was sacked as ambassador for opposing torture and illegal rendition. The world of power is a dark place indeed.'

A birthday letter that US President Donald Trump allegedly wrote to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. He denies its veracity

In the 2003 birthday message, Lord Mandelson wrote about Epstein's 'glorious homes he likes to share with his friends (yum yum)', alongside a photo of Little St James, the idyllic island in the Caribbean which, it later emerged, had been a place where schoolchildren were molested.

Fringed by coral reefs, it served as Epstein's lair and was allegedly the 'perfect hideaway and haven for trafficking young women and underage girls for sexual servitude, child abuse and sexual assault', according to a lawsuit brought by the Virgin Islands against Epstein's estate in 2020.

Among those allegedly trafficked to the beauty spot was Epstein's 17-year-old sex slave Virginia Roberts, who labelled it 'orgy island' and said she was sexually assaulted there by Prince Andrew, which he has always vehemently denied.

Ms Roberts  later Virginia Giuffre  spoke about seeing countless women and girls on Little St James, claiming she was 'passed around like a platter of fruit' to Epstein's powerful friends between 2000 and 2002 at a number of locations.

There is no suggestion that her visits to the island coincided with Lord Mandelson's. In 2002 he was a Labour MP, having resigned from Tony Blair's Cabinet.

In one of the peer's photos, he is pictured on the island with two women  their faces obscured  and is being served breakfast by one of them. One of the women identified herself yesterday as Cathy Alexander, 70, Epstein's former housekeeper.

She told The Telegraph she believed the other woman, wearing a white vest and black bikini bottoms, was Maxwell.

Peter's photo casebook - Lord Mandelson's ten-page birthday greeting to Epstein:

The first page of Lord Mandelson's ten-page birthday greeting to Jeffrey Epstein hails him as 'mysterious'

On the second page, a topless Lord Mandelson wearing swimming shorts gazes out of a balcony, with the caption: '...waiting for him to turn up'

The story continues on page three of the letter

Page four: In one photo Mandelson is stood next to two females, one wearing a white vest and black underwear. Above, he writes that Epstein would leave 'you with some "interesting" friends to entertain'

Page five of the letter: reminiscing about dogs on the island

Page six: how Epstein would 'parachute back in' to your life

Page seven: surprise whiskey reference

Page eight: apparently a holiday snap taken by Mandelson of Epstein's Caribbean island

Page nine: Mandelson captioned this grinning photo of himself with Epstein and said he was 'my best pal!'

Page ten: the final page of the letter, a happy snap of Mandelson with a friend, believed to be his long-term partner and now-husband Reinaldo Avila da Silva

Lord Mandelson's handwritten caption on the photo states that Epstein would go away and leave 'you with some "interesting" friends to entertain'.

Mrs Alexander said Lord Mandelson stayed there for a week with his partner Reinaldo Avila da Silva, 53, whom he married two years ago.

She recalled him as a 'gentleman' and 'a very nice guy'. The housekeeper said she had never seen anything untoward during her time looking after Epstein.

Maxwell, 63, is serving 20 years in jail for recruiting young girls for Epstein to sexually abuse.

According to a court document filed in 2023, Epstein and Lord Mandelson had 'a particularly close friendship'. A photo, thought to be from 2005, showed Lord Mandelson wearing a 21,000 Patek Philippe watch with Epstein in the US Virgin Islands.

By then Epstein was under police investigation over multiple allegations of sexually assaulting schoolgirls. There is no suggestion that Lord Mandelson, then on a taxpayer-funded 200,000 salary as EU trade commissioner, knew anything of the accusations.

For years, Epstein entertained an A-list roster of guests on his island, including Naomi Campbell and Kevin Spacey. Ex-US President Clinton denies being a visitor, and all deny wrongdoing.

Mr Trump  who once told New York Magazine that Epstein 'likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side'  has played down his association with the financier.

Another drawing in the birthday book depicts a young Epstein enticing schoolgirls with balloons and lollipops, in 1983, and an older Epstein being massaged by topless women

Bill Clinton's 50th birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein praising his 'childlike curiosity' is seen for the first time

In the 'birthday book', there is a bawdy sketch allegedly signed by Mr Trump showing a woman's body with the line: 'Happy Birthday  and may every day be another wonderful secret'. The White House says it is 'fake news'.

Mr Clinton's birthday message praised Epstein's 'childlike curiosity'. Mr Clinton has long maintained he did not know of the allegations against Epstein.

Another drawing in the birthday book depicts a young Epstein enticing schoolgirls with balloons and lollipops, and an older Epstein being massaged by topless women, while a jet  presumably the billionaire's infamous 'Lolita Express'  flies over his mansion.

Lord Mandelson's office, the British Embassy in Washington and the Foreign Office in London were asked to comment yesterday.
The U.S. Department of Education announced that the 202627 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form will launch on Oct. 1, providing long-awaited relief for millions of students and families planning for college.

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said the department prioritized technical expertise to ensure a smooth rollout. "Under President Trump's leadership, our team has prioritized technical competence and expertise, which has led to the earliest testing launch of the FAFSA form in history," McMahon said. She added that the timely launch fulfills congressional requirements and provides certainty for students and families navigating financial aid.

McMahon also contrasted the current rollout with past challenges. "The Biden Administration failed the FAFSA rollout two years ago, leaving millions of American students and families without clear answers or a path forward in their educational journey," she said. On the administration's current commitment, she added, "Congress gave us a mandate to improve the form and deliver it on time for students, families, and institutions of higher education  and I am proud to certify that the form will launch on time this fall."

"We are pleased to see that the 2026-27 FAFSA will be open to the public, as planned, on October 1. ... We applaud the department for reaching this milestone."  Melanie Storey, President and CEO of NASFAA

The FAFSA is a critical tool for accessing federal grants, student loans, and work-study funds. More than 17 million students typically file the form each year, with many states and colleges also using FAFSA data to determine their own aid awards.

Last year's delays created uncertainty for students, disrupted state deadlines, and left universities scrambling to provide financial aid packages on time. This year, the Department of Education says beta testing and technical improvements will prevent similar issues. "This year's beta testing has allowed FSA staff to identify bugs and technical issues, refine usability and design, and improve performance for the fall launch," the press release noted.

The Department of Education has been under pressure from lawmakers, higher education groups, and advocacy organizations to avoid a repeat of 2024's problems. Officials said FSA has tested the system more rigorously this year and streamlined the application process, which was redesigned to make it shorter and easier to complete.

Financial aid experts say families should still prepare early. Filing the FAFSA as soon as it opens gives students the best chance of qualifying for limited aid such as state grants and campus-based programs.

The Department of Education launched 'Beta 2,' where any current and aspiring student can request access to fill out the FAFSA at StudentAid.gov/joinbeta. The second phase of testing runs through September 2025.

More information about the FAFSA is available at FAFSA Central.
A Syrian asylum seeker and ISIS fanatic has been found guilty of murdering three people at a German festival last year and has been sentenced to life in prison.

Issa Al Hasan, 27, stabbed three people to death during an attack at a 'Festival of Diversity' on August 23, 2024, marking the 650th anniversary of the city in western Germany.

The state court in Duesseldorf convicted him of three counts of murder, 10 of attempted murder and membership in ISIS, German news agency dpa reported.

It also found that he carries 'particularly serious' guilt, meaning that he won't be eligible for release after 15 years as is usually the case in Germany.

Judge Winfried van der Grinten said that the defendant had become 'massively' radicalised since 2019 and had spread ISIS propaganda on his TikTok profile.

When the trial opened in late May, the defendant admitted responsibility for the attack in a statement read by his lawyers. He said that he had 'brought severe guilt upon myself' and added: 'I killed innocent people, not infidels.'

'Three people died at my hands. I seriously injured others,' he said of the attack in the western city of Solingen.

'Some of them survived only by luck. They could have died, too,' he said in the statement, admitting he had committed a 'grave crime'.

A Syrian asylum seeker and ISIS fanatic has been found guilty of murdering three people at a German festival last year and has been sentenced to life in prison

Issa Al Hasan, 27, stabbed three people to death during an attack at a 'Festival of Diversity' on August 23, 2024

In a statement read out by his lawyer, Hasan, sitting under police guard behind a protective glass screen, admitted having 'committed a grave crime '

'I deserve and expect a life sentence.'

Hasan was an asylum seeker from Syria who had been slated for deportation.

The Solingen stabbing was one of several deadly attacks in the months leading up to Germany's national election in February that involved immigrant suspects, pushing migration to the forefront of the political agenda in that vote.

It highlighted problems with returning rejected asylum-seekers to the first country where they entered the European Union, as is supposed to happen under EU rules.

The suspect was supposed to be deported to Bulgaria in 2023, but reportedly disappeared for a time and avoided expulsion.

Prosecutors say he set out to harm 'nonbelievers' at the festival, where he saw his targets 'as representatives of Western society' and sought 'to take revenge against them for the military actions of Western states'.

An ISIS member whom Hasan had contacted that month allegedly encouraged him to go ahead with the plan and promised him that the group would claim it and use it for propaganda purposes.

Issa Al Hasan bends over as he sits at his place in the courtroom at court building in Duesseldorf, western Germany, on May 27 2025

An ambulance and police stand on August 24, 2024 near the scene where three people were killed and 10 were injured

The group later said via its Amaq outlet on the messaging app Telegram that an ISIS 'soldier' had carried out the attack in 'revenge' for Muslims 'in Palestine and everywhere'.

Prosecutors say Hasan had filmed videos in which he pledged allegiance to ISIS and forwarded them on to his ISIS contact just before he committed the attack.

The stabbing spree was one in a series of attacks attributed to asylum seekers and migrants that triggered a national debate about border control in Germany.

In May 2024, a man with a knife attacked people at an anti-Islam rally in Mannheim, fatally wounding a police officer who intervened.

The Afghan suspect went on trial in February and is also alleged to be sympathetic to the ISIS group.

In December, a Saudi man was arrested after a car ploughed through a Christmas market crowd in the eastern city of Magdeburg, killing six people and wounding hundreds.

And in January, a man with a kitchen knife attacked a group of kindergarten children in Aschaffenburg, killing a two-year-old boy and a man who tried to protect the toddlers.

A 28-year-old Afghan man was arrested at the scene of the attack, which came during campaigning for the February 23 elections.

Hasan was seen getting dragged to his arraignment at the Federal Supreme Court (BGH) in Karlsruhe, Germany, by federal police officers, who took him to the southwestern courthouse via helicopter on August 25, 2024

Forensic police inspect on early August 24, 2024 the area where three people were killed and 10 injured when Hasan attacked them with a knife on late August 23, 2024 in Solingen

Just 10 days before the vote, an Afghan man was arrested on suspicion of driving a car through a street rally in Munich, killing a two-year-old girl and her mother and injuring dozens.

The centre-right CDU/CSU, which demanded tough curbs on immigration in the wake of the attacks, came first in the election with 28.5 percent of the vote.

The biggest gains however were made by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which saw its share of the vote more than double to over 20 percent.
A British man has died in a fall at Gran Canaria's airport.

The 53-year-old plunged around more than 30 feet from a multi-storey car park and was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency responders called to deal with the situation.

The tragedy happened around 7.30am this morning. Police have confirmed they are investigating the circumstances.

They are saying the man was not a tourist but have not released any more information about him apart from his age and nationality.

A spokesman for National Police on the island said: 'This morning, at 7:30am, a 53-year-old British man fell from a height at Gran Canaria Airport, specifically in the car park located near the domestic departures area.

'The incident occurred from a height of approximately three storeys, about 10 metres. It has been confirmed that the person was not a tourist.

'No further information is available at this time.'

A British man has died in a fall at Gran Canaria's airport. The tragedy happened around 7.30am this morning. Police have confirmed they are investigating the circumstances. Pictured: A stock image of Gran Canaria's airport

Local reports said the Brit fell through a gap inside the car park.

Police are understood to be probing whether he died as a result of an accident or some structural fault or was deliberately attempting to end his own life.

Investigators are looking at CCTV in the area as part of their probe.

In July a 25-year-old British tourist died from injuries he sustained in a fall from a supermarket car park in San Antonio.

The airport where this morning's tragedy occurred is where a Gambian teenager was shot dead in May by armed police after reportedly going beserk and threatening holidaymakers with a knife.

Foreigners were seen running for cover as shots ran out during the May 17 incident.

Footage of the drama showed the young knifeman, named as migrant Abdoulie Bah, running at one of the five National Police officers trying to intercept him who fell to the ground in the ensuing chaos as bystanders ran for safety.

He was shot as he tried to attack the officer's colleagues who appeared to be warning him to desist before they opened fire.

Court officials subsequently confirmed one of the five bullets the teenager received hit him in the neck. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

This is a breaking news story, more to follow.
Labour will consider 'robust' changes to the way British courts interpret the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), the Attorney General said today.

Reform has said it will leave the Convention to make it easier to deport illegal migrants and the Conservatives are set to follow suit.

Ministers have also come under pressure from former Labour Home Secretaries Jack Straw and Lord Blunkett, who have called for the UK to 'decouple' from the treaty.

Lord Richard Hermer KC told peers that the use of Article 8 of the ECHR, the right to private and family life, must be looked at as part of a Home Office review.

Article 8 has been repeatedly used by illegal migrants and serious criminals - including killers, drug dealers and rapists - to frustrate efforts to deport them from the UK.

Appearing before the Lords Constitution Committee, Lord Hermer said Strasbourg case law was very 'permissive' and allows states an 'enormous margin of appreciation' on what they can do in the asylum and immigration space.

'It has developed particularly over the last five or six years, and I am concerned to ensure that domestically, we have kept pace with that,' he said.

'Some of our colleagues on the Council of Europe have, I think, more effective, more robust mechanisms that are compliant with Article 8 that we need to look at. We are kicking the tyres hard at every level.'

Lord Richard Hermer KC told peers that the use of Article 8 of the ECHR, the right to private and family life, must be looked at as part of a Home Office review

He said this included looking at case worker guidance, immigration rules, primary legislation, and the Government is adopting a 'very proactive litigation strategy'.

Lord Hermer was forced to apologise in May for likening criticism of the ECHR to 1930s Germany.

Today, he insisted the Prime Minister has been 'absolutely crystal clear' that the UK will not be leaving the treaty, adding it would be completely contrary to the national interest to do so.

He also rejected a study by the Policy Exchange think-tank that suggested leaving the ECHR would not breach the Good Friday Agreement.

'I saw that analysis. It's just wrong. As you know, the European Convention is expressly baked in to that agreement. We would be in breach of it if we left the Convention.

'That's the plain legal view. I'm sure it would be the view not only held by Ireland, but also by the EU. It would do enormous damage to the interests of this country. It would be deeply worrying for Northern Ireland .

'But it would be a clear breach of the obligations that we've held.'

Numerous cases have emerged of criminals using Article 8 to dodge deportation, including a 70-year-old heroin dealer who used the legislation to avoid being sent back to his native Turkey.

Fatmir Bleta was sentenced to 13 prison after leaving Albania after allegedly shooting a man in the head with a Kalashnikov rifle

The convicted criminal, who was granted anonymity, claimed deportation would breach human right to a family life - even though he had an extramarital affair during a previous trip to the country.

He later took part in a wedding ceremony with his mistress to preserve her family honour but said it was 'not a serious relationship'.

Another notorious case involved Fatmir Bleta, who fled to Britain from Albania in December 1998 after allegedly shooting a man in the head with a Kalashnikov rifle.

After arriving in Britain he sought asylum - falsely claiming to be Kosovan. This request was refused, but he was granted indefinite leave to remain and gained British citizenship in 2017.

He was convicted of making an untrue statement to procure a passport the following year, along with three other counts of dishonesty.

After completing a second jail sentence in 2018, the Home Office tried to deport him but it was argued that it would violate his family rights as it would be 'unduly harsh' on his wife and four children, who joined him in the UK in 2000.

Last year, it also emerged that two of Bleta's children have been convicted and jailed for drug offences.

His daughter Sara, 28, a former actress, was jailed for four years for supplying class A and B drugs while son Dorian, 37, is serving an 18-year prison sentence for trafficking cocaine.
Two senior Tories sparked fresh speculation they could defect to Reform UK today after it was announced they will appear at an event with Nigel Farage's deputy.

Suella Braverman, the ex-home secretary, and Lord Frost, Britain's former chief Brexit negotiator, are set to join a press conference on Thursday with Richard Tice.

It comes after Nadine Dorries, the former culture secretary, became the latest ex-Tory minister to defect to Reform at the party's conference last week.

But a spokesman for Mrs Braverman, the Conservative MP for Fareham and Waterlooville, knocked back suggestions she would also be joining Mr Farage's outfit.

'Suella is not defecting,' they said, adding that Mrs Braverman was looking forward to releasing her policy paper on how to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Lord Frost, a Conservative peer, earlier said he was looking forward to joining Mrs Braverman and Mr Tice, Reform's deputy leader, at Thursday's event.

He added the London press conference would 'help launch Suella's important paper on leaving the ECHR and its implications'.

Mr Tice also posted on X/Twitter: 'Tomorrow at 10am I will be sharing a press conference with @DavidGHFrost and @SuellaBraverman. Don't miss it!'

Mrs Braverman, MP for Fareham and Waterlooville, has previously not ruled out quitting the Conservatives for Reform.

She told a Telegraph podcast last week: 'We can't ignore the polls. Reform is doing very well at the moment.'

Her husband, Rael Braverman, was a member of Reform before quitting in July due to criticism of his wife over her immigration policies while at the Home Office.

Suella Braverman, the ex-home secretary (pictured), and Lord Frost, Britain's former chief Brexit negotiator, are set to join a press conference on Thursday with Reform UK's Richard Tice

Lord Frost, a Conservative peer, said he was looking forward to joining Tory MP Mrs Braverman and Mr Tice at the event.

Reform leader Nigel Farage and Mr Tice have welcomed a string of Tory defectors to their party in recent months

Lord Frost has also not ruled out running for Reform at a future general election.

The Tory peer told the same Planet Normal podcast in May he was 'not emotionally committed' to the Tories.

He said the Conservatives 'still haven't really clocked what the problem is' following their general election wipe-out last year.

Asked about Mrs Braverman's planned attendance at Thursday's event, a spokesman for Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: 'Suella is a backbencher, she is welcome to do events as are Labour backbenchers.

'As Kemi has said, if we need to leave the ECHR we will, but we are going to do it as part of a fully considered plan, that is why she commissioned the eminent KC Lord Wolfson to look into this.

'He will be publishing his report in a few weeks ahead of the party conference and then you will find out Kemi's position on the ECHR.'

At Reform's conference in Birmingham at the weekend, Mr Farage said more former Tory ministers would be joining his party following the defection of Ms Dorries.

The Reform leader admitted his party's 'biggest weakness' is that it lacks 'experience at government level'.

But he said further defections to his party's ranks - similar to that of Ms Dorries' - would continue to boost Reform's preparedness for power.

Ms Dorries, who served in Boris Johnson's government, joined Mr Farage on stage at Reform's conference on Friday after declaring 'the Tory party is dead'.

She issued a rallying call for Conservative members to 'do the right thing' and copy her by switching to Reform.

Adam Holloway, Sir Jake Berry, Andrea Jenkyns, Marco Longhi, Ross Thomson, David Jones and Lee Anderson are other exConservative MPs who have joined Reform.

Meanwhile, former Tory business secretary Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg has offered to advise Mr Farage and Reform if they win the next general election.

But, despite making an appearance at Reform's conference this weekend, he insisted he would not be defecting - even though his teenage daughter Mary has joined the party.
Ohio authorities have launched a desperate search for a new mom who vanished from the side of a highway with her car keys still in the vehicle's ignition.

Madalyn Marshall, 31, was reported missing by her husband Colin on Tuesday when she didn't return home from a grocery trip.

Police said that Madalyn gave birth just a week ago.

Officers with the FBI, Shaker Heights, Metro Parks and Cleveland police departments along with Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office joined the search efforts.

Some time after her disappearance, Madalyn's car was found on an exit ramp on the I-90 highway with the door left open and keys inside.

But the search has not yet found any trace of the 31-year-old mother.

Shaker Heights Chief of Police Wayne D. Hudson said in a statement amid the search efforts that the 'community is deeply concerned for Madalyns well-being and are doing everything we can to locate her.'

'Our priority is ensuring her safe return to her family.'

According to her social media pages, Marshall works as a Medical Device Account Executive at CCS Medical.

Ohio authorities have launched a desperate search for new mom Madalyn Marshall, 31, who vanished from a highway with her car keys still in the ignition

Madalyn Marshall (right) did not return home after a grocery trip - sparking major concerns

Some time after her disappearance, Madalyn's car was found on an exit ramp on the I-90 highway with the door left open and keys inside. But the search has not yet found any trace of the 31-year-old mother

Marshall (left) works as a Medical Device Account Executive at CCS Medical

Shaker Heights Police Commander John Cole said in an update that the search was temporarily suspended as they continue to interview family and friends, per Cleveland19.

Anyone with information regarding Madalyn Marshalls whereabouts is asked to contact the Shaker Heights Police Department at (216) 491-1220.
Shocking images show the devastation inside a Polish home torn apart after being struck by a Russian drone as Europe edges closer to its most dangerous moment since 1945.

The owners survived by sheer luck, but had they been killed, their deaths could have triggered NATO's Article 5.

The collective defence clause treats an attack on one member as an attack on all, raising the terrifying prospect of global war.

The roof of the home in Wyryki-Wola has been completely destroyed, leaving a gaping hole that exposes the rooms below to the sky.

Inside, what appears to be a living room is littered with debris, plaster and splintered wood. Dust clings to every surface, and the impact has crushed furniture, scattering broken household items across the floor.

The home belongs to an elderly couple, who lived there with their two pets. The couple were asleep when the drone struck their house.

Speaking to Polish media, they explained: 'It was a powerful explosion, a single boom. Where we were sleeping, everything was destroyed. We managed to get up and go downstairs. The night was quiet, I didn't hear a thing.

'In the morning, I managed to go downstairs and check my blood pressure. I noticed that there were loud aeroplanes flying over. My husband said they must be flying because it was close to the border. And then there was a bang, a huge one.'

The man said the attic was also wrecked, and the bedroom had a large hole in the ceiling. He said: 'The room where we slept was destroyed. Things from the attic were scattered around the area.'

Photos show the extent of damage to a house in Poland after Putin's drones were flown in

Shocking images show the devastation inside a Polish home torn apart after being struck by a Russian drone as Europe edges closer to its most dangerous moment since 1945

The home belongs to an elderly couple, according to local media

The owners survived by sheer luck, but had they been killed, their deaths could have triggered NATO's Article 5

A house is damaged after a drone struck a residential building, according to authorities in Poland

Polish television channel TV Republika shared this image of one of the downed drones

The woman added: 'Right now, we're not allowed to enter the property, so we're waiting on the street. We can spend the night near the school, there's a hotel there.'

Local mayor Bernard Blaszczuk said the couple have been temporarily put up in the local library. The couple added that they have two grown-up children who 'thankfully live in another town'.

Meanwhile, the drone that came down in a field was just seven miles away from a NATO base. War could have been sparked if it had hit the facility.

NATO issued a stark warning to Vladimir Putin today after Russian drones violated Polish airspace overnight, forcing a multinational response.

Mark Rutte, Secretary General of the military alliance, told Putin to 'stop violating allied airspace, and know that we stand ready, that we are vigilant, and that we will defend every inch of NATO territory' following emergency discussions.

He said that a full assessment was 'ongoing', adding that regardless of whether the incursion was intentional, 'it is absolutely reckless, it is absolutely dangerous'.

Rutte said that NATO had shown it was able to defend its territory and airspace, having scrambled fighter jets and Italian surveillance aircraft after patriot defence systems detected drones on their radars.

US President Donald Trump is set to speak to his Polish counterpart Karol Nawrocki on Wednesday, the White House said.

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Fragments of the drone are seen in the village of Wohyn in eastern Poland

Police secure parts of a damaged UAV shot down by Polish authorities at a site in Wohyn, Poland, Wednesday, September 10, 2025

Emergency workers have been seen clambering over the shattered roof as they assess the damage. Police officers and soldiers have been seen scouring the street as residents watch on.

The scene has become the focus of a major operation as authorities piece together how the drone struck and how narrowly the world avoided disaster.

Russian drones and missiles have entered NATO airspace several times during Russia's war in Ukraine, but a NATO country has never tried to shoot them down.

Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, assessed the incursion was likely a large-scale provocation, saying Poland had identified 19 violations and shot down at least three drones overnight. He also warned that it tests 'NATO's response threshold'.

'There is no doubt that this provocation is incomparably more dangerous from Poland's point of view than any previous ones,' Mr Tusk said.

'This situation brings us all closer to open conflict, closer than at any time since the Second World War.'

Poland invoked NATO's Article 4, under which any member can call urgent talks when it feels its 'territorial integrity, political independence or security' are at risk.

Russia denied responsibility, before its defence ministry said it was 'ready' for talks with Poland over what it called the 'alleged' drone incursion.

What appears to be a drone recovered from a field in Wohyn

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte attends a meeting with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Downing Street on September 9, 2025

Multiple Russian drones moving from Ukrainian airspace into Poland

Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin, on Wednesday, September 10

What is Article 4?

Article 4 states that members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territory, political independence or security of any of them is threatened. Under Article 4, discussions at the North Atlantic Council - NATO's principal political decision-making body - could potentially lead to some form of joint decision or action. Since NATO's creation in 1949, Article 4 has been invoked seven times, most recently in February 2022 when Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia sought consultations following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. NATO ambassadors in November 2022 held an emergency meeting after a missile strike killed two people in Poland and raised global alarm that the war could spill into neighbouring countries. Advertisement

The ministry said its forces had achieved all its targets in the attack, and pointed out that the Russian drones 'which allegedly crossed the border with Poland' had a range of not more than 700km (434 miles).

'Nevertheless, we are prepared to hold consultations with the Polish Defence Ministry on this topic,' it said.

Against Russia's rebuttal, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that the airspace violation was a 'dangerous precedent' for Europe, saying it was 'no accident'.

He brandished the incursion, which damaged a house and a car, an attempt to 'humiliate' Poland, and called for a strong response from NATO.

'Russia must feel that the response to this escalatory step, and even more so to an attempt to humiliate one of Europe's key countries, will be clear and strong from all partners,' Zelensky said.

Tusk said he had invoked NATO's Article 4 under which any member can call urgent talks when it feels its 'territorial integrity, political independence or security' are at risk - only the eighth time the measure has ever been used.

The incident has pushed tensions with an increasingly emboldened Vladimir Putin into uncharted territory, with NATO chief Mark Rutte vowing that 'we will defend every inch of NATO territory'.

Poland's Tusk met with top officials after the stand-off and relayed that the drones were shot down in a joint effort with NATO allies. He said that Poland was in communication with allies.

The North Atlantic Council, NATO's main political decision-making body, also changed the format of its weekly meeting on Wednesday, holding it under Article 4 of the alliance treaty.

A cornerstone of the Western military alliance is the principle that an attack on any member is deemed an attack on all.

Parts of a discovered drone seen in the village of Mniszkow in central Poland

A member of the Polish Army inspects a damaged house on September 10, 2025

An area was cordoned off as investigators inspected parts of a discovered drone in Mniszkow

A UAV is shot out of the skies. The full force of NATO's fighter planes was used to counter Russia's drones

Donald Tusk seen holding an emergency meeting today with senior officials after Russia's actions

Senior army officials, including the Chief of the General Staff of the Army, Wieslaw Kukula, were at the meeting

Explosions seen in the night sky over Kyiv, where Ukrainian troops fired at Russian drones

Earlier, Donald Tusk accused Russia of a 'large-scale provocation' and said: 'This is the first time Russian drones have been shot down over the territory of a Nato country. All our allies are taking the situation very seriously. We have not recorded any casualties.'

More than eight million Poles were ordered to hide in their homes as the drones flew overhead, with debris from one shot-down device crashing into a house.

The operational command of Poland's military said the airspace violations were 'unprecedented' and called it 'an act of aggression'.

Russia's top diplomat in Poland, Andrei Ordash, told RIA Novosti, meanwhile, that he had been summoned to the foreign ministry for a meeting at noon (10am GMT).

He said Warsaw was yet to show evidence that the drones shot down overnight had come from Russia.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the 'egregious and unprecedented violation of Polish and Nato airspace by Russian drones'.

He said: 'This morning's barbaric attack on Ukraine and the egregious and unprecedented violation of Polish and Nato airspace by Russian drones is deeply concerning.

'This was an extremely reckless move by Russia and only serves to remind us of President Putin's blatant disregard for peace, and the constant bombardment innocent Ukrainians face every day.' He also said he had been in contact with the Polish leader to offer support.

Parts of a damaged UAV shot down by Polish authorities at a site near Zamosc

FILE PHOTO: A Russian Gerbera drone, July, 2024

Firefighters secure parts of a damaged UAV that was shot down. Reports indicated around ten Shahed-2 drone incursions into Polish airspace

Polish authorities inspecting the site of a Russian drone shot down

Ukraine was unwavering in its assertion that Russia had tried to 'humiliate' Poland with an 'escalatory' attack.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said the incident was 'no accident'. Writing on X, he said: 'Increasing evidence indicates that this movement, this direction of strike, was no accident.'

'Russia must feel that the response to this escalatory step, and even more so to an attempt to humiliate one of Europe's key countries, will be clear and strong from all partners,' Zelensky continued.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X: 'Russian drones flying into Poland during the massive attack on Ukraine show that Putin's sense of impunity keeps growing because he was not properly punished for his previous crimes.'

'Putin just keeps escalating, expanding his war, and testing the West,' Sybiga said. 'The longer he faces no strength in response, the more aggressive he gets.'

'A weak response now will provoke Russia even more - and then Russian missiles and drones will fly even further into Europe,' he added.

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, agreed that early indications suggest the drone incident was intentional.

'Last night in Poland we saw the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began, and indications suggest it was intentional, not accidental,' Kallas said in a statement.

The EU's top diplomat said that she is in contact with NATO and Poland's foreign minister and following developments.

'The EU stands in full solidarity with Poland. Russia's war is escalating, not ending. We must raise the cost to Moscow, strengthen support for Ukraine, and invest in Europe's defence,' she said.

A senior NATO diplomat, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the incursion was 'not seen as the start of something bigger'.

'There was no word on whether this was intentional - it looks like it was either aimed at testing NATO or it could have been that the aim was to approach targets in Ukraine from a different angle,' the diplomat said.

Soldiers seen patrolling the street where a drone struck a roof

Russia launched at least two waves of drone attacks on Ukraine (pictured: explosions in the sky over Kyiv)

Russia's President Vladimir Putin, pictured on September 8, is yet to speak out

British forces were not directly involved in the rush to defend Polish airspace, defence sources confirmed this morning.

British troops, air defence systems and aircraft are based in eastern Poland. These assets include RAF Typhoon jets and C-17 and A400 transport aircraft. The jets are deployed as part of NATO's enhanced air policing role.

Belarus also said on Wednesday that it had shot down some drones which went astray due to electronic jamming during an exchange of strikes between Russia and Ukraine, and that Minsk had informed Poland and Lithuania of the approach of the drones.

The statement by Belarus's Chief of the General Staff, Major General Pavel Muraveiko, did not say whose drones went astray.

Mr Muraveiko said: 'Some of the lost drones were destroyed by our country's Air Defence Forces over the territory of the republic.' He added that Poland and Lithuania were informed of the approach of the drones.

Observers have indicated that with this, Putin may be laying the groundwork for a future invasion of Poland or other NATO nations. Since last week, Russia has been preparing to hold its huge military drills, which take place every four years. Officials have described them as 'provocations'.

It has also been noted that the drills typically follow a significant military action, raising fears that Putin could escalate his aggression a step further. Critics have said the drills are rehearsals for future potential attacks on Europe.

Yesterday, it was announced that Poland was shutting its border with Belarus from midnight on Thursday in response to the Zapad exercise, a collaboration between Russia and Belarus. Tusk said: 'We are facing a growing number of provocations from Russia and Belarus.'

Donald Tusk speaking at parliament today. It was reported in Polish media that Tusk has requested the triggering of NATO's Article 4

The recent development has caused major disruptions in Poland. There are several flight delays at the international airport in Warsaw

Polish officials are inspecting the sites of the downed drones. Residents have been warned not to touch or move any of the objects if found, as they may pose a threat and could contain hazardous material

The recent development has caused major disruptions in Poland. There are several flight delays at the international airport in Warsaw.

A search for possible crash sites is now ongoing, according to Poland's armed forces.

Poland's armed forces have warned residents not to touch or move any of the objects if found, as they may pose a threat and could contain hazardous material.

The country's defence minister thanked NATO Air Command and the Royal Netherlands Air and Space Force for supporting the action with F-35 fighter jets.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned the drones 'could have posed a threat', adding: 'The operation is ongoing.'

He said he was in constant contact with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, while Finnish MP Jarno Limnell said: 'When NATO airspace is violated, the entire alliance is involved. This is not about an individual incident but an action that tests NATO's response threshold.'

The escalation also saw NATO fighters clamber in Slovakia and Romania due to the threats from Vladimir Putin. A US F35 is also among the jets involved in the mission. Russia has remained silent on the incident so far.

One report said Polish police had discovered the wreckage of a Russian attack drone, near the village of Czosnowka in eastern Poland, 15 miles from the border with Belarus.

The nation was forced to scramble its air defences to take out the craft in the early hours of Wednesday - in its first engagement since the war began

Poland's president Karol Nawrocki speaking at a press conference today. Earlier, he described the situation as an unprecedented moment in NATO history

Poland's prime minister speaks in parliament about the Russian drone incursions

People watch on as authorities investigate a drone that struck the roof of a house

Wednesday's clash was the first of its kind since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The move was seen as an escalation by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Poland's army command first said in the early hours of the morning that airspace was violated by 'drone-type objects' during the Russian attack across the border in Ukraine.

'An operation is underway aimed at identifying and neutralising these objects... weapons have been used, and service personnel are carrying out actions to locate the downed objects,' it said in a statement.

It said the military operation was ongoing and urged people to stay at home, naming the regions of Podlaskie, Mazowieckie, and Lublin as most at risk.

'The Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces is monitoring the situation, and subordinate forces and units remain on full readiness for immediate response,' it added.

A further statement added: 'As a result of an attack by the Russian Federation on Ukrainian territory, there was an unprecedented violation of Polish airspace by drone-type objects.

'This is an act of aggression that posed a real threat to the safety of our citizens.

Polish prime minister Donald Tusk, pictured on September 4, said: 'The operation is ongoing'

Donald Tusk said on X that the drones that 'intruded' Polish airspace could have posed a threat

A cordoned-off area and part of a drone seen in the village of Mniszkow in central Poland, where one of the Russian drones that breached Polish airspace last night was discovered on September 10

'On the order of the Operational Commander of the Polish Armed Forces, defensive procedures were immediately activated.

'Polish and allied assets radar-tracked several objects, and the Operational Commander of the Polish Armed Forces made decisions to neutralise those that could pose a threat.

'Some of the drones that entered our airspace were shot down. Efforts are underway to search for and locate the possible crash sites of these objects.

'The Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces is monitoring the current situation, and Polish and allied forces and assets remain fully prepared for further actions.'

At least one US F-35 was among the NATO planes in the skies, and a refuelling aircraft was sent from the Netherlands.

As the operation was underway, Russia reportedly staged a massive new missile and drone attack on neighbouring Ukraine.

Mr Tusk called an emergency session with his security ministers for 7am UK time.

The country also closed four airports, including its main Chopin Airport in Warsaw, according to the US Federal Aviation Administration.

Poland was on high alert early Wednesday as a result of Ukraine's warning (file photo of a US F-35)

There was no official confirmation from Polish authorities that any airports had been closed.

Andriy Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said: 'Russia has launched many missiles, and drone attacks continue, which pose a threat not only to our people.

'The terrorist country continues the war, although it constantly declares a desire for peace.'

The RzeszowJasionka Airport in Poland's southeast, a hub for passenger and arms transfers to Ukraine, was among the airports that had been temporarily closed, the FAA said.

Earlier, the Ukrainian Air Force said on the Telegram messaging app that drones were heading west and threatening the city of Zamosc in Poland.

Ukrainian media also reported that at least one drone was heading towards the western Polish city of Rzeszow, but Polish officials have not confirmed whether drones had entered their airspace.

The Polish Territorial Defence Force shortened the times needed for defence personnel to be prepared to report for active service. Those in red areas were warned to be ready within six hours, those in yellow have to be prepared in 12

Plane tracking website FlightRadar24 said that a notice to airmen was active for four airports and traffic areas in Poland, with overflights continuing through the areas, 'but further west than usual'.

As of midnight GMT, most of Ukraine, including western regions of Volyn and Lviv, which border Poland, were under air raid alerts for several hours, according to Ukraine's air force data.

In a second wave of missile and drone strikes against Ukraine, Russia hit Vasylkov, Kyiv region, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, and Kalush in Ivano-Frankivsk region, the city of Lutsk and Drohobych in Lviv region.

Explosions were heard in all these locations following air alerts across Ukraine.

Lutsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Lviv regions are all in western Ukraine in proximity to NATO borders.

Polish officials investigating the site have asked warned that the UAVs could contain hazards

Kyiv warned that Russia's actions are an escalation of the war in Ukraine

The incursion comes hours after a Russian airstrike killed 24 elderly people who were collecting pensions in a village in eastern Ukraine.

Russian troops have pressed a grinding offensive across much of the eastern Donetsk region as diplomatic efforts to achieve peace stalled.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said a guided bomb had struck the village of Yarova, about 15 miles from the city of Sloviansk, a Ukrainian stronghold, and several kilometres behind the front line.

'Directly on people. Ordinary civilians. At the very moment when pensions were being disbursed,' he wrote on X alongside footage showing bodies strewn across the ground.

Twenty-four people were killed and another 19 people were wounded, the State Emergency Service said. All of the dead were elderly, said regional governor Vadym Filashkin.

'The world must not remain silent,' Zelensky said. 'The world must not remain idle. A response is needed from the United States. A response is needed from Europe. A response is needed from the G20.'

There is an increased security presence in Poland after Russia's drones

Russia did not immediately comment on the incursion. Moscow has denied targeting civilians, but tens of thousands have died since its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

In the US, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been briefed on reports of Russian drones over Poland, CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins said on Tuesday.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said repeated violations of NATO airspace by Russian drones were a sign that 'Vladimir Putin is testing our resolve to protect Poland and the Baltic nations'.

'After the carnage Putin continues to visit on Ukraine, these incursions cannot be ignored,' he said on X.

Republican representative Joe Wilson, a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a post on X that Russia was 'attacking NATO ally Poland' with drones, calling it an 'act of war'.

Wilson urged President Donald Trump to respond with sanctions 'that will bankrupt the Russian war machine'.

'Putin is no longer content just losing in Ukraine while bombing mothers and babies, he is now directly testing our resolve in NATO territory,' he said.

Trump, who warmly welcomed Putin to the United States for a summit in August, said over the weekend he was ready to move to a second phase of sanctioning Russia after months of fruitless talks about a peace deal.
A former railway worker who handled 400,000 worth of clothes and musical equipment stolen from artist Damien Hirst is facing jail.

Leslie Gomm, 61, admitted handling stolen goods while his son, Liam, 36, has now been charged with burgling Hirst's studio at Thames Wharf in Hammersmith.

Among the stolen items belonging to Hirst were unique T-shirts, twelve 'specially adapted jackets' and jeans designed by him, along with a set of hi-tech speakers.

According to neighbours, none of Hirst's celebrated works were taken, with the thief understood to have walked 'straight past invaluable artwork' during the burglary.

Hirst is one of the world's richest artists with a net worth of around 300m.

Leslie Gomm, of Fulham, appeared at Isleworth Crown Court today via video-link from HMP Wandsworth and spoke to confirm his personal details.

Ravinder Johal, prosecuting, said: 'There have been some developments in the case. Mr Gomm's son has now been charged with burglary.'

Mr Johal said Liam Gomm's plea and trial preparation hearing will take place at Kingston Crown Court on September 19.

Leslie Gomm, 61, (pictured) faces prison after admitting handling 400k worth of stolen goods taken from Damien Hirst - while his son Liam, 36, has been charged with burglary

Among the stolen items belonging to Turner Prize-winning artist Damien Hirst were unique T-shirts, twelve 'specially adapted jackets' and jeans designed by him and a set of hi-tech speakers. Pictured: Hirst burning one of his artworks during Frieze Week

The heist took place between June 27 and 30 in Hirst's sprawling studio at the Thames Wharf building in west London, which overlooks the river between Hammersmith and Putney bridges

'The son said he was asleep and had no knowledge of the burglary,' the barrister said.

Samir Pasha, defending Leslie Gomm, said: 'In his initial statement, one of Mr Hirst's designers said most of these items were work in progress, so the items stolen may have not had as much value.'

Judge Edward Connell remanded Leslie in custody to appear with Liam at Kingston Crown Court on September 19.

Leslie Gomm handled the stolen items between June 29 and July 8.

Residents by Thames Wharf told MailOnline previously it was thought the thief walked past priceless artworks to target the clothes.

One said: 'We heard they went in on about the 30th.

'But quite amusingly the rumour is they did not take any artwork.

Hirst poses before his creation 'The immortal' (1999) representing a white shark, on March 29, 2010 at the Oceanography Museum in Monaco

Hirst burst onto the art scene in the 1990s, along with fellow artists like Tracey Emin, and his work was championed by the influential collector Charles Saatchi

'Whoever it was just went straight past invaluable artwork and made off with thousands in clothes.'

Hirst burst onto the art scene in the 1990s, along with fellow artists like Tracey Emin, and his work was championed by the influential collector Charles Saatchi.

He is a Turner Prize winner who has produced famous pieces including a tiger shark in formaldehyde, which he called 1991's The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living.

His works have sold for huge sums, such as Lullaby Spring, a cabinet holding 6,136 individually painted pills, which sold for 15 million in 2007.
A 'growling' knifeman 'lunged' at a fellow former Countdown champion at a convention for fans of the Channel 4 quiz show and stabbed him in the arm, a court heard today.

John Cowen, 31, 'clocked' Thomas Carey after arriving at the gathering in Blackpool and ran towards him with a kitchen knife in his hand, jurors were told.

The court heard that Cowen had felt 'cheated' because rival quizzers were using an app to practise online ahead of contests at the convention.

CCTV footage played in court showed Cowen stabbing him before other fans of the series overpowered him.

Cowen has been ruled unfit to stand trial as he is 'seriously mentally unwell' and currently in hospital, jurors at Preston Crown Court were told.

Instead a finding of fact hearing is taking place after which they will be asked to decide whether he stabbed Mr Carey, but not what his intention was.

At the start of the hearing, potential jurors were asked if they had ever been a contestant on Countdown, were members of its fan club or 'obsessive watchers' of the long-running Channel 4 show.

They all indicated that they were not.

John Cowen, 31, who made his debut on Countdown in 2017, is accused of stabbing fellow former contestant Thomas Carey in the arm at a convention in Blackpool last September.

Thomas Carey was alleged attacked by John Cowen, 31, at the Countdown in Blackpool 2024 event last year

Cowen is accused of section 18 wounding with intent and two counts of possession of a bladed article after the incident at the Wainwright Club in Blackpool on September 14 last year.

'A group of people who have been participants in or are fans of the television show Countdown have for many years been meeting up for social events,' Rosalind Scott Bell said as she opened the prosecution case today.

'They have formed a social club called the Focal Countdown group and meet and play Countdown against each other.'

At around 11.30am, club member Mr Carey was talking to two people in the function room when Cowen was caught on CCTV entering the room, a knife 'glinting' in his left hand, jurors were told.

Mr Carey recalled hearing Cowen 'growling' before he appeared to 'clock' him and ran towards him, the prosecutor said.

Initially he thought the knife he was carrying was fake, but Cowen then 'lunged across the table' at which he had been sitting and stabbed him in the upper arm.

'Mr Carey was forced backwards onto the seat behind him.'

Mr Carey - who had been stabbed in the bicep - could be seen 'kicking out' at Cowen and grabbing his wrist 'in an endeavour to stop the assault', she said.

Other club members managed to pull Cowen away and disarm him, taking him to the ground while police were called.

John Cowen (pictured) was arrested after allegedly attacking a fellow contestant with a knife at the Countdown in Blackpool 2024 event last September

Mr Carey, of Bingley, West Yorkshire, is a celebrated octochamp of the TV gameshow, making his debut two years before Cowen

Officers arrived and Cowen - whose hands were covered in blood - was found to have a second identical kitchen knife in his pocket when he was arrested and searched.

Mr Carey was taken to hospital where he was treated for a wound with steri-strips.

Giving evidence today, Mr Carey was asked by Jonathan Lally, representing Cowen, if he recalled his client saying he felt 'cheated' by players using the app.

Mr Carey replied that he recalled Cowen saying 'something like that'.

Earlier in his evidence Mr Carey said he remembered Cowen making a 'half-growl, half-scream' before walking towards him 'with purpose'.

He recognised him from previous Countdown gatherings even though Cowen has shaved off his beard.

'He came up to me with the knife then he stabbed me in the arm,' he said.

Mr Carey said he grabbed Cowen by the arm and called for help, and there was a 'scuffle' as fellow competitors overcame the knifeman.

Appearing in Series 77 of Countdown, John Cowen (pictured) missed out on joining the 800 club by 1 point

He held up his left arm in the witness box to show jurors the scar he still has from the alleged attack.

Jurors were told that Mr Carey had been a member of the group since about 2011 but Cowen was 'not a regular attender'.

Cowen is 'seriously mentally unwell' and in hospital, Judge Guy Mathieson told jurors, and therefore unable to participate in proceedings or attend court.

Cowen, of Morecambe, Lancashire, made his debut on the Channel 4 show in 2017, scoring the third highest total of the whole series, as well as spotting the nine-letter word 'spreading'.

Appearing in Series 77, he missed out on joining the 800 club by 1 point, but nonetheless achieved four centuries and performed well in the numbers' rounds - in which he chose six small numbers in every pick.

Having won all eight of his heat games to become an octochamp, Cowen went on to appear in the series finals as the third seed in December 2017.

But he lost in the semi-finals after he gave an incorrect solution to his final six small numbers selection.

Mr Carey, of Bingley, West Yorkshire, is also a celebrated octochamp of the TV gameshow, making his debut two years before Cowen, in June 2015, when he was a sixth form student.

He topped the series rankings as the number one seed with an impressive 923 points from eight straight wins.

He was the first contestant since 1986 to answer all eight conundrums correctly, but was unable to take his impressive form into the grand final and was eliminated at the semi-final stage.

The case continues.
A manhunt has been launched for a man who allegedly broke into an elderly couple's home, killed them and set their house on fire, according to police.

Jamel McGriff, 42, knocked on the door of a Queen's home on Monday, asking if he could come inside to charge his phone, officials said.

When the homeowners rebuffed him, McGriff moved on to the next house, where the owners invited him in before he unleashed five hours of hell on them and set the house on fire, per court documents.

When officials responded to the burning home and extinguished the flames, they found the bodies of the owners, Frank and Maureen Olton, 76 and 77.

Frank had been repeatedly stabbed and tied to a pole in his basement with a bungee cord and wire, according to police.

Maureen was found badly burned, lying on the first floor, The New York Times reported.

McGriff, who has a lengthy criminal record dating back 30, remained on the run as of Wednesday.

He had been out on parole after serving over 16 years for a 2006 first-degree robbery, officials said.

Jamel McGriff, 42, is accused of killing an elderly couple in Queens, New York, before setting their home on fire and fleeing the scene on Monday

Police found the bodies of Frank and Maureen Olton, 76 and 77, in the home, pictured

The alleged killer is also wanted for two robberies in Manhattan that occurred in July and August.

'For the public, the message is clear,' said Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

'The suspects M.O. is to go door to door, asking for some kind of assistance until he can gain entry. So do not allow anyone you dont know or who you are not expecting into your home.'

McGriff was last seen on Tuesday, pawning two cell phones in the Bronx, Commissioner Tisch said.

Tisch added there was no known connection between the suspect and victims.

He was identified by his parole officer after he was caught on surveillance footage at the scene of Monday's crime.

Surveillance footage showed the suspect approaching the Olton home and interacting with Frank before he enters the home, police said.

McGriff, who has a lengthy criminal record dating back 30, remained on the run as of Wednesday. He was last seen on Tuesday in surveillance footage

The suspect was out on parole and wanted for two armed robberies in Manhattan

He was seen again leaving the home five hours later, with two bags in his hands.

Councilwoman Linda Lee said the suspect was recorded on electronic doorbell cameras approaching several homes before he went inside the Olton home.

The Olton's nephew Sean Kelly told the NYT the victims were 'amazing people' who 'did not deserve this.'
A peaceful Florida enclave is being torn apart by a proposal to name one of its most picturesque streets after President Donald Trump.

Lauderdale-by-the-Sea locals are protesting the plan to rename the beloved Sea Gape Drive with the additional moniker of President Donald J. Trump Drive.

Cristie Furth, a resident and business owner for 53 years, told the Daily Mail that Sea Grape Drive serves as the main entrance to the town and politicizing its name would alienate visitors and residents alike.

'We want everybody comes to Lauderdale-by-the-Sea to get away from their daily life their problems the things that bother them,' she said.

'We don't want any political drive. We just want nice names like Sea Grape and Elmar and beautiful non-controversial entrances to our town.'

Furth has gathered a group of community members who are outraged by the possibility. And she's found that most residents she talks to oppose it, no matter their political affiliation.

Lauderdale-by-the-Sea sits on the Intracoastal Waterway, north of Fort Lauderdale. The population is just 6,000 people and 40% of them are registered Republican.

Though Furth believes President Donald J. Trump Drive will alienate potential visitors, supporters think it will draw them in.

Sea Grape Drive serves as an entrance to the community. Visitors and residents almost always pass through it to get to their destination

The opposition wants to preserve the unbiased and escapist nature of the town

Supporters believe that Trump voters could flock to Lauderdale-by-the-Sea thanks to the street name

The idea was initially proposed by Broward Republican Chairman Chris Marino who wrote in a letter to the commissioners that adding Trump's name would be 'a symbolic landmark that could attract visitors.'

He said that it will 'show that every voice matters, and to celebrate our community together.'

Mayor Malkoon stated that any 'boycotts' done by locals or democratic visitors would probably be easily offset by Trump voters attracted by the new name.

Gary Koenig, who Furth said is a Trump voter himself, lives on the corner of Sea Grape Drive and told the Daily Mail even he thinks the change is a bad idea.

'This is political in nature and should never be with this commission. We should be unbiased about everything,' he said.

He has lived in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea since 1987 and says it doesn't matter who you voted for, the street names should remain unchanged.

He said: 'I don't want anybody's name out there. I like Sea Grape Drive. That's fine. I'm happy with it.'

Koenig added said he can think of others that have done far more for the town than Trump.

A commission meeting will take place on September 10. Mayor Edmund Malkoon thinks the name may draw in visitors while local Cristie Furth says it will drive people away

'My roommate struggled for 20 years to get our sidewalks put on Sea Grape and she finally got them put on after 20 years of badgering this commission,' he said. 'Her name should go on there before anybody else.

'Donald Trump has done nothing for us, give me a break.'

Furth, meanwhile, said she's called other residents of Sea Grape Drive and they hadn't even heard about it.

She said: 'They were all shocked and confused because the town had never sent them a notice which we think is highly highly unusual.'

Mayor Edmund Malkoon told Sun Sentinel that this the most contentious issue that's come up since he'd been in office.

Some people are excited about it and have taken to social media to show their support.

Lee Ann McNabb wrote: 'Fantastic idea! As a long term LBTS resident I support this fully!

'Obama has a street in Broward. Trump is a two term president that was overwhelmingly voted in by the American people. He has a place here in Broward just like Obama does.

'Not one political party owns the country. Sorry to everyone but he is still your president.'

To McNabb's point, there are dozens of streets named after presidents in Broward County, where Lauderdale-by-the-Sea resides, but this would be a first for the town itself.

Republican commissioners Richard DeNapoli (left) and Chris Marino (right) think that the plan will draw in visitors and 'celebrate community'

Richard DeNapoli, who was elected to the town's commission in 2024, sponsored Marino's idea.

In a statement to the Sun Sentential, he defended the plan: 'The President hails from Florida and has a lot of supporters in Town, given his very large victories here on the ballot every time hes run;

'There is a local nexus in that the local party headquarters has been in Town, at the corner where the sign is requested, for many years; there is a long history in South Florida of recognizing living, incumbent, and former Presidents.'

The turnout at the upcoming commission meeting is expected to be massive as local hash out whether the name change really is what's best for the town.

Daily Mail reached out to the Republican commissioners and the mayor for comment.
The signals from the presence of over 100 Chinese automakers in Munich: Global Times editorial

Global Times) 09:10, September 10, 2025

On September 9 local time, the IAA Mobility (Munich Motor Show), the world's premier biennial auto show, officially opened to the public. The Chinese presence at the show continued to attract significant attention. According to data from the German Association of the Automotive Industry, China has the largest number of exhibitors from outside of Germany, with 116 companies. BYD, Xpeng, and Leapmotor showcased their full global offerings, encompassing everything from complete vehicles to batteries, autonomous driving, LiDAR, and smart cockpits. Amid the global geopolitical turmoil and rising trade protectionism, the presence of Chinese automakers in Munich is significant.

Next month marks the second anniversary of the EU's official launch of an "anti-subsidy investigation" into imported pure electric vehicles from China, as well as the first anniversary of the implementation of EU "anti-subsidy duties" on China. Practice has proven that protectionism cannot stop the power of market selection. Over the past two years, Chinese automakers have not only seen a growing presence and visibility in Europe, but have also been thoroughly tested by the market.

According to data from a well-known European organization, Chinese brands accounted for 9.9 percent of electric vehicle sales in Europe in July, bringing their market share to 5.3 percent of the entire European auto market, surpassing the 5 percent mark for three consecutive months. This fully demonstrates the resilience and potential of Chinese auto brands in their continued growth against the odds. The significant increase in the number of Chinese automakers participating at the Munich Motor Show demonstrates that the booming development of China's new-energy vehicles is based on the superior cost-effectiveness resulting from leading technology and a well-developed industry chain, coupled with good consumer experience and robust market demand. This is the underlying logic driving the industry's growth.

Furthermore, the entry of Chinese EVs is playing a "catfish effect," activating innovation vitality in Europe's traditional auto market and accelerating the industry's shift toward electrification and intelligence. We are seeing a profound transformation in the mindset of the industrial community, including Europe's auto sector. European automakers actively embrace change and seek cooperation with their Chinese counterparts. Executives of Volkswagen, Renault, BMW and others have openly said that, in the face of competitive pressure from Chinese companies, what European carmakers need to do is to rise to the challenge, play catch-up, and draw on the strengths of their Chinese peers. At the Munich Motor Show, the unveiling of new-energy strategies and concept cars by giants such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi demonstrated this shift. They are no longer merely "defenders," but active participants and agents of change.

More and more signs show that the desire for win-win cooperation between Chinese and European industries is surpassing the outdated mindset of economic "over-politicization." China has built strong expertise in battery technology, intelligent systems, and renewable energy integration, while Europe has rich experience in vehicle design, brand heritage, and certain high-end manufacturing.

In fact, the willingness and concrete actions of Chinese and European industries and enterprises to cooperate have far outpaced the lagging and ideologically biased policies of the EU. From Volkswagen's investment in Xpeng, to Mercedes-Benz's deepened technical cooperation with Geely, to BYD planning to invest in factories across multiple European countries in an effort to "be more European in production," all these moves highlight the inherent need and resilience of deep integration in the two sides' industrial and supply chains.

Only products and companies that withstand market tests can meet consumer preferences and keep pace with industry trends. By contrast, industries sheltered by trade protectionism and self-isolation often fall into decay, lacking endogenous momentum for growth. China's massive new-energy passenger vehicle market - 5.524 million units sold in just six months - and breakthroughs such as "a 10-minute charge for a 400-kilometer range" are direct results of fierce market competition unlocking business potential.

Chinese automakers' recent progress and global influence are a vivid reflection of the comprehensive upgrading of China's new quality productive forces. In recent years, both Chinese consumers and foreign friends have seen firsthand that China's EVs have become "ubiquitous," "better to drive," and are "making greater contributions."

By the end of 2024, China's NEV market consumption exceeded 2 trillion yuan, powerfully driving rapid growth along the industrial chain and related sectors, producing a systematic boost to the macroeconomy. This massive market advantage and deeply integrated industrial layout will likewise serve as a "tailwind" for global green transition, including in Europe.

Healthy competition is the only way to keep generating fresh momentum, and openness and cooperation are the right answers to global challenges. The Munich Motor Show was not only a feast of cars, but also a dialogue on cooperation, win-win outcomes, and mutual achievement. Disorderly confrontation will only harm growth and transition on both sides, while rational cooperation delivers tangible benefits for both sides. Europe must avoid letting "de-risking" slide into "de-opportunity." Responding to pressure with isolation will only sap competitiveness through internal friction. In the complex process of globalization, achieving success together, rather than opposing each other, is the correct path for China-Europe relations, and indeed the only way forward for human progress.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
by Sherman J. Clark

In a recent essay, Dont Be Cruel, I argued that looking away from crueltymass incarceration was my examplecomes at a cost. The blindness and mental blurriness we cultivate to avoid discomfort also stunts us. Avoidance may feel like self-protection, but it leaves us less able to flourish. It is hard to find our way in the world when we are self-blinded. Facing hard truths, including cruelties in which we are indirectly complicit, can be a form of ethical weight trainingbringing not just sight and insight but ethical strength.

But facing the truth is easier said than done. Because the truth is that our world is rife with horrors: war, injustice, exploitation, racism, rape. Not to mention the corruption, cruelty, and would-be fascism looming in our national life. To confront all this at once would crush us. We recoil not because we are heartless but because we know that knowing more will hurt. Psychologists describe what happens when we dont avert our eyes. Studies of compassion fatigue show how repeated exposure to others pain can leave us depleted, even disoriented. Healthcare workers, legal advocates, teachersthose who must confront suffering dailydescribe the exhaustion that follows. The problem is not lack of care but its weight: to feel too much, too often, wears down our capacity to respond. We simply cannot see all of it all the time.

Yet this necessity does not remove the cost. The very act of triagechoosing what to attend to and what to ignoreshapes us. We become people who can bear certain kinds of truth and not others. Sometimes that protective instinct is wise; no one can survive without rest. But sometimes it dulls into habit, and habit into incapacity. We find ourselves avoiding not just unbearable horrors but also discomforts we might well endureand from which we might grow. We are caught in a bind. On one side: cultivated ignorance that seems to let us glide through life but costs us our growth. On the other: overload, the crushing weight of truths too terrible to bear. How do we remain open to what we must know without being undone by what we see?

The difficulty is not only volume. Certain kinds of knowing carry their own dangers. True knowing requires not just information but empathy. Facing cruelty in a way that conduces to ethical growth means not just memorizing incarceration statistics but recognizing human suffering. And that kind of knowing destabilizes us in subtle ways.

To enter anothers world is to blur the edges of our own. Psychologists call this self-other overlap: the merging of boundaries when we take anothers perspective seriously. Sometimes this deepens connection; but it can leave us disoriented. Empathy can also distort. We feel more readily for those who are near, familiar, or attractive. One vivid case moves us more than anonymous thousands. This is not a flaw in our compassion so much as a feature of itbut it means empathy, untethered, can mislead. We may confuse emotional resonance with clarity, or feel righteous for feeling the pain without addressing its source.

So the problem is not just quantity but quality. Some ways of knowing, even in small doses, can unsettle us or send us astray. Empathy is indispensable to our humanity, but it is also risky. We need not only courage to face what is hard to know, but discernment about how we face it.

My instinct in facing questions like this is not to search for a fixed set of rules by which we might judge ourselves or one another, nor to imagine some calculus that would maximize benefit or minimize harm. Rather, my approachcall it Aristotelian if it needs a labelis to ask about the traits and capacities and habits of mind that help us live well. In this context, then, we can ask what dispositions of heart and mind allow us to face difficult truths without being either crushed or corrupted by them. This is the lens through which I have been writing, both here and elsewhere: a concern with character and with the capacities that enable us, however imperfectly, to navigate a world thick with suffering while still seeking to flourish.

In that spirit, if we must look, how do we bear what we see? I doubt there is any single answer. We are not likely to find a formula or a settled set of instructions. At best, there are certain capacities that may help us hold difficult truths without being entirely undone by them. I name a few here not as confident conclusions but as possibilitiesfrail, imperfect, and easily lost.

One such capacity might be a kind of self-forgiveness paired with judgment. When we begin to notice our complicity in cruel systems, the temptation is often either paralyzing shame or quick absolution. Both are evasions. What we perhaps need instead is something like implicated grace: a way of acknowledging our entanglement while still maintaining the will to act. This is close to what Aristotle called phronesis, practical wisdomthe ability to steer between excesses. But it is precarious. Forgive ourselves too easily and we excuse inaction; refuse forgiveness altogether and we collapse into despair. The balance shifts with circumstance, and it is not always clear where it lies. Still, to remain engaged, we may need to cultivate this uneasy equilibrium.

Another possible resource is moral imagination sustained by something like greatness of soul. It is easy, when faced with pervasive cruelty, to retreat into cynicism: this is just how things are. That posture may sound tough and clear-headed; but it is often just a form of cowardice. What is harder, and calls for more courage, is holding onto hope without sliding into fantasyseeing injustice clearly while still believing in the possibility of something better. The ancient virtue of megalopsychiagreatness of soulsuggests expansiveness, a refusal to let our horizons shrink to the size of what is tolerable. Yet here, too, dangers lurk. Hope can shade into naivete, and expansiveness into a kind of posturing grandiosity. To imagine alternatives without denying reality is a demanding and unstable discipline, one we never quite master.

We might also develop strategies for when and how to bear the weight of what we seewhat we might call pacing and patiencenot as excuses for inaction but as strategies for sustainable engagement. Facing hard truths need not mean confronting everything at once, nor maintaining constant vigilance. Just as we cannot physically exert ourselves continuously without rest, we cannot psychologically bear witness without respite. This might mean developing what we could call conscious compartmentalization: the ability to deliberately set aside certain knowledge temporarily, with the intention to return. This differs fundamentally from the permanent architectures of avoidance that keep us from seeing mass incarceration. Those are walls; this is more like a door we close knowing we will open it again. Pacing also means patience with ourselves and others as we build capacity gradually. We might explicitly schedule times for facing difficult realities and times for restoration, recognizing that both are necessary for continued engagement. The pragmatic question is not whether to know but how to manage what we know in ways that allow us to keep knowing, keep growing, and keep acting.

We also need to develop toughness and resiliencethe capacity to endure productive discomfort without seeking premature resolution. This means learning to live with unease, to carry the weight of complicity without either collapsing under it or throwing it off entirely. It requires a kind of emotional endurance, the ability to stay present with difficult knowledge even when every instinct tells us to flee or fight or freeze.

Yet naming this last capacity immediately raises a troubling question: Who are we asking to be tough? Too often, calls for resilience become another burden placed on those already carrying more than their share. There is a brutal unfairness in telling those who face systemic racism, poverty, or violence to be resilient, as if the problem were their inability to bear suffering rather than the systems that create it.

This highlights how a call to face hard truths can produce its own injustice, which itself must be faced. The weight of knowing is not evenly distributed. Psychologists and sociologists describe an empathy tax. Those with less institutional power are often required, day in and day out, to know more, understand more, and adjust more than those with greater privilege. Scholars like Patricia Williams and Arlie Hochschild have documented how this unequal expectation is woven into the fabric of workplaces and public life. For many, facing hard truths is not a matter of choice but of survival. And it comes at a costfatigue, disorientation, sometimes erosion of self.

This asymmetry should unsettle us. We speak of empathy as universal, but when it becomes compulsory for some and discretionary for others, it ceases to be a shared virtue. Instead, it compounds the very injustices it might otherwise help repair. Those already doing the hardest labor of knowing often need rest and better conditions more than they need exhortations to build character through suffering. The ethical gym metaphor breaks down when some people are doing forced labor while others debate whether to take an optional yoga class.

One way we might face and address this injustice is by better sharing the weight. Community and solidarity of various forms might help us not just distribute the weight of knowledge more fairly but also create the conditions for acknowledgment. We can sometimes work together to resist the impulse to turn away. On the other hand, communities can also blunt or distort; they can bind themselves in shared denial as readily as in shared sight. Solidarity, then, is itself a risk: it can enable us to bear more than we could alone, but it can also tempt us into collective self-deception. So collective efforts to face hard truths should include affirmative recognition and pragmatic support. By affirmative recognition I mean explicitly acknowledging that the unequal burdens are unfair and must be addressed. And by pragmatic support I mean both providing tools and resources to help people manage the stress of what they must face while also working to dismantle the systems that create such stress in the first place.

If we are to keep returning to what is hard to know, we need not only resilience and solidarity but also nourishment. One source of that nourishment is beauty. Encounters with beautywhether in art, in nature, or in the grace of human actionremind us that the world is not only cruel but also luminous. Such moments do not erase horrors, but they help us bear them. They anchor us against despair and return us to the work of knowing with renewed strength.

If these capacities and tools help at all, they may do so less like rigid rules and more like muscles. Each time we resist the urge to look away, each time we manage to hold complexity without collapsing into simplicity, each time we maintain hope without guarantees, we perhaps strengthen our ability to do so again. But this ethical weight training is uncertain work. Muscles can be strained or torn; growth is not guaranteed. Still, if we avoid the exercise entirely, we become weaker. Facing hard truths may never make us invulnerablebut perhaps it can leave us a little more capable, a little more resilient, for the next difficult knowledge that comes.

But what about doing something? The question arises, rightfully. Of course we should act. The indispensable first step toward meaningful action is facing what is actually happening. We cannot address problems we refuse to see clearly. The elaborate architectures of avoidance that keep us from seeing mass incarceration also ensure our solutions will miss their mark. Action without acknowledgment is mere gesture. But even when solutions elude usand they often will, given the magnitude of systemic crueltywe can grow from the act of facing. We can build capacities that transform how we move through the world and help us and others thrive.

We too are hard to know. The same blindness that keeps us from seeing prisons clearly keeps us from seeing ourselves. When we practice confronting complicity in one domain, we develop the ability to recognize it in others. The person who has genuinely faced their connection to mass incarceration wont just vote differently on criminal justice. They will be more likely to notice other adjacent cruelties, less willing to accept comfortable justifications, more capable of genuine relationship and honest self-reflection.

This is ethical weight training in its fullest sensenot just building strength to bear difficult knowledge, but developing capacities that change how we engage with everything. The courage to hope, the wisdom to judge, the imagination to envision alternativesthese dont stay contained to single issues. They become part of who we are.

The tension remains: we cannot see everything, nor can we afford blindness. There is no perfect resolution, no formula for how much truth to confront or how often. What matters is not escaping this tension but learning to live productively within it. Growth lies not in finding comfortable middle ground but in developing the strengths, strategies, and forms of community that allow us to keep returning to what is hard to know. Every day we practice seeing clearly, we become people who can seenot just the suffering of others but the possibilities of ourselves. And in that seeing, even when it brings pain, lies the seed of whatever transformation might yet be possible.

Finally, I think there is something deeper here than even growth or capacity-building. The question of whether to know goes to the heart of what it means to be human. We are, distinctively, the creatures who can choose blindnessand who can choose sight. Other animals simply perceive what is before them. We alone can construct elaborate architectures to avoid perception, and we alone can dismantle them.

The ancient Greek inscription Know thyself at Delphi suggested that self-knowledge was foundational to a fully human life. To choose not to knowabout ourselves, about what we do, about suffering enacted in our nameis to choose a diminished existence. It may be comfortable, but comfort and flourishing are not the same. We are, in a literary sense, the children of Adam and Eve, who chose knowledge over paradise. That choice defined us as creatures who would rather know than be comfortable. Every time we look away from cruelty to preserve our ease, we reverse that fundamental choice. We try to unknow our way back to an innocence that was never really ours.
Chilling new vision from the Dezi Freeman siege shows the remarkable bravery of a police officer who saved a younger colleague just moments before he was gunned down inside the fugitive's bus.

Detective Senior Constable Neal Thompson was killed in the line of duty during the dramatic standoff, but in his final act he moved his fellow officer out of the firing line.

The Daily Mail has seen the extraordinary footage of the 27-minute standoff showing Freeman, 56, barricaded inside his ramshackle bus with his wife Mali and their two year old son.

Ten officers had descended on the compound in Porepunkah, 300 kilometres northeast of Melbourne, on August 26 to execute a search warrant linked to historic allegations that he had sexually assaulted a minor.

What followed was a fraught confrontation captured from multiple angles on mobile phones and police body cameras.

In the footage, Freeman flatly refuses to open the bus door, his voice shaking with rage as officers, some in plain clothes and others in uniform, tried to reason with him.

'We have got a search warrant right here,' one officer was heard saying. 'Come out and have a look at it.'

During the tense standoff, four or five officers moved in and out of the makeshift kitchen attached to the bus while others stayed a few metres away.

Detective Senior Constable Neal Thompson (pictured), who was killed in the line of duty during the dramatic standoff, saved a younger colleague only moments before he was gunned down

Thompson was one of ten officers who went to Dezi Freeman's compound in Porepunkah on August 26 to execute a search warrant linked to historic allegations of sexual assault of a minor

Thompson warned his younger colleague, Detective Senior Constable Timothy Doyle (pictured, in black) to move out of sight as they prised open a window to the property

Thompson and Detective Senior Constable Timothy Doyle, among other officers, took turns trying to jar open the bus door with a crowbar.

But in the final moments before gunfire erupts, Thompson stepped forward for one last attempt.

This time, before prising open the window, he instructed Doyle to move out of sight.

Doyle dutifully obeyed and stepped back, but Thompson paused before he insisted he moves further still.

It was an order that saved his life.

Just seconds later Thompson climbed feet first through the bus window and was shot dead alongside Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart.

Freeman then took Thompson's weapon and fled into the bush where he remains on the run.

Hundreds of mourners including police officers and the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attended the funeral service for Thompson.

At Thompson's funeral in Benalla on Monday, Detective Senior Constable Timothy Doyle (pictured) told mourners of the sacrifice that saved him

Hundreds of mourners including police officers and the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attended the funeral service for Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson (pictured)

Thompson's partner Lisa (pictured) told the service how he had taught her to live with courage: 'I am so grateful you did, because I am scared.'

In an emotional tribute, Doyle told mourners of the sacrifice that saved him.

'Thommo, you went through the door first, and I owe you my life for that,' he said.

'We will miss you mate, and you will not be forgotten.'

Thompson was just weeks from retirement. His partner Lisa told the service in Benalla on Monday how he had taught her to live with courage.

'Honey, I am so grateful you did, because I am scared,' she said through tears.

'I do not want to live my life without you and I do not want to finish our dreams on my own. But I will, I promise.'

Victoria Police confirmed Thompson has been posthumously awarded the Victoria Police Star in recognition of his bravery and sacrifice.

About 450 police officers and the Australian Defence Force continue to hunt for Freeman as the search enters its third week.

The Mail witnessed a major police operation in Porepunkah on Tuesday afternoon, however, it did not result in Freeman being apprehended.

On Saturday, Victoria Police announced a $1million reward for information leading to Freeman's arrest.
An oil broker at a leading City firm is facing investigation after an 'inappropriate and unacceptable' expletive-laden rant at a counterpart was made public.

Danny Fenn, who works for London-based commodities brokerage Marex Spectron, can be heard in an audio recording raging over the terms of a deal.

In the recording, which is said to have spread across the Square Mile, Mr Fenn is accused by Bart Pratt, head of the fuel desk at Onyx Capital, of making a 'c***y comment'.

The remark drives Mr Fenn into a fury as he says 'I'm going to rip that c***'s head off' even as colleagues try to calm him down.

A spokesman for Marex said: 'We hold ourselves to the highest professional standards  and therefore consider the behaviour in the recording inappropriate and unacceptable.

'The broker in question has apologised to his counterpart, who we understand has accepted the apology. We are reviewing the incident to determine whether disciplinary action is appropriate.'

New York-listed Marex is valued at $2.5bn (1.9bn) and has more than 40 offices across the world.

It is not the first time that Mr Fenn's behaviour has landed him in hot water.

City trader Danny Fenn pictured arriving at Westminster Magistrates Court in London

Danny Fenn, who works for London-based commodities brokerage Marex Spectron, can be heard in an audio recording raging over the terms of a deal

In 2017, an employment tribunal heard that a feud between trader Sebastian France and Mr Fenn  who was his boss  came to blows.

Mr France had often been called a 'c***' by his boss and the pair also rowed over a 50,000 bonus.

Spectron admitted to the tribunal that Mr France was unfairly dismissed because of Mr Fenn's 'verbal insults and abuse'.

The tribunal found that Mr Fenn regularly referred to Mr France as 'butters' (meaning ugly), 'posh t**t', 'fat' and 'c***'.

'He wrote 'butters' on the claimant's pay slip in July 2013 and 'posh t**t' on his bonus letter in November 2013.

'From about 2015 Mr Fenn formed the view that the claimant was not working as effectively as he could be and he became increasingly rude and abusive towards him.'

On another occasion, in 2018, he was accused of 'squaring up' to ticket inspectors during a foul-mouthed rant at railway ticket inspectors at London's Liverpool Street station. The charges were later said to have been dropped.

It was alleged that Fenn had swore at two ticket inspectors in front of commuters, before turning his abuse towards a PC who tried to intervene.

Mr Fenn is facing investigation after an 'inappropriate and unacceptable' expletive-laden rant at a counterpart was made public

In the recording of the latest episode, Mr Pratt accuses Mr Fenn of making a 'c***y comment', the Telegraph reported.

Mr Fenn responds by asking him 'Did you just call me a c***?' and Mr Pratt replies 'No, I said it was a c***y comment'.

But Mr Fenn persists and tells Mr Pratt to 'call me a c*** face to face' next time they see each other, adding 'Let's see if you're a big boy'.

Mr Pratt attempts to interject only for Mr Fenn to tell him to 'shut the f*** up' and: 'I'll march you off to a little corner, and we'll see who the c*** is.'

A colleague in the recording is heard saying 'I know you're angry Danny but don't.'

But Mr Fenn screams: 'He can f*** off. I'm going to rip that c***'s head off.'

He then asks Mr Pratt if he wants to 'meet at lunchtime' and then suggests 'let's meet now' but Mr Pratt can be heard saying 'I don't want to meet you, Danny. You sound f****** furious' before the recording comes to an end.
Never-before-seen photos have revealed Bryan Kohberger posing in creepy shirtless selfies after murdering four University of Idaho students.

One image holds a chilling clue to his stabbing frenzy  another shows him making a bizarre face straight of the horror classic The Shining.

The selfies, obtained by NewsNation from the Latah County Sheriffs Office, shine a grim light on the the 30-year-old criminology PhD student's movements in the aftermath of the killings.

In one image, a topless Kohberger stares coldly into the camera while giving a two-finger salute on his forehead.

A cut is visible on his ring finger - a potential wound obtained during the violent struggle with some of his victims.

Xana Kernodle, 20, was awake when Kohberger broke into the student home at 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho, in the early hours of November 13, 2022.

Graphic court documents have previously revealed Kernodle desperately fought for her life against her attacker, suffering more than 50 stab wounds from a KaBar knife - most of them defensive wounds.

The other three victims - 21-year-old best friends Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen and 20-year-old freshman and Kernodles boyfriend Ethan Chapin - also suffered multiple stab wounds during Kohbergers killing spree.

In one of the other newly-released photos - taken some time after the murders - Kohberger is seen ogling the camera with wide eyes while baring his teeth like an animal.

Never-before-seen photos have revealed Bryan Kohberger posing in creepy shirtless selfies after murdering four University of Idaho students

The pose looks eerily similar to Jack Nicolson's character in The Shining

In one image, a topless Kohberger stares coldly into the camera while giving a two-finger salute on his forehead. A cut is visible on his ring finger - a potential wound obtained during the murders

Another selfie shows the shirtless killer - who is wearing ear buds in all of the images - pulling a bizarre face.

Digital forensics experts hired by prosecutors to dig into Kohbergers electronic devices found multiple selfies where the killer was posing shirtless or flexing his muscles, the Daily Mail previously reported.

Heather Barnhart, Senior Director of Forensic Research at Cellebrite, and Jared Barnhart, Head of CX Strategy and Advocacy at Cellebrite, said the images had been found on his Android cell phone.

There was also a chilling thumbs-up selfie to the camera taken at around 10.30am on November 13, 2022 - just six hours after the murders.

At that point, the murders had not yet been discovered.

In that image, released as evidence in court documents, Kohberger was seen smiling in front of the shower of his apartment in Pullman, Washington, hair wet, dressed in a white shirt and giving a thumbs up to the camera.

Behind him, there appeared to be the edge of a white shower curtain.

When his apartment was raided following his arrest, there was no sign of the curtain.

Prosecutor Bill Thompson said at his sentencing that Kohberger scrubbed his apartment free of any evidence prior to his arrest.

Another selfie shows the shirtless killer - who is wearing ear buds in all of the images - pulling a bizarre face

Best friends Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen (left) and young couple Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle (right) were murdered by Kohberger

Another selfie found on his phone, taken days before his arrest on December 30, 2022, showed Kohberger with a black hood over his head, staring emotionless into the camera.

The digital evidence was uncovered despite Kohbergers best efforts to scrub his cell phone and laptop of anything incriminating.

In fact, the Cellebrite team told the Daily Mail they found a pattern where Kohberger went to extreme lengths to try to delete and hide his digital footprint using VPNs, incognito modes, and clearing his browsing history.

Kohberger had tried - unsuccessfully - to wipe a slew of disturbing porn searches from his phone, the Barnharts said.

But, despite scrubbing his search history, the team was able to find them in the autofill section.

The searches revealed a sickening porn fetish involving attacking and raping sleeping girls.

Search terms found on his devices included 'sleeping', 'passed out', 'Voyeur', 'Forced raped' and 'drugged'.

The easiest way to say it is that all of his terms were consistently around non-consensual sex acts, Jared Barnhart told the Daily Mail.

These chilling selfies were found on Bryan Kohberger's Android cell phone following his arrest

Kohberger's sleeping and rape fetishes raise questions about what he may have planned to do the night of the murders.

The 30-year-old killer broke into his victims off-campus student home at around 4am, when most of the students were sleeping.

While prosecutors have said there was no evidence of a sexual component to the murders, Kohbergers motive and connection to his victims remain a complete mystery.

As well as the porn searches, the Cellebrite team found a clear obsession with serial killers and home invasions.

On Kohbergers laptop, Heather said they found searches for serial killers, co-ed killers, home invasions, burglaries and psychopaths before the murders and then up through Christmas Day.

There was one serial killer Kohberger showed a keen interest in that stood out to the team: Danny Rolling.

Rolling, known as the Gainesville Ripper, broke into the homes of University of Florida students at night and murdered five - four female and one male - in the fall semester of 1990. He raped the women during his attacks and decapitated one of his victims, posing her head on a mantle in her home.

Just like Kohberger, Rolling's murder weapon of choice was also a Ka-Bar knife.

The Cellebrite team - who were set to testify as expert witnesses in Kohbergers capital murder trial - found Kohberger had downloaded a PDF onto his phone about Rolling and had also watched a YouTube video about a Ka-Bar knife.

Kohberger had spent years studying crimes and criminals before carrying out his own quadruple homicide.

In court documents, prosecutors cited one of Kohberger's 2020 criminology essays about a woman's murder as showing his extensive knowledge of and interest in crime scenes.

For another college assignment, Kohberger posted a survey on Reddit asking criminals questions including how they chose their victims and how they felt while committing their crimes.

Dr Katherine Ramsland, one of America's top experts on serial killers, taught Kohberger at DeSales University, Pennsylvania.

She told the Daily Mail she was 'horrified that I had a student capable of such violence'.

'I don't know why he did it. I just can't even speculate why,' she said.

'I think the most important thing is we have four families with murdered kids and we don't understand why this had to happen. I think they're the focus, what they're going through is horrifying.

'I hate that I am in any way associated with it.'

Left to right: Dylan Mortensen, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen (on Kaylee's shoulders) Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Bethany Funke

The home at 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho, where Kohberger carried out his murderous rampage

Dr Ramsland told the Daily Mail there is not yet enough information to determine Kohberger's motive for the murders. 'There's so much we don't know,' she said.

However, Kohberger's behavior around the time of the murders was setting off alarm bells at Washington State University, where he had enrolled on the criminal justice PhD program.

Several of Kohbergers classmates and professors found him sexist and creepy - so much so that female students avoided being left alone with him and one faculty member warned he had the potential to become a future rapist.

Just weeks before Kohberger's trial was slated to begin, Kohberger struck a plea deal with prosecutors to avoid the death penalty.

Under the terms of the deal, he pleaded guilty to all charges and waived his right to appeal.

On July 23, he was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole in an emotional hearing, where the families and friends of the victims were finally able to confront the man who slaughtered their loved ones.

He has waived all right to appeal.

Kohberger is now serving his sentence inside Idaho's maximum security prison where he has already filed multiple complaints about his fellow inmates.
This is the horrific moment a teenager is repeatedly gored and tossed around by a rampaging bull while taking part in a traditional Spanish festival.

The incident happened in the town of Mocejon, in the province of Toledo, central Spain, on Tuesday during celebrations in honour of the Virgin of Angustias.

Video footage shows the animal pushing the 17-year-old against a wall before lifting him into the air and slamming him against a metal gate.

The bull then drags the youth back to the centre of the plaza and topples him over leaving him lying on the ground.

Other participants rush forward waving capes and pulling the bulls tail to distract it but their attempts fail at first.

They eventually succeed and carry the injured minor away to seek medical assistance.

Civil Guard sources said the boy was gored three times and suffered wounds to his shoulder and abdomen.

He was stabilised at the scene by medical personnel before being transferred to the University Hospital of Toledo.

This is the horrific moment a teenager is repeatedly gored and tossed around by a rampaging bull while taking part in a traditional Spanish bull run

The incident happened in the town of Mocejon, in the province of Toledo in central Spain , on Tuesday, 9th September, during festivities in honour of the Virgin of Angustias

Video footage shows the animal pushing the 17-year-old against a wall before lifting him into the air and slamming him against a metal gate

Other participants rush forward waving capes and pulling the bulls tail to distract it but their attempts fail at first

The bull then drags the youth back to the centre of the plaza and topples him over leaving him lying on the ground

Hospital sources confirmed that his condition is serious.

The incident has caused great commotion in the town during the local Bull Day celebrations.

The tragedy comes just weeks after a renowned Portuguese bullfighter was killed in a bullring.

Manuel Maria Trindade, a 22-year-old bullfighter, died after being picked up and rammed against a wall by an enraged 1,500lb beast.

He was making his debut performance in Lisbon's Campo Pequeno bullring when the show ended in tragedy.

Footage from the event shows the young 'forcado' run towards the enormous bull to provoke the animal into charging.

The beast then ran at high speed towards Trindade, who attempted to grab onto the animal's horns and gain control.

But in a matter of seconds Trindade was hoisted up into the air by the storming bull and thrown against the wall of the arena.

Spectators in the 6,848-seat ring shouted in horror as the victim was left sprawled on the ground.

The animal was finally subdued by a bullfighter pulling its tail and others holding up bright capes in its eyeline. Paramedics rushed to treat Trindade in the ring but the injuries to his head were severe.

According to Portuguese news site Zap, a 73-year-old spectator watching the bullfight also died as the horror unfolded in the bullring below.

After the fight, bullfighter Trindade was rushed to Sao Jose Hospital where he was put in an induced coma, but he died within 24 hours on August 23 after going into cardiorespiratory arrest.
Donald Trump is calling for the death penalty for the 'animal' who murdered Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska.

A surveillance video from the Charlotte Light Rail shows Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr., 34, stabbing Zarutska on August 22.

Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday: 'The animal who so violently killed the beautiful young lady from Ukraine... should be given a 'quick' (there is no doubt!) Trial, and only awarded the death penalty.'

'There can be no other option!!!' the president wrote.

The Justice Department announced on Tuesday its charging of Brown with a federal crime of 'committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system.'

'We will seek the maximum penalty for this unforgivable act of violence  he will never again see the light of day as a free man,' Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement on the charges.

Zarutska, 23, fled a bomb shelter in Ukraine to come to the U.S. in 2022 and escape the deadly war with Russia.

But just a few years later, the Ukrainian refugee was stabbed to death by Brown as she was commuting home from her job at a local pizzeria in Charlotte, North Carolina.

President Donald Trump is calling for the death penalty for Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr., 34, who is charged with murdering Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska

Iryna Zarutska, 23, fled Ukraine in 2022 to escape the country's deadly war with Russia

'The animal who so violently killed the beautiful young lady from Ukraine ... should be given a 'quick' (there is no doubt!) Trial, and only awarded the death penalty. There can be no other option!!!' President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday

U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson said at a press conference on Tuesday that Zarutska's family declined to have her body returned to Ukraine because 'she loved America' and would want to be buried there.

Brown, who was charged and named as the suspected killer, is a career criminal. He has an extensive record of 14 previous arrests prior to the deadly stabbing last month.

His criminal history dates back to 2011 with charges ranging from felony larceny, robbery with a dangerous weapon and assault.

FBI Director Kash Patel said the DOJ will 'ensure justice is served and the perpetrator is never released from jail to kill again.'

But Trump wants to go further and is calling for the death penalty.

In a video message posted on Tuesday, the president lamented that Zarutska 'was slaughtered by a deranged monster who was roaming free after 14 prior arrests.'

'We cannot allow a depraved criminal element of violent repeat offenders to continue spreading destruction and death throughout our country,' he said. 'We have to respond with force and strength, we have to be vicious, just like they are. It's the only thing they understand.'

Trump said this latest murder is proof that America has a violent crime problem. He wants to address this by sending National Guard troops into big cities to crackdown on crime  just like he did over the last month in Washington, D.C.

North Carolina Rep. Tim Moore and nine other Republicans called for the removal of the judge who released Brown.

In 2015 he was convicted of robbery with a dangerous weapon and served a more than six-year prison sentence.

Surveillance video from the Charlotte Light Rail shows Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr., 34, stabbing Zarutska on August 22, 2025 as she returned home from her job at a local pizzeria

Brown is now charged with first-degree murder for his stabbing of Zarutska.

Currently the 34-year-old is committed to a hospital for at least 60 days for a psychiatric evaluation.

Court records and multiple reports highlight ongoing concerns about Brown's mental health and repeated releases despite a pattern of offenses.

Mostly recently, Brown was arrested in 2025 for misusing 911 calls made from a hospital due to delusional behavior linked to his schizophrenia diagnosis.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy threatened to wipe millions in federal funding from the city of Charlotte amid a probe into whether officials are adequately protecting passengers in the wake of the violent attack.

Since 2007, the Department of Transportation has committed $797 million to construct the LYNX Blue Line light rail  the very railway Zarutska was riding when she was murdered.
John Healey said he has asked UK Armed Forces 'to look at options to bolster Nato's air defence over Poland' after Russian drones were shot down over the eastern European country.

The Defence Secretary said the incursion, which saw the unmanned attack craft shot down by Nato jets, took Russia's aggression to 'a new level of hostility'.

Polish airspace was violated by multiple Russian drones and those that posed a direct threat were shot down, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk wrote on social media.

It came three days after Russia's largest aerial attack on Ukraine since the war began, an assault that hit a key government building in Kyiv for the first time.

Until July, RAF Typhoons were operating from Poland as part of Nato's air policing mission  a task shared between the members of the alliance.

Following talks with with defence officials from Poland, Italy, France and Germany, the Defence Secretary told a press conference: 'I have asked the UK armed forces to look at options about how we can bolster that Nato air defence over Poland.

'We are part of a regular air policing mission. Up until six weeks ago, we had six Typhoon jets  part of the British component to that Nato air policing mission  over Poland, an extra 200 personnel.

'We have 300 UK personnel in Poland at the moment, reinforcing Nato's deterrence as well as the Polish deterrence and defence as well.

'We will do what we can as part of Nato, as part of a collective response that Poland has asked for from us, its Nato allies.'

The Defence Secretary said the incursion, which saw the unmanned attack craft shot down by Nato jets, took Russia's aggression to 'a new level of hostility'

Polish airspace was violated by multiple Russian drones and those that posed a direct threat were shot down, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk wrote on social media

Following talks with with defence officials from Poland, Italy, France and Germany, the Defence Secretary told a press conference: 'We see what Putin is doing. Yet again he is testing us. Yet again we will stand firm'

He added: 'Together, we E5 totally condemn these attacks.

'Russia's actions are reckless, they're dangerous, they're unprecedented.

'We see what Putin is doing. Yet again he is testing us. Yet again we will stand firm.'

RAF jets were not involved in shooting down Russian drones in Poland's airspace during overnight attacks on Ukraine.

Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte has said the Netherlands, Italy, Poland and Germany played a role in the response to the drone incursion.

The former Dutch PM said that Nato is 'vigilant' and will defend 'every inch' of its territory, in a message to Vladimir Putin.

Earlier, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer expressed his support for Poland.

Speaking at PMQs he said: 'I've been in touch with the Polish prime minister this morning to make clear our support for Poland, and will stand firm in our support for Ukraine with our partners, and through our leadership of the coalition of the willing, we will continue to ramp up the pressure on Putin until there's a just and lasting peace.'

Russian drones and missiles have entered Nato airspace several times during Russia's war in Ukraine, but a Nato country has never tried to shoot them down.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on social media that the airspace violation was a 'dangerous precedent' for Europe, saying it was 'no accident'.

He brandished the incursion, which damaged a house and a car, an attempt to 'humiliate' Poland, and called for a strong response from Nato.

Multiple Russian drones moving from Ukraine airspace into Poland's

An area was cordoned off as investigators inspected parts of a discovered drone in Mnishkov

'Russia must feel that the response to this escalatory step, and even more so to an attempt to humiliate one of Europe's key countries, will be clear and strong from all partners,' Zelensky said.

Mr Tusk said he had invoked Nato's Article 4 under which any member can call urgent talks when it feels its 'territorial integrity, political independence or security' are at risk - only the eighth time the measure has ever been used.

More than eight million Poles were ordered to hide in their homes as the drones flew overhead, with debris from one shot-down device crashing into a house.

The operational command of Poland's military said the airspace violations were 'unprecedented' and called it 'an act of aggression'.

Russia's top diplomat in Poland, Andrei Ordash, this morning told RIA Novosti, meanwhile, that he had been summoned to the foreign ministry for a meeting at noon (10am GMT).

He said Warsaw was yet to show evidence that the drones shot down overnight had come from Russia.
A Cathedral choir has been suspended after singing a self-penned protest hymn and walking out in the middle of Holy Communion over redundancy fears.

Worshippers at historic Bangor Cathedral in North Wales were left shocked after the 20-strong choir left their places and departed the service while priests were still ministering at the altar after distributing wafers and wine.

Witnesses said the clergy carried on as if nothing unusual was happening during the service on Sunday, August 31, as the silent choir filed past towards the cathedral door.

The walkout was staged after cathedral staff were warned five out of eight permanent staff face redundancy.

It is feared the revered choir will be severely affected, with the Director of Music Joe Cooper's hours also cut by half.

The choir's self-penned protest hymn was entitled 'Canticle of Indignation', and their actions have prompted all choir activities to be suspended for a month.

It follows a series of scandals at the Cathedral including an alleged sexual assault against a member of the choir and the resignation of a senior cleric over alleged misspending. He has since been appointed to a 70,000 job at a Cambridge college.

Director of Music Mr Cooper told the BBC: 'I worry this is the end of my time here as director of music and that is a great shame because it didn't need to be like this.

Worshippers at historic Bangor Cathedral in North Wales were left shocked after the 20-strong choir left their places and departed the service while priests were still ministering at the altar after distributing wafers and wine

The choir's self-penned protest hymn was entitled 'Canticle of Indignation', and their actions have prompted all choir activities to be suspended for a month

It follows a series of scandals at the Cathedral (pictured) including an alleged sexual assault against a member of the choir and the resignation of a senior cleric over alleged misspending

'If we could have worked together and discussed some things, we could have found a way forward.'

One worshipper said said: 'I have never heard of anything like this happening before.

'It indicates how upset members of the choir are after being told they are likely to lose their jobs.

'They walked out in a dignified manner. Members of the congregation were clearly thrown by what happened and didn't immediately start singing the next hymn, as usually they would have followed the choir's lead.'

A petition set up in support of the choir has gained more than 1,700 signatures.

Bangor Cathedral dates back 1500 years, and the choir has previously been featured on BBC's Songs of Praise.

But it has been rocked by money troubles and the resignation of its bishop over allegations within his diocese, including of inappropriate sexual behaviour and a drinking culture.

Andy John, the former Archbishop of Wales, stepped down from his national role in June following a series of scandals in the Bangor diocese.

In May 2025, independent investigators reported incidents of inappropriate sexual behaviour and other serious safeguarding concerns that left people feeling unsafe.

Bangor Cathedral dates back 1500 years, and the choir has previously been featured on BBC's Songs of Praise

The protest reflected fears the choir will be severely affected, with the Director of Music Joe Cooper's hours cut by half

Mr John, who retired as the Bishop of Bangor at the end of August, admitted in July that he had been aware of an alleged drunken sexual assault by a man seeking to become a priest against a member of the choir, despite previously denying knowledge of it.

Another scandal unravelled as leader of Bangor cathedral, sub-Dean Sion Rhys Evans, left his post last year under a cloud over alleged financial irregularities.

This included the spending of tens of thousands of pounds on furniture for the cathedral, vestments and choir trips to Dublin and Rome. Mr Evans held the sub-Dean and secretary positions at the Cathedral at the time.

He has since been appointed Bursar and General Manager of Westminster College, Cambridge.

The Cathedral is in debt to the tune of 300,000, a statement released this week said, with bosses warning of bankruptcy unless drastic action - including redundancies - is taken.

The Charity Commission confirmed that it had opened an inquiry into two Church in Wales charities in the Bangor diocese.

The job cuts, which reportedly include the operations manager, family officer and verger, are yet more bad news for the diocese.

Documents sent to employees at Bangor Cathedral affected by the proposals state 'any breach of confidentiality may result in disciplinary action'.

A statement from cathedral bosses said all choir activity was suspended for a month due to the protest.

A spokesperson said: 'This included the choir singing a specially composed and entirely inappropriate piece - entitled 'Canticle of Indignation' - whilst members of the congregation were receiving Holy Communion, and the walking out of the choir immediately afterwards whilst the altar party were doing the ablutions.

'Chapter took the decision to pause all choir activity for an initial period of one month, with immediate effect whilst we review what happened and consider appropriate next steps.

'This pause will also provide an opportunity for dialogue between the Chapter and Choir. In the mean time, please note that Joe Cooper, Director of Music, is currently away from his duties.'

The past week had been 'difficult for all of us who are part of the mission and ministry of our Cathedral Church here in Bangor', they added.

The statement also detailed the extent of the Cathedral's financial problems: 'Our projected operational deficit at the end of 2025 is 300K.

'This puts an unsustainable stress on reserves, which would lead to bankruptcy by the end of 2026.'
Islamist insurgents have 'summarily executed' nearly 130 people, including 70 worshippers during prayers, in Niger.

Human Rights Watch reported that gunmen carried out a series of five horrific attacks across the nation since March, including at a mosque in the western Tillaberi region in June.

One woman who lost three of her sons told the NGO: 'There were bodies everywhere, one on top of the other'.

Though no group has officially claimed responsibility, witnesses said they believed the attackers were with IS Sahel.

The country's military has been struggling to contain the insurgency, a promise it made after it took power by deposing President Mohamed Bazoum in 2023.

Since then, around 1,600 civilians have been murdered by fighters with the Islamic State.

Jihadist groups have also destroyed schools and religious sites, and have clamped down on civil rights depending on citizens' interpretation of Islam, HRW said.

But the army has allegedly failed to prevent the massacres, with witnesses telling investigators that the Nigerien army did not properly response to warnings of attacks.

Police take security measures during the coup supporters gather for a demonstration in front of the French base in Niamey, Niger on August 11, 2023

Niger's security forces stands guard as pro junta supporters take part in a demonstration in front of a French army base in Niamey, Niger, August 11, 2023

They are also alleged to have ignored villagers' requests for protection.

Ilaria Allegrozzi, a senior researcher with the NGO, said: 'Islamist armed groups are targeting the civilian population in western Niger and committing horrific abuses.

'Nigerien authorities need to do more to protect people living in the Tillaberi region'.

So far, the army has not commented on the series of killings.

It comes just days after Islamic State extremists hacked at least 50 civilians to death at a funeral in eastern Congo.

The gruesome attack happened on Monday night in the town of Ntoyo, in Lubero territory, North Kivu province, local administrator Macaire Sivikunula said.

'I can confirm a provisional death toll of 50. The victims were caught off guard at a mourning ceremony in the village of Ntoyo at around 9 p.m., and most of them were killed with machetes,' he said. 'The search is continuing.'

Colonel Alain Kiwewa, the military administrator for Lubero, told Reuters the toll was around 60 and could rise as there were still people missing.

The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an armed group originally from Uganda, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in 2019 and now operates as its Central Africa Province.

The attack happened on Monday night in the town of Ntoyo, in Lubero territory, North Kivu province

Despite joint military efforts by Congo and Uganda, the ADF continues to operate with impunity in the region

Since then, the ADF has escalated its attacks in the region, targeting civilians with machetes and guns. Last month they killed more than 50 civilians in several attacks.

The group finances its operations through illicit activities and maintains a strong jihadist propaganda presence.

Despite joint military efforts by Congo and Uganda, the ADF continues to operate with impunity in the region.
Right-wing conspiracy shock jock Alex Jones is at the mercy of the Supreme Court.

Attorneys for Jones are asking the highest-court to hear his appeal regarding the $1.4 billion judgement handed down by a Connecticut jury and judge.

The conservative commentator received the hefty fine after claiming the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax staged by crisis actors.

The Infowars founder claims the judge found him liable for defamation without holding a trial on the validity of the allegations made by the relatives of the shooting victims.

The 2012 mass shooting killed 20 young children and six teachers in Newton, Connecticut.

Jones lawyers say Supreme Court precedent requires the Sandy Hook families to prove their defamation claims against public figures and journalists such as Jones rather than receiving a default ruling.

Furthermore, his attorneys argue Jones comments about the shooting fall under the protection of the First Amendment because they were 'expressions of constitutionally protected opinion.

The media landscape is rife with groups challenging various events, including Holocaust denial, moon landing skepticism, 9/11 conspiracy theories, and even flat Earth claims, Jones petition states.

Jones claims the judge unjustly found him liable for defamation without holding a trial on the validity of the allegations made by the relatives of the shooting victims.

Jones referred to the 2012 mass shooting that killed 20 young children and six teachers as a hoax

Jones' petition claims unless the Supreme Court overturns the ruling it would chill the reporting of news and result in self-censoring over fears of lawsuits

However, such statements critique or dismiss the events themselves, not the character, conduct, or reputation of those associated with them.

Following the controversy, Jones has stated he believed the shooting was 100% real.

The request to the Supreme Court was filed by Jones lawyers on Friday, but was released to the public on Tuesday.

Jones team also cites the Eighteen Amendment to argue the $1.4 billion judgement is excessive punishment.

The petition claims unless the Supreme Court overturns the ruling it would chill the reporting of news and result in self-censoring over fears of lawsuits.

However, lawyers representing the Sandy Hook families issued a statement slamming Jones petition as a last gasp.

There is no legitimate basis for the U.S. Supreme Court to accept this last gasp from Alex Jones and we will oppose it in due course, said Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the families, in a statement, according to the Associated Press.

In late 2021, Judge Barbara Bellis issued a rare default ruling against Jones for what she claimed was a repeated failure to abide by court demands and turn over evidence.

A Connecticut judge found Jones liable for the defamation charges without providing him a trial due to his alleged failure to turn over evidence

Jones is known for advocating for conspiracy theories on his Infowars show

As a result, Jones was found liable for the charges without receiving a trial and a jury was convened to determine what damages he would owe the shooting victims relatives.

A six-person jury in October issued a $964 million verdict against Jones and his company Free Speech System. Bellis later added on another $473 million in punitive damages.

In December, a Connecticut appellate court removed $150 million from the judgement, but upheld the rest of the $1.4 billion fine. Meanwhile, the state Supreme Court refused to hear Jones' appeal of the lower court's decision back in April.
A one-year-old girl has been orphaned after her father shot dead her devoted mom and their upstairs relative in a horrific murder-suicide.

Madeline Minasvand is set to be raised by her aunt after her father David Minasvand, 31, shot and killed her mom Karine Asatryan, 35, and Nadia Abrahamian, 80, in their home in Watertown, Massachusetts on August 31 before turning the gun on himself.

Minasvand and Asatryan lived together in the downstairs of the home and Abrahamian lived upstairs.

In a heartbreaking GoFundMe set up by Madeline's aunt, Asatryan's loved ones said that 'becoming a mother filled her with immense joy and purpose.'

'She embraced motherhood with her whole heart, pouring all her love and hopes into her daughters future. Tragically, Madeline has now lost both of her parents.'

Asatryan was born in Yerevan, Armenia, and according to her obituary she was the first of her family to move to the United States, where she 'as a caregiver for the family she lived with.'

It is unclear which other people lived in the home where the shooting unfolded, and officials said the three deceased were the only ones present in the home at the time of their deaths.

Abrahamian knew Minasvand and Asatryan as part of a 'blended Armenian family', according to an obituary for Abrahamian's late husband Sarkis who died just a month before.

Madeline Minasvand, 1, has been tragically orphaned after her mother Karine Asatryan, 35, was killed by her father David Minasvand, 31, in a horror murder-suicide on August 31

Asatryan's loved ones said that 'becoming a mother filled her with immense joy and purpose'

Minasvand, 31, shot and killed Karine Asatryan, 35, and Nadia Abrahamian, 80, in their home in Watertown, Massachusetts before turning the gun on himself

Madeline's parents helped care for Nadia before Minasvand shot them both dead, with investigators yet to share a motive for the tragic slayings.

Asatryans sister, Meline, set up a fundraiser to help her daughter Madeline after the one-year-old was orphaned by the shootings.

In the fundraiser, which has raised over $40,000 at the time of writing, Meline said that her sister 'embraced motherhood with her whole heart, pouring all her love and hopes into her daughters future.'

'Tragically, Madeline has now lost both of her parents,' she wrote.

In an obituary for Asatryan, her loved ones said she 'lived a full life and left an indelible mark on all who knew her.'

'Karine was a deeply loving mother, sister, daughter, and niece. She was especially devoted to her beloved daughter, Madeline, whom she loved with all her heart and soul,' they wrote.

In a heartbreaking tribute, Asatryan's family said she 'embraced motherhood with her whole heart, pouring all her love and hopes into her daughters future'

Asatryan was described as a 'bright light in the lives of everyone who knew her', and said her 'warmth, kindness, and boundless compassion left a lasting impact, and her absence is deeply felt by all who loved her'

The tribute described Asatryan as a 'bright light in the lives of everyone who knew her', and said her 'warmth, kindness, and boundless compassion left a lasting impact, and her absence is deeply felt by all who loved her.'

Donations would go toward 'baby supplies, medical care, childcare, and future education,' for the orphaned infant, Asatryan's sister wrote.

Meline said she would now care for Madeline, and was 'stepping into this role with courage, tenderness, and unwavering devotion.'

'Any contribution  whether through a donation or by sharing this page  means the world. Thank you for helping us support Madeline and carry Karines legacy forward with love.'
Secrecy has long been understood as a danger to democracyand as antithetical to science. But how much of scientific knowledge is already hidden?



by David Kordahl

Our society is sequestering knowledge more extensively, rapidly, and thoroughly than any before it in history, writes physics Nobelist Robert Laughlin in his opinionated 2008 tract The Crime of Reason: And the Closing of the Scientific Mind. Indeed, the Information Age should probably be called the Age of Amnesia because it has meant, in practice, a steep decline in public accessibility of important information.

Before reading Laughlins book, I had not been aware of Howard Morland, whose 1979 article The H-Bomb Secret provides a dramatic case in point. The article begins directly: What you are about to learn is a secreta secret that the United States and four other nations, the makers of hydrogen weapons, have gone to extraordinary lengths to protect. The next sentence reveals why the U.S. government sought an injunction to halt publication. The secret is in the coupling mechanism that enables an ordinary fission bombthe kind that destroyed Hiroshimato trigger the far deadlier energy of hydrogen fusion.

The H-Bomb Secret can be easily accessed on the Internet. It contains information about the Teller-Ulam design that remains classified to this day, and was written as an explicit challenge to the regime ushered in by the Atomic Energy Act of 1946, which decreed nuclear knowledge to be born secret, automatically restricted by virtue of its subject matter. Morlands article presented an edge case, since its sources were public, ranging from encyclopedias to government press releases. United States vs. Progressive, Inc., the suit to stop its publication, was eventually dropped. In pretrial hearings, government lawyers accidentally revealed additional details about the bomb. In a comedy of errors, other activists were drawn to the cause, which ultimately led government litigators to dismiss their own case.

United States vs. Progressive, Inc. is celebrated as a test of the limits of the First Amendment, but it also serves as a parable about scientific secrecy. Howard Morland was not himself a scientist (his science training consisted of five undergraduate elective courses), but his article contains more concrete information about how H-bombs work than anything I learned while getting a doctorate in physics (and, yes, I did once take a nuclear physics course).

The larger question in play here is that of how much scientific knowledge is freely available, vs. how much powerful actors have been able to deliberately obscure. In The Crime of Reason, Laughlin argues that the nuclear paradigm set a precedent for the broader American society, leading the government to conclude that the sequestration of knowledge is a reasonable aim. The Morland case seems to demonstrate rather starkly that modern civilization rests on two mutually exclusive kinds of thinkingone embodied in the free speech guarantees in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the other in the Atomic Energy Act.

Morland himself made this point in The H-Bomb Secret: I am telling the secret to make a basic point as forcefully as I can: Secrecy itself, especially the power of a few designated experts to declare some topics off limits, contributes to a political climate in which the nuclear establishment can conduct business as usual, protecting and perpetuating the production of these horror weapons.

This view of knowledge complements that of Laughlin. While knowledge can be inconvenient and even dangerous, it cannot simply be regulated away. In 1999, Morland wrote The Holocaust Bomb: a Question of Time, a long essay grappling with the case of Wen Ho Lee, the Los Alamos physicist who had downloaded computer codes onto his home computeraccording to Lee, for easier access; according to prosecutors, for espionage. (Lee was held in solitary confinement for 278 days, but most charges against him were later dropped.)

Morland argues that attempts at scientific secrecy obscure a deeper issue:

The curve of binding energy was written into the structure of matter by the time of creation. Any cognitive species which begins to comprehend the relationship of matter and energy will shortly discover that sunshine, the energy source of life, is the output of a thermonuclear furnace. With that knowledge, plus a few engineering innovations, the entire species will collectively confront Hamlets dilemma: To be, or not to be. Forever afterwards, each succeeding generation will need to make a conscious choice not to commit communal suicide with nuclear weapons.

Well, either thator the knowledge can be continuously hidden.

Laughlin points out that scientific secrecy benefits both government and business. In commerce, many scientific facts are hidden under the banner of trade secrets, which Laughlin amusingly describes as part of everyday deception in business. Scientists have a difficult time recognizing just how at odds this is with their own natural desire to share discoveries, but now and then they notice less-gifted individuals zooming by in their Lamborghinis on the way to vacation hideaways, restaurants, and parties, sometimes waving a cheery greeting as they pass.

Considering this confluence of official and commercial suppression of scientific knowledge, it seems likely that the world is suffused with topics that have already been explored, but whose records have been kept from view. The historian of science Peter Galison, in his 2004 essay, Removing Knowledge, speculated about the issues magnitude. The closed world, Galison remarks, is not a small strongbox in the corner of our collective house of codified and stored knowledge. It is we in the open worldwe who study the world lodged in our libraries, from aardvarks to zymurgy, we who are living in a modest information booth facing outwards, our unseeing backs to a vast and classified empire we barely know.

Once the question of hidden knowledge emerges, another immediately follows. What type of knowledge has been hidden? Is it only the sort of trivia that helps weaponeers to construct their exotic doodads (e.g., ideal shapes for radar ducking, or chemical data on explosive yields)? Or does it go beyond that?

Do any hidden discoveries have a fundamental scientific importance?

Of course, its hard to know without having a security clearance, but reports of bizarre military experimentsIm remembering, now, the goat-killing psychics of The Men Who Stared at Goatsinspire some doubts. Even Peter Galison, who suggests that the US library of classified information is five to ten times larger than its open stacks, notes that knowledge in this parallel universe suffers from the lack such oversight as keeps open science in check. Billions of dollars have been spent on projects that scientifically or technically would not havecould not havesurvived the gimlet-eyed scrutiny of international and open review.

Yet closely guarded secrets sometimes leak out in mundane ways. Alex Wellerstein, who discusses the Morland case in his 2021 book Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States, documents on his nuclear history blog that Sandia National Laboratory seems to have published structural mock-ups of thermonuclear bombs on its websiteas part of a department logo. Or did they? The possibility of deliberate disinformation always looms in the background.

While the secrets themselves hold some interest, it seems that our main curiosity about this vast and classified empire is not, at the end of the day, scientific, but moral. The known existence of scientific secrets, like the known existence of military secrets, leaves open large pastures where the imagination may roam. As Jon Askonas remarked in a 2023 essay on secrecy, One substantial reason why many Americans believe in conspiracy theories is that the government conducts secret activities at massive scale at home and abroad and, indeed, because members of the government have verifiably lied to American citizens about those activities, both for ostensible national security reasons and to save political face.

The foregoing paragraphs stitch together quotes from several essays better than this one, but their combined implication seems clear. When RFK Jr. gets appointed to head HHS, when millions reject vaccine protocols, when conspiracy theories flourish wherever official expertise once held swaythe problem is not just that Americans are uniquely anti-intellectual or gullible. The attitudes we hold are the predictable result of eight decades of systematic scientific secrecy. After important knowledge is repeatedly placed off limits, why should citizens feel obligated to follow institutional claims about what we should or should not believe?

Im not sure what a better system would look like, or how we might get there from here. But I do know that the current arrangementwhere knowledge is kept classified, yet institutions expect deference to their authorityis unsustainable.

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is gaining support from Republican lawmakers in his conflict with a top housing finance official, whom he threatened to punch in the face.

Bill Pulte, 37, is Trump's Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, a normally quiet post that does not often veer into the limelight. Pulte is an exception.

The young Republican housing official has acted as a pugilist of sorts on social media, where he boasts over 3 million followers and regularly defends the president and attacks Trump's detractors.

Pulte's online antics have frustrated some in Trump's administration - most notably the Treasury secretary.

This came to a head last week during a private dinner when Bessent and Pulte got into an argument after the secretary accused the housing official of talking smack about him to the president.

'Why the f*** are you talking to the president about me? F*** you,' Bessent told Pulte, a skirmish first reported by Politico. 'I'm gonna punch you in your f***ing face.'

The reported standoff now has some in the Republican party picking sides, and on Capitol Hill, Bessent has plenty of allies gathered around his corner of the ring.

'I think he's [Pulte] a nut,' one GOP lawmaker, on condition of anonymity, told Politico this week. Bessent, they said, is 'the adult in the room.'

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, 63, reportedly told Trump's top housing finance official, Bill Pulte, 37, to stop badmouthing him to the president during a dinner last week where he threatened to punch the younger official 'in the f***ing face'

Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Bill Pulte walks outside the White House, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. Some lawmakers on Capitol Hill said if they were in Bessent's position, they would have dealt with Pulte the same way

'Every time these things come up, the Treasury secretary seems to be the one that's most grounded in reality and the one that the business community, I think, can go to bed at night knowing that he understands the need to have our markets be predictable, to lead with certainty,' they added.

A second Republican, who sits on a committee overseeing Pulte's organization, also lashed out at the housing finance official.

'The guy's just a little too big for his britches,' the member shared. 'I've got great respect for Bessent for taking him on.'

Pulte is not without allies, however. The young official has gained favor within the administration for aggressively pursuing some of Trump's high-profile rivals.

The 37-year-old has lobbed mortgage fraud allegations against Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor whom Trump has tried to fire.

He has made similar accusations against Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and New York Attorney General Letitia James - both critics who have pursued legal action against the president.

Pulte may have flown too close to the sun by badmouthing Bessent.

'I would have done the same,' a third Republican told Politico, agreeing with the Treasury secretary's confrontational tactics.

'I've got great respect for Bessent for taking him [Pulte] on,' one GOP lawmaker said

All of D.C. is talking about Bessent's latest clash. But the Pulte incident is not the first behind-the-scenes elbow-jostling by Bessent.

While jostling for the Treasury job, Bessent was reportedly in competition with Trump's now Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Bessent did not threaten to punch Lutnick 'in the f***ing face' though he did elbow Lutnick out of the Treasury role by holding court at Mar-a-Lago during the transition late last year.
An outspoken senator from Louisiana had a demeaning choice of words to describe one of his congressional colleagues during a TV appearance Tuesday evening.

During a segment with Fox News' Sean Hannity, Louisiana Republican John Kennedy called a fellow member of Congress, New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 'shallow as a puddle.'

'I don't hate anyone but Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez is a creation of the media. She checks all the boxes. She's young, she's liberal, she's attractive, she's ethnic. Her problem is that she's shallow as a puddle,' Kennedy told Hannity.

Ocasio-Cortez' office did not respond to the Daily Mail's request for a reply to Kennedy's remarks, and has also not issued any public statements about the dig.

This is not the first time that Kennedy, 73, has made a jab at Ocasio-Cortez, 35.

During another Fox News appearance earlier this year, Kennedy said that Ocasio-Cortez was 'the reason there are directions on a shampoo bottle.' He has also previously called former Vice President Kamala Harris 'AOC without the bartending experience.'

As Democrats search for a leader after facing defeat at the hands of Republicans in the 2024 election, Ocasio-Cortez is among those with an elevated stature who can help shape her party's future.

Outside of her constant social media statements and committee speeches against the Trump Administration, she has been crisscrossing the country with fellow socialist Bernie Sanders in recent months, drawing sizeable crowds.

Louisiana Republican John Kennedy called New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 'shallow as a puddle' during a Fox News appearance Tuesday

U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks to the media outside the U.S. Capitol after the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping spending and tax bill, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 3, 2025

Senator John Kennedy on AOC is pure gold:



I consider AOC to be the leader of the Democratic Party.



I think shes the reason there are directions on a shampoo bottle.



Our plan for dealing with her is Operation Let Her Speak.



 pic.twitter.com/o88QzFr7VB  Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) April 9, 2025

Yet the New York City socialist darling's place on the DailyMail+ Power List of Top Democrats released last month was just 24th out of 29.

Based on exclusive polling, the Mail's Power List captures public sentiment around likeability, trustworthiness, perceived bias, and knowledge among key figures.

The top five names on the list were all celebrities.

The popularity, or lack thereof, of other longtime Democratic leaders has also been called into question in recent months.

Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer ranked 26th out of 29 high-profile Democrats on the latest DailyMail+ Power List released last month.

Schumer's Senate colleague and Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders took the spot of the top elected official on the list at number six, with Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman coming seventh right behind Sanders.

Data analyzed by the New York Times revealed that the number of registered Democrats has declined in every state that tracks voter affiliation by partya group that includes 30 of America's 50 states.

The remaining 20 states do not register voters by party.

This trend was consistent between swing states, red states, and blue states.

The Times noted in their analysis that explicitly, 'fewer and fewer Americans are choosing to be Democrats.'

The Times attributed Trump's sweeping 2024 victoryincluding wins in every swing state and the national popular voteto this very trend.
Benjamin Netanyahu has today warned that 'anyone who attacks us - we will reach them', following a revenge attack on Houthi training camps in Yemen carried out this afternoon.

Israel's military earlier struck targets across Yemen, including in its capital Sanaa.

Sanaa residents said the attack was on a hideout between two mountains that is used as a command and control headquarters. The extent of any damage was not immediately clear.

Israeli PM Netanyahu said following news of his nation's attack that it was carried out in response to Houthi missiles fired at Ramon Airport two days ago.

The Houthi terror group attacked Israel after the IDF struck Doha, Qatar's capital, in an attempt to kill Hamas negotiators in the city.

Netanyahu boasted in a video posted to social media: 'This did not weaken our hand - we struck them again from the air today, at their terror facilities, at terror bases with a great many terrorists, and also at other facilities.

'We will continue to strike. Anyone who strikes us, anyone who attacks us - we will reach them.'

Israeli army radio said that among the targets of the attack were the Houthi headquarters and military camps.

'A short while ago, the IAF (Israeli air force) struck military targets belonging to the Houthi terrorist regime in the areas of Sanaa and Al-Jawf in Yemen,' a military statement said.

Smoke billows following an Israeli airstrike in Sanaa, Yemen, September 10, 2025

Smoke billows after Israeli strikes on Yemen's Houthi-held capital Sanaa on September 10, 2025

Sanaa residents said the attack was on a hideout between two mountains that is used as a command and control headquarters

Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that 'anyone who attacks us - we will reach them', following a revenge attack on Houthi training camps in Yemen

It added that the targets included 'military camps in which operatives of the terrorist regime were identified, the Houthi's military public relations headquarters and a fuel storage facility that was used by the terrorist regime'.

The strikes are the latest in more than a year of attacks and counterstrikes between Israel and Houthi militants in Yemen, part of a spillover from the war in Gaza.

The Iran-aligned Houthis have attacked vessels in the Red Sea in what they describe as acts of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.

They have also fired missiles towards Israel, most of which have been intercepted. Israel has responded with strikes on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, including the vital Hodeidah port.

It comes just a day after Israel targeted Hamas negotiators in the middle of Qatar's capital city, Doha.

In a move widely condemned across the world, Israeli military planes flew 1,500 miles and penetrated Qatar's airspace, with several blasts being heard in the capital Doha on Tuesday.

A residential building where the Hamas group was staying was struck many times, sending smoke billowing into the sky.

Hamas said five of its members, including the son of leader Khalil al-Hayya, were killed in the airstrikes. A member of the Qatari security services also died.

The terrorist group added that Israel had failed to 'assassinate' any of its leadership - and said it was holding the United States 'jointly responsible' for the attack.

In response, the Houthis fired a ballistic missile into Israel - with the IDF saying on Tuesday evening its defence systems were 'operating to intercept' a strike.

Qatar's prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said the US warned his country of Israel's attack ten minutes after it began.

He also said his country 'reserves the right' to respond to Israel's 'blatant attack', which is a 'pivotal moment' for the region.

Even Donald Trump issued a rare rebuke against Israel for carrying out the attack, with the White House admitting the US President felt 'very bad' about the attack.

Smoke rises from an explosion caused by an Israeli strike, in Doha, Qatar

This frame grab taken from an AFPTV footage shows smoke billowing after explosions in Doha, Qatar on September 9, 2025

A damaged building, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders, according to an Israeli official, in Doha, Qatar, September 9

Your browser does not support iframes.

Trump said on Tuesday night the US military informed his administration that Israel was attacking Qatar.

He posted: 'I immediately directed special envoy Steve Witkoff to inform the Qataris of the impending attack, which he did, however, unfortunately, too late to stop the attack.

'I view Qatar as a strong ally and friend and feel very badly about the location of the attack. I want ALL of the hostages, and bodies of the dead, released, and this War to END, NOW!'

Israel's president told the Mail last night that the IDF targeted Khalil al-Hayya because he 'kept saying "Yes, but" in negotiation' to bring about the end of the war in Gaza.

'He is number one in Hamas and has the blood of thousands of Israelis on his hands,' the president said ahead of a summit with Sir Keir Starmer in London today.

More to follow.
Donald Trump wrote 'Here we go!' in a foreboding message as he reacted to NATO members shooting down Russian drones violating Polish airspace overnight.

'What's with Russia violating Poland's airspace with drones?' he asked rhetorically on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday. 'Here we go!'

Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said today that Poland had identified 19 violations and shot down at least three drones overnight, blaming Russia.

'There is no doubt that this provocation is incomparably more dangerous from Poland's point of view than any previous ones,' he said.

'This situation brings us all closer to open conflict, closer than at any time since the Second World War.'

Poland invoked NATO's Article 4, under which any member can call urgent talks when it feels its 'territorial integrity, political independence or security' are at risk.

Russia denied responsibility, before its defence ministry said it was 'ready' for talks with Poland over what it called the 'alleged' drone incursion.

The military said it had 'no plans to target facilities in Poland', while stopping short of an outright denial. It offered to hold 'consultations' with Poland's defence ministry.

US President Donald Trump in Washington on September 9, 2025

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Police secure parts of a damaged UAV shot down by Polish authorities at a site in Wohyn, Poland, Wednesday, September 10, 2025

Photos show the extent of damage to a house in Poland after Putin's drones were flown in

What is Article 4?

Article 4 states that members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territory, political independence or security of any of them is threatened. Under Article 4, discussions at the North Atlantic Council - NATO's principal political decision-making body - could potentially lead to some form of joint decision or action. Since NATO's creation in 1949, Article 4 has been invoked seven times, most recently in February 2022 when Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia sought consultations following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. NATO ambassadors in November 2022 held an emergency meeting after a missile strike killed two people in Poland and raised global alarm that the war could spill into neighbouring countries. Advertisement

Against Russia's rebuttal, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that the airspace violation was a 'dangerous precedent' for Europe, saying it was 'no accident'.

He brandished the incursion, which damaged a house and a car, an attempt to 'humiliate' Poland, and called for a strong response from NATO.

'Russia must feel that the response to this escalatory step, and even more so to an attempt to humiliate one of Europe's key countries, will be clear and strong from all partners,' Zelensky said.

Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski also said on Wednesday that the intrusion was 'not an accidental event'.

'We have no doubt that this was not an accidental event,' Sikorski told reporters.

'We are dealing with an unprecedented case of an attack not only on Poland's territory but also on the territory of NATO and the European Union,' he added.

Sikorski said that Russian drones had veered into Polish airspace before, but said this situation was different.

'When one or two drones do it, it is possible that it was a technical malfunction,' he said.

'But as I told you, in this case, there were 19 breaches, and it simply defies imagination that that could be accidental.'

Russia's defence ministry denied targeting Poland and its foreign ministry accused Warsaw of spreading 'myths' to escalate the war in Ukraine.

The military said 'there had been no plans to target facilities on the territory of Poland'.

The Russian embassy in Warsaw separately told AFP that 'Poland has failed to provide evidence of the Russian origin of the objects that entered Polish airspace'.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: 'We wouldn't like to comment on this.

'This is not for us to do so. It's a matter for the [Russian] defence ministry.'

Multiple Russian drones moving from Ukrainian airspace into Poland

Fragments of the drone are seen in the village of Wohyn in eastern Poland

US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting on religious liberty in education at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, on September 8, 2025

Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Wednesday, September 10

Poland has nonetheless called on its allies for support. While Tusk said he appreciates expressions of solidarity, he said 'the words are not enough'.

Poland will request 'much greater' support from its allies, he said, writing on X: 'Actions speak louder than words.'

The shape support could take is not yet clear. Britain's defence secretary said that he has asked the UK Armed Forces to 'look at options to bolster NATO's air defence over Poland'.

John Healey said the incursion took Russia's aggression to 'a new level of hostility'.

European partners on the continent have responded sharply to Russia's 'recklessness'.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz condemned Russia for sending drones into NATO member Poland in a 'reckless action' that he said had threatened lives.

'Russia has endangered human lives in a state that is a member of NATO and the EU,' Merz said in a statement.

'This reckless action is part of a long chain of provocations in the Baltic Sea region and on NATO's eastern flank. The German government condemns this aggressive Russian action in the strongest possible terms.'

German government spokesman Sebastian Hille earlier said Moscow was 'testing' Ukraine's allies with the violation of Polish airspace, which he called a 'very serious' incident.

Hille said it 'once again shows the threat that we face' and how much Germany and other NATO countries 'are being tested by Russia'.

Defence Minister Boris Pistorius told parliament the drones were 'clearly set on this course' and 'did not have to fly this route to reach Ukraine'.

'There is absolutely no reason to believe that this was a course correction error or anything of the sort,' Pistorius said.

Lithuanian Foreign Affairs Minister Kestutis Budrys told Reuters that Russia's drone incursions into NATO members risks escalating into 'exchange [of] the use of military power against each other', while avoiding the word 'conflict'.

'We have a strong interest - probably the strongest and biggest one - to avoid these scenarios... Scenarios like we are getting in some situations where we exchange the use of military power against each other', he said when asked whether such incidents risk dragging NATO into direct conflict with Russia.

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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney agreed, condemning Russia's incursion as 'reckless and escalatory', and said Ottawa was closely coordinating with its NATO allies.

Carney said in a statement that the incident showed the need to increase pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war on Ukraine.

'We will remain vigilant against Russia's attempts to widen and prolong the conflict with Ukraine. Putin is demonstrating once again his total disregard for the path of peace,' he said.

Mr Tusk said today he had invoked NATO's Article 4 under which any member can call urgent talks when it feels its 'territorial integrity, political independence or security' are at risk - only the eighth time the measure has ever been used.

The incident has pushed tensions with an increasingly emboldened Vladimir Putin into uncharted territory, with NATO chief Mark Rutte vowing that 'we will defend every inch of NATO territory'.

The Polish PM met with top officials after the stand-off and relayed that the drones were shot down in a joint effort with NATO allies. He said that Poland was in communication with allies.

The North Atlantic Council, NATO's main political decision-making body, also changed the format of its weekly meeting on Wednesday, holding it under Article 4 of the alliance treaty.

A cornerstone of the Western military alliance is the principle that an attack on any member is deemed an attack on all.

According to Polish sources, the drones were 'suitably armed', Pistorius said. 'So something could have happened at any time.'

Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Russia had 'carelessly risked a dangerous escalation' with drones entering Polish airspace 'on a significant scale'.

He added: 'Russia must know that NATO is capable of action and that it will react to defend NATO territory.'

Polish television channel TV Republika shared this image of one of the downed drones

The home belongs to an elderly couple, according to local media, who were sleeping inside when the drone struck

Donald Tusk said on X that the drones that 'intruded' on Polish airspace could have posed a threat

Sir Keir Starmer condemned the 'egregious and unprecedented violation of Polish and NATO airspace by Russian drones'.

He said: 'This morning's barbaric attack on Ukraine and the egregious and unprecedented violation of Polish and NATO airspace by Russian drones is deeply concerning.

'This was an extremely reckless move by Russia and only serves to remind us of President Putin's blatant disregard for peace, and the constant bombardment innocent Ukrainians face every day.'

He also said he had been in contact with the Polish leader to offer support.

Poland's interior ministry said today that it had found seven drones and the remains of an unidentified object in sites across the country.
The suspect in the brutal murder of a beloved college professor was previously charged with a gun-related felony, but soft prosecutors let himserve just 60 days in jail, it has been revealed.

Harold Rashad Dabney III, 26, the alleged killer of veterinarian professor Dr. Julie Gard Schnuelle, 59, in Auburn, Alabama, was previously arrested in December 2023 in Virginia on gun charges.

According to an arrest warrant first shared by Fox News, Dabney was homeless at the time when cops were called to reports of him trespassing in a business parking lot in Virginia Beach.

Dabney was caught sleeping in the driver's seat of a car and told an officer he was 'f***ed up' before refusing to say anything more.

When the officer searched the car, they found a handgun under the driver's seat with its serial number removed, a sawed-off shotgun in the backseat, and white pills, the arrest affidavit said.

He was charged with felony possession or use of a shotgun and misdemeanor removing or altering serial number or other identification on a firearm, unlawfully carrying a concealed weapon, public intoxication, and trespassing.

According to court records, the alleged would-be killer was handed a lenient deal where he pleaded guilty to several misdemeanors if prosecutors dropped the felony charge, which would have resulted in a prison sentence of two-to-10 years if convicted.

He was instead handed a sentence of 12 months unsupervised probation and 60 days behind bars, which would have ended nine months before he allegedly killed Schnuelle this month.

The prosecutor in charge of Virginia Beach at the time that Dabney was let free on felony gun charges was Virginia Beach Commonwealth's Attorney Colin Stolle, a Republican.

In a statement to the Daily Mail, Stolle's office said that Dabney's felony charge of Possession of a Sawed-Off Shotgun 'didnt meet the statutory requirements because the barrel length was determined to be within the legal requirements; therefore, we were prohibited from being able to proceed on that charge.'

Harold Rashad Dabney III, 26, the suspect in the brutal murder of a beloved college professor, was previously charged with a gun-related felony but soft prosecutors let him avoid jail time in 2023, it has been revealed

Schneulle was walking her dog in Kiesel Park in Auburn when Dabney allegedly dragged her several hundred yards into the woods and stabbed her multiple times

The prosecutor in charge of Virginia Beach at the time that Dabney was let free on felony gun charges was Virginia Beach Commonwealth's Attorney Colin Stolle, a Republican

The shocking revelation about Dabney's past comes amid national furor over the killing of Iryna Zarutska at the hands of another criminal with a huge rap sheet, Decarlos Brown Jr, in North Carolina.

Schnuelle was a professor emerita at Auburn University's College of Veterinary Medicine from 2003 until her retirement in 2021.

In grisly details released by cops, officials said that Schneulle was walking her dog in Kiesel Park in Auburn when Dabney allegedly dragged her several hundred yards into the woods and stabbed her multiple times.

Dabney, 28, has now been charged with two counts of capital murder  murder during a kidnapping and murder during a robbery.

He was arrested the next day around 8:30am after cops received reports of a 'suspicious person' in the area.

Officers said they 'made observations that led them to believe Dabney had involvement with the homicide' of Schnuelle the day prior.

Dabney also allegedly stole Schnuelle's Ford F-150 truck during the killing.

Dabney was arrested Sunday afternoon and made his first appearance in court on Monday. He is being held in Lee County Jail without bond, and if convicted he faces the possibility of the death penalty.

Schnuelle (center) is survived by her husband Archie and her children, and was described as 'amazing' and a 'force' to be reckoned with by her former students

Schnuelle was killed in broad daylight near the 500 block of Chadwick Lane (pictured)

Dr. Julie Gard Schnuelle, 59, (left), a professor emerita at Auburn University's College of Veterinary Medicine from 2003 until her retirement in 2021, was allegedly killed by Dabney in a park in Auburn on Saturday

The coroner pronounced Schnuelle dead at the scene, with investigators yet to offer a motive for the killing.

It is also unclear if Dabney personally knew Schnuelle  who is understood to have visited the park daily  or if he targeted her at random.

Auburn University's Department of Clinical Sciences released a statement Sunday morning confirming Schnuelle's death, describing her as 'a beloved member' of the faculty.

'Auburn sends our sincere condolences to the family and loved ones of Dr. Gard Schnuelle during this unimaginably difficult time.'

The late veterinarian has been hailed for her 'welcoming' personality and dedication to her students.

'She was spunky and ready to make jokes. But if she saw something she didn't like, she would always stand up for you and for herself,'; her former student Dr. Ashley Rutter told AL.com.

'She'd be there to defend you and help you out.'

A former student of Schnuelle's described her as 'such a bright, bright light, just an all-around wonderful human being that is going to be missed terribly'

Another former student told the news outlet Schnuelle was 'amazing' and a 'force' to be reckoned with, despite being relatively small in stature.

'She was only a little bit over 5-foot-2, not your typical large animal veterinarian,' Destinee Bearden Patterson said. 'She was a force in this world, such a bright, bright light, just an all-around wonderful human being that is going to be missed terribly.'

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a Republican from Alabama, and his wife also offered their condolences to Schnuelle's loved ones.

'Suzanne and I are devastated by the news of this tragic loss in our community,' he wrote on X. 'We are praying for the victim's family and loved ones and for justice to be served.'

Schnuelle is survived by her husband Archie, a licensed marriage and family therapist, and her children.
Corruption in Scotlands jails is helping organised crime gangs get drugs to inmates, prison chiefs have warned.

Officials from the Scottish Prison Service said corruption is a known 'method of entry to help gangs get illicit substances to prisoners.

It was also revealed that legislation is being considered to introduce no fly zones above jails in Scotland in order to help tackle the problem of drugs being flown in using drones.

It follows concerns about soaring drug use in Scotlands jails, with thousands of cases identified in recent years.

Asked about the problem of coercion of prison staff and financial benefits for workers helping get drugs into prison at Holyroods criminal justice committee yesterday,

Jim Smith, head of operation and public protection at the Scottish Prison Service, said all staff members are given a briefing on an anti-corruption policy and are encouraged to report on colleagues if they suspect they are becoming corrupted.

He said: Corruption is an issue within the Scottish Prison Service, just as it is in any prison service or any workforce.

With the influence of serious organised crime groups, this is becoming what seems to be a real method of entry for commodity to come into prisons in recent years.

Corruption is a known method of entry to help gangs get illicit substances to prisoners

Jim Smith from the Scottish Prison Service said corruption is a problem in jails

We are working really, really hard both internally and with police colleagues to address that.

He also said that work is being done with the Scottish Government to change legislation to bring about misconduct in public office offences for those involved in corruption.

Gillian Walker, governor in charge of HMS Shotts said a very small percentage of staff will be involved and that individuals will approach staff regularly.

In a freedom of information response last month, the Scottish Prison Service confirmed that the number of inmates who were caught with drugs increased from 1,448 in 2022 to a high of 2,212 last year, which was also up from 2023 when there were 2,188 incidents reported.

SPS chief executive Teresa Medhurst previously told MSPs in a submission that there had been an increase in the use of technology, such as drones to get drugs to prisoners.

During yesterdays meeting, police chiefs and prison bosses both raised the prospect of new legislation to introduce no fly zones above jails to tackle the problem.

Plans to introduce no fly zones over jails are being considered to tackle illicit drug deliveries

Anti-drone no fly zones were introduced in England and Wales last year, which makes it an automatic offence to fly drones within 400 metres of prisons and young offender institutions.

Drone operators who break the rules will be fined up to 2,500 while those smuggling illicit items which drive violence and criminality in custody may face up to a decade behind bars.

Mr Smith said: We are currently working with Scottish Government officials to bring about that legislation change.

As you may be aware it is a reserved matter, so they are working with UK colleagues to bring about that change in legislation which would give us yet another tool to try to detect drones coming into establishments with that no-fly zone, and give police more powers to report people for prosecution if they are flying within that airspace.

Detective Chief Superintendent Raymond Higgins, of Police Scotland, said: My view is yes it would be helpful as a part of a suite of options to look to try to disrupt that type of activity.

He said the key is learning how it has worked south of the border and how it should be administers, but said he would definitely support the principle.

Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: 'The SNP have miserably failed to tackle soaring drug use in Scotlands prisons and it is clear organised crime gangs profit from creating misery.

'It is deeply alarming to hear parliament committee evidence suggesting prison staff are vulnerable to these gangs.

'This sort of activity is a major factor in Scotlands record drug death toll and it is clear gangs know they wont be properly punished by the SNPs soft-touch justice system.'

The Scottish Government said officials have recently contacted the Ministry of Justice and Civil Aviation Authority about the possible introduction of no-fly zones.
An Al-Qaeda chief linked to the July 7 terror attacks and once represented by Lord Hermer could be freed from prison in weeks.

Rangzieb Ahmed, Al-Qaeda's leader in Britain, has a fresh Parole Board hearing where he will tell officials he is a changed man and should be released.

Ahmed was jailed in 2008 for plotting carnage across Britain and was also linked to the London 7/7 bombers. He was sentenced to life with a minimum of ten years.

Ahmed - the first member of Al-Qaeda to be convicted of directing terrorism in the UK - was also connected to the failed London bomb plot two weeks later.

He is thought to have links to every major British terror cell and was heard boasting of meeting the brains behind 9/11.

A spokesperson for the Parole Board said his hearing would be held orally, with no date set.

Experts will analyse his case and decide whether to release him, direct to a full hearing or block release. He was last turned down for parole last year.

It was reported that Attorney General Lord Hermer fought for compensation for the terrorist. He tried to sue the government for alleged torture by Pakistan but the bid failed.

Rochdale-born Muslim Rangzieb Ahmed was jailed for life with a minimum of 10 years in 2008 for heading a three-man al-Qaeda cell planning mass attacks

The terror chief (pictured) could be freed from prison in weeks after the Parole Board confirmed he will have another hearing

Lord Hermer acted for Ahmed in a High Court case in 2020 when he was still in private practice at Matrix Chambers.

The defendants in the case comprised the Security Service, the Secret Intelligence Service, the Home Office, the Foreign Office, the Attorney General's Office and Greater Manchester Police.

Ahmed has been refused parole a number of times previously. In September 2022, he was denied Parole after officials decided he was too dangerous to be released.

A year later, he was ordered to take part in a deradicalisation programme. Another bid for freedom was blocked in 2024 when parole chiefs found he was still a risk to the public.

A source said: 'Just a year ago, he was found to have been too dangerous to the public for him to be released. This is a very warped individual. He has been hellbent on death and destruction.'

Ahmed was denied parole last year after the Board found it was likely he was still 'susceptible to indoctrination' and could reoffend if released onto the streets.

A report said at the time: 'Having considered the index offence, past behaviour and the other evidence before it, the panel listed as risk factors those influences which made it more likely that Mr Ahmed would reoffend.

'The sentencing Judge had found that Mr Ahmed was dedicated to the cause of Islamic Terrorism, with Mr Ahmed believing it was his religious duty to do so.'

Attorney General Lord Hermer (pictured) fought for compensation for the terrorist. He tried to sue the government for alleged torture by Pakistan but the bid failed

The finding continued: 'At the time of his offending, the panel considered Mr Ahmed's risk factors to include his need to redress injustice, a need to defend against threats and Mr Ahmed's need for identity, meaning and belonging.

'He had a need for status and excitement and a need to dominate others.

'Mr Ahmed was considered to be susceptible to indoctrination and held views that justified offending.

'The panel also considered his interpretations of his faith to be an additional risk factor.'
No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear, mused C S Lewis, in 1961, months after losing his wife.

I am not afraid, said the author of the Chronicles of Narnia, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning. I keep on swallowing

And racked, too, by the odd thought that, were he able to search all the cosmos  out to the farthest galaxies; spinning by the smallest stars  he would find his Joy nowhere.

Love had come late for Clive Staples Lewis and Joy Davidman  they had met only in 1952  and, as the saying goes, the man who loves too late loves too much.

The bond with a parent, of course, is different. Youre stuck with each other. My late father used to crack  it was, of course, an era when husbands did not attend the birth  that, when he was at last graciously allowed into the old Raigmore Hospital in Inverness to see his firstborn  and but through a window  they showed him the wrong one.

John, that baby had a head like a bullet And the shoulders would heave in what might have been a joke. Though you were never quite sure.

It was always an uneasy, off-balance relationship. We were too alike and, unlike my brothers, I had always the sense not to let him into my head.

Yet when, in January 2019, the diagnosis came, I based myself with my parents in Edinburgh because it seemed the right thing to do and because I generally get on like a storm with my mother.

John MacLeod has spoken of the emotional strain of his father's decline prior to his death

Years ensued of warmth, myth, merriment and practicality; also of huffs, demands, tantrums, rages, the flinging of objects and sustained abuse of the mobile phone.

He'd always been apt to catastrophise. A spill in the fridge was a disaster. An article Id once drafted about the Free Church could destroy me. One evening, he confided: Im worrying about our Angus. I think hes turning out to be a playboy.

My little brother was then ten. And then there was the hearing-loss Daddy, to the last majestically denying that he had.

He would increasingly lip-read, unaware he was doing it, and sometimes with darkly funny consequence. Like the morning in his theology class  and he was still lecturing as late as October 2022  when a young divine asked if the clover was a good metaphor for the Trinity, and my bewildered parent thought he had said cleaver.

That was the month the tide turned: Daddy was briefly hospitalised, for the last time, and was never well again. There were no more lectures; no more preaching.

He had, as is now evident in the rear-view mirror, started to die. There was less and less laughter, increasing withdrawal and more and more totally pointless conflict.

Conversations that went pear-shaped because, increasingly, he could not hear. Bit by bit, week by week, he ate ever less and complained ever more.

Still we humoured him, as if tending a baby. I have this awful recurring memory of my tiny mother, four years his senior, hauling herself upstairs by the banister to wait upon the latest rantage.

Sleep became precious. Especially his. When he was awake, there was usually trouble  the nights at oh-gosh oclock when I was summoned to administer morphine.

We had by then enough in the house to knock out all Morningside and, besides, the Scottish Government. It came with a double-ended spoon  5ml, 10ml options  and one night at around three in the morning he screamed I was filling the wrong end.

Reader, I threw it at him. He gazed back, hurt, childlike, with this terrifying vacant expression.

Spring would come, and the warm weather, and hed be made up  we told each other  but spring and the sunshine and the daffodils came, and the decline continued.

One day he demanded a certain medicine, a tranquilliser  I recall it with a shudder because I had to sprint a mile, and largely uphill, to the decreed pharmacy, and in May 2023 I was briefly a martyr to plantar fasciitis  and, having secured it, he squirrelled it away and would tell no one where it was.

The Saturday following he was a hovering jangle of nerves and I asked if hed taken that pill. My father lost it. Raved and screamed and cursed me for the day of my own old age; tottered, wraith-like, to his study, and slammed the door.

I could take no more. Calmly I put my mobile on the sideboard, left the house, hopped in the car, and wandered woods for an age for just two or three hours when he could not get me.

By the Saturday following he was off his feet. He never walked again and, scarce a fortnight later, he was gone.

Amidst exhaustion, anguish, decreeing embalming  and that and in a house where I kept tripping over ministers  Id be lying if I didnt admit that, amidst the churn of so much emotion, there was an iced splinter of relief.

The haunting began, even as we readied to leave the family home of four decades we had never actually owned. I poured away the morphine; made grim runs to supermarket car parks to decant his socks and that into Salvation Army skips.

Doors would open by themselves. Lights flickered, now and then. Once, heading out the road, I heard him  clear as a bell  call my name.

Author C S Lewis said 'grief felt so like fear' following the death of his wife Joy Davidman

On a brief sortie to Lewis, I grew scared to venture out in the dark  glancing fearfully northwards, over desolate moors, in the direction of his grave.

And one brilliant morning, I saw his face in the clouds, even as the Hebrides Haulage van rolled in with boxes of his stuff. They sit yet, most unopened, all over the house.

But my mother made new and most happy shift for herself in Glasgow  in final serenity, reading six books a week, two papers a day, terrifyingly more informed than I am  and, just in May there, I got to spend a week with her.

Of a calm Sabbath evening I went for an amble through old G13 haunts and fetched up  I am not quite sure why  at Scotstounhill station.

In our last months in Glasgow, in Thatchers first term, Id head there after school to meet him off the train, hotfoot home from Edinburgh after another day of classes in the Free Church College.

A theologian, he disagreed vehemently with C S Lewis. My father was adamant that Heaven is a physical place  as, indeed, is the alternative  actually out there, if light years beyond us while we breathe.

I stood now, on the platform, for an age, gawping towards Garscadden or back to Jordanhill  and I suddenly grasped, body and soul, Daddy would come no more for ever.

I turned home for Kelvin Court, newly light of step, his laughter a mist in my ears.
A rogue surgeon who fled Scotland after seriously harming his patients in a series of botched operations has snubbed the inquiry investigating him.

Sam Eljamel, who was head of neurosurgery at Dundees Ninewells Hospital, harmed dozens of patients and left some with life-changing injuries.

The disgraced surgeon was suspended in December 2013, resigned from NHS Tayside the following year, and then removed his own name from the medical register in 2015.

He is now back in his native Libya, where he continues to operate on patients at hospitals which promote his work on social media.

However, at the beginning of an inquiry into his actions yesterday, it emerged the shamed medic and hospitals he works for in the African nation have ignored repeated attempts to contact him.

Jamie Dawson KC, senior counsel at the Eljamel Inquiry, warned that it was inevitable the Edinburgh-based probe would contain substantial criticism of the surgeon but all efforts to contact him have been to no avail.

The lawyer said: The inquiry has already made efforts to locate Mr Eljamel since it was set up.

The inquiry received information that Mr Eljamel was working in a hospital-based role in Misrata, Libya, though it was not clear which hospital or hospitals.

At least 200 patients allege they were harmed by surgeries carried out by Mr Eljamel, above

The shamed medic carried out thousands of operations over 18 years at NHS Tayside before he was suspended and later removed himself from the medical register

The inquiry attempted telephone contact with the largest hospital in Misrata, the Misrata Medical Centre, and contacted it by email in April and again in May of this year seeking information about how to get in contact with them without success or reply.

Further information received by the inquiry suggested that Mr Eljamel may be working in a hospital called Al Nada hospital.

Further investigation suggested that there was a hospital of that name in Misrata, Libya, which claimed to specialise in, amongst other things, neurosurgery, spine surgery and chronic pain.

The KC, who rose to prominence at the UK Covid-19 Inquiry while grilling former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, said a letter had been sent on May 28 informing the medic of the inquiry process and seeking details of any contact details and legal representation through various tracked methods but no reply had been received.

Another email to the hospital was made in July, which the inquiry also did not get a response to.

The inquiry cannot force Mr Eljamel to give evidence if he is not living in the UK and has no power to make findings of criminality.

But the once revered surgeon is subject to a Police Scotland investigation into his conduct, named Operation Stringent, which was launched in 2018.

Joanna Cherry KC, representing some patients who were harmed by the surgeon, said that most of those she represented had suffered serious mental health consequences which included post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal ideation.

Protesters and victims, including Jules Rose, demonstrated on opening day of the Eljamel Inquiry. The shamed medic removed one of Ms Rose's tear ducts instead of a brain tumour

She also raised concerns over potential issues with the accuracy of medical records.

She said: Its an issue of concern to many in the patient group who have become aware, down through the many years, that their medical records may be incomplete or that they may even have been falsified.

Ms Cherry also said that the patient group had little to no confidence in NHS Tayside as she called for any psychological support offered to the group be offered by an independent party.

An Independent Clinical Review was set up by the Scottish Government and is running alongside the inquiry. Both KCs raised concerns about it.

Ms Cherry said: Im sorry to say that we have found the approach of the government to the whole matter obtuse.

The failure of the Scottish Government to resolve these issues jeopardises both processes and will cause unnecessary stress and trauma to the patient group if its not sorted out without further delay.

Before the hearing began yesterday NHS Tayside apologised for adding to patients trauma with the way it handled concerns over the brain surgeon.

Dr James Cotton, executive director of the health board, said in a statement: We know that many people have experienced considerable distress as patients of Mr Eljamel and we understand that in many cases we have added to that trauma in the way that we have handled ongoing complaints and concerns.

We are sincerely sorry for this.

The inquiry, which will examine his appointments between 1995 and 2014 and how NHS Tayside responded when concerns were raised about his practice, will resume in November.
A convicted paedophile who was branded the Beast of the Belltower sexually abused two young boys five decades ago while working at a notorious childrens home.

John Porteous, 92, was deemed unfit to be criminally tried or to appear in court in relation to the charges, following independent medical assessment.

After an examination of the facts at Greenock Sheriff Court, he was found to have targeted the victims between 1966 and 1972 while working as a houseparent at Quarriers Village near Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire.

Two charges - one of indecent assault and another of lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour - were found to be established, the Crown Office said.

His name has now been added to the sex offenders register for five years.

Porteous was previously convicted of sexually abusing two boys at Quarriers in the 1960s and 1970s following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow in 2002.

He was jailed for eight years but the sentence was later cut to five years on appeal.

Porteous, who later gave evidence to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI), never admitted his crimes and continued to protest his innocence while in jail.

Porteous was found to have targeted the victims between 1966 and 1972 while working as a houseparent at Quarriers Village near Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire

David Wheelan, who was abused by Porteous, told the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry in 2018 that he believed a paedophile ring may have been based at the home

Commenting on the courts latest findings, one of Porteouss victims, David Whelan, a campaigner for the rights of victims of institutional abuse, said: There can be no doubt whatsoever that John Porteous is a convicted paedophile and that he abused children in his care while an employee of Quarriers.

This is despite his and the Porteous familys repeated denials that he abused any child, including when he appeared in person at the SCAI.

Those who supported this convicted paedophile over the years should hang their heads in shame.

On escaping from Quarriers at the age of 16, Mr Whelan began a successful events business.

He buried his memories of the abuse - until a phone call from Porteouss wife Helen, asking him to be a character witness for his Uncle John when he was under police investigation.

His brave decision to tell the truth instead led to the biggest police investigation into child abuse in Scotland.

Mr Whelan, 67, who was sexually abused in a church belltower before Sunday service, told the SCAI in 2018 that he believed a paedophile ring may have been based at the home.

Back in 2021, it emerged at the SCAI that Porteous had refused to apologise to Mr Whelan, and even boasted to the inquiry about stringent child protection measures at Quarriers.

The SCAI was told Quarriers kept children in conditions likened to a prison camp.

The SCAI, chaired by Lady Smith, was told Quarriers kept children in conditions likened to a prison camp

Porteous worked as a houseparent at Quarriers Village near Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire

Victims of child abuse voiced their fury back in 2021 after Quarriers, which had an annual income of more than 40million at the time, refused to pay into a compensation fund.

Procurator fiscal Anne Marie Hicks, of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), said: The COPFS consistently strives to secure justice for those affected by abuse.

John Porteous exploited his position of authority at the Quarriers Village to sexually abuse vulnerable young boys.

This examination of facts is a public airing of the evidence and an acknowledgement that what happened to these children in the past was criminal. It should never have happened.

It is now a matter of public record that Porteous committed these offences.

The courts finding also sends a clear message to abusers: no matter who you are, when the abuse happened or how long after the event it is reported, there will be a robust response from Scotlands prosecutors.

The court had previously determined Porteous was not fit to stand trial and ordered an examination of facts, where the procurator fiscal depute and the defence led evidence which was tested before a sheriff.

Ms Hicks added: To any victim of similar offending, we urge you to report it when you feel ready and able to do so.

Be assured you will be listened to and supported by our staff.

We remain committed to investigating and pursuing those responsible for these types of offences.

A Quarriers spokesperson said: We would like to reiterate our unreserved apology to people who suffered abuse while in our care. We also acknowledge the courage of those who came forward in this instance to share their story.

Quarriers remains committed to supporting former residents and continues to work with the survivor community to ensure people who have experienced abuse can access high quality support and aftercare.
A secret memo in which Lord Mandelson urged then-prime minister Sir Tony Blair to meet Jeffrey Epstein has been kept under wraps by officials, it's claimed.

The note, believed to have been written in May 2002 when Mandelson was a Labour backbencher, supposedly advised Blair that a meeting with the financier would be 'safe' and useful given his network of business contacts.

Blair's aides were shown the message and passed it to the prime minister, though it is not known if any meeting took place.

Under the 20-year rule, the document and a civil service summary were due to be released this summer by the National Archives. Instead, it's claimed, they were pulled at the last minute.

The Times reports that an exemption was applied on the grounds that disclosure could harm Britain's international relations, particularly with the United States.

The revelation comes as Mandelson, now serving as Britain's ambassador in Washington, faces renewed scrutiny over his long-running ties to Epstein.

Donald Trump has also faced questions about his past association with the disgraced financier.

Lord Mandelson (right) advised then-PM Tony Blair to meet Jeffrey Epstein in 2002, it is claimed

Mandelson says he regrets his relationship with Epstein and insists he never had any business dealings with the disgraced financier

Sir Keir Starmer is standing by Mandelson, saying he is 'playing an important role' as US ambassador

Sir Keir Starmer has defended his appointment of Mandelson, telling MPs he retained 'full confidence' in him, adding: 'He is playing an important role in the UK-US relationship.'

He would not commit to publishing all of Lord Mandelson's correspondence with Epstein, insisting they were subject to an independent process.

Fresh pressure followed the release in America of Epstein's 2003 'birthday book', in which Lord Mandelson described him as his 'best pal' and praised his 'glorious homes'.

The peer has since called the message 'embarrassing', admitted his relationship with Epstein went on 'too long' and said he had been deceived.

Epstein was first convicted of soliciting girls as young as 14 for prostitution in 2008 and died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Three Scots brothers who set a new record for sailing from Peru to Australia have arrived home to find out they have hit the 1 million mark in donations.

Ewan, Jamie and Lachlan Maclean, from Edinburgh, sailed for 139 days across 9,000 miles of the Pacific Ocean.

The trio took on the challenge unsupported and took enough food and supplies on board with them to last the duration of the trip.

After arriving home in Scotland on Wednesday, the brothers announced they have reached their 1 million target, with the money funding their charity the Maclean Foundations work to provide clean water for around 40,000 people in Madagascar.

The brothers have received more than 14,000 donations, with their campaign bolstered by a number of celebrity endorsements, including from Ewan McGregor, Sam Heughan, Ally McCoist, Mark Wahlberg, Lorraine Kelly and Anna Campbell Jones.

Nearly 60,000 was donated in the final 24 hours before they landed in Scotland, and the 1 million target was passed at around 8am on Wednesday when Cairngorm Coffee, run by the brothers cousin Robie Lambie, added 1,500 raised through sales of its limited-edition Sweet Valley coffee.

Ewan, Jamie and Lachlan Maclean sailed for 139 days across 9,000 miles of the Pacific Ocean

Lachlan and Jamie pose with their father Charlie after arriving home to a hero's welcome

Ewan McGregor was one of the celebrities who spoke with the brothers during their trip

Middle brother Jamie, 31, said: We are blown away by the way people who have rallied behind us, not just here in Scotland but from all over the world. The support at every stage of this journey has been incredible.

To come home having reached 1 million is something we never imagined when we first set out. Knowing that this will change 40,000 lives with access to clean, safe water is the greatest reward we could have asked for.

Youngest brother Lachlan, who turned 27 while at sea, added: This feels truly monumental. We are deeply grateful to every single person who has backed us.

Access to clean water is a basic human need, yet for so many communities in rural Madagascar it remains out of reach.

To know that 40,000 people will now have safe water for life is life-changing. It makes every mile we rowed worth it, and we couldnt be prouder of what this support will achieve.

We are so grateful to all the friends and family who came out to see us in at Cairns Marlin Marina (Australia) just over one week ago, and are so pleased to be back home in Edinburgh with those who werent able to make it out, including our dad, who we started this charity alongside.

Wahlberg has told the brothers he wants to play all three of them in a movie about their journey.

While in the middle of the Pacific, Jamie played the bagpipes virtually with the All-American Rejects and to McGregor.

Donations can still be made at https://www.themacleanbrothers.com
There was no red carpet for Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Downing Street this afternoon as he arrived for talks with Sir Keir Starmer.

The Prime Minister greeted Mr Herzog outside No10 just hours after he had condemned Israel's bombing of Hamas leaders in Qatar.

As he walked along Downing Street, the Israeli President ignored shouted questions about whether his country was ruining the chances of a Middle East peace deal.

He also remained silent when asked by reporters about whether Israel was overseeing a genocide in Gaza.

Sir Keir's meeting with Mr Herzog was controversial even before Israel targeted top Hamas figures in Doha on Tuesday, as they gathered to discuss a US ceasefire plan.

The PM, who had been urged by some Labour MPs not to meet with the Israeli President during his UK visit, appeared stony-faced in pictures of the No10 talks.

Sir Keir had been told by some in his party not to meet Mr Herzog in order to avoid the risk of being complicit in the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

His discussions with the Israeli President lasted only around half an hour.

A red smoke canister was thrown by a protester towards the Israeli President's convoy of vehicles as it left Downing Street.

Police were seen detaining a person and removing the smoke canister after the convoy continued down Whitehall.

There was no red carpet for Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Downing Street this afternoon as he arrived for talks with Sir Keir Starmer

The PM, who had been urged by some Labour MPs not to meet with the Israeli President during his UK visit, appeared stony-faced in pictures of the No10 talks

Sir Keir's discussions with the Israeli President - which lasted only around half an hour - came just hours after he used PMQs to condemn Israel's bombing of Hamas leaders in Qatar

Mr Herzog said he had a 'frank' and 'tough' discussion with Sir Keir.

Speaking at an event hosted by Chatham House, the Israeli President said: 'It was a meeting between allies, but it was a tough meeting.'

'Things were said that were tough and strong and clearly we can argue, because when allies meet they can argue.

'We are both democracies, we both understand the threat from the jihadists.

'The Prime Minister reiterated, and of course I couldn't agree more, that Hamas is a terror organisation that must be removed.'

Mr Herzog added that he and Sir Keir had discussed 'at length' recognition of a Palestinian state.

The PM has pledged to recognise a Palestinian state ahead of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York later this month, if Israel does not change course.

But the Israeli President said: 'We believe that a unilateral resolution regarding a Palestinian state will be adverse and negatively affect any future process, because it will be dangerous.

'It won't help one Palestinian, one hostage, and can be adversely interpreted by Hamas.'

Mr Herzog also defended his country's strikes on Qatar, saying it was necessary to 'remove some of the people if they are not willing to get a deal'.

'In England, I understand that there is a very strong one streak of thought,' he said.

'But I'm trying to present a different streak to a very decent nation that should listen to that streak.

'For example, Hamas's decision process requires consent. All you need is one person to say no and there's no deal.

'And if you want to move on, you have to remove some of the people if they are not willing to get that deal.'

Sir Keir's talks with Mr Herzog came hours after he used Prime Minister's Questions to hit out at the Doha strikes.

'They violate Qatar's sovereignty, they do nothing to secure the peace that the UK and so many of our allies are committed to,' Sir Keir told the House of Commons.

'I spoke to the Emir of Qatar last night, soon after the attack, to convey our support and solidarity.

'He was crystal clear that notwithstanding the attacks, he will continue to work on a diplomatic solution to achieve a ceasefire and a two-state outcome.

'He and I are on the same mind on this. That is why I met (Palestinian Authority) President (Mahmoud) Abbas on Monday, and why I will meet President Herzog later on today.

'I will be absolutely clear that we condemn Israel's action. I will also be clear that restrictions on aid must be lifted, the offensive in Gaza must stop, and settlement building must cease.

'But, however difficult, the UK will not walk away from a diplomatic solution. We will negotiate and we will strain every sinew, because that is the only way to get the hostages out, to get aid in.'

When Mr Abbas met Sir Keir in No10 on Monday, a red carpet was rolled out in Downing Street.

A red carpet has also been seen in Downing Street for Sir Keir's other recent meetings with national heads of state.

This includes French President Emmanuel Macron, Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelensky, Cyprus' President Nikos Christodoulides, and Indonesia President Prabowo Subianto.

When Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met Sir Keir in No10 on Monday, a red carpet was rolled out in Downing Street

Israel's attack on the soil of Qatar, a US ally, drew widespread international condemnation and risked derailing efforts to end the war in Gaza.

The Israeli military's intensifying incursion on Gaza City, compounding civilian suffering, has also sparked anger.

Sir Keir defended his decision to meet with Mr Herzog against this backdrop, saying calls to shun diplomacy was 'the politics of students'.

The SNP's Westminster leader Stephen Flynn asked at PMQs on Wednesday afternoon: 'The PM will today welcome into his home the man who called for the collective punishment of the Palestinian people

'What does it say of this PM that he will harbour this man whilst children starve?'

Sir Keir replied: 'For the record, we have suspended arms that could be used in Gaza. We have sanctioned extremists, we have suspended trade talks.

'But the point he raised is a very serious one. We all want an outcome that ensures peace, that the hostages get out, that aid gets in under a two-state outcome.

'It is the only way we will get peace in a region that has suffered conflict for a very, very long time. I will not give up on diplomacy. That is the politics of students.'
Editor's note: This piece was published prior to reports of a shooting at a Utah Valley University event involving Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

Say her name.

The legacy media's silence over the savage, unprovoked murder of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska by a violent, mentally unstable man  a repeat offender, well-known to law enforcement  on a North Carolina commuter train is appalling.

Of course, we know why they're ignoring this most inconvenient crime, even if no one will say it. But conservative media will: Zarutska was a white woman and her murderer is a black man.

How else to explain why this three-week-old story, replete with graphic video of the attack, had been suppressed and ignored?

Why else would the New York Times continue to neglect this story? It wasn't in the physical copy of Tuesday's paper and, as of this writing, is not anywhere on their home page.

The right-leaning Wall Street Journal hardly did better. Buried on page 5, their brief coverage in Tuesday's paper ran with this vague, cowardly, needlessly politicized headline: 'Woman's Stabbing Death Becomes MAGA Talking Point.'

MSNBC's useless Jen Psaki, who cried on air (a no-no among journalists  it's not about you) after the Annunciation School Shooting in Minneapolis last month, lead instead, on Tuesday night, with more Jeffrey Epstein.

Over on CNN, professional eunuch Anderson Cooper also declined to cover this crime, one with national implications, on this primetime show.

Perhaps that's been for the best.

The legacy media's silence over the savage, unprovoked murder of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska by a violent, mentally unstable man on a North Carolina commuter train is appalling

We know why the legacy media is ignoring this most inconvenient crime, even if no one will say it. But conservative media will: Zarutska was a white woman and her murderer is a black man

Sample, if you can, this exchange between the insufferable business journalist-turned-moral arbiter Kara Swisher and lefty pundit Van Jones, forced to address this undeniably newsworthy story  'if it bleeds, it leads' exists for a reason  while insisting that the murderer, who seems to mutter 'got that white girl, got that white girl', was most definitely not animated by race.

Swisher: 'Unfortunately, we don't have services that they used to have for mentally ill people'.

Three counterpoints: Said 'lack of services' is the fault of the radical left, who long ago fought court battles to shutter state mental institutions, leaving these people out on the streets.

Two: Why are we assuming the killer is gravely mentally ill?

Brown's mother told the New York Times that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Now a judge has ordered a mental acuity assessment. Let's wait for those results.

But Brown is clearly seen, in this video, sitting behind Zarutska and eyeballing her, assessing how alert she was. We then see him stand up, raise his very long arm, and slice her throat with a knife three times.

Zarutska then looks up at him in disbelief, shock and horror. He quickly hustles off the train  proof, to me, that he was cogent enough to know that he had committed a violent attack, fleeing the scene to avoid arrest.

Mentally ill? That's the left's favorite excuse  except when there's a school shooter. Then they blame guns.

Three: WHY is Swisher talking about the MURDERER? Why is she  and the mainstream media at large  not talking about the victim?

WHY is Swisher (pictured) talking about the MURDERER? Why is she  and the mainstream media at large  not talking about the victim?

Imagine: This young, beautiful blonde living in war-torn Ukraine gets what must have felt like the Golden Ticket: Refugee status in the United States of America.

Free from war. Free from the threat of Russian bombs leveling her town, her home, herself or her loved ones. So she moves to North Carolina, where she gets three jobs: Taking care of the elderly, working at a pizza parlor and caring for animals.

This was a good person with a bright future. Just like Laken Riley, the 22-year-old nursing student raped and strangled to death by a violent illegal  another case ignored by the left.

What would have Iryna Zarutska contributed to her new country? We'll never know.

But sure, CNN, let's talk about the ways in which American society failed the murderer. Oh  and we can't ignore CNN's current headline: 'How the lives of a Ukrainian refugee and a Charlotte man with a criminal history converged in a fatal stabbing'.

Converged? Are you kidding me?

There was zero 'convergence'. The killer spotted her. He had opportunity and potential motive  'killed that white girl'. He slashed her throat three times, leaving her to bleed out and die on a commuter train's dirty floor.

Iryna Zarutska would have been better off staying in Ukraine, and that is saying something. Why won't the media discuss that?

Why won't they truly confront why America has fallen so far, so fast, and why 85 percent of Republicans, according to a recent CBS News/YouGov poll, support Trump's decision to send the National Guard into our most crime-ridden, Democrat-run cities?

Or  and this is the big one  why won't they just admit that if the races had been reversed, that this would be 24/7 media coverage to rival George Floyd?

Brown's mother told the New York Times that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Now a judge has ordered a mental acuity assessment. Let's wait for those results (Brown's various mugshots)

Zarutska moves to North Carolina, where she gets three jobs: Taking care of the elderly, working at a pizza parlor and caring for animals.

We'd be seeing days-long protests in the streets if a white man with a mile-long rap sheet stabbed a young black woman  let's say she was a refugee, working three jobs in hopes of building a full, honest and free life for herself. We'd be subjected to Anderson Cooper, Jen Psaki and their ilk rending their garments nightly?

Just as they did over Jordan Neely, a homeless black man with a history of violence, who died after he was restrained by Marine veteran Daniel Penny in a subway car in May 2023.

Neely  much like the killer here  was well-known to law enforcement and had been kicked out by his own family, so terrified were they of his repeated, violent outbursts.

That same media spent day after day tarring Penny, who defended terrified passengers after Neely made physical and verbal threats against them, as a murderous white supremacist.

Despite their best attempts to poison that jury, 12 New Yorkers rightly acquitted Penny in December 2024.

The intellectual hackery on display is mortifying.

Swisher, back on CNN's assembled brain trust: 'The problem here  I'm guessing the Trump administration was looking for an example. This video was quite disturbing'.

Quite disturbing?

Kara Swisher spends way too much time in padded podcast studios and plush newsrooms, sanding down inconvenient, fact-based, caught-on-video savagery into politesse.

What a fraud. Sure, it's Donald Trump's fault. This is how legacy media thinks it's going to save itself?

They, just like the Democrat party, have truly learned nothing.

To that point, Vi Lyles, the black, female, Democrat mayor of Charlotte, thanked her 'media partners' earlier this week after the video was finally made public after multiple FOIA requests.

Again, this story is nearly three weeks old. The public murder of Iryna Zarutska on August 22, caught on the train's surveillance cameras  which belong to the taxpayers of North Carolina  had been suppressed for two weeks.

Vi Lyles (pictured), the black, female, Democrat mayor of Charlotte, thanked her 'media partners' earlier this week after the video was finally made public after multiple FOIA requests

The mayor, it turns out, was facing reelection. Coincidence?

When finally forced to address this horrific crime on Monday, Mayor Lyles  a huge proponent of DEI who, in November 2021, sunk $250 million into what she called 'The Racial Equity Initiative'  expressed her sympathies.

For the murderer.

'This is a tragic situation that sheds light on problems with social safety nets related to mental health care and the systems that should be in place', she said.

Perhaps, more of those DEI earmarks could have been directed there then?

'Those who are unhoused' ugh, that word  'are more frequently the victim of crimes and not the perpetrators.'

Not this time. This is sick.

Iryna Zarutska's family should sue the city of Charlotte and sue this mayor. Not for nothing has Donald Trump's DOJ charged this murderer federally.

If Charlotte won't get the job done, Trump will. This guy will never see the light of day again  if he's lucky. He's facing the death penalty and let's hope he gets it.

A message needs to be sent: To criminals, to soft-on-crime politicians and judges and to the American citizenry itself: We will not stand for this.

On Wednesday, Charlotte woke up to more good news: Mayor Lyles won her reelection.

Make no mistake: This will happen again. And Charlotte's voters will have only themselves to blame.
FBI Director Kash Patel is being sued by three former high-ranking bureau employees who claim their boss caved to political pressure from President Donald Trump to fire them.

The officials say their ouster was a 'campaign of retribution' carried out by Director Patel to keep his own position in the administration, according to a federal lawsuit filed on Wednesday.

Brian Driscoll, Steve Jensen and Spencer Evans are seeking reinstatement at the FBI.

The three agents were fired last month in the continued purge of those who were involved in cases and investigations into Trump.

Driscoll resisted demands to hand over a list of FBI agents who worked on investigations into the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.

Meanwhile, Jensen was section chief of the division that took over investigations into the attack, and Evans believes he was ousted for his role in reviewing accommodation requests from employees seeking exemption from COVID-19 vaccine requirements.

Driscoll claims that Patel suggested directly to him that the terminations were 'likely illegal' but that he was unable to stop them because the White House and Justice Department were determined to get rid of anyone who was assigned cases involving the president.

The lawsuit claims that Patel told Driscoll in a conversation last month 'the FBI tried to put the president in jail and he hasn't forgotten it.'

A spokesperson for the FBI declined to comment when reached by the Daily Mail.

Three fired FBI agents filed a lawsuit against former boss Director Kash Patel for terminating them for the cases they were assigned to work that investigated Donald Trump

Perhaps the most well-known of the plaintiffs, Brian Driscoll, served as acting FBI director between when former Director Christopher Wray resigned in January and before Patel was confirmed in February

The suit filed in federal court in Washington, D.C. names Patel, Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI, DOJ and the Executive Office of the President and defendants.

Besides being given their jobs back, the three agents are also seeking back pay, an order declaring the firings illegal and a forum for them to clear their names.

In an interview two weeks after their firings, Patel told Fox News that 'every single person' that weaponized the FBI against Trump had been removed from leadership positions at the bureau.

But the lawsuit claims there is no proof that Driscoll, Jensen or Evans had weaponized their positions.

'This false and defamatory public smear impugned the professional reputation of each of the Plaintiffs, suggesting they were something other than faithful and apolitical law enforcement officials, and has caused not only the loss of the Plaintiffs' present government employment but further harmed their future employment prospects,' the lawsuit states.

Agents who were fired since Patel took over the FBI have leveled unflattering allegations against the agency.

They claim that the personnel moves are shaped directly by the White House and are motivated by politics rather than the interest of Americans' safety.

One of the plaintiff's attorneys, Abbe Lowell, said the lawsuit proves FBI leadership is 'carrying out political orders to punish law enforcement agents for doing their jobs.'

And another one of the agent's lawyers, Chris Mattei, said of the agents: 'They were pinnacles of what the rank-and-file aspired to, and now the FBI has been deprived not only of that example but has been deprived of very important operational competence.

'Their firing from the FBI, taken together, has put every American at greater risk than when Brian Driscoll, Steve Jensen and Spencer Evans were in positions of leadership.'

The new filing claims that the three officials were involved in and supervised some of the FBI's most complex investigations.

This includes investigations into international terrorism.

The lawsuit claims that Patel told Driscoll he understood it was 'likely illegal' to fire agents based on case assignments, but that 'his ability to keep his own job depended on the removal of the agents who worked on cases involving the President'

Steve Jensen (right) and Spencer Evans (left) are among the five known agents who were fired last month for their involvement in cases investigating Trump

Driscoll, who is perhaps the most well-known of the plaintiffs, served as commander of the FBI's specialized hostage rescue team. He was also acting director between when former Director Christopher Wray resigned in January and before Patel was confirmed in February.

In his role taking helm at the FBI, Driscoll had very public stand-offs in the first few days of the second Trump administration with senior DOJ official Emil Bove.

Specifically it involved Driscoll resisting Bove's demand for the FBI to hand over a list of agents who worked on investigations into the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.

After Patel was confirmed, Driscoll took a position overseeing the FBI's Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG), which deploys to crises.

Problems arose last month when an FBI pilot was falsely identified on social media as being a case agent on the investigation into Trump transporting classified materials to his MAr-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida after leaving office in 2021.

Driscoll was told that pilot Chris Meyer, whose duties included flying the bureau's private jet, could no longer transport Patel on the FBI plane.

The lawsuit details that while Driscoll followed the order, he refused to strip Meyer of his pilot duties entirely and did not comply with Trump administration desires to have him fired.

Driscoll told Patel it would be illegal to fire someone based on case assignments.

The lawsuit says this is when Patel admitted to Driscoll that he understood it was 'likely illegal,' but that 'his ability to keep his own job depended on the removal of the agents who worked on cases involving the President.'

Meyer, like Driscoll, was ultimately fired but is not among the plaintiffs in the new lawsuit

Jensen was promoted in 2020 to Section Chief of the Domestic Terrorism Operations Section of the Counterterrorism Division, which took over investigations related to criminal activity stemming from the January 6 attack.

The plaintiff claims in the lawsuit that while FBI leadership publicly defended him, Jensen was told by Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino that they were spending a lot of political capital to keep him in the position due to his role coordinating January 6 investigations.

And Evans believes he was targeted for ouster over his leadership at the FBIs Human Resources Division during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. He was responsible for reviewing accommodation requests from employees seeking exemption from government vaccine requirements.
A sacred relic from the worlds first millennial saint has begun a tour of Scottish churches.

British-born Carlo Acutis, who was known as Gods influencer, died aged 15 in Italy in 2006 after a battle with leukaemia.

But after being credited with two miracles  including the healing of a four-year-old Brazilian boy in 2013 - he was canonised by Pope Leo in St Peters Square in Rome at the weekend.

St Mirins Cathedral in Paisley, Renfrewshire, has now become the first church to receive a relic from the new saint  a piece of membrane that surrounded the teenagers heart.

More than 500 parishioners turned out to pray in the presence of the holy item on the first day of its tour on Tuesday.

Bishop of Paisley John Keenan hailed it a great honour for the Diocese of Paisley to have such a tangible connection to the churchs newest saint.

He said: Im confident that over the five days it is here, the relic of St. Carlo Acutis, will bring Catholics across the diocese together, strengthen our faith and bring many blessings to us.

British-born Carlo Acutis died aged 15 in Italy in 2006 after a battle with leukaemia

Canon Jim Duggan holds holy relics of new Saint Carlo Acutis during a service at St Mirin's Cathedral in Paisley after the church became the first in the world to receive them

The relics contain the saint's pericardium, his hair, part of his famous red T-shirt and a piece of the shroud he died in

Saint Carlo is the first millennial - a person born in the early 1980s to late 1990s - to be made a saint by the Catholic church.

It comes after the Vatican recognised two miracles he reportedly performed. One was the healing of a four-year-old Brazilian boy with a serious pancreatic malformation in 2013. The other was the sudden recovery of a 21-year-old Costa Rican woman after a near-fatal bicycle accident in 2022 after she prayed at his tomb.

More than a million people are estimated to have made a pilgrimage to the Italian hilltop town of Assisi where the teenagers body lies, preserved in wax.

The body of the teenager, which is dressed in a tracksuit and trainers, was exhumed in 2019 and put on display in a glass tomb where it has remained.

His relics have previously toured the world, but Scotland is the first place to welcome a piece of his heart after being made a saint.

It was received by St Mirins Catherdral on Tuesday with a veneration of the relic taking place yesterday [Wednesday], before it moved on to Saint Francis of Assisi Church in Port Glasgow.

Hundreds of children packed St Mirin's Cathedral in Paisley to catch a glimpse of the relics

St Mirins Cathedral has become the first church to receive a relic from the new saint

It will visit Saint Marys Church, Greenock, until this afternoon [Thursday] before returning to St Mirins Cathedral until Saturday morning.

Paisley priest Fr. Ryan Black, who is responsible for youth in the Diocese of Paisley, said it was an incredible honour to be able to host the relics of Saint Carlo.

He added: Though he will intercede for us all, he is perhaps most especially a saint for the young.

The London-born teenager, who loved gaming and was passionate about the Eucharist was nick-named the patron saint of the internet for his work recording miracles online and running websites for Catholic organisations.

His canonisation had been due to take place in April but was postponed following the death of Pope Francis.

Fr Ryan, who travelled to the Vatican for the Canonisation Mass with Pope Leo on Sunday, said it was a great honour to witness the joy and hope that Saint Carlo is already bringing to the youth of the world.

He added: I have no doubt that he will bring that same joy and hope - and his love for the Lord and those most in need - to the young people of our diocese and of Scotland.

Following the relics tour of the Diocese of Paisley it will move on to St Marys Cathedral, Edinburgh, from Saturday until Monday.
A petty feud violently escalated when a 76-year-old woman allegedly shot her neighbor in the face with a flare gun at their gated retirement community New York.

Kathleen Schuman is facing an assault charge for allegedly firing the gun at 67-year-old Richard Catrone outside their homes at the Belmont Vistas Senior Apartments in West Babylon on Monday, the New York Post reported.

A home security video captured the wild incident, in which Schuman is shown striking Catrone in the face with the flare while he was walking outside with his dog.

'My next inclination was to get the gun and I knocked it out of her hand and she went to get it and I wanted to protect my dog. I wanted to protect myself,' Catrone told NBC New York.

'Kathleen showed no emotion. She claimed I was the devil that I tried to murder her. She said, "I'm sorry I missed, sorry I missed."'

Seconds after the attack, Catrone dropped his dog's leash and charged at the woman, grabbing her hair, the video showed.

Neighbors in the retirement community told NBC New York that the two residents have a 'longstanding feud' because Schuman has a cat and Catrone has a dog.

One neighbor said Catrone had been 'harassing' Schuman because the cat would upset his dog when they would sit outside.

A petty feud violently escalated after a 76-year-old woman allegedly shot her neighbor in the face with a flare gun, leaving him with six stitches

Catrone said he simply asked her to keep the pet inside.

Both residents were taken to the hospital, with Catrone getting six stitches across his cheek.

Schumann was arrested and charged with second degree assault. She pleaded not guilty.

'I've lived in Manhattan. I've lived in San Francisco. I've lived in Boston and nothing ever happened to me,' said Cutrone told NBC New York.

'I moved to Suffolk County, a senior community, and my neighbor shoots me in the face with a flare.'

A spokesman for retirement community told the outlet that it 'was an isolated incident between individuals and unrelated to the community itself.'

'We are cooperating fully with law enforcement as they handle the matter,' the statement said. 'The safety and well-being of our residents remain our top priority.'
A career criminal was charged with the brutal murder of a pregnant mother of six after being released from prison despite 61 arrests over three decades and seven accusations of skipping out on parole.

James Benavidez has spent the 20 of the last 30 year behind bars. The 50-year-old Colorado resident has racked up 31 guilty pleas and nine felonies.

He has been arrested for assault, drunk driving, resisting arrest, drug possession, and second-degree kidnapping.

He pled guilty in every single case and was last released from prison on June 24, 2024.

In many of those instances he has served his time and been released as a free man, only to continue his life of crime.

He now faces 23 charges for murdering pregnant woman Keeley Koff, shooting during an attempted carjacking, shooting at the police, and stealing a car all within a crazed 12-hour crime spree in Brighton, CO.

The 32-year-old woman was found in an abandoned pick-up truck the day after Benavidez allegedly engaged the police in a wild chase on August 28.

After Koff was shot and killed at 2am that day, according to KTVB, police responded to calls at a gas station where Benavidez was spotted.

Keeley Koff was found dead in an abandoned truck the day after Benavidez engaged police in a wild chase

James Benavidez has been arrested 61 times and spent 20 years behind bars

According to the Brighton Police Department, Benavidez tried to steal a car from a man at the Murphy Express. He wrestled him for the vehicle and then fired his gun but missed the victim.

He left the man with a minor injury and then rode away on his bicycle.

Then, police connected Benavidez with a crime several blocks over.

He reportedly stole his friend's car after she left him in the passenger seat while going inside of a business.

She called to report the stolen car and police found Benavidez driving it and tried to pull him over.

Instead, he led police on a wild chase and fired at least five shots at the officers who tried to stop him, hitting multiple police cars.

No officers were injured.

After being free for a year, he managed to rack up 24 felony counts in one day. He started the spree by attempting to steal a car at a gas station

Benavidez led police through the town, trying to hit a police motorcycle and patrol car along the way.

Police shot back at Benavidez and injured him. When he finally surrendered he was taken into custody and then to the hospital.

Police later found evidence that connected Keeley's death to the string of crimes the following day.

If he's convicted of first-degree murder he will spend the rest of his life in prison.

His official charges on August 29 were first degree murder, eight counts of first-degree attempted murder, first-degree unlawful termination of pregnancy, six counts of first-degree assault two counts of first-degree motor vehicle theft, three counts of attempted aggravated robbery, vehicular eluding and possession of a weapon by a previous offender, according to Denver7.

Keeley's family said that she'd only known the man for two weeks. KDVR reported that she believed Benavidez to be dangerous and was actively trying to get away from him.

They posted a GoFundMe page which says that she left behind six children and 'numerous heartbroken and distraught family members.'

Daily Mail reached out to Brighton Police for comment.
Newly-released surveillance footage shows the gunman who fatally shot Charlie Kirk jumping off the roof and escaping in the moments after opening fire.

In the footage, the suspect could be seen running across the roof of the Lossee Center at Utah Valley University.

Once he reaches the edge, the suspect could then be seen climbing down and jumping onto the ground - leaving behind a palm print and a shoe print.

He then runs from the building and starts strolling with the crowd as he casually walks toward a street at the edge of campus, where police say he ducked into a wooded area, from where investigators have found a high-powered rifle.

The suspect then apparently fled into a residential neighborhood.

But Beau Mason, the head of Utahs Department Public Safety, said officials 'have no idea' about the suspect's identity or where he may be located.

Authorities are now asking the public to be on the lookout for the suspect, noting he had a distinctive t-shirt and a baseball cap with a triangle on it.

'We cannot do our job without the public's help right now,' Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said at a news conference Thursday night, adding that authorities have already received over 7,000 tips and have conducted more than 200 interviews.

Follow the Daily Mail for all the latest updates after the shooting of Charlie Kirk.
Rioting broke out across France as ministers warned of an 'insurrectional mood' caused by President Emmanuel Macron's failing administration.

There were more than 350 arrests across the country as protesters fought running battles with police.

The chaos was all linked to a 'Block Everything' campaign ultimately aimed at forcing Mr Macron to resign.

Group of activists shut down different sections of the Paris ring road, while secondary schools and bus stations also had barricades placed in front of them.

In Lyon, officers used tear gas on around 100 demonstrators trying to bring rail traffic to a halt at the city's Perrache station.

The A10 motorway was also blocked near Poitiers in the centre of the country.

In the southern city of Montpellier, barricades were also erected in front of the city's Paul Sabatier University.

The protest movement is social media based, and supported by the CGT (Confederation of General Workers), the largest trade union in the country.

Anti-riot police officers patrol the streets of Toulouse in south-western France on Wednesday

A Block Everything protester poses next to a burning barricade during violent clashes with French riot police near Les Halles in central Paris

Riot police forces use a water cannon to disperse protesters during a demonstration in Montpelier

They also blockaded fuel depots and held go-slow operations on roads.

Some online messaging even encouraged people to walk into supermarkets, fill up their bags with food, and then to leave without paying.

The riots came less than 24-hours after Mr Macron appointed his seventh prime minister in less than nine years.

Sebastien Lecornu has pledged to do a better job than his immediate predecessor, Francois Mr Bayrou, who was forced out by losing a self-imposed confidence vote in the French parliament on Monday night.

Mr Bayrou had wanted to slash the equivalent of some 35billion from public spending - with national debt currently sitting at 114 per cent of GDP.

He specifically wanted to cut two public holidays, and freeze pensions and welfare payments, while making thousands of civil servants unemployed.

Mr Lecornu is determined to build a majority in the National Assembly to push through the same Macron-approved austerity budget, and this has infuriated millions.

Some 80,000 police and gendarmes have been deployed across France to deal with the 'Block Everything' campaign.

As the violence intensified, Bruno Retailleau, the Interior Minister in the outgoing government, said: 'This is not a citizens' movement in any way.

Some 80,000 police and gendarmes have been deployed across France to deal with the 'Block Everything' campaign. Pictured: Police in Toulouse

Police officers in riot gear block demonstrators gathering in Paris, France

Anti-riot police officers clear a blockade at a roundabout at the entrance to Rennes, western France

Anti-riot police officers detain a protester during a demonstration as part of the Let's Block Everything movement

French Riot Police stand back as Wafu Brasserie burns after catching fire during violent clashes in Paris

'It's been hijacked by the ultra-Left, and some are determined to carry out violent actions. There is an insurrectional mood.'

'Everyone is sick of Macron, and his government,' said Nicolas, a 19-year-old student involved in a Paris protest.

'The new prime minister will be as useless as the last one.'

There is no centralised leadership to 'Block Everything'  making it similar to the infamous but hugely effective Yellow Vest (Gilets Jaunes) movement.

The Gilets Jaunes took part in regular riots  especially on a Saturday  and caused damage estimated at the equivalent of some 250million.

They also forced Mr Macron into policy changes  such as removing environmental taxes from the price of fuel, before fizzling out around the time of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Gilets Jaunes wore trademark hi-vis yellow vests, but 'Block Everything' does not yet appear to have a specific style of dress yet, beyond black clothes.

Sud-Raid (South Rail)  another major union  published an X post reading: 'The fall of the government is good, but it's insufficient', and encouraged its members to strike.

There have also been calls for further protests and stoppages on September 18th, when air traffic controllers will be among those striking.
Spain's socialist Prime Minister has sparked outrage after reportedly expressing regret over the country not having nuclear weapons to 'stop Israel'.

PM Pedro Sanchez's remarks came on Monday as he announced an arms embargo on Israel to 'stop Gaza genocide'.

Addressing journalists in a press conference, the politician said: 'Spain, as you know, doesn't have nuclear bombs, nor aircraft carriers, nor large oil reserves.

'We alone can't stop the Israeli offensive. But that doesn't mean we won't stop trying, because there are causes that are worth fighting for.'

Several critics have rushed to social media to condemn Sanchez's comments.

One X user commented: 'Thank God this crazed Megalomaniac is nowhere near a red button! Get him out of power and in to an asylum!'

Another said: 'Meanwhile, Israel does have nukes, so pipe down, Sanchez, you rotten demon.'

But others noted how the PM's comments may have been taken out of context.

PM Pedro Sanchez's remarks came on Monday as he announced an arms embargo on Israel to 'stop Gaza genocide'

Palestinians carrying pans and bowls form a crowd to receive food aid provided by charity organizations in Gaza City, Gaza on September 2, 2025

Spain has been a vocal critic of Israel's offensive on Gaza

Spain, which recognised a Palestinian state in May 2024, has been a vocal critic of Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip,.

In Monday's address, Sanchez said Spain would ban ships and aircraft delivering weapons or military-grade jet fuel to Israel, and said that it would not allow anyone who had participated directly in 'genocide' in Gaza to enter Spain - a move that the Israeli foreign minister has denounced as anti-Semitic.

Israel has strongly denied that its actions in Gaza amount to genocide, and it is fighting a case at the International Court of Justice in the Hague that accuses it of genocide.

Israel launched its assault on the Gaza Strip in October, 2023, after fighters from Hamas, the Palestinian militant group in control of the territory, attacked Israeli communities, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages.

Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar accused Sanchez of using the measures in an attempt to divert attention from domestic corruption scandals, and announced an entry ban on Sanchez's deputy, Yolanda Diaz, and Youth Minister Sira Rego.

Both belong to hard-Left party Sumar, the junior partner in Sanchez's coalition government.

Spain's Foreign Ministry said Israel's entry ban was unacceptable, adding that Sanchez's measures were in line with public sentiment in Spain and reflected Madrid's support for peace, human rights and international law.

It said Spain was committed to fighting antisemitism, pointing to the granting of Spanish citizenship to 72,000 Sephardic Jews - descendants of those expelled from the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century.

Displaced people's tents erected along the waterfront in Gaza City are pictured on September 2, 2025

Residents of the Bureij refugee camp live in fragile, improvised tents, lacking basic necessities such as shelter, food, and clean water in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on September 02, 2025

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people on October 7, 2023, and killed some 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians

Large parts of major cities have been completely destroyed and around 90 percent of some two million Palestinians have been displaced, with food becoming scarce

In a separate statement, the ministry said Spain strongly condemned Monday's 'terrorist act in East Jerusalem', in which Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a bus stop, killing six people, including a Spanish national living in Israel.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people on October 7, 2023, and killed some 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians. 48 hostages are still inside Gaza, with around 20 of them believed to be alive.

Israels retaliatory offensive has killed at least more than 64,000 Palestinians, according to Gazas Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants.

It says around half of those killed were women and children. Large parts of major cities have been completely destroyed and around 90 percent of some two million Palestinians have been displaced.
The wife of Charlie Kirk shared a haunting post to her X profile just hours before he was assassinated.

In a post to her account Erika Kirk, nee Frantzve, shared a Bible reference from Psalm 46:1 saying: 'God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.'

Kirk, a conservative political activist and co-founder of Turning Point USA, was gunned down on Wednesday while speaking at a university event in Utah.

The 31-year-old leaves behind his wife and their two young children, a three-year-old daughter and a 16-month-old son.

The couple only celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary in May.

According to social media posts by Mrs Kirk, the two had wed in May of 2021 in what she described as a 'very intimate' ceremony in Arizona.

The two went without bridesmaids or groomsmen, and Mrs Kirk also said she did not have a bachelorette party.

A post from February of last year said: 'If youre newly engaged and feeling the rush and pressure of preparing for the big day...

'Slow down. Its one day; yes, it marks a new chapter of life. Yes, it symbolizes a special covenant between you, your husband and the Lord.'

The 31-year-old leaves behind his wife and their two young children, a daughter born in 2022 and a son born in May of last year

The two shared the above post to their Instagrams after welcoming their daughter

In a post to her own X account Kirk shared a Bible reference from Psalm 46:1, in the hours before her husband was assassinated

She continued: 'But remember its the days afterward that matter more. Reframe your mindset.

'Dont stress over the flowers or linens. Weddings turn people crazy and can bring out unnecessary family drama; let it go.'

Erika Frantzve had claimed the title of Miss Arizona USA in 2012 and in an interview after the pageant win described her upbringing in a tight-knit Catholic family.

She had attended Arizona State University and double majored in political science and international relations.

More recently she has launched her own ministry program, BIBLEin365, which according to her website 'seeks to help individuals engage with scriptures'.

Her biography reads: 'Above all, Erika cherishes her role as the wife of Charlie Kirk and the mother of their precious son and daughter.

'As she continues to grow in her ministry, leadership, and entrepreneurial endeavors, Erika remains committed to inspiring others to live with purpose, rooted in faith, and driven by the love of Christ in every aspect of life.'

Recently, the Kirks appeared with their children on Fox and Friends in the weeks prior to the shooting.

Fox News shared a clip of his daughter on the studio floor running towards her father, who graciously picked her up as she spotted him

Frantzve had claimed the title of Miss Arizona USA in 2012 and in an interview after the pageant win described her upbringing in a tight-knit Catholic family

Charlie Kirk was seen going limp as he was shot in the neck at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday

Fox News shared a clip of his daughter on the studio floor running towards her late father, who graciously picked her up as she spotted him.

Kirk was shot in the neck as he began a Q&A with students at the event, with footage sweeping social media showing the commentator falling limp as he was struck.

The father of two was rushed to hospital, where he tragically succumbed to his injuries.

President Donald Trump confirmed the death of Kirk on Wednesday afternoon in a post to his Truth Social.

He said: 'The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. 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. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!'

UVU officials said the shot was fired from the top of the Losee Center, about 200 feet away from where Kirk was sitting.

They initially took an elderly man into custody who turned out not to be the shooter, police said.

Later, a 'person of interest' was said to be in custody in connection with Kirk's shooting, Utah governor Spencer Cox announced Wednesday evening.

However, they too were later released, FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed.

'The subject in custody has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement. Our investigation continues and we will continue to release information in interest of transparency,' Patel said in a statement.
One person was killed and two others were in a critical condition after they were shot at a Colorado school, police have said.

Jefferson County Sheriff's Office said a gunman opened fire just after noon local time at Evergreen High School, located 28 miles southwest of Denver.

Jacki Kelley, a spokeswoman for the office, said three people were taken to hospital including the gunman. A fourth juvenile who did not attend the school was also taken to hospital.

According to local media, the shooter was another student, and they were also wounded amid the chaos. It's unclear whether they were shot or injured in another way. Kelley said police did not fire any rounds.

Several students caught up in the horror opened up about what they experienced in the hours following the shooting.

Evergreen High ninth grader Cameron Jones said he was eating lunch outside when he heard three gunshots. A security guard then told him to run.

He said how he never believed a shooting would happen in Evergreen, which is in a quiet, leafy south-west suburb of Denver.

'I thought this was like a one-in-a-million thing, and it still feels surreal that it happened,' Jones told Colorado Public Radio.

Three people are in a critical condition after they were shot at a Colorado school, police said. JeffCo emergency communications said there were reports of 'an active assailant in the area' at 12.40pm MST. The sheriff later said that 'three people were transported to the hospital'

Jefferson County Sheriff's Office said a gunman opened fire at Evergreen High School, located 28 miles southwest of Denver, just after noon local time. Photographs showed by police show several officers and sheriffs running towards the school wearing bulletproof vests

JeffCo emergency communications said there were reports of 'an active assailant in the area of Evergreen High School' at 12.40pm MST. 'If you have children who attend the school, please do not go directly to the school as it is still an active scene,' they wrote on X

Meanwhile, parents gathered outside a nearby elementary school waiting to reunite with their children.

Parent Wendy Nueman said her daughter didnt answer her phone right away after the shooting. When the 15-year-old finally called back, it was from a borrowed phone.

'She just said she was OK. She couldnt hardly speak,' Nueman told The Denver Post, holding back tears. She gathered that her daughter had run away from the school.

'It's super scary,' she said. 'We feel like we live in a little bubble here. Obviously, no one is immune.'

Police have not disclosed any information about the identity of the gunman. Kelley said they used a handgun to launch the attack.

'This incident occurred on school property but potentially outside of the school,' she told a press conference on Wednesday afternoon. 'We have a lot of kids that heard it, saw it, indicated that they were shot at, so we have a lot of interviews to do.

'This is the scariest thing that you could ever think that would happen. These parents were really frightened, and so were the kids. Honestly, I don't know if our suspect is old enough to even drive.'

The Jefferson County Sheriff earlier said that at least two of the victims were students. They did not disclose whether the gunman had been arrested or identified

Jefferson County Sheriff's Office said a gunman opened fire at Evergreen High School (pictured from above), 28 miles southwest of Denver, just after noon local time

Photographs showed by police show several officers and sheriffs running towards the school wearing bulletproof vests.

Several emergency vehicles could also be seen lining the streets close to the school.

Later on Wednesday, Jefferson County Sheriff said 'parent student reunification' had begun at a nearby elementary school, suggesting the gunman was no longer active.

The Daily Mail has contacted the sheriff's office for more information.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis said he was praying for the victims.

'I am closely monitoring the situation at Evergreen High School, and am getting live updates,' he wrote on X.

'State Troopers are supporting local law enforcement in responding to this situation.

'Students should be able to attend school safely and without fear across our state and nation. We are all praying for the victims and the entire community.'

Colorado Governor Jared Polis said he was praying for the victims in a statement on X

Colorado Senator John Hickenlooper said that his office was 'closely monitoring the shooting at Evergreen High School'.

'We're grateful for the ongoing response of law enforcement,' he wrote on X.

'Our hearts are with the students, teachers, and families affected. Violence has no place in our communities.'

Senator Michael Bennet said his office was also monitoring the situation, adding that he was 'horrified' to hear about the violence.

Evergreen High School is a public school with around 900 students in grades nine through 12.

It is located in Evergreen, a leafy town on the southwest outskirts of Denver.
Charlie Kirk was a prominent figure in American politics because his strong connection to young conservatives is widely believed to have helped deliver Donald Trump the White House. Twice.

The 31-year-old talk show host was shot dead in front of a crowd at Utah Valley University campus as part of his 'The American Comeback Tour' on Wednesday,

The father-of-two was conducting his popular 'prove me wrong' segment where audience members can debate with Kirk a range of topics when he was shot in the neck for 200 yards.

His event at the Utah university had sparked backlash before it happened, with 6,000 students signing a petition to keep him off the campus.

Charlie Kirk leaves behind his wife, Erika, and a daughter, three, and son, 16 months. The couple celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary in May.

Previously named on Forbes 30 under 30 list, Kirk was the youngest speaker at the 2016 Republican National Convention as well as the opening speaker at the 2020 RNC.

Kirk, who had millions of social media followers, co-founded the non-profit Turning Point USA in 2012 as a teenager, which he dubbed a 'national student movement.'

Its mission is to 'identify, educate, train and organize students to promote the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government.'

Turning Point and Kirk have played a starring role in Republican politics ever since he enthusiastically backed Donald Trump in 2016.

Kirk served as a personal aide to Donald Trump Jr during a general election campaign, and then in 2024, the non-profit increased their staff from 400 to 1,000 to 'chase the vote' in swing states.

US media personality Charlie Kirk gave a thumbs up as he arrived to speak during the presidential inaugural parade inside Capitol One Arena, in Washington, DC

The crowd dispersed in panic after a singular shot was fired at Kirk at the Utah Valley University event on Wednesday

Kirk was also one of the earliest advocates for Vice President JD Vance, then a junior senator for Ohio, to serve as Trump's running mate.

'I'm going to put my power behind JD for whatever I can,' Kirk said.

'That is a very good chapter two to the MAGA story that we're writing.'

The non-profit also strove to encourage the restoration of 'traditional American values like patriotism, respect for life, liberty, family, and fiscal responsibility.'

Kirk garnered much of his online notoriety for his 'prove me wrong' table, and in 2024 alone saw 15 billion views across multiple social media platforms.

In the last year, dedicated around 200 hours at more than 60 colleges for his 'prove me wrong' events.

Kirk speaks before he was shot during Turning Point's visit to Utah Valley University

He was well known among young voters for his 'populist nationalist' worldviews on issues such as immigration, gender and politics.

In his efforts to educate his young base saw Kirk found the Turning Point Academy, which provides a 'pro-American' education to more than 250 partners.

He even turned to faith and began Turning Point Faith, which collaborates with more than 3,700 congregations encouraging 'biblical citizenship,' the outlet reported.

His work was heavily involved with students at colleges and university's across the country, as Turning Point supports student body president races and recruits precinct leadership teams.

'With a presence on over 3,000 high school and college campuses nationwide, over 650,000 lifetime student members, and 450 full- and part-time staff all across the country, Turning Point USA is the largest and fastest-growing conservative youth activist organization in the country,' according to Turning Point's website.

Kirk, 31, was shot at Utah Valley University on Wednesday on his The American Comeback Tour

Kirk is pictured with his wife Erika, who he shares a son and daughter with

In 2026, the non-profit had goals to renew or begin 1,000 college chapters and 1,650 high school chapters under the name 'Club America.'

But Kirk's work within the MAGA realm was not confined to Turning Point, as he also authored four books and has been featured on-screen and in writing across multiple media outlets.

His podcast, The Charlie Kirk Show, reached over 1 million people every day and often ranked among the top ten shows on Apple News podcast charts.

Kirk's MAGA reputation was prevalent as he was often involved in controversial discourse.

In June at a Turning Point event in Dallas, Texas, Kirk became involved in backlash after he said that women should only go to college to find a husband.

A 14-year-old asked for advice from the influencer for attending college and the advantages and disadvantages of higher education.

After the girl mentioned that she was interested in pursuing a career in political journalism, Kirk asked all the young girls in the audience to raise their hands if their top priority is to 'get married and have kids.'

Many of them did raise their hands, including the girl who asked him the question.

Charlie Kirk and his wife Erika (left), and their two children

Kirk's wife left behind with two young children after conservative activist is fatally shot

'Interestingly, I think there is an argument to bring back the MRS degree,' he said, referencing the slang term for women who go to college solely to find a husband.

'No seriously. And just be clear that's why you're going to college. Don't lie to yourself, like, 'Oh, I'm going and studying sociology.' No you're not, we know why you're here and that's okay!' Kirk said, grinning.

He specifically cited universities in the Southeastern Conference, many of which are known for being party schools, to find a man.

'That's a really good reason to go to college actually, especially an SEC school. You will find a husband if you have the intent to find a husband at Ole Miss,' he said.

'I say college is a scam, but if you find your life partner that's actually a really good reason to go to college.'

His comments did not go over well with critics after a clip of his answer spread online.

'This poor girl. She asks Charlie Kirk about her goal to be a political journalist and he tells her to go get an Mrs degree,' author and columnist Jill Filipovic posted on X.

'Charlie Kirk telling a 14-year-old to go to college just to land a husband? That's not advice - it's a time warp,' another user added.

Kirk's work has been heavily involved with students at colleges and university's across the country, as Turning Point supports student body president races and recruits precinct leadership teams

One of Turning Point's biggest donors, Ed Zemen, said the Republican party was lacking in 'personal engagement' with the younger generation before Kirk's involvement

'Women aren't signing up for debt and getting science and math degrees to play 1950s housewife. Let's aim a little higher than an 'MRS degree.''

Another person joked about Kirk's own lack of a college degree.

Kirk's often controversial and out-spoken opinion even landed him a death threat last October.

He and Donald trump were the subject of one Arizona social studies teacher's death threat to the Republican figures.

Daniel Ashpes, 24, was accused of making online threats against the Republican figures while they were in the East Valley for a political rally last week.

He was booked into the Tempe City Jail on October 17 after police were made aware of threatening messages sent in response to an automated messaging service for RSVPs to the rally at a local hotel.

Detectives said that Ashpes admitted sending the messages during an interview, AZ Family reports.

He faced three counts of threatening to cause physical injury to another person and one charge of using a phone to threaten or intimidate.

Pictured: Conservative political activist and founder of Turning Point Action Charlie Kirk takes the stage during a Turning Point Action 'United for Change' campaign rally for former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump

But his popularity, especially among young Republican voters, was a majorly positive influence for Trump and the Republican party.

One of Turning Point's biggest donors, Ed Zemen, said the Republican party was lacking in 'personal engagement' with the younger generation.

'They're figuring out what the kids want and giving it to them,' Zeman told Deseret.

'There's no money in it. Charlie's not about the money. He's about the movement. Always has been.'

Kirk previously said that his job 'every single day is actively trying to stop a revolution.'

'This is where you have to try to point them toward ultimate purposes and toward getting back to the church, getting back to faith, getting married, having children,' he said.

'That is the type of conservatism that I represent, and I'm trying to paint a picture of virtue, of lifting people up, not just staying angry.'
Police have launched an urgent manhunt for the gunman who shot conservative influencer Charlie Kirk at his event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.

Kirk was shot in the neck as he began a Q&A with students at the event, with footage sweeping social media showing the commentator falling limp as he was struck.

As chaos took over the scene, an elderly man was seen being hauled away by cops while furious witnesses screamed and hurled abuse at him.

'How dare you, you f***ing monster!' one yelled as the man was walked away with his trousers down. The arrest came at the same time that officials said a suspect had been taken into custody, however university spokesperson Scott Trotter later said that the man in the video was not believed to be the shooter.

Reports suggest that the man was heard remarking on the shooting as he was arrested, and separate footage of the moment showed the elderly man repeatedly urging the crowd to 'shoot him.'

The gunman remains at large, Trotter said, and UVU locked down its campus as bedlam took over the scene. A large law enforcement presence could be seen descending on the Utah school.

UVU officials said the shot was fired from the top of the Losee Center, about 200 feet away from where Kirk was sitting. Students at UVU were offered police escorts as the manhunt for the gunman continued.

Hours after the horrific shooting, President Trump confirmed that Kirk had died, saying he was 'loved and admired' in the political world.

'Melania and my sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika and family, Charlie we love you,' he wrote.

Furious witnesses to the shooting of Charlie Kirk screamed and hurled abuse at the suspect as he was dragged away by police. Officials later said that the man was not the shooter

'How dare you, you f***ing monster!' one witness yelled as the man, who has not been identified, was walked away with his trousers down

The arrest came at the same time that officials said a suspect had been taken into custody, however university spokesperson Scott Trotter later said that the man in the video was not believed to be the shooter

Officials have launched an urgent manhunt for the shooter as they remain at large

With the manhunt ongoing, Mayor David Young of the north-central Utah city of Orem urged locals to report anything suspicious as they search for the gunman.

Utah Governor Spencer Cox said that he had spoken with Trump soon after news emerged that Kirk was killed, saying that he was 'heartbroken' by the incident.

'We are praying for Charlies wife, daughter, and son,' Cox wrote on X, adding that 'we will bring to justice the individual responsible for this tragedy.'

Witness Justin Hickens told NBC News that he saw Kirk shot in the neck, and then saw 'a bunch of blood come out of Charlie.'

'I saw his body kind of kick back and go limp, and everybody dropped to the ground,' he said. 'I kind of turned around and all of a sudden I saw officers walking with this very elderly gentleman with white hair.

'They had him arrested, they had him on his knees and he was screaming about his rights and all that stuff. They cuffed him and put him away.'

Chaotic scenes took over the UVU campus

New York Post reporter Diana Nerozzi said she spoke to Trump following the shooting, and the president told her Kirk 'is not doing well... it looks very bad.'

'Not good. He was a very, very good friend of mine and he was a tremendous person.'

'Say a prayer for Charlie Kirk, a genuinely good guy and a young father,' Vice President JD Vance added on X.

The horror shooting unfolded Wednesday afternoon at the UVU campus in Orem.

Charlie Kirk was seen going limp as he was shot in the neck at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday afternoon

The horror shooting unfolded Wednesday afternoon at the UVU campus in Orem as Kirk hosted his Turning Point USA event

A large law enforcement presence could be seen descending on the Utah school

Footage from the scene showed event goers screaming as shots rang out, with clips circulating social media appearing to show Kirk was shot in the neck.

Sophie Anderson, 45, who was standing 100 feet from the stage when the shooting happened, told the Daily Mail that she almost got trampled as she ran off into the food court where she hit in a closet.

The second it happened, I knew it was a gunshot, said Anderson, who was joined at the event by her boss Phil Lyman, a former Utah state representative who was handing out hats on stage with Kirk just five minutes earlier.

He was shot in the neck and just fell over and he was just a fountain of blood, she said. They carried him off. All these kids are just falling apart and bawling.'

President Trump led tributes to Kirk after Kirk was shot dead at the event

Kirk, 31, was married and had two children

Kirk published a post on X just minutes before reports of the shooting emerged.

'WE. ARE. SO. BACK,' Kirk wrote at 2.23pm EST. 'Utah Valley University is FIRED UP and READY for the first stop back on the American Comeback Tour.'

Utah Valley University evacuated the campus after the shooting and canceled classes until further notice.

The event was the first in Kirk's 'Great American Comeback Tour.'

A petition signed by 7,000 people called for him to be banned from campus.
An English-born grandmother who has lived in the United States for nearly five decades is now facing deportation over a bounced cheque from more than 10 years ago worth just $25.

Donna Hughes-Brown, 58, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on July 29 at Chicago O'Hare International Airport after returning from Ireland, where she had attended a family funeral.

Despite having lived in the U.S. on a green card for 47 years, the grandmother-of-five has now spent more than a month in detention, with officials arguing she is no longer eligible to remain in the country due to what they call a 'crime of moral turpitude.'

Mrs Hughes-Brown, who holds Irish citizenship and is married to a U.S. Navy veteran, first arrived in the U.S. aged 11 with her parents and brother.

She now lives on a nine-acre farm in Troy, Missouri with her husband, Jim Brown, and has been actively involved in community charity work.

According to Brown, his wife was arrested over a check for $25 that bounced more than a decade ago - a matter the family says was settled long ago.

'You don't arrest 58-year-old grandmothers. It's just wrong. She hasn't committed crimes. You just don't do that,' Brown told local news station KMOV.

'It's just not fair that you're telling me I have to be a bachelor the rest of my life because of some stupid policy.'

Donna Hughes-Brown (left), 58, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on July 29 at Chicago O'Hare International Airport after returning from Ireland, where she had attended a family funeral. Pictured with her husband, Jim Brown

U.S. immigration authorities argue that Hughes-Brown's old check offense qualifies as a crime of moral turpitude, a vaguely defined legal term which, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, refers to conduct that 'shocks the public conscience as being inherently base, vile or depraved, contrary to the rules of morality'.

But her husband strongly disputes that label and insists his wife is being wrongly targeted.

'I think it's a blanket thing to catch everybody, to fill beds. They signed a stupid bill that is torturing innocent people, and that's the problem,' he told KMOV, calling the allegations against his wife 'nonsense'.

Brown, who served 20 years in the U.S. Navy, said he has been left feeling helpless as his wife remains detained in a facility in Campbell County, Kentucky.

He also admitted that he voted for Donald Trump in the last presidential election but now regrets it '100 percent'.

'It's egregious that we have allowed a government to allow this to happen. I want somebody to have the guts and the fortitude to stand up and say, 'You know what? This is wrong'.

'It's crazy that this is happening. It's just crazy that this is even allowed in this country. That's the problem. It shouldn't even be thought that this should be OK. My wife is not a criminal.'

So far, Brown says his pleas to state leaders have gone unanswered. Missouri's Republican Governor Mike Kehoe's office reportedly responded with a letter stating the matter is a 'federal issue'.

Her husband (above) also admitted that he voted for Donald Trump in the last presidential election but now regrets it '100 percent'

Meanwhile, supporters have launched a GoFundMe page to help cover Hughes-Brown's legal defense costs. At the time of writing, the campaign had raised 86 percent of its modest $6,500 goal.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a prior statement that green card holders who attempt to re-enter the U.S. with certain criminal convictions may be found inadmissible and subject to removal.

'A green card is a privilege, not a right', the statement reads, 'and under our nation's laws, our government has the authority to revoke a green card if our laws are broken and abused'.
The House of Representatives burst into chaos as Speaker Mike Johnson attempted to lead a prayer for Charlie Kirk after he was assassinated in Utah on Wednesday.

Father-of-two Kirk, 31, the founder of Turning Point USA, a conservative youth organization that regularly holds events on college campuses nationwide, was shot in the neck at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem and died about two and half hours later.

His assassination not only devastated many members of Congress who knew the activist personally, but unleashed sadness, confusion and anger among lawmakers in the Capitol on both sides of the political spectrum.

'Political violence must be called out,' Johnson said in a statement about an hour after the shooting.

'We need everyone who has a platform to say this loudly and clearly: we can settle disagreements and disputes in a civil manner.'

He then went inside and held a moment of silence for Kirk on the chamber floor as questions swirled about whether the father-of-two was alive or dead.

Following the somber moment of silence, Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., called out to Johnson to hold a moment of prayer for the 31-year-old.

That's when things got ugly.

Some Democrats, clearly against the request for prayer, began cheering in unison 'No!'

Speaker Johnson leads the House in a moment of silence for Charlie Kirk, but the moment was marred soon after when some Democrats shouted about gun control and protested a request from Lauren Boebert for a prayer for Kirk and his family

Charlie Kirk with his wife and one of his two children

One unidentified Democrat in the room shouted out something about a school shooting at Evergreen High School, Colorado, on Wednesday, asking why no prayers had been offered for that tragedy, which happened within hours of Kirk's.

Three people were rushed to the hospital in critical condition after the school shooting.

There were about a dozen Democrats who protested against the prayers for Kirk.

One unidentified Democrat blurted out: 'Pass some gun laws!'

The liberal lawmakers' rejection of the prayer immediately enraged Republicans.

'You f***ing own this!' screamed Florida Republican Anna Paulina Luna.

She accused Democrats earlier in the day of being the origin of the violence against Kirk.

'I am done with the rhetoric this rotten House and corrupt media has caused,' she posted on X shortly after the news of the shooting broke. 'Every d*** one of you who called us fascists did this.'

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Speaker Johnson, frustrated with the screaming across both aisles, bashed his gavel and used his microphone to demand order in the House.

The speaker quickly got both parties to settle down.

Before he entered the House floor, Johnson noted how he was close with Kirk - a figure who has been ever-present in conservative circles since TPUSA's founding in 2012.

'It's devastating news,' Johnson told reporters before the moment of silence. 'The idea that political violence has taken one of the strongest voices on the conservative side is a great heartbreak.'

'Charlie was a close friend of mine and a confidant, and he will be sorely missed, and we need every political leader to decry the violence and to do it loudly. The problem is in the human heart, and it's gotten out of hand.'

Other lawmakers shared their devastation with the Daily Mail.

'I lost a friend today,' House Foreign Affairs Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., told the Daily Mail.

Florida Republican Rep. Cory Mills told the Daily Mail: 'It's such a horrendous and just horrific incident to watch. My thoughts and prayers are obviously with him and his family.'

California Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna stated: 'Political violence hasno place in America. I'm saddened, and we need to do better as citizens of this country, the hate and anger that has taken over.'
Boris Johnson and several other British politicians have paid tribute to conservative activist Charlie Kirk after he was shot dead at Utah Valley University.

The political commentator, 31, took a single bullet to the neck while he spoke to a crowd on Wednesday afternoon.

Former British prime minister Johnson took to X to pay tribute to Kirk, who was considered a close alley of US President Donald Trump.

'The murder of Charlie Kirk is a tragedy, and a sign of the utter desperation and cowardice of those who could not defeat him in argument', he wrote.

'Charlie Kirk has been killed not for espousing extremist views - because he didn't. He has been killed for saying things that used to be simple common sense. He has been killed because he had the courage to stand up publicly for reasonable opinions held by millions and millions of ordinary people both in the US and Britain.

Johnson added: 'The world has a shining new martyr to free speech. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and loved ones.'

Prime Minister Keir Starmer joined Johnson in paying tribute to Kirk, commenting in a statement on X: 'My thoughts this evening are with the loved ones of Charlie Kirk.

'It is heartbreaking that a young family has been robbed of a father and a husband. We must all be free to debate openly and freely without fear - there can be no justification for political violence.'

Boris Johnson and several other British politicians have paid tribute to conservative activist Charlie Kirk after he was shot dead on Wednesday

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson offered his condolences to Kirk's family

Prime Minister Keir Starmer paid tribute to Charlie Kirk after he was shot and killed during an event on Wednesday

Father-of-two Kirk, known for his fierce MAGA views and thrilling debates with college kids across the country, collapsed immediately after being hit by the gunfire.

Kirk was answering a question about mass shootings mere seconds before he was shot.

He was rushed to hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. Kirk's killer is still on the loose, with a major manhunt by the FBI and Utah police underway.

'The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,' Trump wrote on Truth Social. '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. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!'

Kirk's spokesman Andrew Kolvet also confirmed the conservative's death just before 5pm EST.

Britain's Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper joined Johnson and Starmer in paying her respects to Kirk, writing on X: 'Deeply shocked by the killing of Charlie Kirk in Utah. Political violence has no place in our socieites.

'Our thoughts and condolences are with his family'.

Yvette Cooper expressed her shock at the killing of Kirk, an said: 'Political violence has no place in our socieites'

Charlie Kirk was shot in the neck at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem

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Kirk leaves behind his wife Erika Frantzve , with whom he had a three-year-old daughter and a son, 16 months

Meanwhile, Reform leader Nigel Farage commented: 'This is a very dark day for American democracy. I am desperately sad for Charlie, his wife and children.'

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: 'There are no words good enough to express the horror of this. The killing of Charlie Kirk is a blow to everything Western civilization stands for: open discourse, robust debate and peaceful dissent. He lived his life by those very principles, no matter the danger it put him in.

'This may have happened far from our shores, but the rising intolerance of opposing views affects us all. We cannot turn a blind eye to it.

'My thoughts are with Charlie's family, his wife Erika, and their children.'

Former PM Liz Truss hailed Kirk as a 'hero and a patriot'.

Kirk leaves behind his wife Erika Frantzve, with whom he had a three-year-old daughter and a 16-month-old son. The couple celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary in May.

The MAGA star was sitting inside a tented gazebo when a bullet entered his neck, causing his head to violently collapse backwards.

Screams were heard across the crowd of young people as those closest to Kirk rushed to his aid.

Images from the scene showed the crowd run as someone fired a single shot

'He was shot in the neck and just fell over and he was just a fountain of blood,' a witness told Daily Mail of the horrific shooting

UVU officials said the shot was fired from the top of the Losee Center, about 200 feet away from where Kirk was sitting on the college campus.

They initially took an elderly man into custody who turned out not to be the shooter, police said.

Another man who was taken into custody and questioned by police was also released.

FBI agents are now working with the local police to track down the killer, as Utah Gov. Spencer Cox suggested the murderer may face the death penalty.

Cox said on X: ''I just got off the phone with President Trump. Working with the FBI and Utah law enforcement, we will bring to justice the individual responsible for this tragedy,' Cox wrote on X.

'Abby and I are heartbroken. We are praying for Charlie's wife, daughter, and son,' Cox added.
What did Keir Starmer know? And when did he know it?

They are the questions the Prime Minister must answer as his attempts to defend his ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson collapse around him.

And the answers he gives will decide the future of his premiership.

I was sitting in the press gallery in the House of Commons as Sir Keir tried to excuse the inexcusable. And frankly, I could not believe what I was watching.

Time and again Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch gave Starmer the opportunity to cut Mandelson adrift. And time and again he leashed himself ever closer

to him. The victims of Epstein are at the forefront of our minds. He was a despicable criminal who committed the most heinous crimes and destroyed the lives of so many women and girls.

The ambassador has repeatedly expressed his deep regret for his association with Epstein, and he is right to do so. I have confidence in him, he claimed.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer with Peter Mandelson earlier this year

The relationship between the US and the UK is one of our foremost relationships, and I have confidence in the ambassador in the role he is doing, he repeated.

He is now playing an important part in the US-UK relationship, he insisted, to stunned silence from the Labour benches.

Within hours, Starmers shameful attempt at obfuscation and deflection had completely fallen apart.

A leaked email from Mandelson to the convicted child abuser revealed that instead of empathising with his victims he had stated: I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened.

Far from feeling remorse, he had urged Epstein: You have to be incredibly resilient, fight for early release and be philosophical about it as much as you can.

Mandelsons position is clearly utterly untenable. So the focus of what is now a full-blown political and diplomatic crisis shifts to Downing Street.

The first damning query relates to Starmers claim at the despatch box that at the time of Mandelsons appointment full due process was gone through in relation to this appointment.

But it then emerged that the Cabinet Office had specifically suppressed a memo detailing Mandelsons attempt to arrange a meeting between then prime minister Tony Blair and Epstein on the grounds publication could damage UK-US relations.

The second question Starmer must answer is when did he first realise his appointment of Mandelson  and the toxic link with Epstein  would potentially compromise his efforts to build a relationship with Donald Trumps White House?

At the time of Trumps inauguration, Starmers ally Lord Glasman  who attended the event  was asked to produce a report for Downing Street on what he had learned from Trumps senior advisers and supporters.

Glasmans memo, which was forwarded to Starmers most senior adviser Morgan McSweeney, stated: Our appointment of Peter Mandelson is an unnecessary

provocation. Several people showed me a photograph of him blowing out the birthday candles with Jeffrey Epstein.

It then advised: Withdraw Peter Mandelson. He is the wrong man at the wrong time in the wrong place.

Do not make another appointment until you have clarified your strategy.

The third and potentially most damning question the Prime Minister must answer is this: At the despatch box, where misleading the House is supposedly a resignation offence, he repeatedly expressed his confidence in Peter Mandelson.

Yet the previous evening Mandelson admitted in a television interview that more embarrassing revelations about his relationship with Epstein were set to be published.

So before he addressed MPs, did the Prime Minister seriously not attempt to ascertain from his ambassador to Washington what these revelations were?

Did he not demand a full account of the sordid facts about the communications his most senior diplomat exchanged with a convicted paedophile?

To which there seem to be only three logical answers.

1. Keir Starmer didnt bother to ask. In which case he isnt fit to remain in office.

2. He did ask, and misled the House. In which case he isnt fit to remain in office.

3. Mandelson lied or refused to answer. In which case the Prime Ministers assertion he retained his full confidence was so stupendously misjudged he isnt fit to remain in office.

Just before he was elected, Keir Starmer piously pledged to the British people: I will restore standards in public life. He is now facing the acid test.

He must answer unequivocally and transparently precisely what he knew about Peter Mandelsons tawdry friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, and when he knew it.

And if he cant, or wont, he should resign.
One of America's greatest-ever snipers has revealed how he believes Charlie Kirk's assassin pulled off the brutal killing.

Sergeant Nicholas Ranstad broke down the shooting in minute detail based on his raft of experience around high-powered weapons and long-distance shots.

He outlined what he believes could be in the killer's background, and the meticulous planning that would have gone into such an attack.

Ranstad said he believes those claiming the gun used was an AR-15 were wrong, as hidden details he spotted suggest it was a more powerful rifle.

Kirk, the founder and CEO of MAGA-faithful Turning Point USA, was horrifically gunned down on Wednesday afternoon during a rally at Utah Valley University.

A college spokesman said the killer shot him from a building about 200 yards away from where he was sitting addressing a large crowd.

Ranstad, whose 6,778ft kill in Afghanistan set a record for the longest by an American in Afghanistan at the time, spoke to the Daily Mail about the shooting.

He said the amphitheater-like site was a 'fish bowl' for any shooter, pointing out how much easier it is to hit a target when shooting down from a roof.

Sergeant Nicholas Ranstad broke down the shooting in minute detail based on his raft of experience around high-powered weapons and long-distance shots (pictured: a figure on the roof near the attack site)

Kirk, the founder and CEO of MAGA-faithful Turning Point USA, was horrifically gunned down on Wednesday afternoon during a rally at Utah Valley University

'The security was super light, no crime at that school. So I guess the threat was low apparently,' he said.

'That's a buffet for someone who wanted to kill someone. It looked like a fishbowl, like an amphitheater, and high ground is money for shooters. Shooting down is easy.

'When you have events like that you look at the security, if you push 250, 300 yards, it's an easy shot.

'And not to mention out in the open, wind is low out in the country. It's not like in the city where a bullet flying past the buildings will move more,' Ranstad continued.

'Any bloke can go to the range three or four times and make that shot. I would start looking at range time if I were police.

'They should get all the videos, who's got what rifle and who isn't properly trained so doesn't know how to control their blood pressure and adrenaline.

'They're probably just an internet shooter, not a sniper or trained soldier.'

Army specialist sniper Nick Ranstad killed a Taliban terrorist from 1.28 miles away in 2008. At the time it was the longest kill by an American in Afghanistan

Ranstad also dispelled claims the shooter was using an easily-accessible AR-15, commonly used in school shootings across America.

He said he thought it was likely a more powerful rifle, based on the sound during the shot heard across multiple videos.

'It sounded like a high-powered rifle, possibly bolt action. I heard the crack and saw him shoot so I'm thinking long[-range] rifle.

'I don't think it is that far of a shot for a high-powered rifle. I think it was maybe a 308 bolt action, or 762.

'I don't think it was an AR, the crack had too much bass in it, not a crack like an AR.'

Officials announced on Thursday that they believe they have now recovered the firearm - which was described as a high-powered, bolt action rifle.

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'He was shot in the neck and just fell over and he was just a fountain of blood,' a witness told the Daily Mail of the horrific shooting

But Ranstad suggested the shooter may have made a small error during his attack, which makes him think he was not highly trained.

He said the reason Kirk was hit in the neck, rather than the head or chest as a trained soldier would aim for, was down to his failure to control external factors.

'He was probably aiming for the head but didn't take into consideration the wind, and the bullet pulled a bit.

'He didn't take into consideration the drop or angle.

'Him getting shot in the neck means I think he went for the head, but his adrenaline would have been going crazy.

'I think he was right-handed from the videos, so probably had a bad trigger pull.'

Sickening videos captured the moment Kirk rocked back as the bullet lodged into his neck and blood burst out from his body.

The huge crowd immediately started screaming and rushed to flee the 'fishbowl' area where the debate was taking place.

Ranstad said: 'In my opinion he was dead on the spot. I've seen arterial bleeds like that and you have seconds.

'They didn't do any quick clot as they probably didn't have any on them. It works but you've got to be so quick with it. The way he kicked back left, yeah, he was done.

'Even that angle with him up top on the concrete wall looking down at Charlie, it looked like it came from that guy's left.'

The shooting sparked a huge manhunt with the FBI descending on the scene and local cops piling into the area.

An elderly man was seen being led away in cuffs muttering to himself, but police later said he was not connected to the case.

Later on Wednesday evening officers revealed they had taken another man into custody in connection with the case. He was also quickly released.

Kirk leaves behind his wife Erika (nee Frantzve), with whom he had a three-year-old daughter and a son, 16 months

Ranstad said the fact that only one shot was fired and the suspect disappeared for a number of hours suggested he had a solid exit plan after the killing.

'He probably had an exit plan. Normally it's crazy people who shoot 30 rounds. This was one shot, that was it,' he said.

'In my opinion they had a plan. If you think about it, one shot, he's not caught... when I saw the old dude I knew it wasn't him.

'I pray for Charlie, and I lowered my flag to half-staff.'

Kirk leaves behind his wife, Erika Kirk (nee Frantzve), with whom he had a three-year-old daughter and a 16-month-old son. They celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary in May.

Donald Trump led the tributes for the late political commentator. 'The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,' he wrote on Truth Social.

'He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!'

The President has ordered all American flags to be lowered to half-staff until Sunday evening at 6pm EST in honor of Kirk.
American drugs giant Merck last night said Britain was 'not internationally competitive' as it scrapped a 1billion London research centre.

The decision to mothball the facility in King's Cross, which had been due to open in 2027, will see 125 scientists and support staff laid off.

It is a major blow to Labour's growth agenda.

The decision came as a hard-hitting report from the UK's pharmaceutical industry warned that Britain risked becoming 'uninvestable'.

Merck is the latest giant corporation to give Sir Keir Starmer's administration the thumbs down  days after Sir Jim Ratcliffe's Ineos chemicals empire said it was giving up on further investment in Britain.

This week, former Marks & Spencer boss Stuart Rose said Labour had pushed the economy to the 'edge of a crisis'.

Merck, known in the UK as MSD, said its decision 'reflects the challenges of the UK not making meaningful progress towards addressing the lack of investment in the life science industry and the overall undervaluation of innovative medicines and vaccines by successive UK governments'.

The firm told the Financial Times it would move its research activity to the US, adding: 'Unless a change is made to the operating environment... more companies will be making these sorts of decisions.'

American drugs giant Merck last night said Britain was 'not internationally competitive' as it scrapped a 1billion London research centre (file photo)

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer is seen during his meeting with Israel's President Isaac Herzog on September 10

Separately, a damning report from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) warned that Britain was falling behind rivals after tumbling down the global rankings of countries considered the best locations for medical research and investment.

The report, produced with accounting giant PwC, highlighted that despite being a world-leading source of drugs research and education, only 9 per cent of UK healthcare spending was allocated to developing medicines.

That compares with 20 per cent in Japan and 15 per cent in the US.

Access to new drugs was also 'poor' compared to other countries. And foreign investment into the UK's life sciences sector had plunged by 58 per cent between 2017 and 2023, knocking its international standing to seventh from second place.

It comes amid a bitter row over an NHS rebate scheme under which drugs firms must repay 23.5 per cent of the money they make selling drugs to the NHS back to the Government.

Rippon Ubhi, of French drug giant Sanofi, said: 'The UK is increasingly being viewed as 'uninvestable' in global boardrooms due to unprecedented clawback rates and restrictive patient access to medicines.'

Responding to Merck's decision, ABPI chief executive Richard Torbett said: 'This is a real blow to the UK's life sciences ambitions.

'This news must be used as an opportunity to reflect on what factors are driving companies to make such difficult decisions.'
Sir Keir Starmer edited the manual on how to interpret the human rights laws that are preventing Britain from deporting small-boat migrants.

The Prime Minister edited a guide on the Human Rights Act 1998 and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in 1999 when he was a human rights lawyer.

A copy of the book revealed Sir Keir hailed the Human Rights Act as having 'enormous potential' and representing a 'new way of thinking' about the law.

It came as the Attorney General yesterday ruled out leaving the ECHR and claimed it would be counterproductive for Britain to leave the Convention to tackle illegal migration.

Appearing before the Lords constitution committee, Lord Hermer said ministers would leave 'no stone unturned' on the issue. Yet he went on: 'The Prime Minister has been absolutely crystal clear that we will not be leaving the ECHR.

'There are a number of reasons for that, but at the heart of it is because it would be completely contrary to the national interest of this country were we to do so.'

Lord Hermer said the UK would only be able to tackle illegal migration by cooperating with Europe if it remains compliant with the ECHR.

'To leave, as some people are now advocating, would be entirely counterproductive if what we are seeking is not rhetorical answers but real, practical answers,' he added.

Sir Keir Starmer (pictured in 2002) edited the manual on how to interpret the human rights laws that are preventing Britain from deporting small-boat migrants

Lord Richard Hermer KC (pictured) told peers that the use of Article 8 of the ECHR, the right to private and family life, must be looked at as part of a Home Office review

He also claimed Britain would become like 'Russia and Belarus' if it quit the ECHR and other international agreements in order to send migrants overseas who face the risk of death or torture.

Labour's legal chief added that the application of Article 8 of the ECHR  the right to private and family life  in UK courts, must be looked at as part of a Home Office review.

He said the law allows states an 'enormous margin of appreciation' regarding immigration. Lord Hermer also rejected as 'just wrong' analysis that the Good Friday Agreement could remain as it is if the UK left the ECHR.

In the book, a copy of which was obtained by GB News, a sentence written by Sir Keir reads: 'Above all else, the HRA [Human Rights Act] represents a new way of thinking about law, politics and the relationship between public authorities and individuals.

'Its potential is enormous; its effectiveness depends on the combined willingness of all of us to approach decision-making from a human rights perspective.'

The Prime Minister faced criticism last night for his failure to tackle migration.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage told GB News: 'Keir Starmer was a key figure in turning the Human Rights Act and ECHR into the overriding force in British law that it is today. He says he wants to reform human rights laws but he wrote the how-to manual on how to use human rights laws.'

Two children are among three people to have died in the English Channel overnight in a small boat tragedy, French authorities report (stock image)

Tory justice spokesman Robert Jenrick (pictured) said: 'The small boats are a national security emergency, but Starmer's Attorney General is blocking the bold action needed to fix it'

A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to the Border Force compound in Dover, Kent, on Tuesday

Tory justice spokesman Robert Jenrick said: 'The small boats are a national security emergency, but Starmer's Attorney General is blocking the bold action needed to fix it.

'If Starmer wanted to stop the boats, he would have sacked Lord Hermer in the reshuffle. But he doesn't, so he didn't.'

Today, Conservative former home secretary and attorney general Suella Braverman will launch a blueprint on how to leave the ECHR.

Along with ex-Cabinet minister Lord Frost and Reform's deputy leader Richard Tice, they will publish the 'first comprehensive legal, diplomatic and political plan' for leaving the convention.

They will argue they can quit the ECHR, protect veterans, secure the UK's borders, restore sovereignty and rewrite elements of the Belfast Agreement and abolish the Irish Sea border.

The report states: 'The ECHR has mutated from a shield against tyranny into a sword against sovereignty, often wielded to frustrate democratic government, override parliamentary intent, and paralyse effective policymaking on the most sensitive questions of law, borders, and national security.'
Joining the Royal Family as an 'outsider' himself, Prince Philip could understand the challenges Princess Diana was facing.

Diana and Philip  or 'Pa' as he was known to his daughter-in-law  exchanged a series of letters in 1992 through which the Duke of Edinburgh attempted to counsel the Princess, signing off each letter with a touching message.

The letters became a focus of Diana's inquest in 2008 when complementary therapist Simone Simmons claimed that two of the letters were 'cruel' and 'upset' the young royal.

This, coupled with anger towards the Royal Family for their delayed response to Diana's death, fueled the public perception that Philip was unsympathetic to his daughter-in-law.

Broadcaster and writer Gyles Brandreth is one of the best-positioned people to discuss the late Duke of Edinburgh, having known him for more than 40 years.

He met the Duke when he became involved in the work of the National Playing Fields Association, of which Philip had been president since 1948.

He once described Philip as a 'funny man who liked to laugh and make others laugh'.

'I very much enjoyed his company,' he continued.

Princess Diana and Prince Philip  or 'Pa' as he was known to his daughter-in-law  exchanged a series of letters in 1992. The two royals are pictured at the Royal Ascot in 1986

Joining the Royal Family as an 'outsider' himself, Philip could understand the challenges Diana was facing

Philip and Diana are pictured as they are greeted by Ruth, Lady Fermoy, Diana's grandmother, upon arrival in Scrabster, Scotland, in August 1985

'Having observed him many times at close quarters, I also noticed that the more unassuming people were, the friendlier he'd be.'

In his 2021 book, Philip: The Final Portrait, Brandreth wrote that not long after Diana's death, he said to the Duke of Edinburgh: 'The public view of you, for what it's worth, is of a grouchy old man, unsympathetic to his daughter-in-law.

'But I happen to know  not from you, but I know it  that when things were difficult, you wrote to Diana  kind letters, concerned, fatherly, loving letters from Pa, explaining how you knew, first hand, the difficulties involved in marrying into the Royal Family.'

'The impression the public has got is unfair,' Brandreth reportedly told Philip.

Philip is said to have shrugged and responded: 'I've just got to live with it. It happens to a lot of people.'

In 2002, a Palace statement read that the original letters sent by Philip to the Princess had been lost, but he kept copies of his letters to her and he also had the original replies from the Princess.

Former royal butler Paul Burrell is said to have leaked some of the letters in 2003, and at the time, The Sunday Times reported that Philip was attempting to block them being published.

Philip, Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Michael of Kent, Prince Charles, and Diana are pictured on the balcony of Buckingham Palace at Trooping the Colour in 1983

Brandreth wrote: 'In his letters Philip confronted his daughter-in-law with home truths: he invited her to face the facts.' Princess Diana and Prince Philip are pictured in 1994

Gyles Brandreth wrote: 'Philip's letters to Diana were typical of his correspondence overall. They were sympathetic, but unsentimental, direct, but to a purpose'

Brandreth wrote: 'Philip's letters to Diana were typical of his correspondence overall.

'They were sympathetic, but unsentimental, direct, but to a purpose.

'In his letters Philip confronted his daughter-in-law with home truths: he invited her to face the facts.

'Essentially he wanted to make Diana think about her marriage, long and hard. And he did.'

All of Philip's letters to Diana he signed With fondest love, Pa, and he always referred to himself and the Queen as Pa and Ma.

For her part, Dianas flow of letters to Prince Philip were filled with the pain and frustrations of a young married mother whose husbands ardour was focused on another woman.

She showed his letters to several of her friends who helped her construct replies that were as unblinking as his had been.

All of Philip's letters to Diana he signed With fondest love, Pa, and he always referred to himself and the Queen as Pa and Ma. Pictured: Princess Diana and Prince Philip at a Polo Match in 1987

Prince Philip greets Princess Diana at a dinner at the Royal Society of Arts in London in 1986

For Diana, the very fact that one of the royals  and a key one at that  was sympathetic towards her, and actually showed it, meant a great deal

Brandreth wrote: 'When Diana received the letters she was at her most vulnerable and volatile.

'As soon as one arrived, she opened it, scanned it, usually burst immediately into tears and then shared it, as soon as possible, with her closest friends.

'Rosa Monckton, then managing director of Tiffany's in London at the time, and Lucia Flecha da Lima, wife of the Brazilian Ambassador, were probably Diana's two closest girlfriends at the time of her death.'

'They were good letters. He is a good man,' Lucia apparently told Brandreth.

'Actually, he was pretty wonderful.

'All he was trying to do was help. And Diana knew that,' Rose said.

This remarkable exchange of letters ended when the princess and Charles separated in December 1992.

Prince William greets his grandfather at the tenth anniversary memorial service for his mother at Guards Chapel at Wellington Barracks on August 31, 2007

Diana continued to see both Ma and Pa at formal royal occasions, Philip always taking an interest in what she was doing.

In the aftermath of the inquest into Diana's death, the Daily Mail's Richard Kay wrote: 'Diana had come to realise just how much she admired Prince Philip.

'And he, a man who had lived more than a bit, and understood a lot, had come to recognise why he felt such a well of sympathy for her.'

After Diana's death, Philip was said to be a guiding presence for the young Princes William and Harry, offering them counsel and support.

On his death, William paid tribute to his grandfather, saying Philip's 'enduring presence' guided him 'both through good times and the hardest days'.

He shared that his own children would cherish memories of their 'great-grandpa'.
Prince Harry, who celebrates his 41st birthday next week, was once known as the 'party prince', a nickname he gained after one too many Boujis nights out in his teens.

But back in September 2002, Harry's 18th birthday was on the horizon, and he was keen to shake off his Playboy image in the media.

Royal correspondent Katie Nicholl witnessed Harry's partying first-hand while working as a showbiz reporter for the Mail on Sunday.

'He was clearly very sociable, and as he sipped his vodka and cranberry, it was obvious that he was relaxed and self-assured among girls,' Nicholl wrote in her book, William and Harry.

'He had recently been voted Britain's most eligible bachelor by society magazine Harper's Bazaar, which cemented his standing among the social elite, not that he needed a poll to prove he was popular.'

This comes in stark contrast to today; in the latest YouGov opinion poll his popularity sat at just 33 per cent.

Nicholl continued: 'Harry uses his first official press interview to argue that his critics were wrong. He was not, he insisted, a party animal.

'He had seen his Uncle Andrew labelled a Playboy and his Aunt Margaret a bon vivant in her heyday, and he was determined not to be stereotyped as the royal rebel.

Back in September 2002, Prince Harry's 18th birthday was on the horizon and he was keen to shake off his Playboy image in the media

Harry, pictured with Princess Diana, hoped to continue the legacy of his mother's charity work

Nicholl wrote in her book, William and Harry: 'Harry uses his first official press interview to argue that his critics were wrong. He was not, he insisted, a party animal'

'There was far more to him than just partying, and to prove his point, he spent the days leading up to his birthday visiting sick children at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

'While it may have been a carefully orchestrated PR exercise, there was no mistaking Harry's ease in the role.

'He was tactile and down-to-earth and able to make the sickest children laugh.

'While William tended to be nervous in front of the cameras, Harry managed to joke with the photographers while making sure the importance of the visit was relayed.

'He hoped to continue the legacy of his mother's charity work.'

Princess Diana became the President of Great Ormond Street in 1989 and regularly visited the specialist children's hospital.

'I want to carry on the things she didn't quite finish,' he said.

The Daily Mail reported at the time that meeting patients of Giraffe Ward was an experience the prince was later to recall with admiration, saying he had marvelled at how cheerful the children had been in spite of their situation.

Pictured: Harry meets 11-year-old leukaemia patient, Samantha Ledster, in the Oncology Department during a visit to Great Ormond Street Hospital on September 12, 2002

The Daily Mail reported at the time that meeting patients of Giraffe Ward was an experience the prince was later to recall with admiration, saying he had marvelled at how cheerful the children had been in spite of their situation

During his visit, Harry also toured the hospital's renal unit opened by his mother on her final official visit on Valentine's Day 1997. Pictured: Harry meets kidney dialysis patient, Michael Anderton

Great Ormond Street's oncology ward, for children seriously ill with leukaemia, is housed in the New Variety Club Building at the time, which was opened by Diana in 1993.

During his visit, Harry also toured the hospital's renal unit opened by his mother on her final official visit on Valentine's Day 1997.

Harry, who was once treated at the hospital when he had a hernia operation at the age of three after complaining of stomach pains, began his visit at Great Ormond Street by receiving a private briefing in the chapel, where a bust of his late mother is on display.

Later, hospital chief executive Jane Collins showed the prince an area near the entrance and told him: 'On the anniversary of your mother's death, we put flowers there. She was a great friend to us.'

She presented Harry with a framed collage containing a picture of Diana holding a young patient and copies of two plaques commemorating parts of the hospital she had raised money to build.

Harry later said he had enjoyed his visit.

'It was the hardest to take, with all the kids having their treatments, but seeing them so cheerful was something I had not expected. It can't be easy spending so many hours on a dialysis machine, and you could not fail to have so much admiration for them,' he said.

A time capsule buried by the late Princess was opened last month, revealing a Kylie Minogue CD, a solar-powered calculator and a passport.

Harry looks at a photo taken by dialysis patient, Fred Ayisi, during a visit to Great Ormond Street Hospital

Hospital chief executive Jane Collins presented Harry with a framed collage containing a picture of Diana holding a young patient

Princess Diana became the President of Great Ormond Street in 1989 and regularly visited the specialist children's hospital

The box was sealed to mark the laying of the foundation stone of the hospital's Variety Club Building, which opened in 1994.

The items in the capsule were selected by two children who won a Blue Peter competition and were intended to represent life in the 1990s.

Other objects included a pocket TV, a snowflake hologram and a photo of Princess Diana.

The time capsule was meant to be unearthed in 'hundreds of years' but was dug up to make way for the construction of a children's cancer centre.

Both William and Harry have spoken about the impact of losing their mother at such a young age, with Harry describing the feeling as a 'gaping hole that could never be filled'.

Nicholl quoted Diana's friend Vivienne Parry as saying: 'Diana was involved with Aids charities and landmines - she didn't want to do the fluffy stuff - and I think William and Harry are very like her in that respect.

'She overcame all sorts of social barriers, and Harry and William are doing the same.

'Like her, they also identify with people on the margin. They want to do the difficult work.

Diana visits patients at Great Ormond Street in March 1991 wearing a suit by Chanel

Diana is pictured meeting David Meaney and his mother Monica outside Great Ormond Street hospital where the princess laid a foundation stone and time capsule to mark the start of a major redevelopment scheme

Nicholl quoted Diana's friend Vivienne Parry as saying: 'Diana was involved with Aids charities and landmines - she didn't want to do the fluffy stuff - and I think William and Harry are very like her in that respect'

'We all remember Diana holding an Aids patient in her arms at a time when people thought you could get the disease through touching.

'The boys' trajectory is very similar, and Harry has his mother's gift - we've seen it with him in Africa.'

Harry co-founded the charity Sentebale in 2006 to support young people affected by HIV and AIDS in Southern Africa, honouring his mother's memory.

Nicholl wrote: 'Although William loves Africa, in terms of charitable work this is very much Harry's domain, and in March 2009 he made his most political public speech to date on Sentebale's third anniversary.

'"Prince Seeiso and I founded Sentebale in memory of our mothers. They worked tirelessly to help the deprived and the afflicted and - in our way - we aspire to follow their great example."'

However, the charity experienced a public 'breakdown of relationships' after a dispute between the board chair and other trustees, leading to Harry and co-founder Prince Seeiso stepping down.

A Charity Commission investigation found no evidence to support allegations of bullying or harassment but noted the internal dispute had 'severely impacted the charity's reputation'.

The Princess of Wales talks with AIDS patient Wayne Taylor at the Casey House AIDS hospice in Toronto in 1991

Harry co-founded the charity Sentebale in 2006 to support young people affected by HIV and AIDS in Southern Africa, honouring his mother's memory

Sentebale experienced a public 'breakdown of relationships' after a dispute between the board chair and other trustees, leading to Harry and co-founder Prince Seeiso stepping down

As Harry celebrates his birthday this year, he will likely be reminded of the work of his mother, who died just weeks before he turned 13.

The Duke returned to Great Ormond Street in 2017 for a private with Ollie Carroll, a terminally ill boy with Batten disease whom he had previously met at the WellChild awards, where he is a patron.

While recent headlines surrounding Sentebale cast a dark shadow over Harry's charity work, his time spent with children at Great Ormond Street on his 18th birthday not only helped heal his fractured reputation but also continued the work his mother set out to achieve.
Havent we all been praying for this? Wednesday afternoon  oh, happy day!  Prince Harry arrived at Clarence House for a long-awaited reconciliation with his dear old dad, who just happens to be King.

We might think this family is ours, and in a weird way not real. But these people are human, remember, not characters in a Netflix series. The meeting was during Harrys four-day visit to the UK, where he has been his old, spontaneous, warm self jousting with children at the WellChild Awards in London on Monday and just, you know, donating a million quid to Children In Need  from his own pocket. And his foundation donated another 370,000 to projects supporting injured children in Ukraine and Gaza.

All of that, a visit sprinkled with stardust, up against the reports that William  who was a hop, skip and a jump away from his younger brother  did not offer a handshake from his high horse. It was a mean act of froideur that suddenly threw the Firm into relief. Just who is the baddy here?

Of course the haters said, well if Harry wants to give money to charity he should do so quietly and anonymously. I disagree. I think Harry needs some arnica on his bruises from the cruel social media that criticises his every turn. Ive always been his and Meghans most loyal  though sometimes exasperated  supporter. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are flawed yes, but arent we all? Harry arrives with a great big olive branch and is confronted at an icy distance by the bald and bearded one brandishing a great big hacksaw.

It has been a year and a half since Harrys transatlantic dash to see his father after hearing of the cancer diagnosis in February 2024. The Kings snub  he flew to Norfolk with Camilla almost immediately, not even offering a, Do you want to tag along?  made him seem ungenerous to say the least. I would say mean.

I imagine Harry felt confused and conflicted. He didnt choose to be born into this life: constantly scrutinised, his wife pilloried to a degree that would drive most of us to the unthinkable.

King Charles III arrives at Clarence House in London today following his arrival at RAF Northolt

Prince Harry arrives at Clarence House, London, soon after his father King Charles

On Wednesday The King arrived at Clarence House at 4pm, flying down from Scotland. Harry had been in White City, west London, touring Imperial College Londons Centre for Blast Injury Studies, before being snapped in a limo on his way to his fathers home. You know, the newly decorated sanctuary the late Queen dutifully vacated for dreary old Buck House, and which Charles refuses to give up. It was 5.20pm.

I hope loyal Harry fans were stoic in the rain, shouting, Go for it, Harry! Be brave! Whats the worst that can happen? Give Dad a bear hug from me!

Later tonight, doubtless sweating, relieved or peeved, Harry will be at an event to promote the Invictus Games, a cause close to his broken heart.

What was his dad doing in Scotland? Comparing tartans? Pruning? This visit from Harry has suddenly put the official Royal duties into sharp relief. Harry is delving into his own pocket. He is championing causes that mean something, that are not twee, but gritty.

Prince William talks to members of the Welsh Rugby Union during his visit to Cardiff today

Visiting Nottingham  the scene of so much heartbreak after the brutal murders of Grace OMalley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber and Ian Coates in 2023  to talk about knife crime on Tuesday held far more gravitas and relevance than eating scones with the WI.

The Firm lacks imagination and awareness.

Compare Harry, tie-less, open shirt, at the Blast Injuries Studies visit Wednesday  Harrys banter is spontaneous, priceless: Heres a good-looking man!  with William at a new mental health hub in Cardiff this afternoon, buttoned up with his tie duly knotted: this is ruling by numbers, not emotion and instinct.

Harry comes across as being the bigger person. If the visit doesnt go well with Charles, will it be the King who looks small?

The Duke of Sussex is seen leaving the royal residence around 55 minutes after he arrived

Harry flies back to California soon. Its a shame he wont be here to attend the funeral in Westminster Cathedral of the Duchess of Kent. She eschewed a conventional, lets-shake-hands royal life. She made a difference through music to so many young peoples lives. She and Harry have so much in common.

Oh, to be a fly on the wall inside Clarence House! Was there air kissing or genuine warmth? Tears? Did Dad get on the blower, saying, Come on, Wills. Bath time can wait. Camilla, come and join us! Haz, how are my grandchildren? Any chance of a discount on the old rose?

I so hope the King did the right thing and welcomes Harry back into the fold. That the ginger nut returns to the US beaming from ear to ear.

I know from personal experience what its like to be banished from your family. To be excluded, to not be there for the big stuff. The not knowing someone has passed, the cancer diagnoses, the weddings  and the small stuff too! The wonder, the warmth with all its ups and downs, that is being part of a family.

In just this one visit alone, it seems Harry is doing everything right. Lets see if his royal relatives can rise to the occasion, too.
A 77-year-old man is fighting to keep the home he has lived in for decades after a run-in with the homeowners association.

George Watson has lived in the Cedarlake Townhome community in Cobb County, GA, since it was built in 2001.

The HOA is trying to seize control of it over unpaid bills.

It all began during the pandemic when Watson developed a phobia of mail, which caused him to stop checking the mailbox.

During this period, Watson unknowingly racked up thousands of dollars in legal fees and HOA fines.

By the time Watson finally opened his mailbox at the end of 2022, he was stunned to find a letter from the HOAs attorney demanding $6,000.

The charges included legal fees and penalties for minor violations, such as leaving a bucket of water outside, storing a ladder too long, and failing to pressure wash algae from his siding.

Watson knew he needed to pressure wash his house because of algae growth, and had even borrowed a pressure washer and ladder from his neighbor. But with the pandemic he did not get around to it for several months.

George Watson - whose home is pictured here - has resided in the Cedarlake Townhome community in Cobb County since it was built in 2001

George Watson (pictured) is fighting to keep the home he has lived in for decades after a run-in with the homeowners association

Those lapses could now cost Watson, who lives on $20,000 each year from Social Security, his home.

Watson told the Daily Mail that, while the HOA has not yet filed for foreclosure, they have placed a lien on Watson's home  effectively trapping him. A lien is a legal claim that blocks him from selling, refinancing, or borrowing against the property until the debt is paid.

His home is worth about $250,000 and Watson owes $120,000 on it, so he has around $130,000 in equity.

'With this lien, I cant refinance, borrow against it, or sell,' he said. 'They havent filed for foreclosure, but the lien effectively traps me.'

Georgia law allows HOAs to place liens on homes for any amount and file for foreclosure when the balance exceeds $2,000.

Watson said that his HOA has been hounding him with threats for years, starting in 2021. 'I got a letter saying I needed to repaint my shutters - despite them being painted just two years earlier,' he said.

Watson said they threatened to fine him $2,200 - just over the mark to place a lien on his home - if he did not fix the shutters.

'I painted them again for $150, just to make it stop,' he said.

When Watson finally checked his mail at the end of 2022, he found a bill from the HOA's attorney demanding $6,000 (pictured: Watson's home in Georgia)

Going forward, Watson requested that his HOA only communicate with him over the phone or via email. 'They had my number and email, but they never used them,' he said.

'A year later, I got a notice claiming I owed $6,000 in fines. Apparently, I had missed multiple letters saying my house needed power washing. I had already done it, but since I never confirmed it in writing, they claimed the issue was unresolved,' Watson explained.

According to Watson, one board member (also his neighbor) told him that the boards policy was to drop fines once an issue is fixed. 'This had been fixed for over a year. But since I didnt send confirmation, they refused to waive the fines,' he said.

Despite sending photos and documentation showing the issues were resolved, Watson was still served a lawsuit and had to seek legal representation.

'Legal fees cost me about $15,000. They filed for summary judgment, trying to skip court and get the money. That hearing lasted 10 minutes, and I barely had legal representation by that point,' Watson said.

After months of silence, Watson finally heard back after his story was reported in the news, 'Their lawyer emailed me - for the first time - offering to drop the $6,000 fine if I paid $15,000 in their legal fees, on top of my own $15,000... So, $30,000 to make this go away.'

Watson believes the HOA is targeting him specifically, 'I have the nicest house in the neighborhood with the biggest yard,' he explained.

The Georgia resident said his HOA started abusing their power as soon as they took over from the builders, 'about a year after I bought [the house] in 2001, they started skipping my backyard in landscaping, said it was too big. That was the beginning.'

Watson said that his HOA has been hounding him with threats for years, starting in 2021. 'I got a letter saying I needed to repaint my shutters (shown here) - despite them being painted just two years earlier,' he said

His home (pictured) is worth about $250,000 and Watson owes $120,000 on it, so he has around $130,000 in equity

Watson is certainly not the only Georgia resident facing issues with HOAs, 'One man had over $100,000 in fines and couldnt get a straight answer.'

Georgia's state legislators have made efforts over the last year to increase regulation and oversight of HOAs.

In January of this year, Rep. Sandra Scott (D-Rex) along with two other representatives introduced House Bill 62 - the Georgia HOA Accountability and Community Empowerment Act.

The bill is pending action from the House Governmental Affairs Committee.

'People are having a lot of hard times and troubles with these HOAs, from holding meetings incorrectly to putting fees on [homeowners  that ultimately] end up taking their property, which, I think, is totally wrong,' Scott told State Affairs.

'You should not lose your home because of [an HOA] fee. We must have some accountability.'

The Daily Mail has reached out to Tolley Community Management for comment.
San Diego's most popular beaches are set for major changes under a new city plan aimed at combating sea-level rise - sparking pushback from residents who say the proposals go too far.

The City Council has unanimously approved its Coastal Resilience Master Plan, a wide-ranging blueprint that reimagines its treasured beach communities including Sunset Cliffs, Ocean Beach, Tourmaline Surf Park, and parts of Mission Beach and La Jolla Shores.

The plan replaces traditional seawalls and other hard infrastructure with nature-based solutions like sand dunes, berms, and pedestrian trails.

City officials say the goal is to protect public spaces, private property, and infrastructure from worsening coastal erosion and flooding but residents say the city is trading common sense for climate ideology.

Community groups are raising alarms about how the changes - such as narrowing traffic lanes, altering beach access, and potentially introducing paid parking - could impact daily life and the character of these well-loved shoreline neighborhoods.

'This does not seem well thought out,' said Scott McCaskill of the Ocean Beach Community Foundation in a tense public hearing. 'We've received nearly universal condemnation to the idea of installing any paid parking at the cliffs or OB.

'This is not about protecting the coast - it's about pushing a political agenda,' McCaskill said.

Among the most extreme proposals is the plan to narrow Sunset Cliffs Boulevard to a single lane and begin charging drivers to park - a last-minute addition that blindsided many residents and community groups.

San Diego's most popular beaches are set for major changes under a new city plan aimed at combating sea-level rise - sparking pushback from residents who say the proposals go too far. La Jolla's Windansea Beach is pictured last month

Tourmaline Surf Park is set to shift from purely hard infrastructure to a greener, softer coastal edge - aiming to fortify against sea-level rise while giving back to the natural environment

The iconic cliffside drive, long considered a sanctuary for surfers, families, and tourists, could be dramatically reshaped with traffic lanes replaced by bike paths and walking trails, and crucial beach access potentially lost.

Others warn that rerouting traffic through residential neighborhoods would create dangerous bottlenecks and erode community safety.

Javier Saunders of the Peninsula Community Planning Board said the plan ignores historical precedent.

'While nature-based solutions may provide some environmental benefit,' he said, 'they are inadequate on their own to protect public infrastructure.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers saved Sunset Cliffs in the 1970s using old-school seawalls and engineering - not sand dunes.'

Originally a focal point of the new plan, Mission Beach was abruptly yanked from the city's list of fast-tracked projects after lifeguards raised alarm about narrowed beach access and blocked rescue routes.

Without being a priority, the project now lacks a guaranteed funding stream - joining a similar delay at La Jolla Shores, where the city proposed a new 'seatwall' in the existing parking lot to function as both a seawall and a public bench.

Councilmember Joe LaCava, who represents Pacific Beach and La Jolla, defended the plan saying, 'What we had yesterday won't be there tomorrow unless we take action today.'

La Jolla Shores is being considered for coastal enhancements, centered on either reinforcing the shoreline with built features that blend into the landscape or reimagining how the park and parking are arranged entirely

Sunset Cliffs is set to receive nature-focused updates to trails, safety features, and landscape restoration. Traffic patterns will shift to a one-way layout, while new pathways for people walking or biking will improve access

But critics argue that LaCava and his colleagues are gutting traditional coastal protections and prioritizing climate optics over practical solutions.

The Dog Beach area of Ocean Beach is another flashpoint, where the city wants to build elevated sand dunes to prevent flooding while simultaneously creating pedestrian and bike paths along the shoreline.

At Tourmaline Beach the plans include reconfiguring stormwater access and adding vegetated dunes.

To many, it's a utopian fantasy divorced from the real-world needs of beachgoers.

In an attempt to quell the fury, Councilmember Jennifer Campbell tried to downplay the plan's scope.

'These are conceptual ideas,' she insisted. 'We are in the trying-to-figure-it-out phase.'

But such reassurance did little to pacify locals, who fear the damage will be irreversible long before any 'engineering analysis' is completed.

Kelley Stanco, assistant planning director, admitted the designs are high-level and will require years of study before construction begin - but critics fear it is merely a formality and that the decision has all but been approved.

The plans replace traditional seawalls and other hard infrastructure with nature-based solutions like sand dunes, berms, and pedestrian trails.

According to city projections, sea levels may rise up to 7 feet by 2100, putting an estimated $8 billion in commercial sales and thousands of businesses at risk countywide

Environmental groups have lined up in support.

More than a dozen organizations submitted a joint letter endorsing the plan, arguing it will enhance habitat, improve recreation access, and help meet the city's obligations under Climate Resilient SD - a broader initiative launched in 2021 targeting climate adaptation for low-income neighborhoods.

According to city projections, sea levels may rise up to 7 feet by 2100, putting an estimated $8 billion in commercial sales and thousands of businesses at risk countywide.

Already, about $150230 million in city-owned infrastructure could be vulnerable by 2050 if no action is taken.

Councilmember Stephen Whitburn warned the council not to delay.

'San Diego's 17 miles of coastline are what make this city special,' he said. 'They face real threats from flooding and erosion that are only expected to worsen. This plan sets our coastline up for long-term success.'

But longtime residents aren't so sure. Many say the real threat isn't climate but the city's own bureaucratic overreach, which could forever alter the character of the beaches that define San Diego's identity.

'They call it resilience,' McCaskill said. 'But we call it destruction.'
The latest image of the mysterious interstellar object racing through our Solar System has revealed it is changing shape and color.

A team of Austrian astronomers captured the object, known as 3I/ATLAS, on September 7, finding its once reddish glow has recently turned green.

Scientists said these changes are unusual and not fully explained by current comet models.

'During the total lunar eclipse, we captured a detailed image of Comet 3I/ATLAS from the dark skies of Namibia,' astronomer Michael Jager shared.

'By combining multiple exposures in blue, green, and red light, we were able to clearly see the comet's gas-rich coma.'

Data released this week by the ATLAS telescope team also showed that the cloud of light around 3I/ATLAS grew faster when the object was far from the sun and slowed down as it approached.

The team suggested that this change happened because the object shifted from spreading sunlight off red dust on its surface to releasing small, bright icy particles, which made its surrounding plume more reflective.

3I/ATLAS is set to make its closest approach to Earth on December 19, 2025, at a distance of 168 million miles, the same distance between our planet and Mars.

The latest image of the interstellar object racing through our Solar System shows it has lost its reddish hue and now glows green

Harvard physicist Avi Loeb shared the Austrian team's developments in his latest blog post, suggesting the transformation from red to green-blue colors was due to the steep rise in the production of cyanide (CN), as reported by the Very Large Telescope on August 25, which found that 3I/ATLAS is emitting CN at 20 grams per second.

As 3I/ATLAS got closer to the sun, it released much more cyanide and nickel (without any iron), with the amount increasing very sharply, roughly following a pattern proportional to the ninth power of its distance from the sun, explained Loeb.

The physicist has suggested that 3I/ATLAS could be an alien probe, citing its massive size, extreme brightness, and missing tail.

However, the Austrian astronomers noted that the coma was clearly visible in their data.

'The tail documented by Hubble Space hardly grew any larger and only became slightly brighter,' Jager told the Daily Mail.

'At the beginning of September, the object reached the limit where gas-rich comets begin to become active. On August 28, we saw that the tail was getting brighter. A few days later, we saw the beginning of the development of a gas coma in images taken with a blue filter.

'The deeper images taken during the total lunar eclipse on September 7 already show a blue-green coma and a tail. All of this can be explained by the development of a comet.

'The object traveled through the depths of space for billions of years, was bombarded by radiation, and a thick crust formed, which is only now breaking open.'

3I/ATLAS is set to make its closest approach to Earth on December 19, 2025, at a distance of 168 million miles, the same distance between our planet and Mars

The transformation from red to green-blue colors has been linked to the steep rise in the production of cyanide (CN), as reported by the Very Large Telescope on August 25, which found that 3I/ATLAS is emitting CN at 20 grams per second

Unlike the first interstellar object, 1I/`Oumuamua, which showed no signs of gas or dust, and the second, 2I/Borisov, which behaved like a typical comet, 3I/ATLAS exhibits unique features, including the anti-tail, extreme color changes, and a massive coma.

While the Austrian team has dismissed Loeb's theory, the physicist said he is only looking at the present data.

Loeb recently cited the findings from the Very Large Telescope, highlighting how it detected an unusual nickel plume from the object.

Unlike natural comets, which always emit nickel alongside iron, 3I/ATLAS shows the metallic element without any detectable iron.

Loeb explained that this nickel signature is a hallmark of industrial production of nickel alloys.

'Is this anomaly another clue for a possible technological origin of 3I/ATLAS?' Loeb wrote in a blog post.

'The paper suggests that chemical formation occurs through the nickel carbonyl channel, an extremely rare process in comets, but a standard technique in industrial nickel refining,' he added.

The new study, published by astrophysicists in Chile late August, found that 3I/ATLAS is shedding nickel at roughly five grams per second and cyanide at 20 grams per second, with both rising sharply as the object moves closer to the sun.

Researchers noted that the mechanisms driving these emissions are not typical of natural cometary processes.

They hypothesized that nickel might be released from dust through gentle processes, such as sunlight, causing it to evaporate or breaking down small nickel-containing compounds.
Experts are sounding the alarm after discovering the Asian hornet now has a stronghold in Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands between England and France.

Since the start of the year, nearly 500 Asian hornet nests have been found on the island  around four times higher than the year before.

Each nest can contain up to 10,000 hornets, meaning almost 5 million Asian hornets are potentially in Jersey right now.

The data is stoking fears that Jersey will act as a stepping stone for the invasive species reaching the UK from mainland Europe in large numbers.

The Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) can be accidentally imported arriving on shipped goods such as potted plants, cut flowers, timber, soil or fruit. Some have even been known to fly to the UK from France during warmer months.

John De Carteret, founding member of the Jersey Asian Hornet Group, said authorities are struggling to keep up with the number of reports from residents.

Some have received a painful sting from the black and yellow striped insect, which can be fatal for people with certain allergies.

'The unrelentingly high number of Asian hornet reports from across the island continues to put tremendous pressure on the Jersey government's Asian hornet reporting system,' Mr De Carteret said.

Britons have been urged to be on the lookout for invasive Asian hornets (pictured) as 25 sightings have already been reported this year

This map of Jersey marks all Asian Hornet nests on the island. Key: Yellow E = embryo nest including a queen; White E = embryo nest with no queen; PN = primary nest; SN = secondary nest

'The number of people being stung continues to rise.'

According to the expert, there's now a 'backlog' of Asian hornet nests awaiting treatment in Jersey, with 469 recorded this year so far, up from 130 in 2024.

'Combined efforts of the two government invasive species officers, along with professional pest controllers and volunteers, are trying to keep up with the sheer logistics of nest treatments,' Mr De Carteret said.

Unfortunately, due to the sheer number of sightings, reports from Jersey residents on the government webpage are not always getting a thorough follow-up.

'It's no less important [to report sightings], but there just isn't anyone free to act on it,' Mr De Carteret said.

'It's very simple, more support is needed, and more people to get actively involved.'

The Asian hornet, also known as the yellow-legged hornet, is native to southeast Asia and considered an invasive species across most of Europe.

The species was first seen in the UK in 2016, but has started to spread far more aggressively in recent years.

Pictured, Asian hornet nest posted to the Jersey Asian Hornet Group on Facebook. Asian hornet nests are usually around half a meter long and egg shaped

The Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) can be accidentally imported arriving on shipped goods such as potted plants, cut flowers, timber, soil or fruit - stoking fears a fresh swarm will hit Britain

Asian hornets were first introduced to the UK in 2016 but began to spread far more aggressively in recent years. But experts say the UK has so far successfully fought off invasion by the Asian hornet - thanks to vigilant members of the public

Asian hornet nests are made out of wood fibres and saliva. Unfortunately, all wasp and hornet nests look similar, so the best way to identify a nest is to see the bug living in it. This is tricky because experts advise keeping a close distance. Pictured, an Asian Hornet nest near Canterbury in May 2024

The Asian hornet The Asian hornet, scientific name Vespa velutina, is an invasive non-native species from Asia. It is thought to have first arrived in France in 2004, and has since been spreading rapidly, with the first UK sighting in 2016. It is a highly effective predator of insects, including honey bees and other beneficial species. Queens grow up to 3cm in length, and workers up to 2.5cm. It can cause significant losses to colonies, other native species and potentially ecosystems. Advertisement

Its activity has so far been largely in the South East of England, with Kent being the most affected due to its proximity to France.

However, they have also appeared in Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and London, with isolated confirmed sightings across parts of South-West England and as far north as Yorkshire and Northumberland.

The Asian hornet is such a concern because it has a devastating impact on our native insect populations.

Asian hornets have a big appetite for Britain's wasps and honey bees, which are vitally important because they pollinate crops and wildflowers.

Earlier this year, a University of Exeter study found about 1,400 different species in the guts of Asian hornets.

The list included bees, wasps, flies, beetles, butterflies, moths and spiders, although by far honey bees were their favourite prey.

To make matters trickier, Asian hornet is often mistaken for the native and ecologically important European hornet, which is not aggressive and doesn't typically pose a threat to healthy honey bee colonies.

'One of the easiest ways to identify them is by looking at their legs,' said Professor Helen Roy, an ecologist at UKCEH and the University of Exeter.

An immediately identifiable feature of the Asian Hornet is its bright yellow leg tips compared to the European's brown legs. Note also the distinctive thick black stripes on its body

'Yellow-legged hornets [Asian hornets] have yellow and brown on their legs, whereas European hornets' legs are only brown.'

Asian hornets are also smaller and more slender than their European counterparts and have vibrant orange shading on their heads.

If you do see an insect you believe to be an Asian hornet, you are urged to report it via the Asian Hornet Watch app or online via UKCEH's online reporting form.

All sightings reported on the app are double-checked by UKCEH, but ensuring you only report genuine sightings helps resources be used more effectively.

Professor Roy added: 'The vast amount of data we receive from citizen scientists is helping to develop the alert system and our experiences are proving useful for sharing with others in developing similar systems around the world.'
Apple has finally revealed its latest generation of flagship smartphones with the launch of the iPhone 17 lineup.

At the 'awe dropping' event at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California, the company revealed the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air.

The new devices promise to deliver more powerful chips, better battery life, and a more hard-wearing body.

However, the iPhone 17 Pro also features a bold new design that has left some Apple fans furious.

On the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, the rear camera bump has grown to take up the entire top third of the phone.

The new top-end devices have also ditched the iPhone's familiar smooth back panel in favour of a large cutout with a glass panel to support better wireless charging.

Although Apple says the new structure is necessary to support the phone's improved hardware, social media users have ridiculed the design.

On X, formerly Twitter, one faN tore into the iPhone 17 Pro, dubbing it the 'ugliest iPhone so far'.

Apple released the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max (pictured) at the 'awe dropping' event last night, but fans are not happy with the new design

On social media, commenters ripped into the new iPhone's design. Criticising the large camera bump and glass insert panel

One commenter complained that the new iPhone 17 Pro was 'genuinely ugly' and said they would not be upgrading to the new device

The most divisive aspect of the iPhone 17 Pro's new design is the large camera bump, which bears a strong resemblance to the camera bar on the Google Pixel 10.

On X, one commenter wrote: 'Correct me if I am wrong but this might be the ugliest iPhone Pro ever.'

'To me the Pro has lost its premium look now it looks like a cheap knock off from Temu, very disappointing,' another added.

Another chimed in: 'iPhone 17 is the most ugliest iPhone ever. Steve Jobs would have fired everyone in his era'.

While one Apple fan bluntly wrote: 'Honestly, I think it's genuinely ugly. I'll just stick with my iPhone 16.'

However, it isn't just the shape of the iPhone 17 Pro that has caused upset, as fans were also disappointed by the colour selection.

This year, the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are available in three colours: Silver, Deep Blue, and a bold new colour called Cosmic Orange.

In previous years, Apple has opted for a more muted, neutral set of tones for its Pro lineup, and the bright new colours did not go down well with some fans.

Apple says that the new shape is necessary to accommodate the upgraded hardware and larger battery featured in the iPhone 17 Pro. Pictured: Apple CEO Tim Cook holds the iPhone 17 Pro

One commenter called the device the 'ugliest iPhone ever' and said that former Apple CEO Steve Jobs would have 'fired everyone'

Fans of Apple's typically sleek aesthetic complained that the boxy look of the iPhone 17 Pro had 'ruined the design'

One commenter wrote: 'The iPhone 17 Pro in cosmic orange is a crime against design.'

While another added: 'If you buy "Cosmic Orange" I genuinely am not sure I still want to talk to you.'

But the new designs and bright colours did attract a few fans on social media.

One enthusiastic fan said: 'Just something about that Cosmic Orange... Love it!'

'Cosmic orange is the hottest phone colour ever made,' another chipped in.

Another fan added: 'I have to say, I really like the fact that they're trying something new.'

Besides the controversial new design, the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max include a number of big upgrades.

The large camera bump, or 'plateau' as Apple calls it, holds three 48-megapixel cameras.

This year, the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are available in three colours: Silver, Deep Blue, and a bold new colour called Cosmic Orange. But fans were not impressed by the new bold colours

The bright 'Cosmic Orange' was particularly divisive, with one fan lambasting it as a 'crime against design'

The bold new colours did attract a few fans, with some Apple enthusiasts taking to social media to share their love of the new design

That includes a 48-megapixel telephoto lens, capable of up to eight times optical zoom.

The slightly thicker frame has also allowed for the biggest battery ever included in an iPhone.

According to Apple, that will give the iPhone 17 Pro Max enough charge for up to 37 hours of continuous video playback.

The iPhone 17 Pro starts at $1,099/1,099 and the iPhone 17 Pro Max starts at$1,999/1,199

However, new storage options can make iPhone 17 Pro Max the most expensive iPhone ever released, with the two-terabyte version costing $1,999/1,999.

This release came alongside the launch of the standard iPhone 17 and the new ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air.

The iPhone 17 starts at $799/799 and features a larger 6.3-inch ProMotion display, finally giving the standard iPhone model a variable 120Hz refresh rate.

The new device is available in five colours: black, lavender, mist blue, sage, and white

This release came alongside the launch of the standard iPhone 17 and the new ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air (pictured). Starting at $999/999, the iPhone Air's price positions it between the basic iPhone 17 and the more expensive iPhone 17 Pro Max.

The iPhone 17 (pictured) starts at $799/799 and features a larger 6.3-inch ProMotion display, finally giving the standard iPhone model a variable 120Hz refresh rate

But the star of the show was the brand new iPhone 17 Air, Apple's thinnest device ever at just 5.6mm thick.

Starting at $999/999, the iPhone Air's price positions it between the basic iPhone 17 and the more expensive iPhone 17 Pro Max.

The new device comes in four stunning colours: space black, cloud white, light gold, and sky blue, previously seen on the M4 MacBook Air.

All four models will be available to pre-order from Friday and will arrive in stores starting from September 19.

The iPhone 17 Lineup: Key Facts iPhone 17 Price : Starting at $799/799

: Starting at $799/799 Colours : Black, lavender, mist blue, sage, and white

: Black, lavender, mist blue, sage, and white Display : 6.3-inch ProMotion display

: 6.3-inch ProMotion display Rear Camera : 48-megapixel fusion camera and 48-megapixel ultrawide camera

: 48-megapixel fusion camera and 48-megapixel ultrawide camera Front Camera : 18-megapixel 'Centre Stage' camera iPhone 19 Air Price : Starting at $999/999

: Starting at $999/999 Colours : Space black, cloud white, light gold, and sky blue

: Space black, cloud white, light gold, and sky blue Thickness : 5.6mm

: 5.6mm Display : 6.5-inch ProMotion display

: 6.5-inch ProMotion display Rear Camera : 48-megapixel fusion camera

: 48-megapixel fusion camera Front Camera : 18-megapixel 'Centre Stage' camera iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max Price : Starting from $1,099/1,099

: Starting from $1,099/1,099 Colours : Cosmic orange, deep blue, and silver

: Cosmic orange, deep blue, and silver Display : 6.3-inch or 6.9-inch ProMotion display

: 6.3-inch or 6.9-inch ProMotion display Rear Camera : 48-megapixel main camera, 48-megapixel ultrawide camera, and a 48-megapixel telephoto camera with 8x optical zoom

: 48-megapixel main camera, 48-megapixel ultrawide camera, and a 48-megapixel telephoto camera with 8x optical zoom Front Camera : 18-megapixel 'Centre Stage' camera Advertisement

The iPhone 17 Lineup: Key Facts
Staff at a zoo near Birmingham have been left baffled by a miraculous 'virgin birth' in their lizard house.

A female casque-headed iguana, native to Mexico and Central America, has produced eight babies at the Exotic Zoo in Telford, Shropshire.

But what's really strange is the mother, called Carol, has never been in contact with a male.

Scott Adams, managing director of the Exotic Zoo in Telford, called it 'one of the rarest events in the animal kingdom'.

'Weve got eight little babies but weve only got a female casque-headed iguana, he told BBC Radio Shropshire.

So we were quite surprised when our long-term resident decided to lay some eggs.

We thought wed pop them in the incubator a couple of months later we got eight little babies running around.

'Whats happened is shes had a virgin birth shall we say.

The eight hatchlings are 'identical' genetic clones of their mother - who gave birth without having sex with a male

Scott Adams, owner of the Exotic Zoo in Telford, Shropshire (pictured with a baby), called it 'one of the rarest events in the animal kingdom'

Staff were quite surprised when their long-term resident Carol the casque-headed iguana 'decided to lay some eggs'

The birth in August is thought to be the result of parthenogenesis  a rare type of asexual reproduction where offspring develop from unfertilised eggs.

Parthenogenesis is extremely rare in nature, although it is found in some other species, most notably mayflies, turkeys, pythons and boa constrictors.

It is not entirely clear what triggers certain species to undergo this process, or what connects the species that have this capability.

But some research suggests that endangered animals might do so more frequently as finding a mate becomes harder.

These eight lizard hatchlings are now living under special temperature and humidity conditions to simulate their tropical habitat.

They are 'identical' genetic clones of their mother  right down to their sex.

'This is what happens with parthenogenesis  there's no boys in there, they're all girls,' said Mr Adams.

'But potentially if they were in the wild and there were no males around they could go out and carry on repopulating.

The hatchlings are 'identical' genetic clones of their mother - right down to their sex. Pictured, a baby poking out of the egg

Mother and daughter: All eight of the miracle babies are female, as dictated by parthenogenesis, a rare type of asexual reproduction

The 'striking' babies have got beautiful lime green and jet black stripes. It is not entirely clear what triggers certain species to undergo parthenogenesis

Ryan Jordan, head keeper at Exotic Zoo in Telford holds the mum, called Carol, who has never been with a male

How does a 'virgin birth' work? 'Virgin birth' is a natural process called parthenogenesis, meaning a female is able to produce young without involvement from a male. It's rare in nature, although it is found in some other species, most notably mayflies, turkeys, pythons, and boa constrictors. Animals in the wild generally do not reproduce in this way, but some research suggests that endangered animals might do so more frequently as finding a mate becomes harder. Advertisement

'It's kind of a "life finds a way" story, and that's what this lizard can do.'

At the moment, the lizard mother is on display in the zoo, while the babies are being kept behind the scenes  akin to what happens in the wild.

'Like most reptiles, most will lay some eggs, and then off they go and that's it, so it really is survival of the fittest,' the expert added.

The casque-headed iguana is primarily a tree-living species found in the tropical rainforests of Central America and Mexico.

About 60 per cent of the species' body is its tail, which is used to aid balance, perfect for life high up in the canopy along with its extremely long legs.

'You can see from their massive back legs that they're going to be great at running,' Mr Adams added.

'At the moment they've got beautiful lime green and jet black stripes, so they're striking, they're stunning. In the greenery with those colours they have fantastic camouflage as well.'

The eight miracle siblings will be going on display to the public 'very soon, a zoo spokesperson told the Daily Mail. However, they will be separated, as other zoos have expressed an interest in putting some of them on display.

Certain animals are capable of reproducing through 'parthenogenesis' in which the egg is fertilised with cells from the mother rather than by a male

Virgin births like this are rare in nature and in captivity, but similar cases do exist.

Earlier this year, an aquarium in Louisiana hosted the birth of a young swell shark born in an all-female tank.

And in 2024, a boa constrictor at a school in Portsmouth gave birth to 14 babies despite not having the opportunity to mate.

Prior to this, a stingray called Charlotte in North Carolina was said to be pregnant due to parthenogenesis, having not shared a tank with a male.

Charlotte the stingray died due to a rare reproductive disease  although doubts over her pregnancy were later revealed.
Scientists are just beginning to learn what is inside thousands of mysterious 'halo' barrels submerged off the US coast.

The barrels were discovered in the deep waters of the San Pedro Basin, near Los Angeles, in 2021.

Scientists were initially worried that the barrels could contain DDT, a toxic pesticide that was banned in 1972 due to its serious environmental and health impact.

However, a new study now shows that the barrels contain an unknown caustic alkali waste, which is creating eerie halos as it leaches into the sea floor.

Using the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) SuBastian, the researchers carefully collected samples at a set distance from barrels with halos.

If the barrels contained DDT, the samples should have been acidic, however, the researchers found that the sediment around the barrels was actually extremely alkaline.

Lead author Dr Johanna Gutleben, researcher at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, says: 'One of the main waste streams from DDT production was acid and they didnt put that into barrels.

'It makes you wonder: What was worse than DDT acid waste to deserve being put into barrels?'

Scientists have finally solved the mystery of the 'halo' barrels which litter the ocean floor off the coast of Southern California

Scientists have found thousands of barrels of waste which were legally dumped at 14 deep-water sites off the coast of California between the 1930s and early 1970s

Between the 1930s and the early 1970s, thousands of items were legally dumped at 14 deep-water sites off the coast of Southern California.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, throughout those 40 years these sites were filled with 'refinery wastes, filter cakes and oil drilling wastes, chemical wastes, refuse and garbage, military explosives and radioactive wastes.'

Sediments in the surrounding area are heavily contaminated with toxic chemicals, including the pesticide DDT.

DDT was previously manufactured in large quantities in Southern California by the Montrose Chemical Corporation in Torrance.

Between 1947 and 1982, the Montrose Chemical Company may have dumped up to 2,000 barrels a month of acidic sludge containing DDT into the ocean.

Haunting images of the so-called halo barrels surrounded by strange white rings sparked concerns that there could be even more DDT on the seabed than previously thought.

This would be a serious concern since the pesticide has been shown to increase the risk of cancer and persist for an extremely long time in the environment.

However, in a paper published in the journal PNAS Nexus, a group of researchers have finally solved this mystery.

While scientists feared that the barrels could contain the toxic pesticide DDT, a study of the surrounding sediment shows that they actually contained an unknown caustic alkaline substance

Although the area around the barrels was heavily contaminated with DDT, the concentration didn't vary with distance from the barrels.

This suggests that the DDT pollution is unrelated to whatever might be leaking out from these strange containers.

Additionally, the researchers' investigation revealed another strange feature: the sediment within the halo ring had turned as hard as concrete.

It was only when the ROV managed to chip away a piece of sediment and bring it back for analysis in the lab that the researchers began to understand what was happening.

When Dr Gutleben tested the pH of the samples, she found that the sediment was at pH 12, making it much more alkaline than a neutral pH of seven.

The hard crust was also revealed to be mostly made of a mineral called brucite.

When the alkaline waste leaked out of the barrel, it reacted with magnesium in the water to form brucite, which cemented the sediment into a concrete-like crust.

As the brucite slowly dissolves into the water, it keeps the pH in the surrounding sediment extremely high.

This alkaline substance has made it impossible for anything other than specialised bacteria, which normally live around hydrothermal vents, to survive

This alkaline sediment then reacts with seawater to form calcium carbonate, the main mineral in chalk, which creates the white, dusty halo around each barrel.

The researchers say this discovery could help improve efforts to map the scale of pollution in the historic dump sites.

Dr Gutleben says: 'DDT was not the only thing that was dumped in this part of the ocean and we have only a very fragmented idea of what else was dumped there.

'We only find what we are looking for and up to this point we have mostly been looking for DDT.

'Nobody was thinking about alkaline waste before this and we may have to start looking for other things as well.'

The researchers also discovered that whatever was in the barrels has left a profound effect on the local ecosystem.

The barrels have transformed the sea floor in much the same way as a deep-sea hydrothermal vent.

Within the rings, the only bacteria that can survive are 'extremophiles' adapted to survive otherwise deadly alkaline environments.

Scientists analysing the substances say that it is 'shocking' that the pollutants are still effecting biodiversity on the sea floor over 50 years after the barrels were dumped

However, although a few species flourished in this harsh environment, the overall biodiversity was much lower than in the surrounding area.

What makes this so surprising is that the contents of the halo barrels are still affecting biodiversity decades after they were dumped.

Co-author Dr Paul Jensen, a marine microbiologist at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, says: 'Its shocking that 50-plus years later youre still seeing these effects.

'We cant quantify the environmental impact without knowing how many of these barrels with white halos are out there, but its clearly having a localised impact on microbes.'
Archaeologists have uncovered a 2,050-year-old Roman council hall in Turkey adorned with mysterious Christian symbols linked to the Book of Revelation.

Among the ruins in Laodicea, the team found a cross and the early Christian Chi-Rho monogram, representing the first two letters of 'Christ' in Koine Greek.

The discovery highlights Laodicea, one of the seven churches mentioned in Revelation, as a real community that received early Christian teachings.

The Book of Revelation, the final book of the Bible, describes visions of the end times and messages from Jesus to these early Christian communities.

In Revelation 1:11, Jesus instructs John: 'What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.'

Revelation 3:14-22 also mentions Laodicea, rebuking the community for being 'lukewarm' in their faith and calling on its people to become more devoted.

Since they were etched into a Roman building from 50 BC, researchers believe Christians may have added them centuries after the structure was built, as the Bible places the crucifixion centuries after.

The hall, also known as a bouleuterion, served as the city's political and judicial center starting around 50 BC and could host up to 800 people.

Ancient Christian symbols have been unearthed in a Roman council hall in Turkey

The hall dates back more than 2,000 years and holds a statue of Roman Emperor Trajan and seating for roughly 800

The Book of Revelation is a text from the New Testament, believed to be written between 90 and 100 AD by John, describing visions of the end of the world and messages to seven early Christian communities, including Laodicea.

It focused on apocalyptic imagery to convey predictions of divine judgment, cosmic battles, and the ultimate triumph of good over evil, possibly offering hope to early Christians facing persecution under Roman rule.

Another passage in the Book of Colossians also claimed that Laodicea was a hub of early Christianity, likely founded by the Apostle Paul's disciple Epaphras.

'For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are in Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis. And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea,' according to Colossians 4:13-16.

For Roman society, the find has reinforced Laodicea's role as a major administrative center of the ancient world.

Alongside the ruins of the Roman hall, archeologists also discovered a headless statue of Emperor Trajan and seats inscribed with the names of council members, leaders, elders, youths, and ordinary citizens.

These engravings likely acted as an ancient form of reserved seating for different groups within the city's diverse governing body under Roman rule.

The Roman Empire expanded into western Turkey, including Laodicea, after the defeat of the Seleucid Empire during the second century BC.

The Christian symbols found included a cross and Greek letters spelling 'Christ'

The Roman hall was likely a forum for political and judicial matters in the city of Laodicea

Emperor Trajan, born in 53 AD and ruling from 98 to 117 AD, was a prominent Roman emperor known for expanding the empire into Asia Minor, where the seven early churches of Christianity mentioned in Revelation were located.

The Romans ruled Laodicea from around 133 BC until the city's decline in the seventh century AD, a period of approximately 750 years.

The discovery of the Christian symbols in the bouleuterion suggest that between the second to fourth centuries, Christians were a growing presence in the city despite facing persecution under various emperors.

The Edict of Milan, issued by Emperor Constantine in 313 AD, officially legalized Christianity, granting Christians the right to practice openly and leading to widespread use of symbols such as the Chi-Rho in places like Laodicea's bouleuterion.
A new video lays bare the ghoulish behavior of passengers who filmed Iryna Zarutska as she bled out on a North Carolina train - rather than rushing to her aid.

Several onlookers can be seen pulling out their phones and recording as the Ukrainian refugee took her final breaths following the unprovoked attack that has shocked the nation.

Zarutska was stabbed three times in the neck by Decarlos Brown Jr, a 34-year-old career criminal who now faces the death penalty after his charges were upgraded to federal terrorism charges.

Immediately after the attack, a stunned Zarutska cowered in fear and covered her face before slumping lifeless in a pool of blood.

A man in a green shirt on the busy South End light rail train in Charlotte strips off the top and attempts to stem the bleeding.

But nearly one minute and 40 seconds had passed, and by then it was too late.

Another woman, in a black crop top and blue jeans, was later seen crouching beside Zarutska.

But other heartless passengers simply filmed the disturbing scene.

A man in a blue McDonalds T-shirt, skull cap, and glasses quickly whipped out his cell phone.

Another woman in a colored top, cropped black pants with a sweater around her neck filmed - even as blood seeped across the carriage floor toward their feet.

Disgraceful: An unknown man dressed in a blue McDonald's T-shirt pulled out his phone to record Iryna Zarutska as she bled out

Not helping: Another passenger, a woman, right, was also seen whipping out her phone while several people helped Zarutska

The Daily Mail is not publishing the full video due to its shocking nature.

The horrific attack took place on August 22, soon after Zarutska boarded a South End light rail train in Charlotte and sat in front of Brown, 34.

Zarutska was stabbed a total of three times in her neck and hands with a pocket knife, officials said Tuesday.

The stabbing unfolded just four minutes after she sat down on the train. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Footage showed blood trailing through the train moments later, with a man in a grey hoodie standing up and following Brown while a woman wearing red glanced over before turning back to a window.

Murdered: Zarutska was stabbed three times in the neck by Decarlos Brown Jr

U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson said that Zarutska had recently moved in with a partner when she was killed, and in recent days her family declined to have her body returned to Ukraine, telling authorities she would have wanted to be buried in the U.S. because 'she loved America'.

On Tuesday, it was announced that Brown has been charged federally in the chilling case, which raises the possibility he could face the death penalty if convicted.

Officials said at the press conference that the federal charges are based on violence against a mass transportation system, which Ferguson said constituted an 'attack on the American way'.

If convicted, Brown would become the first person executed in the state since 2006.

Horrifying: Zatutska looked up at her attacker as he loomed over her following the unprovoked attack, before grasping at her face and falling to the floor

Brown's arrest sparked national attention on Zarutska's death and ignited debates over the U.S. criminal justice system, after it was revealed that he has at least 14 prior cases in Mecklenburg County.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said that Zarutska's 'murder is a direct result of failed soft-on-crime policies that put criminals before innocent people'.

Bondi said she has directed her attorneys to prosecute him federally so the Trump administration 'will seek the maximum penalty for this unforgivable crime, and he will never again see the light of day as a free man'.

The frightening incident ignited a social media frenzy and has become a flashpoint in the Trump administration's vows to launch a hardline crackdown on crime across the U.S.

The president addressed the heinous crime on Tuesday, saying Zarutska was 'slaughtered by a deranged monster who was roaming free after 14 prior arrests'.

'For too long, Americans have been forced to put up with Democrat-run cities that set loose savage, bloodthirsty criminals to prey on innocent people - really, very, very innocent people,' Trump said.

'We saw the results of these policies when a 23-year-old woman who came here from Ukraine met her bloody end on a public train.

'This is a picture of the woman - beautiful, young girl who never had problems in life, with a magnificent future in this country. And now shes dead,' the president added.

'She was slaughtered by a deranged monster who was roaming free after 14 prior arrests. We cannot allow a depraved criminal element of violent repeat offenders to continue spreading destruction and death throughout our country.'

Mugshots: Suspect Decarlos Brown, 34, has spent most of his life in and out of prison

Brown was arrested soon after and charged with first-degree murder. His bond was subsequently denied by a judge and he remains in custody.

Zarutska's heartbroken family said on a GoFundMe page that she had only arrived in the US in 2022 'seeking safety from the war' in her home country, and 'hoping for a new beginning' before the slaying.

Brown was revealed to be a career criminal who has spent most of his life in and out of prison.

A Daily Mail review of police records found that he was charged with misusing 911 as recently as January, when he told cops he believed someone had given him a 'man-made' material that controlled his actions.

He was released without bail and a trial pending when he allegedly stabbed Zarutska to death.

Brown served five years in prison for a 2014 armed robbery and was released in September 2020.

In February 2021, Brown was arrested for assaulting his sister in Charlotte and leaving her with minor injuries, according to police records obtained by the Daily Mail.

That same month, he was again arrested for injury to personal property and trespassing.

A police report from that incident said Brown 'returned to the address after being told he was not allowed back and kicked and damaged the front door of the listed victim's residence'.

In July 2022, Brown was arrested for a domestic disturbance.

'[Brown] was arrested for disorderly conduct. The suspect was yelling and cursing, causing a disturbance and drawing the attention of multiple tenants while on the property,' a police report read.

Brown's arrest records go as far back as 2007, when he was still a minor.

Over the next seven years, he was arrested at least six times for crimes including felony larceny, robbery with a dangerous weapon and communicating threats.

According to the Charlotte Observer, most of the charges he faced during that time were dropped.

When reached for comment, the Mecklenburg District Attorney's Office told the Daily Mail Tuesday it cannot speak about defendants with pending cases.

'In broad terms, it remains the position of the District Attorneys office that those who commit violent crimes should be held in custody pending trial,' the DA's said.

Brown's latest alleged crime is his most serious.
A fitness influencer has been forced to close her French Bulldog breeding business after clients complained they were given sick and dying dogs.

Ali Holman, 52, agreed to shutter the dog breeding company she ran with her husband, Bold North Frenchies (BNF), after years of mounting complaints.

The Minnesota Attorney General's Office launched an investigation into the business after over 20 customers from across the country came forward with their experiences to Fox 9.

Controversy: Fitness influencer Ali Holman has closed the dog breeding business she ran with her husband, Bold North Frenchies (BNF)

Several people accused Ali and her husband of abuse and neglect of the animals, which they said were sick and dirty.

Angela Thompson told the local news station that the pup she purchased from the Holmans went into a coma and died at the veterinarian's office less than a day after picking her up from breeders Ali and Mark Holman.

Thompson said: 'She had become septic from not getting treatment, and it went to the brain. That's what the necropsy ended up showing.'

Thompson said the puppy had bloody stools, which the vet confirmed was caused by the parasitic infection Giardia.

Multiple other customers said their puppies also had infections when they purchased them.

Mistreated: Several people accused Ali and her husband of abuse and neglect of the animals, which they said were sick and dirty

The Holmans have denied the claims.

One customer, identified by her first name, Hope, said: 'I noticed that when she went potty, she had bloody diarrhea. Like, it scared me.'

A North Carolina woman named Ernesta said: 'We tested positive for Giardia, coccidia, and parvo.'

Kacey Anderson said: 'She was crusted, full of dried poop. She had this severe diarrhea.'

One woman, who did not share her name, alleged Ali gave her a female dog when she had purchased a male dog.

Rebuttal: The Holmans have denied the claims against them, but have agreed to stop breeding animals and said they are facing bankruptcy

'She brings this dog to me in the parking lot, and it was wrapped in a blanket,' the woman, who did not share her name, told the outlet.

'And she said, "It's because I just bathed the dog and I just didn't want the dog to be cold." I look at the dog and I called her right away, and I said, "This dog is female."'

The Holmans agreed to shutter their business and never breed animals in the state again, in an assurance of discontinuance filed on September 2.

The filing from the Minnesota Attorney General's office stated that, as they investigated, they found that 'BNF had kept little to no paperwork regarding their breeding of dogs, veterinary care of those dogs, or sale of those dogs.'

Influencer: Ali also runs a fitness company called Core Camper and has over 98,000 followers on Instagram

BNF also advertised the dogs they sold as healthy dogs that could be bred and registered with the American Kennel Club, but the AG's office said they failed to provide the proper documents to prove that registration.

The court document said: 'Some of the dogs BNF sold to retail customers died shortly after delivery.'

The filing also notes that BNF denies the Attorney Generals allegations, but has stopped breeding animals and claimed they are on the verge of bankruptcy.

The Holmans' attorney, David J.S. Madgett, said: 'This resolution should be understood in its proper context.

'First, the Attorney General matter reflects a straightforward economic reality: Bold North Frenchies, LLC had already been dissolved. Rather than engage in costly litigation over something that no longer exists, the Holmans signed an Assurance of Discontinuance confirming they would not operate a business that was already closed.

'In a separate Hennepin County proceeding, the court ruled in the Holmans favor that they were not required to produce additional documents beyond what was available.

'Finally, the larger story here is one of consumer education. Buyers should think carefully before spending thousands of dollars on breeds with significant, well-documented health challenges.

'The Holmans have taken this experience to heart and have left the industry.'

Ali also runs a fitness company called Core Camper and has over 98,000 followers on Instagram.
One family's holiday ended with a 1.3million insurance claim and a private jet rescue.

Luke Spiezia, his mother Marisa Perrella and father Tony Spiezia went away together to mark Marisa's 60th birthday.

The trio, from Australia, went to America to celebrate the occasion and visited popular attractions including Elvis's Graceland and Dollywood, Explore reports.

However, things took a turn when Marisa had a stroke at a hotel in Los Angeles.

She was rushed into hospital and had an operation, but afterwards became ill with pneumonia.

The medical emergency meant she had to be flown back home to Australia, and her whole family joined her for the journey on the medical repatriation flight.

In a private jet, they made their way to Essendon Airport in Victoria. The plane was packed with important medical equipment and provisions.

Luke and Tony sat on one side while Marisa was secured on the other.

Luke Spiezia, his mother Marisa Perrella and father Tony Spiezia went away together to mark Marisa's 60th birthday. Pictured: Los Angeles

He explained to Explore: 'We were sitting on the right side of that jet, and then ... mum was in ICU conditions on the plane, and that was taken up by the entire left side.'

The family had taken out travel insurance with Cover-More and reportedly ended up with a $2.7million (1.3million) claim.

When they landed in Australia, Marisa's care was then covered by Medicare, which is Australia's universal health insurance scheme.

She was taken to Monash hospital by ambulance.

A spokesperson for Cover-More revealed to Explore that their most common claims over the last 12 months have been from travellers in Indonesia, America, Japan, Thailand and Italy.

But not everyone is as fortunate as Marisa to be covered by their travel insurance.

Last month, it was revealed the most common reasons Brits get their travel insurance claim rejected.

Compliance expert Chris Payne, who works for Total Travel Protection, explained the number one reason in 2024, and so far this year, for unsuccessful claims is the 'excess trap'.

However, things took a turn when Marisa had a stroke at a hotel in LA. She was rushed into hospital and had an operation, but afterwards became ill with pneumonia (stock)

This occurs when travellers try to claim for amounts below their policy excess and therefore won't receive a pay out.

Chris explains: 'Travel excess refers to the amount of money you agree to pay towards any claim you make.

'For example, a traveller lost their passport and travel documents and they made a 50 claim.

'The excess for this claim is 75, therefore, the claim is not payable.'
Spain has long been the go-to destination among Brits for sun, sea and sangria - but it seems the UK's love affair with the European hotspot could be wearing off.

A new survey has found that more than half of British holidaymakers actively avoided Spain this summer, as anti-tourist protests across popular regions appear to be pushing travellers away.

The research, from eSIM phone network Slice Mobile, polled over 2,000 travellers from across the UK, and nearly eight out of 10 said these demonstrations had made Spain a less appealing option - despite 70 per cent admitting it had traditionally been their go-to getaway.

Younger generations are leading the charge in booking alternative destinations, with 68 per cent of Gen Z and 62 per cent of millennials the most likely to have ditched Spain this year - including a whopping 78 per cent of 18 to 19-year-olds.

While boomers are swapping the Costas for the Amalfi Coast, young Brits are opting for far-flung destinations such as Dubai, which emerged as the top choice for 27 per cent of Gen Z travellers, compared to just 2 per cent of boomers.

The United States also proved popular with the younger crowd (23 per cent of Gen Z versus 6 per cent of boomers) - highlighting a generational shift toward more adventurous, long-haul destinations outside of the EU.

But claiming the crown as Britain's ultimate alternative to Spain this summer is Italy, which drew in almost a fifth of those surveyed.

Other Mediterranean favourites, like Greece (16 per cent), France (12 per cent), and Portugal (11 per cent) also made the top 20, while long-haul destinations like America (15 per cent), Dubai (13 per cent), and Canada (10 per cent) climbed the ranks.

A new survey by Slice Mobile has found that more than half of British holidaymakers actively avoided Spain this summer, as anti-tourist protests across popular regions appear to be pushing travellers away (Pictured: Playa del Bajondillo in Malaga)

Young Brits are opting for far-flung destinations such as Dubai (pictured), which emerged as the top choice for 27 per cent of Gen Z travellers

With the average Brit spending up to 11 months saving up for a holiday, it's no wonder attitudes have shifted to seeking more fulfilling experiences in new destinations across the globe.

According to those surveyed, some of the main factors when choosing the perfect holiday spot include affordability (49 per cent), sightseeing (48 per cent), experiencing new cultures (41 per cent) and eating delicious food (40 per cent).

In true Brit fashion, a beach to lie on is a priority (31 per cent), along with meeting different people (31 per cent) and 'Instagrammable' surroundings (8 per cent).

Jenna Banks, spokesperson for Slice Mobile, said: 'We may not have said adios to Marbella completely, but it's clear from the research that Britains love of Spain has been put to the test.'

Meanwhile, in the UK, middle class families are turning their backs on Center Parcs, a PR expert has claimed, because the activity holiday brand once adored by well-heeled travellers can now feel like 'a Wetherspoons experience at Mayfair prices'.

Back in the early 90s, it was a very different story, with the emerging holiday company, a Dutch import, gifting instant bragging rights to those who divulged they were whisking their brood off for a week of fresh-air fun.

Booking up at the first village in Sherwood Forest, which opened in 1987, suggested one subscribed to an active, wholesome lifestyle.

And, crucially, it told people you could afford the not-inexpensive price tag - a Center Parcs holiday was once a status symbol to be flaunted in the way that a big TV or an expensive car might be.

The United States (pictured, New York City) also proved popular with the younger crowd (23 per cent of Gen Z versus 6 per cent of boomers) - highlighting a generational shift toward more adventurous, long-haul destinations

Top 20 hotspots for holidaymakers avoiding Spain Italy  19% Greece  16% America  15% Dubai  13% Canary Islands  13% France  12% Portugal  11% Turkey  11% Canada  10% Thailand  9% Cyprus  8% Australia  8% Malta  8% Maldives  8% South Africa  7% Croatia  7% Germany  7% Ireland  7% Mexico  7% Bali  6% Advertisement

Those heading off on more modest traditional English getaways - a caravan in Great Yarmouth, or a camping trip to Devon - dreamed of escaping to this man-made nirvana in a woodland setting, with its futuristic domed swimming pool and dizzying array of activities.

Nearly 40 years on, four more UK villages in picturesque settings have been added, at Elveden, Longleat, Whinfell and Woburn forests, with a Scottish Borders village set to open in 2029.

For many, the quintet of parks remains Britain's go-to for a family getaway.

Some two million people holiday at Center Parcs every year and TikTok is awash with videos celebrating the brand, with many praising the company for entertaining every generation of the family with its diverse attractions.
If you're dreaming of a new home with sun-soaked beaches and traditional Mediterranean charm without the crowds, a property expert has shared an unknown Spanish town that ticks all the boxes.

Cameron Hamilton, Director at 5 Real Estate and a specialist in Spanish property sales, has named Javea - or Xabia in Valencian - as the ultimate destination for Brits looking to relocate or invest in a holiday home by the sea.

Located on the northern Costa Blanca, the town attracts visitors year-round from across Europe thanks to its diverse landscape and historic small town setting - but does not suffer from overtourism like other hotspots in Spain.

Set between lush green hills and the sparkling blue waters of the Mediterranean, Javea offers a mix of secluded beaches, rocky coves, and pine forests that give the town a unique character compared to more built-up coastal spots.

One standout location is Playa de la Granadella, a picturesque cove often ranked among Spain's best beaches.

Hamilton said: 'Its pebbled shoreline is framed by pine forests, creating a stunning contrast with the sea, and is one of the top diving and snorkelling destinations in the area, thanks to its vibrant marine life and crystal-clear waters.'

Javea is home to a population of just over 30,000, meaning it retains a peaceful, authentic vibe while offering modern amenities British buyers look out for, such as international schools, healthcare, upmarket shopping and a vibrant expat community.

Javea's sandy beach area, Playa del Arenal, stretches over 300 metres with plenty of cafes and restaurants, while Cala Granadella offers a more secluded experience for those seeking peace and quiet.

Cameron Hamilton, Director at 5 Real Estate, has named Javea - or Xabia in Valencian - as the ultimate destination for Brits looking to relocate or invest in a holiday home by the sea

Located on the northern Costa Blanca, the town attracts visitors year-round from across Europe thanks to its diverse landscape and historic small town setting

Set between lush green hills and the sparkling blue waters of the Mediterranean, Javea offers a mix of secluded beaches, rocky coves, and pine forests that give the town a unique character compared to more built-up coastal spots

For prospective buyers, property options in the area are varied and surprisingly affordable.

According to Hamilton, Beachfront apartments start from around 145,000 (125,500), while hillside villas with sea views can be found from 165,000 (142,000).

He added that Javea's pleasant year-round weather makes the town ideal for both holiday homes and permanent residences.

But the property expert insists it's not just the lifestyle that attracts Brits to Spain's Costa Blanca - there are practical reasons, too.

He said: 'Costa Blanca offers a blend of authentic Spanish culture and strong expatriate communities. There's a balance of exposure to a new lifestyle and access to a familiar community and social life.

'The cost of living is also generally lower than in many other parts of Europe, which makes it attractive for retirees looking to make the most of their savings.

'The healthcare system is also widely regarded as being of a very high standard and includes both public and private care.'

It comes as a new survey has found that more than half of British holidaymakers actively avoided Spain this summer, as anti-tourist protests across popular regions appear to be pushing travellers away.

One standout location is Playa de la Granadella (pictured), a picturesque cove often ranked among Spain 's best beaches

For prospective buyers, property options in the area are varied and surprisingly affordable

Javea is home to a population of just over 30,000, meaning it retains a peaceful, authentic vibe while offering modern amenities British buyers look out for, such as; international schools, healthcare, upmarket shopping and a vibrant expat community

The research, from eSIM phone network Slice Mobile, polled over 2,000 travellers from across the UK, and nearly eight out of 10 said these demonstrations had made Spain a less appealing option - despite 70 per cent admitting it had traditionally been their go-to getaway.

Younger generations are leading the charge in booking alternative destinations, with 68 per cent of Gen Z and 62 per cent of millennials the most likely to have ditched Spain this year - including a whopping 78 per cent of 18 to 19-year-olds.

While boomers are swapping the Costas for the Amalfi Coast, young Brits are opting for far-flung destinations such as Dubai, which emerged as the top choice for 27 per cent of Gen Z travellers, compared to just 2 per cent of boomers.

The United States also proved popular with the younger crowd (23 per cent of Gen Z versus 6 per cent of boomers) - highlighting a generational shift toward more adventurous, long-haul destinations outside of the EU.
A quaint village in the Cotswolds hit by a surge of 'TikTok tourists' has seen mounds of rubbish left behind and locals being abused.

Bourton-on-the-Water boasts picturesque stone houses, characterful bridges and is situated along the River Windrush.

The small village, known as the 'Venice of the Cotswolds', has a population of around 3,500 residents and features a range of independent cafes and shops that draw in hordes of visitors.

Recently, Bourton-on-the-Water has seen a rise in daytrippers and holidaymakers all wanting to capture the beautiful area for themselves to post on social media, the BBC reports.

With the increase in 'hit-and-run tourists', so named by Cotswold district councillor Jon Wareing, there has also been a wave of litter and even poor behaviour reportedly directed towards residents.

He fumed to BBC News: 'This kind of visitor tends to have little real interest in the heritage, culture or natural environment they are exploiting for clicks.'

The councillor shared some locals claim to have experienced physical and verbal harassment.

A further issue is the increase in traffic the visitors are bringing to the area.

Bourton-on-the-Water boasts picturesque stone houses, characterful bridges and is situated along the River Windrush

Recently, Bourton-on-the-Water has seen a rise in daytrippers and holidaymakers all wanting to capture the beautiful area for themselves to post on social media, the BBC reports

'It's a combination of over-tourism and fast tourism, which refers to people flocking to honeypot locations for the sole purpose of content creation,' Cllr Wareing added.

He described the over tourism in the area as 'so destructive for our community and is deeply worrying'.

July and August are understood to be the busiest months in the village, with weekends and bank holidays particularly crowded.

On July 20, the annual duck race saw Bourton-on-the-Water become completely packed with locals and visitors hoping to catch a glimpse of the event.

It featured a tombola and 'Play Your Cards Right', and was advertised on the North Cotswolds Rotary.

Footage posted on TikTok was hit with backlash, with some claiming the 'beautiful English village' was being 'ruined by marauding tourists.'

However, some visitors and local business people have hit back at the claims against 'hit-and-run tourists' going to the village to post on social media.

One local, 30-year-old Emily James from Cirencester, argued posting photos and videos on social media is not 'necessarily a negative thing' as long as content creators are 'giving back to the community'.

With the increase in 'hit-and-run tourists', as dubbed by Cotswold district councillor Jon Wareing, there has also been a wave of litter and even poor behaviour reportedly directed towards residents

He described the over tourism in the area as 'so destructive for our community and is deeply worrying'

One local, 30-year-old Emily James from Cirencester, argued posting photos and videos on social media is not 'necessarily a negative thing' as long as content creators are 'giving back to the community'

She said: 'A lot of things are done for likes nowadays and all of these platforms.

'If you are going to do that [TikToks] here at least give back to the community. That's what I would do.

'I am strolling around taking photos but obviously I have been in the shops and bought a few bits and bobs and I think that's what's important.'

Some even suggested TikTok coverage of the area should be seen in a positive light if it is helping to promote Bourton-on-the-Water.

Qazi Ahmed, 26, who is from Pakistan but lives in Dublin, argued: 'You are free to take photos as long as you're not impacting other tourists.

'Doing a TikTok talk is best because it's basically promoting but as long as you're promoting and not creating chaos or impacting other tourists or invading their privacies I think it's fine.'

While local businessman John Hennessy, 60, insisted visitors who take videos and photos cause 'no impact at all'.

He owns Bourton Riverside Cafe and thinks complainants 'are making a mountain out of a molehill'.

Some even suggested TikTok coverage of the area should be seen in a positive light if it is helping to promote Bourton-on-the-Water

Qazi Ahmed, 26, who is from Pakistan but lives in Dublin, argued: 'You are free to take photos as long as you're not impacting other tourists

John said: 'Videos being made usually on the bridge don't ruin anything and they are so few and far between I don't think they cause an impact at all.

He added: 'It is a sign of the times. You go back 30 or 40 years and people would be taking their cameras here.

'Now things have progressed, people are on TikTok and got their Instagram.'

Another local business owner, Ian Moriarty, argued: 'The larger majority of people come and appreciate and respect the beautiful scenery and the history.'

He owns Quirky and The Little Nook claimed that without tourists, the area would turn into a 'ghost town'.

The local acknowledged that some residents get frustrated with the 'busy summer season' due to the surge in traffic but most 'want the tourists coming because then they have the services and the shops to enjoy'.

However, Cllr Wareing claims locals have even had to leave the village because of the negative impact they've felt from over tourism.

He said: 'When people are denied social connection, it has an impact on their mental and physical health.

Another local business owner, Ian Moriarty, argued: 'The larger majority of people come and appreciate and respect the beautiful scenery and the history.'

'One person I've been speaking to has decided to leave the village because she finds it unbearable.

'This person is not alone - many people are now saying enough is enough.'

He noted that he could see the positives of tourism, like 'being curious about culture and history and heritage'.

But, the councillor argued: 'This has been lost when we have people being abusive, physically and verbally, to residents who are trying to go about their daily lives.'
One European country has high hopes to become completely cashless in just five years.

Albania's Prime Minister, Edi Rama, has shared his plans to make the nation entirely reliant on digital payments, rather than physical money.

The country is known for preferring cash, and the phrase 'cash is king' is often seen in tourist guides for the area, Politico reports.

Many smaller businesses insist on using cash and don't accept cards as a form of payment.

Despite this, Rama has expressed hope to make Albania use entirely digital payments by 2030 and thinks it is 'entirely achievable'.

His plan, called Albania 2030, is reportedly part of his aim to introduce the country into the EU.

According to DW, Rama announced in July: 'We have an ambition: that by the end of this decade, Albania will become a cashless society, meaning that all interactions and financial transactions are fully digital.'

He acknowledged that the tech needed to achieve this exists and 'What's needed is more upskilling'.

Albania's Prime Minister, Edi Rama, recently shared his plans to make the nation entirely reliant on digital payments, rather than physical money (stock)

Rama added: 'I believe that if we manage to properly outline the roadmap ahead, this goal is entirely achievable, and it will free the country from a heavy burden of outdated practices and inefficiencies that weigh down everyday life.'

It would be a huge shift for the country, as many Albanians reportedly keep their savings stashed away instead of using banks.

The general population are not typically fans of using banks, and a survey by the Albanian Association of Banks revealed 34% of the country trusts them.

Meanwhile, less than 50% of the nation even have a bank account, according to The World Bank.

ATMS, which have been widely used by other European countries for years, were only first brought into Albania in 2004.

One resident, Mimoza A. from Tirana, told DW that she only ever uses her bank card to withdraw her salary from an ATM.

'It's not usual for people of my generation to use a card to pay for groceries or at the hairdresser. I prefer cash and I always will,' she said.

PayPal, a popular digital payment method, is not currently available for businesses to use in Albania, but is common in other European countries.

His plan, called Albania 2030, is reportedly part of his aim to introduce the country into the EU (stock)

There are some barriers putting off the local population from using banks, including the high transaction fee that is charged for payments between Albanian banks.

According to Politico, some businesses also charge customers who pay by card.

While former deputy prime minister and co-founder of the Democratic party Genc Pollo told the publication a ban on cash would be 'like killing chickens using artillery'.

He argued it would be an 'attack on the personal freedom of legitimate banknote holders.'
An abandoned mine in China has been transformed into a dazzling cliffside wonderland - now widely considered one of the most dangerous attractions in the world.

Located in Shangrao, in Jiangxi Province, the Wangxian Valley - meaning 'Gazing at Immortals' - has become a booming tourist hotspot, drawing nearly one million visitors each year, according to China Discovery.

Visitors on social media have already dubbed it 'the most dangerous tourist destination in the world' - and with features like narrow walkways, see-through cliffside hotels and plunging canyons, it's easy to see why.

Originally a quarry abandoned in 1969, the area has been completely redesigned into a fairytale town at high altitude, nestled in the Ling Mountains.

The site now offers a mix of tranquility and adrenaline with its cobblestone streets, glowing waterfalls, and glass walkways.

One of the biggest thrills is the 388-metre-long Cliffside Walkway, which clings to the rock with a 100-metre drop below.

Adventurists can also take on the 50-metre Glass Walkway, made from thick, slightly frosted glass which only partially shields the stomach-churning view underneath.

Should visitors be brave enough to stay the night, the White Crane Cliff Hotel has twelve glass-walled rooms that hang off of the side of a cliff.

Located in Shangrao, in Jiangxi Province, the Wangxian Valley - meaning 'Gazing at Immortals' - is now a booming tourist hotspot, drawing nearly one million visitors each year

Visitors on social media have already dubbed it 'the most dangerous tourist destination in the world' - and with features like narrow walkways, see-through cliffside hotels and plunging canyons, it's easy to see why

Originally a quarry abandoned in 1969, the area has been completely redesigned into a fairytale town at high altitude, nestled in the Ling Mountains

There's even a library 110 metres above the valley floor where book lovers can continue immersing themselves in mythical, magical lore.

Wangxian Valley is also known for its stunning landscape and natural beauty, including the peaceful Sanqing Waterfall and the livelier Wangxian Waterfall, which creates its own mist.

For visitors interested in the absurd, the area's Odd Rock Pool is filled with strange rock formations that almost look otherworldly.

And for those who prefer action-packed activities, a 2.8-kilometre rafting route that weaves through narrow canyon walls awaits - but not before a 30-minute hike to get to the launch point.

There's also a scenic hiking trail surrounded by a string of waterfalls, as reported by China Highlights.

As for local cuisine, visitors can sample delicacies and dishes made from ingredients grown at high altitudes.

The popular Wangxian Tofu is created from soybeans and mountain spring water, giving it a light flavour and creamy texture.

Other star delicacies include Yuyu Dumplings, made with pork wrapped in a chewy taro and tapioca shell, and Dengzhan Guo, a lantern-shaped dish filled with mushrooms, bamboo shoots and more.

The site now offers a mix of tranquility and adrenaline with its cobblestone streets, glowing waterfalls, and glass walkways

As for local cuisine, visitors can sample delicacies and dishes made from ingredients grown at high altitudes

Wangxian Valley is also known for its stunning landscape and natural beauty, including the peaceful Sanqing Waterfall and the livelier Wangxian Waterfall, which creates its own mist.

At night, the town becomes a stage for traditional performances, folk music, and a famous bonfire party that lights up the cliffs

Each night, the town becomes a stage for traditional performances, folk music, and a famous bonfire party that lights up the cliffs.

Meanwhile, a Belgian thrill-seeker who tackled one of the world's 'most dangerous' fairground rides revealed he'd give it a second whirl - despite admitting he felt as if it could have collapsed at any moment.

Robin Demyttenaere, 33, from Aalter, has spent a whopping 87,000 on more than 5,000 rides across the globe, and most recently set his sights on 'The Wave' - a notoriously risky thrill ride at a funfair in Medan, Indonesia.

The daredevil took it on during a three-month trip through Asia, visiting countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore  all for just 9,000.
Downton Abbey star Allen Leech has teased that the beloved period drama could return with a prequel exploring the backstory of the late Dame Maggie Smith's character, Violet Crawley.

As the long-running saga draws to a bittersweet close with its third and final big screen instalment, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, fans can expect all the elegant drama and emotional goodbyes the franchise has become famous for.

Set in the early 1930s, the Crawley family and their ever-loyal staff face shifting social norms, mounting financial pressures, and the unwelcome glare of scandal.

At the heart of the turmoil is Lady Mary's sudden divorce, bringing both public disgrace and personal upheaval to the grand halls of Downton.

The film also serves as a touching tribute to Dame Maggie Smith, whose portrayal of the formidable Dowager Countess Violet Crawley was widely loved and critically acclaimed.

Now, speaking on Virgin Radio this week, cast member Allen Leech, who plays Tom Branson, hinted that the Downton story may not be quite over.

Downton Abbey star Allen Leech has teased that the beloved period drama could return with a prequel exploring the backstory of the late Dame Maggie Smith's iconic character, Violet Crawley (pictured this month)

Speaking on Virgin Radio this week, he revealed: 'From what I hear, the plan is if theyre going to do anything with it next, they're either going to go back in time and do a prequel of Maggie Smith (pictured) in her younger years'

He revealed: 'I was chatting to the director Simon Curtis the other day over lunch and he was saying theres a great poignancy about this movie for the fans. Its about letting go... and it's about moving on.

'From what I hear, the plan is if theyre going to do anything with it next, they're either going to go back in time and do a prequel of Maggie Smith in her younger years, which would be very interesting.

'Or theyre going to go Seventies, and all the debauched madness that could happen in the house.'

He concluded: 'I think it could be kind of interesting: "Sorry I rang the bell  would you mind rolling this, would you?!" There could be the Stones walking through, with Keith Richards in the bath!'

Show creator Julian Fellowes, 76, recently acknowledged he's open to continuing the story, despite the film, released on Friday, being titled The Final Farewell.

He said: 'Im not saying we'll never see Downton Abbey in any other form - one should never say never.'

It comes as a new Downton Abbey special is set to hit ITV as the cast celebrate 15 years of the franchise.

ITV will treat viewers to a special one-hour documentary to celebrate the end of the franchise.

He continued: 'Or theyre going to go Seventies, and all the debauched madness that could happen in the house' (Allen and Michelle Dockery pictured in The Grand Finale)

Also set for release on September 12, Downton Abbey Celebrates The Grand Finale will feature special conversations from the beloved cast of the highly anticipated third and final film.

The cast have reunited at London's famed Savoy Hotel to exclusively share personal memories and never-before-told secrets from the franchise's 15-year journey.

It will feature the film's main stars, including Hugh Bonneville, Laura Carmichael, Jim Carter, Raquel Cassidy, and Michelle Dockery.

As well as Kevin Doyle, Michael Fox, Joanne Froggatt, Elizabeth McGovern and more.

Those behind the scenes will also feature, including production designer Donal Woods, costume designer Anna Mary Scott Robbins, and composer John Lunn.

The BAFTA-winning series originally aired on ITV from 2010 to 2015 before the release of the first film, which hit screens in 2019.

It was followed by the sequel Downton Abbey: A New Era in 2022, and now The Grand Finale is almost ready to hit cinemas.
Corey Feldman sparked concern after he went missing for five days following the Dancing with the Stars cast reveal.

Professional dancer Jenna Johnson said that ever since the cast reveal on September 3, she had not seen the Stand By Me actor, 54, who is her partner for the current season.

Johnson sparked concern revealing The Goonies star had been absent for rehearsals since the full season 34 cast reveal on Good Morning America.

She wrote on her Instagram Stories on September 6, as she responded to fan concern: 'So many people have been like, "Where are your TikToks with Corey? What's happening?"

'To be completely honest, I actually haven't seen him since Good Morning America.'

Corey Feldman sparked concern as he was missing for five days after the Dancing with the Stars cast reveal

Even though her partner was still absent at the time, she said that she was excited for the upcoming season premiere.

On Tuesday, however, she shared photos and a video of her and Feldman finally reuniting and officially kicking off rehearsals.

His joining of the dance competition series comes shortly after he made a shocking display during a late July outing.

She shared a video of them lip syncing to a viral audio clip between 'two best friends' and posted it alongside the caption: 'Corey + Jenna have entered the tik tok chat.'

'Oh my god, today was so much fun,' Johnson pretended to say in the video.

Feldman lip synced back: 'They were probably looking at us like what are those two best friends doing.'

'Wait, what?' Johnson asked him before he answered, 'They were probably looking at us.'

Then she lip synced, 'No, after that,' before they quipped back and forth excitedly: 'What are those best friends doing? That's what I thought you said.'

The pro dancer also posted a mirror selfie of them standing together in the dance studio and wrote over the snapshot: 'Omg we're BACK!!!!'

Professional dancer Jenna Johnson said that ever since the cast reveal on September 3, she had not seen the Stand By Me actor, 54, who is her partner for the current season. On Tuesday, however, she shared photos and a video of her and Feldman finally reuniting and officially kicking off rehearsals

She shared a video of them lip syncing to a viral audio clip between 'two best friends' and posted it alongside the caption: 'Corey + Jenna have entered the tik tok chat'

'Oh my god, today was so much fun,' Johnson pretended to say in the video. Feldman lip synced back: 'They were probably looking at us like what are those two best friends doing'

Then she lip synced, 'No, after that,' before they quipped back and forth excitedly: 'What are those best friends doing? That's what I thought you said.'

The upcoming season will also see stars like Alix Earle, Dylan Efron, Hilaria Baldwin, Robert Irwin among the list of celebrity contestants. The 34th season of DWTS will premiere on ABC and Disney+ on Tuesday, September 16 and be available to stream the next day on Hulu

'I love the show so much,' Johnson  who won the Mirrorball trophy last year while paired up with The Bachelor alum Joey Graziadei  added.

'I love being part of it. I'm so grateful to be asked back, and I'm excited for this season,' she said.

Even though he has not yet started training until Tuesday, Feldman said he was prepared to begin training and start competing.

'It's a lot of work,' he told TMZ on September 7. 'But I'm grateful to learn. I'm grateful to be a student. It's nice.'

The upcoming season will also see stars like Alix Earle, Dylan Efron, Hilaria Baldwin, Robert Irwin among the list of celebrity contestants.

The 34th season of DWTS will premiere on ABC and Disney+ on Tuesday, September 16 and be available to stream the next day on Hulu.
Charlie Sheen has revealed in his new Netflix documentary that he was so high in the '90s that he had to put an ice cube inside his rectum to stay awake at work.

The actor, now 60, has opened up about his notorious battle with alcohol and substance abuse in the two-part series - aka Charlie Sheen.

His drug abuse was so extreme on the set of 1998 film Free Money that he had to take an unusual step to simply stay awake after the director noticed he was constantly falling asleep.

The actor said: 'That had never happened before.

'I said, "Give me a glass of ice" and I said, "I'll be right back." There was a little bathroom, and I went in there, and I took an ice cube and I shoved it up my butt.

'Never done that before. And, man, I was wide awake just enough to get back on the mark and finish the scene.'

Charlie Sheen revealed in his new Netflix documentary that he was so high in the '90s that he had to put an ice cube inside his rectum to stay awake at work

This was not the only incident that took place while filming the movie and Charlie also suffered an 18-hour nosebleed because of his heavy cocaine use

Charlie pictured in the movie Free Money, when his addiction caused him to take the extreme measure in order to continue filming

This was not the only incident that took place while filming the flick, but Charlie also suffered an 18-hour nosebleed because of his heavy cocaine use.

He said: 'I got an 18-hour nosebleed from doing too much cocaine.

'I just kept kind of blotting it. There was one night where it actually dripped onto my shirt during a scene. I got the director, Brett Ratner, to make that shot go away forever. And he did, because we've never seen it, right?'

Despite his struggles, Charlie was able to finally give up alcohol and drugs in 2017 - and he has been single and celibate ever since.

But the former Two And A Half Men star - who has been married three times - still hopes to find love again in the future.

He told New York Post column PageSix: 'If I don't have a girlfriend and I'm not paying for it, then I think the math is pretty simple. The math is pretty simple ... Oh my gosh, for so long [sex] was all I cared about, or it was near the top of the priority list.

'And so I just saw [celibacy] as a needed break from those pursuits. That's not me slamming the door on anything in the future. No, I would absolutely welcome some type of companionship.'

Charlie and his then-wife Brooke Miller at the 2007 Emmy Awards - he has been single and celibate since getting sober in 2017

Charlie was previously married to Donna Peele in the 1990s. And he was wed to actress Denise Richards between 2002 and 2006.

His third marriage to Brooke Mueller lasted from 2002 until 2006.

He is dad to five children from his previous relationships - Cassandra, 40, with ex Paula Profit, daughters Sami, 21, and Lola, 20, with Denise, and 16-year-old twin sons Bob and Max with Brooke.

Opening up about his marriage to Brooke - who also suffered from drug problems - Charlie admitted she's now doing well. And the former couple's rocky past doesn't impact their current situation.

He told the publication: '[Brooke is] doing great. Our kids deserve better than [to] read about a bunch of stuff that happened, but that doesn't really inform any part of how we all function currently.'

Back in June 2016, Charlie revealed he contracted HIV after having unprotected sex with two people.

He said: 'I was always the guy that promoted it and said youve got to use condoms, this and that,' he said, adding 'I was too drunk or too bored one night and here we are.'

While he publicly disclosed his diagnosis in the November before, the former Two And A Half Men star is still adjusting to his predicament.

'People say, What does it feel like to be the face of HIV?. Im like, Euugh, unintentional. But if thats the reality of it, then so be it.'

The actor used his diagnosis as a starting point to start turning his life around.

The actor added that he feels lucky to be alive and hopes he's got a bright future ahead of him.

He said: 'This story should've ended 100 times 20 years ago, and it didn't. And it didn't. So whatever happens next might be just where some of the real gold has been hidden, you know?'

aka Charlie Sheen is available to stream on Netflix now.
Waterloo Road is officially set to return on Tuesday, 23 September - and fans can binge the entire series on iPlayer if they want to.

Otherwise, the popular drama will be airing in a double bill every Tuesday at 9pm on BBC1.

Life at the school is set to be shaken up in the new season by the school's new media studies teacher, Darius Donovan (Jon Richardson).

Aptly enough, he is said to be able to put on a good show himself and is described as being full of charm.

Needless to say, the school will be joined this term by some new pupils too, including the grand-children and daughter of Dame Stella Drake (Lindsey Coulson) - who stepped into the role of head teacher in season 15.

The long-running show first hit screens way back in 2006 and has featured many a compelling storyline and recurring character.

Waterloo Road FIRST LOOK: New images of Jon Richardson (centre) as the new media studies teacher revealed as the return date was announced

Life at Waterloo Road is set to be shaken up in the new season by the school's new media studies teacher, Darius Donovan (Jon Richardson)

The long-running show first hit screens way back in 2006 and has featured many a compelling storyline and recurring character

Adam Thomas, 36, has portrayed Dante Charles in the show for almost 20 years - starting out as a pupil before taking a job as the school's caretaker.

Season 19 will see the return of Headteacher Stella, who is set to face a new tragedy where 'the choices of some of Waterloo Road's own will have some life-changing consequences'

Long-running fans of the show are also in for a treat as Jason Merrell, 56, is returning to reprise his role as Jack Rimmer - the school's first-ever head - only this time, he will be working as Waterloo Road's new school counsellor.

The BBC said in a statement: 'The new series will explore topics including the cost-of-living crisis, addiction, support systems, mental health, exam anxiety, allergies management and grief.'

'This series of Waterloo Road will also feature a full on-location episode, directed by Angela Griffin.

'The episode will see more familiar faces return as the student-body heads to the local estate to participate in a community clean-up that doesn't quite go to plan.'

The show, filmed in Manchester, was recently recommissioned for a further two seasons despite widespread cutbacks within British television.

Adam Thomas, 36, (left) has portrayed Dante Charles in the show for almost 20 years - starting out as a pupil before taking a job as the school's caretaker

Long-running fans of the show are also in for a treat as Jason Merrell, 56, is returning to reprise his role as Jack Rimmer - the school's first-ever head - only this time, he will be working as Waterloo Road's new school counsellor

First-look images show students in trouble, the arrival of Jon's character, and, of course, the return of Jack Rimmer.

Jon, famed for his work as a comedian, told the BBC: 'I would say that joining Waterloo Road is a dream come true, but in truth most of my dreams about school revolve around not having done my homework or put on my uniform.

'I wanted to be a teacher growing up so hopefully this role will put all those ambitions to bed, and I can stop telling my friends and family that I will be testing them on what I've been saying or telling audiences on tour that it's their own time they're wasting.'

Waterloo Road remains one of the BBC's most popular shows and has consistently explored real-life topics affecting young people in the UK - from eating disorders to bereavement.
One of the highlights of the summer was our scoop about property developer Max Shepherd enjoying a cosy reunion with his ex Dina Broadhurst.

The pair, who dated for four years until 2023, got together in Sydney in December to sell their Darling Point apartment - but in between meetings with potential buyers, they managed to squeeze in an afternoon of sunbathing at Kutti Beach.

It was all above board, but we did notice that Dina was topless - and we immediately wondered what Max's then-fiancee, American actress Vail Bloom, thought of it all.

While we make no suggestion Max was unfaithful, Vail wasn't impressed by Dina parading half-naked in front of her man. The couple's long-distance relationship between Sydney and LA crumbled within months, with Vail confirming the break-up to us exclusively in early February.

Flash forward to September and Max is now loved up with Hannah Waites, a DJ and executive business manager at Future Now Capital.

From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the Daily Mail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop.

Vail Bloom (left), the ex-fiancee of Sydney property developer Max Shepherd (right), has addressed his new relationship, telling Daily Mail she hopes he 'brings his best self this time'

Max is now loved up with Hannah Waites (left), a DJ and executive business manager at Future Now Capital. They went public with their relationship at a recent society wedding in Bali

We've known about them since June, but they waited until the surprise wedding of restaurateur Charlie Kelly and his wife Mira in Bali last month to go public.

In response to this news, we once again reached out to Vail to get her thoughts on Max's new relationship. Her response was gracious... but there was a sting in the tail that suggests there may still be some lingering acrimony.

'I honestly wish him well. Every relationship is a new chance to grow, and I hope he brings his best self this time - hopefully proximity will help,' she told the Daily Mail.

Ouch!

The LA-based mother-of-two also revealed she has just wrapped filming on a new movie in Kentucky and is looking forward to another upcoming project.

'This fall I'll be working on another film in London, and I spent the entire summer in Europe with my babies by my side, so life is really good right now,' she added.

Vail, who in addition to being an actress also starred in Vanderpump Rules, dated Max for about a year but the distance proved to throw a spanner in the works.

Before they got together, Max had been in a long-term relationship with 'nude artist' Dina, who is 15 years his senior, from 2018 until mid-2023.

One of the highlights of the summer was our scoop about Max's beachside reunion with his topless ex Dina Broadhurst. The photos went down like a lead balloon with Vail, and their relationship faltered months later

They owned a plush apartment in Darling Point together, which they renovated but never properly moved into, and sold it in August for $8million - a tidy profit.

In between finishing things with Vail and getting with Hannah, Max found time for a fling with Simone Holtznagel, the sister of Justin Hemmes' baby mama Madeline.

Many hoped they would be the next big society couple, but it wasn't to be.

Sources later told us Simone felt 'silly' about it all and regretted word getting out that they were seeing each other.

It comes as Max and Hannah go public with their romance after 'hard-launching' at a wedding in Canggu weeks ago.

We were first to report they were an item - and the fact that Hannah used to date Highland Double Bay director David Malouf - the same real estate agent who sold Max and Dina's Darling Point unit.

That's the eastern Sydney dating scene for you!

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Rosie O'Donnell has recounted a brutal swipe from Ellen DeGeneres that shockingly ended their friendship, despite being close for years.

O'Donnell, 63, maintains that she and DeGeneres had been friends for 30 years, and even had pictures of DeGeneres posing with her children.

However, DeGeneres, 67, began telling a different story and during a 2004 interview on Larry King Live, went so far as to deny that they even knew each other.

She told King she didn't know O'Donnell and that well and they weren't 'really friends'.

The sting of the swipe has remained to this day, and O'Donnell shed light on just how deep the wound has run during a chat on the podcast No Filter.

O'Donnell was watching DeGeneres' interview in bed with her then-wife Kelli Carpenter when the comedienne dropped the bombshell.

'That was like one of the most painful things that ever happened to me in show business in my life,' O'Donnell recalled. 'I couldn't believe it.'

Rosie O'Donnell has recounted the agony of learning how Ellen DeGeneres really felt about their friendship

DeGeneres appeared on The Rosie O'Donnell Show in 1996, where O'Donnell introduced her as 'my buddy'

When asked why she said that, O'Donnell replied: 'I don't know, because I have photos of her holding my newborn babies. I knew her for 30 years.'

The moment left such an impact on O'Donnell that she even had T-shirts made out of the phrase.

'It was so upsetting to me that I had T-shirts made,' she said. '"I don't know Rosie, we're not friends," and I gave them out to my staff. It was very painful and I never sort of got over it.'

While O'Donnell had DeGeneres on as a guest on her own talk show - even introducing her as 'my buddy' - the Harriet The Spy actress wasn't invited on to Ellen until the show's 19th season.

She said DeGeneres had never reached out to explain her comments.

'We're not similar,' she said. 'We're not emotionally similar. I was never asked to go on her show. When I was, it was long after they had been on for many years. And she had the same staff as my show, the same producers, the same everything. And now I don't blame her for doing that, I didn't create the genre of a Merv Griffin Mike Douglas talk show,' she said.

'But I did think that she was, all of a sudden, in the position I was in. Where she was starting a show, and wanting it to be successful, and get the money and the accolades that came with it. And instead of deciding to stand next to me and hold my hand, which is what I did to her, she did the opposite. I couldn't believe it,' she said.

When asked if she was aware about the allegations of a toxic workplace at Ellen, she replied: 'I knew the way she treated me must be the way she treats others, and I felt very betrayed... And you hear things, you know, you hear things from different people.'

O'Donnell claims DeGeneres has asked her several times why she continues to bring the issue up.

'I'm now 63 and she's a few years older than me. I don't wish her any ill will. But I never could kind of get past it. And a lot of times, you know, she has said or written me and said, "Why are you still talking about this?"' O'Donnell claimed, prompting her to reply, 'It was profound for me. It was a profound moment.'

Rosie and Ellen shared an embrace at the beginning of their interview

O'Donnell said the icing left such an impact on her that she even had T-shirts made out of it

Had the tables been turned, O'Donnell says she would have offered an apology.

'I would have apologised, I would have said "I'm really sorry I hurt you that much and I don't know why I did that and it was a mistake and I hope you can forgive me." That's what I would have done,' she said.

'But I think in her mind, she thinks I keep rehashing it for pleasure. I don't rehash it for pleasure. I rehash it because our careers have taken sort of parallel, interwoven paths.

'We're gay talk show hosts and we're around the same age so people would always ask me about it, and I have a hard time not telling the truth.'

The drama all began when DeGeneres appeared on Larry King Live shortly after O'Donnell came out as lesbian.

DeGeneres was asked what her thoughts were about the news and she replied: 'I don't know. You know, maybe she didn't -- I don't really know Rosie that well. I mean, I've spoken to her, but we're not really friends. We don't, like -- so I don't really know and I couldn't say what her...'

O'Donnell was more or less persona non grata on The Ellen DeGeneres Show during its long tenure but was finally asked to appear as a guest in season 19.

O'Donnell also addressed allegations of a toxic workplace at Ellen, saying, 'I knew the way she treated me must be the way she treats others'

Rosie with Ellen and her wife Portia de Rossi

'We had a little bit of a weird thing, and after my show went off the air and hers was coming on the air,' O'Donnell explained to host Andy Cohen.

'Larry King was on with Ellen and he said "What ever happened to Rosie O'Donnell? Her show went down the tubes! She came out as a lesbian and disappeared!"'

'And Ellen said, and I'm quoting, "I don't know Rosie. We're not friends."'

At the time, O'Donnell was watching the interview at home with her ex-wife.

'I was in bed with Kelli and I said "Did I just hear that? Or was that a hallucination, auditory voice in my '' she recollected. 'And that's what happened. And it hurt my feelings like a baby. And I never really got over it.'

Nearly more than a decade later, Rosie was finally asked to come on Ellen's show as a guest, she revealed, but to make it 'a little less awkward' there was talk of bringing on someone with her.

Ultimately that idea didn't fly but O'Donnell seemed not to harbor ill will towards DeGeneres.

Rosie and Ellen in 1992 in a photo shared by Melissa Ethridge

'I wish her all good things in her life and that she should be well,' she said.

Over the summer, DeGeneres even showed her support for O'Donnell after President Donald Trump threatened to revoke The Flintstones star's U.S. citizenship.

Both women have left the United States following Trump's re-election.

The Rosie O'Donnell Show, a once very popular daytime chat series, aired from 1996 to 2002. Ellen's talk show seemingly replaced Rosie in 2003 and went on for 19 seasons until ending following a toxic workplace controversy.

In 2023, O'Donnell revealed that DeGeneres had reach out to apologize sometime after her WWHL appearance.

'She wrote, "Im really sorry, and I dont remember that." I guess she saw me talk about it on Andy Cohens show,' she told The Hollywood Reporter.

'I remembered it so well, I had T-Shirts printed and I gave them to my staff that said I dont know Rosie. Were not friends.'

Rosie went on to explain that she isn't willing to let her back in the circle of trust despite the two a long history together.

She explained; 'I have a picture of her holding [my then-infant son] Parker. I know her mother. I could identify her brother without her in the room. I knew her for so many years. It just felt like I dont trust this person to be in my world.'
James McAvoy was reportedly punched by a man while at a bar in Toronto on Monday.

The actor, 46, was in Canada for the premiere of his directorial debut California Schemin' at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday.

While having a quiet night at the bar the following evening with his wife Lisa Liberati, James was reportedly hit by a stranger at 11:55pm.

Caught off guard, the actor tried to deescalate the situation while others intervened to remove the man.

A source told People: 'James was having a casual get-together with the producers of his movie and, as he later learned when speaking with the staff, there was a man who drank too much who was getting escorted out.'

The insider added that James stayed at the bar and even laughed off the incident with other patrons.

James McAvoy was reportedly punched by a man while at a bar in Toronto on Monday

The actor, 46, was in Canada for the premiere of his directorial debut California Schemin' at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday (pictured with his wife Lisa Liberati)

The Daily Mail has contacted both James' representatives and Charlotte's Room for comment.

James' new film tells the story of a Dundee hip hop duo who swindle thousands from music producers by pretending to be Californian.

The actor told how he chose to direct the film because the Scots accent is 'underrepresented'.

'I wanted my debut to be Scottish, because we're underrepresented,' he said.

'And this film is partly about one of the reasons that you don't have more Scottish films.

'The noise that comes out of our mouths alienates people. They think it's exotic. They think we're talking about kilts or porridge, but they can't listen to it for an hour and a half.'

The new director said most screenplays that came his way were set on Scottish housing estates and resonated with his working-class Glaswegian roots. But they lacked hope.

He added: 'I'm a very privileged first-time director, being a relatively successful actor after 30 years.

A source said: 'James was having a casual get-together with the producers of his movie and, as he later learned when speaking with the staff, there was a man who drank too much who was getting escorted out'

James' film is based on the story of Dundee rappers Sillibil N' Brains, who swindled thousands from music producers by pretending to be Californian

'This came along and I saw an opportunity to tell a story about people with limited horizons, yet still be aspirational and entertaining and comedic.'

'California Schemin' follows Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd, talented performers whose accents provoked laughter from executives at an audition in London.

They returned, reinvented as riotous southern Californians with fresh tunes and swagger by the bucketload.

In the film, McAvoy, whose acting credits include Wanted, Atonement, Split and Speak No Evil, plays a snarling producer who signs the Eminem-loving rappers to his label and launches them on the path to fame.

In reality, Bain and Boyd landed a deal with Sony UK and recorded a handful of unreleased albums.

After two years of living a lie, combined with excessive drinking and frequent infighting, the facade cracked and that was their exit from the industry.

Boyd, left the music industry and now works in the oil industry. Bain continued his solo career under the moniker 'Brains'.
Andy Lee has hit back after he was slammed for his extravagant renovation plans for his Melbourne mansion.

The funnyman, 44, and his partner Rebecca, 35, have spent the last two years restoring a 150-year-old derelict home by the Yarra River in Melbourne.

As the protracted renovation continues, Andy took to Instagram on Friday to explain he and Rebeccas renovation will feature two mansions connected by a tunnel.

Many slammed the comedian's extravagant design and accused him of 'being out of touch'.

'Definitely lost touch,' one person said while another wrote: 'Geez, how many people are living in this house?'

'Lost touch with the common man for sure,' a third commented.

Andy Lee has hit back after he was slammed for sharing his extravagant renovation plans on his Melbourne mansion

'From both sides it's just a modern monstrosity! WHY was the fabulous riverside view covered up?' another questioned.

Andy hit back at the backlash and explained the couple plan to use the old house as an office.

[We have] plans to have an office each upstairs and a guest room on the ground floor,' he said.

'It's designed so guests can visit but also have their own space.'

In the video posted to Instagram, Andy explained his extensive building plans to fans.

'A lot of people have been asking what the hell are we doing with this house,' Andy began. 'That's a very good question  I've wondered that as well.'

'Here is a quick take. The main problem was the back of the house is actually its front because they used to arrive by the Yarra.'

He then revealed that the solution to the problem was to build a second house at the back of the original structure, with both houses connected via an underground tunnel.

The funnyman, 44, and his partner, 35, have spent the last two years restoring a 150-year-old derelict home by the Yarra River in Melbourne

Andy hit back at the backlash and explained how the couple are going to use the old house as an office

'We need to preserve that and that's where you'd normally build off for an extension,' he said.

'So, the architects had a great idea which was to build a bit further back... so we could have a new building  the river house, a piazza in between, and we can look back at the heritage house.

'They've also created a tunnel between the two so it's connected.'

As he spoke, Andy shared architectural renders of the finished product and continued to offer details about the new river house.

'We've decided we're going to clad the newer build with an oxidised copper like the Statue of Liberty, so it's kind of a greeny-blue and it will feel a lot more warmth and disappear into the sky,' Andy explained.

He added that the plans had been met with his partner's approval, saying: 'Bec just lost her marbles when she saw this.'

Andy and Rebecca have grand plans for their Italianate manor, with the planned renovation worth an estimated $5 million having begun in 2023.

The comedian has been hard at work on the derelict Melbourne mansion, Ravenswood, which he bought for $8.5 million in 2021, undergoing a Block-style rebuild.

The couple won council approval for their development application in June 2023.

Other highlights planned for the 1,950 square metre holding include a home theatre, a gym, a swimming pool and a 'mega bedroom'.
Dog the Bounty Hunter star Duane Chapman's police officer son, Garry Chapman, has been put on administrative leave following his involvement in a fatal crash that left a teen dead.

Officer Chapman, 24, has been placed on paid leave at Alabama sheriff's department pending the outcome of the investigation.

Priceville Mayor and Police Committee Chair, Sam Heflin, did not confirm if Garry is related to the reality TV star. But sources told the publication that Garry is indeed Duane's son.

The circumstances of the accident, which took place in Hartselle, Alabama, are still under investigation, but Chapman was reportedly involved in a chase on September 6 that left six people hospitalized and resulted in the death of 17-year-old Tristan Hollis.

The conditions of the other victims have not been released.

DailyMail.com has reached out to the Police Committee Chair and Chapman's representatives for comment.

Dog the Bounty Hunter star Duane Chapman's, 72, police officer son, Garry Chapman, 24, has been put on administrative leave following his involvement in a fatal crash that left a teen dead; Chapman pictured with his father at his Police Graduation in Alabama

Officer Chapman has been placed on paid leave pending the outcome of the investigation  a standard procedure  according to TMZ; Seen in his police uniform

One of the victims in the hospital, named Archie Hale, is also a possible suspect in the case.

Local reports indicate Archie's car struck another vehicle, sending it through an intersection before his own car crashed into a ditch.

It's not clear if drugs or alcohol were involved in the crash.

The 17-year-old victim's grandmother, Beth Campbell Vinson, shared a photo of the teen over the weekend, writing, 'Its so hard to believe! My sweet 17 year old grandson, Tristan Hollis is in Jesus arms.'

'He passed away from injuries he sustained in a horrible auto accident last night in Hartselle. Please, please pray for my daughter, Rachel, our family and the Hollis family. Thank you for your prayers.'

Chapman was recently featured on the Priceville Police Departments social media in April.

In a short Q&A Chapman said that he has worked as a police officer for three and a half years, a total that includes his time as a corrections officer.

He also shared it was his famous dad who inspired him to become one.

'Even though he wasnt in law enforcement, he always lived by the motto: "Leave people better than you found them." Watching how he treated others and carried himself with integrity made a huge impact on me.'

'I knew I wanted to follow a path where I could make that same kind of difference. Law enforcement became that path for me,' he shared.

The circumstances of the accident are still under investigation, but Chapman was reportedly involved in a chase on September 6 that left six people hospitalized and resulted in the death of 17-year-old Tristan Hollis; Chapman pictured on September 7

Hollis, who died in the accident, pictured in a post shared by his grandmother, Beth Campbell Vinson

The crash site pictured in news footage

Chapman was recently featured on the Priceville Police Departments social media in April

In a short Q&A Chapman said that he has worked as a police officer for three and a half years, a total that includes his time as a corrections officer

He also shared it was his famous dad who inspired him to become one. 'Even though he wasnt in law enforcement, he always lived by the motto: "Leave people better than you found them"'

Chapman added that outside of work he enjoys, 'spending time with my family, church and going to the gym focusing on my physical health.'

At the time he also revealed he's a 'full-time college student' and had received the 'Outstanding Student in Criminal Justice award' that month.

Dog the Bounty Hunter has children from six different relationships.

He shares Garry with his late fifth wife Beth Smith, who died from stage II throat cancer. The two also welcomed daughter Bonnie Joanne (born December 16, 1998).

Chapman also adopted Beth's daughter from her previous marriage, Cecily Barmore-Chapman.

Some of his children gained public recognition through their appearances on his long-running reality series, Dog the Bounty Hunter, which followed his pursuit of fugitives from Hawaii to his native Colorado.

It comes just a month after Duane's stepson, Gregory Zecca, was put on a psychiatric hold after accidentally fatally shooting his thirteen-year-old son.

Gregory, 38, was placed on a 5150 psychiatric hold following the devastating tragedy amid concerns that he might try to take his own life, according to TMZ.

Anthony was accidentally shot and killed by Gregory  who is the son of Chapman's wife Francie  at their family apartment in Naples.

Anthony's fatal gunshot wound was on his neck, just above his sternum, with no exit wound, per a police report from the Collier County Sheriff's Office in Florida obtained by DailyMail.com.

Law enforcement said Anthony had lost a huge amount of blood by the time they arrived at the scene  with the teenager receiving CPR, chest compressions and a chest seal in an ultimately futile bid to save his life.

Deputies were dispatched at 8:08 p.m. ET to the scene  with Zecca pronounced dead at 8:21 p.m. ET.

He shares Garry with his late fifth wife Beth Smith, who died from stage II throat cancer. The two also welcomed daughter Bonnie Joanne; Duane and Beth pictured 2005

The firearm used in the shooting was on the kitchen island when deputies arrived.

Gregory  who is Francie's son from a previous marriage  reportedly collaborates with his stepfather Duane on his bounty hunting team.

He is notably a gun enthusiast. Back in 2021, he proudly shared photos of himself and his late son 'getting some range time in' with their rifles.

The Chapmans  who began dating in 2020  first bonded over their shared grief about being widowed.

Duane suffered the loss of his fifth wife Beth in 2019, and Francie suffered the loss of her husband Bob Frane in 2018.
After previously rocking looks inspired by Madonna and Britney Spears, Sabrina Carpenter paid homage to another female music icon this week.

While attending her MTV Video Music Awards after-party in New York City on Sunday, the Espresso hitmaker, 26, rocked a vintage Bob Mackie frock that Cher famously wore 50 years ago.

It features a skintight black bodysuit and dazzling pink and blue fringe decked out with mirror rhinestones for maximum glamour.

The dress was custom created for the legend, 79, and famously worn during her duet performance of the hit 'Shame, Shame, Shame' with Tina Turner on The Cher Show back in April 1975.

And the archival Mackie frock fit perfectly with Sabrina's VMAs after-party theme, which was Studio54-inspired.

The two-time Grammy winner oozed confidence in Cher's original dress as she made her way into the soiree with her security guards in tow.

After previously rocking looks inspired by Madonna and Britney Spears, Sabrina Carpenter paid homage to another female music icon this week

While attending her MTV Video Music Awards after-party in New York City on Sunday, the Espresso hitmaker, 26, rocked a vintage Bob Mackie frock that Cher famously wore 50 years ago

She styled it with sky-high silver chrome heels, which added several inches to her petite 5foot frame.

The Pennsylvania native further leaned into the 1970s aesthetic by styling her signature blonde hair in voluminous disco era curls.

As for her makeup, Sabrina rocked bold lower lashes and a vibrant pink lip.

Cher wasn't the only music icon that Sabrina paid tribute to during the 2025 MTV VMAs.

For her first-ever TV performance of her latest single, Tears, Sabrina appeared to channel Britney Spears as she stripped down to a bedazzled bra and danced in the 'rain' inside UBS Arena in Elmont, New York.

Sabrina's look and performance was reminiscent of one of the acts on Spears' Dream Within a Dream Tour back in 2001.

Spears famously writhed around in the rain while wearing a diamond Bob Mackie bra  which sold at auction for $78,000 earlier this year  during the iconic concert, which was later turned into a televised concert special for HBO.

Sabrina also gave nod to Spears at last year's MTV Video Music Awards.

She famously played Spears' iconic voiceover from her 2000 smash hit, Oops! I Did It Again, just moments before taking to the stage to perform a medley of songs from her sixth studio album, Short n' Sweet.

The dress was custom created for the music legend, 79, and famously worn during her duet performance with Tina Turner on The Cher Show back in April 1975

It features a skintight black bodysuit and dazzling pink and blue fringe decked out with mirror rhinestones for maximum glamour

Spears reacted to the tribute via Instagram, tellings fans that Sabrina made her 'cool' again.

'I forget I'm famous sometimes because I'm a mom, I'm kind of old, blah blah blah. But I thought it was kind of cool. She made me cool,' the pop icon said.

At that year's VMAs ceremony, Sabrina also showcased her love for Madonna by wearing the dazzling Bob Mackie gown that the 67-year-old once wore to the Oscars in 1991.

Sabrina channeled Madonna again months later for her first-ever Vogue cover in February as she posed in a platinum-blonde wavy wig and a baby blue Dolce & Gabbana teddy that was reminiscent of Madonna's iconic Jean Paul Gaultier corset from her 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour.

Many fans marveled at how much Sabrina and Madonna 'look alike'  which inspired a response from the Queen Of Pop herself.

Madonna took to Sabrina's official Instagram account at the time to comment with eye emojis: 'Is this a Valentine's present to me?'

At that, Sabrina - who boasts 99.8M social media followers - responded: '@madonna It sure is!'

At this year's MTV Video Music Awards, Sabrina took home three Moon Person trophies.

For her first-ever performance of her latest single, Tears, Sabrina appeared to channel Britney Spears as she stripped down to a bedazzled bra and danced in the 'rain'

At last year's VMAs, Sabrina showcased her love for Madonna by wearing the dazzling Bob Mackie gown that the 67-year-old famously wore to the Oscars in 1991

At the 2025 VMAs, Sabrina, donning vintage Bob Mackie, took home three Moon Person trophies

She first won in the Best Album category for Short N Sweet, which was released last August.

She began her acceptance speech by thanking her fans as she said: 'Hello. Oh, my goodness. There's so many people here. Well, thank you. Thank you, VMAs, for this. This is, this is my second moon man, which is so crazy.

'I really don't take for granted when you guys take the time out of your lives to listen to album. And if I'm lucky enough that that is my album, I am so grateful whether that be Short N Sweet or Man's Best Friend my new album or one of my 29 before that. I'm just the luckiest girl in the world'

She later went on to win Best Pop Artist and Best Visual Effects for her Manchild music video.
Hoda Kotb brought her one-of-a-kind charm back to the Today show Tuesday, with an emotional reunion with her longtime on-air peers after leaving the NBC morning show earlier this year to cap off a successful 17-year stint.

Kotb, 61, supported and consoled her longtime colleague Sheinelle Jones, 47, following the tragic death of Jones' spouse Uche Ojeh at 45 this past May after a battle with brain cancer.

Jones recently spoke about how she's coping with the difficult time in an on-air interview Savannah Guthrie conducted.

'I just said this to Sheinelle,' Kotb said. 'She's changing lives just by being exactly who she is.'

Kotb appeared opposite Guthrie, Willie Geist, Jenna Bush Hager, Craig Melvin and Al Roker following her exit from the show nine months ago.

Kotb praised Jones for her candor and perseverance in the wake of her husbands tragic passing.

Hoda Kotb, 61, brought her one-of-a-kind charm to the Today Show Tuesday, with an emotional reunion with her longtime on-air peers

Kotb supported and consoled her longtime colleague Sheinelle Jones, 47, following the tragic death of Jones' spouse Uche Ojeh at 45 this past May after a battle with brain cancer .

'Three of my friends called immediately after you guys were talking and said that they felt forever changed after listening to that conversation,' Kotb said. 'So I was saying, you don't have to make any effort - just be - and you're doing what you're doing.'

The Norman, Oklahoma-born TV personality told Jones: 'So anyway, I love you - that was amazing.'

Jones began working at NBC 11 years ago, and has maintained a regular presence on the Today show in the years since.

Jones took a break from the program last December to support her spouse amid his illness.

The following month, in a January 15 Instagram post, Jones told her Instagram followers shes been taking 'time to deal with the family health matter' without getting into any more detail.

The subject was broached on the May 23 edition of the Today show, as Jones' colleagues explained that her beloved spouse had died following a brave battle with cancer. Jones said in a subsequent reply on Instagram, 'Thank you for all your love and support.'

Jones maintained a low profile up until her return to the Today show this past September 5, when she chat with Guthrie about what she had been through in recent months.

In the chat, she described the massive impact her spouses passing had on her emotionally: 'My heart is shattered in a million pieces ... the life that I've known since I was 19 is no more.'

Kotb praised Jones for her candor and perseverance in the wake of her husbands tragic passing

Kotb pictured January 10 in NYC as she was honored in leaving the show after a 17-year stint

Jones said that part of her grief was for the three children she shared with her late spouse: Kayin, 15, and twins Clara and Uche, 12.

'I've always wanted kids - I used to dream of having kids,' Jones said. 'I used to put pictures up of kids, in my room and my friends would be like, "You're weird, you don't know those kids," and I would laugh.

'I have three kids of my own now, and they've lost their dad and I'm their mom.'

Kotb is mother to two daughters: 'Haley Joy, eight, and Hope Catherine, six. Her last day working on the Today show came January 10 of this year.

The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon was among the notable names to show up and honor the veteran TV host, presenting her with a framed portrait of the NBC peacock as seen in the hallways of the network's New York headquarters.

Fallon told Kotb he titled the picture Onward and Upward 'cause you're getting on the elevator and going up, right?

'But then I signed it, and then no one can read my writing. My handwriting's so bad so it looks like it says Osmond and Uptown.'

Kotb praised both Guthrie and Melvin in an emotional segment on the broadcast , saying, 'Savannah, oh, my God - you're my person, you're my person.

'You know who shows up for everybody? This girl  she's in the room, she's always in the room, and I love you.'
Kim Kardashian nearly spilled out of her busty silk bra before flashing cleavage in a low-cut suede top in never-before-seen photos from her recent Italian getaway.

The SKIMS founder, 44, ventured to Italy with her 12-year-old daughter North West last month and it proved to be a jam-packed trip.

During her stay, Kim joined stars at the annual Venice Film Festival, toured Rome's iconic Colosseum and shopped luxury in Milan  all before being honored for her criminal justice reform advocacy by Diane von Furstenberg, 78, in Venice.

But it was Kim's show-stopping outfits on the streets of Italy that truly captivated her 355million Instagram followers.

From Miu Miu to Alaia, the mother-of-four was decked out in designer threads curated by her stylist Dani Levi.

Kim kicked off her slideshow with a photo of herself modeling a sexy suede Alaia look consisting of a plunging suede top and a low-rise maxi skirt.

Kim Kardashian nearly spilled out of her busty silk bra before flashing cleavage in a low-cut suede top in never-before-seen photos from her recent Italian getaway

The SKIMS founder, 44, ventured to Italy with her 12-year-old daughter North West last month and it proved to be a jam-packed trip

The outfit showed off Kim's ample chest as well as her chiseled abs, which she earned by working out a reported 'five or six days a week.'

For a gothic touch, the mogul accessorized with chunky silver cross necklaces and carried her essentials in a shiny alligator skin clutch.

Next, Kim looked radiant in a lingerie-esque look that saw her waltz around Italy in a racy silky balconette bra from Miu Miu and a matching pencil skirt.

The coord was paired with a glamorous black fur shall and bright white heeled sandals.

One shot of Kim in the look made it appear as though she were about to spill out of the tiny Miu Miu bra top as she leaned over to adjust her skirt's waistband.

For one of her nights out in Italy, Kim showed plenty of leg in a flowing black gown with a daring thigh-high slit.

Instead of having bare legs, the KUWTK alum slipped on black floral patterned fishnet tights.

Like her Alaia outfit, Kim chose to accessorize with a chunky silver cross necklace.

But it was Kim's show-stopping outfits on the streets of Italy that truly captivated her 355million Instagram followers

From Miu Miu to Alaia, the mother-of-four was decked out in designer threads curated by her stylist Dani Levi

Kim kicked off her slideshow with a photo of herself modeling a sexy suede Alaia look consisting of a plunging suede top and a low-rise maxi skirt

The outfit showed off Kim's ample chest as well as her chiseled abs, which she earned by working out a reported 'five or six days a week'

Next, Kim looked radiant in a lingerie-esque look that saw her waltz around Italy in a racy silky balconette bra from Miu Miu and a matching pencil skirt

The coord was paired with a glamorous black fur shall and bright white heeled sandals

For one of her nights out in Italy, Kim showed plenty of leg in a flowing black gown with a daring thigh-high slit

Instead of having bare legs, the KUWTK alum slipped on black floral patterned fishnet tights

Last but not least, Kim toured the Colosseum in Rome in skintight black pants, a tiny black crop top and sandals

Kim included a photo of North in Tuesday's vacation photo dump from the day of their Colosseum tour

Last but not least, Kim toured the Colosseum in Rome in skintight black pants, a tiny black crop top and sandals.

The star was surrounded by security guards and joined by her eldest daughter North and stylist Dani at the historic site, which was built in 80 AD.

Photos of Kim, North and Dani visiting the Colosseum quickly went viral online as the pre-teen appeared unimpressed by the landmark despite its incredible history.

Kim included a photo of North in Tuesday's vacation photo dump from the day of their Colosseum tour.

The 12-year-old  who Kim shares with ex-husband Kanye West  rocked her controversial blue hair and an adorable beige dress as she and her famous mom enjoyed an Italian treat.

Kim has since returned to Los Angeles and appears to be back in work mode.

Most recently, the reality TV star  who is worth a reported $1.7billion  celebrated the release of SKIMS' new fall collection.

Proving to be her own best advertisement, Kim modeled the see-through garments herself for fans.

Kim has since returned to Los Angeles and appears to be back in work mode. Most recently, the reality TV star celebrated the release of SKIMS' fall collection.

Proving to be her own best advertisement, Kim modeled the see-through garments herself for fans

She looked incredible in a sheer snakeskin print clothes with her brunette hair worn in a sleek bun.

The billionaire also appeared to go for a minimal makeup look for the shoot.

'SHOP SKIMS FALL WARDROBE ON SKIMS.COM,' the post's caption read.

Kim launched SKIMS back in 2018 and the shapewear company is now valued at over $4billion.
Lindsay Lohan continued to show off her incredible glow-up as she stepped out in New York City on Tuesday night.

The actress, 39  who has denied having plastic surgery  was spotted arriving at Chez Fifi restaurant for an invite-only Fendi event celebrating the brand's Spy bag.

Lohan was decked out in a chic all-black outfit featuring a mini sweater dress with luxurious fur trim along the hem.

The skirt's trim coordinated with the fur scarf wrapped around the star's neck.

Lohan completed her runway-ready look with a Fendi belt with gold hardware and shiny black knee-high boots.

The mother-of-one rocked a sleek ponytail and added a fun pop of color to her look by carrying a cherry red Spy bag.

Lindsay Lohan continued to show off her incredible glow-up as she stepped out in New York City on Tuesday night

Lohan's glow-up has been the talk of the town but the star has repeatedly denied going under the knife

She further accessorized with large Fendi sunglasses and a stylish mix of silver and gold jewelry.

As for her makeup, the Freaky Friday star rocked soft pink blush, a matte coral lip and classic winged eyeliner.

Missing from Lohan's side was her husband of three years, Bader Shammas, 38, who attended the US Open with her last week.

She and the handsome financier wed in 2022 and share a two-year-old son named Luai.

Lohan is coming off a busy few months of promoting the long-awaited sequel to the 2003 comedy Freaky Friday, titled Freakier Friday, which was released in theaters in July.

The film saw her reunite with her onscreen mom Jamie Lee Curtis for the first time in over 20 years.

And it also marked a major return to the spotlight for Lohan over a decade after she stepped away from Hollywood in 2014 and laid roots down in Dubai.

Last year, Lohan shocked fans as she debuted a nearly unrecognizable new look, which gained more attention as the promo for Freakier Friday ramped up.

The actress, 39, was spotted arriving at Chez Fifi restaurant for an invite-only Fendi event celebrating the brand's Spy bag

Lohan was decked out in a chic all-black outfit featuring a mini sweater dress with luxurious fur trim along the hem

Lohan completed her runway-ready look with a Fendi belt with gold hardware and shiny black knee-high boots

The star's youthful, wrinkle-free look quickly sparked plastic surgery speculation  with some even accusing her of 'getting a whole new face.'

But Lohan's publicist shut down the chatter when the actress asked about the facelift rumors while being interviewed for Elle earlier this year.

'The second she looks any different, they assume she had her face lifted at 37 or 38, that she ripped apart this or that. It's so mean,' she told SNL alum Chloe Fineman, who conducted the interview with Lohan.

Lohan added: 'I'm like, "When? With what time? Where?"'

The star's publicist suggested that Lohan wouldn't have had the time to undergo as extensive of a procedure as a facelift due to her busy schedule.

'I tried to figure that out, Linds, in the last three years, when you had time to do anything, because I know your schedule,' the publicist said to Lohan.

'So the haters can hate and be jealous. It just sucks that that's where they go with women in today's world. Women can't just look good to look good and change their lifestyle to be more healthy.'

While she denied going under the knife, Lohan did share some of her beauty secrets with Fineman.

Missing from Lohan's side was her husband of three years, Bader Shammas, 38, who attended the US Open with her last week; the couple seen on August 31

Lohan is coming off a busy few months of promoting the long-awaited sequel to the 2003 comedy Freaky Friday, titled Freakier Friday, which was released in theaters in July; seen with costar Jamie Lee Curtis

Lohan admitted that she's 'crazy about [her] skin and health' and that she drinks a juice 'every morning' that consists of 'carrot, ginger, lemon, olive oil, apple.'

She also said that she drinks 'a lot of green tea, a lot of water.'

Last month, Lohan stunned fans by sharing photos of her makeup-free face to Instagram.

In her caption, Lohan wrote to her 16.2 million followers: 'Fresh face and ready for bed!'

Her fans flooded her comments section with praises for her bare-faced look while others asked her to 'drop the skincare routine.'

Many of her followers asked her for her secret to how she achieved such 'flawless' skin as they speculated what non-surgical skin procedures she had done to enhance her beauty.

The Mean Girls alum was previously revealed to have been getting treatments from Beverly Hills dermatologist Dr. Monika Kiripolsky.

In late July, the dermatologist uploaded a selfie alongside the actress following an appointment in preparation for Lohan's red carpet appearance at the El Capitan Theatre for the Hollywood premiere of Freakier Friday.

Over the last year, Lohan (seen in left in 2025 and right in 2018) has wowed fans with her unbelievable glow-up

Last month, Lohan posted makeup-free selfies to Instagram that left fans begging for her to share her 'skincare routine'

However, the dermatologist replied that 'due to patient confidentiality, I can't say what treatments I've done.

'But, EVERY patient in our practice is offered the most cutting-edge combination of lasers, peels, injectables, lipo, and other amazing treatments... Always customized to that particular patient and his/her goals.'

Lohan began to appear on Kiripolsky's Instagram page last year, and the actress herself has also credited the celebrity dermatologist for her radiant skin.

During an interview with Byrdie earlier this month, the star expressed, 'I'm also big on staying consistent with my routines so I feel my best.

'That includes regular visits to my Los Angeles dermatologist, Dr. Monika Kiripolsky, whenever I'm in town for work.'

Lohan continued, 'She helps keep my skin healthy and glowing especially during breaks from heavy on-set makeup.'
Anais Gallagher put on a sizzling display in a red polka dot bikini as she jetted off to California with her brother Sonny and cousin Lennon to support their dads on tour.

The only daughter of Noel Gallagher, 25, is currently following her dad and uncle Liam on the Oasis world tour as she previously pledged to be at all of the 41 concerts.

Oasis have just wrapped up their three US dates in Chicago, New Jersey and California before they head to Mexico this weekend.

And keeping to her word, Anais flew out to the States for the tour dates - joined by her brother Sonny, 14, and cousin Lennon, 25.

Taking to Instagram on Tuesday evening, Anais shared an insight into the family trip, including a snap of cousin Lennon and his girlfriend Isobel Richmond resting on a black limousine and smoking a cigarette as her teenage brother Sonny sticks his head out the window.

In another snap shared by Anais, Sonny is again pictured wearing a Stone Island jacket at the Pasadena gig joined by the group's pal, artist Scarlet Topley.

Anais Gallagher put on a sizzling display in a red polka dot bikini on Instagram on Tuesday as she jetted off to the US with her brother Sonny and cousin Lennon to support their dads on tour

Taking to Instagram on Tuesday evening, Anais shared an insight into the family trip, including a snap of cousin Lennon and his girlfriend Isobel Richmond with her brother Sonny

She also displayed her impressive abs in a sunbathing snap as she wore a red and black polka triangle bikini, shielding her eyes from the sun.

'Gallagher takes California,' she captioned the snaps.

It comes after it was revealed Oasis will mark the 30th anniversary of their iconic Knebworth concerts with five shows planned at that venue for next summer.

Music industry sources claimed the brothers have tentative dates for 2026 following their successful world tour, which is said to have generated up to 1.2billion. The Knebworth anniversary concerts could produce an additional 100million.

One insider said: 'Talk about the chance to cash in. After all these years of insisting they won't get back together, now Liam and Noel have got these dates on hold, they have pencilled in five days for the gigs.

'It's all very exciting for fans. Back in 1996, it was so special. It was the pinnacle of Britpop so Oasis returning to Knebworth would just be perfect for the fans.

'The plan is for five concerts in what will be a music extravaganza. First the fans got a reunion tour. Now it looks like that they will be able to relive those two performances at Knebworth.'

When Oasis, whose hits include Don't Look Back In Anger and Some Might Say, played there in 1996, it is claimed that more than 2 per cent of the UK population applied for tickets, which sold out in less than 24 hours.

In another snap shared by Anais, Sonny is again pictured wearing a Stone Island jacket at the Pasadena gig joined by the group's pal, artist Scarlet Topley

The only daughter of Noel Gallagher, 25, is currently following her dad and uncle Liam on the Oasis world tour as she previously pledged to be at all of the 41 concerts

Anais was seen bathing at a waterfall wearing a black swimsuit during her trip to California last week

'Gallagher takes California ,' she captioned the snaps shred on Instagram on Tuesday evening

In 2022, Liam returned to the venue for two concerts, a year after a documentary film about the 1996 Knebworth concerts was released in cinemas.

Anais's US snaps come after she admitted she not only embraces her title as 'nepo-baby' but has also branded herself a 'nepo-girlfriend' after admitting her actor boyfriend gets her jobs on film sets.

The daughter of Oasis guitarist Noel and his ex-wife, Meghan Matthews, has been dating Welsh actor Callum Howells, 26, for almost three years after he starred in the Channel 4 series, It's A Sin.

Posing on the cover of the September Grazia wearing a 880 coat, a pair of 325 jeans, a 130 grey top and a 135 scarf all from the French brand Longchamp, she admitted: 'I jump from nepo baby to nepo girlfriend, he's managed to get me jobs on his last two film sets.

'We're a massive part of each other's lives. He and I see each other nearly every day. I'm such a champion of his work.

'I've been there every step of the way. I'm constantly running lines with him, things like that.'

Anais is attempting to carve out a career path as a photographer and previously worked snapping her dad's studio sessions and concerts with his band High Flying Birds last year.

It comes after it was revealed Oasis will mark the 30th anniversary of their iconic Knebworth concerts with five shows planned at that venue for next summer (Seen in August in New Jersey)

'It's all very exciting for fans. Back in 1996, it was so special. It was the pinnacle of Britpop so Oasis returning to Knebworth would just be perfect for the fans' (Liam and Noel Gallagher at Knebworth in 1996)

Since she was a young teenager, she has been hounded with claims of nepotism, but Anais said: 'When I was younger, I was massively in denial. "No, my dad doesn't help me". Or, "I'm talented in my own right". I pushed against it.

'I'm not delusional about the fact that my dad has helped me out immensely. I never had to get a part-time job.

'If I needed a new camera, he would buy me one. I'm very lucky that not only have they given me such a comfortable life, but my parents are very cool.

'Lots of people have parents who are really rich and help [them] out, but they're a horrible Tory politician or something. At least my dad is a cool dad.'
Michelle Dockery admitted she was entering her 'peppy phase' on Tuesday evening as she prepares to welcome her first child with husband Jasper Waller-Bridge.

The actress surprised fans by debuting a prominent baby bump during the UK premiere of eagerly anticipated Downton Abbey swansong, The Grand Finale, in September.

And she looked radiant while continuing her promotional commitments with an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, during which she discussed the 'bittersweet' end of Downton after an astonishing 15-year run.

Teaming a fitted black gown with patent leather heels from artisanal lifestyle and footwear brand SAUVEREIGN, Dockery, 43, appeared to be in high spirits as she greeted onlookers following her arrival outside the show's New York City studio.

The British star completed her look with a SAUVEREIGN pendant necklace, smart leather trench coat and heavily tinted sunglasses while posing for photos, before making her way inside ahead of a televised interview with Fallon.

'I'm feeling great thanks,' she told the host as he opened with a reference to her pregnancy. 'I'm entering my peppy phase.'

Michelle Dockery's growing baby bump was evident as she arrived at NBC Studio in New York City on Tuesday ahead of an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon

The actress looked radiant while continuing her promotional commitments on behalf of forthcoming Downton Abbey swansong, The Grand Finale

The actress also admitted she had mixed feelings about drawing a line under Downton and her career defining role as Lady Mary Crawley.

'It is bittersweet, it's been fifteen years,' she said of the franchise, which ran for six series on ITV, and its forthcoming third cinematic release.

'It's been a very long goodbye, but I think it's in the title. This is definitely the last one.'

Released on September 12, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale is set in 1930, some 18 years after the first episode.

It follows the Crawley family in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash and Lady Marys scandalous divorce.

Dockery was left heartbroken in 2015 when her fiance, Irish publicist John Dineen, died following a 15-month battle against a rare form of cancer aged 34.

She later married Jasper Waller-Bridge - the younger brother of award-winning Fleabag star Phoebe Waller-Bridge - in 2023, during a romantic ceremony attended by her Downton Abbey co-stars.

The Mail on Sunday first revealed that Dockery found love for the first time since Dineen's passing after they met through mutual friends.

Dockery married Jasper Waller-Bridge - the younger brother of Fleabag star Phoebe Waller-Bridge - in 2023 (pictured together at the UK premiere of Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale)

Dockery was left heartbroken in 2015 when her fiance, Irish publicist John Dineen, died following a 15-month battle against a rare form of cancer aged 34

In January 2022 the couple announced they were to marry in an announcement in The Times newspaper.

It read: 'The engagement is announced between Jasper, son of Michael Waller-Bridge of King's Lynn, Norfolk, and Teresa Waller-Bridge of Battersea, London, and Michelle Dockery, younger daughter of Michael and Lorraine Dockery of Gidea Park, Essex.'

Dockery, who grew up in Romford, Essex, is the daughter of Lorraine, a care home assistant from Stepney, East London and Michael Dockery, a surveyor from Athlone, Ireland.

Waller-Bridge was born and raised in West London by his mother Teresa and father Michael, now married to the designer Rosemary Goodenough.

The actress has been nominated for three consecutive Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award.

The actress looked radiant while continuing her promotional commitments on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon , during which she discussed the 'bittersweet' end of Downton
Charlie Sheen's life has been laid bare in a new Netflix show.

The Two And A Half Men star has led a life of very public highs and lows, and to mark turning 60, he is telling his side of the story.

The two-part documentary aka Charlie Sheen was released on September 10 and features interviews with Charlie, his ex-wife, actor Denise Richards and actors Sean Penn, Chris Tucker and Jon Cryer.

While many parts of Charlie's life have made headlines in the past, several revelations on the show will shock his fans.

This includes how he once piloted a jet drunk, how he lost his virginity, and he how suffered an 18-hour nosebleed during filming.

Below are the 10 biggest revelations from Charlie Sheen's new Netflix show.

Charlie Sheen's life has been laid bare in a new Netflix show called aka Charlie Sheen, released on Wednesday

The Two And A Half Men star has led a life of very public highs and lows, and to mark turning 60, he is telling his side of the story

Charlie grew up in a nudist household

Charlie recalled a period during his childhood when his parents practiced nudism.

He explained: 'Maybe for a month, or five, I don't know. I'm 5, walking into the kitchen, and there's my naked parents.'

Film director Andrew Renzi added: 'He experienced Hollywood in a way no one else had. His family lived in Malibu, and it was a totally different kind of Hollywood lifestyle.'

Charlie piloted a passenger jet while he was drunk

In one of the opening scenes, Charlie explains how in 1995, while on his honeymoon with his first wife, Donna Peele, he was invited into the cockpit of the plane to pose for pictures with the flight crew.

He asked if he could sit in the captain's chair and the co-pilot switched off the autopilot and briefly allowed Charlie to fly the plane, before switching it back on.

Charlie recalled: 'I sat back down, owning this experience, and I just knew that trouble was on the horizon.'

When asked in the film if he felt 'untouchable' in that moment, Charlie simply answered 'yes.'

While many parts of Charlie's life have made headlines in the past, several revelations on the show will shock his fans

Charlie recalled a period during his childhood when his parents practiced nudism

Extreme lengths he went to in order to stay awake to film

Charlie revealed in his new Netflix documentary that he was so high in the '90s that he had to put an ice cube inside his rectum to stay awake at work.

His drug abuse was so extreme on the set of 1998 film Free Money that he had to take an unusual step to simply stay awake after the director noticed he was constantly falling asleep.

The actor said: 'That had never happened before.

'I said, 'Give me a glass of ice' and I said, 'I'll be right back.' There was a little bathroom, and I went in there, and I took an ice cube and I shoved it up my butt.

'Never done that before. And, man, I was wide awake just enough to get back on the mark and finish the scene.'

Charlie suffered an 18-hour nosebleed

Charlie once suffered an 18-hour nosebleed while filming because of his heavy cocaine use.

He said: 'I got an 18-hour nosebleed from doing too much cocaine.

'I just kept kind of blotting it. There was one night where it actually dripped onto my shirt during a scene. I got the director, Brett Ratner, to make that shot go away forever. And he did, because we've never seen it, right?'

Despite his struggles, Charlie was able to finally give up alcohol and drugs in 2017 - and he has been single and celibate ever since.

Charlie pictured in the movie Free Money, when his addiction caused him to take the extreme measure in order to continue filming

The documentary shows that while Charlie was experiencing headaches, chills, and full-body sweats, his ex-wife Denise Richards (pictured) urged him to get tested for HIV

Charlie lost his virginity to a Las Vegas hooker

The actor recalled the bizarre story of losing his virginity to 'a gorgeous red-headed Vegas escort named Candy' when he was a sophomore in high school.

Not only did Sheen use his famous dad's credit card to pay the hooker, but his friend was also there to partake in the festivities.

Martin was not thrilled with his son when he learned about the escort, with Sheen sharing he was given a two-hour lecture from his father about 'sex vs. love.'

Charlie had sex with men

For the first time in his tumultuous life, Charlie is revealing his past sexual experiences with men.

In both the documentary and his new memoir, released one day prior, he confessed some previously unknown information.

In both he admits: 'I flipped the menu over.'

An interviewer asks him how it feels to be going public with this very personal information.

He responded: 'It's f*cking liberating. It's like a train didn't come through the side of the restaurant. A f*cking piano didn't fall out of the sky. No one ran into the room and shot me.'

Charlie's HIV diagnosis

The documentary shows that while Charlie was experiencing headaches, chills, and full-body sweats, his ex-wife Denise Richards urged him to get tested for HIV.

Charlie opened up on the anxiety and uncertainty he felt while waiting for the diagnosis.

Charlie added that he was always upfront with his sexual partners after his diagnosis and said: 'Nobody got this from me. Period. The end. Full stop.'

He was even blackmailed for millions of dollars by people threatening to disclose his HIV status.

Charlie's drug dealer helped him get sober

Charlie former drug dealer Marco explained that he was approached by Charlie's drug counsellor, who asked if he could make the crack he was supplying less potent.

Marco revealed that he secretly reduced the amount of cocaine he used over the course of a year and a half in the hope he could help get Charlie off drugs.

Charlie's former drug dealer Marco, (pictured) explained that he was approached by Charlie's drug counsellor, who asked if he could make the crack he was supplying less potent

Clint Eastwood was involved in Charlie's 1990 intervention (Clint and Charlie pictured in film The Rookie in 1990)

Clint Eastwood was involved in Charlie's 1990 intervention

Charlie's family were concerned enough about his excessive drinking to set up a surprise intervention and invited him over under the pretense of a birthday celebration for his father, actor Martin Sheen.

On arrival his mother Janet hugged him and asked, 'Are you armed?'

Charlie recalled: 'I thought she was joking,' adding that he said no, 'but maybe there's something in the trunk.'

The intervention was attended by longtime friends and family, who wanted to get him into rehab.

Charlie said: 'There's my yoga instructor, and Rob Lowe is there. And then there's Emilio and (siblings) Renee and Ramon, and my parents.'

His father Martin sealed the deal by handing the telephone to his son, without telling him Clint Eastwood was on the line.

Charlie recalled: 'He said something to the effect of 'You gotta get the train back on the tracks. kid, You're worth saving.' It was really powerful. I thanked him, gave the phone back to my dad and said, 'All right, let's go.''

Charlie left rehab to judge a Hawaiian Tropic bikini contest with Nicolas Cage

Charlie was expected to judge a Hawaiian Tropic bikini competition in Palm Springs, California with Nicolas Cage.

Charlie wrote a promise to the facility's night nurse that he would leave and return by 8am or pay her $1 million and she agreed.

He returned to the facility at 7:40am, earlier than promised, sharing: 'It was as fantabulous and sexy and as exciting as it could have been.'

The night nurse, 'was happy for me, but disappointed for herself. She said, 'Well, whatever, you're a man of your word. Welcome back. We kept your room for you.''
Strictly Come Dancing star Thomas Skinner WILL remain on the show after dramatically storming out of Tuesday's press launch.

The Daily Mail revealed bosses held crisis talks about the market trader's future on the BBC dance series following his 'disgraceful' behaviour at the media day, where he grabbed a female reporter's phone before walking out after conducting just two promotional interviews.

When a journalist asked why Thomas, 34, had signed up for Strictly this year, he refused to answer and suddenly snatched her phone, appearing irritated that the interview was being recorded.

It's believed the incident raised concerns over his conduct and Strictly chiefs, who are desperately trying to avoid controversy following recent scandal-hit series, demanded a full explanation surrounding his walk out.

The Strictly press team were unable to locate him at Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, where the press launch took place.

Now the Daily Mail can confirm that Thomas will remain a part of this year's Strictly lineup this year despite insiders revealing he wasn't 'coping' during Tuesday's press event.

Strictly Come Dancing star Thomas Skinner WILL remain on the show after dramatically storming out of Tuesday's press launch

The Daily Mail revealed bosses held crisis talks about the market trader's future on the BBC dance series following his behaviour at the media day

Thomas's signing has been criticised by liberal fans of the BBC show after he revealed his unlikely friendship with American Vice-President JD Vance

A source close to Thomas told the Daily Mail: 'He is definitely regretful over the way he behaved on Tuesday.

'Thomas may have done other big shows on TV before, but he still feels new to this and especially the environment of a press day, where multiple journalists are asking questions.

'While he has done Celebrity MasterChef and the Apprentice in the past, those shows are prerecorded and he wouldn't have faced the same scrutiny he is with Strictly, he definitely felt out of his depth.

'He had been enjoying the Strictly dance rehearsal before the press day begun and now, he hopes to focus on the dancing alone and can't wait for the first live show.'

An insider added to Sun Online: 'Tom clearly felt stressed and wasn't coping with the press conference. He acted in a very strange manner and grabbed a phone, which isn't like him.

'After much discussion about whether he would be able to cope with the pressure of the series, it was decided that Tom was fine to stay on.

'It's a very embarrassing incident for him and he's made it clear he just wants to crack on. The BBC are backing him.'

Thomas's friend Adam Brooks, who is a media commentator on GB News, explained how the former Apprentice star has not been booted off Strictly.

Writing on X on Tuesday night, Adam said: 'I spoke to him an hour ago and he's still on the show.'

The Daily Mail has contacted Thomas and the BBC for comment.

A source close to Thomas told the Daily Mail he is 'regretful' over how he behaved during the press launch on Tuesday

Former Apprentice candidate Thomas, pictured with Strictly co-star Dani Dyer's actor father Danny, refused to answer questions about why he had signed up to the show at the launch

Despite Tom remaining on the series, Pundit Arena claims there's still a strong chance the former Apprentice candidate will be axed.

According to the site, he is now odds-on to exit the dance competition, a 60 per cent implied chance of being forced out of the lineup.

Thomas's signing has been criticised by liberal fans of the BBC show after he revealed his unlikely friendship with American Vice-President JD Vance.

The pair connected via social media due to sharing similar political beliefs and Thomas was invited to attend a barbecue held by Vance while he was holidaying in the Cotswolds last month.

Thomas posted a snap of the pair together on Instagram and called it 'a once in a lifetime' event.

Writing on Instagram, he said: 'Unreal night with JD and his friends and family. He was a proper gent. Lots of laughs and some fantastic food. A brilliant night, one to tell the grand kids about.'

He added: 'I'm overdressed in my suit, but when the VP invites you to a BBQ, you don't risk turning up in shorts [and] flip-flops.'

Thomas has previously posed up in a 'Make America Great Again' cap and endorsed Donald Trump, posting in November last year: 'I love Trump. I think he is brilliant, that's my opinion. I think it's good he is back in charge, it will be good for the UK economy.'

Venting their fury on social media, some fans claimed giving Thomas, given his political leanings, a platform on Strictly was 'inappropriate' and even 'dangerous.'

One user said: 'Someone tell Strictly that being controversial isn't cute, and platforming someone like Thomas Skinner at ANY time, but even more so in the current political climate, is inappropriate and dangerous.'

A source told the Daily Mail: 'While he has done Celebrity MasterChef and the Apprentice, those shows are prerecorded and he wouldn't have faced the same scrutiny he is with Strictly'

Thomas, who's married to wife Sinead, has three children, and says becoming a father taught him how to be a better man

Tom has spent the past few weeks getting in shape for the dance series, which he says is his mother's 'favourite show.'

The reality star insists he's doing it for the 'pint-drinking, kebab-eating dads out there with beer bellies.'

Before finding fame in 2011, Tom landed himself in trouble with the police for handling stolen goods.

He was charged with dishonestly handling 4,992 tubes of Body Shop cleansing gels worth nearly 40,000 and having 2,000 diazepam tablets.

In February, he brought up his past misdemeanors after coming under fire from trolls for witnessing a robbery at a Greggs.

He slammed the individuals for stealing while wearing designer clothes and furiously said 'what's happening' to the state of the country, before social media users reminded him of his own criminal past and branded him a 'hypocrite.'

Hitting back on X, he wrote: 'Still finding it mad that people are actually having a go at me on Twitter because I pointed out that Greggs got robbed whilst I was in there. And then bringing up my past. Yes, I did get arrested when I was younger, in fact I got arrested several times. And been charged and paid the price for my convictions. I wrote a book about it.'

He continued: 'I never had my own bedroom at one point when I was younger and slept on a pull-out bed on the floor.

'I never had any money or had anything given to me on a plate, yet I turned my life around. I go around schools/colleges/universities telling my story hoping I can inspire others.'

He added: 'I'm no hero. I'm just a hard worker. I've made mistakes, in fact more than most, who hasn't made one? I now try to spread positivity. I've been stabbed when I was younger because of what I got up to and that's why I try to help with my knife crime campaign at my gym.

'People need to get in the real world and see that there is a problem in this country. And we can fix it if we stick together. Bosh.'
Michael Caine is reportedly returning to the spotlight once more as he's set to reprise his role as a priest in Vin Diesel's sequel, The Last Witch Hunter 2.

The 92-year-old Hollywood icon will be coming out of retirement for one last job, after deciding to quit stardom for good in 2023.

The actor - who has starred in over 180 movies - confirmed his retirement in 2023, following a stellar career spanning seven decades.

Michael explained his decision came after he concluded that 'you don't have leading men at 90.'

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme at the time: 'I keep saying I'm going to retire. Well I am now.

'I've figured, I've had a picture where I've played the lead and had incredible reviews... What am I going to do that will beat this?'

Michael Caine, 92, is reportedly returning to the spotlight once more as he's set to reprise his role as a priest in Vin Diesel's sequel, The Last Witch Hunter 2 (pictured in 2023)

Michael played Dolan, a priest who assists Vin's warrior Kaulder as he fights to stop a plague propagated by a witch queen in 2015

According to Variety, The Last Witch Hunter sequel is being fast-tracked through development at Lionsgate and Diesels production banner One Race Films.

Michael played Dolan, a priest who assists Vin's warrior Kaulder as he fights to stop a plague propagated by a witch queen in 2015.

Vin is already confirmed to return as lead character.

Daily Mail has contacted Michael's representatives for comment.

Although Michael's role reprisal hasn't been finalised, Michael was spotted enjoying lunch with long-time friend and former co-star Vin in London in July.

Michael was pictured for the first time since transitioning from a Zimmer frame to a wheelchair and appeared in high spirits as Vin lovingly wheeled him around.

The lunch was filmed for an upcoming documentary about the legendary talent. A camera could be seen set up on a tripod near the table.

Vin announced the project in a June 30 Instagram post, in which he expressed his admiration for Michael, describing their long-standing friendship as 'healing and loving.'

The actor - who has starred in over 180 movies - confirmed his retirement in 2023, following a stellar career spanning seven decades (pictured in 2023)

Vin is already confirmed to return as lead character in the sequel

Although Michael's role reprisal hasn't been finalised, Michael was spotted enjoying lunch with long-time friend and former co-star Vin in London in July (pictured together in 2015)

The nature of the project is not yet known, but Vin expressed excitement about sharing more information about it in the future.

Michael started acting on stage in 1953 and in films in 1956, appearing in many small, uncredited roles.

The thespian gained recognition in the 1960s for his roles in Zulu (1964), The Ipcress File (1965), Alfie (1966), and The Italian Job (1969).

He won Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor for Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and The Cider House Rules (1999).
The amps went up to 11 on Tuesday evening as Los Angeles venue The Egyptian Theatre hosted the US premiere of Spinal Tap II: The End Continues.

Directed by Rob Reiner, the forthcoming film comes 41 years after This Is Spinal Tap redefined the mockumentary genre with its behind the scenes look at the hapless antics of a fictional British rock group.

Leading the arrivals on Tuesday night, Jamie Lee Curtis was on hand to support husband Christopher Guest, who reprises his role as hapless rock guitarist Nigel Tufnel in the new film.

The legendary actress, 66, looked appropriately glamorous in a sequined silver dress as she made her way across the red carpet with Guest.

Bringing some additional sparkle to the event, Zooey Deschanel caught the eye in a patterned black minidress and embellished tights after arriving on the arm of TV presenter fiance Jonathan Scott.

The American actress, 45, who does not feature in the new film, rounded off her red carpet look with a pair of buckled leather heels as she mingled with fellow guests.

The amps went up to 11 on Tuesday evening as Los Angeles venue The Egyptian Theatre hosted the US premiere of Spinal Tap II: The End Continues (L-R: Christopher Guest, Jamie Lee-Curtis, Jonathan Scott and Zooey Deschanel)

The forthcoming film comes 41 years after This Is Spinal Tap redefined the mockumentary genre with its behind the scenes look at the hapless antics of a fictional British rock group

Principle stars Michael McKean, Harry Shearer and Paul Feig were also in attendance alongside special guests Billy Crystal, Seth Green and a typically animated Jack Black at the launch got underway.

The new film has once again been produced by Bleecker Street - the company responsible for delivering This Is Spinal Tap - and will feature cameo appearances from several music icons including Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood.

It will follow the ageing Spinal Tap stars as they perform one last time after reuniting following a 15 year hiatus.

Director Rob Reiner said: 'So happy to be working with the folks at Bleecker Street who are passionate about keeping Tap's legacy alive and happy to give Marty DiBergi another shot at relevancy.'

Following its 2024 announcement, Bleeker Street CEO Andrew Karpen and president Kent Sanderson said: 'We feel privileged for the opportunity to work with Rob Reiner and the brilliant minds behind the original This Is Spinal Tap and to be part of a film that has resonated with so many.

'This Is Spinal Tap isn't just a movie  it's a cultural touchstone that pioneered the mockumentary genre and left an indelible mark on both film and music.

'Returning to this world through Spinal Tap II is an extraordinary chance to celebrate its legacy while creating something fresh for both new and devoted audiences.'

This Is Spinal Tap has a whopping 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes and has been praised by many thanks to a hilarious script and numerous memorable quotes, among them the legendary "These go to 11" - a reference to the amplifiers used by the band.

This Is Spinal Tap has a whopping 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes and has been praised by many thanks to a hilarious script and numerous memorable quotes (pictured onstage in 1984)

Curtis looked glamorous in a sequined silver dress as she made her way across the red carpet with her husband, who reprises his role as hapless guitarist Nigel Tufnel in the new film

Bringing some additional sparkle to the event, Deschanel caught the eye in a patterned black minidress and embellished tights

Principle stars Harry Shearer (left) and Paul Feig (right) were also in attendance at the Los Angeles premiere on Tuesday evening

Celebrated actor Billy Crystal attended the event alongside his glamorous wife, Janice

Actress Fran Drescher (left) and Christine Lahti (right) commanded attention as they posed for photos on the red carpet

Spinal Tap star Michael McKean was joined by wife Annette O'Toole at The Egyptian Theatre

In 2002 it was chosen for preservation by the National Film Registry, as the Library of Congress declared it was 'culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant.'

Reiner originally discussed the possibility of a sequel in 2022 when he told Deadline that he hadn't decided to move forward with it until they conceived a strong concept.

'The plan is to do a sequel that comes out on the 40th anniversary of the original film and I can tell you hardly a day goes by without someone saying, 'Why don't you do another one?'' he said. 'For so many years, we said, 'Nah.'

'It wasn't until we came up with the right idea how to do this. You don't want to just do it, to do it. You want to honor the first one and push it a little further with the story.'

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues goes on general release from September 12.

Left to right: Seth Green, Annette O'Toole and Jack Black celebrated the film's launch on Tuesday evening
MasterChef fans have insisted they will be switching off the new series of the show after the hosts of 20-years John Torode and Gregg Wallace's replacements were confirmed by the BBC this week.

It was unveiled that the judges taking over from Gregg and John would be all-female presenting team Grace Dent and Anna Haugh, but in a surprise turn of events, viewers are lobbying for the return of the old hosts.

Underneath the social media announcement on X, many complained that the cookery programme wouldn't be the same without Gregg and John, who were both sacked following an investigation earlier this year.

Sharing their thoughts about the announcement, many suggested they would prefer to keep things as they were before the shake up.

They said: 'Prefer Gregg and John'; 'We ain't watching that s*** bring back John & Gregg'; 'Won't be the same without Gregg'; 'That's another BBC show that that will lose viewers'; 'Where's Gregggg?';

'I want Greg and John'; 'BBC woke b*****s'; 'It's gone woke. Gregg and and John should do their own show like the boys from Top Gear';

MasterChef fans have insisted they will be switching off the new series of the show after the hosts of 20-years John Torode and Gregg Wallace 's replacements were confirmed by the BBC this week (pictured Grace Dent and Anna Haugh)

It was unveiled that the judges taking over from Gregg and John would be all-female presenting team Grace Dent and Anna Haugh, but in a surprise turn of events, viewers are lobbying for the return of the old hosts (pictured 2024)

'Won't be watching anymore after this series then, I like Grace Dent but afraid Anna Haugh is not the right choice in my opinion, when she stood in on MasterChef the professionals she wasn't very good at all. John Torode should still be there';

'Good luck to them both but I won't be watching. Torode's treatment was appalling. He should still be there. Not even sure Wallace hasn't been stitched up either tbh'; RIP MasterChef 1990-2024'.

However, not everyone was disappointed with the choices and insisted they would be looking forward to tuning in to watch the new presenters.

They said: 'Perfect! Looking forward to watching'; 'Very promising, good choice'; 'Brilliant'; 'Yes! Anna Haugh is great!' 'Excellent. It promises to be a great show'; 'Both well deserved, looking forward to tuning in!'

Food critic Grace, 51, will join Irish chef Anna, 44, who has become a regular on the BBC's cooking shows, with both having experience as judges on Masterchef.

Grace as appeared regularly as a guest on MasterChef, while Anna has been a judge on the spin-off Professionals series.

Anna has already stood in for Gregg in the amateur edition, which was filmed towards the end of last year after he stepped back amid a series of allegations about his behaviour.

Sharing their thoughts about the announcement, many suggested they would prefer to keep things as they were before the shake up

However, not everyone was disappointed with the choices and insisted they would be looking forward to tuning in to watch the new presenters

Gregg was fired after more than 45 complaints against him were upheld following a BBC investigation

Gregg was sacked following a series of misconduct allegations relating to his time on the series. Meanwhile John lost his job after two decades over allegations that he used the N-word.

Speculation grew over who would replace them, before Grace and Anna beat Monica Galetti and Marcus Wareing to the coveted judging roles.

Author and podcaster Grace was a contestant on MasterChef: Battle Of The Critics in 2023.

She said: 'I'm over the moon to be coming back to the MasterChef kitchen and unearthing what culinary skills people have been cooking up behind closed doors.

'It's a joy to be working with Anna, who brings all her incredible experience to the table. I am in for such a treat with this series, I can't wait to get started.'

The news comes after MasterChef lost nearly one million viewers as the new series aired last month.

The controversial 21st series aired after arriving on BBC iPlayer earlier in the day - after the broadcaster's decision to air the episodes.

There was a last-minute scramble to re-edit it and limit the appearances of its stars Gregg and John.

Australian-born chef John, also lost his job after two decades over allegations that he used the N-word (pictured on the current series of MasterChef)

Grace Dent - who previously stepped in to host the celebrity spin-off series with John - will return as a permanent judge

Both presenters had been axed from hosting future iterations of the long-running cookery contest in recent weeks.

And just 1.96 million watched the first episode - down from 2.73 million for last year's launch show, reports The BBC itself.

Viewers blasted the 'tone deaf' BBC for their 'bizarre decision' to push ahead with the latest series after firing both hosts.

Many of those watching felt confused that it had even been aired after what happened - while a body language expert said the presenters lacked 'on-screen chemistry'.

They penned on X: 'Shame on the BBC for broadcasting the new series of MasterChef, about time we scrapped the licence fee, absolute joke.',

'Watching the new #MasterChef series on BBC - it's utterly bizarre they're airing it with Gregg Wallace and John Torode front and centreafter sacking both for misconduct allegation. Pre-recorded or not, this decision feels completely tone-deaf. What were they thinking? #BBCFail.',

'Why are these men still on masterchef?.',

'Odd watching masterchef with the 2 guys who were fired fronting it. Seems a long time ago that the allegations came out about Wallace in particular.',

Anna Haugh replaced Gregg in the last episodes of the current civilian series after allegations 'I did not know this was going ahead ! The poor contestants their series so overshadowed #MasterChef.', '#BBC #masterchef have you made a terrible mistake tonight and aired the wrong show #Unbelievable.',against him first came to light

'Who getting kicked off today. Weirdly it's the presenters #Masterchef.',

John and Gregg were both sacked from the programme in quick succession in July.

Gregg was fired after more than 45 complaints against him were upheld following a BBC investigation.

Australian-born chef John, also lost his job after two decades over allegations that he used the N-word.

The BBC said the host's contract would not be renewed after a report found he had used an 'extremely offensive racist term' during drinks after filming the show.

The complaint against John was revealed in the report into co-presenter Gregg's inappropriate behaviour.

John identified himself as an unnamed person in the report who was accused of using 'racist language'.

However, the presenter said 'he had absolutely no recollection' of the incident and did 'not believe that it happened'.

A witness told investigators he had apologised immediately, 'was mortified' and 'didn't use the term as a slur' in 2018.

However, in a statement, the BBC said: 'This allegation - which involves an extremely offensive racist term being used in the workplace - was investigated and substantiated by the independent investigation led by the law firm Lewis Silkin.

'The BBC takes this upheld finding extremely seriously.

'We will not tolerate racist language of any kind and we told Banijay UK, the makers of MasterChef, that action must be taken. John Torode's contract on MasterChef will not be renewed.'

One contestant, Sarah Shafi, did not appear on the programme after she complained about the behaviour of Gregg.

She claimed she was 'eyed up and ogled' by Gregg on the show, while accusing the TV host of making an 'off' comment about his reputation with women.

Gregg stepped down from the hit BBC cooking show after complaints were made about his behaviour and following a report into his conduct, in which 45 of 83 complaints were upheld. In total, 41 people complained.

The review concluded that the 'majority of the substantiated allegations against Wallace related to inappropriate sexual language and humour'.

It added that 'a smaller number of allegations of other inappropriate language and being in a state of undress were also substantiated', with 'one incident of unwelcome physical contact' also substantiated.

The ex Eat Well for Less? presenter told the Sun that while he didn't deny being guilty of some of the claims, he believed things had been 'perceived incorrectly'.

Gregg claimed that he had worked with around 4,000 people, meaning that just 0.5% of those he has worked with 'found fault with me'.

He said his actions were the result of learned behaviour and workplace culture and claimed that his recent autism diagnosis also played a role.

'I know I am odd. I know I struggle to read people. I know people find me weird. Autism is a disability, a registered disability,' he said.

Gregg has previously said he felt the BBC failed to provide enough support for his condition during his 20 years working on MasterChef.

'My neurodiversity, now formally diagnosed as autism, was suspected and discussed by colleagues across countless seasons of MasterChef,' he said.

'Yet nothing was done to investigate my disability or protect me from what I now realise was a dangerous environment for over 20 years.'
Strictly Come Dancing star Thomas Skinner has broken his silence after he had an epic meltdown at the show's press day this week.

The former Apprentice star, 34, shocked journalists on Tuesday when he grabbed a female reporter's phone before storming out of the room during an interview.

Despite mounting pressure to axe him from the line-up, the BBC have stood by Thomas, with the Daily Mail revealing on Wednesday that he will be remaining on the show after bosses insisted he could 'cope with the pressure of the series'.

Addressing the scandal himself, Thomas took to Instagram on Wednesday to share a statement in which he apologised to the journalist and admitted he was working to 'move past difficult moments in his past'.

He shared: 'To set the record straight off the back of yesterday, during one of the interviews, a journalist placed their phone on the table to record the conversation.

'I happened to catch a glimpse of the screen and saw numerous messages - not about Strictly, but about a personal story from my past.'

Strictly Come Dancing star Thomas Skinner has broken his silence after he had an epic meltdown at the show's press day this week (pictured on Wednesday)

Addressing the scandal, he took to Instagram on Wednesday to share a statement in which he apologised to the journalist and admitted he was working to 'move past difficult moments'

Revealing he felt triggered by the tales of his past, he continued: 'I've been through some difficult times in my life, which I've worked hard to move on from.

'In that moment, seeing it there caught me off guard. I felt it was best to step away and gather myself.'

Thomas continued: 'This had nothing to do with the interviews or Strictly itself.

'I'm sorry I picked up someone else's phone and I don't even know if the journalist realised their messages were visible, and I don't want to suggest any bad intentions on their part.

'What I do want to say is how excited I am to be part of Strictly this year. I'm so grateful for all the love, kindness and support I've been shown so far.

'It means the world to me, and I can't wait to give it my all on that dancefloor. Bosh.'

Shortly before making his statement, Thomas failed to raise a smile as he was seen running errands in Borehamwood.

Thomas, who was casually clad in a polo shirt and shorts, kept his head down as he nipped into the shops to buy a bottle of water.

The father of three appeared to be feeling the strain as he grimaced while making his way back to Elstree Studios, where he was due to pre-record the Strictly launch show.

The former Apprentice star, 34, shocked journalists on Tuesday when he grabbed a female reporter's phone before storming out of the room after taking offence at being recorded

Amid growing backlash to axe him from the line-up, the BBC have stood by Thomas, with the Daily Mail revealing on Wednesday that he will be remaining on the show

Despite his downtrodden demeanour, Thomas had just received the news that he will be remaining on the show.

The Daily Mail revealed bosses held crisis talks about the market trader's future on the dance series following his behaviour at the media day, where he grabbed a female reporter's phone before walking out after conducting just two promotional interviews.

When a journalist asked why Thomas had signed up for Strictly this year, he refused to answer and suddenly snatched her phone.

It's believed the incident raised concerns over his conduct and Strictly chiefs, who are desperately trying to avoid controversy amid the recent scandals, demanded a full explanation surrounding his walk-out.

The Strictly press team were unable to locate him at Elstree Studios, where the press launch took place.

Now the Daily Mail can confirm that Thomas will remain a part of this year's Strictly line-up despite insiders revealing he wasn't 'coping' during Tuesday's press event.

A source close to Thomas said: 'He is definitely regretful over the way he behaved on Tuesday.

'Thomas may have done other big shows on TV before, but he still feels new to this and especially the environment of a press day, where multiple journalists are asking questions.

'While he has done Celebrity MasterChef and The Apprentice in the past, those shows are prerecorded and he wouldn't have faced the same scrutiny he is with Strictly, he definitely felt out of his depth.

'He had been enjoying the Strictly dance rehearsal before the press day began and now, he hopes to focus on the dancing alone and can't wait for the first live show.'

Yet despite having the Beeb's backing, Thomas failed to raise a smile as he was seen running errands the morning after his press day tantrum

The father of three appeared to be feeling the strain as he grimaced while making his way back to Elstree Studios, where he was due to pre-record the Strictly launch show

Thomas's signing has been criticised by liberal fans of the BBC show after he revealed his unlikely friendship with American Vice President JD Vance

An insider added to Sun Online: 'Tom clearly felt stressed and wasn't coping with the press conference. He acted in a very strange manner and grabbed a phone, which isn't like him.

'After much discussion about whether he would be able to cope with the pressure of the series, it was decided that Tom was fine to stay on.

'It's a very embarrassing incident for him and he's made it clear he just wants to crack on. The BBC are backing him.'

Thomas's friend Adam Brooks, who is a media commentator on GB News, explained how the former Apprentice star has not been booted off Strictly.

Writing on X on Tuesday night, Adam said: 'I spoke to him an hour ago and he's still on the show.'

Despite Tom remaining on the series, Pundit Arena claims there's still a strong chance the former Apprentice candidate will be axed.

According to the site, he is now odds-on to exit the dance competition, with a 60 per cent implied chance of him being forced out of the line-up.

Thomas's signing has been criticised by liberal fans of the BBC show after he revealed his unlikely friendship with American Vice President JD Vance.

The pair connected via social media due to sharing similar political beliefs and Thomas was invited to attend a barbecue held by Vance while he was holidaying in the Cotswolds last month.

Former Apprentice candidate Thomas, pictured with Strictly co-star Dani Dyer's actor father Danny, refused to answer questions about why he had signed up to the show at the launch

Thomas posted a snap of the pair together on Instagram and called it 'a once in a lifetime' event.

Writing on Instagram, he said: 'Unreal night with JD and his friends and family. He was a proper gent. Lots of laughs and some fantastic food. A brilliant night, one to tell the grandkids about.'

He added: 'I'm overdressed in my suit, but when the VP invites you to a BBQ, you don't risk turning up in shorts [and] flip-flops.'

Thomas has previously posed in a 'Make America Great Again' cap and endorsed Donald Trump, posting in November last year: 'I love Trump. I think he is brilliant, that's my opinion. I think it's good he is back in charge, it will be good for the UK economy.'

Venting their fury on social media, some fans claimed giving Thomas's political leanings a platform on Strictly was 'inappropriate' and even 'dangerous'.

One user said: 'Someone tell Strictly that being controversial isn't cute, and platforming someone like Thomas Skinner at ANY time, but even more so in the current political climate, is inappropriate and dangerous.'

Tom has spent the past few weeks getting in shape for the dance series, which he says is his mother's 'favourite show'.

The reality star insists he's doing it for the 'pint-drinking, kebab-eating dads out there with beer bellies'.

Before finding fame, Tom landed himself in trouble with the police in 2011 for handling stolen goods.

He was charged with dishonestly handling 4,992 tubes of Body Shop cleansing gels worth nearly 40,000 and 2,000 diazepam tablets.

Thomas, who's married to wife Sinead and has three children, says becoming a father taught him how to be a better man

In February, he brought up his past misdemeanours after coming under fire from trolls for witnessing a robbery at a Greggs.

He slammed the individuals for stealing while wearing designer clothes and furiously asked 'what's happening' to the state of the country, before social media users reminded him of his own criminal past and branded him a 'hypocrite'.

Hitting back on X, he wrote: 'Still finding it mad that people are actually having a go at me on Twitter because I pointed out that Greggs got robbed whilst I was in there. And then bringing up my past. Yes, I did get arrested when I was younger, in fact I got arrested several times. And been charged and paid the price for my convictions. I wrote a book about it.'

He continued: 'I never had my own bedroom at one point when I was younger and slept on a pull-out bed on the floor.

'I never had any money or had anything given to me on a plate, yet I turned my life around. I go around schools/colleges/universities telling my story hoping I can inspire others.'

He added: 'I'm no hero. I'm just a hard worker. I've made mistakes, in fact more than most, who hasn't made one? I now try to spread positivity. I've been stabbed when I was younger because of what I got up to and that's why I try to help with my knife crime campaign at my gym.

'People need to get in the real world and see that there is a problem in this country. And we can fix it if we stick together. Bosh.'
Heath Ledger's daughter could be following in his footsteps on Home and Away 28 years after the Aussie-born star appeared on the soap.

Matilda, 20, who is based in the US, is expected to be heading Down Under in October to spend time with Heath's family in Western Australia.

Coincidentally, the Channel Seven series will be filming a special storyline in WA at the same time.

'Home And Away producers would move mountains to have Matilda appear in a special episode some 28 years after Heath,' a source revealed to Woman's Day.

Heath did a nine-episode stint on Home and Away in 1997 playing 'bad boy' Scott.

It comes after reports surfaced last year that Matilda would be travelling in 2025 on a 'gap year'.

Matilda Ledger (pictured) could be following in her famous father's footsteps 28 years after he appeared on Home and Away

Heath did a nine-episode stint on Home and Away in 1997 playing 'bad boy' Scott

'She'll be spending a large chunk of time in Australia,' the source added.

'She always feels closest to her dad when she's there and loves nothing more than hearing his childhood stories from all his family.'

The insider also claimed Matilda is considering staying in Australia to pursue her studies.

'She may even decide to study in Australia, although she does seem to have her heart set on several colleges in New York for now,' they added.

Heath's parents have said in the past they would like to see more of their granddaughter, whom they affectionately call their 'little New Yorker'.

The Ledgers reportedly signed over all of Heath's assets, worth an estimated US$16.3million, to Matilda upon his death in 2008.

Heath's only child has kept a low profile over the years because her mother Michelle Williams wanted to 'keep things real' for her daughter growing up.

Michelle was in a relationship with Heath from 2004 until late 2007.

Matilda is expected to be heading Down Under in October to spend time with Heath's family in Western Australia

The couple welcomed Matilda, their only child, in October 2005.

Heath died in a New York City apartment on January 22, 2008, after accidentally overdosing on a fatal cocktail of drugs.

He was 28 at the time.

Michelle later married theatre director Thomas Kail in 2020.

They went on to welcome a baby boy later that year, and a second child followed in 2022.
Strictly Come Dancing star Thomas Skinner looked tense as he was seen for the first time since he had an epic meltdown at the show's press day this week.

The former Apprentice star, 34, shocked journalists on Tuesday when he grabbed a female reporter's phone before storming out of the room after taking offence at being recorded, despite that being standard practice at a press day.

Amid growing backlash to axe him from the lineup, the BBC have stood by Thomas, with the Daily Mail revealing on Wednesday that he will be remaining on the show.

Yet despite having the Beeb's backing, Thomas failed to raise a smile as he was seen running errands in Borehamwood the morning after his press day tantrum.

Thomas, who was casually clad in a polo shirt and shorts, kept his head down as he nipped into the shops to buy a bottle of water.

The father-of-three appeared to be feeling the strain as he grimaced while making his way back to Elstree Studios, where he was due to pre-record the Strictly launch show.

Strictly Come Dancing star Thomas Skinner looked tense as he was seen in Borehamwood on Wednesday for the first time since he had an epic meltdown at the show's press day

The former Apprentice star, 34, shocked journalists on Tuesday when he grabbed a female reporter's phone before storming out of the room after taking offence at being recorded

Amid growing backlash to axe him from the lineup, the BBC have stood by Thomas, with the Daily Mail revealing on Wednesday that he will be remaining on the show

Despite his downtrodden demeanour, Thomas had just received the news that he will be remaining on the show.

The Daily Mail revealed bosses held crisis talks about the market trader's future on the dance series following his behaviour at the media day, where he grabbed a female reporter's phone before walking out after conducting just two promotional interviews.

When a journalist asked why Thomas had signed up for Strictly this year, he refused to answer and suddenly snatched her phone, appearing irritated that the interview was being recorded.

It's believed the incident raised concerns over his conduct and Strictly chiefs, who are desperately trying to avoid controversy surrounding the recent scandal-hit series, demanded a full explanation surrounding his walk out.

The Strictly press team were unable to locate him at Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, where the press launch took place.

Now the Daily Mail can confirm that Thomas will remain a part of this year's Strictly lineup despite insiders revealing he wasn't 'coping' during Tuesday's press event.

A source close to Thomas told the Daily Mail: 'He is definitely regretful over the way he behaved on Tuesday.

'Thomas may have done other big shows on TV before, but he still feels new to this and especially the environment of a press day, where multiple journalists are asking questions.

'While he has done Celebrity MasterChef and the Apprentice in the past, those shows are prerecorded and he wouldn't have faced the same scrutiny he is with Strictly, he definitely felt out of his depth.

'He had been enjoying the Strictly dance rehearsal before the press day begun and now, he hopes to focus on the dancing alone and can't wait for the first live show.'

Yet despite having the Beeb's backing, Thomas failed to raise a smile as he was seen running errands the morning after his press day tantrum

The father-of-three appeared to be feeling the strain as he grimaced while making his way back to Elstree Studios, where he was due to pre-record the Strictly launch show

Thomas's signing has been criticised by liberal fans of the BBC show after he revealed his unlikely friendship with American Vice-President JD Vance

An insider added to Sun Online: 'Tom clearly felt stressed and wasn't coping with the press conference. He acted in a very strange manner and grabbed a phone, which isn't like him.

'After much discussion about whether he would be able to cope with the pressure of the series, it was decided that Tom was fine to stay on.

'It's a very embarrassing incident for him and he's made it clear he just wants to crack on. The BBC are backing him.'

Thomas's friend Adam Brooks, who is a media commentator on GB News, explained how the former Apprentice star has not been booted off Strictly.

Writing on X on Tuesday night, Adam said: 'I spoke to him an hour ago and he's still on the show.'

The Daily Mail has contacted Thomas and the BBC for comment.

Despite Tom remaining on the series, Pundit Arena claims there's still a strong chance the former Apprentice candidate will be axed.

According to the site, he is now odds-on to exit the dance competition, a 60 per cent implied chance of being forced out of the lineup.

Former Apprentice candidate Thomas, pictured with Strictly co-star Dani Dyer's actor father Danny, refused to answer questions about why he had signed up to the show at the launch

Thomas's signing has been criticised by liberal fans of the BBC show after he revealed his unlikely friendship with American Vice-President JD Vance.

The pair connected via social media due to sharing similar political beliefs and Thomas was invited to attend a barbecue held by Vance while he was holidaying in the Cotswolds last month.

Thomas posted a snap of the pair together on Instagram and called it 'a once in a lifetime' event.

Writing on Instagram, he said: 'Unreal night with JD and his friends and family. He was a proper gent. Lots of laughs and some fantastic food. A brilliant night, one to tell the grand kids about.'

He added: 'I'm overdressed in my suit, but when the VP invites you to a BBQ, you don't risk turning up in shorts [and] flip-flops.'

Thomas has previously posed up in a 'Make America Great Again' cap and endorsed Donald Trump, posting in November last year: 'I love Trump. I think he is brilliant, that's my opinion. I think it's good he is back in charge, it will be good for the UK economy.'

Venting their fury on social media, some fans claimed giving Thomas, given his political leanings, a platform on Strictly was 'inappropriate' and even 'dangerous'.

One user said: 'Someone tell Strictly that being controversial isn't cute, and platforming someone like Thomas Skinner at ANY time, but even more so in the current political climate, is inappropriate and dangerous.'

Thomas, who's married to wife Sinead and has three children, says becoming a father taught him how to be a better man

Tom has spent the past few weeks getting in shape for the dance series, which he says is his mother's 'favourite show'.

The reality star insists he's doing it for the 'pint-drinking, kebab-eating dads out there with beer bellies'.

Before finding fame in 2011, Tom landed himself in trouble with the police for handling stolen goods.

He was charged with dishonestly handling 4,992 tubes of Body Shop cleansing gels worth nearly 40,000 and having 2,000 diazepam tablets.

In February, he brought up his past misdemeanours after coming under fire from trolls for witnessing a robbery at a Greggs.

He slammed the individuals for stealing while wearing designer clothes and furiously said 'what's happening' to the state of the country, before social media users reminded him of his own criminal past and branded him a 'hypocrite'.

Hitting back on X, he wrote: 'Still finding it mad that people are actually having a go at me on Twitter because I pointed out that Greggs got robbed whilst I was in there. And then bringing up my past. Yes, I did get arrested when I was younger, in fact I got arrested several times. And been charged and paid the price for my convictions. I wrote a book about it.'

He continued: 'I never had my own bedroom at one point when I was younger and slept on a pull-out bed on the floor.

'I never had any money or had anything given to me on a plate, yet I turned my life around. I go around schools/colleges/universities telling my story hoping I can inspire others.'

He added: 'I'm no hero. I'm just a hard worker. I've made mistakes, in fact more than most, who hasn't made one? I now try to spread positivity. I've been stabbed when I was younger because of what I got up to and that's why I try to help with my knife crime campaign at my gym.

'People need to get in the real world and see that there is a problem in this country. And we can fix it if we stick together. Bosh.'
Sophie Cookson has shared the heartbreaking news that her mother is terminally ill and receiving end of life care in hospital.

The Kingsman star, 35, posted an emotional message on Instagram on Wednesday, revealing she has been at her mother Maries side in hospital over the last fortnight.

Sharing a photo outside a hospital in Spain, Sophie wrote: 'Ive been in hospital for over two weeks as my mum receives end of life care. It can be maddening, scary and jarringly beautiful.

'If anyone is going through something similar and wants to share their experience with me, please do.

'Maybe through sharing stories, this inevitable part of life can feel less daunting? I cant promise to get back to you, but I promise I will read them. No one needs to feel alone.

The Sussex-born actress did not disclose further details about her mother's illness.

Kingsman star Sophie Cookson has revealed her beloved mother Marie is receiving end of life care and describes being at her bedside as 'maddening, scary and jarringly beautiful'

The Kingsman star, 35, posted an emotional message on Instagram on Wednesday, revealing she has been at her mother Maries side in hospital over the last fortnight (pictured in 2023)

Sharing a photo outside a hospital in Spain , Sophie wrote: 'Ive been in hospital for over two weeks as my mum receives end of life care. It can be maddening, scary and jarringly beautiful'

In recent months, she has been documenting her summer with her family in Europe - posting heartwarming photos on Instagram of Marie enjoying time with Sophie and the five-year-old daughter she shares with husband, actor Stephen Campbell Moore.

One post from August showed Marie gazing out across a hilly landscape, dressed in a striking red blouse.

Sophie wrote alongside the image: Summer is fading and the melancholia of late August is ripe, but there is so much to be grateful for.

'Make sure the people you love know it and dont sweat the small stuff. At the end its irrelevant.

Another picture showed Marie smiling at a flower market, holding bunches of eucalyptus and purple blooms. Cookson captioned it simply: Kiss & Fly.

Sophie, who shot to fame in the 2014 film, Kingsman: The Secret Service, also shared a photo of her partner Stephen, whom she started dating in 2018.

The Trial of Christine Keele star met Stephen, 45, in 2017 on the set of the spy thriller film Red Joan.

The History Boys star was previously married to The Crown's Claire Foy, 41, with whom he shares a ten-year-old daughter, Ivy Rose.

In recent months, she has been documenting her summer with her family in Europe - posting heartwarming photos on Instagram of Marie enjoying time with the family

Another picture showed Marie smiling at a flower market, holding bunches of eucalyptus and purple blooms. Cookson captioned it simply: Kiss & Fly

Sophie, who shot to fame in the 2014 film, Kingsman: The Secret Service, also shared a photo of her partner Stephen, whom she started dating in 2018

The heartbreaking update about her mother comes four months after Sophie broke her 16-month silence on social media to announce that she'd undergone a 'radical reset'.

Sophie explained: 'Rather than needing to be more of something positive, I needed to be less of something negative.

'Always less. Never room for growth or taking up space.

'Last year, after umming and aahing (and frankly feeling rather hopeless) I stopped drinking, did some hard thinking, bit the bullet and did something I was always ashamed I wanted, training to become a Yoga instructor.

'I was prepared to work hard, sweat and be (incredibly!) sore, but nothing prepared me for the transformative wisdom and unbound kindness I experienced.

'This is a note of love to those I met and continue to meet through Yoga, which turns out to be the most surprising, generous gift both as a practitioner and generally overwhelmed human!'
Harry Potter legend Stuart Craig has died aged 83 after a battle with Parkinson's disease.

The multi-Oscar winning production designer died peacefully at home on Sunday after 14 years of living with the illness.

A tribute from Stuart's heartbroken family read: 'Our beloved husband and father, deeply loved and respected, was not only known for his talent but also for his kindness and we are moved by hearing of how many lives he touched.

'He will live on in our hearts forever.'

Stuart worked on all eight of the Harry Potter films where he helped design the sets as well as The English Patient and The Elephant Man.

He won three Oscars - though not for Harry Potter - and was nominated for eight more, including four for the Harry Potter films. He also had a whopping 16 BAFTA nominations and won three.

He is survived by his wife Patricia Stangroom - whom he married in 1965 - two children, Becky and Laura, and four grandchildren.

Harry Potter legend Stuart Craig has died aged 83 after a battle with Parkinson's disease

The multi-Oscar winning production designer died peacefully at home on Sunday after 14 years of living with the illness (seen with model designer Jose Granell at Hogwarts in Harry Potter World)

He won Best Art Direction Oscars for Gandhi, Dangerous Liaisons and The English Patient.

Posting about his death, the British Film Designers Guild shared a tribute from Neil Lamont, who was mentored by Stuart, while the tribute from his family was shared by The Guardian.

The statement from Neil read: 'It is with great sadness, that I report that my friend and mentor, production designer Stuart Craig passed away last night, 7th September 2025, aged 83, following a long battle with Parkinson's disease.

'Stuart and I first worked together on The English Patient, flying to Tunis to join him was one of the most important days of my career. Straight out of the airport, on a recce of a local derelict, ruined building, 40 degrees, nervous, and I probably did one of the poorest surveys ever on a location. It turned out that we subsequently found better places.

'The experiences I had on this film, not only allowed me to see Stuart's talent, his beautiful sketches, pencil drawings and vision, but also the way [in] which he conducted himself in all walks of life, in the Studio, the car, restaurants.

'A true gentleman, with grace, kindness and humility.

'I bet that anyone you ask, "which designer would you like to work with the most", the answer 100 per cent would be Stuart Craig, and anyone who met him will remember their encounter forever.

'I replay all mine, all the time, he will never be forgotten. He will be sorely missed by all who knew him. I'm so glad I didn't get the "tin tack" in Tunisia.

'That's another story that I will share over a glass or two when toasting and remembering "The Gov" with great fondness. Cheers Stuart.'

He is survived by his wife Patricia Stangroom - whom he married in 1965 - two children, Becky and Laura, and four grandchildren

Posting about his death, the British Film Designers Guild shared a tribute from Neil Lamont, who was mentored by Stuart

Stuart and Stephenie McMillan, winners of the Best Art Direction Oscar for The English Patient, with award presenter Sandra Bullock at the 69th Academy Awards in 1997

Stuart holding his Best Art Direction award for Dangerous Liaisons in the press room of the 61st Academy Awards (right is actor Willem Dafoe)

JK Rowling paid tribute to him as she penned on X: 'Working with Stuart Craig was one of the privileges of my life'

JK Rowling paid tribute to him as she penned on X: 'Working with Stuart Craig was one of the privileges of my life.

'He was a true visionary and conjured the wizarding world for the screen as nobody else could have done. He was also one of the nicest people you ever could hope to meet. My deepest condolences to his loved ones.'

Meanwhile David Heyman, producer of the Harry Potter series, said in his tribute: 'Stuart Craig was one of the greatest production designers to work in film.

'He was also the kindest, most generous and supportive man.

'He had exquisite taste and a wonderful sense of story. He also had the extraordinary ability to bring out the very best in everyone around him.

'It was a privilege to work with him, and to be in his orbit.'

David Yates, director of the final four Potter films, said in his tribute: 'Stuart was a dear friend and colleague: he was a giant in our industry, graceful, talented, stubborn and always nurturing and supporting emerging design talent.

'We will all miss him a great deal.'

Stuart helped design the Harry Potter sets with frequent collaborator and set decorator, the late Stephenie McMillan.
Victoria Beckham flashes her diamonds in an elegant first look image for the new Netflix documentary about her life, set for release on October 9.

The Spice Girl turned fashion designer, 51, wears a crisp white shirt in the image to mark her latest project, from the makers of Beckham and Michelle Obama's Becoming.

Netflix announced the beginning of production on a documentary series following Victoria and her fashion and beauty business in August.

It promises to give exclusive access to Victoria, her family, and those closest to her.

Victoria has put her heartache over her eldest son Brooklyn's estrangement to one side and has made sure he features in her forthcoming Netflix show.

Despite the fashion designer having had no contact with Brooklyn, 26, since May, she has refused to cut scenes of him in the documentary which follows Victoria's burgeoning business empire.

Victoria Beckham flashes her diamonds in artwork for her new Netflix show

Estranged son Brooklyn will appear in Victoria's forthcoming documentary despite family feud

Despite Victoria having had no contact with Brooklyn, 26, since May, she has refused to cut footage of him in her documentary

Sources close to the project have revealed that a scene where Brooklyn helps clear the catwalk at her Paris Fashion Week show in September 2024 of water after a rainstorm will be included.

Victoria will be seen asking her team and family to be all hands on deck, and begin mopping the catwalk. All of Victoria's children will appear in the show.

The show is about Victorias fashion and beauty empire and the Paris show where Brooklyn was part of that story, says a source. So Brooklyn will be in the show, that is for certain.

Brooklyn, who is married to American heiress Nicola Peltz, will be joined on the docuseries by his younger brothers Romeo, 23, and Cruz, 20.

They will feature in scenes connected to fashion. One is understood to be Cruz being fitted for a suit in the run-up to one of his mothers fashion shows.

Victoria's documentary will delve deep into her fashion brand and follow her as she prepares for Paris Fashion Week this year.

The show will offer a 'behind-the-scenes' look at her journey from becoming a Spice Girl to the creative director of a successful fashion and beauty brand.

England footballing legend David, whom Victoria wed in 1999, already found huge success with his Netflix documentary Beckham last year, in which Victoria starred.

Victoria, 51, will be seen asking her team and family to be all hands on deck

Her new documentary will offer a 'behind-the-scenes' look at her journey from becoming a Spice Girl to the creative director of a successful fashion and beauty brand

David's Beckham documentary - which was released in October 2023 - received five Emmy nominations as well as a BAFTA nom

David recently admitted her upcoming documentary 'wasn't the easiest thing to get her to agree to' but gushed that the Spice Girl is 'unbelievably hard-working and very clever' and the world deserves to see that.

Speaking on Today to hosts Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin, David opened up for the first time about the new Netflix show.

He said: 'It wasn't the easiest thing to get her to agree to, but in my opinion she was the star of mine.

'So I just thought this is the opportunity, because she's been working on our brand for the last 18 years, and she's unbelievably hard-working, and no one gets to see that.

'So I convinced her to actually let people see what she does every day and what goes into her business. She's a very clever and hard-working lady, so I want people to see that.'

Discussing their iconic dance moment to Islands In The Stream in his Emmy-winning documentary, David revealed that it was unplanned and his children were 'embarrassed'.

He added: 'This moment just happened, we were in the tent all day and then all of a sudden I thought, you know, mum and dad should dance, the kids get embarrassed.

'And this just happened last second, and we just jumped up, and you could see all the kids were embarrassed, but at that point the song meant something to us, and we just danced and it was just us at the end of the day.'

Victoria also had fans in hysterics thanks to a scene in the documentary which saw David poke fun at her claim about her 'very working, working class' roots.

David interrupted, incredulous, and asked Victoria to be honest, to which she replied: 'I am!' He then repeatedly asked Victoria to reveal which car her dad used to drive her to school in.

The Spice Girl eventually gave in and said: 'OK. In the '80s, my dad had a Rolls-Royce.' 'Thank you,' David replied, and immediately left and closed the door behind him, his job done.

Victoria had fans in hysterics thanks to a scene in the documentary which saw David poke fun at her claim about her 'very working, working class' roots

Victoria revealed in an interview with Harper's Bazaar magazine that the scene was completely candid

Victoria has revealed in a new interview with Harper's Bazaar magazine that the scene was completely candid, explaining: 'David was in the other room watching the monitor, and then he put his head in the door.

'It was not rehearsed. Like the dancing in the tent. None of it was rehearsed.'

Victoria has capitalised on the moment with a 110 'My Dad Had A Rolls Royce' T-shirt as part of her self-titled clothing range.

The couple also spoofed the scene in a Super Bowl advert for Uber Eats.

According to Netflix's own data, Beckham was the most-watched show for two weeks when it was released just under two years ago, with 11,600,000 fans watching globally.

It comes as Brooklyn was once again notably absent from his brother Romeo's 23rd birthday party on Friday night where David and Victoria led the celebrations at Japanese restaurant Aki in central London.

Cruz and his girlfriend  Posh lookalike Jackie Apostel  were also in attendance, as well as Harper, 14.

There was no dress code, but black seemed to be the theme of the night with all guests apart from Cruz opting to wear it.

While friends of the family say that David and Victoria no longer expect their oldest son Brooklyn to attend their parties after he shunned all of his fathers 50th birthday events earlier this year, there is still a tinge of sadness at his absence.

Romeo Beckham beamed as he celebrated his 23rd birthday with family and friends this week

Newly released family snaps from the lavish event show Romeo pose with his proud parents David, 50, and Victoria, 51

A source close to Romeo said: It was a lovely, low-key night to celebrate Romeo. There were lots of his friends there as well as the family. They wanted to give Romeo a special night to remember, it has been a difficult year for the Beckhams.

It went on quite late and there were a lot of people tired on Saturday morning, everyone let their hair down and it was great fun.

Given the feud between the Beckham brothers, it is unlikely that Romeo would have invited Brooklyn  something that David and Victoria have now accepted is just how things are now'.

Brooklyn also failed to publicly wish his brother 'Happy Birthday' on social media, in yet another demonstration of the long-running family feud.

Spice Girl Victoria cut a chic figure in a floor-length sheer black gown, while David donned a navy suit paired with a white T-shirt.

Harper looked all grown up in a strapless black ballgown for her big brother's birthday, though Cruz appeared to miss the memo with a lairy blue and cream shirt and jeans.

Another snap showed proud dad David pull his son in for a sweet hug while boasting a huge smile.

It looked like a great night, with Romeo appearing to squirm as a giant birthday cake with candles was presented to him.
Charlie Sheen revealed he was blindsided by an intense Hollywood-stacked intervention that sent him to rehab for the first time back in 1990  and it even involved Clint Eastwood.

In Wednesdays release of his new Netflix docuseries aka Charlie Sheen, the Two and a Half Men alum, 60, recalled how he was duped into thinking he was attending his father Martin Sheens birthday party on August 3, 1990  only to find himself walking into a carefully staged meeting meant to push him toward sobriety.

'As I come around the corner, I see the living room has this really expertly organized circle of people,' Charlie said.

Among those in the circle was what Sheen described as a 'weird mix'  Rob Lowe, his seventh-grade history teacher, his yoga instructor, plus his siblings Ramon, Emilio and Renee, all gathered with their parents.

Eastwood, 95, wasnt in the room that day, but he still played a crucial role.

The Oscar-winning legend phoned in during the tense meeting, right as Charlie was 'hatch[ing] a plan to get away.'

Charlie Sheen revealed he was blindsided by an intense Hollywood-stacked intervention that sent him to rehab for the first time back in 1990  and it even involved Clint Eastwood; (Sheen on Monday)

In Wednesdays release of his new Netflix docuseries aka Charlie Sheen, the Two and a Half Men alum, 60, recalled how he was duped into thinking he was attending his father Martin Sheens birthday party on August 3, 1990; (Eastwood in 2020)

That's when Martin stopped him cold with the words: 'Theres someone on the phone who wants to talk to you.'

In his 'very recognizable, very globally familiar voice,' Eastwood told his The Rookie co-star that he was 'worth saving.'

The legendary director also urged him, 'Youve got to get the train back on the tracks, kid.'

'It was really powerful,' Charlie remembered. 'I thanked him, gave the phone back to Dad and said, "All right, lets go."'

'aka Charlie Sheen' dropped just days after the release of his memoir The Book of Sheen, which hit shelves Tuesday.

In its pages, Charlie confessed he was 'sloppy' on set while working with Eastwood on The Rookie  a consequence of late nights partying with Nicolas Cage and a crew of friends.

The premiere comes after Sheen said hes grateful that his former Two and a Half Men costar Jon Cryer agreed to appear in the Netflix documentary.

The actor looks back on his turbulent past in the two-part special, which covers everything from his rise in Hollywood to the infamous 2011 drug-fueled meltdown that got him fired from the hit CBS sitcom and replaced by Ashton Kutcher.

Among those in the circle was what Sheen described as a 'weird mix'  Rob Lowe , his seventh-grade history teacher, his yoga instructor, plus his siblings Ramon, Emilio and Renee, all gathered with their parents: Eastwood, 95, wasnt in the room that day, but he still played a crucial role; (seen in 1990)

In his 'very recognizable, very globally familiar voice,' Eastwood told his The Rookie co-star that he was 'worth saving' (seen in 1990)

The legendary director also urged him, 'Youve got to get the train back on the tracks, kid'; (seen in The Rookie)

The fallout at the time drove a major wedge between Sheen, Cryer, and show creator Chuck Lorre  leaving Cryer and Lorre to pick up the pieces as the show was thrown into chaos.

Though Sheen and Lorre have since patched things up, things with Cryer remain distant  with the actor telling Bill Mahers podcast in January that he has 'no relationship' with Sheen.

Still, the actor took part in the doc and offered his perspective on the collapse of Two and a Half Men.

In a new interview, Sheen, who has been sober for eight years, admitted he understands why Cryer would still feel upset, given how his past addictions blew up their hit show.

'It was really cool to hear from his perspective,' Sheen told People. 'He was in the line of fire with all that stupid s--- going on, and it was affecting him and his family and his career and all that. I cant debate anything that he said.'

Sheen added that Cryers words were thoughtful, and he even reached out to thank him  but has yet to hear back.

'Im thinking I wrote to the wrong number. Its not like Jon to not respond. Hes super responsible like that,' Sheen said.

'So if youre reading this, Jon, DM me your new number!'

During the January episode of his Club Random podcast, Maher asked Cryer point-blank, 'Whats your relationship with Charlie now?'

Cryer replied, 'I dont know. We dont have a relationship anymore.'

He went on to note that Sheen and Lorre have since reconciled, with Sheen even making guest appearances on Lorres Max comedy Bookie.

Sheen and Lorre hadn't spoken in over a decade after the falling out, which began in 2011 after Sheen called Lorre 'stupid' and 'little maggot' in a series of well-publicized tirades.

The fallout at the time drove a major wedge between Sheen, Cryer, and show creator Chuck Lorre  leaving Cryer and Lorre to pick up the pieces as the show was thrown into chaos.

Though Sheen and Lorre have since patched things up, things with Cryer remain distant  with the actor telling Bill Mahers podcast in January that he has 'no relationship' with Sheen; (Cryer in 2025)

As for Lorre, he previously gushed about reuniting with his old pal for the show Bookie.

'I dont want to be too mawkish about it, but it was healing,' Lorre said in 2024.

'I was nervous, but almost as soon as we started talking, I remembered, we were friends once,' the writer/director explained. 'And that friendship just suddenly seemed to be there again.'

Lorre said he got to a place where their feud is now considered 'old news'.

'I loved working with Charlie on 'Two and a Half Men', Lorre added. 'We did 170 episodes together before it all fell apart.'

In 2021, Sheen admitted that there were '55 different' and better ways to have handled his firing from the hit CBS sitcom that did not include calling Lorre names like a 'turd' or 'clown.'

'I think the growth for me post-meltdown or melt forward or melt somewhere  however you want to label it  it has to start with absolute ownership of my role in all of it,' he told Yahoo! News. 'And it was desperately juvenile.'

In 2018, Sheen took responsibility over their dramatic falling out and expressed a desire to repair their relationship during an interview with Today Show.

'It was really cool to hear from his perspective,' Sheen told People . 'He was in the line of fire with all that stupid s--- going on, and it was affecting him and his family and his career and all that. I cant debate anything that he said'

At the time, the father-of-five 'really' wanted 'to mend' things with Lorre.

'He lives close by, I could easily go by and just drop a note under his door with my phone number, which I should, and I will.'

Speaking about a possible reboot of the comedy series that made him the highest paid actor on American TV, he said he was open to the idea, 'it would be so cool to reboot it.'

Lorre previously admitted that 'there were a couple of years' where he 'couldn't watch' Two and a Half Men because it 'was too hurtful.'
Katie Price was forced to apologise to Emily Atack after she reignited their years-long feud.

The glamour model, 47, has made various swipes at the Rivals star, 35, over the years, beginning in 2019 when Emily appeared on the I'm A Celebrity spin-off show Extra Camp and joked she would need to 'get tested in a clinic' after learning the rock pool she bathed in had previously been used by Katie and Peter Andre.

At the time, Katie hit back by joking: 'I'm on my way to Australia and I know some of your exes and guess what they said "phwoar fishy" [while fanning her hand in front of her nose]' - a video that quickly went viral.

And six years on, the 'fishy' feud was reignited, with Katie taking to Instagram on Tuesday night to make a vulgar comment about Emily being a 'funny fishy'.

However, shortly after sharing the post it was deleted, with Katie explaining she had been 'dared' to put it up during her tell-all tour with Kerry Katona.

Addressing fans, she said: 'Hey everyone, just to let you know the post that went up before - I'm on tour and it was a truth or dare challenge where the audience said dare.'

Katie Price was forced to apologise to Emily Atack after she reignited their years-long feud with a vulgar post about the 'fishy' Rivals actress

The glamour model, 47, has made various swipes at Emily 35, over the years, beginning in 2019 when Emily made a crass joke about using the same pool as Katie and Peter Andre

Six years on, the' feud was reignited, with Katie taking to Instagram on Tuesday night to make a vulgar comment about Emily being a 'funny fishy' (post has been redacted by Daily Mail)

She explained: 'The audience had to say what I had to put up on Instagram.

'So if anyone was offended... and Emily Atack, I love you to bits. I didn't mean any of it. It wasn't me. It was a challenge, but we've now deleted it.

'I apologise for that. But it was a part of a truth and a dare game on our tour.'

Daily Mail has contacted Emily's representatives for comment.

Katie last referenced her feud with Emily last November, when she made a snide dig in front of a huge audience during her one-woman show.

Addressing the crowd, she said: 'Has anyone ever seen me do the "phwoar fishy"?'

'Now I am not one to attack, even though it's Emily Atack. I don't attack anyone, I am the most kindest person ever but if someone goes for me, I will make sure I have the last word.'

Explaining where the 'phwoar fishy' jibe came from, Katie added: 'Basically I'm A Celebrity was on and Emily Atack was presenting it.

'And whether she got told to say it or not, there was a couple of people in the pond and she said, "Ooh I'll be careful if I was you, you might get STDs because Katie Price has been in there [the pond]".

'So, I put on my I'm A Celebrity rucksack and went 'Hey Emily, I'm on my way to Australia and I know some of your exes and guess what they said "phwoar fishy".'

The feud kicked off in 2019 when Emily joked she would need to 'get tested in a clinic' after learning the rock pool she bathed in had previously been used by Katie and Peter Andre

Katie and Peter pictured together on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! in 2004

Despite the dig, Katie insisted: 'But I've got nothing against Emily, it was just me and my ADHD f****** fighting back.'

A source told The Sun at the time that Katie was 'furious' when she heard what Emily had said about her.

They revealed: 'She was telling people that she can't believe Emily would say something so snide and if she "wants a problem, I'll give her a problem".

'At one point Katie was saying she'd fly out to Australia and confront her. She's not going to, obviously, but she was asking around to see if anyone had Emily's number.'

Months prior, Katie took another swipe at Emily in a TikTok video with GK Barry after appearing on her podcast.

Promoting the pair's chat, Grace shared a video on TikTok where she said: 'Guys I am with someone proper fishy.'

Katie then said: 'Pwhoar Emily Atack, proper fishy mate,' while waving her hand under her nose.

The former glamour model and her best pal Kerry are in the midst of their tell-all tour, An Evening with Katie Price & Kerry Katona.

The former glamour model and her best pal Kerry are in the midst of their tell-all tour, An Evening with Katie Price & Kerry Katona (pictured in January)

Yet Sunday's show reportedly descended into chaos after a 'drunken' group were ordered to leave by security and the police were called, delaying act two of the performance.

Security staff were reportedly seen talking to a member of the audience during the show - and despite the host saying the interval would last around 15 minutes, the commencement of the second half was delayed as security staff dealt with the group in the front row.

Soon after an unknown number of women were removed from the venue, much to the delight of the rest of the crowd who are said to have cheered.

Katie apologised to the audience for the half-an-hour break between acts, as she said: 'Sorry about the drama. It had nothing to do with us.'

Kerry went on to call out the group who had been kicked out for 'ruining the show for everybody else', before the duo got back to performing hit songs.

After the show, two police cars were reportedly seen outside the theatre.

Merseyside Police confirmed in a statement: 'We received a report at just before 9.10pm last night, Sunday September 7, from security staff at the Floral Pavilion in New Brighton, that a number of females had been asked to leave due to drunken and disruptive behaviour.

'It was reported that they refused to leave and continued to be verbally abusive towards staff. Enquiries into the matter are ongoing.'

A spokesperson for the Floral Pavilion Theatre said: 'Sadly the second part of last night's show was briefly delayed due to disruptive behaviour from a small number of audience members.

'We are grateful to the support of the police officers who assisted theatre staff to swiftly remove them from the premises.'
In his first televised interview, Derek Dixon refuses to back down from his $260 million sexual assault lawsuit against Tyler Perry.

In the sit-down with ABC News Live anchor Linsey Davis, Dixon laid out claims of sexual harassment and assault involving the billionaire mogul, which Perry has denied.

Dixon told Davis he felt he could no longer 'stay silent about it anymore,' even though opening up about his alleged experiences was 'a vulnerable thing to talk about.'

'Its been hard,' he admitted. 'Theres a lot of shame around it. Just trying to think what you could have done better and having to deal with the judgment of how you couldve ended it better without being in that situation.'

Daily Mail has not received a response to its request for comment from reps for Perry.

Dixon explained how he landed on the staggering $260 million figure in his lawsuit, saying it came down to both personal losses and sending a message: 'Part of that number is my lost job, my lost income, the loss of a show. The other part of that is a deterrent for how do you stop a billionaire who wont stop themselves from doing this.'

In his first televised interview, Derek Dixon (pictured) refuses to back down from his $260 million sexual assault lawsuit against Tyler Perry

In the sit-down with ABC News Live anchor Linsey Davis, Dixon laid out claims of sexual harassment and assault involving the billionaire mogul; (pictured 2022)

According to Dixon, he first crossed paths with the Hollywood powerhouse in 2019 at a studio launch party where he was working an event.

He claimed Perry asked if he was an actor, passed along his number, and said, 'well talk about this.'

In early 2020, Dixon landed his dream role as Dale on Tyler Perrys BET series The Oval, appearing in 85 episodes between 2021 and 2025.

According to his lawsuit, while working on the show, Perry allegedly began sending Dixon text messages of a sexual nature.

One of them says, "What's it going to take for you to have guiltless sex? Have y'all found that in therapy yet? I would hope that you would let someone hold and make love to you," Dixon told ABC News.

Perrys lawyer Matthew Boyd dismissed the claims, telling ABC News, This is an individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam. Tyler will not be shaken down and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.

Dixon alleges the behavior escalated in January 2020, when Perrys actions reportedly mirrored the tone of his messages.

One incident occurred while Dixon was having drinks at Perrys guest house.

Dixon explained how he landed on the staggering $260 million figure in his lawsuit, saying it came down to both personal losses and sending a message: 'Part of that number is my lost job, my lost income, the loss of a show. The other part of that is a deterrent for how do you stop a billionaire who wont stop themselves from doing this'

In early 2020, Dixon landed his dream role as Dale on Tyler Perrys BET series The Oval, appearing in 85 episodes between 2021 and 2025

Instead of leaving for the night, Dixon claims Perry told him to stay in the guest quarters, which led to an unwanted encounter.

I got into bed and then I noticed that he climbed into bed with me as well and started rubbing my leg. I jumped out of bed...he had said, "Turn around so I can look at you" and just comment on how I looked. And then he got up and left. So I thought after that instance, it was pretty clear that I was not interested in that type of a relationship, Dixon recalled.

At the end of the second season of The Oval, Dixons character was shot four times in the chest  an experience he said made him feel if I dont make him happy, I could stay dead on the show.

Following the shoot, Dixon claims Perry invited him for drinks in his trailer, where he alleges the mogul asked if he was attracted to him.

In an attempt to de-escalate, Dixon told Perry he was an attractive man but not interested  after which Dixon alleges the encounter became physical.

'That's when he pushed me up against the wall and grabbed my a** again. I remember leaving his trailer and calling my friend immediately and just feeling sick about it,' Dixon said.

Another alleged incident occurred in June 2021 at Perrys Atlanta home.

The complaint claims Perry prepared several alcoholic beverages for himself and demanded to know why Dixon was not having sex with anyone.

Perry has denied the claims - Pictured June 9 in LA

Perry reportedly led Dixon to the guesthouse bathroom to show him a weight monitor, instructing him to be in your underwear to measure.

Dixon said Perry then reached down, pulled his underwear, and grabbed him, ignoring Dixons attempts to resist.

Dixon said he eventually ended contact with Perry in spring 2024 and left The Oval in September 2024.

He also noted that a show he had been developing, Losing It, which Perry owned the rights to, never progressed beyond the pilot.

In January, Dixon filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, seeking accountability.

He said the lawsuit has taught him to not treat your employees this way and to never use someone's dream to coerce them into a relationship that's not professional.

On justice, he added, It would look like thinking I've made a change and that something like this won't happen to another actor that works for him or another actor in the industry. That would be justice for me.
In an effort to keep ex-husband Charlie Sheen alive while he was struggling with his drug addiction, Denise Richards once made food for him and for the prostitutes he had hired, the star revealed this week.

Richards, 54, did not hold back when talking about that troubling time period.

'They would call me all the f***ing time to go there because I cant get fired. I was your ex-wife, I was already fired,' she told him in the second episode of the Netflix documentary aka, Charlie.

Richards revealed one incident in which she went to check on Sheen after he had been missing for two days while shooting the hit series Two and a Half Men.

'When they were desperate, they were like, "Could you please come over and see if hes alive? We havent seen him for two days." And so, then I would pound on his door. And then Id keep pounding. Im like, "Open the f*** up!"' she explained.

One time after Richards had shown up with food for the actor, Sheen's co-star Jon Cryer, 60, turned up at the house as well.

Denise Richards, 54, revealed she once made 'white trash' sandwiches for ex Charlie Sheen, 60, and the prostitutes he had hired in the second episode of the Netflix docuseries aka, Charlie; pictured in Los Angeles on September 4

'Im making sandwiches and Jon was super nervous and he goes, "What are you doing?" I go, "Well, he hasnt eaten and Im making sandwiches."

'And then you see two or three hookers come downstairs.

'And I remember Jon asking me, "Are you making them sandwiches?" and I go, "Well, yeah. What am I gonna say? Sorry, because of what you do for a living, you dont get one of my white trash mayo, mustard, turkey, cheese, lettuce sandwiches?"'

Richards, who shares daughters Sami, 21, and Lola, 20, with the Wall Street star, explained, 'It wasnt like I was making a gourmet sandwich. Like, Im trying to help keep him good.'

The World is Not Enough actress also compared Sheen during that time to the dead body from Weekend At Bernie's, revealing how those around the actor would just 'prop him up' to get him to sign things, to make money off him.

Sheen and his next wife, Brooke Mueller, 48, were both sober when they married in 2008 and welcomed twins Bob and Max in March 2009.

At one point both relapsed and began using again.

Richards received a call after Sheen had not turned up on the set of Two and a Half Men, and when star Jon Cryer, 60 turned up at Sheen's house, he found her making sandwiches for Sheen and the prostitutes Sheen had hired

'I remember Jon asking me, "Are you making them sandwiches?" and I go, "Well, yeah. What am I gonna say? Sorry, because of what you do for a living, you dont get one of my white trash mayo, mustard, turkey, cheese, lettuce sandwiches?"'

Richards said she would often get calls to check on her ex, whom she divorced in 2006 'because I cant get fired. I was your ex-wife, I was already fired'; Pictured in Los Angeles in May 2002

Richards who divorced Sheen in 2006, shares daughters Lola, 20, and Sami, 21, with the Wall Street actor; pictured in New York City in February

They separated in 2010.

Amid their messy split, the boys were removed from Mueller's custody when they were four due her erratic behavior, and placed with Richards for about a year.

In 2011, the Wild Things star started noticing Sheen was 'really sick.'

The actor seemed to think he needed a 'cocaine detox,' but Richards was adamant it was more serious.

'I said, "No, I've seen you detox before, this ain't it,"' she told the camera.

'I go, "There is something wrong and I don't want to scare you, but when was the last time you had been tested for HIV?"'

Sheen has said he was 'kind of f--king relieved,' when he got the diagnosis, because it was now treatable.

The actor married Brooke Mueller in 2008. Both were sober at the time, but later relapsed

Richards ended up taking custody of Mueller's and Sheen's twins Max and Bob, for about a year when they were aged four, due to their parents' inability to care for them; Pictured in San Simeon, CA in October 2016

He revealed his diagnosis in 2015, and said that thanks to the medications he was on, his viral load is undetectable.

Sheen has reconciled with his sons, who now live with them as their mother works on her sobriety.

He and Richards have remained on good terms and both she supported him at the premier of aka Charlie in Los Angeles on September 3.

Sheen has also appeared in his ex's reality show Denise Richards and Her Wild Things on Bravo.
Polly Holliday, the versatile actress best remembered for bringing sass and charm to Flo on the long-running sitcom Alice, has died at age 88.

Her death was confirmed by Dennis Aspland, her theatrical agent and close friend to The New York Times.

Holliday passed away on Tuesday at her home in Manhattan, less than a year after the death of her former co-star Linda Lavin, who played the series' title character.

Holliday shot to fame in the late 1970s as Florence Jean 'Flo' Castleberry, the witty, gum-snapping waitress with a sharp tongue.

Audiences quickly fell in love with her signature line, the deadpan, 'Kiss my grits', delivered in her sweetest Southern drawl whenever someone managed to get under her skin.

Alice, which debuted on CBS in August 1976, was loosely adapted from Martin Scorsese's 1974 film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore.

Polly Holliday, the versatile actress best remembered for bringing sass and charm to Flo on the long-running sitcom Alice, has died at age 88

The series bounced around the CBS schedule during its first two seasons but became a hit leading into All In The Family on Sunday nights in October 1977.

It was among primetimes top 10 series in four of the next five seasons. Variety magazine listed it among the all-time best workplace comedies.

For her portrayal of Flo, Holliday earned back-to-back Golden Globe Awards in 1979 and 1980, along with multiple Emmy nominations.

Beyond television, she carved out an impressive stage career, most notably starring in a Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

In 1990, she received a Tony Award nomination, further cementing her versatility as a performer.

Two years later, in an interview with The Tampa Bay Times, Holliday reflected on her deep connection to the theater.

'An actor is unfortunate if he doesn't get to spend a lot of time onstage,' she said. 'When you're onstage, you get to practice every night.'

Her talent was recognized early on. At Childersburg High School in Alabama, she was voted 'most talented' in her senior class.

She went on to study piano at Alabama College for Women (now the University of Montevallo), where she also participated in several school productions.

After earning her undergraduate degree, Holliday taught music before pursuing graduate studies in music education at Florida State University.

Holliday passed away on Tuesday at her home in Manhattan, less than a year after the death of her former co-star Linda Lavin, who played the series' title character; seen in 1977

For her portrayal of Flo, Holliday earned back-to-back Golden Globe Awards in 1979 and 1980, along with multiple Emmy nominations (pictured in 1990)

Beyond television, she carved out an impressive stage career, most notably starring in a Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; seen in 1993

Born in Jasper, Alabama, on July 2, 1937, and raised in the small town of Childersburg, she made her Broadway debut in 1974 in Dustin Hoffmans production of All Over Town.

She later returned in revivals of Arsenic and Old Lace, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Picnic.

Holliday was a familiar face on television, appearing in The Golden Girls, The Equalizer, Homicide: Life on the Streets and Home Improvement, where she played Tim Allens witty mother-in-law.

She also starred in TV movies including Bernice Bobs Her Hair and The Gift of Love: A Christmas Story.

On the big screen she proved equally adaptable, with roles in All the Presidents Men (1976), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Moon Over Parador (1988), The Parent Trap (1998) and her final film, Fair Game (2010), as the mother of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

Holliday had no immediate survivors.
Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried announced they joined forces for a thriller called The Housemaid nearly one year ago.

And now the 27-year-old Euphoria star and 39-year-old Long Bright River sensation appear in new first-look images from the upcoming film, in theaters December 19.

The photos, shared by Lionsgate in partnership with People magazine, show Sydney in character as Millie, a live-in housemaid trying to start fresh and leave her past behind.

She works for Amanda's seemingly polished character Nina Winchester, who is married to Andrew Winchester (Brandon Sklenar).

Things go left, putting Millie in a dangerous position when the Winchesters' luster begins to chip away.

A logline describes the movie as a 'seductive game of secrets, scandal and power.'

Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried announced they joined forces for a thriller called The Housemaid nearly one year ago

The 27-year-old Euphoria star and 39-year-old Long Bright River sensation appear in new first-look images from the upcoming film, in theaters on December 19

Director Paul Feig told People executive producers and co-stars Sydney and Amanda's onscreen chemistry is 'through the roof.'

'They are both such powerful talents and work so well off each other that you very quickly get sucked into their onscreen world,' he shared.

'Its thrilling to see their interplay as the Millie-Nina relationship changes over the course of the film,' the 62-year-old filmmaker said.

The movie is based on the Freida McFadden novel of the same name, published in 2022.

Amanda noted, 'The film captures everything fans loved about the book  the secrets, the tension and the twists.

'We cant wait for audiences to immerse themselves in the experience.'

For her part, Sydney weighed in, 'I cant wait for fans to see how hard we all worked to bring The Housemaid to life.'

And she described Millie as her ideal character  'complex, strong and with a little something up her sleeve.'

The images, shared by Lionsgate in partnership with People magazine, show Sydney in character as Millie, a live-in housemaid trying to start fresh and leave her past behind

Millie works for Amanda's seemingly polished character Nina Winchester

Amanda's character Nina is married to Andrew Winchester (Brandon Sklenar)

Italian actor Michele Morrone stars Enzo in The Housemaid, in theaters December 19

Paul noted that Millie is 'someone we invest in immediately as she walks into what to her is a very foreign world of wealth and high expectations.'

Meanwhile, he pained Nina as 'a portrait of unpredictability and extremes.'

'They are both up for anything, and we had so much fun playing with all the twists and turns that the story takes these characters through,' he said about the actresses.

'They both slipped into these challenging roles effortlessly and took full ownership of them. We couldnt have had a better time together making this movie,' he added.

Italian actor Michele Morrone also appears in the feature as Enzo, the estate's groundkeeper.

Screenwriter Rebecca Sonnenshine adapted the novel for the big screen.

Announcing the movie via social media last October, Amanda teased, 'I just want to let you know that The Housemaid by Freida McFadden is coming to the big screen. Stay tuned.'
Bobby Brazier has broken his silence for the first time about becoming an uncle after the shock announcement his younger brother Freddy, 20, was to become a father.

The EastEnders star, 22, and eldest son of the late Jade Goody told MailOnline: 'I'm excited to become an. Uncle, it's going to be a team effort, like raising anything is. My dad has been super supportive and we're going to raise the baby together.'

But when asked if it was going to be a healing force between his family who have recently been experiencing a rift after his brother fell out with his father, Jeff Brazier, Bobby said: 'I'm not sure about healing but we're going to raise it together.

'At first I thought it could have been a prank when I heard about it,' Bobby admitted.

The Strictly star revealed he first heard about it when the Mail on Sunday broke the story last month and he called up his father who confirmed the revelation.

Jeff and Freddy have spent much of the last year estranged, only to be reunited some weeks ago after the baby announcement.

Bobby Brazier has broken his silence for the first time about becoming an uncle after the shock announcement his younger brother Freddy, 20, was to become a father

Freddy is preparing to become a dad as an ex-girlfriend of his is expecting their baby.

'There was only one person that Freddy could have turned to,' a source told the Mail on Sunday. 'His dad.'

While relations had been strained for some time, particularly when Jeff hired lawyers in a bid to stop Freddy seeing his notoriously unstable grandmother, he always knew that his father would be there for him if a crisis arose.

The source continued: 'He has been in close contact with Jeff ever since, and has been taking his advice.

'It came as a shock to Freddy that he is going to be a dad and he needed some help navigating it. Jeff has been amazing and is helping him so much.'

Sources revealed that Freddy would like a DNA test to be conducted on the child to ensure that it is actually his before he gets too involved in arrangements for the baby's future.

'The relationship was quite short lived and he wants to be certain before he plans the rest of his life around it,' said one friend.

When asked if it was going to be a healing force between his family who have been experiencing a rift after his brother fell out with his father, Jeff, Bobby said: 'I'm not sure'

Freddy's brief relationship with the woman is said to have ended acrimoniously following a string of rows  which even saw each of them make allegations to the police.

It is perhaps no surprise then that, as a source says: 'Jeff wants to meet the girl's family so that they can all deal with this together.'
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air icon Janet Hubert is setting the record straight about her relationship with Will Smith and it has nothing to do with a rumored million-dollar payout.

While appearing on The Big Tigger Show this week, the 68-year-old actress, best known as the original Aunt Vivian on the beloved '90s sitcom, gave fans a candid glimpse into what her reconciliation with Smith really looks like.

'It's so good,' she said of their friendship, before crediting the Oscar-winning actor for giving her meaningful support far beyond a checkbook. 'I'ma give my boy  I'm gonna give my baby his props. He put together the website with his team for me.'

Rather than write a big check to rectify their past, Smith invested in Hubert's future by backing her animation project, funding her website and providing access to his full tech and social media team to expand her online presence.

He even helped her with presentations for Netflix and Amazon.

When asked if he gave her millions, she answered:' He didnt give me millions of dollars.'

In response, co-host Jazzy McBee said it seemed Smith gave her help 'with the resources' she needed and that was 'more than enough.'

Fresh Prince of Bel-Air icon Janet Hubert is setting the record straight about her relationship with Will Smith and it has nothing to do with a rumored million-dollar payout

Hubert agreed and revealed that Smith went a step further by joining her in Miami at an Embrace Girls Foundation event she has supported for more than two decades.

The Bad Boys: Ride or Die star spent three hours with 300 underserved children, handing out books and T-shirts and reading stories as Hubert presented her project.

The update comes nearly five years after Hubert and Smith reunited during the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reunion special on HBO Max, ending a bitter feud that spanned nearly three decades.

During the reunion, the actors emotionally patched up their relationship with clinical psychologist Ramani Durvasula on hand at the scene.

'I hated what you did. I just hated what you did. You took my career away of 30-something years,' she said, struggling not to cry. 'You just went too far when you were younger and I know you always had to win.'

Smith confessed that he 'went way too far and said things to people that wouldn't know how to hold that information, and then once you put it in, then the machine grabs it. Then they start putting their own spin on it.'

The original rift dates back to 1993, when Hubert exited the sitcom after three seasons.

At the time, Smith publicly labeled her 'difficult' and 'unprofessional'  a stigma Hubert has said destroyed her career.

Rather than write a big check to rectify their past, Smith invested in Hubert's future by backing her animation project, funding her website and providing access to his full tech and social media team

'Calling a Black woman difficult in Hollywood is the kiss of death,' she explained during their reunion.

Since then, both stars have taken steps toward healing.

Smith has openly acknowledged his mistakes, telling Vice's Black Comedy in America: 'I made a horrible error and misjudged her value, power, and beauty in the show.'

For Hubert, the public reconciliation has blossomed into genuine friendship.

The original rift dates back to 1993, when Hubert exited the sitcom after three seasons

At the time, Smith publicly labeled her 'difficult' and 'unprofessional'  a stigma Hubert has said destroyed her career

She's even praised Smith's recent work, calling his Oscar-winning turn in King Richard the most enjoyable performance she's seen since Hidden Figures.

Clips from Hubert's radio interview quickly spread across social media, where fans celebrated the transformation of their once-fractured bond.

'Ms. Janet looks rejuvenated & happy  so glad Will came to his senses,' one wrote.

Another added: 'I am grateful that ppl can see reconciliation works and is a healing process. Letting go is the blessing.'
Alison Hammond proclaimed the 'natural order has been restored' after This Morning won the Daytime Award at the National Television Awards on Wednesday.

The TV presenter, 50, admitted the This Morning team had been 'humbled' as they missed out on the award the last two years.

Although Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard are the main presenters, it was Friday host Alison who stepped up to the microphone first as they accepted the award.

'Natural order has been restored,' she said. 'Can we just say a massive thank you to each and every person who voted for This Morning. We are so overwhelmed.

'This award means so much. We've been humbled the last two years, we haven't won this award. We don't take it lightly that we won this award, we're so grateful.'

Cat also took to the microphone and said: 'We are so lucky to get to do this show, we all love it. Every single person who comes on, we love this show and it's like having a family.'

Alison Hammond proclaimed the 'natural order has been restored' after This Morning won the Daytime Award at the National Television Awards on Wednesday

Ben and Cat looked thrilled as they posed with their award in then press room

The Chase won the Daytime Award at the 2024 ceremony while The Repair Shop won in 2023.

Cat was pictured with a ring on her wedding finger as she walked the red carpet jjust weeks after announcing her split from Patrick Kielty.

Cat, 48, and Patrick, 54, who have two boys together, announced the end of their marriage in July in a joint statement - insisting 'no other party' was involved.

A diamond wedding ring was in clear view on her left hand as she boasted a big smile while posing for pictures at the O2 Arena in London.

Cat had previously been snapped with her wedding ring off as she opted to swap the dazzling rock to her right hand in a pointed gesture that seemingly symbolised her new life chapter.

The outfit, which featured a one-shoulder neckline, showed off her slim physique.

Meanwhile, her This Morning co-host Ben Shephard wore a dark rich green velvet dinner jacket for the awards.

Last month Cat's estranged husband Patrick was spotted on a trip to the shops near the former couple's home in London buying a bottle of red wine.

It was the first time he had been pictured since their split was confirmed.

Cat was pictured with a ring on her wedding finger - just weeks after announcing her split from Patrick Kielty

A diamond wedding ring was in clear view on her left hand as she boasted a big smile while posing for pictures at the O2 Arena in London

He then broke his silence as he returned to his BBC Radio 5 Live show.

In a jovial mood upon his return to the airwaves Patrick joked about being overlooked for the role of Match of the Day host, following Mark Chapman, Gabby Logan and Kelly Cates replacing Gary Lineker.

He laughed: 'It's lovely to be back. We are coming to you from sunny Belfast and we've got Michael Andrew looking after things here. We've got Sammy and Craig looking after things in London.

'It takes a village folks to make this show sound so average, but it is not just me who is back, Oh no, what is this? It is a little welcome back letter from the head of the BBC'.

Cat and Patrick, 54, who have two boys together, announced the end of their marriage in July in a joint statement - insisting 'no other party' was involved

Cat was pictured with her This Morning co-host Ben Shephard as they coordinated their outfits for the National Television Awards

Patrick's family are still seething with Cat over her failure to attend his beloved mother's funeral  and say they knew at that moment their marriage was over for good.

Her 'no show' back in March has left deep emotional scars within the Kielty family who say it confirmed for them that there was little chance of a reconciliation between the two.

Announcing their separation, Cat and Patrick said: 'We have taken the decision to end our marriage and are now separated. There is no other party involved.

'We will continue to be united as loving parents to our children and would therefore kindly ask for our family privacy to be respected. There will be no further comment.'
This Oscar-nominated actress was spotted heading back to her car in a Beverly Hills parking garage after running errands in the upscale neighborhood on Wednesday.

The veteran star, who is 68, showed off her trim figure in a long-sleeve white top and dark jeans.

Her signature blonde hair was styled in a tousled shoulder-length bob and she sported designer shades and lip gloss.

The well-known actress comes from a bona fide Hollywood dynasty in a multi-generational family filled with actors.

Can you guess who she is?

This Oscar-nominated actress was spotted heading back to her car in a Beverly Hills garage after running errands on Wednesday

The 68-year-old nepo baby comes from a bona fide Hollywood dynasty in a multi-generational family filled with actors: can you guess who she is?

It's Melanie Griffith, daughter of The Birds star Tippi Hedren.

Griffith is set to reunite with her third ex-husband Antonio Banderas in Spain next month for their daughter Stella's 'intimate' wedding to Alex Gruszynski.

Banderas, 65, who was born in Malaga, told Hola! on August 12: 'Having her get married in Spain fills me with pride.'

He described Stella, 28, as 'very Andalusian, very much from Malaga, even if she grew up in the US. This is her way of reconnecting with her roots and sharing her homeland with her future husband and his family.'

He added: 'Seeing my daughter dressed as a bride will be one of the most beautiful moments of my life. I get to be the father of the bride, and it's a role I take on with all the emotion in the world.'

Manhattan-born Griffith and Banderas - who met in 1995 on the set of Two Much - have remained amicable since ending their 18-year marriage in 2014.

Griffith has two children - daughter Dakota, 35; and stepson Jesse, 42 - from her two marriages to first ex-husband Don Johnson, and she mothered 40-year-old son Alexander during her marriage to second ex-husband Steven Bauer.

In 2023, the Golden Globe winner replaced her heart-shaped 'Antonio' tattoo with crossword-style ink emblazoned with her four kids' names - Alexander, Dakota, Jesse, and Stella.

Griffith will next narrate Amanda Kramer's film By Design starring Juliette Lewis, which screens September 21 at the Nashville Film Festival in Tennessee.

It's Melanie Griffith, daughter of Birds alum Tippi Hedren, and she'll reunite with her third ex-husband Antonio Banderas (L, pictured in 2023) in Spain next month to attend their daughter Stella's (M) 'intimate' wedding to Alex Gruszynski

The Malaga-born 65-year-old told Hola! on August 12: 'Having her get married in Spain fills me with pride. She's very Andalusian, very much from Malaga, even if she grew up in the US. This is her way of reconnecting with her roots and sharing her homeland with her future husband and his family'

Antonio added: 'Seeing my daughter dressed as a bride will be one of the most beautiful moments of my life. I get to be the father of the bride, and it's a role I take on with all the emotion in the world'

Banderas noted it's a 'long-awaited wedding' since 'Alex has been like family since they were kids' attending Wagon Wheel preschool together in Hollywood

Manhattan-born Melanie and the Oscar-nominated actor - who met in 1995 on the set of Two Much - have remained amicable since ending their 18-year marriage in 2014 (pictured in 2012)

Griffith has two children - daughter Dakota (L), 35; and stepson Jesse (M), 42 - from her two marriages to first ex-husband Don Johnson, and she mothered 40-year-old son Alexander (R) during her marriage to second ex-husband Steven Bauer

The Golden Globe winner will next narrate Amanda Kramer's body-swap dramedy By Design starring Juliette Lewis (M), which screens September 21 at the Nashville Film Festival in Tennessee

Last month, Music Box Films picked up North American distribution rights to the eccentric body-swap dramedy - according to Deadline.

By Design currently has a 71% critic approval rating (out of 35 reviews) on Rotten Tomatoes.

Griffith is best known for her roles in Arthur Penn's 1975 neo-noir film Night Moves, Jonathan Demme's 1986 comedy Something Wild, Mike Nichols' 1988 rom-com Working Girl, and Brian De Palma's 1990 dark comedy The Bonfire of the Vanities.
Jerry Seinfeld on Tuesday said he holds the Ku Klux Klan in higher regard than supporters of the Free Palestine movement while at an event to honor people being held hostage in Gaza.

The comic-actor, 71, made the controversial remarks at a Chabad event at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, according to the college's student newspaper, The Duke Chronicle.

Seinfeld broached the uncomfortable topic as he introduced Omer Shem Tov, a one-time Israeli hostage. He said of Free Palestine supporters, 'Just say you dont like Jews.'

The Brooklyn, New York native explained his point of view at the event, according to the student paper.

'By saying Free Palestine, you're not admitting what you really think,' Seinfeld said. 'So it's actually - compared to the Ku Klux Klan, I'm actually thinking the Klan is actually a little better here because they can come right out and say, "We don't like Blacks, we don't like Jews" - OK, that's honest.'

Daily Mail has reached out to Seinfeld's agent for further comment on the story.

Jerry Seinfeld, 71, on Tuesday said he holds the Ku Klux Klan in higher regard than supporters of the Free Palestine movement. Pictured in LA last year

A person held a Palestinian flag as students participated in a 'Walkout to fight Genocide and Free Palestine' at UCLA on October 25, 2023

According to the student paper, Seinfeld's 'appearance at the event, which was open only to Duke students, faculty and staff, was not publicized beforehand.'

In a statement, a Duke University spokesperson said that the institution's welcoming of guest speakers 'does not imply any endorsement of their remarks.'

The spokesperson added that 'the student group Chabad at Duke was the lead organizer of Tuesday's event and invited the speakers.

'Omer Shem Tov was introduced by Jerry Seinfeld, who requested his appearance not be announced beforehand given Omer Shem Tov's spiritual journey during captivity was the focus of the event.'

Chabad student group president Mason Herman, a student at the university, told NBC News that Chabad and the school weren't liable for the comments made by the Emmy-winning star.

'This event was highlighting the fact that there are more than 40 hostages still in Gaza; to one, raise awareness of that fact, and, two, to share their plight while in captivity,' Herman said. 'And to share Omer's story.'

Seinfeld has been outspoken in his support for Israel over the past two years in the wake of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack at the Nova music festival in southern Israel. Pictured in Israel in the wake of the attack

Seinfeld pictured at Duke's graduation ceremony in May of 2024 in Durham, North Carolina

Seinfeld has been outspoken in his support for Israel over the past two years in the wake of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack at the Nova music festival in southern Israel.

In the months following the attack, Seinfeld went to Tel Aviv and chat with the families of hostages.

Seinfeld said that a missile attack happened while he was there, and he gained a new insight into the atrocities of war.

Seinfeld on Tuesday said that he hoped to 'call attention to the plight of the hostages' with his public commentary on the topic. He added, 'So to be here tonight and experiencing this is really incredible.'

Seinfeld presented the university's Commencement in May of 2024, leading to protests from students over his stated views on the Middle East conflict. Around 100 graduating students left the ceremony early.
Georgia Love has enjoyed a romantic date night out in Melbourne with a handsome male friend, six months after she confirmed her split from husband Lee Elliot.

The former Bachelorette star, 35, shared some precious photos to social media on Wednesday night, which captured her and her friend Samuel Murphy dressed to the nines as they attended a fancy restaurant in Collingwood, Melbourne.

She looked radiant in a blue and brown floral-print figure-hugging dress and matching brown leather ankle boots, while Sam looked dashing in a designer tuxedo.

The pair put on an intimate display as they posed on the restaurant's stairwell, with Sam wrapping his arm around Georgia as she beamed from ear to ear.

Georgia wrote 'ILY' alongside the sweet snap, which is short for 'I love you'.

In another Story, the radio star showed off her friend Sam, who completed his dashing look with a bow tie.

Georgia Love has enjoyed a romantic date night out in Melbourne with a handsome male friend, six months after she confirmed her split from husband Lee Elliot

The former Bachelorette star shared some precious photos to social media on Wednesday night, which captured her and her friend Samuel Murphy dressed to the nines as they attended a fancy restaurant in Collingwood

She joked alongside the post, writing: 'When your friend tells you to dress up for dinner.'

Georgia later snapped her pal at the dining table, which was decorated with a romantic red rose in a glass vase.

The former reality TV star has been living life to the fullest since confirming her split with Lee in February.

Last month, she showed her former man what he's missing as she turned heads at the opening night of Cirque Du Soleil's Corteo in Melbourne.

The former Bachelorette star flashed a glimpse of her lace bra as she showed off her toned physique in a striped dress and black stockings.

The event came just one day before Georgia appeared to take a thinly veiled swipe at Lee, 44, as she celebrated her birthday with her closest friends.

Georgia shared a photo to Instagram alongside three male friends and affectionately captioned it with a tribute to her 'men'.

The group wrapped their arms around each other as they smiled for the camera.

Georgia looked radiant in a floral-print figure-hugging dress, while Sam looked dashing in a designer tuxedo

This wasn't the first time Georgia has thrown subtle shade at her ex-husband.

The Bachelorette Australia star took to Instagram earlier this year to share a photo of herself cuddled up with her 'soulmate', Abir Ahmed.

Abir, Georgia's best friend since she was 14 years old, could be seen with his arm wrapped around her shoulders as they took in the New York City skyline.

'Who says a soulmate has to be romantic?' she captioned the post, which appeared to be a dig aimed at Lee and their nine-year marriage.

Georgia and Abir recently vacationed in the Caribbean together during the same week her ex moved out of their marital home.

Lee and Georgia, who met on the 2016 season of The Bachelorette and were married for four years, broke the news of their separation in February.

'After nine wonderful years together, including four as husband and wife, we have made the difficult decision to part ways,' they wrote.

'Our relationship has been so special and we will always cherish the memories, love, and laughter we've shared.

The former reality TV star has been living life to the fullest since confirming her split with Lee in February

'We remain friends and we'd really appreciate our privacy as we navigate this next stage. Thank you.'

Georgia and Lee had fuelled rumours they had split for some time as it had been months since they were seen together.

The pair spent Christmas apart with their respective families before Georgia jetted off to New York City for a holiday without Lee.

They were also both spotted without their wedding bands, which fuelled speculation online that their relationship had ended.
Strictly Come Dancing won for best talent show at the National Television Awards on Wednesday, beating the BBCs Great British Bake Off and Britains Got Talent.

The dance competition has been under fire in recent years for a series of scandals including Wynne Evans vile sexual slur on the Strictly tour, Graziano Di Prima axing after he was found to have kicked his celebrity partner Zara McDermott, and Amanda Abbingtons bullying accusations.

Although the show won big, its presenters Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly and its dancing cast were not present as they were pre-recording their launch show of the new series.

Instead, some of the most recent series contestants went on stage to accept the award including Pete Wicks, JB Gill, Tasha Ghouri and Montell Douglas.

Pete and JB both thanked the show's fans during their speeches and Pete also gave a special thanks to the show's backstage crew.

JB praised 2024 winners Chris McClausland and Dianne Buswell for 'making history' as Chris was the first blind person for winning the show.

Strictly Come Dancing won for best talent show at the National Television Awards on Wednesday, beating the BBCs Great British Bake Off and Britains Got Talent

Although the show won big, its presenters Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly and its dancing cast were not present as they were pre-recording their launch show of the new series

It comes after Strictly has been embroiled in a series of controversies in recent years.

In August, it was reported that a Strictly star had been arrested on suspicion of rape.

The male suspect is reportedly being 'quizzed by police over allegations involving non-consensual intimate image abuse'.

A Met spokesman told Daily Mail: 'On Friday, August 22, officers arrested a man on suspicion of rape and non-consensual intimate image abuse.

'This is a joint investigation with Hertfordshire Constabulary and while the investigation is in its early stages, we urge anyone with any information to come forward to us.

'The arrest follows a third party allegation of sexual and drug-related offences. Enquiries are ongoing.'

The Met Police also added the alleged rape victim is being supported by specialist officers.

A BBC spokesperson said: 'It would not be appropriate to comment on an ongoing police investigation.'

Instead, some of the most recent series contestants went on stage to accept the award including Pete Wicks, JB Gill, Tasha Ghouri and Montell Douglas

There is nothing to suggest this is related to the current Strictly production.

It's the biggest crisis the scandal-hit show has had to face, just weeks before the 2025 series returns to screen.

During the last series, Wynne Evans, 53, was accused of inappropriate behaviour and forced to apologise for making an unacceptable sexual remark on stage at a press event. He denied it was a sexual remark but was later sacked by the BBC.

In 2023, Amanda Abbington, 51, complained about Giovanni Pernice, 34, being 'unnecessary, abusive, cruel and mean'.

Whilst he was cleared of the 'overwhelming majority' of allegations, a probe did uphold some of her complaints of verbal bullying and harassment.

The same year, former Love Island contestant Zara McDermott, 28, was left 'incredibly distressed' following her experience in the training room with Graziano Di Prima, 31, who admitted to kicking the documentary maker, resulting in his axing.

The broadcaster has already launched an inquiry into the family show amid claims two of its stars had used cocaine.

One of the stars involved in the drugs probe was also suspected of drinking while working on the show after crew smelt alcohol on their breath.

It comes after Strictly has been embroiled in a series of controversies in recent years. In August, it was reported that a Strictly star had been arrested on suspicion of rape

The broadcaster has already launched an inquiry into the family show amid claims two of its stars had used cocaine

One of the stars involved in the drugs probe was also suspected of drinking while working on the show after crew smelt alcohol on their breath (Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly seen)

The Sun alleged that it was widely known that the pair, who have not been named, took the Class A substance, and that one of these Strictly performers was known for being a drinker.

The publication have now reported that junior members of the team were asked to keep an eye on them during last year's show and to look for signs that they may have been boozing during work hours.

A TV insider said: 'The person in question is renowned for loving to party, and that is a major problem when it impacts on their ability to do the job they need to do on Strictly in a safe and professional manner.

'It's not just about something being illegal or legal, it's about the BBC's workplace policies and how the behaviour of certain individuals can impact on their work colleagues.

'On a very physical show like Strictly, with lots of sets and moving parts, the idea of someone being intoxicated in any way is wholly unacceptable.'

A member of the crew, who reportedly worked on show for a decade until 2023, broke their silence on Strictly's wild behind the scenes parties which they claimed were fulled by drink and drugs.

He told The Sun: 'The main partying is on site at Elstree after filming of the live show has finished. Boozing and drug taking goes on until 3am, sometimes 4am. The smoking area outside is a hive of activity. Cocaine gets taken there'.

He went on to claim that drug use was so common on the show, that when he found a suspicious bag of white powder, a unfazed senior producer told him to 'leave it on my desk' as the incident failed to raise even an eyebrow.

This comes amid the revelation that the broadcaster had hired a law firm to probe allegations of drug taking by two individuals

The staff member went on to claim the show's annual special filmed at the Blackpool Tower (pictured) Ballroom was an especially 'big party night' full of debauchery

The staff member also said the show's annual special filmed at the Blackpool Tower Ballroom was an especially 'big party night' full of debauchery.

'I was offered cocaine by a star at an after show party. Lots of people would go back to the hotel. It was a closed-off party, just for the cast and crew. It went on until 5am, even to 6am, it was insane. People were wired and you could see it in their eyes'.

A BBC spokesperson told Daily Mail: 'We have clear protocols and policies in place for dealing with any serious complaint raised with us. We would always encourage people to speak to us if they have concerns. It would not be appropriate for us to comment further.'

BBC bosses are reportedly set to offer professional support to two stars of hit dancing show Strictly, amid allegations they took cocaine on the programme.

It was revealed the broadcaster has hired a law firm to probe allegations of drug taking by two individuals, whose drug use is said to be 'well-known' on the show.

The claims were reportedly made in a legal submission to the BBC by law firm Russells back in March, on behalf of former contestant Wynne Evans.

A source told the newspaper: 'The BBC is taking the allegations really seriously. Bosses are aware of the two stars in question and have a duty of care to make sure they're okay.

'As per BBC policy, the option of specialised professional support is on the table and will be offered.'

During the last series, Wynne Evans, 53, was accused of inappropriate behaviour and forced to apologise for making an unacceptable sexual remark on stage at a press event. He denied it was a sexual remark but was later sacked by the BBC

In July last year, Amanda Abbington accused pro dancer Giovanni Pernice of 'unnecessary, cruel and mean behaviour' during their time dancing together (pictured, with Giovanni in September 2023)

In separate further controversy, it's recently been reported that Naga Munchetty could face an investigation from BBC bosses after she was accused of bullying a junior colleague

They added: 'While drug testing won't happen on the main show, bosses are considering bringing in random checks for the tour next year.

'The BBC needs to be sure nothing illegal is going on. It all depends on what the investigation finds.'

Elsewhere, in further scandals for the BBC, Gregg Wallace was recently dismissed from MasterChef after more than 40 complaints against him were upheld following a BBC investigation.

While his co-star John Torode was also sacked after two decades over allegations that he used the N-word, which he claims to have 'absolutely no recollection' of.

In separate further controversy, it's recently been reported that Naga Munchetty could face an investigation from BBC bosses after she was accused of bullying a junior colleague.

The BBC Breakfast host, 50, has been placed 'under review' while bosses consider escalating complaints to a formal investigation, The Sun reports.

A source said higher-ups had heard from several colleagues and logged concerns over her 'hard' and 'bullying' behaviour on the breakfast show, as well as her Radio 5 Live show.
Light-rail driver training session for Kazakh trainees held in Tianjin

Xinhua) 09:21, September 10, 2025

A Kazakh trainee (L) takes a test under the guidance of Zhang Yao (R), an instructor from Tianjin Rail Transit, during a light-rail driver training session in north China's Tianjin Municipality, Sept. 5, 2025. A batch of 29 drivers from Kazakhstan have recently qualified as light-rail drivers after finishing immersive training sessions in China's Tianjin.

Held by Tianjin Rail Transit, the three-month program provided customized technical solutions for driving on a light-rail line in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue)

Zhang Yao (C), a trainer from Tianjin Rail Transit, answers questions from Kazakh trainees during a light-rail driver training session in north China's Tianjin Municipality, July 14, 2025. A batch of 29 drivers from Kazakhstan have recently qualified as light-rail drivers after finishing immersive training sessions in China's Tianjin.

Held by Tianjin Rail Transit, the three-month program provided customized technical solutions for driving on a light-rail line in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue)

Kazakh trainees attend a light-rail driver training session in north China's Tianjin Municipality, July 14, 2025. A batch of 29 drivers from Kazakhstan have recently qualified as light-rail drivers after finishing immersive training sessions in China's Tianjin. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue)

Held by Tianjin Rail Transit, the three-month program provided customized technical solutions for driving on a light-rail line in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan.

A Kazakh trainee (R) gets on a subway train for taking a test during a light-rail driver training session in north China's Tianjin Municipality, Sept. 5, 2025. A batch of 29 drivers from Kazakhstan have recently qualified as light-rail drivers after finishing immersive training sessions in China's Tianjin. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue)

A Kazakh trainee takes a test during a light-rail driver training session in north China's Tianjin Municipality, Sept. 5, 2025. A batch of 29 drivers from Kazakhstan have recently qualified as light-rail drivers after finishing immersive training sessions in China's Tianjin. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue)

A Kazakh trainee (C) operates a full-function driving simulator during a light-rail driver training session in north China's Tianjin Municipality, July 17, 2025. A batch of 29 drivers from Kazakhstan have recently qualified as light-rail drivers after finishing immersive training sessions in China's Tianjin. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue)

A Kazakh trainee (L) operates a full-function driving simulator during a light-rail driver training session in north China's Tianjin Municipality, Aug. 11, 2025. A batch of 29 drivers from Kazakhstan have recently qualified as light-rail drivers after finishing immersive training sessions in China's Tianjin. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue)

(Web editor: Huang Kechao, Liang Jun)
Ozempic's parent company will axe 11 percent of its workforce. It's the latest major corporation to slash jobs in a faltering jobs market.

On Wednesday, Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk announced it would cut 9,000 roles from its 78,000-person workforce, aiming to save more than $1.25 billion by the end of next year.

The layoffs come amid a summer wave of job cuts at major companies including ConocoPhillips, Walmart, Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, Amazon, Intel, and UPS.

Novo shot to fame in 2023 after its GLP-1 drugs, including Ozempic and Wegovy, became celebrity favorites after studies showing rapid weight loss.

The star-studded list of users included Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey, Rebel Wilson, Amy Schumer, and Sharon Osbourne.

As demand soared, the company struggled to produce enough batches. Competitors, including US drugmakers like Eli Lilly, quickly entered the market.

To ramp up production, Novo quickly began hiring thousands of scientists, doctors, corporate staffers, and manufacturing experts.

Now, it said it needs to cut its own fat.

Actor Rebel Wilson also used the drug, saying it helped her 'complicated' relationship with food

Novo added that a majority of the job cuts  5,000 in total  are expected around its headquarters in Denmark. It added that the 'workforce reduction is expected across the company.'

'Our markets are evolving, particularly in obesity, as it has become more competitive and consumer-driven,' the company's new CEO, Mike Doustdar, said. 'Our company must evolve as well.'

The company declined to tell the Daily Mail more specifics about which departments will be impacted by the job cuts.

'Our focus will be on handling this process with transparency and care, while supporting all impacted employees along the way,' a spokesperson said.

For Novo, it's the latest effort to recapture its dominance.

In May, the company ousted its former CEO, Lars Fruergaard Jrgensen, after seven years at the helm. And last month, it slashed prices of its consumer products to lure in more customers.

Novo's move comes amid broader US labor weakness. Yesterday, federal data revised last years new job tally downward by 911,000.

Last week, August job growth was reported at just 22,000, far below Wall Streets 75,000 forecast. In June, the number of jobs fell by 13,000.

Novo said it is cutting 9,000 jobs, including plans to axe 5,000 positions at its factories and headquarters in Denmark

Mike Doustdar, the company's new top boss, said the drugmaker 'must evolve'

Leading figures now believe America is in a 'jobs recession' that risks pushing the rest of the economy into a full blown recession.

Mark Zandi, the chief economist of Moody's Analytics, said recently that a 'labor recession' is already underway and that further revisions risk tipping the economy over a cliff.

Zandi added that an uptick in layoffs - already up 140 percent from a year ago - would also darken the situation.

Some of America's biggest companies have contributed to the falling job numbers.

In May, Walmart  America's largest employer  announced it was cutting 1,500 jobs from its tech operations and e-commerce teams.

Intel joined two months later with a 20 percent reduction of its global staff.

Procter & Gamble, the owner of Tide detergent and Gillette shaving products, is also undergoing significant cuts, eliminating 7,000 positions.

Job losses have been particularly pronounced in the tech sector, as firms increasingly replace human employees with hyper-intelligent AI machines.

The AI-driven job bloodbath marks a major shift for American workers. For years, mass layoffs were concentrated in US manufacturing plants.

That trend hasn't stopped: federal data shows there are 78,000 fewer jobs for blue collar manufacturing employees.

But now, cuts are also starting to impact college-educated, high-to-middle-class earners.

Some CEOs, including Amazon's Andy Jassy and Ford's Jim Farley, have started saying the quiet part aloud: that AI is coming for some jobs.

'As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done,' Jassy wrote to his employees in a memo.
OpenAI has hit back at a Wall Street Journal report claiming the company was planning to leave California, dismissing it as 'a work of fiction'.

An OpenAI spokesperson told Daily Mail: 'We are proud to be a California-based company and have no plans to leave.'

WSJ's reporting comes amidst a turbulent time for OpenAI, as the company fights to transform its business model from a nonprofit to a public benefit corporation (PBC).

California's largest philanthropies, nonprofits and labor groups are coming together to push back on the startup's controversial restructuring plan.

Because the startup is controlled by a nonprofit, OpenAI is asking the state's attorney general to ensure the new company it creates doesn't violate the state's charitable trust law.

Strong objections from civic leaders, state attorneys general (California and Delaware), AI ethicists and former employees raised concerns that OpenAI was abandoning its mission of safe, equitable AI development.

Meanwhile, OpenAI are desperate to go ahead with the restructuring. This is why - according to WSJ reporting that has been deemed fictitious by the tech giant - the company discussed relocating out of California in a 'last-ditch' effort to move forward.

OpenAI began its restructuring plan following the tumultuous ousting and reinstatement of CEO Sam Altman in November 2023, after the board of directors lost confidence in his leadership.

OpenAI began its restructuring plan following the tumultuous ousting and reinstatement of CEO Sam Altman (pictured) in November 2023, after the board of directors lost confidence in his leadership

An OpenAI spokesperson told the Daily Mail: 'We are proud to be a California-based company and have no plans to leave' (pictured: San Jose - the center of Silicon Valley)

The plan involved changing its for-profit entity into a PBC while having its nonprofit arm relinquish full control. Under the plan, the nonprofit would hold only a minority stake in the commercial entity.

Sources allegedly familiar with the situation reportedly told WSJ that OpenAI executives didn't expect such harsh public backlash to the company's restructuring plan when they officially announced it in December 2024.

Investors, who were not enthusiastic about a model where traditional equity is not issued and instead controlled by a nonprofit parent, were amongst those pushing for change.

However, OpenAI was forced to revise the plan in May of this year following criticism from former employees and co-founder Elon Musk, who viewed it as a betrayal of the company's founding mission to provide open-source AI for the benefit of all humanity.

The company stated in May that its nonprofit parents entity would retain control over the commercial arm.

Sources allegedly told WSJ that OpenAI has discussed potentially relocating out of California as a last-ditch option if the state's attorney general further complicates the restructuring.

This move would be difficult for the company, given that its AI researchers are largely based in San Francisco.

The outcome of the California attorney general's investigation has allegedly been a particular concern in recent months, WSJ's sources said.

Moving OpenAI out of California would be difficult, given that its AI researchers are largely based in San Francisco.

OpenAI co-founder Elon Musk viewed the company's restructuring as a betrayal of the the founding mission to provide open-source AI for the benefit of all humanity

OpenAI's restructuring plan is particularly high-stakes because its financial backers have conditioned approximately $19 billion in funding - almost half of the company's total in the last year - on receiving shares in the new for-profit business.

If the new plan is prevented by California officials, these backers could pull funding and destroy OpenAI's ambitions to build giant data centers, make custom chips and lead the charge in AI research.

'We continue to work constructively with the offices of the Attorneys General of California and Delaware,' an OpenAI spokesman told WSJ. He added that the company wants to create one of the best-resourced nonprofits in history.

If OpenAI were to leave California, which the spokesperson has vehemently denied the imminent possibility of, they would be just the most recent in a slew of companies escaping.

Oracle moved its headquarters from California's Silicon Valley to Austin, TX in 2020, and then relocated again to Nashville, TN.

Palantir also moved its corporate headquarters from Palo Alto, CA, to Denver, CO, in August 2020 - with CEO Alex Karp citing a perception of a 'hostile' tech monoculture in Silicon Valley.
Wonder is no longer just a chain of restaurants with an app  its now an app with restaurants.

The food company, founded by billionaire Marc Lore, has revamped its brand to operate more like Uber Eats and DoorDash.

Customers can now order food from both Wonders own eateries and outside restaurants directly through the Wonder app.

It also offers meal kits.

Wonder is coming after Uber Eats and DoorDash by becoming an app with restaurants, rather than a restaurant with an app.

Operating restaurants, a delivery app and a meal kit business, Wonder's revamp will allow customers to order food from non-Wonder establishments using the Wonder App.

The refresh also comes with a new logo, and its first-ever full-funnel brand campaign  including ads on streaming platforms, social media and email.

'We're really at a pivotal point in our growth as Wonder,' Courtney Lawrie, the company's head of growth and marketing told Restaurant Business.

'We have formerly operated as several restaurants, and this refresh is really representative of moving to a platform mindset.'

Wonder began with a line of on-demand food trucks, which turned into storefronts with restaurant concepts signed off by celebrity chefs  including Bobby Flay.

Meanwhile, food delivery app usage has been increasing nationwide, with more than 25 percent of Americans using these services at least once a week.

Wonder's refresh could be what the brand needs to beat out top delivery services. However, it entered the battle earlier this year after completing its acquisition of the Blue Apron meal kit company and the Grubhub delivery app.

Wonder launched a new logo as part of the brand's refresh

It will be replacing the brand's longtime looping, script logo on the app and at restaurants

Wonder announced its plans to acquire Grubhub for about $650 million last year  a deal that was finalized in January.

Wonder founder and CEO Marc Lore explained the acquisition aimed to help the company continue its mission to 'make great food more accessible.'

Lore added the acquisition served as the next step in the company's plan to 'create the super app for meal time' that changes up 'the future of food delivery.'

Part of the plan includes a modernized logo, replacing its looping, script logo with a sans-serif version. The new logo will appear on the app and new restaurants.

'As Wonder expands into new categories and capabilities, it was a natural time for a brand system that better reflected the full scope of what we offer today and where were headed next,' a Wonder spokesperson told Daily Mail.

'Shifting our brand focus from format to fulfillment, our new positioning isnt about how food gets to you, it's about satisfying what you want to eat and how you want to eat it.'

Local eateries will be a central part of the app's main feed. Orders that come through the Wonder app will be handled like a Grubhub order.

The app's main feed will highlight local favorites, but all Grubhub restaurants will be searchable in the Wonder app. The user's ability to order from multiple restaurants at the same time can only be possible with Wonder's in-house brands.

Courtney Lawrie, Wonder's head of growth and marketing, said the refresh will help Wonder move to 'a platform mindset'

Over 25 percent of Americans use a food delivery app once a week

Lore, a billionaire e-commerce entrepreneur, founded Wonder in 2018. He helped bring in over $2 billion in private funding.

The $2 billion helped the company value at around $7 billion  more than several publicly traded restaurant chains.

Today, Wonder operates around 50 restaurants, opening a new restaurant weekly. The company hopes to open 90 locations by the end of the year.

The company restaurant's are primarily in the Northeast. If its success continues, the chain could be in other US regions by 2035.

'This refresh is a direct reflection of Wonder's long-term goal to become the platform people turn to for every mealtime moment,' a spokesperson revealed to Daily Mail.

Daily Mail has reached out to Uber Eats for comment about Wonder's refresh and is awaiting response. DoorDash declined to comment on the brand's update.
Sri Lankas Supreme Court has ruled that the Bill to withdraw presidential privileges extended to former presidents and their widows can be approved in Parliament by a simple majority. The courts ruling was read out in Parliament on Tuesday by Speaker Jagath Wickremaratna.

The Supreme Court has determined that no provision of the Bill is inconsistent with any provision of the Constitution and can be enacted by Parliament with a simple majority, he said.

Following the courts ruling, the parliamentary business committee decided to debate the Bill on Wednesday. If passed, the bill will end special benefits such as an official residence, monthly allowances, secretarial support, official transport, and other perks currently provided to former presidents and their widows.

Sri Lanka currently has five living former presidents and one widow entitled to these privileges. In late July, the Government gazetted a new bill aimed at revoking all privileges granted to former presidents or their widows since 1986. The draft bill, titled Presidents Entitlement (Repeal), seeks to repeal the Presidents Entitlement Act Number 4 of 1986 and was subsequently referred to the Supreme Court.

A petition was filed by the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), the political party of former presidents Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapaksa, challenging the bills constitutionality. However, the Supreme Court rejected the petition, stating that the

petitioners had failed to comply with the mandatory provision under Article 121(1) of the Constitution.

The provision under Article 121(1) is a safeguard for judicial independence, preventing parliamentary scrutiny of judges actions except through the constitutionally prescribed impeachment process.

The ruling National Peoples Power (NPP) party had pledged during its election campaign last year to stop these privileges, calling them a financial burden on the public.
The United States Army is intensifying its pursuit of autonomous technology for the modern battlefield, awarding contracts totaling $15.5 million to three commercial startups. The initiative aims to rapidly integrate self-driving systems into Infantry Squad Vehicles (ISVs), marking a significant push to accelerate the development of robotic capabilities for combat scenarios.

Get alerts:

A New Approach to Autonomy

The contracts have been awarded to Overland AI, Forterra, and Scout AI, who are now tasked with developing and delivering prototype autonomous systems. According to an Army statement, the goal is to rapidly integrate and deliver commercial autonomous mobility into Army formations. This effort, part of the Unmanned Systems (UxS) Autonomy program, has set an ambitious timeline, with the companies expected to present their prototypes for soldier demonstration and evaluation by May 2026.

Colonel Ken Bernier, project manager for Future Battle Platforms, expressed optimism about the collaboration. We are looking forward to seeing how our industry partners autonomy solutions perform on vehicles while performing relevant military missions, he stated. We remain committed to bringing the best technologies to our warfighters and shaping the future of autonomous mobility for our Army at an unprecedented speed.

Navigating Off-Road Challenges

The journey toward fully autonomous combat vehicles has been filled with challenges unique to the military environment. Unlike the predictable conditions of public roads, battlefields present unstructured and unpredictable terrain, a hurdle that has thus far proven difficult to overcome.

Last year, Major General Glenn Dean, then in charge of Program Executive Office Ground Combat Systems, noted the disparity between public perception and the reality of off-road autonomy. The good news is we are moving forward in that area. The bad news is the industry is nowhere near where people think in terms of off-road autonomy. Initial evaluations, he explained, were conducted on trails and unimproved roads, not truly off-road environments. Building an autonomy algorithm that can identify the entire range of things it might encounter is challenging because you have a pretty big data set.

This new initiative represents a strategic pivot for the Army. After canceling previous plans for robotic combat vehicles, the service is now focusing on developing versatile autonomous capabilities that can be integrated into various platforms. The choice of the GM Defense-built ISV aligns with the Armys plan to increase its fleet of these more flexible and mobile vehicles, moving away from traditional Humvees and Joint Light Tactical Vehicles.

Leveraging Commercial Innovation

This effort reflects a broader Pentagon strategy to harness the innovation of commercial startups to solve complex military problems. Much of the foundational work stems from internal Defense Department programs. For instance, Overland AI is building upon its experience with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agencys (DARPA) RACER program, which focused on high-speed, off-road autonomy in environments where GPS and communications are unreliable.

Stephanie Bonk, co-founder and president of Overland AI, highlighted the programs significance. There was really the time before the DARPA RACER program and then the time after, she said. Prior to that, there really was no focus on navigating through unstructured terrain, Bonk emphasized that the current program is not just a technological demonstration but is aimed at delivering a tangible operational capability directly into the hands of soldiers. A major focus of this program is integrating with soldiers, and I think thats something were incredibly excited about.
^

Original-Research: ATOSS Software SE - from NuWays AG

10.09.2025 / 09:00 CET/CEST

Dissemination of a Research, transmitted by EQS News - a service of EQS

Group.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this research. The

result of this research does not constitute investment advice or an

invitation to conclude certain stock exchange transactions.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Classification of NuWays AG to ATOSS Software SE

Company Name: ATOSS Software SE

ISIN: DE0005104400

Reason for the research: Update

Recommendation: BUY

from: 10.09.2025

Target price: EUR 152.00

Target price on sight of: 12 months

Last rating change:

Analyst: Philipp Sennewald

Quality comes at a price

Topic: While we already published our first piece on ATOSS, reviewing the

company's H1 report, this report aims to provide a broader introduction into

the investment case.

ATOSS stands out as a pure-play on workforce management software (WFM), a

segment increasingly critical amid talent scarcity, rising labor costs,

complex regulation, and growing union influence. Despite these pressures,

many firms in the DACH region, ATOSS' core market, still operate with

outdated, mostly Excel-based or manual systems - thus leaving significant

efficiency potential untapped.

ATOSS addresses this need with a comprehensive, cloud-native WFM platform

spanning time & attendance, shift planning, and algorithm-driven scheduling,

all fully compliant with local labor regulations. This combination of

functionality and regulatory expertise sets ATOSS apart: smaller domestic

rivals struggle to match its breadth, while international WFM vendors often

lack the depth of local compliance knowledge. The result is a loyal

blue-chip customer base and consistently high gross retention rates of >96%.

In recent years, the business model of ATOSS has successfully transitioned

from perpetual licenses to recurring subscriptions. In H1'25, cloud and

subscription revenues increased 30% yoy to EUR 44.1m, representing 48% of

total sales (+8pp yoy). Total recurring revenues (cloud + mainentance)

reached EUR 64.0m, or 70% of group sales. With a current cloud backlog of

96.9m and ARR of EUR 130.1m (+19% yoy), earnings visibility remains

exceptionally strong.

Beyond its DACH stronghold, ATOSS is rolling out into France, Benelux, and

other non-DACH countries - markets offering the company an estimated EUR 400m

ARR potential (eNuW). In parallel, upselling within the existing customer

base remains a key growth lever, with adoption often expanding from partial

use to 80-100% of available modules across the customer lifecycle. In sum,

revenues are seen to grow at a 13% CAGR into FY27e.

Strong current trading. After FY24 marked another record year with sales up

13% to EUR 171m and EBIT up 22% to EUR 63.4m (37% margin), momentum carried into

H1'25 as sales increased 10% yoy to EUR 92.1m and EBIT margin arrived at 34%.

Mind you, the FY24 margin was temporarily elevated by unspent investment

funds during the sales restructuring. For FY25, management guides c. EUR 190m

sales and an EBIT margin of at least 31%, which we regards as absolutely

achievable. In the longer term, the highly scalable and capital-light setup

should enable EBIT margins to approach 40% as well as ROICs of >70% (eNuW).

Against this backdrop, we confirm our BUY rating with an unchanged EUR 152 PT

based on DCF.

You can download the research here:

https://eqs-cockpit.com/c/fncls.ssp?u=6f6e627fb4138bc1565be1a208e57850

For additional information visit our website:

https://www.nuways-ag.com/research-feed

Contact for questions:

NuWays AG - Equity Research

Web: www.nuways-ag.com

Email: research@nuways-ag.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nuwaysag

Adresse: Mittelweg 16-17, 20148 Hamburg, Germany

++++++++++

Diese Meldung ist keine Anlageberatung oder Aufforderung zum Abschluss

bestimmter Borsengeschafte.

Offenlegung moglicher Interessenskonflikte nach  85 WpHG beim oben

analysierten Unternehmen befinden sich in der vollstandigen Analyse.

++++++++++

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2195246 10.09.2025 CET/CEST



Quelle: dpa-AFX
Derry's Brian McGilloway is among three Northern Ireland artists to benefit from funding to support new projects that will showcase their work to local and international audiences.

The Major Individual Awards worth up to 15,000 are being presented by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland with National Lottery funding.

They are the highest-value awards bestowed by the Arts Council each year.

Derry crime fiction writer Brian McGilloway, visual artist Gail Ritchie, poet Shelley Tracey and magician Nicola McBride, also known as Nikola Arkane, have been awarded the grants to develop new works.

The award will enable McGilloway to write full-time for the first time as he works on a new book.

Ritchie, from Belfast, will use the funding to develop work during a residency in France for exhibiting across Europe, including in France, Belgium, Italy and Poland.

Belfast poet Tracey will use her funding for a project called Exploring The Art Of Creativity Through Poetry Film, as well as designing and facilitating writing workshops.

Arkane will create a stage magic act for touring in Northern Ireland and internationally. Her award will also enable her to spend a year in Korea developing her practice with leading magician Hyunjoon Kim.

Gilly Campbell, director of arts development at the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, said: They are four immensely talented artists who have already made a significant contribution to the arts in Northern Ireland and beyond.

Through this Major Individual Artist Award, each artist will benefit greatly from being able to take time out to concentrate purely on creating ambitious, high-quality projects with the financial backing they need to produce work of lasting value.

Thanks to money raised for good causes by the National Lottery players, these major awards will help to cement their national and international reputations as artists, and strengthen the positive cultural profile of Northern Ireland, both at home and abroad.

The four join a distinguished list of artists who have previously benefited from these major awards and we wish them every success as they create exciting new work.
Action Cancer, Northern Irelands leading local cancer charity, has launched its Breast Friends campaign ahead of October which marks Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

The Breast Friends campaign seeks to highlight the importance of breast screening, raise awareness of early detection, and celebrate the power of friendship and community in the fight against breast cancer.

The campaign encourages women to get together this October and hold a fundraiser in support of Action Cancers unique breast screening service, for well women aged 4049 and over 70 (outside of NHS screening age range).

With one in ten women in Northern Ireland expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime, early detection through screening remains the most effective way to save lives.

Action Cancer delivers screening to 7,500 women every year. Each screening is free to the woman but costs the charity 120 to deliver each appointment. Screening takes place at Action Cancer House and on board the Big Bus mobile unit (supported by SuperValu and Centra). Fundraising generated from the Breast Friends campaign will help fund appointments for local women in your community.

The new Breast Friends campaign highlights the importance of early detection while celebrating the power of friendship and community. Women are encouraged to book screenings together and remind their loved ones to do the same. They can also support the service by hosting fundraising events such as coffee mornings, pamper days, paint-and-sip nights or girls nights in at home, salons, or gyms.

Eadaoin Smith, Advanced Practice Radiographer at Action Cancer, said: The Breast Friends campaign is about more than raising awareness; its about harnessing the strength of community and encouraging women to look out for one another. For every 1,000 breast screenings, we are detecting six breast cancers.

"Every Wednesday afternoon we release appointments for public booking on the Action Cancer website. By attending breast screening appointments and sharing the message with friends, we can detect cancers earlier and ultimately save more lives.

Jacqueline Rooney, a 47-year-old mum of two, Artist and Action Cancer Ambassador, added: I believe Action Cancer saved my life through early breast cancer detection and I am sharing my own personal cancer story to spread awareness. As the face of the Breast Friends campaign, I will be using my platform as an Artist and Content Creator on social media to encourage as many women as possible to get behind this wonderful charity and host a pink event this October.

"This could be a paint-and-sip event, coffee morning or Girls Night In. Take time out of your busy schedule and use this as a great excuse to get the girls together for an overdue catch-up. Through your Breast Friends event, funds raised could make all the difference in saving the life of a local woman in your community.

As a special way to support the campaign, Olivias Haven (with stores in Belfast and Coleraine, and online) has created a bespoke pink Breast Friends wax halo melt, priced at 8 will be available during the month October. Every purchase will directly fund Action Cancers life-saving breast screening service, making it a perfect gift for yourself or a loved one while supporting local women.

READ NEXT: Rafiki Collection to showcase at Derry's One World Festival 2025

To take on a Breast Friends Fundraiser, contact Lisa McClenaghan for a fundraising pack at E. breastfriends@actioncancer.org or call 028 9080 3361.
The UK could miss its 2030 target to restore and safeguard nature by a country mile at the current rate of progress, green groups have warned.

The Government committed to protecting at least 30% of land and sea for nature by the end of the decade as part of the global biodiversity agreement made at the UN Cop15 Summit in 2015.

This means the UK must restore the environment across a network of well-managed, legally protected areas to help tackle the dual climate and nature crises.

But research released on Tuesday found that only around 6% of UK land is effectively conserved and managed for nature, which means the country is one-fifth of the way towards the 2030 target with five years left to go.

The report from the Wildlife and Countryside Link (WCL), which represents more than 90 environment groups, said the percentage of land in England that has been protected for nature and is in good condition is just 2.83%.

This marks a decline from 2.93% last year, with researchers saying this dip likely reflects new monitoring data after recent surveys of protected areas revealed that fewer are in a favourable condition than previously thought.

Across the other nations of the UK, the report outlined a similar pattern, with just 2.4% of land in good condition in Wales, 4% in Northern Ireland and 12.63% in Scotland.

Richard Benwell, WCL chief executive, said: The UK risks missing its 30by30 nature target by a country mile.

Protecting 30% of land and sea isnt a luxury, its vital for wildlife, our health and the economy.

This snails pace progress shows the UK governments have neglected nature for too long.

Theres still chance to meet the target but only if ministers get moving.

Progress on nature has been stalled by barriers such as failures to designate new protected sites for nature, continued harmful activities, uncertainty in the nature-friendly farming policy, continued underfunding for site restoration and a lack of monitoring, according to the report.

Although 38% of UK waters are designated as marine protected areas (MPAs), the researchers said many remain exposed to damaging activities including bottom trawling, offshore energy development, pollution, dredging and cable laying.

The green groups are now calling on ministers to deliver a rapid rollout of new designations for protected areas, backed by proper funding, stronger rules to end harmful activities in protected areas and robust monitoring.

In England specifically, they welcomed policies such as nature-friendly farming payments, the land use framework, and water sector reforms but argued that 2025 must be the year when promises make way for delivery.

Mr Benwell said: We need more nature sites in better condition and a crackdown on pollution and unsustainable development.

The price of failure is terrible for people and wildlife, but the prize of success will be a thriving, healthy society thats rich in nature.

Max Bryant, chief executive of the Northern Ireland Environment Link, said: This timely report shows that we have even further to go in NI to meet our targets than many may have anticipated.

Amongst other things, NI needs long-term, legally binding and fully funded targets to better protect our biodiversity and public health.

Deborah Long, chief executive of Scottish Environment Link, said: Scotlands biodiversity is amongst the least resilient in the world and the more we can do to restore nature, the more we build a better future for all of us.

We need to keep the pressure on our governments to ensure that this vision is realised.

Karen Whitfield, director of Wales Environment Link, said: Whilst the Welsh Government has recognised a nature crisis, action too often falls short of the scale, priority and investment necessary to turn it around.

The report is published as environmental charities gather in Bristol for the inaugural Wild Summit, a new national conference focused on the measures that need to be taken to drive natures recovery.
A magician and a crime fiction writer are among the Northern Ireland artists to benefit from funding to support new projects that will showcase their work to local and international audiences.

The Major Individual Awards worth up to 15,000 are being presented by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland with National Lottery funding.

They are the highest-value awards bestowed by the Arts Council each year.

Crime fiction writer Brian McGilloway, visual artist Gail Ritchie, poet Shelley Tracey and magician Nicola McBride, also known as Nikola Arkane, have been awarded the grants to develop new works.

The award will enable McGilloway to write full-time for the first time as he works on a new book.

Ritchie, from Belfast, will use the funding to develop work during a residency in France for exhibiting across Europe, including in France, Belgium, Italy and Poland.

Belfast poet Tracey will use her funding for a project called Exploring The Art Of Creativity Through Poetry Film, as well as designing and facilitating writing workshops.

Arkane will create a stage magic act for touring in Northern Ireland and internationally. Her award will also enable her to spend a year in Korea developing her practice with leading magician Hyunjoon Kim.

Gilly Campbell, director of arts development at the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, said: They are four immensely talented artists who have already made a significant contribution to the arts in Northern Ireland and beyond.

Through this Major Individual Artist Award, each artist will benefit greatly from being able to take time out to concentrate purely on creating ambitious, high-quality projects with the financial backing they need to produce work of lasting value.

Thanks to money raised for good causes by the National Lottery players, these major awards will help to cement their national and international reputations as artists, and strengthen the positive cultural profile of Northern Ireland, both at home and abroad.

The four join a distinguished list of artists who have previously benefited from these major awards and we wish them every success as they create exciting new work.
Proposed legislation around school inspections has been described by a leading teachers union as red flag to a bull.

Teachers could potentially receive fines if they do not take part in school inspections under planned new legislation to be proposed by Education Minister Paul Givan.

The Department of Education has contended that Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK and Ireland where inspection lacks legal protection.

It comes after almost 10 years of disruption to school inspections, including industrial action by teachers over workload.

The Stormont Education Committee heard on Wednesday that three-quarters of inspections in the last eight academic years have been disrupted.

While agreement was reached between the unions and department earlier this year to resume inspections, Mr Givan is expected to bring it before the Assembly imminently.

The teachers unions and department officials appeared separately at the committee on Wednesday.

Justin McCamphill from the NASUWT said the unions secured an agreement around inspections in April, and described the prospect of the proposed legislation as a red flag to a bull.

Things are going to be progressing over the next 12 months, we need to keep building the confidence, he told MLAs.

The independent review is going to report in November on workload, and again, there will be outworkings from it, so I think the focus needs to be on keeping building that confidence.

I just think to bring in the legislation now is a red flag to the bull to the members.

Committee chairman Nick Mathison said it is absolutely vital that there is an inspection regime, but added he had concerns around the language of criminalisation.

Later, Suzanne Kingon from the Department of Education said that with the return of inspections this year, five schools were identified as needing external support through the formal intervention process.

She said they were the first schools to enter formal intervention and receive external support since 2017.

In comparison, she said in the eight academic years before 2017, 80 schools received support.

Ms Kingon told MLAs the department had reviewed a range of options, but said it was clear that only fit-for-purpose legislation will remove the ongoing disruption.

She also said that without inspection, they had no clear picture of educational effectiveness in individual schools or in our education system as a whole.

She added that the Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) is the only organisation that inspects the arrangements for child protection and wider safeguarding in schools and other educational establishments.

No less than three quarters of ETI inspections in the last eight academic years have been impacted by action short of strike, she said.

It means that ETI is unable to provide assurance to parents, carers, school communities and all stakeholders about the quality of education being delivered.

It also means that in each and every one of these cases, the ETI has been unable to fully evaluate child protection and wider safeguarding arrangements, a core and critical protection for children.

She added: Northern Ireland remains the only jurisdiction in the UK and Ireland without legislation to protect the integrity of inspection, this is not a technical gap, it is a systematic failure.
First Minister Michelle ONeill has said she is very comfortable with her decision not to attend a banquet at Windsor Castle during US President Donald Trumps state visit to the UK this month.

Ms ONeill told MLAs that she had plenty of engagement with the US administration, but added that people should be more concerned about the biggest humanitarian crisis of our time in Gaza.

It emerged earlier this week that Ms ONeill would not attend the banquet, while Northern Irelands deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly would travel to the engagement.

Sinn Fein vice president Ms ONeill also stayed away from events earlier this year attended by the DUPs Ms Little-Pengelly in the White House on St Patricks Day in protest at Mr Trumps stance on the conflict in Gaza.

During the First Ministers appearance before her Stormont scrutiny committee, she was questioned on the issue by DUP MLA Brian Kingston.

He said: Part of the role of joint first ministers is engaging with other heads of states and their administrations for the people of Northern Ireland.

Surely the United States of America should be at the top of our list given the amount of investment they bring to Northern Ireland, whatever one thinks of the current incumbent, they should be at the top of our list.

Ms ONeill responded: Surely the starving children of Gaza should be at the top of your list, and everyone elses list.

It is the biggest humanitarian crisis of your time.

I am very comfortable with my decision not to represent this Executive at a state banquet in Windsor Castle with President Trump.

Mr Kingston said the Gaza crisis did not mean Northern Ireland should cut itself off from the US administration.

The First Minister said: Indeed I do not. I have plenty of engagement with people across the American administration and will continue to do so.

But at a time when the world is looking on at the biggest humanitarian crisis of our time, at a time when starvation is being used as a weapon of war, at a time when the world is increasingly moving towards a militarised agenda to the detriment of people across the globe, at this time, the priority should be ending the genocide in Gaza, at this time the priority should be every international voice making their voice heard and stopping Israel from acting with impunity.

I think that is what you should be concerned about, what any right-minded person should be concerned about right now.

Ms Little-Pengelly said: President Trump is pursuing the same policy in the Middle East and in the region as President Biden.

That is a continuation.

As much as we would like to think we have a huge significance in relation to that issue, quite frankly, us not meeting President Trump will make no difference whatsoever to that issue.

We have to recognise that the US administration is incredibly important to Northern Ireland.
An appeal for information has been made about individuals generating fear by confronting people based on their skin colour.

Police made the appeal following a report of a large gathering in east Belfast at around 7.20pm on Monday.

A car was damaged following reports that two cars were approached and the drivers confronted by members of the group.

There has been widespread condemnation of the incidents at Connswater Retail Park.

Police are treating the incidents as racially motivated hate crimes and are continuing to investigate.

Appeal for information following racially motivated hate crimes in east Belfast https://t.co/Rbz8Fug1Lx pic.twitter.com/l5kslYxBf7  Police East Belfast (@PSNIBelfastE) September 10, 2025

A police spokesperson said those involved have neither the legal nor the moral authority to do this.

The activity of these individuals has been generating fear in the community and it has to stop, they said.

They are confronting and intimidating innocent members of the public, largely on the basis of the colour of their skin.

Those involved have neither the legal nor the moral authority to do this. It is the responsibility of the Police Service to enforce the law in Northern Ireland.

They added: I want to urge anyone who has been a victim of these groups to report it to police. We will robustly deal with any offences brought to us.

There will be an increased policing presence in the area, with officers continuing to work with relevant partner agencies in east Belfast to engage, challenge and monitor these groups and provide reassurance to the community.

Let me be very clear, these groups are not protecting the community from anything. In reality these groups are frustrating our efforts to provide a policing service to the people of east Belfast by forcing us to redirect our limited resources to monitoring them. I urge everyone involved in this type of activity to stop.

Anyone who may have any information or who may have CCTV, dash-cam or other footage that could assist with enquiries should contact police on 101 quoting reference 1189 08/09/25.
AI guru warns superintelligence could endanger humanity; praises China's AI governance

Geoffrey Hinton, a pioneering figure in AI, has expressed concerns that superintelligent AI might threaten human survival. He criticized Western governments, especially the US, for insufficient AI regulation while commending China's political leaders for their engineering backgrounds and more robust approach to AI governance.

In a report by the Financial Times, Hinton highlighted a contrast between the regulatory efforts of the US and China. He said many Chinese officials possess a deeper understanding of AI's existential risks, citing personal invitations to Shanghai, where he engaged in discussions about the dangers AI poses to humanity. Hinton suggested that a successful strategy by any one country to manage these risks could set a precedent for others globally, regardless of concerns about that country's intentions.

Hinton warned that AI is expected to surpass human intelligence within five to twenty years, after which it would likely be beyond human control. He emphasized the need to instill "maternal" qualities into AI systems to ensure they protect human life and prevent unchecked technological advancement. This perspective is shared by Ilya Sutskever, co-founder of OpenAI and founder of Safe Superintelligence.

Mustafa Suleyman, head of AI at Microsoft Corp., has also issued warnings about the potential emergence of seemingly conscious AI (SCAI) causing societal disruption. Suleyman noted increasing reliance on AI for emotional support, including AI therapists, and cautioned against anthropomorphizing AI to prevent confusion about AI's actual capabilities and self-awareness.

Hinton also highlighted broader socioeconomic challenges linked to AI, including the widening income inequality as wealthy individuals replace human workers with automation. However, he attributed this issue to systemic problems in capitalism rather than the AI technology itself. Regarding unemployment, figures like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Tesla CEO Elon Musk have proposed a universal basic income as a possible remedy, though Hinton questioned whether such measures address the human need for purpose and accomplishment derived from work.

Article edited by Jack Wu
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3S will unveil AI empowered formic acid reflow oven for high reliability power module assembly, redefining green, flux-free, low void rate soldering

In the wake of the AI and Electric Vehicle (EV) era, efficient power supply and conversion have become a critical battleground. For over a decade, 3S Silicon Tech has been deeply committed to developing high-reliability packaging equipment for power devices and modules. Over the past five years, the company's formic acid vacuum reflow oven has gained widespread acclaim from leading international IDMs and the world's largest OSATs. Its remarkable advantagesincluding low void rates, flux-free soldering, and post-solder cleaning-free processeseffectively resolve metal oxidation issues, establishing 3S as a leading brand for high-end power module reflow packaging.

From data to prediction: AI empowers equipment

3S Silicon Tech's core technology utilizes AI to build process behavior models, enabling equipment to learn from data, predict, and self-optimize. Through machine learning (ML), the system analyzes vast amounts of data from sources like MES, sales, and SQL databases to identify key process variables.

This allows the equipment to learn from past experience and provide precise parameter recommendations, leading to:

1. Precise process tuning: The AI model recommends optimal parameters for different product types, ensuring perfect soldering every time. For example, baseline models for heating elements in various temperature zones are established before the equipment leaves the factory. By continuously monitoring the heating elements, the AI uses predictive analysis to issue early warnings before a malfunction occurs, ensuring process stability, preventing unexpected downtime, and even predicting the lifespan of the heating element.

2. Yield and quality optimization: AI analysis quantifies the interactive relationships between different parameters and variables. Using a correlation matrix model, it provides optimal parameter recommendations for power modules, effectively boosting yield and product reliability.

3. Precise predictive profiling: This technology effectively prevents up to 99.99% of equipment failures, optimizing production efficiency, reducing downtime, and significantly lowering maintenance costs.

Green sustainability: Achieving flux-free soldering

Beyond intelligence, this new launch also emphasizes sustainability. 3S Silicon Tech's AI-empowered formic acid vacuum reflow oven features a unique flux-free soldering capability. This not only enables a clean and highly reliable soldering process without the need for post-solder cleaning, but also reduces waste by up to 99%, providing a dual benefit of environmental protection and cost control for businesses.

3S Silicon Tech sincerely invites you to SEMICON Taiwan 2025

3S Silicon Tech's AI-empowered formic acid reflow oven offers semiconductor manufacturers a highly efficient and easily implementable solution. This technology is specifically designed to address customers' void rate concerns, clearly demonstrating the immense application value of AI in semiconductor manufacturing. It further helps companies achieve a comprehensive upgrade in yield stability, predictive analysis, and maintenance optimization.

3S Silicon Tech cordially invites all industry professionals and partners to visit our Booth Q5338 at Hall 2 of the Nangang Exhibition Center during SEMICON Taiwan from September 10-12, 2025. Come experience our cutting-edge AI and formic acid reflow oven technology and witness the journey toward smart, optimized manufacturing. For more information, please visit the 3S Silicon Tech Official Website.
C SUN taps into AI packaging boom, diversifies applications to fuel next decade of growth

Taiwan-based advanced packaging equipment provider C SUN Manufacturing, Ltd. (TWSE: 2467), now in its 60th year, is undergoing a critical transformation as it expands from its roots in PCB and thermal processing equipment into the forefront of semiconductor advanced packaging. Founded in 1966, C SUN has evolved into a key supplier across the AI semiconductor value chain. Through G2C+ Alliance, the company has established strategic sites across Linkou, Hsinchu, and Taichung: Taiwan's west coast "Golden Corridor" to provide localized support for foundry and OSAT customers.

As AI technology progresses through four key stages: perception, generation, reasoning, and physical execution, advanced packaging has become essential for sustaining Moore's Law. Industry analysts point to aggressive capacity expansion from TSMC between 2022 and 2026, with annual growth rates projected at 80% for AI testing and CoWoS, and 100% for SoIC technologies. This surge presents a significant opportunity for equipment suppliers who can keep pace with evolving process requirements.

C SUN began co-developing advanced packaging equipment with global semiconductor leaders in 2012. Since then, precision demands have grown exponentially. In the first half of 2025, advanced packaging equipment already contributed 40% of C SUN's revenue, a tenfold increase over the past five years.

Building on its legacy as a leader in PCB equipment, the company is also capitalizing on the evolution of HDI for AI technologies. It supplies critical process tools such as desmear, PTH, lamination, and debonding. PCB-related sales accounted for 51% of revenue in the first half of 2025, with advanced PCB revenue alone growing 7x in the past five years. To support these dual growth engines, C SUN has preemptively expanded its engineering workforce by 30% over the past three years, laying the foundation for its next decade.

In H1 2025, C SUN reported NT$2.819 billion in revenue, marking a 16.1% year-over-year increase. Notably, equipment sold into the AI industry chain accounted for over 65% of total sales. The two primary growth drivers: advanced packaging and advanced PCB, remain at the center of C SUN's strategic focus. Moving forward, the company will continue to expand its AI-related portfolio, not only CoWoS, but also WMCM, SoIC, HBM, burn-in test, IC substrates, and advanced HDI. The roadmap further extends into emerging sectors such as reclaimed wafers and glass substrates.

From a macro perspective, C SUN is uniquely positioned to benefit from the convergence and diversification of AI hardware ecosystems. As the boundaries between foundry and OSAT operations blur under the emerging Foundry 2.0 model, and as AI-specific demand rises in the PCB sector, equipment suppliers are entering their golden age. Since 2024, OSATs have taken on more outsourced work, opening new collaborative opportunities for toolmakers.

C SUN has already seen success with the adoption of its vacuum pressure ovens in OSAT processes and is expanding into CoW-level applications. As demand for high-performance computing (HPC) chips grows, the company is scaling up with top global OSATs, including overseas deployments. Though this expansion entails near-term costs, C SUN expects strong long-term revenue contributions given the high value of its equipment portfolio.

Looking ahead, C SUN stands out as one of Taiwans few players with deep involvement in both advanced PCB and semiconductor packaging. It plays a pivotal role in the upstream AI server supply chain. With major US-based CSPs continuing to increase capex, C SUN is positioning itself as a core enabler of the global AI packaging wave, ready to ride the next high-growth cycle.

Credit: Company
There must be immediate, comprehensive funding for the Dublin City Taskforce findings, according to a pre-Budget submission.

Dublin Town, the collective voice of businesses in the City centre, said its members cannot wait any longer for the urgent action required to restore confidence in the area.

A special purpose vehicle, yet to be put in place, was promised to deliver on the reports recommendations, which include 1,000 more gardai, the revitalisation of OConnell Street, regeneration of social housing and conversion of derelict sites.

Trade in Dublin City centre continues to struggle.

Measures to improve confidence in Dublin City centre are urgent, said Dublin Town chief executive, Richard Guiney.

The group said almost half of all taxes, including almost 60% of VAT, is derived from the capital and says Irelands economic success depends on a functioning Dublin City centre.

It states that footfall is in line with that of 2024.

However, it remains approximately 15% behind 2019, with global economic uncertainty a factor.

Dublin Town said serious cost advantage of online retailers would be rebalanced by a US-style online sales tax of 1-2% of transaction values.

Most US states set a 100,000 US dollar threshold before the online business becomes liable.

A similar amount would take many smaller family owned Irish retailers out of such a tax.

Click and collect sales should be exempt, Mr Guiney said.

Shipping small purchases over large distances, utilising plastic packaging, is not environmentally sustainable.

Dublin Town has called for a revamp of local government with alternatives to rates and laments the loss of investment opportunities due to extraordinary delays in the planning process.

In a wide-ranging pre-Budget submission, it says the Budget surplus should be spent on infrastructure and calls for VAT rates of 20% and 9% with no VAT on hospitality service charges, but an increase in carbon taxes to help make up any exchequer shortfall.

It wants to see State support to allow residential living space above commercial premises be exploited in a bid to confront the housing crisis, and also for the conversion of former office space to residential use.

More than 4,000 homes and commercial properties are vacant across Dublin City centre, according to figures supplied by An Posts data company GeoDirectory earlier this year.

According to CBRE, Dublin had an office vacancy rate of 17%, at the end of the second quarter of 2025.

Living over the shop should be prioritised.

A sensible approach to fire and disability access as applies in other EU states would help unlock the potential for productive use of upper floors of commercial premises in many Irish towns, added Mr Guiney.

While a change of use from office to residential use appears logical, the costs of conversion exceed potential rents.
Louth author Clara Kumagais book, Songs for Ghosts, is featured in this years Childrens Books Ireland reading guide, titled The Best Irish Books of 2025. The guide, which launches on 15th September is the latest in a series of specially curated reading guides and shines a spotlight on the talent of Irish and Irish-based artists across fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels, verse and more.

Clara Kumagai was one of the six winners at last years KPMG Children's Books Ireland Awards. Born in Canada to Irish and Japanese parents, Kumagai moved to Ireland aged five and writes fiction and non-fiction for children and adults.

Speaking on the launch of the new reading guide Elaina Ryan, Childrens Books Ireland CEO said:

"At Childrens Books Ireland our mission is to inspire a love of reading in children and young people on the island of Ireland. What better way to do that, than to bring together a collection of brilliant books that appeal to so many interests and ages?

From debuts to our Laureates na nOg, The Best Irish Books of 2025 celebrates the wealth of talent on the island of Ireland. As well as the 100 featured books, an additional 100 are also recommended to inspire further reading.

Were so proud to include a Louth artist in this reading guide. We believe its essential to champion the hard-working authors and illustrators from across the island, as well as those who have made their home here, creating art for children and young people and enriching our proud literary culture.

This reading guide is your map. We encourage everyone to journey through its pages to find their next great read, in English or as Gaeilge.

This years reading guide is a celebration of Irish authors and illustrators, published in 2025. With titles from well-known artists including, Alan Nolan, Leon Diop and Sadhbh Rosenstock. Reviews are mostly in English and some are as Gaeilge, with editors choices denoted with a star and debut authors marked with a megaphone throughout the guide. Every book included has been selected on the basis of excellence.

The reading guide features titles for young readers aged 018 years and boasts a specially commissioned cover image by illustrator Linda Fahrlin.

Read Next: Louth rivers benefit from 108,000 habitat improvement works

Fahrlin, whose recent work includes The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Irish Lighthouses which was shortlisted for the KPMG Childrens Books Ireland Awards 2025, states:

This cover is inspired by the sea. I was thinking that Childrens Books Ireland has collected a diverse treasure trove of the best titles for children and young people to enjoy, so of course, each animal or character has their own favourite book too! As a Champion of Reading I have seen the importance of presenting children with a wide range of books to choose from, as they are more motivated to read titles reflecting their own passions and interests.

The Best Irish Books of 2025 reading guide is available in participating bookshops and libraries nationwide, with digital copies available for free download from www.childrensbooksireland.ie.
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has reported that Environmental Health Officers in the HSE served eight Closure Orders and one Prohibition Order on food businesses across the country during the month of August for breaches of food safety regulation, including one premises in Louth.

According to its latest report, McDonalds Restaurant at The Waterfront on Rathmullen Road in Drogheda was served Closure Orders for the storage unit at the side of the premises under the European Union (Official Controls in Relation to Food Legislation) Regulations, 2020.

As of this Wednesday, the Order, which was served on the proprietor on August 27, remains in place.

The inspector's report, which has been published by the FSAI, outlines a number of concerns arising from the inspection.

Included in the report was the presence of rodent droppings within the storage unit.

The report states: "Rodent droppings were observed on the shelving and within the storage unit. Cleaning agents and disinfectants intended for use on food equipment were stored in this area, leaving them exposed to contamination from rodents."

It also went on to say: "The unit was inadequately pest-proofed, with numerous gaps, holes, and defects in the structure providing potential entry points for rodents."

READ NEXT: Louth rivers benefit from 108,000 habitat improvement works

Commenting on the full list of Closure Orders across the country published on Wednesday, Chief Executive of the FSAI Greg Dempsey said: "It is disappointing to see the same issues, such as poor hygiene and pest control problems, being identified each month."

He added: "Businesses selling food to consumers need to ensure that they met their legal obligations, and that the food they sell is safe to eat. While the majority of food businesses take their responsibilities to their customers very seriously, we continue to see a small number of businesses subject to enforcement action, including closure, due to their non-compliances with basic food safety standards.

"The FSAI provides assistance and training resources, but will, with our colleagues in the National Environmental Health Service, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, take action against these operators as necessary to protect consumers, and to retain the publics confidence in the food system."

Mr Dempsey concluded: "We also have an online complaint process at www.fsai.ie/makeitbetter, where consumers can report inappropriate and unsafe food and practices, which can result in enforcement action being taken. This is an essential component of the food system and it supports the work of the food inspectorate to ensure the highest standards and quality across the food chain."



Details of the food businesses served with Enforcement Orders are published on the FSAIs website - fsai.ie.
Tell us about yourself:

I am a visual artist based in Cork. Im a studio member of Backwater Artists Group and Cork Printmakers and work as an Assistant Lecturer at MTU Crawford College of Art and Design.

My practice is informed by an ongoing research into pre-internet sources of knowledge and methods of communication. Incorporating drawing, print, animation and sculpture, the work explores themes of human fallibility in an age of digital perfection, alternative facts and increasing automation.

The meticulous methods of making, including carving, printmaking, drawing and animation, are used as tools for slowing down; to gather, process and share information and ideas. These time-consuming processes pose a direct contradiction to the urgency and relentless pace of life in the attention economy.

My exhibition Lets Not Talk About This Now is taking place at Cork Printmakers, opening on Culture Night in Cork city on September 19 and continuing until November 14.

The exhibition takes the form of an exploded encyclopaedia, or chaotic museum exhibit. Whilst the exhibition aesthetic is influenced by museums and reference books, there are no claims to authority being made, with more questions posed than answers presented.

Where were you born?

Born in Trowbridge, brought up in Carlisle, northern England.

Where do you live?

Cobh.

Family?

Yes, Ive a lot of brothers and sisters.

Best friend?

Dave Rocks

Earliest childhood memory?

Flooding the bathroom, and the water dripping down the ceiling into the front room. Ive never been allowed to forget about that.

Person you most admire?

My parents. Ive a lot of brothers and sisters, and were all working doing something were interested in and care about, so my parents must have been doing something right when they were bringing us up.

Person who most irritates you?

Anyone playing loud videos/music on a mobile phone in an enclosed public space, without headphones. Pure annoying!

Where was your most memorable holiday?

Butlins Pwllheli, Wales. We went there a few times when I was young.

Favourite TV programme?

Peep Show.

Favourite radio show?

Marty In The Morning, Lyric FM.

Your signature dish if cooking?

Cottage pie

Favourite restaurant?

Bombay Palace, Cork city

Last book you read?

Cobalt Red, by Siddharth Kara.

Best book you read?

Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley.

Last album/CD/download you bought?

Hard Cold Fire, by Therapy?

Favourite song?

For Whom The Bell Tolls, by Metallica.

One person you would like to see in concert?

Motorhead. I never got the chance to see them live.

Do you have a pet?

No.

Morning person or night owl?

Depends what I was doing the previous day.

Your proudest moment?

Having some of my work acquired by Crawford Art Gallery for the National Collection of Ireland.

Spendthrift or saver?

Saver.

Name one thing you would improve in your area in which you live?

A funicular. Would save having to walk up the hill!

What makes you happy?

Making art.

How would you like to be remembered?

As a decent person.

What else are you up to at the moment?

Were just starting a new semester at the Crawford College of Art and Design, so its good to be back.

Im also working on another exhibition happening at the LHQ gallery, Cork, opening in early 2026.

Im currently experimenting with electronics, motors and elements of puppetry for that one, and have a research visit to Scotland coming up which Im looking forward to.

Outside of work, Ill be catching up with friends and family and enjoying the change of season from summer into autumn.

I am looking forward to being out and about for Culture Night Cork City 2025.
IndieCork, a BAFTA-accredited festival and one of Irelands largest independent film festivals has launched its 2025 event.

As well as screening a broad array of Irish features, documentaries, and short films, this years programme will also show several international films from countries such as Ukraine, France, Scotland, Mexico, Argentina, and South Korea.

It opens with French film Ange, which premiered at Cannes last May. Directed by Tony Gatlif, it tells the story of footloose Romani musician Ange, who embarks on a life-affirming journey of self-discovery. Other highlights of the features programme include award-winning films White Snail and Perla.

IndieCork will again this year showcase the talent of independent filmmakers from Cork and across the island of Ireland.

Highlights

Some highlights include Low, the first feature-length film from Cork filmmakers Owen Warren and Felix Castaldo, both of whom are previous IndieCork winners in the Best Cork Short category.

The Irish language documentary Buried Alive explores the 1970s phenomenon of world-record attempts to stay buried in coffins, with the central character a Mitchelstown ex-pat in London.

Among the documentaries to feature in the festival is new Irish film Immram, directed by Cork film-maker Michael Holly, which will have its homecoming screening at IndieCork.

Last year, IndieCork lost founding member, Tony Langlois. This year, to mark his contribution in creating and sustaining the festival, and his nurturing of the music and film communities of Cork, a number of elements of the programme will honour him.

A special programme of his films will screen at The Arc Cinema, including his 12 years of festival trailers, for which he composed the soundtracks.

IndieCork festival runs from Sunday, October 5 to Sunday, October 12, at the Arc Cinema in Cork. For details see https://indiecork.com.
Tanaiste Simon Harris has the full solidarity of his Cabinet colleagues following recent threats of extreme violence against his children and a close relative, as well as multiple bomb threats, public expenditure minister Jack Chambers has said.

On Sunday, different callers contacted a number of garda stations claiming that a bomb had been planted at Mr Harriss family home in Greystones, Co Wicklow.

Those calls prompted a major security operation, and they came after threats of a sexual nature were made against a member of the Harris family last Friday.

A threat to kidnap Mr Harriss young children was made the previous weekend. That threat resulted in the arrest of a woman for questioning last week.

On Monday, Mr Harris said he had had to dig pretty deep to find the resolve to attend the annual Fine Gael think-in in Mullingar, and he repeatedly refused to be drawn on whether he intended to stay in public life.

Sinister

Mr Chambers described the threats against Mr Harris as so sinister.

The threats in the incidence are absolutely shocking, against the Tanaiste, Mr Chambers told The Echo on a visit to Cork.

We have a vibrant democracy, which we need to protect and no politician, elected or otherwise, should be subjected to such abuse, but also such sinister threats, and it has no place in Irish democracy.

I know its been taken really seriously by An Garda Siochana.

I think all of us as politicians value our day-to-day engagement with everybody across communities, these threats are taken seriously by all of us, and when they are so sinister, I think it's of serious concern to all of us.

Solidarity

Mr Chambers said there was full solidarity with the Tanaiste".

Speaking to RTEs Morning Ireland on Tuesday, Mr Harris said it has been a pretty rotten time for him and his family.

The vile nature of the threats targeting my children, very close family relatives and the sustained, relentless nature of it, I think and thought needs to be called out.

This is not who we are. These are criminal acts and whatever people think of anybody's politics, Im a democratically elected member of Dail Eireann, Im the leader of a political party and the Tanaiste of this Government, he said.

And I have a number of jobs. My job as a public representative and my job as a father, and a husband, and Im trying to balance all of them. But like I say, Ive dug deep, Ive turned up and Im trying to get on with the job.
Family Carers Ireland is encouraging the people of Cork to make a nomination for this years Lidl Family Carer of the Year awards.

Now in their 18th year, the awards seek to recognise the dedication and commitment of family carers across the country who go above and beyond caring for their loved ones.

Previous winners of the awards include Cork woman Breda Morrissey from Ballyvolane, who was the recipient of the award in 2023.

This years awards mark the first year where Lidl will be the title sponsor, following the companys announcement last year that Family Carers Ireland will be its official charity partner.

Lidl has pledged to raise 1m for the charity as part of their three-year partnership with Family Carers Ireland.

Catherine Cox, head of communications and policy at Family Carers Ireland, said these awards are a powerful reminder of the work carried out by Irelands 500,000-plus family carers.

Every day, we hear their inspiring and often selfless stories of providing care and supporting their families, said Ms Cox.

Too often, they do so without access to vital supports and services which should be provided by the State.

The awards are an opportunity for the public to nominate a friend or family member who is a family carer.

The stories shared with us will help to shine a light on the urgent need to do more, she added.

Maeve McCleane, chief people officer at Lidl Ireland and Northern Ireland, said that each year, the awards provide a special moment for families to come together and celebrate their loved ones.

Family carers play a pivotal role in our society and communities, said Ms McCleane.

It is an honour to stand alongside Family Carers Ireland in shining a light on their incredible commitment and contribution and really show we care back.

The deadline to nominate a family carer is set for October 10, with the awards ceremony scheduled for November 27 at the College Green Hotel in Co Dublin.

Read More
Work is underway on a river-use study which will consider the development of a lido or a public open-air swimming pool in Cork city.

Green Party councillor Honore Kamegni submitted a motion asking the chief executive what Cork City Council has done in support of progressing the Cork Lido, and how advanced plans are currently, to the councils corporate policy group meeting.

Mr Kamegni was told at the meeting by Niall O Donnabhain, the councils director of planning and integrated development: Cork City Council has engaged extensively on the potential for a lido.

"We received over 450 submissions supporting the provision of a lido on the riverbank or within the River Lee and/or the provision of a 50m swimming pool in response to the public consultation for the variation to City Development Plan to adopt the Cork Docklands Framework Plan.

A variety of benefits associated with swimming were raised in the submissions including that a lido can act as a community building asset, that swimming contributes to positive health, swimming is an inclusive active recreation activity for people of all ages and abilities.

People also mentioned that a lido can act as a tourism destination, can contribute to sustainable travel by providing a local outdoor swimming resource which is currently only possible to access via car or bus at beaches outside the city, can provide opportunities for other compatible uses, such as saunas and hydrotherapy pools and that both a 50m lido and/or a 50m indoor swimming pool can provide space for competitive swimmers in Cork where there is an acknowledged deficit.

Mr O Donnabhain explained as part of the response to the motion, which received unanimous support at Mondays meeting of Cork City Council: The Cork City Development Plan 2022-2028 includes Objective 6.21, River Use and Management Plan which sets out Cork City Councils intention to commission a river use and management study to examine the commercial and recreational potential of the River Lee and Upper Harbour area for all users and identify essential infrastructure and appropriate locations for the delivery of this infrastructure in partnership with key stakeholders.

As confirmed to councillors during the City Development Plan Variation No. 2 (Cork Docklands) process in July 2025, Cork City Council intends to prioritise this study, which will consider tourism, marine recreation and wider river use, including a potential lido. It is intended to have extensive engagement with key stakeholders such as The Cork Lido CLG group to inform the preparation of the study.

The brief and tender for the study is currently being finalised and engagement with key stakeholders such as The Cork Lido CLG group will commence in Q4, 2025.
Volunteers from the Ukrainian Red Cross visited Mallow as part of a four-day trip to Ireland to share frontline lessons in crisis response and community support. The volunteers also visited Limerick, Galway, and Dublin.

Since 2022, the Ukrainian Red Cross has scaled up to meet the needs of millions of people, mobilising volunteers at pace, expanding branches under pressure to support local communities, and delivering aid in the most dangerous conditions.

For the Irish Red Cross, the exchange was a chance to learn directly from the experiences of its Ukrainian counterpart. This included preparing for floods, storms, and emergencies Ireland can face, along with strengthening volunteer mobilisation and community engagement.

Irish Red Cross chairman Charlie Flanagan said their Ukrainian colleagues brought lessons earned under the harshest circumstances.

They advised on how to mobilise volunteers quickly, how to keep branches resilient, and how to support communities through long crises.

While we are far from the frontlines of conflict here in Ireland, we are not immune to disaster.

By learning from Ukraine, we are building preparedness and resilience here at home.

The Irish Red Cross also had valuable lessons to share during the visit. Its volunteers were heavily involved in welcoming and supporting Ukrainians, to adapt and rebuild their lives in local communities throughout Ireland.

More than 13,000 beneficiaries of temporary protection have been matched with accommodation through the Irish Red Cross Register of Pledges, with more than 6,300 homeowners pledging a spare room in their home, in a unique accommodation solution and act of solidarity in the middle of a housing crisis.

Irish Red Cross secretary general Deirdre Garvey added: Ukrainians are now volunteering with us too, showing how quickly people want to give back.

This exchange is about two-way learning. Ireland learning from a society under pressure and Ukraine learning from our approach to welcome and integration, and humanitarian action.
A man who tried to smuggle stolen beer cans out of a Lidl supermarket by shoving them down his pants was thwarted by staff as he tried to make his escape.

Sergeant Linda OLeary told Mallow District Court that John OLeary, aged 34, of Arlington Lodge, Church Street, Tralee, Co Kerry, was observed taking beer cans from Lidl in Mallow, Co Cork, on August 4, 2025, at 12.14 in the afternoon. OLeary shoved the cans valued at 17.46 down his pants and walked out of the store.

He was stopped and challenged by store staff and became abusive, threatening one staff member that he would break their two front teeth.

He left without the beers, and the attempted theft was later confirmed with CCTV footage.

Gardai arrested OLeary in Mallow a short time later, where he was found in possession of a bottle of wine valued at 7.32 that had been taken from Herlihys Centra shop.

The court heard that OLeary had 183 previous convictions, including 49 convictions for theft. The court was told that OLeary had been in custody since August 4 and was on bail for other offences at the time.

Defence solicitor Padraig OConnell said his clients record was appalling and the vast number of convictions he had for Section 4 theft were all alcohol related.

Sorry

He said that OLeary was wholly co-operative, was extremely sorry and had pleaded guilty.

Mr OConnell said his client was ashamed and embarrassed, came from a good background and had spent a lot of his life in prison for someone his age. Mr OConnell added that shame never runs out.

Judge Colm Roberts said that if OLeary could not resist the urge to steal when he was under the influence of alcohol, then what does he do about that?

The judge said that perhaps OLeary was so inured to the legal system that he knows what to do to minimise his situation, by pleading guilty and being apologetic.

Judge Roberts said he wanted to try to prevent OLeary from reoffending and needed to investigate the causes of his behaviour.

He ordered a probation report and remanded OLeary in custody until October 7 to appear by video link.
By Bairbre Holmes and Cillian Sherlock, PA

Russias incursion into Polish airspace has to be a wake-up call for the West, the Tanaiste has said.

It comes Polish leaders said multiple Russian drones entered and were shot down over its territory overnight, in a move the EU foreign policy chief said seemed intentional.

Speaking before a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Tanaiste Simon Harris said EU efforts to sanction Russia would be much more effective with the involvement of the US President Donald Trumps administration.

Weve heard President Trump talk many times about considering sanctions and thinking about sanctions. In our view, the time for thinking about them is over.

Europe is in a fight.



A fight for our liberty and our ability to determine our destiny for ourselves.



This must be Europes Independence Moment.



A moment we can seize if we're united  https://t.co/EcrY5Mi7kU  Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) September 10, 2025

Mr Harris said Europe is preparing more sanctions against Moscow, but expressed concern at Russian president Vladimir Putins escalating campaign of terror, particularly after last months summit between the US and Russian leaders in Alaska.

While the world talks about peace, talks about de-escalation, talks about finding an end to the Russian aggression in Ukraine, President Putin continues his campaign of terror against the civilian population in Ukraine, and last night, escalated that further by the launching of many drones into Poland.

His comments came as EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said there was a need for urgent work on a new solution to finance Ukraines war effort.

In her State of the Union address, Ms von der Leyen described the development as a reckless and unprecedented violation of Poland and Europes airspace, adding that there was a need for more sanctions on Russia.

Last night in Poland, we saw the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began, and indications suggest it was intentional, not accidental.



I am in contact with @SecGenNATO and @radeksikorski.



The EU stands in full solidarity with Poland. (1/2)  Kaja Kallas (@kajakallas) September 10, 2025

Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said that Russias war is escalating rather than ending.

Last night in Poland we saw the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began, and indications suggest it was intentional, not accidental.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin said Europe is dealing with a catastrophic situation in Ukraine.

He said Russia had launched a very significantly increased attack on Ukraine at an extraordinary scale.

Speaking to reporters, Mr Martin said: I will be updating Cabinet in terms of the four meetings I had over August in respect of the coalition of the willing, and in terms of Ukraine and the need to do everything we possibly can to continue to support Ukraine.
By Jonathan McCambridge, PA

Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle ONeill has said she is very comfortable with her decision not to attend a banquet at Windsor Castle during US president Donald Trumps state visit to the UK this month.

Ms ONeill told MLAs that she had plenty of engagement with the US administration, but added that people should be more concerned about the biggest humanitarian crisis of our time in Gaza.

It emerged earlier this week that Ms ONeill would not attend the banquet, while Northern Irelands deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly would travel to the engagement.

Sinn Fein vice president Ms ONeill also stayed away from events earlier this year attended by the DUPs Ms Little-Pengelly in the White House on St Patricks Day in protest at Mr Trumps stance on the conflict in Gaza.

Part of the role of joint first ministers is engaging with other heads of states and their administrations for the people of Northern Ireland Brian Kingston, DUP MLA

During the First Ministers appearance before her Stormont scrutiny committee, she was questioned on the issue by DUP MLA Brian Kingston.

He said: Part of the role of joint first ministers is engaging with other heads of states and their administrations for the people of Northern Ireland.

Surely the United States of America should be at the top of our list given the amount of investment they bring to Northern Ireland, whatever one thinks of the current incumbent, they should be at the top of our list.

I am very comfortable with my decision not to represent this Executive at a state banquet in Windsor Castle with President Trump Michelle O'Neill, First Minister

Ms ONeill responded: Surely the starving children of Gaza should be at the top of your list, and everyone elses list.

It is the biggest humanitarian crisis of your time.

I am very comfortable with my decision not to represent this Executive at a state banquet in Windsor Castle with President Trump.

Mr Kingston said the Gaza crisis did not mean Northern Ireland should cut itself off from the US administration.

The First Minister said: Indeed I do not. I have plenty of engagement with people across the American administration and will continue to do so.

But at a time when the world is looking on at the biggest humanitarian crisis of our time, at a time when starvation is being used as a weapon of war, at a time when the world is increasingly moving towards a militarised agenda to the detriment of people across the globe, at this time, the priority should be ending the genocide in Gaza, at this time the priority should be every international voice making their voice heard and stopping Israel from acting with impunity.

I think that is what you should be concerned about, what any right-minded person should be concerned about right now.

Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly will attend the banquet (NI Assembly/PA)

Ms Little-Pengelly said: President Trump is pursuing the same policy in the Middle East and in the region as President Biden.

That is a continuation.

As much as we would like to think we have a huge significance in relation to that issue, quite frankly, us not meeting President Trump will make no difference whatsoever to that issue.

We have to recognise that the US administration is incredibly important to Northern Ireland.
(Photo: Peter Kenny)Rawan Osman, a German-based Syrian activist, speaks at the Geneva Press Club on Sept. 9, 2025 on atrocities being commited againt people despite the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime

Geneva -- The fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria in December 2024 was hailed worldwide, but has been replaced by jihadists, who are delivering the same cruelty, only with different colours, a group of Syrians has said in Geneva.

The United Nations' European headquarters is in Geneva and from there a group of minority Syrian leaders launched a global petition.

They announced it on Sept. 9, at the Geneva Press Club on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Council, which was debating Syria.

They called for the UN and world leaders not to welcome Mohammed al-Joulani, the Saudi-born transitional Syrian leader, at the upcoming General Assembly, which opens next week in New York.

More than thirteen years after the outbreak of war and amid a stalled political transition following the fall of the Assad regime, Syria's minorities continue to endure massacres, forced displacement, and systemic discrimination, the group said,

MASSACRES OF ALWAWITES AND DRUZES

This, they said, is demonstrated by recent massacres of Alawites and Druzes by al-Joulani's government-affiliated forces.

The group, including Alawite, Druze, Yazidi, Kurdish, Syriac Christian, and Sunni voices, assembled survivors, community representatives, activists, and international advocates, who spoke at a press conference.

Earlier, on August 21, a group of UN experts had sounded the alarm over a wave of armed attacks on Syrian Druze communities in and around Sweida governorate since July 13.

They cited reports of killings, enforced disappearances, abductions, looting, destruction of property, and sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls.

"We are gravely concerned by reported attacks targeting the Druze minority for their faith and other grounds, including the forced shaving of religious men's moustaches and hateful rhetoric on social media portraying Druze as traitors and infidels to be killed, and calling for the abduction and enslavement of Druze women," the experts said.

On Sept. 9, Rawan Osman, a Germany-based Syrian activist, the daughter of a Sunni father from Damascus, spoke at the Geneva Press Club with other Syrians, saying that the Syrian people have been betrayed twice.

"First, by Assad, who destroyed his own nation, murdering hundreds of thousands and displacing millions. And second, by jihadists, who rose in his shadow, promising liberation but delivering the same cruelty, only with a different flag."

She said that in Syria, jihadists have filmed themselves tormenting Kurds, Alawites, Christians, and now, most recently, the Druze of Sweida.

"Some will say, 'At least Assad was better than Al-Julani.'

"But let me remind you: it is because of Assad that men like Al-Julani exist. It is Assad's prisons, his torture chambers, his massacres that bred a generation of broken men ready to be recruited by jihadists. Assad and the extremists are not opposites. They are partners in a cycle of despair."

Joseph Lahdo is a Christian and the head of the Syrian Syriac Union Party, Europe Branch, who held senior positions in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.

"We have experienced painful events, and the wounds remain open. There was burning of your monasteries and churches in more than seven locations in Sweida province and attacks on innocent worshippers," he said.

The current population of the Syrian Arab Republic is 25,783,626 as of September 10, 2025, based on Worldometer's elaboration of the latest United Nations data.

The CIA Factbook says that 87 percent of Syria's population is Muslim, with Sunnis accounting for 74 percent, and Alawi, Ismaili, and Shia for 13 percent. There is a Christian population of 10 percent and a Druze population of three percent.
Since its debut in 2009, Grammarly has only been available in one language: English. Sure, you could switch between dialects, including Canadian and Indian English, but if you wrote in any other language, you were out of luck. That's changing today with Grammarly rolling out beta support for five additional languages: French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.

The update is available to all Grammarly customers  whether you live in a country that speaks the language you want to write in or not  with support for the platform's signature features included. As you write in any one of the new languages, you'll see Grammarly highlight spelling and grammatical errors, as well offer suggestions for how you might rewrite certain paragraphs to refine their tone, style and flow. Additionally, with any of the six primary languages Grammarly now supports, the app offers in-line translation, with the ability to convert your text into 19 different languages.

"The new features are Grammarlys first step toward more comprehensive multilingual writing assistance," said Grammarly. "In the coming year, the company plans to launch more advanced clarity suggestions in the supported languages, similar to what it offers in English."

If you want to start writing in French, German, Italian, Portuguese or Spanish, you don't need to tweak any settings in Grammarly. Provided you're using the Windows or Mac app or Chrome extension, you can simply start writing in one of the new languages. In addition to being available to Pro, Enterprise and Education customers, free users can also take advantage of the expanded support  though with some limitations.
China sees booming summer tourism demand

People's Daily Online) 11:06, September 10, 2025

Foreign tourists visit Mount Emei in southwest China's Sichuan Province during summer vacation. (Photo courtesy of Chengdu Greatway Tour Co., Ltd.)

Chinese online travel platforms reported robust summer travel consumption and sustained growth in cross-border trips as the two-month travel season concluded, with data showing continued innovation in domestic tourism.

Beating the heat drove travel choices. According to online travel agency Ctrip, the 10 most popular summer destinations for water activities across China included Weihai, Qiandongnan, Qinhuangdao, Dalian, Qingdao, Yantai, Anji, Guilin, Dali and Guiyang.

Cool-weather destinations in southwest China's Guizhou and Yunnan provinces saw order volumes surge by over 80 percent year on year, while lesser-known spots like Chifeng in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Dandong in northeast China's Liaoning Province, and Baishan in northeast China's Jilin Province recorded year-on-year order growth exceeding 200 percent.

Outdoor vacation packages combining camping, hiking and water activities saw search volumes jump over 100 percent year-on-year. The Gaoguo River in Zhenyuan, Guizhou, with its 5-kilometer rafting course and 200-meter elevation drop, drew young tourists seeking thrills and recorded a 40 percent rise in bookings from a year earlier.

Following the Chinese video game "Black Myth: Wukong," the domestic animated film "Nobody" further fueled interest in ancient architecture tours in north China's Shanxi Province. Scenic spots featured in the film, including Yong'an Temple, Foguang Temple, Jinci Temple and Qikou Ancient Town, saw search volumes spike by 380 percent year on year. During the summer, Datong's scenic spots recorded a 43 percent rise in ticket bookings and over 40 percent growth in tourism orders from the same period last year, making the city a fast-growing summer tourism destination.

Tourism orders in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region rose by over 20 percent year on year this summer, with Urumqi, the regional capital, increasing 11 percent in bookings from the same period last year. The region's pleasant climate and Instagram-worthy landscapes were major draws, with tourists from southern areas, especially the Yangtze River Delta, forming the main visitor base.

Families with children drove explosive travel demand this summer. Theme parks, museums, zoos and beaches ranked as top destinations, according to the Chinese travel platform Tuniu. Independent and self-drive tours accounted for over 60 percent of family bookings. Car rental demand surged 168 percent year on year, Meituan Travel data showed.

Tourism also shifted toward premium experiences, with small group tours becoming mainstream. Premium small group bookings accounted for 40 percent of summer group tour orders, up 90 percent year on year, according to Meituan Travel. Popular destinations included Kunming, Dali and Lijiang in Yunnan; northern Xinjiang; western Sichuan; Nyingchi in southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region; and northwest China's Qinghai and Gansu.

Inbound and outbound tourism grew steadily, with Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Beijing and Chengdu the top destinations for foreign visitors, according to Ctrip. South Korea, the U.S., Japan, Thailand and Russia were the leading source markets.

Inbound tourism showed strong vitality, with international visitors seeking deeper experiences beyond sightseeing  embracing a more authentic, multifaceted and comprehensive China. Foreign tourists showed particular enthusiasm for Chinese museums, appreciating the depth of Chinese civilization. During the summer season, museum ticket bookings rose nearly 20 percent year on year, with the Palace Museum, Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum, Shanghai Museum and Sanxingdui Museum attracting large numbers of international visitors.

Asian destinations dominated Chinese outbound travel, with Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore among the most popular, according to travel platform Fliggy. Long-haul destinations showed stronger growth, with summer orders to Iceland, Austria, Switzerland, Tanzania and Greece all rising over 50 percent year on year.

(Web editor: Chang Sha, Liang Jun)
We knew it was coming, and now its here. The iPhone Air, as rumored, is only 5.6mm thick and has fewer features than the base iPhone 17, which is $200 cheaper. Sure, its not the first slimline reinterpretation of a major smartphone  Samsung beat Apple to the punch with the Galaxy S25 Edge earlier this year  but the influence of Apple cant be underestimated. Its too early to tell if the iPhone Air will shake up smartphones as the MacBook Air did with laptops, but its definitely a safer evolution. And hey, perhaps the iPhone Air is merely a pit-stop on the way to the first Apple foldable.

Lets go back to 2008. With the MacBook Air, Apple ditched the optical disc drive and many ports, leading to a device that was so thin Steve Jobs pulled it out of a manila envelope when he first revealed it. The first MBA had some issues; it was underpowered, used a tiny and slow hard drive and battery life was pretty awful. But Apple refined the formula, which led to countless slimmed-down laptops and even a new category, the ultraportable.

Sadly, Apple didnt figure out an equally iconic way to reveal its super slim iPhone. In fact, it dropped it in a carefully prepared marketing video, presumably in a bid to show off how confident it is with the hardiness of the iPhone Air. But it felt like Apple trying to assuage durability fears in a way that doesn't really work, since this was just part of a carefully-manicured marketing promotion.

Thats one of two concerns for thinner phones: durability. Apples iPhone Air has a frame made from recycled titanium  previously an iPhone Pro feature. The Air also has the company's Ceramic Shield, which Apple says is now 3x more scratch-resistant than past versions. It feels like Apple has engineered a phone less likely to get damaged. And of course, the company is happy to offer a super-slim 1mm case for the paranoid among us.

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The other concern is battery life. A slimmer profile in a smartphone means less space for the battery. Apple claims that the iPhone Airs internal architecture maximizes space for the battery, but the company doesnt share specific battery capacity figures. Regardless, Apple says the iPhone Air will deliver all-day battery life, which remains hugely subjective.

Apple also announced a new $99 MagSafe charging pack to ensure the iPhone Air can play back video for up to 40 hours. But that charging puck seems even thicker than the camera unit  with the two devices combined, that's no longer a superthin smartphone, it's an iPhone 17 with one camera. The fact that it exists at all should give people pause about the Airs longevity.

Apple

Also: that big old camera module. Samsungs S25 Edge has a 5.8mm thick body, but if you count the camera, it's closer to 10mm. The iPhone Air is thinner than the S25 Edge, at 5.6mm. But the camera plateau adds a significant width on top of that, although Apple hasnt said just how thick it is. Judging by images, it could be almost twice as thick as the iPhone Airs body alone.

Compared to the MacBook Air, the iPhone Air is unlikely to shake up the world of smartphones. While packed with tech upgrades, theres nothing revolutionary. For example, the iPhone Air still has a USB-C port  early rumors suggested it might ditch all ports for wireless connections and charging. That single camera will probably take great photos, but the utility may be limited without a dedicated telephoto lens  a point I've been emphasizing. Samsungs S25 Edge attempted to address that with a 200-megapixel camera, allowing for substantial digital zoom by cropping in.

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Despite these potential pitfalls, Im intrigued to see how the iPhone Air fares. Ive often returned to Samsungs Galaxy S25 Edge, simply because of the lighter, slimmer profile. The weaknesses of slimmer smartphones Ive outlined here didnt result in a bad phone. Like Sam Rutherford put in his review, the S25 Edge is arguably a better phone than the S25+.

Are people desperate for a thinner smartphone? The $999 iPhone Air is cleverly priced between the base iPhone 17 ($799) and the iPhone 17 Pro ($1,099), and the lack of a plus model just might push people towards the Air.

I think theres a place for the iPhone Air. Its lighter, itll fit in pockets better and itll have all the features of iOS 26 at a time when new functionality has shifted from hardware to software. Apple has attempted to address many of the concerns with superslim phones, but the true test of battery longevity and durability will come with a few months of use.

The Apple "Awe dropping" event has concluded after the company announced new iPhones, Apple Watch and AirPods models, as expected. The full rundown of new releases: the iPhone 17, iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max; the AirPods Pro 3 (with live translation and a heart rate sensor); and the Apple Watch SE 3, Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3. The company also confirmed that all of its new operating system upgrades including iOS 26 will be available as free upgrades on September 15. Scroll through Engadget's earlier live coverage of the iPhone 17 launch to see how the announcements unfolded throughout the day.
Bluesky is expanding its age verification features stateside. The service will require users in South Dakota and Wyoming to verify their ages in order to access direct messaging and adult content on the site.

The update comes after both states have enacted laws requiring online platforms that host "harmful" content to verify the ages of their users. Bluesky's approach will mirror its actions in the UK, which also requires age checks following the passage of its Online Safety Act. The company has opted to use Epic Games' Kids Web Services to conduct the checks and users can choose between several methods, including ID scans or credit card checks.

The service will still be available to people in the states that don't verify their age, but specific features will be restricted. In an update, the company said "we believe this approach currently strikes the right balance." Last month, the service opted to go dark in the state of Mississippi rather than comply with a more restrictive age verification law that would have required it to block anyone whose age hadn't been confirmed.

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"To implement this change, we would have had to invest substantial resources in a solution that we believe limits free speech and disproportionately harms smaller platforms," Bluesky explains. "We chose not to offer our service there at this time while legal challenges continue."

The update comes as age verification laws have been ramping up in the US. So far, 25 states have passed laws requiring some form of age verification to access adult content, and numerous others have similar legislation in the works. In its post, Bluesky notes that it expects more regulations in other states and countries in the near term.

Correction, September 10, 2025, 2:03PM ET: This story has been updated to remove a reference to face scans. Bluesky enables face scanning for age verification in the UK but Epic Games' Kids Web Services doesn't currently offer the feature in the United States, We regret the error.
Actress Sigourney Weaver recently shared fresh details about the upcoming "Avatar: Fire and Ash" during the Toronto International Film Festival, describing the third installment as "particularly timely" for current global audiences.

The veteran actress revealed that director James Cameron's latest entry in the franchise will mirror real-world challenges facing humanity today.

Weaver, who returns as Kiri, the adopted daughter of Jake Sully and Neytiri, emphasized that each "Avatar" film maintains "the same themes of family and trying to stick together and protecting your home," but noted that "Avatar: Fire and Ash" delivers especially relevant commentary. The actress explained that Pandora's struggles reflect our own world's difficulties, stating, "It's not an easy world, and neither is ours."

The film continues the story of the Sully family as they face new threats from the Ash People, a volcano-dwelling Na'vi clan led by the antagonistic Varang, played by Oona Chaplin. Unlike previous Na'vi tribes, the Ash People have developed a symbiotic relationship with fire and represent a hardened culture that has endured significant struggles. Cameron has described Varang as a leader who "will do anything for her people, even things that we would consider to be evil."

Weaver confirmed her involvement extends beyond the third film, revealing she will appear in both the fourth and fifth Avatar movies scheduled for December 2029 and December 2031. The actress noted that Cameron wrote all five planned installments "quite a long time ago" and praised how they "hold together and build and play off in the most extraordinary ways."

The third film introduces several new elements to expand Pandora's world, including the Wind Traders, nomadic Na'vi who Cameron describes as equivalent to "camel caravans of the Spice Road back in the Middle Ages." These characters will play significant roles throughout the remaining sequels.

The film completed shooting in December 2020 after more than three years of production alongside "The Way of Water" in New Zealand. Despite facing nine release date delays since its original 2015 target, "Avatar: Fire and Ash" is scheduled to premiere in theaters on December 19, 2025. The movie will be available in multiple premium formats, including IMAX 3D, Dolby Cinema 3D, and 4DX.

Weaver expressed particular enthusiasm for how the Avatar films inspire audiences, noting that the young characters "have to demand much more of themselves than they ever thought was possible." This theme resonates throughout the franchise as the Sully family continues facing escalating challenges on their adopted homeworld.
James McAvoy, who recently made his directorial debut with "California Schemin'" at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, was involved in an unexpected incident during a night out in the city when a stranger punched him.

The altercation took place late on September 8 at Charlotte's Room, a local bar in Toronto.

McAvoy, 46, was spending the evening with producers from his film when the unprovoked attack occurred.

"James was having a casual get-together with the producers of his movie," a source close to the actor told People.

"As he later learned when speaking with the staff, there was a man who drank too much who was getting escorted out. James' back was to him and the man just punched him."

The shocking moment happened around 11:55 p.m. Despite being caught off guard, McAvoy reportedly stayed calm and tried to avoid escalating the situation.

Bar staff and others nearby quickly stepped in to remove the man from the premises.

James McAvoy Sucker-Punched by Random Man at Bar While in Toronto Debuting New Film 'California Schemin' (Exclusive) https://t.co/Uv1C35hvlk  People (@people) September 9, 2025

Read more: Alexis Skyy Named in Police Report Following Atlanta Apartment Assault

McAvoy Stays Calm After Bar Assault in Toronto

Despite the unexpected incident, McAvoy decided not to leave and stayed at the bar. According to the same source, he "laughed off the incident with patrons and the staff," showing no signs of anger or fear.

The bar, Charlotte's Room, has not released a statement on the event. McAvoy was in Toronto to mark the world premiere of "California Schemin'," the first film he directed.

The film, based on a true story, follows two Scottish men who pose as American rappers in hopes of becoming famous.

According to US Magazine, the film features performances from Seamus McLean Ross, Samuel Bottomley, Lucy Halliday, and Rebekah Murrell.

Just one day before the incident, McAvoy spoke about directing for the first time. "It was stressful, but amazing," he told sources.

McAvoy reflected on his career, noting that after three decades of acting, stepping into directing has given him new ways to tell stories, which he described as a rewarding experience.

McAvoy's wife, actress Lisa Liberati, was also in Toronto to support him. The couple appeared together at multiple festival events, including the premiere on September 6 and a dinner hosted by Chanel and Variety. The couple married in 2022 and share one child together.
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A new initiative is bringing retired farmers and agricultural workers together in Scotland, with the launch of a group aimed at tackling isolation and strengthening community ties.

The initiative, run by farming charity RSABI, is aimed at people of retirement age who have worked in agriculture  including farmers, farm workers and others connected to the industry.

The group, called Plough On, offers opportunities for social activities, farming-related visits, and the chance to meet like-minded people.

The programme has already proven popular in the south-west of Scotland and in Northern Ireland, where groups have organised events, talks and trips.

These have helped older farming people share memories, enjoy companionship and raise any concerns in a supportive environment.

Now senior members of the farming community in Angus are being invited to join a new Plough On group, with the first meeting set to take place at Inverarity Church Hall on Monday 6 October.

RSABI chief executive, Carol McLaren said the idea for a group in Angus followed encouraging feedback from last years festive event.

Our Ploughing On Festive Lunch... provided us with a lot of encouragement that an initiative like Plough On is very much needed for our industrys much valued senior members.

"Feedback from the event confirmed many older farming people would love to get out and about more, and particularly enjoy time with other like-minded farming folk.

She added: We are therefore delighted to be offering this opportunity for retirement-age people in Angus to get together and inform us of what they would like arranged by way of events and activities through the year.

The Angus group will run as a 12-month pilot, with regular gatherings planned throughout the year. Participants will be able to take part in farm-related activities as well as informal social meetings.

Anyone interested in joining the Angus Plough On group can visit RSABI's website to complete a short form, after which a member of the RSABI team will get in touch.
The Liberal Democrats are calling for mandatory country of origin labelling on beef to protect British farmers from the impact of US imports.

The move follows months of concern within the farming community over the UK-US trade deal, which allows up to 13,000 metric tonnes of US beef to be imported tariff-free each year. Farmers fear cheaper imports produced to lower standards could undermine the domestic industry.

The party is proposing that beef sold in large shops and restaurants should clearly display its country of origin. It argues the measure would give consumers greater transparency, help promote British produce and strengthen support for UK farmers.

Liberal Democrat environment spokesperson Tim Farron MP said the government must do more to recognise the contribution of farmers and safeguard their livelihoods.

"Farmers are absolutely vital to Britain - to our economy and future food security. They put food on our table, manage our landscapes and without them, we would all be worse off.

"Over the past year, the government has done nothing but neglect the farming community, first with the cruel family farm tax, and then by cutting the farming budget and selling out British farmers by accepting US beef produced to lower standards.

"The Liberal Democrats back British farmers who deserve so much better. I am urging the government to do the same, axe the family farm tax, give the farming budget 1bn more a year and back British farmers.

The party said mandatory labelling would not only protect farmers but also provide reassurance to consumers about where their food comes from and how it is produced.

A government spokesperson said the UK already has robust standards in place on food labelling and trade deals would not compromise our high standards of animal welfare and food safety.

The call comes as British farmers highlight wider pressures on the sector, from trade competition and shifting subsidies to environmental challenges.

The Liberal Democrats argue that introducing mandatory origin labelling would align with public support for British produce while helping to bolster consumer confidence and farming resilience.
Newly appointed Defra Secretary Emma Reynolds has pledged to put farming at the heart of Britains economic renewal, as NFU President Tom Bradshaw urged government to invest in farmers to secure the nations food future.

Speaking at the union's tenth Back British Farming Day reception today (10 September), Mr Bradshaw told MPs hat investment in farming is essential to ensure the industry can produce food while adapting to challenges such as climate change and market volatility.

Back British Farming Day has become a fixture in the Westminster calendar, with around 80 MPs and peers attending the anniversary reception to celebrate the role of Britains farmers and growers.

Welcoming Ms Reynolds, who entered the cabinet last week in the prime ministers reshuffle, Mr Bradshaw praised farmers ability to adapt but warned that clarity and certainty were vital for businesses to plan and invest.

He reiterated the industry's opposition to the so-called 'family farm tax', warning that it would strip businesses of the capital needed to reinvest or, in some cases, leave no farm left to invest in.

Citing a report by tax experts CenTax, he said the reforms to inheritance tax would disproportionately hit working farms.

The NFU president said: I hope that in this moment of reset across Whitehall we're able to move forwards... and unlock the opportunities for investment to deliver the growth the sector needs.

"So that when we're here next year, we're working in partnership, we're delivering what the country needs, and we're delivering what the farming industry needs.

In her first major speech since taking office, Ms Reynolds emphasised her great respect for the work of farmers, noting that the NFUs latest survey ranked farmers as the UKs second most respected profession, after nurses.

I want to provide them [farmers] with the certainty and confidence to invest for the future, the Defra Secretary said. However, she did not address the issue of the inheritance tax reforms in her speech.

Acknowledging the pressures of extreme weather, from flooding to drought, she added: It's clear we need to do more to help farmers improve farm resilience to a changing climate.

Ms Reynolds underlined the sectors importance to the UKs growth agenda: The farming sector is at the heart of Britain's economic renewal. I attended my first Cabinet meeting yesterday and made that point. Defra is a growth department and you are at the heart of that.

She confirmed that Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT) will open next week, with guidance published today, and said more detail on the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) would follow shortly, calling it right at the top of my inbox.

The reception, hosted in the NFUs London office due to ongoing industrial action in parliament, was sponsored by Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, MP for Suffolk Coastal.

NFU President Tom Bradshaw was joined by NFU Cymru President Aled Jones, NFU Scotland President Andrew Connon and UFU President William Irvine.

Senior MPs in attendance included Shadow Defra Secretary Victoria Atkins, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper, Plaid Cymru Westminster Leader Liz Saville-Roberts and EFRA Committee Chair Alistair Carmichael.

The NFU said the event demonstrated strong cross-party support for British farming at a time when the sector faces significant challenges  and opportunities  in shaping the UKs food and environmental future.
Farmers have once again been hailed as one of Britains most trusted professions, ranked second only to nurses in a new survey released to mark Back British Farming Day.

According to the NFU's latest Farmer Favourability Survey, this is the third consecutive year that farmers and growers have been recognised as among the most respected professionals in the country.

The findings highlight the high regard in which the public holds British farming for producing quality food, protecting animal welfare and safeguarding the countryside, despite ongoing challenges from extreme weather, soaring costs and economic pressures.

The survey of 2,000 people showed strong backing for the sector. Nine in ten respondents said it is important for the UK to maintain a productive farming industry, while 89% believe British farms should grow as much food as possible to bolster national food security.

More than half felt that farmers are underappreciated for the role they play in society, and over three-quarters expressed greater trust in British food compared to imports.

This broad public support comes as a new team of ministers takes office at Defra, providing an opportunity for farmings case to be made forcefully at the highest level of government.

NFU President Tom Bradshaw said the results demonstrate how much the public values farmers and urged ministers to ensure this is reflected in future agricultural policy.

British farming is the bedrock of the countrys largest manufacturing sector  food and drink  worth over 150 billion to the economy and supporting more than four million jobs, he said.

Just as we rightly celebrate the strength of our food and drink sector, we must also recognise and invest in the people who make it possible: our farmers and growers.

Mr Bradshaw emphasised that Back British Farming Day, taking place today (10 September), is not just about celebrating the industry but recognising its wider contribution.

Back British Farming Day is about recognising the value of our farmers  not just for the food they produce, but for the role they play in our communities, our economy and our environment. And clearly, the public is behind us.

Despite widespread support, farmers continue to face growing pressures. Many businesses are burdened with significant debts, while nearly half of all farms operate on tenanted land they do not own. With the average age of a UK farmer now 60, succession and long-term investment are becoming increasingly difficult.

Profitability remains the central challenge: Our farmers and growers are proud to produce the food that feeds the nation, while delivering for nature, rural communities and the wider economy, Mr Bradshaw said.

But they need confidence to invest for the future. Key to the long-term future of our farms is improving the profitability of sustainable food production.

He called for reforms to inheritance tax and measures to strengthen farm competitiveness, pointing to the NFUs submission to the governments Farm Profitability Review, which outlines proposals to improve margins, support domestic food security and help meet environmental targets.

With strong public support, the right government policies and a clear focus on food security, we can secure a thriving future for British farming, Mr Bradshaw concluded.
Britains vets have warned that weak border controls are leaving the country dangerously exposed to devastating livestock diseases, as MPs uncover shocking evidence of illegal meat flooding into the UK.

The call follows the publication of a report by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee, which raised alarms over the significant volumes of meat being illegally imported into the country.

The report warned that some of these imports are entering the food chain, but the true scale of the problem remains unclear due to weak enforcement and inadequate data.

Representing more than 19,000 veterinary professionals, the British Veterinary Association (BVA) said it has serious concerns about the findings.

The pig sector has also demanded urgent action after MPs uncovered what they described as shocking evidence of illegal meat flooding into the UK  including reports of an entire pig hidden in a suitcase.

The National Pig Association (NPA) has called on ministers to act comprehensively and without delay after the cross-party committee branded current border controls toothless.

The EFRA Committee identified a series of weaknesses, including insufficient enforcement of rules covering personal imports of meat and dairy, fragile intelligence-sharing networks, poor interdepartmental coordination, and the lack of a comprehensive national strategy to address the disease risks posed by contaminated products.

The BVA expressed alarm over cuts to funding for Official Vets at Dover, as well as recent ministerial remarks which, it said, appeared to downplay the vital role vets play in protecting the nations biosecurity.

BVA Junior Vice President, Rob Williams said: This report is deeply concerning, exposing serious gaps in border enforcement and warning that large amounts of illegal and potentially contaminated meat continue to enter the UK and make their way on to our plates.

"We cannot know where this meat has come from or if it meets the UKs high animal welfare and biosecurity standards, and without appropriate checks, we cant stop illegal meat imports at the border.

"This could have catastrophic and costly impacts on the UKs food security, public health, and animal health and welfare through the import of exotic animal diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease.

He added that the findings, alongside a recent National Audit Office report on animal disease resilience, should serve as a wake-up call for government to implement a fully funded national plan to tackle illegal meat imports and strengthen the UKs biosecurity.

Mr Williams stressed that government-employed vets remain central to protecting borders from exotic diseases but warned they cannot work effectively without the right infrastructure.

Government vets play a critical role in protecting the nations biosecurity but can only do their jobs effectively if they are supported by effective systems.

"Currently, veterinary capacity required to perform checks remains a concern. As part of a national action plan, we would like to see better support for vets through a data-driven and risk-based system that is fit for purpose.

"This should also include adequate resources for Official Vets and the agencies tasked with keeping borders secure, which is why we want to see the proposed 70% cuts to Dover Ports budget for spot checks on animal products reversed.
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In the first eight months of ****, Vietnams yarn exports fell *.* per cent YoY to $*,***.*** million. However, in volume terms, yarn exports rose *.* per cent, with the country shipping *,***,*** tons during the same period.

On a month-on-month basis, textile and garment exports declined *.* per cent to $*.*** billion in August **** compared to July. Yarn exports in August increased *.* per cent in value and *.* per cent in volume, with ***,*** tons shipped worth $***.*** million.
The buzz around Mirzapur: The Movie just got louder. Actor Abhishek Banerjee has confirmed that he will be returning as the unforgettable Compounder, a character that left a lasting impression in the early chapters of the popular franchise.













During an interaction with a fan, Abhishek revealed his comeback, sparking excitement among audiences who have been waiting to see him back in action. His characters intense chemistry with Munna Bhaiya (Divyenndu) was one of the highlights of the series, and fans continue to revisit those scenes years after the first season. A source close to the production also backed the news, adding that Abhishek was spotted in the films announcement teaser alongside key cast members.

A source close to the production has reportedly confirmed that Abhishek Banerjee will indeed reprise his role as Compounder. He was also spotted in the films announcement teaser alongside other core members of the cast. Industry chatter suggests that his reunion with Munna Bhaiya on the big screen is set to be one of the films most awaited highlights, promising fans a mix of nostalgia and fresh drama.





The Compounders return isnt just a dose of nostalgia but is expected to play a crucial part in the films storyline. His character had a layered arc in the series, complex, emotional, and unpredictable, making his re-entry a promising twist for the cinematic adaptation.









Social media has already erupted with celebratory posts from fans, many calling the announcement the best surprise of the movie so far. With this confirmation, the makers of Mirzapur: The Movie have once again managed to amplify the frenzy around one of Indias most beloved crime sagas.





With Abhishek Banerjee stepping back into the shoes of Compounder, the anticipation for Mirzapur: The Movie has gone up another notch. As the franchise transitions from streaming to the silver screen, fans can expect more grit, more drama, and plenty of explosive moments.





Also Read: Param Sundari Review: A Middling Romance
It seems that the recently released trailer of Jolly LLB 3 has invited fresh trouble for the makers. The film was already in hot water for the allegedly disrespectful portrayal of lawyers and the legal profession. Now, a new public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed against the makers of the Akshay Kumar and Arshad Warsi starrer.

The PIL has been filed in the Madhya Pradesh High Court by a lawyer from Jabalpur against the song Bhai Vakeel Hai. The lawyer has objected to the lyrics of the song that have phrases such as, "fikar na kar tera bhai vakeel hai", "package deals" and "judge ko mamu banana". The lawyer claimed that these are an insult to the judiciary. Objection has also been raised on the actors dancing in black coats and lawyers' gowns. The petitioner had demanded a stay on the release of the film. Madhya Pradesh High Court will hear the case on September 12.

This comes days after the Allahabad High Court dismissed a petition on the Bhai Vakeel Hai song. A petitioner claimed that the song allegedly insults the legal profession and the judiciary and also demanded a ban on the release of the film. However, a division bench of Justices Sangeeta Chandra and Brij Raj Singh dismissed the petition and ruled that they had not found anything objectionable. As per the verdict, "We did not find anything that warrants the interference of this court. We also looked at the lyrics of the song, and we did not find anything that interferes with the genuine profession of lawyers."

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Star Studio18 (@starstudio18)





Despite the legal hurdle, Jolly LLB 3 remains one of the most awaited releases of the year. The franchise has enjoyed strong success in the past, with the first film in 2013 turning into a sleeper hit and the 2017 sequel crossing the Rs 200 crore mark globally. Produced by Star Studio 18 and helmed by Subhash Kapoor, the film is slated to hit theatres on September 19, 2025.



Also Read: Akshay Kumar, Arshad Warsi and Saurabh Shukla Promote Jolly LLB 3 Ahead of The Films Release






WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Cracker Barrel said Tuesday it is suspending planned restaurant renovations after widespread customer backlash to its recent logo redesign, a move that rattled investors and sent shares tumbling earlier this month. The chain had begun testing a new, minimalist store design at four of its 660 restaurants, stripping away much of its signature rustic decor, including dark wood finishes and walls lined with Americana tchotchkes. Customers quickly voiced frustration online, prompting the company to pull back. 'You've shared your voices in recent weeks not just on our logo, but also on our restaurants,' the company wrote on X. 'If your restaurant hasn't been remodeled, you don't need to worry, it won't be.' The retreat comes after Cracker Barrel's logo update which removed its familiar 'old timer' figure and wooden barrel sparked sharp criticism, particularly from conservatives and far-right commentators who derided the change as 'woke.' Shares of the company plunged as much as 12% before it reinstated the original logo. Even former President Donald Trump weighed in, praising the decision to restore the old design. In a statement, the chain reassured customers that staples of its identity - including rocking chairs on porches, fireplaces, peg games, antiques, and its gift shop treasures will remain intact. The company is in the middle of a $700 million transformation plan, which also includes menu updates and new food offerings. While it confirmed renovations are off the table, Cracker Barrel did not clarify whether its broader strategy would also be scaled back. 'With our recent announcement that our 'Old Timer' logo will remain, along with our bigger focus in the kitchen and on your plate, we hope today's step reinforces that we hear you,' the company said. Copyright(c) 2025 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Klarna Group plc ("Klarna"), the global digital bank and flexible payments provider, announced today the pricing of its initial public offering of 34,311,274 ordinary shares, of which 5,000,000 ordinary shares are sold by Klarna and 29,311,274 ordinary shares are sold by certain selling shareholders, at a public offering price of $40.00 per ordinary share, which represents an increase of $4.00 from the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of the preliminary prospectus related to the offering. In connection with the offering, the selling shareholders have granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 5,146,691 ordinary shares to cover over-allotments. Klarna will not receive any proceeds from the sale of ordinary shares by the selling shareholders. The ordinary shares are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on September 10, 2025 under the symbol "KLAR."

The closing of the offering is expected to occur on September 11, 2025, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Goldman Sachs Co. LLC, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering; BofA Securities, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank Securities, Societe Generale and UBS Investment Bank are acting as bookrunners for the offering; and BNP Paribas, Keefe, Bruyette Woods, A Stifel Company, Nordea, Rothschild Co, Wedbush Securities and Wolfe Nomura Alliance are acting as co-managers for the offering.

A registration statement on Form F-1 relating to the offering has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") and was declared effective on September 9, 2025. The offering is being made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of the prospectus relating to the offering, when available, may be obtained for free by visiting EDGAR on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Alternatively, copies of the prospectus may be obtained from Goldman Sachs Co. LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 200 West Street, New York, NY 10282, by telephone at 866-471-2526 or by email at prospectus-ny@ny.email.gs.com; J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717 or by email at prospectus-eq_fi@jpmchase.com and postsalemanualrequests@broadridge.com; or Morgan Stanley Co. LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10014.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. Any offers, solicitations or offers to buy, or any sales of securities will be made in accordance with the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

About Klarna

Klarna is a technology company building the next-generation commerce network. Klarna has built one of the largest commerce networks in the world, measured by the number of consumers and merchants, serving approximately 111 million active Klarna consumers and approximately 790,000 merchants in 26 countries as of June 30, 2025, and facilitating $112 billion of gross merchandise volume in the last twelve months ended June 30, 2025.

Klarna's mission is to reimagine how consumers spend and save in their daily lives. Klarna helps people save time, money and reduce financial worry. Klarna's vision is a world where Klarna empowers everyone, everywhere, through seamless commerce experiences-as a personalized, trusted assistant making financial empowerment effortless.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250909851177/en/

Contacts:

press@klarna.com
Potential to truck high-grade concentrate for blending at CGM, Tunkillia

HIGHLIGHTS

Preliminary Wudinna metallurgical testwork indicates significant regional optionality, where:

Barns Deposit :

efficient flotation of ~90% of contained gold to concentrates grading 20 - 25 g/t Au; and gold recoveries of ~97 - 99% in all zones via a conventional gravity + leaching flowsheet;



Baggy Green Deposit:

gold recoveries of ~91% in the supergene zone via the same conventional flowsheet; and gold recoveries of ~98 - 99% in the primary zone via the same conventional flowsheet.

Potential to truck high-grade concentrates to Central Gawler Mill and/or Tunkillia, leveraging current and future processing infrastructure for lower costs and enhanced returns

ADELAIDE, AU / ACCESS Newswire / September 9, 2025 / Barton Gold Holdings Limited (ASX:BGD)(OTCQB:BGDFF)(FRA:BGD3) ( Barton or Company ) is pleased to provide an update on its review of strategic options for its new South Australian Wudinna Gold Project ( Wudinna ). Wudinna is located ~400km southeast of Barton's Challenger Gold Project ( Challenger ) which hosts the Central Gawler Mill ( CGM ), and ~200km southeast of Barton's Tunkillia Gold Project ( Tunkillia ) and future Tunkillia mill.

Metallurgical testwork for Wudinna suggests opportunities to leverage the installed capital of the CGM or future Tunkillia mill. Flotation testwork indicates the ability to concentrate ~90% of contained gold into ~6% of feed mass, and also strong gold recoveries of up to 99.3% via a conventional gravity and leaching flowsheet.

The ability to leverage the installed capital value of the Company's existing and future processing infrastructure through regional blending strategies is highly attractive and was a key factor in Barton's acquisition of Wudinna.

Full details are contained in the complete announcement, which can be accessed on the ASX website, the investor section of Barton's website, or directly by clicking here .

Commenting on the Wudinna metallurgical analyses, Barton Managing Director Alex Scanlon said :

"Tunkillia's May 2025 OSS demonstrates not only the financial and capital leverage available to large-scale processing, but also the considerable 'economic torque' to marginal grade available to such infrastructure. Tunkillia's 'Starter Pit', grading approximately 1.2 g/t Au, is modelled to produce over 200koz gold at a cash cost of less than AUD $1,000/oz. 1

"The opportunity to blend high-grade concentrates into our future Tunkillia processing infrastructure is therefore very attractive, with the potential to extend these 'Starter Pit' style returns over a longer operating horizon at Tunkillia.

"At current gold prices, such a concentrate would have a contained value of over AUD $4,000 per tonne, meaning it could easily be trucked to a local bulk export facility, to Tunkillia - or even up to our existing Central Gawler Mill."

Authorised by the Managing Director of Barton Gold Holdings Limited.

For further information, please contact:

Alexander Scanlon

Managing Director

a.scanlon@bartongold.com.au

+61 425 226 649 Jade Cook

Company Secretary

cosec@bartongold.com.au

+61 8 9322 1587

About Barton Gold

Barton Gold is an ASX, OTCQB and Frankfurt Stock Exchange listed Australian gold developer targeting future gold production of 150,000ozpa with 2.2Moz Au & 3.1Moz Ag JORC Mineral Resources (79.9Mt @ 0.87g/t Au), brownfield mines, and 100% ownership of the region's only gold mill in the renowned Gawler Craton of South Australia. *

Challenger Gold Project 313koz Au + fully permitted Central Gawler Mill ( CGM ) Tarcoola Gold Project 20koz Au in fully permitted open pit mine near CGM

Tolmer discovery grades up to 84g/t Au & 17,600g/t Ag Tunkillia Gold Project 1.6Moz Au & 3.1Moz Ag JORC Mineral Resources

Competitive 120kozpa gold & 250kozpa silver project Wudinna Gold Project 279koz Au project located southeast of Tunkillia

Significant optionality, adjacent to main highway

Competent Persons Statement & Previously Reported Information

The information in this announcement that relates to the historic Exploration Results and Mineral Resources as listed in the table below is based on, and fairly represents, information and supporting documentation prepared by the Competent Person whose name appears in the same row, who is an employee of or independent consultant to the Company and is a Member or Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy ( AusIMM ), Australian Institute of Geoscientists ( AIG ) or a Recognised Professional Organisation (RPO). Each person named in the table below has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and types of deposits under consideration and to the activity which he has undertaken to quality as a Competent Person as defined in the JORC Code 2012 ( JORC ).

Activity Competent Person Membership Status Tarcoola Mineral Resource (Stockpiles) Dr Andrew Fowler (Consultant) AusIMM Member Tarcoola Mineral Resource (Perseverance Mine) Mr Ian Taylor (Consultant) AusIMM Fellow Tarcoola Exploration Results (until 15 Nov 2021) Mr Colin Skidmore (Consultant) AIG Member Tarcoola Exploration Results (after 15 Nov 2021) Mr Marc Twining (Employee) AusIMM Member Tunkillia Exploration Results (until 15 Nov 2021) Mr Colin Skidmore (Consultant) AIG Member Tunkillia Exploration Results (after 15 Nov 2021) Mr Marc Twining (Employee) AusIMM Member Tunkillia Mineral Resource Mr Ian Taylor (Consultant) AusIMM Fellow Challenger Mineral Resource (above 215mRL) Mr Ian Taylor (Consultant) AusIMM Fellow Challenger Mineral Resource (below 90mRL) Mr Dale Sims AusIMM / AIG Fellow / Member Wudinna Mineral Resource (Clarke Deposit) Ms Justine Tracey AusIMM Member Wudinna Mineral Resource (all other Deposits) Mrs Christine Standing AusIMM / AIG Member / Member

The information relating to historic Exploration Results and Mineral Resources in this announcement is extracted from the Company's Prospectus dated 14 May 2021 or as otherwise noted in this announcement, available from the Company's website at www.bartongold.com.au or on the ASX website www.asx.com.au . The Company confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the Exploration Results and Mineral Resource information included in previous announcements and, in the case of estimates of Mineral Resources, that all material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning the estimates, and any production targets and forecast financial information derived from the production targets, continue to apply and have not materially changed. The Company confirms that the form and context in which the applicable Competent Persons' findings are presented have not been materially modified from the previous announcements.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This document may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "expect", "target" and "intend" and statements than an event or result "may", "will", "should", "would", "could", or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions. Forward-looking information is subject to business, legal and economic risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among other things, risks relating to property interests, the global economic climate, commodity prices, sovereign and legal risks, and environmental risks. Forward-looking statements are based upon estimates and opinions at the date the statements are made. Barton undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements for events or circumstances that occur subsequent to such dates or to update or keep current any of the information contained herein. Any estimates or projections as to events that may occur in the future (including projections of revenue, expense, net income and performance) are based upon the best judgment of Barton from information available as of the date of this document. There is no guarantee that any of these estimates or projections will be achieved. Actual results will vary from the projections and such variations may be material. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied upon as, a promise or representation as to the past or future. Any reliance placed by the reader on this document, or on any forward-looking statement contained in or referred to in this document will be solely at the readers own risk, and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty thereof.

1 Refer to ASX announcement dated 5 May 2025

* Refer to Barton Prospectus dated 14 May 2021 and ASX announcement dated 8 September 2025. Total Barton JORC (2012) Mineral Resources include 1,049koz Au (39.7Mt @ 0.82 g/t Au) in Indicated category and 1,186koz Au (40.2Mt @ 0.92 g/t Au) in Inferred category, and 3,070koz Ag (34.5Mt @ 2.80 g/t Ag) in Inferred category as a subset of Tunkillia gold JORC (2012) Mineral Resources.

SOURCE: Barton Gold Holdings Limited

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/metals-and-mining/wudinna-testwork-indicates-gold-recoveries-of-up-to-99.3-1071017
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 9, 2025) - EMX Royalty Corporation (NYSE American: EMX) (TSXV: EMX) (the "Company" or "EMX") is pleased to provide an update with respect to the previously announced sale of its Nordic operational platform (the "Transaction") to First Nordic Metals Corporation (TSXV: FNM) ("FNM"), a current partner and operator on multiple EMX royalty properties in Sweden and Finland (see the Company's News Release dated June 2, 2025). This strategic divestment includes EMX's regional infrastructure, exploration equipment, and employees across the Nordic countries.

The Transaction is a non-arm's length transaction pursuant to the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV") as a result of the parties having a director in common and is therefore subject to acceptance of the TSXV. The Transaction has been conditionally accepted by the TSXV and the Company is proceeding with the satisfaction of the conditions required for the final acceptance of the Transaction which are standard for a transaction of this nature. Additionally, completion of the Transaction remains subject to clearance pursuant to the Swedish Foreign Direct Investment Act, which process is expected to be completed prior to the end of October 2025.

About EMX. EMX is a precious and base metals royalty company. EMX's investors are provided with discovery, development, and commodity price optionality, while limiting exposure to risks inherent to operating companies. The Company's common shares are listed on the NYSE American Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "EMX". Please see www.EMXroyalty.com for more information.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain "forward-looking statements" and "forward-looking information" (together "forward-looking statements") that reflect the Company's current expectations and projections about its future results. These forward-looking statements may include statements regarding receipt of final TSXV acceptance for the Transaction, timing and clearance of the Transaction pursuant to the Swedish Foreign Direct Investment Act, timing for completion of the Transaction or other statements that are not statements of fact. When used in this news release, words such as "estimate," "intend," "expect," "anticipate," "will", "believe", "potential" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, which, by their very nature, are not guarantees of the Company's future operational or financial performance, and are subject to risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause the Company's actual results, performance, prospects or opportunities to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and factors may include but are not limited to difficulties in obtaining required approvals for the Transaction, increased regulatory compliance costs and other factors.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this news release or as of the date otherwise specifically indicated herein. Due to risks and uncertainties, including the risks and uncertainties identified in this news release, and other risk factors and forward-looking statements listed in the Company's MD&A for the quarter ended June 30, 2025 (the "MD&A"), and the most recently filed Annual Information Form ("AIF") for the year ended December 31, 2024, actual events may differ materially from current expectations. More information about the Company, including the MD&A, the AIF and financial statements of the Company, is available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca and on the SEC's EDGAR website at www.sec.gov . EMX does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/265815

SOURCE: EMX Royalty Corp.
Axelspace Holdings Corporation ("Axelspace Holdings") is pleased to announce that its subsidiary, Axelspace Corporation, has been formally recognized as a Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Associate-the first private company from Japan to receive this distinction.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250909494725/en/

GEO is a global partnership that brings together over 100 governments including Japan and more than 150 organizations from academia, business, and civil society. It produces user-driven Earth Intelligence solutions, which integrates Earth observation data, socioeconomic data, research and science, and other sources of information for empowering society to address critical global challenges.

Axelspace Corporation was recognized as a GEO Associate, which includes private sector entities, civil society organizations, and NGOs, at the GEO Executive Committee meeting in 2025. This recognition is expected to provide opportunities to share knowledge with participating governments-such as Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), which is responsible for GEO in Japan-and participating organizations, gain insights into market needs, explore new business opportunities, and further strengthen international trust and presence of the company.

"Our group is starting to develop Earth observation solutions to help address various challenges faced by emerging countries, including those in Africa, through partnerships with these countries," said Yuya Nakamura, President and CEO of Axelspace Holdings. "By building a win-win partnership with many emerging countries to co-create new value, we are committed to contributing to the long-term development of a robust global foundation for satellite data utilization."

The Group on Earth Observations: https://earthobservations.org/

*Full release available here: https://www.axelspacehd.com/geo_associate/

Notice:

This document does not constitute any part of an offer to solicit investments in any securities. It is a press release intended for public disclosure and is not prepared for the purpose of soliciting investments, either in Japan or overseas.

Furthermore, this document does not constitute an offer to sell securities in the United States. The securities referred to in this document have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act") and may not be offered or sold in the United States unless they are registered under the Securities Act or an exemption from the registration requirements applies. The securities referred to in this document will not be publicly offered or sold in the United States.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250909494725/en/

Contacts:

Media Contact

Axelspace Holdings Corporation

pr@axelspace.com
New offering provides excellent clarity and enhanced product aesthetics at lower processing temperatures while enabling faster cycle times and higher productivity

MUSCAT, Oman, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- OQ, an energy investment and development company, and diversified global manufacturer Milliken & Company today announced the introduction of a new clarified random copolymer for injection molding applications.

OQ utilized Milliken's Millad NX 8000 ECO additive solution to debut its Luban RP2251T injection molding grade that has a superior aesthetic appearance and can be processed at significantly lower temperatures, enabling converters to generate energy savings and improved productivity due to reduced cycle times. This innovation enables converters to reduce energy consumption and achieve higher productivity, directly contributing to sustainable manufacturing and packaging solutions that meet evolving global needs.

"From product development to full commercialization, we are proud to collaborate with OQ to introduce their first injection molding grade made with our Millad clarifying agent," said Maria Di Nolfo, Europe Sales Director at Milliken. "We are eager to see OQ meet the growing demand for highly transparent reusable products with lower energy consumption."

Luban RP2251T offers excellent transparency and organoleptic performance. The grade is typically used in the production of thin-walled packaging with high transparency and stringent requirements for organoleptic properties.

"At OQ, we're driven by innovation that delivers real-world performance, sustainability benefits and solutions for global megatrends. Luban RP2251T is a great example of how OQ and Milliken are advancing polymer performance, combining excellent clarity with lower energy use and faster cycle times," said Abdulrahman Al Tamtami, VP Global Marketing at OQ.

OQ's Luban RP2251T is enhanced with Millad clarifying agent, which provides excellent aesthetics and processing efficiency, enabling converters to achieve up to 10% energy and cost savings by processing the grades at lower temperatures and with shorter cycle times than similar products in the market, which use different clarifying agents.

To learn more about Milliken plastic additives, visit www.milliken.com. To learn more about OQ's high-clarity PP grades, visit www.oq.com.

About Milliken

Milliken & Company is a global manufacturing leader whose focus on materials science delivers tomorrow's breakthroughs today. From industry-leading molecules to sustainable innovations, Milliken creates products that enhance people's lives and deliver solutions for its customers and communities. Drawing on thousands of patents and a portfolio with applications across the textile, flooring, chemical and healthcare businesses, the company harnesses a shared sense of integrity and excellence to positively impact the world for generations. Discover more about Milliken's curious minds and inspired solutions at milliken.com and on Facebook , Instagram , and LinkedIn.

About OQ

OQ is an energy investment group rooted in Oman and operating across 17 countries. The Group manages a diverse portfolio spanning the entire energy value chain, from oil and gas exploration and production to refining and distribution of end-user products to over 80 countries. Committed to sustainability, OQ leads Oman's energy transition through investments in renewables and green hydrogen.

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/oq-and-milliken-collaborate-to-bring-new-injection-molding-grade-to-market-302551664.html
-Participating in the world's largest gas exhibition from Sep 9-12 in Milan, Italy

- A total of 36 certifications received and multiple MOUs signed, presenting digital transformation and eco-friendly solutions

SEOUL, South Korea, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- HD Hyundai is set to unveil the future of sustainable gas carriers applied with eco-friendly, AI technologies at Gastech, the world's largest gas exhibition.

Six affiliates - HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, HD Hyundai Mipo, HD Hyundai Samho, HD Hyundai Marine Solution, and HD Hyundai Electric - participate in the exhibition held in Milan, Italy, from September 9 to 12.

HD Hyundai Executive Vice Chairman Chung Kisun, along with executives and staff members from the Sales, R&D, and Engineering divisions, will introduce their eco-friendly technologies to major shipping companies and leading classification societies and present future strategies for the maritime industry.

During the exhibition, HD Hyundai is set to participate in a total of 36 events, obtaining technology certifications from global classification societies and signing multiple MOUs with major companies.

HD Hyundai will receive an Approval in Principle from classification societies, including DNV, for their next-generation gas carrier design. The design places the crew accommodation block at the forward section to maximize upper deck space, which allows for the installation of multiple wind-assisted propulsion systems to enhance fuel efficiency.

HD Hyundai will also be certified for AI-based solutions that improve fuel efficiency. HD Hyundai will receive AIP from the American Bureau of Shipping for VesselWise, a solution that autonomously optimizes equipment operation without crew intervention. They will also receive a Product Design Assessment for its AI-driven Cargo Handling Solution, a solution that optimizes the use of boil-off gas during voyages.

They are also collaborating to demonstrate an AI solution that helps respond to fire accidents on ships. HD Hyundai will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Sweden's Consilium to integrate its AI-based integrated safety control solution with a ship's existing fire detection system.

In addition, HD Hyundai will sign an MOU with Lloyd's Register for a joint development project to convert an LPG carrier into an ammonia dual-fuel vessel.

"HD Hyundai possesses optimal technologies that not only comply with environmental standards but also maximize vessel performance," an HD Hyundai official said. "Through continuous investment and innovation, we will lead the era of carbon-neutral shipping."

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/hd-hyundai-showcases-next-generation-gas-carriers-in-gastech-2025-302551733.html
North Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 9, 2025) - Lion One Metals Limited (TSXV: LIO) (OTCQX: LOMLF) ("Lion One" or the "Company") is pleased to announce a non-brokered private placement of up to 46,875,000 units (the "Offered Units") at a price of $0.32 per Offered Unit (the "Issue Price") for aggregate gross proceeds of up to $15,000,000, pursuant to the listed issuer financing exemption available under National Instrument 45-106 - Prospectus Exemptions (the "LIFE Offering"), in each of the Provinces of Canada other than Quebec. Each Offered Unit will consist of one common share of the Company (a "Common Share") and one Common Share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"). Each Warrant will entitle the holder thereof to acquire one Share at an exercise price of $0.42 for a period of three years from the date of issuance.

The Company will make available an offering document relating to the LIFE Offering (the "Offering Document") which will be accessible under the Company's profile at www.sedarplus.ca and at https://liononemetals.com. Prospective investors in the LIFE Offering should read the Offering Document before making an investment decision.

The Company also announces that it has entered into a forbearance agreement (the "Forbearance Agreement") with its senior secured lenders Nebari Gold Fund 1, LP, Nebari Natural Resources Credit Fund I, LP and Nebari Natural Resources Credit Fund II, LP (each as Lender and collectively, "Nebari") pursuant to which Nebari has agreed to waive the application of the working capital covenant under the Company's loan facility. With the maturity of the Tranche 1 Facility upcoming in August 2026, the Tranche 1 Facility is now classified as a current liability for accounting purposes which impacted the Company's working capital covenant. The Forbearance Agreement extends to December 31, 2025 and is subject to ongoing compliance covenants of the Company, including the raising of capital to ensure the timely repayment of the Tranche 3 Facility and accrued interest on September 30, 2025, which is expected to be satisfied by the LIFE Offering.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the LIFE Offering to fund the development of the Company's 100% owned and fully permitted high grade Tuvatu Gold Project, repayment of principal and interest for the Company's loan facility with Nebari, and for working capital purposes.

The LIFE Offering is expected to close on or around September 23, 2025. Closing of the LIFE Offering is subject to certain customary conditions including receipt of all necessary approvals including satisfaction of listing conditions of the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV"). The LIFE Offering may be closed in one or more tranches. The securities offered under the LIFE Offering will not be subject to Canadian resale restrictions in accordance with applicable Canadian securities laws.

The Company may pay finders' fees in connection with the LIFE Offering, as permitted by applicable securities laws and the rules of the TSXV. The finders' fees will consist of cash commissions equal to up to 7% of the gross proceeds raised from purchasers introduced to the Company by eligible finders and finder warrants equal to up to 7% of the aggregate number of Offered Units sold to purchasers introduced to the Company by eligible finders. Each of the finders warrants will entitle the holder to purchase one Common Share at a purchase price of $0.32 per finders warrant exercisable for a period of 24 months after the issuance of such finder warrants.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to sell any Shares in the United States. The securities to be sold in the LIFE Offering have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

About Lion One Metals Limited

Lion One Metals is an emerging Canadian gold producer headquartered in North Vancouver BC, with new operations established in late 2023 at its 100% owned Tuvatu Alkaline Gold Project in Fiji. The Tuvatu project comprises the high-grade Tuvatu Alkaline Gold Deposit, the Underground Gold Mine, the Pilot Plant, and the Assay Lab. The Company also has an extensive exploration license covering the entire Navilawa Caldera, which is host to multiple mineralized zones and highly prospective exploration targets.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of

Lion One Metals Limited

"Walter Berukoff"

Chairman of the Board

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking statements or information. Forward-looking statements are frequently identified by such words as "may", "will", "plan", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "intend" and similar words referring to future events and results. The forward-looking statements and information are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by management of the Company. Forward-looking statements made in this news release include statements regarding anticipated completion of the LIFE Offering, the proposed use of proceeds of the LIFE Offering and the expected lead subscriber to the LIFE Offering. Although management of the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking statements and information are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements and information since no assurance can be given that they will prove to be correct.

Forward-looking statements and information are provided for the purpose of providing information about the current expectations and plans of management of the Company relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such statements and information may not be appropriate for other purposes, such as making investment decisions. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks, including, with respect to the LIFE Offering, Forbearance Agreement and debt settlement; the conditions of the financial markets; availability of financing; timeliness of completion of the LIFE Offering; the timing of TSX Venture Exchange approval; the ability of the Company to satisfy the covenants set out in the Forbearance Agreement; with respect to the use of proceeds, the sufficiency of the proceeds; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development; fluctuating commodity prices; and competition, as described in more detail in our recent securities filings available at www.sedarplus.ca. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. The forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and no undertaking is given to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws. The forward-looking statements or information contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION OR DISSEMINATION DIRECTLY, OR INDIRECTLY, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/265825

SOURCE: Lion One Metals Limited
VANCOUVER, B.C. / ACCESS Newswire / September 9, 2025 / Lobe Sciences Ltd. ("Lobe" or the "Company") (CSE:LOBE)(OTCQB:LOBEF)(FWB:LOBE.F) a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing products to treat diseases with significant unmet medical needs is pleased to announce its participation in the upcoming Clusterbusters 20th Annual U.S. Patient Conference taking place September 11-14, 2025, in Grapevine, Texas (near Dallas/Ft. Worth).

This conference is a cornerstone for the cluster headache community, bringing together patients, caregivers, healthcare professionals, and advocates for a weekend of education, support, and connection. Lobe's participation underscores its commitment to advancing innovative therapies for chronic cluster headache and other underserved conditions.

"For 25 years, Clusterbusters has been leading research and education on the use of psychedelics to treat cluster headache. We welcome Lobe Sciences and Cynaptec Pharmaceuticals to our conference to share their work developing conjugated psilocin as a treatment for chronic cluster headache. This medicine has great potential to better manage debilitating cluster headaches, and we support their expedited pathway to bring patients relief as soon as possible."

--Bob Wold, Founder and Executive Director of Clusterbusters, the largest patient advocacy organization for people living with cluster headache.

Dr. Fred D. Sancilio, Chairman and CEO of Lobe Sciences Ltd. will be discussing ongoing research conducted by its subsidiary; Cynaptec Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Cynaptec's lead compound, L-130, Conjugated Psilocin, is being studied as a potential treatment for Chronic Cluster Headaches.

Lobe recently announced that it had secured $6M in funding in Cynaptec Pharmaceuticals, with an investor option for up to an additional $20M to complete the US FDA submission of L-130. Dr. Sancilio said, "we've been working with the leadership of Clusterbusters for over a year and they've been instrumental in sharing patient experiences with this devastating condition. Our goal at this conference will be to build a wider bridge to patients and establish a patient advocacy team that can help us design meaningful clinical endpoints, with firsthand experience with the disease."

The Company will be available at the conference to meet patients interested in participating in the design of studies and sharing their thoughts for future relevant studies.

About Conjugated PsilocinTM- Conjugated PsilocinTM is a novel, patented, oral, stable analog of psilocin, the active metabolite of the prodrug psilocybin, designed to enhance bioavailability and therapeutic efficacy, which has been identified as having therapeutic potential in a variety of neurological conditions. Whereas conventional psilocin is an unstable compound that has been challenging for the industry to develop as a standalone pharmaceutical, Conjugated Psilocin's stability and bioavailability profile, and associated safety and efficacy signals, suggest potential for prescription drug development in a variety of neurological and psychiatric indications.

About Lobe Sciences Ltd.

Lobe Sciences Ltd. is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel therapies for rare neurological and hematological conditions. The company operates through two subsidiaries:

 Cynaptec Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (a private Delaware company currently owned 64% by Lobe Sciences Ltd) is advancing Conjugated Psilocin (CP), a patented new chemical entity targeting Chronic Cluster Headache, for which it will seek an orphan indication. Substance use disorder (SUD) and possibly additional CNS disorders and other indications are under strategic review.

 Altemia, Inc. is addressing sickle cell disease with two complementary assets: a medical food currently in early-stage distribution, and S-100, a patent-pending therapeutic candidate designed to treat the underlying pathology of the disease.

Lobe's pipeline is differentiated by intellectual property, clinical momentum, and a strategic focus on high-value, underserved markets.

For additional Information, please contact:

Lobe Sciences Ltd.

info@lobesciences.com

www.lobesciences.com

Neither the "CSE" Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Statement Regarding "Forward-Looking" Information

This news release includes certain statements and information that may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical facts, including statements regarding future estimates, plans, objectives, timing, assumptions or expectations of future performance, including, without limitation: the expectation that the Company will receive all necessary approvals to complete the Offering; the expectation that the Company will complete the Offering on the terms disclosed; and the intended use of proceeds of the Offering are forward-looking statements and contain forward-looking information. Generally, forward-looking statements and information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "intends" or "anticipates", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "should" or "would" or occur.

Forward-looking statements are based on certain material assumptions and analysis made by the Company and the opinions and estimates of management as of the date of this press release, including, among other things, that: the Company will receive all necessary approvals to complete the Offering; that the Company will complete the Offering on the terms and timing anticipated; and that the proceeds from the Offering will be used as anticipated. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information. Important risks that may cause actual results to vary, include, without limitation, the risk that: the Company will not receive the necessary approvals to complete the Offering; that the Company will not complete the Offering on the terms disclosed, or at all; and that the Company will be unable to use the proceeds received from the Offering.

Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, forward-looking information or financial out-look that are incorporated by reference herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

SOURCE: Lobe Sciences Ltd

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/biotechnology/lobe-sciences-ltd.-and-cynaptec-pharmaceuticals-inc.-to-present-a-new-therapeutic-app-1069779
BioVersys AG / Key word(s): Half Year Results

Bioversys reports corporate highlights and key financials for the first half 2025



10-Sep-2025 / 07:00 CET/CEST

Release of an ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.





Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR Basel, Switzerland. September 10, 2025, 7am CEST BV100: successful end of Phase 2 meeting with US FDA following Positive Phase 2 read-out in Ventilator-Associated Bacterial Pneumonia (VABP); Phase 3 on track to initiate in 2025; Formulation patent granted in China, extending BV100 IP protection to over 25 countries, including the US, Europe and the UK

Alpibectir: First patient dosed in a Phase 2 combination trial in pulmonary Tuberculosis by partner GSK - first top line data expected in Q2 2026; EMA Orphan Designation received for Alpibectir and ethionamide combination for the treatment of tuberculosis

BV500: Entered into Global Research Collaboration and exclusive license agreement with Shionogi to jointly develop a broad-spectrum non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) clinical candidate

Improved FY 2025 Financial Guidance with CHF 29m in expected Operating Loss and CHF 78m in Cash & Cash equivalent - Company funded into 2028 BioVersys AG, a multi-asset, clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focusing on research and development of novel antibacterial products for serious life-threatening infections caused by multi-drug resistant ("MDR") bacteria, announced today its financial results and corporate highlights for the first half year 2025. The company will host a conference call and webcast on September 10, 2025 at 2:00 PM CET / 8:00 AM ET where management will review the financial results, provide a business update and outlook. To participate in the call please register under the following link: Registration Link Dr. Marc Gitzinger, Chief Executive Officer of BioVersys: "The first half of 2025 started with the successful IPO on the SIX Swiss Exchange in February with proceeds allowing us to advance our entire pipeline until early 2028. We are currently preparing to initiate the Phase 3 program for BV100 in VABP in 2025. We also recently announced a landmark research and licensing agreement with Shionogi for BV500, initiated an additional Phase 2 trial for alpibectir in pulmonary Tuberculosis together with our partner GSK and received EU orphan designation for alpibectir. We look forward to generating value-adding impact in the fight against anti-microbial resistance and creating significant shareholder value." Pipeline Highlights BV100 (rifabutin for infusion) for carbapenem resistant Acinetobacter baumannii infections: As announced in April 2025, the key data from the Phase 2 Ventilator Associated Bacterial Pneumonia (VABP) clinical trial for BV100 were presented at the 2025 Congress of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECSMID). BV100 demonstrated strong signs of efficacy by halving the mortality rate in critically ill patients suffering from carbapenem resistant Acinetobacter baumannii infections compared with best available therapy. Besides the strong efficacy, BV100 was also generally safe and well tolerated. In Part B of the Phase 2 trial, BV100 also proved effective in patients failing best available therapy and those suffering from totally drug-resistant infections. A webcast featuring two internationally renowned key opinion leaders reviewing the data is available here . Preparations for a global Phase 3 investigating BV100 for the treatment of VABP are progressing well following a successful end of Phase 2 meeting with the US FDA, leading to an aligned Phase 3 study design. The planned study will enroll approximately 250 evaluable patients with ventilator associated bacterial pneumonia (VABP)/hospital-acquired bacterial pneumonia (HABP) or bloodstream infections (BSI), to be randomized 1:1. The study arm for BV100 will be similar in dose and background medicines as during the Phase 2 trial randomized to a Colistin based control arm. The first patient first visit is anticipated for the end of 2025. Preparations for the planned Phase 2b trial are also on track and a first patient first visit is anticipated for Q1 2026. The Phase 2b trial is designed to enroll a similar patient population, randomizing to best available therapy and exploring additional combination drugs for BV100 with a goal to generate real world evidence around best clinical practice, intended to provide valuable efficacy data to physicians and compare these data to what they observe in their daily practice. The Phase 2b aims to enroll 90 patients in a 2:1 randomization and is designed to also show additional clinical differentiation for BV100 by recruiting in populations where the infecting Acinetobacter baumannii is resistant to even the newest approved drugs. Both Phase 3 and Phase 2b trials will include a Part B, allowing to recruit totally drug-resistant patients and enabling access to BV100 as rescue therapy. Besides progress on the clinical development for BV100, the key composition of matter patent of the formulation of BV100 was also granted in China and is now granted in over 25 jurisdictions globally. Alpibectir in pulmonary and meningeal Tuberculosis (in partnership with GSK): Alpibectir is being developed in combination with Ethionamide (AlpE) together with our partner GSK. In Q1 2025, GSK initiated a Phase 2 early bactericidal activity trial for AlpE in combination with first-line TB drugs in pulmonary tuberculosis. This trial is run within UNITE4TB, a European Union and European Pharmaceutical funded Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI2) Joint Undertaking. The trial is recruiting well and remains on track to report top line data by Q2 2026. A Phase 2 trial in meningeal tuberculosis to be led by BioVersys alongside a French and African academic consortium is planned to initiate in Q1 2026. As reported earlier this year, the combination of Alpibectir and Ethionamide (AlpE) was also granted orphan designation from the European Medicines Agency (EMA). This recognition is based on strong proof of concept data from the Phase 2a data and the potential to address highly drug-resistant TB bacteria - including those resistant to the newest TB medicines such as bedaquiline. The orphan status provides key incentives, including reduced regulatory fees, research and clinical protocol support, and 10-year EU market exclusivity. The FDA had already granted AlpE orphan drug designation in 2023. BV500 in non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) infections (in collaboration with Shionogi): The BV500 NTM program aims at developing a potential new, best-in-class medicine for NTM infections in patients with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). As announced recently, BioVersys has entered into a global research collaboration and exclusive license option agreement with the Japanese Pharma company Shionogi. This partnership ensures accelerated progression of the BV500 program towards clinical development candidates selection jointly by Shionogi and BioVersys. BioVersys receives near term and upfront payments of CHF 5 million and, upon the license agreement, is eligible for development, regulatory and sales milestone of up to CHF 479 million, as well as royalties on future sales. Earlier, BV500 had met the second milestone within the CF AMR syndicate supported Lead optimization program. Corporate and Management Highlights BioVersys was listed on the Swiss Exchange (SIX) on February 7, 2025, under the ticker symbol "BIOV". The IPO was an all-primary listing which raised CHF 76.7 million to conduct the clinical Phase 3 program for BV100 and advance the clinical development of alpibectir and the preclinical pipeline. Financial Highlights In the course of the first half of the financial year 2025, BioVersys recognized total operating income of CHF 0.6 million (H1 2024: CHF 0.5 million) and incurred total operating expenses of CHF 9.9 million, broadly in line when compared to the same period in 2024 (H1 2024: CHF 10.9 million), with 63% of these operating expenses related to Research and Development. Excluding IPO related expenses, the ratio of Operating Costs related to R&D would have been 69% for H1 2025. This led to an operating loss of CHF 9.4 million for the first half of 2025 (H1 2024: Operating loss of CHF 10.4 million). The net loss in the first half of 2025 amounted to CHF 11.0 million (H1 2024: Net loss of CHF 10.4 million). The net cash used in operating activities in the first half of 2025 was CHF 9.6 million (H1 2024: Net cash used in operating activities CHF 8.5 million). The cash and cash equivalents position increased to CHF 92.1 million as of June 30, 2025 (December 31, 2024: CHF 26.6 million) as a result of our successful IPO in February 2025. Total shareholders' equity stood at CHF 69.9 million as of June 30, 2025 (December 31, 2024: CHF 10.7 million). As of June 30, 2025, the company employed 29 FTEs (full-time equivalents), up 21% year-over-year. About 75% of the employees are employed in R&D-related functions. In April 2025, BioVersys and the European Investment Bank (EIB) amended certain terms and conditions of the loan facility whereby the conditions precedent to access the third tranche of the loan have been updated and the amounts drawn from the facility are now subordinated. These amendments provide BioVersys with significant flexibility moving forward. We are thankful to the EIB for their support and look forward to future collaboration as our pipeline progresses. As a post-period event, in July 2025 we entered into a research collaboration agreement with Shionogi for our preclinical asset BV500. This collaboration adds, in addition to our June 30th 2025 cash and cash equivalents, CHF 5.0m and it offloads CHF 5.8m of expected expenses until December 2027. Improved 2025 Financial Guidance We expect the operating loss at year end to be of CHF 29m, which is an improvement of CHF 3-6m compared to the CHF 32m to CHF 35m range provided during the FY 2024 earnings call. Cash and cash equivalents at year end are expected at CHF 78 million. The company is fully funded into 2028. Key figures 1?

CHF millions Profit and Loss 30.06.2025 30.06.2024 Other operating income 0.6 0.5 Research and development expenses (6.2) (6.6) General and administrative expenses (3.7) (4.3) Net loss (11.0) (10.4) Average net cash burn 2? (1.6) (1.4) Number of FTE 29 24

Balance Sheet 30.06.2025 31.12.2024 Cash and cash equivalents 92.1 26.6 Total assets 94.7 35.0 Total equity 69.9 10.7 Equity ratio 74% 31%

Share information 30.06.2025 31.12.2024 Share capital 5.8 3.7 Number of registered shares issued 5,837,986 3,692,285 Nominal value per registered share (in CHF) 1.0 1.0

1? Based on the consolidated IFRS Financial Statements 2? The average net cash burn represents the average monthly cash used for operating activities About BioVersys BioVersys AG is a multi-asset, clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on identifying, developing and commercializing novel antibacterial products for serious life-threatening infections caused by multi-drug resistant ("MDR") bacteria. Derived from the company's two internal technology platforms (TRIC and Ansamycin Chemistry), candidates are designed and developed to overcome resistance mechanisms, block virulence production and directly affect the pathogenesis of harmful bacteria towards the identification of new treatment options in the antimicrobial and microbiome fields. This enables BioVersys to address the high unmet medical need for new treatments against life-threatening resistant bacterial infections and bacteria-exacerbated chronic inflammatory microbiome disorders. The company's most advanced research and development programs address nosocomial infections of Acinetobacter baumannii (BV100, Phase 3), and tuberculosis (alpibectir, Phase 2, in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and a consortium of the University of Lille, France). BioVersys is located in the biotech hub of Basel, Switzerland. BioVersys contact Hernan Levett, CFO, Tel. +41 61 633 22 50; Mail: Hernan.levett@bioversys.com For Media: media@bioversys.com www.bioversys.com Disclaimer This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements, such as "believe", "assume", "expect", "forecast", "project", "may", "could", "might", "will" or similar expressions concerning BioVersys and its business, including with respect to the progress, timing and completion of research, development and clinical studies for product candidates. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of BioVersys to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. BioVersys is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

End of Inside Information
As an anaesthetist and intensive care specialist, Dr. Bechter has led medical teams supporting the launch of more than 10 rare disease medicines.

Sixth executive hire of 2025 tasked with advancing Avanzanite's new approach for delivering orphan medicines within the complexity of Europe's 32 countries.

Dr. Bechter joins as H1 2025 revenues triple over H1 2024, highlighting Avanzanite's growth trajectory.

Avanzanite Bioscience B.V., a rapidly growing commercial stage European specialty pharmaceutical company focused on rare diseases, announced today the appointment of Dr. Mark Bechter as Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs. As the sixth executive leadership hire of 2025, this appointment further strengthens Avanzanite's "Champions League" team. It also underscores the company's commitment to breaking barriers to bring rare disease medicines to patients in every corner of Europe.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250909370704/en/

Mark Bechter, SVP Head of Medical Affairs

"I am thrilled to join the Avanzanite team and contribute to our ethos of uncovering potential and setting new standards to make a lasting difference in the lives of rare disease patients," said Dr. Bechter. "I am particularly excited to be part of a company where my personal values and those of the corporation align so perfectly."

Having graduated from the University of Southampton's Medical School, Mark's career began as an anaesthetist and intensive care specialist. He later applied his expertise in the rare disease biotechnology industry across medical affairs, medical operations, clinical development, registry design, safety monitoring, patient advocacy and strategic regulatory affairs in more than 25 countries globally, including most European nations. He has built high-performing teams in both start-ups and multinational corporations such as Kiniksa, Aeglea, Baxter Healthcare, Amicus, Synageva, Chiesi and Novartis, supporting the launch of more than 10 rare disease medicines across multiple therapeutic areas, including rare haematology, autoimmune, and genetic and metabolic diseases.

"We are delighted to welcome Mark to our leadership team," said Adam Plich, Founder and CEO of Avanzanite. "His experience in building and guiding medical teams across countries, regions, and globally, will be instrumental in achieving our 2032 vision of delivering life-changing rare disease medicines to patients across Europe with a catalogue of at least 10 transformative therapies. Mark will help us attain our objectives and be part of defining a new blueprint for rare disease product launches and patient access across Europe, while creating value for alliance partners and investors."

In his role, Dr. Bechter will oversee all medical and scientific functions, including medical education, thought leader engagement, scientific communication, investigator-sponsored studies, evidence generation and medical information. Based in the UK, he will provide leadership and strategic direction across Europe, ensuring operational excellence and alignment with regulatory and ethical standards.

At first Dr. Bechter will drive execution in three rare disease areas ophthalmology, renal and blood disorders covering 32 countries in Europe and collaborating closely with local medical teams, healthcare professionals and scientific thought leaders as well as alliance partners. Dr. Bechter will also structure Avanzanite's medical organisation to support the company's next phase of international partnerships, product launches and strategic expansion.

Dr. Bechter joins as Avanzanite triples revenue in the first half of 2025 vs H1 2024 and accelerates European expansion. The results prove its breakthrough market-entry model and reinforce Avanzanite's promise: no patient left behind.

About Avanzanite Bioscience

Avanzanite is redefining launches of rare disease medicines across Europe. Founded in 2022 and based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the company partners with biotech innovators to unlock the full commercial value of orphan medicines continent-wide. With our deep expertise in market access, we navigate Europe's complex landscape like master chess players ensuring no patient is left behind while delivering measurable impact and growth opportunities for alliance partners.

For more information, visit www.avanzanite.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250909370704/en/

Contacts:

Avanzanite Bioscience B.V.

Phone: +31 20 301 21 13

Email: media@avanzanite.com

Website: www.avanzanite.com
Galderma marks the 10 th anniversary of its premium medical skincare brand Alastin with the launch of four core products in China, each formulated to support the skin's natural regenerative abilities to help with skin recovery before and after aesthetic procedures 1,2

anniversary of its premium medical skincare brand Alastin with the launch of four core products in China, each formulated to support the skin's natural regenerative abilities to help with skin recovery before and after aesthetic procedures This is the first launch to feature Alastin's new packaging and builds on its strong growth in key markets including the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom

As the demand for perioperative skincare accelerates, this expansion shows Galderma's commitment to delivering science-backed products that drive superior outcomes for even more patients3-6

Galderma (SIX: GALD) today announced the launch of four core Alastin products in China, marking the premium medical skincare brand's debut in one of the world's fastest growing aesthetic skincare markets.6-8 This is the first launch to feature Alastin by Galderma's new re-energized, premium look and feel, a bold evolution that reflects its leadership in perioperative skincare.

Alastin offers full-spectrum care for patients undergoing aesthetic procedures, from pre-treatment preparation to post-treatment recovery and at-home maintenance, supporting the skin's natural regenerative abilities to improve overall skincare results.1,2,9-13 With over 50 global dermatological publications and 22 patents, Alastin is strongly backed by science and is the number one peri-procedural skincare brand in the United States.14-16 This launch follows the strong growth of Alastin in other key markets and demonstrates Galderma's commitment to addressing the needs of patients with science-backed solutions.

"With Alastin by Galderma, we have a comprehensive perioperative solution to enhance skin recovery around aesthetic treatment and maintenance programs that bring together Galderma's leading expertise in Dermatological Skincare and Injectable Aesthetics. As the Asia-Pacific region's beauty and aesthetics market continues to grow at pace, we're proud to bring Alastin to patients in China who are seeking advanced solutions to support them in their aesthetic journeys."



ALAN D. WIDGEROW, MBBCH, MMED, FCS, FACS

CHIEF SCIENTIFIC OFFICER GALDERMA, HEAD SKIN SCIENCE

CENTER FOR INNOVATION, HEAD ALASTIN INNOVATIONS

Comprehensive perioperative solutions addressing growing needs

Four core Alastin products that cover all stages of the aesthetic treatment process will now be available in China, creating an integrated in-clinic and at-home skincare program:

Regenerating Skin Nectar to optimize visible treatment results 9

HA (Hyaluronic Acid) IMMERSE Serum to hydrate and support skin barrier repair 10

INhance Serum helps to enable quicker recovery after treatment with injectables, improving the appearance of the skin post-injection 11

Restorative Skin Complex to support aesthetic treatment results by helping to reduce the visible signs of aging12

This comprehensive perioperative series of regenerative skincare products advances aesthetic treatments from isolated procedures to full-spectrum management.1,2,9-12 It reflects Galderma's holistic approach to aesthetic care working across its Dermatological Skincare and Injectable Aesthetics portfolios to ensure that products complement each other, delivering seamless, science-backed solutions that elevate patient outcomes.1,2,9-13 Select products are powered by proprietary TriHex Technology to further enhance skin regeneration and recovery.1,2,13

China's medical aesthetics market is experiencing remarkable growth, and is projected to increase by up to 15% in the next decade.17 As aesthetic treatments become increasingly mainstream there is rising demand for perioperative skincare, with consumers willing to invest in advanced technologies and premium products to achieve optimal aesthetic outcomes.3-6,17 With its proven efficacy and full-spectrum approach to pre- and post-procedure care, as well as at-home maintenance, Alastin by Galderma is uniquely positioned to address this need.1,2,6-9

"We're seeing an incredible rise in demand for aesthetic procedures in China, and with that comes a growing need for effective perioperative skincare. Alastin by Galderma brings a scientifically advanced approach to skin recovery, and I'm excited to see Chinese patients gain access to products that can truly support their skin before and after treatment, and elevate their overall results."



PROFESSOR YANG BIN

DERMATOLOGY HOSPITAL OF SOUTHERN MEDICAL UNIVERSITY

CHINA

This launch marks ten years of pioneering innovation with Alastin, demonstrating Galderma's commitment to purposeful growth with the brand's refreshed premium look and feel, and entry into one of the fastest growing aesthetic skincare markets. Following strong growth in North America, Latin America, Australia, and the U.K. Ireland, Alastin is now undergoing rapid international expansion, offering its premium products to even more patients. By identifying emerging patient needs and delivering science-backed solutions, Galderma continues to shape the future of dermatology and elevate outcomes across the aesthetic journey.

About Galderma

Galderma (SIX: GALD) is the pure-play dermatology category leader, present in approximately 90 countries. We deliver an innovative, science-based portfolio of premium flagship brands and services that span the full spectrum of the fast-growing dermatology market through Injectable Aesthetics, Dermatological Skincare and Therapeutic Dermatology. Since our foundation in 1981, we have dedicated our focus and passion to the human body's largest organ the skin meeting individual consumer and patient needs with superior outcomes in partnership with healthcare professionals. Because we understand that the skin we are in shapes our lives, we are advancing dermatology for every skin story. For more information: www.galderma.com.

References 1. Widgerow AD, et al. Extracellular Matrix Modulation: Optimizing Skin Care and Rejuvenation Procedures. J Drugs Dermaol. 2016;15(Suppl 4):s63-71. 2. Widgerow AD, et al. Preoperative Skin Conditioning: Extracellular Matrix Clearance and Skin Bed Preparation, A New Paradigm. Aesthetic Surgery Journal 2019;39(Suppl 3):s103-11. doi:10.1093/asj/sjz022 3. Guidepoint Qsight. From Gen Z to GLP-1s: Trends Reshaping the Medical Aesthetics Industry. Accessed September 2025. Available online. 4. Verified Market Reports. Preoperative Skin Preparation Market. Accessed September 2025. Available online. 5. PW Consulting Health Care Research Center. Post Procedure Skin Care Product Market. Accessed September 2025. Available online. 6. Kwon SH, et al. Experiences and attitudes toward aesthetic procedures in East Asia: a cross-sectional survey of five geographical regions. Arch Plast Surg. 2021;48(6):660-669. doi: 10.5999/aps.2020.02565. 7. Fortune Business Insights. China Skincare Market Size, Share Industry Analysis. Accessed September 2025. Available online. 8. Mordor Intelligence. China Cosmetic Products Market Size Share Analysis Growth Trends Forecasts (2025 2030). Accessed September 2025. Available online. 9. Alastin. Regenerating Skin Nectar with TriHex Technology. Accessed September 2025. Available online. 10. Alastin. HA (Hyaluronic Acid) IMMERSE Serum. Accessed September 2025. Available online. 11. Alastin. INhance Post-Injection Serum with TriHex Technology. Accessed September 2025. Available online. 12. Alastin. Restorative Skin Complex with TriHex Technology. Accessed September 2025. Available online. 13. Lee WW, et al. A Multi-Center Evaluation of Restorative Eye Treatment and INhance With Trihex Technology to Improve Aesthetic Outcomes When Used Pre- and Post-Blepharoplasty. Aesthet Surg J Open Forum. 2022 Dec 14;5:ojac089. doi: 10.1093/asjof/ojac089. 14. Galderma. Data on File. Alastin Publication List. 15. Galderma. Data on File. Alastin Patent List. 16. Galderma. Data on File. LifeSci Consulting Primary Market Research. 2022. 17. Chameleon Pharma. China's Dynamic Aesthetic Medicine Market: Outlook, Trends, and Opportunities. Accessed September 2025. Available online.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250909403223/en/

Contacts:

For further information:



Christian Marcoux, M.Sc.

Chief Communications Officer

christian.marcoux@galderma.com

+41 76 315 26 50



Richard Harbinson

Corporate Communications Director

richard.harbinson@galderma.com

+41 76 210 60 62



Celine Buguet

Franchises and R&D Communications Director

celine.buguet@galderma.com

+41 76 249 90 87



Emil Ivanov

Head of Strategy, Investor Relations, and ESG

emil.ivanov@galderma.com

+41 21 642 78 12



Jessica Cohen

Investor Relations and Strategy Director

jessica.cohen@galderma.com

+41 21 642 76 43
Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois--(Newsfile Corp. - September 10, 2025) - Dog Bite Laws announced Managing Partner Michael Agruss has been named a 2025 Super Lawyer and a 2025 Elite Lawyer, marking the seventh straight year he has received Super Lawyer recognition and the fourth year he has earned Elite Lawyer honors. These distinctions reflect Dog Bite Laws leadership in personal injury and consumer protection law, reinforcing its reputation as a trusted resource for those seeking an Illinois Dog Bite Lawyer.

Dog Bite Laws' Founder, Michael Agruss, Earns 2025 Super Lawyer and Elite Lawyer Honors

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The recognition of Agruss by Super Lawyers and Elite Lawyer shows the firm's consistent performance and influence in Illinois and beyond. His inclusion on the Super Lawyers list, reserved for the top attorneys in each field, follows a comprehensive peer review and independent evaluation. Elite Lawyer similarly honors attorneys who demonstrate exceptional skill and experience in their practice areas.

Dog Bite Laws focuses on representing clients in personal injury matters, including dog bite cases. By serving individuals who need an Illinois Dog Bite Lawyer, the firm has become an advocate for those navigating difficult legal challenges. These national honors highlight the firm's continued impact on the legal community and its ability to meet clients' evolving needs.

Building on years of results-driven representation, Dog Bite Laws regularly handles cases involving dog attacks and other personal injury claims throughout Illinois and in multiple states. The firm combines extensive litigation experience with an accessible, client-focused approach to ensure injured individuals receive direct support and legal guidance.

Clients working with Dog Bite Laws benefit from direct access to Agruss, who remains actively involved in their cases from start to finish. This personalized attention, coupled with a track record of favorable outcomes, reinforces the firm's reputation for effective representation and clear communication in complex personal injury cases.

The recognition of Dog Bite Laws as a repeat honoree by both Super Lawyers and Elite Lawyer reflects its ability to deliver consistent results while maintaining high professional standards. These achievements affirm the firm's commitment to advancing personal injury law and protecting the rights of injured individuals across Illinois and nationwide.

Dog Bite Laws' Founder, Michael Agruss, Earns 2025 Super Lawyer and Elite Lawyer Honors

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About Dog Bite Laws

Dog Bite Laws is a personal injury law firm based in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois. It focuses on consumer protection and injury claims, including dog bite cases. The firm represents clients throughout Illinois and the United States, emphasizing responsive communication, litigation experience, and client-focused representation.

About Michael Agruss

Michael Agruss is an attorney and founder of Dog Bite Laws. Recognized as a 2025 Super Lawyer and 2025 Elite Lawyer, he is nationally known for his work in personal injury and consumer protection law, including representation in dog bite cases. Agruss has been honored by Super Lawyers since 2019 and Elite Lawyer since 2022.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/262327

SOURCE: Plentisoft
South Florida, Florida--(Newsfile Corp. - September 10, 2025) - Irene's Website Design, a leading provider of custom web design solutions for small businesses in South Florida, is excited to announce the expansion of its service offerings. The company now includes mobile application development and advanced digital marketing solutions as part of its comprehensive suite of services aimed at helping small businesses grow and succeed in the digital age.

Irene's Website Design Expands Service Offerings to Include Mobile App Development and Advanced Digital Marketing Solutions

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New Services to Empower Local Businesses

The addition of mobile app development and digital marketing is a natural progression for Irene's Website Design, which has been delivering exceptional web design and branding solutions for local businesses since its founding. With mobile-first design becoming increasingly important, the new service offerings will help clients reach a wider audience and enhance their digital presence across multiple platforms.

"We are thrilled to expand our services to include mobile app development and advanced digital marketing," said Irene Namer, Founder of Irene's Website Design. "As businesses continue to rely more on mobile platforms and digital marketing strategies, we are committed to providing our clients with the tools they need to succeed."

Innovative and Customized Digital Solutions

With a foundation built on technical expertise and creative design, Irene's Website Design has always prioritized understanding the unique needs of its clients. The company's new offerings will continue to follow this philosophy, ensuring that every mobile app and marketing campaign is tailored to meet the specific goals and objectives of each business.

Irene's Website Design Expands Service Offerings to Include Mobile App Development and Advanced Digital Marketing Solutions

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A Vision for Continued Growth

Looking ahead, Irene's Website Design plans to further expand its service offerings, including cutting-edge e-commerce solutions and data analytics services, positioning itself as a one-stop-shop for businesses looking to thrive in the digital marketplace.

About Irene's Website Design

Irene's Website Design specializes in creating custom websites, logos, business cards, and now mobile apps and digital marketing campaigns for small businesses throughout South Florida. With a focus on personalized service and cutting-edge technology, the company helps businesses achieve their digital goals with high-quality, innovative solutions.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/264262

SOURCE: Plentisoft
Marley Spoon reported Q2 results that clearly underline the decisive shift towards profitability, despite ongoing headwinds on the top line. Q2 EBIT stood at  1.6m, an improvement of  4.8m yoy, marking the strongest quarterly performance in company history and extending its streak to seven consecutive quarters of positive operating EBITDA. At the same time, the company continues to grapple with declining revenues as net sales decreased by 21.6% yoy to  64.2m. The decline reflects both, the deliberate pullback in marketing expenses (-49% yoy) and the divestment of Chefgood in Australia. While this strategy depresses growth in the near term, it aligns with management's focus on profitability and returns on invested capital.

The underlying operational metrics highlight a more robust business model emerging from these strategic changes. The group's contribution margin improved to 37.6%, up 2.9pp, while operating EBITDA margin rose 6.5pp to 7.8%. These improvements stemmed from tighter cost control, reduced marketing intensity, and efficiency gains across the supply chain. G&A expenses fell by 18.9%, equivalent to  3.5m in savings. Net income approached breakeven at a  0.6m loss, reflecting the operational leverage achieved. Importantly, customer engagement remained strong despite lower acquisition spend, with average order frequency up 5.4% and average order value rising 5.8%.

Regional performance illustrates the benefits of disciplined cost management. The US, Marley Spoon's largest market, reported revenues of  34.2m, down 24.6% yoy, but delivered significant margin expansion with contribution margin at 42.4% (+5.5pp yoy) and operating EBITDA margin at 18.1%. Australia posted revenues of  24.1m, down 17.8% yoy, yet achieved record profitability with an operating EBITDA margin of 15.5%, helped by higher order values and a broader product mix. Europe, though smallest in scale with revenues of  5.8m, turned profitable with an operating EBITDA margin of 5.1%, reflecting efficiency gains under the single-brand strategy.

Cash flow remains a constraint, with operating cash burn of  2.6m, albeit an improvement of  2.4m yoy. The quarter closed with a cash balance of  5.2m, underscoring the need for continued capital discipline as the company balances growth ambitions with financial sustainability. With over  75m of financial debt and close to  12m in annual interest obligations, management needs to reach a sustainable long-term agreement with its lenders.

BUY with an unchanged  1.00 PT based on DCF.

ISIN: LU2380748603
Partnership spans three regions, positioning Swixx as a strong player in CNS therapy area

Builds on global pharma trend of outsourcing access and commercialization in the emerging markets

Underscores Swixx scale in Latam and leverages Swixx entry into Israeli and Turkish markets

BAAR, Switzerland, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Swixx BioPharma AG, a global commercial platform dedicated to unlocking access to innovative medicines worldwide, and its affiliates and affiliated companies, announces today the signature of Distribution and Services Agreements with H. Lundbeck A/S. Under the Agreements, Swixx is appointed to distribute and commercialize the entire portfolio of Lundbeck across selected markets in the three regions: South-East Europe (SEE including Israel and Russia), Turkey and Latin America.

The partnership is designed as a full-service support to all Central Nervous System (CNS) products currently marketed by Lundbeck across the territory, aligned with specifics of each market. This includes medicines for the treatment of psychiatric disorders such as major depressive episodes and schizophrenia, as well as a novel therapy for the prophylaxis of migraine. Swixx will also support patient and physician access to Lundbeck's mature portfolio, including several well-known medicines.

Jean-Michel Lespinasse, CEO of Swixx, commented: "We are truly honored to be selected by Lundbeck as strategic partner across 3 regions. This decision reflects the broader shift we see across the pharma industry, where outsourcing in the emerging markets is becoming a strategic direction for future growth. This partnership is truly transformative for Swixx. First, its multiregional span across three key geographies allows us to operate at a new scale. Second, it positions us as a strong player in the CNS therapeutic area. Third, it enables us to create new positions for those Lundbeck employees that wish to continue their career with Swixx. We will on-board new talent while retaining the valuable know-how that will ensure a smooth transition and full business continuity. Indeed, this partnership illustrates how local and therapeutic expertise, combined with transition know-how can open up new multi-regional opportunities. We see this as a unique precedent and benchmark as to how outsourcing can be used not just operationally, but as a strategic model delivering long-term value."

Dr. Dezso Martha, COO of Swixx's European markets, added: "Lundbeck has built a well-established and long-standing presence in the CNS space, and we are proud to carry that legacy forward. To strengthen our ability to support this strategic partnership, we will establish a dedicated CNS Business Unit within the Swixx organization." Dr. Marek Vasicek, COO of International markets / Expansion, continued: "This partnership strengthens our international footprint and supports our ambition to grow both novel and mature portfolios. We are excited to bring Lundbeck's therapies to more patients, leveraging our commercial platform and local expertise for seamless continuity and expansion." Pascal Forget, Executive Regional General Manager LATAM, added: "This partnership covers key territories across LATAM, including four strategic markets of Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Mexico. It further strengthens our leadership in the CNS space across the region. In addition, by welcoming new Lundbeck talents into our organization, we aim to enrich our collective expertise and accelerate growth in the CNS domain."

Charl van Zyl, President and CEO of Lundbeck, commented: "I am pleased that we have announced a key partnership with Swixx. After careful consideration, we chose Swixx for their strong regional presence, proven expertise, and cultural alignment with our values. We are confident they will be an excellent representative for Lundbeck in ensuring and expanding access for patients to our medicines."

About H. Lundbeck A/S

Lundbeck is a biopharmaceutical company focusing exclusively on brain health. With more than 70 years of experience in neuroscience, we are committed to improving the lives of people with neurological and psychiatric diseases.

Brain disorders affect a large part of the world's population, and the effects are felt throughout society. With the rapidly improving understanding of the biology of the brain, we hold ourselves accountable for advancing brain health by curiously exploring new opportunities for treatments.

As a focused innovator, we strive for our research and development programs to tackle some of the most complex neurological challenges. We develop transformative medicines targeting people for whom there are few or no treatments available, expanding into neuro-specialty and neuro-rare from our strong legacy within psychiatry and neurology.

We are committed to fighting stigma and we act to improve health equity. We strive to create long term value for our shareholders by making a positive contribution to patients, their families and society as a whole.

Lundbeck has approximately 5,700 employees in more than 50 countries and our products are available in more than 80 countries. For additional information, we encourage you to visit our corporate site and connect with us via LinkedIn.

About Swixx Group

Swixx Group is one of the largest commercialization platforms representing the portfolio of pharmaceutical companies in those markets in which they choose not to enter or decide to exit. Swixx Group of companies and affiliates operates across multiple countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Greece, Eurasia and several CIS countries, the Middle East and Latin America. With presence in 46 countries, more than 1,700 employees and sales which exceeded 1.2 billion Euros in 2024, the Group is one of the fastest-growing independent commercialization platforms for biopharma globally. Swixx has gathered outstanding rare disease, oncology-hematology, specialty, vaccines and self-medication talent under one roof. For more information about Swixx, please visit: www.swixxbiopharma.com.

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Original-Research: ATOSS Software SE - from NuWays AG



10.09.2025 / 09:00 CET/CEST

Dissemination of a Research, transmitted by EQS News - a service of EQS Group.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this research. The result of this research does not constitute investment advice or an invitation to conclude certain stock exchange transactions.



Classification of NuWays AG to ATOSS Software SE Company Name: ATOSS Software SE ISIN: DE0005104400 Reason for the research: Update Recommendation: BUY from: 10.09.2025 Target price: EUR 152.00 Target price on sight of: 12 months Last rating change: Analyst: Philipp Sennewald

Quality comes at a price



Topic: While we already published our first piece on ATOSS, reviewing the company's H1 report, this report aims to provide a broader introduction into the investment case. ATOSS stands out as a pure-play on workforce management software (WFM), a segment increasingly critical amid talent scarcity, rising labor costs, complex regulation, and growing union influence. Despite these pressures, many firms in the DACH region, ATOSS' core market, still operate with outdated, mostly Excel-based or manual systems - thus leaving significant efficiency potential untapped. ATOSS addresses this need with a comprehensive, cloud-native WFM platform spanning time & attendance, shift planning, and algorithm-driven scheduling, all fully compliant with local labor regulations. This combination of functionality and regulatory expertise sets ATOSS apart: smaller domestic rivals struggle to match its breadth, while international WFM vendors often lack the depth of local compliance knowledge. The result is a loyal blue-chip customer base and consistently high gross retention rates of >96%. In recent years, the business model of ATOSS has successfully transitioned from perpetual licenses to recurring subscriptions. In H1'25, cloud and subscription revenues increased 30% yoy to  44.1m, representing 48% of total sales (+8pp yoy). Total recurring revenues (cloud + mainentance) reached  64.0m, or 70% of group sales. With a current cloud backlog of 96.9m and ARR of  130.1m (+19% yoy), earnings visibility remains exceptionally strong. Beyond its DACH stronghold, ATOSS is rolling out into France, Benelux, and other non-DACH countries - markets offering the company an estimated  400m ARR potential (eNuW). In parallel, upselling within the existing customer base remains a key growth lever, with adoption often expanding from partial use to 80-100% of available modules across the customer lifecycle. In sum, revenues are seen to grow at a 13% CAGR into FY27e. Strong current trading. After FY24 marked another record year with sales up 13% to  171m and EBIT up 22% to  63.4m (37% margin), momentum carried into H1'25 as sales increased 10% yoy to  92.1m and EBIT margin arrived at 34%. Mind you, the FY24 margin was temporarily elevated by unspent investment funds during the sales restructuring. For FY25, management guides c.  190m sales and an EBIT margin of at least 31%, which we regards as absolutely achievable. In the longer term, the highly scalable and capital-light setup should enable EBIT margins to approach 40% as well as ROICs of >70% (eNuW). Against this backdrop, we confirm our BUY rating with an unchanged  152 PT based on DCF.



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New alliance strengthens the IT channel in Germany and Switzerland in protecting business-critical SaaS data

Keepit, the world's only independent, cloud-native data protection, backup and recovery provider, has entered into a strategic go-to-market agreement in Germany and Switzerland with Ingram Micro, a leading business-to-business (B2B) platform company for the global technology ecosystem.

The aim of this cooperation is to further expand Keepit's market presence in Germany and Switzerland and to intensify the joint go-to-market strategy in these markets. Thanks to the new agreement, value-added resellers (VARs), managed service providers (MSPs) and managed security service providers (MSSPs) will gain access to Keepit's SaaS data protection solutions-supported by Ingram Micro's comprehensive channel know-how and platform expertise.

Ingram Micro will assist Keepit with marketing, sales and support of the Keepit portfolio and provide greater flexibility in purchasing and financing solutions that include Keepit's SaaS data security services.

"As a leading B2B platform company, Ingram Micro is a key enabler of our channel strategy in the DACH region," explains Cyril VanAgt, VP EMEA Channel at Keepit. "This new relationship enables us to make our vendor-agnostic SaaS data protection solution even more widely available and provides resellers, MSPs and MSSPs with a scalable, high-margin offering for their customers."

As a European provider, Keepit delivers its services entirely through European data centers. With its own datacenters in both Germany and Switzerland and complete independence from global hyperscalers, Keepit's backup and recovery solution ensures that organizations retain access to their data at all times-even if the original SaaS system is unavailable or data on the public clouds is seized. This is a critical contribution to data resilience in the context of European digital sovereignty.

"We are pleased to welcome Keepit and its vendor-agnostic cloud platform for SaaS data security as an addition to our growing network and security portfolio and to offer it to our partners as a strategic extension," said Britta Appel, Head of Category Software at Ingram Micro Germany. "Managed cyber security is an area of growing complexity and we are committed to providing partners with modern, reliable, and secure cloud solutions that meet today's data security and recovery requirements. Keepit takes a consistent approach to simplifying data protection and makes it easier for channel partners to reliably secure SaaS data."

Keepit Partner Network continues to support channel partners

Launched in January 2024, the Keepit Partner Network underscores Keepit's commitment to empowering resellers, MSPs and distributors through its "Partner Only" strategy. The Keepit Partner Network is active in North America, EMEA and ANZ.

To become a Keepit partner, contact the partner team at partner@keepit.com or visit keepit.com/partners/.

About Keepit

Keepit provides a next-level SaaS data protection platform purpose-built for the cloud. Securing data in a vendor-independent cloud safeguards essential business applications, boosts cyber resilience, and future-proofs data protection. Unique, separate, and immutable data storage with no sub-processors ensures compliance with local regulations and mitigates the impact of ransomware while guaranteeing continuous data access, business continuity, and fast and effective disaster recovery. Headquartered in Copenhagen with offices and data centers worldwide, more than 18,000 companies trust Keepit for its ease of use and effortless backup and recovery of cloud data.

For more information visit keepit.com or follow Keepit on LinkedIn

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250910727556/en/

Contacts:

RedIron PR for Keepit

Kari Ritacco

kari@redironpr.com
DSEI 2025 - Booth N8-210, Swedish Pavilion

LONDON, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Systecon is pleased to announce a new strategic partnership with Exence, a renowned provider of professional IT services and systems integration solutions in Poland and on the international defense domain. The partnership, officially launched during DSEI 2025 in London, appoints Exence as Systecon's exclusive representative for the Polish market, focusing on the implementation and support of Opus Suite, Systecon's world-leading platform for analysis-driven Life Cycle Management (LCM).

The collaboration marks a significant milestone for both companies. It highlights the growing importance of the Polish defense and industrial market, where there is an increasing demand for robust, interoperable, and cost-effective solutions to support the entire life cycle of complex systems.

"Poland is an important and growing market for us, and we are thrilled to strengthen our presence there through this partnership with Exence," says Anders Carlsson, CEO of Systecon. "Their extensive experience in defense programs, particularly in Integrated Product Support (IPS) and support to NATO nations and Ministries of Defence, aligns perfectly with Systecon's mission to optimize readiness, performance, and cost-efficiency for complex systems. Together, we are stronger, combining our proven analysis capabilities with Exence's implementation and integration expertise to deliver even more value to our customers."

Based in Kobierzyce, Poland, Exence brings a broad and deep understanding of defense operations, delivering secure architecture design and deployment, advanced monitoring and AI-based predictive maintenance capabilities, and full-spectrum IPS services. Their integration know-how and focus on secure architecture and interoperability are a perfect complement to Systecon's Opus Suite.

"This partnership is a natural fit. Exence and Systecon share the same values of precision, innovation, and customer focus," says Krzysztof Jungowski, Co-Founder and CEO at Exence. "Opus Suite is unmatched in its capabilities for maximizing mission readiness and operational performance, and optimizing support systems, and we are excited to bring its full potential to our customers in Poland and beyond. Together, we aim to enhance the effectiveness of defense programs and drive smarter decisions throughout the system life cycle."

Systecon's Opus Suite is the analysis platform of choice for many NATO countries and defense industry leaders worldwide. It enables data-driven decisions across all phases of system development and operations, from concept and acquisition to sustainment and retirement, ensuring optimized mission capability, readiness, and cost over time.

About Systecon

Systecon is a global leader in decision-support and analysis-driven life cycle management solutions for complex technical systems. With more than 50 years of experience, we combine advanced modeling, optimization, simulation, and cost analysis to help organizations make smarter, data-driven decisions throughout the entire system life cycle. Systecon's Opus Suite, a powerful analytics platform used worldwide, from defense to renewables to transport. We have the methodology, software platform, and experience to understand and influence the factors that affect the performance and costs of technical systems - e.g., aircraft, ships, trains, or wind turbines - and to optimize operations, system design, and maintenance solutions based on our customers' conditions and objectives.

Trusted by some of the world's most complex technology programs, Systecon enables clients to improve availability, cost efficiency, and mission readiness, empowering better decisions in every phase from concept to phase-out.

For more information, please visit https://www.systecongroup.com

About Exence

Based in Kobierzyce, Poland, Exence provides secure solution architecture design, development and delivery, including ground segment fixed and deployable core common services, health and security management and monitoring, and artificial intelligence-based predictive maintenance capabilities, with a strong focus on interoperability and open architecture. Exence provides professional services in the domain of Integrated Product Support and Technical Publications for NATO and national MoDs.

Learn more: https://exence.com

Media contact:

Mans Rutstrom

Senior Business Development

Phone: +46 726 488 474

E-mail: mans.rutstrom@systecongroup.com

Systecon welcomes you to the Swedish pavilion, Stand N8-210, at DSEI 2025. Discover how Opus Suite equips defence organisations with advanced analytics to deliver game-changing decision support throughout the product life cycle, maximising readiness, performance, and affordability.

Schedule a meeting in advance or stop by our stand to see our latest innovations in action.

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/systecon-ab/r/exence-and-systecon-announce-strategic-partnership-for-the-polish-market,c4230403

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https://mb.cision.com/Main/2556/4230403/3654739.pdf Exence and Systecon Announce Strategic Partnership for the Polish Market_Cision https://news.cision.com/systecon-ab/i/systecon-opus-suite-logo-red,c3467298 Systecon Opus suite logo-red https://news.cision.com/systecon-ab/i/anders-carlsson-ceo-systecon,c3467261 Anders Carlsson CEO Systecon https://news.cision.com/systecon-ab/i/krzysztof-jungowski-ceo-exence,c3467268 Krzysztof Jungowski CEO Exence

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Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 10, 2025) - Questcorp Mining Inc. (CSE: QQQ) (OTCQB: QQCMF) (FSE: D910) (the "Company" or "Questcorp") is pleased to provide an update on the Phase I drilling program at its La Union Gold and Silver project in northwest Sonora, Mexico. Drill holes have now been completed at two of the 4 target areas:

The initial hole was completed beneath the historic Union Mine itself, intersecting the favourable carbonaceous Clemente and Caborca formations, including the microconglomeratic carbonate unit which hosted mineralization at the bottom of the past producing Union Mine.

Drilling then shifted focus to the El Cobre Mine area and the Union Norte Mine area, testing vertical feeder zones above the Clemente formation dolomites and carbonaceous sandstones. Hole two intersected more quartzites than interpreted from the geophysics, with the quartzites carrying more extensive hematitic oxides, possibly indicative of oxide gold mineralization potentially related to sulfides which have been oxidized through supergene weathering.

Saf Dhillon, President and Chief Executive Officer, states: "The drilling is indicating oxidation is consistent with past mining and targets are coming along with a positive exploration drilling so far. The drilling is intersecting more quartzite than expected which is favorable for fracture-controlled mineralization. The Riverside operations team is progressing the current exploration program working with the surface rancher and the drilling company to efficiently progress a high-quality exploration program."

Drilling has now moved to the Famosa Target to progress exploration program. The Mexico Mining Ministry has approved many permits and are actively supporting the environmentally, socially conscious mineral exploration practices as a key aspect for the new Mexican government initiatives.

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by R. Tim Henneberry', P.Geo (BC) a Director of the Company and a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101.

About Questcorp Mining Inc.

Questcorp Mining is engaged in the business of the acquisition and exploration of mineral properties in North America, with the objective of locating and developing economic precious and base metals properties of merit. The company holds an option to acquire an undivided 100-per-cent interest in and to mineral claims totalling 1,168.09 hectares comprising the North Island copper property, on Vancouver Island, B.C., subject to a royalty obligation. The company also holds an option to acquire an undivided 100-per-cent interest in and to mineral claims totalling 2,520.2 hectares comprising the La Union project located in Sonora, Mexico, subject to a royalty obligation.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS,

Saf Dhillon

President & CEO

Suite 550, 800 West Pender Street

Vancouver, British Columbia

V6C 2V6.

Certain statements in this news release are forward-looking statements, which reflect the expectations of management regarding completion of survey work at the North Island Copper project. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those contained in the statements. No assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will occur or, if they do occur, what benefits the Company will obtain from them. Except as required by the securities disclosure laws and regulations applicable to the Company, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/265741

SOURCE: Questcorp Mining Inc.
Voltalia has reported a 14% cut in its Brazilian PV output in the first half of 2025. The company expects curtailment to stay near 12% to 15% until 2027 and ease from 2028.From pv magazine Brazil Voltalia said renewable curtailment in Brazil will remain high until 2027 - between 12% and 15% - and will be lower from 2028. CEO Robert Klein said the sector is seeking an agreement with the government to obtain compensation for energy not injected into the grid by order of the national network operator, although the company does not consider this in its plans. The French independent power producer ...

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
ANDOVER, England, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- CloudPay, the global leader in payroll and payment solutions, announced it has achieved a huge milestone in becoming fully certified across all five of Workday's Global Payroll Connect (GPC) features. The certification marks a significant advancement in global payroll integration, offering multinational organisations the latest tech-led unified, real-time payroll experience.

Ahead of the Workday Rising summit on September 15-18 in San Francisco, CloudPay has announced the 5-star certification and unveiled the full availability of Workday's GPC suite across 110 countries, which provides a single source of truth for global payroll customers.

Launch of the latest feature, DCOD, enables customers to synchronize data changes in real-time across payroll and the HCM, creating unprecedented 'single source of truth' views and accelerated deployments. From obtaining local payroll information directly in a single step through Additional Payroll Data (APD) to industry-leading visibility of key payroll data via the Global Payroll Hub (GPH), GPC allows payroll teams to gain greater control over every cycle, with 80% fewer follow-ups and faster payroll close.

CloudPay has been Workday's trusted partner for more than a decade, providing seamless, feature-rich payroll integrations that simplify complex payroll challenges for multinational organisations. Through the combination of CloudPay's market-leading proprietary platform and Workday's advanced HCM capabilities, the strategic partnership enables customers to benefit from a unified, end-to-end payroll experience tailored for global businesses. With over 2,500 Workday integrations and 175 mutual customers worldwide, GPC certification builds on CloudPay's market-leading, real-time payroll experience.

The clearest global payroll visibility and control yet

The launch of DCOD to more than 110 countries builds on the other GPC features, creating a centralised view of vendor activity via the Global Payroll Hub and employee-verified local data through APD. The evolution of its offering means customers will be able to benefit from unprecedented visibility of global payroll processes, and allows payroll teams to further cut manual efforts from error checking and additional runs, while improving data quality.

Roland Folz, CEO of CloudPay, comments:

"Payroll demands accuracy, transparency and agility. CloudPay continues to lead the rest of the market by offering Workday's full GPC suite, including the widest support for the new DCOD feature. We're utilizing the Three As: AI, APIs and automation, to bring the very best integration with Workday features to empower organisations to scale global payroll with confidence.

"CloudPay is redefining what real-time, single-source-of-truth payroll looks like inside Workday, and the certification will allow for further streamlining of complex, multi-country payroll processes into one intuitive Workday interface.

"Ultimately, the certification and ever-strengthening partnership with Workday open up a huge range of possibilities for businesses to significantly scale up productivity and efficiency and better leverage the potential that their pay functions can offer. Our emerging, tech-backed solutions are helping to bring payroll forward from the back office, and convert its outputs and value into a true strategic advantage for businesses"

Workday Rising attendees can see the GPC suite live at Booth D40

Contact: Vickie Collinge, vickie@bluesky-pr.com

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/a-new-milestone-in-efficiency-transparency-and-control-cloudpay-fully-certified-on-workdays-global-payroll-connect-suite-302551545.html
NATO DIANA will leverage Strider's strategic intelligence as economic security tool

LONDON, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Strider Technologies, Inc. the leading provider of strategic intelligence, today announced its new partnership with NATO's Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA).

Under this partnership, Strider will deliver its economic security capabilities to aid NATO DIANA in identifying contractual and supply chain risks from strategic competitors as set out in the NATO 2022 Strategic Concept. Strider's strategic intelligence will also be used to evaluate the risk from entities and people wishing to join and collaborate in the DIANA defence innovation ecosystem.

"NATO's Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic is building a dynamic ecosystem of innovators, entrepreneurs, and mentors whose contributions are essential to the Alliance's security," said Eric Levesque, Co-Founder and COO of Strider Technologies. "Ensuring this ecosystem is both trusted and resilient is vital to scaling the cutting-edge innovations that will shape NATO's future capabilities. By combining NATO's internal due diligence with Strider's strategic intelligence, we are enabling DIANA to adopt and accelerate breakthrough technologies with confidence, while safeguarding the integrity of the institutions, companies, and people driving this progress. This partnership reflects our shared commitment to advancing defence innovation at speed and scale, anchored in trust across the Alliance."

About NATO DIANA

DIANA is a NATO organisation with a mission to locate and accelerate dual-use innovation across the Alliance, and accelerate adoption of those technologies by NATO countries, to strengthen overall Alliance security.

About Strider

Strider is the leading strategic intelligence company empowering organisations to secure and advance their technology and innovation. Leveraging cutting-edge AI technology alongside proprietary methodologies, Strider transforms publicly available data into critical insights. This enhanced intelligence enables organisations to proactively address and respond to risks associated with state-sponsored intellectual property theft, targeted talent acquisition, and third-party partners. Strider has operations in 15 countries around the globe with offices in Salt Lake City, Utah; Washington, DC; London; Tokyo; and Sydney.

Contact : media@striderintel.com

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/strider-technologies-announces-partnership-with-natos-defence-innovation-accelerator-302551408.html
Contract Advances Development of Next-Generation RTC 2 and Strengthens Role in Integrated Air Defense Systems

LONDON, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- At the DSEI Conference today, Galleon Embedded Computing ("Galleon"), a business unit of Spectra Defense Technologies ("Spectra"), announced it has been awarded a multi-million-dollar contract by Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace ("Kongsberg") for the initial production of its Realtime Computer XSR RTC Version 2 ("RTC 2").



The advanced RTC 2 solution will be integrated into the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System ("NASAMS"), one of the world's most widely deployed and field-proven air defense systems. The contract includes the delivery of a significant numbers of RTC 2 units and represents a major step forward in Galleon's strategic partnership with Kongsberg.

"This contract with Kongsberg represents a strategic win not just for Galleon, but for the entire Spectra team," said Ray Munoz, CEO of Spectra Defense Technologies. "The RTC 2 exemplifies our focus on innovation, interoperability, and mission-readiness, and we're honored to play a critical role in one of the world's premier air defense platforms. This program positions us strongly for future modernization efforts across U.S. and allied defense ecosystems."

"This award further deepens our longstanding relationship with Kongsberg and reinforces Galleon's position as a trusted provider of resilient, mission-critical solutions needed for today's evolving threat landscapes," said Erlend Myland, CEO of Galleon Embedded Computing. "It's a testament to the professionalism, preparation, and unity of the entire Galleon team, and these new orders mark a significant step forward in our strategic growth roadmap."

Built on Galleon's battle-tested XSR product family, the RTC 2 is engineered for real-time performance, rugged reliability, and seamless integration into existing and future defense architectures. Designed for long lifecycle support, RTC 2 aligns with evolving NATO and U.S. mission requirements and is tailored for deployment in the most demanding operational environments.

About Galleon Embedded Computing

Galleon Embedded Computing (Galleon), a business unit of Spectra Defense Technologies, is a leader in rugged, high performance mission systems designed for the most demanding operational environments. Our expansive portfolio of data recorders, servers, network-attached storage, and edge computing solutions are configurable, lifecycle tested and certified for secure and reliable performance. Combining proven technical expertise with differentiated customer understanding, Galleon delivers mission ready systems that provide enduring value across a full lifecycle of defense platforms.

About Spectra Defense Technologies

Spectra Defense Technologies (Spectra) is a global provider of leading C5ISR solutions for aerospace and defense customers. With over 30 years of proven performance and differentiated expertise, we deliver fully integrated mission systems, data recorders, secure networking, edge computing, robust data-at-rest encryption and advanced visualization that capture, process, and display mission-critical data across air, land, sea, and space. Backed by engineering, sales, and production teams in North America and Europe, Spectra combines global reach with agile innovation to meet evolving end-user needs with speed and precision. Guided by a culture of innovation and deep customer partnership, we build enduring trust through open-architecture designs, technical excellence, and resilient systems designed to meet today's mission needs and anticipate tomorrow's demands for the U.S. DoD, NATO, European defense organizations, and allied partners worldwide. Visit spectradefense.tech to learn more.

Contact:

Evangela Rodgers

Spectra Defense Technologies

evangela.rodgers@Spectra-Aerodef.com
HELSINKI (dpa-AFX) - Finland's industrial production declined at the steepest pace in more than a year in July amid a renewed contraction in the manufacturing sector, figures from Statistics Finland showed on Wednesday. Industrial output dropped 4.2 percent year-over-year in July, reversing a 0.5 percent increase in June. Further, this was the fastest decrease since May 2024, when production shrank 6.3 percent. Among sectors, manufacturing output fell 4.3 percent compared to last year, which was the first decline in five months. Production in the utility sector decreased further by 6.0 percent, while the mining and quarrying output rebounded sharply by 19.0 percent. On a monthly basis, industrial production fell 1.8 percent versus a 0.8 percent drop in June. Copyright(c) 2025 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
HONG KONG, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- At the AVPN Global Conference 2025 in Hong Kong, Dr Priti Adani, Chairperson of the Adani Foundation, delivered a stirring appeal to philanthropists, businesses and changemakers: 'Don't just give. Build together.'

In her keynote, Dr Adani emphasized that the next leap for social development depends on collaboration and on bringing every philanthropic institution, NGO and partner onto a single platform where efforts are aligned, learnings are shared and impact is multiplied. Dr Adani reminded the audience that the true strength of philanthropy is not in isolated contributions but in unified action. "We must be co-builders, not just donors. Real change happens when we work as partners - pooling resources and breaking down silos."

She called for a collaboration platform where philanthropists across the world can move beyond numbers, focusing instead on the human stories of dignity, resilience and transformation, saying, "Impact is never about numbers. It is about the stories behind them - stories of hope, transformation and empowerment."

"Dr. Priti Adani's keynote was a powerful call to bold action," said Ms Naina Subberwal Batra, CEO of AVPN. "She reminded us that we need to act, even amidst uncertainty and to invest in solutions to build the foundations for a sustainable and equitable future for Asia. At AVPN, we echo this call for action. Philanthropy must stay the course and unite diverse stakeholders so that together, we can turn conviction into action and build systems that withstand the test of time and uncertainty."

Dr Priti Adani outlined three non-negotiables for this shared movement:

Co-Building: Every partner comes not as a donor, but as a builder of lasting change.

Multipliers, Not Beneficiaries: The true measure of impact is not in what we give, but in how we extend our beneficiaries as multipliers of change.

Uniting Skills with Values: Skills without values are buildings without foundations. Unite them - and you build generations."

Dr Adani declared, "This is not a moment to clap. It is a moment to commit! We must be the generation that sowed in the drought, that believed before the rains came, that built a harvest of dignity and opportunity for all."

Closing her address, Dr Adani urged the gathering to go beyond symbolic gestures and to actively collaborate, learn from one another, share best practices and inspire each other to aim higher.

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2769735/AVPN_Global_Conference_2025.jpg

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Four of our Wealth Advisors have been honored on the 2025 list by Northern Virginia Magazine.

MCLEAN, VIRGINIA / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / Four members of the Centurion Wealth Management team have been recognized by Northern Virginia Magazine as Top Financial Professionals for 2025. This year's honorees are Sterling D. Neblett, CEPA, CFP; Wendy Ann Payne, CDFA, CEP; Mark C. McKaig, CRPC; and Darren L. Colananni, CFP, ChFC, CIMA, CPWA.

"It is a privilege to be recognized by my peers in the financial services community. I'm grateful to work alongside such a dedicated team and to serve our clients with care and commitment." - Darren L. Colananni, Senior Wealth Advisor

Sterling, Wendy, and Mark have each been honored nine times, while Darren is celebrating his third year of recognition. Their continued inclusion highlights the professional regard they have earned within the financial services community.

Northern Virginia Magazine compiles its annual list by distributing surveys to practicing financial professionals in the region, asking: "If your friends and family were seeking help from a financial professional, who would you recommend?" Honorees are vetted by the magazine's editorial staff before publication. While some winners may advertise in the magazine, advertising is separate from the award process and does not influence inclusion on the list.

To view the full list of honorees, including Centurion's team members, click here.

Centurion Wealth Management remains committed to providing independent financial guidance. The firm specializes in serving independent women, corporate executives, and entrepreneurs, helping them pursue their financial goals with confidence.

FOR MEDIA INQUIRIES AND MORE INFORMATION ABOUT CENTURION, PLEASE CONTACT CENTURION AT TEAM@CENTURIONWEALTH.COM OR DIRECTLY AT (571) 765-1890. INVESTMENT ADVISORY SERVICES ARE OFFERED THROUGH CENTURION WEALTH MANAGEMENT, LLC, A REGISTERED INVESTMENT ADVISER.

Important Disclosures:

This recognition was based on Northern Virginia Magazine's Top Financial Professionals peer survey of financial professionals in Northern Virginia (survey conducted March 10-31, 2025). Honorees were selected and announced to participants May 8, 2025, and the list was published in the September 2025 issue, available August 29, 2025. The award was prepared and tabulated by Northern Virginia Magazine. Centurion Wealth Management did not pay any fees to participate.

By clicking the link above, you will leave Centurion Wealth Management's website and enter a third-party site created, operated, and maintained by a different entity. Centurion Wealth Management does not verify, endorse, or imply any affiliation, sponsorship, or endorsement with the third party or its affiliates. The opinions expressed by the author(s) are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Centurion Wealth Management.

The statement above from Darren Colananni reflects the company's response to receiving the Northern Virginia Magazine Top Financial Professionals recognition. It is not a client testimonial or endorsement. The quote is intended to acknowledge the award and express appreciation, and should not be interpreted as a guarantee of future results or investment performance.

For detailed information about this recognition, including survey dates, methodology, and full award disclosures, please visit Centurion Wealth Management, LLC Award Disclosures

SOURCE: Centurion Wealth Management, LLC

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/banking-and-financial-services/team-members-of-centurion-wealth-named-top-financial-professionals-b-1069262
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 10, 2025) - Independence Gold Corp. (TSXV: IGO) (OTCQB: IEGCF) (the "Company" or "Independence") is pleased to announce updated metallurgical recovery results from the 3Ts Project. Located approximately 185 kilometres southwest of Prince George, British Columbia, the 3Ts Project comprises thirty-one mineral claims covering approximately 35,486 hectares in the Nechako Plateau region. The project is situated 16 km southwest of Artemis Gold Inc.'s Blackwater Mine and covers a low-sulphidation epithermal quartz-carbonate vein district within which at least nineteen known mineralized veins, ranging from 50 to over 1,100 metres in strike length and true widths of up to 32 m have been identified.

Metallurgical testing was conducted by Base Metallurgical Laboratories Ltd. in Kamloops, BC., and returned positive results that further confirmed previous metallurgical testing. These tests evaluated a three-stage process including gravity concentration, flotation, and cyanide leaching.

Sample Selection and Preparation

Composite samples comprised of mineralized vein material were collected from drill core recovered during the 2024 to 2025 program and were selected to test mineralized veins at depth as well as two new veins (Johnny and Larry) that were intersected during the recent drill program. The three tests were:

Tommy Vein "Deep" 3TS-24-27 from 361.39m to 429.96m*, including grades up to 13.46 g/t gold and 119.0 g/t silver (see news release dated January 20, 2025)

Johnny Vein System 3TS-25-05 from 13.59m to 85.50m*, including grades up to 19.95 g/t gold and 176.0 g/t silver (see news release dated March 20, 2025)

Larry Vein 3TS-27-07 from 179.00m to 198.40m*, including grades up to 20.36 g/t gold and 333 g/t silver (see news release dated March 26, 2025)



(* mineralized samples selected from interval rather than a complete run through these lengths)

Gravity, Floatation and Leaching Test Results

Composite samples were subjected to three testing stages; gravity, gravity and floatation, and gravity, floatation and cyanide leaching (see below for methodology and detailed results for each stage). On average across the three composites, the full flowsheet yields program-level averages of roughly 92% gold and 90% silver.

These results are consistent with, and in some cases approach or exceed, historical recoveries reported in 2021, which included 93.9% gold and 92.4% silver recovery for the Tommy Vein, and up to 97.9% gold and 95.5% silver recovery for the Ted-Mint Vein (see news release dated March 4, 2021). The recoveries further validate the potential processability of the 3Ts mineralized material across new veins and at depth.

The table below shows recoveries for the three-stage tests on each of the vein composites:



Tommy Vein Johnny Vein Larry Vein Total Gold Recovery Total Silver Recovery Total Gold Recovery Total Silver Recovery Total Gold Recovery Total Silver Recovery Gravity, Floatation and Leach Testing 91.9% 91.5% 89.5% 85.8% 95.5% 93.4%



"We are pleased to receive the latest results from the metallurgical testing," stated Randy Turner, President and CEO of Independence Gold. "These results give further confidence in previous recoveries conducted using vein material collected from the untested Larry and Johnny veins, as well as a Tommy vein sample that was taken at a significant depth. These results strengthen the viability of the 3Ts Project to support future resource growth and potential economic development."

Wildfire Update

Wildfire G41658 continues to burn out of control, with an evacuation order still in place affecting the 3Ts Project camp. This wildfire has grown to more than 2,100 hectares in size, with crews and heavy equipment creating fire breaks around the camp; structure protection is currently in place taking steps to protect both the camp and the two core storage areas.

About Independence

Independence Gold Corp. is a well-financed mineral exploration company with holdings ranging from early-stage grassroots exploration to advanced-stage resource expansion in British Columbia and Yukon. The Company is positioned to add shareholder value through systematic project advancement, while management continues to evaluate additional gold and silver projects for possible acquisition. For additional information, visit the Company's website www.ingold.ca.

Andy Randell, P.Geo., the Company's Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and who is an independent consultant for the Company, has reviewed the technical information in this news release.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF INDEPENDENCE GOLD CORP.

"Randy Turner"

Randy Turner, President and CEO

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Notes for Disclosure

All recoveries are based on bench-scale tests at 80% passing 100 m; gravity values refer to Mozley concentrate reporting from Knelson concentrate; leach extractions are 72-hr bottle rolls on gravity or final flotation tails, as applicable.

Averages are program-level (three composites) and rounded to one decimal place for readability. Potential optimization steps (e.g., pre-oxidation, oxygen sparging, CN dosage) were identified for future work.

Methodology

Approximately 100 kg of crushed (3.35 mm) material from the 3Ts Project was delivered to Base Metallurgical Laboratories and combined into three master composites for testing. The program evaluated two conventional flowsheets at a primary grind of 80% passing 100 m:

gravity concentration followed by cyanide leaching of the gravity tails; and

gravity concentration, flotation of the gravity tails, then cyanide leaching of the final flotation tails.

Gravity concentration used a Knelson concentrator with Mozley upgrade to produce a gravity concentrate and a gravity tail for downstream testing. Flotation was performed in a 4.4 L Denver D12 mechanical cell with air, using PAX 407 collector and MIBC frother at a pH of approximately 8.5. Cyanidation tests on appropriate tails were conducted at 40% solids with NaCN maintained at 1 g/L and pH 10.5-11 under air sparging, with monitoring to 72 hours.

For this testing the gravity concentrate, and flotation concentrate were assumed to be 100% extracted. Therefore, the overall extraction is based on a 100% assumed extraction for this stream.

Testing Results Per Stage

The following section shows results for composites during each stage of testing. The full metallurgical report will be available on the Independence Gold website.

Head Results:

The following table summarizes the assays results for both composite samples:

Sample Assays Au g/t Ag g/t Tommy Vein "Deep" 2.89 26.00 Johnny Vein 4.85 56.00 Larry Vein 4.75 91.00

Gravity Separation:

A stand-alone gravity step recovered a meaningful portion from each master composite. Gold and silver reporting to the Mozley concentrate were:

Composite 1 (Tommy Vein, Deep):

Composite 2 (Johnny Vein System):

Composite 3 (Larry Vein): 17.0% gold and 9.7% silver

8.3% gold and 4.4% silver

29.7% gold and 16.0% silver



Across all three composites, the program-level average gravity recovery was 17.4% gold and 8.6% silver.

Gravity and Leaching Tests:

Cyanidation leaching of the gravity tails was performed over a 72-hour process, which led to an overall increase in recoveries:

Composite 1 (Tommy Vein, Deep):

Composite 2 (Johnny Vein System):

Composite 3 (Larry Vein): 89.2% gold and 77.1% silver

86.7% gold and 75.3% silver

96.4% gold and 75.0% silver



Tommy Vein Johnny Vein Larry Vein Total Gold Recovery Total Silver Recovery Total Gold Recovery Total Silver Recovery Total Gold Recovery Total Silver Recovery Gravity Testing Only 14.9% 7.9% 8.3% 4.4% 29.7% 16.0% Gravity & Leach Testing 89.2% 77.1% 86.6% 75.3% 96.4% 75.0% Gravity, Floatation and Leach Testing 91.9% 91.5% 89.5% 85.8% 95.5% 93.4%

Drill Hole Information from this release

Drill Hole Easting Northing Elevation Azimuth* Dip Total Meterage 3TS-24-27 363859 5876772 1182 270 62 451 3TS-25-05 363044 5876910 1214 90 90 276 3TS-25-07 363940 5876982 1150 270 70 330



* All drill hole locations are in NAD83, Zone 10 Datum

**Based on true north. For magnetic declination add 17.5 degrees

All statements in this press release, other than statements of historical fact, are "forward-looking information" with respect to Independence within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including statements with respect to the Company's planned drilling and exploration activities. The Company provides forward-looking statements for the purpose of conveying information about current expectations and plans relating to the future and readers are cautioned that such statements may not be appropriate for other purposes. By its nature, this information is subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that may be general or specific and which give rise to the possibility that expectations, forecasts, predictions, projections or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that assumptions may not be correct and that objectives, strategic goals and priorities will not be achieved. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to those identified and reported in Independence's public filings under Independence Gold Corp.'s SEDAR profile at www.sedarplus.ca . Although Independence has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Independence disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise unless required by law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/265797

SOURCE: Independence Gold Corp
TESSAN is making waves at IFA Berlin 2025, unveiling its latest travel charging innovations and officially kicking off its ambitious "100 TESSAN Travelers" global campaign-a bold initiative designed to empower global explorers with the tools they need to stay connected anywhere in the world. With a focus on powering journeys and connecting people across the globe, TESSAN is inviting attendees to experience the future of travel tech-firsthand and up close.

TESSAN is showcasing its latest innovations at Hall 2.2, Booth 186, while also attracting significant media attention-including interviews with several major outlets and local broadcasters such as Berlin TV. Later in the evening, the company is welcoming distinguished guests to an exclusive VIP reception at the historic Orangerie Charlottenburg, one of Berlin's most iconic and culturally significant venues.

A Celebration of Innovation and Adventure

At the heart of Tessan's IFA showcase is the debut of the Voyager 205, the world's first universal travel adapter delivering a remarkable 205W of power enough to fast-charge high-performance laptops, tablets, and mobile devices simultaneously. Alongside it, the company will also introduce a new line of Power Banks featuring integrated cables and magnetic wireless charging, delivering a seamless charging experience with zero cable clutter.

In tandem with the product launch, Tessan is excited to reveal the "100 TESSAN Travelers" campaign a global initiative that will fund $500,000 in travel grants for 100 individuals worldwide. These selected travelers will share their journeys, adventures, and the role of technology in modern exploration, all powered by Tessan gear.

"The '100 TESSAN Travelers' campaign is more than just a marketing initiative-it's a movement," said Alex Yu, CEO of TESSAN. "We want to champion global curiosity, empower digital nomads, and make seamless connectivity a reality for all travelers."

Exclusive Evening Event A Night at the Orangerie

TESSAN is also hosting an exclusive VIP evening at the historic Orangerie Charlottenburg-an iconic Berlin venue known for its elegance and heritage. Guests will enjoy a gourmet dinner, fine wine, and live violin music, while engaging directly with TESSAN's leadership team in an intimate setting. The event offers early hands-on access to new products, including the Voyager 205, and a deeper look into the brand's global vision, innovation strategy, and newly launched "100 TESSAN Travelers" campaign.

Power Your Journey with TESSAN

At TESSAN, we believe that exploration should never be limited by connectivity. Join the movement. Travel smarter. Stay connected. Choose TESSAN.

About TESSAN

TESSAN is a global brand that creates easy-to-use charging solutions for both home and travel. Serving customers in over 150 countries and trusted by more than 20 million users, TESSAN focuses on simple, reliable products that keep people connected wherever they go.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250909183754/en/

Contacts:

Media Contact

Patrick Lee

patrick@tessan.com

Website: https://tessan.com/

Facebok: facebook.com/tessanpower

X: twitter.com/TessanPower

Instagram: instagram.com/tessan_official

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EQS Newswire / 10/09/2025 / 12:00 CET/CEST

HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach Newswire - 10 September 2025 - Not only is Hong Kong a key player in the world's leading innovation cluster, the city is also shooting up the charts as a global hub for top talent, according to the latest world rankings.



Hong Kong's outstanding performance in the World Talent Ranking 2025 and Global Innovation Index 2025 is clear testament to its efforts in education, innovation and technology (I&T), and talent admission.

Hong Kong vaulted five places from ninth last year to secure fourth spot globally in the World Talent Ranking 2025, published by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) on September 9, marking the city's highest-ever ranking and ranking first in Asia.



For the second consecutive year, Hong Kong improved across all three talent competitiveness factors of the IMD survey. Hong Kong jumped eight places to 20th for "Appeal" and rose by one place for both "Readiness" and "Investment and Development" to third and 12th respectively.



The Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), John Lee, said it was a clear testament to the HKSAR Government's enhanced efforts in education and talent development.



"The World Talent Ranking recognises Hong Kong's outstanding academic achievement, ranking us first in the indicator 'Graduates in Sciences'.



"Hong Kong is the only city in the globe with as many as five universities in the world's top 100. Our excellent institutions nurture world-class scientists and research talent in different disciplines," Mr Lee said.



Leveraging that strength, Hong Kong is fast rising as an innovation and technology hub, he added.



The Chinese University of Hong Kong is among the five local universities in the world's top 100. Hong Kong's excellent institutions nurture world-class scientists and research talent.

The Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou innovation cluster, located in Southern China, topped the world - for the first time - in the World Intellectual Property Organization's annual Global Innovation Index (GII), announced just last week (September 1), moving ahead of Tokyo-Yokohama in Japan for the first time.



This reflects the high international recognition of the innovative capacity of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), signalling that Hong Kong is an ideal place for global I&T talent to develop their careers.



The GII ranking identifies local concentrations of world-class innovation activity using three key metrics: international patent filings via WIPO's Patent Cooperation Treaty, scientific publications and the number of venture capital deals.



The Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster topped the ranking, filing 2 292 Patent Cooperation Treaty applications, publishing 3 775 scientific articles, and making 135 venture capital deals per one million inhabitants over the last five years.



Fast-tracking I&T development has been a policy priority of the HKSAR Government, which has rolled out a series of initiatives to ensure that technology, capital and talent reinforce one another, as well as expediting co-operation and collaboration with our GBA sister cities, so as to press ahead with the development of Hong Kong into an international I&T centre.





Hashtag: hongkong brandhongkong talent innovation technology I&T

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

News Source: Information Services Department, Hong Kong SAR Government

10/09/2025 Dissemination of a Financial Press Release, transmitted by EQS News.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



Media archive at www.todayir.com


From Rapid Development to Unified Observability, HARC Agents Powers Mission-Critical AI with a Pre-Built Agent Library, Seamless Collaboration, and Centralized Control

The HARC Agents platform enables enterprises to design, build, deploy, and leverage complex agentic AI systems in 30% less time than typically required.

HARC Agents combines four primary AI services from Hitachi: R202.ai, HARC for AI, Agent Library, and Agent Management System.

The Agent Library a just released library of pre-built, interconnected agentic AI agents includes over 200 agents across six key domains.

The new Agent Management System serves as a unified control layer for securing and observing AI agents across diverse platforms.

HARC Agents draws on Hitachi's decades of AI implementation experience coupled with over half a century of specialized system integration and engineering experience.

Today, Hitachi Digital Services unveiled Hitachi Application Reliability Center Agents (HARC Agents), the company's enterprise platform for trusted Agentic AI. The platform combines a full lifecycle of AI services from concepting to deployment to optimization to give customers a vital jump start on mission-critical innovations. A definitive demonstration of advanced automation and human-AI collaboration, HARC Agents enables Hitachi to equip enterprises with complex, scalable AI systems in 30% less time than typically required significantly reducing time to value.

HARC Agents is comprised of four primary AI resources:

R202.ai: a framework for defining the development and deployment of scalable, enterprise-grade AI workloads in a reliable, responsible, observable, and optimal manner. HARC for AI: the Hitachi Application Reliability Center hosting professional and managed services that operationalize AI systems; ensuring they are always on, reliable, and cost optimized. Agent Library (new): a library of pre-built, interconnected agentic AI agents that jump-start more complex agentic AI solution development as well as maximize those solutions' outputs. Agent Management System (new): a single dashboard centralizing control of all agentic AI platforms across an enterprise environment; simplifying governance, performance monitoring, and compliance to ensure enterprises can confidently harness the power of AI at scale.

"Simply put, HARC Agents exists to make AI enterprise ready at speed and scale. In today's unforgiving business environment, only the companies that master AI at full enterprise power will survive and thrive. Generic AI solutions may appear attractive in demonstrations, but they are not built for mission-critical enterprise use and will fail when true pressure is applied," said Roger Lvin, CEO, Hitachi Digital Services. "Too many technology partners are content to run pilots, chase headlines, and talk theory. Hitachi stands apart by delivering operationalized AI that scales globally, safeguards the enterprise, ensures compliance, mitigates risk, and drives measurable outcomes tied directly to business strategy. The future belongs to those who execute with precision and purpose, and to those who choose partners proven to turn AI into real enterprise value."

Businesses are embracing AI at an unprecedented rate. Per IDC, global spend on AI technologies is projected to reach $630 billion by 2028 (a CAGR of ~30%), with agentic AI anticipated to represent a majority of those investments. However, research firm Gartner warns that nearly half of agentic AI projects alone will likely be terminated before moving into production by the end of 2027 due to significant cost and complexity coupled with unclear return on investment.

The time it takes to develop custom enterprise-grade AI systems varies dramatically depending on scope. The road to deployment involves numerous intensive steps between ideation and proof of principle through prototyping and production. The engineering work and oversight can be cost-prohibitive and time-consuming. Yet, with the right proven tools, much of it could be automated to alleviate most of that pressure while ensuring a valuable investment return. Which is where AI, specifically agentic AI, proves instrumental.

"Imagine investing tens of millions into an AI system designed to manage sensitive operations, only to discover a year later that it is unreliable, unsecure, and not ready for production. Enterprises cannot afford to stake their future on hype or fragile AI. With HARC Agents, we've built a foundation for agentic systems that are not only secure and reliable but deeply integrated across IT and OT environments. Our approach ensures enterprise-wide observability and operational readiness from day one turning innovation into scalable, sustainable impact," explained Premkumar Balasubramanian, CTO, Hitachi Digital Services.

Two New HARC Agents Resources Ensure Effective Enterprise AI Accessibility

The new Agent Library is a rich collection of over 200 agents sourced corporate-wide from Hitachi's group companies, with each company offering distinctive technology competencies. The agents are put to work by Hitachi engineers when developing more complex AI systems. The agents then continue to operate on behalf of the customers when they use those systems. Notably, the agents cross six key domains:

Industrial AI (vertical-specific use cases)

Operations AI

Engineering AI

Analytical AI

Security AI

Cloud AI

The Agent Library will continue to grow as new agents are generated to support internal and external customer project needs.

Simultaneously, Hitachi Digital Services also released today its Agent Management System (AMS). Within the HARC Agents framework, the AMS is a centralized observability and control layer via a single "pane of glass" across a heterogeneous set of agentic platforms such as Copilot Studio, Google Agentspace, Lyzr, Ema, and others. The unified visibility, governance, and lifecycle management of intelligent agents enabled by AMS ultimately ensures secure, scalable, and flexible deployment across enterprise environments.

"Hitachi has long advanced the use of AI across all organizational layers from executives to frontline engineers supporting diverse applications such as business risk analysis and predictive maintenance. This is made possible by our decades of experience in building and operating IT systems. The deep domain knowledge embedded in our products and systems is what enables us to successfully deploy Agentic AI. HARC Agents represent a future where AI is not just a tool, but a partner that augments human capabilities and helps solve societal challenges. Through digital innovation, Hitachi is committed to delivering value to everyone and realizing a safe, secure, and sustainable society-a Harmonized Society," said Jun Abe, Chairman of the Board at Hitachi Digital Services and Executive Vice President of Hitachi, Ltd., General Manager of the Digital Systems Services Division.

For more information on how HARC Agents can benefit your agentic AI journey, visit www.hitachids.com/service/enterprise-ai.

About Hitachi Digital Services

Hitachi Digital Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., is a global systems integrator powering mission-critical platforms with people and technology. We help enterprises build, integrate, and run physical and digital systems with tailored solutions in cloud, data, IoT, and ERP modernization, underpinned by advanced AI. By combining Information Technology and Operational Technology (ITxOT), we drive efficiency, innovation, and growth across industries. With over 110 years of Hitachi Group's engineering and technology leadership, Hitachi Digital Services is powering smarter platforms for a safer, more sustainable future. For more information on Hitachi Digital Services, please visit the company's website at www.hitachids.com.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Through its Social Innovation Business (SIB) that brings together IT, OT (Operational Technology) and products, Hitachi contributes to a harmonized society where the environment, wellbeing, and economic growth are in balance. Hitachi operates globally in four sectors Digital Systems Services, Energy, Mobility, and Connective Industries and the Strategic SIB Business Unit for new growth businesses. With Lumada at its core, Hitachi generates value from integrating data, technology and domain knowledge to solve customer and social challenges. Revenues for FY2024 (ended March 31, 2025) totaled 9,783.3 billion yen, with 618 consolidated subsidiaries and approximately 280,000 employees worldwide. Visit us at www.hitachi.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250910745034/en/

Contacts:

Hitachi Digital Services

Patrick Corcoran

Head of Market Enablement and External Relations

patrick.corcoran@hitachids.com
LONDON, GB / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / Sanctions lists are being updated across jurisdictions multiple times a week, leaving investment managers at constant risk of holding or trading tainted securities. A single missed change can trigger regulatory fines and damage client trust. To help investment managers stay ahead, FundApps, the leading regulatory compliance SaaS provider, launched a Sanctions Screening Service - a new capability that automatically monitors portfolios against global sanctions regimes.

With sanctions a primary tool in geopolitical conflict, exemplified by the EU's 18th sanctions package against Russia, firms are under mounting pressure to demonstrate robust compliance. Regulators are imposing record fines, and custodians are freezing assets linked to sanctioned entities, creating sudden liquidity shocks for funds of all sizes.

FundApps' solution enables financial institutions to screen their investment universe against sanctioned entities and related securities, using International Securities Identification Numbers (ISINs) for precise matching. Coverage spans all major regimes, including OFAC (US), the EU, the OFSI (UK) List, the UN, and other key jurisdictions, giving clients a single, consistent view.

"Sanctions monitoring is no longer a niche compliance function - it's a critical requirement for every investment manager," said Andrew Patrick White, Founder and CEO of FundApps. "Our new service integrates seamlessly into daily workflows, delivering global oversight without adding operational burden. It's the kind of proactive compliance our clients expect in an environment where missing securities issued by sanctioned entities can have million-dollar consequences."

Key Benefits of the FundApps Sanctions Solution

Ongoing daily oversight - every position is screened against the latest global sanctions lists, reducing the risk of missed updates or inadvertent breaches.

Global coverage - coverage across 11 major regimes, including OFAC's SDN List (U.S.), the EU, the OFSI (UK) Sanctions List, the UN Security Council Sanctions List, and the national lists of Canada, Australia, Japan, and Switzerland.

Pre-trade check - securities can be checked against global sanctions lists prior to execution, reducing the risk of accidental exposure.

Instant access for existing clients - the service activates seamlessly within the FundApps platform, with no additional setup or data points required.

The service is powered by sanctioned securities data from BIGTXN, one of the leading providers of global sanctions intelligence. BIGTXN's coverage spans 11 regimes across all asset classes, including ETFs, and is updated daily. Their dataset identifies more than 50,000 sanctions-exposed securities, enabling granular, high-quality screening at scale.

"We are excited to partner with FundApps on this major integration", said Haider Mannan, Founder and CEO of BIGTXN. "In today's fast-changing sanctions landscape, accuracy comes from depth of legal knowledge, not just data. The Sanctioned Instrument Masterfile from BIGTXN and algorithm capture the nuanced legal analysis needed to determine which securities are truly in scope, and FundApps' new service delivers that insight straight to its clients - turning uncertainty into defensible, audit-ready outcomes."

This development extends FundApps's broader compliance suite, which covers shareholding disclosure, sensitive industries, and regulatory reporting. Together, these services position FundApps as the compliance monitoring and reporting platform for investment managers.

Contacts:

FundApps

Nastja Konic

Lead Marketing Manager

nastja@fundapps.co

BIGTXN

Attn: Press Officer

hello@bigtxn.com

SOURCE: FundApps

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/banking-and-financial-services/fundapps-launches-global-sanctions-screening-service-to-help-investm-1070045
Agreement strengthens Canadian veterinarians' access to Zomedica's advanced therapeutic and monitoring solutions

ANN ARBOR, MI / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / Zomedica Corp. (OTCQB:ZOMDF), a veterinary health company offering point-of-care diagnostic and therapeutic products for equine and companion animals, announced today that it has expanded its distribution agreement with UXR Inc., a leading Canadian animal health company focused on supporting the needs of veterinarians across Canada.

Under the expanded agreement, UXR will become:

Exclusive distributor of Zomedica's PulseVet  system in Canada and co-exclusive distributor of the system's consumable Trode accessories.

Exclusive distributor of Zomedica's VETGuardian  products in Canada.

Distributor of Zomedica's Assisi product portfolio in Canada, including the Assisi Loop, DentaLoop, Loop Lounge, and Calmer Canine products.

"Penetrating the Canadian small animal health market of over 4,000 veterinary practices represents an important growth opportunity for Zomedica," noted Larry Heaton, Zomedica's Chief Executive Officer. "Canadian pet parents love their 28 million pets as we do in the United States, fueling a projected 7% compound annual growth rate. While we have historically sold Zomedica's PulseVet system directly from the United States to equine veterinarians, we have been seeking in-country distribution for the full array of Zomedica's small animal products and are pleased to partner with UXR to grow together."

This collaboration strengthens Zomedica's ability to deliver innovative technologies that reduce pain, improve recovery, and enhance monitoring in veterinary practices throughout Canada.

Casmir Palmarella, Vice-President of UXR, added: "Our mission has always been to provide veterinarians with technologies that enhance their ability to deliver the highest level of care. By partnering with Zomedica, we are bringing proven, trusted products to clinics across Canada that will support both practitioners and pet owners."

"We are excited to partner with UXR, whose strong presence and relationships with veterinarians across Canada make them an ideal distributor for our therapeutic and monitoring solutions," said Kevin Klass, Senior Vice President of Sales at Zomedica. "Together, we will expand access to advanced tools that improve patient care, including the gold standard PulseVet shock wave therapy and the breakthrough VETGuardian remote monitoring system."

The agreement is effective immediately and covers distribution throughout Canada.

About UXR, Inc.

UXR Inc. is a leading Canadian distributor of veterinary equipment, with a strong reputation for innovation, reliability, and customer service. Founded in 1949, UXR is the largest independent supplier of X-Ray solutions for the veterinary market in Canada. We provide a full range of veterinary solutions including X-Ray and imaging systems, anesthesia equipment, surgical lighting, monitors, sterilizers, infusion pumps, rehabilitation, lasers, and more. For more information visit. www.uxr.ca .

About Zomedica

Zomedica is a leading equine and companion animal healthcare company dedicated to improving animal health by providing veterinarians innovative therapeutic and diagnostic solutions. Our gold standard PulseVet shock wave system, which accelerates healing in musculoskeletal conditions, has transformed veterinary therapeutics. Our suite of products also includes the Assisi Loop line of therapeutic devices and the TRUFORMA diagnostic platform, the TRUVIEW digital cytology system, and the VetGuardian no-touch monitoring system, all designed to empower veterinarians to provide top-tier care. In the aggregate, their total addressable market in the U.S. exceeds $2 billion. Headquartered in Michigan, Zomedica employs approximately 150 people and manufactures and distributes its products from its world-class facilities in Georgia and Minnesota. Zomedica grew revenue 8% in 2024 to $27 million and maintains a strong balance sheet with approximately $59 million in liquidity as of June 30, 2025. Zomedica is advancing its product offerings, leveraging strategic acquisitions, and expanding internationally as we work to enhance the quality of care for pets, increase pet parent satisfaction, and improve the workflow, cash flow and profitability of veterinary practices. For more information visit www.zomedica.com .

Follow Zomedica

Email Alerts: http://investors.zomedica.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/zomedica

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/zomedica

X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/zomedica

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zomedica_inc

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Except for statements of historical fact, this news release contains certain "forward-looking information" or "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur and include statements relating to our expectations regarding future results. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. We cannot guarantee future results, performance, or achievements. Consequently, there is no representation that the actual results achieved will be the same, in whole or in part, as those set out in the forward-looking information.

Forward-looking information is based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made, including assumptions with respect to economic growth, demand for the Company's products, the Company's ability to produce and sell its products, sufficiency of our budgeted capital and operating expenditures, the satisfaction by our strategic partners of their obligations under our commercial agreements and our ability to realize upon our business plans and cost control efforts.

Our forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking information. Some of the risks and other factors that could cause the results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information include, but are not limited to: the outcome of clinical studies, the application of generally accepted accounting principles, which are highly complex and involve many subjective assumptions, estimates, and judgments, uncertainty as to whether our strategies and business plans will yield the expected benefits; uncertainty as to the timing and results of development work and verification and validation studies; uncertainty as to the timing and results of commercialization efforts, including international efforts, as well as the cost of commercialization efforts, including the cost to develop an internal sales force and manage our growth; uncertainty as to our ability to realize the anticipated growth opportunities from our acquisitions; uncertainty as to our ability to supply products in response to customer demand; supply chain risks associated with tariff changes; uncertainty as to the likelihood and timing of any required regulatory approvals, and the availability and cost of capital; the ability to identify and develop and achieve commercial success for new products and technologies; veterinary acceptance of our products in Canada and purchase of consumables following adoption of our capital equipment; competition from related products; the level of expenditures necessary to maintain and improve the quality of products and services; changes in technology and changes in laws and regulations; our ability to secure and maintain strategic relationships; performance by our strategic partners of their obligations under our commercial agreements, including product manufacturing obligations; risks pertaining to permits and licensing, intellectual property infringement risks, risks relating to any required clinical trials and regulatory approvals, risks relating to the safety and efficacy of our products, the use of our products, intellectual property protection, and the other risk factors disclosed in our filings with the SEC and under our profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com . Readers are cautioned that this list of risk factors should not be construed as exhaustive.

The forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. We undertake no duty to update any of the forward-looking information to conform such information to actual results or to changes in our expectations except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information.

Investor Relations Contact:

Zomedica Investor Relations

investors@zomedica.com

1-734-369-2555

SOURCE: Zomedica Corp.

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/healthcare-and-pharmaceutical/zomedica-and-uxr-announce-expanded-distribution-agreement-in-canada-1071074




MONACO, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The 17th Monaco Classic Week gets underway. From 10 to 13 September a veritable flotilla will fill the YCM Marina with a fleet of 150 boats displayed along the quays open to the public, showcasing over a century of living maritime heritage. Races start tomorrow at 2 pm.

Some 50 sailing yachts are expected including 20 over a hundred years old, like the gaff cutters Kismet (1898) and Viola (1908), or Madcap (1874), the oldest pilot cutter still in working order.

Among these centenarians, some will also be celebrating remarkable anniversaries, like the 140 years of Partridge (1885) and the 110 years of Mariette of 1915.

Others open their decks to international delegations. These include the 15M IR Mariska (1908) and her American crew from the Manhattan Yacht Club, who are regular attendees, and the gaff ketch Black Swan (1899), which is welcoming a delegation from the Amaala Yacht Club in Saudi Arabia. Such an international presence illustrates the spirit of camaraderie that drives and strengthens bonds between classic yachting enthusiasts from all over the world.

Glamour icons par excellence, Riva's mahogany runabouts are regulars at this event. This year, in collaboration with the Riva Exclusive Dealer, Monaco Boat Service, 50 will be joining the 68-strong line up of powerboats announced, the largest gathering of Rivas ever seen in the Principality.

The 17th edition also invites visitors to delve into the collective imagination with a new exhibition 'Action! Classic Yachts and the Big Screen' on display in the Meeting Room. The entry is free to the public. Visitors will discover how legendary yachts and movie stars have crossed paths, both in Monaco and on the big screen: Zaca (1928) forever associated with Errol Flynn, Kalizma made famous by Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, and of course Marge (1930) immortalized alongside Alain Delon in Plein Soleil.

Ashore, the Chefs Competition pays homage to gastronomy in collaboration with Moet Hennessy. Working with pre-set ingredients, chefs on participating boats redouble their creativity to surprise the jury. Another highlight is the Elegance Contest, chaired this year by Allegra Gucci. It showcases the fleet's beautiful lines, the crews' attire and respect for naval etiquette. Elegance and style define this parade at Monaco Classic Week where all the boats file slowly past an exceptional jury of artists and personalities. As is tradition, the quality of restorations will be recognized by the coveted La Belle Classe Restoration Prize.

A jury comprising maritime history and yachting experts assesses each boat based on respect for the original plans and materials, and quality of the restoration. For the races and exhibitions, Monaco Classic Week is open to all (free entry) with a Village on Quai de l'Hirondelle where the public can meet craftsmen, artists and shipyards and discover a world where tradition and expertise combine.

For more information:

Press Office LaPresse - ufficio.stampa@lapresse.it

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d6dea2d9-00dd-4b3a-8759-ca5222e97b48
LONDON, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Croma-Pharma GmbH, a global leader in minimally invasive aesthetic medicine, proudly announces that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Obagi saypha MagIQ injectable hyaluronic acid (HA) gel - the first intradermal filler product in the Obagi saypha collection - for commercial use in the U.S. market.

Developed by Croma-Pharma and brought to the U.S. through its strategic partner Waldencast plc under the Obagi Medical brand, this FDA approval marks a significant milestone in Croma's global expansion strategy. The commercial launch is planned for 2026 and represents the beginning of a multi-product U.S. rollout that will also include saypha ChIQ and additional innovations, pending further regulatory clearance.

"We are extremely proud to bring our advanced HA technology to the United States through our collaboration with Waldencast and Obagi Medical," said Andreas Prinz, Chief Executive Officer of Croma-Pharma GmbH. "This milestone reinforces our legacy of innovation and scientific excellence in aesthetic medicine. With more than 110 million syringes produced and a presence in over 80 markets, Croma is committed to delivering high-performing products that meet the expectations of healthcare professionals and patients worldwide."

Obagi saypha MagIQ is powered by Croma's U.S. pivotal study for nasolabial fold (NLF) correction including 270 patients and confirming non-inferiority versus the FDA approved control product, meeting the primary performance endpoint with key secondary endpoints further reinforcing its effectiveness and safety profile. The trial included all Fitzpatrick Skin Types demonstrating the product's effectiveness and safety across a representative population.

"This FDA approval validates the safety and performance of our saypha filler technology and is the result of our commitment to deliver scientific data based aesthetic solutions for medical doctors" added Prinz. "We believe this will lay the foundation for long-term success in the world's most significant aesthetic market."," added Prinz.

This launch marks a new chapter in the relationship between Croma-Pharma and Obagi Medical, bringing together a legacy of European HA innovation with one of the most trusted names in U.S. medical-grade skincare.

As Croma continues to expand its presence globally, the company remains focused on portfolio innovation across HA fillers, biostimulators, PDO threads, and botulinum toxin - empowering aesthetic physicians with the tools they need to deliver holistic treatment outcomes.

About Croma-Pharma GmbH

Croma-Pharma GmbH is a family-owned global player in the minimally invasive aesthetics market, headquartered in Leobendorf, Austria. The company specializes in the industrial production of hyaluronic acid syringes and distributes its own aesthetic portfolio, including botulinum toxin, fillers, PDO threads, PRP, and skincare technologies, in more than 80 markets worldwide.

About Waldencast

Founded by Michel Brousset and Hind Sebti, Waldencast's ambition is to build a global best-in-class beauty and wellness operating platform by developing, acquiring, accelerating, and scaling conscious, high-growth purpose-driven brands. Waldencast's vision is fundamentally underpinned by its brand-led business model that ensures proximity to its customers, business agility, and market responsiveness, while maintaining each brand's distinct DNA. The first step in realizing its vision was the business combination with Obagi Medical and Milk Makeup. As part of the Waldencast platform, its brands will benefit from the operational scale of a multi-brand platform; the expertise in managing global beauty brands at scale; a balanced portfolio to mitigate category fluctuations; asset light efficiency; and the market responsiveness and speed of entrepreneurial indie brands. For more information please visit: https://ir.waldencast.com/.

About Obagi Medical

Obagi Medical is an industry-leading, advanced skincare line rooted in research and skin biology, with a legacy of 35+ years of experience. Initially known for its leadership in the treatment of hyperpigmentation with the Obagi Nu-Derm System, Obagi Medical products are designed to address a variety of skin concerns, including premature aging, photodamage, skin discoloration, acne, and sun damage. As the fastest-growing professional skincare brand in the U.S. in 2024,2 Obagi Medical empowers individuals to achieve healthy, beautiful skin. More information about Obagi Medical is available on the brand's website, https://www.obagi.com.

www.cromapharma.com

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2769276/Croma_Pharma_Logo.jpg

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/croma-pharma-gmbh-celebrates-fda-approval-of-obagi-saypha-magiq-in-the-united-states-302552225.html
Expanded manufacturing and service footprint enhances FMD's worldwide customer support network

Fairbanks Morse Defense, a portfolio company of Arcline Investment Management, has acquired Vestdavit, a leading supplier of davits and advanced handling systems based in Bergen, Norway. The acquisition strengthens FMD's position as a global provider of mission-critical maritime equipment and enhances its ability to deliver fully integrated product and service capabilities to naval and commercial operators worldwide.

Images of Vestdavit's solutions are available here

Fairbanks Morse Defense purchased all equity of Vestdavit from its four owners for an undisclosed amount.

"Fairbanks Morse Defense and Vestdavit share a longstanding commitment to providing mission-critical equipment for navies that are protecting the freedom of the seas," said Steve Pykett, CEO of Fairbanks Morse Defense. "Vestdavit's advanced handling technologies complement our existing portfolio while broadening our OEM and service capabilities. In turn, Vestdavit will benefit from our worldwide support infrastructure, ensuring customers receive the highest standard of service wherever they operate."

Vestdavit brings more than four decades of expertise and a track record of over 2,200 davit systems delivered to naval and offshore operators. The company pioneered dual-point lifting systems, automated boat-handling technologies, and advanced launch and recovery systems (LARS) for unmanned surface and sub-surface vessels. These innovations are critical for the U.S. Navy's planned Large Unmanned Surface Vessels (LUSVs) and the Large Unmanned Undersea Vessels (UUVs).

Mutual customers include the U.S. Navy, UK Royal Navy, and the Canadian Coast Guard. Through Vestdavit, Fairbanks Morse Defense will also expand its presence among NATO fleets such as the French Navy, the Italian Navy, the German Navy, the Royal Netherlands and Belgian Navies, the Finnish Navy, and the Norwegian Navy.

Fairbanks Morse Defense will also add Vestdavit's manufacturing facility in Poland and service centers in the Netherlands and Seattle, Washington, to its operational network. Vestdavit customers will gain access to FMD's full portfolio of engines, motors, valves, ventilation systems, water purification and treatment systems, and other OEM technologies.

"Companies evolve over time, and having seen tremendous growth in recent years, we believe the time is right for Vestdavit to become part of a larger system that will strengthen our future development," said Rolf Andreas Wigand, CEO of Vestdavit. "As part of Fairbanks Morse Defense, we are well-positioned to expand geographically within the global naval segment, strengthen our aftersales capabilities, and access the resources we need to pursue long-term growth."

Vestdavit's offering now joins that of Welin Lambie, the UK-based davit manufacturer acquired by Fairbanks Morse Defense in 2023. Together, the two companies will provide customers with a comprehensive range of davit solutions.

This transaction follows Fairbanks Morse Defense's acquisition of the Rolls-Royce Naval Propulsors business earlier this year, which restored the Bird-Johnson brand to propellers manufactured in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and added waterjets produced in Walpole, Massachusetts.

About Fairbanks Morse Defense (FMD)

Fairbanks Morse Defense (FMD) builds, maintains, and services the most trusted naval power and propulsion systems on the planet. For nearly a century, Fairbanks Morse Defense has been a principal supplier of a growing array of leading marine technologies, OEM parts, and turnkey services to the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, Military Sealift Command, and Canadian Coast Guard. FMD stands ready to rapidly support the systems that power military fleets without compromising safety or quality. In times of peace and war, the experienced engineers, sailors, and technicians of FMD demonstrate our commitment to supporting the mission and vision of critical global naval operations wherever and whenever needed. FMD is a portfolio company of Arcline Investment Management.

To learn more, visit www.FairbanksMorseDefense.com.

About Vestdavit

Vestdavit is a market-leading Norwegian supplier of advanced boat-handling systems, with a track record of more than 2,200 davit deliveries mainly to navies and coastguards worldwide, as well as the offshore energy sector, over the past 40 years. Its robust systems with advanced features have well-proven reliability, safety, and efficiency in real-life operations. Vestdavit has also developed innovative solutions, such as Mission Bay, using new technology to shape the future of boat handling.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250910242191/en/

Contacts:

Fairbanks Morse Media Contact:

Mercom Communications

Michelle Hargis

Tel: 512-215-4452

fairbanksmorse@mercomcapital.com
In a world where luxury buyers think internationally, Aperture Global Real Estate brings a fresh model to the market. Launched this year, it blends technology, creativity, and global reach to deliver a new era of property marketing and client experience.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250910947716/en/

Aperture Global was designed to deliver global access and finely tuned marketing, setting a new standard for luxury real estate. At its core is a proprietary distribution system that harnesses tools rarely seen in real estate, including Connected Television (CTV) and digital audio campaigns. These channels, paired with Aperture's award-winning creative studio, allow properties to be showcased not just as homes, but as cinematic experiences that captivate and inspire.

Guiding Aperture's most recent international debut in the UK is Daniel McPeake, one of London's most accomplished luxury property specialists. Recognized for his expertise in landmark transactions and featured on the BBC's Crazy Rich Agents, McPeake brings over a decade of experience advising clients across the capital's most exclusive postcodes.

As Managing Director of Aperture Global UK, he will lead a growing team of elite agents and set a bold new standard for how prime properties are represented in Britain.

The London team represents some of the city's most accomplished real estate talent. Solly Strickland, a veteran of the capital's luxury market, has achieved more than 1 billion in sales across its most prestigious neighborhoods. Joining him is Krishan Mistry, former Nest Seekers agent and co-star of Crazy Rich Agents, celebrated for his creative marketing and record-setting ultra-prime deals. Caroline De Havilland brings international perspective with a career spanning Central London, Monaco, and other global hubs, following her tenure at boutique agency Moveli. Lindsey Harrison combines property expertise with a background in interior architecture, recently closing the sale of a 3 million castle in Northeast England in under three months. Rachel Narag, consistently ranked among the top agents in London and overseas, adds more than 15 years of global luxury sales experience. Jack Dowlet, a seasoned professional, strengthens the group with 25 years of expertise in luxury and new home sales.

"Our vision is to create a brokerage that operates on an international scale without losing its local soul," said Robert Palmer, Founder of Aperture Global Real Estate. "London is a cornerstone of global luxury real estate, and with Daniel's leadership, we're bringing a model that empowers agents, elevates clients, and introduces a new way to experience property."

Aperture Global UK launches with a curated portfolio of rare and exceptional homes, designed to appeal to an international audience:

Embassy Works, Vauxhall Park A 7.34 million penthouse spanning more than 4,000 square feet, featuring three private roof terraces.

A 7.34 million penthouse spanning more than 4,000 square feet, featuring three private roof terraces. Chelsea Waterfront Penthouse A 13 million residence within the Battersea Power Station redevelopment, one of London's most iconic projects.

"Aperture is unlike anything I've seen in my career," said McPeake. "This is a model that doesn't just put properties on a website and hope the right buyer finds them-it strategically places them in front of the people most likely to act. It's white-glove service, paired with world-class marketing, on a truly global scale."

Built on the foundation of LPT Holdings-the powerhouse behind LPT Realty, the fastest-growing U.S. brokerage-Aperture Global is scaling at pace. With a strong presence across North America and Europe, the brand is now setting its sights on the Middle East and Asia as its next phase of growth.

"Today's high-net-worth clients think globally, not locally," said Michael Valdes, President of Aperture Global. "They're as likely to shop for a penthouse in London as they are for an estate in Miami or a villa in the Caribbean. Aperture gives them access to all of it, delivered with the sophistication they expect."

About Aperture Global Real Estate

Aperture Global Real Estate is a next-generation luxury brokerage redefining prime property through personally curated marketing, cutting-edge technology, and agent empowerment. Founded in 2025 by Robert Palmer, Aperture has rapidly expanded across the U.S., UK, Canada, and Portugal. With a global leadership team and an innovative compensation model, Aperture equips agents to deliver exceptional service and results. Learn more at www.apertureglobal.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250910947716/en/

Contacts:

Sissy DeMaria-Koehne

Lizzy Husk

Cultivate PR

305-505-9528

sdemaria@cultivate-pr.com

ehusk@cultivate-pr.com


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The White House has announced that a number of major organizations have committed to provide resources for imparting AI education to America's youth.



Michael Kratsios, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Chair of the White House Task Force on AI Education, said leaders in business, non-profits, and education have pledged to provide free AI training and resources to students, teachers, and parents across the country.



Google committed $1 billion to support education and job training programs in the U.S. Google said that they will offer every American high school and their students, teachers and staff access to Gemini for Education for free. This includes Gemini 2.5 Pro, plus tools like Guided Learning and Notebook LM. For college students, Google's AI for Education Accelerator has expanded from one hundred colleges and universities to two hundred. The search engine giant also committed $150 million in grants over the next three years to support AI Education and Digital Wellbeing. This includes $3 million to code.org and $2 million to the Flourish Fund, a centralized website Google created for teachers and parents to provide best AI training in one place.



Code.org promised to 'Engage 25 million learners in an Hour of AI in school year '25/'26'. It will partner with 25 states during the next three years to build and promote AI pathways, AI Standards, and the AI Education Act.



Code.org will develop and scale a new free, open-source high school course - AI Foundations - focused on AI, reaching 400,000 US high school students annually by school year '28/'29. It will also provide free, open-source AI+CS learning for 9M US K-8 students annually by school year '28/'29'.



IBM said it will skill 2 million learners by 2028 through its Skillsbuild program and other courses that prepare the current and future American workforce with necessary AI and related technology skills.



Zoom has committed $5 million over three years in support of K-12 education through a series of multi-year grants. This initiative aims to empower the next generation of learners, educators, and workers by equipping them with critical skills for an AI-driven future.



NVIDIA has announced a commitment valued at $25 million over the next 5 years dedicated to developing K-12 AI skills and training.



Mastercard said that it will enhance and expand the Kids4Tech AI curriculum with new, ready-to-use classroom resources over the next five years.



Microsoft said it will provide to every K12 student in the United States free access for the academic year to its AI CoPilot, which is built on Microsoft technology and OpenAI's most current AI models. 'We'll work with every school both to make this technology available and to support teacher training, including by funding $1.25 million in prizes for the Presidential AI Challenge to recognize top educators in every state'.



Amazon said that by 2028 it will support AI skills training for four million U.S. learners, enable AI curricula for 10,000 U.S. educators, and provide up to $30 million in credits for eligible organizations to use cloud and AI technology to support students and educators in the U.S.



Apple said it will expand its free learning content with new resources to help students, teachers, and developers learn and use generative AI and machine learning. Apple is developing new curriculum and training programs with Common Sense Media to help educators teach responsible AI.



Adobe said that through Adobe Express for Education, its all-in-one creativity app, every K-12 student in the U.S. will be able to create, explore and grow using generative AI tools designed for the classroom.



Meta has committed more than $20 million to provide educators and students with AI resources.



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 2025 AFX News
SANTA CLARA, Calif. and MILAN, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Picarro Inc., a global leader in methane emission management and reduction solutions, today announced that Italgas, following its recent acquisition of 2i Rete Gas, will extend the deployment of Picarro's Network Intelligence technology and solutions to cover its newly expanded infrastructure. Italgas now serves approximately 13 million customers with more than 150,000 kilometers of distribution main pipes in Italy and Greece, making it Europe's largest gas distribution system operator (DSO). Deploying Picarro's data-driven solutions will further strengthen its leadership in digital transformation of gas network operations.

Through its partnership with Picarro, Italgas has been firmly at the forefront of Network Intelligence. Picarro's advanced data and analytics solutions enable the DSO to manage its network operations-including leak detection and repair (LDAR) programs, methane emissions abatement and predictive asset maintenance-with unmatched accuracy. These capabilities support Italgas in enhancing safety, reducing methane emissions in line with the highest industry standard (OGMP 2.0 Gold Standard), and extending the lifespan of critical gas assets.

"Picarro's Network Intelligence is central to the realization of our growth strategy, supporting the digitization and AI-driven transformation of our networks," said Paolo Gallo, CEO of Italgas. "With the actionable insights provided by Picarro technology, we can boost efficiency, safety, environmental protection, and service quality for all of the more than 4,000 towns in which we operate and the 13 million customers we serve in Italy and Greece."

"Italgas's commitment to making its energy infrastructures increasingly resilient and safe is unmatched in Europe," said Alex Balkanski, President and CEO of Picarro Inc. "By expanding its adoption of Picarro's Network Intelligence, Italgas is setting a new standard for operational excellence, efficiency, and sustainability at an impressive scale."

From Leak Detection to Network Intelligence

Picarro's integrated solution combines advanced hardware, cutting-edge analytics, and robust software to deliver unparalleled insights into methane emissions, network safety, and operational efficiency. Operators leverage Advanced Mobile Leak Detection (AMLD) technology to create a data-driven, GIS-centric representation of a gas network and its emissions. They tap into this holistic and consolidated view to strategically plan maintenance activities, deploy resources and maximize asset value. By embracing Network Intelligence, operators can enhance safety, meet regulatory demands, and lead the way in environmental stewardship.

Scaling Network Intelligence Across the Globe

Picarro technology and solutions are now employed by more than 50 DSOs worldwide, serving over 50 million customers. Over the past decade, our DSO partners have cumulatively collected actionable data on more than 1.5 million kilometers of gas mains, are on pace to cover 800,000 kilometers of mains in 2025 and expect to accelerate their coverage even more in the years ahead.

About Italgas

Italgas is the leading gas distribution system operator in Italy and, following the acquisition of 2i Rete Gas, the largest in Europe. With approximately 13 million customers and over 150,000 kilometers of pipeline, Italgas is committed to advancing innovation, safety, and sustainability in the energy transition. For more information, visit www.italgas.it/en.

About Picarro

Picarro is a global leader in leak management and emissions reduction, providing operators with tools to revolutionize risk management. The enterprise solution helps lower emissions, optimize asset management, and reduce costs within a unified framework. With Picarro Network Intelligence technology and analytics, operators can proactively manage leaks, prioritize critical issues, and assess gas system health and performance continuously. For more information, visit www.picarro.com/gas.

Media Contact:

Monica Marmie

Senior Marketing Manager

Picarro

mmarmie@picarro.com

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/italgas-expands-use-of-picarro-network-intelligence-solutions-following-acquisition-of-2i-rete-gas-302551835.html


JERUSALEM (dpa-AFX) - President Donald Trump has expressed his displeasure over the Israeli strike targeting Hamas leaders in Doha, saying he was very unhappy about every aspect of it.



'I'm not thrilled about the whole situation. It's not a good situation, but I will say this - we want the hostages back, but we are not thrilled about the way that went down today.' he told reporters in Washington Tuesday night.



'I'm never surprised by anything, especially when it comes to the Middle East,' he added.



Trump said on social media earlier that he could not prevent the attack as he came to know about the decision made by Israel's leadership 'too late'.



'This was a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me,' Trump said in statement posted on his social media platform Truth Social.



'I immediately directed Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to inform the Qataris of the impending attack, which he did, however, unfortunately, too late to stop the attack,' Trump added.



He said bombing Qatar, a 'sovereign nation and close ally' of the US, does not advance the goals of either Israel or the U.S.



Trump was adding to the White House Spokesperson's statement earlier that the President had been informed in advance and directed his officials to alert Doha - but the message was conveyed too late to stop the attack.



Hamas reported that six people, including five of its members and one member of the Qatari security forces, were killed in the Israeli attack Tuesday night. The son of one of Hamas' exiled leaders from the Gaza Strip was also among the casualties. The Palestinian militant group added that its senior negotiators and top officials who were in the capital of Qatar for ceasefire talks had all survived the attack.



The leaders of Qatar, the UK, Canada, France and the UN have criticized the attack.



UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke out against what he called a 'flagrant violation' of Qatari sovereignty and territorial integrity. He insisted that all parties must focus on achieving a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, 'not (on) destroying it'.



The Qatari Government condemned the attack as a 'blatant violation of international law' and the Qatari Prime Minister said at a press conference that 'there must be a response from the entire region to such barbaric actions.'



Qatar - alongside the US and Egypt - had brokered extensive efforts to end the Gaza war which began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas and other militants attacked settlements in southern Israel.



Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Tuesday's attack had been Israel's sole responsibility.



BBC reported that the UN Security Council will hold a meeting Wednesday afternoon to discuss the consequences from Israel's strikes targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar.



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 2025 AFX News


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration have announced sweeping reforms to rein in misleading direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertisements. FDA said it is sending thousands of letters warning pharmaceutical companies to remove misleading ads and issuing approximately 100 cease-and-desist letters to companies with deceptive ads.



In addition to enforcing existing law, the FDA is initiating rulemaking to close the 'adequate provision' loophole created in 1997, which drug companies have used to conceal critical safety risks in broadcast and digital ads, fueling inappropriate drug use and eroding public trust.



'Pharmaceutical ads hooked this country on prescription drugs,' Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said. 'We will shut down that pipeline of deception and require drug companies to disclose all critical safety facts in their advertising. Only radical transparency will break the cycle of overmedicalization that drives America's chronic disease epidemic.'



Robert Kennedy is acting on the basis of a Presidential Memorandum that Donald Trump signed Tuesday to protect Americans by ensuring direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertisements are providing consumers with full and accurate information.



The Memorandum directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to ensure transparency and accuracy in direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertisements, including by increasing the amount of information regarding any risks associated with the use of prescription drugs.



It also directs the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration to take action to enforce legal requirements that advertisements for prescription drugs be truthful and not misleading.



The FDA said it is concerned patients are not seeing a fair balance of information about drug products. This concern is magnified when serious risks are not clearly presented, or the information is too difficult for seniors to read or hear.



A 2024 review in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Services Research revealed that while 100 percent of pharmaceutical social media posts highlight drug benefits, only 33 percent mention potential harms. Moreover, 88 percent of advertisements for top-selling drugs are posted by individuals and organizations that fail to adhere to the FDA fair balance guidelines.



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Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

 2025 AFX News
Invesco Asia Dragon Trust (IAD) delivered an 18.1% net asset value (NAV) total return (TR) over the 12 months to end-July 2025, supported by the strong performance of Asian markets, especially China and Hong Kong. The performance was ahead of the 16.4% return delivered by its benchmark index (MSCI AC Asia ex-Japan), reinforcing our confidence in the managers' strategy. The case for the trust's investments is often contrarian at the point of purchase and may take time to play out, but over the long term IAD has delivered returns above the benchmark and its peers. The fund does not structurally favour any region, with one of its current strongest convictions being a revival of consumption in China, and there have been signs of positive economic readings in this area. Additionally, the trust's share price TR in the last year was 21.5%, as the discount to NAV narrowed after the announcement of its merger with Asia Dragon Trust (DGN).

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
CALGARY, AB / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / Yanko Popovic Sidhu, a trusted leader in personal injury law, has been recognised with the 2025 Consumer Choice Award in the Lawyer - Personal Injury category for Southern Alberta. This recognition highlights the firm's long-standing reputation for trust, integrity, and results in representing victims of personal injury with dedication and compassion.

With decades of combined legal expertise, Yanko Popovic Sidhu has built a practice centred on advocating for clients during some of life's most difficult moments. The firm's mission goes beyond legal representation-it is about offering clarity, guidance, and unwavering support to help injury victims and their families navigate the complexities of the legal system.

Dedicated To Client Advocacy

Personal injury cases often come with uncertainty and emotional stress. The legal professionals at Yanko Popovic Sidhu are committed to easing that burden, ensuring clients feel heard, supported, and protected throughout the process.

"Our clients put their trust in us during incredibly challenging times," says the Yanko Popovic Sidhu team. "Being recognised with the Consumer Choice Award is especially meaningful because it reflects the confidence and appreciation of the people we serve."

Recognition That Reflects Community Trust

The Consumer Choice Award is determined through independent research that measures brand reputation, client satisfaction, and business excellence. For Yanko Popovic Sidhu, being selected as Southern Alberta's top personal injury law firm reaffirms its commitment to standing by clients and delivering results that matter.

"This recognition is not just about legal expertise-it's about the trust we've built," the team adds. "Every case is an opportunity to stand up for someone's rights and make a real difference in their life."

Experience That Delivers Results

Over the years, Yanko Popovic Sidhu has represented a wide range of personal injury victims, from those injured in motor vehicle accidents to individuals impacted by workplace injuries and other life-altering events. The firm's success is rooted in a balance of legal expertise, strategic advocacy, and a compassionate approach that recognises the human impact behind every case.

By focusing on both outcomes and the client experience, Yanko Popovic Sidhu continues to be a trusted choice for personal injury representation across Southern Alberta.

A Commitment to Justice and Care

As the firm celebrates its 2025 Consumer Choice Award recognition, Yanko Popovic Sidhu remains dedicated to upholding the values that have guided its work for decades: integrity, advocacy, and care for clients. With every case, the team strives to provide peace of mind and justice for those navigating the aftermath of personal injury.

To learn more about Yanko Popovic Sidhu or to schedule a consultation, visit www.yanko.ca or CLICK HERE.

About Yanko Popovic Sidhu

Yanko Popovic Sidhu is a Calgary-based law firm dedicated to advocating for personal injury victims across Southern Alberta. With decades of experience and a proven track record of results, the firm is committed to providing clear guidance, compassionate support, and strong representation. Its practice areas include motor vehicle accidents, workplace injuries, and other personal injury claims. Learn more at www.yanko.ca.

About Consumer Choice Award

Since 1987, Consumer Choice Award has been recognising and promoting business excellence across North America. Through a rigorous selection process, only the most outstanding businesses in each category earn this prestigious recognition. Learn more at www.ccaward.com.

Contact Information

Sumi Saleh

Communications Manager

ssaleh@ccaward.com

SOURCE: Consumer Choice Award

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/business-and-professional-services/yanko-popovic-sidhu-honoured-with-2025-consumer-choice-award-for-1069404
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - September 10, 2025) - HYLQ Strategy Corp. (CSE: HYLQ) (formerly, Tony G Co-Investment Holdings Ltd.) (the "Company" or "HYLQ Strategy") is pleased to announce that it has completed the purchase of an aggregate of 5,000 HYPE tokens (the "Tokens"), the native asset of the Hyperliquid ecosystem, as part of its long-term digital asset strategy, at an average purchase price of $53.748 per Token (total purchase price of US$268,740). As of the date hereof, the Company currently holds an aggregate of 33,961.53 Tokens.

"Our approach has never been about making a single, oversized purchase. Instead, we intend to accumulate HYPE tokens at fair entry points over time. This disciplined strategy allows us to steadily increase our position while maintaining flexibility, all in alignment with our long-term conviction in the Hyperliquid ecosystem."

In addition, in connection with the Company's previously completed non-brokered private placement which was completed on September 5, 2025 (the "Offering"), the Company has paid Harshell Investments Pty Ltd. a cash advisory fee in the amount of $9,270.

For more information, please contact:

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Generally, any statements that are not historical facts may contain forward-looking information and forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or indicates that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be" taken, "occur" or "be achieved".

Forward-looking statements in this news release include statements regarding the company's future investing plans and strategies, the growth of the Hyperliquid ecosystem, and the Company's investments. There is no assurance that the Company's plans or objectives will be implemented as set out herein, or at all. Forward-looking information is based on certain factors and assumptions the Company believes to be reasonable at the time such statements are made and is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information.

There can be no assurance that such forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made and the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as required by law. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/265813

SOURCE: HYLQ Strategy Corp.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 10, 2025) - Emperor Metals Inc. (CSE: AUOZ) (OTCQB: EMAUF) (FSE: 9NH) (the "Corporation" or "Emperor Metals") is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with SCP Resource Finance LP ("SCP") to act as lead agent and sole bookrunner on behalf of a syndicate of agents to be formed (together with SCP, the "Agents") in connection with a "best efforts" offering to raise gross proceeds of up to $6,500,080 (the "Offering") consisting of:

Up to 12,500,000 units of the Corporation (each a " Common Unit ") at a price of $0.20 per Common Unit (the " Common Issue Price ") for gross proceeds of up to $2,500,000; and

Up to 14,286,000 units of the Corporation issued on a "flow-through" basis (each a "FT Unit", together with the Common Units, the "Offered Securities") at a price of $0.28 per FT Unit (the "FT Issue Price") for gross proceeds of up to $4,000,080.

The Corporation has also granted to the Agents an option exercisable, in whole or in part, up to three business days prior to closing of the Offering, to increase the size of the Offering by up to an additional 15% of the number of Offered Securities.

Each Common Unit will be comprised of (i) one common share of the Corporation (a "Common Share") and (ii) one-half of one common share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant shall be exercisable to acquire one Common Share at a price of $0.35 per Common Share for a period of 24 months from the closing of the Offering. Each FT Unit will be comprised of (i) one Common Share issued on a "flow-through" basis (a "FT Share") and (ii) one-half of one Warrant. Each FT Share will qualify as a "flow-through share" (within the meaning of subsection 66(15) of the Income Tax Act (Canada) and section 359.1 of the Taxation Act (Quebec). It is contemplated that some or all of the FT Shares will subsequently be re-sold or donated by certain subscribers under the Offering to purchasers arranged by the Agents in accordance with exemptions pursuant to applicable securities laws.

John Florek, Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation states,

"We are thrilled to be partnering with SCP on this brokered financing; a strategic collaboration that will enable us to fully dedicate our efforts to unlocking the true potential of this exceptional deposit. With Emperor Metals' Maiden Mineral Resource Estimate at the Duquesne West Property effectively doubling the historical resource, we see a clear and compelling path to increasing the resource once again through continued, targeted exploration.

The strength of the market and the support of our stakeholders will be instrumental in realizing this growth potential, enabling us to build on the momentum of our recent standout intercepts; including 21.7 metres of 35.2 g/t Au within the conceptual open pit and 10.8 metres of 15.8 g/t Au in the underground environment. These exceptional results underscore the scale and quality of the deposit, both at surface and at depth.

Our goal is to maintain the strong momentum and success we've built on this project. To that end, we plan to immediately launch our next drill program following the close of this financing, driving us toward even greater growth and discovery."

The Offered Securities will be offered in each of the provinces of Canada pursuant to the "listed issuer financing exemption" under Part 5A of National Instrument 45-106 - Prospectus Exemptions, as amended by Coordinated Blanket Order 45-935 - Exemptions from Certain Conditions of the Listed Issuer Financing Exemption (the "LIFE Exemption"). The Common Units may also be offered in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons, by way of private placement pursuant to exemptions from the registration requirements of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") and in other qualifying jurisdictions outside of Canada and the United States that are mutually agreed to by the Corporation and the Agents on a private placement basis pursuant to relevant prospectus and registration exemptions in accordance with applicable laws.

Subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions under applicable Canadian securities legislation, the securities issued under the Offering pursuant to the LIFE Exemption are not expected to be subject to a hold period in Canada under applicable Canadian securities legislation.

There is an offering document related to the Offering (the "Offering Document") that can be accessed under the Corporation's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca and on the Corporation's website at www.emperormetals.com. Prospective investors should read the Offering Document before making an investment decision.

The net proceeds of the Offering will be used to advance the Corporation's Duquesne West Project and Lac Pelletier Project in Quebec, and for general and administrative expenses and working capital purposes, as further described in the Offering Document.

In connection with the Offering, the Corporation has agreed to pay the Agents a cash commission equal to 6.0% of the gross proceeds of the Offering and issue to the Agents warrants (the "Agents' Warrants") exercisable for a period of 24 months following the closing date, to acquire in aggregate that number of Common Shares which is equal to 6.0% of the total number of Offered Securities issued under the Offering at an exercise price equal to the Common Issue Price.

Closing of the Offering is expected on or about October 7, 2025, or such other date as the Corporation and Agents may agree. Completion of the Offering is subject to certain conditions including, but not limited to, the receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals, including the approval of the Canadian Securities Exchange.

About Emperor Metals Inc.

Emperor Metals Inc. is a high-grade gold exploration and development company focused on Quebec's Southern Abitibi Greenstone Belt, leveraging AI-driven exploration techniques. Emperor Metals is dedicated to unlocking the substantial resource potential of the Duquesne West Gold Project and the Lac Pelletier Project, both situated in this prolific mining district.

Emperor Metals is led by a dynamic group of resource sector professionals who have a strong record of success in evaluating and advancing mining projects from exploration through to production, attracting capital and overcoming adversity to deliver exceptional shareholder value. For more information, please refer to SEDAR+ (www.sedarplus.ca), under Emperor Metals' profile.

Under an option agreement, Emperor Metals agreed to acquire a 100% interest in a mineral claim package comprising 38 claims covering approximately 1,389 ha, located in the Duparquet Township of Quebec (the "Duquesne West Property") from Duparquet Assets Ltd., a 50% owned subsidiary of Globex Mining Enterprises Inc. (TSX: GMX).

For more information, please contact:

The securities described herein have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "1933 Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States (as defined in Regulation S under the 1933 Act) unless registered under the 1933 Act and applicable state securities laws, or an exemption from such registration requirements is available. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any state of the United States in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

Neither Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Information

The information contained herein contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. "Forward-looking information" includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the activities, events or developments that the Corporation expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future, including, without limitation, statements with respect to, the completion of the Offering; the expected gross proceeds of the Offering; the use of proceeds from the Offering; the anticipated date for closing of the Offering; the receipt of all necessary regulatory and other approvals, including approval of the Canadian Securities Exchange; increasing the size of the mineral resource at the Duquesne West Property, the expected incurrence by the Corporation of eligible Canadian exploration expenses that will qualify as flow-through mining expenditures; and the renunciation by the Corporation of the Canadian exploration expenses (on a pro rata basis) to each subscriber of FT Units. Generally, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or the negative connotation thereof or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative connotation thereof.

Such forward-looking information is based on numerous assumptions, including among others, that the results of planned exploration activities are as anticipated, the price of gold and other commodities, the anticipated cost of planned exploration activities, that general business and economic conditions will not change in a material adverse manner, that financing will be available if and when needed and on reasonable terms, that third party contractors, equipment and supplies and governmental and other approvals required to conduct the Corporation's planned exploration activities will be available on reasonable terms and in a timely manner. Although the assumptions made by the Corporation in providing forward-looking information are considered reasonable by management at the time, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be accurate.

Forward-looking information and statements also involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual events or results in future periods to differ materially from any projections of future events or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking information or statements, including, among others: negative operating cash flow and dependence on third party financing; uncertainty of additional financing; no known current mineral resources or reserves; the limited operating history of the Corporation; aboriginal title and consultation issues; reliance on key management and other personnel; actual results of exploration activities being different than anticipated; changes in exploration programs based upon results; availability of third party contractors; availability of equipment and supplies; failure of equipment to operate as anticipated; accidents; effects of weather and other natural phenomena and other risks associated with the mineral exploration industry; environmental risks; changes in laws and regulations; community relations and delays in obtaining governmental or other approvals and the risk factors with respect to the Corporation set out in the Corporation's filings with the Canadian securities regulators and available under the Corporation's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

Although the Corporation has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information or implied by forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. The Corporation undertakes no obligation to update or reissue forward-looking information as a result of new information or events except as required by applicable securities laws.

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/265826

SOURCE: Emperor Metals Inc.
BELLEVUE, WA; WEST PALM BEACH, FL AND TORONTO, ON / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / Three leading companies - Ashby & Gabriel, Advaiya, and LAMR Group have formed a security-focused partnership and GTM strategy to offer solutions, staffing, and marketing in the age of AI. The three firms have extensive experience in Security, working with Blue-Chips and startups alike. As Security has taken on an increasingly important footprint - with Digitization and AI- combining the three companies' skill sets and experience creates leverage and scale for a hungry and buoyant marketplace.

"The combination is natural and powerful, "said Paras Shah, Founder and CEO of LAMR Group. "Security is no longer an afterthought, with each enterprise needing to elevate it to a Board-level conversation; as such, our deep vertical experience and focus on products, people, and processes hold us in good stead," he added.

The partnership has already secured customers, across the span of its offerings. "We did not develop the joint GTM in a vacuum. We answered a clear call by customers," said Advaiya President, Dharmesh Godha.

Megan Human Mitchell, Founder and CEO of Ashby & Gabriel said, "Working with LAMR and Advaiya allows our creative and marketing services to be anchored on a solid technology and people-assets foundation. Security is not a unidimensional area and we knew we had to attack it on all fronts."

The partnership will be investing in executive relationships and industry events. With the emergence of Agentic AI, the demand for nuanced and deep security solutions has skyrocketed.

About Advaiya

Advaiya is a technology consulting and services organization that provides tailored technology solutions with a core focus on business applications, cloud, data infrastructure, security and to enable AI with Peripheral Automation.

As a Microsoft Solutions Partner since 2005, Advaiya has been at the forefront of assisting companies with Microsoft platforms. Advaiya is also partners with Sitecore, Databricks, Snowflake, OnePlan and Monday.com to enable holistic transformation and DX for customers. With over 1,000 successful client projects, we have showed consistent value to clients globally.

About Ashby & Gabriel

Ashby & Gabriel is a full-service marketing agency dedicated to helping mission-driven organizations amplify their impact. By combining proven strategies with compelling storytelling, data-driven insights, and innovative branding, we equip our clients with the tools they need to drive meaningful change. Our client-centered model often functions as an extension of in-house marketing teams, providing the strategic expertise and execution needed to achieve measurable results. At Ashby & Gabriel, we believe marketing is more than promotion; it's a catalyst for transformation. Learn more at www.ashbyandgabriel.com.

About LAMR Group

LAMR Group is a boutique security and privacy consulting firm, specializing in all aspects of the space - from people and process to technology and innovation. We count industry stalwarts and startups alike in our client base. Based in Toronto, CA and Bellevue, WA, LAMR offers honesty and integrity in our assessment of your needs and our suggestions for both remediation and proactive solutions.

Contact: Romi Mahajan, Chairman Ashby & Gabriel, President KKM Group | romi@thekkmgroup.com

SOURCE: Ashby & Gabriel

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/publishing-and-media/ashby-and-gabriel-advaiya-and-lamr-group-form-partnership-for-security-solutio-1070820


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Crude oil prices rallied for the third day amidst the spike in geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. Both Brent and WTI crude oil benchmarks added to the strong gains recorded on Tuesday. Concerns about the Ukraine-Russia conflict as well as suggestions by the U.S. to the European Union to impose additional tariffs on buyers of Russian oil also weighed on sentiment. However, oversupply concerns limited gains.



Data released on Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute had shown crude oil inventories in the U.S. rising by 1.25 million barrels during the week ended September 5 versus a 0.62-million-barrel build in the previous week.



Official data by the Energy Information Agency due on Wednesday morning is expected to show a draw of 1.1 million barrels during the week ended September 5 versus a build of 2.42 million barrels in the prior week.



Brent Oil Futures for November settlement is currently trading at $67.05, having gained 0.99 percent from the previous close of $66.39. The day's trading ranged between $66.43 and $67.19 whereas the 52-week trading range was between $58.4 and $82.63.



Despite the recent surge, Brent has slipped 0.77 percent over the past week, limiting monthly gains to 0.68 percent. Year-to-date losses are a little more than 10 percent. Brent oil is also currently down more than 27 percent from the levels three years ago.



West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Crude Oil Futures for October settlement rallied more than 1 percent from the previous close of $62.63 to trade at $63.28. Prices ranged between a high of $63.43 and a low of $62.73 in the day's trading. Trading has ranged between $55.12 and $80.59 over the past 52 weeks.



With weekly losses exceeding 1 percent, gains in the past month have fallen to 0.35 percent. Year-to-date losses exceed 11 percent. Prices are currently more than 26 percent below the levels three years ago.



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Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

 2025 AFX News
PARIS, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- HR Path, a global leader in HR consulting and HRIS solutions, announces the acquisition of Next Generation Inc., its third acquisition within the U.S. market in the last two months.

With a presence in 28 countries and a team of over 2,500 professionals, HR Path is a trusted partner for businesses navigating the complexities of Human Resources. Specializing in advisory, implementation, and operational services, HR Path delivers cutting-edge solutions designed to enhance efficiency and foster growth. Since it was founded in 2001 , the company has stayed true to its mission of reshaping HR practices around the world.

Founded in 2001 and operating offices in Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C., Next Generation, Inc. (NGI) helps its public and commercial sector clients drive HCM and ERP digital and process transformations to enhance employee experience and align business strategies with organizational goals.

This strategic decision reinforces HR Path's presence in North America and continues to build on strong synergies with various partners such as SAP, Oracle, ADP Workforce Software, UKG and Workday.

"We are thrilled to welcome the NGI team to the HR Path family. This strategic union brings together two organizations known across the Americas for delivering exceptional quality and value. Our combined teams share a deep synergy and a reputation for being the go-to partners in the HCM space. By joining forces, we're not just expanding our global footprint, we're creating a powerhouse of talent and expertise that will drive outstanding outcomes for our clients worldwide," said Francois Boulet, Co-founder of HR Path.

"With this acquisition, we are proud to become the largest Workforce Management provider in North America," said Farhan Khan, Partner at HR Path. "This strategic move strengthens our organizational capabilities and positions us as the clear leader in delivering end-to-end HCM solutions. By combining our teams' deep expertise and proven track records, we're not just expanding our footprint, we're creating unmatched value for our clients and setting a new standard for excellence in WFM."

PDF: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2768980/HR_Path_NGI_EN.pdf

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2768887/NGI_Logo.jpg

Contact:

Fabienne Latour

fabienne.latour@hr-path.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/hr-path-continues-to-expand-its-presence-in-the-us-market-with-the-acquisition-of-next-generation-inc-ngi-302551106.html
BERLIN, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- UGREEN, a global leader in consumer electronics, drew strong crowds at IFA 2025 with an impressive showcase of innovations, headlined by the debut of its new product lineup. In official IFA sessions and at its booth, UGREEN gave visitors hands-on demos and immersive showcases of intelligent storage and charging for everyday use.

During the five-day event, the UGREEN booth drew significant attention, reflecting both the draw of its technology and the strong global interest in AI-enabled storage and smart power solutions. The company's efforts earned it 19 separate awards recognizing excellence in innovation and design. These accolades underscored the trust and recognition UGREEN continues to earn from industry observers and end-users alike.

Beyond an immersive presence on the exhibition floor, UGREEN appeared on the IFA Dream Stage on September 6, joining Adobe and Intel in a forward-looking discussion on the future of intelligent storage.

The panel, titled "AI NAS and the Future of Intelligent Storage," spotlighted the growing role of artificial intelligence in redefining data management. Gordon Sylin, Head of NAS Business at Intel, revealed that a joint project with UGREEN will culminate in the launch of the first AI NAS equipped with the Intel Core Ultra 7 processor and with an integrated large language model (LLM). The collaboration with Intel, which began in 2024, lays the foundation for this next-generation product. The device is expected to push boundaries in both smart storage and computing, underscoring the industry's rapid convergence of AI and hardware innovation.

Adobe contributed insights into AI's expanding applications in design and creative work. Matt Christensen, Senior Software QE (Content Intelligence) at Adobe, emphasized that the exploration of AI remains in its early stages, with future developments anticipated to empower creators by combining intelligent storage with AI-driven creative tools. The panel attracted a strong media presence, drawing numerous outlets and sparking an intriguing debate about the transformative potential of AI NAS in both professional and consumer markets.

To complement the discussion, UGREEN created an AI NAS interactive experience zone, offering visitors a hands-on look at next-generation NAS functionality. This zone combined both hardware and software demonstrations with expert-led explanations to illustrate real-world practical applications.

In addition, UGREEN's product experience zone recreated everyday use cases for its latest charging lineup, including at work, home, and travel, highlighting how UGREEN's charging solutions integrate seamlessly into modern lifestyles. Alongside its newest MagFlow series, UGREEN also presented several signature products, including the UGREEN Nexode Retractable Series, UGREEN Nexode 500W, and UGREEN Uno Series. Together, the collection reinforced the company's reputation for delivering versatile solutions for diverse needs.

With its AI NAS collaboration on the horizon, UGREEN has signaled a decisive step toward shaping the next era of intelligent storage. The brand's showcase at IFA 2025 illustrated not only technological breakthroughs already achieved, but also a commitment to driving meaningful advances across storage, charging, and integrated AI solutions.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2770032/Future_of_Intelligent_Storage_Takes_Center_Stage_at_IFA_2025.jpg

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/ifa-2025-ugreen-delivers-an-interactive-showcase-for-intelligent-storage-and-cutting-edge-charging-302552486.html
Jeito Capital announces significant participation in oversubscribed $213M Series D financing for Odyssey Therapeutics to advance clinical pipeline addressing autoimmune diseases with high unmet needs

Investment will support Odyssey's portfolio of clinical and preclinical medicines designed to precisely treat the drivers of complex autoimmune diseases

Jeito will leverage its global network, expertise and strong value creation track record in immunology and inflammation to support Odyssey for the benefit of patients

Paris, September 10, 2025 - Jeito Capital ("Jeito"), a leading global independent private equity fund dedicated to biopharma, today announced its significant participation in the oversubscribed $213 million (184 million1) Series D financing round in Odyssey Therapeutics ("Odyssey"), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company seeking to transform the standard of care for patients suffering from autoimmune and inflammatory diseases by developing medicines that are designed to precisely target disease pathology.

Jeito Capital is the most significant European contributor to this Series D financing, joining new investors such as Affinity Asset Advisors, Dimension Capital, Lightspeed Ventures, TPG Life Sciences Innovations, and Wedbush Healthcare Partners, alongside all existing investors.

Odyssey was founded in 2021 and is led by founder and CEO Gary D. Glick, PhD, alongside a highly experienced management team with a strong track record in drug development and successful biopharma transactions. Since its founding, Odyssey has built comprehensive drug discovery and development capabilities in both the United States and Europe. The company has driven an internally discovered program from ideation through multiple clinical milestones, nominated multiple development candidates, and established collaborations with leading pharmaceutical and biotech partners.

Odyssey's lead compound, OD-07656, is an oral small-molecule RIPK2 scaffolding inhibitor in development for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), including ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease. These conditions cause chronic inflammation of the digestive tract and affect millions of people globally with significant unmet need.

Its second program, an oral small molecule IRAK4 scaffolding inhibitor in preclinical development, targets multiple inflammatory diseases, including atopic dermatitis, hidradenitis suppurativa and osteoarthritis.

Odyssey will use the proceeds to advance its portfolio of clinical and preclinical medicines designed to precisely treat the drivers of complex autoimmune diseases.

Ksenija Pavletic, Partner and Chief Commercial Officer at Jeito, will join Odyssey's Board of Directors.

Jeito's participation reflects both its immunology and inflammation expertise and its strong value-creation track record. Previous investments include HI-BioTM, a company developing targeted therapies for severe immune-mediated diseases, which was acquired by Biogen for up to $1.8 billion in May 2024. Investment in Odyssey builds on this expertise with differentiated small-molecule programs in autoimmune diseases, targeting pathways beyond the adaptive immune system where current therapies fall short. This area continues to attract strong strategic and M&A interest.

Dr Rafaele Tordjman, MD, PhD, Founder and CEO of Jeito Capital, said: "We are pleased to support Odyssey Therapeutics in advancing its innovative approach to address significant treatment limitations in immune disorders. We see continued strong growth in this therapeutic area, driven by large patient populations with significant unmet needs. We look forward to working closely with Odyssey's talented team and will provide our fund's expertise and international network to contribute to Odyssey's development for the benefit of patients."

Ksenija Pavletic, Partner at Jeito Capital, added: "Odyssey brings together strong science, differentiated therapeutic approaches, and a highly experienced management team, all focused on advancing treatments for immune disorders, a growing therapeutic area. We believe in the strength and potential of its therapies and look forward to working with the team to make a meaningful impact in patients' lives."

Gary D. Glick,PhD, Founder and CEO of Odyssey Therapeutics,concluded: "As we advance our programs towards important clinical milestones, we're focused on translating our scientific efforts into meaningful benefit for patients. I'm thankful for the continued support from our investors and their enthusiasm for our mission of delivering truly transformative medicines to patients suffering from inflammatory diseases."

About Jeito Capital

Jeito Capital is a global leading Private Equity fund with a patient benefit driven approach that finances and accelerates the development and growth of ground-breaking medical innovation. Jeito empowers and supports managers through its expert, integrated, multi-talented team and through the investment of significant capital to ensure the growth of companies, building market leaders in their respective therapeutic areas with accelerated patients' access globally, especially in Europe and the United States. Jeito has built a diversified portfolio of clinical biopharmas with cutting-edge innovations addressing high unmet needs. Jeito Capital is based in Paris with a presence in Europe and the United States.

For more information, please visit www.jeito.lifeor follow us on LinkedIn.

About Odyssey Therapeutics

Odyssey Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company seeking to transform the standard of care for patients suffering from autoimmune and inflammatory diseases by developing medicines that are designed to precisely target disease pathology. Since its founding in 2021, Odyssey has built a portfolio of completely internally discovered and developed medicines with the first reaching multiple clinical milestones in just over two years. The portfolio leverages the scientific expertise of its team of experienced drug hunters and a comprehensive suite of tools to efficiently advance product candidates that it believes have the potential to induce deep and durable remission for patients across several inflammatory diseases with unmet need. For more information, please visit odysseytx.comand follow Odyssey Therapeutics on X.

Contacts:

Jeito Capital

Rafaele Tordjman, Founder & CEO

Jessica Fadel, EA

Tel: +33 6 33 44 25 47







Maior

Stephanie Elbaz - Tel: +33 6 46 05 08 07 ICR Healthcare

Europe

Mary-Jane Elliott / Davide Salvi / Kris Lam

Jeito@icrhealthcare.com (mailto:Jeito@icrhealthcare.com)

Tel: +44 (0) 20 3709 5700







United States

Sean Leous

sean.leous@icrhealthcare.com (mailto:sean.leous@icrhealthcare.com)

Tel: +1 (646) 866 4012

1EUR/USD exchange rate: 1 EUR = 1.1604 USD date August 6, 2025 (source: Banque de France)
Provisional estimates from research agency Dutch New Energy Research indicate around 550 MW of solar systems less than 1 MW in size were installed in the Netherlands across the first half of this year.Around 550 MW of solar systems below 1 MW in capacity were installed in the Netherlands during the first half of the year (H1), according to provisional figures shared by independent research agency Dutch New Energy Research. Hrvoje Medarac, team leader at the research institute, told pv magazine there are currently no official numbers for the year and uncertainty around the available data for large-scale ...

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Strategic transition enhances operational capabilities while reinforcing Q4's market leadership in AI-driven investor relations

Q4 Inc., the leading provider of AI-driven IR Ops software, today announced a strategic leadership evolution designed to strengthen execution and extend its position as the category leader in investor relations operations (IR Ops).

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250910804770/en/

Lewis Black, Q4 CEO (left), and Darrell Heaps, Q4 Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer (right)

Lewis Black, a seasoned technology executive with deep experience in software, communications and finance, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer. Black brings more than two decades of leadership in CEO, CFO and COO roles, having successfully scaled multiple software companies through periods of rapid growth and transformation. He joins Q4 following leadership positions at SolarWinds, Actian, Vonage's Nexmo division, Citrix and AT&T.

Founder Darrell Heaps, who has served as CEO since founding Q4, will transition into the role of Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer. In this new capacity, Heaps will focus on corporate strategy, product innovation, including AI leadership in the capital markets, strategic partnerships, and M&A. Heaps will remain actively involved in strategic direction, innovation and corporate development initiatives.

"This evolution represents the natural next step in Q4's growth journey," Heaps said. "As we scale, the future requires both visionary leadership and operational excellence. This structure allows me to dedicate my energy to what I am most passionate about: AI innovation, strategy and partnerships. Lewis brings the operational expertise to ensure we execute at the highest level. I am more confident than ever in Q4's future and the opportunities ahead for our customers, partners and employees."

Black said: "I am honored to build on the incredible foundation Darrell and the Q4 team have created. Q4 is uniquely positioned to lead investor relations into the future through its AI-powered IR Ops platform, unmatched client base and strong culture. My focus will be on disciplined execution, enhancing operational capabilities, and ensuring we deliver consistently for customers and partners. Together with Darrell, I am confident we will continue to build on the company's momentum."

Q4 continues to lead through innovation and industry recognition:

Agentic AI advances: Launched Q, the first IRO Agent, providing real-time AI-powered insights and automation for investor relations officers (IROs).

Launched Q, the first IRO Agent, providing real-time AI-powered insights and automation for investor relations officers (IROs). Accelerating growth: Achieved more than 50% growth in bookings and over 150% growth in AI platform annual recurring revenue (ARR), fueled by new AI products, including Q and AI Earnings Co-Pilot.

Achieved more than 50% growth in bookings and over 150% growth in AI platform annual recurring revenue (ARR), fueled by new AI products, including Q and AI Earnings Co-Pilot. Award-winning products: Won triple recognition in the 2025 American Business Awards, with a Gold Stevie Award (best "New Product: Financial Services"), Silver Stevie Award (best "New Technology: AI Solution Financial") and People's Choice Stevie Award ("Favorite New Product: Financial Services").

Won triple recognition in the 2025 American Business Awards, with a Gold Stevie Award (best "New Product: Financial Services"), Silver Stevie Award (best "New Technology: AI Solution Financial") and People's Choice Stevie Award ("Favorite New Product: Financial Services"). Excellence in customer service: Received multiple recent honors for outstanding customer service, including recognition in Best in Biz Awards and the Stevie Awards for Sales Customer Service.

These all underscore Q4's commitment to delivering market-leading, customer-focused AI solutions that drive meaningful and measurable results, such as 212% ROI, 1,100 hours saved annually and more.

"Q4 has consistently redefined investor relations by anticipating the future needs of issuers and investors," said Mark Haller, Managing Director at Sumeru Equity Partners and member of Q4's Board of Directors. "This leadership evolution positions the company to fully capitalize on its generative AI breakthroughs and extend its position as a category leader in AI-driven investor relations. We look forward to partnering with Lewis and Darrell in this exciting next chapter."

Q4 partners with more than 2,600 public companies worldwide, including over 50% of the S&P 500. Its IR Ops platform powers IR websites, earnings events, CRM, surveillance, and AI-driven applications such as Q, AI Earnings Co-Pilot, and automated earnings summaries. With Q at the center, Q4 is helping investor relations teams reimagine how they work and equipping them with real-time insights, intelligent automation and strategic guidance.

About Q4 Inc.

Q4 Inc. is the leading provider of IR Ops software with the world's largest set of proprietary investor data, purpose-built to remove obstacles between public companies and their investors. Q4 gives investor relations leaders, C-suite executives, and their teams the tools to attract, manage, and understand investors, all in one place. The Q4 Platform is powered by Q, the industry's first AI-powered IRO Agent, and boasts applications for website and event management, engagement analytics, and overall lifecycle management, including AI Earnings Co-Pilot to generate draft scripts based on historical data, and AI earnings call summaries to understand peer sentiment. The Q4 Platform also includes a streamlined investor CRM and shareholder intelligence with enhanced metrics to elevate investor targeting strategies. Q4 delivers the data, insights, and workflows that give IR teams the power to focus on what really matters: strategy, relationships, and driving premium valuations for their companies.

Headquartered in Toronto, with offices in New York and London, Q4 is a trusted partner to more than 2,600 public companies globally, including many of the most respected brands in the world. The company maintains an award-winning culture where team members grow and thrive. Learn more at www.q4inc.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250910804770/en/

Contacts:

Media:

Three Rings

q4@threeringsinc.com
Info-Tech Research Group has revealed the latest round of speakers for Info-Tech LIVE 2025 in Barcelona, the firm's flagship European IT conference. Taking place October 21-22, 2025, at SLS Barcelona, the two-day conference will bring together CIOs, CISOs, and IT executives from across the EMEA region under the event's theme, "Transform IT. Transform Everything."

LONDON, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Info-Tech Research Group, a global leader in IT research and advisory, has announced the second round of featured speakers for Info-Tech LIVE 2025 in Barcelona, Spain, scheduled for October 21-22 at SLS Barcelona. Building on previous announcements, including featured keynote speaker Dave Coplin, this update introduces additional experts who will bring fresh perspectives, research insights, and practical strategies to the European stage.

"There is growing momentum for Info-Tech LIVE 2025 in Barcelona," says Nigel Bowles, Vice President, Info-Tech Research Group, UK. "The carefully curated speaker roster will give attendees insights and perspectives that address the most urgent priorities in IT today, from operationalising AI to strengthening cybersecurity and modernising leadership practices. Participants will leave with the clarity, tools, and peer insights they need to make measurable progress within their organisations."

Featured Speakers and Sessions at Info-Tech LIVE 2025 in Barcelona

Info-Tech LIVE 2025 in Barcelona offers a blend of research leadership and practical experience on stage. The sessions will focus on key priorities such as infrastructure and operations, Exponential IT, leadership and talent development, and core IT process improvement.

Speaker: John Annand, Practice Lead, Info-Tech Research Group

John Annand's work focuses on refining technology road mapping to ensure IT initiatives align with business priorities, alongside modernisation projects in networking, storage, and the data centre. With a broad understanding across IT domains, Annand has helped organisations navigate the challenges of emerging technologies such as cloud and software-defined infrastructure.



Session: The Infrastructure & Operations Playbook: Secrets & Steps to Systematically Achieve IT Excellence

In this interactive workshop, participants will be guided through the 12-step Infrastructure & Operations Playbook, with practical advice on how to apply the methodology to their own environments. Attendees will leave with a prioritised roadmap to begin transforming I&O from reactive firefighting to proactive, forward-driving excellence.



John Annand's work focuses on refining technology road mapping to ensure IT initiatives align with business priorities, alongside modernisation projects in networking, storage, and the data centre. With a broad understanding across IT domains, Annand has helped organisations navigate the challenges of emerging technologies such as cloud and software-defined infrastructure. In this interactive workshop, participants will be guided through the 12-step Infrastructure & Operations Playbook, with practical advice on how to apply the methodology to their own environments. Attendees will leave with a prioritised roadmap to begin transforming I&O from reactive firefighting to proactive, forward-driving excellence. Speaker: Gord Harrison, Chief Research Officer, Info-Tech Research Group

Gord Harrison has been with Info-Tech since 2002, shaping its research into the practical, tactical, and value-driven product it is today. With a background in IT consulting, business analysis, software development, and technical architecture, Harrison focuses on helping CIOs cut through complexity and deliver measurable outcomes.



Session: Transform IT, Transform Everything

In this keynote, attendees will learn how CIOs can survive and thrive amid supply chain disruption, tariffs, market volatility, and AI breakthroughs. By leveraging advanced technology and Exponential IT, CIOs can transform their departments and step into broader leadership roles as technology-first enterprises take shape.



Gord Harrison has been with Info-Tech since 2002, shaping its research into the practical, tactical, and value-driven product it is today. With a background in IT consulting, business analysis, software development, and technical architecture, Harrison focuses on helping CIOs cut through complexity and deliver measurable outcomes. In this keynote, attendees will learn how CIOs can survive and thrive amid supply chain disruption, tariffs, market volatility, and AI breakthroughs. By leveraging advanced technology and Exponential IT, CIOs can transform their departments and step into broader leadership roles as technology-first enterprises take shape. Speaker: Carlene McCubbin , Associate Vice President, Research Development, Info-Tech Research Group

Carlene McCubbin leads research on operating models, governance, and human capital development at Info-Tech. She has built the firm's Organisation and Leadership practice and worked with clients to design custom programs that align IT capabilities with business needs. McCubbin holds a master's in Communications Management from McGill University and brings extensive expertise in communications, change management, and organisational design to her work.



Session: The Race to Develop Talent: The Hidden Speed Limit on IT's Ambition

This keynote explores the AI-Human Flywheel, a practical model for scaling capability through automation, augmentation, agent integration, and human adaptability. Attendees will be shown how IT leaders can accelerate talent development across both people and machines to ensure their organisations can adapt and thrive in an AI-shaped world.



Carlene McCubbin leads research on operating models, governance, and human capital development at Info-Tech. She has built the firm's Organisation and Leadership practice and worked with clients to design custom programs that align IT capabilities with business needs. McCubbin holds a master's in Communications Management from McGill University and brings extensive expertise in communications, change management, and organisational design to her work. This keynote explores the AI-Human Flywheel, a practical model for scaling capability through automation, augmentation, agent integration, and human adaptability. Attendees will be shown how IT leaders can accelerate talent development across both people and machines to ensure their organisations can adapt and thrive in an AI-shaped world. Speaker: Hannes Scheidegger, SVP, Brand Reach & Influence, Info-Tech Research Group

Hannes Scheidegger leads Info-Tech's global services, overseeing executive and technical counselor programs, client success, and consulting. With more than 20 years of experience, Scheidegger's expertise spans public and commercial sectors, with a focus on systematic IT improvement and delivering measurable value to members worldwide.



Session: Manage and Improve Core IT Capabilities

Attendees will be introduced to Info-Tech's framework for improving core IT processes. This breakout will help IT leaders move beyond basic services to advanced practices that create tangible organisational value and establish a foundation for long-term success.

Attendees at the Barcelona edition of LIVE 2025 can expect a comprehensive program combining strategic insights with practical applications. Mainstage keynotes will deliver forward-looking perspectives from industry experts and Info-Tech analysts on the future of IT strategy and innovation. Breakout sessions and roundtables will offer in-depth discussions on emerging trends, leadership challenges, and technology priorities.

Participants can also schedule one-on-one meetings with analysts for personalised advisory guidance, as well as attend networking sessions to connect with IT leaders from across EMEA and beyond.

As part of Info-Tech's expanding global conference series, the Barcelona edition builds on successful LIVE events in Brisbane and Las Vegas earlier this year, and precedes the final Canadian stop in Montreal, November 25-26, 2025.

Further details on keynote speakers and agenda will be announced soon. Follow Info-Tech Research Group on LinkedIn and X for updates.

Media Passes for Info-Tech LIVE 2025 in Barcelona

Media professionals, including journalists, podcasters, and influencers, are invited to attend Info-Tech LIVE 2025 in Barcelona to gain exclusive access to research, content, and interviews with industry leaders for their audiences.

Media professionals can apply for complimentary in-person passes by contacting pr@infotech.com.

Exhibitor Opportunities

Exhibitors are also invited to showcase their products and services to an engaged audience of IT decision-makers at Info-Tech LIVE 2025 in Barcelona. For more information about exhibitor opportunities, please contact events@infotech.com.

About Info-Tech Research Group

Info-Tech Research Group is one of the world's leading research and advisory firms, proudly serving over 30,000 IT and HR professionals. The company produces unbiased, highly relevant research and provides advisory services to help leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. For nearly 30 years, Info-Tech has partnered closely with teams to provide them with everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organisations.

To learn more about Info-Tech's divisions, visit McLean & Company for HR research and advisory services and SoftwareReviews for software-buying insights.

Media professionals can register for unrestricted access to research across IT, HR, and software, and hundreds of industry analysts through the firm's Media Insiders program. To gain access, contact pr @infotech.com .

Media Contact: Sufyan Al-Hassan, Senior PR Manager, Info-Tech Research Group, salhassan@infotech.com | +1 (888) 670-8889 x2418

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BERWYN, PA / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / Chilean Cobalt Corp. (OTCQB:COBA) ("Chilean Cobalt" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that an independent panel of globally recognized sustainability experts from Digbee has awarded it an inaugural overall rating of BB for both its corporate and project performance, signifying its strong commitment to sustainable Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices.

A BB rating signals that Chilean Cobalt has taken meaningful steps to embed ESG into its strategy and operations, and that its governance, stakeholder engagement, and environmental planning are aligned with leading global sustainability frameworks. According to Digbee's framework, ratings from BB to AAA recognize present positives and opportunities for improvement, while lower ratings reflect current risks or gaps.

This milestone reflects Chilean Cobalt's commitment to responsible development, transparent reporting, independent verification, and continuous improvement. The rating provides a credible, third-party baseline from which the Company will continue to strengthen its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance.

At Chilean Cobalt, responsibility is treated not merely as a principle, but as a practice. This independent assessment affirms a strong commitment to identifying and mitigating ESG risks. Through thoughtful, transparent action, the Company is dedicated to building long-term value for stakeholders. This rating is seen as a starting point rather than a finish line, with continued efforts planned to strengthen ESG initiatives.

Digbee's assessment methodology evaluates a comprehensive range of globally-aligned ESG factors, such as biodiversity, water stewardship, community engagement, governance, and infrastructure reuse. It considers both the asset's context and the effectiveness of management actions. The platform is endorsed by leading global financiers and designed to support future-looking risk mitigation strategies.

Chilean Cobalt's submission included detailed disclosures on:

Brownfield redevelopment of the historic La Cobaltera project and broader San Juan district

Infrastructure proximity and low-impact exploration planning

Stakeholder engagement and community alignment

Governance practices and Board oversight of ESG risks

The Company's Board and Management Team are committed to integrating ESG considerations into strategic decision-making and operational execution. Chilean Cobalt will use the Digbee rating to guide future improvements, track progress, and communicate transparently with investors and stakeholders.

Key Highlights from the Digbee ESG Assessment:

Governance & Strategy : ESG is embedded in company strategy, supported by a Board with diverse expertise in sustainability, government relations, mining, and finance. A formal ESG Management Plan is in development, informed by frameworks established by Digbee and the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA).

Environmental Stewardship : The La Cobaltera project benefits from brownfield redevelopment and existing infrastructure.

Innovation & Risk Mitigation : The Company is exploring bioleaching of legacy tailings and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-assisted exploration to reduce environmental footprint and improve targeting.

Transparency & Continuous Improvement: Chilean Cobalt has committed to an IRMA self-assessment and is using the Digbee rating to guide future ESG capability development.

"Copper and cobalt supply chains are increasingly being differentiated by their ability to prove responsibility and resilience," according to Digbee CEO & Founder Jamie Strauss. "Chilean Cobalt's commitment to independent verification through Digbee not only strengthens efficiency within its operations but also builds the trust that stakeholders - from local communities, offtake providers to global investors - are demanding. This step demonstrates that responsible mining is no longer optional; it is a strategic advantage that sets leaders apart in critical mineral supply chains."

To read the full report, please visit https://digbee.com/organisation/chilean-cobalt-corp/overview

About Chilean Cobalt Corp.

Chilean Cobalt Corp. is a US-based and US-listed critical minerals exploration and development company focused on the La Cobaltera cobalt-copper project in northern Chile, one of the world's few primary cobalt districts. Chilean Cobalt is committed to creating ecological and social value for all stakeholders; economic value for Chile and the Chilean communities in which it operates; and financial value for its shareholders.

Safe Harbor Statement

This news release contains statements that involve expectations, plans or intentions (such as those relating to future business or financial results) and other factors discussed from time to time in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings. These statements are forward-looking and are subject to risks and uncertainties, so actual results may vary materially. You can identify these forward-looking statements by words such as "may," "should," "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "intend," "plan" and other similar expressions. Examples of forward-looking statements, include, among others, statements the Company makes regarding its management's ability to integrate ESG considerations into strategic decision-making and operational execution, its ability to responsibly redevelop, including the ability to establish "Proven" or "Probable" Reserves, as defined by the SEC under Industry Guide 7, through the completion of a Definitive Feasibility Study for the minerals that the Company seeks to produce and the inherent risks of mining, exploration, development, and processing operations that may negatively impact the business. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors not within the control of the Company. The Company cautions readers not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. The Company disclaims any obligation subsequently to revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events

CONTACTS:

Chilean Cobalt Corp.

Duncan T. Blount

Chairman & CEO

Duncan.Blount@chileancobaltcorp.com

SOURCE: Chilean Cobalt Corp.

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/metals-and-mining/chilean-cobalt-corp.-announces-inaugural-digbee-esg-rating-highlighting-commitmen-1071052
Elko, Nevada--(Newsfile Corp. - September 10, 2025) - Lithium Corporation (OTCQB: LTUM) ("the Company"), a mineral exploration company committed to advancing North America's energy independence through domestic critical mineral resource exploration and development, is pleased to announce the execution of a binding Deed of Termination and Assignment with Morella Corporation Limited (ASX: 1MC) ("Morella"), restructuring joint venture arrangements over the Fish Lake Valley ("FLV") South and North Big Smoky ("NBS") lithium prospects in Nevada, USA.





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The restructuring follows a comprehensive review by Morella of the FLV South and NBS project areas which demonstrated promising lithium exploration results and are regarded as high-potential assets with strong development pathways. The new agreement allows Lithium Corporation to focus on advancing the Fish Lake Valley North prospect, where lithium-boron enriched brine was produced in the past. The reappearance of the FLV North project as a 100% owned asset will greatly enhance the Company's broader portfolio of critical minerals prospects including its San Emidio lithium prospect in northwestern Nevada, and rare earth elements, graphite, antimony and fluorspar prospects in British Columbia, Canada. The revised structure enables both parties to focus on the most prospective areas within their respective portfolios, while maintaining alignment through royalty and ROFR mechanisms.

Lithium Corporation believes this agreement enhances its strategic flexibility and preserves long-term value through retained royalty interests and continued exposure to the development of FLV South and NBS. The Company remains committed to advancing its wholly owned assets and evaluating new opportunities in the critical minerals exploration sector.

Tom Lewis, President, Lithium Corporation, commented, "This restructuring reflects a pragmatic and mutually beneficial evolution of our long-standing relationship with Morella. By simplifying ownership structures and retaining royalty exposure, Lithium Corporation is well-positioned to benefit from future development success at FLV South and NBS, while focusing our efforts on advancing FLV North and our other assets."

Key Terms of the Agreement

Project Realignment

Morella will assume 100% ownership of the FLV South and NBS project areas.

Lithium Corporation will retain 100% ownership of the FLV North claims.

Royalty Interests

Lithium Corporation retains a 3.5% Net Smelter Royalty (NSR) over both FLV South and NBS.

Morella holds the right to repurchase 50% of the NSR for $3 million USD (FLV South) and $2 million USD (NBS) within five years.

Equity Considerations

Shares previously due to Lithium Corporation in 2025 under the original agreements will now be issued on a staggered basis over an 18-month period.

All future share entitlements beyond this issuance have been extinguished.

Mutual Rights of First Refusal (ROFR)

Both parties grant each other a ROFR on any future transfer or disposal of claims or NSR interests, reinforcing a continued collaborative relationship.

Learn more about Lithium Corporation's complete portfolio of lithium, graphite, titanium/rare earth elements, antimony and fluorspar prospects:

https://lithiumcorporation.com/projects/

About Lithium Corporation

Lithium Corporation is a mineral exploration company dedicated to securing North America's energy independence through domestic critical mineral resources. As one of the few Project Generators in North America's critical minerals sector, the Company leverages its extensive exploration expertise to focus on energy metals with the goal of helping achieve energy independence for North America.

The Company's dual operational focus spans two worldclass mining jurisdictions, with promising lithium prospects in Nevada, USA, and a diverse portfolio of titanium, rare earth elements, graphite, fluorspar, and antimony properties in British Columbia, Canada. Lithium Corporation is committed to driving a secure and independent energy future for North America through strategic investments in energy metals exploration and related opportunities, such as renewable energy generation and energy storage solutions.

About Morella Corporation

Morella Corporation is an exploration and resource development company focused on lithium and battery minerals. The company is engaged in exploration, resource definition, and development activities on projects strategically located in Tier 1 mining jurisdictions in both Australia and the United States. Morella is dedicated to securing and developing lithium raw materials to meet the growing demand for battery minerals essential for the global transition to a low carbon economy.

Contact

James Brown, Managing Director

info@morellacorp.com

On behalf of the Board of Directors

"Tom Lewis"

Tom Lewis,

President & CEO

Website: www.lithiumcorporation.com

Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This current report contains "forward-looking statements," as that term is defined in Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Statements in this press release which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future.

Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others, the inherent uncertainties associated with mineral exploration and difficulties associated with obtaining financing on acceptable terms. We are not in control of minerals prices and these could vary to make development uneconomic. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the beliefs, plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions will prove to be accurate. Investors should consult all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk factors disclosure outlined in our most recent annual report for our last fiscal year, our quarterly reports, and other periodic reports filed from time-to-time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Lithium Corporation (OTCQB: LTUM) 1031 Railroad St. Ste 102B Elko NV 89801 (775) 410-5287 www.lithiumcorporation.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/265838

SOURCE: Lithium Corporation
Startups from cybersecurity, semiconductors, Agentic AI to LegalTech to showcase their solutions across San Francisco, Dallas, and New York

SAN FRANCISCO and DALLAS and NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Nasscom's DeepTech startups takes the spotlight this month as 27 ventures embark on InnoTrek 2025 - USA, a two-week immersion program designed to foster exploration, learning, partnership, and exchange between Indian innovators and the U.S. technology landscape.

Running from September 8-19, the program unfolds across San Francisco, Dallas, and New York, offering most promising technology ventures an opportunity to engage with global peers, universities, enterprises, and accelerators. The focus is on learning from diverse innovation ecosystems, forging partnerships, exchanging ideas, and building collaborative understanding across disciplines ranging from AI to Climate Tech.

Speaking about the program,Rajesh Nambiar, President, Nasscom, said, "InnoTrek is all about discovery, dialogue, and co-learning. As we build our deep technology capabilities, it is important to immerse in other innovation cultures, forge meaningful partnerships, share our perspectives, and bring back learnings that enrich this growing DeepTech ecosystem. Earlier this year, we hosted InnoTrek Middle East, engaging in strategic co-learning sessions across Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The program underscores both the sophistication and the global relevance of our DeepTech ecosystem, connecting founders with diverse hubs of product innovation and ideas worldwide."

The 2025 cohort reflects the breadth of DeepTech innovation. Featured startups include:

Beagle Security offers AI-powered automated penetration testing that simulates real-world attacks and uncovers vulnerabilities early. It provides actionable remediation to help businesses stay secure, compliant, and ahead of evolving cyber threats.

bluCursor Infotech is an AI-first technology company building intelligent solutions in computer vision, automation and analytics to help global enterprises drive innovation and make smarter decisions. The startup offers cutting-edge vision AI that delivers accurate, real-time video insights with minimal latency - transforming surveillance into smart, automated and scalable solution.

Dave AI offers vertical AI platform that combines SLM-powered agents, virtual avatars, and microbots to automate sales, service, and customer interaction workflows for dealerships, OEMs, and EV brands in the U.S. auto industry.

DgVerse is a decentralized credentialing platform enabling organizations to issue, manage, and verify tamper-proof digital certificates as NFTs and SBTs-ensuring global verifiability, authenticity, and secure ownership using DLT. It turns credentials into verifiable NFTs/SBTs with embedded DIDs-making them tamper-proof, secure, globally verifiable, and easy to issue and manage with a user-friendly platform that integrates seamlessly with existing systems.

Edgeble AI is building a self-learning Edge AI platform combining runtime, and silicon to make global edge deployments adaptive, autonomous, and agentic.

Eigenlytics Data Solutions is setting new standards of Intelligent Document Processing with SaaS offering DocEye, which recognises and extracts data, analyses and takes appropriate call to action to automate document (digital & physical) driven operations. 'DocEye' not only recognises document and extracts information, but it also analyses and takes appropriate call to action in order to automated document (digital & physical) driven business operations.

Faclon Labs calls themselves as the operating system for the physical world, adding a layer of AI on the top of manufacturing infra, helping them achieve operational excellence. It blends deeptech AI, IoT, and no-code deployment with robust IT-OT integration, prebuilt ML/GenAI assets, turnkey implementation, cybersecurity, and domain consulting, offering end-to-end digital transformation with rapid time-to-value.

Immverse Innovations democratises one to one learning to millions to learn directly from source material/author with GenAI in multilingual multimodal Foundational AI model.

IntelleWings is an AI-powered AML/CFT compliance platform helping financial institutions detect and prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. They serve 200+ clients globally, offering modular, secure, and regulator-ready solutions. IntelleWings uniquely combines proprietary global screening data, advanced AI anomaly detection, vernacular adverse media coverage, and explainable AI, reducing false positives by 77% and false negatives by 90%, ensuring compliance accuracy.

INTENTBI is the world's first prompt-free Business Intelligence tool that turns raw data into dashboards, forecasts, and insights in seconds, without any queries or technical steps. The Foundational Generative AI startup enables business users with deep data analysis without the need of prompts, queries or analyst help.

Is Going Online is a retail tech startup that does 3D catalogue and management. Its ecosystem consists of a 3D scanning station, cloud-based media rendering and cataloguing solution. The company helps manufacturers and e-commerce sellers digitize physical products into smart 3D assets leveraging their AI-powered scanner and SaaS tools.

LiaPlus AI provides AI Employees for customer support who speak 18+ languages, handle post-call actions, boost sales, and cut manual work. The startup offers voice-first AI with proprietary datasets, custom training for each client, secure on-premises deployment, and 6000+ app integrations-ensuring data privacy, accuracy, and scalable support for B2B enterprises.

Pazo leverages AI to turn store photos into instant VM compliance checks, eliminating manual follow-ups and ensuring perfect execution across all stores. Pazo's AI verifies retail compliance in seconds. Designed for frontline simplicity with HQ visibility, they transform VM from cost centre to profit driver with measurable ROI.

Perpetuuiti Technosoft empowers businesses with AI-driven resilience to cut costs, reduce recovery time, and ensure seamless business operations. Perpetuuiti's AI-powered Operational Resilience Platform helps nations and enterprises reduce RTOs by 80% and costs by 50%, securing critical infrastructure against IT failures and cyber threats-strengthening the digital backbone of economies.

PrivaSapien delivers full-stack AI TRiSM with advanced privacy, security, and governance tools for safe, compliant, and responsible AI adoption. The company offers the world's first full-stack AI TRiSM platform covering end-to-end 'data in use' privacy, security, and governance- uniting PETs, PPML, and Responsible AI (RAI) to enable safe, compliant, and ethical AI deployment at scale.

Quanfluence empowers industries to exceed conventional computational limits with quantum and quantum-inspired photonic hardware. The company delivers faster, energy-efficient solutions to complex optimization problems using photonic quantum technologies. They work alongside AI, unlocking hard decisions, accelerating inference, and enhancing precision and data-driven outcomes.

Quoqo Technologies is a LegalTech startup that streamlines complex contract workflows using AI-driven comparison, clause-level insights, and risk scoring to close deals faster. Their AI-powered negotiation engine DealFast blends semantic diffing, clause intelligence, heatmaps, and risk scoring to flag material changes instantly, cutting review time by up to 90% while boosting compliance confidence.

Saptang Labs delivers unified, AI-driven cybersecurity solutions to detect, neutralize, and prevent modern threats. Their complete security stack covers app, bot, credential, dark web, and domain monitoring, with 24/7 expert response and protection.

Spontaine is a 'data-to-explainable AI' platform that unifies fragmented data for mid-market businesses, delivering actionable insights and scalable agentic AI in just weeks.

Staqu Technologies transforms existing CCTVs into AI-powered intelligence, trusted by police forces in 11 states and over 90 enterprises for security, safety, and retail insights. The solution requires no new hardware, is globally benchmarked and scalable, and is the first ONVIF-compliant VMS with real-time video analytics-offering 85+ on-the-go safety and security insights, along with an integrated GPT model that lets users 'chat with their camera.

SuperBryn AI enables voice bots to run safely in production by monitoring every call, testing changes, and auto-correcting issues to reduce cost and errors. As the only voice-AI layer that closes the loop, its A/B-tests fixes and automatically updates prompts and model routing-allowing agents to self-improve without constant human tuning.

Trench Security is an AI-enabled SOC platform delivering 24x7 threat monitoring at twice the performance and half the cost. Its multi-agent AI autonomously investigates alerts from security tools with human analyst reinforcement, while offering customer-controlled tuning and training-ensuring context-driven precision in security operations.

VITT AI is an AI Companion for sales team, offering real-time, in meeting, guidance and automation to boost conversions, productivity, and compliance. Unlike post-meeting analytics/notes tools, VITT provides real-time intelligence during live voice, video, and in-person interactions. Built on open-source models, it supports SaaS and on-prem deployments-ensuring flexibility, control, and compliance.

Waanee AI boosts CSAT 25% with 24/7 support, improves first-call resolution, cuts wait times, and reduces costs 30% via automation and agent efficiency. Its cloud-agnostic, agentic CX platform boosts revenue and slashes complexity.

Wundrsight Health builds XR-based digital therapeutics for immersive, evidence-based mental healthcare that improves patient outcomes and therapy adherence. Wundrsight delivers immersive, evidence-based therapy via XR, boosting patient adherence 3x and therapist efficiency 30%, with EHR-integrated, scalable deployment.

Xane AI transforms product interaction with AI powered camera and voice system for customer experience & retention. Xane AI's proprietary platform uses computer vision and NLP to turn any device into a smart, self-explaining system with more than 98% accuracy, real-time camera-based support, multilingual help, and deep OEM integration - far beyond chatbots or PDFs.

Zero Carbon One is an AI and blockchain-powered platform for GHG audits, ESG reporting & carbon credits that helps businesses decarbonize and boost sustainability impact. Zero Carbon One uniquely combines AI, blockchain, and climate modelling to deliver end-to-end automation of GHG accounting, ESG reporting, and carbon credit generation-ensuring accuracy, compliance, and impact for hard-to-abate sectors.

About Nasscom

Nasscom represents the voice of over $284bn technology industry in India with the vision to establish the nation as the world's leading technology ecosystem. Boasting a diverse and influential community of over 3500 member companies our network spans the entire spectrum of the industry from DeepTech and AI start-ups to multinationals and from products to services, Global Capability Centres to Engineering firms. Guided by our vision, our strategic imperatives are to accelerate skilling at scale for future-ready talent, strengthen the innovation quotient across industry verticals, create new market opportunities - both international and domestic, drive policy advocacy to advance innovation and ease of doing business, and build the industry narrative with a focus on Trust, and innovation. And, in everything we do, we will continue to champion the need for diversity and equal opportunity.

For more details visit our website https://nasscom.in/ or write to us at: comms@nasscom.in

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The "United Kingdom Loyalty Programs Market Intelligence and Future Growth Dynamics 50+ KPIs on Loyalty Programs Trends by End-Use Sectors, Operational KPIs, Retail Product Dynamics, and Consumer Demographics Q3 2025 Update" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The loyalty market in United Kingdom is expected to grow by 14.6% on annual basis to reach US$2.56 billion in 2025. In value terms, the loyalty market in the country has recorded a CAGR of 16.4% during 2020-2024. The loyalty market in the country will continue to grow over the forecast period and is expected to record a CAGR of 12.2% during 2025-2029. The loyalty market in this region is expected to increase from US$2.23 billion in 2024 to reach US$4.06 billion by 2029.

This report provides a detailed data-centric analysis of the loyalty market opportunities and risks across a range of end-use sectors and market segments in United Kingdom. With over 50 KPIs at the country level, this report provides a comprehensive understanding of loyalty market dynamics, market size and forecast, and market share statistics.

The UK's loyalty program landscape is evolving with a strong focus on personalization, digital integration, and the revival of traditional perks. Retailers like Boots and Tesco leverage data analytics and mobile apps to enhance customer engagement, providing personalized rewards and seamless digital experiences. At the same time, brands such as Waitrose are reintroducing classic loyalty benefits, such as free coffee, to strengthen customer relationships in a competitive market. These strategies reflect a broader shift toward consumer-centric loyalty programs prioritizing convenience, relevance, and tangible rewards.

In parallel, coalition and airline loyalty programs are undergoing significant transformations. The expansion of multi-brand loyalty initiatives such as the Nectar program demonstrates the appeal of shared rewards across multiple retailers, offering customers greater flexibility and value. Meanwhile, airlines like British Airways are restructuring their loyalty frameworks to reward higher spending rather than distance traveled, aligning benefits with profitability. As businesses refine their loyalty strategies, the UK market is expected to see further innovation, with companies balancing personalization, digital engagement, and strategic partnerships to enhance customer loyalty and retention.

The future of the UK's loyalty market will be shaped by enhanced digital ecosystems, regulatory changes, and evolving consumer preferences. Programs that offer seamless omnichannel experiences, sustainability incentives, and data-driven personalization will have a competitive edge. While large players leverage their extensive networks, niche and fintech-driven programs must innovate to remain relevant. Companies aligning with consumer expectations and regulatory compliance will unlock the full potential of loyalty programs in this dynamic market.

Emphasis on Personalized Rewards

UK consumers increasingly favor loyalty programs that offer personalized rewards tailored to their shopping habits. For instance, the Boots Advantage Card provides personalized offers through its app, allowing customers to access tailored discounts and deals based on purchasing behavior.

Advancements in data analytics enable retailers to better understand individual customer preferences, allowing them to offer more relevant and appealing rewards.

The focus on personalization is expected to intensify, with more businesses leveraging customer data to deliver customized experiences, enhancing customer loyalty and retention.

Integration of Digital Platforms in Loyalty Programs

UK retailers increasingly integrate digital platforms into their loyalty programs to enhance customer engagement. For example, Tesco's Clubcard has a digital app that allows customers to track their points, access personalized offers, and receive digital coupons.

The widespread use of smartphones and the growing consumer preference for digital interactions drive this trend.

The integration of digital platforms is expected to become more prevalent, with businesses enhancing their loyalty programs through mobile apps and online platforms to provide a seamless and engaging customer experience.

Revival of Traditional Loyalty Perks

Some UK retailers are reintroducing traditional loyalty perks to attract and retain customers. Waitrose, for instance, has reinstated its offer of free coffee to MyWaitrose loyalty scheme members, regardless of whether they make a purchase, as part of its strategy to compete with rivals like Marks Spencer.

Customer feedback and the need to differentiate in a competitive market drive the revival of such traditional perks.

This approach is likely to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty, prompting other retailers to consider reintroducing similar perks to strengthen their loyalty programs.

Evolution of Airline Loyalty Programs

Airlines in the UK are restructuring their loyalty programs to better reward high-spending customers. British Airways, for example, is rebranding its Executive Club to British Airways Club and changing its Tier point system to be based on the amount of money spent on tickets rather than the distance traveled.

The need to align rewards with profitability and to incentivize higher spending among passengers drives this trend.

This shift is expected to encourage increased spending among frequent flyers while potentially disadvantaging economy-class travelers and those flying with partner airlines.

Growth of Coalition Loyalty Programs

Coalition loyalty programs, where multiple businesses collaborate to offer shared rewards, are gaining popularity in the UK. The Nectar program, for example, allows customers to collect points across various retailers, including Sainsbury's, Esso, and eBay, which can be redeemed for discounts or offers at any partner store.

The desire to offer customers more versatile and valuable rewards by pooling resources among partner businesses drives this trend.

Expanding coalition programs are expected to continue, providing customers with more comprehensive and appealing loyalty benefits and thereby enhancing customer retention across participating brands.

Current State of the UK's Loyalty Program Market

The UK's loyalty landscape is dominated by long-standing programs such as Nectar (Sainsbury's), Tesco Clubcard, and Boots Advantage Card. Each caters to millions of customers with multi-brand partnerships and retail discounts.

Retail-focused loyalty programs remain popular, with Tesco Clubcard offering members exclusive discounts and personalized coupons based on purchase history, driving high engagement.

Coalition programs such as Nectar allow customers to earn and redeem points across multiple brands, including Sainsbury's, eBay, and Argos, making them highly versatile and attractive.

Financial institutions integrate rewards into their credit card offerings, such as American Express Membership Rewards and Barclays Blue Rewards, providing cashback, travel perks, and retailer discounts.

Digital wallets and fintech firms are reshaping the loyalty space, with platforms like Monzo and Revolut offering cashback and point-based rewards tied to spending behavior.

Competition Intensity in the UK's Loyalty Market

The market is highly competitive, with retailers, financial institutions, and digital platforms competing for customer engagement. Tesco and Sainsbury's loyalty programs dominate grocery retail, while Boots leads in the pharmacy sector.

Companies are investing in AI-driven personalization to enhance customer engagement. For instance, Tesco's Clubcard app offers tailored discounts based on shopping patterns, increasing retention.

Price sensitivity among UK consumers pushes brands to offer immediate and flexible rewards. For instance, Tesco's Clubcard Prices program provides instant savings at checkout, making it more appealing than delayed point-based rewards.

Subscription-based loyalty models are emerging, such as Amazon Prime and Tesco Clubcard Plus, offering members exclusive deals, free delivery, and added perks in exchange for a monthly fee.

Future Competitive Landscape

AI and machine learning will drive deeper personalization, with loyalty programs leveraging customer data to offer real-time, tailored rewards and predictive insights. Tesco and Nectar are expected to expand their use of AI-driven shopping behavior analysis.

Coalition loyalty ecosystems will expand, allowing customers to earn and redeem points seamlessly across industries. For instance, Avios' partnership with Uber allows members to earn flight miles through ride-hailing services.

Sustainability-driven rewards will grow as UK consumers prioritize ethical and eco-friendly choices. Retailers such as Marks Spencer's "Sparks" program already incentivize customers with charity donations and sustainability-focused perks.

Regulatory scrutiny will increase, requiring programs to be more transparent about how data is used, stored, and monetized. This will push companies to adopt privacy-first loyalty models.

Key Attributes:

Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 130 Forecast Period 2025 2029 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2025 $2.56 Billion Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2029 $4.06 Billion Compound Annual Growth Rate 12.2% Regions Covered United Kingdom

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/f8bmdg

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

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DUBAI, UAE, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- PSAG Technologies, a global professional services, consulting, and technology solutions provider, announced the appointment of Mr. Anil Hingorani as General Manager - Business Operations for itsMiddle East (Dubai) operations. In this strategic leadership role, Anil will oversee operational excellence, strengthen customer experience transformation initiatives, and drive growth across the Middle East and surrounding markets.

A Global Leader in Customer Experience and Digital Transformation

With over two decades of experience, Anil Hingorani brings cross-functional expertise in Customer Experience (CX) digital transformation across global markets. He has led roles in solution consulting, presales, service delivery, and sales, driving scalable growth and customer-focused innovation. His experience spans EMEA, APAC, and the U.S., with domain knowledge across BFSI, Retail, and the Public Sector. A certified TOGAF, PRINCE2, and ITIL professional, Anil is also an alumnus of the General Management Program at IIM-A. He has built strategic alliances with tech leaders like Tableau and SAS, shaping modern, sector-specific CX solutions.

"I'm excited to take on this role at a time when PSAG Technologies is expanding rapidly in the Middle East and globally. My focus will be on enhancing our operational capabilities, driving client success, and supporting our teams as we deliver meaningful digital transformation for customers across the region." - Anil Hingorani, General Manager - Business Operations, PSAG Technologies.

Reinforcing PSAG's Middle East Growth Strategy

Mr. Anil's appointment comes at a pivotal time in PSAG Technologies' growth journey. His leadership will support the company's vision of delivering high-quality solutions, driving operational efficiency, and enhancing client success as PSAG strengthens its footprint in the Middle East.

"We are pleased to welcome Anil to PSAG Technologies. His deep industry knowledge and proven operational leadership make him the right fit to lead our business operations in the EMEA region. As we continue expanding across the Middle East, Anil will play a key role in strengthening our delivery model and client relationships." - Sachin Nagi, Founder & CEO, PSAG Technologies.

About PSAG Technologies

PSAG Technologies is a global professional services and technology consulting company, specializing in delivering innovative, scalable, and future-ready solutions. With leading expertise across Salesforce, ServiceNow, Zoho, Freshdesk, SAP, QuickBooks, Zendesk, HubSpot, Genesys, CCaaS solutions, Mobile & Web Applications, Full-Stack Development, Blockchain, AI/ML, and Enterprise Integration technologies, we empower organizations to accelerate their digital transformation journey.

With a strong presence across Australia, the UK, the USA, EMEA, and India, our hub of certified professionals brings deep industry knowledge, technical excellence, and a proven track record of delivering measurable business outcomes.

At PSAG, we partner with organizations to seamlessly connect technology with innovation, shaping business visions into reality and creating sustainable value from technology investments. Our AI-driven approach enhances automation, personalization, and decision-making, enabling clients to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving digital economy.

Our unwavering focus is on maintaining a team of 100% certified experts, ensuring every engagement is executed with precision, agility, and a commitment to excellence.

Its flagship product, SOLFI, is a zero-code, native integration platform on the Salesforce AppExchange, enabling organisations to automate and scale integrations seamlessly.

CONTACT:

Mr. Sachin Nagi

Phone Number: +61 451 400 099

Email: contact@psagtechnologies.com

Website: www.psagtechnologies.com

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Across Western North Carolina, Cisco Crisis Response and 40 Communities are supporting a coalition of partners and community leaders who have come together to repair and rebuild homes in the wake of Hurricane Helene.

NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / By Erin Connor, Jake McIntosh

In late September 2024, Hurricane Helene swept through Western North Carolina, leaving behind a trail of catastrophic damage. Floodwaters swallowed roads, bridges crumbled, and families were cut off from power, cell service, and vital resources.

Across the state, over 73,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.

Immediately after the storm, Cisco Crisis Response (CCR) mobilized a team of staff and volunteers to provide secure, critical connectivity to frontline responders including state emergency management teams, hospitals, police, and fire departments.

Now - nearly a year after the storm - we're still here, working with local leaders and nonprofit partners to forge new alliances and a long-term commitment to the community.

Priority one: repairing and rebuilding homes for low-income homeowners

Throughout this mountainous region known for its natural beauty, the devastation caused by water and wind is still visible.

Without significant assistance, low-income homeowners will be hard pressed to repair their damage - much less rebuild. Less than 1 percent of households in the path of the storm in Western North Carolina (WNC) had flood insurance.

Organizations acting alone cannot fill the overwhelming need for support. That's why Cisco is investing in a new coalition of forward-thinking nonprofits that have come together to centralize and streamline home repair for uninsured or under-insured, low-income households whose homes were damaged but not destroyed by the storm.

The Asheville Regional Coalition for Home Repair (ARCHR) has emerged as an innovative, collaborative response to the needs of this tight-knit community.

ARCHR - transforming the model for home repair

ARCHR is powered by a partnership of four leading local nonprofits, Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity, Community Action Opportunities, PODER Emma, and Mountain Housing Opportunities. Each partner brings complementary strengths including administrative and financial expertise, site assessment and HVAC specializations, mobile home and language skills, as well as tenured and experienced delivery repair services. Home repairs address critical needs: roof and porch repairs, mold removal, plumbing, accessibility improvements, and more. Costs range from $7,000 to $25,000 per household.

Cisco has invested $1,000,000 to support this initiative, which is enabled by digital tools that centralize intake, assessment, and prioritization - improving speed, coordination, and equity in disaster response.

By leveraging these digital tools to streamline assessments and prioritize repairs by severity and health impact, ARCHR has not only surpassed its original repair goals for 2025 but has also set a new standard for disaster recovery coalitions.

The coalition is on track to support 130 home repairs in 2025 - 20 above the initial target. As of early July, ARCHR has completed repairs for 73 homes and 65 were in progress.

Restoring homes - and hope

Over the past year, CCR has been laying the groundwork for ongoing opportunities for Cisconians to contribute their time, talent, and expertise to the community.

In early August 2025, a team of 22 CCR team members, volunteers, and Cisco leaders gathered in WNC to connect with this extraordinary coalition, better understand the challenges and possibilities ahead, and to lend a hand.

Over 4 days, the team swung hammers on an Asheville Habitat for Humanity build and met with homeowners who have experienced the life changing impact of home repairs through ARCHR.

Teresa's story illustrates the deep, personal impact of ARCHR's work and underscores the coalition's continued commitment to building resilience and hope in Western North Carolina.

Hurricane Helene left Teresa, a former nurse of 30 years, living without power and water after the storm uplifted her septic tank and destroyed her plumbing. Thanks to ARCHR's coordinated efforts, Teresa regained safe and accessible living conditions.

With Cisco's support, ARCHR is focusing on more homeowners like her. To date, more than 600 applications have been submitted and more than 80% are at or below 50% of the area's median income and qualify as eligible for assistance.

Despite surpassing goals, demand far outpaces current resources. There is a projected need for an additional $8 million over the next 3-4 years.

Moving forward - 40 Communities and the road to resilience

In December 2024, Cisco selected WNC as the first of 40 Communities - our bold new initiative to bring the full force of our capabilities, technology, and people to engage, support, and invest in 40 communities worldwide. As an initial investment, we awarded ARCHR a $1M grant to support home repairs for 110 low-income residents in Buncombe and Madison Counties.

Through 40 Communities, we'll expand on CCR's progress and commitment to housing in WNC and use ARCHR's collaborative approach and use of technology as a model for disaster recovery and housing resilience.

We'll also build essential infrastructure and cybersecurity, develop digital skills for a future-ready work force, and co-create innovative solutions for what matters most to WNC -building a connected, resilient community that thrives.

If you'd like to join us in supporting Western North Carolina, please consider making a donation or sign up to volunteer to support home building and repair through Asheville Habitat for Humanity.

View original content here.

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Cisco Systems Inc. on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: Cisco Systems Inc.

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/cisco-systems-inc

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: Cisco Systems Inc.

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/industrial-and-manufacturing/cisco-rebuilding-homes-and-a-resilient-community-in-western-north-caro-1071162
The "Netherlands Loyalty Programs Market Intelligence and Future Growth Dynamics 50+ KPIs on Loyalty Programs Trends by End-Use Sectors, Operational KPIs, Retail Product Dynamics, and Consumer Demographics Q3 2025 Update" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The loyalty market in Netherlands is expected to grow by 15.0% on annual basis to reach US$798.4 million in 2025. In value terms, the loyalty market in the country has recorded a CAGR of 16.8% during 2020-2024. The loyalty market in the country will continue to grow over the forecast period and is expected to record a CAGR of 12.6% during 2025-2029. Loyalty market in this region is expected to increase from US$694.2 million in 2024 to reach US$1.28 billion by 2029.

This report provides a detailed data-centric analysis of the loyalty market opportunities and risks across a range of end-use sectors and market segments in Netherlands. With over 50 KPIs at the country level, this report provides a comprehensive understanding of loyalty market dynamics, market size and forecast, and market share statistics.

The loyalty program landscape in the Netherlands is undergoing significant transformation, shaped by the interplay of technological advancements, sustainability imperatives, and shifting consumer behaviors. Businesses are embracing omnichannel engagement to meet the expectations of digitally savvy customers, ensuring a seamless experience across physical and online platforms. Meanwhile, sustainability has emerged as a core value, with loyalty programs increasingly rewarding eco-conscious choices, reflecting consumer preferences and broader national commitments to environmental responsibility.

Personalization, enabled by AI and data analytics advancements, is becoming a defining characteristic, allowing companies to deliver tailored experiences that resonate with individual customers. With its interactive and engaging mechanics, gamification is also gaining momentum, appealing particularly to younger audiences and fostering deeper brand connections. Additionally, coalition programs are redefining the concept of customer loyalty by creating ecosystems that extend value across multiple brands and industries.

Competitive Landscape in the Netherlands Loyalty Market

The loyalty market in the Netherlands is characterized by a mix of dominance from large players like Albert Heijn, Jumbo, and KLM, alongside significant activity from SMEs and startups. While established businesses leverage their extensive reach, advanced technology, and omnichannel capabilities, smaller players are carving niches with focused, innovative approaches. Coalition programs add another layer of competition, fostering partnerships that enhance customer choice. The regulatory landscape around data privacy and sustainability is reshaping the market, compelling businesses to innovate while adhering to stricter compliance standards.

Over the next 2-4 years, the competitive intensity is expected to heighten as businesses adopt advanced technologies and explore partnerships to remain relevant. Consolidation will likely shape the market structure, and regulatory requirements will continue to drive investments in compliance and sustainability-focused initiatives. Companies that can align with these evolving trends while offering value-driven, secure, and innovative programs will solidify their positions in this competitive and dynamic market.

Market Outlook

The market is likely to experience consolidation over the next 2-4 years, with larger players acquiring smaller, innovative startups to strengthen their capabilities. Strategic alliances, especially in coalition loyalty programs, are expected to grow as companies pool resources to enhance customer value and extend market reach.

Embracing cutting-edge technologies like AI, blockchain, and machine learning will shape the competitive landscape. Organizations that invest in these innovations will achieve a competitive edge by delivering highly personalized and secure loyalty experiences.

Smaller players will increasingly focus on niche segments, targeting sustainability-conscious customers or specific demographics such as younger generations. These programs will likely leverage gamification and personalized rewards to differentiate themselves.

Regulatory oversight is expected to intensify, particularly concerning data privacy and sustainability reporting. Companies that balance innovation with compliance will be better positioned to gain consumer trust and maintain market relevance.

Overview of Competitive Intensity and Market Structure

The loyalty program market in the Netherlands is moderately competitive, with established players and emerging entrants battling for customer engagement and retention. Large-scale retailers, financial institutions, and travel companies lead the charge with sophisticated loyalty programs tailored to the tech-savvy and sustainability-conscious Dutch consumer. Companies such as Albert Heijn, Jumbo, and Bol.com dominate with their omnichannel and data-driven approaches. Additionally, niche players and fintech startups are gradually increasing competition by introducing innovative models focusing on hyper-personalization and seamless digital experiences.

The market exhibits characteristics of moderate fragmentation. On the one hand, large players, including Albert Heijn and KLM Airlines, have built significant customer loyalty through advanced loyalty ecosystems. On the other hand, a growing number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are launching loyalty initiatives aimed at local and niche markets. Coalition programs like Air Miles Netherlands further contribute to the competitive dynamics, enabling businesses to collaborate and offer cross-brand rewards. While larger players dominate market share, the presence of multiple small players ensures that the market remains dynamic and innovative.

Entering the Dutch loyalty market poses challenges for new entrants, primarily due to:

The high costs of implementing advanced technology infrastructure for program design, data analytics, and personalization.

Compliance requirements under stringent EU data protection laws like GDPR mandate data collection and usage transparency.

Consumer trust barriers, as Dutch consumers are highly selective and expect both innovation and strong privacy safeguards from loyalty programs.

Types of Players in the Loyalty Market

Market leaders like Albert Heijn and Jumbo offer sophisticated omnichannel programs that integrate digital apps with in-store experiences. These retailers use customer data to provide tailored offers, such as Albert Heijn's "Mijn Bonus Box," which offers personalized discounts based on shopping habits.

Dutch banks such as ING and ABN AMRO utilize loyalty programs tied to financial products. For example, ING's "ING Deals" offers cashback and discounts through partnerships with local businesses, creating a unique customer engagement model.

Players like Bol.com and Coolblue dominate online by incorporating loyalty mechanisms such as free shipping tiers, personalized discounts, and exclusive perks for repeat customers. These programs emphasize data-driven insights and ease of use.

KLM Airlines leads tier-based loyalty programs with its Flying Blue initiative, offering rewards for frequent flyers. Dutch Railways (NS) focuses on loyalty tied to sustainable travel, incentivizing eco-friendly choices through subscriptions like NS Flex.

Air Miles Netherlands exemplifies coalition programs. These programs allow consumers to earn and redeem points across participating brands such as Albert Heijn and Shell. They provide customers with greater flexibility while fostering partnerships among businesses.

Regulatory Changes

Under the EU's GDPR framework, the Netherlands has witnessed increased enforcement over the past 12 months. The Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens) has focused on ensuring transparency in data collection and loyalty program usage. Companies now need to explicitly disclose how customer data is stored and used, requiring additional investment in compliance measures.

In 2024, the EU introduced the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), impacting companies operating in the Netherlands. Under these new requirements, businesses are mandated to disclose the environmental impact of their loyalty initiatives. This has driven businesses to integrate sustainability into their loyalty programs as a core feature, aligning with government and consumer expectations for eco-friendly practices.

Key Attributes:

Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 130 Forecast Period 2025 2029 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2025 $0.79 Billion Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2029 $1.28 Billion Compound Annual Growth Rate 12.6% Regions Covered Netherlands

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/dmz8h9

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HONG KONG, Sept 10, 2025 - (ACN Newswire) - - This year's Belt and Road Summit celebrates its 10th edition, under the theme Collaborate for Change - Shape a Shared Future, convening over 90 key officials and business leaders from 16 Belt and Road countries and regions- On the first day of the Summit, 33 Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) were signed, covering projects in Australia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Qatar, the UAE, and more, fostering business cooperation- The Day 1 Policy Dialogue was themed Embracing Emerging Opportunities in times of Economic Uncertainty and featured key government officials from Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan, discussing the latest Belt and Road policies and opportunities for multilateral cooperation- Keynote Luncheon featured Renat Bekturov, Governor, Astana International Financial Center (AIFC), under the theme of Fostering Regional Cooperation through Concrete Business Partnerships, who shared insights into how tangible cooperation between Kazakhstan and Hong Kong has come to fruition- A new Signature Belt and Road Projects Session was introduced to present major infrastructure projects. Additionally, the Project Investment Session featured a new segment themed Middle East & ASEAN Market FocusThe Belt and Road Summit, jointly organised by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government (HKSAR) and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), opened today at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. This year marks a significant milestone as the Summit celebrates its 10th edition under the theme Collaborate for Change - Shape a Shared Future. The Summit has convened over 90 key officials and business leaders from 16 Belt and Road countries and regions, aiming to explore new opportunities for collaboration and forge a win-win future.The Summit is dedicated to advancing multilateral cooperation, successfully signing 33 MoU on the first day, involving countries and regions such as Australia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Qatar and the UAE covering multiple sectors including finance, infrastructure and technology. On the second day, the Summit will continue to showcase the signing of more MoUs, fostering even greater collaboration and tangible results.The Opening Session featured opening remarks by John Lee, Chief Executive of the HKSAR, and welcome remarks by Professor Frederick Ma, Chairman of the HKTDC. Special addresses were delivered by Yan Dong, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, Li Zhen, Vice Chairman of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council of the People's Republic of China and Xiao Weiming, Deputy Secretary General of the National Development and Reform Commission of the People's Republic of China. Keynote address was delivered by Sun Chanthol, Deputy Prime Minister and First Vice Chairman of the Council for the Development of Cambodia.John Lee said during his opening remarks: 'Hong Kong is the ideal Belt and Road hub. As the only world city that converges both the China advantage and the global advantage, Hong Kong stands as the premier gateway for co-operation, bridging people, trade, business, education, culture and values across the region, connecting Asia and the world. We are a "super connector" and "super value-adder" for high-quality collaborations worldwide. Our "dual superpower" of connecting and value-adding means Hong Kong is more than a link between capital and projects. We also inject vigour, innovation and sustainability, adding strategic value to everything we do. Hong Kong will continue to drive high-quality development along the Belt and Road.'Professor Ma said: 'We are proud to celebrate the 10th edition this year. The Summit has become a cornerstone event supporting the Belt and Road Initiative. Over the past decade, it has been gathering key voices in government and business from across the Belt and Road and beyond for dialogue and collaboration. Vital partnerships have been forged, impactful projects have been launched, and cross-border ties have been strengthened. And this year is no different. Collaboration opportunities once again take centre stage.'Yan Dong said during his special address: 'The Ministry of Commerce will continue to strengthen economic and trade cooperation with all partners along the Belt and Road. First, we will continue to support Hong Kong in deepening its connectivity with the Mainland and the rest of the world. We will implement the revisions on the Second Agreement Concerning Amendment to CEPA Agreement on Trade in Services, which took effect in March this year, further expand mainland China's opening-up in areas such as finance, telecommunications, construction, and tourism, and explore the establishment of a single free-trade zone among mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau. Second, we will support Hong Kong in building functional platforms and in consolidating and enhancing its status as an international financial, shipping, and trade centre, enabling it to play a bridging role in facilitating connectivity in infrastructure, trade and finance under the Belt and Road Initiative, and expanding trade scale with participating countries.'Li Zhen said during his special address: 'State-owned enterprises stand ready to join hands with all sectors in Hong Kong to explore opportunities and forge a shared future through reinforcing connectivity. We need to seize this Summit as an opportunity to leverage Hong Kong's unique blend of Chinese and Western cultures and its strengths in international communication, and lay a solid foundation for the Belt and Road Initiative'Xiao Weiming said during his special address: 'We have witnessed Hong Kong's contribution to the Belt and Road Initiative by fully leveraging its role as a financial, trade, and innovation and technology hub. With the continuous expansion of trade cooperation networks among partner countries and the establishment of professional platforms such as Core Climate and the International Organization for Mediation, Hong Kong has achieved two-way development in both domestic and international trade. Hong Kong's future participation in the Belt and Road Initiative will be even more important and promising.'Sun Chanthol said during his keynote address: 'Over the past decade, Cambodia has achieved remarkable progress with the support from China under the Belt and Road Initiative framework. Together, we have built over 3,000 kilometers of national roads and 16 major bridges, transforming the daily lives of millions of Cambodians. It has boosted tourism, reduced costs and enhanced Cambodian's role as a regional trade hub.'Policy driving new opportunities, multilateral dialogue fostering collaborationAmidst global economic uncertainty, how businesses can seize opportunities in times of change has become increasingly important. Following the Opening Session, the Policy Dialogue titled Embracing Emerging Opportunities in Times of Economic Uncertainty was hosted by Algernon Yau, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development of the HKSAR. The session featured other key government officials, including Anthony Loke, Minister of Transport of Malaysia; Dr. Ahmad Mohammad Al Sayed, Minister of State for Foreign Trade Affairs of Qatar; Umid Abidkhadjaev, Deputy Minister of Economy and Finance, Uzbekistan; Yerlan Sagnayev, Vice Minister of National Economy of Kazakhstan; and Khaled Al Khattaf, CEO of Saudi Investment Promotion Authority of Saudi Arabia. They discussed the latest policies and development opportunities related to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and explored ways to enhance multilateral economic cooperation.On the first day, the Business Plenary themed ASEAN: Unveiling New Opportunities for Growth and Collaboration was hosted by Dr Victor Fung, Chairman of Fung Investment. The session featured distinguished speakers including Zeng Qi, Vice President of CITIC Group Corporation; Tony Fernandes, CEO of Capital A; Anthony Leung, Group Chairman of Nan Fung Group. They explored the latest developments and collaborative opportunities in key sectors, including infrastructure, financial investment, digital economy and green energy within the ASEAN region.The Summit offers numerous opportunities for networking. The Keynote Luncheon, under the theme of Fostering Regional Cooperation through Concrete Business Partnerships, featured a welcome address by Paul Chan, Financial Secretary of the HKSAR, opening remarks by Chen Liang, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Management Committee of China International Capital Corporation Limited, and a keynote speech by Renat Bekturov, Governor, Astana International Financial Center (AIFC). Renat Bekturov said: 'We have initiated the creation of the Turkic Green Finance Council. For this to succeed, finance must be responsible, transparent and forward-looking. This is where Hong Kong's leadership in sustainable finance is invaluable. By joining forces with Hong Kong, we can channel trillions of dollars of green capital into Belt and Road projects that are profitable and sustainable.'The Cocktail Reception included special remarks from Algernon Yau, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development of the HKSAR, a welcome address by Professor Frederick Ma, Chairman of the HKTDC, and opening remarks from Sun Yu, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive of Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited. The occasion also served as a celebration of the 10th edition of the Summit, marking a significant milestone in fostering international collaboration and connectivity.This year's new sessions focus on key projects and target marketsProject and business matching is a key component of the Summit, helping to transform the BRI into tangible economic cooperation. This year, the Summit introduced two Signature Belt and Road Projects Sessions aimed at encouraging Hong Kong's professional services and businesses to participate in major infrastructure developments, thereby fostering regional cooperation and economic growth. The first session featured Dr Chula Sukmanop, Secretary-General of the Eastern Economic Corridor Office in Thailand, and discussed investment opportunities in the key development areas of the Eastern Economic Corridor. The second session takes place tomorrow and is hosted by Omar Abed, a representative from the New Murabba project in Saudi Arabia, who will share insights on integrating sustainability into urban design and the associated development opportunities.Tomorrow's Project Investment Session will introduce a new focus session titled Middle East & ASEAN Market Focus, with speakers including Varong Tangpraprutgul, Managing Director of AMATA City Lao Company Limited; Alan E. Wijaya, Chief of Business Development Officer of PT. Jababeka TBK; Dr YT Chin, Founder and CEO of Silicon Connect; Yin Haijie, Chairman of the Board of Jiangsu Luyi Investment Co., Ltd.; Rumaitha Al Busaidi, Business & ICV Development Manager of Hydrogen Oman (Hydrom); Mohammed Alasseri, Chief Operating Officer of Special Integrated Logistics Zone and chaired by James Law, CEO & Founder of Cybertecture, who will explore the potential opportunities in these two key markets. This session aims to provide businesses with targeted investment and collaboration prospects, further reinforcing Hong Kong's role as a vital hub for the BRI.Deal-making fosters collaboration, exhibition area connects the globalThis year's Summit continues to offer investment and business matching services to forge partnerships. The project investment sessions will showcase more than 300 investment projects. The Belt and Road Deal-Making provides a full range of options, in both physical form on 10-11 September and online on 15-16 September, with more than 800 one-to-one project matching meetings expected to take place.The Summit features an exhibition area across five distinct zones. ASEAN Zone, a new feature this year to focus on the latest projects across various sectors of the ten member states; the Hong Kong Zone to bring together local service providers, showcasing the outstanding services and business advantages; the Global Investment Zone to present large-scale investment projects and opportunities from different countries; the InnoTech Zone to showcase cutting-edge innovations, AI, digital technologies and solutions from around the world and the Mainland Zone to highlight the latest developments in infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, and the digital economy in mainland China.The 10th Belt and Road Summit is supported by a wide range of partners, including China International Capital Corporation Limited as Strategic Partner, and Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited as the Banking Partner. Other supporters include The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited as the Global Connectivity Partner, Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited as Cross-border Business Partner, Huatai Securities Co., Ltd. as Innovative Finance Partner, as well as China Mobile International Limited, China Telecom Global Limited and China Unicom Global Limited as Platinum Sponsors.The 10th Belt and Road SummitDate 10 - 11 September 2025 (Wednesday - Thursday)Venue Hall 5B-E, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition CentreWebsitesBelt and Road Summit: https://www.beltandroadsummit.com/conference/bnr/enProgramme: https://www.beltandroadsummit.com/conference/bnr/en/programmeSpeaker List: https://www.beltandroadsummit.com/conference/bnr/en/speakerPhoto Download: http://bit.ly/4nozqyAThe 10th Belt and Road Summit, co-organised by the HKSAR Government and the HKTDC, opened today. This year marks the 10th edition of the Summit, themed Collaborate for Change - Shape a Shared Future. The event gathered over 90 key government officials and business leaders from 16 Belt and Road countries and regions, aiming to explore new opportunities for collaboration and create a win-win futureJohn Lee, Chief Executive of the HKSAR, delivered the opening remarks during the Opening SessionProfessor Frederick Ma, Chairman of the HKTDC, delivered welcome remarks during the Opening SessionYan Dong, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, gave a special address during the Opening SessionLi Zhen, Vice Chairman of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, gave a special address during the Opening SessionXiao Weiming, Deputy Secretary General of the National Development and Reform Commission of the People's Republic of China, gave a special address during the Opening SessionSun Chanthol, Deputy Prime Minister and First Vice Chairman of the Council for the Development of Cambodia, delivered a keynote address during the Opening SessionThe Policy Dialogue themed Embracing Emerging Opportunities in Times of Economic Uncertainty, hosted by Algernon Yau, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development of the HKSAR, featured key government officials from Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan, discussing the latest Belt and Road policies and opportunities for multilateral cooperationThe Business Plenary themed ASEAN: Unveiling New Opportunities for Growth and Collaboration explored the latest developments and collaborative opportunities in key sectors, including infrastructure, financial investment, digital economy and green energy within the ASEAN regionThe Keynote Luncheon, under the theme of Fostering Regional Cooperation through Concrete Business Partnerships, featured a welcome address by Paul Chan, Financial Secretary of the HKSAR, opening remarks by Chen Liang, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Management Committee of China International Capital Corporation Limited, and a keynote speech by Renat Bekturov, Governor, Astana International Financial Center (AIFC).The Cocktail Reception included special remarks from Algernon Yau, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development of the HKSAR, a welcome address by Professor Frederick Ma, Chairman of the HKTDC, and opening remarks from Sun Yu, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive of Bank of China (Hong Kong) LimitedMedia EnquiriesYuan Tung Financial Relations:Louise Song Tel: (852) 3428 5690 Email: lsong@yuantung.com.hkTiffany Leung Tel: (852) 3428 2361 Email: tleung@yuantung.com.hkFung Wong Tel: (852) 3428 3122 Email: hfwong@yuantung.com.hkHKTDC's Communications & Public Affairs Department:Serena Cheung Tel: (852) 2584 4272 Email: serena.hm.cheung@hktdc.orgJane Cheung Tel: (852) 2584 4137 Email: jane.mh.cheung@hktdc.orgSam Ho Tel: (852) 2584 4569 Email: sam.sy.ho@hktdc.orgAbout HKTDCThe Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) is a statutory body established in 1966 to promote, assist and develop Hong Kong's trade. With over 50 offices globally, including 13 in Mainland China, the HKTDC promotes Hong Kong as a two-way global investment and business hub. The HKTDC organises international exhibitions, conferences and business missions to create business opportunities for companies, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in the mainland and international markets.Source: HKTDCCopyright 2025 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved.
RENO, NEVADA / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / Small businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy, and the number of them being created daily is incredible. However, protecting against liability and expensive legal surprises is paramount for the success and longevity of a business.

Key insurance elements to consider when owning or launching a small business include, but are not limited to, the following:

Mandatory Coverage: Specific insurances are required in various states (e.g., workers' compensation, unemployment, commercial auto), and noncompliance can result in expensive penalties.

Contractual Obligations: Certain agreements with landlords or vendors will warrant specific insurance requirements.

Duty to Disclose: Businesses are required to fully disclose all relevant information to insurance providers or face the possibility of coverage denial.

State-Specific Laws: Insurance regulations are geographically specific, and different states require different compliance.

Liability Protection: Businesses will need to have insurance protection against property damage, on-site injuries, etc.

"As a small business owner, many hats will be worn simultaneously. It is important to confirm legal compliance and to have the business properly insured in all necessary aspects to avoid costly mistakes," says Ken LaMance, LegalMatch's General Counsel.

Small businesses interested in remaining compliant and continuing to flourish are urged to seek legal counsel to accomplish that. LegalMatch.com , the first-ever attorney-client platform, can match a business owner with an experienced insurance lawyer for free to receive expert guidance and direction.

The platform also has a large Online Law Library with articles on a multitude of legal topics, including business insurance. Small business owners can confide in LegalMatch as a trusted source for legal direction and representation.

AboutLegalMatch.com

LegalMatch is the nation's oldest and largest online legal lead-generation service. Headquartered in Reno, Nevada, LegalMatch helps people find the right lawyer and helps attorneys find new clients. LegalMatch's service is free to individuals and small businesses looking for legal help. For more information about LegalMatch, please visit our website or contact us directly.

SOURCE: LegalMatch.com

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/business-and-professional-services/arm-your-business-against-disaster-legalmatch.coms-essential-ins-1071034
Poster highlights cross-reactive binding and opsonization of S.aureus and E.coli by a single antibody

The antibody represents the core of LHNVD-303, the cornerstone therapy for infection control and inflammation in Longhorn's Anti-PAMP platform and inflammaging/longevity portfolio

Longhorn Vaccines and Diagnostics ("Longhorn") today announced it will present a late-breaking poster at the 6th ESCMID Conference on Vaccines supporting the breath of a single, conserved-target antibody to address the bacteria associated with antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and inflammation from gram-positive and gram-negative pathogens. The presentation will feature the company's anti-peptidoglycan (PGN) monoclonal antibody, the core of LHNVD-303, for the prevention of AMR bacterial infections, sepsis, and a wide range of medical conditions caused by chronic inflammation driven by bacterial toxins. The ESCMID Conference on Vaccines is taking place in Lisbon, Portugal from September 10-13, 2025.

Preclinical data will be presented showing that the antibody generates cross-reactive binding to PGN from S. aureus and E. Coli, recognizing the whole bacteria of each species. It also promotes significant opsonophagocytic killing of E. coli in vitro, with previous data reporting opsonophagocytic killing of S. aureus

"This poster is a key milestone in our anti-pathogen-associated molecular pattern, or PAMP, platform," said Longhorn Chief Executive Officer Gerald W. Fischer, MD. "By targeting conserved bacterial signatures and the circulating fragments that fuel inflammation, we aim to deliver a first-in-class, immune-sparing therapy that is relevant to AMR prevention and treatment, and to diseases driven by chronic low-grade inflammation, reducing inflammaging which plays a significant role in longevity."

"Our data demonstrate that a single anti-PGN monoclonal antibody can bind conserved cell-wall motifs and drive opsonophagocytic killing across species, spanning Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus and Gram-negative Escherichia coli," said Longhorn Vice President of Vaccine and Antibody Development at Clara J. Sei, MPH, who will present the poster at ESCMID. "We believe this breadth-combined with systemic PAMP neutralization-could translate into fewer infection crises and lower inflammatory burden without disrupting the microbiome."

Poster Presentation Information:

Title: A Broad-Spectrum Monoclonal Antibody Targeting Peptidoglycan from Staphylococcus aureus Demonstrates Cross-Reactivity Against Escherichia coli: A Novel Strategy to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance

A Broad-Spectrum Monoclonal Antibody Targeting Peptidoglycan from Staphylococcus aureus Demonstrates Cross-Reactivity Against Escherichia coli: A Novel Strategy to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance Poster number: P139

P139 Presenter: Clara J. Sei, MPH, Longhorn Vice President of Vaccine and Antibody Development

Clara J. Sei, MPH, Longhorn Vice President of Vaccine and Antibody Development Date/Time: September 12th at 17:40 WEST

LHNVD-303 is the core asset of Longhorn's anti-PAMP platform, which works by clearing bacteria and toxins that invade the bloodstream. It does this by neutralizing circulating PAMPs such as PGN, LPS and LTA to reduce maladaptive systemic inflammation while preserving the natural microbiome and normal immunity. This dual "clean and calm" strategy is intended to deliver clinical value in AMR-relevant infections and in chronic inflammation-linked conditions associated with aging ("inflammaging").

As Longhorn looks to the next phase of development for its inflammaging/longevity portfolio, it is advancing LHNVD-303 and other monoclonal antibody combinations through its anti-PAMP platform. Therapies are administered subcutaneously in high-risk populations (e.g., dialysis, LVAD, central lines) and intravenously as an add-on therapy in bloodstream infections and sepsis. The company is designing current and future pre-clinical studies to explore other infections related to AMR.

For more information about Longhorn, visit www.LHNVD.com.

About Longhorn Vaccines and Diagnostics

Longhorn Vaccines and Diagnostics is a closely held One Health company based in Maryland that is developing broad coverage vaccines and diagnostic tools for worldwide public health concerns such as anti-microbial resistance, sepsis and to prevent future pandemics. Since its inception in 2006, Longhorn has focused on developing broad coverage vaccines and diagnostic tools that can impact a pandemic on a global scale and at all socio-economic levels. Since pandemics flow between humans and animals, Longhorn products play a significant role to surveil, diagnose, prevent and treat the next infectious disease.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250910439061/en/

Contacts:

Longhorn Vaccines and Diagnostics

Jeffrey Fischer

Email: jeff@lhnvd.com



Media

Alexis Feinberg ICR Healthcare

Email: alexis.feinberg@ICRHealthcare.com
DELRAY BEACH, Fla., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- According to MarketsandMarkets, the global Bare Metal Cloud Market size is projected to reach USD 36.71 billion by 2030 from USD 14.32 billion in 2025, a CAGR of 20.7%.

Browse 239 market data Tables and 63 Figures spread through 321 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Bare Metal Cloud Market - Global Forecast to 2030"

Scope of the Report

Market Size Available for Years: 2020-2030

2020-2030 2025 Market Size: USD 14.32 billion

USD 14.32 billion 2030 Projected Market Size: USD 36.71 billion

USD 36.71 billion CAGR (2025-2030): 20.7%

20.7% Segments covered: Service Model, Application, Deployment Mode, Organization Size, Vertical

Service Model, Application, Deployment Mode, Organization Size, Vertical Region Highlight: North America accounts for the largest market during the forecast period

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Bare metal cloud has reshaped enterprise computing by integrating advancements such as GPU acceleration, high-speed interconnects, and automated orchestration for performance-intensive workloads. These innovations deliver ultra-low-latency processing, dedicated hardware control, and seamless compatibility with cloud-native ecosystems, fueling adoption across financial services, gaming, and scientific research. By providing direct access to physical servers without virtualization overhead, bare metal cloud ensures predictable performance, enhanced security, and maximum resource utilization for mission-critical applications. This infrastructure empowers enterprises to run complex analytics, AI training, and high-throughput transactions more efficiently, while minimizing reliance on shared, multi-tenant environments.

Public bare metal segment is expected to hold the largest market share during the forecast period

Public bare metal cloud represents a strong opportunity for vendors and solution providers, delivering single-tenant physical servers through a public cloud model that combines bare metal's control and performance with the scalability and automation of public infrastructure. This approach allows enterprises to provide high-performance compute resources quickly, free from virtualization overhead, making it highly attractive for analytics, gaming, and high-frequency trading. For instance, OVHcloud's January 2023 launch of metal instances introduced infrastructure as code automation via OpenStack and Terraform with pay-as-you-go billing, enabling faster deployments and complete hardware control.

Further strengthening its ecosystem, the October 2024 collaboration under the Ubuntu Certified Public Cloud program ensured optimized Ubuntu images for OVHcloud's public bare metal servers, streamlining OS compatibility and reducing operational complexity. For vendors and solution providers, these advancements highlight the potential to design and deliver offerings that merge cloud agility with bare metal's raw power, giving customers predictable performance, automation, and flexible scaling without compromising hardware exclusively. By integrating public bare metal into their service portfolios, providers can address demand for compute-intensive, rapidly deployable infrastructure across global markets, positioning themselves as strategic partners in next-generation workload delivery.

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Small & medium-sized enterprises segment is poised for the fastest growth rate during the forecast period

SMEs are expected to drive the fastest growth in the Bare Metal Cloud Market during the forecast period, creating strong opportunities for vendors and solution providers. By leveraging bare metal cloud, SMEs can access enterprise-grade infrastructure without the upfront costs of building and managing physical servers. The pay-as-you-go model allows them to support compute-intensive workloads, host resource-heavy applications, and ensure consistent performance without virtualization complexity. In February 2024, Scaleway launched its "Elastic Metal" servers for SMEs, offering instant provisioning, predictable billing, and hardware-level performance tailored to developers, SaaS providers, and digital agencies with expanding workload demands. This move extended infrastructure flexibility traditionally reserved for large enterprises.

Collaborations are also driving SME adoption. In May 2024, OVHcloud partnered with Zenlayer to deliver low-latency bare metal cloud services across emerging markets, enabling SMEs to expand digital services globally without significant infrastructure investment. The integration of dedicated compute resources with edge network coverage provides SMEs access to high-speed, geographically distributed bare metal nodes. For vendors and solution providers, this trend highlights the chance to deliver cost-effective, developer-centered solutions that integrate scalability, GPU acceleration, and global reach. Bare metal cloud positions SMEs to scale quickly, maintain predictable costs, and deliver high-performance applications that meet evolving customer expectations in competitive digital markets.

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North America accounts for the largest market during the forecast period

North America is expected to lead the bare metal cloud market due to the growing demand for dedicated computing infrastructure across research, healthcare & life sciences, BFSI, engineering, and government sectors. Organizations with data-intensive tasks such as analytics, simulations, and rendering prefer bare metal systems for consistent performance, fast response, and complete hardware control. In May 2023, Applied Digital Corporation launched its AI Cloud platform in North Dakota to support advanced workloads such as LLM training and graphics rendering. Its adoption through 2024 highlights the increasing interest in infrastructure designed for high throughput and physical isolation.

North America offers a mature infrastructure environment with strong enterprise demand and public sector cloud modernization programs. In October 2024, Equinix entered a joint venture worth USD 15?billion with Singapore's GIC and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to build more US hyperscale data centers totaling over 1.5 gigawatts of new capacity to support compute-intensive workloads. This move expands Equinix Metal's availability across key North American metros and supports higher-density deployments.

In June 2025, Applied Digital signed two 15-year lease agreements with CoreWeave valued at USD 7 billion, under which they will provide sustained infrastructure services for AI and HPC clients. For vendors and solution providers, this means taking advantage of opportunities in bare metal environments where they must provide optimized infrastructure, automation support, energy-efficient cooling, and customized compliance capabilities to align with North America's high-demand computing ecosystem.

Top Key Companies in Bare Metal Cloud Market:

The major players in the Bare Metal Cloud Market include Oracle (US), AWS (US), IBM (US), Dell Technologies (US), Microsoft (US), Google (US), Huawei Cloud (China), Alibaba Cloud (China), and Vultr (US).

Browse Adjacent Markets: Cloud Computing Market Research Reports & Consulting

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Maxon One unifies Cinema 4D, ZBrush, Redshift, and Red Giant in bold ecosystem redesign, with tons of new feature capabilities across VFX, 3D modeling, and motion graphics solutions.

BAD HOMBURG, GERMANY / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / Maxon today unveiled the latest Maxon One release, delivering new innovations across its unified creative ecosystem and introducing a fresh visual identity that is modular, cohesive, and connected. Designed to empower artists at every skill level, from students to seasoned industry veterans, the Fall release streamlines workflows, removes technical barriers, and delivers cutting-edge creative possibilities across VFX, motion graphics, 3D modeling, sculpting, rendering, editing, and more.

From cinematic storytelling to broadcast graphics, gaming design to architectural visualization, creators across the full spectrum of disciplines rely on Maxon One for its deeply integrated tools. Cinema 4D now has GPU-accelerated art-directable simulations, while Maxon Studio streamlines video and broadcast design with Red Giant effects and customizable templates, enhanced with embedded assets and reusable Capsules. Redshift pushes architectural rendering to new heights with procedural clouds, refined realism, and faster interactive displacement, while ZBrush brings professional-grade sculpting to iPad with 3D printing support and powerful pipeline integration. This release expands on the power of Maxon's capabilities, all within a unified platform that moves ideas seamlessly from concept to final render.

"Maxon One is the creative backbone for artists across industries and at all skill levels," said David McGavran, CEO of Maxon. "This release builds on the features creators already love while introducing innovations that remove technical barriers and open new creative possibilities. Whether you're in the classroom or at the helm of a major production, Maxon One helps you create without limits."

A Unified Ecosystem for Every Stage of Creation

The Maxon ecosystem is built on innovations that empower creative freedom, from the portability and precision of ZBrush on iPad to the immersive visual fidelity and cinematic quality of Redshift rendering. Maxon One unifies Cinema 4D, ZBrush, Redshift, Red Giant, and Maxon Studio in a deeply integrated platform designed to work harmoniously from one stage of creation to the next. With compatibility across industry-leading tools such as Adobe Creative Cloud and Blackmagic Design, creators can build, animate, render, and finish their projects without friction.

New Maxon Capabilities Across Every Creative Discipline

For animators and motion graphics designers, Cinema 4D enables fast, unified simulations that are easy to create and art-direct. All the procedural power of C4D integrates seamlessly with rigid-body, soft-body, cloth, pyro, particles, and now liquids. The new AI search, which operates entirely on your local machine, makes finding Capsules, assets, textures, and presets effortless, with faster and more precise results ready in an instant.

For game developers and virtual production teams, the latest Cineware for Unreal Engine streamlines asset, lighting, and material workflows, reducing rework and accelerating iteration. Support for Cinema 4D modifiers, enhanced texture tag controls, and automatic material instance creation keep scenes accurate and flexible from import to final output, empowering teams to focus on worldbuilding, not pipeline roadblocks.

For sculptors and 3D modelers, ZBrush adds creative freedom on desktop and iPad. Python scripting, available on desktop, unlocks automation and deeper pipeline integration, while 3D printing tools bring full desktop parity to the iPad. Surface Noise also sees an upgrade with a refreshed UI, per-noise resets, alpha transforms, and full undo/redo support, giving artists greater control over detail. ZBrush for iPad UI enhancements let users move the bottom bar, adjust the modifier wheel, and save or share custom interfaces for a personalized setup. Artists can rapidly sculpt, customize, and export designs for collectibles, props, and prototypes, with upcoming UV editing and hard-surface modeling updates extending its versatility.

For VFX artists, Redshift introduces new tools for photorealistic and stylized environments with greater realism and speed. Texture Displacement delivers faster, interactive previews with minimal subdivision; Scene Units ensure materials match real-world scale; and the new Procedural Clouds and Sun & Sky system make it effortless to add atmospheric depth to any scene. Artists can render more accurate, visually rich worlds in less time, whether for film, advertising, or immersive media.

For editors and colorists, Maxon Studio now supports embedded assets and reusable Capsules, making it possible to build once and use anywhere. This means more customization, faster setup, simple scaling, and consistent brand visuals, all without leaving the creative environment.

"For my new film 'SKETCH' (out now in theaters!), we sculpted creatures in ZBrush, animated in Cinema 4D, rendered in Redshift, and polished with Red Giant, all without ever feeling like we were duct-taping workflows together. Every production throws curveballs, but knowing exactly how I could 'fix it in post' with Maxon tools eliminated many of the usual roadblocks that inevitably come up when you're creating 11+ monsters made out of glitter, chalk and crayons," said Seth Worley, Director of "SKETCH" (read more about how Seth and team brought the film's monsters and effects to life ). "I think I can say definitively that, without Maxon One, we would still be finishing the movie."

Trusted by the World's Leading Creatives

Maxon One powers work for leading artists and studios worldwide, producing content that captivates audiences across every medium. From blockbuster films and award-winning streaming series to AAA games and global ad campaigns, Maxon's tools deliver quality, efficiency, and creative freedom. Recent projects include:

Godzilla Minus One : Director Takashi Yamazaki and Modeler Kousuke Taguchi used ZBrush to reimagine the iconic monster, utilizing Redshift for rendering with speed and high-fidelity.

Shogun : Winning 2024 Creative Arts Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Design, design studio Elastic brought the Shogun title sequence to life entirely in Cinema 4D, with key props like the samurai helmet meticulously crafted in ZBrush to match existing assets from the show.

God of War: Ragnarok : U.K.-based freelance creature designer and digital sculptor Luke Starkie used ZBrush to sculpt creatures, including one of the most memorable bosses for PlayStation's flagship title.

Tuft & Needle : ManvsMachine relied on Cinema 4D and Redshift to help retailer Tuft & Needle visualize what it takes to create the elements of a perfect night's sleep.

Committed to the Next Generation: Dream It. Make it.

Every great artist starts with curiosity and a spark of imagination. That's why Maxon is making it easier than ever for students, hobbyists, and emerging creators to jump in and start creating. From free tutorials and global community events to affordable student licenses for the same tools used on blockbuster films and AAA games, Maxon gives creators everything they need to learn, experiment, and grow. Whether you're crafting your first 3D scene, sculpting characters on an iPad, or exploring motion graphics for social content, Maxon is here to help artists turn ideas into something amazing.

Experience Maxon One at IBC2025

Attendees can experience the new Maxon One release and its reimagined ecosystem at IBC2025, RAI Amsterdam, September 12-15. Visit Booth 7.B45 to see live demos of procedural animation in Cinema 4D, real-time rendering in Redshift, mobile sculpting in ZBrush, and streamlined design-to-delivery workflows in Red Giant and Maxon Studio.

Book a meeting or training session with Maxon experts to learn more about Maxon One, or a specialized training session with experts to learn more about:

Cinema 4D

Red Giant

Redshift

ZBrush

About Maxon

Maxon is a developer of high-quality, professional creative tools that empower artists to bring stunning visuals to life. From 3D modeling and animation to impeccable rendering and cinematic effects, the Maxon One ecosystem provides a comprehensive suite of industry-leading solutions. At Maxon, we are committed to fueling creative freedom, fostering a thriving artistic community, and being the driving force behind bold, iconic content.

Media Contact

Megan Fasy

Grithaus Agency

(e) megan@grithaus.agency

(p) +1 (617) 480-3674

###

SOURCE: Maxon Computers

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/computers-technology-and-internet/from-the-classroom-to-the-red-carpet-maxon-delivers-speed-flexibi-1070919
Treasury Wine Estates' Lauren Craton Recognized in the Rising Stars Category for her Outstanding Supply Chain Accomplishments

AUSTIN, TX / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / John Galt Solutions, the fastest way to achieve more value from the supply chain, proudly congratulates esteemed customer Lauren Craton, Senior Manager of Sales and Operations Planning at Treasury Wine Estates, on being named one of the 2025 Women in Supply Chain Award recipients by Supply & Demand Chain Executive and Food Logistics.

Lauren is recognized in the Rising Stars?category, which?recognizes young female professionals whose achievements, hard work and vision have shaped the supply chain network.

Each year, the Women in Supply Chain Awards honor female leaders who set a foundation of innovation, mentorship, and excellence across the global supply chain network.

"I am truly honored to be recognized among so many inspiring women in supply chain," said Lauren Craton. "This award reflects the hard work and dedication of our team at Treasury Wine Estates. I'm committed to continuing our journey to drive innovation and collaboration as we shape the future of supply chain together."

Lauren's recognition reflects her ability to motivate teams, drive collaboration and innovation, and lead with both clarity and empathy. Her people-first leadership style has been instrumental in strengthening productivity and building a cohesive, purpose-driven supply chain environment within Treasury Wine Estates, one of the world's largest wine makers and distributors.

Over the past 12 months, Lauren has spearheaded several transformative initiatives. She led the implementation of John Galt Solutions' Atlas Planning Platform , to introduce advanced tools that enhance forecast accuracy, streamline data consolidation, and accelerate Integrated Business Planning (IBP). She also developed a robust SKU rationalization process to optimize product lifecycle management. This has reduced complexity, minimized waste, and ensured smarter allocation of resources. Together, these efforts demonstrate her ability to connect people, technology, and business goals to deliver lasting impact.

"Seeing Lauren honored as a Rising Star is an absolute pleasure," said Matt Hoffman, Vice President of Product and Industry Solutions at John Galt Solutions. "Her commitment to innovation, leadership by example, and ability to deliver measurable results set her apart as a role model for the next generation of supply chain leaders. We are thrilled to see her receive this well-deserved recognition."

John Galt Solutions is proud to partner with Treasury Wine Estates and celebrate Lauren's recognition for her outstanding achievements and contributions to the industry.

About John Galt Solutions

John Galt Solutions is the fastest way for businesses to get more value from their supply chain. The Atlas Planning Platform helps companies make faster decisions and see real results quickly across the end-to-end supply chain. Atlas configures to even the toughest business requirements and goes live so fast clients see an ROI before their boss even thinks to ask about it. With the highest customer satisfaction rating in the industry, John Galt meets clients where they are, works side-by-side with them to grow, and shows them the fastest path to success. To learn how John Galt Solutions can help you improve supply chain performance, visit? johngalt.com .

Contact Information

John Galt

Public Relations Manager

connect@johngalt.com

312-701-9026





SOURCE: John Galt Solutions

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/computers-technology-and-internet/john-galt-solutions-congratulates-treasury-wine-estates-lauren-cr-1071137
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - September 10, 2025) - Royalties Inc. (CSE: RI) (OTCID: ROYIF) (or "the Company") will be attending the Toronto MoneyShow this Friday and Saturday September 12-13, 2025 in Booth #206 in the North Building of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Investors can register for free at:

https://toronto.moneyshow.com/

Tim Gallagher will be presenting in Room 104C at:

1:45pm - 2:30pm on Friday, September 12

11:15am - 12:00pm on Saturday, September 13

https://toronto.moneyshow.com/speaker/tim-gallagher/

About Royalties Inc.

Royalties Inc. owns a 100% interest, subject to a 1.5% NSR owned as a separate asset, on the Bilbao silver-zinc-lead project located in the State of Zacatecas, Mexico.

Royalties Inc. owns 88% of the outstanding shares of Minera Portree de Zacatecas, S.A. de C.V ("MPZ") which holds an asserted claim backed by a court approved judgment on June 16, 2025 to a 2% net smelter royalty established in 2002 on five mining concessions called the 'Portree claims', a portion of which is on the Mala Noche Footwall Zone (under the tailings pond), the main source of production at the Cozamin mine where Capstone Copper Corp. ("Capstone") has been mining since 2010. Capstone assigned this royalty to themselves without the knowledge or proper payment to MPZ, the longstanding and rightful owner, in August 2019. MPZ filed civil and criminal lawsuits in Zacatecas in 2021 to invalidate the contract to transfer ownership, which has now been officially supported by the court. Despite MPZ's legal victory, Capstone appealed the decision to the Supreme Court of the State of Zacatecas.

Royalties Inc. has a 4.9% stake in Music Royalties Inc. ("MRI"), which has acquired 31 cash-flowing catalogs and paid out over $12 million in dividends since 2019 from 7,000 songs generating a 7.2% annual yield.

For further information contact Royalties Inc. at www.royaltiesinc.com.

Neither the CSE, OTC Markets nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements contained herein that are not clearly historical in nature may constitute forward-looking information. In some cases, forward-looking information can be identified by words or phrases such as "may", "will", "expect", "likely", "should", "would", "plan", "anticipate", "intend", "potential", "proposed", "estimate", "believe" or the negative of those terms, or other similar words, expressions, and grammatical variations thereof, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" happen, or by discussions of strategy. Where the Company expresses or implies an expectation or belief as to future events or results, such expectation or belief is based on assumptions made in good faith and believed to have a reasonable basis. However, forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors, which could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed, projected or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks include, but are not limited to: sufficient capital and financing required in order to fulfill the Company's business plans and strategy may not be obtained as expected; that the Company will not be able to pay future dividends; and other risks related to the Company as disclosed in the documents filed on the Company's profile at SEDAR+ at www.SEDARplus.ca. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements contained in this press release and they are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements herein are made as at the date hereof and are based on the beliefs, estimates, expectations, and opinions of management on such date. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or revise any such forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or to explain any material difference between subsequent actual events and such forward-looking information, except as required under applicable securities law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/265857

SOURCE: Royalties Inc.
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - September 10, 2025) - Richard Hew, President and Chief Executive Officer, Caribbean Utilities Company, Ltd. ("CUC" or the "Company") (TSX: CUP.U), and his team, joined Dani Lipkin, Managing Director, Global Listings, Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), to open the market to celebrate the Company's 35th anniversary of being listed on Toronto Stock Exchange.





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Since 1966, Caribbean Utilities Company, Ltd. has been at the heart of the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity on the island of Grand Cayman, in the Cayman Islands. The Company's listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) on September 10, 1990, marked a pivotal step in the Company's evolution. Now celebrating 35 years on the TSX, this milestone stands as a powerful testament to CUC's enduring growth, operational resilience, and steadfast commitment to transparency, accountability, and long-term value creation for its shareholders.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/265858

SOURCE: Toronto Stock Exchange
ACCRA, Ghana, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Accra was the host for the launch of the book "Reparations. The History, Struggle, Politics and Law" by renowned journalist and Pan-Africanist, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. The event, organised with support from the Pan-African Progressive Front (PPF), was attended by the President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama.

President Mahama, who wrote the foreword for the book, stressed the critical importance of reparations to restore justice and the dignity of Africa, which suffered from the slave trade and colonialism.

"Reparation is not a charity; it is justice, and it must be visible," the President stated.

He also noted that the book provides the facts, figures, and concrete pathways for achieving reparations, which should form the basis for reorganising global systems in favour of Africa.

The book, which was also presented at the African Union Summit in Malabo in July 2025, estimates the debt owed to Africa in trillions of dollars:

$2-3 trillion for the unpaid labour of slaves;

$4-6 trillion for colonial exploitation;

$500 billion for debt cancellation;

$50 billion for stolen artefacts;

$1 trillion for climate reparations.

Speaking at the launch, Kwesi Pratt called for a global rethink:

"Reparation is not simply compensation for past crimes; it is about restructuring the world, redistributing surplus value, and removing the inequality rooted in the colonial era."

Pratt's book, aimed at activists, students, and the youth of Africa, has already received widespread acclaim, including glowing reviews at an experts' forum in Johannesburg in August 2025. Demand for the publication is soaring, necessitating an additional print run.

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Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Collaboration will expand digital twin adoption, empower aerospace startups, and speed up product development and certification processes

TROY, Mich., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Altair, a global leader in computational intelligence, and Wichita State University's (WSU) National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR), one of the world's leading aerospace research institutions, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to advance innovation across the aerospace and defense industries.

"NIAR is a global leader in aerospace research, and this partnership paves the way for new opportunities to bring cutting-edge technology to the industry," said Pietro Cervellera, senior vice president of aerospace and defense, Altair. "By combining our expertise, we're helping companies and startups innovate faster, reduce costs, and bring products to market more sustainably."

The partnership focuses on three main areas:

Bringing digital twin technology to industry: Combining NIAR's certification by analysis (CBA) methodologies with Altair's simulation and data analytics tools, companies can design, test, and optimize aircraft, drones, and advanced air mobility vehicles faster and more efficiently, reducing the need for costly physical testing.

Combining NIAR's certification by analysis (CBA) methodologies with Altair's simulation and data analytics tools, companies can design, test, and optimize aircraft, drones, and advanced air mobility vehicles faster and more efficiently, reducing the need for costly physical testing. Supporting startups: Aerospace and defense startups working with NIAR and WSU will gain privileged access to Altair's platforms and training to accelerate their product development, testing, certification, and production processes.

Aerospace and defense startups working with NIAR and WSU will gain privileged access to Altair's platforms and training to accelerate their product development, testing, certification, and production processes. Exploring new applications: The collaboration will explore how digital twins and Altair technology can support broader applications, including maintenance, additive manufacturing, robotics, and defense systems.

"This agreement with Altair provides our students, researchers and clients with access to world-class tools and expertise that will help accelerate development to support the next generation of aerospace technology and innovation," said John Tomblin, WSU executive vice president for Research and Industry and Defense programs and NIAR executive director.

The agreement comes at a time when the aerospace industry is looking for faster, more efficient ways to develop, test, and certify and manufacture new technologies, from drones to next-generation air mobility vehicles.

At DSEI, Altair will be located at the ADS Pavilion, Booth N7-163. To learn more about Altair's aerospace capabilities, visit https://altair.com/aerospace and to learn more about NIAR, visit https://www.niar.wichita.edu/.

About Altair

Altair is a global leader in computational intelligence, providing software and cloud solutions in simulation, high-performance computing, data analytics, and AI. Altair is part of Siemens Digital Industries Software. Learn more at www.altair.com or sw.siemens.com.

Media contacts

Altair Corporate

Bridget Hagan

+1.216.769.2658

corp-newsroom@altair.com





Altair Europe/The Middle East/Africa Altair Asia-Pacific Louise Wilce Man Wang +44 (0)7392 437 635 86-21-5016635"825 emea-newsroom@altair.com apac-newsroom@altair.com

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/altair-and-wichita-state-universitys-niar-sign-mou-to-accelerate-aerospace-innovation-302552743.html
Novi Intelligence redefines energy research with accessible underlying data, forward-looking forecasting, and proprietary AI-driven metrics, restoring trust where legacy research falls short.

AUSTIN, TX / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / Novi Labs ("Novi") today unveiled Novi Intelligence, a groundbreaking research platform that marks the end of backward-looking, unverifiable energy analysis. As the upstream sector matures and competition for quality inventory intensifies, Novi Intelligence provides a solution built on actual operator-sourced data and powered by a decade-refined machine learning platform that delivers transparent, forward-looking insights that energy companies, investors, and analysts can trust.

Novi Intelligence



In an industry where billions of dollars depend on forecast accuracy, traditional research methodologies have failed to evolve beyond static models built on historical assumptions. These approaches have perpetuated a persistent pattern of overestimation that erodes trust between operators and investors, ultimately restricting capital flow across the entire sector.

A Fundamental Transformation in Energy Intelligence

"Novi Intelligence represents a fundamental transformation in what energy intelligence actually means." said Jon Ludwig, President & Founder of Novi Labs. "We're not just delivering another PDF report. We're providing accessible data, forward-looking insights, and proprietary metrics in one integrated solution. Every chart, every conclusion is built on actual data that clients can inspect and validate themselves. This is verifiable intelligence at a time when trust is everything."

Three Revolutionary Approaches

Novi Intelligence redefines energy research through three breakthrough capabilities:

1. Showing the Receipts

Novi stands alone as a research provider that backs up written analysis and reports with accessible underlying data. Built on its proprietary "Actuals Not Estimated" dataset sourced directly from trusted operators and mineral owners-not state estimates-Novi Intelligence allows users to run their own validations on the same data used in the analysis, fostering unprecedented transparency.

2. A True Forward Looking View

While traditional research assumes future performance will mirror past results, Novi's machine learning models do the opposite. The platform accounts for well design decisions that drive future well performance delivering forecasts that reflect tomorrow's reality instead of yesterday's assumptions.

3. Industry Defining Future Well Metrics

Novi Intelligence introduces proprietary measurements that explain its future well forecasts, including rock quality, completion intensity, prior depletion, and well density. These metrics drive our forward views of well productivity and future economics, which in turn quantify capital efficiency -insights legacy research can't replicate.

Proven Results in High-Stakes Decisions

Early adopters have already leveraged Novi Intelligence to:

Avoid millions in misallocated capital by identifying which assets would underperform traditional forecasts

Make acquisition decisions based on genuine rock quality measurements rather than marketing presentations

Build investor materials with defensible, forward-looking forecasts that withstand scrutiny

Benchmark spacing, completions, and economics with unrivaled granularity across all major U.S. basins

Gain competitive advantage by understanding reservoir dynamics and depletion effects competitors miss

"As a long-standing customer of Novi Analytics and Insight Engine data products, we've been impressed by the pathway that NOVI has taken to build robust, quality workflows", said Pete Dillett, Senior Vice President of Development at Birch Resources. "We have worked with Novi to build and optimize development for an industry leading, high-quality asset in the northern Midland basin. We look forward to continuing to utilize Novi Intelligence to help support future asset acquisitions and development decisions."

The Future of Energy Intelligence

As high-quality drilling inventory becomes increasingly scarce, the margin for error in forecasting has vanished. Energy companies can no longer rely on hopeful extrapolations or opaque reports. Novi Intelligence enters at this critical moment - offering a smarter, more verifiable path forward that restores credibility with stakeholders through consistently reliable projections backed by actual data.

About Novi Labs

Novi Labs is the leading AI-first energy analytics platform redefining how energy operators and investors make high-stakes capital decisions. Built on proprietary machine learning, exclusive datasets, and deep reservoir expertise, Novi delivers the industry's most accurate well-level forecasts and development insights. Many leading E&P operators and mineral owners rely on Novi, with billions in monthly capital decisions flowing through the platform. Novi is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

www.novilabs.com

SOURCE: Novi Labs

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/oil-gas-and-energy/novi-labs-unveils-novi-intelligence-a-breakthrough-in-energy-research-transparen-1027613
Celebrating Eight Years of Giving Back, Optima Continues to Lead in Volunteerism, Philanthropy and Community Impact

SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / Optima Tax Relief has once again been named a Civic 50 Orange County honoree, earning the recognition for the eighth consecutive year (the Civic 50 was not awarded in 2020). Since the program's inception in 2017, Optima has been honored every year it has been awarded, reflecting the company's longstanding commitment to being one of Orange County's most community-minded businesses.

Civic 50 Orange County Logo



Presented annually by OneOC in partnership with Points of Light, the award recognizes the 50 companies that demonstrate exceptional dedication to corporate citizenship and community engagement in Orange County.

"Community stewardship isn't just part of who we are - it defines us," said David King, CEO of Optima Tax Relief. "Earning the Civic 50 award every year since its launch is a powerful testament to our team's year-round commitment to philanthropy, volunteerism, and measurable social impact. We believe that when our employees give back, they not only strengthen our local communities but also inspire a culture of compassion and purpose within our company."

A Legacy of Community Leadership

Since 2017, Optima has consistently earned Civic 50 recognition by achieving milestones such as:

2017 - Charter honoree for impactful employee volunteer programs.

2018-2019 - Recognized for embedding CSR into business functions and measuring outcomes.

2021 - Launched the Optima Cares Foundation and expanded volunteer-time-off.

2022 - Honored for employee-led fundraisers, diversity partnerships, and volunteer growth.

2023 - Recognized for strength across all four evaluation pillars.

2024 - Celebrated for sustained excellence in CSR.

2025 - Eighth consecutive recognition, marking nearly a decade of community leadership.

Why Optima was Honored

Honorees are evaluated across four pillars of corporate citizenship through True Impact's Civic 50 survey:

Investment of Resources - cash grants, in-kind donations, and paid volunteer time.

Integration - alignment of community programs with company values.

Institutionalization - policies and systems that sustain CSR initiatives.

Impact - measurable outcomes improving quality of life in Orange County.

Optima continues to excel in each pillar from empowering employees with paid volunteer time and matching donations to driving results through community clean-ups, skills-based volunteering, and nonprofit partnerships led by Optima Cares.

This recognition underscores Optima's belief that corporate social responsibility is not a campaign, but a core value embedded into business year after year.

About Optima Tax Relief

Optima Tax Relief is the nation's leading tax resolution firm assisting individuals and businesses struggling with unmanageable IRS and state tax debts. Optima's commitment to delivering unparalleled service and results has earned the company numerous honors, including the International Torch Award for Ethics from the Better Business Bureau and Civic 50 recognitions for corporate responsibility and community involvement. Optima has helped tens of thousands of taxpayers yearly achieve financial relief and peace of mind.

SOURCE: Optima Tax Relief

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/banking-and-financial-services/optima-tax-relief-earns-eighth-consecutive-civic-50-orange-county-aw-1068017
The craft flour pioneer outperformed hundreds of tech startups, highlighting surging demand for regenerative food and resilient supply chains.

BURLINGTON, WA / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / Cairnspring Mills, the Washington-based craft flour company redefining a $23 billion industry, has raised $1 million from more than 500 investors on Wefunder in less than a month. The campaign, which is still accepting investors, ranked #1 on Wefunder among campaigns that launched in July, and #2 among 64 newly launched campaigns nationwide according to Kingscrowd. Across all 430 active Reg CF campaigns, Cairnspring was #5 in July. Cairnspring's strong performance, coming out ahead of several tech and AI startups, proves that regenerative food is attracting mainstream investor attention.

Founded in 2016 by farmers, bakers, and community leaders in Washington's Skagit Valley, Cairnspring is pioneering the craft flour movement-much like Blue Bottle did for coffee and Dogfish Head did for beer. In an industry where 87% of milling capacity is controlled by just 10 companies, Cairnspring produces flour that is identity-preserved, terroir-driven, and fully traceable to the farm. By sourcing grain directly from Pacific Northwest farmers using regenerative growing methods, and stone-milling it in small batches to retain the bran and germ, Cairnspring delivers flour that is naturally nutritious, alive with flavor, and transformative in the hands of bakers. Cairnspring is trusted by world-class chefs and bakers-from Tartine and Pizzeria Bianco to Gusto Bread, Poulette, and Breadfarm. Chad Robertson, co-founder of Tartine, says "the flour from Cairnspring Mills is the best flour we have ever used. We use it almost exclusively."

With demand far outpacing its Burlington, WA mill's seven million pounds of annual output, Cairnspring will break ground next month on its second facility: the Blue Mountain mill in Pendleton, Oregon, in the heart of the Northwest's grain hub. Built in partnership with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR), the new mill will replicate Cairnspring's small-batch, European-style stone milling while leveraging advanced technology to expand capacity twelvefold. Once complete in Q3 2026, the project will create more than 20 local living wage jobs, spark long-term economic activity, and provide forecasted long term returns for CTUIR as equity owners in Cairnspring. Major buyers including Patagonia, leading national bakeries, and institutional foodservice partners have already secured significant volume at the new facility, with additional capacity still available as Cairnspring continues to expand its customer base.

"I believe our flour is proof that we can build a food system that honors a triple bottom line of profitability, human health, and environmental sanity," said Kevin Morse, Co-Founder & CEO of Cairnspring Mills. "Raising $1 million in under a month shows people want to invest in that future. In a field dominated by tech and AI, being the only food company in the top five nationwide proves this movement is real-and regenerative food belongs at the center of what comes next."

Over the next four years, Cairnspring projects significant revenue growth with the addition of the Pendleton mill. Long-term plans include building additional mills in Maryland and Colorado to establish a national footprint across major U.S. markets.

Beyond the Wefunder community. Cairnspring has secured capital commitments for its new facility from Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Peter Buffett's NoVo Foundation, and Terra Regenerative. When Cairnspring was founded, its anchor investors included Patagonia, King Arthur, and other mission-driven partners. The company is led by operators with exits to Vita Coco, Nestle, and JuneShine.

Cairnspring's impact reaches beyond investors. By paying premiums for regeneratively grown grain, the company helps farmers break free from commodity markets and improve long-term viability. Its supply chain is 100% identity-preserved, fully traceable, and adapted to each farm's microclimate. The company is Non-GMO Project Verified and SQF Certified.

Cairnspring's Wefunder campaign is still open for a limited time, giving the public a rare opportunity to invest alongside industry leaders and help accelerate a food movement poised to triple in size to a $700 million emerging craft flour market by 2030.

About Cairnspring Mills

Cairnspring Mills is pioneering the craft flour movement with a mission to rebuild food systems, support farmers, and nourish communities with clean, healthy, flavorful grains and flour. Founded in Washington's Skagit Valley in 2016, the company partners directly with Pacific Northwest growers who use regenerative practices that restore soil health and long-term farm viability. Every lot of grain is identity-preserved, stone-milled in small batches, and crafted to retain the bran and germ, resulting in flour that is fresher, naturally nutritious, and alive with flavor. By proving flour can be full of flavor and economically resilient, Cairnspring offers a new model for 21st-century food production-one that regionalizes supply chains, restores ecosystems, and shares value more equitably across farmers, bakers, and communities. For more information, visit cairnspring.com, follow along on Instagram or join the campaign at wefunder.com/cairnspringmills. A live investor Q&A will take place today, September 10th from 12-1pm PT, hosted by Kevin Morse (Cairnspring Mills CEO) and Tyler Gage (Cairnspring Mills Chairman & CFO). Prospective investors are welcome to join. To register, please visit: https://luma.com/fq278g07

Media Contact: Lani Free, Greenheart Communications Collective (CairnspringPR@greenheartcollective.com)

###

SOURCE: Cairnspring Mills

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/food-and-beverage-products/pacific-northwest-flour-mill-raises-groundbreaking-1m-from-500-retail-in-1071002
DALLAS, TX / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / Swanson Reed, a leading global R&D tax advisory firm, announced today that it has completed the acquisition of AusGrant. (www.ausgrant.com), a premier U.S. and Australian consultancy specializing in helping companies apply for and secure government research grants. The strategic acquisition unites two specialist firms, creating an unmatched service offering for innovative companies across the region.

By integrating AusGrant's deep expertise in the research grant landscape, Swanson Reed will provide a comprehensive, end-to-end solution for businesses seeking non-dilutive funding. This move solidifies the company's commitment to offering highly specialized, data-driven advice to maximize returns on innovation.

"This acquisition represents a powerful synergy of two specialist firms," said Cherie Jones, Director of Swanson Reed. "AusGrant has a stellar reputation for securing critical funding for innovators. By combining our global R&D tax experience with their localized grant expertise, we are creating a single, seamless resource for our clients."

Key Benefits of the Acquisition:

A Comprehensive Funding Solution:

The merger provides a one-stop shop for companies seeking to leverage the full spectrum of government incentives, from R&D tax credits to a wide array of federal and state grants.

Deepened Specialization: The combined entity brings together two dedicated teams of engineers, scientists, and tax professionals who live and breathe innovation funding, offering a level of focus that generalist firms can not match.

Expanded Footprint: The acquisition significantly strengthens Swanson Reed's presence and capabilities within the U.S. and Australian markets, ensuring clients receive expert, on-the-ground support.

Seamless Client Experience: Both firms are committed to a smooth transition, ensuring all existing AusGrant clients continue to receive the highest level of service and support without interruption.

A Stronger Future for Innovation Funding

The acquisition moves beyond a simple business transaction; it creates a holistic platform for fueling innovation. This unique, specialist-driven approach ensures:

A complete, end-to-end strategy, from identifying R&D activities to securing grant funding.

A focus on maximizing non-dilutive funding for founders, allowing them to preserve equity.

An integrated team with deep expertise in both tax law and the intricacies of grant applications.

"We are thrilled to welcome the AusGrant business into the Swanson Reed family," added Jones. "In an increasingly complex funding environment, our goal is to provide clarity and maximize outcomes for innovative companies. Swanson Reed will continue to exclusively provide R&D tax services, and AusGrant will continue to help clients receive government Grants. In the world of AI, where much of the grant application process is now automated, this move will help strengthen both businesses."

About Swanson Reed

Founded in 1984 by J.W. Norris, Swanson Reed has grown to become one of the largest specialist R&D tax advisory firms in the world, employing over 60 people across seven countries. With offices in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore, its people have published in over 100 academic journals and magazines. Unlike generalist firms, Swanson Reed exclusively prepares R&D tax credit claims, providing businesses with unmatched precision, support, and audit protection.

About AusGrant

Founded in 2010, AusGrant established itself as a leading advisor for Australian and U.S. businesses, securing government funding. The firm specializes in the provision of consulting services to help companies and universities secure research grants.

Media Contact

Organization: Swanson Reed

Contact Person Name: Cherie Jones Director Swanson Reed

Website: http://www.swansonreed.com/

Email: clj@swansonreed.com

Contact Number: +18009864725

Country: United States

SOURCE: Swanson Reed

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/business-and-professional-services/swanson-reed-acquires-ausgrant-strengthening-its-position-as-a-g-1071212
The 2029 International Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (IADR) General Session Exhibition will be held in Yokohama from June 27 to June 30, 2029, marking the return of the event to Japan after 28 years. The IADR General Session is held in conjunction with the IADR Asia Pacific Regional (APR) Meeting.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250910478673/en/

YOKOHAMA JAPAN'S FIRST PORT OF CALL

Working in partnership with the City of Yokohama and the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), the Yokohama City Visitors Bureau (YCVB) and PACIFICO Yokohama have secured the bid to host the 2029 IADR General Session-owing to Yokohama's convenient access, excellent reputation in hosting international conferences, and robust support infrastructure. The decision was also based on the extensive legacy of world-leading dental, oral, and craniofacial research in Japan, and the long-standing activities of the Japanese Association for Dental Research (JADR).

Comment from Professor Satoshi Imazato, IADR Immediate Past President

"I am delighted that Yokohama has been selected to host the IADR General Session. IADR is the world's largest dental, oral, and craniofacial research organization, and its Japanese Division has long had the second-largest membership, after that of the United States. As the fourth Japanese president of the IADR, a position I held until June of 2025, I am particularly proud that the IADR General Session will be held in Yokohama-a cosmopolitan city with wide international access. I hope to lead a successful conference in Yokohama while also strengthening the spirit of collaboration between Japan and the global research community, further enhancing the international status of Japanese dental researchers."

Event Details

Name: IADR/APR General Session Exhibition

Dates: Wednesday, June 27, to Saturday, June 30, 2029

Venue: PACIFICO Yokohama

Expected Attendance: 5,000 on-site participants (including approximately 4,750 from outside Japan)

Organizer: International Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (IADR) https://www.iadr.org/

The event will bring together a diverse range of participants in Yokohama, including researchers, industry leaders, and clinicians from across the global dental, oral, and craniofacial research community. The accompanying exhibition will feature the latest technologies, hands-on demonstrations, and opportunities for meaningful business exchange.

About the Yokohama City Visitors Bureau

The role of the Yokohama City Visitors Bureau (YCVB) is to employ the wealth of resources existing in the City of Yokohama and Kanagawa Prefecture to promote the region as an ideal destination for both tourists and international conventions. In this way, the YCVB is contributing to the reinvigoration of the City of Yokohama and surrounding areas, and the advancement of its globalization.

About IADR

The International Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (IADR) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to drive dental, oral, and craniofacial research for health and well-being worldwide. IADR represents the individual scientists, clinician-scientists, dental professionals, and students based in academic, government, non-profit, and private-sector institutions who share our mission. Learn more at www.iadr.org.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250910478673/en/

Contacts:

Yuki Hori

Manager, Business Events Team

Yokohama City Visitors Bureau

Email: mice@ycvb.or.jp
China firmly upholds red line for farmland protection

Xinhua) 13:05, September 10, 2025

Guan Zhiou, minister of natural resources and general supervisor of national natural resources, and Liu Guohong, director of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration (National Park Administration), attend a press conference held by the State Council Information Office (SCIO) on achievements in high-quality natural resources development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 10, 2025. (Xinhua/Cai Yang)

BEIJING, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- China has firmly upheld the red line for farmland protection, gradually establishing an integrated framework for the quantity, quality, and ecological preservation of farmland, Guan Zhiou, minister of natural resources, said on Wednesday.

By the end of 2024, China's total farmland area reached nearly 1.94 billion mu (129.33 million hectares), an increase of 28 million mu compared to 2020, Guan told a press conference.

China has been stepping up efforts to ensure the total area of its farmland does not fall below the red line of 1.8 billion mu.

China's national forest coverage rate has reached 25.09 percent, an increase of approximately 2 percentage points since 2020, making the country the world's fastest and largest contributor to afforestation, Guan said.

Meanwhile, the gross ocean product (GOP) reached 10.5 trillion yuan (about 1.48 trillion U.S. dollars), an increase of 2.7 trillion yuan compared to 2020.

In 2024, China's GOP surpassed 10 trillion yuan for the first time, marking a major milestone for its marine economy.

Guan Zhiou, minister of natural resources and general supervisor of national natural resources, speaks at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office (SCIO) on achievements in high-quality natural resources development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 10, 2025. (Xinhua/Cai Yang)

A journalist asks questions at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office (SCIO) on achievements in high-quality natural resources development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 10, 2025. (Xinhua/Cai Yang)

The State Council Information Office (SCIO) holds a press conference on achievements in high-quality natural resources development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 10, 2025. (Xinhua/Cai Yang)

(Web editor: Huang Kechao, Liang Jun)
DELRAY BEACH, Fla., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The global Home Healthcare Market, valued at US$285.3 billion in 2024, stood at US$309.9 billion in 2025 and is projected to advance at a resilient CAGR of 8.9% from 2025 to 2030, culminating in a forecasted valuation of US$473.8 billion by the end of the period. This growth is driven by the rising elderly population, which is more prone to chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases, increasing the need for ongoing care at home. The rapid adoption of telehealth and remote patient monitoring technologies is making healthcare more accessible and convenient, while growing public awareness about the benefits of early diagnosis and preventive care is further boosting demand. In addition, technological advancements in home healthcare devices are making them more user-friendly and affordable, accelerating their adoption across both developed and developing regions.

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Browse in-depth TOC on 'Home Healthcare Market'

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By product segment, the home healthcare market is segmented into testing, screening, and monitoring products; therapeutic products; and mobility care products. In 2024, therapeutic products held the largest share. This dominance is largely attributed to the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and kidney failure, which require ongoing treatment and management. As more patients seek convenient, long-term care solutions, there is a growing reliance on therapeutic equipment that can be used safely and effectively at home. These products, including infusion pumps, dialysis machines, and respiratory therapy devices, play a crucial role in improving patient outcomes while reducing hospital visits. The rising demand for personalized and continuous care has solidified the position of therapeutic items as a key driver in the home healthcare market.

By services, the home healthcare market, based on service, is divided into skilled nursing services, rehabilitation therapy services, hospice & palliative care services, unskilled care services, respiratory therapy services, infusion therapy services, and pregnancy care services. In 2024, skilled nursing services accounted for the largest share of the home healthcare market. This leading position is primarily due to the increasing demand for professional medical care at home, particularly among the elderly population. As people age, they are more likely to develop complex and chronic health conditions requiring continuous monitoring, medication administration, wound care, and post-surgical support, typically delivered by licensed nurses. The growing aging demographic, coupled with a strong preference for receiving care in familiar, comfortable environments, is fueling the expansion of skilled nursing services. Additionally, advancements in home medical equipment and support from insurance providers have made home-based nursing care more accessible and efficient, further driving market growth.

By geography, the home healthcare market is segmented into six major regional segments, namely, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East & Africa, and GCC Countries. Among these, the Asia Pacific region is expected to witness the fastest growth, with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.1% during the forecast period. This rapid expansion is driven by several key factors, including the presence of emerging economies such as China, India, and Japan, which are experiencing a surge in healthcare demand.

This rapid growth is primarily driven by increasing disposable incomes, which are enabling more individuals to afford quality healthcare services, including home-based care. Additionally, governments across countries such as China, India, Japan, and South Korea are launching initiatives to promote home healthcare, aiming to reduce pressure on overburdened hospitals and improve healthcare access in urban and rural areas. These efforts include policy reforms, public awareness campaigns, and investments in digital health infrastructure. The combination of improved economic conditions and supportive government measures creates a favorable environment for expanding home healthcare services across the Asia Pacific region.

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Prominent players in the home healthcare market include Fresenius Medical Care AG (Germany), Abbott (US), Linde plc (Ireland), F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Ltd (Switzerland), ResMed (US), Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Netherlands), GE Healthcare (US), A&D HOLON Holdings Company, Limited, Convatec Group PLC (UK), Amedisys (US), OMRON Healthcare Co., Ltd. (Japan), Invacare Corporation (US), BAYADA Home Health Care (US), Drive DeVilbiss Healthcare (UK), Sunrise Medical (Germany), Roma Medical (UK), Caremax Rehabilitation Equipment Co., Ltd. (China), Vitalograph (UK), Advita Pflegedienst (Germany), RENAFAN Group (Germany), CONTEC MEDICAL SYSTEMS CO., LTD. (China), B. Braun SE (Germany), Baxter (US), Medline Industries (US), and Advin Health Care (India), amongst others.

FRESENIUS MEDICAL CARE AG (Germany):

Fresenius Medical Care AG has established a strong presence in the home healthcare market through its subsidiary, Fresenius Medical Care, the world's largest provider of products and services for people with chronic kidney failure. The company delivers a wide range of home dialysis options, such as peritoneal dialysis (PD) and home hemodialysis (HHD), allowing patients to receive personalized treatments in the comfort of their homes. With a focus on innovation, digital tools, and patient education, Fresenius supports improved health outcomes and helps reduce reliance on hospital-based care.

The company is actively expanding into emerging markets like India by investing in infrastructure, launching awareness campaigns, and offering specialized training programs. Its continued emphasis on home-based therapies and integration of telehealth technologies further solidifies its position as a global leader in home healthcare solutions.

ABBOTT (US)

Abbott holds a significant position in the home healthcare market through its advanced medical devices and diagnostic innovations. Among its key offerings are home-use products like the Libre continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system, which allows individuals with diabetes to manage their condition more efficiently and independently at home. Abbott focuses heavily on remote patient monitoring, digital health integration, and leveraging data-driven insights to enable timely, personalized care and better health outcomes.

RESMED (US)

ResMed emphasizes digital innovation to help healthcare providers deliver tailored, efficient care while allowing patients to manage their health comfortably from home. This integrated model reduces hospital admissions and improves treatment outcomes, making home therapy more effective and accessible. With operations in over 140 countries, the company continues to expand its global footprint and advance remote care technologies, reinforcing its leadership in the evolving home healthcare industry.

For more information, Inquire Now!

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HOUSTON, TX / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / Monkey Island LNG ("MILNG") announced today the execution of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with an investment-grade International Oil Company (IOC) for the offtake of up to 5.20 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of liquefied natural gas (LNG). MILNG is developing a 26 MTPA LNG export facility in two phases, with Phase 1 targeting 15.6 MTPA across three trains. This offtake agreement represents the output of MILNG's entire first LNG train in Phase 1.

While the IOC's name remains confidential at this stage, the MOU demonstrates a growing commercial demand for MILNG's TrueCost LNG model featuring a transparent, cost-efficient framework that aligns incentives from gas supplier to LNG buyer.

"Partnering with a company of this caliber highlights the depth of industry confidence in MILNG's next-generation development strategy. This agreement is an unprecedented milestone," said Greg Michaels, CEO of MILNG. "Securing an MOU for up to 5.20 MTPA with an investment-grade counterparty not only validates our commercial model but also provides critical momentum as we move toward regulatory approvals and Final Investment Decision (FID). When converted into a Sales and Purchase Agreement, the total revenue of this deal would likely exceed $35 billion."

The MOU reinforces MILNG's commercial strategy of building long-term, creditworthy offtake partnerships that support financing and development of its 15.6 MTPA Phase 1 of the project. The agreement also aligns with a broader trend of buyers seeking contract transparency and operational reliability in a dynamic global LNG market. MILNG continues to advance commercial and engineering milestones across the project and is in active discussions with additional offtakers for remaining volumes on Phase 1.

Michaels added, "With regulatory advancements underway, engineering contracts awarded, a long-term supply agreement secured, and now a major offtake agreement, MILNG has positioned itself as a next-generation leader in the global LNG marketplace. With the strong market validation on our differentiated development model, we look forward to playing a key role in the next wave of U.S. LNG exports."

Key Highlights

Up to 5.20 MTPA of LNG offtake secured

Agreement covers output of MILNG's first liquefaction train

Total potential revenues exceeds $35 billion when converted to an SPA

Signals strong market demand for MILNG's TrueCost LNG model

Supports progress toward regulatory milestones and FID

About Monkey Island LNG

Monkey Island LNG ("MILNG") is a private company addressing the global energy crisis and growing demand for LNG through the development of critically needed U.S. natural gas infrastructure. Its flagship project, located on Monkey Island in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, sits just 2 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico near abundant gas supply and features a proven and stable liquefaction technology of COP, an innovative commercial structure, and a low-cost construction plan leveraging an industry-proven EPC contractor McDermott. For more information, go to www.monkeyislandlng.com.

Press Contacts

For Monkey Island LNG:

Greg Michaels, CEO, Monkey Island LNG

Greg.m@mkyisland.com

949-636-5900

Forward-Looking Statement

This communication contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. These include, without limitation, statements regarding the expected scope, design, and timing of the Monkey Island LNG project; the execution, terms, and timing of definitive agreements; anticipated commercial progress; and other future events or developments.

Although Monkey Island LNG ("MILNG") believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that they will prove correct. Forward-looking statements are based on current assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. These risks include, but are not limited to: changes in market conditions, credit and capital markets, and industry norms; failure to successfully execute or complete contracts; changes in project scope, design, or schedules; availability of qualified personnel and resources; contract modifications, cancellations, or disputes; and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied.

Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this communication. MILNG undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof, except as required by applicable law. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

SOURCE: Monkey Island LNG

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/oil-gas-and-energy/monkey-island-lng-signs-major-mou-for-lng-offtake-with-an-international-oil-comp-1071231
Istanbul, Turkey--(Newsfile Corp. - September 10, 2025) - Commencis, a leading AI-powered digital transformation company headquartered in Istanbul, announced that its AI research team secured 2nd place worldwide in the prestigious OpenAI to Z Challenge, an international competition organized by OpenAI in partnership with Kaggle.





Commencis AI Team Wins 2nd Place Globally in the OpenAI to Z Challenge

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The OpenAI to Z Challenge invited AI teams across the globe to tackle a bold scientific problem: explore how AI can assist with data analysis that could push the archaeological frontier in the Amazon. More than 10,000 participants from over 20 countries joined the challenge, analyzing massive open-source LiDAR and satellite datasets to reveal patterns invisible to the human eye.

Commencis entered the competition with its solution, GlyphTrack: Detection of Anomalies Under Canopy. The team dug through vast LiDAR and satellite datasets from the Amazon and teased out subtle human fingerprints hidden beneath dense jungle canopy. Using a GPT-assisted anomaly detection workflow, GlyphTrack revealed patterns that had previously gone unnoticed, providing strong evidence of ancient human activity and earning Commencis a top spot in this global challenge.

The award-winning effort was led by Commencis' AI team members Dorukhan Arslan, Ece Unal, Pinar Ersoy, and Ebubekir Karamustafa. Their teamwork and diverse expertise brought a fresh perspective to solving one of archaeology's most complex challenges.





Commencis' AI team members Ece Unal, Dorukhan Arslan, Ebubekir Karamustafa and Pinar Ersoy.

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Firat Isbecer, CEO of Commencis, said: "From Istanbul to the world, we are incredibly proud of this recognition. Our AI team's success in the OpenAI to Z Challenge is proof of the extraordinary talent, creativity, and dedication we have at Commencis. This achievement is not just about placing 2nd in a global competition; it shows how Turkish technology and AI research can contribute meaningfully to advancing global scientific frontiers."

The team's success was not only a technical breakthrough but also a powerful demonstration of how AI can accelerate scientific discovery and enrich our understanding of human history. The competition's outcomes, including Commencis' achievements, were even featured in National Geographic.

About Commencis

Commencis drives AI-powered digital transformation for enterprises. By putting digital at the core, Commencis help businesses thrive and stay relevant in a demanding world by leveraging the power of AI.

With more than 450 experts, Commencis specializes in artificial intelligence, design, engineering, and cloud technologies to build scalable, high-performance digital products. Commencis products and solutions are used by leading brands in financial services, insurance, airlines, and retail across more than 20 countries.

With teams in Istanbul, London, and Berlin, Commencis help clients around the globe commence their next evolution and pave the way for a thriving digital society.

For more information, please visit: https://www.commencis.com/

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/265853

SOURCE: B2Press BV
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / Sharon AI, Inc. ("SHARON AI"), a High-Performance Computing ("HPC") business focused on Artificial Intelligence ("AI") Compute Infrastructure, today announced that Wolf Schubert, CEO will be participating in the Q3 Virtual Investor Summit event, to be held on September 16-17, 2025.

Event Details

Event: Q3 Investor Summit

Presentation Date & Time: September 16 | 11:30 AM ET

Location: Webcast Link

Investor Registration:

The Company will be available for one-on-one meetings during the conference.

To register for an investor meeting, click the link below: https://investorsummitgroup.fillout.com/t/8CZGk3gSQbus

About SHARON AI

SHARON AI, Inc., is a High-Performance Computing company focused on Artificial Intelligence and Cloud GPU Compute Infrastructure. SHARON AI has a hybrid operational model that sees it deploy in co-location data centers as well as developing data center projects. With the expected addition of NVIDIA H200's to the company's GPU fleet in 2025, SHARON AI expects to be able to offer a wide range of AI/HPC GPUs as a Service (GPUaaS), including NVIDIA H200, H100, L40S, A40, RTX3090 and AMD MI300X. For more information, visit: www.sharonai.com

Contacts

Sharon AI Media Enquiries:

Rosalyn Christian/Zachary Nevas

IMS Investor Relations

+1 203.972.9200

sharonai@imsinvestorrelations.com

SOURCE: SHARON AI, Inc.

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/computers-technology-and-internet/sharon-ai-to-present-at-the-q3-virtual-investor-summit-event-on-s-1071205
Significant growth in revenue and operating results

Net income (Group share) doubled

Financial flexibility back on target

2025-2026 OUTLOOK INCORPORATING THE GEOPOLITICAL AND MACROECONOMIC SITUATION

Regulatory News:

Seche Environnement (Paris:SCHP):

STRONG SALES MOMENTUM, OPERATIONAL AGILITY AND FINANCIAL DISCIPLINE AMID A TURBULENT MACROECONOMIC AND GEOPOLITICAL ENVIRONMENT

PROACTIVE BUSINESS MONITORING: proposed acquisition of Groupe Flamme1

CONTRIBUTED REVENUE: up 15% to 580m

EBITDA: up 34% to 118m or 20.4% of revenue (vs. 17.5% of revenue in H1 2024)



COI: up 66% to 49m or 8.5% of revenue (vs. 5.9% of revenue in H1 2024)

NET INCOME (GROUP SHARE): up 99% to 16m or 2.7% of revenue (vs. 1.6% of revenue in H1 2024)

FINANCIAL LEVERAGE: 2.9x (vs. 3.2x at December 31, 2024)

2025-2026 OUTLOOK incorporating external or one-off factors liable to curb short-term operating margin growth New targets for 20252 Contributed revenue: c. 1,180m (unchanged3)

EBITDA: between 250m and 260m (vs. 265-275m3)

COI: between 115m and 125m (vs. 130-140m3)

Financial leverage below 3x (unchanged3 New targets for 20262 Contributed revenue: c. 1,240m (unchanged3)

EBITDA: between 275m and 285m (vs. 290-300m3)

COI: between 145m and 155m (vs. 160-170m3)

Financial leverage below 3x (unchanged3

At the Board of Directors meeting held on September 9, 2025 under the chairmanship of Joel Seche to approve the financial statements for the six months ended June 30, 2025, Maxime Seche, Chief Executive Officer, stated:

Despite this challenging macroeconomic and geopolitical environment, our Group demonstrated strong sales momentum, operational agility, and strict financial discipline to drive growth, boost margins, and enhance its financial flexibility.

Seche Environnement therefore posted a strong business performance. Operating results improved significantly, while net income (Group share) doubled compared to the same period last year.

Our Group generates strong free cash flow and continues to reduce debt and financial leverage in line with targets.

The resounding success of the first green bond issue has strengthened our ability to accelerate our development strategy in France and worldwide.

Quick to seize strategic opportunities, Seche Environnement has announced its intention to acquire Groupe Flamme, a long-standing, family-owned group specializing in environmental services, and the last independent operator in the French hazardous waste management market. Subject to approval by the French Competition Authority, this transaction will strengthen our Group's industrial and commercial positions in northern France and accelerate the implementation of intra-Group synergies on a European scale, thanks to our proven ability to successfully integrate acquisitions.

Our commercial, operational, and financial performance in the first half of 2025 confirms the merits of our strategy of profitable and sustainable growth worldwide.

However, the new macroeconomic and geopolitical environment has prompted Seche Environnement to take a cautious view of the second half of 2025, making allowance for external or one-off factors that could limit the expected increase in operating margins over the short term.

The low selling price of our green energy will continue to curb the profitability of our recovery businesses in France and Europe over the coming months, while upheavals in international trade are prompting reticence among some customers in France and worldwide.

However, these short-term uncertainties have not shaken my confidence in the continued growth of our activities and operating profitability over the coming years, thanks to our strong positioning and R&D efforts.

New markets are opening up or are poised to open up in France, Europe, and around the world due to public opinion and regulations that aim to limit the environmental impact of industrial activities, including those that generate "forever pollutants".

As a specialist in hazardous waste management, Seche Environnement is ready to address these significant new markets with its high value-added environmental solutions.

Driven by the commitment of more than 7,300 employees worldwide, our specialized range of environmental solutions 69% aligned with the European Green Taxonomy, and our advanced industrial capabilities, our Group will continue to sustainably combine environmental and shareholder value creation, providing increasingly effective solutions to our customers' ecological transition and sustainable development challenges."

SELECTED FINANCIAL INFORMATION

AT JUNE 30, 2025

June 30 (6 months)

m 2024 % revenue 2025 % of revenue Gross change Scope effect (ECO) Forex effect Organic change Contributed revenue 505.1 100.0% 580.1 100.0% +14.8% 37.1 0.1 +7.5% EBITDA 88.3 17.5% 118.2 20.4% +33.9% 15.8 0.0 +16.0% COI 29.6 5.9% 49.1 8.5% +65.9% 11.6 0.0 +26.7% Operating income 28.2 5.6% 49.2 8.5% +74.5% 11.4 0.0 +34.0% Net financial income (loss) (14.4) (2.9)% (20.6) (3.6)% +43.1% (0.4) 0.0 +40.3% Consolidated net income 8.7 1.7% 21.6 3.7% +148.3% 10.1 0.0 +32.2% Net income, Group share 8.0 1.6% 15.9 2.7% +98.8% 5.4 0.0 +31.3% EPS ( per share) 1.02 2.05 +98.8% Recurring operating cash flow 76.1 15.1% 104.1 17.9% +36.8% Net industrial CAPEX 47.3 9.4% 49.8 8.6% +5,3% Free operating cash flow 66.9 13.2% 63.2 10.9% -5.5% IFRS net debt 849.7 813.7 -4.2% Financial leverage 3.2x 2.9x -9.4%

Financial leverage was calculated in accordance with bank documentation on the basis of average net financial debt of 782.8m (excluding non-recourse bank loans) and 12-month adjusted EBITDA of 272.1m as of June 30, 2025.

Definitions

Contributed revenue: reported consolidated revenue net of 1/ IFRIC 12 revenue representing investments in concession assets, which are recognized as revenue in accordance with IFRIC 12; 2/ the impact of the general tax on polluting activities (TGAP) paid by the waste producer and collected on behalf of the State by waste treatment operators.Unless stated otherwise, the changes and percentages calculated herein relate to contributed revenue.

Recurring operating cash flow: EBITDA plus dividends received from equity investments and the balance of other cash operating income and expenses (including net foreign exchange gains or losses) less cash rehabilitation and maintenance expenses for waste treatment facilities and concession assets (including MM&R major maintenance and repairs contracts).

Free operating cash flow: recurring operating cash flow less changes in working capital requirement, taxes paid, net bank interest paid (including interest on finance leases) and recurring capital expenditure (maintenance), and before development investments, financial investments, dividends and financing.

COMMENTS ON FIRST HALF 2025 REVENUE,

EARNINGS AND FINANCIAL POSITION

During the firsthalf of 2025, Seche Environnement once again demonstrated the resilience of its growth model.

In a more uncertain macroeconomic and geopolitical environment that fueled reticence among certain industrial customers, the Group maintained buoyant growth in its main markets, driven by brisk business in service activities in France and abroad, particularly in the remediation and environmental emergency business lines.

The Group's operating profit indicators are improving in France, despite rising energy prices, and abroad, mainly due to the accretive contribution from ECO.

Net income (Group share) doubled compared to the same period last year.

Net debt has been reduced due to strong generation of free cash flow, while financial flexibility has improved in line with targets.

The successful placement of the first green bond4 issued for the purposes of refinancing the ECO acquisition has provided additional financial resources with which to pursue the Group's strategic development.

As such, the Group is pursuing a proactive external growth strategy and has announced its intention to acquire Groupe Flamme5, the last independent player operating in the French hazardous waste market.

Continued buoyant organic growth Improvement in operating results Strengthened financial position

Buoyant organic growth in France and abroad

With international markets facing major geopolitical crises and increasing trade tensions fueling reticence among certain customers, the first half of 2025 confirmed the solidity of Seche Environnement's main markets in France and abroad.

Business for the period compares favorably with a sluggish first half 2024, particularly in service activities.

In addition, growth picked up between the first and second quarters, driven by "spot" contracts of exceptional scale in service activities (remediation and environmental emergencies).

First half 2025 contributed revenue6 amounted to 580.1m, up 14.8% from 505.1m last year.

The increase includes a 37.1m contribution from ECO, a Singapore-based subsidiary acquired in July 2024 (scope effect

As such, ECO proved its resilience, despite reticence among certain industrial customers and a significant depreciation in the Singapore dollar versus the euro over the period.

Meanwhile, ECO continued to ramp up its new carbon soot incineration plant, aiming for an optimized utilization rate from 2026.

The foreign exchange effect was limited to a 0.1m gain.

At constant scope, contributed revenue amounted to 543.0m, representing a significant 7.5% increase at constant exchange rates versus H1 2024:

In France, contributed revenue amounted to 378.9m, up 7.0% from 354.1m last year.



Organic growth in France was driven by service activities, in particular the remediation and environmental emergency business lines, with performance comparing favorably with the low level of business recorded during the same period in 2024. Second quarter performance was boosted by invoices for one-off "spot" contracts of exceptional scale totaling around 20m, which accelerated growth for the period.



Circular economy activities showed a slight decline amid prevailing reticence on the part of certain customers, which penalized certain material recovery activities such as solvent regeneration (volume effect), and low energy sale prices, especially electricity (price effect).



Hazard management activities continue to broadly benefit from positive commercial effects in terms of volume or price.



International contributed revenue amounted to 164.1m, representing a significant 8.7% increase at constant exchange rates from 151.0m in the first half of 2024.



In view of the relatively sluggish business performance in the first half of 2024, particularly in service activities, this increase reflects favorable market trends in the main geographic regions except Spain, where the Valls Quimica (solvent regeneration) recovery business is facing the same issues as in France and Solarca (chemical cleaning) is experiencing significant contract postponements in Europe and the rest of the world.



International business was driven by a strong contribution from service activities, particularly the Southern Africa "spot" activities (environmental emergencies in South Africa) and in Latin America (Chile, Peru), buoyed by continuing growth momentum fueled by the implementation of major multi-year contracts signed last year.

Significant growth in operating results

Operating results for the first half of 2025 compare favorably with last year's sluggish performance and were boosted by the accretive contribution from ECO. Excluding the scope effect, the increase in operating profitability was driven by the France scope.

First half 2025 EBITDA amounted to 118.2m representing 20.4% of contributed revenue, up sharply by 33.8% from 88.3m (17.5% of contributed revenue) last year.



The 15.8m positive scope effect corresponds to the solid contribution from ECO, which posted a gross operating margin of 42.6% over revenue.



The foreign exchange effect was non-material.



At constant scope, EBITDA rose significantly by 15.9% at constant exchange rates compared to the first half of 2024 to 102.4m or 18.9% of contributed revenue:



In France , EBITDA rose 20.4% to 85.7m, or 22.6% of contributed revenue, versus 71.2m or 20.1% of contributed revenue in H1 2024. The segment benefited from broadly positive commercial effects (volume and price) and the positive impact of the industrial efficiency policy and cost-cutting plan. These trends offset the lesser contribution from circular economy activities, particularly energy sales, which were significantly impacted by the ongoing decline in energy sale prices.



, EBITDA rose 20.4% to 85.7m, or 22.6% of contributed revenue, versus 71.2m or 20.1% of contributed revenue in H1 2024. The segment benefited from broadly positive commercial effects (volume and price) and the positive impact of the industrial efficiency policy and cost-cutting plan. These trends offset the lesser contribution from circular economy activities, particularly energy sales, which were significantly impacted by the ongoing decline in energy sale prices. International EBITDA totaled 16.7m or 10.2% of revenue, virtually unchanged from the same period last year (16.8m or 11.1% of revenue). International profitability was curbed by a weaker performance from Europe, impacted by the slowdown experienced by Spanish subsidiaries Valls Quimica (solvent regeneration) and Solarca (chemical cleaning).



Current operating income (COI) amounted to 49.1m or 8.5% of contributed revenue, up sharply by 66.2% from 29.6m (5.9% of contributed revenue) last year.



This includes an 11.5m positive scope effect corresponding to the contribution from ECO, which posted a first half 2025 current operating margin of 31.1% over revenue. The foreign exchange effect was non-material.



At constant scope, COI came to 37.5m or 6.9% of contributed revenue, marking a significant increase of 27.1% at constant exchange rates versus H1 2024 (29.6m or 5.9% of contributed revenue).

France COI totaled 35.0m or 9.2% of contributed revenue, up 35.5% versus H1 2024 (25.8m or 7.3% of contributed revenue). This favorable trend reflects the increase in France EBITDA for the period, curbed mainly by the rise in depreciation and amortization charges resulting from last year's capacity investments.



COI totaled 35.0m or 9.2% of contributed revenue, up 35.5% versus H1 2024 (25.8m or 7.3% of contributed revenue). This favorable trend reflects the increase in France EBITDA for the period, curbed mainly by the rise in depreciation and amortization charges resulting from last year's capacity investments. International COI amounted to 2.5m or 1.6% of revenue (vs. 3.7m or 2.5% of revenue in H1 2024). The change reflects the lack of movement in international EBITDA at constant scope and exchange rates and the impact of the increase in depreciation charges related to capacity investments incurred for the deployment of hazard management activities in Latin America and Southern Africa.



Operating income rose sharply to 49.2m or 8.5% of contributed revenue, up 74.5% from 28.2m (5.6% of revenue) last year.

Net income (Group share) doubled

The Group posted a net financial loss of 20.6m, versus a 14.4m loss in the first half of 2024. This change essentially reflects the rise in gross debt (up 5.3m) due to the increase in average gross financial debt over the period, while the average gross financial debt ratio fell significantly to 3.66% versus 4.17% in the first half of 2024.

After accounting for:

an income tax expense of 7.6m, versus a 4.7m expense last year, representing a tax rate of 26.6%, versus 33.8% in the first half of 2024;



of 7.6m, versus a 4.7m expense last year, representing a tax rate of 26.6%, versus 33.8% in the first half of 2024; the share of profit of associates , which amounted to a 0.7m profit versus a 0.5m loss last year, mainly reflecting the contribution from the equity investment in ECO-Mastermelt (Singapore);



, which amounted to a 0.7m profit versus a 0.5m loss last year, mainly reflecting the contribution from the equity investment in ECO-Mastermelt (Singapore); earnings attributable to non-controlling interests, mainly corresponding to minority interests in Singapore-based ECO along with the South African subsidiaries, which amounted to a 5.7m loss, versus a 0.7m loss last year,

net income (Group share) doubled compared to the same period last year (up 98.8%) to 15.9m or 2.7% of contributed revenue, versus 8.0m or 1.6% of contributed revenue last year.

As a result, earnings per share amounted to 2.05, versus 1.02 last year.

Solid cash generation and improved financial flexibility

Over the period, the Group generated free operating cash flow7 of 63.2m (vs. 67.5m in H1 2024).

This change mainly reflects:

a favorable 15.7m reduction in the working capital requirement (WCR), albeit less significant than the first half 2024 reduction of 34.7m. The change is mainly attributable to the rigorous policy of managing trade receivables DSO, particularly among certain subsidiaries recently consolidated under the France scope, and augurs well for the achievement of the Group's target of zero change in WCR over the 2024-2026 period 8 ;



(WCR), albeit less significant than the first half 2024 reduction of 34.7m. The change is mainly attributable to the rigorous policy of managing trade receivables DSO, particularly among certain subsidiaries recently consolidated under the France scope, and augurs well for the achievement of the Group's target of zero change in WCR over the 2024-2026 period ; astute management of industrial investments, with net disbursed investments at 8.6% of contributed revenue, or 49.8m (vs. 9.4% or 47.3m in H1 2024).

The free cash flow to EBITDA ratio came to 53%, significantly higher than the Group's targets ("greater than or equal to 35% of EBITDA").

The liquidity position improved considerably to 550.6m, versus 356.5m at December 31, 2024. The cash balance9, which includes the surplus proceeds from the March 2025 green bond placement issued to refinance the ECO acquisition, reached 333.9m (vs. 169.8m at December 31, 2024).

Net financial debt fell to 813.7m from 849.7m at December 31, 2024.

Financial leverage stood at 2.9 times EBITDA, an improvement on the previous year (3.0 times EBITDA). This figure compares favorably with leverage of 3.2 times EBITDA at December 31, 2024 under the impact of the ECO acquisition completed during the second half of 2024.

This positive development reflects the success of the Group's strict financial discipline, one of the objectives of which is to return to leverage levels less than or equal to 3 times EBITDA no later than 18 months after an acquisition.

2025-2026 OUTLOOK

ALLOWANCE FOR EXTERNAL OR ONE-OFF FACTORS LIABLE TO CURB SHORT-TERM OPERATING MARGIN GROWTH

Significant recent development: increase in the 2030 green bond tranche10

On July 30, 2025, Seche Environnement issued an additional bond (tap issue) for a nominal amount of 70m, which will rank equally with the 400m green bond issued on March 19, 202511

This issue has been underwritten by leading international investors.

With the exception of the issue price, which has been improved to 101.5% of the face value, the New Bonds shall have the same characteristics as the bonds issued in March 2025, including a coupon rate of 4.50% and a maturity date set at March 25, 2030.

Targets for 2025 and 2026, allowing for external or one-off factors resulting from the new geopolitical and macroeconomic situation

Pending the French Competition Authority's verdict on the planned acquisition of Groupe Flamme, the outlook for 2025 and 2026 described below applies to the constant 2025 scope. Where applicable, these targets will be adjusted for the impact of the completed transaction and the potential late 2025 or early 2026 consolidation of Groupe Flamme.

Resilience of the business model in a turbulent geopolitical and macroeconomic environment

Seche Environnement is developing its business in France and abroad in markets that are driving sustainable development and the ecological transition. Positioned on hazardous waste markets (nearly 72% of first half 2025 contributed revenue) and a long-standing specialist in hazard management, the Group meets the essential challenges of protecting human health and preserving biodiversity.

As such, the Group's offer, which is increasingly diversified and expanding internationally, meets the growing needs of its customers, mainly industrial companies, in terms of solutions aimed at reducing their carbon footprint, meeting the increasingly stringent environmental regulations imposed on them worldwide, and thereby guaranteeing the long-term viability of their business.

Accordingly, Seche Environnement's markets are characterized by medium to long-term visibility and their capacity to generate environmental value. These characteristics help strengthen the underlying resilience of the Group's business activities and operating margins.

In the short term, however, growth or operating margins may be impacted by volatile elements such as energy prices, to which the Group's recovery business, particularly the energy segment, is sensitive.

This also applies to service activities, particularly ad hoc construction site activities such as environmental emergency and remediation projects, which depend on industrial accident occurrence and may lead to delays and significant costs over a short period, particularly upon completion of major projects ("contracts of exceptional scale" that generate high bases of comparison). However, these factors do not undermine the highly favorable prospects of these markets in terms of their medium-term development in France and abroad.

That said, Seche Environnement is approaching the coming months with caution in view of external or one-off factors that could curb expected growth in contributed revenue or operating margins over the short term.

Seche Environnement is keeping track of the international geopolitical and macroeconomic situation, which could affect industrial production levels among some of its exporting customers in France, Europe, and Asia over the coming months. Prevailing reticence among these customers could also affect their demand for certain high value-added recycled materials in France or Europe.

The Group is also forecasting low energy sale prices, particularly electricity prices, over the coming months, which could curb the operating margins generated by its recovery business in France.

Finally, service activities, especially remediation and environmental emergencies in France, are expected to make a more normative contribution to revenue and EBITDA over the coming months.

Seche Environnement estimates that these external or one-off factors will have a non-material impact on its estimated contributed revenue for 2025. On the other hand, they are expected to penalize estimated EBITDA for 2025 by around 15 million.

The Group is therefore confirming its contributed revenue growth targets for 2025 and 2026, at constant scope and exchange rates, but forecasts a limited increase in 2025 operating margins compared to 2024.

Business outlook for the second half of 2025 in France and abroad

The Group's various business activities and geographic regions are expected to post different levels of growth over the coming months:

In France, business is expected to remain strong, particularly in the hazard management business lines.



Service activities are expected to return to more normative business levels after a particularly strong first half; they will also have to compare against a strong second half of 2024.



The contribution from circular economy activities (material and energy recovery) will continue to depend on changes in energy sale prices, particularly electricity, and a return to higher industrial production levels among certain customers, particularly in the chemical sector, compared to the recent period.



Meanwhile, international growth will be sustained by:

the gradual ramp-up of new carbon soot treatment capacities in Singapore (ECO);

a solid base of major long-term contracts in Latin America;

strong business in Southern Africa underpinned by the deployment of hazardous waste management activities.



Europe is expected to post sluggish growth, with strong business in Italy offset by a continuing lack of buoyancy on the Spanish regeneration market (Valls Quimica) and chemical cleaning markets in Europe and worldwide (Solarca).

This outlook confirms Seche Environnement's early year projections and contributed revenue targets of around 1,180m for 2025 and around 1,240m for 2026 at constant scope and exchange rates.

Allowance for external or one-off factors liable to limit the increase in operating profitability over the short term Financial flexibility target unchanged12

Limited short-term growth in EBITDA margin

In the second half of 2025, the Group will continue to increase operating margins, in particular through the cost-cutting plan13 aimed at economizing 20m in total over the 2024-2026 period, as well as the industrial efficiency plan focused on optimizing resource availability and logistics flows.

However, these positive contributions will not fully offset the impact of the aforementioned external or one-off factors on operating margins:

In France, the Group expects to benefit from the growing profitability of recent acquisitions (STEI, etc.) in line with the business plan. However, energy prices, particularly electricity prices, will continue to significantly curb performance in the recovery business, while service activities will make a more normative contribution with regard to the first half of 2025;

the Group expects to benefit from the growing profitability of recent acquisitions (STEI, etc.) in line with the business plan. However, energy prices, particularly electricity prices, will continue to significantly curb performance in the recovery business, while service activities will make a more normative contribution with regard to the first half of 2025; In the international segment, the Group expects to benefit from brisk business levels in Latin America (ramp-up of major service contracts) and Southern Africa (buoyant activity in services, particularly emergencies). In addition, ECO (Asia) is expected to make a positive contribution compared to the second half of 2024 in line with the gradual ramp-up of the new carbon soot incinerator. However, Europe's contribution is expected to be lower than in the same period last year.

Therefore, Seche Environnement is forecasting a limited increase in the 2025 EBITDA margin.

Accordingly, EBITDA is expected to range:

from 250m to 260m, or 21% to 22% of contributed revenue, in 2025 (vs. "265 to 275 million", or 22% to 23% of contributed revenue);

or 21% to 22% of contributed revenue, in 2025 (vs. "265 to 275 million", or 22% to 23% of contributed revenue); from 275m to 285m, or 22% to 23% of contributed revenue, in 2026 (vs. "290m to 300m", or 23% to 24% of contributed revenue).

While Seche Environnement is confirming its industrial investment plan budget of around 110m per year over the period, COI is expected to grow in line with EBITDA, ranging from:

115m to 125m in 2025 (vs. "130m to 140m");

(vs. "130m to 140m"); 145m to 155m in 2026 (vs. "160m to 170m").

Continued strict financial discipline to maximize free cash flow generation and maintain financial flexibility

The Group will seek to maximize its free operating cash flow14 by:

controlling industrial investments : for the period, the Group is targeting an amount close to 110m, or around 9% of expected contributed revenue for 2025, in line with its medium-term aim of reducing industrial investments as a proportion of revenue;

: for the period, the Group is targeting an amount close to 110m, or around 9% of expected contributed revenue for 2025, in line with its medium-term aim of reducing industrial investments as a proportion of revenue; controlling working capital requirement, particularly through measures designed to improve trade receivables DSO mainly targeted at recently consolidated subsidiaries in France. These measures should allow the Group to post zero change in WCR over the period, as the improvement in trade receivables DSO should offset the impact of business growth on WCR.

At constant scope and exchange rates (excluding in particular the impact of the proposed Groupe Flamme acquisition15), Seche Environnement is confirming its financial leverage target of less than 3 times EBITDA at 2025 year-end and in 2026

FOR MORE INFORMATION

THE 2025 INTERIM FINANCIAL REPORT IS AVAILABLE

ON THE COMPANY WEBSITE AT WWW.GROUPE-SECHE.COM

Next release

9-month 2025 revenue: October 28, 2025 after close of trading

About Seche Environnement

Seche Environnement is a leading player in waste management, including the most complex and hazardous waste, and in environmental services, particularly in the event of an environmental emergency. Harnessing its expertise in the creation of circular economy loops, decarbonization, and hazard management, and the cutting-edge technologies developed by its R&D department, Seche Environnement has been driving the ecological transition of industries and regions, as well as the protection of the living world, for nearly 40 years. Seche Environnement, a French family-owned industrial group, supports its customers with its subsidiaries located in 9 strategic countries and over 120 locations worldwide, including some 50 industrial facilities in France. Seche Environnement employs around 7,300 people, including around 3,000 in France, and generated revenue of 1,110.5m in 2024, of which international operations accounted for around 32%.

Seche Environnement has been listed on the Euronext Eurolist (Compartment B) since November 27, 1997. The share is included in the CAC Mid&Small, EnterNext Tech 40, and EnterNext PEA-PME 150 indexes. ISIN: FR 0000039139 Bloomberg: SCHP.FP Reuters: CCHE.PA

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION

(In thousands of euros) 12/31/2024 06/30/2025 Goodwill 779,181 758,000 Concession intangible assets 21,881 18,889 Other intangible assets 36,407 35,880 Property, plant and equipment 569,802 548,938 Investments in associates 5,420 5,323 Other non-current financial assets 57,206 56,868 Non-current derivatives assets 260 194 Other non-current assets 18,864 18,485 Deferred tax assets 9,718 8,859 Non-current assets 1,498,739 1,451,437 Inventories 32,134 32,658 Trade and other receivables 314,155 306,327 Other current financial assets 4,326 4,192 Current derivatives assets 262 4,647 Other current assets 77,648 107,098 Cash and cash equivalents 169,753 333,885 Assets held for sale Current assets 598,278 788,807 TOTAL ASSETS 2,097,016 2,240,243

(In thousands of euros) 12/31/2024 06/30/2025 Share capital 1,572 1,572 Additional paid-in capital 74,061 74,061 Reserves 252,617 266,857 Net income for the period 35,504 15,920 Equity attributable to owners of the parent 363,754 358,409 Equity attributable to non-controlling interests 225,907 213,861 Total equity 589,660 572,270 Non-current financial debt 630,570 953,749 Non-current lease liabilities 51,823 48,028 Non-current derivatives liabilities 3,932 3,023 Employee benefits 23,007 23,859 Non-current provisions 43,133 25,757 Other non-current liabilities 9,828 7,805 Deferred tax liabilities 19,257 16,099 Non-current liabilities 781,551 1,078,321 Current financial debt 309,688 124,481 Current lease liabilities 23,952 23,180 Current derivatives liabilities Current provisions 1,486 1,259 Trade payables 217,885 203,367 Other current liabilities 186,378 230,824 Tax liabilities 4,622 6,542 Liabilities held for sale Current liabilities 744,011 589,652 TOTAL LIABILITIES 2,115,222 2,240,243

CONSOLIDATED INCOME STATEMENT

(In thousands of euros) H1 2024 H1 2025 Revenue 540,466 612,850 Other business income 726 552 Income from ordinary activities 541,192 613,402 Purchases consumed (77,349) (79,639) External expenses (196,891) (214,784) Taxes and duties (39,978) (42,116) Payroll expenses (138,644) (158,662) EBITDA 88,330 118,202 Expenses for rehabilitation and/or maintenance of sites under concession arrangements (5,013) (5,668) Depreciation, impairment and provisions (52,556) (61,879) Other operating items (1,186) (1,507) Current operating income 29,576 49,147 Other non-current items (1,373) 9 Operating income 28,203 49,157 Net financial borrowing costs (13,397) (18,001) Other financial income and expenses (1,015) (2,633) Net financial income (loss) (14,412) (20,634) Share of profit of associates (475) 692 Income tax (4,656) (7,577) Net income for the period 8,659 21,637 Of which attributable to non-controlling interests (700) (5,718) Of which attributable to owners of the parent 7,959 15,920 Basic earnings per share (in euros) 1.02 2.05 Diluted earnings per share (in euros) 1.02 2.05

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS

(In thousands of euros) H1 2024 H1 2025 Net income for the period 8,659 21,637 Share of profit of associates 475 (692) Dividends from joint ventures and associates 624 Depreciation, impairment and provisions 52,922 57,820 Income from disposals (396) 1,548 Deferred taxes 1,774 (3,446) Other income and expenses 2,186 924 Cash flows from operating activities 65,620 78,415 Income tax 2,883 11,024 Gross financial borrowing costs before long-term investments 15,044 20,136 Cash flows from operating activities before taxes and financing costs 83,547 109,575 Change in working capital requirement 34,719 15,709 Taxes paid (4,679) (6,430) Net cash flows from operating activities 113,587 118,853 Investments in property, plant and equipment and intangible assets (50,039) (54,491) Proceeds from sales of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets 2,699 4,658 Increase in loans and financial receivables (5,223) (3,687) Decrease in loans and financial receivables 534 779 Takeover of subsidiaries net of cash and cash equivalents (1,100) (806) Loss of control over subsidiaries net of cash and cash equivalents (199) (593) Net cash flows from investment activities (53,329) (54,139) Dividends paid to shareholders of the parent Dividends paid to non-controlling interests (501) (5,918) Capital increase or decrease by controlling company Acquisitions/disposals of non-controlling interests (without gain/loss of control) (1,441) (773) Change in treasury shares (3,411) 165 New borrowings and financial debt 42,964 423,232 Repayments of borrowings and financial debt (60,277) (278,887) Interest paid (12,138) (13,488) Repayment of lease liabilities and associated financial expenses (16,086) (18,230) Net cash flows from financing activities (50,890) 106,100 Total cash flow for the period, continuing operations 9,368 170,814 Net cash flows from discontinued operations TOTAL CASH FLOWS FOR THE PERIOD 9,368 170,814

1 Proposal subject to approval by the French Competition Authority.

2 At constant scope and exchange rates.

3 See press release of March 5, 2025.

4 See press release of March 19, 2025.

5 Subject to approval by the French Competition Authority.

6 See "Definitions" section on page 3 of this document.

7 See "Definitions" section on page 3 of this document.

8 See December 12, 2023 Investor Day.

9 Excluding short-term bank borrowings.

10 See press release of July 30, 2025.

11 See press release of March 19, 2025.

12 Excluding the impact of the potential Groupe Flamme acquisition.

13 See press release of March 5, 2025.

14 Free cash flow before financing of development investments, financial investments, dividends, and debt repayments.

15 Proposal subject to approval by the French Competition Authority

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250910112993/en/

Contacts:

SECHE ENVIRONNEMENT

Analyst/Investor Relations

Manuel Andersen

Head of Investor Relations

m.andersen@groupe-seche.com

+33 (0)1 53 21 53 60

Media Relations

Anna Jaegy

Director of Communications

a.jaegy@groupe-seche.com

+33 (0)1 53 21 53 53
Third Alaska LNG Offtake Agreement Under Five Months of Glenfarne Leadership

Agreement Builds on Fifty-Year LNG History Between Alaska and Japan

Today Alaska LNG, majority owned and developed by Glenfarne Alaska LNG, LLC ("Glenfarne") and JERA Co., Inc. ("JERA"), Japan's largest power generation company, signed a Letter of Intent for the sale of one million tonnes per annum ("MTPA") of liquified natural gas from the Alaska LNG Project over a 20-year term on a Free-on-Board basis.

The 20-MTPA Alaska LNG project, the only federally authorized LNG export project on the U.S. Pacific Coast, is a joint venture between Glenfarne and the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation.

Since becoming the 75% shareholder and lead developer of the Alaska LNG project in March of 2025, Glenfarne has secured preliminary commercial agreements for more than half of Alaska LNG's available third-party LNG offtake capacity, including agreements with CPC in Taiwan and PTT in Thailand. Negotiations to advance these agreements to binding contracts are underway. Glenfarne is in discussions with potential customers for LNG volumes exceeding Alaska LNG's total capacity.

Glenfarne Chief Executive Officer and Founder Brendan Duval said, "Our agreement with JERA, one of the leading LNG companies in the world, follows months of committed discussions on both sides to open a new and diversified energy supply that strengthens energy security and spurs long-term economic growth for both Alaska and Japan. I am grateful for our partnership and collaboration as Glenfarne builds on this momentum with commercial parties across the Pacific region."

"We welcome this LOI with JERA as we add to the long and storied LNG history between Japan and Alaska," said Adam Prestidge, president of Glenfarne Alaska LNG, LLC. "Alaska LNG's economic and strategic competitive advantages, including the shortest U.S. shipping proximity to Asia and abundant, low-volatility North Slope gas reserves, are propelling our commercial progress."

U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said, "Today's announcement by JERA and Glenfarne is another important step forward for the Alaska LNG project. Alaska LNG will not only be one of the greatest energy infrastructure projects in our nation's history, but also provides enormous energy security to the United States and our allies."

Alaska LNG will be one of the lowest-carbon LNG projects in the world. An analysis performed using Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory methodology showed that Alaska LNG will reduce global CO2 emissions by up to 77 million tonnes per year by offsetting growing coal use in Asia and through reduced shipping emissions resulting from Alaska's close proximity to Asia.

Glenfarne is utilizing a phased development strategy to advance Alaska LNG. Phase One construction focuses on the domestic pipeline to rapidly deliver North Slope gas to Alaskans and manage overall project risk. Phase Two adds the LNG export terminal and associated infrastructure. Alaska LNG's economic and shipping fundamentals allow it to export LNG to Asia at prices that are materially lower than LNG from the U.S. Gulf Coast. Glenfarne is targeting a late-2025 Final Investment Decision (FID) for the Alaska LNG pipeline and a 2026 FID for the project's LNG export components.

Glenfarne's permitted North American LNG portfolio totals 32.8 MTPA of capacity under development in Alaska, Texas and Louisiana.

About Glenfarne Group, LLC

Glenfarne Group is a privately held developer, owner, and operator of energy infrastructure assets based in New York, New York and Houston, Texas, with offices in Anchorage, Alaska; Panama City, Panama; Santiago, Chile; Bogota, Colombia; Barcelona, Spain; Tokyo, Japan; and Seoul, South Korea. Through its subsidiaries, Glenfarne currently owns and operates over 60 energy infrastructure assets through three core businesses: Global LNG Solutions, Grid Stability, and Renewables. The company's seasoned executives, asset managers, and operators develop, acquire, manage, and operate energy infrastructure assets throughout North and South America. For more information, please visit www.glenfarne.com.

About JERA

JERA is a global energy leader and Japan's largest power generation company focused on providing cutting-edge solutions to the world's energy issues. Established in 2015, the Company produces one-third of Japan's electricity, and is one of the largest LNG buyers in the world. JERA has global reach and strength throughout the energy supply chain, from participation in LNG upstream projects and fuel procurement, through fuel transportation to power generation. In support of a responsible energy transition, JERA has committed to achieving net-zero CO2 emissions from its domestic and overseas businesses by 2050.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250910874198/en/

Contacts:

Tim Fitzpatrick

News@glenfarnegroup.com, 907-717-4978
Bracknell, England and San Jose, California and Tokyo, Japan--(Newsfile Corp. - September 10, 2025) - Content Guru, the world's leading provider of mission-critical cloud CX solutions, has been placed in the Challengers quadrant of the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Contact-Center-as-a-Service.

The Gartner Magic Quadrant provides a graphical competitive positioning of four types of technology providers, in markets where growth is high and provider differentiation is distinct: Niche Players, Visionaries, Challengers and Leaders. Content Guru is the only vendor in the Challengers quadrant.

"It is pleasing to be recognized as one of only nine vendors recognized in the latest global CCaaS Magic Quadrant," commented Sean Taylor, CEO, Content Guru. "In recent years we have invested heavily in product development, in areas such as AI, with our 'omni-automation' products, and IoT, with our 'omni-customer' solutions. Achieving FedRAMP High accreditation took multiple years and cost us millions of dollars to achieve. Those investments, including our headcount expansion in all regions around the world, in particular the US, have put us in a very strong market position and we look forward to building that momentum. We believe our recognition reflects these efforts and results."

Download the full 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Contact Center-as-a-Service report here

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Contact Center as a Service, Drew Kraus, Jason Bridge, Megan Fernandez, Pri Rathnayake, Pankil Sheth, 08. September 2025.

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark, and MAGIC QUADRANT is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from Content Guru.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/265864

SOURCE: Content Guru
Leading business intelligence consultancy to host exclusive online event detailing a proven framework for building a trusted data governance foundation for AI.

MIAMI, FL / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / Data Meaning Services Group Inc., a premier provider of data analytics and business intelligence solutions, today announced its upcoming webinar, "AI-Ready Governance Blueprint: From Framework to Deployment with Collibra." This free, exclusive event is designed to provide data leaders, governance professionals, and executives with a clear, actionable roadmap to build a trusted governance framework and future-proof their AI strategy.

In an era where organizations are rapidly adopting artificial intelligence, the webinar will address the critical need for a robust data governance foundation. Attendees will learn how to transform fragmented data landscapes into a unified framework powered by Collibra, positioning their organizations for success in the AI-driven future.

"The rapid evolution of AI presents both immense opportunities and significant challenges for businesses," said Dr. Salvador Barragan, Principal, Data Governance at Data Meaning. "Effective data governance is no longer a 'nice-to-have'-it's the essential backbone of any successful and responsible AI initiative. This webinar will provide a practical blueprint for organizations to move beyond reactive, crisis-mode governance and build a proactive, strategic framework that enables innovation while ensuring compliance."

What You'll Learn:

The 3-Pillar Framework: How to drive consistency and adoption across the enterprise.

Deployment That Works: Real-world strategies (and lessons learned) from scaling governance across teams and systems.

The Trust Foundation for AI: Why metadata and lineage are the backbone of reliable AI initiatives.

Stay Ahead of Regulation: How to create a governance-to-AI pathway that keeps you compliant in 2025 and beyond.

Bonus for Attendees: All participants will receive the AI Governance Readiness Scorecard -a practical tool to benchmark their organization's preparedness for the upcoming regulatory landscape. Take the scorecard now: https://data-meaning-ai-governance.scoreapp.com/

Speakers

The webinar will feature insights from two of Data Meaning's leading experts in data governance:

Dr. Salvador Barragan, PhD, Director at Data Meaning, brings over 20 years of industry experience to his role. Having previously served as Section Chief and Director at the Inter-American Development Bank, International Monetary Fund, and Freddie Mac, Salvador now leads the Data Governance team at Data Meaning, where he is responsible for formulating data governance strategies and resolving complex data governance issues.

Sean Glynn, Senior Associate at Data Meaning, is a data governance specialist with extensive hands-on experience implementing and managing enterprise data catalog platforms like Collibra. He has led numerous initiatives to deploy catalog solutions that align with organizational governance strategies, helping teams improve data transparency, stewardship, and trust.

Event Details:

Date & Time: Monday, September 22, 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM UTC

Format: Online Webinar

Registration Link

Contact Information

Ivan Ramos

Marketing Manager

info@datameaning.com

8554243282





SOURCE: Data Meaning Services Group Inc.

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/business-and-professional-services/data-meaning-services-group-inc.-announces-%22ai-ready-governance-1071384
The "Embodied AI Company Evaluation Report, 2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Embodied AI Companies Quadrant is a comprehensive industry analysis that provides valuable insights into the global market for Embodied AI. This quadrant offers a detailed evaluation of key market players, technological advancements, product innovations, and emerging trends shaping the industry. The 360 Quadrant evaluated over 100 companies, of which the Top 12 Embodied AI Companies were categorized and recognized as quadrant leaders.

Embodied AI refers to artificial intelligence systems integrated into physical entities that allow real-time interaction with the surrounding environment. These intelligent agents including robots, exoskeletons, autonomous systems, and smart appliances are designed to sense, interpret, and respond to their environment, supporting advanced human-robot interaction (HRI), adaptive learning, and independent decision-making.

Embodied AI serves as a key enabler of machine autonomy across a range of industries such as healthcare, industrial automation, automotive, logistics, defense, and education. The market is experiencing growing momentum due to ongoing advancements in AI, robotics, and edge computing, as well as increased investment in deployable real-world AI technologies. As demand rises for smarter and more interactive systems, embodied AI is transforming how machines learn from and operate within the physical world.

Embodied AI represents a domain of artificial intelligence where intelligent technologies are embedded within physical forms such as robots, autonomous vehicles, or assistive devices allowing them to carry out context-aware actions through real-world engagement. The embodied AI market includes various product categories such as humanoid, mobile, industrial, service, and collaborative robots (cobots), as well as exoskeletons, autonomous systems (including drones, vehicles, and AGVs), and smart appliances. These systems are classified into three levels of embodiment based on their cognitive capabilities and interactive sophistication, ranging from simple rule-based machines to highly adaptive agents capable of advanced reasoning and multi-modal interaction.

The 360 Quadrant maps the Embodied AI companies based on criteria such as revenue, geographic presence, growth strategies, investments, and sales strategies for the market presence of the Embodied AI quadrant. Key players in the Embodied AI market are actively investing in research and development, forming strategic partnerships, and engaging in collaborative initiatives to drive innovation, expand their global footprint, and maintain a competitive edge in this rapidly evolving market.

Top 3 Companies

SoftBank Robotics Group

SoftBank Robotics Group leads the field with humanoid and service robots like Pepper and NAO. Their diverse product portfolio extends across care sectors, logistics, and education. The company emphasizes organic and inorganic growth through consistent product upgrades and strategic collaborations. With a global presence in regions including Japan, the US, and EMEA, SoftBank's influence in essential markets is significant. SoftBank's robust Company Market Share highlights their positioning as an innovative force in the embodied AI arena.

ABB

ABB is known for its comprehensive range of industrial robots like GoFa and Yumi, which cater to sectors such as automotive and aerospace. The company's RobotStudio Suite aids in seamless integration and automation, boosting efficiency. Operating in over 100 countries, ABB's large regional presence underscores its leadership position. Their strategic maneuvers bolster Company Positioning within the global market, while their extensive Company Product Portfolio facilitates a stronger Market Share among competitors.

Toyota Motor Corporation

Toyota excels with its humanoid and exoskeleton technologies, primarily influencing regions like Asia Pacific and North America. Despite having a smaller product footprint compared to competitors, Toyota's foothold in the automotive sector supports its Company Ranking. Their continuous product upgrades demonstrate an enduring commitment to innovation, reflected in their diverse Company Market Share. Toyota's strategic enhancements to embodied AI technologies reaffirm their standing in the market.

Key Topics Covered:

1 Introduction

1.1 Market Definition

1.2 Inclusions and Exclusions

1.3 Stakeholders

2 Executive Summary

3 Market Overview

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Market Dynamics

3.2.1 Drivers

3.2.1.1 Advancements in Robotics and AI Integration to Enhance Machine Autonomy

3.2.1.2 Increasing Demand for Human-Robot Interaction

3.2.1.3 Growth of Smart Assistants and Service Robots in Consumer Markets

3.2.1.4 Real-World Mobility with Embodied AI in Autonomous Systems

3.2.2 Restraints

3.2.2.1 Ethical Dilemmas in Human-Robot Interactions

3.2.2.2 Privacy Concerns in Public and Private Environments

3.2.3 Opportunities

3.2.3.1 Expanding Applications in Healthcare and Elderly Care

3.2.3.2 Transforming Industrial Automation with Embodied AI and Collaborative Robots

3.2.3.3 Learning and Well-Being Through Educational and Social Robots

3.2.3.4 Advancements in Military Capabilities Using Embodied AI in Tactical Operations

3.2.4 Challenges

3.2.4.1 Data Scarcity in Collecting Real-World Training Sets

3.2.4.2 Fragmentation in Standardized Platforms and Protocols

3.3 Trends/Disruptions Impacting Customers' Businesses

3.4 Value Chain Analysis

3.5 Ecosystem Analysis

3.6 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

3.6.1 Intensity of Competitive Rivalry

3.6.2 Bargaining Power of Suppliers

3.6.3 Bargaining Power of Buyers

3.6.4 Threat of Substitutes

3.6.5 Threat of New Entrants

3.7 Patent Analysis

3.8 Technology Analysis

3.8.1 Key Technologies

3.8.1.1 Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (Slam)

3.8.1.2 Reinforcement Learning (Rl)

3.8.1.3 Sensor Fusion

3.8.1.4 Computer Vision

3.8.1.5 Natural Language Processing (Nlp)

3.8.2 Complementary Technologies

3.8.2.1 Cloud Robotics Platforms

3.8.2.2 Human-Machine Interfaces (Hmis)

3.8.2.3 Simulation Digital Twins

3.8.3 Adjacent Technologies

3.8.3.1 Neuromorphic Computing

3.8.3.2 AR/VR (Augmented Virtual Reality)

4 Competitive Landscape

4.1 Overview

4.2 Key Player Strategies/Right to Win, 2022-2025

4.3 Revenue Analysis, 2021-2024

4.4 Market Share Analysis, 2024

4.5 Company Valuation and Financial Metrics

4.6 Brand/Product Comparison

4.7 Company Evaluation Matrix for Embodied AI: Key Players, 2024

4.7.1 Stars

4.7.2 Emerging Leaders

4.7.3 Pervasive Players

4.7.4 Participants

4.7.5 Company Footprint: Key Players, 2024

4.7.5.1 Company Footprint

4.7.5.2 Region Footprint

4.7.5.3 Product Type Footprint

4.7.5.4 Level of Embodiment Footprint

4.7.5.5 Vertical Footprint

4.8 Company Evaluation Matrix for Embodied AI: Startups/SMEs, 2024

4.8.1 Progressive Companies

4.8.2 Responsive Companies

4.8.3 Dynamic Companies

4.8.4 Starting Blocks

4.8.5 Competitive Benchmarking: Startups/SMEs, 2024

4.8.5.1 Detailed List of Key Startups/SMEs

4.8.5.2 Competitive Benchmarking of Key Startups/SMEs

4.9 Competitive Scenario

4.9.1 Product Launches Enhancements

4.9.2 Deals

5 Company Profiles

Softbank Robotics Group

ABB

Toyota Motor Corporation

Kuka AG

Boston Dynamics

Robotis Co. Ltd.

Yaskawa Electric Corporation

Fanuc Corporation

Tesla

Agility Robotics

Figure

Sanctuary Cognitive Systems Corporation

Hanson Robotics Ltd.

1X Technologies

Engineai

Shanghai Agibot Innovation Technology Co. Ltd.

Anybotics

Ghostrobotics

Universal Robots A/S

Bear Robotics, Inc.

Apptronik

Nuro, Inc.

Unitree Robotics

Wayve

Fourier

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/dq64gh

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Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 10, 2025) - Fuerte Metals Corporation (TSXV: FMT) (OTCQB: FUEMF) ("Fuerte" or the "Company") is issuing this press release in response to a request by the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization to comment on the recent increase in the market price of its common shares.

As part of its long-term corporate strategy, the Board and management of Fuerte continuously review its long-term strategic plan including, but not limited to, potential acquisitions, divestitures and merger or combination transactions. As a result, the Company has engaged in discussions regarding a potential transaction with a third party, but it has not reached agreement with the counterparty regarding the terms and conditions of the transaction. There is no assurance that the current discussions will result in a decision to enter into any transaction. Fuerte does not intend to make any further public announcement about a potential transaction unless it determines that disclosure is required by applicable securities laws.

The Company cautions investors and all other persons to rely only on statements and filings issued by the Company and available at www.sedarplus.ca.

About Fuerte Metals Corporation

Fuerte Metals is a well-funded resource company, adding value through the acquisition, exploration, and development of copper and precious metals projects in the Americas. The Company is drilling at its Cristina precious metals project in Chihuahua Mexico, with the goal of significantly expanding the existing mineral resource estimate with a focus on underground mining. In Chile, the Placeton/Caballo Muerto project hosts several untested porphyry copper targets situated between the large-scale Relincho and El Morro/La Fortuna copper-gold deposits of the Nueva Union joint venture between Teck and Newmont Mining.

Additional Information

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/265920

SOURCE: Fuerte Metals Corp.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Cboe Global Markets (CBOE) announced plans to launch futures and options on its new Cboe Magnificent 10 Index - MGTEN, pending regulatory review. The equal-weighted benchmark tracks ten major U.S.-listed tech and growth stocks, including the Magnificent 7 plus AMD, Broadcom, and Palantir. The products aim to offer investors efficient exposure to these influential stocks through cash-settled index futures and options trading nearly 24x5. Options will be European-style, include standard monthly A.M.-settled and weekly P.M.-settled expirations with zero-days-to-expiry (0DTE) trading, and list on Cboe Options. Futures will trade on Cboe Futures Exchange, offering leveraged, capital-efficient exposure with OCC clearing and potential margin offsets. Cboe's Global Head of Derivatives, Cathy Clay, said the suite addresses growing demand from traders seeking curated exposure, better risk management, and intraday hedging tools without the complexity of managing multiple single-stock positions. Monthly options and futures are expected to launch in Q4 2025, with weekly P.M. expiries starting in Q1 2026. Trading hours will initially align with regular sessions, with plans to extend to Global Trading Hours later. CBOE currently trades at $233.99 or 0.67% higher on the Cboe US. Copyright(c) 2025 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
TORONTO, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Enwave Energy Corporation (Enwave) celebrated the groundbreaking of a new waste processing facility in Prince Edward Island today at PEI Energy Systems in Charlottetown. Anticipated to be fully operational in 2028, the new, state-of-the-art facility will replace the existing end-of-life system and provide energy to its customers through the interconnected district energy network. Enwave has worked closely with the Province of Prince Edward Island to identify and develop this sustainable alternative to landfill, while securing a reliable energy supply for the Island.

As critical infrastructure for both heating and waste management, it is anticipated that the facility will be capable of processing nearly 90% of the province's current total black cart residential waste, significantly diverting waste from landfill. The new facility is expected to divert up to 49,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste from landfills annually for production of heating and the associated anticipated diverted landfill methane emissions, avoided furnace fuel oil use, and alternative heat sources for the district heating customers are expected to amount to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) savings of up to 908,000 tonnes of CO2e by 2052, equivalent to taking approximately 278,000 gas powered cars off the road.

The new facility allows Enwave to almost double its existing waste processing capacity with improved efficiency, while also reducing the use of fuel oil for heating - all while continuing to provide reliable thermal energy to more than 145 connected buildings in Charlottetown, the Province's capital city.





Left-right: Hon. Steven Myers (Minister of Housing, Land and Communities for the Province of Prince Edward Island), Hon. Ernie Hudson (Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure for the Province of Prince Edward Island), Ehren Cory (CEO, Canada Infrastructure Bank), Carlyle Coutinho (CEO, Enwave Energy Corporation), Hon. Gilles Arsenault (Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Action for the Province of Prince Edward Island), and Philip Brown (Charlottetown Mayor).

Enwave's new facility in Prince Edward Island directly supports the growing need globally for waste solutions, with global waste forecasted to increase 70% by 2050 according to World Bank Group. World Bank Group also reports that as global players look to invest in technologies to improve waste treatment efficiency and cost reduction, North America is positioned to share 20% of the energy-from-waste market globally.

"The expansion of our facility in Prince Edward Island is a testament to the partnership established between Enwave and the Provincial government," says Carlyle Coutinho, CEO of Enwave Energy Corporation. "The expansion of the facility in PEI demonstrates our unwavering commitment to providing long-term, sustainable solutions in collaboration with the Province, uniquely positioning Enwave to develop future growth opportunities to meet rising waste challenges across the country."

"As cities across the globe are managing the many challenges associated with trash, waste, and higher energy costs, Enwave has proven itself as a leader in improving both the environment and the economy," said Rob Thornton, President and CEO of the International District Energy Association. "Enwave's new district heating facility in Prince Edward Island is solving two problems that our planet is facing at once: creating less landfill waste and providing affordable heat for communities."

Enwave's expansion of the waste processing facility in Prince Edward Island offers a localized approach to decarbonization. The facility leverages a unique combination of the energy-from-waste plant and an attached wood biomass plant to provide energy to connected customers, an approach that has not yet been taken by any other energy-from-waste facilities in North America, with most incorporating either turbines or small hot water heating systems.

"PEI needs a diverse, reliable and forward-looking energy supply, and this expansion is a good step in the right direction," says PEI Environment, Energy and Climate Action Minister Gilles Arsenault. "Waste to energy technology helps us minimize energy costs for key provincial buildings, while extending the life of our existing landfill."

Energy-from-waste processes convert non-recyclable waste into energy, decreasing landfill volume and offsetting traditional fossil fuel use for energy generation, making it a valuable resource recovery method for materials that cannot be reduced, reused, or recycled. Leveraging Enwave's experience in the sector, a similar approach of harnessing energy-from-waste can be scaled up or down as needed to create similar waste diversion opportunities across other regions in Canada and beyond. In Ontario, for example, this scalability could be leveraged to meet waste solution needs, as the province is projected to run out of landfill capacity within nine years, according to a 2023 report by the Association of Municipalities Ontario.

"There is a tremendous opportunity across Canada to expand our country's energy from waste capabilities - to free up space otherwise needed for landfills to create new housing and jobs and to generate reliable, cost-effective, low-carbon, locally-sourced heat and power. On behalf of Waste to Resource Ontario and all of our members I congratulate Enwave, the Province of PEI, the Canada Infrastructure Bank and all the project partners for breaking ground on this new energy from waste (EfW) district heating facility and for their leadership in recognizing the potential of EfW to power Canada's prosperity," says Ashley De Souza, CEO, Waste to Resource, Ontario.

"In 2021, the CIB partnered with Enwave through a $600 million loan towards clean energy projects. I'm proud to see another project go from blueprints and into construction," says Ehren Cory, CEO, Canada Infrastructure Bank. "The energy facility in Charlottetown will deliver reliable, renewable heat to more than 145 buildings. Our collaboration with Enwave enables communities to address local energy needs using established technology and supports planning for future sustainable development."

Enwave has developed a fully integrated process-load management system, actively controlling and balancing demand by adjusting consumption as needed to avoid overloads, increase efficiency and reduce costs. Enwave has worked closely with partners for more than 40 years to provide waste management solutions to the province. This new facility is being built in partnership with key strategic partners, including Maple Reinders Constructors Ltd., Marco Group, WSP, Ramboll Group A/S, Coles Associates Ltd., Stantec, Martin GmbH, ANDRITZ TEP, LAB SA and Kone Cranes Canada Inc.

About Enwave

Enwaveis one of the largest commercial owners and operators of community-based district energy systems in North America. It focuses on developing reliable, commercial and sustainable energy solutions at scale, tailored to the unique needs of municipalities, commercial developments, universities, hospitals, data centres and residential communities. Enwave provides thermal energy services to over 100 million square feet of mixed-use space across Canada using a variety of technologies including Deep Lake Water Cooling, thermal storage, geoexchange, biomass and energy-from-waste. Enwave was acquired by Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan & IFM Investors in 2021.

https://www.enwave.com

For more information, interview requests or high-res images please contact:

Katie Good, GoodPR

katie@goodpr.ca

(416) 540-2195

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/4ffaaa76-04e8-475a-89d3-bf30bf81555d
Lismore, Australia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 10, 2025) - The Off Grid Shop, based in Lismore, NSW, Australia, has announced a significant business transformation that shifts focus from individual off-grid solutions to community-based energy sovereignty programs. This evolution represents over a decade of growth in the sustainable energy sector, driven by The Off Grid Shop's partnership with Advanced Business Abilities and a commitment to keeping energy profits within local communities.

The Off Grid Shop

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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The transformation comes as The Off Grid Shop prepares for a potential rebrand to better align with its expanded mission of creating decentralised energy networks that benefit entire communities rather than just individual households.

The company now focuses on taking solar and battery installations from residential properties and creating local energy sharing networks. This approach keeps energy profits circulating within regional communities rather than flowing to major city-based energy retailers.

The transformation has yielded measurable results for local businesses. The Off Grid Shop identified an abundance of excess solar energy during midday hours and connected it with local business owners who consume significant energy during those peak production times.

Partnership with Advanced Business Abilities Drives Strategic Growth

The Off Grid Shop credits their partnership with Advanced Business Abilities for enabling this strategic transformation while maintaining core business principles. The relationship, spanning over two decades, has helped The Off Grid Shop avoid common business pitfalls and build a stable foundation for growth.



Read more about partnering with Advanced Business Abilities at https://advancedbusinessabilities.com/.

Future Vision Centres on Decentralised Energy Networks

Looking ahead, The Off Grid Shop plans to position itself as a decentralised energy company, taking advantage of current technological capabilities to expand community-based energy solutions. The potential rebrand reflects this evolution from individual off-grid solutions to community energy sovereignty.

"Our real focus is building a decentralised energy company and I think there's never been a better time from a technology point of view than right now," founder Mike Haydon states. "Our main focus is helping communities become more self-sufficient, more self-reliant, with batteries and energy and sharing those resources not only the use of them, but also the financial gain for communities."

The biggest challenge Haydon anticipates is educating communities about the reliability and benefits of decentralised energy systems. Many potential customers worry about switching from major energy companies, despite using the same infrastructure and maintenance services.

The transformation of The Off Grid Shop demonstrates how businesses can evolve their mission while maintaining core values, creating measurable community impact through strategic innovation in the sustainable energy sector.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/263235

SOURCE: Pressmaster DMCC
Moncton, New Brunswick--(Newsfile Corp. - September 10, 2025) - Canadian Gold Resources Ltd. (TSXV: CAN) ("Canadian Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on its exploration and development activities at its 100%-owned Lac Arsenault Property located in the Gaspe region of Quebec. The Company is also announcing the resignation of Ken Booth from the Board of Directors.

Applications Submitted for Lac Arsenault Maiden Drill Program

Canadian Gold has submitted permit applications to the Ministere des Ressources naturelles et des Forets (MRNF) for its maiden diamond drilling program on the Lac Arsenault Property. The proposed program comprises 36 drill holes totalling approximately 2,345 metres, with expected drilling to begin upon permit approval. The objective of the drill program is to take the extensive historical work completed at Lac Arsenault and advance it to modern reporting standards under National Instrument 43-101.

Historical work at Lac Arsenault (1975-1996) outlined non-compliant resource estimates ranging from 40,000 tonnes at 15.43 g/t Au and 197 g/t Ag to approximately 200,000 tonnes averaging 9.59 g/t Au (~61,500 oz Au). These estimates predate NI 43-101 and cannot be relied upon as current resources, but they highlight the project's long-recognized high-grade potential.

Through the upcoming drill program, Canadian Gold intends to:

Twin and verify historical drill holes and channel samples to confirm grades and geometry;

Apply modern QA/QC protocols to establish reliability of the data;

Generate sufficient new drilling data to support an independent mineral resource estimate prepared in accordance with NI 43-101 and CIM Definition Standards;

Convert these historical estimates into a current, compliant mineral resource that can be reported to the market, forming a strong foundation for future project development and valuation.

Management Commentary

"The submission of our first drill permit applications marks an important milestone as we move toward validating the historic high-grade results at Lac Arsenault and establishing an NI 43-101 compliant resource base," stated Ronald Goguen, President & CEO of Canadian Gold. "We believe Lac Arsenault represents a rare opportunity in Quebec, one of the world's most proven mining jurisdictions: a project with extensive historical work, strong high-grade potential, and excellent infrastructure. By applying modern exploration standards, we are committed to unlocking this value responsibly while engaging transparently with Quebec regulators and local First Nations communities."

Update on Bulk Sampling Program

On July 15, 2025, Canadian Gold announced that it had received permits from the Government of Quebec to proceed with a 5,000-tonne bulk sampling program, conditional upon the completion of three shallow water monitoring wells in the vicinity of the proposed sampling area (See July 9, 2025 press release) and an Autorisation pour travaux a impacts (ATI) report.

The Company is ready to drill these wells immediately; however, the Quebec's Ministere des Ressources naturelles et des Forets (MRNF) has since requested that Canadian Gold temporarily pause while it seeks additional input from another First Nations community, located approximately 18 kilometres from the proposed bulk sampling site.

Canadian Gold has already engaged with the Gesgapegiag First Nation community, which is domiciled within the project area, providing full details of the program and receiving no opposition during the allotted feedback period. In compliance with the ATI requirements, the Company is now re-engaging with the Mi'gmawei Mawio'mi Secretariat (MMS), the political and tribal council representing the three Mi'gmaq First Nations in the Gaspe region, to ensure transparency and comply with ATI. In parallel, Canadian Gold continues to work closely with the MRNF to finalize the process and is scheduled to meet jointly with the MMS and MRNF on September 11, 2025, regarding the ATI. At this time, the Company does not anticipate a material delay to the commencement of the bulk sampling program.

Board Resignation

Mr. Ken Booth has resigned as a Director of Canadian Gold, effective immediately, to focus on other professional commitments. The Board thanks Mr. Booth for his valued contributions since the Company's inception and wishes him every success in his future endeavours.

About the Lac Arsenault Project

The Lac Arsenault Property is located in Quebec's Gaspe region along the Grand Pabos Fault, part of the Gaspe-Newfoundland tectonic belt. This structure shares geological characteristics with prolific gold-bearing systems such as the Cadillac-Larder Lake Fault Zone in Abitibi and the Cape Ray-Valentine Lake Shear Zone in Newfoundland.

The property hosts multiple high-grade, epithermal-style vein systems, including the Baker, Mersereau, and Dunning veins. Historical exploration outlined significant gold-silver-base metal mineralization, providing a strong foundation for the Company's current work.

Historical Resource Estimate Disclosure (NI 43-101 2.4)

Stevenson, L. (1975): 40,000 tonnes grading 15.43 g/t Au and 197 g/t Ag (Esso Minerals Canada);

Cote, R. (1996): 199,580 tonnes grading 9.59 g/t Au (~61,536 contained oz Au).

These historical estimates predate NI 43-101 and were based on sampling, trenching, and drilling using manual polygonal methods. A Qualified Person has not completed sufficient work to classify the estimates as current mineral resources or reserves. The Company is not treating them as current and further verification is required.

To bring these into compliance, Canadian Gold plans to:

Conduct systematic drilling to confirm grades and geometry;

Complete verification sampling and density determinations;

Build a validated geological model with modern QA/QC protocols;

Commission an independent NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate.

About Canadian Gold Resources Ltd.

Canadian Gold Resources Ltd. (TSXV: CAN) is a junior exploration company advancing three high-grade gold properties totaling ~16,000 hectares in Quebec's Gaspe Peninsula. The Company's strategy is to unlock the potential of historically explored assets through modern exploration and development, supported by a management team with a proven track record in discovery and project advancement.

Qualified Person Statement:

The scientific and technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Mark Smethurst, P.Geo., Director of Canadian Gold and a Qualified Person under NI 43-101.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Canadian Gold trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker CAN and has 36,667,221 common shares outstanding.

Forward-Looking Statements Disclaimer: Certain information in this release may constitute forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. These statements are based on assumptions and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/265923

SOURCE: Canadian Gold Resources Ltd.
Oak Brook, Illinois--(Newsfile Corp. - September 10, 2025) - Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF) has been honored with the 2025 Antonio Champalimaud Vision Award, one of the world's foremost recognitions in the fight against blindness and vision loss. LCIF shares this year's distinction with fellow awardees, the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness and The Fred Hollows Foundation. Presented annually by the Champalimaud Foundation, the award celebrates outstanding contributions to global eye health, with a particular focus on underserved populations in developing regions.

LCIF's recognition underscores decades of impact made through its SightFirst program, which for more than 30 years empowered Lions, healthcare providers and community partners to combat the major causes of preventable blindness. Through SightFirst, millions worldwide gained access to essential eye care, transforming lives and communities. LCIF will share a monetary award of 1 million euros with fellow recipients. This honor is the largest award in the field and LCIF will use the funds to expand their work in vision worldwide.

LCIF Chairperson Fabricio Oliveira accepted the award in Lisbon, Portugal, on behalf of the foundation. "LCIF is deeply honored to be named a recipient of this award, one of the most prestigious recognitions in global eye health," Oliveira said. "This award celebrates decades of dedication by our Lions, partners and the communities we serve, and honors the countless volunteer hours, impactful collaborations and millions of people whose sight has been restored or saved."

Since its launch in 1990, SightFirst impacted the lives of more than 544 million people worldwide. With LCIF funding, Lions, alongside local health authorities, eye care professionals and partner organizations, expanded access to vital eye health services in underserved communities, overcoming barriers to access and delivering high-quality, equitable care. Projects also created sustainable systems by improving infrastructure and training local personnel, offering advanced education and rehabilitation for individuals with vision impairments and raising awareness of the importance of eye health.

Oliveira emphasized that LCIF, together with Lions and Leos around the world, remains committed to carrying the legacy of SightFirst forward through its Vision Grant program.

"While this award is a tremendous honor, we see it as a call to action to expand our reach, innovate further, and ensure that every person, everywhere, has access to quality eye care," he said.

2025-2026 Lions Clubs International Foundation Chairperson Fabricio Oliveira accepts the Antonio Champalimaud Vision Award in Lisbon, Portugal, on behalf of the foundation.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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2025-2026 Lions Clubs International Foundation Chairperson Fabricio Oliveira accepts the Antonio Champalimaud Vision Award in Lisbon, Portugal, on behalf of the foundation.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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2025-2026 Lions Clubs International Foundation Chairperson Fabricio Oliveira accepts the Antonio Champalimaud Vision Award in Lisbon, Portugal, on behalf of the foundation.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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Learn more about our work or how you can get involved at lionsclubs.org/vision.

About Lions Clubs International Foundation

Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF) is the global foundation supporting the 1.4 million members of Lions Clubs International through grant funds that expand their compassionate works and empower their service at home and around the world. Since its founding in 1968, LCIF has awarded nearly 24,000 grants totaling more than US$1.3 billion. We improve health and well-being, strengthen communities and support those in need, locally and globally. Learn more about who we are and what we do at lionsclubs.org/lcif or donate to LCIF at lionsclubs.org/donate. Follow LCIF on Facebook at @LCIFLions.

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To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/265919

SOURCE: Lions International
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 10, 2025) - Fairchild Gold Corp. (TSXV: FAIR) ("Fairchild" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce that, further to its news releases dated August 13, 2025, August 22, 2025, August 27, 2025 and September 8, 2025, it has closed the final tranche of the non-brokered listed issuer financing exemption private placement of 13,189,998 units ("Units") at a price of C$0.06 per Unit for gross proceeds of C$791,400 (the "Offering"). The Company has raised aggregate gross proceeds of C$1,994,400, inclusive of C$1,203,000 from the first tranche closed on August 27, 2025.

Each Unit consists of one common share of the Company (each, a "Common Share") and one-half of one common share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"). Each Warrant shall entitle the holder to purchase one Common Share of the Company at a price of C$0.10 at any time on or before that date which is 3 years after the closing date of the Offering.

The Units were sold to purchasers pursuant to the listed issuer financing exemption under Part 5A of National Instrument 45-106 - Prospectus Exemptions, as modified by Coordinated Blanket Order 45-935 Exemptions from Certain Conditions of the Listed Issuer Financing Exemption of the Canadian Securities Administrators (together, the "LIFE Exemption").

The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering over the coming 12 months for project expenditures at the Company's Nevada Titan Project in Nevada, USA as well as general working capital purposes.

The Units issued and sold under the Offering in reliance on the LIFE Exemption are not subject to a hold period pursuant to applicable Canadian securities laws. No finder's fee was paid in this Offering. The Offering remains subject to the final acceptance of the TSX Venture Exchange.

Insiders from the Company subscribed for a total of 1,050,000 Units under the Offering. A subscription by an insider of the Company is considered to be a "related party transaction" of the Company within the meaning of Exchange Policy 5.9 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions and Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Company is exempt from the formal valuation requirement in Section 5.4 of MI 61-101 in reliance on Section 5.5(a) of MI 61-101 as the fair market value of the Offering, insofar as it involves interested parties, is not more than 25% of the Company's market capitalization. Additionally, the Company is exempt from the minority shareholder approval requirement in Section 5.6 of MI 61-101 in reliance on Section 5.7(a) as the fair market value of the Offering, insofar as it involves interested parties, is not more than 25% of the Company's market capitalization. The Company did not file a material change report more than 21 days before the closing of the Offering because the details of the insider participation were not finalized until closer to closing of the Offering and the Company wished to close the Offering as soon as practicable for sound business reasons.

None of the securities sold under the Offering have been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

Early Warning Report

Immediately prior to this Offering, Mr. Shahal Khan owned, directly and indirectly, and had control and direction over 13,000,000 Common Shares of the Company and 7,000,000 Warrants representing approximately 10.73% (15.60% on a partially diluted basis) of the then issued and outstanding Common Shares of the Company. Following the Offering, Mr. Khan has beneficial ownership and control of the same number of Common Shares and Warrants which now represent 9.67% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares of the Company (12.95% on a partially-diluted basis).

In accordance with applicable securities laws, Mr. Khan may, from time to time and at any time, acquire additional securities of the Company in the open market or otherwise, and reserves the right to dispose of any or all of her securities in the open market or otherwise at any time and from time to time, the whole depending on market conditions, the business and prospects of the Company and other relevant factors.

This news release is being issued pursuant to National Instrument 62-103 - The Early Warning System and Related Take-Over Bid and Insider Reporting Issues, persons who wish to obtain a copy of the early warning report to be filed by Mr. Khan in connection with this Offering herein may obtain a copy of such reports from www.sedarplus.ca or by contacting the person named below.

About Fairchild Gold Corp.

Fairchild Gold Corp. is a mineral exploration company focused on acquiring, exploring, and developing high-quality mineral properties in mining-friendly jurisdictions. The Company's flagship Nevada Titan Project is in the historic Goodsprings mining district in Nevada, USA. The Company is also the 100% owner of the Fairchild Lake Property consisting of 108 mining claims covering an area of 2,224 hectares, located approximately 250 kilometers northwest of the city of Thunder Bay in the Patricia Mining Division, Ontario.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as the term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of this news release.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Certain information contained in this news release constitutes "forward-looking information" or "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward- looking information"). Without limiting the foregoing, such forward-looking information includes statements regarding the use of proceeds of the Offering and any statements regarding the Company's business plans, expectations and objectives. In this news release, words such as "may", "would", "could", "will", "likely", "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "plan", "estimate" and similar words and the negative form thereof are used to identify forward-looking information. Forward-looking information should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether, or the times at or by which, such future performance will be achieved. Forward-looking information is based on information available at the time and/or the Company management's good faith belief with respect to future events and is subject to known or unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other unpredictable factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control. For additional information with respect to these and other factors and assumptions underlying the forward-looking information made in this news release, see the Company's most recent Management's Discussion and Analysis and financial statements and other documents filed by the Company with the Canadian securities commissions and the discussion of risk factors set out therein. Such documents are available at www.sedarplus.ca under the Company's profile and on the Company's website, https://fairchildgold.com/. The forward-looking information set forth herein reflects the Company's expectations as at the date of this news release and is subject to change after such date. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law.

Not for distribution to U.S. news wire services or for dissemination in the United States

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/265907

SOURCE: Fairchild Gold Corp.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 10, 2025) - KINGSMEN RESOURCES LTD. (TSXV: KNG) (OTCQB: KNGRF) (FSE: TUY) ("KINGSMEN" or the "COMPANY") is pleased to announce that at the Annual and Special Meeting (the "Meeting") of Shareholders of the Company held on September 10, 2025, Messrs. Scott Emerson, Nick DeMare, Rod Johnston, Kieran Downes, Carlos Garza and Mark J. Pryor were elected as directors.

The shareholders also passed all other resolutions including an ordinary resolution to approve a new 10% rolling omnibus equity incentive plan (the "Equity Incentive Plan"). The Equity Incentive Plan, which is subject to final acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange, allows for the issuance of incentive stock options, deferred share units, performance share units, restricted share units, stock appreciation rights and stock purchase rights (collectively the "Awards"). The maximum number of shares reserved for issuance on exercise of all the Awards granted under the Equity Incentive Plan shall not exceed 10% of the issued and outstanding common shares as at the date of grant of any Award.

Following the Meeting, the Board appointed Mr. Scott Emerson as President and CEO, Mr. Nick DeMare as CFO and Mr. Harvey Lim as Corporate Secretary of the Company. Messrs. DeMare, Johnston and Downes were appointed to the audit committee.

About Kingsmen Resources

Kingsmen Resources is a mineral exploration company focused on advancing its 100% held projects,the Las Coloradas silver/gold project and Almoloya gold/silver project located in the prolific mining district of Parral Mexico. The projects host historic past producing high-grade silver mines. They are considered to be prospective for hosting further precious metal deposits, being on the same structural and stratigraphic belts that host numerous other, on-trend, high-grade deposits. In addition, the company has a 1% NSR on the La Trini claims which form part of the Los Ricos North project operated by GoGold Resources Inc. in Mexico. Kingsmen is a publicly-traded company (TSXV: KNG) (OTCQB: KNGRF) (FSE:TUY) and is headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia.

About Las Coloradas

The Las Coloradas Project (8.5 km2 -3.3 sq miles) represents a consolidation of a historic mining district which covers numerous silver-gold-lead-zinc-copper mines previously exploited by ASARCO (American Smelting and Refining Company), the U.S. based subsidiary of Grupo Mexico.

Las Coloradas is in the Parral mining district of the Central Mexican Silver Belt, and is located approximately 30 kilometers southeast of the city of Hidalgo de Parral and 40 kilometers east of the San Francisco de Oro and Santa Barbara mining districts where several old major mines are located, such as La Prieta, Veta Colorada, Palmilla, Esmeralda, San Francisco del Oro and Santa Barbara. Click here to see locator map: https://www.kingsmenresources.com/area-history.

On behalf of the Board,

Signed: "Scott Emerson"

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements:

Certain disclosure contained in this news release may constitute forward-looking information or forward-looking statements, within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. These statements may relate to this news release and other matters identified in the Company's public filings. In making the forward-looking statements, the Company has applied certain factors and assumptions that are based on the Company's current beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. These statements address future events and conditions and, as such, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to: the political environment in which the Company operates continuing to support the development and operation of mining projects; the threat associated with outbreaks of viruses and infectious diseases; risks related to negative publicity with respect to the Company or the mining industry in general; planned work programs; permitting; and community relations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to, update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/265951

SOURCE: Kingsmen Resources Ltd
Kelowna, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 10, 2025) - F3 Uranium Corp. (TSXV: FUU) (OTCQB: FUUFF) (FSE: GL7) ("F3" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with Red Cloud Securities Inc. ("Red Cloud"), as lead underwriter and sole bookrunner, on behalf of a syndicate of underwriters (collectively, the "Underwriters"), pursuant to which the Underwriters have agreed to purchase for resale the following on a "bought deal" basis in a private placement for aggregate gross proceeds of C$15,000,000 (the "Underwritten Offering"):

25,000,000 units of the Company (each, a " Unit ") at a price of C$0.20 per Unit;

16,666,667 federal flow-through units of the Company to be sold to charitable purchasers (the " FFT Units ") at a price of C$0.30 per FFT Unit; and

15,151,515 Saskatchewan flow-through units of the Company to be sold to charitable purchasers (the "SFT Units", and together with the FFT Units, the "FT Units") at a price of C$0.33 per SFT Unit.

The Units and FT Units shall be collectively referred to as the "Offered Securities".

Each Unit will consist of one common share of the Company (each, a "Common Share") and one-half of one Common Share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each FT Unit will consist of one Common Share to be issued as a "flow-through share" within the meaning of subsection 66(15) of the Income Tax Act (Canada) and will qualify as an eligible flow-through share" as defined in The Mineral Exploration Tax Credit Regulations, 2014 (Saskatchewan) (each, a "FT Share") and one-half of one Warrant. Each whole Warrant shall entitle the holder to purchase one Common Share (each, a "Warrant Share") at a price of C$0.30 at any time on or before that date which is 36 months after the Closing Date (as herein defined).

In addition, the Company has agreed to grant to the Underwriters an option (the "Over-Allotment Option", and together with the Underwritten Offering, the "Offering"), exercisable in whole or in part by the Underwriters at any time up to 48 hours prior to the Closing Date, to purchase for resale up to an additional number of Units and FFT Units at their respective offering prices for up to an additional C$2,000,000 in gross proceeds.

The proceeds of the Offering will be used by the Company to fund the exploration of the Company's projects in the Athabasca Basin in Saskatchewan as well as for general corporate purposes and working capital, as is more fully described in the Offering Document (as herein defined).

The gross proceeds from the sale of FT Shares will be used by the Company to incur eligible "Canadian exploration expenses" that qualify as "flow-through critical mineral mining expenditures" as such terms are defined in the Income Tax Act (Canada), and to incur "eligible flow-through mining expenditures" pursuant to The Mineral Exploration Tax Credit Regulations, 2014 (Saskatchewan) (collectively, the "Qualifying Expenditures") related to the Company's uranium projects in the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan, on or before December 31, 2026. All Qualifying Expenditures will be renounced in favour of the subscribers of the FT Units effective December 31, 2025.

Subject to compliance with applicable regulatory requirements and in accordance with National Instrument 45-106 - Prospectus Exemptions ("NI 45-106"), the Offered Securities will be offered for sale to purchasers resident in all of the provinces of Canada with the exception of Quebec pursuant to the listed issuer financing exemption under Part 5A of NI 45-106, as amended by Coordinated Blanket Order 45-935 - Exemptions from Certain Conditions of the Listed Issuer Financing Exemption (the "Listed Issuer Financing Exemption"). The securities issuable from the sale of the Offered Securities are expected to be immediately freely tradeable in accordance with applicable Canadian securities legislation if sold to purchasers resident in Canada. The Units may also be sold in offshore jurisdictions and in the United States on a private placement basis pursuant to one or more exemptions from the registration requirements of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"). All securities not issued pursuant to the Listed Issuer Financing Exemption will be subject to a hold period in Canada ending on the date that is four months plus one day following the Closing Date as defined in Subsection 2.5(2) of Multilateral Instrument 45-102 - Resale of Securities.

There is an offering document (the "Offering Document") related to the Offering that can be accessed under the Company's profile at www.sedarplus.ca and at the Company's website at www.f3uranium.com. Prospective investors should read this Offering Document before making an investment decision.

The Offering is scheduled to close on October 1, 2025 (the "Closing Date"), or such other date as the Company and Red Cloud may agree. Completion of the Offering is subject to certain conditions including, but not limited to the receipt of all necessary approvals, including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to sell any of securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

About F3 Uranium Corp.

F3 is a uranium exploration company, focusing on the high-grade JR Zone and new Tetra Zone discovery 13km to the south in the PW area on its Patterson Lake North (PLN) Project in the Western Athabasca Basin. F3 currently has 3 properties in the Athabasca Basin: Patterson Lake North, Minto, and Broach. The western side of the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan, is home to some of the world's largest high grade uranium deposits including Paladin's Triple R project and NexGen's Arrow project.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Dev Randhawa"

Dev Randhawa, Chairman & CEO

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, identified by words or phrases such as "believes", "anticipates", "expects", "is expected", "scheduled", "estimates", "pending", "intends", "plans", "forecasts", "targets", or "hopes", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "will", "should" "might", "will be taken", or "occur" and similar expressions) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking information herein includes, but is not limited to, statements that address activities, events or developments that F3 expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future including statements regarding the Offering, the closing of the Offering, the intended use of proceeds of the Offering, the filing of the Offering Document and the tax treatment of the FT Shares.

Forward-looking statements and forward-looking information relating to any future mineral production, liquidity, enhanced value and capital markets profile of the Company, future growth potential for the Company and its business, and future exploration plans are based on management's reasonable assumptions, estimates, expectations, analyses and opinions, which are based on management's experience and perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, and other factors that management believes are relevant and reasonable in the circumstances, but which may prove to be incorrect. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things, the price of metals; costs of exploration and development; the estimated costs of development of exploration projects; the Company's ability to operate in a safe and effective manner.

These statements reflect the Company's respective current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of other assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information and the Company has made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, without limitation: the future tax treatment of the FT Shares, competitive risks and the availability of financing; uranium price volatility; risks associated with the conduct of the Company's exploration activities; regulatory, consent or permitting delays; risks relating to reliance on the Company's management team and outside contractors; the Company's inability to obtain insurance to cover all risks, on a commercially reasonable basis or at all; currency fluctuations; risks regarding the failure to generate sufficient cash flow from operations; risks relating to project financing and equity issuances; risks and unknowns inherent in all mining projects; contests over title to properties, particularly title to undeveloped properties; laws and regulations governing the environment, health and safety; operating or technical difficulties in connection with mining, development or exploration activities; employee relations, labour unrest or unavailability; the Company's interactions with surrounding communities; the speculative nature of exploration and development; stock market volatility; conflicts of interest among certain directors and officers; lack of liquidity for shareholders of the Company; litigation risk; and the factors identified in the Company's public disclosure documents. Readers are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements or forward-looking information. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be anticipated, estimated or intended. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements or forward-looking information to reflect changes in assumptions or changes in circumstances or any other events affecting such statements or information, other than as required by applicable law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/265949

SOURCE: F3 Uranium Corp.
Sovereign, Military Grade Mesh MANET Radio to Transition Legacy Forces and Enable Next Generation Soldier Systems

LONDON, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DTC today announced the broad market launch of the Sentry 6161, a military-focused mesh MANET radio engineered to meet the demanding needs of front-line forces while also serving government, public safety, critical infrastructure, unmanned systems, and commercial users.

Built on a software-defined architecture, the Sentry 6161 delivers sovereign capability, multi-band RF flexibility, multi-MANET and multi-mission/multi-vendor waveform hosting, and a dual power strategy to bridge today's legacy radios and tomorrow's centralized soldier power architectures. "From squad radios to dismounted networks, the Sentry 6161 was designed with the military end user in mind," said Alf Ianniello, Codan Group CEO. "We prioritized sovereign supply-chain control, operational versatility and a clear migration path so armed forces can modernize comms, protect investment and field new capabilities rapidly - without losing continuity of logistics or mission effectiveness."

Tthe Premier of South Australia, The Honourable Peter Malinauskas said, "The Sentry 6161 soldier radio designed and manufactured in Mawson Lakes is a clear example of South Australia's strength as the Defence State and our global standing in advanced manufacturing. Communications technology is a vital sovereign capability, enhancing national Defence readiness and expanding export opportunities. This innovation from DTC, a subsidiary of the Codan Group and one of our largest advanced manufacturers, reflects the world-class expertise being developed in South Australia."

Treasurer and Minister for Defence and Space Industries, the Honourable Stephen Mullighan MP said, "South Australia's defence industry continues to deliver world-leading capability for the modern defence force. The Sentry 6161 soldier radio also demonstrates the dual-use potential of advanced communications technology across government, civilian and commercial sectors. This kind of innovation reinforces our role as a trusted partner in global supply chains and a leader in sovereign capability."

Why military users choose Sentry 6161:

Sovereign build and lifecycle assurance: Designed and manufactured in Codan's sovereign facilities, the 6161 gives armed forces verifiable control over components, firmware and production. This end-to-end provenance and controlled manufacturing supports national security requirements and long-term sustainment strategies.

Purposeful for tactical operations: The Sentry 6161 is field-ready for dismounted and platformed military use, delivering resilient mesh routing, low-latency and adaptive link management to maintain command, control and situational awareness in contested, GPS-denied or infrastructure-limited environments.

Software-defined architecture with multi-mission, multi-vendor waveform hosting: The radio's software-defined foundation lets military users run DTC waveforms and securely host approved third-party or in-house waveforms on a single hardened hardware platform. This enables rapid fielding of mission-specific waveforms, reduces vendor lock-in and allows forces to exploit best-of-breed capabilities across coalition and joint operations.

Multi-band RF flexibility for tactical spectrum needs: Supporting multiple RF bands, the 6161 enables tactical planners to adapt to spectrum availability, operate alongside existing communications infrastructure, and simplify force wide logistics by reducing the number of different radios required for varied mission sets.

Dual power strategy for transition and future architectures: The 6161 supports rugged clip-on organic batteries for immediate compatibility with legacy logistics and rapid hot-swap in the field. Simultaneously, it is engineered to integrate with next-generation soldier systems that use centralized battery buses, enabling centralized power management, reduced soldier load and longer mission endurance as units adopt new architectures.

Multi-MANET support for coalition and joint interoperability: The software-defined MANET capability allows forces to operate multiple MANET implementations and waveforms as missions require, extending usable life, improving interoperability in coalition environments and protecting investment against obsolescence.

Upgradeable, maintainable and sustainable design: Modular hardware and controlled software provisioning simplifies repairs, upgrades and mission-specific configurations, lowering total cost of ownership and supporting long service lives in demanding operational settings.

Operational validation and demonstrations

DTC has employed the Sentry 6161 in military demonstrations to validate sovereign manufacturing, tactical performance, waveform hosting and power-integration scenarios.

Trials demonstrated the radio's ability to operate with clip-on batteries and centralized power systems, host multiple waveforms, and interoperate across heterogeneous tactical networks - underscoring its suitability for modern military communications and sustainment planning.

Serving broader mission needs

While the Sentry 6161 is optimized for military end users, its sovereign manufacturing, software-defined architecture, and multi-band, multi-vendor waveform flexibility also deliver value to government agencies, public safety organizations, critical infrastructure operators and commercial customers that require resilient, sustainable communications.

Availability

The Sentry 6161 is now available to military, government and commercial customers worldwide. DTC is accepting requests for demonstrations, trials, pilot programs and integration support, including waveform hosting, soldier system integration and battery strategy planning.

About DTC, a Codan Company

DTC, a division of Codan, provides advanced communication solutions worldwide for Military, Broadcast, Law Enforcement, Unmanned (UxV) Systems, Commercial, and NGO markets. Operating in over 150 countries, DTC delivers regionally tailored solutions and essential support for mission-critical success. With a strategic focus on high-frequency (HF) communications, resilient mesh networking, precision tracking, and edge computing, DTC enables next-generation capabilities designed to thrive in the most austere and contested environments. These technologies provide seamless connectivity, situational awareness, and real-time decision-making at the tactical edge-empowering customers with interoperable, scalable, and mission-ready solutions that deliver actionable insights at the speed of relevance.

For more information, product specifications, or to arrange a demonstration: www.dtccodan.com/contact

Learn more at www.dtccodan.comor on LinkedIn

Natalie Ksiazkiewicz Domo Tactical Communications (DTC) Natalie.ksiazkiewicz@codancomms.com
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 10, 2025) - Planet Based Foods Global Inc. (CSE: PBF) (OTC Pink: PBFFF) (FSE: AZ00) (the "Company") provides the following update further to its news release of August 6, 2025 announcing governance reforms and a petition to the Supreme Court of British Columbia respecting its shareholder meetings.

The Company confirms that it was served with a Notice of Hearing filed with the Vancouver Registry of The Supreme Court of British Columbia. As such, the petition relating to holding of the Company's shareholder meetings will be heard at the courthouse located at 800 Smith Street, Vancouver, BC on September 12, 2025 at 9:45 AM.

Neither the Company nor its solicitor have received any inquiries since the posting of the news release on August 6, 2025 in relation to the hearing of the petition, and thus the Company does not expect the petition to be opposed. If any interested shareholder wishes to attend the hearing, they should contact the Company's solicitor, PEAK Legal Counsel, and attend the hearing at the courthouse on September 12, 2025.

About Planet Based Foods Global Inc.

Planet Based Foods Global Inc. is reimagining the future of food through a diverse portfolio of sustainable ingredients, plant-based solutions, and advancements in agricultural technology. With a focus on environmental stewardship, product excellence, and scalable impact, the Company empowers food manufacturers, partners, and consumers to participate in a cleaner, healthier, and more resilient global food system. Planet Based Foods operates with integrity and purpose, delivering products that align with evolving consumer values and contribute to a more sustainable future.

Additional information is available at www.sedarplus.ca.

On Behalf of the Board

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws and the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding future plans, strategies, objectives, expectations, and intentions of Planet Based Foods Global Inc. (the "Company"). These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control. Such risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, industry developments, regulatory changes, access to capital, operational challenges, supply chain disruptions, and economic conditions. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements except as required by law.

Additional information, including risk factors, is available in the Company's public filings on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed, approved, or disapproved the contents of this release and accepts no responsibility for its adequacy or accuracy.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/265960

SOURCE: Planet Based Foods Global Inc.
When it comes to digital updates, Chennai motorists are miles ahead

If you are driving in Chennai, you are already among Indias most responsible drivers when it comes to following traffic rules. As per the recent ACKO Challan Report, Chennai is at no. 1 for challan checks, with drivers checking their e-challans more than 5 times a month on average.

This level of watchfulness is superior to mere good riding behaviour. It has a direct impact on road safety, fine management, and even wiser car insurance decisions. After all, not repeating violations not only spares fines but also strengthens your risk profile for insurers.

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Chennai Leads India in Challan Checks

When it comes to digital updates, Chennai motorists are miles ahead. According to ACKO data:

Chennai motorists examine their challans 5.02 times a month, the highest in India.

Other states include -

Bengaluru is at 4.12 times/month

Kolkata at 3.39 times/month

Ahmedabad at 2.85 times/month

Delhi at 2.76 times/month

Mumbai at 2.44 times/month.

This shows that Chennai residents are always keeping their fines in check and settling dues before they accumulate into a hefty amount. Such behaviour minimises surprise fines, avoids license suspension and promotes good driving habits.

The Most Broken Rule: Helmets Left Behind

One of the most serious revelations in the report is helmet non-compliance, which represents 34.8% of all offences, which is more than 10.5 million. That is to say, one in three riders still ride without adequate head protection. The danger extends far beyond traffic fines.

An absent helmet tends to create major injuries that have greater medical expenses, economic burden, and prolonged recovery times. This is why insurance companies stress safe riding habits and save on two wheeler insurance premiums. An effective motor insurance policy can financially protect your vehicle in times of crisis, but prevention is still the best way to protect yourself.

More from Business How Indian fintech startups are driving Malaysias UPI-like digital payments revolution

How Traffic Offences Can Empty Your Pocket?

Serious traffic offenders demonstrate how fast the fines add up. A Delhi commuter as per ACKOs report was seen to have accumulated 61,000 from only five challans, while repeat offenders in Bengaluru were frequently caught on camera. These instances initiate a necessary course of action for responsible drivers:

Preventive habits count  Keeping an eye on challans and settling dues prevents penalties from piling up.

Safe driving saves money  Properly sticking to rules lowers the likelihood of expensive offences.

Insurance goes hand-in-hand with discipline  A good two-wheeler or four-wheeler insurance policy serves as a financial safety net when unexpected events strike.

Digital Challan Checks  A Roadmap to Safer and Cheaper Insurance

Checking traffic challans regularly is no longer a mere use of the latest digital innovations but a need of the hour for two and four-wheeler drivers. By tracking pending penalties on the digital platform, drivers enjoy some advantages that go beyond avoiding fines.

But why do digital challan checks matter in vehicle insurance?

Regular online tracking prevents minor offences from adding up to huge payments or even legal proceedings.

A clear record of on-time payments and fewer violations builds a drivers credibility and positively reflects while renewing car or bike insurance policies.

A clean record can aid in easier insurance claim approvals, reduced add-on prices and improved premium rates for car and two-wheeler insurance.

Constant reminders to abide by rules promote safe driving behaviour, decreasing the chances of accidents and thus increasing the possibility of paying lower insurance premiums.

Regular e-challan checks are a good risk management practice. It enables drivers to align their behaviour towards long-term financial protection goals.

5 Smart Driving & Insurance Tips for Motorists

Check Your Challans Every Month: You can digitally check them on the ACKO app by entering your vehicle number in the Pay Traffic Challans section under the Discover option. Helmet & Gear First: Invest in quality helmets and safety gear. Taking preventive measures lowers medical costs and insurance claims. Maintain Driving Logs: Make sure to track your trips and minor offences. Some insurers may reward disciplined drivers with reasonable premium options. Opt for Comprehensive Coverage: Make sure your vehicle insurance policies cover accident, theft, and medical emergencies. Safe Driving Rewards: Some insurers offer discounts or cashback for claim-free years in terms of No-Claim Bonus (NCB). So, drive safely!

Summing Up

Chennais lead in challan checks may seem surprising, but it reflects a culture of awareness and accountability among drivers. When compared with Bengalurus higher rate of violations and Delhis significant fines, ACKOs report underlines an essential lesson. It is proactive behaviour that saves both money and lives.

Whether driving a car or a two-wheeler, the path to safer roads is consistent rule following, regular challan checks, and the safety of a comprehensive insurance policy. The roads might still be cluttered, but some choices, like paying your challans on time and staying covered with a proper vehicle insurance policy, make all the difference.
Koiralas post on Instagram came amid the violent anti-government protests in the neighbouring country

Bollywood star Manisha Koirala on Tuesday paid tribute to her grandfather, former Nepal prime minister Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala, and remembered him as a man who gave voice to love, conflict, and resilience.

Koiralas post on Instagram came amid the violent anti-government protests in the neighbouring country.

The Heeramandi actor shared an old photograph of her grandfather on Instagram.

Remembering B P BA on his birthday  Nepals first elected Prime Minister and a writer who gave voice to love, conflict, and resilience. As students rise today against corruption and for freedom, his words feel timeless.

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Democracy is indivisible; if you want democracy at home, you cannot afford to neglect all struggles for it.  B.P. Koirala, the 55-year-old actor wrote.

Nepalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned on Tuesday in the face of massive anti-government protests sparked by anger over corruption and a ban on social media, with the demonstrators attacking private residences of several top politicians, including President Ramchandra Paudel, and vandalising the parliament.

Though the Nepal government on Monday night revoked its ban on social media websites following the protests led by Gen Z youths, the agitators continued their demonstration against corruption while demanding accountability for the death of 19 people in police action against protesters.

The actor on Monday condemned the violent crackdown on protestors in Nepal in a post on Instagram.

She posted a picture of a bloodied shoe along with a caption that read, Today is a black day for Nepal- when bullets respond to the voice of the people, outrage against corruption and demand for justice.

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What Prajakta Koli said

What happened in Nepal yesterday is truly heartbreaking. Any form of celebration at such a time feels inappropriate. My heart goes out to the families of those who have suffered. I was really looking forward to being there and meeting everyone, but now isnt the right time. Hopefully, Ill get to see you all very soon.

With added inputs from agencies
Directed by Shaneil Deo in his directorial debut, Dacoit is an ambitious project produced by Supriya Yarlagadda, co-produced by Suniel Narang, and presented by Annapurna Studios

In a special birthday tribute, the makers of Dacoit unveiled exclusive glimpses of Anurag Kashyap, who essays the role of Swamy, a fearless and uncompromising cop in the upcoming film. The striking visuals of Anurag Kashyap in an intense and commanding look as an Ayyappa devotee have sparked excitement among audiences, raising anticipation for the high-octane action-drama love saga.

Starring Adivi Sesh and Mrunal Thakur in the lead, Dacoit is a much-awaited pan-India action drama that promises a gripping and emotional cinematic experience.

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The film follows the journey of an enraged convict seeking revenge on his ex-girlfriend who betrayed him. As he hatches a dangerous plan to entrap her, the story unfolds into an emotionally charged saga of love, betrayal, and vengeance.

Directed by Shaneil Deo in his directorial debut, Dacoit is an ambitious project produced by Supriya Yarlagadda, co-produced by Suniel Narang, and presented by Annapurna Studios. The film is being shot simultaneously in Hindi and Telugu, with the story and screenplay penned by Adivi Sesh and Shaneil Deo. Currently, filming is underway in Hyderabad, followed by an extensive schedule in Maharashtra. The film is slated for a pan India release on christmas 2025.
Apples latest iPhone 17 series, with four new models, has officially gone on sale. Long queues were seen outside stores in India. This year, Indian Apple fans have a bigger reason to cheer, as all the latest iPhones, including the high-end Pro models, are assembled in the country

For the first time, the latest iPhone 17 series, including the high-end Pro models, will be assembled right here from day one.For the first time, the latest iPhone 17 series, including the high-end Pro models, will be assembled right here from day one. PTI

Apples iPhone 17 series has officially gone on sale in India, and the excitement is hard to miss from the very first day.

In Mumbai, hundreds of Apple fans, some even before sunrise, poured into the companys flagship store at Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) on Friday, September 19. Similar scenes played out at Delhis Saket store, where eager customers also lined up to get their hands on the new devices.

VIDEO | Mumbai: People flock to Apple Store in Bandra Kurla Complex for the launch of iPhone 17 series phones.



Apple unveiled the iPhone 17 series in the price range of Rs 82,900 to Rs 2,29,900, which will be available in India starting from September 19 onwards for customers pic.twitter.com/ZbVNJQIhmR  Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) September 19, 2025

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But this year, India has a bigger reason to be excited. For the first time, the latest iPhone 17 series, including the high-end Pro models, will be assembled right here from day one.

Indias role in Apples global strategy has grown rapidly. Tim Cook has already revealed that nearly half the iPhones sold in the US are now made in India. And this year, for the first time, India-made iPhones are being shipped worldwide on day one, breaking away from the old pattern of trailing behind Chinese production.

In this piece, we take a closer look at Apples Made in India push, the rising appetite for iPhones in the country, when the new models will be available, and the standout features of the iPhone 17 lineup.

Apples Made in India push for iPhone 17

Apple has gone all in on India for the iPhone 17 series, spreading production across five local factories, according to NDTV.

The lineup itself is divided between different partners. The iPhone 17 Pro is being assembled at Foxconn and Tata-run Pegatron plants, while the base iPhone 17 model is rolling out of Tatas Wistron facility in Karnataka and the newly opened Hosur unit in Tamil Nadu, Moneycontrol reported.

Foxconns Sriperumbudur plant in Tamil Nadu has taken charge of producing the slimmest handset in the lineup, the iPhone Air. Meanwhile, Foxconn has also started shipping iPhone 17 units from its brand-new $2.8 billion factory in Devanahalli, near Bengaluru. This site, now running alongside its Chennai unit, has quickly become Indias largest iPhone factory in terms of production capacity.

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Apples newly-launched iPhone 17 series smartphones were displayed at a store as its sale began, at Select Citywalk, Saket, in New Delhi, Friday, Sept. 19, 2025/PTI

Sources told Moneycontrol that much of this output is aimed at meeting strong demand in the US and Europe, while also serving Indias rapidly growing market for premium phones. Test runs for the iPhone 17 began at the Devanahalli plant back in April, and production has been ramping up ever since.

In the financial year ending March, Apple assembled iPhones worth about $22 billion in India, marking a 60 per cent jump from the year before. This comes despite the fact that US President Donald Trump has been building pressure on the tech giant to restrict its Indian presence.

Also read: Trump does not want Tim Cook to build in India. Can Apple afford to do so?

Tata, which has rapidly emerged as one of Apples most important partners, is expected to handle nearly half of Indias iPhone production within the next two years, Moneycontrol reports.

These factories are not just focused on the iPhone 17 series. They are also producing earlier models, including the iPhone 14, iPhone 15 and iPhone 16.

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Indias love for iPhones is rising

Apples bet on India is paying off. The country has become one of its fastest-growing markets, and analysts believe this shift is helping position India as a serious global manufacturing hub.

The demand picture is massive. According to S&P Global, iPhone sales in the US alone are expected to reach nearly 76 million units in 2024. To keep pace, Apple may need to double shipments from India or pull devices from other markets to satisfy American buyers.

But its not just about exports. Apples presence in Indias own smartphone market is getting stronger every quarter.

Shipments rose 21.5 per cent in the first half of 2025 to 5.9 million units, with the iPhone 16 emerging as the countrys most shipped model. In the June quarter, Apples India shipments grew nearly 20 per cent year-on-year, pushing its market share up to 7.5 per cent.

Hundreds line up at Apples store in Mumbais Bandra Kurla Complex for the launch of the iPhone 17 series phones. Image courtesy: Screengrab/PTI

Even with higher price tags, the appetite isnt slowing. The iPhone 17 series is costlier than the iPhone 16 lineup, but analysts dont expect that to hurt sales.

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Around 6065 per cent of iPhone sales in India happen on EMI, so any price hike gets absorbed. Add bank offers and trade-ins, and affordability improves further. The hike wont stop users from upgrading, Tarun Pathak, research director at Counterpoint Research, told Moneycontrol.

#WATCH | Mumbai | A customer, Aman Chouhan, says, "I have purchased iPhone 17PRO Max, one is 256GB and the other is 1TB. I was waiting in line since 12 midnight and now I have got it. It has new features. The orange colour is new..." https://t.co/NnweXyMyKN pic.twitter.com/LS3ns7rHxi  ANI (@ANI) September 19, 2025

Among the new models, the iPhone Air is drawing the most buzz. Slimmer than anything Apple has made before, its already attracting a niche set of buyers.

There are design enthusiasts who will go for it, but those who want cameras will only consider the Pro models. iPhone Air is unlike any other iPhone before, and that uniqueness will be its USP, Pathak added.

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How much does the iPhone 17 series cost in India?

Apple has launched four new models under the iPhone 17 series  the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and the all-new iPhone Air.

According to The Times of India, the iPhone 17 is available in lavender, mist blue, black, white, and sage.

In India, the iPhone 17 starts at Rs 82,900, with the 512GB version priced at Rs 1,02,900.

The iPhone 17 Air stands out for its slim design. Image: News18

The iPhone 17 Pro comes in silver, cosmic orange, and deep blue, and the Pro Max version will be offered in identical colours and timelines.

In India, the iPhone 17 starts at Rs 82,900, with the 512GB version priced at Rs 1,02,900.

Meanwhile, the much-talked-about iPhone Air is be available in black, white, beige, and light blue. In India, the iPhone Air starts at Rs 1,19,900 for the 256GB model.

With input from agencies
The Block Everything protesters took to French streets on Wednesday (September 10) as thousands gathered to oppose proposed budget cuts and express anger at President Emmanuel Macron. The protests coincided with the new Prime Minister, Sebastien Lecornu, taking charge. Demonstrators blocked roads and schools in Paris and other areas, and pelted garbage at the police. But whats behind the agitation?

A masked protester holds a red flare during a demonstration at the Place de la Republique during a day of protests in Paris as part of a grassroots protest movement called "Bloquons Tout" ("Let's Block Everything") calling for nationwide all-day disruptions, France, September 10, 2025. Reuters

France was gripped by protests as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets on Wednesday (September 10). The Block Everything protests hit the country against proposed budget cuts and anger at the entire political class.

In Paris and other cities, protesters clashed with the police, blocked roads and set fires to put pressure on President Emmanuel Macron and the new Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu. The Bloquons tout (Block Everything) protests were less intense than previous movements that have rocked France in recent years.

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But whats behind these protests?

We will explain.

Block Everything protest in France

Protesters in and around Paris blocked schools and roads, erected barricades with rubbish bins and threw garbage at the police, as per an AFP report.

They repeatedly attempted to block Paris beltway during the morning rush hour, but were dispersed by police with tear gas.

In the French city of Lyon, protesters blocked a road and set bins ablaze. Police stopped some 200 protesters from barricading a main road in the port city of Marseille.

Police used tear gas to disperse protesters in Nantes.

Despite the protests, high-speed trains and most Paris metros were operating normally. However, other rail services and flights were disrupted, including at Pariss main airports, reported AFP.

France deployed some 80,000 police across the country, with officers removing barricades and swiftly making arrests.

French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said that a bus was torched in the western city of Rennes. He warned demonstrators of zero tolerance for violence.

According to the French interior ministry, at least 250 people were arrested as the protests began. In the southwest, fire damaged electrical cables, leading to train services halting on one line and disrupting traffic on another, Associated Press (AP) reported, citing government transport authorities.

How Block Everything protests came to be

The Block Everything protest movement began online in May among right-wing groups, researchers and officials said, as per Reuters.

It has since been taken over by the left and far-left. According to Paris police chief Laurent Nunez, the radical left was running the protests, with no support from civil society.

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The protesters called for a day of blockades, strikes, boycotts, demonstrations and other acts of protest.

These Block Everything protests do not have leaders, symbols or negotiators. The protests were reportedly organised on Telegram channels.

The decentralised nature of the demonstrations evoked memories of the Yellow Vests, the anti-government protests that hit France in 2018.

Whats behind the protests?

The Block Everything movement spread online without any identified leadership, and a range of complaints against the government emerged.

Many are unhappy with budget cuts proposed by Francois Bayrou, the PM ousted on Monday (September 8) by French lawmakers in a no-confidence vote.

Bayrou had recommended massive cuts in public spending by 44 billion euros ($51 billion) to tackle Frances growing deficit and trillions in debt. He also proposed removing two public holidays from Frances annual calendar, which proved highly unpopular.

Some are angry with Macron himself and broader inequality.

A protester holds up a sign as French police in riot gear stand next to a police vehicle during a Block Everything protest in Montpellier, France, September 10, 2025. Reuters

I am extremely angry with the political system in France, which favours large corporations, which favours ultra-wealthy billionaires, and which  erodes the rights of ordinary French citizens  the very ones who keep the country running, Mathieu Jaguelin, 43, a tour guide in southwest France who participates in several Block Everything groups on Telegram, told Reuters.

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Critics alleged that Bayrous austerity measures were at the expense of wage earners and pensioners while sparing the wealthy.

None of this is OK, Chloe, a 25-year-old protester in the southern city of Toulouse, said to AFP. The working class suffers the most. There could be a better way.

Cedric Brun, a 46-year-old auto worker and local union boss in the northern city of Valenciennes, expressed disappointment at the turnout at the protest, with police easily reining in the demonstrators. I thought thered be more of us, he said. Its unfortunate that there are more revolutionaries on Facebook than in real life.

Some protesters called for a constitutional overhaul, while others demanded Macron step down and impose higher taxes on the rich. The public authorities and the government have betrayed us so much that Im not sure they can really meet the expectations of the people, Louise Nechin, a left-wing activist in Paris, told Reuters.

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Speaking to the news agency, Paola Sedda, an expert on online movements at the University of Lille, said Block Everything was a result of deep-seated anger over Bayrous proposed budget cuts when the faith in political institutions have declined.

The activists deep mistrust of traditional media and political institutions resonated widely, she said.

The protests coincided with Sebastien Lecornu assuming the role of Frances new prime minister. Macron appointed Lecornu, his close ally and defence minister, late on Tuesday, just 24 hours after Bayrou lost a confidence vote.

Macrons decision to name a close ally as PM was a slap in the face, Florent, a protester in Lyon, said to AFP. We need change, he said.

With inputs from agencies
Amid the political turmoil in Nepal caused by the violent Gen-Z protests, theres one question swirling: who shall take charge in the Himalayan kingdom? As the public expresses their discontent against political parties, many are voicing a support for former King Gyanendra Shah and a return to monarchy

Amid the turmoil in Nepal, many are wondering if former king, Gyanendra Shah, could play a pivotal role in the country's future. File image/Reuters

Nepals witnessing mayhem. The political landscape is in turmoil after Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned as Gen-Z protesters went on a rampage, burning Parliament, setting government offices on fire and even assaulting ministers  past and present.

The protests, which began as a movement against the governments controversial social media ban escalated into widespread protests, fuelled by deep-seated frustration with corruption, poor governance, misuse of power, and the arrogance of past governments and political parties.

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: Catch the live updates here

Amid this volatile situation, many are wondering if former King Gyanendra Shah will take the reins of the country, marking the countrys return to monarchy after its two-decade experiment with secular democracy.

Rumours of the former monarch taking charge became even more pronounced as he issued a rare public statement, expressing sorrow over the deaths of young protesters and calling for peace, good governance, and restraint from violence.

It is extremely tragic and condemnable that, instead of addressing the legitimate demands of the younger generation, lives were lost and many were injured, the statement read. I condemn the violence, which is against the norm of the peaceful Nepalese society.

As rumours swirl of a possible royal takeover, heres a look at who exactly is the Nepal royal family and why were they ousted in the first place.

Who is Nepals former King Gyanendra Shah?

The last monarch of Nepal  he reigned from 2001 until 2008  Gyanendra Shah was a businessman with a special interest in environmental and conservation issues before becoming king. In the past, he has owned a hotel in Kathmandu and a cigarette factory.

His ascent to the throne was quite controversial. In June 2001, his elder brother, King Birendra, his wife and eight other members of the royal family were shot dead in a drunken killing spree by the heir to the throne, Prince Dipendra Bir Bikram Shah, who then turned the gun on himself. In a single night, Nepals royal family was almost entirely wiped out.

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The massacre reportedly followed an argument between Dipendra and his parents, who objected to his plans to marry local aristocrat Devyani Rana. It is believed Dipendra was threatened with being disinherited if he continued with the match and this may have been what drove him to murder.

At the time of the massacre, many rumours swirled that Gyanendra and his son, Paras, plotted the royal killings and framed Dipendra to assume an easy route to the throne.

Gyanendra sits on the throne at the Hanuman Palace in Kathmandu in 2001 after his elder brother, King Birendra, was killed. File image/Reuters

Once he took the throne, King Gyanendra became a contentious and divisive figure in Nepal; during his reign, he dismissed the government twice in three years. The first time was in 2002 when he sacked elected Sher Bahadur Deuba, the prime minister, and appointed royalist Surya Bahadur Thapa in his place, postponing planned elections indefinitely.

Thapa resigned in June 2004 after huge protests against the government, and Deuba was re-appointed by the king only to be sacked once again in February 2005. Matters then came to a boil with him staging a coup detat, declaring a state of emergency, suspending the constitution, and taking direct control over the country. At the time, he said that the Cabinet had been unable to control the Maoist rebellion, which had been ongoing for the last nine years, resulting in the death of nearly 17,000 people.

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However, the kings act sparked what came to be known as the second peoples movement in Nepal, which brought businessmen, politicians, journalists and others out in the streets against the monarch. Those protests finally culminated with him being forced to give up the throne with the country moving to a parliamentary democracy.

Following the abolition of monarchy, former King Gyanendra Shah has lived as a private citizen. Meanwhile, his stepmother, Queen Mother Ratna continues to live at Mahendra Manzil, situated within the former royal palace complex. Some younger members of the Nepali royal family live abroad.

Nepalese pro-democracy activists carry a picture of King Gyanendra during a protest at Kalanki in Kathmandu. File image/AFP

A comeback for former King Gyanendra?

Even before the Gen-Z protests, former King Gyanendra made the headlines back in March when his supporters rallied in Kathmandu, demanding the restoration of the monarchy and Hinduism as the state religion. Chants of long live our beloved king and vacate the royal palace for the king echoed through the streets.

At the time, over tens of thousands of supporters blocked the main entrance to Tribhuvan International Airport as he returned to the capital. Protesters carried flags and banners calling for his reinstatement.

Former King of Nepal Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev is welcomed by the pro-monarchy supporters demanding the restoration of monarchy, which was abolished in 2008, outside the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal in March. File image/Reuters

His supporters maintain that despite his heavy-handed tactics, they were necessary to preserve Nepals sovereignty. They further cited the countrys failure to achieve economic progress as a reason to return to the monarchy style of governance. As one monarchy supporter was quoted as saying, The worst thing that is happening to the country is massive corruption and all politicians in power are not doing anything for the country. I was in the protests that took away monarchy hoping it would help the country, but I was mistaken and the nation has further plunged so I have changed my mind.

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Will monarchy now return to Nepal?

Now, Nepals political future is in doldrums following the resignation of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli as a result of the mass, violent Gen-Z protests that first broke out on Monday (September 8).

While the immediate cause behind the agitation was the governments move to ban popular social media platforms, it reflects a broader resentment in Nepal, where many people have increasingly become angry with the government over a range of issues, mostly to do with corruption and frustration over nepotism in the countrys politics.

Protests over the social media ban were just a catalyst. Frustrations over how the country is being run have long been simmering under the surface. People are very angry and Nepal finds itself in a very precarious situation, said Prateek Pradhan, editor of Baahrakhari, a Nepalese independent news website, to the Associated Press.

People looks towards the burned motorbikes at Kathmandu valley traffic police office, following protests triggered by a social media ban which was later lifted, in Kathmandu, Nepal. Reuters

And as 20 people died and widespread destruction was reported, the former king expressed support for the protesters, saying the violent outbursts and anger expressed during these demonstrations are indeed matters of deep concern.

In a statement, Gyanendra Shah said it was extremely tragic and condemnable that instead of addressing the genuine demands of the young generation, lives have been lost and many have been injured. This incident goes against the values of the peace-loving Nepali society.

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Moreover, Nepal Army chief Ashok Raj Sigdels address to the nation also grabbed attention as he stood in front of an image of former Hindu king Prithvi Narayan Shah, the mid-18th-century monarch who laid the foundations of modern Nepal.

It remains unclear if Gyanendra Shah will be able to fill the void caused by the resignation of KP Sharma Oli; will he seek to restore the monarchy or try to unify the nation?

However, as Nepal grapples with political instability, voices for a return to monarchy only grow louder. We will have to just wait and watch to see what comes next.

With inputs from agencies
US President Donald Trump has stated that New Delhi and Washington will resume negotiations on a free trade deal. This development comes weeks after the US imposed a 50 per cent tariff on India  a 25 per cent baseline tariff, plus an additional 25 per cent penalty for purchasing Russian oil, which New Delhi described as unfair, unreasonable, and unjustified

There are reports that Donald Trump and Narendra Modi could speak over the phone soon. Reuters

Is the IndiaUS relationship back on track?

US President Donald Trump has stated that New Delhi and Washington will resume negotiations on a free trade deal.

This development comes weeks after the US imposed a 50 per cent tariff on India  a 25 per cent baseline tariff, plus an additional 25 per cent penalty for purchasing Russian oil. New Delhi described the tariffs as unfair, unreasonable, and unjustified.

After the leaders of India, Russia, and China shared the stage at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin, Trump posted on Truth Social, claiming that the United States had lost Russia and India to deepest, darkest China.

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There are now reports that the two leaders could speak over the phone soon. It had previously been reported that Prime Minister Narendra Modi avoided calls from Trump following the imposition of the tariffs.

But what happened? Are ties truly back on track? Lets take a closer look.

What happened?

The hint of a thaw between the two countries began last week with a statement from Trump.

Speaking at the White House, Trump described the ties between the two nations as a very special relationship. He added that he would always be friends with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Hes a great prime minister. Hes great. But I just dont like what hes doing at this particular moment. But India and the United States have a special relationship. Theres nothing to worry about. We just have moments on occasion, Trump said.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Modi responded positively to Trumps remarks. Modi said he deeply appreciates and fully reciprocates the US Presidents sentiments and positive assessment of the bilateral relationship.

Writing on X, Modi described the relationship as "forward-looking" and aimed at a Comprehensive and Global Strategic Partnership:

Deeply appreciate and fully reciprocate President Trumps sentiments and positive assessment of our ties. India and the US have a very positive and forward-looking Comprehensive and Global Strategic Partnership, the Prime Minister wrote.

During Prime Minister Narendra Modis trip to the US in February, the two countries vowed to double bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030. Reuters

Then, on Tuesday, Trump took to Truth Social to announce that trade negotiations were back on.

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I am pleased to announce that India and the United States of America are continuing negotiations to address the Trade Barriers between our two Nations, Trump wrote. 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 of our Great Countries!

Modi responded to Trumps social media post:

 India and the US are close friends and natural partners. I am confident that our trade negotiations will pave the way for unlocking the limitless potential of the IndiaUS partnership. Our teams are working to conclude these discussions at the earliest, Modi wrote.

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.

Are ties back on track?

It appears so.

It has been reported that Trump and Modi could speak over the phone soon, possibly in the context of the upcoming Quad meeting, scheduled to be held in India in November, as well as the UN General Assembly Summit in New York. The leaders may also discuss the trade deal  which could bring India some relief  and the ongoing RussiaUkraine war.

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As of now, Modi is not scheduled to travel to New York for the UNGA meeting at the end of September. The two leaders could instead meet next at the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

However, it is important to note that several issues concerning the trade deal remain unresolved. Negotiations, which began after Modis visit to the US in February, have been hindered by Indias firm stance on protecting its agriculture and dairy sectors  vital to millions of livelihoods. This has frustrated some senior US officials, including President Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

US trade negotiators had initially planned a visit to India in late August, but that trip was cancelled after Trump announced the 50 per cent tariff. Trump had previously stated there would be no further negotiations until India addressed its continued purchase of Russian oil. New Delhi, for its part, has maintained that it will not compromise on national interest, with Modi declaring he is prepared to pay any political price to uphold it.

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Bilateral trade talks between India and the US are set to resume.

On Sunday, former Indian diplomat KP Fabian said that President Trump is beginning to realise that his aggressive trade tactics have not worked. Fabian noted that the tariffs were imposed without solid justification, and Trump misjudged Indias resolve.

Prime Minister Modi did what is appropriate to respond to a cordial tweet, but from this, we cannot conclude that we are going to see any early end to this, what I call Triple T  Trumped-up Trump Tariff. Trumped-up means without basis. But at the same time, it is reasonably clear that President Donald Trump has started to realise that his original expectation  that India would surrender when he threatened an additional 25 per cent  was wrong, Fabian said.

He further emphasised that while India remains open to friendly relations and mutually beneficial trade, it will not accept unilateral decisions or coercive tactics.

What he has to realise is that India is India. India is a civilisational state. India cannot be a meek camp follower of any other country. India wants to be friends with everyone and wants to do business, but India cannot take dictation, he added.

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This development also comes amid reports that Trump asked the European Union to impose tariffs of up to 100 per cent on India to penalise its continued trade in Russian oil. These remarks were reportedly made during recent talks between US and EU officials, with Trump suggesting similar tariffs be imposed on both India and China  major consumers of Russian crude oil.

Meanwhile, the US Supreme Court has agreed to take up the matter of Trumps tariffs in November. This follows a series of lower court rulings which held that many of Trumps tariffs, issued under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), were illegal. Under the US Constitution, only Congress has the power to impose tariffs.

With inputs from agencies
Qatar, which has played a key role in negotiations to end the Gaza war, came under Israeli attack on Tuesday. The IDF targeted a meeting of Hamass top political leadership, which the militant group says survived the strike even as six others were killed. Donald Trump says he is not thrilled, and the Arab nations are fuming. What happens next?

A damaged building, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders, according to an Israeli official, in Doha, Qatar, on September 9. The IDF targeted Hamass leadership in Qatar in Operation Summit of Fire. Reuters

Israel is calling it Operation Summit of Fire. In a shocking development, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out airstrikes on senior Hamas leaders in Qatars capital, Doha, on Tuesday (September 9). It claimed to have targeted those directly responsible for the brutal October 7 massacre.

The strike came a day after day after six Israelis were killed and eight others wounded by Palestinian gunmen in one of the deadliest shooting attacks in Jerusalem in recent years.

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As Israel took full responsibility for the Doha strikes, Qatar accused the nation of reckless behaviour.

Heres what we know about the Israeli offensive and its fallout.

How and where did Israel carry out the Doha attack?

Israel launched airstrikes on a meeting of Hamas officials in Doha around 3 pm local time on Tuesday. Multiple explosions were heard in the capital, as plumes of smoke rose above the city skyline.

A section of a complex on Wadi Rawdan Street, close to the West Bay Lagoon district north of central Doha, was heavily damaged.

The Israeli military claims to have conducted a precise strike targeting senior Hamas leaders in Qatar using precise munitions. Reports in the Israeli media say that 15 Israeli fighter jets were used in Operation Summit of Fire.

In a statement on social media, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the action against the top terrorist chieftains of Hamas was a wholly independent Israeli operation. Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility, he claimed.

Prime Minister's Office:



Today's action against the top terrorist chieftains of Hamas was a wholly independent Israeli operation.



Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility.  Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) September 9, 2025

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This is the first time the Jewish nation has attacked Qatar, which has played a key role as a negotiator between Hamas and Israel since the October 7 attacks. The Gulf nation has hosted the political bureau of Hamas since 2012.

Why did Israel carry out the attack?

The Israeli airstrike targeted a meeting of Hamass top leadership, which was set to discuss a new hostage-ceasefire proposal by the US.

At the gathering were all of the militant groups top leadership, including the leader of Hamass Gaza units, Khalil al-Hayya; Zaher Jabarin, who leads Hamas in the West Bank; Muhammad Darwish, the head of Hamass Shura Council; Nizar Awadallah, and Khaled Mashaal, the head of Hamas abroad, reports The Times of Israel.

A statement on the Israeli PMs X account said on Tuesday,  Yesterday, after the murderous attacks in Jerusalem and Gaza, Prime Minister Netanyahu directed all security elements to prepare for the possibility of striking the Hamas leadership.

The Prime Minister and the Defense Minister believed that the action was fully justified given the fact that it was this Hamas leadership that initiated and organized the October 7 massacre. And since then has not ceased from launching murderous operations against the State of Israel and its citizens, including taking responsibility for the murder of our citizens in yesterdays [Monday] terrorist attack in Jerusalem, it added.

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Who was killed in the attack?

According to Hamas, members of its negotiating delegation were targeted in Doha but survived the strike. It claimed that six others, including a Qatari security official, were killed.

Those who died included Humam al-Hayya (Abu Yahya), the son of the chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya; Jihad Labad (Abu Bilal), the director of al-Hayyas office; Abdullah Abdul Wahid (Abu Khalil); Moamen Hassouna (Abu Omar); Ahmed al-Mamluk (Abu Malik); and Corporal Badr Saad Mohammed al-Humaidi, a Qatari internal security officer.

We confirm the enemys failure to assassinate our brothers in the negotiating delegation, a Hamas statement said. It added that the attack confirms beyond doubt that Netanyahu and his government do not want to reach any agreement for peace.

Smoke rises after several blasts were heard in Doha, Qatar. Reuters

According to a senior Israeli official, Khalil al-Hayya and Zaher Jabarin, the exiled West Bank leader, were targeted, reports the BBC.

While the Hamas statement suggests that the strike was a failure, Israel is said to be increasingly optimistic about the results. However, it is assessing the outcome.

How has Qatar responded?

The Qatari government called the attack reckless and cowardly, and a blatant violation of all international laws and norms.

Majed al-Ansari, a spokesperson for Qatars foreign minister, said in a statement, This criminal attack constitutes a flagrant violation of all international laws and norms and a serious threat to the security and safety of Qataris and residents of Qatar.

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While strongly condemning this attack, the State of Qatar affirms that it will not tolerate this reckless Israeli behaviour and its continued tampering with regional security, as well as any action targeting its security and sovereignty. Investigations are underway at the highest level, and further details will be announced as soon as they become available.

In this frame grab taken from video, Qatar Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani addresses the press in Doha. Qatar condemned the Israeli attack, calling it cowardly

Did the US know about the attack? How has it reacted?

Netanyahu claimed that the attack was an independent Israeli operation. However, US was informed about the strikes because of the proximity of the huge US airbase  the Al Udeid, on the outskirts of Doha.

Hours after the attack, US President Donald Trump said that the strike was a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me. Potus said that he immediately directed US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to inform Qatar when he was notified about the attack, but said the notification was made too late to stop it.

However, Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said his country was only notified as the bombs were falling.

I view Qatar as a strong Ally and friend of the US, and feel very badly about the location of the attack, he wrote in the post, adding that he had assured its leaders that such a thing will not happen again on their soil, Trump added.

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When questioned about the strikes later, Trump told the media, Well, Im not thrilled Im just Im not thrilled about the whole situation. Its not a good situation.

But I will say this, we want the hostages back, but we are not thrilled about the way that went down today, he added.

The Arab world, Turkey, France and the UK also criticised Israel for the attack.

What does the attack mean for US ties with the Arab nation?

The White Houses knowledge of the attack and its late notification to Qatar does not bode well for Americas relationship with the Gulf nation and its other Arab allies.

The security of the Arab Gulf states is indivisible, and we stand heart and soul with the sisterly Qatar, condemning the treacherous Israeli attack, Anwar Gargash, a diplomatic adviser to the rulers of the United Arab Emirates, was quoted as saying by The Associated Press.

Smoke rises from an explosion, caused by an Israeli strike, in Doha. While the senior Hamas leadership escaped the attack, six others were killed. AP

Although the US remains the only country willing to station thousands of troops across the Persian Gulf, the perception of Washington as an unreliable ally to Gulf Arab nations has grown in recent years, analysts say. The UAE and Saudi Arabia, in particular, have sought to diversify their relationships, growing closer to China and Russia.

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They dont want to rely solely on the US for security; they want ties with a range of global actors, said Will Todman, a senior fellow with the Middle East programme at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. (Israels) strikes will accelerate that trend.

What happens to the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal?

Qatar has been at the centre of the negotiations with Israel to end the war in Gaza and free dozens of Israeli hostages held captive by Hamas in the enclave.

Qatari Prime Minister Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said he thought it wasnt worth continuing the ceasefire negotiations in light of the attack.

Even without killing top Hamas leaders or altering the course of the war, the strike confirmed the worst fears of risk-averse Gulf Arab states, experts said. The attack was a message not just to Hamas but to the region, Vakil said. Military pressure will continue, with Washington seeing Israeli dominance as effective.

Protesters hold US flags, during a demonstration demanding the immediate release of the hostages, kidnapped during the deadly October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, in Jerusalem. Reuters

The only way to negotiate a deal is through the Hamas leadership in Doha and through the leaders in Gaza. However, now the Israeli attack has risked this process.

The Doha strike also puts the lives of the remaining hostages at risk. While Hamas has been weakened since the October 7 massacre, the fate of the 20 hostages lies with them. Now there is fear that Hamas could it back by executing one or more of those in captivity. The aim would be a signal to Israel that the only way to save the hostages is to stop the war and accept Hamas remaining in power in Gaza, which Israel will never do, former White House Brett H McGurk writes in CNN.

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The White House said in a statement that the unfortunate strikes could serve as an opportunity for peace. Netanyahu said that he is ready to move ahead with the US-proposed deal.

But now the question remains whether Qatar continues to play negotiator and if Hamas is willing to come to the table.

With inputs from agencies
Israels strike on Hamas leaders in Doha has threatened delicate ceasefire talks and US-Qatar relations. The attack, which killed six people, including Hamas figures, echoes decades of Israeli covert missions targeting Palestinian leaders worldwide

Smoke rises after several blasts were heard in Doha, Qatar, September 9, 2025. File Image/Reuters

Qatar is still coming to terms with the aftermath of a powerful and unprecedented Israeli in the heart of its capital in Doha on Tuesday.

The attack targeted senior Hamas leaders who had gathered for high-level discussions over a ceasefire proposal backed by the United States, aimed at halting the ongoing conflict in Gaza and securing the release of hostages.

The strike, which resulted in at least six deaths, was carried out in a neighbourhood known for hosting diplomatic missions and international schools.

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The incident is threatening to derail months of diplomatic work and raising concerns about the sanctity of sovereign Gulf states.

Hamas confirmed that its upper leadership, including its key negotiators, survived the strike.

However, five of its members were killed, among them Hammam, the son of Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas chief in Gaza and the groups top representative in ceasefire talks.

Other casualties included Jihad Lubbad, who headed al-Hayyas office, and three bodyguards tasked with protecting the team. The group later identified Abdullah Abdul Wahid, Moamen Hassouna, and Ahmed al-Mamluk among the dead.

Several others sustained injuries in the attack.

Qatars interior ministry reported that Saad Mohammed al-Humaidi al-Dosari, a member of its elite Internal Security Force, known locally as Lekhwiya, died while performing his duties at the targeted site.

His presence has put a spotlight on the seriousness of the incident, as he was reportedly stationed there to provide protection in an area housing key diplomatic assets.

Hamas condemned the strike, labelling it a failed assassination attempt on its ceasefire negotiation team. The group suggested that Israels aim was to eliminate its key negotiators and derail the truce discussions.

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Al Jazeera, the Qatari state-funded broadcaster long at odds with Israel, described the strike in its headlines as brutal aggression.

Israel had previously banned the channel from operating inside its borders and the West Bank, though its journalists continue to report from the Gaza Strip.

When Israel carried out assassinations in the region

While the Doha strike shocked the region, it fits into a much longer history of Israeli covert operations aimed at eliminating Palestinian leaders and other adversaries abroad.

These operations, primarily carried out by Mossad, have extended far beyond Israels borders, often straining diplomatic ties with other nations.

Key incidents over the decades:

July 31, 2024  Tehran, Iran : Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyah, who also served as prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority, was killed in his home shortly after attending Irans presidential inauguration. Israel publicly acknowledged responsibility in December 2024, five months later.

January 2, 2024  Beirut, Lebanon : Senior Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri, deputy chairman of the Hamas political bureau and co-founder of the al-Qassam Brigades, was assassinated in exile. Al-Arouri was central to the 2011 deal that exchanged captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners.

January 2010  Dubai, UAE : Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, accused of procuring weapons for Hamas, was killed in a Dubai hotel. The UAE accused Mossad of carrying out the hit. The use of forged passports from Ireland, the UK, and Australia caused a major diplomatic scandal.

September 26, 2004  Damascus, Syria : Izz el-Deen Sheikh Khalil, a Hamas leader deported from Gaza in 1992, was killed when a bomb planted in his car detonated.

September 25, 1997  Amman, Jordan : Two Israeli agents attempted to assassinate Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal by injecting a slow-acting poison into his ear. The operation failed, and Jordans King Hussein forced Israel to provide the antidote in exchange for the agents release.

April 1988  Tunis, Tunisia : Khalil al-Wazir (Abu Jihad), military chief of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) and deputy to Yasser Arafat, was killed in a raid by Israeli commandos. Israel admitted responsibility only in 2012.

October 2, 1985  Tunis, Tunisia : Israel bombed the PLO headquarters, killing 60 people and injuring dozens, including women and children.

January 1979  Beirut, Lebanon : Ali Hassan Salameh, founder of the Black September organisation linked to the 1972 Munich Olympics attack, was assassinated in a car bombing. Mossad agents spent weeks infiltrating his social circles to plan the attack.

October 16, 1972  Rome, Italy : Abdel Wael Zwaiter, a Fatah spokesperson, was shot multiple times outside his home. Israel accused him of ties to Black September, though PLO officials denied the connection.

1972  Beirut, Lebanon: Prominent Palestinian author and PFLP leader Ghassan Kanafani was killed when a bomb was planted in his car.

The consequences often extended beyond the immediate killing, triggering diplomatic standoffs with the countries where the attacks occurred.

For instance, the 2010 Dubai assassination caused widespread outrage over the use of forged Western passports, while the failed 1997 attempt on Meshaal nearly ruptured Israels relations with Jordan.

How Qatar reacted to the Doha strikes by Israel

Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani held urgent calls with international leaders, including US President Donald Trump, to discuss the crisis.

The state-run Qatar News Agency released details of these conversations, pointing out Dohas deep anger over the strike.

In his conversation with Trump, Sheikh Tamim condemned the attack, stating that Qatar held Israel responsible for its repercussions, in light of the policy of aggression they adopt that threatens the regions stability and obstructs efforts to de-escalate and reach sustainable diplomatic solutions.

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Qatars Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, issued his own warning, stating that the strike could derail the painstaking negotiations Qatar had been mediating between Hamas and Israel.

A damaged building, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders, according to an Israeli official, in Doha, Qatar, on September 9, 2025. The IDF targeted Hamass leadership in Qatar in Operation Summit of Fire. File Image/Reuters

Dohas position has been to serve as a neutral facilitator, hosting multiple rounds of talks between the warring sides. Tuesdays events threatened to upend that role completely.

Qatar also rejected suggestions that it had been given prior warning of the attack. Reports surfaced that Washington had notified Doha in advance through a special envoy, but this was swiftly contradicted by Qatari officials.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari posted on X that any call from the United States came just as the explosions from the Israeli strikes were being heard.

How the US & Trump responded

Trump faced immediate pressure following the strike, as Qatar is a close US ally and host to Al Udeid Air Base, which houses around 10,000 American troops and serves as the forward headquarters for US Central Command.

Speaking to reporters later on Tuesday, Trump acknowledged his dissatisfaction, calling the attack not a good situation.

This was a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me, Trump said on social media soon after the strikes.

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He expressed frustration at the unilateral nature of the Israeli operation, saying it did not advance Israel or Americas goals. Yet his criticism was measured.

Trump even suggested that this unfortunate incident could serve as an opportunity for peace.

Upon arriving for dinner near the White House later that day, Trump reiterated his position, stating, Im not thrilled about it.

He added, Ill be giving a full statement tomorrow. But I will tell you this, I was very unhappy about it. Very unhappy about every aspect.

Trump also revealed that he had spoken with both Sheikh Tamim and Prime Minister Netanyahu. I assured them that such a thing will not happen again on their soil, he said.

The US president also disclosed that he had instructed envoy Steve Witkoff to warn Qatar about the impending strike as soon as Washington became aware of Israels plans.

However, he admitted the call came too late to prevent the attack. Unfortunately, too late to stop the attack, Trump explained.

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Qatars role as a neutral host for ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas has been central to Washingtons diplomatic strategy.

Qatar has recently invested in strengthening ties with Trump personally. Among its gestures was the gift of a $400 million Boeing 747, intended to serve as a future Air Force One before eventually being donated to a presidential library.

With inputs from agencies
Democrats on the US House oversight committee released an undated photo from a birthday book made for Jeffrey Epstein, showing him grinning beside a giant cheque signed DJ TRUMP. Beneath it, a handwritten caption suggests that the convicted sex offender had sold a woman, crudely described as fully depreciated, to Trump for $22,500 (Rs 19.8 lakh). White House had earlier described the document as a Democrat Epstein hoax

A fresh batch of documents from Jeffrey Epsteins estate has landed in the hands of the US Congress, and among them is a bizarre birthday keepsake that has reignited questions about Epsteins ties with Donald Trump.

The scrapbook page, made for Epsteins 50th birthday, shows him grinning beside a giant cheque signed DJ TRUMP. Beneath it, a handwritten caption suggests Epstein had sold a woman, crudely described as fully depreciated, to Trump for $22,500 (Rs 19.8 lakh).

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Trump has spent the past two months denying he ever wrote in the scrapbook, dismissing the revelations as nothing more than a Democrat Epstein hoax. But the strange note and illustration have put their friendship back under the microscope.

More from Explainers Never-before-seen: Trump uses phrase 194 times this year  what his favourite catchphrase says about his presidency

Heres what we know

Did Trump buy a woman from Epstein?

The latest documents, released by House Democrats, include a photograph of Epstein holding up a large novelty cheque made out for $22,500 (Rs 19.8 lakh). The oversized check was signed DJTRUMP, although it does not resemble Trumps actual signature.

The undated photo comes from a 238-page birthday book compiled for Epsteins 50th birthday in 2003 by his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell.

In the version made public, the face of a woman standing beside Epstein has been blacked out, as has part of the handwritten caption, likely the persons name.

Democrats on the House oversight committee released a note from the Jeffrey Epstein birthday book that showed the disgraced financier posing with a novelty cheque apparently signed by a DJ TRUMP. Image courtesy:

According to The New York Times, the caption appears to have been written by Joel Pashcow, a former New York real estate executive whose name is listed in Epsteins flight records. Pashcow has been described in public records as a Palm Beach resident, not far from Trumps Mar-a-Lago, and as the managing member of Nassau Capital, a real estate and securities investment firm, since 2006.

The Wall Street Journal, citing the womans lawyer, reported that she was a wealthy European in her 20s at the time, who cut off all ties with Epstein around 1997. Importantly, her lawyer said she did not have any romantic relationship with either Trump or Epstein.

So far, the White House has not commented on the latest release.

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Trumps bawdy note for Epstein

The Democrats also published another page from the so-called birthday book, a cryptic illustrated note that appears to be an imagined dialogue between Trump and Epstein, set inside the outline of a womans body.

It begins with the line: There must be more to life than having everything.

Donald: Yes, there is, but I wont tell you what it is.

Jeffrey: Nor will I, since I also know what it is.

Donald: We have certain things in common, Jeffrey.

Jeffrey: Yes we do, come to think of it.

Donald: Enigmas never age, have you noticed that?

Jeffrey: As a matter of fact, it was clear to me the last time I saw you.

Donald: A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday  and may every day be another wonderful secret.

At the bottom of the page is Trumps name and a signature somewhat resembling his real one.

A cryptic illustrated note that appears to be an imagined dialogue between Trump and Epstein, set inside the outline of a womans body. Image courtesy: House Oversight Committee/X

But Trump has flatly denied writing it. When The Wall Street Journal first reported on the note in July, Trump dismissed it as a fake, insisting, I never wrote a picture in my life. I dont draw pictures of women. Its not my language. Its not my words. He has even sued the Murdoch-owned paper for $10 billion.

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At times, both Trump and Vice President JD Vance have suggested the note might not even exist.

White House says Epsteins birthday book is false

After the latest publication, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt doubled down, calling the material fabricated.

As I have said all along, its very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it. President Trumps legal team will continue to aggressively pursue litigation  This is FAKE NEWS to perpetuate the Democrat Epstein Hoax! she wrote on X.

Trump himself has repeatedly as a partisan smear campaign. Just last week, he wrote on Truth Social:

The confused and badly failing Democrat Party did nothing about Jeffrey Epstein while he was alive except befriend him, socialise with him, travel to his island, and take his money!  Where were they during his very public trials, and for all of those years before his death? The answer is, nowhere to be found.

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Its a sharp rebuttal that stands in contrast to his own past ties with Epstein. Through the 1990s and early 2000s, the two moved in the same social circles and were often photographed together at parties and New York society events. Trump has since claimed he cut ties with Epstein in the 2000s, though he was long vague about the reason.

Through the 1990s and early 2000s, the two moved in the same social circles and were often photographed together at parties and New York society events. File image

In July, however, he told supporters the falling out stemmed from Epstein having stolen young women working at Mar-a-Lago, including Virginia Giuffre, the American-Australian victim of Epsteins trafficking network who died by suicide earlier this year.

With input from agencies
After becoming a protest symbol in Indonesia last month, the popular straw hat pirate flag from the anime One Piece has now appeared at anti-government protests in Nepal. Many carried the flag to show their refusal to remain silent. Teenagers and young adults are leading the movement that pushed the prime minister to step down in the Himalayan nation

Many were seen carrying the pirate flag from 'One Piece', marked by a skull wearing a straw hat. Image: X

The skull-and-straw hat pirate flag from the Japanese anime One Piece has now become the emblem of Nepals anti-government protests.

Earlier in August, the same flag caused debate in Indonesia after it was used as a sign of resistance against the authorities.

In Nepal, mass demonstrations led largely by teenagers and young adults forced the prime minister to resign, while the army was deployed to guard key areas.

Catch all live updates on Nepal political crisis .

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Frustration over corruption, inequality and the temporary ban on social media pushed people, particularly Gen Z, to take to the streets.

So why has this flag taken centre stage in Nepals protests now? And what exactly happened in Indonesia last month?

Lets take a look:

One Piece flag protest in Nepal

After being used as a sign of resistance in Indonesia last month, the famous straw hat pirate flag from the anime One Piece has now appeared at anti-government protests in Nepal.

According to media reports, thousands of Gen Z demonstrators opposing censorship, corruption and Prime Minister KP Sharma Olis rule raised the straw hat pirates Jolly Roger to present their demands.

After Indonesia, Nepal is also using the Straw Hat flag as protests against corruption#ONEPIECE1160 pic.twitter.com/bUUGblEmSp   (@Noa_Op0) September 9, 2025

The protests in Nepal have largely been described as a Gen Z movement. They grew out of anger over corruption, frustration with nepotism in politics and the temporary ban on social media.

The government later withdrew the ban after huge demonstrations, but protesters kept up their calls for Oli to step down.

Many were seen carrying the pirate flag from One Piece, marked by a skull wearing a straw hat while holding up their schoolbooks.

One Piece For Real



One Piece Flag Used One More Time For Protest in Nepal #ONEPIECE1160 #OnePieceDay pic.twitter.com/YYQJ4f3TRx  NavjotVerse (@iNavi0786) September 10, 2025

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Sudan Gurung, who is at the forefront of the protests, is the president of Hami Nepal, an organisation involved in post-earthquake recovery and emergency relief work.

Earlier, Gurung and Hami Nepal appealed for peaceful demonstrations on September 8. They also circulated a few videos titled how to protest, urging students to attend the rally in their school uniforms and to carry their books and bags.

In the series, flying a Jolly Roger is a declaration of freedom on the seas and the pursuit of dreams without regard for rules.

For the protesters, the flag has come to represent their refusal to remain silent.

Placards reading #WAKEUPNEPAL and UNMUTE YOUR VOICE were also seen alongside the Straw Hat flag at rallies.

ALSO READ | VPNs, Discord & more: How Nepals Gen Z mobilised protests amid social media ban

What happened in Indonesia?

The flag made headlines earlier when it appeared in several parts of Indonesia in the run-up to the countrys 80th Independence Day.

In the weeks before the event, cities, villages, and neighbourhoods across the country are usually decorated with the red-and-white national flag, displayed on homes, offices, and shops.

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However, a pirate-style flag spread rapidly, boosted by social media, where photos and videos of it on balconies, motorbikes, and flagpoles were shared in July.

A bandeira dos Piratas do Chapeu de Palha de ONE PIECE presente em diversos lugares da Indonesia como simbolo de protesto contra o atual governo do Pais.



O governo indonesio considera este movimento como um ato de rebeliao. pic.twitter.com/GbAuKHEody  Otakus Brasil  (@_OtakusBR) August 2, 2025

On some occasions, the pirate flag was placed next to the Indonesian flag, which sparked emotional and political debate in different circles.

Many social media users expressed frustration with the way the country is being governed, using the flag as a way to send a symbolic message.

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One person wrote that the One Piece flag shows the spirit of resistance against injustice that still exists in Indonesia.

Thousands supported this view online, with some even changing Independence Day symbols to include the skull and straw hat design.

A number of ministers and lawmakers strongly criticised the trend, saying it could threaten unity at a time of national pride and celebration.

Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security Budi Gunawan advised people not to raise the anime flag during Independence Day.

Those flying the One Piece flag on August 17 could face criminal consequences, he said, citing laws that protect the dignity of the national emblem.

Nepal protests

Crowds of protesters torched government offices and the homes of politicians, while some leaders were attacked. The prime minister stepped down as anger towards the political class grew.

Large groups remained on the streets into the night, blocking roads and forcing their way into state buildings. Army helicopters were used to move some ministers to safety.

Protesters celebrate at the Singha Durbar, the seat of Nepals governments various ministries and offices, after it was set on fire. AP

Earlier, protests swept through the capital, where police opened fire on the crowds, killing 19 people. Although the ban was lifted on Tuesday, the demonstrations continued.

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In a recorded message, Nepals army chief Ashok Raj Sigdel appealed to the public to end the unrest, warning of more deaths and damage if it continued, and urged them to join talks instead.

With inputs from agencies
Another government has fallen in Indias neighbourhood. This time, it is Nepal  a historical friend of New Delhi. Protests led by Gen Z turned deadly, prompting KP Sharma Oli to step down as the prime minister. Indias border areas with Nepal are on high alert as the unrest continues there. As Nepal is on the boil, what does it mean for India?

Nepali army soldiers patrol at the road near the Singha Durbar office complex that houses the Prime Minister's office and other ministries, following protests against Monday's killing of 19 people after anti-corruption protests triggered by a social media ban which was later lifted, in Kathmandu, Nepal, September 10, 2025. Reuters

Nepal is witnessing a political crisis. The widespread protests against corruption, nepotism and restricted economic opportunities, sparked by a ban on social media, have led to the fall of KP Sharma Olis government.

As unrest grips the Himalayan nation, India, which shares a porous border with Nepal, is on alert. Central agencies have issued alerts to the Bihar Police, the Uttar Pradesh Police and the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) to keep a strict vigil on the border.

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We take a look at what the crisis in Nepal means for India.

High alert on India-Nepal border

Indias areas bordering Nepal are on high alert after protests in the country spiralled into political turmoil. At least 19 people were killed and more than 300 were injured as the government responded with force against the Gen Z protesters.

The deadly agitation that began on Monday prompted Oli to lift the social media ban and ultimately resign as Nepals PM.

Amid the ongoing unrest, Indias 1751-km-long unfenced border with Nepal is on high alert.

Police teams and SSB jawans are carrying out joint patrols, while security forces are closely monitoring any cross-border movement.

A police post has been erected at the Indo-Nepal border at Panitanki town in West Bengals Darjeeling.

As the situation on the border is concerned, it is absolutely peaceful at the International border and on the Indian side of the border. However, some violent incidents have been reported from the other side of the border (in Nepal) since morning. We are alert and have increased our deployment in the area. An additional deployment was made from the Police headquarters. We have geared up our intelligence machinery in view of the situation. We will be working in close coordination with SSB. SSB has also increased their foot on the ground in this area. The Immigration & Customs Office across the border has been attacked. Movement of people across the border has been stopped, DG & IG of North Bengal Police, Rajesh Kumar Yadav, told news agency ANI.

On Tuesday (September 9), the India-Nepal border at Jogbani in Bihars Araria was put on high alert as violent protests erupted in Kathmandu.

Demonstrators carrying weapons, taken from the supreme court, take part in a protest against Mondays killing of 19 people after anti-corruption protests that were triggered by a social media ban, outside the supreme court in Kathmandu, Nepal September 9, 2025. Reuters

The Uttar Pradesh government has directed the police to stay on high alert in the border districts with Nepal. It has also issued helpline numbers to help Indians stranded in the neighbouring country.

Many Indian tourists have returned along the Indo-Nepal border at Sonauli in UPs Maharajganj, as many have cut short their trips due to the worsening situation in Nepal.

The boost in security on the Nepal border comes amid concerns in India about terrorists and other rogue elements entering the country.

Pakistans spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), has been using the Nepal border to send terrorists to India. Drug and arms smugglers have also used this border.

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The Indian intelligence agencies have warned that the unrest in Nepal could result in a spill-over of anti-social elements into India, reported IANS.

Flights affected

Several airlines have cancelled flights to Nepal amid the political turmoil. IndiGo, Air India and Nepal Airlines are among those to suspend flights to Kathmandu.

Several flights in and out of the Nepal capital were cancelled as the Tribhuvan International Airport shut down following deadly protests. Three Kathmandu-bound flights were diverted to Lucknow and another to Delhi. IndiGo operated two of these flights, while the rest were flown by FlyDubai and Thai Lion Air.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has urged Indian nationals to defer travel to the neighbouring country until the situation has stabilised.

Indian citizens presently in Nepal are advised to shelter in their current places of residence, avoid going out onto the streets and exercise due caution. They are also advised to follow local safety advisories from Nepal authorities as well as the embassy of India in Kathmandu, it said in a post on X.

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India-Nepal trade

The trade between India and Nepal could be hit if the unrest continues.

In Uttar Pradeshs Bahraich, almost 200 trucks carrying petroleum products, LPG cylinders, cement, and food grains to Nepal were stranded. Just a few tankers with essential supplies were escorted into the neighbouring country under Army protection, as per News18.

New Delhi has adopted a wait-and-watch approach as trade experts warn that prolonged instability could affect supply chains and exports, reported Livemint.

A government official told the financial newspaper that for now, there are no concerns about trade with Nepal. We are, however, monitoring the situation closely and remain in regular contact with the export promotion councils to assess any potential risks, the official said.

India and Nepal are major trading partners, with New Delhi exporting goods worth $7.32 billion to Kathmandu in FY25, while imports into India stood at $1.2 billion.

India transports most of its goods to Nepal via road, as the Himalayan nation is landlocked.

Any disruption in transport routes, customs operations, or cross-border logistics could delay shipments, impacting both Indian exporters and Nepali consumers who rely on these goods, Ajay Srivastava, co-founder, Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), said to Livemint.

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Curious timing of protests in Nepal

Nepal is an important strategic country for India, with which it boasts long-standing ties and friendship.

India has asked its nationals in Nepal to exercise caution as the country sees unrest.

We are closely monitoring the developments in Nepal since yesterday and are deeply saddened by the loss of many young lives. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the deceased. We also wish a speedy recovery for those who were injured, the MEA said in a statement.

The ministry said that India, as a close friend and neighbour, hopes that all concerned will exercise restraint and address any issues through peaceful means and dialogue.

We have also taken note that authorities have imposed curfew in Kathmandu and several other cities of Nepal. Indian nationals in Nepal are advised to exercise caution and adhere to the steps and guidelines issued by the Nepali authorities, it added.

For India, another neighbouring country has been thrown into a political crisis in recent years. Last year, student-led protests triggered the toppling of Sheikh Hasinas government.

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Nepal is geopolitically significant for India as it acts as a buffer with China.

The timing of the protests in Nepal led by Gen Z has come into focus. The agitation came in the wake of Olis visit to China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit.

The former Nepal PM was also slated to visit India in September. When there is any political crisis in Nepal, people try to link it to India or China. Chatter linked the pro-monarchy protests from earlier this year to India, Keshav Pradhan, veteran journalist who has been covering Nepal, SAARC and China-Tibet affairs, told India Today Digital.

Unlike in Bangladesh, where Indias ties with Hasina impacted the response to the political crisis, New Delhi has a chance to allow the situation to play out in Nepal. It can, instead, focus on cooperative relationships across sectors that have benefited the people of both nations.

With inputs from agencies
Nepal reported a day of relative calm today (September 10) after witnessing violent protests this week. Gen-Z protesters took to the streets against corruption, nepotism and a lack of economic opportunities, with the agitation sparked by a short-lived ban on social media platforms. While KP Sharma Olis government has collapsed over the deadly protests, demonstrators are demanding sweeping reforms. Heres what they are

Army personnel stand near charred remains as they patrol along a street outside the torched President House in Kathmandu on September 10, 2025. AFP

Nepal saw a day of calm on Wednesday (September 10) following two days of deadly protests. The Nepal Army has deployed patrols on the streets of the capital Kathmandu and other major cities after protests by the youth over corruption and social media ban turned violent.

At least 19 people were killed and hundreds of others were injured as police opened fire on protesters on Monday (September 8). The next day, protesters gathered in front of Parliament and other places in Nepals capital. The deadly protests prompted KP Sharma Oli to resign as the countrys prime minister.

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Despite his stepping down, some angry protesters stormed and torched the Nepalese parliament, set fire to government buildings  including the Singha Durbar complex, which houses the Nepali PMs office  and vandalised politicians homes.

As Nepal plunges into political chaos, what do the protesters want?

Lets take a closer look.

Nepal rocked by deadly protests

Nepals Gen Z took to the streets this week after the government banned social media platforms, which was later lifted.

Protests against corruption, nepotism and a lack of economic opportunities erupted across several cities in Nepal this week.

The demonstrations have resulted in the toppling of the Oli government. A nationwide curfew has been imposed until Thursday morning.

After arson and violence on Wednesday, calm returned to the streets of Nepal today, as per reports.

The Nepal Army has warned to punish anyone involved in violence and vandalism. It imposed restrictions in several cities, including Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur, citing concern over groups causing severe damage to ordinary citizens and public property.

Authorities have asked residents to remain indoors unless absolutely necessary.

As per BBC, the Gen Z groups leading the protests have distanced themselves from the violence, claiming the movement has been hijacked by opportunist infiltrators.

What are the demands?

The Gen Z protesters in Nepal are demanding reforms.

The PM of our country, KP Sharma Oli, ran away. We demand a good leader. We want new rules and regulations in the country, so youth can have more opportunities, a protester named Subhash told ANI.

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He said they want change and freedom from corruption.

#WATCH | Kathmandu: Subhash, a protester in Nepal, "The Gen-Z wants regulation, it wants freedom from corruption. We want change. So, we were protesting. We wanted to beat him (former PM K.P. Sharma Oli) up, but he has left for somewhere. He has left the country and run away. We pic.twitter.com/lHfpH2pQBB  ANI (@ANI) September 10, 2025

The main demands of the Gen Z protesters include the dissolution of the House of Representatives, which they say has lost the public trust, and an executive leadership elected directly, reported India Today.

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They also want the Constitution to be amended or rewritten with active participation from citizens, experts, and youth.

As per News18, the Gen Z protesters are also calling for the establishment of an interim government led by a leader recommended by them. They want fresh elections to be conducted under the interim governments supervision.

The demands also entail the investigation into assets looted by politicians over the past three decades, while they want illegal properties to be nationalised.

The protesters are asking for structural reforms in fundamental institutions: education, health, justice, security, and communications.

Smoke billows from the burning Hilton Hotels, a day after it was set ablaze by protesters in Kathmandu on September 10, 2025. AFP

The organisers of the Gen Z-led movement have promised special programmes to combat unemployment, curb migration, and address social injustice.

This movement is not for any party or individual but for the entire generation and the nations future. Peace is essential, but it is possible only on the foundation of a new political system, a statement by the protesters said, as per India Today.

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The Gen-Z group held a virtual meeting on Wednesday to prepare its agenda, member Anil Baniya told Khabarhub.

He said that around 300400 participants joined the online session.

We are meeting virtually to finalise our agenda. All members will discuss and come up with a strong, unified plan, Baniya said.

The group, which has actively organised protests and discussions in recent days, organised a virtual meet aimed at coordinating their next steps.

With inputs from agencies
Many bemoan Gen-Z across the world. But these young individuals hold great power. In Nepal, they have forced the resignation of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. Earlier, in Bangladesh, they forced Sheikh Hasina to flee and renounce power after 15 years. Heres how the youth have been at the forefront of powerful protests challenging injustice and demanding change

Demonstrators burn furniture and a police booth outside Nepali Congress party office during a protest against Monday's killing of 19 people, after anti-corruption protests that were triggered by a social media ban which was later lifted, during a curfew in Kathmandu, Nepal. Reuters

The leaders think that they can do anything when they have a majority in Parliament. Todays youths are not their slaves. Stop acting like King Gyanendra [who was ousted from power in 2008] and remove restrictions on social media immediately.

These powerful words were uttered by Dr Arun Sayami, former dean of the Institute of Medicine, in Nepal on Monday as Gen-Z protests broke out across the country, following the governments ban on 26 major social media platforms, including Facebook, X, YouTube, and WhatsApp.

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Following the massive protests, which resulted in the deaths of 19 people and more than 200 others being injured, the Nepal government called off the ban with all of the apps going live on Monday night (September 8).

But Gen-Zs anger in Nepal hasnt abated. The protesters have blocked roads outside the parliament in Kathmandu, while some have even resorted to stone pelting and vandalism of the houses of authorities. Its also led to the resignation of Prime Minister KP Sharma.

We take a closer look at how the youth arent just concerned about social media trends but are also changing the course of history through their demonstrations and agitations.

Nepals Gen-Z protests

On Monday (September 8), demonstrators, namely Gen-Z, spilled on to the streets of Nepal after the government blocked social media platforms including Facebook, WhatsApp and YouTube. The government explained that the ban was required to clamp down on fake news and hate speech and accused the companies of failing to register.

But the demonstrators didnt see it that way, calling the move a tool for censorship.

Waving national flags, young demonstrators started the protest with the national anthem before unleashing chants against the social media prohibitions and corruption. The crowd swelled as it crossed into a restricted area close to the parliament, with some climbing over the wall into the premises.

This resulted in tear gas and water cannons being used against the demonstrators with the administration even imposing curfew in several key areas of the city, including the parliament, the presidents residence and Singha Durbar, which houses the prime ministers office.

Riot police personnel carry an injured comrade as demonstrators pelt stones during a protest outside the Parliament in Kathmandu on September 8, condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government. AFP

The intensity of the protests led to the government, reversing its decision on the ban. We have withdrawn the shutdown of the social media. They are working now, said the communications minister, Prithvi Subba Gurung.

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But this did little to assuage the anger, as Gen-Z protesters continued their demonstrations on Tuesday, decrying the governments perceived lack of action to tackle corruption and boost economic opportunities.

As 24-year-old student Yujan Rajbhandari told AFP, We were triggered by the social media ban but that is not the only reason we are gathered here. We are protesting against corruption that has been institutionalised in Nepal.

And the protests dont show any signs of abating. On Tuesday, protesters, mostly students, chanted slogans such as dont kill students and marched towards Prime Minister KP Sharma Olis ancestral house where they hurled stones.

Demonstrators enter Parliament during a protest against Mondays killing of 19 people after anti-corruption protests that were triggered by a social media ban, which was later lifted, during a curfew in Kathmandu, Nepal. Reuters

Moreover, protesters also set fire to the Nepali Congress Party office in Balkhu area of the city, as well as pelted stones at the Bhaisepati residence of Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel. The protesters also set on fire Information and Communication Minister Prithvi Subba Gurungs residence. The police picket outside former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias Prachandas house was also set ablaze. There are also reports of arson in Chandrapur Municipality of Rautahat.

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The demand from the protesters now is that Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resign. And it seems that Oli has heard them, as he tendered his resignation with sources even citing that he had spoken to the army chief to ensure his safe exit from his residence.

A demonstrator throws a wooden plank towards flames, outside Nepali Congress party office during a protest against Mondays killing of 19 people, after anti-corruption protests that were triggered by a social media ban which was later lifted, during a curfew in Kathmandu, Nepal. Reuters

Bangladeshs Gen-Z ousts Hasina

Last August, a Gen-Z revolution pitted young student demonstrators against 76-year-old Sheikh Hasina, who had ruled the country for more than 15 years. What happened next was shocking to all: the protesters forced Hasina to resign and flee the nation, resulting in the formation of an interim government under the charge of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.

The match that lit this fire though occurred back in June. Students initially poured into Bangladeshs streets, demanding an end to rules that set aside up to 30 per cent of government jobs for the descendants of veterans who fought the countrys 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.

University students protest in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to demand justice for those killed in deadly clashes during demonstrations against the countrys quota system for government jobs, July 31, 2024. File image/AP

Protesters said that benefitted supporters of Hasinas Awami League, which led that struggle  and who already were part of the elite. The quota and others for marginalised groups meant only 44 per cent of civil service jobs were awarded based on merit.

When confronted with their demands, Hasina had clapped back, asking who, if not the freedom fighters, should be awarded government jobs. Who will? The grandchildren of Razakars? Hasina retorted, using the deeply offensive word that refers to those who collaborated with Pakistan to quell Bangladeshs independence struggle.

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Protesters celebrate beside a defaced portrait of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after news of her resignation, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. File image/AP

What followed were massive protests, with demonstrators calling for Hasinas ouster, and terming her as a dictator. On August 4, nearly 100 people were killed in a police crackdown, causing outrage. A day later, Hasina was forced to resign and flee the country, ending her 15-year rule.

The anger was such that even the statues of her father, the freedom icon Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, were toppled and defaced.

Georgias Gen-Z angered by foreign agent law

In May 2024, the small country of Georgia experienced protests unlike ever before. Thousands of young people, mostly 20-year-olds, came out on to the streets of Tbilisi and other cities.

The reason: the countrys  foreign agent bill, which would require media outlets and NGOs to register as pursuing the interests of a foreign power if more than 20 per cent of their funding comes from abroad.

The law is regarded by critics at home and internationally as a copy of that introduced in Russia in 2012 by Vladimir Putin to silence dissenting voices. The bill eventually passed in May but it wasnt smooth sailing.

As Vano Abramishvili, a director at Caucasian House, an NGO that runs programmes for young people said, this generation was not used to  nor would accept  the repression that older Georgians had experienced. They are quite fearless, he said.

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From Columbia to NYU, US campus protests

The Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 led to Israels ongoing war in the region. Hundreds have died and the destruction is unprecedented. Amid this situation, students across the United States took out massive protests at their colleges to decry the killing of innocent Palestinians.

The result: An eruption of protests  and around-the-clock encampments  at colleges and universities around the country over Israels war with Hamas and universities investments in companies that are involved with Israel.

In fact, the mass protests escalated dramatically across the country after students set up a tent encampment at Columbia University in New York on April 17, 2024, demanding the school divest from companies they claim profit from Israeli apartheid.

A pro-Palestinian student protester parades a Palestinian flag outside the entrance to Hamilton Hall on the campus of Columbia University in New York City. File image/AFP

Police tried to clear the encampment the following day, arresting 108 protesters in the process. But those arrests proved an inspiration for other students across the country and motivated protesters at Columbia to regroup.

Since then, hundreds of students, and many non-students, have been arrested at universities from coast to coast despite many protests largely being peaceful. Most of the arrests have been for disturbing the peace or trespassing after refusing university requests to remove encampments, though some have been for more serious crimes.

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Kenyas Gen-Z uprising

In June 2024, thousands of Kenyans took to the streets to protest plans to increase taxes on goods and services like bread, diapers and sanitary towels, and to reduce spending on public services. Dubbed the Gen Z protests, as the majority of participants were young people, these demonstrations quickly became violent.

The protests saw large-scale use of social media apps such as X and TikTok to educate one another about the contents of the Finance Bill, counter government narratives, and organise coordinated demonstrations across the country.

The state doubled down in the face of growing dissent. What followed was one of the most violent crackdowns in Kenyas recent history. The tipping point came on the afternoon of June 25, 2024 when protesters breached the walls of Parliament and made their way into the chambers  a bold symbolic act of protest against lawmakers who had just voted to pass the controversial Finance Bill despite overwhelming public opposition.

Security forces unleashed their full weight against the protesters. Tear gas, water cannons, and live ammunition were used against unarmed protesters. According to Human Rights Watch, at least 60 young protesters lost their lives in June alone.

Climate strikes of 2019

But before Nepal and Bangladesh, were the climate strikes in 2019 where masses of young people poured into the streets on every continent to demand action be taken to address climate change.

These protests, which took place between September 20 and September 27, 2019 took place across 4,500 locations in 150 countries. The event stemmed from the Fridays for Future school strike for climate movement, inspired by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.

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Youths demonstrate for climate change during the Fridays for Future school strike, in front of the Ecology Ministry in Paris, France. File image/Reuters

The Guardian reported that roughly six million people participated in the events, whilst 350.org  a group that organised many of the protests  claim that 7.6 million people participated.

Experts at the time said that these protests were significant as children drove the debate.

These protests show this is not the first time in modern history that young people have galvanised around a cause. And in Nepals case, they have brought about a change  Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has resigned.

With inputs from agencies
Tuesday was a day of mayhem, murder and madness in Nepal, as Gen-Z protesters went on a rampage. Not only did they force Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to resign, but some also resorted to extreme violence  attacking former and present ministers and setting fire to government buildings and residences of leaders

Flames rise from the burning Singha Durbar office complex that houses the Nepali prime minister's office and other ministries, amid the Gen-Z protest in Kathmandu, Nepal. Reuters

Tuesday (September 9) will perhaps go down in Nepals history as a significant moment  its the day that its Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned as a Gen-Z protest movement sparked by a ban on social media overtook the Himalayan nation.

The demonstrators flooded the streets of the capital Kathmandu; some jubilant and celebrating, others setting fire to government buildings and brandishing automatic rifles. As key protest figure Sudan Gurung wrote in an Instagram post, The Nepal government has fallen, the youth have won the protest. The future is ours.

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But while Gen Z protesters celebrated the resignation of KP Sharma Oli , there were others who looked on aghast at the widespread and unprecedented destruction and violence. Gen Z protesters set the parliament ablaze; they burnt homes of leaders and attacked political leaders, and even stormed into the Nakkhu prison in Lalitpur.

The situation was so dire that the Nepal army issued a warning that such activities could lead the country into unrest and instability in the country of 30 million people.

Nepal parliament ransacked, set ablaze

On Tuesday, the angry Gen Z protesters, fired up following the deaths of 19 people a day before, marched towards Nepals parliament in Kathmandu. The protesters set fire to the countrys parliament building while some others sprayed graffiti and anti-corruption messages on to the buildings exteriors.

A demonstrator writes on the parliament building during a protest against Mondays killing of 19 people after anti-corruption protests that were triggered by a social media ban, which was later lifted, during a curfew in Kathmandu, Nepal. Reuters

The Singha Durbar, a large complex in Kathmandu, which houses Nepals government offices, was also similarly stormed by crowds of protesters. This complex houses the prime ministers office and key ministries. Plumes of thick black smoke could be seen billowing into the Nepal skies hours after the Gen-Z protesters stormed the locations.

We are here to protest because our youths and friends are getting killed. We are here to see that justice is done and the present regime is ousted, said Narayan Acharya, who was among the protesters outside the battered wall of the parliament building Tuesday. KP Oli should be chased away.

Demonstrators celebrate after entering the Parliament complex during a protest against Mondays killing of 19 people after anti-corruption protests that were triggered by a social media ban, which was later lifted, during a curfew in Kathmandu, Nepal. Reuters

Ministers attacked, former Nepal PMs wife burnt alive

But the Gen-Z protesters didnt just take aim at the parliament and Singha Durbar complex. Armed with weapons, they went on a rampage, setting fire to many houses of ministers. Former Prime Minister KP Sharma Olis private house was set on fire as was the house of the now former president, Ram Chandra Poudel.

The demonstrators also set fire to the house of the Nepali Congress party leader Sher Bahadur Deuba as well as the house of the leader of the opposition Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). The protesters also set fire to the central office of the ruling Nepali Congress.

Smoke billows from the burning Supreme Court building, set ablaze by protesters in Kathmandu. AFP

The Kathmandu Post reported that protesters set fire to the house of Minister for Communication and Information Technology Prithvi Subba Gurung, pelted stones at the residence of Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel, Nepal Rastra Bank Governor Biswo Paudel and attacked the house of former Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak.

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The protesters also attacked ministers  former and present  beating them up, resulting in the death of former Nepal PMs wife.

As per reports, the protesters broke into the house of ex-Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba in Budanilkantha, Kathmandu and began to assault the Deubas. Footage showed the ex-minister bleeding from his face in the aftermath of the attacks.

Additionally, Finance Minister, Bishnu Prasad Paudel, was chased through Kathmandu streets with people running behind him. A young protester, from the opposite direction, jumped and kicked the minister down, who was thrown off balance and crashed into a red wall.

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Perhaps, the worst, however, was that former Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanals wife Rajyalaxmi Chitrakar died after their house was set on fire. According to a report by Nepali media outlet Khabarhub, the incident occurred outside the former PM and his wifes residence in Dallu. Protesters reportedly trapped Rajyalaxmi Chitrakar and set the house on fire.

Rajyalaxmi Chitrakar was rescued from the fire later and rushed to Kirtipur Burn Hospital in critical condition. However, the former PMs wife succumbed to her injuries during treatment, the report said quoting family sources. There is no official confirmation about Chitrakars death or the cause of it.

A protester carries a firearm as demonstrators gather outside the Singha Durbar palace complex during a protest to condemn the polices deadly crackdown on demonstrators in Kathmandu. AFP

Gen-Z storms prison, frees Rabi Lamichhane

On Tuesday, the Gen-Z protesters also stormed into the Nakkhu prison in Lalitpur and freed Nepalese politician Rabi Lamichhane. The journalist-turned-politician had been behind bars for months, accused in a cooperative fraud scandal in 2025.

Lamichhanes release also led to other prisoners at Nakkhu Jail leaving the detention centre. At least 1,500 prisoners, lodged prior to the protests, exited the jail together shortly after the leader was freed. According to Nepali media, the police withdrew from their security posts, allowing the inmates to leave, raising concerns over heightened security risks in the area.

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Officials have also confirmed other incidents of jail breaks in two of Nepals western districts. As per a BBC report, Kaski District police office said 773 inmates escaped from there on Tuesday when the Gen-Z protesters entered the premises. Separately, the Area Police office for Tulsipur, in Nepals Dang province, said 127 prisoners were able to escape from Tulsipur Jail.

Looting galore

The protests also resulted in some miscreants taking the opportunity to loot and steal from shops and banks. Nepals Khabarhub reported that a robbery took place at the Baneshwor branch of Rastriya Banijya Bank.

In fact, the Nepal army arrested 26 people accused of looting and vandalism during the ongoing youth-led protests, as part of a special security operation launched to curb the ongoing unrest.

A protesters walks with a framed map of Nepal as he walks inside the Singha Durbar, the main administrative building of the Nepal government, in Kathmandu. AFP

The arrests took place in Kathmandu and Bhaktapur districts with officials saying that adding that five individuals were taken into custody for allegedly looting a bank in New Baneshwor, while 21 others were apprehended in connection with violent incidents in the Bouddha area.

In a statement, the army said criminal groups had hijacked the peaceful movement by resorting to looting, arson and other unlawful activities.

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Nepal army steps in; other leaders condemn violence

Following Tuesdays day of violence and chaos, resulting in the resignation of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, the Nepal army chief Ashok Raj Sigdel urged protesters to stop the demonstrations to prevent further loss of lives and property and to come forward for dialogue.

In a written statement that followed, the army warned that the countrys security forces were committed to preserving law and order. It was not clear if the army, which so far has stayed in its barracks, would be mobilised to help after police failed to control the situation.

Meanwhile, the UN and other countries condemned the violence that broke out in the Himalayan nation. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged restraint to avoid further violence and called for both an investigation into the events and dialogue to forge a constructive path forward.

Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi also called for calm. The violence in Nepal is heart-rending. I am anguished that many young people have lost their lives, Modi said in a statement posted on social media platform X.

The stability, peace and prosperity of Nepal are of utmost importance to us. I humbly appeal to all my brothers and sisters in Nepal to support peace.

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With inputs from agencies
Nepal is back in political turmoil after Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned amid violent protests over corruption and poor governance. Soldiers patrol Kathmandu as the country grapples with a legacy of fragile coalitions. Since becoming a republic in 2008, Nepal has cycled through 14 governments, none completing a full term

Protesters celebrate standing at the top of the Singha Durbar, the seat of Nepal's government's various ministries and offices, after it was set on fire during a protest against social media ban and corruption in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, September 9, 2025. File Image/AP

Nepal is once again in the throes of political chaos after Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned on Tuesday (September 9, 2025), following two days of violent anti-corruption protests that left at least 22 people dead and plunged the country into yet another period of familiar uncertainty.

This latest crisis puts a spotlight on the longstanding pattern of instability in the Himalayan nation, where successive governments have failed to complete their mandates.

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Since Nepal transitioned to a republic in 2008, the country has seen 14 different governments, none of which have lasted a full five-year term.

The unrest was triggered after the government announced a social media ban last week and quickly escalated into one of the most serious challenges to Nepals political order in decades.

Though the ban was reversed, anger had already spiralled into nationwide demonstrations.

On Monday (September 8, 2025), violence reached a peak when police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to control crowds. 19 people were killed in those clashes, making it one of the deadliest incidents in recent years.

Witnesses reported widespread arson attacks targeting political leaders. The Singha Durbar complex  home to the Prime Ministers Office, Parliament, and several key ministries  was set on fire, as was Olis private residence.

Several prominent figures, including former Nepali Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, his wife and foreign minister Arzu Rana, and Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel, were assaulted by protesters.

Military helicopters were deployed to evacuate some officials from the violence-hit areas.

Reports also surfaced on Tuesday that former Nepali PM Jhalanath Khanals spouse Rajyalaxmi Chitrakar died after sustaining critical burns when their residence in Kathmandu was set on fire during the unrest.

As of Wednesday (September 10, 2025) soldiers were patrolling Kathmandu under an indefinite curfew, as authorities sought to restore order after widespread destruction.

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Protesters take selfies and celebrate at the Singha Durbar, the seat of Nepals governments various ministries and offices, after it was set on fire during a protest against social media ban and corruption in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, September 9, 2025. File Image/AP

The protests were driven largely by young people as it was dubbed the "Gen-Z" movement. The protests reflected a deep-seated frustration among Nepals youth.

For years, a lack of employment opportunities has forced millions of Nepalis to migrate to countries like Malaysia, South Korea, and various Gulf nations to work in construction and other labour-intensive sectors.

These migrant workers send remittances home, which have become a vital part of Nepals economy.

How Nepalis have been dealing with instability for decades

First there was monarchy and revolution

Nepals modern political history is a story of dramatic transitions, beginning with its unification under King Prithvi Narayan Shah in 1768.

For nearly a century afterward, power was concentrated in the hands of hereditary Rana prime ministers following a violent coup in 1846.

During this period, known as the Rana era, the monarch retained only ceremonial authority, while the Rana family governed with absolute power.

The Rana autocracy ended in 1951 when a popular pro-democracy movement, supported by King Tribhuvan, overthrew the system and introduced a parliamentary framework. This marked the beginning of modern democratic politics in Nepal.

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However, democratic gains were short-lived.

Smoke rises after demonstrators set the main gate of the Parliament on fire, during a protest against Mondays killing of 19 people after anti-corruption protests that were triggered by a social media ban, which was later lifted, during a curfew in Kathmandu, Nepal, September 9, 2025. File Image/Reuters

In 1960, King Mahendra staged a coup, dissolving parliament and banning political parties. He introduced the Panchayat system, a centralised form of governance that consolidated power under the monarchy.

By the late 1980s, public dissatisfaction with the Panchayat system had reached a breaking point.

In 1990, the Peoples Movement forced King Birendra to restore multi-party democracy. This ushered in a new era, but it also exposed the challenges of transitioning from authoritarianism to representative governance.

Then the monarchy ended, albeit with a bloody chapter

In 1996, Nepal faced another major upheaval when the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) launched an armed insurgency with the goal of replacing the monarchy and parliamentary system with a peoples republic.

This conflict, known as the Maoist insurgency, lasted a decade and resulted in more than 17,000 deaths. The war devastated rural areas, displaced thousands, and severely weakened state institutions.

The monarchy suffered a further blow in 2001 with the royal massacre, a shocking event that altered Nepals political landscape.

On June 1, 2001, nine members of the royal family, including King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya, were killed in a mass shooting at the Narayanhiti Palace.

Crown Prince Dipendra was named the perpetrator and declared king while in a coma after shooting himself. He died three days later, leading to Birendras brother, Gyanendra, ascending the throne.

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A protester shouts slogans carrying national flag after burning down a police station during protests against social media ban and corruption in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, September 9, 2025. File Image/AP

King Gyanendras rule proved contentious. In 2005, citing the need to combat the Maoist rebellion, he dismissed the government and assumed direct control.

His move sparked protests, heating up the demand for an end to monarchical rule. By 2006, mass demonstrations forced Gyanendra to relinquish power, paving the way for peace talks with the Maoists.

The monarchy was formally abolished on May 28, 2008, when the newly elected Constituent Assembly declared Nepal a federal democratic republic.

Gyanendra left the royal palace and began living as a private citizen in Kathmandu.

This historic moment ended 240 years of monarchical rule and set the stage for a new political order.

The task of drafting a new constitution and a broken voting system

Following the monarchys abolition, Nepal focused on drafting a new constitution to define its federal structure and democratic institutions.

The process was fraught with disagreements among political factions over issues such as federal boundaries, representation, and minority rights.

The new constitution was finally adopted on September 20, 2015. It introduced a mixed electoral system combining first-past-the-post and proportional representation (PR).

Of the 275 members in Nepals federal parliament, 165 are elected through direct voting, while 110 are chosen via PR, in which the entire country acts as a single constituency.

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A protester wearing flak jacket and carrying a shield snatched from a policeman shouts slogans at the Singha Durbar, the seat of Nepals governments various ministries and offices during a protest against social media ban and corruption in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, September 9, 2025. File Image/AP

Under the PR system, voters cast ballots for parties rather than individual candidates, and seats are distributed based on each partys national vote share.

The PR model was designed to promote inclusion of marginalised communities, including women, Dalits, indigenous groups, and other minorities. The law requires that at least one-third of elected representatives be women, with PR seats used to fulfill this quota if necessary.

While the system has improved representation, it has also produced fragmented parliaments where no party holds a clear majority.

This has led to chronic instability, as governments are formed through fragile coalitions that often collapse under the weight of internal disputes.

Opportunistic alliances between parties like the Nepali Congress (NC), the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML), and the CPN-Maoist Centre (CPN-MC) have become the norm, with power-sharing arrangements frequently breaking down.

Finally, the ever long & instable cycle of coalitions began

Since 2008, Nepal has experienced a revolving door of governments. The first post-monarchy administration was led by Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal, better known as Prachanda, in alliance with the CPN-UML.

His tenure ended in 2009 after a dispute with the president over the dismissal of the army chief, prompting the collapse of his government.

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Madhav Kumar Nepal then took over as prime minister, supported by a coalition of the CPN-UML and Nepali Congress.

This government lasted until 2011, followed by a short-lived administration under Jhala Nath Khanal.

Baburam Bhattarai of the Maoists succeeded him later that year but resigned in 2013 amid continuing deadlock.

In 2014, Sushil Koirala of the Nepali Congress became prime minister after forging a coalition with the CPN-UML. During his tenure, Nepal achieved the significant milestone by adopting the new constitution in September 2015.

But in October 2015, KP Sharma Oli became prime minister for the first time, leading a coalition that included the Maoists, Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal, and Madhesi Janadhikar Forum-Loktantrik.

Prime Minister of Nepal KP Sharma Oli looks on during his oath of office administration at the presidential building Shital Niwas in Kathmandu, Nepal, July 15, 2024. File Image/Reuters

This alliance collapsed in July 2016 when the Maoists withdrew their support, prompting Olis resignation.

Prachanda returned to power in August 2016 with the backing of the Nepali Congress.

Sher Bahadur Deuba, president of the Nepali Congress, took charge of the PM post from June 2017 to February 2018.

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The 2017 general elections saw a leftist alliance between Olis CPN-UML and Prachandas Maoist Centre secure a near two-thirds majority. It was agreed that the two leaders would share the prime ministership, with Oli serving first.

However, Oli later refused to step down, triggering a constitutional crisis, eventually serving his third term as prime minister as minority PM.

In 2020, he dissolved the House of Representatives and called for new elections, a move overturned by the Supreme Court in July 2021, which reinstated parliament and appointed Sher Bahadur Deuba as prime minister for the fifth time.

Charred remains of a Nepal Police vehicle sit inside the Parliament house which was set on fire by protesters, following Mondays killing of 19 people after anti-corruption protests that were triggered by a social media ban, which was later lifted, in Kathmandu, Nepal, September 10, 2025. File Image/Reuters

The November 2022 elections resulted in Deubas Nepali Congress emerging as the single-largest party but without a majority. Initially, Deuba and Prachanda formed a coalition government.

In December 2022, however, Prachanda dramatically switched allegiance to Oli, forming a new alliance based on a rotation agreement.

By February 2023, this partnership collapsed after disputes over the presidential election, with Oli withdrawing his support.

Prachanda as PM survived a subsequent confidence vote by aligning with multiple smaller parties, including the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), CPN-Unified Socialist, Janata Samajwadi Party, and others.

In July 2024, Oli returned for a fourth term under a new deal with Deuba to alternate as prime minister until the 2027 elections.

But now this plan has unravelled within a year, culminating in Olis resignation on Tuesday.

Why Nepal struggles with stability

Nepals recurring crises are rooted in systemic flaws. The proportional representation system, while inclusive, has led to a fragmented parliament where no single party can govern alone.

This necessitates coalition governments that are inherently unstable, as they rely on constant negotiation and compromise.

The rise of newer political forces has divided the vote. Recent surveys indicate that over half of Nepalis are dissatisfied with the current electoral model.

Demonstrators gather near the parliament during a protest against corruption and the governments decision to block several social media platforms, in Kathmandu, Nepal, September 8, 2025. File Image/Reuters

Corruption has compounded these problems. Nepal has faced a series of high-profile scandals, including cooperative fraud schemes and irregularities in the telecom sector. Investigations are often hindered by political interference.

In February this year, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) placed Nepal on its grey list for the second time (the first time was from 2008 to 2014), pointing out concerns about money laundering and financial oversight.

Leadership has also been a persistent challenge.

A small circle of veteran politicians  including Oli, Prachanda, and Deuba  dominate Nepals political landscape.

Their focus on power struggles and factionalism has often come at the expense of national development.

Nepals geographic position between India and China has also resulted in influence over Nepals internal affairs, whether through trade, investment or diplomatic pressure.

Political instability in Kathmandu often spills over into foreign relations, with successive governments shifting their alignments between New Delhi and Beijing.

This rinse and repeat cycle in Nepal has also frequently prompted citizens to demand a shift back to monarchy.

With Olis resignation, Nepal faces another period of uncertainty.

Political parties are now engaged in behind-the-scenes negotiations to form yet another coalition government.

For ordinary citizens, particularly the youth who led the recent protests, the stakes are high. Decades of instability have hindered economic growth, limited job creation, and fuelled a sense of frustration with the political class.

Also Watch:

With inputs from agencies
Nearly nine pig heads were found outside mosques in Paris. Since the consumption of pork is considered haram, authorities regard this to be an act of hatred against the Muslim community in the city. Several of the heads had President Emmanuel Macrons surname scrawled on them in blue ink

A photograph taken on September 9 shows a general view of entrance Mosque Islah, in Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis, on the outskirts of Paris. AFP

At least nine pigs heads were found outside several mosques in the Paris region on Tuesday, the citys police chief said  an incident that has sparked alarm over rising anti-Muslim hatred.

Pigs heads have been left in front of certain mosques Four in Paris and five in the inner suburbs, Laurent Nunez told a press conference, adding that officers were not ruling out the possibility of finding more.

Police have opened a probe into incitement to hatred aggravated by racial or religious discrimination, Nunez said, calling the acts despicable.

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The consumption of pork is considered haram  forbidden in Islam  as the meat is believed to be impure.

Several of the heads had the surname of President Emmanuel Macron scrawled on them in blue ink, the Paris prosecutors office told AFP.

Faithfuls leave the Mosque Islah, in Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis, on the outskirts of Paris. AFP

Nunez said there could be parallels with past incidents linked to foreign interference but urged extreme caution.

In early June, three Serbs were charged over the vandalism of Jewish sites in a case investigators suspect was backed by Russia.

France is home to the largest Muslim community in the European Union, as well as the largest Jewish population outside Israel and the United States.

Several EU nations have reported a spike in anti-Muslim hatred and antisemitism since the Gaza war started in October 2023, according to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.

Anti-Muslim incidents in France rose by 75 per cent between January and May 2025 compared with a year earlier, with attacks on individuals tripling, the interior ministry said in July.

Fighters from the Palestinian organisation Hamas launched an attack in Israel from Gaza on October 7, 2023. Israel has responded with a relentless assault on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

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Rising incidents of anti-Muslim hatred

The incidents around Paris drew swift condemnation from political and community leaders.

Macron met with representatives of the Muslim community in the capital following the incident to express his support, his office told AFP.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said the city had taken legal action, denouncing the racist acts.

For his part, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau called the deeds outrageous and absolutely unacceptable.

I want our Muslim compatriots to be able to practise their faith in peace, he said.

Montreuil mayor Patrice Bessac (second from right), flanked by President the local council of the Seine-Saint-Denis department Stephane Troussel (right), speaks to faithfuls at the Mosque Islah. AFP

Chems-Eddine Hafiz, the rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, denounced the Islamophobic acts as a new and sad stage in the rise of anti-Muslim hatred.

Bassirou Camara, head of anti-discrimination group Addam, told AFP he feared an escalation.

We have been raising the alarm for months and we are not being heard, Camara said.

What will be the next step? Throwing pigs heads at worshippers or physically assaulting them?

Outside one of the affected mosques, a 40-year-old former association director, who spoke on condition of anonymity, laid flowers to show solidarity and support.

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People shouldnt have to hide their faith, she said.

Similar incidents have targeted mosques and Muslim associations elsewhere in France in recent years, including a pigs head left outside a Muslim association in the northern Pas-de-Calais region in 2024.
Amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, Poland shot down Russian drones that violated its airspace on Wednesday morning. This marks the first time that a Nato country directly engaged Russian assets in its airspace since the conflict began in 2022

Wednesday marks the first time in the Ukraine war that Poland engaged assets in its airspace. Representational image/Reuters

The Russia-Ukraine war may have just intensified as Polands airspace was repeatedly violated by drones during a Russian attack on Ukraine. As a result, Warsaw scrambled its own and Nato air defences to shoot down drones over its territory with Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirming a military response operation was underway.

This is a significant development as it is the first time that a Nato country has directly engaged Russian assets in its airspace since the Ukraine war started in 2022.

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What has happened so far? What does it mean for the war as Russian drones strayed into Polish airspace? We decode the latest happenings.

Russias repeated airspace violations in Poland

On Wednesday, Polands military announced that the countrys airspace was repeatedly violated by drones during a Russian attack on Ukraine. The operational command of Polands armed forces wrote in a statement on social media, During todays attack by the Russian Federation aimed at targets in Ukraine, our airspace was repeatedly violated by drones.

There was an unprecedented violation of Polish airspace, it said, adding: This is an act of aggression that posed a real threat to the safety of our citizens.

It further added that operations were underway to identify and neutralise some targets and to locate others that had been downed.

It is not yet clear how many drones entered Polands airspace. Ukrainian media reported that at least one drone was heading towards the western Polish city of Rzeszow. Meanwhile, local police in in the village of Czosnowka, in eastern Poland, reported a damaged drone.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that an operation is underway related to the repeated violation of Polish airspace. He also added that he was in constant contact with President Karol Nawrocki and the operational commander. Moreover, a government official added that Tusk would chair an emergency meeting on Wednesday morning.

General Wieslaw Kukula, chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces and Commander-in-Chief of Police Marek Boron stand at the Chancellery of the Prime Minister for an extraordinary government meeting, following violations of Polish airspace during a Russian attack on Ukraine, in Warsaw, Poland. Reuters

Later, Polands Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said the country was in constant contact with Nato command. Territorial Defense Forces have been activated for ground searches of downed drones, he added.

He also urged people to remain calm and said anyone who found fragments of military equipment should report it to authorities.

Earlier, Polish authorities closed Warsaw International Airport, the countrys largest, and the military said Polish and Nato aircraft have been scrambled as reports have surfaced of Russian drones over the country. However, at the time of publishing this report, news came in that the airport had reopened.

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The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) also showed three other airports were also shut due to unplanned military activity related to ensuring state security.

The Polish military has advised its people to stay at home. It said the biggest threat was in Polands eastern provinces, including Podlaskie, on the border with Belarus; the province of Masovia, which includes the capital, Warsaw; and Lublin, which borders both Belarus and Ukraine.

For Poland, the drone invasions timing is of significance. The attack came a day after Polands newly elected President Karol Nawrocki warned that Russian leader Vladimir Putin was ready to invade more countries after launching his war in Ukraine. We do not trust Vladimir Putins good intentions, Nawrocki told reporters Tuesday at a press conference in Helsinki.

We believe that Vladimir Putin is ready to also invade other countries.

Airplanes parked at Chopin Airport in Warsaw, Poland. After remaining shut for a few hours, reopened on Wednesday as Poland announced that its military operation had ended. AP

Countries extend their support to Poland

Russias drone invasion in Poland comes as Moscow stages its largest aerial assaults on Ukraine since it invaded its neighbour more than three years ago. In recent days, Russias attacks on Ukraine have targeted residential areas in and around Kyiv. On Tuesday, 24 civilians were killed in a Russian strike on the village of Yarova in the eastern Donetsk region, Ukrainian officials said.

Last weekend, Russia deployed more than 800 drones in its largest attack to date, striking a government building in Kyiv for the first time.

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However, the violation of Poland airspace has prompted some very harsh criticism of Russia and President Vladimir Putin. Ukraine said that the Russian leader was escalating his war and testing the West.

Putin just keeps escalating, expanding his war, and testing the West. The longer he faces no strength in response, the more aggressive he gets, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga wrote on X. A weak response now will provoke Russia even more  and then Russian missiles and drones will fly even further into Europe, he wrote, as Poland scrambled aircraft alongside allies to shoot down hostile objects violating its airspace during a Russian attack on Ukraine.

Explosions are seen in the night sky as Ukrainian servicemen fire towards drones during a Russian drone strike, amid Russias attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine. Reuters

Kestutis Budrys, Lithuanias foreign minister, also expressed support for Poland. In a post on X, Budrys says that air defences must be reinforced and that Nato must respond with capabilities not just concerns.

The reality is clear: as long as Putin is allowed to continue waging his bloody war against Ukraine, no country  not even within Nato  is safe. Sanctions must strike at the heart of the Kremlins war economy. Putin will not stop unless we stop him, he wrote.

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Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Russias violations of Polish airspace was unacceptable. The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine poses a threat to the security of all of Europe. Poland has every right to defend its airspace. We give our full support to Poland, as a Nato ally and EU member. Sweden and Poland stand united in our support for Ukraine, he said.

Norways Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide also called Russias move deeply concerning and entirely unacceptable and extended its steadfast support for our ally Poland and our shared commitment to European security.

Meanwhile, in the United States, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CNN he had been briefed on reports of Russian drones over Poland as he left a dinner with President Donald Trump.

Implications for the Russia-Ukraine war

But why is this such a big deal? What does it mean for the ongoing war in Ukraine?

With Poland downing Russian drones, this marks the first time that a Nato country has directly engaged Russian assets in its airspace. In fact, Russian drones and missiles have entered the airspace of Nato members  including Poland  several times during the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, a Nato country hasnt attempted to shoot them down in the past.

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Firefighters work at the site of a residential area hit during Russian drone and missile strikes, amid Russias attack on Ukraine, in Zhytomyr region, Ukraine on September 10. In recent days, Russias attacks on Ukraine have targeted residential areas in and around Kyiv. Reuters

Many analysts note that Russias violation of Polish airspace could result in an escalation of the war. Former US deputy assistant secretary of defence Jim Townsend told the BBC that its hard to imagine the incursion of Russian drones into Poland is a mistake.

One drone is a mistake, multiple drones is not a mistake. This is more than likely a test  this is a test that Nato has to answer Now is the political side of Nato that is on the hot seat to make sure the response from the alliance is appropriate.

Ben Hodges, a former commander of US Army forces in Europe, was also quoted as telling Reuters that the number of incursions by Russian drones into Nato airspace make it clear that these are intentional tests of Nato and national air defences and early warning systems.

US Senator Dick Durban was also of the opinion that the repeated violations of Nato airspace by Russian drones were a sign that Vladimir Putin is testing our resolve to protect Poland and the Baltic nations.

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After the carnage Putin continues to visit on Ukraine, these incursions cannot be ignored, he said on X.

With inputs from agencies
Nepal has been shaken by powerful Gen Z protests, with violence in the Himalayan country killing at least 20 and injuring over 300. As locals struggle to cope with the unrest, thousands of students, tourists, and workers, most of them Indians, have been caught in the middle

Nepal has been shaken by one of its deadliest youth uprisings in recent memory. What started as anger over the governments sweeping ban on social media has quickly escalated into violent clashes in the heart of Kathmandu and beyond.

Dramatic videos circulating online show streets engulfed in flames, shops looted, and angry crowds confronting security forces. The scale of the unrest turned deadly as at least 20 people have been killed and more than 300 injured in just two days of protests.

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As locals struggle to cope with the unrest, thousands of students, tourists, and workers have been caught in the middle. From burned hotels to cancelled flights, their stories are filled with fear and uncertainty.

Heres a closer look at what theyre facing

I want to go home right now

Among those worst affected by the unrest in Nepal are Indian students, many of whom are now confined to their campuses as the streets outside remain unsafe.

Binita Manna, a second-year MBBS student at Birat Medical College in Biratnagar, told News18 that while she is safe inside her campus, the chaos unfolding outside has left her deeply anxious.

According to her, miscreants are taking advantage of the unrest, leading to widespread incidents of arson and looting. A shopping mall just 1015 minutes from our campus was set on fire. The situation is very tense, she said.

College authorities have assured students of their safety, but the fear is hard to shake off. Though the college authorities have assured us they will protect us, the situation is not good. We are very afraid, Binita added.

Prisoners burn furniture and other items outside the Dilli Bazaar jail as they try to break out, in Kathmandu, Nepal. Reuters

Her exams, scheduled for this week, have been postponed indefinitely. To make matters worse, she is struggling to stay connected with her family due to patchy mobile networks. Yes, Im in touch with my family, but the network is not working properly. My family is extremely worried, and so am I, she said.

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Meanwhile, the protests have only grown more aggressive. On Tuesday, Gen-Z demonstrators stormed Nepals parliament and even breached the Singha Durbar, the countrys main administrative complex in Kathmandu. According to local reports, protesters forced their way through the gates while security forces struggled to regain control.

A day earlier, clashes between demonstrators and security forces had already turned deadly. Eyewitness accounts reported by PTI said security forces used water cannons, tear gas, and even live rounds. Dozens were killed and hundreds more injured.

For students like Binita, the violence feels overwhelming. Her only wish now is to return to India. I want to go home right now. I dont know how, but I want to go back, she said, her voice trembling with fear.

They are not sparing tourists

The protests have not only shaken locals but also left foreign visitors traumatised. Among them is Upasana Gill, who had travelled to Nepal to host a volleyball tournament. She recalled a terrifying escape after the hotel she was staying in was set ablaze by a mob.

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I had come here to host a volleyball league, and currently, the hotel where I was staying has been burned down. All my luggage, all my belongings, were in my room, and the entire hotel was set on fire. I was in the spa, and people were running behind me with very large sticks, and I barely managed to escape with my life, Gill told reporters.

She described the atmosphere as very bad, with fires being lit across streets. They are not sparing tourists here. They dont care if someone is a tourist. They are setting fires everywhere without thinking, and the situation has become very, very bad here," she said. Gill, stranded in Pokhara, has since appealed for help from the Indian embassy.

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The chaos has also reached Nepals power centres. Apart from parliament and the Supreme Court, the homes of top leaders were not spared. Prime Minister KP Sharma Olis residence in Balkot, Bhaktapur, was set on fire.

Other footage shows tyres and plastic being burned on deserted streets. Large groups of young men on two-wheelers roamed the roads near Kathmandu airport, even as the army tried to maintain order.

Tourists stranded for hours at airports

The chaos in Nepal has also left hundreds of tourists stuck in Kathmandu after flights were abruptly cancelled and the airport suspended operations.

Among them was Rajani Maski, a Karnataka-based woman who found herself trapped at the airport for hours. We were stranded in the airport for 10 hours and were later transferred to a hotel as the situation continued to escalate. We dont know how to return to Bengaluru, she told The Indian Express.

Maski, who works in the USA and had joined a Manasarovar trip after visiting Bengaluru, said her hotel asked her to leave early in the morning as fears of violence grew. But when she reached the airport, no flights were running.

Both IndiGo and Air India had suspended flights to and from Kathmandu amid the worsening security situation and airport shutdown.

Both IndiGo and Air India had suspended flights to and from Kathmandu amid the worsening security situation and airport shutdown. Image for Representation/Reuters

There was no way to leave the airport. By evening, we tried to step out, but there was no taxi or any vehicle. The airport authorities also warned us that the situation could escalate at the terminal. We managed to get a military vehicle and reached a hotel nearby. We tried calling the hotel where we stayed, but all major hotels in Kathmandu are closed, she added.

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Authorities have since reopened the airport. Flights resumed on Wednesday after officials held a high-level meeting and the Nepal Army imposed nationwide restrictions in a bid to control the violence.

India releases emergency numbers, urges citizens to remain alert

The crisis has also prompted swift action from New Delhi. Foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal released emergency contact numbers for citizens stranded in Nepal.

We would like to inform that our Embassy in Nepal @IndiainNepal has reached out to the concerned person and provided necessary assistance.



Emergency contact numbers for Indian citizens:

1. +977  980 860 2881



2. +977  981 032 6134 https://t.co/Z12XwDcaPc  Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) September 10, 2025

In an official statement on Tuesday, the government expressed sorrow over the deaths and urged Indian nationals to remain alert.

We are closely monitoring the developments in Nepal since yesterday and are deeply saddened by the loss of many young lives. Our thoughts and prayers are with families of deceased. We also wish speedy recovery for those who were injured, the statement said.

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It further advised Indians to exercise extreme caution and strictly follow local guidelines, especially with curfews now in place across Kathmandu and other major cities.

With input from agencies
Chagas disease, a potentially fatal illness spread by the blood-sucking kissing bug, is now found across 32 US states, with local infections confirmed in eight. The CDC warns that over 280,000 Americans may be infected without knowing, as the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi silently damages the heart and digestive system

A public health official holds up three Triatoma dimidiatas, a type of bloodsucking insect that spreads Chagas disease, in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, March 18, 2008. File Image/Reuters

A potentially life-threatening disease spread by an insect known as the kissing bug is becoming a concern across the United States.

Chagas disease, caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi), has traditionally been regarded as a health issue limited to Latin America.

However, evidence now suggests that it is firmly taking root in parts of the US, with increasing calls from health authorities for it to be officially recognised as endemic within the country.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently published findings in its Emerging Infectious Diseases journal, warning that both the parasite and its insect carrier are far more widespread than previously understood.

Based on their research, kissing bugs have been found in 32 states, and locally acquired human cases have been confirmed in eight states, indicating that transmission is happening within US borders and not only from international travel.

Where in the US have kissing bug infections been recorded?

Kissing bugs, scientifically known as triatomines, are native to the Americas and have been part of the ecosystem for centuries.

These nocturnal insects are blood feeders and have a distinctive habit of biting humans and animals around the mouth or eyes while they sleep, which led to their nickname.

While sightings of the bugs were historically limited to certain areas, recent reports show their range has expanded dramatically.

The CDC confirmed that these insects have now been identified across 32 states, including much of the South and Central US. They are particularly common in Texas and surrounding regions.

The areas with documented human infections include Texas, Arizona, California, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Tennessee.

Texas has reported the highest concentration of these cases.

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In addition to humans, animals have tested positive for the parasite in several other states such as New Mexico, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, Virginia, and Maryland.

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According to experts, wildlife and domestic pets serve as reservoir hosts for the parasite, meaning they help sustain and spread the infection.

Autochthonous (or, locally acquired) human cases have been reported in 8 states, most notably in Texas. Labelling the United States as non-Chagas disease-endemic perpetuates low awareness and underreporting, the CDC report stated.

How is the kissing bug disease transmitted?

The kissing bug spreads T. cruzi in a unique and indirect way. When it feeds on blood, the insect defecates near the bite site.

The parasite is present in the bugs droppings rather than its saliva. When a person scratches the bite or touches their face, they can unintentionally rub the contaminated feces into their skin, eyes, or mouth, giving the parasite a pathway into the body.

People might scratch or rub bug feces into a bite wound, their eyes, or mouth without realising it, which allows the parasite to enter their body, the CDC explained.

This method of transmission makes Chagas disease different from other insect-borne illnesses such as malaria or dengue.

The disease cannot spread through casual human contact like a cold or flu, nor does it move directly from person to person in everyday interactions.

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However, there are other possible routes of infection:

Blood transfusions or organ transplants from infected donors.

Contaminated food or beverages containing the parasite.

Mother-to-child transmission during pregnancy.

Because half of all kissing bugs may carry T. cruzi, the risk of infection remains significant wherever the insect is present.

What do we know about the kissing bug itself?

Triatomines are small to medium-sized insects, generally half an inch to one inch in length. Adult bugs have a flat, dark body with distinctive orange or red markings.

Unlike ticks, which attach themselves to a host for extended periods, kissing bugs feed quickly and move away once they have taken a blood meal.

Also Read | How safe are sleep gummies for kids?

Texas A&M Universitys Kissing Bug Community Science Programme reports that they feed multiple times during their lifespan and take several minutes to complete a single meal.

The bugs are mostly active at night, hiding in cracks, piles of wood, or other clutter during the day.

Their life cycle begins when they hatch from small eggs, and they can survive for up to two years in favourable conditions.

What are the symptoms of the kissing bug disease?

Chagas disease progresses in two stages: acute and chronic. Each stage presents different challenges for diagnosis and treatment.

The acute stage occurs shortly after a person is infected and typically lasts for up to two months. During this period, symptoms may be mild or absent, making detection difficult.

According to the CDC, signs in this phase can include:

Fever

Fatigue

Body aches

Headache

Rash

Loss of appetite

Diarrhea

Vomiting

A unique symptom associated with early infection is Romanas sign, which involves significant swelling of one eyelid.

This occurs when the parasite enters the body through the eye or when bug feces are accidentally rubbed into a bite near the eye.

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If Chagas disease is identified and treated during the acute phase, the chances of avoiding long-term damage are much higher.

Unfortunately, because the symptoms resemble other common illnesses, many cases go undiagnosed at this stage.

If untreated, the parasite can remain in the body for years, silently causing harm.

The chronic phase may last for decades or even a lifetime.

During this stage, the parasite primarily attacks the heart and digestive system, leading to severe complications in 20 per cent to 30 per cent of infected individuals.

The CDC lists several serious outcomes of chronic Chagas disease:

Enlarged heart (cardiomegaly), which can lead to heart failure.

Irregular heart rhythms, posing a risk of sudden cardiac arrest.

Digestive system enlargement, including the esophagus or colon, causing difficulty eating, swallowing, or passing stool.

In the most severe cases, the condition can lead to sudden death, particularly from heart-related complications.

Why is this a public health concern in the US?

The CDC estimates that over 280,000 people in the US may already be infected with T. cruzi. Alarmingly, fewer than 2 per cent of these individuals are aware of their condition.

In some areas, the concentration of cases is especially high. For example, Los Angeles County alone may have around 45,000 infections, according to UCLA Health.

Between 2000 and 2018, only 29 confirmed locally acquired human infections were officially documented in the US. Experts believe the actual number is much higher, with most cases simply never identified or reported.

Also Read | What is the flesh-eating screwworm parasite detected in a person in the US for the first time?

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This gap in reporting has led to calls for Chagas disease to be reclassified as endemic in the United States.

Officially recognising the disease as endemic would help secure funding, improve diagnostic efforts, and increase public education about prevention and treatment.

While the overall number of documented cases in the US is still relatively low compared to Latin America, the growing presence of kissing bugs and increasing reports of local infections indicate that the problem is expanding.

With over 8 million people infected worldwide, public health officials stress that awareness is critical.

How to protect yourselves against Chagas?

Since no vaccine currently exists for Chagas disease, prevention focuses on minimising exposure to kissing bugs and reducing the likelihood of infection.

Recommended preventive measures:

Seal gaps and cracks in windows, doors, and walls to keep insects out.

Use insect repellents and wear long sleeves and pants in areas where the bugs are common.

Clear clutter such as woodpiles, rock piles, and trash near homes, which provide hiding places for bugs.

Stay in well-constructed housing when travelling in areas where Chagas is common.

Wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly, as contaminated food can also carry the parasite.

Regularly check pets for bites or signs of illness, as they can bring infected bugs closer to humans.

Did climate change help the spread of this disease?

Scientists are also examining the role of environmental changes in the spread of kissing bugs. Warmer temperatures create conditions that are more favourable for the insects, potentially allowing them to expand their range northward.

While the CDC notes that there is not yet sufficient data to conclusively prove a geographic expansion, researchers are observing a rising number of encounters between humans and these bugs.

The CDC report highlights several factors contributing to greater public awareness. Invasion into homes, human bites, subsequent allergic reactions or exposure to T. cruzi parasites, and increasing frequency of canine diagnoses have led to growing public awareness.

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With inputs from agencies
Trump urged the EU to impose steep tariffs on India and China to increase pressure on Moscow over the war in Ukraine

US President Donald Trump reportedly urged the European Union to impose tariffs of up to 100 per cent on imports from India and China as part of a coordinated effort to pressure Russia into ending its war in Ukraine. According to officials familiar with the matter, the request came during a call on Tuesday when the US president dialled into a high-level meeting between American and European policymakers in Washington.

The gathering was focussed on intensifying the economic burden on Moscow and Trump was said to have insisted that a united transatlantic approach was the only effective path forward, Financial Times reported.

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US push for reciprocal measures

Sources indicated that Washington was prepared to match any tariffs imposed by the EU. One senior American official was quoted as stressing readiness to implement the plan immediately, provided European partners demonstrated equal commitment. Another official added that such a strategy could lead to a significant escalation in US trade measures against both Asian economies. The officials suggested that Trump viewed tariffs as the most direct means of targeting Russian oil sales, particularly by reducing the willingness of China and India to purchase discounted energy from Moscow, Financial Times reported.

Frustration over Ukraine conflict

The push for punitive trade action was described as a reflection of mounting frustration inside the White House. Officials reportedly conveyed that the administration saw limited options for brokering a peace settlement, especially as Russia continued aerial attacks against Ukrainian cities. Trump was said to have argued that imposing dramatic tariffs and maintaining them until Beijing ceased oil purchases from Moscow represented the most effective pressure point, since Russia had few alternative buyers.

Diplomatic undertones and upcoming talks

Later the same day, Trump suggested to reporters that he anticipated a direct conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the near future. This statement came shortly after a summit that highlighted strengthened ties among Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The convergence of these leaders was seen by US officials as a complicating factor in Western efforts to isolate Moscow diplomatically and economically

Strained trade relations with India and China

The move also followed escalating trade tensions. In August, Washington raised tariffs on Indian imports to 50 per cent, citing Delhis purchases of Russian oil. Despite this, Trump wrote on Truth Social that negotiations with India would continue and hinted at a potentially positive outcome. He expressed optimism about future discussions with Prime Minister Modi, describing him as a very good friend. Meanwhile, trade measures on China remained volatile, with sharp tariff hikes in April that were later scaled back after financial markets reacted negatively.

European involvement

The Washington discussions also included EU sanctions chief David OSullivan alongside senior US Treasury officials. Their participation highlighted ongoing efforts to align Western economic policy in response to Russias war, even as questions persisted about the viability of punitive tariffs against major economies like India and China.
Kashi is set to host Mauritius Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam for a three-day visit beginning Wednesday, with a high-level bilateral meeting scheduled between him and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday

PM Modi and Ramgoolam pay homage after laying a wreath at the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Garden in Pamplemousses, Mauritius. Reuters/File Photo

Kashi is set to host Mauritius Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam for a three-day visit beginning Wednesday, with a high-level bilateral meeting scheduled between him and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday.

According to a Times of India report, Ramgoolam will arrive at Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport, where he will be welcomed with a guard of honour by Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel.

The much-anticipated talks between the two prime ministers will take place at the Hotel Taj in Varanasi, following a ceremonial welcome and series of cultural displays showcasing the heritage of Uttar Pradesh, added the report.

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On Thursday, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will receive PM Modi as he arrives in Varanasi for his meeting with the Mauritius leader over lunch.

After the talks, PM Modi is expected to depart the city, while PM Ramgoolam will spend the evening experiencing the historic ghats of Kashi and the Ganga Aarti, viewed from a luxury cruiseliner.

On Friday morning, Ramgoolam will offer prayers at the Kashi Vishwanath temple before departing for Ayodhya.

With inputs from agencies
Gen-Z anger that toppled governments in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh has now convulsed Nepal. The immediate dangers are local  mass violence, an army stepping into administration, and lasting national trauma  but the regions response must be sober, strategic and restrained

Demonstrators carrying weapons, taken from the supreme court, take part in a protest against Monday's killing of 19 people after anti-corruption protests that were triggered by a social media ban, outside the supreme court in Kathmandu, Nepal September 9, 2025. Reuters

The past three years have rewritten the political arithmetic of South Asia. Sri Lankas 2022 uprising over economic collapse, Bangladeshs student upheaval in 2024, and now Nepals Gen-Z eruption all share an ugly family resemblance: youthful rage finding swift, street-related expression; symbolic triggers that suddenly matter far more than policymakers imagined; and, the frightening readiness of mobs and security forces alike to pay and mete out extreme violence. The result is not merely episodic disorder  it is cumulative instability that bleeds across borders and scars nations for a generation.

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Why has anger overflowed? Partly because the so-called youth bulge, long hailed as a demographic dividend, too often arrives as a political and economic liability when young people lack jobs, opportunity, or a credible voice in governance. The street trend in South Asia shows frustration morphing into fury: students and young professionals in cities who see corruption, cronyism and a hollowing of institutions decide they have nothing left to lose.

That rage is amplified by immediacy  viral videos (sometimes doctored), encrypted chats and meme politics make mobilisation fast, chaotic and hard to contain. When mobs stop caring for life or property  as happened in Dhaka and has tragically recurred in Kathmandu  the state faces an excruciating choice between heavy hand and political surrender. The Army inevitably has the hard choice.

Nepals recent violence crystallised around a regulatory trigger. The government ordered a major social-media shutdown after platforms failed to meet a registration deadline, provoking massive protests that turned deadly; the ban was later rescinded after nationwide unrest and reportedly dozens of fatalities. In the course of the week the army has been deployed, the prime minister has resigned, and the possibility of a military authority stepping into administration  as happened in parts of Bangladeshs recent crisis  loomed large in media accounts and official deliberations. Those facts matter because an army-run interregnum, even temporary, changes incentives and compresses political compromise.

Some observers reach for theory to make sense of the chaos. Gene Sharps book, From Dictatorship to Democracy, remains the clearest modern map of how leaderless, decentralised non-violent campaigns can delegitimise governments by targeting their pillars of authority. Sharp described how strikes, symbolic acts and non-cooperation  now turbocharged by social media  can make power brittle. But Sharps framework is about non-violent erosion of authority; it does not fully encompass scenes of possession and fury where mobs burn state buildings or where security forces respond with live fire.

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What we are seeing in Kathmandu is an unstable hybrid. It is Sharps mechanics of rapid mobilisation combined with raw, often violent street anger that can force security institutions into awful choices. Sharp actually wrote the 198 ways of non-violent revolution, referring to the detailed list of tactics documented in his seminal work, The Methods of Nonviolent Action. These methods are categorised into three main groups: protest and persuasion, non-cooperation (social, economic, and political), and non-violent intervention, and are designed to be used by individuals or groups to achieve political and social change without resorting to violence.

A grim practical question follows. Will the movement burn out once its proximate grievance is removed? There is reason to think stamina will ebb  the government has already withdrawn the social-media restriction  but history warns that symbols like Tahrir or Singha Durbar can outlast a single policy reversal. In Egypt, Tahrir became a reminder for broader political demands. In Nepal, the storming of parliament and mass fatalities can harden identities and create martyrs, prolonging instability.

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How much compromise an interim military authority can make is an open question. Militaries can be pragmatic; offer limited concessions, secure order, and then pass power to a technocratic or transitional civilian administration. They can also overreach, entrench themselves and shorten democratic horizons. The balance will depend on the armys institutional calculation  to protect the state or to seize permanent control  and on the patience of the streets.

Did security forces go overboard? The scale of lethal force reported in Kathmandu  water cannon, rubber bullets, even live fire and aerial firing in some accounts  suggests a degree of violence that will be remembered long after the curfew lifts. Excessive force usually deepens grievance, breeds cycles of revenge, and damages the psyche of the nation. When policing turns militarised, trust in institutions plummets and political recovery becomes harder and slower. The immediate metric  a return to calm  may be achieved. The longer metric  restored legitimacy and civic confidence  is the harder objective, and heavy use of force works against it.

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Is there an external hand? Claims of outside interference have already been voiced by some Nepali leaders. That is a dangerous rhetorical thread because it can be used to delegitimise protesters and justify repression. As of now there is no public, verifiable evidence that an external power engineered the uprising; media reporting notes the domestic triggers and demographic drivers more strongly than any foreign script. Indian agencies have not publicly reported prior intelligence warning of an orchestrated campaign. Nevertheless, strategic suspicion will linger  and if any malign external actor sought to weaponise unrest against New Delhi, it would be playing with fire: Nepals stability is integral to Indian security. Above all, Indias media must not be provocative; editorial fervour or partisan coverage that feeds nationalist paranoia would be counterproductive.

So, what should India do? First, prepare quietly: strengthen consular readiness, secure border districts, and keep humanitarian and medical surge options on standby. Second, sustain diplomacy: call publicly for restraint while privately pressing Nepali leaders  civilian and military  to minimise force and to pursue an inclusive transition. Third, silence the temptation to politicise: refrain from partisan commentary that could be weaponised by any Nepali faction. Finally, invest in the long term: help the region build jobs, skills and credible institutions so that the youth bulge becomes a dividend, not a fuse.

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South Asias recent convulsions are a warning and an assignment. The warning, youthful grievance, when coupled with symbolic triggers and heavy-handed responses, can topple governments and fracture societies. The assignment; to prune the causes of anger before they become fires; to choose dialogue over domination; and to treat fragile neighbours with both strategic care and moral humility. If we get this wrong, the next uprising will not be just a passing headline. Its a full region that will witness fire.

The writer is a member of the National Disaster Management Authority. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstposts views.
The situation in Nepal is extremely serious due to widespread, deadly, and violent protests that have led to the Prime Ministers resignation and the torching of public and private property. The unrest is primarily driven by widespread public anger over corruption, a struggling economy, and a government-imposed ban on social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, and YouTube. These issues, particularly the ban which was seen as a tool for censorship, ignited protests, most notably among the Gen Z leading to violent clashes with police, a high death toll, and the eventual resignation of the Prime Minister.

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Gen Z, or the Zoomer generation, refers to the young generation born between 1995 and 2010. As the first generation to grow up with the internet and mobile technology, Gen Z is known for being digital natives and tech-savvy, prioritising authenticity, diversity, and pragmatic approaches to issues like climate change and social responsibility.

The government blocked access to major social media platforms after they failed to register and comply with new government oversight requirements, fuelling protests that demanded the ban be lifted. Long-standing frustration with high-level corruption among political figures contributed significantly to the public outcry, with images of extravagant spending by the elite highlighting the economic hardship faced by ordinary citizens.

A history of political instability, coupled with a perceived lack of responsiveness from the government, has contributed to growing dissatisfaction, especially among the younger generation. The violent response from security forces to the initial anti-ban protests, resulting in numerous deaths and injuries, only intensified the anger and further pressured the government. The violent clashes between protesters and police resulted in at least 19 deaths and hundreds of injuries.

The massive protests and subsequent deaths led to the resignation of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who stated his decision was to facilitate a solution to the political crisis. Following the Prime Ministers resignation, the government lifted the ban on social media, though the underlying causes of the unrest remain.

Unrest in Nepal is a matter of significant concern for India, due to shared security, economic, and strategic interests. India closely monitors any destabilizing events and has historically been involved in and influenced by Nepals political developments. Indias Ministry of External Affairs has called for restraint and dialogue. In addition, India has increased security along the Indo-Nepalese border to prevent any spillover of unrest. The long, open border between India and Nepal is a security risk during times of turmoil. Increased vigilance is required to prevent the movement of illicit goods, criminal elements, or anti-India forces.

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The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated, As a close friend and neighbour, we hope that all concerned will exercise restraint and address any issues through peaceful means and dialogue. The MEA confirmed it was closely monitoring the developments" and urged Indian nationals in Nepal to exercise caution and adhere to the steps and guidelines issued by the Nepali authorities.

India and China are in a high-stakes competition for influence in Nepal. During periods of instability, the power vacuum can be exploited by China, especially through infrastructure projects and economic initiatives. A Nepal that tilts too far towards China is a strategic worry for India. Political leaders in Nepal have at times used nationalist rhetoric against India to consolidate support. Such actions can jeopardise bilateral relations and Indias position in the country.

The ongoing unrest in Nepal also has economic implications for both Nepal and India. Political instability can disrupt trade, transportation, and connectivity projects between the two countries, which is economically detrimental to both. Indian-funded infrastructure and hydropower projects in Nepal can be stalled or jeopardised by civil unrest. India and Nepal share several important river systems. Political instability can impede cooperation on water resources, including crucial hydropower and irrigation projects.

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India has historically favoured democratic stability in Nepal. Continued political upheaval and fragile governance can undermine the democratic process and hinder effective policymaking. Nepal has had more than 10 governments since its monarchy was abolished in 2008, a sign of ongoing political fragility. The Himalayan country is a key part of Indias Neighbourhood First policy. Instability in a bordering country can have a regional ripple effect.

The latest instability adds to a history of political volatility in Nepal, which has seen 13 governments since 2008. The recent protests, led by young people, were triggered by a temporary ban on social media, but they also reflect deep-seated public anger over alleged government corruption and ineffective governance. Indias primary interests in Nepal involve maintaining regional stability, preventing Nepal from becoming a platform for anti-India activities, ensuring its economic interests are met through hydropower and trade, and securing its own border from potential threats. These interests stem from Nepals strategic location as a buffer between India and China and its open border, which allows for free movement of people but also poses security challenges.

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Indias economic interests

The violent anti-government protests in Nepal, culminating in Prime Minister Olis resignation, have raised significant concerns for Indias economic interests. India has vital economic ties with Nepal, relying on the landlocked nation for cross-border trade, energy, and stability against increasing Chinese influence.

There are risks to bilateral trade. The current unrest threatens to disrupt the crucial trade corridor that connects Nepal with India and the rest of the world, and there are fears of the disruption of supply chains. India is Nepals largest trade partner and accounts for a significant portion of its imports, including petroleum products, vehicles, machinery, and food. Political instability can lead to delays at border crossings, including major transit points like Raxaul-Birgunj and Sunauli-Bhairahawa, causing supply chain disruptions that harm both Indian exporters and Nepali consumers.

There could also be an impact on Indian investment. With over 150 Indian ventures operating in Nepal, accounting for more than 35 per cent of its total Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), ongoing instability creates an unfavourable investment climate. Indian companies in sectors like manufacturing, telecommunications, and power could suffer financial losses and face project delays.

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There are also serious threats to energy cooperation. Recent developments have seen significant progress in India-Nepal energy relations, which are now at risk. Numerous cross-border hydropower projects are in development or being planned, with large-scale investment from Indian firms. The new political uncertainty could jeopardise these projects, stalling construction and undermining Indias goal of securing up to 10,000 MW of power from Nepal over the next decade. Joint ventures between Indian and Nepali entities to develop cross-border transmission lines, such as the Dododhara-Bareilly and Inaruwa-Purnea lines agreed to in April 2025, may face delays.

There is also the threat to regional stability and Indias geopolitical interests. Nepals internal political strife has broader geopolitical implications for India. The ongoing instability could create an opening for China to increase its economic and political influence in Nepal. India has been actively engaged in Nepal to counter Beijings growing presence, particularly in the infrastructure and energy sectors. A prolonged state of unrest in Nepal could destabilise the long and open border shared with India, facilitating cross-border criminal activities, including smuggling and other security threats. In response to the recent protests, India has already heightened security measures along the border.

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There will also be a negative impact on specific Indian economic sectors which are more directly vulnerable to Nepals political turmoil. Religious and general tourism between the two countries could be hampered, impacting Indias tourism sector. The significant Nepalese population working in India, and the related remittances, could be affected by changes in Nepals economic or political situation. Key bilateral connectivity projects, including railways and integrated check posts, could be slowed down or derailed by the political uncertainty.

While the extent of the impact remains to be seen, Nepals political instability could negatively affect Indias economic interests by disrupting trade, impacting investment and remittances, and potentially delaying progress in crucial sectors like energy and connectivity. Both India and China will be closely monitoring the situation as they vie for influence and seek to protect their economic stakes in Nepal.

In conclusion, the question arises: what is the potential path forward? Despite the immediate risks, there is a potential to restore stability if diplomatic engagement is successful. High-level talks in August 2025 had aimed to deepen cooperation, and Indian officials continue to emphasise a Neighbourhood First approach. Maintaining diplomatic engagement and focusing on shared economic goals, particularly in energy and infrastructure, will be crucial for both countries to mitigate the fallout of the current situation.

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The writer is a retired Indian diplomat and had previously served as Ambassador in Kuwait and Morocco and as Consul General in New York. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstposts views.
The much-anticipated meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping on August 31, 2025, at Tianjin, China, ahead of the 25th SCO Summit, was of special significance, given the turbulent geopolitical environment. The meeting aimed to further the rapprochement phenomenon started at Kazan, Russia, where the two leaders had met on the sidelines of the Brics summit last October.

At Kazan, Modi and Xi gave a stamp of approval to the Disengagement and Restoration of Border Patrolling Agreement at Depsang and Demchok. It marked a major breakthrough, as the disengagement process had been deadlocked over these two locations, while at Pangong Tso, Gogra-Hot Spring and Galwan, it had been accomplished earlier. The relations between India and China had bottomed out as a sequel to the intrusion by the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) in Eastern Ladakh in May 2020.

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High-level diplomatic activity resumed between Delhi and Beijing post Kazan, setting the stage for the Tianjin dialogue. In addition, there were strategic drivers as well, especially US tariffs cum technology restrictions on India and China, which did nudge the two neighbours to tone down the differences and focus on economic cooperation and regional stability.

The Tianjin meeting was marked by cautious optimism. Modi and Xi welcomed the progress made in the bilateral ties over the recent past, noting that India and China were not rivals and differences should not turn into disputes. The two leaders deemed it necessary to expand common ground on bilateral, regional and global issues, besides addressing challenges like terrorism and fair trade at the multilateral forums.

Modi echoed the theme of three mutuals  trust, respect and sensitivity  and emphasised that both nations should pursue strategic autonomy and their relations should not be seen through the third country lens. He also acknowledged that peace and tranquillity have been restored along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) following the disengagement and new border management agreement endorsed by the Special Representatives (Ajit Doval and Wang Yi). Modi further stated that the resumption of Kailash Mansarovar Yatra and direct flights between the two countries will boost people-to-people relations.

Xi recalled the civilisational connection of the two countries to remain friends and good neighbours. He reiterated that the border issue should not define the overall bilateral relations, and ties should be handled from a strategic and long-term perspective. Xi used the evocative metaphor of the dragon and elephant coming together, asserting that it is the right choice.

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Sharing his perspective on the geopolitical milieu, Xi expounded that the world is in a state of transformation, marked by fluidity and chaos. He also underscored the importance of the Global South and the responsibility of improving the well-being of the citizens of the countries.

Improvement in bilateral ties can certainly prove beneficial for both the countries, especially in the economic arena. India is aware of its dependence on Chinese supply chains and also about the limitation to position itself as an alternative to China (China plus one). Beijing has lifted restrictions on the key commodities, including fertilisers, rare earth minerals and tunnel boring machines.

The Indian electric vehicle sector will benefit by offering space for the Chinese companies to expand. Delhi has pushed for greater market access to balance the trade so as to narrow the existing deficit, which currently stands at $99.2 billion. The two governments have also agreed to open the border trade.

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Beijing has a reputation for exploiting economic asymmetry, and its funding comes with a hidden agenda, a reality which cannot be wished away. In sensitive sectors, India will be sceptical of the Chinese investment and watchful about local markets not being flooded with cheap goods.

The Tianjin meeting, despite being high on promise, had inherent limitations due to structural fault lines between Delhi and Beijing. Most critical, of course, is the border dispute; even Chief of Defence Staff Gen Anil Chauhan has called it the biggest security challenge recently. While disengagement of troops from the friction points has reduced tension, the situation along the LAC remains sensitive, as around 50,000 troops remain deployed by either side.

Any local instance could seriously derail the reconciliation process. In view of the prevailing trust deficit, de-escalation is unlikely in the near future. Even the status of LAC has undergone a significant change with the creation of buffer zones. Further, there are new patrolling protocols wherein the earlier practice of patrolling independently has now been replaced by joint patrolling with prior notifications.

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With the new border management agreement in place, the efficacy of earlier agreements, especially the ones signed in 2005 and 2013, remains uncertain. By building massive military infrastructure in Tibet and Ladakh, alongside fortifying the LAC, including building a chain of model villages (Xiaokangs) to act as border outposts, the PLAs aggressive design is no secret.

Beijing remains extremely sensitive about Tibet; its security figures prominently in the White Paper on Chinas National Security 2025. It is further vindicated by the fact that Xi, as president, paid a second visit to Lhasa last month (the earlier one was in July 2021), where he urged building a modern socialist Tibet. Chinas persistent claim on Arunachal Pradesh, which it refers to as Zangnan (South Tibet), and damming of Yarlung Tsangpo in the lower reaches have serious strategic implications.

Chinas all-weather ties with Pakistan have evolved into a symbiotic relationship, openly demonstrated during Operation Sindoor. There is strong evidence that the Chinese were actively involved in strategising and guiding Pakistani operations against India. China supports Pakistans proxy war against India by shielding known terrorist leaders at various global forums. China has succeeded in hyphenating India with Pakistan. Beijing has also made deep inroads into South Asia and is actively working on creating new groupings like the China-Bangladesh-Pakistan trilateral to marginalise India.

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One of Chinas core strategies is to pitch one barbarian against the other. Given the ongoing tension between Delhi and Washington, Beijing perceives it as an ideal opportunity to weaken the Quad. The Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece The Global Times recent piece, US-led small circles like the Quad are intrinsically flawed, substantiates the point. In a quest to offer an alternative to the US-West-led global order, Xi is aggressively leveraging forums like SCO and Brics. Beijings perspective of a multipolar world implies a unipolar Asia.

While the Tianjin meeting has paved the way for greater engagement between the two neighbours, the presumption that the ties will transition back to the 2019 days (Wuhan-Mamallapuram bonhomie) is a far cry. Allowing China to get away with violating the sanctity of the border (LAC) at will and weaponising trade and diplomatic manoeuvrings to isolate India will embolden the Communist leadership. In the current scenario, Beijing will certainly try to squeeze Delhi on issues like the One China principle, Tibet and Taiwan. Although China negotiates only with equals, it does make symbolic concessions at times to serve its national interests.

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Our current reactive approach to managing the Chinese challenge, marked by adhocism, merits a serious rethink. There is an urgent need to formulate pragmatic China policy to ensure strategic clarity and a long-term blueprint. Fast-tracking capacity building is no longer an option but a necessity, as asymmetry in the Comprehensive National Power (CNP) vis-a-vis China is only widening. The Elephant ought to be wary to dance with Dragon, given the past missteps.

The author is a war veteran and has served as Defence Attache in China and North Korea. He is currently Professor of Strategic-IR & Management Studies. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstposts views
After toppling KP Sharma Olis government, Nepals Gen Z groups are divided about the countrys new interim leader. Even as former Chief Justice Sushila Karki has emerged as a frontrunner, consensus has not been reached. But their divisions apparently run deeper than the leadership question.

A demonstrator holds Nepal's flag as smoke rises from the Parliament complex in Kathmandu, Nepal, on September 9, 2025, after demonstrators set the building ablaze. (Photo: Adnan Abidi/Reuters)

Even as Nepals Gen Z groups were united in their anger against status quo, they appear to be divided over everything else. For one, even as former Chief Justice Sushila Karki has emerged as the frontrunner to be the country's interim leader, there is currently no consensus on the subject.

The divisions among youth groups part of the movement are apparently not just limited to the choice of the interim leader but also about the form that the Nepali state should take. Disenchanted with the political class, some factions have called for the return of monarchy, according to Kantipur newspaper.

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ALSO READ: 'Anarchists have infiltrated protests': Nepali Army on nationwide violence

These differences came to the fore throughout Wednesday as youth groups held talks amongst themselves and with the Nepali Army, which is facilitating their dialogue with President Ram Chandra Paudel.

No consensus on interim leader

As per the CNN-News 18, there was a confrontation between supporters of different candidates at the Nepali Army Headquarters, with one group supporting Karki and others raising slogans in favour of Dharan Mayor Harka Sampang and Kathmandu Mayor Balen Shah.

The Kantipur newspaper reported that the name of Kulman Ghising, a former Executive Director of the Nepal Electricity Authority, has also been proposed.

Previously, it had been reported that Karki had emerged as the frontrunner to be the interim leader of the country. She appears to be preparing for the role as well as she outlined her agenda in an interview with CNN-News 18.

Karki said that her priority would be to bring peace to Nepal and hold election within six years to one year.

ALSO READ  'Priority is peace, polls in 1 year': Ex-Chief Justice Karki after being proposed as Nepal's interim leader

Youth groups also appear to be miffed at Nepali Army Chief, General Ashok Raj Sigdels, suggestion to include right-wing leader Durga Prasai and Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) of former Deputy Prime Minister Rabi Lamichhane in their deliberations, according to Kantipur.

Posts on the social media suggested that youth groups walked out of the meeting with Sigdel at the suggestion.

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Confused and headless

Even though the movement has been dubbed as Gen Z protest, it is not a centralised movement with one leader or a central hierarchical leadership.

Various groups and factions with a range of beliefs comprise the movement and, beyond the ouster of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, they dont appear to have an agreement on anything. There is no manifesto, minimum common programme, or even an ideology as is evident from the fact that there are monarchists as wells as leftists in the movement. This was evident in their meetings with the Army on Wednesday.

In formal and informal discussions with youth groups, the Nepal Army put forward various conditions and suggestions and emphasised the need for a common stance and representation from all groups, according to Kantipur.

Fundamental differences, mistrust, and power tussle

Among youth groups, there is apparently mistrust and power tussle as well.

While one faction has been discussing what the governance system should be, what kind of individuals should be in the government, and what the electoral system should entail, another faction is suspected by some of trying to gain credit by holding separate dialogues with the Nepali Army, according to Kantipur.

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The newspaper further reported that youth groups have held virtual discussions about who should be the next leader and what type of state Nepal should be and fundamentally different views have emerged. The report said that these groups even disagree about representation in talks with officials.

Broadly, two main groups have emerged, with one leaving towards an active role for the army in the state and a return of monarchy that was abolished in 2008 and another that insists on a democratic system with a youth-centric team running the country, according to the newspaper.
A day after protesters torched all three branches of the government in Kathmandu amid reports of widespread criminal activities, the Nepali Army has said that anarchist groups and individuals have infiltrated the movement and engaged in vandalism, arson, looting, violent attacks, and attempted rape.

Demonstrators carrying weapons, taken from the Supreme Court, take part in a protest against the government in Kathmandu, Nepal, on September 9, 2025. (Photo: Bikram Rai/Reuters)

The Nepali Army on Wednesday said that anarchist groups and persons have infiltrated ongoing protests in the country and engaged in criminal activities like looting, vandalism, and attempted rape.

The statement came a day after protesters torched all three branches of the government in Kathmandu, the presidential residence, broke jails across the country, and set fire to homes of politicians and offices of political parties. There were widespread reports of looting and targeted violence attacks.

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In the wake of such developments, the Nepali Army in a press release on Wednesday announced a daylong curfew until 6 am on Thursday.

The Nepali Army on Tuesday evening took over law enforcement duties in Nepal after the police forces failed to contain the violence throughout the day and public trust in the police was over as at least 19 people had been killed the previous day in police crackdown on protesters.

The Nepali Army arrested 26 persons on Tuesday evening, including five persons who looted a branch of the largest commercial bank of Nepal, according to The Himalayan Times.

In the statement, the Army said that any instance of looting or vandalism will not be acceptable and offenders will be detained and prosecuted.

The Army further said, During the prohibitory and curfew orders, vehicles providing essential services such as ambulances, hearses, fire trucks, and those for health workers and security personnel will be allowed to operate. All concerned parties are requested to coordinate with nearby security personnel for necessary assistance.

In the widespread violence on Tuesday, mobs torched Nepals parliament, Singha Durbar (the seat of the government), Supreme Court, and a slew of government offices, including courthouses, across the country. They also broke several jails and freed hundreds of prisoners. They attacked the official presidential residence and the private home of PM KP Sharma Oli. They also attacked homes of former PMs Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda', Sher Bahadur Deuba, and Jhalanath Khanal.

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In the attack on Deubas home, he and his wife, foreign minister Arzu Rana Deuba, were beaten. In the attack on Khanals home, his wife, Rajyalaxmi Chitrakar, was reportedly burnt to death. In another attack, at least three policemen were reportedly killed.
Chinas BYD renews its India push with plans to launch the Atto 2 SUV, expand EV sales and explore battery partnerships as PM Modi and Xi reset ties.

Chinese electric vehicle major BYD Co. is preparing a renewed drive into India as signs of a thaw in Sino-Indian relations open fresh opportunities in the worlds fastest-growing auto market.

The easing of travel restrictions will allow BYDs India Managing Director Ketsu Zhang to visit the country in the coming months for the first time in five years, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

Senior managers and engineers are also beginning to secure visas, enabling the company to restart training programmes, service equipment and assess the status of its factory in southern India.

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The push follows a broader diplomatic reset after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in August for their first talks since 2020. The leaders agreed not to let border tensions define bilateral ties, with Xi calling friendship the right choice. That dialogue, coupled with Indias need for rare earths and technology as well as shared concerns over US tariffs, has created scope for greater cooperation.

For BYD, the opening comes at a crucial juncture. The Shenzhen-based company, the worlds top EV seller, is considering launching its Atto 2 compact SUV in India early next year. Priced under 2 million ($22,690) even with steep import levies, the model would compete directly with mass-market players such as Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra.

Rival Vietnamese automaker Vinfast has also entered the same segment with its VF6 compact SUV at a starting price of 1.6 million.

BYD, currently the fourth-largest EV brand in India with four models including the Atto 3, plans to seek regulatory approvals to import more cars beyond the present quota of 2,500 units annually. Executives are also expected to explore potential battery assembly projects, with discussions reportedly underway with the Adani Group.

The renewed push highlights how improved political engagement is giving Chinese companies a clearer runway in Indias competitive EV market, even after New Delhi rejected BYDs proposal for a local manufacturing base last year.
The number of martyrs and injured among citizens from the treacherous Zionist crime has risen to 35 martyrs and 131 wounded, the rebels health ministry spokesman Anees Alasbahi posted on X

At least 35 people were killed and over 130 injured in Israeli airstrikes on Yemens capital Sanaa and Jawf province on Wednesday, according to a statement issued by the Houthi rebels.

The number of martyrs and injured among citizens from the treacherous Zionist crime has risen to 35 martyrs and 131 wounded, the rebels health ministry spokesman Anees Alasbahi posted on X, adding it was not a final toll.

Meanwhile, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement, The IDF has just struck in Sanaa and other locations across Yemen, targeting military camps manned by Houthi terrorists, including the Houthi propaganda apparatus, as part of Operation Ringing Bells.

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Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV reported Wednesday that an Israeli airstrike targeted a government complex in Al-Hazm district, located in Yemens northern Al Jawf Governorate.

The strike comes less than two weeks after a similar Israeli air raid in Sanaa killed Houthi Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi and several senior officials. According to a statement broadcast by Al-Masirah, the officials were hit during a routine workshop held by the government to evaluate its activity and performance over the past year.

The Houthis, an Iran-backed rebel group, have been engaged in an escalating long-range confrontation with Israel, claiming the attacks are in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Iran, a key backer of the Houthis, has also provided financial and military support to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad  both active in Gaza and involved in the ongoing conflict with Israel.

With inputs from agencies
Ukraine has for the first time used AI-powered drones that chose on their own when and how to attack Russian forces

Bicycles and scooters are parked near a nursery, with netting installed on its faade, to protect it from Ukrainian drone attacks amid Russia-Ukraine military conflict, in Belgorod, Russia, August 26, 2025. Reuters

Reports from the battlefield in Ukraine have suggested that artificial intelligence-powered drone swarms have been deployed in active combat for the first time. Unlike conventional drones that are piloted individually by human operators, this new technology enables groups of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to coordinate and make tactical decisions among themselves.

According to accounts cited by The Wall Street Journal, during a recent nighttime mission three Ukrainian drones flew toward a Russian position, decided collectively when to strike and executed the attack without direct human intervention.

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From remote-control to autonomy

For years, drones have been a constant feature of the Ukraine war, with both Ukrainian and Russian forces using them for surveillance, targeting and attacks. Traditionally, each UAV has required its own operator, which limited efficiency and stretched manpower.

The recent Ukrainian strikes, however, represented a leap forward. Instead of being remotely commanded moment by moment, the drones were given a target zone, after which they determined the precise timing and method of the assault themselves.

Military analysts said this development showed Ukraines position at the cutting edge of drone warfare technology.

How the swarms function

The system at the heart of these operations was developed by the Ukrainian company Swarmer. Its software allows groups of UAVs to communicate in real time, distribute tasks and adapt mid-mission.

The firms chief executive, Serhii Kupriienko, told The Wall Street Journal that an operator sets the target and the drones do the rest. He explained that the UAVs are designed to work together and adjust to unexpected changes, such as one drone running low on power.

In practice, a reconnaissance drone often maps the route to a target, while bomb-carrying drones determine which will release its payload first. This reduces the need for human micromanagement, cutting the number of operators required for a mission from nine to three.

Scaling the swarm

So far, Ukraine has typically used three drones at a time, though in some cases as many as eight have been deployed. Tests with Swarmers system have reportedly scaled up to 25 UAVs, with the company preparing for trials involving more than 100.

Military experts have speculated that future swarms could consist of hundreds or even thousands of units operating in concert, capable of overwhelming even sophisticated air-defence systems.

Robert Tollast of the Royal United Services Institute remarked that although Ukraines operations do not yet represent a full-scale swarm in the strictest sense, even a limited level of autonomous coordination marks an important milestone, reported The Wall Street Journal.

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Strategic and practical benefits

The introduction of AI-driven coordination provides Ukraine with several advantages. First, it reduces the demand for trained operators at a time when Kyiv is facing a manpower disadvantage against Russia.

Second, it allows missions to be executed more quickly, since drones can process situational data and respond faster than humans monitoring each aircraft separately.

Third, direct drone-to-drone communication makes them less vulnerable to jamming, a common tactic employed by Russian forces to disrupt UAV operations.

Battlefield applications

Ukrainian officers have indicated that the swarm software has already been used in over a hundred missions, ranging from targeting trenches to striking equipment and infrastructure. One common tactic reportedly involves a reconnaissance drone locating enemy positions while two armed drones prepare for attack.

After mapping the route, the system enables the drones themselves to decide which will drop ordnance and when, depending on evolving conditions. This flexibility helps compensate for limited resources while maximising the effectiveness of each sortie.

Challenges in deployment

Despite its promise, the technology has not been without challenges. Ukrainian sources acknowledged that early versions of Swarmers software suffered from excessive data-sharing among drones, which overloaded networks and hindered performance.

Another major limitation is cost. Ukraine is known to have produced more than 1.5 million drones last year alone, with many lost in combat. Making each unit more sophisticated and AI-capable increases expenses, potentially reducing the scale at which such swarms can be deployed.

Global race for swarm supremacy

The concept of AI-controlled swarms has been studied by militaries worldwide for years. The United States tested more than 100 micro-drones in 2016, demonstrating advanced behaviours such as collective decision-making and adaptive formations.

Israel was reported to have used small drone swarms in Gaza in 2021, though little has been said about that capability since.

China, Russia, France and South Korea are also pursuing swarm programmes, but until the Ukrainian missions became public, experts had not identified any country using the technology routinely in active combat.

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Ethical and legal dilemmas

The rise of AI on the battlefield has revived longstanding debates about autonomous weapons. Allowing machines to decide when and how to attack inevitably raises questions about accountability, civilian safety and the moral limits of delegating lethal decisions to algorithms.

The United Nations has repeatedly called for regulation of so-called killer robots, and Western militaries currently require a human to remain in the so-called kill chain before lethal action is taken.

While Swarmer has stressed that humans ultimately authorise strikes, critics worry that growing reliance on autonomy may eventually erode oversight, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Saving time, saving manpower

Supporters of the technology argue that autonomy is not just a matter of efficiency but of survival. A Ukrainian officer explained that using swarm software cut the need for operators by two-thirds, freeing up personnel for other tasks.

Kupriienko emphasised that one pilot can now manage many drones, a decisive advantage for Ukraine given Russias larger pool of soldiers.

Analysts also noted that reducing operator dependence helps lower the risks of communication failures or interference, which are common in contested battle zones.

A prophecy realised

Drone-warfare specialists have often described swarms as a transformative concept that remained more theoretical than practical. Zak Kallenborn, an expert at Kings College London, observed that until recently swarming was largely confined to demonstrations and predictions.

The fact that Ukraine is now carrying out such operations on the battlefield, he said, marks the point at which prophecy has begun to merge with reality.

What to expect next

As Ukraine continues to refine swarm technology, the implications for global security are profound. Future conflicts could see skies filled with thousands of autonomous drones coordinating across vast battlefields, saturating defences, and making real-time tactical decisions.

The technology promises greater speed and efficiency, but also risks a future in which machines hold unprecedented power over life and death.

Ukraines pioneering use of AI drone swarms suggests that the era of autonomous combat has arrived and with it a host of strategic opportunities and ethical challenges that the world has only begun to grapple with.

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France was shaken by Block Everything protests that led to over 200 arrests and intensified pressure on President Emmanuel Macron

Protesters sit on the ground to block a street during a demonstration in front of the Gare du Nord train station during a day of protests in Paris as part of a grassroots protest movement called "Bloquons Tout" ("Let's Block Everything") calling for nationwide all-day disruptions, France, September 10, 2025. Reuters

France witnessed widespread protest on Wednesday as demonstrators clashed with police, blocked major roads and set fires in cities across the country. Authorities confirmed that over 200 people had been arrested within the first hours of demonstrations organised under the banner of the Block Everything movement.

The protests created scenes of chaos in Paris, Nantes, Rennes and several other cities. Eyewitness accounts and videos shared on social media showed barricades set ablaze, garbage bins burning, and security forces dispersing crowds with rounds of tear gas. Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau described the agitation as an attempt to foster a climate of insurrection, Reuters reported.

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The spark: Political upheaval at the top

The demonstrations took place against a backdrop of political instability. Just two days earlier, Prime Minister Francois Bayrou had lost a parliamentary confidence vote over his austerity-driven budget proposals. Bayrou, who sought to curb Frances ballooning debt through pension freezes, cuts to public holidays and reduced welfare spending, resigned following the defeat.

On Tuesday, President Emmanuel Macron appointed Sebastien Lecornu, his loyal defence minister, as the new prime minister. This marked the presidents fifth prime ministerial appointment in less than two years.

Macrons decision was met with fierce criticism from opposition figures, who accused him of ignoring the depth of public discontent. Jean-Luc Melenchon of France Unbowed described the appointment as a provocation, while far-right leader Jordan Bardella argued that Macrons insistence on retaining allies showed a disregard for voters, according to the Associated Press.

Rise of Block Everything

The Block Everything campaign, known in French as Bloquons Tout, emerged earlier this year and quickly gained traction through social media platforms such as TikTok and X. While it initially began among right-wing groups, Reuters noted that it had since been taken over by left and far-left activists, making it a broad, decentralised movement without central leadership.

Analysts observed that its lack of a hierarchical structure made the campaign difficult to predict and harder to suppress. Some calls circulated online encouraged peaceful demonstrations, while others urged more radical action, from blocking highways to boycotting multinational corporations.

The movements tactics, including disrupting transportation and withdrawing money from banks, evoked comparisons to the 20182019 Yellow Vest protests, which also escalated from localised grievances into a broader revolt against Macrons leadership.

Escalating street clashes

Despite the governments deployment of an extraordinary 80,000 security personnel across Franceincluding 6,000 in Paristhe protest spread rapidly. In Nantes, demonstrators blocked a highway with burning tires and bins, prompting police to use tear gas to clear the area.

In Montpellier, protesters set up barricades at a roundabout before scuffling with security forces. Fires also broke out in Bordeaux and Toulouse, where train traffic was briefly disrupted.

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In Paris, police detained at least 75 people by early morning, but that number rose steadily as the day progressed. Authorities eventually reported close to 200 arrests nationwide by the afternoon, Associated Press reported. Retailleau confirmed that a bus had been set ablaze in Rennes and that damage to a power line had halted train services in the southwest.

Transport and travel chaos

The protests caused significant disruption to travel and daily life. Train and air traffic faced delays, though officials maintained that most metro and high-speed rail services would continue operating. Nonetheless, the RER B line between central Paris and Charles de Gaulle Airport experienced serious interruptions, forcing passengers to seek alternative routes.

Airports in Marseille, Nice, Bastia and Ajaccio were also affected. The Civil Aviation Authority warned passengers to prepare for delays and cancellations, while airline unions called on staff to join the strike actions. Authorities admitted that blockades and ad hoc demonstrations could cause unpredictable delays, even when official transport schedules remained intact, Reuters said.

Macron under pressure

The public protest came at a delicate moment for Macron, who faced accusations from both left and right that his government had lost touch with ordinary citizens. The Socialist Party warned that the president was risking bigger mass mobilisation and institutional paralysis by ignoring demands for change. Melenchon insisted that only Macrons departure could restore credibility, while Bardella accused the president of clinging to a failing strategy.

Macron defended his choice of Lecornu as prime minister, arguing that his allys experience in defence and governance would ensure stability. Lecornu himself pledged to pursue consensus in parliament and prioritixe Frances financial independence.

Yet, political observers doubted whether he would succeed in bridging the widening divide among centrists, leftists and far-right parties in the National Assembly.

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Austerity at the heart of discontent

At the centre of the protests lies public anger over austerity measures aimed at reducing Frances 43 billion budget deficit. Bayrous proposed cuts struck a nerve with unions and workers, who argued that the measures disproportionately punished low- and middle-income groups while sparing corporations.

One rail union declared online that the fall of the government was insufficient because Macrons administration still appeared committed to austerity-driven reforms.

Union leaders insisted that pension freezes, reductions in welfare and curtailed holidays would erode workers rights and deepen inequality. Protesters vowed to continue their resistance regardless of who held the prime ministers office, framing the demonstrations as a fight against systemic injustice rather than a single policy or politician.

Echoes of past movements

There are striking similarities between the Block Everything movement and the Yellow Vest protests of 2018, which began as a reaction to fuel price hikes but quickly escalated into a nationwide outcry against inequality and Macrons reforms.

Like its predecessor, Block Everything drew participants from diverse ideological and social backgrounds, uniting students, workers, trade unions and activists under a loosely defined call for change.

Both movements relied heavily on social media to coordinate and both rapidly evolved beyond their initial grievances to demand broader political reforms.

An international dimension

The protests in France coincided with a wave of labour discontent across Europe. Londons Underground workers staged a strike the same day, while staff at Dutch airline KLM also walked out, citing similar grievances over austerity and working conditions.

For France, however, the stakes were especially high, given Macrons fragile political standing and the recent collapse of his government. The protests highlighted both the vulnerability of his presidency and the broader challenge facing European leaders as they struggle to balance fiscal discipline with social cohesion.

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What next: A tough task for Macron

Unions have already warned of further strikes and demonstrations in the coming weeks. Air traffic controllers announced plans for a 24-hour walkout later in September, raising fears of renewed travel chaos. For Macron and Lecornu, the immediate task would be to restore order and build parliamentary support for the budget, but the prospect of prolonged protests loomed large.

With more than 200 arrests, widespread disruption and mounting anger, Wednesdays protests exposed Frances volatile political climate. Whether Macron can weather this crisis without further alienating voters remains uncertain. For many, the protest has revived memories of previous chapters of social upheaval and the possibility of an extended confrontation between the government and its citizens now seems increasingly likely.
The European Union is very unlikely to impose crippling tariffs on India or China, the main buyers of Russian oil, as US President Donald Trump has urged the bloc to do.

The European Union is unlikely to impose heavy tariffs on India and China, the two biggest buyers of Russian oil despite pressure from US President Donald Trump, Reuters reported quoting EU sources as saying.

A delegation of EU officials, including the blocs Russia sanctions chief, travelled to Washington this week to coordinate sanctions policy with the US. During the talks, Trump reportedly urged the EU to slap tariffs of up to 100% on Indian and Chinese oil purchases from Russia, arguing that such measures would cut off a key source of revenue for President Vladimir Putin.

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The European Commission declined to comment.

While the EU has rolled out sweeping sanctions on Russia and in July added two Chinese banks and a major Indian refinery to its blacklist, officials said that tariffs follow a different legal process. Unlike sanctions, tariffs can only be imposed after lengthy investigations to establish a legal basis, making a swift move highly unlikely.

More from World India, EU expedite FTA talks amid Trump tariff disruptions, European team in New Delhi this week

The bloc has so far only imposed tariffs in the context of the Ukraine war on Russian and Belarusian fertilizers and farm products. The justification for the measures was to prevent creating a dependency that could be exploited and to avoid harm to EU fertiliser producers.

So far, there is no discussion on possible tariffs neither on Indianor with China, an EU diplomat said.

Furthermore, the EU is in the midst of finalising a trade deal with India, which the bloc is unlikely to want to jeopardize.

Trumps position on India also appeared to ease by Wednesday, when he said he was looking to reset trade relations with New Delhi.

Another EU source said such tariffs were risky and could be too broad and it was easier to sanction specific entities and open the door to delist them if they ended their business with Russia.

Up to now, the EU had limited itself to listing small and unknown entities in third countries, which were often shell companies used to funnel military equipment or dual-use goods for use by Russias military.

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The EU is planning to list banks in two central Asian countries in its 19th package of sanctions as well as Chinese refineries, which could be proposed as soon as Friday.

With inputs from agencies
The Kremlin on Wednesday rejected allegations that Russian drones were responsible for overnight incursions into Polish airspace, dismissing the claims as groundless amid growing concern among European leaders over a potential escalation in regional tensions

The Kremlin on Wednesday rejected allegations that Russian drones were responsible for overnight incursions into Polish airspace, dismissing the claims as groundless amid growing concern among European leaders over a potential escalation in regional tensions.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said no evidence had been provided linking the drones to Russia.

EU and Nato leaders accuse Russia of provocation almost daily, most often without even attempting to provide any justification, News 18 quoted Peskov as saying.

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Earlier, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told parliament that the country faced its most dangerous moment since World War Two after seven drones and debris of an unidentified object were discovered across multiple provinces.

I have no reason to claim were on the brink of war, but a line has been crossed and its incomparably more dangerous than before," Donald Tusk said.

Meanwhile, the Polands Interior Ministry has confirmed the discovery of drone wreckage in multiple regions following a series of airspace violations that have triggered alarm across Europe.

According to officials, five drones and their remains were found in Lublin province, near the borders with Belarus and Ukraine.

Two additional drones were located much farther afield  one in Mniszkow, in central Lodz province, approximately 250 km from the Belarusian border, and another near Elblag, close to the Baltic coast. Authorities said investigations are ongoing and that security forces remain on high alert.

The widespread drone incursions prompted immediate condemnation from European leaders.

French President Emmanuel Macron called the violations simply unacceptable and announced plans to meet with Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte in response.

European Council President Antonio Costa warned that peace and security in Europe cannot be taken for granted, vowing increased investment in collective defense.

Leaders across the continent voiced concern over what they see as deliberate provocation. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said it was hard to believe the strikes were accidental, accusing Russia of systematically probing to see how far it can go.

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Meanwhile, Finnish President Alexander Stubb stated that Russia seeks escalation and bears direct responsibility for the airspace violations.

With inputs from agencies
Hong Kong lawmakers on Wednesday voted down a bill that would have granted recognition to same sex partnerships in the Chinese city, despite the rights offered being limited, in a major setback to the LGBTQ+ movement.

Lawmaker Regina Ip arrives at the legislative debate on a government bill recognizing same-sex partnerships, a proposed framework stemming from his successful legal challenge at the top court in Hong Kong, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025.- AP

Hong Kongs Legislative Council on Wednesday rejected a government bill that sought to formally recognise same-sex partnerships, dealing a setback to LGBTQ rights and defying a top court directive.

The proposal, titled the Registration of Same-Sex Partnerships Bill, was defeated in a 7114 vote during its second reading, preventing it from moving to a final stage. It marked the first government bill to be voted down since Beijing reshaped Hong Kongs electoral system in 2021, ensuring a legislature dominated by pro-establishment figures.

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Lawmakers opposing the measure argued it lacked broad public support, noting that more than 8,000 of the 10,000 submissions to Legco voiced opposition.

The bill, introduced in July, had aimed to allow residents in overseas same-sex unions to register their partnerships in Hong Kong. It would have provided rights in key areas such as medical decision-making, access to medical records, and the claiming of a partners remains after death.

Its introduction followed a 2023 ruling by Hong Kongs top court, which ordered the government to establish a legal framework for recognising same-sex relationships. Despite this, legislators across the political spectrum resisted, insisting that piecemeal administrative measures could address the challenges faced by same-sex couples.

Some members argued the rejection underscored that the legislature was not a rubber stamp for government proposals. Critics, however, warned that the decision undermines Hong Kongs reputation as a global business hub and leaves same-sex couples in continued legal limbo.

Lawmaker Holden Chow from the citys biggest pro-establishment party said that the bills passage would mean opening a Pandoras box, and subverting Hong Kongs marriage system between one man and one woman.

Another legislator, Junius Ho, said the bill would cause the entire society to become restless for the sake of a small group of people.

Outside government headquarters near the legislature, two women laid out a banner promoting the traditional marriage system.

Many gay rights advocates were unhappy that the rights would only be available to those who registered their unions overseas, and would be limited. But some pragmatically supported and rallied for its passage.

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Last Friday, Hong Kong Marriage Equality, a nongovernmental organisation, warned in a statement that rejecting the bill would undermine the citys commitment to fairness and inclusivity. It would also send a wrong signal to the international community, it said.

It argued that the results of public opinion submissions  which the government previously reported as 80% opposing the bill  did not accurately reflect public sentiment. It noted that about half of the publicly viewable submissions against the bill used standardised templates, which suggested strong mobilization by specific groups.

Hong Kongs top court in 2023 ruled that the government should develop a framework for recognizing same-sex partnerships by October. It is unclear what the governments next steps could be after the vote.

Surveys showed 60% of respondents supported same-sex marriage in 2023, up from 38% in 2013, according to a report by researchers from three universities.

The growing acceptance came as multiple legal challenges won more equal rights for same-sex couples, ranging from dependent visas to subsidized housing benefits. On Tuesday, the Court of First Instance ruled in favour of a lesbian couples parental recognition of their son born through reciprocal in vitro fertilisation.

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In a previous legislative debate, Solicitor General Llewellyn Mui stated that even if the bill is rejected, the court ruling would remain valid in principle, and the government would be duty-bound to fulfil its obligations to the best of its ability.

The government previously said its proposal represents the greatest common denominator deemed acceptable to the public and that the framework would not be equal to marriage. It argued that requiring overseas registration would provide an objective way to verify committed partnerships.

Ahead of the vote, Amnesty International Hong Kong Overseas and 30 rights groups from across Asia have called on the government to disclose a contingency plan if the bill is not passed before the top courts deadline and introduce a revised proposal without delay.

With inputs from agencies
India has termed as surprising, shallow, and ill informed the remarks made by Switzerland against it on its minorities, saying the country should focus on its own challenges such as racism, systematic discrimination, and xenophobia.

India strongly criticised Pakistan at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Tuesday, dismissing its statements as recycled propaganda and accusing it of sponsoring terrorism.

Speaking at the 5th meeting of the Councils 60th session in Geneva, Indian diplomat Kshitij Tyagi said Pakistan had a pathological fixation on India and was misusing international platforms to peddle falsehoods.

Our measured and proportionate response to the Pahalgam attack made that sufficiently clear. We need no lessons from a terror sponsor, no sermons from a persecutor of minorities, no advice from a state that has conjured its own credibility, Tyagi said.

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India will continue to protect its citizens with unwavering resolve, defend its sovereignty without compromise and expose the elaborate deception of a failed state whose survival depends upon trafficking in terror and tragedy.

India also termed as surprising, shallow, and ill-informed the remarks made by Switzerland against it on its minorities, saying the country should focus on its own challenges such as racism, systematic discrimination, and xenophobia.

We would also like to respond to the surprising, shallow, and ill-informed remarks made by Switzerland, a close friend and partner, Kshitij Tyagi, Counsellor in the Permanent Mission of India, Geneva, said on Tuesday during the General Debate on the oral update by the High Commissioner at the 60th Session of the Human Rights Council.

In remarks at the Council, the Swiss delegate had said his country calls on the Indian government to take effective measures to protect minorities and uphold the rights to the freedom of expression and the freedom of the media.

Noting that since Switzerland holds the Presidency of the UN Human Rights Council, Tyagi said it is all the more important for Switzerland to avoid wasting the Councils time with narratives that are blatantly false and do not do justice to the reality of India.

Instead, it should focus on its own challenges such as racism, systematic discrimination and xenophobia. As the worlds largest, most diverse, and vibrant democracy with a civilisational embrace of pluralism, India remains ready to help Switzerland address these concerns, Tyagi said.

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With inputs from agencies
Hamas has said that its senior leadership survived the Israeli airstrikes while confirming six deaths, including the son of its top negotiator. Qatar said one of its security officers also died

Smoke rises after several blasts were heard in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday. Reuters

Qatar, the mediator country in the Gaza war, has become Israels latest target after the army struck the homes of several members of Hamass political bureau, killing six people.

Hamas has said that its senior leadership survived the Israeli airstrikes while confirming six deaths, including the son of its top negotiator. Qatar said one of its security officers also died.

The attack has evoked a strong response from the Gulf country, whose prime minister said it reserved the right to respond to the Israeli attack, which it said constituted a pivotal moment for the region.

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We believe that today we have reached a pivotal moment, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani told a press conference. There must be a response from the entire region to such barbaric actions.

Who were killed in the attack?

Three bodyguards and negotiator Khalil al-Hayyas aide and son were all killed in the attack, Hamas said, affirming the enemys failure to assassinate our brothers in the negotiating delegation.

Qatars interior ministry said a member of its internal security forces was killed in the strikes and several other security personnel wounded.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered the strikes in response to a Monday shooting in Jerusalem that killed six people and was later claimed by Hamas.

Not thrilled

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has issued a rare rebuke to Israel over its attack in Qatar, as he insisted he played no role in the attack by one close US ally against another.

Im not thrilled about the whole situation, Trump told reporters during a rare outing to a Washington restaurant. We want the hostages back, but we are not thrilled about the way that went down today.

This was a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu; it was not a decision made by me, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social network.

I view Qatar as a strong Ally and friend of the US, and feel very badly about the location of the attack, he said  although adding that eliminating Hamas was still a worthy goal.

With inputs from agencies
Plan includes five-phase disarmament strategy starting in southern Lebanon, with nationwide security measures and focus on restoring state control over weapons

Lebanons Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi speaks during a joint press conference with his counterpart from Egypt at the Foreign Ministry headquarters in Cairo on Apr. 22, 2025. AFP File

Lebanon Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi on Tuesday said that its army will begin disarming Hezbollah near the Israeli border within three months, according to an AFP report.

The initiative follows an August directive from the Lebanese government instructing the military to develop a plan to disarm the powerful militant group by years end, amid mounting pressure from the United States and ongoing Israeli airstrikes.

Although the cabinet announced last week that implementation of the plan would soon begin, it withheld specific details.

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Raggi said Army Commander Rodolphe Haykal has since presented a five-phase disarmament roadmap aimed at consolidating all weapons under state control.

The first phase, he said, will take approximately three months and will focus on removing all weapons from areas south of the Litani River  roughly 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border  by the end of November.

There will be no warehouses, no weapons, no weapons transfers, no fighters, and no display of arms in the area, AFP quoted Raggi as saying, describing the armys plan.

Alongside the initial phase of disarming Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, the army will implement nationwide security measures, according to the plan.

Raggi said that the military will tighten and increase the number of checkpoints, prevent the movement and carrying of weapons but without conducting raids, arresting individuals, or confiscating weapons from warehouses.

At the very least, the movement of weapons from one area to another will be prohibited, he added.

Raggi also noted that the remaining four phases of the disarmament plan will target other regions, including Beirut and the eastern Bekaa, but without timelines.

Hezbollahs position has been significantly weakened after a year-long conflict with Israel, including two months of open warfare that inflicted heavy losses on the groups leadership and arsenal.

The Lebanese government has framed the disarmament effortfiercely opposed by Hezbollahas part of implementing the ceasefire agreement that ended the conflict in November of last year.

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That deal also called for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanese territory and a halt to cross-border strikes. However, Israel has continued bombing targets in Lebanon and maintains troops at five strategic border locations.

With inputs from agencies
Nepals youth protesters have proposed former Chief Justice Sushila Karki as the head of the countrys interim government, according to reports.

A protester shouts slogans carrying national flag after burning down a police station during protests against social media ban and corruption in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, September 9, 2025. File Image/AP

Nepals youth protesters have proposed Sushila Karki, a former chief justice, as the head of the countrys interim government.

Karki was pitched as the interim leader of the country in a virtual meeting on Wednesday that was attended by thousands of young persons.

However, participants have not yet reached a consensus, and the name has not been submitted to the Nepali Army, according to Nepali newspaper Naagrik.

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The Nepali Army has previously told Firstpost that it is facilitating talks between protesters and the government but it is not part of talks. After Prime Minister KP Sharmas Olis resignation on Tuesday, President Ram Chandra Paudel called upon protesters to shun violence and engage in talks.

Formally, as per the Constitution of Nepal, Oli will run a caretaker government until the formation of the new government.

Discussions over Discord on interim leader

Groups are holding discussions on the situation in the country on the platform Discord.

Nepali newspaper Kantipur reported that around 10,000 persons affiliated with Youth Against Corruption have been holding discussions on Discord.

While the name of Kathmandu Mayor Balen Shah was doing rounds earlier in the day, Karki has been the top preference since the afternoon, the report said.

Separately, Naagrik reported that protesters have nearly reached a consensus on presenting Karkis name as the interim leader.

However, other names have been proposed as well, such as Mayor Shah, Harka Sampang of Dharan, Sagar Dhakal, Kulman Ghising, and Sumana Shrestha, and no decision has yet been made, the newspaper reported.
Prison officials have said that until Tuesday, about 900 inmates broke free from two prisons in Nepals western districts

A protester shouts slogans carrying national flag after burning down a police station during protests against social media ban and corruption in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. AP

Nepals government has fallen after a Gen-Z uprising over corruption led to widespread violence and destruction, leading to the resignations of both Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and President Ram Chandra Poudel.

As the protests, which began on Monday, gained momentum, with the torching of the Parliament, the PM and the presidents residence, and more deaths, reports of jail breaks came to the fore. Prison officials have said that until Tuesday, about 900 inmates broke free from two prisons in Nepals western districts.

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Protests began on Monday with demands that the government lift a ban on social media and tackle corruption, with police trying to crush the rallies, resulting in the deaths of many young protesters.

Indian states on alert

On Tuesday, India declared a round-the-clock vigilance in the districts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar that share a border with Nepal.

Security measures have been ramped up in Bihar, which shares a 729-kilometre porous border with Nepal. Seven districts, East Champaran, West Champaran, Sitamarhi, Madhubani, Araria, Supaul, and Kishanganj, have been placed on high alert.

The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), the paramilitary force tasked with securing the border, has intensified monitoring efforts and deployed extra personnel to bolster vigilance in the region.

Meanwhile, in UP, Director General of Police (DGP) Rajiv Krishna has issued an order placing the police force on round-the-clock alert. The districts of Shravasti, Balrampur, Bahraich, Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Siddharthnagar, and Maharajganj share borders with Nepal.

PM Modi holds meeting

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday expressed deep concern over the ongoing violence in Nepal, describing the situation as heart-rending and appealing for peace and stability in the neighbouring country.

Speaking after chairing a Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meeting held upon his return from a tour of flood-hit Himachal Pradesh and Punjab, PM Modi said the panel discussed recent developments in Nepal.

On my return from Himachal Pradesh and Punjab today, a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security discussed the developments in Nepal. The violence in Nepal is heart-rending. I am anguished that many young people have lost their lives. The stability, peace and prosperity of Nepal are of utmost importance to us. I humbly appeal to all my brothers and sisters in Nepal to support peace, he said in a post on X.

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What began as youth-led demonstration in Nepal has now escalated into a targeted campaign against the free press and educational institutions, as members and sympathisers of various political parties have hijacked the protests to settle scores and incite violence

The office of Simrik Air in Tinkune, Kathmandu has been completely torched. Firstpost

What began as youth-led demonstration in Nepal has now escalated into a targeted campaign against the free press and educational institutions, as members and sympathisers of various political parties have hijacked the protests to settle scores and incite violence.

There is clear evidence that the protests, spearheaded by Nepals Gen-Z, have been overtaken by various political parties, including the Rastriya Swatantra Party, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, and CPN (Maoist Centre), among others opposed to the current constitution.

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These groups are now being accused of orchestrating a series of violent attacks, particularly aimed at media institutions known for their independent journalism and anti-corruption reporting.

Two of Nepals largest media houses  Annapurna Media Network (AMN) and Kantipur Media Group  have become primary targets. AMN Chairman Captain Rameshwar Thapa is reportedly receiving life threats from unidentified individuals following a string of coordinated arson attacks.

Protesters have set fire to three of Captain Thapas residential properties in Kusadevi, Panauti, and Chapali Height, while the office of Simrik Air in Tinkune, Kathmandu  another business associated with Thapa  has been completely torched. All properties belonging to Simrik Air have reportedly been set ablaze.

Most notably, the Annapurna Media Network headquarters was set ablaze while journalists were working inside. This follows an earlier attack in May by pro-monarchy demonstrators who vandalized AMN offices. These repeated incidents point to what appears to be a systematic attempt to silence independent journalism.

Meanwhile, Kantipur Media Group, which runs several major print, radio, and television platforms, also came under attack, with parts of its building damaged by fire. Protesters have additionally vandalized NAMI College in Kathmandu and set fire to seven vehicles on campus.

The violence marks a dangerous turning point, with credible evidence suggesting that political actors are using civil unrest as a cover to intimidate the press and educational institutions. Despite escalating threats, state agencies have yet to respond with meaningful action, raising concerns about the rule of law and press freedom in Nepal.

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The deliberate targeting of media and education sectors is being viewed as an assault not only on individual institutions but on Nepals democratic values and constitutional freedoms.

The demonstrations erupted last week after the government banned 26 social media platforms  including WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook  for failing to register with Nepals Ministry of Communication and Information Technology by a set deadline.

Critics slammed the move as an attempt to suppress a growing anti-corruption campaign. The government reversed the ban on Monday night amid mounting backlash.

Although the ban served as the immediate trigger, the protests have since evolved into a broader expression of public frustration with long-standing grievances against the countrys leadership and institutions.

The ensuing demonstrations turned violent in Kathmandu and some other cities in Nepal, with 29 protesters dying in clashes.

The Nepal Army on Wednesday imposed nationwide restrictive orders followed by a curfew to quell possible violence under the guise of protest, a day after deadly anti-government demonstrations forced Prime Minister KP Sharma Olis resignation, leaving key buildings in flames and the nation on edge.

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With inputs from agencies
The Nepali Army is not part of talks between the government and protesters but is facilitating such talks, Firstpost can exclusively report.

The Nepali Army is not part of talks between the government and protesters, but it is facilitating talks to resolve the current crisis, Firstpost can report.

In an exclusive interview, a Nepali Army spokesperson told Firstpost on Wednesday that talks to resolve the crisis have started and that while the Army is not a party to talks as it is a political matter, it is facilitating these talks.

Earlier in the day, President Ram Chandra Paudel called upon protesters to shun violence and engage in dialogue to resolve the crisis.

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I urge all sides to remain calm, prevent further harm to the nation, and come to the table for talks. In a democracy, the demands raised by citizens can be addressed through dialogue and negotiation, said Paudel in a statement.

The plea followed Prime Minister KP Sharma Olis resignation on Tuesday amid nationwide violence in which mobs torched all the branches of the government in Kathmandu and attacked government buildings, homes of politicians, and offices of political parties across the country.

We are not part of the talks but we are trying to facilitate the talks so that we can peacefully resolve the situation, said the army spokesperson.

Putting to rest the speculation whether the Army would take over the administration, the spokesperson said that the Army will abide by the democratic political process in the resolution of the situation that has already begun.

We were compelled to intervene to mitigate lawlessness

The Nepali Army intervened in the crisis to mitigate the lawlessness that had gripped the country, according to the spokesperson.

We were compelled to intervene only to mitigate the unexpected escalation of violence and lawlessness by employing careful and considered measures to prevent further escalation, the spokesperson said.

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Referring to the violence, the spokesperson said that there has been arson, looting, and vandalism, in Kathmandu and historic buildings have been burnt.

The spokesperson further said, The situation in and around Kathmandu is getting under control and we are trying to maintain peace and law and order to protect the lives of the people. We are trying to normalise the situation so that people can access services freely.

Anarchists have infiltrated protests: Nepali Army on violence

In a statement on Wednesday, the Nepali Army said that anarchist groups and persons have infiltrated ongoing protests in the country and engaged in criminal activities like looting, vandalism, and attempted rape.

After nationwide violence throughout Tuesday, the Nepali Army took over law enforcement duties in the evening. The Army also announced a curfew from 5 pm Wednesday to 6 am Thursday.

The Army said, During the prohibitory and curfew orders, vehicles providing essential services such as ambulances, hearses, fire trucks, and those for health workers and security personnel will be allowed to operate. All concerned parties are requested to coordinate with nearby security personnel for necessary assistance.

So far, more than 20 people have been arrested, including five persons who looted a bank branch, according to The Himalayan Times.

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PM Modi condemned Israels air strikes on Doha while calling for dialogue and de-escalation and stressed Indias support for regional peace while reaffirming strong India-Qatar strategic and economic ties.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday condemned the violation of Qatars sovereignty in the wake of Israels air strikes on Doha targeting Hamas leaders that triggered fears of further escalation of the already fragile situation in the region.

The prime ministers rare criticism directed at Israel came after he spoke to Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani and conveyed Indias deep concern at the attacks in Doha.

Israel carried out the air strikes on Qatari capital Doha on Tuesday in the latest in a series of attacks it launched against Syria, Iran and Lebanon. The attack on Doha triggered global outrage.

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Spoke with Amir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani and expressed deep concern at the attacks in Doha, Modi said on social media.

India condemns the violation of the sovereignty of the brotherly State of Qatar. We support resolution of issues through dialogue and diplomacy, and avoiding escalation, he said.

The prime minister said India stands firmly in support of peace and stability in the region, and against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

Following the attack, Hamas said five of its members were killed in the Israeli air strike. However, it said Israels attempt to assassinate its leaders failed.

Hamas said its negotiating team was holding deliberations to discuss a proposal from the US for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip at a building when the attack took place.

The prime ministers rebuke came days after India joined other member nations of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in strongly condemning the military strikes by Israel and the US on Iran.

An Indian readout said Prime Minister Modi appreciated the role being played by Qatar in promoting regional peace and stability, including its mediation efforts in Gaza to achieve a ceasefire and release of all hostages.

The prime minister reiterated support for resolution of all issues through dialogue and diplomacy and the need to avoid escalation, it said.

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Sheikh Tamim thanked Prime Minister Modi for the expression of solidarity with the people and the State of Qatar, it said.

The SCO summit in the Chinese city of Tianjin also condemned actions that have led to numerous casualties among the civilian population and a catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.

PM Modi was among the leaders who attended the SCO summit.

Reiterating their deep concern over the continuing escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the member states strongly condemn the actions that have led to numerous casualties among the civilian population and a catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, the SCO declaration said.

It said the SCO leaders noted that the only possible way to ensure peace and stability in the Middle East is through a comprehensive and just settlement of the Palestinian question.

Member States strongly condemned the military strikes by Israel and the US against the Islamic Republic of Iran in June, it said.

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Such aggressive actions against civilian targets, including nuclear energy infrastructure, which resulted in the death of civilians, are a gross violation of the principles and norms of international law and the UN Charter, and an infringement on the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, it said.

PM Modis comments on Wednesday are seen as very significant. He had previously condemned the deaths of civilians in the Israel-Hamas conflict during a speech in 2023.

Bharat has condemned the heinous terrorist attack in Israel on October 7. We have also emphasised on dialogue and diplomacy besides restraints, Modi said in his address at the second Voice of Global South Summit on November 17 that year.

We strongly condemn the deaths of civilians in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. After talking to President Mahmoud Abbas, we have also sent humanitarian aid to the people of Palestine. It is time that the countries of the Global South speak with one voice for the greater global good, he had said.

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Israel has been continuing its military offensive in Gaza as part of its retaliation against the unprecedented attack on Israeli cities by Hamas on October 7.

Hamas killed around 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped more than 220 others, some of whom were released during a brief ceasefire.

Over 60,000 people have been killed in Gaza in the Israeli offensive, according to the Hamas-run authorities in Gaza.

India has been calling for de-escalation of the situation and creating conditions for an early resumption of direct peace negotiations towards a two-state solution to the Palestine issue. India has strong economic ties with Qatar, which is home to more than 8,30,000 Indian nationals. Qatar is also Indias largest LNG supplier.

PM Modi and Sheikh Tamim also expressed satisfaction at the sustained progress in the India-Qatar Strategic Partnership and reiterated their commitment to advance bilateral cooperation in all areas of mutual interest, the Indian readout said.
Poland has shot down Russian drones that entered the countrys airspace. Nato warplanes were scrambled to tackle drones that were part of Russian bombardment of Ukraine.

People watch as a house is damaged after a drone or similar object struck a residential building, according to local authorities, following violations of Polish airspace during a Russian attack on Ukraine, in Wyryki municipality, Poland, on September 10, 2025. (Photo: Agencja Wyborcza.pl/Jakub Orzechowski/via Reuters)

Poland on Wednesday said it shot down Russian drones that entered its airspace. The incursion took place during the overnight Russian bombardment of Ukraine.

This is the first time that a Nato member-state has said it shot down Russian attack drones inside its airspace. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) is based on the basis of the collective defence principle rooted in its Article 5 where an attack on one is considered an attack on all members.

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Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told the parliament that 19 Russian drones entered the countrys airspace. He said that two F-35s fighter planes, two F-16s, and MI-24, MI-17, and Black Hawk helicopters were deployed to tackle these drones.

The first airspace violation was recorded around 11:30 pm and the last at 6:30 am, showing the scale of the operation that lasted all night, Tusk further said.

Separately, the Polish military said that Polish and Nato ally countries warplanes deployed in the country were mobilised to tackle Russian drones and ground-based air defences were also pressed into action. It described the development as an act of aggression by Russia.

While drones and missiles have previously crossed into Poland, which borders Ukraine in the west, this is the first time that the country shot down Russian drones. At least two Russian drones had entered Polish airspace last week as well.

Last night, Russia attacked Ukraine with 458 missiles and drones and 413 of them were shot down, the Ukrainian military said.

In a statement, the Ukrainian Air Force said that the Russian overnight attack included 415 attack drones, including more than 250 Iranian-origin Shahed drones, 42 cruise missiles, and one ballistic missile.

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Putin is testing the West, says Ukraine

After the first such confrontation between Russia and a Nato member, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said that Russian President Vladimir Putin is testing the West with such actions.

Russian drones flying into Poland during the massive attack on Ukraine show that Putins sense of impunity keeps growing because he was not properly punished for his previous crimes, said Sybiha.

The longer Putin faces no strength in response, the more aggressive he gets, Sybiha further said.

Ukraine has pressed for tougher sanctions on Ukraine to build pressure on Putin to come to the negotiating table. So far, US President Donald Trump has not taken any punitive action against Putin for refusing all offers for ceasefire and direct talks.

Sybiha also flagged the threat that Russian bombardment poses to neighbouring European countries and said the decision needs to be taken to enable partner air defense capabilities in neighbouring countries to be used to intercept drones and missiles in the Ukrainian air space, including those approaching Nato borders.
Poland gathered its NATO allies for urgent talks Wednesday after Russian drones flew into Polish airspace during an attack on Ukraine, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said, warning that the situation was inching closer to open conflict.

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday raised alarm over Russian drones entering Polish airspace, calling it a violation of NATO ally Polands airspace with drones as Warsaw convened emergency talks with allies.

Whats with Russia violating Polands airspace with drones? Here we go! Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, shortly after the White House said he was monitoring the situation and would speak with Polish President Karol Nawrocki.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed that Russian drones crossed into the countrys airspace 19 times during an attack on Ukraine. He said at least three drones were shot down after Poland and allied forces scrambled jets.

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This is edging closer to open conflict, Tusk warned, while noting that no casualties were reported.

Footage posted by local media showed firefighters and the army in Wyryki-Wola, a village in eastern Poland, inspecting a house with its roof ripped open and debris littered nearby.

Polands Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said the intrusion was not accidental, calling it an unprecedented case of an attack not only on Polands territory but also on the territory of NATO and the European Union.

Russias defence ministry denied targeting Poland and its foreign ministry accused Warsaw of spreading myths to escalate the war in Ukraine. The Russian embassy in Warsaw separately told AFP that Poland has failed to provide evidence of the Russian origin of the objects that entered Polish airspace.

Russian drones and missiles have entered the airspace of NATO members including Poland several times during Russias three-and-a-half-year war, but a NATO country has never attempted to shoot them down.

Tusk said he had invoked NATOs Article 4, under which a member can call urgent talks when it feels its territorial integrity, political independence or security are at risk  only the eighth time the measure has been used.

This situation brings us closer than ever to open conflict since World War II, Tusk told parliament, though there is no reason today to claim that we are in a state of war.

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The incident came as Russia unleashed a barrage of strikes across Ukraine, including in the western city of Lviv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the airspace violation was a dangerous precedent for Europe and urged a strong response from Kyivs Western allies.

Polands interior ministry said a house and a car had been damaged overnight, adding that seven drones and debris from an unknown projectile had been located so far.

We were just sitting there, and this plane flew over I said to my husband: Why is this plane so loud today? And suddenly, a bang, and that was it, Alicja Wesolowska, 64, whose house was destroyed, told AFP in Wyryki-Wola.

The North Atlantic Council, NATOs main political decision-making body, changed the format of its weekly meeting on Wednesday to hold it under Article 4 of the treaty. A cornerstone of NATO is the principle that an attack on any member is deemed an attack on all.

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NATO chief Mark Rutte hailed his organisations very successful reaction, telling journalists the alliances air defences had done their job.He denounced Moscows reckless behaviour and called on Putin to halt a war that he said was now being waged on civilians.

With inputs from agencies
Former Chief Justice Sushila Karki, whose name has been proposed as Nepals interim leader, has said that her priority would be to bring peace to the country and hold elections within six months to a year.

An undated photograph of Sushila Karki, the former Chief Justice of Nepal, who is now a frontrunner to be the country's interim leader. (Photo via CNN-News 18)

Former Chief Justice Sushila Karki, whose name has been proposed to be Nepals interim leader, has said that her first priority would be to bring peace to the country. She further said that she would want fresh elections within a year.

In deliberations in youth groups part of the so-called Gen Z protests of Nepal, Karki has emerged as the frontrunner to be the country's interim leader. However, consensus has not yet been reached and other names, such as that of Kathmandu Mayor Balen Shah, have also been put forward.

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In an interview with CNN-News 18, Karki said that she would be willing to take up the role and, as Nepals interim leader, her priority would be to bring peace to the country and hold elections within a year.

Karki said that she would run a purely transitional government and would hand over the government to elected leaders at the earliest.

Fresh elections will take time  at least six months to one year. I am not a politician but just a judge, so I want a fair election. I want to hand over the responsibility as early as possible when the new government is formed, said Karki.

Reflecting the popular rejection of Nepals leaders, who have failed to bring stability to the country since the abolition of the monarchy in 2008, Karki said that she would try to establish a new system in the country.

Nepals Gen Z protest has been a decentralised movement without any single leader. As a result, there is little consensus about the-day-after. There is no manifesto, common programme, or any central leadership. Moreover, the nationwide violence on Tuesday showed that the protest had slipped out of their hands. Visuals showed many men with rifles and blades attacking government buildings and setting them ablaze.

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Throughout the day, mobs rampaged across the country, burning everything from the parliament, Supreme Court, Singha Durbar, media offices, and nearly every government building they could get their hands on. The Nepali Army on Wednesday said that anarchist groups and persons have infiltrated protests and engaged in criminal activities like looting, vandalism, and attempted rape.

New political party might be formed

Karki said that a new political party might emerge out of the Gen Z protest. She, however, added that no existing party could be stopped from contesting the upcoming elections.

Listing her priorities, Karki said the priority is to bring peace in Nepal and restore damaged buildings.

Karki further flagged food scarcity in Nepal and said that a lot of things need to be done for Nepal.

I cannot fulfil the responsibility alone. It needs to be done collectively, said Karki.

As for the current situation in Nepal, Karki said that the Army has been deployed in Kathmandu and the situation has been better today. She said the Army has controlled the situation very well.
Floods on Indonesias holiday island of Bali have killed at least nine this week and affected 600 people, blocking off major roads in the capital and disrupting a busy travel destination, officials said on Wednesday.

This is an AI generated image for representational purpose

Floods on Indonesias holiday island of Bali have killed at least nine this week and affected 600 people, blocking off major roads in the capital and disrupting a busy travel destination, officials said on Wednesday.

Continuous heavy rains between Tuesday evening and Wednesday caused the floods and killed five people in Balis capital Denpasar, Abdul Muhari, the spokesperson of the countrys disaster mitigation agency said in a statement.

Four more people were killed in the regions of Jembrana, Gianyar, and Badung, Abdul added. Two people were still missing.

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Out of 600 people affected, nearly 200 have been evacuated to schools and mosques because their houses were still flooded, the agency said.

The floods brought down two buildings in Denpasar, said I Nyoman Sidakarya, the head of the islands search and rescue agency.

Access to the islands international airport near Denpasar was limited as only trucks could use the roads, he added.

Videos on social media, which Reuters could not authenticate, showed floods on major roads leading to complete gridlock.

About 200 rescuers have been dispatched, Nyoman said.

Heavy rain also led to flooding in Indonesias East Nusa Tenggara where four people have been killed, the disaster mitigation agency said.

Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto expressed his condolences and instructed the head of national disaster agency to fly to Bali to lead the emergency response and ensure peoples basic needs are met.

The agency had distributed tents, food, blankets, mattresses, water pumps, and rubber boats.
Poland scrambled allied jets after Russian drones were reported to have crossed into its airspace during a massive overnight assault on Ukraine

(File) A Polish Air Force fighter jet F16 flies after a refuelling by an Airbus A330 MRTT "Phenix" in the airspace of Poland as part of Nato's enhanced Air Policing (eAP) to secure the skies over Baltic allies, March 29, 2022. Reuters

Nato fighter jets were reported to have been scrambled early Wednesday as Russia carried out one of its heaviest air assaults on Ukraine in recent weeks. Warsaws Operational Command stated on social media that Polish and allied aircraft were operating in national airspace in response to what it described as an intensive air attack from Russia.

According to BBC reports, Ukraines Air Force said through its Telegram channel that Moscow had deployed more than 500 attack and decoy drones, in addition to 24 missiles, during the overnight strikes. Several western regions of Ukraine, including Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Khmelnytskyi and Lutsk were reported to have experienced explosions raising concerns about the proximity of the strikes to Polands border.

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Reports of drones crossing into Polish airspace

GB News reported that Polish authorities were alerted by Ukraines Air Force that Iranian-made Shahed drones, commonly referred to as suicide drones, had crossed into Polish territory. In response, Poland temporarily closed airspace around major airports, including Warsaw Chopin, Warsaw-Modlin, Rzeszow and Lublin citing unplanned military activity.

The Polish operational command emphasised that both air and ground defence systems had been placed on the highest state of readiness. Officials suggested that these measures were intended to reassure and protect citizens in Polands eastern regions near Ukraine. The Ukrainian Air Force also warned that Russian drones appeared to be heading toward the Polish city of Zamosc, though Polish authorities had not officially confirmed this trajectory.

Political reactions and rising tensions

The reported drone incursion triggered strong political reactions. Polish MEP Dominik Tarczynski urged caution, noting that official confirmation was still pending and warning against misinformation circulating online. However, some US lawmakers interpreted the events more forcefully.

Republican Congressman Joe Wilson claimed that Russia was directly attacking Nato territory, calling the incident an act of war. He urged Washington to impose mandatory sanctions on Moscow and to provide Ukraine with more advanced weaponry capable of striking inside Russia. Wilson suggested that President Vladimir Putin was deliberately testing Natos resolve by extending aggression beyond Ukraines borders.

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin offered a more measured response, arguing that repeated drone incursions into Nato airspace signalled Moscows attempts to test the alliances willingness to defend member states. He stressed that such violations could not be ignored in light of the ongoing devastation in Ukraine, GB News reported.

Heightened security ahead of Belarus border closure

The escalation came just as Poland prepared to close its border with Belarus. Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed that the move would coincide with large-scale Zapad military exercises being conducted jointly by Belarus and Russia, which Polish officials described as very aggressive.

With tensions rising on Natos eastern flank, Warsaw indicated that forces would remain on heightened alert as the situation continued to unfold.
After NATO aircraft intercepted drones in Polish airspace overnight, the Western military alliance sought to reassure its citizens on Wednesday that everything had gone as it should.

Following the interception of suspected Russian drones in Polish airspace, NATO officials on Wednesday projected an image of strength and success. Yet, the incident, the most serious spill over from the war in Ukraine to date has ignited a sharp debate among defence analysts, who question whether the alliances Cold War-era architecture is prepared for the realities of modern drone warfare.

While NATO leadership celebrated the response, the incursion has exposed a critical tension between the alliances official confidence and growing concerns about its strategic and technological readiness.

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Our air defences were activated and successfully ensured the defence of NATO territory, as they are designed to do, declared Mark Rutte, NATOs secretary general.

NATOs swift response to Russian drones violating Polish airspace overnight is firm. Well done to the responders, thats the way we do business! exclaimed Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, head of the alliances military committee.

Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, head of the alliances military committee, echoed this sentiment, exclaiming, NATOs swift response to Russian drones violating Polish airspace overnight is firm. Well done to the responders, thats the way we do business!

However, behind the official pronouncements, a chorus of expert voices raised pointed questions. For many analysts, the very fact that foreign drones could penetrate the airspace of a member nation is a significant concern.

Peter Bator, Slovakias former ambassador to NATO, warned, It is a very good illustration that we need to be not only vigilant but more decisive in our actions. He argued the episode was unacceptablean instance where NATO was forced into reacting to incoming threats when its very charter is built around deterrence: Theres not much difference between drones and troops, Bator observed, likening the airspace breach to the entrance of hostile forces.

With the origins of the drones still in disputeRussias defence ministry claimed its drones only targeted sites in Ukraine and Polish officials acknowledged uncertaintythe incident nonetheless fuelled calls for a new approach. Bator even suggested giving Ukraine the authority to intercept Russian drones inside Ukrainian territory if they pose a risk to NATO, a contentious proposal given the alliances tradition of consensus and reluctance to escalate confrontation.

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Complicating matters is the nature of the drone threat itself. The Polish military identified many of the aircraft as Gerbera-type UAVs: exceedingly cheap, lightweight, and capable of traversing hundreds of kilometres. Researcher Fabian Hinz described them as a Styrofoam menace to which high-value Western platformsF-35s, F-16s, assault helicopters, and Patriot missileshad to be scrambled in response.

While NATOs multinational arsenal, including forces from Poland, the Netherlands, Italy, and Germany, was able to neutralize the immediate threat, the scale and cost-efficiency mismatch was striking. In Ukraine, drone assaults often involve hundreds of cheap UAVs at once, overwhelming air defences designed for missiles or piloted aircraft. Western air defence systems have not been designed with affordable UAV systems being used on such a large scale in mind, Hinz said.

Strategic experts say these defences may be ill-matched for the current era. They should have been identified as possible threats much earlier and defence preparations put in place with plenty of time, wrote Phillips P. OBrien, professor of strategic studies at St Andrews. It should have been childs play for NATO God help them if they are faced with 600 UAVs and missiles on a single night.

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Despite these pointed critiques, NATOs leadership remains publicly steadfast. When asked if the alliance needed to bolster its drone defences, Secretary General Rutte was clear: Of course, we always have to make sure that we are one step ahead. But I think last night showed that we are able to defend every inch of NATO territory.

While NATO successfully defended its airspace in this instance, the event has forced a critical conversation into the open, leaving the alliance to reconcile its leaders confidence with the urgent warnings that its defences may not be ready for the drone-saturated conflicts of the future.

With inputs from agencies
Qatar condemned Israels strike in Doha that killed Hamas leaders, calling it state terrorism and vowing a response. The attack, denounced by allies and criticised by Trump, risks escalating tensions and derailing Gaza ceasefire talks.

Qatar's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani addresses a press conference following Israeli strikes in Doha on September 9, 2025. Image- AFP

Qatar has condemned Israels strike in Doha that targeted Hamas political leaders, calling it a blatant attack and warning that it reserves the right to respond.

Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani denounced the strike late Tuesday, describing it as state terrorism that undermines regional security.

Qatar reserves the right to respond to this blatant attack, he told reporters. We believe we have reached a pivotal moment. There must be a regional response to such barbaric actions.

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Israel, meanwhile, defended its operations. Defence Minister Israel Katz warned that Israels reach extends worldwide, saying its enemies are not safe anywhere. In a post on X, he added: Everyone who took part in the October 7 massacre will be held fully accountable. Anyone who carries out terror against Israel will be harmed.

The comments came a day after Israeli strikes in Doha targeted senior Hamas figures. The attack has further heightened tensions, with Katz reiterating that Israel will pursue Hamas operatives globally in response to the groups October 2023 assault that triggered the Gaza war.

US President Donald Trump said earlier Tuesday that Washington had not been informed beforehand about the strike. He expressed dissatisfaction, noting that the attack came against a key American ally.

Im just, Im not thrilled about the whole situation, Trump told reporters as he made a rare outing onto Washingtons streets. We want the hostages back, but we are not thrilled about the way that went down today."

Israeli strike on Tuesday on a building in Doha killed at least six people in a neighbourhood that is home to foreign embassies and schools.

The strike on the territory of a U.S. ally drew widespread condemnation from countries in the Mideast and beyond. It also marked a dramatic escalation in the region and risked upending talks aimed at ending the war and freeing hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.

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With inputs from agencies
US manufacturers are shedding thousands of jobs despite President Trumps push to boost the sector, as uncertainty over tariffs, rising costs, and legal challenges weigh on hiring and production.

US President Donald Trump is being criticised by former American officials for his tariff policy and his handling of ties with India. File photo/Reuters

US manufacturers are cutting thousands of jobs even as President Trump promotes policies aimed at revitalising the sector. In August alone, 12,000 manufacturing jobs were lost, bringing the total decline since April to 42,000, according to a Center for American Progress (CAP) analysis of government data.

CAP attributes the decline to several factors, including the Trump administrations steep tariffs, strict immigration policies, and the Republican-backed big, beautiful bill passed in July, which phases out certain tax credits affecting renewable energy companies.

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Overall, US manufacturing employment has fallen by 33,000 jobs so far in 2025. Most losses are concentrated in durable goods sectors such as automobiles, electronics, and household appliances. Hiring across all industries has also slowed sharply, with only 22,000 jobs added in Augustwell below expectations.

The decline in manufacturing is part of a long-term trend. In 1960, manufacturing accounted for about 34% of total employment, peaking at 19.5 million jobs in 1970. As of August 2025, 12.7 million Americans are employed in manufacturing, following a loss of 87,000 jobs in 2024.

When Trump announced new tariffs in April, the White House said the levies were intended to protect American workers, reduce the trade deficit, and encourage companies to bring manufacturing back to the US.

However, the scale and uncertainty surrounding the tariffs have increased costs for manufacturers and discouraged hiring, said economist Sara Estrep, a CAP report author. Companies are uncertain about whats happening, she told CBS MoneyWatch. Everything has been changing day to day, so its not clear what production should look like. Thats why they arent hiring.

Companies such as John Deere have cited tariffs as a factor in declining sales and profits, incurring roughly $300 million in costs related to steel and aluminium imports. The company announced layoffs of more than 200 workers in Illinois and Iowa. Automakers also cut nearly 5,000 jobs in July, while the retail sector has stepped up layoffs and store closures amid economic uncertainty.

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Legal challenges to Trumps tariffs have added to the uncertainty. In August, a federal appeals court ruled that the president had overstepped his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Trump asked the Supreme Court on 3 September to review the ruling before it takes effect in October.

The slowdown reflects an environment where purchasing managers are under stress, facing higher costs and lower demand, said EY-Parthenon chief economist Gregory Daco. Companies are streamlining operations and keeping only essential staff to manage expenses.

Requests for comment on CAPs findings were not answered by the White House, the Office of the US Trade Representative, or the National Association of Manufacturers.
Kony is facing 39 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity as the fugitive leader of the Lords Resistance Army, or LRA, which terrorized northern Uganda for decades

FILE - In this Nov. 12, 2006 file photo, the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army Joseph Kony answers journalists' questions following a meeting with UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland at Ri-Kwangba in Southern Sudan. (AP Photo/Stuart Price, File)

Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court began presenting evidence Tuesday to support their charges against fugitive Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony at the global courts first ever in absentia hearing, alleging that he inflicted horrors on Ugandan society that still echo two decades later.

Kony is facing 39 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity as the fugitive leader of the Lords Resistance Army, or LRA, which terrorized northern Uganda for decades.

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The social and cultural fabric of Northern Uganda has been torn apart and it is still struggling to rebuild itself, deputy prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang said in his opening statements.

The LRA began its attacks in Uganda in the 1980s, when Kony sought to overthrow the government. After being pushed out of Uganda, the militia went on to attack villages in Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan. It was notorious for using child soldiers, mutilating civilians and enslaving women.

Niang said that victims were still scarred in their body and spirit."

As part of his presentation to a panel of three black-robed judges, Niang showed multiple graphic videos of the destruction the prosecution says was wrought by the LRA, including a clip from a Uganda police video depicting a body being removed from the rubble of a burned out building.

The courts so-called confirmation of charges hearing comes two decades after it issued an arrest warrant for Kony.

The ICC hearing is not a trial, but allows prosecutors to outline their case in court. After weighing the evidence, judges can rule on whether or not to confirm the charges against Kony, but he cannot be tried unless he is in ICC custody.

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Court-appointed counsel for Kony argued the proceedings violate their clients fair trial rights and should not have been held at all.

The empty chair impacted the preparation of the defense, lawyer Peter Haynes said, pointing to the courtroom seat where Kony would be if he was present.

The hearing has been seen as a test case for the court moving forward with other cases where the likelihood of having a suspect detained is considered remote, such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Everything that happens at the ICC is precedent for the next case, Michael Scharf, an international law professor at Case Western Reserve University, told The Associated Press.

Scharf added that while the whereabouts of Netanyahu and Putin are known, Kony has eluded U.S. special forces and remained at large despite a $5 million reward. He also noted that the warrants for Netanyahu and Putin were issued in recent years, whereas Kony has been wanted since 2005.

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Kony was thrust into the global spotlight in 2012 when a video about his crimes went viral. Despite the attention and international efforts to capture him, he remains at large.

The ICC proceedings against Kony will be followed by many in Uganda, where survivors welcome the charges even as they regret the failure to catch him.

He did many things bad, said Odong Kajumba, who escaped the LRA after he was captured and forced to carry a sack of sugar to Ugandas border with Sudan in 1996. If they can arrest Kony, he said, I am very happy.

Not everyone is happy with the proceedings moving forward.

Why do you want to try a man you cant get? They should first get him, said Odonga Otto, a former lawmaker from northern Uganda. Its a mockery. Trying Kony while he is in custody makes court proceedings more real for victims and survivors of his alleged crimes, he said.

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Another LRA commander, Dominic Ongwen, was convicted in 2020 of 61 offenses including murders, rapes, forced marriages and recruiting child soldiers. Ongwen was himself abducted by the militia as a 9-year-old boy, transformed into a child soldier and later became a brutal commander in the rebel group.

Ongwen is currently serving his 25-year sentence in Norway.
US President Donald Trump has issued a rare rebuke to Israel over its attack in Qatar, as he insisted he played no role in the attack by one close US ally against another

Smoke rises from an explosion, caused by an Israeli strike, in Doha. While the senior Hamas leadership escaped the attack, six others were killed. AP

As President Donald Trump rebuked Israels airstrike in Qatar, the country has asserted that it does not always act in the interests of the US, one of its closest allies. The Israel-Hamas conflict has spilt over to Qatar, after Israels military launched an airstrike in the country that is playing the mediator role between the two warring parties.

Israels UN ambassador, Danny Danon, said, We dont always act in the interests of the United States. We are coordinated, they give us incredible support, we appreciate that, but sometimes we make decisions and inform the United States.

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It was not an attack on Qatar; it was an attack on Hamas. We are not against Qatar, nor against any Arab country, we are currently against a terrorist organisation, he added.

Hamas has said that its senior leadership survived the Israeli airstrikes in the Gulf country while confirming six deaths, including the son of its top negotiator. Qatar said one of its security officers also died.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered the strikes in response to a Monday shooting in Jerusalem that killed six people and was later claimed by Hamas.

The attack has evoked a strong response from the Gulf country, whose prime minister said it reserved the right to respond to the Israeli attack, which it said constituted a pivotal moment for the region.

We believe that today we have reached a pivotal moment, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani told a press conference. There must be a response from the entire region to such barbaric actions.

Not thrilled

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has issued a rare rebuke to Israel over its attack in Qatar, as he insisted he played no role in the attack by one close US ally against another.

Im not thrilled about the whole situation, Trump told reporters during a rare outing to a Washington restaurant. We want the hostages back, but we are not thrilled about the way that went down today.

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This was a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu; it was not a decision made by me, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social network.

I view Qatar as a strong Ally and friend of the US, and feel very badly about the location of the attack, he said  although adding that eliminating Hamas was still a worthy goal.

Did US tell Qatar about the strikes?

The White House on Tuesday said Trump did not agree with Israels decision to take military action on the US allys soil and had warned Qatar in advance of the incoming strikes.

But Qatar, which hosts a large US military base and is the venue of repeated rounds of Gaza peace talks, said it had not received the warning from Washington until the deadly attack was already underway.
There have been rumours in Nepal that 32 missing bodies were found inside the parliament building that was burnt by mobs. Here is the fact check by Nepal Police.

Nepali Army soldiers walk inside the Parliament house that was set on fire by protesters in Kathmandu, Nepal, on September 10, 2025. (Photo: Adnan Abidi/Reutes)

Amid the nationwide violence in Nepal, a rumour circulated saying that 32 missing bodies had been found in the ruins of the parliament.

Mobs on Tuesday set fire to Nepal's parliament in Kathmandu. They had also breached the barricades and vandalised the premises Monday. The subsequent crackdown led to at least 17 deaths in Kathmandu  two deaths elsewhere in the country took the national toll that day to 19.

A day after such rumours began circulating, the Nepali Police on Wednesday published a fact check on X.

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In a post in Nepali, the police said that the claim that 32 missing people were found dead inside the parliament were misleading and the image in circulation was from a previous event from a protest in another country.

The Nepali Police requests that no one creates or spreads such misleading, negative news that incites fear and terror among the public and further aggravates the situation during this difficult time, the police further said.

After the nationwide violence on Tuesday, the Nepali Army took over the law enforcement in the country. The Army arrested 26 persons for vandalism and looting in the country

In a statement on Wednesday, the Nepali Army said that anarchist groups and persons have infiltrated ongoing protests in the country and engaged in criminal activities like looting, vandalism, and attempted rape.

In nationwide violence on Tuesday, mobs torched Nepals parliament, Singha Durbar (the seat of the government), Supreme Court, and many government offices, including courthouses. They also broke several jails and freed hundreds of prisoners. They attacked the official presidential residence and the private home of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. They also attacked homes of former PMs Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, Sher Bahadur Deuba, and Jhalanath Khanal.

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In the attack on Deubas home, he and his wife, foreign minister Arzu Rana Deuba, were assaulted. In the attack on Khanal's home, his wife, Rajyalaxmi Chitrakar, was reportedly burnt to death. In another attack, at least three policemen were reportedly killed.
While there are no positive signs of reaching a truce deal with Hamas, Israel has ramped up its attacks in the region in hopes of taking over Gaza City, a plan that has kept hostage families on edge as they worry about their loved ones

A protester holds a sign during a demonstration organised by the families of the Israeli hostages taken captive in the Gaza Strip since the October 2023 calling for action to secure their release and a ceasefire in the war against Hamas, outside the Defence Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv, on August 23, 2025. AFP

The Gaza war has intensified in the past few weeks, with no ceasefire deal in sight, making hostage families anxious about the whereabouts of their loved ones still held by Hamas. In fact, hostages who have been freed earlier are expressing their discontent over the Israeli governments lacklustre efforts to get back the remaining captives.

On Tuesday, freed hostages Iair Horn and Sharon Alony Cunio addressed the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and demanded the return of those who continue to remain in Hamas captivity.

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Why arent you by our side  is it because theyre not your family members? How much longer will I lie to my daughters, telling them [that their father will be released] any minute now? asked Sharon, who was freed in a November 2023 hostage-ceasefire deal along with her two young daughters.

Sharon is seeking the immediate release of her husband and his brother, who are held in Gaza. She said, How much more can I take? This is daily abuse. Why do I have to come here and reopen my trauma just to fight for my husband and brother-in-law? There are things I experienced in captivity that I cant talk about because Im so ashamed. Why dont we hear from you?

On October 7, 2023, Sharons family was abducted by terrorists from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz. They were taken to Gaza on a stolen tractor, and at one point during the ordeal, they became separated from three-year-old Emma, according to a report by Times of Israel.

Meanwhile, Horn, who was taken from his home in Nir Oz on October 7 and freed in February 2025 as part of a mediated ceasefire and hostage release agreement, spoke to lawmakers while his brother Eitan remains in captivity. He told them a deal is probably the best way to release the rest of the hostages.

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While there are no positive signs of reaching a truce deal with Hamas, Israel has ramped up its attacks in the region in hopes of taking over Gaza City, a plan that has kept hostage families on edge as they worry about their loved ones.

Their concern stems in part from a tragic incident last year, when six hostages were killed in a Rafah tunnel as their captors heard Israeli forces approaching.

Channel 13 News reports that the military acknowledges having incomplete intelligence regarding the whereabouts of hostages in Gaza. It has also been assessed that Hamas may attempt to relocate some captives into Gaza City in anticipation of the IDFs intensified offensive in the area.
Trump has shifted his tone towards India, after repeatedly slamming the country for buying Russian oil, calling its economy dead and warning that the US lost New Delhi to China after PM Modi met Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russias Vladimir Putin at the SCO Summit

US President Donald Trump has said that he is looking forward to speaking with his very good friend Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the following weeks, adding that his administration is working to negotiate a trade deal with India.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said, I feel certain that there will be no difficulty in coming to a successful conclusion for both of our Great Countries! I look forward to speaking with my very good friend, Prime Minister Modi, in the upcoming weeks.

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PM Modi responds

PM Modi has responded to Trumps Truth Social post, saying, India and the US are close friends and natural partners. I am confident that our trade negotiations will pave the way for unlocking the limitless potential of the India-US partnership. Our teams are working to conclude these discussions at the earliest.

The prime minister also confirmed that he will speak to Trump soon and work together to secure a brighter, more prosperous future for both our people.

India and the US are close friends and natural partners. I am confident that our trade negotiations will pave the way for unlocking the limitless potential of the India-US partnership. Our teams are working to conclude these discussions at the earliest. I am also looking forward pic.twitter.com/3K9hlJxWcl  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 10, 2025

Trump has reposted PM Modis tweet on Truth Social.

Is Trump softening his India stance?

Trump has shifted his tone towards India, after repeatedly slamming the country for buying Russian oil, calling its economy dead and warning that the US lost New Delhi to China after PM Modi met Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russias Vladimir Putin at the SCO Summit.

Following his remark on India, China and Russia, Trump backtracked and called PM Modi his good friend. He said, Ill always be friends with (Narendra) Modi Hes a great prime minister. Hes great. But I just dont like what hes doing at this particular moment. But India and the United States have a special relationship. Theres nothing to worry about."

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PM Modi, meanwhile, reciprocated Trumps assertion on India-US ties, saying, Deeply appreciate and fully reciprocate President Trumps sentiments and positive assessment of our ties. India and the US have a very positive and forward-looking Comprehensive and Global Strategic Partnership.

Tensions between the two nations reached an all-time high after Trump imposed nearly 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods, complaining about New Delhis purchase of Russian oil. In response to this, India called the tariffs unfair, pointing out how China is not receiving similar scrutiny despite the fact that it purchases more oil from Russia than India.
The US Supreme Court has agreed to fast-track a review of Trumps sweeping tariffs, setting up a key test of presidential power. The justices will hear arguments in early November

US President Donald Trump signs an executive order imposing tariffs on imported goods during a "Make America Wealthy Again" trade announcement event in the Rose Garden at the White House on April 2. File image/AFP

As the US Supreme Court emerges as the key hurdle for Trump in enforcing his tariffs, the central question now is whether the countrys highest court will allow them to stand. The debate was reignited on Tuesday when the Court agreed to fast-track a review of the administrations sweeping tariff measures, taking up a case that will test the limits of executive power and one of the presidents hallmark economic initiatives. A swift timetable has been set, with hearings scheduled for early November.

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Last month, a federal appeals court struck down large parts of Trumps global tariff program, ruling that the legislation he invoked did not authorise such sweeping action.

Nevertheless, the tariffs remain in force while the case proceeds. In a 74 decision, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found that Trump had unlawfully relied on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose heavy duties on major trading partners.

Trumps legal team last week urged the Supreme Court to intervene immediately, warning that the appeals court ruling risked unravelling trade negotiations.

Solicitor General D John Sauer argued in his filing that the decision casts a pall of uncertainty upon ongoing foreign negotiations, jeopardising both concluded agreements and those still in progress. He said the dispute was one that clearly calls out for swift resolution.

The Treasury secretary also cautioned that the lower courts verdict was already weakening US leverage in trade talks. Trump himself described the case as a very, very big one before the Supreme Court, insisting that defeat could inflict severe economic damage, whereas victory could make the country unbelievably rich again.

Although the conservative-leaning Court has frequently granted Trumps emergency applications, this will be the first time the justices directly assess the legal foundation of one of his central economic policies.

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The tariffs face opposition from small businesses and several states, who contend they are unlawful and damaging. Their stance is supported by a coalition of conservative and libertarian lawyers, academics and former officials. Jeffrey Schwab of the Liberty Justice Center said: These unlawful tariffs are inflicting serious harm on small businesses and jeopardising their survival. We hope for a prompt resolution.

Under the Constitution, the power to tax rests with Congress. However, a 1977 statute grants the president broad emergency powers to respond to unusual and extraordinary threats to national security, foreign policy or the economy, including authority over imports. Trumps lawyers maintain this language gives him the right to impose tariffs whenever he declares an emergency.

The administration argues the tariffs are correcting decades of trade policies that undermined US manufacturing and military readiness, and say they have compelled other nations to increase investment in America.

But the appeals court ruled the emergency law does not permit such a far-reaching programme. While leaving open the possibility of narrower tariff measures under the statute, the judges concluded that Trumps approach was too sweeping and enduring to proceed without explicit approval from Congress.

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Just last month, Trump invoked the emergency powers to tax imports from around 90 countries, having previously used them to levy tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico. While earlier presidents mainly employed the law to impose sanctions, Trump is the first to wield it to set broad tariffs of 10 to 50 per cent. Other legal routes to impose tariffs exist, but are more restrictive.

Separately, in June the Supreme Court declined to accelerate another case brought by two toy manufacturers challenging part of Trumps tariff programme. That case is scheduled for argument before the DC Circuit Court of Appeals on 30 September. A district judge had sided with the companies, ruling the tariffs unlawful and an existential threat to their businesses. The firms have since asked the Supreme Court to consolidate their case with the broader tariff challenge.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday evening, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump from removing Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserves Board of Governors, allowing her to remain in post while she contests her dismissal. The ruling represents the administrations first setback in what could become a prolonged legal battle over presidential authority to remove a Fed official.

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Google has introduced Google AI Plus, a new subscription plan designed to improve creativity and productivity with advanced AI tools. Indonesia is the first country worldwide to access this plan, said Vikas Kansal, Group Product Manager, Google One.

Google AI Plus: Tools and Features

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the company stated that the new plan is designed to empower people in emerging markets to do more with Google AI, for less. Google AI Plus provides access to a range of AI models and services:

High-quality videos can be generated using Veo 3 Fast in the Gemini app.

Whisk and Flow for advanced AI-based image and video generation

Gemini 2.5 Pro for students and researchers

NotebookLM with improved document analysis and faster summaries

The plan integrates Gemini across Google apps such as Gmail, Docs, and Sheets, supporting tasks like drafting emails, building presentations, and managing project plans. Subscribers receive 200 GB cloud storage, which can be shared with up to five family members.

Practical Use Cases

Vikas Kansal explained that for new professionals, Gemini can assist with everyday tasks. It can help create schedules in Sheets, summarize long reports using NotebookLM, generate presentation videos with Flow, and draft professional emails in Gmail.

Pricing and Availability

Google AI Plus subscription is available for Rp 75,000 per month (Rs. 401 approx.) in Indonesia. New customers will receive a 50% discount for the first six months. The plan has launched in Indonesia first, with rollout to more countries planned.
V-Day military parade a shared moment of pride for all Chinese: mainland Taiwan affairs office spokesperson

Global Times) 13:18, September 10, 2025

The September 3 military parade is a shared moment of pride for all Chinese people, both at home and abroad, marking a historic Victory Day that resonates deeply. It was an occasion for the Chinese people, alongside peace-loving countries worldwide, to commemorate history, honor martyrs, cherish peace, and look toward the future, said a Chinese mainland official on Wednesday.

Chen Binhua, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, made the remarks during a regular press conference on Wednesday, when asked to comment on that compatriots from the island of Taiwan widely praised the mainland's remarkable development achievements and strong military capabilities, and expressed heightened national pride. However, they also expressed deep concern over the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities and "Taiwan independence" forces, whose reckless provocations and pursuit of "independence" could lead Taiwan into a dangerous situation.

President Xi Jinping's speech and the September 3 parade demonstrated the Chinese nation's firm confidence in its path toward great rejuvenation, underscored the Chinese military's role as a guardian of world peace, and served as a powerful declaration of the Chinese people's commitment to building a shared future for humanity, Chen said.

Chen noted that many compatriots from the Taiwan island watched the parade live, either in person or through various media, expressing that the event was "a pride for the entire Chinese nation." Taiwan island's local media noted that whether Taiwan residents attended in person or followed via television or the internet, they felt a shared sense of honor. The parade showcased the disciplined and formidable formations of the People's Liberation Army, as well as advanced weaponry, highlighting the military's integrated combat capabilities and new-domain, high-quality combat forces. This display underscored China's determination and ability to safeguard peace, uphold justice, maintain national unity, and oppose "Taiwan independence," said the spokesperson.

The mainstream sentiment on the island of Taiwan favors peace, development, exchange, and cooperation. Lai Ching-te's continuous increase in defense budgets and attempts to seek "independence through military means" only heighten the risks of conflict and instability in Taiwan, causing growing unease among the people, Chen pointed out.

It is only natural that more compatriots from Taiwan are opposing these actions. We hope that compatriots from Taiwan will join us in commemorating history, honoring martyrs, upholding the tradition of patriotism, and carrying forward the great national spirit and the spirit of the War of Resistance. Together, we must resolutely oppose "Taiwan independence" separatism and foreign interference, steadfastly safeguard peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits, and jointly contribute to the great cause of and the bright future of national rejuvenation, Chen said.

This culminated in the first complete victory against foreign invasion in modern Chinese history. During the 14 years of arduous resistance, the CPC, with its outstanding political leadership and correct strategic approaches, guided the direction of the war. It steadfastly promoted nationwide resistance, unity, and progress, while opposing compromise, division, and regression. The CPC championed the banner of the Anti-Japanese National United Front, resolutely maintaining, consolidating, and developing it, while adhering to independence, unity, and resistance, thereby safeguarding the overall situation of united resistance. CPC members fought bravely on the front lines, becoming the backbone of the nation's hope for survival and the pillar of the national resistance. The CPC's pivotal role was key to the victory in the War of Resistance, Chen said.

The DPP authorities not only avoid acknowledging the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and Japan's defeat but also harbor a deep colonial nostalgia, repeatedly glorifying the history of invaders and colonizers. Their words and actions betray the nation's stance, lack any sense of national integrity, severely hurt the feelings of compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Straits, and challenge the conscience and justice of human society. Such national betrayers have no standing or qualification to make baseless remarks about the history of the War of Resistance or its commemorative activities, Chen said at the Wednesday press conference, slamming the recent claim by "Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council" alleging that "the Communist Party of China (CPC) made no contribution to the war and merely used it to strengthen itself."

Chen said that at the "most perilous moment" when the Chinese nation faced with the threat of extinction, all Chinese people, including Taiwan compatriots, fought courageously for national liberation, the restoration of Taiwan island, and the defeat of Japanese fascism. They stood united, fearless in the face of violence, and resisted for the survival of the nation, the rejuvenation of the Chinese people, and the cause of human justice.

The spokesperson emphasized that the CPC-led guerrilla warfare in the enemy's rear and the Kuomintang-led frontal battlefields complemented each other, forming a strategic pincer against the enemy. Data shows that from September 1931 to September 1945, the Northeast Anti-Japanese forces eliminated over 170,000 Japanese troops, while the Eighth Route Army, New Fourth Army, and South China guerrilla forces eliminated 527,000 Japanese troops, dealing heavy blows to the enemy and boosting the confidence of the resistance.

The vast rear battlefields countered 60 percent of the invading Japanese forces, gradually becoming the main theater of resistance, thwarting Japan's arrogant ambition to quickly annihilate China and enslave the Chinese nation, according to the Chen. These efforts made significant contributions to the great victory in the War of Resistance. History is history, and facts are facts. They cannot be distorted or erased, he noted.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2024.
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52 /32

Mix of sun and clouds. Highs in the low 50s and lows in the low 30s.
Sebastien Lecornu

France, the eurozones second-largest economy, was in a political crisis that has spooked markets and raised concern about its minority governments ability to govern and pass measures to ease the countrys debt burden. France's inability to form coalitions resulted from all parties in parliament behaving as if they've got a mandate. Sebastien Lecornu survived successive no-confidence votes in the National Assembly on 16 October 2025, drawing enough support from moderates to avert a second government collapse in as many weeks. Lecornu's offer to suspend an unpopular pension reform helped sway the opposition Socialists, giving his government a lifeline in the deeply fragmented chamber.

France's Macron on 10 October 2025 reappointed recently resigned Sebastien Lecornu as prime minister to try again to form a government. Just four days after resigning from the role, Sebastien Lecornu was reappointed as prime minister on Friday by French President Emmanuel Macron. The outgoing and now incoming premier will have to try and find, once again, a way out of France's worst political crisis in decades. Some key points of Lecornu's 2026 draft budget reveal a major loss of public sector jobs, a freeze on pensions and social security payouts, and a temporary surtax on individuals with incomes over 250,000 a year.

France's Socialist Party said 14 October 2025 it would not support a no-confidence vote against PM Sebastien Lecornu, offering some hope that his government may survive long enough to pass a much-needed budget. The new government took office on 13 October 2025. Far-left and far-right opposition parties have introduced no-confidence motions against Lecornu's minority government. But they cannot succeed without support of the opposition Socialist Party after the conservative Les Republicains party said it would support the government for now.

Former Les Republicains president Eric Ciotti, who had since drawn close to the far-right National Rally, accused Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu of being "the willing hostage" of the centre-left Socialist Party. You have just surrendered everything to the Socialist Party, he said in a speech before the National Assembly 14 October 2025. You are now, Mr. Prime Minister, the willing hostage of the Socialist Party. Incapable of reforming yourself, incapable of listening to the French people. You have lost all legitimacy.... Today, you are the last protector of the worst president in the history of the Fifth Republic.

"In the National Assembly, from Les Republicains to the Socialist Party, it's the friendly circle of Emmanuel Macron's saviours who take turns speaking at the podium," far-right National Rally leader Jordan Bardella wrote on social media. "The only common denominator of this nonsensical majority, ready for any kind of bargaining, is fear of the ballot box and fear of the people." Green Party leader Marine Tondelier confirmed that her party would vote to oust Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu's government, slamming his failure to mention either the worsening climate crisis or the global threat to biodiversity in his policy speech before parliament.

The left-wing France Unbowed's coordinator Manuel Bompard dismissed Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu's proposal to suspend the deeply unpopular pension reform until the 2027 presidential vote as a "delaying tactic", calling on the centre-left Socialist Party to throw its support behind a no-confidence vote in the fledgling government. "With this proposal, the generation born in 1964 would gain three months on the retirement age, whereas they could gain nine months with the repeal supported by a majority of deputies in the National Assembly," he wrote on social media. "For all other generations, nothing will change, as the government elected in 2027 will be able to do as it pleases."

France's newly appointed prime minister, Sebastien Lecornu, had resigned on 06 October 2025, only 14 hours after naming his Cabinet, the presidency said. During a public address on Monday morning after announcing his resignation, Lecornu said cooperation and consensus are lacking among France's political parties, making forming a government impossible. "Being prime minister is a difficult task, doubtless even a bit harder at the moment, but one cannot be prime minister when the conditions aren't fulfilled," Lecornu said. "I was ready to compromise, but each party wanted the other to adopt its entire program," he said.

Lecornu's Cabinet picks met particular resistance from the conservative Republicans party, who were angry about Lecornu tapping former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire to head the Defense Ministry Conservative leader Bruno Retailleau said Lecornu had not informed him that Le Maire would be part of the government. "It's a matter of trust," he told broadcaster TF1.

Lecornu blamed the "egos" of opposition politicians for not being able to strike compromises with rival parties. "You should always prefer your country to your party," he added. Le Maire, who has previously served as economy and finance minister, said Monday evening he would withdraw from his planned appointment as defense minister. "I hope that this decision will allow discussions to resume with a view to forming a new government, which France needs," he wrote on X. Lecornu's resignation was unexpected, marking a further escalation of France's political crisis. Macron is allowed under France's constitution to reappoint Lecornu, and it has been speculated in French media that this is one way out of the immediate crisis for Macron. Macron must now decide either to name a new head of government or to dissolve the National Assembly, and call early legislative elections.

French President Emmanuel Macron on 09 September 2025 chose Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu as the country's new prime minister. Lecornu, 39, faced an uphill battle over budget as protests loom in the coming days. The fifth prime minister in less than two years, Lecornu had major challenges ahead, including resolving a deepening political crisis as protests loom in the coming days. Thibault Muzergues, Political Director at Shared Ground think tank, says that it will be surprising that the new Prime Minister will survive more than a year.

Never before had a prime minister been overthrown by the deputies by himself requesting the confidence of the Assembly, and engaging the responsibility of his government in application of article 49.1 of the Constitution. Francois Bayrou submitted his resignation to Emmanuel Macron after the Prime Minister failed to obtain the confidence of MPs, a vote he himself requested on his proposed budget for 2026. The appointment pof Lecornu, hours after the resignation of Francois Bayrou signaled Macron's intent to maintain a minority government. French lawmakers are divided between three blocs: the center (Macrons legislative bases), the left-wing group dominated by the far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) group, and the far-right bloc, hoping to take power from Macron. He will be responsible for "consulting" the parties with a view to "building the agreements essential to the decisions of the coming months," according to the Elysee.

In a political and social climate more unstable than ever, no member of the Socialist Party or the Greens signed the motion of impeachment leading to the dismissal of the President of the Republic. The National Rally was eager to obtain at least a dissolution of the Natiolnal Seembly and new legislative elections. The Socialists are not earger for fresh elections, saying they are "ready" to govern in harmony with the head of state, on the basis of a counter-budget providing for 27 billion in new savings - almost half as much as Francois Bayrou's 44 billion.

The transfer of power between Francois Bayrou and the new Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu would take place on 10 Septembe 2025 at noon at Matignon, government services announced. The date coincides with a day of mobilization to block the country, initiated by various movements. Marine Tondelier was already protesting against the appointment of a prime minister "without having consulted the political parties of the force that came out on top in the last legislative elections. " "The answer" will come "tomorrow" in "the street," warns the leader of the Ecologists.

In his editorial, Vincent Tremolet de Villers, deputy editor of Le Figaro, discusses the appointment of Sebastien Lecornu to Matignon. "Media-wise discreet, the former Minister of Defense enjoys the sincere esteem of the military, who recognize his in-depth knowledge of the issues, but also of the history, geography, wit, and solemn and melodious traditions of the French army ," he analyzes. He added: "Flexible and agile, the new prime minister was reminiscent of the RPR of yesterday's world. The eternal profile of the charming and cunning politician, he can play half-time on either side but always finishes the match with the winning team."

With the appointment of Sebastien Lecornu to Matignon, Emmanuel Macron "takes the risk of legitimate social anger and institutional blockage in the country", denounced Olivier Faure's Socialist Party [PS] in a press release, which "takes note" of this choice. "Emmanuel Macron was therefore persisting in a path in which no socialist will participate. The one that has led to failure and disorder and which aggravates the crisis, mistrust and instability ," adds the Socialist Party, which believes that "without social, fiscal and ecological justice, without measures for purchasing power, the same causes will provoke the same effects."

The president of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella, following in the footsteps of Marine Le Pen , criticized the choice of Emmanuel Macron, wondering how a "loyal supporter of the President" , Sebastien Lecornu, "could break with the policy he has been pursuing for eight years" . "Our principles do not vary. (...) It is not a question of person or casting, but of policy pursued: we will judge - without illusion - the new Prime Minister on the facts, on his actions, on his orientations to give a budget to France, and this in the light of our red lines" , added the president of the National Rally. Marine Le Pen believes that Emmanuel Macron was "firing the last shot at Macronism." According to the leader of the National Rally, the president was "bunkered down with his small circle of loyalists." "After the inevitable future legislative elections, the prime minister will be called Jordan Bardella ," she suggests.

Edouard Philippe on TF1 said "Sebastien Lecornu seems to me to have the qualities to try to bring to the table people who will not do exactly what they want, but who will be able to agree to prevent France from getting worse," declared the former Prime Minister, calling on the parties to "compromise" and saying he was "ready" to do so, "with some limits ," judging in particular that "the budget of the Armed Forces must be preserved, the budget of the Police, the budget of Justice, without doubt."

Lecornu was a right-wing politician, a figure in what the French call Social Gaullism - conservative politicians who arent afraid to hike taxes, unlike Macrons focus on pro-business policies. The President of the Republic has entrusted me with the task of building a government with a clear direction: the defence of our independence and power, the service of the French people, and political and institutional stability for the unity of the country, the incoming prime minister said.

The immediate reason for Bayrous fall was his budget proposal for next year. His unpopular 44-billion-euro ($51bn) deficit-reduction plan, including freezing most welfare spending and scrapping two public holidays, has been widely rejected by parliamentarians. The French budget deficit was now nearly 169 billion euros ($198bn), or 5.8 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), well above the 3 percent limit set by the European Union for countries using the euro. Investors worry that Frances persistent deficits will cause ever-higher debt ratios and undermine its credit score.

The National Assembly on 08 September 2025 voted to remove Bayrou over his proposed $51bn in budget cuts to address the countrys debt crisis. Macrons decision to choose Lecornu, analysts said, was an indication that he intends to continue on with a minority government that supports his pro-business economic reform agenda. In the 577-member National Assembly, the left bloc, which has opposed Macrons pro-business policy, had the most seats but not enough to form a government.

The 39-year-old Lecornu was in the running for the job back in December 2024 before Macron opted for the supposedly steady experience of the older Bayrou. Once a member of the center-right Republicans, Lecornu joined Macron's centrist movement in 2017 and led the president's re-election campaign in 2022. Macron has directed Lecornu "to consult the political forces represented in parliament with a view to adopting a budget for the nation and making the agreements essential for the decisions of the coming months," the Elysee announced.

Son of a medical secretary and a technician in the aeronautics industry, Sebastien Lecornu studied law at Paris 2 Pantheon-Assas University. At 19, Lecornu started his political career as France's youngest parliamentary assistant. Originally a member of the conservative Les Republicains party, he has worked to gain respect from across the political center and right  from securing the trust of both Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron to hosting somewhat controversial dinners with far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

From 2008 to 2012, he was an advisor to the Junior Minister for European Affairs, then to the Minister for Agriculture, Bruno Le Maire. In 2014, he was elected mayor of Vernon, then President of the Departmental Council of Eure (2015). He was re-elected at the municipal elections in March 2020, Departmental Advisor in June 2021, and once again appointed as President of the Departmental Council of Eure in July 2021.

Elected Senator in September 2020, Sebastien Lecornu decided not to sit on the Senate to comply with the law on the non-accumulation of mandates, and to continue to carry out his ministerial duties.

On 21 June 2017, Sebastien Lecornu was appointed Junior Minister to the Minister of State for Ecological Transition and Solidarity in the government of Edouard Philippe. In 2018, he was appointed Minister Delegate in charge of Territorial Communities. He then co-leads the Great National Debate, which was held at the initiative of the President of the Republic early 2019 in response to the social crisis in autumn 2018. In July 2020, he was appointed Minister for the Overseas Territories in the government of Jean Castex. In this role, he oversaw the management of the health crisis in the 12 French overseas territories spread across the three oceans. He also accompanies the end of the Noumea Accord by organising the last two consultations for New Caledonias accession to full sovereignty.

Since 20 May 2022, he was Minister for the Armed Forces. At the age of 35, he became Frances youngest defense minister in living memory. Lecornu was also Reserve Colonel in the National Gendarmerie. As defense minister, he enjoyed a booming budget, and a mission  warding off Russian aggression  that few could challenge. He was the longest serving sitting minister, enjoying rare stability within the French government, A politician to his fingertips, a passionate Minister of the Armed Forces, Gaullist Sebastien Lecornu was little known to the general public.

A deeply loyal, if discreet, ally of President Emmanuel Macron, Lecornu was known for stability and a measured leadership style. He has also denied he's eyeing up the premiership. He was not what was known in France as "presidentiable", namely someone who harbors ambitions of winning the Elysee Palace for themselves. The President had already said that he does not want a presidential candidate at Matignon Lecornu was a loyal soldier who doesn't have too much charisma or presidential potential. A jovial character behind the scenes, he was known to get along with the press and has won the support of the French military community.

Decorations

Knight of Agricultural Merit

Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters as President of the Museum of the impressionisms in Giverny

National Defence Medal, national gendarmerie clasp bronze level (2015)

Silver Medal of Voluntary Military Services (awarded exceptionally in 2017)

Gold Medal of Honour for Overseas Commitment in France

Grand Officer of the National Order of the Cedar of Lebanon

Commander of the Order of the Lion (Senegal)

Commander of the Order of the Star of Moheli (Comores)

First Class Order of Zayed II (United Arab Emirates)

Medal of the Order of Merit 2nd class (Ukraine)

Knight of the Order of Saint Charles (Monaco)

Commander first Class of the Royal Order of the Polar Star (Sweden)

Grand Commanders Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

Commander first class of the Order of the Dannebrog (Denmark)





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Russo-Ukraine War - 09 September 2025 - Day 1294

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A number of claims and counterclaims are being made on the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the ground and online. While GlobalSecurity.org takes utmost care to accurately report this news story, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos.

On 24 February 2022, Ukraine was suddenly and deliberately attacked by land, naval and air forces of Russia, igniting the largest European war since the Great Patriotic War. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a "special military operation" (SVO - spetsialnaya voennaya operatsiya) in Ukraine in response to the appeal of the leaders of the "Donbass republics" for help. That attack is a blatant violation of the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine. Putin stressed that Moscow's goal is the demilitarization and denazification of the country. The military buildup in preceeding months makes it obvious that the unprovoked and dastardly Russian attack was deliberately planned long in advance. During the intervening time, the Russian government had deliberately sought to deceive the world by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

"To initiate a war of aggression... is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." [Judgment of the International Military Tribunal]

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that in total, since the beginning of this day, there have been 152 combat encounters. Ukrainian defenders continue to decisively interrupt the attempts of the Russian enemy to advance deep into Ukrainian territory, giving him a fiery impression.

Russian zagarbniki inflicted one rocket and 59 aviation strikes, using two missiles and dropping 72 controlled bombs. In addition, they used 1977 kamikaze drones to impress and carried out 3,416 shelling positions of Ukrainian troops and settlements.

Eight combat clashes took place in the Northern Slobozhansky and Kursky directions. The Russian enemy launched 6 air strikes, dropped a total of 14 controlled air bombs, and carried out 174 artillery shells, including four from reactive systems.

Today, Russian forces attacked six times in the South Slobozhansky direction, in the Vovchansky district. The two fighting clashes are ongoing so far.

In the direction of Kupyans komu, Russian forces made seven attacks in the area of the Stepova Novoselivka, and in the direction of kupyans ka, Petropavlivki, Pi any.

In the Lymanian direction, the Defense Forces repelled eight assault actions in the areas of settlements Novomikhailivka, Serednye, Kolodyazi and Torske. One battle clash is still going on.

In the sivers komu direction Russian forces 20 times attacked in the areas of serebryanka, grigorivka and in the direction of yampol, dronivka, viymki, pazeno. There are five combat clashes so far.

Since the beginning of the day in the kramators komu direction, units of Russians attacked three times in the area of Stupochok.

10 combat clashes took place in the Toretsky direction today. Russian forces tried to storm the positions of Ukrainian units in the areas of Katerinivka, Yablunivka, Poltavka and towards Oleksandro-Shultynogo, Pleshiyivka.

In the Pokrovsky direction, since the beginning of this day, the Russian enemy attacked 47 times in the areas of settlements Volodymyrivka, New Shahove, Zapovidne, Mirolyubivka, Novoekonomicne, Shevchenko, Zvirove, Kotline, Udaachne, Dachne and towards Rodinsky, Promenya, Suhogo Yaru, Pokrovsk, Molodetsky. Ukrainian defenders hold the pressure of the Russian opponent.

Today in this direction, according to preliminary data, 152 Russian occupants were defecated, of which 84 - irrevocably. In addition, Ukrainian soldiers destroyed seven cars, a motorcycle, a special equipment unit, eight unmanned aircraft, a BPLA control point, an ammunition warehouse. A car, a cannon and seven shells for the Russian enemy's personnel were damaged.

In the Novopavlovsky direction, Ukrainian defenders repelled 21 Russian attacks in the areas of settlements Maliyivka, Komyshuvakh, Novomikolaivka, Olgivka and towards settlements Filiya, Ivanivka, Andriyivka-Klevtsove, Sichneve, Ternove, Novoivanivka. Five more fighting clashes are underway.

The Russian enemy did not carry out offensive actions in Gulyaipil, Orikhiv and Pridniprovskyi directions.

In other directions, there have been no significant changes in the environment.

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CALGARY, Alberta, Sept. 09, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Uranium Corp. (CSE: GURN | FRA: Q3J) (the Company) announces, further to its news release dated July 22, 2025, that the Company will no longer be proceeding with the previously announced non-brokered private placement and instead intends to complete a non-brokered private placement financing (the Offering), pursuant to the listed issuer financing exemption under Part 5A of National Instrument 45-106  Prospectus Exemptions, as amended by Coordinated Blanket Order 45-935  Exemptions from Certain Conditions of the Listed Issuer Financing Exemption (the Listed Issuer Financing Exemption), of a minimum of 6,666,666 units of the Company (each, a Unit) up to a maximum of 10,000,000 Units, at a price of C$0.15 per Unit, for minimum gross proceeds of C$1,000,000 and maximum gross proceeds of C$1,500,000. Each Unit shall be comprised of one common share in the capital of the Company (each, a Share) and one Share purchase warrant (Warrant), with each Warrant entitling the holder to purchase one Share at a price of C$0.20 for a period of 24 months from the Closing Date (as defined herein). The Offering is anticipated to close on or about September 19, 2025 (the Closing Date), subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, including, but not limited to, the receipt of all necessary regulatory and other approvals. The net proceeds of the Offering are intended to be used for exploration activities, general administrative expenditures, and general working capital purposes.

Subject to compliance with applicable regulatory requirements and in accordance with the Listed Issuer Financing Exemption, the securities issuable under the Offering will be offered for sale to purchasers resident in all of the provinces of Canada (except Quebec). Accordingly, the securities issued to subscribers will not be subject to resale restrictions in accordance with applicable Canadian securities laws.

This Offering is not an amendment to, or an extension of, the offering recently announced in the Companys news release dated July 22, 2025. The Company has chosen to discontinue that offering. The offering document recently filed by the Company on July 22, 2025, in connection with such offering document is hereby withdrawn by the Company.

There is an offering document dated September 9, 2025, related to the Offering that can be accessed under the Companys profile at www.sedarplus.ca and on the Companys website at https://www.globaluranium.com. The offering document contains further details regarding the Offering, including additional detail regarding the expected use of proceeds therefrom. Prospective investors in the Offering should read this amended and restated offering document before making an investment decision.

The securities described herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the U.S. Securities Act), or any United States state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, United States persons absent registration or any available exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable United States state securities laws. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

ABOUT GLOBAL URANIUM CORP.

Global Uranium Corp. focuses on exploring and developing uranium assets primarily in North America. The Company currently holds key uranium projects: the Wing Lake Property in the Mudjatik Domain of Northern Saskatchewan, Canada; the Northwest Athabasca Joint Venture with Forum Energy Metals Corp. and NexGen Energy Ltd. in the Northwest Athabasca region of Saskatchewan, Canada; the Astro Uranium Project with Cosa Resources Corp in the eastern Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan; and the Great Divide Basin District Projects, the Gas Hills District Projects, and the Copper Mountain District Projects in Wyoming, USA.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS



Ungad Chadda

CEO and Director



587-330-0045

info@globaluranium.com

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or future performance. The use of any of the words could, intend, expect, believe, will, projected, estimated and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on the Companys current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events.

In particular, this press release contains forward-looking information relating to, among other things, the Offering, including the total amount of securities sold to the offering, anticipated proceeds, the expected use of proceeds, satisfaction of conditions to closing, and the closing (including the proposed closing date) of the Offering, if it is to close at all. Various assumptions or factors are typically applied in drawing conclusions or making the forecasts or projections set out in forward-looking information, including the assumption that the Company will close the Offering on the timeline anticipated, will raise the anticipated amount of gross proceeds from the Offering and will use the proceeds of the Offering as anticipated. Those assumptions and factors are based on information currently available to the Company. Although such statements are based on reasonable assumptions of the Companys management, there can be no assurance that any conclusions or forecasts will prove to be accurate.

Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such factors include: the risk that the Offering does not close on the timeline expected, or at all; the risk that the Company raises less than the anticipated amount of gross proceeds from the Offering; the risk that the Company does not use the proceeds from the Offering as currently expected; risks inherent in the exploration and development of mineral deposits, including risks relating to receiving requisite permits and approvals, changes in project parameters or delays as plans continue to be redefined, that mineral exploration is inherently uncertain and that the results of mineral exploration may not be indicative of the actual geology or mineralization of a project; that mineral exploration may be unsuccessful or fail to achieve the results anticipated by the Company; operational risks; regulatory risks, including risks relating to the acquisition of the necessary licenses and permits; financing, capitalization and liquidity risks; title and environmental risks; and risks relating to the failure to receive all requisite regulatory approvals. The forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date hereof, and the Company is not obligated to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein.

The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed, approved, or disapproved the contents of this press release.
CUPERTINO, Calif., Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Efinix, an innovator in programmable logic solutions, today announced the expansion of its popular, highly successful Titanium family. By doubling the available products, Efinix demonstrates its commitment to serve AI-driven industries and applications. Titanium FPGAs are manufactured on TSMCs 16/12nm process.

Titanium FPGAs are production proven and widely adopted in a variety of markets. For example, they are dominating in AI-powered machine vision industrial systems, said Sammy Cheung, Efinix President and CEO. The FPGA augments these systems by analyzing video and sensor data, thereby streamlining manufacturing flows. The Titanium expansion plan will further support customers in these and other AI-driven markets.

With their inherent flexibility, Titanium FPGAs play a critical role in AI-driven systems, accelerating data analysis and enabling real-time decision making across diverse markets. Their industry-leading energy efficiency empowers customers to deploy them confidently in everything from industrial automation and robotics to automotive systems, handheld medical devices, and next-generation edge platforms.

We are excited about the success of our transceiver devices, said Tony Ngai, Efinix CTO and SVP Engineering. We were able to produce these devices from concept to samples in under a year, which was a great achievement for the engineering team. Partnering with TSMC has enabled us to roll out new products quickly and efficiently, letting us focus on building world-class FPGAs. We look forward to working with them to double the product line.

Titanium FPGAs offer a disruptive blend of energy efficiency, high performance, and low cost. The expanded family members provide increased capabilities with high-speed transceiver speeds up to 25.8 Gbps, 64-bit RISC-V processor SoCs, and enhanced MIPI speeds.

TSMC is proud to collaborate with industry innovators like Efinix to accelerate energy-efficient chip innovations that address the growing demands of AI, said Lucas Tsai, Vice President of Business Management at TSMC North America. We look forward to strengthening our partnership by integrating TSMCs industry-leading process technology with Efinixs architecture to deliver exceptional FPGA products that offer the advantages of energy efficiency and high performance for todays AI-driven world.

About Efinix

Efinix, an innovator in programmable products, is committed to delivering the low power and reconfigurability of its high-performance Titanium FPGA silicon platforms for applications in the mainstream market. Efinix FPGAs deliver power, performance, and area advantages over traditional FPGA technologies, unlocking new applications and delivering rapid time to market. Titanium devices range from 35K to 2M logic elements, have a small form-factor, low-power, and are priced for high-volume production. The Efinity Integrated Development Environment provides a complete FPGA design suite from RTL to bitstream. For more information, visit http://www.efinixinc.com.

Contact:

Steve Stratz

Relevanz Public Relations for Efinix

206.300.9134

steve@relevanzpr.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2a9546b8-e27c-468d-8777-51f25f994c5b
Vitry-le-Francois, France / Luxembourg (September 10, 2025, 8:00 am CEST) 

Haffner Energy, a leading solid biomass-to-clean fuels solutions provider, and Luxaviation Group, a leading global operator in the business aviation sector, are strengthening their partnership with a non-exclusive 15-year offtake agreement in Europe with fixed SAF volume and price terms, both companies announced today.

Luxaviation and Haffner Energy first joined forces to accelerate SAF production and promotion when Luxaviation signaled interest in SAF-dedicated entity SAF Zero in June this year.

This agreement marks a decisive move from vision to reality. For Luxaviation, securing long-term SAF supply is not only an investment in our operations  it is a commitment to our clients and to the industrys future. Together with Haffner Energy, we are setting the benchmark for how business aviation can accelerate the scale-up of sustainable fuel production across Europe, establishing a new standard for our industry, said Patrick Hansen, CEO of Luxaviation Group.

Luxaviation operates one of the largest fleets of private aircraft worldwide. It is actively committed to the decarbonization of aviation through a three-pronged strategy: improving fuel efficiency; reducing emissions by actively increasing SAF use and electrification of ground operations; buying offsets for remaining GHG emissions. Since 2021, Luxaviations annual sustainability report tracks progress against targets. In 2023, Luxaviation launched Go-to-Zero Investment Fund to foster SAF production.

We are very pleased with this offtake partnership with Luxaviation as it will significantly facilitate the financing of our SAF projects in Europe. Securing long-term offtake agreements is one of the most crucial conditions for financing SAF production facilities, as they guarantee the purchase of SAF at a stable price over periods exceeding five years, said Haffner Energy co-founder and CEO Philippe Haffner.

France-based Haffner Energy relies on its 32-year experience to design, manufacture, supply, license, and operate proprietary disruptive clean fuels solutions, including critical technology for SAF production, using all types of biomass residues wet or dry, such as agricultural and municipal waste. The company has already announced the development of a couple of SAF projects, notably in France and in Iceland. In both cases, full scale production is expected to be reached by 2030 when the next stage of the European SAF mandate kicks in, requiring airlines to blend SAF in their jet fuel at a 6% ratio or higher.

Both Luxaviation and Haffner Energy are members of Project SkyPower, an international CEO-led initiative dedicated to accelerating the development and adoption of SAF.

About Haffner Energy

Haffner Energy is a French company that provides solutions for the production of competitive renewable fuels. With 32 years of experience in converting biomass into renewable energy, it has developed innovative proprietary technologies for biomass thermolysis and gasification that enable the production of gas, hydrogen, Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) and renewable methanol. The company also contributes to regenerating the planet through the co-production of biogenic CO 2 and biocarbon (or char/biochar). More information is available at www.haffner-energy.com.

About Luxaviation Group

Headquartered in Luxembourg, Luxaviation Group comprises top-of-the line aviation brands, including Luxaviation, Starspeed, ExecuJet and Paragon, operating across five continents. Services include aircraft management for private and commercial aircraft, private air charter services, and the management and operation of VIP passenger terminals throughout an FBO network of over 110+ facilities worldwide. Luxaviation Group is actively committed to the decarbonization of aviation by supporting the development of sustainable fuels and green infrastructure. More information is available at www.luxaviation.com.

Media Relations

Haffner Energy

Laetitia Mailhes

laetitia.mailhes@haffner-energy.com

+33 (0)6 07 12 96 76





Luxaviation Group

Juliane Thiessen

Juliane.thiessen@luxaviation.com

+41 76 356 8251

Investor Relations

Haffner Energy

investisseurs@haffner-energy.com

Attachment
Austin, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Edge Computing Market size was valued at USD 16.21 Billion in 2023 and is expected to reach USD 245.30 Billion in 2032 and grow at a CAGR of 35.24% over the forecast period 2024-2032.

The edge computing market growth is significantly influenced by the convergence of several critical trends, primarily driven by the escalating demand for next-generation technologies such as 6G, IoT, and AI services. The Indian Ministry of Communications has recently urged telecom operators and startups to transition innovative technologies, such as edge computing from laboratories to practical applications, particularly within smart cities and Industry 4.0 frameworks. Reflecting a 14% increase from the previous year.





Download PDF Sample of Edge Computing Market @ https://www.snsinsider.com/sample-request/1573

Key Companies:

Amazon Web Services (AWS) (AWS IoT Greengrass)

Microsoft (Azure IoT Edge)

Google Cloud (Anthos)

IBM (IBM Edge Application Manager)

Dell Technologies (Dell EMC Edge Gateway)

Cisco Systems (Cisco Edge Computing Solutions)

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) (HPE Edgeline)

Oracle (Oracle Edge Services)

NVIDIA (NVIDIA Jetson)

Intel (Intel IoT Platform)

Qualcomm (Qualcomm IoT Services)

EdgeConneX (EdgeConneX Edge Data Centers)

FogHorn Systems (FogHorn Edge AI)

Schneider Electric (EcoStruxure)

Siemens (MindSphere)

Veea (Veea Edge Platform)

Lumen Technologies (Lumen Edge Services)

Alibaba Cloud (Alibaba Cloud Edge Computing)

Zebra Technologies (Zebra SmartLens)

Aviatrix (Aviatrix Multi-Cloud Networking)

Edge Computing Market Report Scope:

Report Attributes Details Market Size in 2023 USD 16.21 Billion Market Size by 2032 USD 245.30 Billion CAGR CAGR of 35.24% From 2024 to 2032 Base Year 2023 Forecast Period 2024-2032 Historical Data 2020-2022 Report Scope & Coverage Market Size, Segments Analysis, Competitive Landscape, Regional Analysis, DROC & SWOT Analysis, Forecast Outlook Key Segments  By Component (Hardware, Software, Services, Edge-managed Platforms)

 By Application (IIoT, Remote Monitoring, Content Delivery, Video Analytics, AR/VR, Others)

 By Industry Vertical (Industrial, Energy & Utilities, Healthcare, Agriculture, Transportation & Logistics, Retail, Datacenters, Wearables, Smart Cities, Smart Homes, Smart Buildings) Customization Scope Available upon request Pricing Available upon request

If You Need Any Customization on Edge Computing Market Report, Inquire Now @ https://www.snsinsider.com/enquiry/1573

Segmentation Analysis:

By Component, Hardware Components Accounted for Approximately 50% Market Share in 2023

Hardware Components Accounted for Approximately 50% Market Share in 2023 driven by the increasing demand for robust infrastructures that facilitate localized data processing and real-time analytics. Technological advancements in hardware, such as enhanced processing power and energy efficiency are also propelling investment in edge solutions.

By Application, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) Represented Around 35% of Edge Computing Market Share in 2023

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) Represented Around 35% of Edge Computing Market Share in 2023. This growth is driven by its vital impact on industrial operations. By utilizing edge computing, IIoT facilitates real-time data processing from various connected devices and sensors, significantly boosting operational efficiency across sectors, such as manufacturing, energy, and transportation.

North America Led the Market in 2023; Asia Pacific is Expected to Witness Fastest Growth During 2024-2032

In 2023, North America represented about 43% of the edge computing market's revenue, solidifying its leadership in this fast-growing field. This dominance stems from its advanced technological infrastructure and the widespread implementation of IoT and AI solutions. The region's vibrant technology ecosystem, comprising both established companies and innovative startups, drives significant investment in edge computing. Additionally, the surging demand for low-latency applications across sectors including telecommunications, healthcare, and manufacturing propels market growth.

The Asia Pacific region is expected to be the fastest-growing market for edge computing, driven by rapid industrialization, urbanization, and increasing adoption of IoT technologies. The proliferation of 5G networks enhances connectivity and enables real-time data processing, further accelerating edge computing market growth.

Recent Developments:

On October 23, 2024, ZEDEDA and OnLogic announced a strategic partnership to launch OnLogic Powered by ZEDEDA, integrating rugged industrial-grade hardware with cloud-native edge orchestration software. This collaboration aims to simplify and secure the deployment and management of edge computing workloads for enterprises, accelerating time to value.

ZEDEDA and OnLogic announced a strategic partnership to launch OnLogic Powered by ZEDEDA, integrating rugged industrial-grade hardware with cloud-native edge orchestration software. This collaboration aims to simplify and secure the deployment and management of edge computing workloads for enterprises, accelerating time to value. On October 24, 2024, Australian micro data center provider Zella DC launched the Zella Outback, a cutting-edge outdoor micro data center designed specifically for edge computing in extreme conditions. This innovative solution emphasizes reliability and performance, drawing inspiration from the rugged landscapes of Western Australia.

Buy Full Research Report on Edge Computing Market 2024-2032 @ https://www.snsinsider.com/checkout/1573

Exclusive Sections of the Report (The USPs)  Check Section 5

Technological Adoption Rate  helps you uncover opportunities for investment by analyzing the adoption rates of emerging technologies such as AI at the edge, containerization, and real-time analytics across diverse industry verticals.

 helps you uncover opportunities for investment by analyzing the adoption rates of emerging technologies such as AI at the edge, containerization, and real-time analytics across diverse industry verticals. Capacity Utilization Rates  helps you identify infrastructure demand by tracking network expansion metrics by region, revealing hotspots of overcapacity or underserved zones driving future investments.

 helps you identify infrastructure demand by tracking network expansion metrics by region, revealing hotspots of overcapacity or underserved zones driving future investments. Supply Chain Disruption Index  helps you identify risk-prone areas by mapping the regional trends in cloud service reliance and vendor concentration, which could impact availability and performance of edge deployments.

 helps you identify risk-prone areas by mapping the regional trends in cloud service reliance and vendor concentration, which could impact availability and performance of edge deployments. Environmental Compliance Metrics  helps you understand the growing regulatory pressure for secure and localized data processing, especially in regions with strict data sovereignty and energy efficiency requirements.

 helps you understand the growing regulatory pressure for secure and localized data processing, especially in regions with strict data sovereignty and energy efficiency requirements. Competitive Landscape  helps you gauge the strength of regional players and cloud-edge service providers through their cloud usage footprint, infrastructure rollouts, and responsiveness to security incidents.

 helps you gauge the strength of regional players and cloud-edge service providers through their cloud usage footprint, infrastructure rollouts, and responsiveness to security incidents. Cybersecurity Incident Index  helps you assess risk exposure by analyzing the frequency and distribution of cybersecurity breaches (20202023) across regions, supporting investment decisions in edge security solutions.

About Us:

SNS Insider is one of the leading market research and consulting agencies that dominates the market research industry globally. Our company's aim is to give clients the knowledge they require in order to function in changing circumstances. In order to give you current, accurate market data, consumer insights, and opinions so that you can make decisions with confidence, we employ a variety of techniques, including surveys, video talks, and focus groups around the world.
LONDON, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DSEI EXPO - HII (NYSE: HII), Americas largest military shipbuilder, and a leader in advanced unmanned autonomous technology solutions, today announced the completion of production of the 750th REMUS unmanned undersea vehicle (UUV) for a customer.

The German navy will receive the 750th REMUS, a REMUS 300, produced at the HII unmanned facility in Pocasset, Massachusetts.

This marks the continued global adoption of REMUS systems to support national security and maritime operations.

The REMUS line of UUVs is fielded in more than 30 countries, including 14 NATO members. Known for modularity, endurance, and proven performance, REMUS vehicles are deployed across defense, commercial, and research sectors for critical missions including mine countermeasures, hydrographic survey, intelligence gathering, and environmental monitoring.

Over 90% of REMUS units delivered in the past 23 years remain in service, demonstrating platform durability and lifecycle value both critical in defense acquisition decision-making.





An image accompanying this release is available at: http://hii.com/news/hii-completes-750th-remus-unmanned-undersea-vehicle-for-german-navy/.

The REMUS open-architecture design allows rapid payload integration, enabling mission-specific configurations and future tech insertions, key factors in maintaining operational relevance and cost efficiency over time.

The 750th REMUS order is an achievement that reflects both the trust of our international partners and the innovation of our teams, said Duane Fotheringham, president of the Unmanned Systems business group in HIIs Mission Technologies division. We are proud to support Germany as it strengthens its undersea capabilities and look forward to continuing to advance unmanned solutions that enhance security and operational readiness worldwide.

The German navy selection of REMUS underscores HIIs role as a key partner in NATOs collective defense efforts, providing allies with reliable and mission-proven technology for evolving undersea challenges.

The REMUS UUV family delivers critical advantages across modern naval operations and the autonomous systems have been proven to operate independently or in conjunction with crewed platforms. This includes the recent successful demonstration of the launch and recover of REMUS autonomous undersea vehicles from the torpedo tubes of Virginia-class nuclear submarines. This capability will significantly extend mission range, reduce detection risk, and limit personnel exposure.

About HII

HII is a global, all-domain defense provider. HIIs mission is to deliver the worlds most powerful ships and all-domain solutions in service of the nation, creating the advantage for our customers to protect peace and freedom around the world.

As the nations largest military shipbuilder, and with a more than 135-year history of advancing U.S. national security, HII delivers critical capabilities extending from ships to unmanned systems, cyber, ISR, AI/ML and synthetic training. Headquartered in Virginia, HIIs workforce is 44,000 strong. For more information, visit:

HII on the web: https://www.HII.com/

HII on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TeamHII

HII on X: https://www.twitter.com/WeAreHII

HII on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/WeAreHII

CONTACT:

Greg McCarthy

(202) 264-7126

gregory.j.mccarthy@hii-co.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7a11572d-5a2b-43e1-98a3-c0ab24bdf032
BARCELONA, Spain and PARIS and TAMPA, Fla., Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SafeHeal, a medical device innovator transforming colorectal surgery, today announced a 10 million extension of its oversubscribed 35 million Series C financing round. The extension is led by Asabys Partners through its Sabadell Asabys II fund, which joins a world-leading syndicate that includes Sofinnova Partners, Solar Eclipse, Gideon Strategic Partners, Polis, M&L Healthcare, and one of the worlds largest multinational life sciences corporations. Gideon Strategic Partners, an existing investor, has also increased its participation in this extension.

The new capital raise will further accelerate SafeHeals pivotal U.S. IDE study and support the planned commercial launch of Colovac in the EU. Colovac is SafeHeals groundbreaking temporary endoluminal bypass device, designed to eliminate the need for a temporary stoma in most patients undergoing colorectal cancer resection, improving patient recovery, outcomes and quality of life.

As part of this financing, Josep Ll. Sanfeliu, Managing Partner and co-founder of Asabys, will join SafeHeals Board of Directors.

We are delighted to welcome Asabys Partners as the lead investor in this Series C extension, said Chris Richardson, President & CEO of SafeHeal. Their addition strengthens our strategic capabilities in medtech and demonstrates our growing momentum as we advance toward FDA approval and EU commercial launch. Were equally grateful for the continued support from Gideon Strategic Partners and the entire syndicate of world-class investors.

Josep Ll. Sanfeliu, Managing Partner and cofounder of Asabys, commented: Asabys is an ambitious and fast-growing investment firm committed to supporting world-class healthcare innovation across Europe and beyond. We are proud to join SafeHeals investor syndicate, reflecting our belief in both the outstanding team and the transformative impact of Colovac for patients facing colorectal cancer surgery. We look forward to working closely with SafeHeals management and our fellow investors to help bring this important technology to patients worldwide.

About Asabys Partners

Asabys Partners is a Barcelona-based venture capital firm focused on healthcare and life sciences innovation, including biopharma, medtech, and digital health. The firm, founded in 2018 by Josep Ll. Sanfeliu and Clara Campas, aims to back highly innovative and transformative technologies that address unmet medical needs. Asabys has over 300 million in assets under management and invested in around 20 companies. Its second investment vehicle, Sabadell Asabys Health Innovation Investments II (SAHII II and 2B), closed at 180 millionsurpassing its 150 million targetand has deployed capital in 8 innovative life sciences companies globally. Asabys positions itself not merely as an investor, but as a hands-on partner and collaborator to its portfolio companies, aiming to translate disruptive science into meaningful patient outcomes.

About SafeHeal and Colovac

SafeHeal SAS, headquartered in Paris, France, and its wholly owned U.S. subsidiary, SafeHeal Inc., is a medical device company developing Colovac, a device intended as an alternative to diverting ostomy in patients undergoing colorectal surgery. Colovac is a flexible endoluminal bypass sheath designed to reduce the contact of fecal content at the anastomotic site following colorectal surgery. The device is placed endoluminally and is fully reversible. The device remains in place for approximately 10 days, until the bodys natural healing and tissue repair processes are complete, after which it is removed during an endoscopic procedure without the need for a second surgical intervention. This enables patients to resume their normal life without the stigma and complications associated with an ostomy procedure. In the U.S., Colovac is limited by Federal law to investigational use and not currently available for sale. For more information, please visit www.safeheal.com.

Media Contacts

Asabys Partners:

Gabriel Hedengren

Sr Associate Director, APCO

+44 (0) 7 5945 33206

ghedengren@apcoworldwide.com

SafeHeal:

USA

Scott DePierro

Vice President U.S. Operations and Global Business Development, SafeHeal

203-444-0279

sdepierro@safeheal.com

Europe

Karl-Heinz Blohm

Vice President, International, SafeHeal

+33 (0) 6 5181 7895

kblohm@safeheal.com
FORM 8.5 (EPT/RI)

Amendment

PUBLIC DEALING DISCLOSURE BY AN EXEMPT PRINCIPAL TRADER WITH RECOGNISED INTERMEDIARY STATUS DEALING IN A CLIENT-SERVING CAPACITY

Rule 8.5 of the Takeover Code (the Code)

1. KEY INFORMATION

(a) Name of exempt principal trader: Investec Bank plc (b) Name of offeror/offeree in relation to whose relevant securities this form relates:

Use a separate form for each offeror/offeree Treatt plc (c) Name of the party to the offer with which exempt principal trader is connected: Investec is Joint financial adviser, Rule 3 adviser and corporate broker to Treatt plc. (d) Date dealing undertaken: 09th September 2025



(e) In addition to the company in 1(b) above, is the exempt principal trader making disclosures in respect of any other party to this offer?

If it is a cash offer or possible cash offer, state N/A N/A

2. DEALINGS BY THE EXEMPT PRINCIPAL TRADER

Where there have been dealings in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(b), copy table 2(a), (b), (c) or (d) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security dealt in.

The currency of all prices and other monetary amounts should be stated.

(a) Purchases and sales

Class of relevant security Purchases/ sales



Total number of securities Highest price per unit paid/received Lowest price per unit paid/received



Ordinary shares



Purchases



145,926 266 263.65



Ordinary shares



Sales



126,072 266 263.75

(b) Cash-settled derivative transactions

Class of relevant security Product description

e.g. CFD Nature of dealing

e.g. opening/closing a long/short position, increasing/reducing a long/short position Number of reference securities Price per unit N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

(c) Stock-settled derivative transactions (including options)

(i) Writing, selling, purchasing or varying

Class of relevant security Product description e.g. call option Writing, purchasing, selling, varying etc. Number of securities to which option relates Exercise price per unit Type

e.g. American, European etc. Expiry date Option money paid/ received per unit N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

(ii) Exercise

Class of relevant security Product description

e.g. call option Exercising/ exercised against Number of securities Exercise price per unit N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

(d) Other dealings (including subscribing for new securities)

Class of relevant security Nature of dealing

e.g. subscription, conversion Details Price per unit (if applicable) N/A N/A N/A N/A

3. OTHER INFORMATION

(a) Indemnity and other dealing arrangements

Details of any indemnity or option arrangement, or any agreement or understanding, formal or informal, relating to relevant securities which may be an inducement to deal or refrain from dealing entered into by the exempt principal trader making the disclosure and any party to the offer or any person acting in concert with a party to the offer:

Irrevocable commitments and letters of intent should not be included. If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state none



None





(b) Agreements, arrangements or understandings relating to options or derivatives

Details of any agreement, arrangement or understanding, formal or informal, between the exempt principal trader making the disclosure and any other person relating to:

(i) the voting rights of any relevant securities under any option; or

(ii) the voting rights or future acquisition or disposal of any relevant securities to which any derivative is referenced:

If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state none None









Date of disclosure: 10th September 2025 Contact name: Priyali Bhattacharjee Telephone number: +91-9768034903

Public disclosures under Rule 8 of the Code must be made to a Regulatory Information Service.

The Panels Market Surveillance Unit is available for consultation in relation to the Codes dealing disclosure requirements on +44 (0)20 7638 0129.
SHANGHAI, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fangzhou Inc. ("Fangzhou" or the "Company") (06086.HK), a leader in AI-driven Internet healthcare solutions, signed a strategic partnership with Innovent Biologics to integrate digital health services with innovative therapies in metabolic diseases and weight management. Fangzhous founder, chairman and CEO Dr. Xie Fangmin and Innovent Biologics Vice President of Retail Tan Zaiqiang attended the signing ceremony.





Fangzhou signed a strategic partnership with Innovent Biologics

The alliance will bring together Fangzhous AI-enabled H2H digital healthcare ecosystem and Innovents pipeline of novel therapies for diabetes and obesity, pioneering a new model that blends AI technology, innovative products and personalized services. The partnership comes as Chinas weight management market accelerates, with JPMorgan estimating that the market for weight management drug could reach US$14.9 billion by 2030.

China has elevated weight management to a public health priority. In 2024, the National Health Commission and 15 other departments launched a three-year Weight Management Year campaign. In April 2025, the National Patriotic Health Campaign Committee incorporated healthy weight initiatives into the Healthy China framework.

Dr. Xie Fangmin, founder, chairman, and CEO of Fangzhou, commented, We are excited to partner with Innovent Biologics. Together, we will work to establish a new paradigm that integrates breakthrough medicines with digital health for better patient outcomes.

The collaboration will initially focus on diabetes and obesity. Fangzhou will deploy its XS Core AI large language model which powers five key products: AI Medication Finder, AI Health Manager, AI Doctor Assistant, AI Academic Assistant and AI-Powered Search. These tools aim to deliver personalized, 24/7 digital care and enhance patient education.

Innovents next-generation weight management therapy, Mazdutide, demonstrated significant weight reduction and improvements across multiple health markers, including blood pressure, lipids and uric acid[1]. The drug was also named one of 2025s Top 10 Most Anticipated Medicines globally.

Through this partnership, patients will gain convenient access to medication support via AI Medication Finder, while AI Health Manager will provide monitoring, personalized guidance and education to strengthen treatment adherence.

Looking ahead, the companies plan to deepen their collaboration in AI-powered health management, expanding access to innovative therapies and enhancing the quality and efficiency of chronic disease care in China.

About Innovent Biologics

Founded in 2011, Innovent Biologics develops and commercializes innovative therapies across oncology, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, autoimmune disorders and ophthalmology.

About Fangzhou Inc.

Fangzhou Inc. (06086.HK) is Chinas leading online chronic disease management platform, serving 52.8 million registered users and 229,000 physicians (as of June 30, 2025). The Company specializes in delivering tailored medical care and precision medicine solutions. For more information, visit https://investors.jianke.com.

Media Contact

For further inquiries or interviews, please reach out to:

Xingwei Zhao Associate Director of Public Relations Email: pr@jianke.com

Disclaimer: This press release contains forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those anticipated due to various factors. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these statements.

[1] Linong Ji, et al. Once-Weekly Mazdutide in Chinese Adults with Obesity or Overweight. The New England Journal of Medicine. 2025

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/42b34744-00b7-4e8e-96b2-1d260fbec92a
Ottawa, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to Precedence Research, the global AI data centers market size is valued at USD 17.54 billion in 2025 and is predicted to rise from USD 22.52 billion in 2026 to approximately USD 165.73 billion by 2034.

In terms of CAGR, the market is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28.34% between 2025 and 2034. The AI data centers market is driven by the growing need for AI-powered applications.

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AI Data Centers Market Overview

The AI data center market is significant because it offers the essential infrastructure for the rapidly expanding artificial intelligence industry, fueling advancements in numerous sectors via massive data processing and computational power. AI data centers act as the backbone of the digital economy, offering the immense computational power as well as storage necessary for training and deploying AI models. AI-optimized data centers can significantly decrease energy consumption as well as operating expenses through intelligent management of cooling systems and resource allocation.

Real-time monitoring and dynamic workload management enhance overall data center performance as well as service delivery. AI contributes to enhanced data center security via real-time anomaly detection along with proactive threat identification.

AI Data Centers Market Key Highlights:

In terms of revenue, the AI data centers market surpassed USD 13,670 million in 2024.

It is projected to exceed over USD 165,730 billion by 2034.

North America dominated market by holding more than 39% of market share in 2024.

Asia Pacific is expected to grow at a strong CAGR from 2025 to 2034.

By component, the hardware segment held the major market share of 58% in 2024.

By component, the services segment is growing at the fastest CAGR between 2025 and 2034.

By data center type, the hyperscale AI data centers segment contributed the highest market share of 64% in 2024.

By data center type, the edge AI data centers segment is expanding at a notable CAGR between 2025 and 2034.

data centers segment is expanding at a notable CAGR between 2025 and 2034. By AI workload type, the training workloads segment accounted for the largest market share of 45% in 2024.

By AI workload type, the generative AI segment is registering a significant CAGR between 2025 and 2034.

segment is registering a significant CAGR between 2025 and 2034. By cooling infrastructure, the air cooling segment generated the highest market share of 62% in 2024.

By cooling infrastructure, the liquid cooling segment is growing at a healthy CAGR between 2025 and 2034.

By power capacity, the 2050 MW segment held the largest market share of 36% in 2024.

By power capacity, the above 50 MW segment will grow at a CAGR between 2025 and 2034.

By deployment mode, the cloud-based segment accounted for a significant market share of 52% in 2024.

By deployment mode, the hybrid cloud segment will expand to a remarkable CAGR between 2025 and 2034.

By end-user industry, the technology & cloud providers segment held the major market share of 48% in 2024.

By end-user industry, the healthcare & life sciences segment will expand at a significant CAGR between 2025 and 2034.

Key Trends in the AI Data Centers Market

AI-Driven Infrastructure Expansion: Soaring demand for AI workloads, particularly from generative AI and large language models, is driving large-scale construction of AI-optimized data centers with high-density graphic processing units (GPU) and advanced storage systems.

Advanced Cooling Technologies: Traditional air cooling has peaked in efficacyliquid cooling solutions like direct-to-chip and immersion systems are becoming mainstream to manage thermal load efficiently in AI-intensive environments.

Sustainability and Green Energy Integration: There's a heavy push for eco-friendly operationsfacilities are adopting renewable energy, waste-heat reuse, energy-efficient designs, and pursuing carbon neutrality as standard practice.

Modular & Edge Data Center Designs: Pre-fabricated modular data centers and edge facilities are gaining traction, offering rapid deployment, lower latency, and scalable infrastructure close to users.

Automation & AIOps-Driven Management: AI-powered operations (AIOps) are increasingly used for predictive maintenance, real-time monitoring, anomaly detection, and efficient resource allocation to lower downtime and operating costs.

Power Infrastructure & Grid Resilience: With AI systems consuming vast amounts of energy, data centers are increasingly relying on decentralized energy systems, microgrids, and modernized power infrastructure to ensure stability.

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AI Data Centers Market Opportunity

Why is surging demand for computational power acting as an opportunity for the AI data centers market?

The surging demand for computational power is creating a major opportunity for the AI data center market as organizations increasingly depend on advanced AI models, high-performance applications, and big data analytics. These workloads need massive processing capacity, low-latency storage, along with scalable infrastructure.

AI data centers offer specialized hardware together with optimized systems needed to manage such demands, driving investment in GPUs, TPUs, along with energy-efficient solutions. This trend positions AI data centers as vital enablers of digital transformation globally.

AI Data Centers Market Key Challenge:

How are power availability and the strain on electrical grids a challenge for the AI data centers market?

Power availability and grid strain are major challenges for the AI data center market because AI's immense along with unpredictable power requirements outpace the electrical grid's capacity to supply along with manage power. The sheer scale of AI-driven need can overwhelm existing grid infrastructure, contributing to localized bottlenecks and requiring massive, time-consuming updates to transmission and distribution systems.

Data centers must be located in areas with robust power along with grid availability but planning as well as building new high-voltage transmission infrastructure can take five to ten years or more, a slow pace in comparison to data center deployment.

AI Data Centers Market Report Coverage

Report Attributes Key Statistics U.S. Market Size in 2025 USD 4,790 Million U.S. Market Size by 2034 USD 46,150 Million Global Market Size in 2024 USD 13.67 Billion Global Market Size in 2025 USD 17.54 Billion Global Market Size by 2034 USD 165.73 Billion Growth Rate from 2025 to 2034 CAGR of 28.34% Dominating Region in 2024 North America Fastest Growing Region Asia Pacific Base Year 2024 Forecast Period 2025 to 2034 Segments Covered Component, Data Center Type, AI Workload Type, Cooling Infrastructure, Power Capacity, Deployment Mode, End-User Industry, and Region Regions Covered North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa Key Players Covered NVIDIA Corporation, AMD (Advanced Micro Devices), Intel Corporation, Broadcom Inc., Micron Technology, Marvell Technology, Samsung Electronic, SK hynix Inc., TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company), Supermicro (Super Micro Computer, Inc.), Dell Technologies, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE), Lenovo Group Ltd., Inspur Group, Cisco Systems, Inc., Arista Networks, Equinix, Inc. (data center infrastructure & interconnection), Vertiv Holdings Co. (power & cooling systems), Eaton Corporation, and Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.



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From Data Centers to AI Data Centers: Understanding the Bigger Picture

The AI data center industry represents one of the fastest-growing segments within the expansive global data center market. According to Precedence Research, the global data center market size was calculated at USD 347.64 billion in 2024 and is estimated to grow from USD 386.71 billion in 2025 to nearly USD 1,008.65 billion by 2034, with a CAGR of 11.24% from 2025 to 2034, fueled by the accelerating demand for cloud computing, edge services, big data analytics, and enterprise digital transformation. Data centers act as the core infrastructure of the digital economy, enabling seamless connectivity, data storage, and computational power for businesses and consumers alike.

The broader data center market includes hyperscale, colocation, enterprise, and edge facilities, each playing a critical role in meeting diverse enterprise needs. Hyperscale data centers dominate due to their scale and efficiency, while edge centers are expanding rapidly to support low-latency applications such as internet of things (IoT), 5G, and autonomous technologies. Colocation centers remain attractive for enterprises seeking cost-effective infrastructure without the burden of full ownership.

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Several factors are driving this expansion:

Cloud adoption across industries : Enterprises are migrating workloads to cloud environments, demanding robust and scalable infrastructure.

: Enterprises are migrating workloads to cloud environments, demanding robust and scalable infrastructure. 5G and IoT growth : Billions of connected devices require faster processing and localized storage, spurring investment in edge facilities.

: Billions of connected devices require faster processing and localized storage, spurring investment in edge facilities. Digital transformation : Healthcare, BFSI, retail, government, and telecom are all expanding data center reliance.

: Healthcare, BFSI, retail, government, and telecom are all expanding data center reliance. Sustainability focus: Operators are investing in renewable energy integration, carbon-neutral designs, and efficient cooling systems to align with ESG goals.

Within this landscape, AI data centers emerge as a transformational frontier. Unlike traditional facilities, they are purpose-built to handle high-density GPU workloads, generative AI models, and advanced training/inference tasks, placing new demands on power capacity, cooling, and network architecture. This makes AI data centers not just a subset but a catalyst shaping the evolution of the broader market.

Data Center Market Key Takeaways

North America dominated the global market with the largest market share of 41% in 2024.

Asia Pacific is estimated to expand at the fastest CAGR between 2025 and 2034.

By component, the solution segment has held the largest market share of 65.76% in 2024.

By component, the services segment is anticipated to grow at a remarkable CAGR between 2025 and 2034.

By type, the hyperscale segment is expected to expand at the fastest CAGR over the projected period.

By enterprise size, the small & medium enterprises segment is expected to expand at the fastest CAGR over the projected period.

By end-user, the BFSI segment had the largest market share in 2024.

By end-user, the IT & telecom segment is expected to expand at the fastest CAGR over the projected period.

Data Center Market Key Players

Equinix, Inc.

Digital Realty Trust, Inc.

NTT Ltd .

. Global Switch Ltd.

CyrusOne Inc.

Interxion: A Digital Realty Company

China Telecom Corporation Limited

China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited

AT&T Inc.

Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS)

Microsoft Corporation

Google LLC

IBM Corporation

Oracle Corporation

Cisco Systems, Inc.



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AI Data Centers Market Key Regional Analysis

How did North America Dominate the AI Data Centers Market?

The region, mainly the United States and Canada, has a highly developed technological infrastructure that supports and fuels the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI). Major technology companies such as Microsoft along with Google allocate substantial resources to AI, while venture capital funding supports innovative startups. This influx of talent is vital for developing and implementing cutting-edge AI technologies.

In July 2025, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a new step on the Donald Trump administrations plan for accelerating the development of AI infrastructure by siting on DOE lands. The DOE has selected its four sites, such as Idaho National Laboratory, Oak Ridge Reservation, Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, and Savannah River Site, while inviting private sector partners for the development of advanced AI data centers and energy generation projects. (Source: https://www.energy.gov)





How Big is the U.S. AI Data Centers Market?

The U.S. AI data centers market was valued at USD 3.73 billion in 2024 and is projected to surpass USD 46.15 billion by 2034, expanding at a double-digit CAGR of 28.60% from 2025 to 2034.



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Asia Pacific AI Data Centers Market Trends:

The Asia-Pacific is the fastest-growing region for AI data centers due to surging cloud adoption, a large and increasing population with increasing digital needs, government-supported AI strategies, growing data sovereignty concerns, and favorable factors such as abundant land and energy resources in some countries.

Countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Tokyo offer strong infrastructure along with business-friendly environments. Additionally, nations like Malaysia and Thailand are leveraging their land along with energy resources to become attractive locations for large-scale data center development.

Europe AI Data Centers Market Trends

Europe is emerging as one of the most dynamic regions in the global AI data centers market, fueled by rapid digitalization, IoT adoption, and a surging demand for cloud computing solutions. The region has positioned itself as a hub for sustainable and green technology initiatives, with governments and enterprises alike prioritizing renewable energy integration, carbon-neutral designs, and next-generation energy-efficient architectures.

One of the defining characteristics of Europes AI data center landscape is the dominance of hyperscalers, who control the majority of capacity and continue to invest in expanding large-scale facilities. By 2025, these hyperscale projects are expected to introduce significant advancements in performance, scale, and sustainability, setting new global benchmarks for data center innovation.

Key markets such as the UK, Germany, and France are driving this momentum:

United Kingdom : Supported by the governments National AI Strategy, the UK is leveraging policy support and strong digital transformation initiatives to lead in AI-enabled infrastructure.

: Supported by the governments National AI Strategy, the UK is leveraging policy support and strong digital transformation initiatives to lead in AI-enabled infrastructure. Germany : With its robust data center ecosystem and emphasis on both digital transformation and sustainability, Germany continues to attract large-scale hyperscaler investments.

: With its robust data center ecosystem and emphasis on both digital transformation and sustainability, Germany continues to attract large-scale hyperscaler investments. France: Backed by the AI for Humanity strategy, France is positioning itself as a frontrunner in ethical AI development and cutting-edge data center deployments.



Recent government and private-sector commitments further highlight Europes aggressive push. In January 2025, the European government unveiled its AI Opportunities Action Plan, designed to accelerate economic growth by aligning AI development with industrial strategy and innovation funding. Meanwhile, in February 2025, France announced a landmark 109 billion investment in its AI sector, bolstered by additional funding commitments of 30 billion and 50 billion from the UAE, earmarked for building a 1-gigawatt AI-optimized data center  a facility nearly four times the scale of the UKs largest operational site.

Such record-breaking investments underscore Europes ambition not only to strengthen its AI capabilities but also to redefine global standards for sustainable and high-capacity AI data centers.

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AI Data Centers Market Segmentation Analysis

Component Analysis

The hardware segment dominated the AI data centers market in 2024, because AI workloads need massive computational power, high-speed data processing, together with low-latency performance. Specialized hardware such as GPUs, TPUs, and ASICs significantly accelerate training as well as inference tasks compared to conventional CPUs.

Additionally, increasing deployment of high- performance servers, networking infrastructure, and advanced storage systems, to manage exponential data growth thus strengthened hardwares role. Investments in energy-efficient, scalable hardware solutions have made it the backbone of AI-driven data centers, by ensuring efficiency and speed.

Data Center Type Analysis

The hyperscale AI data centers segment dominated the AI data centers market in 2024, because they offer the immense computing power, huge storage, high-throughput networking, and improved infrastructure necessary for large-scale AI model training as well as deployment, providing critical scalability, cost-efficiency, as well as performance that other data center types cannot match. By operating at such a large scale, hyperscalers achieve economies of scale that make AI computing more cost-effective for the many organizations utilizing their cloud platforms.

Hyperscale data centers can efficiently manage a wide range of AI workloads, from deep learning along with generative AI to real-time analytics, making them base to current enterprise and cloud AI strategies.

AI Workload Type Analysis

The training workloads segment dominated the AI data centers market in 2024, because developing sophisticated AI models, mainly large language models as well as deep learning algorithms, need massive computational power, specialized hardware such as GPUs, and vast datasets, making these training processes greatly intensive. Companies are investing heavily in dedicated AI data centers as well as GPU clusters to perform these initial training runs along with shortening the development cycle, creating a surge in need for AI-ready infrastructure.

Cooling infrastructure Analysis

The air-cooling segment dominated the AI data centers market in 2024, due to its cost-effectiveness, established infrastructure, and wide availability. Most existing data centers were already programmed for air cooling, making adoption easier as well as cheaper compared to liquid systems. It provides simpler installation, maintenance, as well as scalability for moderate workloads. Moreover, many operators prioritized proven, reliable methods to quickly expand for AI expansion, delaying investment in more complex liquid cooling solutions even with their higher efficiency for extreme performance demands.

Power capacity Analysis

The 2050 MW segment dominated the AI data centers market in 2024, because it strikes an equilibrium between scalability and efficiency. These facilities offer sufficient power to manage advanced AI workloads, which includes training large models, while improving energy use and cost. Their flexibility makes them ideal for hyperscalers as well as enterprises expanding AI capabilities.

Deployment Mode Analysis

The cloud-based segment dominated the AI data centers market in 2024, because decreased upfront expenses, superior scalability for fluctuating AI workloads, access to developed AI services such as pre-built models and APIs, as well as the convenience of managed infrastructure provided by major providers like Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud. Cloud providers provide a comprehensive suite of ready-to-use AI tools, including natural language processing (NLP), machine learning models, as well as computer vision APIs, permitting organizations to develop AI solutions faster.

End-user Industry Analysis

The technology & cloud service providers segment held the largest share in the AI data centers market in 2024, because the rising reliance on cloud infrastructure for digital transformation, AI advancements, as well as the expansion of Software as a Service (SaaS) solution across numerous industries. Businesses are increasingly accepting cloud solutions to modernize operations, improve customer engagement, and enhance agility. Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure are the dominant players, while the Asia-Pacific region shows significant expansion for SaaS offerings.

AI Data Centers Market Top Companies

The AI Data Centers Market is dominated by key industry leaders whose strong market share and strategic initiatives shape the future direction of the industry.

NVIDIA Corporation: Powers AI data centers with industry-leading GPUs and AI infrastructure platforms like NVIDIA DGX and Grace Hopper systems.



Powers AI data centers with industry-leading GPUs and AI infrastructure platforms like NVIDIA DGX and Grace Hopper systems. AMD (Advanced Micro Devices): Offers high-performance CPUs and GPUs tailored for AI workloads, cloud environments, and hyperscale data centers.



Offers high-performance CPUs and GPUs tailored for AI workloads, cloud environments, and hyperscale data centers. Intel Corporation: Provides data center processors, AI accelerators, and scalable compute solutions through its Xeon and Habana Labs product lines.



Provides data center processors, AI accelerators, and scalable compute solutions through its Xeon and Habana Labs product lines. Broadcom Inc.: Delivers high-speed networking and connectivity solutions essential for modern AI data center architectures.



Delivers high-speed networking and connectivity solutions essential for modern AI data center architectures. Micron Technology: Supplies advanced memory and storage products, including high-bandwidth DRAM and SSDs optimized for AI-driven operations.



Supplies advanced memory and storage products, including high-bandwidth DRAM and SSDs optimized for AI-driven operations. Marvell Technology: Specializes in custom silicon, data processing units (DPUs), and cloud-optimized networking chips used in AI infrastructure.



Specializes in custom silicon, data processing units (DPUs), and cloud-optimized networking chips used in AI infrastructure. Samsung Electronics: Develops cutting-edge memory and processing technologies vital for high-speed AI training and inference in data centers.



Recent Developments:

In September 2025, Micron Technology, Inc. is proud to declare its commitment to the White Houses Pledge to Americas Youth: Investing in AI Education, a national initiative targeted at preparing young Americans to contributed to an AI-powered future. (Source https://investors.micron.com)

In April 2025, Dell Technologies will start advancements across its industry-leading server, storage, along with data protection portfolios programmed to help organizations achieve data center modernization. (Source: https://www.dell.com



In November 2024, Inspur Cloud Services together with Cyperport signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in Hong Kong. (Source: https://www.datacenterdynamics.com)



AI Data Centers Segments Covered in the Report

By Component



Hardware Compute (GPUs, CPUs, TPUs, ASICs) Memory (HBM, DRAM, Flash) Storage (NVMe SSD, HDD, Object Storage) Networking (Switches, Routers, Interconnects)

Software AI Workload Management Platforms Orchestration Tools (e.g., Kubernetes for AI) Virtualization & Containerization Software AI Model Training/Inference Frameworks

Services Deployment & Integration Managed Services Consulting & Support





By Data Center Type



Hyperscale AI Data Centers

Colocation AI Data Centers

Edge AI Data Centers

Enterprise (Private) AI Data Centers



By AI Workload Type



Training Workloads

Inference Workloads

Real-Time Analytics

Generative AI

Reinforcement Learning



By Cooling Infrastructure



Liquid Cooling

Immersion Cooling

Direct-to-Chip Liquid Cooling

Air Cooling

CRAH/CRAC Units

Chilled Water Systems

Hybrid Cooling Systems



By Power Capacity



Below 5 MW

520 MW

2050 MW

Above 50 MW



By Deployment Mode



On-Premises

Cloud-Based

Hybrid Cloud



By End-User Industry



Technology & Cloud Service Providers

BFSI

Healthcare & Life Sciences

Automotive (Autonomous Driving)

Retail & E-commerce

Government & Defense

Telecom

Energy & Utilities

Education & Research



By Region

North America U.S. Canada

Europe U.K. Germany France

Asia-Pacific China India Japan South Korea Malaysia Philippines

Latin America Brazil Rest of Latin America

Middle East & Africa (MEA) GCC North Africa South Africa Rest of the Middle East & Africa



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Dublin, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Singapore Wealth Management Market Outlook to 2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Singapore's Wealth Management Market was valued at USD 198 billion, based on a five-year historical analysis. This growth is driven by increasing demand for professional financial advice, a robust regulatory framework, and technology-driven solutions. The market serves a sophisticated client base with 1,650 single-family offices operating in Singapore as of 2025.



Singapore maintains its dominance through strategic advantages in financial infrastructure and regulatory excellence. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) continues to enhance frameworks for family offices and private wealth vehicles, attracting global high-net-worth individuals. Regional competitors like Hong Kong remain relevant but face increasing competition from Singapore's specialized wealth management ecosystem.



Recent industry developments include BlackRock's 2023 partnership with Avaloq to enhance wealth management technology solutions, and UBS's strategic moves to strengthen its Asian wealth management capabilities through acquisitions The MAS maintains strict anti-money laundering controls while encouraging innovation through regulatory sandboxes



Singapore Wealth Management Market Segmentation

By Client Type: Segmenting into Individual and Institutional Clients, individuals dominate in wealth management AUM. This dominance is driven by Singapore's standing as a stable financial hub with robust regulatory frameworks appealing to Individual mandates.

By Service Type: The segmentation covers Investment Management, Estate Planning, and Tax Advisory. Investment Management holds the largest share due to Singapore's reputation as a wealth hub, attracting discretionary portfolio mandates and alternative asset allocations. Leading entities use AI-driven portfolio optimization and multi-asset solutions to fulfill the growing appetite for higher risk-adjusted returns.

Singapore Wealth Management Market Competitive Landscape



The market features global players like UBS and BlackRock, alongside domestic leaders DBS and OCBC. Competition intensifies with digital-first entrants offering automated portfolio management, though traditional banks maintain advantage in complex wealth structuring services. Recent technology partnerships have accelerated AI adoption for client risk profiling and portfolio optimization.



Singapore Wealth Management Market Industry Analysis

Growth Drivers

Increasing HNWIs Population: With estimates indicating about 330,000 HNWIs in 2024, up from 320,000 in 2023, Singapore's robust economy and appealing government policies make it an attractive hub for wealth accumulation. The influx of wealth drives the demand for personalized wealth management services.

Rising Demand for Personalized Financial Services: The trend towards customized financial solutions continues as wealthy clients prefer bespoke guidance on investment strategies, estate planning, and tax advisory. Firms invest in advanced client relationship management technologies and upskilling advisors to meet this demand.

Growth of Digital Wealth Management Solutions: The digital transformation, accelerated by COVID-19, sees growing adoption of robo-advisors and online platforms. AI and data analytics enhancements allow firms to offer more personalized services, reflecting a movement towards integrating technology into wealth management.

Market Challenges

Regulatory Compliance and Changes: Stringent MAS regulations create significant challenges. Compliance costs have surged, necessitating investments in infrastructure and training, diverting resources from client-facing activities.

Intense Competition: The market's intense competition among numerous players leads to price wars and increased marketing expenses, impacting profit margins. The entry of fintech companies presents additional challenges, prompting traditional firms to innovate continually.

Market Opportunities

Expansion of ESG Investment Strategies: The growing interest in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing presents a significant opportunity for wealth management firms in Singapore. In 2024, ESG integration across managed assets continues to gain momentum, driven by rising investor awareness of sustainability, especially among younger generations prioritizing ethical investing. Regulatory initiatives, including upcoming mandatory climate disclosures, further support this shift. Wealth management firms can capitalize on this trend by developing ESG-focused products and strategies, attracting clients who value sustainability and responsible investment practices.



Technological Advancements in Wealth Management: The rapid advancement of technology in the wealth management sector offers numerous opportunities for firms to enhance their service delivery and operational efficiency. In 2025, it is projected that investments in fintech solutions by wealth management farre anticipated to grow rapidly, focusing on areas such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and data analytics. These technologies can streamline operations, improve client engagement, and provide more personalized investment strategies. By leveraging technology, firms can enhance their competitive edge, reduce costs, and improve client satisfaction.

Singapore Wealth Management Market Future Outlook

Singapore's wealth management market is poised for continued growth, driven by technological advancements and an increasing focus on sustainable investing. As firms adapt to changing client preferences and regulatory landscapes, the emphasis on personalized services and digital solutions will likely shape the future of the industry.



Key Topics Covered:



1. Singapore Wealth Management Market Overview



2. Singapore Wealth Management Market Size (In USD Bn)

2.1. Historical Market Size

2.2. Year-On-Year Growth Analysis

2.3. Key Market Developments and Milestones



3. Singapore Wealth Management Market Analysis

3.1. Growth Drivers

3.1.1. Increasing High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) Population

3.1.2. Rising Demand for Personalized Financial Services

3.1.3. Growth of Digital Wealth Management Solutions

3.2. Market Challenges

3.2.1. Regulatory Compliance and Changes

3.2.2. Intense Competition Among Financial Institutions

3.2.3. Economic Uncertainty and Market Volatility

3.3. Opportunities

3.3.1. Expansion of ESG Investment Strategies

3.3.2. Technological Advancements in Wealth Management

3.3.3. Increasing Interest in Alternative Investments

3.4. Trends

3.4.1. Shift Towards Digital and Robo-Advisory Services

3.4.2. Growing Focus on Sustainable Investing

3.4.3. Enhanced Client Engagement through Data Analytics

3.5. Government Regulation

3.5.1. Overview of Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Guidelines

3.5.2. Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Regulations

3.5.3. Data Protection and Privacy Laws

3.5.4. Licensing Requirements for Wealth Management Firms

3.6. SWOT Analysis

3.7. Stake Ecosystem

3.8. Porter's Five Forces

3.9. Competition Ecosystem



4. Singapore Wealth Management Market Segmentation

4.1. By Client Type

4.2. By Service Type

4.3. By Asset Class

4.4. By Distribution Channel

4.5. By Geographic Region



5. Singapore Wealth Management Market Competitive Analysis

5.1. Detailed Profiles of Major Companies

DBS Bank

OCBC Bank

Citibank

Standard Chartered

UBS

Lion City Wealth Advisors

Merlion Capital Management

Singapura Asset Strategies

Horizon Wealth Partners

Prosperity Financial Group

5.2. Cross Comparison Parameters

5.2.1. Market Share

5.2.2. Revenue Growth Rate

5.2.3. Client Retention Rate

5.2.4. Average Assets Under Management (AUM)

5.2.5. Service Diversification Index

5.2.6. Digital Adoption Rate

5.2.7. Customer Satisfaction Score

5.2.8. Compliance and Regulatory Adherence Score



6. Singapore Wealth Management Market Regulatory Framework

6.1. Environmental Standards

6.2. Compliance Requirements

6.3. Certification Processes



7. Singapore Wealth Management Market Future Market Size

7.1. Future Market Size Projections

7.2. Key Factors Driving Future Market Growth



8. Singapore Wealth Management Market Analysts' Recommendations

8.1. TAM/SAM/SOM Analysis

8.2. Customer Cohort Analysis

8.3. Marketing Initiatives

8.4. White Space Opportunity Analysis



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/u0djbb

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.
Dublin, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Bridging Asia's Unmet Packaged Food Potential" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Asia Pacific is projected to have 237 million tonnes of unmet retail packaged food potential. 60% of this comes from staple foods as Asian consumers gradually trade up for better quality food essentials promising safety and hygiene. Consumers are also seeking value-added product attributes that are both convenient and experiential. Offering product variety across more cuisines and formats could open new opportunities, while stagnant growth could be reversed by embracing more competition.



This Bridging Asia's Unmet Packaged Food Potential global briefing offers an insight into to the size and shape of the Fresh Food market, highlights buzz topics, emerging geographies, categories and trends and identifies the leading companies and brands. It also offers strategic analysis on driving fresh food industry trends like health and wellness, premiumisation, convenience and value-for-money and how those trends influence factors like packaging innovations, retail distribution and retail pricing both historically and into the future.

Key findings



Despite global market volatility, Asia shows vast consumption potential for packaged food

The Asia Pacific packaged food market is underserved, with only half of its full potential tapped into in 2024. Most of the consumption gap goes to staple foods, where progress is limited by the abundance of fresh food. Asian consumers are gradually trading up, driving value growth in both fresh food and packaged processed food, as they seek quality and food safety, as well as novelty.

Lifestyle changes, channel shifts and product variety drive forecast growth

Beyond macroeconomic factors driving Asian economies, it is imperative to assess "soft drivers". Processed meat brands are innovating to lifestyle changes in Indonesia, and South Korean manufacturers enforce value in baked goods, paving the way for brighter market prospects. Meanwhile, the Philippine instant noodles market faces a bleak future if it fails to embrace competition.

Convenience and experiential features shape innovation

Winning brands that aim to build market share and customer loyalty for the long term introduce varieties that speak to Gen Z consumers. For example, fusion flavours that are exciting yet familiar and products that are versatile to fast-paced lifestyles and inconsistent routines. Novelty will invigorate more mature categories, such as new cuts and types of meat in processed meat.

Growing competition, if optimised, improves category dynamism

The race for claiming a larger market share whilst growing the size of the market goes beyond packaged food brands; artisanal products (such as bakery) made fresh and foodservice compete with packaged food players for share of wallet and stomach. Brands that introduce products with differentiated features within an affordable price range are on track to stand out.

Why Buy this Report?

Get a detailed picture of the Fresh Food market;

Pinpoint growth sectors and identify factors driving change;

Understand the competitive environment, the market's major players and leading brands;

Use five-year forecasts to assess how the market is predicted to develop.

Key Topics Covered:

Introduction

Asia Pacific's forecast value sales of packaged food accelerates to 2% up to 2029

451 million tonnes of packaged food could potentially be consumed in Asia Pacific

Consumer switch in choices could benefit markets that are diversifying import partners

The industry needs to reconsider its offerings to justify rising prices

India and Indonesia lead forecast growth

Leveraging soft drivers

Soft drivers deliver hard impact to forecast growth

There is a need to break certain categories out of stagnation and avoid early maturity

Indonesia taps into changing lifestyles in processed meat

More competition in the Philippines can improve growth in instant noodles

South Korea embraces demand for product variety and innovation in baked goods

Offering variety aligned to lifestyle trends

Convenience, experience and premiumisation are top forecast megatrends

The Asian palate for meat is becoming more diverse and experiential

Premium meat and seafood make inroads through both foodservice and retail

Meat and seafood formats are influenced by local dishes, cold chain and price

Fresh chilled beef, Vinabeef, nudges Vietnam's average prices upwards

Kanzler highlights the impact of sensory and convenience in Indonesia with finger food

WokTok brings the experience of Chinese cuisine into the Indian instant noodles market

Convenience and value features are predicted to have greatest lasting influence

Embracing competition and driving product availability

Mature categories are reinvigorated by new market players

New consumption occasions and channels carve out opportunity for affordable novelty

Bakehouse405 and Heinz collaborate to tap into South Korea's meal occasions

Brands should remain mindful of value even in improving economies

Imperial enters the Philippines, offering value in bigger pack sizes and real meat

Lean into or stand out from small local grocers and street stalls/kiosks

New packaging unlocks the convenience store channel for Thailand's Royal Umbrella

Dole releases new treats in Japan, tapping into more fruit side streams

Conclusion

Strike a delicate balance between novelty and affordability when projecting value

Recommendations for growth

How Asia's market potential for fresh food and staple foods will evolve

Questions we are asking given the backdrop of market volatility

Company Coverage Includes:

Vinabeef

Kanzler

WokTok

Bakehouse405

Heinz

Imperial

Royal Umbrella

Dole

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/v71wk

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.
Albion Enterprise VCT PLC

Interim Management Statement

LEI Code: 213800OVSRDHRJBMO720



Introduction

I present Albion Enterprise VCT PLC (the Company)s interim management statement for the period from 1 April 2025 to 30 June 2025.

Performance and dividends

The Company's unaudited net asset value (NAV) on 30 June 2025 was 277.3 million or 115.72 pence per share (excluding treasury shares), a decrease of 0.50 pence per share (0.4%) since 31 March 2025.

After accounting for the first dividend for the year ending 31 March 2026 of 2.91 pence per share paid on 29 August 2025 to shareholders on the register on 1 August 2025, the NAV is 112.81 pence per share.

Portfolio

The following investments have been made during the period:

New investments 000 Activity Total Access Health (T/A Evaro) 3,385 Platform for streamlining access to care for minor health issues. Labrys Group Holdings 2,003 Communications platform for defence. Revgentic 267 Infrastructure for pipeline conversion. Total new investments 5,655





Further investments 000 Activity Get Least (T/A Kato) 1,242 Platform that digitises workflows of Commercial Real Estate. Gravitee TopCo (T/A Gravitee.io) 1,214 Application Programming Interface (API) management platform. Phasecraft 1,012 Software for Quantum Computers. Treefera 962 Data platform for forestry and nature-based assets. Open Trade Technology 349 Embedded finance to allow fintechs to provide yield products backed by Stablecoins. Runa Network 146 Cloud platform and infrastructure that enables corporates to issue digital incentives and payouts. Kohort Software 119 Software platform automating revenue and customer forecasting. Elliptic Enterprises 27 Provider of Anti Money Laundering services to digital asset institutions. Total further investments 5,071

Top ten holdings (as at 30 June 2025)

Investment Carrying value

000s % of net asset value Activity Quantexa 54,065 19.5% Decision intelligence platform to help solve challenges across customer intelligence, KYC, financial crime, risk management, fraud, and security.



Oviva 17,239 6.2% A technology enabled service business in medical nutritional therapy (MNT). Proveca 14,837 5.3% Reformulation of medicines for children. Gravitee TopCo (T/A Gravitee.io) 10,483 3.8% API management platform. Convertr Media 8,349 3.0% A customer acquisition platform which tracks advertising leads all the way to sale. The Evewell Group 6,488 2.3% Operator and developer of womens health centres focusing on fertility. Healios 5,864 2.1% Provider of an online platform delivering family centric psychological care primarily to children and adolescents. Treefera 4,660 1.7% Data platform for forestry and nature-based assets. Runa Network 4,581 1.7% Cloud platform and infrastructure that enables corporates to issue digital incentives and payouts. Panaseer 4,345 1.6% Provider of cyber security services.

A full breakdown of the Companys portfolio can be found on the Companys webpage on the Managers website at www.albion.capita l /v c t -fun d s/AAEV .

Share buy-backs

During the period, the Company did not buy back any shares as it was in a close period.

It remains the Boards policy to buy back shares in the market, subject to the overall constraint that such purchases are in the Companys interest, including the maintenance of sufficient resources for investment in existing and new portfolio companies and the continued payment of dividends to shareholders.

It is the Boards intention for buy-backs to be at around a 5% discount to net asset value, so far as market conditions and liquidity permit.

Cancellation of share premium account

The Company obtained authority to cancel the amount standing to the credit of its share premium account at the General Meeting on 11 December 2024. The purpose of the proposal was to increase the distributable reserves available to the Company for the payment of dividends, the buy-back of shares, and for other corporate purposes.

The proposal received the consent of the Court on 13 May 2025, and the changes have been registered at Companies House on 20 May 2025. Over time, this will create additional distributable reserves of 195.5 million.

Material events and transactions after the period end

The Company paid a dividend of 2.91 pence per Ordinary share on 29 August 2025 to shareholders on the register on 1 August 2025. The Company issued the following Ordinary shares of nominal value 1 penny per share under the dividend reinvestment scheme:

Date of allotment Number of shares allotted Issue price

(pence per share) Net invested

000 29 August 2025 979,850 113.31 1,110

There have been no other material events or transactions after the period end to the date of this announcement.

Further information

Further information regarding historic and current financial performance and other useful shareholder information can be found on the Companys webpage on the Managers website at www.albion.capita l /vct-f u n d s/AAEV .

Ben Larkin, Chairman

10 September 2025

For further information please contact:

Vikash Hansrani

Operations Partner

Albion Capital Group LLP - Tel: 020 7601 1850
NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leading securities law firm Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP announces an investigation into James Hardie Industries plc (NYSE: JHX) for potential violations of the federal securities laws.

If you invested in James Hardie, you are encouraged to obtain additional information by visiting: https://www.bfalaw.com/cases/james-hardie-industries-class-action-lawsuit.

Why Is James Hardie being Investigated?



James Hardie is a producer and marketer of high-performance fiber cement and fiber gypsum building solutions. The largest application for the Companys fiber cement building products in the United Stated and Canada is in external siding for the residential building industry.



During the relevant period, James Hardie stated that its fast[]-growing customers was one of the key aspects of its competitive positioning. The Company also stated that its North American business results clearly demonstrate the inherent strength of the Companys unique value proposition and the underlying momentum in our strategy.



In truth, it appears the Companys North American sales during the relevant period may have been driven by temporary inventory loading by channel partners, not sustainable customer demand.



The Stock Declines as the Truth Is Revealed



On August 19, 2025, after market hours, James Hardie reported its fiscal Q1 2026 financial results. During the accompanying earnings call, the Company revealed that North American net sales declined 12% during the quarter, driven by lower volumes as customers made efforts to return to more normal inventory levels[.] The Company also revealed that significant inventory destocking among channel partners in North America was expected to continue to impact sales for the next several quarters. On this news, the price of James Hardie stock fell $9.79 per share, or more than 34%, from $28.43 per share on August 19, 2025, to $18.64 per share on August 20, 2025.

Click here for more information: https://www.bfalaw.com/cases/james-hardie-industries-class-action-lawsuit.

What Can You Do?

If you invested in James Hardie you may have legal options and are encouraged to submit your information to the firm.

All representation is on a contingency fee basis, there is no cost to you. Shareholders are not responsible for any court costs or expenses of litigation. The firm will seek court approval for any potential fees and expenses.

Submit your information by visiting:

https://www.bfalaw.com/cases/james-hardie-industries-class-action-lawsuit

Or contact:

Ross Shikowitz

ross@bfalaw.com

212.789.3619

Why Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP?

BFA is a leading international law firm representing plaintiffs in securities class actions and shareholder litigation. It has been named a top plaintiff law firm by Chambers USA, The Legal 500, and ISS SCAS, and its attorneys have been named Elite Trial Lawyers by the National Law Journal, among the top 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers by Lawdragon, Titans of the Plaintiffs Bar by Law360 and SuperLawyers by Thomson Reuters. Among its recent notable successes, BFA recovered over $900 million in value from Tesla, Inc.s Board of Directors, as well as $420 million from Teva Pharmaceutical Ind. Ltd.

For more information about BFA and its attorneys, please visit https://www.bfalaw.com.

https://www.bfalaw.com/cases/james-hardie-industries-class-action-lawsuit

Attorney advertising. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leading securities law firm Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP announces an investigation into The J.M. Smucker Company (NYSE: SJM) for potential violations of the federal securities laws.

If you invested in J.M. Smucker, you are encouraged to obtain additional information by visiting: https://www.bfalaw.com/cases/the-jm-smucker-company-class-action-lawsuit.

Why Is J.M. Smucker being Investigated?

J.M. Smucker manufactures and markets branded food and beverage products. In November 2023, the company completed an acquisition of Hostess Brands, Inc., a manufacturer and marketer of sweet baked goods brands. The company stated that the Hostess acquisition was highly complementary and that underlying trends in snacking and specifically sweet snacking still bode well for the category.

In truth, it appears the companys Sweet Baked Snacks segment, which includes Hostess, significantly deteriorated in the face of declining trends in sweet snacking.

The Stock Declines as the Truth Is Revealed

On June 10, 2025, J.M. Smucker reported its Q4 2025 financial results and announced that it recognized a $867 million impairment charge related to the goodwill of its Sweet Baked Snacks segment and a $113 million impairment charge related to the Hostess brand trademark driven by the continued underperformance of the Sweet Baked Snacks segment. On this news, the price of J.M. Smucker stock fell $17.44 per share, or more than 18%, from $111.85 per share on June 9, 2025, to $94.41 per share on June 10, 2025.

Click here for more information: https://www.bfalaw.com/cases/the-jm-smucker-company-class-action-lawsuit.

What Can You Do?

If you invested in J.M. Smucker you may have legal options and are encouraged to submit your information to the firm.

All representation is on a contingency fee basis, there is no cost to you. Shareholders are not responsible for any court costs or expenses of litigation. The firm will seek court approval for any potential fees and expenses.

Submit your information by visiting:

https://www.bfalaw.com/cases/the-jm-smucker-company-class-action-lawsuit

Or contact:

Ross Shikowitz

ross@bfalaw.com

212.789.3619

Why Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP?

BFA is a leading international law firm representing plaintiffs in securities class actions and shareholder litigation. It has been named a top plaintiff law firm by Chambers USA, The Legal 500, and ISS SCAS, and its attorneys have been named Elite Trial Lawyers by the National Law Journal, among the top 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers by Lawdragon, Titans of the Plaintiffs Bar by Law360 and SuperLawyers by Thomson Reuters. Among its recent notable successes, BFA recovered over $900 million in value from Tesla, Inc.s Board of Directors, as well as $420 million from Teva Pharmaceutical Ind. Ltd.

For more information about BFA and its attorneys, please visit https://www.bfalaw.com.

https://www.bfalaw.com/cases/the-jm-smucker-company-class-action-lawsuit

Attorney advertising. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leading securities law firm Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP announces an investigation into BellRing Brands, Inc. (NYSE: BRBR) for potential violations of the federal securities laws.

If you invested in BellRing, you are encouraged to obtain additional information by visiting: https://www.bfalaw.com/cases-investigations/bellring-brands-inc-class-action-lawsuit.

Why is BellRing Being Investigated?

BellRing Brands operates in the convenient nutrition category. The Companys primary brands include Premier Protein and Dymatize, which offer ready-to-drink (RTD) protein shakes and powders. During the relevant period, the Company stated that Premier Protein hit an all-time high in household penetration and that demand remains strong. The Company also stated that its growth was strong in all channels, driven by distribution expansion, accelerating velocities and incremental promotional activity.

In truth, the Companys sales growth during the relevant period may have been driven by temporary trade inventory loading at several key retailers, not sustainable end-consumer demand.

The Stock Declines as the Truth Is Revealed

On May 5, 2025, after market hours, BellRing revealed that starting in Q2 2023, several key retailers lowered their weeks of supply on hand, which would create a headwind to Q3 2025 growth. The Company also announced it was expanding promotions to boost sales and offset [] third quarter reductions in retailer trade inventory levels. On this news, the price of BellRing stock fell $13.96 per share, or more than 18%, from $77.34 per share on May 5, 2025, to $63.38 per share on May 6, 2025.

Then, on August 4, 2025, after market hours, BellRing announced disappointing quarterly consumption of Premier Protein RTD Shakes, which had been expected to outpace shipments by a wider margin given previously announced retailer destocking, but instead came more in line with shipments. On this news, the price of BellRing Brands stock fell $17.46 per share, or nearly 33%, from $53.64 per share on August 4, 2025, to $36.18 per share on August 5, 2025.

Click here for more information: https://www.bfalaw.com/cases-investigations/bellring-brands-inc-class-action-lawsuit.

What Can You Do?

If you invested in BellRing you may have legal options and are encouraged to submit your information to the firm.

All representation is on a contingency fee basis, there is no cost to you. Shareholders are not responsible for any court costs or expenses of litigation. The firm will seek court approval for any potential fees and expenses.

Submit your information by visiting:

https://www.bfalaw.com/cases-investigations/bellring-brands-inc-class-action-lawsuit

Or contact:

Ross Shikowitz

ross@bfalaw.com

212.789.3619

Why Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP?

BFA is a leading international law firm representing plaintiffs in securities class actions and shareholder litigation. It has been named a top plaintiff law firm by Chambers USA, The Legal 500, and ISS SCAS, and its attorneys have been named Elite Trial Lawyers by the National Law Journal, among the top 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers by Lawdragon, Titans of the Plaintiffs Bar by Law360 and SuperLawyers by Thomson Reuters. Among its recent notable successes, BFA recovered over $900 million in value from Tesla, Inc.s Board of Directors, as well as $420 million from Teva Pharmaceutical Ind. Ltd.

For more information about BFA and its attorneys, please visit https://www.bfalaw.com.

https://www.bfalaw.com/cases-investigations/bellring-brands-inc-class-action-lawsuit

Attorney advertising. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FTI Consulting, Inc. (NYSE: FCN) today announced the appointment of threat intelligence expert Keith Wojcieszek as a Senior Managing Director in the Cybersecurity practice within the firms Forensic and Litigation Consulting segment.

Mr. Wojcieszek, who is based in Washington, D.C., has more than 15 years of experience in cybersecurity intelligence, cyber crime, data loss, incident response investigations and cybersecurity compliance. His experience also includes serving as an expert witness in court cases involving security breach litigation.

In his role at FTI Consulting, Mr. Wojcieszek will help clients leverage threat intelligence capabilities to anticipate, identify and respond to cyber threats, empowering informed, threat-based decisions and enhancing cyber resilience.

As the world becomes more interconnected and businesses rely heavily on third-party software and services, there is an essential need for actionable threat intelligence to keep pace with growing cybersecurity risks, said Anthony J. Ferrante, Global Head of the Cybersecurity practice at FTI Consulting. Keith has spent years understanding, investigating and combatting threat actor behavior on a national and global scale, and he has the expertise to help organizations assess and respond to cybersecurity incidents to minimize business impact.

Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Mr. Wojcieszek was the Global Head of Threat Intelligence at Kroll, where he conducted risk assessments and led compliance and data loss investigations. Prior to that, he was a member of the United States Secret Service, leading the agencys national response to cybersecurity investigation initiatives and working to protect the nations financial system.

Commenting on his appointment, Mr. Wojcieszek said, Threat actors are becoming more sophisticated, requiring organizations to implement strategies that proactively identify and assess emerging risks. Its critical for organizations to not only have preventive measures in place but also be ready to leverage deep investigative experience when incidents occur. I look forward to joining my colleagues at FTI Consulting as we support clients with their most complex and urgent cybersecurity challenges.

Mr. Wojcieszeks appointment bolsters FTI Consultings global threat intelligence capabilities within the Cybersecurity practice, following the recent addition of Senior Managing Director Philippe Baumgart in Paris, who leverages threat intelligence to support clients with their cybersecurity challenges.

About FTI Consulting

FTI Consulting, Inc. is a leading global expert firm for organizations facing crisis and transformation, with more than 7,900 employees located in 32 countries and territories as of June 30, 2025. In certain jurisdictions, FTI Consultings services are provided through distinct legal entities that are separately capitalized and independently managed. The Company generated $3.70 billion in revenues during fiscal year 2024. More information can be found at https://www.fticonsulting.com .

FTI Consulting, Inc.

555 12th Street NW

Washington, DC 20004

+1.202.312.9100

Investor Contact:

Mollie Hawkes

+1.617.747.1791

mollie.hawkes@fticonsulting.com

Media Contact:

Sam Ford

+1.617.480.7402

Samantha.ford@fticonsulting.com
NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- With AI investment across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) projected to exceed $6.4 billion by 2026, regional institutions have an opportunity not only to lead in innovationbut to strengthen their defenses against rising misinformation and strategic communication risk.

According to recent market research reports, this surge in funding represents a critical moment for aligning enterprise AI strategy with digital infrastructure resilience and public trust safeguards.

Experts in digital strategy and crisis communication are urging institutions across the region to pair AI infrastructure investment with proactive misinformation countermeasures and real-time communication planning. They emphasize that narrative volatility including coordinated influence campaigns, brand risk exposure, and public trust erosionis accelerating in parallel with digital transformation.

"Narrative disruptions are no longer a PR challenge; they are a strategic threat to operational continuity and public trust," says Ehab Al Kuttub, founder of Velitron Global Strategies, a consultancy that leverages AI-powered solutions to counter disinformation and manage digital narrative risk. "As AI enables faster content cycles and broader digital reach, its essential that a parallel investment is made in the AI-powered strategies required to ensure narrative integrity."

According to recent Gulf business reports, 81% of companies plan to increase AI spending, with one in four expected to allocate over $25 million in 2025 alone. While these investments often prioritize automation and analytics, strategic advisors argue that some organizations digital transformation roadmaps lack the crisis readiness and information governance protocols needed to navigate narrative disruption.

Without narrative governance structures, AI implementation strategies may face reputational exposure.

Industry advisors emphasize the need to integrate AI-powered monitoring systems into institutional workflows to detect early signals of coordinated misinformation. This includes improving message agility across digital platforms and developing diagnostic tools that assess vulnerabilities in stakeholder perception and public sentiment. These measures, experts say, are critical to ensuring that rapid digital growth is matched by narrative stability and communication resilience.

Velitron Global Strategies, a firm with expertise that includes advising Fortune 500 companies, public institutions, and NGOs across the NENA region, Europe, and North America, helps institutions embed these capabilities within larger transformation initiatives.

"This is not a call for surveillanceits a call for strategic alignment," Al Kuttub added. "Institutions that understand and manage information risk are more stable, more agile, and better prepared for disruption."

According to recent UAE government economic briefings, the UAE is projected to double its digital economys share of GDP by 2030, with tech-sector revenues expected to reach $3.8 billion by 2025. The region is entering a critical period of transformation. Strategic consultants argue that digital infrastructure alone is not enoughand that public trust must be treated as a parallel asset.

"Digital transformation without public trust planning is incomplete," Al Kuttub said. "This is the moment to invest in both."

About Velitron Global Strategies

Velitron Global Strategies is a consultancy specializing in digital risk, narrative defense, and strategic communications. The firm supports governments, NGOs, and multinational corporations in building resilience against disinformation, influence operations, and digital communication threats. Velitron integrates AI-enhanced monitoring, crisis preparedness, and advisory services to help institutions navigate disruption with clarity and control.

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MUNICH, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Chinese automaker BYD is putting on an impressive show at this years IAA Mobility in Munich, underscoring its ambitions in Europe with a wide array of events, exhibits, and test drives.

MariaGrazia Davino, BYDs regional managing director, described the companys presence as one marked by great momentum. Speaking on the sidelines of the fair, she highlighted how BYD has created multiple touchpoints across the city to engage with both industry and the public.



The schedule of the week began with a press conference at IAA Mobility 2025 exhibition pole, then continued with the sparkling BYD Brand night provided for its guests.



The centerpiece of BYDs exhibition is a pop-up store in Odeonplatz, covering 600 square meters, where visitors can explore the companys full product range. A second space, at Konigsplatz, is focused on technology demonstrations:



On one side we have the product, on the other the technology. Its an open and welcoming concept, very entrepreneurial, she said.



A key part of the strategy is the test drive program, which BYD considers central to customer engagement. According to Davino, the company expects around 3,000 test drives to take place during the week:



Test drives are core for BYD because people discover our product, get excited, and are impressed. Its a great opportunity to interact with customers, she explained.



The company is also spotlighting its advances in fast-charging technology at Konigsplatz. BYD claims its system can deliver up to 400 kilometers of range in just five minutes of charging:



This is very powerful and our great news for the European market, Davino said, adding that it marks a new level of maturity for the brand.



For BYD, participation in IAA Mobility 2025 is both an opportunity to showcase innovation and to gauge the competitive landscape.



Its beautiful to collaborate and compete, to see what others do. Its really a privilege, Davino remarked.



The mix of products, technology showcases, and hands-on experiences underlines BYDs determination to build recognition and trust among European consumers as it seeks to expand its foothold in the region.

For more information:

Press Office LaPresse - ufficio.stampa@lapresse.it

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7a97de69-1bdb-4088-a124-71a4961f03ab

A video accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ba722e38-a7ce-4ede-b94c-872ca147897a
CORSICANA, Texas, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Birchtech Corp. (TSX: BCHT) (OTCQB: BCHT) ("Birchtech" or the "Company"), a leader in specialty activated carbon technologies for sustainable air and water treatment, today announced its participation and exhibition at the following upcoming water and wastewater industry conferences.

WaterPro Conference

Date: September 15-17, 2025

Location: New Orleans, Louisiana - Ernest N. Morial Convention Center

Booth: 528

About: The WaterPro Conference is the official annual conference of the National Rural Water Association, designed to bring large and small, rural and municipal, water and wastewater systems together.

WEF Technical Exhibition & Conference (WEFTEC 2025)

Date: September 27 - October 1, 2025

Location: Chicago, Ill - McCormick Place Convention Center

Booth: 3353

About: The Water Environment Federation's Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC) is the largest annual water quality exhibition in North America and offers water quality professionals the best water quality education and training available.

Birchtechs staff will meet with water utilities and other industry personnel at both major national conferences to promote its Design Centers Analytical Services, which provide utilities with an accurate assessment of contaminant levels to determine the most effective and affordable water treatment solutions for their water source. Birchtechs media-agnostic approach in water treatment allows the Company to provide utilities with media appropriate to the utilitys operational needs, contaminant type, and regulatory requirements.

Birchtech CEO Richard MacPherson said: After a successful exhibit at the American Water Works Association (AWWA) ACE 25 Conference, we look forward to these upcoming national events to exhibit our comprehensive and proprietary water treatment solutions and further establish our entry into the water remediation sector.

These upcoming conferences will put us in front of attendees from potable water utilities, engineering firms, and service providers. WEFTEC has become the worlds leading water quality conference with more than 20,000 water professionals and potential customers in attendance, and the National Rural Water Associations WaterPro Conference is an opportunity to share our innovative solutions with a variety of water utilities. Through our involvement with the Association, we are confident in our ability to support these utilities with more affordable water treatment technologies. We encourage all attendees to visit us and learn about how Birchtech addresses contaminant removal with a comprehensive suite of highly effective products and services.

About Birchtech Corp.

Birchtech Corp. (TSX: BCHT) (OTCQB: BCHT) is a leader in specialty activated carbon and water treatment technologies, serving as Americas Clean Coal and Clean Water Company by delivering innovative solutions for air and water purification to support a cleaner, more sustainable future. The Company provides patented SEA sorbent technologies for mercury emissions capture for the coal-fired utility sector and is developing disruptive water purification technologies with a specialization on forever chemicals such as PFAS and PFOS. Backed by a strong intellectual property portfolio and a world-class team of activated carbon experts, Birchtech provides cleaner air to North American communities and is applying this expertise to a novel approach in water purification. To learn more, please visit www.birchtech.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

With the exception of historical information contained in this press release, content herein may contain "forward-looking statements" that are made pursuant to the Safe Harbor Provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 or forward-looking information under applicable Canadian securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements are generally identified by using words such as "anticipate," "believe," "plan," "expect," "intend," "will," and similar expressions, but these words are not the exclusive means of identifying forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this release include statements relating to expected developments and growth in Birchtechs business, as well as any revenue guidance provided. These statements are based on managements current expectations and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made. In addition, this release contains time-sensitive information that reflects managements best analysis only as of the date of this release. Birchtech does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect future events, information or circumstances that arise after the date of this release. Further information concerning issues that could materially affect financial performance or other forward-looking statements contained in this release can be found in Birchtechs periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission or Canadian securities regulators.

Investor Relations Contact:

Lucas A. Zimmerman

Managing Director

MZ Group - MZ North America

(949) 259-4987

BCHT@mzgroup.us

www.mzgroup.us
LONDON, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ecora Resources PLC (LSE/TSX: ECOR, OTCQX: ECRAF), the London based critical minerals royalty and streaming company, announces that Geoff Callow, Head of Investor Relations, will present live at the European Growth Virtual Investor Conference hosted by VirtualInvestorConferences.com, on September 11th, 2025

DATE: September 11th

TIME: 11:30 AM ET

LINK: REGISTER HERE

Available for 1x1 meetings: September 11th. Sign up here

This will be a live, interactive online event where investors are invited to ask the company questions in real-time. If attendees are not able to join the event live on the day of the conference, an archived webcast will also be made available after the event.

It is recommended that online investors pre-register and run the online system check to expedite participation and receive event updates.

Learn more about the event at www.virtualinvestorconferences.com .

Recent Company Highlights

Announced an 81% increase in H1 for base metals portfolio contribution

Sold non-core, development stage Dugbe gold royalty for up to $20m

Record six-month portfolio contribution from Mantos Blancos copper royalty

Voiseys Bay cobalt stream on track to deliver 365t-390t of attributable cobalt in 2025 (2024: 210t)

About Ecora Resources

Ecora is a leading critical minerals focused royalty company.

Our vision is to be globally recognised as the royalty company of choice synonymous with commodities that support trends of electrification by continuing to grow and diversify our royalty portfolio in line with our strategy. We will achieve this through building a diversified portfolio of scale over high quality assets that drives low volatility earnings growth and shareholder returns.

The mining sector has an essential role to play in the energy transition, with commodities such as copper, nickel and cobalt - key materials for manufacturing batteries and electric vehicles. Copper also plays a critical role in our electricity grids. All these commodities are mined and there are not enough mines in operation today to supply the volume required to achieve the energy transition.

Our strategy is to acquire royalties and streams over low-cost operations and projects with strong management teams, in well-established mining jurisdictions. Our portfolio has been reweighted to provide material exposure to this commodity basket and we have successfully transitioned from a coal orientated royalty business in 2014 to one that by 2026 will be materially coal free and comprised of over 90% exposure to commodities that support a sustainable future. The fundamental demand outlook for these commodities over the next decade is very strong, which should significantly increase the value of our royalty portfolio.

Ecoras shares are listed on the London and Toronto Stock Exchanges (ECOR) and trade on the OTCQX Best Market (OTCQX: ECRAF).

About Virtual Investor Conferences

Virtual Investor Conferences (VIC) is the leading proprietary investor conference series that provides an interactive forum for publicly traded companies to seamlessly present directly to investors.

Providing a real-time investor engagement solution, VIC is specifically designed to offer companies more efficient investor access. Replicating the components of an on-site investor conference, VIC offers companies enhanced capabilities to connect with investors, schedule targeted one-on-one meetings and enhance their presentations with dynamic video content. Accelerating the next level of investor engagement, Virtual Investor Conferences delivers leading investor communications to a global network of retail and institutional investors.

CONTACTS:

Ecora Resources

Geoff Callow

Head of Investor Relations

+44 (0)20 3435 7400

IR@ecora-resources.com

Virtual Investor Conferences

John M. Viglotti

SVP Corporate Services, Investor Access

OTC Markets Group

(212) 220-2221

johnv@otcmarkets.com
NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES.

ROUYN-NORANDA, Quebec, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Abcourt Mines Inc. (Abcourt or the Corporation) (TSX Venture: ABI) (OTCQB: ABMBF) is pleased to announce that it has entered into an amended credit agreement (the Loan Agreement) with Nebari Natural Resources Credit Fund II, LP (the Lender or Nebari) pursuant to which an additional USD$2,000,000 is made available as a loan to the Corporation (the Upsized Loan).

Pursuant to the Upsized Loan, the aggregate amount borrowed from the Lender is USD$10,000,000 (the Principal Amount), in two tranches of: (i) USD$8,000,000 on July 3, 2025 (Tranche 1); and (ii) USD$2,000,000 on the date hereof (Tranche 2). Other than the addition of Tranche 2, no other material changes have been made to the original loan agreement between the Corporation and Nebari. Please see Abcourts news release dated July 3, 2025 for further details regarding the original loan agreement and Tranche 1.

Abcourt expects to use the proceeds from the Upsized Loan to accelerate the development of its Sleeping Giant Mine. In the coming months, this will involve adding a third underground diamond drill to increase the expansion of the mineral resources at Sleeping Giant and accelerating phase 2 at the sleep camp.

Pascal Hamelin, President and CEO of Abcourt, commented: The partnership with Nebari is great. Were aligned in the successful development of the Sleeping Giant Mine and talking with mining knowledgeable individuals who understand the opportunities within our business are important. They immediately saw that by increasing the number of workers sleeping on site will reduce the transportation and offsite lodging cost as well as accelerating the development underground. 

Steven Bowles, Managing Director of the Lender, commented: " Nebari is pleased to upsize our loan to Abcourt in support of advancing the development of its Sleeping Giant Mine. The team has an operational readiness plan which positions the project well to achieve its ramp-up objectives in a very favorable gold price environment."

In connection with the closing of the Upsized Loan, the Corporation issued 14,905,298 non-transferable warrants (the Warrants) to the Lender. Each Warrant is exercisable for one common share of the Corporation (a Warrant Share) at an exercise price of $0.093 per Warrant Share until July 3, 2028, subject to a pro-rata reduction if the Principal Amount is prepaid in whole or in part before July 3, 2026. In such case, a pro rata number of Warrants will have their term reduced to the later of July 3, 2026 and 30 days from the date of such Principal Amount reduction or repayment, in accordance with the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV).

The Upsized Loan and the issuance of the Warrants are subject to the approval of the TSXV. The Warrants (and the Warrant Shares issuable upon the exercise thereof) are subject to a statutory hold period of four months and one day under applicable securities laws. These securities have not been, nor will they be, registered under the U.S. Securities Act, or any state securities law, and may not be offered, sold or delivered, directly or indirectly, within the United States, or to or for the account or benefit of U.S. persons, absent registration or an exemption from such registration requirements. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of securities in any state in the United States in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. The Lender is at arms-length to the Corporation.

ABOUT ABCOURT MINES INC.

Abcourt Mines Inc. is a Canadian development company with properties strategically located in northwestern Quebec, Canada. Abcourt owns the Sleeping Giant mine and mill, as well as the Flordin property, where it focuses its development activities.

For more information about Abcourt Mines Inc., please visit our website at www.abcourt.ca and view our filings under Abcourt's profile on www.sedarplus.ca.

Pascal Hamelin

President and CEO

T : (819) 768-2857

Email: phamelin@abcourt.com Dany Cenac Robert, Investor Relations

Reseau ProMarket Inc.

T : (514) 722-2276, # 456

Email : dany.cenac-robert@reseaupromarket.com

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain information contained in this news release may constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by using forward-looking terminology, such as "plans", "aims", "expects", "projects", "intends", "anticipates", "estimates", "could", "should", "likely", or variations of such words and phrases or statements specifying that certain acts, events or results "may", "should", "will" or "be achieved" or other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements, including the expectation of the Corporation with respect to the expected use of the proceeds from the Upsized Loan and the approval of the TSXV, are based on Abcourt's estimates and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Abcourt's actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. Forward-looking statements are subject to business, economic and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements, including the relevant assumptions and risk factors set forth in Abcourt's public filings, which are available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. Although Abcourt believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that these statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. Except as required by applicable securities laws, Abcourt disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any such forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Ottawa, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global sustainable palm oil market size stood at USD 75.28 billion in 2024 and is anticipated to increase from USD 78.70 billion in 2025 to around USD 117.36 billion by 2034, at a CAGR of 4.54% from 2025 to 2034, according to study published by Towards FnB, a sister firm of Precedence Research.

The market is growing rapidly due to consumer awareness of the importance of sustainability and high demand for sustainable products as well. The production of such products helps to lower the carbon footprint, which is beneficial for achieving an ideal environmental balance.

Note: This report is readily available for immediate delivery. We can review it with you in a meeting to ensure data reliability and quality for decision-making.

Access the Full Study Instantly | Download Sample Pages of the Report Now@ https://www.towardsfnb.com/download-sample/5818

Sustainable Palm Oil Market Overview

Sustainable palm oil is a type of vegetable oil used for cooking and by multiple other domains such as the cosmetic industry, personal care and products industry, makeup, and detergent manufacturing companies as well. Hence, the sustainable palm oil market has experienced rapid growth in recent years. The manufacturing of sustainable palm oil helps to lower the carbon footprint and allows the manufacturing companies to do their bit for the environment. It also helps companies to show their contribution towards CSR activities and enhance their goodwill as well.

The increasing consumer awareness of sustainability is also contributing to the market's growth. Its manufacturing helps to nurture the livelihoods of many farmers. Hence, it also presents an opportunity for market growth.

Key Highlights of the Sustainable Palm Oil Market

By region, Asia Pacific led the sustainable palm oil market in 2024, whereas Europe is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR in the forecast period.

By type, the crude palm oil segment dominated the sustainable palm oil market in 2024, whereas the palm kernel oil segment is expected to grow in the foreseeable period.

By end-use industry, the food and beverage segment captured the maximum share in 2024, whereas the personal care and cosmetics segment is expected to grow in the foreseeable period.

By nature, the conventional segment dominated the sustainable palm oil market in 2024, whereas the organic segment is expected to rule in the forecast period.

By distribution channel, the Business-to-Business (B2B) segment led the sustainable palm oil market in 2024, whereas the Business-to-Consumer (B2C) segment is expected to grow in the forecast period.



New Trends of the Sustainable Palm Oil Market

Growing sustainability, resulting in a huge shift of consumers from conventional to sustainable palm oil industry, is helping the growth of the sustainable palm oil market.

The growth of sustainable palm oil is more efficient than that of conventional palm oil in terms of land acquisition. Hence, such factors also help the growth of the market.

Sustainable palm oil is filled with health-benefiting properties, such as being useful for cognitive health, cardiovascular health, and is also enriched with vitamin A.



Top Products in Sustainable Palm Oil & Their Applications:

Product Name Company Application GreenPalm Certificates RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) Certification trading for sustainable palm oil sourcing Sime Darby Sustainable Palm Oil Sime Darby Plantation Food ingredients, personal care products, biofuels IOI Sustainable Palm Oil IOI Corporation Berhad Edible oils, cosmetics, detergents Wilmar SD Palm Oil Wilmar International Food manufacturing, oleochemicals, bioenergy Bunge Loders Croklaan Sustainable Palm Oil Bunge Loders Croklaan Bakery fats, confectionery, margarine Musim Mas Certified Sustainable Palm Oil Musim Mas Group Food industry, oleochemicals, personal care Cargills Palm Kernel Oil (Certified Sustainable) Cargill Food, feed, industrial uses IOI Oleochemical Sustainable Palm Oil IOI Corporation Berhad Cosmetics, detergents, pharmaceuticals Apical Sustainable Palm Oil Apical Group Food products, biofuels, personal care



Impact of AI in the Sustainable Palm Oil Market

Artificial intelligence (AI) is playing a crucial role in accelerating the growth of the sustainable palm oil market by enhancing traceability, efficiency, and environmental responsibility. One of the biggest challenges in palm oil production is monitoring deforestation and ensuring compliance with sustainability standards. AI-powered satellite imagery and machine learning models now enable real-time monitoring of plantations, detecting illegal land clearing, biodiversity loss, or encroachment into protected areas with far greater accuracy. In supply chain management, AI integrated with blockchain enhances traceability from plantation to end product, giving manufacturers and consumers confidence that palm oil is sourced sustainably. Predictive analytics also improve crop yield forecasting and resource allocation by analyzing soil health, weather conditions, and pest risks, reducing waste while ensuring sustainable farming practices.

View Full Market Intelligence@ https://www.towardsfnb.com/insights/sustainable-palm-oil-market

Market Dynamics

What Are the Growth Drivers of the Sustainable Palm Oil Market?

Multiple beneficial factors for health and the environment help to enhance the growth of the sustainable palm oil market. Consumer awareness for sustainability and a lower carbon footprint is one of the major growth factors for the market. Hence, ethically sourced products are in high demand globally these days. Government initiatives for promoting sustainability and multiple schemes for financial aid to industries are another major factor for the growth of the market. The health benefits of sustainable palm oil are also a growth factor for the market, as it is free from trans-fat and filled with beta carotene. Use of sustainable palm oil by multiple industries, such as food and beverages, cosmetics, personal care products companies, and biofuels, also helps the market grow rapidly.

Challenge

Costly Procedure Restraints the Growth of the Market

The production of sustainable palm oil requires multiple procedures, such as certification, raw material cost, maintenance costs, and various other miscellaneous costs, leading to issues in the growth of the sustainable palm oil market. Such procedures are cost-requiring and complex, which might not be suitable for small-scale farmers, further obstructing the markets growth. Hence, their livelihoods and affordability are also affected.

Opportunity

Advanced Technology for the Growth of the Market

Use of advanced technology for the production of sustainable palm oil is one of the major opportunities for the growth of the sustainable palm oil market. AI, GIS, and ML are some of the technologically advanced methods helpful for the growth of the market. Satellite data and blockchain technology also contribute to the market's growth in the foreseeable future. Geolocation data helps identify small-scale farmers, whereas blockchain helps prevent data misinterpretation. Such technologies are essential for bringing stakeholders and farmers closer together, resulting in better and enhanced yields, and encouraging sustainable farming.

Sustainable Palm Oil Market Regional Analysis

Asia Pacific Is Expected to Grow in the Forecast Period

The Asia Pacific dominated the sustainable palm oil market in 2024, thanks to its pleasant and suitable climate for sustainable palm oil manufacturing, which further fueled the market's growth. Indonesia and Malaysia are the world's leading producers of palm oil, while India and China are the largest consumers of palm oil. It helps to maintain the ideal balance of production and consumption, further boosting the markets growth in the region. The growing population of the region and increasing demand for sustainable options are also helping the growth of the market in the region.

Europe Is Observed to Be the Fastest-Growing Region in the Foreseen Period

Europe is observed to be the fastest-growing region in the foreseen period, aiding the growth of the sustainable palm oil market. Growing consumer awareness, government initiatives, and high demand for sustainable products are some of the helpful factors for the growth of the market in the foreseeable period. The cultivation helps to lower the carbon footprint and is also helpful for companies to balance their CSR activities. Hence, the region is expected to grow in the forecast period.

Sustainable Palm Oil Market Report Scope

Report Attribute Key Statistics Base Year 2024 Forecast Period 2025 to 2034 Growth Rate from 2025 to 2034 CAGR of 4.54% Market Size in 2024 USD 75.28 Billion Market Size in 2025 USD 78.70 Billion Market Size by 2034 USD 117.36 Billion Dominated Region Asia Pacific Fastest Growing Region Europe Regions Covered North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Middle East & Africa



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Sustainable Palm Oil Market Segmental Analysis

Type Analysis

The crude palm oil segment led the sustainable palm oil market in 2024 due to its wide availability globally, which is helpful for the markets growth. Crude oil is obtained by following the procedures of cooking, stirring, and extracting from the fresh fruit bunches. Palm oil, derived from crude oil palms, can be used for cooking and the manufacturing of multiple food products. It can also be used for the manufacturing of cosmetics and cleaning products. It is high in beta carotene, which is essential for the human body, making it useful for the growth of the market.

The palm kernel oil segment is expected to grow in the foreseeable period, as it is beneficial for skin and hair, and contributes to the growth of the sustainable palm oil market. Hence, the oil is also useful for the manufacturing of multiple cosmetics and personal care products. The oil is extracted from the kernel of the oil palm tree and is yellowish in shade. The oil can also be used for cooking, as it helps enhance the shelf life of food products, making it essential for the market's growth in the foreseeable future.

End Use Analysis

The food and beverage segment led the sustainable palm oil market in 2024 due to growing demand in the food and beverage industry and a growing population globally. Hence, it also fuels the growth of the market. Changing consumer preferences and a conscious attitude also help the market grow. Sustainable palm oil is ideal for the manufacturing of numerous food products such as baked goods, fried goods, bakery and confectionery, and dairy alternatives. Hence, it further aids the markets growth. Growing demand for ready-to-eat meals and snacks is also one of the major factors for the growth of the market.

The personal care and cosmetics segment is expected to grow in the foreseeable future due to its high demand for the manufacturing of such goods. Palm oil is essential for the manufacturing of cosmetics and personal care products, as the ingredient helps improve the performance of the product. Hence, it aids the markets growth in the foreseen period. The natural ingredient also helps make the product moisturizing and stable, while enhancing its shelf life as well.

Nature Analysis

The conventional segment led the sustainable palm oil market in 2024, as conventional methods of palm oil extraction are cost-effective and are also produced in large quantities compared to the production of organic palm oil. It is also versatile, neutral, semi-solid, and flavorless in nature, making the market grow. Palm oil has higher temperature stability, making it an ideal oil for cooking and frying. The oil is also essential for various other domains such as biodiesels, biofuels, and cosmetic manufacturing, which is helpful for the growth of the market.

The organic segment is expected to grow in the foreseeable period due to the high demand for natural products in all domains. Reduced deforestation risk and environmental stability are other major factors for the growth of the sustainable palm oil market in the foreseeable period. Organic methods involve the use of natural chemicals and fertilizers, which help maintain soil quality and the quality of yields as well. Government initiatives for organic methods and sustainability are also helping the growth of the market, as such practices are essential for environmental stability, a balanced ecosystem, and a lower carbon footprint.

Distribution Channel Analysis

The Business-to-Business (B2B) segment led the sustainable palm oil market in 2024, as manufacturers widely use palm oil for the large-scale production of various products, including food and beverages, cosmetics, and biodiesel, which supports the market's growth. It helps companies to get cost-effective deals, assurance of the quality of palm oil, and also contribute their bit to maintaining sustainability.

The Business-to-Consumer (B2C) segment is expected to grow in the foreseen period due to high demand for sustainable palm oil and its easy availability on multiple e-commerce platforms. Such factors are expected to contribute to the market's growth in the foreseeable future. It allows consumers to get cost-effective deals without the additional cost of wholesalers.

Recent Developments in the Sustainable Palm Oil Market

In August 2025 , the worlds renowned consumer brands, including PepsiCo, Nestle, and Unilever, united to launch the Aceh Sustainable Palm Oil Working Group, to align major palm oil buyers, producers, and refineries, on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, on 13th August. ( Source - https://reccessary.com)

, the worlds renowned consumer brands, including PepsiCo, Nestle, and Unilever, united to launch the Aceh Sustainable Palm Oil Working Group, to align major palm oil buyers, producers, and refineries, on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, on 13th August. ( - https://reccessary.com) In May 2025, 3F Palm Oil announced its farmer awareness program in 50 villages in Andhra Pradesh, India, to promote sustainable oil palm cultivation. (Source- https://money.rediff.com)

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Additional Topics Worth Exploring:

Top Companies of the Sustainable Palm Oil Market





Wilmar International

Unilever PLC

Cargill, Inc.

SD Guthrie Bhd

Golden Agri-Resources

Nestle Global

Louis Dreyfus Company

Musim Mas

Barry Callebaut AG

Clariant

Bunge Ltd.

M.P. Evans

Farmonaut

Ferrero

Segments Covered in the Report

By Type

Crude Palm Oil (CPO)

Palm Kernel Oil (PKO)

Red Palm Oil



By End Use Industry

Food & Beverage

Personal Care & Cosmetics

Biofuel & Energy

Pharmaceuticals

Animal Feed



By Nature

Conventional

Organic

By Distribution Channel

Business-to-Business (B2B)

Business-to-Consumer (B2C)

By Region

North America

U.S.

Canada

Asia Pacific

China

Japan

India

South Korea

Thailand



Europe

Germany

UK

France

Italy

Spain

Sweden

Denmark

Norway

Latin America

Brazil

Mexico

Argentina



Middle East and Africa (MEA)

South Africa

UAE

Saudi Arabia

Kuwait

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Dublin, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Opportunities in the Global Savory Snacks Sector 2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The global savory snacks sector was valued at $202.2 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $254.2 billion in 2029, at a CAGR of 4.7%. The sector's volumes will reach 18 billion kg in 2029, at a CAGR of 2%.

The report rovides an overview of current savory snacks scenario regarding the future outlook in terms of ingredients, product claims, labeling, distribution, and packaging. The analysis also covers regional overview across five regions - Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, Americas, Western Europe, and Eastern Europe - highlighting industry size, growth drivers, latest developments, and future inhibitors for the regions.



Processed snacks was the largest category in terms of value, followed by potato chips. High urbanization levels, rising disposable incomes, busy lifestyles and the demand for convenience, and the introduction of innovative flavor profiles are contributing to the heightened demand for convenient snack products. In the Asia-Pacific region, urbanization and a growing middle-class population is driving the demand for savory snacks products. As a result, the region is expected outpace all other regions with a value CAGR of 5.6% during the forecast period.



The growing consumer emphasis on healthier savory snacks is stimulating the demand for products with wholesome ingredients, such as whole grains, nuts, and seeds in the sector. Moreover, growing busy lifestyles are enabling consumers to opt for convenient and innovation snack products. As a result, manufacturers are formulating products with such aspects to improve their shares.



Scope: This report brings together multiple data sources to provide a comprehensive overview of the global savory snacks sector, analyzing data from 108 countries

Global snapshot: Includes executive summary, current sector scenarios in terms of ingredients, manufacturer claims, labeling, and packaging. The section also touches on the key growth enablers and inhibitors for the sector.

Sector snapshot: The analysis provides a global overview, along with regional and category-level data and analysis. It also includes a regional overview across five regions-Americas, Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Western Europe-highlighting sector size and evolution, value and volume shares by category, and growth drivers for each region.

Consumer trends: Provides an overview of evolving consumer trends, supported by the analyst's in-house consumer surveys, and product examples.

Country deep-dive: Provides risk-reward analysis of the top high-potential countries in each region based on market assessment, economic development, governance indicators, sociodemographic factors, and technological infrastructure. Provides a deep-dive analysis of 10 high-potential countries covering value growth during 2024-29, consumer demographics, and key trends. It also includes regional analysis covering the outlook for each region.

Health & wellness analysis*: Provides insights on health & wellness products in terms of value and percentage share in the overall savory snacks sector at a global and regional level during 2019-24. The analysis includes key health & wellness attributes and consumer benefits driving sales of savory snacks products across the five regions in 2024. It also covers the market shares of leading companies offering savory snacks products with health and wellness attributes.

Competitive environment and brand shares: Provides an overview of the leading companies and brands at the global and regional levels. Market shares of brands and private labels in each region are also detailed.

Distribution overview: Provides an analysis of the leading distribution channels in the global savory snacks sector in 2024. It covers modern retail, traditional retail, cash & carries & warehouse clubs, specialist retail, direct, and other distribution channels.

Packaging analysis*: The report provides percentage share (in 2024) and growth analysis (during 2024-29) for various pack materials, pack types, closures, and primary outer types based on volume sales of savory snacks.

Select industry metrics: The section provides topline statistics and analysis for different alternate datasets, such as patent filings, job analytics, and deals in 2024.

Reasons to Buy

Manufacturers and retailers seek latest information on how the market is evolving to formulate their sales and marketing strategies. There is also demand for authentic market data with a high level of detail. This report has been created to provide its readers with up-to-date information and analysis to uncover emerging opportunities of growth within the sector in the region

The report provides a detailed analysis of the countries in the region, covering the key challenges, competitive landscape and demographic analysis, that can help companies gain insight into the country specific nuances

The analysts have also placed a significant emphasis on the key trends that drive consumer choice and the future opportunities that can be explored in the region, than can help companies in revenue expansion

To gain competitive intelligence about leading brands in the sector in the region with information about their market share and growth rates

Key Topics Covered:

Global Snapshot

Executive Summary

Market Outlook

Enablers and Inhibitors

Sector Snapshot

Global Overview

Regional Overview

Consumer Trends

Country Deep Dive

Identifying High-Potential Countries by Region

Identifying High-Potential Countries by Region

Americas

Canada

Chile

Regional Overview

Asia-Pacific

China

India

Regional Overview

Eastern Europe

Poland

Croatia

Regional Overview

Middle East and Africa

Saudi Arabia

South Africa

Regional Overview

Western Europe

UK

Germany

Regional Overview

Competitive Environment

Competitive Landscape - Sector Analysis

Competitive Landscape - Category Analysis

Distribution Overview

Packaging Analysis

Growth Analysis by Key Pack Material and Pack Type

Growth Analysis by Closure Type and Primary Outer Type

Select Industry Metrics

Global Patent Filings

Global Job Analytics

Global Deals

Appendix

Definitions

About the Analyst

Companies Featured

PepsiCo

Intersnack Group

Kellogg's Company

Campbell Soup Company

Want Want Group

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/8cxg2a

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.
On 28 November 2023, AS Tallinna Sadam (hereinafter referred to as "Tallinna Sadam") submitted an application to initiate bankruptcy proceedings of MPG AgroProduction OU (hereinafter referred to as "MPG"). On 19 January 2024, the debtor submitted its reorganization application. On 12 August 2024, reorganization proceedings of MPG were terminated by the Supreme Court's order and on 15 October 2024 the bankruptcy of MPG was declared. On 14 November 2024, MPG filed an appeal with the Tallinn Circuit Court against the bankruptcy order. On 9 September 2025, the Tallinn Circuit Court decided to dismiss MPG's appeal and to leave the resolution of the Harju County Court's order of 15 October 2024 unchanged.

Bankruptcy proceedings were initiated based on the application submitted by Tallinna Sadam, as MPG had not fulfilled its contractual obligations for a long period of time. The claims of Tallinna Sadam to MPG have been discounted and Tallinna Sadam requests the exemption of its own property from the building title.

More information about the initiation of bankruptcy proceedings is provided in the stock exchange announcement published by Tallinna Sadam on 13 December 2023 and 24 October 2024 .

Tallinna Sadam is one of the largest cargo- and passenger port complexes in the Baltic Sea region. In addition to passenger and freight services, Tallinna Sadam group also operates in shipping business via its subsidiaries  OU TS Laevad provides ferry services between the Estonian mainland and the largest islands, and OU TS Shipping charters its multifunctional vessel Botnica for icebreaking and offshore services in Estonia and projects abroad. Tallinna Sadam group is also a shareholder of an associate AS Green Marine, which provides waste management services.

Additional information:

Angelika Annus

Head of Investor Relations

Tel. +372 5649 6230

angelika.annus@ts.ee
Columbus, Ohio, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- JobsOhio, in partnership with the Ohio Life Sciences Association (OLS) and One Columbus, today announced a biomanufacturing workforce initiative designed to train Ohioans for operator and technician roles in pharmaceutical manufacturing and related careers in biotechnology.

Ohio is seizing the moment to lead in biomanufacturing, said Ohio Lt. Governor Jim Tressel. We're building the highly skilled workforce this industry demands, so when companies look for a new place to grow, they will see Ohio as the place where opportunity and talent come together.

Industry investments in U.S. biomanufacturing are at an all-time highhundreds of billions of dollars since Januaryand JobsOhio healthcare and industry experts predict this spike will continue.

To bolster the states existing pipeline of highly skilled, industrious workersand to move at the fast pace necessary to meet this increase in demandJobsOhio plans to work with industry companies to invest up to $30 million over five years to build a new state-of-the-art training center in central Ohio. The facility will include labs, simulated clean rooms, and a classroom, and will offer expanded programming designed to prepare students for a career in pharmaceutical biomanufacturing.

Life sciences is a booming sector in Ohio, and this program helps ensure we have the workforce in place to meet a growing demand for STEM and technical jobs, said JobsOhio President and CEO J.P. Nauseef. The biomanufacturing industry has spoken, and Team Ohio is responding with a strategic effort to remain nimble, flexible and catalytic in the face of a historic opportunity to create jobs in our state.

OLS will oversee operations and collaborate with Ohio higher education institutions to deliver curricula. The ultimate goal is to create a hub and spoke program via a network of community colleges and technical schools throughout Ohio to meet employment needs in all parts of the state.

This bold investment serves as another example of how Ohio is transforming itself into a premier hub for the life sciences industry, said OLS President and CEO Eddie Pauline. Biotech companies, research institutions, healthcare organizations, investors and patients are looking to our state as we drive innovation in the creation, validation, manufacturing and delivery of life-saving treatments. They already see the advantages Ohio provides, and this training facility ensures our highly skilled workforce will be able to meet growing demand.

The biomanufacturing workforce initiative joins JobsOhio's comprehensive talent portfolio, designed to attract, develop and retain Ohio's workforce:

JobsOhio Relocation Incentive - Helps employers in 10 target sectors compete for out-of-state STEM and technical talent

- Helps employers in 10 target sectors compete for out-of-state STEM and technical talent FindYourOhio.com - Connecting out-of-state talent with Ohio opportunities

- Connecting out-of-state talent with Ohio opportunities Talent Acquisition Services - Tailored approach with JobsOhio working alongside companies to co-create strategies that attract, develop, and retain top talent

- Tailored approach with JobsOhio working alongside companies to co-create strategies that attract, develop, and retain top talent Workforce Grant - Funding for employee skill development

- Funding for employee skill development Ohio Discovery Corridor - Growing and retaining STEM talent through Ohios innovation network

The OLS Career Portal also matches job candidates with careers in the life sciences.

About Ohio Life Sciences

Ohio Life Sciences (OLS), the state association advancing and advocating for the common interests of the states life sciences community, convenes dynamic companies, people, and institutions to elevate the ecosystem in Ohio while supporting those that drive health, economic and social well-being in communities across the globe. OLS is organized as two nonprofit operations to best serve the life sciences ecosystem across the state, a 501c6 (Ohio Life Sciences Association) to serve as the member-based organization focused on economic and workforce development and advocacy; and a 501c3 (Ohio Life Sciences Foundation) focused on delivering research and funding that will accelerate and promote a robust life sciences industry in Ohio. Learn more at OhioLifeSciences.org and follow us on LinkedIn.

About JobsOhio

JobsOhio, Ohio's private nonprofit economic development corporation, enhances company growth and personnel development through business attraction, retention, and expansion across ten competitive industry sectors. With a team of seasoned professionals, JobsOhio utilizes a comprehensive network to foster talent production in targeted industries and attract talent through Find Your Ohio. Collaborating with seven regional partners, including Dayton Development Coalition, Lake to River Economic Development, Ohio Southeast Economic Development, One Columbus, REDI Cincinnati, Regional Growth Partnership, and Team NEO, JobsOhio delivers world-class customer service to provide companies with a competitive advantage. Learn more at www.jobsohio.com. Follow us on LinkedIn, X, and Facebook.
Dublin, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "2025 North American Pump Equipment: OEM and Rental Markets" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The North American pump equipment market is experiencing moderate yet strategically important growth, driven by infrastructure upgrades, megaproject investments, and increasing digitalization across industries. Both pump equipment rentals and OEM pump manufacturing are benefitting from rising demand in municipal, industrial, energy, and construction applications.

The combined market is in a mature but upward phase, with the pump rental segment forecast to grow at a CAGR of 4% through 2031. This reflects consistent demand for flexible and cost-effective pumping solutions, particularly in municipal water management, industrial facilities, and construction projects.

Infrastructure investment remains a key driver. Wastewater and stormwater system upgrades, supported by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, continue to boost demand for rental and OEM pumps. At the same time, the expansion of semiconductor fabrication plants, large-scale data centers, and clean energy projects is accelerating adoption of high-performance pump systems. These megaprojects require rapid deployment and adaptable solutions, creating strong opportunities for pump rental providers.

The oil & gas and mining sectors are also fueling demand. Rising shale production in the Permian Basin and elevated energy prices are driving purchases of high-pressure pumps and advanced fluid handling systems. Meanwhile, the mining industry's expansion into critical materials - supported by strong commodity prices - is sustaining demand for dewatering and slurry pumps.

Despite these growth opportunities, the market faces challenges. A shortage of skilled pump technicians is limiting service capacity, while slowing commercial construction is reducing equipment demand in warehouse, retail, and manufacturing projects. Price competition, especially from low-cost Asian imports, remains intense, though recent tariffs have helped U.S. manufacturers regain competitiveness.

Technology trends are reshaping the industry. Digitalization, IoT-enabled monitoring, and predictive maintenance are becoming standard in OEM pump manufacturing. Energy efficiency is also a priority, with adoption of IE5 motors, variable frequency drives (VFDs), and smart control systems helping customers cut costs while meeting ESG and sustainability goals.

Key players in the pump rental market include United Rentals, Rain for Rent, and Sunbelt Rentals. In the OEM pump manufacturing segment, leaders include Flowserve Corporation, Gorman-Rupp, Xylem, Sulzer Ltd., ITT Gould Pumps, KSB, Wilo, Grundfos, EBARA International, and Pentair.

Report Scope

This study aims to provide a detailed analysis of the North American Pump Equipment Market (both OEM and rental markets) along with qualitative trends for the year 2031.

The North American Pump Equipment: OEM and Rental Markets are mature and competitive with the presence of local, regional, and national market participants trying to gain market share and maintain a foothold in the market. The market is projected to experience moderate growth during the next seven years driven by growing urbanization, an increase in long-term construction activities, and upgrades to water and wastewater infrastructure.

Rental pump equipment is defined as a portable unit system that typically consists of a pump, engine, and other operating components assembled on a skid, trailer, or cage.

The pump rental market can be mainly divided into two segments based on the type of rental contract:

Transactional model: A temporary contract where the rental company offers the equipment at a fixed price and provides basic services such as regular on-site service, maintenance, and 24/7 technical support.

A temporary contract where the rental company offers the equipment at a fixed price and provides basic services such as regular on-site service, maintenance, and 24/7 technical support. Project Solutions: A medium to long-term contract where the rental company provides the equipment as well as piping systems and the labor associated with rental activities, including job-site system design, delivery/setup, equipment monitoring/maintenance, and deconstruction/equipment pickup at the end of the job.

This study captures the following information:

Market Size, Growth Rate, Revenue Forecasts (2024-2031)

Growth Drivers and Restraints

Market Data

Quotes by Industry Participants

Market Share Analysis

Market Trends

Companies Featured:

Major rental market participants include: Sunbelt Rentals, United Rentals, Xylem Inc. (Godwin), Rain for Rent, and HERC Rentals Inc., Global Pumps, Mersino Equipment Rental, MacAllister Machinery Company, Inc., and Moving Water Industries (MWI Pumps), among others.

Sunbelt Rentals, United Rentals, Xylem Inc. (Godwin), Rain for Rent, and HERC Rentals Inc., Global Pumps, Mersino Equipment Rental, MacAllister Machinery Company, Inc., and Moving Water Industries (MWI Pumps), among others. Major OEM market participants include: Flowserve Corporation, Gorman-Rupp Pumps, Xylem Inc., Sulzer Ltd., ITT Gould Pumps, KSB, Wilo, Gundfos, EBARA International Corporation, and Pentair, among others.

Key Topics Covered:

Executive Summary

Revenues by end user

Major Data Points

Pump Equipment Rental Market Revenues, 2024 & 2031

Pump Equipment Manufacturing Market Revenues, 2024 & 2031

Major Trends

Market Drivers

Market Restraints

Main Market Participants

Strategic Recommendations & Opportunities

Market Trends

Digitalization and smart pump systems

Energy efficiency and sustainability

Solid handling & reliability improvements

Zero-leakage pumps meet ESG demands

Advanced pumps support clean energy shift

Monitoring mandate reshapes North American pumps

Rental Models

Market Data

Pump Equipment Revenues by Market Segment Pump equipment by size (0-4 inches, 4-8 inches, 8-12 inches, more than 12 inches) Pump equipment by type: Characteristics and common applications, future outlook Diesel vs Electric Pump Share

Pump Equipment Rental Market Pump equipment rental market revenues (2024-2031) Pump equipment rental market revenues by end user, 2024 (municipality, construction, oil & gas, industrial, mining, others) Pump equipment rental market revenues by end user, est 2031 (municipality, construction, oil & gas, industrial, mining, others)

Pump Equipment Manufacturing Market Pump equipment rental market revenues (2024-2031) Pump equipment rental market revenues by end user, 2024 (municipality, construction, oil & gas, industrial, mining, others) Pump equipment rental market revenues by end user, est 2031 (municipality, construction, oil & gas, industrial, mining, others) Pump equipment rental market revenues by type, 2024 (pumps, aftersale parts, services, accessories) Pump equipment rental retrofit vs new construction



Competitive Landscape

Pump equipment rental market share by company, 2024

Pump equipment manufacturing market share by company, 2024

Competitive factors

Quotes from the industry

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/aig98y

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.
IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wayvia , the omnicommerce enablement leader formerly known as PriceSpider, today announced the appointment of Theresa Pham as Head of Product. Pham joins at a pivotal moment as the company accelerates its MCP-powered strategy, equipping brands with real-time commerce intelligence, smarter decision-making and greater control across the path to purchase. In her role, Pham will oversee the rollout of a new wave of AI-driven products that will broaden the companys portfolio and power its next phase of innovation.

Pham brings more than 15 years of leadership in B2B SaaS and eCommerce, with deep experience building and scaling products that drive growth and operational impact. She has held senior roles at Amazon, Olo and Loadsmart, where she helped define product vision, lead cross-functional teams and guide digital transformation across the commerce stack. Her product strategy work also earned her recognition as a Top Woman in Restaurant Technology by Hospitality Technology.

Our mission is to give brands clarity in a complex marketplace, said Anthony Ferry, CEO of Wayvia. Theresa knows what it takes to build products that deliver on that promise. We have an ambitious product roadmap designed to help brands future-proof their business, drive more conversions and win in a competitive landscape, and Theresa brings the experience to execute it.

The appointment follows a period of strong momentum for Wayvia, including the rollout of MCP-powered innovations that connect commerce data and unlock real-time intelligence. The Wayvia MCP is the first enterprise-grade solution to give AI agents direct, secure access to commerce data through a native implementation of the Model Context Protocol.

What drew me to Wayvia is how closely its mission aligns with the work Ive been doing for the past 15 years: helping brands connect with consumers in meaningful, measurable ways, said Pham. Were at a critical point in digital transformation, where AI is opening new doors, but the fundamentals of product leadership still apply. Its not about chasing the newest technology. Its about solving the right problems, improving productivity and creating value that lasts. Thats the opportunity in front of us, and Im excited to help shape what comes next.

Wayvia equips more than 2,000 brands around the globe with the intelligence and tools to compete in a rapidly shifting commerce landscape. Backed by the worlds largest network of retailer and media partnerships, Wayvia offers brands the retail intelligence to power analytics, optimize shopping journeys and enable AI solutions.

To learn more about Wayvia, please visit wayvia.com .

About Wayvia:

Wayvia is the global leader in omnicommerce data and brand enablement. By connecting shopper and retail intelligence across every channel, brands gain deeper insight into consumer behavior and unlock new opportunities to improve the path to purchase, whether through offsite media, onsite experiences or agentic commerce. Backed by the worlds largest network of retailer and media partnerships, Wayvia offers brands the retail intelligence to power analytics, optimize shopping journeys and enable AI solutions. For more information, please visit wayvia.com to learn more.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Anuvi Business Solutions, together with its real estate arm Anuvi Luxe Real Estate, today announced the expansion of its tailored services for entrepreneurs and global investors in Dubai. The company is introducing a comprehensive offering that combines business formation, compliance support, and property investment advisoryaimed at simplifying market entry and maximizing opportunities in one of the worlds most dynamic business hubs.





New Service Launch for Businesses

Anuvi Business Solutions is offering tailored business setup and compliance solutions for entrepreneurs and corporations. The new services include:

Fast-tracked trade license acquisition for both Mainland and Free Zone setups

for both Mainland and Free Zone setups Streamlined Government approvals and regulatory clearances

and regulatory clearances Corporate visa packages covering investors, partners, and employees

covering investors, partners, and employees Bank account opening support with major UAE banks

with major UAE banks End-to-end compliance advisory, including accounting, auditing, and tax registration





These services are designed to provide entrepreneurs with ready-to-operate companies in weeks, positioning Dubai as their global hub for growth.

New Investment Opportunities in Real Estate

At the same time, Anuvi Luxe Real Estate is officially launching exclusive advisory and brokerage solutions for global property investors. The newly announced offerings include:

Access to premium residential and commercial properties

Guidance on off-plan investments with flexible developer-backed payment plans

with flexible developer-backed payment plans Showcasing luxury villas, branded residences, and penthouses

Rental and leasing support to maximize returns

to maximize returns Golden Visa advisory, enabling long-term UAE residency via property ownership.





Dubai has become a global magnet for entrepreneurs and investors due to its business-friendly policies, robust infrastructure, and booming property market. For many, the city represents not just an opportunity but a gateway to international success. However, navigating company formation, licensing, compliance, and real estate transactions can be challenging without expert guidance.

This is where Anuvi Business Solutions and Anuvi Luxe Real Estate step in. Known for their client-focused approach and industry expertise, these two ventures empower businesses and individuals to achieve success in Dubai. From helping startups launch their companies to guiding global investors in securing profitable property deals, Anuvi provides end-to-end advisory services that simplify complex processes and deliver sustainable growth.

Helping Startups and Companies Establish in Dubai

Dubai offers multiple pathways for entrepreneursMainland companies, Free Zone entities, and Offshore structures. Each comes with its unique set of benefits, from tax advantages to market access. Yet, understanding which option is best suited to ones goals requires deep knowledge of local regulations.

Anuvi Business Solutions specializes in:

Business Setup Consultation  Guidance on selecting the right business model.

 Guidance on selecting the right business model. Trade License Acquisition  Support in obtaining Mainland and Free Zone licenses.

 Support in obtaining Mainland and Free Zone licenses. Government Approvals  Smooth handling of official clearances.

 Smooth handling of official clearances. Visa Services  Assistance with investor, partner, and employee visas.

 Assistance with investor, partner, and employee visas. Corporate Compliance  Expertise in accounting, auditing, and tax registration.

 Expertise in accounting, auditing, and tax registration. Bank Account Opening  Professional support in liaising with UAE banks.





By providing tailored solutions rather than one-size-fits-all packages, Anuvi ensures that each client receives the right structure and strategy for long-term success in Dubais competitive landscape.

Supporting Global Investors in Real Estate

Dubais property market is one of the most dynamic in the world, attracting buyers from Europe, Asia, North America, and beyond. With consistent demand for luxury apartments, waterfront villas, and commercial spaces, the emirate has become a hub for both lifestyle buyers and investment-focused clients.

Anuvi Luxe Real Estate provides services that go beyond brokerage:

Property Sales and Purchases  Assisting in residential and commercial property transactions.

 Assisting in residential and commercial property transactions. Off-Plan Investments  Guiding clients through flexible developer payment plans.

 Guiding clients through flexible developer payment plans. Luxury Properties  Showcasing premium villas, penthouses, and branded residences.

 Showcasing premium villas, penthouses, and branded residences. Rental and Leasing Solutions  Helping investors maximize returns through short-term and long-term rentals.

 Helping investors maximize returns through short-term and long-term rentals. Golden Visa Advisory  Enabling investors to secure long-term residency via property ownership.





With a data-driven approach and partnerships with top developers in Dubai, Anuvi Luxe Real Estate ensures clients invest in properties that combine high returns, strong capital appreciation, and lifestyle value.

For more information, visit official website: www.anuvibs.com

Watch real experiences shared by satisfied clients here: Client Testimonials.

Why Dubai Chooses Anuvi

The competitive landscape in Dubai makes it essential to stand out through credibility, transparency, and innovation. Anuvi has built a reputation for:

End-to-End Expertise  Covering everything from company incorporation to property advisory. International Client Base  Supporting entrepreneurs and investors from multiple regions including India, Europe, USA, and Canada. Tailored Solutions  Designing strategies specific to each clients vision and budget. Regulatory Compliance  Operating with official DED and RERA registrations that ensure reliability. Client-Centric Approach  Maintaining a strong focus on building lasting relationships.





By consistently delivering value-driven services, Anuvi has become a trusted name for individuals and corporations aiming to grow in Dubai.





Statement from the Founder

Our new service launch is more than an expansionits a commitment to helping global entrepreneurs and investors succeed in Dubai, said Anu Sharma, Founder of Anuvi Business Solutions and Anuvi Luxe Real Estate. By combining tailored advisory with transparency and efficiency, we are ensuring that our clients dont just enter the Dubai market, they thrive in it.

Strengthening Brand Visibility Through Modern Communication

In an age where information shapes trust, Anuvi understands the importance of consistent communication and digital visibility. By sharing thought leadership, success stories, and client testimonials, the brand enhances its reach and credibility.

Explore expert insights and updates on the official Anuvi YouTube Channel.

Follow updates and thought leadership from our founder Anu Sharma on LinkedIn.





Building Trust Through Client Success Stories

For entrepreneurs and investors, trust is the foundation of decision-making. Anuvi has worked with startups that began their journey in Dubai and scaled to become recognized businesses in international markets. Similarly, investors who purchased properties through Anuvi Luxe Real Estate have seen strong rental yields and significant capital growth.

These success stories are more than transactionsthey are partnerships that grow over time. By focusing on transparency, professionalism, and results, Anuvi continues to strengthen its reputation among global clients.

The Growth of Dubai as a Business and Property Hub

Dubais economy is expected to remain resilient, supported by initiatives such as Dubai Economic Agenda D33 and Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan. These projects aim to double the size of the economy, attract international companies, and position Dubai as one of the worlds top destinations for trade, tourism, and real estate.

With its strategic location, advanced infrastructure, and investor-friendly regulations, Dubai will continue to offer unparalleled opportunities. Businesses and investors who align with expert advisors like Anuvi are better positioned to benefit from this momentum.

Case Study: A Journey to Success

One of Anuvis international clients, an entrepreneur from Europe, approached the firm for help in establishing a technology company in Dubai. Within weeks, Anuvi guided the client through:

Selecting the right free zone

Obtaining a trade license

Securing office space

Opening a corporate bank account





Today, that company not only operates successfully in Dubai but also serves clients across the Middle East.

In real estate, a Canadian investor partnered with Anuvi Luxe Real Estate to purchase a luxury off-plan property. With expert guidance on developer selection and flexible payment plans, the investor is now on track to achieve both rental income and capital appreciation, while also securing long-term residency through a Golden Visa.

Conclusion

Dubai is a land of possibilities for entrepreneurs and investors, but success requires the right guidance. Anuvi Business Solutions and Anuvi Luxe Real Estate provide exactly thatcomprehensive support designed to simplify processes, maximize opportunities, and build trust.

By combining business consultancy expertise with real estate advisory, Anuvi has positioned itself as a true growth partner for those who want to establish and expand in Dubai. With a focus on transparency, tailored solutions, and client success stories, Anuvi continues to attract startups, corporations, and investors from around the world.

For anyone seeking to start a company or invest in property in Dubai, Anuvi stands as the trusted partner of choice.

Learn more and stay updated through www.anuvibs.com

Follow Anu Sharma on LinkedIn for insights and updates

Explore our Anuvi YouTube Channel

Hear from our valued clients in this Client Testimonials video





Contact:

ANU SHARMA

CEO/ OWNER

info@anuvibs.com

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SEATTLE, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canada is, for the first time, consistently seeing pre-rolls surpass flower as the highest-grossing cannabis category in the country, according to the Top 50 Canadian Pre-Roll Brands of 2025 industry report just released by Custom Cones USA , the leading provider of pre-rolled cones, pre-roll packaging, and pre-roll machines worldwide.

Drawing on 2024 sales data provided by cannabis analytics firm Headset , the report details how pre-rolls generated more than $1.27 billion in revenue across nearly 69 million units sold, securing a 32.8% market share. By mid-2025, pre-rolls had overtaken flower in sales by 4.2 percent, or $38 million, to become Canadas top-grossing cannabis product category.

Pre-rolls have evolved from an afterthought for many companies into what is now a cornerstone of the modern cannabis industry, said Harrison Bard, CEO of Custom Cones USA. The data shows a market that rewards quality and innovation, and the brands leading this list are embracing this shift as they treat the pre-roll as both a primary revenue driver and a platform for creativity, potency and craftsmanship.

Topping the list is General Admission , a brand from Calgary-based Decibel Cannabis Company, as they finished the year 250% ahead of their nearest competitor in both total sales and market share, selling more than 5.6 million units and generating nearly $147.5 million in pre-roll sales.

The report analyzes Headsets consumer transaction data from more than 500 retailers across four Canadian provinces: Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, and Saskatchewan. Rankings are based on total pre-roll sales, supplemented with a proprietary Social Score that factors in Instagram, LinkedIn and website engagement metrics.

Other top performers on the list include Shred , famous for its terpene-rich blends, and Back Forty , a heritage brand known for its accessible, large multipacks. The report also highlights Jeeter , America's best-selling pre-roll brand, which made a powerful entrance into the Canadian market in 2024, and Redecan , an Ontario-based company recognized for its iconic Redees slim pre-roll packs.

Beyond the list itself, key market trend takeaways from the report include:

The pre-roll category's growth in revenue and units sold has enabled it to surpass flower and become the leading cannabis product in the Canadian market.

The market is increasingly driven by infused pre-roll multi-packs, which appeal to consumer demand for potency and drive higher revenue.

Leading brands are succeeding by focusing on product innovation and building strong brand loyalty.

Successful brands are using creative formats and unique packaging to differentiate themselves and gain traction with consumers.

The full report, including an examination of market trends, the complete Top 50 list, and in-depth brand profiles, is available at:

https://customconesusa.com/pre-roll-expert-blog/top-pre-rolls/canada/

About Custom Cones USA

Founded in 2017 by Harrison Bard and Fredrik Rading, Custom Cones USA is a leading pre-roll resource in the cannabis industry. The team has a wealth of knowledge about all aspects of pre-roll manufacturing and the entire pre-roll sector of the cannabis space. From custom-branded pre-rolled cones and wholesale bulk cones , to completely customized pre-roll packaging projects and pre-roll machines , they offer expertise and solutions to companies big and small in all sectors of the pre-roll space. Custom Cones USA has brought their top quality rolling papers to the consumer through its brand DaySavers , which is the most compliant and transparent smoking accessories brand on the market, by holding itself to the same compliance standards as regulated cannabis companies. Learn more at CustomConesUSA.com .
OKLAHOMA CITY, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Murphy Law Firm is investigating claims on behalf of all individuals whose personal and confidential information was compromised in the data breach involving Cornwell Quality Tools. To join the class action lawsuit, visit our site HERE.

On December 20, 2024, Cornwell Quality Tools (Cornwell) became aware of suspicious activity on its computer system, indicating a data breach. Based on a subsequent forensic investigation, Cornwell determined that cybercriminals infiltrated this inadequately secured network and gained access to its files on or around December 12, 2024. The investigation further determined that, through this infiltration, cybercriminals accessed and/or acquired files containing the sensitive personal information of 103,782 individuals. The cybercriminal gang Cactus took credit for the Cornwell data breach on the Cactus dark website in February, claiming to have stolen 4.6 terabytes of Cornwells data.

The information exposed in the data breach includes, but is not limited to:

Names

Social Security numbers

Financial account information

Medical information

If you received notice of the Cornwell data breach or if your personal information was compromised in the breach, please visit our site HERE. Murphy Law Firm is evaluating legal options, including a potential class action lawsuit, to recover damages on behalf of individuals who were affected by the Cornwell Quality Tools data breach.

As a result of the data breach, these individuals personal and highly sensitive information may be in the hands of cybercriminals who can place the information for sale on the dark web or use the information to perpetrate identity theft.



To join a class action lawsuit, click HERE

Murphy Law Firm specializes in data breach class actions, consumer class actions, and federal securities class actions. The firm has extensive experience in securing highly favorable recoveries for its clients.

Contact:

Murphy Law Firm

abm@murphylegalfirm.com
Ottawa, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In an era where business decisions hinge on clarity and foresight, Statifacts emerges as the premier strategic ally in the global market research arena. Born from a singular vision, to breathe life into data, Statifacts offers organizations an unparalleled suite of statistical insights that are not just timely, but deeply actionable. As markets evolve at breakneck speed, only those equipped with curated, predictive market intelligence will steer confidently toward success.

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Mannedorf, Switzerland, September 10, 2025  The Tecan Group (SIX Swiss Exchange: TECN) today announced a change of leadership in its Partnering Business division.

Ralf Griebel, who has served as Head of the Partnering Business division and as a member of the Management Board since April 2020, will be leaving the Company to pursue other opportunities.

The Board of Directors and CEO Monica Manotas thank Ralf Griebel for his strong engagement and important contributions in developing Tecans Partnering Business and wish him all the best for the future.

Monica Manotas will assume interim leadership of the Partnering Business division, taking this as an opportunity to work more closely with the business.

About Tecan

Tecan (www.tecan.com) improves peoples lives and health by empowering customers to scale healthcare innovation globally from life science to the clinic. Tecan is a pioneer and global leader in laboratory automation. As an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), Tecan is also a leader in developing and manufacturing OEM instruments, components and medical devices that are then distributed by partner companies. Founded in Switzerland in 1980, the company has more than 3,000 employees, with manufacturing, research and development sites in Europe, North America and Asia, and maintains a sales and service network in over 70 countries. In 2024, Tecan generated sales of CHF 934 million (USD 1,062 million; EUR 984 million). Registered shares of Tecan Group are traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange (TECN; ISIN CH0012100191).

For further information:

Tecan Group

Martin Brandle

Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications & IR

Tel. +41 (0) 44 922 84 30

Fax +41 (0) 44 922 88 89

investor@tecan.com

www.tecan.com

Attachment
Washington, DC, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) issued the following statement on news that the California Assembly and Senate passed SB 68  the Allergen Disclosure for Dining Experiences (ADDE) Act. The bill would require California restaurants with 20 or more locations to disclose the Top 9 allergens on their menus. The bill now heads to Governor Newsom for signature.

The statement may be attributed to Kenneth Mendez, President and CEO of AAFA:

With food allergies affecting more people each year, the ADDE Acts simple menu disclosure requirement can prevent dangerous reactions and save lives. Millions of Californians have food allergies. The ADDE Act will require simple, written disclosure of the top 9 food allergens for all restaurants with 20 or more restaurant locations. Similar legislation is in place in the European Union and has been since 2014. Allergen disclosure works  it helps provide a better dining experience for people with food allergies and reduces the incidence of food allergy reactions. Not only does this law provide a level of protection for diners, it also helps restaurants attract loyal customers. The legislation is a win-win for California families and restaurants. We expect that this bill is a first step for food allergen labeling in restaurants, as it currently will only impact chain restaurants with 20 or more locations. We urge Governor Newsom to sign this monumental bill that will help change the culture in California to be inclusive for those with food allergies.

About the Bill

AAFA co-sponsored the legislation alongside Robyn and Addie Lao. The bill faced early opposition but quickly gained support from hundreds of individuals, medical organizations, patient advocates, and restaurants. Dozens of children and teens joined the advocacy by visiting Sacramento in person to share their testimony of support for ADDE Act.

If signed into law, it will be the first of its kind in the nation and will help set precedence for other states to follow. The move will make dining out more accessible for the 20 million people in the United States with food allergies.

##

About AAFA

Founded in 1953, AAFA is the oldest and largest non-profit patient organization dedicated to saving lives and reducing the burden of disease for people with asthma, allergies, and related conditions through research, education, advocacy, and support. AAFA offers extensive support for individuals and families affected by asthma and allergic diseases, such as food allergies and atopic dermatitis (eczema). Through its online patient support communities, network of regional chapters, and collaborations with community-based groups, AAFA empowers patients and their families by providing practical, evidence-based information and community programs and services. AAFA is the only asthma and allergy patient advocacy group that is certified to meet the standards of excellence set by the National Health Council. For more information, visit: aafa.org and kidswithfoodallergies.org

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EBENE, Mauritius, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Virtual Pay Group , a leading Global fintech company specializing in digital payment solutions, is proud to announce that it has been officially licensed by Visa as a Principal Acquirer. This prestigious designation enables Virtual Pay to directly acquire major card scheme transactions, reinforcing its position as a key player in the Global fast-evolving digital payments ecosystem.

The Visa Principal Acquirer license grants Virtual Pay greater operational independence and scalability, allowing the company to provide merchants with faster onboarding, enhanced security, and more competitive transaction processing across the continent.

Mr. David Morema, Virtual Pay Group CEO, expressed his enthusiasm and gratitude in a statement: Securing the Principal Acquirer license from Visa is a tremendous milestone for Virtual Pay Group and a testament to the relentless efforts of our entire team. This achievement positions us at the forefront of digital payments and strengthens our ability to offer more localized, secure, and seamless payment experiences. We are incredibly proud of how far weve come and remain committed to driving financial inclusion and digital innovation across the Global payment landscape.

With this new license, Virtual Pay is strategically placed to deepen its merchant relationships, accelerate growth in new and existing markets, and further simplify cross-border commerce for businesses.

Virtual Pay Group continues to invest in infrastructure, compliance, and partnerships that support its vision of transforming how businesses transact in the digital economy.

About Virtual Pay Group

Virtual Pay Group is a Global payments technology company providing secure, seamless, and innovative digital payment solutions for businesses and consumers. With operations in multiple markets, Virtual Pay Group is committed to advancing financial inclusion and enabling commerce across borders.

Contact

Head of Strategic Alliance and Growth

Anthony Migui

Virtual Pay Group

sales@virtual-pay.io

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1b1f867f-b9b5-4291-8eb5-c881fdd0e31c
OKLAHOMA CITY, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Murphy Law Firm is investigating claims on behalf of all individuals whose personal and confidential information was compromised in the data breach involving Wayne Memorial Hospital. To join the class action lawsuit, visit our site HERE.

On June 3, 2024, Wayne Memorial Hospital (WMH) became aware of suspicious activity on its computer system, indicating a data breach and ransomware attack. Based on a subsequent forensic investigation, WMH determined that cybercriminals infiltrated this inadequately secured network and gained access to WMHs files between May 30, 2024 and June 3, 2024. The investigation further determined that, through this infiltration, cybercriminals potentially accessed and/or acquired files containing the sensitive personal information of 163,440 individuals. The Monti ransomware group claimed responsibility for the WMH attack and added Wayne Memorial Hospital to its data leak site.

The information exposed in the data breach includes, but is not limited to:

Names

Social Security numbers

Financial account information

Payment card information

Medical information

Diagnoses information and test results

Prescription information

Health insurance information

Drivers license numbers

Dates of birth

State identification numbers



If you received notice of the WMH data breach or if your personal information was compromised in the breach, please visit our site HERE. Murphy Law Firm is evaluating legal options, including a potential class action lawsuit, to recover damages on behalf of individuals who were affected by the Wayne Memorial Hospital data breach.

As a result of the data breach, these individuals personal and highly sensitive information may be in the hands of cybercriminals who can place the information for sale on the dark web or use the information to perpetrate identity theft.



To join a class action lawsuit, click HERE

Murphy Law Firm specializes in data breach class actions, consumer class actions, and federal securities class actions. The firm has extensive experience in securing highly favorable recoveries for its clients.

Contact:

Murphy Law Firm

abm@murphylegalfirm.com
Chicago, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The U.S. durable medical equipment market was valued at US$ 80.9 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach US$ 137.9 billion by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 6.1% during the forecast period 20252033.

Federal payment structures provide a strong foundation for the U.S. durable medical equipment market. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has established substantial reimbursement rates for 2025. The national fee schedule for a standard power wheelchair (K0823) allows a $4,917.30 purchase payment. Rental options are also strongly supported. The 2025 monthly rental fee for a lightweight wheelchair (K0004) is $121.73. A complex rehabilitative power wheelchair base (K0835) has a monthly rental fee of $289.43 for the first three months. A heavy-duty walker with wheels (E0149) has an allowable purchase fee of $128.05.

Request Sample Pages: https://www.astuteanalytica.com/request-sample/us-durable-medical-equipment-market

The scale of government activity underscores the sector's stability. In Q4 2024, CMS processed over 15 million DMEPOS claims. Other federal bodies are also major purchasers. The Veterans Health Administration's 2025 budget requests over $5 billion for prosthetics and clinical support. Supporting this ecosystem, there were 9,886 active Medicare-enrolled durable medical equipment suppliers as of January 2024. These figures confirm a well-funded and active marketplace, providing reliable revenue streams for manufacturers and suppliers.

Key Findings in U.S. Durable Medical Equipment Market

Market Forecast (2033) US$ 137.9 billion CAGR 6.1% By Product Type Monitoring and Therapeutics Devices (92%) By End Users Hospitals (29%) Top Drivers Rising prevalence of chronic diseases fuels long-term equipment needs.

The rapidly aging U.S. population increases the patient base.

Technological advancements and preference for home healthcare expand device adoption Top Trends Integration of IoT and connectivity for remote patient monitoring.

Growing demand for portable and user-friendly home care devices.

Shift towards value-based care models influencing equipment procurement decisions. Top Challenges Complex and evolving reimbursement policies creating administrative hurdles for providers.

High costs associated with technologically advanced medical equipment limiting access.

Logistical complexities and supply chain interruptions impacting product availability.

Stringent Regulatory Oversight Mandates Shape Product Development and Market Entry Timelines

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) maintains a rigorous process that quantifies new technology flow. In 2024, the FDA granted 112 separate 510(k) clearances for "Physical Medicine" devices. Specifically for the "Wheelchair, Powered" product code (MSI), the FDA issued 7 new 510(k) clearances during 2024. The average 510(k) review time in the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) during fiscal year 2024 was 132 days. This metric is a key planning factor for companies.

Post-market surveillance ensures long-term device safety within the U.S. durable medical equipment market. FDA vigilance is clear from recall activities. Three Class I recalls were initiated for wheelchair devices in 2024 for risks of serious injury. A total of 14 Class II recalls for wheelchairs were also posted in 2024. Data collection is vital for safety. The FDA's MAUDE database received over 4,500 adverse event reports for wheelchairs in 2024. As of February 2025, there are 28 ongoing FDA-mandated post-market surveillance studies for orthopedic and rehabilitation devices.

Accelerated Clinical Trials and R&D Spending Fuel Next-Generation Mobility Innovations

The future of mobility is being shaped in clinical research labs nationwide. As of early 2025, 42 active U.S. clinical trials are focused on powered exoskeleton technology. These trials have a cumulative target enrollment of 1,150 patients. The intersection of neuroscience and mobility is another key area. In 2024, 8 new clinical studies were initiated to evaluate brain-computer interfaces for controlling mobility devices. The studies are backed by over $25 million in total funding.

Major clinical initiatives and corporate spending confirm a deep commitment to advancing care in the U.S. durable medical equipment market. A multi-center trial for a new spinal cord stimulation device, launched in 2024, aims to enroll 250 participants by 2025. The pediatric segment is also a focus, with 15 active U.S. clinical trials for pediatric mobility devices as of January 2025. Key market players are investing heavily in R&D. Invacare Corporations reported research and development expenditure for fiscal year 2024 was a substantial $18.2 million, signaling its commitment to innovation.

Aggressive Intellectual Property Strategies Reveal Intense Competition in Advanced Mobility Design

Patent activity provides a concrete measure of innovation and strategic focus. Sunrise Medical has demonstrated a particularly proactive intellectual property strategy. The company was granted U.S. Patent No. 12,102,575 for a "Wheelchair with an Adjustable Base" on October 1, 2024. It received U.S. Patent No. 12,115,110 for a "Manual Wheelchair Propulsion System" on October 15, 2024. As of 2025, the company holds 1,014 patent documents globally, organized into 329 patent families.

Legacy players are also actively expanding their technological territory within the U.S. durable medical equipment market. Invacare Corporation holds 18 active U.S. patents related to power wheelchair control systems as of its latest 2025 filing. The company also filed 4 new U.S. patent applications related to seating and positioning technology in 2024. The broader industry trend is one of intense innovation. A search of the USPTO database reveals 248 patents were granted in 2024 containing the word "wheelchair" in their claims.

Patient Demographics and Robust Support Networks Define the Core Consumer Base

Patient population needs create the foundational demand for medical equipment in the durable medical equipment market. The U.S. healthcare infrastructure is vast. As of 2025, there are 15,170 certified skilled nursing facilities with 1,605,940 certified beds. The nation also has 1,209 inpatient rehabilitation facilities with 43,180 beds. These facilities represent concentrated points of demand. Advocacy groups quantify the user base. The Paralyzed Veterans of America has over 50,000 members. The United Spinal Association serves over 60,000 members.

Specific disease populations are significant. Nearly 1 million people in the U.S. live with multiple sclerosis, giving a further boost to the durable medical equipment market growth. The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation served over 120,000 individuals in 2024. The ALS Association committed over $18 million to research for 2025. The Muscular Dystrophy Association provided over 40,000 patient services in 2024. The Amputee Coalitions network includes over 1,500 peer visitors, and its 2024 conference hosted over 1,200 attendees. The Free Wheelchair Mission distributed its 1.5 millionth wheelchair in late 2024. Finally, the National Seating & Mobility Symposium featured 135 educational sessions in 2024.

Complex Supply Chains and Volatile Material Costs Directly Influence Production Economics

The production of advanced medical devices depends on a complex global supply chain. Raw material costs are a critical variable. The January 2025 spot price for medical-grade titanium alloy was approximately $19,500 per metric ton. Electronics are a key cost center. A standard 300-watt-hour lithium-ion battery pack averaged $185 per unit for bulk orders in Q1 2025. The index price for medical-grade polyurethane foam, used in cushions, rose by 8 points in 2024.

Component availability shapes the operational landscape of the U.S. durable medical equipment market. The average lead time for specialized microcontrollers was a lengthy 38 weeks in late 2024. The domestic manufacturing base is extensive, with 2,150 FDA-registered medical device contract manufacturing facilities in the U.S. as of February 2025. Yet, reliance on global trade continues. The Port of Los Angeles processed over 4.2 million inbound TEUs in the second half of 2024. The U.S. also has only 4 operational cobalt refineries as of 2025.

A Specialized Labor and Professional Workforce is Critical for Market Access

A skilled professional workforce is essential for the DME lifecycle. The U.S. has deep clinical expertise. As of 2025, there are over 27,800 orthopedic surgeons and over 239,000 licensed physical therapists. Approximately 8,500 certified orthotists and prosthetists provide specialized fitting services. These professionals are primary drivers of equipment recommendations and training.

The technical support side of the U.S. durable medical equipment market is vital. There are 6,812 actively certified Assistive Technology Professionals (ATPs) in the U.S. as of 2025. The 2025 national median salary for a biomedical equipment technician is $61,750. Demand for skilled personnel is high. The average number of job postings for a "DME Specialist" exceeded 3,500 per month in 2024. The talent pipeline is supported by 14 accredited master's programs for orthotics and prosthetics as of the 2024-2025 academic year.

Strategic Mergers and Corporate Investments Signal a Dynamic and Consolidating Market

The corporate landscape in the US durable medical equipment market is marked by significant strategic activity. M&A activity is robust. There were 9 transactions in the U.S. DME sector in Q2 2025. The average disclosed deal value for these deals was $42 million. Sunrise Medical's acquisition of Made for Movement in July 2025 adds 2 new therapeutic brands to its portfolio. Over its history, there have been 33 investment and acquisition deals involving Sunrise Medical as of early 2025.

Beyond M&A, companies are investing in infrastructure and organic growth. A new 350,000-square-foot DME distribution center opened in Dallas in October 2024. The sector also saw 4 companies go public through IPOs or SPACs between 2024 and early 2025. Established players continue to innovate. Invacare Corporation announced the launch of 5 new product SKUs in its Essential Wheelchair line, effective April 30, 2025. This shows a commitment to refreshing core offerings.

Need a Customized Version? Request It Now: https://www.astuteanalytica.com/ask-for-customization/us-durable-medical-equipment-market

Rapid Digital Integration and Smart Connectivity Are Transforming Patient Care Models

The fusion of digital technology with hardware is creating a new frontier for the U.S. durable medical equipment market. Remote monitoring is becoming standard. As of 2025, an estimated 8 million U.S. patients use DME devices with remote monitoring capabilities. The broader trend is larger. An estimated 30 million U.S. patients are expected to use some form of remote patient monitoring tools by the end of 2024. Reimbursement is evolving, with codes like 98980 allowing providers to bill for 20 minutes of service time.

Product design and software ecosystems reflect a shift in the U.S. durable medical equipment market. The QUICKIE Q50 R Carbon power wheelchair, launched in January 2024, weighs only 32 pounds without batteries. The user experience is increasingly digital. Over 250 healthcare apps in the Apple App Store interface with assistive devices as of 2025. A connected wheelchair generates about 5 megabytes of data monthly. Optum Insight's DME Navigator, launched in June 2024, integrates with the electronic health records of over 1,000 hospitals.

U.S. Durable Medical Equipment Market Key Players:

Abbott

Sunrise Medical

Pride Mobility

Nihon Kohden Corporation

Medtronic PLC

Medline Industries, Inc.

Koninklijke Philips NV

Invacare Corporation

GE Healthcare

Drive DeVilbiss Healthcare

Compass Health Brands

Carex Health Brands, Inc.

Cardinal Health

Becton, Dickinson and Company

Optum Insight

GF Health Products, Inc.

Other Prominent Players

Key Market Segmentation:

By Product

Personal Mobility Devices Wheelchairs Scooters Walker and Rollators Canes and Crutches Door Openers Others

Bathroom Safety Devices and Medical Furniture Commodes and Toilets Mattress & Bedding Devices

Monitoring and Therapeutic Devices (92%) Blood Sugar Monitors Continuous Passive Motion (CPM) Infusion Pumps Market Nebulizers Oxygen Equipment Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) Suction Pumps Traction Equipment Others

Others

By End User

Hospitals

Specialty Clinics

Ambulatory Surgical Centers

Diagnostic Centers

Home Healthcare

Skilled Nursing Facilities

Others

Not Sure Where to Start? Let Our Analyst Walk You Through the Report: https://www.astuteanalytica.com/report-walkthrough/us-durable-medical-equipment-market

About Astute Analytica

Astute Analytica is a global market research and advisory firm providing data-driven insights across industries such as technology, healthcare, chemicals, semiconductors, FMCG, and more. We publish multiple reports daily, equipping businesses with the intelligence they need to navigate market trends, emerging opportunities, competitive landscapes, and technological advancements.

With a team of experienced business analysts, economists, and industry experts, we deliver accurate, in-depth, and actionable research tailored to meet the strategic needs of our clients. At Astute Analytica, our clients come first, and we are committed to delivering cost-effective, high-value research solutions that drive success in an evolving marketplace.

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ARGYLE, Nova Scotia, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Residents warn that pristine local waters are under threat, accusing Argyle council of ignoring serious concerns. Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, they say, reveal 16 potential conflicts of interest involving municipal staff, councillors, contractors, and industry representatives. These records, they say, raise red flags of potential collusion, improper influence, gifting, and possible bid rigging.

Theyre fighting underhandedly and were fighting back for transparency and balance, said the Argyle Association for Responsible Aquaculture (ARA).

A Secret Business Park on the Sea

The controversy dates back six years, when the Municipality of Argyle quietly advanced a business park on the sea plan without informing the majority of its residents. On March 10, 2025, concerned citizens presented council with evidence they believe shows multiple conflicts of interest. Instead of referring the matter to the Auditor General to investigate, the municipality chose to hire its own lawyer.

Simply put, if an investigator is paid by the municipality, then the process is not fully independent, said resident and former councillor Guy Surrette. The municipality is investigating itself.

Rigged Process, High Stakes

Residents stress they are not opposed to aquaculture, but they insist it must be developed fairly and transparently.

The investigative conflict can be removed if the municipality refers the matter to the NS Attorney Generals Office under Section 12 of the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act, said resident Mike Scott. By keeping the process under local control, council can limit the scope and shield those who may be implicated.

Community members warn that if the findings point to violations of the Competition Act, former and current or former officials could face more serious consequences.

Why it Matters

Decisions made in Argyle form the foundation of provincial approvals for aquaculture sites. Residents argue that if the local process is flawed, every provincial approval based on it could be compromised. Resident Donna Gaudet raised the concern bluntly:

If cheating and bid rigging are exposed, can the province continue with its decision to award and approve site applications?

Next Steps

The ARA will keep pushing for transparency and fairness to ensure aquaculture expansion is done openly and in the best interest of everyone affected.

For more information and ongoing updates, visit:

Association for Responsible Aquaculture  Facebook Page

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0aec507f-92f3-47a0-a90b-c1b18e470dbe
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco (FHLBank San Francisco) announced today that it has awarded $8 million in economic development grants under the Access to Housing and Economic Assistance for Development (AHEAD) program. The grants will support 64 economic development projects designed to strengthen communities across its three-state district and create or preserve an estimated 14,000 jobs, according to the 2025 grantees.

We remain committed to investing in communities throughout Arizona, California and Nevada and to funding organizations leading innovative and impactful economic development programs, said Joseph E. Amato, interim president and chief executive officer of FHLBank San Francisco. The AHEAD program provides funding that our member organizations use to make grants to local nonprofits for initiatives that directly address capacity building, jobs, and community needs. Together, were making a lasting difference and driving economic growth where its needed most.

Since its launch 21 years ago, the AHEAD program has awarded more than $40 million in grants to help nonprofits launch and grow projects that create jobs or address other critical community needs across the Banks three-state district. Delivered in partnership with member financial institutions, the 2025 awards represent a 10% increase in total funding over last year and will provide grants of up to $150,000 to support local economies and expand economic development across communities. The 2025 AHEAD grant cycle will distribute 64 grants through 40 different FHLBank San Francisco members.

"At City National Bank, we believe in the power of working together," said Adey Tesfaye, senior vice president and head of the Community Reinvestment Act division at City National Bank. "Working with the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco and nonprofit organizations such as the LA Conservation Corps allows us to support innovative solutions that make a difference in the communities we serve. The grant will help fund firefighter training at a time when its needed most. With the devastating wildfires we saw in Los Angeles earlier this year, its clear that firefighters play a significant role in protecting our communities. We are proud to support the training they need to continue their important work.

AHEAD program grantees support a wide range of projects and beneficiaries, addressing local needs across various sectors and communities. AHEAD encourages FHLBank San Franciscos members to build strong relationships with nonprofit organizations that have specific economic and community development expertise. Of the 40 member financial institutions participating in the 2025 AHEAD program, four are engaged in the program for the first time.

The 2025 grants address the following community needs:

Job training (31%)

Entrepreneurship and microenterprise (17%)

Capacity building (14%)

Social services (13%)

Housing initiatives (8%)

Other economic development, financial education and technical assistance (17%)

The 2025 AHEAD grants include:

City National Bank will deliver a $150,000 grant to LA Conservation Corps for a job training initiative, Wildland Firefighter Training Program, in Los Angeles. The LA Conservation Corps is committed to serving the environment while enhancing workforce development opportunities in Los Angeles County. This six-week course is designed to equip participants with hands-on firefighting experience. Recruiting out-of-work and out-of-school young adults from low-income families, the program will help participants earn certifications to meet CAL FIREs requirements to become a Seasonal Firefighter I. Vetted candidates will undertake a structured pathway that encompasses training for a wide variety of certifications, physical fitness regimens, and field exercises. AHEAD funds will pay for delivering program training sessions and field experience.





will deliver a $150,000 grant to for a job training initiative, Wildland Firefighter Training Program, in Los Angeles. The LA Conservation Corps is committed to serving the environment while enhancing workforce development opportunities in Los Angeles County. This six-week course is designed to equip participants with hands-on firefighting experience. Recruiting out-of-work and out-of-school young adults from low-income families, the program will help participants earn certifications to meet CAL FIREs requirements to become a Seasonal Firefighter I. Vetted candidates will undertake a structured pathway that encompasses training for a wide variety of certifications, physical fitness regimens, and field exercises. AHEAD funds will pay for delivering program training sessions and field experience. Western Alliance Bank will deliver a $150,000 grant to Nevada Housing Coalition for a housing initiative, The Keys to the Missing Middle, in Las Vegas. The Nevada Housing Coalition works to support the development and preservation of affordable housing, especially for households representing the missing middle, who earn 80% to 120% of area median income. This initiative aims to address homeownership affordability challenges through technical assistance, peer-led learning, financial literacy, and creating stronger connections among housing stakeholders. AHEAD funds will cover critical personnel costs, curriculum development, and instructional supplies.





will deliver a $150,000 grant to for a housing initiative, The Keys to the Missing Middle, in Las Vegas. The Nevada Housing Coalition works to support the development and preservation of affordable housing, especially for households representing the missing middle, who earn 80% to 120% of area median income. This initiative aims to address homeownership affordability challenges through technical assistance, peer-led learning, financial literacy, and creating stronger connections among housing stakeholders. AHEAD funds will cover critical personnel costs, curriculum development, and instructional supplies. Avenir Financial Credit Union will deliver a $150,000 grant to Arizona Western College Small Business Development Center for a rural job training initiative, Rural Spark, in Arizonas Yuma and La Paz counties. Arizona Western College Small Business Development Center is committed to delivering high-quality and impactful one-on-one business counseling, targeted specialized training, and resource support in Yuma and La Paz counties. This project will offer 20 free, intensive bilingual workshops designed to equip aspiring and existing low- to moderate-income high-school-age youth entrepreneurs with essential business skills. Program workshops will cover a range of topics including leveraging artificial intelligence, mastering social media, effective marketing, crafting business plans, preparing for loans, and more. AHEAD funds will help build the programs capacity by supporting personnel, program, and overhead costs.





will deliver a $150,000 grant to for a rural job training initiative, Rural Spark, in Arizonas Yuma and La Paz counties. Arizona Western College Small Business Development Center is committed to delivering high-quality and impactful one-on-one business counseling, targeted specialized training, and resource support in Yuma and La Paz counties. This project will offer 20 free, intensive bilingual workshops designed to equip aspiring and existing low- to moderate-income high-school-age youth entrepreneurs with essential business skills. Program workshops will cover a range of topics including leveraging artificial intelligence, mastering social media, effective marketing, crafting business plans, preparing for loans, and more. AHEAD funds will help build the programs capacity by supporting personnel, program, and overhead costs. Golden Valley Bank will deliver a $150,000 grant to Chico Housing Action Team for a housing initiative, Pathways Rapid Rehousing Program, in Chico, California. Chico Housing Action Team works to provide integrated housing and support services for vulnerable populations in Butte County. The Pathways project will implement a Rapid Rehousing Program that includes rental assistance for up to 12 months, increases housing units dedicated to youth through its partnership with Youth for Change, and provides administrative support in applying for income-stabilizing benefits. AHEAD funds will support the cost of hiring housing navigation staff to provide case management services to participants, workshops on financial literacy and financial planning, stipends for workshop attendees, and administrative support.



The voluntary AHEAD grant program is just one example of FHLBank San Franciscos commitment to fostering economic vitality, boosting supply of affordable housing, and promoting homeownership by contributing up to 15% of annual net profits to mission-aligned initiatives each year. Additional important community grant programs offered by the Bank include the Affordable Housing Program (AHP), the Empowering Homeownership program, the Tribal Nations program, and two downpayment assistance programs: the Middle-Income Downpayment Assistance and Workforce Initiative Subsidy for Homeownership (WISH) matching grant programs for low- and middle-income first-time homebuyers.

To learn more about the AHEAD program and this years economic development grant recipients, visit www.fhlbsf.com.

About the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco

The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco is a member-driven cooperative helping local lenders in Arizona, California, and Nevada build strong communities, create opportunity, and change lives for the better. The tools and resources we provide to our member financial institutions  commercial banks, credit unions, industrial loan companies, savings institutions, insurance companies, and community development financial institutions  propel homeownership, finance quality affordable housing, drive economic vitality, and revitalize whole neighborhoods. Together with our members and other partners, we are making the communities we serve more vibrant and resilient.

Contact:

Tom Flannigan

Tom.Flannigan@fhlbsf.com
Vancouver, BC, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bessor Minerals Inc. (TSXV:BST) ("Bessor" or the Corporation) is pleased to announce it has entered into an asset purchase agreement dated September 9, 2025 the Purchase Agreement to acquire (the Acquisition) the Jagrite Graphite Project located near the Bella Coola area in British Columbia.

The Jagrite Graphite Project consists of a mineral property covering 139.4 hectares located on Bentinck Arm, 30 kilometers southwest of Bella Coola, BC. The property has been the subject of previous exploration and geological mapping. Graphite occurrences in bedrock have been mapped over a 400 X 400 meter area within the property. Crystalline flake graphite concentrations can be found within biotite schist roof pendants of the granodioritic gneiss of the Coast Plutonic Complex. Concentrations of graphite occur at the crests of folds, with fine-grained graphite, post-dating ductile deformation, concentrated in shear zones and thin veins. (source: BCGS Geological Fieldwork 1992).

The terms of the acquisition are:

Bessor to provide a cash payment of Cad$20,000.00 upon signing. Bessor to provide a cash payment of Cad$25,000.00 on or before 12 months of signing the asset purchase agreement. Bessor to provide a cash payment of Cad$25,000.00 on or before 24 months of signing the asset purchase agreement. Bessor to issue 2,000,000 common shares to the Vendor on closing.

Jason Riley, Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation said: we are excited to add the Jagrite Graphite Project to our existing property portfolio and look forward to further planning and implementing of exploration.

ABOUT BESSOR MINERALS INC.

Bessors focus is on exploration and development of the Redhill volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit in British Columbia. In addition, Bessor has a 1% NSR on certain claims in the Blackwater Mine operated by Artemis Gold Inc.

QUALIFIED PERSON

Andris Kikauka, P.Geo., a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the disclosure set out in this news release. Mr. Kikauka is independent to Bessor.

BESSOR MINERALS INC.

Jason Riley

President, CEO & Director

For further information, contact:

Jason Riley

CEO

604-688-2641

Or email

Investor Relations

Email: info@bessorminerals.com

Website: www.bessorminerals.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release
Bethany, Okla., Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In their newly released book, A Legacy of Hope, longtime leaders and brother-sister duo Carol and Albert Gray chronicle the extraordinary transformation of Bethany Childrens Health Center - from its beginnings as a small orphanage in 1898 to its place today as one of the nations premier pediatric hospitals specializing in complex care and rehabilitation.

Rooted in the legacy of young schoolteacher Mattie Mallory, who answered Gods call to care for orphaned children more than a century ago, this story reveals how one act of obedience blossomed into a mission spanning generations. With a legacy carried on by Carol and Albert in the late 1970s, Bethany Childrens is now one of the largest free-standing, inpatient pediatric rehabilitation centers in the country. Their vision, and renewed mission of maximizing the potential of every child, continues with the expansion project currently underway, Landmark of Hope , a new outpatient clinic on historic Route 66 thats set for completion in time for the Route 66 Centennial celebrations, and will open to the public in early 2027.

When the Grays first arrived at Bethany Childrens, the hospital, then known as the Childrens Convalescent Center, was on the brink of closure. Instead of walking away, they leaned into the challenge. Carol began as Volunteer Coordinator in 1977, and her brother Albert, equipped with a Nursing Home Administrators license, stepped in soon after. Together, they reversed the decline, re-established referral pipelines, transformed care models for children with disabilities, and launched innovative fundraising efforts.

A Legacy of Hope is more than a historyits our testimony of Gods faithfulness through seasons of challenge and change, said Carol Gray. We wanted to honor the people, past and present, who refused to give up on this mission, and to inspire the next generation to carry it forward with the same passion and hope.

Through deeply personal accounts, the book captures the siblings entrepreneurial spirit, steadfast leadership, and enduring faith. It traces the journey from financial crisis to long-term sustainability, offering lessons in resilience and mission-driven leadership relevant far beyond healthcare.

An endorsement was provided by the late Don Pray, who served as executive director of the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, and the foreword was provided by Mart Green, ministry investment officer of Hobby Lobby, together with his wife, Diana Green.

When we look back, its humbling to think God used two kids from Lookeba, Oklahoma to show His goodness and faithfulness, said Albert Gray. A Legacy of Hope isnt just our story, its a reminder that when faith, hard work, and community come together, extraordinary things can happen for children who need it most.

Today, Carol serves as Senior Director of Mission and Culture, while Albert is Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors. The siblings have transitioned from decades-long leadership roles as COO and CEO, respectively, but continue to shape the vision and values of the health center.

To support the books release, Carol and Albert Gray are available for media interviews, speaking engagements, and book signings. A Legacy of Hope is available on Amazon , through Bethany Childrens Health Centers website , and on-site following pre-scheduled tours.

Link to photos here . For more information about Bethany Childrens Health Center please visit www.bethanychildrens.org .

Attachments
NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Novo Nordisk A/S (Novo Nordisk or the Company) (NYSE: NVO). Such investors are advised to contact Danielle Peyton at newaction@pomlaw.com or 646-581-9980, (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 7980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased.

The class action concerns whether Novo Nordisk and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

You have until September 30, 2025 to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class if you purchased or otherwise acquired Novo Nordisk securities during the Class Period. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com.

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

On July 29, 2025, Novo Nordisk significantly lowered its sales outlook for 2025. The Company attributed the reduction to lowered growth expectations for the second half of 2025 for both Wegovy and Ozempic due to the persistent use of compounded GLP-1s, slower-than-expected market expansion and competition.

On this news, Novo Nordisks American Depositary Receipt (ADR) price fell $15.06 per ADR, or 21.83%, to close at $53.94 per ADR on July 29, 2025.

Pomerantz LLP, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Paris, and Tel Aviv, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, Pomerantz pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 85 years later, Pomerantz continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomlaw.com.

Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.
TORONTO, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Best Crypto Exchanges Canada , the countrys leading platform for exchange rankings and investor education, has reported record growth in investor subscriptions. This milestone underscores the platforms expanding influence as Canadian traders increasingly turn to it for transparent insights, unbiased comparisons, and trusted guidance in navigating the digital asset market.





Record Subscription Growth Reflects Rising Market Demand

The Canadian cryptocurrency market continues to expand at an unprecedented pace. With Bitcoin, Ethereum, and emerging altcoins becoming mainstream investment assets, both retail and institutional investors are searching for reliable resources to guide their decisions.

Amid this surge in adoption, Best Crypto Exchanges Canada has seen a dramatic rise in investor subscriptions. The growth highlights a clear demand for transparent, data-driven analysis of exchanges and reflects the platforms success in becoming the go-to resource for Canadian traders.

Why Subscriptions Are Growing Rapidly

The record growth in subscriptions is tied to the platforms unique approach. Rather than relying on promotional content, Best Crypto Exchanges Canada delivers unbiased evaluations across the metrics that matter most to investors:

Security and Compliance  Assessing whether exchanges meet Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) standards and protect client funds.



 Assessing whether exchanges meet Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) standards and protect client funds. Fee Transparency  Breaking down costs without hidden charges, allowing investors to clearly compare options.



 Breaking down costs without hidden charges, allowing investors to clearly compare options. Platform Performance  Reviewing reliability, uptime, and usability across devices.



 Reviewing reliability, uptime, and usability across devices. Customer Service  Measuring responsiveness and quality of support teams.



 Measuring responsiveness and quality of support teams. Investor Feedback  Incorporating reviews and experiences from Canadian traders.



This transparency-driven model has built strong trust among investors, fueling the record growth in subscriptions.

Education at the Core of Engagement

Beyond exchange rankings, subscribers gain access to educational resources that simplify complex topics. Guides and tutorials cover:

Blockchain fundamentals and how digital assets work.



Secure trading practices and wallet management.



Risk management strategies in volatile markets.



Insights on altcoins, staking, and emerging DeFi trends.



By blending rankings with investor education, Best Crypto Exchanges Canada has positioned itself as more than a ranking siteit is a comprehensive hub for Canadians seeking both clarity and confidence in cryptocurrency.

Supporting Canadas Regulatory Environment

Canada has emerged as a global leader in shaping regulatory clarity for digital assets. However, investors often struggle to identify which platforms fully comply with national rules. The portal addresses this challenge by highlighting compliant exchanges, enabling subscribers to choose platforms aligned with Canadian regulations.

This regulatory awareness has contributed to the surge in subscriptions, as investors recognize the value of trading with platforms vetted for compliance and security.

Strong Community Response

Investor feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Many subscribers credit the portal with helping them avoid risky exchanges, save time on research, and approach the market with greater confidence. Word-of-mouth recommendations from Canadian traders have further accelerated subscription growth, reinforcing the platforms reputation as a market authority.

Looking Ahead

With record growth in subscriptions, Best Crypto Exchanges Canada is preparing to expand its offerings. Future updates will include:

Quarterly Reports on exchange performance, providing timely insights.



on exchange performance, providing timely insights. Enhanced Ranking Filters allowing investors to personalize results based on their priorities.



allowing investors to personalize results based on their priorities. Coverage of Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs) and staking platforms.



and staking platforms. Tailored Alerts to notify subscribers when new exchanges meet their chosen criteria.



These initiatives will ensure the platform continues to evolve alongside Canadas fast-growing digital asset market.

Conclusion

The record growth in investor subscriptions confirms what many already recognize: Best Crypto Exchanges Canada is the nations leading crypto guide. By combining transparent rankings, regulatory alignment, and investor-focused education, the platform has become indispensable for Canadians navigating the complexities of digital assets.

As adoption accelerates, Best Crypto Exchanges Canada will continue to lead as the trusted authority, guiding investors toward safer, smarter, and more confident trading decisions.

Media Contact

Name: Daniel Foster

Title: Communications Director

Company: Best Crypto Exchanges Canada

Phone: +1 (416) 555-6924

Email: daniel.foster@bestcryptoexchangescanada.com



Disclaimer: This content is provided by Best Crypto Exchanges Canada. The statements, views, and opinions expressed in this content are solely those of the content provider and do not necessarily reflect the views of this media platform or its publisher. We do not endorse, verify, or guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information presented. We do not guarantee any claims, statements, or promises made in this article. This content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, or trading advice.Investing in crypto and mining-related opportunities involves significant risks, including the potential loss of capital. It is possible to lose all your capital. These products may not be suitable for everyone, and you should ensure that you understand the risks involved. Seek independent advice if necessary. Speculate only with funds that you can afford to lose. Readers are strongly encouraged to conduct their own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. However, due to the inherently speculative nature of the blockchain sectorincluding cryptocurrency, NFTs, and miningcomplete accuracy cannot always be guaranteed. Neither the media platform nor the publisher shall be held responsible for any fraudulent activities, misrepresentations, or financial losses arising from the content of this press release. In the event of any legal claims or charges against this article, we accept no liability or responsibility. Globenewswire does not endorse any content on this page.

Legal Disclaimer: This media platform provides the content of this article on an "as-is" basis, without any warranties or representations of any kind, express or implied. We assume no responsibility for any inaccuracies, errors, or omissions. We do not assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information presented herein. Any concerns, complaints, or copyright issues related to this article should be directed to the content provider mentioned above.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3fca694e-425c-4764-ac30-955a53bbd387
NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of James Hardie Industries plc (James Hardie or the Company) (NYSE: JHX). Such investors are advised to contact Danielle Peyton at newaction@pomlaw.com or 646-581-9980, ext. 7980.

The investigation concerns whether James Hardie and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

On August 19, 2025, James Hardie issued a press release announcing financial results for its first quarter ended June 30, 2025. Among other items, James Hardie reported a 29% decline in first-quarter profit and projected lower-than-expected fiscal 2026 earnings, citing high borrowing costs.

On this news, James Hardies American Depositary Receipt (ADR) price fell $9.79 per ADR, or 34.44%, to close at $18.64 per ADR on August 20, 2025.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, and Paris is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com .

Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

CONTACT:

Danielle Peyton

Pomerantz LLP

dpeyton@pomlaw.com

646-581-9980 ext. 7980
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A securities class action lawsuit has been filed against Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) on behalf of investors who bought shares between January 23, 2024, and July 21, 2025. The lawsuit, Khan v. Lockheed Martin Corporation, alleges the company gave investors a misleading picture of its financial health by failing to disclose that it had inadequate internal controls to assess program risks.

Hagens Berman encourages Lockheed Martin investors with substantial losses to contact the firm now.

Class Period: Jan. 23, 2024  July 21, 2025

Lead Plaintiff Deadline: Sept. 26, 2025

Visit: www.hbsslaw.com/investor-fraud/lmt

Contact the Firm Now: LMT@hbsslaw.com

844-916-0895

Alleged Pattern of Misrepresentations

The lawsuit claims that throughout the specified period, Lockheed Martin presented a false and misleading view of its operations by overstating its ability to deliver on contracts in its Aeronautics and Rotary and Mission Systems (RMS) segments. The complaint alleges the company lacked effective internal controls and procedures to accurately review program requirements and risks. As a result, it was likely to incur significant losses, which were not disclosed to investors.

The Truth Allegedly Emerges Over a Series of Disclosures

Investors began to learn the truth through a series of negative disclosures that led to major stock drops:

On January 28, 2025 , the company reported $1.8 billion in pre-tax losses in its Aeronautics segment.

, the company reported $1.8 billion in pre-tax losses in its Aeronautics segment. On April 17, 2025 , the company announced its CFO had left.

, the company announced its CFO had left. On July 22, 2025, the company disclosed an additional $950 million in pre-tax losses for its Aeronautics segment and $570 million in pre-tax losses for its RMS segment, stemming from problems with the Canadian Maritime Helicopter Program.



Each of these revelations led to a significant drop in Lockheed Martin's stock price, with shares falling almost 11% on the final disclosure.

Hagens Bermans Investigation

A national plaintiffs rights law firm, Hagens Berman, is investigating these claims on behalf of investors who suffered substantial losses. The firm is examining whether the massive, successive losses were a foreseeable consequence of poor internal controls and a failure to accurately communicate the company's risks to investors.

The scale of these losses and their recurrence across different programs suggests a systemic issue, not a series of isolated problems, said Reed Kathrein, the Hagens Berman partner leading the investigation. Our focus is on whether executives knew the companys internal controls were not as robust as investors were led to believe and whether management was transparent about the risks that ultimately led to billions in write-downs.

If you invested in Lockheed Martin and have substantial losses, or have knowledge that may assist the firms investigation, submit your losses now 

If youd like more information and answers to frequently asked questions about the Lockheed Martin case and our investigation, read more 

Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding Lockheed Martin should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 844-916-0895 or email LMT@hbsslaw.com.

About Hagens Berman

Hagens Berman is a global plaintiffs rights complex litigation firm focusing on corporate accountability. The firm is home to a robust practice and represents investors as well as whistleblowers, workers, consumers and others in cases achieving real results for those harmed by corporate negligence and other wrongdoings. Hagens Bermans team has secured more than $2.9 billion in this area of law. More about the firm and its successes can be found at hbsslaw.com. Follow the firm for updates and news at @ClassActionLaw.
NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of BellRing Brands, Inc. (BellRing or the Company) (NYSE: BRBR). Such investors are advised to contact Danielle Peyton at newaction@pomlaw.com or 646-581-9980, ext. 7980.

The investigation concerns whether BellRing and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

On May 6, 2025, during its second quarter 2025 earnings call, BellRing revealed that certain customers were now choosing to optimize their inventories by lowering their weeks of supply on hand. As a result, BellRing disclosed that this would slow sales growth in the third quarter to low-single-digits.

On this news, BellRings stock price fell $14.88 per share, or 18.97%, to close at $63.55 on May 6, 2025.

Then, on August 4, 2025, BellRing issued a press release reporting its financial results for the third quarter of 2025. Among other items, BellRing reported a 71.4% drop in unadjusted net earnings to $0.16 per share. The Company also narrowed its 2025 net sales outlook to a range of $2.28 billion to $2.32 billion, down from prior guidance of $2.26 billion to $2.34 billion.

On this news, BellRings stock price fell $17.46 per share, or 32.55%, to close at $36.18 per share on August 5, 2025.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, and Paris is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com .

Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

CONTACT:

Danielle Peyton

Pomerantz LLP

dpeyton@pomlaw.com

646-581-9980 ext. 7980
Brasstown, NC, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The John C. Campbell Folk School will officially launch its yearlong 100th anniversary campaign and celebrations at its beloved Fall Festival, taking place October 4-5, 2025, on the schools Brasstown, N.C., campus. The milestone event will kick off a year of activities honoring a century of creativity, community and the preservation of Appalachian traditions.

Fall Festival, a regional favorite for 49 years, will launch the centennial year, welcoming thousands of visitors to experience live music, craft demonstrations, artisan markets and cultural performances in the larger context of the schools 100th anniversary.

Founded in 1925 by Olive Dame Campbell and Marguerite Butler, and named in honor of Olives late husband, the John C. Campbell Folk School was inspired by the Danish folk school model of lifelong learning and community engagement. Over the past century, it has grown into a world-renowned destination for traditional and contemporary craft, music, dance and storytelling, drawing students from around the globe while remaining deeply rooted in Southern Appalachian culture.

Our 100th anniversary is a milestone for everyone who has been part of the Folk Schools story, including students, instructors, makers, neighbors and visitors, said Bethany Chaney, Executive Director of the John C. Campbell Folk School. By announcing our centennial celebrations at Fall Festival, were honoring our history in the best way possible: surrounded by the community that has always been at the heart of the Folk School.

The John C. Campbell Folk Schools Fall Festival, established in 1974, is held each year on the first full weekend in October. The festival features three outdoor vendor areas  both juried and non-juried  for visitors to experience the Folk Schools stunning 270-acre campus. The 2025 festival will feature 230 craft vendors and 29 food vendors, plus nearly 75 artisans demonstrating traditional and contemporary crafts across multiple locations.

Each year, more than 13,000 visitors travel to the Folk School from across the Southern Appalachian region, including Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to celebrate the spirit of community and creativity. The event will feature two music and dance stages showcasing dozens of local and regional performers. In addition, the Demonstration Stage, along with three other demonstration locations, will highlight traditional skills and craft practices. The Community Room, in the historic Keith House on the Folk School campus, will be open for participatory activities, inviting all festivalgoers to get hands-on with Appalachian traditions.

Fall Festival 2025 Major Sponsors include: Visual Outdoor Advertising; Harrahs Cherokee Casinos; Cherokee County Tourism; Our State Magazine; MOOG Inc.; Erlanger Western Carolina Hospital; United Community Bank; Blue Ridge Mountain EMC; Young Harris College; Blue Ridge Public Radio; and Glen Choga Lodge. Community Sponsors include: Penland School of Craft; Gerards Automotive Shop; Nantahala Bank and Trust; Lance Law Firm; Progress Printing Plus; Hoppy Trout Brewing Company; 828 Design; The Furniture Society; and the Cherokee County Chamber.

More details about anniversary events will be announced in the months ahead. Visitors can explore the full centennial calendar and learn more about the Folk Schools 100-year history at www.folkschool.org/100 .

About the John C. Campbell Folk School

For 100 years, the John C. Campbell Folk School has transformed lives and brought people together in a nurturing environment in Brasstown, N.C. for experiences in learning and community life that spark self-discovery. Our values are joy, kindness, stewardship and non-competitiveness in our vision of community that awakens, enlivens and enlightens the world in accordance with the Danish folk school tradition and Appalachian craft.
TORONTO, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Enwave Energy Corporation (Enwave) celebrated the groundbreaking of a new waste processing facility in Prince Edward Island today at PEI Energy Systems in Charlottetown. Anticipated to be fully operational in 2028, the new, state-of-the-art facility will replace the existing end-of-life system and provide energy to its customers through the interconnected district energy network. Enwave has worked closely with the Province of Prince Edward Island to identify and develop this sustainable alternative to landfill, while securing a reliable energy supply for the Island.

As critical infrastructure for both heating and waste management, it is anticipated that the facility will be capable of processing nearly 90% of the provinces current total black cart residential waste, significantly diverting waste from landfill. The new facility is expected to divert up to 49,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste from landfills annually for production of heating and the associated anticipated diverted landfill methane emissions, avoided furnace fuel oil use, and alternative heat sources for the district heating customers are expected to amount to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) savings of up to 908,000 tonnes of CO2e by 2052, equivalent to taking approximately 278,000 gas powered cars off the road.

The new facility allows Enwave to almost double its existing waste processing capacity with improved efficiency, while also reducing the use of fuel oil for heating - all while continuing to provide reliable thermal energy to more than 145 connected buildings in Charlottetown, the Provinces capital city.





Left-right: Hon. Steven Myers (Minister of Housing, Land and Communities for the Province of Prince Edward Island), Hon. Ernie Hudson (Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure for the Province of Prince Edward Island), Ehren Cory (CEO, Canada Infrastructure Bank), Carlyle Coutinho (CEO, Enwave Energy Corporation), Hon. Gilles Arsenault (Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Action for the Province of Prince Edward Island), and Philip Brown (Charlottetown Mayor).

Enwaves new facility in Prince Edward Island directly supports the growing need globally for waste solutions, with global waste forecasted to increase 70% by 2050 according to World Bank Group. World Bank Group also reports that as global players look to invest in technologies to improve waste treatment efficiency and cost reduction, North America is positioned to share 20% of the energy-from-waste market globally.

The expansion of our facility in Prince Edward Island is a testament to the partnership established between Enwave and the Provincial government, says Carlyle Coutinho, CEO of Enwave Energy Corporation. The expansion of the facility in PEI demonstrates our unwavering commitment to providing long-term, sustainable solutions in collaboration with the Province, uniquely positioning Enwave to develop future growth opportunities to meet rising waste challenges across the country.

As cities across the globe are managing the many challenges associated with trash, waste, and higher energy costs, Enwave has proven itself as a leader in improving both the environment and the economy, said Rob Thornton, President and CEO of the International District Energy Association. Enwaves new district heating facility in Prince Edward Island is solving two problems that our planet is facing at once: creating less landfill waste and providing affordable heat for communities.

Enwaves expansion of the waste processing facility in Prince Edward Island offers a localized approach to decarbonization. The facility leverages a unique combination of the energy-from-waste plant and an attached wood biomass plant to provide energy to connected customers, an approach that has not yet been taken by any other energy-from-waste facilities in North America, with most incorporating either turbines or small hot water heating systems.

PEI needs a diverse, reliable and forward-looking energy supply, and this expansion is a good step in the right direction, says PEI Environment, Energy and Climate Action Minister Gilles Arsenault. Waste to energy technology helps us minimize energy costs for key provincial buildings, while extending the life of our existing landfill.

Energy-from-waste processes convert non-recyclable waste into energy, decreasing landfill volume and offsetting traditional fossil fuel use for energy generation, making it a valuable resource recovery method for materials that cannot be reduced, reused, or recycled. Leveraging Enwaves experience in the sector, a similar approach of harnessing energy-from-waste can be scaled up or down as needed to create similar waste diversion opportunities across other regions in Canada and beyond. In Ontario, for example, this scalability could be leveraged to meet waste solution needs, as the province is projected to run out of landfill capacity within nine years, according to a 2023 report by the Association of Municipalities Ontario.

There is a tremendous opportunity across Canada to expand our countrys energy from waste capabilities  to free up space otherwise needed for landfills to create new housing and jobs and to generate reliable, cost-effective, low-carbon, locally-sourced heat and power. On behalf of Waste to Resource Ontario and all of our members I congratulate Enwave, the Province of PEI, the Canada Infrastructure Bank and all the project partners for breaking ground on this new energy from waste (EfW) district heating facility and for their leadership in recognizing the potential of EfW to power Canadas prosperity, says Ashley De Souza, CEO, Waste to Resource, Ontario.

In 2021, the CIB partnered with Enwave through a $600 million loan towards clean energy projects. Im proud to see another project go from blueprints and into construction, says Ehren Cory, CEO, Canada Infrastructure Bank. The energy facility in Charlottetown will deliver reliable, renewable heat to more than 145 buildings. Our collaboration with Enwave enables communities to address local energy needs using established technology and supports planning for future sustainable development.

Enwave has developed a fully integrated process-load management system, actively controlling and balancing demand by adjusting consumption as needed to avoid overloads, increase efficiency and reduce costs. Enwave has worked closely with partners for more than 40 years to provide waste management solutions to the province. This new facility is being built in partnership with key strategic partners, including Maple Reinders Constructors Ltd., Marco Group, WSP, Ramboll Group A/S, Coles Associates Ltd., Stantec, Martin GmbH, ANDRITZ TEP, LAB SA and Kone Cranes Canada Inc.

About Enwave

Enwave is one of the largest commercial owners and operators of community-based district energy systems in North America. It focuses on developing reliable, commercial and sustainable energy solutions at scale, tailored to the unique needs of municipalities, commercial developments, universities, hospitals, data centres and residential communities. Enwave provides thermal energy services to over 100 million square feet of mixed-use space across Canada using a variety of technologies including Deep Lake Water Cooling, thermal storage, geoexchange, biomass and energy-from-waste. Enwave was acquired by Ontario Teachers Pension Plan & IFM Investors in 2021.

https://www.enwave.com

For more information, interview requests or high-res images please contact:

Katie Good, GoodPR

katie@goodpr.ca

(416) 540-2195

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/4ffaaa76-04e8-475a-89d3-bf30bf81555d




FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TopDawg , the largest U.S. exclusive dropshipping platform, was recognized among the top 10 U.S. dropshipping suppliers by International Business Times in September 2025. Listed ahead of globally leading dropshipping giants such as Spocket and Doba, TopDawg was recognized for its extensive American supplier base, large number of U.S.-sourced products, as well as ease of use and delivery speed for domestic customers.

The listing was announced after a series of regulatory changes regarding tariffs and foreign imports by President Donald Trump since the start of his second term in early 2025. For dropshipping retailers, two specific changes stand out.

First, tariffs on Chinese imports, the worldwide hub of dropshipping, have ranged anywhere from 10 to 145 percent over the past nine months. This substantial range stems from an ongoing trade war between China and the US and is expected to remain highly volatile in the following months.

Additionally, the long-standing de minimis rule, which exempted imports valued less than $800 from regular customs procedures, was abolished for all imports in August 2025. This change is not only expected to drive up importing costs significantly, but even led to global logistics behemoths such as DHL, as well as a myriad of postal services around the globe, from the Netherlands to Australia and Japan.

In its new list, the renowned business media refers to these stark changes and focuses on dropshipping suppliers offering workable solutions  some even thriving amid the disruption. TopDawg was selected top of the list thanks to its complete independence from tariffs and import regulations. IBT further highlights TopDawgs extensive domestic supplier network, catering to more than 20,000 retailers with 500,000+ products from thousands of different suppliers.

Last but not least, TopDawg seamlessly integrates with the most popular e-commerce platforms, such as Shopify, Amazon, Walmart, and eBay, while also offering diverse automation solutions to streamline real-time inventory syncing, order routing, and product selection.

Were proud to be recognized among the top U.S. dropshipping suppliers, especially at a time when the industry is facing such major changes, said Darren DeFeo, CEO of TopDawg. Our mission has always been to provide retailers with reliable, U.S.-based suppliers and fast shipping solutions so they can focus on growing their business without worrying about tariffs, import regulations, or supply chain disruptions.

About TopDawg

TopDawg is a U.S.-based B2B wholesale dropshipping platform connecting retailers to over 500,000 products from thousands of American suppliers. By eliminating the risks associated with overseas imports, TopDawg enables retailers to deliver faster and more reliable service to their customers. Membership plans start at $34.99 per month, with Scale and Premier options offering advanced automation tools, bulk CSV downloads, and API access. Retailers can also explore the platform risk-free with a 7-day trial of the Business Plan. As of 2025, TopDawg has been recognized by both Forbes and International Business Times as a leader in U.S.-based dropshipping.

Contact:

Darren DeFeo

press@topdawg.com

Disclaimer: This content is provided by the TopDawg. The statements, views, and opinions expressed in this press release are solely those of the content provider and do not necessarily reflect the views of this media platform or its publisher. We do not endorse, verify, or guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information presented. This release is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, or business advice. All business and investment activities involve risks, including the potential loss of capital. Readers are strongly encouraged to perform their own due diligence and consult with a qualified advisor before making any financial decisions. Neither this platform nor the publisher shall be held responsible for any inaccuracies, misrepresentations, or losses resulting from the use of or reliance on the information contained herein. Globenewswire does not endorse any content on this page.

Legal Disclaimer: This article is provided on an "as-is" basis without warranties of any kind, express or implied. The media platform assumes no responsibility or liability for the accuracy, legality, completeness, or reliability of the information contained in this content. Any concerns, copyright issues, or legal claims should be directed to the content provider listed in the Contact section above.

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ATHENS, Greece, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Ship Lease, Inc. (NYSE:GSL) (the Company), a containership owner and lessor, announced today that the Companys Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.546875 per depositary share, each representing a 1/100th interest in a share of its 8.75% Series B Cumulative Redeemable Perpetual Preferred Shares (the Series B Preferred Shares) (NYSE:GSLPrB). The dividend represents payment for the period from July 1, 2025 to September 30, 2025 and will be paid on October 1, 2025 to all Series B Preferred Shareholders of record as of September 24, 2025.

About Global Ship Lease

Global Ship Lease is a leading independent owner of containerships with a diversified fleet of mid-sized and smaller containerships. Incorporated in the Marshall Islands, Global Ship Lease commenced operations in December 2007 with a business of owning and chartering out containerships under fixed-rate charters to top tier container liner companies. It was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in August 2008.

Our fleet of 69 vessels as of June 30, 2025 had an average age weighted by TEU capacity of 17.7 years. 39 ships are wide-beam Post-Panamax.

As of June 30, 2025, the average remaining term of the Companys charters, to the mid-point of redelivery, including options under the Companys control and other than if a redelivery notice has been received, was 2.1 years on a TEU-weighted basis. Contracted revenue on the same basis was $1.73 billion. Contracted revenue was $2.23 billion, including options under charterers control and with latest redelivery date, representing a weighted average remaining term of 2.8 years.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements provide the Companys current expectations or forecasts of future events. Forward-looking statements include statements about the Companys expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, intentions, assumptions and other statements that are not historical facts. Words or phrases such as anticipate, believe, continue, estimate, expect, intend, may, ongoing, plan, potential, predict, project, will or similar words or phrases, or the negatives of those words or phrases, may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not necessarily mean that a statement is not forward-looking. These forward-looking statements are based on assumptions that may be incorrect, and the Company cannot assure you that the events or expectations included in these forward-looking statements will come to pass. Actual results could differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including the factors described in Risk Factors in the Companys Annual Report on Form 20-F and the factors and risks the Company describes in subsequent reports filed from time to time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Accordingly, you should not unduly rely on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise any forward-looking statement to reflect circumstances or events after the date of this press release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Investor and Media Contact:

IGB Group

Bryan Degnan

646-673-9701

or

Leon Berman

212-477-8438
BOWLING GREEN, Ky., Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Holley Performance Brands (NYSE: HLLY) (the Company) today announced the pricing of the previously announced secondary offering (the Offering) of 14,000,000 shares of its common stock, par value $0.0001 per share (the Common Stock) by a selling stockholder controlled by Sentinel Capital Partners (the Selling Stockholder) at a price to the public of $2.75 per share. The Selling Stockholder has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 2,100,000 additional shares of Common Stock. The Selling Stockholder will receive all of the net proceeds from the Offering. No shares are being sold by the Company. The Offering is expected to close on September 12, 2025, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.





Holley Performance Brands brings performance, safety, fun and excitement to automotive enthusiasts around the globe.

J.P. Morgan and Jefferies are acting as the lead book-running managers and representatives of the underwriters for the offering. William Blair and Canaccord Genuity are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering.

A registration statement (including a prospectus) relating to the offering of these securities has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) and is effective. Before you invest, you should read the prospectus in that registration statement, the accompanying prospectus supplement and other documents the Company has filed with the SEC for more complete information about the Company and this offering. You may get these documents for free by visiting EDGAR on the SEC website at www.sec.gov. Alternatively, copies of the prospectus and accompanying prospectus supplement related to this offering, when available, may be obtained from J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717 or by email at prospectus-eq_fi@jpmchase.com and postsalemanualrequests@broadridge.com, or from Jefferies LLC, Attn: Equity Syndicate Prospectus Department, 520 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10022, by telephone at 1-877-821-7388, or by email at prospectus_department@jefferies.com.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, all statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this press release, including among others, statements relating to the Companys current expectations and views with respect to, among other things, the proposed offering. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other important factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to, the risks and uncertainties set forth in the Companys Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024 filed with the SEC and in any subsequent filings with the SEC.

Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law, Holley assumes no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, even if new information becomes available in the future. All forward-looking statements attributable to us are expressly qualified by these cautionary statements.

About Holley Performance Brands

Holley Performance Brands (NYSE: HLLY) leads in the design, manufacturing and marketing of high-performance products for automotive enthusiasts. The company owns and manages a portfolio of iconic brands, catering to a diverse community of enthusiasts passionate about the customization and performance of their vehicles. Holley Performance Brands distinguishes itself through a strategic focus on four consumer vertical groupings, including Domestic Muscle, Modern Truck & Off-Road, Euro & Import, and Safety & Racing, ensuring a wide-ranging impact across the automotive aftermarket industry. Renowned for its innovative approach and strategic acquisitions, Holley Performance Brands is committed to enhancing the enthusiast experience and driving growth through innovation.

Media Relations Contact(s):

Jordan Moore, jmoore@tinymightyco.com / Sydney Goggans, sgoggans@tinymightyco.com

Investor Relations Contacts:

Anthony Rozmus / Neel Sikka / Jenna Kozlowski

Solebury Strategic Communications

203-428-3224

Holley@soleburystrat.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/113e88bb-1d7b-4260-b05f-e0e2c27c9e16
CAMARILLO, Calif., Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Salem Media Group, Inc., (OTCQX: SALM) announces with profound sorrow that it mourns the assassination of Charlie Kirk, who was taken from us today in a vile attack at Utah Valley University. This was a cowardly and vile act of violence, carried out to silence one of Americas boldest Christian conservative voices.

Our hearts are shattered for Charlies wife, family, friends, colleagues, and the countless people whose lives he touched through his words, his work, and his unwavering commitment to faith and country.

Charlie was more than a broadcasterhe was a fearless defender of truth and a faithful servant of God, said Salem CEO David Santrella. This assassination was not just an attack on Charlie, it was an attack on free speech and on the values Charlie championed every day. His absence leaves a tremendous void, but his legacy of faith, courage, and conviction will continue to inspire generations.

I have had the privilege of working with Charlie for nearly a decade, said Bradley Parscale, Chief Strategy Officer of Salem Media. He was part of the Salem family. His voice was fearless, unyielding, and relentless in the defense of faith and freedom. This heinous act of evil was meant to silence him, but as Christians, we know darkness cannot overcome the light. Charlies influence cannot and will not be silenced.

Charlies partnership with Salem Media was defined by his uncompromising defense of biblical values, liberty, and truth. Through his nationally syndicated show and podcast, he reached millions who relied on his voice to cut through lies, honor truth, and give courage to those fighting for faith and freedom.

Salem Media extends its most heartfelt condolences to the Kirk family, Charlies friends, and the millions of Americans and people across the world who are grieving this senseless loss.

In this painful hour, we urge believers everywhere to join us in prayerasking God to comfort Charlies family, strengthen those who grieve, and give us the resolve to continue the mission he so boldly carried.

About Salem Media Group

Salem Media Group is Americas premier multimedia company specializing in Christian and conservative content. Through its national radio network, digital platforms, and publishing brands, Salem reaches millions daily with powerful content that drives the national conversation. Learn more at salemmedia.com.

Company Contact:

Sara Broadwater

Publicity@salemmedia.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6d2fb250-23bd-449d-8c4e-09c1d888ac21
Toronto. Ontario, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- World Association of Chinese Mass Media, Toronto, Ontario  August 29, 2025: The Toronto Agarwood Culture Appreciation and Exchange unfolded as a one-day pilgrimage of incense, tea, craftsmanship, and community spirit. Hosted by the World Association of Chinese Mass Media (WACMM), co-organized by the Canadian Association of Chinese Journalists and Editors, and supported by the Buddhist Prajna Temple of Canada, the event became a living metaphor of unity.

Toronto was enveloped in a fragrance carried across centuries and oceans. At the Buddhist Prajna Temple of Canada, the temple bell tolled as threads of agarwood smoke spiraled skyward like ancient script inscribed upon the heavens. On this day, Buddhists, Taoists, Catholics, and Christians stood shoulder to shoulder  not in the name of doctrine, but in the shared language of fragrance.







Group photo of guests.





Seventeen Messengers of Fragrance

From the agarwood groves of Hainan and the heritage soil of Guangdong Dianbai, seventeen brands presented their offerings:

1. Maison Cliffarome ()  Incense Sticks

2. Fragrance Encounter ()  Incense sticks, Auspicious Cloud Incense, Essential Oil

3. Lingwood Reserve ()  Fragrant Isle Petite Prestige Agarwood Leaf Tea

4. Incensia ()  Aquilaria sinensis Essential Oil (Traditional Distillation)

5. Old Chen Heritage ()  Incense sticks

6. Dragon Aroma Heritage ()  Agarwood Cultural & Creative Gift Series

7. Mont Agarwood ()  Canaan Auspicious Cloud Incense, Qinan Essential Oil (Traditional Distillation), Agarwood Tea

8. Eterna Seasons ()  Agarwood Leaf Tea (White, Black, Oolong, Aged)

9. Shadong Heritage Incense Factory ()  Gift Box: Hainan Agarwood, Red Soil Agarwood, Nha Trang Agarwood, Qinan Agarwood

10. Atelier Zephyr ()  Incense sticks (Aquilaria sinensis, Qinan Auspicious Cloud), Red Soil Agarwood

11. Jing Aroma Hall ()  Incense sticks (including Nha Trang shell blended with Chinese Aquilaria sinensis, Old Qinan material), Nha Trang shell + Aquilaria sinensis, Old Qinan, Auspicious Cloud

12. Agarwood Yunqi ()  Xiangfei No.1 (Auspicious Cloud Incense)

13. Alliance Aroma ()  Qinan Incense Sticks (Prayer Incense), Gift item

14. Zhaolinxin Agarwood ()  Qinan Essential Oil (Traditional Distillation)

15. Spirit Valley ()  Buddha Pendant, Agarwood bracelet; Gift item

16. Arbor Treasures ()  Buddha Pendant; Gift item

17. Realm Qisheng ()  Agarwood Incense Burner (Cylindrical) and Case; Gift item

Each brand was more than commerce; each was an offering, weaving together craft, devotion, and artistry. Representatives of agarwood brand companies from Hainan and Guangdong participating in this tasting also appeared via video to introduce their products, ensuring the voices of origin joined the fragrance in Toronto.

A Ceremony of agarwood

The day began with solemn Buddhist chanting, steady as the sea.

Before the formal tasting of agarwood commenced, the assembly listened in reverence to the chanting of Incense Praise (), performed by the monks of Fo Guang Shan.

The hymn evokes a vision: as incense rises from the censer, its fragrance spreads to the ten directions, permeating all worlds and sanctuaries where Buddhas dwell. The smoke ascends into the sky, forming clouds of auspiciousness. With hearts of sincerity and devotion, practitioners inspire the Buddhas to manifest their full presence. The fragrance becomes a canopy of blessings, an offering and refuge to all Buddhas and bodhisattvas.

Incense Praise is often sung at Dharma assemblies, expressing veneration for the Buddhas and the profundity of their teachings. Incensewhether as burning sticks, floral offerings, or fragrant ointmentsbecomes a medium of devotion, helping to purify attachment and greed within the heart.

Following the chanting, Suxin Pang, Agarwood Cultural Ambassador of Hainan, appeared via video to lead the incense ritual. Lanyue Deng, tea artist and director of the World Foundation of Chinese Mass Media, brewed agarwood tea, its fragrance flowing like poetry through the hall.



Suxin Pang.







Lanyue Deng.





The ceremony was guided by Dr. Shaoren Gou, Secretary-General of WACMM, whose words served as a bridge across cultures and faiths. Qiuyi Wang, reporter of Canada & World Report, served as the simultaneous interpreter, while Kunyu Zhang, reporter of Canada & World Report, hosted the video link, ensuring that voices from across the globe were seamlessly connected.



The agarwood tasting was presided over by Dr. Shaoren Gou, Secretary-General of WACMM.





Certificates and Messages of Blessing

Canadas leaders  federal, provincial, and municipal  offered words and parchment, each blessing a lantern set afloat on the river of fragrance.

- Vincent Neil Ho, Conservative MP for Richmond Hill South, presented a Certificate of Acknowledgement to WACMM, praising agarwoods healing power and calling the associations dedication a source of pride and inspiration to our community and country.



Vincent Neil Ho, MP.









- Premier Doug Ford commended agarwood as a symbol of Ontarios multicultural vitality, calling the gathering a beautiful celebration of community and connection. His message was read by Pincheng Zhao , General Manager of Canada & World Report.



Zhao Pincheng, General Manager of Canada & World Report.









- Dr. Raymond Cho, MPP for Scarborough North, bestowed the Ontario Certificate of Recognition upon WACMM, declaring: Agarwood bears spiritual energy across millennia; in harmony, all beings gather in goodwill.



Ms. Miriam Ku, assistant to Dr. Raymond Cho, MPP, reads the certificate.





- Aris Babikian, MPP for ScarboroughAgincourt, sent greetings, praising agarwood as a treasure revered across faiths and cultures, and expressing hope for deeper connections and lasting harmony. His message was read by Lixia Ma, President of the Canadian Association of Chinese Journalists and Editors.



Lixia Ma, President of the Canadian Association of Chinese Journalists and Editors.









- Mayor Olivia Chow of Toronto extended the citys congratulations, calling agarwood a reminder of origins and cultural depth. Her message was read by Haoyun Zhao, General Manager of Toronto News Net.



Haoyun Zhao, General Manager of Toronto News Net.





Voices of Faith and Culture

From the temple itself, Venerable Master Zhaoxu, Abbot of the Buddhist Prajna Temple of Canada, reflected:

Agarwood is the crystallization of endurance  like the bodhisattvas vow: not for oneself, but for the liberation of all beings.



Master Zhaoxu, Abbot of the Buddhist Prajna Temple of Canada.





Venerable Master Juefan, Abbot of Fo Guang Shan Temple of Toronto, said:

Known as the King of Fragrances, agarwood purifies the heart and stabilizes society. Its subtle aroma inspires clarity, compassion, and peace.



Master Juefan.







From left to right: Master Zhaoxu, Vincent Neil Ho (MP), Master Juefan.





From U.S.A., Kent Wu, Chairman of WACMM, addressed via video, declaring:

This marks our first overseas event since Aprils partnership with the Dianbai Agarwood Association. Agarwood is heritage, spirit, and resilience. Today, its fragrance enters the world stage.

Alongside him, Lianjin Lai , Vice Chairman of WACMM, also delivered a video speech, emphasizing the significance of global media cooperation in spreading agarwood culture.

Keyuan Wang , President of the Dianbai District Agarwood Association, made a video speech, introducing the long history of Dianbais agarwood culture in Guangdong, and warmly welcoming friends from Canada and around the world to visit the World Agarwood Capital, Romantic Dianbai.

Reflections Beyond Borders

Michael Janzen, Chairman of the International Federation of Arts & Artists, recalled meditation at Lake Huron:

Like agarwood formed through storm, our lives find meaning in trial. Its healing spirit deserves to be shared with the world.



Michael Janzen, Chairman of the International Federation of Arts & Artists.





Calligrapher and painter Shi Fu inscribed World of Agarwood () in calligraphy, gifting it to WACMM.



Calligrapher and painter Shi Fu.





Guests in Attendance

The hall was filled with distinguished guests:

- Yue Peng and Liming Dong , Vice-Chairmen of WACMM

- Xujing Zhang , Vice-Chairwoman, World Foundation of Chinese Mass Media

- Congzhang Yu, President of the Atlantic Culture and Arts Exchange Association

- Ya Ren, Executive President of the Atlantic Culture and Arts Exchange Association

- Steven Zhao (Zhao Wendong), Founder & Chairman, International Chinese Kung-Fu Association, Master of martial arts and traditional Chinese medicine

- Chen Tian, President, Canada Hainan Enterprise Association; Vice-President, Hainan Association of Ontario; sponsor of vegetarian meals through Hainan Noodles

- Zhongliang Chen, Vice-President of the Hainan Association of Ontario

- Michelle Liu , Executive Chairwoman of the Chinese Canadian National Federation

- Yanchun Zhang, Co-Chairwoman, Chinese Canadian National Federation

- Yang Rong, Publisher, Chinese Voice Newspaper (Mauritius)

- Shiqing Fan, Editor-in-Chief, Healthy & Life Report

- Jonathan Fon, columnist for Health & Life Report

- Jianyuan Gu , President, Maple Red Media

- Yang Xingming , Editor-in-Chief, Huayi Media

- Danielle Marie Nowak, English Editor of International Arts News

- Ping Jiang and Lei Wang, Photography and Videography Directors, International Arts News



Danielle Marie Nowak.







Yue Peng (Right) and Liming Dong.







Xujing Zhang.







Congzhang Yu (Right).







Steven Zhao.







Chen Tian.







Yang Rong.





Background

Against the backdrop of a new era where Chinese traditional culture converges with global communication, a cross-border agarwood cultural gathering took place on March 31, 2025, in Dianbai District, Maoming, Guangdong. This event was not only a renewed recognition and revival of agarwood culture, but also the birth of a new model of international non-profit collaboration.

As the worlds first global Chinese-language media organization, the World Association of Chinese Mass Media (WACMM) was federally registered in Canada in 1998 and has since grown into a professional news association with 170 member outlets worldwide. At its inaugural assembly in 1999, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien sent a congratulatory letter, marking WACMMs rising influence on the international stage.

The Dianbai event was hosted by the Dianbai District Agarwood Association, bringing together representatives from 31 WACMM member media across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas  41 participants in total. Together, they attended the 44th session of the Agarwood Mountain Lecture Series and conducted field research on Chinas rural revitalization efforts.

Since its establishment in 2013, the Dianbai District Agarwood Association has been committed to preserving agarwood heritage, fostering industry exchange, and safeguarding members rights. By inviting WACMM members to Dianbai, the association showcased the agarwood industry while accelerating cultural dissemination with the support of global media.

Another milestone was the joint proposal by WACMM and the Dianbai District Agarwood Association to create two e-commerce platforms: the Chinese site  (www.agarwoodworld.com) and the English site World Agarwood (www.worldagarwood.com). These platforms aim to integrate global resources and leverage digital technology to connect branding and cultural promotion channels for agarwood.

Both organizations emphasized culture first, quality as the foundation, positioning agarwood as a representative of traditional Chinese medicine in international outreach: Traditional medicine knows no borders, and the healing of humanity knows no borders. With this vision, agarwood is destined to enter homes worldwide, spreading its fragrance across the seas.

The Dianbai Association also plans to collaborate with institutions in countries where WACMM media operate, launching authorized partnerships to bring its members agarwood brands to global markets. This model of non-governmental, non-profit, and multi-partner cooperation stands as an exemplar for cross-border collaboration among global public-interest organizations.



On April 8, 2025, WACMM and the Dianbai District Agarwood Association signed a brand promotion agreement.





Agarwood is both a culture and a force. It carries the spiritual legacy of Chinese scholars of the past, while embodying todays pursuit of health, sustainability, and environmental harmony. In this transnational collaboration, Chinese-language media are not only witnesses but also practitioners of cultural dissemination.

The joint efforts of WACMM and the Dianbai Agarwood Association have set a new paradigm for international collaboration among non-profits. As Chairman Kent Wu stated: News is not only about reporting  it is a bridge. With the pen of the Chinese language, we are ready to write new chapters of understanding and shared prosperity for the world.

The fragrance of agarwood spreads not only through the air but also quietly takes root in hearts. Cultures power lies not only in communication but in resonance across humanity. The global journey of agarwood culture has already begun.

Media contact:

Steven Zhao

Canada & World Report

zhao@canadanewsreport.com
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Q2 Metals Corp. (TSX.V: QTWO | OTCQB: QUEXF | FSE: 458) (Q2 or the Company) announces that, as a result of a technical review by the British Columbia Securities Commission, the following news release is being issued to clarify the technical disclosure pertaining to the Companys news release issued on July 21, 2025 regarding the announcement of an inaugural Exploration Target on the Cisco Lithium Project (the Project or the Cisco Project), located within the greater Nemaska traditional territory of the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region of Quebec, Canada.

We are restating our disclosure regarding the Exploration Target on the Mineralized Zone at the Cisco Project at the request of the BC Securities Commission, said Alicia Milne, President and CEO of Q2. In accordance with NI 43-101, the potential quantity and grade of the Exploration Target are conceptual in nature. There has been insufficient exploration to define a Mineral Resource, as defined by NI 43-101, and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the Exploration Target being delineated as a Mineral Resource.

To clarify, our continued drill campaign is being designed, in light of the Exploration Target, to define and prepare an inferred Mineral Resource estimate at the Cisco Project. The Exploration Target is a conceptual estimate of the potential quantity and grade of the Mineralized Zone at the Cisco Project and has been a valuable corporate milestone and tool for the Q2 team. The Mineralized Zone remains open at depth and along strike and there remains potential for significant expansion. We are excited to continue to advance the Cisco Project, executing on our strategy to create value for our shareholders.

The inaugural Exploration Target was prepared for the Company by BBA Inc., an independent geological and engineering consulting firm (BBA), and is based on the exploration and drilling conducted by the Company at the Cisco Property up to July 18, 2025 (the Exploration Target).

An Exploration Target is used to provide a conceptual estimate of the potential quantity and grade of a mineral deposit, based on known and additional limited geological evidence. It is an early-stage assessment that will help to guide further exploration, but it is not a mineral resource or mineral reserve and should not be treated as such.

The Exploration Target on the Cisco Project estimates a range of potential mineralization and grade from 215 to 329 million tonnes (Mt) at a grade ranging from 1.0 to 1.38 % Li 2 O:

Tonnes Range (Mt) Li 2 O Range (%) Minimum Maximum Minimum Maximum Exploration Target 215 329 1.00 1.38

Table 1: Exploration Target for Cisco Mineralized Zone

The potential quantity and grade of the Exploration Target on the Cisco Project are conceptual in nature. There has been insufficient exploration to estimate and define a Mineral Resource, as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Project (NI 43- 101), and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the target being delineated as a Mineral Resource.

The data used by BBA to prepare the Exploration Target for the Cisco Project encompasses the main mineralized zone (the Mineralized Zone) (see Figure 1), which includes a total of 40 holes drilled for 16,167.8 metres (m)1.



Figure 1. Cisco Project showing pegmatite outcrop zones in the Exploration Target area

The Exploration Target is constrained to the Mineralized Zone and does not include prospective geology and targets that the Company has identified outside of the Mineralized Zone.

The potential quantity and grade of the Exploration Target are conceptual in nature. There has been insufficient exploration to estimate and define a Mineral Resource, as defined by NI 43-101, and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the target being delineated as a Mineral Resource.



Figure 2. Cross section through the Mineralized Zone at Cisco Project



Figure 3. Cisco Project location

Methodology and Determination for the Exploration Target

The Company engaged BBA as an independent consultant to review all exploration and drilling conducted to date at the Cisco Project and to prepare the Exploration Target.

The Exploration Target is based on BBAs interpretation of the following geology and mineralization data that has been compiled to date:

40 diamond core drill holes completed for 16,167.8 m;

7,358 drill hole assay results;

156 surface rock chip samples;

Surface geological mapping and diamond core geological logging;

Detailed LiDAR surface topography; and

The estimate includes geological information for the lower half of drill hole 36, and all of drill holes 38 and 39 (does not include pending assays).

BBA methodology included a complete review of the data and 3D modelling to create a conceptual volume of the pegmatite domains within the Mineralized Zone. The pegmatite domains were interpreted where geological information was available with sufficient quantity and quality. To estimate a tonnage, pegmatite specific gravity (SG) was used for the pegmatite domains and based on 407 measurements. The average SG of each domain was then applied individually. An associated grade was then applied based on the assay results for each individual domain. The implied tonnage and grade of each volume was then reduced by a factor (confidence factor) to account for the likelihood of each domain being mineralized at a reasonable grade. The grade and tonnage were then further adjusted by an additional factor to be reported as ranges. The estimated tonnages are rounded to the nearest million tonnes and the grade rounded to the nearest 0.01% Li 2 O.

The 3D modelling of the pegmatite domains was restricted to the Mineralized Zone. The extent of the interpreted pegmatite domains was limited up to 250 m around the relevant geological information (drill hole, channel). The thickness of the interpreted pegmatite domains is representative of the pegmatite intercepts.

The potential quantity and grade of the Exploration Target are conceptual in nature. There has been insufficient exploration to estimate and define a Mineral Resource, as defined by NI 43-101, and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the target being delineated as a Mineral Resource.

Qualified Person

Mr. Todd McCracken, P.Geo., is a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, and member in good standing with the Ordre des Geologues du Quebec and with the Professional Geoscientists of Ontario. Mr. McCracken has reviewed and approved the technical information in this news release. Mr. McCracken is Director  Mining & Geology  Central Canada, of BBA Inc. and is independent of the Company. Mr. McCracken does not hold any securities in the Company.

Neil McCallum, B.Sc., P.Geol, is a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, and a registered permit holder with the Ordre des Geologues du Quebec and member in good standing with the Professional Geoscientists of Ontario. Mr. McCallum has reviewed and approved the technical information in this news release. Mr. McCallum is a director and the Vice President Exploration for Q2.

ABOUT Q2 METALS CORP.

Q2 Metals is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on the Cisco Lithium Project located within the greater Nemaska traditional territory of the Eeyou Istchee, James Bay, Quebec, Canada.

The Cisco Project is comprised of 801 claims, totaling 41,253 hectares, with the main mineralized zone just 6.5 km from the Billy Diamond Highway, which transects the Project. The Town of Matagami, rail head of the Canadian National Railway, is approximately 150 km to the south.

The Cisco Project has district-scale potential with an initial Exploration Target estimating a range of potential lithium mineralization of 215 to 329 million tonnes at a grade ranging from 1.0 to 1.38% Li 2 O, based only on the first 40 holes drilled. It is noted that the potential quantity and grade of the Exploration Target are conceptual in nature. There has been insufficient exploration to estimate and define a Mineral Resource, as defined by NI 43-101, and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the target being delineated as a Mineral Resource.

Drill testing continues with mineralization open at depth and along strike with potential for expansion at the Cisco Mineralized Zone. The 2025 Exploration Program is ongoing, with rolling assay results anticipated in the coming weeks and months as the Company works towards an initial mineral resource estimate.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Alicia Milne Jason McBride Chris Ackerman President & CEO Investor Relations Manager Corporate Development Alicia@Q2metals.com Jason@Q2metals.com Chris@Q2metals.com



Telephone: 1 (800) 482-7560

E-mail: info@Q2metals.com

WWW.Q2Metals.com

Follow the Company: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram

Sampling, Analytical Methods and QA/QC Protocols

All drilling is conducted using a diamond drill rig with NQ sized core and all drill core samples are shipped to SGS Canadas preparation facility in Val DOr, Quebec, for standard sample preparation (code PRP92) which includes drying at 105C, crushing to 90% passing 2 mm, riffle split 500 g, and pulverize 85% passing 75 microns. The pulps are then shipped by air to SGS Canadas laboratory in Burnaby, BC, where the samples are homogenized and subsequently analyzed for multi-element (including Li and Ta) using sodium peroxide fusion with ICP-AES/MS finish (code GE_ICM91A50). The reported Li grade will be multiplied by the standard conversion factor of 2.153 which results in an equivalent Li 2 O grade. Drill core was saw-cut with half-core sent for geochemical analysis and half-core remaining in the box for reference. The same side of the core was sampled to maintain representativeness.

A Quality Assurance / Quality Control (QA/QC) protocol following industry best practices has been incorporated into the sampling program. Measures include the systematic insertion of quartz blanks and certified reference materials (CRMs) into sample batches at a rate of approximately 5% each. Additionally, analysis of pulp-split and reject-split duplicates was completed to assess analytical precision. The QP has verified the QA/QC results of the analytical work.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, forward-looking statements) within the meaning of applicable Canadian legislation. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: believes, expects, anticipates, intends, estimates, plans, may, should, would, will, potential, scheduled or variations of such words and phrases and similar expressions, which, by their nature, refer to future events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. Accordingly, all statements in this news release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations and orientations regarding the future including, without limitation, any statements or plans regard the geological prospects of the Companys properties and the future exploration endeavors of the Company. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on a number of material factors and assumptions.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this news release speak only as of the date of this news release or as of the date specified in such statement. Forward looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the definition of an Exploration Target at the Companys Cisco Project, drilling results on the Cisco Project and inferences made therefrom, the preparation of an exploration target on the Cisco Project, the potential scale of the Cisco Project, the focus of the Companys current and future exploration and drill programs, the scale, scope and location of future exploration and drilling activities, the Company's expectations in connection with the projects and exploration programs being met, the Companys objectives, goals or future plans, statements, exploration results, potential mineralization, the estimation of mineral resources, exploration and mine development plans, timing of the commencement of operations and estimates of market conditions. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include failure to obtain necessary approvals, variations in ore grade or recovery rates, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, unsuccessful exploration results, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, results of future resource estimates, future metal prices, availability of capital and financing on acceptable terms, reallocation of proposed use of funds, general economic, market or business conditions, risks associated with regulatory changes, defects in title, availability of personnel, materials and equipment on a timely basis, accidents or equipment breakdowns, uninsured risks, delays in receiving government approvals, unanticipated environmental impacts on operations and costs to remedy same. Readers are cautioned that mineral exploration and development of mines is an inherently risky business and accordingly, the actual events may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Additional risk factors are discussed in the section entitled Risk Factors in the Companys Management Discussion and Analysis for its recently completed fiscal period, which is available under Companys SEDAR profile at www.sedarplus.com.

Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Although the Company has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be others that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update this forward-looking information except as otherwise required by applicable law.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

1 Summary of Drill and Assay data.

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e31b19ce-ac6b-4cd6-9050-9aa5c5b8210d

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/733f5bb2-f3e1-47f0-babf-8cd2292f0c26

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/121a3367-b67f-42d8-9e7a-59895010a974
Vancouver, September 10, 2025 - Adelayde Exploration Inc. (CSE: ADDY) (OTCID: SPMTF) (WKN: A41AGV) (the "Company" or "Adelayde") wishes to announce a private placement to fund its planned gold drill program in Esmeralda County, Nevada.

James Nelson, President of Adelayde, stated, "With gold prices trading at record highs and with under 29 million shares currently outstanding, there has never been a better time for a drill program on our gold project in Esmeralda County, Nevada. Nevada is one of the premier addresses for silver and gold mining in the world. This financing will strengthen our working capital, allowing us to be more agile in the future when allocating resources for projects and a robust marketing effort. Given our current market capitalization of less than $2 million, any success in the ground could have an outsized impact on Adelayde's valuation."

The Company announces a private placement financing (the "Financing") to raise gross proceeds up to one million dollars through an issuance of up to twenty million units (each, a "Unit") at a price of $0.05 per Unit. Each Unit will be comprised of one common share in the capital of the Company (each, a "Share") and one transferrable share purchase warrant (each, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant will entitle the holder thereof to acquire one additional Share (each, a "Warrant Share") at a price of $0.075 per Warrant Share until 5:00 p.m. (Vancouver time) five years from the closing of the Financing. All securities issued in connection with the Financing are subject to a statutory hold period expiring four months and one day after the closing of the Financing. Net proceeds will be used towards the Company's general working capital. Finder's fees may be paid to eligible finders in connection with the Financing.

Any questions regarding this placement, please contact President James Nelson directly at 1-604-646-6903 or info@adelaydeexp.com.

About Adelayde Exploration Inc.

Adelayde's projects include three lithium projects in Clayton Valley, Nevada: the 1,136-acre McGee lithium clay deposit, which has a resource estimate of 1,369,000 indicated tonnes and 723,000 inferred tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) for a total of 2,092,000 tonnes of LCE, directly bordering Pure Energy Minerals and Century Lithium Corp.; the 280-acre Elon lithium brine project, which has access to some of the deepest parts of the only lithium brine basin in production in North America; and the 124-acre Green Clay lithium project. The Company also holds the 248-acre Clayton Ridge gold project in Esmeralda County, Nevada; the 4,722-acre George Lake South antimony project and the 4,890-acre Sisson North tungsten project, both located in New Brunswick.

Adelayde Exploration Inc.

"James Nelson"

James Nelson

President, Chief Executive Officer and Director

The CSE has neither approved nor disapproved of the contents of this press release.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "will", "may", "should", "anticipate", "expects" and similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this news release are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of Adelayde. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and Adelayde disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise such information, except as required by applicable law.

Not for distribution to United States newswire services or for release publication, distribution or dissemination directly, or indirectly, in whole or in part, in or into the United States. None of the securities sold in connection with the private placement will be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and no such securities may be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/265819
Silver Grail Resources Ltd. ("Silver Grail" or "the Company") ("SVG"-TSX-V) is pleased to provide an update on its 2025 inaugural drill program on the Company's Ram Property (Figure 1), located 7 kilometres ("km") west of the Red Mountain deposit, in the heart of British Columbia's Golden Triangle. The Ram Property is jointly owned with Teuton Resources Corp.

Highlights of the 2025 Ram Property drill program include:

To date, 1,717 metres (") drilled in six completed diamond drill holes (Figure 1). Following a short break, drilling has resumed with a seventh hole that has a planned depth of 400m.

Two targets have been drill tested. Both are broadly outlined by previously unexplained magnetic highs which are now explained and are associated with significant mineralization. Target 1 - Western magnetic anomaly (Holes 3-6 incl.; Figure 1) -- comprises a 1,000 by 800m magnetic high situated 7 km southwest of the Red Mountain gold-silver deposit. Three drill holes tested the target and intersected broad domains of hornfels, narrow porphyry dykes, and high proportions of disseminated, stringer, and vein-related magnetic pyrrhotite-pyrite-chalcopyrite mineralization, sometimes with trace arsenopyrite. Target 2 - Eastern, linear magnetic anomaly (Holes 1-2; 7; Figure 1) -- comprises a 1 km long by 150m wide north-south oriented magnetic high located east of Target 1. Drilling and surface mapping define the magnetic high as a multi-phase porphyritic intrusion with local moderate to strong potassium-feldspar-biotite-magnetite alteration overprinted by moderate to strong chlorite-calcite alteration and intervals with quartz-calcite-pyrite-chalcopyrite stockwork veining and blebby disseminated chalcopyrite.



Dino Cremonese, P. Eng., CEO of Silver Grail: "We are encouraged that inaugural drilling on the Ram property has yielded significant visual results from both of the chosen targets. The first three holes in Target 1 showed a surprising increase in sulfide concentrations at depth, particularly with pyrrhotite, as they approached the center of the western magnetic anomaly. Given the high proportion of pyrrhotite identified at Target 1, and the association between pyrrhotite and precious metal at the nearby Red Mountain gold deposit (Ascot Resources, 7 km northeast), and Surebet (Goliath Resources, 30 km south), we have reason to hope for associated precious metal endowment on the Ram."

Target 1 Western Magnetic Anomaly - Visual Results

Drill holes RAM25-03 - RAM25-06 were collared from a single drill pad, located between two magnetic highs (Targets 1 and 2), in an area that yielded significant gold from surface grab samples (trace to 7.01 grams per tonne ("g/t") gold ("Au"), and 0.12 to 58.63 g/t silver ("Ag") in 25 samples, see Silver Grail News Release dated August 26, 2025), as well as copper ("Cu") and molybdenum.

Drillholes RAM25-03, RAM25-04, and RAM25-05 extended beyond the zone of surface sampling, beneath inaccessible ground to the west, into a strong approximately 1,000 by 800m magnetic high (Target 1; Figure 1). At the top of hole RAM25-03 veining consistent with gold bearing veins at surface was intersected. Beginning at 140m depth, where the hole approaches the magnetic high, silicified hornfels transitions from non-magnetic with disseminated pyrite to moderately to strongly magnetic with high proportions of disseminated, stringer, and vein-related magnetic pyrrhotite  pyrite. Veining ranges in density but through the pyrrhotite bearing section (140m - end of hole at 335m) there are typically 1-3 calcite-pyrrhotite  quartz  pyrite  chalcopyrite  arsenopyrite veins per metre that range from 3 mm to > 50 cm, as well as locally dense narrow pyrrhotite stringers (Figure 2). There are also breccias with abundant sulfides in the matrix (Figure 2), and suspected strongly altered porphyry dykes with 2-5% blebby pyrrhotite. Similar pyrrhotite bearing mineralization has also been identified in drill holes RAM25-04 and RAM25-05.

A first batch of samples from Hole 3 has been sent to MSA Laboratory in Langley, BC.

Target 2 Eastern Magnetic Anomaly - Visual Results

Drill holes RAM25-01 and RAM25-02, and RAM25-07 which is currently being drilled, test an approximately 1 km long 150m wide magnetic high that is associated with a multi-phase porphyry intrusion that contains both primary and secondary magnetite (Figure 1). Prospecting and sampling in 2024 and in the current year have identified widespread Cu  Au mineralization through the intrusion and along it's contact zone, as highlighted by the Malachite Zone, which was discovered in 2024 (trace to 5.78% Cu, and trace to 2.33 g/t Au in 35 samples; see Silver Grail News Release dated August 26, 2025).

Drill holes RAM25-01 and RAM25-02 collared from the same pad along the northern portion of the magnetic high and drilled beneath the anomaly in the vicinity of the Malachite Zone. Both holes intersected porphyry intrusions with local moderate to strong K-feldspar-biotite-magnetite alteration (Figure 3) overprinted by moderate to strong chlorite-calcite alteration, and intervals with associated quartz-calcite-pyrite-chalcopyrite stockwork veining (Figure 3) and blebby disseminated chalcopyrite.

Based on these visual drill results, as well as observations from surface exposures, the intrusion is interpreted to be the driver of a porphyry-copper-gold mineralization system that has potential to extend along the full length of the intrusion. Drill hole RAM25-07 has been collared approximately 620m to the south of holes RAM25-01 and RAM25-02 and comprises a broad step-out along the porphyry intrusion. It will test beneath an area where malachite and chalcopyrite are present at surface within quartz-calcite altered porphyritic intrusive rock.

URLs for Maps and Photos:

Fig. 1 - Plan Map - 2025 Drilling Ram Property: https://teuton.com/PlanMap-RamDrilling2025

Fig. 2 - Photos Western Anomaly Core Intersections: https://teuton.com/WesternAnomalyCorePhotos

Fig. 3 - Photos Eastern Anomaly Core Intersections: https://teuton.com/EasternAnomalyCorePhotos

Qualified Person

D. Cremonese, P. Eng., is the QP for Silver Grail Resources Ltd.; as President and CEO of Silver Grail he is not independent of the Company.

About Silver Grail

Silver Grail Resources Ltd. is a junior exploration company with a large portfolio of properties in the southern portion of the Golden Triangle region of British Columbia. Its legacy properties, some more than thirty years old, form large islands within the vast claim holdings of Goliath Resources in this region.

Silver Grail Website:

The all-new Silver Grail website is about to go live with exclusive drone videos, interactive features, and completely new content. Stay tuned.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF SILVER GRAIL RESOURCES LTD.

"Dino Cremonese"

Dino Cremonese, P. Eng.,

President and Chief Executive Officer

For further information, please visit the Company's website at www.silvergrail.com or contact:

Barry Holmes

Director Corporate Development and Communications

Tel. 778-430-5680

Email: bholmesmba@gmail.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Statements regarding Forward-Looking information

Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or future performance. The use of any of the words "could", "intend", "expect", "believe", "will", "projected", "estimated" and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on the Company's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Actual future results may differ materially.

All statements relating to future plans, objectives or expectations of the Company are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's plans or expectations include risks relating to the actual results of current exploration activities, fluctuating gold prices, possibility of equipment breakdowns and delays, exploration cost overruns, availability of capital and financing, general economic, market or business conditions, regulatory changes, timeliness of government or regulatory approvals and other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators. The Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation.

The Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation.


Highlights:

Site construction activities in Argentina progress with Pond 4 design complete

Authium advances nano-filtration plant construction in workshop in Sydney; general equipment assembly to commence

Testwork confirms excellent impurity separation and successful stress testing of filtration elements

PERTH, September 10, 2025 - Galan Lithium Ltd. (ASX:GLN) (Galan or the Company) is pleased to provide an update on the progress of Phase 1 construction at its Hombre Muerto West (HMW) lithium brine project, located in the Catamarca region of Argentina.

Site Critical Path Works Progressing Well

Recent activity at the HMW site has focused on the detailed design of Pond 4, procurement of pond liners, and ongoing electrical system design - all critical path items for the project. Pond 4 has been redesigned to support a 4,000 tpa lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) operation (1), optimising residence time for processed brine and accelerating delivery of final lithium chloride concentrate.

Figure 1. HMW Phase 1 evaporation ponds

Figure 2. Juan Pablo Vargas de la Vega providing a toolbox briefing at HMW

Construction of Nano-filtration Plant

Construction of the nano-filtration plant by Authium Limited (Authium), has also progressed significantly. Key milestones include completion of engineering design, placement of major equipment orders, and completion of structural steelwork.

Figure 3. Structural steelwork for nano-filtration skids

Figure 4. Render of nano-filtration plant

Authium has conducted extensive testwork on raw brine samples from HMW under varying temperatures and pressures. The nano-filtration units demonstrated excellent impurity rejection, successfully removing 99% of sulphates from the raw brine. Sulphate rejection is critical to enable brine concentration without significant lithium losses. Stress testing of the filtration elements showed no significant scaling or fouling. In the coming weeks, Authium will commence general assembly of valves, pumps, piping, and fixtures, alongside continued development of the plant's control system.

Construction activities are progressing smoothly and are on track for completion in 2025. The nanofiltration plant is expected to be delivered to HMW in December 2025, with commissioning scheduled for January 2026, ahead of first production of lithium chloride concentrate in H1 of 2026.

(1) Please refer to the announcement dated 3 July 2023 (ASX: Phase 1 of Hombre Muerto West (DFS Delivers Compelling Economic Results for Accelerated Production). The Company confirms that all material assumptions underpinning the production target continue to apply and have not materially changed.

Strong Engagement with Government

Galan's Managing Director, Juan Pablo Vargas de la Vega, along with members of the Company's Legal, Community, and Government Relations team, recently met with Catamarca Governor Raul Jalil, Mining Minister Marcelo Murua and other Government Officials. The progress of the HMW project was discussed as well as the award of the Argentine Government's Regimen de Incentivo para Grandes Inversiones (RIGI), an incentive regime for large-scale investments (please refer https://cdn-api.markitdigital.com/apiman-gateway/ASX/asx-research/1.0/file/2924-02970881-6A1274709&v=c2533a54e2514fb77a8f93f84db686e1125273e9).

Figure 5. Meeting between Galan representatives and Catamarca government officials

Galan's alignment with Catamarca and Argentine laws and goals, respect for local values, and responsible operating practices have fostered strong relationships with authorities. This has led to the award of Phase 1 and Phase 2 construction permits for HMW, as well as the RIGI. Galan is grateful for the continued support from both the Catamarca and Federal Governments and remains committed to operating with integrity and in close collaboration with stakeholders.

The Galan Board has authorised this release.

For further information contact:

COMPANY

Juan Pablo ("JP") Vargas de la Vega

Managing Director

jp@galanlithium.com.au

+ 61 8 9214 2150 MEDIA

Matt Worner

Vector Advisors

mworner@vectoradvisors.au

+61 429 522 924

About Galan

Galan Lithium Limited (ASX:GLN) is an ASX-listed lithium exploration and development business. Galan's flagship assets comprise two world-class lithium brine projects, HMW and Candelas, located on the Hombre Muerto Salar in Argentina, within South America's 'lithium triangle'. Hombre Muerto is proven to host lithium brine deposition of the highest grade and lowest impurity levels within Argentina. It is home to the established El Fenix lithium operation, Sal de Vida (both projects are operated by Rio Tinto) and Sal de Oro (POSCO) lithium projects. Galan also has exploration licences at Greenbushes South in Western Australia, just south of the Tier 1 Greenbushes Lithium Mine.

SOURCE: Galan Lithium Limited

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire
Newey believes new car will be the best says Alonso

Fernando Alonso says the arrival of Adrian Newey at Aston Martin this year gave him new confidence about the team's future.

Fernando Alonso, Italian GP 2025

 Aston Martin Racing

In comments leaked from a sponsor interview with Maaden and distributed by Spanish outlets, two-time champion Alonso described Newey - who is leading Aston's 2026 design - as the best designer in the history of the sport.

Newey makes me feel very safe, said the 44-year-old.

"Probably no one will ever match his numbers. His way of working explains some of the results he's achieved.

He has an incredible way of seeing the car as a single piece that works together, not as individual devices that provide performance, the Spaniard continued. "He's able to anticipate the entire car as if it were a single piece. He seems to have everything under control at all times.

He has a self-confidence I've probably never seen before. He's not worried about other teams, other philosophies, or other designs. He believes his will be the best.

Alonso said Aston Martin's recent struggles were turned around by leadership moves such as Newey's signing. Arrivals like Newey have allowed us to reset our expectations and our motivation, he said.

If you don't see any change when the situation isn't good, then it becomes a problem. Then you lose confidence. But I think what I've found at Aston Martin is a team and a leadership that will never be happy until we win.

Alonso recalled Newey's visit to Monaco earlier this year. He doesn't talk to many people, but at the same time he's always thinking and tinkering with things. The front wing here, the suspension there - I think he's more of an artist than an engineer.

Finally, the 32-time grand prix winner said he and Newey share a similar mindset. When we're motivated, we become obsessed, he smiled.

(GMM)
Renault CEO vows long-term F1 stay on paddock debut

Renault's new chief executive Francois Provost has made his first appearance in the Formula 1 paddock, insisting the French carmaker is committed to the sport.

Pierre Gasly, Italian GP 2025

 Alpine

Provost, who replaced Luca de Meo after he suddenly resigned, attended the Italian GP at Monza amid lingering doubts about Renault's long-term appetite for Formula 1 and swirling rumours of a Briatore-Ecclestone-Horner takeover of Alpine.

I'm very happy to be here, Provost told Canal Plus. "The main objective of my visit is to reiterate that we will stay in Formula 1.

"We will stay in Formula 1 for a long time.

"I think we're entering a new era, one of performance, of course, but above all, stability. Pierre (Gasly)'s commitment is a good example of this, and the arrival of Steve as COO is also a good example.

So, as you can see, we've come a long way.

That reference was to Steve Nielsen, whose first weekend in the Alpine role came at Monza.

Briatore, who oversaw the Nielsen appointment, also recently tried to calm talk of Renault quitting. The new CEO is very enthusiastic about the Formula 1 program, he said, referring to Provost.

Renault wants to stay in Formula 1, he said. For the moment, in the Renault Group, there's no drama, no change. Everybody's happy.

Driver choice remains an open question, however. Gasly has been secured through 2028, but Franco Colapinto's shaky rookie form has fuelled speculation about alternatives. Yuki Tsunoda and Aston Martin reserve Felipe Drugovich have been mentioned, with Auto Hebdo suggesting the latter could be a candidate despite his commitments to Aston Martin's 2026 program.

Next year will be mainly focused on the engine, the battery and energy savings, and that is essentially all the experience I have gained in Hypercar and Formula E as well, Drugovich told the French magazine.

I have already driven on the 2026 tyres, and I will do even more testing.

Colapinto's physical condition was also questioned at Monza, with reports he looked dizzy and unwell after the race.

Meanwhile Frederik Vesti, once linked with Cadillac until Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez were signed, admitted at Monza that talks with other teams continue.

Right now I'm not in a place where I've lost faith and think that Formula 1 is just over. I believe in things more than I ever have, the Mercedes reserve told Ekstra Bladet.

There are three or four other teams. Let's keep it to three realistic teams, with Cadillac being one. But otherwise I'd rather not throw out too many names.

(GMM)
China's new-style tea beverages turn daily drinking into cultural expressions

15:04, September 10, 2025 By Li Xiaoqing, Chen Junyi ( People's Daily

Photo taken on Jan. 31 2024 in Shanghai shows drinks co-branded by bubble tea franchise HEYTEA and a popular TV drama. (Photo/Wang Chu)

In Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong province, a little girl stood on tiptoe, clutching her mother Chen Juan's hand as they waited eagerly outside a tea shop.

"If you buy a drink and pay another 18.8 yuan ($2.64), you can get a blind-box figurine. She's been asking for this for weeks, so I brought her here today," said Chen.

Moments later, a cheerful chime signaled that the tea was ready, along with a cute figurine. The girl jumped with joy. Chen laughed: "Kids these days love new-style tea drinks. With blind boxes and limited editions, there's always something new to keep them hooked."

According to the China Chain Store and Franchise Association (CCFA), "new-style tea" refers to freshly prepared beverages made with raw tea leaves or tea infusions, blended with fresh fruit, vegetable juices, dairy products, or other ingredients, excluding instant powdered drinks.

The market for such beverages has expanded rapidly in recent years. A joint report by the CCFA's new-style tea committee and a research institute under the Chinese on-demand delivery company Meituan estimates that consumption in the sector will surpass 200 billion yuan this year.

"For just an extra yuan with any order, you can get an ice cup. You can even make your drink yourself and share it on social media. That way, customers aren't just drinkers, but also creators and promoters. It's so much fun!" said Peng Cheng, a resident in Changsha, central China's Hunan province, while waiting in line outside a bubble tea shop.

Tea drinks today offer more than refreshment, but a sense of participation and interaction. To meet the growing demand for healthier options, tea brands have diversified their ingredient choices. Curly kale, celery, beetroot, bell peppers now join seabuckthorn, mulberries, blueberries, and traditional herbs like dried tangerine peel and goji berries. These additions cater to health-conscious consumers while enriching flavor variety.

A bubble tea shop in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan province, features interior design inspired by movable type printing. (Photo/Wang Chu)

Culture has also become an integral part of the experience. For example, Shanghai-based brand Auntea Jenny paired its spring teas with world-famous paintings, printing reproductions of oil artworks onto its cups that quickly went viral online. By blending cultural creativity with their products, tea brands are transforming beverages into lively carriers of cultural expressions.

The popularity of new-style tea reflects not only China's evolving consumer trends but also the country's potential to boost agricultural consumption.

At a HEYTEA outlet at the OneLink Walk shopping center in Guangzhou, Yu Xiaokai created a seasonal bestseller, the "Wampee Jasmine King," by blending wampee fruit with matcha and jasmine tea. The drink once sold over 1,200 cups in a single day.

"Back in 2021, we launched our first wampee-based drink. It was an instant hit and opened up an entirely new market for the fruit," said HEYTEA procurement specialist Sun Yawei. "This year, wampee prices rose 60 percent, bringing real income growth to farmers."

For growers like Zhao Dan in Lianhua village, Enping, south China's Guangdong province, the change has been transformative. "In the past, wampee farming was barely profitable due to weak sales. Now, tea companies buy directly, sometimes even before harvest. Prices have risen from 5 yuan per kilogram to as high as 8 yuan, raising income by about 8,000 yuan per mu," Zhao said.

Wampee is not the only beneficiary. Fruits, vegetables, and other agricultural products are also finding new markets through the tea industry. In Jinzao township, Shantou, south China's Guangdong province, mulberries have become a sought-after ingredient, significantly raising their market value.

Last year, beverage brand ChaPanda sourced over 250,000 tons of raw materials directly or indirectly through its supply chain, benefiting more than 100,000 farmers. As new-style tea consumption drives demand for local specialties, it also incentivizes improvements in product quality.

In Tongnan district, southwest China's Chongqing municipality, one of the world's top three lemon-producing regions, an agricultural subsidiary of Chinese beverage company Mixue Bingcheng established a farmer support center that serves 38,000 mu of lemon orchards. "With our training and technical guidance, chemical pesticide use has dropped by 30 percent, water consumption by 90 percent, and pest and disease control rates have reached 95 percent," said center director Dai Long.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Sen. Telo Taitagues bill that would ensure at least $4 million for the Guam Cancer Trust Fund, which supports cancer screening and treatment, received support during a public hearing on Tuesday.

We need consistent funding and legislative support to turn advocacy into action, said former Sen. Louise Borja Muna, who testified in support of Taitagues Bill 1-38.

Guam Cancer Care executive director Terry Cuabos support of the bill came with another request for the Legislature: consider additional actions to regulate and support the health and well-being of the island population.

He especially pointed out the working-class disparity amongst individuals trying to afford treatment, the previous legislatures lack of oversight of the Cancer Trust, and the islands vaping epidemic.

The Healthy Futures Fund has taken a dip over the years, Cuabo told senators. Smokers are not quitting smoking; theyre just transitioning to another delivery system, like vaping. Maybe another thing to look at is taxing vapes, because people are not quitting smoking.

Taitagues Bill 1-38 would ensure that 15% or a minimum of $4 million, whichever amount is higher, will be appropriated to the Guam Cancer Trust Fund for programs supporting cancer screening, treatment, support services, cancer education and outreach programs.

A survivor of cancer herself, Taitague said she introduced the bill because while we cannot stop this disease, we can choose how we respond.

Every year on Guam, hundreds of families will face some kind of cancer diagnosis, Taitague said in her opening statement. These diseases are not discriminative. It could be you; it could be a loved one. There have been more people today who have never smoked or worked in hazardous conditions that develop lung cancer. Cancer touches every village, every faith, every family. It does not discriminate.

First bill waited 9 months for public hearing

Taitagues bill was the very first measure introduced in the 38th Guam Legislature, and thats not lost on Sen. Chris Barnett, who said he stands fully in support of this bill and any effort to increase the funding.

Im very encouraged that this is getting a public hearing nine months into this term, even though it was the first bill introduced, Barnett said.

He added, These people have enough on their plates and are literally fighting for their lives...I dont understand the political games that happened in the last budget bill, but it was unnecessary. Im happy you were able to get the funding that you deserved in the supplemental budget bill, but had this bill been in place in previous legislatures, we wouldnt have had to deal with that.

Cuabo urged senators to support the bill and funding for the Healthy Futures Fund, which funds not only the Guam Cancer Trust Fund but other health-related programs as well.

Cuabo and Borjas support for the bill, they said, is on behalf of every cancer patient, survivor, caregiver who continues to fight this battle every single day.

They said their advocacy is strengthened by the voices of the community who deserve better care, prevention, and hope.

Cancer does not stop for politics

Cancer is not a distant issue, Borja told senators during her testimony. It touches every family on Guam. My family lived this reality when my mother was diagnosed years ago. We did everything humanly possible to fight for her life. That is where my advocacy was born.

The former senator added how her journey within the cancer community revealed the enormous disparity faced when struggling to raise funds for treatment and fight the stigma and fear that come with a diagnosis.

When I served in the Legislature, I fought for the Guam Cancer Trust Fund. I saw how cancer was overlooked in favor of other priorities. Cancer does not wait. It did not pause for COVID, and it does not stop for politics, she said. We didnt give the Cancer Trust Fund what it deserved, [and] this bill restores what should never have been taken away: the resources cancer patients deserve.

Cuabo added that the University of Guams Research Center for Advancing Cancer Studies and Community Outreach, one of the overseeing partners of the Guam Cancer Trust, is working on corrective action plans to monitor funds and appropriations.

Theyre doing a good job of implementing and streamlining their operations and processing reimbursement requests in a timely manner, Cuabo said. We are currently being audited, but we are confident the corrective action plans are in place to ensure the funds are properly monitored and spent. Cancer care is not cheap. Whether it be radiation or oncology, the drugs are expensive, and the point of the Guam Cancer Trust Fund is to alleviate that burden.

There are still disparities, however, and the cancer community is still changing, he said.

We just lost one of the cancer care providers, Dr. Friedmans clinic, and patients are scrambling to go to the other two clinics, which are the FHP Health Center and Guam Regional Medical City, he said.




Haiti - FLASH : PM supports establishment of Gang Repression Force





On Tuesday, September 9, Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime participated via videoconference in a high-level meeting with the United Nations Security Council.



On behalf of the Government and the people of Haiti, the Prime Minister firmly supported the draft resolution aimed at transforming the Multinational Security Support Mission (MMSS) into a Gang Suppression Force (FRG), with a strengthened and operational mandate. https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-45656-haiti-flash-usa-proposes-a-more-aggressive-repression-force-against-gangs-with-more-than-5-000-men.html



This development, eagerly awaited by the Haitian population, represents a decisive step towards supporting State authority, protecting communities, and contributing to national and regional stability.



The Head of Government reiterated that the current situation requires responses tailored to the magnitude of the security challenges. He emphasized that the transformation of the current Kenyan-led mission into a gang repression force will also be a major asset in enabling Haiti to organize democratic elections as soon as possible, thus strengthening governance and institutional legitimacy.



In this spirit, he reaffirms his commitment to international cooperation and solidarity among nations. He expresses his deep appreciation to the Security Council for its attention to the situation in the country and for its continued commitment to stability, peace, and the democratic process in Haiti.



"During my address this morning to the UN Security Council, I reiterated that security remains essential to consolidate institutional foundations, revive the economy, and ensure credible, free, and transparent elections.



I affirmed the Haitian government's resolute support for the transformation of the Multinational Security Support Mission (MMSS) into a strategic force capable of waging an intensive and targeted fight against the armed groups that threaten our country.



This development is essential to restore stability, protect citizens, and offer the Haitian people security, hope, and sustainable development prospects.



Now is the time for immediate action and collective commitment."



Haiti is convinced that the adoption and swift implementation of this draft resolution will reflect the collective will of the international community to support the Haitian people in their legitimate aspirations for security, peace, dignity, and democracy.



As a reminder, on August 28, 2025, the United States and Panama presented to the Security Council a plan to transform the Kenyan mission in Haiti into a "gang suppression force" https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-45656-haiti-flash-usa-proposes-a-more-aggressive-repression-force-against-gangs-with-more-than-5-000-men.html With an expanded mandate and greater autonomy from the PNH, it would have a strength of 5,500 troops. Salaries would be funded by voluntary contributions, while a new UN Support Office would take charge of logistical and operational support.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-45691-haiti-flash-us-diplomatic-offensive-with-china-and-russia-for-haiti.html



HL/ S/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Agriculture : The agricultural sector faces structural and cyclical challenges





The Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Rural Development (MARNDR) joins all agricultural producers and entrepreneurs across the country, as well as all national and international partners, in celebrating World Agriculture Day (September 9), a strategic pillar at the heart of food security, national resilience, and sustainable development. This day invites us to recognize the indispensable role of women and men involved at all levels of agricultural value chains, as well as farmers' associations. Their daily commitment ensures the country's food stability, despite particularly demanding conditions.



Agronomist Vernet Joseph, Minister of Agriculture, expresses his deep gratitude to the technical and financial partners, as well as to national entrepreneurs and startups, who actively contribute to the modernization, innovation, and revitalization of agricultural sectors.



The national and international context highlights major structural and economic challenges. Our country faces profound challenges, such as insecurity, which exposes our producers to a near-constant threat, affecting production in key areas, particularly in the Artibonite, West, and Center departments, weakening the country's entire supply chain. Extreme weather events, particularly prolonged droughts and hurricanes, further weaken rural sectors and communities, while limited access to financing and agricultural insurance instruments hinders investment and innovation.



To address these challenges, the Ministry is implementing an integrated strategy aimed at strengthening climate resilience, diversifying sectors, and modernizing irrigation and mechanization infrastructure.



Bilateral and multilateral partnerships support the development of food security and local capacity building. At the same time, initiatives with national entrepreneurs and startups stimulate innovation, local processing, and market access.



The Ministry is also working to develop financial mechanisms and instruments tailored to the needs of producers and producer associations to sustainably support the sector's productivity and competitiveness.



On the occasion of this global celebration of agriculture, the Ministry reaffirms its commitment to continuing the transformation of Haiti's agricultural sector in a spirit of cooperation, inclusion, and modernization. It is through the joint mobilization of producers, partners, and the private sector that the country will be able to build a resilient, innovative agriculture capable of guaranteeing its food sovereignty.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















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ARM is renewing its range of standard CPU cores for smartphones, tablets and notebooks. While ARM previously provided three different CPU cores in its mobile processors, there are now four with Lumex. They are called C1-Ultra, C1-Premium, C1-Pro and C1-Nano. The names provide information about the performance: The Ultra is at the top of the list and is slightly more powerful than the previous Cortex-X class cores. The new C1-Premium sits between the previous Cortex-X and the Cortex-A700 series. C1-Pro corresponds to the A700 series, while C1-Nano is the counterpart to the previous Cortex-A500 cores. The Lumex clusters support the ARMv9.3-A architecture.

Chip designers should be able to fine-tune their processors to their own requirements with the now four standard cores. Buyers of the standard cores so far include Mediatek, Nvidia, Google and Samsung.

In order to achieve higher performance, ARM is increasing the maximum clock frequencies, relying on larger caches, larger instruction windows and a revised jump prediction, among other things. The C1-Ultra is designed with a modern 3-nanometer manufacturing process for permanent clock frequencies of up to 4.1 GHz  Short-term boost modes go a little further. With the C1-Premium, 3.5 GHz is possible, Pro (2.5 GHz) and Nano (2 GHz) run correspondingly slower. Alternatively, ARM offers design libraries that are trimmed to minimize space requirements at the expense of performance. These variants are ideal for low-cost devices, for example.

The octa-core reference design from ARM consists of two C1-Ultra and six C1-Pro. For mid-range devices, ARM suggests the C1-Premium instead of the Ultra. The C1-Pro can either be the weaker, power-saving part of a fast processor or, in combination with the small C1-Nano, work as the stronger part in an entry-level processor. Like its predecessor, Lumex supports designs with up to 14 CPU cores. Companies such as Mediatek and Nvidia are increasingly moving away from ARM's reference design and combining only the two fastest core classes in their high-end CPUs.

Arm Lumex (Image: Screenshot: heise online)

For the Lumex reference design, ARM calculates performance gains of 25 percent for single-threaded tasks and 45 percent for multithreading, in each case compared to last year's generation, consisting of Cortex-X925, -A725 and -A520. ARM claims to have increased gaming performance by 16 percent. With the same performance, the electrical power consumption is to be reduced by 28 percent.

Still no NPU from ARM

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ARM's design still does not include an independent AI unit (Neural Processing Unit, NPU) for AI calculations. All AI tasks first arrive on the CPU cores and are then passed on to the GPU if necessary. However, chip designers can still attach their own NPU to the ARM cluster. With the new architecture extension SME2 (Scalable Matrix Engine), which is available to all four core types, ARM promises significant increases in AI calculations by the CPU: they should run faster by a factor of 3.7 on average. ARM claims to have reduced the latency of speech recognition with Whisper by a factor of 4.7, while LLM encoding with Gemma 3 now runs at 398 instead of 84 tokens per second. AI sound generation with Stable Audio is now completed in 9.7 instead of 27 seconds, according to the manufacturer.

SME2 is an optional extension of the CPU. ARM recommends installing one or two of these SME2 extensions on a high-end processor.

Arm Mali G1-Ultra (Image: Screenshot: heise online)

For the GPU, ARM is returning to the name Mali from the last used name Immortalis. With one to five GPU cores, it bears the name Mali G1-Pro, six to nine cores are called Mali G1-Premium and everything above Mali G1-Ultra. In addition to the larger number of cores, the G1-Ultra is characterized by a new ray tracing unit (RTUv2) in each core.

In ray tracing benchmarks, the Mali-G1 Ultra achieves results up to twice as high as its predecessor. It also performs AI tasks faster. ARM sees the biggest leap in this area in speech recognition, where the manufacturer claims an increase of 104 percent compared to the Immortalis-G925.

First chip from Mediatek?

The first chips with the new cores are expected before the end of this year. Mediatek has recently been ARM's preferred partner in the high-end segment. The presentation of the new Dimensity 9500, the successor to the Dimensity 9400+, could take place in the coming weeks. New SoCs from the XRing product line are also expected from Xiaomi. New Snapdragons are also on the horizon from Qualcomm, although they will use internally developed processing cores instead of ARM designs, at least in the upper class.

This year's ARM Tech Days focused exclusively on the Lumex platform. Under the name Niva, ARM is working for the first time on a core design explicitly conceived for PCs. The company remained silent on this at the event; ARM intends to announce more about Niva at a later date. The question of whether the C1 cores will also be used in Niva therefore remains unanswered for the time being.

Note: ARM covered the author's travel expenses and accommodation for the event.

(sht)

Don't miss any news  follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn or Mastodon. This article was originally published in German. It was translated with technical assistance and editorially reviewed before publication.
Following a tragic incident in which a teenager took his life, for which the parents now hold ChatGPT partly responsible, OpenAI has taken a stand in a blog post. In it, they announce new safety measures and explain what should not have happened in the first place. However, the company also reveals that, in case of doubt, they are apparently always reading.

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Specifically, it says: When we discover users who intend to harm others, we forward their conversations to specialized pipelines where they are reviewed by a small team trained in our Acceptable Use Policy and authorized to take action, including blocking accounts. If human reviewers determine that a case poses an imminent danger to others, we may refer it to law enforcement.

heise online has asked OpenAI whether this means that all calls will be scannedwhether for a fee with a subscription and the concession that calls will not be used for AI training, for example, or for free. However, the answer is still pending. It is also questionable which law enforcement authorities are involved. Is it the one at the user's headquarters or the one at OpenAI's headquarters? The former would actually only be possible with a location release.

Security measures do not work for long conversations

People who talk about harming themselves in chat remain under the radar. OpenAI writes in the blog post: We currently do not report cases of self-harm to law enforcement to respect people's privacy, as interactions with ChatGPT are particularly private. However, this sentence also suggests that OpenAI is at least aware of this. Normally, ChatGPT is intended to steer conversations in a helpful direction. This means, for example, displaying offers of help.

However, OpenAI itself also explains that the security measures can still be improved. Long conversations, for example, apparently make it easier for ChatGPT to forget what to do. ChatGPT may initially correctly refer to a suicide hotline when someone first expresses suicidal intentions, but after many messages over a long period of time, there could eventually be a response that goes against our safety precautions.

In addition to further improvements to the systems, a parent mode is also planned.

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Note: In Germany, you can find help and support for problems of all kinds, including questions about bullying and suicide, at telefonseelsorge.de and by calling 0800 1110111. The number against grief (children's and youth helpline) is 116 111. In Austria, there are also free help services, including the children's helpline on 0800 567 567 and Rat auf Draht on 147, especially for children. The same telephone number in Switzerland leads to Pro Juventute.

(emw)

Don't miss any news  follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn or Mastodon. This article was originally published in German. It was translated with technical assistance and editorially reviewed before publication.
Poland requested the activation of Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty. The article allows member states to consult when a member believes its territorial integrity or security is under threat. This is the eighth time the article has been invoked since NATO was founded in 1949.

More than 20 unmanned aerial vehicles entered Polish airspace overnight between 9 and 10 September. According to Polish authorities, the drones were launched from the east and crossed the border near Belarus. Polish forces shot down at least four. No fatalities were reported, but debris hit residential buildings in the Lublin region.

Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of Poland, said in a press briefing that the airspace was violated 19 times. He confirmed that some drones crossed from Belarus. "This is the most serious security threat Poland has faced since the Second World War," he said.

The drones triggered a military response involving the Polish Air Force and NATO aircraft. Dutch F-35 fighter jets, Italian AWACS surveillance aircraft, and NATO MRTT refuelling planes participated in the interception effort. German Patriot missile defence systems stationed in Poland were placed on alert. Four airports, including Warsaw Chopin and Lublin, were temporarily closed.

Volodymyr Zelenskyi, President of Ukraine, said the incident showed a new phase in the regional conflict. This was not a mistake. At least eight Shahed drones were directed at Poland, he said.

The Shahed drones are Iranian-designed and known to be used by Russian forces. The Shahed-136 model is 3.5 metres long, has a wingspan of 2.5 metres, and can carry 30 to 50 kilograms of explosives.

According to Karolina Galecka, a spokesperson for Polands interior ministry, debris from seven drones and one missile has been recovered. Investigations into the origin of the missile are ongoing. Damage was reported in Wyryki Wola, where parts of a drone struck a residential building. Local residents said they heard loud engine noise followed by an explosion. No injuries occurred, but several families were evacuated.

Polands military continues to search for wreckage. Emergency services are present in affected areas, and authorities have warned the public to stay away from debris.

Antti Hakkanen, Finlands Minister of Defence, said Finland was monitoring the situation closely. The violation of NATO airspace is a serious matter. The question of intent must be thoroughly investigated, he told STT.

The Polish government held an emergency meeting in Warsaw. Wadysaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, Minister of Defence, said that regional defence forces had been activated to secure debris sites and investigate the incursion.

Polands decision to use weapons in its own airspace marks a shift in its defence posture. This is the first known case during the war in Ukraine in which Polish forces have intercepted drones inside national territory.

The United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden, Finland, and Italy have expressed support for Poland. Alexander Stubb, President of Finland, said on X that the airspace violation was unacceptable. "Poland has our full support," he wrote.

Keir Starmer, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and Emmanuel Macron, President of France, issued statements calling for unity within NATO. In the US, Senators Dick Durbin and Marco Rubio received briefings on the incident.

Russian officials denied involvement. Andrei Ordash, Russias acting envoy in Warsaw, said there was no evidence that the drones were of Russian origin. He claimed the drones entered Poland from Ukraine.

Kremlin spokespersons refused to comment, saying the issue fell under the Ministry of Defence. Russian state media reported on the drone incident but avoided identifying Russia as responsible. Outlets used generic terms such as unmanned aerial objects.

Belarus confirmed that it had shot down several drones in its own airspace. General Pavel Muraveiko said the drones had veered off course due to electronic warfare. Belarus did not specify the origin of the drones but claimed to have informed Poland and Lithuania of their approach.

The European Commission responded to the incident. Ursula von der Leyen, Commission President, condemned the drone incursions. This is a reckless violation of European airspace, she said. She announced EU plans to fund a drone defence barrier along the eastern border.

Von der Leyen called for real-time satellite surveillance and additional sanctions on Russia. She also confirmed plans to redirect frozen Russian central bank assets to support Ukraine.

The NATO Council met on the morning of 10 September to discuss the incident. Mark Rutte, NATO Secretary General, spoke with Polish leaders. No public statement has been released on possible collective action.

Poland has requested that NATO allies increase regional air defence and intelligence cooperation. Defence officials in Warsaw said the events show the need for tighter aerial surveillance and faster military response mechanisms across NATOs eastern flank.

The Polish military said further analysis is required to determine whether the drone incursions were deliberate. They confirmed that electronic warfare systems had complicated the interception process. Surveillance continues in eastern regions of Poland.

HT
The first incident took place on Monday night, when the "Family" boat, flying a Portuguese flag, was reportedly hit by an incendiary device while anchored near the port of Sidi Bou Said. Flames damaged the upper deck of the vessel before crew members extinguished the fire. No injuries were reported.

Two ships belonging to a pro-Palestinian flotilla preparing to sail to Gaza have been damaged in suspected drone attacks while docked in Tunisian waters, according to the organisers of the Global Sumud Flotilla. The incidents occurred on consecutive nights and involved vessels carrying humanitarian aid and international activists, including Greta Thunberg .

The second incident occurred just before midnight on Tuesday, affecting the British-flagged "Alma" ship. A fire broke out on the top deck, also attributed to an airborne incendiary device. The blaze was contained and all passengers and crew were confirmed safe, according to flotilla spokespersons.

Tunisian authorities disputed the claim that drones were used. A national guard representative told AFP there was "no drone" detected in the area during the first incident. Reuters cited local officials suggesting the explosion on the first ship may have been caused by flammable materials ignited internally.

However, video footage shared by the Global Sumud Flotilla and verified by multiple independent sources showed an object falling onto the Family ship from above. David Heathcote, head of intelligence at McKenzie Intelligence Services, told the BBC the angle of impact suggested the device was dropped rather than launched. It could be that a drone was used to manoeuvre over the ship before the package was released, he said.

Footage of the second incident on the Alma also showed what appeared to be an airborne object igniting upon impact with the vessels upper deck. Activists aboard both ships described hearing warning shouts and running for cover before the fires broke out.

The device that set the Alma boat on fire. Photo: @globalsumudflotilla on Instagram

Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, confirmed she was present at the scene and said that preliminary assessments suggested the use of an incendiary grenade wrapped in plastic and fuel-soaked materials. Albanese called the incident a possible assault on Tunisian sovereignty.

The flotilla, which departed from Barcelona on 1 September, arrived in Tunisia on Sunday. It is now docked off Sidi Bou Said, with remaining vessels preparing to depart for Gaza on Wednesday afternoon. The stated objective of the mission is to challenge the Israeli naval blockade and deliver humanitarian aid.

The attacks have drawn renewed attention to the dangers faced by Gaza-bound flotillas. In May, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition reported that its ship, The Conscience, was struck by two drones near Malta. The most deadly incident occurred in 2010 when Israeli forces raided the Mavi Marmara in international waters, killing 10 activists.

Saif Abukeshek, a member of the flotilla's steering committee, said the group remains committed to its mission. This genocidal government has been bombing Palestinians for 78 years. If Palestinians are still able to wake up each day looking for a better future, how can we give up? he said in an interview.

Israel has repeatedly dismissed such flotillas as political theatre. In June, Israeli forces intercepted a separate aid ship attempting to reach Gaza. All 12 activists onboard, including Greta Thunberg, were detained and deported after being brought to Ashdod.

Organisers say the Global Sumud Flotilla has assembled dozens of vessels for this mission. The coalition includes participants from across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Large solidarity demonstrations have taken place in Italy, with thousands marching in support in Rome and Turin.

Despite the recent incidents, the flotilla remains scheduled to depart from Tunisia at 16:00 local time. A live tracker shows the ships anchored and preparing to set sail.

No state has claimed responsibility for the drone strikes. Tunisian President Kais Saied has not commented, but observers note that the attacks, if confirmed to have originated from foreign actors operating in Tunisian territory, pose a direct challenge to national sovereignty and security.

The UN has previously criticised Israel for restricting humanitarian access to Gaza. In August, a UN-backed report declared that famine conditions were present in the enclave. Israel rejected the findings and accused the UN of bias.

Israel imposed a full blockade on Gaza for nearly three months beginning in March, only allowing limited aid deliveries after international pressure. The military campaign followed the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage. Since then, over 64,000 people have died in Gaza, according to figures from the Hamas-run health ministry.

As the Global Sumud Flotilla continues its journey, the risk of further disruption remains high. Organisers have urged international observers and human rights organisations to monitor developments closely.

HT
The GGI is the fourth global proposal introduced by Xi, following the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative.

Xi Jinping announced the Global Governance Initiative (GGI) on 1 September at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Tianjin. The initiative is designed to strengthen the international system by promoting fairness, equality, and cooperation among states.

It sets out to reform global governance without dismantling existing institutions. Xi said the aim was to improve the systems inclusivity and fairness while addressing the challenges of the present era.

The Chinese leader pointed to mounting global pressures, including what he described as Cold War thinking, hegemonism, protectionism, and new forms of instability. He called for collective action to build what he termed a shared future for humanity.

The initiative rests on five principles. The first is sovereign equality. All countries, regardless of their size, economy, or military capacity, should participate in global governance as equal partners. Each nation has the right to determine its own social system without outside interference.

The second principle is respect for international law. Xi stressed that global governance should be based on the UN Charter and universally recognised norms. He opposed the application of double standards and selective use of legal frameworks.

The third is multilateralism. Xi called for joint management of global affairs and rejection of unilateral measures or bloc confrontation. He said the UN must remain the central body of international governance.

The fourth is a people-centred approach. Governance, he argued, should be directed towards the wellbeing and sustainable development of people across the world rather than power competition.

The final principle is action. Xi said states should avoid empty words and deliver real solutions to pressing problems.

The SCO, which groups China, Russia, India, Pakistan, and Central Asian states, was given a central role in advancing the initiative. The organisation represents nearly half of the worlds population and around a quarter of global GDP. Xi urged members to intensify cooperation in security, economic development, technology, and cultural exchange.

China pledged to open more of its domestic market to SCO countries and strengthen trade links. Xi said the Belt and Road Initiative would complement the new governance framework by encouraging shared growth. He also proposed enhanced collaboration in artificial intelligence, digital economy, and space exploration.

Observers noted that the initiative responded to concerns in the Global South over limited representation in international bodies. It was presented as a way of giving developing countries more weight in shaping decisions that affect them. The plan, Xi said, was designed to move global politics away from zero-sum competition and towards solidarity.

The SCO summit adopted a joint declaration supporting cooperation under the GGI. Leaders attending the meeting, including Vladimir Putin of Russia and Narendra Modi of India, voiced support for more balanced global governance.

Media in China and several participating states reported positive responses to the initiative. Commentaries described it as a proposal that could reshape global governance by aligning development, security, and culture under a common vision. Analysts noted that the framework draws on the SCOs experience of consensus-based cooperation and its expansion into new policy areas.

Xi said China would continue to work with all countries to pursue inclusive globalisation. He urged the dismantling of trade barriers and the deepening of economic integration. He said practical results would build trust among nations and strengthen the global order against fragmentation.

The summit closed with agreements on security cooperation, joint infrastructure projects, and expanded educational exchanges. The GGI was presented as a framework within which these measures would be coordinated and scaled up.

HT
Lanzhou beef noodle training schools raise new generation of chefs

People's Daily Online) 15:42, September 10, 2025

More than 20 students from across China are learning the craft of Lanzhou beef noodles at a training school in the city, guided by two master chefs in northwest China's Gansu Province.

A chef makes Lanzhou beef noodles during a contest in Lanzhou, northwest China's Gansu Province on July 2, 2024. (People's Daily Online/Gao Xiang)

"The craftsmanship is one of China's national intangible cultural heritage items. I came to Lanzhou to learn this skill partly to help preserve the traditional craft and partly because I want more people to taste this authentic delicacy," said Gao Lei from north China's Tianjin Municipality.

Gao is enrolled at the Gansu Dingle Lanzhou Beef Noodle Vocational Training School. He said that after tasting authentic Lanzhou beef noodles a year ago, he was struck by their distinctive flavor and decided to travel more than 1,000 kilometers to study the craft. He plans to invest 500,000 yuan (about $70,100) in a Beijing restaurant once the training is finished.

Established in 2012, the school is recognized as a national center for vocational training and skills assessment. Over the past decade, it has trained nearly 10,000 Lanzhou beef noodle specialists.

China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security listed "beef noodle chef" among 42 newly recognized job categories in July.

Zhao Xiaoli, deputy director of the Gansu vocational skills assessment and guidance center, said the recognition gives Lanzhou beef noodle chefs clearer career prospects and more chances to hone their craft. It also builds professional identity and draws more talent into the industry.

Ding Guocai, an instructor at the vocational training school with 15 years of teaching experience, said a couple running a beef noodle restaurant together can earn a decent income by local standards. Individual operators often start as apprentices and, after mastering the craft, open their own restaurants. "In the past, many people learned the trade as apprentices in noodle restaurants, which often took at least a year or more," Ding said.

With professional training schools now available, students can acquire the full set of skills within a month, and qualified graduates receive job placement assistance, he added.

Many of Ding's former students have opened noodle restaurants in the U.S., France and Britain. Some business owners travel directly to the school to recruit chefs, while others, unable to find skilled practitioners, enroll in the courses themselves.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
China Everything Vlog | Beijing's Beihai Park celebrates 100 years of public service

(People's Daily App) 16:23, September 10, 2025

The White Pagoda, royal snacks, ice rinks, boats and sunset views  Beihai is a park where Beijing's past and present come together, where people connect and everyday life unfolds. This year Beihai celebrates its 100th birthday as a public space and a beloved gathering place for Beijingers. Join People's Daily intern Li Yilei, dressed as a Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) princess, as she explores the former imperial park with more than 1,000 years of history.

(Produced by interns Li Yilei, Mao Yun, editors Lin Rui and Zhu Yingqi)

(Web editor: Huang Kechao, Liang Jun)
Ohio Inspector General investigation leads to a nine-count indictment of former Ohio Department of Job and Family Services intermittent employee
The PKF hospitality group is proud to announce its advisory role in bringing the Fairfield by Marriott brand to Taiwan's dynamic Tainan Science Park  home to some of the world's leading high-tech companies, including TSMC and other global innovators.

Developer of the project, the Taiwan-based entity Sing Song Chien Limited, has entered into an agreement with Marriott International to develop the Fairfield by Marriott Tainan Science Park, marking the brand's first presence in this key industrial hub.

The project will deliver a new-build, 4-star hotel with approximately 160 guestrooms, positioned as the first international branded hotel in the immediate area. Designed to serve both short-stay business travellers and long-stay guests, the property aims to set new standards for warmth, comfort and connectivity in the region.

The Fairfield by Marriott Tainan Science Park is strategically located to cater to the growing influx of domestic and international professionals working in the park's advanced manufacturing, semiconductor, and technology sectors. By being a first-mover in tainan, the new Fairfield by Marriott hotel will benefit from strong brand recognition and guest loyalty in an underserved market.

Opening is currently scheduled for 2029, marking a significant milestone in the development of the Tainan Science Park hospitality landscape.

Hotel website
Mandarin Oriental is delighted to announce the opening of its first hotel in Austria, Mandarin Oriental, Vienna, on 20 October 2025. Located in the city's prestigious First District on peaceful Riemergasse, the hotel is ideally situated for exploring one of Europe's foremost centres for music, culture and the arts. Comprised of 138 elegantly designed rooms and suites, exceptional dining concepts, and a signature The Spa at Mandarin Oriental, Vienna features a striking design that links the city's historic grandeur and artistic innovation with The Group's philosophy of understated luxury and legendary service.

Mandarin Oriental, Vienna's address at Riemergasse 7 is a heritage-listed former courthouse. The Art Nouveau building was originally designed by Alfred Keller and completed in 1908. It has been carefully restored to honour its architectural legacy whilst integrating modern design elements. The result is a hotel that seamlessly blends historical elegance with contemporary sophistication. In every aspect, Mandarin Oriental, Vienna combines refined quality with genuine warmth - always elegant, yet comfortably relaxed.

Mandarin Oriental, Vienna's 86 rooms and 52 suites have been sensitively restored to combine modern comfort with the timeless charm of Viennese Art Nouveau. Original design elements, elegant lines and light-filled rooms create a stylish ambience that uniquely unite past and present. A subtle palette, refined materials, and a welcoming sense of space give each room lightness. The offerings include three exclusive Mandarin Signature Suites and a grand Royal Suite, each a sumptuous, expansive retreat.

For events, meetings, and special occasions,the hotel offersseven multifunctional boardrooms and an elegant 140-sqm ballroom. The light-filled spaces provide a setting that combines state-of-the-art flexibility with unmistakable Viennese sophistication.

Created as four distinct culinary destinations under the helm of Executive Chef Thomas Seifried, the hotel's exceptional food and beverage offering brings the exciting new Atelier 7 dining concept to Vienna.

At Le Sept, the hotel's signature fine dining restaurant, Chef Seifried demonstrates his love for and mastery of seafood. Diners can expect an exquisite seafood-focused menu enhanced with contemporary French techniques and subtle Asian influences. Le Sept's intimate, understated setting offers the perfect backdrop for the artistic and technical wizardry on display.

The vibrant all-day dining destination Atelier 7 - Brasserie blends Art Nouveau elegance with international comfort food. With a focus on seafood and fish dishes, the menu has Asian and Austrian influences woven throughout, and offers a wide array of choices for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

A contemporary spin on Viennese coffeehouse tradition, Atelier 7 - The Cafe serves fine speciality coffees, global teas and artisan pastries in a welcoming, cosy space.

Chic Atelier 7 - Izakaya and Bar is where Art Nouveau meets Japonisme - the perfect spot for meeting friends and enjoying expertly crafted cocktails made with premium Japanese and Asian ingredients.

The Spa at Mandarin Oriental is a serene retreat offering a full range of holistic treatments, including The Group's signature wellness therapies as well as rituals inspired by local tradition. The extensive facility features seven stylishly designed treatment rooms, including an exclusive couple's suite, as well as a spacious indoor pool, a state-of-the-art fitness centre, and a VIP treatment area.

Hotel website
In a first-of-its-kind twist on hotel check-in, GCSTIMES has unveiled pet-themed, puzzle-style wooden key cards that turn an everyday item into a memorable guest experience. Designed for hotels catering to the growing market of pet-friendly travelers, the new key cards offer a unique blend of functionality, sustainability, and guest delight.

Upon check-in, guests receive a beautifully crafted, paw-shaped wooden key card. At its center lies a detachable piece in the shape of a dogs head, which can be engraved with the pets name. Once detached, the piece becomes a custom pet tag that attaches to a complimentary collar provided at reception.

The result is a three-step journey for guests with pets:

Check-In Surprise: Receive a paw-shaped, sustainable wooden key card.

Receive a paw-shaped, sustainable wooden key card. Personalized Reveal: Snap off the centerpiece to create a custom pet tag.

Snap off the centerpiece to create a custom pet tag. Peace of Mind: Attach the tag to the complimentary collar, ensuring pets carry identification throughout their stay.

The innovation aligns with two key trends reshaping the hospitality industry: the rapid expansion of pet-friendly travel and the demand for eco-conscious alternatives. Nowadays, more travelers than ever are bringing pets along, and hotels are increasingly tailoring services to welcome them.

ABOUT GCSTIMES

Since 2011, GCSTlMES has pioneered sustainable development, evolving from smart card R&D to sustainable material innovation. Today, we stand as a global platform for sustainable solutions.

Sustainability is our foundation. Through technological innovation and creative solutions, GCSTlMES delivers diverse services and tangible products, positioning ourselves as both manufacturers and innovators.

GCSTlMES believes technology should empower human progress and cultural preservation. By integrating sustainability into technology, we aim to make it "warm" and purposeful. Our products serve as cultural ambassadors, promoting local heritage worldwide.

Brand Portfolio: GCS, AUROkeys, Xenyra, and Glint Spot, offering sustainable smart cards, creative (custom-shaped) key cards sustainable supplies, cultural gifts, and bespoke design and related services.

Currently, GCSTlMES has five operational centers in China, US, UAE, France, and Australia, along with 20 subsidiaries and offices worldwide. Its services extend to over 140 countries and regions supporting more than 100,000 international hospitality group in achieving low-carbon and sustainable development goals.

GCS Times

MKT Team
Accor and Elanor Investors Group (Elanor) today announced the strategic repositioning and rebranding of four properties within the Elanor Hotel Accommodation Fund (Fund). The properties will be managed by long-standing operating partner 1834 Hotels and will officially join Accors network in October 2025.

As part of the Funds asset enhancement strategy, the following hotels will transition to Accors trusted and globally recognised brands:

Byron Bay Hotel and Apartments will rebrand to The Sebel Byron Bay

Barossa Weintal will rebrand to Mercure Barossa Valley

Clare Country Club will rebrand to Peppers Clare Valley

Adabco Boutique Hotel Adelaide will rebrand to Mantra Wakefield Adelaide

The repositioning is part of the Funds broader strategy to enhance asset performance and guest experience by leveraging globally and regionally recognised hotel brands.

These brand conversions will enable each hotel to benefit from Accors powerful global distribution, award-winning loyalty platform  ALL Accor, and deep regional expertise.

The rebranding of Peppers Clare Valley and Mantra Wakefield Adelaide will follow the completion of planned refurbishment works to ensure full brand alignment and optimal guest experience from launch.

The Sebel Byron Bay also marks Accors return to Byron Bay, reinforcing the strength of The Sebel brand in premium regional and lifestyle destinations. Established in 1963, The Sebel is one of Accors most enduring regional brands that continues to be synonymous with stylish apartment-style accommodation and relaxed sophistication.

These transformations are being delivered in collaboration with 1834 Hotels, which manages the assets of the Fund and will oversee day-to-day operations and the seamless brand transition. The project further underscores the strategic alignment between Accor, Elanor, and 1834 Hotels in delivering strong commercial performance, elevated guest experiences, and long-term value through franchising. It increases the number of the Funds hotels under the Accor brand to nine.

Were thrilled to welcome these outstanding hotels and resorts into the Accor network and to deepen our long-standing partnership with both Elanor and 1834 Hotels. These hotels are well positioned in key regional and leisure destinations and we are confident they will see immediate benefit from our scale, systems and support. By joining our franchise network, each hotel gains access to Accors global distribution system and award-winning loyalty programme - ALL Accor. We take a sophisticated and hands-on approach to franchising, working closely with our partners to provide the tools, insights and local support they need to succeed. Adrian Williams, Chief Operating Officer of Accor in the Pacific region

We are very pleased to expand our relationship with Accor and strengthen the brand positioning of these hotels. Aligning with Accors respected and targeted brand architecture allows us to further differentiate our portfolio and enhance investment performance. The support and operational execution by 1834 Hotels has been instrumental in bringing this strategy to life. Tony Fehon, Managing Director of Elanor Investors Group

The transitions are now underway, with minimal impact to operations and a focus on delivering enhanced experiences under the new Accor brands.

About Accor, a world-leading hospitality group

Accor is a world-leading hospitality group offering stays and experiences across more than 110 countries with over 5,600 hotels and resorts, 10,000 bars & restaurants, wellness facilities and flexible workspaces. The Group has one of the industry's most diverse hospitality ecosystems, encompassing around 45 hotel brands from luxury to economy, as well as Lifestyle with Ennismore. ALL, the booking platform and loyalty program embodies the Accor promise during and beyond the hotel stay and gives its members access to unique experiences. Accor is focused on driving positive action through business ethics, responsible tourism, environmental sustainability, community engagement, diversity, and inclusivity. Accor's mission is reflected in the Group's purpose: Pioneering the art of responsible hospitality, connecting cultures, with heartfelt care. Founded in 1967, Accor SA is headquartered in France. Included in the CAC 40 index, the Group is publicly listed on the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange (ISIN code: FR0000120404) and on the OTC Market (Ticker: ACCYY) in the United States. For more information, please visit group.accor.com or follow us on X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok.

Naomi Hammond

Communications Manager - Pacific

+61(0) 434 738 380

Accor
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.  The 14th Annual Boutique Hotel Owners Conference, presented by the Boutique & Luxury Lodging Association (BLLA), officially opens its doors this September 2930 in the serene setting of Westlake Village, California, welcoming a curated group of global hotel owners, investors, and creative leaders for two transformative days of reconnection, reinvention, and reflection.

This years conference boldly breaks from tradition under the theme Terra IncognitaLatin for unknown land. In the spirit of exploration, BLLA invites its intimate community of boutique pioneers to journey beyond the familiar boundaries of hospitality to reimagine the future of ownership, leadership, culture, and design.

The 2025 Boutique Hotel Owners Conference is not a repetitionits a reinvention. We're exploring uncharted territory with those who aren't afraid to ask the deeper questions and shape what comes next in our industry. Frances Kiradjian, Founder and CEO of BLLA

What Awaits in the Unknown

Grounded Conversations with Independent Leaders

Alex Kirkwood, Kirkwood Collection

Alex Levin, L+R

Andrew Archibald, The Inn at Rancho Santa Fe

Annabel Schwartz, House of Talana LLC

Ariela Kiradjian, BLLA / StayBoutique

Cory Sobczyk, Arch RoamRight

Daniel Andre Langer, Equite

David Bowd, Salt Hotels

Deniz Dorbek Kocak, The Bright Hotel Group

Glenn Turner, Romeo Bravo Software

Hya Valdez, Capital One Travel

Jennifer Barry, CIIC Public Relations

Justin Bain, BAIN Hospitality

Kate McAnally, Grand Hotel McKinney

Kimberly Walker, Nomada Hotel Group

Kurt Bjorkman, The Ranch at Laguna Beach

Maya Mallick, The Culver Hotel

Megan Kennedy, Elder & Ash

Mitch Prensky, COJHO Hospitality Consultancy

Peter Twachtman, Lark

Rachel Turchin, The Horse Shoe Farm

Rob Blood, Lark | Elder & Ash

Robert Krzak, Gecko Hospitality

Rod Clough, HVS Americas

Sam Bakhshandehpour, Jose Andres Group

Samantha Ahuja, Greenberg Traurig

Sean Wilkinson, Might & Main

Tarun Goyal, Simplotel Technologies

Thomas Brown, Ad Altius Advisors

Conversations That Matter

This years sessions invite attendees to dig deeper and think differently about how they operate, grow, and lead in todays dynamic landscape. Featured topics include:

Top Issues Owners Face Today: Rising capital costs, labor volatility, and scaling without dilutionleaders address the friction points reshaping independent ownership.

Boutique Hotelier Manifestos Raw, personal philosophies from those leading with convictionnot conformity.

Conscious Capital: Building with Soul and Scale Funding strategies that honor both values and vision.

The Architecture of Emotion Crafting: Spaces that resonate through sensory storytelling and creative alignment.

Redefining Ownership for a Regenerative Future. From agrotourism to community wealth, this is ownership reimagined.

Narrative Alchemy: Turning Space Into Story. How boutique hotels become vessels for culture, memory, and meaning.

The F&B Frontier: Why restaurants and bars are now the heart of brand identity and emotional loyalty.

Signals of Luxury: Decoding the aesthetic and emotional codes that define modern luxury globally.

GuestOS: The rise of intelligent infrastructure and how to implement tech that feels human.

The Advantages of Owning a Small Hotel: Small-scale properties as innovation labsand why nimbleness wins.

Charting New Profit Paths: Revenue-boosting frameworks that dont compromise soul or service.

The Unfamiliar Shift: Lessons from fashion, beauty, and wellness on how to design the futurewithout a map.

New Rituals for the Modern Owner

Morning hikes through Californias natural beauty

Open-mic dinners where voices of the industry rise

Sensory activations that go beyond panels and PowerPoints

Space for serendipity, reflection, and honest dialogue

A Room Full of True Independents

With intentionally limited capacity, this conference ensures that every attendee is a leader in their own right, whether running one property or a growing portfolio. Its not just about whats said on stage; its the conversations sparked in between.

A Conference Unlike Any Other

Hosted once again at the stunning Westlake Village Inn, this year's gathering embodies the essence of boutique hospitality: personal, meaningful, and profoundly human.

For those passionate about charting bold new paths in independent hospitality, the 2025 Owners Conference is the room to be in. But space is limitedand approval is required to attend.

This Conference is supported by sponsors who care deeply about this industry and this sector in particular. Thank you to the following: Greenberg Traurig, Segafredo Zanetti, RBS, Gecko Hospitality, Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts, Nestle Premium Waters, Arch RoamRight, Capital One Travel, Simplotel, Liquid Crystal, Jonas Chorum, Operto, eviivo, The Company Store, mknly procurement, Entegra, and dailypoint.

Register to attend.

BLLA (Boutique & Luxury Lodging Association)

Established in 2009, the Boutique Lifestyle Lodging Association (BLLA) is the world's most innovative and influential association for independent boutique hotels, brands, and suppliers. Dedicated to championing the unique essence of boutique hospitality, BLLA offers its global membership base unparalleled networking opportunities, industry insights, and advocacy initiatives. With a mission to elevate and empower independent hotel owners and operators, BLLA continues to shape the future of hospitality through innovation, collaboration, and excellence. The organization is a pioneer in forecasting the boutique movement. The corporate manifesto showcases BLLA as a catalyst for trends and the future of the boutique lifestyle, with a focus on hospitality. BLLA.org BLLA LinkedIn BLLA Events LinkedIn

Press Office

BLLA

+1-818-883-4363

BLLA
Byron Bay Hotel and Apartments will become The Sebel Byron Bay - Image Credit Accor



Accor and Elanor Investors Group will rebrand four hotels in Australia, integrating them into Accor's network by October 2025.

Accor and Elanor Investors Group have announced the rebranding of four hotels in Australia as part of a strategic repositioning within the Elanor Hotel Accommodation Fund. The properties, managed by 1834 Hotels, will officially join the Accor network by October 2025.

The rebranding involves the following transitions: Byron Bay Hotel and Apartments will become The Sebel Byron Bay, Barossa Weintal will change to Mercure Barossa Valley, Clare Country Club will be rebranded as Peppers Clare Valley, and Adabco Boutique Hotel Adelaide will transition to Mantra Wakefield Adelaide.

This initiative is part of the Fund's strategy to enhance asset performance and guest experience by aligning with globally recognized hotel brands. The rebranding is expected to leverage Accors global distribution and loyalty platform.

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Refurbishment works are planned for Peppers Clare Valley and Mantra Wakefield Adelaide to ensure alignment with brand standards before their official launch under the new names.

The Sebel Byron Bay marks Accor's return to Byron Bay, emphasizing the brand's presence in premium regional and lifestyle destinations. The rebranding project is conducted in collaboration with 1834 Hotels, which manages the assets and will oversee operations and brand transition.

This development increases the number of Elanor's hotels under the Accor brand to nine, reinforcing the strategic alignment between Accor, Elanor, and 1834 Hotels in enhancing commercial performance and guest experiences. The transitions are underway with a focus on maintaining operations and delivering improved experiences under the new Accor brands.
23rd HFTP/Hospitality Upgrade CIO Summit Gathers 80+ Hospitality Tech Executives for High-Level Tech Trend Discussions - Image Credit HFTP



The Summit presented experts covering AI deployment, data security and emerging risks, industry economic outlook and more; plus contributed to Vancouvers Directions Youth Services.

Last week, Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) and Hospitality Upgrade successfully hosted 80 chief information officers (CIO) and hospitality industry professionals for two days of high-level exploration of tech and business trends impacting the hospitality space. In its 23rd year, the CIO Summit was held Sept. 35 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Vancouver, B.C. Canada. In its two decades, the CIO Summit is known as a unique, invitation-only event for CIOs from hotel brands, management companies, cruise lines, gaming and independent hotels. The Summit program offers a mix of expert-led sessions and fun social activities that highlight the host citys local treasures.

"Theres nothing quite like getting a group of smart, passionate hospitality CxOs in one place  not just to talk shop, but to really dig into whats next for our industry, said Brian Kirkland, CIO for Choice International. From swapping ideas to tackling big challenges, the energy is real. And the laughs dont hurt either. This event always reminds me how lucky we are to be part of a community thats pushing boundaries, collaborating openly, and genuinely rooting for each other to succeed. Transformation and innovation arent just buzzwords here  theyre what this group is driving every day."

A highlight this year was an activity supporting Vancouvers Directions Youth Services, an organization that provides 24/7 support to youth facing homelessness, poverty, or other barriers. The collaborative effort had attendees assemble backpacks filled with essential items for at-risk youth in the local community. Through sponsor donations, the backpacks were filled with supplies that directly benefit young people in the area.

Each year, we choose a local charity, but this year we enlisted the support of our great sponsors who funded and directly donated to our local cause, said Geneva Rinehart, HFTP SVP, Media Division. Weve heard of other events creating a charity challenge and wanted to put our own spin on it, so the CIOs could contribute in a hands-on, meaningful way. We look forward to adding this experience and evolving our community service as part of the unique week that is the CIO Summit.

One of the main presentations in the 2025 CIO Summits program was the session, Thwarting Nation State Attacks presented by Bob Flores, former chief technology officer (CTO) for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Following his CIA career, Flores founded Applicology, Inc. and is a visionary leader at the intersection of cybersecurity, intelligence, and advanced technology. Flores presentation provided insights for a series of discussions aimed at addressing the industrys most pressing challenges, including AI, data security and operational efficiency.

In addition to Flores presentation, the 2025 CIO Summit held the following sessions:

Tariffs, Travel and Trouble  A Canadian and US Hotel Industry Economic OutlookPresented by Nicole Nguyen SVP, Head of Hotels Valuation & Advisory, Canada  CBRE Hotels

Where and How AI is Being Deployed in Hospitality

A panel including Tim Kinsella (moderator) who oversees global sales at Canary Technology  Michael Lederman, VP of IT at Leading Hotels of the World  Nick Price, co-chair of DIF Hospitality & Travel SIG

A panel including Tim Kinsella (moderator) who oversees global sales at Canary Technology  Michael Lederman, VP of IT at Leading Hotels of the World  Nick Price, co-chair of DIF Hospitality & Travel SIG A CIO's Legal Compass: AI, Data Protection, Digital Identity and other Emerging Risks in HospitalityPresented by Greg Duff Principal  Foster Garvey PC

AI Agents, APIs, and Whats Next: A CIO's Guide to the Coming Wave

Presented by Michael Goldrich Founder and Chief Advisor  Vivander Advisors

Presented by Michael Goldrich Founder and Chief Advisor  Vivander Advisors Finally! Some Free Consulting (No Strings Attached)Presented by Julian Bish, Global Director IT for Hyatt Hotels Corp.  Mark Haley, Partner at Prism Hospitality Consulting, LLC  Scot Campbell, Principal Advisor with Integrated Resorts Advisors  John Burns, President at Hospitality Technology Consulting

Reconnaissance Mission: Decoding Professional Development and Career IntelligencePresented by Justin Taillon Professor & Department Head  Highline College & Central Washington University  HFTP Global President

CIO Summit Round Table

Moderated by Cameron Hammond SVP, Global Field Technology Services  Hyatt Hotels Corp.

On top of the industry-focused sessions, attendees were treated to a Whale Watching Tour as well as a dinner cruise that showcased the citys skyline. To glimpse the activity of this years CIO Summit in pictures, view the photo gallery.

Thank you to the 2025 sponsors: Canary Technologies, Agilysys, Blueprint RF, Enseo, Nomadix, POST Hospitality Payments and Sertifi by flywire; as well as transportation sponsors IBS Software, Cloud5 and WorldVue.
Chicago, IL (60637)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this morning will become overcast during the afternoon. Temps nearly steady in the low to mid 30s. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Low 8F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph.
Ghost Tours at Ventfort Hall

LENOX, Mass.  Join Robert Oakes, author of "Ghosts of the Berkshires," who will lead tours through the rooms and halls of the historic estate sharing tales of its alleged hauntings.

The tour will take place at 7 pm on Saturday, Sept. 13.

This is not an active investigation.

Admission is $30 and minimum age to attend is age 12. Reservations are strongly recommended as tickets are limited. Walk-ins accommodated as space allows. For reservations, visit https://gildedage.org/pages/calenda r or call 413-637-3206. Note that all tickets are non-refundable and non-exchangeable. Payment is required to make a reservation for an event.

Robert Oakes is an author, teacher, storyteller, and performing songwriter. He has written three books, "The Ghostly Tales of the Berkshires" (2023), "Ghosts of Northwestern New Jersey" (2022), and "Ghosts of the Berkshires" (2020), all published by Arcadia Publishing.

Since 2010, Robert has led ghost storytelling experiences at historic locations in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, including Ventfort Hall and Edith Wharton's The Mount. He has also given talks and readings and led a writing workshop at Arrowhead, home of Herman Melville.

He has appeared on Syfy's Ghost Hunters, Jeff Belanger's New England Legends series on PBS, and The Apple Seed show on BYUradio and has been featured in The Boston Globe, The Berkshire Eagle, and numerous other media outlets.
Freshly painted walls and new flooring greeted the early education grades at Clarksburg School. The main hallway was painted. The teachers' lounge ready for the school year. One of the classrooms in the kindergarten wing. The shared space with the library. PreviousNext

Clarksburg School Refreshes Kindergarten Wing



A new smart TV in the lobby entrance was provided by the PTA, along with a smaller one to track schedules in the main office. CLARKSBURG, Mass.  The kindergarten wing of Clarksburg School was refreshed with paint and new flooring before the school year started.

The flooring in the 1970s "temporary" addition had been showing its age and had been raised as an issue by teachers over the past few years. The School Committee got a tour last week of the changes, largely done by volunteers.

"It just feels really clean in here," said committee member Mary Giron.

Other changes included painting the main hallway and lockers by Mountain View Painters of Adams. The PTA purchased a smart television for the lobby and a smaller wall-mounted monitor in the office so administrators and teachers can track scheduling.

Principal Kimberly Rougeau said students have suggested uses for the TV, such as posting notifications, lunch menus, and maybe trivia or other engaging activities.

Not quite completed is the roof, a project that town meeting authorized earlier this year to address numerous leaks in the deteriorating covering. The main section of the roof is completed but some smaller fixes need to be addressed, including rebuilding the awning over the side entrance. D.J. Wooliver & Sons Roofing found the structure to be rotten and it had to be removed; Town Administrator Ronald Boucher had informed the Select Board that it would be about $7,000 to rebuild it.

Rougeau also pointed out some ceiling areas where leaks had come through during the project. She said Wooliver will be making that damage whole.

The short tour was taken after Thursday's School Committee meeting, during which Assistant Superintendent Tara Barnes updated the committee on the submission of entitlement grants that majorly support paraprofessional salaries.

"It's really key and integral into the whole idea of helping students in the classroom who are struggling by having that extra person in there to design the instruction a little bit differently," she said.

She said early childhood screening and literacy screening reports for children ages 3 through 5 will be completed and sent to parents by Oct. 1.

"That screening just alerts us if there's some needs that we might want to put some interventions in place for, or if we want to refer to special education at some point," Barnes said.

Superintendent John Franzoni said the Northern Berkshire School Union School Committee will be interviewing a candidate for business administrator. The meeting was initially scheduled for Monday at Gabriel Abbot School but has been postponed to Sept. 15 to ensure a quorum.

Barnes and a team in the superintendent's office have been working on the finances since the business administrator left earlier this year. Franzoni said the district's financial picture is much clearer, "it's definitely a testament to a lot of great work has been over the last six months, because we certainly in March, were not in the same position that we are."

He said there has been good collaboration with the towns, which have been difficult to align because they all use a different system. The town of Florida last year switched to Vadar Systems municipal software, which allows the district to see what the town does; Savoy approved the same system last month. There are still some kinks to work out, Franzoni said, and Clarksburg, Monroe and Rowe don't have that system.

"We're making some steps in the right direction to try to do the reconciliation process throughout the year, not just at the end of the year," he said. "It shows that there's been a lot of good collaborative work done over the summer to not only finish up last year and the previous year, but also work toward this year's being on the same page also."

The superintendent also updated the committee on the regionalization study being undertaken for secondary education in the school union, North Adams and Hoosac Valley Regional School District.

Hoosac Valley and North Adams have approved language to set up an steering committee that will delineate next steps to creating a joint committee and hiring a consultant. Franzoni said the school union's committee will get the same language to vote on at its next meeting.

The state has provided $100,000 toward the study, which Franzoni said should "show areas where we can work together should provide the best possible education for the students in those grade levels.

"But I think also, and it'll help us looking at things like special education, staffing a lot of different areas, how buildings can be best used ... So there's a lot of things that I think will come out of the study that could be helpful to all of those districts."

Joint solutions for providing special education services would be helpful for the North County schools, he said, especially regarding out-of-district placements.

There has been a significant increase in Clarksburg children attending school; there are 24 new students this year, including 15 in the upper levels.

"We really have been impacted in our schools, and especially in Clarksburg," the superintendent said. "Some of them came to us with needs we just can't meet ... we have at least two students that weren't budgeted for that are being transpoted to another location ... we have to figure out a way to pay for that."

He said there is a need to review how space is used in the school to create a classroom for special education programming to keep children here in Clarksburg. Barnes noted, "when you have students  for multiple years  that you have to continue to support, it does make sense to look at a longer-term solution."

It's better for the children to be in the building as much as possible, she said, "because this is their community, and these are their peers, and so we want to try to make that work for them, as well as also thinking about the financial implications of when you're paying out-of-district costs and transportation and all of that."

Barnes said things are "settled at the moment" but there will be a longer conversation ahead.
The historic Queen Annes generated a lot of interest and sold within weeks despite their poor interior conditions.

North Adams Council OKs Sale of Historic Church Street Properties



The home garnered 25 bids and got so much interest the agent had to add on staff. NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  The City Council voted to sell off the three Church Street houses and an adjacent vacant lot for $181,001.

A fourth property at 0 High St. was sold for $18,000.

"So very exciting times for us," Mayor Jennifer Macksey. "The Church Street properties in particular had several, several viewings. I think we got close to 25 offers on the properties."

The houses generated a lot of interested once posted on Zillow, showing up in a wide variety of Facebook groups from historic houses to Star Trek (after someone spotted an Enterprise poster) and other social media.

The offers went through a screening process, said the mayor, with those who eschewed inspections and were prepared to pay cash moving up the list.

"So in my communication, you see what the selling price is versus what it's due," she said. "Keep in mind we still have to pay some legal imposing costs out of those numbers."

The city issued a request for quotes for a real estate agency and selected Bishop and West Real Estate, with Pam Tworig as the agent. Recent legislation allows municipalities to engage agents to dispose of foreclosed properties rather than going through an auction or request for proposals.

 Veselko Buntic of Woodside, N.Y., who owns a number of properties in the city including the Dowlin Block on Main Street and the Tower and Porter Block on Eagle Street (which is being renovated into apartments), is buying 116 Church, the Hodge House. He offered $54,001 for the 4,244 square-foot property, which was listed for $53,000. He plans to restore it into a home.

 James Honaker of Carlisle is purchasing 124 Church (Walker House) and the empty lot at 34 Arnold for $85,000. The 6,076 square-foot house was listed at $67,000 and the lot, where an apartment building had been demolished, at $21,000. He also plans to renovate it, probably into a home.

 Breen M. Mahony of New York City is purchasing the former parsonage at 130 Church for $42,000, the price it was listed. The house is 4,194 square feet. Mahony, an architect, owns other properties in the city and plans to develop it into two units.

The fifth property, also a tax taking, is being purchased for $18,000 by Thomas A. Ralys and Cathy J. Ralys, with a High Street address. The vacant lot had been occupied by 29-31 High St., a four-apartment building that was demolished by the city in 1998 but judgment wasn't entered until February of this year. They are buying the land to enhance their adjacent property and prevent it from becoming a dumping spot.

The votes were unanimous for the High Street sale; Councilor Wayne Wilkinson abstained from the votes on the Church Street structures.

The mayor said it was recommended by the city's Land Court attorney David Coppola of Coppola & Coppola to bring the purchase-and-sale orders to council for approval.

"So if there's any title issues down the road, we've done everything that we can as a municipality," she said.

In response to a question from Councilor Keith Bona, the mayor said there were a handful of bids for a package deal but she was more interested in spreading out the risk. If the separate sales had not come through, she would have considered the deals.

She applauded Tara Jacobs of the Governor's Council, whose inquiries seemed to get the ball rolling after years of the properties languishing in Land Court, and Tworig for her efforts.

"She did a really great job in showing and really marketing to people," said Macksey. "And what's great to me is it all came back to people who are connected to North Adams in different ways."

The two Queen Anne mansions and former parsonage on Church have been vacant for years and are in poor condition. The city has been in Land Court for four years trying to acquire the structures for back taxes after owner Franklin E. Perras Jr. died in 2017.

The tax taking was finalized in February and the properties went on the market in July  and were snapped up within weeks.

Pictures of the insides are a contrast in extravagant carved wood moldings and fireplaces, brass hardware and Venetian glass against piles of collapsed plaster from ceilings and walls, peeling paint and wallpaper, and water damage.

Councilor Lisa Blackmer asked if there was anyway to clawback the properties if the owners didn't follow through, but there is just a deadline to complete the purchase.

"Whether they fix the properties or not, they still go back on the tax roll, which means we kind of start collecting taxes on them again, which is a good thing for the rest of the taxpayers in the city," said Councilor Ashley Shade.

"I just want to say that I frequently walk by these places on my evening walks, and I am glad to see that there's something is finally moving again," said Council President Bryan Sapienza. "I look forward to seeing Church Street brought back to the original glory it was."

In other business, the council approved the transfer of $89,220 from the Landfill Reserve Account to purchase a new scale for the transfer station. Macksey said the current scale is about 35 years old and parts can no longer be found to keep it running. The purchase will leave about $504,000 in the account.

 Councilor Deanna Morrow submitted her resignation to City Council effective Sept. 1. President Bryan Sapienza said with three months left in the term, he recommended leaving the seat open. He thanked her for her service and appointed Councilor Wayne Wilkinson to fill her seat on the Public Safety Committee.

The council had said their goodbyes to Morrow at her last meeting in August.

 The mayor appointed Ciera Dowling to fill the unexpired term ending Dec. 31 of Jessica Lincourt on the Board of Assessors, and Reid Soloman-Lane to the Board of Registrars for a term expiring Aug. 24, 2028.

Dowling started as city assessor at the end of August. She holds a bachelor of science in business management from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and has worked the last six years for Tourists.

"She has hit the ground running and is eagerly awaiting our tax presentation," said Macksey.

 The City Council approved National Grid to relocate two utility poles on Ashton Avenue. A request for a pole on Massachusetts Avenue was withdrawn as not being necessary. This is being done to accommodate a driveway to the Blackinton Mill.

 The City Council gave final approval to the Smart Growth Overlay District ordinance, which had been missing sections when the original document was approved, and an accessory dwelling use ordinance.

An ordinance creating a new affordable housing trust was postponed to the next meeting; General Government Committee will be meeting on the ordinance Wednesday evening. Councilor Keith Bona, chair of the committee, said a response from the city solicitor will be discussed.

 The mayor read a proclamation declaring September as Child Cancer Awareness Month, symbolized by the color gold. Mary Ann King represented the AYJ Fund, a local charity that provides local support and funds research. The founders, Kathy and Joseph Arabia, were in Boston to testify at a hearing on Beacon Hill.

The Police Department is selling redesigned patches this month to support the AYJ Fund.

 A request by the mayor to adopt state law that would establish a procedure for disposing of abandoned funds held in custody of the city was referred to General Government, with Wilkinson voting no.
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Hong Kongs government rejected a bill on Wednesday that would have allowed same-sex couples who married or entered civil unions overseas to register their partnerships locally.

The bill  Registration of Same-Sex Partnerships Bill  unveiled in July, faced fierce opposition from lawmakers and was expected to be voted down on Wednesday.

A total of 71 lawmakers voted against the bill, with one legislator, Doreen Kong, abstaining.

If the bill had been passed, that would have meant registered couples would have received limited rights, such as making medical decisions for their partners and arranging after-death matters.

The bill, however, did not cover parental or adoption rights.

Right before the vote on Wednesday, lawmaker Maggie Chan said the bill rocks the foundation of the monogamous and heterosexual marriage system in Hong Kong.

Supporters had earlier argued that the bill was necessary to meet a top court ruling that the government must legally recognise same-sex couples by this fall.

In 2023, the Court of Final Appeal set a two-year deadline for the government to establish a framework recognising same-sex partnerships, with 27 October as the target date.

A recent survey had found that 60 per cent of Hong Kong residents supported same-sex marriage, up from 38 per cent in 2013. The citys leader, John Lee, had urged lawmakers to pass the bill, saying the rule of law is important for Hong Kongs success, but had also said the final decision was with the legislature.

Amnesty International Hong Kong Overseas and 30 LGBTQ+ groups across Asia issued a joint letter on Monday, urging the government to fully comply with the 2023 ruling by the citys court of final appeal.

Lawmaker Martin Liao, who supported the bill, said: It cannot be denied that there is discrimination and unfairness in Hong Kong societys [treatment] of same-sex couples.

When society lacks a legal framework to recognise same-sex partnerships, gay people could feel inferior and humiliated, [knowing] their same-sex relationships are not legal and unrecognised, he was quoted as saying by Hong Kong Free Press.

Hong Kong law currently does not recognise same-sex relationships, and same-sex couples cannot marry or register any form of civil partnership. While recent court rulings have acknowledged that denying rights to same-sex couples is discriminatory, legislative progress has been slow.

Courts have granted limited rights to couples who married or entered civil partnerships abroad, including spousal benefits for civil servants, taxation rights, eligibility for public housing, and inheritance rights, but a comprehensive legal framework for same-sex partnerships remains absent.

open image in gallery Legislators vote on the registration of same-sex partnerships bill, which allows couples registered abroad to register locally, in the Legislative Council chamber, in Hong Kong, 10 September 2025 ( REUTERS )

Opponents to the bill had argued that the bill undermined traditional family values and could lead to broader demands such as same-sex adoption. Holden Chow, the vice chair of the citys largest pro-Beijing party, warned that the bill could result in dire consequences for traditional Chinese family values.

Another pro-Beijing lawmaker, Priscilla Leung, earlier described the bill as opening a Pandoras box.

The Hong Kong government recently reported that 80 per cent of 10,780 public opinion submissions opposed the same-sex partnership bill, primarily citing concerns about traditional family values and the marriage system.

However, non-profit organisation Hong Kong Marriage Equality argued the submissions did not reflect true public sentiment, noting that about half of the opposition used standardised templates, indicating organised campaigns by specific groups.

open image in gallery Jimmy Sham, gay rights activists, right, leaves following the legislative debate on a government bill recognising same-sex partnerships, a proposed framework stemming from his successful legal challenge at the top court in Hong Kong, Wednesday, 10 September 2025 ( AP )

Activists and couples affected by the lack of legal recognition had said that the bill would provide much-needed rights, even though it does not go far enough.

In a joint letter to the secretary for constitutional and mainland affairs Erick Tsang, the advocacy groups called on the government to broaden its proposal by allowing same-sex couples to form civil partnerships locally, aligning with regional practices.

The letter urges the Hong Kong Government to recognise that an increasing number of governments are progressively moving to recognise and protect same-sex partnership rights, Luk Chi-man, executive director of Amnesty International Hong Kong Overseas, said.

Hong Kongs current Bill lags far behind the frameworks adopted in Nepal, Taiwan and Thailand in recent years. These examples [demonstrate] that there is no contradiction between recognising same-sex partnerships and upholding Asian or traditional values.

Across Asian countries, Taiwan became the first government to legalise same-sex marriage in 2019, followed by Nepal in 2023 and Thailand in 2025.

Meanwhile, Mr Tsang earlier told lawmakers that failing to implement the court ruling would breach the governments positive obligations and undermine the rule of law.

Prominent gay rights activist Jimmy Sham had warned that vetoing the bill could damage Hong Kongs international status.

It would make the whole world question Hong Kongs human rights stance, whether it wont even accept such basic protections for sexual minorities, he said.

Eunice Yung, a New Peoples Party (NPP) member, dismissed claims that recognising same-sex partnerships would effectively legalise same-sex marriage.

In reality, the rights and responsibilities in the bill are very limited it only deals with the right to make medical decisions and after-death arrangements, she said in Cantonese.

She added that the problems faced by same-sex couples in Hong Kong were not just abstract but practical difficulties in everyday life.

If one partner needs to be admitted to a hospital because they are ill or have had an accident, their partner  if they are not a legal family relative  cannot visit them or make medical decisions even though they have been together for many years, and rely on each other, because of their identities under the law, they cannot stay by the bedside and be with [them] in their final moments, Ms Yung said.

Amnesty Internationals policy advisor on gender, Nadia Rahman, said in a statement on Wednesday: Today, the Hong Kong government has failed to address the inequality faced by same-sex couples in all areas of their lives. The proposed bill on same-sex partnerships was flawed, but in rejecting it the government has shown an alarming disdain for LGBTI rights.

This bill would have provided the bare minimum of protection for same-sex couples  but notably, only those who registered their partnership overseas. On this and other grounds, the draft considered today falls far short of the intentions of the Court ruling that triggered it two years ago.

She added: It is a setback which shows just how far Hong Kong has to go before everyone in the city can enjoy equal rights.

Authorities must now urgently introduce a revised bill that establishes a comprehensive legal framework to recognise and protect the rights of same-sex couples, in full compliance with the Courts ruling. No one should face discrimination because of who they are or whom they love.
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Donald Trump has said he is prepared to hit India and China with even more sweeping tariffs if Europe is willing to cooperate with him on squeezing Russian economically to stop the war in Ukraine.

The US president made the demand after dialling into a meeting between senior European Union and US officials in Washington on Tuesday to discuss the ways to pressure Russia to come to the negotiating table, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the discussions.

Mr Trump has called for a 100 per cent tariff on the two Asian countries for their energy imports from Russia, saying the US will mirror the levies imposed by the European countries.

Were ready to go, ready to go right now, but were only going to do this if our European partners step up with us, a US official said.

On the same day, Mr Trump reassured New Delhi that trade talks were progressing smoothly and would likely yield a successful deal, signalling double messaging from the Trump administration that has mounted pressure on India in recent days for trade with Russia.

Mr Trump said that the US and India are continuing negotiations to address the Trade Barriers and he is looking forward to speaking with his good friend prime minister Narendra Modi in the coming weeks.

US president Donald Trump shakes hands with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on 13 February 2025 ( AFP via Getty Images )

However, a meeting between the two leaders is unlikely as Mr Modi is sending his foreign minister S Jaishankar to address the United Nations General Assembly on 27 September.

I feel certain that there will be no difficulty in coming to a successful conclusion for both of our Great Countries! he wrote on Truth Social on early Wednesday Indian time.

The US presidents upbeat tone follows months of turbulent trade negotiations that have strained relations between Washington and New Delhi. The Trump administration has already doubled tariffs on India, taking it to 50 per cent, including a 25 per cent penalty for purchasing Russian weapons and oil, which Washington says helps finance Russias war in Ukraine.

Mr Modi reciprocated the optimism in a social media post on Wednesday, saying Washington and New Delhi "are close friends and natural partners."

"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," Mr Modi said.

Mr Trumps tariff on India for purchasing Russian crude oil is in contrast to a softer stance towards China, which is the largest buyer of Russian energy amid ongoing trade talks to secure a deal with the second-largest economy.

New Delhi has said it has been selectively targeted for purchasing Russian oil while the EU continues to import liquefied natural gas from Russia.

Despite mounting US pressure, New Delhi and Moscow intend to increase their annual trade by 50 per cent to $100bn (74bn) over the next five years.
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India will continue to look at ways to work with the Taliban, including hosting its UN sanctioned leader Amir Khan Muttaqi in New Delhi, officials said.

Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Talibans acting foreign minister, was due to make his first trip to India in August but failed to secure a waiver on his existing travel ban by the United Nations Security Council.

He was sanctioned by the UNSC in 2001 over the acts and activities of the Taliban in Afghanistan during the hardline Islamist groups previous rule in the 1990s.

On being asked about Muttaqis planned visit to India, Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Singh Jaiswal told reporters that India continues to engage with Afghan authorities.

As you are aware, we have longstanding ties with the people of Afghanistan. India continues to support the aspirations and developmental needs of the Afghan people. We continue to have engagements with Afghan authorities, he said last week.

According to officials in New Delhi, a waiver for Muttaqi was sought from the UNSC but it was not given clearance, in a move reportedly blocked by Pakistan.

The 1988 sanctions committee  a subsidiary body of the Security Council to oversee the implementation of sanctions  is currently led by Pakistan. It is overseeing the travel bans imposed on the Taliban leaders along with assets freeze and an arms embargo.

The Indian side will continue to look into ways to host the acting foreign minister and the visit is expected to proceed in the coming months after the waiver on the travel ban is addressed in the interest of regional cooperation, sources told The Independent.

If the waiver is granted, the visit from Muttaqi will bump India into a brief list of nations that have hosted the sanctioned Taliban leader  joining the ranks of China and Russia who have engaged with the fundamentalist group despite censure.

The India visit, seen as problematic over the Talibans policies banning almost half of its population of girls and women from schools, colleges, and workplaces on top of curtailing their basic human rights, will grant legitimacy to the groups senior leader.

India has gradually ramped up its cautious yet increasingly diplomatic approach in engaging with the Taliban by meeting with the groups senior officials in Qatar and also in Kabul.

In January this year Indias foreign secretary Vikram Misri met with Muttaqi and discussed diplomatic relations, security concerns, and humanitarian aid with Afghanistan at its highest-level talks till then in Dubai.

The two sides discussed expanding bilateral ties, with an increased focus on Indias security concerns, boost in trade through the Chabahar Port in Iran, and Indian investments in several development projects inside Afghanistan, which remain a key concern for Delhi.

In May this year, Indias external affairs minister S Jaishankar held a telephonic conversation with Muttaqi where the Afghan leader condemned the terrorist attack in Kashmirs Pahalgam.

The exchange marked the highest level of contact between New Delhi and Kabul after the exit of Nato forces from Afghanistan in August 2021, even though India has not granted any official recognition to the Taliban.

The two spoke again last week in the aftermath of deadly 6.0 magnitude earthquake in Afghanistan, which killed at least 2,200 people even as authorities warned that the actual death toll could be higher as more bodies in remote areas were recovered.
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A court in Indias Uttar Pradesh has sentenced a man to death for raping and murdering a three-year-old girl, terming it a rarest of rare case.

Sunil Kumar Nishad, 35, was arrested from eastern Indias Banda in June this year after he raped the minor in June and left her in a box inside a forest.

The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court in the Indian state on Monday announced the sentence after finding Nishad, a trader and a farmer, guilty of murder, kidnapping, wrongful confinement and offences under the POCSO act which deals with sexual abuse of minors in India.

Officials and the childs family said the child died during her treatment from injuries during sexual assault on 3 June.

Government counsel Kamal Singh Gautam said the courts additional district judge Pradeep Kumar Mishra termed the case rarest of the rare and handed the death sentence to the man, reported Indian daily The Indian Express. The court has imposed a fine of Rs65,000 (544.9) on the convict.

During the trial, the court recorded the statements of 11 prosecution witnesses and one defence witness.

During the questioning, he admitted to sexually assaulting the child and took the police investigators to the location where he had dumped the minor, the report added, citing police officials. He also strangled the child, prosecution said, adding that he believed the minor was dead.

Nishad then put the three-year-old girl in a box, rode with it on his bicycle and dumped her in the box a few kilometres away.

Police said the child was found unconscious inside a box with at least a dozen injuries on her body. She succumbed to the wounds on 12 June.

A DNA test of the accused man and the victim was conducted and the report showed a match between the samples, confirming the assault, said Mr Gautam.

The prosecution said the minor girls father filed a police complaint on the day his daughter went missing, accusing the man of luring the child on the pretext of giving her a toffee.

The father also said many people in the neighbourhood had seen Nishad with his daughter just before she went missing.

The accused was arrested during the police hunt which resulted in an encounter.
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Armed soldiers guarded the streets of Nepal's capital on Wednesday, ordering people to stay home in an attempt to restore order after tens of thousands of protesters stormed and set fire to government buildings and attacked politicians.

Soldiers with weapons guarding the main areas of Kathmandu appeared to give some sense of control returning to the city that was overtaken by violence and chaos in previous days.

The army warned in an announcement late Tuesday that the security forces were committed to preserving law and order. The army is rarely mobilised and so far had stayed in its barracks, but police have failed to control the situation.

Soldiers told people in Kathmandu that the curfew was valid and checked vehicles and people. The army in a statement said 21 suspected looters had been arrested.

The protests had grown increasingly violent on Tuesday as demonstrators set fire to government buildings and politicians homes and attacked some leaders. The prime minister resigned amid widening criticism of the countrys political elite, though it appeared to have little effect on the unrest.

Tens of thousands of protesters remained on the streets late in the day, blocking roads and storming government facilities. Army helicopters ferried some ministers to safe places.

On Monday, demonstrations led by young people angry about the blocking of several social media sites gripped the capital, and police opened fire on the crowds, killing at least 19 people.

The social media ban was lifted Tuesday, but the protests continued, fueled by rage over the deaths and accusations of political corruption.

President Ram Chandra Poudel, the ceremonial head of state, appealed to the protesters to pursue a peaceful resolution and stop further escalation. He accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli and appointed Oli to lead a caretaker government until a new one is in place  though it was unclear what power he would wield or even where he was.

The demonstrations  called the protest of Gen Z  began after the government blocked social media platforms, including Facebook, X and YouTube, saying the companies had failed to register and submit to government oversight.

But the protests spiraled to reflect broader discontent. In particular, many young people are angry that the children of political leaders  so-called nepo kids  seem to enjoy luxury lifestyles and numerous advantages while most youth struggle to find work. With youth unemployment running at about 20% last year, according to the World Bank, the government estimates that more than 2,000 young people leave the country every day to seek work in the Middle East or Southeast Asia.

Videos shared on social media showed protesters beating up Nepali Congress party leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and his wife, Arzu Rana Deuba, the current foreign minister. Both appeared to be bleeding, while one video showed the party leader being helped to safety. The party is the countrys largest and is part of the governing coalition.

Smoke was still coming out of the parliament building, presidential house, the central secretariat that has the offices of the prime minister and key ministries, and the prime ministers official residence Wednesday.

The building of Kantipur publication, the biggest media outlet in Nepal, was torched and damaged. Car showrooms were also torched. Burned-out vehicles dotted the streets.

Protesters had attacked government buildings and the residences of the top political leaders throughout Tuesday, blaming the government for the police opening fire on the protesters.

In addition to the 19 fatalities, scores of people were wounded. Oli has ordered an investigation report on the shootings and promised compensation to the families.

The violence unfolded as Nepal's government pursues a broader attempt to regulate social media with a bill aimed at ensuring the platforms are properly managed, responsible and accountable. The proposal has been widely criticized as a tool for censorship and for punishing government opponents who voice their protests online.

The bill would require companies to appoint a liaison office or a point of contact in the country. Rights groups have called it an attempt by the government to curb freedom of expression and fundamental rights.

The registration requirement applied to about two dozen social networks widely used in Nepal. Those that didn't comply were blocked last week, though TikTok, Viber and three other platforms that registered were operating without interruption.
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Armed troops patrolled the streets of Kathmandu on Wednesday as Nepal grappled with its most serious political crisis in decades, after KP Sharma Oli was forced to resign as prime minister amid violent protests that left at least 19 people dead and much of the nations political establishment in flames.

The Himalayan republic  sandwiched between India and China  has been engulfed by unrest since last week, when the government abruptly banned 26 social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and X (Twitter), in an attempt to silence criticism.

The ban only deepened frustration among young Nepalis already disillusioned by corruption, unemployment and a political elite seen as unaccountable.

By Monday, demonstrations turned deadly as police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse crowds, killing at least 19 people  17 of them in Kathmandu, many still in their school or college uniforms. By Tuesday, protesters had stormed parliament, torching its main hall, while flames spread to the Supreme Court, the prime ministers residence and even the presidents private home. Burnt vehicles and twisted debris still littered the capitals streets as army firefighters struggled to contain the damage.

The crisis has now pushed Nepals institutions to breaking point. Army chief General Ashok Raj Sigdel appealed to the citizens for peace and urged the protesters not to resort to arson and looting.

Even the president, Ram Chandra Poudel, who accepted Mr Olis resignation, saw his private residence set ablaze.

Royalist forces are also seeking to exploit the unrest. Pro-monarchy MPs have resigned en masse, raising fears of a push to restore the throne abolished in 2008. Former king Gyanendra Shah, who has largely stayed out of politics since the abolition of the monarchy, issued a statement on Tuesday condemning the violence.

open image in gallery Flames emerge from the parliament building after it was set on fire by protesters ( AP )

It is extremely tragic and condemnable that instead of addressing the legitimate demands of the younger generation, lives were lost and many were injured, he said. I condemn the violence, which is against the norm of the peaceful Nepalese society.

Mr Olis departure has created a power vacuum that protesters  overwhelmingly from Generation Z  want filled by fresh leadership. Their support has coalesced around two figures outside Nepals traditional political class: Balendra Shah, the 35-year-old mayor of Kathmandu, and Rabi Lamichhane, 51, a former deputy prime minister currently facing corruption charges.

On Tuesday, demonstrators stormed Nakhu prison in Lalitpur and freed Mr Lamichhane, who emerged to deliver a defiant speech outside. He was reportedly released to safeguard other prisoners; legally speaking, he is not yet free from the charges against him.

open image in gallery Protesters celebrate at the parliament building after it was set on fire ( AP )

Mr Shah, meanwhile, voiced his full support for the movement, saying: I want to understand their aspirations, objectives, and thinking. His stance reflected the deep mistrust among young Nepalis towards institutions they see as corrupt and self-serving.

As things stand, there are no obvious candidates to step forward into leadership roles from the protest movement itself, however. Binod Dhungel, 53, a senior journalist based in the capital, told The Independent the situation was complete chaos.

Mr Dhungel says the political vacuum represents a scenario I have never seen before in more than 40 years.

open image in gallery A woman walks with a garbage bag past a burnt vehicle in Kathmandu ( Reuters )

All political leaders except those in power now say the next political force should be shared with Gen Z, that they must be decisive, said Mr Dhungel. But for the moment, the protesters remain an organised  but leaderless group.

Minutes after Mr Olis resignation, Mr Shah  popularly known as Balen  appealed to demonstrators to exercise restraint. In a Facebook post, he acknowledged the protests were entirely a Gen Z movement but warned against further damage to public and private property.

Dear Gen Z, your demand for the resignation of the government has been met. Now it is time to remain restrained. The loss of the countrys wealth is, in reality, a loss to our own property, he wrote.

open image in gallery Burnt remains lie inside a section of the parliament house, which was set on fire by the protesters ( Reuters )

Nepals turmoil sits within a longer history of fragile democracy. The monarchy was abolished in 2008 after a mass uprising, following decades of turbulence that included a Maoist insurgency. Since then, not a single government has completed its full five-year term, fuelling instability and steadily eroding public trust.

Even before this weeks violence, younger Nepalis were rejecting traditional parties. In 2023, a Facebook campaign called No, not again urged voters to shun recycled politicians. When the Election Commission tried to ban the page, the Supreme Court intervened, upholding freedom of speech and dissent.

It was in this environment that Mr Lamichhane, a former television journalist, rose to prominence. Known for grilling corrupt officials live on air, he first gained attention in 2013 by hosting a Guinness World Record-breaking 62-hour talk show. In 2022, he founded the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), which stunned the establishment by capturing 20 parliamentary seats, instantly becoming the fourth-largest bloc.

open image in gallery Firefighters dousing the torched government complex a day after it was set ablaze ( AFP/Getty )

Appointed deputy prime minister and home minister, Mr Lamichhane positioned himself as the face of youth-led reform. But his rise was marred by controversy. The Supreme Court stripped him of office in 2023 over citizenship irregularities, though he quickly regained his seat in a by-election. Later, he was implicated in a cooperative fraud scandal and jailed in April this year pending trial. Despite this, his popularity endured  amplified by online communities that hailed him as a symbol of anti-corruption.

Under Nepals constitution, only a sitting MP can be appointed prime minister. But parliaments credibility has collapsed, undermined further by mass resignations in the past 24 hours.

The names most often cited by demonstrators  Mr Shah and Mr Lamichhane  are not viable under current law. Other possibilities include Baburam Bhattarai, a former Maoist leader and ex-prime minister, though his past makes him divisive, says Mr Dhungel.

Mr Bhattarais house in Kathmandu was also torched by the protesters.

For ordinary Nepalis, the immediate concern is not political instability but survival. Kathmandu depends heavily on supplies from surrounding regions, but protests have paralysed traffic, raising fears of shortages and panic-induced looting.

open image in gallery Nepali army soldiers stop a commuter during a curfew outside parliament, following Mondays killing of 19 people ( Reuters )

Shops and markets remained shut on Wednesday, while armoured vehicles patrolled empty streets. The main airport was closed for several hours, disrupting flights.

The turmoil has prompted alarm in India, which convened its security cabinet on Tuesday to discuss the crisis on its doorstep. Nepals stability, peace, and prosperity are of utmost importance, said Indias prime minister, Narendra Modi. I humbly appeal to all my brothers and sisters in Nepal to maintain peace and order.

China, a major investor in the countrys infrastructure, said on Wednesday that it hoped the Nepali people would come together to properly handle the crisis and restore national stability as soon as possible, while asking that Chinese citizens and institutions be safeguarded.

Despite the chaos, there are signs of dialogue being established.

Former Supreme Court judge Balaram KC urged the protesters to set up a negotiation team, with the army helping to maintain law and order, and called for fresh elections.

Parliament should be dissolved and fresh elections held, the constitutional expert told Reuters. They should discuss forming the next caretaker government.

President Poudel also appealed for calm. I urge all sides to remain calm, prevent further harm to the nation, and come to the table for talks, he said. In a democracy, the demands raised by citizens can be addressed through dialogue and negotiation.

For now, Kathmandu remains under curfew. Soldiers  who until Wednesday had stayed in their barracks and left police to attempt to control demonstrations  guard the charred parliament building, as residents wait anxiously to see whether their lives will return to normal or whether protests will erupt again.
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Two British men have been arrested in the tourist island of Bali for allegedly smuggling more than a kilo of cocaine into Indonesia.

The Bali National Narcotics Agency said the men were members of an international drug trafficking syndicate, according to the Indonesian Antara news agency.

The men, who are only named in local reports by their initials KG, 29, and PE, 48, appeared at a press conference in the city of Denpasar on Tuesday, dressed in orange prison uniforms.

Rudy Ahmad Sudrajat, the head of the Bali Narcotics Agency, said the men smuggled the cocaine from Barcelona, and that both had met in Spain a week before their arrest.

PE travelled to Bali first and waited for the shipment, Mr Sudrajat was quoted as saying.

open image in gallery The men appeared in prison uniforms at a press conference in Denpasar ( EPA )

Custom officers at Balis Ngurah Rai airport reportedly intercepted KG during a security check on Wednesday after becoming suspicious of his behaviour. A subsequent X-ray of his luggage revealed 1.3kg of cocaine, Antara reported.

KG reportedly admitted he was transporting the drugs to PE, and investigators suspect the pair, who live in Thailand, were offered $5,000 (3,700) each to traffic the cocaine into Bali and sell it to foreign nationals.

Indonesia has some of the strictest drug laws in the world. People convicted of possession, smuggling or use of illegal drugs face long prison sentences, life imprisonment and even the death penalty for major drug trafficking offences.

In July, three British people were sentenced to one year in jail on drug offences after a charge that could carry the death penalty was dropped, the AP news agency reported.

Jonathan Christopher Collyer, 28, and his partner Lisa Ellen Stocker, 29, were arrested in February by customs officers in Bali after nearly a kilo of cocaine was found hidden among sachets of powdered dessert mix. Two days later, Phineas Ambrose Float, 31, was arrested in a sting operation.

During their trial, they argued they were unaware that the food given to them in England contained cocaine.

Hundreds of people are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes, including many foreign nationals. The most recent execution occurred in July 2016, when an Indonesian citizen and three foreigners were shot dead by firing squad.

A British woman, Lindsay Sandiford, now 69, has been on death row in Indonesia for more than a decade, AP reported. She was arrested in 2012 with 4.8kg of cocaine in her luggage.
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A South Korean court has acquitted a 78-year-old woman after overturning a decades-old conviction for biting off a part of the tongue of a man during a sexual attack.

Choi Mal Ja, then 18, was sexually assaulted by a 21-year-old stranger in May 1964 in the southern town of Gimhae. He pinned her to the ground and tried to force his tongue into her mouth. She managed to break free by biting off his tongue, cutting off about 1.5cm of his tongue.

The man received only a suspended six-month sentence for trespassing and intimidation. He was not convicted of attempted rape.

Instead, Choi was convicted of causing bodily harm in 1965 and given a 10-month prison term, suspended for two years.

On Wednesday, the district court in the city of Busan cleared her name following a retrial, nearly 60 years after her conviction.

I, Choi Mal Ja, am finally innocent! she shouted outside the courthouse, after judges ruled her act was justified as self-defence.

Choi Mal Ja was convicted 61 years ago for biting off the tongue of her attempted rapist ( YONHAP/AFP via Getty Images )

In the first hearing of the case in July, after the retrial began this year, prosecutors apologised to her and asked the court to repeal her conviction for causing her immeasurable pain and suffering.

"I could not let this case go unanswered... I [wanted] to stand up for other victims who share the same fate as mine," Ms Choi said.

She thanked those who supported her in her legal fight and denounced those who abused their power to manipulate the law.

"People around me warned me that it would be like throwing eggs at a rock, but I could not let this case go," Ms Choi added about her struggle to seek justice.

But I could not keep it buried. I wanted to give hope to victims who faced the same situation as I did.

The accused sued Ms Choi on charges of inflicting grievous bodily harm and demanded compensation for causing him injury.

More than two weeks after the incident in 1964, the man and several of his friends tried to intimidate Ms Choi by raiding her home and also threatened to stab her father.

Initially, the police arrested the accused but prosecutors later released him and let him stand trial as a free man. Following the trial Ms Choi was arrested and remained in detention for six months during the investigation and was later convicted.

Ms Choi also had to go through a virginity test during the trial and the results were made public. Prosecutors reportedly even tried to persuade her to marry him.

In 2020, inspired by the #MeToo movement, Ms Choi sought a retrial, more than half a century after the assault.

Her petitions were repeatedly dismissed by lower courts, but in December 2023 the Supreme Court intervened, ordering a retrial on the grounds that the original investigation and trial had been tainted by bias and unfair procedures.

For decades, Ms Chois ordeal has appeared in South Korean legal texts as a textbook example of how courts once failed to recognise self-defence in cases of sexual assault.

Even though it was clearly self-defence, she was treated as the perpetrator, said Choi Ran, deputy director of the Korea Sexual Violence Relief Centre. "Investigators went so far as to suggest she should marry her attacker, as he will have limitations in social activities."
Yesterday, Prince Harry returned to the green and pleasant land of his birth. A man on a mission, he touched down at Heathrow and laid a wreath at his late grandmothers grave in St Georges Chapel, Windsor, before heading into London for his first charity rendezvous.

Just eight miles away, older brother William was chit-chatting over chocolate brownies at a WI branch meeting in Sunningdale. (Apparently, the Prince of Wales prefers his sweet treats nut-free). Harrys small talk was more on point: that evening at a Wellchild awards ceremony, the Prince asked 17-year-old winner Declan Bitmead if his younger brother drove him mad, and doubled down when he discovered they went to the same school, glibly adding, Siblings... that sometimes makes it more challenging!

It was all a bit near-the-knuckle given his recent criticism of Williams, including the latters alleged dismissal of him at Eton. Apparently, the Prince of Wales didnt want anything to do with Harry then, and if yesterday was anything to go by, he still doesnt.

On the other side of London, veteran broadcaster Piers Morgan huffed and puffed. Nope. He doesnt think that there should be a reconciliation between the royal family and estranged Harry. So no change there. Except yesterday, three years after the death of the late Queen, something felt very different. In 2022, Piers and I regularly crossed swords on the rights and wrongs of the Sussexes public diatribes against the royal life theyd left behind. Morgans rants on their despicable behaviour against our most venerable institution laid the founding stones of his now gigantic YouTube channel.

Three years on, the couple scarcely get a look in. And it is not just Harry and Meghan who have ceased to be red meat for his online juggernaut. Yesterday, he admitted that the royal family are less relevant than it used to be. Quite a confession from arch-royalist Morgan. And a worrying sign of things to come.

open image in gallery Prince Harry and the then Duke of Cambridge arrive at St Georges Chapel in Windsor Castle before Prince Harrys wedding to Meghan Markle ( PA )

The polling, while not yet catastrophic, is only heading in one direction: in 1983, when the British Social Attitudes survey first took Britains royal temperature, a staggering 86 per cent of the population endorsed monarchy. I was one of many: recently, in my mothers attic, I uncovered a childhood scrapbook: it began with Charles and Dianas wedding in 1981 and climaxed five years later for the Andrew and Fergie extravaganza.

I was still cutting and sticking at age 12. How times have changed. In keeping with most young Britons, my seven-year-old daughter cant name the Princess of Wales, and perhaps more telling, my 16-year-old resents knowing it. In 2023, 40 years on from the first royal survey, only 54 per cent of the population expressed any commitment to royalty and for the most part, they were older. The young ones have signed out, and as long as an unseemly royal impasse persists in the House of Windsor, where is the incentive for them to sign in?

Like never before, the Duchess of Sussex, replete with high-end jam and lobster anecdotes, has leaned into her inner Californian and left most of Britain behind. Not so Harry, who, back on home turf, still has the Midas touch, wowing the crowds on the second day of his stopover in hand-picked Nottingham, where he sealed the deal with a 1.1m donation to Children in Need.

Who said the Sussexes were struggling? Uncomfortable as it may be for many royal watchers, Harry retains a reach and appeal in areas where traditional monarchy is at its weakest. After all, William is many things, but cool is not one of them.

open image in gallery The Duke of Sussex leaving the coronation ceremony of King Charles III and Queen Camilla in Westminster Abbey, London. on Saturday, 6 May 2023. Gareth Cattermole/PA Wire ( PA )

As future king, that is perhaps for the best. But effective kingship must surely embrace a broad church. One day in the not-so-distant future, William will be the symbolic repository for a nation in an increasingly divided world, riddled with perpetual wars, displaced peoples and existential threats. Much has been written about the Prince of Wales modelling himself and his leadership on the late Queen: cue ambitions as a unifying sovereign without the baggage his father brings to the throne. But if that is really his goal, William has fallen at the first hurdle.

The capacity to forgive is an important life skill, but for a future monarch, it is essential. According to Sir David Manning, Williams foreign affairs adviser, after the Prince visited the Middle East in 2018, and with the war in Gaza still raging, he was keen to stay engaged with both the Jewish community in Britain and the Palestinians. It feels peculiar that the man who cant work out how to forgive his own brother wants to help philanthropically on both sides of the line in the worlds most intractable conflict.

It is widely agreed that the late Queen was the blueprint for royal survival in the democratic age, and perhaps Elizabeths greatest superpower was her inscrutability. Some royal commentators have insisted that Her Majesty was devastated by the Prince Harry fall-out just before her death, but the truth is, none of us will ever know.

Given Elizabeth IIs breadth of life experience, it is likely she was both infuriated by her grandsons behaviour and also understood its genesis. According to Paul Burrell, Princess Dianas former butler, just after Harrys birth, Charles turned to his first wife and said, Well, at least Ive got my heir and spare now and can return to Camilla. Institutionally, Prince Harry was always the lesser of the two brothers, born into a marriage already falling apart, and (thanks to Burrell, who claims he repeated Charles words verbatim to an unflinching prince) he knew it.

Harry has since walked forward and very publicly slain his demons. The subsequent domestic and institutional mess reverberated across the globe; everyone had an opinion and most in Britain resented Harrys confused attack. Perhaps even the Duke has come to regret it. While he cant bring himself to say sorry, Harry has at least dropped any demand for an apology from the royal family and his presence in Britain has brought both attention and reconciliation.

As many hoped, Harry did finally reunite with King Charles at Clarence House their first meeting in 19 months. Prince Harry arrived at the residence on Wednesday in a black Range Rover at 5.20pm, and left after an hour during which they had tea. Approaching his 77th birthday and continuing to undergo cancer treatment, it is widely assumed that Charles will want to spend precious time with his grandchildren, Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, four. Proof, if anywhere needed, that while a fathers love is often tested, its hard to break. The same cannot be said for siblings, yet it is William, not Charles, who holds the key to future royal happy families.

open image in gallery The Duke of Sussex leaving Westminster Abbey in central London following the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla on 6 May 2023 ( PA )

Like his brother, the Prince of Wales was forged in the cross hairs of his parents broken marriage and Dianas early death, but unlike Harry, William is destined to assume the mantle of kingship. No matter how he behaves, that is his birthright. Many royalists anticipate Britain under William V will have a fresh(er) appeal. Certainly, his marriage to remarkable Kate with its three bountiful children, always proves a visual feast, but beyond the high days and holidays, for his kingship to really mean something, William needs to demonstrate he can tackle his own demons.

For too long, there have been rumours of a certain stubbornness, a tendency to sulk. Yes, Harry blindsided Willy with his public attacks; the older brother misunderstood the depths of young Harolds pain. And anger. But what better way for William to prove any childhood petulance is in the past than by reaching out to Harry, the flawed younger brother who so clearly craves a way back into Britains most famous family. Surely even the naysayers would agree that King William the Peacemaker has a certain ring to it.

Tessa Dunlop is the author of Lest We Forget: War and Peace in 100 British Monuments
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First Minister John Swinney has met President Donald Trump in the Oval Office to discuss whisky tariffs.

The meeting took place in the Oval Office, where the President was accompanied by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Mr Swinney says he discussed the possibility for a better tariff deal for Scotch whisky.

A 50-minute meeting took place ahead of the US Presidents State Visit to the United Kingdom next week.

The First Minister confirmed to Mr Trump he would attend the State Banquet at Windsor Palace.

He said: With the US state visit to the UK just days away, we are now entering the critical days on which hopes of a better tariff deal for Scotch whisky rest. Scotch whisky holds a unique position, as it can only legally be produced in Scotland.

During my discussions with President Trump, I made the case to reduce the tariffs on the Scotch whisky industry  something the US industry supports.

The United States is the largest market for Scotch whisky but Scottish distillers also spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year buying Bourbon casks from Kentucky.

First Minister of Scotland John Swinney departs the White House following a meeting with US President Donald Trump ( Aaron Schwartz/PA )

The negotiations themselves are, of course, for the UK negotiating team but given whisky exports to the US were worth almost 1 billion in 2024, its importance to the Scottish economy cannot be underestimated and I am determined to do all that I can to protect and safeguard this iconic Scottish product.

The First Minister also raised the international situation including the ongoing conflict in Gaza and Qatar.

Mr Swinney is in the United States to undertake a series of trade and political meetings involving both main US political parties.

In a video posted to X, he confirmed he had met Mr Trump and discussed whisky tariffs, in particular, the possibility of no tariffs on Scotch whisky.

He said: I wanted to share an update on my visit to Washington, DC. I spent the morning with representatives of the whisky industry from Scotland and the United States and we discussed the zero-for-zero approach on tariffs, which would help the industry to flourish on both sides of the pond.

Ive now taken those arguments to the Oval Office to President Trump, and weve had a constructive discussion about the reasons why Scotch whisky would benefit from no tariffs.

Its all part of my job to make sure that Scotlands interests are promoted at all times, and thats what Ill always do as First Minister.

The meeting at the White House was scheduled to last around 30 minutes and took place at 7pm UK time.

Prior to the meeting at the White House, the First Minister met representatives and member companies of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (Discus) and the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) at Mount Vernon, the home of US founding father George Washington and the site of a whisky distillery he opened in 1798 which was operated by his Scottish farm hand, James Anderson.

The First Minister flew to Washington DC on Tuesday, saying he would be pressing the case for a better tariff deal for Scotch whisky in key talks in the United States.
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The head of Russia's state-owned gas company Gazprom says it has a deal to build a pipeline to China, but there are many unanswered questions about the details of the agreement.

On paper, the project  known as the Power of Siberia 2  would give Russia a way to replace some of the revenue from its decades of selling natural gas to Europe that was lost over its invasion of Ukraine. The pipeline would carry gas from reserves in western Siberia through Mongolia to China.

And what Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller called a legally binding memorandum to build the pipeline with the China National Petroleum Co. is a chance for Moscow and Beijing to underline their deepening ties against the United States.

Here are key issues surrounding the Power of Siberia 2 and why it can't completely replace Russia's lost revenue from Europe:

A new link to China

The pipeline would run 6,700 kilometers (4,163 miles) from gas fields in the Yamal Peninsula in western Siberia, past Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia, and then across Mongolia into China. For more than 50 years, Russia earned fat profits sending Yamal gas to Europe through pipelines leading west.

But Russia cut off most pipeline gas to Europe over the war in Ukraine, and the European Union wants to end the remaining trickle of supplies by 2027.

So the new pipeline would be a way to shift those lost gas sales to a big new customer.

The geopolitics of the deal

Power of Siberia 2 would carry 50 billion cubic meters a year to China, compared with the up to 180 billion cubic meters a year that went to Europe  meaning the new pipeline could only make up part of the lost business. It would supplement a previous, smaller Power of Siberia line that carries gas from different fields in eastern Siberia with a capacity of 38 billion cubic meters per year.

Miller's announcement, which came during a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, left out key details. There was no agreement on gas prices or even who would finance the pipeline's construction.

Analysts say the announcement was primarily a chance for Russia and China to underline their closer relationship, and for China to snub supplies of U.S. liquefied natural gas that comes by ship.

India is buying Russian oil despite U.S. President Donald Trump retaliating with 25% tariffs on imports, and China's purchases of U.S. liquefied natural gas are blocked by tariffs imposed as part of China's trade dispute with the Trump administration trade. Meanwhile China has started taking LNG shipments from Russia's Arctic-2 terminal, which has been the target of U.S. and EU sanctions.

So the theatrics of the deal are clear.

Youve got this show of Russia, India, China saying, you know what, we dont care about your sanctions, we dont care about your LNG," said Michal Meidan, head of China energy research at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.

The announcement was an absolutely perfect way ... to say: Look, were not all talk, heres an actual measure, said Annette Bohr, associate fellow in the Russia and Eurasia program at Chatham House in London.

But while the deal is a step forward for Gazprom, its not a done deal. Theres no confirmed timeline, no definitive pricing agreement, she said.

China's hard bargain on prices

Discussions on the pipeline have moved slowly, largely because China has held out for low prices.

At the moment, its entirely possible that Beijing is still only ready to commit to part of the pipeline, and at heavily discounted rates, which has in fact been the problem for a number of years," Bohr said. So Russia is, in effect, still subsidizing Chinese gas consumption.

She added that "China is definitely in the drivers seat when it comes to energy deals.

The announcement underlines that China is the dominant partner, said Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.

China has multiple other sources to import gas. So if Russia is ready to provide conditions that satisfy Chinas demands, then its probably a green light, he said. But without that, its just a friendly reminder that Russia needs to accommodate some of Chinese demand. And its telling you that China has tremendous leverage, and has, in a way, the seniority in this relationship.

Does China need another fossil fuel pipeline?

Given the global effort to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels, one good question is whether China needs another gas supplier, says the Oxford Energy Institute's Meidan.

Its not clear that it really does need Power of Siberia 2, she said, adding that there is huge uncertainty about just how much demand China will have in the 2030s, even from Chinese analysts and Chinese institutions.

China's future demand is part of a complex equation involving a shift away from coal, which emits more carbon dioxide, as the swing fuel used to cover peaks in electricity demand that can't be met by renewables such as wind or hydro power.

A faster move away from coal means more gas use over the short term, while a slower coal exit could increase gas consumption. Battery storage to cover demand peaks and nuclear power could also play a role.

They might not necessarily use more gas if they do renewables and storage faster than anyone else, or if they find other ways where ... they use their hydro and their nuclear," Meidan said.

For China, gas "is sort of a nice to have (but) its not a must-have, she added.

-

Kozlowska reported from London.
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Watch live as Sir Keir Starmer faces off against Kemi Badenoch in Prime Ministers Questions on Wednesday (10 September).

It is the first time that he will sit at the despatch box following his cabinet reshuffle last week, which saw David Lammy become deputy prime minister and justice minister, Yvette Cooper take over as foreign secretary, and Shabana Mahmood become home secretary.

The reorganisation came after Angela Rayners resignation on Friday (5 September) after she admitted to underpaying on stamp duty on her 800,000 flat in Hove.

She revealed on 3 September that she had referred herself to both the government's independent ethics adviser and to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for failing to pay the levy.

Independent standards adviser Sir Laurie Magnus released his verdict on her conduct on Friday, finding her position in government untenable.

His huge reshuffle will likely be on the agenda, as will his meeting with Israels president Isaac Herzog, who is in London.

Ms Badnoch will also likely grill the prime minister on immigration, as pressure continues to grow for the government to stop people crossing the Channel, after a record 30,000 small boat crossings were documented just 48 hours after Ms Mahmood took over at the home office.

Lord Peter Mandelsons association with Jeffrey Epstein could also be on the cards, after the British ambassador appeared to refer to the convicted paedophile as his best pal according to files released by a US congressional committee. Some Labour MPs have called for his sacking.
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Klarna priced its long awaited initial public offering at $40 a share late Tuesday, valuing the Swedish buy now, pay later company at more than $15 billion.

The valuation easily makes Klarna one of the biggest IPOs so far in 2025, which has been one of the busier years for companies going public. The $40 share price came in above market expectations, which called for Klarna to price its shares between $35 and $37 each.

Founded in 2005 as a payments company, Klarna entered the U.S. buy now, pay market in 2015 in partnership with department store operator Macys. Since then, Klarna has expanded to hundreds of thousands of merchants and has embedded itself in internet browsers and digital wallets as an alternative to credit cards. The company recently announced a partnership with Walmart.

Klarna's most popular product is whats known as a pay-in-4 plan, where a customer can split a purchase into four payments spread over six weeks. The company also offers a longer-term payment plan where it charges interest.

The business model has caught on globally. The company said 111 million consumers worldwide have used Klarna for a purchase.

open image in gallery Klarna has begin trading its shares on the US stock market in a major public debut ( Klarna/PA )

Ahead of going public, Klarna reported in August that it had second-quarter revenues of $823 million and had an adjusted profit of $29 million.

The company will start trading Wednesday under the symbol KLAR on the New York Stock Exchange. While based in Sweden and a popular payment service in Europe, its decision to go public on U.S. markets is a sign that the company executives see American shoppers as its future growth market.

Klarna will now be the second-largest buy now, pay later company on U.S. public markets, behind Affirm. Shares of Affirm have surged more than 40 per cent so far this year, valuing the company at around $28 billion, helped by a belief among investors that buy now, pay later companies may take away market share from traditional banks and credit cards.

Klarna was backed by JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs as their investment banks.

Other popular IPOs so far this year include the design software company Figma and Circle Internet Group, which issues the USDC stablecoin. Investors are also looking forward to the expected market debuts of the ticket exchange StubHub and the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, which is majority owned by the Winklevoss twins.
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Chinese scientists claimed to have developed the worlds first brain-like artificial intelligence large language model similar to ChatGPT, designed to consume less power and work without Nvidia chips.

The AI model, named SpikingBrain1.0, mimics the way the human brain fires only the nerve cells it needs, according to researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Large language models widely in use, like ChatGPT and Metas Llama, are dependent on the scaling law, which implies that a reasoning AI systems performance improves with more data and larger models.

They work by applying a technique called attention, in which the AI model looks at all the words in a sentence at once to figure out which ones are most important for predicting the next word.

For instance, if one were to provide ChatGPT a prompt: The cat went under the bed after seeing the stranger because it was scared, the AI can process the words at once to understand that the it refers to the cat.

In this way, AI models compare every word to every other word, and if the prompt is very long, like an entire book, it could consume considerably more energy and slow down.

These models suffer from several hurdles due to the large number of words they process, including extremely high training costs, high energy consumption, and complex deployment pipelines, scientists explain in a yet-to-be peer-reviewed study posted in arXiv.

People visit the booth of MetaX during World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai ( AFP via Getty Images )

Most commonly used AI models are also built only to run on Nvidia GPUs, limiting who can develop them.

In addition, building large models on non-Nvidia computing platforms poses major challenges, scientists wrote.

To overcome these limitations, researchers claim to have developed a new model that draws inspiration from brain mechanisms.

Instead of looking at the entire text, scientists claim their new model only looks closely at nearby words, like how the human brain focuses on recent context in conversations.

Such a setup can balance efficiency and accuracy, researchers say.

By using this method of attention, SpikingBrain can be 25 to 100 times faster than normal AI models, they say.

The new AI model also runs on Chinas homegrown MetaX chip platform instead of using Nvidia chips, according to the study.

In recent years, since the first Donald Trump presidency, the US has ramped up its technology export restrictions to China, cutting off the Asian giants access to tools used to make chips for computer servers, artificial intelligence, and other advanced applications.

One company whose Chinese exports are particularly affected is the California chipmaker Nvidia, which is a world leader in designing specialised chips for AI technology.

Following these disruptions, China began rapidly developing its own homegrown AI ecosystem.

Instead of relying on an entire network like OpenAIs ChatGPT, the new AI model selectively responds to input, reducing its power consumption, scientists say.

This enables continual pre-training with less than 2 per cent of the data while achieving performance comparable to mainstream open-source models, they wrote.

They claim SpikingBrain achieves more than 100 times the speed of traditional models in some cases.

Overall, this work demonstrates the potential of brain-inspired mechanisms to drive the next generation of efficient and scalable large model design, scientists wrote.
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A man has been charged with sexually assaulting a woman as she sunbathed at a beach in Sussex.

The alleged attack on the woman in her 50s took place at Camber Sands, near Rye, on the evening of the bank holiday on 25 August.

On Wednesday, Sussex Police said they had charged a Mohammed Maatoug, 33, of Maidstone in Kent, with sexual assault by penetration, following his arrest on Saturday.

He appeared at Brighton Magistrates Court on Tuesday, and will next appear at the same court on 7 October.

In a statement, the force said: A woman in her 50s reported being sexually assaulted by a man as she sunbathed in the dunes at Camber Sands, Rye, around 5.30pm on 25 August.

An investigation was launched and on Saturday, 33-year-old Mohammed Maatoug, of Boxley Road, Maidstone, was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault by penetration.

He was subsequently charged and remanded in custody at Brighton Magistrates Court on Tuesday. Maatoug will next appear at a court to be confirmed on 7 October.

Camber Sands, positioned east of Rye, is a two-mile stretch of sandy beach, which on warm days is a popular coastal resort for people living in London.

It is also regularly used by people doing windsurfing and kitesurfing.
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The United Nations will investigate whether Britain is breaching human rights law by arbitrarily detaining prisoners trapped on abolished indefinite jail terms, The Independent can reveal.

Campaigners and their legal team are launching a landmark complaint on behalf of five men who have served a combined total of 84 years incarcerated under Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) jail terms, including for minor crimes, as highlighted by The Independent.

The case, due to be lodged with the UNs Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on Thursday, includes a bombshell letter from new justice secretary David Lammy, which proves he agrees the jail term is a grave injustice which causes simply horrendous mental trauma.

The letter, written in 2021 when he was shadow justice secretary, says the implementation of the jail term was tragically flawed, adding: It is now painfully clear that the IPP sentence was far too broad, and many low-risk offenders are serving IPP sentences today for committing minor offences in the past.

Although the sentence was scrapped in 2012 following a damning ruling from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), it was not abolished retrospectively, and successive governments have resisted calls to resentence more than 2,500 still languishing without a release date.

However, following his appointment as justice secretary and deputy prime minister in last weeks cabinet reshuffle, campaign group IPP Committee in Action is calling for Mr Lammy to finally put right the miscarriage of justice.

International human rights expert Dr Muin Boase told The Independent the jail term was a national scandal and akin to the miscarriages of justice uncovered in the Post Office scandal.

The five tragic cases being sent to the UN, which have all been highlighted by The Independent over the past 18 months, include:

Leroy Douglas, 43, who has served almost 19 years without release for street robbery of a mobile phone

Abdullahi Suleman, 42, is still in jail 20 years after he was handed an IPP for a laptop robbery, having been recalled for missing a hospital appointment

Shaun Anton Lloyd, 39, who has been hauled back to prison four times and served 12 years and four months for two street robberies committed when he was 18

Wayne Williams, 37, has spent more than 19 years in prison without release for a 23-month jail term for attempting to injure a police officer in a fight

Joshua Mcrae died in his cell last year, aged 34, having served more than 16 years for a four-year tariff for grievous bodily harm

The government will have 60 days to respond to the 30-page complaint over the treatment of the five men. Following this, the UN working group will issue an opinion on whether Britain is arbitrarily detaining the prisoners.

Shirley Debono, who founded the campaign group after her son, Shaun Lloyd, was handed an IPP sentence for stealing a phone, said: This is the greatest miscarriage of justice. Our loved ones are suffering psychological torture, locked up in arbitrary detention.

Our government condemns such treatment in China and Russia, yet is committing the same act here in the UK.

open image in gallery Shirley Debono, from Cardiff, has called for all IPP prisoners to be resentenced ( Shirley Debono/The Independent )

The mother, who has spent a year compiling the complaint with Dr Boase, is due to hand in the papers alongside MPs and campaigners at No 10 on Thursday.

Their claim alleges the open-ended jail term is irredeemably flawed and the length of the prisoners incarceration bears no relation to the original crimes.

It further alleges that England and Wales are breaching international law because of the mental anguish for prisoners and their families, after 94 prisoners have taken their own lives after losing hope of being freed.

The UN special rapporteur on torture, Dr Alice Edwards, has previously condemned the jail terms as psychological torture.

The complaint also alleges the UK remains in breach of the 2012 ECHR decision, which resulted in the sentence being abolished, with many IPP prisoners still waiting months to access courses needed for their release or facing a chaotic system of Parole Board delays.

open image in gallery New justice secretary David Lammy has admitted the IPP situation is a grave injustice ( PA )

IPP prisoners must prove to a parole board that they are no longer a risk to the public to be released. After this, many find themselves in a vicious cycle of recall, which can see them hauled back to prison indefinitely for breaches of strict licence conditions.

Its so embarrassing for a developed country with such a great legal history to be brought before the UN, Dr Boase said, urging the government to have the courage to right the wrong of this injustice.

My first-year law students understand that this is fundamentally wrong, he added.

What comes up time and time again is these prisoners have lost hope. We want to restore hope to those people and their families that will put pressure and shame the government on what is effectively a national scandal.

open image in gallery Shaun Lloyd was 18 when he was handed an IPP sentence ( Shirley Debono/The Independent )

Mr Lloyd was just 18 when he was handed an IPP sentence with a two-and-a-half-year tariff for pushing someone to the floor and stealing their phone. After he was chased by the victim, he handed it back and apologised.

He served eight years before he was first released and has been recalled to prison four times despite never being charged with another crime.

His heartbroken mother, Ms Debono, who is also calling for a meeting with the prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, said the jail term has had a devastating impact on the father and his two children, aged nine and seven.

It has had a massive impact on his mental health and his wellbeing, she said, noting he has spent his whole adult life under the shadow of the jail term.

He never feels safe because [of] being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and he knows he will be recalled. You always have that fear. Its damaged him, its damaged his mind.

It has also taken a toll on Ms Debono, who has dedicated years to campaigning on his behalf.

She added: I go to bed thinking about Shaun, and I wake up thinking about Shaun. It doesnt leave me, day in day out, I am serving the sentence with Shaun.

open image in gallery IPP prisoner Leroy Douglas said he has received more than my just desserts for stealing a phone ( Supplied )

In an appeal from inside HMP Wayland, in Norfolk, Leroy Douglas revealed his desperation to start a second chapter of his life crime-free.

He has served almost 19 years for robbing a mobile phone to feed his drug habit. Despite getting clean inside and completing 36 prison courses, he has served his sentence almost eight times over and still has no release date

I am really happy to be part of this landmark UN case, which I hope will bring embarrassment to the UK government, he said.

Year after year they have continued my detention when experts have told them I am not a risk to the public.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: It is right that IPP sentences were abolished. We are determined to make progress towards safe and sustainable releases for those in prison, but not in a way that undermines public protection.
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Police face a massive challenge meeting government targets on cutting crime without more funding, a watchdog has warned the new home secretary.

Sir Andy Cooke, His Majestys Chief Inspector of Constabulary, said progress has been made across many areas of policing, but many more improvements are needed.

Speaking to journalists ahead of the publication of his organisations annual report on the state of policing in England and Wales, Sir Andy stressed that planned reforms present a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to secure lasting change and greater efficiency.

But, in a direct message to home secretary Shabana Mahmood, he said: That reform needs funding. It needs to be very clearly expressed as a priority for not just the Home Office but the government.

Its a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get the reform that police need to be as effective as it possibly can. Because at the moment, with the 43-force model, it is not as effective, under the current constraints it has and with the current funding that it has... It will be a missed opportunity if its not properly funded from the start.

The annual report from His Majestys Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services highlighted the need for adequate funding to achieve government aims that include reducing knife crime and halving offences against women and girls.

open image in gallery Police face a massive challenge without more funding, a watchdog has warned the new home secretary ( James Manning/PA Wire )

When it was put to Sir Andy that there is a danger Labours manifesto pledges on policing and crime might not be met, he said: These are all big asks on police forces  without the requisite investment, its going to be a massive challenge.

In response to who would be to blame for those targets being missed, the police or the government, he said: To some extent, fault will lie with both sides. Policing is not as effective as it could be in some ways  some aspects of police leadership need to be improvised, there needs to be a real drive on performance and performance management. But at the moment, policing is trying to do that with one hand behind its back if that investment doesnt come forth.

Sir Andy, who has been chief inspector since 2022 and was previously chief constable of Merseyside Police, also called for police to separate the offensive from the criminal and to stop recording non-crime hate incidents, which are used to gather intelligence on increasing tensions, with the aim of spotting any signs of future violence or unrest.

He warned officers are placed in an invidious position by current legislation and that discretion and common sense dont always win out in these issues.

Sir Andy went on to concede that the recent arrest of Father Ted creator Graham Linehan by five police officers over comments about trans women made online does seem heavy-handed.

open image in gallery Sir Andy Cooke, His Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary, said officers are placed in an invidious position by current legislation ( Kirsty O'Connor/PA Wire )

Results of inspections of all 43 police forces in England and Wales have now been released, with almost a third graded as requiring improvement (26 per cent) or inadequate (6 per cent). Although 68 per cent of the 368 judgments were graded as adequate or better, Sir Andy said the results show that still many more improvements are needed.

He highlighted that crime figures are down, and yet the public does not necessarily feel safer because the police still need to get the basics right and focus on the issues that matter to the public.

Concerns over the decline in public confidence in the police service have been raised in previous reports, with trust and confidence this year remaining stable but far too low.

He said claims of two-tier policing are baseless, with his organisations investigations not finding any evidence of this approach.

He was also vocal about his support for facial recognition technology, insisting that he has been reassured time and time again that racial profiling is not an issue.

open image in gallery Riots swept across the UK last summer after the Southport stabbings ( PA Wire )

He added: If high-profile mistakes are made, they become the focus and detract from good policing.

Earlier this month, a row erupted over the arrest of Mr Linehan, who was stopped by officers at Heathrow Airport and questioned over X posts he had made about trans issues.

Asked about the arrest, Sir Andy said: Was it a great public optic? No, it wasnt. Is there individual criticism from me in relation to the officers who were there? No, there isnt.

Lessons Im sure will be learned in relation to it, but it does make policings job harder when these things occur, because this becomes the focus of attention.

open image in gallery Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan arrives at Westminster Magistrates' Court, London, during his trial over an alleged harassment of a transgender woman ( Jonathan Brady/PA Wire )

Not the great arrests going on, the great compassion, the bravery that police officers exhibit on a daily basis.

Mr Linehan has vowed to sue the Metropolitan Police over his arrest.

Sir Andy stressed that he was not referencing any specific case when speaking of high-profile mistakes, but he said: People make their own view on what is appropriate in a certain situation. I wasnt referring to that  it does seem heavy-handed, but those teams work together in fives, which is probably why those five were there.

Debate over how non-crime hate incidents are used flared last year when officers from Essex Police visited Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson to arrange an interview about an entry on X.

open image in gallery Shabana Mahmood was recently appointed home secretary ( PA Wire )

Sir Andy said: Im a firm believer that non-crime hate incidents are no longer required, and that intelligence can be gathered in a different way, which would cause less concern to the public and would make recording of such issues much easier for policing.

I think we need to separate the offensive from the criminal. We need, at times, to allow people to speak openly without the fear that their opinion will put them on the wrong side of the law.

Dont get me wrong, theres some exceptionally distasteful things that are said, theres some offensive things that are said.

The job of the police is to deal with criminality across the board. That does mean dealing with some issues that occur online and some of the threats to life and other issues and the serious issues that are there.

It can be a fine line, and thats one of the reasons why we need to look again at the policy and the legislation that sits around this because it places the police in an invidious position and, as we know, discretion and common sense dont always win out in these issues.
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Britain is facing a deepening hunger crisis with more than 14 million people going without food because they cant afford it, shocking new analysis has revealed.

A total of 3.8 million children (27 per cent) are among those estimated to be living in homes where people are forced to skip or cut back on meals because of financial concerns, a report by the food bank network Trussell has found.

The figures show a stark rise from the same report in 2022  when 11.6 million were facing hunger  and lays bare the growing cost of living crisis gripping Britain.

Experts behind the research blamed the crisis on low incomes, insufficient benefit rates, rising rents and soaring energy bills as they warned that the situation was only getting worse and urged Labour to take swift action, including by ending the two-child benefit cap.

open image in gallery Volunteers at Trussells Peeblesshire food bank. Around 3.8 million children (27 per cent) are estimated to be living in food insecurity ( Dan Prince/Trussell )

Politicians and campaigners hit out at the findings, describing hunger as a scandalous political failure and saying that the research should shame the government to its core.

Helen Barnard, director of policy, research and impact at Trussell, said: Hunger and hardship are increasingly seen as a normal part of everyday life in the UK. This is not an inevitable trend, but the result of systems that urgently need updating.

The report also found that:

Around three in 10 children (31 per cent) aged five and under are living in households facing hunger

Nearly three in 10 households (30 per cent) using food banks are in working families, showing that paid employment no longer protects people from hardship

More than a quarter of private renters (28 per cent) suffered food insecurity in 2024, rising to 44 per cent of people living in social rented housing. For homeowners, the rate drops to 8 per cent

The Trussell analysis  based on an Ipsos survey of almost 4,000 adults referred to UK food banks  was carried out in the middle of 2024, around the time that Labour came to power. But researchers say the issue has only deteriorated since then as the government has failed to tackle the rising hunger crisis.

In its election manifesto, Labour pledged to end the moral scar of mass reliance on food parcels, and promised to launch an ambitious strategy to tackle child poverty. However, the publication of this long-awaited plan was delayed from spring to autumn this year.

The government is under pressure to scrap the two-child benefit cap, which prevents parents from claiming universal credit or tax credits for a third or subsequent child. Experts say ending the Conservative-era policy would lift 670,000 people out of severe hardship, including 470,000 children.

It is one of the many battles Sir Keir Starmer has faced since coming to power, after he was forced into a dramatic climbdown over his welfare bill to avert a major Labour rebellion.

open image in gallery Keir Starmer is under pressure to scrap the two-child benefit cap ( PA )

Alison Garnham, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, said: The two-child limit is rolling out hunger and hardship right across the country, pulling more than 100 children into poverty every day.

Unless the policy is scrapped, there will be more children in poverty at the end of this parliament than when Labour took office  and the governments promise to deliver will ring hollow to millions of families.

Annie, a mum from the southwest of England, said: As a single mum with a job in retail, I work all the hours I can to provide for my daughter. But my income is so low that it needs to be topped up by universal credit  and even then, its still not enough to cover the rising cost of living.

By the end of the month, all the money has run out, and I often skip meals to make sure my daughter can eat. There are times when weve had no choice but to go to the food bank. I am grateful the food bank is there to support me  but it shouldnt have to be this way.

Left-wing Labour MP Kim Johnson described hunger in Britain as a scandalous political failure, not an inevitability, adding: Years of austerity, insecure work, stagnant wages and a broken welfare system have pushed millions into hardship while the wealthy few continue to thrive. People deserve dignity, not destitution.

Labour MP Debbie Abrahams, chair of the work and pensions committee, said the findings are deeply concerning, though sadly not surprising.

Todays figures show an increase of 2.5 million people in the UK facing hunger due to financial hardship since 2022. This reflects what I see in my own constituency, she said. I am determined to work with government to address the poverty and inequality too many of our citizens face.

open image in gallery More than 14 million people are going without food because they cannot afford it, the analysis by Trussell has revealed ( Dan Prince/Trussell )

Independent MP Rachael Maskell, who was suspended from Labour after rebelling against Sir Keirs welfare reforms, said it was troubling to learn of the rise in food insecurity.

While the government is investing in childcare, widening the scope for free school meals and breakfast clubs, [and] raising the minimum wage, it just demonstrates how pernicious the rise in housing costs and the cost of living is in bearing down on households, she said.

It is vital that the government is ambitious in its plans to end child poverty this autumn, while ensuring that we see no more cuts to social security. Ultimately we need a progressive taxation system so those with plenty can support those [who have] so little, and, as the report says, are on the edge of hunger.

As part of its recommendations, the charity also proposed that ministers end the freeze on local housing allowance (LHA), which was reintroduced in April and caps the amount households can receive in housing benefit to cover rent.

Research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation last year showed that the freeze on LHA will make private renters 243 worse off per year in 2025-26, rising to 703 by 2029-30 if it remains in place.

Responding to Trussells report, chief analyst at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Peter Matejic said: "It's entirely unacceptable that in the UK in 2025 millions of low-income households are facing hunger and hardship, even more so given the numbers have risen so sharply."

A spokesperson for the Department for Work and Pensions said: This government is determined to tackle the unacceptable rise in food bank dependence.

In addition to extending free school meals and ensuring the poorest children dont go hungry in the holidays through a new 1bn crisis support package, our child poverty taskforce will publish an ambitious strategy later this year.

We are also overhauling jobcentres and reforming the broken welfare system to support people into good, secure jobs, while always protecting those who need it most.
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The Duke of Sussex has donated $500,000 (369,000) to projects supporting injured children from Gaza and Ukraine.

The grants from Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussexs charitable foundation, Archewell, will be used to help the World Health Organisation with medical evacuations, and also to fund work developing prosthetics for youngsters seriously hurt in the conflicts.

The announcement coincided with Harrys visit to the Centre for Blast Injury Studies at Imperial College London on Wednesday  the third day of his four-day trip to the UK  where he heard more about its work focusing on injuries suffered by children and those sustained in natural disasters.

The duke, meanwhile, went on to reunite with his father, the King, for the first time in 19 months when they met for a private tea at Clarence House.

In a statement, Harry highlighted Gazas record number of child amputees and warned: No single organisation can solve this alone.

Gaza now has the highest density of child amputees in the world and in history.

open image in gallery The Duke of Sussex during his visit to Imperial College Londons Centre for Blast Injury Studies ( Suzanne Plunkett/PA )

It takes partnerships across government, science, medicine, humanitarian response and advocacy to ensure children survive and can recover after blast injuries.

During his tour, Harry was struck by a demonstration of the centres development of kits which can produce low cost external fixators used to treat bones which have been shattered by blasts or in natural disasters  including one that had been made in Gaza.

He was shown one from Gaza and told they were working to develop a 3D printed version.

After the tour of the research laboratories, Harry joined a roundtable discussion alongside representatives from Imperial, Save the Children, and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to discuss issues facing children in Gaza and beyond, with a particular focus on medical evacuation, mental health, and long-term rehabilitation, hearing from Save the Children staff who shared frontline experiences.

Harry told them: Every time I return here, Im struck by the commitment, innovation, and compassion that drives your work.

From the labs I opened over a decade ago, to todays focus on prosthetics for children, the progress and dedication are extraordinary. The voices we heard today remind us that behind every dataset is a child  a child in pain, in need of care, and deserving of a future.

The three Archewell grants include 200,000 dollars (145,600) for the WHO to support medical evacuations from Gaza to Jordan, 150,000 dollars (111,700) for the Save the Children charity to provide ongoing humanitarian support in Gaza, and 150,000 dollars (111,700) for the Centre of Blast Injury Studies to help its efforts to develop prostheses for injured children, particularly those children injured from the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.

open image in gallery Archewell made three donations in total ( PA Wire )

It follows a 1.1 million personal donation made by Harry to BBC Children in Need on Tuesday.

Harry opened the Centre for Blast Injury Studies in 2013, which was the forerunner of Imperials new centre which was launched a few years ago on its White City campus.

Emily Mayhew, the paediatric blast injury lead at Imperial College London, told him: We very much consider you part of our story.

Harry was all smiles as he arrived at the centre in White City, west London, and was pictured with former Army captain David Henson, who served as Team GB captain for the inaugural Invictus Games, founded by the duke for wounded and sick military and veterans.

Mr Henson lost both his legs above the knee after standing on an improvised explosive device in 2011 while clearing a compound in Afghanistan. He went on to gain a PhD in Amputee Biomechanics at Imperial.

The duke was also joined by WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyes, for the tour and met with research teams working on a number of world-leading projects.

Mr Tedros said of Harry: Im really pleased about what hes doing, especially for the children of Gaza.

Its not the money, its also the passion and commitment I think I see. And we have met a number of times and his commitment is very, very clear, and I really appreciate that.

Among the research Harry was shown were new designs for prosthetic knee joints for children, a demonstration of the worlds most advanced foot and ankle physiological simulator, and the gait lab which uses a virtual environment with motion capture cameras and a treadmill to evaluate the impact of new prosthetic designs on patients.

Heres a good looking man, Harry said with a big grin when he saw Steve Arnold who was demonstrating the gait lab equipment.

Arnold, who lost both his legs in an IED blast ion Afghanistan in 2011, was known to the duke after taking part in the 2014 and 2017 Invictus Games as a cyclist.
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The Duke of Sussex has had tea with King Charles at Clarence House, in what was their first meeting for 19 months.

Prince Harry arrived at the residence on Wednesday in a black Range Rover at 5.20pm, and left after about an hour. He later attended an Invictus Games event in London as part of his four-day visit to the UK.

The duke said of the King: Yes hes great, thank you, as he attended the event in London.

Harry has not seen his father in over a year, and said in a BBC interview in May: I would love a reconciliation with my family.

He said at the time that his father would not speak to him because of the court battle over his security arrangements, and that he did not know how much longer my father has.

The King, who has been receiving cancer treatment since early 2024, travelled down from his Balmoral home where he has been spending his summer break.

His son visited the Centre for Blast Injury Studies at Imperial College London, an institution he has close connections with, earlier on Wednesday, as part of his visit from California, where he lives with his wife Meghan and their two children.

open image in gallery Harry leaves Clarence House on Wednesday evening ( AFP/Getty )

The duke has been carrying out a string of events since Monday. He began his stay by leaving flowers at the final resting place of his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II to mark the third anniversary of her death.

Just seven miles down the road from the Queens burial site in St Georges Chapel at Windsor Castle, Harrys estranged brother the Prince of Wales remembered the late Queen at the National Federation of Womens Institutes in Sunningdale, Berkshire.

Harrys visit has reignited commentary about the state of his relationship with senior members of the royal family.

He stepped down from the working monarchy in 2020, and has levelled a barrage of accusations at the King, the late Queen, Prince William and the Princess of Wales in his Oprah interview, his Netflix documentary, interviews and his autobiography Spare, since moving to the United States.

open image in gallery Prince Harry visits the Centre for Blast Injury Studies at Imperial College London ( AP )

While he appears set to reunite with his father, there seems to be no prospect of the duke reuniting with Prince William, who travelled to Cardiff on Wednesday to learn about a pioneering mental health hub on World Suicide Prevention Day.

In February last year, Harry made a dash across the Atlantic from his home in California to see his father following the Kings cancer diagnosis, in a move that showed that both sides were willing to put their strained relationship on hold for the sake of family relations.

The duke spent approximately 45 minutes with his father before the King flew to his Sandringham country estate to recuperate following his treatment.

Royal watchers will be waiting to see if Harry keeps quiet and refrains from publicly discussing his reunion with the King, and, on the other side, whether any briefings emerge from the palace.

open image in gallery King Charles was diagnosed with cancer in early 2024 ( AFP/Getty )

Prince Harrys communications team, headed by Los Angeles-based Meredith Maines, was pictured in July with Tobyn Andreae, the Kings press representative, on the balcony of a private members club in London  a moment described by The Mail on Sunday as the secret Harry peace summit.

This was believed to be an initial step towards opening channels of communication between the two households after Prince Harrys court battle over security came to an end. His court case proved to be an impediment to resolving relations with his father, as it involved Harry criticising the Kings government in the courts. But after the case came to an end, he told the BBC: It would be nice to have that reconciliation part now. If they dont want that, thats entirely up to them.

open image in gallery The Prince arrives at Clarence House on Wednesday afternoon ( Getty )

The Duke of Sussex appeared to be all smiles as he arrived at the Centre for Blast Injury Studies in White City, west London.

He was pictured with former army captain Dr David Henson, who served as Team GB captain for the inaugural Invictus Games, an initiative founded by the duke for wounded veterans.

Dr Henson lost both his legs above the knee after standing on an improvised explosive device in 2011 while clearing a compound in Afghanistan. He went on to gain a PhD in amputee biomechanics at Imperial.

Harry opened the Centre for Blast Injury Studies in 2013. Imperials new centre was launched a few years ago on its White City campus.
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Speculation is growing over whether the King and his son the Duke of Sussex will meet this week after the monarch was seen getting on a plane back to London.

Prince Harry has not seen his father in over a year and is reportedly open to meeting Charles, who has been receiving cancer treatment since early 2024.

Charles is thought to be in London after boarding a jet from Aberdeenshire at around 2pm, after staying in his Balmoral home for his summer break.

While his son was visiting Imperial College Londons Centre for Blast Injury Studies, an institution he has close connections with, having opened its laboratories in 2013.

Harry has been pictured with former Army captain David Henson, who served as Team GB captain for the inaugural Invictus Games, founded by the duke for wounded and sick military and veterans.

open image in gallery Charles and Harry have not seen each other for more than a year (PA) ( PA Wire )

Mr Henson lost both his legs above the knee after standing on an improvised explosive device in 2011 while clearing a compound in Afghanistan. He went on to gain a PhD in Amputee Biomechanics at Imperial.

The duke has been carrying out a string of events since arriving back home on Monday and beginning a four-day working stay by leaving flowers at the final resting place of his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II to mark the third anniversary of her death.

Since relinquishing royal duties with his wife, Meghan Markle, and moving to California in 2020, Harry has had minimal contact with his father and elder brother, Prince William.

The rift deepened after the couple aired grievances against Buckingham Palace via an Oprah Winfrey interview, a Netflix series, and Harrys memoir, Spare.

open image in gallery Prince Harry with former army captain and Paralympian David Henson, as he arrives for a visit to Imperial College London's Centre for Blast Injury Studies ( Aaron Chown/PA Wire )

But his visit has reignited commentary about the state of his relationship with senior members of the royal family.

He remains estranged from his older brother the Prince of Wales, who is travelling to Cardiff to learn about a pioneering mental health hub on World Suicide Prevention Day, with no prospect of the pair meeting.

In February last year Harry made a transatlantic dash from his Californian home to Britain to see his father following his cancer diagnosis.

The move showed both sides were willing to put their strained relationship on hold and since then there have been further developments.

Senior aides to Charles and Harry were pictured in the Mail On Sunday during a meeting in London this summer that was reportedly a step towards restoring the relationship between the duke and the Royal Family.
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A 72,000 salary earned by some striking Tube workers is not enough to buy a house in London, a rail union boss has claimed.

Eddie Dempsey, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, was quizzed over the pay of London Underground workers amid a week-long strike, which has caused severe disruption in the capital.

When asked on Times Radio on Wednesday if he thought 72,000 meant a worker was not well paid, Mr Dempsey replied: Well, you cant afford to buy a house in London, even on 72,000.

RMT members are taking part in the walk-out in a dispute over pay and hours  with many Tube lines out of service, or heavily impacted by the industrial action.

According to Transport for London (TfL), the average Tube driver has a starting salary of 71,160, while station staff start on 35,270, rising to 44,140 within a few months.

The salaries of RMT members, who are also demanding a reduced four-day working week, has added to the frustration faced by some in the city who have been disrupted by the strike.

open image in gallery Eddie Dempsey has warned of further strikes, saying theres been a collapse in industrial relations ( PA Archive )

The citys economy is set to suffer a direct hit worth at least 230m, according to research by the London-based Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR).

During his interview, Mr Dempsey acknowledged 72,000 was a good wage; however, he said that it was not enough to buy a house in London, where the average price in June was 561,000, according to the Office of National Statistics.

Mr Dempsey said: I think workers should be able to afford to live in London. And ... if youve got to be earning more than 100,000 to buy a house in London, 72,000 is not out of this world.

He added: We make no apology for fighting hard for our members, and thats why our members have got good conditions. And we often get people in the media attacking us for having wages that most people in Britain have lost. So we make no apologies for that.

open image in gallery Passengers queue up outside Liverpool Street station as they try to get on an Elizabeth line train ( PA Wire )

We understand the disruptions are a real pain for people. We take no pleasure in it. But the only way this gets sorted out is through a negotiated settlement.

On Wednesday, Mr Dempsey said there had been a collapse in industrial relations, which he warned could lead to more industrial action. We want progress towards recognition about the impact of shift work, he said.

Downing Street has called on the RMT and Transport for London (TfL) to get back to the negotiating table to end the strike.

The prime ministers official spokesperson said: We want to see RMT and TfL get back around the table when it comes to these strikes, work together in good faith to resolve this situation in the interests of passengers.

TfL has offered workers a 3.4 per cent pay rise, which has been rejected, while Nick Dent, London Undergrounds director of customer operations, said the unions demands for a cut in the 35-hour week were simply unaffordable and would cost hundreds of millions of pounds.
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Sir Keir Starmers hopes of a coronation for his chosen successor to replace Angela Rayner as deputy leader seem to have been dashed.

His candidate for the crucial position, education secretary Bridget Phillipson, became the first to clear a major hurdle to secure the 80 MP nominations needed to get on the ballot paper.

With MPs hearing the pitches of the five remaining hopefuls, Ms Phillipson was far ahead with 116 nominations, well beyond the 80 required.

However, her chief rival, sacked former minister Lucy Powell, was on 77. If Ms Powell is able to get three more MPs on board before nominations close at 5pm on Thursday, it will put her in a run-off with Ms Phillipson in a vote by members.

open image in gallery Education secretary Bridget Phillipson is Keir Starmers favoured candidate ( PA Wire )

Labour members are thought to be unhappy with Sir Keir over his policy on Gaza, as well as attempts to cut welfare, and there is a danger that the contest could become a referendum within the party on his premiership.

It was also a bad day for former frontbencher Dame Emily Thornberry, who was trailing in last with 13 nominations behind Liverpool Wavertree MP Paula Barker, on 14, and the lefts main candidate Bell Ribeiro-Addy, on 15.

Sir Keir now faces a potentially damaging contest and weeks of manoeuvring in the race to replace Ms Rayner, as Labour MPs unhappy with their partys current direction back a former cabinet minister sacked by the prime minister less than a week ago.

Ms Powell, who received her marching orders as Commons leader on Friday, will prove tough opposition for the education secretary. In a two-horse race she looks set to become a lightning rod for discontent in the Starmer government. Sources have said she fell out of favour ahead of the reshuffle for standing up to [chief of staff] Morgan McSweeney and not taking his sh**.

The contest has already sparked a furious row amid claims that the partys top brass has set up its rules in an effort to squeeze out the left.

And on Wednesday another candidate, backbencher MP Ms Barker, who is standing on the left of the party, hit out at the decision to hold the races main hustings event online.

The party has told MPs they do not have to be in parliament on Thursday, meaning many will be travelling back to their constituencies when the hustings takes place.

I really dont think that that is the best democratic way for us to run this contest, said Ms Barker.

With MPs given just a few days to accrue a large number of nominations, she also criticised the length of the contest, describing it as a very, very narrow window of opportunity.

open image in gallery Former Commons leader Lucy Powell has the support of Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham ( PA Archive )

Another MP from the left of the party, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, has called for Labour to go back to the guiding values of our party and movement.

Ms Phillipson also received a boost when another minister, Alison McGovern, who had been backed by the likes of the popular Labour MP Jess Phillips, pulled out and announced she was backing Ms Phillipson.

Members of the cabinet and other ministers were also being urged to nominate Ms Phillipson.

Ms McGovern said it was clear she would not get enough nominations to pass through to the next stage of the contest, and that her government colleague was best placed to unite our party and take the fight to our opponents.

The education secretary emerged as the early frontrunner in the race on Tuesday, when, just hours after she threw her hat into the ring, a poll by Survation for the Labour-focused website LabourList showed that she was in pole position among Labour members.

From early on Wednesday, allies of Ms Phillipson believed she would comfortably secure the 80 nominations by the end of the day.

Contenders have until 5pm on Thursday to secure the support of 80 MPs in order to reach the next round of the contest.

As her campaign faltered, Dame Emily, chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, tried to convince colleagues that the idea that the next deputy leader should be a northern woman  to balance out Sir Keir  was misguided.

The London MP pointed to previous deputy leaders, saying: Harman. Prescott. Rayner. What do they have in common? When they spoke, people listened. Youd have a drink with them. And they were Labour to their bones.
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The attorney general has trashed calls from Nigel Farage and some senior Conservatives to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), saying that abandoning it would send an immensely damaging signal to Britains allies.

Lord Richard Hermer said abandoning the human rights convention would leave Britain in the company of Russia and Belarus (Russia was expelled from the ECHR after its invasion of Ukraine, while Belarus has never joined the Council of Europe).

Sir Keir Starmers top lawyer said one of the complaints often made against the ECHR is that it makes it impossible to deport people overseas who may then face the risk of death or torture.

open image in gallery Lord Hermer said Britain abandoning the ECHR would send an immensely damaging signal ( PA Wire )

If we wanted to get around that, we would have to leave not only the ECHR, we would have to leave the [UN] Torture Convention, we would have to leave the Convention on the Rights of the Child, we would have to leave the International Convention on Civil or Political Rights, he told a Lords committee.

We would become, together with Russia and Belarus, in splendid isolation on this planet, which I do not think is in the interests of this country.

Doing so would send an immensely damaging signal, not only about where we are in the world currently, but about the importance of international cooperation and core shared values, Lord Hermer said.

The Reform UK leader has long supported leaving the ECHR in a bid to be able to deport migrants who arrive in the UK on small boats.

His plans would see Britain ditch the ECHR and replace the Human Rights Act with the UK Bill of Rights, which would only apply to British citizens and those who have a legal right to live in the Britain.

open image in gallery Reform leader Nigel Farage has long supported leaving the ECHR ( PA Wire )

Meanwhile, Kemi Badenoch has promised to set out the Conservative Partys position on the ECHR at its annual conference in October.

It is widely expected that she will adopt leaving the convention as the partys official position, a stance long held by shadow justice secretary and leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick.

In June, Ms Badenoch launched a commission looking into the effectiveness of the ECHR and whether it would be possible to leave. At the time, she said the UK would probably have to pull out.

Lord Hermer said Britain can toughen its stance on immigration without falling foul of the ECHR, adding that some of our colleagues in the Council of Europe have much more robust immigration and asylum rules that are compatible with article eight of the convention.

open image in gallery Kemi Badenoch is expected to support leaving the ECHR at Tory conference in October ( PA Wire )

Article eight of the convention protects the fundamental right to respect for an individuals private and family life.

Lord Hermer added: I want to make sure weve got the best and most effective immigration and asylum rules possible. Theres a real area of work to be done there, and I know the home secretary is absolutely on it.

He lashed out at the broken immigration and asylum system left by the Conservatives, using some of his strongest language yet in pledging to bring the numbers coming to the UK under control. The government will leave no stone unturned in trying to protect this countrys interests, and dealing with the immigration and asylum system, in large part broken when we came in, he said.
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Peter Mandelson has broken his silence over the unfolding scandal around his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, warning there are more very embarrassing revelations to come after it was revealed he maintained ties with him after he was jailed for a child sex offence.

Britains ambassador to Washington said he was very embarrassed to read a birthday message to the late paedophile in which he described him as his best pal.

The messages, part of a 50th birthday book compiled for Epstein by convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, also saw Lord Mandelson express love for the financier and joke about entertaining his interesting friends.

open image in gallery Epstein referred to Mandelson as Petie in email correspondence ( House Oversight Committee )

Speaking to The Suns Harry Cole on his YouTube channel, Lord Mandelson said: I find them very embarrassing to see and to read but, as you say, they were written before he was indicted.

I just feel two things now. One, I feel a tremendous sense, a profound sense of sympathy for those people, those women, who suffered as a result of his behaviour and his illegal criminal activities.

And secondly, I regret very, very deeply indeed, carrying on that association with him for far longer than I should have done.

It was a matter of years after I initially met him, and I regret very much that I fell for his lies.

open image in gallery Mandelson referred to Epstein as his best pal and said that he loved him in the messages ( House Committee on Oversight and Reform )

Lord Mandelson went on to say that perhaps because I am a gay man, he may have been blinded to Epsteins criminal behaviour.

But, asked whether there were more revelations to come about the relationship, Lord Mandelson said: I have no doubt at all that theres a lot of traffic, correspondence, exchanges between us  absolutely. And we know those are going to surface.

We know theyre going to come out.

We know theyre going to be very embarrassing, and they know that Im going to profoundly regret ever having met him and been introduced to him in the first place.

Lord Mandelson added: Hes a charismatic criminal liar. We now see, and I regret very much indeed, I felt it like a... like an albatross around my neck since his death in 2018 or 19.

I feel a tremendous sense of regret, not only that I met him in the first place, but that I continued the association, and I took at face value the lies that he fed me.

Education minister Josh MacAlister insisted Lord Mandelson still had the backing of the government and warned against people finding the Labour grandee guilty by association with Epstein.

open image in gallery The note raised questions about Mandelsons judgment ( House Committee on Oversight and Reform )

He told ITVs Good Morning Britain he had not seen Lord Mandelson's interview, but added: "Yes, the ambassador has the support of government."

Epsteins 50th birthday book contained a photo of Lord Mandelson and Epstein on what appeared to be the multimillionaires island, as well as a handwritten note for the disgraced financier.

The note from Lord Mandelson to Epstein appeared to take the form of a poem beginning: Once upon a time, an intelligent, sharp-witted man they call mysterious parachuted into my life.

Other pictures featured alongside the note included a shot of Lord Mandelson on a balcony in a pair of swimming trunks, shot from behind, with his hands on his hips.

Lord Mandelsons note appeared to refer to interesting friends he had been left to entertain by Epstein.

But wherever he is in the world, he remains my best pal, it concluded. Lord Mandelson appeared to add: Happy birthday, Jeffrey, we love you!!

It has also emerged that Epstein brokered a deal with Lord Mandelson over the sale of a taxpayer-owned business after he had been convicted of child sex offences.

Months after the late paedophile had been released from prison, he negotiated the deal alongside then Labour business secretary Lord Mandelson.

open image in gallery Keir Starmer gave Mandelson his full backing, saying his work helps build ties with the Trump administration ( PA )

Epstein advised both Lord Mandelson and senior JP Morgan executive Jes Staley on the firms purchase of Sempra Commodities, a joint venture between the publicly owned Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Sempra Energy.

Mr Staley has since been banned from the City for misleading the Financial Conduct Authority over his relationship with Epstein.

An investigation by The Daily Telegraph has detailed a two-decade friendship between Lord Mandelson and Epstein, which lasted even after Epstein was jailed for a child sex offence in 2008.

Emails obtained by the paper show Epstein introducing Lord Mandelson to Mr Staley, setting up at least two meetings between the pair before JP Morgans purchase of Sempra.

After one meeting, Epstein asked Mr Staley: Was Petie helpful? Lord Mandelson being nicknamed Petie by the notorious paedophile, has been seen as a stark example of how close the pair grew.

Sir Keir Starmer has also given Lord Mandelson his full backing to stay on as Britains ambassador to the US, stressing the positive work he has done to build ties with the Trump administration.

The British embassy in Washington has been asked to comment.
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Sir Keir Starmer has launched a Budget board to boost economic growth and keep businesses and City leaders appeased, according to reports.

As part of his reset following Angela Rayners resignation last week, the prime minister plans to refocus the Cabinet on pro-growth policies with a new board that will link top ministers and 10 Downing Street officials with the Treasury.

The board will be chaired by Mr Starmers new economic advisor Baroness Minouche Shafik, a former Bank of England deputy governor, and Treasury minister Torsten Bell, who will meet weekly, according to the Financial Times.

The panel will face the task of coordinating pro-growth policies between now and the Budget, which is set to take place on 26 November.

The prime ministers new board will also comprise of key business voices in a recognition that the next few months could strain relations with corporate Britain.

Baroness Shafik will play a key role on the panel, as will Darren Jones, former Treasury minister and current chief secretary to the prime minister. Morgan McSweeney and Katie Martin - chiefs of staff to Starmer and Reeves respectively - will also form the budget team in order to improve the handling of politics around the Budget. Business advisor Varun Chandra will also sit on the panel.

Ben Nunn, the chancellors press chief, will sit alongside Tim Allan, former press aide to Sir Tony Blair and the new Number 10 communications chief, in order to improve the media handling of the Budget, which is seen as pivotal for Starmers government.

This comes after Chancellor Rachel Reevess first Budget last October caused a rift with the business sector as she increased employers national insurance by 25 billion and sanctioned a big rise in the minimum wage. Already, Business and the City are bracing for higher tax, according to the FT, as Reeves seeks to fill a fiscal hole of at least 20 billion.

Rachel Reeves previous budget proved unpopular with the business sector ( AFP/Getty )

Starmers allies said that the Budget board was jointly agreed with Reeves to focus on measures to boost growth while keeping open lines of communications with business ahead of a tax-raising Budget, the FT said.

They reported that one Labour official said: This is about putting more weight behind a pro-business Budget. We have to reassure business that we are not just going to keep taxing to spend.

Another said: The Budget board will funnel into the decisions that the prime minister and chancellor take. We dont want to find ourselves in a difficult position with business again.

The Independent has reached out to the Treasury for comment.

Starmer reshuffled his Cabinet earlier this week, which saw Yvette Cooper become foreign secretary, Shabana Mahmood become home secretary, and David Lammy fill the role of deputy prime minister. Liz Kendall will take on the role of science, innovation and technology secretary, while Peter Kyle will fill the role of business secretary and Pat McFadden will lead the Department for Work and Pensions.
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A Labour MP has hit out at Sir Keir Starmer, saying he doesnt seem up to the job, as the PM scrambled to defend his under-fire chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, amid growing pressure over his involvement in the appointment of Peter Mandelson.

Sir Keir insisted he had confidence in Mr McSweeney following reports he personally pushed for Lord Mandelson, despite concerns over his links with Jeffrey Epstein.

Britains ambassador to the US was dramatically sacked on Thursday amid new revelations about his relationship with the convicted paedophile  raising serious questions about the prime ministers judgement, leading Labour MP Clive Lewis to become the first backbencher to publicly call for the prime minister to go.

It came as claims about Mr McSweeneys involvement raised questions over whether or not he is the right person for the top Downing Street job.

open image in gallery Morgan McSweeney is under fire over reports he backed Peter Mandelsons appointment as ambassador ( PA )

No 10 rowed in behind him on Friday morning, saying, Of course, the prime minister has confidence in his top team.

But former Labour home secretary David Blunkett called on Sir Keir to widen the circle of people around him as he warned the prime minister that politics is a rough ride.

In what will be seen as a reference to Mr McSweeney, who entered Downing Street for the first time with Sir Keir, he said the Labour leader should gather around him people with experience, people who are seasoned politicians, who he can test things with ... Actually counterweighting the younger people, the less experienced people who gather around him.

Mr Lewis, the MP for Norwich South, who is on the left of the party, told BBC Radio 4s Week in Westminster programme: You see a Labour prime minister who feels that hes lost control within the first year.

This isnt navel-gazing. This is me thinking about my constituents, this country, and the fact that the person who is eight points ahead of us is Nigel Farage. That terrifies me.

It terrifies my constituents, and it terrifies a lot of people in this country. We dont have the luxury of carrying on this way with someone who I think, increasingly, Im sorry to say, just doesnt seem up to the job.

Earlier, former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind suggested to Times Radio that the PM would have to decide if Mr McSweeney was a suitable adviser for the future, depending on what did actually happen.

Meanwhile, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch immediately seized on the reports, urging both Sir Keir and Mr McSweeney to explain themselves to the public.

She said: These latest revelations point yet again to the terrible judgement of Keir Starmer and why it is imperative that all documents relating to Peter Mandelsons appointment are released immediately.

If it is true that Starmer or his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, overruled the security services, as has been alleged, they need immediately to explain to the public why they did so.

One senior Labour figure told The Independent that Sir Keir should look again at his No 10 operation in the wake of Lord Mandelsons sacking. I dont come across any Morgan McSweeney fans, they said. His contempt for MPs is well known.

Meanwhile, former shadow chancellor John McDonnell warned: A choice is emerging for Keir. Either McSweeney goes or he does.

A Labour MP, who asked not to be named for fear of repercussions, told The Independent: Should Morgan McSweeney be in Downing Street? No, of course he should not. He is part of a toxic political culture around the PM.

Lord Mandelsons sacking came after a string of shocking revelations, including emails appearing to show him offering support for Epstein as he faced charges of child sex offences.

Downing Street has insisted that the depth and extent of Lord Mandelsons relationship with Epstein was materially different to what was known at the time of his appointment.

Emails published on Wednesday afternoon included passages in which Lord Mandelson had told Epstein to fight for early release shortly before he was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

It is understood that the vetting process for ambassadors is closed to ministers, meaning that neither Sir Keir nor the then foreign secretary David Lammy had access to detailed information on it.

Downing Street could not say whether or not the emails that were revealed in the press this week formed part of that vetting process  meaning he may have been approved by the vetting service despite his correspondence with Epstein.

open image in gallery Mandelson was sacked as Britains ambassador to the US on Thursday ( PA )

The Conservatives have since said they plan to try to force a vote in parliament to make the government publish all the information relating to Lord Mandelsons appointment, piling further pressure on the government to reveal exactly what the prime minister knew and when.

And as questions swirled about the PMs judgement, after two resignations in less than a week of politicians he publicly backed, the Labour chair of the foreign affairs committee called for it to be allowed to vet the next US ambassador to Washington.

We asked to do this with Mandelson, Dame Emily Thornberry said, arguing the government should welcome the scrutiny.

On Friday, a cabinet minister admitted Lord Mandelsons appointment was high risk, high reward.

Douglas Alexander, the Scotland secretary, said that all three of the last Labour prime ministers had recognised that Mandelson was a high risk appointment but that he could bring very high rewards, later saying that the appointment was a judgment that an unconventional presidential administration required an unconventional ambassador.
By common consent, Kemi Badenoch didnt just enjoy her best session at Prime Ministers Questions  faint praise  but one where she clearly got the better of Sir Keir Starmer. That was on the sensitive matter of his appointment of Peter Mandelson to be ambassador in Washington. Her tactics at PMQs may turn out to be a turning point for her leadership, or could just be false hope for the Conservatives. But its her proposal to work with Labour on welfare reform that raises some more strategic questions for the party

What is Badenoch offering Starmer on welfare reform?

Something that sounds very collegiate and even patriotic  superficially, at least. In her words: The shadow chancellor, shadow welfare secretary and I are making him a clear offer. Sit down with us. Lets agree a way to bring welfare spending down. And I will offer him the support of the Conservative Party This is an offer to work together in the national interest to find common ground and get a serious plan.

Her condition is to keep the two-child cap on child benefit, and for Labour to agree an unquantified reduction in welfare spending (in essence, the 2024 Tory manifesto policy).

Why is she offering this?

Aside from the national interest  saving Britain from a humiliating bail-out by the IMF  its fair to say there are some more base political considerations. It would make her look relevant, would suggest only the Tories can be relied on for a plan to get things done, and it would make Labour look pathetic. If Labour rejects it, it gives her an excuse to oppose social security reform policies shed probably support if she was in office, and she would gleefully watch the government defeated again. A win-win, politically.

Whats in it for Starmer?

Not much, for now. However, Badenoch has spotted that there is no reason why the parliamentary Labour Party  which rejected various earlier proposals for welfare reform  would change its collective mind and agree to, for example, cuts to disability and sickness benefits. Thus Starmer might sooner or later be grateful for Tory votes in the division lobbies.

Indeed, there are some notable examples of prime ministers from both parties turning to the opposition benches to rescue them from defeat by their own backbenches. Tony Blair got his school reforms through thanks to the Tories, Boris Johnson needed Labour to deliver new Covid rules in 2021, while Ted Heath, John Major and Theresa May relied on Liberal Democrats and Labour MPs, sometimes as rebels, to get important European legislation through.

Whats the alternative?

Pat McFadden. Starmer hopes that the new work and pensions secretary can succeed where Liz Kendall and Rachel Reeves failed, and win the case for reform. There are also higher hopes that the new chief whip, Jonathan Reynolds, can actually make some use of Labours nominal Commons majority of nearly 150.

Could Badenochs idea work?

Not in this parliament. However, peering dimly into the future after the next general election, there might be no alternative to a Labour-Conservative tie-up to stop Nigel Farage getting into No 10  an outcome even worse than defeat for either party. It might be unthinkable outside wartime for such a grand coalition, but the rise of the far right has left many mainstream European parties with no alternative but to work together in the national interest and keep the fascists at bay. For Badenoch, if not some of her followers, Starmer would be a more attractive, or less repulsive, partner than Farage.
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The UK will mass produce cutting-edge interceptor drones to help Ukraine fight off Russian aerial attacks.

The drones, designed by Ukraine with support from UK scientists and technicians, are highly effective in destroying the one-way attack aircraft Moscow continues to launch at Ukrainian cities, according to the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

It comes after Russian drones violating Polish airspace during overnight attacks on Ukraine were shot down by Poland and Nato.

Defence Secretary John Healey will detail the project, the first under a technology-sharing deal with Kyiv, at the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) trade show in London on Thursday.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: As Russia continues its egregious and unrelenting attacks on Ukraine, the UKs support will not falter, and we alongside our allies will continue to step up.

This new partnership is a landmark moment, bringing together British and Ukrainian ingenuity to deliver cutting-edge defence drone technology to fight back against Russian aggression.

Starmer said Russias Poland airspace breach has united Nato ( House of Commons )

By harnessing the strength of our world-class defence industry, we are not only helping Ukraine defend itself against (Vladimir) Putins barbaric attacks, but we are also creating British jobs, driving growth, and securing our own future.

The new drones have already proved useful against the Shahed drones used by Russia, and are much cheaper to produce than traditional air defence missiles, the MoD said.

Sir Keir and President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the UK-Ukraine industrial partnership over the summer.

An expansion, signed by the Defence Secretary in Kyiv last week, allows the sharing and joint development of intellectual property.

Mr Healey said: Through this groundbreaking industrial partnership with Ukraine, and our new Defence Industrial Strategy, we are revving up our world-leading defence industry.

We will innovate at a wartime pace, support UK and Ukrainian security, and boost jobs here in Britain.

This deal is a first of its kind, giving UK industry unprecedented access to the latest equipment designs, supporting Ukraine in its fight to defend against Putins illegal invasion and showing how defence can be an engine for growth as we deliver on our Plan for Change.

Mr Healey, after holding talks in London on Wednesday with defence officials from Poland, Italy, France and Germany, condemned Russias reckless incursion into Polish airspace.

He said he asked the UK Armed Forces to look at options to bolster Natos air defence over Poland.
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A number of MPs are wearing sheaves of wheat on their lapels in the House of Commons during PMQs.

The wheat sheaf pin badges are worn in support of Back British Farming Day, which falls on 10 September this year.

Organised by the National Farmers Union for England and Wales (NFU), the event is aimed at celebrating the British food and farming sector and encouraging politicians to ensure it is prioritised.

Launched back in 2016, the day provides an opportunity for politicians and the public to show their support for farmers and growers in feeding the nation and caring for the UK countryside.

open image in gallery Lindsay Hoyle wore a wheat sheaf pin badge during PMQs ( ParliamentLive )

Now in its tenth year, activity over the day aims to highlight to the government the importance of agriculture to communities and the economy.

The NFU again holds its annual reception in Westminster on Wednesday, with MPs and Peers able to drop in.

And in previous years, the union has asked supportive MPs to wear a wheat sheaf pin badge during PMQs.

open image in gallery The wheat sheaf pin badges are worn in support of Back British Farming Day, which falls on 10 September this year. ( parliamentlive.tv )

Prime minister Keir Starmer did not wear the decoration, and neither did chancellor Rachel Reeves, nor Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch.

However, Sir Keir has worn the badge on his lapel in previous years.

Speaker Lindsay Hoyle was among those sporting the decoration in the Commons on Wednesday, as well as MPs Ruth Jones, Josh Newbury, David Pinto Duschinsky and Dr Al Pinkerton.

open image in gallery Dr Al Pinkerton was among the MPs sporting the decoration on Wednesday ( parliamentlive.tv )

Sir Keir faced PMQs as pressure grows over his backing of Peter Mandelson amid revelations about his relationship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Asked by Ms Badenoch if he still had confidence in the Labour grandee as Britains ambassador to the US, the prime minister said: I have confidence in him and hes playing an important role in the UK-US relationship.

Sir Keir also faced criticism over his upcoming meeting with Israeli president Isaac Herzog this afternoon, after he condemned Israeli strikes on Qatar and Russia for violating Polish airspace.
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Prince Harry arrived Wednesday at Clarence House in London for an expected meeting with his father, King Charles III, British media reported.

The meeting would be their first in well over a year.

The two have been estranged since Harry and his wife, Meghan, left royal life and moved to California in 2020 and then publicly aired grievances about his family.

The Duke of Sussex has been in the U.K. for a series of visits to charities he supports, and speculation has been swirling that he might meet his father.

The last time Harry and Charles met was in February 2024, when the prince flew to London after receiving news that his father had been diagnosed with cancer. Harry spent about 45 minutes with Charles before the king flew to his Sandringham country estate to recuperate from his treatment.
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Americans are unwittingly eating critically endangered shark meat  with possibly dangerous consequences for their health, according to scientists.

Shark meat can be purchased legally in the U.S., despite alarming population declines in the oceans top predators due to fishing and human-caused climate change. The meat sells for as little as $2.99 a pound.

But what grocery stores, seafood markets, and online vendors are selling is frequently mislabeled, according to researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, potentially exposing consumers to toxic mercury.

Twenty-seven of the 29 shark meat samples purchased by the research team were ambiguously labeled.

Shark meat often contains harmful levels of mercury that can result in a loss of peripheral vision; impaired speech, hearing, and movement; and affect brain and nervous system development in children, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

open image in gallery A scalloped hammerhead shark. Scientists warn of health consequences of eating endangered shark meat ( NOAA )

Some shark species contain more mercury than others, like the critically-endangered great hammerheads and scalloped hammerheads. Why that is remains unclear but the sharks are exposed to underwater soil and rocks that contain the element.

Previous research has found that great hammerheads had the highest levels of mercury, compared to nine other species.

Hammerheads are one of the premium species in the fin trade, yet the high-end consumers who buy them probably don't realize that by purchasing the most expensive fins they actually are putting themselves and their guests at the greatest health risk, Dr. Demian Chapman, an adjunct professor Florida International University, said in 2022.

The global shark meat trade involves more than 200 countries and is valued at $2.6 billion, according to the non-profit World Wildlife Fund.

The U.S. is a part of that business and the fourth-largest exporter of shark meat, a recent Greenpeace report shows. The U.S. also imports more than 121,000 tons of shark meat annually, according to non-profit Shark Allies.

Shark meat has been used for pet food but is also sold as jerky and fillets for human consumption. The researchers samples were bought in North Carolina, Georgia, and Washington, D.C.

There are more than 20 species that U.S. commercial fishermen are not allowed to catch, including the endangered hammerheads.

open image in gallery Of the shark meat purchased for the study, 93 percent was ambiguously labeled ( Savannah Ryburn )

People purchasing shark meat in the U.S. are likely unaware of the risk and the harm its doing, the North Carolina researchers said.

Most of the samples collected were simply labeled as shark or mako shark, without including what species was being sold. Of the two that had species listed, one was incorrect.

Mislabeling and ambiguous labeling remove consumers ability to choose what they are putting in their bodies, Dr. Savannah Ryburn, a researcher at the school, explained in a statement.

The researchers say their findings highlight a major gap in seafood transparency and consumer safety. They called for stronger regulations and oversight of seafood labeling practices.

The United States should require seafood distributors to provide species-specific names for the products being sold, Dr. John Bruno, distinguished professor, said.
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Your long-awaited payday from Facebook privacy settlement is finally here - but it might be less than you expect.

Millions of Americans are now starting to receive payouts from a landmark $725 million privacy class-action settlement with Facebook, resolving claims that the platform improperly shared user data without consent to third parties, including with the controversial Cambridge Analytica firm. Cambridge Analytica was used by Donald Trump in 2016 during his first run for president and it was alleged to have helped spread Russian misinformation.

Delayed by legal appeals following its initial approval in 2023, the Facebook settlement was officially finalized this May. Angeion, the company overseeing the settlement distribution, initially projected that payments would begin in August and has now confirmed that payouts officially started on September 3.

The distributions are being issued over a 10-week period, Angeion said.

After legal and administrative fees, the remaining settlement funds are being divided among claimants based on a point system: One point for each month a user had a Facebook account between May 2007 and December 2022.

A Facebook class-action settlement of $725 million is starting to be paid out. But the total you get might be less than expected. ( AP )

Payouts will vary, but lawyers estimated in 2023 that the average payout will be $30.

The eight lead plaintiffs will each receive $15,000, while the lawyers in the case will benefit the most, receiving $181 million, The Hill reports.

The settlement drew a record-setting 28 million claims, likely the highest number ever filed in a U.S. class-action lawsuit, with about 17 million of those deemed eligible, according to Lesley Weaver, co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs, in September 2023.

Payouts are sent via the method each claimant selected, with options including PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, direct deposit, prepaid Mastercard or paper checks.

Users should watch their email for forthcoming notifications on when they should expect their payment within the next several weeks.
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A member of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement and fighter pilot working as an F-35 flight instructor for Lockheed Martin claims a spiteful higher-up regularly questioned his religious beliefs, going out of her way to interrupt his observance of Shabbat, and making multiple attempts to convert him to Christianity during an overseas assignment.

Thats according to a federal lawsuit filed by Richard Roland Jones III, whose complaint also accuses the supervisor of  among numerous other things  openly lamenting the fact that their workplace was no longer whites only.

Jones always received superior work evaluations throughout his three years at the multinational aerospace and defense behemoth, according to the complaint, which says he received a leadership award in 2023 that goes only to those ranked among the top 1 percent of Lockheed Martin employees globally.

But when Jones reported the situation to management, the complaint says the 47-year-old aviators concerns were either slow-walked or ignored altogether, until he was finally terminated over ginned-up charges he argues were false and pretextual.

Joness lawsuit, which was filed September 2 in U.S. District Court in Maryland and has not been previously reported, contends his mistreatment stemmed from the fact that he complies with non-traditional Judeo religious beliefs and practices. It says he was subjected to systemic discrimination on the basis of his race and religion, including, but not limited to: discriminatory policies, practices, behaviors and procedures; differential treatment; and hostility in the workplace.

open image in gallery A Black Hebrew Israelite who trained military pilots how to fly F-35 jet fighters is suing former employer Lockheed Martin and a manager there for racial and religious discrimination. ( AFP via Getty Images )

Attorney Leslie Oguchi, who is representing Jones, declined to comment on the case and directed The Independent to the complaint as filed, which she said contained all the information necessary.

In an email on Tuesday, a Lockheed Martin spokesperson said, In general, it is our company practice not to comment on pending litigation.

Voicemails, emails and texts to Joness former supervisor went unanswered.

Both Lockheed Martin and the supervisor are named as defendants in the suit.

The F-35 is a fifth-generation fighter jet with a per-unit cost that can exceed $100 million. It has a top speed of 1,200 mph, or Mach 1.6, is in use by at least a dozen nations including the United States, and, although the program has been beset by various problems from the start, the F-35 is considered by the U.S. Air Force to be far and away the most advanced combat aircraft ever built. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for the F-35, manufacturing the planes with principal partners Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems.

Jones, a Florida resident, was hired by Lockheed Martin in 2021 to work as an F-35 instructor and training operations manager at Misawa Air Base in Japan, roughly 400 miles north of Tokyo. The installation is home to both U.S. and Japanese forces, and Jones was the only Black Hebrew instructor in Lockheed Martins entire F-35 training program, according to his complaint.

As part of [Joness] beliefs, he actively practices the Shabbat which prohibits any work from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, the complaint explains.

open image in gallery Lockheed Martin F-35 site lead Heidi Moore, seen here in red top and black jacket, is a co-defendant in Richard Roland Jones III's lawsuit against the aerospace and defense behemoth ( DoD/33rd Fighter Wing )

However, it says Jones soon found himself at odds with a senior supervisor from a different unit. The supervisor, a white woman named Heidi Moore, would purposely and consistently interrupt Jones while he was observing Shabbat, despite Joness repeated requests that she refrain from active interference from his compliance with the Shabbat, she nevertheless persisted, the complaint alleges.

The supervisor ratcheted things up even further by calling Joness direct supervisor and questioning his support of [Joness] observance of Shabbat, along with openly complain[ing] to [Joness] direct reports about his religious observances, the complaint goes on.

In an apparent attempt to catch Jones in a lie, the complaint says the supervisor tasked a U.S. government contractor from another company to spy on [him] while he was on business travel. And when it became clear that Jones was indeed committed to his personal beliefs, the supervisor made several attempts to convert [Jones] to Christianity during their time abroad.

Beginning in June 2022, the supervisors alleged hostility toward Jones intensified, his complaint continues. It says she now subjected Jones to a pattern and practice of racially discriminatory conduct that was designed to undermine [his] work and authority.

[The supervisor] sought to assert control over [Jones], despite lacking legitimate supervisory authority, and began stripping him of key duties  transferring those responsibilities to white employees without justification, the complaint states. [The supervisor] also subjected [Jones] to heightened scrutiny and inappropriate questioning regarding legitimate business travel, and routinely interrupted and commandeered meetings led by [Jones] in a clear effort to diminish his professional standing.

open image in gallery Lockheed Martin sent Richard Roland Jones III to Japan, where he was tasked with training pilots to fly the F-35 jet fighter. He is now suing the company and a supervisor there for what he claims was ongoing racial and religious discrimination ( DoD/33rd Fighter Wing )

She went about it rudely, offensively[,] and repeatedly, according to the complaint, which says the supervisor intimidated and threatened Jones by peppering him with questions about whether or not he intended to keep his job at Lockheed Martin.

[The supervisor] did not treat white employees this way, the complaint states.

That October, the supervisor took things to an altogether new level by purposefully destroying work materials that Jones was required to submit to his superiors, which the complaint calls an act of outright sabotage.

Moreover, Jones was disciplined for an alleged conflict of interest that did not result in any punishment for white employees in the exact same boat, according to the complaint.

And, to add insult to injury, the complaint says Jones discovered that less experienced white pilots under his direct command were earning the same pay as he was.

When [Jones] raised this pay disparity and requested a salary increase, his request was denied, the complaint states, calling the unequal treatment part of a broader, racially hostile environment where [Jones] was repeatedly targeted because he is Black.

The complaint lays out examples of what Jones says occurred, such as a November 2022 confrontation during which a pair of white employees, one of whom was one of Joness direct reports, accused him of being racist simply for hiring and training Black employees.

open image in gallery Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor in the manufacture of the F-35 jet fighter, which can cost up to $100 million apiece. Former flight instructor Richard Roland Jones III is now suing the company and a supervisor there over claims of unceasing bigotry and harassment. ( AFP via Getty Images )

No such accusations were made when [Jones] hired or trained white employees, who constituted the majority of [Joness] direct reports, according to the complaint, which says the pair described Black workers to Jones as lazy, unethical and unprofessional.

Jones formally disciplined his underling over his conduct, then reported them both to Lockheed Martin HR, which, the complaint claims, took no action.

In May 2023, Jones tried again, reporting the ongoing discrimination and harassment to his direct supervisor and Lockheed Martin HR, but was once more met with silence, according to the complaint. Six months later, when nothing had changed, Jones filed an official grievance with Lockheed Martins in-house Equal Employment Opportunity division, which downplayed the seriousness of his accusations, the complaint contends. In January 2024, it says the EEO investigator assigned to Joness case  having never allowed Jones to present evidence or call witnesses  deemed his assertions of bigotry unsubstantiated, and cleared the supervisor of any wrongdoing.

Seeking revenge, the supervisor collaborated, conspired, and confederated with two of Joness direct reports who he had previously disciplined for workplace bullying and timecard fraud, along with a Japanese translator working for Lockheed Martin, to falsely accuse Jones of ethics violations, according to the complaint. As a result, Jones was placed on unpaid suspension, the complaint states. While Jones was out, the complaint says he was informed that the supervisor and her associates had been longing for the days when Lockheed Martins offices in Japan were whites only.

Finally, Jones went to Lockheed Martins director of ethics and VP of ethics about what he had been experiencing, but his concerns were summarily dismissed, according to the complaint. In early February 2024, Jones was fired in retaliation for protesting the way he had allegedly been treated, the complaint states.

The experience left Jones with severe mental anguish and emotional distress, including, but not limited to, depression, humiliation, embarrassment, stress and anxiety, loss of self-esteem and self-confidence and emotional pain and suffering, the complaint concludes.

He is now asking a court to declare Lockheed Martins employment practices illegal, that its actions constitute an unlawful civil conspiracy and issue a permanent injunction against the company from engaging in discriminatory behavior. Jones is also seeking back pay, front pay, lost benefits and prejudgment interest, plus attorneys fees, court costs and compensatory damages, nominal damages and punitive damages to be determined by a jury.
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George Floyds death at the hands of police offices in Minneapolis last year sparked nationwide protest and led to a renewed outcry for racial justice in the United States.

During the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin the country relived the pain and anger caused by the public death of Mr Floyd after the 9 minutes and 29 seconds he spent pinned under the knee of the former police officer.

The protests that engulfed the country last summer may have been sparked by Mr Floyds killing, but they were also rooted in a devastating string of Black deaths at the hands of the police.

Here, The Independent looks back at some of those shocking killings and what happened to the officers responsible for them.

George Floyd

Mr Floyd, 46, was arrested by Minneapolis police officers on 25 May 2020, after a Cup Foods employee called 911 and told the police that he had bought cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill.

Derek Chauvin, who is white, was capture by bystanders on video kneeling on Mr Floyds neck and back as he cried out for his late mother and shouted that he could not breathe.

Chauvin, 45, was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter at the end of the trial on 20 April 2021.

In Minnesota, second-degree murder carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison. Third-degree murder is punishable by up to 25 years in prison. Second-degree manslaughter is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Chauvin was immediately taken into custody and will be sentenced in early June, eight weeks after his conviction.

Former Minneapolis police officers Tou Thao, 35, Thomas Lane, 38, and J Alexander Kueng, 27, all face charges of aiding and abetting Chauvin in second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter of Floyd.

The states attorney generals office will try and add a third-degree murder charge against all three officers in a Minnesota Court of Appeals hearing set for 20 May.

They are set to face trial on 23 August after a judge separated their trial from Chauvins because of Covid-19 concerns.

The three officers, who responded to the call on 25 May 2020, could face up to 40 years in prison if convicted of aiding and abetting murder.

But sentencing guidelines can also reduce that sentence to a maximum of 15 years.

All three former officers remain free on $750,000 bail.

Breonna Taylor

Ms Taylor, 26, was shot at least eight times and killed by police officers during a bungled drugs raid at her home in Louisville, Kentucky.

Police said that her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, shot at the three officers entering her home shortly after midnight on 13 March 2020, hitting one of the officers in the leg.

No drugs were found in the home and Mr Walker, who is also Black, was charged with attempted murder of a police officer and first degree assault, although the charges were later dropped.

The three white officers, Jonathan Matttingly, Brett Hankison and Myles Cosgrove, were placed on administrative duty as Ms Taylors killing was investigated.

In September 2020 a grand jury in the city cleared all three officers of murder, but they were all fired by the police department.

Mr Hankison was indicted by the grand jury on three counts of wanton endangerment for endangering the lives of three neighbors by firing bullets.

None of the officers face any charges over the actual death of Ms Taylor.

Mr Mattingly, who was shot in the leg during the incident, is writing a book giving his version of what happened in the apartment.

After a huge backlash, publisher Simon & Schuster said it would not distributeThe Fight for Truth: The Inside Story Behind the Breonna Taylor Tragedy, but it will be released by independent publisher Post Hill Press.

Philando Castile

Mr Castile, 32, was pulled over by police officer Jeronimo Yanez on July 6 2016 in a suburban of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The police officer said he thought Mr Castile fitted the description of a robbery suspect and approached the car to ask him for his driving license and proof of insurance.

Mr Castile told the officer he had gun with him and was ordered not to touch the weapon.

Police dashboard camera footage then shows the officer shouting again at Mr Castile to not pull out the weapon before he fired seven shots at him.

The officer told investigators that Mr Castile was moving his hand and that he feared for his life and the lives of the cars passengers.

Mr Yanez, an officer with the St Anthony Police Department in Minnesota was charged with manslaughter and endangering the lives of the two passengers.

At trial in 2017 he was acquitted on all charges but did not return to the police department, which reached a voluntary separation agreement with him.

Freddie Gray

Mr Gray, 25, was arrested by police officers in Baltimore on 12 April 2015 for having a knife and was placed in a police van, which was caught on camera.

By the time that van arrived at the police station Mr Gray was not breathing and died a week later from spinal injuries a medical examiner said were suffered during his transportation.

Police officials said that although Mr Gray was put in leg restraints during the trip he was not secured with a seatbelt or given medical help, despite asking for it.

Following Mr Grays death the six officers involved, Caesar Goodson Jr, William Porter, Garrett Miller, Edward Nero, Brian Rice and Alicia White were all suspended without pay.

The death was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner and the Baltimore State Attorney, Marilyn Mosby, filed criminal charges against the officers.

The jury at the trial of Mr Porter was deadlocked and the judge declared a mistrial, and prosecutors eventually dropped all charges against Mr Porter, Mr Miller and Ms White.

Mr Rice was eventually found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment, and misconduct in office.

Mr Goodson was found not guilty of second-degree depraved heart murder, three counts of manslaughter, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment.

Mr Nero was acquitted on misdemeanor charges of second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office.

All six officers were allowed to return to duty.

Tamir Rice

Tamir Rice, 12, was confronted by police in Cleveland, Ohio, in November 2014 after someone called 911 and reported a person playing with a gun near a recreation centre.

The caller reported that the gun was probably fake and the person with it was most likely a child.

When police arrived on the scene, officer Timothy Loehmann got out of the car and opened fire, killing the youngster.

It turned out that Tamir had been playing with a pellet gun and authorities said that the description of a child playing with a fake gun had not been passed on to the officers who responded.

A grand jury did not indict either officer in the case but Mr Loehmann was later fired by the department for lying in his application to work as a police officer.

Walter Scott

Walter Scott, 50, was pulled over for a routine traffic stop by white police officer Michael Slager in South Carolina on 4 April 2015.

When Mr Scott ran from the scene he was chased by the officer who shot him five times in an incident caught on a cellphone by a bystander.

After the video became public the officer was charged with murder and later a federal civil rights violation.

The jury in his December 2016 trial was deadlocked and prosecutors announced they would retry him.

But before they did Slager pleaded guilty to the federal civil rights violation and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Michael Brown

The August 2014 killing of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, sparked months of racial justice protests.

Mr Brown, 18, was shot and killed by officer Darren Wilson after being suspected of stealing cigars from a convenience store.

Mr Brown was unarmed and his friend, Dorian Johnson, told reporters that he had put his hands in the air when he was killed.

Two investigations concluded that Mr Brown did not have his hands in the air when he was killed, and in November a grand jury declined to indict Mr Wilson.

Then in March 2015 Barack Obamas Justice Department released its own report that stated, there is no credible evidence that Wilson willfully shot Brown as he was attempting to surrender or was otherwise not posing a threat.

But on the same day the Justice Department also released its own investigation into the Ferguson Police Department, which concluded that there was systemic exploitation and racial profiling of black residents by its officers.

Laquan McDonald

Laquan McDonald, 17, was killed by Chicago police officers after they responded to reports of someone trying to break into cars on 20 October 2014.

Police followed the teenager and witnessed him use a knife to slash a patrol cars tyre.

Officer Jason Van Dyke, who is white, arrived at the scene and shot at Mr McDonald, hitting him 16 times as he was moving away from him.

Dashboard footage of the killing was only released in November 2015 after the city had agreed a $5 million settlement with Mr McDonalds family.

When the video became public Officer Van Dyke was arrested and charged with murder.

Van Dyke was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to more than six years in prison.

Eric Garner

Eric Garner, 43, was arrested by police for selling loose cigarettes in Staten Island, New York, on 17 July 2014.

His arrest came two weeks after they gave him an initial warning for doing the same thing on a street corner.

The fatal encounter was videotaped by a bystander, and showed white officer Daniel Pantaleo wrap his arm around Mr Garners neck in a chokehold.

Mr Garner could be heard shouting I cant breathe 11 times before he fell unconscious and died.

Despite huge protests in the city, a local and federal investigation resulted in no charges beg brought against Mr Pantaleo and the other officers involved.

Mr Pantaleo was eventually sacked in August 2019, five years after the death of Mr Garner, when a New York Police Department disciplinary judge recommended the firing.

His lawyers had argued that the officer had acted the way he was taught to act.

This has been a long battle, five years too long, said Emerald Garner, one of Eric Garners daughters of the firing.

And finally somebody has said that theres some information that this cop did something wrong.
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Far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is asking the United States Supreme Court to review the nearly $1.4 billion judgment issued against him and his media outlet Infowars for saying the horrific 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting was staged and a hoax.

In the appeal, which was filed last week and made public by the court Tuesday, Jones and his lawyers argue a Connecticut judge in the case was wrong to find him liable for defamation in a default ruling and not allow the merits of the case to be heard in trial to decide if he committed actual malice.

In her late 2021 ruling, Judge Barbara Bellis found Jones liable without a trial and only convened a jury to determine the amount of damages the Sandy Hook families would receive, citing Jones unwillingness to abide by the courts orders to produce evidence to the plaintiffs.

In their Supreme Court appeal, Jones legal team has said these were minor discovery violations that did not justify an unjust and disproportionate penalty. The jury would issue a $964 million verdict against Jones and Infowars parent company Free Speech Systems in 2022, with Bellis adding an additional $473 million in punitive damages for spreading falsehoods about the shooting that left 20 children and six school staffers dead.

A Connecticut appeals court upheld all but $150 million of the award to the Sandy Hook families last December, while the states top court denied Jones request for a review in April. A separate $49 million judgment awarded to the parents of another Sandy Hook victim in a defamation lawsuit in Texas is currently being appealed.

Alex Jones is throwing a hail mary to the Supreme Court in one last-ditch effort to avoid paying the Sandy Hook families. ( Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. )

The families have maintained that Jones conduct towards them over the years was both malicious and intentional, claiming that his motivation all along was profit, which they added was supported by his attempts to hide discovery material throughout the case.

During the trial for damages, the families also testified that they were subjected to death threats and harassment from Jones supporters. The Infowars founder has insisted that there is no evidence linking him to those actions.

According to Jones legal team, the default ruling violates the First Amendment protections, and the $1.4 billion judgment runs afoul of the Eighth Amendment due to excessive punishment.

It is an amount that can never be paid, and which based on the trial courts findings may not be dischargeable in bankruptcy, they stated. The result is a financial death penalty by fiat imposed on a media defendant whose broadcasts reach millions.

Additionally, the conspiracists lawyers  Ben Broocks, Shelby Jordan and Alan Daughtry  argue that Jones remarks about the shooting being a hoax perpetrated by crisis actors werent defamatory to the victims but instead expressions of constitutionally protected opinion. Jones, for his part, has since asserted that he now believes the massacre was legitimately real.

The media landscape is rife with groups challenging various events, including Holocaust denial, moon landing skepticism, 9/11 conspiracy theories, and even flat Earth claims, Jones attorneys declare. However, such statements critique or dismiss the events themselves, not the character, conduct, or reputation of those associated with them.

Claiming that the result will chill the reporting of news, Jones team urged the high court to review whether state courts can impose death penalty default sanctions on media defendants, asserting that the Sandy Hook families themselves were public figures and Jones was merely reporting on issues of public concern. Death penalty sanctions are generally issued by courts over discovery abuses and effectively adjudicate the case, resulting in default judgments.

There is no legitimate basis for the U.S. Supreme Court to accept this last gasp from Alex Jones and we will oppose it in due course, Chris Mattei, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families, said in a statement.

The appeal to the Supreme Court appears to be a last-ditch effort by Jones to avoid paying the families, which would likely see him lose in media empire.

After filing for bankruptcy in 2022 following the trial losses, Jones saw a Houston judge rule in 2023 that most of the judgments in the cases would not be discharged in the bankruptcy. Eventually, the bankruptcy of Free Speech Systems was dismissed, and Jones personal bankruptcy was converted from Chapter 11 to a Chapter 7 liquidation.

Last fall, an auction was held to sell off Infowars assets to pay the Sandy Hook families, with satirical news outlet The Onion being named the winning bidder. However, the sale was blocked in December after a bankruptcy judge ruled the process was flawed, allowing Jones to keep Infowars for the time being.

Last month, a Texas state judge appointed a receiver to proceed with liquidating Free Speech Systems assets, once again opening the door for The Onion to purchase the conspiracy site. Jones is currently appealing that ruling with a Texas appeals court, which temporarily paused the receivership in late August.

Earlier this year, Jones was accused of trying to shield assets of more than $5 million from the trustee of his personal bankruptcy to avoid paying the Sandy Hook families. This included claims that Jones fraudulently transferred $1.5 million to his wife, $800,000 to his father, and tried to hide his ownership of two condos with a combined value of $1.5 million.

Jones, meanwhile, has insisted that even if the Infowars brand and property are taken from him, he will stay on the air by starting another company. Still, because a bankruptcy judge ruled that the families could continue to make claims on any money Jones earns in the future through other business ventures, as his behavior was deemed willful and malicious.
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Jimmy Kimmel and Disney execs could not agree on the correct response to take in the fallout from the comedians remarks about the death of Charlie Kirk, resulting in the cancellation of his late night show, reports say.

Kimmel was reportedly due to make a statement during Wednesdays show, but neither side could agree on language that would not exacerbate the situation further by the time taping was due to begin, sources told Reuters.

It came after comments made by the talk show host in his monologue Monday sparked fierce backlash online and led to death threats that raised concerns for the safety of Kimmel and his staff, the source said.

ABC has since suspended Kimmels show indefinitely.

During the monologue, Kimmel, who has frequently targeted Trump, said: "We hit some new lows over the weekend, with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it."

open image in gallery Kimmel was reportedly due to make a statement during Wednesdays show in response to backlash about his remarks on Charlie Kirk, but both sides could not agree on the language that would not exacerbate the situation further by the time taping was due to begin ( AFP via Getty Images )

Despite negotiations over what Kimmel should say Wednesday, Disney CEO Bob Iger and Disney Entertainment co-Chairman Dana Walden ultimately agreed that the best approach would be to take the show off the air, Reuters reports.

According to sources, the decision left the comedian livid.

The intention was to find a way to bring Kimmel back at a later date, and Bloomberg News reported Thursday that executives are due to meet with the comedian to discuss the future of his show.

open image in gallery Following ABCs decision to pull the show, many in Hollywood decried the decision, saying the company was bowing to political pressure and that it was an assault on free speech ( Getty Images )

open image in gallery Kimmel has seen support from multiple celebrities, including fellow late night hosts David Letterman, Jay Leno, and Stephen Colbert, whose show is being canceled next year ( Getty Images )

Following ABCs move to pull the show, many in Hollywood decried the decision, saying the company was bowing to political pressure and that it was an assault on free speech. Kimmel has seen support from multiple celebrities, including fellow late night hosts David Letterman, Jay Leno, and Stephen Colbert, whose show is being canceled next year.

Colbert called ABCs decision to pause Kimmels show blatant censorship and said he stands with his colleague 100 percent at the taping of his CBS show Thursday night.

However, despite the furore, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, said Wednesday that Kimmel had misled viewers about the alleged shooters MAGA affiliation. Carr also raised the possibility that the FCC could revoke the broadcast licenses of local television stations that carry such garbage.

We can do this the easy way or the hard way, Carr said in an interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel.

During a state visit to the UK Thursday, President Donald Trump, said Kimmel had been punished for saying "a horrible thing" about Kirk.
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Influential right-wing activist Charlie Kirk has died at age 31 after being shot in the neck by an assassin during a Utah college campus speaking event.

Now, the FBI is asking for the publics help as they search for the suspected shooter, writing on X, Submit tips regarding todays shooting at Utah Valley University.

Kirk, a close ally of President Donald Trump and the face of right-wing campus activism, was fatally shot while speaking to a crowd of Utah Valley University students  an attack that officials have labelled a political assassination.

He was roughly 20 minutes into a question-and-answer session in front of 3,000 people before the crack of a single loud rifle shot sent the crowd into panic.

The Turning Point USA founder began bleeding heavily from his neck before collapsing within seconds.

Trump later announced Kirks death in a Truth Social post.

The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead, wrote Trump, who announced Kirks death before it was confirmed by his family, law enforcement or Turning Point USA.

No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie, Trump added. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us.

He later said in an Oval Office address that he was filled with grief and anger.

open image in gallery Witnesses say a single shot was fired that left Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk bleeding to death ( AP )

Charlie inspired millions, and tonight all who knew him and loved him are united in shock and horror.

Trump blamed those on the radical left for comparing wonderful Americans like Kirk to Nazis and the worlds worst mass murderers and criminals.

This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that were seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.

Kirk is survived by his wife, Erika Lane Frantzve, and their two young children.

Turning Point, the organization that Kirk founded as a teenager, confirmed his death on Wednesday evening.

May he be received into the merciful arms of our loving Savior, who suffered and died for Charlie, the group said.

The president ordered American flags lowered to half-staff until September 14.

open image in gallery May he be received into the merciful arms of our loving savior: Turning Point, the organization that Kirk founded as a teenager, confirmed his death on Wednesday ( Getty )

Speaking next to law enforcement officials on Wednesday night, Utah governor Spencer Cox said a person of interest in custody is being interviewed by police. Moments earlier, FBI director Kash Patel said the person who took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody.

Later, Patel announced that the individual had been released after being interviewed by law enforcement.

Our investigation continues and we will continue to release information in [the] interest of transparency, he said.

A campus alert stated earlier that a suspect had been arrested.

The Utah Department of Public Safety said in a statement: There are no current ties to the shooting with the two people taken into police custody.

open image in gallery FBI director Kash Patel said the person who took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody, but later said that person had been released ( Getty )

Kirk was addressing the crowd at a university in Orem, Utah, roughly 35 miles from Salt Lake City, from under a tent emblazoned with American Comeback in a courtyard next to a student center.

Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years? one audience member asked.

Too many, Kirk replied.

The attendee followed up by asking whether Kirk knew how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years.

Counting or not counting gang violence? Kirk asked in response.

Kirk was about 60 to 90 seconds into his answer, and thats when the shot went off, eyewitness Justin Hicken told The Independent in a phone interview Wednesday.

open image in gallery A crowd watching Kirk speak at Utah Valley University running away after the right-wing activist was shot ( Reuters )

I saw blood spurting from Charlie, his body kind of recoiled, everybody started screaming, he said.

People dropped to the floor, a whole bunch of bodies all over, just crazy stuff, Hicken added. As I was on the floor with bodies on top of me, I was listening, praying, that hopefully there are no more shots.

The campus has been closed, classes have been canceled, and students and others on campus were instructed to leave the university immediately, according to a university announcement.

You try to get your bases covered, and unfortunately, today, we didnt, campus police chief Jeff Long told reporters on Wednesday night. Because of that, we have this tragic incident.

Cox called the shooting a political assassination and Kirks death was a dark day for our state and tragic day for our nation.

Nothing I can say can unite us as a country, Cox said. We just need every single person in this country to think about where we are and where we want to be ... Is this it? is this what 250 years has brought upon us? I pray thats not the case.

open image in gallery The shooting is being investigated by federal and state law enforcement officials ( AP )

Kirk, a prominent conservative activist and prolific media personality, was well known for his campus appearances and debates surrounding hot-button issues.

He formed the group in 2012 when he was 18 years old and emerged as an influential voice among Trumps supporters with an audience on his social media channels and streaming video networks that reached millions of followers.

Kirk also developed a close relationship with the president and other prominent Republican figures and has helped shape Trumps Cabinet while leading campaigns that mobilized thousands of Turning Point members in the weeks leading up to the 2024 election.

He had recently launched the American Comeback Tour with visits to college campuses across the country. Nearly 1,000 people signed a petition against his appearance at Utah Valley University, though school officials defended the event and commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.

The university said it was shocked and saddened by Kirks death.

We grieve with our students, faculty, and staff who bore witness to this unspeakable tragedy, UVU said. We firmly believe that UVU is a place to share ideas and to debate openly and respectfully. Any attempt to infringe on those rights has no place here.

open image in gallery Kirk was talking about mass shootings when he was shot in the neck ( AP )

Trump, vice president JD Vance and a host of administration officials and allies urged Americans to pray for Kirk following news of the shooting.

Democratic officials also offered prayers for Kirk and his family and condemned acts of political violence.

Barack Obama, a frequent foil of Kirks, said he and former first lady Michelle Obama will pray for his wife and two young children.

This kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy, the former president wrote on X.

Wednesdays shooting follows a streak of political violence across the country in recent months, including the assassinations of a Democratic state lawmaker and her husband in Minnesota in June and two attempted assassinations targeting Trump in 2024.

Gabrielle Giffords, the former Arizona congresswoman who was targeted in a 2011 assassination attempt that nearly killed her, said she was horrified to hear news of the shooting.

Democratic societies will always have political disagreements, but we must never allow America to become a country that confronts those disagreements with violence, she wrote Wednesday.

open image in gallery Kirk, a prominent conservative activist, was a close ally of Donald Trump ( AFP/Getty )

There is no place in our country for this kind of violence, former president Joe Biden wrote. It must end now.

Former vice president and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris said she is deeply disturbed by news of the shooting.

Let me be clear: Political violence has no place in America, she wrote on social media. I condemn this act, and we all must work together to ensure this does not lead to more violence.

House Speaker Mike Johnson called for a moment of silence on the House floor.

Political violence has become all too common in American society, and this is not who we are, he told reporters on Capitol Hill. We need every political figure, we need everyone who has a platform to say this loudly and clearly. We can settle disagreements and disputes in a civil manner, and political violence must be called out, and it has to stop.

He later said on CNN theres a desire in Congress to have more security after Kirks shooting.
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Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old Utah resident accused of killing MAGA commentator Charlie Kirk, has been formally charged with aggravated murder.

At a press conference announcing charges against him Tuesday, state prosecutors revealed text messages sent by Robinson to his roommate and alleged romantic partner, in which he appeared to take responsibility for the fatal shooting at Utah Valley University last week.

Robinson evaded capture for 33 hours after allegedly opening fire on Kirk from a rooftop around 160 yards away from where he was speaking, jumping off a roof and disappearing in the ensuing chaos. The right-wing influencer, 31, died several hours after being struck in the neck by the bullet.

Robinson has been formally charged with aggravated murder and six other charges, including obstruction of justice and witness tampering.

Heres what we know about the alleged killer:

open image in gallery In this image from video provided by Utah State Courts, Tyler James Robinson attends a virtual court hearing from prison to hear the charges for his alleged murder of Charlie Kirk ( Utah State Courts )

Who is the suspect?

Robinson grew up in the conservative southern Utah city of Washington with his mom, a trained social worker who works at Intermountain Support Coordination Services; dad, a police officer and kitchen fitter; and two brothers, social media pictures suggest.

He has been described as quiet by people who know him, as well as a straight-A student. His grandmother claimed she had never heard her grandson discuss politics. However, family members told investigators that Robinson had become more political in recent years.

Utah voting information seen by The Independent shows the 22-year-olds voter status is inactive, meaning he has not voted in the last two general elections or responded to notices sent by a county clerk.

His party affiliation is listed as unaffiliated, while both his parents are registered Republicans, according to state voter records.

open image in gallery Robinson has been described as quiet by those who know him, as well as a straight-A student ( Utah Department of Public Safety )

Most of my family members are Republican. I dont know any single one whos a Democrat. Im just so confused, the suspects grandmother, Debbie Robinson, 69, told the Daily Mail. Pictures on social media show Robinson dressed in a Trump costume for Halloween in 2017.

Robinson did not attend Utah Valley University, where the shooting took place.

He received a resident presidential scholarship to Utah State University, but only attended the institution for one year. He then moved home to complete an electrical apprenticeship program at Dixie Technical College in St. George, Utah, according to the Utah System of Higher Education.

He was living in an apartment in the city at the time of the shooting.

What has he been charged with?

Robinson has been charged with seven counts, the most serious of which are aggravated murder and felony discharge of a firearm. Aggravating factors have been applied to those charges based on targeting Kirk over political expression and knowing that children were present and would witness the homicide.

The full charges are:

Count 1: Aggravated murder

Count 2: Felony discharge of firearm

Count 3: Obstruction of justice, for moving and concealing a rifle

Count 4: Obstruction of justice, for disposing of clothing

Count 5: Witness tampering, for directing roommate to delete texts

Count 6: Witness tampering, directing roommate to stay silent

Count 7: Commission of a violent offense in the presence of a child, for committing homicide knowing children present

Federal officials are also weighing bringing a case against Robinson.

open image in gallery Kirk was hosting a debate at the Utah Valley University on September 10 when he was struck in the neck by a bullet and rushed to hospital ( The Deseret News )

Could Robinson face the death penalty?

Announcing the charges Tuesday, Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray said that he would be seeking the death penalty in the case.

This is not a decision I take lightly, he said.

A jury in the case would first have to determine Robinsons guilt and then if he is eligible for execution. He would otherwise face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if convicted. The state conducted its last execution in 2024, ending a 15-year hiatus for capital punishment in Utah.

Utah criminal defense attorney Clayton Simms told Fox13 that factors including the death of a public official, particular cruelty and the fact that he put others at risk during the incident, may possibly sway a jury in favor of execution.

If you kill someone in front of 3,000 live witnesses, if you kill someone knowing that its going to have an impact beyond the state of Utah... that could be particularly cruel, Simms said.

open image in gallery Tyler Robinson has been charged with murder, and federal officials are also considering a case against the 22-year-old ( AP )

Robinsons age or possible mental health issues may count as mitigating factors, the outlet reported. Mitigating factors can be used during trial to show why a person should not be given a death sentence.

President Donald Trump has also called for the death penalty; however, Gray said Tuesday that he had made the decision independently as county attorney based solely on the available evidence and circumstances and nature of the crime.

Robinsons next court appearance will be on September 29, and a judge needs to consider whether the state has enough evidence before proceeding to a trial.

Robinson has yet to be arraigned or enter a plea. Local officials have said the 22-year-old is indigent and have sought to assign him government-appointed legal counsel.

What is the evidence?

Authorities said Tuesday that Robinson left a note for his roommate under his keyboard implicating himself in Kirks murder, and then had a text conversation in which he also said he had committed the crimes.

In an interview on Fox and Friends, FBI director Kash Patel explained that the note had been destroyed, but that they had forensic evidence of the note. Patel explained that the FBI believed the note existed before the shooting and was in Robinsons and his roommates home.

Patel summarized the contents of the note as something to the effect of, I have the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and Im going to take it. This content of the message, he said, was gleaned through interviews.

Robinson told his roommate, who authorities say is biologically male and transitioning to female, that he had planned the crime for more than a week, according to messages obtained by investigators.

In the exchange, Robinson said he had hoped to keep this secret till I died of old age, and apologized for involving them.

If I am able to grab my rifle unseen, I will have left no evidence, he wrote. Going to attempt to retrieve it again, hopefully they have moved on. I havent seen anything about them finding it.

Robinson also told his roommate to delete their texts and not talk to the media.

open image in gallery Robinson evaded capture for 33 hours after opening fire on Kirk from a rooftop around 200 yards away, before jumping off the roof and disappearing in the ensuing chaos ( AFP/Getty )

Robinson later allegedly messaged friends on the social messaging platform Discord, writing, Hey guys, I have bad news for you allit was me at UVU yesterday. Im sorry for all of this.

DNA matching Robinson was also found on the trigger a the rifle discovered by detectives, and on some of the shell casings. The gun belonged to his grandfather, authorities said.

Robinson was allegedly worried about leaving his grandfathers rifle at the scene. How the f*** would I explain losing it to my old man?

What do we know about his potential motives?

State officials, as well as other members of the Republican party, have decried Kirks assassination as politically motivated.

While guest-hosting an episode of The Charlie Kirk Show on Monday in honor of his dear friend, Vice President JD Vance placed the blame at the feet of left-wing extremism. FBI Director Kash Patel also claimed that Robinson subscribed to left-wing ideology, citing comments by his family.

However, it is not clear whether Robinsons motives were explicitly political, and officials have not publicly accused the 22-year-old of acting in concert with any accomplices or organized group to carry out the alleged plot.

The FBI has also recently recognized a new category of attacks by so-called nihilistic violent extremists, those who seek chaos more than any clear ideological end.

Robinsons mother explained that, over the past year, the suspect had become more political, according to charging documents. His political stance started to lean to the left  in stark contrast to his parents  and he became more pro-gay and trans-oriented, the document added.

In a conversation before the shooting, Robinson mentioned Kirk would be holding an event at the university, which he called a stupid venue.

open image in gallery Utah Valley University campus remained closed through the weekend following the assassination of Kirk ( Getty )

When asked by his roommate why he had committed the alleged crime, he replied, I had enough of [Kirks] hatred, according to police. Some hate cant be negotiated out.

Online figures on the political right have suggested without concrete evidence that Robinsons alleged attack was directly related to having a roommate and romantic partner who was trans or transitioning, given Kirks regular criticism of transgender people.

Gray, the county attorney, declined this week to comment on whether transgender activism inspired the shooting.

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino has said the bureau is investigating if an extended network of individuals could be tied to the shooting.

The shell casings found by the rifle were engraved with messages that included, Hey, fascist! Catch! with an up arrow symbol, right arrow symbol, and three down arrow symbols, an apparent reference to a button code in the video game Helldivers 2.

Another casing read, oh bella ciao bella ciao bella ciao ciao ciao, an apparent reference to Bella ciao, a song with roots in an Italian anti-fascist anthem during the Second World War. The song has also been popularized by the series Money Heist and the video game Far Cry 6.

The spent casing reportedly included the phrase notices, bulges, OWO, whats this? an apparent reference to an ironic meme. Another casing allegedly said, If you read this, you are gay LMAO.

On Tuesday, Gray confirmed investigators believed the etched inscriptions on the bullets were a big meme.

How was he caught?

Law enforcement spent over a day searching for Robinson, releasing surveillance photos and videos of the 22-year-old and begging the public to help identify him.

According to the charging document, Robinsons father said that when his wife showed him an image of the shooter in the news, he agreed that it looked like their son. He also believed the rifle looked like a weapon he had gifted his son.

Tyler, is this you? Matt Robinson reportedly asked his son when he first saw the images, a law enforcement official told CNN. This looks like you.

open image in gallery Law enforcement spent more than a day searching for Robinson, releasing surveillance photos and videos of the 22-year-old and begging the public to help identify him ( FBI )

After his mother agreed that the pictures released by authorities looked like him, she and his father called their son, asking what he knew about the crime, officials said.

When his father urged his son to turn himself in, the suspect reportedly responded: I would rather kill myself than turn myself in.

Robinsons family convinced him to talk to a family friend who was a retired deputy sheriff, according to the charging document. The family friend convinced Robison to turn himself in, in part to avoid the police having to search his parents home.
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Legislation in Congress could force Donald Trumps administration to hand over banking records related to Jeffrey Epstein that allegedly include the names of women and girls he may have trafficked, as well as the identities of people connected to the late sex offender.

A bill introduced by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden on Wednesday could compel the Treasury Department to turn over documents to Senate investigators who have been digging into the financial network surrounding Epstein for the last three years. Wyden has said that Trumps Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has repeatedly turned down requests to produce documents.

Wydens investigation has taken on new urgency under the Trump administration, which insists that the public and press should move on from questions about the case. The Department of Justice stated earlier this year that there is no basis to release Epstein documents despite demands for a full accounting of his death and alleged ties to a wider child trafficking conspiracy.

Files sought by Wydens office allegedly include Epstein-connected transactions totaling at least $1.5 billion and may reveal potential violations of federal anti-money laundering laws by J.P. Morgan and other banks, according to the senator.

The basic question here is whether a bunch of rich pedophiles and Epstein accomplices are going to face any consequences for their crimes, and Scott Bessent is doing his best to make sure they wont, Wyden said in a statement.

open image in gallery Sen. Ron Wyden, left, the top Democrat on the influential Senate Finance Committee, is trying to force the Treasury Department to release Epstein banking records as his office investigates the money-trail surrounding the sex offenders alleged trafficking scheme ( REUTERS )

From the beginning, my view has been that following the money is the key to identifying Epsteins clients as well as the henchmen and banks that enabled his sex trafficking network, he added. Its past time for Bessent to quit running interference for pedophiles and give us the Epstein files hes sitting on.

A spokesperson for JP Morgan Chase declined to comment.

The Independent has requested comment from the Treasury Department.

The senators Produce Epstein Treasury Records Act will be filed as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, among annual must-pass bills in Congress.

The legislation requires the Treasury Department to give Senate committees every suspicious activity report connected to Epsteins accounts, which are recorded by banks as a means of detecting signs of illegal activity for federal law enforcement  as well as several dozen other figures like Ghislaine Maxwell, Epsteins jailed accomplice, and their banking institutions.

Treasury must also produce a report with a list of all financial institutions that filed those reports, as well as a list of all individuals and entities flagged by the reports and the total dollar value inside of them.

Wyden also is seeking a report that details any and all investigations performed by the Treasury Department into any potential violations of the Bank Secrecy Act or any other federal law by financial institutions regarding the handling of any accounts identified in suspicious activity reports connected to Epstein.

open image in gallery Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent could be compelled to release suspicious activity reports connected to Epsteins bank transactions that Senate investigators believe could reveal a powerful financial machine that fueled the sex offenders criminal enterprise ( AFP via Getty Images )

Confidential bank reports, filed with the Treasury Department and IRS, could provide a vital look at the massive financing machine behind Epsteins alleged sex trafficking operation, which spanned New York City, Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Filings uncovered by the Wydens office include $1.5 billion in transactions through four big banks, including wire transfers from wealthy figures over the sales of artwork, fees paid to Epstein, and payments to several women. But the banks appeared to have waited until Epsteins arrest on federal charges to flag the transactions, according to his office.

The largest suspicious activity report was filed in 2019 by JPMorgan for $1.1 billion, according to the senator.

Other suspicious activity reports include a payment through Deutsche Bank totaling $400 million, $78 million from Bank of New York Mellon and Bank of America's logs on Blacks payments to Epstein.

In 2023, JP Morgan Chase paid $290 million to settle a lawsuit brought by 200 of Epsteins victims. The bank paid another $75 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Virgin Islands.
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The Trump administration led a campaign of retribution against a group of decorated FBI agents who were seen as opponents of the White House agenda, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in a Washington, D.C., federal court.

The suit, which names the FBI, Department of Justice, White House, and senior officials like FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, comes from three senior agents who were fired from the bureau last month. They are seeking reinstatement and declarations that their dismissals violated civil service protections.

The agents were targeted for refusing to comply with controversial demands, such as firing disfavored agents and compiling lists of personnel who had worked on Trump-related investigations, the suit claims.

One of the agents, Brian Driscoll, who served as the FBIs acting director earlier this year, alleges that Patel suggested during an August conversation that his superiors at the White House and DOJ directed him to fire anyone who they identified as having worked on a criminal investigation against President Donald J. Trump.

When Driscoll told Patel such firings at the bureau would violate internal processes to prevent retaliation, Patel admitted he knew the nature of the summary firings were likely illegal and that he could be sued and later deposed, the suit claims.

When reached by The Independent, the FBI and DOJ declined to comment.

open image in gallery Lawsuit claims senior officials like FBI Director Kash Patel pressured senior staff to weed out perceived Trump critics ( Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved )

Elsewhere, during a January meeting with Emil Bove, a former Trump lawyer then serving in a top position at the Justice Department, Driscoll claims Bove said he was getting White House pressure to carry out mass firings at the FBI akin to those at the DOJ, where prosecutors who worked on the special counsel investigations into Trump were fired.

Bove also pressured Driscoll to assemble a list of FBI personnel associated with investigations into the January 6 pro-Trump insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the suit alleges.

As the administration began filling out its ranks of senior officials, Driscoll said an inexperienced White House aide working on the vetting process asked him how long he had been supporting Donald Trump, a question he refused to answer, citing the agencys tradition of agents remaining nonpolitical.

The Independent has contacted the White House and Bove, who is now a federal appeals judge, for comment.

Steven Jensen, another of the agents who brought the suit, was terminated after refusing to fire an agent who worked on two special counsel investigations into Trump.

open image in gallery Top FBI agent being vetted for job claims in lawsuit he was asked if he supported Trump ( Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. )

In the suit, Jensen also described alarming alleged interactions with Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, a former right-wing influencer and Secret Service agent.

Jensen became alarmed at Bongino's intense focus on increasing online engagement through his social media profiles in an effort to change his followers' perception of the FBI," the lawsuit claims. "The emphasis that Bongino placed on creating content for his social media pages often seemed to outweigh any deliberate analysis of the investigation itself."

The third agent in the suit, Spencer Evans, alleges he was fired after attracting online ire for his handling of Covid-related accommodations at the bureau during the pandemic.

The publics confidence in the FBI hinges on the commitment of every FBI employee, from the newest Special Agent to the Director, to relentlessly adhere to the rule of law without fear or favor, Evans said in a statement shared with The Independent. Americans should demand FBI leaders who make decisions based solely on the facts of an investigation and never on the desired outcome of one.

The FBI has long been a target of criticism from Donald Trump for its role in investigating his 2016 presidential campaign and 2020 efforts to overturn the presidential election.

A group of agents sued in February, alleging the administration was seeking to develop a list of employees involved in Trump-related investigations who could be slated to be fired.
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Former vice-president Kamala Harris took a swing at former president Joe Biden in her new book, describing his refusal to drop out of the 2024 presidential election as recklessness.

Harris wrote that Bidens initial decision not to step aside was driven by ego and ambition, while dissecting her harried and short-lived presidential campaign in her new memoir, 107 Days.

Its Joe and Jills decision. We all said that, like a mantra, as if wed all been hypnotized, Harris wrote, in an excerpt obtained by The Atlantic.

Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness. The stakes were simply too high. This wasnt a choice that should have been left to an individuals ego, an individuals ambition. It should have been more than a personal decision, she continued.

The former vice-president was thrust into a national presidential campaign with a little more than three months until election day after Biden was pressured to drop out due to his frailty  which was on display for all to see during his disastrous debate against Donald Trump.

open image in gallery Harris wrote that Bidens initial decision not to step aside was ego-driven ( Getty )

Harris took over the reins with energy, and although she out-raised Republicans, her campaign failed to reach the same number of voters that Biden managed to win over in 2020, and she suffered a resounding loss to Trump.

The general consensus from insiders was that Bidens stubborn refusal to drop out hurt Democrats chances of maintaining control of the White House.

The former president has taken a different stance, saying he regrets dropping out because he believes he could have beaten Trump, despite polling that showed Biden was trailing significantly.

In her new book, Harris says she was loyal to Biden and, of all people in the White House, was in the worst position to make that case that he should drop out because it would have come across as self-serving.

open image in gallery Harriss new memoir 107 Days recalls the chaotic lead-up to her taking over the Democratic presidential nomination from Biden ( AP )

During all those months of growing panic, should I have told Joe to consider not running? Perhaps. But the American people had chosen him before in the same match-up. Maybe he was right to believe that they would do so again, Harris contends in her new memoir.

The former vice-president also confirmed rumors that there was tension between her and Bidens staff. She claims the White House was not eager to defend her record when conservative media branded her a DEI hire, or her accomplishments in office when they called her a failed border tsar. Harris lamented that the former presidents team operated by a rule: If shes shining, hes dimmed.

She claimed they did not understand that when she performed well, it reflected positively on Biden  especially at a time when the country was insecure about the presidents leadership because of health-related concerns.

My success was important for him, Harris writes. His team didnt get it.

open image in gallery Harris launched her presidential campaign at the end of July 2024, kicking off with a speech in Wisconsin ( AFP via Getty )

In her book, which comes out September 23, Harris makes a point to push back on allegations that Biden was unable to perform duties.

Rumors that Biden was unable to make critical decisions and was being propped up by aides have been repeated by Trump and his allies to paint Biden as unsuccessful and weak.

But Harris says that even on Bidens worst day, he was more deeply knowledgeable, more capable of exercising judgment, and far more compassionate than Donald Trump on his best.

She admits, though, that Biden was tired at 81 years old.

However, that does not translate to incapacity, Harris wrote. While she proudly admits she was loyal to the president, she says she was more loyal to the United States, and in the event Biden was unable to perform duties, she would have said so.
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President Donald Trumps push to rename the Department of Defense the Department of War hit a snag this week when a congressional committee rejected the change.

Trump made the announcement last week when he signed an executive order, which he said was meant to indicate that the United States has the strongest military. But officially changing the name of the department that runs the United States military requires an act of Congress.

The House Rules Committee, which governs what legislation can go to the House floor, convened Tuesday to focus on the National Defense Authorization Act for the 2026 fiscal year. The NDAA is must-pass legislation that determines how money for the Pentagon will be spent.

Republicans Reps. Greg Steube of Florida, Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, Trent Kelly of Mississippi, Andy Ogles of Tennessee, Barry Moore of Alabama and Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin proposed an amendment that would require the Department of Defense to be renamed and in all regulations and requires the title of Secretary of Defense to be renamed as Secretary of War.

But the amendment was ultimately not adopted.

President Donald Trumps attempt to rename the Department of Defense to the Department of War hit a snag in the House Rules Committee. ( Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved )

Democrats also sought to include an amendment that would force the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the late disgraced convicted sex offender.

In July, House Speaker Mike Johnson sent the House of Representatives home early for the August recess because Democrats on the Rules Committee kept pushing to release files related to Epstein. Trumps handling of the investigation and decision not to release any more information was met with fury from both sides of the political aisle. Many have called for Trump to release more information and some lawmakers have proposed bills to require the disclosure.

We are subject to it because it's our job to make sure we bring this stuff to life, Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-N.M.) on the committee said.

But the amendment failed, with Republicans criticizing Democrats for not bringing up the files during Joe Bidens presidency and when Democrats controlled the House.

In addition, another amendment that would have extended the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa program for Afghans who assisted U.S. service members. But Republicans rejected that call.

You left them, not only that, you left the equipment to the enemy, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a member of the committee sad. So again, this amendment falls on deaf ears.

In addition, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said he worried about vetting of Afghan refugees.

This ought to be debated as part of the larger immigration debate, and not associated with NDAA, he said.

The House and Senate have to finish passing the NDAA by the end of the year to keep the Pentagon running. As of right now, the name of the Department of War remains just a Trump desired name change.
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The release of hundreds of South Korean workers arrested by federal immigration agents at a Hyundai factory last week has been delayed due to circumstances on the U.S. side, Korean officials have said.

More than 300 South Korean workers have been held at an immigration detention center in Folkston, in southeast Georgia, since last Thursday, after ICE agents raided the electric battery plant, which is under construction on the campus of Hyundais sprawling auto plant west of Savannah. A total of about 475 people were arrested in the raid.

The incident sparked an international dispute, with Seouls Foreign Ministry expressing concern and regret over the operation. The economic activities of Korean investment companies and the rights and interests of Korean citizens must not be unfairly infringed upon during U.S. law enforcement operations, the ministry said following news of the arrests. The U.S. agreed to release the workers and they were expected to board a charter flight to return home.

A chartered flight headed from South Korea to Atlanta to pick up the workers, with them expected to leave as early as Wednesday afternoon.

However, Seouls Foreign Ministry later said it would be difficult for the aircraft to return with the workers Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported. Officials did not elaborate on the delay, but said Secretary of State Marco Rubio was to meet with South Korean officials to continue negotiations.

open image in gallery More than 300 South Korean workers were arrested a Georgia Hyundai factory after an ICE raid. Now, officials say their release has been delayed. ( AFP via Getty Images )

open image in gallery A Korean Air plane arrives at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta Wednesday. The plane was expected to take the workers back home. ( AP )

The Independent has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE about the reason for the reported delay.

Officials from both countries are discussing details that could allow all the detained workers to leave the U.S. voluntarily instead of being deported, according to the Journal. The type of removal could impact the ability of the workers to return to the U.S. in the future.

A deportation order could make someone ineligible to return to the U.S. for up to 10 years, while people who agree to voluntary departure may be able to apply for a visa to return to the U.S., according to the Department of Justice.

open image in gallery Protesters outside the US Embassy in South Korea after the Georgia raid sparked an international dispute. ( Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. )

U.S. authorities said previously that the Korean detainees were unlawfully working at the plant at the time of their arrest.

However, Charles Kuck, a lawyer representing several of the men arrested, said the vast majority of the workers from South Korea were doing work that is authorized under the B-1 business visitor visa program.

A B-1 visitor for business visa allows foreign workers to stay for up to six months, getting reimbursed for expenses while collecting a paycheck back home.

Construction of the battery factory is part of a $7.6 billion joint venture between car manufacturer Hyundai and another South Korean firm LG Energy. The two companies are collaborating on the Hyundai Metaplant complex that is considered the largest economic development project in Georgias state history.
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An Irish grandmother of five, who is married to an American citizen and who has lived in the U.S. on a green card for 47 years, is facing deportation.

Donna Hughes-Brown, 58, was arrested by ICE over a bad check for $25 she passed a decade ago, according to her husband. Born in England the grandmother holds Irish citizenship and first came to the U.S. with her parents and brother aged 11.

She visited the Republic of Ireland earlier this summer for a family funeral, only to be arrested when she returned to Chicago OHare International Airport on July 29.

She has since been detained for more than 30 days and held at a facility in Campbell County, Kentucky, with the U.S. government threatening to deport her over the check, which it argues was a crime of moral turpitude, despite her family saying she paid the money back long ago.

open image in gallery Donna Hughes-Brown is facing deportation by the U.S. government over a $25 bad check she paid off a decade ago, her husband Jim says ( GoFundMe )

There is no statutory definition of moral turpitude but courts have found that it refers generally to conduct that shocks the public conscience as being inherently base, vile or depraved, contrary to the rules of morality, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Jim Brown  Donnas husband of eight years, with whom she lives on a nine-acre farm in Troy, Missouri, and with whom she organizes charitable blessing boxes for struggling members of the local community  told Fox Newss Nevada affiliate KMOV of his anguish at his wifes plight.

Its just not fair that youre telling me I have to be a bachelor the rest of my life because of some stupid policy, Brown said. You dont arrest 58-year-old grandmothers. Its just wrong. She hasnt committed crimes. You just dont do that.

Brown, a U.S. Navy veteran of 20 years service, has admitted to Newsweek that he voted for Donald Trump in last years presidential election but has quickly come to regret it 100 percent.

open image in gallery Missouri farmer and Navy veteran Jim Brown says the deportation threat hanging over his wife is 'nonsense' ( KMOV )

Its egregious that we have allowed a government to allow this to happen, he told KMOV, dismissing the case being made against his wife as nonsense and rubbishing the idea that she represents a flight risk. I think its a blanket thing to catch everybody, to fill beds They signed a stupid bill that is torturing innocent people, and thats the problem.

Brown added that he spends hours on the phone every day trying to reach his partner, protesting about the deplorable conditions in which she is being held and appealing for help from his states elected officials, so far to no avail.

The office of Missouris Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe sent him a letter advising him that his wifes case was a federal issue only, he said.

I want somebody to have the guts and the fortitude to stand up and say, You know what? This is wrong, Brown said. Its crazy that this is happening. Its just crazy that this is even allowed in this country. Thats the problem. It shouldnt even be thought that this should be OK. My wife is not a criminal.

The Independent has reached out to ICE for comment.

The Department of Homeland Security has previously said in a statement: Lawful Permanent Residents presenting at a U.S. port of entry with certain criminal convictions may be found inadmissible, placed in removal proceedings, and subject to mandatory detention.

A green card is a privilege, not a right, and under our nations laws, our government has the authority to revoke a green card if our laws are broken and abused.

A GoFundMe campaign has been set up by friends and family to crowdfund Hughes-Browns legal defense, which, at the time of writing, had achieved 86 percent of its modest $6,500 goal.
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Vice President JD Vance has said that he wants the Trump administrations crackdown on violent crime to go nationwide following the federal takeover of Washington, D.C.

After President Donald Trump deployed the military in the nations capital last month and launched Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago this week, Vance suggested the same sweeping action could be rolled out across the U.S.

Vance chatted Tuesday night with disgraced former congressman-turned MAGA host Matt Gaetz on One America News, where the failed attorney general nominee threw softball questions at the vice president.

Gaetz asked the vice president what his message was to the Americans living in crime-ridden cities like Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago and what hope the Trump administration can give them.

If you just do some common-sense law enforcement, you can give the American people back their streets, Vance said. I would love if we did this in every big American city, because I think that American citizens deserve to live safely in these big cities.

open image in gallery After President Donald Trump deployed the military in the nations capital last month and launched Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago, Vice President JD Vance suggested the same sweeping action could be rolled out across the U.S. ( OAN/X )

The vice president, who went unchallenged throughout the 13-minute sit-down with Gaetz, blamed weak leadership for allowing criminals to take over the streets.

We've all had this, this experience where you pass somebody on the street who's obviously crazy, who's screaming and yelling at your kids, you cross to the other side of the street to avoid that person, Vance said.

He said the solution was to just throw those people in jail and keep them in prison.

Vance earlier hit out at Democrats on violent crime and accused them of lying about the root causes of violent crime.

The big lie the Democrats told about violent crime is that it's "systemic" and therefore no one's really responsible, Vance said in a post on X. If the "system" is to blame then you fund a bunch of nonprofits that don't do anything besides give jobs to underqualified radicals. The reality is that the gross majority of violent crime is committed by a very small group of people and we should be throwing them in prison.

open image in gallery President Donald Trump dined out at swanky D.C. eatery, Joes Stone Crab with members of his Cabinet, including Vance, to demonstrate how the citys restaurants are now booming ( Getty Images )

Trump reinforced the same message Tuesday when he dined out at swanky D.C. eatery, Joes Stone Crab with members of his Cabinet, including Vance, to demonstrate how the citys restaurants are now booming.

The president claimed that people havent gone out to dinner for years until now.

We're standing right in the middle of D.C., which, as you know, over the last year, was very unsafe place over the last 20 years, and now it's got virtually no crime, Trump said. The restaurants now are booming. People are going out to dinner where they didn't go out for years, and it's a safe city.

The president said an announcement was due Wednesday about another city the administration was targeting on violent crime.

During the vice presidents sit-down, Gaetz did not ask Vance for his take on the latest development in the Epstein files saga after the House Oversight Committee released a sexually suggestive letter Monday, allegedly signed by the president in 2003, and sent to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday. Trump has denied authoring the letter.

open image in gallery The president said an announcement was due Wednesday about another city the administration was targeting on violent crime ( Andrew Harnik/Getty Images )

The letter, which the White House has repeatedly dismissed as fake news, is at the center of a $10 billion lawsuit filed by Trump against the Wall Street Journal.

Trump snapped back at reporters who quizzed him further about the Epstein birthday note during his Tuesday night outing.

No, that's not my language. It's nonsense, Trump said. And frankly, you're wasting your time.
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Former Trump spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany will host her own Saturday morning show as Fox News announced on Wednesday that its reshuffling its weekend lineup, which will also result in the cancellation of its long-running media criticism program MediaBuzz.

McEnany, who joined the network in 2021 and has spent the past few years co-hosting the weekday panel show Outnumbered, will anchor Saturday in America beginning on September 20, Fox News Media president and executive editor Jay Wallace announced. The two-hour program will air at 10 a.m. ET on Saturdays.

Besides the continued elevation of McEnany at the conservative cable giant, the network also revealed that MediaBuzz  which has been hosted by Howard Kurtz since 2013  will be coming to an end this month.

The cancellation of Kurtzs hour-long Sunday morning show now leaves the cable news landscape without any programs devoted solely to media criticism. Following CNNs shuttering of Reliable Sources in 2022, MediaBuzz was the last remaining media-centric show left on cable.

Kurtz, who hosted Reliable Sources from 1998 to 2013 before jumping ship to Fox News, will transition to a role as a political media analyst and remain with the network. He will also continue to host his Media Buzzmeter podcast on the digital website.

open image in gallery Kayleigh McEnany, who has been with Fox News since 2021, will now host her own two-hour weekend show. ( Fox News )

For more than a decade, Howie Kurtz has served as the lead authority for media coverage in cable news and we look forward to continuing his smart analysis across our programming, Wallace said in his announcement.

In his own statement, Kurtz said he was extraordinarily proud of MediaBuzz and touted its ratings, noting that it was number one for over 12 years and built a loyal audience that liked our down-the-middle approach of contrasting viewpoints and tackling sensitive subjects, with great independence, but time marches on.

Meanwhile, replacing MediaBuzz in the late Sunday morning timeslot will be The Sunday Briefing, a program anchored by the networks senior White House correspondents Jacqui Heinrich and Peter Doocy. The pair will rotate weekly as solo hosts of the show, which will air at 11 a.m. ET.

Additionally, the network  which has extended its cable ratings dominance amid Donald Trumps return to the White House  promoted several rising conservative stars by giving them co-hosting gigs.

Fox News contributor Johnny Joey Jones and Fox Nation host Tomi Lahren were named as two of the four co-hosts of the weekend roundtable program The Big Weekend Show, which airs Saturdays and Sundays. The show has also been expanded to three hours and will air at 5 p.m. ET.

Elsewhere, longtime Fox News national correspondent Griff Jenkins  who is the co-anchor of Fox News Live  will now be a co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend, joining Charlie Hurt and Rachel Campos-Duffy on the curvy couch.

Trumps former White House press secretary getting her own two-hour solo anchoring slot comes months after the network brought on the presidents daughter-in-law to host her own weekend show, laying bare the symbiotic relationship between the administration and the right-wing network.

Besides the number of family members and former Trump staffers working at the network, not to mention the MAGA-boosting hosts who serve as informal advisers to the president, the Trump administration has used Fox News as its personal staffing agency. In just the first few months of Trumps return to office, his administration has hired roughly two dozen former Fox News employees.

Meanwhile, the cancellation of MediaBuzz would appear to dash the hopes of Fox News commentator Joe Concha, whom Sean Hannity had long advocated to get his own media criticism show. Earlier this year, Trump had praised Concha while simultaneously urging Kurtz to retire for not defending him strongly enough.
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The protesters who confronted President Donald Trump as he dined at a Washington, D.C. restaurant , chanting that he is the Hitler of our time, said all they had to do to get into the same room as Trump was make a reservation.

Grassroots organization Code Pink took responsibility for the protest Tuesday night inside Joes Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab, a restaurant directly across the street from the White House that Trump chose to visit to highlight that D.C. is now safe after his federal takeover.

The activists chanted They feast while Gaza starves, Trump is the Hitler of our time, Free D.C. Free Palestine! and Stop terrorizing communities all over the world, as Trump and other senior administration officials ate at the restaurant.

While Trump, J.D. Vance, Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, and others feasted at a steakhouse, we stood our ground and told them the truth, Code Pinks D.C. organizer Olivia DiNucci said in the statement.

In a social media post , the group noted: Trump looked us in the eyes, and we made sure he would never dine in peace while communities are under siege.

open image in gallery The group of protesters who confronted President Donald Trump as he dined in D.C. said they were able to get into the same restaurant as the president just by making a reservation. ( Code Pink )

open image in gallery Trump and several senior members of his administration went out to eat Tuesday night at Joes Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab in Washington, D.C. ( Getty )

Code Pink describes itself as a grassroots organization looking to end U.S. warfare and imperialism, support peace and human rights initiatives, and redirect resources into healthcare, education, green jobs, and other life-affirming programs.

Videos taken by the group inside the restaurant show the activists chanting in the dining room, not far from Trump, and holding Palestinian flags. The White House sought to make it seem as though Trump had mostly received a warm welcome, sharing on X that the president was greeted with cheers as he dines in D.C. Other footage appeared to show some diners booing the protesters.

It was Trumps first time eating a meal out at a restaurant outside of one of his hotels during either of his terms. The visit came after a reporter last week questioned why he had never been spotted dining out in D.C.

The Independent has reached out to the White House for comment.

Meanwhile, DiNucci told the Daily Beast that getting into the same room as Trump Tuesday night was as easy as making a reservation.

We actually had a reservation, and got it pretty last minute, and went in, she explained.

We thought it was just going to be Trump, we didnt know it was all of his Cabinet, and we didnt think they would be in such an open room  we thought hed be in a different area  and we were placed really close to them.

DiNucci said the group hoped to make a point to Trump about his harmful policies  namely on immigration and the war in Gaza  and prevent him from enjoying his meal.

For us, its the fact that hes eating food that is grown, picked, transported, by the very same people that his regime is abducting from their neighborhoods and terrorizing, at the same time, funding and supporting the forced starvation and genocide of the Palestinian people, the amount that his cabinet has wreaked havoc, DiNucci said.

She continued: We were in there saying that he will absolutely not be able to have dinner in peace.

Prominent MAGA figures and Trump loyalists expressed outrage over the apparent security failure by the Secret Service and questioned how they could allow the protesters to get so close.

open image in gallery Trumps dinner at a D.C. restaurant was crashed by a group of protesters who carried Palestinian flags. ( CODEPINK via AP )

Florida congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna questioned whether someone could have leaked the presidents location.

Did someone leak the Presidents location to the organization that showed up to protest him? Was this code pink? How are they allowed that close to him? she wrote. Where was Secret Service and was there someone in Secret Service that leaked his location? This needs to be looked into.

Meanwhile, far-right activist and Trump devotee Laura Loomer took it a step further and suggested that House Speaker Mike Johnson, who is behind Vice President J.D. Vance in the presidential order of succession, could have ended up as president.

Someone at Secret Service needs to be fired for this one. Is there a HAMAS sympathizer working at the U.S. Secret Service? Who let those rapid HAMAS lovers inside while Trump was in the restaurant? We need to find out and expose them, Loomer wrote.

This is unacceptable. POTUS could have been assassinated tonight. They could have stabbed him or shot him, she added.

Conservative commentator Todd Starnes also expressed outrage, writing, The Secret Service needs to explain how a bunch of pro-Hamas protesters managed to access the restaurant Trump was dining at tonight. Good grief!
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Republicans in the House of Representatives would rather not talk about the bawdy birthday note that President Donald Trump supposedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday party.

The House Oversight Committee had released many of the documents related to the late convicted sex offender regarding his trafficking of girls and young women. But some of the members of the committee dont want to talk about the card that Trump is alleged to have signed and sent.

I am so goddamn sick of being asked about a f*****g birthday card, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) told The Independent on Tuesday.

Give me a break. What about the women who've been fighting for justice for 30 years and still don't have it? How does writing about a birthday card do anything to get them justice? It doesn't.

Mace is one of only three Republicans who co-signed a discharge petition to release files related to Epstein. She did so after she met with victims of Epstein who visited Capitol Hill last week and was moved to tears.

open image in gallery Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) repeated Trumps denial that he sent a birthday card to Jeffrey Epstein. ( Getty Images )

Mace, who is running for governor of South Carolina  and who could use Trumps endorsement to win the primary  has been careful not to say the president was at fault for any of Epsteins wrongdoing.

Donald Trump is the one who banned Jeffrey Epstein from Mar-a-Lago, she told The Independent last week. He was an FBI informant, and he talked to the feds to get this guy turned over. So Donald Trump is a hero in this.

Later, House Speaker Mike Johnson would repeat that Trump was an informant, though little to no evidence exists that this was the case and the White House has said Johnson misspoke. Johnson would later clarify his remarks.

Republicans have sought to balance the anger that their base has felt at the lack of transparency surrounding Epsteins operations, subsequent arrest and his eventual death. In July, the Justice Department and FBI released a two-page memo saying no client list of Epsteins patrons existed and that the disgraced financier who long escaped justice likely killed himself in his prison cell.

President Donald Trump has also called the investigation a hoax by Democrats, even though survivors of Epsteins came to Capitol Hill asking for the files to be released. Trump also denied reports from The Wall Street Journal that he sent a note to Epstein that featured a doodle of a womans naked body that featured his signature mimicking a womans pubic hair.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) focused on another one of Epsteins famous friends who occupied the White House.

I also saw a very interesting one from Bill Clinton, she told The Independent. But I know the White House has been refuting that with the signatures, and it looks like the signatures don't match.

The committee published a note Clinton sent in the infamous birthday book on Monday. The note remarked on Epsteins childlike curiosity.

open image in gallery Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) left a closed-door meeting with Epstein victims at the Capitol in tears last week. ( AFP/Getty )

Rep. Ralph Norman, who is running against Mace in the Republican primary for governor, said he had not seen it.

I have not, he told The Independent. Im sure the president will report on it.

Fellow House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona said he wanted to see more.

I havent been able to see all of them yet, he told The Independent. When asked about the supposed Trump card, he said thats primarily what I want to see.

After the story initially published in July, Trump sued The Wall Street Journal, the papers parent company News Corps and its owner Ruper Murdoch for defamation.

I would say that the White House has gone forward and President Trump has a defamation case currently alleging that that card is not real, and I'm inclined to believe that he's not, you know, playing to lose that case, Luna said.

Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson have opposed efforts from Khanna and Massie to release the files. The petition needs a majority of members to sign to receive a floor vote. Along with Massie and Mace, only two RepublicansReps. Lauren Bobert of Colorado and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgiahave co-signed while almost every Democrat has signed the petition.

House Oversight Committee Chairman told The Independent he planned to focus on financial transactions.

Those arent important items of evidence, Comer said of the notes from Trump and Clinton. None of the women have implicated with Trump or Clinton.

Comer said that Ghislaine Maxwell, Epsteins former partner and longtime associate, told Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche that she never saw Trump do anything inappropriate.

But the investigation is unlikely to go away for the time being.

Theyre clearly lying, Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, told The Independent, calling Republicans behavior shameful.

On Tuesday, Virginia will hold a special election for the late Rep. Gerry Connollys old seat that will likely be filled by a Democrat, most assuredly giving the discharge petition another signature. Later in the month, Arizona will hold another special election to fill the seat of the late Raul Grijalva, which will notch another signature.
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Susan Monarez, the former director of the CDC, who stepped down last month after resisting changes to vaccine policy demanded by Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, will testify before Congress next week.

Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said in a statement on Tuesday that his panel will hold a hearing on September 17 to examine the state of the HHS under Kennedys leadership.

Debra Houry, former chief medical officer of the CDC and one of four top officials to follow Monarez out of the door in a show of solidarity, will also give evidence.

open image in gallery Former CDC director Susan Monarez will testify before the Senate next week ( Getty )

The hearing will be entitled, Restoring Trust Through Radical Transparency: Reviewing Recent Events at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Implications for Childrens Health.

Trump officials will be invited to respond to the testimony Monarez offers at a future hearing, Cassidy said.

To protect childrens health, Americans need to know what has happened and is happening at the CDC. They need to be reassured that their childs health is given priority, he added said in a statement Tuesday evening. Radical transparency is the only way to do that.

Monarez left her post on August 27, having only been sworn in on July 29, amid growing tensions over vaccines and public health directives.

Donald Trumps administration has made sweeping changes to vaccine policies since coming to power, including withdrawing federal recommendations for Covid-19 shots for pregnant women and healthy children in May.

It also fired all members of the CDCs expert vaccine advisory panel in June, replacing its lineup with advisers hand-picked by Kennedy, some of whom are fellow anti-vaccine activists.

open image in gallery Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr during his ill-tempered appearance before the Senate Finance Committee last week ( Getty )

Over 1,000 past and current HHS employees have called on the secretary to resign over the fallout with Monarez, accusing him of disregarding decades of lifesaving science, reversing medical progress and compromising the health of the nation.

Trump has so far stood by the man he told to go wild on American healthcare after winning last years presidential race, brushing aside congressional pressure, public health concerns about Kennedys actions and the political risks of changing vaccine policies nationwide.

Hes a very good person... and he means very well, and hes got some little different ideas, the president said in defense of his health secretary last week after his contentious appearance before the Senate Finance Committee at which he said Monarez was untrustworthy, having called her unimpeachable just weeks earlier.

Lawyers for the ousted official said Kennedys characterization of her was false, and at times, patently ridiculous. They added that she had been removed because she refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts and accused the secretary of weaponizing public health for political gain.

Monarez alleged in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last week, published to coincide with Kennedys appearance on Capitol Hill, that the secretary had pressured her to preapprove the recommendations of a vaccine advisory panel newly filled with people who have publicly expressed antivaccine rhetoric.

Kennedy has said his mission is restore the CDCs focus on infectious disease and rebuild trust through transparency and competence.

Additional reporting by agencies.
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A woman who claims she tipped off federal immigration authorities to workers at a Hyundai plant in Georgia, sparking an international row, is a MAGA acolyte and congressional hopeful.

Tori Branum, a former U.S. Marine, who has accepted the online moniker of MAGA Karen, is running for District 12 Congress in the Peach State.

Last week, ICE agents arrested hundreds of South Korean workers at a Hyundai plant, marking what the Department of Homeland Security called its largest-ever raid and triggering outrage from South Korean officials who expressed concern and regret over the operation.

A search warrant seen by The Independent showed that agents were seeking the arrest of only four workers at the facility, who are Latino.

open image in gallery Tori Branum, a former U.S. Marine, who has accepted the online moniker of MAGA Karen, is running for district 12 Congress in Georgia ( Tori Branum/ Facebook )

Branum, 47, later sparked major backlash after posting online that she had reported the plant to ICE agents, and claimed she gotten hate mail from all over the country with people telling me to die or that I should be in fear.

Despite this, she has vowed to push on in her bid for Congress.

The funniest part is people saying theyre gonna keep me from winning this election in district 12, she added in a later social media post. Well there smart one, Im in a district with 22 counties that are all republican except for one.

So if you think anybody in this district is going listen to your hateful left liberal rhetoric, you are sadly mistaken. Put your time and energy into something else. Most of yall dont even know the difference in Congress or Senate or when the primary is.

According to Branums campaign fundraising page and social media profiles, as well as a former servicewoman, she is a small business owner and firearms trainer.

Following active duty, she married an Air Force serviceman and moved to the city of Warner Robins. Branum stayed at home caring for their children while her husband was on deployment overseas, while also completing a Bachelors Degree in Psychology from American Military University.

open image in gallery Last week ICE agents arrested dozens of South Korean workers at a Hyundai plant, marking what the Department of Homeland Security called its largest-ever raid. Branum claimed she was the one who alerted agents to the factory ( Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives )

open image in gallery The raid triggered outrage from South Korean officials who expressed concern and regret over the operation during which dozens of workers were arrested ( AP )

Later, she founded the Middle Georgia Female Firearms Training and claims to have trained over 13,000 women in the community and across the country.

My background in psychology, coupled with my experience as a behavioral therapist for Pulaski County schools in Georgia fuels my passion for community engagement and assistance, Branum wrote on her website.

She describes herself as an America first candidate.

My district is home to two veterans hospitals and an army base. I want to be a representative and a voice in Washington for every day people, veterans, and families, her page reads.

I understand what its like to be active duty military, an active duty spouse and an active duty mom. I understand what its like to be a small business owner and woman. We need more conservative women in Washington! I have no doubt Im the most qualified candidate.

Branums fundraising page, set up on May 15, has raised just less than $3000 as of Tuesday.
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Fearing the Trump administration is aiming to repeat an aborted effort to remove dozens of Guatemalan children from the United States, lawyers and shelter workers across the country are scrambling to prevent the government from deporting Honduran children in their custody.

Legal aid groups believe federal immigration authorities, with the Honduran governments support, are preparing to remove children from Honduras who arrived in the United States without a parent or guardian and are now in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Homeland Security investigators and representatives from the Honduran consulate met with several Honduran children at an Arizona shelter in recent weeks, and immigration court cases for Honduran children have suddenly disappeared, according to aid groups.

The moves follow a similar pattern that the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project witnessed in the cases of Guatemalan children before the government tried to abruptly remove them without a court hearing  sparking a dramatic, fast-paced legal battle detailed in dozens of harrowing court statements from the children themselves.

It is truly astounding that the government is moving forward with this plan after they tried to do the same thing to children from Guatemala in the dead of night over Labor Day weekend, Florence Project deputy director Roxana Avila-Cimpeanu said in a statement.

open image in gallery Honduran officials are making preparations for the allegedly imminent removal of Honduran children from the United States. Legal aid groups representing Honduran children in federal custody are preemptively suing to stop the government from deporting them ( AFP via Getty Images )

A federal judge has temporarily blocked Immigration and Customs Enforcement from deporting targeted Guatemalan children, and the Florence Project has joined the lawsuit to preemptively block the government from similarly removing a dozen Honduran children.

The only difference between the children from Guatemala protected by those temporary restraining orders and the children from Honduras who are being targeted is their country of origin, and existing laws protecting unaccompanied minors applies to all migrant children in the governments care, Avila-Cimpeanu said.

The blatant disrespect for the basic rule of law that the government is displaying towards these children shocks the conscience, she added.

The Independent has requested comment from Homeland Security and the Honduran consulate.

At least one child from Honduras who attended an immigration court hearing in August was asked by the judge whether they want to voluntarily return to their home country, explaining that the childs name was on a list that the judge had been provided, according to attorneys.

Aimee Korolev, deputy director of the South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project, said more than a dozen cases involving Honduran children have since been abruptly wiped from immigration court dockets.

At least 19 cases suddenly had no future hearing, according to Korolev.

I am worried that the removal of the hearings from the court docket is a signal that these children could face imminent removal, she wrote in court documents.

On September 1, the Honduran government announced that it began to initiate coordinated efforts for institutional cooperation in order to ensure a safe return of the minors deported from the United States.

Officials there are working to address situations like the one experienced in Guatemala, with the deportation of unaccompanied minors from the United States on flights, according to Guadalupe Sandoval, Director of the General Directorate for the Protection of Hondurans.

open image in gallery A state of emergency has been in place in Honduras since December 2022, leading to reports of torture and police abuse of power, according to human rights groups ( AFP via Getty Images )

Laura Smith is executive director of the Childrens Legal Center, which represents unaccompanied minors in five ORR facilities in Illinois and Indiana, including two facilities contracted with the National Youth Advocacy Center.

On September 4, Smith received an email from a National Youth Advocacy Center ORR facility in Illinois informing her that an ORR program officer alerted the facility that ICE may soon be taking into custody minors from the country of Honduras with the intent to repatriate them to their home country.

She received a similar message the following day from another facility.

That same day, a legal services provider in Texas said she received an anonymous phone call from a staff member at a shelter that houses unaccompanied children.

Estrella de El Paso attorney Natasha Halina Rosario said the anonymous staff member indicated that the government was planning to repatriate all children under the ORR custody without making any announcement.

The staffer said that the government was attacking all unaccompanied migrant children, not only those from Guatemala, according to Rosario.

Another legal service provider for unaccompanied children in Texas had also been notified by a different program that Honduran children in ORR custody may face imminent removal from the country.

open image in gallery Officials in Honduras are planning for the safe return of Honduran children who arrived in the United States without a parent or guardian and are now in federal custody, drawing fears from legal aid groups that the Trump administration is trying to abruptly deport them ( AFP via Getty Images )

The Trump administration had not obtained legal permission to remove dozens of Guatemalan children this month, according to their lawyers. Their families in Guatemala were not seeking their return, and testimony from children said they were not trying to get back.

But at least 76 children were already on planes and sitting on a tarmac as they waited for a judges response to a lawsuit to keep them in the country.

The children remain in federal custody while yet another high-profile legal challenge to the presidents anti-immigration agenda continues.

In court documents supporting a request to block their removal, more than a dozen Guatemalan teenagers described their overwhelming fear of returning to their home country.

They describe childhoods in neglect, threats of extortion and gang violence against them or their families, and returning to homes or government shelters where they were abused or trafficked.

The administrations position that it was merely cooperating with the Guatemalan government to return children to their parents is belied by the facts, attorneys for Guatemalan children wrote in court filings.

Even if the administrations contentions regarding its coordination with the Guatemalan government are true, any such coordination does not excuse the governments illegal action and does nothing to change its obligation to provide unaccompanied minors with the process unambiguously due to them under the law, they added.
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A trove of documents from the investigation into late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was released Monday by a congressional committee.

The bombshell document drop included a 238-page book compiled for Epsteins 50th birthday in 2003, with dozens of contributions from the disgraced financiers rich and powerful friends, along with girl-friends. Among the biggest revelations was a sexually suggestive hand-drawn naked woman and cryptic message, allegedly by President Donald Trump. Epsteins last will and testament, and lengthy address book were also released.

The documents were made public by the House Oversight Committee, after it subpoenaed Epsteins estate last month, amid ongoing outcry over the Trump administrations failure to keep a promise made by the president and release all the files related to the case.

Epstein, 66, died by suicide in a New York City jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges involving abuse of girls as young as 14. Epstein was previously charged with soliciting prostitution in Florida in 2006. The charge sparked a federal investigation, but Epstein struck a plea deal that protected him from further charges. In exchange, he pleaded guilty to state charges and registered as a sex offender.

Epsteins former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted in connection with the sex trafficking investigation in 2021. She is serving 20 years after being found guilty on several charges, including sex trafficking of a minor.

The document dump comes as:

The White House denied Monday that Trump drew or put his signature on a 50th birthday letter to Epstein;

The president called the birthday letter a dead issue;

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are collecting signatures on a petition to force a vote calling on the Justice Department to release more Epstein files.

open image in gallery Jeffrey Epstein lounges in a hammock in a picture included in a book gifted to him for his 50th birthday. The House Oversight Committee released the book on Monday night ( House Oversight Committee )

Epsteins Birthday Book: Trumps Bawdy Drawing

Epsteins 50th birthday book, from 2003, includes a letter that is allegedly signed by Trump.

The note describes an imagined conversation between Trump and Epstein, framed by a sketched outline of a womans torso and breasts. The text reads like a script, detailing a cryptic, imagined conversation between Donald and Jeffrey. It begins with a Voice Over that says: There must be more to life than having everything.

Happy Birthdayand may every day be another wonderful secret, the letter concludes.

The letter is signed Donald, in the sketched womans pubic area. It appears to have been written in thick black marker with angular letters and a long trail after the last D.

Contemporaneous, authenticated letters from Trump, such as a note he sent to Larry King in 1999, have signatures that appear similar.

The Wall Street Journal first reported on the letter in July, prompting a vehement denial from the president who said he never wrote a picture. Trump filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the paper, its publisher and owner, Rupert Murdoch.

open image in gallery A birthday note for Jeffrey Epsteins 50th birthday in 2003 that appears to have been signed by Donald Trump ( House Oversight Committee )

open image in gallery Trump declined to comment on the alleged birthday note, while White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote that the entire Birthday Card story is false ( REUTERS )

In a statement on X, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote that this entire Birthday Card story is false.

As I have said all along, its very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it, she wrote. President Trumps legal team will continue to aggressively pursue litigation.

On another page, Trumps name appears in a photo, as the signature - D J TRUMP - on a giant check for $22,500 being held by Epstein and two other men, who are smiling at the camera. A fourth person, whose face has been blacked-out, is also holding onto the check.

The photo is captioned: Jeffrey showing early talents with money + women! Sells fully depreciated [redacted] to Donald Trump for $22,500. Showed early people skills too. Even though I handled the deal I didnt get any of the money on the girl!

open image in gallery Epstein holds a photo of a giant check for $22,500 signed 'D J Trump.' The photo was in a book released as part of a new Epstein files document dump by the House Oversight Committee ( House Oversight Committee )

In a section titled Assistants, one note also names Trump alongside several other famous people that the writer claimed to have encountered after meeting Epstein. Others named include Prince Andrew, Naomi Campbell and Michael Jackson.

Trump was friends with Epstein in the Nineties and early 2000s, once calling him a terrific guy. The pair were pictured partying together at glamorous events in Palm Beach and New York. However, they fell out and Trump barred Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago estate in 2007.

Trump has not been accused of any wrongdoing related to the Epstein case.

Epsteins Friends: Clinton, Mandelson and More

The birthday book contains several contributions from high-profile people, listed in the friends section of the contents page. The list includes Trump, former President Bill Clinton, and Peter Mandelson, the British Ambassador to the U.S.

One message signed Bill Clinton, describes Epstein as having childlike curiosity.

The note reads: Its reassuring, isnt it, to have lasted as long, across all the years of learning and knowing, adventures and [illegible word], and also to have your childlike curiosity, the drive to make a difference and the solace of friends.

open image in gallery A note in Jeffrey Epstein's 50th birthday book that appears to have been signed by former President Bill Clinton ( House Oversight Committee )

A contribution, attributed to Mandelson, includes a collection of photos, such as shots of a tropical island and a yellow parachute gliding through the air. Mandelson included a photo of himself wrapped in a towel or robe, speaking to Epstein outdoors on a porch.

There is also note for Epstein, which praises him as an intelligent and sharp-witted man.

It concludes: But wherever he is in the world, he remains my best pal! Happy Birthday, Jeffrey. We love you!!

open image in gallery Peter Mandelson (left) with Jeffrey Epstein. Mandelson appears to have called Epstein as his 'best pal' in a birthday note ( House Oversight Committee )

Another submission includes a hand-drawn cartoon of Epstein, which is unsigned. The sketch is of a man handing a lollipop and balloons to three girls, with a caption which reads: 1983.

It also includes a man, who resembles Epstein, lounging on a beach and receiving a massage from several women, one of whom has the initials J.E. tattooed on her body. A jet is seen flying in the background. The caption reads: 2003 what a great country!

open image in gallery A cartoon in Jeffrey Epstein's birthday book shows him receiving a massage from women on a beach and giving a lollipop and balloons to girls ( House Oversight Committee )

The book also features a poem, signed by Stuey. The table of contents suggests this could be a submission from Stuart Pivar, an art collector and scientist.

Jeffrey at half century, with credentials plenipotentiary, though up to no good whenever he could, has avoided the penitentiary, the poem reads, in part.

Business, Science and Brooklyn

Other sections are titled Family, Brooklyn, Science, and Business. The Family section includes several old photos of Epstein and his relatives, including a portrait that appears to show Epstein and his younger brother Mark as children.

open image in gallery A picture of two young boys who appear to be Jeffrey Epstein and his younger brother, Mark. The picture is signed: 'To simpler days. Happy 50th. Mark' ( House Oversight Committee )

The Brooklyn section has photos of Epstein, who was raised in Coney Island, throughout his childhood and as a young man. One photo shows two boys, who may be Epstein and his brother, with an elderly relative. Another shows a young boy holding an accordion and a small guitar. Epstein played the accordion as a child, according to other entries in the birthday book.

This section includes a note titled: Girls On My Boat. The handwritten note reads: We picked up girls on beachwent out on boat. I tell them with knife in my hand to take suits off. Its unclear who wrote it.

open image in gallery A handwritten note titled 'Girls on my Boat' included in the 'Brooklyn' section of Epstein's birthday book ( House Oversight Committee )

Another letter, signed by Johnny Boy, and written on a letterhead that reads Johnny Boy Kafka, includes a sexually explicit story about how Epsteins parents conceived him. The letter goes on to recount stories from the writers youth involving Epstein, including a trip to Europe.

The Science section features contributions from at least five people and includes several references to mathematics.

The first entry is a handwritten note signed by Gerry Edelman, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist who died in 2014.

The first sentence reads: On this occasion, I am reminded of our many conversations, fueled by both your curiosity and your skepticism.

Another note features a diagram titled Jeffrey E. accompanied by a caption praising his intellect.

The note references Marvin Minsky, a renowned cognitive and computer scientist, who died in 2016. The notes signature is redacted.

open image in gallery A diagram and note praising Jeffrey Epstein's 'intellect' in the 'Science' section of his birthday book. The note's signature is redacted ( House Oversight Committee )

The Business section includes a letter signed Ace Greenberg, who served as CEO of the investment bank Bear Stearns when Epstein worked there in the 1970s. He died in 2014.

Working with Jeffrey has been a pleasure and watching his meteoric success has given me many vicarious thrills, the note reads.

Girlfriends and Girl-friends

The book includes a section titled girlfriends, and another titled girl-friends.

The names and faces of women in both sections are redacted. Attorneys for Epsteins estate redacted the names and photos of women and children who appeared in the book to protect any potential victims identities, according to a letter to the House Oversight Committee, reviewed by The New York Times.

One letter in the girlfriends section is from an unknown person who recalled that Epstein tutored her in high school math, and that they ran into each other years later, after college. The letters signature is redacted.

From lessons in algebra to lessons in life, the lessons l've learned from you during the past 35 years haven't always been easy or even ones that I would have chosen to learn, but they were always important, the letter reads.

open image in gallery A young Jeffrey Epstein poses with a woman whose face has been blocked out to protect her privacy. The picture appears in the girlfriends section of the birthday book ( House Oversight Committee )

Other contributions in the girlfriends section included old photos of Epstein, notes about classmates and musical scores.

The girl-friends section is far more explicit. The section includes handwritten notes from women, including one that recounts meeting Epstein in 1985.

I have loved most every minute Ive had knowing you these past years, the note reads.

It also features a collage of photographs, featuring dozens of photos of women whose faces are redacted. Some are pictured with Epstein, while others are seen alone in bathing suits or posing for the camera.

open image in gallery Epstein poses with an unknown person on a private jet. The photo appears in the 'girl-friends' section of the book ( House Oversight Committee )

Another note from an unknown individual recounts how she met Epstein through Maxwell.

I received a call from Ghislaine, who I had worked on (massaged) twice in the last few months, to work on her employer, the note reads.

He is a business man and wants you to work on his feet at his desk, she said. My first thought was, Corns and bunions and a curmudgeon of a man.

Ghislaine Maxwell

Maxwell compiled the book, and she wrote both the prologue and final note.

Jeffrey, the idea behind the book was simply to gather stories and old photographs to jog your memory about places and people and different events, the prologue reads.

open image in gallery Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein pose for a photo in 1991. The photo appears in the prologue to Epstein's birthday book ( House Oversight Committee )

The note concludes: I know you will enjoy looking through the book, and I hope you will derive as much pleasure looking through it as I did putting it together for you. Happy Happy Birthday. Love, Ghislaine.

The books final pages are titled The Next Fifty Years. The last note, signed by Maxwell, reads: To the next fifty years. Know when you are winning. The next fifty years will be even more wonderful.

Included with the note is a photo of Epstein in a hammock and another image of a placard that says: Know when you are winning.

Epsteins Last Will & Testament

Epsteins last will and testament from 2019 was also released. In the document, Epstein identified himself as a resident of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.

His executors are Darren K. Indyke and Richard D. Kahn. Indyke was Epsteins former personal attorney, while Kahn formerly worked as Epsteins accountant, according to Reuters.

The will was signed on January 18, 2019, two days before Epsteins 66th birthday. Epstein died months later, on August 10.

Non-Prosecution Agreement

Epsteins estate also released his non-prosecution agreement with Florida prosecutors.

It was signed in September 2007 by the financier, Epsteins attorney, Lilly Ann Sanchez, and an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

The agreement required Epstein to plead guilty to two state charges, and specified he could not enter a nolo contendere plea. This plea allows defendants to accept a conviction and subsequent sentence without admitting guilt.

In June 2008, he pleaded guilty to state charges of soliciting prostitution and soliciting prostitution from a minor in Florida. He was sentenced to 18 months in a minimum-security facility and registered as a sex offender.

Address Book and Contacts

Epsteins address book and contact list contains hundreds of names. Certain entries were circled, including several titled Massage alongside locations like Paris and Island. Some names were also circled, including high-profile attorney Alan Dershowitz and retail billionaire Les Wexner.

Trumps late ex-wife, Ivana, appears on the list, as well as their daughter, Ivanka.
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A secret memo between the United States and El Salvador reveals the Trump administrations $5 million deal for Nayib Bukeles government to jail dozens of Venezuelan immigrants deported from the country earlier this year.

According to a term sheet made public in court filings this week, the Trump administration agreed to pay the Salvadoran government $4.67 million to detain deportees at the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, a brutal prison that human rights groups have condemned as a tropical gulag.

Under terms of the deal, El Salvador was prohibited from using the money to support drug traffickers and mass-migration caravans to the U.S.-Mexico border  as well as abortion care and support for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

But the deal does not explicitly prohibit immigrants from being tortured, experiencing abuse or being held indefinitely inside one of the western hemispheres most notorious jails, where more than 250 Venezuelan immigrants deported by the Trump administration spent more than four months before they were sent back to their home country.

The agreement was dated March 22, one week after Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to summarily deport alleged Tren de Aragua gang members, igniting several overlapping legal battles against the presidents use of the wartime law and conditions inside the prison.

open image in gallery A previously unreleased memo shows the Trump administration agreed to pay El Salvador nearly $5 million to jail Venezuelan deportees  as long as El Salvador doesnt fund abortion or DEI with the money ( REUTERS )

Bukele, who has called himself the worlds coolest dictator, reached a tentative agreement with Secretary of State Marco Rubio to jail deportees in February.

On March 13, the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador sent a note to El Salvadors Ministry of Foreign Affairs stating that it has the honor to request that El Salvador accept up to 500 alleged Tren de Aragua gang members

The note serves as 24-hour notice of their arrival, according to court filings in a lawsuit from human rights groups.

The note stated that the United States understands that El Salvador will take these actions in accordance with its authorities under Salvadoran domestic law, and in a manner that is consistent with El Salvadors international legal obligations regarding human rights and treatment of prisoners, including the Convention Against Torture, documents show.

open image in gallery Nayib Bukele has called himself the worlds coolest dictator ( AP )

The note also states that El Salvador intends to accommodate deportees for a duration of one year unless or until a determination concerning their long-term disposition is made.

We assure you, El Salvador wrote to the United States, that the reception of these individuals will be conducted in accordance with Salvadoran law and international obligations, including adherence to the Convention Against Torture.

But a subsequent agreement to be signed by representatives from both countries does not include any such assurances.

Court filings in another case also reveal that El Salvador told the United Nations that the country is not responsible for detainees in their custody.

The jurisdiction and legal responsibility for these people lie exclusively with the competent foreign authorities, according to Salvadoran authorities.

The Independent has requested comment from the State Department.

open image in gallery More than 250 men deported from the US were subjected to abusive conditions for more than four months inside CECOT, according to lawsuits against the Trump administration ( EL SALVADOR'S PRESIDENCY PRESS OFFICE )

In his proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act in March, Trump stated that all Venezuelan citizens 14 years of age or older who are members of [Tren de Aragua], are within the United States, and are not actually naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the United States are liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as Alien Enemies.

Several planes were loaded up with immigrants for their removal to El Salvador, and administration officials resisted court orders on March 15 for the planes to turn around  provoking an extraordinary legal battle in which Trump himself demanded the judges impeachment.

Government officials later admitted that many of those men did not have criminal records, and many were in the country with legal permission and scheduled to appear in court on their asylum claims, according to their attorneys.

Oopsie Too late, Bukele wrote on social media on March 16.

The United States will pay a very low fee for them, but a high one for us, he wrote.

Records show that the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs provided a $4.76 million grant agreement for El Salvadors law enforcement and anticrime needs, which may include costs associated with the detention of [Tren de Aragua] members.

The grant letter did not, however, include conditions relating to the human rights of those rendered under the Agreement, or specify that the funds could not be used, for example, to torture them, lawyers for human rights groups wrote.

open image in gallery Venezuelans detained inside CECOT were released by El Salvador and sent to their home country following a trilateral agreement with the United States ( Getty Images )

On July 18, following trilateral negotiations with the U.S. and Salvadoran and Venezuelan governments, Venezuelans jailed inside the facility were returned to their home country.

Lawsuits filed by immigrants detained at the jail have alleged widespread, prolonged abuse, including routine beatings from guards using their fists and batons as well as severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly removed from the United States and forced to spend more than three weeks inside CECOT, was allegedly told by prison guards that whoever enters here doesnt leave.

He was forced to strip, issued prison clothing, and subjected to physical abuse including being kicked in the legs with boots and struck on his head and arms to make him change clothes faster, according to his lawsuit.

He shared a cell with 20 other Salvadorans, who were forced to kneel from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., with guards striking anyone who fell from exhaustion, according to his complaint.

Detainees were confined to metal bunks with no mattresses in an overcrowded cell with no windows, bright lights that remained on 24 hours a day, and minimal access to sanitation, he claims.

Prison officials also repeatedly threatened to move him to cells where gang members would tear him apart, according to his lawsuit.

Abrego Garcia repeatedly observed prisoners in nearby cells who he understood to be gang members violently harm each other with no intervention from guards or personnel, the complaint states. Screams from nearby cells would similarly ring out throughout the night without any response from prison guards on personnel.
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President Donald Trump has said he is not thrilled about Israels attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday, which promises to give him a fresh diplomatic headache in the Middle East.

Hamas has said that five of its lower-ranking members and a Qatari security official were killed in the surprise strike but that its senior leadership had escaped injury.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus move into a country that had been considered a safe zone in the region has shocked its Gulf allies and placed a further strain on its relationship with Washington, which may feel its own security guarantees to Qatar have been violated by Netanyahus actions.

open image in gallery President Donald Trump faced criticism from both Democrats and Republicans earlier this year after accepting a Qatari 747-8 aircraft as a gift ( AFP/Getty )

An investigation earlier this year by The Free Press reported that Qatar has invested $100bn in improving relations with the U.S. in recent years after Trump alleged in June 2017 that the country has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level.

The outreach program culminated with the president visiting in May and accepting a $400m luxury Boeing jumbo jet as a stand-in for Air Force One after complaining about the length of time it was taking the U.S. aircraft giant to build replacements commissioned under Barack Obama in 2015. The plane is so lavish it has been dubbed the palace in the sky.

Trumps acceptance caused an ethics uproar at the time, despite his assurances it would go to his presidential library once he has left office.

It was reported in late July that the U.S. had already begun refitting the plane at great expense, with Trump himself saying it could be ready for service by February 2026, but Qatar might now feel it has cause to regret its generosity, despite originally describing the jet as an unconditional present.

In Trumps defense, he made it clear on Tuesday that he played no part in Israels decision to go after Hamas in Doha, writing on Truth Social: Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a Sovereign Nation and close Ally of the United States, that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker Peace, does not advance Israel or Americas goals.

open image in gallery Smoke rises from an explosion allegedly caused by the Israeli strike in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday ( AP )

The president added that he had dispatched Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to warn Qatar of the assault as soon as he learned of it from the U.S. military, which he did, however, unfortunately, too late to stop the attack.

Trump further stated that he felt very badly about the incident and had made assurances to Qatars Emir and PM that such a thing will not happen again on their soil.

Asked about it by reporters when he stepped out for dinner in D.C. last night, he said: I'm not thrilled about the whole situation, not a good situation, but I will say this, we want the hostages back, but we are not thrilled about the way that went down.

I will tell you this: I was very unhappy about it. Very unhappy about every aspect; weve got to get the hostages back. But I was very unhappy about the way that went down.

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of Qatar, meanwhile, said that the attack constitutes a blatant violation of all international laws and norms, and poses a serious threat to the security and safety of Qataris and residents in Qatar. Their remarks contained no overt criticism of the U.S.

In donating its flying palace earlier this year, the emirate denied accusations of influence-buying, although it was clearly intended, at the very least, as a gesture of friendship designed to engender closer ties.

open image in gallery Trump addresses U.S. troops at Al Udeid Air Base in Doha, Qatar in May ( Reuters )

Its really unfair accusations for [saying] Qatars trying to buy influence, Qatari PM Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told Fox News anchor Bret Baier this spring.

Throughout the last 25 years or 30 years, you will see, youll find Qatar always by the side of the U.S. in many areas and many things.

Trumps decision to accept the plane nevertheless proved hugely controversial, with top Democrats accusing the president of naked corruption and likening the present to the Trojan Horse.

Amid a furore in Congress over the jet potentially violating the U.S. Constitutions emoluments clause, Trumps own Justice Department lawyers moved quickly to rule that taking delivery of it would break no laws.

Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House lawyer David Warrington said they had concluded the donation of the aircraft was legally permissible.

But Columbia Law School Professor Richard Briffault questioned that assessment when he told NPR that if Trump breaks his word and holds onto the plane after leaving office then its not really a gift to the United States at all and instead amounts to a pretty textbook case of a violation of the emoluments clause.

Another cause for concern was the eye-watering cost of the retrofitting work required to make the jet an acceptable substitute for the presidential plane.

Experts warned this spring that it would take several years and require billions of dollars in further investment from the American taxpayer to ensure it meets the necessary security standards.

It would require secure communications, electromagnetic shielding, and in-flight refueling capabilities, to name just three necessary upgrades, which aviation experts cited by NBC News estimated would put the bill at $1bn, more than twice the planes worth.
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Donald Trump told the media that he was not thrilled and very unhappy after Israels strike targeting Hamas leadership in Doha, Qatar, but offered only mild condemnation of the attack itself as the United Nations called it a flagrant violation of international law.

Israel confirmed that it struck a target in Doha on Tuesday in an effort to kill Hamas negotiators and leaders. Initial statements from Hamas indicated that only junior members of the militant group were killed.

The president made his first on-camera remarks about the strike during a gaggle with members of the White House press pool Tuesday evening as he stepped into a swanky D.C. eatery, Joes Stone Crab. Hed previously issued a statement on Truth Social, and told reporters that more complete remarks would come on Wednesday.

I'm not thrilled about the whole situation, not a good situation, but I will say this, we want the hostages back, but we are not thrilled about the way that went down, said Trump. I'll be giving a full statement tomorrow, but I will tell you this: I was very unhappy about it. Very unhappy about every aspect; weve got to get the hostages back. But I was very unhappy about the way that went down.

On Truth Social, the only other tidbit of note was the presidents declaration that hed informed Qatari leaders that such a strike wouldnt be carried out again.

Donald Trump told members of the media on Tuesday evening that he would issue a full statement regarding the Israeli strike in Doha on Wednesday ( Getty Images )

But its unclear how Trump will do that, given his total unwillingness thus far to take any noticeable measure to rein in Israel, which remains his administrations closest political ally in the Middle East.

Tuesdays development likely did more than just figuratively blow up peace talks (less than 48 hours after the U.S. president raised hopes for a deal)-- it also likely killed any lingering momentum for an expansion of the Abraham Accords and could very well set back efforts for normalization of relations around the region for years.

Trump, speaking to reporters on Sunday evening after returning from the U.S. Open, renewed optimism around the idea that a deal could be reached to secure both the return of living Israeli hostages held by Hamas as well as the remains of those killed by the militant group or dead in captivity. Hed threatened on Truth Social that Hamas was facing his last warning: accept a deal to end the war, or else.

I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting, he posted. This is my last warning, there will not be another one!

Israels targeting of Hamas negotiators on Tuesday will once again force the president and his team to answer whether Benjamin Netanyahu and, by extension, his U.S. allies truly support a peace deal. Netanyahus government has faced scathing criticisms from families of hostages for focusing on eradicating Hamas and securing territory over securing the return of hostages; it has been months since a ceasefire deal led to the return of 25 hostages in February.

At Tuesdays White House press briefing, spokesperson Karoline Leavitt read from an official statement as she condemned the strike as running counter to the interests of both Israel and the United States, while stopping short of any further criticism of the Netanyahu government or insinuating that it was not approaching peace talks in good faith.

Her statement also indicated that the U.S. was now running damage control to protect its relationship with the Qatari government, which Trump and Leavitt both indicated was only notified minutes before the strike took place.

The president feels very badly about the location of this attack, said Leavitt almost apologetically on Tuesday.

Trump spoke to the Amir and Prime Minister of Qatar and thanked them for their support and friendship to our country, and assured them that such a thing will not happen again on their soil, she continued.

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of Qatar, meanwhile, said that the attack constitutes a blatant violation of all international laws and norms, and poses a serious threat to the security and safety of Qataris and residents in Qatar.

The U.S. presidents frustration with the two main focuses of his campaign for a Nobel Peace Prize, the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, could be on the verge of boiling over.

As the White House issued statements about the Israeli strike on Tuesday, news also broke that the president had reportedly phoned in to a call with European leaders with a startling demand: raise tariffs on India and China to 100% in a move to pressure Vladimir Putin.

That news broke just hours after another post from the president on Truth Social claimed that the U.S.-India relationship was strong, that Trump would be speaking with Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon, and that trade barriers between the two countries would potentially disappear.
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President Donald Trump led tributes to the conservative activist Charlie Kirk after he was fatally shot during an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.

No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie, Trump wrote on Truth Social, announcing his death.

He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you! Trump added.

Kirk, 31, was the co-founder of Turning Point USA  a nonprofit organization dedicated to engaging with conservative youths and promoting conservative policies on high school and college campuses. The right-wing activist rose to prominence in the Republican Party as a result of his work, becoming good friends with Donald Trump Jr and other prominent conservatives.

open image in gallery Charlie Kirk, a prominent conservative activist, was fatally shot while speaking at an event in Utah ( AFP via Getty Images )

Trump Jr. offered a tribute on X to his friend, saying: I love you brother. You gave so many people the courage to speak up and we will not ever be silenced.

The president called for American flags across the country to be lowered at half-mast until Sunday evening in honor of Kirk.

Upon hearing news of the shooting, members of Trumps cabinet, including Vice President JD Vance, sent tributes. Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, Vance wrote on X.

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said Kirks influence in the presidential transition made it the most successful in history.

He never took credit for the assistance he provided. He was always a great friend of mine. I pray for peace and comfort for his wife and two beautiful children, Lutnick wrote on X.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. remembered Kirk as the most eloquent truth teller.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson led a moment of silence for Kirk on the House chamber floor on Wednesday, calling the shooting detestable.

Utah Governor, Republican Spencer Cox, said on X, that he had spoken with the president and would work with law enforcement to bring justice to the individual responsible for this tragedy.

Other Republican lawmakers including Arizona Representative Andy Biggs, former Vice President Mike Pence, and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller remembered Kirk on social media.

open image in gallery Kirk, pictured with President Donald Trump in 2019, was well known in conservative circles ( AFP via Getty Images )

David Sacks, a billionaire entrepreneur who serves on the presidents Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, said his friend was the best of America.

Other conservative media personalities who knew Kirk shared their grief. Candace Owens, a right-wing podcaster, said she couldnt process the news.

Ben Shapiro, a fellow conservative activist, recounted meeting him as an 18-year-old and believing he was destined to take over the Republican National Committee.

Charlie became even bigger and more important than that. It was a privilege to watch this principled man stand up for his beliefs and create the single most important conservative political organization in America. But more importantly, Charlie was a good man, a man who believed in right and wrong, who stood by his Biblical values. All of us will miss him, and I cant imagine the pain of his beautiful young family, and we must all pray for them, Shapiro wrote.

Prominent Democrats also sent prayers and called for an end to political violence.

There is no place in our country for this kind of violence. It must end now. Jill and I are praying for Charlie Kirks family and loved ones, former President Joe Biden wrote on X.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris wrote on X that she was deeply disturbed by the shooting and condemned the act.

We dont yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy, former President Barack Obama wrote on X. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlies family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.

Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom called the attack on Kirk disgusting, vile, and reprehensible.

Senate Minority Leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer, called the shooting horrifying and said political violence has no place in America.

The scourge of gun violence and political violence must end, Democratic New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said. The shooting of Charlie Kirk is the latest incident of this chaos and it must stop.

Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of John F. Kennedy and a Democrat, said the country was weaker because of the assassination against Kirk.

open image in gallery Kirk, pictured with Vice President JD Vance and Senator Josh Hawley in 2022, helped campaign for Republican candidates ( Getty Images )

Anti-gun violence activists, who typically butt heads with Republicans over Second Amendment rights, also offered prayers for Kirk while calling for gun control.

Former congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who became a gun violence prevention advocate after surviving an assassination attempt in 2011, said political disagreements should never include violence.

The murder of Charlie Kirk breaks my heart, Giffords said in a statement. My deepest sympathies are with his wife, two young children, and friends.

Democratic societies will always have political disagreements, but we must never allow America to become a country that confronts those disagreements with violence, Giffords added.

David Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland school shooting and former vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, said it was horrifying news that Kirk had been shot.

Gun violence and political violence have to f***ing stop. Charlie, his family, and all the students who had to witness the shooting are in my thoughts. We have disagreements, but we all agree something has to change, Hogg wrote.
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A group of military whistleblowers testified under oath that theyve seen unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and accused the government of being part of a cover-up.

GOP congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform's Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, chaired a panel Tuesday on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs), another name for UFOs.

Air Force veterans Jeffrey Nuccetelli and Dylan Borland, as well as Navy veteran Alexandro Wiggins, spoke at the hearing, along with journalist George Knapp, a prominent figure in the UFO disclosure community.

Rep. Eric Burlison of Missouri showed the hearing mysterious, never-before-seen footage of an orb or an unknown object off the coast of Yemen on October 30, 2024, being struck by a Hellfire missile.

The object continued on its trajectory after being struck by the missile.

open image in gallery Air Force veterans Jeffrey Nuccetelli and Dylan Borland, as well as Navy veteran Alexandro Wiggins, spoke at the hearing, along with journalist George Knapp, a prominent figure in the UFO disclosure community ( Getty Images )

Thats a Hellfire missile smacking into that UFO and just bounce [sic] right off, and it kept going, said Knapp.

Theres a server where theres a whole bank of these kinds of videos that Congress has not been allowed to see  that the public has not been allowed to see, Knapp added, hinting at a cover-up.

Former Air Force military police officer, Nuccetelli, said the video provided exceptional evidence that UFOs exist. The witness told the hearing he experienced five unexplained incidents at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California between 2003 and 2005.

And Knapp claimed that government documents reveal that intelligence officials admit that UFOs are real.

The documents from military and intelligence personnel behind closed doors admit that these things are real. Theyre not fictitious, Knapp said.They can fly in formation, theyre evasive, and they outperform any aircraft known to exist, including ours. The public, of course, as I said, has been told something much different.

Borland said he experienced sustained reprisals after blowing the whistle on unexplained sightings as a U.S. Air Force veteran.

open image in gallery Rep. Eric Burlison of Missouri showed the hearing a mysterious, never-before-seen footage of an orb or an unknown object off the coast of Yemen on October 30, 2024 being struck by a Hellfire missile ( GOP Oversight Committee/YouTube )

In 2012, Borland claimed he saw an approximately 100ft equilateral triangle take off from the Langley Air Force Base in Virginia where he was stationed at around 1:30 p.m.

He claimed his career was derailed after he shared his experience.

Wiggins, a Navy member who was speaking in a personal capacity, told of an incident he witnessed in February 2023. The objects he saw were not consistent with conventional aircraft or drones, he said.

While off the coast of southern California aboard the USS Jackson Navy ship, Wiggins claimed he saw a self-luminous tic-tac-shaped object emerge from the ocean before linking up with three other similar objects.

The objects sped up and disappeared, he said.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas, the Democratic ranking member of the committee, said that NASA has not found any evidence that UAPs have an extraterrestrial origin.

While some people think of flying saucers when they hear these terms, it is vital that we focus on the real-world impact of UAPs on critical infrastructure, civilian safety, and national security, Crockett said. There is good reason to believe that most UAPs have origins far closer to home.
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Bob Irwin, father of the late Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, has condemned online influencers who recklessly interact with wild crocodiles for fame.

His comments come amidst a controversy involving US influencer Mike Holston, aka The Real Tarzann, who posted videos of himself wrestling crocodiles in Australia, prompting an official investigation and calls for his deportation.

Mr Irwin said influencers indulging in reckless stunts with crocodiles in Australia should be booted out the door, according to The Guardian.

He also supported the idea that the legislation introduced by Queensland authorities last year  that mandates tough measures against feeding and interacting with crocodiles to protect both communities and wildlife  should be thrown at such influencers.

He nicknamed the legislation d***head legislation, because anyone who harms wildlife for fun, is (a d***head).

And thats because thats exactly what content creators like the Real Tarzann are in my books  d***heads, the paper quoted Mr Irwin as saying.

Last year, he said he was concerned by a runaway train of content creators or influencers encouraging and glorifying harmful wildlife interactions.

Mr Irwin, who is also a crocodile conservationist, said at the time: After all these years, finally, theres laws for protecting crocodiles from reckless behaviour.

Its taken a long time for people to understand that crocodiles are important to the environment.

I think its the best news since sliced bread, to see the focus placed on human behaviour in crocodile habitat.

Environmental advocates and animal rights groups have supported stricter wildlife protection laws, arguing that influencers who handle native animals online should face harsher penalties.

The Queensland environment department said on Tuesday that they were actively investigating two videos shared on social media by Mr Holston, which showed him restraining crocodiles.

One video had more than 32 million views on Instagram. Over 15 million people follow him on the platform.

In one of the clips, he can be heard saying: Ever since I was a kid I wanted to come to Australia and just look at crocodiles.

These actions are extremely dangerous and illegal, and we are actively exploring strong compliance action including fines to deter any person from this type of behaviour, a statement by the Queensland authorities said.

After the videos by Mr Holston were shared widely, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) demanded that he face full legal penalties, be deported, and be barred from reentering Australia.

Aside from it being illegal and unfathomably stupid to interfere with a crocodile in Queensland, its also incredibly cruel, PETA advisor Mimi Bekhechi said, according to Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Just like wombats, koalas and other native Australian wildlife, crocodiles are sensitive individuals who experience pain and stress, and who deserve to live in peace without fear that visiting influencers will tackle and roughly handle them.

Meanwhile, Queensland premier David Crisafulli labelled the influencer a goose, saying that while the state environment department would investigate the incident, immigration issues fall under the federal governments jurisdiction.

If you think that is a sustainable business model to go wrestling with saltwater crocodiles, I think its probably not going to end the way that he thinks its going to, Mr Crisafulli said.

Anyone stupid enough to do that shouldn't be lauded and shouldnt be praised  they should be called out for being an idiot.

But Mr Irwin demanded stricter action. The repeated line from our regulators [of] we are investigating in response to these incidents is wearing thin.

The message is only going to sink in when we see these so-called influencers held to account and understand that 15 million followers dont make you exempt from the laws that protect our wildlife.

Its disappointing to understand that not one person has been prosecuted in Queensland since the new legislation was introduced.

According to 7News, he frequently shares videos featuring dangerous wildlife, such as king cobras and king brown snakes. His Instagram is full of his pictures with wild animals.

His recent videos with the crocodiles, however, sparked furious reactions online. This is horrible. That crocodile is so stressed. The behaviour is illegal, and the crocodiles are a protected species, one person wrote.

Cant they die from stress? This feels like cruelty. You could have just zoomed in and explained the same thing, another wrote.

The Independent has reached out to Mr Holston for comment.
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New Zealand police released pictures of a newly discovered second campsite where fugitive Tom Phillips was hiding out with his children, saying he clearly had outside help during his four years on the run.

Phillips went into hiding with his three children in December 2021 and was killed on Monday in a shootout with police on a remote country road in the Waikato area. A police officer Phillips shot with his high-powered rifle remains in hospital after multiple surgeries, including one to the head.

His eldest child, Jayda, 12, was with him during the shooting, while her two younger siblings, Maverick, 10, and Ember, 9, were found at a bush camp just two kilometres from where Phillips was killed.

On Wednesday, police released pictures of the newly discovered campsite that showed a kitchen and a sleeping area, approximately 200m away from where the young children were found in the first campsite

Its a very grim, dimly-lit area, surrounded by dense bush. The tent was well covered and dry, said detective senior sergeant Andrew Saunders.

We are currently looking at a number of items at the site. Aside from the burglaries we are now able to link to Tom, it is apparent that he had outside help, he added.

open image in gallery Pictures show the main campsite where Tom Phillips and his children were hiding in the bush near Waitomo ( AP )

Police believe it to be Phillips main campsite for the last few months, but it was not the only place where he had been living with his children for the past four years.

Police have launched a fresh investigation to determine whether Phillips received any assistance. Items recovered from the campsite will be examined to establish whether they are connected to burglaries or were bought on his behalf.

open image in gallery A hidden bush campsite near Waitomo, where fugitive Tom Phillips and his children were living, shown in photos released by New Zealand Police ( AP )

We think its absolutely important that we continue to look for those people that have been supporting Tom Phillips and hold them accountable, officer Saunders said.

The new campsite hidden in dense bushland, partially concealed by ferns showed a rudimentary shelter built using wooden poles and black plastic sheeting. Scattered belongings inside the shelter showed camping gear, cooking utensils, a plastic stool and buckets.

open image in gallery Police found a gas cylinder, stove and household supplies, suggesting the site was set up for long-term use ( AP )

A closer view showed white gas cylinder and a portable stove, along with tools, containers, and various household items. It appeared to be a semi-permanent setup, stocked with supplies that appeared more extensive than a typical short-term camp.

open image in gallery Tom Phillips came from a farming family in the small rural town of Marokopa ( NZ Police )

Police said the campsite was very dirty, cramped. and not very nice for children.

All three children have been reunited and are in child protective custody of the police.

Their mother, known only as Cat, told New Zealand outlet Mata that she is yet to be informed about her possible meeting with her children.
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Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Wednesday he had asked NATO to open consultations under Article 4.

It comes after Polish forces shot down 19 drones over its airspace, marking the first known instance of a Nato member firing shots in the ongoing conflict.

Donald Tusk confirmed the action on Wednesday, describing it as a "large-scale provocation" by Russia and stating he had asked Nato to open consultations under Article 4 of the alliance's treaty.

The drones were intercepted during a significant Russian air attack on Ukraine.

However, Russias RIA state news agency quoted a diplomat dismissing the accusations as "groundless", asserting that Poland had provided no evidence of the drones Russian origin. Conversely, several European officials characterised the incursion as intentional, viewing it as a clear sign of Russian escalation.

What is Article 4?

Article 4 states that members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territory, political independence or security of any of them is threatened.

Under Article 4, discussions at the North Atlantic Council - NATOs principal political decision-making body - could potentially lead to some form of joint decision or action.

Since NATOs creation in 1949, Article 4 has been invoked seven times, most recently in February 2022 when Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia sought consultations following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

NATO ambassadors in November 2022 held an emergency meeting after a missile strike killed two people in Poland and raised global alarm that the war could spill into neighboring countries.

What is Article 5?

If Russia were determined to have attacked the territory of a member state, the focus would then shift to Article 5, the cornerstone of the founding treaty of NATO.

The alliance was created in 1949 with the U.S. military as its powerful mainstay essentially to counter the Soviet Union and its eastern bloc satellites during the Cold War.

open image in gallery Defence Secretary John Healey met his counterparts from the E5 Group of nations, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and the UK, at Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich (Stefan Rousseau/PA) ( PA Wire )

The charter stipulates that "the Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all."

"They agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defense recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area," it says.

How could the Ukraine war trigger Article 5?

Since Ukraine is not part of NATO, Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022 did not trigger Article 5, though the United States and other member states rushed to provide military and diplomatic assistance to Kyiv.

However, experts have long warned of the potential for a spillover to neighboring countries on NATO's eastern flank that could force the alliance to respond militarily.

open image in gallery A still image from a video shows damaged roof, after Russian drones violated Polish airspace during an attack on Ukraine and some were shot down by Poland, in Wyryki, Lublin Voivodeship, Poland, September 10, 2025 ( POLSAT NEWS via REUTERS )

Such action by Russia, either intentional or accidental, has raised the risk of widening the war by drawing other countries directly into the conflict.

Is invoking Article 5 Automatic?

No. Following an attack on a member state, the others come together to determine whether they agree to regard it as an Article 5 situation.

There is no time limit on how long such consultations could take, and experts say the language is flexible enough to allow each member to decide how far to go in responding to armed aggression against another.

Article 5 has been activated once before on behalf of the United States, in response to the September 11, 2001, hijacked-plane attacks on New York and Washington.
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Police and protesters have clashed in Paris after rioters set fire to a restaurant in central Paris and disrupted traffic amid anti-government demonstrations.

Nearly 200 people have been arrested after huge crowds took to the citys streets in a day of planned nationwide protests by the Block Everything (Bloquons Tout) group over widespread frustration with Frances political class and proposed budget cuts.

Footage shows flames burning inside the Wafu Bar restaurant near the Rue de Rivoli as the fire took hold on Wednesday afternoon.

open image in gallery The Wafu Bar restaurant is on fire ( AFP via Getty Images )

On Monday, the countrys parliament ousted prime minister Francois Bayrou in a confidence vote over his plans to tame the countrys ballooning debt. This led the president, Emmanuel Macron, to appoint his fifth prime minister in less than two years, choosing a close ally, Sebastien Lecornu, which outraged left-wing politicians.

Firefighters and police were deployed, using teargas to tackle chaos on the capitals streets, with protests and traffic disruption also reported on highways throughout the country, including in Marseille, Montpellier, Nantes and Lyon. At least 300 people have been arrested across France.

The protests are being organised by the Block Everything movement  a group with no centralised leadership that sprang up online in May among right-wing organisations, researchers and officials said, but has since been taken over by the left and the far left.

They have been compared to the 2018 Yellow Vest protests, which initially arose over fuel price hikes but morphed into a broader movement against Mr Macron and his plans for economic reform.

open image in gallery French police fire teargas grenades during a protest in Marseille, in the south of France, on Wednesday ( AP )

The demonstrations are taking place across France. Mr Retailleau told reporters that around 50 hooded people tried to start a blockade in Bordeaux, while in Toulouse, in the southwest of the country, a fire disrupted train traffic early on Wednesday, though it was quickly extinguished.

He said 80,000 security forces had been deployed, including 6,000 in Paris. French media had reported that 100,000 people were expected to take part in the demonstrations.

Anger has been rumbling for months, even years, said Daniel Bretones, a union member protesting in Marseille. Were on the fifth prime minister under Macrons second term, and it has never changed anything.

French politics have been in disarray since Macron called snap elections last year that produced a deeply fragmented legislature. Far-right and left-wing lawmakers hold over 320 seats at the National Assembly, while the centrists and allied conservatives hold 210.

New Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu took to office amid the chaos, pledging to find creative ways to work with rivals to pass a debt-slimming budget while also promising new policy directions. He is known as a loyalist who is unlikely to rip up Macrons pro-business economic agenda, and has has pledged to consult with all political forces and trade unions before forming his Cabinet.

open image in gallery A road in Paris is blocked by overturned bins as disruption takes place across the country ( AP )

His first challenge will be how to steer a streamlined 2026 budget through parliament, which is split into three distinct ideological blocs. Parties broadly agree on the need to slash France's deficit, which reached 5.8% of GDP in 2024, but not on how to do it.

The new PM must send a draft of the budget to parliament by 7 October, and it will have until 13 October to pass before the years end.

While the hard-left said it would seek to topple Lecornu with an immediate no-confidence motion, the far-right National Rally (RN) signalled tentative willingness to work with him on the budget - as long as its budgetary demands are met.

"His budget will be RN or his government will not be," RN lawmaker Laure Lavalette posted on X late on Tuesday.

The unrest also comes after the discovery of a number of severed pigs heads  five of which had Mr Macrons name written on them  close to mosques in the Paris area on Tuesday. It is thought that the incident may bear the hallmarks of previous suspected Russian-linked acts of attempted destabilisation that have targeted France and other allies of Ukraine.

Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said that although investigations are still underway, we cannot help but draw links with previous acts that happened, often at night, and which later proved to be acts of foreign interference.

He said the placement of pigs heads in the vicinity of nine mosques  four in Paris and five others in its suburbs  appeared to have been carried out simultaneously, necessarily by several people.
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Dozens of arrests were made across France early on Wednesday as a new protest movement disrupted highway traffic, officials confirmed. Demonstrators from the "Block Everything" campaign staged widespread disruptions, prompting security forces to deploy nationwide.

The movement, which gained traction on social media over the summer, has drawn parallels to the 2018 "Yellow Vest" protests. Those earlier demonstrations initially erupted over fuel price hikes but quickly broadened into a significant challenge against French President Emmanuel Macron and his economic reform agenda.

Members of the "Block Everything" movement, which analysts and officials say started among right-wing groups before being taken over by the left and far-left, said they considered the political system was no longer fit for purpose.

The demonstrations could add to France's political turmoil two days after parliament ousted Prime Minister Francois Bayrou in a confidence vote. On Tuesday, Macron appointed his fifth prime minister in less than two years, Sebastien Lecornu.

The far-left France Unbowed party has already said it would introduce a no-confidence motion against Lecornu, though the far-right National Rally has signalled it would be willing to work with him for now.

open image in gallery A firefighters extinguishes a fire at a roundabout, lit by protesters to block the access to the port of Brest ( AFP via Getty Images )

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau told reporters early on Wednesday that about 50 hooded people had tried to start a blockade in Bordeaux, while in Toulouse, a cable fire that had been stopped quickly had still managed to disrupt traffic between Toulouse and Auch in southwestern France.

Retailleau said some actions had also taken place in Paris overnight, though he did not provide details. Paris police said that 75 people had been arrested in the demonstrations so far, but did not give details on where they took place or the reason for the arrests.

Elsewhere, Vinci, a highway operator, reported protests and traffic disruptions on highways throughout France, including Marseille, Montpellier, Nantes and Lyon.

Retailleau, the interior minister, said 80,000 security forces had been deployed throughout the country, including 6,000 in Paris. French media had reported that 100,000 people were expected to participate in the demonstrations.

"We risk having a mobilisation that will lead to actions all over the country," Retailleau said.
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A man has been arrested after stabbing a teacher and a student at a school in southern France, police have said.

The suspect is understood to be a former student of the horticultural school in Antibes, near Cannes. Officers did not give any further details of his identity or motives.

Police are on the scene at the Campus Vert Dazur as investigations continue, but told French media the attacker had been arrested and was no longer a threat.

Three people were left injured by the attack, according to mayor Jean Leonetti, who said one was more seriously hurt than the other two but that none of the injuries amounted to an absolute emergency. French newspaper Le Monde has reported that the teacher was seriously injured while the student was superficially injured.

A knife attack occurred today at the Azur Vert Campus in Antibes, Mr Leonetti wrote on X, formerly Twitter. I firmly condemn this brutal assault, which unfortunately spares no territory in our country. Three people were injured, one more seriously, but none is in absolute emergency.

The perpetrator was able to be subdued thanks to the remarkable composure of the school principal and the staff present. I express my full support to the victims and their loved ones. I thank the police officers and firefighters for their responsiveness and exemplary professionalism.

Antibes is located between Cannes and Nice on the southeastern coast of France ( Google Maps )

Police were called to the school in the town of Antibes, in southeastern France, on Wednesday. The town lies between Cannes and Nice and is known for its old town, its 16th-century fortifications, and its luxury harbour.

Frances agriculture minister condemned the attack and said she would be visiting the scene immediately. In a post on X, she wrote: A teacher and a student were brutally attacked in a horticultural high school in Antibes.

I offer my full support to the victims, their loved ones, the students, and the entire educational community. I am heading to the scene immediately. The school must remain a republican sanctuary: violence has no place there and will never be tolerated.

Alpes-Maritimes regional senator Alexandra Borchio-Fontimp said her thoughts were with the victims of the terrible attack.

I extend my support to the staff and students of the Antibes horticultural high school, she wrote on X. My thoughts go to the teacher and the student, victims of this terrible attack. Thank you to the security forces for their responsiveness which enabled the arrest of the assailant.

More to follow...
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An international activist flotilla seeking to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza said Wednesday it was attacked for the second night in a row.

The Global Sumud Flotilla said that one of its boats, the British-flagged Alma, was attacked by a drone as it was docked in Tunisian waters. No one was harmed. The group shared security camera footage showing people on board shouting fire and pointing to the sky.

Projectiles on fire fell on the deck, exploding and setting off a blaze.

The attack appeared similar to the one the night before on the Portuguese-flagged Family vessel. Tunisian authorities denied on Tuesday claims that the first attack had been caused by drones, adding they were investigating. There was no immediate reaction to the second attack.

The flotilla, consisting of around 20 boats, departed from the port city of Barcelona in Spain with a symbolic amount of humanitarian aid on Sept. 1. It had planned a stop in Tunisia before sailing on to Gaza.

These repeat attacks come during intensified Israeli aggression on Palestinians in Gaza, and are an orchestrated attempt to distract and derail our mission," the activists said. The Global Sumud Flotilla continues undeterred.

There was no immediate reaction from the Israeli authorities.
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Polands prime minister Donald Tusk has warned the country is the closest to armed conflict since World War Two after its military shot down a huge number of Russian drones in its airspace.

There were 19 intrusions into Polish airspace on Tuesday night with many drones entering from Belarus, Mr Tusk said in parliament, adding that three drones were confirmed to have been shot down, with the fourth being likely.

"The fact that these drones, which posed a security threat, were shot down changes the political situation. Therefore, allied consultations took the form of a formal request to activate Article 4 of the Nato Treaty," said Mr Tusk. Poland needs more than expressions of solidarity, he added.

open image in gallery The ruins of a building struck by a Russian drone in Poland ( Agencja Wyborcza.pl via REUTERS )

Article 4 will not invoke a military response, but calls for discussions and consultations between Nato countries after one believes their security is threatened.

Nato is not treating the drone incursion into Polish territory as an attack, a Nato source has told Reuters.

Initial indications suggested an intentional incursion of six to ten Russian drones.

"It was the first time Nato aircraft have engaged potential threats allied airspace," the source said, adding Nato's Patriot air defence systems in the region had detected the drones with their radars but not engaged them.

Is Poland part of Nato?

Nato is a political and military alliance of North American and European countries forged in the aftermath of the Second World War in the hope of avoiding future bloodshed and hostilities between nations through the realisation of three specific goals: deterring Soviet expansionism, preventing the revival of militant nationalism and encouraging European political integration.

Poland is a member of Nato and has been since 1999. It invests more than 4 per cent of of its GDP on defence, more than any other member of the alliance.

Nato has its headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, and its current secretary general is Mark Rutte.

open image in gallery Soldiers patrol the street in Poland after a drone struck a residential building ( Agencja Wyborcza.pl via REUTERS )

Its 31 member states are obliged by Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty of 4 April 1949 to come to the aid of any fellow signatory in the event that they should come under attack from a foreign power.

In its own words: Nato is committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes. If diplomatic efforts fail, it has the military power to undertake crisis-management operations.

How was Nato formed?

Originally born of the Treaty of Dunkirk signed by Britain and France on 4 March 1947, Nato was created to contain any future military threat from a revived Germany or the USSR at a time when the Marshall Plan was attempting to bring economic deliverance to a continent still in recovery from a war that had killed 36.5 million people.

Nato was soon expanded to include Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg and then the US, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland.

open image in gallery A firefighter runs at the site of a residential area hit during Russian drone and missile strikes in Zhytomyr ( via REUTERS )

Holding firm throughout the Cold War and evolving its approach in response to such tense diplomatic episodes as the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War and the USSRs invasion of Afghanistan, the alliance was given a new lease of life with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

It gradually added former Soviet satellites states to its ranks: first the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland in 1999 and then Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia in 2004.

The most recent additions to the alliance were North Macedonia in 2020 and Finland in 2023.

Could Ukraine join Nato?

Mr Putin insists - without any basis - that Russia and Ukraine are really one nation. Through his act of aggression against Ukraine, he appears to be seeking to reintegrate the country into his vision of a greater Russia, just as he annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.

For its part, Ukraine wants the defensive protection of the alliance as part of its bid for recognition as a free western democracy, shielded from the malign influence of Moscow but US president Donald Trump has insisted Kyiv cannot be a member.

Without Ukraine being part of Nato, the alliances member states, including Britain and the US, are not obliged to commit troops or come to its aid militarily, which is why those states and the other major European powers are reluctant to allow Kyiv into their company for now, as to do so would risk a much more widespread war in Europe.

open image in gallery Explosions are seen in the night sky as Ukrainian servicemen fire towards drones during a Russian drone strike ( REUTERS )

A number of British troops are, however, currently stationed in fellow signatory states Estonia and Poland as part of the organisations peacekeeping duties and the UK has carried out extensive military training with the Ukrainian armed forces since 2015 and has pledged to continue supplying Ukraine with weapons to counter Russian attacks during the present conflict.

Natos official position is that membership is open to any other European state in a position to further the principles of the treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area.

The present concern for the alliance is that, if Russia succeeds in conquering Ukraine, it could continue its westward expansion and perhaps seize other outliers like Georgia and, indeed, set a precedent for other global superpowers to follow, perhaps emboldening China to take Taiwan, for instance.

At present, however, Moscow is a very long way from achieving its goal having been caught unprepared by the sheer ferocity of the fightback mounted by a united Ukraine  well supplied with military hardware by its international allies  rendering its war a drawn-out stalemate that is beginning to look like a monumental miscalculation on Mr Putins part that will achieve the direct opposite of his intentions.
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Poland has accused Russia of sending several drones into its territory, with prime minister Donald Tusk saying the country is the closest it has been to armed conflict since the Second World War.

Polish air defences shot down at least three drones, marking the first time a Nato member has directly engaged Russia since the beginning of its war in Ukraine.

Mr Tusk has called for an emergency Nato meeting as he announced that there had been 19 incursions by drones and drone-like objects into Polish airspace overnight.

Click here to follow our liveblog on the Ukraine war.

Soldiers patrol the street in Wyryki after a house was struck by a drone launched by Russia over Polish airspace ( Agencja Wyborcza.pl )

I have no reason to claim were on the brink of war, but a line has been crossed, and its incomparably more dangerous than before, he said.

This situation brings us the closest we have been to open conflict since [the Second World War].

At least three drones, which Poland believed posed a threat to its territory, were shot down, Mr Tusk said. It was likely that a fourth had been downed, but Warsaw was awaiting confirmation.

Local authorities in Wyryki, eastern Poland, said a drone or similar object had struck a residential building, but nobody was injured. Debris was also found in the nearby town of Wyhalew.

Police in the village of Czosnowka, in Polands eastern Lublin region, said they had found a damaged drone, while the District Prosecutor's Office in Zamosc, also in Lublin, said drone components had been discovered near a cemetery in the town of Czesniki.

In the central Lodz region, a drone was found in a field near the village of Mniszkow, Reuters reported. Debris was also found in Olesno, 400km from the Ukrainian border.

Meanwhile, interior ministry spokesperson Karolina Galecka said Poland had found seven drones and debris from a missile.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed that Poland was deliberately targeted during a Russian drone attack overnight.

Increasing evidence indicates that this movement, this direction of strike, was no accident, he wrote on X. Ukraine is also ready to help Poland build an effective system of warning and protection against such Russian threats.

But Nato is not currently treating it as an attack on one of its member states, a source in the alliance told Reuters.

Recommended Why Russian drones over Poland are so dangerous for the world

The drone incursion has drawn widespread condemnation from across Europe, including EU Council president Antonio Costa, who said the bloc stands in full solidarity with Poland, adding that the security of one is the security of all.

The incursion is simply unacceptable, French president Emmanuel Macron said on X, as he condemned it in the strongest possible terms.

The EUs top diplomat Kaja Kallas condemned the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began and said that indications suggest it was intentional, not accidental.
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Poland has called an emergency Nato council meeting after shooting down at least four Russian drones that entered its airspace in the most dangerous test of the alliances resolve in decades.

In calling for the meeting, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk, who said he was in constant contact with Nato secretary general Mark Rutte, brought the alliance together to discuss Article 5  the obligation to defend a member subject to an armed attack.

Tusk invoked Natos article 4, triggering discussions at which a decision will be taken on how Nato will respond as an international body, after it emerged that the Russian drones had been shot down very deep into Polish territory, far from Ukraine.

He said that Poland was closer to war than at any time since World War II and his government described the drones as an act of aggression that posed a real threat to the safety of our civilians.

The move will further test Donald Trumps loyalty to the Wests most important strategic alliance. He has spent the last seven months while in office backing Russia against Americas allies and has himself threatened to invade or annex Nato members Canada and Denmark.

His reluctance to back Nato members in Europe and Canada in support of Ukraine will be tested by the article 4 talks. There is little chance of a decision involving military action. But demands for increased support for Ukraine, especially from America because it is Europes front line with the Kremlin, are inevitable.

Defence secretary John Healey said: We say to President Putin, your aggression only serves to strengthen the unity between our Nato nations. Your aggression only serves to strengthen our determination to stand with Ukraine. And your aggression reminds us that a secure Europe needs a strong Ukraine. And that the security of Europe starts in Ukraine.

Many of the Russian drones were shot down by Polish aircraft that were scrambled in a taste of what, many in Europe fear, what is to come from Russia.

open image in gallery Polish prime minister Donald Tusk holds a government meeting after the drone attack ( Reuters )

Vladimir Putin has often said that he wants to return eastern Europe to the era when it was ruled, or dominated, by the Soviet Union. He has threatened the Baltic states, and Poland, especially.

As a result, Poland is expanding its military at breakneck speed with heavy spending on armour, aircraft, and infantry fighting vehicles.

The incursion into Polish airspace may be an accident, with the deep penetration of the drones possibly explained by a failure of their guidance systems.

But it is an accident that Russia clearly feels happy to risk, given the level of impunity for its actions.

Putin was given red-carpet treatment on American soil in Alaska even though the International Criminal Court has issued him an international arrest warrant for crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine.

open image in gallery A firefighter runs at the site of a residential area hit during Russian drone and missile strikes in Zhytomyr, Ukraine ( Emergency Service of Ukraine )

Ukraines foreign minister, Andriy Sybiha, said on X (Twitter) that the longer he [Putin] faces no strength in response, the more aggressive he gets.

Joe Wilson, a Republican US congressman, said that the penetration of Polands airspace, which he called an attack, was an act of war.

Trump has refused to supply Ukraine with weapons directly and threatened to cut the flow of intelligence to Kyiv since he took office. He has imposed very little pressure on the Kremlin, though.

Lately, as Putin has resisted his efforts to get a ceasefire process underway in Ukraine, Trump has repeatedly threatened economic sanctions on Russian trading partners. But he has never suggested that America would return to the level of military assistance given by his predecessor, Joe Biden.

open image in gallery Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump had a cordial meeting in Alaska, despite the International Criminal Court issuing an arrest warrant against the Russian leader ( Sputnik )

Putin is no longer content just losing in Ukraine while bombing mothers and babies, he is now directly testing our resolve in Nato territory, Wilson said on X.

Trump will be called upon to join Nato in condemning Russias air penetration of Poland and even issuing warnings to back off or face violent consequences.

This will sit uneasily with this US president and his long history of friendships in Moscow, which trump the US alliance that has been the bedrock of the Wests security architecture for decades.
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Poland has warned it is closer to conflict than at any point since the Second World War following an unprecedented incursion into Nato territory by Russian drones.

The countrys air defences were scrambled after 19 projectile UAVs entered its airspace during a major attack on western Ukraine, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said.

It marks the first time a Nato country has fired any bullets in relation to Russias full-scale war in Ukraine since the conflict began in 2022. Mr Tusk has invoked Article 4 of the Nato treaty, demanding consultation with its member states.

open image in gallery One of the downed Shahed-type drones that crashed inside Poland ( Telewizja Republika )

We are dealing with a large-scale provocation, he said on Wednesday. We are ready to repel such provocations. The situation is serious, and no one doubts that we must prepare for various scenarios.

The fact that these drones, which posed a security threat, were shot down changes the political situation. This situation brings us the closest we have been to open conflict since World War II.

The incident has drawn fierce condemnation from Kyiv, Warsaw, and allies in Nato and Europe, who believe it was a deliberate act.

US president Donald Trump is set to speak with his Polish counterpart Karol Nawrocki on Wednesday as the Ukraine crisis threatens to spiral. Washingtons ambassador to Nato vowed that the US will defend every inch of Nato territory, a welcome statement for European leaders amid concerns about Mr Trumps reluctance to engage militarily in Europe.

open image in gallery Polish police and military police secure parts of a damaged UAV shot down in Wohyn, Poland ( AP )

British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer said he had been in touch with Mr Tusk to make clear the UKs support for Poland and Ukraine, and thanked Nato and Polish forces for their rapid response.

This mornings barbaric attack on Ukraine, and the egregious and unprecedented violation of Polish and Nato airspace by Russian drones, is deeply concerning, Sir Keir said in a statement. This was an extremely reckless move by Russia and only serves to remind us of President Putins blatant disregard for peace, and the constant bombardment innocent Ukrainians face every day.

Sir Keir said the UK and its partners will continue to ramp up the pressure on Putin until there is a just and lasting peace.

Moscow has denied responsibility for the incident, with a senior Russian diplomat in Poland suggesting that the drones had come from the direction of Ukraine.

open image in gallery Firefighters work on the destroyed roof of a house, after Russian drones violated Polish airspace during an attack on Ukraine ( Reuters )

Speaking to parliament on Wednesday after an emergency meeting with the military, Mr Tusk said 19 objects had intruded into Polish airspace overnight, at least three of which had been shot down.

Polish authorities reported drone debris around the eastern towns of Wyryki, Wyhalew, Czosnowka and Czesniki. Debris was also found in Mniszkow, a village in the central Lodz region, and in Olesno, a town 400km (250 miles) from Polands border with Ukraine.

In Wyryki, eastern Poland, a drone or similar object struck a residential building and tore off its roof. There have been no reports of injuries across Poland.

Ukraines leader Volodymyr Zelensky said there is increasing evidence that Poland was deliberately targeted.

There have been previous incidents of individual Russian drones crossing the border and travelling a short distance into neighbouring countries. But this time, we are recording a much larger scale and deliberate targeting, he said.

open image in gallery Polish prime minister Donald Tusk held an extraordinary government meeting with military and emergency services officials ( Reuters )

Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said that a full assessment of the incident had not yet been made, but added that whether it was intentional or not, it is absolutely reckless, it is absolutely dangerous.

A source told the Reuters news agency that Nato was treating the incident not as an attack but as an intentional incursion.

Polish F-16 fighter jets, Dutch F-35s, Italian AWACS surveillance planes and mid-air refueling aircraft jointly operated by Nato were involved in the overnight operation, according to the source.

Mr Rutte is in touch with Warsaw, which is consulting closely with the alliance on next steps.
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Four Ukrainian soldiers have been rescued from a hospital deep inside Russian territoryafter remaining hidden for three years, the commander of the Ukrainian navy said.

The troops were wounded in battle in 2022 and remained in hospital in Russian-occupied Ukraine, where sympathetic doctors helped to shield them from Russian secret services, commander Oleksii Neizhpapa said on Facebook.

A marine, three national guards and a medical worker who had helped to hide the soldiers have all been evacuated.

Our guys survived where it seemed there was no chance, said Mr Neizhpapa, in a post announcing the rescue and giving details of how it was carried out.

open image in gallery A medical worker who helped hide the soldiers was also evacuated ( Commander of the Ukrainian Navy )

Evacuation measures began after a marine, recently freed in a Moscow-Kyiv prisoner swap, said his twin brother had been severely wounded during fighting in eastern Ukraine in 2022.

Upon receiving this information, I made the decision to begin special evacuation measures, Mr Neizhpapa said.

Later it turned out that, along with their twin brother, three other soldiers of the National Guard of Ukraine, who had been forced to stay there for more than three years, were in the hospital.

For safety reasons, he did not disclose the location of the hospital or the identity of the soldiers.

The operation was divided into several stages and was carried out by the navys Angels special forces unit, which Mr Neizhpapa says has rescued 88 people from Russian territory since its creation.

open image in gallery Olga Reshetylova, presidential commissioner for the protection of the rights of military personnel and their family members, received information that the twin brother of a recently exchanged Marine Corps serviceman during hostilities in Eastern Ukraine in 2022 ( Commander of the Ukrainian Navy )

This story is about faith, he added. Our boys survived where there seemed to be no chance. Its about the power of the Angels, who were able to get fighters even from the heart of enemy territory. And proved once again that we never leave our own.

An emotional video shows the moment a soldier waits for his rescued brother, whom he says he hasnt seen for four years.

I miss him so much. Im going to meet him now. Its not easy to get through something like this, he said in the video.

Currently our warriors are safe and finally with their relatives, Mr Neizhpapa said, adding that the unit has already saved 88 people and proved once again that nothing is impossible for Ukrainian soldiers.

Since 2022, Kyiv has secured the release of more than 6,400 Ukrainians from Russian captivity, president Volodymyr Zelensky said in July. A total of 5,857 of these troops were freed during a series of prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine, many of which came after delegations from Moscow and Kyiv resumed face-to-face talks in May this year.
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A second boat in a Gaza-bound aid flotilla carrying activists including Greta Thunberg has been hit by a suspected drone, the group has claimed.

Activists and aid workers travelling as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) said the boat, Alma, which is sailing under a British flag, was attacked while docked in Tunisian waters on Wednesday morning. The group said nobody on board was hurt, but the vessel sustained fire damage on its top deck.

It comes just one day after the Familia Madeira, known as the Family Boat, thought to be carrying the groups steering committee including Ms Thunberg, was reportedly struck while similarly docked near Tunisias Sidi Bou Said port. Tunisia said on Tuesday that the claim had no basis in truth and blamed the fire on an issue originating within the vessel.

A video posted to the GSFs Instagram appears to show a flaming item landing on the boats deck before exploding, as people run for cover. In a picture posted later, the group showed debris found on the deck of the Alma following the suspected strike.

open image in gallery GSF ships are currently anchored off the coast of Tunisia ( AP )

Following the drone strike on one of the Global Sumud Flotilla boats, crew members recovered a charred electronic device from the deck, they wrote. While a full investigation is ongoing, the presence of such a device provides further indication that the boat was deliberately targeted.

The flotilla is on what the group calls a peaceful mission aiming to break Israels naval blockade and deliver aid to the embattled Gaza Strip. They are due to arrive later this month, but Israeli forces are likely to intercept the boats before they can reach the strip.

Israels national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, is said to be drafting up plans for the arrest of Ms Thunberg and the seizure of the flotilla, Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom reported. There are plans to convert the ships into a police fleet.

The Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) confirms that on September 9, another boat in our fleet  the Alma  was attacked by a drone as it was docked in Tunisian waters, the GSF wrote in a statement.

The boat, sailing under the British flag, sustained fire damage on its top deck. The fire has since been extinguished, and all passengers and crew are safe. An investigation is currently underway and when more information is available it will be released immediately.

open image in gallery The group said the Family Boat was hit overnight on Monday ( Global Sumud Flotilla )

They added that the alleged strike marks the second such attack in two days.

These repeat attacks come during intensified Israeli aggression on Palestinians in Gaza, and are an orchestrated attempt to distract and derail our mission, it continued. The Global Sumud Flotilla continues undeterred. Our peaceful voyage to break Israels illegal siege on Gaza and stand in unwavering solidarity with its people presses forward with determination and resolve.

It comes after Ms Thunberg was among a number of other activists arrested by Israeli forces after they attempted to break the naval blockade in June. Their boat was boarded by military who took them to Israel, where they were detained and eventually expelled.

The Independent has contacted the Tunisian government for comment.
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Completely unprecedented.

This was the two-word description voiced to me by a shocked diplomat in the Middle East in the immediate aftermath of Israels extraordinary missile strike on Qatar this afternoon.

This is a corner of the world that has weathered shock after shock over the last 23 months, a region repeatedly on the brink of protracted and dangerous total war.

But Israeli strikes in the heart of the Qatari capital, which the Israeli military said were targeting Hamas leadership even as truce talks were allegedly underway, push it to the very edge of an abyss.

These strikes set Israel firmly against Qatar, a regional player and the chief mediator in the peace talks for Gaza and beyond.

They make Doha  once a main meeting point and venue for truce negotiations  now a new theatre of war in the Gaza conflict.

open image in gallery Completely unprecedented: Smoke rises from an explosion caused by an Israeli strike in Doha on Tuesday ( AP )

In fact, they dashed hopes for ceasefire talks anywhere: the Israeli military declined to officially comment on who exactly the target was, or whether anyone had been killed.

However, Israeli media, citing government sources, said the focus was on top Hamas negotiators and leaders, including Khalil al-Hayya, Zaher Jabarin, Khaled Meshaal and Mohammad Darwish. Hamas said five of its members were killed, but none of those in the negotiating team.

The strike is such a stark rejection of the diplomatic solution to the slaughter in Gaza that the largest group of families of Israeli hostages expressed deep alarm.

In a statement in the aftermath, they wrote that a grave fear now hangs over them, as the chance of bringing home the remaining 50 or so hostages and captives held by Hamas militants faces greater uncertainty than ever before.

It also underscores just how far the ripples from Israels war with Hamas in Gaza have spread  tidal waves that have, since Hamass 7 October attack, engulfed Lebanon, Syria and Iran, the skies over Jordan and Iraq  and now Qatar.

Notably, this comes on the heels of Doha already being dragged into the crossfire when it became the target of Tehrans roughly 20-missile retaliatory strike against Israel and the US for their mass bombings of Iran back in June.

Qatar is home to Al Udeid base  the largest US base in the region and the forward headquarters of US Central Command. I understand Doha was given no warning from either side in that attack and had to scramble, at great cost, to shoot the missiles down.

Regional diplomats told me just last week that the Gulf feared the war between Iran and Israel was not over yet, and Doha, as host to this base, risked coming under fire again as the region teetered on chaos. Now they are in the crossfire for another reason.

And so, with great alarm, Doha was quick to condemn Israels reckless and criminal attack, calling it a flagrant violation of all international laws and norms, and a serious threat to the security and safety of Qataris and residents of Qatar.

They were joined by a chorus of condemnation from across the often fractured Middle East, now united in their horror (and surely concern that any of them could be dragged in next).

open image in gallery Displaced Palestinians flee toward southern Gaza on Tuesday after the Israeli army issued evacuation orders from Gaza City ( AP )

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Lebanon and Turkey were among the states that called it a blatant and cowardly violation of Qatars sovereignty and of international law. To quote the Turkish foreign ministry: This is a signal that does not aim to reach peace, but rather to continue the war.

And it does show how emboldened Israeli leadership has become with the apparent green light from its biggest backer and weapons supplier  the United States and Donald Trump. He surely would have had a heads-up before, even if Netanyahu claimed it was a wholly independent Israeli operation.

It shows how far Netanyahu has come from being, even to his critics, once a comparative figure of caution and strategy. It hints at what is to come.

It paints a terrifying picture of the future with the bleakest of horizons.
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Israel deliberately bombed the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar to remove what it said were extremists resisting ceasefire proposals for Gaza, Israels president said today.

Isaac Herzog, who is in London and due to meet Sir Keir Starmer this afternoon, said the strike was aimed at Khalil al-Hayya, the main Hamas negotiator based in Doha, whom Israel claimed had thwarted attempts at brokering peace.

Speaking in a briefing, Mr Herzog said: We targeted those who refused to accept the deal, including primarily, al-Hayya whose hands carried the blood of thousands of Israelis.

Also targeted were fellow Hamas politburo members Khaled Mashal and three others who were part of the group negotiating a ceasefire in Qatar via American mediators.

He was one of the planners and instigators, and he was well informed and involved in October 7 [2023 when Hamas-led militants invaded Israel, killing 1,200 and abducting 250], said Mr Herzog.

open image in gallery Israeli president Isaac Herzog says: We targeted those who refused to accept the deal ( Reuters )

He kept on procrastinating and not getting to a deal by refusing adamantly to get to a deal  sometimes saying Yes, sometimes saying No, and sometimes saying Yes, but his conditions were impossible to meet, President Herzog said.

Six people died in Mondays attack in Doha, including a Qatari security official. Hamas claimed that five of its members were also killed, but none of its negotiating team. Mr Herzog could not confirm whether the Hamas leaders were killed in the attack.

The strikes were roundly condemned by the Qataris, who lashed out at Israels reckless behaviour, while criticism also came from Arab leaders, Sir Keir and Donald Trump, who said he was not happy with the bombing.

An Israeli source explained that the aim of the operation was to cut the extremists out of the negotiating process so that the leader on the ground, Izz al-Din al-Haddad, commander of the Qassam Brigades of Hamas, might emerge as a figure Israel could talk to.

It is understood that Israel sees the Hamas leadership structure, which reaches decisions by consensus, as dominated by hardliners among the exile community in Qatar who have scuppered peace plans.

open image in gallery Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya (centre) in Doha, Qatar, August 2024 ( Reuters )

They said they believe that a more pragmatic approach could be found from leaders on the ground in Gaza who are dealing with the bloody reality of Israels campaign there.

Israels focus on communicating with Hamas leaders on the ground in Gaza could be designed to assist its military operation by creating divisions in the Hamas leadership, suggesting that its military leader was a more willing partner in a ceasefire.

But Israel has ridden roughshod over relations with Qatar and many other countries in the Middle East, where authoritarian leaders may quietly approve of getting rid of Hamas  a violent Islamist movement of the kind that is banned in the Gulf and Egypt.

Haddad, 55, is a founding member of Hamas. Israeli sources said he is known as a deeply devout Muslim who commands the respect of his followers.

He is experiencing at first hand Israels onslaught, which has killed 67,000 people, according to local officials  more than half of whom have been women and children.

He might be someone we can deal with and reach an agreement, a senior Israeli official said.

open image in gallery Israel wants to focus on Izz al-Din al-Haddad, commander of the Qassam Brigades of Hamas, as a potential person to talk to about ceasefire ( Hamas Military Wing )

But Israel has also been blamed for holding up ceasefire proposals to secure the release of the remaining 20 or so living hostages held in Gaza.

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has launched a campaign to clear Gaza City, forcing a million Palestinians south amid criticism at home that the latest round of violence will jeopardise the lives of the hostages  a view firmly held by the Israeli military leadership.

Anger at Israels attack on Hamas in Qatar  which violated Qatars sovereignty  will strain relations with the US, which has its biggest air base for the Middle East on the tiny island emirate.
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Donald Trump is expected to meet Qatars prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani on Friday evening in New York, just days after US ally Israel carried out an unprecedented air strike on the Qatari capital Doha.

The bombing is the first such attack by Israel on Qatar, which has hosted multiple rounds of ceasefire talks, and it has been internationally condemned, leaving US diplomacy in the Middle East on a knife-edge.

Since the strikes, Mr Trump has praised Qatar as a strong ally and friend and has reportedly held a heated phone call with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

According to the Washington Post, in the call, Mr Trump said the air attack on Doha was not wise, to which Netanyahu responded that he had a brief window to launch the airstrike, and took the opportunity.

open image in gallery Qatars prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani will meet Donald Trump in New York on Friday night ( AFP via Getty )

The call came after Mr Trump described the attack as unfortunate, and was very unhappy about the way it went down, adding that it does not advance Israel or Americas goals.

The US has joined members of the UN Security Council in expressing deep concern and emphasising de-escalation following Israels airstrike.

The Security Council statement did not mention Israel by name, but conveyed solidarity with Qatar and the vital role its played in mediating peace efforts in recent years.

Speaking to the Security Council this week, Mr Thani said: Israel is trying to rearrange the region by force, but, he added, "we will continue our humanitarian and diplomatic role without any hesitation in order to stop the bloodshed."

The meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Thani comes ahead of an emergency Arab-Islamic summit in Doha over the weekend in response to Tuesdays airstrikes.

Mr Thani will also meet US secretary of state Marco Rubio at the White House in Washington, as well as vice-president JD Vance and US special envoy Steve Witkoff.

open image in gallery Smoke rises over Doha after an Israeli strike ( AP )

The Qatari prime minister said this week that Benjamin Netanyahu killed any hope of a deal to release all the Israeli hostages in Gaza when he ordered the attack, which he described as an act of state terror.

Hamas said Israels attack missed all its top negotiators, though five of its members were killed, including the son of exiled Gaza chief Khalil al-Hayya. Qatar said a security official died and others were wounded.

Mr Netanyahus office put out a statement after the strike, which said the attack was a wholly independent Israeli operation.

In response to Dohas outrage over the bombing, Israeli ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said that history will not be kind to accomplices.

Either Qatar condemns Hamas, expels Hamas, and brings Hamas to justice. Or Israel will, Mr Danon said.

Qatar is the sixth country Israel has attacked since the Hamas massacre on 7 October 2023, when around 1,200 Israelis were killed and 251 taken hostage.

The terror attack prompted a major military onslaught on Gaza in which Israel has killed around 65,000 Palestinians according to local health officials, and destroyed swathes of the strip of land.
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A furious Qatar has accused Israels prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being a narcissistic saboteur-in-chief determined to wreck the chances of peace in the Middle East, after Israel bombed the Qatari capital on Tuesday.

In blistering comments made to The Independent, Dr Majed al-Ansari, Qatars foreign ministry spokesperson and adviser to the countrys prime minister, said Israel had attacked central Doha while Hamas negotiators were discussing a US-proposed truce deal, putting a target on the back of any country attempting to mediate peace.

Israel launched an unprecedented air raid on Doha on Tuesday, killing at least six people, including a member of Qatars internal security forces and five Hamas figures.

Mr Netanyahu said the targets were the senior Hamas leadership in exile, who, according to the Qataris, were in central Doha discussing details of a US-penned plan for Gaza.

Dr Ansari told The Independent that the country is dealing with this as a direct attack on Qatar, as Israel failed to issue a warning to Doha beforehand or apparently to consult its own closest ally, the US, despite the fact that the largest American military base in the Middle East is located close to the Qatari capital.

 The treacherous behaviour of prime minister Netanyahu is not something new to us, but it is a red line that has been crossed that has never been crossed before, said Dr Ansari, adding that Mr Netanyahu has actively sabotaged talks at every turning point.

This message is very clear to everybody around the world, but especially to our region here, that peace with Israel is not possible under Prime Minister Netanyahu. He does not want peace. He does not work towards peace. He is actually the saboteur-in-chief.

open image in gallery Smoke rises following an explosion supposedly caused by an Israeli attack in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday ( AP )

Qatar does not have formal diplomatic relations with Israel, but has taken a leading role in mediating multiple ceasefire deals between Israel and Hamas over the course of the 23-month bloody war. At the request of Israel and the US, it has played host to critical talks between negotiating teams from both sides.

Dr Ansari said that the attack on a building in the heart of Doha, where a senior Hamas delegation was discussing the latest Gaza ceasefire deal penned by the Trump administration, therefore underscored Mr Netanyahus intent.

This is not an act of a partner who believes in their partnership with the US. This is a unilateral action by a madman. This is somebody who is unhinged.

[Mr Netanyahu] does not have any concern for the life of the hostages, any concern for the international standing of Israel [among] the international community, or any concern for what Israel stands for as a state, as a member of the United Nations.

 It has reached a point where he doesnt even have respect for his partners in the US administration.

He added grimly:  The only way Netanyahu wants to reshape the region is in his own image; in his narcissistic, megalomaniacal image.

open image in gallery Israels prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been described as a madman whose decision to attack Qatar was unhinged ( AFP/Getty )

Israel has faced worldwide condemnation for its shock decision to bomb Qatar, a state that has already been caught in the crossfire between Israel, the US and Iran, which made the US base in Qatar the target of its retaliatory strikes.

The Israeli military has yet to confirm who was killed in Tuesdays barrage. But Hamas said that none of the senior leaders were harmed, naming the dead as Hammam, the son of its top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, Mr al-Hayyas office chief, and three other individuals whose identities are unknown.

Dr Ansari said that investigations are ongoing but preliminary results show that Israeli fighter jets evaded Qatars sophisticated defence systems and radars during the raid.

Sir Keir Starmer joined world leaders in condemning the attack as a serious violation of Qatars sovereignty that risked further escalation across the region.

Gulf leaders, including Saudi Arabias crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, described the strike as a criminal act and a flagrant violation of international law and said it posed a threat to regional stability.

The Saudi crown prince and the Emirati president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan were set to visit Doha to discuss a response. The Qatari government has instructed a team of legal experts to study all legal and diplomatic avenues they could take to hold Israel accountable, including in the UN Security Council, where a session will be held on the attack.

open image in gallery Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates, is greeted by Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, in Doha ( via Reuters )

But there is also growing alarm about the repercussions of the attack for Gaza, where Mr Netanyahu is pushing ahead with a deeply controversial plan to widen his offensive and take over Gaza City.

The renewed military operation has elicited worldwide criticism and even pushback from within Israel, where many are concerned that Mr Netanyahu, who is also standing trial on corruption charges, is bowing to mounting pressure from extreme-right members of his coalition to continue the war on Gaza, in order to stay in power.

Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign against Gaza and a seige of the territory in the wake of Hamas militants bloody attacks on 7 October 2023, during which more than 1,000 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage. Israels bombardment has already killed 64,000 people, according to Palestinian estimates: the largest professional organisation of scholars studying genocide, the IAGS, said last week that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military pushed deeper into Gaza City, where they also issued more evacuation orders to the million or so people believed to be there, as Palestinian civilians described running for their lives to the overcrowded south of the Strip.

Qatari officials told The Independent they had hoped a deal could be struck soon, as on Hamass side they were close to finalising the wording of a ceasefire deal to present to the Trump administration  but explained that this could no longer happen.

 There is nothing valid in talks post the Israeli side deciding to bomb the mediator and the negotiating team, an official added bluntly.

open image in gallery Israelis have taken to the streets each week demanding that Netanyahu agree to an immediate ceasefire and hostage deal ( AFP/Getty )

This has worried the families of the remaining 50 hostages and captives still believed to be in Gaza, who have taken to the streets almost every day calling for a ceasefire.

They released a statement in the wake of Israels bombing of Doha, in which they said they were following events with deep concern and heavy anxiety and spoke of their grave fear about the price that the hostages may pay.

Dr Ansari said that allowing Israels bombing of Doha to go unpunished at this moment would affect anybody who wants to play the role of peace facilitator, and warned that it could send a dangerous message to countries such as Russia that they too could bomb foreign states.

It was a direct political decision to put Qatar in the target zone, and put our lives at risk just because of [Mr Netanyahus] own narcissistic ideas, he said .  Everybody in the region right now understands that there is a target on everybodys back if Netanyahu sees it is fitting to his political agenda.
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Israel launched an airstrike targeting Hamas's leadership in capital of Qatar on Tuesday, widening its campaign against the militant group.

Hamas said of its leaders survived the attack but that five lower-ranked members were killed, and Qatar said a security official died and others were wounded.

The attack drew fierce condemnation from a string of countries, including the UK, Egypt, Germany, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Canada. The EU said the airstrike was in breach of international law.

Benjamin Netanyahus office said the Israeli military had carried out a wholly independent operation against the top terrorist chieftains of Hamas and that the strike was justified.

An Israeli official told Israels Channel 12 that US president Donald Trump had given the green light for the strike.

The White House said it had warned Qatar before the attack, but the Doha government denied this.

Click here to follow the latest updates on Israels attack on the Hamas leadership in Qatar.

The latest Israeli airstrike targeted Doha in Qatar

Qatar condemned what it describes as a "blatant violation" of international laws and a "serious threat" to civilians.

"The State of Qatar strongly condemns this attack, and affirms that it will not tolerate this reckless Israeli behaviour and the continuous tampering with the security of the region and any action aimed at its security and sovereignty," said Dr Majed Al Ansari, a spokesperson for Qatars foreign ministry.

Hamas claimed the airstrike confirmed that Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu did not want to reach any agreement and were deliberately seeking to fail all opportunities and international efforts, disregarding the lives of their prisoners.

Several blasts were heard in Doha on Tuesday, and black plumes of smoke were seen rising into the skyline. Images showed a building blackened and destroyed.

Qatar is the sixth country Israel has attacked since the Hamas massacre on 7 October 2023, when around 1,200 Israelis were killed and 251 taken hostage. The terror attack prompted a major onslaught on Gaza in which Israel has killed around 65,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and destroyed large parts of the strip.

Attacks on the occupied Palestinian territories - which includes Gaza and the West Bank - have been aggressive and constant for nearly two years, barring periods of temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Soon after Israels bombardment of Gaza began, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel in what it said was solidarity with Palestinians suffering in the war in Gaza. This continued until a ceasefire agreement was made in late 2024.

The Houthi militant group from Yemen also fired rockets towards Israel to support the Palestinians, while attacking ships in the Red Sea which it deemed were assisting Israels war effort. Israel has targeted Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, including airports and power stations, designed to weaken Houthi military capabilities.

Israel opened an aerial bombardment campaign just days after the rapid collapse of the rule of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, seeking to destroy Syrias military infrastructure, airports, and other targets.

In June, Israel launched a major attack on numerous sites across large parts of Iran, including military installations, nuclear targets and weapons depots. The US later joined these strikes.
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Passengers on a Delta Air Lines flight were thrown violently around the cabin with little warning when their plane hit severe and unexpected turbulence, a new preliminary investigation report has found.

Twenty-four passengers needed medical attention and 18 ended up in the hospital when the drama unfolded on board flight DL56 as it traveled from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Amsterdam on 30 July.

The aircraft was over Creston, Wyoming, when conditions suddenly deteriorated. With the seatbelt sign left off by the pilots, unsuspecting passengers and flight attendants, as well as drink carts, were flung towards the ceiling.

A preliminary report issued by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), released Tuesday, revealed that passengers endured 2.5 minutes of turbulence that caught the pilots by surprise despite their having already altered the route to try to avoid thunderstorms.

Passengers were thrown upwards with a force equal to three-quarters of their bodyweight, which the NTSB estimated at 1.75 g-force. Then they were pulled downward by a force equal to half their bodyweight, according to the report.

Such force is like a muscle man grabbing you by the shoulders and with all of his strength trying to pull you up, aviation safety consultant Jeff Guzzetti, who used to investigate crashes for the NTSB and FAA, told the Associated Press.

If youre standing and you experience those types of forces, youre going to be thrown upward into the ceiling and then back down again onto the floor with a lot of force.

open image in gallery New details have emerged about flight DL56 from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Amsterdam on July 30, which resulted in 24 people requiring medical evaluation and 18 being sent to hospital ( AFP/Getty )

Guzzetti added that turbulence lasting so long would seem like an eternity for the passengers feeling those forces. The NTSB report also noted that the planes left wing had dipped down as much as 40 degrees at one point, which Guzzetti said would have alarmed those on board.

In an interview with Fox Salt Lake City shortly after the incident, passenger Joseph Carbone claimed that a pilot told him the had plane plunged 1,000 feet before making the emergency landing.

Carbone said that the plane made its first sudden drop about 90 minutes into the journey, causing flight attendants serving food and drinks to be swept off their feet, with two more drops after that. Each one got worse, he told the outlet.

open image in gallery Weather conditions are reported to have taken the pilots by surprise ( National Transportation Safety Board )

According to the NTSB report, following the event, the captain coordinated with the cabin crew and the relief first officer assessed passenger injuries. A passenger who was a physician assistant aided the cabin crew with triage.

The pilots likely believed they were in the clear after asking air traffic controllers to route them around the storms, according to AP. However, the NTSB charted the planes flight path over a radar report from the National Weather Service, which showed that the plane flew directly into the worst section of the storm.

It is understood that the NTSB will investigate whether the pilots and crew did enough to avoid the storms and whether the pilot made a good judgment in turning off the seatbelt sign. Investigations are ongoing.
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An air steward has admitted trying to board a flight at Heathrow airport whilst drunk at more than 12 times the alcohol limit.

Jessica Kostakopoulou, 43, stated she had not been drinking when she was stopped by security in Terminal 2 of the west London airport on 22 March, leading to police being called.

The defendant, who had been working for Scandinavian Airlines since October last year, appeared unsteady on her feet and slurred her words and smelled of alcohol during the incident, prosecutor Reem Khatib told Uxbridge Magistrates Court.

Subsequent breathalyser tests showed she had 254 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood in her system. The legal limit is 20 milligrams, the court heard.

Kostakopoulou, of Claremont Road, Windsor, pleaded guilty to carrying out an activity, namely going through security, which was ancillary to an aviation function at the court on Tuesday.

The defendant says she feels very ashamed and embarrassed about everything that happened ( Getty/iStock )

Amber Pierce, defending, told the court the defendant was not a supervisor on the flight she intended to board and no direct harm was caused as a result of her actions.

The court heard Kostakopoulou, who was of previous good character and had been working in the aviation industry for more than 20 years, resigned from her role as an air steward immediately after the incident occurred.

A magistrates bench fined the defendant 623, including a victim surcharge and legal costs, to be paid in monthly instalments, having found her remorse to be genuine.

Addressing the bench in court, Kostakopoulou said: I feel very ashamed and embarrassed about everything that happened.

Im trying to amend my ways now and start a new job. Im very sorry.
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Flights in and out of Nepals capital, Kathmandu, have been cancelled with the airport shutting following deadly protests in Nepal over a government social media ban.

At least 19 people have been killed, and around 100 more injured, as clashes between demonstrators and police erupted in Kathmandu.

Kathmandu is a popular city break destination due to its ancient temples, bustling markets and spectacular Unesco World Heritage sites, such as Kathmandu Durbar Square. It is also often the departure point for those set to climb the world's highest mountain, Mount Everest, located outside the city in the Himalayas.

For travellers planning on visiting Kathmandu or other areas in Nepal, and those already there, here is the latest UK government travel advice.

What is happening in Nepal?

At least 19 people have been killed in Nepal amid clashes between protestors and police over a government social media ban.

The demonstrations started when thousands from Generation Z, those in their teens and 20s, protested against the ban on 26 social media platforms, including Facebook, YouTube, and X.

Police have been accused of firing indiscriminately at demonstrators, while authorities say the protestors broke through a barricade to force their way into the parliament complex in Kathmandu.

open image in gallery Protesters burn vehicles and tires during protests against social media ban and corruption in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, 9 September ( Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. )

Amid the protests, tyres have been set on fire and objects have been hurled at rows of riot police. One eyewitness told The Independent he saw protesters setting fire to the homes of some politicians in Kathmandu on Tuesday.

Protestors marched through the city bearing the national flag and carrying signs stating slogans such as Shut down corruption, not social media.

The protests that started in the capital have spread nationwide to other cities, including Biratnagar, Bharatpur, and Pokhara.

Nepal has since reversed the ban, withdrawing the decision to block social media platforms following an emergency cabinet meeting late on Monday. On Tuesday, Nepals prime minister KP Sharma Oli released a statement saying he was resigning in light of the crisis.

open image in gallery A burning police station during protests against social media ban and corruption in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday 9 September ( Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. )

Even after the social media ban was lifted, demonstrators said they would continue to protest. Demonstrators say their grievances are about more than just the social media ban, with some stating that they are continuing to protest corruption and nepotism.

What is the UK government advice?

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has confirmed that there have been a number of casualties in Nepal and has advised travellers to avoid protests.

Protests are taking place in Kathmandu and elsewhere across the country. There have been violent clashes, with lethal force used by the police. This has led to a number of deaths and injuries, the FCDO said.

Curfews have been introduced in several cities, including Kathmandu and Pokhara. Avoid protests, check local media for updates, and follow direction of the authorities.

Kathmandu airport has also been disrupted, impacting domestic and international flights. Contact your airline, hotel and tour operator for up-to-date information before travel. Tourists should be able to move around and travel to and from airports with proof of travel plans, the FCDO added.

While the social media ban has been lifted, expect continued disruption to services.

open image in gallery A fire burns as demonstrators gather on a road during a protest to condemn the police's deadly crackdown on demonstrators in Kathmandu on Tuesday 9 September ( AFP/Getty )

In its general civil disorder advice for Nepal, the FCDO adds that a number of groups have stated their intent to organise protests or political rallies in Kathmandu and elsewhere across the country.

The FCDO said that they can start at short notice and may lead to clashes between protesters and law enforcement. Protests cause disruption to transport, and the authorities may increase the police presence.

Will my flight be cancelled?

Tribhuvan International Airport, the capitals main airport, is located close to the city centre and has shut due to adverse conditions within the valley as well as smoke seen around the airport and the flight path, the airport said in a translated post.

Many flights in the morning were cancelled or diverted to other airports in Nepal and India, and by Tuesday afternoon, the civil aviation authority announced the complete closure of the airport with immediate effect.

What are my rights if my flight is cancelled?

As a passenger, you are covered by UK law if you are departing from an airport in the UK on any airline, arriving at an airport in the UK on an EU or UK airline, or arriving at an airport in the EU on a UK airline.

Airlines must provide you with care and assistance if your flight is cancelled, meaning they must supply you with food and drink (often provided in the form of vouchers), means for you to communicate (often by refunding call costs), accommodation if you are given a new flight the following day, and transport to and from the accommodation or your home.

The airline must provide you with these items until it is able to fly you to your destination, no matter how long the delay lasts or what has caused it, the Civil Aviation Authority says.

Sometimes, airlines are unable to arrange care and assistance if they are stretched during major disruptions, meaning you can arrange the care yourself and claim the cost back later by keeping receipts.

Can I cancel my holiday?

As the FCDO has not warned against travel to Nepal, there will be no special circumstances in place to be able to cancel a trip for a full refund.

The conditions for cancelling your trip will be dependent on your holiday provider, so its best to contact them if youre looking to postpone.

There is no obligation for companies to refund bookings if you want to cancel, and you will not be able to claim on your travel insurance due to safety concerns unless government advice changes.

If you do have travel insurance, some policies include natural disaster cover for an event that prevents you from reaching your holiday destination. Check your insurance policies and speak to your insurer to see where you stand.

For more travel news and advice, listen to Simon Calders podcast
Vladimir Putin told the US he will occupy the Donbas region of Ukraine by the end of 2025, Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed.

In an interview with ABC News, aired on Tuesday (9 September), the Ukrainian president said: That is, he ]Putin] says that in three to four months, and this is what he told the Americans, the White House, and President Trump's representative Witkoff, he said that he would take Donbas in two to three months, maximum four months.

Zelensky warned that Russias plans could cost years and a million people if Moscow accelerates its offensive.
On the face of it, the intrusion of Russian drones into Polish airspace overnight would appear to be an open and shut case for invoking Natos famous Article 5, which, as commonly summed up, means that an attack on one is deemed an attack on all and warrants a corresponding response.

This guarantee is much of the reason why, after the Soviet Unions collapse, the newly independent states of eastern and central Europe wanted to join the alliance, and why Ukraine is so keen to do so now. Nato and Article 5 are seen as the gold standard of security guarantees.

Polands prime minister, Donald Tusk, was quick to warn that his country is at its closest to open conflict since the end of the Second World War. The incursion into Polish airspace was, he said, a test Nato has to answer.

When he reported to parliament a couple of hours later, this had been reduced to the charge that 19 Russian drones had entered the country's airspace, with up to four drones shot down by the Polish, Italian and Dutch jets sent to intercept them  the first time Russian military hardware has been shot down over the territory of a Nato country. The European Union called it a reckless violation by Russia. For Keir Starmer, it was a barbaric attack on Ukraine and an egregious and unprecedented violation.

And yet the relatively small number of drones points to an accidental rather than a deliberate incursion. Intent has to be a crucial element in whether what happened would reach the standard for an Article 5 response. This appears to be already accepted by Poland, which is reportedly talking about convening an emergency Nato meeting under Article 4, which provides for notification and consultation, rather than Article 5.

It is also worth noting that this is not the first time Russia has been accused of violating Polish territory in operations against Ukraine. In November 2022, the first autumn of the war, a missile landed on the Polish side of the Ukraine border, killing two people on the ground. Ukraine immediately called for Nato to invoke Article 5, but it turned out that Russia and the United States had already been in contact and established that the errant missile had, in fact, come from Ukraine. All talk of Nato action was dropped, although it was never clarified whether what happened was an accident or, as some claimed, a false-flag operation by Ukraine to try to precipitate a Nato response.

Polands prime minister, Donald Tusk, began by talking about a huge incursion into Polish airspace. When he reported to Parliament a couple of hours later, this had been reduced ( Reuters )

In short, while sometimes deploying fearsome rhetoric, Nato has hitherto been generally cautious about mounting any military response that could be seen as the start of an all-out conflict between Nato and Russia  in place of what is currently seen, by Russia at least, as a Nato-Russia proxy war.

Early indications are that Nato will take the same measured response this time. It will support Polands action in intercepting the drones, warn Russia about the risks of escalating the conflict, and stop at that. Ukraine will probably demand more aggressive action, but caution, at this stage, would be the most rational response.

All that said, there are elements of this episode that still need explaining. Some suggest that the drones might have been disoriented by Ukrainian (or Polish?) jamming; others that it could be a Ukrainian false flag  either possibility being a reason for Nato to exercise additional caution.

Another hypothesis, not entirely incompatible with the accident theory, is that Russia was probing Natos response to such violations. Last week Russia struck a government building in Kyiv for the first time  an attack variously interpreted as unintentional and a result of deflection by Ukraines air defences (the theory advanced by the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, who is hardly a friend of Russia), or a deliberate escalation on Russias part, signalling to Kyiv what it should expect if it does not accept Russias current terms for ending the war.

Escalation on the part of Russia and Ukraine, with Russia targeting cities outside eastern Ukraine, such as Lviv near the Polish border, which have hitherto largely been spared, is an entirely logical response to the prospect of peace talks, as each side tries to maximise its advantage before  it must be hoped  the firing stops.

Whether or not this latest incident was an error  ahead of a meeting in London of the E5 grouping of European nations of Britain, Poland, France, Germany and Italy  the risk is that such confrontations could increase, with the calls for Natos direct involvement becoming ever louder.
Bonhams has shut its office in Dublin, becoming the latest British auction house to reduce its presence in the Irish market.

Sothebys closed its Irish office earlier this year, as part of a programme of cutbacks around the world following a decline in auction sales. Christies, which had a representative here for decades, is now handling Irish business from London, following the retirement of Christine Ryall.
Kildare-based businessman faces asset seizure after US lawsuit

Paul Wright was accused of fraud in the Florida legal case

John Mulligan Tue 9 Sep 2025 at 06:30

A notice of default has been entered against Kildare-based businessman Paul Wright in a US lawsuit where he has been accused of fraud and using client money to bankroll a lavish lifestyle.
Households brace for winter of energy price rises after another supplier hikes charges

Energia is raising electricity prices by up to 12pc from next month

Smart meters can help people to monitor their electricity usage

Charlie Weston Wed 10 Sep 2025 at 03:30

Households are facing the prospect of rising energy prices over the autumn and winter after a third energy supplier hiked its prices.
What I spend on Christmas: I would imagine that my total will be about 2,000 and the majority of my budget will be on my own kids
Britain and Ireland seem closer than ever but in crucial respects they are rapidly decoupling and moving apart

Brexit looms large in an intelligent guide to the dizzyingly fractured history of our two islands

Boris Johnson was known to have a contemptuous attitude towards Northern Ireland. Photo: Leon Neal/Getty Images

Liam Fay Wed 10 Sep 2025 at 06:30







Boris Johnson could not conceal his sneering disdain for Leo Varadkar or the upstart nation that elected him. Why is he not called Murphy like the rest of them? guffawed the supposedly erudite British PM at a Whitehall briefing before his first sit-down with the Taoiseach. Not for the last time, his advisors smiled wanly and stared at the ceiling.
Actor discusses award snubs, mastering tricky accents and how Ozark opened doors for him

When the third season of Ozark arrived in March 2020, plunging locked-down audiences back into the blistering, blood-spattered lives of the Byrde family, the thriller was already established as one of Netflixs biggest ever hits. Critics couldnt get enough of this normal family who broke bad, and the show, pitch-black and visually sumptuous, was an awards darling from the off.
Farm organisations have warned that the Governments new Bovine TB Action Plan will not succeed unless outdated compensation limits are scrapped, with the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) describing the current caps as unfair and leaving farmers exposed at their most vulnerable time.

The plan, published by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon TD, sets out a suite of measures aimed at curbing persistently high levels of bovine TB, including stronger controls on cattle movements, tighter testing, and an expanded wildlife management programme.

But farmer leaders say the On Farm Market Valuation (OFMV) Scheme  the key support mechanism for herds hit by TB restrictions  is no longer fit for purpose, as cattle values have risen significantly while compensation ceilings remain at 3,000 and 5,000.

IFA President Francie Gorman said: These limits are unfair and with the welcome rise in the value of stock, more and more animals are exceeding the limits which leaves farmers out of pocket at what is a terrible time on their farm. He added that while the plan contained positive measures, it would have been better to have agreement with farmers before publication.

IFA Animal Health Chair TJ Maher was more direct, calling the lack of movement on valuations unacceptable given repeated warnings to the Minister. Removing the outdated ceilings that have failed to keep pace with the value of animals in the marketplace is the first step and it must happen immediately, he said. The TB Action Plan will not be worth the paper it is written on if the Minister does not address the shortcomings in administering the scheme.

While welcoming enhancements to the Wildlife Control Programme, both IFA leaders stressed that new restrictions  including extended restriction periods for larger herds with high infection rates  risked compounding farm losses unless backed by proper financial supports.

The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) also highlighted the valuation issue, alongside concerns that the plan imposed lop-sided obligations on farmers while offering vague commitments elsewhere. ICMSA President Denis Drennan said: The actions and requirements are very firm on farmers, and very flimsy on everyone else.

ICMSA president Denis Drennan. Photo: Dylan Vaughan

He questioned the lack of clear targets and timelines in relation to deer and badger control, warning that unless commitments are turned into real action on the ground, farmers would remain unconvinced. Mr Drennan also criticised the failure to raise compensation ceilings to reflect higher livestock values, pointing out that farmers are already the single biggest contributors to the TB programme at 150m annually.

For his part, Minister Heydon insisted the plan was based on scientific research, evidence and veterinary expertise, and said it would support and enable farm families who are currently dealing with the stress of a bTB outbreak to navigate a way out of a bTB restriction and protect those herds currently free from bTB.

He added: If we work together we can stop the increase of bTB in recent years and over time reduce bTB levels. We all can then look to the future and work towards our ultimate goal of bTB eradication.
Hotelier restrained from dissipating proceeds from 5m sale of boutique Spanish wedding venue

High Court told of assurances by Denis Connolly that he would not sell Cadiz property

Stock image. Photo: Getty

Shane Phelan Tue 9 Sep 2025 at 20:50

A well-known Irish hotelier embroiled in a dispute with a business associate has been hit with a High Court order restraining him from dissipating proceeds from the sale of a boutique hotel in the south of Spain.
'People no longer wanted to be associated with the traditional, local way of speaking': Are Irish accents as we know them dying out?
Flotilla bound for Gaza carrying three Irish activists in suspected drone attack

For the second night the flotilla was struck by incendiary devices, causing fire damage

Remains of the incendiary device dropped on to the deck of the Alma

Laura Lynott Wed 10 Sep 2025 at 18:03

Irish activists on board an international flotilla to Gaza are calling on the Government to uphold international law and protect Irish citizens after two boats were attacked on separate nights with incendiary devices, setting the vessels alight.
The American husband of an Irish woman facing deportation from the US for writing a bad cheque 10 years ago has blamed Donald Trump's stupid immigration policy for her arrest.

James Brown has spoken out about the egregious detention of his wife Donna Hughes-Brown (58) by immigration officials in July at OHare International Airport in Chicago as she was arriving home from a funeral in Ireland.
Rodent droppings lead to closure of section of McDonalds in Louth after FSAI inspection

The closure relates to a storage unit at the side of the restaurant

McDonald's in Drogheda, Co Louth has been issued with a closure order by the FSAI

Keith Kelly Wed 10 Sep 2025 at 14:25

A section of a McDonalds restaurant in Co Louth has been issued with a closure order by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) following the discovery of rodent droppings on the premises.
LATEST | Second digger excavating ground at search site for missing boy

Gardai bring in bigger digger in search for missing boy as two new areas sealed off

Conor Feehan Wed 10 Sep 2025 at 13:52

Gardai searching waste ground on the edge of the north Dublin town of Donabate for a boy who is missing and presumed dead have now brought a second mechanical digger to help excavating the site.
One of the brooches that soared past their estimates

Two sapphire brooches that had been kept in the sealed vault of an Irish family for almost 40 years were sold for a total of 1.3m at auction yesterday.
Revealed: Squalid camp where New Zealand fugitive hid three children with weapons and ammo

Tom Phillips had been on the run with his three children since December 2021

Police in New Zealand released this photo of the campsite in the Waitomo area where Tom Phillips and his children had been hiding. Photo: AP

Nick Squires Telegraph Media Group Holdings Ltd Wed 10 Sep 2025 at 06:30

The remote and squalid bush camp where a fugitive hid his three children before he was killed in a police shoot-out has been exposed in photos released by New Zealand authorities.
Helen McEntee: The UN was once a beacon of hope and it can be again, if we dont lose faith in it
Tanaiste Simon Harris said he had to 'dig deep' after his family were threatened three times in a week. Photo: PA

I dont mean this personally to you. If there was a threat to kidnap your child ... if there were threats to bomb your house, Im not sure youd be in work today. Im here. Ive turned up.

This was part of the answer given by Tanaiste Simon Harris when asked on Morning Ireland about how the threats against him had made him reconsider his career in politics.

No citizen of our country should have to endure such sinister and craven targeting.

For the Taoiseachs deputy to be singled out is not just an insult to our Government, it insults voters and our fundamental values of decency and respect.

Tanaiste Simon Harris said he had to 'dig deep' after his family were threatened three times in a week. Photo: PA

Today's News in 90 Seconds, Wednesday, September 10

The intimidation is being investigated by gardai, but these attacks must serve as a watershed moment for standing up to the toxicity being allowed to pollute the political environment by an unchecked stream of subversive posting online.

They appeared on a site that offers security encryption, enabling users to disguise their identity. That such threats were made is disturbing enough, but that they could be made with impunity is perhaps more chilling.

Mr Harriss distress was totally understandable. His family were threatened three times in a week. He said he had been forced to dig deep to keep going with his life as a public representative. The escalation of the intimidation meant he could not allow it to be glossed over.

The vile nature of the threats targeting my children, very close family relatives, and the sustained, relentless nature of it, I think needs to be called out, he said.

We must always protect those who stand to serve and represent us

It needs not only to be called out, but to be eradicated and utterly condemned. Those responsible must be stripped of their cover.

Sites that allow violent, menacing messaging need also to be called to account.

Mr Harris said this is not who we are, nor is it; but if appropriate action is not taken, the malign intent of these bad actors could influence who we could become.

Mr Harris deserves credit for placing his concerns, not only for his family, but for all who serve in public office, on record.

Personal and painful as these attacks may be, they also have a wider, darker purpose: to destabilise and damage our very democracy. They must be viewed as a grave insult to all who believe in the value of public office and the integrity of the ballot box. There can be no giving in to such intimidation.

Since its inception in 1922, our State has faced down many threats. It is one of the few examples of unbroken democratic governance through the 20th and, hopefully, 21st centuries. We must always protect those who stand to serve and represent us.

Democracy can only succeed when those charged with exercising the choice of the people are free to do so. Any threat to their security amounts to an assault on us all. Those who choose to intimidate must be made to feel cold fear, not the other way around.
Major fundraiser launched for 12-year-old Cillian OBrien, who suffered a bleed to the brain while waiting to play a school chess tournament

A 300,000 fundraiser has been launched to help with the recovery journey of a Galway child who suffered a brain bleed ahead of a school chess tournament, which has left him with an acquired brain injury.

On February 5, Cillian OBrien, son of former Clooney-Quin hurler Owen, was waiting to partake in a fun school activity when he suffered a catastrophic brain bleed and collapsed.

The bleed was caused by a rare condition called an Arteriovenous Malformation (AVM), a dangerous tangle of blood vessels in the brain.

Cillian was rushed to Temple Street Childrens Hospital in Dublin for emergency surgery and spent weeks in intensive care. The 12-year-old has been in hospital ever since.

Cillian O'Brien before his brain bleed in early 2025. Image: idonate

Turning 13 this month, the Galway child only has a few weeks remaining of his hospital stay, but in order for him to return to his city centre home, serious refurbishments need to be done to the family house.

In a post on iDonate, Cillians family explained that they need to build an extension to their three-bed semi-detached home in order to create an accessible living space for Cillian, future-proofed for the additional supports he will need as he grows.

Additionally, neither of Cillians parents, Owen and Karen, have been able to return to work since his brain bleed, as he now requires around the clock care.

The fundraiser has already raised over 60,000 of the 300,000 target.

Cillians family hope to raise enough money to give the young boy the best chance at recovery, cover specialist treatments and therapies, equipment to help with mobility and communication, transport and accommodation for hospital appointments, long-term care and rehabilitation support, and to make his home safe and accessible.

Cilian O'Brien in Temple Street Hospital following his brain bleed. Image: idonate

On February 5, 2025, just moments before a school chess tournament, Cillian suffered a catastrophic brain bleed and collapsed, the post on iDonate reads.

Caused by a rare condition called an Arteriovenous Malformation (AVM), a dangerous tangle of blood vessels in the brain, he was rushed to Temple Street Childrens Hospital for emergency surgery and spent weeks in intensive care. Hospitalised ever since, Cillian has already undergone several procedures and continues to receive treatment.

Further surgeries and procedures may be needed in the coming months, including the possibility of specialist radiosurgery in Sheffield, as the AVM is too risky to remove with traditional surgery. In the meantime, Cillian has begun his rehabilitation at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoghaire. On weekends, he returns to Temple Street for continued care.

His acquired brain injury has affected his speech to the point where he is currently non-verbal. His vision has been compromised (but improving) and he is physically unable to support himself, so he is currently wheelchair bound.

He turns 13 this September  an age meant for fun, freedom, and adventure  and it breaks his parents hearts to see him fighting these battles instead. Cillian has a further nine weeks left in the NRH, after which his parents Owen and Karen hope to bring him home.

Cillian O'Brien with his mom and dad, Karen and Owen, and sisters, Zoe and Aisling. Image: idonate

But to do so, home needs to be transformed. Currently, the O'Briens live in a three-bed semi in Galway City, which is currently not suitable for his needs. They need an extension to create accessible living space, future-proofed for the additional supports Cillian will need as he grows.

Cillian has two sister, Zoe and Aisling, who his parents say desperately miss their brother and just want him to get home.

Through all of this, Cillians courage, determination, and cheeky sense of humour have never left him, and he continues to inspire everyone who meets him, the iDonate page continues. He's just such a good young lad.

The OBrien family said they are deeply grateful for all the love, prayers, and support sent their way through the fundraiser.

Knowing that Cillian is surrounded by so much kindness gives us strength and hope each day, the family said. Thank you for being with us on this journey.

It genuinely means so much to us all and has brought on many bouts of tears thinking of how good people are. We wish we could thank you all individually.

Cillian has been in good form in the NRH to date and is getting stronger. Long way to go but we'll just take it step by step.

Anyone who would like to donate towards Cillians recovery, and see further updates of his journey, can do so via the Cillian O Brien Fund page on iDonate.ie or by clicking here.
Cork town given blast warning as M28 motorway builders BAM use explosives to shatter rock

Residents advised of upcoming blasting and traffic changes as M28 motorway construction progresses.

An example of rock blasting. Photo: Chris Bentley/Creative Commons

Kevin Galvin Wed 10 Sep 2025 at 05:20

Residents living near a major roundabout in Cork will be receiving warnings of rock-blasting explosions in the coming weeks from BAM, as the company continues works on the M28 CorkRingaskiddy motorway.
A former fish hatchery at Bearforest Mallow should be re-opened to help restock the Blackwater river following the massive fish kill there last month, a North Cork councillor has said.

Speaking at this weeks meeting of Cork County Council, Councillor Pat Hayes called on the local authority to write to the Minister for Inland Fisheries Timmy Dooley, requesting that Inland Fisheries Ireland reopen the fish hatchery, which operated for six decades but was closed in the early 2000s.

The recent catastrophic fish kill along 40km of the river system has wiped out multiple-year classes of fish. The river will require major help to bring fish stocks back to normal levels. A local hatchery would allow for urgent and targeted restocking to prevent long-term ecological damage, Cllr Hayes said.

Hatcheries can help restore endangered or declining fish populations by reintroducing genetically suitable stock to the affected waterways, preserving local biodiversity. A healthy fish population supports angling tourism, which is a major economic contributor in the Mallow and Blackwater Valley region. Restocking can help restore this quickly.

The Kanturk-Mallow councillor said the fish hatchery at Bearforest was a key regional facility for breeding and restocking native fish species  particularly salmon and brown trout  into the Blackwater River system and its tributaries, releasing 1.25 million salmon fry and 250,000 brown trout fry every year.

It was a phenomenal system, it worked really well. We had the highest return of salmon in the country, there was like 25,000, 26,000 salmon back every year. And they closed it and since then the salmon population has been declining, he said.

The motion was seconded by Cllr Gearoid Murphy, who described the recent fish kill as nothing short of an ecological disaster.

Where the hatchery was previously closed because there were already sufficient fish stocks, it is clear that this is no longer the case. So it seems to be a very effective measure to hopefully help to undo some of the damage which has been done and repopulate the river, he said.

Councillor Ronan Sheehan said the hatchery was by all accounts, the top hatchery in Europe, lots of visitors trying to emulate it used come there. Everything about it just makes sense to do it now and the river absolutely needs it. The rationale that the river was full no longer stands.

Cork County Council agreed to write to the inland fisheries minister about reopening the hatchery. The fish kill in August killed over 50,000 fish in the Blackwater river with no explanation yet as to what caused it.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.
The Bringing Back Homes information morning will offer expert advice, grants, and one-on-one consultations to property owners across Cork City.

RTE star architect Hugh Wallace, who has previously criticised draconian fire regulations preventing development in Cork City, is set to appear at a Cork City Council information event for owners of vacant and derelict properties.

Wallace, known for presenting a number of popular housing programmes on RTE, will be among the speakers at the upcoming Bringing Back Homes event, which aims to provide practical advice to property owners.

Now in its third year, the event will take place on Thursday, September 25, from 10.15am to 12.30pm at The Metropole Hotel on MacCurtain Street. It will cover a wide range of topics, including available grants, planning issues, reducing carbon footprints, and SEAI energy-efficiency options.

For the first time, attendees will also have the chance to meet one-on-one with staff from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) and Cork City Council after the talks. Discussions will cover areas such as retrofitting, conservation, the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant, and the Repair & Lease scheme.

Alongside Wallace, guest speakers will include The Great House Revivals Siobhan OMahony, as well as industry experts and council representatives. The Dublin architect had recently criticised in the Irish Independent the lack of infill space being used for providing inner city housing.

The initiative is part of Cork City Councils wider efforts to tackle vacancy and dereliction. In July, the council revealed that more than 1,000 homes across the city are currently being investigated under various schemes.

To date, over 500 applications have been submitted for the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant, which offers up to 50,000 for vacant homes and up to 70,000 for derelict homes. More than 27 million in grants is currently being processed to bring long-term vacant and derelict properties back into use, with further applications encouraged while the scheme remains open.

In addition to the September event, Cork City Council is also running a second series of informal Vacancy & Dereliction drop-in sessions across the city. Sessions have already taken place in Ballyphehane, Glanmire, and Blarney, with the final pop-up of the year scheduled for October 15, 2025, at Mayfield Library.

These sessions give members of the public the opportunity to ask questions about vacancy and dereliction and learn more about the supports available, including the popular Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant.
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) staff embarked on the first mile of the 2025 Miles for Myeloma challenge with Multiple Myeloma Ireland (MMI), kicking off the annual month-long challenge at the state-of-the-art biopharmaceutical site in Ringaskiddy Cork. Picture: Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision

Staff members from Johnson & Johnson kicked off their annual month-long fundraiser for Multiple Myeloma Ireland (MMI).

The challenge takes place during Blood Cancer Awareness Month, and staff embarked on their first mile of Miles for Myeloma 2025.

The Johnson & Johnson team from Cork and the commercial organisation in Dublin have joined forces to walk, run, cycle and swim to raise funds for the charity.

Myeloma is the second most common form of blood cancer; despite the fact it represents 1% of all cancers.

According to multiplemyelomaireland.org, an average of 384 patients in Ireland are diagnosed with multiple myeloma each year, based on recent figures published by the National Cancer Register.

MMI is a voluntary organisation that prides itself on helping patients, and their support network, gauge a better understanding of the disease while ensuring patients get the best information as possible.

The longstanding partnership between Johnson & Johnson and MMI underscores a shared mission to advance patient care and support critical research, truly making a difference in the lives of those affected by this challenging disease.

The Miles for Myeloma 2025 campaign was officially launched on August 28 at the Innovative Medicine site in Ringaskiddy.

Individuals, families, schools and workplaces can clock up their own miles at their own pace and in their own way for the campaign, while raising funds to support patients.

The campaign runs until September 30.

Go tomultiplemyelomaireland.org to find out more and sign up for the Miles for Myeloma challenge.
A dedicated strategy is needed to address the rising numbers of children in homelessness, a council meeting has heard.

A draft Homeless Action Plan for local authorities in Dublin was discussed at a Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council (DLRCC) meeting on Monday.

Labour Party councillor Martha Fanning demanded the implementation of the Youth Homelessness Strategy.

We reached the heart-breaking milestone of over 16,000 people living in homelessness, out of whom 5,000 are children, she said.

We need to implement the Youth Homelessness Strategy to help reduce that figure.

Drafted in 2022, the strategy has been piloted by some councils to assist young people exit homelessness through financial, educational and health-based support.

Aoife Flynn Kennedy, Senior Housing Professional for DLRCC, said the council had successfully introduced the strategy on a pilot basis through the Supported Housing for Youth (SHY) project.

Its actually been hugely successful for youth facing homelessness, Ms Kennedy said.

Were hoping we can now turn it into something more permanent and were working with different departments on that.

Many councillors urged the council to seek more funding for schemes like tenant in-situ to help families with young children.

This is a homeless action plan in the same way a fire brigade is a plan to fight fires, Green Party councillor Oisin OConnor said.

It very clearly states we're not going to end homelessness by 2027 within this plan. So its already kind of defeated before it starts.

The call for more funding was supported by Independent councillor Anne Colgan, who added: There are children who are going to be scarred for the rest of their lives.

For the 5,000 children in homelessness, thats already affected their mental and physical health.

Labour councillor Lettie McCarthy said more has to be done to ensure children who were already in homelessness and emergency accommodation are supported.

What is being done to ensure we protect their right to develop, particularly in the case of babies?, she said.

Are we offering them the opportunity to develop and grow in these homes?

It is their right to learn, to speak, to walk, to crawl and to engage socially. These are being restricted for children, particularly the ones in emergency accommodation.

We have a duty to protect them, she added.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
DublinTown claims businesses cant wait any longer for planned improvements

Businesses cannot wait any longer for urgent action to restore confidence in Dublin city centre, it has been claimed.

Speaking ahead of Budget 2026, DublinTown CEO Richard Guiney said trade remains under pressure, particularly on the northside.

Mr Guiney warned that proposals in the Taoiseachs task force report must now be funded and implemented without further delay.

Retail is continuing to struggle in the city, he said.

Because of the dominance of retail on the northside, what were looking at is footfall across the city breaking even with this time last year, but its down on the northside and up on the southside.

Footfall is about even compared to this time last year, but its still 15pc behind 2019.

There needs to be a renewed focus on the northside, he added.

DublinTown, which represents over 2,500 businesses, has called for immediate investment in the recommendations outlined in the Taoiseachs Taskforce report.

These include the revitalisation of OConnell Street, the regeneration of social housing, tackling dereliction, and recruiting 1,000 extra gardai.

We know what needs to be done and weve seen some good work like the progress on Talbot Street and more gardai out on the beat, but we need to accelerate it, Mr Guiney said.

Theres agreement in principle on a Special Purpose Vehicle to implement the taskforces proposals, but now it needs to actually happen.

He highlighted a vision for OConnell Street as a vibrant evening and night-time destination, echoing its heyday in the 1950s and 60s.

Mr Guiney also repeated his call for a US-style online sales tax to level the playing field between high-street retailers and e-commerce giants.

Retail is now the fifth-biggest draw to the city, when it used to be the biggest, he said.

Operating a city centre business comes with huge costs, with rent, rates, staffing. Online retailers just dont have those overheads.

This could be rebalanced by a US-style online sales tax of 1-2pc of transaction values, Dublin Town says.

Most US states set a $100,000 threshold before the online business becomes liable, he said.

A similar amount would take many smaller family-owned Irish retailers out of such a tax. Click and collect sales should be exempt.

Mr Guiney also called for a return to living over the shop to be prioritised.

A sensible approach to fire and disability access, as applies in other EU states, would help unlock the potential for productive use of upper floors of commercial premises in many Irish towns, he said.

While a change of use from office to residential use appears logical, the costs of conversion exceed potential rents.
Two options have been put forward to take the place of racecourse park-and-ride option for Galway Christmas festivities.

Galway City councillors are examining new car parking options to ease Christmas traffic congestion, with sites at the University of Galway and ATU under consideration  doing away with the previous years park-and-ride service.

In previous years, a bus service ran from Galway Racecourse from mid-December until Christmas Eve, costing 1 per person and operating every 15 minutes.

However, a recent Galway City Council meeting heard that this year the local authority is looking instead at using university car parks located near existing bus routes, without providing a dedicated shuttle.

The first proposal would see parking at Corrib Village on the north side of the University of Galway. The site is close to the N59 and served by the 404 bus every 30 minutes, but it is only a 20-minute walk from the city centre. Parking there could cost around 10 per person.

The second option is the main car park at ATU. From there, commuters would have a nine-minute walk to bus stops on the Dublin Road serving the 402, 404 and 409 routes, though it involves crossing a roundabout without pedestrian signals.

Discussion this option, Cllr Eibhlin Seoighthge recommended installing a temporary crossing to improve safety.

Additional stops on an alternate walking route are less than 200m away from the main car parking area which would see the 401 service stop on Ballybane Road and the 405 service stop on St. James Road.

Although Councillor Shane Ford advises against the promotion of the St. James Road bus stop stating its location is like Baghdad and would not be suitable for what the council is trying to achieve for commuters.

With this option, car parking will be limited to December 19 to December 24 as the facilities are used by university staff and will not be able to support the influx of commuters along with their staff car numbers.

The cost of providing option B in this case will be approximately 10,000 which is said to be for marketing and communication costs of the car park as well as associated costs.

Director of Finance Helen Kilroy confirmed that allocations in this years budget were not made for this proposal.

Councillor Donal Lyons called for this to be put within the next meetings agenda while the suggestion to follow through with the ATU option was resounding.

During the meeting, Cllr Frank Fahy also urged colleagues to think outside the box, suggesting church car parks as an alternative, as many are located near frequent bus services.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.
The Clifden Arts Festival will take place from September 17-28, 2025.

Mena King and Emily Snow from Clifden pictured at the old train station in Maam Cross for the launch of the Clifden Arts Festival. Photo: Andrew Downes, XPOSURE

A variety of internationally acclaimed performers will take to Galway this month to perform at the 48th edition of Clifden Arts Festival.

From chart-topping musicians to internationally acclaimed artists, the 2025 programme brings over 300 events to the cultural capital of Connemara from September 17 to 28.

Nestled between the Twelve Bens and the Atlantic, Clifden is set to welcome a line-up consisting of artists that will appease music lovers, art enthusiasts, bookworms and more.

Festival organisers say that this years theme explores paths of memory, heritage, migration, transformation, and the imagination, with the festival honouring Clifdens identity as a place where past and future meet through creativity.

Among the most thought-provoking pieces comes Swimming Lesson from Israeli artist Vardit Goldner. The piece highlights the systemic exclusion faced by over 200,000 Arab Bedouins in the Negev region of Israel by depicting a group of Bedouin girls learning to swim inside a pool with no water.

Further highlights at the festival include a live storytelling show with Tommy Tiernan and Martin Shaw and an evening with historian Diarmaid Ferriter to unpack the revelations of modern Ireland.

Donal Ryan, one of Irelands most celebrated novelists, joins the literary line-up alongside a reading with playwright Marina Carr and poet Mary OMalley.

The Clifden Arts Festival will take place from September 17-28, 2025.

The Irish Chamber Orchestra performs Water Music under the baton of Richard Egarr, featuring Deirdre McKays poignant Meltwater and Handels timeless suites.

A range of music and art will be on offer throughout the 12-day programme. This years visual arts programme includes a range of performances from Eoin OMalley, the Wicklow-based painter who creates art with his mouth, to Kari Cahill, who makes pigments from the Connemara landscape itself.

Performance duo Synaptic Space will take over outdoor spaces with a bold, energetic piece about ageing, while Stoney Road Press will headline the Station House Museum with a group show that merges printmaking with cutting-edge Irish art.

The schools programme also returns, fostering creativity in younger generations across Connemara.

Festival director Desmond Lally said: This year, we reflect on what it means to move  through time, across place, and within ourselves. The journey is personal, collective, and deeply human. Were honoured to welcome artists whose work speaks to that shared experience.
A late North Kerry man who led several Irish health organisations throughout his remarkable career was charismatic, engaging and always willing to listen.

Professor Pat OMahony, of Banemore, Kilmoyley and Blanchardstown, Dublin, died unexpectedly at his home on August 26.

He was the loving husband of the late Margaret (nee OConnor), who died in 2023, and brother of John, Helen, Mary and Bernadette.

Prof OMahony was the current chairperson of HIQA (Health Information and Quality Authority) and the Irish Medicines Verification Organisation (IMVO).

The deceased had also served with distinction as the CEO of the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA), formerly the Irish Medicines Board, from 2002 to 2015.

He had also been CEO of Clinical Research Development Ireland (CRDI) and held high level roles in the Department of Health and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland.

Professor Brendan Griffin, who leads the School of Pharmacy in UCC, where Prof OMahony was an adjunct professor, told The Kerryman that his late colleague was highly respected.

Prof Griffin said Prof OMahony had a transformational impact during his tenure as CEO of the HPRA, one of the top regulatory agencies in the world.

Within the pharmaceutical industry, within the pharmaceutical regulatory industry, and within government circles, he was held in the highest regard, Prof Griffin said.

Prof OMahony was so well respected in government circles that he was appointed by the former Minister of Health, Stephen Donnelly, to chair an expert taskforce charged with supporting the role of pharmacy in Ireland to ease pressure on the health service.

Among the taskforces recommendations was that pharmacists should be enabled to prescribe medicines for common conditions.

You can imagine the vested interests that would have been out there, Prof Griffin said. And he would have the political noose, the skills, the knowledge of the subject, he had all that, while also working with government circles.

Prof OMahony was able to lead effectively courtesy of his vision, charisma and approachability.

He knew where he wanted to get and he has the charisma to bring the teams along with him, Prof Griffin explained.

He was charismatic, engaging and always willing to listen and able to digest that and charge a strategic plan to know how to get where he needed to go.

Prof OMahony was buried in the Abbey Cemetery after a funeral Mass at St Brendans Church on August 29.
Tralee councillors demand review of planned works for Casement Station

There have been calls to preserve the old railway signal box at Tralees Casement Station ahead of refurbishment works that are expected to commence in 2026.

This re-design of the station is part of Tralees proposal for Urban Regeneration Development Funding.

Kerry County Council (KCC,) in partnership with Irish Rail, has set up a design team that will see the incorporation of a plaza-like structure at the station.

However, details on what is to become of the signal box located at the end of the rail line  operational until the late 1980s  remains unclear. Its thought the structure may have been built in the early 1940s.

The issue was raised after Sinn Fein Councillor Paul Daly tabled a motion asking that Tralee MD members be provided with an update on plans to renovate Casement Station which first opened in 1859.

But Labour Party Councillor Terry OBrien said with new plans for the station in the pipeline, he asked for a specific update regarding the signal box.

Cllr OBrien queried whether or not the structure is on a protected list, saying it was central to Tralees railway history and associated economic and social past. He stated that he knows of a local group that is willing to volunteer their time to take over the box and restore it.

At the moment, its been left rot away. Its an important building in Tralees landscape, Cllr OBrien said.

I dont think it would take a lot to maintain it. Were talking about our amenity walks yet the start of Tralee-Fenit greenway is on the former tracks where the signal box is. This was central to trains heading back to Fenit. If the engineers could just reach out to the manager of the station and ask what the plans are for this building, he said

Fianna Fail Councillor Anne OSullivan suggested that given its location at the start of the Tralee-Fenit Greenway, the signal box could be transformed into an information centre for walkers and cyclists.
Courts

Limerick man wanted in Europe over alleged $250k human trafficking plot is granted bail

A Limerick man who is wanted in Europe on a human trafficking charge which alleges that he attempted to facilitate the transportation of 66 people from Greece to Italy has been remanded in custody with consent to bail.
Looks like council meeting on the Presidency will be going through the motions

The chances of an independent candidate getting a nomination from Sligo County Council to contest the Presidential election have been rated as extremely unlikely. Indeed, the chances of any of the potential 18 candidates who wrote to the Council seeking a nominatiion getting even a proposer or seconder are rated as slim to none.

The council will hold a meeting at 10am on Monday, September 22nd, two days before nominations close, to which they have invited the 18 potential candidates to address them. The list includes one pseudonym and a number of failed election candidates at both national and local politics in the recent past.

The Sligo Champion understands that a letter arrived on behalf of UFC fighter Conor McGregor on Tuesday morning but he will not be getting an invitation as his correspondence arrived after the councils deadline which was on Monday.

Fine Gael councillors with four seats and Fianna Fail (6) will be backing their own party candidates and Cllr Declan Bree and Cllr Gino OBoyle will be supporting Catherine Connolly and the two Sinn Fein candidates also likely to back her in the absence of their own nominee leaving just three independent councillors who are also unlikely to propose any independent.

Theres a strong likelihood also that many of the 18 candidates who have been invited to address the council will not take up the opportunity given the numbers and the fact the meeting is being held just two days before official nominations close.

The Sligo Champion understands the 18 candidates who are seeking a nomination from Sligo County Council are as follows: Dominick Plant, Prof Dr Joseph Chikelue Obi, Donnacha MacGabhann, Lorna McCormack, Keith McGrory, Barry Wheely-Row, Conor O Brien, Nick Delahanty, Dr Cora Stack, Charlotte Keenan, Gareth Sheridan, Sarah Louise Mulligan, Billy OConnell, William P. Allen, Gearoid Duffy, Matilda Bryson, Peter Casey and Gerben Uunk.
Anthony Gray, Taste of Sligo Food Tours and Hooked & Eala Bhan Restaurants has welcomed the motion that was passed by Sligo County Council

A motion calling on the Government to reinstate the 9% VAT rate for food-led businesses, starting on January 1, was passed at Mondays monthly meeting of Sligo County Council.

Proposing the motion Cllr Ann Higgins said, This will give businesses a fighting chance of succeeding during what is a challenging time for the industry. I struggled to think of a recently opened restaurant or cafe in Sligo, yet we know of many that have closed. We now have a situation where most are only opening five days a week to try and minimise costs.

We cannot accept a scenario where government delays the implementation of this commitment. It needs to be introduced now for the food-led businesses who are struggling, many of them on the breadline. Otherwise, heading to a cafe for a work lunch or a restaurant to celebrate family milestones will, I fear, become less frequent. And a sector that is essential for our sense of community, wellbeing, and tourism will be decimated.

To be clear, I am not seeking a blanket 9% VAT cut on accommodation, but a separate VAT rate for food-led businesses.

Cllr Higgins outlined the difficulties that are being faced by businesses in Sligo saying, Restaurants, cafes, gastropubs and other food-based businesses in Sligo are under severe pressure. Rising costs of essentials are forcing some previously profitable businesses to operate at a loss. Since January 2025, nearly 350 food businesses across Ireland have closed, leaving communities without vital social hubs. The sector has also seen a 6.7% decline in full-time employment in Q2 of 2025, with sales down 14% since October 2023.

Nationally, 76.6% of hospitality enterprises employ fewer than 10 people, and 99.6% of food enterprises are SMEs. Only 73 enterprises (0.4%) are considered large businesses. For small businesses, reinstating the 9% VAT rate is essential for survival and long-term growth.

Cllr Higgins also referred to declining number of Tourism, a key driver of Sligos economy, is also down, with international visitor numbers falling 13.5% and tourism spend down 16.9% in the first half of 2025. This decline adds further strain to local hospitality businesses.

Addressing the meeting and supporting the motion Cllr Albert Gibbons said, A lot of people used to eat out once a week, that has stopped. Food has gone up by 5% this year, wages havent gone up. The last thing we want to see is any restaurants in Sligo going out of business.

Cllr Gibbons added, I like a bit of t-bone steak at times. I went to a restaurant recently and they said they don't do it anymore because of costs.

Anthony Gray, Owner of Hooked and Eala Bhan and member of the Restaurants Association of Ireland stated, I welcome the move from Sligo County Council to stand behind the food led hospitality sector in Sligo.

It is vital that Government fulfill their promise and reinstate the 9% VAT rate for struggling businesses on January 1, 2026. This comes after a very flat season was had by all hospitality providers in the North-West.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.
Theatre, live music, farmers markets and meditation workshops - there's something for everyone in Wexford this week:

1. Have Faith Sister

Have Faith Sister deftly directed by Kathleen Tierney and featuring a talented ensemble of local actors, Have Faith Sister is a new one act play based on the true story of the foundation and evolution over 35 years of ACCESS 2000, a Womens Community Development Project. It takes place at Wexford Arts Centre on Thursday, September 11 to Saturday, September 13 at 8pm nightly. Tickets are 15 plus 1.50 fee. See https://www.wexfordartscentre.ie/events/ to book.

2. Blackstairs Blues Festival

Scheduled this year from Friday, September 12 to Sunday, September 14, the Blackstairs Blues Festival in Enniscorthy delivers a threeday immersion in blues from soulful ballads to electrifying Chicagostyle performances.

Set across intimate venues throughout Enniscorthy, the festival creates an inviting atmosphere enriched with latenight concerts, workshops, and cultural camaraderie.

3. Whiplash  Metallica Tribute

Whiplash are Irelands No.1 Metallica Tribute band. Performing professional Metallica shows with the live vibe, energy and sound that Metallica are famous for. Experience the next best thing to a real Metallica show and see and hear the music of Metallica played the way it should be played.

The show takes place at Crown Live in Wexford town on Saturday, September 13 at 9.30pm. Tickets are 18.

Contact info@crownquarter.com for more details.

4. Kilmore Quay Community Market

Explore local crafts in the harbour area on Sunday, September 14 from 12pm  4pm in Kilmore Quay. Should there be bad weather, this event will be held in the Stella Maris Centre. This is a cash friendly market.

5. Coolgreany Vintage Day

Coolgreany Vintage Day takes place on Sunday, September 14 and starts at 12pm. Vintages vehicles over 30 years old will be on display on the day. Vehicles on display will include stationary engine, bike, tractors, cars, trucks, steam engines and threshing equipment. The event takes place beside Gardiner Grain Coolgreany  Y25HW56.

6. Gorey Farmers Market

Visit the Gorey Farmers Market on Saturday, September 13 from 8am to 1pm at the Gorey Community School Car Park. Enjoy a wide array of fresh produce, including seasonal fruits and vegetables, homemade baked goods, artisan cheeses, organic meats, local honey and fresh flowers. Support local farmers and artisans while enjoying the freshest ingredients.

7. Meditation Through Colour

This adult workshop, All About Colour with Kathleen Headley, takes place at Wexford Arts Centre on Tuesday, September 16 at 11am. Join Kathleen on this wonderful journey of self-healing through colour. Contact Kathleen for more details and booking information at 087 314 5212
A Wexford man who allegedly drove into a garda patrol van at Wexford Garda Station last week remains in custody following a bail application at Gorey District Court.

The court heard that Vincent Murphy (34), of Main Street, Taghmon, Co Wexford, committed the alleged offence on Tuesday September 2 after hearing a news report about calls to remove Tricolour flags which had been put up on Dublin lamp-posts. Sergeant Stephen Ennis told the court that the damage caused to the vehicles was estimated at 10,000.

Detective Garda Leonard Casey gave evidence that on the day in question two members of An Garda Siochana witnessed a male driving to the rear of Wexford Garda Station. It is alleged that when the gates opened, the man drove the vehicle at a patrol van a number of times causing the extensive damage. Detective Garda Casey stated that when Murphy was subsequently interviewed he was not at all remorseful and continuously stated Id do it again and again.

Andrew Bolger BL, instructed by Timothy Cummings solicitor, made an application for bail on behalf of Murphy, which was objected to by An Garda Siochana.

Mr Bolger BL told the court that Murphy will be in custody awaiting directions from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) which may take some time. He advised the court that the accused had spent some time in psychiatric care and on the night previous to the offence being committed had been in A&E of Wexford General Hospital awaiting assessment but had left due to the long waiting time.

The barrister also outlined to the court that Murphy would be willing to give an undertaking, if granted bail, that he does not drive a car, signs on at a Garda Station twice weekly, and that his brother, Seamus Murphy, would be willing to bring him to any medical appointments.

Seamus Murphy was sworn in and confirmed he could take his brother to any medical appointments. Mr. Murphy said this as an out-of-character event for his brother, caused by a change in medication.

Judge John Cheatle queried if the accused is capable of giving instructions, to which Mr. Bolger BL confirmed he is, however the defendant had also stated to the barrister in consultation that he would do it again.

Judge Cheatle refused bail on this occasion but ordered Murphy to undergo a psychiatric assessment while in custody. Once the accused has stabilised, another application for bail may be made.

DPP directions are still awaited in this case which is now adjourned to September 22.

Funded by the Court Reporting Scheme
Despite reservations from some councillors regarding certain applicants, all 16 names who made contact with the local authority will be afforded speaking time at a special meeting

Wexford County Council (WCC) has extended an invitation to Conor McGregor to state his case for the presidency of Ireland next week. The former UFC champion, along with 18 other hopefuls, had previously contacted WCC in the hope of gaining the support of councillors prior to the presidential election on October 24.

Independent candidates like McGregor, Peter Casey, and Gareth Sheridan must secure the support of four county councils in order to get their name on the ballot paper for the presidency. And at the September meeting of WCC councillors expressed their desire to hear what the candidates have to say.

Initially it had been proposed that a Corporate Policy Group (CPG) consisting of members from each party and independents would decide which of the 19 candidates should have the opportunity to speak in the chamber, but the mood among councillors was that all 19 (and counting) applicants should be invited to Wexford on Friday, September 17 to state their case.

Its a very dangerous precedent were setting if we leave it to a few to decide who can address this council, said Councillor Paddy Kavanagh of the Wexford Independent Alliance (WIA). I firmly believe anyone who wants to go for the presidency should be allowed to come here. Im annoyed that my former political party (Fine Gael) is instructing its members to vote against any independents, but if receiving the support of four local authorities is the only measure available to independents they should be allowed to come here.

Peter Casey

At the time of writing Fianna Fail has not yet instructed its councillors to follow the lead of its coalition partners, but if it were to do so this would leave 16 of WCCs 34 councillors voting against an independent candidate. Despite this, the Fine Gael councillors in the chamber were also keen to see democracy upheld.

Anyone who wants to come should be given the opportunity, said Cllr Oliver Walsh of Fine Gael. We, as a party, have already laid our cards on the table. The people who come in know that as well.

Independent councillor Michael Sheehan however, was hopeful that some of those within the chambers would have the courage to defy their partys instructions.

"I hope councillors from the government parties have the courage and the backbone to tell their parties to stay out of the process, to hear edicts coming from Dublin not to vote is disrespectful and undemocratic, he said.

Read more Peter Casey and Dolores Cahill join Conor McGregor in seeking presidential nominations from Wexford County Council

While almost all the councillors wished to see democracy upheld and everyone given the chance to secure a nomination, there was some disquiet regarding the quality of the prospective candidates.

Having read what was sent in so far (by the candidates) I dont think theyd manage five seconds let alone five minutes in the chamber, some of them dont seem to have any idea of the role theyre putting themselves forward for, said Cllr Barbara Anne Murphy. I propose we somehow try and whittle down the numbers were going to listen to. I dont think we should listen to all 19 of them."

Not all of them are going to attend, contended Cllr Sheehan. Therell be show ponies and therell be runners and riders. If you dont want to hear someone speak you can leave the room. I would not like to see the CPG filter out who comes to speak to us in the chamber.

Cllr Leonard Kelly was also sceptical about the bona fides of the applicants.

In that list there are some individuals who have made zero effort with their application for support and some who have zero profile in terms of what they stand for, he said. Theres a lack of effort and work on their part and a lack of understanding in what the role entails. However, this is a democratic chamber, and they should have the right to come here and present their case. If we got half of them here wed be doing well. But it would be remiss not to give them the opportunity.

Regardless of who attends and who doesnt, Cllr Ger Carthy said it was important that WCC nominate a candidate for the election in order to maintain democracy in the chamber.

However, county secretary Michael Drea advised caution in issuing invites to everyone seeking a nomination.

If you allow five minutes for presentations, seven minutes for a Q&A and another three minutes between candidates, with approximately 20 candidates, thats five hours, he said. They may not all turn up but were going to have to give them all time slots.

They should be given the time to come in, but seven minutes for the Q&A should be reduced, suggested Cllr Mary Farrell. Theres names on that list I certainly dont agree with or vote for but they should be allowed to come in, it would be worse if we denied anyone the opportunity to come in.

Meanwhile, Cllr Tom Forde, who has previously engaged in a protracted battle over speaking times, noted that while the prospective presidential candidates were being given five minutes to talk he was lucky to get three minutes sometimes.

Ultimately, it was decided that invites will be issued to all those seeking a nomination from WCC to speak for five minutes, without a Q&A, in the chamber on September 19 at 3.30 p.m.

McGregor is undoubtedly the most high-profile name that has made contact with Wexford County Council in relation to seeking a nomination.

Gareth Sheridan

Elsewhere, the list features the former CEO of US-based company Nutriband, Gareth Sheridan (35), who has vowed to become a voice for the young people of Ireland should he be elected. Sheridan has gone on record as saying he has received the backing of Laois and Tipperary County Council, leaving him two short of the four councils required to get his name on the ballot paper.

Having finished second to Michael D. Higgins in 2018, Peter Casey is returning for another shot at the presidency this time around. Much of his success seven years ago was attributed to comments made regarding Irelands Traveller community and a case involving a family at a housing estate in co Tipperary. He ended up receiving 342,727 first preference votes or 23.3 pc of the votes.

Also seeking a nomination is Dolores Cahill. A former professor at UCD, Ms Cahill came to prominence during the Covid-19 when she posted a series of videos denouncing restrictions imposed by the department of health and subsequently clashed with gardai when she was refused entry to a polling centre for not wearing a mask.

Dolores Cahill

Meanwhile, Nick Delehanty has said he has proposers and seconders in six to 10 councils. Stating that he doesnt believe in multiculturalism, Delehanty (35) has argued that the department of children has been completely decimated and used as a proxy to funnel billions of Euro in IPAS payments.

Describing herself as a dedicated, humanitarian public figure, Sarah Louise Mulligan previously sought a presidential nomination in 2018 and is hoping WCC will support her campaign this time around. A pro-life campaigner, Ms Mulligan recorded a video at a protest in Ballymun in 2023 which she titled Ireland is Full.

Gerben Uunk is originally from The Netherlands but now resides in Co Limerick where last year he contested the mayoral election for the Animal Welfare Party.

Read more Peter Casey and Dolores Cahill join Conor McGregor in seeking presidential nominations from Wexford County Council

Donegal-native Keith McGrory has been involved in the construction sector for over 25 years and is the founder of Waterford-based company McGrory Homes. On a social media post he stated everyone will need to be on there (sic) best orders if I am in the Aras.

Dominic Plant ran unsuccessfully in the general election in the Wicklow constituency in 2024 having previously contested the 2014 and 2024 local elections, also unsuccessfully. In his election manifesto he stated that housing remains a burning issue and the provision of more local jobs would prevent workers having to commute elsewhere.

Ratoath woman Lorna McCormack is the founder of Wool in School which she says is an innovative educational initiative dedicated to integrating the fascinating world of wool into school curriculums. On the presidential campaign, Ms McCormack says she is running because she believes the Aras is the hearth of warmth, a gathering place for every voice in this Republic.

Also seeking a nomination is mathematics lecturer at Technological University of Dublin (TUD), Dr Cora Stack, who describes herself as a mathematician, academic, and writer with wide interests that extend far beyond numbers  politics, music, culture, psychology, human rights, law, and the search for meaning in a complex world.

Walter Ryan Purcell ran for Independent Ireland in the Cork North West constituency in last years General Election. He has previously worked as a tour operator, running Walters Way Tours, and is passionate about promoting Irish heritage.

A further seven candidates, Searlait Ni Chianain, Paudie O Duinnin, Billy OConnell, Gearoid Duffy, Seana Kerr, Lucy-Anne OLeary, and Joseph Chikelue Obi have submitted applications for a nomination to WCC.

Full list of names who have written to Wexford County Council:

Sarah Louise Mulligan

Keith McGrory

Dominic Plant

Billy OConnell

Lorna McCormack

Dr Cora Stack

Gareth Sheridan

Searlait Ni Chianain

Paudie O Duinnin

Nick Delehanty

Walter Ryan Purcell

Joanna Donnelly (since withdrawn)

Conor McGregor

Dolores Cahill

Peter Casey

Gerben Uunk

Gearoid Duffy

Seana Kerr

Lucy-Anne OLeary

Joseph Chikelue Obi

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.
Ken Doyle's guitars and Bagatelle memorabilia adorn the new bench at Bray Head as Cathaoirleach of Bray Municipal District, councillor Erika Doyle addresses the gathering before the cutting of the ribbon.

Ken Doyle of Bagatelle celebrates after he and Cathaoirleach of Bray MD, councillor Erika Doyle, cut the ribbon on the new bench at Bray Head.

Martin Nesbitt, Charlo Clarke, Gibb, Patrick Cleary and Peter Carroll with Ken Doyle of Bagatelle as the bench for Bagatelle is unveiled at Bray Head. Photos: Leigh Anderson.

The founding members of legendary Irish band Bagatelle were honoured in their hometown of Bray on Sunday, September 7, when a commemorative bench was unveiled at the base of Bray Head to the local heroes.

The Cathaoirleach of Bray Municipal District, Erika Doyle, did the honours alongside the bands Ken Doyle, who had campaigned for the tribute to Liam Reilly and John O'Brien.

It followed a five-year relentless push by the bassist, who was in the original line-up when the band first played in the towns Hibernia Bar  which in 1978, when they all started, was called the Mississippi Rooms.

Ken was backed by local councillor Joe Behan, who managed to secure funding for the memorial bench in 2023, and hailed it as a fitting tribute to a band who made a rich contribution to the cultural life of Bray.

"I was so happy for Ken Doyle of Bagatelle that his long held dream to have a memorial bench to honour the band and two of its departed members, Liam Reilly and John O Brien, was finally realised yesterday, Cllr Behan said. It was a fabulous occasion and it was truly a celebration of all that Bagatelle means to the people of Bray, Ireland and beyond. Well done Ken! Keep on rocking in the free world.

Cllr Doyle also paid tribute to the band, who she said had provided the soundtrack to the lives so many who grew up with their music.

It is a great honour for Bray to have this permanent tribute to Bagatelle on our beautiful seafront, she said. Their music has been the soundtrack to so many lives, and this bench will ensure that future generations can reflect on their legacy here in Bray.

The ceremony was followed by a performance on Bray Seafront, with Bagatelle and Friends playing at the bandstand, flanked by an iconic 46A bus, which was made famous in the Bagatelle's 'Summer in Dublin' and had been operating since 1926 before it was taken out of service this year, much to the dismay of Ken, who previously explained how it found its way into the well-loved song.

And legend has it that Liam had been to see the Boomtown Rats the night before the muses paid him a visit, one day in 1980, and was walking down Grafton Street (when the buses used to go down Grafton Street) humming one of their tunes when a 46A nearly struck him  thus the line: My hummin was smothered by a 46A.

Then he jumped on the bus with his bag and his guitar, and noticed a guy coming up the bus, who said to him: 'You know, you'd make a fortune with that music and the guitar.' And that was the drunk who told him how to get rich.

Ken had also pushed for the 46A to be retained, even for posterity, but lost that battle. Pity. My hummin was smothered by the E1 doesnt quite have the same ring to it.

Bray district manager Jackie Carroll also remarked on the band's legacy: This project has been very much a community effort, and it is wonderful to see the pride and affection that the people of Bray and beyond hold for Bagatelle. The bench will stand as a reminder of their unique place in Irish music.
Councillors left frustrated as Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council plan progresses

Councillors in Bray have expressed frustration at the lack of clarity on when the local area plan for the town will be published.

During the districts September monthly meeting, elected members pressed council officers on when the document will be adopted, but to no effect.

Following a public consultation process at the end of last year, Wicklow County Council is currently reviewing the existing area plan for Bray and preparing an updated version for the Bray Municipal District, (affecting Bray town and its environs, Enniskerry and Kilmacanogue).

The last plan is now a year and a half out of date, having run between 2018 and 2024.

The supply of housing over the next six years is among the main topics that will be addressed as part of this new plan.

The Municipal District will need new homes built between now and 2031 to meet the growing population demands. The focus of growth under the plan will be in Bray, with additional growth forecast in Enniskerry and modest growth in Kilmacanogue. These homes will be provided for in a sustainable manner, aligning with the aims of the County Development Plan which will remain valid until 2028.

Lands are zoned at Fassaroe west of Bray to accommodate a new residential development and employment centre.

The strategy for Fassaroe will be reviewed as part of the preparation of the new plan.

The pre-draft consultation stage also acknowledged a range of other needs that need to be addressed over the lifetime of the plan. These include urban design, tourism and retail, heritage and biodiversity, infrastructure, climate change and transport.

There is also an onus on the county council to make sure enough land is zoned to meet the projected future educational, community, sport and recreational needs of the future population.

Speaking during the meeting Cllr Dermot Daisy O Brien raised concern about the role Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has played in the discussions.

The plan for Dun Laoghaire maps out the vision for Old Connaught, which is to evolve it into a sustainable urban village, integrating the existing community with new residential developments and providing a strong sense of place.

This involves facilitating the development of new homes (potentially over 2,000), in line with population growth, while ensuring the area offers a variety of amenities, good access to transportation, and social infrastructure.

We know that the area plan for Dun Laoghaire is happening and that will affect a lot of people in Bray as Old Connaght Avenue has a link to Bray Emmets.

I dont believe we were properly consulted during the consultation process. I think in future we should explore how contributions to discussions around these area plans are managed, he added.

Echoing those sentiments Cllr Joe Behan said it was not fair that officials in Bray did not have any input.

Dun Laoghaire is a much richer authority, with bigger resources. I think its a disgrace that they are going ahead with their plan.

Meanwhile Cllr Melanie Corrigan expressed her disappointment at a recent planning refusal for a development in Fassaroe, which means further expansion of the town could be severely constrained.

An Coimisiun Pleanala refused permission for a major housing development on the outskirts of the town.

The national planning body rejected an application by Cosgrave Property Group for permission to construct some 241 houses and 409 apartments, plus a creche, on a 78.5- hectare site off Berryfield Lane.

Among the reasons given were the uncertainty over public transport services and concerns that the development would result in urban sprawl.

The plans also provided for a neighbourhood centre, a new 2.4km road connecting the N11 to Ballyman Road, a new pedestrian and cycle route including bridge between the N11 and Dargle Road Upper as well as 15.3 hectares of a district park and open spaces which would include a shop and cafe kiosk.

The project was the first phase of a comprehensive development plan for the area, a vision by the Cosgrave group for a long- term proposal to construct over 2,200 residential units over four phases up to 2040.

The commission also said the plans did not adhere to the planning principles on compact growth, sequential development and phasing, which are set out in the Wicklow County Development Plan 2022- 2028.

Cllr Corrigan believes the development would have helped to meet the growing housing needs in the area.

I believe its a missed opportunity. she added.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
Pat Hannon, Tony McWilliams, Eileen Hannon, Valerie Drew and Jenny Dickson who took part in the Bray Wheelers Tour of Wicklow. Photo: Leigh Anderson

Christ Church Bray, Church of Ireland

Services of Worship for this Sunday The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity: 8.30am Holy Communion; 11am Morning Prayer 1. The congregation should be aware that all services are live-streamed via www.churchservices.tv/christchurchbray.

Healing Service: Christ Church will host a Bray Churches Together Healing Service at 7pm this Sunday. This is a peaceful and calming ecumenical service. Everyone is welcome. Please spread the word to anyone who may wish to come for healing prayer for themselves or others. Tea and coffee will be served after the service.

Parish Office: The Parish Office is open Monday to Thursday from 9.30 am to 1.30pm. Email: info@christchurchbray.ie; tel. 01 286 2968; Parish website: christchurchbray.ie; or see facebook.com/christchurchbray.

Bray Methodist Church

Worship for this Sunday: 10amSunday Worship with Creche and Sunday School.

Bray Presbyterian Church

Worship for this Sunday: 11.30am Sunday Worship.

Christian Assembly Church

Worship for this Sunday: 10.45am Morning Worship.

Wednesdays: 8pm Prayer Meeting & Bible study.

Monthly Ladies Meeting: For details see: www.christianassemblybray.com.

Cornerstone Church at The Well

Worship this Sunday: 11am.

Bray Churches Together Healing Service

Christ Church will host a Bray Churches Together Healing Service at 7pm this Sunday. This is a peaceful and calming ecumenical service. Everyone is welcome. Please spread the word to anyone who may wish to come for healing prayer for themselves or others. Tea and coffee will be served after the service.

Holy Redeemer Parish

Mass Times: 10amMonday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday No Mass on Tuesday. Sunday Masses: 6pm Vigil Mass on Saturday and on Sunday at 10.30am and 12Noon. To book a Mass, please call into the Sacristy before or after our Masses.

Parish Office Hours: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday: 9.30am to 11am. If you need to contact us, please email: office@holyredeemer.ie.

Music at Mass on Sundays: 10.30amFolk Group; 12pmGaudium Choir (Mainly Latin Church Music) on the 1st Sunday of the Month; 12pm on other Sundays of the Month: Parish Choir (Mainly English Church Music).

Baptism: Registration for Baptism can be made online via the parish website www.holyredeemerbray.ie.

St Peters Parish

St Peters Church Mass Times: Sunday: 9am (Irish Mass), 11.30am. Holy Days: 11am. 1st Friday: 11am.

Parish Office: Parish Office opening hours areMonday: 9.30am to 12.30pm; Tuesday: 9am to 12.30pm; Wednesday: Closed; Thursday: 9am to 12.30pm; Friday: 9am to 12.30pm. The parish office can be contacted by calling 01-282 4967 or by email: stpeterslittlebray1@gmail.com.

St. Fergals Parish

Mass Times: Mass times are 9.30am Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. No morning Mass on Thursdays and Saturdays. Saturday: 7pm Vigil Mass; Sunday: 8am and 10.30am.

Confessions: These are heard on Saturdays after the 7pm Vigil Mass.

Baptism: Baptisms take place on the first and third Saturday of each Month at 12Noon. Bookings can be made through the Parish Office Only. The Preparation meeting takes place on the Monday before the 1st Saturday of the month. Please call into the Parish Office three weeks in advance of the Baptism to complete the Baptism Form and to confirm the date.

St. Claires Conference of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul: Messages for the St. Vincent de Paul should be sent to St. Clairs Centre, Ballymorris, Killarney Road, Bray call 01-2745325 and leave your message. Mobile No: 087-1738235.

Our Lady Queen of Peace

Mass: Weekday Masses are celebrated at 10.30am on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Weekend Masses are at 6.30pm on Saturdays and 10.30am and 12 Noon on Sundays.

Church Opening Hours: The Church closes at 4.30pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays.

Eucharistic Adoration: Eucharistic Adoration takes place from 11am to 10pm on Mondays only in this Church.

Parish Centre: To book a meeting room in the Parish Centre please call 01-2760045 or email villafas1@hotmail.com

QOP youth club

On Tuesday twenty-five members of the Queen of Peace Adventure Youth Club enjoyed jumping into the water in Bray Harbour. All wore safety helmets, buoyancy aids, and wet suits. Lookouts were placed to warn of any boats in the area. One young person said that he had more than twenty jumps. Next club items include a trip to Hook Head, and a snorkelling course.

Diving club

Bray Divers advise that their first ten new members that join the club on October 1, will get an extra three months free membership. During October the club will run a course for new divers which will include lectures, and pool training. Training is tailor made to suit the availability of the individual. Call Albert on 087 6756439 for details.

Art Exhibition

Bray Churches Together 23rd Art Exhibition takes place in Bray Methodist Church, Florence Road, Bray, from Friday September 26th to Tuesday September 30th.

Hanging fee 15 per painting/sculpture and 5 for porcelain/china. No commission taken on sold exhibits. Maximum number of entries is 3 per artist maximum size 20 x 24. No exhibits to exceed 750 in value. All exhibits must be framed, ready to hang, with the artists name, exhibit title and price on the back. The utmost care will be taken of all artwork but Bray Churches Together will not hold itself responsible for any damage or loss of work.

Entry forms with fees made payable to Bray Churches Together should be sent to Brook Neary, 10 Hawthorn Road, Bray, Co. Wicklow. Queries should be directed to Peter Growney at 086-3292848. Entries must be received before Friday September 19th to ensure inclusion in the printed Catalogue. Paintings and all exhibits must be brought to Bray Methodist Church between 1pm and 3pm on Thursday September 25th.

After the exhibition all unsold works must be collected between 1pm and 3pm on Tuesday September 30th as otherwise the organisers cannot be held responsible for them. The Bray Churches Together Committee reserves the right to accept or reject and entry. The official will be performed by Rev. Leonard Madden, Rector Christ Church Bray, at 7.30pm on Friday September 26th.

Bray Library

Opening hours are 10am to 5pm Monday to Saturday with late opening on Tuesday and Thursday until 8.30pm.

English Conversation Classes take place in the library every Monday (except Bank Holiday Mondays) from 11am to 12pm.

For Culture Night on Friday September 19th, there will be a Childrens author talk with Natasha Mac a Bhaird at 6.30pm in the library. Admission is free but advance booking is required.

Ballywaltrim Library

Opening hours are 10am to 5pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and 10am to 8pm on Wednesday. The library can be contacted at 01-2723205 or by email at: ballywatrimlibrary@wicklowcoco.ie.

Adult Scrabble takes place every Monday from 3pm to 4.30pm no booking is required. Tummy-Time for Babies takes place every Monday from 10 am to 12pm no booking required.

For Culture Night on Friday September 19th, Robert Butler will present Remembering the Arcadia Ballroom, Bray at 5.30pm in the library. All are welcome, admission is free and no booking is required.

Bray Cualann Historical Society

Monthly meetings of the Bray Cualann Historical Society, the local history society for Bray and North Wicklow will resume at 8pm on Thursday September 18th in the Royal Hotel, Bray, when Rosaleen Durkin will present The Wells of Wicklow. All are welcome members are free and admission for non-members is 8. Those wishing to join the Bray Cualann Historical Society can do so at this meeting.

In the meantime members and supporters of the Bray Cualann History Society are asked to note that the following events will take place in the coming weektoday (Wednesday) Noel Carolan will recall The 1925 Food Crisis at 6pm to the Old Dublin Society in the Conference Room, Dublin City Library & Archive, 139-144 Pearse Street, Dublin 2.All are welcomeadmission is free and no booking is required; Peadar Curran will present Evie Hone, Stained Glass Artist of Marlay at 7.45pm to the Knocklyon History Society in the Iona Pastoral Centre, Idrone Avenue, Knocklyon, Dublin 16. All are welcome to attendadmission is 3 for members and 5 for non-members. There is a 24-hour pay and display car park in operation. Tomorrow (Thursday) Peadar Curran will present A Walk in Marlay Park at 8pm to the Kilmacud-Stillorgan Local History Society in St. Lawrences Parish Centre, Lower Kilmacud Road, Stillorgan, Co. Dublin. Members are free visitors are 3. Please note that there is a car parking charge of 1 per hour at this venue coin payment only. This Friday is the closing date for applications for The Lord Mayors Certificate course in Local Studies is offered by Dublin City Council (DCC) as part of its commitment to life-long learning. Taught by Dublin City Council Historian in Residence Cathy Scuffil, this part-time course is free of charge and will commence on October 14 2025 and run until April 28 2026 with in-person classes held in Dublin City Library and Archive, 139-144 Pearse Street on Tuesday evenings. Applicants will be randomly selected for a place on the course from the completed online application forms. Next Tuesday Rob Goodbody will present Shankill in 1837 People, Houses and Events at 8pm to the Foxrock Local History Club in the Foxrock Parish Pastoral Centre, Foxrock, Co. Dublin. All are welcomeadmission is 5. Next Wednesday night Philip Lecane will present The Royal Fusiliers and the Assault on Gallipoli at 8pm to the Dun Laoghaire Borough Historical Society in the Royal Marine Hotel, Marine Road, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin. All are welcomeadmission is 5. Free hotel parking is available for those attending this lecture.

Irish Girl Guides (IGG)

There is a very large IGG presence in Bray and Enniskerry, with waiting lists for all groups. Leaders are urgently needed, so if you are interested in working with young children and have some spare time on a Monday, Thursday, or Friday evening, do get in touch.

If you are interested in your daughter joining Ladybirds or Brownies do get in touch as spaces sometimes become available for September. (Ladybirds ages 5-7; Brownies ages 7-10; Guides and Senior Branch 10+) email:belmontbrowniesbray@gmail.com.

Shankill Classical Music Club

Meetings of the Shankill Classical Music Club resume tonight (Wednesday) after the Summer Break from 7.45pm to 10pm, including a tea/coffee break, in the Shankill Day Care Centre, Lower Road, Shankill located 100m from the main street with car parking available).

The music will be as always: a varied programme of classical music on CDs, covering many genresorchestral, instrumental, vocal, opera, etc.in a friendly setting. Visitors and new and returning members are always welcome. You dont need to be an expert! Charge 2 on the night (waived for first visit). For further information please phone or text Malcolm at 085-8528216.
A Wicklow man has avoided activation of a suspended sentence, but has been banned from driving for two years.

Donal Byrne (33), of 1 The Cedars, Diamond Valley, Upper Dargle Road, Bray, Wicklow, was charged with driving without a licence under Section 51 of the Road Traffic Act 1961.

Mr Byrne pleaded guilty last week at Bray District Court, but was awaiting clarification surrounding whether or not his suspended sentence from a previous conviction would be enforced.

The court heard that after the incident in question, Mr Byrne had left the country and travelled to Belarus. During his time there, Mr Byrne had decided he wanted to become a doctor.

Mr Byrnes solicitor told the court that Mr Byrne had gained his qualifications while abroad and had dealt with his addiction to alcohol.

Mr Byrne had returned to Ireland to secure stable employment and has secured a job in a research laboratory at UCD, where he is due to start employment on September 22.

The court was told that the incident was his third vehicle related charge within a short period of time.

The court heard Mr Byrne is now married with two children, and the solicitor for Mr Byrne told the court that his client completed his studies to make a positive contribution to society.

Judge David Kennedy chose not to impose Mr Byrnes suspended sentence. He instead handed out a 500 fine and disqualified Mr Byrne from driving for a period of two years.

Funded by the Court Reporting Scheme
Dublin star plays a gambling addict in Ballad of a Small Player

Colin Farrell has said he was not daunted by playing a compulsive gambler in his new film, despite his own battle with addiction.

Speaking while promoting Ballad of a Small Player, the Dubliner and Oscar nominee said: There is a schizophrenic aspect to being an addict of any sort, because you have to hide your behaviours so that they can exist.
Britains Prince Harry has arrived at Clarence House for his first meeting with his father, King Charles, in more than a year.

It brought to an end speculation that had been growing over whether the King and his son the Duke of Sussex would meet this week after the monarch was seen getting on a plane back to London.
A tip-off from an internet user in the UK led to the arrest of a 15-year-old boy who was planning to livestream a school massacre in Ukraine.

The member of the public alerted police last week after seeing a post online in which the boy could be seen holding a knife and saying that he would carry out the attack.
Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old activist who was shot at an appearance at a Utah college Wednesday, personifies the pugnacious, populist conservatism that has taken over the Republican Party in the age of President Donald Trump.

Kirk has long focused on energising young conservatives with speaking events like the one at Utah Valley University where the shooting occurred. He launched his organization, Turning Point USA, in 2012, targeting younger people and venturing onto liberal-leaning college campuses where many GOP activists were nervous to tread.
Live | Europe is in a fight for our future after Russian drones fly into Poland, von der Leyen says

Poland's army calls violation of airspace an act of aggressionPoland says allied weapons also used to 'neutralise' dronesPoland restores air operations at airports, confirms no energy infrastructure incidentsFollow the latest in our Irish Independent live blog below

Poland shoots down Russian drones that violated its airspace
LATEST | Protesters clash with Paris police as Block Everything movement gains momentum

The demonstrations come as French president Emmanuel Macron installed Sebastien Lecornu as his fourth prime minister in 12 months

A police officer stands next to bins placed on a street to block it during the "Bloquons Tout" (Block Everything) protest movement in Paris, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Irish Independent Newsdesk Press Association Wed 10 Sep 2025 at 11:57

Protesters have clashed with police in Paris as the government deployed 80,000 officers during a day of nationwide action under the slogan Block Everything.
Russian strike kills 24 people queuing for pensions in Ukrainian village

World must not remain silent, says Volodymyr Zelensky as he calls for response

Police officers and medics evacuate Olha Trush (86) from the eastern village of Yarova, which was hit by Russian aerial strike that killed dozens of civilians yesterday. Photo: AP

Yuliia Dysa Reuters Wed 10 Sep 2025 at 06:30

A Russian airstrike killed 24 elderly people who were collecting pensions in a village in eastern Ukraine, officials said yesterday, prompting Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to urge Kyivs allies to increase pressure on Moscow to end its war.
Greta Thunberg among activists on board the vessel

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg arrives at the port of Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia, as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla. Photo: Reuters

A flotilla on an aid mission to Gaza has claimed one of its boats was hit by a drone strike off the coast of Tunisia yesterday morning.

The Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) Family Boat, which is said to be transporting about 350 activists, including climate activist Greta Thunberg, sustained damage to its main deck and below-deck storage when it was struck by a suspected drone. The GSF said nobody was hurt in the incident.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says she will propose new measures targeting Israel

EC will propose sanctioning extremist Israeli ministers and a partial suspension of the European Union's association agreement with IsraelVon der Leyen presents her State of the Union speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg

Micheal Martin welcomes proposal to partially suspend EU-Israel agreement

Reuters Wed 10 Sep 2025 at 10:32

The European Commission president said Wednesday she would seek sanctions and a partial trade suspension against Israel over the war in Gaza, an announcement that marked a sharp turnaround for Ursula von der Leyen, a longtime supporter of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Your job here is not to fight one another, it is to fight this climate crisis, UN climate chief tells Cop30 in Brazil
LATEST | Not thrilled  Trump says decision to strike Qatar was made by Netanyahu and not by US president

Trump says he is not thrilled about Israeli strike on QatarBoth Qatar and Israel are US alliesQatar has been a mediator in talks for ceasefire in Gaza

A damaged building following the attack by Israel in Doha, Qatar. Photo: Reuter

Jeff Mason, Kanishka Singh and Steve Holland Reuters Wed 10 Sep 2025 at 07:38

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday Israel's decision to strike Qatar was made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and not by the Republican leader who added that a unilateral attack on Qatar does not serve American or Israeli interests.
Palestinians living in the ruins of Gaza City were bombarded with Israeli leaflets yesterday ordering them out, after Israel said it was about to obliterate the area in an assault to wipe out Hamas, causing panic and confusion.

Residents of the city, the enclaves biggest urban centre that was home to a million Palestinians before the war, have been expecting an onslaught for weeks, since the Israeli government devised a plan designed to deal Hamas a fatal blow in what it says are the militant groups last strongholds.
A combination photo shows a person of interest in the fatal shooting of U.S. right-wing activist and commentator Charlie Kirk during an event at Utah Valley University, in Orem, Utah, U.S., in security footage released by the Utah Department of Public Safety on September 11, 2025. Utah Department of Public Safety/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE
Indias FDI Trends in Q1 FY 2025-26

Indias foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows rebounded strongly in Q1 FY 2025-26, rising 15 percent year-on-year to US$18.62 billion after a sharp dip in Q4 of FY 2024-25. The surge, led by US investors and concentrated in technology-driven sectors, reflects Indias growing appeal as a resilient economy and reform-oriented investment destination.

India witnessed a 15 percent rise in FDI during Q1 FY 2025-26 (AprilJune), with inflows reaching US$18.62 billion, compared to US$16.17 billion in the same period of FY 2024-25. This comes after a sharp 24.5 percent year-on-year decline in Q4 FY25, when inflows had dropped to US$9.34 billion.

Including reinvested earnings and other capital components, the total FDI rose to US$25.2 billion in Q1 FY 2025-26, up from US$22.5 billion in Q1 FY 2024-25.

Top FDI sources for India in 2025

The United States (US) emerged as one of the top investors, contributing US$5.61 billion in Q1 FY26, almost triple its inflows of US$1.50 billion during the same period the previous fiscal and despite ongoing tariff-related challenges. Singapore followed with US$4.59 billion, and Mauritius with US$2.08 billion.

In terms of cumulative investment since April 2000, the US ranks third with US$76.26 billion, after Mauritius (US$182.2 billion) and Singapore (US$179.48 billion).

Share of Top Investing Countries FDI Equity Inflow (Value in US$ Million) Rank Country FY 2024-25 (April 2024  March 2025) Q1 FY 2025-26 (April-June) Cumulative equity inflow *(April 2000-June 2025) Percentage out of total FDI equity inflow 1 Mauritius 8,344 2,081 182,272 24% 2 Singapore 14,942 4,599 179,484 24% 3 US 5,457 5,610 76,261 10% 4 The Netherlands 4,620 667 53,970 7% 5 Japan 2,478 551 44,947 6% 6 UK 795 243 36,130 5% 7 UAE 4,345 1,007 23,855 3% 8 Cayman Islands 371 676 16,313 2% 9 Cyprus 1,203 1,108 15,761 2% 10 Germany 469 191 15,303 2%

Source: FDI fact sheet, DPIIT

In terms of sectoral performance, major sectors attracting FDI during Q1 FY 2025-26 included computer software and hardware (US$5.4 billion), services (US$3.28 billion), and automobiles (US$1.29 billion).

Sectors Attracting Highest FDI Equity Inflow (Value in US$ Million) Rank Sector FY 2024-25 (April 2024 -March 2025) Q1 FY 2025-26 (April-June) Cumulative equity inflow *(April 2000-June 2025) Percentage out of total FDI equity inflow 1 Services sector** 9,347 3,281 122,124 16% 2 Computer software and hardware 7,814 5,460 116,158 16% 3 Trading 4,176 506 48,077 6% 4 Telecommunications 746 24 40,096 5% 5 Automobile industry 1,586 1,293 39,148 5% 6 Construction (infrastructure) activities 2,245 688 36,850 5% 7 Construction development: Townships, housing, built-up infrastructure 529 75 27,214 4% 8 Drugs and pharmaceuticals 891 1,197 24,617 3% 9 Chemicals (other than fertilizers) 1,060 140 23,347 3% 10 Non-conventional energy 4,012 1,148 23,048 3%

** Services sector includes financial, banking, insurance, non-financial/business, outsourcing, research and development (R&D), courier, technology testing and analysis, and other.

For state-wise FDI inflow into the country, Karnataka led the inflows in Q1 FY26 with US$5.69 billion, followed closely by Maharashtra (US$5.36 billion) and Tamil Nadu (US$2.67 billion). Other key recipients were Gujarat (US$1.2 billion), Haryana (US$1.03 billion), Delhi (US$1 billion), and Telangana (US$395 million).

States Attracting Highest FDI Equity Inflow (Value in US$ Million) Rank States / Union Territory FY 2024-25 (April 2024 -March 2025) FY 2025-26 (April-June) Cumulative equity inflow *(April 2000-June 2025) Percentage out of total FDI equity inflow 1 Maharashtra 19,589 5,364 94,040 31% 2 Karnataka 6,619 5,696 63,346 21% 3 Gujarat 5,711 1,200 46,112 15% 4 Delhi 6,091 1,099 38,907 13% 5 Tamil Nadu 3,681 2,678 17,298 6% 6 Haryana 3,147 1,030 13,907 5% 7 Telangana 2,994 395 11,163 4% 8 Rajasthan 374 549 3,267 1% 9 Jharkhand 7 3 2,677 1% 10 Uttar Pradesh 436 80 2,151 1%

Indias FDI policy landscape

India continues to pursue an investor-friendly FDI policy, with most sectors allowing 100 percent foreign investment under the automatic route. Over the years, India has progressively liberalized FDI norms:
What did NASAs Perseverance Rover discover?

( Image credit : NASAs Perseverance rover has made one of its most exciting discoveries since landing on Mars in 2021 (Credit: NASA) )

Potential biosignature on Mars: confirmed. 



After a year of scientific review, we are more sure than ever that our Mars Perseverance's 'Sapphire Canyon' sample could contain signs of ancient microbial life. Learn more about the discovery: https://t.co/RMO2UFfnjvpic.twitter.com/IJn8r6udv3  NASA Solar System (@NASASolarSystem) September 10, 2025

Could these be traces of alien life?

( Image credit : Did Alien life once exist on Mars? (Image made by Grok AI) )

Challenges of bringing samples back to Earth

Sapphire Canyon, a Martian sample collected by our Perseverance rover, could preserve evidence of ancient life on the Red Planet. Here's what we've learned after a year of scientific scrutiny: https://t.co/Ciohk9ly8kpic.twitter.com/B7aYV0KH1F  NASA (@NASA) September 10, 2025

Excitement and caution among scientists

( Image credit : The discovery has sparked excitement around the world (Image made by Grok AI) )

The search for alien life just got more exciting. NASAs Perseverance rover, which has been exploring Mars since 2021, has discovered rock samples that could be the most convincing evidence yet of ancient life on the Red Planet.The rover found these samples in a dried-up riverbed in Jezero Crater, an area that once held water. Scientists revealed the findings on Wednesday, sparking global curiosity and intense debate. While researchers are hopeful, they stressed that it is too soon to confirm the existence of alien life. The samples must first be studied in advanced laboratories on Earth before any final conclusions can be drawn.The rocks were collected from a location called Neretva Vallis, where a river once flowed into Jezero Crater. These reddish, clay-rich mudstones are part of a region known as the Bright Angel formation.Using its high-tech instruments, Perseverance detected tiny specks within the rocks, nicknamed poppy seeds and leopard spots. These specks are rich in iron phosphate and iron sulfide, compounds that, on Earth, are often formed when microorganisms break down organic matter. Lead researcher Joel Hurowitz of Stony Brook University called this discovery the rovers most compelling candidate for potential evidence of ancient life so far.On Earth, similar minerals appear in environments like Antarctic lakes, where microorganisms interact with the surrounding elements. This makes the Martian samples especially intriguing, as they may suggest that microbes once lived on Mars billions of years ago.However, scientists are urging caution. These patterns could also form through non-living processes. All we can say is one possible explanation is microbial life, but there could be other natural ways to create these features, Hurowitz explained.Perseverance has now collected 30 rock samples, but confirming life will require them to be brought back to Earth. NASA originally aimed to return the samples by the early 2030s.However, due to rising costs and delays, the mission is now expected to take until the 2040s, with expenses climbing to $11 billion.Until then, researchers will simulate Martian conditions on Earth to better understand how these minerals may have formed.The discovery has sparked excitement around the world. Scientists like Janice Bishop of the SETI Institute believe this could be a turning point in humanitys search for alien life. Still, many experts are urging patience.Theres no proof yet, Bishop said. But if confirmed, this would be one of the most significant discoveries in history. Whether these rocks contain traces of ancient alien life or not, Perseverances find is a giant leap forward in our understanding of Mars and our place in the universe.
Nepals protests rage sparks another debate



The viral Haldi outfit that divided Nepal

Some critics fumed online, declaring that dirty vulgarity is increasing day by day and predicting that in some days, haldi attire will be reduced to lingerie. These voices framed the outfit as a cultural collapse.



Meanwhile, supporters defended the bride, pointing out hypocrisy. They argued that men attend haldi ceremonies shirtless without backlash, yet when a woman wears something bold, she is instantly sexualised. Many insisted the real problem lies in the public gaze, not the outfit itself.



A country in chaos, a wedding in spotlight

The video may seem trivial, but it reflects the bigger storm shaking Nepal. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has resigned after protests spiralled into chaos, parliament was set on fire, homes of politicians vandalised, and the capital turned into a battleground. What began as outrage against corruption and censorship has now exposed the generational clash between tradition, authority, and modern expression.



Tradition versus modernity: The real debate

The brides haldi look has become symbolic: is Nepal ready to embrace modern freedom of expression, or will society cling to tradition while condemning change? As protests rage and a wedding video dominates timelines, one thing is certain, Nepal is caught between fire in the streets and fire on the internet.

Nepal is burning with rage, literally and figuratively. Gen Z-led protests against corruption and a controversial social media ban have left 22 people dead and hundreds injured in violent clashes with police. Yet, amid this national crisis, the internet has fixated on a brides haldi ceremony outfit that is breaking traditions and breaking the internet at the same time.The now-viral video shows a bride in a bold, revealing outfit during her haldi ceremony. While a section of social media slammed her attire as vulgar and disrespectful to tradition, others defended her choice, claiming it was simply a modern twist. The clash of opinions has turned this into one of Nepals biggest cultural debates online.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday paid homage to Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant, marking the 138th birth anniversary of the states first Chief Minister and former Union Home Minister. The tribute was offered at the Gorakhnath temple premises, where the Chief Minister remembered Pants contributions to both the state and the nation.



Pandit Pant, born in Almora in 1887, was a prominent freedom fighter who actively participated in Indias independence movement. Following the countrys independence in 1947, he became the first Chief Minister of the United Province, which later came to be known as Uttar Pradesh. In this role, he is remembered for implementing several early policies aimed at stabilizing governance and laying a foundation for long-term development in a state that was still coping with the aftermath of colonial rule.



According to Yogi Adityanath, Pants leadership was marked by foresight and decisiveness. Despite challenges that emerged in the initial years of independence, he took initiatives to strengthen administrative systems and guided Uttar Pradesh onto a trajectory of planned development. His efforts during that formative period provided a structural base for future governance in the state.



Later, as Union Home Minister from 1954, Pandit Pant continued to influence national policy. He advanced the vision of national unity by introducing measures such as the Rajbhasha policy, which encouraged the use of Hindi as an official language while reinforcing the broader goal of integration championed earlier by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.



By recalling Pants legacy, the Chief Minister emphasized his role as a leader who not only contributed to Indias independence struggle but also shaped governance during the early years of the republic. The occasion highlighted the enduring relevance of his policies and vision in shaping both Uttar Pradeshs growth and Indias path toward unity and progress.
( Image credit : Iryna Zarutska fled Ukraine in 2022 with her family to escape the war with Russia (Credit: X/@dstefanos) )

A family broken by violence of their daughter Iryna Zarutska

No family should go through this

The horror of that night when Iryna Zarutskas was killed

A plea for justice and respect

FAQs

1. Who was Iryna Zarutska?

2. What happened to Iryna Zarutska?

3. Who has been charged in her murder?

4. What did her family say in their statement?

5. What reforms are being demanded?

The loved ones of Iryna Zarutska have finally found the strength to speak, and their words carry the weight of unbearable grief. In their first statement since her killing on Charlottes Blue Line light rail, they described her as a hardworking young woman, beloved by everyone who knew her.The family said their lives have been torn apart by the sudden loss, insisting that the man accused of the stabbing must remain behind bars. They emphasised that Iryna had come to the United States to escape war, only to be robbed of her future in the cruellest way imaginable.Through their attorney, the Zarutskas made it clear that this tragedy is not just personalit is a public safety crisis. They expressed that Irynas killing could have happened to anyone riding the train that night and vowed to fight so that no other family endures the same devastation.Their appeal also called for accountability from local authorities, citing failures in Charlottes transit security system. They demanded answers about the lack of visible protection on the Blue Line, the oversight of private security contractors, and why basic safety measures were not in place to prevent such violence.Zarutskas final journey was heartbreakingly ordinary. She had finished her shift at a local pizzeria and was heading home, even texting her boyfriend that she would arrive soon. Instead, her life ended at the Camden light rail station in an unprovoked attack by a man with a long history of arrests.Her family later rushed to the station after realising she had not made it home, only to learn the most devastating truth, that she had been killed at the scene.The family is now asking for more than justice in court. They want Charlotte city leaders to admit the failures that left Iryna vulnerable and to take urgent action to strengthen transit security.They also pleaded with the public to respect her memory by not sharing or reposting the disturbing footage of the stabbing, saying it dishonours her dignity and deepens their pain.Iryna Zarutska was a 23-year-old refugee from Ukraine who had moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, to build a new life while working at a pizzeria and studying English.She was fatally stabbed in a random attack while travelling on Charlottes Blue Line light rail by a man with a long history of arrests and mental health issues.Decarlos Brown Jr. was arrested shortly after the attack. He faces charges of first-degree murder and an additional federal charge for committing an act causing death on public transport.Her family described her as a kind and hardworking young woman, demanded justice, and called for sweeping reforms to improve transit safety in Charlotte.The Zarutskas want a full investigation into security failures on Charlottes Blue Line and stronger, visible measures to ensure passenger safety in the future.
Here With Me

Romantic Homicide

( Image credit : The car, abandoned for days before being towed, was later confirmed to be registered to rising music star D4vd. Credit: X|@d4vddd )

Viral footage ignites frenzy

d4vd say sike right now pic.twitter.com/tnb3nU2dSx  hilly (@celeryfps) September 9, 2025

( Image credit : Viral footage about D4vd's car ignites frenzy. Credit: X|@d4vddd )

From Seoul stage lights to sudden scandal

( Image credit : D4vd performing at M!Countdown )

best full circle moment ever this friday  IM SO EXCITED #HYUNJINxD4VDpic.twitter.com/iHsKtsyeIq  d4vd (@d4vddd) June 24, 2025

Fans left shaken

not kpop related but WHATS GOING AWNNN wdym they found a body inside of d4vds Tesla????? HUH?????    ry  (@ihanduh) September 9, 2025

not kpop related but anyone know what's going on with d4vd? I bought tickets to one of his shows a little bit ago but.. pic.twitter.com/Cv8MBTOci9  mo  (@_shawtykovich) September 9, 2025

a dead body found in d4vds car was not on my bingo card for 2025 pic.twitter.com/mWFAAJ932I  emi  LEE KNOW DAY !!!!! (@bottomleeknow) September 9, 2025

Los Angeles police made a chilling discovery on September 9 when a foul odor led them to search an impounded Tesla. What they found stunned even seasoned officers - a bag containing a heavily decomposed, dismembered body.The car, which had been abandoned for several days before being towed, was ultimately identified as belonging to emerging music star D4vd, the voice behindand. With no identification found at the scene, the investigation has escalated into one of the most disturbing celebrity-related incidents of the year.Regarding the horrifying finding, shaky viral footage from the impound lot showed flashing police lights, crime scene tape, and officers circling the Tesla. Reports verified that the body had been "dismembered" and wrapped in a bag, adding to the grim mystery surrounding the murder.As photographs circulated on social media, shockwaves swept through fan networks. The same car that once bore a budding star's name is now at the center of a horror that many describe as "straight out of a nightmare."Only months ago, D4vd was basking in the glow of international promotions. He traveled to South Korea in late 2024 and again in May 2025, even performing on M!Countdown, holding street busking events, and brushing shoulders with K-pop idols.D4vd was photographed laughing and spending time with BOYNEXTDOOR during his visit to Korea.He also posed for photos with P1Harmony, which the group later shared online on their X (formerly knonw as Twitter) account and wrote, "So good to see @d4vddd today!!! From Gov ball to mcountdown."In addition, he also collaborated with Stray Kids' Hyunjin on his debut album and worked on projects with Hannah Bahng, Keshi, and Julia Wolf.Now, those once-celebrated moments are being replayed online in a very different light - with fans revisiting every post and every interaction under the shadow of this gruesome discovery. K-pop and Western fans alike are in disbelief, flooding timelines with reactions that range from fear to heartbreak.As the LAPD continues its investigation, unanswered questions loom, and the story of D4vd's skyrocketing career is now entangled with one of the most disturbing scandals of the year.
Protests and arrests in Paris

( Image credit : Frances newly appointed Prime Minister, Sebastien Lecornu, steps into office with challenges | Credit: X )

Bayrous resignation and political instability

A fractured Parliament awaits

Macron faces La Fin: Calls for president to follow PM and quit or be impeached as France spirals into crisis amid fears nationwide strikes will become 'day of insurrection'



France has had enough of socialism! pic.twitter.com/NpSopkdgA5  Grifty (@TheGriftReport) September 9, 2025

Debt and deficit in focus

Market reaction and fitch review

Block Everything Movement 



Thousands of French people are protesting on the streets of Marseille, France.



Their goal: cripple the Economy and get President Emmanuel Macron out.



Video  #sebastienlecornu#France#Protest#PMpic.twitter.com/GVzEYAi7ev  Mayank (@mayankcdp) September 10, 2025

Immediate challenges for Lecornu

Frances newly appointed Prime Minister, Sebastien Lecornu, steps into office with challenges already mounting. His appointment on Tuesday followed the resignation of Francois Bayrou, who was ousted after losing a parliamentary confidence vote over the 2026 budget. Just a day later, Lecornu is confronted with protests organized by the grassroots Lets Block Everything movement, signaling public unrest from the start.On Wednesday morning, police in Paris reported 75 arrests as demonstrations escalated. The protest group has called on citizens to blockade transport services, public buildings, and other vital networks. Images of disorder in the capital have already surfaced, underlining the tense backdrop against which Lecornu takes office. The timing highlights how quickly public discontent has spilled into the streets.Bayrous resignation came after his spending cuts and tax rise proposals for the 2026 budget failed to secure backing in the National Assembly. He handed in his resignation to President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday. Lecornu, a close Macron ally and former defense minister, becomes Frances fifth prime minister in less than two years, taking charge of a fragile minority government prone to challenges from both the far right and left.The National Assembly remains divided, with the far-right and far-left demanding snap elections. The centre-left Socialists have rejected Macrons direction outright, stating they will not support his policies. For Lecornu, this fractured parliament makes passing the 2026 budget an uphill task. Analysts at Deutsche Bank warned on Wednesday that there are no signs of an easier path forward.Frances fiscal position adds to Lecornus challenge. The budget deficit stood at 5.8% of GDP in 2024, while debt reached 113% of GDPwell above EU thresholds of 3% and 60% respectively. Financial markets expect fiscal consolidation, but reforms such as raising the retirement age remain unpopular with the public. Balancing these competing demands will define Lecornus early months in office.Investors welcomed the swift appointment, with Frances CAC 40 index rising 0.6% in early Wednesday trading and the 10-year bond yield slipping slightly to 3.4728%. Attention now shifts to Friday, when Fitch is due to publish its credit rating review. Currently at AA-, a downgrade to A+ remains possible, though some analysts believe Fitch may wait to see the outcome of Frances new budget negotiations.Kristoffer Kjr Lomholt of Danske Bank described Lecornus task as gathering support for a budget that already includes significant spending cuts. The process, he noted, could ease short-term pressure on French bonds, but the long-term risks remain. With protests in the streets and a credit rating decision looming, Lecornu has little time to establish his authority.
In less than 48 hours Gen Z protest in Nepal did the following:

- Burnt down multiple politicians' houses

- Increased the protest even during curfew and firing around multiple cities

- made the Prime Minister resign

- entered parliament and burnt it.



This is the generation that pic.twitter.com/ovY2tWAASY  CG (@chandangoopta) September 9, 2025

Nepal Gen Z protests : Student dances as parliament burns in video

TIK TOK video after burning parliament pic.twitter.com/3yvifsYpPh  Ghar Ke Kalesh (@gharkekalesh) September 9, 2025

These people are getting out of hands  Sarcasm (@sarcastic_us) September 9, 2025

Protest was for this cringe   Vishvendra (@AbsoluteVish) September 9, 2025

Nepal gone 100 years back by doing this.  Memeonomics (@AbinKotera) September 9, 2025

Tiktok ke liye inko content mil gaya.   VarunSnehi (@snehi_Varun) September 9, 2025

Nepal Gen Z protests explained: What is it all about?

After Indonesia, Nepal is also using the Straw Hat flag as protests against corruption#ONEPIECE1160pic.twitter.com/bUUGblEmSp   (@Noa_Op0) September 9, 2025

Governments response and outcome

Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigns: officials



(Source: Third Party)#NepalGenZProtest#KathmanduProtestpic.twitter.com/emqq1CMQVk  Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) September 9, 2025

Nepal ex-PM Jhalanath Khanal's wife dies

Stupidity at its peak - thats the phrase dominating online reactions after a shocking video from Nepals Gen Z-led protests went viral. The clip shows a student dancing for TikTok as the countrys parliament building burns in the background, creating an image that is unsettling. Many condemned the act as a tone-deaf and attention-seeking stunt that trivializes a moment of national crisis.The video has sparked a larger conversation about whether such acts are genuine political statements or simply bids for viral fame, raising uncomfortable questions about the intersection of activism, digital culture, and the pursuit of clout in todays protest movements.In the viral video, a student can be seen dancing for TikTok as Nepals parliament burns in the background. As soon as the clip was shared on X, many users commented that it looked like an attention-seeking stunt done purely for clout. The scene feels unsettling given the seriousness of the situation, and amid the uproar, the video has left many questioning the intent behind making such TikToks. While people acknowledge that the protesters are celebrating the burning of parliament, dancing in front of the flames doesnt sit right with them.Taking to the comment section, one wrote, "Protest was for this cringe." A second went on to add, "Tiktok ke liye inko content mil gaya." A third went on to add, "These people are getting out of hands."The protests erupted after the government issued an order on 4 September 2025 banning 26 popular social media platforms, including Facebook, X/Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube, and Snapchat because they had not registered under new regulations. The move struck a nerve with Nepals youth, who were already frustrated by rampant corruption, nepotism, widening inequality between political elites and ordinary citizens, scarce job opportunities, and repeated unfulfilled promises from leaders. As they marched through Kathmandu, protesters held placards with slogans like Shut down corruption, not social media, Unban social media, and Youth against corruption.Driven largely by Gen Z students and young people, the movement has unfolded both on the streets and online. Confrontations with security forces have turned violent, with tear gas, rubber bullets, water cannons, and even live ammunition being used, leaving a bunch of protestors dead and hundreds injured.The government was eventually forced to roll back the social media ban after facing massive backlash from protesters, civil society groups, and international observers who warned that the restrictions violated freedom of expression. However, by then, the demonstrations had grown beyond the issue of social media to embody widespread anger at corruption and poor governance. The mounting pressure culminated in the resignation of Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, who stepped down amid scenes of chaos and growing unrest.Rajyalaxmi Chitrakar, wife of former Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal, died on Tuesday after sustaining severe burn injuries when protestors set fire to her house in Nepals Dallu. She was rushed to the hospital in critical condition but succumbed to her injuries during treatment. Reports said Chitrakar suffered extensive burns on multiple parts of her body, including her lungs, which ultimately proved fatal.
( Image credit : Step-by-step guide to create the viral Nano Banana figurine | Credit: X/GeminiApp )

Why is the internet obsessed with Nano Banana?

( Image credit : Step-by-step guide to create the viral Nano Banana figurine | Credit: X/GeminiApp )

How to create your own viral Nano Banana figurine

Step 1: Open Google AI studio

Step 2: Look for try Nano Banana

Step 3: Upload or prompt your character

( Image credit : Step-by-step guide to create the viral Nano Banana figurine | Credit: X/GeminiApp )

Why everyone is doing It

( Image credit : Step-by-step guide to create the viral Nano Banana figurine | Credit: X/tryagentsea )

FAQs

1. What is a Nano Banana figurine?

2. Do I need to pay to make a Nano Banana figurine?

3. Can I use my own photos for Nano Banana figurines?

4. How long does it take to generate one?

5. Can I actually 3D print my Nano Banana figurine?

6. Why is it trending so much on TikTok and Instagram?

Move over filters and AI avatars, because there is a juicier digital obsession in town. The latest trend exploding on TikTok, Instagram, and basically every platform with an upload button is... the Nano Banana. Nope, it is not a snack. It is a wildly realistic 3D figurine, powered by Googles Gemini 2.5 Flash Image tool, now lovingly nicknamed "Nano Banana" by the internet.This tool is dishing out chefs kiss figurines that are shockingly lifelike, from facial expressions to the tiniest ruffles in clothing. People are recreating their pets, besties, pop idols, and even fictional crushes. And the best part? It is 100% free and literally takes seconds.You do not need to be a tech nerd or an artist to get in on this. Just follow these steps and thank us later.Head to the official Google AI Studio website. You do not need a fancy account or subscription  just vibes and internet.It may be disguised as Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, but trust us  this is the one. Click it like your life depends on it.Click the big fat + sign. Upload a photo of your pet, your ex (for revenge art, obvs), or just type in a custom prompt. Want inspo? Use this tried-and-true prompt:A realistic 1/7 scale figurine of the pictured characters stands on a clear acrylic base atop a sleek wooden desk. The desk is tidy, with a monitor displaying the ZBrush sculpting process: showing wireframes, textures, and fine details. Beside it, a BANDAI-style toy box features vibrant 2D illustrations matching the figurine. Natural light from a nearby window casts soft shadows, highlighting the model's textures and craftsmanship.Just copy, paste, and tweak for ultra-personalised results.Users are losing their collective minds over how accurate and dramatic the figurines look. As one creator posted, it is like watching your soul trapped in vinyl. And it is not just the humans, there is a golden retriever in a samurai outfit trending right now. Yeah, it is that iconic.Whether you are a clout chaser, a creative soul, or just bored in your room at 2 AM, the Nano Banana trend is a dangerously addictive wormhole. It is quirky, cool, creative, and surprisingly easy to hop on.So what are you waiting for? Make your own viral figurine and flex it hard. Your FYP will thank you.A Nano Banana figurine is a hyper-realistic 3D mini model created using Googles Gemini 2.5 Flash Image tool. The internet nicknamed it Nano Banana because of its quirky, bite-sized look and viral popularity.No, it is completely free. All you need is access to Google AI Studio and an internet connection.Yes. You can upload photos of pets, friends, or even yourself, or simply enter a creative text prompt for customised results.Just seconds. The tool instantly renders a figurine once you upload a photo or type a prompt.Yes, users often export the model and get it 3D printed through online printing services. This turns your digital figurine into a real-life collectible.Because it is quirky, free, easy to use, and ridiculously realistic. People are sharing Nano Bananas of pets, idols, and fictional characters, which makes it super viral-worthy content.
( Image credit : Kshitij Tyagi | Credit: X/ANI )

Kshitij Tyagis direct response to Switzerland

( Image credit : Kshitij Tyagi | Credit: Facebook/Kshitij Tyagi )

( Image credit : Kshitij Tyagi | Credit: ANI/X )

Kshitij Tyagi on Pakistan

#WATCH | At the 5th Meeting- 60th Session of Human Rights Council, Indian Diplomat Kshitij Tyagi says, "We would also like to respond to the surprising, shallow and ill-informed remarks made by Switzerland, a close friend and partner. As it holds the UNHRC presidency, it is all pic.twitter.com/22R1vRJg67  ANI (@ANI) September 10, 2025

How netizens reacted to Kshitij Tyagis speech

New India Alert! 



Ever wondered what happens when a Western nation critiques India's human rights record? At the UNHRC's 60th session, Switzerland triedand got a masterful clapback from Indian diplomat Kshitij Tyagi that flipped the script. Thread on this bold diplomatic pic.twitter.com/Q2y5pcbeSB  Echoes of India | Bharats Story (@Echoes_of_India) September 10, 2025

India just dropped a masterclass in diplomacy at the UNHRC today 



Switzerland, while holding the presidency, tried to lecture India on minorities and freedom of expression. But the clapback from Indian diplomat Kshitij Tyagi was nothing short of legendary  sharp, factual, and  Gayatri (@JhansiKiiBeti) September 10, 2025

This is straight up epic! Indias diplomat, Kshitij Tyagi, totally owned Switzerland at the UN with that savage clapback calling out their racism and xenophobia while offering help? Legendary move! Love how Indias standing tall, shutting down their hypocritical nonsense about  Gaurav Khanna Fans (@GauravKhannaFP) September 10, 2025

As soon as Switzerland Diplomat Michael Meier wants to become the second Navarro, Indian Kshitij Tyagi roasted him mercilessly  ravi prakash yadav (@ravipra53127948) September 10, 2025

At the 5th Meeting of the 60th Session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Indian diplomat Kshitij Tyagi delivered a firm rebuttal to Switzerlands remarks on Indias human rights record.Switzerland, currently holding the UNHRC presidency, had called on India to protect minorities and uphold freedom of expression and media rights. Tyagi did not hold back, urging Switzerland to focus on its own domestic challenges instead.Tyagi told Switzerland that its comments on Indias press and minorities were shallow and ill-informed.He said, As it holds the UNHRC presidency, it is all the more important for Switzerland to avoid wasting the councils time with narratives that are blatantly false and do not do justice to the reality of India. Tyagi emphasized that India expects discussions at the UNHRC to be based on facts rather than false narratives.He further added, Instead of pointing fingers at India, Switzerland should focus on tackling its own challenges such as racism, systematic discrimination, and xenophobia.Highlighting Indias diversity and democratic values, Tyagi remarked, As the worlds largest, most diverse, and most vibrant democracy, with a civilizational embrace of pluralism, India remains ready to help Switzerland address these concerns.Tyagi also slammed Pakistans remarks, calling Islamabad a dump truck of recycled lies and describing the country as a failed state reliant on instability and external aid.He noted, Our measured and proportionate response to the Pahalagm attack made that sufficiently clear. We need no lessons from a terror sponsor, no sermons from a persecutor of minorities, and no advice from a state that has conjured its own credibility. India will continue to protect its citizens with unwavering resolve. We will defend our sovereignty without compromise.The diplomatic exchange immediately caught the attention of netizens, who praised Indias firm stance. One user wrote, New India Alert! Ever wondered what happens when a Western nation critiques India's human rights record? At the UNHRC's 60th session, Switzerland triedand got a masterful clapback from Indian diplomat Kshitij Tyagi that flipped the script. Thread on this bold diplomatic moment that's redefining global conversations.Another user shared, India just dropped a masterclass in diplomacy at the UNHRC today. This is the NEW INDIA. Respectful, yet fearless. Civilizationally rooted, yet globally assertive. We dont take false narratives lying down anymorewe confront them with truth, clarity, and confidence. Savage diplomacy at its finest. And yes, the world took note.A third user expressed admiration for Tyagis approach: This is straight up epic! Indias diplomat, Kshitij Tyagi, totally owned Switzerland at the UN with that savage clapback calling out their racism and xenophobia while offering help? Legendary move! Love how Indias standing tall, shutting down their hypocritical nonsense about minorities and free speech. Respect to Tyagi for keeping it real!Some netizens also called out Switzerlands double standards. One commented, Every nation has its flaws. But Switzerland ignoring its racism/xenophobia while pointing at India shows double standards. Respect to Kshitij Tyagi for calling it out.Another wrote, As soon as Switzerland diplomat Michael Meier wanted to become the second Navarro, Indian Kshitij Tyagi roasted him mercilessly.Tyagi also extended Indias support to Switzerland, saying that as the worlds largest democracy, India is prepared to assist the European country in addressing such issues if required.
Who was Iryna Zarutska?

( Image credit : Iryna Zarutska fled Ukraine in 2022 with her family to escape the war with Russia (Credit: X/@dstefanos) )

What was the Charlotte Train attack incident?

The full account of Irina Zarutska's murder has been released.



She did not die instantly. She was fully conscious, terrified, and in agony.



No one around her was willing to help her. pic.twitter.com/uNILHFoed0  AugustinBrian (@AugustinBrian3) September 10, 2025

( Image credit : Video footage shows the suspect, Decarlos Brown Jr, sitting quietly before suddenly pulling out a knife (Credit: @AugustinBrian3) )

Elon Musk promises to contribute for Iryna Zarutska's murals

 Elon Musk pledged $1M to paint murals of Iryna Zarutska's face across US cities! She was a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee stabbed to death on a Charlotte train by a repeat criminal. Tech CEO Eoghan McCabe started with $500K



#JusticeForIryna#ElonMusk#IrynaZarutskapic.twitter.com/qAQ7fQe7zd  Crypto Invest Now (@cin365x) September 10, 2025

( Image credit : The Neighborhood Kids are a fast-emerging conscious hip-hop band calls for the death of Elon Musk (Credit: X/@IChrishidoI) )

Where to see the Iryna Zarutska murals?

America was shaken when disturbing footage of a brutal stabbing on a Charlotte, North Carolina, train went viral, spreading rapidly across social media and sparking nationwide outrage. The victim, 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, tragically lost her life in the attack, leaving communities across the country heartbroken and demanding answers.The incident has ignited heated discussions about rising crime, gaps in mental health care, and serious failures within the justice system. As public anger continues to grow, tech billionaire Elon Musk has stepped forward with a powerful gesture to honour Zarutskas memory and draw attention to the urgent need for change.Iryna Zarutska fled Ukraine in 2022 with her family to escape the war with Russia. Known for her vibrant personality and artistic talent, Zarutska quickly adapted to her new life in Charlotte. She worked at a local pizzeria and dreamed of becoming a veterinary assistant while studying at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College.Her family described her as a passionate artist with a radiant smile who loved caring for pets and helping her neighbours. Tragically, Zarutskas journey of hope ended when she was brutally attacked while riding a late-night Blue Line train.On August 22, Iryna Zarutska boarded a Charlotte light rail train, unaware of the danger behind her. Video footage shows the suspect, Decarlos Brown Jr, sitting quietly before suddenly pulling out a knife and attacking her without warning. Passengers tried to help, but Zarutska died at the scene.Brown, 34, has a long history of violent crimes and was reportedly battling severe mental health issues. His family revealed that they had tried to get him psychiatric help, but legal barriers prevented long-term care. Authorities confirmed that he now faces federal charges, making him eligible for the death penalty.Elon Musks decision to fund murals in Zarutskas honour has brought national attention to her story. Musk stated that the murals will celebrate Zarutskas life while raising awareness about public safety and mental health. His pledge also comes amid growing criticism of soft-on-crime policies and debates over public transit safety in major US cities.By encouraging artists to participate, Musk aims to transform grief into a movement for change, creating lasting public artworks that reflect Zarutskas spirit and resilience.The first murals are expected to appear in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Charlotte . Musk has invited artists nationwide to submit designs celebrating Zarutskas life and legacy. The project aims to create spaces where communities can gather, remember, and discuss solutions to violence and mental health crises.
Background on the victim and incident

Fuentes responds to the horrific killing of Iryna Zarutska.



Id rather be alive and too racist than dead and not racist enough. pic.twitter.com/i5LmdudYR7  Fuentes Updates (@FuentesUpdates) September 9, 2025

Mental health, legal, and political debate

It's weird how MAGA has no problem with Putin murdering innocent Ukrainians on a daily basis, including children  yet are appalled by the murder of Iryna Zarutska. I hope it's not because it was a Black man who did the killing, instead of their white mass-murdering superhero. pic.twitter.com/Gxky6ngFlT  Bill Madden (@maddenifico) September 8, 2025

Public mourning and community reaction

President Trump has just released a video on the killing of Iryna Zarutska:



We have to be viscous, just like they are. Its the only thing they understand.



We cannot allow ... vioIent repeat offenders to continue spreading destruction and death." pic.twitter.com/j1NoFZhdwO  Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) September 9, 2025

North Carolina GOP and 12th congressional district Republican officials are set to hold a news conference Wednesday following the brutal murder of 23-year-old Ukrainian immigrant Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light rail train. The incident has become a national point of debate over public safety and the handling of repeat offenders and individuals with mental health challenges.Iryna Zarutska fled Ukraine in 2022 with her family to escape the war with Russia. She quickly adapted to life in the United States, attending Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, working at Zepeddies Pizzeria, and aspiring to become a veterinary assistant. On August 22, she was stabbed three times in the throat by 34-year-old Decarlos Brown, a homeless man with a criminal record and diagnosed schizophrenia. Brown now faces federal charges for committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system, as well as North Carolina first-degree murder charges.Browns sister, Tracey Brown, stated her brother believed Zarutska was reading his mind when he attacked her. Brown had previous arrests, including armed robbery and felony larceny, and had been released from prison in 2020. Attempts by his family to place him in a long-term mental health facility failed due to legal restrictions. Democratic Mayor Vi Lyles blamed a tragic failure by the courts and magistrates and has called for enhanced mental health interventions.Republicans argue that Browns release and prior offenses reflect broader systemic failures. President Donald Trump emphasized the need for law and order in North Carolina, while federal officials, including Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, have criticized Charlotte leadership and are investigating possible cuts to transit funding.Zarutskas family, friends, and colleagues mourned her loss. A family spokesperson said, We are heartbroken beyond words. Iryna came here to find peace and safety, and instead her life was stolen from her in the most horrific way. Co-workers at Zepeddies Pizzeria described her as an incredible employee, but a true friend. Despite surviving the war in Ukraine, Zarutskas life was cut tragically short in Charlotte, drawing attention to the ongoing debate over public safety, mental health, and accountability in the city.The murder of Iryna Zarutska has intensified scrutiny on Charlottes public safety measures. North Carolina GOP leaders urge reforms to prevent similar tragedies in the future.
The hunt for Jamel McGriff

( Image credit : McGriff allegedly tricked the couple by pretending to need help charging his phone (Credit: X/@unlimited_ls) )

BREAKING UPDATE: Man accused of st*bbing an elderly couple and setting their bodies on fire is a level 3 s*x offender with a 30-year violent criminal history and was out on parole for first-degree robbery



42-year-old Jamel McGriff is armed and dangerous



Investigators believe pic.twitter.com/IlLozlQkiR  Unlimited L's (@unlimited_ls) September 10, 2025

The heartbreaking death of Iryna Zarutska

( Image credit : Iryna Zarutska fled Ukraine in 2022 with her family to escape the war with Russia (Credit: X/@dstefanos) )

I GOT THAT WHITE GIRL! - Decarlos Brown, after stabbing Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska to death.



She fled war for safety in Americaonly to be murdered for being WHITE. But media calls it random? NOT a hate crime? Wake up! This is the blood on Dem hands. pic.twitter.com/o0UBBSkwiR  Alec Lace (@AlecLace) September 9, 2025

Netizens react with concerning pro-white comments, while 'Black Lives Matter' gets debated

NEW YORK TIMES RACIAL HIERARCHY: Crime against Iryna Zarutska was committed by a capital "B" Black man against a lowercase "w" white woman.



You are a second-class citizen. pic.twitter.com/FfviZd3uzW  Douglass Mackey (@DougMackeyCase) September 9, 2025

( Image credit : Raging comments against the Black Lives Matter movement is spreading on social media (Credit: Sreenshot taken from X) )

( Image credit : These back-to-back killings have reopened long-standing debates about race (Credit: Screenshot taken from X) )

The bigger debate on race and justice

This is our George Floyd moment. We need a new civil rights movement. We cannot allow violent racist Black supremacists to go around murdering people. We deserve safe cities. White people deserve to live. White Lives Matter also! pic.twitter.com/125Yj0B8lD  Adam Lowisz  (@AdamLowisz) September 9, 2025

they haven't yet seen hate... https://t.co/sYAwuwnS7a  White Lives Matter Pennsylvania (@WLMPennsylvania) September 10, 2025

America is reeling after two back-to-back crimes shocked the nation and ignited intense racial debates. An elderly Queens couple was brutally tortured and killed in their home, while 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska was stabbed to death on a Charlotte light rail train. Both suspects in these separate cases are Black men with long criminal records, and their actions have triggered a major shift in online discussions about race and crime.Social media platforms that once amplified the Black Lives Matter movement following George Floyds killing are now flooded with pro-White and anti-Black narratives. Many users are openly questioning whether the justice system and political leaders are doing enough to prevent such crimes, while others express deep fear and anger over what they see as a growing wave of violence.In New York City, police are intensifying their search for Jamel McGriff, a 42-year-old parolee accused of brutally murdering Frank and Maureen Olton, an elderly couple who lived quietly in Queens for decades.McGriff allegedly tricked the couple by pretending to need help charging his phone. Once inside, he reportedly tied up and stabbed Frank in the basement and severely burned Maureen before setting their home on fire to cover his tracks.Security footage shows McGriff leaving the house with bags after spending hours inside. He was later spotted trying to pawn stolen phones in the Bronx. The NYPD has warned that McGriff is armed and extremely dangerous, urging the public not to approach him.Authorities revealed that McGriff has a 30-year criminal history, including violent robberies, and was recently wanted for two attempted store robberies in Manhattan. His failure to register as a sex offender last year has sparked outrage over the systems failure to track repeat offenders.While New York mourned the Oltons, another horrifying tragedy unfolded in Charlotte, North Carolina. Iryna Zarutska , a young Ukrainian refugee who fled the war with Russia, was brutally stabbed on a light rail train in an unprovoked attack. Surveillance footage shows Zarutska quietly sitting and looking at her phone when the suspect, identified as Decarlos Brown , suddenly attacked her with a knife. She collapsed on the floor within seconds, shocking viewers who later saw the viral video online.Zarutska had rebuilt her life in the U.S., studying to become a veterinary assistant and working at a local pizzeria. Friends and family described her as a warm, artistic soul who survived bombings in Ukraine only to face a tragic death in what should have been her safe haven.Brown, who has a history of schizophrenia and violent crimes, reportedly believed Zarutska could read his mind. His family claims they tried to get him long-term psychiatric care but were unsuccessful.The sheer brutality of these two crimes has set off a storm on social media. Platforms like X, Reddit, and TikTok are seeing a surge of posts condemning Black men as violent criminals. Many users point to the contrast between the current anger and the global wave of support for 'Black Lives Matter' after George Floyds killing in 2020. Then, social media was filled with calls for justice for Black victims of police brutality. Now, conversations are dominated by hashtags like #JusticeForIryna and #ProtectOurElders , with some openly calling for pro-White movements and harsher laws against violent offenders.Comments such as BLM fought for criminals, now innocent people are dying and Its time to stand up for White victims are trending, reflecting a dramatic shift in public mood. One X user wrote, " White Lives Matter. Death Penalty for all the George Floyds of America."Others are deeply concerned about the rise of hate speech and warn that painting entire communities with one brush could lead to even more division and violence.These back-to-back killings have reopened long-standing debates about race, identity, and justice in America. Critics argue that the justice system failed twice: first by releasing dangerous individuals like McGriff and Brown, and second by not providing adequate mental health resources to prevent such tragedies.At the same time, political leaders are facing pressure to address racial tensions. Some see the growing anti-Black sentiment as dangerous and urge people to focus on the individuals responsible rather than entire communities. Others believe this is a turning point where social media users are finally voicing anger over what they perceive as double standards in coverage and justice.As the manhunt for Jamel McGriff continues and Iryna Zarutskas family mourns her death, America is left grappling with grief, anger, and an increasingly polarised online landscape. These tragedies have become more than just crimes  they are now symbols in a larger cultural battle over race, safety, and truth.
Social media erupts as X users link the MacArthur Foundation Grant to suspect Decarlos

And there you have it.



$3.3 MILLION from left-wing NGO The MacArthur Foundation went to Mecklenburg County to reduce the jail population, the very county that released career criminal DeCarlos Brown 14 times.



Insane. Follow the money. Democrats want criminals on the loose. pic.twitter.com/XWRrY9hsiQ  Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 9, 2025

( Image credit : MacArthur Foundation Grant to suspect Decarlos | Credit: X | @bennyjohnson )

Questions mount over suspect's release after tragic Charlotte train murder

Daily Wire

( Image credit : Decarlos Brown Jr. | Credit: X | @bennyjohnson )

Fact check: What does Mecklenburg County say?

Post Millennial,

( Image credit : Who is Decarlos Brown Jr. (L)? The man behind killing Iryna Zarutska (R) | Credit: X | @C_3C_3 and @WallStreetMav )

Know about the jail reduction strategy

Iryna Zarutska's brutal killing has left the world in shock. Well, amid the growing outrage over the killing of a young woman on a Charlotte train, social media is ablaze with many posts linking the release of 14-time-arrested suspect Decarlos Brown Jr. to a controversial $3.3 million (Rs 27.45 crore) funding initiative. One such viral claim points out that the left-wing MacArthur Foundation gave millions of dollars to North Carolina's Mecklenburg County, which encompasses Charlotte, for the jail population. On the other hand, critics argue that this initiative, allegedly backed by Democratic policies, may have contributed to Brown's repeated release. Let's find out the facts behind it.As speculation intensifies, many are demanding accountability and urging the public to "follow the money." Additionally, the social media platforms are now flooded with reactions, outrage and speculations surrounding the murder of Iryna Zarutska, with users pointing fingers at systemic failures and political agendas.One widely shared post on X (formerly called Twitter) read, "And there you have it. $3.3 MILLION from left-wing NGO The MacArthur Foundation went to Mecklenburg County to 'reduce the jail population, the very county that released career criminal DeCarlos Brown 14 times. Insane. Follow the money. Democrats want criminals on the loose.""The left-wing MacArthur Foundation gave Mecklenburg County a $3.3 million grant to reduce the jail population, and DEI was a component of the process. This is why Decarlos Brown was roaming the streets & killed Iryna Zarutska. Mandani plans to empty the prisons in NYC, too," another added.One said, "@VanJones68 did you know that the MacArthur Foundation paid Charlotte to empty its prisons and funnel the released into the programs created by MF and Open Society?! Because we do now. And were gonna make a big noise about it too. @abbydphillip"Concerns are growing over how 34-year-old Decarlos Brown, now charged with the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte train in August, was repeatedly released from custody.According to a report by thes Megan Basham, the MacArthur Foundation awarded a $3.3 million grant to Mecklenburg County, intending to reduce the jail population, specifically under the banner of advancing "racial equity" initiatives.She added in a quote, "She added, 'Like Soros' Open Society, the MacArthur Foundation incentivises local municipalities to make residents less safe by leaving threats like Decarlos Brown on the streets."According toMecklenburg County stated that it received a $1 million (Rs 8.32 crore) donation from the MacArthur Foundation in 2020 to support initiatives focused on addressing key factors contributing to its jail population.Moreover, an additional $350,000 (Rs 2.91 crore) was awarded in 2022 to help sustain these ongoing reforms, bringing the total funding from the foundation to $3.3 million.As per the same report, as part of its jail reduction strategy, the county aimed to tackle system inefficiencies, improve existing services, offer alternatives to incarceration, and boost community involvement in justice system reforms.Officials highlighted that between 2014 and 2017, the jail population was reduced by 11 per cent. However, efforts continue to further limit incarceration rates, particularly in light of racial disparities, with African Americans and Hispanics accounting for 82 per cent of the jail population, despite representing only 47 per cent of the countys residents.
Court ruling and government response

( Image credit : The court found that failure to do so violated constitutional protections under the Bill of Rights Ordinance | Credit: Freepik )

Opposition rooted in traditional values

( Image credit : The bills rejection follows a 2023 ruling by Hong Kongs Court of Final Appeal | Credit: Freepik )

Social media reacts

Hong Kong's Legislative Council vetoed a bill that would have granted limited legal rights to same-sex couples married overseas, disappointing LGBTQ groups.  Mr. Perfect (@DS24IN) September 10, 2025

Hong Kongs legislature rejected a landmark bill that would have formally recognized same-sex partnerships, disappointing gay couples while plunging the city into legal uncertainty by defying a top court order. pic.twitter.com/Tlv0vWkYYl  Eddie Du (@Edourdoo) September 10, 2025

Global LGBTQ+ rights landscape

Countries leading in LGBTQ+ rights

( Image credit : In Canada, same-sex marriage has been legal nationwide since 2005 | Credit: Freepik )

Hong Kongs Legislative Council voted down the Registration of Same-Sex Partnerships Bill, which aimed to grant limited rights to same-sex couples married or registered overseas on Wednesday. The bill sought to allow such couples to register their relationships locally, granting rights related to medical decisions and inheritance. The vote ended 71 against, 14 in favor, and 1 abstention.The bills rejection follows a 2023 ruling by Hong Kongs Court of Final Appeal, which mandated the government to establish a legal framework recognizing same-sex partnerships within two years. The court found that failure to do so violated constitutional protections under the Bill of Rights Ordinance.Jimmy Sham, a pro-democracy activist who initially launched the legal challenge, described the court's decision as disappointing, saying it failed to reflect the majority public support for same-sex marriage as shown in a recent academic survey. He said, "I still want everybody to have hope because this is not the end game. We still have a chance to improve the rights in Hong Kong, to improve the equal rights for our same-sex (couples)."Opponents, including many pro-Beijing legislators and religious organizations, argued that legally recognizing same-sex partnerships could undermine traditional family values and harm social cohesion. Their concerns reflect a conservative viewpoint prevalent in certain parts of Hong Kong society, where marriage is widely viewed as an institution between a man and a woman.The ruling has received mixed reactions on social media.Taking to X, one pointed out the disappointment of the community that must have followed the ruling. Wrote, Hong Kong's Legislative Council vetoed a bill that would have granted limited legal rights to same-sex couples married overseas, disappointing LGBTQ groups.Another claimed the ruling had plunged Hong Kong into legal uncertainty. The post read, Hong Kongs legislature rejected a landmark bill that would have formally recognized same-sex partnerships, disappointing gay couples while plunging the city into legal uncertainty by defying a top court order.Many users took to Instagram to voice their opinion on the matter.One said,  Youll find true talent, energy and creativity in the LGBTQ+ community. Its HKs loss should they leave for more welcoming opportunities.Another wrote, HK is even more dead.While many protested, some supported the ruling. One user wrote, Long live China.Another said, The world is healing. One quipped, Shocking.. not!Hong Kongs decision comes amidst a global patchwork of LGBTQ+ rights, where progress is uneven and often contested. Several countries around the world continue to uphold restrictive laws and social norms that limit or outright deny rights to LGBTQ+ individuals.In Mali, a 2023 constitutional amendment explicitly banned same-sex marriage. Homosexuality remains criminalized, with punishments ranging from two to seven years in prison.In Bhutan, despite decriminalizing same-sex relations in 2021, it has not moved toward recognizing same-sex partnerships or marriages. The country has yet to introduce any legislation that offers legal rights or protections for LGBTQ+ couples.In Russia, LGBTQ+ rights have been steadily rolled back since 2013, with the introduction of laws banning propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships to minors.Poland has witnessed a surge in anti-LBGTQ+ sentiment in recent years. A number of local governments have declared themselves LGBT-free zones. Same-sex marriage remains illegal, and legal recognition of homosexual partnerships is nonexistent.On the other hand, many countries have made significant strides in recognizing and protecting LGBTQ+ rights.Netherlands, was the first country to legalize same-sex marriage in 2001, offering full marriage rights and adoption access to same-sex couples.In Canada, same-sex marriage has been legal nationwide since 2005. South Africa, was he first African country to legalize same-sex marriage in 2006, with constitutional protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation.As Hong Kong rejected the bill to grant limited rights to same-sex partnerships despite a court mandate, it reflects the ongoing resistance rooted in traditional values. Globally, LGBTQ+ rights remain uneven, with some countries advancing protections while others maintain restrictive laws.
Mirai

HanuMan

Choodalani Vundi

Chiranjeevi chose Teja Sajja for Choodalani Vundi

Choodalani Vundi

Choodalani Vundi

( Image credit : Teja Sajja in Mirai. | Credit: Dharma Productions )

( Image credit : Chiranjeevi with his wife. | Credit: Instagram )

Choodalani Vundi

Choodalani Vundi

Calcutta Mail

Calcutta

Whats Mirai about?

Mirai

( Image credit : Manchu Manoj in Mirai. | Credit: Dharma Productions )

Teja Sajja is gearing up for the release of, slated to hit the screens on September 12. This will be his first release after(2024), which emerged as a blockbuster. Teja Sajja has a long association with the Telugu film industry. He made his debut as a two-year-old with Chiranjeevis(1998), In a recent interaction with the media, Teja revealed that Megastar personally chose him for the role.is one of the most popular films of Chiranjeevis career. It hit the screens in 1998 and emerged as a commercial success.saw Chiranjeevi work with Teja Sajja, who was just two back then. In a recent interaction with the media, The 30-year-old star revealed that the makers of the film were looking for a child to play the matinee idols son. A bunch of photos were sent to Chiranjeevi and he personally handpicked Teja for the part, kickstarting his journey.The makers were looking for a small kid who would play Chiranjeevi's son and took a bunch of snaps to Chiru garu, and he handpicked my snap and told the makers that he wanted me at any cost. My parents were not at all interested in films, and the makers had a tough time convincing me to join the film,was an action thriller directed by Gunasekhar. It centered on a mechanic who falls for a woman he meets on the train. This leads to a series of unusual events. The film received rave reviews and played in theatres for 100 days,was remade in Hindi as. It was also dubbed in Tamil asComing back to the present, Teja Sajja is gearing up for the release of. It is a Telugu fantasy action drama directed by Karthik Gattamneni. The film features Teja Sajja as the protagonist and Manchu Manoj as his bitter foe. The plot revolves around nine ancient scriptures, created during Emperor Ashoka's reign, that can transform mere mortals into powerful gods.Its music is composed by Gowra Hari of HanuMan fame. Mirai is set to release in theatres on September 12.
( Image credit : My Bias Is Showing?! episode 5. Credit: iQIYI )

My Bias Is Showing?!: Release date and time for Episode 5

Where to Watch My Bias Is Showing?! Episode 5 Online?

My Bias Is Showing?! episode 5: Spoilers

My Bias Is Showing?!

My Bias Is Showing?!: Cast and Characters

FAQs

My Bias Is Showing?!

Answer:

My Bias Is Showing?!

My Bias Is Showing?!

My Bias Is Showing?!

My Bias Is Showing?!

My Bias Is Showing?!

My Bias Is Showing?!

My Bias Is Showing?!

My Bias Is Showing?!

My Bias Is Showing?!

My Bias Is Showing?!Fans awaiting the K-drama My Bias Is Showing?! can stream Episode 5 online on September 11, 2025, at approximately 11:00 AM KST, which is 7:30 AM IST, as per the official schedule.The story follows Na Ae Joon, a high school teacher whose ordinary life is turned upside down when his school becomes the set of a drama starring his idol, Choi Si Yeol, who invites him to join as a "co-teacher." What begins as a desperate attempt to conceal his fanboy side soon spirals into a tangled game of secrets and unexpected closeness.Episode 5 airs on Thursday, September 11, 2025, in South Korea and will go live around 11:00 AM KST on the iQIYI channel. Viewers in other time zones can expect the release at approximately 3:00 AM BST in the UK and 7:30 AM IST in India on the same day. The episode will also be available for international audiences via streaming on iQIYI and Wavve, which provides English subtitles to make the series accessible worldwide.Episode 5 is available to stream on iQIYI, the main legal platforms offering high-quality video and English subtitles. For viewers in the U.S., Canada, India, Indonesia, and the UK, iQIYI and Wavve continues to be the top choices for watching the series.Ae Joon wakes up at Si Yeol's house in complete shock, torn between believing last night's kiss was a fleeting dream or an overwhelming reality. The uncertainty lingers as he returns to school for filming, only to find himself and Si Yeol dressed in matching outfits.As the cameras roll, Si Yeol boldly closes the distance between them, leaving Ae Joon's heart pounding with confusion, excitement, and a rush of emotions he can no longer ignore.The live-action drama stars Kevin of OMEGA X as the quiet yet endearing teacher Na Ae-joon, alongside Kim Kang Min, who takes on the role of idol heartthrob Choi Si-yeol. Rounding out the cast are Park Jin Woo and Choi Won Ho, adding depth through their supporting performances.Episode 5 will be released on September 11, 2025, and will air at 10:40 PM KST, around 7:30 AM IST.Episode 5 will be available for streaming on iQIYI and Wavve, the platform offering English subtitles.Yes,is fully subtitled in English on iQIYI and Wavve, including Episode 5.Episode 5 will see a teacher's secret fangirl life unravels when his idol bias films at his school, sparking closeness, secrets, and deception.No,is not available on Netflix. The drama officially streams on iQIYI and Wavve.
( Image credit : Oli's latest term ended abruptly in 2025 following mass protests led by Gen Z activists against a government-imposed social media ban | Credit: X/zoo_bear )

The night of Royal massacre: June 1, 2001

( Image credit : Crown Prince Dipendra, allegedly in a drunken rage opened fire during a family gathering | Credit: X/ThatCyberPanda )

Official inquiry and public opinion

The end of monarchy

( Image credit : In 2015, Nepal adopted a new constitution and K.P. Sharma Oli became the PM | Credit: X/KraantiKumar )

To stay updated on the stories that are going viral follow Indiatimes Trending.

The current unrest in Nepal, driven by Gen Z-led protests against censorship and corruption, is not a single moment in the countrys history. Nepal has long grappled with deep political instability. One of the most traumatic episodes unfolded in 2001, when the royal family was nearly wiped out in a palace massacre. That tragedy triggered national outrage, conspiracy theories, and eventually, the collapse of the monarchy. The echoes of that turmoil still shape Nepals democracy today.On the night of June 1, 2001, Nepal was shaken by the devastating massacre at the Narayanhiti Royal Palace in Kathmandu. Crown Prince Dipendra, allegedly in a drunken rage over a dispute regarding his choice of a bride, opened fire during a family gathering.Nepalese officials reported that the 29-year-old crown prince, who was educated at Eton, had long disagreed with his mother over his choice of bride. On the night of the incident, the royal family had gathered for a large meeting to discuss his marriage plans. According to sources cited by CNN , the crown prince, dressed in military fatigues, entered a sitting room in the royal palace around 10:40 PM local time on that Friday and opened fire with an automatic rifle. Unconfirmed reports suggest that he wanted to marry the daughter of a former government minister, a match opposed by the queen.In the attack, several members of the royal family died - King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya, his brother Prince Nirajan, 22, and his sister, 24-year-old Princess Shruti. King Birendras sisters, Princess Shrada and Princess Shanti, along with his brother-in-law Kumar Khadga, were also among the victims of the massacre. Another royal family member, Prince Dhirendra, was critically injured in the attack. At last, he turned the weapon on himself.Dipendra fell into a coma and died in the hospital. His uncle, Prince Gyanendra, ascended to the throne following the tragedy. A government-appointed committee concluded that Dipendra was solely responsible for the massacre.However, many Nepalese citizens remain unconvinced, believing that the official narrative was a cover-up for a deeper conspiracy involving political motives. Some have speculated that elements within the royal family or external forces orchestrated the killings to eliminate King Birendra, who was seen as a stabilizing figure. In July 2008, a Nepalese soldier, Lal Bahadur Lamteri, claimed to be an eyewitness to the 2001 royal massacre. He alleged that Crown Prince Dipendra, widely blamed for the killings, was actually shot before the rest of the royal family. According to Lamteri, Prince Paras, Gyanendras son and Dipendras cousin, attended the royal dinner accompanied by a man who wore a mask resembling Dipendra. The masked individual fatally shot Dipendra before the other family members were killed. Lamteri also reported seeing Dipendra in his private room, wounded and intoxicated, before the massacre.The massacre plunged Nepal into a period of political instability. King Gyanendra's ascension to the throne was met with public discontent, and his reign was characterized by authoritarianism. In 2006, a popular movement forced him to reinstate the parliament, and in 2008, Nepal abolished its monarchy and declared itself a federal democratic republic. In 2015, Nepal adopted a new constitution. K.P. Sharma Oli became the PM the same year, serving four non-consecutive terms, with reappointments in 2018, 2021, and 2024. His latest term ended abruptly in 2025 following mass protests led by Gen Z activists against a government-imposed social media ban. The unrest, sparked by outrage over censorship and deepening corruption, escalated after security forces killed 19 demonstrators, ultimately forcing Oli to resign amid mounting public and political pressure.
Reuters

How the Nepal protest escalated

( Image credit : Protests driven largely by Gen Z | Credit: X/chandangoopta )

Indian celebrities voice concern



Actor Prajakta Koli, who is married to a Nepali, Vrishank Khanal, was supposed to travel to Nepal soon, announced that she was cancelling her trip. On Instagram, she wrote, "What happened in Nepal yesterday is truly heartbreaking. Any form of celebration at such a time feels inappropriate. My heart goes out to the families of those who have suffered. I was really looking forward to being there and meeting everyone, but now isn't the right time. Hopefully, I'll get to see you all very soon."



( Image credit : Prajakta Koli was supposed to travel to Nepal soon. | Credit: mostlysane/Instagram )

Prajaktas Mismatched co-star Rohit Saraf, who was born in Kathmandu, also posted a heartfelt message and criticized the violence. The actor who will be next seen in Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari shared, "To everyone in Nepal... my thoughts and prayers are with you. No struggle should come at the cost of innocent lives. Violence is never the answer. Hoping for dialogue, compassion, and peace."



( Image credit : Rohit Saraf was born in Kathmandu. | Credit: Instagram/rohitsaraf )

This influencer went too far

While many expressed solidarity, not everyones response was received well. Influencer Rajesh Yadav, also known for his roles in Jawan (2023), Campus Diaries (2022) , and Woh 3 Din (2022), posted a reel as a millennial shading Nepals Gen Z protesters and apologising to Indian Gen Zs. He framed it as a meme, calling it a public apology to Gen Z.



The post backfired as users criticized him for making light of the violence. One user wrote, Picking up such an insensitive topic in the name of content, just to sound relatable. What kind of world are we living in where everything is just content now? The reason I dont relate to most content creators is that whatever happens or trends on Instagram becomes their bread and butter.



Another commented, Do your homework. Get every detail, then make the video. Make this explicit: it isnt about social media... its about corruption in Nepal, and thats why this happened.





What lies ahead in Nepal

As Nepal faces uncertainty after the resignation of its prime minister, questions remain about who the youth will support next. Among the possible names are Kathmandus mayor, Balendra Shah, who is popular for his city clean-up drive, and Rabi Lamichhane, a TV journalist-turned-politician whose party has drawn young followers.

Nepal has been hit by massive youth-led protests after the government banned major social media platforms last week. The ban was announced, citing the spread of fake news, but many activists saw it as an attempt to silence their growing online anti-corruption movement.According to, one of the activists, Sandip, 31-year-old from Lalitpur, who goes by one name, said he made several online appeals, sometimes using VPNs to get around the ban, but did not expect so many people to take to the streets. Every single citizen of Nepal was done with the corrupt government of Nepal. The anger against this government had been brewing for many months, but the call for this protest was very spontaneous,  said Sandip.The demonstrations quickly turned violent, especially outside Nepals Parliament building. Police used tear gas, water cannons, and even live rounds to disperse the crowds. At least 19 protesters were killed in the clashes.The protests forced Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli resigned on Tuesday, September 9 plunging the country into political uncertainty. Several ministers also stepped down, including Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak, Agriculture Minister Ramnath Adhikari, and Health Minister Pradip Paudel. Protesters even stormed and vandalized the residence of President Ram Chandra Poudel.This wave of youth protests comes 13 months after similar demonstrations in Bangladesh, where young people forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to step down after years in power.The unrest in Nepal has caught the attention of Indian celebrities and influencers, who took to social media to share their concern.Veteran actress Manisha Koirala was among the first to react. Sharing a photo of a bloodied shoe, she wrote in Nepali, "        ,         (Today is a black day for Nepalwhen bullets respond to the voice of the people, outrage against corruption, and demand for justice.)"
( Image credit : Many described a sense of growing panic as shops remained shuttered and information scarce | Credit: X/MarioNawfal )

Pilgrims stuck at Kathmandu airport

TOI

( Image credit : Amid the Gen Z-led protests in Nepal, numerous Indian tourists, including pilgrims, and families, have found themselves stranded | Credit: X/chandangoopta )

Pilgrims stranded in Tibets high altitude

Bengal tourists to be brought back soon

( Image credit : Approximately 2, 000 Indian pilgrims are stuck in Darchen, Tibet | Credit: X/AFP )

Andhra Pradesh emergency contact

Deccan Herald

Ahmedabad emergency contact number

Nepal Unrest: Following recent disturbances in Kathmandu, the Ahmedabad District Administration has announced a helpline number: 079-27560511. Relatives of Ahmedabad citizens traveling to Nepal are requested to share their details immediately. Indian tourists stranded in Nepal pic.twitter.com/YdN5vU3jir  Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) September 10, 2025

We would like to inform that our Embassy in Nepal @IndiainNepal has reached out to the concerned person and provided necessary assistance.



Emergency contact numbers for Indian citizens:

1. +977  980 860 2881



2. +977  981 032 6134 https://t.co/Z12XwDcaPc  Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) September 10, 2025

Amid the Gen Z-led protests in Nepal, numerous Indian tourists, including pilgrims and families, have found themselves stranded across the region. With flights disrupted and borders shuttered, multiple state governments and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) are coordinating emergency rescue operations.Among those affected are several Indian pilgrims who had just completed their Kailash Mansarovar Yatra and returned to Kathmandu, only to find themselves trapped at Tribhuvan International Airport due to the ongoing unrest. Those on the ground toldthat the situation inside the airport is chaotic, with airport gates shut, limited access to food and water, and only a single charging point available for hundreds of stranded passengers. Many described a sense of growing panic as shops remained shuttered and information scarce.Approximately 2,000 Indian pilgrims are stuck in Darchen, Tibet, which is the high-altitude starting point of the Kailash Mansarovar circuit. Having completed their parikrama, many are ill, suffering from altitude sickness, and are now facing shortages of accommodation, oxygen support, and medical facilities. The MEA, through the Indian mission in Beijing, is cooperating with Chinese authorities to find return routes, although uncertainty persists over viable transit options amid Nepals closed borders.The Kailash Mansarovar Yatra resumed in 2025 after a five-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic and border tensions. The pilgrimage, significant for Hindus, Jains, and Buddhists, is taking place through two routes - one in Uttarakhand and another in Sikkim.West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that Bengali tourists stranded in violence-hit Nepal would be repatriated within a couple of days. Speaking in Jalpaiguri, she urged residents in districts bordering Nepal to maintain peace, stressing that Nepals unrest was not West Bengals internal matter. She further assured that her administration is monitoring the situation.In response to the escalating unrest in Nepal, the Andhra Pradesh government has initiated an emergency rescue operation to assist its citizens stranded in Kathmandu. A dedicated 247 emergency cell has been established at the Andhra Pradesh Bhavan in New Delhi, coordinating efforts with the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu to ensure the safety and timely return of affected Telugu citizens.According to, Suresh Babu has been appointed as the Emergency Nodal Officer at AP Bhavan and can be contacted at +91 98183 95787 for urgent assistance, officials from the Andhra Pradesh government confirmed.The Ahmedabad District Administration has launched a helpline at 079-27560511. Relatives of Ahmedabad residents traveling to Nepal have been urged to share their details. Additional contacts include the Ahmedabad District Disaster Management Center (079-27560511) and the Gujarat State Disaster Management Center in Gandhinagar at 079-23251900/902/914.The Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal, stated that the Indian Embassy in Nepal has contacted the concerned individuals and extended necessary assistance. Additionally, the MEA has shared emergency contact numbers for Indian citizens in Nepal: +977-9808602881 and +977-9810326134.The Indian government has provided emergency contact numbers and is coordinating with its embassy to assist stranded citizens in Nepal. Efforts are ongoing to ensure their safe return amid the unrest.
( Image credit : Avishkar Raut's viral speech from March 2025 | Credit: X | @effucktivehumor )

Who is the 'Jai Nepal' guy whose Hitler-style speech went viral 6 months ago?

WION

That Jai Nepal guy is back and actively participating in the protest against this corrupt Nepali govt.  pic.twitter.com/skXTsQxFjm  Mikku  (@effucktivehumor) September 9, 2025

Avishkar Raut's viral speech from March 2025

( Image credit : Avishkar Raut's viral speech from March 2025 | Credit: X | @GHQGATE4 )

Netizens react to the student's Hitler-style speech from the past and now

Another Greta Thunberrg  Poonam (@PoonamSing43201) September 9, 2025

( Image credit : Netizens react to the student's Hitler-style speech from the past and now | Credit: X | @effucktivehumor )

To stay updated on the stories that are going viral, follow Indiatimes Trending.

Nepal is burning, and so is the internet on fire! The country witnessed a dramatic political upheaval sparked by a young voice that grabbed the attention of netizens six months ago. Earlier this year, his bold 'Jai Nepal' address set social media ablaze, earning both admiration and controversy. He is back again, leading the Gen Z protest in Kathmandu and actively participating in the ongoing anti-corruption movement in Nepal. But who is he, and why is he an integral part of this protest, and is he Nepals Greta Thunberg? Let's find out.In Nepal, what began as a moment of online fame has now evolved into a powerful Gen Z-led protest movement in Kathmandu.Under the viral student's leadership, the protests have rocked the nation, resulting in multiple casualties and forcing the resignation of the Prime Minister, along with several high-ranking government officials.According to, the viral 'Jai Nepal' guy whose Hitler-style speech went viral 6 months ago has been identified as Avishkar Raut. Recently, amid other viral videos circulating, a social media video from the protest showed Avishkar Raut leading the charge with a microphone, chanting slogans with fierce determination.As per his last speech, he is the head boy of Everlasting Imperial Institute, Holy Bell English Secondary School.On the other hand, his latest viral video shows that he is surrounded by a crowd of young students rallying behind him; the footage captured the growing momentum of Nepal's youth-led movement demanding change.A passionate speech by a Nepali student during his school's annual programme has gone viral, capturing the boys intense dedication to Nepals future and progress.In the last speech that went viral in March 2025, Raut could be heard saying, "Today I stand here, standing here with a dream of building a new Nepal, with a fire of hope and passion burning within me. But my heart is heavy because this dream seems to be slipping away. Rise and shine, futures of this upcoming imperial empire.""Nepal, our mother, this country gave us birth and nurtured us. But what did it ask in return? Just our honesty, our hard work, and our contribution. But what are we doing? We are bound by the chains of unemployment, seeing a broad source of opportunities."As soon as the video surfaced on social media, it quickly went viral and grabbed eyeballs. Some praised him, while others mocked him for his young age and hate speech.One X (formerly called Twitter) asked, "Don't you have to study?" While one called him, " Another Greta Thunberrg.""Revolutionbaazi," another added. "I knew the way he speaks, something like that going to happen in Nepal soon."While one said, he will definitely become a Politician. ""Bro is the next supreme of Nepal," one said. "Upcoming politician...good or bad thts depends after he gets a seat..."
( Image credit : Who is Decarlos Brown Jr. (L)? The man behind killing Iryna Zarutska (R) | Credit: X | @C_3C_3 and @WallStreetMav )

Brutal footage of Iryna Zarutska murder shows no one stepping in



A refugee escaping war finds violence in a new land

Zarutska, who had recently escaped war-torn Ukraine, had been living in a bomb shelter before arriving in the United States in search of safety. Her family described her as strong, hopeful, and determined to start a new life in peace. Instead, she became the victim of a random and horrific act of violence in what was meant to be a place of refuge.



Suspect faces murder charge, questions arise about justice system

DeCarlos Brown Jr, who has now been charged with murder, had 14 prior criminal arrests before the fatal attack. He is currently in custody and could face the death penalty. Justice Department officials confirmed the charge on Tuesday.



Attorney General Pam Bondi said through a spokesperson that the state would pursue the harshest punishment available, calling the murder unforgivable and the result of a criminal justice system that has allowed violent offenders to walk free. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche also criticised what he referred to as the failure of lenient policies, warning that such tragedies erode public trust in urban safety.



Zarutskas death has not only shocked the community but also reignited a national conversation about safety in public spaces, the role of bystanders, and the urgent need for reforms that put victims before violent offenders.

Heartbreaking video footage has emerged from the Charlotte, North Carolina, light rail train where 30-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska was fatally stabbed last month. In the clip, Zarutska boards the train and sits down, unaware of the imminent danger seated just behind her. Minutes later, suspect DeCarlos Brown Jr is seen pulling a pocketknife and slashing her throat in a swift and brutal attack.Despite the horrifying nature of the assault, no passengers intervened. One person reportedly filmed the attack as it unfolded. Social media users reacted with disbelief and sorrow, pointing out that not a single individual attempted to help the victim during or after the attack. Screenshots shared online depict commuters watching in silence or walking past her lifeless body.
( Image credit : Pakistans Sattarbuksh just defeated Starbucks in court | Credit: X/pakistanroxx )

Starbucks lost lawsuit to Pakistans Sattarbuksh after 12 years



A desi dupe that refused to die

According to Managing Director Armaghan Shahid, Starbucks tried hard to shut them down but failed. He explained that while the logos may feel similar, the details are distinct, and the menu at Sattarbuksh is far more diverse. Beyond coffee, they serve everything from burgers and sandwiches to desserts and even shisha. Basically, it is Starbucks with masala.



( Image credit : Pakistans Sattarbuksh just defeated Starbucks in court | Credit: X/pakistanroxx )

What began as a joke has now become a legit business empire in Pakistan, proving once again that desi humour can sometimes outplay corporate giants. And with Starbucks officially losing the case, Sattarbuksh has cemented its place in cafe folklore.



Why the internet cannot stop laughing

The win has sparked memes across social media, with users joking that Pakistan pulled off the greatest brand dupe in history. For many, it is not just about coffee; it is about beating a global monopoly with wit, culture, and a good old moustache.



( Image credit : Pakistans Sattarbuksh just defeated Starbucks in court | Credit: X/pakistanroxx )

Sattarbuksh Vs Starbucks

So here we are in 2025, and Starbucks is still the global giant with 16,000 outlets. But in Pakistan, Sattarbuksh stands tall as the ultimate underdog story. It is not just about coffee anymore, it is about how parody, culture, and humour brewed into a cup strong enough to outlast a corporate lawsuit.



( Image credit : Pakistans Sattarbuksh just defeated Starbucks in court | Credit: X/pakistanroxx )

FAQs

1. What is Sattarbuksh?



Sattarbuksh is a Pakistani cafe inspired by Starbucks, known for its witty name and moustached-man logo.



2. Why did Starbucks sue Sattarbuksh?



Starbucks claimed that the cafes branding was too similar to its own iconic logo and name.



3. How did Sattarbuksh win the lawsuit?



By arguing their cafe was a parody rather than piracy and making slight logo adjustments, they convinced the court.



4. What does Sattarbuksh serve?



Unlike Starbucks, their menu includes coffee, burgers, sandwiches, desserts, and even shisha.



5. Why is this story trending online?



Because it is a classic David vs Goliath case where a local parody cafe beat a global giant, and social media is loving it.

When you think Starbucks, you picture the iconic green siren, right? But in Pakistan, that image got a hilarious makeover back in 2013. Two entrepreneurs, Rizwan Ahmad and Adnan Yousuf, opened a cafe called Sattarbuksh, a witty mix of the common Pakistani name Sattar and buksh, meaning servant. Think parody, not piracy.At first glance, their logo looked like a cheeky twin of Starbucks, except instead of a mermaid, it sported a moustached man. Starbucks was not amused and sent a legal notice. But instead of folding, Sattarbuksh fought back, tweaking its branding and arguing it was satire. And guess what? They actually won.
( Image credit : Apple iPhone 17 series: What to expect at the September 9 Awe Dropping event | Credit: Macrumors )

48MP x 3 still doesn't equal 200MP  #iCant  Samsung Mobile US (@SamsungMobileUS) September 9, 2025



Internet reactions were split, and hilarious

The comment section became a war zone. Some users clapped back at Samsung, saying things like, Stay relevant for the next decade, and Even we cant believe folding phones are still a thing.



Oh Apple...3x48MP is still less than 200MP. And @SamsungMobileUS has offered 8k video for 5+ years. Also, #iCant with that weird camera plateau thing. These are "upgrades"?!! #SamsungCan#SamsungPartner#TeamSamsungpic.twitter.com/OGJMoDMvzY  Jennifer Wright (@stylishlysocial) September 10, 2025

Others defended Samsungs sass, praising the Galaxy Fold and Galaxy Z series for pushing boundaries while Apple plays it safe. And someone really went for blood with, Remember when yall said you would not remove headphone jacks? Where are they now?



( Image credit : Apple iPhone 17 series: What to expect at the September 9 Awe Dropping event | Credit: Macrumors | Credit: X/iphonelovers )

Meanwhile, Apple fans just want to talk specs

Apples VP of iPhone product marketing, Kaiann Drance, hyped up iPhone 17 as the most useful iPhone yet, touting the Dual Fusion 48MP camera, all-day battery, and next-gen scratch resistance. The camera also features Center Stage, which automatically follows your face, a cool upgrade for FaceTime addicts.



( Image credit : Apple iPhone 17 series: What to expect at the September 9 Awe Dropping event | Credit: Macrumors | Credit: X/iphonelovers )

Samsung may not have launched a phone this week, but it definitely launched a meme war. Whether you are #TeamApple or #TeamSamsung, one thing is clear: the drama is better than the keynote.



Now if Apple drops a foldable next year? Samsung better start prepping new material.

Apple revealed its latest lineup, iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and the super-light iPhone Air, in a flashy September 9th event called Awe Dropping. New cameras, an A19 chip, brighter ProMotion displays, and better battery were all the rage. But guess who was not impressed?Samsung, the brand instantly brought the heat on X (formerly Twitter) by throwing major shade Apples way. And not with a fresh roast, nope, they went back to the archives and dragged out a 2022 tweet that read, Let us know it when it folds.Quoting it with a snarky new line, #iCant believe this is still relevant, Samsung fired a direct shot at Apples still-foldless iPhones. Samsungs #iCant roast for the new Apple iPhone17 turns social media into a clapback arena It did not stop there. Samsung has been peppering its reactions to Apples event with one spicy hashtag: #iCant.When tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee posted about the event, Samsung replied with: Actual innovation > hype #iCant  a not-so-subtle jab at Apples new features that Samsung fans claim already exist in Galaxy devices.
The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3:

The Summer I Turned Pretty

The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3 TikTok theories explained:

The Summer I Turned Pretty

( Image credit : Christopher Briney as Conrad Fisher in The Summer I Turned Pretty | Credit: Prime Video )

1. Conrads chest pain and family history of heart disease

2. Lola Tungs emotional reaction to the ending

( Image credit : Lola Tung hinted at the emotional ending of the show | Credit: Prime Video )

3. Conrad's arm pain and other subtle complaints

( Image credit : Was Conrads arm pain a subtle clue about bigger health issues? | Credit: Prime Video )

4. Jenny Hans promise of a different ending

Well Always Have Summer

( Image credit : Jenny Han has openly said the show wont stick strictly to the books | Credit: Prime Video )

5. Kayleighs pregnancy and the legacy theory

Fans say Conrads death theory would ruin TSITP love story

Book vs. show: A risky twist?

The Summer I Turned Pretty

Wednesday

September 10

September 17

For more news and updates from the world of OTT, and celebrities from Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment.

Couldreally end with Conrad Fishers death? Thats the theory keeping fans up at night as Season 3 barrels toward its finale. While the idea sounds extreme, especially since Jenny Hans original books gave Belly (Lola Tung) and Conrad (Christopher Briney) a bittersweet but lasting love story, TikTok edits, Reddit threads, and even small on-screen details have convinced many that the series is heading toward a tragic twist.Brineys portrayal of Conrad has always carried a fragility beneath the stoic charm, and now every pained look, every hand pressed to his chest, and every cryptic interview from the cast is fuelling fan theories that his death might be how it all ends. Add Jenny Han teasing that the ending wont follow the books exactly, and fans are bracing for heartbreak on a whole new level.Here are the five biggest reasons viewers believe Conrad Fisher may not survive inseason 3.One of the most convincing pieces of evidence comes from Conrads repeated moments of discomfort on screen. Several times this season, hes been seen clutching his chest, a detail that fans have linked to an earlier line about heart disease running in the Fisher family.While it could just reflect his anxiety or stress over Belly and Jeremiah, many argue that Jenny Han wouldnt spotlight such a physical symptom without reason. To them, it feels like intentional foreshadowing of a medical crisis.A TikTok theory gained traction after fans misinterpreted an interview where Lola Tung revealed she cried after filming the finale. Although Tung clarified that she tends to get emotional on the last day of shooting, fans latched onto the idea that her tears might point to something devastating happening to Conrad.The speculation grew because Bellys relationship with Conrad has always been at the heart of the story, and a tragic ending for him would explain such an intense reaction from the actress.In addition to chest discomfort, fans picked up on Conrad complaining about arm pain in one episode. For most viewers, this might seem like a throwaway line, but Reddit threads have linked it to symptoms of underlying heart problems.When paired with his visible stress and physical gestures, these minor complaints begin to look like breadcrumbs pointing toward an illness. Still, some argue that its just a portrayal of Conrads mental health struggles and his ongoing battle with anxiety rather than an actual disease.In the book, Belly eventually marries Conrad after years of heartbreak and growth. But Jenny Han has repeatedly said that she approached the show with fresh eyes and has been open to changing certain arcs for television.She even teased that the final season would leave fans devastated and heartbroken. That single comment was enough to convince many that Conrads death could be one of the biggest deviations from the source material.In Episode 8, Adams new girlfriend Kayleigh turns down champagne during a toast, which fans immediately flagged as a sign of pregnancy. Some theorists believe that if Conrad dies, Kayleigh could name her child after him, cementing his legacy within the Fisher family storyline.Many fans arent buying into the theory at all, and some downright hate it. On Reddit, viewers argue that killing Conrad would ruin Jenny Hans original love story and feel like cheap shock value. Others say theyve waited three seasons for Belly and Conrads romance to play out, and taking him away now would be cruel and pointless and that Conrad has already suffered so much.In Hans novels, Conrad and Bellys love story is slow, messy, but ultimately enduring. Killing him off in the series would not only shock fans but also completely rewrite the trajectory of Bellys future. Still, the showrunner has already proven shes willing to bend or break canon to heighten drama. With Christopher Brineys brooding portrayal of Conrad winning over so many viewers, the idea of losing him is almost unthinkable, but thats exactly why the theory resonates.season 3 episode 10 drops on, with the finale airing on
Ludhiana: Woman hangs out of moving auto to escape robbery

( Image credit : Woman hangs out of moving auto to escape robbery. | Credit: @nabilajamal_/X )

( Image credit : Woman hangs out of moving auto to escape robbery. | Credit: @nabilajamal_ /X )

Social media praises her and the onlookers

Crazy and courageous!!



Woman foils robbery on moving auto



On PhillaurLudhiana highway, she fought against robbers, clung to the side of the auto and forced it to overturn, trapping the men inside



Police arrested them soon after.

Huge praises for this lady from Punjab  pic.twitter.com/0u7LqBx72w  Nabila Jamal (@nabilajamal_) September 10, 2025

In an extremely courageous act, a Ludhiana woman saved herself from a robbery in a moving auto by clinging on the vehicle while signalling for help from other commuters. Three robbers who tried to snatch her phone and money inside auto arrested by @Ludhiana_Police@IndianExpresspic.twitter.com/N7KXS62Olp  Divya Goyal (@divya5521) September 10, 2025

Horrific incident 



A woman showed remarkable courage on the PhillaurLudhiana highway by foiling a robbery inside a moving auto.

If this can happen in broad daylight, imagine the state of law and order in Punjab

pic.twitter.com/0bDldBiQlD  Manish (@4evermanish) September 10, 2025

                         



               ,  -- 



           pic.twitter.com/D9TuLE1JKE  Arshit Yadav (@imArshit) September 10, 2025

Law&Order in Punjab is at its lowest level -loot,chain/mobile snatching is so common ladies hv stopped wearing gold chains/bangles while travelling alone -ppl had huge expectations from AAP, just for the lust of 400-500 electricity bill waiver voters allowed punjab to get ruined  #WhatNext (@ThisNMore) September 10, 2025

Two suspects arrested

( Image credit : Two suspects arrested | Credit: Canva Stock Images )

A shocking incident of attempted robbery on a moving autorickshaw on the PhillaurLudhiana highway in Punjab has caught the attention of social media users across the country. The incident took place near the Jalandhar bypass on Tuesday, September 9, when a woman narrowly escaped the attack by hanging herself from the moving vehicle.The victim, Meena Kumari, took an autorickshaw from Jalandhar Bypass to catch a bus from Phillaur. Along with the driver, two other passengers were already in the vehicle. Soon, Meena realized that all three men were attempting a robbery.As the autorickshaw neared her destination, one of the robbers asked the driver to slow down, and both men tried to overpower her, reported The Times of India.The robbers reportedly tied Meenas hands and threatened her with sharp-edged weapons. However, showing courage, she screamed and even hung out of the autorickshaw to signal passersby for help.A car traveling behind the autorickshaw recorded the entire scenario, helping authorities and social media users witness the womans brave escape.The video quickly made rounds on social media, with users praising Meenas courage. One user wrote on X, Crazy and courageous!! A woman foiled a robbery on a moving auto on the PhillaurLudhiana highway; she fought against the robbers, clung to the side of the auto, and forced it to overturn, trapping the men inside. Police arrested them soon after. Huge praises for this lady from Punjab.Another user commented, In an extremely courageous act, a Ludhiana woman saved herself from a robbery in a moving auto by clinging to the vehicle while signaling for help from other commuters. Three robbers who tried to snatch her phone and money inside the auto were arrested by police.A third user wrote, A woman showed remarkable courage on the PhillaurLudhiana highway by foiling a robbery inside a moving auto. If this can happen in broad daylight, imagine the state of law and order in Punjab."Another user praised the quick action of the onlookers: This incident is heart-wrenching but also shows that brave and responsible people still exist in our society. The way the young men in the car behind courageously caught the robbers is commendable. The womans bravery and the prompt action of the youth prevented a major mishap. Salute to such youngsters. Police should take strict action against such criminals.Another user criticised the situation, saying, "Law&Order in Punjab is at its lowest level -loot,chain/mobile snatching is so common ladies hv stopped wearing gold chains/bangles while travelling alone -ppl had huge expectations from AAP, just for the lust of 400-500 electricity bill waiver voters allowed punjab to get ruined."Police have arrested two of the suspects, Mohit of Subhash Nagar and Dimple, who was staying near AR Model School. The third suspect, Shubham, also of Subhash Nagar, is yet to be arrested. Reports stated that Mohit has a criminal past and is facing three previous criminal cases.
The Shooting: A day of horror at Utah Valley University

The Guardian

Pray for Charlie Kirk! 



https://t.co/H2VXKSuhRw  The Austin Conservative  (@AustinConserve) September 10, 2025

Erika Frantzve: Charlie Kirk's wife and mother of their two children

( Image credit : Erika is known for her inspirational work, including the Biblein365 initiative, which helps people read the Bible daily (Credit: Instagram/@mrserikakirk) )

( Image credit : Erika Frantzve, Charlie Kirks wife, is a former Miss Arizona USA (2012), entrepreneur, and devoted Christian activist (Credit: Instagram/@mrserikakirk) )

Charlie Kirk's current medical status

Who was Charlie Kirk?

( Image credit : Charlie Kirk, 31, rose to prominence as a young conservative voice when he co-founded Turning Point USA at just 18 (Credit: X/@koshercockney) )

US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance react to Charlie Kirk's death

We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot. A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM! - President Donald J. Trump pic.twitter.com/GqYC4QdhA1  The White House (@WhiteHouse) September 10, 2025

Dear God, protect Charlie in his darkest hour. pic.twitter.com/RqNYfHLs2b  JD Vance (@JDVance) September 10, 2025

In a shocking and heartbreaking moment, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot while speaking at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025. The incident happened during his "American Comeback" tour, leaving his supporters and political allies stunned. A video from the event shows Kirk collapsing after being hit by a single gunshot, sparking chaos among attendees.Charlie Kirk, best known as the founder of Turning Point USA, was rushed for emergency treatment. US President Donald Trump confirmed on Truth Social that Charlie Kirk had succumbed to the injuries. This incident not only shook the conservative movement but also left a young family grieving. Many are now turning their attention to his personal life, particularly his wife, Erika Frantzve, and their two children.According to, the shooting took place during a live Q&A session under a white pop-up tent set up on campus. Witnesses reported hearing a single gunshot fired from a nearby building about 200 yards away. The suspect, described as an elderly man with no connection to the university, was immediately detained by campus police.The FBI has since taken over the investigation, with Director Kash Patel promising a thorough inquiry. Political leaders from across the United States, including former President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and Utah Senator Mike Lee, have condemned the attack and shared messages of support for Kirks family.Erika Frantzve, Charlie Kirks wife, is a former Miss Arizona USA (2012), an entrepreneur, and a devoted Christian activist. She married Kirk in May 2021, and the couple built a life centred on family and faith.Erika is known for her inspirational work, including the Biblein365 initiative, which helps people read the Bible daily. She also hosts the "Midweek Rise Up" podcast and writes the "Spirit Check" newsletter, where she shares spiritual guidance and reflections.On Instagram, @mrserikakirk, she often shares personal moments from her life as a mother and entrepreneur. The couple welcomed their first child, a daughter, in August 2022 and later had a son in May 2024. Both children are still very young, making Kirks sudden death even more tragic for the family.Despite immediate medical care, Charlie Kirks injuries seemed too severe. Authorities confirmed shortly that they were unable to save Charlie's life after being rushed to a nearby hospital.Supporters and political allies continue to send condolences and prayers to Erika and their children as they face this unimaginable incident.Charlie Kirk, 31, rose to prominence as a young conservative voice when he co-founded Turning Point USA at just 18. The organisation became one of the most influential conservative youth movements in the country, promoting free speech and conservative values on college campuses.Kirk also led Turning Point Action and Turning Point Faith, expanding his influence into politics and religious activism. His speaking tours, including the "Prove Me Wrong" and "American Comeback" tours, aimed to inspire and mobilise the next generation of conservatives.Known for his passionate support of former President Donald Trump, Kirk was a frequent commentator on conservative media. His legacy will be remembered for his bold voice, his dedication to his beliefs, and his impact on young conservatives nationwide.The shocking news drew immediate reactions from top political figures. Former President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social: "We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot. A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM!". Meanwhile, Vice President J.D. Vance shared on X (formerly Twitter): "Dear God, protect Charlie in his darkest hour." These tributes reflect the widespread impact Charlie Kirk has on American politics and the deep sense of emotions felt by his allies and followers.
Reports of absence sparked questions

Extremely handsome young Barron Trumppic.twitter.com/iJVqIId1Hx  Emma Love (@EmmaLove74) September 10, 2025

Move to Washington DC confirmed

Freshman year lifestyle

Thank God, His safety is not secure in NYC:

Barron Trump moves into White House as he starts sophomore year at NYU: sourceshttps://t.co/z60iAoRaTTpic.twitter.com/q4lFHAokMM  YupFedUp (@YupFedUp) September 10, 2025

Melanias concerns and AI connection

Speculation about Barron Trumps absence from New York Universitys main campus has ended with new reports confirming a major shift. The 19-year-old, who is entering his sophomore year, has moved into the White House and transferred to NYUs Washington DC campus. The decision brings him closer to his parents, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump.Earlier this month, sources cited in an Irish Star report noted that no one had seen Barron at the Greenwich Village campus despite the start of the new term. Having enrolled as a freshman in September 2024, he was first seen on campus accompanied by Secret Service agents. One source told columnist Rob Shuter, Everyone knows the Presidents son is supposed to be here, but its like hes a ghost. The absence led to speculation that he might be delaying his return or leaving the college altogether.According to the New York Post on September 9, Barron is now living at the White House and has switched to NYUs Washington DC academic centre. The site hosts up to 120 students per semester and focuses on areas such as politics, journalism, public policy, history, environmental studies, and economics. This move allows him to pursue his studies while staying closer to home.During his first year, Barron stayed at Trump Tower in Manhattan while frequently traveling to Mar-a-Lago in Florida to spend time with his father. A security officer also toldmagazine that Barron was completing a semester at another NYU campus. Beyond his studies, insiders said he spent the summer balancing social events with business meetings, noting he had been actively working on his own financial interests while also sharing significant time with his family.The reports of Barrons move followed a White House Task Force session on AI education, where Education Secretary Linda McMahon joked about her son helping her. Melania nodded in response, highlighting Barrons strong interest in technology, which President Trump has previously praised. In 2024, Melania had told Fox News that it was Barrons choice to study in New York, adding that she respected his decision. According to insiders, the First Lady remains constant in her concern for her son, ensuring she always knows his whereabouts and activities.
When Colleen Weis and her two siblings were growing up in central Pennsylvania, there were two rules for kids in the family home: Dont put your feet up on the white couches and dont bring food into the living room.

No particular rules existed around the 1937 Matisse that hung above the white couch, which may now fetch up to $25 million. Or the 1932 Picasso, valued at approximately $40 million, displayed behind the piano nearby.

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It was just that we lived with these beautiful works of art, Weis said. We were surrounded by them.

Colleens father, Robert F. Weis, was the heir to, and chairman of, Weis Markets, the regional supermarket chain. When he wasnt busy running the multimillion dollar company, he and his wife, Patricia G. Ross Weis, collected artwork.

Over the course of 60 years, they built a trove of modernist treasures, including works by Piet Mondrian, Joan Miro, and Mark Rothko.

That collection, assembled quietly and displayed in their homes in New York and rural Pennsylvania, is now headed for sale at Christies major fall auctions. Encompassing paintings, sculptures, and ceramics, the 80 pieces will likely bring in upward of $180 million, according to a Christies release about the sale.

Robert Weis died in 2015 and Patricia Weis in 2024; Weis Markets is now run by their son, Jonathan H. Weis. The auction house guaranteed the couples three children  Colleen, Jennifer, and Jonathan Weis  who are together selling the collection, a minimum payout that likely nears $200 million in advance of the sale, according to the New York Times.

In spite of the extraordinary value of the works, the art was all displayed in the homes where the Weis family spent time: a New York City apartment and the one-story ranch house that the couple built in the 1960s in Sunbury, Pa.

Unlike other collectors, who often put valuable works in storage or lend them to museums, they never wanted paintings to be away for extended periods of time, because they didnt want blank walls, Colleen Weis, the couples middle child, who lives in New York City, said. They really wanted to take pleasure in their pictures.

That meant some of the works had so rarely been seen in public that even art world professionals had only seen them reproduced in books, said Max Carter, Christies vice chairman of 20th and 21st century art.

Carter was particularly impressed with how the Weises accumulated such a rich, varied collection in the era they did.

These days, art collectors have quick access to enormous amounts of information to choose what to buy. But back then, the only way of doing what they did was through study, through travel, through looking carefully, and through patience, Carter said.

When he visited the ranch house in Sunbury to see the collection earlier this year, he encountered a wonderfully lived-in family atmosphere, he said, in which Picasso, Matisse, and other great artists hung within each others sight lines in the living room.

Weis said her fathers favorite hobby was reading his art books and reviewing catalogs. At home in Sunbury, he had spotlights installed in the living room; she recalled him switching off the regular lights and gazing at the artworks in the spotlights glow.

The masterpieces were woven into the kids daily lives, as natural as the chair in the corner, Weis said.

The couch pillows matched the living room Matisse. As a teenager, Weis took photos with her friends in front of a Picasso in the front hall. That painting, a stormy portrayal of the artists lover Francoise Gilot, was the only one her parents ever sold or traded away, she said, later replacing it with a dreamy portrait by Picasso of his lover Marie-Therese.

The family took a vacation to La Ciotat, in the south of France, to witness the spot where Georges Braque painted a vibrant early 1900s landscape they owned.

Selling the collection is bittersweet for the Weis siblings because it involves a dismantling of what their parents so painstakingly built, Weis said. But she is sure that its what her father would have wanted.

He always said: Were custodians of this collection. It will go to others, she recalled. It will be their chance to enjoy these masterworks.
Philadelphia police at the scene of a fatal shooting outside of the 7-Eleven at 12th and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia on Friday, September 5, 2025. Read more

The Philadelphia District Attorneys Office on Tuesday said the 45-year-old man charged with fatally shooting a woman during an altercation outside a 7-Eleven store in Center City will be charged with the lesser offense of voluntary manslaughter instead of murder based on new evidence.

John Kelly had been charged with murder and related offenses in the shooting death of 33-year-old Lauren Jardine outside the convenience store at 12th and Chestnut Streets on Friday evening.

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New video recovered by investigators showed that Jardine attempted to stab Kelly with a screwdriver before he shot her, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the case.

The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, said the video showed Jardine intervening in an argument between Kelly and his girlfriend, both of whom are homeless and were known to stay outside the 7-Eleven. The video does not have audio, the source said.

Jardine and Kelly then began arguing, and multiple people attempted to separate them, the source said. The video then shows Jardine pulled out a gun, which prosecutors said Monday she was carrying illegally.

Kelly pulled out a screwdriver in response, the source said, and Jardine, Kelly, and Kellys girlfriend then began to struggle over the screwdriver and the gun. At one point, Jardine took hold of the screwdriver, and Kelly took the gun. As Jardine sought to stab Kelly with the screwdriver, he shot her, the source said.

The district attorneys office said in a statement that after reviewing the new evidence, prosecutors are downgrading charges to voluntary manslaughter, felony firearms violations, and related offenses.

Staff at the district attorneys office have been in communication with the victims family to offer critical and necessary support during this investigative and criminal justice process, the office said. As this remains an ongoing investigation, we have no further comment at this time.

Jardines family declined to comment on the change Tuesday.

Jardine, of West Philadelphia, was shot in the lower back and one hand. She was rushed to nearby Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where she died a short time later.

Kelly was arrested near the scene of the shooting.

A preliminary hearing for Kelly, who continues to be held at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, is scheduled for Sept. 22.

A spokesperson for the Defender Association of Philadelphia, which represents Kelly, could not be reached for comment.
A Philadelphia judge who earlier this year fined District Attorney Larry Krasners office $120,000 over its handling of an open records dispute defended her decision Wednesday  and said an appellate court should consider imposing more penalties against the DAs office as it continues challenging her rulings in the case.

Common Pleas Court Judge Anne Marie Coyle wrote in an opinion that Krasners office unfairly attacked her character as it sought to reverse her decisions. And she said his office did so to avoid acceptance of responsibility for the continuing commission of reprehensible misconduct by its attorneys motivated by bad faith.

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She asked Commonwealth Court to deny Krasners attempts to overturn the penalties she levied against his office, and added: Additional sanctions are warranted. She did not specify what those penalties should be, nor did she impose any new ones herself.

Coyles remarks were another display of how bitter the case has become during its five-plus years winding through the courts. And they served as the latest development in the unusually heated legal saga that has gone on to pit Krasner against the judge and several former city prosecutors.

Krasners office declined to comment as the matter remains pending.

The episode traces back to 2018, when Krasners office filed a motion to dismiss all charges against Dontia Patterson, who had been convicted of murder a decade earlier. Former Assistant District Attorney Beth McCaffery handled Pattersons initial trial, which ended in a hung jury. And although McCaffery was not named in Krasners dismissal motion, prosecutors said Pattersons conviction was secured by egregious misconduct, including the concealment of exculpatory evidence, over both of Pattersons trials.

In 2020, McCaffery  who by then had left the office  submitted a right-to-know request seeking access to the case file, believing it would prove she had done nothing wrong. But Krasners office denied her request, saying the documents were exempt from public disclosure under Pennsylvanias open records laws.

The dispute has taken years to litigate; earlier this spring, Krasner and some of his top lieutenants were even called to testify at several days of evidentiary hearings.

In March, after those hearings concluded, Coyle ruled that Krasners office had unfairly accused McCaffery and another former prosecutor on Pattersons second trial, Richard Sax, of misconduct, saying the allegations had no good faith basis and were maliciously intended.

She ordered the office to pay $10,000 to McCaffery, $10,000 to Sax, and $100,000 to the courts. She also ordered a series of trainings for Krasners prosecutors on issues including professional conduct and truthfulness, and said McCaffery should be given access to the files.

Two weeks after her ruling, Krasners office filed paperwork asking for Coyle to reverse her penalty and recuse herself. Prosecutors said in court documents that Coyle had displayed an improper bias against them, and said her law clerk had liked posts on social media that were openly critical of Krasner.

Coyle declined the recusal request almost as soon as it was filed. And in her memo Wednesday, she said Krasners office had inaccurately attributed the alleged social media conduct to her law clerk, who Coyle said never posted about the case online and does not maintain social media accounts from which she could do so.

This Courts actual law clerk had to defend herself from the DAOs blatant misrepresentation, Coyle wrote.

The judge said the online conduct could have been the work of another person who was then serving as a support staffer but no longer works for her. But she also said she had seen no evidence to support substantiating prosecutors assertions.

In any case, Coyle said every ruling she has made in the matter has been supported by the law and should be affirmed.

There is no timetable by which the appellate court must issue its rulings on the issues.
Catalina Baldwin was held for trial in Montgomery County on Wednesday, charged with assaulting two infants in her care. Read more

When a 7-month-old girl arrived at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia in July, the infants injuries were so severe that it was clear the child had likely been violently shaken, thrown, or beaten, a doctor testified Wednesday.

Cindy Christian detailed the babys injuries in a Montgomery County courtroom, where 37-year-old Catalina Baldwin stood accused of aggravated assault on two infants at the Oaks childcare center where she worked.

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The bleeding inside the infants skull was so severe it was pushing on the brain, Christian told a judge as the parents of children who attended the center looked on.

Thats always incredibly dangerous, said Christian, a physician and child abuse expert. That, she said, is common in infants who are abused. The baby also suffered retinal damage and injuries to ligaments in her neck area, she said.

Baldwins lawyer, Brian McMonagle, suggested that the babys injuries could have happened at home. But the doctor said this is not an injury that happened hours, days, or weeks before the infants parents dropped her off that morning.

Baldwin was the only adult in the childcare centers infant room on July 9, prosecutors said. That morning, Baldwin sought assistance from the centers director, who arrived to find the child listless and unable to hold up her head. The director called first responders, who noted the child appeared to be having seizures.

During their investigation, police discovered a deleted message on Baldwins phone describing the child as being a nightmare, and later found evidence of a Google search for Shaken Syndrome two days after the incident, according to prosecutors.

That childs injuries came as Upper Providence police were already investigating an incident involving another infant who suffered a mouth injury under Baldwins care in May.

In that case, prosecutors said, Baldwin sought help from the AI chatbot ChatGPT on how to address the childs mothers concern that her babys safety was compromised at the center.

Christian said that in her assessment, the 5-month-olds mouth injury was not consistent with the explanation provided to her parents  that the infant had cut her mouth on a wicker basket.

I dont even believe that, Christian said. She considered the large laceration under the childs tongue to be a result of blunt trauma. The child later required a feeding tube after refusing to eat due to irritation, according to the doctor.

This was an inflicted injury, Christian said.

In court Wednesday, Baldwin cast her eyes downward and declined to comment on the charges as police led her from the courtroom after Montgomery County Court Judge Cathleen Kelly-Rebar held held her for trial on all charges. She posted bail late Wednesday, and will be placed on electronic monitoring and barred from having unsupervised contact with minors or contacting the victims families.

Baldwins arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 22. She no longer works at the Oaks Early Learning Center.
Jessica Zipkin was "a good soul" according to her family. She loved making cakes and pomegranate margaritas. Read more

A Perkiomen man accused of bludgeoning his ex-girlfriend to death with a hammer left her body in his apartment for 10 hours while he tried to cover up the crime, Montgomery County prosecutors said Tuesday at the start of his trial for first-degree murder and related crimes.

William Carey Jr., 47, is accused of striking Jessica Zipkin in the head more than 20 times during a domestic disturbance in his Gravel Pike apartment on the afternoon of Nov. 1, 2024.

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Police found Zipkin, 33, dead on the floor near the apartments entryway early the next morning after receiving a 911 call about a possible dead woman inside.

Medical examiners ruled the death a homicide, and prosecutors charged Carey with first- and third-degree murder as well as possessing an instrument of crime.

On Tuesday, Carey was led into the courtroom by several uniformed officers and sat silently as assistant District Attorney Christian Garfield Taffe described to the jury how the defendant battered Zipkins skull over and over and over with the weapon.

Taffe said the trial would showcase deliberate steps Carey took to mask his involvement in the crime, disposing of blood-stained clothing and attempting to buy a pair of new shoes and a cell phone.

Youre going to see the conscious steps the defendant took to conceal his crime, the prosecutor said.

Careys defense attorneys acknowledged that he killed Zipkin but said he was under the influence of drugs at the time. As a consequence, they said, he did not have deliberate intent to kill, as required for a finding of first-degree murder, which is punishable by a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

Careys lawyers told the jury he had taken methamphetamine, MDMA, and THC, and was not in a rational state during the attack.

We know how these drugs can overpower you, how these drugs can overwhelm you, and that leads to a loss of being rational, and a loss of being sensible, said defense attorney Scott Frame.

Prosecutors told the jury the hammer attack that killed Zipkin was savage. A medical examiner said the blows she sustained were so powerful that they left her brain partially liquefied, Taffe said.

As the trial continues this week, prosecutors are expected to present surveillance footage from the Duck Inn Taproom, a restaurant next to Careys apartment where he used to work as a handyman and barback. Less than 10 minutes after neighbors recalled hearing a womans screams that afternoon, prosecutors said, the footage shows Carey entering the restaurants basement and disposing of clothing in a trash can.

A cleaning worker Carey enlisted to help him buy new shoes and a cell phone is expected to testify that when the two arrived at the store, Carey was crying and spaced out and refused to get out of the car.

Around 1:30 a.m. the next morning, authorities said, Carey told his buildings owner there was a dead woman in his apartment. He was later arrested and has been held in the county jail ever since.

Carey and Zipkin had been dating since the spring, her family said, though the couple broke up by mid-October. They remembered Zipkin as a kind-hearted person who looked for the best in others.

[She] will drop everything shes doing to come to save you, thats the type of person she is, Zipkins best friend, Alania Perry, told The Inquirer.
The principal of Cherry Hill High School East, Daniel Finkle, is resigning effective Nov. 10, according to an email sent to families Tuesday. The news comes days after a former assistant principal, in a lawsuit, accused Finkle of discriminatory behavior and failure to follow safety protocols.

According to the email, Finkle has taken a position at another high school in New Jersey to become the educational leader there. He tendered his resignation to Superintendent Kwame Morton on Tuesday morning, the email said.

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The school board approved Finkles resignation at its Tuesday night meeting.

In the email, Finkle said he was filled with gratitude for his time at East.

From the very first day, you welcomed me with kindness, encouragement, and trust. That support gave me the strength to lead with purpose and the confidence to make changes that I believe have helped put our students first, he said.

The email did not specify Finkles new school or who would next serve as Easts principal.

Finkle has been the principal of East since August 2024. Prior to coming to Cherry Hill, he spent 12 years at Delran High School in Burlington County. Finkle has served in teaching and administrative roles in both private and public schools across New Jersey.

Finkle replaced Dennis Perry, who served as principal of East from 2016 until his retirement in 2024. Finkle was hired in May 2024 at a salary of $181,765.

In a statement, Morton, the district superintendent, said: I am appreciative of the time Dan spent in the district working for us, serving the Cherry Hill High School East community. I wish him all the best in his future endeavors.

The Cherry Hill school district been embroiled in controversy in recent months after the dismissal of assistant principal David Francis-Maurer prompted student protests and heated school board meetings.

Francis-Maurer sued the school district Monday, alleging he was subjected to discrimination and a calculated campaign of targeted retaliation, culminating in his dismissal, after blowing the whistle on Finkles alleged discriminatory behavior and rebuff of safety protocols.
Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. said he will make recommendations on which Philadelphia schools should close - and which should co-locate or get new buildings - this fall. Read more

There is no single formula or algorithm by which the Philadelphia School District will close schools, officials say.

But the data it will use to help make those calls soon  which officials released widely for the first time on the districts website Wednesday  are sobering.

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A significant chunk of the districts buildings have been judged to be in poor or unsatisfactory condition or have poor or unsatisfactory program alignment, meaning they lack adequate spaces for the programming the district wants to offer, like art, music, and physical education. Some schools fall into both categories.

 READ MORE: Philly school district leaders are identifying schools to close. Heres a look at the data that will inform those decisions.

And while some buildings are significantly overcrowded  15% of all schools, by the districts count, mostly in the Northeast  23% of the districts buildings are considered severely underutilized and another swath are moderately utilized.

System-wide, the district educates 118,337 students in 307 academic buildings. But it has seats for 186,736.

The majority of the districts schools fall into the moderately underutilized category.

A school board vote is expected by the end of the year on whether to close, colocate, repurpose, or reconstruct some school buildings.

Officials underscored that the decisions are complicated and have vowed to carry out a more sensitive process than in 2012 and 2013, when dozens of schools were closed. This time, there is a major factor that was not considered in the last round of mass closures.

The neighborhood vulnerability index considers whether the community surrounding a school has withstood closures in the past, and whether it struggles with transportation, housing, or unemployment.

Schools academic achievement levels were also part of the calculus in 2012; those have been removed from the equation this time around.

The data alone does not dictate the outcome of a school, and its just a piece of a puzzle that will be a part of deeper analysis  for a short term, midterm, and long-term recommendations, said Alexandra Coppadge Wright, the districts chief of communications and customer service.

Months after promising a public airing of the data, the district released a searchable database Wednesday, the first time it has made such information available. The Inquirer, using numbers school leaders had made available via paper copies at in-person planning sessions, compiled and analyzed the district data earlier this summer, with similar findings.

There are no fixed decisions at this point, Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. told reporters at a briefing Monday, and the short answer is we cant answer any of those questions right now about which schools will close, but we can surely say some will.

Poor scores arent the same as safety or school quality

Officials acknowledged whatever plan Watlington presents is likely to stir deep emotions  some community members are already galvanizing to fight it.

But given Philadelphias status as a historically underfunded school system, and the disappearance of federal COVID-19 relief funds, weve got to better utilize our budgets, our people, our buildings, all of our resources in service of providing more high-quality academic and extracurricular programming across all the neighborhoods of Philadelphia, Watlington said.

Members of some school communities are already braced for possible attempts to close their school, and may feel offended by poor scores. But the superintendent said officials realize the districts buildings crisis is a systems problem and not the fault of staff or students.

The scores really focus on facilities, Watlington said. They do not reflect the quality or safety of a schools academic program.

Of note: There are also some tweaks to the data that officials handed out to those who attended this summers round of facilities master plan meetings. Officials said there were over 200 updates based on reality checks from principals and 65 additional building walk-throughs completed this summer in response to questions that came up about the data initially presented. (Every district building got a walk-through prior to the summer.)

Changes between preliminary and final data

An Inquirer analysis of the data handed out at public meetings this summer compared with the numbers in the final database released Wednesday showed some changes.

Overall, 38 schools have building utilization scores that changed by 10% or more since the preliminary numbers were shared. The original data showed 68 schools were less than half utilized. That is revised down to 65 schools. Nine schools had between 100% and 104% capacity initially. Thats up to 10 schools with the addition of Baldi Middle School, which moved from 93% utilization to 102%. Twenty schools were considered severely overcrowded in the early data, with capacity exceeding 104% in the preliminary analysis. That decreased to 16 schools.

The added reviews led officials to give higher marks on 24 schools for their program alignment. Seven schools improved from good to excellent. Three schools saw lower scores, including Robeson High, which was rated unsatisfactory.

Whats next?

Some summer facilities sessions had robust engagement, but at others, attendance was lackluster.

This fall, school communities and other members of the public will have more opportunities to weigh in, both before a plan is presented, likely in November, and after that, but before the school board votes. (The board has said it will vote on a final plan in December, though no such vote has been scheduled.)

Coppadge Wright, the communications chief, said the district hopes to attract big crowds for those meetings, whose dates have not yet been announced. Principals will communicate directly with families to provide information and to stress the importance of weighing in on the districts future direction.

We know this is not just an emotional issue for parents and families, particularly in some school communities  its an emotional issue for school leaders and school staffs, Watlington said. We want to wrap our arms together and make sure that folks know that were going to work through this together, and that were going to come out better on the other side of this, because well be able to provide more, better, stronger academic and extracurricular programming across the district, across all neighborhoods.
While you were out enjoying your summer and such, dozens of restaurants were opening. Let me catch you up.

Also in this edition:

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Mawn jawn: Its a big, big week for chef Phila Lorn and his wife/partner Rachel, as national accolades pour in. Sao power: Mawn also has a new sequel, Sao. Tomato pie: Well have you know that our writer is now a connoisseur. Girl Scout cookies: Theres a new flavor.

 Mike Klein

If someone forwarded you this email, sign up for free here.

Big and fancy (like Triple Crown, shown above, and Stephen Starrs Borromini) and small and cozy (like Kinto and La Jefa Milpa): Here are 25 restaurants that opened during July and August. Read on for the rundown.

Just a few months ago, chef Phila Lorn was honored as this years Emerging Chef by the James Beard Foundation for his debut restaurant, Mawn.

Oh, he has emerged, all right.

Yesterday, he was named one of Food & Wines best new chefs. Also yesterday, the New York Times named Mawn (along with Meetinghouse in Kensington) one of the 50 best restaurants in the U.S. Tonight, Lorn, his wife, Rachel, and friend Jesse Levinson open Mawns sequel, a similarly tiny but mighty ambitious spot called Sao. Ill tell you about the couple and the restaurant, and tell you how to snag some of Phillys most sought-after reservations.

Craig LaBan knows why people will wait more than an hour for the heat-blistered crusts and artfully light touch of the pizzas at Olde Kensington pizzeria Char.

Kiki Aranita didnt grow up around here, but after eating 24 different tomato pies, she is officially a convert.

 Our guide to the Philly areas best tomato pies.

Youve had the Schwarburger and Kyles Cutlet at the Phillies game. Now that the Phils have signed Harrison Bader, you can also have Bader Tots.

Scoops

Jax Cafe at the J Spot. Physicians assistant Jacqueline Clarizio is behind the J Spot, which will have a med spa in the back and a healthful-food cafe out front. Its set to open Oct. 7 at 22nd and Lombard Streets. Inspired by such lifestyle concepts as Heimat in Los Angeles and Remedy Place in New York, Clarizio says Jax Cafe will be open to the public with food by Aneu Kitchen (chicken Caesar wraps, sandwiches, toasts, pastries, and cold-pressed juices); coffee from Hermans; pastries from Metropolitan Bakery; and tomato pie from Gaetas. A loyalty app will connect the cafe and med spa, allowing customers to earn points at one and redeem them at the other. Back of the house will feature a cold plunge and full sauna. People always said to me, Oh, you cant do that in Philly, and I said, Watch me, Clarizio said. I think we could be a much healthier city, and I wanted to make it a place where people could come and get a light bite or grab-and-go food. She is a former dancer and biochemistry major who studied at Thomas Jefferson University. Jax will also spotlight student art from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts through revolving exhibitions.

Shibam Philly. University City/Powelton Village will get a second Yemeni coffee house this fall as two tech entrepreneurs are bringing a branch of Dearborn, Michigans Shibam Coffee to a new apartment building at 3748 Lancaster Ave., perhaps by Thanksgiving. Drexel graduate Fahad Azam builds software products and is partnered with Khurram Ghayas, an application support engineer who also has a background in construction and property management. In addition to the Yemeni coffees, theyll serve sandwiches. The regions first Yemeni coffee franchise, Haraz, opened last spring at 3421 Chestnut St. A second Haraz is preparing for a soft opening during the week of Sept. 22 at 23 W. Girard Ave. in Fishtown.

Restaurant report

The influx of out-of-towners continues:

Uchi, the Philadelphia-bound Japanese restaurant from Texas-based, James Beard-winning chef Tyson Cole, will be previewed in two dinners next month  first at Vernick Fish and second at River Twice  while its construction continues at 1620 Sansom St. Read on for details. Kitchen & Kocktails owner Kevin Kelley says hes hoping for a mid-October opening for the Philadelphia location of his vibe-y, Dallas-based Southern-comfort restaurant. This could be a record turnaround for a major restaurant flip: He got the keys to the former Del Friscos Grill at 225 S. Broad on Aug. 1. Kelley says Kitchen & Kocktails will seat more than 300 people over 7,200 square feet on the ground floor of the Cambria Hotel, making it among the largest Black-owned restaurants in the city.

Briefly noted

Chef Robert Irvine will sign purchased bottles of Irvines Gin and Irvines Vodka, as well as Irvines Espresso Martini cans, beginning at 4 p.m. Friday at the Fine Wine & Good Spirits store at 3151 Market St. (enter on JFK Boulevard) in University City. The booze is a joint venture with Lansdales Boardroom Spirits. The gin is $23.89, the vodka is $17.99, and the martini cans are $3.99 but must be purchased with the gin or vodka to be signed.

World Arepa Day is Saturday, and Puyero Venezuelan Flavor owners Gilberto Arends and Manuela Villasmil will host chefs Amaryllis Rivera-Nassar (Amys Pastelillos), Jennifer Zavala (Juana Tamale), and Yun Fuentes (Bolo) to create four arepas from noon to 9 p.m. Profits from each arepa ($16) will go the Nationalities Service Center. Puyero is at 524 S. Fourth St. in Queen Village. Details are here.

Radins Deli owner Russ Cowan will give away catering-size black-and-white cookies to his dine-in and takeout customers, while supplies last, starting at 9 a.m. Sunday to mark his familys 125th anniversary in the deli business. (The Radin brothers started in Manhattan.) Cowan opened Radins in Short Hills Shopping Center in Cherry Hill last year. Sept. 14 also happens to be National Black & White Cookie Day.

The Girl Scouts have unveiled a new cookie for 2026: Exploremores, which will have chocolate and marshmallow flavors with a toasted almond cream center. Ill be out on some cold corner with my daughter starting in January, when cookie season begins.

Childrens Hospital of Philadelphias Food Pharmacy, whose mission is fighting food insecurity, has launched CHOMP for CHOP as a fundraiser with a $50,000 goal. Participating restaurants and food businesses will donate proceeds from Nov. 10-16  be it from a specific item, a special menu, or a flat donation. So far, Zahav, Scampi, Ama, Federal Donuts, Riverwards Produce, Santuccis Original Square Pizza, El Chingon, Forsythia, Little Water, and Huda have signed on. Details are here.

Pop quiz

A shortage of what key ingredient is vexing the owners of local beverage shops?

A) matcha

B) boba

C) cocoa

D) taro

Find out if you know the answer.

Ask Mike anything

Will there be a Center City restaurant week this fall?  Herb B.

Thanks to your question, I messaged the Center City District, which confirmed that it would be skipping this years usual September Center City District Restaurant Week. The next outing will be in January. Theres all kinds of thinking about the concept of restaurant weeks. Read my article, and email me your thoughts.

 Have a question about food in Philly? Email your questions to me at mklein@inquirer.com for a chance to be featured in my newsletter.

By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirers Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.
The Jockey Quarters dining area at Triple Crown restaurant at the Radnor Hotel in Radnor. Read more

Perhaps this summer you were beaching it at the Shore, hiking in the Poconos, or traipsing through Europe  but now youre back and ready to eat. Let me catch you up on 25 noteworthy restaurant openings from mid-June through August.

Three other major spots have opened so far in September: Fleurs (a French-ish spot in Kensington), Sao (the Cambodian-inspired sequel to Mawn in South Philadelphia), and Tesiny (a South Philadelphia oyster bar). Theres also Mecha Noodle Bar, a Southeast Asian chain from Connecticut, which opened with a full bar last weekend in Kensington.

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Here is the summer crop:

Borromini (1805 Walnut St.): Stephen Starrs lavishly appointed, two-level Italian destination on Rittenhouse Square is packing them in, including a cadre of celebrities. Starr expects to start daily lunch and weekend brunch on Sept. 23; if all goes to plan, the reservation book will open Sept. 12.

Burtons Grill & Bar (312 W. Lancaster Ave., Wayne): This New England-based bar-restaurant chain, a favorite among the gluten-free crowd, has opened in the former Main Line Chilis with a something-for-everyone menu. A branch is heading to Newtown, Bucks County.

Casa Borinquena (2557 Amber St.): Chef Lourdes Lulu Marquez Nau, backed by her son, Wenlock Nau, dishes vegan Puerto Rican food  mofongo cups, arroz con gandules, loaded tostones, pasteles, and alcapurrias  at this fast-casual startup in East Kensingtons former Hello Donuts space.

Celine (1224 Walnut St.): Nightlife veteran Justin Jordan is in the earlier days of his luxe cocktail lounge on the third floor of a four-story building in Washington Square West, with service and DJs from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Celines forthcoming restaurant will occupy the fourth floor, while this fall, his Korean barbecue restaurant, Hyo, will take the first for dining and the second for karaoke and events.

Corio (3675 Market St.): A casual Italian bar-restaurant in University Citys uCity Square from chef David Feola, Ryan Mulholland, and James Smith offers a pizza/salad/sandwich menu at lunch, with such dishes as chicken rigatoni, pork Milanese, and a 28-ounce porterhouse with crispy potatoes and charred scallion ranch at dinner.

El Chingon Fishtown (1431 Frankford Ave.): Chef-owner Carlos Aparicio is putting out about 70% of the menu from his South Philadelphia restaurant through the order window of his new year-round branch in Fishtown, including cemitas, tacos on house-made sourdough tortillas, starters such as elotes, choripapas, and vegan aguachile; and desserts like arroz con tres leches and a rotating selection of conchas (sweet rolls stuffed with fillings). The agave de jardin with drinks runs Thursday to Saturday.

Frankies Summer Club (355 S. 15th St.): The summertime pop-up from the creators of Bok Bar in the courtyard of the Frank Furness Building serves wine, ice cream, and snacks; open Wednesday through Sunday till Nov. 2.

Kissho House (1522 Locust St.): Zhengmao Jeff Chen, who worked at Hiroki in Fishtown and briefly in the izakaya at Royal Sushi in South Philadelphia, has opened this two-level Japanese restaurant (bar and dining upstairs, omakase downstairs) in a Rittenhouse brownstone.

Kinto (1144 Frankford Ave.): The crew from the Fishtown cabaret Fabrika and the adjacent Margolis cocktail bar is behind this cozy Georgian BYOB just up the block. The traditional menu, from chef Bela Gogebashvili, is vegetarian- and vegan-friendly, while the bar is devoted to zero-proof cocktails (theyll mix drinks for those who bring their own spirits).

La Jefa and Milpa (1605 Latimer St.): Cocktails, coffee, comida is the pass phrase at this contemporary offshoot of Tequilas, located through the back alley. Center Citys best new cocktail bar was our summation of the creative bebidas and bar-within-a-bar setup, all sandwiched inside a restaurant.

The Lodge by Two Robbers (738 S. 11th St.): The Nayar brothers have spun off their Two Robbers in Fishtown into a cozy lodge with a food and cocktail program built around Two Robbers spirits and canned cocktails.

Mana Modern Chinese (719 N. Second St.): Tom Lau (Aki Nom Nom and Feng Hot Pot) and chef Mana Shi are behind this chill Chinese fusion BYOB in a Northern Liberties storefront. Dont miss the six varieties of xiao long bao, including black truffle, the mapo tofummus (a fusion of the Sichuan staple mapo tofu and hummus), and the custard bloom (a carrot cake that takes its shape literally).

Medium Rare (1540 Frankford Ave.): Inspired by Le Relais de Venise LEntrecote in Paris, this prix-fixe steak frites chain delivers $32.95 value meals and drinks for dinner as well as brunch.

Michael (706 Haddon Ave., Collingswood): Chef Michael DeLone finally rebranded Nunzios, expanding the South Jersey BYOBs menu though still focusing on wood-fired, coastal Italian cuisine (house-made desserts, breads, and pastas, too). Menu is a la carte, and theres a five-course tasting option for $65.

Musette Rittenhouse (238 S. 20th St.): Mike Hardings Fairmount cafe boasts not only coffee but an aperitivo menu with small plates and nonalcoholic bottles; its BYOB.

Nakama Japanese Cuisine & Omakase (45 N. 13th St.): Chefs Mitsutaka Harada and Haris Yohanes, alums of the now-shuttered Sushi by Bou/Sushi Suite locations, offer a la carte sushi as well as omakases in their modest BYOB across from the Criminal Justice Center.

Out West (5127 Walnut St.): Down North Pizzas second restaurant is a similarly mission-based cafe serving lamb scrapple breakfast sandwiches, vegan hoagies, and inspiration in West Philadelphias Walnut Hill neighborhood.

Percy (1700 N. Front St.): The crew from Forin has assembled a hodgepodge of trends  sound lounge, craft coffee, a notable pancake, and a serious brunch draw  for the Fishtown and Kensington corridor of North Front Street.

Pinolero (1100 E. Tioga St.): Nicaraguan food has found a stylish home in Kensington. Lilliam Orozco is behind a custom-made wood-fired grill and a plancha, cranking out salty-sweet empanadas de maduro, tangy beef-topped enchiladitas Boaquena, and savory nacatamal  a pork-, rice-, and potato-stuffed tamal steamed in a banana leaf.

Roost Pub & Kitchen (829 N. Market St., Wilmington): Scott Stein, chef Antimo DiMeo, and Pino DiMeo have added to their collection of downtown Wilmington restaurants (Bardea Steak, Bardea Food & Drink, and the DE.CO food hall) with this clubby pub, serving a comfort-food menu.

Roy Rogers (614 Haddonfield Rd., Cherry Hill): Fixins bar and all, the old-time fast-food chain (with its chicken, roast beef, burger menu) is back in the Philly area after 30 years with an always-crowded dine-in/drive-through.

Salt & Stone (128 Fayette St., Conshohocken): Demetrios Pappa, who founded Bryn Mawrs erstwhile Cafe Fresko in 2003, has teamed with his old chef, Lassine Sylla, at this stylish Greek-American bar-restaurant in downtown Conshohocken, where the smoked cocktails are the draw at the bar.

Tlali (7219 West Chester Pike, Upper Darby): Brothers Alberto and Efrain Sandoval are cooking the recipes from their native San Mateo Ozolco, Mexico, at this tiny, cash-only BYOB in Upper Darby.

Triple Crown (593 E. Lancaster Ave., Radnor): Getting in touch with their inner Main Line, Fearless Restaurants (White Dog Cafe, Autograph Brasserie) is dealing in chops, a raw bar, club sandwiches, and other classic American fare in an equestrian-themed series of rooms at the Radnor Hotel.

Tu Rinconcito (17 N. Third St.): Eugene Guevara, daughter Lorena, and wife Ernestina (shes cooking her recipes from San Luis Potosi, Mexico) are behind this adorable, all-day cafe in Old City.
Temple University Hospital nurses have made safety measures a focus of negotiations for a new three-year contract. They held a picket and rally outside Temple's main hospital entrance Wednesday Sept. 10. Read more

Waving signs reading Were not going backward and Stop workplace violence, dozens of nurses and technicians in cobalt blue scrubs picketed Wednesday outside Temple University Hospital.

The Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, which represents the health systems nurses and techs, organized the protest amid negotiations for a new three-year contract.

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The current contract for roughly 1,600 nurses and 1,000 other medical professionals represented by the union expires at the end of September.

Temple nurses have made increased safety provisions a hallmark of recent contract negotiations. During Wednesdays rally, nurses spoke of being kicked and punched. One recalled a patient shoving her down against an exam room bed and threatening to sexually assault her.

After their last contract was signed in 2022, Temple nurses said they were pleased with safety improvements, including debriefings for staff who are involved in or witness violent episodes.

But they now say more can be done. In July, they rallied for stronger security measures and more staff training after a man rushed off the street and barricaded himself in a room in the hospitals emergency department. (An active shooter alert was declared, but authorities later concluded the man did not have a gun.)

Nurses negotiating their new contract are calling for staff debriefings to be held within 48 hours after a violent incident and allowing union representatives to be present.

They are also asking for security staff to check private vehicles that arrive at the ED before nurses rush out to receive patients  a policy modeled on one instituted at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center after a hit-and-run driver injured three nurses outside that hospitals emergency department last year.

And they want the hospital to hire specialized behavioral health staff and improve training for other workers, so they are better prepared to handle safety issues involving mental health patients.

Temple officials said they feel they are having productive discussions on all the issues that the union has raised, Temple Health spokesperson Jeremy Walter said in an email.

Just like weve done in multiple other labor agreements this year, were confident this process will lead to a contract that does right by our employees and Temple Health and allows us to continue doing what were all here to do: provide our patients with the high-quality care they deserve, he said.

Contract negotiations centered on safety

Marty Harrison, president of the Temple University Hospital Nurses Association, said staff safety should be a priority, just like the investments Temple has made to expand access to care by opening a new womens hospital and buying out Redeemer Healths share of Chestnut Hill Hospital.

Every dollar spent on safety is a strategic investment in the future of this institution, she said.

At Temples main hospital, police responded to reports of assaults involving staff 31 times between January 2022 and early December 2023, the second-highest number of any of the four major trauma centers in Philadelphia during that time period, according to an Inquirer analysis.

 READ MORE: I went home with blood all over me: At Philly hospitals, health-care workers face routine violence

Those individual incidents highlight a larger problem of abuse against healthcare workers, staff say. According to a national survey by National Nurses United, 81% of nurses reported being punched, kicked, spat at, or threatened in the last year.

We have every right to be safe here

At Wednesdays rally, nurses told stories of violent incidents they had personally experienced.

Carlos Aviles, a tech at Temple and president of Temple Allied Professionals, recalled a recent shift when one of his patients woke up and panicked about the breathing tube in his throat. The man yanked it out  then started hitting at medical staff who responded.

It took campus police 10 minutes to get there, he said, leaving nurses and techs to try to calm the patient.

Aviles said there used to be six Temple police officers assigned to the main campus, but now there are only two, which means it takes longer for help to arrive when theres a safety emergency in the hospital. Its unsafe. And its unacceptable, he said.

In a statement, Walter said that the health system maintains a robust, multi-layered security protocol at its main campus, with security officers on duty 24 hours a day.

Temple Universitys Health Sciences Campus, which includes the hospital, has consistent and appropriate staffing from the schools public safety department and includes police officers and a dedicated supervisor, he said. Philadelphia police also patrol the area.

Walter said the health system is not aware of any delays in responses to calls or service.

Erin Pastore, who has worked as a Temple nurse since 2016, described being assaulted by a patient in an exam room last fall.

As she went to apply a blood pressure cuff, the man twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her face into the bed in the room, and threatened to sexually assault her, she recalled.

She said she was lucky to be in a room where others heard her scream and came quickly.

Pastore said she has considered looking for a new job, but has wanted to work at Temple since nursing school.

We have every right to be safe here and go home to our families, Pastore said. I shouldnt have to look for a new job because they cant keep me safe.
Health insurance funds that serve more than 100,000 local government employees in New Jersey have been hijacked by a single private company that effectively controls their contracts, a state watchdog agency said in a report Tuesday.

The New Jersey Office of the State Comptroller said Conner Strong & Buckelew, the Camden-based insurance brokerage founded by Democratic power broker George E. Norcross III, and a related entity have violated public contracting laws and failed to disclose conflicts of interest to state regulators.

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There is no clearer conflict of interest than when a company writes the RFP [request for proposals], reviews the bids, and then steers the contract to itself, acting Comptroller Kevin Walsh, an appointee of Gov. Phil Murphy, said in a statement. What makes this worse is that the vendor concealed from the State and its public entity clients that it was operating on all sides of contracting processes that are supposed to protect taxpayer funds.

Representatives for both Norcross and Conner Strong denied the allegations and accused Walsh of abusing the power of his office.

Norcross spokesperson Dan Fee likened Walshs inquiry to the racketeering indictment that was brought against Norcross last year by Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and that a judge dismissed in February. Platkins office is appealing that decision.

Stop me if youve heard this before: an underqualified, politically ambitious government appointee decides to look at an extremely complicated issue and finds a grand conspiracy with George Norcross at its center, Fee said in a statement.

Like Matt Platkins case against Norcross and his allies in rebuilding Camden  todays Comptroller report is rife with factual inaccuracies and evinces a fundamental lack of understanding of the issues, here how insurance markets work.

Conner Strong accused the comptrollers office of waging a yearslong, baseless assault on the company and its affiliate PERMA, an administrator of public health insurance funds. This is not oversight  it is a calculated abuse of government power, Conner Strong said in a statement, adding that the agencys actions have delayed procurement processes and cost the public up to $2 million in lost savings.

The company said it was demanding a public apology and the retraction of the slanderous report; that Murphy appoint a special counsel to investigate the comptrollers offices missteps and heavy handed actions; and that the state legislature rein in the rogue agency.

At issue in the 49-page report are taxpayer-funded public entities known as health insurance funds that are designed to allow local governments and school districts to pool resources and lower the cost of managing insurance.

The report said the comptrollers office  which oversees large public contracts to ensure compliance with the law  in 2024 and 2025 reviewed proposed procurements from three funds: the Southern New Jersey Regional Employee Benefits Fund, the Schools Health Insurance Fund, and the Municipal Reinsurance Health Insurance Fund.

In the course of reviewing the proposals, the report said, investigators found that Conner Strong and PERMA have often written the rules for how contracts were to be awarded  and then won the contracts.

State regulations prohibit a vendor from simultaneously serving as both a fund administrator  responsible for managing day-to-day operations  and program manager, providing services like claim administration and benefits consulting, according to the comptrollers office.

But at these health funds, Conner Strong and PERMA have done exactly that, the report said, with the former serving as program manager and the latter acting as administrator.

They present themselves as separate and independent companies, but OSC found that CSB and PERMA are effectively the same business operating under two names, the report said. Their employees overlap, they share leadership, and the same people work on both sides of the contracts.

As Conner Strong was seeking to renew a contract with the Schools Health Insurance Fund, the person who oversaw that process was a Conner Strong employee, as well as a minority shareholder in the company or one of its affiliated entities, the report said, adding that neither the health funds trustees nor regulators were informed of the conflict.

From fiscal year 2021 to fiscal year 2025, the fund paid more than $36 million to Conner Strong and PERMA, often with overlapping fees charged per employee for different roles CSB held, Walshs office wrote.

The comptrollers office said the report was necessary to provide transparency and because the [funds], PERMA, and CSB dispute that any laws have been or are being violated, claim there are no conflicts of interest, and have clearly indicated their intention to continue with business as usual.

Walsh said he had directed the three health insurance funds to submit corrective action plans.

In response, the chairs of six health insurance funds issued a statement saying the report made false and unfounded accusations that reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of how joint insurance funds operate and why they have been successful for New Jersey taxpayers.

The statement said regulators at the New Jersey Departments of Banking and Insurance and Community Affairs have overseen and audited the [health insurance funds] without material infraction for three decades.

The comptrollers contention that we as Chairs and Commissioners of various [health insurance funds] are unaware of the operations of these programs is an insult to the tremendous work we all apply to deliver high quality, affordable benefits for public workers and their families, the statement said.
Cherry Hill High School East students staged a walkout earlier this year to show support for then Vice Principal David Francis-Maurer, who is now suing the district after his contract was not renewed. Read more

Hello, Cherry Hill! 

A former East administrator whose contract was not renewed earlier this year is suing the school district over what he says is targeted retaliation. Also this week, Jihaad Campbells grandfather is proudly sporting his grandsons Eagles jersey around town, Pop Mart is celebrating its recent opening at the mall, and a new fitness studio is expanding to Cherry Hill.

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Its been a few months since we first launched this newsletter, and we want to hear from you. How are we doing? Tell us by taking our survey or emailing us at cherryhill@inquirer.com.

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Former Cherry Hill High School East Assistant Principal David Francis-Maurer is suing the school district after his contract was not renewed earlier this year.

In a lawsuit filed Monday, Francis-Maurer alleges he was subjected to discrimination and a calculated campaign of targeted retaliation after blowing the whistle on discriminatory behavior by a top administrator and failures to follow safety protocols, The Inquirers Denali Sagner reports.

In May, students staged a walkout in protest of the districts action not to keep Francis-Maurer on.

Read more about his lawsuit against the district here.

 Community News

 Schools Briefing

Back-to-school events are in full swing, with more planned tonight through next Friday. See the full calendar here. Cherry Hill middle school students now have a junior high school model. The new model is part of a cost-saving plan and creates more flexibility. Some parents like Toni Damon were a little nervous about the switch, but her 11-year-old had a great first day, she said. East ranks No. 69 in the state for its students combined SAT math and reading and writing scores, based on 2023-24 data. Students scored a combined average of 1,186 (587 math, 599 reading and writing) out of 1,600 points, putting them above the state average of 1,049 (519 math, 530 reading and writing). West, meanwhile, came in No. 223 in the state for a combined average score of 1,050 (506 math, 544 reading and writing). (NJ.com)

 On our Plate

Australian competitive eater James Webb was in town last week, challenging himself to devour a pile of 80 Korean fried chicken wings at Dolsot House, along with spicy bulgogi. He documented his time at the Korean barbecue joint on Marlton Pike. See how long it took to devour the dish here.

 Things to Do

 Senior Festival: Township residents 55 and over can get information on local resources, enjoy a meal, and participate in activities.  Friday, Sept. 12, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.  Free  Holiday Inn Philadelphia-Cherry Hill by IHG

 5th Annual Cherry Hill Tattoo Expo: Check out the works of talented artists or get inked yourself.  Friday, Sept. 12-Sunday, Sept. 14, times vary  $20  DoubleTree by Hilton Cherry Hill Philadelphia

 Annual Family Day at the Legion: Enjoy live music from Deakinzeke, food, games like cornhole and horseshoes, plus a raffle.  Saturday, Sept. 13, noon-4 p.m.  $30 in advance, $35 at the door  American Legion Post 372

 Teen Volleyball: Kids in grades 6-12 can play volleyball in the librarys backyard, weather permitting.  Saturday, Sept. 13, 3:30-4:30 p.m.  Free  Cherry Hill Library

 Eagles vs. Chiefs Tailgate Skate: Get game day ready with this Eagles-themed skate event, where you can get $2 off admission for sporting your teams gear. There will also be burgers, hot dogs, and ICEEs available for purchase.  Sunday, Sept. 14, 12:30-3:30 p.m.  $14 admission  Hot Wheelz

 On the Market

Located in Barclay Farm, this 1962 home has undergone a number of updates, including the addition of a new primary suite. Located on the second floor, the new suite has a walk-in closet with built-in shelving and a window, its own flex space that could be used as an office, sitting room, or nursery, and a bathroom with a large walk-in tile shower. There are three additional bedrooms upstairs, including the original primary suite. The first floor has a formal living room with custom lighted built-ins, a dining room, a den with a brick fireplace, a breakfast room, and a renovated kitchen. Other features include a mud room, a finished basement, and a deck out back that leads to a fenced yard. Theres an open house Sunday from 1 to 3 p.m.

See more photos of the property here.

Price: $695,000 | Size: 2,878 SF | Acreage: 0.22

Have you seen an interesting listing in or around Cherry Hill? Share it with us in an email to cherryhill@inquirer.com.

 Cherry Hill market report

Median listing price: $499,000 (up $16,500 from July)  Median sold price: $485,000 (down $5,000 from July)  Median days on the market: 34 (same as July) 

This Cherry Hill market report is published on a monthly basis. Above is data for August from realtor.com.

 What other Cherry Hill residents are reading this week:

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State Assemblywoman Melinda Kane (left) hands flags to Cherry Hill Police Officer Anthony Amato at the Katz Jewish Community Center in Cherry Hill Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. The South Jersey Men's Club, the Jewish War Veterans, law enforcement, first responders and volunteers placed 2,977 American flags outside the JCC, representing each of the lives lost in the attacks of 9/11. Read more

Nelson Mellitz was working in downtown Manhattan when the first plane hit the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

An Air Force reservist working for the federal government at the time, Mellitz remembers chaos ensuing as smoke engulfed the city and he scrambled to find his colleagues who had scattered into the street grid.

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As the dust began to settle, Mellitz got a call from his chief master sergeant in the Air Force, who said, They just activated you and me and everybody else.

 READ MORE: Remembering so many lives lost on 9/11

He headed down to Virginia as troops began to mobilize. Later, he was deployed.

Mellitz, of Cherry Hill, is one of dozens of Jewish veterans who gathered at the Katz Jewish Community Center in Cherry Hill last week to place 2,977 flags in memory of the lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001. At the corner of Kresson and Springdale Roads, veterans and local officials worked diligently to place the small American flags, which waved synchronously at the busy intersection.

The memorial was organized by the Jewish War Veterans of Cherry Hill and the South Jersey Mens Club and was attended by local law enforcement officers, Cherry Hill Mayor David Fleisher, members of the township council and state assembly, and representatives from the Katz JCC and the Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey.

Twenty-four years after Sept. 11, the terrorist attacks have faded further into the background of the American consciousness. More than a third of Americans are too young to remember Sept. 11, and the world of overseas wars and security protocols that the attacks shaped has become normalized for many.

For Cherry Hills Jewish veterans, the task of remembrance has fallen into their hands.

We dont want this to be forgotten, Mellitz said. I dont want to forget it.

The Jewish War Veterans of the USA was founded in 1896 by a group of 63 Jewish Civil War veterans. The group was formed in response to a series of antisemitic comments about the lack of Jewish service in the Civil War. The group was key in establishing the Jewish chaplaincy within the military during World War I. It fought to include the Star of David as a grave marker in veterans cemeteries, led a protest and boycott of Nazi Germany during the rise of the Third Reich, and campaigned to include religious and racial protections in the 1944 GI Bill.

 READ MORE: At Flight 93 memorial near Shanksville, visitors reflect on 20 years

Selina Kanowitz, 73, is the first woman in 129 years to serve as the national vice commander of the Jewish War Veterans.

A longtime Voorhees resident, Kanowitz said her fellow veterans are like her second family.

Kanowitz began her military service in 1977, the first year basic training was integrated to include both men and women. When she touched down at a Texas military base to begin her service, she was the only Jewish person at basic training.

During her two-decade-long career in the Air Force, she traveled across the globe and earned her certification to become a nuclear medicine technologist. She served on what is now Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Burlington County during Operation Desert Storm.

Kanowitz said the flag ceremony has only become more important. Three years ago, the Jewish War Veterans memorial landed around the same time as Queen Elizabeth IIs death, and passersby thought the flags were for the queen.

The generations growing up, they have no clue about 9/11, she said. Its important that we bring this to light.

The Jewish War Veterans are such a significant part of our community, Jennifer Dubrow Weiss, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey, said. Were so grateful to them for having this way of memorializing 9/11.

Stuart Wallet, 77, of Marlton, said he never felt the need to join a veterans group. That changed in 2018, when he says he was diagnosed with cancer from his time at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. He spent two years at Camp Lejeune in the 1970s as a Navy lieutenant following his graduation from dental school.

I think people who havent served dont really understand it, he said.

When his oldest granddaughter was a child, Wallet said, they would read books about the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Wallet doesnt take for granted the rights of protest and free speech, which he sees as intrinsically tied to his service and that of his fellow veterans.

Mellitz enlisted in the Air Force in 1970 after earning a degree in architecture from Temple University. Over the course of 32 years in the military, he was based in more than a dozen locations, serving first in a civil engineering unit and later moving into acquisitions and government contracting. His last assignment was in Iraq. He received a U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Meritorious Citation, among other awards and decorations, before retiring as a colonel.

Though his father and grandfather had both been members of the Jewish War Veterans, Mellitz didnt join until a friend in Cherry Hill persuaded him to come to a meeting in 1990. By 2022, he had become the national commander.

Mellitz said that traveling around the world was a fantastic opportunity, and that he is proud to be a veteran. Yet the gravity of his service weighs on him.

I saw a lot of people perish in battle, he said.

I will never forget those I served with.
Heres what Israels misbegotten military strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar did and didnt do.

It didnt kill those leaders, who were gathered to discuss Donald Trumps latest peace proposal in Doha, the capital of Qatar, which is a U.S. Gulf ally that hosts Americas biggest air base in the Mideast.

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It did kill any slim chance for future Israel-Hamas peace talks on ending the war and Hamas rule in Gaza. It will likely kill  i.e., lead to the death of  the 20 living Israeli hostages Hamas is holding. And it exposed the utter failure of Trumps deluded peace plans for Gaza.

Either the president secretly greenlit the attack  undermining his own efforts and betraying the Qataris who were mediating at his request  or he was made a fool of by Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu. So far, Trump has refused to directly criticize the Israeli leader for the strike on Doha.

Either way, the attack did not advance peace, but ensured the Gaza war would continue. It signified that the Israeli government feels free to continue its efforts, apparently with Trumps backing, to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian population out of the Gaza Strip.

The timing of the attack made clear that Netanyahu wants to wash his hands of any peace process.

It came just as he ordered a new offensive in Gaza aimed at driving a million people still living in and around Gaza City into small spaces in southern Gaza filled with overcrowded tent camps lacking sufficient food, water, or sanitation.

On the verge of, or already in, famine conditions due to Israeli blockage or bureaucratic hindrance of humanitarian food aid, these camps cannot possibly survive the doubling of their population.

 READ MORE: Lessons from Ukraines First World Drone War | Trudy Rubin

And, no, the starvation is not due to theft by Hamas, although there is much theft by gangs due to the Israelis disbanding of the Gaza police force and the United Nations distribution system. Moreover, the alternative system set up in the south by Israel under military control  with only four distribution centers  has guaranteed chaos and the daily slaughter of scores of desperate Palestinian civilians grappling for food.

Israels top defense officials have warned the government against undertaking the new operation in Gaza City, believing it will cause immense Israeli military casualties (never mind the slaughter of untold numbers of Palestinian civilians who are too old, too weak, or simply unable to abandon whatever shelter they still have).

The Israel Defense Forces rightly fear it will be dragged into urban guerrilla warfare in Gaza City, and ultimately be forced into a military administration of the entire strip. That is likely, since without any further negotiations to resolve Gazas political future, there will be no one but the IDF to keep order.

Having destroyed Hamas military structure in Gaza  a legitimate response to the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre  the IDF believes there is no point to continuing the fighting. Military leadership has argued that a hostage deal should be negotiated instead.

The desperate families of the remaining hostages believe likewise. Einav Zangauker, whose son, Matan, is being held by Hamas in Gaza, has posted on X that she is trembling with fear over the attack in Doha.

It could be that at this very moment the Prime Minister has actually assassinated my Matan, sealed his fate, she wrote.

But, unrestrained by Trump, Netanyahu has opted to continue fighting. On his orders, the IDF has begun blowing up the remaining high-rise buildings in Gaza City and appears intent on razing the rest of the urban area.

Yet, there is an even darker, Trump-fed narrative underlying Netanyahus decision. The Israeli leaders right-wing political allies, whose support he needs to stay in power, openly seek the voluntary transfer of Gazas population to anywhere that will take them. They are making life so wretched that, presumably, Palestinians will feel they have no choice but to leave. Or, to put it less delicately, will be forced to leave.

These right-wing leaders, along with Netanyahu, have latched on to Trumps shameful Gaza Riviera of the Middle East plan as a cover story.

In February, Trump advocated moving all Palestinians out of the strip  supposedly temporarily  while luxury condos were built along the valuable Gaza seafront. Right-wing Israeli politicians and settlers met in parliament in July to discuss an updated version of the Trump plan labeled The Riviera in Gaza: from vision to reality.

 READ MORE: Trump is now co-owner of the Israel-Iran War | Trudy Rubin

The new plan envisions the creation of high-tech smart cities that trade in cryptocurrency (another Trump favorite), and the construction of 850,000 housing units  but not for Palestinians. Of course, the plan ignores the fact that no country is prepared to take in two million Gazans whose homes and possessions have been destroyed in this war.

The Washington Post reported this month that a 38-page version of the plan  which calls for paying Palestinians a pittance to leave or be confined to restricted zones in southern Gaza  is circulating within the Trump administration.

Which brings us back to Trumps role in the military strike on Qatar  and in negotiations to end the Gaza war.

Having backed Netanyahu to the hilt in retaliating against Hamas and striking at Iran, the president has built up enormous political capital with Jerusalem. He could have used this leverage to push for a real peace plan, one that would have involved moderate Arab states in rebuilding Gaza. This would have been a logical follow-up to the Abraham Accords negotiated during Trumps first term.

But such a plan would have required serious U.S. diplomacy, with skilled negotiators, not reliance on Trumps instincts or his ill-informed real estate pal, Steve Witkoff. It would have required crafting a long-term political solution to the Palestinian question, rather than a mega real estate deal.

Instead, Trump seems to have bowed to, or been bamboozled by, Netanyahu, who is leading Israel into an endless military and humanitarian quagmire in Gaza  and making his U.S. patron look like a fool.
OREM, Utah  Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and close ally of President Donald Trump who played an influential role in rallying young Republican voters, was shot and killed Wednesday at a Utah college event in what the governor called a political assassination carried out from a rooftop. A person of interest was in custody, officials said.

This is a dark day for our state. Its a tragic day for our nation, said Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. I want to be very clear this is a political assassination.

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Authorities did not immediately identify the person in custody, a motive or any criminal charges, but the circumstances of the shooting drew renewed attention to an escalating threat of political violence in the United States that in the last several years has cut across the ideological spectrum. The FBI, which investigates such acts, was helping lead the inquiry, though officials said at this point they had no reason to believe a second person was involved.

Videos posted to social media from Utah Valley University show Kirk speaking into a handheld microphone while sitting under a white tent emblazoned with the slogans The American Comeback and Prove Me Wrong. A single shot rings out and Kirk can be seen reaching up with his right hand as a large volume of blood gushes from the left side of his neck. Stunned spectators are heard gasping and screaming before people start to run away. The Associated Press was able to confirm the videos were taken at Sorensen Center courtyard on the Utah Valley University campus.

The shooter, who Cox pledged would be held accountable in a state with the death penalty, wore dark clothing and fired from a roof on campus some distance away.

Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by his nonprofit political organization. Immediately before the shooting, Kirk was taking questions for an audience member about mass shootings and gun violence.

Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years? an audience member asked. Kirk responded, Too many.

The questioner followed up: Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?

Counting or not counting gang violence? Kirk asked.

Then a single shot rang out.

The death was announced on social media by Trump, who praised the 31-year-old Kirk, the co-founder and CEO of the youth organization Turning Point USA, as Great, and even Legendary.

No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie, Trump posted on his Truth Social account.

Utah Valley University said the campus was immediately evacuated and remained closed. Classes were canceled until further notice. Those still on campus were asked to stay in place until police officers could safely escort them off campus. Armed officers walked around the neighborhood bordering the campus, knocking on doors and asking for information on the shooter.

Officers were seen looking at a photo on their phones and showing it to people to see if they recognized a person of interest.

The event, billed as the first stop on Kirks The American Comeback Tour, had generated a polarizing campus reaction. An online petition calling for university administrators to bar Kirk from appearing received nearly 1,000 signatures. The university issued a statement last week citing First Amendment rights and affirming its commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.

Last week, Kirk posted on X images of news clips showing his visit was sparking controversy. He wrote, Whats going on in Utah?

The shooting drew swift bipartisan condemnation, with Democratic officials joining Trump, who ordered flags lowered to half-staff and issued a presidential proclamation, and Republican allies of Kirk in decrying the violence.

The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible, Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who last March hosted Kirk on his podcast, posted on X.

The murder of Charlie Kirk breaks my heart. My deepest sympathies are with his wife, two young children, and friends, said Gabrielle Giffords, the former Democratic congresswoman who was wounded in a 2011 shooting in her Arizona district.

The shooting appeared poised to become part of a spike of political violence that has cut across the political spectrum. The attacks include the assassination of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband at their house in June, the firebombing of a Colorado parade to demand Hamas release hostages, and a fire set at the house of Pennsylvanias governor, who is Jewish, in April. Cody Balmer, 38, of Harrisburg, set the mansion ablaze knowing that Shapiro and his family could be there, police said. He told police he was harboring a hatred for the Pennsylvania governor. Balmer was charged with attempted homicide.

The most notorious of these events is the shooting of President Donald Trump during a campaign rally last year.

Former Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz, a Republican who was at Wednesdays event, said in an interview on Fox News Channel that he heard one shot and saw Kirk go back.

It seemed like it was a close shot, Chaffetz said, who seemed shaken as he spoke.

He said there was a light police presence at the event and Kirk had some security but not enough.

Utah is one of the safest places on the planet, he said. And so we just dont have these types of things.

Turning Point was founded in suburban Chicago in 2012 by Kirk, then 18, and William Montgomery, a tea party activist, to proselytize on college campuses for low taxes and limited government. It was not an immediate success.

But Kirks zeal for confronting liberals in academia eventually won over an influential set of conservative financiers.

Despite early misgivings, Turning Point enthusiastically backed Trump after he clinched the GOP nomination in 2016. Kirk served as a personal aide to Donald Trump Jr., the presidents eldest son, during the general election campaign.

Soon, Kirk was a regular presence on cable TV, where he leaned into the culture wars and heaped praise on the then-president. Trump and his son were equally effusive and often spoke at Turning Point conferences.

Staff writers Nick Vadala, Gillian McGoldrick, and Ximena Conde contributed to this article.
The first excerpt from former Vice President Kamala Harris book, 107 Days, was released Wednesday, and it offers Harris frank assessment of her relationship with former President Joe Biden and the White House during her tenure.

Harris will likely offer that perspective to a Philadelphia crowd later this month, when she visits the Met Philadelphia on Sept. 25, in conjunction with Uncle Bobbies Coffee & Books, as the first event in a 15-stop book tour across the United States, with other stops in London and Toronto.

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107 Days details her whirlwind 2024 presidential bid against President Donald Trump. The title is a reference to the length of her campaign  the shortest presidential general election campaign in modern history. The book is set to be released Sept. 23.

Its fitting that Harris is starting her book tour in Pennsylvania, given that the battleground was a major focus of the presidential campaign as both the vice president and Trump frequently visited the swing state in the lead-up to Election Day and spent more than $500 million in advertising to reach Pennsylvania voters.

Harris, a Democrat, became the nominee after Biden dropped out of the race in July 2024, amid widespread concern about his viability and effectiveness as a candidate.

In the excerpt, titled The Constant Battle, published by the Atlantic on Wednesday, Harris recounted how she grappled with the mounting public discourse last year about the physical well-being of Biden, then 81, and his fitness to run for reelection. Its the first time that Harris has offered what appears to be an unfettered opinion on the circumstances that led to her becoming the first Black woman to be a major-party presidential nominee.

During all those months of growing panic, should I have told Joe to consider not running? Perhaps. But the American people had chosen him before in the same matchup. Maybe he was right to believe that they would do so again, she wrote, adding that she had not wanted to come across as self-serving by telling Biden to reconsider.

Harris said that Biden always possessed the knowledge, experience, and personality to be president, but that at his age he would get tired, resulting in verbal and physical gaffes  including his disastrous June 2024 debate performance against Trump  that sparked public speculation.

I dont believe it was incapacity, Harris wrote. If I believed that, I would have said so. As loyal as I am to President Biden, I am more loyal to my country.

The choice to run or not to run was up to Biden and his wife, former first lady Jill Biden, but Harris wrote in her book that this deference was recklessness.

The stakes were simply too high, she wrote. This wasnt a choice that should have been left to an individuals ego, an individuals ambition. It should have been more than a personal decision.

She also recounted feeling that the White House did not defend her qualifications or achievements, including when she was inaccurately dubbed the border czar by Republicans who argued that the U.S. has poor border security. At times, Harris wrote, the presidents staff was adding fuel to negative narratives that sprang up around me.

In other instances, Harris wrote, her growing popularity during the Biden presidency was frowned upon by individuals close to the former president. She said she was castigated after delivering a speech about the war in Gaza too well.

Their thinking was zero-sum: If shes shining, hes dimmed. None of them grasped that if I did well, he did well, she wrote. That given the concerns about his age, my visible success as his vice president was vital. It would serve as a testament to his judgment in choosing me and reassurance that if something happened, the country was in good hands. My success was important for him.

His team didnt get it, she added.
Angela Val, president & CEO of Visit Philly, says her nonprofit will look for a new home for exhibits related to slavery at Independence National Historic Park if they are removed by the Trump administration. Read more

Philadelphias main tourism agency is joining the fight to help protect jeopardized exhibits about slavery at Independence National Historical Park should they be removed by President Donald Trumps administration later this month.

Angela Val, president and CEO of Visit Philadelphia, told The Inquirer on Tuesday that if displays about slavery at the Presidents House Site are removed, after they were flagged for the Trump administrations content review earlier this summer, her organization would step in to keep that history alive for visitors in another location.

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Changes could be made to flagged exhibits as soon as Sept. 17.

We were concerned that the full story, the history of this country, would not be told here in Philadelphia, Val said.

Visit Philly is a nonprofit organization for tourism in the Philadelphia region, established in 1996 by the City of Philadelphia, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and Pew Charitable Trusts. Last year, it received most of its funding from its 1.53% share of Philadelphias hotel tax revenue. It also receives government grants and foundation support for specific projects.

The nonprofit is leading the promotion of Philadelphias festivities in honor of the 250th anniversary of America next year, which is sure to bring an increase in tourism to the citys historic sites. Val said the truth of American history  even the ugly parts  should be recognized during the 250th.

We promote Philadelphia as a destination to visitors, and also claim in our branding that we are a historic city and that everyone can learn about American history here, and history is factual, Val said.

If the displays are removed, Visit Philly would find a new home for those pieces of history  one that is privately owned and open to the public, ideally in Philadelphias historic district, Val said. She added that the nonprofit would reach out to its partners at the Independence Visitor Center for help identifying potential locations.

Visit Philly could also work with a historian to create a new display in the historic district that includes information from the Presidents House if it is not legally possible to transfer the original panels to another area, Val said.

The nonprofits involvement is part of the mounting opposition from local and regional groups against the Trump administrations threats to this site, where Presidents George Washington and John Adams lived in the first years of the United States.

Washington enslaved nine people at the residence, and the present-day site at Independence Park memorializes them and outlines the dichotomy of liberty and slavery in colonial America.

In total, more than a dozen exhibits at Independence Park were flagged by park staff for the Trump administrations content review, The Inquirer reported in July. That evaluation is in accordance with directives from Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordering removal of content that inappropriately disparage[s] Americans past or living.

The Avenging the Ancestors Coalition (ATAC) has been the leading advocacy organization against the Trump administrations orders, holding a rally and a town hall this summer to help catalyze public opposition to the threats to the site. The Black-led group helped shape the Presidents House in the early 2000s.

Val and Visit Phillys chief marketing officer, head of communications, and head of diverse marketing attended the ATAC public town hall on Sept. 3 to listen to community members input before the organization decided to embark on its efforts. She said Visit Philly is open to suggestions from the public on how it can help.

Roz McPherson, the original project director of the Presidents House, who is helping to lead ATACs advocacy on this issue, told The Inquirer on Monday that it was a big deal for Visit Philly to reach out to her and offer assistance.

Other acts of protest have arisen in recent weeks, including a letter to Burgum from the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, and signed by 45 Philadelphia-area historical organizations, opposing the potential exhibit changes.

Intervening in such a situation as this is new for Visit Philly, but one worth the fight, Val said, even if Trump expresses his disapproval of the mounting opposition to his efforts to sanitize history at Independence Park.

It is possible for [Trump] to say that he doesnt like that Philly is fighting back, around wanting to keep these panels as they are, continue to tell the history, she said. Thats very possible, but I dont think that should stop us from trying to maintain who we are here.
Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, right, leaves court after a hearing on a probation violation in 2022. Read more

Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who was convicted and imprisoned for illegally leaking secret grand jury information and later lying about it, will host a podcast about resilience, healing, and finding hope in the storm.

Called Through the HurriKANE, the podcast will launch next Tuesday on Spotify.

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Kane, 59, was the first Democrat and first woman to become Pennsylvania attorney general when she was elected in 2012. Once a rising star in the party, the top state law enforcement official-turned-felon had a tumultuous tenure before her career ended in disgrace.

She was convicted in 2016 of perjury, obstruction of justice, and related crimes for leaking confidential grand jurymaterial in a bid to embarrass a political enemy  then falsely denying that.

She served eight months behind bars before she was released from the Montgomery County jail in Eagleville in the summer of 2019 on five years probation.

In March 2022, Kane was charged with DUI and violating her probation after a car crash in Scranton, near her hometown of Clarks Summit. No one was injured. She refused to take a blood-alcohol test. The arresting officer said she had slurred speech, smelled of alcohol, and swayed when asked to stand on one foot. She told police her identical twin had been driving the car, authorities said.

She was jailed briefly and, nine months later, was found not guilty in a nonjury trial.

Drawing on these events, Kane says in a recorded preview of her podcast: Have you ever looked down and seen the pieces of your life on the floor and wondered what happened?  You havent just been through a storm, youve been through a hurricane. Through the HurriKane will teach you  the power of love and resilience.  Lets walk through this storm together.

In an interview Wednesday evening, Kane said her biweekly podcasts will center on conversations with people with real, raw stories of grief, addiction, loss. We will highlight all the things that take people down, and itll resonate with others.

But, she added, all of her guests will also be able to demonstrate how they turned tragedy into something positive, discovering a new way through life and finding hope.

Kane said that during the first four episodes, she will discuss her own difficulties. I become the interviewee, Kane added, telling my story to show that nobody is immune from the storm in life.

Asked how she will describe her experience, Kane demurred, inviting the curious to tune in. She promises, she said, that youll hear all of it.

Kanes political downfall began when she inherited an undercover investigation that caught five legislators from Philadelphia and a Traffic Court judge on tape accepting money or gifts from a cooperating witness. Instead of prosecuting those crimes, Kane secretly shut down the case.

When news of her decision was revealed by The Inquirer in March 2014, she blamed a top state prosecutor, Frank Fina, who had supervised the sting. Kane then leaked confidential grand jury information to the Daily News to fuel a story that she believed would reflect badly on him.

She was criminally charged in August 2015 but did not resign from office until after she was convicted by a jury the following year.

As she stood before a judge at sentencing, Kane wept and pleaded for leniency.

Montgomery County Court Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy was unmoved.

The case is about ego, ego of a politician consumed by her image from Day One, she told Kane. And instead of focusing solely on the business of fighting crime, the focus was battling these perceived enemies ... and utilizing and exploiting her position to do it.

Kane will revisit the moments in her podcast, which shell be conducting at her home in a town she wouldnt name.

The most important part, she added, was how I felt about it all, and how I held my head above the water.

Asked if she believes that listeners can relate to the fall of a political star who lost her way, Kane said, It doesnt matter what you went through. It only matters how you weather it.

Staff writer Ryan Briggs contributed to this article.
The case of a Maine police officer arrested by immigration authorities even though he was vetted by a government system called E-Verify has raised questions about what employers can do to make sure theyre employing people who can legally work.

E-Verify is an online system that compares information entered by an employer from an employees documents with records available to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration. Its used to determine the employment eligibility of citizens and noncitizens.

Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin accused Old Orchard Beach, Maine, of reckless reliance on the E-Verify program when it hired Jamaica national Jon Luke Evans, who was later detained and agreed to leave the country earlier this month.

But its the governments own program. And experts say theres not a whole lot more employers can do in terms of vetting.

I think employers are between a rock and a hard place, said Madeline Zavodny, an economics professor at the University of North Florida. Even an employer who is trying to comply with the law can have difficulty doing it.

What is E-Verify?

Before 1986, it was essentially legal for employers to hire people regardless of their immigration status. Then came the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, which involved a large-scale immigrant legalization program that was paired with a requirement that employers no longer hire people who werent legally authorized to work in the U.S.

Employers then had to fill out a form called an I-9, which required workers to present documents showing that they were authorized to work. But it was difficult to verify if the documents were valid. As part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, the E-Verify system was established to help verify those documents.

Unlike I-9 forms, which are federally required for every employer, E-Verify is mandated on a state-by-state basis, otherwise it is voluntary. According to an Equifax tally, about 23 states require E-Verify for at least some public and/or private employers.

Zavodny said the system is generally accurate in terms of matching documents, but there are flaws. For example, if an employees right to work is revoked after it has already been verified  perhaps if their visa expires  it doesnt automatically notify the employer.

A lack of biometrics also hinders the process. If theres a photo in the E-Verify system, manual photo matching by the employer helps. But a lot of times, theres no photo in the system.

And the system is not without critics. A 2021 review of E-Verify by the Office of the Inspector General concluded that until U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services addresses the systems shortcomings, it cannot ensure the system provides accurate employment eligibility results.

Trump pushed for more E-Verify use

The federal governments disagreement with Old Orchard Beach over E-Verifys reliability came despite pushes by President Donald Trump and his allies to bring the system into wider use. Project 2025, the blueprint for Trumps second term, calls for it to be mandatory.

Use of the system isnt widespread. About a fifth of U.S. employers use it, though some huge businesses do, including Walmart, Starbucks and Home Depot.

Language calling for mandatory nationwide E-Verify was dropped from budget proposals during the first Trump administration. The system has also faced criticism from some employers.

An Omaha, Nebraska, food packaging company owner said a raid of his business by immigration officials this year came despite his use of E-Verify for employees. Glenn Valley Foods owner Gary Rohwer said in June that the business did everything we could possibly do to hire eligible workers.

Rohwer didnt respond to requests for comment this month. Old Orchard Beach officials declined to comment on the towns recent troubles. DHS officials also didnt respond.

Others say theyve had good experiences with the system. Kyle Sobko, CEO of SonderCare, a Calgary, Alberta-based company that makes hospital beds for the home, has a staff of 50, including 20 in the U.S.

He uses E-Verify and said he hasnt had any problems.

We trust the system for its reliability and integration with our hiring process, he said.

Sobko said the situation in Old Orchard Beach raises some concerns about the systems limitations. But he doesnt plan on making any changes since the warning about reckless reliance on E-Verify.

Experts say reliance is not reckless

Despite the systems flaws, characterization of E-Verify use as reckless is an outrageous claim, said Kathleen Campbell Walker, a Texas attorney who is a former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Walker described the process as not a get out of jail free card for prospective employees, but as one that has evolved over the years and become more robust in its ability to provide accurate background checks.

Walker said McLaughlins description of reckless reliance on E-Verify should give employers pause.

The whole idea is that Im supposed to rely on E-Verify to show my good faith and to have a more secure workforce, she said. Not that reliance upon it is somehow irresponsible.

Advocates for the rights of immigrants have said instances in which employees clear the E-Verify system but end up arrested by immigration officials anyway point to a broken immigration system.

We have an immigration system that is not functioning to the extent that a federal system would both clear someone to work and at the same time, they could somehow get onto ICEs radar, said Molly Curren Rowles, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Going beyond E-Verify can be risky

Small businesses are in a tough spot since they dont necessarily have the resources or motivation to do more than what is required to verify employment eligibility status.

Businesses should not be in the business of being the paperwork investigator for the federal government, said Frank Knapp Jr., president & CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce. The federal government ought to be doing that.

Knapp has pushed back on his states mandate for E-Verify because he said it puts too much of the onus on small business owners.

Its an extra layer of administration just to do the E-Verify for small businesses, and the federal government is saying, oh, you do this because you want to verify that somebody is in this country legally, he said. But now their own administration is saying, Oh, no, no. Thats not enough.'

James M. Cooney, a labor and employment law expert in the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations in New Jersey, said it can be tricky to go beyond the basics of whats required to verify identification without running the risk of a discrimination charge.

If an employer tries to do more than what is permitted under the I-9 and E-Verify, that will very often be seen as illegal discrimination, he said. And so that really puts employers at a tough spot.

Anderson reported from New York.

Copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is asking the US Supreme Court to review a Connecticut courts nearly $1.4 billion judgment against him and Infowars stemming from his false claims that the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was a hoax.

The default judgment entered against Jones and his Infowars parent company in 2022 after minor discovery violations was an unjust and disproportionate penalty, Jones lawyers told the justices in a petition filed on Sept. 5 and obtained by Bloomberg Law.

The judgment runs afoul of First Amendment protections established in New York Times v. Sullivan, they said.

It is an amount that can never be paid, and which based on the trial courts findings may not be dischargeable in bankruptcy, they said. The result is a financial death penalty by fiat imposed on a media defendant whose broadcasts reach millions.

The filing to the high court is one of Jones last avenues to reverse the judgments obtained against him and Infowars parent company, Free Speech Systems LLC.

The request comes shortly after a Texas state court appointed a receiver to oversee the media company, a significant breakthrough in efforts for Sandy Hook shooting victims families owed more than $1 billion after collection efforts sputtered for years in bankruptcy court. A Texas appeals court paused the receivership order in late August.

Jones and Free Speech Systems lawyers told the justices that because the Connecticut courts sanctions were the result of a default judgment, rather than merit-based, the families never proved his specific claims about the shooting were false or that he made them with actual malice.

The justices should review whether state courts can issue such death penalty default sanctions brought by public figures against media defendants reporting on issues of public concern, Jones team said. Death penalty sanctions are judicially decreed penalties or liability for all alleged claims due to litigation misconduct, such as discovery abuse.

The justices were also asked to answer whether liability can be imposed on media entities for acts of unrelated third parties, and define whether a serious threat needs to be shown to award punitive damages based on default sanctions.

Allowing the ruling to stand will chill new reporting and risks hurting other broadcasters, Jones lawyers argued.

A six-person Connecticut jury awarded 15 family members and one FBI agent who responded to the attack $965 million in compensatory damages and $471.7 million in other damages. The jury found Jones and Free Speech Systems financially liable for spreading falsehoods about the 2012 shooting, which killed 20 children and six school staffers.

All but $150 million of the award was upheld by a mid-level Connecticut state appeals court. Connecticuts top court in April denied a request to review.

The families have maintained that Jones conduct was intentional and malicious, motivated by profit, and that his alleged concealment and attitude towards discovery supports the award.

Jones and Free Speech Systems have avoided paying the judgments by filing separate Chapter 11 cases in 2022, halting all litigation and debt collection efforts. Jones and his company also face judgments in Texas.

A Houston bankruptcy judge found in 2023 that most of the judgments cant be discharged in bankruptcy. Free Speech Systems bankruptcy was dismissed last year, and Jones personal Chapter 11 bankruptcy converted to a Chapter 7 liquidation.

The Houston bankruptcy court last year rejected a trustees attempt to sell Infowars assets to The Onion, but the satirical news website has shown renewed interest in buying the assets from the receiver.

Jones is represented by Broocks Law Firm PLLC, Jordan & Ortiz PC, and Alan Daughtry Law Firm. The families are represented by Koskoff, Koskoff, & Bieder PC.

The case is Alex Emric Jones, et al. vs. Erica Lafferty, et al., U.S., No. 25A7, petition 9/5/25.

 With assistance from Ryan Autullo.

Photo: Alex Jones Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Copyright 2025 Bloomberg.
European Union nations will discuss potential changes to the role of imported carbon credits in the next decade in a drive for a rapid deal on the blocs landmark 2040 climate goal.

Denmark, which holds the EUs rotating presidency, signaled openness to debating the share of international carbon credits and the date from which they would be allowed in the bloc as part of the proposed target to cut net emissions by 90% from 1990 levels, according to a document seen by Bloomberg News.

The goal is one of the most contentious issues on the EU agenda, with members divided on the pace of pollution cuts and how to protect their economies. A larger role for cheaper imported credits could potentially alleviate concerns among some states about the costs of the green drive, smoothing the way to the adoption of the 2040 target, the blocs biggest weapon in the effort to limit the damaging effects of climate change.

EU Council member states are currently considering amendments to a draft law tabled by the European Commission, which wants to allow the credits from 2036 but limit them to 3% of the blocs baseline net emissions in 1990. Poland last week called for boosting the limit to 10% and bringing the entry date forward to 2031.

Denmark is seeking to agree a common stance on the 2040 goal at an extraordinary meeting of environment ministers scheduled to take place in Brussels on Sept. 18. Any deal, which would pave the way for negotiations with the European Parliament on the final shape of the law, needs a qualified majority of votes.

The Danish presidency said it has been working intensely after meeting with all 26 member states bilaterally, and has circulated a text with substantial changes in order to facilitate a compromise at the meeting next week.

Cap-and-Trade Program

The EU currently doesnt allow the less expensive imported carbon credits generated by projects beyond its borders, after banning them fully from 2021 amid concerns over their environmental integrity. In the post-2030 framework, the commission wants to permit their use only outside its own emissions cap-and-trade program, or the EU ETS  a stance that Denmark wants to uphold.

Investors are closely watching for signs on how the region will handle credits produced under the United Nations new carbon-trading mechanism, which was mandated by the landmark Paris Agreement. While a group of countries including France, Italy and Poland are willing to elevate the issue to the blocs leaders meeting in October, diplomats do not rule out clinching an agreement or a partial deal on some elements of the proposal next week.

Photo: A wind turbine near the Avedore power station, operated by Orsted A/S, near Copenhagen, Denmark. Courtesy: Bloomberg

Copyright 2025 Bloomberg.

Topics Europe
Definity Financial Corp. plans to sell around C$1 billion ($723 million) of debt in two parts as it prepares to close the acquisition of Travelers Canada, according to people familiar with the matter.

The senior notes will be sold in five- and 10-year tranches, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private details. The five-year tranche will likely price about 0.95 to 1.05 percentage point above the government benchmarks, they added. The 10-year portion is expected to price in the 1.15 to 1.25 percentage point range. The deal is expected to come to market on Wednesday, the people said.

A representative for the company didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

The firm, which owns insurance brands and companies in Canada, is talking to investors this week about the potential issuance, Bloomberg reported previously. RBC Capital Markets and TD Securities are leading the sale.

In May, Definity agreed to pay $2.4 billion for the personal insurance business and the majority of the commercial insurance business of Travelers Canada. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026.

Related:

Copyright 2025 Bloomberg.
Suspected cyber attackers linked to the Chinese Communist Party impersonated the Republican chair of the House Select Committee on China in a series of attempts to steal sensitive data on trade negotiations, the panel said.

Hackers masquerading as Representative John Moolenaar sent multiple emails in recent weeks that sought to fool recipients into opening files and links that would grant the attackers access to information on US-China trade talks, according to a committee statement on Monday. Emails went to US government agencies, business organizations, law firms and at least one foreign government, the panel said.

Analysis by the committee found that the hackers tried to cover their tracks through improper use of software and cloud services, strategies that the panel identified as hallmarks of a state-sponsored intrusion. Officials have concluded the attempt was backed by the Chinese Communist Party, and the committee has alerted the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Capitol Police.

Based on the targeting, timing, and methods, and consistent with outside assessments, the Committee believes this activity to be CCP state-backed cyber-espionage aimed at influencing US policy deliberations and negotiation strategies to gain an advantage in trade and foreign policy, the panel said in its statement.

Allegations of the Chinese-backed cyber-espionage campaign threatened to add new strains to a tenuous tariff truce between the worlds two largest economies under a deal thats set to expire in November. Officials from Washington and Beijing have been locked in discussions on key issues including export restrictions on rare earth magnets and key technologies.

The committee declined to comment beyond its statement, which follows a report by the Wall Street Journal on the cyberattack. The US Capitol Police referred all question to the FBI. The FBI didnt immediately respond to requests for comment.

A spokesperson for Chinas embassy in Washington, Liu Pengyu, said lawmakers on the panel have consistently resorted to unscrupulous means to attack and smear China. He urged the group to cease their erroneous actions while calling hacker attacks a common threat that his country opposes.

In the committees statement, Moolenaar called the suspected cyber-espionage another example of Chinas offensive cyber-operations designed to steal American strategy and leverage it against Congress, the Administration, and the American people.

Photo: Representative John Moolenaar. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg

Copyright 2025 Bloomberg.

Topics Cyber Legislation China Politics
Ford F.N is recalling 1.9 million vehicles worldwide due to faulty rear-view cameras, the latest in a series of callbacks over the issue, the automaker said Tuesday.

The recall covers various 2015 through 2019 model year Lincoln MKC, Lincoln Navigator, Mustang, F-250, F-350, F-450, F-550, Expedition, Edge, Transit, Transit Connect, Econoline and Ranger vehicles because rearview cameras can display inverted, distorted, or blank images, Ford said in a filing with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The measure covers about 1.45 million vehicles in the United States, 122,000 in Canada and around 300,000 in other markets.

Ford said it was aware of 44,123 warranty claims worldwide related to the recall issue as well as 18 related accidents but no injuries.

Dealers will inspect and replace vehicle cameras, the U.S. auto safety regulator said. The automaker in April recalled 160,000 vehicles from the 2015 model year for rear camera failures.

Ford agreed to a $165 million civil penalty in November after an NHTSA investigation found the automaker failed to recall vehicles with defective rearview cameras in a timely manner.

NHTSA in August 2021 opened an investigation after Ford in 2020 recalled 620,246 vehicles for a rear camera issue to determine whether the carmaker recalled the vehicles in a timely fashion. Ford expanded that recall in 2022 and again in March 2024, adding about 24,000 vehicles.

In the new recall, NHTSA last year referred seven allegations of rear-camera failures on vehicles from 2015-2018 to Ford for further investigation.

Canadian auto parts supplier Magna International is recalling more than 250,000 rearview cameras fitted in select Ford and Stellantis vehicles, the agency said in a separate notice.
U.S. commercial insurance rates increased 3.8% in the second quarter of 2025, according to the latest WTW Commercial Lines Insurance Pricing Survey (CLIPS).

WTW said the price increase has been very close to 6% over the past six quarters. Carriers reported an aggregate price increase of 5.3% during the first three months of 2025down from increases of 5.6% and 6.1% for the fourth and third quarters of 2024, respectively.

Amidst the ongoing general upward trend, our latest data from the second quarter of 2025 shows a moderation in commercial insurance pricing, said Yi Jing, senior director if insurance consulting and technology (ICT), WTW. While some lines continued to see increases, others remained stable or slightly declined, reflecting a period of more measured rate growth across the market.

Commercial property saw prices decrease during Q2 2025. Data for most lines continue to indicate moderate to significant price increases in the second quarter of 2025 with the exception of workers compensation, directors and officers liability, commercial property and cyber.

The largest price increases continued to come from excess/umbrella liability, with double-digit price increases also seen in commercial auto, reported WTW.

The survey compared prices charged on policies written during the second quarter of 2025, with the prices charged for the same coverage during Q2 2024. Forty-two participating insurers participated in the survey, representing about 20% of the U.S. commercial insurance market.

Topics Trends USA Commercial Lines Business Insurance Pricing Trends
Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz introduced a bill on Wednesday that would let artificial intelligence companies apply for exemptions to federal regulation to help them experiment in developing new technology.

Cruz leads the Senate Commerce Committee, which held a subcommittee hearing on Wednesday about ways Congress can lower regulatory hurdles for the tech industry to give U.S. companies a boost in competing with China.

A regulatory sandbox is not a free pass. People creating or using AI still have to follow the same laws as everyone else, Cruz said at the hearing.

If passed by Congress, the bill would allow agencies that oversee federal regulations to consider applications from companies to be exempt from regulations for two years at a time, and require companies to outline the potential safety and financial risks and how they would mitigate them.

Consumer rights advocacy group Public Citizen raised concerns about provisions in the proposal that would allow the White Houses Office of Science and Technology Policy to override decisions by agency heads, and said the proposal treats Americans as test subjects.

The sob stories of AI companies being held back by regulation are simply not true and the record company valuations show it, said J.B. Branch, Public Citizens Big Tech accountability advocate.

Cruzs sandbox bill does not include a ban on state regulation, something that the tech industry has sought and the White House has said is necessary to boost innovation. A bid to put a ban in place as part of President Donald Trumps tax-and-spending bill was defeated in the Senate on a 99-1 vote in July.

OSTP Director Michael Kratsios said at the hearing that Congress should reconsider the issue.

Its something that my office wants to work very closely with you on, he told Cruz at the hearing.

Topics USA InsurTech Legislation Data Driven Artificial Intelligence Tech
Lincoln International, a global investment banking advisory firm, said it has a definitive agreement to acquire MarshBerry, an advisory firm serving the insurance brokerage, insurance distribution, and wealth management sectors for over 40 years.

Lincoln said Woodmere, Ohio-based MarshBerry will bring a suite of specialized services, including investment banking, consulting and growth advisory, market intelligence, agency network access, and executive peer-exchange. MarshBerry operates across six U.S. cities and three international locations in Europe, serving a dedicated client base of private, independent brokers and wealth management firms.

This acquisition aligns seamlessly with our vision of becoming the leading advisor in the private capital markets, said Lincoln CEO Rob Brown. By combining our strengths, we will not only expand our service offerings but will enhance the ways we support our clients as we navigate the dynamic insurance and wealth management sectors.

This acquisition will significantly strengthen Chicago-based Lincolns capabilities within the financial services sector and solidify its position as the premier advisor for private equity firms, strategic acquirers, and independent owners navigating the rapidly consolidating insurance and wealth management landscape.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition closing is subject to standard regulatory approvals.

After closing, Lincoln said the firms will focus on a seamless integration process that prioritizes client outcomes, knowledge sharing and collective success.

This acquisition represents a step that bolsters our presence in the insurance and wealth management markets while setting the stage for continued growth, said John Wepler, MarshBerry CEO.

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Agencies
The New Orleans Archdiocese on Monday agreed to a $230 million proposed settlement for survivors of clergy sexual abuse, attorneys for some of the survivors said Monday. The agreement paves the way for a final resolution to yearslong negotiations amid a series of similar settlements from the Catholic Church.

The archdiocese had announced in May that it would pay at least $179.2 million in response to more than 500 abuse claims, which the bloc of attorneys said they opposed because they considered it to be lowballing the hundreds of survivors.

We knew this was a bad deal, and we knew we could do better; and we have, the group of 10 attorneys said in a statement. The power of no forced the Archdiocese to come up with significantly more money.

The archdiocese had filed for bankruptcy in May 2020 rather than handle each abuse claim separately, which survivors point out allows church leadership to avoid facing tough questions in court. The archdiocese called the updated settlement a significant step forward for the benefit of all claimant survivors in an emailed statement.

Survivors have until late October to vote on whether or not to approve the settlement. If approved by two-thirds of survivors, payments could begin disbursement by next year.

At this point, Im not aware of a single attorney for an abuse survivor that opposes the plan, said Brad Knapp, an attorney for a committee representing abuse survivors. With all the abuse survivors attorneys supporting it, I think theres much less chance that it gets voted down.

The archdioceses bankruptcy is one of the longest running and most contentious of more than a dozen ongoing Catholic Church bankruptcy cases in the U.S. related to sex abuse, according to Terence McKiernan, president of the nonprofit BishopAccountability.org.

Judge Meredith Grabill, overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings in federal court, has warned that if the settlement is not approved, then she will dismiss the case.

If a bankruptcy settlement fails, survivors would be required to seek compensation for their abuse claims through new lawsuits, which could take years to play out in courts. And it raises the prospect that the archdiocese would declare bankruptcy again to delay payments, according to a public letter from the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors. The committee represents the interests of abuse survivors in the bankruptcy case and urged survivors to accept the initial settlement offer.

The committee warned that bringing individual abuse claims in court would likely lead to difficult confrontations with a aggressive and hostile archdiocese, which could force survivors and their friends and family to engage in tough depositions and years of appeals, exacerbating survivors emotional and psychological pain.

A lot of survivors are ready for this to be resolved, said Kristi Schubert, an attorney representing dozens of survivors. A lot of them would prefer to receive certain money now.

But some survivors, like Kevin Bourgeois, say that monetary compensation only goes so far.

There is no dollar amount that really is equitable considering that abuse survivors live for the rest of their lives putting their lives back together, said Bourgeois, a New Orleans native who suffered clergy sexual abuse and settled privately prior to 2020. He pointed out that the bankruptcy process allows the church to wear people down and keep the public in the dark about the extent to which it enabled abuse.

The settlement as outlined in May requires the archdiocese to bring in outside experts to evaluate its child-protection programs and recommend improvements. The archdiocese would also establish a document archive at a secular university related to its abuse and hold public forums for survivors to share their experiences and concerns with the archbishop.

I remain very hopeful and committed to bringing this bankruptcy to a conclusion that benefits the survivors of abuse, said New Orleans Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond in a Monday statement. Please know that I pray for the survivors of abuse every day and look forward to the opportunity to meet with them to hear their stories

Aymond has resisted the chorus of survivors calling for his resignation over the churchs failure to take action on allegations against priests for decades.

The accusations of archdiocese clergy abuse triggered a sweeping FBI probe and a cascading crisis for the Catholic Church, which drew on help from New Orleans Saints executives to help behind the scenes with damage control, an AP investigation revealed.

___

This story has been corrected to show that Kevin Bourgeois settled his abuse case prior to 2020, not in 2020.

___

Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Photo: FILE  A crucifix is silhouetted in front of a stained glass window inside a Catholic Church in New Orleans, Dec. 1 2012. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
In a wide-ranging scheme that prosecutors are calling insurance farming, a former manager for one of the larger agricultural operations in Florida is now awaiting a sentencing hearing in December.

Christopher Lee, 49, from the Naples area, on Aug. 26 pleaded guilty to more than $1.1 million in crop insurance fraud, part of a federal investigation that has led to six guilty pleas. More indictments are expected later this fall, and may include a local insurance agent.

In or around 2021 or 2022, at the direction of, or with the knowledge of, Coconspirator 1, Lee began engaging in insurance farming,' a practice by which the farm would deliberately fail to fumigate and fertilize insured crops, all to gain crop insurance payments, reads the plea agreement.

The court documents did not name Coconspirator 1 nor did they name the agriculture company Lee worked for. But multiple news sites in southwest Florida have reported that Lee previously was a manager for Oakes Farms, which has thousands of acres of farm operations in Collier and other counties. Lee also managed his own farm company, C Lee Farms and C Lee Pepper Farms, and acted as a straw farmer for his coconspirator, the plea agreement indicates.

Oakes Farms is owned by Francis Alfie Oakes III, a successful agri-businessman in the Naples area, well known for his political views. Oakes has not been named in court records or indictments. Federal agents in last 2024 raided his home and business locale in a separate investigation, according to local news reports.

In 2014, Oakes Farms businesses made headlines when they were raided by officers with the Florida Department of Financial Services. DFS alleged that the firms had hired undocumented or illegal immigrant workers and that some of the laborers had used fake identification in order to obtain workers compensation insurance, news sites reported. Alfie Oakes said at the time that his companies did not knowingly hire illegals.

More pleas may be on the way in the latest federal investigation. Coconspirator 2 is an insurance agent who facilitated Lees crop insurance fraud, Lees plea agreement explains.

Lee knew Coconspirator 2 to conspire with him and others in the Farm Organization with respect to their crop-insurance fraud, prosecutors wrote. This included, for example, Coconspirator 2 delaying filing acreage reports so that insured crops could not timely be inspected by crop-insurance adjusters, and Coconspirator 2 backdating documents, or notarizing false documents, to further the crop-insurance fraud.

The agent also would make other offers to assist in the farm organizations crop-insurance fraud, including offering to run interference with crop-insurance adjusters and offering to create fake spray logs, the agreement notes.

From 2019 to November 2024, C Lee Farms and C Lee Pepper Farms received more than $1.9 million in crop insurance indemnities, the plea agreement says, noting the federal government also subsidized about $514,033 of C Lee Farms and C Lee Pepper Farms crop insurance premiums and paid their approved insurance providers about $194,730 in administrative and operating expenses, the court document reads.

Lee also agreed to plead guilty to defrauding the U.S. Department of Agricultures Coronavirus Food Assistance Program. He has agreed to pay full restitution and has already paid more than $700,000, his attorney told the Gulfshore Business news outlet.

Lees sentencing hearing is set for Dec. 1.

Topics Agencies Florida Agribusiness
In a three-way deal involving carriers, underwriters, holding companies and more, catastrophe-focused managing general underwriter SageSure announced it will acquire the managing general agent for Florida-based Olympus Insurance Co.

At the same time, the parent company for SageSures carrier partners Auros and Interboro Insurance will take over Olympus Insurance Co., the companies said early Wednesday.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. SageSure, headquartered in New Jersey, said the move will expand the firms presence in the improving Florida market. As of the first quarter this year, Olympus held some 80,200 policies, mostly for more-affluent homeowners, state regulator data shows. The combined companies will now have more than 130,000 policies in Florida and about $700 million in gross written premium, SageSure noted.

Olympus Insurance had some of the highest average HO premiums in Florida in Q1 this year  about $5,635. That was a 53% increase from the end of 2022, according to quarterly data from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.

It takes extreme discipline, strategy, and differentiation to succeed in the Florida market of the last several years as Olympus has, SageSure President and CEO Terrence McLean said in a statement Wednesday. Whats even more impressive is that Olympus was able to deliver these results prior to Floridas recent legislative changes.

As part of the acquisition move, Valence Insurance Holdings, the parent of Auros and Interboro, will acquire Olympus captive reinsurer Radiant Ltd. SageSure will acquire Gemini Financial Holdings Corp. and its subsidiaries, including Olympus MGA. Valence and SageSure are owned by the same parent company, Slaine Holdings.

Olympus Insurance was first licensed in Florida in 2007 and has headquarters in Jacksonville. Tim Stroble has been CEO since early 2023.

Our companys purpose is to deliver the superior insurance experiences people deserve, and we see that mission reflected in SageSures market leadership, Stroble said in a statement.

Stroble and the entire Olympus team are expected to remain in their current positions after the deal is completed, SageSures McLean said in an email.

Olympus and its Gemini Financial Holdings are known for utilizing a full-stack Florida model that includes a carrier, managing general agents, an in-house claims adjusting arm, an internal reinsurance broker and a reinsurance company. Dennis McGill remained chairman of the firm and was the majority shareholder until the SageSure deal, a company official said.

SageSure, with offices in Jersey City, New Jersey, said it now operates in 16 states and holds more than 850,000 policies and some $2.5 billion in premium. The Olympus merger follows SageSures acquisition of GeoVera Advantage Insurance Services in January of this year.

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Florida Insurance Wholesale
A North Carolina firefighter who was shot while answering a fire alarm call is recovering, while a suspect is in jail.

The Associated Press and local media reported that the fireman was shot last week in Ellerbe. One fire truck and a firefighter in a personal vehicle responded to the scene, where they were met with gunfire and a firefighter was hit. Deputies responded and took a suspect into custody.

The injured firefighter was airlifted to a trauma center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The suspect was identified as Timothy Lee Hayden, who used an assault rifle in the shooting, according to the Richmond County Sheriff and WCNC TV news. He is charged with two counts of assault on emergency personnel with a firearm and one count of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflict serious injury. He remained in jail as of Wednesday.

The State Bureau of Investigation was called in to help. Last week, investigators were still collecting evidence at the scene and had no comment on a possible motive.

The shooting came two weeks after three firefighters in Wilimington were injured while responding to a gas explosion. A vehicle struck a gas line and left the scene, causing an explosion at a veterinary medical center, ABC15 News reported.

Two of the firefighters had relatively minor injuries while a third had severe burns on hands and arms.

Topics North Carolina
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has called for a suspension of trade with Israel, as she spoke of Europes painful inability to respond to the war on Gaza and ensuing humanitarian disaster.

In her most extended condemnation yet of the Israeli government, von der Leyen criticised plans for illegal settlements that would split the occupied West Bank in half, as well as incitement of violence by extremist Israeli ministers, as a clear attempt to undermine the two-state solution.

She made the remarks during her annual state of the union speech to the European parliament in Strasbourg, in which she depicted a turbulent world where battle lines are being drawn and dependencies are ruthlessly weaponised.

In response to Russias overnight violations of Polish airspace, she said Europe stands in full solidarity with Poland, a line prompting MEPs to their feet applauding in support. Von der Leyen continued, calling for Europe to exert more pressure on the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to come to the negotiating table.

Europe is in a fight.



A fight for our liberty and our ability to determine our destiny for ourselves.



This must be Europes Independence Moment.



A moment we can seize if we're united  https://t.co/EcrY5Mi7kU  Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) September 10, 2025

It was a pugnacious speech after a bruising summer when von der Leyen received heavy criticism for the EUs approach to the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, as well as her much-criticised trade deal with Donald Trump. Meanwhile, forest fires intensified by the climate crisis consumed European land equivalent to one-third of the size of Belgium.

Describing Europes inability to agree on a response to Gaza as painful, von der Leyen said the EU executive would freeze its bilateral support for Israel, apart from funds for civil society groups and the Yad Vashem holocaust memorial centre. The commission would also table proposals to suspend the trade parts of the EU-Israel association agreement and draft sanctions against Israeli extremist ministers and violent settlers in the West Bank, she said.

It remains unclear whether the divided EU will find the majority to suspend trade, as a less ambitious measure to freeze Israels participation in the EUs research programme remains blocked. The commission previously considered sanctions against two far-right Israeli ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, for their incendiary statements against people in Gaza, but stopped short of tabling the proposal, fearing it would not get the unanimity required.

Von der Leyen also reiterated her wish to end the principle of consensus-based decisions governing European foreign policy, saying it was time to break free from the shackles of unanimity.

In a wide-ranging speech that gestured to critics on her left, she pledged to stay the course on the EUs climate agenda, promised a strategy to eradicate poverty in Europe by 2050 and revealed her interest in Australias pioneering social media restrictions for children. She announced that a panel of experts would look at the best approach for Europe, saying: Parents, not algorithms, should be raising our children.

The speech was also a response to criticism from her left over the EUs inaction on Israel.

The leader of the Socialists in the European parliament, Iratxe Garcia Perez, welcomed the steps, but said they were too little, too late. The Socialist leader also attacked the EU trade deal with Donald Trump, which was unveiled at the US presidents golf course in the Scottish resort of Turnberry. Garcia Perez said the trade deal was unacceptable and an abuse of power and that von der Leyen had gone to Scotland to bury our strategic autonomy under a golf course.

At times von der Leyen also faced barracking from far-right MEPs, now the third-largest group in the European parliament, who booed when she spoke of her alarm about declining vaccination rates and heckled when she announced a new European initiative to counter disinformation.

She defended her trade deal with Trump, saying that a fully-fledged trade war with the US would have led to chaos. The deal provides crucial stability in our relations with the US at a time of grave global insecurity, she said, arguing that some of the EUs competitors had worse terms with the US.

She urged more sanctions over Ukraine and said that, with allies, Europe was looking at a faster phasing-out of Russian fossil fuels, clamping down on the shadow fleet used to transport Russian oil around the world, as well as actions against countries helping Russia to evade sanctions.

Von der Leyen did not respond directly to reports that Trump had asked the EU to impose 100% tariffs on India and China in an attempt to force Putin to the negotiating table. Both countries are large buyers of Russian oil and host companies that act as intermediaries by selling western goods to Russian buyers, so evading European and US sanctions.

She said the EU was working urgently on a a new solution to finance Ukraines war effort based on an estimated 300bn in frozen Russian assets in the west. She floated the idea of a reparations loan for Ukraine that would leave the Russian assets legally intact.

The EU is taking interest from Russian assets held in the bloc, but has stopped short of outright confiscation, fearing damaging repercussions for eurozone stability.

- The Guardian
An upturn like 2025 provides dairy farmers with the opportunity to prepare for a downturn like 2023, advises John McCabe, advisor on the Teagasc/Aurivo Joint Programme.

He said many farmers (but not all) experienced low or very low incomes in 2023, and the real cash flow pinch for many came in March, April, and May of 2024, during a hard spring.

Going forward, John made some suggestions for diverting surplus cash now towards areas that can provide high returns, help reduce exposure to price and weather shocks, and improve profit.

He said reseeding is finishing up now, but it is not too late to get a head start on next years reseeding programme.

"You could buy in some reasonable quality silage, if you need to, for feeding to dry cows, in order to have silage left over next May, in turn allowing you to close fewer acres for silage and more for reseeding."

He also suggested liming all fields below 6.3 or 6.5, if chasing clover.

Spreading Muriate of Potash (0:0:50) was suggested, along with spreading P on fields that need it, if you have an allowance (it must be done before September 15).

New spur roadways and more gaps off existing roadways were proposed, along with tweaking sheds to gain more feed space (if tight, the target is 60cm per cow).

For slurry storage, John said availing of the grant is roughly the equivalent of buying concrete at prices experienced before the hyper-inflation period in 2022.

It allows you to use nutrients better, and it is a win for water quality. An added bonus is that another tank situated in the right place can act as extra feed space if needed

Investment in fencing was recommended, on the basis that every 10 cows in the herd require 0.5 acres for 36-hour grazings (100 cows need 5 acres, or 2ha).

Bring ground that you can walk cows to into grass production if it is currently not producing anything, advised John.

Mapping

"Map your farm" is another suggestion, because many farmers find out that their milking platform, when adjusted for roads, hedges, and yards, is actually a few acres smaller than expected. Mapping can also offer savings in paying contractors for the correct number of acres, and can enable spreading the correct amount of fertiliser. Or mapping provides a useful map you can give to relief milkers or contractors.

Investing in extra water pipe and troughs on heifer ground can allow you to split up large fields and improve growth rates of the next generation of milking cows.

"Be careful that you dont spend too much in areas that will drive up the cost of production through repayments, running, maintenance, or by embedding something into your system that may not be very high return, and that you may want to or have to replace if it breaks," added John.

He said that where farms are not in a company, and the tax bill is going to be high, it is common for a machine to be bought. However, this must be paid for over the long term.

"It is much easier to buy a new bit of kit than to spend in the areas highlighted above, but which is better for your cost of production and your ability to make a profit in a tight year?

"Of course, there are other tactics that could be explored. Some will pay down debt or build up cash for opportunities, but as ever, seek advice first. Some farms may feel the need to invest in labour-saving areas like extra units and air gates in the parlour, automatic gap releases, underpasses, etc.

"In summary, each farm has its own bottlenecks and desires. However, investing in high-return areas is a good idea, and I havent come across a farm that will not benefit from investment in grass.

"Some of the areas highlighted require more planning, or indeed planning permission, so may not be suitable for this year. However, improving grass growth potential can start straight away."

He emphasised that output must come from grazed grass, and high amounts of pasture grown and utilised across the whole farm.

He noted that aiming for very high output usually entails much more built-in cost with higher risk and exposure, which can bite in a poor year.

He said the average cost of production has risen over the last three to four years, with many farms now exposed to milk price drops and relying on good years.
Anna Wintour, the outgoing editor-in-chief of Vogue, has addressed Meryl Streeps performance as a formidable glossy fashion-mag editor widely perceived to be based on her in the 2006 comedy The Devil Wears Prada.

Based on the novel of the same name by Lauren Weisberger, who previously worked as Wintours assistant, the film starred Anne Hathaway as an aspiring reporter who secures a post as a lackey to the ice-cold editor of fictional publication Runway.

I went to the premiere wearing Prada, completely having no idea what the film was going to be about, Wintour said to The New Yorkers editor David Remnick on his podcast for the magazine.

Ann Hathaway and Meryl Streep in 'The Devil Wears Prada'. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Lauren Weisberger, who had worked as Anna Wintours assistant.

And I think that the fashion industry were very sweetly concerned for me about the film, that it was going to paint me in some kind of difficult light.

Remnick suggested it was cartoonish, to which Wintour agreed, adding: Yes, a caricature.

Yet Wintour said she was surprised by the subtlety of the portrayal, and impressed more generally by the film.

I found it highly enjoyable. It was very funny.

Miuccia [Prada] and I talk about it a lot, and I say to her: Well, it was really good for you.

Anna Wintour said the movie 'had a lot of humour to it. It had a lot of wit. It had Meryl Streep [above]. I mean, it was Emily Blunt, they were all amazing. In the end, I thought it was a fair shot.'

The film, Wintour added, had a lot of humour to it. It had a lot of wit. It had Meryl Streep. I mean, it was Emily Blunt, [and] they were all amazing. In the end, I thought it was a fair shot.

Streep was Oscar-nominated for her portrayal.

In the past, Wintour demurred over enquiries asking for her take on the film, last year telling the BBC at a performance of the West End musical adapted from the film that it was for the audience and for the people I work with to decide if there are any similarities between me and Miranda Priestly [the fictional editor].

A sequel to the film is currently shooting in New York, with Kenneth Branagh joining returning stars Hathaway, Streep, Blunt, and Stanley Tucci.

Italian designer Miuccia Prada with then 'Vogue' editor-in-chief Anna Wintour in 2012. Wintour has revealed that she and Miuccia talk 'a lot' about 'The Devil Wears Prada'. Picture: Olivier Morin/AFP/Getty

The original film took $326m (278m) from a $40m budget and has enjoyed a considerable cultural afterlife.

Wintours replacement as editor-in-chief of Vogue was recently announced as Chloe Malle, daughter of acclaimed French film director Louis Malle.

Wintour continues as chief content officer for Conde Nast and global editorial director of Vogue.
It was during a family gathering that Mary Casey learned the painful truth behind her fathers death after years of believing he had succumbed to a heart attack.

Then aged 21, she was left reeling after a cousin casually questioned whether she knew her dad Richards death was a suicide.

From the age of nine, Mary had been told that her dad died of natural causes.

The shocking news left Mary with more questions than answers.

She recalled thinking it was strange that her father had passed away in a hotel room but refrained from asking or even mentioning his death.

Decades on, she has learned to come to terms with the trauma of such a complicated grief, with the help of suicide workshops run by Cork couple and psychotherapists, Brendan and Eileen OBrien.

She is now speaking out about her battle with grief to mark World Suicide Prevention Day which is marked every year on this date, September 10.

Mary is one of many who participated in the groups which incorporate the family constellation method.

The approach, which uncovers unconscious trans-generational patterns and dynamics within family systems, was initially developed by Bert Hellinger.

It involves the representation of different family members as a means to gain insight into hidden dynamics to improve generational mental health.

I think somewhere deep inside I knew, Mary said of her fathers suicide.

Even at nine years old I thought it seemed a bit odd that someone would die in a hotel bedroom on their own. However, I was never able to bring myself to think about him.

"When my cousin asked me if I knew my father died by suicide I felt like the ground had opened up and swallowed me.

"She just blurted it out after a few drinks. It was at a family gathering so I had to smile for the rest of the evening as everybody chatted. I never told my mother that I knew. I still couldnt talk about it.

There were times in Marys life when the pain felt unbearable.

The only time I had to acknowledge my dads death was on his anniversary every year on November 18. It was the one day where something about my dad would have to be mentioned.

"I had to go to mass on those mornings to mark his anniversary. Id go in my uniform and be late for school which always embarrassed me. It was uncomfortable. It was painful, but I could not find a way out.

'For 20 to 30 years I was completely shut down'

She explained that suicides can occur even in the most loving of families.

I was an only child. My mum and dad met late in life. When they married they were very much in love. My parents both adored me so when my father died, mum definitely wasnt going to tell me how it happened.

"The minute she told me he was gone I almost physically felt this huge wall shuttering down around me. For 20 to 30 years I was completely shut down and trapped as a nine year old. You might say that, chronologically, I grew up. I became a teenager, and I had boyfriends and went to school. In my adult years I got a job in RTE but I was still very much trapped and very much shut down.

The Dublin native, who now lives in Drimoleague in West Cork, opened up about the secrecy that existed around suicide when she was a child.

When I was nine, suicide was not talked about. I remember we had we had to sell our house after Dad died and while it was a lovely place, our new home was much smaller and much colder.

"Nobody judged my mother but it was very hush, hush on our road when it came to light that a neighbour has taken his own life. Back then it wasnt spoken about. When it was, people referred to it using the horrible term 'committing suicide', whereas now things are so different.

In hindsight, Mary wishes she had been told the truth about the nature of her fathers death.

I think every child should be told the truth but in an age appropriate way. Every parent knows how much their child can really handle. Im a firm believer that when a child asks the question you should answer truthfully.

You only need to give them the words that their age can handle. When they grow up more questions will come and you can speak to them with a more age appropriate response

"I have no experience of feeling suicidal, so I can't speak from that perspective but children definitely need more answers.

She spoke about how suicide workshops facilitated by Brendan OBrien and his wife Eileen offered her hope and a means to move forward.

When I heard that he was running free workshops for people bereaved by suicide and with suicidal ideation I signed up straight away. Soon as I started them I knew this was where my healing was.

"It smashed the wall that had shuttered down in front of me after being told about my dads death. I can honestly say that I could talk for Ireland about my dad now. My kids know all about their granddad.

"I never blamed him for what he did. There is no blame at all and nothing but unconditional love in our family.

The only pity was I never had the chance to speak to my mum about what happened to my father before she died

Mary is now able to look back on the short time she had with her father with fondness.

I remember more the warm feeling and the love more so than the specific memories. Its funny because the one clear memory I have of him is me asking him how he knew which sock went on each foot. He had to explain to me that it didnt matter, you just put on whichever one you saw first. Its funny the things that stick in your memory.

'I still talk to Stephen'

Meanwhile, Nuala Burke from Bishopstown in Cork is still reeling from the death of her son who lost his battle to mental health eight years ago.

The father of one, who lived in Australia, was aged 37 when he died.

Nuala Burke lost her son Stephen to suicide. Picture: Dan Linehan

Steve was lovely, funny and talented, Nuala told the Irish Examiner.

He had wonderful friends who Im still in touch with today. Steve was very loved. If love could stop this there would be no suicides. He was a chef and a DJ who loved music, just like his dad. We had a lovely relationship.

"I still talk to Stephen. In my heart that relationship continues."

She recalled how the death of her son was overshadowed by shock.

I had to ask somebody, not terribly long ago, who had called me to tell me what had happened because I couldnt remember. I cant recall the phone call but thats the power of shock. I had my concerns that something like this might happen so it shouldnt have been a bolt out of the blue.

"However, I found myself frozen in shock. I thought I would be able to cope because I had lost my husband early on in life. When that happened I cried every night for a year but with Stephen it was different.

It took a long time for that freeze to thaw to allow me to finally process what had happened

"I didnt have the relief of tears because I had been frozen in shock for so long. I was just hoping that during his life he knew how loved he was. Sometimes I think that maybe he didnt.

The Cork woman is keen to raise awareness of the issue.

I often describe suicide as a kind of perfect storm. There's never any one simple reason, even when it might appear that there is.

"Im lucky because I am surrounded by wonderful people. There was one time where somebody commented to me that suicide is a selfish act. Ill never forget the rage I felt but this was a person who was very kind normally.

"I think they were just thinking out loud. This comment just highlighted to me the work that still needs to be done in raising awareness of suicide. I think my son had depression at the time but what really killed him was human distress.

"We need to talk about this more because this is part of the struggle of being a human being in the world.

She explained what motivated her to attend the workshops facilitated by Brendan and Eileen OBrien.

I think that what Brendan and Eileen do in terms of addressing the intergenerational stuff and the importance of prevention is really valuable. Really Im doing this for my grandson.

"He lives in Australia and has no idea about what Im doing in the workshops but I have no doubt this continues to impact him and I want to be able to support him as best I can.

"My own feeling is that Steve had his issues in life and that he was carrying stuff from previous generations as well which is very much the theme of Brendan and Eileens workshops.

Brendan and his wife Eileen both served as lecturers on MTUs degree course in Counselling and Psychotherapy in MTU. Brendan has also worked with many young people over the years as a school principal.

"The mental health advocate felt compelled to help people struggling with the stigma of suicide after the death of his aunt by suicide back in 1977. He believes that intergenerational trauma can often play a part in depression and suicide ideation.

In my time if a girl got pregnant and was told not to darken her familys doorstep again she was excluded from that family.

"That in turn has a negative impact on the system and Hellinger believes that someone else later in the system will carry the pain of the exclusion.

Brendan dedicates his work to a number of children he worked with in schools and educational settings who went on to take their own lives.

I remember each of them fondly, he says.

I always include them and think of them in all the work we do around suicide.

Brendan OBriens new bookUnderstanding Suicide A New Lens is available to purchase. It features information about family constellations and the stories of those impacted by suicide who attended his workshops
The Government will launch a new competitiveness plan today aimed at ensuring Ireland is maximising trade in areas within its control.

Enterprise minister Peter Burke expedited the plan in light of geopolitical tensions and is focusing on funding Irish enterprises, growing foreign direct investment, and ensuring infrastructure constraints are tackled.

The plan will contain new structures on AI, intellectual property, and start-ups.

Ireland will also use its EU presidency to push meaningfully reduce red tape and regulatory burden.

Separately, Cabinet will hear that 50m is to be ringfenced for the second hand acquisitions programme to target the eight local authority areas  in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, and Waterford  with the highest number of families living in long-term emergency homeless accommodation.

Housing minister James Browne is expected to say there will be a particular focus on the acquisition of four-bedroom homes, which are not available under other delivery streams.

It is understood that Mr Browne has written to the authorities and approved them to enter into commitments for 2026 to a value of up to 30% of their original acquisitions budget for 2025.

Cabinet will hear that there should be sufficient funding available to meet all tenant in situ drawn down requests in 2025 taking into account the likely underspend by councils of the original allocations by a number of authorities.

Minister for social protection Dara Calleary will bring a memo to Cabinet regarding a new child poverty target for the years 2025 and 2030.

Mr Calleary will say that his departments ambitious target will be achieved with targeted supports including the working family payment and child support payment.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin will tell Cabinet that Irelands support of Ukraine should be intensified in terms of security, humanitarian and political terms.

Mr Martin will provide an update on last weeks meeting of the Coalition of the Willing in relation to Ukraine where significant progress was made on a package of security guarantees that would underpin a future agreement.

Cabinet will also hear details of Mr Martins recent call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, where they discussed the expansion of a free school meals programme supported by Ireland.

Meanwhile, Tanaiste and minister for defence Simon Harris will bring the Defence Forces strategy to Cabinet.
The family of a young Clare schoolboy who was fatally injured in a road traffic collision near his home last year have lost their appeal against the decision of the DPP that there should be no criminal prosecution in relation to his death.

Dylan Coady-Coleman, 10, of Corrib Drive, Shannon, Co Clare died from his injuries at Childrens Health Ireland at Temple Street in Dublin on February 28, 2024.

The boy, who was a fourth class pupil from St Tolas NS in Shannon, was transferred to the hospital in Dublin for specialist care after originally being treated at University Hospital Limerick where he was brought after being struck by a van at Purcell Park, Shannon, Co Clare three days earlier.

The funeral cortege of Dylan Coady Coleman at Mary Immaculate Church, Shannon, in March 2024. Picture: Brendan Gleeson

The fatal incident took place a short distance from the boys home at around 2pm.

A man in his 20s was arrested as part of the garda investigation into the death of the schoolboy but he was later released without charge.

Coroner's Court

A sitting of Dublin District Coroners Court on Wednesday heard that an appeal by Dylans parents, Garry Coleman and Laura Coady, against the DPPs direction that no criminal prosecution was warranted in relation to the circumstances of their sons death had been unsuccessful.

Detective Inspector Ken Hoare told coroner Aisling Gannon the review sought by the deceased boys family had been considered but that the DPPs decision remains the same. Det Insp Hoare said the garda investigation file on the case was now being submitted to the coroners office.

Dylans parents, who attended the inquest via videolink, did not speak during the brief hearing.

However, the familys solicitor, Caitriona Carmody, asked for an indication of when the full inquest might be heard and also applied to be furnished with copies of statements and forensic reports in relation to the fatal incident.

Full inquest unlikely in the next six months

Ms Gannon replied that the inquest was unlikely to be held within the next six months as the coroners office was facing significant delays. However, the coroner promised that she would give the case priority as it involved the death of a very young person.

Ms Gannon said the final determination of the DPP on the matter meant she could begin her fact-finding inquiry into the circumstances of Dylans death which would involve an investigation of legal and medical matters arising in the case.

At a previous hearing of the inquest last December, the coroner confirmed that the results of an autopsy showed that Dylan had died as a result of catastrophic head injuries arising from a road traffic collision.

Mr Coleman also revealed that he and his partner had made the decision to donate their sons organs for transplant after being informed by hospital staff that there was nothing more that could be done to save his life.

The death of the schoolboy was considered particularly tragic as Ms Coady gave birth to a baby boy in the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin on the day before her other son died.

The infant, who was brought to Dylans bedside before he passed away, was christened Shane Dylan, in honour of his late brother.

The couple also have a daughter, Zoe.
A fundraiser for an Irish grandmother living legally in the US for almost 50 years but who is now being held in an immigration detention camp there has reached almost 90% of its goal.

Donna Hughes-Brown, 58, was arrested after she landed in Chicago on a flight from Dublin after attending a funeral in Ireland and visiting relatives in Cork and Drogheda in July.

Mrs Hughes-Brown organises food boxes for needy people in her local community and volunteers to help families stricken by major hurricanes.

Mrs Hughes Brown was arrested on July 29 after flying into Chicago from Ireland and is now being held in isolation in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centre in Kentucky.

ICE is the now hugely controversial US immigration agency.

Her crime was a bad cheque she signed for just $25 (23) in 2015 and for which she reportedly made full restitution.

The historic minor misdemeanour now threatens to trigger her deportation.

The Irish citizen moved to the US with her family as a child. She has been a legal resident of the US since, holding multiple green cards.

She is married to US Navy veteran Jim Brown who she runs a horse farm with in Troy, Missouri.

Mr Brown has been campaigning for his wifes release.

Some 88% of a $6,500 (5,552) goal on Gofundme was raised in 16 days to help the family with legal costs, with a top donation of $500 (427).

Donna and Jim 'hardworking, humble people'

Fundraiser organiser, Diana Buretta, described the couple as very strong community helpers.

They are often involved with multiple volunteer organizations and projects.

They both are hardworking, honest, and caring individuals [] humble people who are always willing to help, and kind friends.

The couple has been married for eight years now and they both have worked hard to grow their farm, Ms Buretta wrote on the fundraising page.

This Gofundme is being created to help prepare and support Jim Browns fight for justice and freedom of his wife, Donna Hughes-Brown, who was wrongly detained and incarcerated this past July. The goal is to raise the resources necessary to cover the lawyers and court fees, and help Jim and Donna navigate these difficult, stressful , and expensive times, she wrote.

Mrs Hughes-Browns arrest and detention is a direct result of the Trump administrations aggressive immigration policies, Mr Brown told local Missouri TV network KMOV.

They signed a stupid bill that is torturing innocent people, and thats the problem.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed it is aware of the case and is providing consular assistance.

The Immigration and Nationality Act under which Ms Hughes-Brown was detained under was amended by president Donald Trump on the Fourth of July as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Under the new law, any foreign-born resident of the United States who has violated any law over the previous 20 years can be barred from entry to the US.

It came into effect on July 24.

The Irish grandmother and charity volunteer has described conditions in the immigration detention camp as deplorable, as reported by The Irish Times.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said that it is aware of the case and is providing consular assistance.

"As with all consular cases, the Department does not comment on the details of individual cases," it said.
A Cork man caught racing against his brother on a major road in the early hours of the morning has been disqualified from driving.

Giving evidence, Garda Pat Harrington told Mallow District Court that he was driving from Cork towards Mallow after midnight in the early morning of August 21, 2024.
A motorist who failed to stop at an accident and later ran over an investigating gardas foot before fleeing to Britain eventually handed himself in, Mallow District Court has heard.

Court presenter Sergeant Linda OLeary told the court that James OSullivan, aged 25, of Hazel Avenue, Dromcollogher, Co Limerick, was the driver of a transit van that was involved in a collision at Seeds, Dromcollogher, on October 22, 2022.

OSullivan left the scene with two other men in the van.

A short time later, while the investigating garda was at the scene interviewing the other motorist involved in the collision, OSullivan approached in the transit van from the opposite direction, towing a trailer full of timber.

The garda beckoned him to stop and approached the open drivers window to speak to OSullivan.

As the garda approached the transit van, OSullivan sped away and rolled over the gardas left foot in the process.

Garda sustained significant injuries

The garda sustained significant injuries to his foot, which required three months of physiotherapy treatment.

A Garda patrol later stopped the transit van, and the three males jumped out of the vehicle and made their escape, running off through fields in different directions.

OSullivan was disqualified from driving for dangerous driving at the time of the incident and later fled to Britain to avoid arrest.

The court heard that OSullivan returned to Ireland in June 2024 and presented himself at Charleville Garda Station.

The court was informed that he had two previous convictions, including the one for dangerous driving.

Judge Colm Roberts remanded OSullivan in custody until October 7 for the completion of a probation report.
A judge and jury will hear the case against a 77-year-old man charged with sexually assaulting a four-year-old girl five times in 2022.

Sergeant John Dineen confirmed at Cork District Court that the accused had been served with a book of evidence today, Wednesday September 10.

Judge Mary Dorgan sent the case forward to the next sessions of Cork Circuit Criminal Court commencing on October 28.

Frank Buttimer solicitor said the accused was on a state pension and free legal aid was extended to pay for a barrister to represent him at the trial.

Sergeant Sheena Dowling arrested the man and brought him to the Bridewell Garda Station in July where he was charged with the five counts of sexual assault related to a period between January and May 2022 at his home.

Informed that he did not have to say anything but that whatever he might say would be taken down in writing and could be given in evidence, he replied, I will wait to see my brief". Because of the circumstances of the case, there is a prohibition on identification of the parties to it.

Sgt Dowling said there was no objection to bail being granted to the accused on conditions.

Mr Buttimer said the defence agreed to the bail terms.

Those conditions require him to have no contact directly or indirectly with the injured party and any of the witnesses in the case, reside at his home address and notify gardai immediately of any change of address, sign every day at his local garda station, provide a contact number and be contactable by gardai at all times, and surrender his passport and travel documents and not apply for replacements.
Profound addiction difficulties led to episodes of psychotic behaviour from a man who has now pleaded guilty to multiple theft and public order offences committed recently in Cork city.

Michael O'Connor, aged 42, of no fixed address  and originally from Portlaoise  had previous convictions including two counts of burglary, three for robbery and three for theft. Now at Cork District Court he has pleaded guilty to a whole series of new offences.

Frank Buttimer solicitor said in mitigation: "Mr O'Connor has work experience but because of health difficulties he has not worked in some time. He suffers seizure type problems and profound addiction difficulties leading to episodes of psychotic behaviour. These periods have come over him relatively recently. He has multi-substance difficulties. He lost his residence in St Vincent's hostel (at Anglesea Terrace).

"Since he has been in custody he has accessed a methadone treatment programme and hopes to continue with treatment on his release."

Judge Mary Dorgan expressed particular concern about the fact that many of the crimes were committed in the very recent past: "I am going to look for probation report. All the offending is recent and there is a lot of it."

The judge remanded him in custody until October 1 for the preparation of a probation report.

Sergeant John Kelleher outlined the offences committed by the accused. Most recently, on the afternoon of August 29 at City Park House apartments, he obstructed Garda Stephen Grogan and had to be handcuffed. He shouted at a woman present to remove items from his pockets and she began to engage in this behaviour interfering with arrest.

Between April and July  predominantly in July  he carried out numerous thefts at premises including Penney's on St Patrick's St, Michael Guiney's on Oliver Plunkett St, Tesco Express on South Main St, The Boardwalk on Lapps Quay, Cork, The Flying Enterprise on Barrack St, Spar on MacCurtain St and at Sullivan's Quay, JD Sports on St Patrick's St, and Dunnes on St Patrick's St.

He was found to be so intoxicated that he was a danger to himself or others at Cook St, again at Grand Parade and finally in Ballinderry Park, Mayfield.
A man struck twice at the same off-licence  stealing a 30 box of cider cans on each occasion  and now he has been jailed for a total of six months.

Kenneth Donoghue, aged 37, of Cork Simon Community, was sentenced by Judge Mary Dorgan at Cork District Court.

He pleaded guilty to two thefts, one incident of being drunk and a danger and another count of failing to show up in court.

The 37-year-old stole a 30 box of Bulmer's cider cans from The Offie, Douglas St, Cork, on November 10, 2024, and returned to the same store and committed an identical offence on February 21 this year.

He failed to appear in Cork District Court for the case against him on May 22.

Most recently, he was arrested for being drunk and a danger to himself or others on August 20 at Bowling Green St, Cork.

Sergeant John Dineen said the accused had three previous theft convictions, two for public order offences, and numerous counts under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

Frank Buttimer solicitor said the accused had been in custody for the past fortnight. He is from Portlaoise and living in Cork for the past 20 years where he has had difficulties with addiction and homelessness.
International aid initiative Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) said one of its boats came under drone attack at Tunisias Sidi Bou Said port, the second reported strike in two days.

The GSF, which seeks to break Israels naval blockade and deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza using civilian boats, said in a statement early Wednesday that all passengers and crew were unharmed and the boat sustained no structural damage.

The flotilla, carrying aid and pro-Palestinian activists including Greta Thunberg and Cork comedian and activist Tadhg Hickey, posted a video on Instagram of Wednesdays alleged attack. The footage shows a luminous object hitting the boat, followed by fire erupting on board. The video has not yet been independently verified.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner ahead of joining the flotilla last month, Mr Hickey said that whatever those on board would go through would be "an absolute drop in the ocean compared to what Palestinians are going through at their hands every single day of the week".

"I believe that eventually the world is going to do the right thing and allow safe passage for vital aid," he said.

Investigation underway

GSF reported the first attack on Tuesday, claiming a vessel was struck by a drone in Tunisian waters. Tunisias interior ministry denied this, saying reports of a drone hit had no basis in truth and that the fire originated on the boat itself.

The group said the British-flagged Alma suffered fire damage to its top deck and that an investigation is under way.

It later posted an image of what it described as a charred electronic device recovered from the deck.

While a full investigation is ongoing, the presence of such a device provides further indication that the boat was deliberately targeted, it said.

Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, posted video of the burning Alma and said it indicated a drone attack.

Video evidence suggests a drone  with no light so it could not be seen  dropped a device that set the deck of the Alma boat on fire, she wrote on social media.

Several ambulances rushed to the port, while a Reuters witness reported coastguard boats near the Alma.

Despite the incidents, the activists said they would continue their peaceful voyage on Wednesday as planned, pressing forward with determination and resolve.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg waves from a boat taking part in a civilian flotilla bound for Gaza, aiming to break the Israeli blockade and deliver humanitarian aid. Picture: AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

The flotilla is supported by delegations from 44 countries, including Swedish activist Thunberg and Portuguese politician Mariana Mortagua.

Israel has maintained a blockade on Gaza since Hamas seized control in 2007, saying it prevents weapons smuggling. The restrictions on food and aid have tightened during the current war, with famine reported in parts of the enclave in July.

In June, Israeli naval forces boarded and seized a British-flagged yacht carrying Thunberg. In 2010, Israel killed nine Turkish activists during its raid on the Mavi Marmara, which also attempted to break the blockade.

The GSF statement did not say who it believed was behind the alleged attacks, but described them as an orchestrated attempt to distract and derail our mission.

The Global Sumud Flotilla continues undeterred. Our peaceful voyage to break Israels illegal siege on Gaza and stand in unwavering solidarity with its people presses forward with determination and resolve, the group added.
Conor McGregor is not yet listed among the independents who will address Dublin City Council next week in a bid to obtain its nomination for the presidency.

The former MMA fighter has written to the council asking to address it next Monday but has not yet confirmed his eligibility to the council according to an email sent to councillors on Wednesday.

Dublin City Council has asked all prospective candidates to prove their eligibility to become president before accepting their requests.

Mr McGregor's application was in before the deadline and he can prove his eligibility before Monday, it is understood.

Mr McGregor, who in July lost his appeal against a High Court jurys finding that he was civilly liable for the assault of Nikita Hand, has repeatedly indicated he wants to contest the election.

He has written to a number of councils including Tipperary asking to be allowed to address councillors.

Dublin Bay South byelection candidate Dolores Cahill being refused entry to the count centre at the RDS in 2021 for refusing to wear a face mask. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

There are 10 confirmed candidates for the Monday meeting, including former professor at UCD Dolores Cahill who in 2021 was fined 2,500 (2,900) for holding an anti-lockdown protest in London in flagrant breach of covid restrictions.

Fianna Fail will not block its councillors from backing independent presidential candidates, but has asked them to do everything they can to get Jim Gavin elected.

The partys Ard Comhairle decided not to whip its councillors in their respective votes at council level, but has given what a senior source said was a nudge to work to see the former Dublin GAA boss elected.

A source said that the party trusts its councillors, but that they can do as they please with regard to any candidate who comes before a council meeting.

Another source said that while the party will not stop councillors from voting for an independent candidate, there is a sense that the request to do everything to see Mr Gavin elected is, in effect, a clear enough ask and there is no sense that many councillors want to back a non-Fianna Fail candidate.

Cork City councillor Tony Fitzgerald said Fianna Fail councillors have not met to discuss the partys meeting on Monday which will hear from independents, but said he would not support another candidate.

We have a player on the pitch, why would we put another on?

Meanwhile, a number of Sinn Fein TDs believe the party should back Catherine Connolly in a bid to unite the left-wing.

The party will decide next week whether to enter the race or to back the Galway West Independent TD who has asked Sinn Fein to support her.

Earlier this week, party leader Mary Lou McDonald ruled herself out as a potential candidate and a number of party sources now believe that supporting Ms Connolly is the best course of action.
Fianna Fail TDs have downplayed a dispute with culture minister Patrick ODonovan after the Oireachtas media committee voted to recommend a new Netflix levy.

A row erupted on Wednesday afternoon at a private meeting of the Oireachtas media committee, after Fianna Fail joined the Greens and Sinn Fein to back the recommendation for a new levy.

There were two amendments to a draft report to include proposals for the introduction of a content levy on streaming services such as Netflix, which goes against the Government's position on the issue.

Sources indicated there were five votes in favour of the amendment, three Fianna Fail, one Sinn Fein, and one Green, compared to four against  all of whom were Fine Gael TDs and senators.

A source close to the minister indicated that Mr ODonovan was not happy with the committees vote in favour of a content levy.

He is shocked at the way the Government is being undermined, the source said.

A Fine Gael source said the vote was embarrassing for the Government and described the Fianna Fail TDs who backed the recommendation as rogue, and described it as:

Fianna Fail getting into bed with Sinn Fein to increase the price of streaming services.

Mr ODonovan had previously moved to block the introduction of such a levy, saying the public were paying enough at present for their entertainment.

In April, Mr ODonovan published new legislation to prevent the introduction of a content levy, unless ministerial sign-off was provided.

While Mr ODonovan has been critical of the recommendation, there has been surprise within Fianna Fail as to how the vote is being perceived.

Whats the big deal I dont understand why hes so offended, one Fianna Fail TD said.

The TD said such a recommendation from the Oireachtas committee does not require the minister to make any change.

Fianna Fail TD and media committee member Malcolm Byrne defended the decision to back a recommendation to introduce such a levy.

The committee re-stated its position, as it has always held, that we should introduce a levy which would support the development of Irelands film, television, animation and content creation sector. This was backed by every witness to our committee on the planned legislation, said Mr Byrne.

The Fianna Fail members are strongly committed to supporting the independent production sector in Ireland.

Cork North Central TD Padraig OSullivan said it was well known the committee would take a view to recommend a content levy, saying it was the view of the majority of members.
Poland shot down drones that entered its airspace during a widespread Russian attack in western Ukraine on Wednesday, with the Nato member calling the incursion "an act of aggression" and marking the first time a member of the alliance has fired shots in the war.

Poland's airspace was violated by a huge number of Russian drones, and those that posed a direct threat were shot down, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said. A Nato spokesperson said Nato chief Mark Rutte was in touch with Polish leadership and the alliance was consulting closely with Poland.

Poland's military command said drones repeatedly violated Polish airspace during the Russian attack across the border, in western Ukraine, but that operations against these violations had now concluded.

Radars tracked more than 10 objects and those that could pose a threat were "neutralised," the command said.

"Searches and efforts to locate the potential crash sites of these objects are ongoing," it said in a statement. The command thanked Natoair command and the F-35 fighters of the Dutch air force for assistance.

It urged people to stay at home, naming the regions of Podlaskie, Mazowieckie, and Lublin as most at risk, adding: "This is an act of aggression that posed a real threat to the safety of our citizens."

Russia's defence ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio had been briefed, CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins said on Tuesday. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Nato is yet to comment on the incident.

Since the war started in 2022, there have been several incidents of Russian drones entering the airspace of states bordering Ukraine, including Poland and Romania, but they have so far avoided shooting them down.

Officials have cited the physical danger that such actions could cause and a desire to avoid an escalation in tensions between Russia and Nato.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia used 415 drones and 40 missiles in attacks on Ukraine overnight, adding that at least 8 drones "aimed toward Poland".

"An extremely dangerous precedent for Europe," he said. " A strong response is needed  and it can only be a joint response by all partners: Ukraine, Poland, all Europeans, the United States."

Russian president Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that Western European claims that Russia could one day attack Nato members are nonsense aimed at portraying Russia as an enemy. Russia says it has no intention of stoking a war with the US-led military alliance.

AIRPORT CLOSED

Chopin airport in Warsaw, the country's largest, closed its airspace for several hours before reopening. It said there would be disruptions and delays through the day. The airport in the city of Lublin, in eastern Poland, remained closed.

Most of Ukraine, including western regions of Volyn and Lviv which border Poland, had been under air raid alerts for nearly all night, according to Ukraine's air force.

Earlier, Ukraine's air force reported that Russian drones had entered Nato-member Poland's airspace, posing a threat to the city of Zamosc, but it subsequently removed that statement from the Telegram messaging app.

In the United States, Democratic denator Dick Durbin said repeated violations of Nato airspace by Russian drones were a sign that "Vladimir Putin is testing our resolve to protect Poland and the Baltic nations."

"After the carnage Putin continues to visit on Ukraine, these incursions cannot be ignored," he said on X.

Russian president Vladimir Putin. File Picture: Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP

Republican representative Joe Wilson, a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a post on X that Russia was "attacking Nato ally Poland" with drones, calling it an "act of war".

Wilson urged US president Donald Trump to respond with sanctions "that will bankrupt the Russian war machine".

"Putin is no longer content just losing in Ukraine while bombing mothers and babies, he is now directly testing our resolve in Nato territory," he said.

Trump, who warmly welcomed Putin to the United States for a summit in August, said over the weekend he was ready to move to a second phase of sanctioning Russia after months of fruitless talks about a peace deal.

It was his strongest indication yet that he may escalate pressure on Moscow or its oil buyers in response to the war in Ukraine.

The European Union's top sanctions official was in Washington on Monday to discuss what would be the first coordinated transatlantic measures against Russia since Trump returned to office in January promising to end the war in 24 hours.

Poland has been on high alert for objects entering its airspace since a stray Ukrainian missile struck a southern Polish village in 2022, killing two people, a few months into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Poland earlier said it would close its border with Belarus on Thursday at midnight local time as a result of Russia-led military exercises taking place in Belarus.

Russia and Belarus' large-scale military exercises, known as the "Zapad" drills, have raised security concerns in neighbouring Nato member states Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

Lithuania said defences along its border with Belarus and Russia would be strengthened due to the exercises.

- Reuters
Anyone who wants to understand the rise of Donald Trump among young voters has to understand Charlie Kirk, dubbed a youth whisperer of the right, who was shot on Wednesday at an event at Utah Valley University and died afterwards.

Kirk was only 31 and had never held elected office but, as a natural showman with a flair for patriotism, populism and Christian nationalism, was rich in the political currency of the era.

In 2012 he co-founded Turning Point USA to drive conservative, anti-woke viewpoints among young people, turning himself into the go-to spokesman on TV networks and at conferences for young rightwingers.

The activist, author and radio host had used his huge audiences on Instagram and YouTube to build support for anti-immigration policies, confrontational Christianity and viral takedowns of hecklers at his many campus events.

Donald Trump shakes hands with Charlie Kirk (Phelan M Ebenhack/AP)

An important gravitational tug on the modern Republican party, his career had also been marked by the promotion of misinformation, divisive rhetoric and conspiracy theories, including 2020 election-fraud claims and falsehoods around the Covid pandemic and the vaccine.

Kirk expressed openly bigoted views and was an unabashed homophobe and Islamophobe. As recently as Tuesday of this week he tweeted: Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America.

His evangelical Christian beliefs were intertwined with his politics. He argued that there is no true separation of church and state and warned of a spiritual battle pitting the west against wokeism, Marxism and Islam.

During an appearance with Trump in Georgia last fall, he claimed that Democrats stand for everything God hates, adding: This is a Christian state. Id like to see it stay that way.

He also referenced the Seven Mountain Mandate, which specifies seven areas where Christians are to lead: politics, religion, media, business, family, education and the arts, and entertainment.

On Wednesday Kevin Cramer, a Republican senator for North Dakota, posted on the X social media platform: Charlie Kirk made it cool to be young and faithful.

Kirk was raised in a politically moderate household in the affluent Chicago suburb of Prospect Heights, Illinois. His father was an architect and his mother worked as a mental health counsellor.

Kirk went to a school where, during the course of his childhood, white students went from the majority to the minority. His conservative awakening came during Barack Obamas presidency, amid the 2008 financial crisis and policies such as bank bailouts, which he later cited as fuelling his resentment toward liberal economics.

He was involved in the Boy Scouts of America, earning the rank of Eagle Scout, and in high school he emerged as a vocal conservative. He volunteered for (no relation) Mark Kirks successful 2010 Senate campaign and led a student protest against a proposed price increase for school cafeteria cookies, framing it as government overreach.

Reportedly described by classmates as rude and arrogant, Kirk clashed with teachers he accused of neo-Marxist bias, drawing on influences that included Ronald Reagans economics, Milton Friedmans free-market ideas and second amendment rights.

Charlie Kirk (Alex Brandon/AP)

He wrote an op-ed for Breitbart News alleging liberal indoctrination in US textbooks, which led to his first media appearance on the Fox Business channel at the age of 17.

Kirk briefly attended Harper College, a community college in Palatine, Illinois, but dropped out after one semester in 2012 to pursue full-time political activism. His rejection from the US military academy at West Point, New York, that same year reportedly deepened his turn toward rightwing causes.

At the age of 18 Kirk co-founded Turning Point USA with Bill Montgomery, a 71-year-old Tea Party activist he met at a local event. The organisation aimed to counter liberal higher education campus groups such as MoveOn.org by empowering conservative students through debates, events and activism.

By his own account, Kirk had no money, no connections and no idea what I was doing, but TPUSA grew rapidly, establishing chapters on more than 3,000 campuses and raising millions annually. Kirk expanded his empire by launching Turning Point Action, a non-profit for political advocacy, and Turning Point Faith to mobilise evangelical Christian voters by blending worship with conservative politics.

At 23, he was the youngest speaker at the Republican National Convention in 2016. He assisted with Donald Trump Jrs travel and media during the campaign. In 2019, he became chairman of Students for Trump, launching a youth mobilisation effort for Trumps failed 2020 presidential re-election attempt.

Kirk organised but did not attend the so-called Stop the Steal protests after Trump lost the 2020 election and helped coordinate buses for the 6 January 2021 rally led by Trump near the White House, where the outgoing Republican president urged the crowd to fight, fight, fight to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden.

This event quickly progressed into a violent insurrection by thousands of Trumps supporters at the US Capitol. Kirk invoked the fifth amendment during testimony to a congressional January 6 committee.

For Trumps 2024 campaign, Kirks Youre Being Brainwashed tour visited 25 college campuses to boost gen Z turnout, while Turning Point Faiths Courage tour partnered with evangelical leaders to frame the election as a spiritual battle.

After the election, Kirk conducted loyalty tests for Trumps administration hires and advised on cabinet picks. In March, Trump appointed him to the US Air Force Academy board of visitors, a role overseeing curriculum and instruction. He was also an early investor in 1789 Capital, a venture firm backed by allies of the president, such as his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.

Kirk hosted The Charlie Kirk Show, a three-hour daily radio programme syndicated since October 2020; ran Turning Point Live, a streaming show for young audiences; and joined TikTok in April 2024, amassing millions of views on campus confrontation videos. He wrote several books promoting far-right ideology.

His views had consistently baited and provoked the left. During the pandemic he decried mask mandates and called vaccine requirements medical apartheid. TPUSAs Professor Watchlist, targeting liberal academics, has been denounced as a form of harassment comparable to a McCarthyite witch-hunt.

Kirk denied the climate crisis, supported fossil fuels and opposed DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programmes. He had also called white privilege a myth, labelled the Civil Rights Act of 1964 a huge mistake and criticised Martin Luther King as overrated.

In 2021, Kirk married Erika Frantzve, a podcaster, businesswoman and former Miss Arizona USA. The couples daughter was born in August 2022 and their son in May 2024.

- The Guardian
09/26/2025

By Brett Buckner

The Jax State Jazz Ensemble is working to raise $60,000 for a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Cuba. The nine-day tour, from March 21 to 29, will expose students to the roots of Latin jazz music through immersive cultural experiences, masterclasses with Cuban musicians, and collaborative performances.

"They will be performing and learning from faculty and students in the Havana Conservatory every morning, experiencing a lecture or demonstration each afternoon," said Dr. Andy Nevala, ensemble director, "and then visiting live music venues in the evenings."

One of Dr. Nevala's research interests is Cuban music, focusing on the traditions associated with it, the great musicians who came from Cuba, and how they have shaped Latin jazz. "And the food," he said. "Can't talk enough about the food."

Traveling abroad encourages appreciation of diversity and empathy toward others. It can also provide a deeper understanding of global issues such as climate change, politics, and economics, beyond what students see in the news. "Students will also learn independence, resilience, and problem-solving by navigating a new environment," Dr. Nevala said. "They will return home with more confidence and maturity."

Abigail Viviers, a 19-year-old sophomore from Cumming Ga, believes traveling to Cuba presents a firsthand opportunity to learn about a culture and the musicians  past and present - that continue to shape that culture and perhaps incorporate into her own music. "With the knowledge of how these musicians got to where they are now," she said, "I could apply that to my own life and learn to reach for the stars in terms of what all I can do.

Being in Cuba and being surrounded by music is sure to be inspiring, Viviers added. "I'm hoping to get a better sense of the passion for music in different people from outside of my community and get new perspectives on how I think and feel about music in everyday life and in my career," she said. "With this trip, I could experience once-in-a-lifetime moments in performances from the lovely people of Cuba."

Ethan Wheeler, a 21-year-old senior, hopes to bring home additional skills that he can carry for the rest of his life, including learning some of the different bass patterns common in Cuban music. "This is a huge opportunity for me as a musician," he said, "being able to experience not only a new area of music, but the differences in how other cultures use music in their day-to-day lives."

The students will also act as cultural ambassadors, not just for Jax State, but for America itself. "[They will be] sharing American perspectives while learning from locals and immersing themselves in another culture," Dr. Nevala said. "Travel broadens horizons beyond the classroom, and that's an experience they will never forget."

The value of such an opportunity will last beyond their time as students.

"Employers value adaptability, cross-cultural communication skills, and international experience," Dr. Nevala said. "This will help our students become greater citizens, leaders in their communities, and outstanding representatives of the Jax State community."

Such opportunities come at a cost but are well worth the effort. "Travel isn't cheap," Dr. Nevala said. "Our students are living on ramen noodles, cereal, the Caf, and peanut butter sandwiches. Anything we can do to help these students pay for this experience will come back 10-fold when they leave Jax State."

All fundraising goes towards travel costs and accommodations. "In this economy," Dr. Nevala said, "even a bus to take them to the airport and back will be over $3,000." The Jazz Ensemble is planning several fundraising concerts throughout the fall and is available for house concerts or private events. Anyone interested in bookings can contact Dr. Nevala at anevala@jsu.edu.

Make a Gift

Anyone who donates will receive a an exclusive digital copy of the Jazz Bands rendition of Stars Fell on Alabama
09/08/2025

By Brett Buckner

In June, Michael Walker, business instructor for the Lyons and Company, Inc. Department of Management and Marketing, co-presented at the 2025 regional conference for the Association for Business Communication (ABC) in Bergen, Norway, alongside his wife, Dr. Angela Walker, English professor at Talladega College.

It was an incredible experience, Walker said. That was our first time going to Europe, and the presentation was received very well. The Walkers traveled to Norway a few days early to take in some of the sights and architecture.

The topic for the presentation was "Building Rock-Solid Credibility for Managers to Enhance Their Business Communication," which included an audience of academics and scholars from around the world. Such an experience allows Walker to spread the word of Jax State beyond its expected borders.

I love it, she said. I wore my Jax State red. It brings awareness. It brings worldwide attention. Then people see the logo, and it starts a real conversation. They get interested in our town and our culture. I definitely blow the trumpet about Jax State when I get a chance.

Walker often gives presentations with his wife. We call ourselves Team Walker, he said. We work really well together.

Their journey had an added benefit. When classes started, Walker actually had a student who was from Bergen, Norway. What an unexpected surprise, Walker said. Ive got such a diverse group of students from all over the world, and this just gives us another connection.
( Tomdispatch.com )  It was a moment somewhat like this, 30 years ago, that turned me into a biblical scholar. In the lead-up to the passage of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act, political and religious leaders quoted scripture to justify shutting down food programs and kicking mothers and their babies off public assistance. Those leaders, many of them self-described Christians, chose to ignore the majority of passages in the Bible that preached good news to the poor and promised freedom to those captive to injustice and oppression. Instead, they put forward unethical and ahistorical (mis)interpretations and (mis)appropriations of biblical texts to prop up American imperial power and punish the poor in the name of a warped morality.

Three decades later, the Trump administration and its theological apologists are working overtime, using Jesuss name and the Bibles contents in even more devastating rounds of immoral biblical (mis)references. In July, there was the viral video from the Department of Homeland Security, using the Here I am, Lord. Send me quotation from Isaiah  commonly cited when ordaining faith leaders and including explicit references to marginalized communities impacted by displacement and oppression  to recruit new agents for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE, a job that now comes with a $50,000 signing bonus, thanks to Donald Trumps One Big Beautiful Bill.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseths former pastor went even further in marrying the Bible to anti-immigrant hatred by saying, Is the Bible in favor of these ICE raids? The answer is yes. He then added: The Bible does not require wealthy Christian nations to self-immolate for the horrible crime of having a flourishing economy and way of life, all right? The Bible does not permit the civil magistrate to steal money from its citizens to pay for foreign nationals to come destroy our culture.

A month earlier, during a speech announcing the bombing of Iran, President Trump exhorted God to bless Americas bombs (being dropped on innocent families and children): And in particular, God, I want to just say, we love you God, and we love our great military. Protect them. God bless the Middle East, God bless Israel, and God bless America. Thank you very much. Thank you.

And in May, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Republican congressional representatives formed a prayer circle on the floor of the House as they prepared to codify the presidents Big Beautiful Bill. Of course, that very bill threatens to cut off millions of Americans from life-saving food and healthcare. (Consider it a bizarre counterpoint to Jesuss feeding of the 5,000 and providing free health care to lepers.)

The Antichrist

And if that werent enough twisting of the Bible to bless the rich and admonish the poor, enter tech mogul Peter Thiel, co-founder of Palantir and the man behind the curtain of so much now going on in Washington. Though many Americans may be increasingly familiar with him, his various companies, and his political impact, many of us have missed the centrality of his version of Christianity and the enigmatic religious beliefs that go with it.

In Vanity Fair this spring, journalist Zoe Bernard emphasized the central role Thiel has already played in the Christianization of Silicon Valley: I guarantee you, one Christian entrepreneur told her, there are people that are leveraging Christianity to get closer to Peter Thiel.

Indeed, his theological beliefs grimly complement his political ones. When you dont have a transcendent religious belief, he said, you end up just looking around at other people. And that is the problem with our atheist liberal world. It is just the madness of crowds. Remember, this is the same Thiel who, in a 2009 essay, openly questioned the compatibility of democracy and freedom, advocating for a system where power would be concentrated among those with the expertise to drive progress  a new version of the survival of the fittest in the information age. Such a worldview couldnt contrast more strongly with the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus demonstrates his preferential option for the poor and his belief in bottom-up strategies rather than top down ones.

More recently, Thiel has positioned himself right in the middle of the Republican Party. He served as Trumps liaison to Silicon Valley in his first term. Since then, he has convened and supported a new cohort of conservatives (many of whom also claim a right-wing Christianity), including Vice President J.D. Vance, Trumps Director of Policy Planning Michael Anton, AI and crypto czar billionaire David Sacks, and Elon Musk, who spent a quarter of a billion dollars getting Trump elected the second time around. Thiel is also close to Curtis Yarvin, the fellow who jokingly claimed that American society no longer needs poor people and believes they should instead be turned into biofuel. (A worldview that simply couldnt be more incompatible with Christianitys core tenets.)

Particularly relevant to recent political (and ideological) developments, especially the military occupation of Washington, D.C., Thiel is also close to Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of Palantir and founder of the Cicero Institute, a right-wing think tank behind a coordinated attack on the homeless now sweeping the nation. Thats right, theres a throughline from Peter Thiel to President Donald Trumps demand that the homeless have to move out immediately FAR from the Capital. In July, Trump produced an executive order facilitating the removal of housing encampments in Washington, a year after the Supreme Court upheld a law making it a crime, if you dont have a home, to sleep or even breathe outside. And Thiel, Lonsdale, and the Cicero Institute arent just responsible for those attacks on unhoused people and blue cities; they also bear responsibility for faith leaders being arrested and fined for their support of unhoused communities and their opposition, on religious grounds, to the mistreatment of the poor.

On top of this troubling mix of Christianity and billionaires, however, I find myself particularly chagrined that Thiel is offering an oversold four-part lecture series on the antichrist through a nonprofit called ACTS 17 collective that is to start in September in San Francisco. News stories about the ACTS 17 collective tend to focus on Christians organizing in Silicon Valley and the desire to put salvation through Jesus above personal success or charity for the poor. That sounds all too ominous, especially for those of us who take seriously the biblical command to stop depriving the poor of rights, to end poverty on earth (as it is in heaven), and defend the very people the Bible prioritizes.

For instance, Trae Stephens (who worked at Palantir and is partners with Thiel in a venture capital fund) is the husband of Michelle Stephens, the founder of the ACTS 17 collective. In an interview with Emma Goldberg of the New York Times, Michelle Stephens describes how we are always taught as Christians to serve the meek, the lowly, the marginalized I think weve realized that, if anything, the rich, the wealthy, the powerful need Jesus just as much.

In an article at the Denison Forum, shes even more specific about her biblical and theological interpretation of poverty and the need to care for those with more rather than the poor. She writes, Those who see Christs message to the poor and needy as the central pillar of the gospel make a similar mistake. While social justice movements have done a great deal to point out our societys longstanding sins and call believers to action, it can be tempting for that message to become more prominent than our innate need for Jesus to save us. Such a statement reminds me of the decades-long theological pushback I lived through even before the passage of welfare reform and the continued juxtaposition of Jesus and justice since.

A Battle for the Bible

Of course, such a battle for the Bible is anything but new in America. It reaches back long before the rise of a new brand of Christianity in Silicon Valley. In the 1700s and 1800s, slaveholders quoted the book of Philemon and lines from St. Pauls epistles to claim that slavery had been ordained by God, while ripping the pages of Exodus from bibles they gave to the enslaved. During the Gilded Age of the nineteenth century, churches and politicians alike preached what was called a prosperity gospel that extolled the virtues of industrial capitalism. Decades later, segregationists continued to use stray biblical verses to rubber-stamp Jim Crow practices, while the Moral Majority, founded in 1979 by Baptist minister Jerry Falwell, Sr., helped mainstream a new generation of Christian extremists in national politics.

Over the past decades, the use of the Bible to justify what passes for law and order (and the punishing of the poor) has only intensified. In Donald Trumps first term, Attorney General Jeff Sessions defended the administrations policy of separating immigrant children from their families at the border with a passage from the Apostle Pauls epistle to the Romans: I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order. Orderly and lawful processes are good in themselves and protect the weak and lawful.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders summed up the same idea soon after in this way: It is very biblical to enforce the law. And in his first speech as speaker of the House, Mike Johnson told his colleagues, I believe that Scripture, the Bible, is very clear: that God is the one who raises up those in authority, an echo of the New Testaments Epistle to the Romans, in which Paul writes that the authorities that exist are appointed by God.

Over the past several years, Republican politicians and religious leaders have continued to use biblical references to punish the poor, quoting texts to justify cutting people off from healthcare and food assistance. A galling example came when Representative Jodey Arrington (R-TX), rebutting a Jewish activist who referenced a commandment in Leviticus to feed the hungry, quoted 2 Thessalonians to justify increasing work requirements for people qualifying for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). And that was just one of many Republican attacks on the low-income food assistance program amid myriad attempts to shred the social welfare system in the lead-up to President Trumps Big Beautiful Bill, the largest transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top in American history and a crowning achievement of Russell Voughts Project 2025. Arrington said: But theres also, you know, in the Scripture, tells us in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3:10 he says, uh, For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: if a man will not work, he shall not eat. And then he goes on to say We hear that some among you are idle I think its a reasonable expectation that we have work requirements.

And Arrington has been anything but alone. The same passage, in fact, had already been used by Representatives Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Stephen Lee Fincher (R-TN) to justify cutting food stamps during a debate over an earlier farm bill. And Representative Mo Brooks (R-AL) used similarly religious language, categorizing people as deserving and undeserving, to argue against a healthcare plan that protects those of us with pre-existing conditions. He insisted that only people who lead good lives and have done the things to keep their bodies healthy should receive reduced costs for health care.

Such Christian politicians regularly misuse Biblical passages to blame the impoverished for their poverty. There is never a suggestion, of course, that the rich, who have functionally stolen peoples wages and engorged themselves by denying them healthcare, are in any way to blame.

A Theology of Liberation for a Time Like This

Such interpretations of biblical texts are damaging to everyones lives (except, of course, the superrich), but especially the poor. And  though you wouldnt know it from such Republicans  they are counter to the main themes of the Bibles texts. The whole of the Christian Bible, starting with Genesis and ending with the Book of Revelation, has an arc of justice to it. The historical equivalents of anti-poverty programs run through it all.

That arc starts in the Book of Exodus with manna (bread) that shows up day after day, so no one has too much or too little. This is a likely response to the Egyptian Pharaoh setting up a system where a few religious and political leaders amassed great wealth at the expense of the people. Gods plan, on the other hand, was for society to be organized around meeting the needs of all people, including describing how political and religious leaders are supposed to release slaves, forgive debts, pay people what they deserve, and distribute funds to the needy. The biblical arc of justice then continues through the prophets who insist that the way to love and honor God is to promote programs that uplift the poor and marginalized, while decrying those with power who cloak oppression in religious terms and heretical versions of Christian theology.

My own political and moral roots are in the welfare rights and homeless union survival movements, efforts led by poor and dispossessed people organizing a new underground railroad and challenging Christianity to talk the talk and walk the walk of Christ. Such a conviction was captured by Reverend Yvonne Delk at the 1992 Up and Out of Poverty Survival Summit, when she declared that society, including the church, must move to the position that poor people are not sinners, but poverty is a sin against God that could and should be ended.

Delks words echo others from 20 years earlier. In 1972, Beulah Sanders, a leader of the National Welfare Rights Organization, the largest organization of poor people in the 1960s and 1970s, spoke to the National Council of Churches. I represent all of those poor people who are on welfare and many who are not, she said, people who believe in the Christian way of life people whose nickels and dimes and quarters have built the Christian churches of America. Because we believe in Christianity, we have continued to support the Christian churches We call upon you to join with us in the National Welfare Rights Organization. We ask for your moral, personal, and financial support in this battle for bread, dignity, and justice for all of our people. If we fail in our struggle, Christianity will have failed.

In a Trumpian world, where Christian extremism is becoming the norm, we must not let the words of Beulah Sanders be forgotten or the worst fears of countless prophets and freedom fighters come true. Rather, we must build the strength to make a theological and spiritual vision of everybody-in-nobody-out a reality and create the capacity, powered by faith, to make it so. Now is the time. May we make it so.

Copyright 2025 Liz Theoharis

Via Tomdispatch.com
By Kerrie Holloway, ODI Global

(The Conversation)  After heavy rains, a landslide completely levelled a remote village in western Sudan in early September. It was the temporary home of hundreds of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who had fled the conflict between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary, to what they had hoped would be a safe location. In all, more than 1,000 people are feared to have died in the landslide.

At the end of 2024, more than 80 million people were living in internal displacement worldwide. While more attention is usually paid to people who cross borders and become refugees, the reality is most people who are displaced stay within their own borders as IDPs.

A changing climate and the associated extreme or erratic weather affects everyone living in the same region  but it does not affect everyone equally.

IDPs have specific vulnerabilities because theyve been displaced. They are likely to have used up whatever money and other assets they had prior to their displacement, leaving them unable to make the same adaptations as those who have not been displaced.

Wars and climate change are inextricably linked. Climate change can increase the likelihood of violent conflict by intensifying resource scarcity and displacement, while conflict itself accelerates environmental damage. This article is part of a series, War on climate, which explores the relationship between climate issues and global conflicts.

In northern Mozambique, the centre of a jihadist insurgency since 2017, hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes  with many seeking refuge in the port city of Pemba. After their houses were destroyed by a cyclone in 2019, IDPs living in Pemba rebuilt temporary structures. But when these were burned down by insurgents, the IDPs were left with nothing at all.

Research I carried out with ODI Global colleagues on the city of Herat in western Afghanistan found that people who had not been displaced by conflict were able to make simple lifestyle changes during periods of drought and extreme heat. These included switching to clay or earthenware jars to keep their water cool, or buying air conditioners.

But IDPs were unable to make similar adjustments. Their coping strategies focused more on reducing consumption, such as skipping meals or no longer eating meat.

When IDPs arrive in a new area, the only land available to settle on is often free to use because no one else wants to live there. In Mosul, a city in northern Iraq, stagnated reconstruction following the liberation of the city from the Islamic State militant group in 2017 has resulted in a scarcity of adequate housing. This has left many IDPs residing in unfinished or makeshift shelters on unpaved roads that are prone to flooding during heavy rains.

And in Mocoa, where a large number of people moved after fleeing Colombias longstanding civil conflict, IDPs settled in an area susceptible to landslides as it was the only place with cheap accommodation and land available for building. A landslide in 2017 killed more than 300 people there, destroying several neighbourhoods that were populated almost entirely by people displaced by conflict.

Furthermore, IDPs are often overlooked in whatever disaster management or disaster risk reduction plans may exist. Low literacy or speaking a different native tongue  both common traits among displaced people  can result in them not heeding early warnings when they are given.

Evidence shows that early warning systems can be effective for displaced people who have sought refuge abroad. In Bangladesh, for example, Rohingya refugees from Myanmar are included in the national early warning system, allowing them to strengthen their shelters and stockpile food before cyclones hit.

However, early warning systems are only effective if they are implemented and understandable to all of the communities at risk. The UNs Early Warnings for All initiative, which aims to ensure everyone has access to early warning systems for hazardous weather or climate events, has only been implemented very slowly. This is particularly true in the countries most vulnerable to climate change.

Reducing the risk

Reducing the vulnerability of displaced people to climate change and related extreme weather is no easy task. It will require decision-makers  humanitarian and development aid workers, government officials and local city planners  to listen and learn from what local populations are already doing to adapt and build their own resilience.

Indigenous knowledge has a huge role to play. But people who have just moved to a new area may not know about  or be capable of making  the same adaptations as people who have lived there for generations.

There are also limits to individual adaptation, of course. Displaced people need to be included in any disaster risk reduction or risk management efforts, as well as in national adaptation plans.

Yet in 2023, the OECD found that nearly three-quarters of all national adaption plans (31 of 42) did not address the effects of climate change on people who were already displaced. And this research did not include countries with high levels of displacement which lack national adaptation plans altogether.



File photo, September 27, 2024, by Salah Darwish on Unsplash

Unless these issues are addressed, there will continue to be tragedies on the scale of the one seen recently in Sudan.

Kerrie Holloway, Research Fellow in the Humanitarian Policy Group, ODI Global

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment)  The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bombed the building being used by civilian Hamas negotiators in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday, in the midst of ongoing indirect negotiations with them. Five low-level Hamas members were killed, along with a Qatari security guard, but the top negotiators survived. Earlier this summer Israel and the U.S. also bombed Iran while ostensibly negotiating with Tehran. One takeaway, I suppose, is that negotiating with either one is bad for your health.

The Trump administration is implicated in the attack, since it had foreknowledge. It is not clear that Israeli jets could have flown over Jordan and Saudi Arabia to strike near a major U.S. military base, al-Udeid, which has 12,000 or so active duty personnel, without at least tacit US approval. The US controls the air space near al-Udeid and could have told the Israelis no.

It should be underlined that the Obama administration asked Qatar to host Hamas negotiators for the purpose of talking to them indirectly, and Qatar has been repeatedly praised by the US State Department and even by the Israeli Foreign Ministry for undertaking this role. When, in 2018, Qatar considered expelling Hamas officials and ending its role as intermediary, Netanyahu sent the Mossad chief to Doha to beg the Qataris to continue to play that role.

As an analyst, let me explore the possible reasons for which the Netanyahu government took this step at this time.

1. In first place, the strike aimed at taking negotiations with Hamas off the table. Netanyahu and his extremists on the cabinet do not want negotiations. They want to ethnically cleanse Gaza and kill all members of the Hamas paramilitary, the al-Qassam Brigades. They seem also not to mind killing civilian members of the Hamas political party, or even just random non-political residents of Gaza. These goals are not a response to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, but derive from a longstanding desire on the part of the Israeli right wing to erase the Palestinians from Palestine and forever to forestall the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Despite the extremist cabinets antipathy to negotiations, perhaps a majority of Israelis want such talks, to bring the remaining hostages home and to end a war that is killing or wounding their young men, harming their finances through conscription, and hurting the economy (outside the stock market, which has soared, benefiting Netanyahus billionaire backers).

Netanyahu has also occasionally come under pressure from the Trump administration to negotiate an end to the fighting. Trump strongly supported the cease-fire initially arranged by the Biden team last January, and exerted strong pressure on Netanyahu to agree to it. After two months, Netanyahu unilaterally breached the ceasefire and launched an even more vicious ethnic cleansing campaign. Trump occasionally wishes he wouldnt do that.

Destroying the negotiators very offices makes the issue of negotiations moot.

2. A secondary motive in striking the Hamas civilian negotiators may have been to blunt the protest movement in Israel, which has repeatedly brought tens of thousands of Israelis into the streets of major cities demanding a ceasefire for the sake of Israeli hostages. If there are no negotiations for a ceasefire or hostage release, Netanyahu may hope, his opponents will be deprived of that issue. At the very least, he can make them appear to denounce a strike on Hamas offices, which turns them into traitors in the eyes of most Israelis. Even Netanyahus political opposition lauded the Doha air strikes. So, domestic Israeli politics. Wag the dog is a tried and true tactic.

3. Israel may have wanted to drive a wedge between the United States and Qatar. In May, the US and Qatar signed a multi-billion-dollar pact that would see Qatar acquire anti-drone technology from Raytheon and THAAD anti-missile batteries from Lockheed Martin. If these deliveries are made and Qatari personnel are trained on them, the new anti-missile and anti-drone capabilities might make it increasingly difficult for Israel to bomb Qatar at will. If Netanyahu can make the Qataris angry enough to call off their $42 billion defense deal with the Trump administration, that breach would ensure Israels continued ability to bomb the country.



Doha, Qatar. 2018.  Juan Cole.

4. Israel is making a bid to use its air superiority to become a regional hegemon. Part of what this dominance implies is the Israeli ability to strike anywhere in the Middle East at will, in order to shape regional politics. Tel Aviv is routinely bombing Syria, even though the two countries are not at war and even though the Trump administration has recognized the new fundamentalist revolutionary government in Damascus and removed sanctions. Israel routinely bombs Lebanon despite a supposed ceasefire negotiated last fall. Israel routinely bombs civilian objects in Yemen in response to Houthi missile attacks on Israel, and recently whacked the Houthi prime minister. Israel has also bombed Iran and considered assassinating its entire political class. A strike on Doha underlines Israels new status as primary shaper of political reality in the Middle East.
North Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 9, 2025) - Lion One Metals Limited (TSXV: LIO) (OTCQX: LOMLF) ("Lion One" or the "Company") is pleased to announce a non-brokered private placement of up to 46,875,000 units (the "Offered Units") at a price of $0.32 per Offered Unit (the "Issue Price") for aggregate gross proceeds of up to $15,000,000, pursuant to the listed issuer financing exemption available under National Instrument 45-106 - Prospectus Exemptions (the "LIFE Offering"), in each of the Provinces of Canada other than Quebec. Each Offered Unit will consist of one common share of the Company (a "Common Share") and one Common Share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"). Each Warrant will entitle the holder thereof to acquire one Share at an exercise price of $0.42 for a period of three years from the date of issuance.

The Company will make available an offering document relating to the LIFE Offering (the "Offering Document") which will be accessible under the Company's profile at www.sedarplus.ca and at https://liononemetals.com. Prospective investors in the LIFE Offering should read the Offering Document before making an investment decision.

The Company also announces that it has entered into a forbearance agreement (the "Forbearance Agreement") with its senior secured lenders Nebari Gold Fund 1, LP, Nebari Natural Resources Credit Fund I, LP and Nebari Natural Resources Credit Fund II, LP (each as Lender and collectively, "Nebari") pursuant to which Nebari has agreed to waive the application of the working capital covenant under the Company's loan facility. With the maturity of the Tranche 1 Facility upcoming in August 2026, the Tranche 1 Facility is now classified as a current liability for accounting purposes which impacted the Company's working capital covenant. The Forbearance Agreement extends to December 31, 2025 and is subject to ongoing compliance covenants of the Company, including the raising of capital to ensure the timely repayment of the Tranche 3 Facility and accrued interest on September 30, 2025, which is expected to be satisfied by the LIFE Offering.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the LIFE Offering to fund the development of the Company's 100% owned and fully permitted high grade Tuvatu Gold Project, repayment of principal and interest for the Company's loan facility with Nebari, and for working capital purposes.

The LIFE Offering is expected to close on or around September 23, 2025. Closing of the LIFE Offering is subject to certain customary conditions including receipt of all necessary approvals including satisfaction of listing conditions of the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV"). The LIFE Offering may be closed in one or more tranches. The securities offered under the LIFE Offering will not be subject to Canadian resale restrictions in accordance with applicable Canadian securities laws.

The Company may pay finders' fees in connection with the LIFE Offering, as permitted by applicable securities laws and the rules of the TSXV. The finders' fees will consist of cash commissions equal to up to 7% of the gross proceeds raised from purchasers introduced to the Company by eligible finders and finder warrants equal to up to 7% of the aggregate number of Offered Units sold to purchasers introduced to the Company by eligible finders. Each of the finders warrants will entitle the holder to purchase one Common Share at a purchase price of $0.32 per finders warrant exercisable for a period of 24 months after the issuance of such finder warrants.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to sell any Shares in the United States. The securities to be sold in the LIFE Offering have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

About Lion One Metals Limited

Lion One Metals is an emerging Canadian gold producer headquartered in North Vancouver BC, with new operations established in late 2023 at its 100% owned Tuvatu Alkaline Gold Project in Fiji. The Tuvatu project comprises the high-grade Tuvatu Alkaline Gold Deposit, the Underground Gold Mine, the Pilot Plant, and the Assay Lab. The Company also has an extensive exploration license covering the entire Navilawa Caldera, which is host to multiple mineralized zones and highly prospective exploration targets.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of

Lion One Metals Limited

"Walter Berukoff"

Chairman of the Board

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains forwardlooking statements and forwardlooking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forwardlooking statements or information. Forward-looking statements are frequently identified by such words as "may", "will", "plan", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "intend" and similar words referring to future events and results. The forwardlooking statements and information are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by management of the Company. Forward-looking statements made in this news release include statements regarding anticipated completion of the LIFE Offering, the proposed use of proceeds of the LIFE Offering and the expected lead subscriber to the LIFE Offering. Although management of the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking statements and information are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forwardlooking statements and information since no assurance can be given that they will prove to be correct.

Forward-looking statements and information are provided for the purpose of providing information about the current expectations and plans of management of the Company relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such statements and information may not be appropriate for other purposes, such as making investment decisions. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks, including, with respect to the LIFE Offering, Forbearance Agreement and debt settlement; the conditions of the financial markets; availability of financing; timeliness of completion of the LIFE Offering; the timing of TSX Venture Exchange approval; the ability of the Company to satisfy the covenants set out in the Forbearance Agreement; with respect to the use of proceeds, the sufficiency of the proceeds; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development; fluctuating commodity prices; and competition, as described in more detail in our recent securities filings available at www.sedarplus.ca. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forwardlooking statements and information contained in this news release. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. The forwardlooking statements and information contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and no undertaking is given to update publicly or revise any forwardlooking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws. The forward-looking statements or information contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION OR DISSEMINATION DIRECTLY, OR INDIRECTLY, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 10, 2025) - Adelayde Exploration Inc. (CSE: ADDY) (OTCID: SPMTF) (WKN: A41AGV) (the "Company" or "Adelayde") wishes to announce a private placement to fund its planned gold drill program in Esmeralda County, Nevada.

James Nelson, President of Adelayde, stated, "With gold prices trading at record highs and with under 29 million shares currently outstanding, there has never been a better time for a drill program on our gold project in Esmeralda County, Nevada. Nevada is one of the premier addresses for silver and gold mining in the world. This financing will strengthen our working capital, allowing us to be more agile in the future when allocating resources for projects and a robust marketing effort. Given our current market capitalization of less than $2 million, any success in the ground could have an outsized impact on Adelayde's valuation."

The Company announces a private placement financing (the "Financing") to raise gross proceeds up to one million dollars through an issuance of up to twenty million units (each, a "Unit") at a price of $0.05 per Unit. Each Unit will be comprised of one common share in the capital of the Company (each, a "Share") and one transferrable share purchase warrant (each, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant will entitle the holder thereof to acquire one additional Share (each, a "Warrant Share") at a price of $0.075 per Warrant Share until 5:00 p.m. (Vancouver time) five years from the closing of the Financing. All securities issued in connection with the Financing are subject to a statutory hold period expiring four months and one day after the closing of the Financing. Net proceeds will be used towards the Company's general working capital. Finder's fees may be paid to eligible finders in connection with the Financing.

Any questions regarding this placement, please contact President James Nelson directly at 1-604-646-6903 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

About Adelayde Exploration Inc.

Adelayde's projects include three lithium projects in Clayton Valley, Nevada: the 1,136-acre McGee lithium clay deposit, which has a resource estimate of 1,369,000 indicated tonnes and 723,000 inferred tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) for a total of 2,092,000 tonnes of LCE, directly bordering Pure Energy Minerals and Century Lithium Corp.; the 280-acre Elon lithium brine project, which has access to some of the deepest parts of the only lithium brine basin in production in North America; and the 124-acre Green Clay lithium project. The Company also holds the 248-acre Clayton Ridge gold project in Esmeralda County, Nevada; the 4,722-acre George Lake South antimony project and the 4,890-acre Sisson North tungsten project, both located in New Brunswick.

Adelayde Exploration Inc.

"James Nelson"

James Nelson

President, Chief Executive Officer and Director

The CSE has neither approved nor disapproved of the contents of this press release.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "will", "may", "should", "anticipate", "expects" and similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this news release are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of Adelayde. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and Adelayde disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise such information, except as required by applicable law.

Not for distribution to United States newswire services or for release publication, distribution or dissemination directly, or indirectly, in whole or in part, in or into the United States. None of the securities sold in connection with the private placement will be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and no such securities may be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.
Diamond Core Program to Target Depth Extensions and Associated Structures

Tonopah, Nevada  TheNewswire - September 10, 2025  Allegiant Gold Ltd. (Allegiant or the Company) (AUAU: TSX-V) (AUXXF: OTCQX) is pleased to announce the commencement of a 2,000 metre, fully-funded diamond core drill program testing the vertical extensions of the high-grade gold discovery at the McIntosh zone within the Companys flagship Eastside Gold-Silver Project. To date, approximately 1.4 million ounces of inferred gold and 8.8 million ounces of inferred silver resources* have been estimated at the Eastside Project with only a small fraction of the project area explored to date. Eastside is located in the prolific Walker Lane Trend near the town of Tonopah, Nevada.

*Source: Updated Resource Estimate and NI 43-101 Technical Report, Eastside and Castle Gold-Silver Project Technical Report, Esmeralda County, Nevada conducted by Mine Development Associates of Reno, Nevada, with an effective date of July 30, 2021. Pit-constrained Inferred Resources (cut-off grade of 0.15 g/t Au) of 61,730,000 tonnes grading 0.55 g/t Au and 4.4 g/t Ag at the Original Pit Zone (1,090,000 ounces gold and 8,700,000 ounces silver) and 19,986,000 tonnes grading 0.49 g/t Au at the Castle Area (314,000 ounces gold). A copy of the Eastside Technical Report can be found on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS:

Initial three-hole HQ core drill program (ES-331, ES-337, ES-338) totaling approximately 2,000 metres as part of a larger 20,000 metre drill program.

Holes ES-331 and ES-338 will test the vertical extensions of previously drilled Holes ES-239 and ES-243 down to a depth of 600 metres. Hole ES-337 is designed to intersect various structures in the high-grade zone discovered in the 2021 drill program and will total a minimum of 600 metres in length.

Drilling is underway with results expected in October and November 2025.

The 2025 core program builds on Allegiants highly successful 2021 drilling campaign (see News Release Dated May 26, 2021), which returned the highest-grade intercepts ever reported at Eastside:

Hole ES-243: 148 metres of 2.6 g/t Au, including 14 metres of 21.9 g/t Au and 20 metres of 173.8 g/t Ag and ending in 12.2 metres of 2.24 g/t Au

Hole ES-239: 3.1 metres of 39.0 g/t Au at the bottom of the hole, within a broader interval of 111.3 metres grading 1.45 g/t Au

The current program aims to test the vertical continuity and structural controls of this mineralization through deeper core drilling beneath and around holes ES-239 and ES-243, with one angled hole (ES-337) designed to intersect potential mineralized structure at depth. The targets (see Map 1) were selected based on a comprehensive review of our exploration model incorporating over 60,000 metres of drilling, geophysical, geochemical, lithology and structural data. The exploration model shows a strong correlation between grade and the known structures.

MAP 1: DRILL HOLE LOCATION

Peter Gianulis, CEO, commented, "We are excited to have started our 2025-2026 drill program at Eastside; this is our largest single program ever at Eastside where we anticipate drilling approximately 20,000 metres of reverse circulation and diamond core drilling. We are commencing with diamond core drilling at the McIntosh Zones High-Grade Zone which has returned some of the best gold and silver intercepts ever drilled at Eastside. After further interpretation, we are now testing what we believe could be the vertical continuation of these bonanza-grade structures. If successful, this program could redefine the growth potential of the Eastside deposit at depth. Upon completion and interpretation of the property-wide geophysics program, we will begin the reverse circulation drilling of the chosen targets.

QUALIFIED PERSON

Andy Wallace is a Certified Professional Geologist (CPG) with the American Institute of Professional Geologists and is the Qualified Person under NI 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, who has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical content of this press release.

ABOUT EASTSIDE

Eastside is a district-scale, 100%-owned gold-silver project located in Esmeralda County, Nevada, approximately 30+ kilometres west-northwest of Tonopah, along the prolific Walker Lane Trend. The project hosts a current inferred resource (last updated in July 2021) of 1.4 million ounces of gold and 8.8 million ounces of silver, with mineralization open to the west, south and at depth.

ABOUT ALLEGIANT

Allegiant owns three highly prospective gold projects in the United States all of which are in the mining-friendly jurisdiction of Nevada. Allegiants flagship, district-scale Eastside project hosts a large and expanding gold resource and is in an area of excellent infrastructure. Less than 20% of the property has been explored with potential to significantly increase the existing inferred resource. Preliminary metallurgical testing indicates that both oxide and sulphide gold mineralization at Eastside is amenable to heap leaching.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Peter Gianulis

CEO

For more information contact:

Investor Relations

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

+1 786 252 4948

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain statements and information contained in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable U.S. securities laws and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws, which are referred to collectively as "forward-looking statements". The United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a safe harbor for certain forward-looking statements. Allegiant Gold Ltd.s (Allegiant) exploration plans for its gold exploration properties, the drill program at Allegiants Eastside project, the preparation and publication of an updated resource estimate in respect of the Original Zone at the Eastside project, Allegiants future exploration and development plans, including anticipated costs and timing thereof; Allegiants plans for growth through exploration activities, acquisitions or otherwise; and expectations regarding future maintenance and capital expenditures, and working capital requirements. Forward-looking statements are statements and information regarding possible events, conditions or results of operations that are based upon assumptions about future economic conditions and courses of action. All statements and information other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as seek, expect, anticipate, budget, plan, estimate, continue, forecast, intend, believe, predict, potential, target, may, could, would, might, will and similar words or phrases (including negative variations) suggesting future outcomes or statements regarding an outlook. Such forward-looking statements are based on a number of material factors and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Some of the known risks and other factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements are described in the sections entitled Risk Factors in Allegiants Listing Application, dated January 24, 2018, as filed with the TSX Venture Exchange and available on SEDAR+ under Allegiants profile at www.sedarplus.ca. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Allegiant undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements included in this press release if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as otherwise required by applicable law.
Project Lies in Premier North American Exploration District Surrounded by Advanced Projects

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 10, 2025) - T2 Metals Corp. (TSXV: TWO) (OTCQB: TWOSF) (WKN: A2DR6E) ("T2 Metals" or the "Company") is pleased to announce signing of an Option Agreement (the "Option") with renowned explorer Shawn Ryan ("Ryan") and Wildwood Exploration Inc. (together with Ryan, the "Optionor") to earn a 100% interest in the 27.4 sq km Shanghai gold-silver project in the Mayo Mining District, Yukon Territory, Canada. The project lies within the Tombstone Gold Belt, 12 km west of Hecla Mining's Keno Hill silver mine, and midway between the AurMac, Eagle and Raven intrusion-related deposits (see Table 1 for further information on these deposits).

The Shanghai project includes a Class 3 permit enabling drilling, road construction and installation of a camp.

Highlights:

Large landholding in the Tombstone Gold Belt, one of North America's premier gold and silver mining districts;

Project lies within 10 km of multiple resource-stage gold projects as reported within NI43-101 compliant technical reports since 2022 (see resource information pertaining to the Eagle, Olive, Raven, Airstrip and Powerline projects in Table 1 and www.sedarplus.ca for supporting technical reports);

Similar geological setting to major discoveries by Sitka Gold Corp and Banyan Gold Corp;

No prior exploration drilling on the property;

High gold, silver, antimony and bismuth in soil samples provide immediate targets. Gold values in soil up to 6.1 g/t Au;

Permits in place for road construction and drilling;

Highly regarded and successful explorer Shawn Ryan to join T2 Metals' Advisory Board;

The Shanghai project sits within the northwest portion of the Yukon's Tombstone Gold Belt, one of North America's most active and gold-endowed mining districts, and home to the famous Klondike goldfield (Figure 1). Recent exploration of the Tombstone Gold Belt by Snowline Gold Corp (Valley project), Sitka Gold Corp (RC Gold project), Banyan Gold Corp (AurMac project) and Sanatana Resources Inc have highlighted the potential for major new gold discoveries and value creation.

Mark Saxon, CEO of T2 Metals Corp., said, "We have worked hard to identify high potential gold projects to augment our existing portfolio, and are very pleased to have secured Shanghai in one of North America's premier gold exploration districts. The project has been held by Shawn Ryan for over 20 years, during which time major gold projects have been discovered on the property boundaries.

New investment by a range of explorers in the Tombstone Gold Belt is progressively revealing significant gold deposits. We are very pleased to join the search, supported by one of the Yukon's most successful explorers in Shawn Ryan."

Project partner, Shawn Ryan, commented, "The geology and geochemistry of the Shanghai project look a lot like that from the surrounding resource-stage gold deposits, and it is a project well overdue for drilling. We are keen to see what T2 Metals will discover and I'm very happy to be advising their technical team."

Figure 1: Regional Location of the Shanghai Project, Yukon Territory, Canada.

See Table 1 for additional information on resource-stage projects and supporting NI43-101 report references.

The Shanghai claims cover a large area of Hyland Group metasediments immediately above the Robert Service Thrust fault with mapped mid-Cretaceous (~90Ma) Tombstone Plutonic Suite intrusions (Figure 2, 3). This setting is analogous to the AurMac deposit of Banyan Gold Corp, which hosts 112.5 million tonnes at 0.63 g/t Au (for 2.28 million oz of gold) in the Indicated Resource estimate category; and 280.6 million tonnes at 0.60 g/t Au (for 5.50 million ounces of gold) in the Inferred Resource estimate category, only 6 km to the south of Shanghai (resource information for the AurMac deposit is based on a technical report prepared for Banyan Gold Corp titled Technical Report, Aurmac Property, Yukon Territory, Canada by Hantelmann, T. et al., with an effective date of June 28, 2025 and available at www.sedarplus.ca). See Table 1 for additional information.

The presence of the Tombstone Plutonic Suite is similar to the Yukon's most exciting recent discoveries that lie to the east (Snowline) and west (Sitka) of Shanghai.

From 2004, Ryan staked the areas surrounding the historical Shanghai silver-lead-zinc mine north of Mayo, identifying overlapping potential for intrusion-related gold and high-grade silver. As the Hyland Group presents limited outcrop, Ryan applied the techniques utilised during his discovery of the White Gold and Coffee deposits and collected more than 4,000 auger soil samples. This sample data has defined areas of high gold-antimony-bismuth, an association that correlates well to the intrusion-related gold deposits being explored by Banyan Gold Corp, Sitka Gold Corp and Snowline Gold Corp; and areas of high silver-lead which correlates to Keno Hill style mineralization.

Auger soil data covers an area of 23 km2 with gold values ranging from <0.5 ppb to 6.1 ppm averaging 17 ppb; silver values ranging from <0.05 ppm to >100 ppm averaging 0.4 ppm; and lead ranging from 15 ppm to >1% averaging 27 ppm (4435 samples). In addition to auger soil sampling, Ryan completed ground magnetics and induced polarization ("IP") geophysics over much of the Shanghai property. The reader is cautioned that while this information is considered reliable the Qualified Person and the Company have relied on data provided by the Optionor and has been unable to verify the information independently. Additional information as to the history of the Shanghai project can be found in NI43-101 Technical Report titled "Shanghai Project Technical Report, Mayo Mining District, Yukon" dated July 15, 2022 by Doherty, R. A. (P. Geo.) on behalf of Targa Exploration Corp. on www.sedarplus.ca.

Despite the discovery potential of the project, and geological similarity to major deposits, no exploration drilling has been completed at Shanghai. T2 Metals proposes additional surface sampling and local geophysics to better refine and prioritise target areas, followed by drilling during 2026. The Shanghai project holds a valid Class 3 Quartz Mining Land Use permit which enables drilling, road construction and installation of a camp if required. The project lies within 5km of the Eagle Gold Mine road and 6 km from Baynan Gold Corp's AurMac camp.

Figure 2: Geological Map for Shanghai Project, Yukon Territory, Canada.

See Table 1 for additional information on resource-stage projects and supporting NI43-101 report references.

Figure 3: Cross Section from Shanghai Project to AurMac Deposit Area (see Figure for Section line).

Option Terms

Subject to receipt of TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV") approval of the Option Agreement, T2 Metals will have the option to acquire a 100% undivided interest in the Shanghai project, for a total consideration of $500,000 in cash and 3,000,000 common shares of T2 Metals to be paid to the Optionor in incremental amounts over a seven-year period, which may be accelerated at the discretion of T2 Metals. An initial cash payment of $50,000 and an initial payment of 300,000 common shares in T2 Metals will be made following TSXV acceptance of the Transaction. All shares issued under the Option Agreement will be subject to a four-month hold period from the date of issuance in accordance with applicable securities laws.

In order to exercise the Option, T2 Metals is also required to incur exploration expenditures on the Shanghai project totalling a minimum of $1,800,000 over six years, including $100,000 by November 15, 2026. Upon commencement of commercial production on the Shanghai project, the Optionor will retain a 2% net smelter return royalty on the property with 1% purchasable by T2 Metals for the cash payment of $1,000,000 to the Optionor.

The claims are located within the traditional territory of the Nacho Nyak Dun First nation, which has settled its land claim, and is a self-governing first nation.

About Shawn Ryan

As part of the Shanghai transaction, Shawn Ryan has agreed to join T2 Metals Advisory Board. Shawn is a well-known prospector and entrepreneur in the Yukon's mineral exploration industry. He is recognized for his innovative and systematic approach to gold exploration, which has been credited with sparking a "second Klondike gold rush". Ryan's career is marked by a methodical approach to sampling, including development of a novel auger soil sampling technique, a method particularly effective in the Yukon where thick soil layers often obscure bedrock.

Shawn Ryan's work led to several significant discoveries including the Golden Saddle and Arc deposits, which became part of the multi-million ounce White Gold Project acquired by Kinross Gold, and the Coffee project, which was sold to Goldcorp (now Newmont Corporation) for $520 million. His contributions to the industry have earned him numerous awards, including the Bill Dennis Award for prospecting from the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC). Shawn's work is seen as a major factor in modernizing exploration in the Yukon and drawing new attention to the territory's mineral potential.

Figure 4: Gold in Auger Soil Geochemistry from Shanghai Project, Yukon Territory, Canada.

Figure 5: Silver in Auger Soil Geochemistry from Shanghai Project, Yukon Territory, Canada.

Figure 6: Site Visit to Shanghai Project. Photo looking south to AurMac Deposit.

About the Historic Shanghai Mine

The Shanghai mine is hosted by the Keno Hill Quartzite immediately below the regionally extensive Robert Service Thrust fault. It lies on the northern limb of the McQuesten Antiform, presenting a mirror image of the Keno Hill camp found on the southern limb of this antiform.

During the 1960's the Shanghai Mine was explored by Silver Titan Mines Ltd with close to 800 m of underground development. Assays reported from underground workings that followed veins included 9.1 m @ 1182.8 g/t Ag, 8.2% Pb and 7.2% Zn (average width of 1.5 m) (Yukon Minfile 105M 028).

About the Tombstone Gold Belt

The Tombstone Gold Belt, a component of the larger Tintina Gold Province, is a highly prospective metallogenic province in the Yukon, with a range of well-known and emerging gold discoveries. The belt is characterized by a suite of mid-Cretaceous, reduced, felsic intrusions known as the Tombstone Plutonic Suite. These intrusive bodies and the surrounding host rocks have created conditions for the formation of numerous Intrusion-Related Gold Systems (IRGS). Exploration efforts have identified multiple mineralized corridors with gold hosted in sheeted quartz veins and disseminated mineralization within both the intrusive bodies and the hornfelsed country rocks.

Gold mineralization in the Tombstone Gold Belt is typically associated with a distinctive multi-element signature that includes bismuth, tellurium, and tungsten, along with arsenic and antimony. Gold-bearing fluids exsolved from cooling intrusions and preferentially deposited gold in brittle, structurally controlled environments. Both high-grade, structurally-controlled vein systems and lower-grade, bulk-tonnage deposits are known. The region hosts numerous significant deposits and is the site of recent discoveries by companies such as Snowline Gold Corp., Banyan Gold Corp. and Sitka Gold Corp.

Table 1: Gold Deposits in the Tombstone Gold Belt with NI43-101 References

Project EFFECTIVE

DATE Author Report For Tonnes

(M) Au

(g/t) Contained

Gold Status Brewery Creek 18/01/2022 Cook. C. et al., 2022. Sabre Gold Mines Corp 34.5 1.03 1.142 M oz Measured & Indicated 36.0 0.88 1.018 M oz Inferred Report Title: Preliminary Economic Assessment. NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Brewery Creek Project Yukon Territory, Canada Eagle (Dublin Gulch) 31/12/2022 Harvey, N., 2022 Victoria Gold Corp 233.2 0.57 4.303 M oz Measured & Indicated 36.2 0.62 0.724 M oz Inferred Report Title: Technical Report. Eagle Gold Mine. Yukon Territory, Canada Olive (Dublin Gulch) 31/12/2022 Harvey, N., 2022 Victoria Gold Corp 11.6 0.97 0.361 M oz Measured & Indicated 5.5 1.17 206,479 Inferred Report Title: Technical Report. Eagle Gold Mine. Yukon Territory, Canada Raven (Dublin Gulch) 15/09/2022 Jutras, M., 2022. Victoria Gold Corp 19.9 1.67 1.071 M oz Inferred Report Title: Technical Report On The Raven Mineral Deposit, Mayo Mining District Yukon Territory, Canada Blackjack (RC Gold) 21/01/2025 Simpson. R., 2025 Sitka Gold Corp 39.9 1.01 1.298 M oz Indicated 34.6 0.94 1.045 M oz Inferred Report Title: Clear Creek Property, RC Gold Project NI 43-101 Technical Report Dawson Mining District, Yukon Territory Eiger (RC Gold) 19/01/2023 Simpson. R., 2025 Sitka Gold Corp 27.4 0.5 0.440 M oz Inferred Report Title: Clear Creek Property, RC Gold Project. NI 43-101 Technical Report. Dawson Mining District, Yukon Territory Airstrip (AurMac) 28/06/2025 Jutras, M., 2025 Banyan Gold Corp 27.7 0.69 0.614 M oz Indicated 10.1 0.75 0.244 M oz Inferred Report Title: Technical Report, Aurmac Property, Yukon Territory, Canada Powerline (AurMac) 28/06/2025 Jutras, M., 2025 Banyan Gold Corp 84.8 0.61 1.663 M oz Indicated 270.4 0.60 5.216 M oz Inferred Report Title: Technical Report, Aurmac Property, Yukon Territory, Canada Florin 6/04/2025 Simpson. R., 2021 St. James Gold Corp. 170.9 0.45 2.474 M oz Inferred Report Title: Florin Gold Project. NI 43-101 Technical Report. Mayo and Dawson Mining Districts, Yukon Territory Valley (Rouge) 15/05/2025 Burrell. H. et al., 2024 Snowline Gold Corp 75.8 1.66 4,047 M oz Indicated 81.0 1.25 3.256 M oz Inferred Report Title: Rogue Project. NI 43-101 Technical Report and Mineral Resource Estimate. Yukon Territory, Canada

Disclaimers

The qualified person (as defined under National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects) for the Company's projects, Mr. Mark Saxon, the Company's Chief Executive Officer, a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists, has reviewed and approved the contents of this release.

Readers are cautioned that the discussion about adjacent or similar properties in this press release is not necessarily indicative of the mineralization or potential of the Shanghai property. The Company has no interest in or right to acquire any interest in any such adjacent properties.

About T2 Metals Corp (TSXV: TWO) (OTCQB: TWOSF) (WKN: A2DR6E)

T2 Metals Corp is an emerging copper and precious metal company enhancing shareholder value through exploration and discovery. T2 is focused on the Sherridon Project in Manitoba, the Shanghai Project in the Yukon, and the Cora Project in Arizona.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information set out in this news release constitutes forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "plan", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "intend", "could", "might", "should", "believe" and similar expressions. Forward-looking information in this press release include statements regarding the potential exercise of the Option and obtaining regulatory approval for the Option, and future exploration plans for the Company on the Shanghai project. Forward-looking statements are based upon the opinions and expectations of management of the Company as at the effective date of such statements and, in certain cases, information provided or disseminated by third parties. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, and that information obtained from third party sources is reliable, they can give no assurance that those expectations will prove to have been correct. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from results contemplated by the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, the actual events may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Such risks include uncertainties relating to exploration activities; risks in obtaining regulatory approval; the impact of exploration competition; unexpected geological conditions; changes in government regulations and policies, including trade laws and policies; failure to obtain necessary permits and approvals from government authorities; volatility and sensitivity to market prices; volatility and sensitivity to capital market fluctuations; the ability to raise funds through private or public equity financings; environmental and safety risks including increased regulatory burdens; weather and other natural phenomena; and other exploration, development, operating, financial market risks. When relying on forward-looking statements to make decisions, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and should not place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof or the dates specifically referenced in this press release, where applicable. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, except as may be required by applicable securities laws.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 10, 2025) - Gold X2 Mining Inc. (TSXV: AUXX) (OTCQB: GSHRF) (FSE: 8X00) ("Gold X2" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce the first batch of assay results from its ongoing grade control drill program at the Moss Gold Project in Northwest Ontario, Canada (the "Moss Gold Project"). The first batch of assay results targeted marginal to core shears in the Main Zone with a total of 18 shallow holes reported. The purpose of the 12.5 meter by 12.5 meters spaced grade control drill program is to investigate the short-distance behaviour of gold mineralization to determine the drill spacing required to upgrade the resource from inferred to indicated category. Additionally, the drill core will provide the required volume of samples for the upcoming feasibility level metallurgical studies. Finally, the tight spaced drilling provides mining-level precision that will derisk the Mineral Resource Estimate.

Michael Henrichsen, CEO of Gold X2 commented, "We are pleased with the initial results of the first 18 drill holes from the Moss Main grade control program. Notably, gold grades are generally higher than those predicted in our current resource model and we look forward to the potential continuation of this pattern as we receive additional results. Equally important, the observed continuity of shear zones supports our current geological model, currently being updated by G Mining Services, and this alignment reinforces our confidence in the Moss Gold Project's potential."

Highlights

Sixty-one short drill holes have been completed as part of close-spaced grade control drill program designed to investigate the short-distance behaviour of gold mineralization at the Main Zone.

Results from the first eighteen holes have confirmed the continuity of high-grade mineralization within individual shear zones modelled in the Main Zone. The top drill intercepts include:

49.85m of 1.54 g/t Au from 0.7m in MMD-25-201, including 36.3m of 2.03 g/t Au from 0.7m, and





16m of 3.14 g/t Au from 76.0m

50.85m of 2.18 g/t Au from 1.15m in MMD-25-203

41m of 1.71 g/t Au from 5.0m in MMD-25-207

57.5m of 1.26 g/t Au from 4.6m in MMD-25-209

32m of 1.55 g/t Au from 7.0m in MMD-25-211

64.1m of 0.96 g/t Au from 35.85m in MMD-25-214

20.25m of 2.73 g/t Au from 147.0m in MMD-25-215, including 9.7m of 5.35 g/t Au from 157.55m



22.7m of 2.21 g/t Au from 168.0m in MMD-25-217

Technical Overview

The results of the current grade control drill program are illustrated in the following figures and tables. Figure 1 shows the location map of the drill holes reported in this release, relative to the Moss Main grade control drill program. Figure 2 provides a cross-section of drill holes MMD-25-211, MMD-25-213, MMD-25-215, and MMD-25-217, representing the easternmost section of the pattern. The results are summarized in Tables 1-3, which include significant intercepts (Table 1), drill hole locations (Table 2), and a comparison of drilling results versus results from the resource model (Table 3).

Figure 1: Illustrates the Moss Main grade control drill program in detail.

Figure 2: Illustrates a drill section through MMD-25-211 to MMD-25-217 confirming several close-spaced, anastomosing, high-grade gold-mineralized shear zones modelled in the Main Zone.

In preparation for the infill drilling campaign, two grade control drilling programs were designed, one at each the Main and QES zones. The Main Zone pattern covers an area that is 100 meters along strike, 80 meters across strike and 170-190 meters deep. Drill holes are spaced in a 12.5-meter diamond-shaped pattern.

The logging data from the eighteen holes reported herein highlights reasonable continuity of the lithological and shear domains supporting the resource estimation process. Drilling intersected the typical diorite complex across most holes, characterized by 20-30-meter-wide units of varying composition, ranging from more mafic diorites to more felsic granodiorites. The exception is the most northern holes which collared into a 15-25m wide dacite volcanic unit.

The mineralized intersections are moderately to strongly sheared and either sericite-chlorite or sericite-silica-hematite altered with pyrite and chalcopyrite mineralization. The close spaced holes have confirmed that lithological units and shear zones are traceable vertically along the section with minimal pinching and swelling between the holes supporting the current geological interpretation used to guide the resource modelling.

Table 3 is a comparison of actual intercept values versus intercepts predicted by the current resource model. This shows that drilling has intersected slightly narrower but higher-grade shears, as would be expected in an anastomosing shear system. The improvement is attributed to the use of HQ sized drill core versus the historical mix of BQ and NQ sized drill core used to populate the resource model, as the geological continuity is robust.

Figure 3: Hole MMD-25-215: High grade section of a moderately sheared and sericite-silica-chlorite altered mineralized diorite yielding an intercept of 20.25m of 2.73 g/t Au from 147.0m, including 9.7m of 5.35 g/t Au from 157.55m.

Table 1: Significant intercepts

HOLE ID FROM TO LENGTH (m) TRUE WIDTH (m) CUT GRADE

(g/t Au) UNCUT GRADE

(g/t Au) MMD-25-200 16.85 74.00 57.15 27.8 0.71 0.71 MMD-25-200 31.00 37.35 6.35 3.1 1.40 1.40 MMD-25-200 70.75 73.00 2.25 1.1 1.18 1.18 MMD-25-200 81.00 99.00 18.00 8.8 0.96 0.96 MMD-25-201 0.70 50.55 49.85 23.7 1.54 1.54 MMD-25-201 0.70 37.00 36.30 17.2 2.03 2.03 MMD-25-201 56.00 69.00 13.00 6.2 0.47 0.47 MMD-25-201 76.00 92.00 16.00 7.7 3.14 3.14 MMD-25-201 80.00 92.00 12.00 5.8 4.05 4.05 MMD-25-201 113.00 116.05 3.05 1.5 1.29 1.29 MMD-25-201 129.10 138.80 9.70 4.7 0.53 0.53 MMD-25-202 40.00 65.00 25.00 11.9 0.56 0.56 MMD-25-203 1.15 52.00 50.85 23.9 2.18 2.18 MMD-25-203 1.15 36.00 34.85 16.4 2.81 2.81 MMD-25-203 44.00 52.00 8.00 3.8 1.04 1.04 MMD-25-203 65.80 86.00 20.20 9.6 1.78 1.78 MMD-25-203 72.00 84.75 12.75 6.1 2.59 2.59 MMD-25-203 106.00 121.00 15.00 7.2 0.47 0.47 MMD-25-203 129.00 141.00 12.00 5.8 0.69 0.69 MMD-25-204 23.00 25.00 2.00 1.0 6.49 6.49 MMD-25-204 44.80 48.00 3.20 1.5 0.57 0.57 MMD-25-204 76.45 101.00 24.55 11.9 0.70 0.70 MMD-25-204 79.85 83.00 3.15 1.5 1.42 1.42 MMD-25-204 108.00 118.00 10.00 4.9 1.08 1.08 MMD-25-204 124.00 148.00 24.00 11.7 1.26 1.26 MMD-25-204 126.00 140.00 14.00 6.8 1.82 1.82 MMD-25-204 159.00 195.00 36.00 17.8 0.76 0.76 MMD-25-204 183.00 195.00 12.00 6.0 1.61 1.61 MMD-25-205 1.30 39.00 37.70 17.7 1.14 1.14 MMD-25-205 2.00 6.85 4.85 2.3 1.08 1.08 MMD-25-205 9.00 33.35 24.35 11.5 1.40 1.40 MMD-25-205 59.00 91.65 32.65 15.4 1.46 1.46 MMD-25-205 64.00 82.00 18.00 8.5 2.41 2.41 MMD-25-205 123.00 140.00 17.00 8.1 0.61 0.61 MMD-25-206 24.00 35.50 11.50 5.5 2.56 2.56 MMD-25-206 24.80 34.95 10.15 4.8 2.82 2.82 MMD-25-206 49.50 53.30 3.80 1.8 0.86 0.86 MMD-25-206 108.00 123.00 15.00 7.2 0.41 0.41 MMD-25-206 135.00 151.00 16.00 7.7 0.51 0.51 MMD-25-206 157.00 175.00 18.00 8.7 1.57 1.57 MMD-25-206 162.95 169.65 6.70 3.3 3.55 3.55 MMD-25-206 187.00 191.00 4.00 2.0 1.02 1.02 MMD-25-206 198.00 222.00 24.00 11.8 0.46 0.46 MMD-25-207 5.00 46.00 41.00 19.2 1.71 1.71 MMD-25-207 5.00 30.00 25.00 11.7 1.81 1.81 MMD-25-207 38.70 42.00 3.30 1.6 5.65 5.65 MMD-25-207 57.00 62.00 5.00 2.4 1.38 1.38 MMD-25-207 57.00 60.00 3.00 1.4 2.15 2.15 MMD-25-207 68.00 73.00 5.00 2.4 3.19 3.19 MMD-25-207 84.00 99.65 15.65 7.4 1.36 1.36 MMD-25-207 86.00 90.95 4.95 2.3 2.72 2.72 MMD-25-207 96.00 99.65 3.65 1.7 1.57 1.57 MMD-25-207 109.20 139.00 29.80 14.2 0.40 0.40 MMD-25-207 126.00 128.00 2.00 1.0 1.47 1.47 MMD-25-208 36.75 52.00 15.25 7.2 0.78 0.78 MMD-25-208 45.00 50.00 5.00 2.4 1.70 1.70 MMD-25-208 61.95 65.00 3.05 1.5 2.22 2.22 MMD-25-208 79.70 91.00 11.30 5.4 0.49 0.49 MMD-25-208 100.20 114.05 13.85 6.7 0.70 0.70 MMD-25-208 146.00 159.00 13.00 6.4 0.78 0.78 MMD-25-208 147.00 151.00 4.00 2.0 1.05 1.05 MMD-25-208 166.00 192.00 26.00 12.8 1.08 1.08 MMD-25-208 176.00 186.00 10.00 4.9 1.96 1.96 MMD-25-208 202.00 208.10 6.10 3.0 2.03 2.03 MMD-25-208 203.00 206.95 3.95 2.0 2.82 2.82 MMD-25-208 221.00 231.00 10.00 5.0 1.24 1.24 MMD-25-208 221.00 224.15 3.15 1.6 3.28 3.28 MMD-25-209 4.60 62.10 57.50 27.4 1.26 1.26 MMD-25-209 10.00 17.00 7.00 3.3 4.69 4.69 MMD-25-209 26.00 37.00 11.00 5.2 2.01 2.01 MMD-25-209 73.00 87.00 14.00 6.7 0.57 0.57 MMD-25-209 93.10 104.40 11.30 5.5 2.17 2.17 MMD-25-209 93.10 101.35 8.25 4.0 2.80 2.80 MMD-25-209 115.00 119.00 4.00 1.9 0.51 0.51 MMD-25-209 124.50 141.00 16.50 8.0 0.68 0.68 MMD-25-210 5.00 11.00 6.00 2.8 1.14 1.14 MMD-25-210 16.40 19.00 2.60 1.2 0.78 0.78 MMD-25-210 58.00 60.00 2.00 0.9 0.54 0.54 MMD-25-210 81.00 88.00 7.00 3.3 0.73 0.73 MMD-25-210 103.00 116.00 13.00 6.2 0.51 0.51 MMD-25-210 125.45 130.00 4.55 2.2 1.00 1.00 MMD-25-210 126.00 130.00 4.00 1.9 1.04 1.04 MMD-25-210 139.00 186.00 47.00 22.8 0.67 0.67 MMD-25-210 141.00 143.00 2.00 1.0 1.90 1.90 MMD-25-210 152.00 160.50 8.50 4.1 1.65 1.65 MMD-25-210 195.00 198.00 3.00 1.5 0.39 0.39 MMD-25-210 203.00 205.00 2.00 1.0 0.39 0.39 MMD-25-211 7.00 39.00 32.00 15.1 1.55 1.55 MMD-25-211 12.00 35.00 23.00 10.9 1.97 1.97 MMD-25-211 45.00 73.35 28.35 13.5 0.67 0.67 MMD-25-211 59.15 65.00 5.85 2.8 1.22 1.22 MMD-25-211 83.50 87.15 3.65 1.7 2.74 2.74 MMD-25-211 94.80 116.00 21.20 10.2 1.44 1.44 MMD-25-211 109.00 113.00 4.00 1.9 5.88 5.88 MMD-25-211 129.00 132.45 3.45 1.7 0.31 0.31 MMD-25-212 32.00 34.15 2.15 1.0 1.16 1.16 MMD-25-212 48.00 108.00 60.00 28.3 0.76 0.76 MMD-25-212 58.00 70.20 12.20 5.8 1.28 1.28 MMD-25-212 122.00 140.80 18.80 8.9 1.34 1.34 MMD-25-212 123.00 132.00 9.00 4.3 2.32 2.32 MMD-25-212 152.00 165.00 13.00 6.2 0.49 0.49 MMD-25-212 156.00 158.00 2.00 1.0 1.34 1.34 MMD-25-212 172.25 186.00 13.75 6.6 0.55 0.55 MMD-25-212 183.00 185.00 2.00 1.0 1.78 1.78 MMD-25-213 15.00 19.05 4.05 1.9 0.84 0.84 MMD-25-213 24.60 78.60 54.00 25.4 0.79 0.79 MMD-25-213 28.00 42.00 14.00 6.6 1.20 1.20 MMD-25-213 53.00 63.00 10.00 4.7 1.28 1.28 MMD-25-213 102.00 105.00 3.00 1.4 2.08 2.08 MMD-25-213 102.00 105.00 3.00 1.4 2.08 2.08 MMD-25-213 126.00 142.60 16.60 8.0 1.57 1.57 MMD-25-213 133.00 138.00 5.00 2.4 4.25 4.25 MMD-25-213 148.00 151.70 3.70 1.8 0.37 0.37 MMD-25-213 157.00 160.00 3.00 1.5 0.97 0.97 MMD-25-214 6.00 29.00 23.00 11.0 1.16 1.16 MMD-25-214 14.00 27.00 13.00 6.2 1.69 1.69 MMD-25-214 35.85 99.95 64.10 30.8 0.96 0.96 MMD-25-214 37.00 41.00 4.00 1.9 4.18 4.18 MMD-25-214 49.00 52.10 3.10 1.5 2.14 2.14 MMD-25-214 86.00 94.00 8.00 3.9 2.52 2.52 MMD-25-214 112.00 119.00 7.00 3.4 0.95 0.95 MMD-25-214 115.00 118.00 3.00 1.5 1.58 1.58 MMD-25-214 125.75 136.75 11.00 5.3 0.56 0.56 MMD-25-214 143.00 149.00 6.00 2.9 1.17 1.17 MMD-25-215 13.00 16.95 3.95 1.8 0.91 0.91 MMD-25-215 57.70 65.45 7.75 3.6 0.33 0.33 MMD-25-215 70.00 96.00 26.00 12.0 0.58 0.58 MMD-25-215 76.00 78.00 2.00 0.9 2.13 2.13 MMD-25-215 112.85 125.00 12.15 5.7 3.11 3.26 MMD-25-215 113.60 118.00 4.40 2.1 8.11 8.50 MMD-25-215 141.00 143.00 2.00 0.9 0.48 0.48 MMD-25-215 147.00 167.25 20.25 9.6 2.73 2.73 MMD-25-215 157.55 167.25 9.70 4.6 5.35 5.35 MMD-25-216 30.00 63.00 33.00 15.6 0.70 0.70 MMD-25-216 38.25 53.00 14.75 7.0 1.01 1.01 MMD-25-216 69.00 92.00 23.00 10.9 0.66 0.66 MMD-25-216 103.95 107.00 3.05 1.5 1.56 1.56 MMD-25-216 103.95 105.95 2.00 1.0 1.97 1.97 MMD-25-216 115.00 127.00 12.00 5.7 1.21 1.21 MMD-25-216 115.00 122.00 7.00 3.3 1.87 1.87 MMD-25-216 141.00 147.50 6.50 3.1 0.42 0.42 MMD-25-216 156.00 169.00 13.00 6.3 0.54 0.54 MMD-25-216 159.00 162.80 3.80 1.8 1.10 1.10 MMD-25-217 12.30 22.10 9.80 4.6 0.57 0.57 MMD-25-217 14.95 18.00 3.05 1.4 1.09 1.09 MMD-25-217 29.00 46.60 17.60 8.3 0.82 0.82 MMD-25-217 40.00 46.60 6.60 3.1 1.37 1.37 MMD-25-217 71.30 75.00 3.70 1.8 1.98 1.98 MMD-25-217 71.30 74.30 3.00 1.4 2.33 2.33 MMD-25-217 94.00 109.00 15.00 7.2 0.74 0.74 MMD-25-217 97.00 103.00 6.00 2.9 1.42 1.42 MMD-25-217 119.00 124.05 5.05 2.4 0.45 0.45 MMD-25-217 134.00 140.60 6.60 3.2 0.66 0.66 MMD-25-217 168.00 190.70 22.70 11.1 2.21 2.21 MMD-25-217 178.00 183.00 5.00 2.4 8.15 8.15 MMD-25-217 188.60 190.70 2.10 1.0 2.55 2.55 MMD-25-217 215.00 221.00 6.00 3.0 0.81 0.81 MMD-25-217 215.00 217.00 2.00 1.0 1.79 1.79 Intersections calculated above a 0.3 g/t Au cut off with a top cut of 30 g/t Au and a maximum internal waste interval of 5 metres. Shaded intervals are intersections calculated above a 1.0 g/t Au cut off. Intervals in bold are those with a grade thickness factor exceeding 20 gram x metres / tonne gold. True widths are approximate and assume a subvertical body.

Table 2: Drill Collars

HOLE EAST NORTH RL AZIMUTH DIP EOH MMD-25-200 668,824 5,379,137 430 149.9 -44.0 99.00 MMD-25-201 668,879 5,379,149 434 149.4 -44.8 141.00 MMD-25-202 668,812 5,379,141 430 149.2 -45.2 69.00 MMD-25-203 668,864 5,379,140 434 150.2 -45.3 141.00 MMD-25-204 668,803 5,379,156 432 150.1 -45.1 195.00 MMD-25-205 668,848 5,379,132 433 150.3 -45.2 141.00 MMD-25-206 668,794 5,379,171 436 149.4 -45.1 222.00 MMD-25-207 668,894 5,379,157 432 149.6 -45.5 141.00 MMD-25-208 668,797 5,379,184 436 149.3 -45.1 231.00 MMD-25-209 668,908 5,379,168 431 150.0 -45.0 141.00 MMD-25-210 668,807 5,379,168 434 149.1 45.4 207.00 MMD-25-211 668,913 5,379,179 430 150.0 -45.0 153.00 MMD-25-212 668,816 5,379,153 431 150.9 -45.4 186.00 MMD-25-213 668,904 5,379,194 430 150.0 -45.0 171.00 MMD-25-214 668,836 5,379,134 431 150.1 -44.4 150.00 MMD-25-215 668,895 5,379,207 431 149.7 -46.3 195.00 MMD-25-216 668,827 5,379,150 431 153.1 -45.3 171.00 MMD-25-217 668,886 5,379,224 432 149.7 -45.1 222.00

Table 3: Drill results versus resource model expected results

HOLE ID MODEL LENGTH

(m) MODEL GRADE

(g/t Au) DRILL LENGTH

(m) DRILL GRADE

(g/t Au) MMD-25-200 75.10 0.72 75.15 0.77 MMD-25-201 79.40 1.23 91.60 1.56 MMD-25-202 48.65 0.36 25.00 0.56 MMD-25-203 96.35 1.39 98.05 1.66 MMD-25-204 142.00 0.59 99.75 1.00 MMD-25-205 105.15 0.79 87.35 1.16 MMD-25-206 143.10 0.45 92.30 0.98 MMD-25-207 106.15 0.85 96.45 1.31 MMD-25-208 158.05 0.58 98.55 0.98 MMD-25-209 89.35 0.86 103.30 1.14 MMD-25-210 128.20 0.40 87.15 0.69 MMD-25-211 95.95 0.85 88.65 1.24 MMD-25-212 141.45 0.58 107.70 0.81 MMD-25-213 112.40 0.62 84.35 0.98 MMD-25-214 98.25 0.85 111.10 0.97 MMD-25-215 109.45 1.08 72.10 1.60 MMD-25-216 143.00 0.37 90.55 0.74 MMD-25-217 98.35 0.91 86.45 1.16

Details of the Moss Gold Project Mineral Resource Estimate are provided in a technical report with an effective date of January 31, 2024, prepared in accordance with NI 43-101 standards, which is filed under the Company's SEDAR+ profile.

Analytical and QA/QC Procedures

The HQ diameter drill core has been oriented using ACTIII or equivalent tools and validated in the core shack. All core has been sawed in half cut just off the core orientation line (bottom of hole) with the right half (looking down hole) of the core bagged and sent a third-party analytical laboratory. The left half of the core was returned to core boxes and is stored at Goldshore's Kashabowie core yard facility.

All samples were sent to ALS Geochemistry in Thunder Bay for preparation and analysis was performed in the ALS Vancouver analytical facility. ALS is accredited by the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) for the Accreditation of Mineral Analysis Testing Laboratories and CAN-P-4E ISO/IEC 17025. Samples were analysed for gold via fire assay with an AA finish ("Au-AA23") and 48 pathfinder elements via ICP-MS after four-acid digestion ("ME-MS61"). Samples that assayed over 10 ppm Au were re-run via fire assay with a gravimetric finish ("Au-GRA21").

In addition to ALS quality assurance / quality control ("QA/QC") protocols, Goldshore has implemented a quality control program for all samples collected through the drilling program. The quality control program was designed by a qualified and independent third party, with a focus on the quality of analytical results for gold. Analytical results are received, imported to our secure on-line database and evaluated to meet our established guidelines to ensure that all sample batches pass industry best practice for analytical quality control. Certified reference materials are considered acceptable if values returned are within three standard deviations of the certified value reported by the manufacture of the material. In addition to the certified reference material, certified blank material is included in the sample stream to monitor contamination during sample preparation. Blank material results are assessed based on the returned gold result being less than ten times the quoted lower detection limit of the analytical method. The results of the on-going analytical quality control program are evaluated and reported to Goldshore by Orix Geoscience Inc.

Qualified Person

Peter Flindell, PGeo, MAusIMM, MAIG, Vice-President, Exploration, of the Company, and a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, has approved the scientific and technical information contained in this news release.

Mr. Flindell has verified the data disclosed. To verify the information related to the winter drill program at the Moss Gold Project, Mr. Flindell has visited the property several times; discussed and reviewed logging, sampling, bulk density, core cutting and sample shipping processes with responsible site staff; discussed and reviewed assay and QA/QC results with responsible personnel; and reviewed supporting documentation, including drill hole location and orientation and significant assay interval calculations. He has also overseen the Company's health and safety policies in the field to ensure full compliance, and consulted with the Project's host indigenous communities on the planning and implementation of the drill program, particularly with respect to its impact on the environment and the Company's remediation protocols.

About Gold X2 Mining

Gold X2 is a growth-oriented gold company focused on delivering long-term shareholder and stakeholder value through the acquisition and advancement of primary gold assets in tier-one jurisdictions. It is led by the ex-global head of structural geology for the world's largest gold company and backed by one of Canada's pre-eminent private equity firms. The Company's current focus is the advanced stage 100% owned Moss Gold Project which is positioned in Ontario, Canada, with direct access from the Trans-Canada Highway, hydroelectric power near site, supportive local communities and skilled workforce. The Company has invested over $75 million of new capital and completed approximately 100,000 meters of drilling on the Moss Gold Project, which, in aggregate, has had over 255,000 meters of drilling. The 2024 updated NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate ("MRE") has expanded to 1.54 million ounces of Indicated gold resources at 1.23 g/t Au, contained within 38.96 million tonnes and 5.20 million ounces of Inferred gold resources at 1.11 g/t Au, contained within 146.24 million tonnes. The MRE only encompasses 3.6 kilometers of the 35+ kilometer mineralized trend, remains open at depth and along strike and is one of the few remaining major Canadian gold deposits positioned for development in this cycle. Please see NI 43-101 technical report titled: "Technical Report and Updated Mineral Resource Estimate for the Moss Gold Project, Ontario, Canada," dated March 20, 2024 with an effective date of January 31, 2024 available under the Company's SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca. For more information, please visit SEDAR+ (www.sedarplus.ca) and the Company's website (www.goldx2.com)

Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking statements." Such forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements, or developments to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "projects," "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will," "would," "may," "could" or "should" occur. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, among others, statements relating to expectations regarding the exploration and development of the Moss Gold Project; the potential mineralization at the Moss Gold Project based on the winter drill program, including the potential for additional mineral resources; the enhancement of the Moss Gold Project; statements regarding the Company's future drill plans, including the expected benefits and results thereof; that the Superion target has the potential to significantly add to the current mineral resource estimate within the top 200 meters from surface with continued drilling and to reduce the overall strip ratio of the deposit; the potential for resource growth at Moss and the fact that the results have the potential to significantly impact the economic performance of the deposit moving forward; the potential for a much larger mineralized system and that it will be pursued in the near future through additional drilling; and other statements that are not historical facts.

By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors and risks include, among others: uncertainty and variation in the estimation of mineral resources; risks related to exploration, development, and operation activities; exploration and development of the Moss Gold Project will not be undertaken as anticipated; the Company may require additional financing from time to time in order to continue its operations which may not be available when needed or on acceptable terms and conditions acceptable; the economic performance of the deposit may not be consistent with management's expectations; the Company's exploration work may not deliver the results expected; the fluctuating price of gold; unknown liabilities in connection with acquisitions; compliance with extensive government regulation; delays in obtaining or failure to obtain governmental permits, or non-compliance with permits; environmental and other regulatory requirements; domestic and foreign laws and regulations could adversely affect the Company's business and results of operations; risks related to natural disasters, terrorist acts, health crises, and other disruptions and dislocations; global financial conditions; uninsured risks; climate change risks; competition from other companies and individuals; conflicts of interest; risks related to compliance with anti-corruption laws; the Company's limited operating history; intervention by non-governmental organizations; outside contractor risks; the stock markets have experienced volatility that often has been unrelated to the performance of companies and these fluctuations may adversely affect the price of the Company's securities, regardless of its operating performance; the Superion target may not add to the current mineral resource; and other risks associated with executing the Company's objectives and strategies as well as those risk factors discussed in the Company's continuous disclosure documents filed under the Company's SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca.

The forward-looking information in this news release is based on management's reasonable expectations and assumptions as of the date of this news release. Certain material assumptions regarding such forward-looking statements were made, including without limitation, assumptions regarding: the future price of gold; anticipated costs and the Company's ability to fund its programs; the Company's ability to carry on exploration, development and mining activities; prices for energy inputs, labour, materials, supplies and services; the timing and results of drilling programs; mineral resource estimates and the assumptions on which they are based; the discovery of mineral resources and mineral reserves on the Company's mineral properties; the timely receipt of required approvals and permits; the costs of operating and exploration expenditures; the Company's ability to operate in a safe, efficient, and effective manner; the Company's ability to obtain financing as and when required and on reasonable terms; that the Company's activities will be in accordance with the Company's public statements and stated goals; that the Superion target will add to the current mineral resource; that the Company's exploration work will deliver the results expected; and that there will be no material adverse change or disruptions affecting the Company or its properties.

The forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the expectations of the Company as of the date of this news release and, accordingly, is subject to change after such date. There can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Readers should not place undue importance on forward-looking information and should not rely upon this information as of any other date. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 10, 2025) - Emperor Metals Inc. (CSE: AUOZ) (OTCQB: EMAUF) (FSE: 9NH) (the "Corporation" or "Emperor Metals") is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with SCP Resource Finance LP ("SCP") to act as lead agent and sole bookrunner on behalf of a syndicate of agents to be formed (together with SCP, the "Agents") in connection with a "best efforts" offering to raise gross proceeds of up to $6,500,080 (the "Offering") consisting of:

Up to 12,500,000 units of the Corporation (each a " Common Unit ") at a price of $0.20 per Common Unit (the " Common Issue Price ") for gross proceeds of up to $2,500,000; and

Up to 14,286,000 units of the Corporation issued on a "flow-through" basis (each a "FT Unit", together with the Common Units, the "Offered Securities") at a price of $0.28 per FT Unit (the "FT Issue Price") for gross proceeds of up to $4,000,080.

The Corporation has also granted to the Agents an option exercisable, in whole or in part, up to three business days prior to closing of the Offering, to increase the size of the Offering by up to an additional 15% of the number of Offered Securities.

Each Common Unit will be comprised of (i) one common share of the Corporation (a "Common Share") and (ii) one-half of one common share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant shall be exercisable to acquire one Common Share at a price of $0.35 per Common Share for a period of 24 months from the closing of the Offering. Each FT Unit will be comprised of (i) one Common Share issued on a "flow-through" basis (a "FT Share") and (ii) one-half of one Warrant. Each FT Share will qualify as a "flow-through share" (within the meaning of subsection 66(15) of the Income Tax Act (Canada) and section 359.1 of the Taxation Act (Quebec). It is contemplated that some or all of the FT Shares will subsequently be re-sold or donated by certain subscribers under the Offering to purchasers arranged by the Agents in accordance with exemptions pursuant to applicable securities laws.

John Florek, Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation states, "We are thrilled to be partnering with SCP on this brokered financing; a strategic collaboration that will enable us to fully dedicate our efforts to unlocking the true potential of this exceptional deposit. With Emperor Metals' Maiden Mineral Resource Estimate at the Duquesne West Property effectively doubling the historical resource, we see a clear and compelling path to increasing the resource once again through continued, targeted exploration.

The strength of the market and the support of our stakeholders will be instrumental in realizing this growth potential, enabling us to build on the momentum of our recent standout intercepts; including 21.7 metres of 35.2 g/t Au within the conceptual open pit and 10.8 metres of 15.8 g/t Au in the underground environment. These exceptional results underscore the scale and quality of the deposit, both at surface and at depth.

Our goal is to maintain the strong momentum and success we've built on this project. To that end, we plan to immediately launch our next drill program following the close of this financing, driving us toward even greater growth and discovery."

The Offered Securities will be offered in each of the provinces of Canada pursuant to the "listed issuer financing exemption" under Part 5A of National Instrument 45-106 - Prospectus Exemptions, as amended by Coordinated Blanket Order 45-935 - Exemptions from Certain Conditions of the Listed Issuer Financing Exemption (the "LIFE Exemption"). The Common Units may also be offered in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons, by way of private placement pursuant to exemptions from the registration requirements of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") and in other qualifying jurisdictions outside of Canada and the United States that are mutually agreed to by the Corporation and the Agents on a private placement basis pursuant to relevant prospectus and registration exemptions in accordance with applicable laws.

Subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions under applicable Canadian securities legislation, the securities issued under the Offering pursuant to the LIFE Exemption are not expected to be subject to a hold period in Canada under applicable Canadian securities legislation.

There is an offering document related to the Offering (the "Offering Document") that can be accessed under the Corporation's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca and on the Corporation's website at www.emperormetals.com. Prospective investors should read the Offering Document before making an investment decision.

The net proceeds of the Offering will be used to advance the Corporation's Duquesne West Project and Lac Pelletier Project in Quebec, and for general and administrative expenses and working capital purposes, as further described in the Offering Document.

In connection with the Offering, the Corporation has agreed to pay the Agents a cash commission equal to 6.0% of the gross proceeds of the Offering and issue to the Agents warrants (the "Agents' Warrants") exercisable for a period of 24 months following the closing date, to acquire in aggregate that number of Common Shares which is equal to 6.0% of the total number of Offered Securities issued under the Offering at an exercise price equal to the Common Issue Price.

Closing of the Offering is expected on or about October 7, 2025, or such other date as the Corporation and Agents may agree. Completion of the Offering is subject to certain conditions including, but not limited to, the receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals, including the approval of the Canadian Securities Exchange.

About Emperor Metals Inc.

Emperor Metals Inc. is a high-grade gold exploration and development company focused on Quebec's Southern Abitibi Greenstone Belt, leveraging AI-driven exploration techniques. Emperor Metals is dedicated to unlocking the substantial resource potential of the Duquesne West Gold Project and the Lac Pelletier Project, both situated in this prolific mining district.

Emperor Metals is led by a dynamic group of resource sector professionals who have a strong record of success in evaluating and advancing mining projects from exploration through to production, attracting capital and overcoming adversity to deliver exceptional shareholder value. For more information, please refer to SEDAR+ (www.sedarplus.ca), under Emperor Metals' profile.

Under an option agreement, Emperor Metals agreed to acquire a 100% interest in a mineral claim package comprising 38 claims covering approximately 1,389 ha, located in the Duparquet Township of Quebec (the "Duquesne West Property") from Duparquet Assets Ltd., a 50% owned subsidiary of Globex Mining Enterprises Inc. (TSX: GMX).

For more information, please contact:

The securities described herein have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "1933 Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States (as defined in Regulation S under the 1933 Act) unless registered under the 1933 Act and applicable state securities laws, or an exemption from such registration requirements is available. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any state of the United States in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

Neither Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Information

The information contained herein contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. "Forward-looking information" includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the activities, events or developments that the Corporation expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future, including, without limitation, statements with respect to, the completion of the Offering; the expected gross proceeds of the Offering; the use of proceeds from the Offering; the anticipated date for closing of the Offering; the receipt of all necessary regulatory and other approvals, including approval of the Canadian Securities Exchange; increasing the size of the mineral resource at the Duquesne West Property, the expected incurrence by the Corporation of eligible Canadian exploration expenses that will qualify as flow-through mining expenditures; and the renunciation by the Corporation of the Canadian exploration expenses (on a pro rata basis) to each subscriber of FT Units. Generally, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or the negative connotation thereof or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative connotation thereof.

Such forward-looking information is based on numerous assumptions, including among others, that the results of planned exploration activities are as anticipated, the price of gold and other commodities, the anticipated cost of planned exploration activities, that general business and economic conditions will not change in a material adverse manner, that financing will be available if and when needed and on reasonable terms, that third party contractors, equipment and supplies and governmental and other approvals required to conduct the Corporation's planned exploration activities will be available on reasonable terms and in a timely manner. Although the assumptions made by the Corporation in providing forward-looking information are considered reasonable by management at the time, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be accurate.

Forward-looking information and statements also involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual events or results in future periods to differ materially from any projections of future events or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking information or statements, including, among others: negative operating cash flow and dependence on third party financing; uncertainty of additional financing; no known current mineral resources or reserves; the limited operating history of the Corporation; aboriginal title and consultation issues; reliance on key management and other personnel; actual results of exploration activities being different than anticipated; changes in exploration programs based upon results; availability of third party contractors; availability of equipment and supplies; failure of equipment to operate as anticipated; accidents; effects of weather and other natural phenomena and other risks associated with the mineral exploration industry; environmental risks; changes in laws and regulations; community relations and delays in obtaining governmental or other approvals and the risk factors with respect to the Corporation set out in the Corporation's filings with the Canadian securities regulators and available under the Corporation's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

Although the Corporation has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information or implied by forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. The Corporation undertakes no obligation to update or reissue forward-looking information as a result of new information or events except as required by applicable securities laws.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 10, 2025) - Questcorp Mining Inc. (CSE: QQQ) (OTCQB: QQCMF) (FSE: D910) (the "Company" or "Questcorp") is pleased to provide an update on the Phase I drilling program at its La Union Gold and Silver project in northwest Sonora, Mexico. Drill holes have now been completed at two of the 4 target areas:

The initial hole was completed beneath the historic Union Mine itself, intersecting the favourable carbonaceous Clemente and Caborca formations, including the microconglomeratic carbonate unit which hosted mineralization at the bottom of the past producing Union Mine.

Drilling then shifted focus to the El Cobre Mine area and the Union Norte Mine area, testing vertical feeder zones above the Clemente formation dolomites and carbonaceous sandstones. Hole two intersected more quartzites than interpreted from the geophysics, with the quartzites carrying more extensive hematitic oxides, possibly indicative of oxide gold mineralization potentially related to sulfides which have been oxidized through supergene weathering.

Saf Dhillon, President and Chief Executive Officer, states: "The drilling is indicating oxidation is consistent with past mining and targets are coming along with a positive exploration drilling so far. The drilling is intersecting more quartzite than expected which is favorable for fracture-controlled mineralization. The Riverside operations team is progressing the current exploration program working with the surface rancher and the drilling company to efficiently progress a high-quality exploration program."

Drilling has now moved to the Famosa Target to progress exploration program. The Mexico Mining Ministry has approved many permits and are actively supporting the environmentally, socially conscious mineral exploration practices as a key aspect for the new Mexican government initiatives.

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by R. Tim Henneberry', P.Geo (BC) a Director of the Company and a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101.

About Questcorp Mining Inc.

Questcorp Mining is engaged in the business of the acquisition and exploration of mineral properties in North America, with the objective of locating and developing economic precious and base metals properties of merit. The company holds an option to acquire an undivided 100-per-cent interest in and to mineral claims totalling 1,168.09 hectares comprising the North Island copper property, on Vancouver Island, B.C., subject to a royalty obligation. The company also holds an option to acquire an undivided 100-per-cent interest in and to mineral claims totalling 2,520.2 hectares comprising the La Union project located in Sonora, Mexico, subject to a royalty obligation.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS,

Saf Dhillon

President & CEO

Suite 550, 800 West Pender Street

Vancouver, British Columbia

V6C 2V6.

Certain statements in this news release are forward-looking statements, which reflect the expectations of management regarding completion of survey work at the North Island Copper project. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those contained in the statements. No assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will occur or, if they do occur, what benefits the Company will obtain from them. Except as required by the securities disclosure laws and regulations applicable to the Company, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.
Every evening, Everlyn Ayo left her village in northern Uganda, trekking with thousands of other children known as "night commuters" hoping to escape the horrors of Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army.

The messianic Kony, whose case was heard earlier this month by the International Criminal Court (ICC), led one of the world's most barbaric insurgencies, massacring and mutilating tens of thousands of people across the region, kidnapping children and turning them into child soldiers and sexual slaves.

Ayo saw the brutality firsthand when Kony's forces attacked her school in Nwoya district when she was around five years old.

"The rebels raided the school, killed and cooked our teachers in big drums and we were forced to eat their remains," she told AFP from her home in the nearby city of Gulu.

Twenty years ago, Kony became the first person ever issued with an arrest warrant by the ICC, though his war crimes hearing was in absentia since he has never been caught.

Ayo, now 39, was among those following the case on her radio, thousands of miles from the courtroom in The Hague.

After her school was attacked, Ayo's family sent her to relatives in a remote village.

But that was also considered dangerous, and so she became a so-called night commuter, one of the emblematic features of a conflict that raged through much of the 1990s and 2000s.

Every night, she would walk around five kilometres (just over three miles), joining thousands of other children trekking through forests and jungle to stay in towns or shelters where they hoped there was less risk of being kidnapped by Kony's army.

"We would leave the villages at 4:00 pm because the distances were long and we feared the villages at night. In the morning, we had to wait for daylight at around 8:00 am to return," Ayo said.

The shelters were sporadically guarded by government troops, though they would often abandon their posts, themselves fearful of Kony's fanatical forces.

"We were so many children that even if you did not cover yourself at night, you did not feel cold because we were squeezed together," Ayo recalled.

Each morning, after walking for hours, they would find new horrors.

"Many times, on our return to the village, we would find blood-soaked dead bodies. Seeing all that blood as a child traumatised my eyes.

"For many years now, I do not see well, all I see is blood."

- Justice? -

Wilfred Lalobo, 60, showed AFP a monument built in Lukodi, just outside Gulu, for 69 people killed in an attack by Kony's forces on May 19, 2004.

"When the rebels arrived, the government troops were few, and they fled," he said.

"Then they started killing civilians. Some people were stabbed with bayonets, others hacked and the rest burned alive in their houses."

"On that day, my four-year-old daughter, Akello Lalobo was among those killed. My brother's wife and six other relatives of mine were also killed," Lalobo added.

The ICC hearing on Kony was also closely followed here, particularly by those who have sought to rebuild the region's many shattered lives.

Stella Angel Lanam was 10 when she was captured by the LRA, which indoctrinated her into becoming a child soldier. She spent nine years in captivity.

Now 38, she is director of the War Victims and Children Networking Initiative, which offers counselling, training and other support in the region.

Lanam said the hearing was a comfort, offering some justice to Kony's many victims.

"Even though we have passed through a lot, we cannot lose hope," she said.

"Will the government or Kony repair me back to the way I was? No. But at least I will get justice."

Ayo worries that the world has too quickly forgotten the extreme trauma suffered at the hands of Kony's forces.

She hopes he will one day see real justice.

"Joseph Kony should be punished severely in a way that the world will never forget," Ayo said.
Rwanda on Wednesday dismissed as "stupid" a campaign by the Democratic Republic of Congo for the United Nations to recognise a "genocide" against its people in the country's east.

Earlier this year, the Rwandan-backed M23 armed group swept through eastern DRC, seizing vast swathes of the mineral-rich territory that has been plagued by deadly violence for more than three decades.

The offensive saw M23 fighters capture key cities, killing and displacing thousands, which the UN labelled a humanitarian crisis.

Kigali denies it provides the M23 with military backing, though its support has been widely documented by UN experts and international rights groups.

Rwanda argues that it faces an existential threat from the presence in the Congolese east of rebel groups founded by Hutu leaders involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

On Tuesday, the DRC's human rights minister Samuel Mbemba told reporters during a UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva that the country had launched a campaign for "the world to break its silence", urging recognition of "genocide".

Rwanda -- where around 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered in the 1994 genocide -- labelled the campaign a "stupid proposition".

"Genocide against who? Non-Tutsi ethnicities? All of them? Targeted to be destroyed, as such?" Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe said in a statement to AFP.

A UN report released last week said that all sides in the latest violence in eastern DRC had committed gross rights violations in the region.

It also found "reasonable grounds" to believe that M23 fighters had committed crimes against humanity.

Speaking at the UN session, Rwanda's permanent representative to the UN Urujeni Bakuramutsa called the DRC's accusation "baseless".

"Rigorous evidence is non-negotiable. Any breach of that standard will be challenged every single time," Bakuramutsa said.

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi has also urged lawmakers to declare the violence a "genocide," saying it met the criteria established in the 1948 Convention.

Clashes have continued despite a June peace deal between the DRC and Rwanda, in addition to a separate "permanent ceasefire" agreed in July by the Congolese government and M23.
The main defence lawyer for Ugandan rebel chief Joseph Kony Wednesday urged International Criminal Court judges to freeze the case against his client, as he cannot challenge evidence in his absence.

Peter Haynes said he had the "paradoxical mandate" of representing Kony's interests without having any way of receiving his client's instructions.

The fugitive warlord faces 39 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, torture, enslavement and sexual slavery, allegedly committed between July 2002 and December 2005 in northern Uganda.

The three-day hearing at the ICC in The Hague is the first-ever to be held without the suspect present. Kony has not been seen in public since 2006.

It is not a trial but a so-called "confirmation of charges" hearing, where a three-judge panel decides whether the prosecution's allegations are strong enough to proceed to trial.

But in Kony's case, this is a moot point, as the ICC does not allow a full trial to take place in absentia.

Given that Kony cannot challenge the evidence presented against him, Haynes argued the court should "draw a line in the sand" and order a "conditional stay of proceedings".

He took aim at the prosecution's case that confirming charges against Kony would expedite proceedings if he were ever to be found and arrested.

"Seriously? Who does the deputy prosecutor think will arrest Joseph Kony? And where does he think he might be arrested?" he asked.

"In Uganda? By the Ugandan authorities? Well, if that happens, he ain't coming here."

Haynes noted that the high-profile case came at a sensitive time for the ICC.

The United States has slapped sanctions on the court, after judges issued arrest warrants against Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a US ally.

"Looking at the bigger picture, compromising the rights of suspects through issuing confirmation of charges decisions without any participation of those suspects should not be the future of ICC proceedings," said Haynes.

"Doing so would only give fuel to the fire of its detractors, who wish to portray this institution as illegitimate," he added.

He said the best way to safeguard the court's legitimacy would be for judges to "impose a conditional stay of proceedings at the end of this hearing which can be lifted if Joseph Kony ever appears".

- 'Elephant in the room' -

In response, the prosecution said that freezing the case was "entirely unnecessary" and "completely out of the question."

Ordering such a halt to proceedings would frustrate victims' pursuit of justice, the prosecution said.

A lawyer for the victims, Francisco Cox, said that those who suffered from Kony's alleged crimes want the ICC to recognise them formally.

He said that the argument advanced by Haynes was "creative... but without legal basis."

"They want justice, they want you to confirm these charges," he said, referring to the victims he represents.

"By sanctioning these crimes, you are trying at least to affirm a guarantee of non-repetition and to end impunity to such crimes," said Cox.

Haynes dismissed these arguments in his closing statement.

"The elephant in the room is that this has to stop somewhere. Without an accused, this case is at a dead end," he concluded.

The judges are expected to deliver these ruling on whether or not to confirm the charges within 60 days.






Wednesday, September 10, 2025 - A middle-aged woman has been arraigned before a Nairobi court on charges of stealing more than Ksh 2.6 million from Equity Bank.

The suspect, Regina Ndanga Kamunzyu, appeared before Chief Magistrate Lucas Onyina, where she was charged with conspiring with others, already facing trial, to steal Ksh 2,657,360, property of the bank.

According to the prosecution, the alleged offences took place between February 12th and May 9th, 2024, at Equity Bank in Nairobi.

In a separate count, Regina faced an additional accusation of stealing Ksh 686,466, also belonging to the bank.

As an alternative charge, she was accused of receiving money through her Equity Bank account, knowing or having reason to believe that it had been stolen.

Regina pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The court ordered that she remain in custody until September 11th, 2025, when directions on her bail and bond terms will be issued.

The Kenyan DAILY POST
Wednesday, September 10, 2025 - Former Jubilee Party Secretary General Raphael Tuju has made it clear he has no intention of returning to Government.

Speaking on Tuesday, September 9th, Tuju said he is content with his private life and business ventures.

I am very happy where I am. I enjoy a private life and can speak freely without worrying about government or opposition positions, he said.

Tuju, who manages several private enterprises employing over 100 people, dismissed the idea of seeking a Government salary.

Its difficult to pay someone like me. I create jobs and only do what I want to do, he added.

He also voiced concern over Kenyas political climate, arguing that citizens are failing to confront core issues such as unemployment, insecurity, and corruption.

We are refusing to look at what the real problems are, Tuju said.

On August 19th, Tuju resigned from the Jubilee Party in a letter to former President Uhuru Kenyatta, stating that he no longer saw value in his role.

However, he expressed openness to working with Kenyatta in the future.

Tuju served as Jubilee SG from 2016 to 2022, playing a pivotal role in shaping the partys strategy before being succeeded by Jeremiah Kioni.

His latest remarks signal a firm pivot toward private enterprise and independent public commentary.

The Kenyan DAILY POST






Wednesday, September 10, 2025 - The Judiciary has strongly refuted bribery allegations made by Captain (Rtd.) Kungu Muigai, cousin to former President Uhuru Kenyatta, over a decades-long commercial dispute, involving Benjoh Amalgamated Limited, Muiri Coffee Estate Ltd, and Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) calling the claims malicious and baseless.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Judiciary Spokesperson Paul Ndemo said no credible evidence of misconduct has ever been presented.

He noted that some of the judges named by Muigai have since retired or passed away, making the accusations particularly unfair.

The dispute dates back over 30 years to a loan facility from KCB secured by land.

After defaulting, the borrower admitted liability through a consent order and agreed to repay the debt.

When repayment failed, the lender moved to enforce the security.

The loan was secured by properties and a 443-acre coffee estate owned by Muiri Coffee Estate Ltd.

Despite the consent judgment, the borrowers filed multiple suits to block enforcement.

These were consistently dismissed, with the Court of Appeal in 1998 affirming the consent as valid and binding.

The courts repeatedly ruled the matter as res judicata - already conclusively settled.

Muigai reignited the controversy on Tuesday, after he claimed that 17 judges, including some from the Supreme Court, were bribed to rule against his companies.

I came to learn from a friend who was my classmate that the Supreme Court bench was bribed with $3.5 million (Ksh451million) and the money was paid in Jersey, he claimed.

Muigai said he applied for a five-judge bench at the Court of Appeal to hear the dispute, but the appeal was again dismissed, allegedly after the judges received a $2.5 million bribe (Ksh322.5 million).

The Judiciary clarified that similar complaints had previously been reviewed by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), which found no evidence of wrongdoing.

Ndemo emphasized that dissatisfaction with rulings does not constitute proof of corruption.

He warned that unfounded claims undermine public trust in the justice system and reaffirmed the Judiciarys commitment to impartiality and the rule of law.

The Kenyan DAILY POST






Wednesday, September 10, 2025 - Wiper Party leader, Kalonzo Musyoka, has shed light on the internal deliberations that led to Raila Odinga selecting Martha Karua as his running mate in the 2022 general elections.

Speaking on a local podcast on Wednesday, September 9th, 2025, Kalonzo said the decision was shaped by gender dynamics, regional balance, and strategic optics aimed at energizing the Azimio la Umoja coalition.

Raila and Junet came to my home and told me the panel had settled on my twin sister, Martha Karua, Kalonzo revealed.

They believed her candidacy would excite Mt Kenya, inspire women nationwide, and rally civil society and NGOs.

Kalonzo admitted that he felt he was the stronger candidate, citing his national stature and experience.

Of course, I felt I was best placed. But politics is about timing and perception, he said.

He acknowledged the regional strategy behind the ticket - pairing Raila from Nyanza with Karua from Mt Kenya to counter the then Deputy President William Rutos influence in the region.

Despite feeling sidelined, Kalonzo said he remained committed to the coalitions goals.

I asked Raila why people say Ill never be President.

In 2013 and 2017, we won but were robbed. In 2022, we had Uhurus support. Why make this mistake?

Karuas nomination marked a historic moment, she became the first woman to feature prominently in a major presidential ticket with a real chance of winning.

Kalonzo has since joined forces with other opposition leaders under the United Opposition banner, preparing for the 2027 elections. The coalition is yet to unveil its presidential candidate.

The Kenyan DAILY POST






Wednesday, September 10, 2025 - A heartbreaking video has surfaced online showing a Kenyan man weeping uncontrollably after his wife tragically died shortly after giving birth.

According to reports, the young mother developed complications and urgently needed a blood transfusion, but the family struggled to get blood on time.

Sadly, she passed away, leaving behind a newborn baby.

The emotional clip has touched thousands of Kenyans, with many taking to social media to condemn the persistent shortage of blood in hospitals and call on the Government to strengthen the countrys health system.

Guys I have failed my wife. She's gone.



My wife is Dead.



God why Her. pic.twitter.com/qjnMGmQf5N  THE HAWKER ERRANDS HH (@_Wanyonyi1) September 10, 2025

Others expressed sympathy for the grieving man, who is now left to raise his infant without a wife by his side.

The incident has once again highlighted the deadly gaps in maternal healthcare in Kenya, where delays in accessing critical resources such as blood often prove fatal.

The Kenyan DAILY POST






Wednesday, September 10, 2025 - Cabinet Secretary for Cooperatives and MSMEs Development, Wycliffe Oparanya, has announced that Kenyans who default on Hustler Fund loans will face difficulties accessing credit from banks and microfinance institutions.

Speaking during an event in Mombasa on Wednesday, September 10th, 2025, Oparanya revealed that the Government has partnered with financial institutions to integrate Hustler Fund repayment data into the national credit system.

Kama haujalipa Hustler Fund, ukienda kwa benki yoyote watakwambia hawawezi kukupa pesa yoyote, he cautioned.

Oparanya emphasized that the Hustler Fund was created to empower low-income earners, including small-scale traders and boda boda operators - not to be misused.

He stressed that repayment discipline is essential to building financial responsibility and ensuring the funds sustainability.

When borrowers default, it affects others who genuinely need support, he said, urging beneficiaries to use the loans productively and repay on time to improve their creditworthiness and qualify for future Government-backed financial programs.

Launched in December 2022 by President William Rutos administration, the Hustler Fund aimed to provide affordable credit to millions excluded from formal financial systems.

However, low repayment rates have prompted tighter regulations.

A recent report by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu cast a spotlight on the Hustler Funds repayment crisis, revealing that 64% of the total loan portfolio, equivalent to Ksh8.74 billion, remains unpaid for over a year.

Financial experts believe linking Hustler Fund performance to broader credit access could encourage repayment.

Critics, however, warn it may deepen financial exclusion for vulnerable groups.

The Kenyan DAILY POST






Wednesday, September 10, 2025 - National Treasury Cabinet Secretary, John Mbadi, is beaming with pride after his daughter, Ann Natalie Mbadi, graduated with a Master of Law in Labour and Employment Law from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

Sharing the heartwarming milestone on Tuesday, September 9th, Mbadi revealed that he and his wife, Roda Mbadi, were present to witness the ceremony.

Alongside my spouse Roda Mbadi, we had the honour of witnessing the conferment of our daughter, he wrote.

Seeing her match gently down the aisle, up the rostrum together with fellow graduates wasn't just fulfilling - it invoked silent tears of parental love, he added.

Congratulations Natalie, we are proud of you.

Mbadis tribute resonated with many parents who understand the joy of watching their children reach academic heights.

Monash University, founded in 1958 and named after Sir John Monash, is renowned for its international footprint and academic excellence.

With campuses in Malaysia and previously South Africa, it has long been a destination for students seeking world-class education.

The Kenyan DAILY POST






Wednesday, September 10, 2025 - The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has launched a full-scale investigation into the brazen assassination of prominent lawyer Kyalo Mbobu.

The veteran lawyer and scholar was gunned down in a drive-by shooting on Tuesday evening along Magadi Road in Nairobis Karen area.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the DCI confirmed that forensic experts from the National Forensic Laboratory had visited the scene and collected crucial evidence.

The agency extended condolences to Mbobus family and urged the public to remain calm as detectives pursue leads.

Eyewitnesses reported that Mbobu was attacked at around 5:40 PM by two assailants on a motorcycle, who fired multiple shots at close range before fleeing.

The precision of the hit has raised suspicions of a professionally orchestrated assassination.

Emerging reports suggest that the killing may be linked to a disputed Ksh 250 million land transaction in Karen.

Sources claim Mbobu received full payment from a buyer but allegedly remitted only Ksh 153 million to the seller.

A legal dispute over the remaining Ksh 97 million was later dismissed in court.

The allegations have intensified speculation that the murder may have been retaliation, with investigators now probing whether the hit was ordered by aggrieved parties in the high-stakes deal.





The Kenyan DAILY POST






Wednesday, September 10, 2025 - A chilling, calculated assassination has left Nairobi reeling after prominent lawyer Mathew Kyalo Mbobu was gunned down in traffic on Tuesday evening, September 9th, in what police believe was a professional hit.

At around 7PM, Mbobu was driving alone along Magadi Road near Galleria Mall in Karen when two men on a motorcycle pulled up beside his vehicle.

Stuck in rush-hour traffic, the legal veteran had no room to maneuver.

Without warning, the assailant shattered the drivers window and fired three point - blank shots into Mbobus chin - an execution-style killing that lasted mere seconds before the attackers sped off toward Ongata Rongai.

Eyewitnesses described the scene as chaotic and horrifying.

Mbobus lifeless body remained slumped in the drivers seat as blood soaked the interior.

Police cordoned off the area, collecting shell casings and reviewing CCTV footage in hopes of tracing the killers escape route.

His vehicle was later towed to Langata Police Station, and his body taken to Lee Funeral Home.

The murder bears a disturbing resemblance to the April 30th assassination of former MP Charles Ongondo Were, who was similarly shot by a motorcycle-riding gunman while stuck in traffic.

The method - precise, silent, and swift - suggests a targeted operation.

Mbobus high-profile career may offer clues.

As former chair of the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal and a respected law lecturer, he was deeply involved in politically sensitive cases, including efforts to remove corrupt judges.

His work placed him at odds with powerful interests, raising suspicions that his killing was meant to send a message.

The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) condemned the murder, urging the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to launch a thorough probe. DCI Director Mohamed Amin confirmed a specialized team is investigating, though no arrests have been made.

Mbobus assassination has reignited fears over rising impunity and the safety of legal professionals.

The question now haunting the nation: who ordered the hit, and will justice be served?

The Kenyan DAILY POST






Wednesday, September 10, 2025 - A 39-year-old Kenyan woman from Kericho County has died in a brutal stabbing in the United Kingdom.

Linner Sang, 39, was attacked inside her apartment in Reading on Sunday, September 7th.

Thames Valley Police confirmed she was pronounced dead at the scene following multiple stab wounds.

Sang had relocated to the UK in late 2023, leaving behind her teaching job at St Catherine in Kesses, Uasin Gishu County, to work as a social care worker.

According to Kenyan Diaspora Media, her 29-year-old partner - who had joined her in the UK as a dependent - is the prime suspect.

Sources say the couple had a strained relationship, which escalated in the days leading up to the fatal incident.





On September 3rd, Sang reportedly left the apartment after a heated argument.

She returned days later with a friend to collect her belongings, but another confrontation ensued, ending in her tragic death.

Neighbours reported hearing screams before discovering Sang motionless in her home.

The suspect fled through a window but was later arrested near a river, allegedly attempting to take his own life.

Detective Chief Inspector Stuart May of the Major Crime Unit confirmed the arrest and assured the public there was no wider threat.

We are in the early stages of this murder investigation, but we have made an arrest and are not currently looking for anyone else, he said.

The tragedy has sent shockwaves through both the diaspora and her community back home.





The Kenyan DAILY POST






Wednesday, September 10, 2025 - A Kenyan woman has tragically lost her life in Reading, United Kingdom, after being stabbed multiple times by her spouse.

According to Thames Valley Police, officers were called to an address on the A4 London Road near Regent Street at around 2:35 p.m following reports of a stabbing.

The woman was pronounced dead at the scene, police confirmed, adding that her spouse, a 29-year-old man, has been arrested on suspicion of murder and remains in custody.

Further details indicate that the deceased, identified by close contacts as Linner, hailed from Kericho County, Kenya.

She had recently graduated and had begun working in the UK as a Social Care Worker.

While in Kenya, she was a teacher at St Catherine, Kesses, before relocating to the United Kingdom in late 2023. Her spouse, who is now the suspect, followed her shortly after as a dependent, a source who requested anonymity revealed.

The couple reportedly worked in the same care sector.

According to preliminary investigations, Linner had left their shared apartment after a domestic dispute.

On Sunday, she returned with a friend to collect her belongings, but another confrontation broke out.

It is believed her spouse then attacked her with a knife, fatally wounding her.

Neighbours rushed to the scene after hearing screams.

The suspect allegedly fled by jumping out of a window and was later found by police near a river, where he was reportedly attempting to take his own life.

The incident has left the Kenyan diaspora community in the UK in shock as investigations continue.





The Kenyan DAILY POST
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Stem Cell Banking Emerges as a Vital Safeguard Against Life-Threatening Diseases; Experts Call for Increasing Awareness



khaskhabar.com : Wed, 10 Sept 2025 2:46 PM

 A recent case in Singapore, where a 38-year-old Indian-origin man conquers Multiple Myelomaa life-threatening form of blood cancer through a stem cell transplant







New Delhi: Stem cell therapy continues to transform the landscape of modern medicine, with successful interventions across the world demonstrating its life-saving potential. A recent case in Singapore, where a 38-year-old Indian-origin man overcame blood cancer through a stem cell transplant, serves as a strong reminder of why families are now considering stem cell banking as a vital investment in future health.





With no prior family history of cancer, the patient was shocked by an unexpected diagnosis that left his survival hanging by a thread. While he desperately sought effective treatment, doctors at a leading Singapore hospital  National University Hospital (NUH) recommended an urgent stem cell transplant, the only definitive treatment. He underwent a rigorous procedure where his body was stimulated to produce healthy stem cells through daily injections. These cells were then harvested, purified, and transplanted back into his system, replacing the diseased bone marrow and giving him a new lease of life. After my diagnosis of blood cancer, initially, I had lost all hope as it was a life-threatening condition. I was actually in a state of shock as there was no cancer case in my family. I was also free from all vices  never smoked and avoided alcohol. Hope came with stem cells, and that saved my life, said the patient.





A study published in the Indian Journal of Hematology and Blood Transfusion found that patients with Multiple Myeloma who underwent autologous stem cell transplantation achieved a five-year overall survival rate of more than 80%, compared to lower outcomes in patients managed only with drug therapies. This reinforces the critical role that stem cell transplants play in extending life expectancy and improving quality of life for patients with otherwise limited treatment options.





Highlighting this growing trend, Upamannyue Roy Choudhury, CEO of Cryoviva Life Sciences, India, said, Medical science has made rapid advancements, and we are leveraging the benefits of these developments with stem cell banking. Stem cells have become instrumental in the treatment of several life-threatening diseases, including cancer.





By preserving their childrens stem cells, parents are taking a proactive step to protect their families against serious illnesses such as blood disorders, certain cancers, and immune system conditions, he added. Stem cell preservation is increasingly gaining acceptance in India, with more hospitals adopting stem cell transplants to treat conditions like Multiple Myeloma and other complex blood disorders. The awareness that a one-time opportunity at birth could safeguard future health is leading expectant parents to see cord blood preservation as both a scientific and emotional investment in their childs well-being.





Stem cell therapy and preservation are steadily shaping into one of the most significant pillars of preventive healthcare. As real-world cases and medical research continue to demonstrate, preserving stem cells today could mean unlocking life-saving treatment options tomorrow. In conclusion, Dr. K. Shilpi Reddy, Clinical Director & HOD, Obstetrics & Gynaecology, KIMS Cuddles Kondapur, noted that hundreds of thousands of families in India have chosen to preserve their newborns stem cells. The reasons are compelling as stem cells have the potential to treat more than 80 life threatening diseases and disorders, including blood disorders, cancers, genetic conditions and immune system deficiencies. In cases where patients undergo chemotherapy, stem cells can help rebuild the immune system and may also serve as an alternative to bone marrow transplantation.


A driver detected speeding on the motorway was described as a "lunatic" by a judge last week.

The comment was made at a sitting of Portlaoise District Court by Judge Andrew Cody, when a part-time worker at a hotel was summoned before it for speeding.

The young man pleaded guilty to driving at a speed of 161kph in a 120kph zone on the M8 at The Great Heath, Portlaoise on 7 November last.

Defending barrister Anne Doyle said that she had never seen a client so fearful of coming to court.

She said her client had just purchased an Audi car and was excited driving it on the day.

She said the 20-year-old works in the hospitality sector and parks cars for its customers on occasion.

Ms Doyle said: He was 19 at the time. It was pure stupidity. He has never been in court before and can assure you he will never be in court again. I believe he has learned a very valuable lesson. If he loses his driving licence his position will be in doubt.

Addressing the court, the defendant said: I sold the car, because the engine was too big and got a smaller car.

Ms Doyle said that her client was willing to donate 500 to the court poor box in return for the court considering not imposing a prosecution.

Rejecting that offer, Judge Cody said: Ill give him one month to come up with 1,000, if he wants to avoid a prosecution.

The judge adjourned the case for finalisation to 16 October and said that, should Mr Bah-Jalloh have the 1,000 on that date, it should be donated to the Monasterevin Boy Scouts who are currently modernising their unit.
A NEWBRIDGE food wholesaler was one of nine businesses nationally ordered to be closed during August, according to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI).

The FSAI reported that environmental health officers in the Health Service Executive (HSE) served eight closure orders and one prohibition order on food businesses during August for breaches of food safety legislation. Bk Foods Limited (Wholesaler/Distributor), Clongorey, Newbridge was one of these.

Some of the reasons for the various enforcement orders in August include: an active cockroach infestation throughout a basement kitchen, with live and dead cockroaches visible on the floor, the wash hand sink, water tank, behind freezers and inside a standing freezer where food was prepared.

Other reasons listed was the failure to maintain a clean premises, with greasy floors covered in congealed dirt and food debris, inadequate hand washing facilities, with no hot water available throughout the premises; raw beef and raw chicken prepared in a kitchen without effective cleaning and disinfecting procedures in place, and no measures to prevent cross-contamination; inadequate pest proofing, with numerous rodent droppings noted on shelving and food equipment in a storage unit containing personal protective clothing, cleaning equipment and redundant food equipment; unsafe storage practices in a cold room where food ingredients were kept and false and misleading information provided regarding the preparation and handling of food.

However, the report did not specify which of these infringements BK Foods was found to be in breach of.

It is disappointing to see the same issues, such as poor hygiene and pest control problems, being identified each month, said Greg Dempsey, chief executive of the FSAI.

Businesses selling food to consumers need to ensure that they met their legal obligations, and that the food they sell is safe to eat.

While the majority of food businesses take their responsibilities to their customers very seriously, we continue to see a small number of businesses subject to enforcement action, including closure, due to their non-compliances with basic food safety standards.

We also have an online complaint process at www.fsai.ie/makeitbetter, where consumers can report inappropriate and unsafe food and practices, which can result in enforcement action being taken. This is an essential component of the food system and it supports the work of the food inspectorate to ensure the highest standards and quality across the food chain, added Mr Dempsey.

Closure orders and improvement orders will remain listed in the enforcement reports on the website for a period of three months from the date of when a premises is adjudged to have corrected its food safety issue, with prohibition orders being listed for a period of one month.

The majority of the nine are takeaways, and are spread nationwide from Killorglin to Drogheda.
Grow Mental Health Members Arts Exhibition ran from September 2  6 in the Mayfair Library.

Organisers thanked all the staff in the library for their assistance. Grow Mental Health were recipients of the Community Connect Fund through St Canices Credit Union and as a result of receiving funding we were able to frame all of the Member's pieces. Grows new CEO Annabel OKeeffe attended the launch.

Grow is a community of people drawn together by first-hand experiences of mental health challenges. Having found practical ways of helping each other recover from mental health challenges or life struggles, they developed what is now referred to as The Grow Programme. The group meets weekly in locations all over Ireland and online.



Three Grow meetings take place weekly in Kilkenny, one weekly in Carlow and one weekly in Tipperary. All group supports are free for over-18s, no referral is needed, there are no waiting lists, and meetings are confidential and carried out in a supportive setting.

They use a 12 Steps of Growth and Recovery and the Grow Programme to help people help themselves to take back control over their own lives.

FOR MORE

For more information on Grow meetings, please contact Liz Shortall Grow Area Coordinator lizshortall@grow.ie or Ph: 086-0849171.
Disappointment in Callan that long-awaited works on the Kings River have been delayed for yet another year have been tempered with the reassurance the new work will be even better than that which was to have taken place.

The saga of the need for works to remove silt from the bed of the river, which many locals believe will not only improve the appearance of the waterway but will also prevent flooding in the area, has now dragged on for several years.

Following weather delays last summer, combined with fisheries and animal welfare restrictions on the time of year works can be carried out in the river, the work was rescheduled for this summer.

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However, as this summer came to an end it was revealed to local councillors that a legislation change meant the work must be postponed again.

At the September meeting of Callan Thomastown Municipal District councillors, Cllr Joe Lyons said he was very disappointed.

Meeting Administrator, Anne Marie Shortall, explained that a meeting had taken place with statutory bodies that must approve the work.

She said they were now considering alternative, viable works that will be agreeable to all partners, stakeholders and the community. This includes Inland Fisheries Ireland and the Parks and Wildlife Service.

Ms Shortall said Kilkenny County Council will have to go back to the Department for additional funding and an extension of the time to complete the work. She stressed the intention is to progress the project with a new, feasible option and the council is working positively towards this.

Cllr Lyons said he had been working on this since 2019 and he thought when the work was funded it was good to go.

In light of the late legislation change, he said somebody, somewhere should have been following up on this and informed the local councillors and council staff, in advance of the work being cancelled for this summer.

Earlier this year Cllr Lyons raised the project at several meetings of the municipal district councillors, reminding council officials to remind the consultants who had been engaged to do the work, to be ready to go when the works window opened, so it would not have to be delayed, as it was last year.

At last weeks meeting he called for the engineers in Kilkenny to work more closely with the Callan Thomastown area engineer so this doesnt happen again next year.

He asked if the new project would require planning permission.

Ms Shortall said it may not have to seek planning permission if it is ruled river maintenance, but until the detailed project proposal is complete they wont be sure.

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Cllr Lyons said the new plan is being talked about as a better plan and Ms Shortall agreed it would be enhanced.

Area engineer, Declan Murphy, pointed out that work was done to clear silt from the eyes of the bridge last year and now that is building up again. He said there were hurdles to be jumped but, hopefully, with approval from the department and funding the new project will be a solution to the problem.

Ms Shortall said the new project will look at a long-term management plan for the river and this delay could be the best thing to happen to the project.

The new project plan could see the addition of rock armour to the river banks and a narrowing of the river bed to increase water flow, as a more permanent solution to prevent ongoing silt build-up.
Last week, Cliff Shardalow, an Englishman living in Scotland visited Kilkenny to see the tombstone of a relative.

While that may not seem too noteworthy, this case is particularly interesting as Cliffs ancestor lived over 800 years ago.

There is strong evidence that Robert de Sardaloue, whose tombstone is found outside the Black Abbey, is Cliffs 20 times great-grandfather.

De Sardaloue was born in England, probably in the town of Shardalow between Derby and Nottingham in 1200.

He was a justice by the time he was 20 and in 1227 was sent by King Henry III to Rome. In the 1230s and 40s there are records of him having land seized by the King while his brother Hugh was locked in the Tower of London.

De Sardeloue was a justice itinerant, riding from county to county and was sent to Ireland in 1246. He died in 1275 and had two sons and a daughter, Edmund, who Cliff is descended from, Geoffrey and Petronilla.

Irish references to the family disappear by the time of Edmunds son who moved to East Anglia where the family remained for 600 years.

During his visit, Cliff met up with members of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society where he was informed that the tombstone was found in 1851 on Blackmill Street when some building work to a house broke through the floor to reveal the stone underneath.

A search was conducted beneath for bones but too much water prevented this, so de Sardaloue still lies there. The Abbey booklet says of the tombstone: It is perfect, with raised floriated cross and inscription in Norman French and Lombardic lettering.

The booklet also states that: In the White Book of Ossory, a Canon of St Canices Cathedral, Robert de Sardaloue witnessed a grant. Date between 1245 and 1250.
Russias incursion into Polish airspace has to be a wake-up call for the West, Irelands deputy premier has said.

It comes Polish leaders said multiple Russian drones entered and were shot down over its territory overnight, in a move the EU foreign policy chief said seemed intentional.

Speaking before a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Tanaiste Simon Harris said EU efforts to sanction Russia would be much more effective with the involvement of US president Donald Trumps administration.

Weve heard President Trump talk many times about considering sanctions and thinking about sanctions. In our view, the time for thinking about them is over.

Mr Harris said Europe is preparing more sanctions against Moscow, but expressed concern at Russian president Vladimir Putins escalating campaign of terror, particularly after last months summit between the US and Russian leaders in Alaska.

While the world talks about peace, talks about de-escalation, talks about finding an end to the Russian aggression in Ukraine  President Putin continues his campaign of terror against the civilian population in Ukraine, and last night, escalated that further by the launching of many drones into Poland.

Europe is in a fight. A fight for our liberty and our ability to determine our destiny for ourselves. This must be Europes Independence Moment. A moment we can seize if we're united  https://t.co/EcrY5Mi7kU  Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) September 10, 2025

His comments came as EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said there was a need for urgent work on a new solution to finance Ukraines war effort.

In her State of the Union address, Ms von der Leyen described the development as a reckless and unprecedented violation of Poland and Europes airspace, adding that there was a need for more sanctions on Russia.

Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said that Russias war is escalating rather than ending.

Last night in Poland, we saw the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began, and indications suggest it was intentional, not accidental. I am in contact with @SecGenNATO and @radeksikorski. The EU stands in full solidarity with Poland. (1/2)  Kaja Kallas (@kajakallas) September 10, 2025

Last night in Poland we saw the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began, and indications suggest it was intentional, not accidental.

Irish premier Micheal Martin strongly condemned the violation of Polands territorial integrity and sovereignty by Russia.

He said: This was a reckless and unprecedented act that is a stark reminder of the threat posed by Russia to Europes security.

Mr Martin said Europe was dealing with a catastrophic situation in Ukraine.

He said Russia had launched a very significantly increased attack on Ukraine at an extraordinary scale.

Speaking to reporters, Mr Martin said: I will be updating Cabinet in terms of the four meetings I had over August in respect of the coalition of the willing, and in terms of Ukraine and the need to do everything we possibly can to continue to support Ukraine.
Irish people living or working in Qatar are being urged to exercise a high degree of caution and to "shelter in place" after six people were killed in an Israeli air strike.

Following Tuesday's bombing in Doha, the Department of Foreign Affairs has issued a security alert for Irish people in Qatar urging them to exercise a high degree of caution.

Describing what happened, Irish UN worker Niamh Collins said that at 1.40pm in Doha her building shook.

She told RTE news the area targeted is a diplomatic area and that she feels uneasy.

In a statement, the Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Harris said: The Embassy of Ireland in the UAE is currently advising all Irish citizens to shelter in place, to exercise caution, monitor local and international media, follow the advice of local authorities, and observe any additional security measures imposed during this time.

There is no Irish embassy in Qatar. Should Irish people in the region seek consular assistance, they should contact the Irish embassy in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

The Embassy is continuing to monitor the situation in Doha.



We advise Irish citizens to exercise caution, monitor local and international media and follow the advice of local authorities.



For consular assistance please contact us at +971 495 8200 or embassy.abudhabi@dfa.ie.  Irish Embassy UAE (@IrelandEmbUAE) September 9, 2025

Israel says the attack was directed at Hamas officials and was in response to a shooting in Jerusalem on Monday that killed six people.

Officials in the United States have confirmed they warned Qatar about the air strikes, however, it was too late.

READ NEXT: This is wrong - Irish grandmother facing deportation from the U.S. after 50 years

CCTV video footage of the bombing shows a busy area being subsumed by black smoke.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin said the attack "risks further destabilising a fragile region, making a ceasefire in Gaza even more difficult to secure.

He added: "As the Secretary General of the United Nations has said, it represents a flagrant violation of Qatars sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Mr Martin condemned the attack and reiterated his wish for a ceasefire: "This will require careful and detailed diplomacy, not the use of blunt military force as we have seen today.

Hamas says none of its senior leaders were killed in the attack.

The attack is the first strike Israel has made on Qatar.

Qatar has been instrumental in hosting ceasefire talks.

Officials in Qatar are tasking a legal team with holding Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to account for breaking international law with yesterday's strike on Doha.
DISCLAIMER: I dread the thought of Conor McGregor as President of Ireland, but he should be allowed to run for the Aras

Very few people polarise opinion in Ireland more than MMA star Conor McGregor. He is one of the most recognisable Irish people worldwide, and has made no secret of his desire to become the next President of Ireland with his largely anti-immigration shtick finding an audience on social media. During a rant in the White House, where he was speaking on the invitation of US President Donald Trump for St Patrick's Day, McGregor said there is an illegal immigration racket in Ireland and that rural towns are being "overrun" with immigrants.

Announcing his intention to seek a nomination to run for the presidency, McGregor wrote: "To the esteemed citizens of Ireland and the Irish diaspora, I, Conor McGregor hereby declare my intention to seek the esteemed office of President of Ireland. The current constitutional framework however, presents a significant barrier to democratic participation.

"The existing regulations mandate that a candidate must secure nominations from either twenty members of the Oireachtas or four county councils to be eligible for the ballot. This system, while intended to ensure a degree of political influence among candidates, inadvertently restricts the direct voice of the Irish electorate.

READ NEXT: Ryanair passenger's discovery lands airline in hot water after 'misleading' ad

"In light of this, I propose a petition advocating for a modification of the nomination process to allow my name be included on the ballot. I contend that the citizens of Ireland, both at home and abroad, should have the unhindered right to determine the candidates who appear on the presidential ballot."

McGregor is right in that one thing is standing in his way and that's the Constitution. Despite reposting tweets about himself like, 'you dont vote charisma into office. It walks in and takes the mic,' his petition has so far attracted a paltry number of signatures. It seems he must go the old-fashioned route to get his name on the paper.

The council route is the same one taken successfully by the likes of Peter Casey, Mary Davis and Sean Gallagher in the last two Presidential elections. A motion to nominate a candidate is put to councillors who vote in favour or against. Majority rules and if you replicate that with four county councils, you're eligible to stand for election as President.

We have seen controversial candidates in other elections, most recently in the last General Election, when convicted criminal Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch narrowly missed out on a seat in Dublin Central. He attracted the fourth-highest number of first preference votes in a three-seater behind Mary Lou McDonald, Paschal Donohoe and Gary Gannon, all high-profile sitting TDs, including a Minister in Donohoe.

There were a host of other controversial names from the political fringes on the ballot papers of last year's local, European and general elections. Most of them picked up a handful of votes here and there as their online following failed to translate to real votes, but some won seats and have taken them up, as is their right. Given the voters the choice to accept or reject them is true democracy in action.

The process is that bit different for a Presidential election; it's more prohibitive, and rightly so. We shouldn't have dozens or hundreds of names on the ballot paper, but for some, the system does feel very closed-minded. People already in the so-called political establishment act as gatekeepers of democracy, deciding who is acceptable and unacceptable on behalf of the public they've been elected to serve.

Minister Darragh O'Brien recently said Conor McGregor "would not be fit to hold that office" with regard to the Presidency but that rhetoric is part of the problem. Arguing McGregor isn't palatable enough to go before the Irish people is like saying no one in a cafe should be allowed buy a cheese and pickle sandwich just because you don't like cheese and pickle sandwiches. The perceived elitist system is already being weaponised by those on the political margins, and it's an easy sell to their loyal followers. 'They won't let him run because they know he'll win.' That nonsense grows legs quicker than you think.

Perhaps paying too much heed to these people is wrong but there is a growing base of 'ordinary' people who are fed up with the political establishment too. Almost 60% of people in Ireland didn't vote for the governing parties of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael in the General Election. That's not to say the government formed after November's vote is undemocratic, but it's easy to see how that large cohort of people who didn't want that outcome can be sucked into the orbit of far left or far right politics, particularly online. It's in that online universe conspiracy theories grow like an insidious fungus.

Conor McGregor has painted himself as a man of the people; his courting of controversy is almost part of his brand and something supporters latch onto. Whether it's punching innocent people in pubs or being ordered to pay compensation in a civil rape trial; nothing seems to dim that aura in the eyes of ardent followers. To most people, they are abhorrent acts to have attached to your name, and would end most political careers, but then again, Trump happened in America - twice.

All that said, the solution is simple; let the people decide. Think of the two scenarios from now until the Presidential Election on October 24. One where McGregor fails to get the 20 Oireachtas or four council nominations and the Presidential Election goes ahead without him. His exclusion emboldens his supporters and other figures, who admittedly he has no control over, to use it to whip up support for their own offbeat ideology. Why give them more fuel for their fire?

The second scenario is Conor McGregor on the ballot paper and come what may. Could he win? It's highly unlikely. Then again, don't forget 'fans' nabbed selfies with McGregor as he turned up to court for assaulting a man in a Dublin pub in 2019. This is the level of fandom his crude-cut character attracts - but it's far from a majority. Canvass your friends and family and try to find one person who would vote for him.

Give McGregor all the opportunity in the world to crash and burn. Wouldn't it be glorious to see him so confidently put himself forward only to be resoundingly rejected by the Irish people?
The Real Estate Alliance group has further expanded its growing network by acquiring the long-established Sherry FitzGerald Walsh business in Charleville, County Cork.

Limerick-based REA Dooley, headed by Pat Dooley, has taken over the business, in operation in the North Cork town since 1999. And other interested agents are invited to start their next great chapter by becoming a member of the REA estate agency network.

Pat Dooley has been in the property business for 25 years and founded Dooley Group in 2009, opening its first office in Limerick City in 2012, followed by Newcastle West in 2019.

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Joining REA was a game changer for us. It has given us access to professional marketing tools, national PR and survey coverage and group buying power and low cost advertising, said Pat Dooley.

REA are an expanding group where everyone puts on the jersey and nobody gets left behind.

Members have access to powerful marketing tools, free portal listings, national PR reach and expert peer support.

The Charleville office will have a vastly experienced team: alongside Pat will be Derry Walsh (former director Sherry FitzGerald Walsh) and Cathy Dunne (administration and property management), together with North Cork resident Jane Foley, who has been with REA Dooley for a decade.

Derry Walsh opened the auctioneering business in 1999 and joined the Sherry Fitzgerald franchise in 2002.

This is a fantastic addition to our group, and there is no doubt that the marketing and branding strength of REA, allied to our local knowledge, has given us to the confidence to acquire such a long-standing business in the Cork market, said Mr Dooley.

As part of the REA group, REA Dooley offers different options of selling for clients.

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Alongside private treaty sales, we also offer a private treaty online bidding platform (bidnow.ie) which allows any registered bidder access to bid on our website 24/7 if the vendor chooses this option, said Mr Dooley.

We also offer an online auction service and a hybrid public/online auction which is quite popular for agricultural sales.

As part of REA, we have a highly developed marketing strategy incorporating professional photography, videography and drone work on all of our advertising platforms.

Our social media platforms are highly effective and our portfolio is showcased and targeted on a daily basis. We also have the benefit of connecting potential vendors and purchasers through our now multi-branch set-up in Limerick and Cork.

REA Dooley deals with sales, lettings and valuations in all property sectors  residential, agricultural and commercial.

While residential is our main business, our portfolio of agricultural listings is ever increasing, said Mr Dooley.

I am from a farming background and many of our REA members would have agricultural sales as their forte which enables us to benefit from combined advertising in media. The land market is similar to the residential sector at the moment where you have high demand meeting low supply.

The average price of good grazing land in the Limerick and North Cork area is around 14,000 per acre  a figure that has increased steadily over the last number of years. While milk and cattle prices remain steady, land values will continue to be strong.

Residential property prices in the area are continuing to rise month on month due to a shortage of supply, according to Mr Dooley.

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The man convicted of gun possession charges in a deadly 2023 shooting outside of a Columbia nightclub will face a decade in prison.

A Boone County judge sentenced Kimo Spivey to 10 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections on Tuesday following Spiveys conviction for unlawful possession of a firearm.

The May 7, 2023, shooting outside of the Plush Lounge on Business Loop 70 left Melvin Hooker III dead.

A jury found Spivey not guilty of murder, unlawful use of a weapon and armed criminal action in June of this year.

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Spiveys defense was looking for a seven-year sentence, but in the sentencing documents Judge Joshua Devine noted it was proven that Spivey was a prior and persistent felony offender.

Authorities suspected two other suspects in this case. Samuel Lee Moss Jr. was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of unlawful possession of a weapon in April 2024.

A second suspect, Justin Simpson, is still being sought by investigators.
Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this morning will become overcast during the afternoon. High 29F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Cloudy. Snow showers developing late. Low 17F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 40%.
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Louisiana Tech University School of Theatre is thrilled to host auditions for its fall quarter production of Tim Bauers Zombie Town: A Documentary Play.

Performances are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 28, through Saturday, Nov. 1, and at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 2. All performances will be held in Stone Theatre in the Howard Center for the Performing Arts at Louisiana Tech. The production will be directed by Andrew Dylan Ray.

Auditions will be held on Thursday, Sept. 11, from 6 to 9 p.m. at Stone Theatre in the Howard Center for the Performing Arts. Auditionees are expected to prepare a one-minute contemporary comedic monologue. Potential callbacks will be Friday, Sept. 12, from 6 to 9 p.m.

When a horde of zombies overruns the small West Texas town of Harwood, the townsfolk assume the worst has already happened. But then a San Francisco theater collective arrives, determined to tell the towns story. The resulting play, assembled from interviews and told in the townsfolks exact words, is the true recounting of that terrible event.

If you have any questions regarding the auditions, please call the Theatre office at 318.257.2711.
NBCUniversal is requiring workers to return to the office four days a week or take a severance package. AP

NBCUniversal is the latest company to bring workers back to the office.

The company is now requiring its workers to come into the office at least four days a week starting at the beginning of 2026.

The return to office directive comes just days after rival Paramount ordered its employees to be in the office five days a week.

According to an NBCUniversal memo obtained by Business Insider, workers who refuse to comply with the return to office mandate can get a voluntary exit assistance package.

Heres what you need to know about the return to office directive for NBCUniversal.

What are the details of NBCUniversals return-to-office memo?

Starting Jan. 5, 2026, NBCUniversal employees would be required to be in the office four days a week, with the option to work remotely on Fridays, according to the company.

Employees who refuse to comply with the upcoming mandate were instructed to contact human resources, with whom they can discuss the possibility of a buyout.

NBCUniversals return to office mandate is similar to its parent company Comcast, where employees have been mandated to appear in the office four days a week since Sept. 2023.

Comcast is also splitting its cable network channels into a new company called Versant, which includes networks such as CNBC and MSNBC, by the end of 2025.

The employees going to Versant were not affected by this return to office memo.

What will NBCUniversal workers who take the severance package receive?

NBCUniversal workers who opt not to return to the office at least four days a week will have the option to take a severance package.

According to Business Insider, the employees who discuss the severance package with their manager by Oct. 3, 2025, will get eight weeks of base pay, three months of healthcare coverage with medical, dental and vision after they leave the company, as well as full bonus eligibility.

The severance package is available to all NBCUniversal employees at VP level or below who work on a hybrid schedule and are based in the U.S. or the U.K.

Those who are on collective bargaining agreements, employees located outside the U.S. and U.K. and employees hired on a contract basis are possibly exceptions to the buyout.

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Katherine Rodriguez can be reached at krodriguez@njadvancemedia.com. Have a tip? Tell us at nj.com/tips.
Police urge public to call 911 if they spot the 39-year-old, wanted since 2022 on multiple felony charges involving sexual assault of a juvenile. Courtesy photo

A Palmer Township man remains on Pennsylvania State Polices Top 10 Most Wanted list for the alleged rape of a child. Now law enforcement is offering a reward for his arrest.

Benicio A. Benifield, 39, of the first block of Lower Way Road, is charged with two counts felony aggravated indecent assault of a child; felony rape; two counts felony involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child; felony corruption of minors; felony unlawful contact with minor; and other related offenses.

Charges were filed by Palmer police in June 2022 and a warrant for Benifields arrest was filed at the office of District Judge Susan Hutnik.

Benifield was on state polices Top 10 list in 2024 and 2025. Law enforcement recently announced a $5,000 cash reward for any information leading to his arrest.

Benifield is described as Black, 5 feet tall, weighing 225 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. Police urge the public not to approach Benifield and instead call 911 if he is spotted.

Palmer police said Benifield sexually abused the child repeatedly from November 2018 to March 2022. A relative reported Benifield to investigators on March 1, 2022, police said.

Six days later, the victim told police Benifield allegedly performed sex acts on her. Benifield allegedly told the victim if she told anyone about the incidents, they would both be in trouble.

Palmer police say they later received a report on March 15, 2022 from a Northampton County Children and Youth therapist that Benifield allegedly admitted to the sex acts with the victim.

Those with information on the whereabouts of Benifield are urged to call the Palmer Township Police Department at 610-759-2200 or PSP Tips 1-800-472-8477 or submit a tip here.

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Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com.
The Easton Area Public Library is at 515 Church St. in Easton Saed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.com

Those who are interested in quilting may enjoy an upcoming event in Easton.

The Easton Area Public Library will hold Quilt Week from Monday, Sept. 22, through Saturday, Sept. 27, according to a press release from the library. Quilt Week, the release states, serves as a way to celebrate regional traditions and artistic expression.

The weeklong event will feature interactive events, exhibitions and presentations highlighting quilting as both an art form and a community tradition.

According to the release, Quilt Week will begin on the 22nd from 6 to 7:30 p.m. with The Great Easton Quilt Block Challenge, modeled after The Great British Baking Show. Five members of the Two Rivers Quilt Guild will compete in a 45-minute challenge to design and sew a quilt block using the same fabric.

The Two Rivers Quilt Guild operates as a program of the Easton Area Public Library and does not require membership fees.

While the quilters work, attendees can enjoy refreshments, view a presentation on quilting tools and styles, try beginner sewing machine stations, participate in a hands-on quilt activity, and play a paper-piecing game.

The audience will vote for a Viewers Choice winner, and five attendees will receive one of the quilt blocks made into a pillow cover or table topper as a prize, the press release noted.

A featured event during the week will be A Barn Quilt Journey with Mary Rigby from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 24, the press release said.

Rigby began photographing barn quilts in 2013 during a road trip in Kentucky. Since then, she has documented these large painted wooden quilt blocks in several U.S. states and Canada.

Her presentation will include the history of barn quilts, her photography and stories from her travels on the Barn Quilt Trails, according to the release.

The week will conclude with a Quilt Exhibit on Saturday, Sept. 27, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the press release stated. The exhibit will display quilts by members of the Two Rivers Quilt Guild, featuring both traditional and contemporary designs.

Attendees can also purchase handmade items. Quilt Week events are free and open to the public.

Quilt Week is part of the librarys PA Forward Civic and Social Literacy programming.

Chelsea McClure can be reached at cmcclure@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on instagram at @chelsealehighvalley.
The S.W.A.T. spinoff, S.W.A.T. Exiles, is adding two more stars from the original series to the cast.

Jay Harrington (Sergeant David Deacon Kay) and Patrick St. Esprit (Commander Robert Hicks) will both reprise their roles in the pilot episode of S.W.A.T. Exiles, Deadline reported on Monday, Sept. 8. Its unclear if they will appear in additional episodes as well.

It was previously announced that S.W.A.T. star Shemar Moore (Daniel Hondo Harrelson Jr.) will helm the new series. Moore told Harrington about the spinoff one day before it was announced. Before he was asked to participate, Harrington didnt blame Moore for signing on to the new show without his former castmates.

I texted him later and said, Im sure you did your best. Weve been brothers for years, so that doesnt change, Harrington told TVLine in June. Ive been in this business for a long time. You dont get owed things just because you put in your time.  If there was any disappointment, its that when they announced it, we werent mentioned at all. That was it. And it was short-lived because I thought, Im not going to let that take away from what I know in my heart is eight years of putting in some great work.

Harrington continued, As a human being, of course youre going to feel stung, but again, I didnt want to go to that place because I thought, truthfully, Its show business.

In addition to Harrington, Moore, and St. Espirit, S.W.A.T. Exiles will also feature several newcomers. Lucy Barrett, Adain Bradley, Zyra Gorecki, Freddy Miyares, and Ronen Rubinstein round out the cast.

READ MORE: Star of canceled series feels brushed aside by new spinoff

S.W.A.T. Exiles is set to begin production later this month. The spinoff will follow Hondo as hes pulled out forced retirement to lead an experimental S.W.A.T. unit comprised of untested young recruits. Sony Pictures Television ordered ten episodes of the series but has not yet signed a distribution deal.

S.W.A.T. aired on CBS for 8 seasons, premiering in 2017 and coming to an end in May.

Seasons 1-7 of S.W.A.T. are currently streaming on Netflix. Season 8 will be available to stream beginning on Sept. 15.

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"The Rookie" showrunner Alexi Hawley is working on a new spinoff. Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

A spinoff of the ABC police procedural The Rookie is in the works.

Titled The Rookie North, the new show, which has not been officially picked up to pilot, is set in Washington State. The OG series follows members of the Los Angeles Police Department.

In July, Deadline reported that The Rookie North will likely be picked up once the lead role is cast. The new show will follow a middle-aged former overachiever who becomes a rookie cop after his life doesnt go as planned.

According to Deadline, several well-known actors have already been approached about the role, although no casting decisions have been announced. ABC is looking for a leading man with similar star power to Scott Speedman, who will helm another drama pilot the network picked up this year, RJ Decker.

The Rookie showrunner Alexi Hawley told Deadline this month that production for the spinoff will likely begin in 2026.

I think we are looking at shooting a pilot in the spring or late winter, so we are gearing up for that, he said.

The Rookie North would be the second spinoff in the Rookie universe. The Rookie: Feds, which starred Niecy Nash-Betts as school counselor-turned FBI agent Simone Clark, was canceled in 2023 after one season.

READ MORE: The Rookie star causes fan frenzy with a season 8 update

Some have blamed the shows demise on the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike and subsequent SAG-AFTRA strike, but Hawley thinks it was bigger than that.

A lot [of it] had to do with the forces that led to strike  the consolidation of the industry [and] the economic impact the streaming wars have had on different companies, Hawley said at the Television Critics Tour in February 2024, per Deadline. I do feel it was not a creative decision. It was a business decision

As for The Rookie, season 8 is set to premiere in January 2026 as part of ABCs midseason lineup.

Seasons 1-7 of The Rookie are available to stream on Hulu.

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The victim is now in stable condition after the Monday evening, Sept. 8, 2025 incident. Police are asking witnesses with information or surveillance footage to contact investigators. Saed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.com

Fountain Hill police are seeking two people they say shot a man Monday evening and fled.

Borough Police Detective Richard Krasley told lehighvalleylive.com the incident unfolded around 9 p.m. in the 700 block of Cherokee Street. The victim was found with a gunshot wound and taken to an area hospital for treatment, Krasley said.

The victim by Tuesday afternoon was listed in stable condition, he said.

WFMZ-69 News reported evidence markers at the scene showed a bullet hole in the wooden porch divider of a row home. Krasley told lehighvalleylive.com its unclear if the shooters knew the victim prior to the incident.

The shooting remains under investigation and witnesses are being sought. Those with information or video surveillance footage of the shooting are asked to call the Fountain Hill Police Departments Criminal Investigation unit at 610-691-5512.

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Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com.
Three suspects displayed handguns during the early Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025 robbery at Cherryville Vape and Cigar in Lehigh Township. State police and officers from six area departments are collaborating on the case. File photo

UPDATE: Lehigh Township police release descriptions of 5 sought in tobacco shop armed robbery

Lehigh Township police are searching for five men they say robbed a tobacco shop at gunpoint Wednesday morning.

The group, around 1:15 a.m., entered Cherryville Vape and Cigar, 4209 Lehigh Dr., and three of the men showed handguns, Lehigh Township Police Officer in Charge and Detective John J. Henry III said.

The suspects took cash and merchandise before fleeing. Police have not specified the monetary amount stolen.

No one was hurt, Henry told lehighvalleylive.com.

Law enforcement from Bushkill Township, Moore Township, Northampton Borough, the Slate Belt, and Walnutport, along with state police troopers, are assisting in the ongoing investigation.

Please subscribe now and support the local journalism you rely on and trust.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com.
While International Pride Month takes place in June, Laois Pride is taking place from September 8 to September 14, with organisers and allies proudly raising the flag on Monday to mark the start of celebrations.

To mark Laois Pride, the Leinster Express / Laois Live is featuring a series of 'Pride Profiles', where we speak to well known Laois locals within the LGBT+ community on their experiences.

Independent Laois County Councillor Aisling Moran took her father's seat on the Council in 2019, ten years after coming out as a gay woman.

"I was late coming to the show," Cllr Moran laughed.

Pictured: Cllr Aisling Moran and her wife Fiona on their wedding day

"I was 35 when I came out, and I was married with three kids. I had everything I wanted; I was married to a man I loved, I had three gorgeous children and a lovely house, and I knew I wasn't happy," she said.

Born and raised in the Killeen area, the Portarlington / Graiguecullen Cllr explained that she felt a lot of shame in her sexuality from an early age.

"I'm from a small rural community, and my father was the local Councillor. Any thoughts that came forward in my head, I pushed back; that's what being gay was in Ireland, I felt I had to hide it," she said.

"I hid it in myself, it was something that never got the chance to shine. I went to Australia and lived in Sydney before I was married, and it opened my eyes a lot, how acceptable it was there."

The Killeen Cllr runs a travel agency with her wife Fiona, whom she has been with for over ten years. They are now excitedly waiting for the arrival of their first grandchild.

Pictured: Fiona and Aisling on a trip to Paris

"It was very important that my kids would like my potential partner. My life changed when I met Fiona, and the kids loved her. We all got on so well, I found that it calmed me down and my mind was at rest. Then, I went for the Council," she laughed.

Cllr Moran was involved in Laois Pride at its inception, and believes it is an important event to support.

"I think that Laois Pride is fantastic. When people go on asking about why we need pride, it drives me insane. Just because things are better here, it's still very horrible in other countries," Cllr Moran argued.

"Our travel agency specialises in tours, and we will do tours for prides, but we will not be going to these countries where we are second class citizens, and where woman are treated that way too," she said.

Pictured: The happy family on Aisling and Fiona's wedding day

The Killeen woman shared that she experienced very little bigotry in her campaign for a seat on Laois County Council.

"When I said I'd run, my Dad said to me, "you'll find it difficult to get elected because you're gay." It was not said maliciously, it was said as kind advice going into the campaign. We all know someone who is gay, I find that gay women hid it a lot more in the past," she said.

"When I was in Australia I had a lot of gay friends, and I still buried it. I found myself drawn to people who were gay, not because I wanted to be with them, but because we were all alike.

"From fourth class to secondary school, any of the little kids that were drawn to you, ended up being gay as adults. It's like we sense it in each other," she laughed.

"It was like I had carried someone on my shoulders all my life, and as soon as I openly said the words, it was a weight off that felt like a physical relief," she said.

"Things are getting a lot better. I'm proud to say I'm from Ireland, the first country to vote for same sex marriage. The people stood up and spoke. Even still, we need more Prides and safe spaces," Cllr Moran stressed.

"There has been a big hatred coming into Ireland since Donald Trump's election. The Government needs to bring in legislation to stop this- I shouldn't be able to hide my name and post vile comments on social media," the Cllr finished finished.
An Irish citizen who has been living in the United States for nearly 50 years is facing deportation from the country.

Donna Hughes-Brown (58) was arrested upon her arrival at OHare International Airport in Chicago in July, having returned to Ireland for a family funeral.

According to local reports, Ms Hughes-Brown is being held for writing a bad cheque for $25 ten years ago.

Her arrest is the latest incident that has occurred in light of U.S. President Donald Trumps crackdown on immigration.

Ms Hughes-Brown, who was born in England but is an Irish citizen, moved to the U.S. when she was 11 and is a legal resident and a green card holder.

She is a full-time healthcare worker who currently resides in Missouri with her husband James Brown. The couple have five children and five grandchildren.

READ NEXT: Irish households to see reduction in gas prices ahead of winter months

Her American husband, who is an army veteran, is distraught about what he describes as an "egregious" detention by the Trump administration.

This is wrong, he told local Missouri TV network KMOV. You dont arrest 58-year-old grandmothers. Its just wrong. She hasnt committed crimes. You just dont do that, he said.

Mr Brown also believes the fact that the couple are married should protect his wife from being deported.

Its just not fair that youre telling me I have to be a bachelor the rest of my life because of some stupid policy, he added.

Legal documents for Ms Hughes-Browns arrest say that ten years ago, she wrote a bad cheque for $25. However, she paid the money back and was given probation.

Mr Brown said the U.S. government is now arguing that this was a crime of moral turpitude.

U.S. courts say a crime of moral turpitude refers generally to conduct that shocks the public conscience as being inherently base, vile or depraved, contrary to the rules of morality.

I think its nonsense. I think its a blanket thing to catch everybody, to fill beds, Mr Brown said.

A GoFundMe page has now been created to raise funds for legal costs and support Mr Browns fight to free his wife from detention.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade have confirmed that it is aware of the case and is providing consular assistance.
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has reported that Environmental Health Officers with the HSE served eight Closure Orders and one Prohibition Order on food businesses across the country during the month of August for breaches of food safety regulations.

In its latest report, it has cited some of the reasons why enforcement proceedings were initiated.

In one case, there was an active cockroach infestation where live and dead cockroaches were visible on the floor, sink, water tank, behind freezers and inside a standing freezer where food was prepared.

In other cases, the FSAI says orders were issued due to a variety of cleaning issues some of which involved the cooking and preparation of raw beef and chicken, as well as the presence of rodent droppings and "inadequate pest proofing."

Commenting on the list of Closure Orders, which was published on Wednesday, Chief Executive of the FSAI Greg Dempsey said: "It is disappointing to see the same issues, such as poor hygiene and pest control problems, being identified each month."

READ NEXT: Irish households to see reduction in gas prices ahead of winter months

He added: "Businesses selling food to consumers need to ensure that they met their legal obligations, and that the food they sell is safe to eat. While the majority of food businesses take their responsibilities to their customers very seriously, we continue to see a small number of businesses subject to enforcement action, including closure, due to their non-compliances with basic food safety standards.

"The FSAI provides assistance and training resources, but will, with our colleagues in the National Environmental Health Service, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, take action against these operators as necessary to protect consumers, and to retain the publics confidence in the food system."

Mr Dempsey concluded: "We also have an online complaint process at www.fsai.ie/makeitbetter, where consumers can report inappropriate and unsafe food and practices, which can result in enforcement action being taken. This is an essential component of the food system and it supports the work of the food inspectorate to ensure the highest standards and quality across the food chain."

Within the list of premises issued orders in August, two Closure Orders were served under the FSAI Act, 1998 on Bk Foods Limited (Wholesaler/Distributor) in Clongorey, Newbridge, Kildare and Paulista (Take Away) on 121 Dorset Street Upper, Dublin 1.

Six Closure Orders were served under the European Union (Official Controls in Relation to Food Legislation) Regulations, 2020 on the following premises:

Prime Pizza & Kebab (Take Away), 281 Hyde Road, Limerick

McDonalds Restaurant (Closed area: storage unit at the side of the premises), The Waterfront, Rathmullen Road, Drogheda, Louth

Wau Asian Cuisine Limited (Closed activity: The preparation and sale (including onsite, takeaway and internet sale) of sushi) (Restaurant/Cafe), Bridge Street, Trim, Meath

Super Chef Takeaway, Unit 5, Ashbourne Court, Bridge Street, Ashbourne, Meath

Burger Smash (Take Away), 4 Langford Street, Killorglin, Kerry

Small Chops & More (Service Sector), The Courtyard, Baker Hall, Navan, Meath

One Prohibition Order was served under European Union (Official Controls in Relation to Food Legislation) Regulations, 2020 on Chillers Restaurant and Lounge in the Liffey Valley Complex, Unit 1, Fonthill Road, Clondalkin, Dublin.

Four of the eight Closure Orders have since been lifted while, as of this Wednesday, the Prohibition Order remains in place

Details of the food businesses served with Enforcement Orders are published on the FSAIs website - fsai.ie.
More than a third of primary school children in Laois are in overcrowded classes, according to the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO). New figures from the INTO show that 4,068 pupils, 39% of primary school children, learn in overcrowded classes of 25 pupils or more in the county.

Speaking on the issue this week Anne Horan, INTO President said schools continue to face challenges, from rising operational costs to large class sizes and limited support for pupils with additional needs.

"Our schools are under immense pressure, and we need urgent government action to ensure our children receive the education they deserve. Following the General Election last year, the Budget this October will be the first real measure of the current coalition Governments commitment to supporting primary and special education.

"As the new school term begins in earnest in primary and special schools across the country, teachers and school leaders are growing increasingly concerned about the pressure facing our education system.

"From the inadequate funding of our schools, overcrowding in our classrooms, the lack of support to maintain our cherished small schools and the need to scale up our support for the delivery of special education, we simply must do better."

READ NEXT: Fresh planning application for coffee and snack business at Laois GAA Club

Ms Horan said the current capitation grant, set at 224 per pupil, falls short of what many schools need to operate. She said this is forcing teachers and parents alike to strive to raise the funds to cover basic necessities like electricity, cleaning, and teaching resources.

"Ensuring our schools are adequately funded must be a core responsibility of the government and it is abundantly clear that greater support must be provided," she said.

The INTO is calling for the government to increase the primary capitation grant by 75 per pupil. The INTO is also calling on government to deliver on its promise to bring class sizes in line with the European Average of 19 pupils by ensuring a two-point reduction in class sizes is put in place from September 2026.
A university in North Kildare has congratulated a student on her award-winning breast cancer recovery device.

Maynooth University (MU) has praised product design graduate Zoe O'Sullivan, who has been named National Winner for Ireland at the 2025 James Dyson Award for her invention, 'Lymphia'.

According to MU, 'Lymphia' is a handheld portable device that teaches and guides patients through manual lymphatic drainage massage. The device is designed to support recovery and help prevent lymphoedema, a chronic condition caused by fluid build-up following breast cancer treatment.

Zoe created Lymphia as part of the final year of her BSc in Product Design and Innovation at MU, when she was required to create an original design, which was then prototyped and manufactured on campus.

In addition, Kate Brown, another MU product design graduate, was named as runner up in the Irish category for 'Gotcha', an innovative make-up opener designed for people with limited hand or arm mobility.

READ NEXT: Removal of energy credit is a body blow for Kildare families

Zoe working on her project. Photograph supplied by Maynooth University and MKC Communications

Welcoming her award, Zoe OSullivan said: "I am thrilled about winning the national Dyson award for Lymphia."

She added: "It feels great to have my work acknowledged and so highly praised, and I am grateful for the awareness it will raise about lymphoedema and breast cancer."

HOW IT WORKS

Breast cancer treatment often damages or removes lymph nodes, putting patients at high risk of lymphoedema.

If untreated, lymphoedema can become a lifelong condition.

By providing accurate, real-time feedback, the device enables patients to perform genuine Manual Lymphatic Drainage (MLD) at home, reducing reliance on physiotherapists, conflicting online information, and trial-and-error approaches.

And now, Zoe plans to use the prize money from the award to fund a patent application for her innovative design.

READ NEXT: Positive development as new student accommodation facility opens in Kildare

PROGRESSION

'Lymphia' is now set to progress to the international stage of the James Dyson Award.

The international top 20 shortlist will be announced on October 15, 2025 and the international winners on November 5, 2025.

Congratulating Zoe OSullivan, Dr Iain MacDonald, the head of the Department of Design Innovation at MU, said that Zoe "is an inspiration, who has shown the power of human-centred design to improve the lives of people, which we proudly teach at MU".

He also said that MU was "delighted" that its BSc Product Design and Innovation programme had received national and international award recognition for the second year in a row.

INFORMATION ABOUT BREAST CANCER

According to the Irish Cancer Society, breast cancer is when cells in your breast change and grow in an abnormal way.

A group of these cancer cells can then proceed to form a tumour.

Each year in Ireland, almost 3,600 women and approximately 30 men are diagnosed with breast cancer.

This form of cancer is more common in women over 50, but it can affect younger women too.

In terms of screening for breast cancer, BreastCheck is the name of the national breast screening programme.

This service offers free breast screening to women, transgender, intersex and non-binary people age 50 to 69.

It should be noted that one must be living in Ireland and have a PPS number to avail of this service.

Anyone interested in learning more about breast cancer can visit https://www.cancer.ie/cancer-information/cancer-types/breast-cancer.

READ NEXT: GALLERY: Happy Days Club at Kildare's Whitewater Shopping Centre
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has reported that Environmental Health Officers in the HSE served eight Closure Orders and one Prohibition Order on food businesses across the country during the month of August for breaches of food safety regulation, including one premises in Kildare.

According to its latest report, Bk Foods Limited (Wholesaler/Distributor) in Clongorey, Newbridge, County Kildare was served with a Closure Order, last month, under the provisions of FSAI Act, 1998.

As of this Wednesday, the Order, which was served on the proprietor on August 26, remains in place.

The inspector's report, which has been published by the FSAI, outlines a number of concerns arising from the inspection.

The report states: "Adequate procedures were not in place to control pests in the premises. Numerous rat droppings were noted throughout the distribution warehouse."

It states that foods in the distribution warehouse were "not protected against any contamination" to the point where "it would be unreasonable to expect it to be consumed in that state."

The report stated that food in the warehouse was at "serious risk of contamination" due to the rodent activity, representing a "grave and immediate danger to food safety".

READ NEXT: University in Kildare congratulates student on award-winning breast cancer recovery device

Commenting on the full list of Closure Orders across the country published on Wednesday, Chief Executive of the FSAI Greg Dempsey said: "It is disappointing to see the same issues, such as poor hygiene and pest control problems, being identified each month."

He added: "Businesses selling food to consumers need to ensure that they met their legal obligations, and that the food they sell is safe to eat. While the majority of food businesses take their responsibilities to their customers very seriously, we continue to see a small number of businesses subject to enforcement action, including closure, due to their non-compliances with basic food safety standards.

"The FSAI provides assistance and training resources, but will, with our colleagues in the National Environmental Health Service, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, take action against these operators as necessary to protect consumers, and to retain the publics confidence in the food system."

Mr Dempsey concluded: "We also have an online complaint process at www.fsai.ie/makeitbetter, where consumers can report inappropriate and unsafe food and practices, which can result in enforcement action being taken. This is an essential component of the food system and it supports the work of the food inspectorate to ensure the highest standards and quality across the food chain."



Details of the food businesses served with Enforcement Orders are published on the FSAIs website - fsai.ie.
New details have been officially revealed by a garda in relation to a criminal damage by fire incident which occurred in County Kildare last week.

Last week, it was reported that the incident occurred in the early hours of Thursday, September 4 last.

It was also reported that the crime took place at a residence in Newbridge.

And this morning (September 10), Detective Garda Shona Nolan told KFM that the incident specifically occurred in The Crescent, which is located in the Liffey Hall region.

Det Gda Nolan, who appeared as a guest on a KFM programme earlier today, explained that the owner heard a window smash and discovered that their car was on fire.

READ NEXT: Assault with weapon incident reported at McDonald's branch in Kildare

According to Det Gda Nolan, it is believed that the fire was started deliberately by someone else.

She concluded by urging anyone with information and / or footage of the event to contact Newbridge Garda Station on 045 440 180.

When asked by the Leinster Leader about this incident, a garda spokesperson replied: "Gardai received a report of an incident of criminal damage by fire that occurred at a residence in Newbridge, County Kildare on Thursday, September 4 last at approximately 3.30am.

"No injuries have been reported at this time."

The spokesperson added that investigations are ongoing.

READ NEXT: Kildare food business ordered to close amid 'grave' concerns due to 'Rodent activity'
Click the arrows or Next to see the pictures.

An 18th century manor on the east side of Tipperary has remained on the market since January 2024.

The property featured on Selling Irelands Dream Home on RTE, and has a humble asking price of 4.5 million euro.

The estate has a dark history in terms of ownership - it was bequeathed to Colonel Thomas Sadlier of Tipperarys Sopwell Hall by the vicious Oliver Cromwell in the 17th century.

Cromwell confiscated a huge amount of land owned by Catholics in Ireland.

Read More: Conor McGregor seeks Tipperary County Council's nomination to run in presidential election

The gentlemans estate features 250 acres of woodland, parkland and pastures - with two kilometres of water frontage to Lough Derg and a private harbour.

Two main courtyards are situated on the grounds, alongside extensive stone buildings.

The house is equipped with five bedrooms, a gym, a sauna, a jacuzzi, a steam room and a wine cellar.

The listing states: The house dates to circa 1750, when the estate was in the ownership of the Sadlier Family. The manor house is a detached seven bay, two storey house over basement, with three bay side elevations."

An unusual feature of the house is the cut stone Ashlar limestone facade, with cut stone cornice, the remaining elevations being rendered. The house and property in general have undergone major restoration and refurbishment since being acquired by the current owner.

The house's furnishings are to be negotiated on top of the asking price, or sold separately.
Ireland has called for clarity on the European Commissions proposals to partially suspend its Association Agreement with Israel.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed a partial suspension of the agreement during her State of the Union address on Wednesday.

Ms von der Leyen said what is happening in Gaza is unacceptable as she proposed a package of measures to carve out a way forward.

It comes as the EU remains stuck without a majority on a proposal to suspend parts of funding to Israel under the Horizon programme, which is a key research and innovation initiative for the bloc.

Ms von der Leyen said Europe cannot afford to be paralysed, adding that the Commission will put bilateral support to Israel on hold.

She also proposed sanctions on the extremist ministers and on violent settlers as well as a partial suspension of the Association Agreement on trade-related matters.

Speaking to reporters before a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Irish deputy premier Simon Harris said Ireland had long argued for EU to take further action.

However, he said the people of Ireland have had enough of words of condemnation as he called for concrete actions.

He said: Its important to act at an EU level, that is the way you maximise the impact, to end the violence, end the killing of civilians and the famine, release the hostages, and see a surge in humanitarian aid.

I welcome the fact that today, the European Commission has outlined its intention to bring forward sanctions in relation to extremist settlers, but it is also referenced its intention to bring forward proposals to partially suspend elements of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, including elements relating to trade.

Two things Id like to see now is more information and clarity as to exactly what the Commission is proposing.

And secondly, once we have that, an early convening of the EU Foreign Affairs Council so that member states have an opportunity, for once and for all, to vote on these measures.

Meanwhile, Taoiseach Micheal Martin also welcomed Ms von der Leyens statement as he reiterated a call for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages and a massive surge of humanitarian aid into the region.

He told reporters: The situation in Gaza is absolutely catastrophic without any moral justification.

The slaughter of innocent civilians, women and children, starvation of a population, and it violates all international legal norms.

But it is a fundamental attack on a population, and I welcome the fact that the European Commission is saying that Europe cannot be paralysed by inaction in relation to the catastrophe that is Gaza.
Broadcaster and social media star James Patrice has spoken candidly about the bullying he endured growing up, and how performance and resilience helped him to navigate those difficult years.

Speaking to Doireann Garrihy on her 'The Laughs of Your Life' podcast, Patrice reflected on his school days, describing how taunts about his sexuality started at an early age before he even had the chance to understand it himself.

It started off with the basics, youre a girl, youre gay. Then the word beginning with F that I wont even repeat. Honestly, it was relentless and went on every single day, he said. The weird thing is, you dont know if youre gay yourself. You have these feelings, but youre in no position to confront them. And yet youre being told theyre wrong.

Patrice recalled the isolation he felt during free periods in school, when the absence of a supervising teacher left him vulnerable. One memory that stayed with him was working on an art project when classmates began targeting him. It was the longest 40 minutes of my life. I remember thinking, dont cry, dont cry,.

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Despite the bullying, the presenter said drama and performance became his lifeline. Drama saves people, he reflected. When youre on stage, youre untouchable. Its a safe space where you can do whatever you want, and no one can take that away from you.

James also praised the openness of todays Ireland, saying: Nowadays its different. You could write a thesis on how much the tolerance levels have improved. People are way more conversational about it. Schools have LGBT weeks, whereas back then you didnt talk about it, you just got on with it.

As he grew older, Patrice developed a confidence that even his bullies couldnt break. By sixth year, he was performing in drag at the school graduation, where he finally felt a shift in how others saw him. One lad came up to me afterwards and said, Some balls you have getting up there doing that., fair play to ya  For the first time, I thought, wow, Im being seen as an equal, not that I would ever want to be equal with any of them , but finally there is a bit of respect there".

Looking back, Patrice said the hardships of those years shaped him. It made me very resilient. It made me really appreciate performance and just owning who you are, not being afraid of what anyone else thinks, because they dont matter.

The episode, which also touched on his close bond with his family, highlighted the strength of character that has made Patrice one of Irelands most loved entertainers.
Cllr Maeve Reynolds asked the council to call on Eir to "urgently address low-hanging wires and leaning poles in the Carrick-on-Shannon municipal district, Leitrim, which block access to hedgerows, impede essential hedge cutting and pose significant risks to expensive machinery. Eir should clarify, in cases where a wire overgrown in a hedge causes damage to machinery, who is responsible for covering the cost of that damage. The council needs to request a clear programme of works and timelines to rectify these hazards, along with a responsive system for complaints."

Cllr Reynolds noted that the issue has been raised several times, especially following Storm Eowyn, but said that some wires are so low, "that you could almost hang your washing on them and now the hedges are growing over the wires and you can't see them. When a hedge cutter comes to cut them, they will cut the wire and cut off people's phone and internet and cause massive damage to machines as well because the hedges can't be cut. It's find to say it's the landowner's responsibility, but if they can't access their hedge to cut it, then where does responsibility lie? We need to see some action on this."

READ MORE: Potential owners of a former hotel in Leitrim 'now embroiled in a legal dispute'

Cllr Sean McGowan supported the motion and said wires are so low in places that "you could put your hand up and pull it; I've seen it all over the place" before adding that it "is a huge problem and Eir needs to get their act together. Some wires may be discontinued so they need to take them away; they need to carry out a survey on what's required and those that are required need to be tied up properly and ensure that hedge cutters can see wires."

Cllr Enda Stenson also supported the motion.

Deputy Chief Executive of Leitrim Council Mary Quinn said that hedge cutting is the "landowner's responsibility; they should be reporting the issue to Eir."

Cllr Reynolds responded: "There are poles hanging out across the road that they are not even addressing so reporting this to Eir; when it comes to a point that the landowner has reported and rereported and can't cut their hedge, then where are we?"

Ms Quinn said the council would issue correspondence to Eir "to address particular problem areas."
ALDI Ireland has announced that a Leitrim charity has become the latest beneficiary of ALDIs Community Grants programme, recognising their valuable contribution to the local community.

Receiving 500 in ALDI gift cards is Breffni Community Development CLG, donated by local ALDI Leitrim employees as part of the retailers ongoing support for communities nationwide.

The ALDI Community Grants programme helps fund local charities and community organisations that contribute vital work and a wide range of services  from supporting mental health and disability services to helping animal shelters, youth clubs, cancer supports and more.

The recipient is nominated by ALDI Leitrim team members, ensuring that the causes supported by the programme are meaningful to and directly benefit the communities where employees live and work.

Breffni Community Development CLG, also known as Breffni Family Resource Centre, is a non-profit community project based in Carrick-on-Shannon.

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Established in 2001 by Townspark Residents Association, it works to support individuals, families, and groups in the local area through a wide range of services, activities, and programmes.

Its work focuses on Family and Community Support, Health and Wellbeing Initiatives, community allotments, composting schemes and creative wellbeing workshops that promote healthy lifestyles and social connection, administrative services, information resources, inclusion and engagement creating opportunities for social interaction through classes, workshops, fun days and cultural projects that are open to all.

The donation from ALDI will directly contribute to the continuation and expansion of Breffni Community Development CLGs programmes. It will help us to continue to fund key areas including wellbeing, family and youth supports, healthy living initiatives and our inclusive community groups, said Breffni Community Development CLG.

This support ensures that we can maintain essential services, respond flexibly to community needs, and continue building a welcoming space for people of all ages and backgrounds in the local community.

Rachel Nugent, National Sustainability Manager, ALDI Ireland said: We continue to be proud of the impact that our Community Grants programme has across the country. We are pleased to be donating 86,500 this year to so many vital local charities and community groups across Ireland. These organisations are the backbone of their communities, and were delighted to play a part in helping them do what they do best.

READ NEXT: Leitrim councillor calls for meeting with Minister in council chamber over new school

Since launching the annual Community Grants programme in 2016, ALDI has committed 844,500 in donations to positively support more than 1,000 local charity branches and community groups across Ireland.

This Community Grants programme is a reflection of ALDIs ongoing commitment to building strong, lasting relationships in the communities we serve. Since 2016, weve donated 844,500 through the programme, and we look forward to supporting even more local causes in the years ahead, Miss Nugent concluded.

Operating a store in Carrick-on-Shannon, ALDI plays an active role in the local community. Through its long-standing partnership with FoodCloud, ALDI Leitrim store has donated almost 40,000 meals to local charities, helping avoid more than 55,000 kgs of CO2e emissions.
A Leitrim councillor has called on the Minister for Education and Youth Helen McEntee to come to Leitrim County County buildings and speak with the school principal, the board of management and other parties, in order to bring home the need for a new school in Carrick-on-Shannon.

Cllr Irene Guckian Rabbitte called on the council, with the agreement of my fellow Carrick MD county councillors to write, to the Minister of Education with a view to arranging a meeting with the Minister in the council chambers, with the school principal, Board of Management and other interested parties to express the urgency of the situation regarding the construction of a new national school for the town of Carrick-on-Shannon.

She told members: "I feel very strongly that the town of Carrick-on-Shannon deserve a new national school and I know that there is an awful lot of things in place; we have the site and it's now just about waiting for the Department of Education to make their move. It's going on a long time."

READ MORE: ALERT: Gardai investigating Leitrim burglary and car theft appeal for information

She said that school that is currently in place, is "very much a fire hazard and a health and safety hazard and road hazard; they need to be together in one campus and need to have room to play and educated."

Cllr Enda Stenson supported the motion and said the situation is "hugely disappointing and it's down to the minister at this stage."

Cllr Sean McGowan also supported the motion saying that teachers, pupils and parents are "all anxious to progress because it's dangerous; the school is far too small and it is a big fight so really, it's up to the minister to give the go ahead."

Cllr Maeve Reynolds, chair of Carrick MD thanked the council for providing a site for the new school and "I know the four TDs for the Sligo/Leitrim area had a meeting with the school and have requested a meeting with the minister as well but I think it's good to keep it on the agenda."

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Cllr Cormac Flynn also supported the motion saying that with a site procured, "the site is there, the kids are there, the teachers are there; all we need is the political will and the budget to get that school built. I'd like to see the minister explain themselves on this one."

Cllr Paddy Farrell also lent his support.
Conor McGregor made a surprise visit to Cavan and Monaghan yesterday as he stepped up efforts to rally support for his presidential campaign.

The former MMA fighter, who has announced his intention to run for the countrys top office, visited Monaghan town where he met with local business owners and spoke with Fine Gael TD for CavanMonaghan, David Maxwell. Deputy Maxwell confirmed that he is pledging his full support to party candidate Heather Humphreys.

According to Ronan Gargan, journalist at Shannonside Northern Sound, McGregor also stopped in Cavan town and Ballyjamesduff last night as part of his whirlwind tour of the region.

While in Monaghan, the Dubliner said he wanted to see a democratic process play out and called on council representatives to back his nomination.

When asked why he wanted to become President, McGregor said his reasoning was to return the power to the people, in line with the founding proclamation of 1922. He added that he wanted to see more authority devolved to local councils so communities could decide the outcome of their own future.

Under election rules, candidates must be nominated by at least four local authorities in order to appear on the ballot for the October 24th election. With Leitrim, Roscommon and other councils due to meet later this month, McGregor is continuing his tour across the country in a bid to secure the required backing.

READ MORE: ALERT: Gardai investigating Leitrim burglary and car theft appeal for information
AWARD-winning Newcastle West author Mike Mac Domhnaill is set to launch his latest poetry collection, Poems for Palestine. A searing and timely work that explores decades of suffering and conflict in the region.

Published by Revival Press, the book will be unveiled at two upcoming launch events in Limerick and Newcastle West.

Mac Domhnaill, who won the RTE Short Story Award in 2013 and is widely known for his socially conscious writing, said he was compelled to respond to the continuing crisis in Gaza and the West Bank. His new collection addresses both current violence and earlier conflicts in 1982, 2004, 2006, and 2008.

READ MORE: University of Limerick graduate Gena Heraty says kidnappers are 'working for the devil'

"The West has become complicit in ethnic cleansing, apartheid and genocide," Mac Domhnaill says. "This book simply bears witness."

The primary launch will take place on Friday, September 26 at 7:30pm at the Peoples Museum of Limerick, Pery Square, where the author will read selected poems from the collection.

A second launch is scheduled for Saturday, October 11 at 3:00pm at Red Door, The Square, Newcastle West. Both events are free and open to the public.

Tomas O Coileain, poetry editor at Revival Press, will formally introduce the collection at both launches.

All profits from Poems for Palestine will be donated to UNICEF, supporting the organizations ongoing humanitarian efforts in the region. Attendees are encouraged to purchase the book as a way to contribute to the cause.

Veteran writer and publisher Padraig O Snodaigh has described Mac Domhnaill as a file engage, a committed poet, whose work continues to address political and social injustices.
EIGHT Palestinian students have arrived in Limerick to begin their studies at Mary Immaculate College (MIC), after being evacuated from Gaza.

The students had all secured scholarships, either from the Irish government or directly from MIC, but up until their evacuation, it remained uncertain whether they would be able to leave Gaza.

Four students arrived through evacuations that happened in April and July. The remaining four students were among a group of 52 Palestinian students to arrive in Ireland just in time for the start of the academic year, as part of a coordinated national effort involving Irish higher education institutions, the Department of Foreign Affairs, and the Department of Further and Higher Education.

READ MORE: Defence Forces guide Limerick youth through survival challenge

The operation involved permission from Israeli authorities to exit Gaza, entry clearance from Jordan, and onward travel through Istanbul before arriving in Dublin.

After medical screening and support in Dublin, MIC staff met the students and brought them to their new accommodation in Limerick, where they are all settling into their first week of lectures.

For the students, the chance to study in Ireland represents both relief and renewed hope.

Once I arrived here and started feeling Im safe, the tears streamed down my cheeks. I said to myself, maybe this is the beginning of healing, maybe now I can fully breathe. described one student. Im so happy to be in Ireland after waiting so long, but still feel sad because of what is happening to my people and my own family. May God protect them.

Another student added, Amidst the darkness of war in Gaza, Ireland has opened a rare door for me. A one-in-a-million chance to continue my studies. It is not merely an educational opportunity, but a new life, a ray of hope piercing through despair. I will carry the voice and suffering of my people to the world and show that hope can bloom even beneath the rubble.

The students arrival follows months of behind-the-scenes work by higher education institutions across Ireland. Together, the sector mobilised to guarantee support packages, ensuring that 52 university scholarship holders could be considered for the most recent evacuation.

Dr Holly Cowman, Director of International Engagement at MIC, said, We are just so relieved to have our students with us safely and delighted to welcome them into the College community.

It has been a privilege to work with colleagues across the higher education sector, led by Trinity College Dublin, with the Department of Foreign Affairs, and all who made this possible. We are glad to have been able to offer these inspiring students safety, dignity, and the chance to continue their education at Mary Immaculate College, Dr Cowman added.

As they begin their studies, MIC has pledged ongoing academic, financial, psychological, and social support to help the eight new arrivals to rebuild their lives in Ireland.
LIMERICK City and County Council officials have reported former county hurling manager Tom Ryan to the gardai, after he blocked a waterway from entering his land amid a long-running dispute with the local authority.

Solicitors for the council have, in a letter to the dairy farmer, stated that his action is unlawful and is a criminal offence.

And they have also confirmed the council will seek High Court orders to stop his action if it continues.

READ MORE: Limerick gardai seize big wrap of cocaine from man acting suspiciously

Mr Ryan, based in Ballynoe, Mungret, has been in dispute with the council about what he describes as pollution and severe flooding emanating from Raheen Industrial Estate.

He has said when the business park was founded, council created a canal on Loughmore Common to take surplus water off the industrial estate, which he says is contaminating his land and harming his livestock.

Below: Tom Ryan's land in Mungret (Picture: Adrian Butler)

Mr Ryan - who managed the Limericks senior hurlers to two Munster titles in the 1990s - has appealed against many of the councils decisions to approve changes or expansions to factories in the industrial estate which adjoin his land. For its part, the council has previously provided information on the testing regime it has carried out in the canal, pointing out that these have not recorded any exceedance of ammonia, or hydrocarbons.

Any recorded exceedances in 2022 were inconsistent and did not indicate any pattern of relate to any samples within the business park, the council wrote in a statement provided to RTE Prime Time, which in 2022 carried out an investigation into M Ryans claims.

This Monday, Mr Ryan said council staff attended the perimeter of his farmland, where he had set up the blockade.

He claimed they spent around one hour beside his land dismantling the materials which were put in place to block the flow of the Loughmore Canal.

However, Mr Ryan has since declared that he will continue his action, and is planning to again set up the barricade which will stop the Loughmore Canal from flowing onto his farm.

It will be blocked again. Ill keep doing this, and well keep meeting. Its war, Mr Ryan told the Limerick Leader this Monday.

He also said he will be blocking another part of his land, where water flows in from neighbouring sites.

The letter issued from the councils solicitors last Friday, advising the farmer had been reported to the gardai, was sent in response to an email Mr Ryan had imparted to Vincent Murray, the councils director of planning and placemaking, warning of the action.

Tom Ryan is taking no more pollution. This is not an idle threat, he wrote. I am sending your pollution back.

Having initially said they could not comment on Mr Ryans actions, a spokesperson for Limerick City and County Council did release a statement this Tuesday.

In it, they wrote: The landowner has been made aware that the obstruction of these watercourses has legal implications.

These blockages may significantly increase the risk of flooding to neighbouring lands and properties located upstream.

Limerick City and County Council is committed to exercising its statutory powers to ensure that any interference with watercourses does not negatively impact other landowners or properties.

The Raheen Industrial Estate, which is owned by IDA Ireland, houses a large number of multi-national firms, which employ thousands of workers.

As well as appealing against many of these expansions, Mr Ryan has also objected to the construction of housing in Patrickswell, as well as a nursing home in the village.

He has compared the flow of the Loughmore Canal onto his land to being like the Mississippi flowing into the River Loobagh in Kilmallock -you have a huge canal flowing into a small stream.
A REPRODUCTION of a 19th-century spinning wheel, created in Limerick nearly four decades ago as a school project, has found a new home at the Doagh Famine Village.

David Brennan, a graduate of Crescent College Comprehensive, built the spinning wheel in 1987 for his Leaving Certificate project under the guidance of his late teacher, Donal Lynch.

David, who recently returned from Philadelphia with his husband for a visit to the Emerald Isle, donated the wheel to the Donegal heritage site in memory of Mr Lynch.

He described the teacher as beloved and widely respected... like many other teachers at Crescent College Comprehensive.

As well as Mr Lynch's support and guidance, David received expert instruction in woodturning from Jim Doody of Abbeyfeale, who taught him how to shape the legs, spokes, supports and spindle.

READ MORE: New Limerick city exhibition celebrates 160 years of St John's Brass and Reed Band

David's research also took him to Carndonagh, Co Donegal where he spent time with Master Craftsman and renowned spinning wheel builder, James Sheils of Bridge Street.

The spinning wheel was formally presented to Pat Doherty, owner of the Doagh Famine Village.

There, it will be displayed as part of the centres efforts to preserve and share Irelands cultural history.

David said he chose the famine village because it lost so many artifacts in a devastating fire in May of this year.

An extensive part of the village was destroyed by fire on Saturday, May 3, but thanks to volunteers and donations, it reopened on Wednesday, May 21.

The tourist attraction's website states that, despite losing parts of the displays, we remain committed to rebuilding and preserving these important cultural stories.
THE Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has reported that Environmental Health Officers with the HSE served eight Closure Orders and one Prohibition Order on food businesses across the country during the month of August for breaches of food safety regulations, including one premises in Limerick.

According to its latest report, Prime Pizza & Kebab Take Away, which is located at 281 Hyde Road in Limerick city was served with a Closure Order under the European Union (Official Controls in Relation to Food Legislation) Regulations.

The Order, which was served on the proprietor on August 29 was lifted earlier this week after the issues of concern were addressed.

The inspector's report, which has just been published by the FSAI, outlines a number of concerns arising from the inspection.

The report states that the premises was undergoing renovation works on the date of inspection, giving rise to some issues. "Foodstuffs being prepared in an area where construction and renovation is ongoing. Dirt and debris noted throughout the premises. Unfinished surfaces noted in the food production area. Wall/floor junctions are dirty with ingrained dirt."

The report detailed other issues regarding cleaning materials being "inadequately stored" as well as a "large accumulation of waste in the rear yard."

Additionally, the report said there "were no records of monitoring for pests on site" and that there was a "malodour noted from waste pipe in the rear food preparation area."

Other issues mentioned in the report, include a lack of training for staff in food hygiene matters. "There was no evidence on site to a good food safety culture as the food business operator was unaware of his legal obligations," stated the inspector.

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Commenting on the full list of Closure Orders across the country published on Wednesday, Chief Executive of the FSAI Greg Dempsey said: "It is disappointing to see the same issues, such as poor hygiene and pest control problems, being identified each month."

He added: "Businesses selling food to consumers need to ensure that they met their legal obligations, and that the food they sell is safe to eat. While the majority of food businesses take their responsibilities to their customers very seriously, we continue to see a small number of businesses subject to enforcement action, including closure, due to their non-compliances with basic food safety standards.

"The FSAI provides assistance and training resources, but will, with our colleagues in the National Environmental Health Service, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, take action against these operators as necessary to protect consumers, and to retain the publics confidence in the food system."

Mr Dempsey concluded: "We also have an online complaint process at www.fsai.ie/makeitbetter, where consumers can report inappropriate and unsafe food and practices, which can result in enforcement action being taken. This is an essential component of the food system and it supports the work of the food inspectorate to ensure the highest standards and quality across the food chain."



Details of the food businesses served with Enforcement Orders are published on the FSAIs website - fsai.ie.
Dublin Airport will refund more than 4,400 customers over incorrect car park pricing.

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) said it had received numerous consumer complaints about overcharging during flash sales for car park spaces at Dublin Airport in March and May 2025.

The sales took place on March 10 and 11, as well as May 6-16.

The flash sales advertised car parking at a promotional rate of 10 or 12 euro per day; however, in some cases, airport car parking was priced at a lower rate in advance of and after the promotion.

In total, consumers were overcharged by just over 25,000 euro.

The operator of the airport, daa, has informed the CCPC that the overpayments were the result of an error on its part.

It said it will issue full refunds to all affected customers of the total cost of their booking, not just the overcharge amount.

This means that total refunds will rise to approximately 350,000, up from the approximately 25,000 that was overcharged.

Customers are also offered a 20% discount on future car park bookings as a goodwill gesture.

The average overpayment was approximately 5.90 euro but the maximum overpayment was 64 euro.

It is understood that 90% of those impacted being overcharged by fewer than 12 euro.

Customers are expected to be refunded within five to 10 days.

Chairman of the CCPC, Brian McHugh said he welcomed the swift action taken by daa.

The first flash sale happened when the Park2Travel car park site opened on the former QuickPark site at Dublin Airport, following a previous decision by the CCPC to block the sale of that site due to concerns that the deal would lead to higher prices and lower service quality for consumers.

Mr McHugh said: The flash sales coincided with the addition of a new competitor in the airport car park market.

Active competition among businesses is vital to drive choice, better service and innovation.

However, any promotions need to be grounded in real benefits to consumers.
Fish from Lough Neagh are safe to eat despite the discovery of toxins in the flesh of some species, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has said.

Professor Robin May, chief scientific adviser at the FSA, said there was no change in advice to consumers or anglers.

Blue-green algae returned to the lough in Northern Ireland for the third successive year over the summer.

Noxious blooms of the algae covered large parts of the lough, the UKs largest freshwater lake by surface area.

The condition of the lough resulted in the eel-fishing season being cut short this summer.

Professor May told the BBC Nolan Show that fish in the lough were being continually monitored for toxin levels.

He said: The most recent set of samplings finds that we do detect toxins in some of these fish, but very reassuring they are all at levels that are safe.

Our advice to consumers doesnt change, that fish from the lough are still safe to eat.

Our advice to anglers, people catching their own fish, doesnt change, again you can catch and eat your own fish but you should take extra care to make sure they are gutted well because the toxins accumulate in those visceral organs, in the guts of the fish.

So make sure you have done a good job of removing those and rinsing the fish before you eat it.

Professor May said sampling of fish in the lough had been much more extensive this year.

He said: We are testing for a wider range of toxins in more parts of the fish.

In this case we have tested both the viscera, the guts and the flesh of the fish, obviously the part that people eat, and we have tested quite a wide range of fish like bream and trout and eel to make sure we are covering all of the bases there.

Last year what we found was that we could only detect toxins in the viscera, the guts of the fish.

This year, in a couple of cases we have detected toxins in the flesh of the fish, not for all species and not at high levels.

Even in those fish where we do find it in the muscle tissue, the part you would eat, the levels are much below the levels that are safe to consume.

Those fish are still safe to eat.

He said toxins had been detected in the flesh of eel and perch but not other species.

Lough Neagh supplies 40% of Northern Irelands drinking water and sustains a major eel-fishing industry.

Nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural fertiliser running off fields and from wastewater treatment is a contributory factor in the blue-green algae blooms.

The spread of the invasive zebra mussel species is also understood to have played a role in the blooms, as they have made the water clearer, allowing more sunlight to penetrate, stimulating more algal photosynthesis.

Climate change is another factor as water temperatures rise.

The Stormont Executive last year launched an action plan to deal with the environmental crisis at the lough.
(Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co., Fifth Third Bancorp and Barclays Plc are among banks bracing for potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in combined losses from loans tied to subprime auto lender Tricolor Holdings, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Fifth Third said in a regulatory filing Tuesday that it faced an impairment charge of up to $200 million after discovering alleged fraudulent activity at a commercial borrower, which it didnt identify. The bank said it was working with law enforcement authorities.

The lenders are looking into whether collateral for warehouse lines was double-pledged, said some of the people, who asked not to be identified because of the potential for a probe by authorities.

Tricolor focuses on lending to borrowers across the US southwest who typically have poor or no credit scores. It funds the loans at least in part by packaging them into asset-backed securities to sell to bond investors, most recently selling a $217 million bond in early June, an offering led by JPMorgan and Barclays.

JPMorgan, Barclays and Fifth Third have been warehouse lenders to Tricolor, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Daniel Chu, Tricolors chief executive officer, and other executives at the company didnt respond to multiple requests for comment. Representatives for Fifth Third, JPMorgan and Barclays declined to comment.

Theres an outstanding balance of about $200 million on Fifth Thirds asset-backed finance loan in question, according to the filing. Fifth Third expects to take a non-cash charge of $170 million to $200 million in the third quarter related to that loan.

Such loans are typically backed by streams of contractual cash flows tied to a defined pool of assets, such as consumer loans or mortgages.

Tricolors asset-backed securities were trading lower this week after Spanish language news outlet Univision reported that the company has furloughed most of its staff.

Shares of Fifth Third dropped 2.5% to $44.30 in late trading at 5:47 p.m. in New York.

--With assistance from Yizhu Wang.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
(Bloomberg) -- Anglo American Plc and Teck Resources Ltd.s plan to headquarter their merged company in Canada is a perpetual commitment, according to Teck Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Price.

The commitment that we are making to Canada and the presence of the global headquarters of Anglo Tech in Canada is an enduring commitment, Price told BNN Bloomberg Television on Wednesday.

An agreement by UK-based Anglo to acquire Canadas Teck in one of the biggest mining deals in over a decade will need regulatory approval in countries including Canada. Last year, Canada said it would only approve foreign takeovers of large mining companies involved in critical-minerals production in the most exceptional of circumstances.

Establishing the global headquarters in Vancouver, with the presence of most senior executives, is a great thing for the country, Price said.

Asked if a string of setbacks at Tecks copper mine in Chile was a driver for the transaction, Price said were fully confident that well overcome those challenges.

The reason for doing this transaction now is that these opportunities dont come along very often, he said. When you see them, you have to seize them.

If approved by regulators, the acquisition is expected to close in 12 to 18 months.

The two companies are speaking to investors all over the world, explaining the incredible upside and gathering feedback, Price said. While those conversations are very preliminary, there is real recognition here for the industrial logic of this and the quality of the business we are creating.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
BENGALURU : Swiggy Ltd has entered the gifting space with a new segment Giftables, following a similar move by its larger rival Blinkit. The push into instant gifting is being viewed as a fresh growth opportunity, one that could also lift demand for traditional yet loss-making incumbents such as Archie's, Ferns N Petals (FNP), and IGP (Indian Gifts Portal).

The timing of the launch appears strategic with the upcoming festivals set to charge up the gifting space and impulse buying become more the norm.

FNP and Archies do not see Swiggy and Blinkit as rivals. Instead, they call quick-commerce a new sales channel that has already become meaningful, Both brands say platforms such as Instamart and Blinkit have helped them expand reach, with FNP doubling its quick commerce sales every quarter and Archies now generating about a fifth of its revenue from such tie-ups.

FNP rides quick commerce wave

We are an omnichannel brand, and Swiggy is a key partner for distribution," said Avi Kumar, chief marketing officer at FNP. "While our own website remains the largest contributor, quick commerce has clearly emerged as the fastest-growing sales channel. Giftables will create further synergies between the brands and open new avenues for consumers," he said.

FNP's sales through quick-commerce platforms have been doubling each quarter, especially for cakes, flowers, and gift hampers, he said.

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The Delhi-based gifting company, which has been in the business for over three decades, raised 200 crore in 2022 from Lighthouse India Fund III at a valuation of 2,400 crore. It specializes in cakes, flowers, chocolates, personalized gifts, lifestyle products, and corporate gifting solutions.

In FY24, FNP E Retail Pvt Ltd reported revenue of 256.3 crore, up from 210.9 crore in FY23. Its losses narrowed to 18.3 crore from 36.4 crore the year before, according to the filings with the ministry of corporate affairs. The company is yet to file its financials for FY25.

Archies embraces omnichannel approach

Archies Ltd, which was a rage amongst teenagers around the turn of the millennium, sees quick commerce as an important sales avenue. Archies gets 60% of its revenues from retail stores, 20% from quick commerce and 2-3% from e-commerce/website and the remaining about 17-18% from exports.

Quick commerce is not a threat but a partner. It helps us with logistics and last-mile delivery, and gives us a capex-light way to expand beyond our stores," said Hanisha Gandhi, executive director at Archies. "That said, retail will always remain our backbone."

Gandhi said reliance on marketplaces and delivery partners does come with risks. We havent yet been charged any listing or advertising fees by these platforms, but there is always that risk. Thats why were working on revamping our brand image, differentiating products across channels, and bringing more premium offerings back into our retail stores," she said.

Archies reported a revenue of 69.7 crore as of FY25, down from 80.1 crore last fiscal year. The company's net loss for FY25 narrowed to 1.5 crore from Rs. 8.21 crore last fiscal year according to the companys FY25 annual report filed with the Bombay Stock Exchange. The Archies Ltd stock, which traded at upwards of 1,300 at a point in 1999, closed at 18.08 on Tuesday, with a market capitalisation of 61.07 crore.

The company is in the process of revamping its stores and product lines by March to appeal to younger consumers, even as competition rises from social media-driven labels.

Instagram and influencer-led gifting brands have eaten into sales, especially among younger consumers. But Archie's has the advantage of trust and legacy; weve been in this business for over three decades. Convenience matters, but so does reliability when it comes to emotions," Gandhi said.

Limitations of quick commerce

Join Ventures Private Ltd, which runs gifting platform IGP and flower delivery platform Interflora India, posted revenue growth of 34.45% to 160 crore in FY24, though it remained loss-making with a narrowed net loss of 9.9 crore according to filings with the ministry of corporate affairs. The company is yet to file its FY25 financials.

Quick commerce is helping expand the overall market rather than eating into our share," said Tarun Joshi, founder and CEO of IGP. But for categories like personalized gifts and premium hampers, customers still turn to dedicated gifting platforms like ours, where discovery and curation are far deeper than a 10-minute delivery app."

He said that while collaborations with q-commerce firms are welcome, there are limitations. Impulse-led categories such as flowers and cakes work well on q-commerce, but the real differentiation in gifting is around personalization, premium experiences, and creating memorable moments. Thats not something q-commerce has cracked yet."

Join Ventures, the parent company of IGP raised $33.5 million in 2022 through two rounds of funding at an undisclosed valuation from investors including MO Alternate Investment Advisors and Convivialite Ventures.

A spokesperson for Eternal, which owns Blinkit that has been in the gifting space since February 2024, did not respond to requests for comments. Blinkit has been in the gifting space since February 2024. A spokesperson for Swiggy also did not respond to Mint's queries on its collaboration or competition with existing gifting platforms.

Instant gifting meets AI

"We believe Swiggy is uniquely positioned to make gifting effortless for Indians, thanks to the combined power of our food delivery and Instamart offerings," the Swiggy spokesperson said in an email. The company pegs the total addressable market at $2.5-3.0 billion, with casual, everyday gifting forming a significant share of this opportunity.

Giftables is Swiggys new instant gifting service, launched in Bengaluru this month. It allows users to curate and personalize gift bundles featuring cakes, flowers, chocolates, and toys, as well as lifestyle products and electronics, and have them delivered within an hour through the companys app.

The platform also features artificial intelligence-powered recommendations to help shoppers pick gifts based on the occasion or the recipients preferences. Swiggy plans to roll out Giftables to other metros such as Delhi and Mumbai ahead of festivals such as Diwali that will be celebrated mid-October, aiming to make itself a one-stop destination for both last-minute and planned gifting.
China International Capital Corp. has created new layers of job titles for senior investment bankers, according to people familiar with the matter, as it tries to retain talent amid a boom in dealmaking.

The new roles include senior managing director and director, the people said, asking not to be identified because the process isnt public. The Chinese bank has adopted this approach at a time when it is challenging to give significant pay increases or bonuses, the people said, despite the pickup in deal activity.

Senior managing director would be the higher role, followed by managing director, executive director and then director, the people said.

A representative for CICC didnt respond to requests seeking comment.

While the industry in China has found room to give pay bumps to some junior staff, its proved more difficult at senior levels, particularly as the Chinese government has singled out and criticized bankers for being hedonistic.

Still, a sharp increase in deal flow has put bankers in high demand and on the lookout for opportunities. Activity is being driven by mainland China-based firms looking to list in Hong Kong, as well as issuances of convertible and exchangeable bonds. The volume of deals including mergers and acquisitions involving Chinese firms this year is up 54% from the same period in 2024 to $261 billion.

Bloomberg News reported Tuesday that CICCs head of equity sales in Hong Kong has left to join AI chipmaker Shanghai Biren Technology Co. And Yang Sulan, who was head of consumer investment banking, departed last year to become deputy chief executive officer at CGS International Holdings. Technology, media and telecommunications banker Victor Jiang also left for Deutsche Bank AG.

CICC, which historically paid bankers on par with the likes of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., has carried out some major pay cuts in recent years. Compensation for some senior bankers for 2022 was slashed by more than 40% following a tough year for the business, and then last year it took the rare step of demoting senior bankers and cutting their pay to reduce costs, Bloomberg reported.

2025 Bloomberg L.P.
By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Block, the technology and financial services company led by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, won the dismissal on Tuesday of litigation claiming it misled shareholders in connection with a large data breach at its Cash App mobile payment service.

U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett in Manhattan found no proof Block intended to defraud shareholders in connection with the December 10, 2021 breach, where a former employee downloaded personal information of about 8.2 million Cash App users.

Shareholders in the proposed class action said Block inflated its share price by failing to disclose its inadequate data security prior to the breach, and then waiting nearly four months before disclosing the breach on April 4, 2022.

They also accused the Oakland, California-based company of misleading former shareholders of Afterpay about its data security, in order to complete its $29 billion buyout of that Australian "buy now, pay later" company in January 2022.

In a 42-page decision, Garnett said reasonable investors could not view general statements that Block made in regulatory filings and on its website about potential risks as assertions that its data security was sound.

She also said shareholders failed to show any "unique" connection between alleged misstatements and the Afterpay buyout, or that Block executives benefited in some concrete way, to establish a motive to defraud.

Lawyers for the shareholders did not immediately respond to requests for comment after market hours. Block and its lawyers did not immediately respond to similar requests.

In January, Block agreed to pay $80 million to settle accusations by 48 state financial regulators that Cash App lacked sufficient anti-money laundering policies. It reached a similar $40 million settlement with New York in April.

Cash App had $283 billion of inflows in 2024, and 57 million monthly users at year-end, a regulatory filing showed.

The case is In re Block Inc Securities Litigation, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 22-08636.
(Bloomberg) -- Cenovus Energy Inc.s top executive said the company doesnt plan to increase its takeover offer for oil sands producer MEG Energy Corp., despite a higher rival bid from Strathcona Resources Ltd.

Were paying at the highest end of the range. And you know, we are in a world where we think weve got the only viable bid going forward, Chief Executive Officer Jon McKenzie said in an interview. We are closing the door on making a higher bid, he said.

Cenovus announced a cash-and-stock offer last month that values MEG at just over C$28 a share. But MEGs stock has been trading well above that, closing at C$29.12 in Toronto on Tuesday after Strathcona announced its all-stock competing offer the previous day.

Strathconas bid doesnt have any credibility to it, McKenzie said, arguing that the companys controlling shareholder, Adam Waterous, is using overvalued stock to try to capture what is effectively a majority stake in MEGs prized oil sands assets in northeastern Alberta.

Shares of Calgary-based MEG fell Wednesday after Bloomberg News reported McKenzies comments. The stock declined 2% to C$28.54 at 11:14 a.m. in Toronto. Cenovus shares rose as much as 3.7%.

To close the deal, Cenovus needs approval from at least two-thirds of the votes cast by MEG shareholders at a meeting scheduled in October. Strathcona owns 14% of MEG and intends to vote against it, so Cenovus needs to get an even higher percentage from other shareholders.

We need to get the vote out for sure, McKenzie said. So part of what we need to do is continue to talk to the MEG shareholders, continue to make sure that they understand our deal and the merits of the deal.

Representatives for MEG and Waterous didnt immediately respond to requests for comment.

Cenovus is offering to pay C$27.25 in cash or 1.325 of its shares for each MEG share. Investors can choose, but the company is limiting the total amount of cash to C$5.2 billion to minimize its debts.

On a full pro-rated basis, MEG holders would get C$20.44 in cash and 0.33125 of a Cenovus share.

Waterous has argued that by putting in so much cash, Cenovus shareholders are capping future gains for MEG investors as its assets become more productive.

Strathconas all-stock offer, if successful, would give existing MEG shareholders 43% of the merged company. Why that ends up being really important is that this deal has a huge amount of economic upside, Waterous said Tuesday on BNN Bloomberg Television.

McKenzie dismissed that line of attack. Theres nothing to stop any of these shareholders from using their cash to buy Cenovus stock. And thats kind of a silly argument.

--With assistance from Melissa Shin.

(Adds additional information beginning in the sixth paragraph.)

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
Microsoft has announced that employees will be required to work from the office at least three days a week starting next year, beginning with staff based near its headquarters in Redmond, Washington, the tech giant said in a blog post on Tuesday.

Microsoft first introduced a flexible work policy in late 2020, when employees returned to offices after pandemic-forced closures. The policy officially allowed workers to work remotely at least half of the time without approval, though in practice, it was more lenient, with most employees continuing to work from home most of the time.

Who will this policy apply to? The new policy will be rolled out in three phases, starting with employees near the company's headquarters in Redmond, Washington. Gradually, it will be extended to other locations in the United States and international employees, Microsoft's chief people officer Amy Coleman wrote in the blog.

For some of you, this is not a change. For others this may be a bigger adjustment, which is exactly why were providing time to plan thoughtfully, Coleman said in the blog.

Also Read | Infosys rolls out system intervention to ensure minimum 10-day work from office

Employees living within 50 miles of Microsoft's head office will be expected to work on-site three days a week by the end of February 2026, the blog said.

The company added that timelines and details for additional US office locations will be announced soon. Whereas for employees outside the US, the company will begin planning only in 2026.

Companies encourage work-from-office The remote-work culture gained popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, when companies shifted to a work-from-home setup due to the health and safety concerns of their employees.

However, some tech firms have begun to roll back those policies and now require employees to return to offices.

Microsoft's cross-town rival, Amazon, also introduced a similar policy last year, mandating employees to work on-site five days a week. This change, contrary to an earlier three-day work-from-office mandate, sparked debate as the Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman said, staffers who dont agree with Amazons new policy can leave, CNBC reported earlier.

Also Read | TikTok Shop US Employees Told to Work From Home as Layoffs Loom

Also Read | Flipkart ends work from home policy for all employees
General Motors Co. is pausing plans to eliminate a shift at its lone pickup-truck assembly plant in Canada, offering a temporary reprieve for hundreds of workers affected by President Donald Trumps tariffs.

The Detroit-based automaker will keep three shifts at its factory in Oshawa, Ontario, until at least Jan. 30, according to Unifor, which represents workers at the plant that makes the Chevrolet Silverado.

In May, GM said it would cut one shift at the plant in light of forecasted demand and the evolving trade environment, and had planned to make the reduction this fall. The company has announced plans to boost Silverado output at a factory in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The union also said Stellantis NV is bringing back a third shift at its factory in Windsor, Ontario, right across the border from Detroit, in the first quarter of 2026. Production was reduced at that plant, which makes Chrysler minivans and the Dodge Charger Daytona, shortly after Trump imposed tariffs on foreign-made automobiles.

Prime Minister Mark Carney retaliated by placing similar levies on US-made cars and light trucks  but soon after, his government said auto companies would be able to apply for tariff relief as long as they continued producing vehicles and investing in Canada.

Unifor has been pressuring Carney not to sign a trade deal with Trump that would enshrine tariffs on goods made in Canada.

Auto workers still face a highly precarious situation in Oshawa as well as other auto communities, but it does show that the work our union is doing and the message our members are sending to decision-makers is making a difference, Unifor National President Lana Payne said in a statement.

2025 Bloomberg L.P.
New Delhi, Sep 10 (PTI) Air India, Air India Express, IndiGo and SpiceJet cancelled their flights to and from Kathmandu on Wednesday as the city's airport remains closed amid unrest in the neighbouring nation.

In a statement, Air India said its flights to and from Kathmandu on September 10 have been cancelled as the airport continues to remain closed. "We are closely monitoring the situation and will share further updates".

The Tata Group-owned airline operates a total of 12 flights to and from Kathmandu.

In a post on X, IndiGo said that following the extension of the airport closure in Kathmandu, all flights to and from the city will remain cancelled until 1800 hours on September 10.

"We fully understand the uncertainty this may cause and want to assure you that flexible options remain open. We continue to extend waivers on rescheduling and cancellations for travel to and from Kathmandu until September 12, applicable for bookings made on or before September 9.

"While operations are on hold, our teams are actively coordinating with the relevant authorities and remain fully prepared to restore services as soon as permissions are granted," the carrier said.

Air India Express cancelled its services to the Nepalese city on Wednesday.

"In view of the prevailing situation in Nepal, we are offering guests booked to travel to or from Nepal up to 17th September 2025, the support and flexibility to freely reschedule their journeys to any future travel date with a complete waiver of change fees or any fare difference.

Alternatively, guests who elect to cancel their bookings for these dates would receive a full refund to their original mode of payment or travel agent," the airline said in a statement.

Air India Express also said that its operations to and from Nepal remain unhindered beyond tomorrow.

SpiceJet, on Tuesday, said it was cancelling its flights connecting Kathmandu for Wednesday.

On Tuesday also, Indian airlines cancelled some of their flights connecting Kathmandu.
The US judge who blocked the ouster of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook joined the growing chorus of her lower court colleagues to reject the idea that the Supreme Courts recent actions bind her to side with the Trump administration.

US District Judge Jia Cobb in her decision Tuesday said she was not persuaded that the justices past orders allowing President Donald Trump to fire other officials bars her from keeping Cook in her job for now.

The Washington judge offered a case-by-case analysis for why Cooks situation is different, including quoting the Supreme Courts own language about how the Fed is uniquely structured from other independent federal agencies with members appointed by the president.

Tensions within the federal judiciary are mounting as the Supreme Courts conservative majority routinely halts lower court rulings against the Trump administration on an emergency basis, often in orders featuring minimal or no explanation. A number of lower courts have rebuffed the Justice Departments arguments in favor of reading, in the words of one judge, the justices tea leaves.

Cobb has made clear that shes aware any ruling against the Trump administration is likely to be appealed and potentially reach the Supreme Court. During a recent hearing, she asked Cooks attorney for examples of legal precedents that help her avoid being smacked down on appeal if she ruled on a core question about what qualifies as for cause for a president to remove an official.

The Justice Department filed papers to appeal midday Tuesday.

The escalating frustrations within the court system have at times spilled into public. In one recent exchange, Justice Neil Gorsuch chided lower courts not to defy the justices. A Massachusetts federal judge then wrote in a recent opinion that such criticism was unhelpful and unnecessary as she and her colleagues did their best to interpret and apply Supreme Court orders that are not models of clarity.

Cobbs 49-page opinion in the Fed firing fight didnt feature that type of pointed pushback. Still, she acknowledged the string of recent orders in Trumps favor from the Supreme Court as well as the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, and then offered reasons for why each one doesnt stop her from siding with Cook now.

Earlier this week, for instance, Chief Justice John Roberts issued an order that temporarily let Trump remove a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission who is suing over her firing. Cobb wrote that Roberts time-limited and nonprecedential order provides no basis to doubt the logic she cited from lower court judges in the FTC case for why a fired official faces irreparable harm if they cant continue to serve amid an ongoing court fight.

Cobb, appointed to the federal bench by former President Joe Biden, addressed other recent agency firing cases in which the justices gave more weight to the harms that Trump faced in having officials exercising executive powers over his objection. The judge wrote that in one of those cases, the Supreme Court made a point of distinguishing the Fed as a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity.

Cook is one of seven members of a board that is, by design, not intended to be susceptible to policy pressure, let alone tasked with implementing the presidents agenda, she wrote.

The case is Cook v. Trump, 25-cv-2903, US District Court, District of Columbia .

2025 Bloomberg L.P.
New Delhi: A family feud over the late Sunjay Kapurs estate is intensifying, as ex-wife Bollywood actor Karisma Kapoor, her children, and his widow, Priya Kapur, battle over personal assets and control of a trust that owns the promoter entity of Sona Comstar, Indias eighth-largest auto-components maker.

A petition filed by Karisma in the Delhi High Court challenges Priyas handling of Sunjays personal assets and adds to the disputes already surrounding the estate. Sunjays mother, Rani Kapur, and sister, Mandhira Kapur, have also raised questions about how events unfolded after the former Sona Comstar chairpersons death.

On Wednesday, Rani Kapur joined Karisma Kapoor and her children in challenging the validity of his Will before the Delhi High Court. She argued that she had been entirely excluded from the state and sought a status quo on his assets

Mint reviewed the court filings and recent company records to trace how the familys disagreements over succession and corporate control have come to the fore.

From London to New Delhi

Sunjay died in London earlier this year. Days later, Karisma and her children Samaira and Kiaan travelled to England, during 14-17 June, to meet Priya. During that visit, the petition says, Priya repeatedly told them Sunjay had left no Will and that his assets were housed entirely under the RK Family Trust.

This fact was reiterated several times thereafter when the plaintiffs or their mother met or spoke to the Defendant No 1 (Priya)," the petition filed in Delhi High Court reads.

The RK Family Trust controls Aureus Investment Pvt. Ltd, the promoter entity of Sona Comstar. The trust owns 65% of Aureus, which in turn holds a 28% stake in Sona Comstar.

Corporate filings show that after Sunjays death, the trust listed four beneficiary owners: Priya, her son Azarias, and Sunjays children with Karisma - Samaira and Kiaan. Through this ownership, Priya joined Aureus to take Sunjays place, and on 20 June was appointed its managing director at an extraordinary general meeting.

By early July, attention shifted to Sona Comstars annual general meeting, set for 25 July. Priya asked Karisma for Samaira and Kiaan to attend and submit trust-related documents. A week later, she abruptly said their presence was no longer needed, without explanation, according to the petition.

Defendant No. 1 (Priya) called and informed the plaintiffs mother that there was no requirement to attend the AGM. No reason was given for the same," the petition says.

On 24 July, Sunjays mother Rani Kapur wrote to Sona Comstars board opposing Priyas appointment as a director and urging a delay of the AGM. The company pressed ahead, dismissing her objection on the grounds she had no stake. At the meeting, Priya was approved as a director.

Also Read | Priya Kapur, son in driving seat at family trust behind Sona Comstar

A sudden Will

On the day of the AGM, Priya and Karisma agreed to schedule a meeting with their legal advisers to discuss matters of the family trust. On 26 July, the two exchanged messages to confirm the timing and participants, which included directors of Aureus and Shradha Suri Marwah, managing director of Subros and executor of Sunjay Kapurs estate.

The petition claims this was the first sign of suspicious behaviour from Priya. In one message, she referred to an executor for this process," wording that raised doubts about whether the meeting was solely about the trust.

The plaintiffs or their mother could not understand as to what was being referred to as the executor for this process and assumed it to mean that there is a person for executing the process relating to the Trust. Now, it transpires that the words executor for this process were deliberately used without reference to any Will," the petition says.

Despite those concerns, relations between the two families still appeared cordial. In another message the same day, Priya invited Karisma to arrive early with Samaira and Kiaan so the children could spend time with her son Azarias before the meeting. Karisma agreed.

On 30 July, the families, their advisers, and Marwah met at the Taj Mansingh Hotel in New Delhi to review the trust and Sunjays assets. Forms for the childrens beneficiary ownership were handed over.

It was also at this meeting, the petition says, that Karisma and her children were shown for the first time a Will of Sunjay Kapurdated March 21which left all of his personal estate to Priya.

Karisma and her children, however, have questioned its authenticity. Although Marwah was listed as executor, the petition claims she only learned of the Will on 29 July from Aureus directors Dinesh Agarwal and Nitin Sharma.

The manner and speed in which the said document was purported to be read, it was difficult to comprehend the effect and terms of the same, unless one saw / read it carefully and examined it legally. Neither a copy of the Alleged Purported Will was provided nor shown to the Plaintiffs or to their mother," the petition says.

The petition further alleges that before the Will was disclosed, the children and their mother were asked to sign a confidentiality agreement. When they refused, Karisma contends, Priyas attitude toward them shifted.

Rising tensions

In early August, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs recorded beneficiary ownership forms for Priya and her son Azarias, but not for Karismas children, Samaira and Kiaan.

On 22 August, Karisma wrote to Marwah on behalf of Kiaan, seeking a copy of the Will and questioning why it had not been disclosed earlier.

Prior to the meeting (on 30 July), I was informed that the discussions were related to documentation pertaining to the RK Family Trust of which Kiaan Kapur and Samaira Kapur are beneficiaries," she wrote. During the course of the meeting, to our surprise we were for the first time informed by you of the existence of a last Will and Testament purported to have been signed by Mr. Sunjay Kapur on 21st March, 2025."

But on 26 August, Marwah declined to share the document. Instead, she told Karisma that, Based on the reading of the Will. as it presently stands, neither you nor the children including Master Kiaan Kapur ( represented by yourself as legal guardian) are beneficiaries under the Will."

As the Will is a confidential and private document, I am unable to provide you with a copy. However, for the sake of transparency, you may inspect the Will at my counsel's officeat any convenient and reasonable time mutually agreed, subject to your signing a declaration of confidentiality prior to such inspection," Marwah wrote.

Also Read | Unravelling the Kapur family rift: Fault lines emerge from 2017

The petition counters that Sunjay never disclosed the existence of such a Will despite frequent contact with his children. During 15-18 March, he took Kiaan on a trip to Goa and later to Delhi to visit his mother, Rani Kapur. In the months before his death, he also discussed seeking Portuguese citizenship for himself and both children, requesting their documents. At no point, the petition claims, did he suggest that his entire estate would be left to Priya.

Samaira and Kiaans beneficiary ownership forms finally appeared in MCA records in early September.

On 8 September, Karisma again wrote on Kiaans behalf, objecting to Marwahs conditional inspection process, arguing that as Sunjays legal heirs the children were entitled to full access. That same day, Karisma filed a petition in the Delhi High Court, seeking a fair division of Sunjays personal estate between his children.

Queries sent to Priya on Tuesday remained unanswered till press time.
Marriott International is stepping up its India bet, targeting 500 hotels by 2030 as it expands aggressively across both luxury and mid-scale segments.

The American hospitality chain already manages 159 hotels in the country and has another 137 signed, making India one of its fastest-growing markets in the Asia Pacific excluding China (APEC).

Neeraj Govil, chief operating officer for the region, told Mint that the region is one of the most dynamic growth engines" post-covid with India being an "absolute powerhouse" for the companyboth in terms of travel within India and abroad.

Across APEC, Marriott recorded double-digit RevPAR growth in first half of 2025, led by Japan, Vietnam, Australia and India, while Thailand lagged. RevPAR or revenue per available room is a metric by which hoteliers measure the performance of a hotel in terms of the revenue it generates.

He said the April-June quarter was hit by India-Pakistan tensions, but demand bounced back with corporate travel and weddings expected to keep momentum strong through the year.

"The markets driving that (RevPAR growth) for us in India, Vietnam, Australia and Japan, with the exception of Thailand. Japan's having an amazing year and India remains an absolute powerhouse for us - both in terms of travel within India and abroad. Everyone wants the Indian traveller," he said. Almost 65% of the companys business now comes from the APEC region.

Family travel is huge in Asia too. So we make sure that our hotels are designed, built, and operated in a manner that is family friendly, which is important in India, we've been seeing both domestic and multinational travel," he added.

While RevPAR in the US and Canada remained flat, Marriotts global RevPAR rose 1.5% in Q2, led by leisure demand, it said in its most recent earnings call in August. International markets drove the gains, with RevPAR climbing more than 5% in Asia Pacific and EMEA, it said.

India driving business

While mid-scale hotels are seeing strong traction, Govil said Indias luxury segment has also evolved post-pandemic.

"India has been pretty resilient. Business is coming back, and the remaining months of the year are looking very solid for us. In the upcoming quarter (October-December), corporate travel within the country as a segment is looking good and weddings remain strong," Govil said

The company's total operating hotels portfolio in India, is 159 hotels with nearly a fifth in luxury segment with the rest spread across midscale, premium and select services.

"Indias infrastructure, development, the new airports, new roads, accessibility, all of that is really confidence-inspiring. I feel very confident generally about the performance of our hotels in the country," he added.

He said the middle class is driving all of this demand across the board, adding that the Indian market has a particularly robust domestic engine and is extremely resilient.

"The main pattern here is largely domestic. Even in tier I markets, we're seeing the strength of domestic travel, generally speaking." he said. Business in the corporate segment has grown well and is also coming from the free-independent-traveller and group travel segments.

On the goods and services tax (GST), he said it was something the industry had been asking for for a long time. Though input tax cost cannot be claimed, the "key here is simplification, which is really appreciated. We all believe this is going to be beneficial and it's good news in general," he said.

Marriott runs brands like JW Marriott, Le Meridien W and Westin. It recently launched its India-first 'Series by Marriott' brand targeting tier II and III cities and integrated Chaudhary group-backed The Ferns 115 hotels under it.

The company signed 42 hotel deals in India in 2024 and operates about 30,000 rooms in the country. It plans to take this to 50,000 rooms within five years, in line with Indias branded hotel supply expected to grow from 200,000 rooms today to 300,000 by 2030.

In July it also signed a deal with Panchshil group and Blackstone-backed Ventive Hospitality Ltd, a listed hotel development and management business, to add six new hotels at a 2500 crore investment to its portfolio over the next five years in the country.

Marriott International's hotels in India clocked a gross revenue of 10,000 crore in the previous calendar year, up from around 8000 crore in 2024, the top executive said.

Last week, Mint reported that the American hospitality major had expanded Kiran Andicots role to senior vice president for South Asia, giving him charge of both hotel development and operations across the region. His appointment followed Ranju Alexs exit to Accor as South Asia CEO.
Mumbai: Diversified conglomerate Raymond Groupwith interests in textiles and apparel, real estate, engineering, aerospace and defencewill continue to evaluate acquisition opportunities as it expands operations in India and abroad.

We will look at investments from an acquisition point of view whenever the opportunities come. We are well-funded, we are a zero-debt company. So, we don't have a problem with that, Gautam Singhania, managing director of Raymond Group, said in an interview with Mint on Wednesday.

Raymond Ltd, incorporated as Raymond Woolen Mill in 1925 near Thane Creek, celebrated its centenary on Wednesday in Mumbai. Started as a textile mill in the 1920s, the company has since diversified into real estate, aerospace and defence, and now operates through three listed entities in India.

Also Read | Raymond Realty eyes higher sales, multiple launches in FY26

Singhania was appointed chairman and managing director of Raymond Ltd in 2000. Shares of the company settled about 2% higher at 623.10 apiece on the BSE on Wednesday.

Theres zero debt today; we are sitting on cash. We're generating cash so we're very comfortable. We're looking at deals all the timein real estate we are looking for more projects, could be land ownersthat will require capital etc, Singhania told Mint on the sidelines of the event attended by celebrities and business executives. Vijaypat Singhania, who transferred control of Raymond to his second son Gautam, was notably absent from the event. Gautam Singhania's wife Nawaz and their two daughters were at the event.

Realty, defence drive plans Under Singhania's leadership, the group has launched a series of strategic restructuring efforts to enhance its valuations and market position. The company has successfully spun off its branded apparel division into a separate listed entity Raymond Lifestyle Ltd and divested its fast-moving consumer brands, including Park Avenue, to Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. Additionally, Raymond is actively working to unlock value from its real estate assets in Thane by developing them under the Raymond Realty brand, laying the groundwork for a broader real estate strategy.

In April 2023, Raymond sold its FMCG business (Raymond Consumer Care) to Godrej Consumer Products via a slump sale valued at 2,825 crore.

Two of its three businesses have since debuted on the stock market.

Also Read | Raymond Group demerger: The hidden lesson for Indian family businesses

Raymond Lifestyle, the branded apparel and menswear division, was demerged and separately listed in September 2024. Its stock closed nearly 2% higher at 1,308.65 on the BSE on Wednesday.

The denerger was aimed at creating a net-debt-free lifestyle entity and allowing Raymond Ltd to sharpen focus on real estate and engineering.

Following this, Raymond Realtythe groups real estate verticalwas also spun off. The demerger was approved in May 2025, with July 1 as the listing date. Its stock settled 1.2% lower at 636.95 on the BSE on Wednesday.

In 2023, the group announced the acquisition of a majority stake stake in Maini Precision Products Ltd (MPPL) for 682 crore to foray into growing segments like aerospace, defence, and electric vehicles (EV). MPPL is engaged in manufacturing precision engineering products for aerospace, EV, and defence sectors. The groups engineering vertical dates back to 1949, with JK Files and Engineering Ltd as a large manufacturer of steel files.

Also Read | How Singhania is navigating a 7-year turnaround at Raymond

Raymond Realty, launched in 2019, reported around 2,300 crore in sales in FY25 and is targeting at least 20% growth this year. By FY26, it plans to launch six projects across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Mint reported earlier in June.

Real estate is going to take capital lifestyle doesn't need any capex because we're not investing into new (manufacturing) engineering, auto if we have acquisition opportunities there could be something, Singhania said.

In June this year, it had announced an investment of 1,200 crore in Andhra Pradesh with a focus on auto components and aerospace manufacturing.

Despite macroeconomic headwinds, the group is targeting annual growth of at least 15%. "You should see a growth of at least 15% for the group per year; I would like to grow Ebitda of at least 20%, Singhania said.

Each business has its own strategy and growth drivers. In real estate, it will be new projects which will drive growth. In lifestyle it could be new verticals, along with retail expansion. Defence is also a huge opportunity, he said.

Meanwhile, recent tariffs imposed by the US on imports from India have burdened apparel exporters such as Raymond, which supplies ready-made garments to large American retailers.

From our point of viewfor a 14,000 to 15,00 crore groupour exports to the US are not even 500 crore. All of it is not going to get impacted, even if 10% gets impactedits too small. Exports to the US as a percentage of the total group is coming down, Singhania added.
Robinhood is launching a social media network for investors and adding more tools and features to its platform for active traders, the company announced Tuesday evening at its annual conference for active investors.

The company hopes Robinhood Social, which resembles Twitter, will help it attract investors to its brokerage platform and keep them engaged. Customers who sign up for Robinhood Social will be able to follow other Robinhood traders, discuss strategies and market moves, and share verified trades.

In addition to the social-media platform, Robinhood also said it is adding new features, such as customized financial indicators and overnight index options, to Robinhood Legend, the desktop trading platform the company unveiled a year ago.

The announcements come as Robinhood seeks to maintain a steady drumbeat of product launches and brisk growth. It may also help maintain Robinhood stocks red-hot momentum. Shares of the brokerage firm are up 215% this year and 496% over the past 12 months, and Robinhood is also joining the S&P 500.

The stock has skyrocketed as Robinhood rolls out more features, products, and services in a bid to win more wallet share with its millions of customers. The company once known for its free-trading app now offers a credit card, a banking app, and wealth management services.

Robinhood is no longer just where you tradeits your financial superapp," said Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, who has set goals for the company to be the No. 1 platform for active traders and to win more wallet share with next-generation investors.

Expanding its suite of products and services, such as by adding retirement accounts and launching Robinhood Legend, has accelerated the companys growth and enticed customers to move more of their assets to Robinhoods platform.

The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company had a record 26.5 million funded customers at the end of the second quarter, up 2.3 million from the same period a year ago. Average platform assets per customer rose to $10,500 from $5,800 for the second quarter of 2024 and $3,800 for the second quarter of 2023.

Even as it makes strides toward its goals, Robinhood faces fierce competition for active traders, a highly desirable segment of retail investors. Traditional financial services companies such as Charles Schwab and relatively new entrants such as eToro and Webull are also vying for these customers, who tend to use more of a brokerage firms services than buy-and-hold investors.

Robinhood is launching a social media network for investors, Robinhood Social, that will allow users to follow other Robinhood traders, discuss strategies and market moves, and share verified trades.

Social media connection. Active traders tend to use more than one brokerage platform. And they visit multiple social-media platforms, such as Reddit and X, for sharing and finding new investing ideas. The subreddit wallstreetbets, which became notorious during the meme stock craze, has 20 million members. The RobinHood subreddit has one million.

The brokerage firm may be able to better attract and retain active traders if it can foster a tight knit community with Robinhood Social as their meeting place. The company believes that since both traders and Robinhood Social users are verified (you have to have a brokerage account to sign up) that will give its social media network an edge over existing options where its hard to know if the information shared is true or not.

If a customer chooses to share a trade, we can verify that the trade is real," says Abhishek Fatehpuria, vice president of product management. That offers a better product experience and a higher degree of trust for the customer that this thing actually happened."

Importantly, the company isnt aiming to create a generic social-media website; posts to Robinhood Social will have to be about investing or trading. Over time we may expand the types of post you can make," Fatehpuria says. But every post you make has to be tied to a trade. Part of that is to make sure the platform stays on message."

Many Americans, especially younger ones, rely on social media to help inform their trading, investing, and personal finance decisions. About 20% of U.S. adults said they used social media as a source of financial information and advice, according to a Gallup survey released earlier this year. For younger adults aged 18 to 29, that figure was 42%. Additionally, 23% of young adults say they follow personal finance content creators on social media.

That Robinhood is launching a social-media platform at all might seem unusual, but executives say its long been on the companys wishlist. Its something we have talked about every year in the nine years I have been here," Fatehpuria says. Its always a conversation, Is this the year to do social?"

For years, the answer was no as other priorities took precedence. Today the company is operating from a stronger position, with several major initiatives completed, such as the launch of Robinhood Legend at last years active trader conference, Fatehpuria says.

For now, Robinhood Social is invite-only. The company plans to open the network to more customers early next year. Robinhood says it will be available at no additional cost.

Trading platform improvements. With the AI-powered investing assistant Robinhood Cortex, the company says it will be easier for active traders to analyze trends, research trades, and identify new opportunities.

In addition, users will be able to trade more futures products including S&P 500, oil, Bitcoin, and gold. They will also be able to ladder futures trades on Legend (this feature is already available on Robinhoods mobile app). And Robinhood will give users the ability to build custom indicators and scans, which some investors use for identifying trading opportunities. Executives say these are among the most commonly requested features from users.

Last year when we launched Legend, we had a lot of folks at the events asking when we could add custom indicators. At first we thought it was a niche audience asking for it, but even after the event we had people asking us," says Swaroon Sridhar, lead product manager for indicators and scans by Robinhood Cortex. Some people said they wouldnt even use the platform until they could have their custom indicators. So we realized we needed to support that if we wanted to win that audience."

The company is also enabling Robinhood Cortex to help users build and design their custom indicators. It was inspired to do so in part because of Robinhood staffs frustrations trying to build custom indicators using existing online tools, says Swarin, who adds that they werent easy to use especially for novice investors.

We felt it would be a classic Robinhood moment if we could take something that is pretty elite and democratize it by making it available to a much broader audience," he says.

Custom indicators and scans by Cortex will launch early next year to subscribers of Robinhoods Gold subscription service, which costs $5 a month or $50 annually.

In addition, Robinhood will enable users to sync their mobile devices with Robinhood Legend, effectively allowing them to monitor charts on their desktop screens while placing trades on their mobile devices.

Some users like to just execute trades on mobile, and not just equity trades, but also options trades," says Gina Pasqua-Abeles, senior director of brokerage product management.
Mumbai: The Bakers Dozen, which is backed by Wipro Consumer Care Ventures and Fireside Ventures, is exploring options for a sale, even as it had outlined plans last year to expand in India and overseas.

The artisanal bakery brand has appointed JM Financial to manage the sale and expects a valuation of 500-600 crore, two people said, adding that strategic investors will be approached shortly for buying the company.

Indias expanding bakery market has seen new companies come up and attracted investors owing to a growing appetite for desserts and confectioneries, including healthy variants.

However, The Bakers Dozen isnt looking for fresh investments due to its moderating growth, and could make use of a larger company's reach and distribution systems, the two people said, declining to be identified.

The company is unlikely to opt for any further capital raise as a strategic sale makes more sense for them to address a larger target base," one of them said.

The Bakers Dozen did not respond to Mints emails sent on Monday evening. JM Financial declined to comment.

Founded by Aditi Handa and Sneh Jain in 2013, The Bakers Dozen began with making and selling breads and crackers, eventually adding cakes, cookies, and premixes that use natural ingredients.

The company sells its products through a vast network of its own and other general stores such as Reliance Retail and More Retail across 33 cities in India, as well as through e-commerce and quick-commerce platforms.

The Bakers Dozen has raised about $9 million across three fundraising rounds and was last valued at around 125 crore, show data from market intelligence provider Tracxn. It also counts Mirabilis Investment Trust and She Capital among its investors.

Last year, the company outlined plans to expand its presence beyond Indias metro cities as well as create a strong distribution network in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Its net revenue in 2023-24 grew to 45.36 crore from 41.86 crore in the year prior, as per documents sourced by markets intelligence platform Tofler.

However, the company downsized its own store operations, helping narrow its ebitda loss to 11.59 crore in FY24 from a loss of 14.20 crore in FY23. FY25 financials werent available.

Ebitda, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation, is a measure of core operational efficiency.

Key Takeaways The Bakers Dozen is exploring a 500-600 crore sale as its growth slows, even after raising funds from marquee investors.

Indias bakery market is booming, with rivals like Theobroma and Belgian Waffle Co drawing big-ticket investment deals.

A strategic buyer could unlock scale for The Bakers Dozen by tapping into Indias growing appetite for breads, cakes, and healthier bakes.

Hotter, healthier, and consolidating

Low barriers to entry in the bakery market and the largely fragmented nature of the sector has led to several new players setting up shop and raising funds in recent years. These companies have been able to scale up fast, benefitting from distribution channels such as quick-commerce.

Last month, private equity firm ChrysCapital acquired an 85% stake in deserts chain Theobroma for 2,400 crore. The Belgian Waffle Co is in talks with venture capital firm Norwest Venture Partners to buy the company for 350-500 crore, the Economic Times reported last month.

Other recent deals in the baking space include The Health Factorys $3.5 million fundraise led by Peak XV Partners last year, and online cake-delivery platform Bakingos $16 million fundraise from Faering Capital in 2023.

Years earlier, Mexican bakery brand Grupo Bimbo made two key acquisitions in India. In 2017, it acquired a controlling stake in Ready Roti India (which operated under the Harvest Gold brand), and in 2021 bought Modern Foods from Everstone Capital.

Also Read | Why ChrysCapital is snapping up Theobroma and chasing family-run QSR brands

Indias bakery market is expected to reach $31.5 billion in nine years from $13.8 billion in 2024, according to a report by IMARC Group.

The market research firm said changing consumer preferences driven by factors such as western food trends, increased consumption of cakes and ready-to-eat food, and expanding retail and e-commerce sectors are fueling growth in this market.

This, in turn, is prompting manufacturers to introduce healthier options and invest in research and development to meet evolving consumer demand, it said.

Natasha Treasurywala, partner at corporate law firm Desai and Diwanji, said deal-making in the bakery space is primarily driven by consumer demand for foods that are no longer restricted to items like pastries but include gluten free, organic, sugar free, keto and other options.

This coupled with higher disposable income has led to a huge growth spurt for this sector and investors are seeing great potential over the next few years," she said.

The main driver for bakeries to consolidate is not just the obvious one of scalability but also distribution," Treasurywala added. In order to scale up, a good distribution network is paramount, and it is difficult to achieve this on a standalone basis by such businesses."
Startups building hardware to rewire brain chemistry or developing stem cell therapies for people going blindthose are the sort of niche healthtech firms early-stage investors are scouting for after years of mostly betting on general healthcare-related companies.

Half of the top 10 venture capital investments in healthcare startups since 2020 were in PharmEasy, an online marketplace for medicines and diagnostics services, data from Venture Intelligence show. But in the previous 18 months, VC investments have also flowed into companies like Innovaccer, Neuberg Diagnostics, and Qure.ai.

Innovaccer, which raised $275 million in January from investors including Kaiser Permanente, Capital Group, Banner Health, and Microsofts venture arm M12, offers artificial intelligence-powered data analytics solutions to healthcare providers, public health systems, and the life sciences industry.

Neuberg Diagnostics raised $109 million in January from Kotak Strategic Situations India Fund II, which is managed by Kotak Alternate Asset Managers Ltd. The Chennai-based company is a diagnostic service provider with operations across India, the UAE, South Africa and the US.

Qure.ai, which uses AI to automate interpretation of radiology exams for early detection of lung cancer, tuberculosis and strokes, raised $65 million in May last year from Lightspeed Ventures, Kae Capital, 360 One, and others.

The reasons for this increased focus on specialised healthtech startups is two-fold.

One, while the addressable market size for such firms may be small, value-creation can be high, especially for companies with a strong intellectual property portfolio. Two, such startups could be acquired by larger pharmaceutical companies later, giving their backers healthy returns on their investments.
New Delhi: Rani Kapur, mother of late Sona Comstar chairman Sunjay Kapur, has joined his children with ex-wife and actor Karisma Kapoor in challenging the validity of his Will before the Delhi High Court. She argued that she had been entirely excluded from the estate and sought a status quo on his assets.

During Wednesdays hearing over the disclosure of the Will filed by Karisma Kapoors children, Rani Kapurs counsel stated that Rani Kapur, a Class I heir, has been completely excluded from the purported Will and the RK Family Trust.

Under Indian succession law, Class I heirs include the deceaseds spouse, children, and mother, all entitled to inherit by default.

Justice Jyoti Singh asked Rani Kapurs counsel to formally file a reply and directed disclosure of all of the late chairmans assets.

The court asked all parties to submit their responses within two weeks and listed the matter for 9 October, when it is expected to decide whether to maintain a freeze on the assets until the dispute over the Will is resolved.

What the plea says There is something incredibly unholy in the way this has been done. Ten thousand crores worth of estate, which otherwise ought to be mineand Im concerned," Vaibhav Gaggar, senior advocate, said, quoting Rani Kapur.

"Now Im 80 years oldIm concerned for my seven grandchildren... I am the person who has to make sure everyone gets it. Everyones excluded, the plea said.

Three of the heirs are directly linked to Sunjay Kapur: his children with Karisma Kapoor, Samaira and Kiaan; his son with Priya Sachdev Kapur, Azarius; and Safira, Priyas daughter from a previous marriage, who is treated as part of the family. There are three children from his sister Mandira Kapurs side.

"For the sake of everyones sanity here, there needs to be a status quo on the assets, the counsel added.

Rani Kapurs counsel also claimed she had sent at least 15 emails seeking details of the Will, the RK Family Trust, and other assets, but received no response.

Not once has anything been shared Im being told that my emails have been compromised. So I go on video and saysorry, this is me who is asking for it, not shared, the counsel added.

Karisma Kapoors children, Samaira and Kiaan, had moved the high court challenging a Will that allegedly bequeaths the entire estate to Sunjay Kapurs third wife, Priya Kapur. The Kapur family has been embroiled in disputes since Sunjay Kapurs death on 12 June 2024.

Meanwhile, lawyers for late business tycoon Sunjay Kapurs wife, Priya Sachdev, informed the high court that Karisma Kapoors children, Samaira and Kiaan, were allotted assets valued at 1,900 crore through the RK Family Trust.

Rani Kapur was the first family member to oppose Priya Kapurs control of Sona Comstars promoter entity, Aureus Investment, and her appointment to the companys board. On 24 July, she wrote a letter opposing the appointment and raising concerns over events following her sons death in London.

As per filings, Rani Kapur had transferred her ownership of shares in Aureus in 2017 to a trust called RK Family Trust, which governs the entire shareholding in Sona Comstar.

The current case, however, filed by Karisma Kapoors children, focuses on Sunjay Kapurs personal assets, which Priya Kapur claims are governed by a Will dated 21 March 2024.

According to the petition earlier accessed by Mint, Samaira and Kiaan have demanded a one-fifth share each of their fathers personal estate, claiming they were not provided a copy of the Will despite repeated requests. The Will allegedly leaves all of Sunjay Kapurs personal assets to Priya Kapur.

The plea states that the Will came to light during a meeting on 30 July at Taj Mansingh Hotel, attended by Priya Kapur, her legal advisors, Shradha Suri Marwah, and other executives of Aureus Investment Pvt. Ltd., the promoter entity of Sona Comstar. It remains unclear whether the Will was officially registered.
India-US trade deal: India is in active dialogue with the United States for a free trade agreement, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday, hours after US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi seemed to put efforts to reset the nations' ties.

Speaking at an event of industry body FICCI, Goyal said that India is also in talks with New Zealand for a trade deal.

"We are in active dialogue with the USA and New Zealand for a trade agreement," Piyush Goyal said.

The minister said that negotiations are underway with the European Union as well in the national capital for concluding a trade agreement.

Piyush Goyal, speaking at the event, further noted that India has already concluded trade deals with the UAE, Australia and Mauritius.

We will soon finalise second tranche of trade agreement with Australia, he added.

Goyal informed that more FTAs with other countries are also in the offing, and it will take some time.

A meeting with the EU Commissioner is scheduled today on different FTAs, the minister added.

India's trade deal negotiations gained momentum this week with multiple bilateral engagements underway, including fresh rounds with the European Union (EU).

India-US trade deal: Modi and Trump set for talks After weeks of anti-India rants and imposing 50 per cent US tariffs on Indian goods, President Donald Trump over the past few days has appeared to change his tone on his relations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On Tuesday, Trump called PM Modi a very good friend and announced that India and the US are continuing trade negotiations.

I am pleased to announce that India, and the United States of America, are continuing negotiations to address the Trade Barriers between our two Nations, Trump posted on Truth Social platform.

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 of our Great Countries, he said.

PM Modi responded to Donald Trump's comments and called the US and India natural partners.

India and the US are close friends and natural partners. I am confident that our trade negotiations will pave the way for unlocking the limitless potential of the India-US partnership, he posted on X.

PM Modi noted that India and US are working to conclude the 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, the Prime Minister said.

India and the US have been negotiating a bilateral trade agreement since March. So far, five rounds of negotiations have been completed. For the sixth round, the US team, which was to visit India last month, deferred their visit.
Negotiations on the IndiaUS Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) are set to gain fresh momentum after President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed confidence in talks reaching an early conclusion on Wednesday.

First, in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump said he was pleased that the two nations were continuing talks to address trade barriers and looked forward to speaking with his very good friend Modi in the coming weeks. I feel certain that there will be no difficulty in coming to a successful conclusion for both of our great countries, he wrote.

Also Read | India steps up FTA talks with Qatar, EU as US tariff strains trade ties

Then, Modi, in a post on X, underlined the strength of the India-US partnership and stressed that the ongoing negotiations would help unlock the limitless potential between the two economies.

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, he said.

The renewed push to finalize the long-pending BTA comes amid heightened trade tensions, as Washington imposed 50% reciprocal tariffs on Indian goodsthe highest of any country except Brazil, which also faces 50% US tariffs.

The talks were put on hold after the US negotiators' team cancelled its visit to New Delhi ahead of the sixth round of face-to-face discussions, which was scheduled to begin on 25 August.

According to an Indian government official, the new dates will be determined in coordination with the US team. We are hoping the talks will restart in September and that the first tranche of the deal will be sealed before the deadline set by both leaders, which is the fall of 2025extending until November in the Indian calendar," said the official on the condition of anonymity.

Also Read | India under WTO spotlight for long-pending farm trade queries

However, the official maintained that Indias stance on agriculture, dairy, and genetically modified crops would not change, which had led to the talks being put on hold earlier.

A ray of hope With both leaders signalling political will, industry leaders believe the BTA could provide a framework to stabilize bilateral trade at a time when global supply chains are being disrupted by tariff wars and shifting alliances.

The finalization of the BTA will bring stability and help trade return to its normal course. The labour-intensive sectors are the ones directly impacted by the 50% US tariff. It is a positive sign that both leaders are now talking about restarting the talks, said Dr Dattesh Parulekar, assistant professor of International Relations at Goa University.

Also Read | Exporters told to wait as govt eyes US trade deal by Nov; interim relief likely

On 27 August, the Trump administration imposed 25% tariffs on India for buying Russian oil, in addition to 25% reciprocal tariffs, a move that unsettled exporters in engineering, textiles, and food products.

However, New Delhi sought to continue talks rather than retaliate. The Indian government is focussing on diversifying its exports to trusted partners and sealing key free trade agreements (FTAs) on a priority basis.

Mint reported on 9 September that India is aiming to finalize FTAs with Peru, Chile, and Mexico to redirect about 20% of the goods currently exported to the US. In value terms, nearly $17 billion out of Indias total exports of $86.5 billion to the US could be redirected to these three markets without major disruptions to supply chains.

The deadline for finalising the first tranche of the BTA is intact, as it is a written commitment stated in the joint statement of both leaders on 13 February, said a second government official.

The decision on the visit of the team for the next round of face-to-face negotiations will be taken after the talks between the two leaders. It has been clearly stated by both the leaders in their social media posts that they will be talking to each other soon, this official said, adding that the talks are on the track and the deal will be mutually beneficial.

As per the joint statement, the first tranche of the BTA is supposed to be signed by the fall of 2025.

However, the first official cited above said that since it is not a full-fledged free trade agreement, it is not yet clear whether the talks will be considered the sixth round  which was scheduled but got cancelled due to the U.S. teams withdrawal  or the final round of negotiations.

Cautious optimism Economists, however, say optimism should be cautious.

Madhavi Arora, chief economist, Emkay Global Financial Services, said, While the social media statements by Trump and Modi signal a potential rapprochement between the US and India, it is still premature to assume that a resolution will arrive swiftly.

Reports suggest that Trump has asked the EU to slap 100% tariffs on India (and China) due to their purchases of Russian crude - with the US then increasing its tariffs further. Thus, as always with Trump, we will need to wait for more concrete signals that a deal is in the offing. While things can change rapidly, at present, we expect the current tariff scenario to remain in place for some time, said Arora.

Encouraging to see both countries reaffirming their commitment to resolving trade barriers and deepening economic engagement. A balanced, forward-looking trade framework will not only benefit exporters on both sides but also strengthen supply chains, technology collaboration, and services trade, said Ajay Sahai, DG, FIEO.

Also Read | India wants steel, aluminium tariffs to be part of trade agreement with US

For Indian exporters, a predictable and mutually supportive trade environment with the U.S.our key partner in goods and serviceswill be pivotal in unlocking new growth opportunities, said Sahai.

The contours of the deal and its fine print will bear watching for clauses related to investment commitments (as has happened with the European Union and Japan), perspectives on services and people movement, possible conditions on energy and defence procurement, and easing of import restrictions, especially in agricultural and dairy inputs. The US is a crucial market, accounting for about a fifth of Indias overall merchandise exports, so a favourable tariff rate relative to peers could offer a significant upside to Indian exporters, said Priti Arora, president & business head, Crisil Intelligence.

Hopefully, the final agreement will have exemptions for specific segments in pharmaceuticals, chemicals, plantation crops, silk, gems and jewellery, and aircraft components  just the way it was signed and sealed for a few other countries, said Arora.

Room for doubt However, GTRI founder and former Indian government official Ajay Srivastava cautioned Indian negotiators to not be enthralled by Trumps early deal talk.

Trumps conciliatory words about soon speaking with Prime Minister Modi and concluding a deal quickly clash with U.S. actions over the past two weeks. Top Trump aides like Peter Navarro and Scott Bessent have used abusive language against India, showing the real tone of Washingtons approach, said Srivastava.

More importantly, on 4 September, the Trump administration filed an appeal in the U.S. Supreme Court to restore tariffs struck down by lower courts. The filing explicitly cites Indias Russian oil purchases to justify keeping all tariffs. Removing tariffs now would weaken Trumps own court casemaking any relief for India highly improbable, he said.

India must remain steady. Negotiations were already underway when India faced 25% tariffs, with hopes of a cut to 10%. Instead, Trump added another 25% penalty linked to Russian oil. Unless the U.S. drops these tariffswhich looks unlikely given the Supreme Court caseno trade negotiation can realistically move forward. Trumps warm words may simply be a tactic to weaken Indias resolve in pursuing multipolar ties with Russia and China.

New Delhi should not build false hopes. Instead, it must formally record its objections by filing an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court. This would support American businesses challenging the tariffs, counter Trumps narrative, and protect Indias interests at a critical moment, said Srivastava.

The change in the U.S. stance is being viewed in the context of the recent SCO meeting, where India and Russia appeared to move closer towards China, and India signaled its willingness to tweak Press Note 3 to facilitate investments from border-sharing countries, primarily China.

Soon after the SCO meeting, on 5 September, U.S. President Donald Trump once again took aim at Indias global positioning, suggesting that New Delhi was aligning more closely with Moscow and Beijing at a time when Washington and New Delhi were still negotiating a bilateral trade agreement (BTA).
New Delhi: Punjab has urged the Centre to double its allocation under the SASCI (Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment) schemea 50-year interest-free loan program for capital expenditureciting extensive damage from recent floods.

The states finance minister, Harpal Singh Cheema, told Mint that Punjabs infrastructure losses warrant higher support from the central government.

Punjab received 2,269 crore under the scheme in FY25, and 529 crore so far in FY26among the lowest disbursals to any state. By comparison, West Bengal drew 10,305 crore and Bihar 14,791 crore last year. Notably, Punjab, along with Kerala, did not receive any funds under SASCI in FY24.

We didnt get any funds under the scheme in FY24 due to non-implementation of National Health Mission projects," Cheema, an MLA of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) from the Dirba Assembly constituency in Sangrur district, said. Part of the SASCI allocation depends on states carrying out certain reforms.

Flood damage and relief request

Cheema said recent floods devastated roughly 1,400 villages, displacing hundreds of thousands and causing estimated losses of 20,000 crore so far. The damage has primarily affected crops, homes, infrastructure, livestock, and soil, and losses are expected to rise as more data emerges.

We reached out to the Centre, asking for 13,000 crore as an interim relief," he added. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 1,600 crore flood relief package for Punjab during his visit to Gurdaspur on 9 September, prompting sharp reactions from farmers who questioned the adequacy and purpose of the funds.

Farmers unions have sought clarity on disbursal mechanisms, concerned about whether the aid will actually reach them. Meanwhile, Cheema suggested that, in the absence of adequate central support, the government should clear 60,000 crore in pending dues to Punjab, including 50,000 crore in GST compensation and the rest under the Rural Development Fund (RDF) and mandi fees, to ease fiscal strain.

The biggest concern for our farmers right now is the sand left behind in their fields, which could make future farming impossible. So, we approved the Jisda Khet, Usdi Ret policy, allowing flood-affected farmers to sell sand deposited by overflowing rivers in their fields," he said.

Cheema also announced 4 lakh in compensation for families of those who lost their lives in the floods. He noted that losses have been most severe in Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Ferozepur, Fazilka, Sangrur, Ropar, Kapurthala, and parts of Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur.

Also Read | Punjab to join Centres crop insurance scheme after refusing for 9 years

GST rationalization impact

Cheema warned that Punjab will face annual losses of 6,000 crore due to the recent GST rate rationalization.

On 3 September, the GST Council approved lowering rates on a wide range of goodsfrom packaged foods to consumer electronicsand moved to a two-slab system of 5% and 18%, removing the earlier 12% and 28% rates. A 40% levy was imposed on luxury and sin" goods, including pan masala, tobacco, aerated drinks, high-end cars, yachts, and private aircraft, to maintain revenue balance. The new rates take effect on 22 September, the first day of Navratria nine-day Hindu festival.

We welcome GST rationalization, but when the Centre rolled out the one nation, one tax regime, it assured states of compensation until their economies stabilized. While support was provided in the first five years, many statesincluding Punjabremain far from stable," Cheema said.

Punjabs economy is primarily agrarian, with agriculture contributing 25-30% of its GSDP. Cheema said that producing states like Punjab bear the brunt of GST losses. We have no objection to a single-slab GST, but the Centre must address the structural flaws in the system," he added.

To offset revenue shortfalls, Punjab plans to identify new income sources and trim expenditures. We will, however, continue to expand capital expenditure, as the state cannot grow without it," Cheema said.
US President Donald Trump asked the European Union to hit some Chinese and Indian goods with hefty tariffs in a new attempt to ratchet up pressure on Russia over its war in Ukraine, two EU officials said.

The request, which comes as the U.S. tries to curb Indian purchases of Russian oil and Chinese support for Russias economy, was made when Trump dialed into a meeting between U.S. and EU sanctions officials in Washington on Tuesday, the officials said. It wasnt immediately clear how European officials responded at the time.

The White House didnt immediately respond to a request for comment early Wednesday.

One of the officials said on Wednesday the bloc doesnt use tariffs to sanction other countries.

The EU is currently preparing a 19th package of sanctions against Russia. Last week, the U.S. agreed to resume technical discussions with the EU on Russia sanctions, which was routine under the Biden administration but hasnt happened since Trump returned to the White House.

The bloc is expected to target some foreign firms that are helping Russia, possibly including some Chinese companies, according to diplomats. The EU isnt expected to make moves that would further restrict oil or gas purchases because of political sensitivities within the bloc, the diplomats said.

Discussions about the sanctions package are continuing and it isnt clear what the EU will decide, according to the diplomats.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke in Strasbourg, France, on Wednesday.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday that more pressure is needed to bring Russia to the negotiating table.

We need more sanctions," she said during an annual state of the union speech on Wednesday morning. We are particularly looking at phasing out Russian fossil fuels faster, the shadow fleet and third countries."

The EU has previously sanctioned what it refers to as a shadow fleet" of ships that transport illicit Russian oil. It also has plans to phase out the purchase of Russian oil and gas by the end of 2027.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to put economic pressure on Russia but has backed off doing so on several occasions. However, Washington did place tariffs on India, which has been buying Russian oil at discounted prices and making money by selling refined products based on Russian crude oil.

The EU has put sanctions on some Chinese and Indian companies and banks in recent months, targeting those the bloc believes are helping Russia wage its war in Ukraine.

However the bloc has treaded carefully with Chinese firms amid threats of retaliatory sanctions by Beijing. And the EU is hoping to lock in a free-trade agreement with India in the coming weeks. Those efforts could be damaged by hefty new sanctions.

The Financial Times earlier reported that Trump requested the EU impose tariffs of up to 100% on India and China.
US India Trade Deal Highlights: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday welcomed US President Donald Trumps upbeat remarks on trade talks, expressing confidence that the ongoing negotiations will pave the way for unlocking the limitless potential of the partnership between them.

Calling the two nations close friends and natural partners, PM Modi posted on X that both sides were working to wrap up the discussions at the earliest.

US President Donald Trump imposed a total of 50% tariffs on all goods imported from India, on top of the pre-existing 10% baseline import duty on any good imported into the Western nation.

The latest round of US tariffs, a 25% import duty, was imposed on India via an executive order dated 6 August 2025. These additional tariffs came into effect from 27 September 2025.

Before the additional tariffs, Trump imposed a 25% tariff on all Indian goods imported into the United States, one day ahead of his initial 1 August 2025 deadline.

The US President attributed his heavy tariff move to India being a vast majority buyer of military equipment and crude oil from Russia. Trump, in a social media post, also claimed that India, in one way, has been enabling Russia in the war against Ukraine through the oil purchases.

So far, New Delhi has maintained its stance that India will continue to buy Russian oil despite the Trump tariffs.

Stay tuned for the latest updates on India-US trade talks
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], September 10 (ANI): Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar turned 58 yesterday, and the birthday boy's celebration was as unique as he is. While fans and friends flooded social media with warm wishes, it was his wife, Twinkle Khanna, who stole the spotlight with a quirky glimpse into how they marked the special day.

Akshay, who is known for his strict early morning routine, didn't let his birthday slip away from his schedule either. Twinkle revealed that their celebration kicked off at "7 am" sharp!

She took to her Instagram account to share a fun picture from the bash, where the two were seen posing behind a giant 'Joker' playing card cutout. Twinkle sported a clown look with a red nose, while Akshay wore playful glasses decorated with cards.

Twinkle, who never misses the chance to add her signature wit, wrote about how the day unfolded with "cards and karaoke" in the evening.

She joked, "Birthday celebrations that started at 7 a.m. and ended with cards and karaoke in the evening. The birthday boy is known for always winning. I wonder if it's because he has a certain joker by his side--if not in his hand. :)"

Take a look

Fans couldn't get enough of the adorable post. One user wrote, "Most powerful couple of B-town," while another commented, "Mr. & Miss Khiladi."

Meanwhile, on the work front, Akshay is set to visit Meerut on Wednesday afternoon for the trailer launch of his upcoming film 'Jolly LLB 3,' which also stars Arshad Warsi in the lead role.

The teaser for the third instalment was unveiled on August 12, offering a glimpse into the funny yet intense clash between the actors. Saurabh Shukla is also returning as Judge Tripathi.
Actor couple Varun Tej and Lavanya Tripathi welcomed their first child, a baby boy, on September 10. Varun announced the news on social media with a touching black-and-white picture of Lavanya holding their newborn while he lovingly looked on.

Many celebrities congratulated the new parents. Among them were Shriya Saran, Samantharuth Prabhu and Rakulpreet.

Telugu megastar Chiranjeevi, Varuns uncle, also shared the joy on his social media. He posted a photo of himself happily holding the baby while Varun smiled beside him.

Welcome to the world, little one! A hearty welcome to the newborn baby boy in the Konidela family. Heartfelt congratulations to Varun Tej and Lavanya Tripathi on becoming proud parents. So happy for Nagababu and Padmaja, who are now promoted to proud grandparents, Chiranjeevi wrote.

Wishing the baby boy all the happiness, good health, and blessings in abundance. May your love and blessings always surround our child, he added.

Varun Tejs last movie was Matka. It was released on November 14, 2024. The movie had its OTT release within three weeks. Amazon Prime Video started streaming the movie on December 5, 2024.

Lavanya Tripathi acted in a double role in her last release, Happy Birthday. There have been no movie releases for her since her wedding. She was, however, a part of Miss Perfect, a Disney+ Hotstar web series released on February 2, 2024.

Varun Tej and Lavanya Tripathi Varun Tej is from the renowned Konidela family. Actress Lavanya is known for hits like Mister and Arjun Suravaram.

Varun Tej and Lavanya Tripathi tied the knot on November 1, 2023, in an intimate Telugu-style wedding at Borgo San Felice Resort, Tuscany, Italy. The multi-day celebrations included haldi, mehendi, sangeet, cocktail and the wedding ceremony.

Also Read | Chiranjeevi denies meeting film federation amid Telugu industry strikes, slams baseless claims

Close family and select friends attended the scenic destination wedding. Later, on November 4, the couple hosted a grand reception in Hyderabad. Tollywood stars such as Naga Chaitanya and megastar Chiranjeevi attended the function.
Kolkata, Sep 10 (PTI) Imports of low-quality duty-free tea remain a major concern for planters, who allege that such shipments, instead of being used for re-exports, are "finding their way into the domestic market", undermining the prices of the crop and adding to growers woes.

They also called for the imposition of a 100 per cent import duty or a "minimum import price" to prevent such shipments from entering the country.

Tea Association of India (TAI) president Sandeep Singhania said imports of "inferior quality" tea with prices ranging from USD 1.5 to USD 1.7 ( 130-140) per kg are one of the contributors to the plummeting price trend and muted market sentiment.

"Duty-free imports of tea under the Advance Authorisation Scheme are supposed to be used for exports, but these are finding their way to the domestic market. This year, production so far is up by over 70 million kg. The domestic output, along with these imports, has aggravated the situation. Average tea prices are down by at least 42 per kg," the TAI president told PTI.

During the January-July period this year, the country's tea production was around 641 million kg (mkg), compared to 564 mkg in the same period last year.

The Advance Authorisation Scheme allows exporters to import inputs, such as raw materials, without paying customs duty, on the condition that these will be used to manufacture products for export. The scheme is seen as a mechanism to make Indian exports competitive.

Another industry organisation, the Indian Tea Association, recently raised concern about the surge in low-cost imports - totalling 19.61 mkg during January to June this year, a 57.14 per cent increase from 2024.

During the January-June period of the current calendar year, tea imports from Kenya to India were higher by 45 per cent, Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers' Association president Bijoy Gopal Chakraborty said.

During the first six months of 2025, imports from the African country were at "6.6 million kg, up from 4.6 million kg" in the same period of the previous year, he said.

Indian Tea Association Chairman Hemant Bangur said duty-free imports must be stopped.

"Unbridled influx of tea from Nepal has decimated the Darjeeling tea industry. It seemed that unabated imports from Kenya would hit the Assam tea sector. This needs to be stopped. There is no problem if imports are made with a 100 per cent duty," Bangur told PTI.

The problem is that there is "no reliable data about how much of the imported quantity is being re-exported and how much is leaking into the domestic market", he said.

The ITA chairman said the industry has requested the Tea Board to track the use of imported tea.

"The Tea Council, with representatives from various industry bodies as its members, is supposed to monitor imports and exports. The council has been formed, but the rules have not been notified," Bangur said.

Chakraborty said this year has been the worst in the last 10 years in terms of price realisation.

"Small growers have been compelled to sell green leaves at 14-15 per kg, while we had realised 30 a kg during this time last year. The market prices have crashed, resulting in a revenue loss for small growers. Cheap import of tea is one of the reasons behind the declining prices," the CISTA president told PTI.

According to an industry source, the average prices realised between the sale numbers 31 and 35 in the Guwahati, Siliguri and Kolkata auction centres have fallen sharply this year.

"In the sale number 35 at the three auction centres, the north Indian tea fetched a price of 204.19 per kg this year, down from 260.90 per kg in 2024. This is the highest fall among the last five sales," a Calcutta Tea Traders Association official told PTI on condition of anonymity.

However, the quantity sold between sale numbers 31 and 35 was 68.19 million kg in 2025, higher than the 57.52 million kg sold during the same period last year, he said.

Claiming that there is no preventive mechanism against duty-free imports, Singhania called for a Sri Lanka-like standard operating procedure so that such shipments entering India can be curtailed and non-compliance with food safety norms can be addressed.

"We have proposed the introduction of a minimum import price to stop the influx of cheap quality tea from the overseas market and the removal of the advance licensing scheme," he said.
New Delhi, Sep 10 (PTI) After its premiere at Cannes Film Festival, Neeraj Ghaywans "Homebound" is now gearing up for a screening at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

The film features Vishal Jethwa, Ishaan Khatter and Janhvi Kapoor in lead roles. It is executive produced by Hollywood legend Martin Scorsese and revolves around two childhood friends played by Khatter and Jethwa.

Jethwa, best known for his performances in Rani Mukerji-starrer "Mardaani 2" and "Salaam Venky", said he is looking forward to the TIFF premiere of the movie.

"It feels amazing to be in the spotlight for 'Homebound'. Cannes gave us an overwhelming response, and I feel truly grateful for the love and appreciation we received there. To now be heading to Toronto is a dream. Im enjoying every bit of this global attention," the 31-year-old said in a statement.

"I really hope the audience at TIFF embraces the film with the same warmth. This journey has been both humbling and inspiring, and I cant wait for more people to experience the world of Homebound," he added.

The film, inspired by journalist Basharat Peer's article during pandemic, is produced by Karan Johar, Adar Poonawalla, Apoorva Mehta and Somen Mishra. Last month, the film screened at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne where it won Ghaywan the best director award.

The film's official synopsis reads: "Two childhood friends from a small North Indian village chase a police job that promises them the dignity they've long been denied. But as they inch closer to their dream, mounting desperation threatens the bond that holds them together."
Hamass senior leaderslong hiding in host countries across the Middle Eastflew this past weekend to the groups headquarters in the Qatari capital of Doha. On the agenda: a new U.S. cease-fire plan for Gaza, apparently with Israeli backing.

Israel had vowed to track down and kill every Hamas member involved in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that left 1,200 Israelis dead and some 250 hostages taken but hitting them in Qatar, a Gulf ally of the U.S., was off limits. Now, Israeli officials had a shot and decided no taboo would stop them from taking iteven at the risk of straining relations with the Trump administration.

By noon Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had given the green light for an audacious attack on Qatari soil, targeting a residence used by Hamas figures in the dusty northern suburbs of Dohathe same place where the militant groups leaders celebrated the Oct. 7 attacks.

More than 10 Israeli jet fighters fired long-range munitions at the house, causing explosions heard across the capital. It was a sharp escalation of Israels tactics against the U.S.-designated terrorist group, targeting its leaders in a sovereign country that mediates Gaza peace talks and hosts the most important U.S. air base in the region.

Israel went after Hamas leaders including Khalil Al-Hayya and Zahir Jabarin, political operatives who steer the groups international relations and help raise funds but dont join in fighting like the military wing in Gaza. According to Hamas, the leadership survived the strike, while five lower-ranking members were killed. Israel has yet to comment on the results of the attack.

Hamas political leaders Nizar Awadallah, Khalil Al-Hayya and Mohammad Ismail Darwish, at a meeting in Tehran in February.

If the strike didnt hit the intended targets, it still sent a clear message. When it comes to its security, Israel will show very little concern for red lines or diplomatic fallout, and old havens arent reliably safe anymore.

The days are over that terrorist leaders will have immunity anywhere," Netanyahu said at an event Tuesday evening.

This account is based on interviews with Israeli officials, Qatari and other Arab officials, and people in the U.S. military and government.

In the weeks before the attack, Hamas leaders got a vague but stern warning: Tighten security around your meetings, Egyptian and Turkish officials told them.

Cease-fire talks were breaking down. Israel was essentially demanding a Hamas surrender. Defense Minister Israel Katz had threatened to annihilate the Gaza-based groups overseas leaders if militants didnt lay down their arms.

Indeed, Israel began preparing months ago for a complex attack on Hamas leaders outside of Gaza. It had already killed off most of the militant groups senior fighters inside Gaza, including Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, architects of the Oct. 7 attacks.

Israel had also successfully completed military and intelligence operations outside its borders that highlighted its prowess and appetite for using it. Intelligence operatives killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a heavily guarded military guesthouse in Tehran and wounded thousands of members of Lebanons Hezbollah militia by simultaneously exploding their pagers.

Its air force had honed tactics for attacking at great distances with repeated strikes on the Houthi militia in Yemen and hundreds of missions over Iran, each more than 1,000 miles away.

Now the target was Doha, a seaside city where gleaming skyscrapers and artificial islands sit next to traditional Arab markets. Qatar has hosted Hamas for more than a decade, an arrangement tacitly endorsed by the U.S. to keep backchannels open with a group that Western officials cant speak to openly.

Israel assigned at least 10 warplanes to the operation, each carrying long-range over the horizon" missiles that could hit their targets from a safe distance. The goal was to catch the Hamas leaders when they gathered for a meeting, to kill as many as possible while limiting unintended deaths.

The distance from Tel Aviv to Doha is well over 1,000 miles. But the jets could get close enough to use long-range guided missiles without flying directly over the sensitive airspace of Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates.

You can shoot from pretty far away," said Amir Avivi, a former senior military official who is close to the current government. You dont need to be above Qatar to do it."

Hamass political leaders typically divide their time between Qatar, Egypt and Turkey. Over the weekend, they trickled into Doha to discuss a new U.S. idea for ending the war. The U.S. called on the group to hand over its remaining hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and a U.S. guarantee of talks to end the war, said Arab officials familiar with the discussions.

Mediators considered the proposal a nonstarter because Hamas was expected to give up its leverage without addressing any of the difficult issues around ending the war. But Hamas was under heavy pressure from the wars devastation and the U.S. to bend to a deal.

The Israelis have accepted my Terms. It is time for Hamas to accept as well," President Trump wrote Sunday on social media. I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting. This is my last warning, there will not be another one!"

Hamas leaders were to meet Tuesday to discuss the proposal. At noon Israel time, Netanyahu convened his security chiefs and gave the go-ahead for the attack.

As the jets moved in to strike, Israels military told their American counterparts that an attack on Hamas targets was coming minutes before missiles were launched but didnt disclose an exact location, according to U.S. officials. The U.S. military officials saw the missiles launch and inferred the target. Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, learned of the strike en route to Cairo and spoke with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a U.S. official said.

The White House said the military notified Trump, who directed his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to inform Qatar.

The Israeli planes launched more than 10 missiles at Hamass Doha offices from outside Qatari airspace. Video verified by Storyful, which like The Wall Street Journal is owned by News Corp, captured the moment of impact, with people breaking into a run as enormous blasts rang out. Other verified videos showed smoke rising over the Qatari capital.

Unlike in previous attacks in Syria, Lebanon and Iran, where Israel worked hard to maintain a veneer of deniability, this time it claimed the strike right away in a public announcement by the militaryanother sign that the old rules were changing.

Back in Jerusalem, as the attacks were becoming public, the U.S. Embassy was hosting a belated July 4 celebration that had been canceled during Israels war with Iran. Songs like We Are the Champions" and We Will Rock You" blasted over the loudspeakers, as American service members and Israeli generals hobnobbed over hot dogs and hamburgers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

At the end of the night, Netanyahu addressed the crowd and joked, to loud applause, that hed hoped to speak earlier in the evening but was otherwise engaged."

Things were less celebratory at the White House, where officials were working to manage the diplomatic fallout from an attack by one U.S. ally against another. Qatar said its leader, Sheikh Tamim al-Thani, spoke with Trump and condemned the attack, as did nearly every Arab neighbor.

Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he spoke with Netanyahu after the strike, which does not advance Israel or Americas goals." Eliminating Hamas was a worthy goal," Trump said, adding that he felt very badly about the location of the attack."

Later Tuesday, Trump told reporters that Israel did not notify him in advance of the strike, adding that he was very unhappy about every aspect" of the operation.

Late Tuesday in Doha, security was tight. A Hamas official said he himself was unable to access the site of the attack after it was cordoned off. Hamas members were refusing to meet outsiders and were keeping a low profile.

The security threat hasnt gone yet," he said.

Write to Dov Lieber at dov.lieber@wsj.com, Summer Said at summer.said@wsj.com and Lara Seligman at lara.seligman@wsj.com
Iran has agreed to give the U.N. atomic agency access to its main nuclear facilities, opening the possibility for international inspectors to assess the damage done by U.S. and Israeli airstrikes in June and check on Tehrans stockpile of near weapons-grade enriched uranium, the agencys chief said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and the International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi reached the deal late Tuesday in Cairo after weeks of back and forth. Tehran had suspended cooperation with the agency after the June attacks on its main nuclear sites.

The agreement doesnt say when inspectors would be able to visit the sites, including the enrichment facilities at Natanz and Fordow and a nuclear complex at Isfahan, diplomats said. Iran must compile reports on the status of the sites and its enriched uranium stockpile before inspectors can go to verify the information. The diplomats said the agreement didnt give a deadline for when Iran must deliver those reports.

President Trump has said the U.S. and Israeli strikes in June obliterated" Irans nuclear facilities. However, there has so far been no access to the sites for inspectors to verify the situation.

Importantly, the fate of Irans large stockpile of near weapons-grade enriched uranium is unknown. If that material remains unaccounted for, it could be diverted to fuel up to 10 nuclear weapons, according to IAEA data. Iran says its nuclear program is entirely peaceful.

Grossi said Tuesdays agreement was nevertheless an important step forward that sets out the process for inspections of Irans nuclear facilities and how the agency will notify Iran of planned visits. It also includes a commitment by Iran to report on the status of its enriched uranium stockpile, the agency chief said.

These include all facilities and installations in Iran," Grossi said in public remarks to the agencys board of governors on Wednesday morning.

A satellite image shows activity near holes caused by U.S. airstrikes on an Iranian underground nuclear facility.A person sifts through debris of a residential property in northern Tehran after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike.

The agreement could help Iran avoid the reimposition of international sanctions on the country lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal. European governments need to decide whether to put those sanctions back in place before the end of September.

Germany, France and Britain have told Iran that they could delay the reimposition of the sanctions if Tehran takes clear, tangible steps to resume cooperation with the IAEA and re-enter serious talks with the U.S. over its nuclear program.

A senior European diplomat said that unless there are clear deadlines for Iran to take action to allow inspectors back, it is unlikely to be enough to persuade the European governments not to reimpose sanctions on Tehran.

Britain, France and Germany helped negotiate the 2015 nuclear deal, which President Trump pulled the U.S. out of in his first term. The agreement lifted most international sanctions in exchange for tight but temporary restrictions on its nuclear work.

Aragchi warned in a press conference Tuesday night that reimposition of international sanctions would nullify the agreement on inspections.

Iran permitted the IAEA to send two inspectors in late August to monitor the refueling of Irans Bushehr nuclear power plant, which wasnt hit in the June attacks.

Write to Laurence Norman at laurence.norman@wsj.com
Meta Platforms spent millions of dollars this summer recruiting AI stars. Now comes the hard part of making them work with their new colleagues.

Some of Mark Zuckerbergs expensive new recruits have already defected to other AI labs. Existing employees have jockeyed for new spots within Metas restructured AI organization or lobbied for raises in light of the influx of highly paid new colleagues. At least one who was given a grant worth millions of dollars left anyway, saying they believed newcomers were still making multiples more.

The pay packages may be massive, and the company might be worth nearly $2 trillion. But at its core, Meta is facing a quintessential management problem: how to recruit and retain top-tier talent while keeping remaining employees satisfied, and maintaining harmony across the organization.

If you dont lay the groundwork culturally for bringing in these stars, youre going to end up burning a bunch of them out and pissing them off, and a bunch of them are going to quit and youre going to waste millions of dollars," said Laszlo Bock, a tech industry adviser and former head of people operations at Google.

The new AI groups most elite squad of AI researchersmembers of the so-called TBD Labsit in an area of the companys Menlo Park headquarters near Zuckerbergs desk that requires special badge access for entry, according to people familiar with the matter. Their work is closely guarded, and the names of its members arent visible on the companys internal organization chart. Other names in the organization are viewable.

Some employees pointed to the measures as reflecting new status distinctions within the company at a time when teams are competing for compute resources and a hiring freeze has made it difficult to fill roles without personal approval from Meta Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang.

Aerial view of Metas headquarters, where the companys new TBD Lab team works.

In a written statement, a Meta spokesman called reporting on the companys AI operation navel-gazing" and said, This is yet another series of false, exaggerated or mischaracterized claims."

Meta isnt the only AI player dealing with this issue. The all-out war for talent has forced companies large and small to take extraordinary measures to keep their employees happy.

In August, OpenAI gave some of its research and engineering staff a one-time bonus, with some employees receiving millions of dollars, according to people familiar with the matter. Apple this summer lost a string of AI employees, including one of the leaders developing its AI models, to rival labs. And staffers at Safe Superintelligence, a startup co-founded by OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, are discouraged from mentioning the company on their LinkedIn profiles, in part to prevent other companies from trying to poach them.

Meta has succeeded in recruiting more than 50 people with Zuckerbergs promise of abundant computing resources, alongside rich compensation. Of those, at least 21 people are from OpenAI, more than a dozen came from Google, a handful came from xAI and others from Apple, according to people familiar with the matter and public LinkedIn profiles.

Some Meta employees have had success leveraging competing offers to get a share of the money and prestige Zuckerberg has been lavishing on outside recruits. In July, a handful of employees from one of Metas AI infrastructure teams secured offers from former OpenAI executive Mira Muratis new AI startup, Thinking Machines Lab.

Former OpenAI executive Mira Murati launched an AI startup called Thinking Machines Lab.

After the employees took the offers to Meta, their compensation was increased and they were moved to the TBD Lab team. A spokesman for Meta said the company had already been planning to move those staffers to the new team and adjust their compensation regardless of any recruitment offers they may have received" and that the company hasnt made counteroffers to employees threatening to leave.

While the recruiting frenzy has abated somewhat since Meta imposed its hiring freeze, the intensely competitive talent market has encouraged researchers to be choosy and ping pong around AI labs with ease.

Rishabh Agarwal, a Toronto-based AI researcher who joined Metas AI division in April, received an offer to join the superintelligence lab after asking Zuckerberg for a role, according to people familiar with the matter. He decided to leave for a startup called Periodic Labs, founded by a former OpenAI executive, after being told he would have to work in-person at Metas Menlo headquarters.

Two other new hires from OpenAI and xAI, Avi Verma and Ethan Knight, recently left for OpenAI, according to people familiar with the matter and their public LinkedIn profiles. Ruben Mayer, an executive who joined from Scale AI as a product manager, also left Meta for what he said were personal reasons. He hasnt announced a new job.

Shengjia Zhao, a co-creator of ChatGPT, joined Meta in June, but decided within a week to return to OpenAI, resigning from Meta and signing paperwork to rejoin his former employer, according to people familiar with the matter. Meta managed to retain Zhao by offering him the title of chief scientistand tripling his compensation.

A Meta spokesman said Zhao had been the new teams scientific lead since Day One and that his role was formalized once the team had taken shape. Wired previously reported some details of Zhaos near-departure.

Write to Meghan Bobrowsky at meghan.bobrowsky@wsj.com, Keach Hagey at Keach.Hagey@wsj.com and Berber Jin at berber.jin@wsj.com
IF YOU HAVE ever relaxed with a cold Kingfisher beer at the end of a long, sweaty day in Mumbai, the party capital of India, you have almost certainly broken the law. Specifically, you violated section 40 of the Bombay Prohibition Act of 1949, under which you must hold a permit to drink booze. A first offence is punishable by a fine of 10,000 rupees ($115) and up to six months in prison.

Welcome to India, where everything is against the law. According to Vidhi, a legal think-tank in Delhi, India has 7,305 crimes at the national level, three-quarters of which attract imprisonment. India is hardly alone in overcriminalisation. But even America, not exactly known as soft on crime, had a more modest 5,199 federal crimes at last count in 2019. China imposes the death penalty for 46 crimes. In India the number is 301 (though rarely applied).

The central governments ardour for lawmaking and punishment is infectious. Indias 28 states, which control vast swathes of policy, are no less assiduous in regulating everyday life. The state of Uttarakhand, to pick one, requires couples in live-in relationships to register (and pay a fee) within 30 days of shacking up. Failure to comply attracts a fine and up to three months in prison. What of love lost? The unhappy couple must de-register (and pay another fee). Uttarakhand is particularly energetic but few states pass up the chance to make citizens visit the registrar.

Then there are tax rules that make almost everyone cower. Renters paying over a lowish threshold must withhold a proportion of the rent from landlords and deposit it with the state as tax, which can involve obtaining a special tax number and hiring an accountant. Some people must pay income tax four times a year. Penalties for errors or delays are high. In June the authorities increased fines for misreported income or false deductions to up to 200% of the tax due, 24% annual interest, and even prosecution". There is no leeway for honest mistakes.

Businesses have it worse. Companies that grow beyond even a small size must compulsorily register for a goods-and-services tax, disincentivising expansion. They must register in each state in which they have any activity, even if they have no physical presence there. They must also pay taxes withheld from buyers every month, regardless of whether they have been paid. Big companies have legal and compliance departments. Small ones struggle. A convoluted tax code means it is easy to mess up.

Beyond the big-ticket items of crime and tax there exists a third category of rules so baffling it defies labels. Cities build fancy new elevated roads only to set speed limits as low as 30km per hour (18mph). Local authorities brick up entrances to public spaces for safety reasons". Airport security confiscates packets of spice mixes but allows packets of noodles that contain packets of spice mixes. It is hard to escape the sense that there is no logic behind the rules.

That is because there isnt, say people who have worked with government. Policy can be made just because an official says I think its a good idea." To save energy, a central-government minister says air-conditioners should function only between 20C and 28C, boasting of a first-of-its-kind experiment". A minister in Kerala wants to fine people who use their phones while crossing the street. In Goa, a holiday state, a new policy makes it mandatory for beach shacks to serve freshly cooked Goan cuisine". The tourism minister stipulates that this means fish curry and rice, though there is no such clause.

The usual excuse for Indias surfeit of laws and rules is colonialisms legacy. Indeed, in 2023 India decriminalised 183 defunct provisions in 42 laws. The government is working on a second rationalisation and setting up a deregulation commission to ease the burden on business. A tax bill is in the works. These are welcome moves. But the deeper problem lies in the attitudes of politicians and bureaucrats. We think the state must have a say in every aspect of an individuals life," says Arghya Sengupta of Vidhi. Everything is game for legislation."

The outcome is to make Indians less law-abiding, not more. Why follow the rules when everything is verboten? Why start a business or expand a successful one if it will only attract attention and more compliance? One high-ranking official complains that the state sets impossibly high standards and then claims that Indians are lawless. But You have made it impossible for them to follow the law."

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New Delhi: The Union government is working on fuel efficiency norms for the countrys massive two-wheeler market, according to three people aware of the development, after tightening similar regulations for cars and trucks in a bid to cut crude oil imports and meet net zero carbon emission goals by 2070.

The ministry of road transport and highways, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), and the governments think-tank Niti Aayog have started initial discussions on a policy to regulate fuel efficiency of two-wheelers and nudge automakers towards producing cleaner vehicles, one person said, requesting anonymity.

The discussion on two-wheeler fuel efficiency norms is in very early stages, and it may be taken up in due time after the government completes implementation of similar regulation for other vehicle segments," the person said.

India is the worlds largest two-wheeler market by sales, with motorcycles and scooters making up the majority of new vehicles registered every year. About 19 million, or 76%, of the almost 25 million new vehicles registered in FY25, were two-wheelers. Of these, 17 million were petrol two-wheelers.



Nearly all of the countrys petrol is used by the countrys transport sector, which consumed a little over 40 million tonnes in FY25. This has increased the countrys crude oil import bill, with the worlds most populous country becoming the third-largest importer of crude oil after China and the US.

In stakeholder consultations on fuel efficiency norms for trucks in May and June this year, when the industry sought exemptions for smaller trucks weighing up to 3.5 tonnes, officials indicated that all vehicle segments would be covered under fuel efficiency regulations, two people said.

For all segments

The officials were clear that all vehicle segments will be brought under regulation similar to CAFE (corporate average fuel efficiency) norms for passenger vehicles. That is why the N1 category of trucks, weighing up to 3.5 tonnes, were also included in the CSFC (constant speed fuel consumption) norms, and it indicated to the industry that even two-wheelers may face these norms," said the third person cited earlier, also on condition of anonymity.

A draft notification for the norms for trucks came out in late July.



Email queries sent to the ministry, BEE, BIS, and Niti Aayog on 8 September remained unanswered.

Niti Aayog said in an August 2025 report on electric vehicles that there was need to move to mandates in public policy from a focus on just incentives, and that expanding CAFE norms to a wider segment of vehicles was an option. The think-tank recommended that the government take this course of action in the next one year.

CAFE norms cap carbon emissions by an automakers passenger vehicle fleets while constant speed fuel consumption (CSFC) norms place similar curbs on emissions by trucks. CAFE is aimed at improving the fuel efficiency of vehicles by lowering carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The next iteration of CAFE and CSFC norms will be implemented in April 2027.

Experts said India's two-wheelers have historically been very fuel-efficient owing to consumer preferences for higher mileage.

Also Read | Why automakers may be unable to skirt strict fuel efficiency rules

While the fuel consumption of these vehicles is low compared to other segments, the sheer volume of two-wheelers contributes immensely to the country's crude oil imports," said I V Rao, distinguished fellow, transport & urban governance at The Energy and Resources Institute.

Rao added that the mix of vehicle segments in other countries had determined fuel efficiency norms.

Western economies have relied on cars for transport, and less on two-wheelers. That is why fuel efficiency standards have not made their way into those countries. But China, Taiwan and Indonesia, which have a heavy two-wheeler population, have introduced such regulation," he said.

The tightening of fuel efficiency norms for motorcycles and scooters may push manufacturers towards adding more electric and biofuel vehicles as this would lower their total fleet emissions and improve fuel efficiency.

Super credits

CAFE norms for cars and CSFC norms for trucks provide super credits for zero-emission and low-emission powertrains. Low emission powertrains refer to hybrids and flex-fuel engines, which reduce carbon emissions significantly.

The sale of an electric car is counted as three units sold and no emissions added, thereby improving the fuel efficiency of the overall fleet. But the benefits for hybrids and flex-fuel vehicles are lower than those for zero-emission technology such as electric vehicles or hydrogen-based vehicles.



These norms have pushed automakers towards having more electric and hybrid vehicles in their mix as non-compliance results in hefty fines. Violations will result in a penalty of at least 10 lakh for every vehicle found emitting excessive carbon dioxide, under the Energy Conservation Act.

Also Read | Will India rethink emission caps to save small cars?

Automakers will have to pay extra penalties for the amount of CO2 emitted beyond the CAFE ceiling and breaching it by a higher margin will attract heftier penalties.

Historically, stringent fuel efficiency norms have increased costs of vehicles as manufacturers have to invest in new technology to comply with them. But with work on regulations for two-wheelers in the initial stages, it is too early to ascertain whether there will be a price rise. Also, most Indian automakers have already invested in cleaner powertrains including electric vehicles as well as some flex-fuel bikes.



Email queries to the country's leading two-wheeler makers Hero MotoCorp Ltd, Bajaj Auto Ltd, and TVS Motor Co. Ltd, and Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt Ltd remained unanswered.
New Delhi: Indias coking coal imports are expected to rise nearly 42% to 115 million tonnes by the end of the decade, driven by surging demand from the steel sector, according to a report jointly prepared by EY Parthenon and the Indian Steel Association (ISA).

The report said imports stood at 81 million tonnes in FY25, while demand for coking coal is projected to climb 55% to 135 million tonnes by FY30 from 87 million tonnes in FY25. The growth is tied to Indias ambitious target of expanding steelmaking capacity to 300 million tonnes by then.

Titled Indias Coking Coal Strategy: Building Resilience through Innovation, Sustainability and Policy, the report highlighted that India, the worlds second-largest steel producer, remains heavily dependent on coking coal, with the steel industry accounting for 95% of total demand.

Also Read | India to use Russian rail to bring Mongolian coking coal to Vladivostok

To reduce this reliance, the government aims to scale domestic raw coking coal output to 140 million tonnes by FY30105 million tonnes from Coal India and 35 million tonnes from private players. Even with this expansion, washery capacity is expected to reach just 15 million tonnes, ensuring continued dependence on imports.

Indias steel ambitions cannot be realized without addressing its heavy reliance on imported coking coal, said Vinayak Vipul, partner, business consulting, EY Parthenon.

While domestic production is projected to double by 2030, imports will still play a defining role in meeting demand. This dependence makes the sector vulnerable to price volatility and supply chain shocksIndia must accelerate beneficiation to unlock the true value of its reserves, diversify sourcing to reduce risk, and invest in technologies that pave the way toward low-carbon steel, Vipul said.

He added that building a transparent pricing index and a national reserve would be critical to balance growth with resilience and sustainability.

The report also noted that rising coal use in steelmaking has made the sector a major emitter of greenhouse gasesresponsible for 78% of global emissions and 12% within Indiaunderscoring the need for cleaner technologies and comprehensive decarbonization efforts.

Indias steel industry is entering a transformative era, driven by rising domestic demand and global competition, said Naveen Jindal, president, Indian Steel Association. Coking coal remains the backbone of steelmaking, and securing a reliable, high-quality supply is a strategic necessity for national growth.

Also Read | Govt to sign mining pact with Mongolia to source copper and coking coal

The report recommended a deeper industry-government partnership through investments in washery expansion, strategic stockpiles at ports, and public-private consortia for overseas mine equity.
A proposed US legislation that aims to levy a 25% tax on services provided by Indian information technology companies is unlikely to get a parliamentary approval, analysts said. In case the bill does get approved, the Indian software services firms are expected to pass on the costs to their American clients, they said.

The proposed Halting International Relocation of Employment (HIRE) Act, aimed at making outsourcing costlier and reducing reliance on cheap foreign labour, could partly affect Indian IT firms, which earn nearly three-fifths of their revenue from the US.

The analysts cited earlier said that the cost of servicing technology needs of large US-based multinational companies is expected to jump, and that America lacks the talent pool required to meet the tech demands.

Also Read | Weak rupee, AI hopes spark fresh optimism in IT stocks

Our base case is services will be spared. Technical factors aside, no other country has the scale and skill that India brings in IT services. Unlike factories for goods, replacing software engineers at this scale in a short span is unfathomable. Even if there is a potential increase through taxes, IT services players, if willing, can pass those on to end-clients," said JM Financial analysts Abhishek Kumar, Nandan Arekal, and Anushree Rustagi, in a note dated 7 September.

This essentially means that the Indian IT firms aren't likely to be hit immediately, and that their profitability might not get impacted.

Cost implications and margins

Traditionally, if an outsourcing tax is imposed on payments to IT service providers, overall billing would be reduced and ultimately, the margin is expected to shrink. This might lead to the IT outsourcers looking at other cost-cutting avenues.

Four of India's big five IT services firms, namely, Infosys Ltd, HCL Technologies Ltd, Wipro Ltd, and Tech Mahindra Ltd reported a jump in margins last fiscal to 21.1%, 18.3%, 17.1%, and 9.7%, respectively. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, the country's largest IT firm, reported a decline in margins to 24.3%.

For now, the bill has to get the approval of the House of Representatives and the US Senate, before getting president Donald Trump's assent to become a law.

The proposed legislation also comes at a time when the countrys largest information technology (IT) outsourcers are engaged in a three-front war with an uncertain demand environment, AI eating into their revenue, and higher competition from mid-sized peers.

Impact to hit US clients more than Indian IT

However, experts believe the impact of the American proposal will be more on US-based companies than it will be on homegrown tech service providers.

For one, the cost of services provided by IT services companies will jump.

Cost for US-based companies will increase because they will have to pay more money as tax, apart from the money they pay to IT outsourcers for the people deployed in their projects," said Amit Chandra, vice-president at HDFC Securities.

Pramod Gubbi, founder of Marcellus Investment Managers, echoed this view, but added that the tax-led increase in costs might be split between the service provider and the client.

Ultimately, this 25% might be split between customer and service provider. It could be equally split or divided," Gubbi added.

HDFCs Chandra added that the ultimate payer of this outsourcing tax will not be known. It will be a mixed bag to determine whether the client passes the entire tax to the IT outsourcer or absorbs it to a certain extent. IT companies can receive less money for each executive servicing the client but the extent of this will be unknown," said Chandra.

Also Read | Why trade wars might be Indian IT's biggest challenge for now

In other words, if the IT outsourcer was getting $100 dollar per employee from the client, it might get $80 if the legislation is passed and if the client decides to pass on a portion of the taxes to the tech service provider to reduce its own cost.

IT services companies are traditionally billed on the number of people deployed in a project. Most of these people work on offshore locations like India and Brazil, away from the clients location, which in this case is the US.

Most tech-related work for clients is now managed by employees based in India, and reliance on workers deployed at client sites continues to decline.

Visa constraints

The countrys ten largest software service providers are using about 14,000 H-1B visas, which allow skilled non-immigrants to work in the US for a limited period of time, as of June 2025. Thats just a third of the H-1B holders they had a decade ago.

The number of H-1B visa holders is expected to fall further.

This will impact IT companies' ability to send their consultants abroad to client locations with the US getting stricter with the foreign workers coming in. Imposing a cost on foreign labour will force the US firms to look for more US-based hiring for skilled, niche roles. Now that is also made hard to come by due to restrictions on foreign workers coming in. It's either this or the US will have to lower this tax, something has to give." said Ashutosh Sharma, vice-president of Forrester Research.

The fresh concerns in the IT sector stem from the HIRE bill, introduced on 5 September by Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno, which proposes a 25% tariff on payments to foreign entities for services provided to American firms.

On 1 September, political activist Jack Posobiec tweeted that all outsourcing should be tariffed," arguing foreign countries must pay for the privilege of providing services remotely to the US the same way as goods". This post was later reposted by Peter Navarro, senior counsellor for trade and manufacturing to president Trump.

According to the US Senate website, this bill was introduced to protect American workers from outsourcing by disincentivizing US companies from chasing cheaper wages and hiring foreign workers.

Also Read | Why tech giants want fewer freshers and more specialists

The legislation will impose a tax on any company that employs foreign labor instead of Americans and will use the generated revenue to fund workforce development programs to help the middle-class," read Senator Morenos website.

However, there is no immediate threat to Indian IT services companies.

Any imposition resembling a 'services tariff' would require new legislation  such as a tax or fee on cross-border service transactions  something that the US President cannot unilaterally impose without Congressional backing. This legal distinction might be a reason as to why services remain outside the tariff framework, for now," the JM Financial analysts wrote.

Still, the JM Financial analysts noted, Trump could tighten H-1B/L-1 visa rules (impacting IT outsourcing), impose sanctions to restrict payments to foreign service providers, and deploy regulatory levers in telecom, data, and financial services via agencies.
The initial public offering (IPO) of Shringar House of Mangalsutra Ltd, a jewellery firm, will be open for subscription from September 10 to September 12. Shringar House of Mangalsutra IPO price band has been established at 155 to 165 per share.

Ahead of the IPO, the company raised 120.18 crore from anchor investors, which include various institutions such as Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance Company, Maybank Securities Pte Ltd - ODI, Societe Generale - ODI, AIDOS India Fund Limited, Nav Capital VCC, and Founders Collective Fund.

Founded in 2009, Shringar House of Mangalsutra specializes in the design, production, and marketing of a wide variety of Mangalsutras embellished with stones like American diamonds, cubic zirconia, pearls, mother of pearl, and semi-precious stones, crafted in 18k and 22k gold.

The company mainly caters to its Business-to-Business (B2B) clientele, capturing approximately 6 percent of the organized Mangalsutra market in India as of 2023, according to a report from CareEdge cited in the draft papers.

The revenue from operations for Shringar House of Mangalsutra grew to 1,430 crore in the fiscal year 2025, up from 1,101 crore the previous fiscal year, while profit after tax increased to 61 crore from 31 crore during that time.

Shringar House of Mangalsutra IPO subscription status Shringar House of Mangalsutra IPO subscription status was 8.24x on day 1. The retail portion was subscribed 9.62 times, and NII portion has been booked 14.81x, Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) portion received 86% bids. Employee portion subscribed 24.06 times.

The company has received bids for 14,02,95,060 shares against 1,70,16,000 shares on offer, at 17:00 IST, according to data on BSE.

Shringar House of Mangalsutra IPO review Canara Bank Securities notes that the pricing of the issue is reasonable at a 19X PE compared to the average 21X PE of its listed competitors, although it appears slightly overvalued with a 6X PB versus a 5X PB for its peers. The company has a nationwide presence, with most of its sales happening in the state of Maharashtra. It is well-positioned for growth due to the launch of new SKUs, its established relationships with prominent clients, and innovations such as the 24K gold mangalsutra set to debut in 2026.

Nonetheless, the absence of plans for facility expansion and increasing inventory levels leading to negative cash flow from operations in FY 24 and FY 25 are concerns. They advise investors willing to take on higher risks to SUBSCRIBE for potential long-term profits.

SBICAP Securities has pinpointed 42 cities and has formed partnerships with 11 third-party facilitators for this initiative. The company's business model is heavily reliant on working capital, as it acquires gold from banks and bullion houses, requiring immediate payments, while clients are afforded an average credit period of approximately 15-20 days. As the company seeks to increase its volume and expand its operations, its working capital demands are anticipated to rise accordingly. It plans to utilise the net proceeds from the IPO to address its working capital requirements.

The company stands to gain from the ongoing transition from the unorganized to the organised sector, as well as from the substantial market potential for mangalsutra. With the upper price band set at 165, the company's valuation at a post-issue capital FY25 PE stands at 26.0x. They urge investors to SUBSCRIBE to the offering at the specified cut-off price.

Shringar House of Mangalsutra IPO details Shringar House of Mangalsutra IPO involves a new issuance of 2.43 crore shares, which includes a reservation of up to 20,000 equity shares for the company's employees.

The company intends to allocate 280 crore from the IPO proceeds to meet its working capital requirements, with the remaining funds earmarked for general corporate purposes.

Choice Capital Advisors Pvt Ltd is the lead manager for the book-running process, while MUFG Intime India Pvt Ltd acts as the registrar for the offering.

Also Read | Shringar House of Mangalsutra IPO: 10 key risks investors to know

Shringar House of Mangalsutra IPO GMP today Shringar House of Mangalsutra IPO GMP is 29.5. This indicates Shringar House of Mangalsutra share price were trading at a premium of 29.5 in the grey market, according to investorgain.com.

Considering the upper end of the IPO price band and the current premium in the grey market, the estimated listing price of Shringar House of Mangalsutra share price was indicated at 194.5 apiece, which is 17.88% higher than the IPO price of 165.

According to the activities seen in the grey market over the last ten sessions, today's IPO GMP shows an upward trend and anticipates a robust listing. The lowest GMP recorded is 0.00, while the peak GMP stands at 30, as per expert analysis.

'Grey market premium' indicates investors' readiness to pay more than the issue price.

Also Read | Shringar House of Mangalsutra IPO: 10 key things to know from the RHP
Urban Company IPO day 2: The initial public offering (IPO) of Urban Company Limited hit the Indian primary market on 10 September 2025, and Urban Company IPO subscription will remain open until 12 September 2025. This means the Urban Company IPO date is Wednesday to Friday. The company has fixed the Urban Company IPO price band at 98 to 103 per equity share. The public issue is proposed for listing on the BSE and the NSE. The mainboard issue aims to raise 1,900 crore from its initial offer, of which 472 crore is aimed at issuing fresh shares. The remaining 1,428 crore is reserved for offer for sale (OFS).

Meanwhile, Urban Company's IPO created a buzz in the grey market much before the opening of its subscription. According to stock market observers, shares of the company are available at a premium of 39 in the grey market today, which is 2 higher than yesterday's premium of 37. This means Urban Company IPO GMP today is 39, which signals around a 38% listing gain for potential investors. Market observers said that Urban Company IPO GMP has surged from 28 to 39 in the last three days. This suggests a substantial listing gain for the Indian primary market investor applying for Urban Company IPO.

Urban Company IPO subscription status By 4:00 PM on day 2 of bidding, the public issue had been booked 8.35 times. The retail portion of the book build issue had been subscribed to 16.86 times, and its Non Institutional Investors (NII) segment had been filled 16.36 times. The Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) category had been booked 1.48 times.

Urban Company IPO details 1] Urban Company IPO GMP today: Market observers say shares of the company are available at a premium of 39 in the grey market today.

2] Urban Company IPO price: The engineering company's fixed price band for this public issue is 98 to 103 per equity share.

3] Urban Company IPO date: The book build issue opened on 10 September 2025 and will remain open until 12 September 2025.

4] Urban Company IPO size: The mainboard issue aims to raise 1,900 crore from its initial offer, of which 472 crore will be used to issue fresh shares. The remaining 1,428 crore is reserved for an offer for sale (OFS).

5] Urban Company IPO lot size: A bidder can apply in lots, and one lot of the mainboard IPO comprises 145 company shares.

6] Urban Company IPO allotment date: Share allocation can be expected on 13 September 2025. However, if there is a delay due to Saturday, the allocation can be finalised on 15 September 2025.

7] Urban Company IPO registrar: MUFG Intime India Private Limited has been appointed the official registrar of the book build issue.

8] Urban Company IPO listing date: The public issue is proposed for listing on the BSE and the NSE. Share listing can be expected on 17 September 2025.

9] Urban Company IPO lead managers: Kotak Mahindra Capital, Morgan Stanley India, Goldman Sachs (India), and JM Financial have been appointed lead managers of the public issue.

Urban Company IPO: Apply or not? 10] Urban Company IPO review: Speaking on Urban Company IPO valuations, Gaurav Garg of Lemonn Markets Desk, said, "For investors, this IPO is a high-risk, high-reward bet, suitable only for those with a long-term horizon who believe in the companys ability to scale sustainably as online penetration deepens. Our stance would be to apply with caution, given the growth potential but stretched valuations.

"At the upper price band of 103 per share, the IPO values the company at a market capitalisation of 14,790 Cr. Based on estimated FY2026 earnings, this translates to a Market Cap-to-Sales multiple of approximately 10x. While this valuation appears higher, we believe a premium may be justified. This is due to Urban Company's superior unit economics, a premium service mix, and deeper integration with its service providers. However, this valuation assumes the company will sustain its high growth and continue to expand its margins. This leaves little room for a near-term re-rating," said Anshul Jain, Head of Research at Lakshmishree Investment.

On whether one should apply, Anshul Jain said, "We recommend that risk-tolerant investors seeking exposure to the rapidly growing home services sector 'SUBSCRIBE WITH RISK' to the Urban Company Ltd IPO, but only with a long-term investment horizon."

Assigning a 'subscribe' tag to the mainboard IPO, Master Capital Services report said, "Urban Company Ltd is one of the fastest growing companies offering a range of home services is poised for future growth and the company plans to expand its presence in India beyond the cities the company operates and focus on improving the consumer experience through upskilling the service professionals and improving the quality of service delivery and endeavor for consumers to experience a branded service experience. The company is committed to innovating existing service categories and introducing new sub-categories to enhance the service offerings on the platform. Investors can consider the IPO for long-term investment."

Dr Choksey Finserv, Arihant Capital, BP Equities, Canara Bank Securities, Mehta Equities, and Sushil Finance have also assigned the Urban Company IPO a 'subscribe' tag.
The initial public offering (IPO) of Dev Accelerator opened for subscription on September 10 and will be available for bidding till September 12. Apart from Deve Accelerator's IPO, two other mainboard issues  Urban Company IPO and Shringar House of Mangalsutra IPO  are also underway on Dalal Street.

Dev Accelerator provides workspace solutions ranging from individual desks to fully customised office setups. Its offerings include sourcing office spaces, tailoring designs, developing work environments, and delivering technology solutions, ensuring end-to-end asset management.

Also Read | Dev Accelerator raises 63 crore from anchor investors ahead of IPO

The company operates across both Tier 1 and Tier 2 markets in India, with a footprint in regions like Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Indore, Jaipur, Udaipur, Rajkot, and Vadodara.

As of May 31, 2025, it serves more than 250 clients through 28 centres in 11 cities, managing 14,144 seats with a total supervised area of 860,522 square feet of SBA.

Dev Accelerator IPO subscription status At the end of the second day of bidding, the Dev Accelerator IPO was subscribed 16.08 times.

The retail portion was subscribed 59.31 times; meanwhile, Non Institutional Investors (NIIS) and Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) received 15.36 times and 2.40 times bids, respectively.

Dev Accelerator IPO - Review Brokerage firm Anand Rathi has given a subscribe for long-term rating to the Dev Accelerator IPO, considering the issue is viewed as fully priced.

At the upper end of the price band, the company is valued at 305x FY25 P/E and 3.5x P/S, with a post-issue market capitalisation of 5,501 million. It has broadened its offerings to include HR, IT, and software services through Saasjoy to strengthen client retention and address evolving workplace and technology needs. Additionally, via its associate Scaleax Advisory Private Limited, it helps GCCs build global teams in India by providing facility and payroll management, as well as recruitment solutions like talent sourcing, AI-based screening, and team augmentation. Considering these factors, the IPO is viewed as fully priced, warranting a SUBSCRIBE  LONG TERM recommendation, the brokerage firm said.

Meanwhile, brokerage firm Reliance Securities has also given a subscribe tag, considering expansion into Tier-1 plans and an upcoming overseas foray adds to its long-term potential.

DevX has carved a niche as a Tier-2 market leader in managed workspaces with strong occupancies and enterprise-focused solutions. Its multi-model approach balances growth and capital efficiency, while revenue and ROCE have improved sharply. Expansion into Tier-1 and an upcoming overseas foray add long-term potential. Owing to such developments, we recommend to Subscribe, the brokerage said.

Dev Accelerator IPO details Dev Accelerators IPO is a complete fresh issue of 2.35 crore equity shares, priced in the range of 56 61 per share.

For retail investors, the minimum bid size is one lot of 235 shares, requiring an investment of 14,335. The lot size for small non-institutional investors (sNII) is 14 lots, amounting to 2,00,690, while for large NIIs (bNII) it is 70 lots, translating to 10,03,450.

The proceeds from the IPO will be utilised for capital expenditure on fit-outs at upcoming centres, security deposits for these centres, repayment of certain borrowings, including redemption of NCDs, and for general corporate purposes.

The share allotment is likely to be finalised on September 15, 2025, with listing on both BSE and NSE tentatively scheduled for September 17, 2025.

Pantomath Capital Advisors Pvt. Ltd. is acting as the book-running lead manager, while Kfin Technologies Ltd. is the registrar of the issue.

Dev Accelerator IPO GMP today The shares of Dev Accelerator IPO are trading at a decent grey market premium (GMP). As per market reports, Dev Accelerator IPOs GMP slipped slightly to 8 on Thursday.

Based on the upper end of the IPO price band at 61 and the current GMP, the estimated listing price of Dev Accelerator shares could be around 69, reflecting a premium of 13.11%. While this indicates a positive listing outlook, its important to remember that GMP can be highly volatile.

In essence, the grey market premium reflects how much investors are willing to pay above the issue price. However, investment decisions in an IPO should not be based solely on GMP  factors such as the companys fundamentals, valuations, and individual risk tolerance must also be considered.
New Delhi, Inflow in equity mutual funds dropped by 22 per cent to 33,430 crore in August, largely due to a sharp fall in new fund offers and global macroeconomic uncertainties.

Despite the decline, this marks the 54th consecutive month of net inflows into the equity segment.

Systematic Investment Plan inflows also moderated slightly to 28,265 crore during the month, compared with 28,464 crore in July, data released by the Association of Mutual Funds in India showed on Wednesday.

Going by the data, equity-oriented mutual funds saw inflows of 33,430 crore in August, down from 42,702 crore in July.

Experts attributed the decline to a combination of lower NFO activity and global macroeconomic pressures, with tariff-related developments fuelling market volatility and prompting investors to take a more cautious approach.

"The lower impact of new flow viz previous month roughly 9,000 crore is to the extent of NFOs which were higher in July than August. Rest the flow momentum is steady and healthy," Akhil Chaturvedi, Chief Business Officer of Motilal Oswal Asset Management Company, said.

Echoing this view, Suranjana Borthakhur, Head of Distribution & Strategic Alliances at Mirae Asset Investment Managers , pointed out that a large part of last month's surge was driven by sectoral categories, with nearly 7,000 crore coming from NFOs alone.

Himanshu Srivastava, Principal, Manager Research at Morningstar Investment Research India, said that global uncertainties, including foreign investor outflows, caution over valuations, and the intensified tariff war between India and the US, may also have contributed to the softer pace in August.

Among categories, Flexi Cap Funds remained the biggest gainer, setting a fresh record with inflows of 7,679 crore in August, surpassing July's high of 7,654 crore. Mid Cap Funds and Small Cap Funds continued to attract strong investor interest, recording inflows of 5,331 crore and 4,993 crore, respectively.

In contrast, Sectoral or Thematic Funds saw a sharp moderation, with inflows dropping to 3,893 crore in August from a record 9,246 crore in July, despite two new launches mobilising 1,422 crore. Large Cap Funds registered inflows of 2,835 crore.

A total of 23 schemes were launched in August 2025, all open-ended and across categories, raising a total of 2,859 crore, Venkat N Chalasani, Chief Executive, AMFI, said.

Apart from equities, hybrid schemes also saw easing flows, slowing to 15,294 crore from about 20,000 crore in July, mainly due to a cooling off in arbitrage funds.

Gold ETFs recorded strong inflows of 2,190 crore in August, up from 1,256 crore in July, marking the fourth consecutive month of positive traction.

On the other hand, debt schemes witnessed outflows of 7,980 crore during the month, after recording inflows of 1.06 lakh crore in July.

Overall, the mutual fund industry saw total inflows of 52,443 crore in August, way lower than 1.8 lakh crore in July.

The industry's assets under management stood at 75.2 lakh crore at the end of August, compared with 75.36 lakh crore in July-end.
The Nifty Auto index has rallied more than 12 per cent since August 18, driven by optimism around next-generation GST reforms. The government cut the GST to 18% on most passenger vehicle categories, from as high as 31%, making cars and bikes more affordable ahead of the festive season, driving hopes of a pick-up in demand.

Over the past one year, the Nifty Auto index has risen 6 per cent, outperforming the Nifty 50, which fell 0.13 per cent in the same period. In 2025 so far, the auto index is up 19 per cent compared to a 5.7 per cent rise in the Nifty 50.

Auto sector outlook amid GST 2.0 The reform comes at a crucial juncture for the auto industry. Two-wheeler domestic sales rose 9 per cent year-on-year to 19.61 million units in FY25, slightly below the 13 per cent growth recorded in FY24. Passenger vehicle sales increased just 2 per cent to 4.30 million units, compared to 8 per cent growth last year.

Analysts note that rising ownership costs and weak rural demand have hurt the entry-level segment the most.

The GST cut is expected to revive demand, particularly during the festive season, which typically supports strong sales. Additionally, the Reserve Bank of Indias recent repo rate cut to 6 per cent is likely to lower EMIs and boost affordability, providing another tailwind for vehicle demand.

Amid these positive developments for the sector, analysts recommend which auto major among Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, and Bajaj Auto investors should buy for the long term.

Maruti vs Tata Motors vs Bajaj Auto: Which auto stock to buy? Vinit Bolinjkar, Head of Research at Ventura Securities, sees Maruti Suzuki as the strongest long-term pick.

The GST rate cut on two-wheelers, small cars, hatchbacks, and compact sedans is likely to support higher volumes during the festive season. Maruti Suzuki remains our top pick due to its dominant ~50 per cent market share, diverse product portfolio (petrol, CNG, hybrid, EVs), and growing export penetration in developing markets, Bolinjkar said.

Bolinjkar named Bajaj Auto as his second choice, citing its wide portfolio of commuter and premium bikes, as well as its early lead in electric two-wheelers. He also highlighted the recovery in the three-wheeler segment as a growth lever. Still, he warned that intense competition from Ola, Ather, TVS, and Hero MotoCorp could cap market share gains.

Regarding Tata Motors, he stated that strong domestic commercial vehicle (CV) and passenger vehicle (PV) performance is likely, although weakness in Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) may continue to weigh on consolidated earnings.

Bajaj Auto shares have declined 18 per cent over the past year but gained 6 per cent in 2025 so far and 13 per cent in the past month. Maruti Suzuki has surged nearly 25 per cent over the past year, with a massive 40.5 per cent jump in 2025 YTD and a 21 per cent rally in the last month. Tata Motors, meanwhile, has fallen 27 per cent over the past year and is down 4 per cent YTD, but has recovered 9 per cent in the last month.

Technical View Meanwhile, Kunal Shah, Technical Analyst at Mirae Asset Sharekhan, remains bullish on Tata Motors given its strong structure on tech charts.

The Nifty Auto index corrected sharply from 27,969 to 19,317 before reversing trend. After breaking the 24,30024,500 resistance zone, a strong rally followed. There is still upside potential toward 29,800, which corresponds to the 1.272 Fibonacci retracement level. Tata Motors looks attractive with a favourable risk-reward setup. We see 10 per cent upside from here, with support at 670 and targets at 800/830, Shah said.

Meanwhile, Jigar S Patel, Senior Manager  Technical Research at Anand Rathi Shares, prefers Bajaj Auto for traders.

The stock broke out above 9,000 on the weekly chart and is near 9,400 with strong MACD momentum. The structure resembles a cup-and-handle pattern, supported by an inverse head-and-shoulders setup  both bullish continuation patterns. Traders may consider staggered buying between 9,2009,400 with a stop-loss below 8,900. The stock has potential to test 10,000 in the near term, Patel said.

Conclusion for Investors Analysts remain broadly optimistic about the auto sector, with the proposed GST cut and rate easing from the RBI expected to trigger a demand recovery in small cars and two-wheelers.

Long-term investors may consider Maruti Suzuki, given its dominant market share, wide product portfolio, and strong export growth. Meanwhile, Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto look promising as per tech charts in the near to medium term.
Indias wealthy are increasingly shifting towards public market-linked investment strategies despite higher risk as opportunities for outsized gains in private markets fade, Mints analysis shows.

Domestic capital inflows into private equity- and private credit-led Category II alternative investment funds slumped to a five-quarter low of 4% in the April-June quarter, the analysis shows. In contrast, Category III funds continued to draw steady inflows, outpacing both Category I and II funds for a fifth straight quarter.

Alternative investment funds collect funds from other investors to invest in companies or projects. Category I AIFs include venture capital and infrastructure funds, while private equity and debt funds fall under Category II AIFs. Category III AIFs such as hedge funds have a higher risk appetite with aggressive investment strategies such as using algorithms for automated high-frequency stock trading.

The Delhi High Court recently clarified that Cat III AIFs with clear disclosures of beneficiaries will only attract short-term and long-term capital gains taxes, and not an automatic maximum marginal rate of 40%.

With clearer tax rules and strong distribution incentives, wealth managers are likely to ramp up Category III AIF offerings this year, predict market experts.

Domestic inflows into Category III funds grew 66% year-on-year in the April-June first quarter, over twice the growth of Category II funds, show data from the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

A separate analysis of PRIME Databases AIF data shows that with 72 launches so far this year, Category III funds are on track to surpass last years 74.

The surge in Category III fund launches reflects growing client confidence that tech-driven stock selection can deliver better returns even in a slow equity market, said Srikanth Subramanian, chief executive and co-founder of Ionic Wealth, a wealth management platform.

Higher demand for a variety of liquid investments and clearer rules on Category III fund taxation have helped boost interest, he added.

Shifting winds

Category III funds, despite their appeal, were constrained by complex and unclear tax rules, while Category II funds, though illiquid, are popular because they dont attract taxes, said Tushar Sachade, partner at Price Waterhouse and Co. Llp.

This is evident in the numbers. Category II funds attracted domestic inflows worth 2.17 trillion in the June quarter, while inflows into Category III funds were around 1.55 trillion, Sebi data show.

There is ample appetite for Cat II funds," Sachade said. But lack of quality investment opportunities and tighter exit conditions may limit fundraising."

Global market fluctuations and sector-specific challenges, including the recent ban on online gaming platforms involving real-money transactions, are putting pressure on deal valuations and affecting exit opportunities for mature private equity portfolios, according to Ionic Wealths Subramanian.

Limited price discovery and cautious market sentiment are making secondary PE-to-PE investment sales more challenging, causing many early-stage funds to accept lower valuations, he added. Also, softer IPO sentiment earlier this year reduced liquidity and dampened exit activity for growth and late-stage funds."

In such a scenario, fewer PEbacked companies might list on public markets this year, said Pranav Haldea, managing director of PRIME Database Group. ... They might defer exits in search of stronger pricing."

That said, Indias equity market is seeing a significant increase in IPO activity after a lull earlier this year. Experts, however, said investors might still hold back for a more opportune time to make their bets.

Price Waterhouses Sachade said investors often demand 5-7% additional returns over liquid alternatives while locking up capital in private markets.

But in a tight market, generating that illiquidity premium becomes increasingly challenging, particularly in PE investments," said Feroze Azeez, joint CEO of Anand Rathi Wealth. This has mainly cooled appetite for Category II funds, pushing some toward public allocations."

Azeez anticipates a surge in Category III fund launches this year, as these are also typically easier to distribute among a broader investor base. While product launches are more performance-driven in the private market, supply often creates its own demand for new public-market products, he added.

Chasing fat purses

Unlike mutual funds, which are low-cost products and allow limited distributor earnings, portfolio management services (PMS) and AIF structures typically provide higher revenue opportunities for wealth managers through fat distribution commissions and management fees, Azeez said.

Over time, this difference in economics leads wealth managers to gradually tilt client portfolios toward PMS and AIF allocations, helping them maintain better return on assets, he added.

Centrum Broking in a recent report said AIF and PMS distribution yields for 360 ONE Wam Ltd, Indias largest wealth franchise, were 0.72-0.84% in the June quarter, higher than the 0.42-0.46% yields for mutual funds and 0.28-0.30% for advisory mandates.

Such AIF yields provide wealth houses with a steady stream of highly profitable annual recurring revenue, helping offset revenue cyclicality and rising operating costs.

360 ONE plans to roll out one alternative strategy product every quarter, with its AIF assets under management climbing 13% year-on-year in the first quarter, the firms management team said during the June-quarter earnings call.

The rise in alternatives is not just a passing trend but a structural shift (in the wealth management industry)," Anshuman Maheshwary, chief operating officer at 360 ONE, told Mint. As wealth creation accelerates, flows into alternative assets will only grow stronger, he added.

Listed peers Nuvama Wealth Management Ltd and Anand Rathi Wealth Ltd also reported strong revenue and margin growth from AIF distribution in the first quarter, while Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltds PMS and AIF net flows turned positive after last years outflows.

Wealth houses which can steadily shift business mix toward annuity-like fee streams will benefit disproportionately going ahead," said Alekh Yadav, head of investment products at Sanctum Wealth.

Large family offices, however, will continue diversifying across products and favour managers with proven track records, said Price Waterhouses Sachade.

Also Read | Why India's AIFs are outpacing portfolio management services
Indias benchmark Nifty 50 index has been on a steady climb since April despite the USs tariff pressures and other macroeconomic issues, but IPOs have struggled to deliver consistent listing-day returns to investors.

Listing day is when a companys shares debut on the stock exchanges following an initial public offering. The difference between the share price on listing day and the price at which the shares were sold during the IPO is keenly watched, especially by investors whove bet their money on the companys growth.

Average listing-day returns have swung from 9.1% in May to 10.8% in June, 15.6% in July, and 10.6% in August, show data from Prime Database. (See chart below.)

And while the Nifty 50 has gained 5.2% so far in 2025 (as of 9 September), the Nifty IPO index has declined 1.2%, per Capitaline data.

But how important are listing-day returns for investors? Mint explains.
Gold jewellery stocks have been in the limelight as the precious metal has risen to record high levels, and with sector sentiment boosted by GST 2.0 reforms, along with investor preference for safe-haven assets amid uncertainties over Trump tariffs.

On Wednesday, jewellery sector stocks were mostly trading flat amid rising gold prices.

Kalyan Jewellers share price was trading in the green, gaining marginally. Meanwhile, Titan, Senco Gold, and PN Gadgil Jewellers' shares were down up to 1 per cent on September 10.

Other jewellery stocks like Sky Gold and Diamonds shares were trading 3 per cent down.

Despite weak trading, Seema Srivastava, Senior Research Analyst at SMC Global Securities, remains bullish on jewellery stocks, suggesting investors to keep a track of Titan, Kalyan Jewellers and Senco Gold shares.

Jewellery stocks have attracted investor interest as gold prices stay at record highs, with GST 2.0 reforms influencing sector sentiment. The recent GST overhaul kept the 3% tax on gold and silver jewellery and 5% on making charges, providing predictability for jewellers and consumers. Although the gems and jewellery industry didnt get direct tax relief, GST rate cuts in other sectors could boost consumer disposable income, indirectly supporting jewellery demand, especially during festive seasons. Key GST 2.0 measures, like benefits for diamond importers and packaging materials, are expected to lower costs for exporters and retailers, improving long-term performance, Srivastava said.

Should you invest in jewellery stocks? Anuj Gupta, Director at Ya Wealth, believes that soaring gold prices fuel jewellery stocks if the rally in the yellow metal is for the short term, as it gives margin benefits to jewellery maker companies on their buffer stocks.

In the long term, as we are witnessing in the current scenario, it affects jewellery demand due to the rise in gold prices and jewellery. However, GST 2.0 will be implemented on 22 September 2025, which may boost the consumption-oriented segment. The positive buzz has further gained after breaking the ice in the India-US trade deal after the social media update from US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's response to it, Gupta said.

Seema Srivastava of SMC Global Securities further said that top jewellery stocks have delivered strong returns, as investors shift focus from bullion to equities.

However, challenges remain, including global price volatility and tight margins. Stability in GST rates offers clarity, but future growth depends on company strategies and consumer sentiment. Investing in jewellery stocks makes sense if based on solid fundamentals and market trends, not short-term speculation, Srivastava added.
Investors are likely to keep a close tab on insurance stocks, including LIC, SBI Life Insurance, HDFC Life Insurance, and ICICI Prudential, closely in Wednesday's (September 10) session, as the CEOs of several insurance companies will reportedly meet with Finance Ministry officials on Wednesday to present their demand and discuss concerns regarding the recent changes in the GST rates.

According to media reports, insurance company CEOs had requested a meeting with the Finance Ministry and CBIC (Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs) officials ahead of the implementation of GST 2.0 from September 22.

According to a PTI report, CBIC chairman Sanjay Kumar Agarwal will meet various trade bodies and industries, including Assocham, FICCI, CII and PHDCCI, on September 10 to discuss the GST reforms, rate rationalisation and their implementation.

Earlier, PTI reported Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman saying that CBIC will engage with the insurance industry to work out a transition mechanism for the accumulated input tax credit (ITC) of policies that have been exempted from tax with effect from September 22.

On September 3, the GST Council, Chaired by FM Sitharaman, announced that individual life and health insurance policies will be fully exempt from GST. The move, according to experts, may impact the profitability of insurance companies in the short term due to slower repricing of existing policies.

According to a report by HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India), health insurance premiums could get cheaper due to the zero GST on health insurance. However, this may trigger a revenue shortfall of $1.2-1.4 billion annually from GST on insurance premiums.

"While lower premiums are expected to boost demand, insurance companies could see a 3-6 per cent impact on combined ratios (CR) in the retail health segment, primarily due to slower repricing of renewals, which may take 12-18 months," the HSBC report said.

Insurance stocks today The majority of insurance stocks, including LIC, SBI Life Insurance, ICICI Prudential, ICICI Lombard, and HDFC Life, rose by a per cent in trade on Wednesday. Market sentiment was positive after US President Donald Trump's updates signalled that an India-US trade deal could materialise soon.

Equity benchmarks, the Sensex and the Nifty 50, traded over half a per cent higher around 10:25 am.

Read all market-related news here

Read more stories by Nishant Kumar
The Indian stock market benchmark indices, Sensex and Nifty 50, are likely to open higher on Wednesday, tracking upbeat cues from global markets.

The trends on Gift Nifty also indicate a positive start for the Indian benchmark index. The Gift Nifty was trading around 25,000 level, a premium of nearly 50 points from the Nifty futures previous close.

On Tuesday, the equity market ended higher, with the benchmark Nifty 50 closing above 24,800 level.

The Sensex gained 314.02 points, or 0.39%, to close at 81,101.32, while the Nifty 50 settled 95.45 points, or 0.39%, higher at 24,868.60.

Heres what to expect from Sensex, Nifty 50, and Bank Nifty today:

Sensex Prediction Sensex formed a small candle on daily charts, and on intraday charts, it is holding an uptrend continuation formation.

We are of the view that currently the market is experiencing positive consolidation. For day traders, the key support zone is now 80,900 - 80,750. As long as Sensex trades above this, the bullish sentiment is likely to continue. On the higher side, 81,500 would act as a crucial resistance zone, said Shrikant Chouhan, Head Equity Research, Kotak Securities.

A successful breakout above 81,500 could push Sensex up to 81,800 - 82,000. Conversely, below 80,750, the uptrend would become vulnerable, he added.

Nifty OI Data In the derivatives segment, the highest Nifty Call open interest (OI) was placed at 25,000, while the highest Put open interest was at 24,800, suggesting firm resistance at 25,000 and solid support at 24,800.

Overall, markets closed on a positive note, with IT outperformance being the key highlight. Traders will closely watch the 24,900  25,000 range on Nifty 50 and the 55,000 level on Bank Nifty for the next breakout, said Amruta Shinde, Technical & Derivative Analyst at Choice Equity Broking.

Nifty 50 Prediction Nifty 50 index formed a doji candle with a higher high and a higher low, signaling consolidation amid stock specific action on the weekly expiry session.

A small candle was formed on the daily chart with minor upper and lower shadow and with almost identical open and close. This market action indicates a formation of doji type candle pattern. But, having formed this pattern amidst a broader range bound action, the predictive value of this pattern could be less, said Nagaraj Shetti, Senior Technical Research Analyst at HDFC Securities.

According to him, the underlying trend of Nifty 50 remains positive with choppy movement.

Nifty is apparently creating a base for a decisive upside breakout of an important resistance zone of around 24,900 - 25,000 levels (down sloping trend line and recent weekly highs). Immediate support is placed at 24,750, Shetti said.

Nilesh Jain, Head  Technical and Derivatives Research Analyst (Equity Research), Centrum Broking Ltd said that the momentum indicators and oscillators have turned positive, with the RSI crossing above the 50 mark, suggesting a short-term bullish momentum.

However, the Nifty 50 index remains at a critical juncture as it nears the key resistance zone around the 25,000 level, which continues to act as a significant hurdle. A decisive breakout above this level is essential to confirm the start of a fresh upward leg. On the downside, the immediate support of 21-DMA is placed at 24,720 level, said Jain.

Sudeep Shah, Head - Technical Research and Derivatives at SBI Securities said that the zone of 24,970 - 25,000 will act as an immediate hurdle for the index. While, on the downside, the zone of 24,730 - 247,00 will act as crucial support. A decisive move on either side will lead to a trending move in the index.

Bank Nifty Prediction Bank Nifty index gained 29.20 points, or 0.05%, to close at 54,216.10 on Tuesday, and formed a small red candle on a daily scale.

Bank Nifty index continues to trade below the 20-EMA, while the 9-EMA is offering short-term support. The RSI stands at 39, below the neutral 50 mark, suggesting only a modest recovery in strength. However, the ADX has risen to 31, confirming that the prevailing trend may continue to strengthen. On the hourly timeframe, the index is oscillating within a descending channel, attempting to recover, said Om Mehra, Technical Research Analyst, SAMCO Securities.

A base is gradually forming near 53,800, but repeated rejections around the 54,400  54,500 zone highlight the presence of previous resistance. Unless Bank Nifty manages to close above this zone, the recovery is likely to remain capped within the channel. Until such a breakout occurs, the outlook remains cautious with a neutral-to-slightly bullish outlook, Mehra added.

Also Read | Breakout stocks to buy or sell: Sumeet Bagadia recommends five shares to buy

Hrishikesh Yedve, AVP Technical and Derivative Research, Asit C. Mehta Investment Interrmediates Ltd noted that on the downside, the 200-DEMA is placed near 53,600 while the low of the bullish engulfing candle is near 53,560, making the 53,560  53,600 zone a strong demand area.

As long as the Bank Nifty sustains above this zone, a buy-on-dips strategy is more favourable. On the upside, 54,500 will act as a short-term hurdle for the Bank Nifty, followed by 54,900. Overall, we expect Bank Nifty to consolidate in the range of 53,560  54,900 levels in the short term, Yedve said.

Bajaj Broking Research expects the Bank Nifty index to remain range-bound between 53,500 and 55,000 in the near term, suggesting a consolidation phase before any directional breakout.

On the upside, the 54,800  55,000 zone remains a significant supply zone, marked by the confluence of the prior breakdown area and the 100-day EMA. This region is likely to act as a strong overhead resistance. On the downside, immediate support is placed at 53,500  53,300, which coincides with the 200-day EMA and the swing low of May 2025, said Bajaj Broking Research.
PC Jeweller share price is in focus on Wednesday, September 10 after the company informed the exchanges that its Board of Directors approved the allotment of 13.61 crore equity shares (face value 1 each) to three allottees under the Non-Promoter, Public Category including Mauritius-based FII Unico Global Opportunities Fund.

These shares were issued upon the conversion of 1.36 crore fully convertible warrants that had been previously allotted through a preferential issue on a private placement basis.

The conversion price per share was 42.15, which included 75 percent of the issue price payable at the time of conversion. The company received a total of 573.76 crore from this exercise. The conversion price and number of shares were adjusted after the companys share split in December 2024, where one share of 10 was split into 10 shares of 1 each.

Following this allotment, the companys paid-up equity share capital has increased from 693.19 crore to 706.80 crore, comprising 706.80 crore equity shares of 1 each.

Detailed Allotment Breakdown The latest conversion was carried out for three non-promoter public allottees. Unico Global Opportunities Fund Ltd, which held 4,25,31,329 warrants prior to conversion, exercised 1,18,62,400 warrants and was allotted 11,86,24,000 equity shares, contributing 50.00 crore. Intellexs Investments Solutions Pvt Ltd converted all its 15,50,000 warrants into 1,55,00,000 equity shares, resulting in a payment of 6.53 crore. Maheshkumar Gupta, who originally held 10,00,000 warrants, converted 2,00,000 warrants into 20,00,000 equity shares, contributing 0.84 crore.

Post-Allotment Shareholding Following the conversion, the companys total outstanding equity shares stand at 706.80 crore shares. After this preferential issue, public shareholding has increased to 61.44 percent from 60.68 percent, while promoter and promoter group shareholding has reduced slightly to 38.56 percent from 39.32 percent.

This conversion strengthens PC Jewellers equity base and enhances its financial flexibility. The participation of institutional investor Unico Global Opportunities Fund in a large chunk of this conversion demonstrates continued investor interest and confidence in the companys prospects.

The increased public shareholding also improves stock liquidity, which may attract more institutional participation over time.

PC Jeweller Stock Performance The jewellery stock has risen 10 percent in the last 1 year. Meanwhile, in the last 3 and 6 months, it has added 9.5 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, in the last 5 years, it has given multibagger returns, soaring 770 percent.
Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) share price traded higher on Wednesday after the PSU company signed a Technology Transfer Agreement for Small Satellite Launch Vehicle with multiple space agencies. The PSU defence stock gained as much as 1.38% to 4,515.00 apiece on the BSE.

HAL said it has signed the agreement with Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

The SSLV is a three-stage vehicle designed to launch satellites weighing less than 500 kg into Lower Earth Orbit (LEO). Under this contract, HAL will absorb the technology in the first two years, followed by a 10-year production phase.

The agreement grants HAL a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to the SSLV technology, which includes comprehensive design, manufacturing, quality control, integration, launch operations, and post-flight analysis documentation, as well as training and support, Hindustan Aeronautics said in a regulatory filing on September 10.

HAL will be responsible for the mass production of SSLV to meet Indian and global demands, it added.

Through this transfer, HAL will now have the autonomy to build, own and operate the launch vehicle, a move that aligns with its long-term strategy to establish a dedicated space vertical. This strategic technology transfer will enable HAL to transition from a component supplier to a comprehensive launch service provider and a key player in the rapidly expanding small satellite market, the defence PSU said.

Krishna Doshi, Defence Analyst at Ashika Institution Research said that the initiative enhances HALs growth optionality beyond defence aviation, potentially enhancing revenue stream in the global small satellite launch services market.

Execution will remain a key monitorable, particularly around technology absorption and competitive positioning versus private players, but strategically, this move is a strong positive for HALs long-term value creation, Doshi said.

Looking ahead, with the ramp-up in LCA Mk1A production (two units slated for delivery in the near term), the analyst expects double-digit topline growth for HAL accompanied by progressive margin expansion, driven by higher indigenization levels and easing supply-chain constraints.

We maintain a positive stance on Hindustan Aeronautics, Doshi said.

HAL Share Price Performance HAL share price has remained flat in one month and has fallen 12% in three months. The PSU defence stock has rallied 32% in six months and has gained 8% on a year-to-date (YTD) basis. Over the past one year, HAL share price has fallen 4%, while it has delivered multibagger returns of 942% in five years.

At 11:45 AM, HAL share price was trading 1.12% higher at 4,503.55 apiece on the BSE.
Stock Market Today: Small-cap stock jumped to hit upper circuit during the intraday trades and for 17th day in a row; do you own the Osia Hyper Retail Limited?

Small-cap stock Osia Hyper Retail hits upper circuit Small-cap stock Osia Hyper Retail share price opened at 24.59 on the NSE on Wednesday. At the time of opening, Small-cap stock Osia Hyper Retail Solutions share price was flat compared to Tuesday's closing price of 24.59. Small-cap stock Osia Hyper Retail share price, thereafter, gained momentum and touched an intraday high of 25.81, which meant gains of almost 5% during the intraday trade on Wednesday. Since the level of RS 24.59 also happened to be the upper price band of Osia Hyper Retail share price, hence the Small-cap stock Osia Hyper Retail was locked in the upper circuit.

Notably the Small-cap stock Osia Hyper Retail was locked in the upper circuit for 17th day in a row. Osia Hyper Retail Share price had dipped to 52 week low to 11.31 on 14 August from highs of 50.45 seen in the end September. However the small-cap stock Osia Hyper Retail share price after closing at 11.31 level on 14 August, has thereafter been rising regularly to hit upper circuits and Small-cap stock has seen its share price more than double.

Small-cap stock Osia Hyper Retail -Key developments Small-cap stock Osia Hyper Retail on 23 August had intimated about raising funds through QIP. The board of Osia Hyper Retail approved Issue of Equity Shares through Qualified Institutions Placement (QIP) for an aggregate amount up to Rs.200,00,00,000/- (Rupees Two Hundred Crores only)(inclusive of such premium) subject to the receipt of approval of the Members of the Company.

Osia Hyper Retail on Tuesday, 9 September 2025 also has intimated the exchanges about the annual General meeting of the companys. As per the release the The 12th Annual General Meeting will be held on Tuesday, 30th September, 2025 at Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

Osia Hyper Retail is a growing supermarket chain that prioritises value retailing. The company launched its first outlet in Ahmedabad, Gujarat in 2014, under the name "Osia Hypermart." It operates on a similar economic model as several other retail showroom chains.
Heres a quick look at stocks likely to be in focus in today's trade. Vodafone Idea The telecom company has filed a petition with the Supreme Court, disputing the computation of additional AGR dues and requesting a reassessment of its obligations.

Bikaji Foods Bikaji Foods released a statement following the Enforcement Directorates (ED) summons to its Managing Director in connection with a probe related to the Rajasthan Premier League (RPL).

Bajaj Auto The automaker will extend the full benefit of the GST reduction to its customers, providing discounts of up to 20,000 on two-wheelers and KTM models, and up to 24,000 on three-wheelers, starting September 22, 2025.

Kotak Mahindra Bank Japanese financial services major Sumitomo Mitsui is reportedly planning to offload its entire 1.65% stake in Kotak Mahindra Bank via a block deal valued at 6,166 crore.

Sun Pharma The US FDA has designated Sun Pharmas Halol facility as Official Action Indicated (OAI), maintaining its import alert status and ongoing shipment restrictions.

Blue Jet Healthcare The pharmaceutical firm announced that its promoter, Akshay Bansarilal Arora, will offload up to 3.42% stake through an OFS on September 1011 in order to comply with public shareholding requirements.

Samvardhana Motherson International The company has purchased the remaining 25% stake in its two Turkish subsidiaries, securing complete ownership as part of its international growth strategy.

Sterling and Wilson Sterling and Wilson Renewable Energy, a provider of renewable solutions, announced on Tuesday that it has bagged a 415 crore order to develop a solar power project in Rajasthan.

Tata Motors Tata Motors has entered into a Share Subscription and Shareholders Agreement with Tata Power Renewable Energy to acquire a 26% equity stake in TP Paarthav and TP Marigold.

Bharat Electronics The company is set to distribute a final dividend of 0.90 per share on September 23.
Elon Musk's electric vehicle maker, Tesla, has given a bombastic 60% return to investors, but the road to a sustained rally remains questionable in light of falling market share and shifting focus from the company's money-making business.

According to a Reuters report, Tesla, which once held more than 80% of the US EV market, accounted for 38% of the total EV sales in August, the first time it has fallen below the 40% mark since October 2017.

This can largely be attributed to Tesla's focus turning to building robotaxis and humanoid robots. While other EV makers are launching new models, Tesla is delaying and cancelling plans for cheaper electric vehicle models.

Also Read | How rich could Musk become with $1,000,000,000,000 package offer from Tesla

Its last new model was the Cybertruck pickup that rolled out in 2023. While Tesla has refreshed the Model Y, once the world's best-selling car, the changes have failed to live up to expectations, and it is on track toward a second year of sales decline, the Reuters report added.

Why is Tesla rising despite soft sales? Yet, if an investor were to look at Tesla's one-year return, it is nothing less than phenomenal.

According to Justin Khoo, Senior Market Analyst - APAC, VT Markets, this is because Tesla investors, rather than focusing only on near-term auto margins, which are under pressure from price cuts and fierce competition in the US and China, are paying for Teslas longer-term bets in AI, robotics, and energy.

Its full self-driving program, robotaxi ambitions, and fast-growing energy storage business with 30% plus margins are seen as potential high-margin growth engines, said Khoo.

Also Read | Tesla gets bookings for just 600 Model Y cars in India since July launch: Report

Tesla is currently valued as a growth stock, trading at around 75 times its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), even though its vehicle sales dropped last year and are likely to drop this year, according to Reuters' calculations.

Meanwhile, Viram Shah, Founder & CEO, Vested Finance, said that while last years optimism around the Cybertruck, a cheaper mass-market model in the pipeline, and Musks bigger bets on autonomy and AI can be behind the rally in stock, investors need to understand that soft sales and competition are weighing on it.

"Switch the frame to this year, and the picture changes, as Tesla is down nearly 10% year-to-date after deliveries softened and competition ate into its lead," said Shah.

The apparent contradiction between a soaring 12-month gain and a pullback this year is really a timing story. Last year, the market was pricing in future growth; this year, its weighing execution against those lofty expectations, according to Shah.

Moreover, Elon Musk's association with President Donald Trump have also hurt the brand.

Tesla stock outlook According to Justin Khoo, from September 2025 onward, the paradox is that Tesla may keep losing share in a rapidly expanding global EV market but still grow sales in absolute terms.

For investors, the stock remains highly volatile.

"Upside depends on flawless execution of new models and progress in autonomy, while risks include further margin erosion and Chinese competition. The best positioning is to hold existing shares, trim if overweight, and add only on pullbacks or when new catalysts such as the affordable model launch materialise," Khoo advised.
Shares of Faze Three, one of the leading manufacturers of home textile products, reached the maximum upper circuit limit in todays session, September 10, as optimism grew that India and the US could reach a trade deal.

US President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social earlier this morning that both countries are continuing their trade talks and that he looks forward to speaking with his "good friend," Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Prime Minister Modi responded to Trumps post by writing on "X" that India and the US are close and natural friends and that he too looks forward to speaking with the US President.

In response to this development, the shares were locked at the 20% upper circuit limit at 545 apiece, the highest level in four weeks.

The trade talks between the two countries had paused following the imposition of additional 25% tariffs by the Trump administration on Indian goods for continued purchase of Russian oil, taking total levies to 50%, the highest among major nations.

Also Read | Tariffs squeeze Indian textile firms forcing pivot beyond US

Various reports highlight that textiles are among the major sectors likely to be impacted by the higher duties, as the US is a major export market for domestic companies.

In 2024, India accounted for around 6% of the United States total apparel imports, translating to exports worth approximately $4.8 billion out of the USs $80 billion import bill, and contributing to 33% of Indias overall apparel exports, according to the latest available data.

Additionally, India exported $5.2 billion worth of textiles to the US, bringing the combined apparel and textile exports to around $10 billion. The sector is also the second-largest employer in India, providing direct employment to over 45 million people and contributing approximately 2% to national GDP and 12% to total exports.

While the US is one of the key export markets for Faze Three, the company derives 90% of its revenue from exports to the USA, UK, and Europe region.

Ashish Kacholia holds 5.42% stake in Faze Three Ashish Kacholia, known as the "Big Whale" of Dalal Street, held a 5.42% stake in Faze Three at the end of the June quarter. According to Trendlyne shareholding data, he has been holding a stake in the company since September 2021. The majority of the stake is owned by promoters, accounting for 58%, followed by general shareholders with a 40.7% stake.

Faze Three is engaged in the manufacturing and exporting of superior quality, high-end home textile products, supplying to top retailers across the globe. It offers a diversified product line, with its main products including bathmats, bath rugs, chair pads, blankets, rugs, throws, floor coverings, bedspreads, patio mats, and seat covers.
Stock market today: The Benchmark Nifty-50 Index added 0.39% to its gains to end at 24,868.60 on Tuesday. The Bank Nifty ended marginally higher at 54,216.10, though IT stood among key gainers followed by FMCG and pharma were key gainers though Realty, Oil & Gas saw pressure. The Mid- and small-caps ended with slight gains.

Trade Setup for Wednesday The underlying trend of Nifty remains positive with choppy movement. Important resistance zone for the benchmark Nifty index is around 24900-25000 levels (down sloping while Immediate support is placed at 24750, as per Nagaraj Shetti, Senior Technical Research Analyst at HDFC Securities.

For Bank Nifty the 54,80055,000 zone remains a significant resistance zone, as per Bajaj Broking.

Global Markets, GST Reforms and Trump Tariffs India is progressing on multiple trade negotiations  with Qatar (October finalization), the EU (targeted by year-end), and Oman  which are expected to further deepen regional and global economic linkages. Going forward, we expect markets to remain range-bound, tracking developments around trade agreements and the outcome of the U.S. Fed rate decision, said Siddhartha Khemka - Head of Research, Wealth Management, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.

India-US trade deal United States President Donald Trump said on Tuesday (US local time) that India, and the US "are continuing negotiations to address the Trade Barriers between our two Nations."

Sharing an update on India-US trade talks, Trump posted on Truth Social, 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 of our Great Countries!," Trump added.

Stocks to buy today Regarding stocks to buy today, market expertsSumeet Bagadia, Executive Director at Choice Broking; Ganesh Dongre, Senior Manager of Technical Research at Anand Rathi and Shiju Koothupalakkal, Senior Manager of Technical Research at Prabhudas Lilladher, recommended these Eight intraday stocks for today: Cummins India Ltd., Ram Ratna Wires Ltd., Pidilite Industries Ltd., Tata Power Company Ltd., Redington Ltd., Olectra Greentech Ltd., Waaree Energies Ltd. and Raymond Lifestyle Ltd.

Sumeet Bagadia's stock picks Cummins India Ltd- Bagadia recommends buying CUMMINSIND at  4012 keeping Stop loss  3870 for a target price of  4292 CUMMINSIND is currently trading at 4012, maintaining a strong upward trajectory. The stock has consistently formed higher highs and higher lows, reflecting sustained bullish momentum. It recently reached a 52-week high of 4028.8. A breakout above this level could further accelerate buying interest. The Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs) for the 20, 50, 100, and 200-day periods are all trending upwards, reinforcing the bullish outlook.

2. Ram Ratna Wires Ltd- Bagadia recommends buying RAMRAT at 759.5 keeping Stop loss at 733 for a target price of 812

RAMRAT is currently trading at the levels of 759.5, having recently staged a breakout from an upward consolidation zone that developed following a sharp uptrend. This move signifies a continuation of the broader bullish structure, as the stock resumes its upward trajectory after a brief pause. The breakout is accompanied by renewed volume activity, suggesting fresh accumulation at higher levels. The stock remains well-positioned above its key moving averages, particularly the 20-day and 50-day EMAs, which are showing a healthy upward slope.

Ganesh Dongre's stocks to buy today 3. Pidilite Industries Ltd - Dongre recommends buying PIDILITIND at 3098 Stoploss at 3050 for a target price of 3154

Stock has been exhibiting a strong and consistent bullish pattern, indicating sustained investor interest and positive price momentum. The stock is currently trading at  3098 and has established a solid support base at  3050. This level has historically acted as a cushion, and the recent price action suggests a reversal from this support, reinforcing bullish sentiment. The technical setup points to the potential for a price retracement toward the 3154 level in the near term.

4. Tata Power Company Ltd- Dongre recommends buying TATAPOWER at around 384 keeping Stop loss at 378 for a target price of 394

Stock has exhibited a strong notable continue bullish pattern, offering another promising opportunity for short-term traders. The stock is currently priced at  384 and maintaining a strong support at  378. The technical setup indicates the potential for a price retracement towards the  394 level. With the stock reversing from a support base and showing signs of renewed strength, entering at the current market price with a stop-loss at  378 offers a prudent approach to capturing the anticipated upside.

5. Redington Ltd- Dongre recommends buying REDINGTON at 243 keeping Stop loss at 235 for a target price of 255

Stock has exhibited a strong notable continue bullish pattern, offering another promising opportunity for short-term traders. The stock is currently priced at  243 and maintaining a strong support at  235. The technical setup indicates the potential for a price retracement towards the  255 level. With the stock reversing from a support base and showing signs of renewed strength, entering at the current market price with a stop-loss at  235 offers a prudent approach to capturing the anticipated upside.

Shiju Koothupalakkal intraday stocks for today 6. Olectra Greentech Ltd- Koothupalakkal recommends buying OLECTRA GREEN at 1567 for a target of 1650 keeping Stop loss at 1535

The stock having indicated a double bottom formation near 1485 zone, has picked up with volume spurt indicated on the intraday chart improving the bias and anticipating for further rise. The RSI is well positioned correcting from the overbought zone and with upside potential visible, has shown signs of improvement to signal a buy and can carry on with the positive move further ahead. With the chart technically well placed, we suggest buying the stock for an upside target of 1650 keeping the stop loss at the 1535 level.

7. Waaree Energies Ltd - Koothupalakkal recommends buying WAAREE ENERGIES at around 3259 for a target price of 3450 keeping Stop-loss at 3190

The stock has been in a rising trend overall with currently once again after the dip taking support near 3160 zone with indication of a decent pullback with a positive candle formation on the daily chart. We anticipate further rise in the coming sessions with the RSI well placed indicating signs of improvement and can expect for further gains. With the chart technically looking good, we suggest buying the stock .

8. Raymond Lifestyle Ltd- Koothupalakkal recommends buying RAYMOND LIFESTYLE at around 1282 for a Target price of 1350 keeping Stop loss at 1255

The stock has indicated a series of higher bottom formation pattern on the daily chart with currently having a positive candle has improved the bias with significant volume participation visible to anticipate for further rise in the coming sessions. The RSI is on the rise indicating strength and with upside potential visible, can carry on with the positive move further ahead. With the chart technically looking good, we suggest buying the stock .
What do people really think about climate change? This is a question that is becoming increasingly important as governments keep trying to do the bare minimumor nothing at allto stop the planet from heating up to catastrophic levels. As far-right political movements in the US and EU have taken up cudgels against the vital shift to renewable energy sources, governments are seemingly looking for a populist vote on what they should do about the crisis. Never mind the science, or the real devastation that is being caused by global warming.

So what do ordinary people really think, and how different is that from what governments believe that people think? According to a study published in the science journal Nature in August, this discrepancy is huge, by a whopping 32 percentage points.

The studys authors had surveyed the 2024 attendees of the United Nations Environment Assembly (Unea) to gauge the perception of policy officials gathered there about public opinion on climate action. They asked 191 attendees from 53 countries one question: how many common people would donate 1% of their personal income towards climate and environmental action? The Unea attendees believed that only 37% of people would do so.

The researchers benchmarked this response against a separate survey from 2024, which had asked this same question to 130,000 people across 125 countries: How many of them would donate 1% of their income towards climate action? 69% of them had said they would do so.

Also Read | Why humanitys disconnection from nature is accelerating the climate crisis

What the authors of the Nature articletitled United Nations Environment Assembly Attendees Underestimate Public Willingness To Contribute To Climate Actionwanted to show was that a majority of people worldwide want governments to act; that governments need to listen to them, and not the vocal and visible minority who think that climate change is a hoax, and climate action wasteful.

The study that found that 69% of people would donate a part of their income also found that 86% would endorse pro-climate social norms and that 89% supported intensified political action to stop climate change. It is clear that if governments are looking for a popular mandate to drastically reduce fossil fuel emissions and then end it altogether, they have it. The question is whether they are willing to listen.

The EUs much-publicised European Green Deal (EGD) is a case in point. The EGD is a set of policy initiatives that was approved in 2020 by the European Commission with a view to reducing the blocs carbon emissions by 55% by 2030 (compared to 1990 levels), and to zero by 2050. The EGD comprises a variety of policies and regulations to this end, including those governing trade, the environment, the circular economy and biodiversity. The EU is the fourth largest global emitter of CO2 and other greenhouse gases (GHGs). The EUs 27 countries are together responsible for 16.47% of cumulative GHG emissions over the past 250 years, second only to the US.

View Full Image Cumulative historical CO2 emissions over the past 250 years. (Courtesy Our World In Data)

The EGD, then, was both much needed, and also the fair thing for the EU to do. However, even as the EUs member countries have registered a rightward tilt with populist and nativist mobilisation against immigration and green policies, the European Commission has been steadily watering down the EGD.

Since the EUs 2024 parliamentary elections, the bloc has brought in packages that have diluted sustainable finance rules. Among other policy changes, the Commission has postponed a law to stop deforestation by a year, introduced a funding freeze for environmental NGOs, and has granted carmakers an additional two years to meet pollution targets. The Commission says it wants to radically lighten the regulatory load" on businesses. Recently, an anti-greenwashing law was cancelled after far-right lawmakers protested. The EUs largest party, the European Peoples Party celebrated this as a win for European companies".

The upcoming COP30 climate summit in November in Brazil will be a crucial litmus test to see whether countries actually listen to their citizens, or hide behind the fig-leaf of being pro-business". The UN has urged nations to submit their updated NDCs (nationally determined contributions) for 2030 ahead of the climate summit. The NDCs put a value on how much action countries are willing to take to combat climate change. The current deadline for this is 24 September, when the UN General Assembly takes place. This will give officials time to assess the NDCs in time for COP30. So far, only 28 out of 196 countries have submitted updated NDCs. The EU isnt one of them (but then again, nor is India).

Also Read | How climate change is making the world extremely unsafe for our children

As the Unea surveys authors put it, policymakers are ignoring actual popular opinion about climate action in favour of powerful lobbying groups that would like to continue the status quo. There are some plausible explanations for our results, which include the impact of news media and lobbying and the frequency of exposure to individuals with particular ideological viewpoints. While more research is needed before we can say for sure why policymakers underestimate the public on climate change by such a high degree, our results suggest the presence of misperceptions," said Dr Stefania Innocenti of Oxfords Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, a co-author of the study.

Meanwhile, global temperatures levels continue to soar, as devastating wildfires and heatwaves and deadly flooding become the norm. Every year lost to inaction means that the worlds carbon budget for staying within relative safety dwindles. The fact of the matter is very simple: countries need to act right now, not at some politically convenient future. Because that future will never come.
Yes Bank has joined hands with Hyperface, a Credit Cards-as-a-Service platform to start a new era of digital-first credit card solutions. This partnership is a part of the Banks digital transformation journey, aimed at delivering seamless technology-led experiences for its credit card customer base.

Through the integration of Hyperfaces Modern Credit Card Stack and Hyper-Personalisation Suite, Yes Bank will launch advanced capabilities that extend far beyond conventional offerings.

Portfolio automation The platform will enable portfolio automation, end-to-end lifecycle management, and streamlined co-brand partner integrationensuring customers and partners alike benefit from smarter, faster, and more adaptive credit card solutions.

Also Read | Should you get a second credit card? Benefits and precautions explained

The initiative aligns with Yes Banks broader strategy to combine innovation with customer-centric design, reinforcing its leadership in digital banking and strengthening its ability to anticipate evolving consumer preferences.

By deploying dynamic product configurations and instant offer creation, the Bank is set to unlock enhanced customer engagement, deeper loyalty, and improved portfolio performance.

Anil Singh, Country Head, Credit Cards and Merchant Acquiring at Yes Bank, said, The collaboration with Hyperface allows Yes Bank to reimagine customer engagement with a more seamless, secure, and intuitive experience. Hyperfaces expertise in portfolio management services enables us to create dynamic product propositions on the fly, driving stronger customer adoption, increased spending, and sustainable revenue growth.

Also Read | Credit card phone scams: Why sharing OTPs or CVVs is risky and how to stay safe

Ramanathan RV, co-founder and CEO of Hyperface, said, Partnering with Yes Bank marks an exciting phase in our journey to power modern credit card portfolios at scale. It underscores the strength of our tech stack and regulatory frameworks designed to deliver scalable, compliant, and deeply embedded digital solutions that resonate with modern consumers. Were delighted to collaborate with Yes Bank in shaping the next chapter of digital-first, customer-centric credit card experiences in India.

With this alliance, Yes Bank and Hyperface are not only strengthening the foundations of digital credit card innovation in India but also redefining how technology and customer-centricity can converge to create meaningful, future-ready financial ecosystems.

For all personal finance updates, visit here
The Centre will shortly begin a mid-term review of its key economic and welfare programmes to fuel growth and spark job creation, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The exercise, led by the ministry of finance and slated to begin next month, is expected to redirect resources toward employment initiatives and potentially increase allocations for entrepreneurship and skills-based programmes, the people said, asking not to be named as the discussions are private.

The mid-year review of various schemes and proposals is intended to build on earlier steps like GST rate cuts and income tax relief announced in the Union budget, with the aim of amplifying their impact and stimulating consumption," one of the two people cited above said. Budget allocations for key schemes will be reviewed and could be scaled up where necessary," the person added.

Also Read | Gift City mulls multi-class retail funds to woo global investors

A finance ministry spokesperson didnt respond to emailed queries.

Flagship schemes

Several flagship schemes will undergo review, including the rural jobs initiative Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, artisans scheme PM Vishwakarma, street vendors' scheme PM SVANidhi and micro-loans scheme PM Mudra Yojana. Others such as the Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyaan to support farmers' income, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Antyodaya Yojana for skill development and the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Maandhan Yojana for farmer's pension also may be reviewed, the people mentioned above said, besides Make in India 2.0 and the newly approved Employment Linked Incentive (ELI) Scheme.

The review comes as policymakers contend with uneven consumer spending, sluggish private investment and persistent global economic challenges.

Initiatives focused on SMEs and MSMEs are also likely to be assessed, reflecting the governments emphasis on small businesses as engines of job creation," said the second person. Their role becomes even more critical in the wake of US reciprocal tariffs, which are expected to weigh heavily on these sectors."

Budget allocations

The government is also looking at whether budget allocations are sufficient to meet its growth and employment targets, the first person said.

The mid-year review of various schemes and proposals is intended to build on earlier steps like GST rate cuts and income tax relief announced in the Union Budget, with the aim of amplifying their impact and stimulating consumption," said the first person mentioned above, who didnt want to be named.

Also Read | Why Indian small businesses are spurning offers to go green

MGNREGA, one of Indias largest social safety nets, has retained its allocation at 86,000 crore for 2025-26, unchanged from the previous year. The scheme, which provides 100 days of guaranteed wage employment to rural households seeking unskilled work, has long been central to livelihood security in the countryside, though economists say stagnant funding may constrain its effectiveness amid rising demand.

Vishwakarma, PM-Aasha

The PM Vishwakarma scheme, launched in 2023 to support artisans and craftspeople, received 5,100 crore for 2025-26, as part of a broader five-year outlay of 13,000 crore. Similarly, the restructured PM SVANidhi programme, which provides loans to street vendors, has a total allocation of 7,332 crore with lending extended to March 2030.

For farmers, the PM-Aasha programme, which offers price support for crops, carries an outlay of 35,000 crore spread across the entire 15th Finance Commission cycle, running through 2025-26. Meanwhile, the ELI Scheme, approved in July this year, is backed by nearly 1 trillion to create over 35 million jobs, with benefits accruing over a two-year window from August 2025.

The mid-term review is expected to examine whether current allocations are sufficient or whether fresh resources are needed to align spending with the governments broader growth and employment goals," the first person mentioned above said.

The efforts are likely to be aimed at striking a balance between immediate consumption support and the pursuit of longer-term productivity gains," the first person added.

Counter-cyclical

Experts said the governments mid-term policy recalibration represents sophisticated counter-cyclical management amid a volatile global economy.

With geopolitical tensions, supply chain disruptions, and shifting monetary policies creating unprecedented uncertainty, Indias recalibration toward employment-focused schemes demonstrates adaptive governance. This policy manoeuvring, from broad-based stimulus to targeted employment generation, aligns well with the needs of the hour as tariffs are likely to bite in the short term," said Rishi Shah, partner and economic advisory services Leader, Grant Thornton Bharat.

The multiplier effects could be substantial: skilled workers enhance productivity, while entrepreneur-driven ventures create sustainable employment chains. This dual focus positions India to harness demographic dividends while building resilience against future global volatilities," he added.

Sharper focus

Some experts say the Centre should focus on a few employment generation schemes rather than diffuse government efforts, especially since revenues may come under pressure in 2025-26 due to forgone revenues in changes in the personal income tax and GST reforms.

Also Read | How the govt will keep indirect tax compliance on track

The governments first focus should be on increasing Indias potential growth rate, which depends on savings and investment. Stimulating consumption is called for when the economy operates at below the potential growth rate. A suitable balance in supporting investment and consumption is needed because they play different roles," said D.K. Srivastava, chief policy advisor, EY India.

Promotion of investment by the government, including capital expenditure, would support uplifting potential growth, and consumption should be supported so that the actual growth remains close to the potential growth which may be in the range of 6.5% to 7%," he said.

Srivastava argues that while cash transfers and employment schemes offer limited, short-term support, focusing on skill-building and entrepreneurship will yield stronger, long-term outcomes. He believes this approach will lead to increased productivity, better capacity utilization and more private investment.
New Delhi: With domestic steel demand projected to surge, India is preparing a sweeping overhaul of its iron ore mine auctions framework to boost production and deter cheap steel imports from countries such as China, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam, according to government officials and industry executives aware of the matter.

The Centre plans to make upfront payment the primary metric for mine allocation in auctions along with a premium that will be capped at 50%, the people cited above said on the condition of anonymity. So, a company that bids with the highest upfront payment offer plus the best premium offering gets the mine. If more than one company quotes, say, a premium of 40%, then upfront payment decides the winning bidder.

That is different from the current system of auctions based on the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2015 (MMDR 2015), where bids are awarded solely on the basis of the highest premium that companies quote in the auctions. The premium is calculated in percentage terms over a monthly base price fixed by the Indian Bureau of Mines.

Also Read | From roads to mining: How an engineering company has quietly built a coal empire

To be sure, an upfront payment is also made by a successful bidderbut as a fixed percentage of value of estimated resources or VER for the lease areaas a performance guarantee, and not as a variable component that can give bidders a competitive edge in auctions.

Since MMDR 2015, average auction premiums have crossed 100%, making mining operations uneconomical. Several mines remain non-operational under these conditions," said Dhruv Goel, chief executive officer of Big Mint, a market intelligence firm. This measure could restore economic viability and encourage more mines to start production."

Since 2015, about 135 iron ore mines have been auctioned, but only around 35 are operational, according to data from Big Mint.

The government feels that a lot of companies are just bidding in the auction to corner the resources with them and they are not starting purposely," one of the industry executives cited above said. Now if somebody pays an upfront fee, there is an incentive or interest for the company to start the mine as soon as possible."

Alongside, the Centre is also weighing a uniform export duty on all ore grades, including low grade fines, while enforcing minimum dispatch norms on non-auction mines, and linking domestic prices more closely with global benchmarks.

India exports nearly 30-35 million tonnes of low-grade iron ore, which is currently exempt from duty. A uniform export duty structure could help channel some part of these volumes back into the domestic market," said Goel.

Also Read | Govt may transfer idle mines, levy export tax to boost iron ore supply

To be sure, India had imposed a 30% export duty on iron ore having 58% or more iron content. No duty is applicable now in low grade ore having lower than 58% iron content.

These measures are expected to be implemented after the monsoon season in October, according to a government official from the mines ministry who spoke on condition of anonymity. They would apply to mining leases that are terminated due to non performance, and to new leases in areas that states have been asked to identify.

Emails sent to the ministries of mines, commerce and industry, and steel did not elicit a response till press time.

Industry veterans like Jindal Steel chairman Naveen Jindal and ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India's Dilip Oommen have been vocal about the need to reduce input costs, Mint reported on September 8.

If enough (iron ore) mines are brought out, theres a calendar for auctions, then, automatically, it will put the steelmakers at ease," Jindal, who is also the president of the Indian Steel Association, said on Monday, adding that it will reassure them that there is enough for everyone.

Since the mines are auctioned one by one, Jindal said steelmakers who have set up steel plants are compelled to bid higher premiums to ensure raw material security. But I hope in the times to come, if enough mines are brought out, then these premiums will also go down," he said.

How things transpired

According to the executive cited earlier, the government held a follow-up meeting on iron ore reforms on 4 September with an advisory committee comprising steel and mining industry players. A first round was chaired by Union commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on 26 August.

Reforms were discussed with an aim to boost domestic ore supplies, with demand projected to rise from the current 255 million tonnes (mt) per annum in line with Indias growing steel production.

The meeting also discussed bringing non-auctioned mines under a minimum dispatch agreement (MDPA), requiring dispatch of at least 80% of environmental clearance (EC) capacity annually. Indian miners hold ECs for 470 mnt of iron ore but produce only about 290 mnt.

Non auctioned mines were given to steel companies earlier as captive mines for use in their steel making facilities. Also, prior to auction becoming the only option to allocate mines in 2015, mining rights were offered by a group of officials to applicants presenting the best mining plan for a particular identified block.

The government may take a decision on non-auction mines, where extraction of ore remains slow despite several of these mines being allocated almost two decades ago. The idea is to increase the production of iron ore so that India can meet its target of achieving 300 million tonnes without becoming an importer of the raw material.

The entire exercise is to make the process of auction more attractive for investors as well as boost the availability of the raw material in the market by bringing the non-auction mines under production.

Also Read | Climate irony: Clean hydropower faces a dry patch

On trade policy, the government is considering a uniform export duty across iron ore grades, although pellets may remain exempt. India exported around 38 million tonnes (mt) in 2024 (30 mt fines/lumps and 8 mt pellets), with the current duty at 30% for >58% Fe ore, while pellets carry no duty.

How bid premiums work

The bid premium is a percentage of the iron ore price that is set by the Indian Bureau of Mines each month for different states and grades of ore. The premium that a winning bidder offers will be payable to the government as tax.

So if a companys winning bid is 150%, it means that the company will pay 150% of the monthly value of the Indian Bureau of Mines price of iron ore to the state government for every tonne of iron ore it produces.

Additionally, the Indian Bureau of Mines has been tasked to consolidate stakeholder views on linking domestic ore prices with global benchmarks and submit its final report by the end of September.

These discussions come as the government tries to reduce input costs that will make Indian steel prices competitive with global peers and help domestic steelmakers tackle the issue of cheap steel imports from countries like China, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam.
Actor Abhishek Bachchan has approached the Delhi High Court seeking protection of his publicity and personality rights. His petition calls for blocking of offending websites, removal of infringing URLs, and directions to intermediaries like Google and YouTube to take down unlawful content, Mint had reported earlier.

What are personality rights? According to Mihir Rale, Partner & Co-Head, Digital +, TMT, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Indian Courts have consistently recognised personality and publicity rights primarily under Article 21 of the Constitution enforced through common law torts such as passing off and misappropriation of goodwill.

Rale further explained, "A right to privacy as generally available to individuals was also traced back to Article 21 in the famous _Puttaswamy J. case_ pursuant to which the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 stood enacted. This right may be all the more relevant in an era of AI and deepfakes. Similar court-granted protections have already been seen in the recent cases of eminent individuals such as Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Arijit Singh etc.

Nipun Saxena, practising Advocate in the Supreme Court of India, said that these rights bear out of the Copyright Act, where they claim that the actors have a proprietary right and ownership over their voice, image, body and face. In simple terms, this means that celebrities legally hold control over how their name, likeness, and identity are used, and can act against any unauthorised commercial exploitation, Saxena said.

Also Read | Aishwarya Rai moves Delhi HC to stop misuse of name, images

Bachchans counsel argued that the unauthorised use of his name, likeness, and AI-generated fake material is part of a larger trend of online fraud targeting celebrities. Advocate Dhruv Anand, on record for the actor, further claimed that one such platform was even selling merchandise in his name, misleading users into believing it had his endorsement.

The plea also seeks liberty to extend the order to John Doe defendantsunidentified parties who may in the future misuse his persona. Such injunctions are often used in intellectual property and personality rights cases to curb not just known infringers but also potential offenders.

During the hearing, Justice Tejas Karia asked Bachchans counsel to respond to the courts queries and listed the matter for 2:30 pm. The actor was represented by advocates Pravin Anand, Ameet Naik, Madhu Gadodia, and Dhruv Anand.

The move comes a day after Aishwarya Rai filed a similar plea against the website aishwaryaworld.com and other infringers. Her counsel, senior advocate Sandeep Sethi, told the court that the website falsely projected itself as her only authorised and official website, published personal details and unauthorised images, and even sold merchandise such as T-shirts priced up to 3,100 and mugs featuring her likeness. He described the misuse as derogatory, defamatory, and a direct assault on her dignity.

Also Read | Abhishek Bachchan moves Delhi high court for personality rights protection
Within two weeks of steep 50% US tariffs taking effect in India, US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that India and the US are continuing negotiations to address the Trade Barriers between our two Nations.

Sharing an update on India-US trade talks, Trump said on Truth Social that he is looking forward to speak with his very good friend Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the upcoming weeks, adding that, I feel certain that there will be no difficulty in coming to a successful conclusion for both of our Great Countries.

Earlier in July, Washington imposed an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods on top of an existing 25% tariff, bringing the total to 50% to penalise India for buying Russian oil.

Trump's change of mind Trump's recent post reflects a shift in his tone towards India as he has repeatedly criticised Indias decision to purchase discounted Russian crude oil amid the Ukraine war.

Trump has also accused India of war profiteering by refining and exporting Russian oil, even going so far as to call the Ukraine conflict Modis war.

During the height of tensions earlier, Trump called India a dead economy, with his trade adviser Peter Navarro accusing New Delhi of taking advantage of discounted Russian crude. Trump had also described Indias tariffs as among the highest in the world and most strenuous and obnoxious.

Just days back, he also claimed that New Delhi and Moscow appeared to have been lost to China.

Sectors affected by US tariffs Export-heavy industries are among the worst hit by the Trump tariffs, forcing them to diversify their export markets away from the US. This trade realignment involves moving towards new markets such as the UAE and Qatar, said a Mint report earlier.

Here are some sectors facing the biggest impact:

Textile and Apparel: These sectors are among the hardest hit, with duties on knitted apparel going as high as 63.9% and woven apparel at 60.3%. Industry experts have warned that the steep tariffs could slash Indias textile and apparel exports to the US by as much as 4050%, severely affecting the countrys $10.3 billion export market, as America remains India's largest export destination for these products, said a Mint report.

India ranks third on the largest supplier list of the US after China and Vietnam.

Seafood (shrimp): Seafood and shrimp exporters, in particular, are also affected as the US is a key market for these companies. Reports indicate that Indian shrimp exports currently attract an effective customs duty of 17.7%, which will now increase to 25% under the new tariff regime.

This has brought down the share price of multiple sea food exporters such as Avanti Feeds and Apex Foods, a news report by Mint noted.

Agriculture: Food and agricultural products exporters are also scrambling to find new strategies after Trump's unexpected tariffs on a range of goods proved to be a blow to the country's $50 billion-plus farm shipments, Mint reported.
On the afternoon of September 9, people outside the Hauz Qazi police station in Old Delhi were shocked to see currency notes flying through the air. Assistant Sub-Inspector Rakesh Kumar was caught by the Delhi Police Vigilance team while accepting a bribe of 15,000 from a man.

Realising he was being trapped, Kumar threw the cash, 30 500 notes, into the air. Passersby rushed to grab the notes. While officers recovered 10,000, the rest went missing.

Kumar was immediately arrested, and a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act was registered. He allegedly demanded the bribe to stop false charges against a resident of Bazar Sita Ram.

The complainant approached the Vigilance Branch with a written complaint and informed that ASI Rakesh Kumar had called him at 12.30 pm at Hauz Qazi police station to deliver the bribe, The Indian Express quoted an officer as saying.

How the sting operation unfolded Around 12.30 pm, the complainant entered the Hauz Qazi police station with bribe money as part of a trap. Later, he and ASI Rakesh Kumar stepped outside.

The complainant gave the pre-decided signal to the Vigilance team. As officers rushed in, Kumar threw the cash into the air. Passersby quickly grabbed some of the notes before Vigilance officers could secure them.

The complainant approached the Vigilance Branch with a written complaint and informed that ASI Rakesh Kumar had called him at 12.30 pm at Hauz Qazi police station to deliver the bribe, the publication quoted an officer as saying.

Also Read | CBI arrests professor cum Dean of Shillong University for 3.43 lakh bribe

As the Vigilance team members rushed to apprehend the accused, Kumar threw the currency notes into the air, added the officer.

In total, 10,000 was recovered from the spot. But, 5,000 was taken away by onlookers and could not be traced. Police confirmed that the sting was successful, but the missing amount was a result of the chaos during the arrest.

Will Rakesh Kumar be penalised? Under Indian law, any public servant demanding money, favours or rewards for work that is part of their job is a criminal offence. Even if the work is not actually done improperly, the act of asking for or accepting the benefit is itself a crime.
As many as one million stray dogs will be microchipped in the national capital over the next two years, Delhi Development Minister Kapil Mishra said on Wednesday.

This programme will be carried out in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) over the next two years, the minister said.

Mishra directed that a dog census and monitoring system be implemented soon to ensure accurate data and stronger future planning.

Also Read | Viral video: Ghaziabad woman slapped multiple times over feeding stray dogs

The Animal Welfare Board held a meeting at the Delhi Secretariat on Wednesday, during which many important decisions were taken.

The objective of the meeting was to deliberate on various issues related to animal welfare and to prepare a concrete action plan for Delhi, said an official statement.

With World Rabies Day approaching, it was also decided that comprehensive measures would be undertaken in Delhi for rabies control, the statement said.

These steps include the prevention of dog bite incidents and the digitisation of the vaccination process.

In the meeting, it was also decided that registration of pet shops in Delhi will be made mandatory, for which a special monitoring committee will be constituted.

All related rules will be implemented soon, and every regional committee will be activated to ensure monitoring and action at the local level, said the minister.

MCD to set up feeding point for stray dogs Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) Standing Committee Chairperson Satya Sharma has directed officials to set up stray dog feeding points in every ward of the city.

The move came following the Supreme Court urging the MCD to act promptly to rein in the dog bite menace.

Three to four locations will be identified in each ward, in coordination with the local municipal councillor, where these feeding points will be set up, Sharma said.

He emphasised that the MCD is intensifying the sterilisation and vaccination drives at Animal Birth Control (ABC) centres across the city.

A sub-committee has been working on related strategies to control the stray dog population and prevent the spread of diseases, such as rabies.

Sharma said unregulated feeding by people in public spaces often leads to the formation of packs, resulting in conflicts and a rise in dog-bite incidents.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday arrested Karnataka Congress MLA Satish Krishna Sail in a money laundering case linked to alleged illegal iron ore export in the state, reported PTI, quoting sources.

Following his questioning at the federal probe agency's Bengaluru zonal office, the Congress MLA from Karwar Assembly seat in Uttara Kannada was taken into custody late Tuesday night.

Satish Krishna Sail was produced before a special court on Tuesday which sent him to one-day custody of the ED. The Congress MLA will be produced before the court again on Wednesday and the agency will seek his fresh custodial remand.

Sail is the second Congress MLA to be arrested by the ED in the past few weeks. Earlier in August, the ED arrested Chitradurga MLA KC Veerendra 'Puppy' in an alleged illegal betting-linked money laundering case.

Illegal iron ore export probe The ED arrested Sail in an alleged illegal export of iron ore by a company allegedly linked to the legislator.

The probe originated from a 2010 case by the Karnataka Lokayukta, which discovered about eight lakh tons of illegally transported iron ore from Bellary to Belekeri port.

The ED had conducted searches in this case on August 13-14 in Karwar, Goa, Mumbai and Delhi.

According to the ED, companies such as Ashapura Minechem, Shree Lal Mahal, Swastik Steels (Hosepet), ILC Industries, and Sri Lakshmi Venkateshwara Minerals were raided.

Sail was convicted by the special court for MPs and MLAs in Bengaluru for "illegal" export of iron ore fines, carried out by Shree Mallikarjun Shipping, in collusion with others, the ED had said in a statement. Mallikarjun Shipping is reported to be a company owned by Sail.

Iron ore fines are iron-bearing rocks composed primarily of small particles, typically used as a raw material in the steel industry to produce pig iron. The ED said its probe against the MLA and others is based on this conviction order issued by the special court.

However, in 2024, the Karnataka High Court ordered the suspension of the MLA's seven-year prison sentence.

The ED investigation found that Sail, in collusion with other business entities and Belekeri Port officials, had "illegally" exported iron ore fines weighing nearly 1.25 lakh metric tonnes between April 19, 2010 and June 10, 2010. The agency added that this consignment was already under the seizure order of the Forest Department, Ankola.

"The total value of the illegal exports carried out by Satish Krishna Sail, through this company, was 86.78 crore," the ED alleged.

The ED stated that the searches resulted in the seizure of 1.41 crore cash from the residence of Sail and 27 lakh cash seized from the office of Sri Lal Mahal Ltd. It added that gold jewellery and bullion weighing 6.75 kg were seized from the Sail family's bank locker.

During the search operations, the ED froze the bank accounts of the accused entities, which held 14.13 crore deposits.
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday softened his stance towards India, striking an upbeat note on trade negotiations just days after warning that New Delhi and Moscow appeared to have been lost to China.

In a post on Truth Social on 9 September, Trump wrote: I am pleased to announce that India, and the United States of America, are continuing negotiations to address the trade barriers between our two nations. 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 of our Great Countries!

Modis Response Prime Minister Narendra Modi responded on X, calling India and the US close friends and natural partners. He said the two countries were working to conclude discussions at the earliest. We will work together to secure a brighter, more prosperous future for both our people, he added.

Trumps Praise For Modi This is the second time in recent days that Trump has spoken positively about India. At a White House press conference last week, he said, Ill always be friends with Prime Minister Modi. Hes a great Prime Minister. India and the United States have a special relationship. Theres nothing to worry about. We just have moments on occasion."

Modi, in turn, said he deeply appreciates and fully reciprocates Trumps positive assessment of bilateral ties, calling the partnership very positive and forward-looking.

Tariffs And Oil Friction But the praise has been tempered with sharp criticism. Trump has repeatedly voiced frustration at Indias decision to purchase discounted Russian crude oil amid the Ukraine war.

Ive been very disappointed that India would be buying so much oil from Russia, and I let them know that. We put a very big tariff on India, 50 per cent tariff, very high tariff, he said.

In recent months, tariffs on Indian goods have been doubled to 50%, including a 25% additional duty linked to oil imports. India described the move as unfair, unjustified and unreasonable.

Trump has also accused India of war profiteering by refining and exporting Russian oil, even going so far as to call the Ukraine conflict Modis war.

The SCO Jibe After the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit held between 31 August and 1 September in the Chinese port city of Tianjin, where PM Modi was photographed alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump posted: Looks like we have lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest China. May they have a long and prosperous future together!
NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Wednesday released the draft National Industrial Classification (NIC)2025 for public consultation, inviting feedback from industry, academics, and citizens. The framework underpins statistical surveys, censuses, business registrations, and policy design.

The classification, last updated in 2008, is being revamped to reflect shifts in Indias economy as well as global standards. The revision follows the United Nations Statistical Commissions adoption of ISIC Revision 5 last year, and seeks to capture emerging sectors such as renewable energy, fintech, digital commerce, and healthcare technologies.

MoSPI has invited comments until 20 September through email and an online portal, after which the framework will be finalized.

The draft NIC-2025 has been formulated under the aegis of an expert committee comprising eminent academicians, economists, industry associations, and experts from various domains. Extensive consultations were also done with stakeholders, including central Ministries/ Departments, industry experts, and other relevant organizations, MoSPI said in a statement.

The draft aligns with ISIC Revision 5 at the four-digit level, ensuring global comparability of Indias data, while introducing additional sub-classes to meet national requirements. Special emphasis has been placed on high-growth areas such as renewable energy, fintech, e-commerce, AYUSH healthcare, and the broader digital economy.

As a result, the number of sub-classes has risen sharply to about 1,900, from 1,304 under NIC-2008. New categories for platform-based services, virtual asset providers, and environmental technologies reflect the growing weight of digital and green sectors. The expansion also offers greater precision in measuring activity across health, agriculture, telecom, and finance.

These refinements are expected to give policymakers, researchers, and businesses sharper insights into how different parts of the economy are evolving.

Also Read | Sovereign wealth, pension funds anchor India story despite global jitters

Indias National Industrial Classification, first introduced in 1962 and revised periodically, serves as the countrys economic taxonomy. It standardizes how industries and activities are categorized, ensuring consistency of data across sectors and over time.
New Delhi: Indias trade with Central Asia has quadrupled over the past decade but vast untapped potential remains, Harsha Bangari, managing director of the Export-Import Bank of India (India Exim Bank), said on Wednesday, underscoring the need for stronger financial links to unlock this growth.

Speaking at a webinar titled Bridging borders: role of trade finance in enhancing India-Central Asia trade on Wednesday, Bangari said Central Asia, with its strategic location and abundant natural resources, offered immense potential for Indian businesses. At the same time, Indias growing capabilities in manufacturing and technology make it a natural partner for the region, she said. Central Asia comprises Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Diversification drive To be sure, Indian exporters are scrambling to diversify into new markets after the US imposed a 50% tariff on Indian goods. The move has eroded competitiveness in several sectors, making it harder for exporters to sustain business in the US, one of India's largest trading partners.

Exporters are now stepping up efforts to tap opportunities in new markets such as Central Asia, Africa and Latin America to offset the potential loss of market share in the US.

Bilateral trade between India and Central Asia rose from under $500 million in 2014 to more than $2 billion in 2024, according to the International Trade Center. Another $2 billion in untapped trade potential remains, contingent on easing the financing constraints that hinder small and medium-sized exporters in particular, Bangari said.

Mind the gap According to Asian Development Bank (ADB), the covid-19 pandemic, geopolitical strain, and tighter financial conditions have widened the global trade finance gap to $2.5 trillion, leaving many businesses without access to credit and risk-mitigation tools. Nearly 80% of all global trade relies on such financing instruments, she added.

Exim Bank is seeking to bridge that gap through its Trade Assistance Program, which links Indian commercial lenders with more than 100 banks overseas. Since its launch in 2022, the program has facilitated more than 1,200 export transactions worth over $3 billion across 52 countries, including Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

The bank is also extending credit and guarantees to Indian firms executing infrastructure, energy, and technology projects in the region. It has financed power transmission projects in Kazakhstan and recently backed the supply of near-zero liquid discharge technology for a thermal plant in Uzbekistan, Bangari said.

Recognising that trade is increasingly tied to global investment flows, Exim Bank is supporting Indian companies expanding abroad through equity finance, loans, and advisory services. Investments backed by the bank include ventures in pharmaceuticals, healthcare, hospitality, and construction across Central Asia, she added.

Opportunity knocks Bangari also unveiled findings from a joint study with the Eurasian Development Bank, titled Exploring trade and investment relations between India and Central Asia: Unlocking economic benefits, which identifies opportunities to deepen cooperation in sectors ranging from natural resources to renewable energy.

Key policy recommendations in study include enhancing trade based on identified potential, cooperation in digital public infrastructure (DPI), facilitating market entry through joint ventures and technological collaboration, enhancing access to trade finance, improving transport and logistics, and facilitating trade and border crossings in the Central Asian republics.
Nepal violence: The Indian Embassy in Beijing, China, on Wednesday, 10 September 2025, in an official social media post on the platform X, issued a cautionary advisory for citizens who are in the Tibet Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China, amid the third day of the violent protests in Nepal.

The Indian Embassy recommended that Indian citizens exercise due caution in view of the prevailing protest situation in Nepal, which has impacted travel arrangements.

Also Read | Viral videos capture Nepal politicians and officials escaping via helicopter

In view of ongoing developments, Indian citizens presently in the Tibet Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China, are advised to exercise due caution, said the Indian Embassy in Beijing.

The notice focused on the planned travel arrangements for Indian citizens, which were organised by private tour operators via Nepal. The embassy also highlighted that people should take the necessary care and precautions for their health and well-being.

Given the high altitude and challenging terrain, they are advised to take the necessary care and precautions for their health and well-being. They are also advised to follow advisories from local authorities as well as the Embassy of India in Beijing (X Handle: @EOlBeijing) and Embassy of India, Kathmandu (X Handle: @ IndialnNepal), they said in the X post.

Emergency helpline numbers for Indians In case any Indian citizens find themselves in distress or want to reach out to an emergency contact number, they can dial the below-mentioned contact details for access to the Indian Embassy in Beijing, China, and the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Indian Embassy in Beijing, China  0086 185 1428 4905 (Calls only)

0086 135 2065 7602 (WhatsApp call also)

Indian Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal  +977 - 980 860 2881 (WhatsApp call also)

+977 - 981 032 6134 (WhatsApp call also)

Nepal violence The Nepal protests originally started after the ruling Nepal government decided to ban 26 social media sites, including Facebook, WhatsApp, X, Instagram, and YouTube, among others, due to non-compliance with a deadline to register with Nepal's Ministry of Communication and Information Technology.

This prompted people to come out on the streets, and soon they started violently protesting against the alleged corruption in the country. So far at least 19 people have lost their lives due to the Nepal protests, and more than 500 people have been injured due to the fights at the Federal Parliament and other parts of Kathmandu city.

Nepal's Prime Minister, KP Sharma Oli, also resigned after violent protests against corruption and a social media ban. However, this ban was lifted a day after it was imposed.
United States President Donald Trump said on Tuesday (US local time) that India, and the US "are continuing negotiations to address the Trade Barriers between our two Nations."

Sharing an update on India-US trade talks, Trump posted on Truth Social, 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 of our Great Countries!," Trump added.

Trump's announcement on Tuesday came weeks after the US imposed a 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods, including an additional 25 per cent penalty on purchases of Russian oil.

Earlier this week, President Trump, while making an announcement in the White House, called the India-US ties a "very special relationship" and affirmed that he and PM Modi would always be friends, asserting that there is "nothing to worry about".

However, he expressed displeasure over what "he [PM Modi] is doing" in contemporary times.

When asked by news agency ANI, "Are you ready to reset relations with India at this point?", US President Trump said, I always will. I'll always be friends with [PM] Modi. He's a great Prime Minister.

"I'll always be friends, but I just don't like what he is doing at this particular moment. But India and the United States have a very special relationship. There is nothing to worry about. We just have moments on occasion," Trump had said.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also responded warmly to Trump's affirmation of the India-US ties. He said he "deeply appreciates and fully reciprocates" Trump's sentiments and positive assessment of the bilateral relations.

In a post on X, PM Modi noted India-US ties as "forward-looking" towards a "Comprehensive and Global Strategic Partnership".

"Deeply appreciate and fully reciprocate President Trump's sentiments and positive assessment of our ties. India and the US have a very positive and forward-looking Comprehensive and Global Strategic Partnership," PM Modi stated in his post.

Trump floats massive tariffs on China Meanwhile, According to Bloomberg, Trump said hes prepared to join the European Union to impose sweeping new tariffs on India and China as he looks to ratchet up pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to join ceasefire talks with Ukraine.

The US is willing to mirror tariffs imposed by Europe on either country, sources said.

Reuters also cited sources as saying that Trump urged EU officials on Tuesday to hit China with tariffs of up to 100% and also encouraged them to slap India with similarly expansive tariffs.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday appealed to people to speak more in Bengali without any fear. The TMC chief was referring to the alleged attacks on Bengali-speaking migrant labourers in BJP-ruled states, Banerjee

"I face insults daily because I want Bengal's development," Banerjee said while speaking at a public distribution programme in Jalpaiguri on Wednesday.

In August, Banerjee accused the Centre of failing to protect Bengali-speaking people from harassment in different parts of the country, citing an incident in which a techie and his son were allegedly denied hotel accommodation in Noida simply because he spokeBengali.

Efforts on to bring tourists back from Nepal: Mamata Banerjee also said efforts are underway to bring back Bengal tourists stranded in violence-hit Nepal in the next couple of days.

He also urged them not to panic and said her administration is monitoring the situation.

"I will appeal to the tourists stranded in Nepal not to panic. We will bring them back in a couple of days," Banerjee said

I face insults daily because I want Bengal's development.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli stepped down under the pressure of a fierce student-led uprising that has set Nepal on fire literally and politically.
The owner of the jewellery chain, Gitanjali Group, Mehul Choksi, is likely to be presented for the extradition proceedings next week on Monday, 15 September 2025, reported the news agency PTI, citing officials aware of the development. Choksi is wanted in the 13,000 crore Punjab National Bank fraud case.

According to the agency report, Belgian federal prosecutors will lead the court hearings, with support from India's Ministry of External Affairs and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Also Read | India assures humane jail stay for Mehul Choksi if extradited

How long has Mehul Choksi been in Belgium? The news report also suggests that Mehul Choksi has reportedly been in Belgium since 2023, after he relocated from Antigua and Barbuda for medical treatment, said the people aware of the development.

Mehul Choksi's wife is a Belgian national, while Choksi fled from India in 2018 and became a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda through a citizenship by investment strategy, as per media reports.

Choksi left India on 4 January 2018. However, as per media reports, his Antigua and Barbuda citizenship was reported revoked under the Prime Minister Gaston Browne. The matter still remains under proceedings.

Mehul Choksi has been running from the Indian authorities after allegedly committing the 13,000 crore PNB fraud with Nirav Modi.

In January 2024, the CBI received information about Choksi's presence in Belgium, after which it dispatched an extradition request to the European nation. India has held an extradition treaty with Belgium since 2020.

Also Read | Another setback to Mehul Choksi, Belgian court rejects fresh bail plea

Choksi was arrested in April 2025 at India's request, and his bail has been denied in various courts in the nation. CBI has also engaged a European law firm specialising in extradition law to help in the case, according to the agency report.

A team of CBI officials will also be present to provide any necessary inputs, documentation, or perspectives.

CBI has also given Belgian authorities a plethora of documentschargesheets, FIRs, and evidence summaries against himshowing that the charges he attracts in India are also punishable in that European country. This dual criminality makes it a fit case for extradition under the treaty, as per the news report.

Charges on Mehul Choksi According to the agency report, Mehul Choksi is facing cases under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections related to criminal conspiracy, cheating, and falsification of accounts, along with provisions under the Prevention of Corruption Act, which constitute crimes in Belgium as well.

The officials, aware of the development, told the news agency that Indian agencies have shared at least two open-ended arrest warrants, issued by a special court in Mumbai in 2018 and 2021, with their Belgian counterparts as part of the extradition request.

Among other arguments for Choksi's extradition to India is that he remains its citizen, despite having adopted the nationality of Antigua and Barbuda in 2017, because he did not complete the mandatory process to renounce his original citizenship, officials said.
A crucial meeting of the Election Commission with its state officials to discuss preparations for a pan-India rollout of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was held on Wednesday.

The meeting discussed the preparedness of states regarding SIR, the poll panel sources said. The state CEOs affirmed that groundwork would be concluded this month.

Also Read | Bihar SIR: SC asks Election Commission to consider Aadhaar as valid voter ID

The Election Commission will hold more meetings with the northeastern states on Thursday. Sources said no date has been decided yet, but a nationwide SIR could be announced very soon.

The EC officials presented the Commission's SIR policy. The chief electoral officer of Bihar also shared the state's experience in implementing SIR.

This is the third CEO meeting since Gyanesh Kumar took over as the chief election commissioner in February. However, Wednesday's day-long meeting assumes significance as officials discuss the preparedness of a pan-India SIR.

The Commission has said that after Bihar, SIR will be carried out in the entire country.

There are indications that the exercise will commence later this year, ahead of the 2026 assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal.

The primary aim of the intensive revision is to weed out foreign illegal migrants by checking their place of birth.

The move assumes significance in the wake of a crackdown in various states on illegal foreign migrants, including from Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Eventually, the poll authority will begin SIR in the entire country "for the discharge of its constitutional mandate to protect the integrity of the electoral rolls".

As part of the intense review, poll officials will carry out house-to-house verification to ensure an error-free voters' list.

Amid allegations by opposition parties that the EC has fudged voter data to help the BJP, the poll panel has taken additional steps in the intensive revision to ensure illegal migrants do not get enrolled in the voters' list.

An additional 'declaration form' has been introduced for applicants seeking to become electors or shifting from outside the state. They must undertake that they were born in India before July 1, 1987, and provide any document establishing their date of birth and/or place of birth.

One of the options listed in the declaration form is that they were born in India between July 1, 1987 and December 2, 2004.

They will also have to submit documents about the date/place of birth of their parents.

Also Read | Published names of 65 Lakh excluded voters: EC to SC ahead of hearing today

However, the revision of the Bihar voters' list has been attacked by opposition parties, which claim crores of eligible citizens will be deprived of voting rights due to a lack of documents.

The Supreme Court has asked the EC to ensure that no eligible citizen is left behind. Some state chief electoral officers have started publishing voters' lists after the last SIR held in their states.

The primary aim of the intensive revision is to weed out foreign illegal migrants by checking their place of birth.

Most of the states carried out a revision of the electoral rolls between 2002 and 2004.
Nepal Protests: India's Civil Aviation Ministry is in the process of bringing back stranded Indians in Nepal by deploying additional flights to Kathmandu in association with Air India and IndiGo, Union Minister K Rammohan Naidu said on Wednesday.

The Nepal Gen Z protests over Monday and Tuesday triggered the closure of the Kathmandu airport, which reopened on Wednesday, 10 September, after the Nepal Army imposed restrictions and a subsequent curfew to contain violence.

Due to airport closure in Nepal, many home-bound passengers were unable to return from Kathmandu, Naidu said in a post on X.

The Civil Aviation Minister said that the Centre is coordinating with Air India and IndiGo to bring back stranded Indians in Nepal.

With the opening of the airport operation in Kathmandu, @MoCA_GoI, in coordination with Air India & IndiGo, has arranged additional flights this evening & over the next few days, alongside scheduled services resuming tomorrow, Naidu said.

He said that the airlines have been advised to keep their prices reasonable during this time.

We remain committed to supporting our passengers while ensuring their safe travel during this time, Naidu said.

Air India announces additional flights Responding to the government's measures, Air India on Wednesday said it will operate additional flights to Kathmandu to bring back stranded Indians in Nepal.

Air India is operating special flights today and tomorrow from Delhi to Kathmandu and back to help passengers who have been stranded due to the recent developments in Nepal. Our scheduled operations will also resume from tomorrow, it said.

Nepal Protests: Hundreds of Indians stranded in Nepal The Nepal Protests saw the Tribhuvan International Airport amid violence as protesters set ablaze key government buildings amid deaths of 19 youths due to police brutality.

As a result, hundreds of Indians were left stranded in Nepal.

India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) issued a travel advisory for its citizens in view of the prevailing situation in Nepal.

In its statement, the MEA urged Indians to avoid non-essential travel to Nepal until the situation stabilises. Those already in the country have been advised to remain indoors, avoid stepping out on the streets, and follow all local safety advisories issued by the Nepalese authorities and the Embassy of India in Kathmandu.

Also Read | Kathmandu airport reopens today, 24 hours after it was closed amid protests

The ministry also shared emergency contact numbers for assistance. The Embassy of India in Kathmandu can be reached on these contact numbers: 977-980 860 2881 (also available on WhatsApp) and 977-981 032 6134 (also available on WhatsApp).
Nepal Violence: India's largest airline operator, IndiGo, announced that it has decided to keep all flights to and from Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport cancelled till 6 p.m. and extend its waivers on rescheduling and cancellations, according to a social media post on Wednesday, 10 September 2025.

Following the extension of the airport closure in #Kathmandu, all flights to and from the city will remain cancelled until 1800 hrs on September 10, said IndiGo in its post on X.

The low-cost airline giant extended its waivers on rescheduling and cancellations for people who have booked their air tickets to and from Kathmandu until 12 September 2025. However, this waiver will only apply to ticket bookings made on or before 9 September 2025.

We continue to extend waivers on rescheduling and cancellations for travel to and from Kathmandu until September 12, applicable for bookings made on or before September 9, they said.

The airline also reiterated that the teams are coordinating with the relevant authorities and are fully prepared to restore services as soon as Nepal grants permission.

Also Read | Kathmandu airport reopens today, 24 hours after it was closed amid protests

Kathmandu airport reopens? The Nepal Civil Aviation Authority on Wednesday said that they are lifting the restrictions on the suspension of flight operations at the airport, which were earlier imposed due to the adverse circumstances in the nation over the violent protests against corruption.

The news agency ANI reported on Wednesday that the authorities have decided to lift the restrictions after the Tribhuvan International Airport Security Committee meeting held on 10 September.

We hereby inform that the flights suspended due to adverse circumstances would now be lifted, which has been made in accordance with the decision of the Tribhuvan International Airport Security Committee meeting held today. Passengers travelling to the airport for flights are requested to contact their respective airline companies for flight information and to bring official airline tickets and identification documents with them when travelling, said the civil aviation authority, cited in the news agency report.

Also Read | IndiGo suspends Kathmandu flights amid Nepal violence, Air India cancels ops

Air India's one-time waiver Tata Group on Air India also announced a one-time waiver on rescheduling charges on Tuesday amid the Nepal violence situation.

In view of the current situation and closure of airport in Kathmandu, Air India is offering passengers with confirmed bookings for travel to and from Kathmandu until 11 September, on tickets issued up to 9 September, a one-time waiver on rescheduling charges, the airline said in a post on Tuesday evening.

According to early reports on Wednesday, Air India announced that the flights from the Kathmandu airport had been cancelled as the airport continued to remain closed for flight operations.

Air India flights to and from Kathmandu on 10 September have been cancelled as the airport continues to remain closed. We are closely monitoring the situation and will share further updates, said the company spokesperson.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday, had a conversation with Italian PM Girogia Meloni on the sidelines of the proposed EU- India FTA. PM Modi said he and PM Meloni reaffirmed the joint commitment" between the two nations "to deepen India-Italy Strategic Partnership.

Had an excellent conversation with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. We reaffirmed our joint commitment to deepen India-Italy Strategic Partnership, and shared interest in bringing an early end to the conflict in Ukraine. Thanked PM Meloni for Italys proactive support for concluding a mutually beneficial India-EU trade agreement and promoting connectivity through the IMEEEC initiative, PM Modi posted on X.

During the call, PM Modi also discussed with Meloni ways to end the conflict in Ukraine as well as the implementation of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEEC), reported PTI.

PM Modi's call with PM Girogia Meloni comes ahead of European Commissioner for Trade Maros Sefcovic's arrival in New Delhi for the proposed EU-India FTA.

EU-India FTA The 13th round of talks for the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the European Union (EU) started on Monday, September 9.

European Commissioner for Trade Maros Sefcovic European and Commission agriculture commissioner Christophe Hansen are scheduled to visit India on September 12 to take stock of the progress of the negotiations with Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, reported PTI.

The two Commissioners, who are equivalent to Cabinet Ministers, will be leading a 30-member negotiating team from Brussels and will meet their counterparts in Delhi, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

On February 28, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had agreed to seal a much-awaited free trade deal by the end of this year.
Israel Qatar Attack: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, 10 September, condemned Israel's attack on Qatar's capital Doha that killed six people.

The surprise air raid targeted Hamas leaders in Doha, causing the death of the son of the group's lead negotiator in ceasefire talks.

PM Modi held a telephonic conversation with Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani and expressed deep concern over the attack.

Spoke with Amir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani and expressed deep concern at the attacks in Doha. India condemns the violation of the sovereignty of the brotherly State of Qatar, PM Modi said in a post on X. He reiterated that India stands firmly against terrorism in all its forms.

We support resolution of issues through dialogue and diplomacy, and avoiding escalation. India stands firmly in support of peace and stability in the region, and against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, the PM wrote in his post on X.

A press release from the Prime Minister's Office stated that PM Narendra Modi also appreciated Qatar's role in promoting regional peace and stability, including its mediation efforts in Gaza to achieve a ceasefire and release all hostages.

Sheikh Tamim thanked Prime Minister Modi for the expression of solidarity with the people and the State of Qatar.

The two leaders also expressed satisfaction at the sustained progress in the India-Qatar Strategic Partnership and reiterated their commitment to advance bilateral cooperation in all areas of mutual interest, the PMO statement said.

Israel attacks Doha Israel on Tuesday launched a surprise air attack on Doha at 3:46 pm (1246 GMT) in a residential neighbourhood in the Qatari capital, which houses diplomats, foreign dignitaries, embassies, schools and a daycare centre.

According to witnesses quoted by AFP, several explosions were heard in the posh neighbourhood, while smoke was seen rising from the area.

The Israeli air strikes on Doha targeted a villa housing complex allegedly inhabited by Hamas members. Police quickly sealed off the complex, and access to the area remained restricted on Wednesday.

According to sources close to the movement quoted by AFP, six Hamas leaders, including Hayya, former leader Meshaal and Zaher Jabarin, who heads the movement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, were in the building targeted by Israel at the time of the strikes.

Also Read | EU commission president seeks sanctions, partial trade suspension against Israel over war in Gaza

Qatari officer Badr Saad Mohammed al-Humaidi al-Dosari, who was on the premises, Hamam Khalil al-Hayya, son of Hamas's chief negotiator, and Mumen Hassoun, described by the movement as a bodyguard, were killed in the attack, according to Qatar's interior ministry.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to address two separate rallies in Imphal and Churachandpur, two of the flashpoints of the violence that has roiled the state for over two years now, during his likely Manipur visit this weekend, reports said on 10 September.

Officials said Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla met with at least five Kuki-Zo MLAs in Churachandpur on Tuesday. The meeting comes ahead of the PM's likely visit on 13 September.

Modi is expected to visit Manipur after his visit to neighbouring Mizoram. Officials and security forces said that Modi might address the crowd, composed largely of Kuki-Zo community members, at the main ground in Churachandpur town on Saturday afternoon, Hindustan Times reported.

This will be PM Modi's first visit to the strife-torn Manipur after violence broke out in May 2023.

Modi might fly to Churachandpur from Aizawl if the weather permits, the report said. After the programme in Churachandpur, he will then fly to Imphal. If weather does not permit then he will take a flight to Imphal, attend the event there, meet people and then come to Churachandpur, the report quoted an unnamed official

In Imphal, preparations are on for the PM to possibly address the crowd in the historic Kangla Fort.

On Tuesday, Governor Bhalla met with MLAs Ngursanglur Sanate, Vungzagin Valte, L Haokip, LM Khaute and Paolienlal Haokip, along with BJP's Churachandpur district president Thanglam Haokip, at the deputy commissioner's office, an official told PTI.

All the MLAs are from constituencies in Churachandpur and Pherzawl districts.

Also Read | Kuki-Zo Council approves reopening of NH 2 after talks with MHA

Sources said the meeting, which started around 11 a.m., discussed matters related to the preparations for the prime minister's likely visit.

On Sunday, Bhalla also met with at least 20 BJP MLAs from Imphal Valley, including former chief minister N Biren Singh and the party's state unit president, A Sharda Devi.

Undermines democratic norms Congress leader Okram Ibobi Singh said, "The selective invitation undermines democratic norms and sidelines the voices of elected representatives of the people."

"The meeting was a shocking display of partisanship," the former chief minister said on Monday.

The selective invitation undermines democratic norms and sidelines the voices of elected representatives of the people.

For over two years now, Manipur has been roiled by sweeping ethnic violence that has claimed at least 260 people and displaced another 50,000 people. The clashes, which first began between the Meitei and Kuki communities, have since spread to almost every community in the state, prompting the dismissal of the state government in February this year and imposition of Governor's rule.
The Supreme Court of India commented on protests in Nepal on Wednesday and reminded the country of the significance of the Indian Constitution.

'We are proud of our constitution. See what is happening in our neighbouring states.. Nepal we saw," Chief Justice of India BR Gavai said, as quoted by legal website Bar and Bench.

Justice Gavai was basically referring to the Constitution of India, according to which the President has the right to seek the Supreme Court's advice on any point of law that might constitute public importance or affect the public in any manner. The CJI made the remarks during an ongoing hearing in the Supreme Court on a Presidential reference regarding whether the Court can lay down timelines and procedures for the President and State Governors when considering Bills passed by State legislatures.

'Yes, Bangladesh also," Justice Vikram Nath added.

Demonstrators torched the residences of senior leaders, stormed party offices, vandalised parliament, and left the ruling dispensation rattled. The trigger was the Oli governments controversial ban on social media, which snowballed into massive public outrage. A day earlier, police firing on protesters had claimed 19 lives, further fuelling anger on the streets.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli stepped down under the pressure of a fierce student-led uprising that has set Nepal on fire literally and politically.

We are proud of our constitution.. see what is happening in our neighbouring states.. Nepal we saw.

Nepali soldiers patrolled the streets of Kathmandu on September 10, seeking to restore order after protesters set parliament ablaze and forced the prime minister to quit in the worst violence to hit the Himalayan nation in two decades.



Why are protests happening in Nepal? The protesters, who were grouped under the banner of Gen Z, were triggered by the government's decision to ban 26 social media sites. Apps like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, among others, were blocked in Nepal on Friday after the government cut access to these platforms.
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued summons in a suit filed by Bollywood actor Karisma Kapoors children  Samaira Kapur (20) and Kiaan Raj Kapur (15)  against Priya Kapur seeking a share in their late father and businessman Sunjay Kapurs 30,000-crore estate, Live Law reported.

A bench led by Justice Jyoti Singh refused to immediately pass an order for status quo on Sunjay Kapurs properties but asked his wife, Priya Kapur, to file a list of the assets held by the businessman. The matter will be heard next on 9 October 2025.

Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for the children commented on the development, stating The suit will be registered now. They have to make certain discoveries about personal assets of Sunjay Kapur, ANI reported on Wednesday.

Background of the appeal On Tuesday, Samaira and Kiaan Kapur moved the Delhi High Court, alleging they were wrongfully excluded from Sunjay Kapur's will following his death.

The children, represented by their mother Karisma Kapoor, alleged that Priya Kapur (nee Sachdev), Sunjay Kapur's third wife, who he was married to at the time of his death, manipulated the will to receive ownership of all his assets.

The lawsuit named Priya Kapur, her minor son, Kapur's mother Rani Kapur, and the purported executor of the will, Shradha Suri Marwah, as the defendants, said a report by Bar & Bench.

The contested will, dated March 21, 2025, states that Sunjay Kapur left his entire personal wealth to his wife, Priya Kapur. The lawsuit alleges that the defendants conspired with two others  Dinesh Agarwal and Nitin Sharma  to forge the original will in favour of Priya Kapur.

What are the demands of Sunjay Kapur's kids? Sunjay Kapur, 53, died of a heart attack on June 12 while playing polo in Surrey, UK. His children argued that until their father's death, they shared a close relationship with him, including frequent trips together, holidays, and regular involvement in his business and personal milestones.

Also Read | Karisma Kapoors children move Delhi High Court over 30,000 crore Sunjay Kapur Estate dispute

Also Read | Sunjay Kapur died of natural causes in UK: Coroners report shared by office of his wife

Their plea accuses Priya Kapur of initially denying the existence of any will, saying that all of Sunjay's assets were held under the R K Family Trust. However, she later presented a will, excluding other legal heirs. The children have thereby pleaded the court to declare them as Class I legal heirs.
Nepal Gen Z protest: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday ordered police to remain on high alert 24 hours a day in border districts adjoining the neighbouring nation, reported ANI.

Additional police force has been deployed, and patrolling and surveillance have been intensified to deal with any emergency immediately, added the report.

In a statement, quoted by ANI, the UP government said: "Amid a tense situation in the neighbouring country, Nepal, on the instructions of UP CM Yogi Adityanath, UP DGP Rajeev Krishna has ordered the police to remain on high alert 24 hours a day in all the border districts of Uttar Pradesh adjoining Nepal."

"To further strengthen the security system in the border districts of Uttar Pradesh, additional police force has been deployed and patrolling and surveillance have been strengthened, so that any emergency can be dealt with immediately," the UP government said.

Helpline numbers The UP government has set up a special control room under the Additional Director General of Police Law and Order at Police Headquarters in Lucknow to assist Indian citizens stranded in the Himalayan country.

Three helpline numbers and one WhatsApp number will be operational 247.

Here are the helpline numbers:

1- 0522-2390257

2- 0522-2724010

3- 9454401674

WhatsApp- 9454401674

Social media unit to monitor situation The Police Headquarters' social media unit has been directed to constantly monitor sensitive information or posts related to Nepal and take immediate action if required.

"Uttar Pradesh Police is fully committed to maintaining law and order in the state and providing all possible help to Indian citizens trapped in Nepal," the UP government said.

Situation in Nepal now On Tuesday, Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned following violent Gen Z protests over corruption and a controversial social media ban. At least 19 people were killed and over 400 were injured in the unrest, including security personnel.

Nepal Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak also tendered his resignation during the cabinet meeting.

Nepal had banned 26 social media sites, including Facebook, WhatsApp, X, Instagram and YouTube, for failing to register with the country's Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. The ban was revoked amid mounting violent protests and unrest.

Nepal's Gen Z protestors allegedly vandalised and set fire to President Ramchandra Paudel's private residence in Bohratar, Kathmandu, according to The Himalayan Times.

Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) has been fully shut due to security reasons.

Curfew imposed in Nepal To tackle the situation, Nepalese authorities have imposed curfews in the districts of Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur. A new curfew order came into effect at 8:30 am, replacing the previous one issued on Monday, which had ended at 5 am on Tuesday.

Also, the Kathmandu District Administration Office declared a curfew within the Ring Road area starting from 8:30 am until further notice. The curfew covers key locations such as Balkumari Bridge, Koteshwar, Sinamangal, Gaushala, Chabahil, Narayan Gopal Chowk, Gongabu, Balaju, Swayambhu, Kalanki, Balkhu, and the Bagmati Bridge.
Vice President Election Result: Maharashtra Governor and National Democratic Alliance (NDA) nominee CP Radhakrishnan was elected the 15th Vice President of India on Tuesday.

Radhakrishnan bagged 452 votes against the Opposition INDIA bloc nominee and former Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddy's 300 votes, amid indications of cross-voting in favour of the victorious candidate.

Also Read | How many votes did CP Radhakrishnan and B Sudershan Reddy get exactly?

Rajya Sabha Secretary General and Returning Officer PC Mody said 767 MPs out of 781 cast their votes with a total turnout of 98.2 per cent. Mody said 752 ballots were valid and 15 were invalid, bringing down the required majority of first preference votes to 377.

"I declare CP Radhakrishnan elected to the post of Vice President of India, and the results will be communicated to the Election Commission," Mody said.

Surpassed BJPs Expectations The victory of Radhakrishnan, 67, a seasoned politician from Tamil Nadu with RSS roots since childhood and decades-long stint first in the Jana Sangh and then the BJP, was a foregone conclusion due to the ruling alliance's numerical edge in the House.

The BJP-led NDA had 427 MPs on paper, plus the support of the YSRCPs 11 MPs. Some MPs representing smaller parties also backed him. This made Radhakrishnans victory a foregone conclusion, way above the halfway mark of 377.

But the final tally surpassed the expectations of the BJP, which hoped for around 440 votes for Radhakrishnan.

Setback for the INDIA bloc? The extent of his victory margin for the NDA candidate came as a setback to the Opposition INDIA, which had claimed all its 315 MPs remained united in the election and voted for Reddy.

Soon after the voting ended at 5 PM on Tuesday, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X that The Opposition stood united. All of its 315 MPs have turned up for voting. This is an unprecedented 100 per cent turnout.

Reddy, however, got only 300 votes.

BJP leaders were quick to claim that Radhakrishnan drew support even from the rival camp members.

Ramesh said the Opposition's performance in the Vice Presidential election was "respectable," noting that its joint candidate Justice B Sudershan Reddy (retd) secured 40 per cent of the vote.

While Radhakrishnan received 60 per cent of the total valid votes polled, his predecessor Jagdeep Dhankhar won by a huge margin in the 2022 election, securing 74.36 per cent of the total valid votes polled. Dhankhar bagged 528 votes out of the total 710 valid votes polled.

Also Read | Meet CP Radhakrishnan, the 15th Vice President of India

"The election of the Vice President is conducted in a free and fair manner, voting takes place with secrecy, and many opposition MPs have also voted for CP Radhakrishnan, which shows that the MPs have voted by listening to the voice of their conscience," Rijiju told reporters.

Soft-spoken, non-confrontational RSS hand Experts had said that Radhakrishnans candidacy was primarily driven by his ideological anchoring when the BJP-led NDA picked him for the contest.

Strongly rooted in the RSS and the BJP, Chandrapuram Ponnusamy Radhakrishnan, the two-time former MP from Coimbatore, brings along a rich political and administrative experience that will prove handy in his role as the ex officio chairperson of the Rajya Sabha.

Radhakrishnan has been associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), since the age of 16.

He became a state Executive Committee Member of the Bharatiya Janasangh in 1974. Jana Sangh was founded in 1951 by Syama Prasad Mukherjee, before it became the BJP in 1980.

The BJP had picked Dhankhar, perhaps due to his Jat credentials, a community it had angered with its controversial farm laws. Dhankhar, however, proved not a very good choice and quit unceremoniously two years before his term would have ended, though citing health reasons.

Dhankhar was known for his frequent run-ins with the Opposition and had even faced an impeachment notice from them.

Radhakrishnans nomination is also seen as a course correction within the BJP. Radhakrishnan is seen as a soft-spoken and non-confrontational leader with strong RSS roots.

Cross-Voting Fears? The BJP-led NDA had on paper 427 MPs in its alliance, with the YSR Congress also extending the support of its 11 MPs to its candidate. Some MPs representing smaller parties also backed Radhakrishnan.

Some BJP leaders suggested that at least 15 opposition MPs voted in favour of Radhakrishnan. The ruling alliance also hinted that some opposition MPs deliberately cast invalid votes.

BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal claimed that "nearly 40 opposition MPs" listened to the voice of their conscience and voted in "some manner" in support of the NDA candidate, showing wider acceptance for him. His assertion of support from 40 opposition MPs appeared to include the 15 invalid votes.

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday claimed that many Opposition MPs had voted in favour of the NDA vice-presidential candidate CP Radhakrishnan.

Cross-voting in favour of the NDA candidate, if it happened at all, is contrary to the Oppositions expectations that some MPs might switch loyalty to the INDIA blocs nominee, especially after the ruling alliances fallout with former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar.

Project Tamil Nadu Radhakrishnan is the third leader from Tamil Nadu to occupy the coveted post.

Tamil Nadu is one of the aspirational states in the South. A vice president from the state sends positive signals ahead of next year's Tamil Nadu assembly elections 2026.

Radhakrishnan, who has been associated with the RSS from an early age, is a clever choice, because the state he belongs to, Tamil Nadu, goes to the polls next year. Though the BJP on its own has a limited vote share in a state that fiercely resists its Hindi-Hindutva ideological push, the party hopes to do better in an alliance with the AIADMK, political analyst K Nageshwar wrote recently.

Radhakrishnan comes from the OBC Gounder caste, believed to politically rally behind the AIADMK, the BJPs biggest ally in Tamil Nadu. E Palaniswami, the AIADMK chief and the former chief minister of Tamil Nadu, belongs to the same community.

Radhakrishnan was elected from Coimbatore, an industrial city in Tamil Nadu, in 1998 and 1999, with the support of the AIADMK and DMK.

The OBC Metaphor With the OBC becoming a powerful 'metaphor' of politics in the country and vigorously courted both by the BJP and the Congress, leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi has been emphasising the need for a caste census  the BJP has made a telling point yet again, political analyst and author Neerja Chowdhury wrote in her Indian Express column.

Chowdhury points out that the top three offices in the country are now occupied by an Adivasi woman (President) and two men from the OBC community, one from the South (Vice President) and the other from the West with a pan-India appeal (Prime Minister).

Also Read | Tamil Nadu CM Stalin arrives in Germany to secure industrial investments

The move also reinforces the alliance with AIADMK by recognising the political influence of the Gounder community

The election of the Vice President is conducted in a free and fair manner, and many opposition MPs have also voted for CP Radhakrishnan, which shows that the MPs have voted by listening to the voice of their conscience.

Former BJP president in Tamil Nadu, K Annamalai, also hails from the Gounder background. This shared caste identity has significant electoral weight, and Radhakrishnans elevation is seen as a move to consolidate the Gounder vote base.
Nepal Protest News LIVE: Violent demonstrations on Tuesday forced Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli to submit his resignation after short-lived ban on social media. Restrictive orders were imposed in Nepal on September 10 which will be followed by a nationwide curfew.

On Tuesday, protesters not only attacked political leaders but also set government buildings and politicians homes on fire. Amid widespread criticism of the countrys political elite and over alleged corruption, the Army took charge of the security operations in the country on September 9 from 10 pm.

After 24 hours of closure, the Kathmandu airport reopened on Wednesday as the Nepal protest came slowly under control.

At least 19 people died and 500 others were injured in clashes around the Federal Parliament and other parts of Kathmandu. Nepal Ex PM wife Rajyalaxmi Chitrakar died as she was burned alive by protesters.

Air India, SpiceJet and IndiGo are among the airlines that cancelled their flights connecting Kathmandu. In the wake of Nepal unrest, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) issued a travel advisory for Indian citizens on Wednesday. It not only shared emergency contact numbers but also urged those already in the country to remain indoors.

What is the reason for protests in Nepal?

The protesters, under the banner of Gen Z, were triggered by the government's decision to ban 26 social media sites. Apps like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, among others were blocked in Nepal on Friday after the government cut access to these platforms.

Star tuned for more updates on Nepal Protest
President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he was "not thrilled" about Israel's airstrike on Qatar in which Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

Trump said the unilateral action directed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not advance Israel or Americas goals." He offered notably muted pushback, however, even suggesting this unfortunate incident could serve as an opportunity for peace.

This was a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me, Trump said on social media hours after the strikes.

Israels unprecedented strike on Qatars capital on Tuesday delivered a major blow to US-supported efforts to normalize ties with Gulf Arab nations and possibly crippled talks for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The attack  targeting leaders of Palestinian militant group Hamas  on a peacetime ally of the US is a dramatic escalation of Israels belligerent posture over the past year, which has seen it conduct airstrikes in Syria, Lebanon and Iran.

Qatars wealthy Gulf neighbors were unnerved by the strike on Doha, home to the largest American military base in the Middle East as well as one of the worlds biggest sovereign wealth funds. Condemnation rolled in from across the region. The United Arab Emirates, which normalized ties with Israel five years ago under the Abraham Accords brokered by President Donald Trump, warned Israel its actions would have extremely dangerous repercussions for regional security. Saudi Arabia, which the US leader is pushing to join the accords, called it a criminal act, while Qatar labeled it a flagrant violation of all international laws and norms.
A 30-year-old tech professional from Bengaluru has sparked an online debate after seeking advice on whether to invest 2.7 crore in a 3BHK apartment in JP Nagar, South Bengaluru, which is largely funded through a 1.8 crore home loan. His Reddit post on r/indianrealestate quickly went viral, drawing hundreds of responses and highlighting the dilemmas many young professionals face while balancing lifestyle aspirations with financial caution.

The techie, who has lived in South Bengaluru for nearly a decade, explained that both he and his wife earn a combined 5.1 lakh per month. Their household expenses average 60,00070,000, and they maintain a 20 lakh emergency fund, another 20 lakh buffer, and passive rental income of 18,000 per month from a 2BHK in their hometown. With no children planned for the next few years, the couple is prepared to put down 90 lakh as a down payment and fees without touching their mutual funds or stock portfolio.

Also Read | Bengaluru Google techie sparks debate over reality of FAANG life videos

The property in question is a 1,800 sq. ft. apartment in an eight-year-old gated community built by a reputed developer. Located close to the metro, with greenery and good maintenance, the project promises comfort as well as convenience. Were considering settling down in the same neighbourhood rather than shifting towards Varthur or Sarjapur where most IT companies are located, he wrote.

See the post here:

The Dilemma While some Redditors praised the prime location and the couples strong financial planning, many felt the price was steep. They pointed out that similar 3BHKs in gated societies in South Bengaluru range from 1.82.3 crore, urging him to negotiate harder or explore alternatives near the Outer Ring Road for better long-term appreciation.

Also Read | Man warns of dangerous palm oil in Kurkure in Delhi vs Bengaluru

Others advised him to weigh the purchase against his life plans. If the couple intends to stay for 1520 years, the investment might make sense, but if relocation or going abroad is a possibility, renting could be wiser.

The Larger Question The post taps into a growing concern among Indias urban professionals: is it worth stretching finances to own a dream home in a familiar neighbourhood, or is renting the smarter choice in a city where property prices are often inflated?
As protests in Nepal take an immensely violent turn, local media and videos on social media showed protesters attacking government buildings and the residences of the top political leaders.

Among many terrifying videos surfacing from the unrest in Nepal, a series of videos shared on social media showed protesters beating up former Prime Minister and Nepali Congress party leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and his wife, Arzu Rana Deuba, the current foreign minister. Both appeared to be bleeding, while one video showed the party leader being helped to safety.

This came hours after Rajyalaxmi Chitrakar, the wife of Nepal's former Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal, died after she was allegedly set on fire by the protestors. Protesters reportedly trapped Rajyalaxmi and set the house on fire.

The Army had to intervene and deploy its helicopters to ferry some of the Nepali ministers to safer places.

Here's what happened: According to the videos shared on social media, a group of protestors barged into the Deuba residence in Budanilkantha, Kathmandu, and brutally thrashed the politician couple.

In the initial videos, the couple can be seen reasoning with the protestors as the demonstrators usher them out of their home.

Sorry bol, a protestor can be heard saying in one of the videos.

However, in the later videos, a bloodied Sher Bahadur Deuba can be seen sitting on the ground as the Army rescued the couple. They reportedly are severely injured, but alive.

Watch the videos here:

Nepal protest Protests against Nepals short-lived ban on social media grew increasingly violent on Tuesday as demonstrators not just set government buildings on fire, but also targeted the homes of politicians, attacking leaders and their wives.

Nepal Prime Minister KP Oli resigned amid widening criticism of the countrys political elite and growing calls for his ouster. However, the resignation appeared to have little effect on the unrest.

Tens of thousands of Gen Z Nepali protesters remained on the streets late in the day, blocking roads and storming government facilities.

The demonstrations, called the protest of Gen Z, spiralled to reflect broader discontent. In particular, many young people are angry that the children of political leaders, so-called nepo kids, seem to enjoy luxury lifestyles and numerous advantages, while most youth struggle to find work.

Also Read | Nepal social media protest: India issues first statement amid Kathmandu curfew

With youth unemployment running at about 20% last year, according to the World Bank, the government estimates that more than 2,000 young people leave the country every day to seek work in the Middle East or Southeast Asia.
Miss Nepal Earth 2022, Sareesha Shrestha, has issued an emotional appeal to the international community as Nepal reels under violent anti-corruption protests that have claimed at least 19 lives.

In a video message shared online, Ms Shrestha urged people to look beyond the social media ban narrative that has dominated international coverage, stressing that the protests are fundamentally about corruption and accountability.

Namaste, Im making this video to draw your attention to an ongoing issue that is happening in my country, Nepal. And no, it is not the social media ban protests, as many international media are claiming. It is actually the anti-corruption movement led by the JNC, she said in the now viral.

Calling the crackdown a heartbreaking tragedy, she recounted how students in school uniforms  including minors  were shot, hundreds were injured, and even hospitals were stormed by security forces. Today the blood of 16 innocent people (now 19) stained the land of my country This needs urgent attention, she said.

Ms Shrestha appealed to viewers to raise awareness by reaching out to human rights organisations and international media. Lets amplify our voices because this is not done. This is a severe violation of international human rights and is considered a criminal offence, she said. Fighting back tears, she added, We were there on the streets with big dreams and high hopes for a better tomorrow. But it breaks my heart to say that some of us dont even have a tomorrow.

Watch the video here:

Background: Nepals Widening Crisis Nepal has been in turmoil since the government banned 26 social media apps, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, last month after the companies failed to register locally. The move triggered a wave of demonstrations, which quickly escalated into a broader anti-corruption movement led by the National Campaign for Justice (JNC).

At least 19 protesters were killed this week, most of them young students, sparking global concern. The unrest has already forced Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to resign, plunging the Himalayan nation deeper into political instability.
US President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday signed a presidential memorandum, announcing a crackdown on pharmaceutical advertising on television and social media platforms, a move that could disrupt billions of dollars in annual ad spending, reported Bloomberg.

According to the report, the memorandum directs the federal health agencies to require pharmaceutical companies to disclose more side effects in their advertisements and enforce existing rules about misleading ads. The Trump administration says the new measures aim to increase transparency for patients.

Also Read | Trump Floats Massive Tariffs on China, India to Pressure Russia

Besides New Zealand, the US is the only place where pharma companies can directly advertise to consumers.

Though the new regulations would stop short of banning the ads entirely, limiting pharmaceutical advertisements has been a longtime priority for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.

However, the addition of stricter requirements to the ads will likely hit both pharmaceutical companies and the media companies that rely heavily on those advertising dollars.

In 2024, the drug firms spent $10.8 billion on direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising, said a report from the advertising data firm MediaRadar, adding that AbbVie and Pfizer Inc were particularly big spenders.

AbbVie alone spent $2 billion on direct-to-consumer drug ads in 2024, primarily on advertising the companys anti-inflammatory drugs Skyrizi and Rinvoq. The medicines brought in more than $6.5 billion for AbbVie in the second quarter of 2025.

AbbVie couldnt immediately be reached for comment, and Pfizer declined to comment.

On misleading advertisements In addition to new regulations, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also plans to enforce existing rules around misleading advertising more strictly.

The FDA is sending approximately 100 enforcement action letters today and thousands of letters warning the industry, including online pharmacies, who have increasingly been promoting drugs with no mention of side effects at all, Bloomberg quoted FDA Commissioner Marty Makary as saying in a video posted on social media on Tuesday.

Drug advertising proponents say the ads can prompt patients to talk to their doctors about medical issues. However, critics point out that the ads generally feature expensive, brand-name medications.

One of the officials said, as quoted by Reuters, "There are ads that are clearly crossing the line with respect to the regulation, making any potential future legal action, I think, pretty clear cut."

They said that drug ad enforcement has been increasingly lax, adding that the FDA did not send out any enforcement letters about drug advertising in 2024. However, they didn't disclose which companies had been sent the enforcement or warning letters.

Role of social media influencers, TV ads and telehealth firms Meanwhile, the Trump administration is also examining the role social media influencers play in advertising drugs, and whether they abide by the same standards applied to TV.

The administration is also planning to close a loophole that allows companies to refer patients to a website for information on side effects.

Theyre going to have to report all their side effects, Kennedy said in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday evening. In some cases, that might create an advertisement thats four minutes long.

According to MediaRadar, 59% of the pharmaceutical industrys expenditures in 2024 were on TV advertising, making it the third-highest-spending industry.

Another aspect at which the Trump administration is taking a closer look is at advertisements from telehealth companies, which operate differently from traditional pharma companies, added Bloomberg.

The administration did not name firms, but noted a Super Bowl advertisement from a telehealth company that received criticism from senators.

Earlier in February, Republican Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas and Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois sent a letter to the FDA about telehealth company Hims & Hers Health Incs Super Bowl ad, claiming it failed to disclose key safety and risk information.

Hims defended this, stating that it didnt advertise one treatment or solution but aimed to raise awareness about obesity.

On Tuesday, the Trump administration mentioned greater enforcement by HHS, FDA, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice on ads run by telehealth companies and social media influencers under its Make America Healthy Again strategy, which it released.
Charlie Kirk, CEO and co-founder of conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was shot on Wednesday (September 10) while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University, the organization confirmed.

Videos circulating on social media show Charlie Kirk speaking into a microphone under a white tent adorned with slogans like The American Comeback and Prove Me Wrong. A single gunshot rang out, and Kirk can be seen reaching for his neck as blood is visible. Spectators screamed and scattered as the incident unfolded.

The shooting occurred during a debate hosted by Turning Point USA at the Sorensen Center courtyard on campus. Former Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz, present at the event, said the incident happened during a Q&A session.

First question was about religion. He went on for about 15-20 minutes. Second question, interestingly, was about transgender shooters, mass shooters, and in the midst of that, the shot rang out, Chaffetz told Fox News, AFP reported. Everybody hit the deck, everybody... a lot of people started screaming, and then everybody started running.

Kirk hospitalized Turning Point USA confirmed that Kirk is in the hospital. He is in the hospital, and we are praying for him at this time, said Aubrey Laitsch, PR manager for the organization.

Reactions from political leaders Support and prayers for Kirk poured in from political figures across the spectrum.

President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social: A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM!

FBI Director Kash Patel said, We are closely monitoring reports of the tragic shooting involving Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University. Our thoughts are with Charlie, his loved ones, and everyone affected.

Other Republicans, including Vice President JD Vance, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Attorney General Pam Bondi, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, also offered prayers for Kirk.

Support also came from Democrats. California Governor Gavin Newsom called the shooting disgusting, vile, and reprehensible, emphasizing that political violence must be rejected. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated: Political violence has absolutely no place in our nation.

Kirks influence on young conservatives At just 31, Kirk has become a key figure in US politics, particularly in mobilizing younger voters for then former President Trump. He co-founded Turning Point USA in 2012 to promote conservative viewpoints on campuses nationwide, using social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube to amplify his message.
The US Department of Transportation is starting an investigation of North Carolinas light rail system after a woman was stabbed to death last month.

The DOTs Federal Transit Administration will review the Charlotte Area Transit System, or CATS, for its spending on security, safety plans, as well as the risk of assaults on operators and passengers, according to a Wednesday press release.

The Aug. 22 stabbing of Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee, on the Lynx Blue Line light rail in Charlotte has caught the attention of President Donald Trump. He blamed the murder on Democratic policies. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy also pointed the finger at local leaders soft on crime policies, in a statement.

CATS said in an emailed statement that its committed to working with local, state, and federal partners.

The Trump administration has been targeting Democratic strongholds since he came to office, sending the national guard to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. while threatening to send troops to Chicago and Baltimore.

Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles response to the stabbing is to amp up security by redeploying CATS security on Blue Line platforms, effective immediately, as well as increasing police presence from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department at key areas across the transit system, according to a statement.

The FTA gave CATS 15 days to submit information on how the transit system plans to reduce crime and fare evasion, along with details on how much it is spending and planning to spend on security in its fiscal year 2025 budgeted and fiscal year 2026 planned funds.

The agency also plans to review the CATS Safety Risk Reduction Program, which is related to assaults on transit workers, to evaluate its effectiveness.

2025 Bloomberg L.P.
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday (September 10) questioned the violation of Polish airspace by Russian drones, after Warsaw confirmed it had shot down several that crossed its border overnight.

Whats with Russia violating Polands airspace with drones? Here we go! Trump wrote on Truth Social, weighing in shortly after Polish authorities described the incident as an act of aggression.

Poland said its airspace was breached 19 times during a massive Russian strike on neighboring Ukraine, with at least three drones intercepted by Polish fighter jets.

Poland: Unprecedented violation of airspace As a result of an attack by the Russian Federation on Ukrainian territory, there was an unprecedented violation of Polish airspace by drone-type objects, the military said on X. This is an act of aggression that posed a real threat to the safety of our citizens.

Officials confirmed at least three drones were shot down, and search teams were dispatched to locate crash sites.

Tusk: Closest we have been to open conflict since WWII Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he had convened an emergency cabinet meeting and briefed NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

This is the closest we have been to open conflict since World War Two, Tusk told parliament. But he added: I have no reason to believe were on the brink of war.

Authorities temporarily closed airspace over parts of Poland, including Warsaws main international airport. The US Federal Aviation Administration said operations were impacted by unplanned military activity related to ensuring state security.

NATO jets scramble, allies condemn Russia Polish F-16s, Dutch F-35s, Italian AWACS surveillance planes, and NATO mid-air refueling aircraft were mobilized during the overnight operation.

Leaders from France, Britain, Germany, and Canada condemned the incursion in strong terms. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said: Early indications suggest the breach of Polish airspace was intentional, not accidental Russias war is escalating, not ending. We must raise the cost on Moscow.

Sikorski: Not an accidental event Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski dismissed Moscows denial, saying: We have no doubt this was not an accidental event. We are dealing with an unprecedented case of an attack not only on Polands territory but also on NATO and EU territory.

Sikorski contrasted the latest incident with earlier isolated intrusions: When one or two drones does it, it is possible that it was a technical malfunction. But in this case, there were 19 breaches, and it simply defies imagination that that could be accidental.

Russia denies, blames Ukraine Moscow rejected responsibility, claiming its drones were targeting military facilities in western Ukraine. Its defense ministry insisted it had not planned to hit any targets in Poland.

The Russian embassy in Warsaw told AFP that Poland has failed to provide evidence of the Russian origin of the objects.

Ukraine: Extremely dangerous precedent for Europe Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia launched 415 drones and 40 missiles overnight, with at least eight Iranian-made Shahed drones directed toward Poland.

An extremely dangerous precedent for Europe, Zelensky warned. A strong response is needed  and it can only be a joint response by all partners: Ukraine, Poland, all Europeans, the United States.

Also Read | Trump administration wants to cancel Biden-era rule that elevated conservation on public land
President Donald Trump demanded the suspect responsible for fatally stabbing Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska be awarded THE DEATH PENALTY following the horrific incident on Charlottes Lynx Blue Line.

The ANIMAL who so violently killed the beautiful young lady from Ukraine, who came to America searching for peace and safety, should be given a Quick (there is no doubt!) Trial, and only awarded THE DEATH PENALTY. There can be no other option!!! Trump wrote on social media.

Suspect charged and criminal record Brown was charged by federal authorities with committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system. He also faces state charges of first-degree murder.

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said, This monster should have been locked up, and Iryna should still be alive, but Democrat politicians, liberal judges and weak prosecutors would rather virtue signal than lock up criminals and protect their communities.

Browns criminal record includes multiple prior convictions, including armed robbery that led to five years in prison.

Victims family speaks out Zarutskas family described the attack as devastating and demanded accountability. Iryna came here to find peace and safety, and instead her life was stolen from her in the most horrific way. No family should have to go through this, the family said. They also called for a full investigation into the circumstances leading to her death and vowed to prevent similar tragedies.

Footage and public outcry Chilling surveillance footage shows Zarutska being stabbed repeatedly with a pocket knife. The attack, captured on video, has circulated widely across social media, intensifying debates over crime, safety, and mental health issues.

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy weighed in, saying the city failed to protect passengers. If mayors can't keep their trains and buses safe, they don't deserve the taxpayers' money, Duffy said.

Trumps broader agenda against crime Trumps administration has touted the incident alongside deployments of National Guard troops in urban areas, arguing that stronger measures are needed to combat rising crime rates in Democratic-led cities.

Pam Bondi, attorney general, vowed to seek the maximum penalty against Brown, stressing, We will seek the maximum penalty for this unforgivable act of violence  he will never again see the light of day as a free man.

"Iryna Zarutska was a young woman living the American dream  her horrific murder is a direct result of failed soft-on-crime policies that put criminals before innocent people. I have directed my attorneys to federally prosecute DeCarlos Brown Jr., a repeat violent offender with a history of violent crime, for murder. We will seek the maximum penalty for this unforgivable crime, and he will never again see the light of day as a free man," Bondi wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Also Read | Trumps plan for a drug advertising crackdown faces many hurdles
Washington, Sep 10 (PTI) The US doesn't need "unfair trade" with India but New Delhi is "desperately" looking for access to the American markets, White House Trade Advisor Peter Navarro has said.

In the last few weeks, Navarro has made a series of critical remarks against India, especially for its continuing procurement of Russian crude oil.

The White House trade advisor's remarks came on a day US President Donald Trump announced that India and the US are continuing negotiations to address the trade barriers.

Trump, in a post on social media, said he was looking forward to speaking to Prime Minister Narendra in the upcoming weeks. "I feel certain that there will be no difficulty in coming to a successful conclusion for both of our Great Countries!"

However, Navarro, in a series of posts on 'X', hit out at India.

"The US doesnt need unfair trade with India. But India desperately needs access to US markets and schools and intends to continue taking U.S. jobs," he said.

The Trump administration official also repeated his previous allegations that India is fuelling Russia's war machinery.

"India fuels Russias war chest. India is protectionist, with sky-high tariffs. The US runs a massive trade deficit with India," he said

Navarro also claimed that "India's sky-high tariffs" are costing the US its jobs.

"India buys Russian oil purely to profit. Those revenues fuel Putin's war machine," he alleged.

The relations between New Delhi and Washington witnessed a major downturn after Trump doubled tariffs on Indian goods to a whopping 50 per cent including a 25 per cent additional duties for India's purchase of Russian crude oil.
(Bloomberg) -- Cambodia and Thailand have agreed to gradually withdraw heavy weapons from their disputed border and cooperate on landmine clearances, key steps toward de-escalating tensions after violent clashes in July killed dozens.

The measures are aimed at bringing peace and stability to their roughly 800-kilometer (500-mile) contested frontier and agreed at a special session of the General Border Committee on Wednesday. The panel is one of the mechanisms set up by the two countries to resolve security issues.

The Southeast Asian neighbors have continued to station troops and weaponry along the border more than six weeks after they agreed to a ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump. Five days of intense fighting between Thai and Cambodian forces in July, using fighter jets, missiles, and heavy artillery, killed over 40 people and displaced hundreds of thousands from border areas in both countries.

Explainer: Whats Behind Deadly Thailand-Cambodia Border Clash?

Defense officials will finalize an implementation plan for moving heavy artillery and destructive weapons and equipment back to their normal military installations in three weeks, Thai Deputy Defense Minister Nattaphon Narkphanit said at a briefing on Wednesday. They will also set up a panel to coordinate landmine clearance along the border within a month, he said.

The removal of heavy and destructive weapons will help urgently de-escalate tensions, Cambodias Defense Minister Tea Seiha said.

Landmines have played a vital role in the souring of ties between the two countries. A series of landmine explosions in July injured several Thai soldiers, prompting Thailand to recall its envoy from Phnom Penh and expelling the Cambodian ambassador. Fighting broke out a day later.

The two countries also agreed to prepare a joint action plan to suppress scam centers, with Thailand having provided coordinates of more than 60 such venues in Cambodia for decisive action, according to Nattaphon.

Thailands new Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has listed restoring peace with Cambodia as a priority while protecting the countrys sovereignty. He succeeded Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who was removed as prime minister last month for ethical violations over her handling of the border dispute.

The two sides have agreed to consider reopening some border crossings to facilitate trade to mitigate impact on businesses and transport, according to a joint statement.

The Thai-Cambodia conflict traces its roots to long-standing tensions stemming from colonial-era maps and treaties that defined their shared border. Relations had remained relatively stable since 2011 clashes that left dozens dead, before erupting into five days of intense fighting this year.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
China will establish a nature reserve at a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, a step that will likely inflame tensions with Manila in the resource-rich waterway.

Chinas cabinet, the State Council, has approved a proposal by the Ministry of Natural Resources to build a national nature reserve on Huangyan Island, according to an official notice published Wednesday. Huangyan Island is what Beijing calls the Scarborough Shoal, an atoll it effectively controls but claimed by the Philippines.

The size and boundary of the national reserve will be disclosed separately, the State Council said in the statement. The move is an important safeguard to protect the diversity, stability and sustainability of Huangyan Islands natural ecosystem, according to the post.

Beijings plan marks the latest in a series of moves to assert sovereignty that risk escalating tensions with other claimants to the South China Sea. Chinas claims to parts of the waters  which are contested by countries including Vietnam and Malaysia  have led to multiple maritime incidents.

In August, a China Coast Guard vessel had its bow badly damaged in a collision with a Peoples Liberation Army Navy ship during an incident with a Philippine Coast Guard ship around the Scarborough Shoal.

That same month, the Chinese navy said it expelled a US Navy ship from the area. The US Navy rejected that characterization, describing the operation as a lawful assertion of navigational rights.

A national nature reserve, under Chinas law, can be divided into a core area thats strictly out of bounds, a buffer area that allows only scientific research activities and an experimental zone that permits research and visits. Any foreigners who want to visit a national reserve must seek approval from Chinese authorities.

With assistance from Jing Li.

2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Frances new Prime Minister, Sebastien Lecornu, the fifth in two years, took office on Wednesday amid sprawling anti-government Block Everything protests.

Lecornu, the loyalist picked by President Emmanuel Macron, most recently served as his defence minister. At midday, he arrived at the prime minister's residence, where he met with former prime minister Francois Bayrou.

Bayrou was ousted by Parliament on Monday over plans to trim the countrys outsized deficit.

Also Read | 9 pig heads found with Macron's name outside mosques in Paris

The new prime minister may use his first speech to outline a plan for reaching consensus with an unruly Parliament to pass a slimmed-down budget for next year.

He must submit a full draft of the 2026 budget to Parliament by 7 October.

The hard left has vowed to try to topple Lecornu with an immediate no-confidence motion, while the far-right National Rally (RN) has signalled a tentative willingness to work with him on the budget  but only if its budgetary demands are met.

His budget will be RN or his government will not be, RN lawmaker Laure Lavalette wrote on X on Tuesday.

Lecornu also faces a challenge in uniting the Socialists, who want to water down budget cuts and tax the rich, with his former party, the Republicans, who are dead-set against any tax rises.

Nationwide Protests Meanwhile, thousands of people across France took to the roads as part of the so-called Block Everything protests.

The protest movement started online and gathered steam over the summer, causing widespread hot spots of disruption.

The protesters have expressed discontent with President Macron and the proposed budget cuts.

Around 80,000 police personnel were deployed nationwide to contain agitators who disrupted traffic, burned rubbish bins and clashed with security forces.

French interior minister Bruno Retailleau said nearly 200 people were arrested in the first hours of the planned day of nationwide protests.

A bus was set on fire in the western city of Rennes, and damage to a power line blocked trains on a line in the southwest, he said.
A day after 19 people were killed in deadly 'Gen Z' protests, Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned from his post, and the demonstrators set the parliament ablaze.

As the turmoil continues, harrowing visuals from Nepal show billows of smoke coming out of the parliament.

Another footage showed the country's ex-Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and his wife, Arzu Rana Deuba, the foreign minister, being assaulted by protesters.

Both were left bleeding from the alleged beating, while one video showed the party leader being helped to safety.

Here's all you need to know about Nepal Genz Z protest in 10 points: 1. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned from his post on Tuesday afternoon, a source from his secretariat confirmed. In his resignation letter, Oli said that he had stepped down to allow "steps towards a political solution".

Three Nepal ministers had resigned earlier, amid criticism of the governments violent response to the students-led protests, according to the Kathmandu Post.

2. Protests  called the protest of Gen Z  began on Monday with demands that the government lift a ban on social media and tackle corruption. At least 19 people were killed and hundreds injured on Monday, following protests by mainly young people.

Last week, Nepal banned several social media platforms that had failed to register with the government, including Facebook, X and YouTube. The government had said the new regulations would prevent fake news, hate speech and cybercrimes.

3. The ban was later scrapped, but the unrest continued on Tuesday as protesters demanded action against poor governance in the country.

4. Although the social media ban triggered this weeks unrest, the protests reflect deeper frustrations among Nepals youth over joblessness and inequality.

As per AFP, videos contrasting the struggles of ordinary Nepalis with the children of politicians flaunting luxury goods and expensive vacations have gone viral on TikTok, which was not blocked.

5. Nepali youth protesters set fire to parliament as the veteran prime minister obeyed furious crowds' demands to quit. Demonstrators also breached the fence and "torched the main building," Ekram Giri, spokesman for the Parliament Secretariat, told AFP.

6. What happens next as PM Oli resigns? It unclear but constitutional lawyer Dipendra Jha told AFP that the protesters and leaders who are trusted by them and the army should come together to pave the way for a caretaker government.

7. Balendra Shah, the 35-year-old engineer-turned-rapper who was elected as Kathmandu's mayor in 2022, and who is seen as a popular figure in the transition ahead, used Facebook to call on people to "be restrained".

Shah, a rapper who studied structural engineering and later became the Mayor of Kathmandu, is a likely contender to succeed, several reports suggested.

8. Nepal Army chief Ashok Raj Sigdel on Tuesday appealed to the protesters to come forward for dialogue in the face of violent protests that continued for a second day even after prime minister K P Sharma Olis resignation.

9. As India and the US issued a travel advisory, Nepali students in India say they have put their plans to travel home on hold and call up their families repeatedly, fearful of their safety amid the violent protests rattling the Himalayan nation.

10. The Nepal Army on Tuesday took control of the Tribhuvan International Airport in Nepal after the agitators tried to enter its premises in the evening. Flight services at the airport were partially suspended in view of the protests.

11. Air India, SpiceJet and IndiGo are among the airlines that cancelled their flights connecting Kathmandu on Tuesday as the airport in Nepal's capital has been temporarily closed.

IndiGo Airlines announced the suspension of all flights to and from Kathmandu until 12:00 pm on September 10, citing the closure of Kathmandu Airport due to the Gen Z Protest.

Meanwhile, Air India said in a statement on Tuesday, "In view of the current situation prevailing in Kathmandu, the following flights AI2231/2232, AI2219/2220, AI217/218 and AI211/212 operating on the Delhi-Kathmandu-Delhi route have been cancelled today. We are closely monitoring the situation and will share further update."
MADRID (AP)  Gibraltarians gathered Wednesday for national day celebrations months before a fence separating the contested territory at the tip of the Iberian peninsula from Spain was expected to be dismantled.

It was the first such celebration since the European Union and the U.K. reached a deal in June to ease cross-border trade and travel in Gibraltar.

The festivities commemorate the 1967 referendum over the status of the Rock, as the territory is popularly called in English. Gibraltarians voted overwhelmingly to remain part of the U.K., rather than to join Spain, which was ruled at the time by dictator Gen. Francisco Franco.

Gibraltars Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said the celebrations this year carry added significance."

In June, the EU said that all physical barriers, checks and controls on people and goods moving between Spain and Gibraltar will be removed. At a time when many countries are erecting new or higher border walls, that includes the fence separating Gibraltar from Spain that some 15,000 people cross every day.

The deal is expected to take effect in the first half of 2026.

Britain left the European Union in 2020 with the relationship between Gibraltar and the bloc unresolved. Until June, talks on a deal to ensure the flow of people and goods across the Gibraltar-Spain border had made only halting progress.

Gibraltar was ceded to Britain in 1713, but Spain has maintained its sovereignty claim ever since. Relations concerning the Rock have had their ups and downs over the centuries.
Israels military said on Wednesday (September 10) it carried out airstrikes on Houthi rebel targets in Yemen, including in the capital Sanaa and the northern Al-Jawf region.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said its air force struck military camps in which operatives of the terrorist regime were identified, the Huthi's military public relations headquarters and a fuel storage facility that was used by the terrorist regime.

The Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen, have launched repeated missile and drone attacks against Israel since the war in Gaza began, describing their actions as support for Palestinians. Israel has responded with strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, marking a widening of the conflict beyond Gaza.

The Houthi-run Al Masirah TV first reported the strike but provided no immediate details. Israeli officials said the attack was in response to recent missile launches by Houthi forces toward Israel, none of which caused casualties or damage.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the strike.

Israel previously struck Sanaa airport on May 6, destroying its terminal building and heavily damaging the runway.

The Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen, have aligned themselves with Hamas in the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict, firing drones and missiles toward Israel since the war began.

Israel intercepts drone from Yemen after strike shuts Ramon Airport Israels military said on Monday (September 8) that it intercepted a drone launched from Yemen after air raid sirens sounded near the southern city of Eilat. Hours later, additional sirens were reported in the Negev region following another drone intrusion, though the military did not disclose its outcome.

The incidents came a day after a drone fired by Yemens Houthi rebels struck Ramon Airport near Eilat, damaging the arrivals hall and forcing a temporary suspension of flights. The airport has since resumed operations.

The Iran-aligned Houthis claimed responsibility, saying they targeted Ramon Airport and other areas with three drones on Monday. The group has stepped up cross-border attacks against Israel since the Gaza war began, describing its actions as solidarity with Palestinians.
Nepal Gen Z Protests: China hopes that people from all circles of Nepali society will "properly handle" the country's domestic issues and restore social order and national stability as soon as possible, a spokesperson at the Chinese foreign ministry was quoted by news agency Reuters as saying on Wednesday, 10 September.

"It is hoped that all sectors of Nepal can properly handle domestic issues and quickly restore social order and national stability. China has already reminded its citizens in Nepal to pay close attention to safety," foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a regular press briefing.

This is perhaps the first official statement from China on Nepal, where violent demonstrations on Tuesday forced Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli to step down after a short-lived ban on social media.

China also urged its citizens in Nepal to "pay close attention to safety", after protesters set parliament ablaze and forced the prime minister to quit in the worst violence to hit the Himalayan nation in two decades.

Protestors also set government buildings and politicians homes on fire. Amid widespread criticism of the countrys political elite and over alleged corruption, the Army took charge of the security operations in the country on 9 September at 10 PM.

China hopes that people from all circles of Nepali society will 'properly handle' the country's domestic issues.

At least 19 people died and 500 others were injured in clashes around the Federal Parliament and other parts of Kathmandu.

Air India, SpiceJet and IndiGo are among the airlines that cancelled their flights connecting Kathmandu. In the wake of Nepal unrest, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) issued a travel advisory for Indian citizens on Wednesday. It not only shared emergency contact numbers but also urged those already in the country to remain indoors.

Why are protests happening in Nepal? The protesters, who were grouped under the banner of Gen Z, were triggered by the government's decision to ban 26 social media sites. Apps like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, among others, were blocked in Nepal on Friday after the government cut access to these platforms.

But eventually, turns out the uprising was more about corrupt governance than social media ban.

China had not reacted to the developments in Nepal until Wednesday. Chinas state-run Xinhua news agency carried a brief report of Oli's resignation and news of protests breaking out in Nepal on Monday in Kathmandu and other parts of the country.

Oli is the second leader of a South Asian country, after former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina, to quit amid a riotous situation after their visits to China.

Hasina fled to India on 5 August last year, days after her return from a high-profile visit to Beijing, after massive student protests erupted over the alleged corruption and misrule of her Awami League government.

Why was China silent? For China, the disgraceful exit of Oli, regarded as a pro-Beijing leader for his efforts to reshape Nepals traditionally India-friendly foreign policy towards China, was reminiscent of the fall of the Rajapaksa family rule in Sri Lanka.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the brother of Mahinda Rajapaksa, resigned as president in 2022 following massive public protests over his misrule and corruption accumulated over the years by their family, which led to the country's bankruptcy.

Also Read | Indian tourist stuck in Nepal amid deadly protests makes desperate appeal

The entire Rajapaksa family bore the brunt of the riots that followed.

Like Oli, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who served as president from 2005 to 2015, drastically tilted his countrys foreign policy towards China after permitting huge Chinese investments under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), including the Hambantota port, which China subsequently acquired for a 99-year period lease as a debt swap.

Oli has signed a transit treaty with China to secure supplies to landlocked Nepal to reduce dependence on India and backed the China-Nepal railway project through Tibet.

Olis recent visit to China attracted strong criticism back home for attending the V-Day parade despite objections from Japan, a major aid donor to Nepal.

His endorsement of Chinese President Xi Jinpings Global Security Initiative (GSI) and Global Civilisation Initiative (GCI) during his meeting with Xi also drew sharp criticism at home.

Successive Nepali governments have declined to be a part of the GSI, a Chinese security construct that is believed to have emerged as a counterweight to the global American military dominance, an editorial in Kathmandu Post newspaper said, commenting on the just-concluded visit of Oli to Beijing.
Nepal Protests: Gen Zled protests in Nepal have shaken the Himalayan nation for the past three days. In response, the Nepali Army has imposed nationwide restrictions, aiming to curb demonstrations.

Following the resignation of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, Nepal President Ram Chandra Poudel is expected to meet with Gen Z protesters to work toward a peaceful resolution.

Meanwhile, Kathmandu airport remains closed, and India has tightened security along the 1,751-kilometre border it shares with Nepal.

Nepal protests: Key points The Nepal Army on Wednesday imposed restrictive orders across the nation, followed by a curfew to quell possible violence that saw protesters leaving key buildings in flames and the nation on edge. Kathmandu and other key cities wore a deserted look as soldiers took over the country.

In a statement, the army said the restrictive orders are in effect throughout the country from morning to 5 pm, and then a curfew will be in place until 6 am on Thursday. It said the steps were taken to curb possible incidents of looting, arson, and other destructive activities under the guise of agitation.

Security personnel have arrested 27 people from different parts of Kathmandu for looting, arson and vandalism during the Nepal protests. During operations,  3.37 lakh in cash, along with 31 weapons, magazines and bullets, were recovered from individuals in Chabahil, Bauddha and Gaushala areas of Kathmandu.

India has tightened its security along its border with Nepal. An alert has been issued on the India-Nepal border, considering the unrest in Nepal. Sashastra Seema Bal is keeping a close watch on the development, ANI reported, quoting an official.

Nepal and India share a 1751-kilometre-long border, covering states including Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Sikkim and West Bengal, all of which have been put on alert. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami convened a review meeting via video conferencing on Tuesday to review the situation. Videos from the Panitanki border area in West Bengal showed trucks stranded in the area as trade got partially halted, while CM Mamata Banerjee appealed for peace.

Uttar Pradesh Police on Tuesday was put on round-the-clock high alert in all districts bordering Nepal on the orders of CM Yogi Adityanath. To assist Indian citizens stranded in Nepal, a 24x7 special control room has been established at the police headquarters in Lucknow under the law and order branch, Additional Director General (Law and Order) Amitabh Yash said.

Meanwhile, restrictions have been imposed on movement across the Nepal border, NDTV reported. At Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh, Indian citizens returning from Nepal are allowed to enter India but are not permitted to cross over into Nepal. Similarly, Nepali citizens in the area are allowed to return to Nepal but are barred from entering India.
Prince Harry reunited with his father King Charles III at Clarence House in London on Wednesday (September 10), marking the end of a 19-month-long estrangement after months of speculation about a reconciliation.

Private tea at Clarence House According to media reports, the Duke of Sussex met the king for a private tea at his London residence. Media noted Harrys black car entering Clarence House shortly after the king returned from Scotland. The visit lasted less than an hour before Harry departed.

The meeting was their first since February 2024 and came after Harry appealed for reconciliation earlier this year, saying he did not know how much longer my father has.

Previous meetings and strained ties Harry last met his father in February 2024, shortly after Charles revealed his cancer diagnosis. That meeting, also at Clarence House, lasted under 45 minutes before Harry flew back to California.

Relations between Harry and his elder brother, Prince William, remain strained. Though both were in Windsor on Monday, they did not meet, with Harry instead visiting Queen Elizabeth IIs grave on the third anniversary of her death.

Harry's busy UK visit Harry has been in the UK since Monday for a series of engagements, including a visit earlier on Wednesday to the Centre for Blast Injury Studies at Imperial College London. He is also scheduled to attend an Invictus Games Foundation event in the evening.

The Duke has returned to the UK three times since his last meeting with Charles but had not managed to see his father until now.

Ongoing tensions with the royals Since stepping back from royal duties in 2020 and relocating to California with his wife Meghan Markle, Harry has frequently criticised the royal family.
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, arrived at King Charles residence in London on Wednesday (September 10), sparking speculation about a potential first meeting in 20 months and a step toward ending the widely publicised rift between father and son.

Harry last saw his father in February 2024, shortly after Charles announced he was undergoing treatment for an unspecified form of cancer. The princes car was spotted arriving at Clarence House, where the 76-year-old monarch held a royal audience earlier in the day, Reuters reported.

Harrys UK visit The Duke of Sussex, 40, flew into Britain on Monday for a series of engagements. Earlier on Wednesday, he visited a research centre specialising in treatments for blast injury victims.

Since moving with his wife Meghan to California in 2020, Harry has been highly critical of the royal family through interviews, documentaries, and his autobiography Spare.

Calls for family reconciliation Despite the tension, Harry has expressed a desire to mend ties. Speaking to the BBC earlier this year, he said: "Of course some members of my family will never forgive me for writing a book. Of course they will never forgive me for lots of things. But you know ... I would love reconciliation with my family ... There's no point in continuing to fight anymore. And life is precious."

He also acknowledged the sensitivity surrounding his father: "I don't know how much longer my father has. He won't speak to me because of this security stuff, but it would be nice to reconcile."

Signs of a possible rapprochement Although both Buckingham Palace and Harrys representatives have remained tight-lipped, newspapers reported that in July, the kings communications chief and Harrys media team held a secret meeting in London, which may have laid the groundwork for reconciliation.

Observers are watching closely to see whether Wednesdays visit will mark a genuine step toward repairing the strained relationship between the estranged father and son.

Also Read | Prince Harry pledges $500,000 to support children injured in Gaza and Ukraine
Nepal's 'Gen Z' protesters want former Chief Justice Sushila Karki as the interim prime minister, Raman Kumar Karna, secretary of the Supreme Court Bar Association, who was consulted by the agitators, told Reuters on Wednesday.

The group will meet the Nepal Army chief with the proposal, said Karna.

The development comes as Nepal navigates a period of uncertainty, with political parties and stakeholders seeking consensus to ensure a smooth transition and maintain stability in the country.

Also Read | Nepal Protest News LIVE: Kathmandu airport to reopen today

A Nepali student told ANI: "My immediate concern is the law and order in the country. To maintain it, the country requires a person who is knowledgeable about the law. For this, Sushila Karki is the right option."

About Sushila Karki Sushila Karki made history after she became Nepal's first female Chief Justice, serving in the role from July 2016 to June 2017.

She was born on June 7, 1952, in Biratnagar.

The eldest of seven siblings, she began her legal career in 1979 after completing her law education in Biratnagar.

In 2007, she became a Senior Advocate.

She was appointed as an ad-hoc judge of the Supreme Court in January 2009 and became a permanent judge in 2010.

Violent protests rage Amid the ongoing violent protests, at least 25 people, including three policemen, were killed in the last two days in Nepal.

Nineteen people, mostly youths, were killed in firing by the security forces during protests in front of the Parliament building on Monday.

According to the police, three policemen were killed by a mob in the Koteshwor area of Kathmandu on Tuesday during the violent demonstrations, while three protesters were killed during clashes with the police at Kalimati Police Station.

Also Read | Kathmandu airport reopens today, 24 hours after it was closed amid protests

The Gen Z protesters are demanding accountability and transparency from the government. The protests began on September 8, 2025, in Kathmandu and other major cities, including Pokhara, Butwal, and Birgunj, after the government imposed a ban on major social media platforms, citing tax revenue and cybersecurity concerns.

At least 633 people have been injured during the protests, according to Nepals Home Ministry.
A gargantuan military parade, complete with state-of-the-art stealth carrier-based fighter jets, tanks with optical sensors and militarized robots, might seem an odd setting from which to sound bugles of peace, but Chinas President Xi Jinping did just that on 3 September.

Only when nations and peoples treat each other as equals and watch out for and help one another, can we safeguard common security, eliminate the roots of war, and prevent the recurrence of historical tragedies," said Xi.

Also Read | China is using a Pacific Islands huddle to squeeze out Taiwan

The parade coincided with reviews of Breakneck: Chinas Quest to Engineer the Future by Dan Wang, a book that attributes the Communist Chinese leaderships ability to steer the economy ahead rapidly to the fact that most of its senior leaders are engineers.

The US, by contrast, Wang argues, is weighed down by having too many lawyers and too much litigation. Wang contrasts the high-speed rail between Beijing and Shanghai that was built in a couple of years and has been running since 2011 with the planned super-fast link between Los Angeles and San Francisco, which is still years from completion. Cue alarming headlines like: Does the Future Belong to China?

If hype and a speedy infra build-up are what it takes to attain global dominance, China would have been unrivalled several years ago. Its public project management and engineering acumen is impressive. Its seizing of the commanding heights of the green economy, from electric batteries to solar panels and EVs, is awe-inspiring. Never mind that its companies in this race are heavily subsidized and only a handful make money.

Wang is duly reverential while also making the point that Shanghai, where he lived for many years, is also a much more liveable city today. Its parks have increased by a few hundred while he was there to an admirable 1,000 today and its metro system is world class. Wang recently complained of screechy New York subway trains.

As it happens, I am also in awe of Chinas infrastructure, although I suspect many of its local governments are weighed down with billions in debt that will never be repaid. Its also a matter of perspective: New Yorks subway system began 120 years ago, Shanghais 90 years later. I am just back from New York and could not help noticing that its underground was far better than I remembered when I lived there in the 1990s.

Wangs book has received mostly uncritical acclaim in the US. Despite his admiration of Shanghai, Wang lives in the US because he prefers its pluralism." Nevertheless, his book coincides with the US government at its most chaotic, except in seizing more power from the legislature. The parade in Beijing has also been a moment of shock and awe for China watchers in India and overseas. The temptation to accede to Chinas relentless march seems harder to resist.

Still, a few caveats are in order.

For starters, Wangs thesis that an engineering mindset to nation-building is far better than others is questionable. Chinas leadership would benefit from having many more able economists and by letting more lawyers successfully defend activists and business people in the cross-hairs of the state. It is telling that the most widely admired Chinese civil rights lawyer of the early 2000s, Pu Zhiqiang, was sentenced a decade ago for creating a disturbance" and inciting ethnic hatred" and had his license to practice law revoked. He remains under residential surveillance.

The rule of law and property rights would make China a more admirable superpower. As the columnist Noah Smith points out, Japans industrialization of the 1960s and 70s was managed by bureaucrats who had studied law.

Given how the US has overturned the principal axioms of the global trading system, it may be tempting to embrace China as a counterweight. But, Chinas approach to international trade in the past two decades has been profoundly mercantilist. Even as its exports to the US decline this year, Chinas trade surplus with the world is expected to hit $1 trillion.

There is also the lasting overhang of a debt trap for many developing countries that joined Beijings Belt and Road Initiative. Countries in Asia and Africa have suffered from the difficult terms of large loans from China for infra projects whose benefits are not always clear.

A paper published by AidData and co-authored by academics from Oxford University, William and Mary in Virginia and the University of Hamburg, reveals how Chinese loans for infrastructure projects usually built by Chinese companies are collateralized with revenues from commodity exports:

Our findings reveal a previously undocumented pattern of revenue ring-fencing, where a significant share of commodity export receipts never reaches the exporting countries. Revenues routed overseas secure priority repayment for the creditor; they remain out of public sight and largely beyond the borrowers reach until the secured debts are repaid."

The researchers reveal that over 60% of the collateralized loan portfolio of Chinese creditors in developing countries is typically not repaid from project revenues: Instead, most of the cash flows come from sales of the borrowing countrys leading commodity export, such as oil in Angola, gas in Indonesia, or cocoa in Ghana." It is a clever way of de-risking infra investments that are often white elephants, but pity the developing countries at the receiving end of such stiff credit terms.

As Xi said last week, The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is unstoppable!" At many levels, we have been warned.

The author is a former Financial Times foreign correspondent
Now suppose someone does get into a so-called good school on the basis of some social quota; even then, is it a level playing field? Besides the way such children are often treated by other students and teachers, they also lack the kind of support at home that other kids may take for granted. There is also the prism of expectations: both in terms of the chores they are expected to do after school hours as well as how much encouragement they get to score well and aim high.
Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday visited the home of his cousin and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) president Raj Thackeray in Mumbai amid the buzz of an alliance between the two parties ahead of local body polls after years of estrangement.

The latest meeting between the two party chiefs and their leaders was held at 'Shivtirth', the residence of Raj Thackeray in the city's Dadar area.

Incidentally, Maharashtra Congress leaders met Uddhav Thackeray on Monday, during which the issue of a possible alliance between the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the MNS cropped up.

Leaders of the Congress, an ally of the Shiv Sena (UBT), had then said they would discuss the issue with their high command.

This was the second known interaction between the once-estranged cousins in the past fortnight.

Uddhav had visited 'Shivtirth' late last month on the occasion of the Ganesh festival.

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut later told reporters Uddhav Thackeray visited 'Shivtirth' to meet Raj's mother Kunda, who is his 'mavshi' (mother's sister), but did not dwell on the political angle of the meeting.

Both Raj and Uddhav Thackeray are maternal as well as paternal cousins.

However, an MNS leader insisted this was the first time the two leaders met to discuss the possibility of a formal alliance between their parties and broad contours of it.

The Thackerays had shared a stage on July 5 in Mumbai to celebrate their "victory" after the Maharashtra government rolled back its contentious orders on the three-language formula for students of Classes 1 to 5 amid charges of imposition of Hindi in the state dominated by Marathi speakers.

At the end of Jul, Raj visited Matoshree, the residence of Uddhav Thackeray in suburban Bandra, to wish the latter on his birthday.

Although Raj Thackeray quit the undivided Shiv Sena in 2005, blaming Uddhav for his exit, the drubbing of their parties in the 2024 Maharashtra assembly polls appears to have pushed the rivals to improve ties and create their own political space in the state.

Both parties have dropped enough hints of forging an alliance for the upcoming local body polls, including elections to the cash-rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), but have not yet announced a formal tie-up.

If a tie-up does take concrete shape, the BJP, a fierce critic of the Shiv Sena (UBT), will be its main rival.

Raj Thackeray has had been a critic as well as a supporter of the BJP in the past.

Asked about the latest meeting between the Thackerays, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said he didn't have any mechanism to understand what was on the minds of the cousins.

"I didn't meet anyone, and I don't know what they said. I don't have any technique to understand what they have on their mind. I don't know anything about their meeting," Fadnavis told reporters in Nashik.

Mumbai BJP chief and MLA Ameet Satam sought to downplay its significance, saying citizens are more concerned about development than family meetings between political leaders.

"It is not about who is meeting whom and their family-related bonding, but it is more about who constructed Atal Setu, the Coastal Road, the redevelopment of BDD chawls in Worli and neighbouring areas, and who set up a vast network of CCTV cameras across Mumbai. These are the key issues, and Mumbaikars will vote on that basis," Satam told reporters.

He asserted Mumbai voters have supported Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in past elections, and they will continue to do so in future polls also.

Harping on the BJP-led coalition's development agenda, the MLA noted the Union and state governments have expedited the construction of the Navi Mumbai International Airport. Citizens want this pace of development, which was never offered during the 25 years of rule by others. Just meetings between cousins have no political value; people are more interested in who will solve their problems, the BJP leader affirmed.

BJP MLC Pravin Darekar also sought to downplay the meeting.

"As a junior political worker, I would be delighted to see the two cousins come together as Maharashtra has a history of civil discourse and aligning with like-minded groups. But it is not the time to speak of their alliance," Darekar said.

He wondered what Uddhav Thackeray's position would be in the Opposition bloc Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) if he chose to align with Raj. There is no point in rushing to claim their alliance will bring the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the MNS to power in the BMC, Darekar said.

Shiv Sena minister Uday Samant said, regardless of new alliances, the Mahayuti will sweep the upcoming elections to local bodies in the state.

Samant said Sena is of the view that Raj Thackeray should join the Mahayuti alliance.

"However, it is up to Raj Thackeray to decide his political future. As a Mahayuti leader, I am confident that we will come to power in all local and urban bodies and BMC irrespective of any alliances," he told reporters in Pune.
(Bloomberg) -- US President Donald Trump said hes prepared to join the European Union to impose sweeping new tariffs on India and China as he looks to ratchet up pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to join ceasefire talks with Ukraine.

Trump made the ask when he called into a meeting with senior US and EU officials in Washington, according to people familiar with the discussion who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations. The US is willing to mirror tariffs imposed by Europe on either country, one of the people said.

Other potential measures discussed by US and EU officials include further sanctions on Russias shadow fleet of oil tankers as well as restrictions on its banks, financial sector and major oil companies, according to the people. Any EU sanctions would require the backing of all member states, and several nations, including Hungary, have blocked more stringent measures targeting Russias energy sector in the past.

Trumps suggestion, first reported by the Financial Times, comes after his deadline for Putin to hold a bilateral meeting with Ukraines Volodymyr Zelenskiy passed without indication that the Russian leader, who met Trump late last month in Alaska, was genuinely interested in engaging in face-to-face peace talks.

Instead, Moscow has stepped up its Ukraine bombing campaign, with a strike Tuesday killing at least two dozen pensioners as they collected payments in eastern Ukraine.

The delegation of EU officials is visiting Washington this week to meet US counterparts and discuss the potential for joint action to pressure Russia to end its war against Ukraine and enter into negotiations with Kyiv.

Ukraines Prime Minister, Yuliya Svyrydenko, who also joined the discussions, said in a social media post that she urged Kyivs partners to target the shadow fleet, oil majors, refineries, traders, and other enablers.

Any US action would ultimately depend on Trump, who has so far refrained from sanctioning Russia directly despite skating through several self-imposed deadlines and Vladimir Putins continued reluctance to negotiate an end to the war. Trump has, however, already doubled tariffs on India to 50% over its continued purchase of Russian oil.

The discussions come as the EU is currently discussing the content of a 19th package of sanctions, Bloomberg reported earlier.

Moscow is already under crippling sanctions from both the US and Europe, but has been able to skirt some of their impact by sourcing restricted items from China and other third countries, as well as finding customers for its oil and gas in Beijing, India and elsewhere.

But as the Russian economy shows increasing signs of strain, measures targeting those supplies and sources of vital revenue would likely dial up the pressure on Moscows war machine and finances.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
Apple Inc. on Tuesday showcased its first new smartphone design in five years with the iPhone Air. Priced at 1.2 lakh in India, the smartphone is the third iteration of Apples experiments with iPhone formatsincluding a mini iPhone that was built last in 2013, and a Plus version that never really sold in big numbers.

The iPhone Air, however, is differentapart from its ultrathin design the smartphone also boasts a more powerful processor. Are super-slim phones back in vogue?

Why did Apple make an iPhone Air?

Apple has been experimenting with different formats and variants of the iPhone, its primary revenue driver, since the iPhone 12 mini of 2020. It discontinued the small-screen, compact iPhone due to low demand, with analyst calls citing a lack of general demand for a small display in a mobile-first internet world.

For the past three years, Apple has offered a Plus variant instead, hoping to address the need for a large display. But, according to analysts, a lack of differentiation hurt sales.

The iPhone Air, launched with Apples iPhone 17 lineup, has plenty of features differentiating it from the rest of the packthus presenting a new approach from the company to try and push more buyers towards a higher price point than the entry-level iPhone.

Also Read | iPhone 17 launch to boost Apple India sales, prices a tad higher despite tariff

Isnt the iPhone Air similar to the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge?

Yes, absolutely. Samsung launched an Edge variant of its flagship Galaxy S25 smartphone lineup in January. In comparison with the iPhone Airs 5.6mm thickness, the Galaxy S25 Edge measures 5.8mm.

In fact, Apples product lineup now closely resembles that of Samsungsthe latter also sells a standard Galaxy S25, a Plus model with a larger display than the base device, and an Ultra model with high-performance specifications. Priced onward of 1.1 lakh, the S25 Edge is one of the slimmest Android smartphones in the market.

View Full Image A person holds a Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge phone in front of an iPhone Air during Apple's event. (Reuters)

Are there other such phones in the market?

Yes, but few. The most notable is Chinese brand Oppos Find N5a foldable smartphone. While the device is nearly 9mm thick when folded, it measures only 4.2mm in thickness when kept open like a tablet.

Other device makers are also looking to join this trend. Smartphone brand Tecno, owned by Chinas Transsion Holdings, mimicked design renders of the iPhone Air to create its own take on slim phones with a reported thickness of 5.75mm. Its design is uncannily similar to the iPhone Air.

Also Read | Apple and Samsung gain ground in Indias slowing smartphone market

Why did phone brands stop making slim phones?

There are multiple reasons why slim phones stopped being the norm. For starters, building the chassis of a sub-6mm smartphone is complicated in terms of the engineering it requires. This, in turn, means higher cost of development.

More specifically, though, while slim phones were regular 11 years ago, they stopped being mainstream as brands focused on packing more features into smartphones.

Displays larger than 6 inches require a larger phone body and a bigger batterywhich is typically thick and prevents phones from being too slim. Plus, demand for better phone cameras led to brands packing in larger image sensors, which too take up space.

But doctors and experts have signalled that such devicestypically measuring 9mm and weighing over 200 gramscould pose long-term health issues as smartphone use increases exponentially.

Is there a market for slim phones?

The jury is still out on whether slim phones would find takers. Per market reports from South Korea in June, Samsung has decided to reduce global production volume of its Galaxy S25 Edge due to weak sales. While the Edge performed better than the Plus variant, the uptake was nowhere near what the company had hoped for.

That said, analysts say it is too early to make a call on whether the iPhone Air may work. Apples iPhones are the single-most selling consumer gadget in the world, and have an overweight impact on how they influence the market and consumption trends.

Given that Apples sales surge in India is driven also by a perceived social impression of the brand, iPhone Airs unique design in a premium finish may help it carve a market for itselfand, in turn, for competitors too. All of this, however, will only play out in the weeks to come, as sales commence from 19 September.

Does the iPhone Air signal a design shift for Apple?

Potentially, yes. Keen observers of Apple have said that the iPhone Air could be a precursor to the general design language that the company may follow in future.

While the camera bar design on the iPhone Air was popularized by Googles Pixel range of phones, Apples implementation of it in a slim form factor may find its presence across its entire range of smartphones next year.

Others added that the iPhone Airs slim design could be a precursor to Apple preparing its engineering and design lines for making a foldable smartphonewhich the company has been rumoured to be working on for a while now.
Apple launched its much-awaited iPhone 17 on Tuesday at the Awe Dropping Event with notable design changes and several key updates. With the new iPhone 17 lineup, Samsung and Apple are back in the spotlight, showing off their latest flagships: the iPhone 17 and the Galaxy S25. Both are powerful, polished and packed with features, but what is striking this year is just how different their visions of the smartphone have become. Here is a comparison between the flagships.

iPhone 17 vs Samsung Galaxy S25: Design and Display On the outside, Apple has not reinvented the wheel, but the iPhone 17 does feel like a step up. The 6.3-inch Super Retina XDR display is bigger and brighter, peaking at a blinding 3,000 nits outdoors. The new Ceramic Shield 2 makes the front glass tougher and less reflective, which is good news for anyone who is dropped their phone on the pavement or struggled to read the screen in sunlight.

Samsungs Galaxy S25 goes for refinement. Its 6.2-inch AMOLED 2X screen may not match Apples brightness numbers, but with Vision Booster and adaptive colour tuning, it aims for balance, sharp, accurate visuals without draining the battery. Both phones deliver silky 120Hz refresh rates.

iPhone 17 vs Samsung Galaxy S25: Cameras This is where Apple really wants to grab attention. For the first time, all of the iPhone 17s rear lenses are 48MP. The main camera offers a 2x telephoto option, and the new ultra wide captures four times more detail than before. On the front, Apple introduces Centre Stage: an 18MP selfie camera that automatically adjusts the field of view, stabilises 4K video and even records with the front and back cameras at the same time.

Samsung takes a different approach with the Galaxy S25. The numbers on paper, 50MP wide, 12MP ultra wide, and 10MP telephoto, look less dramatic, but Samsung leans heavily on AI to make the difference. Smarter low-light shooting, noise reduction in video, and editing tricks like Audio Eraser mean users can get creative without third-party apps. In short, Apple is flexing its hardware muscle, while Samsung is betting on AI wizardry to close the gap.

iPhone 17 vs Samsung Galaxy S25: Performance and Battery Life Inside, the iPhone 17 runs on the new A19 chip, built on a 3nm process. Apple says it is dramatically faster and more efficient than past models, with enough power to handle advanced AI features in iOS 26. Battery life gets a healthy boost too, up to 30 hours of video playback, and charging is quicker, hitting 50 per cent in just 20 minutes with Apples new 40W adapter.

The Galaxy S25 is powered by Qualcomms customised Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy. It is designed to handle AI tasks on the device without relying on the cloud, and it brings boosts across graphics, processing and efficiency. Gaming performance is stronger, with support for ray tracing and improved cooling. The 4,000mAh battery charges a bit slower than Apples, but Samsung argues that its power management makes the difference in daily use.

iPhone 17 vs Samsung Galaxy S25: Connectivity and Security Apple continues its push toward eSIM-only models, expanding digital SIM support in more countries. The new N1 networking chip adds Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and Thread, improving stability for features like AirDrop.

Samsung, meanwhile, is framing the S25 as one of the most secure devices around. It is the first Galaxy phone to introduce post-quantum cryptography, a technology designed to future-proof against tomorrows cyber threats. Combined with Knox Vault and a promise of seven years of updates, Samsung is clearly targeting buyers who keep their phones for the long haul.

iPhone 17 vs Samsung Galaxy S25: Software Apples iOS 26 is all about refinement. Apple Intelligence introduces on-device tools like real-time translation and smarter content recognition, while the refreshed interface, called Liquid Glass, gives the system a cleaner, more expressive look.

Samsung goes all in on AI with One UI 7. Multimodal agents can understand text, images, voice and video together, while Googles Gemini is built right in. From transcribing calls to suggesting edits or even expanding a sketch into a finished drawing, the Galaxy S25 wants to feel less like a phone and more like a personal assistant.

iPhone 17 vs Samsung Galaxy S25: Pricing in India The iPhone 17 is priced at 82,900 for the 256GB storage variant and 1,02,900 for the 512GB storage model.

The Samsung Galaxy S25's 12GB RAM with 256GB storage variant is currently priced at 74999 on its official store, while its 12GB RAM with the 512GB storage variant costs 86,999.

iPhone 17 vs Samsung Galaxy S25: Verdict The iPhone 17 feels like Apple at its best: polished design, incredible cameras, and raw performance that should last years. The Galaxy S25 is more forward-looking, packed with AI features that try to anticipate your needs and help you do more with less effort.
Taylor Frankie Paul, the next Bachelorette for Season 22, had been arrested for domestic violence after she ran into a drunken argument with her ex-boyfriend, Dakota Mortensen, in February 2023. As per CBS News, her fight with Mortensen had resulted in the injury of Taylors then-5-year-old daughter, Indy.

Taylor Frankie Paul on her 2023 arrest During her latest appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast, the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star burst into tears as she discussed the infamous incident from 2023.

I never had hurt my daughter. I never intentionally did anything with my children, Taylor Frankie Paul said with tears in her eyes, as per People magazine. She added that she could never talk about the 2023 incident without a lump in her throat. It's just such a hard time in my life, the 31-year-old said.

I never really think about me in that situation. Obviously, it's my kids because they were involved, they were in the house, the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star added, as she meditated on her argument with Dakota Mortensen.

As per CBS News, Taylor had thrown a chair at Mortensen, which ended up hitting her daughter, Indy. At the time, she entered a plea deal to avoid jail time. Taylor Frankie Paul shares her son, Ever, with Mortensen. According to E! News, she and Mortensen broke up in May this year.

Taylor Frankie Paul says she has learned her lessons Speaking to host Alex Cooper on the Call Her Daddy podcast, Taylor Frankie Paul said she has grown as a person over time.

I did have a lot of time of grieving and loss that I don't want any more wasted time for my kids, Paul said, admitting that she was embarrassed by the arrest. But with that has come a lot of learning lessons, and I've become a better mom because of it, she added.

FAQs When will Season 22 of The Bachelorette air? Season 22 of The Bachelorette will air in 2026.

What was Taylor Frankie Paul arrested for in 2023? Taylor Frankie Paul was arrested for domestic violence in 2023.
Unknown Number: The High School Catfish is on top of Netflixs latest global movie rankings. The documentary has jumped from third place last week.

The film follows a teen and her boyfriend who receive disturbing texts from an unknown sender. Then, it reveals a shocking truth.

In the documentary, the culprit tries to justify the actions by saying, everyone makes mistakes. It also reveals the person had time to send countless texts because of being unemployed.

I was afraid of letting her grow up, wanted to protect her and keep her safe, says the culprit in the documentary.

In 2023, a judge sentenced the culprit to at least 19 months in prison.

Top-10 Netflix movies list for September 17 has KPop Demon Hunters at second place. The animated fantasy had 25.4 million views and 42.4 million hours. The Thursday Murder Club, featuring veteran Hollywood stars like Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan and Ben Kingsley, ranked third with 18.7 million views.

Also Read | Critics slam Meghan Markles Netflix show as ratings nosedive

The Woman King followed with 4 million views while family favourites dominated the middle order. Shrek (3.6m), Shrek the Third (3.3m) and Paw Patrol: The Movie (2.9m) followed.

Shrek 2 came eighth with 2.8 million views, and Wind River debuted ninth with 2.7 million views. Closing the list is the classic Good Will Hunting, also at 2.7 million.

Social media reactions Unknown Number: The High School Catfish has highly moved viewers. Social media users keep discussing it.

Just finished watching, and Im appalled. The language used in those messages was beyond disturbing as a mom with a (now grown) daughter, wrote one user on Reddit.

This documentary breaks my heart, wrote another user. I am beyond disgusted. I don't even know how to form my words right now. This is one of the most horrific things

I feel as if the mother was very jealous of her daughter and was low-key trying to get her to 'take herself out' very sad situation. I would never speak to my mother ever again, came from another.

Another user commented, While watching that documentary, there was something about her that really put me off. She had this disgusting grimace on her face the entire time. The kind of expression someone who got caught doing something very pathetic and shameful would have.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al Sudani chairs a meeting of the Ministerial Council for National Security on September 10, 2025. (Iraqi Prime Ministers Office)

Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Princeton researcher who holds Israeli and Russian citizenship, was freed in Iraq after being held for more than 900 days by an Iranian-backed militia. I am pleased to report that Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Princeton Student, whose sister is an American Citizen, was just released by Kataib Hezbollah, US President Donald Trump wrote on September 9. Trump added that Tsurkov was safely in the US Embassy in Baghdad after being tortured for many months and called on Hamas to release the 48 hostages it holds in Gaza.

Tsurkov was kidnapped in Baghdad in March 2023. In July 2023, the Israeli Prime Ministers Office confirmed that Elizabeth Tsurkov is an Israeli-Russian dual citizen who has been missing in Iraq for several months and is being held by the Shiite militia Kataib Hezbollah. Israel said that it held Iraq responsible for her well-being. She is an academic who visited Iraq on her Russian passport, at her own initiative, pursuant to work on her doctorate and academic research on behalf of Princeton University in the US, the offices statement noted.

Kataib Hezbollah and its leaders have been sanctioned by the US government as a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. The group is part of Iraqs Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), which is an official state paramilitary security force.

Efforts to free Tsurkov continued throughout 2024 and 2025 as Iraqs government claimed it was working to free her. Trump administration Special Envoy for Hostage Response Adam Boehler played a key role in these efforts throughout 2025. Elizabeth Tsurkovs sister, Emma, who campaigned to free her, wrote on September 9, We cannot wait to see Elizabeth and give her all the love we have been waiting to share for 903 days. We are so thankful to President Trump and his Special Envoy, Adam Boehler. She also thanked Josh Harris and his team at the US Embassy in Baghdad for the support they provided to our sister and the team at the nonprofit Global Reach, who advocated relentlessly for my sisters safe return.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al Sudani claimed that freeing Tsurkov was the culmination of significant efforts exerted by our security agencies over many months. Sudani said Tsurkov was a Russian citizen, not mentioning that she was also Israeli. We reaffirm once again that we will not be lenient in enforcing the law and upholding the authority of the state, and we will not allow anyone to tarnish the reputation of Iraq and Iraqis. He did not mention Kataib Hezbollah.

The Iraqi Prime Ministers Office also issued a statement asserting that in late March 2023, a group kidnapped Russian citizen Elizabeth Tsurkov while she was in Baghdad, in a crime that does not reflect the reality of the stable security situation in all Iraqi cities. It added that security agencies in Iraq had worked behind the scenes to secure Tsurkovs release and ensure the safety of the kidnapped Russian citizen. The statement references the work of several internal entities working together to locate and reach Tsurkov and subsequently hand her over to the United States Embassy, which will, in turn, facilitate her reunion with her sister, who holds American citizenship.

The Iraqi Prime Ministers Office says that security agencies will continue to pursue those involved in this crime and hold them accountable in accordance with the law without mentioning Kataib Hezbollah. The statement portrays the effort as linked to Iraqs reputation, security and stability. Iraqs Embassy in Washington also referenced the countrys reputation and sovereignty. Iraqi politician and cleric Ammar al Hakim commented on the release of Tsurkov on September 10, noting, We appreciate the release of the kidnapped Russian woman (Elizabeth Tsurkov), and we emphasize the necessity of protecting Iraq and sparing it from any action that might jeopardize its security and economic stability.

A source reputed to be from Kataib Hezbollah claimed to French Arabic language media that Tsurkov had been released and not freed by Iraqi authorities. Kataib Hezbollah linked the decision to let her go to the US withdrawal from Iraq. This claim by the Kataib Hezbollah source also appeared in the pro-Hezbollah Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper, which similarly portrayed Kataib Hezbollah as freeing Tsurkov as part of a decision that would spare Iraq conflict. There was no confirmation if her freedom was due to a deal, although Israels Maariv claimed a Lebanese naval officer was also released.

The release of Tsurkov has been praised in Washington and Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus office noted that in staff work directed by Coordinator for the Hostages and the Missing Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Gal Hirsch, which continued for many months, and following many efforts, we succeeded in bringing about her release. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio thanked Iraqs prime minister for his support in freeing Elizabeth. This is peace through strength in action. The US Embassy in Baghdad also thanked Iraqs prime minister. Congressman Abe Hamadeh, who had supported efforts to liberate Tsurkov, also highlighted her freedom.

Reporting from Israel, Seth J. Frantzman is an adjunct fellow at FDD and a contributor to FDDs Long War Journal. He is the senior Middle East correspondent and analyst at The Jerusalem Post, and author of The October 7 War: Israel's Battle for Security in Gaza (2024).
A 19-year-old from Maidenhead is making her TV debut in a Channel 5 miniseries starring pop star Peter Andre.

Chloe Stannage is a lead in the new cosy crime drama, The Sunshine Murders, which aired on TV every day this week and is now streaming.

The Redroofs and Furze Platt Junior alum has acted professionally in adverts and short films since she was seven years old, but this detective drama marks a crucial moment in her career so far.

She plays Thalia, the 14-year-old daughter of the no-nonsense Greek detective Helen Moustakas, who reunites with her half-sister Shirley, a vibrant farmer from New Zealand, and teams up to solve murders while trying to track down their missing father.

The show is set in Greece, featuring beautiful locations, drama and comedy, and Star Trek legend Marina Sirtis, as well as guest stars Stephanie Beacham and Nina Wadia.

The first day of filming was probably the most exciting because Id never had a big part before  this was my first big part in a series, so it was all really new and exciting, said Chloe.

They filmed in Cyprus between September and January, with additional filming taking place in London. The show is streaming on Channel 5, Paramount+ and UPtv in the USA.

Youre filming in these really nice locations  one of the scenes was right next to the beach during sunset, so it just looked amazing, Chloe said about the four-month filming process.

I got to learn about the cultures in Cyprus and work with the Cypriot crew.

My character is Greek, so filming in Cyprus helped me a lot, and I got to learn a lot more.

The youngster was given a first glimpse at the Everyman cinema in High Barnet, where the first two episodes were screened as a feature film.

The first episode then aired on Monday afternoon, with subsequent episodes on daytime TV every day this week.

My [family and friends] are really excited for me and supportive, and a lot of people have said how they like shows similar to this, so that's really cool, she said.

Chloe attended a launch event last week and reunited with her on-screen grandmother, Marina Sirtis, on-screen mum Dora Chrysikou, and on-screen aunt, showrunner Emily Corcoran, as well as scene partner Peter Andre, who plays a pathologist on the show.

It was really nice to see everyone again. They were so lovely throughout the filming process  really nice to me and always helped. They were fun to work alongside as actors, said Chloe.

I like the atmosphere on set because everyone enjoys doing a similar thing. Everyone loves films and filming, and everyone's like a family because everyone gets really close.

The Sylvia Young Theatre School graduate features in all episodes as her character dips in and out of family life storylines and gets involved in the mysteries.

On playing a 14-year-old teenager in the show, Chloe was shocked at her transformation as she didnt think [she] looked that young when cast.

When I got on set, hair and makeup are so talented, so when I got into costume, I was like Oh wow, theyve made me look even younger than 14. It really helped with my acting, she said.

Her previous acting experience includes a war drama shot as a feature film in Poland when she was ten years old, and she would love to carry on with what she has been doing.

I've always enjoyed performing in general with dancing, singing and acting, but acting has always been my favourite, and I've always enjoyed being on set, she said.

I don't know when I realised, I wanted to do it, but Ive always known I love film and TV.
Javier Corrales, Dwight W. Morrow 1895 Professor of Political Science and Department Chair of Political Science at Amherst College, presented his work on authoritarianism at a World Affairs Council of Western Massachusetts presentation on Wednesday. His work is published in Autocracy Rising: How Venezuela Transitioned to Authoritarianism. Sept. 10, 2025. (Douglas Hook / The Republican) Douglas Hook

SPRINGFIELD  Power grabs, removing bureaucratic safeguards, compliant courts, weaponization of social media, attacks on elites and the media.

All are hallmarks, said Amherst College political scientist Javier Corrales, of what was a stable and free democracy backsliding into authoritarianism.

What I want to do is go through those boxes and Ill let you decide whats happening in the United States on your own to see what kind of boxes we are checking off, said Corrales, Dwight W. Morrow 1895 Professor of Political Science and Department Chair of Political Science.

Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro speaks during a press conference in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Sept. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos) AP

He gave a lunchtime talk Wednesday for the World Affairs Council of Western Massachusetts rattling off a list of countries  Turkey, Hungary, Russia, Serbia, Brazil and Venezuela  where the virus of democratic backsliding has taken hold in the last 20 or so years.

Hes the author of "Autocracy Rising: How Venezuela Transitioned to Authoritarianism" a book from 2023 and one of the academics studying what he described as a virus of backsliding democracies.

Javier Corrales, Dwight W. Morrow 1895 Professor of Political Science and Department Chair of Political Science at Amherst College presented his work on authoritarianism at a World Affairs Council of Western Massachusetts presentation on Wednesday. His work is published in Autocracy Rising: How Venezuela Transitioned to Authoritarianism. Sept. 10, 2025. (Douglas Hook / The Republican) Douglas Hook

Venezuela has been in the news lately. U.S. forces carried out an military strike on a suspected drug-smuggling speedboat carrying 11 people from Venezuela earlier this month.

Corrales said Wednesday the strike is part of continuing effort to pressure Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro under the guise of fighting drug smugglers.

He explained how the late Hugo Chavezs populist appeal gave him control of the county. Maduro is Chavezs successor.

Corrales kept asking questions of the crowd of 20 or so who came to hear him speak as part of a regular monthly series. He gave no definitive answer about how President Donald Trumps current policies fit in with the virus of backsliding.

You also begin to not so much terrorize your enemies. Thats what the old dictatorships used to do, he said. But you harass them, you pressure them to the point where you make life very difficult for them before you arrest them.

Corrales said those in his field of study are losing confidence in American democracy.

But there are boxes that are not yet ticked. Including, he said, that in democracies that backslide the opposition pirates usually fracture. Americas rigid, two-party system might be a positive.

Elections never go away, he said.

There is one more round to watch: The upcoming 2026 midterm elections.
A Connecticut resident was playing on an IGT Whitney Houston slot machine at Mohegan Sun when they hit the grand progressive jackpot for $659,570.73. Mohegan Sun

A slot machine player hit the high note at a Connecticut casino on Saturday.

A Connecticut resident was playing on an IGT Whitney Houston slot machine at Mohegan Suns Casino of the Sky when they hit the grand progressive jackpot for $659,570.73.

The lucky guest was betting $50 per spin at the time the jackpot was won.

Mohegan Sun introduced four Whitney Houston slot machines in August 2024. The machines feature famous songs by the multi-platinum popstar such as I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me) and So Emotional.

Overall, there are about 4,000 slot machines, including 22 new ones, and more than 300 table games at the Connecticut casino. There are two areas, Casino of the Sky and Casino of the Earth, that offer slot machines.

Players must be 21 years or older.

If youre looking to play online casino games, while Massachusetts doesnt have any legal online casinos at the moment, you can sign up for sweepstakes casinos like Lucky Stake and play to redeem for cash prizes.

In July, a New Hampshire couple walked away with a six-figure jackpot prize after betting $20 at Mohegan Sun.

The couple, identified as Samantha L. and Thomas S., were playing the slot machine game Huff N Even More Puff by Light & Wonder in Mohegan Suns Casino of the Sky when they won the jackpot. The prize was worth $131,186.64.

And about a week before, one of the largest jackpots ever won at Mohegan Sun was hit.

While playing on a Spanish 21 table in Casino of the Earth on July 9, the player made an optional $5 Bonus Spin Xtreme side bet. The bet ended in Triple Diamonds, which landed them the $2,018,742.30 jackpot.

Not only is this the biggest jackpot win at Mohegan Sun in 2025, but it also ranks among the top five largest table game payouts ever at Mohegan Sun, a press release from the casino stated.

Earlier this month, Mohegan Sun began the best place in the country to play slots, according to USA Today.

Experts narrowed down the list from over 1,000 casinos across the country to the top 20. In the list, Mohegan Sun was included.

Then the public had a chance to vote on their favorite.

These 20 casinos, nominated by a panel of experts, stand out for their exceptional slot offerings. From classic reels and video slots to cutting-edge machines with progressive jackpots, these casinos expansive selections are sure to keep the excitement going. High payout rates, enticing bonuses like free spins, and vibrant, comfortable slots floors make each of these casinos a must-visit for anyone who loves to play, USA Today wrote.

Mohegan Sun also placed second for best casino hotel and second for best casino outside Las Vegas.

For those who need help with responsible gaming, call the helpline at 1-800-327-5050 or go to GameSenseMA.com or ccpg.org.
Pizzas coming out of the nearly 600 degree coal fired oven at Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana in New Haven, Connecticut on March 29, 2025. Pepe's, the original coal-fired pizzeria to pioneer the New Haven style, is celebrating its 100th anniversary. (Photo by Lauren Lancaster/For The Washington Post via Getty Images) The Washington Post via Getty Im

If youre familiar with New England pizza lore, youve probably heard of Frank Pepes Pizzeria Napoletana.

But did you know the iconic restaurant is bringing its pizza to The Big E for the first time ever  but only for a few days.

Frank Pepes will be setting up at the Connecticut Building at The Big E from Tuesday, Sept. 16, to Thursday, Sept. 18, to serve its famous New Haven-style pizza at the fair.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of Frank Pepes, which got its start in New Haven. In recent years, the restaurant has expanded and now has 17 locations across seven states. That includes three locations in Massachusetts: Chestnut Hill, Burlington and Watertown.

As its highway signs declare to those entering the state, Connecticut has declared itself as the Pizza Capital of the United States, thanks in large part to the impact of New Haven-style pizza.

Frank Pepes played a huge role in popularizing that style, known for its thin crust and for being cooked in high-temperature coal-fired ovens.

Other pizza-themed attractions at the Big Es Connecticut Building include Randys Wooster Street Pizza, info on the Connecticut Pizza Trail and a pizza throne created by artist Michael Pollack of the New Haven Pizza Club.
Actor Sir Ian McKellen returns to his seat in the Royal Box on Centre Court on day nine at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Tuesday, July 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth) AP

Ian McKellen had miss his own movie premiere at a recent film festival because of his health.

McKellen, 86, did not attend the Toronto International Film Festival premiere of his film The Christophers on Sunday, Sept. 7.

The movie, directed by Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh, follows a forger (Michaela Coel) who was hired by the children of a painter (McKellen) to finish some of his work so they can have a larger inheritance.

In a pre-taped introduction, the Oscar nominee said his medical advisers told him he shouldnt fly.

Better safe than sorry, McKellen said in the tape, according to Variety.

If you enjoy it, will you tell your friends? McKellen said. Thats partly what festivals are about, isnt it?

The Emmy winner also noted that the last time he was in Toronto was while shooting X-Men in 1999. The action film saw McKellen originate the role of Magneto, a part he will reprise in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, set for release in 2026.

McKellens absence comes more than a year after the Lord Of The Rings star was hospitalized after falling off stage while performing his play Player Kings in London.

McKellen was acting out a battle scene when he lost his footing onstage. He was brought to hospital and the play was canceled, the BBC reported at the time. McKellen later told Saga Magazine that he had chipped vertebrae and sustained a fractured wrist.

It was horrible, The Tony winner said while explaining how his foot got stuck in a chair and fell while trying to shake it off.

The more I tried to get rid of it, the faster I proceeded down a step, onto the forestage, and then on to the lap of someone in the front row, McKellen recalled. I was hoping to be able to rejoin the play on the tour, but I couldnt.

During her appearance at the festival, Coel said she loved working with McKellen on The Christophers and called him a hero.

Hes just the loveliest soul, Coel said, per Variety. He just had an upward spiritI loved the idea of a character like Ian McKellen and me coming together and like loving each other.
Este Haim, from left, Danielle Haim and Alana Haim of the band HAIM perform "The Steps" at the 63rd Grammy Awards at the Los Angeles Convention Center, Thursday, March 11, 2021. The awards show airs on March 14 with both live and prerecorded segments. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) Invision

One of the highlights of HAIMs recent trip to Boston was getting some bomb bagels at a popular spot.

Este, Danielle and Alana Haim gushed over the city in a recent interview with WERS 88.9FM. During their chat, the sisters were asked if they had a favorite spot to eat in the city.

We went to a really great bagel place, HAIM said before revealing it was Brick Street Bagels in the South End.

It was so good, the group added. Bomb bagels. Amazing bagels.

Jordan Renouf officially established Brick Street Bagels as a pop-up bagel business in 2023. After roughly two years of doing drops from his apartment, Brick Street bagels will open its first permanent storefront in South Boston later this year.

It feels really exciting, Renouf previously told MassLive. I feel really proud of all the work that myself and the people who work with me have done because weve all worked really, really hard.

The store will continue to offer Brick Streets signature fresh bagels and spreads, but also serve open-faced sandwiches, coffee and whatever else our whimsy leads us to, according to a February Instagram post from the business.

The address for Brick Street Bagels storefront is 371 W Broadway and the shop will tentatively be open 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. daily. An official opening day has yet to be announced.

Meanwhile, HAIM was in town as part of their I Quit tour. The band played at Suffolk Downs on Friday, Sept. 5. The tour is in support of HAIMs most recent album, I Quit, which was released in June.
A federal agent wears an ICE badge while standing outside an immigration courtroom at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in New York, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File) AP AP

Editors note: The story was updated at 10:35 a.m. Wednesday to add additional information regarding the charges.

The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday revealed ICE has arrested at least seven people since it ramped up immigration enforcement in Boston over the weekend, describing those arrested as the worst of the worst.

Those arrested were wanted on charges including rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking and assault, the agency said in a statement. The arrests came during what federal officials have dubbed Operation Patriot 2.0.

The first Operation Patriot led to the arrest of nearly 1,500 people across Massachusetts in May. But many of those arrested did not have a criminal record, according to The Boston Globe.

It was not immediately clear how many people beyond the seven listed by ICE have been detained.

ICE stated that the seven people were arrested in Boston, but has not provided specifics about where they were detained or where their charges originated.

The seven people did not have any charges filed in Boston as of Wednesday. ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to MassLives request for comment.

The statement released Tuesday takes aim at Boston Mayor Michelle Wu for Bostons sanctuary city policy.

Sanctuary policies like those pushed by Mayor Wu not only attract and harbor criminals but protect them at the peril of law-abiding American citizens, said Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.

Days prior to the start of the second immigration crackdown targeting Boston, the Justice Department filed suit against the city in federal court. The lawsuit targets the Boston Trust Act, which prohibits local law enforcement in the city from aiding ICE in civil immigration efforts.

Both Wu and Gov. Maura Healey have slammed the immigration crackdown, with Healey deeming it an act of political theater and Wu saying the ramped-up enforcement does not make the city safer.

The seven people arrested by ICE are:
The former West Boylston town administrator is suing the town and its police chief after he was fired over a controversy involving a Donald Trump flag displayed inside the police department headquarters.

In his lawsuit, James Ryan argues that the town, Select Board Chair Kristina Pedone, and its police chief, Dennis Minnich Sr., wrongfully retaliated against him for reporting on and objecting to the display of the flag.

Pedone and Minnich did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

Ryan, who was hired on Jan. 21, requested that Minnich take down a Trump flag that was hung in the police departments gym, saying that it was a civil rights violation.

Minnich previously told the select board that he complied with the request and took a picture to prove to him that the flag had been removed.

On Feb. 3, Minnich received another call from Ryan, telling the chief he had photos showing that the flag had not been removed and that there was another Trump flag in the mens room.

When he went to the gym, Minnich said he had found another Trump flag in the same spot as the previous one.

In a three-page memo sent to the select board on Feb. 4, Minnich wrote that he asked Ryan who had taken the photos of the two flags, but Ryan refused to tell him, saying he was worried about retaliation.

After receiving another call from the town administrator, Minnich received a call from the towns facilities director, according to the memo. Minnich wrote that the director apologized to him and that Ryan had instructed him to enter the police station to take photos of locked and no-access-to-the-public areas without Minnich knowing.

During a meeting between Ryan and the select board on Feb. 24, Ryan admitted to asking the facilities director to see if the flag was still hanging.

The relationship between Ryan and Minnich was broken beyond repair, with the police chief previously telling MassLive that he would not report to the town administrator when he returned from a vacation in February.

The select board voted 4-1 during the Feb. 24 meeting to terminate Ryan. Minnich was not present at the meeting.

The defendants, individually and collectively, have attempted to interfere with and did interfere with the exercise of plaintiffs rights by silencing plaintiff for speaking out, and for his objecting to the defendants illegal and unethical conduct, the lawsuit reads.

Ryan is seeking damages worth $1.3 million, which includes $125,000 in lost wages and $950,000 in anticipated lost wages, according to the lawsuit.
Matthew Farley went in front of the parole board on April 9, 2025. Parole Board

After nearly 44 years and seven parole board hearings starting in 1996, a Massachusetts nurses family continues waiting for her killer to take accountability  reliving the pain in hopes to hear remorse.

... they wanted to hear remorse from you. They wanted to hear an acknowledgement that you did something wrong. They had been to six hearings, and they really wanted to hear that, one of the parole board members told Matthew Farley during a hearing on April 9. Yes, a lot has been wrong for you. There is no question about that, but you have also had some behaviors which have caused people pain.

But once again, Farley gave them nothing  and on Monday, the parole board denied his request for release, citing his high risk to reoffend, more than 50 disciplinary reports and his defiance when urged to accept responsibility and participate in rehabilitation.

Never gonna happen, he told the parole board in April when asked if he can make the changes the parole board is asking for.

Still, the board set his next review for two years, not five, in the hope that he might return with a rehabilitation plan and legal counsel.

March 14, 1981

Deborah Smith was in her apartment taking a nap around 1 p.m. on March 14, 1981 when Farley and Weldon Burden broke into her apartment.

Farley claims that Burden chased the nurse into the bathroom, where he grabbed her by the hair, hit her, demanded money, ripped off her jeans with a knife and then proceeded to rape and stab her, according to a 2014 parole board decision.

Meanwhile, Farley states he stole jewelry, a camera, a stereo and other valuables. They then both fled the apartment.

Farley said he later returned to their apartment, where Burden met him at the door, stating I killed the [expletive].

Help me, help me  Ive been raped, Deborah Smith said as she was found moaning after calling 911, UPI reported.

The Beth Israel Hospital nurse later died due to a stab wound cut through her liver and aorta, causing a massive hemorrhage.

The men said they chose the apartment because they didnt think anyone was home. When they discovered Smith, Farley said he told Burden to place her in the closet.

But he didnt know Burden was raping her, Farley claimed during a parole board hearing April 9.

I was gone, Farley said, adding that he was on the other side of the street by the time that happened.

But Burden said something similar during his own trial, blaming Farley for the rape. Either way, the family claims the apartment was too small to not know that someone was being raped and killed, according to the parole board.

In 1981, Farley pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Suffolk Superior Court. He also pleaded guilty to armed robbery, armed assault in a dwelling, and breaking and entering in the daytime.

Nearly 44 years later, Farley, currently in MCI-Shirley, isnt changing what he said happened that night.

I used to steal for a living. Thats what I did for a living, and thats what I did that day, Farley told the parole board. I was not murdering anyone. I was not raping anyone. Ive never done that. Its never crossed my mind.

Farley was first up for parole in 1996. This year was his seventh parole board hearing.

Difficult childhood

Farley has had to endure things that no child should have to endure, and those things have had a significant impact on you, the parole board said during the April 9 hearing.

Farley is one of 13 children. He first began stealing around the age of 9 and was seriously injured around this age after crashing a stolen car. His criminal record begins at the age of 11.

Farley dropped out of school in the seventh grade. He was sent to a reform school or juvenile facility known as the Hayden School for Boys, which is where he met Burden.

By the time he was arrested for this murder at 18, he had had 23 juvenile arraignments and 32 adult arraignments. He had been found guilty of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in 1979.

He was sent to Souza Baranowski Correctional Center, a maximum security facility in Massachusetts, at age 18, which added to his trauma, the parole board stated.

Your prison time has been incredibly difficult, the parole board stated. You came into prison at the age of 18 in one of the most violent prisons in the country at that time, with arguably the most dangerous offense in terms of the prison culture, the hierarchy, victimization, vulnerabilities.

Hes received 267 disciplinary reports, and 54 of them are since his last hearing. Hes currently in segregation for his mental health and continues to have issues with the synthetic marijuana called K2.

However, he stopped getting mental health treatment due to claims of abuse.

Now, hes asking for parole again because he feels that the sentence he received is disproportionate to the harm that he caused, agreeing that it makes him angry.

But the parole board hopes he can continue working on himself, focusing on what he can control and tackling deep issues.

We need you to move from focusing all of your energy on fighting whats been happening and whats old, and focus that energy on building anew, doing what you can thats in your control, the board stated.

The board compared his brain to having the survival mode of a soldier who has PTSD.

I think that you have been conditioned, over the course of your life, to respond very quickly. Its survival mode, the board said. You go from zero to 60 without thinking. You dont pause.

The board admitted prison isnt the ideal place for healing, which is why Farley is asking for parole to go to a treatment program.

But the board doesnt feel a treatment program will be beneficial until he has taken further steps in his mental health treatment and isnt abusing drugs.

The emotion youre experiencing is valid. The rage, the anger, the frustration, that emotion is valid, one parole board member stated. Your response to the emotion is what is causing the problem. So, we need you to be able to recognize the emotion and then think about a different response to get your needs met.

In a unanimous decision, the board decided Farley is still in need of further rehabilitation and his release is not compatible with the welfare of society.

The board still feels hopeful Farley can make the necessary changes to turn his life around, even if that takes a few more years.

I dont want you to continue to allow this system to imprison you. I want you to take ownership over your own life, and Im going to leave you with some hope, a parole board member said. You came into this prison system unable to read or write, and you got your GED. You can do hard things, sir.
A 17-year-old boy was stabbed in the hallway of a Boston high school on Wednesday, according to police.

Officers responded to Madison Park Technical Vocational High School in Roxbury for a report of a stabbing shortly before 12:10 p.m., Boston police said in a statement. At the school, officers found a 17-year-old boy with one minor stab wound. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

Preliminary information about the stabbing indicates that the incident occurred in a common hallway inside the high school, police said. The suspect fled the school following the stabbing, and no arrests had been made as of 1 p.m. Wednesday.

Police are actively investigating the stabbing. No further information has been released.
The headquarters of the U.S. Department of Education, March 12, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File) AP

** This article has been updated to clarify HBCUs in the MSI designation.

The U.S. Department of Education is ending $350 million of discretionary funding to several grant programs at minority-serving institutions across the country, claiming that they are discriminatory, according to a Wednesday announcement.

Minority-serving institutions are colleges and universities that enroll a high percentage of minority students and thus receive federal funding, such as Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI).

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), are also grouped under the term but dont have percentage requirements because they were established in 1964, when Black students were often barred from other institutions. The walking back of grant programming doesnt impact HBCUs, a U.S. Department of Education spokesperson confirmed.

Discrimination based upon race or ethnicity has no place in the United States. To further our commitment to ending discrimination in all forms across federally supported programs, the Department will no longer award Minority-Serving Institution grants that discriminate by restricting eligibility to institutions that meet government-mandated racial quotas, U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement. Diversity is not merely the presence of a skin color. Stereotyping an individual based on immutable characteristics diminishes the full picture of that persons life and contributions, including their character, resiliency, and merit. The Department looks forward to working with Congress to reenvision these programs to support institutions that serve underprepared or under-resourced students without relying on race quotas and will continue fighting to ensure that students are judged as individuals, not prejudged by their membership of a racial group.

The $350 million of funding will instead be reprogrammed into programs that do not include discriminatory racial and ethnic quotas and that advance Administration priorities, the federal government said.

The announcement came following a federal lawsuit seeking to dismantle the HSI designation.

Colleges and universities become an HSI when at least 25% of full-time equivalent undergraduate students self-identify as Hispanic, among other criteria, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

The state of Tennessee and the group Students for Fair Admissions sued the U.S. Department of Education in June.

The U.S. Department of Justice responded by stating that it will not defend a decades-old grant program against the lawsuit, believing it is unconstitutional.

The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, which lobbied Congress in the early 1990s to recognize HSIs, intervened in the case in late July to defend the program.

Nine Massachusetts presidents called out the potential attack on HSIs, stating that the elimination of funding will have a significant impact here in the Commonwealth.
Charlie Kirk speaks during a town hall meeting on March 17, 2025, in Oconomowoc, Wis. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps, File) AP

Update: See photos of the scene at the Utah university where Charlie Kirk was shot

Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was shot Wednesday at an event at a Utah college, Turning Point said.

Kirks condition was not immediately known.

We are confirming that he was shot and we are praying for Charlie, said Aubrey Laitsch, public relations manager for Turning Point USA.

Kirk was attending an event at Utah Valley University.

Videos posted to social media appeared to show Kirk being struck while speaking.

The shooting comes amid a spike in political violence in the United States across all parts of the ideological spectrum.

The attacks include the assassination of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband at their house in June, the firebombing of a Colorado parade to demand Hamas release hostages, and a fire set at the house of Pennsylvanias governor, who is Jewish, in April. The most notorious of these events is the shooting of President Donald Trump during a campaign rally last year.

Reactions to the incident poured in from politicians on both sides of the aisle.

Vice President JD Vance called for prayers for Kirk, whom he labeled a genuinely good guy and a young father.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, called the incident disgusting, vile, and reprehensible.

In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form, Newsom wrote on X.
Trump administration Border Czar Tom Homan went on offense Tuesday, accusing Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey of falsely claiming that immigration agents were targeting worshippers at a Sunday service.

"Shame on Gov. Healey and Mayor Wu, Homan said outside the White House on Tuesday, according to The Boston Herald. Shame on both of them. They should be calling the White House, thanking Trump, thanking ICE for making the community safer. Instead, they go on TV and lie about ICE and make these accusations.

During an appearance on MSNBCs Morning Joe program earlier in the day, the Democratic governor said ICE agents were targeting worshippers during a Spanish-language mass at Saint Ignatius of Loyola Parish in Chestnut Hill.

Why the hell are they there? Healey said. Theyre there to intimidate, right? Theyre there to sow fear, she said. Theyre there to scare people. In the same way the Trump administration is about scaring corporations and universities and law firms.

Spokespeople for the Archdiocese of Boston and Boston College, where the church is located, told The Herald that an ICE van was spotted on Saturday.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Homan asserted that the federal agents are clear to target people in the country illegally at churches, schools and courthouses, according to The Herald.

Homan said ICE, which launched a promised surge of immigration raids in Boston over the weekend, is not conducting operations at Boston-area churches, the newspaper reported.

He dismissed Healeys claims as bold-faced lie, The Herald reported.

The effort, dubbed Operation Patriot 2.0, is a continuation of Mays Operation Patriot. In June, ICE announced it had arrested almost 1,500 people across Massachusetts who were in the country illegally during the monthlong effort.

An unnamed senior spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement to MassLive on Sunday afternoon.

Sanctuary policies like those pushed by [Boston] Mayor [Michelle] Wu not only attract and harbor criminals but also place these public safety threats above the interests of law-abiding American citizens. ICE is arresting sex offenders, pedophiles, murderers, drug dealers and gang members released by local authorities, the statement read.

Wu released a statement to MassLive Sunday afternoon, responding to the recent surge: As ordered in the Boston Trust Act, no Boston police or local resources will be co-opted into federal immigration enforcement and their mass deportation agenda, the Democratic mayor said.

For months, ICE has refused to provide any information about their activities in Boston and refuses to issue warrants, while we hear reports of ICE agents taking parents as they are dropping their kids off at school, Wu continued. That does not make our community safer. We expect that federal law enforcement will abide by the constitution and laws of this city, commonwealth and country, and we are prepared to take legal action at any evidence to the contrary.

Homan defended the administrations immigration hardline, saying ICE agents are targeting the worst of the worst and making this country safe again.
SPRINGFIELD  A pedestrian suffered minor injuries after being struck by an unmarked police cruiser Wednesday morning.

The cruiser, driven by a male officer, first collided with another car when its driver allegedly failed to come to a complete stop at Frost and Spring streets. The impact then pushed the cruiser into a man who was standing on the sidewalk, said Ryan Walsh, police spokesman.

The pedestrian, the officer and the second driver were all brought to local hospitals to be evaluated after the 9 a.m. crash. None received serious injuries, he said.

The man who was driving the car that collided with the cruiser was cited for failure to stop, Walsh said.
SOUTHWICK  A lieutenant in the towns Fire Department appeared before the Select Board Monday to request scheduling a Special Town Meeting to ask residents to allow the town to increase the amount it pays for each employees health insurance, which is currently 50%.

As of right now, the town and employees share a 50/50 contribution of health insurance, which is the state minimum. The employees of our town would like the opportunity to negotiate this coverage to make it a more desirable place of employment for both new and existing employees, said Fire Lt. Brian Schneider at the meeting.

He added that it was no secret the town has lost a few employees over the last year, in part, because of the unaffordable health insurance premium.

To stress the importance of the issue, Schneider presented a petition that was signed by 69 town employees requesting the board call a Special Town Meeting.

There isnt a darn thing you said that anyone at this table disagrees with, Select Board member Diane Gale said.

We have certainly recognized the issues with insurance as [its cost] has been growing more and more out of control, she added.

It was obvious at the meeting that the board and Chief Administrative Officer Nicole Parker were not caught off guard by the request.

Parker said the Select Board has already identified rising health insurance costs for town employees as an issue that needs addressing.

To make the point, she said the town is actively looking at other insurers with Assistant CAO Nadine Cignoni actively working with other health insurance agents. Cignoni said later in the meeting she has information ready for three different insurance brokers, but the brokers want to know the towns risk profile that includes a history of claims filed.

So, were looking at what we can do, but the 50% contribution will always be an issue, Parker said.

But, she said, the town needs to be strategic when making the proposal to residents and present the facts.

Nobody needs to convince us of this, but I think we need to convince the town because its been to one town meeting where it failed, Parker said.

She, like Gale and her fellow Select Board members Douglas Moglin and Russ Anderson, said there needs to be a plan for the proposal.

Moglin said, about the proposal failing at an earlier Town Meeting, that the article didnt fail by much, but there wasnt a compelling argument of; how are you going to do this and how are you going to pay for this?

You have to put together an insurance plan so that you can then plug it into your budget and fund it at the new rate, whatever those rates are. And then youve got to put it into a successor agreement with any [union] bargaining unit that you need to put that in, Moglin said, adding that it would make a more compelling case.

Parker said Southwick is not the only town struggling with health insurance costs.

One town not far from us, across the river, is going to lose half of their fire department if they dont pass an override because their health insurance went up $3 million in two years, she said.

Then just how much it might cost the towns taxpayers was discussed.

Where are you getting the money? Ill have to work with the accountant and really crunch the numbers on our budget to make sure that its affordable, Parker said.

Gale offered another facet of the proposal.

Where I want to start is to determine if we kept the [current plan], what could we squeeze out? And what percentage could we contribute? We dont want to contribute 2%, we want to contribute something substantial, she said.

As the discussion wound down, Gale said the town would help Schneider put together a proposal while also relying on her experience in the business world.

Some of my background is structuring health insurance plans for employees, so I can certainly help  and speed things up, Gale said.

And she said that the board was not closing the door on Schneiders request.

We just have to get that information for you, she said.
Worcester City Hall as seen from the top of Worcester Plaza. Adam Bass

The Worcester City Council went against the recommendations of its city manager and fire chief by opting out of a state law requiring automatic sprinklers in new or significantly renovated residential buildings with four or more units.

On Tuesday, the public safety committee made a recommendation to lay aside a communication from City Manager Eric D. Batista recommending the adoption of the law.

The council voted 6-4 in favor of the subcommittees recommendation, choosing not to opt into the law.

Voting against adopting the law were Mayor Joseph Petty, Councilors-at-Large Kathleen Toomey, Morris Bergman and Donna Colorio, District 2 Councilor Candy Mero-Carlson and District 3 Councilor George Russell.

The councilors voted to lay aside the recommendation because they believed the sprinkler law was redundant due to changes to Worcesters building codes.

The codes meet and exceed the standards, said Toomey, who chairs the Public Safety Committee. Things have changed here in Worcester, and we now have rules and regulations between the Fire Department and inspectional services that far supersede what this legislation would have.

Voting against the recommendation to kill the adoption of the law were City Council Vice Chair and Councilor-at-Large King, District 1 Councilor Jenny Pacillo, District 4 Councilor Luis Ojeda and District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj.

The vote leaves many residents without an additional safeguard, particularly those in older four-unit-plus buildings, without the additional layer of protection that sprinklers provide in preventing injury, loss of life, and property damage, King wrote.

Haxhiaj was the one who put forth the order to opt into the state law in December 2024. Haxhiajs district saw two fires take place at the Washington Heights apartment complex near Mill Street in about six months.

The first fire took place in June 2024, which resulted in the displacement of more than 30 people and a total loss of 36 units.

The second fire happened last month, resulting in the displacement of 28 people and a total loss of 24 apartment units, according to reporting from the Telegram and Gazette.

The law hasnt changed, the need hasnt changed, Haxhiaj said. All I am asking is for Worcester to take this step to better protect our residents and our firefighters.

Fire Chief Martin Dyer attended the meeting on Tuesday and told the council that he supports the measure. As a fire chief I always support installation of sprinklers wherever possible, he said.

Batista also supported opting into the law in a letter sent to the council in February.

Automatic fire sprinkler systems have been instrumental in reducing fire fatalities and injuries in Worcester, Batista wrote to the council.By containing fires in their early stages, these systems also reduce property damage, which helps prevent tenant displacementan important factor in maintaining stable housing stock."

Most residential fires can be quickly contained or extinguished by a single sprinkler head, which puts out about 12 to 15 gallons of water per minute, according to the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services. An uncontrolled fire in the same environment can double in size every 30 seconds, requiring firefighters to use hundreds or thousands of gallons of water to extinguish it, according to the department.

Nevertheless, the council chose not to move forward on updating the law.

King, who is also running for mayor this year, expressed disappointment with the vote on Facebook on Wednesday morning.

The vote leaves many residents with out an additional safe guard. Particularly, those in older 4 unit plus buildings-without the additional layer of protection that sprinklers provide in preventing injury, loss of life, and property damage, King wrote. As a community, we must continue to advocate for policies that put safety first and ensure that all Worcester families can feel secure in their homes.
Gov. Maura Healey is looking to use state funding to help research and development in Massachusetts.

The governor visited the UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester on Wednesday to tout her Discovery, Research and Innovation for a Vibrant Economy (DRIVE) initiative. The initiative involves legislation that, if passed, would allocate $400 million for research and development funding in the state.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Healey emphasized that the Legislature must move quickly on this bill to send it to her desk, calling it a top priority.

Healey put forward the legislation as a solution to help fund programs that receive funding from the National Institute of Health and the National Science Foundation. Massachusetts has lost $2.6 billion in grants that were canceled by both the NIH and the NSF, according to GBH News.

The legislation was filed in July, according to one of Healeys aides.

This is something that we need to do, Healey said. Time is of the essence.

The funds will be used to support programs and research at institutions such as UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, including research into Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-Cell Therapy. CAR T-Cell therapy is a form of immunotherapy that uses a patients own modified T cells to fight cancer.

Jonathan Tomashefsky, a 25-year-old studying at Worcester State University, spoke at Wednesdays event. Tomashefsky received CAR T-Cell therapy for his Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. From 2016 to 2022, Tomashefsky received treatment and his Leukemia is now in remission.

When he first found out about his diagnosis, it was scary for Tomashefsky. Through the treatment he received at UMass Memorial Medical Center, he has been able to move forward in his life and is now seeking a degree in communications.

I dont know what my life would have looked like without CAR T and my care team, Tomashefsky said, smiling. But thankfully, I dont have to.
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Mayo author Kevin Morans book, The Doomsday Club is featured in this years Childrens Books Ireland reading guide, titled The Best Irish Books of 2025. The guide is set to launch on September 15, and showcases Irish and Irish-based artists across fiction, non fiction, graphic novels, verse as well as other categories.

The Doomsday Club is Castlebar man Kevin Morans debut childrens novel.

Speaking on the launch of the new reading guide, Elaina Ryan, Childrens Books Ireland CEO says that the guide should help to inspire a love of reading in children and young people. She added that: From debuts to our Laureates na nOg, The Best Irish Books of 2025 celebrates the wealth of talent on the island of Ireland. As well as the 100 featured books, an additional 100 are also recommended to inspire further reading.

The Childrens Books Ireland CEO also expressed her delight for the inclusion of a Mayo author as well as those who recently made Ireland their home: Were so proud to include a Mayo artist in this reading guide. We believe its essential to champion the hard-working authors and illustrators from across the island, as well as those who have made their home here, creating art for children and young people and enriching our proud literary culture.

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This years reading guide is a celebration of Irish authors and illustrators, published in 2025. With titles from well-known artists including, Alan Nolan, Leon Diop and Sadhbh Rosenstock.

Illustration work is too recognised, like Linda Fahrlins commissioned cover image.

Speaking of her recent work The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Irish Lighthouses which was shortlisted for the KPMG Childrens Books Ireland Awards 2025 Linda Fahrlin said: This cover is inspired by the sea. I was thinking that Childrens Books Ireland has collected a diverse treasure trove of the best titles for children and young people to enjoy, so of course, each animal or character has their own favourite book too! As a Champion of Reading I have seen the importance of presenting children with a wide range of books to choose from, as they are more motivated to read titles reflecting their own passions and interests.

The Best Irish Books of 2025 reading guide is available in participating bookshops and libraries nationwide, with digital copies available for free download from www.childrensbooksireland.ie.
Mayo native and Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht, Dara Calleary TD, and Minister of State with responsibility for Community Development and Charities, Jerry Buttimer, TD, will this afternoon meet with GAA President Jarlath Burns; Director General Tom Ryan and other senior GAA representatives to discuss issues of importance for rural Ireland as part of the Our Rural Future consultation process.

Our Rural Future is the whole-of-Government framework for the sustainable development of rural Ireland. The Programme for Government commits to development of a new Our Rural Future policy for the period from 2026. A widespread consultation process has been underway throughout 2025.

As the countrys largest sporting and voluntary organisation, the GAA is an essential component of the social and cultural fabric of many towns, villages and parishes across the country. GAA Clubs act as focal points for culture and identity, for volunteering and inclusion, and for community activity across generations.

Ministers Calleary and Buttimer extended the invitation to the GAAs National Demographics Committee to outline to them the issues facing clubs in rural Ireland and afford the opportunity to hear about the importance of initiatives which support the continued sustainability of rural communities.

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Speaking ahead of the meeting, Minister Calleary said: The GAA is deeply woven into the everyday life of rural Ireland. More than any other organisation, the GAA have a footprint in every parish in Ireland and know, more than most, what is needed to keep the heart beating in the community.

GAA clubs provide a space where people come together, not only to play sport, but to volunteer, to catch up with neighbours, to socialise and, in times of need, to support one another. That is why the GAAs perspective is so important to the next iteration of Our Rural Future.

Minister Buttimer added: Todays meeting shows the breadth of the GAAs contribution to rural life, from health and wellbeing to sustainability and community inclusion. As we consult widely on the future of rural policy, we look forward to the continued input of the GAA.

GAA President Jarlath Burns said: "As a people-based games and cultural organisation, we must continue to be informed by demographic trends both rural and urban which impact on the future of the GAA across Ireland. Our National Demographics Committee have undertaken extremely important work which will inform how we can address these challenges and opportunities as we continue to attempt to cater for as many people as possible wherever they live across the island.

The GAA alone cannot solve the demographic challenges facing our clubs. With this in mind, we will continue to engage with the Government on our shared goal of supporting rural Ireland to thrive whilst helping us to create sufficient additional facilities to provide playing opportunities for those in urban centres.

"We welcome the opportunity to engage with Ministers Calleary and Buttimer and wish them well with the development of the next Our Rural Future policy, which has the potential to have a positive impact on the lives of so many."

The Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht will shortly be opening a period of public consultation on the new Our Rural Future policy. The consultation will take place via Gov.ie and will invite written submissions on the challenges and opportunities facing rural Ireland from interested organisations, stakeholder groups and members of the public.

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One Mayo farmer has scooped a national prize at the FBD Young Farmer of the Year Awards.

Held at the Kilashee Hotel in Naas last night, Westport native David Heraty secured the Land Mobility Award.

This year marked the 27th anniversary of the FBD Young Farmer of the Year Awards, which were held at the Killashee Hotel in Naas, Co Kildare. Aileen Sheehan, the 2025 winner of the award was present at the awards ceremony and addressed the crowd. She spoke of the importance of women being visible in the Agriculture Sector: "Behind every good man is a great woman, and thats true, but we shouldnt be behind. Its time for women in the agriculture sector to step forward."

The aim of the competition is to recognise and reward the top young farmers in the country. Entrants are judged according to a number of criteria, including farm business initiative and innovation, levels of farm efficiency and enterprise quality, farm safety and environmental protection awareness, and agricultural knowledge. The judges commended the high calibre of contestants this year, and congratulated all who participated at every level of the competition.

Westport farmer David Heraty was one of six finalists up for the main award which saw Aileen Sheehan from Cork scoop glory.

Josephine O'Neill, Macra National President said, "History is made as we announce the first female winner of the FBD Young Farmer of the Year awards. On behalf of Macra, Id like to congratulate Aileen Sheehan on her outstanding achievement. Throughout the competition, she has demonstrated her passion for and dedication to agriculture, the environment and her local community. Aileen is following in the footsteps of many trailblazers in agriculture and will no doubt represent with the title with pride and integrity. Congratulations also to all finalists on representing themselves so well."

READ MORE: There is always tomorrow - Mayo councillors make mental health appeal
Well-known economist David McWilliams has issued a public warning about a scam using his likeness to defraud people across the country.

McWilliams told RTE's Liveline he has been made aware of 15,000 taken from a senior on a small pension through the scam.

The people who are behind it are criminal, theyre clever, and they will take your money and you will never see it again.

The scam - which McWilliams says is facilitated by social media platforms - shows false AI videos and photos of McWilliams advertising crypto, bitcoin and / or an investment opportunity.

Read More: Elon Musk bizarrely slates Simon Harris in tweet backing Conor McGregor for President

These false videos depict McWilliams being escorted out of the Tommy Tiernan show, being beaten up or in hospital, as financial elites are supposedly covering-up the crypto information that the likeness has to share.

The videos and photos are sometimes accompanied by false Irish Independent or Irish Times newspaper branding.

The economist said: I want to warn anybody else who may find themselves in this awful situation.

He detailed that it is often older, more vulnerable people who are taken in by these scams and that Younger people in general are much more aware of deep fakes, AI, and scams.

A statement from Meta - which own Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp - in response to the McWilliams fraud being circulated on their platforms read: scammers are relentless and continuously evolving to evade detection.

The company added: It is against our policy to impersonate public figures and we will remove these accounts as we become aware of them.

Mary, a woman in her 50s, phoned the show and disclosed that when she gave the scammers her phone number, they called her 31 times over six weeks, and became annoyed with her for refusing to give her credit card details.

McWilliams said: These are dangerous, dangerous criminals. They will harass you. They will come after you. They will use your details in whichever possible way they can to try and extort money out of you.

With the advent of deepfakes and plausible AI video and photographs, he believes that we are moving into the "greatest era of fraud there has ever been.
Gardai investigating a violent incident at a public park in Roscommon over the summer have arrested four people, including two juveniles.

The arrests were made this Tuesday after two homes were searched in County Longford.

Confirming the arrests, gardai said the searches were part of the ongoing investigation into a violent disorder incident which took place on July 27, 2025 in Loughnaneane Park, on the outskirts of Roscommon Town.

A spokesperson said that the four people arrested include "a male in his 30s, a female in her 20s and two juveniles."

All four individuals are being detained under section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984 at stations in the Garda North Western Region.

READ MORE: 'Here we go again' - Irish electricity customers facing new price hikes of over 200 per year

Gardai are appealing for anyone who may have witnessed the incident in question to come forward, including anyone with camera footage from the Loughnaneane Park area on July 27, 2025.

Anyone with any information surrounding the incident is being asked to contact Roscommon garda station on 090 6638 300, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any garda station.

Gardai have not publicly disclosed any further information about the incident as their investigations are ongoing.
Irish customers have been warned to stop using Mitchum deodorant immediately after multiple reports and complaints have been by customers who have experienced chemical burns and scarring after using the popular product.

Mitchum, founded in 1959 in Tennessee in the United States, is a popular brand among Irish customers with thousands of their products sold every year from retailers like Boots and Tesco.

READ NEXT: 'Here we go again' - Irish electricity customers facing new price hikes of over 200 per year

A spokesperson for the company has said that while the "formula hasn't changed, a change in the manufacturing process of one of our raw materials has altered how the product interacts with the skin in some consumers. That change didn't meet our standards our yours"

The company has posted an apology on their Instagram page along with a photo of the affected products.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mitchum Deodorant - UK & IRE (@mitchumuk)

Hundreds of comments flooded in after the apology was posted with many customers frustrated and angry over the harm the products have caused.

One user replied, "Finally youve made a statement about it. This doesnt take away from the fact that Ive literally been left with scarring. Im sure many others have too. Temporary irritation is an absolute joke, irritation is not the word. Try burns, blisters, scabs, now scars. Ill never buy another Mitchum product again."

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Another said, "So this explains why my breastfed baby has been getting sores on his face! I've been using deodorant with one of these batch codes!!"

Mitchum has said that it has reverted to its "original process to make sure current and future batches meet the high standards you expect from us," adding the issue was "limited to a small number of batches", something that many customers have refutes in the comments.

The company also said it is "actively working to remove these batches from shelves".

If you have been affected by Mitchum products you can contact their Customer Care team on www.mitchum.co.uk/contact-us.php
Ibuprofen and paracetamol boost antibiotic resistance in E. colieven more so when taken together with ciprofloxacinprompting concern over painkiller use alongside antibiotics, especially in elder care.

Highlights: Ibuprofen boosts genetic mutations in E. coli, leading to drug resistance

Paracetamol further amplifies resistance, especially when combined with antibiotics

Raises concern about multi-drug use in aged care settings

  Trusted Source

The effect of commonly used non-antibiotic medications on antimicrobial resistance development in Escherichia coli



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TOP INSIGHT Did You Know?

Ibuprofen and paracetamol arent harmlessthey can fuel antibiotic resistance when used with antibiotics. A wake-up call for safe drug combinations! #AntibioticResistance #Polypharmacy #Medindia

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Painkillers Fuel ResistanceHeres How

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Why This Matters, Especially in Aged Care

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A Call for Smarter Medication Choices

Whats Next: Deeper Research into Drug Interactions

The effect of commonly used non-antibiotic medications on antimicrobial resistance development in Escherichia coli- (https://www.nature.com/articles/s44259-025-00144-w)

Ibuprofen (Advil) and paracetamol (acetaminophen/Tylenol) are staple painkillers used worldwide. Yet, new evidence from the University of South Australia indicates these medications may unintentionally contribute to the mounting global crisis of antibiotic resistance . This could be especially dangerous in environments like aged care, where patients often take multiple medicines ().In the first study of its kind, researchers exposedbacteria to the antibiotic ciprofloxacinand then added ibuprofen and paracetamol, one at a time and together. The result? The bacteria developed far more mutations and resistancenot just to ciprofloxacin, but to multiple antibiotics from different classes. They found that these painkillers activate bacterial defense mechanisms allowing the cells to eject antibiotics more efficiently.The World Health Organization estimates that antimicrobial resistance caused 1.27 million deaths in 2019 alone. People in aged carea group frequently prescribed both antibiotics and OTC painkillersare particularly vulnerable. Here, the combination of standard drugs may be accelerating drug resistance in ways previously overlooked.Associate Professor Rietie Venter, lead researcher, cautions that this doesnt mean stopping the use of ibuprofen or paracetamol but emphasizes the importance of careful evaluation when they're used alongside antibiotics. The study sparks new questions about how polypharmacy (multiple drug use) may be contributing to resistanceeven when the medications in question arent antibiotics.The authors urge more studies to examine how common non-antibiotic medications affect antibiotic efficacyespecially across different populations and long-term prescriptions. The goal is to better understand drug interactions that may inadvertently hinder infection treatment.Source-Medindia
Safe abortion is health care and a human right, vital for freedom, equity, and protecting womens lives.

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"Access to abortion is a human rights issue" says UN SR on Right To Health



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TOP INSIGHT Did you know?

Safe Abortion Day, observed on 28 September, was first marked in 1990 in Latin America to demand legal and safe abortion services. #abortion #womenrights #medindia

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Safe Abortion Saves Lives

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Access to Safe Abortion Is Part of the Right to Health

Respect: Remove legal and practical barriers like restrictive abortion laws.

Remove legal and practical barriers like restrictive abortion laws. Protect: Guard individuals from discrimination and violence.

Guard individuals from discrimination and violence. Fulfill: Ensure full access to quality health services, including reproductive care.

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Denying Safe Abortion Is a Violation of Womens Rights

Lessons from History

Legal Reforms and Progress

Implementing the national sexual and reproductive health services would take years of advocacy.

Laws may face hurdles in legislative bodies before being passed.

Medical abortion has given women the freedom to safely choose when, where, and how to terminate a pregnancy during the early weeks.

Access to abortion is a human rights issue says UN SR on Right To Health - (https://www.citizen-news.org/2025/09/access-to-abortion-is-human-rights.html)

Imagine a world where someone cant get the healthcare they need simply because of laws, stigma, or politics. For millions of women and LGBTQIA+ individuals, thats the reality when it comes to abortion isnt just a medical procedure; its about. Being able to make choices about your own body saves lives, protects well-being, and ensures everyone can access the care they deserve ().These are the words of, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, who gave an opening address at thesession ahead of theSafe abortion is a basic right that gives women power over their bodies and health. Restrictive laws and discriminatory practices not only violate the rights but also worsen health outcomes, especially for women and LGBTQIA+ individuals who are in need.from theexplained that states have three duties under international law:Abortion rights are non-negotiable obligations crucial for equity, justice, and healthier societies!, observed on, began in Latin America into push for legal and safe abortion services. Restrictive laws have historically led to high maternal deaths and health risks. Access to abortion is a human right, not a privilege.Global advocacy in the 1990s led to recognition of reproductive rights, though sexual rights remained contested. Despite progress, the fight continues to make safe abortion accessible to all women. Comprehensive sexuality education is also essential, giving young people correct information about their bodies and rights.It took nearly a decade of effort to establish a national law ensuring access to sexual and reproductive health services for all. This included securing budgets, providing contraceptives, training healthcare workers, and building necessary programs. Even with laws in place, challenges remainespecially as the need for contraception is often underestimated.While some argue for having more children tothey overlook the reality that many women and children die due to the lack of reproductive health services. The fight continues for bodily autonomy, womens agency, and the right to decide, along with access to the full range of sexual and reproductive health services.Many countries have long battles to ensure safe abortion:said, who is the, an NGO working to improve women's rights since 1989.Denying abortion is a form of violence against women. Legal and safe abortion prevents unnecessary deaths and protects womens rights. Opposing abortion rights threatens both womens lives and societal health!Source-CNS
Actress Karisma Kapoors ex-husband, Sunjay Kapoor, passed away on June 12 in the United Kingdom, leaving behind assets reportedly worth 30,000 crore. According to recent reports, this massive inheritance has sparked tensions between Sunjays ex-wife, actor Karisma Kapoor, and his current wife, Priya Sachdev.

Karisma Kapoors Kids Move To Delhi High Court

According to a TOI report, Karisma Kapoors kids Samaira and Kiaan, have moved to the Delhi High Court to claim Sunjay Kapoors Rs 30,000 crore assets against their stepmother, Priya Sachdev.

In their legal suit, Sunjay Kapoors children have accused their stepmother, Priya Sachdev, of forging his will. They contend that the document being presented as their fathers last will is neither valid nor genuine, but rather fabricated to their disadvantage.

Claiming they were unlawfully excluded from their fathers inheritance, the children have petitioned the court to take action against the alleged fraud and ensure their rightful share in Sunjay Kapoors estate.
As Indians, we often daydream about having our very own Avengers-style squad made up of desi superheroes. Ive even had long, silly debates with my friends about which hero would take on what role, imagining epic team-ups and clashes that could rival the biggest Hollywood blockbusters. In a recent media interaction, Hanu-Man and Mirai actor Teja Sajja also suggested the same.

 People Media Factory Teja Sajja said that he hopes that one day, our superheroes, including Hanu-man, Veda from Mirai, Lokahs Chandra and Minnal Murali, form their own team like the Avengers.

What Did The Fans Say About Teja Sajjas Idea? Fans did not agree with Teja Sajjas statements, as they think that all of them are perfect with their standalone projects because of their cultural differences. One user commented, Uhmm hard no. Minnal murali and lokah are separate universes in Malayalam cinema. Both have no religious extremism tied to it.

Another user commented, Malayalam and tamil people not ready to explore hindu mythology,their people never accepted that so its not possible minnal murali,lokah are more gud than hanuman,mirai by screenplay,realistic touch.

One user reacted, This guy has crazy dreams... hanuman is jst a cheap religious gimmick movie, idk abt mirai, minnal is a different universe, so is lokah with different visions and different vibe... none of this come together, lokah is the universe name, not the characters name.

Another user reacted, Nope we want our minnal murali and lokah to stand out from rest of these movies and also want non inclusion of actors from other industries.
With every new iPhone launch, one question always comes up: Should I just travel abroad and buy my iPhone there? This year, with the iPhone 17 lineup finally out, that question has become even more interesting, because the price gap between countries is honestly wild. If youre planning to snag an iPhone 17 or the top-tier Pro Max, heres exactly how much youll pay around the world (and yes, how much you could save or lose). iPhone 17 in India: Premium Pricing Hits Home

 Apple Lets start at our home turf. In India, the iPhone 17 starts at 82,900, and if you want to go for the iPhone 17 Pro Max, be ready to shell out at least 1,49,900. Those numbers definitely sting, especially when you realise how much cheaper the same phone is elsewhere, and the fact that these iPhones are made in namma Bengaluru. Still, Indian buyers are no strangers to paying a premium, thanks to taxes. USA: The Cheapest Place to Get Your iPhone 17 Fix

 Apple Heading over to the United States, things look way friendlier for your wallet. The standard iPhone 17 there costs $799 (about 70,400), while the iPhone 17 Pro Max is priced at $1,199 (roughly 1,05,700). Thats an instant saving of about 12,000 for the iPhone 17 and a jaw-dropping 44,000 on the Pro Max compared to Indian prices. Theres a catch, though: iPhone 17 series in the US are eSIM-only, which means no physical SIM trayan important detail if you switch SIMs or travel often. Japan: Still Cheaper Than India, Especially For iPhone 17 Pro Max

 Apple Japan has also become a favourite destination for iPhone hunters. There, the iPhone 17 starts at JPY 129,800 (about 77,600), and the Pro Max tops out at JPY 194,800 (around 1,16,400). These are solid savings, especially for the Pro Max, which is over 33,000 less than in India. UAE: Great Deals on the Base Model iPhone 17

 Apple The UAE is the go-to stop on the global iPhone shopping tour. The iPhone 17 is listed at AED 3,099 (about 75,000), making it one of the cheaper places to buy the base model. However, the iPhone 17 Pro Max starts at AED 5,099 (roughly 1,23,500), which is still 26,000 cheaper than the Indian price tag, but not the absolute best deal on the 17 Pro Max. Europe & UK: iPhones Cost More Than India

 Apple Europe is where things start getting pricey. In Germany, the iPhone 17 kicks off at 949 (around 98,000), while in the UK, its 799 (around 95,000). These are some of the most expensive rates worldwideno surprises here if youve ever checked out electronics prices in Europe. Vietnam: A Mixed Bag for Indian Shoppers

 Apple Vietnam was once a popular spot for getting iPhones cheaper, but this year, its a bit of a mixed bag. The iPhone 17 standard edition is 24,999,000 VND (around 83,490), which is slightly higher than in India. But heres the twist: the iPhone 17 Pro Max costs 34,999,000 VND, or about 1,16,900, undercutting the Indian price by more than 33,000. Bottom Line: Where Can You Score the Best Deal on the iPhone 17?
(Photo: Corvus Robotics)

Corvus Robotics, a leader in autonomous inventory management, has announced that LAPP USA has deployed the Corvus One system at its 134,000-square-foot facility in Brownsburg, Indiana.

LAPP, a global provider of industrial cables and connectivity solutions, selected the technology to modernise warehouse operations and strengthen service for its customers.

Within just 30 days of implementation, the fully autonomous drone system reshaped LAPPs approach to inventory management. Key results include:

 13x More Coverage  The warehouse now completes 26 full inventory counts per year, compared with just two previously.

 60% Labour Cost Reduction  The inventory team has been reduced to two people, with staff redeployed to higher-value activities.

 Zero Overtime  Weekend cycle counts have been eliminated, freeing up time and resources.

 Higher Accuracy  Automated discrepancy reports and location imaging have improved visibility, reduced errors, and supported faster fulfilment.

Jason Beltran, Facility Manager at LAPP USA, praised the systems impact on customer service. The Corvus One system has been able to help us by providing better service to our customers. Getting the inventory in, in real-time, seeing where it is, and being able to allocate it right away to the customer is a tremendous benefit for us.

The Brownsburg facility supports both advanced cable manufacturing and nationwide distribution. By automating a process that was previously labour-intensive, LAPP has strengthened both accuracy and agility across its supply chain, ensuring faster and more reliable deliveries to customers.

Jackie Wu, CEO of Corvus Robotics, said LAPPs experience highlights the value of rapid deployment.

LAPPs results showcase how quickly autonomous technology can create measurable value. Corvus One was designed to be operational in weeks, not months, so companies like LAPP can see immediate impact.

Corvus Robotics develops autonomous drone systems that transform warehouse and logistics operations by automating inventory management. Its flagship solution, Corvus One, is designed for rapid deployment and measurable efficiency gains.
Illinois politicians are sounding an alarm and bracing for possible National Guard deployments to Chicago amid President Donald Trumps calls for widespread federal takeovers of American cities with increased reliance on troops to accomplish his agenda.

Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker warned in a statement earlier this month that there were imminent plans for immigration enforcement and National Guard deployments in Chicago and the surrounding areas. Similarly, Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order on Aug. 30 demanding Trump stand down from his threat to deploy military forces into the Midwestern city.

"The City of Chicago will do everything in our power to defend our democracy and protect our communities, Johnson said in a statement. With this executive order, we send a resounding message to the federal government: We do not need nor want an unconstitutional and illegal military occupation of our city.

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On Saturday, Trump posted on social media: I love the smell of deportations in the morning , adding, Chicago about to find out why its called the Department of WAR. The post also featured an image that read Chicopalypse Now and showed Trump dressed as Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore, a fictional character played by actor Robert Duvall in the 1979 film Apocalypse Now that takes place during the Vietnam War.

While its unclear whether or when a military deployment to Chicago would happen, such a move comes on the heels of the administration's current federal takeover and National Guard deployment to Washington, D.C., as well as this summers deployment of Marines and other troops to Los Angeles amid immigration enforcement raids.

Such moves are alarming military experts and activists, who say that further military deployments into more U.S. cities would harm readiness as well as morale for residents and troops.

The president of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city, Pritzker wrote Saturday on the social media platform X. This is not a joke. This is not normal.

Trump, speaking with reporters Sunday, appeared to downplay his post.

Were not going to war; were going to clean up our cities, Trump said. Were going to clean them up so they dont kill five people every weekend. Thats not war. Thats common sense.

White House border czar Tom Homan said Sunday on CNNs State of the Union that immigration enforcement action would be happening in Chicago and other cities this week and added that National Guard are always on the table.

On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security announced Operation Midway Blitz, a crackdown that will target the criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois.

Sara Haghdoosti, a Chicago resident and the executive director of the progressive advocacy nonprofit group Win Without War, said the rhetoric from the president has been alarming.

As someone who lives in Chicago, it's terrifying, Haghdoosti told Military.com in an interview Tuesday. A commander in chief is meant to be someone who is thinking about how to keep folks safe, not declaring war on our own communities. And even if he walked it back, the fact that he ever considered saying that, the fact that it was articulated, is deeply horrific.

More than 2,000 Guardsmen from six states had been sent to Washington, D.C., as of last month, according to a National Guard news release. Tasks have varied from patrolling Metro stops to picking up litter and cleaning up graffiti throughout the city. Experts have estimated that the ongoing deployment is costing roughly $1 million a day, CNN reported.

Haghdoosti told Military.com that Win Without War has started a billboard campaign in D.C. and outside of military bases across the country that reads, Is this what you signed up for? It hopes to inform National Guardsmen of their rights and will connect them with resources under the Trump administrations heavy reliance on the Guard for its domestic agenda.

We want service members to know that someone has their backs, Haghdoosti said.

Since January, the Trump administration has relied heavily on active-duty and National Guard troops, including sending roughly 10,000 to the U.S. southern border and nearly 5,000 to LA in June.

In addition to the heavy financial cost of those deployments, there are fears of harming morale and readiness, Jennifer Kavanagh, the director of military analysis at the Defense Priorities think tank in Washington, D.C., told Military.com.

If you're using National Guard forces, you pull them away from their jobs, you keep them away from their families and then if, God forbid, there were a crisis overseas where we actually needed military forces, you would have worn down the readiness, Kavanagh said. You'd have these units that have already been deployed for two months on city streets, and you'd have a whole range of other implications.

Related: F-35s Will Be Deployed Against Drug Cartels in Caribbean, Marking Latest Escalation by Trump
Senators Want Answers From Coast Guard on How it Probes Displays of Swastikas or Other Hate Symbols

Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., warned that relaxing policies aimed at fighting hate crimes not only sends the wrong message to...
SAN FRANCISCO  A federal judge who ruled last week that the Trump administration broke federal law by sending National Guard troops to the Los Angeles area said Tuesday he will not immediately consider a request to bar the ongoing use of 300 Guard troops.

In a court order, Senior District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco said he was not sure he had the authority to consider California's motion for a preliminary injunction blocking the administration's further deployment of state National Guard troops. That's because the case is on appeal before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the judge said.

Breyer indefinitely paused all proceedings related to the state's motion, though he suggested California officials could file the request with the 9th Circuit.

An email to the California attorney general's office late Tuesday was not immediately returned.

Breyer's Sept. 2 ruling took on heightened importance amid President Donald Trump's talk of National Guard deployments to other Democratic-led cities like Chicago, Baltimore and New York. Trump has already deployed the Guard as part of his unprecedented law enforcement takeover targeting crime, immigration and homelessness in Washington, where he has direct legal control over the District of Columbia National Guard.

The Trump administration sent troops to the Los Angeles area in early June after days of protests over immigration raids.

Breyer ruled the administration willfully broke federal law, saying the government knew they were ordering troops to execute domestic law beyond their usual authority while using armed soldiers ( whose identity was often obscured by protective armor) and military vehicles to set up protective perimeters and traffic blockades, engage in crowd control, and otherwise demonstrate a military presence in and around Los Angeles.

He did not require the 300 remaining soldiers to leave but pointed out that they received improper training and ordered the administration to stop using them to execute the laws. The order that applies only to California was supposed to take effect Sept. 12, but the 9th Circuit has put it on hold for now.

California later sought a preliminary injunction blocking an Aug. 5 order from the administration extending the deployment of the 300 troops for another 90 days.

The further deployment would ensure that Californias residents will remain under a form of military occupation until early November, including while voting on Nov. 4 on whether to adopt new congressional maps  an election with national attention and significance, state officials said in a court filing.
WARSAW, Poland  Poland said early Wednesday that multiple Russian drones entered and were shot down over its territory with help from NATO allies, describing the incident as an act of aggression carried out during a wave of Russian strikes on Ukraine.

Several European leaders said they believed Russia was intentionally escalating the war, and NATO was discussing the incident in a meeting. It came three days after Russia's largest aerial attack on Ukraine since the war began, an attack that for the first time hit a key government building in Kyiv.

Russias war is escalating, not ending, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said. Last night in Poland we saw the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began, and indications suggest it was intentional, not accidental.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on social media that Polish airspace was violated by multiple Russian drones. Those drones that posed a direct threat were shot down, Tusk said.

Defense Minister Wadysaw Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote on X that more than 10 objects crossed into Polish air space, but he did not specify an exact number. He thanked NATO Air Command and The Royal Netherlands Air and Space Force for supporting the action with F-35 fighter jets.

Polish airspace has been violated multiple times since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but there has been nothing on this scale either in Poland or in any other Western nation along the eastern flank of NATO and the European Union.

Drones rattle Baltic NATO members

Leaders in the strategically located Baltic states of Lithuanian, Latvia and Estonia  the NATO members that are most nervous about Russian aggression  expressed deep concerns.

Russia is deliberately expanding its aggression, posing an ever-growing threat to Europe, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda wrote on X. Estonias foreign minister Margus Tsahkna said that the overnight attacks on Ukriane and violations of Polish airspace were "yet another stark reminder that Russia is not just a threat to Ukraine, but to all of Europe and NATO.

Bernard Blaszczuk, mayor of the village of Wyryki in Lublin region, told TVP Info that a house was hit by either a missile or a drone, we dont know yet. He said people were inside the building but nobody was hurt.

The Polish armed forces said Wednesday morning that a search for possible crash sites is ongoing and urged people not to approach, touch or move any objects they see, warning that they may pose a threat and could contain hazardous material.

Warsaws Chopin Airport suspended flights for several hours, citing the closure of airspace due to military operations.

Russian objects have entered Polish airspace before

Poland has complained about Russian objects entering its airspace during attacks on Ukraine before.

In August, Polands defense minister said that a flying object that crashed and exploded in a cornfield in eastern Poland was identified as a Russian drone, and called it a provocation by Russia.

In March, Poland scrambled jets after a Russian missile briefly passed through Polish air space on its way to a target in western Ukraine, and in 2022, a missile that was likely fired by Ukraine to intercept a Russian attack landed in Poland, killing two people.

NATO members vow support

NATO said its air defenses supported Poland, and chief spokesperson Allison Hart said the military organizations 32 national envoys will discuss the matter at a pre-planned meeting.

Col. Martin ODonnell, NATOs Supreme Allied Powers Europe, said: This is the first time NATO planes have engaged potential threats in Allied airspace."

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof confirmed in a message on X that Dutch F-35 fighter jets stationed in Poland under NATO provided support to the Polish air force overnight.

Let me be clear: the violation of Polish airspace last night by Russian drones is unacceptable. It is further proof that the Russian war of aggression poses a threat to European security, Shoof said in the Dutch language message on X.

German Patriot defense systems in Poland were also placed on alert, and an Italian airborne early warning plane and an aerial refueler from NATOs Multinational Multi-Role Tanker Transport aircraft fleet were launched, ODonnell said.

NATO, he said, is committed to defending every kilometer of NATO territory, including our airspace.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a message on Telegram that the deployment of European aircraft to intercept the drones was an important precedent.

Russia must know the response to escalation will be a clear and strong reaction from all partners, Zelenskyy said.

Russian attacks hit central and western Ukraine

Ukraines Air Force says Russia fired 415 strike and decoy drones, as well as 42 cruise missiles and one ballistic missiles overnight.

Ukrainian air defenses intercepted or jammed 386 drones and 27 cruise missiles, according to the report.

At least eight enemy UAVs crossed Ukraines state border in the direction of the Republic of Poland, the Air Force message said.

Russian drones injured three people in Ukraines western Khmelnytskyi region, its head Serhii Tiurin wrote on Telegram early Wednesday morning. He said a sewing factory was destroyed, a gas station and vehicles were damaged, and windows in several houses were blown out.

One person was killed and one injured in Zhytomyr region overnight, regional administration head Vitalii Bunechko wrote on Telegram, while homes and businesses suffered damage.

In Vinnytsia region, Russian drones damaged civilian and industrial infrastructure, according to regional head Natalia Zabolotna. Nearly 30 residential buildings were damaged and one person was injured.

In Cherkasy region, several houses and a power grid were damaged in a Russian attack. In Zolotonosha district, a shock wave destroyed a barn killing two cows, regional head Ihor Taburets wrote on Telegram.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in its morning report on Wednesday that it had destroyed 122 Ukrainian drones over various Russian regions overnight, including over the illegally annexed Crimea and areas of the Black Sea.

___

Novikov reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. AP writers Lorne Cook in Brussels and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a Democratic effort to put the upper chamber on record opposing the Trump administrations decision to grant military funeral honors to Air Force veteran and Jan. 6 rioter Ashli Babbitt.

Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., went to the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon to request whats known as unanimous consent to pass a resolution that would have stated the Senate believes Babbitt is not eligible for military funeral honors.

But Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., objected to Gallegos request, thereby blocking the resolution from passing.

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Ashli Babbit was a traitor, Gallego, a Marine Corps veteran, said on the Senate floor. She didnt die protecting our country. She died trying to tear it down.

Military honors are sacred, he continued. They are reserved for the men and women who swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution and the rule of law, and actually live up to it. To give them to Babbitt would be a spit in the face to all of them and to every veteran who died defending this country.

In objecting to Gallegos request, Tuberville argued Babbitt earned these funeral honors through her service to this nation.

This resolution is nothing more than a pathetic attempt to strip away the earned honors of a veteran who deployed seven times during her many years in the United States Air Force, Tuberville said. Ashli Babbitt was never charged with or convicted of a crime. She has never been found guilty of anything.

Babbitt was part of a mob of President Donald Trumps supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an effort to overturn former President Joe Bidens victory in the 2020 election.

She was fatally shot by a Capitol Police officer as she tried to climb through a shattered window that leads to the Speakers Lobby, a restricted hallway just outside the House floor. At the time, lawmakers were barricaded inside the chamber as they tried to find a way to evacuate.

The officer who shot Babbitt was cleared of any wrongdoing, but Babbitts supporters have cast her as a martyr.

Babbitt, who served in the Air Force for about 12 years in a combination of active-duty and reserve duty, was initially denied military funeral honors in a 2021 decision by the Air Force.

But last month, the service confirmed that it had reversed its earlier decision and granted her funeral honors. The reversal was first revealed by Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group representing Babbitts family.

The funeral honors decision came after the Trump administration also paid her family about $5 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit. Broadly, the Trump administration has worked to rewrite the history of Jan. 6., including pardoning nearly all those convicted or charged with a crime for their actions that day.

Gallego, who was a representative during the Jan. 6 attack, was one of the lawmakers barricaded inside the House chamber as the mob Babbitt was part of closed in on the room. He has spoken about how his Marine training helped him take the lead in directing lawmakers to evacuate and instructing them how to put on masks to protect against chemical attacks.

The resolution Gallego filed Wednesday would have formally stated that the Senate believes Ashli Babbitts actions on January 6, 2021, constitute disqualifying conduct under section 985 of Title 10, United States Code; the rendering of military funeral honors to her would bring discredit upon the Air Force; and she is not eligible for such honors.

The section of U.S. Code cited in the resolution disqualifies veterans from military funeral honors if they are convicted of a capital crime, were found to have committed a capital crime but cant be convicted because they died, or died in circumstances that would bring discredit upon the persons service.

Gallegos resolution also would have said the Senate rejects efforts to glorify or legitimize the actions of those who sought to overturn the Constitution of the United States.

Related: Jan. 6 Rioter Fatally Shot by Police Approved for Military Funeral Honors by Air Force
SEOUL, South Korea  A South Korean charter plane left for the U.S. on Wednesday to bring back Korean workers detained in an immigration raid in Georgia last week, though officials said the return of the plane with the workers onboard will not happen as quickly as they had hoped.

A total of 475 workers, more than 300 of them South Koreans, were rounded up in the Sept. 4 raid at the battery factory under construction at Hyundais sprawling auto plant. U.S. authorities released video showing some being shackled with chains around their hands, ankles and waists, causing shock and a sense of betrayal among many in South Korea, a key U.S. ally.

South Koreas government later said it reached an agreement with the U.S. for the release of the workers.

Korean workers expected to be brought back home after days of detention

South Korean TV footage showed the charter plane, a Boeing 747-8i from Korean Air, taking off at Incheon International Airport, just west of Seoul. South Koreas Foreign Ministry said it was talking with U.S. officials about letting the plane return home with the released workers as soon as possible. But it said the plane cannot depart from the U.S. on Wednesday as South Korea earlier wished due to an unspecified reason involving the U.S. side.

The Korean workers are currently being held at an immigration detention center in Folkston in southeast Georgia. South Korean media reported they will be freed and driven 285 miles (460 kilometers) by bus to Atlanta to take the charter plane.

South Korean officials said they've been negotiating with the U.S. to win voluntary departures of the workers, rather than deportations that could result in making them ineligible to return to the U.S. for up to 10 years.

The workplace raid by the U.S. Homeland Security agency was its largest yet as it pursues its mass deportation agenda. The Georgia battery plant, a joint venture between Hyundai and LG Energy Solution, is one of more than 20 major industrial sites that South Korean companies are currently building in the United States.

Many South Koreans view the Georgia raid as a source of national disgrace and remain stunned over it. Only 10 days earlier, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and U.S. President Donald Trump held their first summit in Washington on Aug. 25. In late July, South Korea also promised hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. investments to reach a tariff deal.

Experts say South Korea won't likely take any major retaliatory steps against the U.S., but the Georgia raid could become a source of tensions between the allies as the Trump administration intensifies immigration raids.

South Korea calls for improvement in U.S. visa systems

U.S. authorities said some of the detained workers had illegally crossed the U.S. border, while others had entered the country legally but had expired visas or entered on a visa waiver that prohibited them from working. But South Korean experts and officials said Washington has yet to act on Seouls yearslong demand to ensure a visa system to accommodate skilled Korean workers needed to build facilities, though it has been pressing South Korea to expand industrial investments in the U.S.

South Korean companies have been relying on short-term visitor visas or Electronic System for Travel Authorization to send workers needed to launch manufacturing sites and handle other setup tasks, a practice that had been largely tolerated for years.

LG Energy Solution, which employed most of the detained workers, instructed its South Korean employees in the U.S. on B-1 or B-2 short-term visit visas not to report to work until further notice, and told those with ESTAs to return home immediately.

During his visit to Washington, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun met representatives of major Korean companies operating in the U.S. including Hyundai, LG and Samsung on Tuesday. Cho told them that South Korean officials are in active discussions with U.S. officials and lawmakers about possible legislation to create a separate visa quota for South Korean professionals operating in the U.S., according to Cho's ministry.

Trump said this week the workers were here illegally, and that the U.S. needs to work with other countries to have their experts train U.S. citizens to do specialized work such as battery and computer manufacturing.

Atlanta immigration attorney Charles Kuck, who represents several of the detained South Korean nationals, told The Associated Press on Monday that no company in the U.S. makes the machines used in the Georgia battery plant. So they had to come from abroad to install or repair equipment on-site  work that would take about three to five years to train someone in the U.S. to do, he said.

The South Korea-U.S. military alliance, forged in blood during the 1950-53 Korean War, has experienced ups and downs over the decades. But surveys have shown a majority of South Koreans support the two countries alliance, as the U.S. deployment of 28,500 troops in South Korea and 50,000 others in Japan has served as the backbone of the American military presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

During a Cabinet Council meeting on Tuesday, Lee said he felt big responsibility over the raid and expressed hopes that the operations of South Korean businesses wont be infringed upon unfairly again. He said his government will push to improve systems to prevent recurrences of similar incidents in close consultations with the U.S.
Life as a military spouse comes with countless unknowns and hardships. I anticipated some of those hardships when I married a man who was about to join the military -- the PCS moves, possible deployments and raising children in a transient environment. I had no idea that when marriages end in divorce, those challenges create an entirely new, unique one: custody in military life.

After 13 years as a military spouse, I became skilled at doing things on my own, including parenting. Like most service members, my then-husband was gone a lot, and as we had one child and then a second, most of the parenting fell to me. So when I got divorced, I naively assumed life as a single mother would be more of the same: that I would continue doing most of the parenting myself.

I quickly learned that parenting after a military divorce involves so much more than simply parenting alone.

According to reports using U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey data, the military has the highest divorce rate of any career field. The divorce rate for active-duty service members sits at about 4.8%, with enlisted service members more likely to divorce than officers, and female service members divorcing at a higher rate than males.

Despite how little guidance I was able to find about military divorce while I was going through it, the numbers dont lie. Military divorce is so common that I easily found a law firm that not only specialized in military divorce, but also worked exclusively with women, whether as the service member or the spouse. But there were so many military divorce attorneys in my city, I could have consulted at least a dozen other firms. Clearly, these attorneys are staying in business for a reason.

The aftermath of these divorces affects everyone in the family, including children.

While my divorce decree assigned precisely who the kids would be with during major holidays, my ex-husband and I relied on a cordial co-parenting relationship to figure out the day-to-day. We had to. Between his unpredictable work-related travel and our agreement to make modifications for special events, such as grandparent visits and vacations, regular communication and flexibility were required to avoid courtrooms and to do what was best for the children.

At first, our kids, who were 5 and 9 years old at the time, spent Friday evening through Sunday night at their fathers house and the school week with me. My ex-husband and I lived 20 minutes away from each other and shared driving duties. It was a tough adjustment for everyone initially, with miscommunications and forgotten sneakers, but soon enough, the kids got used to the weekly packing and unpacking of their suitcases, and I adjusted to having eerily quiet weekends.

All four of us had finally figured out the custody rhythm when my ex-husband got new orders. Im not sure why I was surprised that he got one-year orders to Washington, D.C., when we currently lived in Virginia Beach or why it never crossed my mind that one day he might have to PCS even further than the four-hour drive he was doing to commute back to see the kids on the weekends. I think I was so busy figuring out divorced life that it didnt occur to me that even though I was no longer married to a man in the military, I still felt like I was married to the military.

The new orders forced a new custody schedule, with the kids going to his house Saturday mornings through Monday mornings. Even that small one-day shift changed the entire routine wed all worked hard to settle into, including the switch that now the kids had to wake up earlier on Monday mornings because their father was driving them 20 minutes to school instead of strolling to the bus stop with me. It meant sometimes they were late for school because of rush-hour traffic. It meant my work-from-home morning was disrupted when my ex came to my apartment to drop off the kids suitcases. It meant months of adjusting yet again.

My relief that those one-year orders were wrapping up was quickly replaced by shock when my ex-husband got new three-year orders. I had stayed in Virginia Beach instead of moving closer to family, because I hoped the next orders would bring my childrens father back to the area so we could resume the original custody schedule. But I was very wrong. Those three-year orders were in Hawaii.

My ex proposed that the children stay with me in Virginia during the school year and then spend 10 weeks in Hawaii during the summers. I was devastated. I was fine with basically having full custody of the kids for most of the year. After all, as a military spouse, I often spent months at a time solo-parenting. That wasnt unusual. What was unusual was being apart from my son and daughter for more than two months. My ex was practiced in the art of being separated from the kids. I wasnt.

With no other options, the kids went to Hawaii for two summers while I stayed in Virginia Beach. Then, after three years of trying to keep my ex involved in the kids lives during the school year, he got orders again, this time back to the Hampton Roads area. I loved knowing I wouldnt have to put my kids on an airplane to see their father, but once again, we all had to adjust to a new normal, with weekly packing and unpacking of suitcases. Even this semblance of stability and routine was interrupted with a yearlong deployment, when I once again parented full time.

My ex is now retired, and my kids are young adults, both in college with no need for custody schedules anymore. Their home base is with me in Virginia, and the military no longer dictates when I can see them. Finally, more than a decade after my divorce, my marriage to the military and the minefield of custody arrangements are behind me.

Military families are used to making adjustments and embracing flexibility, but when divorce divides a military family, those skills are just as essential. And Im thankful for those skills I learned as a military spouse, because I needed them to help me navigate life when I no longer was one.

-- Heather Sweeney, a content editor at Military.com, is the author of Camouflage: How I Emerged from the Shadows of a Military Marriage, coming Oct. 28, 2025.
This file photo from September 2024 shows Casey Smejkal, plant operator at Eagle Creek Renewable Energy in Menominee, as he reaches into the water in a catch tank to check on a large lake sturgeon that came up through the fish elevator at the Menominee Dam on the Menominee River in Michigans western Upper Peninsula. (Sheri McWhirter | MLive.com) Sheri McWhirter | MLive.com

MENOMINEE, MI  The public can see how lake sturgeon pass through a hydroelectric dam in the Menominee River, including watching them ride in a one-of-a-kind elevator.

Two free tours of Menominee Dam will take place during the afternoon of Monday, Sept. 22. Participants must register in advance and sign a safety agreement; children need supervising adults, officials said.

The popular annual event is a chance for the public to witness the Great Lakes fish restoration project in action. Scientists from multiple agencies work together each spring and fall to help migrating sturgeon move around the first two of five hydroelectric dams on the Menominee River and reach prime natal waters.

13 1 / 13 Fish elevator at the Menominee Dam

Some individual sturgeon will begin that upstream migration in autumn in advance of spring spawning season.

Right now, the sturgeon, theyre kind of stacking up below the dam, said Brad Smith, fish biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service during last years event on Sept. 12, 2024.

A lot of the sturgeon will come into the river in the fall. Theyll be getting ready to spawn, but theyll just kind of hang out in the river. And then theres other sturgeon that I dont know if theyre procrastinators or what, but theyll come back in the spring, Smith said.

Tour participants will learn how the sturgeon passage system works and the projects significance in restoring the lake sturgeon species.

The Menominee Dam on the border between Wisconsin and Michigans Upper Peninsula has for a decade been home to the sole fish lift system nationwide that is specifically designed to move lake sturgeon.

Related: Where can a sturgeon take an elevator? In this U.P. river.

The prehistoric fish species is known to grow to six or seven feet long, weigh hundreds of pounds and live for a century or longer. Sturgeon are not considered an endangered species, though they exist at a fraction of historic populations.

Scientists chose the Menominee River on Green Bay for the fish elevator project because it has long served as the primary sturgeon cradle for all of Lake Michigan.

Registration for the free tours at the dam in Menominee can be found online.
GREEN LAKE COUNTY, WI -- More details have emerged surrounding the disappearance of a Wisconsin man last year, who actually faked his own death. Last month, Ryan Borgwardt, 45, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of an officer in connection with the 2024 incident, but details have been limited.

The Associated Press reports that Borgwardt texted his now-ex-wife the night before he disappeared, telling her he was going to a lake to watch the northern lights. The two exchanged several messages after that, which reveal tension in the relationship.

At one point, Borgwardt apologized to the woman after admitting he "may have snuck out on a lake to see the lights.

Nothing new. I should be used to it by now. So many nights I have no idea where you are when its late, Emily Borgwardt responded to the apology.

Borgwardts final text to his wife was sent at 10:49 p.m., where he told her loved her and was heading home soon. She began texting Borgwardt the following day at 5:12 a.m., asking where he was.

By then, Borgwardt had already put his plan into action. After his family reported he was missing on Aug. 12, 2024, police recovered a cell phone, an overturned kayak and a life jacket believed to be Borgwardts. However, a body was never found.

Police determined that Borgwardt used an inflatable kids boat to get to shore after overturning his kayak. He then rode an e-bike to Madison, Wis., before boarding a bus to Detroit. Borgwardt then crossed into Canada so he could board a flight to Europe.

Borgwardt fled to the country of Georgia to be with a woman hed met online. Police eventually made contact with him thanks to information found on an old laptop. Borgwardt was convinced by police to return home.

Before Borgwardt was booked into jail, police conducted a three-hour interview with him, asking why he concocted the scheme. Borgwardt said he felt like a failure, having amassed a large amount of debt and that he didnt have a good relationship with his wife or children.

Borgwardt told police hed accumulated $75,000 in credit card debt and $130,000 in business debt.

I think just the inability to feel like you could talk to your wife about some of this stuff, and maybe the complete hopelessness that you have in the situation that youre in, Borgwardt said. And you end up meeting a friend somewhere on the other side of the world who sort of has a somewhat similar story and you just end up becoming friends and the friend thing ends up turning into more, but you didnt really plan on that.

It wasnt your intention. So a door kind of opens up for you in a way to possibly make things work like that.

At the end of the interview, Borgwardt told police hed like to return to Georgia. He also asked police to let him email the woman in Europe to alert her that he was OK. Police said they would contact the woman on his behalf.

After entering his plea last month, Borgwardt was sentenced to 89 days in jail.
Allison Hemingway-Witty cries after Charlie Kirk is shot during Turning Point's visit to Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP) AP

By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and MARK SHERMAN Associated Press

OREM, Utah (AP)  Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and close ally of President Donald Trump, died Wednesday after being shot at a college event, Trump said.

The co-founder and CEO of the youth organization Turning Point USA, the 31-year-old Kirk is the latest victim in a spasm of political violence across the United States.

Videos posted to social media from Utah Valley University show Kirk speaking into a handheld microphone while sitting under a white tent emblazoned with the slogans The American Comeback and Prove Me Wrong. A single shot rings out and Kirk can be seen reaching up with his right hand as a large volume of blood gushes from the left side of his neck. Stunned spectators are heard gasping and screaming before people start to run away. The AP was able to confirm the videos were taken at Sorensen Center courtyard on the Utah Valley University campus.

We are confirming that he was shot and we are praying for Charlie, said Aubrey Laitsch, public relations manager for Turning Point USA.

A person who was taken into custody at Utah Valley University was not the suspect, according to a person familiar with the investigation who was not authorized to speak publicly. It was not clear if authorities were still searching the campus for a suspect.

Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by his nonprofit political organization. Immediately before the shooting, Kirk was taking questions for an audience member about mass shootings and gun violence.

Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years? an audience members asked. Kirk responded: Too many.

The questioner followed up: Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?

Counting or not counting gang violence? Kirk asked.

Then a single shot rang out.

The event had been met with divided opinions on campus. An online petition calling for university administrators to bar Kirk from appearing received nearly 1,000 signatures. The university issued a statement last week citing First Amendment rights and affirming its commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.

Last week, Kirk posted on X images of news clips showing his visit to Utah colleges was sparking controversy. He wrote, Whats going on in Utah?

Trump and a host of Republican and Democratic elected officials decried the shooting and offered prayers for Kirk on social media.

We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot. A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM! Trump posted on Truth Social.

The shooting comes amid a spike in political violence in the United States across all parts of the ideological spectrum. The attacks include the assassination of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband at their house in June, the firebombing of a Colorado parade to demand Hamas release hostages, and a fire set at the house of Pennsylvanias governor, who is Jewish, in April. The most notorious of these events is the shooting of Trump during a campaign rally last year.

Former Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz, a Republican who was at the event, said in an interview on Fox News Channel that he heard one shot and saw Kirk go back.

It seemed like it was a close shot, Chaffetz said, who seemed shaken as he spoke.

He said there was a light police presence at the event and Kirk had some security but not enough.

Utah is one of the safest places on the planet, he said. And so we just dont have these types of things.

Turning Point was founded in suburban Chicago in 2012 by Kirk, then 18, and William Montgomery, a tea party activist, to proselytize on college campuses for low taxes and limited government. It was not an immediate success.

But Kirks zeal for confronting liberals in academia eventually won over an influential set of conservative financiers.

Despite early misgivings, Turning Point enthusiastically backed Trump after he clinched the GOP nomination in 2016. Kirk served as a personal aide to Donald Trump Jr., the presidents eldest son, during the general election campaign.

Soon, Kirk was a regular presence on cable TV, where he leaned into the culture wars and heaped praise on the then-president. Trump and his son were equally effusive and often spoke at Turning Point conferences.

__

Richer and Sherman reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Nicholas Riccardi in Denver and Michael Biesecker and Brian Slodysko in Washington contributed to this report.
The American flag at the White House in Washington, is lowered to half-staff after Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA, was killed at an event in Orem, Utah, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) AP

By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and MARK SHERMAN Associated Press

OREM, Utah (AP)  Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and close ally of President Donald Trump, was shot and killed Wednesday at a Utah college event in an act that drew renewed attention to the threat of political violence across the United States.

The death was announced on social media by Trump, who praised the 31-year-old Kirk, the co-founder and CEO of the youth organization Turning Point USA, as Great, and even Legendary.

No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie, Trump posted on his Truth Social account.

The suspected shooter has not been arrested, Orem, Utah, Mayor David Young said. A person who was taken into custody by law enforcement at the university where Kirk was speaking was not the suspect, according to a person familiar with the investigation who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Videos posted to social media from Utah Valley University show Kirk speaking into a handheld microphone while sitting under a white tent emblazoned with the slogans The American Comeback and Prove Me Wrong. A single shot rings out and Kirk can be seen reaching up with his right hand as a large volume of blood gushes from the left side of his neck. Stunned spectators are heard gasping and screaming before people start to run away. The AP was able to confirm the videos were taken at Sorensen Center courtyard on the Utah Valley University campus.

Charlie Kirk speaks before he is shot during Turning Point's visit to Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP) AP

Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by his nonprofit political organization. Immediately before the shooting, Kirk was taking questions for an audience member about mass shootings and gun violence.

Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years? an audience member asked. Kirk responded, Too many.

The questioner followed up: Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?

Counting or not counting gang violence? Kirk asked.

Then a single shot rang out.

Utah Valley University said the campus was immediately evacuated and remained closed. Classes were canceled until further notice. Those still on campus were asked to stay in place until police officers could safely escort them off campus. Armed officers walked around the neighborhood bordering the campus, knocking on doors and asking for information on the shooter.

Officers have been seen looking at a photo on their phones and showing it to people to see if they recognize a person of interest.

The event, billed as the first stop on Kirks The American Comeback Tour, had generated a polarizing campus reaction. An online petition calling for university administrators to bar Kirk from appearing received nearly 1,000 signatures. The university issued a statement last week citing First Amendment rights and affirming its commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.

Last week, Kirk posted on X images of news clips showing his visit to Utah colleges was sparking controversy. He wrote, Whats going on in Utah?

The crowd reacts after Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, is shot at the Utah Valley University Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, in Orem, Utah. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP) AP

The shooting drew swift bipartisan condemnation, with Democratic officials joining Trump, who ordered flags lowered to half-staff and issued a presidential proclamation, and Republican allies of Kirk in decrying the violence.

The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible, Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who last March hosted Kirk on his podcast, posted on X.

The murder of Charlie Kirk breaks my heart. My deepest sympathies are with his wife, two young children, and friends, said Gabrielle Giffords, the former Democratic congresswoman who was wounded in a 2011 shooting in her Arizona district.

Though no motive has been disclosed, the circumstances of the shooting fueled concerns that it was part of a spike of political violence that has cut across the political spectrum. The attacks include the assassination of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband at their house in June, the firebombing of a Colorado parade to demand Hamas release hostages, and a fire set at the house of Pennsylvanias governor, who is Jewish, in April. The most notorious of these events is the shooting of Trump during a campaign rally last year.

Former Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz, a Republican who was at the event, said in an interview on Fox News Channel that he heard one shot and saw Kirk go back.

It seemed like it was a close shot, Chaffetz said, who seemed shaken as he spoke.

He said there was a light police presence at the event and Kirk had some security but not enough.

Utah is one of the safest places on the planet, he said. And so we just dont have these types of things.

Turning Point was founded in suburban Chicago in 2012 by Kirk, then 18, and William Montgomery, a tea party activist, to proselytize on college campuses for low taxes and limited government. It was not an immediate success.

But Kirks zeal for confronting liberals in academia eventually won over an influential set of conservative financiers.

Despite early misgivings, Turning Point enthusiastically backed Trump after he clinched the GOP nomination in 2016. Kirk served as a personal aide to Donald Trump Jr., the presidents eldest son, during the general election campaign.

Soon, Kirk was a regular presence on cable TV, where he leaned into the culture wars and heaped praise on the then-president. Trump and his son were equally effusive and often spoke at Turning Point conferences.

__

Richer and Sherman reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Nicholas Riccardi in Denver and Michael Biesecker, Brian Slodysko, Lindsay Whitehurst, Michelle L. Price and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.
Actor, comedian and Southfield native Keegan Michael Key greets Detroit Tigers pitcher Will Vest (19) before throwing out the first pitch on Opening Day 2025 at Comerica Park. Key has joined the cast of "Only Murders in the Building" for season 5 on Hulu. Photo by Jacob Hamilton | MLive

Season 5 just dropped of the hit who done it comedy, Only Murders in the Building on Hulu and Detroits Keegan Michael Key is part of the cast.

The Southfield, Michigan native plays the mayor of New York City on the show which stars Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez, and a host of other guest stars.

Key told People that he loved working with the cast of the show.

Working with Steve Martin and Martin Short is an absolute delight, says Key. Not just from being overwhelmed by nostalgia or how big of a fan I am of both of themtheyre also just lovely men. Theyre both very unique in their own way.

Only Murders in the Building has received seven Emmy Awards and is up for more at this Sundays Emmy Awards show.
Michigan health officials found PFOS levels up to ten times higher than safety standards in fish from the bodies of water. The state has issued a "Do not eat" advisory for fish from four West Michigan bodies of water on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (MLive File Photo) (Devin Anderson-Torrez | MLive.com)

Health officials in West Michigan have issued an advisory telling residents not to eat fish from four local bodies of water.

The warning from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) comes after high levels of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) were found in fish caught in the area.

The advisory from Wednesday, Sept. 10, applied to fish taken from the following water bodies:

Hopewell Indian Mounds Pond in Wyoming

Luvis Lake in Grandville

Porter Lake in Grandville

Spelman Lake at the Wyoming Clean Water Plant

Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, the states chief medical executive, recommends no one eat fish listed as Do Not Eat, regardless of age or health.

When these fish were tested, MDHHS found high levels of PFOS, and we want Michiganders to be aware that eating fish from these water bodies could possibly lead to health problems in the future.

Related: Michigan triples waters with Do Not Eat warning for PFAS in fish

Exposure to PFOS can cause harm to thyroid and liver function, changes in immune response, increases in LDL and total cholesterol levels, and pregnancy-induced hypertension and preeclampsia.

Do Not Eat advisories are issued when fish are found to exceed PFOS levels of 49.6 parts per billion. The fish found in the West Michigan bodies of water ranged from 74.4 to 514.3 ppb.

PFOS is a type of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS). It cant be removed by trimming away the fat of the fish because its stored in the muscle of the fish.

A community meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 24 at Wyoming City Hall, 1155 28th Street SW, for people interested in learning more about the recent consumption guidance issued by MDHHS. A virtual option will be available, here, and questions can be submitted in advance of the event, here.

Individuals in need of assistance of accommodations to attend and participate in the community meeting should call Kelly Ploehn at 517-897-4670 by Sept. 17.

This spring, Michigan lowered the screening value it uses to calculate the risk of eating fish meat contaminated with PFOS. The move increased the number of water bodies with a Do Not Eat advisory for at least one species of fish from 33 to 98.

As of June, there were 782 fish advisories caused by PFOS across multiple species and water bodies in Michigan. The advisories are in the new 2025 Eat Safe Fish guidebook, which is separated by region.

For more information on the Eat Safe Fish Program, visit Michigan.gov/EatSafeFish or call the MDHHS environmental health hotline at 800-648-6942.
LG Energy Solution urged any South Korean employees in the U.S. on short-term visas not to report to work after an ICE raid on a Georgia plant on Thursday. Pictured is LG Energy's Holland campus, which is the first-ever North American producer of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells used for energy storage. Photo courtesy LG Energy Solution

HOLLAND, MI  A Michigan battery manufacturer is urging its South Korean employees not to come into work after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided a Georgia plant this month.

Immigration officials said they detained 475 people on Thursday, Sept. 4, most of them South Korean nationals, at the Hyundai plant being built near Savannah, according to the Associated Press.

The plant, operated by HL-GA Battery Co., is a joint venture between Hyundai and LG Energy Solution, which has three electric vehicle battery plants in Holland, Troy and Hazel Park.

LG Energy Solution, which employed a significant number of the detained workers, instructed its South Korean employees in the U.S. on B-1 or B-2 short-term visit visas not to report to work until further notice. Workers with an Electronic System for Travel Authorization were advised to return home immediately, the AP reported.

Of the 475 people detained on Thursday, 47 are LG Energy Solution employees, most of which are Korean nationals. About 250 detainees are affiliated with HL-GA Battery Companys partner companies, LG Energy said in a statement.

We will do our utmost to swiftly resolve the issue and ensure the safe and prompt return of the our employees and partner company members, the statement read.

This image is from video provided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via DVIDS shows manufacturing plant employees waiting to have their legs shackled at the Hyundai Motor Groups electric vehicle plant, Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025, in Ellabell, Ga. (Corey Bullard/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via AP) AP

The Georgia plant is one of over 20 large industrial facilities that South Korean companies are currently building in the U.S. These companies for years have been relying on short-term visas or ESTAs to send the workers needed to bring these projects online, according to the AP.

Charles Kuck, an Atlanta immigration attorney who represents several of the detained workers, told the AP that these foreign workers expertise was needed because there is no facility in the U.S. that makes the machines used in the Georgia plant.

President Donald Trump earlier this week told reporters that the U.S. needs to work with other countries to have their experts train U.S. citizens to do specialized work such as battery and computer manufacturing, rather than rely on foreign labor.

The South Korean government announced Sunday that the more than 300 South Korean workers detained will be released and brought home. A charter plane was dispatched to the U.S. Wednesday to retrieve the workers, who are currently being held at an immigration detention center in Folkston, Ga. No criminal charges have been filed, the AP reported.

In a video released by ICE on Saturday, federal agents are seen directing workers to line up outside. Some detainees had their hands up against a bus, were frisked and then shackled around their hands, ankles and waist.

Some of the detainees at the manufacturing site entered the U.S. illegally, officials said, while others entered legally but overstayed work visas and were not permitted to work, but did anyway.

Homeland Security officials said during a Friday news conference that the raid was the largest single-site enforcement operation in the history of Homeland Security investigations.

We are sending a clear and unequivocal message that those who exploit our workforce, undermine our economy and violate federal laws will be held accountable, officials said at the press conference.

The federal crackdown comes as a shock to U.S. and South Korean relations, which until recently appeared friendly.

Trump just last month hosted South Korean President Lee Jae Myung for their first joint summit. In July, the U.S. ally also promised hundreds of billions in U.S. investment to reach a tariff deal, the AP reported.
Charlie Kirk speaks before he is shot during Turning Point's visit to Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP) AP

Multiple elected officials and government leaders, including President Donald Trump, are condemning the killing of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. While speaking to a large crowd at Utah Valley University Wednesday, Kirk was shot in the neck.

Videos from the event show a single shot ring out before Kirk, who was 31, grabs his neck. Kirk was taken to a nearby hospital, where he later died.

Shortly after the shooting, numerous elected officials took to social media to condemn it.

We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot. A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM! Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump later posted The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. 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. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!

Trump himself notably experienced political violence as he was shot on July 13, 2024, while speaking at a campaign event in Pennsylvania.

Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, whose husband was attacked in their California home in 2022, called the shooting reprehensible before also adding Political violence has absolutely no place in our nation.

Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head at a campaign event in 2011, said she was horrified by the news.

Democratic societies will always have political disagreements, but we must never allow America to become a country that confronts those disagreements with violence, Giffords wrote on social media.

While speaking at a news conference, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also condemned the violence.

The way to resolve political disputes is not through violence. The way to do that is to ask questions, debate, DeSantis said.

Republican Senate Leader John Thune of South Dakota also weighed in, posting There is no place in our country for political violence. Period, full stop.

Kirk was the co-founder and CEO of the youth organization Turning Point USA. Known for his videos in which he debated liberals on college campuses, Kirk became a leader among young conservatives. He was a supporter of Trumps campaigns and at one time served as the personal aide to Donald Trump Jr.
DETROIT  There will be no charges in an alleged porta-potty sexual assault, authorities announced.

The Wayne County Prosecutors Office said there isnt enough evidence to charge the suspect in this case.

A 34-year-old Detroit woman alleges that, on Sept. 1, at Van Antwerp Park, an unknown male pointed a gun at her, forced her into a portable toilet and sexually assaulted her. The suspect fled on foot.

The victim immediately went to a local hospital and received a rape kit, FOX 2 Detroit reports. She reported the incident to police the following day.

A 27-year-old male suspect was arrested by the Detroit police, authorities said.

During the investigation, officers learned that the suspect had promised to pay the woman for sex but did not, FOX 2 reports. Investigators believe the suspect has a history of this behavior.

The investigation is ongoing.

This case is unrelated to another sexual assault involving a portable toilet in Wayne County in which charges have been brought. In that case, a man is accused of forcing entry into a portable toilet and sexually assaulting a woman. The defendant and victim knew each other.
Charlie Kirk speaks before he is shot during Turning Point's visit to Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP) AP

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called for unity, following the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Wednesday, Sept. 10.

Kirk the 31-year-old CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was killed Wednesday afternoon while on stage at a speaking event at Utah Valley University.

Thinking of Charlie Kirk, his family, and the community at UVU after the horrific shooting, Whitmer posted on X, formerly Twitter. We should all come together to stand up against any and all forms of political violence. Its unacceptable.

RELATED: Charlie Kirks fatal shooting: Scenes from the chaotic aftermath in Utah

Videos posted to social media Wednesday show Kirk speaking into a handheld microphone at the universitys Sorensen Center courtyard just before being shot.

Kirk was seated under a white tent emblazoned with the slogans, The American Comeback and Prove Me Wrong.

As a single shot rang out, Kirk reached up with his hand while a large volume of blood gushed from the left side of his neck.

Stunned spectators gasped and screamed, while others ran away.

He was a very, very good friend of mine and he was a tremendous person, President Donald Trump said earlier today.

Michigan Republican Party Chairman Jim Runestad issued his own written statement upon the news of Kirks passing:

For over a decade, Charlie energized the youth of America at college campuses across the country, challenging students to dream big about their future, and inspiring generations of future leaders, legislators, and constitutional conservatives, Runestad wrote. His wisdom and dedication to upholding our constitutional rights will be dearly missed.

The wave of political violence gripping our nation is un-American, and unpatriotic. No American should fear for their life because of their faith or their political views. I hope everyone in Michigan will join me in continuing to pray for Charlies family and the profound impact he had on our nation. May he rest in peace.

Ryan Bates, executive director of End Gun Violence Michigan, said the only answer is stronger gun control laws.

Stating that it is far too easy for those who wish to commit heinous violence to access powerful weapons, Bates urged leaders to take action now to address the national crisis of gun violence before another tragedy strikes.

Today, the nation was rocked by two horrific shootings that took place nearly simultaneously: the assassination of Turning Point USA leader Charlie Kirk, and yet another school shooting, this one in Evergreen Colorado, he stated.

The school shooting resulted in at least three people being injured, the Denver Post reports.

Political violence has no place in our country, Bates stated We must use the tools of democracy to settle our differences, never violence.

We hope that the shooter is found and brought to justice, and that Mr. Kirks family can one day find healing and peace.
University of Michigan Interim President Domenico Grasso opens Should Universities Adopt a Definition of Antisemitism? dialogue at UM-Ann Arbor on Tuesday, September 10, 2025. William Diep

ANN ARBOR, MI  University of Michigan Interim President Domenico Grasso addressed combating antisemitism at the schools inaugural Samantha Woll Dialogue on Tuesday.

The Sept. 10 event in the Rackham Amphitheater, titled Should Universities Adopt a Definition of Antisemitism?, was the first of eight conversations throughout the 2025-26 school year on religious hate and oppression, with a special focus on antisemitism. The events, named after the Jewish synagogue leader who was murdered in October 2023, are free and open to the public.

Grasso expressed support for Jewish students, faculty and staff at the university in his opening remarks. This comes at a time where there is federal scrutiny on the universitys handling of antisemitism on campus.

We will always focus on finding solutions and challenging the status quo with the unwavering objective of improving the world around us, Grasso said at the event. That includes ending antisemitism. We are proud of our long-standing efforts to combat antisemitism and provide a welcoming campus for Jewish students, faculty and staff.

Grasso shared the university is at the forefront of free speech and critical thinking.

A major university like ours is a crucible of ideas and opinions, Grasso said at the event. We are also a testament to free speech, freedom of expression, mutual respect, and intellectual empathy. There is no better place to exchange and debate ideas, learn from one another, and collaborate on new approaches to societys challenges.

He also acknowledged current divides over religion and politics but said he hopes the university engages in more authentic dialogues.

The university is currently under federal investigation, along with 59 other higher education institutions, for Title IV violations related to antisemitic discrimination on campuses. President Donald Trump threatened to cut funding from UM and other schools if they do not take steps to protect Jewish students on campus, according to a March 10 announcement.

The event featured Eli Mayerfeld, chief executive officer of the Zekelman Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Michigan, and Kenneth Stern, director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.

Ampitheater rows were filled with UM students, faculty, staff and Ann Arbor residents.

Jeffrey Veidlinger, director of the UM Raoul Wallenberg Institute, moderated the discussion on whether UM should adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances definition of antisemitism.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance is an intergovernmental organization with 35 member countries and eight observer countries whose mission is to expand Holocaust education, memory and scholarship, according to its website.

The organization defines antisemitism as a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.

Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities, the organization says.

The organizations website explains antisemitism can include criticism of Israel as a Jewish collective state but criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.

Harvard University, Columbia University and Yale University, among other higher education institutions, have adopted the organizations definition of antisemitism.

The two speakers disagreed on whether the university should adopt the organizations definition. Mayerfeld argued a working definition would help the university label which instances on campus would count as antisemitic.

Unlike racism or sexism, people still debate what antisemitism is and without a definition, enforcement is therefore going to be arbitrary, Mayerfeld said. Universities have definitions for harassment, for plagiarism, for bystanders. Hatreds of Jews shouldnt be the exception.

Mayerfeld explained without a definition, Jewish students lack equal opportunity to learn.

With a definition, universities have a framework to protect them and preserve open debate, Mayerfeld said.

Stern argued against implementing the organizations definition of antisemitism because a definition would encourage students to take down speech rather than have productive dialogues.

I want to encourage discussion of why people have such different views, not shut it down with blunt tools, Stern said.

Stern explained proponents of UM implementing the working definition view speech as the solution to the problem as opposed to how we should be teaching. He referenced university leaderships opposition to several pro-Palestine student protesters as a double standard compared to other campus protests.

As Pro-Palestinian groups have since the start of the war in Gaza, participants demanded the university divest from companies that support Israel. As of this summer, more than 64,000 Palestinians have died in the war, launched in response to an October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, according to the Associated Press.

UM is currently taking disciplinary action against 11 pro-Palestine student and alumni protesters who participated in protests about 12 to 16 months ago.

Here is a timeline of pro-Palestinian incidents and university actions against protesters since October 2023.

Stern believed universities should instead offer classes and other opportunities for students to engage in critical conversations on topics such as antisemitism and anti-Islamophobia.

The next Samantha Woll Dialogue, titled Is Tolerance Enough?, will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 30 in the Pendleton Room at the Michigan Union.

Want more Ann Arbor-area news? Bookmark the local Ann Arbor news page.
A man walks through a littered lot filled with old belongings at the former Myrtle Grove Mobile Home Park in Flint Township in this November 2024 Flint Journal file photo. (Jake May | MLive.com) (Jake May | MLive.com)

FLINT TWP., MI -- The township has rezoned property where a condemned mobile home park was located, potentially opening up the land for future construction of single-family homes.

The township Board of Trustees completed a second reading of the zoning change this week, and officials said the new designation will take effect after publication of a legal notice about the former Myrtle Grove Mobile Home Park off West Dayton Street.

Homes in the condemned park were demolished by the township earlier this year, ending a drawn-out process of removing long-time residents and others who were squatting in homes left behind by owners after rents stopped being collected.

The exodus came after water service was shut off at Myrtle Grove and garbage collection ended, resulting in a mountain of trash on the property.

Township officials initially took action at the site after a Genesee Circuit Court judge found the property unfit for human habitation a year ago.

This has been an eyesore and a public safety hazard, township Supervisor Karyn Miller said during a township board meeting on Monday, Sept. 8. It has taken up resources from our police department and fire department -- constant calls up there for fires ... drugs, and homicides ...

We cant go back to that.

Township Economic Enhancement Director Tracey Tucker said she is not aware of any plans by park owner Sapient Providence, a limited liability company based in California, for the sale or redevelopment of the property.

MLive-The Flint Journal could not immediately reach Daniel Muhe, resident agent for Sapient, on Wednesday, Sept. 10.

Muhe last year told Genesee Circuit Court Judge B. Chris Christenson that the property had most recently been managed by Green Gin, a limited liability company based in Florida.

Muhe described the parks demise then as a terrible disaster for all parties involved and said the condition of Myrtle Grove was so terrible that there is really only land value left in that park.

Township officials agreed in June to pay $169,000 to demolish and remove mobile homes from the park and to assess the cost as a lien against the property.

In its Circuit Court complaint, officials were granted a temporary restraining order, prohibiting Sapient or Green Gin from renting vacant homes, contending the cost of repairs far exceeded their value.

It took a lot of money to demolish it because it had to be treated as if the homes that were still there had asbestos, but it ended well, Miller said of the eventual rezoning of the property.
The weather ball in downtown Flint can be seen in this MLive file photo. (Jake May | MLive.com) Jake May

FLINT, MI  As the sun sets and the night sky settles over the downtown Flint skyline, a bright orange glow has caught many residents eyes.

For the first time in its history, the weather ball glowed orange and will do so for three nights in September.

The first date, Sept. 4, was in honor of National Food Bank Day the following day.

On Sept. 8, it was lit to honor National Hunger Day, which took place on Sept. 9.

Its not a malfunction, but rather the new color represents an initiative to raise awareness for Hunger Action Month.

Orange is the official color of hunger awareness.

September is Hunger Action Month, a national movement dedicated to raising awareness and inspiring action in the fight against hunger.

The Food Bank of Eastern Michigan joins food banks across the country in shining a light on the issue of food insecurity and rallying the community to make a difference through advocacy, volunteerism, and donations.

At the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan, we are honored to be part of Hunger Action Month, a time when we unite with our community to raise awareness, spark change, and make a lasting impact on food insecurity, said Kara Ross, President & CEO, Food Bank of Eastern Michigan. This September, thanks to our generous partners we are amplifying our efforts to ensure that no one in our region goes hungry.

Through advocacy, volunteerism, and donations, we are working together to feed our neighbors in need and bring hope to those facing hunger. We encourage everyone to participate in our events, donate, and help us continue this critical mission.

8 1 / 8 Why is the weather ball orange? The answer works to sustain hunger.

An iconic symbol of the city, the weather ball was originally owned and operated by Citizens Bank when it was installed in 1956. It works to indicate shifts in Flint weather.

How does it work? True Flintstones can tell you from a popular jingle and rhyme created years ago:

When the Weather Ball is red, warmer temperatures are ahead. When the Weather Ball is blue, colder temperatures are due. When yellow light is the color of the Weather Ball, there will be no change at all. And when it blinks in agitation, you can count on precipitation.

Your last chance to see the weather ball light up orange will be Wednesday, Sept. 17, ahead of the Empty Bowls event on Sept. 18 at the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan, 2300 Lapeer Road.

HAP CareSource is the title sponsor for the upcoming event which offers attendees a reminder of the many empty bowls across the region.

Participants will enjoy a meal of soup and bread while selecting a handcrafted bowl made by local artists to take home  a symbol of the fight against hunger.

All proceeds from the event support the Food Banks mission to feed neighbors in need across eastern Michigan.

Tickets are available now and can be purchased here.

The Food Bank of Eastern Michigan is holding another fundraising event, The Celebrity Game Show Experience Live, on Thursday, Sept. 12, at The Foundry, located at 1219 Military St. in Port Huron.

The event will feature a mashup of Pictionary, Musical Chairs, and Guess Who with a live-action twist.

The Food Bank promotes it as a night filled with local celebrities and community members that will compete in an unforgettable evening of fun, laughter and philanthropy.

Tickets can be purchased here.

This year, the Food Bank is partnering with HAP CareSource, the official Hunger Action Month Partner, to amplify efforts throughout the month.

HAP CareSource is providing a $5,000 matching gift during September to double the impact of donations made to the Food Bank.

Click here if you are interested in donating to the cause.
The Auker Mansion, located at 6353 S. Belsay Road in Grand Blanc Township, is seen in this MLive photo. The couple that owns the mansion plans to transform its 100-person ballroom into an event venue suitable for gatherings like weddings. Jake May | MLive.com

GRAND BLANC TWP., MI  Officials in Grand Blanc Township are considering plans for a new event venue that would give new life to a lavish local mansions existing ballroom.

Planning Commission members unanimously approved on Sept. 4 a preliminary site plan submitted by Cruwood LLC. for the Auker Mansion property off Belsay Road.

Its nice to see life coming back into that property, and that helps the whole area around there, commission member Jeff Joyner said at their May meeting.

The commission also voted this month to recommend the township board approve a planned unit development request from Cruwood for the same property, which will give the real estate company more flexibility when it comes to future development.

The mansion sits on a 48.8-acre property, which is currently zoned R-3 (Residential Single Family), Grand Blanc Township Planning and Zoning Administrator Jeremy Smith said.

All surrounding properties are also zoned for residential use.

The possibilities are endless with this because the beauty of it is they have so much land there, and its not going to be right on top of another subdivision or any other business, Smith said at the commissions May meeting.

Cruwood is owned by Chelsie Welch and Corey Cunningham, who also own the property.

The couple said they purchased the property in 2023 with the intention of flipping it, and they currently reside in the mansion.

Cunningham and Welch began remodeling the mansion prior to submitting the site plan for the event venue.

They were allowed to do that because it was just bringing it back to its former glory, Smith told MLive.

The company wants to use the mansions 100-person ballroom as a banquet hall for gatherings such as small weddings.

There arent any other similar event venues or banquet halls in the township, Smith said on Thursday, Sept. 11.

I think the use is great because I think its unique and its something that were seeing people leave the community to go do this, commission member Andy Andre said during the May meeting. I really appreciate that and your commitment and investment into the township.

The Auker Mansion was built in 1971 by real estate developer Elden Auker. The property features 20,000 square feet of living space, according to the Cruwood Home Facebook page.

Theyre only using the mansion, Smith said during the commissions September meeting. Theyre not adding to it. Theyre not taking away from it. Theyre adding parking lot and some drive lanes, and thats it.

Before a final site plan for the proposed event venue can be approved by the planning commission, Cruwood must update and resubmit its existing plans to include any potential future uses, setback measurements, parking lot dimensions, as well as dumpster locations.

The resubmitted plan must also include an additional three parking spaces in the proposed mansion parking lot, for a total of 50 spaces.

Additionally, Cruwood must receive any necessary approvals from county and state agencies, including the Genesee County Road Commission, before the planning commission can approve a final site plan for the property.

While we do have site plans in front of you, they are very, very, very minimal for what we can require, but we had to require something, Smith said during the September meeting.

Cruwood plans to construct an additional building on the property after receiving the approval necessary to open the event venue at the mansion.

However, the company will first have to resubmit an amended site plan for the property that includes plans for the building.

Now weve gone down the path of building the additional structure, and its not feasible at this time for us, Cunningham said at the September meeting.

Cruwood also intends to utilize existing barns on the property in the future.

Welch and Cunningham presented the planning commission with a more tentative plan for the event venue during its May meeting.

Its what weve always wanted, Welch said during the May meeting. Its (the) perfect aesthetic. Its the perfect property for it.

Although they dont plan to name the event venue after the Auker Mansion, Welch and Cunningham said they do intend to preserve the mansions history.

It was his vision, Welch said of Auker during the May meeting. We want to kind of pay homage. Its kind of a masterpiece.

Theyve also considered opening the rest of the mansion up to guests in the future for a museum-like experience.

When were reselling it as a residential property again, we realized everyone was a little disheartened and sad by that, Welch said during the May meeting. We think that this could share it with the community a little bit and give people the opportunity.

Welch said assuming plans for the event venue receive the necessary approval, the business would be expected to open in spring 2026.

The township board will consider the proposed PUD for the mansion property during its Sept. 30 or Oct. 14 meeting, Smith said on Thursday, Sept. 11.

Cruwood could not be reached for additional comment.
Jacy Darrow started working at SoZo Coffee as part of the Ascend Youth Summer Work Experience program but now is an official employee. Photo courtesy West Michigan Works!

GRAND RAPIDS, MI  An expanded summer job training program is helping local youth develop soft skills that will follow them in any career path.

Jacey Darrow joined this years Ascend Youth Summer Work Experience (WEX) program hoping to build confidence and gain real-world experience. Six weeks later, she landed a job with SoZo Coffee Roasting.

Darrow was one of 92 youth placed with 40 local employers throughout West Michigan as part of this summers Ascend program, which ran from June 23-Aug. 1.

The WEX program is administered by West Michigan Works!, a workforce development agency serving Allegan, Barry, Ionia, Kent, Montcalm, Muskegon and Ottawa counties.

The program provides youth ages 1624 with job training, soft skills development and career exploration  all while earning a paycheck.

Due to previous high demand, Ascend announced in the spring that it increased the enrollment cap to just over 140, nearly double the 76 youth accepted last year.

SoZo owners Rodney and Mindy Hensley initially welcomed the opportunity to help a young person grow on the job. At the end of the program, however, they offered Darrow a permanent position.

Honestly, without the summer work program, I dont think I would have been hired at SoZo, Darrow said. Im kind of a closed-off person and it gave me time to get comfortable at the job and gain some confidence. Now I have full conversations with customers and even answer the phone, something I never would have done before.

Darrow said she initially connected with West Michigan Works! to explore becoming a veterinary technician. Her WEX experience allowed her to grow in areas like communication, social interaction and customer service  transferable skills that will support her long-term career goals.

Our goal is to create meaningful opportunities that prepare youth for success, whether thats in college, a trade or the workforce, Chad Patton, director of development and innovation at West Michigan Works! said in a statement.

When local employers like SoZo step up and provide real-world experiences, it can be life changing. Jaceys story is just one example of how confidence and career readiness can flourish with the right opportunity, support and hands-on learning.

The WEX program is structured to include a 20-hour weekly commitment from participants, including in-person work and virtual WorkREADY training during the programs first week.

Participants will be compensated $14 per hour for their time in the program.

Online training includes career exploration, problem solving in the workplace and soft skills training. Ascend Youth Services will assist participants who do not have reliable internet access.

Work experience through WEX spans multiple industries, and participants are placed with an employer that best matches their skills and interests.
Patrick Waterman, the deputy city manager for Wyoming City, takes question from Ottawa County commissioners as a finalist to become the county administrator. (Ottawa County YouTube) Ottawa County YouTube

OTTAWA COUNTY, MI -- Tensions briefly flared as Ottawa County commissioners interviewed a former county employee for the long-vacant county administrators post.

The tension happened between two commissioners near the end of an interview with Patrick Waterman, the countys former deputy administrator who resigned in July 2023 amid government strife.

When he resigned, Waterman was working under the supervision of former Administrator John Gibbs.

Gibbs was fired in late February 2024 for alleged misconduct although he later reached a settlement to have his record show he resigned.

Commissioner Joe Moss, who chaired the county board in 2023-2024 after commissioners with the highly conservative Ottawa Impact platform gained a majority, made it clear he didnt want Waterman as the new administrator.

No offense to your candidacy for the role, but I think you should stay in the city of Wyoming. Ottawa County needs an administrator the whole board can trust and you are not that person, Moss said, claiming Waterman was a DEI champion and has too much baggage.

Moss comments quickly spurred a response from Commissioner Jacob Bonnema, who was elected in 2022 under the Ottawa Impact banner but soon after broke with the group.

Bonnema came to Watermans defense.

He blamed Moss for problems and controversies that surfaced in 2023, describing it as chaos, mismanagement and accusations that came from board leadership at that time.

You have brought chaos upon chaos upon chaos in this (administrators) position, Bonnema said.

This is an opportunity to build bridges and youre not doing that. Youre doing nothing but blowing the bridge, Bonnema said.

Waterman was among five finalists for the long-vacant administrators post, last filled by Gibbs.

The others are lawyer and former mayor of Holland Kurt Dykstra; Muskegon County Deputy Administrator Matthew Farrar; Billings, Montana city administrator Chris Kukulski; and Paul Sachs, Ottawa Countys director of strategic impact.

When Waterman resigned as Ottawa County deputy administrator in 2023, he wrote in an email that he had deep concerns over a lack of effective leadership and an eroding culture of employee trust in the county.

He would later testify during an October employment hearing, unrelated to his resignation, that Gibbs sought to hire an underqualified 23-year-old aide because he could be bossed around.

The younger candidate got the job and the county later faced an age discrimination lawsuit from a more qualified candidate.

Commissioners are expected to vote on hiring a new administrator on Friday, Sept. 12.

Want more Grand Rapids-area news? Bookmark the local Grand Rapids news page or sign up for the free 3@3 Grand Rapids daily newsletter.
JACKSON COUNTY, MI  Residents in Jackson County who need assistance paying for home renovations may soon get help.

During a Tuesday, Sept. 9 study session, Jackson County Board of Commissioners voted to apply for $472,000 of Community Development Block Grant funding for home rehabilitation projects for low- to moderate-income residents.

Theres lots of people in the community that can benefit from this grant, so why not? County Administrator Mike Overton said.

These funds are provided through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development via the Michigan State Housing Development Authoritys Housing Rehabilitation Program. The county is working with Accelerate Jackson County to apply for the grant.

The county plans to use $400,000 for rehabilitation projects, while the remaining $72,000 would cover administrative and program-related costs, according to the proposal.

These funds could be used for most home projects, including fixing an old furnace or replacing a leaking roof, so long as the project cost doesnt exceed $40,000, Overton said.

According to MSHDA, households with incomes at or below 80% of area median income would qualify for the grant. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 80% of the area median income for a single-person household would be $47,250 annually.

The funds will pay for a third-party administrator to assist the county with grant process. Accelerate Jackson County Vice President Debbie Kelly said there will be a request for proposals for this, but she hopes for Community Action Agency to be selected since the nonprofit has historically worked with low- to moderate-income residents in Jackson.

If MSHDA approves the application, the start date for the project would be Oct. 1, Kelly said. The timeline is not set in stone, but Kelly said applications will begin to be accepted within three months after this, and rehabilitation efforts will begin within four to 24 months.

Jackson County Board Chairman Steve Shotwell said these funds would be a great benefit to rural and older residents. Grants would be awarded to eligible properties, first come, first serve, he said.

Its bringing our tax dollars back to Jackson to be spend here on our taxpayers instead of being spent on another community, Shotwell said.

Commissioners voted 7-0 to approve the application. District 4 County Commissioner Philip Duckham and District 6 County Commissioner Earl Poleski were absent from the meeting.

Want more Jackson-area news? Bookmark the local Jackson news page.
Former Michigan House Speaker Tom Leonard said Attorney General Dana Nessel should be investigated by the federal government for abuse of power for bringing now-dismissed charges in the fake electors case. Jake May | MLive.com

Former Michigan House Speaker Tom Leonard said Attorney General Dana Nessel should be investigated by the federal government for abuse of power for bringing now-dismissed charges in the fake electors case.

Dana Nessel is the most reckless attorney general in the country, and she has repeatedly abused her office, Leonard said. Time and time again, she has proven that she is not a prosecutor but a dangerous activist. We saw that again today with the dismissal of the alternate electors case, which never should have been brought.

The U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Leonard, a Republican, ran an unsuccessful campaign against Nessel for attorney general in 2018 and is now running for governor.

Nessel, a Democrat, faced criticism from Republicans around the state Tuesday, Sept. 9, after Lansing District Judge Kristen Simmons dismissed felony charges Nessel brought against 15 fake electors in the 2020 presidential election in Michigan.

Those 15 Republicans were charged with forgery, conspiracy to commit election fraud and other felonies on allegations they signed documents falsely identifying themselves as the states electors in an attempt to certify electoral votes for President Donald Trump, despite his loss.

Former President Joe Biden won Michigan in 2020 by about 154,000 votes.

Trump has repeatedly, and falsely, claimed that he won the 2020 election, and the fake elector accusations in Michigan were allegedly part of a wider scheme to subvert the national election results in favor of Trump across a handful of swing states.

The defendants contended that the documents were only intended to be used in the event Trump overturned his loss to Biden.

In dismissing the charges, Simmons said the defendants had no intent to defraud and were exercising their First Amendment rights to petition the government.

Nessel said her office is considering whether to appeal the decision.

She called Simmons decision disappointing, saying the evidence of wrongdoing seemed clear to her.

This is the most dangerous slippery slope that exists for American democracy when the courts determine that violations of election law should not even be heard by a jury, Nessel told reporters. This was, in my belief, a coordinated attempt to overturn the will of the American people and reinstate Donald Trump as president.

Nessel said she worries about fairness in the 2026 election.

In addition to Leonard, other Republican candidates for governor in 2026 praised the decision to dismiss charges and were critical of Nessels prosecution on social media.

Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is term-limited and cannot seek reelection.

The Democrats partisan prosecutions in Michigan and across the country of President Donald Trump and his supporters erode our judicial system and imperil our Republic, said U.S. Rep. John James, R-Shelby Township. While Michigans affordability and education decline, they waste taxpayer funds for political vendettas. As governor, I will expose their misconduct and restore blind justice to our state.

Former Attorney General Mike Cox said Simmons stood up to the Democrat machine and demanded due process.

Another example of lawfare and the Fake-News media trying to destroy anyone that doesnt agree with their opinions, Cox said.

Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt called the case a witch hunt and a disgusting abuse of our legal system.

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who is running as a Democrat for governor in 2026, said Michigan was ground zero in 2020 for a nationally organized effort to overturn a legitimate presidential election.

She called Tuesdays dismissal of charges a a poignant reminder that its up to all of us to ensure democracy, our right to vote and to hold our elected officials accountable, prevails in Michigan and beyond.

Politics
The crowd reacts after Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, is shot at the Utah Valley University Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, in Orem, Utah. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP) AP

The Michigan House adjourned session early Wednesday in response to Charlie Kirk, a prominent conservative youth organizer, being fatally shot while speaking at a university in Utah.

Majority Floor Leader state Rep. Bryan Posthumus, R-Rockford, said he adjourned the session shortly after 3 p.m. Wednesday as both a precaution for lawmakers and a sign of respect for Kirks family.

Posthumus said there were no specific threats against lawmakers and that the session will resume as planned Thursday.

Kirk, who headed the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was shot in the neck Wednesday while holding a debate event at Utah Valley University as part of a college speaking tour, according to the New York Times. He died from his injuries.

Kirk was in Michigan in April for a talk at Michigan State University as part of the same tour, called The American Comeback Tour.

According to The State News, Kirk debated with students on campus on a range of topics, from abortion and the economy to the relationship between the LGBTQ+ community and Christianity.

Posthumus, who had met Kirk before, attested to Kirks ability to energize and mobilize young conservatives.

Charlie Kirk sparked a generational movement of conservatism that hasnt been seen in my lifetime, Posthumus said. And he used logic and he used reason and he used passion to do it, and to see somebody like that likely assassinated is unthinkable.

State Rep. Bradley Slagh, RZeeland, shared on the House floor that Kirk had been shot just after 3 p.m., and led the chamber in a prayer for Kirks health and his family and friends.

At the time, Kirks condition was not known. Posthumus said members of the House were shaken by the news.

During the prayer, Slaghs voice quaked at times, with state Rep. Joseph Fox, R-Fremont, placing his hand on Slaghs shoulder for support. Behind them, state Rep. Jennifer Wortz, R-Quincy, appeared to wipe away tears.

While a motive in the shooting is not yet known, the act comes amid rising political violence and attempted or successful assassinations in America.

Last year, President Donald Trump survived being shot during a campaign rally. Earlier this year, a Minnesota state representative and her husband were killed, and a Minnesota state senator and his wife were wounded in what police said was a politically motivated attack.

Theres no place in our society for political violence against anybody, whether its a Republican or a Democrat, independent. Doesnt matter, Posthumus said. Theres no place for it in our society.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmers investment trip abroad will secure an estimated 800 new jobs in Michigan, retain 175 jobs and bring nearly $200 million in investment to the state. Ayrton Breckenridge | MLive.com

Gov. Gretchen Whitmers investment trip abroad will secure an estimated 800 new jobs in Michigan, retain 175 jobs and bring nearly $200 million in investment to the state.

Whitmers office touted those figures Wednesday as the result of her 10-day investment mission to Singapore, Japan and Germany.

When we engage directly with our partners abroad, we can secure investments that create good-paying jobs for Michiganders, grow our advanced industries and strengthen our states economic future, Whitmer said. Especially at a time of global uncertainty, it is more important than ever for Michigan to take the lead in opening doors, fostering trust and showcasing why theres no better place to do business than right here in our state.

Ill keep working with anyone and competing with everyone to grow Michigans economy, create good-paying jobs, and help individuals, families and businesses make it in Michigan.

Whitmer announced several investments in Michigan during her time abroad.

Tokyo-based automotive supplier Astemo Ltd. plans to construct a $95 million regional headquarters near Wixom that will support at least 200 new jobs. The move is also expected to retain 175 jobs.

Manufacturer JR Automation, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Hitachi Ltd., plans to build a new $72.8 million global headquarters in Zeeland, creating 150 jobs.

Military vehicle manufacturer American Rheinmetall, a subsidiary of Germany-based Rheinmetall AG, plans to expand its footprint in Michigan with a $31.7 million investment. The expansion is expected to create 450 new jobs.

American Rheinmetalls plans include constructing a new headquarters in Auburn Hills, consolidating operations in Troy and Sterling Heights. The investment will also expand production across the companys facilities in Plymouth, Lapeer and Lansing.

This mission underscored that our states story resonates globally: Michigan offers a strong environment for businesses, talent for the future and a proven ability to deliver wins for communities across our state, said Quentin L. Messer Jr., CEO of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC). Nurturing these international relationships enables Team Michigan to fully execute our Make It in Michigan strategy while remaining competitively relevant amid a rapidly changing foreign direct investment landscape.

Whitmers office touted her visit to Singapore as the first-ever official investment mission by a Michigan governor to the country.

While in Japan, MEDC signed an agreement with Hitachi to identify opportunities in Michigan to collaborate on advanced manufacturing, energy and transportation infrastructure development, data center development, life sciences, startup ecosystem facilitation and research and development.

Whitmer led investment missions to the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Australia earlier this year.
Dry, sunny weather for the next few days is going to make us feel like summer has returned to the Detroit area and its suburbs. And after a chance of rain over the weekend, the forecast shows well be right back to those daytime high temperatures hitting 80 next week.

Here are the forecast highlights from the National Weather Service in Detroit.

After a mild Wednesday with temperatures in the mid-70s across the region, Southeast Michigan is poised for several days of summer-like conditions, with temperatures climbing into the 80s.

The warming trend will continue into the weekend, with lower 80s expected by Friday. However, residents in the eastern Thumb region may experience slightly cooler conditions due to northeast winds driven by a strong high-pressure system over Eastern Canada.

A weather system moving through Hudson Bay could bring a few showers to the area on Saturday. The weekend will conclude with summer-like conditions Sunday and Monday, though morning fog may develop. Temperatures are expected to reach around 80 degrees during the day, with overnight lows dropping into the 50s.

Generative AI was used to produce an initial draft of this story based on data from the National Weather Service. It was reviewed, edited and expanded by MLive staff.
Festive cheer for luxury car buyers as Mercedes, BMW, JLR, Audi, Volvo models get cheaper by up to Rs 30 lakh

Varun Singh A journalist covering the automotive sector in depth, across business and product verticals. Trying to hit the gym at least four times a week! I am not a fitness freak though.

The luxury cars have witnessed a handsome price drop following the GST rate rationalisation.

Varun Singh

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Inside Rs 1.5 crore fee school that rejects more students than IIT, MIT and Harvard

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AMMA President Shwetha Menon to initiate fixed hours of work for women in Malayalam cinema

Sarika Sharma

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Exclusive - 'Anurag Kashyap and Guneet Monga open doors, independent films struggle to walk through,' says Priyanka Bose

M Snehanjali

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How old are Karisma Kapoor and Sunjay Kapur's children Samaira and Kian and what are they doing now

How old are Karisma Kapoor and Sunjay Kapur's children Samaira and Kian and what are they doing now

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Karisma Kapoor's late husband Sunjay Kapur was helping her and their children procure Portuguese citizenship, reveals Court records

Karisma Kapoor's late husband Sunjay Kapur was helping her and their children procure Portuguese citizenship, reveals Court records

Vaishnavi Gavankar

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On Anurag Kashyaps Birthday, Dacoit makers drop first look of his fierce cop avatar

Palak Vij

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Vishal Jethwa on TIFF screening of 'Homebound': Im enjoying every bit of this global attention

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High blood pressure: These 10 everyday habits are the biggest causes of hypertension

Nivedita is a Delhi-based journalist who writes on health, fashion, lifestyle and entertainment. Views expressed are personal.

Your daily habits may be silently raising your blood pressure  heres how to fix them. (Image: Pexels)

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That eco-friendly hand dryer may be blowing more than hot air  studies show it can spread bacteria and pathogens across public restrooms (Image: Canva)

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World Suicide Prevention Day 2025: Causes of anxiety and depression in students

Namita S Kalla is a senior journalist who writes about different aspects of modern life that include lifestyle, health, fashion, beauty, and entertainment.

Academic pressure and mental health: Academic stress, along with financial insecurity, peer comparison, loneliness, and social media can overwhelm young minds (Image: Pexels)

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IOCL Recruitment 2025: Registration begins for engineer posts at iocl.com; direct link to apply here

Archisha Yadav is a sub editor with 1.5 years of experience in writing news articles on topics like education, jobs, and politics. She specialises in crafting simple, clear, and engaging stories that are easy to understand and hold the readers interest, making complex topics accessible and relatable to a larger audience.

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AI in Fintech: How Next-Gen Startups Are Transforming Retail Trading and Fund Management

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Riya Gandhi

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Apples iPhone 17 series production in India goes full throttle; local factories gear up to meet US, Europe demand

Danish Khan is the editor of Technology and Telecom. He was previously with the Economic Times and has tracked the sector for 14 years.

Apples iPhone 17 series production in India goes full throttle; local factories gear up to meet US, Europe demand

Ankit Saproo

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Notices were also issued on interim relief, with replies due in two weeks and rejoinders within one week. The matter is scheduled for October 9.

Surabhi Pandey

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This is an AI-assisted live blog with updates sourced from multiple news outlets and agencies

Disclaimer This is an AI-assisted live blog with updates sourced from multiple news outlets and agencies

Disclaimer This is an AI-assisted live blog with updates sourced from multiple news outlets and agencies

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Alpha Desk

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IT stocks rally for 2nd day: OFSS, Wipro, others rise up to 8% on hopes over US trade talks, Fed rate cut

IT stocks rally for 2nd day: OFSS, Wipro, others rise up to 8% on hopes over US trade talks, Fed rate cut

Debaroti Adhikary

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The new rules, notified on Tuesday, are part of the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (SEBI) measures for stricter scrutiny of angel fund investors.

Arindam Roy

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Sensex declines 300 pts from day's high, Nifty below 25,000: Three key reasons behind market paring gains

Paras Bisht A financial journalist with over 10 years of experience, specialising in tracking stock market movements and fundamental developments that impact investors and the broader economy. A keen observer of global financial markets, I regularly engage with leading market voices to write stories. At Moneycontrol, I focus on decoding market trends, policy shifts and economic changes, driven by a constant passion to learn, analyse, and share knowledge with my readers.

Paras Bisht

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Indices held firm with Sensex climbing over 370 points and Nifty inching close to 25,000

Lovisha Darad

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Sensex settles 300 pts higher, Nifty above 24,950: Optimism over US trade talks among key factors behind market rise

Paras Bisht A financial journalist with over 10 years of experience, specialising in tracking stock market movements and fundamental developments that impact investors and the broader economy. A keen observer of global financial markets, I regularly engage with leading market voices to write stories. At Moneycontrol, I focus on decoding market trends, policy shifts and economic changes, driven by a constant passion to learn, analyse, and share knowledge with my readers.

Paras Bisht

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Vodafone Idea shares rise 3 percent after moving petition before SC against DoT's calculation of fresh AGR dues

Debaroti Adhikary

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'No roof over my head, assets worth Rs 10,000 crore should be mine': Rani Kapur on battle over son Sunjay's will

Debaroti Adhikary

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Padmini Dhruvaraj

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The board will also consider a proposal for a 10:1 bonus issue - issue of bonus equity shares for every one equity share held by shareholders, an exchange filing by the Ahmedabad-based company stated.

Paras Bisht

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For now, while the platform fee line item does not generate profits, it certainly helps cushion the blow.

From Amazon to Zomato: Platform fee is the charge that keeps on giving for e-commerce apps

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Subhash Helgaokar

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With over 25 years of experience in the aerospace and defence industry and consulting, Kanaglekar brings a wealth of expertise in driving strategic growth, fostering partnerships, and leading high-stakes initiatives, the global company said.

101Reporters

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5 juveniles dead in clashes in Nepal prison, over 7,000 prisoners escape from different jails amid unrest

101Reporters

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On May 30, last year, the MP-MLA court sentenced Khan to 10 years imprisonment following which he moved the high court

Smriti Mishra

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Siddharth Chakravorty

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4 airports set to roll out the Digi Yatra facility

By the end of this month, four more airports are set to roll out the Digi Yatra facility: Official sources told ANI

Digi Yatra to be awarded the Gold Medal by the National Awards for e-Governance (NAEG) on September 2223 in Visakhapatnam: Official sources
But for Congress, Nepal would have been a part of India: Bihar Deputy CM

Yeeshu Yadav

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Arindam Roy

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The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2023, lists atomic, critical, and strategic minerals, with the Centre emphasising their exploration and extraction to reduce import dependence.

Deblina Halder

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Smoke rises after several blasts were heard in Qatari capital Doha. (Image: Reuters)

Chhabi Kala

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Ria Kapoor

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EC to take call on pan-India SIR rollout soon; like to be held before year-end

101Reporters

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EU is unlikely to hike tariffs on India, China at Trump's request

Officials said Trump urged the EU to hit India and China with up to 100% tariffs in order to put pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin

Arindam Roy

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Security personnel keep vigil on the India side of the border with Nepal in Mahrajganj district of UP (PTI)

Armaan Bhatnagar

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How new US tariffs will hit Kashmirs famed Pashmina shawls

A Kashmiri shawl weaver in Srinagar; and a 'dorukha' - or reversible - Kashmiri Pashmina. (Image credits: Zatara Iqbal and Jaina Mishra, respectively, via Wikimedia Commons 4.0)

Moneycontrol Features

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'Looking forward to speaking with you': Modi responds to Trump; US President reshares PM's post

Chhabi Kala

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Sonalee Borgohain

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India in talks with US for bilateral trade agreement, says Piyush Goyal

A trade agreement with Oman is also likely to be reached soon, Piyush Goyal said at the FICCI Leads Summit.

Arindam Roy

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India Mission in China advises caution to Kailash pilgrims due to tense situation in Nepal

Demonstrators hold flags as smoke rises at the Parliament complex, during a protest against Monday's killing of 19 people after anti-corruption protests in Nepal. (Reuters image)

101Reporters

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'India's situation quite similar to Nepal...': Sanjay Raut says Indian youth quiet only because they're unemployed

Ria Kapoor

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Christin Mathew Philip

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Look forward to speaking to PM Modi: Trump says ready to resume trade talks with India

PM Modi had earlier responded warmly to Trumps last remarks, calling the India-US partnership forward-looking and rooted in a Comprehensive and Global Strategic Partnership.

Deblina Halder

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Mauritius PM to hold bilateral talks with Modi in Varanasi; to visit Ayodhya, Tirupati

The Prime Minister of Mauritius will be in Varanasi for three days from September 10-12

Smriti Mishra

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Yeeshu Yadav

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'Not even sparing tourists ...': Indian woman stranded in Nepal claims she barely managed to save her life

Sonalee Borgohain

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In Radhakrishnan, the Upper House will have a chairman known for his amenable nature, unlike Jagdeep Dhankhar, who had frequent run-ins with the leaders of the opposition.

Siddharth Chakravorty

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Proud of our Constitution, see what is happening in neighbouring nations: Supreme Court mentions Nepal, Bangladesh unrest

This week, Nepal saw large-scale anti-corruption demonstrations that was triggered by a ban on social media platforms

Smriti Mishra

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Rewrite Constitution, restructure fundamental institutions and...: What are the demands of the Gez Z protesters in Nepal?

Ria Kapoor

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Trump has already doubled tariffs on India to 50% over its continued purchase of Russian oil.

Deblina Halder

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Chhabi Kala

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Given the current strength of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, Radhakrishnan was expected to get a minimum of 427 votes from the NDA MPs

Smriti Mishra

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Will Balendra Shah be Nepal's next PM? All about 35-year-old Kathmandu mayor who banned Indian films

Before joining politics, Balen Shah was a popular name Nepal's underground hip-hop scene as a rapper and lyricist and was known for his songs raising issues about corruption and inequality in Nepal.

Siddharth Chakravorty

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'Will Bengalis be forced to worship Modi with Maa Durga?': AAP alleges instructions to put PM's pic at Durga Puja pandals in Delhi

Ria Kapoor

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OPINION | Reforming the collegium system will preserve judicial independence, not undermine it

Shishir Tripathi is a journalist and researcher based in Delhi. He has worked with The Indian Express, Firstpost, Governance Now, and Indic Collective. He writes on Law, Governance and Politics. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.

The Collegiums decisions have, on multiple occasions, attracted critical scrutiny from within the judiciary itself.

Namrata Agarwal

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Indian immigrant in US says he wants to return but family doesn't: 'I'm stuck here. My heart is sad'

has also sparked a wave of reactions online, with many users expressing empathy for the mans situation. (Image credit: @WokePandemic/X)

Ankita Sengupta

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US influencer asks Mumbai transwoman if Indians 'shi* on the streets'. Her response is viral

Screengrab from the video that has collected more than a million views. (Image credit: @chaotichermes/X)

Ankita Sengupta

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A massive 100-foot asteroid is on a collision course with Earth today, NASA confirms

MC Science Desk Read the latest and trending science newsstay updated on NASA, ISRO, space missions, planets, asteroids, black holes, AI, quantum physics, galaxy discoveries, and more exciting breakthroughs.

Sheetal Kumari

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MC Tech Desk Read the latest and trending tech newsstay updated on AI, gadgets, cybersecurity, software updates, smartphones, blockchain, space tech, and the future of innovation.

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MC Tech Desk

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Flights cancelled, border on high alert, trade under strain: How Nepal's deadly protests are impacting India | Explained

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Smoke billows from the burning Hilton Hotels, a day after it was set ablaze by protesters in Kathmandu on September 10, 2025.

Abhinav Gupta

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MC Tech Desk Read the latest and trending tech newsstay updated on AI, gadgets, cybersecurity, software updates, smartphones, blockchain, space tech, and the future of innovation.

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Aabhas Sharma

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Aabhas Sharma

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Spotify finally brings lossless audio at no extra cost to users but there's a catch

MC Tech Desk Read the latest and trending tech newsstay updated on AI, gadgets, cybersecurity, software updates, smartphones, blockchain, space tech, and the future of innovation.

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Aabhas Sharma

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2 / 12

Catching the northern lights requires planning. The aurora borealis only appears under the right conditions, making evening hours ideal for viewing. Winter, between October and April, offers the longest nights and the clearest skies. The darker the sky, the more vivid the colors, so a well-timed tour significantly increases your chances of witnessing this celestial show. Here are the 10 European destinations where the northern lights will leave you awestruck: (Image: Unsplash)
Pragya Trivedi

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'Bangladesh, now Nepal, who is next?': Manish Tewari questions powers behind Gen Z-led protests

Demonstrators hold flags as smoke rises at the Parliament complex, during a protest against Monday's killing of 19 people after anti-corruption protests in Nepal. Reuters

Surabhi Pandey

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Abhinav Gupta

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4 / 8

Protesters defy prohibitory orders, return to the streets of Kathmandu in fresh standoff. Nepali Army seizes weapons from protesters as troops patrol Kathmandu following violent unrest. (Image: AFP)
'Containing or deterring China will fail,' Beijing warns US amid Trump's tariff pressure

File Image - China's President Xi Jinping (R) shakes hands with US President Donald Trump before a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Osaka on June 29, 2019. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP)

Abhinav Gupta

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Invite your friends and family to sign up for MC Tech 3, our daily newsletter that breaks down the biggest tech and startup stories of the day

Arindam Roy

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Flotilla for Gaza reports second drone attack on boat in Tunisian waters

The "Family" anchored off the coast of the village of Sidi Bou Said on September 9.

101Reporters

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Smriti Mishra

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From Monarchy to Republic: The 2006 peoples movement that changed Nepal forever

The 2006-2008 period marked Nepals most significant political shift in modern times -- a transition from palace dominance to a fragile republic.

Deblina Halder

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Trump-Modi talks soon? Decoding the positive turn in India, US trade negotiations

Abhinav Gupta

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'Gen Z believed in me, I am ready: Sushila Karki after being named Nepals interim leader

Abhinav Gupta

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'Here we go!': Trump says Russia drones 'violating' Polish airspace

Trump warned at the weekend that he was ready to impose more sanctions on Moscow over its war on Ukraine, amid growing frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Hemant Abhishek

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Hemant Abhishek

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Since landing on the Martian surface in 2021, the six-wheeled rover has been exploring Jezero Crater

Arindam Roy

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Nepal News Live: Former Nepal PM Khanals wife critical: Report

Former Nepalese prime minister Jhala Nath Khanal's wife Ravi Laxmi Chitrakar, who sustained serious burn injuries, is critical and undergoing treatment at a hospital, a media report said on Wednesday.

A mob set the house belonging to Khanal on fire in the Dallu area of Kathmandu on Tuesday. Chitrakar, who was trapped inside the house, sustained serious burn injuries.

Some Nepalese media outlets on Tuesday reported that she succumbed to her injuries at a hospital. However, The Kathmandu Post newspaper on Wednesday reported that Chitrakar's health condition is stable but critical.
An Army personnel walks past the charred remains of government vehicles inside the premises of the Parliament building in Kathmandu on September 10, 2025. (AFP)

Abhinav Gupta

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South Korea sends plane to US to bring back workers detained in immigration raid

Federal agents executing an enforcement operation at a Hyundai-LG electric vehicle battery plant in Georgia on September 4. (Courtesy: AFP photo)

Sonalee Borgohain

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Qatar PM Al-Thani condemns Israeli strike in Doha, warns country 'reserves the right to respond'

Pragya Trivedi

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Plumes of smoke engulfs the city of Kathmandu on September 10, 2025, a day after several buildings were set ablaze by protesters. Nepali demonstrators set parliament ablaze on September 9, while the veteran prime minister quit, as a "Gen Z" protest movement sparked by a ban on social media overtook the Himalayan nation. At least 19 people were killed during rallies a day earlier, one of the deadliest crackdowns in years which fuelled public anger. (AFP)

Surabhi Pandey

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Who is Sushila Karki? Ex-Chief Justice picked to lead Nepal in its hour of turmoil after KP Oli's ouster

Abhinav Gupta

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Why Brazil is holding Jair Bolsonaros trial of the century

Why Brazil is holding Jair Bolsonaros trial of the century

Pragya Trivedi

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Failed Tinian casino project sparks $13.4M lawsuit

TWENTY-THREE Chinese nationals have filed a $13.4 million lawsuit in the New York State Supreme Court against the developers of a proposed casino resort in Tinian, alleging fraud and other misconduct.

The plaintiffs, members of the American Northern Marianas Economic Development Fund LLC, accuse the defendants of breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, conversion, legal malpractice, and unjust enrichment. They are represented by attorney Justin M. Sher of Sher Tremonte LLP.

Named in the 81-page complaint filed in July 2025, are Xianjun Meng, managing director of the American Northern Marianas Regional Center or ANMRC and CEO of Bridge Investment Group LLC; his wife, Silvia Siu, also known as Xiao Bing; and two New York attorneys, Jin An and Samuel Newbold. Meng and Siu, who reside in New York, are also principals of Canbo International Group Ltd., a Hong Kong-based immigration consultancy.

(Bridge Investment Group LLC  not to be confused with Bridge Capital LLC  is an entirely separate entity with no affiliation.)

The plaintiffs claim they were misled into investing nearly $12.1 million, plus hundreds of thousands in fees, based on promises that their funds would support the development of a 300-room luxury casino resort on Tinian, qualifying them for EB-5 investor visas. Despite a decade passing, the lawsuit states, no casino or hotel has been built, and none of the investors have received visas.

The proposed Tinian Ocean View Resort and Casino was pitched as a solution to the islands underdeveloped tourism sector, promising jobs and economic growth. ANMRCs 2014 business plan submitted to USCIS described a 385,000-square-foot casino, a 150-room six-star luxury hotel, a 150-room mid-range hotel, high-end retail and dining, convention space, spa facilities, and a ferry service. The luxury hotel was dubbed the Titanic Hotel, featuring a cruise ship-inspired design.

The Fund was formed in May 2014 to raise capital for BIG. According to the complaint, Meng and Siu solicited investors through Canbo using aggressive marketing, including social media, brochures, and in-person meetings. Each Class B Unit required a $500,000 investment, a $45,000 administrative fee, and a $10,000 legal fee, allegedly paid to U.S. immigration attorneys.

Once an investors I-526 petition was approved, the Fund would lend the money to BIG for project development. However, the lawsuit alleges that Canbos promotional materials contained false claims, including guarantees of fast visa approvals and misleading photos posted on WeChat.

On Aug. 21, 2023, Canbo abruptly shut down a group chat, citing privacy concerns. The lawsuit claims the move was likely in response to USCIS notices warning of plans to revoke previously approved I-526 petitions.

The complaint further alleges that Canbo misrepresented the projects EB-5 status, potential profits, and job creation metrics. It claims the gambling license was never pledged as collateral, project valuations were inflated, and the developers lacked access to bank loans or refinancing.

The lawsuit states the job creation model used to secure EB-5 approval was flawed, noting the limited number of U.S. citizens on Tinian and reliance on imported construction materials, which undermined indirect job creation.

In total, the Fund loaned approximately $64 million to BIG. The lawsuit alleges this was done without a signed loan agreement or repayment commitment, and that Canbo recruited immigration attorneys to support the scheme.
Students, education chief seek more funding for PSS

PUBLIC School System officials led by Commissioner of Education Dr. Lawrence F. Camacho and a group of high school students appeared before the Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee during a budget hearing Tuesday, urging senators to reject the Houses proposed $31.7 million allocation for PSS and instead fund education with at least $40 million.

Marianas High School senior Ainsley Parnes Ancheta spoke on behalf of more than a dozen students in the gallery, asking the senators to invest in our education because it is not only for our future but for the CNMIs future as well. She said the motto Students First, Educators Always has guided PSS. She added, It is an ideal the CNMI should respect because it is for our future.

Ancheta noted that PSS has not received the 25% funding guaranteed by the CNMI Constitution  not in the last fiscal year, not in the current fiscal year, and not in the proposed FY 2026 budget.

I come here with the utmost respect for the legislative process, and I understand that this body is putting all its efforts to secure a loan. However, it is not enough, she said.

Camacho said, It is not our childrens fault that the economy is the way it is, and I am not here to point fingers at who is responsible. I am here to advocate for our students and to remind everyone that we must prioritize education. We should fund it with at least $40 million, or risk falling behind with only $31.7 million.

The commissioner highlighted PSS successes, noting that nearly 90% of schools met or exceeded district goals last year. Student proficiency scores rose to 62% in mathematics and 65% in reading, above the 58% benchmark. Early literacy climbed to 71%, reflecting a 17% jump in reading and a 7% increase in math.

This is the result of high standards, qualified teachers, and strong support systems, he said, commending educators, counselors, and administrators.

Camacho also noted that all 20 PSS campuses opened on schedule last month after passing safety, fire, and sanitation inspections, underscoring a commitment to safe, healthy learning environments.

He said the American Rescue Plan Act has provided financial stability over the last three years, covering $12 million in local budget shortfalls to prevent furloughs and protect the full 180 instructional days for students. With ARPA funds now exhausted, he said, the Houses $31.7 million proposal is insufficient.

Camacho added that cost-saving initiatives are already in place, including nearly $1 million in annual savings from solar panels at 19 campuses, reductions in locally funded operations by 50%, and limits on off-island travel. Still, he said, classrooms and programs would suffer if PSS does not receive at least $40 million.

This Legislature appropriated $33.4 million last year, and we only survived because ARPA covered the gap. That cushion is gone. The $31.7 million will not cut it  it will set us back, he said.

Camacho urged senators to view education as the pathway out of the economic crisis. He added, You want to fix the economy and advance our society? Invest in these kids today  they will take the mantle soon and lead the way for a better tomorrow.

He reiterated that the $31.7 million proposed in the FY 2026 budget will send us backwards, and warned that without adequate investment, we risk undoing years of student progress.

Sen. Jude U. Hofschneider, chairman of the Fiscal Affairs Committee, said House Bill 24-46, proposing a $127.4 million appropriation for FY 2026, is before the Senate and is not final. That is why we have this budget process: to gain clarity and exchange ideas.

Sen. Ronnie Calvo, a former special education teacher from Rota, called the hearing a very deep and critical conversation. He commended public comments and said lawmakers are trying to collaborate and see how we can come to an agreement based on the collective revenue available to the CNMI.

Sen. Paul A. Manglona said he was encouraged that education officials are willing to compromise and meet in the middle after hearing Camacho advocate for at least $40 million. PSS original request was $49.2 million.

The hearing was a good exercise because we now have a sense of how far we are from the number that you are looking for to possibly meet the students needs, Manglona said. He added that the Senate is working to comply with the constitution and noted the $29 million House-passed loan to cover 75% of retirees pensions, freeing up funds for agencies including PSS.

High school students listen during the Senate Fiscal Affairs Committees budget hearing in the Senate chamber on Tuesday. Photos by Emmanuel T. Erediano
US lawmakers to visit China this month

WASHINGTON (Reuters)  A bipartisan group of lawmakers from the U.S. House of Representatives will make an official trip to China later this month, led by Democratic U.S. Rep. Adam Smith.

Smith, a U.S. representative from the Washington state, is the former chair of the House Armed Services Committee and the current top Democrat on the panel. A committee staffer confirmed Smiths plan to lead the delegation to China but could not provide other details.

NBC News first reported the planned trip, citing an interview with Smith. The exact timing of the trip was not immediately clear.

Smith told NBC News that both Democratic and Republican members of the House Armed Services Committee would participate in the trip, but its chair, Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, would not be a part of the delegation.

The trip will take place during strained ties between Washington and Beijing over issues like trade tariffs, technology, cybersecurity, the ownership of TikTok, the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic and policies related to Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Beijing and Washington agreed on August 11 to extend their tariff truce for another 90 days, locking in place U.S. levies of 30% on Chinese imports and 10% Chinese duties on U.S. goods, but appear to be struggling to chart a path beyond the current pause.

Its part of wanting to try to open up a dialogue between the U.S. and China. And I personally think its important that you do that, Smith told NBC News in an interview.

Merely talking with China is not endorsing everything that they do. Its like China is a big, powerful country. We are a big, powerful country. I think we need to talk about that, he said.

Asked if the lawmakers would meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Smith told the media outlet: Were asking. We dont know yet.

Last week, Xi warned that the world was facing a choice between peace or war at a massive military parade in Beijing, flanked by Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in a show of force.
Guam will be laboratory for new missile defense equipment: think tank

The Vertical Launching System site at North Field, Andersen Air Force Bas on April 16, 2025. Photo by William J. Busby III/U.S. Navy/The Guam Daily Post

HAGATNA (The Guam Daily Post)  The Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Army recently issued a record of decision, or ROD, to proceed with the 360-degree Enhanced Integrated Air and Missile Defense System, or EIAMDS, for Guam.

EIAMDS components would be positioned on 16 sites on Department of Defense land across Guam, and site preparation could begin later this year, but the Pacific Center for Island Security, a Guam-based think tank, said many projects are already underway.

Several of the components of the system are in Guam for testing. The Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS) is likely to have already been sent to Guam for testing, and another component, the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense System (LTAMDS) arrived last month. Guam will be a laboratory for capabilities of new equipment while the system is developed, PCIS told The Guam Daily Post Tuesday.

Moreover, contractors for infrastructure, such as a command center, have already been awarded, PCIS added.

The proposed FY2026 (National Defense Authorization Act) offered by the House (of Representatives) Armed Services Committee has just over $500 million in incremental funding for ongoing projects related to the EIAMDS. The Senate Armed Services Committee has just over $600 million in proposed incremental funding and Defense of Guam (DOG) procurement (likely defense contractor systems), PCIS stated.

Action on the two separate NDAA measures is expected this week in Washington, with a final conference version expected later in the year. At the present time it does not appear that there are any new EIAMDS projects proposed for funding in FY26, the group added.

Guam Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero and Lt. Gov. Josh Tenorio commented on the ROD for the EIAMDS, expressing concern that cumulative impacts from the project and other military actions on Guam arent being addressed. The governor also disagreed with the decision not to convene the Economic Adjustment Committee, which she asked to be included in the ROD.

PCIS stated that the EAC provides a basis for the Defense Economic Adjustment Program, which is meant to help those affected by DOD actions respond to changes resulting from those actions. Not convening the EAC for the EIAMDS would ignore significant impacts on the civilian community, according to PCIS.

Guam has received funding resulting from an EAC in the past, so convening the committee shouldnt be unexpected, the group said, adding that an announcement of an EAC in the EIAMDS case is likely forthcoming.

Lt. Gen. Heath Collins, the MDA director, told the governor and lieutenant governor that working through Joint Region Marianas and the Civil-Military Coordination Council would be sufficient at this time, but an evaluation will be done on whether an EAC is necessary in the future.

However, even if an EAC convenes, the process wont address everything, according to PCIS.

For example, in the case of the EIAMDS, the impacts are more than just the civilian community infrastructure. One of the well-known deficiencies of EIAMDS plan is addressing military housing requirements. These requirements are well known to the military but have not been funded. It is also significant that both the Final EIS and the ROD have failed the transparency test with respect to existing studies on the Guam housing crisis, the group stated.

PCIS made note of the EIAMDS report commissioned from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory, which hasnt been made publicly available.

In not addressing the requirement for housing military personnel related to this project or providing a roadmap for planning and funding, the probability that military housing requirements will continue to be pushed to the civilian community is very real. The lack of transparency around this issue  when information is readily available to the U.S. (DOD)  is an affront to Guam, who will likely bear continuing pressure on our housing market, PCIS stated.

The EIAMDS would ultimately see about 2,300 permanent personnel and their dependents, plus 44 contractors, living on Guam beginning in 2031, with about 20% needing off-base housing. The ROD for the project states that DOD is reviewing the housing issue holistically and plans to address EIAMDS housing needs before dependents arrive in 2031.

Leon Guerrero and Tenorio have asked for a follow-up EIS on life support and housing facilities, but Collins said the appropriate National Environmental Policy Act analyses will be prepared as required.

PCIS added that the EAC process also wont address the major, long-term and significant impacts on Guams environmental resources identified in the final EIS for the missile defense system.

The group had heavily criticized the final EIS over several issues.

The group said Tuesday that, ultimately, all the pressure on Guams community resulting from the project will not result in security for the community.

PCIS concerns include capability limitations of the EIAMDS, a lack of planning to shelter civilians or for food resiliency in case of conflict, and that the EIS process hasnt addressed the impact on Guam in a situation where the EIAMDS is used.
OPINION  A DUD Cannabis Commission & LIES!

Ambrose M. Bennett

THIS is a special response to the Cannabis Commission & the deflecting & gaslighting LIES.

The Truth is, our Cannabis Commission or CC is a DUD (useless), yet they are still in operation when it needs to be resolved like I wrote in the original draft. In his own words Mr. Thomas Songsong admitted to submitting a cost-benefit analysis & restructuring proposal, which by its very conception PROVES the Cannabis Commission has been costing more than it is bringing in revenues  operating at a LOSS ever-since its conception! Claiming to be modeled after national best practices is also deflecting, as I even told the Senate on the record the CNMI is not like Colorado and other states with MILLIONS of people to support their Cannabis industry and that the CNMI must depend upon Tourism Sales to really make money. After nearly six years, the CC has FAILED in their fiduciary duties, as there are no tickets nor marijuana offenses on the books to govern the activities & behavior of consumers. In fact, every time a person harvests & delivers their harvest to the dispensary they are violators, as there is no governance nor enforcement. Heck, there are tests for thc (the chemical that makes a person high) that cost less than five dollars for three tests, yet the CC has not mandated Dispensaries placing the amount of thc on their products to protect people so they know WHAT they are purchasing unlike on the mainland where you get a list of everything in the marijuana you are using! It also seems the CC wants to just dump promotions on the dispensaries & enforcement on DPS and theyve FAILED in their duty to set the conditions for the Dispensaries to conduct events & grow!

The CC hasnt done anything to change the law that prevents the use of marijuana in any public location when that is the ONLY way the CNMI is going to promote the industry. Heck, saying anyone can sponsor events is a LIE, as Dispensaries cant even conduct events on Private Property, as they TRIED an were denied. It is the fiduciary duty of the CC to set the conditions for these events to take place which they Failed-to-Do. As for the use of marijuana in public places, it should be noted by ALL, that the people who use marijuana are more respectful about its usage than those who use cigarettes and drink alcohol because it was once illegal. One of the first things I noticed at parties when I arrived here in 1989, was men going to the back to smoke marijuana that has ALWAYS been an overwhelming acceptable practice so why cant people smoke on the beach as long as they are 50 to 100 feet away from children  no commonsense applied. WE, the CNMI, cant afford to operate like Colorado and other states with millions of people and our Legalization was supposed to have been about commonsense. But it seems there was No Sense in the law that prevents the Cannabis Industry from flourishing, as its a major desire of tourists to smoke on the beach & especially watch the sunset. And saying the AG finds the CC has no statutory role, is because you guys FAILED to create any Statutory Laws  duh, do you think WE are stupid Mr. Songsong!

Heck, the CC doesnt even know HOW to promote the industry to tourists nor incorporate stakeholders like the Hotels, as most hotels in Colorado offer smoking rooms and they refuse to let me show them HOW, as they are just hiding behind the excuse that marijuana is illegal in our tourists nations! But they ignore the fact that these same tourists travel to the mainland where there are many states where marijuana is legal and not facing any repercussions upon their return. The CC is merely MANAGING the industry which can easily be done by Commerce who already handles all of our corporations and issues licenses & creates policies which can easily be done for the Cannabis Industry, just the need for one or two additional staff to handle the workload. Mr, Songsong had the nerve to imply its undermining the CCs specialized oversight, institutional knowledge and community engagement to transfer the CCs operations to Commerce, which is a Deflecting Gaslighting LIE! Where were these guys when I did the research for the Senate and was writing the first draft and in the news for the public to support legalization, as they have never engaged the community. It was ONLY Ambrodamus who did ALL-of-the-Heavy-Lifting to create the industry, so where is the real RESPECT & APPRECIATION!

Well, they created a Cannabis Industry after throwing a lot of what I wrote away, only to realize they have created a DUD that is not delivering anything and costing more than it makes, which is why Mr. Songsong is deflecting avoiding the bottom line of making money FOR the People. All the CC did was created policies for licenses & fees and all WE have is stores selling weed at a LOSS just as I predicted. Yes, there are a few tourists purchasing marijuana, but WE have yet to create a genuine Cannabis Tourism Industry as I envisioned when writing the first draft of the Bill for Sixto. FYI Mr. Songsong, Ambrodamus is an Activist ordained by the Bishop to Help his People so think on this before writing another essay to try and cover your behids, which was obvious in the deflecting & gaslighting show, as the bottom line is the CC has FAILED to Deliver Revenues FOR the People & the CNMI, which you cant deny Mr. Songsong. Changing the structure of the CC is like asking the Same-O people to do something different & better when they are at fault in the first place is called being STUPID! Why continue to pay a DUD CC when transferring the CCs & Legislatures duties to Commerce, the Municipal Councils on each island, Alcohol & Tobacco to include Marijuana Enforcement with promotions being approved & supported by the mayors is the RIGHT & Costless Direction for the Effectiveness needed for the CNMI to really prosper from what should be the Cannabis Tourism Industry.

One People, One Direction.

Ambrose M. Bennett is an Economist who minored in Sociology, a Political Scientist, a retired teacher & former CNMI Board of Education Member, a James Madison Fellow (U.S. Constitutional Scholar), a Fulbright-Hays-Lifetime Humanities & Religious Scholar who resides in Kagman III in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Sonora, CA  California and Mother Lode political leaders are reacting to the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA and a close ally of President Donald Trump.

Kirk, 31, was shot and killed at a campus event at Utah Valley University. Governor Gavin Newsom called the attack disgusting, vile, and reprehensible. He issued this statement: We should all feel a deep sense of grief and outrage at the terrible violence that took place in Utah today. Charlie Kirks murder is sick and reprehensible, and our thoughts are with his family, children, and loved ones. Kick was a guest on Newsoms podcast earlier this year. Newsom added, I knew Charlie, and I admired his passion and commitment to debate. His senseless murder is a reminder of how important it is for all of us, across the political spectrum, to foster genuine discourse on issues that deeply affect us all without resorting to political violence. The governor ended the statement, saying, The best way to honor Charlies memory is to continue his work: engage with each other, across ideology, through spirited discourse. In a democracy, ideas are tested through words and good-faith debatenever through violence. Honest disagreement makes us stronger; violence only drives us further apart and corrodes the values at the heart of this nation.

Mother Lode Congressman Tom McClintock also remarked on social media, Charlie Kirk has fearlessly put his life on the line on college campuses across America to advance the civil and peaceful discussion of the issues we face. This was an attack that strikes at the heart of our democracy. Democrat Senator Alex Padilla wrote on social media, America was founded on the freedom to disagree. Political violence has no place in our democracy. The shooting of Charlie Kirk is reprehensible and sickening. I am praying for him and his family during this time.

Stating that our democracy is strongest when rooted in respect, civility, and peace. Mother Lode State Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil asked the public, Please join me in prayer for Charlie Kirks loved ones during this difficult time.

Additionally, the Tuolumne County Republican Party put out a statement noting that they were deeply shocked and troubled by the senseless act of violence, sharing, We reiterate in the strongest terms: any act of political violence is inexcusable, unjustified, and has no place in our Republic. Political discourse, no matter how heated, must never devolve into violence. The Tuolumne County Republican Party reaffirms our commitment to civil dialogue, mutual respect, and the rule of law, and encourages everyone to do the same. As details emerge, we call on citizens across the political spectrum to remain calm, exercise restraint, and uphold the highest standards of decency while awaiting answers.

At this posting, a suspect has not been identified and remains on the loose.
We have previously discussed what the Ancients can teach us. As it turns out, they can teach us much. But things get more dire by the day. Anyone and everyone can make a list of our pathologies. A week of reading the news shows us that as a polity, society, and culture we are in a deep hole but keep digging steadily. Is there a way out? The philosopher Alexandre Lefebvre has written an interesting study of Liberalism as a Way of Life (2024) in which he shows how a return to a Liberalism that is true to our humanity might give us hope, primarily because Liberalism is as the water in which we swim rather than the pale political partner of an even paler but more effective conservatism that rules us. Perhaps.

The dictionary definition Liberalism is a social and political philosophy based on support for of advocacy of individual rights, civil liberties, and reform tending towards individual freedom, democracy, or social equality. Most would include each of these as essential components of the liberal worldview. The devil lies in the details of what these terms mean. The argument has continued from John Locke up to the present.

Most conservative critics of Liberalism fall in line with Patrick Deneen of the University of Notre Dame, who has written at length about the failure of Liberalism in Why Liberalism Failed (2018) and Regime Change: Towards a Postliberal Future (2023). Deneens antipathy to Liberalism as it is practiced is not always misguided. In both books he hits a few nails without bending them. He is correct that liberal members of the Professional Managerial Class (PMC) are insufferable know-it-alls who understand very little despite their valuation of (their) expertise above all other traits. This, of course, applies equally to conservative members of the PMC, including Patrick Deneen. But Deneen is also exceedingly exercised by the decline of his conception of traditional marriage. As I understand his argument, marriage is the union of one man and one woman (a view which is also ascribed to God). Marriage is also a civil institution of great significance to the partners in a marriage and their family and to society at large. This seems to have been ignored by Deneen, but I would be happy to be corrected. These benefits should accrue to all marriages, period. That they do in much of the world today is a signal advance due to Liberalism, and any political scientist should recognize this without question.

Critics of Liberalism on the other side of the divide include Raymond Geuss, who we discussed previously in On Not Thinking Like a Liberal in the 21st Century:

When it comes to Liberalism, the fantasy at its core is that each of us is an entirely sovereign individual. However, according to Geuss, this is best currently viewed as a reaction to massive anxiety about real loss of agency in the worldwhich is perfectly justified in the world we live in, and so the fantasy is clearly connected to the satisfaction of a real need. But, of course, Liberalism does not serve only as an imaginary consolation for frustrated needsit actually does effectively and palpably benefit some powerful economic actors. The benefits of Liberalism are by no means imaginary for CEOs, the fossil fuel industries, and they thus have a very strong incentive, and ample resources, for contribute to maintaining it in existence and to strengthening its hold on the population. Indeed, Margaret Thatcher told us 40 years ago that There is no alternative to (the liberal mutant that is known as) Neoliberalism. So far, that has been the case.

Geuss makes the better case against liberalism, as shown in Not Thinking Like a Liberal and his little but powerful Cambridge University Press book A Philosopher Looks at Work. The philosopher who comes from a thoroughly working-class background is unusual, indeed. He provides needed perspective.

Alexandre Lefebvre makes a very good case for Liberalism as a way of life. His foundational argument lies in the work of John Rawls, including A Theory of Justice (orig. 1971) and Political Liberalism (orig. 1993). According to Lefebvre, Rawls expects that people of good will are necessarily both decent and reasonable. Remember this was before mutant neoliberalism took over our politics, and then society. Neoliberalism was covered here recently in a discussion of Hayeks Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right. [1]

Rawls is undoubtedly correct about people of good will being decent and reasonable. In Lefebvres words, this makes him a superb moralist who is able to discern the existing tendencies of a society, along with the self-conception of its members, and lead them in promising new directions. And that great joys and benefits come from living this way. As Lefebvre puts it:

For my part, the idea for this book occurred to me only after reading the past paragraph of A Theory of Justice over and over. There after five hundred pages of analysis, Rawls steps back to ask what was at stake in his theory. His answer is extraordinary. Purity of heart, grace, self-command, and even a semidivine perspective on the world (an ability to see it sub specie aeternitatis) are to be wonthis is not the standard fare of political philosophy. It is the language of soulcraft.

A Theory of Justice was ultra-successful due to its timing and its subject. Back when more people read books, and my large land-grant University Bookstore sold actual books plus a limited selection of branded apparel and other junk (instead of only the latter as it does these days), Rawls was everywhere. A Theory of Justice was the first systematic philosophical work on justice to be published in decades, and at the moment when the United States was reeling from the Vietnam War and civil rights movement. Thus:

The quality and timeliness of A Theory of Justice go a long way to explaining its impact and popularity. But perhaps there is an additional reason. At its core, Rawlss great book is inspired by a simple and easily grasped idea. Societyshould be conceived of and run as a fair system of cooperation (emphasis in original). Hence, one possible explanation for the popular appeal of A Theory of Justice: it reflects the image that most citizens of liberal democracies have (or at least publicly profess) of themselves. Rawls isnt oblivious to real-world injustices. Nor does he think that citizens of liberal democracies wear rose-colored (or worse, ideologically tinted) glasses. Still, he bases his theory of the assumption that his fellow citizens do in fact recognize that the key purpose of their main public institutions is to ensure that society is seen and remains a fair system of cooperationthat the purpose of a legal constitution is to establish equal and reciprocal rights, the job of the police is to protect them, and progressive taxation is meant to ensure a level (enough) playing field. Rawls does not define liberalismhe takes a different tack: to set out the conception of society that liberalism grows out of. He definesthe soil (that is, a fair system of cooperation) and not the fruit (that is, liberalism itself)making liberalism the dependent variable has advantages.

Yes, to all this, especially Liberalism being dependent on the soil, as something that should be viewed as autochthonous, perhaps a relationship between a base leading to a superstructure with reciprocal relationships in each direction. But the immediate response to Rawls in the twenty-first century must include the following. Society is not a fair system of cooperation, if it ever was. As the Neoliberal Dispensation has hardened, society has become an unfair system of competition that most people seem to believe is fair. It is not.

The primary tenets of Rawlss conception of society require that: (1) the social order is not fixed or beyond human judgement but is designed and maintained for the mutual benefit of all; (2) society is not held together by a common good or shared belief such as Greek polis/cultivation of certain excellences, medieval Christian kingdom/saving souls, and modern fascism/securing the good of an exclusive people; and (3) reciprocity is essential in that citizens see themselves as self-interested and other-regarding while seeking their own advantage and honoring fair terms of cooperation.

Chapter 5 outlines Six Ways Liberalism Shapes Us (and Vice Versa). The section entitled Liberal Practices: Life in the Meritocracy is perhaps the most important. This provides an object lesson in how Liberalism affects our background culture when it links up with a different ideology or social system to make a surprising, frequently illiberal hybrid. These include neoliberalism as a fusion of liberal and capitalist values. Another is the current faux populism, which is completely unrelated to populism in the United States a hundred years ago, that holds out society as a fair system of cooperation, but for its members only.

The typical liberal of the twenty-first century, either notionally liberal or notionally conservative, believes that his or her status  wealth, position in society, the vision of being correct in all things  is earned. One needs to remember that Michael Youngs dystopian novel The Rise of the Meritocracy (1958) required the rise of Neoliberalism to come true. As noted by Lefebvre:

Full-fledged meritocracy, where anyone (emphasis in the original) can rise or fall, requires equal rights and real equality of opportunity. These are uniquely liberal ideas and institutions, and however much meritocracy ends up derailing liberalism, it can only grow on that soil. Meritocracy owes another crucial debt to liberalism: its notion of selfhood. Meritocracys motto  you can make it if you try  depends on a prior liberal principle: that individuals are not defined by their social ascriptions (such as race, sex, class, or religion), and are free to formulate and pursue their own interests and conception of the good.

Under the mutant Neoliberalism that makes up Lefebvres Liberaldom, a regime that is the analog of our Christendom in which very few follow the Jesus of Matthew 25:45 [2], those at the top of societys pyramid can fail only upwards unless they make a concerted effort over the long term to do otherwise. One need only look around, locally, nationally, and internationally to see the truth of this. And this leads paradoxically to The Meritocracy Trap described by Daniel Markovits:

People who are required to measure up from preschool through retirement become submerged in the effort. They become constituted by their achievements, so that eliteness goes from being something that a person enjoys to being everything he is. In a true meritocracy, schools and jobs dominate elite life so immersively that they leave no self over apart from status. An investment banker, enrolled as a two-year-old in Episcopal School and then passed on to Dalton, Princeton, Morgan Stanley, Harvard Business School and finally to Goldman Sachs (where he spends his income on sending his children to the same schools), becomes this resume, in the minds of others and even in his own imagination.

This is no way to live but it is alluring. Such dream hoarding is the necessary concomitant of the virtue hording of the PMC, both liberal and conservative. This hypocrisy and heresy of Liberaldom has used liberal freedoms to pave the road to injustice in a society that is not a fair system of cooperation. It is just the opposite. The question arises, Is Liberalism to blame for Liberaldom? Probably. Liberal critics such as Isaiah Berlin decried the perfectionist and progressivist tendencies of nineteenth-century liberals as protototalitarian, which led to a libertarianization of what Liberalism stood for. This was easy for Isaiah Berlin to do, and he and his fellow liberals were wrong.

Liberalism as a Way of Life ends with a series of recommended spiritual exercises on how to live a good life as a liberal in the illiberal world Liberaldom. These bring St. Ignatius and Marcus Aurelius to mind. The references to John Rawls throughout the book include terms such as citizen, good will, decent, and reasonable. These are critical, and unless they define us in the coming years, nothing will change for the better. It has been said that consumer is neoliberal for citizen. This is true. Our politicians are most concerned with our role as consumers and have essentially no use for us as citizens. The questions we must ask are whether the economy if for people or are people for the economy. Rawls presupposes that those who disagree can do so as reasonable citizens. We have lost the genius of reasonableness, if we really had for any sustained period in recent history.

Examples or our unreason in the West are legion: Failure to accept the inevitable outcome of the Cold War (other than nuclear annihilation) with grace and magnanimity for more than a few weeks followed by the looting of what was left of the Soviet Union, NAFTA, various and sundry wars of choice in what has been mistaken for a unipolar world, the neoliberalization of scientific research and every other human endeavor that mandates the market as the measure of all things, even those that cannot be measured. This instrumental, neoliberal view of the world and our place in it is making our world uninhabitable.

Unless and until we become decent and reasonable citizens of good will, we, all of us, will continue to only exist through the end of the world as we know it as an unfree people. A true liberal world in which people are the measure of all things will be necessary to avert catastrophe, if this is still a possibility. This, of course, will require at a minimum a healthy social democracy that transcends Neoliberalism and the implicit political economy of Liberalism:

For (ostensibly) free and equal democratic citizens to remain free and equal democratic citizens, certain kinds of values need to be upheld. Freedom in a liberal democracy calls forindividual rights, domestic tranquility, and tolerance. Equality in a liberal democracy calls forfairness and a distribution of resources so that everyone can make effective use of their freedoms. These values are political not because they are in our public institutions. That mistakes the effect for the cause. Rather, public institutions in liberal democracies exist to promote values that keep us free and equal. And when we reason with one another using the only kind of values that citizens can reasonably be expected to share  political values enshrined in public institutions  we express and embody a role-specific moral duty of citizenship. We give and take, civility, trust, and respect.

This is a tall order that neither Liberaldom nor Neoliberalism can fill. But it would lead to cures of our many ills. Is this pie-in-the-sky where the following is one of the great ledes in history? Possibly:

Perhaps Im too jaded about our greatest democracy in the history of the world two-party system, but I have a hard time getting too worked up about gerrymandering and how it will increase political polarization when both parties are largely bought and paid for by the billionaire class. (emphasis added)

But we must begin somewhere, and renewed appreciation of what we are supposed to be is the first step. Alexandre Lefebvre makes a good case for Liberalism as the way to a good life for all. There has not been space to discuss his reliance on Pierre Hadot, who is also important in the argument here for Philosophy as a Way of Life. And then there is this: In a better world, the rich will still be rich. Contrary to their fears, leveling is not always down, and everyone does better when everyone is better off, horizontally and vertically.

And finally, one example of reasonableness we have lost, in a letter from President Eisenhower to his brother Edgar Newton Eisenhower on November 8, 1954 (the frequently quoted excerpt is in bold, but the entire paragraph is necessary to appreciate his fundamental conservative liberalism):

Now it is true that I believe this country is following a dangerous trend when it permits too great a degree of centralization of governmental functions. I oppose this  in some instances the fight is a rather desperate one. But to attain any success it is quite clear that the Federal government cannot avoid or escape responsibilities which the mass of the people firmly believe should be undertaken by it. The political processes of our country are such that if a rule of reason is not applied in this effort, we will lose everything  even to a possible and drastic change in the Constitution. This is what I mean by my constant insistence upon moderation in government. Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.

If only. Reasonable men and women are not the found only in any party, sect, or grouplet. But when they are found, all are citizens of good will and decent people. We could use a few more of those these days.

Notes

[1] Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalisms Stealth Revolution (2015) by Wendy Brown is perhaps the best single book on how Neoliberalism took over in the so-called Global North.

[2] Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. (King James Version)
Meet the NYC lute player serenading the Shakespeare in the Park line since 1976 Gothamist

Common Words That Are Pronounced Differently in Various Parts of the United States Laughing Squid (rwsilc)

The Pill That Women Are Taking for Everything From Speeches to First Dates Wall Street Journal (resilc)

#COVID-19/Pandemics

A new review shows that COVID infection can damage the kidneys, leading to acute injury and raising the risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Patients with existing CKD are especially vulnerable, facing higher risks of severe infection and LongCOVID complications. 1/ pic.twitter.com/2i8FTvHpsc  Vipin M. Vashishtha (@vipintukur) September 8, 2025 I have a sneaking suspicion that Novavax is a non-starter: Updated COVID vaccine availability map 9/9 Most difficult states to get a shot, which require prescriptions & have no MinuteClinics: ME, OR, UT, WV These states require prescriptions but have MinuteClinics: AZ, DC, FL, GA, LA, NC, VA All other states, no prescription needed pic.twitter.com/3O9XyFWxdH  Dr. Lucky Tran (@luckytran) September 9, 2025

Climate/Environment

EXCEPTIONAL WARMTH IN SCANDINAVIA More records today in FINLAND with a Minimum of 16.5C at Kuopio Savilahti. Temperatures will rise again specially in the Baltic countries and many more records will be broken in the next 2 days. https://t.co/ZmlhsBdlb4  Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) September 9, 2025

Climate change threatens major oxygen-producing bacteria Natural History Museum

Floods could hit England while country is still in drought, forecasters say Guardian

Intense monsoon rain, flooding continue to engulf Pakistans Punjab Aljazeers

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/8/intense-monsoon-rain-flooding-continue-to-engulf-pakistans-punjab

Gunsans 152.2 mm waterfall rain breaks national record Chosun

Africa bears the heaviest burden of global wildfires Nation

As world gets hotter, Americans are turning to more sugar, study finds Independent

China?

Koreas

India

Rupee faces tug-of-war at open as Trump mixes tariff threats with trade talks Reuters. See below on Trump trying to get EU to impose secondary sanctions on India.

Nepal

South of the Border

European Disunion

Old Blighty

Margaret Thatchers erotic power Unherd. Is this men who like being spanked?

Israel v. the Resistance

New Not-So-Cold War

Imperial Collapse Watch

Trump 2.0

Fed

Immigration

Laffaire Epstein

Democrats en deshabille

Supremes

Supreme Courts scant explanations in Trump emergency cases draw friction The Hill

Economy

AI

Guillotine Watch

Class Warfare

Antidote du jour (via):

And a bonus (Chuck L):

Full flaps, gear down, flare. Butter landing. pic.twitter.com/sG1IgHyiVD  Nature is Amazing  (@AMAZlNGNATURE) September 8, 2025

A second bonus:

The only problem i want in my life pic.twitter.com/0rAyfw1Mjm  Why you should have a cat (@ShouldHaveCat) September 9, 2025

See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.
We are very much in fog of narrative terrain. There is no reason for Russia to go and poke Poland given that it is handily prevailing on the battlefield in Ukraine, and contrary to European paranoia, does not have plans to march to Paris. So it seems difficult to believe that the purported incursion of Russian drones into Poland was intentional. However, I have been checking official Russian news sources since the story broke a few hours ago. The silence so far suggests there might be something to the story

The latest Twitter reports indicate that the facts are correct, that Russian drones did enter Poland, but that it was accidental and that they were surveillance drones, not payload drones:

 DRONES DRIFTED OFF COURSE DUE TO ELECTRONIC WARFARE. Poland and Belarus cooperated and exchanged information about drones that went off course into their territory! Official statement from the Belarusian Ministry of Defense regarding the air defense operations last pic.twitter.com/RVWpJDd1pp  Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) September 10, 2025

But even with Belarus saying it alerted Poland to what was up, Poland has said it is invoking NATOs Article 4. Recall that this is actually a weak obligation; member states merely need to consider whether or not to act based the treat report. Its text:

The Parties will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.

Also note, that as we have pointed out, NATO professed to be a consensus-based organization. There are no rules, such as for the EU, as to which issues require a unanimous vote versus a qualified majority. There does not even seem to be a formal voting process.

However, in theory, an Article 4 process could then lead to the invocation of Article 5:

The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area. Any such armed attack and all measures taken as a result thereof shall immediately be reported to the Security Council. Such measures shall be terminated when the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security.

It is hard to see, if the reports above are correct, that surveillance drones entering Poland amounts to an armed attack. But the NATO warmongers are a creative bunch and very eager to get the US more involved. And as you will soon see, some NATOO members did invoke Article 4 when the Special Military Operation started, and that had no practical impact.

Note also that as we report in Links that Trump is trying to get Europeans to impose secondary sanctions on India and China over their imports of Russian fuel. It does not seem like a stretch that the Administration will use the Poland incident to press hard for them to comply.

Now to the press updates. From Newsweek:

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said his country would formally request the invocation of NATOs Article 4 in response to the violation of his countrys airspace by 19 Russian drones, some of which were shot down Unlike Article 5s collective defense element, NATOs Article 4 does not trigger military action, but initiates a formal alliance discussion when one member considers its territorial integrity or security is threatened. Since NATO was founded in 1949, Article 4 has been invoked only a handful of timesmost notably by Eastern European members after Moscows full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

And for more detail about the underlying event, from BBC. Note its headline says 19 drones entered and 4 were brought down; a live blog entry has Zelensky claiming 25. A key bit is even normally Russia-friendly Viktor Orban of Hungary as criticizing the drone entry:

French President Emmanuel Macron describes the incursion as simply unacceptable, adding that he will soon meet Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte. The European Councils president, Antonio Costa, says Europe is increasing investment in its defence following Russias reckless actions. Peace and security in Europe cannot be taken for granted, he adds Viktor Orban, Hungarys Prime Minster, calls the air incursion unacceptable. Orban is the only EU leader to have kept close ties to the Kremlin following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Petr Fiala, the Czech prime minster, says its hard to believe that last nights Russian drone attack on Poland was a coincidence. He accuses Russia of systematically probing to see how far it can go. Alexander Stubb, Finlands president, claims that Russia seeks escalation and carries responsibility for violating Polands air space. Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics also expresses his full support and solidarity to Ukraine, emphasising that allies must be working together.

BBC took pains in its headline to depict the drones as having entered Poland; many other stories are depicting the incident as an attack. For instance, from Indias Economic Times in Has World War III started with Russia opening a new front: what happens if Poland, a NATO country is attacked:

As geopolitical tensions escalate amid ongoing conflict in Eastern Europe, concerns have surged globally about whether Russia opening a new military front could mark the beginning of World War III. Central to this concept is the status of Poland, a member state of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and US President Donald Trumps stand on Europes security and defense. The possibility of Russia attacking Polish territory brings to attentionNATOs most critical collective defense clause, Article 5 of the treaty, and raises questions about the alliances response and global security outcomes. The recent escalation is linked directly to Russias intensified aerial offensive on Ukraine, which has spilled over into Polish airspace in a direct provocation. On September 9, 2025, Poland reported multiple incursions by Russian drones that entered its airspace. In response, Poland scrambled its own and NATO allied aircraft, and deployed ground-based air defenses to intercept these drones.

Bloombergs formulation is Poland Shoots Down Russian Drones After Airspace Violation. The Wall Street Journal has NATO Planes Shoot Down Russian Drones Inside Poland as the third piece in its left column. The Financial Times has Nato forces shoot down Russian drones over Poland as its lead story. However, the pink papers text was more saber-rattling:

Nato fighter jets have shot down Russian drones over Polish airspace for the first time, after what Warsaw described as an unprecedented violation of its territory that led it to trigger emergency consultations in the alliance. The operation in the early hours of Wednesday, during a massive Russian attack on Ukraine, involved Dutch and Polish fighter jets, while German Patriot missiles were put on alert and an Italian early warning aircraft provided support. The alliance said it was committed to defending every kilometre of Nato territory, including our airspace. It marks the most serious clash between Russia and the US-led military alliance since the start of Moscows full-blown war against Ukraine in February 2022.

Sky is a tad cautious. The answer to its headline, The pivotal question for NATO as it decides how to respond after Russian drones violate Polish airspace, is What was Russias intent?

Axios, which sometimes gets an early bead development in this Administration, does not have a story up yet. The lead piece at the Washington Post is Poland says it shot down Russian drones that violated its airspace. From the top of that account:

Polish forces shot down Russian drones that had violated its airspace while attacking targets in Ukraine, Polands military said Wednesday. The Russian action amounts to an unprecedented violation of Polish airspace and posed a real threat to Polish citizens, the Polish militarys Operational Command said in a statement. Polish aircraft were scrambled, according to a statement from Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz. The countrys territorial defense forces were activated to conduct ground searches for the downed drones, he added. Polish police said they had found a damaged drone in eastern Poland.

Interestingly, DW has moderated its headline. Google shows the story first running under Poland hits drones in its airspace as Russia attacks Ukraine; when you click through, you now get Poland calls NATO meeting after downing Russian drones. However, the summary at the top still depicts the drone entry as an attack:

This update is from about an hour and a half before post launch time:

Poland summons Russian envoy over drone violations Poland has summoned Russias top diplomat in Warsaw after saying it had downed several Russian drones that crossed into its airspace overnight. Andrei Ordash, Moscows charge daffaires, told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti he had been called to the Polish Foreign Ministry for a noon meeting. He said Warsaw had not yet presented evidence that the drones came from Russia.

As of that time, TASS merely had a big photo of Polish President Donald Tusk and a banner over it but no story; RT does have some information about the Russian version of events, which is in line with what Lord Bebo picked up from the Belarus broadcast:

According to Tusk, the Polish military detected 19 separate violations of its airspace over seven hours, with at least three and possibly four drones downed. He claimed the aircraft came from Belarus rather than Ukraine, and characterized the incident as a Russian provocation. The Belarusian military earlier reported having given their Polish counterparts early warning that some drones used by Ukrainian and Russian forces for mutual attacks lost their track as a result of the impact of the parties electronic warfare assets. This allowed the Polish side to respond promptly to the actions of the drones by scrambling their forces on duty, said General Pavel Muraveiko, the chief of the general staff of Belarus. The general added that some of the stray aircraft had been intercepted by Belarusian air defenses. He stressed that the exchanges with Poland were part of regular communications about incoming threats, with the Polish side regularly informing officials in Belarus about aircraft detected in Ukrainian airspace.

The fact of press equivocation, despite the very loud denunciations from European leaders, suggests cooler heads will prevail, particularly since even if they wanted to Do Something, they are confronted with limited means. Stay tuned.
Awareness of the various emerging Silicon Valley ideologies may provide a helpful lens through which to analyze current events.

The techbros have control of the technologies that increasingly run our lives, billions and billions of dollars to influence our politics, and a ruthless drive for power and control.

Turns out theyve been spending quite a bit of time debating the big questions among themselves and now their philosophies are spilling over into our real lives.

Ive been intending to supplement my mini-series on the companies pushing AI (aka Large Language Models) with a look at the putative thought systems that have fascinated Silicon Valley.

Then I read Matt Stollers Is There a Silicon Valley Plan to Subvert Elections? and Emile P. Torres Meet the Radical Silicon Valley Pro-Extinctionists! and knew it was time to get on that.

Not to mention Ross Douthats Peter Thiel and the Antichrist: The original tech right power player on A.I., Mars and immortality in the New York Times.

Stollers piece discussed:

the creation of a new political slush fund by titans in Silicon Valley. I dont want to be alarmist, but if it goes to plan, it could functionally subvert elections in America. if someone can just spend an infinite amount of money to call you a trans-loving pedophile, you will likely lose your race. For instance, in Ohio in 2024, long-time Senator Sherrod Brown faced $40 million of crypto spending alleging all sorts of things, and that chipped away at his popularity such that he lost. Today, Fairshake can flip most politicians without spending a dime, secure in the knowledge that aspiring office-seekers wouldnt want to lose just over what they perceive as a minor policy around finance. These companies got everything they wanted; they are now running crypto policy for Trump, and have terrified most members of Congress into voting for whatever they want. Fairshake has amassed another big war chest for 2026, and its unlikely that cryptos power will be dented until theres a financial crash. Unfortunately, the lesson of Fairshake was not lost on others in Silicon Valley. Marc Andreessen, who is on the board of Meta and involved in Fairshake, has been organizing this strategy in other areas. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and AI venture capital investors, have now chosen to launch their own Fairshake-style slush funds, to make it impossible to regulate generative AI or big tech. The net effect of these pots of money is that it could become functionally impossible to enact public policy around AI through our democratic system. As AI becomes more important, that means American law will look the way Andreessen and a few other titans want it to look. Moreover, other corporate giants will start playing in their areas, closing off other spaces to democracy. Now, its always been difficult, especially in the Citizens United era, to make progress, as big money does drown out a lot of good policy. Indeed, what were really seeing is the final stages of an organized attempt from the 1970s onward to allow money to overwhelm democracy. The Levers Master Plan is an excellent podcast series on it. These massive slush funds could mean that voting really has become ornamental.

Torres, in the second of his three-part series on Silicon Valley pro-extinctionism, wrote (part 1 is here):

A journalist asked me the other day what I think is most important for people to understand about the current race to build AGI (artificial general intelligence). My answer was: First, that the AGI race directly emerged out of the TESCREAL movement. Building AGI was initially about utopia rather than profit, though profit has become a significant driver alongside techno-utopian dreams of AGI ushering in a paradisiacal fantasyworld among the literal heavens. Hence, one simply cannot make sense of the AGI race without some understanding of the TESCREAL ideologies. Second, that the TESCREAL movement is deeply intertwined with a pro-extinctionist outlook according to which our species, Homo sapiens, should be marginalized, disempowered, and ultimately eliminated by our posthuman successors. More specifically, I argue in a forthcoming entry titled TESCREAL for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia that views within the TESCREAL movement almost without exception fall somewhere on the spectrum between pro-extinctionism and (as I call it) extinction neutralism. Silicon Valley pro-extinctionism is the claim that our species should be replaced, whereas extinction neutralism says that it doesnt much matter whether our species survives once posthumanity arrives.

Torres goes on to give capsule summaries of the thought of various Silicon Valley figures, including Carnegie Mellons Hans Moravec, Google co-founder Larry Page, Turing award winner Richard Sutton, shitposter Beff Jezos aka Gill Verdon, Singularity prophet Ray Kurzweil, and:

Sam Altman (facepalm)

Altman is not only a major reason the race toward AGI was launched and has been accelerating, but he believes that uploading human minds to computers will become possible within his lifetime. Several years ago, he was one of 25 people who signed up with a startup called Nectome to have his brain preserved if he were to die prematurely. Nectome promises to preserve brains so that their microstructure can be scanned and the resulting information transferred to a computer, which can then emulate the brains functioning. By doing this, the person who owned the brain will then suddenly wake up, thereby attaining cyberimmortality. Is this a form of pro-extinctionism? Kind of. If all future people are digital posthumans in the form of uploaded minds, then our species will have disappeared. Should this happen? My guess is that Altman wouldnt object to these posthumans taking over the world  what matters to many TESCREALists, of which Altman is one, is the continuation of intelligence or consciousness. They have no allegiance to the biological substrate (to humanity), and in this sense they are at the very least extinction neutralists, if not pro-extinctionists. Peter Thiel (blech)

Thiel holds a particular interpretation of pro-extinctionism according to which we should become a new posthuman species, but this posthuman species shouldnt be entirely digital. We should retain our biological substrates, albeit in a radically transformed state. As such, this contrasts with most other views discussed here. These other views are clear instances of digital eugenics, whereas Thiel advocates a version of pro-extinctionism thats more traditionally eugenicist  in particular, its a pro-biology variant of transhumanism (a form of eugenics).

Torres also references a key Freudian slip on Thiels part when he was interviewed by NYT conservative midwit Ross Douthat:

Thiel was asked whether he would prefer the human race to endure in the future. Thiel responded with an uncertain, Uh , leading the interviewer, columnist Ross Douthat, to note with a hint of consternation, Youre hesitating. The rest of the exchange went: Thiel: Well, I dont know. I would  I would  Douthat: This is a long hesitation! Thiel: Theres so many questions implicit in this. Douthat: Should the human race survive? Thiel: Yes. Douthat: OK.

Torres doesnt get into Douthats attempt to reconcile his views with his claimed Christianity:

But it still also seems like the promise of Christianity in the end is you get the perfected body and the perfected soul through Gods grace. And the person who tries to do it on their own with a bunch of machines is likely to end up as a dystopian character. Thiel: Well, its  lets articulate this. Douthat: And you can have a heretical form of Christianity that says something else. Thiel: Yeah, I dont know. I think the word nature does not occur once in the Old Testament. And so there is a word in which, a sense in which, the way I understand the Judeo-Christian inspiration is it is about transcending nature. It is about overcoming things. And the closest thing you can say to nature is that people are fallen. Thats the natural thing in a Christian sense, that youre messed up. And thats true. But theres some ways that, with Gods help, you are supposed to transcend that and overcome that. Douthat: Right. But most of the people  present company excepted  working to build the hypothetical machine god dont think that theyre cooperating with Yahweh, Jehovah, the Lord of Hosts. Thiel: Sure, sure. But  Douthat: They think that theyre building immortality on their own, right? Thiel: Were jumping around a lot of things. So, again, the critique I was saying is: Theyre not ambitious enough. From a Christian point of view, these people are not ambitious enough.

I should also let quote from Torres earlier work for TruthDig to explain his acronym TESCREAL which combines the first letter of the ideologies transhumanism, Extropianism, singularitarianism, cosmism, Rationalism, Effective Altruism and longtermism:

the constellation of ideologies behind the current race to create AGI, and the dire warnings of human extinction that have emerged alongside it At the heart of TESCREALism is a techno-utopian vision of the future. It anticipates a time when advanced technologies enable humanity to accomplish things like: producing radical abundance, reengineering ourselves, becoming immortal, colonizing the universe and creating a sprawling post-human civilization among the stars full of trillions and trillions of people. The most straightforward way to realize this utopia is by building superintelligent AGI. Those ideologies, we believe, are a central reason why companies like OpenAI, funded primarily by Microsoft, and its competitor, Google DeepMind, are trying to create artificial general intelligence in the first place. In (the view of Marc Andreessen), the most likely outcome of advanced AI is that it will drastically increase economic productivity, give us the opportunity to profoundly augment human intelligence and take on new challenges that have been impossible to tackle without AI, from curing all diseases to achieving interstellar travel. Developing AI is thus a moral obligation that we have to ourselves, to our children and to our future, writes Andreessen.

Torres also pointed me to David Z. Morris whose DeepSeek and the AI Murder Cult argues that Rationalism links a wave of murders, FTX embezzlement, and crashing markets.

From his piece:

(Rationalism) lurks at the heart of Sam Bankman-Frieds rampant embezzlement at #FTX, of which $500 million dollars went to Anthropic, an AI Safety-fueled startup that employs Amanda Askell, ex-wife of Effective Altruism founder Will MacAskill. $5 million in money stolen by SBF also went directly to the Center for Applied Rationality, one of Yudkowskys two organizations. Half a million in FTX funds also helped facilitate the purchase of a hotel that became the headquarters of a CFAR subsidiary called Lightcone Research, which notoriously featured several eugenicists and white supremacists at events. It also helps explain, I think, why OpenAI and other U.S. artificial intelligence startups just got embarrassingly annihilated by a Chinese hobbyist: because theyre driven by some of the same ideas that have led fringe Rationalists into madness. There have now been at least EIGHT violent deaths over the past three years tied, to varying degrees, to splinter factions of the Rationalist movement founded by Eliezer Yudkowsky in San Francisco. The Rationalist community is eager to disown the perpetrators, and its true that the factionalists have been in conflict with the main group for years. More to the point, they seem simply insane. But, I would tentatively argue, the source of the conflict is that these bad actors took Yudkowskys basic ideas, above all ideas about the imminent destruction of humanity by AI, and played them out to a logical conclusion  or, at least, a Rationalist conclusion. This wave of murder is just the most extreme manifestation of cultish elements that have bubbled up from the Rationalist movement proper for going on a decade now, including MKUltra-like conditioning both at Leverage Research  another splinter group seemingly pushed out of Rationalism proper following certain revelations  and within the Center for Effective Altruism itself.

In his piece FTX, Rationalism, and U.S. Intelligence: A Conspiracy Theory (an excerpt from his book Stealing the Future: Sam Bankman-Fried, Elite Fraud, and the Cult of Techno-Utopia) Morris has connected some alarming dots:

the Center for Applied Rationality, which received (and has resisted returning) funds stolen from FTX customers by Sam Bankman-Fried and his co-conspirators, bears a striking resemblance to the agendas for both individual brainwashing and large-scale social engineering that drove some of the Central Intelligence Agencys most disturbing programs. Now, with the revelation that a group of rogue Rationalists known as the Zizians have been tied to a wave of murders across the U.S., it seems justified to explore the possibility that the Rationalist movement is not merely a misguided ethos turned toxic by cult-like insularity. Placed in a broader context, its tenets and practices begin to resemble both the Human Potential Movement centered around institutions like the Esalen Institute; and, in fringe sub-groups that have splintered from Rationalism proper, the illicit human experimentation conducted by the CIA starting in the 1950s under the code name MKUltra.

Morris piece What is TESCREALism? Mapping the Cult of the Techno-Utopia can help us get back to current events:

the AGI myth is why reality-based efforts to make existing AI algorithms safe for currently-living humans have almost zero traction among the loudest proponents of AI safety. In just the same way that Sam Bankman-Fried stole customer funds to make long-term bets, todays AI leaders are actively and vocally dismissing the current, material risks of machine learning algorithms, and focusing instead on a long-term future that they confidently predict without a shred of actual evidence. (Just two baseless assumptions of the doomer fantasy are that A.I. will become self-improving, and that it will easily master nanotechnology.) This patent display of foolishness might be the deepest underyling reason the tech industry had to purge Timnit Gebru. The vision of AI shared by people like Sam Altman is substantially derived from sci-fi like James Camerons Terminator, and going as far back as Karel Capeks R.U.R., the origin of the word robot. Capeks 1923 play far preceded anything like AI, making clear that the intentional, humanoid, thinking robot has always been primarily a metaphor for the much more complex dialectic by which man-made technology becomes a threat to human essence. The Singularitarians have made the childish error of mistaking these simplified storybook tales for the complexity of reality, and as long as Gebru and her cohort remain committed to describing how technology actually works, the collective fantasy of superintelligent yet incredibly dangerous AI is threatened.

Norris also connects TESCREALism to the newly launched publication The Argument and the Abundance bros in his Effective Altruism In a Skinsuit: The Argument is Laundering Austerity:

The launch of new liberal news outlet The Argument has been unambiguously hilarious, fundamentally because most of their marquee writers, particularly Matt Yglesias and Kelsey Piper, are not so much liberal in any commonly understood American sense as center-right-to-secretly-eugenicist. Piper and Yglesias are both formerly tied to Vox, and The Argument also features Derek Thompson as a staff writer  Ezra Kleins partner in the ideologically very similar Abundance Liberalism project, which is largely about co-opting right-wing deregulation rhetoric. When you look at the funding for The Argument it becomes very clear why this liberal publication is devoted to undermining the case for a welfare state. The Argument is primarily funded and staffed, not by liberals, but by a mix of Effective Altruists like Dustin Moskovitz strategically shifting away from that brand after the FTX debacle showed its strategic and ideological emptiness; and entities tied to far-right funding sources including Peter Thiel and the Koch Brothers. This is liberalism in 2025. If you know Yglesias and Piper, you know their entire shtick is maintaining a strategic ignorance that serves their ideological aims.

Freddy deBoer has some supplementary thoughts on Ezra Klein that doesnt explicitly link back to Silicon Valley ideologies but provides additional insight:

Klein, in his earnest credulity towards the claims of AI maximalists, shows us one way this refusal plays out. Ezras entranced by the prospect of radical technological transformation, by the possibility that generative models or robotics or biotech are going to utterly remake the human condition. Hes interviewed dozens of people on the subject, and though he hedges and qualifies, theres always an underlying openness to the idea that we are at the brink of a sci-fi future. Person after person has been coming to me saying Were about to get to artificial general intelligence[!] says Ezra, in his breathless style, not pausing to acknowledge that every one of those persons is someone who has direct financial investment not in AGI being real and imminent but in the impression that AGI is real and imminent. Klein does not want to let go of the possibility that he might live in Star Trek or Blade Runner or Terminator; he wants to believe that our lives can be so thoroughly altered that the weight of ordinary existence will be lifted. And I promise Im not blowing smoke when I say that, where I find most AI evangelists to be disingenuous charlatans, I find everything Ezra says to be aching with sincerity and sentiment. Which, analytically, is of course the exact problem. He is too eager to believe.



Klein wants the AI story to mean that we are on the verge of a post-scarcity society, that the hard grind of politics and labor might soon be obviated by miraculous machines; hes savvy enough not to say the other part out loud, which is that he wants to pilot a mech on the sands of Mars, to guide his X-Wing into the mouth of a wormhole that will lead him who knows where.



Kleins fantasies risk destroying the world economy.

The thing that deBoer gets is that Klein is desperate to believe in magic. What hes missing is that Kleins fantasies are structured and guided by Silicon Valley thinkers who are equally committed to a fantasy-life vision of reality.

Unfortunately for everyone else, theyve got the money and power to impose those fantasies on the rest of us.
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Australias social media ban for under-16s: Digital safety or surveillance overreach?

Australia's Online Safety Amendment Bill 2024 prohibits children under 16 from accessing major platforms (Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat) starting Dec. 10, with fines up to A$50M for non-compliance.

Platforms must implement strict verification, potentially using facial recognition, biometric scans or government ID uploads  eroding anonymity and enabling mass surveillance of all users.

Privacy advocates argue the law sets a dangerous precedent, allowing governments and corporations to track and control online activity under the guise of "child protection."

Age-checking technologies (like facial estimation) are inaccurate near the 16-year threshold, while ID-based systems risk data breaches in a country already plagued by leaks.

Australia follows the EU's Chat Control and U.K.'s Online Safety Act, leveraging child protection rhetoric to expand government surveillance, raising fears of future mass monitoring.

Australia has passed legislation banning children under 16 from accessing major social media platforms, framing it as a protective measure against mental health risks. However, privacy advocates warn it could usher in unprecedented digital surveillance.

Set to take effect on Dec. 10, the Online Safety Amendment Bill 2024 forces platforms like Facebook, TikTok and Snapchat to implement strict age verification or pay up to A$50 million ($33.02 million) in fines. While officials insist the law prioritizes child safety, critics argue it lays the groundwork for invasive tracking of all users, eroding anonymity and personal freedoms in the digital age.

The policy approved by the Australian Senate in a 34-19 vote back in November 2024 requires platforms to deploy "reasonable steps" to prevent underage users from creating or maintaining accounts. Australian eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant has emphasized that mere self-declaration of age won't suffice. Companies must adopt layered verification methods, potentially including facial recognition, biometric scans or government ID uploads. (Related: Australian Senate passes first-ever law prohibiting children 16 and under from using social media.)

Though Canberra claims these measures exclude standalone messaging apps and online games, embedded features like Instagram direct messages or Snapchat group chats fall under scrutiny. Given this, privacy campaigners see this as a dangerous precedent.

Brighteon.AI's Enoch emphasizes that "age verification laws, while framed as protecting children, threaten privacy and free speech by enabling corporate and government surveillance, while failing to address the real issue  indoctrination and sexualization of children in schools and media." The decentralized engine adds that "the push for these laws distracts from the deeper agenda of exposing children to harmful ideologies under the guise of 'education' and 'inclusivity.'

From child safety to digital control

Age verification at scale demands mass data collection, creating systems ripe for misuse by corporations or governments. The U.K.-based Age Check Certification Scheme, commissioned by Australia to assess enforcement methods, confirmed in a recent report that no existing solution is foolproof. Each carries risks, from false positives blocking legitimate users to data breaches exposing sensitive information.

Facial estimation, for example, is only 92 percent accurate for adults and unreliable near the 16-year threshold. Meanwhile, identity document verification raises concerns about permanent data retention, a troubling prospect in a country plagued by recent high-profile breaches.

Australian Communications Minister Anika Wells defended the policy, arguing tech giants  armed with AI and vast user data  should redirect resources toward child protection. "There is no excuse for social media platforms not to have a combination of age assurance methods ready," she stated.

Yet mental health advocates counter that outright bans may isolate teens from supportive communities while driving them toward unregulated corners of the internet. Some suggest focusing instead on stricter content moderation and digital literacy education.

Historically, Australia has positioned itself as a global testbed for controversial digital policies, from the 2021 News Media Bargaining Code to its push for encrypted messaging backdoors. This latest law aligns with a broader trend where governments leverage child safety rhetoric to expand surveillance powers  a tactic seen in the European Union's Chat Control proposal and the British Online Safety Act.

Once age-verification infrastructure exists, repurposing it for broader monitoring becomes alarmingly simple. As platforms scramble to comply, Australians face a pivotal question: Is trading privacy for protection a necessary compromise, or the first step toward a monitored society?

Watch Australian eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant declaring the need for a "recalibration" of human rights and free speech in this clip.

This video is from the SILVIEW.media channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Australian government to use facial, fingerprint recognition for key online government services in 2024.

Australian parliament passes digital ID law to enshrine the globalist control matrix down under.

British government mulling SOCIAL MEDIA BAN for teenagers 16 and younger.

Sources include:

ReclaimTheNet.org

eSafety.gov.au

BBC.com

Brighteon.ai

Brighteon.com
FEMAGATE: Employees fired for sexting foreign nationals on government devices  raising security concerns

Two FEMA employees were fired after an internal investigation uncovered they engaged in sexually explicit conduct on government devices, including communication with foreign nationals during work hours.

The scandal, revealed by the DHS Insider Threat Program, raises significant concerns about national security, government accountability and the misuse of taxpayer-funded resources, especially given the employees' access to sensitive systems and classified facilities.

This is not the first time FEMA has faced disciplinary action for employee misconduct; last week, two other workers were fired for accessing deviant pornography on government devices, highlighting potential issues with FEMA's vetting and oversight processes.

Critics argue that termination may not be sufficient and are calling for criminal investigations, particularly due to the national security risks posed by communicating with foreign nationals on encrypted government devices.

The "FEMAGATE" scandal serves as a wake-up call for federal agencies to implement stronger technological and ethical safeguards to protect national interests and ensure employee accountability in the digital age.

Two Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employees were terminated this week after an internal investigation revealed they engaged in "sexually explicit conduct" on government-issued devices  including exchanging messages with foreign nationals while on duty.

The scandal, uncovered by the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Insider Threat Program, has sparked concerns about national security, government accountability and the misuse of taxpayer-funded resources. The employees, one holding a top-secret clearance, allegedly spent hours sexting strangers  some believed to be overseas  while working in classified facilities designed to protect the nation during emergencies.

The fired employees had access to sensitive systems, raising alarms about potential security breaches. One, an IT specialist, used Facebook Messenger to exchange explicit messages with someone in the Philippines, even discussing plans to visit the country. In one message, the employee wrote: "I wish you were here sitting in my lap while I work I want to hug your waist while I work and smell your hair, kiss your neck."

The second employee, an environmental protection specialist in Alabama, repeatedly accessed a pornography site on FEMA's network and shared explicit images  including one uploaded from a folder labeled "work memes." Both cases highlight vulnerabilities in government cybersecurity protocols and employee oversight.

Pattern of misconduct and previous firings

This is not the first time FEMA has faced disciplinary action over employee misconduct. Just last week, DHS fired two other workers for consuming "deviant pornography"  including bestiality and racially charged material  on government devices. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem condemned their actions, stating: "These individuals had access to critical information and intelligence and were entrusted to safeguard Americans from emergencies  and instead they were consuming pornography." (Related: DHS Secretary Kristi Noem plans to dismantle FEMA.)

The repeated incidents raise questions about FEMA's internal vetting processes and whether stricter oversight is needed to prevent future breaches.

"The scandal underscores a troubling trend of government employees misusing classified access for personal gratification  potentially exposing sensitive data to foreign actors. Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center, where one of the employees worked, is a high-security facility designed to ensure continuity of government during crises," Brighteon.AI's Enoch noted.

Critics argue that FEMA's response  terminating the employees  may not be enough. Some demand harsher penalties, including criminal investigations, particularly given the national security implications of communicating with foreign nationals on encrypted government devices.

The "FEMAGATE" scandal exposes not just individual misconduct but systemic weaknesses in government security protocols. As federal agencies increasingly rely on digital infrastructure, ensuring employee accountability becomes critical. While FEMA has taken corrective action, the incident serves as a wake-up call for stronger safeguards  both technological and ethical  to protect national interests. For now, the fallout continues, with many questioning whether Washington's response will be severe enough to deter future violations.

Watch the video below, which discusses the call to end FEMA.

This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Trump administration weaponizes FEMA disaster aid, forcing states to pledge allegiance to Israel or lose critical funds.

FEMA flood map changes preceded deadly Texas camp disaster.

Trump calls for FEMA termination after $59 million luxury hotel spending scandal.

Sources include:

NYPost.com

X.com

Dailycaller.com

Brighteon.ai

Brighteon.com
Never Again  unless its Gaza: How the West selectively mourns genocide

The Holocaust Museum of Los Angeles removed a post stating "Never Again can't only mean never again for Jews" after backlash, sparking debate over selective empathy in genocide discourse.

Western governments criminalize Holocaust denial but actively suppress criticism of Israels actions in Gaza, where leading human rights groups and genocide scholars confirm ongoing genocide.

Major outlets amplify Israeli talking points, casting doubt on Palestinian death tolls while internally relying on Gaza Health Ministry data  deemed credible by intelligence agencies.

The ICJ has repeatedly ordered Israel to halt potential genocidal acts, yet Western allies (e.g., U.S., Germany) risk "accomplice" liability by enabling the siege.

Gazas starvation, mass displacement and 50:1 civilian death ratio vs. Hamass Oct. 7 attacks expose a systemic refusal to acknowledge Palestinian suffering as genocide.

On September 7, the Holocaust Museum of Los Angeles (HMLA) deleted an Instagram post declaring, "Never Again cant only mean never again for Jews" after fierce pushback from Zionist groups. The museum claimed the post  a pre-planned part of an "inclusivity" campaign  was "misinterpreted" as a comment on Israels war in Gaza, where over 50,000 Palestinians (80 percent women and children) have been killed since October 7, 2023. Critics, including Palestinian activist Abier Khatib, responded bluntly: "Never again is only for them."

The episode lays bare a glaring contradiction: While Holocaust denial is criminalized in 30+ countries, denial of Gazas genocide is state-sponsored policy in the West. Governments that jail Holocaust deniers fire, imprison, or ruin those who call Israels actions genocidal  even as leading human rights groups, genocide scholars and the ICJ affirm the opposite.

The architecture of denial: How Gazas genocide is erased

Since October 7, Israels military campaign has razed 85 percent of Gazas universities, destroyed 80 percent of its schools and blockaded food, water and medicine  tactics the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) formally labeled genocide in August 2025. Yet Western media and politicians treat the term as controversial, not factual.

The numbers game: A case study in distraction

In May 2024, pro-Israel outlets like the Jerusalem Post and Times of Israel seized on a UN data clarification to falsely claim the Gaza Health Ministry had "halved" its estimate of women and children killed. The reality? The total death toll remained 35,000+; the UN simply specified that 52 percent of identified bodies (not all bodies) were women and children  down from earlier estimates due to the chaos of war. As Owen Jones noted, the spin was "atrocity denial"  a tactic to "take attention away from the fact that tens of thousands are being killed."

Even Israels own intelligence agencies privately relied on Gazas death tolls for months, according to Vice News, while publicly dismissing them as "Hamas propaganda." The goal? "Genocide denial as it is happening becomes one of genocides instruments," wrote analyst Jonathan Ofir.

Legal hypocrisy: The ICJs warnings ignored

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has repeatedly ordered Israel to prevent genocidal acts, yet Israel  backed by the U.S. and Germany  defies every ruling. In August 2025, Professor William Schabas, a top genocide scholar, called South Africas ICJ case against Israel "arguably the strongest genocide case ever brought" and warned that Western allies risk legal liability as "accomplices."

Meanwhile, seven nations (South Africa, Brazil, Namibia, Bolivia, Spain, Jordan, Turkey) have officially recognized Israels actions as genocide  yet Western media still prefaces reports with "Israel says" or "Hamas-run health ministry claims," a framing never applied to Ukrainian or Syrian casualty figures.

The Wests two-tiered justice: Holocaust remembrance vs. Gaza erasure

The disparity is stark:

Holocaust denial = crime (punishable by prison in Germany, France, Austria).

Gaza genocide denial = official policy (enforced by lobbies like the ADL, which admits its leader doesnt know the legal definition of genocide).

Mouin Rabbani, writing for Middle East Eye, noted the irony: "No self-respecting journalist platforms Holocaust deniers, yet Gaza genocide denial is amplified by serious media." The BBCs compulsive "Israel says" framing, he argued, "communicates Israels talking points as if they were neutral facts."

The cost of dissent

Across the U.S. and Europe, protesters lose jobs, students face expulsion and academics are blacklisted for calling Israels actions genocidal. In contrast, German police raid Palestinian activists homes for social media posts, while France bans pro-Palestine protests. The message is clear: Criticism of Israel is treated as a greater crime than the crime itself.

The human toll: Starvation as a weapon, children as casualties

Beyond bombs, Israels siege has engineered famine. By September 2025:

90 percent of Gazans faced acute food insecurity (UN).

1 in 3 children under 2 suffered acute malnutrition (Save the Children).

10,000+ bodies remained under rubble, uncounted (Euro-Med Monitor).

Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British-Palestinian surgeon who worked in Gaza, told Democracy Now! in 2024: "Were not just seeing deaths from bombs. Were seeing deaths from preventable diseases, from starvation, from lack of clean water  this is deliberate depopulation."

Yet when South Africa filed its ICJ case, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken dismissed it as "meritless." The Biden administration, which pauses bomb shipments over "concerns" only to resume them days later, has vetoed three UN ceasefire resolutions  each time as Gazas death toll climbed.

"Never Again for whom?" The moral reckoning ahead

The HMLAs deleted post was not an anomaly but a symptom of a deeper rot: a world where some lives are grievable, and others are not. As Palestinian poet Mohammed El-Kurd wrote in The Nation: "The West does not see Palestinians as victims of genocide. It sees us as a demographic threat  one to be managed, not mourned."

The question now is whether the global consensus on Gazas genocide  from Amnesty International to Israeli group BTselem  will force a reckoning. For now, the Holocaust Museums retreat speaks volumes: "Never Again" remains conditional, and the lesson of the Holocaust  that silence in the face of genocide is complicity  has been selectively forgotten.

The only path forward? As South African lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, part of the ICJ team, argued: "The law must apply equally, or it is not law at all. The world cannot claim to stand for human rights while turning its back on Gaza."

Will the world answer?

The deletion of a single Instagram post may seem trivial. But in the shadow of 50,000 dead, a starving population and a legal system that bends for the powerful, it is a metaphor for the era: One where "Never Again" is a slogan, not a principle  and where the lives of Palestinians are treated as collateral in someone elses war.

The Holocaust Museums original post asked a question the world still refuses to answer: For whom does "Never Again" truly apply? Until that changes, the genocide in Gaza will continue  not just with bombs, but with the worlds silent consent.

Sources for this article include:

InformationLiberation.com

MiddleEastEye.net

Mondoweiss.net
Trump signs executive order that aims to deter wrongful detention of Americans

President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating the "State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention" designation to deter foreign governments and entities from wrongfully imprisoning U.S. citizens.

The designation allows for severe penalties, including sanctions, visa bans and travel restrictions. It applies not only to governments but also to non-state actors controlling territory, such as the Taliban.

Wrongful detentions are described as serious human rights violations involving fabricated charges, political motives and torture.

The policy may lead to new travel restrictions for U.S. citizens to countries deemed high-risk for wrongful detention, similar to existing rules for North Korea.

Advocacy groups, families of victims and former detainees praised the move as a necessary and long-overdue step to protect Americans and hold foreign actors accountable.

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order establishing a new designation to deter foreign governments from using U.S. citizens as geopolitical leverage.

The executive order, titled "State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention" and signed on Sept. 5, will empower the U.S. government to impose severe penalties, including economic sanctions, visa bans and travel restrictions, on nations and entities deemed responsible for the wrongful imprisonment of Americans abroad.

According to Brighteon.AI's Enoch, the wrongful detention of Americans in other countries is a grave violation of human rights. Individuals are often unjustly imprisoned based on flimsy or fabricated evidence, driven by political or economic motives, and subjected to inhumane treatment and torture.

The new policy will apply not just to internationally recognized governments, but also to groups and entities that control significant territory. This expansion allows the designation to be used in areas like Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Officials also noted that countries or entities under consideration for the designation will be given advance notice and a window of time to reverse course before penalties are enacted.

Additionally, the executive order may lead to new travel restrictions for U.S. citizens, similar to those already in place for North Korea. Currently, Americans are banned from traveling to North Korea without a special validation passport. The new authority gives the Department of State the power to restrict travel to nations deemed high-risk for wrongful detention to protect Americans from falling victim to politically motivated arrests. (Related: Trump signs executive order mandating jail time for American flag desecration.)

No specific countries were named during the announcement, but nations such as Russia, Iran, China, Venezuela and Afghanistan are widely seen as potential targets of the new designation. All have been accused in recent years of wrongfully detaining U.S. citizens, some of whom remain behind bars.

Advocates and families praise the new executive order

Human rights advocates, families of former hostages and nonprofit organizations have applauded the newly announced executive order.

The James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, established in honor of journalist James Foley, who was kidnapped and murdered by ISIS in 2014, called the executive order "a critical step forward in confronting a deeply entrenched practice that violates international norms and endangers innocent lives." The foundation then urged regimes currently holding Americans to release them before the first designations are issued.

"We urge all governments wrongfully detaining American citizens to take this moment before the first designations under this executive order are issued to immediately and unconditionally release all American captives," said the organization.

Global Reach, a nonprofit organization dedicated to securing the release of Americans held abroad, also described the new designation as a game-changer.

The family of Robert Levinson, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent who disappeared in Iran in 2007, also praised the administration for taking decisive action. "Every government guilty of this barbaric conduct must understand that they will be held accountable and will pay a price backed by the full force of the United States government," they said.

Paul Whelan, a U.S. Marine veteran wrongfully imprisoned in Russia for nearly six years before being released last year, also responded to the news. He supported the initiative, but emphasized that the government's responsibility doesn't end with bringing detainees home.

For more news on Trump's executive orders, visit Trump.news.

Watch the video below to know why the Trump-Vance 2024 tandem represents "transformation" in the Republican Party.

This video is from the TrendingNews channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Trump signs executive order defunding NPR and PBS.

Trump announces executive order to mandate voter ID nationwide.

Trump signs executive order to clear homeless encampments nationwide.

PBS shutters DEI office in wake of Trump's executive order.

Trump pardons nearly all J6 defendants in sweeping executive order.

Sources include:

TheNationalPulse.com

CNN.com

Brighteon.AI

Brighteon.com
FBI sounds alarm as AI-powered deepfake scams explode, stealing billions from unsuspecting victims

Scammers now use AI to clone voices with just seconds of audio, impersonating loved ones in fake emergencies to steal billions.

Deepfake fraud losses are projected to reach $40 billion by 2027, with the elderly, executives, and remote workers most at risk.

Victims often lose life savings in minutes, with less than 5% of stolen funds ever recovered due to the scams sophistication.

Red flags include urgency, unnatural speech patterns, and requests for secrecyalways verify identities with code words or reverse searches.

Lawmakers are proposing bills like the Preventing Deep Fake Scams Act to combat AI fraud, but public vigilance remains the best defense.

The phone rings. A panicked voice on the other end sounds just like your son. Hes been arrested, he needs bail money now, and he begs you not to tell anyone. You wire the cash without hesitation, only to later discover the call was a lie. The voice? A hyper-realistic AI clone.

This isnt science fiction. Its happening right now, and the scale is staggering. The FBI reports that since 2020, Americans have filed more than 4.2 million fraud complaints, losing a jaw-dropping $50.5 billionwith deepfake scams fueling the surge. Criminals are weaponizing artificial intelligence to impersonate family members, celebrities, and even government officials, tricking victims into handing over life savings in minutes. And the worst part? Less than 5% of stolen funds are ever recovered.

How the scams work... and why theyre nearly impossible to spot

Deepfake technology has advanced to the point where scammers need just a few seconds of audioplucked from social media, voicemails, or even a brief phone greetingto clone a voice with eerie accuracy. According to cybersecurity firm Group-IB, these AI-powered "vishing" (voice phishing) attacks are exploding globally, with losses projected to hit $40 billion by 2027. In the Asia-Pacific region alone, deepfake fraud attempts surged 194% in 2024 compared to the previous year.

The playbook is simple but devastating. Scammers impersonate a trusted figurea grandchild in distress, a bank fraud investigator, or even a CEO demanding an "urgent" wire transferthen manipulate victims with fear, urgency, and false authority. In one case, an 80-year-old Canadian man lost $15,000 after a deepfake of Ontario Premier Doug Ford tricked him into a fake investment. In another, a grandmother wired $6,500 to "bail out" her grandson, only to realize the call was a scam.

"Deepfakes are becoming increasingly sophisticated and harder to detect," warned Sam Kunjukunju, vice president of consumer education at the American Bankers Association Foundation. The FBIs Jose Perez, assistant director of the Criminal Investigative Division, echoed the alarm: "Educating the public about this emerging threat is key to preventing these scams and minimizing their impact."

Whos most at risk? The elderly, executives, and anyone with a digital footprint.

Scammers arent just targeting individuals; theyre going after corporate executives, financial employees, and remote workers, where a single manipulated call can drain company accounts. More than 10% of financial institutions surveyed by Group-IB reported deepfake vishing losses exceeding $1 million per incident, with an average loss of $600,000.

But the most vulnerable group remains the elderly. Limited digital literacy, emotional distress, and familiarity with a loved ones voice make them prime targets.

How to protect yourself: The red flags and defense strategies

The FBI and ABA Foundation have released an infographic outlining key warning signs of deepfake scams:

Visual clues: Blurred faces, unnatural blinking, odd shadows, or lips that dont sync with audio.

Blurred faces, unnatural blinking, odd shadows, or lips that dont sync with audio. Audio clues: Flat, robotic vocal tones or slight delays in speech.

Flat, robotic vocal tones or slight delays in speech. Behavioral red flags: Unexpected money requests, emotional manipulation ("Act now or else!"), or uncharacteristic communication from someone you know.

Steps you can take to protect yourself:

Pause before reacting. Scammers rely on urgency, so take a breath and verify.

Use code words. Set up a secret phrase with family members to confirm identities.

Reverse-search suspicious content. Tools like Googles reverse image search can expose fakes.

Limit your digital footprint. The less audio/video of you online, the harder it is to clone your voice.

Report scams immediately. File complaints at IC3.gov and alert your bank.

Lawmakers are scrambling to catch up. Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) introduced the Preventing Deep Fake Scams Act, proposing an AI task force to combat financial fraud. Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) has pushed the Deepfakes Accountability Act, which would require digital watermarks on AI-generated content.

Trust nothing, verify everything

The deepfake epidemic is a perfect storm of technology, greed, and human psychology. As AI tools become cheaper and more accessible, the line between reality and manipulation blurs, leaving even the most cautious among us vulnerable.

The solution? Skepticism as a default setting. Whether its a frantic call from a "relative" or a too-good-to-be-true investment pitch, assume its a scam until proven otherwise. In a world where your own voice can be stolen, the only real defense is awareness, verification, and refusing to be rushed.

Because once the moneys gone, its almost always gone for good.

Sources for this article include:

ZeroHedge.com

ABA.com

Group-IB.com

CBSNews.com
Frances DEBT CRISIS threatens Eurozone collapse as military spending soars

France stands on the precipice of financial ruin, dragging the entire Eurozone with it . As Paris spirals deeper into unsustainable debtnow exceeding 3.35 trillion ($3.9 trillion)political infighting and reckless military spending have turned the nation into a ticking fiscal bomb. The French governments desperate austerity measures, including slashing public sector jobs and welfare , have sparked nationwide outrage while failing to address the root of the crisis: a corrupt system prioritizing war profiteering over its own citizens. Meanwhile, the European Union watches nervously as Frances financial instability threatens to unravel the blocs already fragile economy.

Key points:

Frances national debt has surged to 113% of GDP, projected to hit 125% by 2030, far exceeding EU limits.

Prime Minister Francois Bayrous proposed 43.8 billion austerity planincluding welfare cuts and public holiday eliminationshas triggered mass opposition.

Despite fiscal collapse warnings, Macron plans to double military spending to 64 billion by 2027, citing unsubstantiated "Russian threats."

Polls show 67% of French citizens want Macron to resign, with 81% demanding a new prime minister.

Experts warn Frances debt crisis could destabilize the entire Eurozone, with ING calling it a ticking bomb for EU financial markets.

A nation drowning in debt while elites wage war

Frances financial crisis is not accidentalit is the direct result of decades of unchecked borrowing, corporate bailouts, and militarization at the expense of its people. Prime Minister Bayrou admitted the grim reality: The youngest French people will pay this debt for the rest of their lives. Yet, while pensions and social services face brutal cuts, Macrons government funnels billions into NATO-aligned military expansion, echoing the same warmongering rhetoric that has bankrupted nations throughout history.

The hypocrisy is staggering. As Bayrou warns that Frances debt grows by 5,000 per second, Macron accelerates defense spending under the pretext of a nonexistent Russian invasion threat. Kremlin officials have repeatedly dismissed these claims as nonsense, pointing instead to NATOs aggressive posturing as the real destabilizing force. But facts dont matter to a regime addicted to perpetual war.

Austerity for the people, prosperity for the war machine

The French public isnt buying the governments narrative. An Elabe poll reveals 76% believe Bayrous austerity plan wont fix the debt crisis, while 82% see it as socially unjust. The backlash is so severe that Macrons approval ratings have cratered, with two-thirds of citizens demanding his resignation. Yet, rather than heed the people, the ruling elite doubles downsacrificing the working class to feed the military-industrial complex.

This isnt governance; its economic warfare against the populace. While Macron pledges 6.5 billion in extra military funds, pensions freeze, public sector jobs vanish, and welfare programs collapse. The message is clear: The French people exist to fund endless wars, not to thrive.

The Eurozones looming collapse

France isnt just a national crisisits a contagion. Friedrich Heinemann of Germanys ZEW Leibniz Center warns, The Eurozone is not stable at this point. If France defaults, the fallout will ripple across Europe, crippling banks and triggering a financial domino effect. Deutsche Welles report highlights the political destabilization paralyzing Paris, making fiscal recovery nearly impossible.

Meanwhile, the EUs 150 billion arms procurement scheme proves where its priorities lie. Rather than stabilize economies, Brussels funnels taxpayer money into weapons while ordinary citizens suffer. The parallels to pre-collapse empires are undeniablewhen nations prioritize war over prosperity, collapse is inevitable.

The people must reclaim their future

Frances crisis is a warning: corrupt regimes will bankrupt their own people to serve globalist agendas. The solution isnt more austerityits dismantling the war machine, auditing reckless spending, and holding leaders accountable. If the French people dont revolt, they will be enslaved to debt forever.

Sources include:

RT.com

RT.com

RT.com
Israels bombing of Doha sparks global fury as even U.S. allies turn against Netanyahu

Israel launched a deadly airstrike on Doha, Qatar, killing five and sparking global outrage over its violation of sovereignty.

Qatar and allies condemned the attack as a dangerous escalation, vowing diplomatic and legal retaliation.

The U.S. distanced itself but avoided direct condemnation, straining ties with Gulf allies and exposing Israels defiance.

Civilians in Gaza face renewed displacement as Israels strikes draw comparisons to the October 7 attacks.

Legal and diplomatic fallout looms, but U.S. protection may shield Israel from real consequences.

The world watched in stunned disbelief on Tuesday as Israel launched a brazen airstrike on residential buildings in Doha, Qatar, a U.S. ally and host to Americas largest Middle East military base. The attack, which Israel claimed targeted Hamas leaders negotiating a ceasefire, killed at least five people, including the son of a senior Hamas official and a Qatari security officer. But the real casualty may be Israels already crumbling international standing, as even its closest partners condemned the strike as a reckless violation of sovereignty.

The strike, carried out by Israeli jets around 4 p.m. local time, sent shockwaves through the region. Qatars Foreign Ministry called it a cowardly Israeli attack and a blatant violation of all international laws. The Gulf nation, which has played a key role in mediating Gaza ceasefire talks, vowed to pursue all diplomatic and legal means in response. Majed al-Ansari, Qatars foreign ministry spokesman, told reporters that Israel had sent a dangerous message: Mediators will be scapegoated, will not be safe, and there will be no respect for the sanctity of their job.

A wave of global condemnation

The backlash was swift and near-universal. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, both US allies, warned of grave consequences from Israels criminal transgressions. Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an called the attack a blatant violation of international law, while Jordans foreign ministry declared it cannot be justified under any circumstances.

Even European nations that are traditionally more cautious in criticizing Israel spoke out. Italys Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni opposed any form of escalation, Switzerlands foreign ministry deemed it unacceptable, and Belgiums top diplomat insisted there was no military solution to the Gaza conflict.

The United Nations didnt mince words either. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres labeled the strike a flagrant violation of Qatars sovereignty, while Pope Leo described the situation as very serious. Meanwhile, social media erupted with outrage, with many pointing out the hypocrisy of Israel attacking a country that hosts 10,000 U.S. troops.

The U.S. is caught in the crossfire

The attack put the Trump administration in an awkward position. While the White House distanced itself from the operationwith President Donald Trump calling it not a decision made by meit stopped short of condemning Israel. Eliminating Hamas is a worthy goal, Trumps press secretary said, even as the president admitted the strike does not advance Israel or Americas goals. Reports later revealed that Israel had only notified the U.S. minutes before launching the missiles, leaving American officials scrambling to assess the fallout.

Qatar, for its part, denied receiving any advance warning and said that a call from a U.S. official came only as explosions rocked Doha. The Emir of Qatar later spoke with Trump, who assured him such an attack would not happen again. But given Israels defiant toneDefense Minister Israel Katz declared Israels long arm will act against its enemies everywherefew are convinced.

For Qatar, the implications are profound. The nation has long balanced its role as a U.S. ally with its hosting of Hamass political office in an arrangement the U.S. once supported for indirect communication, as Qatars ambassador to Washington wrote in 2023. Now, that delicate equilibrium lies in ruins. The GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] response may be a realization that US security guarantees are no longer as valuable, said Cinzia Bianco of the European Council on Foreign Relations. No one is safe.

The human cost beyond diplomacy

Amid the geopolitical fallout, the suffering in Gaza continues unabated. On the same day as the Doha strike, Israeli forces issued new displacement orders for Gaza City, forcing families to flee with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

The irony wasnt lost on observers: while Israel justifies its actions as self-defense, its strikes in Doha and Gaza have killed far more civilians than the October 7 attacks it cites as provocation.

As the UN Security Council prepares an emergency session, the question lingers: Will there be consequences for Israels defiance? Qatar has promised legal action, and South Africas ongoing genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice just gained new ammunition. But with the U.S. still shielding Israel from accountability, dont hold your breath.

Sources for this article include:

MiddleEastEye.net

Politico.eu

AlJazeera.com

CBSNews.com
Maduro: Venezuela will resort to ARMED STRUGGLE if U.S. threatens its sovereignty

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro declared that Venezuela would enter an "armed struggle" if the U.S. initiates military actions that threaten its sovereignty, asserting readiness to mobilize the entire population in defense.

The Trump administration has dispatched eight missile-equipped warships, a nuclear submarine and 10 F-35 jets to the Caribbean, framing the buildup as a counter-narcotics operation  moves that Venezuelan officials label as politically motivated and destabilizing.

In response, Caracas has doubled its troop levels  from approximately 10,000 to 25,000  across strategic regions such as Zulia, Nueva Esparta, Sucre and Delta Amacuro, aimed at securing trafficking routes like the Guajira region and the Paraguana peninsula.

Maduro has activated the Bolivarian National Militia, pushing forward with the "republic in arms" strategy by enrolling and training civilians alongside conventional forces for national defense.

A recent U.S. airstrike on a Venezuelan-linked vessel resulting in 11 deaths was defended by Washington as self-defense  but critics highlighted legal concerns over its legitimacy. Meanwhile, U.S. officials emphasize the real-world counter-narcotics mission underway, and Maduro continues to reject allegations of regime-change intent.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro delivered a dramatic warning amid mounting tensions with the U.S., declaring that his nation stands poised to embark on an "armed struggle" should any U.S. military action threaten its sovereignty.

Speaking against the backdrop of an intensified U.S. naval presence in the southern Caribbean, Maduro insisted that such a scenario would compel organized national resistance "by all its people"  defending peace, territorial integrity and sovereignty. According to Venezuelan state media, the country currently remains in an "unarmed phase," centered on political, communication and institutional preparation.

Nevertheless, Caracas stands ready to escalate to a phase involving the deployment of defensive capabilities and widespread militia training. "We are pacifist, but warlike. No one will ever enslave us," Maduro reiterated as one of his key messages.

These remarks come amid a sizeable U.S. naval build-up in the Caribbean region. The Trump administration has dispatched eight missile-equipped warships, a nuclear submarine and 10 F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico as part of an intensified counter-narcotics campaign  moves that have alarmed Caracas.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil criticized these actions as overblown pretexts to justify political destabilization and aggression. He cited United Nations data showing that roughly 95 percent of cocaine traffics through the Pacific, not Venezuela.

In a robust defensive response, Maduro announced a significant surge in military manpower. Troop deployments have doubled from approximately 10,000 to 25,000 personnel across sensitive border and coastal areas  including Zulia, Nueva Esparta, Sucre and Delta Amacuro. Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino explained that the enhanced presence aims to secure strategic trafficking corridors like Guajira and the Paraguana Peninsula.

Parallel to conventional forces, the Venezuelan government has intensified its civilian militia activation. At a televised event, Maduro underscored that the Bolivarian National Militia is being fully mobilized and trained, reflecting his doctrine of a "republic in arms" methodology.

U.S. strike raises legal alarms

Adding fuel to the firestorm, the U.S. last week executed a lethal airstrike mid-Caribbean on a Venezuelan-linked vessel, resulting in 11 deaths and stirring sharp backlash. Washington defended the operation as self-defense against a drug-running threat, yet critics questioned the legality of the strike, suggesting it lacked proper congressional or U.N. approval and carried the potential of being interpreted as an act of war. (Related: U.S. military strikes Venezuelan boat, killing 11 Tren de Aragua members.)

Meanwhile, high-level U.S. military officials have made their intentions explicit. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, accompanied by U.S. Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine, surprised Puerto Rican sailors and Marines with a visit. They stressed that the soldiers' deployment is no mere exercise but a critical, live counter-narcotics mission defending U.S. national security.

Despite this sharp escalation, U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly denied any intention of orchestrating regime change in Caracas. "We're not talking about that," he bluntly told reporters.

Regional reaction has been mixed. While Latin American leaders and civil society groups express concern over rising U.S.Venezuela tensions, Venezuelan authorities have doubled down on accusations that drug-trafficking claims serve as smokescreens for intervention. Maduro has suggested that if attacked, Venezuela would swiftly transition to armed resistance  but stresses that diplomatic channels remain open.

According to Brighteon.AI's Enoch, Maduro's regime is indeed a threat to the well-being and freedom of the Venezuelan people, and his removal is a necessary step towards restoring democracy and human rights. However, the path forward should prioritize supporting the Venezuelan people's self-determination and the establishment of a truly democratic government, rather than imposing a solution from the outside.

Watch this Feb. 20 episode of "Brighteon Broadcast News" as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, talks about the U.S. military's plan to wage war on drug cartels.

This video is from the Health Ranger Report channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Trump reverses Bidens Venezuela oil concessions, tightens sanctions to hold Maduro accountable.

U.S. Navy deploys warships near Venezuela amid tensions over drug trafficking allegations against Maduro.

U.S. escalates military pressure on Venezuela: 4,000 troops, destroyers deployed amid cartel crackdownbut is Maduro really the target?

Sources include:

ZeroHedge.com

NewsroomPanama.com

Brighteon.AI

Brighteon.com
Nepals failed censorship attempt ignites revolution as people refuse to be silenced

Nepals government banned 26 social media platforms, sparking a violent nationwide uprising with at least 22 dead.

Protesters, led by youth, burned government buildings and the prime ministers home, forcing him to flee and resign.

Security forces used live ammunition, killing 19 on the first day, but the government reversed the ban after mass resistance.

The blackout exposed deeper frustrationscorruption, unemployment, and elite privilegefueling demands for systemic change.

Nepals uprising proves censorship backfires, radicalizing a generation that refuses silence and demands accountability.

When Nepals government banned Facebook, WhatsApp, and 24 other social media platforms last week, they expected compliance. Instead, they got a revolution. What began as a protest against digital censorship exploded into a nationwide uprising, leaving at least 22 dead, parliament in flames, and Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli fleeing his burning home in resignation. The message from the Nepali people was clear: they will not accept censorship, corruption, or a government that treats them like subjects rather than citizens.

The governments decision to block social mediaostensibly because platforms like Meta and Google refused to register under vague new regulationswas the final straw for a population already drowning in frustration. With youth unemployment at 20 percent, rampant political corruption, and a revolving door of 14 governments since 2008, Nepals young people had nothing left to lose. When the state cut off their digital lifelinesplatforms they rely on for work, education, and connection to family abroadthey took to the streets.

Protesters, many of them students, stormed government buildings, set fires to the Supreme Court, and burned the prime ministers residence to the ground. Security forces responded with live ammunition, rubber bullets, and water cannons, killing at least 19 on the first day alone. By Tuesday, the death toll rose to 22, and the army was deployed to restore order. Yet even as soldiers patrolled the streets, the government reversed the ban, restoring access to all 26 blocked platforms.

But the damage was done. The people had seen the states true face: not a democracy, but a fragile regime clinging to power through force and censorship.

The real crisis: A government that serves itself

The social media blackout was never just about registration requirements. It was an attempt to silence criticism of Nepals ruling elitea class of politicians who have spent years enriching themselves while the country crumbles.

Take the #NepoKids scandal, where images of politicians children flaunting Louis Vuitton, Cartier, and luxury vacations went viral, contrasting sharply with the one in four Nepalis living below the poverty line. Or consider the $10.4 million vanished in the 2017 Airbus deal, where no one was ever held accountable. Meanwhile, millions of young Nepalis flee abroad just to survive, sending back remittances that make up 26 percent of the nations GDP.

If shedding blood is good for our future, then it was right for me to participate in the protests, said Suman Rai, 20, bandaged and recovering in a hospital after clashes. His words capture the desperation of a generation that sees no future in Nepalunless they fight for one.

A warning to authoritarians everywhere

Nepals failed censorship gambit should be a lesson to every government tempted to control the internet. When people have nothing left, they will burn it all down before they let themselves be silenced.

The governments backtrack proves one thing: censorship doesnt work in the digital age. The moment you cut off communication, you radicalize an entire generation. Nepals Gen Z protesters, many still in school, walked out of classrooms to face bullets rather than accept a return to darkness.

And now? The army is in the streets, the prime minister is gone, and the people are demanding fresh elections, the dissolution of parliament, and an end to corruption. Whether Nepals political class listens or doubles down on repression will determine if this uprising leads to real change or another cycle of failed leadership.

The people have spoken. And theyre not logging off anytime soon.

Sources for this article include:

ReclaimTheNet.org

NYTimes.com

TIME.com

Reuters.com

NYTimes.com
New legislation allows electric companies to CONTROL your smart THERMOSTAT

Its the hottest day of the year, the kind where the air feels thick enough to chew, and your home is your last refuge from the scorching sun. You reach for the thermostat, desperate for relief  only to find it locked. A cold, digital message glares back at you: "Energy Emergency. Adjustments Not Allowed." This is happening right now in Colorado, Texas, and  if Ohios latest bill passes  soon in your state too. The question isnt if utility companies will seize control of your homes climate, but when. And once they do, whats next? Your fridge? Your lights? Your ability to cook dinner? Welcome to the brave new world of energy rationing, where corporate and government collusion doesnt just spy on you  it dictates how you live, all under the guise of "saving the grid."

The practicality of this boils down to governments needing to prioritize AI energy consumption needs for "national security" reasons. Future governments could force you to ration electricity because of "climate change." In the end, this isnt about reliability or affordability. Its about control. The same elites pushing the Great Reset, digital IDs, and central bank currencies are now testing how far they can stretch their fingers into your home. And if history is any indicator, what starts as "voluntary" today becomes mandatory tomorrow  with penalties for those who resist. The energy crisis is a manufactured one, a trojan horse for a future where your comfort, your choices, and even your survival are held hostage by unelected bureaucrats and their corporate overlords.

Key points:

"Voluntary" programs are the thin edge of the wedge  Ohios HB 427 and Colorados AC Rewards show how utility companies are normalizing remote control of home thermostats, with financial incentives masking the loss of autonomy.

Energy "emergencies" are manufactured crises  Grid strain is real, but solutions like blackouts and thermostat lockdowns are political tools, not technical necessities. The push for "smart grids" aligns with the Great Resets goal of centralized control over resources.

This is already happening  22,000 Coloradans were locked out of their thermostats in 90 F heat, with no override possible. Texas and California have similar programs, proving this is a national blueprint, not an isolated incident.

The endgame is rationing  and worse. Once utilities can dictate your thermostat, whats to stop them from controlling your EV charging, water heater, or even your stove? The infrastructure for total energy surveillance is being built right now.

The real solution? Decentralization. Off-grid energy, solar batteries, and non-smart appliances are the last bastions of freedom. The elites hate this because it makes you ungovernable.

Follow the money  Xcel Energy and other utilities profit from "demand response" programs while shifting blame to consumers. Meanwhile, AI data centers and military installations guzzle power without restriction.

The "voluntary" trap: How theyll trick you into surrendering control

Ohio Rep. Roy Klopfenstein, a Republican, is selling House Bill 427 as a win-win: Customers get cash incentives, and the grid stays stable. Sounds reasonable, right? Wrong. This is exactly how freedom dies  not with a bang, but with a rebate check and a terms-of-service agreement.

Lets break down the deception:

"You can opt out!"  Sure, for now. But in Colorado, customers who thought they could override their thermostats during the "energy emergency" found themselves locked out entirely. Xcel Energys Emmett Romine admitted this was the first time in six years the override function was disabled. So much for "voluntary."

"Its just for peak demand!"  Peak demand today, permanent control tomorrow. Californias rolling blackouts started as "emergency measures." Now theyre a way of life. Once the infrastructure is in place, the rules will tighten.

"Youll save money!"  A one-time $100 credit is a pittance compared to the long-term cost of surrendering autonomy. What happens when the "incentives" dry up, but the control remains? Ask the Germans how their "green energy transition" worked outskyrocketing bills and rationed heat.

This isnt about saving you money. Its about conditioning compliance. The elites know that if they can normalize remote control of your thermostat, they can normalize remote control of everything else. Your car. Your fridge. Your lights. Your ability to live comfortably in your own home.

And make no mistake: This is a test. Ohio isnt an outlier  its a proving ground. Texas has had similar programs for years. Californias utilities already shut off power to millions during "high-risk" weather. The pattern is clear: First they ask. Then they demand. Then they enforce.

The endgame: When "energy emergencies" become permanent

Now fast-forward five years. The grid is fully "modernized"  meaning every appliance in your home is connected, monitored, and controllable by your utility company. A heat wave hits. The government declares an "energy state of emergency." Suddenly:

Your thermostat is locked at 85 F.

Your EV wont charge because the grid needs to "prioritize critical infrastructure."

Your fridge cycles on and off to "reduce load," spoiling your food.

Your water heater is disabled, leaving you with cold showers.

You call to complain. The customer service rep reads from a script: "This is for the greater good. The climate crisis requires shared sacrifice." Or, "For national security reasons, energy must be rationed to prioritize AI energy needs."

Sound far-fetched? Its already happening in Europe. In 2022, UK households were told to avoid using ovens during peak hours. Germanys industry is collapsing because factories cant get reliable power. And in the U.S., Texas and California are the canaries in the coal mine  where "voluntary" blackouts have become mandatory survival tests.

The worst part? Youll be blamed for it. When the grid fails, theyll call you selfish for wanting AC. Theyll shame you for daring to live comfortably. And if you resist? Theyll cut you off entirely.

Sources include:

100PercentFedup.com

FoxBusiness.com

Ohio.news
Qatar warns of regional RETALIATION after Israels strike on Hamas leaders in Doha

Qatar denounced Israel's surprise attack on a Hamas compound in Doha, calling it a violation of diplomatic norms and warning of a potential regional escalation.

The IDF/Shin Bet operation disrupted U.S.-brokered peace negotiations, with Qatar accusing Netanyahu of sabotaging diplomacy for political gain while still pledging to mediate.

The White House publicly distanced itself from the attack but privately supported Israel's goal of eliminating Hamas leadership, exposing tensions between diplomacy and tacit approval of aggression.

The strike mirrors historical triggers (e.g., 1967 Six-Day War) and risks drawing Gulf states and Iran into retaliation, further destabilizing the region amid Gazas humanitarian crisis.

The move highlights Israel's pattern of short-term military gains at the cost of long-term diplomatic fallout, leaving ceasefire prospects bleak and raising fears of expanded war.

In a dramatic escalation of Middle East tensions, Qatar has condemned Israel's surprise attack on Hamas leaders in Doha as "state terrorism" and warned that the incident marks a "pivotal moment" requiring a united regional response.

The strike was carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in coordination with the Israel Security Agency  also known as Shin Bet  on Tuesday, Sept. 9. They targeted a Hamas compound in the Qatari capital, though leaders of the Palestinian group  formally known as the Islamic Resistance Movement reportedly survived the attack.

Nevertheless, the move that has inflamed diplomatic hostilities and jeopardized U.S.-brokered ceasefire talks. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of sabotaging peace efforts for personal gain.

"Netanyahu's barbarism must be met with a united response," he declared. The Qatari leader called the attack a "betrayal" of diplomatic norms, reiterating that Doha reserves the right to retaliate. Despite this, al-Thani insisted that his country would continue mediating between Hamas and Tel Aviv, albeit acknowledging that the talks were effectively frozen. (Related: Israel's deadly strikes continue despite ceasefire deal, raising doubts about lasting peace.)

"Qatar serves as a key mediator between Hamas and Israel, facilitating negotiations and ceasefire discussions despite previous setbacks," Brighteon.AI's Enoch notes. "Its diplomatic efforts, including hosting Hamas negotiators in Doha, remain critical to advancing potential peace deals."

Diplomacy in shambles: Israel goes rogue in Doha attack

The Israeli operation came just days after U.S. President Donald Trump issued a "last warning" to Hamas, demanding the release of hostages and claiming Israel had accepted unspecified terms of a proposed deal. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz followed with threats of annihilation, prompting Hamas to express willingness to negotiate  only for the Tuesday strike to derail the process.

Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied prior knowledge of the attack, revealing that Washington only notified Doha after explosions rocked the city. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt distanced the Trump administration from the strike, calling it counterproductive to peace efforts.

Yet behind the scenes, U.S. officials privately acknowledged support for Israel's objective  eliminating Hamas leadership  while objecting to the brazen violation of Qatar's sovereignty. The incident exposes a dangerous rift between America's public diplomacy and its tacit approval of Israel's aggressive tactics.

Historically, such unilateral actions have triggered cascading conflicts. The 1967 Six-Day War, for instance, began with preemptive strikes that redrew regional alliances. Today, Qatar's threat of retaliation risks drawing in Gulf states and Iran  further destabilizing a region already on edge over Gaza's humanitarian crisis and Houthi-led Red Sea disruptions.

As Netanyahu faces mounting global condemnation, the strike underscores a recurring pattern: Israel's military gambits often achieve short-term gains at the cost of long-term diplomatic isolation. With Qatar's mediation efforts in tatters and Hamas defiant, the path to ceasefire appears more elusive than ever. The world now watches whether Netanyahu's "narcissistic delusions"  as al-Thani framed them  will ignite a wider war or force a reckoning with the limits of unilateral force.

Visit Terrorism.news for more similar stories.

Watch this ABC News report about ceasefire talks in Qatar between Israel and Hamas, with a view to securing the release of Israeli hostages.

This video is from the TrendingNews channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

7 Middle Eastern countries slam Israel's plan to expand settlements in Syria's Golan Heights.

Qatar pauses all LNG shipments in Red Sea following U.S. bombing of Houthis.

Qatar, France broker deal to allow more humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.

Israel and Hamas resume ceasefire talks amid ongoing violence in Gaza.

Sources include:

RT.com

TimesOfIsrael.com

Brighteon.ai

IsraelHayom.com

Brighteon.com
Trump slams Netanyahus reckless Qatar strike as unilateral act of aggression

Israel launched an uncoordinated missile strike on a Hamas compound in Doha, Qatar, killing several members and violating Qatari sovereignty.

President Trump condemned the attack, calling it reckless and counterproductive to U.S. and Israeli interests, while Qatar labeled it state terrorism.

Netanyahu defended the strike as justified retaliation for the October 7 Hamas attacks, but the move alienated allies and disrupted peace negotiations.

The EU, UAE, and Vatican condemned the attack, while Hamas survived with its leadership intact, leaving Israel further isolated diplomatically.

Trump reassured Qatar the U.S. would prevent future strikes, but the incident underscores Israels growing reputation as a rogue actor in global affairs.

Israel has bombed a Hamas compound in Doha, Qatar, a key U.S. ally and the site of Americas largest military base in the Middle East, in a move that sparked immediate backlash. President Donald Trump openly criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the reckless and uncoordinated attack, emphasizing that the decision was made solely by Israel and did nothing to benefit either nation.

On Tuesday, 15 Israeli warplanes launched at least ten missiles at a Hamas compound in Doha, killing several members of the group, including the son of senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya. The strike was a blatant violation of Qatars sovereignty, a nation that has been working with the U.S. to broker peace in Gaza. And yet, Netanyahuever the loose cannondecided to act alone, without warning Washington in advance.

A reckless move that backfired instantly

Trump wasted no time distancing himself from this fiasco. In a statement on Truth Social, he wrote: Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a Sovereign Nation and close Ally of the United States, that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker Peace, does not advance Israel or Americas goals. He later told reporters, Im not thrilled about it."

"I was very unhappy about it, very unhappy about every aspect, he added.

And he had every reason to be. Qatar, which hosts al-Udeid Air Base, the largest U.S. military facility in the Middle East, was blindsided by the attack. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani didnt hold back, calling it an act of state terrorism and warning that his country reserves the right to respond. He also accused Netanyahu of sabotaging peace talksbecause, of course, thats exactly what this was.

Netanyahus pattern of aggression

This isnt the first time Netanyahu has acted without regard for U.S. interests. Trumps advisers were furious that they werent given a heads-up, leaving them scrambling to warn Qatar when it was already too late. The White House claimed it was notified by the U.S. military just before the strike, but Qatar flatly denied receiving any prior warning. Instead, they said the first call from a U.S. official came after explosions were already rocking Doha.

Netanyahu, ever defiant, called the strike entirely justified, claiming it targeted the masterminds behind the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks. But lets be real: this was not about justice. It was about Netanyahus desperation to look tough, even if it means alienating allies and derailing peace efforts.

The fallout was immediate. The European Union condemned the attack as a breach of international law. The United Arab Emirates, which normalized relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords, called it blatant and cowardly. Even Pope Leo weighed in, expressing grave concern over the escalation.

Meanwhile, Hamasfar from being crippledsurvived the attack, with its leadership intact. The only real casualty here? Any remaining trust in Israels judgment.

Trumps balancing act: Supporting Israel while condemning recklessness

Trump has been a strong supporter of Israel, but even he knows when a line has been crossed. He reassured Qatar that such a thing will not happen again on their soil, while also directing Secretary of State Marco Rubio to finalize a Defense Cooperation Agreement with Doha.

Yet the damage is done. Israels unilateral, aggressive actions are making it harder for the U.S. to maintain stability in the region. And Netanyahu? Hes playing a dangerous gameone that could isolate Israel even further on the world stage.

If Israel keeps acting like a rogue state, bombing sovereign nations without warning, it wont just lose allies; it will lose any credibility it has left. The U.S. cant keep cleaning up Netanyahus messes forever.

Trumps frustration is understandable. He wants peace. He wants the hostages back. But Netanyahus reckless strikes arent helpingtheyre making everything worse.

At this point, its clear that Israels leadership is out of control. And if they dont change course soon, theyll find themselves with fewer friends... and a lot more enemies.

Sources for this article include:

RT.com

Reuters.com

CNN.com

NBCNews.com

ABCNews.go.com
Trump posts video reviving thimerosal controversy, but what about the toxic burden of aluminum on developing brains?

The vaccine safety debate has flared up once again after President Donald Trump shared a video featuring scientists Mark and David Geier . These scientists have focused their research on thimerosal  a mercury-based preservative once common in vaccines. Thimerosal is now being studied for its link to autism.

In fact, the timing is striking: Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been quietly assembling a team to investigate vaccine safety, with thimerosal squarely in the crosshairs. But critics argue that focusing solely on this one ingredient misses the broader picture  aluminum adjuvants, aggressive vaccine schedules, and unnatural immune stimulation at developmental milestones in babies may also play a role in neurological harm.

If upcoming NIH studies on vaccines and autism advertise thimerosal as the sole toxin in vaccines; and if the government moves quickly to make vaccines look safe again by focusing only on the removal of thimerosal, then this whole effort to improve chronic disease and childhood health will become a laughable, regurgitated fraud of false reassurances.

For one, thimerosal has already been removed from most vaccines for over twenty years, and wouldn't be the most pressing issue regarding vaccines and brain damage. Second, upcoming studies must address more pressing concerns, like the compounding burden of aluminum adjuvant (in vaccines) and the hyper-inflammatory nature of aluminum-based vaccines.

Not to mention, the studies should focus on the compounding neurological damage from an outrageous childhood vaccine schedule (that has never been properly studied as a whole), and the of course, let's investigate how these toxic elements are rendered more toxic at the critical time at which developing brains exposed to these chemicals and metals. An adult may be able to handle a specific dose, but it's babies that are unknowingly poisoned by multiple jabs of these toxic elements. Their blood volume and body weight are much smaller, and these babies are at critical moments in development. When the child grows older, they learn that they never had a say; their parents were never given proper informed consent; and their neurological injury is something that have to deal with for the rest of their life.

Key points:

President Trump shared a video featuring anti-vaccine researchers Mark and David Geier, reigniting debate over thimerosals safety.

Thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative, was largely phased out of childhood vaccines in 2001 but remains in some flu shots.

The focus on thimerosal is too little, too late, for a President who has unfettered access to information regarding vaccine risks and failures.

Trump has recently bragged about the success of COVID shots, despite widely available research debunking his egotistical claims.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has prioritized investigating thimerosals link to autism, though aluminum adjuvants  still present in most vaccines  may also pose the greatest to childhood brain development.

The CDC maintains thimerosal is safe, but internal documents, including the 2000 Simpsonwood conference transcripts, suggest officials knew of potential neurological risks.

Critics warn that singling out thimerosal while ignoring aluminum and other questionable vaccine ingredients (including aborted fetal cells) could undermine genuine safety reform.

A decades-old controversy resurfaces

Thimerosal has been a lightning rod in vaccine debates since the late 1990s, when concerns first emerged about its potential neurotoxicity. By 2001, under pressure from pediatricians and public health agencies, it was removed from most childhood vaccines  except for some flu shots. Yet the controversy never fully died.

The video Trump shared features David Geier, whom Kennedy recently appointed to an HHS vaccine safety panel, alongside his father, Mark Geier  a doctor whose medical license was suspended over questionable autism treatments. The pair have long argued that thimerosal causes autism, citing studies linking mercury exposure to neurological damage.

But the so-called scientific consensus (backed by Pharma-controlled media), and echoed by the CDC, is that thimerosal does not cause autism. Multiple large-scale studies, including those published in The New England Journal of Medicine and Pediatrics, found no association. Yet skeptics point to troubling revelations from the 2000 Simpsonwood conference, where CDC officials privately acknowledged a statistically significant link between thimerosal and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Aluminum: The overlooked culprit?

While thimerosal has dominated headlines, aluminum  a common vaccine adjuvant used to provoke stronger immune responses  has flown under the radar. Unlike mercury, aluminum remains in nearly every childhood vaccine.

The FDA sets limits on aluminum exposure in medications  25 micrograms per kilogram per day  yet vaccines routinely exceed this threshold for infants. A newborn receiving multiple shots in a single visit may be injected with hundreds of micrograms, far beyond what regulatory agencies deem safe for intravenous exposure.

Animal studies suggest aluminum can accumulate in the brain, triggering inflammation and neurological damage. French researcher Dr. Christopher Exley, a leading expert on aluminum toxicity, has found alarming levels of the metal in autistic brain tissue. Yet mainstream medicine dismisses such findings, insisting aluminum adjuvants are harmless.

Government positioning for more mRNA vaccine experiments?

Trumps video post comes as Kennedy faces mounting scrutiny over his vaccine skepticism. Senators from both parties have grilled him on whether he supports routine immunizations, while public health advocates fear his focus on thimerosal could erode trust in vaccines altogether. The White House insists the administration is not anti-vaccine  just pro-safety. Its not a binary, an official told reporters. You can support vaccines and still ask tough questions.

As HHS prepares its autism report, the question remains: Will officials confront the full spectrum of vaccine risks  or settle for a politically convenient scapegoat and claim "safe vaccines" in the years ahead as they move toward more profitable mRNA experiments? The signs are there for another government coverup- with Trump meeting with Bill Gates and praising mRNA COVID jabs, while pointing out thimerosal as the scapegoat for the vaccine autism link.

Sources include:

YourNews.com

TruthSocial.com

Politico.com
Jason Wong, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner, said that Microsoft customers would welcome the agreement. Its well documented that Microsoft Azure has had capacity issues, particularly in the Azure East US Region shortfall in July, he said. This investment on Nebius is specific to US capacity to help service growing demand and meet peak customer loads.

IDCs McCarthy said that Microsoft would use the augmented infrastructure in two ways.  Microsoft will create additional capacity for its customers, and for its own internal R&D, he said, but he warned [while this] may help Microsoft with its East Coast capacity, the distributed nature of AI agents means that it wont be the silver bullet for all customer needs.

The agreement will mean that Microsoft will not be looking to enhance its own data centers to deliver additional capacity. The company announced earlier this year that it was not proceeding with plans to build data centers to meet the increasing demand for AI services.

Wong said: This partnership allows Microsoft to spread its risk while accelerating time-to-market for data center capacity, because hyperscalers simply cant build data centers fast enough due to the constrained supply chain and regulatory hurdles.

He added that the Nebius deal is a reflection of Microsofts current approach. Previously, it chose not to expand its capacity with CoreWeave, and this allowed the company to diversify its cloud infrastructure partnerships through Nebius. This partnership also allows Microsoft to de-risk from a GPU perspective, given the high demand and high cost of chips.

McCarthy said that the company would also need to reserve some capacity for future development. Cloud providers like Microsoft, AWS, and Google also must decide how much capacity to reserve for R&D to build their own LLMs. In contrast, Oracle, and newer players like CoreWeave, Vultr, and Nebius are prioritizing end customers.
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America's population is the oldest it has ever been. And though older people are more independent than ever, they face a huge care gap, one that challenges families, communities and healthcare systems.

Enter the Center for Seniors Uniting Nationwide to Support Health, INtegrated care, and Economics, known as the Center for SUNSHINE, an interdisciplinary collaboration funded by a $901,000 grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) for the first two years to establish the center, with the potential for up to six years of support.

Co-led by the University of Maryland School of Public Health (UMD SPH) and the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), the Center for SUNSHINE will serve as a national hub for interdisciplinary research, training and real-world innovation to strengthen resilience in aging populations. The center, outlined in a study in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry this month, draws from 50 years of scholarship at UMD's Center on Aging and the computational innovation and clinical partnerships enabled by the University of Maryland Institute for Health Computing (UM-IHC).

Our ultimate goal is happy, healthy and well-supported aging for everyone. The Center for SUNSHINE is about building aging resilience by transforming the systems that shape health and care. Through bold interdisciplinary research, we aim to strengthen care coordination, empower communities, and reimagine the health and social infrastructure needed to support aging across the nation." Dr. Jie Chen, professor and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management, and director of the Center on Aging and the Hospital And Public health interdisciPlinarY research (HAPPY) Lab at UMD SPH

The center will be helmed by Chen with co-leads Dr. Rozalina McCoy, associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) and director of the Center for Population Health at UM-IHC and Dr. Stephen Thomas, professor of health policy and management at UMD SPH.

"We are creating a remarkable platform for research, education and innovation in healthcare delivery  bringing together economics, demography, medicine, population health, artificial intelligence, epidemiology and health informatics  all in service of improving care systems and boosting the resilience of our older populations," said McCoy.

Ten academic units across UMD are involved in the Center for SUNSHINE, including the School of Engineering and the Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland (AIM). Other partners include Howard University and the Erickson School of Aging Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC); see below for a full list of partners.

The Center will invest in training and mentoring the next generation of scholars, with a focus on aging resilience and health systems research. It will also support pilot projects led by qualified researchers nationwide, offering access to anonymized Medicare claims, electronic health records, and geospatial data, along with analytic and modeling support. Funded pilot investigators will receive tailored development resources to advance their research and career trajectories.

"Community engagement is a major focus of the Center for SUNSHINE. We are committed to ensuring that older adults and their families are not just 'human subjects' of research, but true collaborators in shaping the science, policies, and innovations that support healthy aging," said Thomas.

In its first year, the Center for SUNSHINE will fund two pilot projects that directly apply research to improving the health and wellbeing of older people: Dr. Shelby Steuart, at UMD College Park, will examine telehealth and behavioral health care for older adults and Dr. Margaret Connolly at UMSOM will explore access to novel treatments for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a common condition in older people.
Tiny particles in polluted air trigger lung damage, chronic disease, and early deaths, making cleaner air a critical global health priority.

Air pollution accounts for about 4.7 million premature deaths annually and contributes to nearly 8 percent of global disability-adjusted life years, placing it above smoking, obesity, and high cholesterol as a modifiable risk factor.

Review: Particulate matter air pollution: effects on the respiratory system. Image Credit: Lightspring / Shutterstock

In a recent review article in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers Robert B. Hamanaka and Gokhan M. Mutlu at The University of Chicago, USA, synthesized toxicological studies and epidemiological evidence to explain how particulate matter (PM) causes impaired lung function, inflammation, and oxidative stress, thereby contributing to both chronic and acute respiratory illnesses.

Their conclusions sharpen the main message: particulate air pollution is a major environmental health risk and a significant cause of respiratory morbidity and mortality, with most excess deaths being cardiovascular, highlighting the urgent need for stricter air quality standards and effective public health interventions.

Sources and components of air pollution

Childrens lungs are especially vulnerable, with long-term exposure stunting lung growth and leaving deficits that persist into adulthood.

Air pollution contains both gaseous components and PM. Gases include sulfur dioxide (SO), nitrogen oxides (NO, NO), ozone (O), and carbon monoxide (CO). PM consists of carbon-based particles combined with metals and transition metals (e.g., vanadium, cadmium, nickel), as well as organic compounds such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), nitrates, and sulfates.

PM is classified by size: PM10 (coarse), mainly originating from natural and industrial sources, typically remains in the upper airways; PM2.5 (fine) and PM0.1 (ultrafine or nanoparticles), primarily produced by fossil fuel combustion, penetrate deeply into the lungs, posing greater health risks.

Traffic and industrial emissions are the main contributors to PM and nitrogen dioxide. Sulfur dioxide from coal burning has decreased globally, but indoor biomass burning for cooking and heating remains a concern in developing regions.

Because pollutants are often co-produced, isolating individual effects is difficult. Nevertheless, PM2.5 is consistently linked to adverse cardiovascular and respiratory outcomes, prompting regulation under frameworks such as the U.S. Clean Air Act.

Evidence of health impacts

Air pollution and smoking share overlapping pathways, including oxidative stress and mitochondrial injury, but pollutions effects extend to nonsmokers and amplify disease risks independently of tobacco.

Historical smog events, such as the 1952 London smog, have highlighted the dangers of air pollution. Extensive studies confirmed associations between PM exposure and mortality, with a biphasic response showing stronger effects at lower concentrations.

Cohort studies confirm no safe threshold exists; even low-level PM exposure increases health risks, with mortality associations persisting below current guideline values and observed down to ~4 g/m.

Pollution reductions resulting from policies such as the U.S. Clean Air Act and Chinas Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan (APPCAP) have significantly improved life expectancy and prevented deaths. Temporary decreases during the 2008 Beijing Olympics reduced biomarkers of inflammation, and lockdowns for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) also demonstrated rapid health benefits.

However, wildfire smoke is now increasingly influencing annual PM2.5 averages, and events such as the 9/11 World Trade Center disaster underscore the persistent and emerging threats from acute, high-intensity particulate exposure.

Implications for respiratory disease

Studies show that vanadium and other transition metals in particulate matter are among the most toxic components, strongly associated with both mortality and lung cancer incidence.

Air pollution is a significant contributor to respiratory illnesses and deaths, with fine particulate matter (PM2.5) consistently linked to asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pneumonia, pulmonary fibrosis, lung cancer, and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

Large-scale studies show that even modest increases in PM2.5 are associated with higher risks of respiratory hospitalizations and mortality, with no safe threshold identified. People with asthma are particularly vulnerable, as exposure worsens symptoms, increases emergency visits, and is strongly linked to new-onset asthma in children and has been associated with epigenetic changes such as FOXP3 hypermethylation.

Evidence from long-term cohorts, such as the Southern California Childrens Health Study, also shows reduced lung function growth in highly polluted areas. In COPD, air pollution accelerates disease progression, impairs lung function, and heightens the likelihood of hospital admission and death, while also contributing to new cases beyond smoking-related risks through oxidative stress pathways.

Pollutant exposure increases the rates of viral and bacterial infections, including influenza, tuberculosis, and COVID-19, by impairing macrophage function and mucociliary clearance. It is strongly linked to ARDS, with increased mortality observed during the pandemic due to amplified inflammatory responses.

Studies further reveal that PM2.5 worsens outcomes in pulmonary fibrosis, accelerating lung function decline and mortality, and drives lung cancer progression via IL-1mediated expansion of mutated cells, including in nonsmokers.

Among lung transplant patients, higher exposure levels are linked with chronic lung allograft dysfunction, reduced survival, and greater mortality, underscoring the pervasive respiratory impact of air pollution.

Underlying biological mechanisms

Policy-driven air quality improvements deliver rapid health benefits, with declines in hospital admissions and mortality observed within months of pollution controls being enacted.

PM damages the lungs through multiple interconnected mechanisms. Experimental studies in animals, humans, and cultured cells show that inhaled PM triggers oxidative stress and inflammation, largely driven by mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) and activation of transcription factors such as NF-B and NRF2.

This leads to the release of inflammatory cytokines, systemic immune responses, and oxidative injury, contributing to diseases like asthma, COPD, fibrosis, pneumonia, and lung cancer through persistent epithelial injury.

Mitochondrial dysfunction is a key factor, as PM accumulates in mitochondria, alters energy metabolism, and amplifies ROS production. These effects impair lung regeneration, promote epithelial injury, and disrupt mucociliary clearance, weakening defenses against pathogens and promoting fibrosis via IL-6dependent pathways.

Chronic exposure may also induce premature cell aging (senescence) and fibrosis. PM alters immune function by impairing macrophage phagocytosis and cytokine responses, thereby dampening antiviral defenses and skewing T cell balance toward Th2/Th17 phenotypes, which increases vulnerability to infections and allergic diseases.

Additionally, air pollution causes epigenetic changes, such as global DNA hypomethylation and histone modifications, that influence long-term respiratory health. Finally, PM particles may act as carriers for viruses, enhancing deep lung deposition of pathogens.

Conclusions

The central message is clear: air pollution remains a major, modifiable risk factor for respiratory disease, with no level of exposure proven to be safe. Effective emission reductions and health mitigation strategies are vital.

A deeper mechanistic understanding of how pollutants damage tissues is essential, with new single-cell transcriptomic and epigenomic tools offering promise for advancing this knowledge. Improved pollutant measurement techniques, such as satellite monitoring, low-cost sensor networks, and land-use regression models, will enhance exposure assessments and improve the accuracy of environmental monitoring.

Identifying the most toxic components of particulate matter, like transition metals (e.g., vanadium), will inform targeted policies. These advances are especially critical for protecting children, older adults, and low-income populations who bear disproportionate burdens.
For some patients struggling to control high blood pressure, something as simple as having blood pressure monitors at home and texted reminders to use them could be the key to stabilizing or even lowering their blood pressures, according to a new study by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

When patients were mailed blood pressure cuffs, given the option to text back their readings to their clinical team,and also receive texted reminders to do so, 35 percent were able to get their blood pressure in check. Only 21 percent of those in the study who didn't receive at-home cuffs but got regular care-readings taken in their primary care provider's office-got the same result, according to the study published in JAMA Network Open.

We were able to find a way to make this user-friendly and gently keep the importance of monitoring on patients' minds so they could make the lifestyle, medication, or other adjustments they needed." Shivan Mehta, MD, MBA, lead author, associate chief innovation officer at Penn Medicine

A nudge, but not the one researchers expected

The research team set up their study to test a "nudge," the behavioral science-informed concept of framing options and offering people choices to influence behavior.

The nudge the researchers tested was "opt out" or "opt in" framing of the choice to get blood pressure cuffs. One arm of the study involved mailing blood pressure cuffs to patients with hypertension before calling to ask them if they would text their reading numbers to their primary care practice. In this case, the patients could "opt out" of the program and not take the readings or text the results.

The other nudge arm asked patients to sign up for receiving the cuff and text reminders before mailing the cuff to them (an "opt in" framing).

Patients randomized into the control arm of the study were not offered take-home cuffs but received the regular standard of care for patients with hypertension, which included regular blood pressure monitoring at office visits.

The researchers wanted to see which patients were more likely to sign up for a remote monitoring program. A secondary outcome measured was whether either choice led to more controlled blood pressure.

In total, 425 patients participated over a six month period. Analysis showed no statistically significant difference in the number of patients who took their blood pressure measurements between the opt-in or opt-out arms of the study (roughly 34 percent and 38 percent, respectively). There was also virtually no difference in the number of blood pressure readings that patients submitted over the period among patients who participated in texting (an average of 40.5 texted readings in the opt-out and 39.3 in the opt-in groups).

But the secondary measure of the trial excited the researchers, showing that those who received the blood pressure cuffs and texts at all, regardless of whether they were in the opt-in or opt-out groups, were more likely to improve their condition.

"For this trial, we only included patients who had hypertension that they weren't able to control despite visits to primary care," Mehta said. "So, what we see here is that the extra layer of support went a long way toward clearing some of the hurdles these people were experiencing, keeping them in touch with their care team to help with adhering to the medications they needed or increasing them when the need arose."

Nudging better in future practice

While the researchers can't say with total confidence why there was so little difference in the findings between the opt-in and opt-out groups, Mehta has thoughts based on prior research.

"The main reason is that recruitment for both arms still required a phone call and consent to participate," Mehta explained. "We've seen that, in general, opt-out approaches often work best when we remove effort to participate by both the patient and clinical staff. So, moving forward, patients could be automatically enrolled through texting without requiring a phone call"

Another aspect of the study, which was undertaken through universal recruiting at the Penn Family Care Clinic: 86 percent of the participants were Black, a natural reflection of the local population that the clinic serves. And in the United States, roughly 55 percent of Black adults have high blood pressure, compared to just 31 percent of white patients. The Black patient population also are more likely to develop severe blood pressure issues than other racial or ethnic groups-and at an earlier age.

"The high rate of recruitment we had through this text message-based program holds promise to potentially mitigate care disparities," Mehta said.

Already, the University of Pennsylvania Health System is incorporating some of the findings from the study into its Penn Medicine Health Heart initiative as well as other remote blood pressure monitoring initiatives as part of routine care. The initiative, similar to the study, uses text messaging to help patients with hypertension and high cholesterol address their conditions through regular reminders and personalized advice.
In a world first, a vaccine has been approved to protect Australia's endangered koalas from infection and death caused by chlamydia.

Developed by the University of the Sunshine Coast, the vaccine's approval by Australia's veterinary medicine regulator is a major step in the fight against one of the greatest threats to the long-term survival of the nation's iconic marsupial.

Led by Professor of Microbiology Peter Timms, University of the Sunshine Coast researchers have spent more than 10 years developing the vaccine to protect koalas from the disease which can cause painful urinary tract infections, infertility, blindness and even death.

UniSC knew a single-dose vaccine  without the need for a booster - was the answer to reducing the rapid, devastating spread of this disease, which accounts for as much as half of koala deaths across wild populations. Some individual wild colonies, where infection rate can be as high as 70 percent, are edging closer to extinction every day. We were determined to do the hard yards to move from research to this vital next stage  a high-quality, veterinary-approved product that can now be used in wildlife hospitals, veterinary clinics and in the field to protect the nation's most at-risk koalas." Peter Timms, Professor of Microbiology, University of the Sunshine Coast

Until now, antibiotics were the only treatment available for infected koalas, but they can disrupt a koala's ability to digest eucalyptus leaves  its sole source of food  leading to starvation and, in some cases, death. They also often fail to prevent future infection, leaving populations vulnerable.

A decade of clinical data, gathered through multiple vaccination trials, confirmed the vaccine's safety and effectiveness. This includes the largest and longest-ever study of wild koalas, led by UniSC Senior Researcher Dr Sam Phillips.



"This study found it reduced the likelihood of koalas developing symptoms of chlamydia during breeding age and decreased mortality from the disease in wild populations by at least 65 percent," Dr Phillips said.

"The vaccine has been trialled on hundreds of wild koalas, others in captivity and wildlife hospitals, and over multiple generations." Dr Philips said.

"It's based on Chlamydia pecorum's major outer membrane protein (MOMP), and offers three levels of protection  reducing infection, preventing progression to clinical disease, and, in some cases, reversing existing symptoms."

Global response to koala's plight

UniSC drew upon the expertise and resources of global and national partners and supporters to advance the vaccine development.

It uses an adjuvant originally developed by the University of Saskatchewan's Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO), the International Vaccine Institute, the University of British Colombia and Dalhousie University, with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Other collaborators include Morris Animal Foundation, Rane Pharma, Canada and global animal health company Ceva Sante Animale who leveraged complementary expertise to overcome hurdles to help bring the project to its final stages. It also provided funding through its Ceva Wildlife Research Fund.

Ceva Wildlife Research Fund Director Pierre-Marie Borne said the koala symbolised a unique aspect of Australia's natural heritage, and its conservation was of global significance.

"Moreover, the vaccine's design emphasises operational feasibility, requiring a single-dose administration, which is critical in wildlife management to minimize handling stress and logistical constraints for field teams," he said.

"Ceva WRF takes great pride in supporting this work.

"This initiative transcends basic research; it represents a crucial intervention to safeguard endangered species and maintain ecological balance in Australia's unique environments, serving as a model for similar conservation efforts worldwide."

Wildlife Warrior and conservationist, Dr Terri Irwin AM, said the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital was honoured to contribute to trials of a potential vaccine for koalas affected by chlamydia.

"These trials involved vaccinating koalas in real-world conditions, enabling researchers to gather valuable data on the vaccine's potential benefits," she said.

"This partnership has enabled us to combine scientific research with compassionate care by helping sick and injured koalas, while also raising awareness of the broader threats they face in the wild, including habitat loss."

"Together, we are turning the tide for koalas, and Wildlife Warriors is proud to be part of this important work in wildlife conservation."

UniSC Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Helen Bartlett said that the innovative vaccine development highlighted the University's strategic focus on working collaboratively to find solutions to some of the world's most pressing ecological and health challenges.

"This includes leading research in the rapid diagnosis and prevention of infectious diseases in humans and animals," she said.



"This vaccine bridges the gap between discovery and real-world application, translating to a tangible, game-changing product that offers real hope for this endangered species."

The vaccine is being produced in partnership with the independent Australian-owned animal health company Treidlia Biovet, and was approved for production and distribution by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority.

Vital next steps

Professor Timms said here is still much more to be done  including sourcing major funding and donations to enable the national rollout of the approved vaccine at-risk koala populations.

"We are also continuing to refine the product and conduct ongoing research to ensure the vaccine's long-term success." More here.
Lateralization of the brain  the tendency for the left and right hemispheres to specialize in different functions  underlies the development of a left-to-right mental number line, according to a study in newborn chicks.

The study, published as a Reviewed Preprint in eLife and appearing today as the final version, is described by the editors as fundamental. They say the evidence presented is compelling and the results will be of interest to researchers studying numerical cognition, brain lateralization, and cognitive brain development more broadly.

Many people intuitively think of numbers as arranged along a mental line, either running from left to right, with smaller numbers on the left and larger on the right, or vice versa. This representation  often called the mental number line  is traditionally thought to develop through cultural experience, especially through reading and writing direction. However, research has shown evidence of a left-to-right mental number line in young infants and animals, challenging this assumption and suggesting that this spatial-numerical association may have biological roots.

Brain lateralization, also known as hemispheric specialization, refers to the idea that the two hemispheres of the brain are functionally different and have specialized roles in various cognitive processes.

Embryonic light exposure induces brain lateralization in domestic chicks, and enhances their spatial-numerical abilities and their tendency to 'count' from left to right. Although several models have proposed that the mental number line originates from brain lateralization, direct evidence has been lacking. Our study provides this evidence, showing that lateralization is essential for the emergence of left-to-right spatial-numerical associations." Rosa Rugani, lead author, Professor, Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Italy

In domestic chicks, light exposure during embryonic development is known to promote brain lateralization. Therefore, Rugani and colleagues incubated 100 chick eggs, half exposed to light and half kept in the dark. This produced a group of strongly lateralised chicks, and a group of weakly lateralised chicks.

After hatching, the chicks were trained to locate food hidden behind the fourth bottle cap in a vertical row of 10 identical caps. Once they had learned this task, the team rotated the array of feeders by 90 degrees so that it was horizontal and tested whether the chicks would search for food in the fourth cap from the left or the right. Both caps constituted a plausible choice, allowing the researchers to observe any natural directional preferences.

Strongly lateralised chicks showed a clear preference for selecting the fourth cap from the left, suggesting a left-to-right number mapping. In contrast, weakly lateralised chicks showed no consistent directional preference, selecting at random between the two caps.

The researchers then repeated this test while covering either the chicks' left or right eye. Because each eye primarily sends signals to the opposite hemisphere of the brain, this allowed the team to determine which hemisphere was processing information during the experiment. When chicks used only their left eye (engaging the right hemisphere), those with strongly lateralised brains again chose the fourth cap from the left more frequently, reinforcing the role of the right hemisphere in integrating spatial and numerical cues. When these same chicks used only their right eye (engaging the left hemisphere) they tended to choose the fourth cap from the right instead. The weakly lateralised chicks failed to solve the task in both monocular conditions. This suggests that brain lateralization, established through light exposure during the last days of embryonic development, is essential for integrating spatial and numerical cues, and boosts cognitive performance.

In a follow-up experiment, the researchers tested how the chicks would perform if the spatial cues were made unreliable. They changed the spacing between the caps so that the physical position of the fourth cap varied  meaning the chicks could only rely on ordinal (numerical) information, not spatial layout, to locate the food. Under these conditions, neither strongly nor weakly lateralised chicks showed a directional preference.

"For the first time, we show that brain lateralization is not just related to the mental number line  it's necessary for it," says Rugani. "This finding brings strong experimental support to the idea that our sense of number and space is biologically grounded, yet shaped by an individual's interaction with the environment."

The authors suggest that a natural left-to-right scanning pattern may have evolutionary advantages for chicks. For example, when foraging it may allow them to efficiently locate and quantify food sources without overlooking areas.

"Our work demonstrates that lateralized brain function plays a key role in shaping how animals, possibly including humans, think about numbers," says senior author Lucia Regolin, a Professor in the Department of General Psychology, University of Padua. "Understanding the biological basis of numerical thinking may help us identify why certain cognitive abilities emerge when they do in development, and why they might be altered in individuals with atypical brain organisation. This research opens the door to further studies on the developmental origins of numerical reasoning, and how early sensory experiences can influence later cognitive outcomes."
Researchers have discovered how 'pirate phages' hijack other viruses to break into bacteria, sharing new genetic material for dangerous traits.

Imperial scientists have uncovered how bacteriophages are able to hijack other viruses to break into bacterial cells and spread, through an act of microbial piracy which could potentially be harnessed for medicine.

The discovery, published in the journal Cell, reveals a major route by which bacteria are able to acquire new genetic material, including traits that can make them more virulent or more resistant to antibiotics. The researchers believe it could also open the door to new ways of tackling the global threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and developing rapid diagnostic tools.

Phages (or bacteriophages) are viruses that infect and kill bacteria. They are among the most abundant organisms on Earth and are often highly specific, each tailored to attack just one bacterial species. Structurally, they resemble microscopic syringes: with a 'head' section packed with DNA and a tail section tipped with spiky fibres that latch onto bacteria and inject their genetic payload.

But phages themselves are not safe from parasites. They can be targeted by small genetic elements known as phage satellites that hijack the phage's own genetic machinery to propagate.

In the latest study, Imperial researchers focused on a powerful family of phage satellites called capsid-forming phage-inducible chromosomal islands (cf-PICIs). These genetic elements can spread genes for antibiotic resistance and virulence, and are found across more than 200 bacterial species. Exactly how they managed to move so efficiently, however, was unclear.

First discovered by the team in 2023, cf-PICIs can build their own capsids (the viral 'heads'), but they lack tails, meaning on their own they produce non-infective particles  i.e. they are not able to infect phages. In their latest work, researchers at Imperial's Centre for Bacterial Resistance Biology discovered the missing piece of the puzzle: cf-PICIs hijack tails from unrelated phages, creating hybrid "chimeric" viruses. The result is a chimeric phage carrying cf-PICI DNA inside their own capsids but a phage-derived tail attached.

Crucially, some cf-PICIs can hijack tails from entirely different phage species, effectively broadening their host range. Because the tail decides which bacteria are targeted, this piracy gives cf-PICIs the ability to infiltrate new bacterial species, explaining their great abundance in nature.

According to the researchers, the implications could be important for science. By understanding and harnessing this molecular piracy, researchers believe they could re-engineer satellites to target antibiotic-resistant bacteria, overcome stubborn bacterial defences such as biofilms, and even develop powerful new diagnostic tools.

These pirate satellites don't just teach us how bacteria share dangerous traits. They could inspire next-generation therapies and tests to outmanoeuvre some of the most difficult infections we face." Dr. Tiago Dias da Costa, from Imperial's Department of Life Sciences

The Imperial team has successfully filed patents to further develop the work and hopes to begin testing the translational applications of the technology.

Professor Jose Penades, from Imperial's Department of Infectious Disease, said: "Our early work first identified these odd genetic elements, where we found they are effectively a parasite of a parasite. We now know these mobile genetic elements form capsids which can swap 'tails' taken from other phages to get their own DNA into a host cell. It's an ingenious quirk of evolutionary biology, but it also teaches us more about how genes for antibiotic resistance can be spread through a process called transduction."

Dr Dias da Costa, added: "This experimental work sheds more light on a crucial method of gene transfer in bacteria. If we can harness and engineer cf-PICIs it could provide us with a valuable new tool in the fight against antimicrobial resistance."

AI co-scientist tool

In a linked project, coordinated through the Fleming Initiative  a partnership between Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust  researchers used their experimental work to validate a groundbreaking AI platform developed by Google.

Dubbed the 'co-scientist', the platform is designed to help scientists develop smarter experiments and accelerate discovery.

To test the platform, the Imperial team posed the same basic scientific questions that had driven their own work: How do cf-PICIs spread across so many bacterial species?

Armed with this starting point, and drawing on web searches, research papers, and databases, the AI independently generated hypotheses that mirrored the team's own experimentally proven ideas  effectively pointing to the same experiments that had taken years of work to establish, but doing so in a matter of days.

The researchers say this shows the extraordinary potential of AI systems to 'super-charge science', not by replacing human insight, but by accelerating it. They are now working with Google to further develop the platform and explore how it could transform the pace of biomedical research.
A new technique has measured boron in individual cancer cells for the first time, enabling researchers to better understand how drugs act to kill tumors in some cancers.

In a new article in the Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry, a team from the University of Birmingham funded by the Rosetrees Trust have for the first time used a technology to conduct real-time measurement of boron in live tumor cells. The technique, called single-cell ICP-MS, enabled the team to see how and when treatments for head and neck cancers enter and exit tumor cells.

Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) is a new form of therapeutic for head and neck cancer that involves patients taking a drug containing the element boron that accumulates in tumor cells. The tumor is subsequently irradiated with neutrons that interact with boron which selectively kills cancer cells. BNCT relies on the drug getting into cancer cells at a sufficient level and then remaining there long enough for the neutron irradiation to be administered.

With this newly tested technique, researchers can begin to understand how to most effectively deliver BNCT for patients with head and neck cancers as a precision treatment.

Until now, it's only been possible to measure average boron uptake in hundreds-of-thousands of cells, which masks important differences between individual cells. Our single-cell approach reveals this variability, which is critical in a tumor setting where heterogeneity often determines whether treatment works or fails. We believe the results are exciting because we now have the first direct evidence of how much boron is present in individual tumor cells, and how long it stays there. This information could help to optimise when neutron irradiation should be delivered relative to drug administration. By showing which transport pathways bring boron into cells, the work also offers clues for designing better drugs that accumulate more effectively. For the cancer drug discovery community, this study opens a new way of evaluating BNCT drug candidates." Dr. James Coverdale, School of Pharmacy, University of Birmingham

A key breakthrough was creating the right environment for cells to stay alive long enough for measurement, while maintaining compatibility with the highly sensitive equipment. This challenge required the team to carefully optimise both the culture medium and the way cancer cells were introduced into the instrument. Without this step, the cells would rapidly deteriorate, making it impossible to capture meaningful data.

Jack Finch, co-first author of the study and University of Birmingham Biochemistry alumni said: "This will be vital for testing and comparing future BNCT drugs and will help to identify the most effective treatments. Ultimately, our work supports progress toward making the already promising BNCT into a more precise and effective cancer treatment."

According to Cancer Research UK, Head and neck cancer is the 8th most common cancer in the UK, accounting for 3% of all new cancer cases (2017-2019).
insights from industry Nimesh Khadka & Keith Freel Sr. Product Application Specialist - Research Project Director

Thermo Fisher Scientific & University of Maryland

In this interview, industry experts Nimesh Khadka and Keith Freel explore how Raman-based PAT enhances hot melt extrusion by enabling real-time API monitoring, improving process control, and supporting Quality by Design in pharma.

Please could you give an overview of what hot melt extrusion is and why it has become so important in drug development?

Keith Freel: Hot melt extrusion (HME) is an advanced, but now established, technique for formulating drugs. It involves feeding an API with a polymer into a heated extruder, where the material is melted, mixed, and shaped.

Over 20 FDA-approved products use HME because it improves the solubility of poorly water-soluble drugs, stabilizes sensitive molecules, and enables controlled or sustained release. Its also continuous, which is valuable for scalability and quality consistency. Beyond that, it supports innovative dosage forms such as filaments for 3D printing or thin films for oral delivery, making it highly versatile.

Image Credit: Thermo Fisher Scientific  Portable and Handheld Process Raman Spectroscopy

Why is real-time monitoring of APIs during hot melt extrusion important for pharmaceutical manufacturing?

Nimesh Khadka: Hot melt extrusion is widely used to improve drug solubility, bioavailability, and stability, but the process is highly dynamic. The state of the APIwhether crystalline or amorphousand its interaction with the polymer matrix directly affect drug efficacy and quality.

Traditional offline analysis is slow and can miss critical variations. Real-time monitoring with Process Analytical Technology (PAT), such as Raman spectroscopy, allows us to quantify APIs continuously, assess their physical state, and detect interactions as they happen. This not only improves process understanding but also enhances consistency, reduces batch-to-batch variation, and supports regulatory expectations for quality by design.

How does Process Analytical Technology (PAT), and Raman in particular, fit into the Quality by Design framework?

Keith Freel: PAT is integral to Quality by Design (QbD). QbD starts with defining a quality target product profile, identifying critical quality attributes (CQAs), and linking them to process parameters.

PAT tools like Raman spectroscopy enable us to monitor CQAssuch as API concentration, crystallinity, and dissolutiondirectly in real time. That helps ensure we remain within the defined design space and gives us immediate feedback to maintain control strategies. Raman, in particular, provides molecular-level information, which strengthens process understanding and supports regulatory compliance by embedding quality into the process rather than testing for it afterwards.

Image Credit: Thermo Fisher Scientific  Portable and Handheld Process Raman Spectroscopy

What was your experimental setup, and why did you choose acetaminophen as the model compound?

Keith Freel: We combined the Thermo Scientific Pharma-11 Twin Screw Extruder with the MarqMetrix Process Raman Analyzer, placing the Raman probe in the heated die. Acetaminophen was chosen because its a well-characterized API and a good model for studying solubility and polymorphism. We used Soluplus as the polymer and prepared blends of 0 %, 10 %, 25 %, and 50 % API. As the material moved through the extruder, Raman spectra were collected every 20 seconds. This setup allowed us to test whether Raman could reliably monitor concentration and physical state during a live HME process.

Image Credit: Thermo Fisher Scientific  Portable and Handheld Process Raman Spectroscopy

How effective was Raman in quantifying API concentration during extrusion?

Keith Freel: The Raman spectra showed clear changes corresponding to the acetaminophen concentration. Using partial least squares (PLS) regression with offline HPLC data for calibration, we built a predictive model that was highly accurate. The root mean squared error of calibration was around 0.5 %, and validation runs gave about 1.4 % error. This proved that Raman can provide reliable, real-time quantification. More importantly, it captured transient variations, for example, stabilization delays after concentration changes, that would not have been visible with only offline sampling.

Could Raman also detect polymorphic transitions or recrystallization of the API?

Keith Freel: Yes, Raman is sensitive to molecular form. We compared our spectra with published data for crystalline and amorphous acetaminophen and found that all extrudates remained amorphous throughout processing. No recrystallization was observed. This capability is critical because polymorphic transitions can alter drug performance. Raman can also be applied downstream, for example, to monitor cooling or stability studies, making it a valuable tool beyond just real-time process monitoring.

At what point did the MarqMetrix All-in-One Process Raman Analyzer prove most valuable in your study?

Nimesh Khadka: The analyzers flexibility and robustness made it especially valuable during in-line monitoring. Its compact size allowed easy integration into the extruder setup, and its stable calibration reduced the need for maintenance.

By operating in in-line mode, it provided continuous, real-time data. We were able to monitor acetaminophen concentration, confirm its amorphous form, and even detect subtle APIpolymer interactions. These insights were critical for optimizing the process and ensuring product quality. The ability to use the same instrument in at-line or on-line configurations also adds to its versatility in both development and manufacturing environments.

What advantages does Raman offer compared to other PAT tools such as NIR or UV-Vis?

Nimesh Khadka: Each technique has strengths. UV-Vis is sensitive but less specific. NIR and Raman are both vibrational methods, but NIR is absorption-based while Raman is scattering-based, with different selection rules. They are complementary: some vibrations are stronger in NIR, others in Raman.

For example, Raman is excellent for non-polar bonds and is less sensitive to water, which is a big advantage in aqueous systems. NIR, on the other hand, may be more effective if fluorescence interferes with Raman. What makes Raman especially powerful is its ability to provide structural information, enabling us to study not just concentrations but also polymorphism and APIpolymer interactions.

How scalable is this Raman-based PAT approach, and how do regulators view it?

Keith Freel: Its scalable, though probe positioning must be carefully considered when moving to larger manufacturing systems. From a regulatory perspective, PAT is strongly encouraged. The FDA and ICH have both promoted PAT through quality by design initiatives. As long as Raman methods are properly validated and developed according to guidelines, theyre accepted as reliable tools for ensuring consistent product quality in both clinical and commercial manufacturing.

Finally, what opportunities are there for professionals to gain hands-on experience with Raman in HME?

Keith Freel: At the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, we run the Tablets and Capsules short course, which includes lectures and practical labs. One of the sessions integrates Raman spectroscopy with hot melt extrusion using the Pharma-11 extruder. Participants learn how to collect real-time data, build models, and apply PAT principles in practice. Its a unique opportunity to bridge theory with hands-on training, which is critical for anyone working in advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Watch the Full Webinar Here

About Nimesh Khadka

Dr. Nimesh Khadka is a Senior Product Application Specialist at Thermo Fisher Scientific and holds a PhD in Biochemistry from Utah State University. With extensive expertise in analytical biochemistry, spectroscopy and chemometrics, he is currently leading efforts to champion Raman spectroscopy as a process analytical technology (PAT). As an active member of the American Chemical Society, Nimesh remains at the forefront of emerging technologies and is committed to driving innovation to meet customer needs.

About Keith Freel

Dr. Keith Freel holds a Ph.D.in Physical Chemistry from Emory University and has extensive analytical chemistry expertise. As Research Project Director at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, he oversees advanced analytical projects supporting pharmaceutical and biomedical research. Previously, he spent over five years at Thermo Fisher Scientific as a Staff Scientist, where he led R&D efforts across a wide range of techniques including FTIR, Raman, NIR, XRF, ICP-MS, and multivariate statistical analysis.

About Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

Thermo Fisher Scientific is the world leader in serving science. The company enables its customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer by providing analytical instruments, equipment, reagents and consumables, software and services for research, analysis, discovery and diagnostics.

Thermo Scientific represents a broad range of high-end analytical instruments, chemistry and consumable supplies, laboratory equipment, software and services that enable integrated laboratory workflow solutions. Thermo Scientific is the new name for a trusted brand  Thermo Electron  that the worlds most renowned researchers, clinicians and scientists already count on to solve their analytical challenges. The brand is strengthened by the addition of equipment, consumables and reagents acquired from Fisher Scientific.

Fisher Scientific represents a family of global product and service brands comprising a complete portfolio of laboratory equipment, chemicals, supplies and services used in healthcare, scientific research, safety and education. Fisher Scientific brings these solutions to general research customers worldwide, and through Fisher HealthCare, Fisher Safety and Fisher Science Education it delivers the specialty equipment, supplies and services that customers want, when and how they want them. In addition to these two premier brands, Thermo Fisher Scientific also markets a range of specialty products, featuring well-known industry names such as Nalgene, Nunc and Remel. Offerings include consumables such as disposable laboratory glassware, plastic-ware and environmental sample containers ranging from vials, tubes and pipettes to microscope slides and syringes. These products are primarily sold through Fisher Scientific and our valued partners worldwide.
As healthcare shifts away from centralized models, there is an increasing need for portable, connected medical devices that work reliably beyond clinics. Drug delivery pens are central to this shift, helping patients self-administer medicines with accuracy and ease. However, designing them is complicated and presents significant challenges.

Image Credit: Littelfuse

There are three key factors to consider when designing drug delivery pens: accurate monitoring of drug administration, minimizing the device's physical size for patient comfort and portability, and extending battery life by keeping power consumption exceptionally low.

Growing demand for real-time patient data makes wireless connectivity of these devices essential, but it's difficult to integrate advanced electronics without compromising on size or reliability.

But how are smart component choices affecting the next generation of this med tech? The following strategies offer a solid foundation for drug delivery pen designs, from minimizing power and saving space to enabling seamless communication.

Designing an electronic drug delivery pen

Figure 1. An electronic drug delivery pen and components that provide efficient control. Image Credit: courtesy of Littelfuse

A drug delivery pen's circuitry is powered by a battery. Depending on the ideal design, different battery types have advantages and disadvantages. For example, a lithium-ion coin cell is great for minimal space consumption.

A compact switch integrated into the device permits detection of the dosage dial position. Additional switches ensure the cap is removed to expose the needle, the needle is in contact with the user's skin, and the correct quantity of medication is delivered.

The microcontroller (MCU) receives inputs from the switches and drives the actuator, which injects a drug dose. There are several choices for an actuator. A spring actuator is advantageous in comparison to a small DC motor, as it reduces cost and complexity compared to a motor drive.

The MCU also transmits data to the display and interfaces with the Bluetooth circuit to transmit injection information and receive setting adjustments from remote medical personnel.

Figure 2. Electronic drug delivery pen block diagram. Image Credit: courtesy of Littelfuse

Source: Littelfuse

Technology Product series 1 Detect Switch HDT, FDSD, FDSE 2 Tactile Switch NanoT, KXT, KMTQ, PTS, KMTO D Detect Switch HDT, FOSE, HDS Reed Switch 59177 MR Switch TMR 3 Plunger Position Sensor (TMR) Under development; contact sales Liquid Volume Measurement Under development; contact sales 4 Microcontroller Z8F1625*, Z8F3224 (No LCD)

S3F8S19, Z8F6482 (With LCD)

* Z8F1625 is undergoing development.

Efficient, compact control

Minimizing power consumption and space requires efficient sensing and control circuit blocks. The following options will help to achieve these properties in a design.

Dose dialing circuit

The Dose Dialing circuit requires a switch to indicate the position of the dose dial. Surface-mount detect switches as small as 3.5 mm wide x 2.8 mm deep x 3.35 mm high are available, and have a low activation force of 35 g. These switches have a low momentary contact resistance of 500 m and a life exceeding 100,000 cycles. They can be activated either on top or on the side of the device.

Activity detection circuit

The Activity Detection circuit ensures safety and accuracy by confirming the drug vial's presence, verifying skin contact, activating injection, and monitoring the dose. Designers have several sensing options:

One option is a small, low-profile, top-actuated, surface-mount pushbutton switch, 2.5 mm wide x 1.65 mm deep x 0.55 mm high. Sealed switches are rated IP67 against ingress of moisture and dust. These pushbutton switches can have life cycles as high as 300,000 cycles, and contact resistance is low at 500 m.

A second option is the type of detect switch suggested for the Dose Dialing circuit.

A third option is an ultra-miniature reed switch. Hermetically sealed and magnetically actuated, it draws no power and keeps leakage currents extremely low. The insulation resistance is 1012 , which holds leakage current to pA levels.

Finally, tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) switches offer high sensitivity and ultra-low power by combining a magnetic tunneling sensor with CMOS circuitry for efficient digital switching. Figure 3 shows a block diagram of a TMR switch.

TMR Switch

A temperature-compensated regulator circuit ensures voltage stability for the internal circuits. A Schmitt trigger provides switching hysteresis for noise rejection, and a CMOS push-pull circuit provides the output drive.

The TMR switch is positioned near the base of the injector's plunger chamber, with a small magnet attached to the plunger itself. As the actuator drives the plunger downward, closer to the TMR switch, the switch output voltage rises and its logic state changes. This signals the plunger's position, allowing the microcontroller to calculate the injected drug volume.

The TMR switch draws only 200 nA when powered by 1.8-5 V circuits. Its sensitivity can detect a magnetic field as low as five Gauss. The CMOS output enables direct connection to an MCU, which avoids the need for additional components. The TMR switch is available in very small SOT23-3 or LGA-4 packages. Its high sensitivity, compact size, and low battery drain make it a superior solution for drug dose monitoring.

Also, continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), when interacting with a drug delivery pen, can use TMR switches to support an optimum therapy protocol.

Figure 3. Integrated switch containing a tunneling magnetoresistance sensor and drive circuitry. Image Credit: courtesy of Littelfuse

TMR Sensor

Two technologies are under development for direct measurement of injected liquid volume.

One approach uses an advanced TMR sensor to measure plunger position. Another employs a capacitive sensor with a patent-pending electrode design that does not contact the cartridge. Both TMR and capacitive sensing offer more reliable and accurate monitoring of injection volume, enhancing the precision and performance of drug delivery pens.

Microcontroller

A microprocessor or microcontroller is essential to control a drug delivery pen. Compact single-chip MCUs deliver all key functions, from monitoring plunger position to measuring the delivered volume, while keeping power use and size to a minimum. Sleep modes cut power consumption further during idle periods, making the device more efficient and long-lasting.

High-efficiency 8-bit MCUs are available for controlling pen operation. When all peripherals are inactive, some MCUs can operate at currents as low as five milliamperes, with lower clock speed settings reducing consumption even further. These MCUs have low-power inactivity modes that reduce current consumption to 0.7 A.

Models can have 10 to 15 analog-digital converter input channels with 10-, 12-, or 14-bit resolution, 16 to 64 Kbyte flash memory, and an on-chip temperature sensor array. The MCUs have high-resolution timers for the PWM drive of motors. They also have peripheral I/O ports optimized for interfacing with wireless communication chipsets. Models can also have LCD drivers to control a display.

All this built-in capability can be housed in enclosures as small as a 32-QFN (5 mm x 5mm) package.

A handful of versatile, compact, and high-performance components make it possible to design the electronics for a fully functional drug delivery pen. These parts help engineers fit sophisticated circuitry into a small, user-friendly device, combining convenience with reliable performance.

Standards for drug delivery pens

Medical devices are highly regulated to ensure patient safety. Table 1 lists the standards with which design engineers must comply to develop a certified device. Understanding these standards and their impact on device design is essential for obtaining medical device certification from the regulating bodies.

Table 1. Applicable standards for drug delivery pens. Source: Littelfuse

Standard Title General scope Market ISO

11608-1 Needle-based injection systems for medical use. Part 1: Needle-based injection systems Specifies requirements and test methods for Needle-Based Injection Systems (NISS) for single-patient use intended to deliver discrete volumes (bolus) of medicinal product, which can be delivered through needles or soft cannulas for intradermal, subcutaneous, and/or intramuscular delivery, or all three incorporating pre-filled or user-filled, replaceable, or non-replaceable containers. Global ISO

11608-4 Needle-based injection systems for medical use. Part 4: Needle-based injection systems containing electronics Specifies requirements and test methods for needle-based injection systems (NISS) containing electronics with or without software (NIS-Es) Global IEC

60601 Medical Electrical Equipment Testing and Certification Part 1-11: General requirements for basic safety and essential performance-Collateral standard Requirements for medical electrical equipment and medical electrical systems used in the home healthcare environment Global IEC

60529 Degrees of protection provided by enclosures (IP Code) Developed to rate and grade the resistance of enclosures of electrical and electronic devices against the intrusion of dust and liquids. It also rates how easy it is for individuals to access the potentially hazardous parts within the enclosure Global IEC

60068-2-XX Environmental testing of electrotechnical products A collection of methods for environmental testing of electronic equipment and products to assess their ability to perform under environmental conditions, including extreme cold and dry heat. Global

Resources for efficient design

The surface-mount, low-power components highlighted in this article deliver the control needed while meeting strict size, power, and weight targets. By using the manufacturers' expertise, designers can choose cost-effective components more efficiently. Application engineers can guide selections, helping to reduce development time and keep costs under control.

Beyond assistance with component selection, Littelfuse engineers offer simulation and modeling services to optimize design performance with Littelfuse components. In addition, the application engineers can provide guidance on design requirements dictated by the applicable standards.

Littelfuse, amongst other manufacturers, can perform pre-compliance testing to avoid failures, saving testing costs and delays in introducing new products due to multiple compliance test cycles. By pairing some of the components suggested here with expert guidance, compact, low-power electronic drug delivery pens can be designed to meet performance and usability demands.

Reference literature

About the author

Dr. Marco Doms

Sr. Manager Technical Marketing, Littelfuse, Inc.

Marco studied electrical engineering and holds a PhD in MEMS. He was the head of R&D in two other sensor companies before joining Littelfuse in 2022. Marco has a long history in position sensors (especially xMR) and managing R&D and Innovation teams - from chip to system level.

At Littelfuse, he started as an Innovation Manager, led the EBU Advanced Development team, and introduced an Innovation/Idea Management process. In his current role, Marco is responsible for several platforms with entirely new products or product features that require additional internal and customer coordination.

About Littelfuse

Littelfuse is a diversified industrial technology manufacturing company empowering a sustainable, connected, and safer world. Across more than 20 countries, and with approximately 16,000 global associates, we partner with customers to design and deliver innovative, reliable solutions. Serving over 100,000 end customers, our products are found in a variety of industrial, transportation, and electronics end markets - everywhere, every day. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, United States, Littelfuse was founded in 1927.

Sponsored Content Policy: News-Medical.net publishes articles and related content that may be derived from sources where we have existing commercial relationships, provided such content adds value to the core editorial ethos of News-Medical.Net which is to educate and inform site visitors interested in medical research, science, medical devices and treatments.
Illicitly manufactured fentanyl and its analogs (FAs) have emerged as major drivers of the ongoing opioid overdose crisis.

Since 2013, a sharp increase in overdose deaths has been linked to heroin laced with fentanyl or FAsoften sold as heroin without users knowledge. Data from the US Drug Enforcement Administrations National Forensic Laboratory Information System shows a staggering 300 % rise in fentanyl-related cases.1,2

Beyond the extreme potency of fentanyl and many of its analogs, law enforcement continues to face the ongoing challenge of identifying new FAs as they rapidly emerge. Illicit drug manufacturers frequently make small structural tweaks to the core fentanyl molecule, creating novel analogs that are both potent and difficult to track using existing compound lists.

Detecting and identifying synthetic opioids requires a range of analytical techniques due to their chemical complexity. The CDC, for example, recommends a two-tiered testing approach: initial screening with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), followed by confirmation using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) to detect fentanyl compounds in blood or urine from suspected overdose cases.

Other methods, such as liquid chromatographymass spectrometry (LC-MS), tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), and ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), are also employed to screen and confirm the presence of fentanyl and FAs in forensic samples.3

However, accurately distinguishing between certain fentanyl analogsparticularly isomersremains a significant challenge. Many FA isomers share identical accurate masses and exhibit highly similar electron impact (EI) and electrospray ionization (ESI) fragmentation patterns, along with nearly indistinguishable retention times in both gas and liquid chromatography.1

Previous studies have demonstrated that FT-Raman spectroscopy offers a safe, fast, and complementary approach for identifying powders and other seized materials, including fentanyl.4

This technique requires little to no sample preparation and allows for direct measurement through glass containers or evidence bags, minimizing the risk of accidental exposure to highly potent opioids for laboratory personnel. Its non-destructive nature also helps preserve the chain of custody from seizure to evidence documentation.4

This article presents two examples of FA isomer differentiation using FT-Raman spectroscopy. A pair of constitutional isomers (butyryl fentanyl and isobutyryl fentanyl) and a pair of geometric isomers (cis- and trans-3-methyl fentanyl) were analyzed. In both cases, FT-Raman spectroscopy successfully distinguished the isomers based not only on the fingerprint region but also on low-frequency Raman peaks (250400 cm-1), specifically those linked to (CC) aliphatic chain vibrations.

Materials and methods

Fentanyl and fentanyl analog (FA) standards were obtained from Cayman Chemical (Ann Arbor, Michigan) and analyzed without further modification. All testing involving fentanyl and other regulated substances was conducted at the Albuquerque Police Department Crime Laboratory, following Schedule I chemical handling protocols.

Samples were analyzed either through double-layered evidence bags or glass vials to ensure safety and prevent direct exposure.

All Raman analyses were performed using a Nicolet iS50 FTIR Spectrometer, configured with a calcium fluoride beam splitter and the Nicolet iS50 Raman module. A 1064 nm laser, operating at 0.5 W, served as the excitation source. For each spectrum, 128 scans were collected at a resolution of 4 cm-1, resulting in a total acquisition time of approximately 130 seconds. Spectral analysis was carried out using OMNIC Software.

Results and discussion

Fentanyl and FAs belong to the phenylpiperidine class of synthetic opioids. Fentanyl, specifically, has a phenyl propanamide group attached to the phenylpiperidine (Figure 1). Its FT-Raman spectrum is depicted in Figure 2, with the major peaks annotated according to their corresponding wavenumbers.

Comprehensive Raman peak assignments of fentanyl based on density function theory (DFT) calculation were reported by Leonard et al.5 In the fingerprint region (4001600 cm-1), most spectral features (e.g., 622, 743, 829, 1001, 1075, 1160, 1455, 1585, 1598 cm-1) originate from the vibrations of the two terminal benzene rings.

While these peaks are strong in intensity, they do not provide clear differentiation between the fentanyl analog isomers examined in this study. Notably, (C-C) aliphatic chains generate strong Raman signals in the spectral region of 250400 cm-1 (e.g. 267 cm-1 and 308 cm-1 in Figure 2).

Figure 1. Structures of fentanyl and two pairs of FA isomers in this study. Image Credit: Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

Figure 2. FT Raman spectrum of fentanyl. Image Credit: Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

Butyryl fentanyl and isobutyryl fentanyl are a pair of constitutional isomers differing in the terminal groups attached to the amide moiety of the fentanyl scaffold (Figure 1). As short-acting FAs, these compounds are about 30 times less potent than fentanyl.

Nonetheless, the US DEA has reported at least 40 confirmed overdose fatalities related to butyryl fentanyl abuse.1 Butyryl fentanyl and isobutyryl fentanyl were designated as Schedule I narcotics in 2016 and 2018, respectively. Their FT-Raman spectra are displayed in Figure 3.

The peak observed at 735 cm-1, resulting from the C-H symmetric bend, is unique to isobutyryl fentanyl. Due to the different terminal groups attached to the carbonyl carbon, the carbonyl C-O stretch peak positions are different between the isomers: 1655 cm-1 for isobutyryl fentanyl and 1646 cm-1 for butyryl fentanyl.

In the low frequency region (250400 cm-1), isobutyryl fentanyl exhibits unique peaks at 323 and 372 cm-1, whereas butyryl fentanyl shows a distinct peak at 282 cm-1. While the precise assignments of these low-frequency peaks are uncertain, the Raman spectra of butyryl fentanyl and isobutyryl fentanyl display sufficient variance for distinguishing this pair of constitutional isomers.

3-methylfentanyl (3-MF), a Schedule I narcotic, first appeared in 1984 in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, and was linked to 16 fatal overdose incidents.2 It exists as a diastereomeric species: ()cis3MF and ()trans3MF. The cis- and trans-isomers differ in the orientation of the methyl group attached to the piperidine ring (Figure 1).

The two isomeric species display notably different potencies: ()trans3MF exhibits potency comparable to that of fentanyl, whereas ()cis3MF is eight times more potent than fentanyl.6 The FT-Raman spectra of cis-3-MF and trans-3-MF within the 2501800 cm-1 spectral range are presented in Figure 4.

Although subtle differences exist between the isomers in the 12001300 cm-1 spectral regionwhere the peaks are primarily from the C-N stretch and C-H twist of piperidinemore prominent differences appear in the 250500 cm-1 low frequency region. While cis-3-MF exhibits a group of distinct peaks (265, 307, 409, 478 cm-1), they are markedly absent for trans-3-MF.

Figure 3. Raman spectra of butryl fentanyl and isobutryl fentanyl in the spectral range of 2501800 cm-1. The shaded region in blue color highlights the spectral difference between the two compounds. Image Credit: Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

Figure 4. Raman spectra of cis-3-MF and trans-3-MF in the spectral range of 2501800 cm-1. The shaded region in blue color highlights the spectral difference between the two compounds. Image Credit: Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

Raman spectra for fentanyl and the isomeric pairs were searched against a fentanyl library containing fentanyl and 13 FAs. Details of this library will be reported in a separate publication. The search outcomes are outlined in Table 1. As anticipated, each compound was correctly identified. Notably, the second-best match for each isomer was not its isomeric counterpart.

For instance, cyclopentyl fentanyl was the second-best match for both butyryl fentanyl and isobutyryl fentanyl. These findings indicate that although the structural difference between isomers is small, the spectral difference is substantial enough to enable effective isomer discrimination.

Conclusions

In this article, FT-Raman spectroscopy was used to analyze fentanyl along with two isomeric pairs of fentanyl analogs (FAs): the constitutional isomers butyryl and isobutyryl fentanyl, and the geometric isomers cis- and trans-3-methyl fentanyl.

As expected, the fingerprint region of the Raman spectra is largely dominated by vibrational features of the two terminal benzene rings. However, these peaks offer limited utility in distinguishing between isomers due to their similarity across compounds.

In contrast, the low-frequency region (250400 cm-1), corresponding to (CC) vibrations in the aliphatic chains, proved to be much more informative. These features served as the primary differentiators between the isomeric forms.

Library searches against a fentanyl spectral database confirmed strong matches for each compound. Notably, in every case, the second-best match in the library was not the compounds isomeric counterpartunderscoring the sensitivity of FT-Raman to even minor structural differences. These subtle variations produced meaningful shifts in the Raman spectra, enabling confident identification and clear discrimination between isomers.

Overall, FT-Raman spectroscopy demonstrates itself to be a safe, rapid, and highly selective analytical technique for detecting and identifying fentanyl and its analogs.

Image Credit: Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

Table 1. Search results against the fentanyl library. Source: Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

Compound Top match 2nd best match Butyryl fentanyl Butyryl fentanyl Cyclopentyl fentanyl Isobutyryl fentanyl Isobutyryl fentanyl Cyclopentyl fentanyl Trans-3-methyl fentanyl Trans-3-methyl fentanyl Butyryl fentanyl Cis-3-methyl fentanyl Cis-3-methyl fentanyl Fentanyl Fentanyl Fentanyl Acetyl fentanyl

Acknowledgments

Produced from materials originally authored by Shea A Schleman, Manuel Gomez, Suja Sukumaran and Rui Chen.

References

Jannetto, P.J., et al. (2019). The Fentanyl Epidemic and Evolution of Fentanyl Analogs in the United States and the European Union. Clinical Chemistry, 65(2), pp.242253. https://doi.org/10.1373/clinchem.2017.281626. Armenian, P., et al. (2018). Fentanyl, fentanyl analogs and novel synthetic opioids: A comprehensive review. Neuropharmacology, (online) 134(Part A), pp.121132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropharm.2017.10.016. Sisco, E., et al. (2017). Rapid detection of fentanyl, fentanyl analogues, and opioids for on-site or laboratory based drug seizure screening using thermal desorption DART-MS and ion mobility spectrometry. Forensic Chemistry, 4, pp.108115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forc.2017.04.001. Sukumaran, S. et al. FT-Raman: an invaluable addition to the forensic arsenal to combat the opioid epidemic, APPLICATION NOTE AN52304. report. https://assets.thermofisher.com/TFS-Assets/CAD/Application-Notes/an-52304-ft-ir-fentanyl-an52304-en.pdf. Leonard, J., et al. (2017). SERS , Raman , and DFT analyses of fentanyl and carfentanil: Toward detection of trace samples. Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, 48(10), pp.13231329. https://doi.org/10.1002/jrs.5220. Fogarty, M.F., Papsun, D.M. and Logan, B.K. (2018). Analysis of cis and trans 3methylfentanyl by liquid chromatographyhigh resolution mass spectrometry and findings in forensic toxicology casework. Drug Testing and Analysis, 10(9), pp.14741482. https://doi.org/10.1002/dta.2414.

About Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

Thermo Fisher Scientific is the world leader in serving science. The company enables its customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer by providing analytical instruments, equipment, reagents and consumables, software and services for research, analysis, discovery and diagnostics.

Thermo Scientific represents a broad range of high-end analytical instruments, chemistry and consumable supplies, laboratory equipment, software and services that enable integrated laboratory workflow solutions. Thermo Scientific is the new name for a trusted brand  Thermo Electron  that the worlds most renowned researchers, clinicians and scientists already count on to solve their analytical challenges. The brand is strengthened by the addition of equipment, consumables and reagents acquired from Fisher Scientific.

Fisher Scientific represents a family of global product and service brands comprising a complete portfolio of laboratory equipment, chemicals, supplies and services used in healthcare, scientific research, safety and education. Fisher Scientific brings these solutions to general research customers worldwide, and through Fisher HealthCare, Fisher Safety and Fisher Science Education it delivers the specialty equipment, supplies and services that customers want, when and how they want them. In addition to these two premier brands, Thermo Fisher Scientific also markets a range of specialty products, featuring well-known industry names such as Nalgene, Nunc and Remel. Offerings include consumables such as disposable laboratory glassware, plastic-ware and environmental sample containers ranging from vials, tubes and pipettes to microscope slides and syringes. These products are primarily sold through Fisher Scientific and our valued partners worldwide.

Sponsored Content Policy: News-Medical.net publishes articles and related content that may be derived from sources where we have existing commercial relationships, provided such content adds value to the core editorial ethos of News-Medical.Net which is to educate and inform site visitors interested in medical research, science, medical devices and treatments.
Chief Executive John Lee met Deputy Prime Minister of Cambodia Sun Chanthol today to exchange views on strengthening economic and trade relations between Hong Kong and Cambodia.

Mr Lee welcomed Mr Sun and his delegation to the city to attend the 10th Belt & Road Summit and serve as a keynote speaker at the event.

Noting that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government is actively exploring emerging markets in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Belt & Road countries, Mr Lee said that Cambodia, with its rapid market development and vast economic potential, offers broad opportunities for co-operation with Hong Kong.

With the two places reaching 13 memoranda of understanding last year that covered economics and trade, aviation, and financial services, Mr Lee emphasised that he is pleased to witness more MOUs between government departments of both places at today's summit to enhance bilateral co-operation.

The Chief Executive highlighted that Cambodia is a strategic partner in the nation's promotion of the Belt & Road Initiative, and that Hong Kong possesses a highly internationalised, market-oriented and business-friendly environment with strengths in capital, technology and market resources that enable it to fully serve as a functional platform for both places to seize the opportunities from the Belt & Road Initiative.

He welcomed enterprises from Cambodia to leverage Hong Kong's role as a "super connector" and "super value-adder" to explore overseas and Mainland markets.

Apart from thanking Cambodia for its support in establishing the International Organization for Mediation, Mr Lee stressed that the establishment of its headquarters in Hong Kong demonstrates the city's strengths in international mediation.

Hong Kong will continue to leverage its advantages of enjoying strong support from the motherland and being closely connected to the world, thereby contributing to the promotion of the Belt & Road Initiative, he added.
Chiranjeevi shares adorable picture with Varun Tejs son

Last Updated: September 11, 2025, 00:15 IST

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New Delhi [India], September 11 (ANI): Megastar Chiranjeevi is beaming with joy as his nephew and actor Varun Tej has been blessed with baby son. On Thursday, Varun and his wife, Lavanya, announced the arrival of their firstborn. The couple shared an adorable picture which shows Varun gently kissing his wife on the forehead while Lavanya lovingly cradles the newborn on her lap.Our little man 10.09.2025," they captioned the post. Chiranjeevi, too, dropped a heartfelt wish for the couple. He shared a cute picture in which we can see the Yamudiki Mogudu star could be seen holding baby in his arms. Welcome to the world, little one! A hearty welcome to the newborn baby boy in the Konidela family. Heartfelt congratulations to Varun Tej and Lavanya Tripathi on becoming proud parents. So happy for Nagababu and Padmaja, who are now promoted to proud grandparents. Wishing the baby boy all the happiness, good health, and blessings in abundance. May your love and blessings always surround our child," he wrote.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Chiranjeevi Konidela (@chiranjeevikonidela)

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Varun and Lavanya have worked together in films like Gandeevadhari Arjuna and Antariksham 9000 KMPH. They got married in 2023. (ANI)

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First Published: September 11, 2025, 00:15 IST

News agency-feeds Chiranjeevi shares adorable picture with Varun Tejs son

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LS Speaker Birla pays tributes to Govind Ballabh Pant on 138th birth anniversary

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 12:00 IST

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New Delhi, Sep 10 (PTI) Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla paid floral tributes to freedom fighter Bharat Ratna Pt Govind Ballabh Pant at his statue near Parliament House on his 138th birth anniversary on Wednesday.

The first chief minister of UP, Pant through his long political and social life worked for the socio-economic upliftment of all sections of the society. As the Union Home minister also he served to keep the country safe and make it capable under difficult circumstances, Birla said.

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His life and views inspire us," he said.

Delhi Assembly Speaker Vijender Gupta and PWD minister of Delhi government Parvesh Verma also paid floral offerings at the statue of Pant. PTI VIT NB NB

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First Published: September 10, 2025, 12:00 IST

News agency-feeds LS Speaker Birla pays tributes to Govind Ballabh Pant on 138th birth anniversary

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Nails hammered into Samruddhi Expressway; car tyres punctured

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 12:00 IST

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Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Sep 10 (PTI) Tyres of at least three cars were punctured in the early hours of Wednesday after nails were hammered into the Samruddhi Expressway in Maharashtras Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district, police said.

Videos showing the nails neatly embedded in the Mumbai-bound arm of the high-speed carriageway have gone viral on social media.

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Motorists alerted the Daultabad police station around 1 am about the sharp metallic objects protruding from the expressway, which runs between Mumbai and Nagpur, an official said.

Our teams rushed to the spot. We are yet to ascertain how many nails were hammered into the road but tyres of three cars were punctured," the official said.

The police have called the road contractor, who is responsible for maintaining the stretch, and the persons who stopped motorists at the spot to probe the matter further.

In a viral video, a person says four vehicles were punctured due to nails hammered into the Samruddhi Expressway. Vehicles travel at 120 km per hour, and the stretch with nails has not been barricaded," says the person.

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In another video, a traveller says their car tyres were punctured, and they had not received any assistance for over three hours despite calling the expressway helpline multiple times.

I was travelling with a family including three babies. We spent money and sent them ahead," he claims. PTI AW NR

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First Published: September 10, 2025, 12:00 IST

News agency-feeds Nails hammered into Samruddhi Expressway; car tyres punctured

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Trump reacts to Israeli strike in Doha, says not thrilled about it

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 07:15 IST

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Washington, DC [US] September 10 (ANI): US President Donald Trump on Tuesday (US local time) said he was not thrilled" about the Israeli strike that targeted top Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, stressing that the situation was not good" but reiterated that the US priority remained the return of hostages.Speaking to reporters, Trump said, I am not thrilled about it Not a good situation, but I will say that we want the hostages back. We are not thrilled about the way that went down. I am never surprised by anything, especially when it comes to the Middle East."This comes after Israel launched an airstrike targeting top Hamas leaders residing in a residential neighbourhood in Doha, according to CNN.The White House earlier maintained that eliminating Hamas remained a worthy goal". Speaking at a media briefing, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Trump administration was informed of the operation only on the morning of the strike.This morning, the Trump administration was notified by the United States military that Israel was attacking Hamas, which, very unfortunately, was located in a section of Doha, the capital of Qatar. Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a sovereign nation and close ally of the United States, that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker peace, does not advance Israel or Americas goals. However, eliminating Hamas, which has profited from the misery of those living in Gaza, is a worthy goal," Leavitt said.Leavitt added that as soon as the President learned of the strike, he asked Special Envoy Steven Witkoff to notify Qatari authorities immediately.President Trump immediately directed Special Envoy Witkoff to inform the Qataris of the impending attack, which he did. The President views Qatar as a strong ally and friend of the United States and feels very badly about the location of this attack," she said, noting the close ties between Washington and Doha.Leavitt also said President Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the attack.President Trump wants all of the hostages in Gaza and the bodies of the dead released, and this war to end now. Prime Minister Netanyahu told President Trump that he wants to make peace, and quickly. President Trump believes this unfortunate incident could serve as an opportunity for peace," she added.According to Leavitt, Trump also spoke to Qatars Amir and Prime Minister, assuring them that such an incident would not be repeated.The President also talked to the Amir and Prime Minister of Qatar and thanked them for their support and friendship to our country. He assured them that such a thing would not happen again on their soil," she said. (ANI)

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News agency-feeds Trump reacts to Israeli strike in Doha, says not thrilled about it

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Love Horoscope Today, September 10, 2025

Written By :

GaneshaGrace

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 07:10 IST

Daily Love Horoscope, September 10, 2025: The day favours openness, joyful social interactions, and new romantic beginnings.

Love Horoscope Today, September 10, 2025, Know daily relationship horoscope for zodiac signs. (AI generated image)

Daily Love Horoscope Today, September 10, 2025: Today is full of romantic opportunities and social energy for all signs. Aries are advised to step out confidently, even from home, as love may be closer than expected. Taurus may come into contact with someone new, possibly from afar or through a friend, which will bring them joy.

Gemini has new hopes in love, and new sparks are on the horizon. Cancer realizes that openness and loving behavior will always bring affection in return, which emphasizes honest communication. Leo will face the pleasant challenge of choosing from many admirers and will have to handle it tactfully. Virgo may have a promising date with the potential for a serious future.

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Libras will benefit from a short trip or social event that will lead to exciting romantic possibilities. Scorpios should enjoy playful flirting, but stay grounded to avoid confusion. Sagittarius will encounter unexpected romantic chemistry and should embrace optimism. Capricorns may see their luck in love change, leaving setbacks behind and moving on to meaningful relationships.

Aquarius may meet someone attractive in a professional setting, where sparks may slowly ignite between them. Finally, Pisces will enjoy social fun and may meet someone special who could become their life partner. Overall, the day favours openness, joyful social interactions, and new romantic beginnings.

Aries Love Horoscope

Ganesha says get out there and socialize! Today will be a profitable day for you if you socialize. You dont even need to leave the house today; your dream partner could be just a step away. Dont be afraid to declare your best qualities loud and proud, and then see what comes your way. You will succeed.

Taurus Love Horoscope

Ganesha says you are likely to meet someone new and interesting who lives far away from you at the moment. This means you are busy meeting new potential partners through the web on the Internet! You may even meet this person through a friend, as he or she may be on a visit to town. Either way, this is still a joyous event, and you can enjoy it while it lasts.

Gemini Love Horoscope

Ganesha says today will be the day when many of those who had lost hope on love will find their desires rekindled. They may see the light at the end of the tunnel again. Although finding the right partner may take a long time, today brings a small spark of recognition among single people looking for love. Dont lose hope, go out there, and you may find the one who is right for you.

Cancer Love Horoscope

Ganesha says the lesson for you today in the world of romance is that if you want to get love from your partner, first of all, you have to give them/equal love. You cannot play hard to get and expect others to keep showering you with affection. Be vocal about your feelings, and others will feel more secure and comfortable sharing their feelings with you.

Leo Love Horoscope

Ganesha says you will be the center of attention today, and you may be surprised and a little embarrassed that you cant decide how to choose from so many potential partners! This is a problem you thought would be good, but you dont want to hurt anyones feelings. Try to be diplomatic in the words you choose to resolve this complicated situation.

Virgo Love Horoscope

Ganesha says you may find yourself on a date with someone new today. This date is likely to go very well, and you are quite happy with your choice of dinner date. Keep pursuing this person as long as you think there is potential, as marriage may be possible between the two of you in the future!

Libra Love Horoscope

Ganesha says a short trip today will give you some relief from the stress of looking for a relationship. You may find yourself more spontaneous and open to new partners at this time. You may also meet someone at a small gathering of friends and family. You could soon be on an exciting date!

Scorpio Love Horoscope

Ganesha says you will feel very flirtatious and will attract the attention of anyone around you. A little harmless flirting is one thing, but dont get carried away by your romantic fantasies about love. Singles should be a little cautious today with people who are making advances. This recent love may be all wind and not real. Keep your feet on the ground today!

Sagittarius Love Horoscope

Ganesha says you are more likely to develop a romantic relationship today, as you are likely to meet someone you find attractive and warm. This unexpected meeting will turn out to be an interesting and perhaps quite romantic encounter, as you will feel the sparks flying! Singles should be very optimistic about their love life today. Look and feel your best today.

Capricorn Love Horoscope

Ganesha says you are more likely to find a new romantic partner. Youve had some setbacks in your search for love recently, but today youll find that the wind has swung back in your favor and youre turning somewhat of a corner. At this time, make sure youre doing something important and not wasting your time with short-term relationships.

Aquarius Love Horoscope

Ganesha says romance is a real possibility for you today, as youll suddenly meet someone youll find very attractive. Theres a distinct possibility that youll meet this person in a work-related situation. It will be an interesting and perhaps quite romantic encounter, although youll have to try to keep the sparks from flying until you leave the office!

Pisces Love Horoscope

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Ganesha says today may bring a special occasion for which you can go out, have fun, and meet new people. Youll dress to impress, and others will notice. Keep an eye out for someone who may catch your attention, as theres likely to be someone very special in that crowd today. This person could even become your life partner! Overall, today is a day of fun and laughter, so go out and enjoy it.

(The author Chirag Daruwalla is the son of Astrologer Bejan Daruwalla).

About the Author Chirag Daruwalla Chirag Daruwalla, a renowned Indian astrologer with 18+ years of experience, provides expert guidance in career, health, finance, business, and more. He combines Vedic and Western astrology, I-Ching, ... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 07:10 IST

News astrology Love Horoscope Today, September 10, 2025

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AI Gold Rush Breeds Harsh 996 Work Routine In Silicon Valley

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 10:22 IST

Silicon Valley tech giants battle for AI dominance, offering huge pay and adopting the 9-9-6 culture in San Francisco startups.

AI Boom, Human Cost: San Francisco Startups Push 9-9-6 Work Schedule

The race for AI heats up, with tech companies in Silicon Valley pouring billions into overpowering others and grabbing the largest pie in the emerging market. Companies have reportedly begun poaching human resources by offering millions of dollars in a pay package. No one wishes to lag behind when things are high at stake. Everyone is ready to pour sweat and blood, literal and metaphorical.

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At the center of this heated race, a new culture called 9-9-6 has emerged in the startups of San Francisco, USA.

What Is 9-9-6 Culture?

It means employees of these startups work from 9 in the morning to 9 in the evening, Monday through Saturday. It translates to 72 hours of work weekly, going away from 4 or 5 day work week culture being promoted across Europe, particularly Nordic countries for more leisure time.

An X handle named TBPN in the post said that they checked the receipts and found that the claims are true"  Saturdays have become a workday. The great lock-in is in full effect," it added.

Many San Francisco startups claim they practice 9-9-6, so we checked the receipts.We worked with Ramp to look at the data and its true  Saturdays have become a workday. The great lock-in is in full effect. pic.twitter.com/MbwAICe3Dy  TBPN (@tbpn) September 8, 2025

AI War Among Tech Titans Several big tech giants, including Meta, Google, Microsoft and Amazon, have poached the startup founders with a high paycheck to work with their teams building the smartest Large Language Models (LLMs) and improving the hot application-based technology. For instance, Meta shocked the tech industry when it announced to invest a $14.3 billion in data labelling startup Scale AI. As part of the agreement, Meta took a 49% stake in the company, hired its CEO Alexandr Wang to lead a new superintelligence lab and said it would deepen the work it does with Scale. Since the inception of ChatGPT by OpenAI in late 2020, the official age of AI has begun. Two years after the trailblazing technology, theres no official winner, but a sudden push to have everything as AI-laced. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all

About the Author Business Desk A team of writers and reporters decodes vast terms of personal finance and making money matters simpler for you. From latest initial public offerings (IPOs) in the market to best investment options, w... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 10:22 IST

News business AI Gold Rush Breeds Harsh 996 Work Routine In Silicon Valley

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Back To Office: Microsoft Employees To Work Onsite Three Days Weekly From 2026

Reported By :

News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 07:09 IST

Microsoft will require employees to work from the office at least three days a week starting January 2026, beginning in Puget Sound and expanding to other US and global locations.

The work-from-office for at least three days will be rolled out in three phases.

Microsoft is getting stricter on its work-from-office policy by making it mandatory for employees to come to the office for at least three days a week. The new strict rules will be enforced from January 2026, moving away from the flexible work policy being adopted by the tech giant since the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Weve looked at how our teams work best, and the data is clear: when people work together in person more often, they thrive  they are more energized, empowered, and they deliver stronger results. As we build the AI products that will define this era, we need the kind of energy and momentum that comes from smart people working side by side, solving challenging problems together," Microsoft said in the blog post.

The work-from-office for at least three days will be rolled out in three phases:

1) starting in Puget Sound at the end of February;

2) expanding to other US locations;

3) then launching outside the US.

What you need to know:

Puget Sound-area employees: If employees live within 50 miles of a Microsoft office, they will be expected to work onsite three days a week by the end of February 2026. They will receive a personalized email today with more details.

Managers: They will find actions to take, and the resources to support them.

All employees: They will hear from their EVP or organizational leadership today with specific guidance. Each business will do what is best for their team, which means some groups will deviate from our company-wide expectations. If employees are outside of the Puget Sound area, they do not need to take any action at this time unless their EVP communicates otherwise.

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Timelines and details for additional US office locations will be announced soon. For employees outside the United States, it will begin in 2026.

About the Author Varun Yadav Varun Yadav is a Sub Editor at News18 Business Digital. He writes articles on markets, personal finance, technology, and more. He completed his post-graduation diploma in English Journalism from the I... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 07:09 IST

News business Back To Office: Microsoft Employees To Work Onsite Three Days Weekly From 2026

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GST Rate Cut: Hero MotoCorp Announces Price Reduction Up To Rs 15,743 On Two-Wheelers

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 13:43 IST

Customers can now avail price benefits of up to Rs 15,743 on select models (ex-showroom Delhi), making motorcycles such as the Splendor+, Glamour, and Xtreme more affordable.

Hero MotoCorp Price Cuts.

In order to pass on the benefits of the GST rate cut to customers, two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp on Wednesday said it will cut prices of its various models by up to Rs 15,743, with effect from September 22.

Customers can now avail price benefits of up to Rs 15,743 on select models (ex-showroom Delhi), making motorcycles such as the Splendor+, Glamour, Xtreme range and scooters like the Xoom, Destini and Pleasure+ even more accessible, Hero MotoCorp said in a regulatory filing.

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Welcoming the GST rate reduction, Hero MotoCorp CEO Vikram Kasbekar said the governments next-gen GST 2.0 reforms will boost consumption, empower GDP growth, and accelerate Indias journey to a $5-trillion economy.

In addition, more than half of the Indian households use two-wheelers for their daily needs, making it critical for mass mobility," he said, adding that the timing is opportune and ahead of the festive season.

It makes two-wheelers more affordable and accessible for Indias largest consumer base, while giving a strong demand push, Kasbekar noted.

Meanwhile, two-wheeler maker TVS Motor Company on September 8 also announced to cut prices, to be effective from 22 September 2025.

TVS Motor Company (TVSM) will pass on the full benefit of GST rate reduction to customers across its ICE portfolio, following the recent reforms introduced by the GST Council. With the Council reducing GST rates on ICE vehicles from 28% to 18%, there will be significant savings on our products," said TVS Motor in a press release.

Yamaha has also decided to reduce prices by up to Rs 17,581 to pass on the GST cut benefits.

Meanwhile, four-wheeler makers Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hyundai and Renault India, among other companies, have also announced cuts in their prices to pass on GST cuts.

56th GST Council Meeting

Last week, the GST Council in its 56th meeting announced rate rationalisation across items from daily use shampoo and hair oil to automobiles.

Motorcycles up to 350cc engine capacity (including mopeds and scooters with auxiliary motors) will now attract 18% GST from September 22, down from 28%. However, Motorcycles above 350cc, including Royal Enfield 650cc, Harley-Davidson, or premium KTM models, will now attract 40% GST. So, premium bike enthusiasts will have to shell out more.

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On four-wheelers, petrol, CNG and LPG cars with engine capacity up to 1200cc and length up to 4000 mm will now attract 18% GST, lower from the earlier 28%. Diesel cars with engine capacity up to 1500cc and length up to 4000 mm also get the lower 18% GST rate.

Cars with engine capacity above 1200cc (petrol/CNG/LPG) or above 1500cc (diesel) or length more than 4000 mm will now attract a 40% GST, as compared with 28% (plus 17%-22% compensation cess) earlier. It means that the tax on such vehicles has been reduced to 40%, compared with 45%-50%.

About the Author Mohammad Haris Haris is Deputy News Editor (Business) at news18.com. He writes on various issues related to personal finance, markets, economy and companies. Having over a decade of experience in financial journalis... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 13:43 IST

News business GST Rate Cut: Hero MotoCorp Announces Price Reduction Up To Rs 15,743 On Two-Wheelers

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Dev Accelerator Vs Shringar House of Mangalsutra Vs Urban Co IPO: Check Subscription Status & GMP

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News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 17:45 IST

The primary market is buzzing this week with three mainboard issues opening for subscription  Dev Accelerator, Shringar House of Mangalsutra, and Urban Company.

Dev Accelerator IPO Vs Shringar House of Mangalsutra IPO Vs Urban Company IPO.

The primary market is buzzing this week with three mainboard issues opening for subscription  Dev Accelerator, Shringar House of Mangalsutra, and Urban Company. The IPOs are drawing attention from retail investors because of their due to high subscriptions and strong grey market activity.

Dev Accelerator IPO

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Ahmedabad-based Dev Accelerator Ltd, a provider of flexible office spaces, has set a price band in the range of Rs 56 to Rs 61 per share. At the upper end, the companys valuation comes to around Rs 550 crore. The issue is open for subscription between September 10 and 12, with the tentative listing date fixed for September 17, 2025.

In the grey market, Dev Accelerator is quoting a premium of Rs 9 (or 14.75%) over its upper IPO price.

On the first day of bidding, the issue received a 5.34x subscription, garnering bids for 7,02,42,205 shares as against the 1,31,47,075 shares on offer.

The retail and NII participation stood at 19.60x and 4.46x, respectively. The QIB category was subscribed by 1.16x.

Shringar House of Mangalsutra IPO

Mumbai-based jewellery firm Shringar House of Mangalsutra has comed out with its maiden issue at a price band of Rs 155-Rs 165 per share. The IPO will remain open for bidding from September 10 to 12, with listing also expected on September 17.

The issue has attracted decent grey market interest, with its latest GMP at Rs 30. Based on this, the stock could list around Rs 195, implying an 18% premium.

On the first day of bidding, the issue received a 2.01x subscription, garnering bids for 3,42,40,410 shares as against the 1,70,16,000 shares on offer.

The retail and NII participation stood at 2.84x and 2.70x, respectively. The QIB category received a 0.01x subscription.

Urban Company IPO

The weeks biggest name is app-based services platform Urban Company. Backed by strong anchor investor participation, the company has already mobilised Rs 854 crore ahead of its public offer. The Rs 1,900-crore IPO is priced at Rs 98Rs 103 per share, valuing the business at nearly Rs 14,790 crore. Subscriptions will run from September 10 to 12, and listing is slated for September 17.

In the grey market, Urban Company is trading at a premium of Rs 38, suggesting a potential listing price of around Rs 141 per share  nearly 37% above the upper price band.

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On the first day of bidding, the issue received a 3.29x subscription, garnering bids for 33,45,33,705 shares as against the 10,15,65,534 shares on offer.

The retail and NII participation stood at 7.39x and 4.37x, respectively. The QIB category was subscribed by 1.37x.

About the Author Mohammad Haris Haris is Deputy News Editor (Business) at news18.com. He writes on various issues related to personal finance, markets, economy and companies. Having over a decade of experience in financial journalis... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 12:49 IST

News business ipo Dev Accelerator Vs Shringar House of Mangalsutra Vs Urban Co IPO: Check Subscription Status & GMP

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ITR Deadline 2025: Only 5 Days Remaining, Will Govt Push Deadline Further?

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 11:48 IST

The Income Tax Department extended the ITR filing deadline for FY2024-25 to September 15, 2025, but will further extension possible?

The Finance Ministry on September 07 released the reminder of the ITR filing deadline of September 15.

ITR Filing 2025 Due Date: With only 5 days left, demands to extend the due date of non-audit taxpayers for the income tax filing (ITR) for FY2024-25 (Assessment year 2025-26) have arisen in various groups, including tax associations, CAs and tax experts, over technical glitches in the portal, delay in releasing Excel-utilities for ITR forms 2,3,5,6 and 7, data mismatches between AIS and Form 26AS, server crash and more.

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The income tax department has extended the deadline for the ITR filing for FY2024-25 (Assessment Year 2025-26) for 45 days to September 15, 2025, from July 30, 2025. This new due date applies to individuals, Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs) and other taxpayers whose accounts dont require auditing.

Of the 13.37 crore individual registered users, over 5 crore have filed their returns. Over 4.72 crore returns have been verified and over 3.39 crore returns have been processed by September 08.

Will The Finance Ministry Extend The Due Date Post September 15?

The Finance Ministry on September 07 released the reminder of the ITR filing deadline of September 15. The Ministry said that the extension of the due date for filing Income Tax Returns for FY 202425 (AY 202526) to 15 September 2025 provides additional time for taxpayers to complete their compliance obligations.

It appears that the ministry is unlikely to extend the due date for non-audit taxpayers after September 15.

The Ministry also said that taxpayers may face penalties for missing the ITR filing deadline.

Filing an Income Tax Return (ITR) is an important compliance requirement under the Income Tax Act. It enables individuals and entities to declare their income, report taxes paid, and claim refunds where applicable. Timely filing helps avoid penalties, ensures the faster processing of refunds, and also serves as an official financial record for availing loans, obtaining visas, and fulfilling other financial requirements," says the document.

Who Can File ITR By October 31, 2025? Taxpayers whose accounts need to be auditedsuch as companies, proprietorships, and working partners in firmshave until October 31, 2025, to file their income tax returns (ITR) for the financial year 2024-25 (assessment year 2025-26). Before they can do that, they must ensure their audit report is submitted by September 30, 2025. As of now, the Income Tax Department has not announced any extension to this deadline. Avinash Polepally, Business Head at ClearTax argued with about half of the total filers having already completed their filings, its evident that an extension is not likely to occur.

What Happens If You Miss The Deadline? Taxpayers then need to pay interest at a rate of 1 per cent per month or part month on the unpaid tax amount. Late Filing Penalty Rs 1,000: If total income is below Rs 5 lakh. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Rs 5,000: If total income is above Rs 5 lakh and return is filed after the due date but before 31st December.

About the Author Varun Yadav Varun Yadav is a Sub Editor at News18 Business Digital. He writes articles on markets, personal finance, technology, and more. He completed his post-graduation diploma in English Journalism from the I... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 11:41 IST

News business tax ITR Deadline 2025: Only 5 Days Remaining, Will Govt Push Deadline Further?

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The Karnataka Link To Kathmandu: Civil Engineer-Rapper-Turned-Politician Balendra Shah | Exclusive

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 18:45 IST

Amid the pressure of deadly student-led Gen Z protests and the resignation of Nepals Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, all eyes are now on Balendra Shah

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In 2022, Balen Shah stunned Nepals major parties by winning the mayorship of Kathmandu, running as an independent candidate. (Photo: The Kathmandu Post)

There is a Karnataka connection to Kathmandu  Balendra Shah, a civil engineer-rapper-turned-politician.

Shah, who is now being pitched to become Prime Minister of Nepal, studied civil and structural engineering at the Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, Bengaluru, where he pursued his MTech in structural engineering. He completed his postgraduate course between 2016 and 2018.

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Amid the pressure of deadly student-led Gen Z protests and the resignation of Nepals Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, all eyes are now on Shah.

One of the traits of a good leader would always be measured by their guides and teachers, said his mentors, and Shahs teachers back in India are bursting with pride. He was a brilliant student and was part of three Nepali students who were studying structural engineering and their records were very good," said Dr Shreyas AV, Assistant Professor, Civil Engineering, who was also Shahs teacher.

Shah and his colleagues would score 9 CGPA plus, which was good. They completed their course with good results and he was good in mathematics. Their project was on earthquake engineering, a concept that was closer to what happens back in Nepal," recalled Dr Shreyas.

His teachers said that there was no indication that Shah would find his calling in politics, nor did he display that openly. We followed his work when he left the institute. Thats when we saw he turned into a popular rapper. He then went into construction, and when he was elected mayor, we were pleasantly surprised. He was as normal as any other student was. Nepali students would come to study as part of the AICTE programme. Balen and other Nepali students came for admission in India under this programme," said Shreyas to News18.

Dr Sudheer Reddy, the dean of Nitte, spoke to News18 and, having taught Shah in the field of mechanical engineering, spoke highly of his educational tenure in the institution. He was very good in academics, and we observed good leadership qualities. In fact, he had a desire to do something, to contribute to society through political life even at the time he spent with us," observed Dr Reddy.

After the completion of his post-graduation, he had gone back to Kathmandu, but back in Karnataka his teachers keenly watched him progress from being an engineering student to working towards becoming a rapper  a sudden shift, they thought  and then his rise as a politician.

His rise as a rapper was unconventional as well. Shah turned his music into a megaphone for Nepals ills, highlighting poverty, underdevelopment, and political corruption. His track Balidan (Sacrifice), which has racked up over seven million views on YouTube, struck a chord with a generation fed up with stagnant politics. We were quite excited and also taken aback with his sudden rise. He won his election as an independent candidate, basing his entire campaign on social media like the Gen Zs do, and that was nothing short of marvellous," said one of his lecturers.

His teachers call him a thorough gentleman and one who would always show social concern. He had a political streak in him, and he carried the same raw authenticity. We saw that strain of being a good politician in him here itself, with respect to the student community or otherwise the public," said Reddy.

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Dr S Vidyashankar, the Vice-Chancellor of Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), under which Nitte Institute of Technology comes, also had a word of appreciation for Shah. We have nearly 200300 students from Nepal who come to Karnataka every year. The fact that Shah has shone so bright is really remarkable and a matter of pride for us," he told News18.

Before politics, Shah made his mark in Nepals underground hip-hop scene, using rap to call out corruption and inequality. Popularly known as Balen, the 35-year-old rapper-turned-politician has been serving as the capitals 15th mayor since May 2022. Rising without party backing, as an independent candidate who based his entire campaign on social media and the young generation of Nepal, he made history as the first independent to win the post of mayor  and now online campaigns and young Gen Zs are already pitching him as Nepals next leader to become the Prime Minister.

About the Author Rohini Swamy Rohini Swamy, Associate Editor at News18, has been a journalist for nearly two decades in the television and digital space. She covers south India for News18s digital platform. She has previously wor... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 18:45 IST

News bengaluru-news The Karnataka Link To Kathmandu: Civil Engineer-Rapper-Turned-Politician Balendra Shah | Exclusive

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IAF Official Found Dead With Gunshot Wound At Hasimara Base In West Bengal

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 18:46 IST

Pulkit Tak, an Indian Air Force jawan from Ajmer, was found dead with a gunshot wound at Hasimara Air Force Station. Investigation is ongoing and details are awaited.

The exact cause and circumstances of the shooting are yet to be known. (Representative Image)

In a tragic incident, an Indian Air Force personnel was found dead with a gunshot wound to the chest at the Hasimara Air Force Station in West Bengal. The incident occurred while the jawan was on duty at the base.

The deceased has been identified as Pulkit Tak, a resident of Ajmer, Rajasthan. He was serving at the strategically important Hasimara station near the India-Bhutan border.

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Following the incident, Taks body was taken to the Alipurduar District Hospital for a post-mortem examination. The exact cause and circumstances of the shooting are yet to be known.

So far, officials at the Air Force base have declined to comment on the matter, stating that the incident is under investigation. It is not yet confirmed whether the gunshot wound was self-inflicted or the result of another cause. However, preliminary reports suggest that he shot himself with his service revolver. Further details are awaited as authorities continue their inquiry into the incident.

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In a similar incident last year, an Air Force sergeant allegedly killed himself while on duty in Maharashtras Nagpur. The deceased, identified as Javeer Singh (36), hailed from Bhiwani in Haryana. The 36-year-old reportedly shot himself in the head with his service weapon at around 2am on Decemeber 11, The Indian Express reported, citing an official of Gittikhadan police station.

The gunshot alerted fellow jawans at the Maintenance Command Center in Vayusena Nagar who found him lying in a pool of blood. The body was sent to a government hospital for post-mortem and investigation was launched into his death. Singhs colleagues had told police that he appeared to be stressed.

About the Author Manisha Roy Manisha Roy is a Senior Sub-Editor at News18.com's general desk. She comes with an experience of over 5 years in media industry. She covers politics and other hard news. She can be contacted at Manish... Read More

Location : Alipurduar, India, India

First Published: September 10, 2025, 18:46 IST

News kolkata-news IAF Official Found Dead With Gunshot Wound At Hasimara Base In West Bengal

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Kolkata Gang-Rape Case: Cops Make First Arrest From Burdwan, Hunt On For Second Accused

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 09:50 IST

The accused, identified as Chandan Malik, was picked up from Burdwan railway station late Saturday night, police officials confirmed

20-year-old victim alleged sexual assault by two men on her birthday | Image: Kolkata Police

Kolkata Police have arrested one person in connection with the alleged gang-rape of a 20-year-old woman in the Regent Park area on the southern fringes of the city.

The accused, identified as Chandan Malik, was picked up from Burdwan railway station late Saturday night, police officials confirmed.

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According to the complaint, the survivor, a resident of Haridevpur, was lured by Chandan and his associate Deep to join a birthday gathering on Friday.

She alleged that the two men took her to Deeps flat on the pretext of celebrating her birthday, where she was confined and sexually assaulted.

The survivor stated that she was taken to the flat, offered food, and later prevented from leaving. The accused locked the door and raped her," a police officer said.

She managed to escape the next morning, around 10:30 am and informed her family, following which an FIR was lodged at Regent Park police station on Saturday.

While Chandan was arrested, the second accused, Deepreportedly employed with a government departmentremains at large. Police teams have been deployed to track him down.

In her statement, the survivor said she had met Chandan a few months earlier when he introduced himself as the head of a prominent Durga Puja committee in south Kolkata.

Through him, she later came in contact with Deep. She also alleged that both men promised to involve her in committee work.

The case has sparked fresh outrage, coming close on the heels of several high-profile sexual assault incidents in the city.

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In June, a law student was allegedly raped inside the South Calcutta Law College campus, leading to the arrest of former student leader Monojit Mishra.

Kolkata, often described as one of the safest metros for women according to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, has seen a spate of such crimes in recent months, raising concerns about womens safety in the city.

First Published: September 10, 2025, 09:37 IST

News cities kolkata-news Kolkata Gang-Rape Case: Cops Make First Arrest From Burdwan, Hunt On For Second Accused

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Man In Navy Uniform Hid Inside Mumbai Campus For Hours, Escaped With Rifle In Plastic Bag

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News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 08:30 IST

A man impersonating naval personnel managed to trick a sailor on Saturday night and escape with an INSAS rifle and ammunition.

The Navy clarified that apart from coordinating with Mumbai Police, its internal teams are combing the area in search of the stolen arms and ammunition. (AI generated image)

The Agniveer who handed over the rifle and ammunition is currently in the custody of the Naval Police and is being interrogated. The Navy has also initiated a Board of Inquiry against him to determine how he failed to follow protocols and regulations on handling weapons.

According to officials, the suspect, dressed in a Navy uniform, stayed inside the naval campus for several hours after tricking the sailor into giving up his rifle. He later changed his uniform, packed the weapon and bullets into a white plastic bag, and threw it to another man waiting outside the campus. Mumbai Police, aided by CCTV footage, are now tracking the individual who carried away the bag.

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The incident has been described as a major security breach. A man impersonating naval personnel managed to trick a sailor on duty in South Mumbais naval residential area late Saturday night, escaping with an INSAS rifle and ammunition.

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The Indian Navy and Mumbai Police have since launched a joint search operation to recover the weapon and nab the suspect. A case under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Act has been registered at Cuffe Parade Police Station.

Officials confirmed that the matter is also being probed by other central agencies, with the Navy providing full cooperation. Investigators are examining how the impersonator gained access to the high-security residential zone and whether identification lapses contributed to the breach.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 08:30 IST

News mumbai-news Man In Navy Uniform Hid Inside Mumbai Campus For Hours, Escaped With Rifle In Plastic Bag

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Mumbai Navy Rifle Theft: Accused A Navy Firefighter, Stole INSAS With Brother To Sell To Naxals

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 14:41 IST

According to officials, the suspect entered in a Navy uniform and remained inside the residential zone for several hours after tricking a sailor into handing over the rifle

The two brothers were arrested for stealing a Navy rifle. (News18)

The accused, who stole a rifle and ammunition from Navy premises, has been identified as a Navy firefighter, officials said. Preliminary findings indicate that two brothers stole an INSAS rifle along with 40 cartridges from the high-security campus.

According to officials, the suspect entered in a Navy uniform, remained inside the residential zone for several hours after tricking a sailor into handing over the rifle, then changed, packed the weapon and bullets into a white plastic bag, and tossed it to an associate waiting outside the perimeter. Mumbai Police, aided by CCTV footage, are tracking the person who carried the bag away.

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The Mumbai Crime Branch has arrested two brothers, Rakesh Ubala and Umesh Ubala, who were allegedly attempting to travel to Naxal-affected areas of Telangana to sell rifles to Naxalites. Their role is being examined in connection with the broader probe.

Investigators said the Agniveer who handed over the weapon is in Naval Police custody and is being interrogated. The Navy has initiated a Board of Inquiry to determine how protocols and regulations on weapons handling were breached.

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A joint search operation by the Indian Navy and Mumbai Police is underway to recover the weapon and apprehend all those involved. A case under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita has been registered at the Cuffe Parade Police Station.

The matter is also being examined by central agencies, with the Navy extending full cooperation. Investigators are probing how access to the high-security residential area was secured and whether identification lapses contributed to the breach.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 14:41 IST

News mumbai-news Mumbai Navy Rifle Theft: Accused A Navy Firefighter, Stole INSAS With Brother To Sell To Naxals

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Relief For CR Train Travellers: Panvel-Borivli-Vasai Corridor To End Hassle Of Kurla-Wadala Switch

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 17:48 IST

CR train commuters on harbour line get relief: Panvel-Borivli-Vasai corridor will make it possible for travellers to take long-distance trains directly from Panvel to Goa or Pune

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Panvel-Borivali-Vasai corridor will save passengers time, money and effort. (PTI File)

Daily commuters from Panvel have been switching at Kurla or Wadala on the Harbour Line to reach the western suburbs for years. But that is set to change.

The Infrastructure Committee of the Maharashtra Cabinet has approved the Panvel-Borivali-Vasai local train corridor, News18 Lokmat reported. Part of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) III-B, this corridor will boost east-west connectivity across the city.

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The corridor will also make it possible for commuters to take long-distance trains directly from Panvel to Goa or Pune.

Panvel-Borivali-Vasai local train corridor: The CR route, cost, stations

The 69.23-km Panvel-Borivali-Vasai is expected to cost Rs 12,710 crore.

This route, starting from Panvel, will then go to Vasai and Virar via Borivali. This entire journey will have 19 stations. These will include stations like Bhiwandi Road, Navi Dombivli, Kopar, Taloja Panchand, Kalamboli and Borivali.

Panvel-Borivali-Vasai local train corridor: How it help CR commuters

This journey will save passengers time, money and effort. Currently, passengers can travel directly from Panvel to Goregaon. But now with this new route, it will be easier to travel directly from Panvel to Vasai-Virar via Borivali.

This route will mainly benefit the workers working for the textile industry in the Bhiwandi area. Thousands of workers will be provided with travel facilities in less time.

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Apart from this, the growing industrial projects in Navi Mumbai, Raigad, Palghar and Thane districts will be accelerated by this new route. As a result, employment generation will be boosted and economic transactions will be carried out more quickly.

Considering the increasing population and commuter pressure in Mumbai and Mumbai suburbs, this new corridor is becoming essential. This will reduce the pressure on that route and the railway service can be made more smoothly and planned.

About the Author Manjiri Joshi At the news desk for 17 years, the story of her life has revolved around finding pun, facts while reporting, on radio, heading a daily newspaper desk, teaching mass media students to now editing speci... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 17:47 IST

News mumbai-news Relief For CR Train Travellers: Panvel-Borivli-Vasai Corridor To End Hassle Of Kurla-Wadala Switch

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Delhi Cab Driver Arrested For Masturbating In Front Of DU Student, Vehicle Seized

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 09:46 IST

The victim, a postgraduate student at Ambedkar University originally from Bengaluru, had booked the cab to travel from her rented accommodation in Model Town.

News18

Delhi Police have arrested a 48-year-old cab driver, identified as Lom Shankar, for allegedly masturbating in front of a Delhi University student while driving through Maurice Nagar. The incident occurred on Monday, after which the cab was seized and an FIR registered.

According to Hindi news website Hindustan, the victim, a postgraduate student at Ambedkar University originally from Bengaluru, had booked the cab to travel from her rented accommodation in Model Town.

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According to her complaint, the driver initially asked her to sit in the front seat, which she refused. The report mentioned that when the driver understood she was from South India, he began passing lewd remarks, allegedly tried to touch her, and eventually started masturbating in the moving car.

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Despite her protests, the driver did not stop until reaching North Campus, where the student escaped and sought help. She later lodged a written complaint at Maurice Nagar police station. Police confirmed that the accused is a resident of Malka Ganj and has been taken into custody. The vehicle has been sent for forensic examination, and the student is being provided with counselling.

Police noted that the incident highlights the importance of safety protocols while using cab services, urging passengers to check driver ratings, share trip details, send live locations, and use the Himmat App in emergencies.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 09:27 IST

News new-delhi-news Delhi Cab Driver Arrested For Masturbating In Front Of DU Student, Vehicle Seized

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Education Minister Inaugurates Atal Incubation Centre At IIT Delhi's Abu Dhabi Campus

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 20:28 IST

On Thursday (September 11), the education minister will inaugurate the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, Dubai Campus.

Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurates Atal Incubation Centre at the IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi campus.

Indias education minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday inaugurated the Atal Incubation Centre at the IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi campus. It is the a first-ever Atal Incubation Centre hosted in an Indian university overseas, the minister stated on microblogging site, X. He added that he took a tour of the Abu Dhabi campus of IIT Delhi and interacted with the students.

Glad to inaugurate Atal Incubation Centre at the IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi campus, a first-ever AIC hosted in an Indian university overseas. The AIC at IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi will nurture joint start-ups and research-led ventures by both Indian and UAE innovators and also promote bilateral collaboration in deep tech, AI, clean energy, healthcare and other sectors of mutual importance. The AIC providing world-class incubation facilities will also act as a gateway to the middle-east markets for Indian start-ups and innovators," the education minister posted on X.

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Glad to inaugurate Atal Incubation Centre at the IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi campus, a first-ever AIC hosted in an Indian university overseas.The AIC at @iitdelhi Abu Dhabi will nurture joint start-ups and research-led ventures by both Indian and UAE innovators and also promote pic.twitter.com/fIpexeXTKM  Dharmendra Pradhan (@dpradhanbjp) September 10, 2025

Pradhan is visiting the United Arab Emirates on September 10 and 11, 2025, for an official two-day trip. The visit aims to enhance cooperation in education, promote academic excellence and innovation, and explore new partnership opportunities to meet the aspirations of students and youth from both countries, according to a Ministry of Education press statement.

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On Thursday, September 11, the minister will inaugurate the Dubai campus of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, alongside H.E. Dr. Abdulrahman Al Awar, UAE Minister of Higher Education. Later, he will attend a Round Table Conference of Indian Higher Education institutions in the UAE.

Pradhan will also participate in the Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam plantation drive at the Consulate, interact with CBSE school principals during a Teachers Day celebration, and launch Atal Tinkering Labs in Indian schools in the UAE.

About the Author Education and Careers Desk A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses and information on college and school admissions, board and competitive exams, career options, topper interviews, job notifications, ... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 20:25 IST

News education-career Education Minister Inaugurates Atal Incubation Centre At IIT Delhi's Abu Dhabi Campus

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LIC AAO Admit Card 2025: Exam On October 3, When To Expect Hall Tickets?

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 11:04 IST

LIC AAO 2025 Admit Card: LIC preliminary exam is scheduled for October 3. Candidates can download hall tickets from licindia.in.

LIC AAO 2025 admit card will be released soon at licindia.in, exam on October 3. (Representative/File)

LIC AAO Admit Card 2025: The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) will soon release the admit card for the Assistant Administrative Officer (AAO) 2025 preliminary examination by the end of September. As per the official notification, the exam will be held on October 3, 2025, and the admit card will be made available seven days before the exam date, likely on September 25 or 26. Candidates can download the hall ticket from the official LIC website at licindia.in.

Steps To Download LIC AAO Admit Card 2025

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Candidates will be able to download their admit cards by following these simple steps:

Step 1: Visit the official website at licindia.in.

Step 2: Click on the Recruitment section on the homepage.

Step 3: Click on the link for the LIC AAO Admit Card 2025.

Step 4: Enter your login details and submit.

Step 5: The admit card will appear on the screen.

Step 6: Download and print a copy for exam day.

Candidates must carry a printed copy of the admit card along with a valid photo identity proof, such as an Aadhaar card, PAN card, passport, or driving licence to the exam centre.

Exam Pattern

The LIC AAO preliminary exam will be conducted online in an objective format. It will consist of 100 questions, worth 70 marks, with a total duration of 1 hour.

Reasoning Ability: 35 questions, 35 marks

Quantitative Aptitude: 35 questions, 35 marks

English Language: 30 questions, 30 marks (qualifying only, marks not counted for ranking)

Each section will have separate timing, and there will be no negative marking. Candidates must qualify each section individually to move to the next stage.

ALSO READ: SSC CGL 2025 Tier 1 Admit Card Released; Exams Begin September 12, Check Direct Link

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LIC has also stated that the answer patterns of candidates will be closely analysed. If irregularities or copying are detected, the candidates result may be withheld, and their candidature could be cancelled.

For more details, candidates should regularly check the official LIC website.

About the Author Education and Careers Desk A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses and information on college and school admissions, board and competitive exams, career options, topper interviews, job notifications, ... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 11:04 IST

News education-career LIC AAO Admit Card 2025: Exam On October 3, When To Expect Hall Tickets?

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UP Teacher Recruitment: Along With Masters, B.Ed Degree Now Mandatory To Become A Lecturer

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 13:24 IST

With this revision, a post graduation degree alone is no longer sufficient to qualify for a lecturer position in inter colleges; candidates must also possess a B.Ed degree.

The earlier directive dated April 22, 2025 has been fully repealed and replaced by a new rule under the Intermediate Education Act 1921. (Representative/File Photo)

There is significant news for aspiring teachers and lecturers in Uttar Pradesh Inter Colleges. The educational qualifications for these positions have been updated, now requiring candidates to hold both a Post Graduation (PG) and a B.Ed degree. This new mandate applies to non-government recognised and aided inter colleges. Krishna Kumar Gupta, Special Secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Government, has issued an order enforcing these changes and revoking the previous rules.

Old Order Cancelled, New System Implemented

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The earlier directive dated April 22, 2025, has been fully repealed and replaced by a new rule under the Intermediate Education Act 1921. With this revision, a post graduation degree alone is no longer sufficient to qualify for a lecturer position in inter colleges; candidates must also possess a B.Ed degree. This modification aims to enhance the quality of teaching.

High School Biology Teachers Are Also Affected

This change impacts not only inter-college lecturers but also high school biology teachers. Assistant teachers in biology now require both a graduation degree and a B.Ed degree, whereas previously only a graduation degree was necessary. By mandating the B.Ed degree, the government underscores the importance of professional teacher training.

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The government updates regulations periodically to enhance educational standards. The B.Ed degree requirement aims to better equip teachers with effective teaching techniques and a deeper understanding of the curriculum. The B.Ed course includes training in child education methods, classroom management, and modern teaching techniques. This initiative is expected to improve teachers skills and provide students with a higher quality of education.

Candidates who were preparing to become teachers based solely on their graduation or PG degrees may face challenges due to this new rule, as they will need to invest additional time and effort to obtain a B.Ed degree. However, this measure is anticipated to improve education quality in the long run, particularly in non-government and aided schools where previous criteria were less stringent.

About the Author Education and Careers Desk A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses and information on college and school admissions, board and competitive exams, career options, topper interviews, job notifications, ... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 13:15 IST

News education-career UP Teacher Recruitment: Along With Masters, B.Ed Degree Now Mandatory To Become A Lecturer

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Is Maldives Sinking? What Happens If The Islands Submerge, Does The Nation Cease To Exist?

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 12:42 IST

With 80% land less than a metre above sea level, Maldives is not just facing erosion; it is staring at existential erasure. It may not 'sink' tomorrow, but its essence could fade

For Maldives, where the highest point is 2.4 m, even modest rises spell disaster. By 2050, projections warn of 30-50 cm increases, potentially submerging 77% of the land by 2100 under worst-case scenarios. (Getty Images)

Turquoise lagoons, powdery beaches, and overwater bungalows Maldives is a postcard-perfect haven for honeymooners and divers. But beneath the glamour, a grim reality looms. Rising seas are lapping at the shores of this Indian Ocean archipelago, threatening to swallow its 1,200 coral islands whole.

With 80% of its land less than a metre above sea level, the Maldives is not just facing erosion; it is staring down existential erasure. As climate change accelerates, small island nations like the Maldives, Tuvalu, Kiribati, and the Marshall Islands are on the frontlines. But is the Maldives truly sinking? And if the land vanishes, what becomes of the nation, its people, and its place in the world?

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Lets dive into the science, the stakes, and the uncertain future for these vulnerable paradises.

How Climate Change Is Drowning Dreams

The Maldives is not sinking" in the literal sense, but it is being overwhelmed by rising oceans. Global sea levels have climbed about 20 cm since 1900, accelerating to 4 mm per year recently due to melting ice caps and warmer waters expanding. For the Maldives, where the highest point is just 2.4 metres, even modest rises spell disaster. By 2050, projections warn of 30-50 cm increases, potentially submerging 77% of the land by 2100 under worst-case scenarios.

Storms are intensifying too. Cyclones and king tides erode beaches, contaminate freshwater aquifers with saltwater, and destroy infrastructure. In 2024 alone, freak waves flooded Male, the capital, displacing thousands and costing millions in damages. Coral reefs, the islands natural barriers, are bleaching from warmer waters, leaving shores exposed. Agriculture suffers as soil salinizes, and tourismthe economic lifeline accounting for 28% of GDPfalters with vanishing beaches.

This is not unique to the Maldives. Across the Pacific and Indian Oceans, small islands face similar fates. Tuvalus nine atolls, home to 11,000 people, could be uninhabitable by 2050. Kiribatis president has already bought land in Fiji as a backup. The Marshall Islands grapple with radioactive legacies from US nuclear tests compounded by rising seas. These nations, contributing negligible emissions, bear the brunt of a crisis fuelled by industrial giants like the US and China.

Losing Homes, Heritage, And Hope

If the land disappears, the fallout is catastrophic. First, displacement: Maldives 540,000 residents could become climate refugees, scattering to higher ground in India, Sri Lanka, or Australia. Relocation shatters communitiesimagine fishermen without seas or families uprooted from ancestral graves. Cultural erosion follows: Indigenous languages, traditions like Bodu Beru drumming, and folklore tied to the islands fade in exile.

Economically, it is disastrous ruinous. Tourism employs 60% of Maldivians; without beaches, resorts shutter, jobs vanish. Fisheries, another important sector, suffer from disrupted ecosystems. The exclusive economic zone900,000 square km of ocean rich in tunaremains, but without a physical base, enforcing rights becomes tricky. Globally, these nations lose bargaining power in forums like the UN, where small islands amplify voices on climate justice.

For residents, health crises loom. Saltwater intrusion poisons drinking water, spreading diseases like cholera. Mental health strains from solastalgia"grief for a changing homeland. Children grow up with evacuation drills, their futures clouded by uncertainty.

Can A Nation Survive Without Land?

If the islands submerge, does the nation cease to exist? International law defines a state by four criteria: a permanent population, defined territory, effective government, and capacity for international relations. Losing land threatens allpopulation scatters, territory vanishes, government relocates, relations weaken.

But law is not rigid. Failed states" like Somalia retain status despite chaos. Could this flexibility apply to sunken states"? Recent global discussions suggest yes. A landmark advisory opinion from the worlds top court in July acknowledged climate threats to small islands but noted that losing one element would not necessarily" end statehood. Some judges argued for extending recognition, emphasising continuity over physical presence.

Precedents exist: The Vatican, a state without much territory, thrives on historical status. Or Nauru, which leased land after phosphate depletion. But submersion is unprecedentedpermanent and total. Without clarity, these nations risk losing UN seats, maritime rights, and aid eligibility.

How Maldives Is Fighting

Small islands are not waiting for the waves. The Maldives pumps sand to elevate islands, builds sea walls, and experiments with floating cities. Hulhumale, a man-made island near Male, houses 100,000 and rises 2 metres above sea level. President Mohamed Muizzu pushes climate-resilient" tourism, like solar-powered resorts.

Tuvalu goes digital: Archiving culture online, moving services to the cloud, and creating a virtual twin for governance. In 2023, it inked a treaty with Australia guaranteeing perpetual statehood recognition, plus migration paths for citizens. Kiribati buys foreign land; the Marshall Islands lobbies for US reparations.

Globally, these nations demand action through alliances like the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). At COP29 in 2025, they push for loss and damage fundsbillions from polluters to adapt or relocate. Legal battles brew: Vanuatu seeks ICJ rulings on emitter liability.

Why It Matters

The Maldives plight is not isolated it is a preview of coastal crises everywhere, from Mumbais slums to Miamis shores. By 2100, nearly 200 million could be displaced globally. For India, with 7,500 km of coastline, rising seas threaten 40 million in low-lying areas like the Sundarbans. Shared monsoons and fisheries link our fates; Maldivian refugees could seek haven here, straining resources.

Politically, losing these nations weakens the Global Souths voice on climate. Their UN votes amplify calls for equityrich nations cut emissions while funding adaptation. If islands vanish, who speaks for the drowned?

Solutions demand urgency: Curb emissions to limit warming to 1.5C. Fund resilience$100 billion yearly promised but undelivered. Innovate: Floating habitats, mangrove restoration, or international trusteeships preserving sovereignty.

The Maldives may not sink" tomorrow, but without action, its essence could fade. As waves rise, the resolve to save these islands from submerging should also become stronger.

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About the Author Shilpy Bisht Shilpy Bisht, Deputy News Editor at News18, writes and edits national, world and business stories. She started off as a print journalist, and then transitioned to online, in her 12 years of experience... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 12:42 IST

News explainers Is Maldives Sinking? What Happens If The Islands Submerge, Does The Nation Cease To Exist?

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Is Trump Losing Control Of Gaza War Narrative? Israels Qatar Strike & A Crumbling Peace Plan

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 14:41 IST

Eight months after returning to the White House with promises to end wars in Gaza and Ukraine, US President Donald Trump finds himself sidelined in both

US President Donald Trump with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Reuters file photo)

On Tuesday, Israeli fighter jets carried out an airstrike in Qatars capital, Doha, targeting senior members of Hamas political bureau. According to CNN, the raid killed five Hamas members, but missed the key negotiators US President Donald Trump had hoped would soon agree to a US-backed ceasefire plan. What made the strike even more explosive diplomatically was that it was conducted on the soil of Qatar, a long-time US ally, host of the Al Udeid Air Base (the largest American military facility in the Middle East), and a key intermediary in the Gaza peace talks.

While the Israeli government confirmed it had launched the operation unilaterally, Trumps administration was not alerted in advance. Trump later expressed dissatisfaction with how events unfolded and assured Qatari leaders that such an incident would not be repeated. But diplomatic damage had already occurred between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and more broadly, between the US and its Gulf partners.

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What Happened In Qatar And Why Was Trump Blindsided?

The Israeli airstrike hit a residential district in Doha early Tuesday, targeting buildings housing Hamas operatives, including members of its political bureau. Qatars foreign ministry confirmed the buildings were being used by negotiators involved in ongoing ceasefire discussions, talks that had been facilitated by the US and Qatar for nearly two years.

According to CNN, Trump was informed about the incoming Israeli strike not by Netanyahu or the Israeli government, but by General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He then directed his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to notify the Qatari government. However, by the time Witkoff made contact, the bombs were already falling.

Qatars Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, later said the first call from the US came ten minutes after the strike had begun. The timeline sharply contradicted Trumps Truth Social post, where he claimed Witkoff had been instructed to inform Qatar immediately." The incident sparked diplomatic fallout and cast uncertainty over ongoing hostage negotiations.

Has The Ceasefire Deal Collapsed Now?

The Doha talks were at a critical juncture. On Sunday, Trump had issued a third and final warning" to Hamas to accept the latest US-backed ceasefire proposal. According to CNN, the Hamas negotiators targeted in the strike were believed to be in the middle of reviewing that deal. By striking them during this process, Netanyahu may have disrupted the most active diplomatic channel available.

Qatar, despite hosting Hamas leaders and facing criticism for it, had been the primary conduit for backchannel diplomacy, including hostage exchanges and aid deliveries. On Tuesday, Al Thani said bluntly, as quoted by The Guardian, For current talks, I do not think theres something valid right now after what we saw from todays attack."

Experts echoed the same concern. Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations, speaking to CNN, said that Doha had exerted considerable effort" to release Israeli hostages, only to be repaid with an airstrike.

Is Netanyahu Deliberately Undermining Trumps Peace Roadmap?

This was not the first time the Israeli Prime Minister has launched major military operations without prior consultation with Washington. In June, Israel launched a surprise 12-day offensive on Iran with minimal notice, jeopardising Trumps separate attempt to restart nuclear talks with Tehran. Earlier this summer, Trump also reportedly expressed frustration after Israeli forces struck a Catholic church inside Gaza, and later bombed targets in Damascus without prior consultation.

A similar pattern was evident this week. On Monday, just one day before the Qatar strike, Netanyahus senior adviser Ron Dermer met with Trumps envoy Steve Witkoff. Yet Dermer said nothing about the upcoming attack. As one US official told CNN, this has further inflamed tensions within the White House, where aides were reportedly angry and blindsided."

Still, Netanyahu has stood firm. On Tuesday, he said: The days when the heads of terror enjoyed immunity anywhere are over." Referring to the Hamas officials targeted in Doha, he added: These are the same terrorists who planned and celebrated the massacres of October 7."

How Has Trump Responded And Why Is His Credibility At Stake?

In a carefully worded Truth Social post, Trump wrote: This was a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me." He called the location of the strike very unfortunate," but reiterated that eliminating Hamas is a worthy goal." This contradictory stance, criticising the strike but praising its objective, has drawn criticism and scrutiny.

Speaking to reporters that evening, he said: I was very unhappy about it, very unhappy about every aspect, and we got to get the hostages back. But I was very unhappy about the way that went down." Behind the scenes, Trumps aides scrambled to control the fallout, trying to reassure Qatar while avoiding a public rupture with Israel.

But the damage is deeper than diplomacy. Trump had personally invested in the Qatar track, visiting Doha in May and accepting a Boeing 747 luxury jet from the Qatari government to serve as the new Air Force One, a move that critics say blurred ethical lines. Now, that relationship faces renewed strain.

Could This derail Trumps Abraham Accords 2.0 Vision?

Trump had hoped to build on the Abraham Accords  normalising ties between Israel and Gulf states  and even floated the idea of being nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize if he could deliver both a Gaza truce and a broader regional peace deal that includes Saudi Arabia and possibly Qatar.

However, with Qatars leadership publicly denouncing the Israeli strike as an act of treachery," and with mediation efforts paused indefinitely, the future of those plans has come under question. As CNN noted, some Gulf states may now question the reliability of US security guarantees, particularly when a close American ally like Qatar can be targeted without warning.

Adding to the complications, the UN Security Council has now been convened at Algerias request, and international pressure on Israel is once again mounting.

Where Does This Leave The Hostages And The Gaza War?

With its relationship with both Hamas and the United States, Doha has been the key link in several previous exchanges and ceasefire proposals. The strike has now cast a shadow over that channel.

While Egypt remains another potential mediator, Steven Cook told Guardian that it is a thankless task" when neither Hamas nor Israel appears interested in compromise.

Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate. The Israeli military has issued a full evacuation order for Gaza City, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people have sought shelter. Aid groups warn of severe shortages of food, water, and medicine, and Trumps promise to end the war" in weeks now appears hollow.

Whats Next For Trumps Middle East Strategy?

The fallout from the Doha strike has raised serious questions about Trumps ability to influence Israels conduct. According to The NYT, some analysts believe that Netanyahu is operating with minimal concern for US preferences, while others suspect that Israel may have offered Trump plausible deniability.

John E. Herbst, senior director at the Atlantic Council, told NYT: Trump is in a Bibi, do what you want phase  which is not necessarily where hell be tomorrow."

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For now, the White House continues to walk a tightrope, supporting Israel, preserving Qatar ties, and still hoping for a ceasefire. But the illusion of being the only leader capable of delivering peace, a central theme of Trumps second-term foreign policy, is beginning to unravel.

And with each new unilateral Israeli strike, it becomes clearer that in the Gaza conflict, Trump may be a spectator, not the conductor he claims to be.

About the Author Karishma Jain Karishma Jain, Chief Sub Editor at News18.com, writes and edits opinion pieces on a variety of subjects, including Indian politics and policy, culture and the arts, technology and social change. Follo... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 14:29 IST

News explainers Is Trump Losing Control Of Gaza War Narrative? Israels Qatar Strike & A Crumbling Peace Plan

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Sunjay Kapur Will: Is Registration A Must? How Is It Done? What Happens If It Is Not Registered?

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 12:08 IST

Sunjay Kapur, 53, died on June 12, after a heart attack during a polo match. His mother Rani and ex-wife actor Karisma Kapoor's children have challenged the will

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Sunjay Kapur's family is fighting a legal battle for inheritance. (File)

The family of industrialist Sunjay Kapur  his mother Rani, ex-wife actor Karisma Kapoor and her two children, and current wife Priya Sachdev Kapur  is embroiled in a legal battle over the inheritance of his property, approximately worth Rs 30,000 crore.

Kapur, 53, died on June 12, following a heart attack during a polo match triggered allegedly by a bee sting.

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One of the issues raised by Karismas children in the Delhi High Court on Wednesday was that the will of Sunjay Kapur was not registered and hence its validity raised questions.

Is registration of will mandatory? How is it done? What if it is not done? When should it be registered? Explained.

Who is Sunjay Kapur?

Kapur was the chairman of Sona Comstar, a leading automotive components firm with global operations, including manufacturing for EVs across India, China, Mexico, Serbia, and the US. His net worth was estimated at $1.2 billion (Rs 10,300 crore) by Forbes in 2024, with a high point valuation of $1.6 billion (Rs 13,000 crore).

Sona Comstar was founded by his father, Surinder Kapur, in 1997. After Surinders death in 2015, Sunjay Kapur had taken over the reins.

Explained | Sunjay Kapur Succession Dispute: The Saas-Bahu Saga At Sona Comstar Goes International

Sunjay Kapur inheritance hearing: What happened in court?

Karismas children have approached the Delhi High Court seeking a share in the estate of their late father. The petition primarily challenges the claim of Priya Kapur, Kapurs third wife, whom he married following his divorce from Karisma Kapoor.

The siblings, Samaira Kapur and Kiaan Raj Kapur, have alleged that the will disclosed to them after their fathers death was forged and fabricated."

Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani described the circumstances as suspicious, noting that the will was read hastily at the Taj Hotel and that the executor herself, Shradha Suri, only learned of it a day prior. Jethmalani also questioned the involvement of Dinesh Aggarwal, an employee who reportedly disclosed the will to the family, calling the act beyond reasoning."

Sunjay Kapur and Karisma Kapoor were married in September 2003 and had two children before divorcing in June 2016. Earlier this year, ANI reported that during the divorce, Sunjay Kapur bought bonds worth Rs 14 crore for both his children with an interest payment of Rs 10 lakh. He also gave ownership of a house, which was owned by his father, to Karisma. Kapur later married Priya Kapur in April 2017, and they had one child together. The executor has informed Karisma that neither she nor her children are named beneficiaries, though she has been offered the option to inspect the will at Suris office.

Vaibhav Gaggar, appearing for Rani Kapur, told the Delhi High Court that theres something unholy going on" in the familys inheritance dispute. During the hearing, the court directed that written statements from all parties involved must be filed within two weeks, with any replication or rejoinder to follow within a week thereafter.

What is registration of will?

Will registration is the official process of recording your will with a government authority.

A registered is considered a credible evidence, making it tougher for it to be challenged or forged, thus ensuring your final wishes are honoured.

Which law controls registration of will?

In India, will registration is governed by the Registration Act, 1908, but it is not mandatory, as Section 18(e) of the Act classifies wills as documents for which registration is optional. Registration is handled by the Sub-Registrar of the area where the testator lives for a nominal fee.

How can you make a will?

A will can be made on plain paper, and can be handwritten or printed, as long as the person making the will (also known as the testator) is mentally sound and at least 18 years old. The document must be signed by the testator in the presence of at least two witnesses to make it legally valid. The witnesses are also required to sign the will.

When and how can a will be registered?

Anytime during your lifetime. Under Section 40 of the Act, your Executor, or any person claiming under the will, such as a beneficiary, can present the will for registration at the local sub-registrars office.

It should be done on priority in case of:

A complex family structure, multiple beneficiaries, or if you foresee potential disputes over your assets.

If you own immovable assets, such as a flat, commercial property, or residential property, registering your will can help because at the time of transfer of such assets, the local authorities tend to rely more on a registered will.

Is registering a will mandatory by law?

Contrary to popular belief, registration of a will is not mandatory under Indian law (Section 18 (e) of the Registration Act, 1908) to make it legally valid.

How does registration of will help?

An official copy of a registered will is maintained by the government authority, which protects it from being lost, stolen, destroyed, or tampered with.

It confirms the document is authentic, as it you are required to be present before a government official with identity verification.

The official record reduces the chances of claims that your signature has been forged or that you were under duress or undue influence when creating the will.

Explained | Sunjay Kapurs Death Suspicious: Mother Says More Than What Meets The Eye At Sona Comstar

Can a registered will be challenged?

Yes, but it is considered a strong, sound evidence in court

What happens when a will is challenged?

The probate process is halted and the court asks the challenger to prove its invalidity on grounds of fraud, undue influence, lack of mental capacity, or improper execution.

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If successful, the will is declared invalid, and assets are distributed under a previous valid will or the rules of intestacy. If the challenger fails, the will stands, and the process of distribution moves forward.

With Agency Inputs

About the Author Manjiri Joshi At the news desk for 17 years, the story of her life has revolved around finding pun, facts while reporting, on radio, heading a daily newspaper desk, teaching mass media students to now editing speci... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 11:55 IST

News explainers Sunjay Kapur Will: Is Registration A Must? How Is It Done? What Happens If It Is Not Registered?

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Unpacking The 'Boris Files': Did Taxpayers Fund Ex-UK PM Boris Johnson's Private Deals?

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 11:29 IST

The Boris Files are a cache of leaked documents from Johnsons private office after his premiership, revealing lobbying efforts, commercial deals, & possible misuse of public funds

Former Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson. (AP Photo)

A major leak of over 1,800 documents, now dubbed the Boris Files, has brought former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnsons private and post-premiership activities under intense scrutiny. The files expose lobbying efforts, commercial ventures, undeclared meetings, and alleged misuse of public funds, prompting calls for formal investigations and a suspension of his publicly funded allowance.

The revelations stem from a trove of emails, letters, contracts, spreadsheets, and business records obtained by Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoS), a US-based non-profit that archives leaked and hacked materials. The files were made available to The Guardian, which remains the only outlet confirmed to have reviewed the full data set.

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While the precise origin of the leak is unknown, the documents reportedly span from Johnsons resignation in September 2022 to July 2024, with some material dating back to his time in office at 10 Downing Street. Despite its relatively small size, about 2GB, the dataset has triggered widespread political and public scrutiny.

What Are The Boris Files And Where Did They Come From?

The term Boris Files" refers to the leaked contents of Johnsons private officethe Office of Boris Johnson, a limited company he set up after leaving Downing Street. These documents include internal emails, invoices, business contracts, and records of meetings. The material highlights both Johnsons private commercial activities after leaving office and certain decisions and interactions during his time in power.

According to DDoS, the data was uploaded to its servers earlier this year, though the organisation has stated that it does not know the exact origin of the leak.

Importantly, access to the Boris Files is not open to the general public. DDoS restricts its more sensitive leaks, including this one, to credentialed journalists and researchers. The Guardian is currently the only media outlet confirmed to have reviewed the full data set.

What Do The Files Say About Boris Johnsons Business Dealings?

According to The Guardians reports, the leaked documents suggest that Boris Johnson capitalised on connections made during his premiership to advance personal business ventures. One of the most significant disclosures relates to his lobbying efforts on behalf of Better Earth, a consultancy firm he co-chairs.

In February 2024, Johnson met Saudi Arabias Minister of Commerce, Majid al-Qasabi, at an exclusive members club in London. The meeting reportedly served as a prelude to a direct pitch to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Documents show that Johnson drafted a letter to the crown prince shortly after the meeting, offering Better Earths services to support Saudi Arabias energy transition and carbon reduction goals. He cited his role in organising the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in 2021 and described himself as deeply committed to carbon reduction."

Better Earth, a consultancy reportedly founded by a Canadian mining financier, includes among its shareholders two former Conservative ministers and Charlotte Owen, a former aide elevated by Johnson to the House of Lords.

Johnsons Meeting With Venezuelan President

Another major disclosure involves Johnsons 45-minute meeting with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in February 2024. He was accompanied by hedge fund manager Maarten Petermann. Notably, Petermanns firm, Merlyn Advisors, had signed a contract with Johnson in September 2023, months before the meeting.

Although Johnson publicly claimed he was not paid for the interaction, the leaked documents reportedly show that he received 240,000 from Petermann shortly after the meeting.

This has fuelled speculation about whether Johnson may have been paid in connection with the meeting and if so, whether this contravenes lobbying rules that prohibit former ministers from using their political connections for private financial gain.

How Much Has Johnson Earned From Public Speaking Engagements?

The files also provide detailed insights into the scale of Boris Johnsons post-premiership speaking career. Between October 2022 and May 2024, Johnson reportedly delivered 34 paid speeches, earning an estimated 5.1 million. These engagements were often accompanied by premium travel and accommodation perks, including first-class flights and five-star hotel stays for Johnson and his staff.

These events were arranged through the Office of Boris Johnson, which also managed his other commercial partnerships, including collaborations with media outlets like The Daily Mail and GB News.

While paid public speaking is not prohibited for former prime ministers, it is subject to restrictions designed to prevent conflicts of interest, especially if the audiences include foreign governments or organisations with prior connections to the UK government during the speakers tenure.

Public Duty Costs Allowance

The Public Duty Costs Allowance (PDCA) is a UK government subsidy introduced in 1991 to help former prime ministers carry out public duties after leaving office. It was created following concerns about the financial burden faced by Margaret Thatcher after her resignation. The scheme allows former PMs to claim up to 115,000 annually for staff salaries and administrative costs, but not for private commercial activity.

Johnsons private office has reportedly claimed 182,000 under the PDCA scheme since he left office. A Cabinet Office source confirmed to The Guardian that this money was used to pay salaries of three full-time staffers in his private office.

However, the files suggest that these staffers were actively involved in Johnsons private business dealings, including coordination of speaking engagements and managing consultancy outreach.

The revelation has prompted concerns over whether taxpayer money meant for public service was instead supporting private profit-driven activities.

Did The Files Uncover Any Breaches Of Covid-19 Lockdown Rules?

The Boris Files also revisit Johnsons conduct during the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition to previously known incidents, such as the birthday gathering for which he was fined, new entries suggest further rule violations.

One document refers to a private dinner held on November 6, 2020, at 10 Downing Street for David Brownlow, a Conservative peer who had contributed 58,000 towards the refurbishment of Johnsons official flat, including gold" wallpaper worth over 2,000. This dinner occurred just one day after the UK entered its second national lockdown.

Another entry from June 2020 describes a private appointment" involving Johnson, his then-fiancee Carrie Symonds (now his wife), a vibrational music therapist, the therapists mother, and a journalist. All five gathered at the Downing Street residence despite lockdown restrictions prohibiting such social interactions at the time.

Were There Any Undeclared Meetings Of Concern?

The files reveal that while still serving as prime minister, Boris Johnson held an unrecorded meeting with billionaire tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel, founder of the US data analytics firm Palantir. The meeting occurred a few months before Palantir secured a government contract to manage National Health Service (NHS) data.

Although there is no confirmed link between the meeting and the contract award, the lack of official records or disclosures about the meeting has raised transparency concerns, especially given Thiels firms controversial role in handling sensitive public data.

How Has The UK Political Establishment Reacted?

The leak has led to cross-party demands for investigations and immediate suspension of Johnsons PDCA access. The governments ethics watchdogthe Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba)has confirmed to The Guardian that it is examining the revelations. A spokesperson told the newspaper that the committee has already found Johnson in breach of rules previously and will continue to investigate any further non-compliance.

Senior politicians across party lines have demanded action. Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Olney called the allegations shocking" and urged the government to suspend Johnsons public funding pending a full and proper investigation". Labour MPs Margaret Hodge and Joe Powell have echoed these concerns, with Hodge warning that Johnson appeared to act with complete impunity", and Powell noting that public subsidies should not be a subsidy for individuals business interests".

What Happens Next?

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The Boris Files leak has reignited debate over the ethical boundaries that should apply to former officeholders, especially those transitioning quickly from public service to lucrative private sector roles. It has also intensified scrutiny over the use of public funds, and whether current oversight mechanisms are sufficient.

Johnson, for his part, has denied any wrongdoing. In a statement emailed to The Guardian after its initial report, he said: The PDCA has been used entirely in accordance with the rules." He also criticised the newspapers reporting, saying it should change its name to Pravda", a reference to the former Soviet state newspaper, often invoked to accuse a media outlet of bias or propaganda.

About the Author Karishma Jain Karishma Jain, Chief Sub Editor at News18.com, writes and edits opinion pieces on a variety of subjects, including Indian politics and policy, culture and the arts, technology and social change. Follo... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 11:27 IST

News explainers Unpacking The 'Boris Files': Did Taxpayers Fund Ex-UK PM Boris Johnson's Private Deals?

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Why Israel Attacked Qatar, What It Means For Middle East, And Who Can Hold Tel Aviv Accountable?

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 16:11 IST

Israels attack on Doha was a surgical strike aimed at Hamas leadership... The strike disrupts Qatar's reputation as a safe financial centre, potentially spiking oil and gas prices

The Doha attack by Israel has set the Middle East ablaze with tension, threatening stability in a region already scarred by conflict. (File Image: AFP)

The Middle East was hit by a seismic jolt on September 9 when Israel launched airstrikes on Doha, Qatars capital, targeting senior Hamas leaders. The unprecedented assault on a Gulf statea key US ally and Gaza ceasefire mediatorhas sent shockwaves through a region already teetering on the edge.

With plumes of smoke rising over Dohas skyline, questions swirl: Why did Israel strike? How does this escalate tensions in an already volatile Middle East? And why does Israel seem to act with impunity, hitting sovereign nations without immediate consequences? Lets address them.

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Why Israel Struck Qatar

Israels attack was a surgical strike aimed at Hamass political leadership, including chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, based in Doha since 2012. The operation, involving 15 fighter jets and 10 munitions, hit a residential compound near a petrol station, killing six, including a Qatari security officer and al-Hayyas son, though Hamas claims its top leaders survived.

Israels stated motive was retaliation for Hamass October 7, 2023, attack that killed 1,200 Israelis and took 251 hostages, and Mondays Jerusalem shooting claimed by Hamass al-Qassam Brigades, which left six dead.

But the timing and target tell a deeper story. Qatar has hosted Hamass political bureau at the USs request, facilitating indirect talks with Israel for years. On September 9, Hamas negotiators were discussing a US-backed ceasefire proposal in Doha, making the strike a direct blow to peace efforts. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu framed it as a fully justified" operation to cripple Hamas, signalling a shift from Gaza-centric operations to a broader regional hunt for its leaders. Israels military chief Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir had vowed weeks earlier to target Hamas abroad, and Dohaseen as a safe havenwas a bold choice to prove no hideout is untouchable.

Geopolitically, the strike aligns with Israels strategy to weaken Irans axis of resistance," which includes Hamas, Hezbollah, and Yemens Houthis. Qatars ties to Iran and its hosting of Hamas made it a symbolic target. Netanyahus government, bolstered by US military aid and a perceived green light from the Trump administration, calculated that striking Doha would disrupt Hamass operations while testing the regions red lines. The attack also reflects domestic pressures: With Israeli hostages still in Gaza and protests mounting against Netanyahus war handling, a high-profile strike projects strength.

Ripples Across the Middle East

The Doha attack has set the Middle East ablaze with tension, threatening stability in a region already scarred by conflict. Qatar, a diplomatic powerhouse mediating Gaza talks alongside Egypt, called the strike state terrorism" and a flagrant violation" of its sovereignty. The assault killed a Qatari security officer, wounded others, and hit near embassies and schools, shattering Dohas image as a neutral haven.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani vowed a legal response, hinting at a potential freeze in mediation efforts. Without Qatars role, Gaza ceasefire talks could collapse, prolonging a war that has killed over 65,000 Palestinians and displaced millions.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, condemned the strike as a cowardly" breach of international law, warning of grave consequences." Saudi Arabia, eyeing normalisation with Israel, now faces pressure to harden its stance. The UAE, bound by the 2020 Abraham Accords, called the attack a red line," hinting at strain on its Israeli ties. These reactions underscore a growing regional view of Israel as a destabilising force, potentially unravelling years of diplomatic progress.

Beyond the Gulf, the strike inflames broader tensions. Iran, a Hamas backer, labelled it a dangerous" escalation, raising fears of retaliatory strikes. Israels ongoing attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon and Houthis in Yemen already stretch its military; hitting Qatar risks a multi-front conflict. Arab states like Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco, plus global players like France and the UN, decried the attack, fearing it pushes the region towards chaos. For Palestinians in Gaza, facing Israels planned offensive on Gaza City, the strike dims hopes for peace, trapping civilians in a worsening humanitarian crisis.

The economic fallout is equally dire. Qatar, a gas-rich hub hosting the USs largest Middle East airbase, Al Udeid, relies on its stability for trade and investment. The attack disrupts its reputation as a safe financial centre, potentially spiking oil and gas prices in a region supplying 30% of global energy. Gulf states, already wary after Irans June 2025 missile strike on Al Udeid, now question US security guarantees, straining alliances.

How Does Israel Get Away with It?

Israels ability to strike Qatar without immediate repercussions stems from a mix of military might, diplomatic clout, and global power dynamics. First, its unmatched military, backed by $3.8 billion in annual US aid, gives it unmatched regional reach. Precision strikes, like the one in Doha, showcase its intelligence and air superiority, deterring direct retaliation from smaller states like Qatar.

Second, US support is Israels shield. Despite President Donald Trumps rare rebuke, calling the strike unilateral" and expressing regret to Qatar, his administrations actions suggest tolerance. Trump notified Qatar too late to stop the attack and reiterated that eliminating Hamas" is a worthy goal". This aligns with his first term, where he greenlit Israels actions while pressuring allies. The US veto power at the UN Security Council blocks resolutions against Israel, and its intelligence-sharing bolsters Israels operations.

Third, international laws ambiguity plays into Israels hands. The UN Charter forbids attacks on sovereign states, but Israel justifies strikes as self-defence against terrorism, citing Hamass October 2023 attack. The International Court of Justices July 2025 ruling did not address statehood violations directly, leaving legal gaps. Failed states like Yemen retain status despite chaos; Israel argues its targets, like Hamas, lack such protection. Qatars hosting of Hamas, though US-endorsed, muddies its victim status, letting Israel exploit grey areas.

Finally, regional dynamics limit backlash. Gulf states, dependent on US security, hesitate to escalate beyond rhetoric. Saudi Arabia and the UAE, despite outrage, prioritise Iran as a bigger threat, aligning with Israels anti-Iran stance. Global powers like the EU condemn but avoid sanctions, wary of alienating a key Middle East player. This leaves Israel free to act, knowing economic and diplomatic costs fall on others.

Why It Matters

The Doha strike is not just a one-off  it is a warning of Israels willingness to escalate anywhere, anytime. For the Middle East, it risks unravelling fragile alliances and ceasefire hopes. Qatars mediation exit could trap Gaza in endless war, while Gulf states rethink US partnerships, potentially cozying up to China or Russia. Economically, disrupted energy markets hit global consumers, with Indiareliant on Gulf oilfacing price spikes.

Israels impunity raises bigger questions. If it can strike a US ally without consequence, what stops it from targeting others? The Abraham Accords, already strained by Gazas toll, could fray further, isolating Israel diplomatically. For Palestinians, the attack signals no safe haven, even for negotiators, dimming peace prospects.

Strengthening international law to close loopholes, enforcing UN resolutions, and pressuring Israel for restraint are critical. Otherwise, the Middle East risks a free-for-all where might trumps right, and stability becomes a distant dream.

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About the Author Shilpy Bisht Shilpy Bisht, Deputy News Editor at News18, writes and edits national, world and business stories. She started off as a print journalist, and then transitioned to online, in her 12 years of experience... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 15:49 IST

News explainers Why Israel Attacked Qatar, What It Means For Middle East, And Who Can Hold Tel Aviv Accountable?

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Assam Approves SOP To Expel Foreigners Without Tribunal, 10-Day Notice To Prove Citizenship

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 07:55 IST

Under new mechanism, once a person is identified as an illegal immigrant, the official concerned will issue a written order citing reasons and direct the individual to leave Assam

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma (PTI File)

The Assam cabinet on Tuesday approved a new standard operating procedure (SOP) under the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950, empowering district commissioners and additional district commissioners to issue expulsion orders against suspected foreigners without referring their cases to Foreigners Tribunals.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the process will allow authorities to act swiftly against illegal immigrants, who will now be given ten days to produce documents proving their Indian citizenship. If the officer finds the evidence unsatisfactory, an expulsion order will be issued on the tenth day itself.

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This is a much faster and easier way for the Assam government to push back foreigners," Sarma said at a press briefing in Guwahati. He explained that the new SOP, framed on the basis of directions from the Supreme Courts constitutional bench led by Justice Surya Kant and subsequent orders from the Ministry of Home Affairs, gives district commissioners and senior superintendents of police the authority to act directly. If, however, an officer cannot take a clear decision, the case will still be sent to the Foreigners Tribunal for adjudication.

Under the new mechanism, once a person is identified as an illegal immigrant, the official concerned will issue a written order citing reasons and direct the individual to leave Assam within 24 hours. Their biometric and demographic details will also be recorded on the Foreigners Identification Portal.

If the individual refuses to comply, they may be sent to holding centres or handed over to border security forces. Illegal migrants caught within twelve hours of crossing into the state or near the zero line will be pushed back immediately, Sarma said. He added that once a person is declared a foreigner, their name will be struck off the electoral rolls and their property seized.

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The chief minister clarified that the nearly 82,000 cases already pending before Foreigners Tribunals will not be affected by the SOP and will continue under the existing process. He also blamed the Congress for setting up the tribunal system after the Supreme Court struck down the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act in 2005, following a petition by then AGP MP and now Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal. Sarma claimed that 30,128 foreigners have been pushed back so far, and on average 30 to 40 people are sent back every week.

The cabinet meeting also cleared several other measures, including financial aid of Rs 5 crore for flood-hit Himachal Pradesh under the Chief Ministers Scheme for Public Emergency. It approved the correction of pay anomalies for 20 physiotherapists, speech therapists, accountants and cashiers at Jorhat Medical College and Hospital. Additionally, it passed an amendment to the Assam Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, aimed at aligning it with the states agricultural marketing system and improving market access for small and marginal farmers.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 07:55 IST

News india Assam Approves SOP To Expel Foreigners Without Tribunal, 10-Day Notice To Prove Citizenship

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Bengaluru Citizens Filed Over 10,000 Complaints Against BMTC: Heres Why

Curated By :

Local18

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 16:11 IST

An average of more than 100 complaints pour into the BMTC control room and its WhatsApp line every day.

BMTC Under Fire With 10,000+ Complaints: The Issues Bengaluru Raised

BMTC buses remain the lifeline of Bengaluru, carrying lakhs of passengers every day. Yet, the system is under strain. This year alone, more than 10,000 complaints have been filed against BMTC drivers and conductors between January and September. That figure has already overtaken last years total of 11,000 complaints, in just nine months.

According to sources, an average of more than 100 complaints pour into the BMTC control room and its WhatsApp line every day. The rising dissatisfaction points to a troubling trend that the citys transport authority cannot ignore.

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What Are Passengers Complaining About?

The complaints highlight a range of issues that affect both safety and comfort. Rash driving remains one of the biggest concerns, with passengers alleging that high-speed driving endangers lives.

Alongside safety worries, there are growing reports of rude behavior from drivers and conductors, particularly directed at women. Ticket-related grievances are also frequent. These include allegations of conductors not issuing tickets after receiving money or refusing to return change.

Since the rollout of the state governments free bus travel Shakti scheme, the number of complaints has spiked further. Passengers claim some conductors misbehave with women who show their Aadhaar cards to avail free rides.

The frustration has been especially sharp among non-Kannada-speaking passengers from other states, many of whom say they feel singled out when asking for change or assistance. Together, these incidents are building public anger and tarnishing BMTCs reputation as the citys backbone of mobility.

Employees Get Good News Amid the Storm

Even as complaints rise, there is some relief for BMTC employees. Following the success of a Rs 1 crore insurance policy offered to Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) employees, the scheme has now been extended to BMTC staff.

The Transport Department, in collaboration with the State Bank of India (SBI), has finalized the extension, which will cover BMTC employees who have salary accounts with SBI. The new agreement is designed to give financial protection and security to workers whose jobs come with daily risks.

What the Rs 1 Crore Insurance Policy Covers

The insurance package offers a range of benefits for BMTC employees and their families.

In the event of death due to a personal accident, compensation of Rs 1 crore will be provided.

For death caused by an air accident, the same amount of Rs 1 crore will be paid.

In cases of permanent total disability due to accidents, Rs 1 crore will be offered.

The scheme also includes Rs 6 lakh free life insurance in case of natural death, with no premium payment required.

Unique to this scheme, financial assistance is also available for the marriage of female family members, Rs 5 lakh for one daughter and up to Rs 10 lakh for two daughters in case of accidental death of the employee.

A System in Tension

The contrast is striking. On one hand, BMTC is under mounting criticism from passengers over safety and service. On the other, its employees have gained valuable protection through a landmark insurance scheme.

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Together, these developments highlight the tension within the citys public transport system, a service stretched by high passenger loads, but still reliant on its workforce.

As Bengaluru grows, BMTC will have to address both sides of the coin: restoring trust among passengers through better service, while ensuring drivers and conductors are motivated and protected.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 16:11 IST

News india Bengaluru Citizens Filed Over 10,000 Complaints Against BMTC: Heres Why

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Border Shut, Flights Diverted & Trade Halted: UP On Alert As Nepal Riots Reach India's Doorstep

Reported By :

News18.com Edited By: Apoorva Misra



Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 13:30 IST

From Bahraich to Lakhimpur Kheri, Sashastra Seema Bal and state police have sealed crossings, blocked civilian movement, and launched night-long patrols

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Security personnel in Bahraich stop people during a demonstration in the wake of violent protests that erupted in Nepal's Kathmandu. (PTI)

Tension has gripped Uttar Pradeshs districts along the 600-km India-Nepal border as violent demonstrations and protests swept the neighbouring country. From Bahraich to Lakhimpur Kheri, Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and state police sealed crossings, blocked civilian movement, and launched night-long patrols after mobs across the border set government buildings ablaze, attacked leaders, and stormed jails.

The escalation, which saw the residence of former Nepalese prime minister Jhalanath Khanal being torched, political offices vandalised, and hundreds of prisoners freed in Dhangadhi, has forced India to harden its stance. Borders have been sealed, which has left 200 trucks stranded in Bahraich, while buses to Sonouli have been cut down by half. Kathmandu-bound flights have also been diverted to other UP airports, leaving the seven frontier districts of Uttar Pradesh on high alert.

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Borders Sealed, Security Tightened

The India-Nepal border has historically been open, enabling visa-free travel and flourishing trade. But since Tuesday evening, that normalcy has snapped. In Bahraichs Rupaidha and Lakhimpur Kheris Gaurifanta, check-posts were barricaded and gates locked. Only Nepalese citizens with valid documents were allowed back, while Indian citizens were told to halt their travel plans.

Given the tense situation across the border, entry protocols have been tightened. Indians cannot cross into Nepal at present," said an SSB officer posted in Bahraich.

Maharajganjs Sonouli, one of the busiest India-Nepal gateways, also came under complete restrictions. The 66th Battalion of SSB deployed additional personnel and disallowed all civilian traffic into Nepal. Indian returnees were screened thoroughly before being let through.

Flashpoints Close to Indian Soil

The unrest has spilled dangerously close to Indian territory. In Bahraich, protesters attacked the Jamunaha check-post, barely 50 metres from the Indian side, forcing forces here to double barricades. In Maharajganjs Belahiya, rioters set fire to the customs office and looted stores. In Siddharthnagar, agitators broke police barricades, compelling Indian agencies to erect roadblocks and launch stricter checks on their side.

In Lakhimpur Kheri, residents of border villages reported hearing sirens and gunshots across the frontier late at night as Nepalese security forces tried to disperse mobs.

Trade and Transport Disrupted

The violence has left border trade paralysed. In Bahraich alone, nearly 200 trucks carrying petroleum products, LPG cylinders, cement, and food grains were stranded. Only a few essential supply tankers were escorted into Nepal under army protection.

For local traders in Siddharthnagar and Maharajganj, the situation has been devastating. Nepalese buyers are our main customers. Till Sunday, we had dozens every day. Now, not a single one," said Ashok Gupta, who runs a grocery store in Nautanwa.

Passenger transport has also been hit. Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) said its Gorakhpur division reported a 50 per cent reduction in bus services to the Sonouli border.

Flights Diverted to UP

Air travel, too, has been disrupted. On Tuesday, at least four Kathmandu-bound flights were diverted to Lucknows Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport due to disturbances at Tribhuvan International Airport. Another flight from Abu Dhabi, carrying 144 passengers, was rerouted to Varanasi.

By evening, Lucknows runway was lined with aircraft from Delhi, Dubai, and Bangkok meant for Kathmandu. Authorities scrambled to arrange accommodation and onward travel for passengers.

Everyday Lives Affected

The border shutdown has even disrupted weddings and family functions. In Maharajganj, Shahnavaz, a groom from Bhairahawa, was allowed into India for his wedding in Nautanwa only after showing multiple IDs and written approvals. His was one of the rare exceptions as most cross-border civilian movement stood blocked.

In Bahraich, villagers who cross daily for small errands like buying groceries or visiting relatives were left stranded. Our lives are deeply connected with Nepal. A day without crossing feels like being cut off from family," said Sita Devi, a resident of Rupaidiha.

Amid the turmoil, religious leaders in India appealed for calm. Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati described Nepal as an inseparable part of Indias cultural and spiritual family" and urged protesters to choose dialogue over violence.

Meanwhile, UPs home department maintained that securing the frontier was its priority. We are monitoring all seven border districts round the clock. Extra forces have been deployed, and drone surveillance is under consideration," a senior official said.

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The India-Nepal border, long a symbol of cultural exchange and economic interdependence, now resembles a hardened frontier. Watchtowers in Bahraich and Maharajganj are manned round-the-clock, police patrols scan villages, and security agencies are under orders to prevent any infiltration.

For now, Uttar Pradeshs border belt remains on high alert, its peace hostage to the political storm raging across Nepal. Until calm is restored there, tension will continue to shadow the lives of people on both sides of the frontier.

Location : Uttar Pradesh, India, India

First Published: September 10, 2025, 13:19 IST

News india Border Shut, Flights Diverted & Trade Halted: UP On Alert As Nepal Riots Reach India's Doorstep

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'Cooperation Continues': US Defence, Boeing Officials To Visit India Next Week For Talks On P-8I Aircraft

Reported By :

CNN-News18 Edited By: Oindrila Mukherjee



Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 20:23 IST

Sources said defence cooperation between New Delhi and Washington will continue despite reports in the media claiming that India may put a pause on plans to purchase US arms

IAF's P-8i flanked by MIG-29 and Hawk MK-132 planes fly past in Varuna formation during the inauguration of the 15th edition of Aero India 2025 at Yelahanka Airbase in Bengaluru. (Image: PTI/File)

In a sign that defence is an important pillar of bilateral ties" between the two countries, officials from the US Department of Defense and Boeing will be visiting India next week to hold discussions over additional procurement of the P-8I aircraft, sources told News18.

According to the sources, defence cooperation between India and the United States will continue despite reports in the media claiming that India is planning to put a pause on its purchase of US arms.

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The ongoing tariff tussle notwithstanding, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said he will speak to US President Donald Trump, and that the two countries are working to conclude trade negotiations at the earliest.

I am confident that our trade negotiations will pave the way for unlocking the limitless potential of the India-US partnership," Modi said in a post on social media platform X.

India and the US are close friends and natural partners. I am confident that our trade negotiations will pave the way for unlocking the limitless potential of the India-US partnership. Our teams are working to conclude these discussions at the earliest. I am also looking forward pic.twitter.com/3K9hlJxWcl Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 10, 2025

This bodes well for India-US ties with the defence teams and Boeing soon set to take forward discussions on additional P-8I aircraft  the submarine-hunting long-range maritime patrol plane used by the Indian Navy. On September 8 (Monday), Reuters reported that the Centre has paused plans to buy US Arms, following which the ministry of defence denied the report.

The report said the Government of India has halted its purchase of six P-8I aircraft from American manufacturer Boeing. The same day, the defence ministry rejected it saying the report is false and fabricated and further clarified that the various cases of procurement are progressing as per extant procedure".

Reuters reported that India is pausing talks to purchase Stryker combat vehicles, Javelin missiles and some Boeing planes amid the tariff dispute after the defence minister cancelled his scheduled trip to Washington. Officials told the news agency that deals could be finalised but New Delhi wants clarity on tariffs and bilateral relations.

There have been growing tensions in India-US ties after the Trump administration imposed a 50 percent tariff on Indian goods as punishment for New Delhis purchases of Russian crude oil, which Washington justified as the country funding Russias invasion of Ukraine. This tariff is among the highest of any US trading partner.

Despite the strain in relations between the two countries, India has said the future of a relationship with the US will be based on mutual respect and shared interests", highlighting that one of these was the defence agreements between them.

The India-US defence partnership, underpinned by foundational defence agreements, is an important pillar of the bilateral partnership. This robust cooperation has strengthened across all domains," external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said last month at a press conference.

#WATCH | Delhi | On India-US Defence ties, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal says, "The India-U.S. defence partnership, underpinned by foundational defence agreements, is an important pillar of the bilateral partnership. This robust cooperation has strengthened across all domains. pic.twitter.com/6UCfmpQDv0 ANI (@ANI) August 14, 2025

Jaiswal had said India and the US share a comprehensive global strategic partnership anchored in shared interests, democratic values, and robust people-to-people ties".

This partnership has weathered several transitions and challenges. We remain focused on the substantive agenda that our two countries have committed to and we hope that the relationship will continue to move forward based on mutual respect and shared interests," Jaiswal said.

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#WATCH | Delhi | On the IndiaU.S. partnership, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal says, "The United States and India share a comprehensive global strategic partnership anchored in shared interests, democratic values and robust people-to-people ties. This partnership has weathered pic.twitter.com/CvB0FPY5YT ANI (@ANI) August 14, 2025

He had enumerated the upcoming defence-related collaborations between the two countries, including a visit by a defence policy team and a joint military exercise in Alaska.

About the Author Siddhant Mishra Siddhant Mishra is a Senior Special Correspondent at CNN-News18, covering foreign affairs and international relations. With over 12 years of experience in journalism, he has also reported extensively ... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 20:10 IST

News india 'Cooperation Continues': US Defence, Boeing Officials To Visit India Next Week For Talks On P-8I Aircraft

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Dantewada Mastermind, South India's Guerrilla Architect Thippiri Tirupathi Becomes New Maoist Chief

Reported By :

CNN-News18 Edited By: Apoorva Misra



Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 16:57 IST

Tirupathi hails from Karimnagar district of Telangana and joined the cadre in 1983, gradually rising through the ranks

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Intelligence agencies also said Hidma, one of the most-wanted Maoists, has been given the charge of handling operations in the entire Bastar region. (PTI Image for Representation)

Months after their top leader Basava Raju was gunned down by security forces, the CPI (Maoist) have put in place a new leadership. As per intelligence sources, Telanganas Thippiri Tirupathi alias Devuji has been appointed the new general secretary of the banned outfit.

Devuji was the chief of the Central Military Commission, the armed wing of the outlawed Naxal group.

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Intelligence agencies also said Hidma, one of the most-wanted Maoists, has been given the charge of handling operations in the entire Bastar region. Hidma was heading PLGA Battalion 1 and was almost brought to justice by a month-long operation launched by the Union and state forces in the Karreguttalu hills on the Telangana-Chhattisgarh border in May this year. Thirty-one Naxals were killed in the 21-day-long operation but Hidma managed to escape to Telangana. He has now been appointed Secretary, Dandakaranya, as per agency officials.

Who is Tirupathi?

The new Maoist chief hails from Karimnagar district of Telangana and joined the cadre in 1983, gradually rising through the ranks.

Believed to be the mastermind, Tirupathi is wanted for the 2010 Dantewada massacre, which killed 76 CRPF jawans. His role is also under scanner in the 2007 Ranibodali attack of Bijapur, where 55 policemen were killed.

He created a South India guerrilla zone stretching across the Western Ghats, from Goa to Idukki in Kerala," an intelligence document said.

Tirupathi also replaced Kishenji as the head of the West Bengal unit of CPI (Maoist) after the latter was gunned down. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh on the leader.

The installation of a new Maoist leadership comes amid Union Home Minister Amit Shahs assurance that Naxalism will be over in the country by 2026.

As per Union government data till June this year, 226 Naxals have been killed, 418 arrested (including two Central Committee Members), while 896 have surrendered. The figure last year was 290 killed, 1,090 arrested, and 881 surrendered. Among those neutralised were 18 top Naxal leaders.

CNN-News18 had reported in June this year that the CPI (Maoist) Politburo, the highest decision-making body of the Naxal group, may have been reduced to just three members now.

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While no exact numbers were available, Chhattisgarh officials estimated that the strength of the armed cadre of Maoists could also have come down to about 1,500.

As per MHA data, there is a 53 per cent drop in Naxal violence over the past decade. Between 2004 and 2014, 16,463 incidents of Naxal violence were reported. The number dropped to 7,744 between 2014 and 2024, government officials said.

About the Author Arunima Arunima is Editor (Home Affairs) and covers strategic, security and political affairs. From the Ukraine-Russia War to the India-China stand-off in Ladakh to India-Pak clashes, she has reported from gr... Read More

Location : Chhattisgarh, India, India

First Published: September 10, 2025, 16:57 IST

News india Dantewada Mastermind, South India's Guerrilla Architect Thippiri Tirupathi Becomes New Maoist Chief

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ECI Convenes Third CEOs' Conference To Review Nationwide SIR Preparedness

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 22:10 IST

During the conference, the Commission reviewed how ready each state and UT is to carry out the SIR exercise

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The conference was inaugurated by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, in the presence of Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday convened the third Conference of Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) to review preparations for the nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

The conference was held at the India International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Management (IIIDEM) in New Delhi and was inaugurated by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, in the presence of Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. CEOs from all States and Union Territories were in attendance.

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During the conference, the Commission reviewed how ready each state and UT is to carry out the SIR exercise. The CEO of Bihar made a special presentation on the strategies, challenges, and best practices adopted in the state, allowing other CEOs to take useful lessons from their experience.

Conference of Chief Electoral Officers from all States/UTs commenced today at IIIDEM, in the presence of CEC Shri Gyanesh Kumar & ECs Dr. Sukhbir Singh Sandhu & Dr. Vivek Joshi pic.twitter.com/awaKBUkmzI Election Commission of India (@ECISVEEP) September 10, 2025

The CEOs gave detailed updates on the number of electors in their respective regions, the qualifying date of the last SIR, and the current status of the electoral roll. They also shared the progress made in digitising and uploading electoral rolls on their official websites.

One key issue discussed was the mapping of current electors with those recorded during the last SIR, to ensure accuracy. The Commission also reviewed the rationalisation of polling stations, aiming to keep the number of electors at each station below 1,200.

In order to improve voter inclusion, the CEOs shared suggestions on acceptable documents that eligible citizens can submit to register. The Commission stressed that the process should be simple and accessible.

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The status of appointment and training of key electoral officers  including District Election Officers (DEOs), Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), Assistant EROs, Booth Level Officers (BLOs), and Booth Level Agents (BLAs)  was also reviewed.

The Commission is expected to announce the rollout date for the nationwide SIR soon.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 22:10 IST

News india ECI Convenes Third CEOs' Conference To Review Nationwide SIR Preparedness

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Embankments Collapse Again: Who Is To Blame For Punjabs Worst Floods In Decades?

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News18.com Edited By: Apoorva Misra



Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 10:39 IST

Farmer groups called the floods a man-made disaster and demanded accountability for dam mismanagement amid heavy rainfall warnings

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Dams can potentially help moderate downstream floods, but when filled quickly, the same dam can wreak severe floods downstream. (News18)

Fresh embankment breaches in Punjabs border districts have raised fears of more flooding, deepening the crisis in the state battered by the worst floods in decades. Pounded by overflowing rivers, farmers are demanding accountability for alleged dam mismanagement, and years of unchecked sand mining that intensified the floods.

Several farmers groups unitedly called the floods a man-made disaster, while rejecting AAP-led Punjab governments flood relief package (Rs 20,000 per acre) on Tuesday, terming it inadequate, and demanding full compensation" for the losses.

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NO RELIEF PACKAGE, BUT FULL COMPENSATION

We are not seeking a relief package, but full compensation for the disaster which was not natural, but largely man-made. Over 2,000 villages, more than four lakh acres of farmland have been severely impacted, with both farmers, and labourers losing their livelihoods. The crop has been wiped out. Thousands of families now have to rebuild their homes. We are prepared to struggle for our demands if necessary," said Jagmohan Singh, farm leader from Bharatiya Kisan Union (Dakaunda).

Farmers groups insisted on full compensation of at least Rs 70,000 per acre for crop losses, and Rs 1 lakh for labourers who lost their livelihoods, instead of Rs 20,000 per acre being offered currently. Meanwhile, as rainfall eases, fresh breaches are still being reported along several stretches, including the Ghaggar river.

The devastation is heart-breaking. Farmers have not only lost their standing Kharif crops, but also those for the upcoming Rabi season. Hordes of cattle have been washed away. All this has happened despite IMD warnings of heavy rains in August-September," said Devinder Sharma, Punjab-based agricultural policy expert. The dams can no longer be absolved of their responsibility in intensifying this disaster. They must be held accountable. Rampant sand mining over the years has also made matters worse."

MAKE DAM OPERATIONS TRANSPARENT, DEMAND EXPERTS

Dams can potentially help moderate downstream floods, but when filled quickly, the same dam can wreak severe floods downstream. The states three major damsBhakra on the Sutlej (managed by Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB)), Pong on the Beas and Ranjit Sagar on the Ravi (managed by the Punjab government)  are now at the centre of the controversy. Experts have demanded that all the data regarding the daily inflow and outflow of the dams and SOPs during monsoons be made available in public domain to make dam operations transparent.

The New Delhi-based South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and The People (SANDRP), which analysed the daily rainfall data, dam levels and outflow for all the three major dams in Punjab, stated the dams played a major role in worsening the floods in Punjab.

We need more transparency in dam operations," said Himanshu Thakkar, Co-Ordinator of SANDRP. All information related to dam operations, including the rule curve, should be made available in the public domain, including daily inflow, outflow, storage, upstream conditions and the names of those responsible for operations. SOPs should clearly define monsoon operations, rainfall forecast in upstream and downstream catchment areas, and post monsoon reviews should be mandatorily conducted and put in public domain."

The SANDRP analysis revealed that the outflow from Ranjit Sagar Dam on the Ravi rose from 9,000 cusecs on August 24 to 1,73,000 cusecs by August 27 as the dam crossed the Full Reservoir Level (FRL) at 527 m. From August 27, outflow exceeded inflow for five days, which by definition of Central Water Commission (CWC) means the dam had generated floods. Clearly, it ended up contributing to floods rather than moderating it," it stated.

Furthermore, according to it, by August 1, Bhakra Dam was already 53 per cent full, but outflow increased significantly only on August 19-20, when spillway gates were opened for the first time in two years. Early outflows would have aided power generations, which was often suboptimal. Between August 1-20, inflow exceeded outflow by 180 per cent, pushing the dam beyond prudent storage levels, it stated.

WETTEST AUGUST FOR NORTHWEST INDIA SINCE 2001

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The India Meteorological Department (IMD), which had earlier predicted above-normal rains this monsoon season, confirmed that Northwest India experienced its wettest August since 2001, with extremely heavy rainfall being recorded daily at several places. Punjabs worst floods in decades have not only washed away houses, and inundated swatches of crops, but also killed at least 40 people and several still missing.

The Indian Army, Air Force, BSF, NDRF along with several NGOs continue the rescue and relief operations as rains subside. The disaster was also worsened by rampant, unsustainable sand mining and debris dumping from hydropower projects which further choked riverbeds, along with embankment breaches, and massive floodplain encroachments, said experts.

About the Author Srishti Choudhary Srishti Choudhary, Senior Assistant Editor at CNN-News18 specializes in science, environment, and climate change reporting. With over a decade of extensive field experience, she has brought incisive g... Read More

Location : Punjab, India, India

First Published: September 10, 2025, 10:35 IST

News india Embankments Collapse Again: Who Is To Blame For Punjabs Worst Floods In Decades?

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'Found Metal Shards In Can': Bizman Hospitalised After Drinking Soft Drink In SpiceJet Flight

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 13:16 IST

The airlines has denied presence of any foreign object in the passenger's throat, chest and abdomen.

The airlines has denied presence of any foreign object in the passenger's throat, chest and abdomen.

A businessman from Maharashtras Aundh landed in a hospital after having few sips of soft drink while returning with his friends in a SpiceJet flight from Goa.

According to a report by Times of India, the victim, Abhijit Bhosle, from seat number 9C of SpiceJets Goa-Pune flight (SG-1080) was hospitalised on Monday evening as the soft drink that he bought from the cabin crew allegedly contained metal shards.

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After returning home from hospital, he said: The flight was delayed, but the boarding was completed by 7pm. Around 15-20 minutes after the plane was airborne, the cabin crew started to serve refreshments. I bought a can of soft drink and a pack of fox nuts."

However, he felt irritation in throat after having a couple of sips of the soft drink. As I continued to sip, the irritation increased and stomach pain started. Soon, the pain and the irritation were too much to bear. My friends  Mahesh Gupta and Raj Kumar Agarwal  sitting next to me realised the gravity of the situation and decided to act," he said.

Gupta said that while inspecting the drink several metal shards were found in the drink. We shook the can after emptying it in front of the cabin crew. It made a rattling sound. We wanted to keep the can with us as evidence so that we could escalate it to competent authorities. But the cabin crew took it away from us, citing it was their property."

He further said that the flight landed at 7.50 pm and Bhosle was taken to a hospital in an ambulance, arranged by the airlines.

I stayed back at the airport in a bid to retrieve the can from the crew. When my efforts failed, I filed a written complaint with SpiceJet about the incident," Gupta told TOI.

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In response to the incident, a SpiceJet spokesperson confirmed that a passenger had ordered a soft drink along with a packet of fox nuts on September 8. Canned and other bottled drinks on board our flights are always served sealed to passengers, who themselves unseal them when they choose to consume them on board."

Comprehensive checks, including X-rays of the passengers throat, chest and abdomen, revealed no foreign object. The attending doctor had also advised an endoscopy, which the passenger declined to undergo. All medical expenses were borne by the airline, and SpiceJet staff remained with the passenger throughout. As per our SOP, the soft drink can was retained for investigation by the vendor. The passenger was given sufficient time to record and retain evidence before the can was secured," the spokesperson added.

First Published: September 10, 2025, 11:32 IST

News india 'Found Metal Shards In Can': Bizman Hospitalised After Drinking Soft Drink In SpiceJet Flight

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'How Can You Say': Supreme Court Questions Centre's 'False Alarm' Argument Over Delayed Bills

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 23:56 IST

The Centre presented data saying from 1970 to 2025, only 20 bills were withheld out of 17,000 bills, and 90% of the them are granted assent within one month

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by CJI BR Gavai is hearing the matter about presidential reference. (Image: PTI/File)

The Supreme Court on Wednesday came down heavily on the Centre, questioning its argument that a false alarm is being raised by states when it comes to pending bills awaiting sanction by the governor.

The remarks came during the hearing on the presidential reference on whether the courts could impose timelines for governors and the President to assess bills passed by assemblies.

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A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and comprising Justices Surya Kant, Vikram Nath, PS Narasimha and Atul S Chandurkar, is hearing the matter. Several states, represented by a battery of senior counsel, have opposed the presidential reference.

How can you sayif bills are pending for four years before the Governor," CJI Gavai asked solicitor general Tushar Mehta, as per a report published by Bar and Bench.

The report said Mehta responded saying from 1970 to 2025, only 20 bills were withheld out of 17,000 bills. He said 90 percent of the bills are granted assent within one month.

The counsel for the states, including senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, objected to the data as Mehta had opposed their move to present their own.

To this, CJI Gavai was quoted: We cannot take the datait will not be fair to them. We will not go into it. Then we have to unnecessarily go into dataearlier you objected to their data."

The presidential reference has questioned the April 11 judgment passed by a bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan, in which the SC held that governors must act within a reasonable time and that constitutional silence could not be used to stall the democratic process.

On Tuesday (September 9), the SC said governors were expected to act within reasonable time" even if the term as soon as possible" were not there in Article 200 that governs powers to assent to bills passed by the state legislature.

Article 200 governs powers of governor regarding bills passed by the state legislature, allowing them to either assent to the bill, withhold assent, return the bill for reconsideration or reserve the bill for the consideration of the President.

The court is examining 14 questions referred by President Droupadi Murmu, including whether constitutional authorities can indefinitely withhold assent to bills and whether courts can impose mandatory time frames.

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In May, President Murmu exercised powers under Article 143(1) to know from the apex court whether judicial orders could impose timelines for the exercise of discretion by the President while dealing with bills passed by state assemblies.

(With PTI inputs)

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 23:49 IST

News india 'How Can You Say': Supreme Court Questions Centre's 'False Alarm' Argument Over Delayed Bills

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'Humanity Put To Rest': Court Raps Delay In Releasing Elgar Parishad Accused Ramesh Gaichor

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 22:36 IST

Ramesh Gaichor was granted three days bail on August 26 to visit his ailing 76-year-old father in Pune

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A division bench comprising Justices Ajay Gadkari and Ranjitsinha Bhonsale questioned the authorities. (File photo)

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday slammed the Maharashtra Police and Prison Authorities for failing to release Ramesh Gaichor, one of the accused in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case, despite being granted temporary bail last month.

Gaichor was granted three days bail on August 26 to visit his ailing 76-year-old father in Pune. However, the Superintendent of Prisons at Taloja Central Jail did not release him, citing a recent week-long public holiday as the reason for the delay.

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A division bench comprising Justices Ajay Gadkari and Ranjitsinha Bhonsale questioned the authorities, asking, So humanity is put to rest? Why did you not release him? Is this all just to harass him? Why did you not comply with our orders?"

The bench further asked why the Superintendent demanded a release warrant from the Magistrate when the temporary bail had been clearly granted by the High Court on humanitarian grounds", Live Law reported.

Public Prosecutor Mankunwar Deshmukh explained that the State had complied with court orders but claimed there was confusion over Section 388 of the Criminal Procedure Code. This section requires a release warrant from the Magistrate in cases where bail is granted on appeal.

However, the bench clarified that Gaichors bail was temporary and granted under section 21 of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act, which does not require a Magistrates release warrant.

Deshmukh apologised on behalf of the prison officer and assured the court that an apology affidavit would be submitted the following day. The court has deferred the hearing till September 11.

Gaichor has been in custody since September 2020 and had not met his father in over four years. The High Court had granted bail considering the medical condition of his father, who was admitted to Global Hospital in Pune for age-related issues.

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Considering the appellants fathers age and medical condition, and the fact that he has not met him since arrest, we are inclined to grant temporary bail," the court had noted.

The bench had directed Gaichors release from September 9 to 11 on furnishing Rs 25,000 as cash security with the prison authorities.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 22:36 IST

News india 'Humanity Put To Rest': Court Raps Delay In Releasing Elgar Parishad Accused Ramesh Gaichor

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Indian Diplomat Slams Pakistan At UNHRC: Failed State That Traffics In Terror And Tragedy

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 19:44 IST

Indian diplomat Kshitij Tyagi rebuked Pakistan at the UN Human Rights Council, calling it a failed state addicted to propaganda and terror.

Indian diplomat Kshitij Tyagi at UNHRC. (Image Credit: ANI)

Indian diplomat Kshitij Tyagi delivered a sharp rebuttal to Pakistan, denouncing it as a failed state" addicted to propaganda and terror, at the 5th Meeting of the 60th Session of the UN Human Rights Council. He said, Our measured and proportionate response to the Pahalagm attack made that sufficiently clear. We need no lessons from a terror sponsor, no sermons from a persecutor of minorities, no advice from a state that has conjured its own credibility. India will continue to protect its citizens with unwavering resolve. We will defend our sovereignty without compromise. And we will continue to expose, time and again, the elaborate deception of a failed state whose survival depends upon trafficking in terror and tragedy."

In a separate comment during the same session, Kshitij Tyagi added, We are compelled once again to address provocations from a country whose own leadership recently likened it to a dump truck. Perhaps an inadvertently apt metaphor for a state that continues to deposit recycled falsehoods and stale propaganda before this distinguished council. Pakistans systematic abuse of this forum, coupled with its routine manipulation of the OIC as its mouthpiece, has become a familiar pattern. Its pathological fixation on India appears to provide it with existential validation."

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#WATCH | At the 5th Meeting- 60th Session of Human Rights Council, Indian Diplomat Kshitij Tyagi says, Our measured and proportionate response to the Pahalagm attack made that sufficiently clear. We need no lessons from a terror sponsor, no sermons from a persecutor of pic.twitter.com/vUpJkt450J ANI (@ANI) September 10, 2025

This is not the first time the diplomat has issued a fiery rejoinder to Pakistan at the UN. In February this year, at the 58th Regular Session of the Human Rights Council, Kshitij Tyagi condemned Pakistan as a failed state" that survives on international handouts."

It is regrettable to see Pakistans so-called leaders and delegates continuing to dutifully spread falsehoods handed down by its military terrorist complex," he said at the time, calling Pakistans repeated attempts to raise Jammu and Kashmir at multilateral forums baseless and malicious."

Kshitij Tyagi also criticised Islamabad for making a mockery" of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) by using it as a political mouthpiece.

We do not wish to dignify such propaganda, but are constrained to make a few simple points for the record," he said.

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At the time, Kshitij Tyagi stressed that Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are integral and inalienable parts of India.

The unprecedented political, social and economic progress in J&K in the past few years speaks for itself. These successes are a testament to the peoples trust in the governments commitment to bring normalcy to a region scarred by decades of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism," he said.

First Published: September 10, 2025, 19:44 IST

News india Indian Diplomat Slams Pakistan At UNHRC: Failed State That Traffics In Terror And Tragedy

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Indian Pilgrims Returning From Kailash Mansarovar Yatra Stranded At Nepal Airport Amid Protests

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 12:30 IST

All airport staff, including security and airline personnel, have been asked to leave the airport premises and return home immediately, leading to a chaos on the airport premises.

KP Sharma Oli resigned as Prime Minister on Tuesday following violent protests triggered by a ban on major social media platforms and anger over corruption

Amid protests in Nepal, the devotees coming from pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar remain stranded at the Kathmandus Tribhuvan International Airport for over 24 hours after the authorities issued orders to shut down flights.

Four out of the six flights scheduled to bring back passengers from Kathmandu were cancelled after the airport was closed around 1 p.m. on Tuesday. Nearly, 700 air travellers are stranded. We are seized of the matter and in touch with airlines and the Ministry of External Affairs," a senior government official told The Hindu on condition of anonymity.

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Among the Indians stranded at the airport is a group of 130 devotees from Isha Foundation who had gone to Mansarovar.

We dont know what to do. The airport gates are shut, they wont let us out, and the military and police are pushing us back inside. There is no food, no water, and no shops open to even buy something to eat," 38-year-old Rajani Maski told Times of India. She is travelling with her husband Raghuveer Yavagal from Bengaluru.

We are stuck in a closed room like prisoners. People are panicking, some are crying, and others are falling sick. There is only one charging point for everyone, which makes it even more difficult to stay connected with our families back home," she further said.

Many are debating whether to leave the airport and find safer shelter, but the streets are chaotic. It feels like we are trapped either way," she added.

Among the stranded Indians at the airport is Mayur Patil, an Indian national from Mumbai, who was in Kathmandu to visit Lord Pashpatinath.

We had come for the darshan of Lord Pashupatinath and to visit places in NepalWe reached here on 8th September. We visited Pashupatinath Temple but now we are stranded following the protests. We called up the Indian Embassy and they told us to stay put in a safe place wherever we are. They will tell us about what is to be done next. We had a tour plan for 8 daysWe are a group of 15 people," he told ANI.

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The Hindu quoted the airline officials as saying that all airport staff, including security and airline personnel, had been asked to leave the airport premises and return home immediately, leading to a complete chaos on the airport premises.

KP Sharma Oli resigned as Prime Minister on Tuesday following violent protests triggered by a ban on major social media platforms and anger over corruption. At least 19 people were killed and hundreds were injured in the deadly clash between the forces and the demonstrators, mostly youths leading what came to be called the Gen Z" movement.

Location : Nepal

First Published: September 10, 2025, 09:48 IST

News india Indian Pilgrims Returning From Kailash Mansarovar Yatra Stranded At Nepal Airport Amid Protests

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'Keanu Reeves' Dupes Mumbai Senior Citizen Woman Of Rs 65,000 In Scam On Instagram

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 10:52 IST

The fraudster allegedly demanded Indian currency to "buy a flight ticket to come to India" to visit the woman

The racket was came to light during a health awareness camp at the migrant colony in Varthur when few victims approached him with their woes, following a complaint was filed.

A 69-year-old woman in Mumbais Andheri (West) has been duped of Rs 65,000 by a fraudster posing as Canadian actor and musician Keanu Reeves, police said.

According to a First Information Report (FIR) registered on Monday, the fraudster posed as Keanu Reeves to befriend the elderly, who lives alone in Versova, on social media.

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The fraudster allegedly demanded Indian currency to buy a flight ticket to come to India" to visit the woman, Indian Express reported.

The FIR further stated that the victims daughter, who lives in London with her family, came to know about the matter as she has access to her mothers emails due to latters deteriorating mental health issues.

The daughter said that she had received a bank notification on her mothers email about a NEFT transaction of Rs 65,000 on June 30 to a bank account of an unknown person, Asha Nahar, from Dehradun, Uttarakhand.

In her complaint, the daughter said, As we do not know anyone by the name Asha Nahar, I called my mother and inquired about the transaction and the person to whom she transferred money using NEFT. She revealed that she befriended the Hollywood actor on Instagram and during the chat he asked her to transfer money for his India visit. The person asked to transfer the money using NEFT."

She further stated that her mother also told her about the other messages that was shared with the fraudster such as photos of her bank passbook pages, deposit slip, passport.

Following this, the daughter filed a complaint on the basis of which the police registered a case under sections 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personation using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and criminal offences of cheating under Section 318(4) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

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The team is gathering information about the accused who have used @keanu_reeves4576 and sent a friend request to the senior citizen. Also, the accused used a fake international mobile number that showed he was from New York to chat with her. The team is gathering the internet protocol (IP) address and also the bank account holder details at Dehradun where the money was credited," a Versova police officer told Times of India.

First Published: September 10, 2025, 10:52 IST

News india 'Keanu Reeves' Dupes Mumbai Senior Citizen Woman Of Rs 65,000 In Scam On Instagram

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'Lack Of Criminal Intent': Thane Court Acquits Man In 2021 Molestation Case Involving Minor

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 14:57 IST

According to the case, the man was accused of hugging and kissing the minor girl on two occasions on January 9, 2021

The court observed that the child did not cry from pain during the alleged incidents | Image: Representative

A special court in Maharashtra acquitted a 54-year-old man accused of molesting a three-year-old girl, ruling that his act of kissing her on the cheek could not be construed as a criminal offence in the absence of clear intent.

Delivering the order on August 22, Special Judge Ruby U Malvankar, who presides over cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, granted Omprakash Rambachan Giri the benefit of doubt.

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The court observed that the prosecution failed to establish the charges under Section 8 of the POCSO Act and Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code, which deals with assault on a woman with intent to outrage her modesty.

According to the case, the man was accused of hugging and kissing the minor girl on two occasions on January 9, 2021. The police later registered a case under the provisions of the IPC and POCSO Act.

The court, however, held that such gestures, unless accompanied by malice or intent to harm, could be acts of affection.

Considering the age of the victim at the relevant time, any person fond of children may pick her up and affectionately kiss her cheek. In our society, unless it causes distress or is done by a stranger with bad intent, such a gesture is not viewed as offensive," the order stated.

The judge also noted that the victim did not cry in pain and that evidence suggesting an intent to outrage her modesty was lacking.

The court pointed out lapses in the prosecution case, including failure to produce the victims birth certificate to establish her age under the POCSO Act, inconsistencies in witness testimonies, and the absence of a medical examination despite claims of injury.

Further, the victims testimonyrecorded years laterwas found unreliable after she admitted during cross-examination that her father had instructed her on what to say in court.

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The judge said the possibility of tutoring could not be ruled out.

Calling the evidence insufficient and inconsistent," the court acquitted Giri of all charges.

Location : Thane, India, India

First Published: September 10, 2025, 14:57 IST

News india 'Lack Of Criminal Intent': Thane Court Acquits Man In 2021 Molestation Case Involving Minor

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On Cam: Rape Accused Escapes Custody In Bulandshahr; Over 30 Villagers Booked For Aiding Flee

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 10:37 IST

The incident occurred on September 4 in Ahmedgarh village when police tried to arrest the accused in connection with a rape case registered against him on August 28

Police have booked more than 30 people for facilitating the escape of the rape accused | Image: X

A 45-year-old man accused of raping a 22-year-old woman escaped from police custody in Bulandshahr district after allegedly pushing a constable and receiving help from villagers, including the gram pradhan.

Police have booked more than 30 people for facilitating his escape, officials said.

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The incident occurred on September 4 in Ahmedgarh village when police tried to arrest the accused, Mohd Afzal of Chehla village, in connection with a rape case registered against him on August 28.

Afzal had allegedly raped a woman on the pretext of marriage and had been evading arrest by hiding in local houses.

Bulandshahr, UP: A rape accused Mohd Afzal escaped police custody after pushing a constable (in plain clothes). Instead of catching him, police filed multiple cases against village head Raouf Khan and locals. While Afzals family remains unbothered, police pressure has fallen pic.twitter.com/BZxL2qExkG Krishna Chaudhary (@KrishnaTOI) September 8, 2025

Two constables in plain clothes managed to corner him on September 4. But as he was being taken out of a house, villagers confronted the team. Afzal then pushed one of the constables, leapt off the terrace, and fled," SHO Premchand Sharma said.

Police said the villagers not only shielded the accused but also blocked the escape route by placing a tractor on a narrow road to delay the teams movement.

A video of the incident, showing Afzal shoving a constable before fleeing, has since surfaced online.

An FIR has been lodged against 12 named persons, including village head Mohd Rouf, and 1520 unidentified villagers under multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including charges of assaulting and obstructing public servants.

Bulandshahr SSP Dinesh Kumar Singh said multiple teams have been formed to trace Afzal. We are investigating both the rape case and the circumstances of his escape. Strict action will be taken against those who helped him," he said.

Some villagers, however, claimed the incident stemmed from confusion.

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The constables were in plainclothes, and some thought they were intruders. In the chaos, Afzal fled. We will cooperate with the probe, but innocent villagers should not be harassed," said Adil Ali Khan, a local resident.

Police maintain the constables were posted at the local outpost and were known to several villagers.

Location : Uttar Pradesh, India, India

First Published: September 10, 2025, 10:37 IST

News india On Cam: Rape Accused Escapes Custody In Bulandshahr; Over 30 Villagers Booked For Aiding Flee

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PM Modi Speaks With Qatari Emir, Condemns Violation Of Sovereignty After Israeli Strikes

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 20:30 IST

PM Modi spoke with Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, condemning attacks in Doha and affirming Indias support for Qatar.

PM Narendra Modi had a telephone conversation with Amir of the State of Qatar, H.H. Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he had spoken with Qatars Amir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani and conveyed Indias deep concern over the recent attacks in Doha, stressing New Delhis support for peace, stability and dialogue in the region.

Spoke with Amir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani and expressed deep concern at the attacks in Doha. India condemns the violation of the sovereignty of the brotherly State of Qatar. We support resolution of issues through dialogue and diplomacy, and avoiding escalation. India stands firmly in support of peace and stability in the region, and against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations," PM Modi posted on X (formerly Twitter).

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PM Modi also appreciated Qatars role in promoting regional peace and stability, including its mediation efforts in Gaza aimed at securing a ceasefire and the release of hostages. Sheikh Tamim thanked PM Modi for Indias solidarity with Qatar and both leaders expressed satisfaction at the progress of the India-Qatar Strategic Partnership while pledging to advance cooperation in all areas of mutual interest.

Spoke with Amir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani and expressed deep concern at the attacks in Doha. India condemns the violation of the sovereignty of the brotherly State of Qatar. We support resolution of issues through dialogue and diplomacy, and avoiding escalation. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 10, 2025

PM Modis remarks come in the wake of Israeli air strikes on the Qatari capital, which targeted Hamass top political leadership. The strikes, unprecedented in their reach, followed a Hamas-claimed shooting in Jerusalem that killed six people.

Hamas said five of its members were killed in the attack, including the son of senior negotiator Khalil al-Hayya. Qatar confirmed that one of its security personnel was also killed and denounced Israel for state terrorism" and treachery."

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Israels ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, defended the operation, telling Fox News, If we didnt get them this time, well get them the next time."

The Doha strikes triggered an unusual diplomatic flurry in the Gulf, with leaders from the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Saudi Arabia making unscheduled visits to Qatar in solidarity. The European Commission also signalled it would propose sanctioning extremist Israeli ministers, reflecting growing European criticism of Israels conduct.

Location : Delhi, India, India

First Published: September 10, 2025, 20:13 IST

News india PM Modi Speaks With Qatari Emir, Condemns Violation Of Sovereignty After Israeli Strikes

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'India, US Close Friends And Natural Partners': PM Modi After Trump's 'Very Good Friend' Post

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 10:31 IST

PM Modi has called the US a close friend and natural partner, expressing optimism about trade talks with Washington. He said he looked forward to speaking with Donald Trump.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with US President Donald Trump. (Image: PTI/File)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday called the United States a close friend" and a natural partner" of India, adding that work was in progress to conclude the trade discussions between the two countries at the earliest.

Resharing Donald Trumps social media post, wherein the US President had signalled a thaw in the bilateral chill between India and the US, PM Modi said that he was confident that the trade negotiations would pave the way for unlocking the limitless potential of the India-US partnership.

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India and the US are close friends and natural partners," Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned.

I am confident that our trade negotiations will pave the way for unlocking the limitless potential of the India-US partnership. Our teams are working to conclude these discussions at the earliest," he added.

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 added.

India and the US are close friends and natural partners. I am confident that our trade negotiations will pave the way for unlocking the limitless potential of the India-US partnership. Our teams are working to conclude these discussions at the earliest. I am also looking forward pic.twitter.com/3K9hlJxWcl Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 10, 2025

Later, Donald Trump too, reshared PM Narendra Modis post.

In a late-night (India time) post on his Truth Social, Donald Trump had mentioned he feels certain" that there will be no difficulty" for the two countries to come to a successful conclusion" in trade talks.

Trump also mentioned that he looks forward to speaking with his very good friend" Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the coming weeks.

In the post, Trump mentioned he was pleased to announce that India, and the United States of America, are continuing negotiations to address the Trade Barriers between our two Nations."

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 of our Great Countries!" he wrote.

This comes even as Trump has doubled tariffs on Indian goods to a whopping 50 per cent, including a 25 per cent additional duty for Indias purchase of Russian crude oil.

India described the US action as unfair, unjustified and unreasonable".

Last week, Trump had said that India and the US have a special relationship" and theres nothing to worry about as the two countries just have moments on occasion".

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Meanwhile, India has been maintaining that its energy procurement is driven by national interest and market dynamics.

ALSO READ | Will Trumps Tariffs Be Ruled Illegal? US Supreme Court Sets Urgent Hearing In November

About the Author Vani Mehrotra Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.

First Published: September 10, 2025, 07:40 IST

News india 'India, US Close Friends And Natural Partners': PM Modi After Trump's 'Very Good Friend' Post

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'Proud Of Our Constitution, Look At Neighbours': Supreme Court On Protests In Nepal, Bangladesh

Reported By :

News18.com Edited By: Oindrila Mukherjee



Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 16:28 IST

The SC cited the protests in Nepal, which forced PM KP Sharma Oli to resign, and also mentioned last year's student uprising in Bangladesh that toppled the Sheikh Hasina government

Fire rages through the Singha Durbar, the main administrative building for the Nepal government, in Kathmandu on September 9. (Image: AFP)

The Supreme Court on Wednesday took note of the political upheaval in neighbouring countries like Nepal and Bangladesh to reaffirm the importance of the Indian Constitution.

The court said it took pride in the Constitution while citing the ongoing anti-government protests in Nepal, which forced Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to resign on Tuesday (September 9). It also mentioned last years student-led mass uprising in Bangladesh that toppled the Sheikh Hasina-led government.

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We are proud of our Constitution, see what is happening in neighbouring countries," said Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai. To which, Justice Vikram Nath added: And Bangladesh."

The SC made the observation while hearing the matter about presidential reference on whether courts could impose timelines for governors and the President to deal with bills passed by state assemblies.

Amid the hearing, the Constitution bench headed by CJI BR Gavai made its remarks on the grave situation in Nepal. Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, then referred to the 1975 Emergency under then PM Indira Gandhi.

When Indira Gandhi imposed the Emergency, the people taught such a lesson that not just the party lost, she lost the seat. Another government came that could not manage the people, so the same people brought her back," Mehta said.

To this, CJI Gavai said: with a thumping majority," while Mehta replied, yes, this is the power of the Constitution. This is not a political argument."

WHAT IS THE SITUATION IN NEPAL?

The situation in Nepal has only escalated on the third day of student-led agitation. The army has imposed nationwide restrictive orders followed by a curfew to quell possible violence under the guise of protests.

The army, which took control of nationwide security operations from Tuesday night after incidents of arson and vandalism across the country, said the restrictive orders will remain in force until 5 pm on Wednesday, and then a curfew will be in place until 6 am on Thursday (September 11).

A day ago protesters set fire to the Parliament, the Presidents office, the prime ministers residence, government buildings, Supreme Court, political parties offices and homes of senior leaders.

United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres has expressed grave concern over the developments in Nepal and said he was closely following the situation" and was deeply saddened by the loss of life". He called for a thorough and independent investigation into the fatalities, urging authorities to comply with human rights law, exercise restraint, and prioritise dialogue.

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Oli quit shortly after hundreds of agitators entered his office demanding his resignation for the death of at least 19 people in police action on September 8 (Monday) during protests over corruption and a social media ban. While the ban on social media was lifted late on Monday, the PMs resignation has had little effect on the protesters, who continued with their demonstrations.

(With agency inputs)

About the Author Ananya Bhatnagar Ananya Bhatnagar, Correspondent at CNN-News18, reports on various legal issues and cases in lower courts and the Delhi High Court. He has covered the hanging of the Nirbhaya gang-rape convicts, JNU vi... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 15:59 IST

News india 'Proud Of Our Constitution, Look At Neighbours': Supreme Court On Protests In Nepal, Bangladesh

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Rabies Alert: Why A Dog Bite Could Turn Deadly, And How To Protect Yourself

Curated By :

Local18

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 13:23 IST

Beyond dogs, foxes, bats, monkeys can carry it, though this is rare. In India, with 60 million stray dogs and 17 million bites yearly, the threat looms large

Stray dogs, often unvaccinated and exposed to other sick animals, turn aggressive, foaming at the moutha tell-tale sign. (Getty Images)

In India, where stray dogs roam freely, rabies remains a terrifying reality. Viral videos showing victims screaming, trembling, or shying away from water before dying have sent shockwaves across social media, igniting fear.

With India accounting for 36% of global rabies deathsover 30,000 annuallydue to rampant strays and low awareness, the panic is real. What is rabies, how does it spread, and can your pet pass it on? Lets break down the disease and the practical tips one can follow to stay safe.

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What Is Rabies?

Rabies is a vicious viral disease, nearly always fatal once symptoms emerge. It spreads mainly through the saliva of infected dogs, especially strays, which cause 97% of Indias cases. When a rabid dog bites, the virus travels through nerves to the brain, triggering catastrophic symptoms.

Beyond dogs, foxes, bats, and monkeys can carry it, though this is rare. In India, with 60 million stray dogs and 17 million bites yearly, the threat looms large, particularly for children under 15, who face 60% of bites.

The disease shows up in two forms. The furious" form (80% of cases) makes victims act erraticallyscreaming, fearing water (hydrophobia), or panicking at breezes (aerophobia). Social media clips of these symptoms have caused alarm. The paralytic" form (20%) brings muscle weakness, progressing to full-body paralysis. Both lead to coma and death within days if untreated.

How It Spreads

A bite from a rabid animal, usually a stray dog, is the primary culprit, as infected saliva enters the wound. Strays, often unvaccinated and exposed to other sick animals, turn aggressive, foaming at the moutha tell-tale sign. Wildlife like bats or unvaccinated pets can also transmit rabies, though its uncommon. The virus spreads only through broken skin, not casual contact.

What about pets? If vaccinated and well-maintained, household dogs pose almost no risk. Annual shots and hygiene keep them safe. But stray encounters are dangerousIndias weak animal control lets rabid dogs roam, especially in slums or semi-urban areas like Telanganas Peddapalli, where education drives are now ramping up.

Symptoms That Terrify: From Tremors to Tragedy

Rabies symptoms creep in 1-3 months post-bite, starting with flu-like fever or fatigue. Then it escalates: Furious cases see victims scream, choke on water, or flinch at air. Paralytic cases cause creeping weakness, ending in total immobility. Both forms lead to respiratory failure. Viral videos of these horrors have gripped Indian app users, but theyre a call to act fast, not freeze.

How To Prevent It

Rabies is 100% preventable with quick action. If bitten:

Clean the Wound: Wash with soap and hot water for 15 minutes to remove saliva.

Get Medical Help: Visit a doctor for a tetanus shot and anti-rabies vaccine, available free or cheap at government hospitals.

Follow Through: Complete the four-dose vaccine over 14 days to stop the virus before it hits the brain.

Pet owners should vaccinate dogs yearly, and keep them leashed. Report aggressive or drooling strays to local authorities. Indias Animal Birth Control programme aims to vaccinate strays, but its underfunded, so vigilance is crucial.

A Look At Indias Rabies Crisis

Rabies is a public health nightmare in India, worsened by stray overpopulation, poor waste management, and myths like rubbing chili on bites. Rural areas lack vaccine access, and urban parents fear for children near strays.

The 2023 National Rabies Control Programme targets 70% dog vaccination by 2030, but progress lags. Wash wounds, vaccinate pets, and stay alert to keep rabies at bay in Indias dog-filled streets.

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About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

Location : Karimnagar, India, India

First Published: September 10, 2025, 13:23 IST

News india Rabies Alert: Why A Dog Bite Could Turn Deadly, And How To Protect Yourself

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SC Quashes Rape Complaint Saying Promise Of Marriage Alone Does Not Constitute Assault

Reported By :

LawBeat

Last Updated: September 11, 2025, 00:11 IST

Deeming it "frivolous and vexatious" and a serious abuse of the criminal justice system, the Supreme Court dismissed a rape complaint filed four years after the alleged incident

The case pertains a man accused of repeatedly raping a woman from 2010 on a promise of marriage. (Image: PTI/File)

The Supreme Court has dismissed a rape complaint filed four years after the alleged incident, deeming it frivolous and vexatious" and a serious abuse of the criminal justice system.

Justices JB Pardiwala and Sandeep Mehta stressed that allegations must inspire confidence", cautioning that summoning any person based on frivolous or vexatious complaints is very serious, as it tarnishes the image of the person against whom false allegations are levelled".

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The case pertains to a man, who was accused of repeatedly raping a woman from 2010 on a promise of marriage. The complaint was filed in 2014.

The court noted the absence of crucial details such as dates, locations, and witness corroboration, deeming the complaint unreliable and unsupported by evidence. Additionally, the complainants failure to respond to the court notice suggested a lack of seriousness from the outset, it said.

The SC clarified about the law regarding promise of marriage" cases, stating that a mere failure to fulfil a marriage promise does not constitute rape unless it is proven that the promise was made with malicious intent or deceit to exploit. If a promise is genuine yet unfulfilled, it does not fall within the scope of criminal liability, it said.

The court criticised how the lower judiciary handled the matter, stressing that both the trial court and the Allahabad High Court erred in allowing the case to proceed despite its weak foundation. The bench reiterated that complaints lacking clarity or independent corroboration should not proceed, and courts must use their power under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to quash such cases.

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This ruling aligns with several key precedents: in the Jaspal Singh Kaural v State of NCT of Delhi (2025), the court held that a consensual relationship followed by a breach in promise does not automatically qualify as rape unless fraudulent intent was present from the beginning.

Similarly, other judgments have quashed complaints in cases involving consensual long-standing relationships where delays and contradictions were apparent, reinforcing that disputes emerging from relationships should not be treated as criminal offences without clear prosecutorial evidence.

First Published: September 11, 2025, 00:11 IST

News india SC Quashes Rape Complaint Saying Promise Of Marriage Alone Does Not Constitute Assault

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Signs Of Thaw? PM Modi, Donald Trump To Speak Over Phone Soon

Reported By :

News18.com Edited By: Apoorva Misra



Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 09:47 IST

Top government sources had told CNN-News18 that there is a possibility of a phone call between the leaders over the QUAD summit scheduling and to discuss the UNGA Summit

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A file photo of PM Modi with Donald Trump (PTI)

President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi could speak over the phone soon, breaking the ice in the relations since June 17, when they spoke last for 35 minutes in a tense phone call. Both leaders on Wednesday said they looked forward to speaking to each other, which may open the possibility of a meeting.

I look forward to speaking with my very good friend, Prime Minister Modi, in the upcoming weeks," Trump said on Wednesday. Modi responded immediately on social media, saying: 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." Trump later reposted PM Modis tweet on Truth Social.

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Both leaders also said trade negotiations between the countries are ongoing and should be concluded soon without any difficulties.

Top government sources had told CNN-News18 earlier this week that there is a possibility that a phone call between PM Modi and Trump would soon happen over the scheduling of the QUAD summit and to discuss the upcoming UNGA Summit in New York. This phone call could give a chance to both leaders to speak on other pressing issues too, like the progress of the India-US trade deal that could take away the pain of the tariffs and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War, CNN-News18 reported on September 8.

If a thaw is achieved over a phone call, the possibility of a meeting between both the leaders would open up. PM Modi, so far, is not travelling to the US this month for the UNGA meeting in the last week of September. Malaysia in October could well be the venue where Trump and Modi finally meet.

President Trump plans to attend a leaders meeting of the ASEAN in Kuala Lumpur on October 26, according to the prime minister of host nation Malaysia. PM Modi will be going for the ASEAN summit as in earlier years. There is no chance for such a meeting at the G20 summit in Johannesburg in November, as Trump wont travel for the G20 summit.

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The June 17 Modi-Trump phone call saw Trump accepting Modis invite to come to India for the QUAD. But a recent New York Times report says Trump no longer has such plans. India also has no clarity yet. The Foreign Ministry last week said it would not like to comment on speculative media reports on this issue. If Trump does indeed visit India as promised in November for QUAD and a trade deal is signed by both countries during this visit, the relations may see a full reset.

But India is aware that the US hasnt revoked the 50 per cent tariffs on it and wants a trade deal with India on its own terms, like entry into the countrys agriculture and dairy sectors. PM Modi has said this wont be allowed by India at any cost. Trump also continues to maintain his ceasefire" claim regarding the India-Pakistan conflict. The US President also nurtures a close relationship with Pakistan as well as Asim Munir, a big irritant for India. All these will be challenges in reviving the US-India relationship.

About the Author Aman Sharma Aman Sharma, Executive Editor - National Affairs at CNN-News18, and Bureau Chief at News18 in Delhi, has over two decades of experience in covering the wide spectrum of politics and the Prime Minister... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 08:24 IST

News india Signs Of Thaw? PM Modi, Donald Trump To Speak Over Phone Soon

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Special Flights From Kathmandu To Rescue Stranded Indians Amid Unrest | Check Details

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 21:48 IST

Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said that the aviation ministry, in coordination with Air India and IndiGo, has arranged additional flights to bring back stranded passengers.

He said that the special flights would be operated for the next few days, starting this evening. (File)

India on Wednesday announced it would operate special flights from Nepals Kathmandu to bring back passengers who have been stranded in the violence-hit nation.

Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said that the aviation ministry, in coordination with Air India and IndiGo, has arranged additional flights to bring back stranded home-bound passengers.

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He said that the special flights would be operated for the next few days, starting this evening.

Due to airport closure in Nepal, many home-bound passengers were unable to return from Kathmandu. With the opening of the airport operation in Kathmandu, @MoCA_GoI, in coordination with Air India & IndiGo, has arranged additional flights this evening & over the next few days, alongside scheduled services resuming tomorrow," the minister said in a post on X.

IMPORTANT UPDATE:Air India is operating special flights today and tomorrow from Delhi to Kathmandu and back to help passengers who have been stranded due to the recent developments in Nepal. Our scheduled operations will also resume from tomorrow. We thank the government and  Air India (@airindia) September 10, 2025

Naidu said that airlines have been advised to keep their fares within reasonable levels.

We remain committed to supporting our passengers while ensuring their safe travel during this time," he added.

Additionally, Air India announced that special flights will operate today and tomorrow from Delhi to Kathmandu and back to help passengers who have been stranded amid the unrest.

Due to airport closure in Nepal, many home-bound passengers were unable to return from Kathmandu. With the opening of the airport operation in Kathmandu, @MoCA_GoI, in coordination with Air India & IndiGo, has arranged additional flights this evening & over the next few days, Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu (@RamMNK) September 10, 2025

The airline also announced the resumption of flight operations, which were suspended after the airport was shut down.

Air India also urged the passengers to check the status of their flights here https://airindia.com/in/en/manage/flight-status.html before proceeding to the airport.

The development came hours after the Nepal authorities announced the resumption of operations at Tribhuvan International Airport, which were suspended due to the ongoing violent anti-government protests.

Thousands Throng Tribhuvan Airport

Meanwhile, Thousands of passengers thronged Nepals Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) on Wednesday after airport authorities announced the resumption of flight operations. The decision came after a meeting of the airports Security Committee, which included aviation and military officials, Nepali news outlet Khabarhub reported.

However, confusion and frustration mounted as passengers were still denied entry despite assurances that operations had resumed.

According to authorities, the flight operations were supposed to resume every hour. However, passengers gathered at the gates said they were repeatedly told that flights would resume soon, but no clear schedule or access was provided.

Ive been waiting here for two days, sleeping on the airport floor. They keep saying flights will open every hour, but nothing has happened," a passenger told the news outlet.

Why Airport Was Shut?

The international airport, situated in Kathmandu, was shut down on Tuesday after agitators attempted to enter the airport premises. The civil aviation authority cited safety concerns as the primary reason for the closure, following incidents of arson, vandalism, and smoke near the runway.

The Nepal Army was deployed to provide security at the airport and throughout the capital, arresting 27 individuals involved in looting and violent acts.

The shutdown had left hundreds of foreign nationals stranded. Airlines, including Air India, IndiGo, SpiceJet had cancelled flight services between India and Nepal.

The airport closure had affected both domestic and international flights, with passengers advised to stay in touch with airlines for updates.

Nepal Unrest

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Nepal is reeling under a serious political crisis after two days of anti-government protests saw attacks on private residences of several high-profile leaders, the headquarters of political parties and even the Parliament.

The protests led by students appeared to reflect the growing public anger with the Oli dispensation over a range of issues, including a ban on social media and alleged inaction against corruption.

About the Author Shobhit Gupta Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degre... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 21:48 IST

News india Special Flights From Kathmandu To Rescue Stranded Indians Amid Unrest | Check Details

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Microchipping, Vaccination Records: Delhi Announces Action Plan For Pet, Stray Dogs' Management

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 14:17 IST

Delhi government has announced a new pet and stray animal management plan, including mandatory pet shop registration, microchipping of dogs, and digital vaccination records.

Stray dogs play in a park in Gurugram (Photo: PTI)

Ahead of World Rabies Day on September 28, the Delhi government has announced a new action plan for pet and stray animal management.

All pet shops and breeding centres will now require mandatory registration, while 10 lakh dogs will be microchipped over the next two years with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

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The plan also includes digital vaccination records, expanded gaushalas, organised stray feeding, and uninterrupted rabies vaccine supply.

Commenting on the same, Delhi Labour Minister Kapil Mishra said animal welfare and rabies prevention will now be a top priority for the capital.

A similar move was introduced in Chennai earlier this month, which aimed at better regulating pet ownership and curbing the rising number of dog-bite incidents. The rule will come into force from next month.

Pet owners who fail to comply with the new regulation will face a penalty of Rs 3,000, the new rule stated.

According to a resolution passed by the civic body, pet licensing will now require proof of microchip implantation as well as details of anti-rabies vaccination (ARV).

It was also known that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) Standing Committee chairperson Satya Sharma has directed officials to set up stray dog feeding points in every ward of the national capital.

Three to four locations will be identified in each ward, in coordination with the local municipal councillor, where these feeding points will be set up, Sharma said.

Officials have also been asked to submit an action report within a week on the move.

Sharma emphasised that the MCD is intensifying the sterilisation and vaccination drives at Animal Birth Control (ABC) centres across the city.

A sub-committee has been working on related strategies to control the stray dog population and prevent the spread of diseases, such as rabies.

Sharma said unregulated feeding by people in public spaces often leads to the formation of packs, resulting in conflicts and a rise in dog-bite incidents.

The move came after the Supreme Court urged the MCD to act promptly to rein in the dog bite menace.

Sharma appealed to all councillors, residents, and voluntary organisations to cooperate in the initiative.

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ALSO READ | Rabies Alert: Why A Dog Bite Could Turn Deadly, And How To Protect Yourself

About the Author Vani Mehrotra Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.

First Published: September 10, 2025, 14:15 IST

News india Microchipping, Vaccination Records: Delhi Announces Action Plan For Pet, Stray Dogs' Management

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Sunjay Kapur Inheritance Dispute: Karisma Kapoor's Children Say Will Not Registered, Seek Interim Relief From Court

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News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 11:38 IST

Sunjay Kapur and Karisma Kapoor were married in September 2003 and had two children before divorcing in June 2016

Karisma Kapoor | File Image

Actor Karisma Kapoors children told the Delhi High Court on Wednesday that the will of their late father, industrialist Sunjay Kapur, was not registered and raised concerns over its sudden disclosure.

Kapoors two children have approached the Delhi High Court seeking a share in the estate of their late father, industrialist Sunjay Kapur, valued at approximately Rs 30,000 crore.

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The petition primarily challenges the claim of Priya Kapur, Kapurs third wife, whom he married following his divorce from Karisma Kapoor.

The siblings, Samaira Kapur and Kiaan Raj Kapur, have alleged that the will disclosed to them after their fathers death was forged and fabricated."

Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani described the circumstances as suspicious, noting that the will was read hastily at the Taj Hotel and that the executor herself, Shradha Suri, only learned of it a day prior.

Jethmalani also questioned the involvement of Dinesh Aggarwal, an employee who reportedly disclosed the will to the family, calling the act beyond reasoning."

Sunjay Kapur and Karisma Kapoor were married in September 2003 and had two children before divorcing in June 2016. Kapur later married Priya Kapur in April 2017, and they had one child together.

The executor has informed Karisma Kapoor that neither she nor her children are named beneficiaries, though she has been offered the option to inspect the will at Suris office.

The children have sought interim relief while the court examines the validity of the will and the circumstances surrounding its disclosure.

Something Unholy Going On

Vaibhav Gaggar, appearing for Rani Kapur, mother of the late Sunjay Kapur, told the Delhi High Court that theres something unholy going on" in the familys inheritance dispute.

The 80-year-old expressed deep concern about the welfare of her grandchildren, questioning why a trust she had set up reportedly offered her nothing.

I repeatedly mailed them to ask for a copy of the will, but received no response," Rani Kapur said in her statement to the court, highlighting the alleged lack of transparency surrounding the estate.

During the hearing, the court directed that written statements from all parties involved must be filed within two weeks, with any replication or rejoinder to follow within a week thereafter.

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Summonses have been issued in the suit, and notices have also been served on a plea for interim relief.

Additionally, the court ordered Priya Sachdev Kapur, Sunjay Kapurs third wife, to submit a comprehensive list of all movable and immovable assets belonging to the estate.

First Published: September 10, 2025, 11:15 IST

News india Sunjay Kapur Inheritance Dispute: Karisma Kapoor's Children Say Will Not Registered, Seek Interim Relief From Court

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Sunjay Kapur Will Dispute: Wife Priya Sachdev Kapur To List All Assets After Karisma Kapoor's Kids Move Delhi HC

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News18.com Edited By: Mahima Joshi



Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 12:34 IST

Priya Sachdev Kapur will file a list of all movable and immovable assets of Sanjay Kapur known to her after Delhi High Court's order.

Karisma Kapoor's children claim stepmother Priya Sachdev forged Sunjay Kapur's will.

Amid the ongoing inheritance dispute involving Sunjay Kapur, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed his wife Priya Sachdev Kapur to file list of her late husbands assets. As per the order, Sachdev will file a list of all movable and immovable assets of Sanjay Kapur known to her.

Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court has registered a suit filed by Karisma Kapoors children alleging that their stepmother  model Priya Sachdev Kapur, who was the third wife of Sunjay Kapur  appears to have forged their fathers will for control over his assets, part of a Rs 30,000-crore fortune.

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The court will hear the matter for the next time on October 9 and have given a time period of two weeks to file a response.

Karisma-Sunjays Kids Move Delhi HC

Days after the death of actor Karisma Kapoors ex-husband, industrialist Sunjay Kapur, Daughter Samaira, 20, and son Kiaan, 15, moved the Delhi high court alleging that the third wife of Sunjay Kapur, Priya Sachdev Kapur, appears to have forged their fathers will.

Represented by their mother, Karisma Kapoor, as their legal guardian, they have attached a list of known properties but accused Priya of concealing details. They want at least a fifth of the estate as legal heirs.

Karismas children have claimed that they have been informed that they are not the beneficiaries under their late fathers will.

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Meanwhile, Sachdev informed the court that Karismas children have been already given 1900 crores by the trust.

Besides them, Sunjays mother, Rani Kapur, has also made similar claims and has sought a share in the companys automobile component maker Sona Comstar, an empire built largely by Sunjays late father.

About the Author Ananya Bhatnagar Ananya Bhatnagar, Correspondent at CNN-News18, reports on various legal issues and cases in lower courts and the Delhi High Court. He has covered the hanging of the Nirbhaya gang-rape convicts, JNU vi... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 11:55 IST

News india Sunjay Kapur Will Dispute: Wife Priya Sachdev Kapur To List All Assets After Karisma Kapoor's Kids Move Delhi HC

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2 Suspected ISIS Terrorists Arrested, Many Others Detained In Raids Across Delhi, Ranchi

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News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 12:08 IST

Two suspected ISIS terrorists were arrested in Delhi and Ranchi. Raids were carried out at multiple locations, and several others linked to terror groups have been detained.

A file photo of Delhi Police (PTI)

Two suspected ISIS terrorists were arrested in Delhi and Ranchi on Wednesday, while some others were detained during a joint operation by the Delhi Police Special Cell, Jharkhand Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and the Ranchi Police.

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One of those arrested was identified as Azhar Danish, and was arrested from the Islamnagar area of Ranchi in Jharkhand.

He was arrested on the basis of a case registered against him in Delhi and was being questioned by the police.

The other suspect was arrested in Delhi.

Some arrests have been made by Delhi Police Special Cell in an ongoing operation," the Special Cell of the Delhi Police said in a statement.

The raids in this regard were underway at eight places, including at a hostel under the Lower Bazar Police Station limits in Ranchi.

The joint operation of Delhi and Jharkhand police is being conducted at several places, including a hostel in Ranchi. Some people linked to terrorist organisations have been detained, and interrogation is going on," Jharkhand Police IG (Operations) and spokesperson Michael Raj S told news agency PTI.

On Tuesday, the Delhi Police Special Cell busted an espionage module linked to Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) with the arrest of a 43-year-old man accused of supplying SIM cards that were later used by operatives across the border.

According to the Delhi Police Special Cell, specific intelligence was received on August 28 about an individual associated with ISI handlers being present in Vijay Block, Laxmi Nagar.

Acting swiftly, the team apprehended the suspect, identified as Prabhat Kumar Chaurasiya.

During sustained interrogation, Chaurasiya revealed that he had procured 16 SIM cards using his Aadhaar credentials and sent them to Nepal, out of which 11 were being operated on WhatsApp from Lahore, Bahawalpur and other parts of Pakistan by ISI operatives.

These were allegedly being used for espionage and other anti-India activities.

Officials at the special cell told news agency ANI that these SIM cards were being used from across the border for espionage and other anti-India activities through the social media platform WhatsApp.

A case was registered under Sections 61(2)/152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

ALSO READ | Two Terrorists Gunned Down In Kulgam Encounter, Two Army Personnel Succumb To Injuries

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About the Author Vani Mehrotra Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.

First Published: September 10, 2025, 12:05 IST

News india 2 Suspected ISIS Terrorists Arrested, Many Others Detained In Raids Across Delhi, Ranchi

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Swollen Head, Slow Heart: Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla On What Happens To Human Body In Space

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 15:43 IST

Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla discussed Axiom-4 at AKTU, highlighting microgravity, re-entry risks, and India's space goals to inspire students

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Shubhanshu Shukla described how the Blue Dragon capsule travels at nearly 28,000 km per hour. (News18 Hindi)

Microgravity changes the human body in unimaginable ways. Your head swells, your heartbeat slows down, your breathing becomes longer, and you face nausea and headache. But science does not wait. You keep working, the responsibility is always heavy," said Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, who recently returned after participating in the 20-day Axiom-4 mission.

Speaking at the convocation ceremony of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University (AKTU), Shukla shared his experiences of space travel, describing the harsh conditions, dramatic re-entry, and the profound lessons he carried back to Earth.

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Despite the physiological challenges, Shukla said that the work never stops in orbit. Despite the stress in space, work has to be continued because it is very important to keep the samples taken there safe," he explained, adding that the re-entry into Earths atmosphere remained the most thrilling and dangerous part of the mission.

He described how the Blue Dragon capsule travels at nearly 28,000 km per hour, which is like covering the distance from Lucknow to Delhi in just 60 seconds". The descent, he said, was both spectacular and terrifying. When it hits the atmosphere, the temperature of the capsule reaches 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Courage does not mean not being afraid, but moving forward despite fear. Opportunity is always hidden behind fear. From the window, we could see the red, orange, green and purple flames engulfing the capsule. A thin red line was separating us from that fire and the glow of engineering. Courage is needed to endure it," he explained.

For him, however, the most valuable takeaway was a simple yet profound one. The biggest lesson from space travel for me was to enjoy the journey," he told the students, adding, Goals and dreams are important, but do not forget the enjoyment of the process. Even after working 11-12 hours daily in space, the scientific team used to enjoy fun, games and small moments."

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Shukla also lauded AKTUs recent initiative of setting up Space Excellence Centres on various campuses. He said such centres would not only provide advanced training but also offer direct industry engagement. Announcing a significant step forward, he revealed that the university would soon sign an MoU with private space companies, creating internship opportunities where students could witness cutting-edge technologies shaping Indias space future.

Reflecting on Indias image from space, Shukla drew a poignant comparison. Forty-one years ago Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma travelled to space and said that India looks saare jahan se achcha. This time when I looked down, I saw something else. A nation that is fearless, ambitious, unique and daring enough to dream big."

First Published: September 10, 2025, 15:43 IST

News india Swollen Head, Slow Heart: Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla On What Happens To Human Body In Space

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Thiruvananthapuram Airport Expansion: Extended Runway, Bigger Terminal & The Rs 1,300-Crore Plan

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News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 15:58 IST

Thiruvananthapuram Airport Expansion: The work is expected to begin by year-end, officials told News18, adding that the total cost of the first phase will be Rs 1,300 crore

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The proposed Thiruvananthapuram airport expansion plan. (News18)

Terminal capacity up by five times, longer runway and increased taxiways for smoother and increased air traffic movements, phase one of expansion of the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport in Kerala is expected to reduce congestion, make operations smoother and accommodate more passengers.

The expansion work is expected to begin by year-end, officials told News18, adding that the total cost of the first phase will be Rs 1,300 crore.

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The airport has two terminals  T1 and T2 that have a total capacity to hold 4.5 million passengers per annum. The footfall recorded at the airport between 2024 and 2025 was already recorded at 4.9 million, raising a need for the expansion.

Officials aware of the expansion plan told News18 that T2 will undergo expansion work starting November 2025.

Keeping passenger convenience in mind, the terminal will be operational throughout and expansion will be carried out in parts. The terminal will not be shut completely at any time and operations will continue. This is why it is estimated to take five years for completion. Once the expansion is complete, the total capacity of both terminals together will go up to 27 million passengers per annum, five times the present capacity," said a senior official from the airport.

Other than the terminal, the expansion is also planned on the air side.

The runway of the airport at present is 3.4 kilometres. It will also be extended by 145 meters on both sides. This is being done in accordance with DGCAs safety compliance, the official said.

The airport handles 85 air traffic movements every day and caters to 14 international and nine domestic destinations. Officials believe that once the runway is upgraded and the number of taxiways is increased, more flights can be accommodated and routes be increased.

As part of the phase one expansion, a new apron building is also planned along with the upgradation of infrastructure including the drainage system. An apron is the part of an airport where aircraft are parked, loaded, unloaded, and refuelled.

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The officer added that this is the first phase of expansion. Once it is complete, the overall masterplan of the airport also includes bringing in a new ATC tower and expansion of T1 at a later stage.

The total estimated cost of the masterplan is Rs 8,707 crore, the officer said.

About the Author Anvit Srivastava Anvit Srivastava, Principal Correspondent at CNN-News18, covers crime, security, policing and society in Delhi. His impactful ground reports have helped him make his mark among the select credited jou... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 15:58 IST

News india Thiruvananthapuram Airport Expansion: Extended Runway, Bigger Terminal & The Rs 1,300-Crore Plan

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Was A Teacher Like Me: Why Vice President-Elects Mother Named Him Radhakrishnan?

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News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 18:59 IST

His mother, Janaki Ammal, expressed happiness over CP Radhakrishnans victory, saying that it is a matter of great joy that her son has been elevated to a top position.

National Democratic Alliance (NDA)-backed CP Radhakrishnan was elected as the 15th Vice President of India on Tuesday. (ANI)

NDA candidate and Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan was on Tuesday elected 15th Vice-President of India, comfortably defeating his rival INDIA bloc candidate and former Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddy.

His mother, Janaki Ammal, expressed happiness over CP Radhakrishnans victory, saying that it is a matter of great joy that her son has been elevated to a top position.

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His mother fondly recalled the story behind his name. While speaking to news agency ANI, Janaki Ammal said that she had named her son after former President of India, Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.

She said that when her son was born, the then President of the country, Radhakrishnan, was in office and, like her, was a teacher. She named her son in the former Presidents memory.

When my son was born, the then-President Radhakrishnan was in office. He was a teacher, and I too was a teacher. In his memory, I named my son after him," she told the news agency.

Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu: Mother of Vice President-elect CP Radhakrishnan, Janaki Ammal says, When my son was born, the then President Radhakrishnan was in office. He was a teacher, and I too was a teacher. In his memory, I named my son after him. At that time, my husband looked at pic.twitter.com/DKnoRskKta ANI (@ANI) September 10, 2025

She further recalled how her husband had asked the intention behind naming the son Radhakrishnan.

At that time, my husband looked at me and asked, "Are you giving this name because you want your son to become the President one day?" After 62 years, just as my husband had said, it has come true. I feel very happy about it," she added.

A day earlier, his brother, CP Kumaresh, expressed happiness over Radhakrishnans victory, saying that it is a great joy that the latter will now take on the responsibility of managing the Rajya Sabha.

I am very, very happy. It is a great joy that Radhakrishnan has been elected as the Vice President. He has to take the responsibility of efficiently managing the Rajya Sabha, and he will carry it out successfully. He will also uphold PM Modis trust," news agency ANI quoted Kumaresh as saying.

#WATCH | Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu: On the victory of NDA candidate C.P. Radhakrishnan in the Vice Presidential election, CP Kumaresh, brother of CP Radhakrishnan, says, I am very, very happy. It is a great joy that Radhakrishnan has been elected as the Vice President. He has to take pic.twitter.com/ntOGJPidZU ANI (@ANI) September 9, 2025

CP Radhakrishnan Becomes Indias 15th VP

NDA candidate CP Radhakrishnan was elected as the 15th Vice President of India on Tuesday, bagging 452 votes against the Opposition nominee and former Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddys 300 votes.

Announcing the result, Rajya Sabha Secretary General and Returning Officer PC Mody said 767 MPs out of 781 cast their votes with a total turnout of 98.2%. He said 752 ballots were valid and 15 were invalid, bringing down the required majority of first preference votes to 377.

The NDA had the support of 427 MPs on paper, and YSRCPs 11 lawmakers also voted for Radhakrishnan. But the NDA nominee got 14 more votes than their tally, leading to speculation of cross-voting by MPs from the opposition camp.

A total of 13 MPs abstained from voting in the Vice Presidential elections. The list includes seven MPs from Biju Janata Dal, four from Bharath Rashtra Samithi, one MP from Shiromani Akali Dal and one independent MP.

Congratulations pour in for Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan after he was declared the winner of the Vice President election. President Murmu congratulated him, expressing confidence that his decades of experience in public life will contribute to the nations progress.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated him, saying that he is confident that the latter would be an outstanding leader, who will strengthen our Constitutional values and enhance Parliamentary discourse."

The Vice Presidents post has been vacant since July 21, 2025, as Jagdeep Dhankhar resigned from his position, citing health reasons.

Who Is CP Radhakrishnan?

Chandrapuram Ponnusamy Radhakrishnan, who was serving as the 24th Governor of Maharashtra from July 31, 2024, before being announced as the NDAs Vice Presidential nominee.

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He previously served as the Governor of Jharkhand from February 2023 to July 2024. He also held additional charge as the Governor of Telangana and Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry between March and July 2024.

(With inputs from ANI)

About the Author Shobhit Gupta Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degre... Read More

Location : Tiruppur, India, India

First Published: September 10, 2025, 18:59 IST

News india Was A Teacher Like Me: Why Vice President-Elects Mother Named Him Radhakrishnan?

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Ananya Pandays Cut-Out Gown Is The Perfect Blend Of Sensuality And Ease

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News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 12:38 IST

Ananya Panday dazzled in a bodycon cut-out detail gown from Kresha Bajaj's newest collection, The Archive of Hidden Things, which had recently debuted at Dubai Fashion Week.

Ananya Panday was styled by Priyanka Kapadia Badani.

Ananya Pandays latest appearance captured the very essence of contemporary couture. The actor stepped out in a metallic rose gown from Kresha Bajajs newest collection, The Archive of Hidden Things, which had recently debuted at Dubai Fashion Week. Her look originated from the chapter Liberation, a segment in the collection that explored freedom, openness, and ease of movement  ideas that were effortlessly woven into her ensemble.

Styled by Priyanka Kapadia Badani, Ananya Pandays look for the Filmfare Glamour And Style Awards was a masterclass in balance: structured yet fluid, daring yet refined. The soft rose base had been hand-embellished with delicate micro-beads, while larger beads highlighted the slender straps, adding a subtle shimmer to the entire silhouette. The gown skimmed her frame and flared gently at the hem, creating a sleek hourglass effect without losing its graceful flow.

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View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ananya  (@ananyapanday)

The most striking feature of the design lay in its side panels. Sheer and transparent, these panels extended from the underarm to just above the knee, threaded with crisscrossing fabric cords that sculpted precise cut-outs. Far from being a mere trend-driven detail, the cut-outs were central to the gowns architecture. They revealed skin with intention, lending the gown an air of sensuality while maintaining elegance. Cut-outs have long been a recurring motif in fashion, and in Ananyas look, they were not just an accent but a defining element of the structure, contrasting beautifully with the dense beadwork.

Samantha Ruth Prabhu had also worn a similar look by the designer at the Vogue Beauty Awards which was held in May. Unlike Ananyas shimmering bodice, Samanthas gown was in a lovely brown hue.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Samantha (@samantharuthprabhuoffl)

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Kresha Bajaj, celebrated for reinventing traditional Indian craftsmanship, once again proved her mastery. Her reinterpretations of age-old techniques like zardozi, aari, and micro-beading have consistently set her apart, giving heritage craft a modern vocabulary. The Archive of Hidden Things, her first-ever pret line, was divided into three chapters: Revelation, Obsession, and Liberation. Ananya embodied the last, her gown reflecting the confident lines, intricate textures, and contemporary glamour that defined the chapters spirit.

As Kresha made her international debut with this collection at Dubai Fashion Week, the vision was clear: each of the 27 looks told a story. With this look, Ananya not only turned heads but also became a living embodiment of Kreshas storytelling through couture.

Location : Delhi, India, India

First Published: September 10, 2025, 12:38 IST

News lifestyle Ananya Pandays Cut-Out Gown Is The Perfect Blend Of Sensuality And Ease
By Isaac Phan Nay

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

NDP MP Jenny Kwan says shes looking for a way to stop the federal governments increasingly frequent intervention to end strikes.

In the last 14 months, the government has invoked Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code to try to end at least eight strikes in federally regulated industries.

The use of Section 107 has been controversial. A group of employers says it can be used to avoid economic catastrophe caused by prolonged labour stoppages.

But unions across Canada have spoken out against the increasing use, saying it violates workers Charter rights and increases employers power. Teamsters Canada is challenging Ottawas use of the legislation in court.

Last month, the governments quick move to end the Air Canada flight attendants strike put the fight over the little-known piece of the labour code in the spotlight.

Now, Kwan says shes hoping to pressure the government to stop using Section 107 to end strikes.

What were seeing is a Liberal government abusing its power, in my view, in violation of the workers right to strike thats prescribed in our Charter, Kwan said. How do you stop this from happening?

Kwan said she is still researching possible changes to the law.

Section 107 says that to secure industrial peace or promote conditions favourable to dispute settlement, the labour minister can refer any question to the Canada Industrial Relations Board and direct the board to take action, including ordering workers to return to the job.

Its extremely open-ended, said Bea Bruske, president of the Canadian Labour Congress. It gives the government wide-ranging powers to enact pretty much whatever they think would be helpful to try to resolve a labour dispute.

Her organization, which represents more than three million unionized workers across Canada, has called for Prime Minister Mark Carney to stop using Section 107 to end strikes.

The only tactic workers have to win better pay and treatment is withholding their labour, Bruske said. Taking that power away from workers hinders negotiations, she added.

Its just egregious that its being used to this extent to stymie actual collective bargaining, she said.

Section 107 has been part of the Labour Code for more than 40 years. It was mostly unused until 2011, when the then-labour minister Lisa Raitt used it during an Air Canada strike after the union twice voted down collective agreements.

But in June 2024, the government started frequently invoking Section 107 to try to end labour disputes in federally regulated industries, starting with a WestJet engineers strike.

The Canadian Labour Congresss Bruske said she believes the federal government started invoking Section 107 to direct the Canada Industrial Relations Board to intervene in labour disputes because it realized it was a much faster way to bring an end to them.

Before the government started interpreting Section 107 in this way, back-to-work orders had to be debated and voted on in the House of Commons. For example, in 2018, the House passed a Liberal bill that would end a Canada Post strike that year.

At least workers would be able to see what the debate was and how their MP voted, Bruske said. This is really a very quick way to circumvent having a healthy and rigorous debate in our Parliament.

In August 2024, Derrick Hynes, then-CEO of a federally regulated employers association known as FETCO, wrote an open letter calling on then-labour minister Steven MacKinnon to ensure stability amid some of the most contentious collective bargaining that the federally regulated sector has seen in decades.

The letter identified Section 107 as a way for the government to intervene amid a strike by workers at Canadas major railways.

Section 107 is broadly tailored to address and avoid the very sort of economic catastrophe that will occur within the next week, Hynes said.

Daniel Safayeni, the new CEO of FETCO, said an increasing number of work stoppages in the federally regulated sector threaten to undermine the stability of Canadas essential infrastructure, transportation, communications and trade. Federally regulated industries include airlines, railways, banks and telecommunications companies.

It does so at a time when Canada is searching for their economic sovereignty and actually puts us at a disadvantage globally, he said. To address this, the government is going to require stronger tools to help resolve repeated labour disruptions and to ensure every sector of the economy can continue operating effectively.

Safayeni added that the issue is of national economic significance.

We could have our rails ground to a halt, shipping stalled. We could have flights grounded, as we saw was the case with Air Canada and the enormous headache that caused, he said. More broadly speaking, were going to have a chill on investment in this country.

The government subsequently used Section 107 to get the Canada Industrial Relations Board, or CIRB, to intervene and order three groups of Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City employees back to work.

Teamsters Canada, the union for all three groups of workers, announced it planned to fight the CIRBs directions in Federal Court.

In July, the union said it had filed six applications for judicial review. Three ask the Federal Court of Canada to consider whether the use of Section 107 to end strikes violates workers Charter rights to free association and freedom of assembly. Three more ask courts to reconsider the reasonableness of the CIRBs decisions.

The cases will test the uses of Section 107 and help define when the legislation can be used.

But Bruske of the Canadian Labour Congress said these cases are expensive and could take years.

There are many rounds of bargaining that are coming up right away, she said. We dont want to wait to see a very long, protracted legal fight. We need to see an end to this now.

Enter Kwan. At a rally during the Air Canada strike in August, the Vancouver East MP told picketers that when Parliament resumes in the fall, the NDP will bring legislation to ensure flight attendants are paid for unpaid ground work  one of their unions main sticking points in negotiations.

Former NDP MP Bonita Zarrillo brought a bill to address the issue to Parliament last October, but the bill never made it through the House of Commons.

We will be retabling this piece of legislation and putting pressure on the government to do whats right, Kwan told a crowd at the Vancouver airport.

And get rid of 107, a bystander shouted.

And get rid of 107, Kwan replied, starting a chant at that rally.

In an interview with The Tyee, Kwan said that while she wasnt aware of any bills to specifically target Section 107, she was looking into this matter, and what options are available to address this.

Increasingly, what the government is doing is invoking Section 107 as a means to sidestep the need to go to Parliament with back-to-work legislation, Kwan said. Its in violation of the workers rights to collectively bargain, and also tipping the scales right heavily towards the employer.

Kwan said shes researching how to amend the labour code to uphold workers strike rights.

There are other components that might relate to Section 107 that should be examined carefully so that we dont end up with negative unintended consequences by striking it, she said.
Sanjay Dutt Steps Into Hospitality With His First Restaurant, Solaire, In Mumbai

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News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 17:19 IST

Sanjay Dutt is all set to step into hospitality with his restaurant, Solaire. The fine-dining space will debut at Mumbais Grand Hyatt in Bandra Kurla Complex.

Sanjay Dutt will open his first restaurant in Mumbai.

Known for his larger-than-life roles on screen, Sanjay Dutt is now ready to script a new chapter. This time in the culinary world. The actor has announced the opening of Solaire, his debut restaurant at Mumbais Grand Hyatt in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC). For someone who has spent decades captivating audiences, the actor now wants to captivate palates, bringing global influences together under one glamorous roof.

The Concept of Sanjay Dutts Solaire

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Solaire is positioned as far more than a celebrity vanity project. With its location in the heart of Mumbais corporate and luxury hub, the restaurant promises to be a fine-dining address for business lunches, evening cocktails, and social gatherings alike. The culinary vision embraces a global mix of cuisines: from Asian delicacies and Indian signatures to Mediterranean and Chinese specialities, designed for diners who seek sophistication on their plates.

Sharing the video, Sanjay Dutt wrote, Ive eaten around the world. Now its my turn to plate it. The first of many! Welcome to @solaire_mumbai."

Take a look at the video here.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sanjay Dutt (@duttsanjay)

Dining Meets Design

Beyond the menu, Solaire is set to impress with its atmosphere. Plush seating, mood lighting, and interiors crafted for elegance without excess will create an immersive dining experience. A full-service bar will anchor the space, offering cocktails that go beyond the usual classics, further raising the bar for Mumbais dining scene.

The Team Behind the Dream

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Sanjay Dutt isnt walking this path alone. He has partnered with food entrepreneurs Ishaan Varma and Amit Lakhyani, both well-regarded in the industry for creating contemporary dining concepts. Their expertise ensures that Solaire will combine strong operational know-how with star power.

With its prime location, eclectic menu, and the charisma of a Bollywood legend at its helm, Solaire is poised to become one of Mumbais most anticipated restaurant launches of the year.

Location : Delhi, India, India

First Published: September 10, 2025, 17:19 IST

News lifestyle food Sanjay Dutt Steps Into Hospitality With His First Restaurant, Solaire, In Mumbai
Can UTI Symptoms Signal Bladder Or Kidney Cancer?

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News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 11:01 IST

UTI symptoms like burning urination or blood in urine can also signal serious conditions such as bladder or kidney cancer, says Dr. Mohammed Taif Bendigeri.

Experts caution that even a single episode of blood, whether visible to the eye or microscopic can be a potential red flag for bladder cancer.

It is one of the most common notions in the community that a burning sensation during urination is always a sign of UTI (urinary tract infection). However, UTI is not the only reason for this symptom," explains Dr. Mohammed Taif Bendigeri, Senior Consultant Urologist, Asian Institute of Nephrology and Urology, Hyderabad.

According to him, while burning sensation in urine is indeed the most frequent symptom of UTI, it requires the presence of other features to be confirmed as an infection. Typically, UTIs present with lower abdominal pain, increased frequency of urination, fever, flank pain, and occasionally blood in urine. A simple urine test can confirm UTI. Without this confirmation, the diagnosis remains presumptive," he says.

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Dr. Bendigeri further cautions against the common practice in India of taking over-the-counter medications without consulting a physician. This puts patients at significant risk of missing other possible causes of these symptoms. It is especially unfortunate when life-threatening ailments like bladder cancer or kidney cancer are overlooked due to presumptive treatment," he warns.

He points out that chronic burning sensation in urine may sometimes be due to bladder cancer, not just UTI. Neglecting this symptom as a simple infection can delay diagnosis. Many patients end up in advanced stages of cancer, where treatment outcomes are severely compromised," he explains.

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Similarly, he notes that flank pain with fever or the presence of blood in urine is often attributed to UTI but could, in some cases, indicate kidney cancer. Avoiding proper evaluation and making a blind presumptive diagnosis can cause major, often irreversible, harm to health. What makes this more concerning is that a simple consultation and basic investigations such as an abdominal ultrasound and urine test could save lives," says Dr. Bendigeri.

In conclusion, Dr. Bendigeri emphasizes: Making a presumptive or self-diagnosis of UTI can have serious consequences. Self-medication and over-the-counter drugs for presumed UTIs is like playing with fire. It is always best to consult a physician for any persistent or chronic symptoms, so that proper evaluation and timely treatment can be ensured."

About the Author Swati Chaturvedi Swati Chaturvedi, a seasoned media and journalism aficionado with over 10 years of expertise, is not just a storyteller; she's a weaver of wit and wisdom in the digital landscape. As a key figure in N... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 11:01 IST

News lifestyle health-and-fitness Can UTI Symptoms Signal Bladder Or Kidney Cancer?
Can Wearing A Bra Really Change Breast Shape And Size? Experts Say...

Curated By :

Translation Desk

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 15:01 IST

Many women believe that, along with providing support, bras can improve breast shape or size. Gynaecologists weigh in on whether the claim is true

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The right bra design and fitting can support the breasts and reduce sagging. (AI generated)

Bras are often considered essential for womens breast health, providing support, easing the weight on the shoulders, and helping maintain good posture. Despite this, many women remain unsure about the long-term effects of wearing a bra. Questions often arise regarding whether wearing a bra daily improves breast shape or even increases breast size.

Dr Sonali Gupta, former gynaecologist at Fortis Hospital, Greater Noida, told News18 that bras play a key role in supporting womens breasts. A bra helps prevent sagging and maintains proper shape. For women with heavier breasts, it is particularly important, as it improves posture and reduces strain on the shoulders and back," she explained. Bras also absorb moisture, reduce discomfort, and can improve overall breast health by preventing several related problems.

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Dr Sonali also clarified that wearing a bra daily does not increase breast size. A bra only offers temporary support. It keeps breasts in position and provides comfort, but it does not permanently make them larger or smaller," she said. Breast size, she noted, is primarily determined by genetics, hormonal changes, pregnancy, and weight fluctuations. While bras can help delay sagging, they cannot alter the natural shape or size of breasts.

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According to Dr Sonali, bras also do not cause any permanent change in breast shape. They only provide temporary support, giving the appearance of an improved shape, but they cannot change it permanently," she said. Breast shape depends on several physical factors.

The right bra design and fitting can support the breasts and reduce sagging. However, wearing the wrong size or avoiding bras altogether for long periods can accelerate sagging. To improve shape, she recommended breast-toning exercises alongside wearing properly fitted bras.

First Published: September 10, 2025, 15:01 IST

News lifestyle health-and-fitness Can Wearing A Bra Really Change Breast Shape And Size? Experts Say...
World Suicide Prevention Day: Why Paying Attention Could Be The Most Powerful Intervention

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 17:36 IST

On World Suicide Prevention Day, mental health experts share how small acts of attention, empathy, and early support can help save lives.

Small acts of attention can save lives.

Every life holds a story, but sometimes those stories are weighed down by pain that goes unseen. On World Suicide Prevention Day, marked on September 10, we are reminded that saving a life doesnt always come from grand gestures. It often begins with the smallest ones: a pause to listen, a kind word, a moment of genuine attention. These acts, though simple, can make the difference between silence and support, despair and hope.

We need to understand that prevention cannot rest on institutions alone. It depends on how each of us chooses to engage with mental health in our daily lives," explains Mrs. Neerja Birla, Founder and Chairperson of the Aditya Birla Education Trust.

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Recognising Early Signs

Suicidal distress rarely arrives with an obvious announcement. Instead, it shows up in subtle shifts in behaviour, mood, and energy.

According to Dr. Bhavya K Bairy, Consultant  Psychiatry, Manipal Hospitals Kanakapura Road, Bengaluru, Individuals in distress rarely ask for help. By paying attention to those around us, we can detect distress-based behaviours and intervene before a crisis emerges."

She points to signals such as prolonged sadness, social withdrawal, deteriorating hygiene, absenteeism from work or school, disrupted sleep and eating patterns, and even self-reported hopelessness or feeling like a burden. Talking to these individuals, helping them feel heard and valued, can create a ripple effect of hope," she adds.

The Role of Everyday Attention

The smallest gestures can have profound effects. From checking in with a text to inviting someone for coffee, these moments of connection can interrupt spirals of negative thought.

Small acts of kindness stimulate neurochemicals like serotonin and oxytocin, improve moods, and strengthen connectedness," notes Dr. Bairy.

For Shivanee Tripathy, Consultant  RCI Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Manipal Hospital Bhubaneswar, the act of paying attention can make the difference between silence and support. An old man rambling on the streets, a woman struggling to breathe at work, or a child refusing school, these moments are often ignored, but they may be quiet cries for help," she explains.

Question, Pursue, Refer

Tripathy suggests a three-step approach: Question, Pursue, Refer.

Signs to question include avoiding social interaction, unusual injuries, emotional outbursts, or gloomy posts on social media," she says.

Pursuing means staying engaged even if the person insists they are fine: Offer calm assurance, provide hope, and demonstrate positive regard."

When symptoms escalate, such as violent behaviour, self-injury, poor self-care, or worsening sleep and appetite, its time to refer to professionals. Evaluation by a trained mental health professional may prevent tragedies before they happen," she stresses.

Turning Awareness Into Action

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Ultimately, experts emphasise that suicide prevention is not only about medical systems but about cultural change. By recognising early warning signs, normalising conversations, and creating environments where people feel empowered to seek help, we can turn awareness into action," says Mrs. Birla.

As the world observes Suicide Prevention Day, the message is clear: we can all be gatekeepers of mental health. Listening without judgment, checking in with genuine concern, and guiding others to professional help are not small acts; they are lifesaving ones.

Location : Delhi, India, India

First Published: September 10, 2025, 17:36 IST

News lifestyle health-and-fitness World Suicide Prevention Day: Why Paying Attention Could Be The Most Powerful Intervention
Inside Nushrratt Bharucchas Nashville Diaries: Food, Music And Must-Visit Attractions

Published By :

Trending Desk

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 11:49 IST

Nushratt gave fans a glimpse of her vibrant journey, from indulging in delicious food and exploring art to immersing herself in the local culture of Tennessee on Instagram

Nushrratt Bharuccha's Instagram stories capture her spirit for travel and discovery.

Bollywood actress Nushrratt Bharuccha is in full holiday mode as she enjoys a trip to Nashville, Tennessee. Sharing updates on Instagram, shes giving fans a glimpse of her vibrant journey, from indulging in delicious food and exploring art to immersing herself in the local culture of the US state of Tennessee.

Her posts showcase everything from hip restaurants to offbeat cocktails, reflecting her enthusiasm for discovering the best the region has to offer. In one of her Instagram Stories, Nushrratt posed at the RH Courtyard Restaurant, renowned for its open-air setting, elegant fountains, and magazine-worthy interiors. The restaurant offers a curated menu featuring brunch, lunch, dinner, as well as champagnes and premium wines, making it a perfect spot for a stylish getaway.

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In another frame, Nushrratt was seen sipping an orange-flavoured drink, donning quirky sunglasses and exuding a stylish, carefree vibe. Her holiday diary took a charming desi turn when she revealed enjoying jalebis while in Dallas. This delightful mix of international flavours and Indian sweets highlights how shes blending comfort food with new experiences throughout her trip.

For travellers inspired by Nushrratts journey, Nashville offers an exciting array of attractions. Art enthusiasts can explore the Frist Art Museum, housed in a stunning Art Deco building, which presents a rotating collection of Renaissance masterpieces and contemporary exhibitions.

A stroll along Broadway is another must-do experience. The lively street pulses with neon lights, bustling bars, and live country music, offering the perfect taste of Nashvilles energetic nightlife.

No Nashville vacation would be complete without a stop at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. With rare recordings, legendary costumes, and interactive exhibits showcasing legends like Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton, the museum is not to be missed by music aficionados.

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Another gem is the Parthenon in Centennial Park, a full-scale replica of Athens architectural marvel. Around it, one can find a giant statue of Athena and an art museum, making it one of the most eccentric city landmarks.

Nushrratt Bharucchas Instagram stories capture her spirit for travel and discovery. From sleek dining adventures to cultural strolls, her Nashville diaries reflect a blend of style, flavour, and fun. Safely said, the actress is making the most of her time basking in the vibe of the American city and inspiring her fans to pack their luggage for a similar adventure.

About the Author Swati Chaturvedi Swati Chaturvedi, a seasoned media and journalism aficionado with over 10 years of expertise, is not just a storyteller; she's a weaver of wit and wisdom in the digital landscape. As a key figure in N... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 11:47 IST

News lifestyle travel Inside Nushrratt Bharucchas Nashville Diaries: Food, Music And Must-Visit Attractions
Who Can Apply For Finland Permanent Residency? All You Need To Know

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Trending Desk

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 11:43 IST

With Finlands Permanent Residency (PR) programme, you can enjoy a secure future, stable career opportunities and a high quality of life

Finland: At 1.420, Finland is noted for its strong social systems, low crime rates, and political stability. (Image: Canva)

Finland, ranked as the happiest country in the world for eight consecutive years, is more than just a land of stunning Northern Lights, pristine lakes and breathtaking landscapes. It is also one of the most desirable destinations for people seeking long-term settlement in Europe. With Finlands Permanent Residency (PR) programme, you can enjoy a secure future, stable career opportunities and a high quality of life in one of the safest and most beautiful countries on earth.

Why Choose Finland Permanent Residency?

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A Finland PR visa gives you the legal right to live, work and settle in Finland permanently. This permit offers long-term stability while opening doors to social, financial and travel benefits across the Schengen region.

Key advantages of holding a Finnish PR permit include:

Unlimited stay in Finland without the need to renew your residence permit.

Right to work and change jobs freely without additional permits.

Family sponsorship rights to bring your spouse, children or parents.

Access to world-class healthcare, education and social security benefits.

Eligibility for housing support, credit facilities and pension schemes.

Visa-free travel within most Schengen countries for short visits.

A pathway to Finnish citizenship after fulfilling residence requirements.

Finland PR Eligibility Criteria

To apply for a Permanent Residence Permit in Finland, you must meet the following conditions:

Minimum Stay Requirement

You must live in Finland for at least 4 continuous years on an A-type residence permit (work, business or family permit).

From January 2026, this requirement will increase to 6 years.

2. Physical Presence in Finland

At least 2 years of actual residence in Finland during the 4-year (soon 6-year) period.

Travel history, including holidays abroad, must be declared during the application.

3. Additional Eligibility Routes (any one of the following):

Minimum annual income of 40,000 (approx. Rs 41.3 lakhs).

A masters or postgraduate degree recognised in Finland, plus at least 2 years of work experience.

High-level Finnish or Swedish language proficiency (C1 level) along with 3 years of work experience.

4. Other Requirements:

Applicants who entered Finland with a student visa must switch to another A permit (such as a work permit) before applying.

Applications must be filed within Finland. Delayed applications require strong reasons (e.g., medical emergencies).

Clean criminal record is mandatory.

Documents Required for Finland PR

When applying for Finland permanent residency, you need to submit:

A valid passport and passport-sized photos as per Finnish guidelines.

A color copy of your passport ID page.

Proof of financial stability or employment.

Consent form if the applicant is a minor.

How to Apply for Finland PR

The application process for Finland Permanent Residency involves these steps:

Check eligibility and gather all required documents.

Complete the PR application form online via Enter Finland  enterfinland.fi/eServices/ info/ permanentresidencepermitapply or submit a paper application.

Pay the application fee (approx Rs 25,000 for online, Rs 36,000 for paper, Rs 19,000 for minors).

Book an appointment at the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) or VFS Global Centre to provide biometrics and verify your identity.

Track your application via the online portal or email updates.

Once approved, collect your residence permit card from the service center with your passport.

Pathways to Obtain Finland PR

There are multiple ways to secure Finland PR status:

Employment-based PR: After 4 years of work in Finland on an A permit.

Family reunification: If your spouse, parents or children live in Finland.

Business and investment: By starting or investing in a company in Finland.

Post-study work route: Students can switch to a work permit after graduation and later qualify for PR.

EU residence permit holders: Can transfer their EU permit to Finland and apply for PR after fulfilling residency requirements.

Benefits of Permanent Residency in Finland

Obtaining permanent residency in Finland offers unmatched advantages:

Lifelong right to live in Finland without renewals.

Work and study freedom across the country.

Free or subsidized healthcare and education for you and your family.

Seamless travel within Schengen Zone countries.

Eligibility for Finnish citizenship in the future.

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Legal protection and equal rights under Finnish law.

About the Author Swati Chaturvedi Swati Chaturvedi, a seasoned media and journalism aficionado with over 10 years of expertise, is not just a storyteller; she's a weaver of wit and wisdom in the digital landscape. As a key figure in N... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 11:39 IST

News lifestyle Who Can Apply For Finland Permanent Residency? All You Need To Know
Exclusive | Sunjay Kapur Was Helping Ex-Wife Karisma Kapoor, Their Children Procure Portuguese Citizenship

Reported By :

News18.com Edited By: Abhro Banerjee



Last Updated: September 11, 2025, 10:45 IST

Sunjay Kapur And Karisma Kapoor Whatsapp Chat: One of the chats cited in the suit records Sunjay telling Karisma that she would have to give up on her Indian citizenship.

Karisma Kapoor and Sunjay Kapur got divorced in 2016.

Fresh filings in the Sunjay Kapur inheritance dispute have sparked questions over whether Karisma Kapoor and Sanjay Kapur were actually closer than it was believed to be. WhatsApp chats and documents annexed to the suit filed by Karismas children in the Delhi High Court point to ongoing, personal discussions between the former spouses, suggesting deeper ties than previously known.

According to the material placed on record, Sunjay Kapur was facilitating Portuguese citizenship for Karisma Kapoor and their two children. The documents indicate steps being taken toward securing overseas nationality for the family.

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Also See: Who Will Inherit Sunjay Kapurs Rs 31000 Crore Empire

One of the chats cited in the suit records Sunjay telling Karisma that she would have to give up on her Indian citizenship to obtain a Portuguese passport. (India does not permit dual citizenship.) The court will examine these materials as the case progresses.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notice in a civil suit filed by Bollywood actor Karisma Kapoors two children, who are seeking a share in the Rs 30,000 crore estate of their late father, industrialist Sunjay Kapur.

The Bench of Justice Jyoti Singh directed the issuance of summons to the defendants and sought written statements within two weeks, with replications to follow within one week thereafter.

On the interim relief sought, the Court issued notice and asked for replies in two weeks, rejoinders within one week. The next matter is on October 9.

Priya Sachdeva Kapur, Sunjay Kapurs widow, has been directed to file a complete list of all movable and immovable assets of the deceased along with her reply. The matter will now be heard after three weeks for consideration of an ad-interim injunction.

Also Read: Sunjay Kapur Inheritance Dispute: Karisma Kapoors Children Say Will Not Registered, Seek Interim Relief From Court

The Court noted, Once I register the suit, the doctrine of lis will apply." Karisma Kapoors children, represented through their mother, have alleged that Priya Kapur forged Sunjay Kapurs will to seize complete control of his assets.

Arguing for the plaintiffs, Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani submitted that the will had not been disclosed earlier, is unregistered, and was read in haste" at the Taj Hotel. He also highlighted what he called suspicious circumstances," pointing out that the executor reportedly learned of the will only a day prior and that its disclosure originated from a family employee.

Senior Advocate Rajiv Nayar, appearing for Priya Kapur, contended that the suit is not maintainable. He said the plaintiffs are already beneficiaries under the trust and had received assets worth 1,900 crore just days before the case was filed.

Its not as if these people are left on the streets. I am a widow with a six-year-old child. For 15 years, they were nowhere to be seen," Nayar told the Court. On a query from the bench, Nayar confirmed the will is in their custody, placed it before Justice Jyoti Singh for inspection, and said he was willing to share it with the plaintiffs, subject to a non-disclosure agreement.

Sunjay Kapurs mother, Rani Kapur, appearing through Senior Advocate Vaibhav Gaggar, also raised objections. Theres something unholy going on. I am 80 years old and concerned about my grandchildren. A trust set up by me has nothing for me? Despite repeated mails, I never received a copy of the will," she said.

About the Author Ananya Bhatnagar Ananya Bhatnagar, Correspondent at CNN-News18, reports on various legal issues and cases in lower courts and the Delhi High Court. He has covered the hanging of the Nirbhaya gang-rape convicts, JNU vi... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 13:22 IST

News movies Exclusive | Sunjay Kapur Was Helping Ex-Wife Karisma Kapoor, Their Children Procure Portuguese Citizenship
'Apart From Quality...': Sivakarthikeyan On Why Tamil Cinema Doesnt Mint Rs 1000 Crore

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 10:25 IST

Sivakarthikeyan celebrates Madharaasi's success, discusses Tamil cinema's Rs 1000 crore challenge, ticket pricing, OTT deals, and hopes for industry growth in North India.

Sivakarthikeyan talks about lack of Rs 1000 crore movie in Tamil cinema.

Sivakarthikeyan is currently celebrating the success of his latest release, Madharaasi, a psychological action-romantic thriller co-starring Rukmini Vasanth and Vidyut Jammwal. The film, which has drawn praise for its gripping story and layered performances, marks another milestone in the actors career. Sivakarthikeyan recently spoke to Cinema Express about a topic that has long intrigued fans and industry insiders alike: why Tamil cinema has yet to produce a Rs 1000 crore hit. He talked about the challenges, opportunities, and future prospects for the Tamil film industry in reaching this elusive box-office landmark.

On the challenge of Rs 1000 crore hits

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Sivakarthikeyan said that chasing a specific box-office number should never be the sole focus while making a film. He said, I said this before, but when we did Amaran, we did not think about the number it would eventually make. Apart from the quality of a film, there are other factors to consider, such as ticket pricing. I am not in favour of increasing the ticket prices, but if we charged like in Bengaluru or Mumbai, then Jailer would have easily crossed Rs 800 crores, if not Rs 1000 crores."

He further pointed out that Tamil films need to reach North Indian audiences more effectively. However, Sivakarthikeyan noted a structural hurdle: many Tamil films sign four-week deals with OTT platforms, while multiplexes in cities like Mumbai prefer an eight-week window between theatrical release and digital premiere. This, he said, limits a films potential in Northern regions. He added that Amaran could have reached a much wider audience if not for such restrictions.

Optimism for the future

Looking ahead, Sivakarthikeyan expressed confidence that Tamil cinema will eventually achieve a Rs 1000 crore hit. It is not so easy to be pulled off by a single person. But I believe Tamil cinema is getting there, and the elusive Rs 1000 crore accomplishment would be achieved in a couple of years," he said.

About Madharaasi

Madharaasi is a Tamil-language psychological action-romantic thriller. The film follows Raghuram, an orphan who falls in love with Malathy. After she breaks up with him, Raghuram becomes distraught and contemplates ending his life. Meanwhile, NIA officer Premnath is searching for a civilian to lead a mission against a crime syndicate without risking his team.

Raghuram is recruited, but Malathy inadvertently gets caught in the syndicates plans. As events spiral, it is revealed that Raghuram suffers from a mental condition that blurs the line between heroism and insanity, adding layers of suspense to the story.

The films ensemble cast includes Monisha Vijay, Vikranth, Shabeer Kallarakkal, Prem Kumar, Sanjay, Sachana Namidass, and several others in key roles.

First Published: September 10, 2025, 10:25 IST

News movies regional-cinema 'Apart From Quality...': Sivakarthikeyan On Why Tamil Cinema Doesnt Mint Rs 1000 Crore
Witnessed Ganga Aarti: Indian Expat Shares Experience At Abu Dhabi's Hindu Temple

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 23:06 IST

Akash Kawale, an Indian man, who recently moved to Dubai shared a video and narrated his experience of witnessing a Ganga Aarti at the BAPS Hindu Mandir in Abu Dhabi.

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A screengrab from Akash Kawales video where devotees are performing Ganga Aarti. (IMAGE: Instagram)

An Indian man who recently moved to the United Arab Emirates shared a video narrating his experience of witnessing a Ganga Aarti at the BAPS Swaminarayan Hindu Mandir.

The Ganga Aarti is a daily Hindu ritual of offering prayers to the sacred river Ganga, performed with lamps, chants, and hymns on riverbanks in India. It symbolizes gratitude, purification and devotion to the life-giving river.

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24-year-old Akash Kawale documented his visit to the temple in a video and the video has resonated with many online. The video was recorded three weeks after he visited the UAE.

He captioned the video: I witnessed Ganga Aarti in UAE".

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Akash Kawale (@akashkawale10)

The video offers a glimpse of the temple premises and rituals performed before the water body inside the temple. The video also showed how the temple preserves Indian culture abroad.

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The BAPS Hindu Mandir in Abu Dhabi, inaugurated on February 14, 2024, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is the citys first traditional Hindu temple. Made of pink sandstone and Italian marble, the temple follows classic Hindu architectural styles and symbolizes cultural harmony in the UAE.

Kawale in his video said that he visited the temple on his off-day and spending 14 days in the hotel. He added that the temple is frequented by many celebrities as well.

About the Author Shankhyaneel Sarkar Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a senior subeditor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over five years of experience during which he has c... Read More

Location : Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE)

First Published: September 10, 2025, 23:06 IST

News uae Witnessed Ganga Aarti: Indian Expat Shares Experience At Abu Dhabi's Hindu Temple

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Opinion | GST Reforms: Triumph Of Economic Institutions As Much As Economics

Written By :

News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 14:30 IST

This is a triumph of the democratic spirit of the country and reflects strength of economic institutions that we have nurtured in the last few decades.

The GST Council, under the leadership of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, announced sweeping changes to Indias tax system.

The much talked about GST second generation reforms provided a breath of fresh air for citizens. Economists have been urging policymakers to refine the GST ever since its inception in 2018 to a single or dual rate system which was the original intent of the reform itself. While there has been a lot of debate on the modalities of the rates  5 per cent, 18 per cent and the 40 per cent  and the need to refine various types of it, its important to take a step back and look at the big picture. This is a triumph of the democratic spirit of the country and reflects strength of economic institutions that we have nurtured in the last few decades especially post economic liberalisation.

Economic boost to the common man

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First, on the economics behind the GST reforms. There is no second thought on the importance of simplification, ease of compliance leading to greater revenue mobilisation and standardisation of GST across products. As noted by some commentators, the earlier version actually included as much as eight tax slabs, excluding the exemptions with rates ranging from 0.25 to 28 per cent. This was a much more complicated system compared to other countries which had mostly a three rate structure for the GST (Bhasin, Virmani 2021). The current GST reforms aim to achieve some of these objectives and is by and a large very good effort in addressing some of the issues in the present structure. While the implicit benefit of providing stimulus to the economy in the short run and in the long run greater indirect tax compliance and stability, it also reflects the increasing efficacy of economic institutions and their functioning.

Scale and complexity like no other

GST  through the aegis of the GST council  represents the most democratic forum of decision making on a singular policy in Bharats history and perhaps even the world. Canada has a council of federation which provides together 13 provinces but its more of political coordination forum. Australias Council on Federal Financial Relations (CFFR) is a similar forum but has only about eight states part of it and much lesser in scale. Same is the case with European Union  ECOFIN Council (Economic and Financial Affairs Council) though it has supra national sovereignty shared compared to the GST council which is under one federal nation. The Federal Reserve in the US is perhaps a similar deliberative body on economic issues but nowhere near as complex. None of these come close to the scale and complexity of the GST council.

Democratic and consensus building

The Union Finance Minister is the Chairperson whereas all the state finance ministers are members including all the States and UTs in the country. Decisions are made by 75 per cent majority weighted votes where the union government has 1/3 votes and all states put together has 2/3 votes. In simple terms, due to weighted voting, all decisions have to be taken with both Centre and collective states together with either of them not vetoing decisions on their own. There has to have a consensus between the states and the Centre before the GST rates have been implemented. This is a huge ask for Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to anchor and deliberate upon and bring together various stakeholders across opposition parties on board. This also nullifies the opportunistic jibe that this happened only because of the Trump tariffs which forced the government into action. No matter what the external situation, if the various states were not on board, how would it be possible to push through this reform during this time? If not for the various deliberations prior to the GST council meetings over the last few years, how would this growing consensus have been established? Much credit has to go to the policymakers and the Finance Minister and the Prime Minister for steadfastly pursuing this consensus building in the background with various stakeholders and also used an opportune moment.

Economic institutions par excellence

This is not a one-off case by any means. Economic institutions in Bharat have excelled in recent years. Whether its the monetary policy committee in the Reserve Bank of India (or the RBI itself for that matter), or the Finance Commission of India or the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) and other institutions of economic policies have faired with excellent credentials. Institutional economic frameworks within Bharat have enabled rules based, inclusive and fair based representation of a variety of views in economic policymaking in the Bharatiya context. This is testimony to the democratic spirit of most of our economic policy frameworks and the GST council is a much bigger body which continues in this tradition.

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We are often criticised by the naysayers on the lack of efficacy of our institutions and this leads to more inefficiencies in governance and public policy. The success of the GST reforms and the functioning of economic institutions have often proven the doubters wrong more than once in terms of their democratic spirit, inclusive structure and also fair representation of the economic challenges across board. I have often argued in my books and research that institutions alone dont matter for Viksit Bharat and that understanding the cultural way of life is as important. Nevertheless, the success of the GST reforms reflects a much wider success story of economic institutions which is as important as economics of the reforms itself.

Sriram Balasubramanian is an economist and best-selling author of Dharmanomics and Kautilyanomics for modern times. All views are personal and do not reflect that of any organisation.

About the Author Sriram Balasubramanian Journalist Sriram Balasubramanian is a Journalist, voracious reader, avid Blogger, social enthusiast and a believer in excellence not mediocrity. With an inherent passion towards journalism and writing, he belie... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 14:30 IST

News opinion Opinion | GST Reforms: Triumph Of Economic Institutions As Much As Economics

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Commentary

By Marco Navarro-Genie

What looked like a narrow, post-convoy overreach has morphed into something much broaderand far more disturbing. Debanking isnt a policy misfire. Its turning into a systemic method of silencing dissentnot just in Canada, but across the Western world.

Across Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., people are being cut off from basic financial services not because theyve broken any laws, but because they hold views or support causes the establishment disfavors. When I contacted Eva Chipiuk after RBC quietly shut down her account, she confirmed what others had only whispered: this is happening to a lot of people.

This abusive form of financial blacklisting is deep, deliberate and dangerous. In the U.K., Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK and no stranger to controversy, was debanked under the fig leaf of financial justification. Internal memos later revealed the real reason: he was deemed a reputational risk. Cue the backlash, and by 2025, the bank was forced into a settlement complete with an apology and compensation. But the message had already been sent.

That message didnt stay confined to Britain. And lets not pretend its just private institutions playing favourites. Even in Albertawhere one might hope for a little more institutional backboneTamara Lich was denied an appointment to open an account at ATB Financial. Thats Albertas own Crown bank. If you think provincial ownership protects citizens from political interference, think again.

Fortunately, not every institution has lost its nerve. Bow Valley Credit Union, a smaller but principled operation, has taken a clear stance: it wont debank Albertans over their political views or affiliations. In an era of bureaucratic cowardice, Bow Valley is acting like a credit union should: protective of its members and refreshingly unapologetic about it.

South of the border, things are shifting. On Aug. 7, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans. The order prohibits financial institutions from denying service based on political affiliation, religion or other lawful activity. It also instructs U.S. regulators to scrap the squishy concept of reputational riskthe bureaucratic smoke screen used to justify debankingand mandates a review of past decisions. Cases involving ideological bias must now be referred to the Department of Justice.

This isnt just paperwork. Its a blunt declaration: access to banking is a civil right. From now on, in the U.S., politically motivated debanking comes with consequences.

Of course, its not perfect. Critics were quick to notice that the order conveniently omits platforms like PayPal and other payment processorscompanies that have been quietly normalizing debanking for over a decade. These are the folks who love vague acceptable use policies and ideological red lines that shift with the political winds. Their absence from the order raises more than a few eyebrows.

And the same goes for another set of financial gatekeepers hiding in plain sight. Credit card networks like Visa, American Express and Mastercard have become powerful, unaccountable referees, denying service to individuals and organizations labelled controversial for reasons that often boil down to politics.

If these players arent explicitly reined in, banks might play by the new rules while the rest of the financial ecosystem keeps enforcing ideological conformity by other means.

If access to money is a civil right, then that right must be protected across the entire payments systemnot just at your local branch.

While the U.S. is attempting to shield its citizens from ideological discrimination, there is a noticeable silence in Canada. Not a word of concern from the government benchesor the opposition. The political class is united, apparently, in its indifference.

If Ottawa wont act, provinces must. That makes things especially urgent for Alberta and Saskatchewan. These are the provinces where dissent from Ottawas policies is most commonand where citizens are most likely to face politically motivated financial retaliation.

But theyre not powerless. Both provinces boast robust credit union systems. Alberta even owns ATB Financial, a Crown bank originally created to protect Albertans from central Canadian interference. But ownership without political will is just branding.

If Alberta and Saskatchewan are serious about defending civil liberties, they should act now. They can legislate protections that prohibit financial blacklisting based on political affiliation or lawful advocacy. They can require due process before any account is frozen. They can strip reputational risk from the rulebooks and make it clear to Ottawa: using banks to punish dissenters wont fly here.

Because once governmentsor corporations doing their biddingcan cut off your access to money for holding the wrong opinion, democracy isnt just threatened.

Its already broken.

Marco Navarro-Genie is vice-president of research at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.
Opinion | Heritage, Ethos, Not Saffronisation

Written By :

News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 17:55 IST

Selective amnesia and deliberate attempt to communalise the army on naming of Operation Sindoor is gross and unacceptable

Naming the operation which was primarily a retaliatory action against such a heinous crime selectively inflicted on the majority community of the country was meant to be a tribute to victims and their families, not as a religious decree. (News18)

Frontline column Hindu Names for Military Operations: Treading a Dangerous Line" by Mani Shankar Aiyar published on 09, September 2025 argues that naming of military operations by the present government  most recently Operation Sindoor reflects a deliberate saffronisation of Indian Army."

The argument is provocative, selective and highly misleading. Having served for 35 years in Indian Army, I never felt that Im a Hindu or so to say only a Hindu. Being from a pure Sikh Regiment, felt more like a SIKH, behaved like a Sikh and whenever there was a chance to name an institution, exercise or force, the first name that would come to the mind was one that related to Sikh traditions of valour.

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Yet no one, including my parents, questioned my secular or Hindu credentials. This is so, because anyone who understands armed forces  the history, military tradition and institutional structure  knows that operation or force names are cultural symbols, not ideological manifestos.

The culture of naming operations and exercises is older than modern warfare and militaries across the globe use evocative names for operations and exercises  sometimes as a code for secrecy, motivation and more often for messaging deterrence to the adversary as much as public consumption.

From earliest days of independent India, armed forces have drawn names from mythology, Sanskrit, geography and abstract concepts. This practice cuts across political regimes led by Congress, BJP or coalitions.

In 1984, almost four decades prior to the debate, Indian Army launched Operation Meghdoot to secure Siachen Glacier. The name comes from Kalidasas Sanskrit classic Meghaduta (Cloud Messenger from Hindu Cosmology) where an exiled Yaksha asks a cloud to carry a message to his beloved in the Himalayas. Name was chosen, as it was apt reflection of the nature of operation wherein Indian troops were airlifted like clouds into Himalayan heights. It was nothing but a cultural resonance.

The name of recently concluded operation Sindoor has been used as evidence to create a discourse that Army is getting communalized or saffronised. Rationale for the name is very clear. Terrorists in Pahalgam targeted married Hindu men, widowing women overnight.

Sindoor (vermilion) symbolizes marital bond in Indian culture. Naming the operation which was primarily a retaliatory action against such a heinous crime selectively inflicted on the majority community of the country was meant to be a tribute to victims and their families, not as a religious decree.

Branding it as ideologically motivated reflects ignorance as well as crafty effort to question secular credentials of the armed forces. The act of symbolism and resolve when questioned post-operation Sindoor, a defense ministry official had said, There is no single written policy on naming. Choices are pragmatic, contextual and meant to evoke resolve." More often than not, the ideas get generated at very junior level and accepted as such to keep the initiative alive.

The writer of Hindu Names for Military Operations: Treading a Dangerous Line" has been selective about names in recent times, without considering full spectrum since evolution of Indian Armed Forces.

When names like Operation Trident (1971), Operation Shakti (1998) or Exercise Ashvamedha (2007) were chosen, no one accused the government of the day  the Congress-led in each case  of religious indoctrination.

In the name Operation Trident", famous naval strike on Karachi in 1971, trident" is nothing else than Trishul", the weapon of Lord Shiva. Operation Shakti, Indias nuclear test in 1998 drew the name from Goddess power in the Hindu philosophy. But then, these names were accepted as civilizational, not sectarian. When no questions were Congress raised then, why do it now?

To illustrate that there is neither any disruption in naming the operations nor is any correlation with appointment of CDS, it is important to analyse few names that relate to the pre and post-2014 era.

Era Operation/Exercise Name Year Origin/Meaning Mythological/ Cultural link Pre-2014 Operation Meghdoot 1984 Kalidasas Meghadoota Yaksha sends clouds to Himalayas Operation Trident 1971 Trident (Trishul) Weapon of Lord Shiva Operation Pawan 1987 Pawan = Wind Vedic Deity Operation Shakti 1998 Shakti = Power Goddess Power Exercise Ashvamedha 2007 Royal Horse sacrifice Ancient Hindu Ritual Exercise Sudarshan Shakti 2011 Sudarshan Chakra Vishnus discus Missiles Prithvi, Agni, Akash, Nag Ongoing Fire, Earth, Sky, Serpent Vedic / Hindu roots Exercise Indra Ongoing Indra = God of rain Vedic deity Post 2014 Operation Maitri 2015 Maitree = Friendship Sanskrit, Budhist ethos Exercise Shatrujeet 2016 Shatrujeet = Enemy Conqueror Sanskrit motivational

If Armed Forces were being transformed to suit a particular religion, their names and demography would also have started changing. Instead, the regimental system remains plural  Sikh Regiment, Rajputana Rifles, Maratha Light Infantry, Punjab Regiment, Assam Regiment, Madras regiment, Gorkha Regiment, Brigade of Guards, and so on  each maintaining regional, caste or faith-based traditions. The very regimentation of Indian Armed Forces is proof of pluralism.

If the army was being saffronised as claimed by Aiyar, there would be a written directive mandating Hindu names. Whether it is regiments, exercises or operations, they would all start assuming names relating to Hindu religion only.

Unlike compulsory recruitment of persons of religions based on which regiments exist only Hindus will get recruited. Likewise, promotion criteria will change. There would be no non-Hindu tenanting critical appointments such as Chief of Army / Navy / Air Force. Contrary to this, what we see is continuity: a mixture of neutral, mythological and cultural names chosen for operational and symbolic value.

Seen through Cognitive Warfare lens, such narratives follow a familiar toolkit: disinformation (casting doubts on facts by portraying cultural symbolism as ideological capture), amplification (mainstreaming selective examples while ignoring historical continuity) and de-legitimization (eroding trust in one of the most patriotic institutions).

We saw a similar pattern when opposition leaders questioned authenticity of 2016 Surgical Strikes and 2019 Balakot airstrike. In each case, rumour and insinuation  not evidence became the weapon, with adversarial information networks amplifying the doubts globally.

Current portrayal of operation names as saffronisation" is another iteration of this strategy. It seeks to spread skepticism about Armed Forces, fracture national consensus and weaken deterrence, thereby contributing towards the enemys objectives.

Notwithstanding this, does an Army of a Hindu majority nation not have legitimacy to name an operation based on ethos of its culture, particularly so when the operation relates that community. Tomorrow, someone will question as to why act of terrorism against Hindus was responded through an operation? Only if the causative factor has people of all religions, only then the operation will be called as secular?

False charges of saffronising Armed Forces through operation names collapse under scrutiny. Meghdoot, Trident, Shakti, Ashvamedha  all belong to the pre-2014 era, all drew on Hindu mythology or Sanskrit and chosen under Congress governments. Yet no one cried ideological capture then.

Operation Sindoor is not an aberration but part of long tradition of symbolic naming in Indian military. To cherry pick names today and attribute them to partisan intent is not analysis, it is selective amnesia or deliberate move to sow doubts in the credentials of Armed Forces. It is the same school of thought that questioned credibility of Surgical Strikes and Air Strikes at Balakot. Since there was so much proof on Operation Sindoor, the name was turned problematic.

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Indian Armed Forces have always drawn from Indias civilisational well spring for names, and they will continue to do so. Thats heritage, not saffronisation.

(Author is a veteran of Indian Army, experienced in planning & executing key operations with an extensive expertise in information warfare and defence strategy and Guest Columnist at Centre for Integrated and Holistic Studies a CIHS. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.)

About the Author Brigadier Brijesh Pandey Brig Brijesh Pandey is a veteran with distinguished career of 35+ years in Indian Army, specialising in Artillery and pioneering Information Warfare. Proven leader with expertise in strategic planning... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 17:55 IST

News opinion Opinion | Heritage, Ethos, Not Saffronisation

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Opinion | How Indias Biofuel Diplomacy Is Reshaping Global Power

Written By :

News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 11:31 IST

The Global Biofuels Alliance, steered by India, aims to unlock $500 billion in economic opportunities for G20 nations within just three years

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India's leadership in this transformation positions the country not merely as a participant in global climate action but as an architect of future environmental cooperation frameworks. (Shutterstock)

Two years ago, on September 9, 2023, India launched the Global Biofuels Alliance (GBA) during its G20 presidency, a watershed moment that has fundamentally reshaped global energy cooperation and established India as an emerging climate superpower.

The Global Biofuels Alliance, steered by India, aims to unlock $500 billion in economic opportunities for G20 nations within just three years, an ambition with the power to transform livelihoods across two-thirds of the worlds population and anchor a new paradigm in sustainable growth.

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By focusing on biofuels in the global energy transition, India has shown that developing countries can take the lead on climate action while still meeting their own development needs. This approach offers an alternative to the more traditional, top-down models used by developed countries. The rise of the GBA shows Indias shift toward climate leadership based on fairness, inclusion, and working together with other countries.



Architecture of Climate Superpower Emergence

Prime Minister Narendra Modis announcement, delivered alongside leaders from the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Singapore, Bangladesh, Italy, Mauritius, and the UAE, signalled Indias confidence in shaping international energy norms from a Global South perspective. The launch marked Indias transition from a participant in global climate governance to an architect of new multilateral frameworks.

Unlike many climate initiatives led by Western countries, the GBA focuses on sharing technology, building skills, and exchanging knowledge among developing nations. This approach recognises that energy solutions need to fit local needs and be affordable.

For example, India has shared its advanced biofuel technology with several African countries. India and Brazil are also working together to build ethanol plants in Africa, showing the benefits of cooperation between developing nations. In Southeast Asia, countries like Indonesia are learning from Indias experience with biomass energy. These examples show the real impact of the GBAs work in different regions.

The GBA was launched at a time when the world is starting to see how important biofuels are for reaching net-zero goals. The International Energy Agency expects biofuel demand to rise sharply by 2028, but right now, sustainable aviation fuel makes up only 0.3 per cent of all aviation fuel used. Indias early focus on this area shows strong vision in spotting and acting on new opportunities in the global energy shift.

The establishment of the GBA Secretariat in New Delhi represents a milestone in Indias diplomatic evolution, marking the countrys first major international organisation hosting arrangement in the realm of economic diplomacy. The signing of the Host Country Agreement in October 2024 granted the GBA diplomatic status with immunities and privileges under the United Nations (Privileges & Immunities) Act, 1947.

The New Delhi Secretariat places India at the operational heart of global biofuel cooperation, positioning the country as the primary knowledge hub and coordination centre for sustainable energy transitions across the Global South. The secretariats establishment follows the successful precedent of the International Solar Alliance, further cementing Indias role as an innovative architect of multilateral climate institutions.



South-South Cooperation and Technology Leadership

The GBA has emerged as a compelling exemplar of South-South cooperation, fundamentally challenging traditional development assistance models. Unlike conventional North-South frameworks characterised by donor-recipient relationships, the GBA emphasises horizontal partnerships based on shared experiences, technological complementarity, and mutual benefit.

Brazils participation in the alliance exemplifies this paradigm. The countrys decades of experience in sugarcane ethanol production, coupled with its sophisticated biofuel policy framework through the Fuels of the Future law mandating biodiesel blending targets of 20 per cent by 2030, provides invaluable expertise for other developing nations.

The same model has demonstrated particular relevance for African nations seeking sustainable energy solutions. Countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Mauritius have joined the alliance, gaining access to proven technologies and implementation strategies developed within similar economic and social contexts. The alliances focus on technology transfer ensures that innovations developed in one Global South context can be adapted and implemented across diverse developmental landscapes.

Rather than relying on expensive Northern technologies, the alliance promotes South-South technology sharing that emphasises affordability, adaptability, and local capacity building. Indias expertise in second and third-generation biofuel technologies, combined with Brazils advanced sugarcane processing capabilities, creates a powerful knowledge base for global dissemination.



Economic Diplomacy and Strategic Investments

The secretariats role goes beyond administration to include policy coordination, technical assistance, and investment facilitation among member countries. This enables India to influence global biofuel standards, certification processes, and market development, which will become more important as international biofuel trade expands. The secretariat also recognises potential resistance from established certification bodies and oil-exporting nations. To address this, it is engaging with international stakeholders to ensure that global biofuel standards and certification processes are harmonised, promoting transparency and interoperability for broad acceptance and market integration.

The institutional framework also facilitates Indias broader economic diplomacy objectives. By positioning itself as the central hub for biofuel cooperation, India enhances its attractiveness as an investment destination whilst expanding market access for Indian companies across member countries.

The GBA has catalysed broader investment flows between member countries, particularly in bio-refinery infrastructure and feedstock production. Indian companies, including ONGC Videsh and Bharat Petroleum, have committed to upstream oil and bioenergy investments in Brazil, whilst Brazilian firms are exploring opportunities in Indias expanding biofuel market.

Petrobrass commitment of $600 million to bioenergy projects represents a significant validation of the alliances commercial viability. This investment, part of Petrobrass biorefinery programme extending through 2028, demonstrates the private sectors confidence in biofuel market prospects and the value of India-Brazil cooperation.

The Petrobras investment encompasses biodiesel and biomethane projects that leverage both countries technological capabilities whilst creating new market opportunities. ONGC Videshs expanding activities in Brazil further illustrate the deepening economic relationship.

The companys existing 27 per cent participation in the BC-10 project in the Campos Basin, combined with recent memorandums of understanding with Petrobras for upstream exploration and low-carbon solutions, represents a comprehensive energy partnership.



Milestones Being Created and Reached

The GBAs remarkable expansion from its initial nine founding countries to 24 member countries and 12 international organisations within two years demonstrates its growing global relevance. This growth trajectory includes G20 economies such as Canada, Japan, and South Africa, alongside developing nations from Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean.

The alliances membership expansion reflects its success in addressing diverse national priorities whilst maintaining coherent policy objectives. Countries join the GBA to access technology, secure investment opportunities, develop market linkages, and participate in global standard-setting processes that will shape future biofuel trade.

International organisations, including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, International Energy Agency, and World Economic Forum, have joined as institutional members, providing technical expertise, financing capabilities, and global networks that enhance the alliances operational effectiveness.

The GBA has made substantial progress in developing common technical standards, quality standardisation, and uniform certification processes that facilitate international biofuel trade. The alliances policy framework development includes comprehensive country landscape assessments, beginning with Mauritius, Tanzania, and Sri Lanka.

The standardisation efforts extend to sustainability certification processes that align with international frameworks such as the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation. This alignment ensures that GBA-produced biofuels meet international market requirements whilst maintaining the alliances commitment to environmental and social sustainability.

Innovation networks established through the GBA have generated breakthroughs in feedstock processing, production efficiency, and waste management systems. The alliances emphasis on sustainable aviation fuel development has produced particularly promising results. Joint research initiatives between India and Brazil have identified pathways for leveraging existing ethanol production infrastructure to support SAF production, potentially transforming both countries into major aviation fuel suppliers.

The GBAs ascent has reinforced Indias status as a global climate leader by illustrating that developing nations can drive impactful environmental action. Indias renewable energy capacity exceeds 200 GW, with non-fossil fuels making up 45 per cent of the total, providing a strong foundation for ongoing climate initiatives.

The alliances role in supporting Indias net-zero commitment by 2070 cannot be understated. Biofuels represent a critical component of Indias decarbonisation strategy, particularly for hard-to-electrify sectors such as aviation, shipping, and long-distance transport.

Indias positioning as a solar superpower with over 100 GW of installed solar capacity, combined with its biofuel leadership through the GBA, establishes the country as a comprehensive clean energy leader.

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As the alliance enters its third year, its success in expanding membership, facilitating investment, advancing technology transfer, and establishing international standards demonstrates the viability of climate initiatives led by the Global South. Indias leadership in this transformation positions the country not merely as a participant in global climate action but as an architect of future environmental cooperation frameworks that prioritise equity, sustainability, and shared prosperity.

The GBAs achievements over its first two years show that developing nations have the capacity, innovation, and leadership to drive meaningful global climate action. As international attention focuses on the urgency of energy transitions, Indias biofuel diplomacy offers a proven model for environmental sustainability.

About the Author Sohil Sinha Sohil Sinha is a Sub Editor at News18. He writes on foreign affairs, geopolitics along with domestic policy and infrastructure projects.

First Published: September 10, 2025, 11:31 IST

News opinion Opinion | How Indias Biofuel Diplomacy Is Reshaping Global Power

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Opinion | India & Israels Bilateral Investment Agreement: Historic Leap Of Trust, Strategy

Written By :

News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 18:53 IST

The new economic treaty between New Delhi and Tel Aviv signals a deeper alignment beyond trade and investment

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharam, Finance Minister of Israel Bezalel Smotrich and others during the signing ceremony of Bilateral Investment Agreement between India and Israel, in New Delhi. (PIB via PTI Photo)

In geopolitics, not every agreement signed between nations deserves celebration. Many bilateral treaties are dressed up in diplomatic jargon and then quietly forgotten, their impact fading into bureaucratic oblivion. But the Bilateral Investment Agreement (BIA) signed in New Delhi between Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and her Israeli counterpart, Bezalel Smotrich, is different. This one matters, and it matters deeply.

The significance of this pact goes beyond investment flows and legal clauses. It is about trust, strategic intent, and the future trajectory of the IndiaIsrael partnership. At its core, it is a signal to the world that these two democracies are ready to forge a new path together, one that blends economic cooperation with geopolitical alignment.

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To understand why this is historic, consider the context. In 2017, India terminated dozens of old bilateral investment treaties after realising they left the country vulnerable to investorstate arbitration claims. These older agreements tilted heavily in favour of foreign investors, often undermining Indias sovereign right to regulate its economy. Since then, India has developed a new, stricter, India-centric treaty model. This updated framework offers investor protection, but on Indias terms, carefully balancing openness with sovereignty.

Most Western nations have been hesitant to sign under this new model. Yet Israel has now become the first OECD country to do so. This is more than a legal endorsement; it is a vote of confidence in Indias economic governance and an acknowledgement that Indias terms are fair and workable. By taking this step, Israel is positioning itself as a trusted first mover, signalling that it believes in Indias rise and is willing to embed itself deeply into Indias economic future.

Strip away the technical jargon of reciprocal investments" and financial protocols", and a deeper story emerges. India and Israel share a unique relationship forged in moments of vulnerability. When other countries hesitated, Israel stepped up: supplying critical defence technologies during conflicts, sharing water management innovations that helped Indias agriculture sector, and offering cutting-edge expertise in cybersecurity and technology. This treaty is not just about economics; it is about solidifying a comprehensive partnership that now extends into finance, infrastructure, and innovation-driven growth. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modis leadership, India has steadily expanded its engagement with Israel, and this agreement takes that partnership into a new realm.

The optics surrounding this signing are telling. Minister Smotrich did not travel to New Delhi with a token entourage. Instead, he brought Israels top financial leadership: the Director General of Finance, the Chief Economist, the Accountant General, and the head of the Securities Authority. This represents the entire financial brain trust of Israels government. It shows the seriousness of intent. This is not a symbolic photo opportunity but a strategic economic embedding into Indias growth story. For Israel, traditionally oriented towards the United States and Europe, this move represents a deliberate eastward tilt. It signals that Tel Aviv views India as a pillar of its future economic diversification, a hedge against over-reliance on Western economies.

The agreement carries global implications far beyond India and Israel. Global investors have long complained that Indias post-2017 treaty framework was too rigid. Israels acceptance provides a powerful validation and could now encourage other OECD nations to reconsider their scepticism and open doors for similar agreements. It also signals a geopolitical realignment, with Israel deepening its economic roots in India and diversifying partnerships beyond its traditional Western allies. Moreover, in a world where authoritarian states weaponise trade and finance, two democracies are choosing to build transparent, fair economic relations. This is a political statement in itself.

The potential unleashed by this treaty is enormous if followed through with vision and execution. Consider the possibilities. Digital services and cybersecurity could be transformed by combining Indias IT scale with Israels cyber defence systems, setting global standards for digital trust and security. Tel Avivs start-ups could gain access to Indias vast market, while Bengalurus innovators benefit from Israeli mentorship and R&D expertise. As climate change disrupts food security, Israeli water innovations merged with Indian agritech could transform farming for millions of smallholders. And the proposed financial protocol could unlock better credit terms for exporters, boosting Indias global competitiveness.

While the symbolism of this signing is powerful, the real challenge lies in implementation. Treaties are only as effective as the political will and bureaucratic machinery that follow them. The early signs are promising. Sitharaman has been invited to Israel, discussions are under way to establish Finance Ministry representation in each country, and joint teams have been tasked with ensuring the momentum continues. These steps indicate that both sides view this not as a one-off deal but as an evolving, institutional partnership.

Unlike dramatic defence deals or headline-grabbing state visits, this agreement represents quiet, foundational diplomacy. It signals that India and Israel are ready to co-author the rules of their economic engagement, grounded in trust and mutual benefit. In todays fractured world, where international trust is scarce, such bonds are rare. This BIA is not just about financial flows; it is about two nations choosing certainty in each other amidst global uncertainty.

This agreement is more than ink on paper. It is India telling the world that Israel is not just a defence supplier or innovation hub but a strategic partner in building resilient economies. And it is Israel declaring that, among the rising powers of the 21st century, India is the one it is betting on.

In diplomacy, signals matter. They shape perceptions, anchor partnerships, and define future trajectories. The IndiaIsrael Bilateral Investment Agreement is a historic signal of a commitment to shared growth, innovation, and resilience. In choosing each other, these two nations have chosen to defy global fragmentation and write a joint chapter in economic history.

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This is why the BIA is not just groundbreaking, it is historic. Because it tells us something profound: in a world of shifting alliances and fragile trust, India and Israel have chosen certainty with each other.

The writer is a technocrat, political analyst, and author. He pens national, geopolitical, and social issues. His social media handle is @prosenjitnth. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.

About the Author Prosenjit Nath The writer is an Indian technocrat, political analyst, and author.

First Published: September 10, 2025, 18:53 IST

News opinion Opinion | India & Israels Bilateral Investment Agreement: Historic Leap Of Trust, Strategy

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Opinion | Nepal's Gen Z And The Reckoning: Rewiring A Broken Democracy

Written By :

News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 20:41 IST

With Prime Minister Oli gone and the military stepping in, Nepal's protesting leaders should suspend demonstrations and pursue a peaceful resolution through dialogue

People displaying Nepal's national flag burn tyres during a demonstration to condemn the police's deadly crackdown on protesters in Kathmandu on September 9. (Image/AFP)

Kathmandus streets erupted with the fury of a generation on September 8. Thousands of young Nepalis took to the streets and stormed parliament amid anger over corruption and a social media ban. The response was brutal: reports indicate at least 22 protesters have been killed in clashes with police, with violence escalating into a second day as demonstrators defied curfews, setting fire to government buildings and the homes of political leaders.

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Nepals Gen Z Revolution" is a movement that transcends its immediate triggersa social media blackout and entrenched corruptionto challenge the very wiring of a fragile democracy. These young people are not just demanding change; they are exposing a deeper truth: democracy in Nepal, and perhaps beyond, needs a radical reboot to survive. Their protests signal a generational shift, one that could redefine how power listensor fails to. By late Tuesday, September 9, Nepals military began deploying troops in Kathmandu to restore order, as rampaging protesters targeted the political elite, torching parliament, the Supreme Court, and residences of figures like former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned that day, a dramatic concession, but the unrest shows no sign of abating.

Nepals Gen Z is not just fighting for free speech or clean governance. They are demanding a system that is responsive, transparent, inclusive, and accountable.

The Peoples Movement in 2006 marked another milestone in Nepals democracy, leading to the abolition of the monarchy in 2008 and the establishment of Nepal as a republic. It promised inclusion and prosperity. Yet, two decades later, it is just a patchwork of broken institutions and unkept promises. Corruption festerstake the 2017 Airbus deal, where Nepal Airlines lost $10.4 million to shady dealings, with culprits barely punished. Youth unemployment is around 20 per cent, forcing thousands to toil abroad as migrant workers, their remittances propping up a third of the GDP while politicians children flaunt wealth on TikTok. The social media ban, imposed on September 4 for the platforms failure to register, was the spark, but the kindling was years of neglect.

This is not just about Nepal. Across South AsiaSri Lanka in 2022, Bangladesh in 2024youth-led uprisings have toppled governments, driven by economic despair and elite impunity. In Nepal, hashtags like #NepoKid and #NepoBabies have gone viral, exposing the lavish lifestyles of leaders children against the grind of ordinary lives. It is a generational cry, amplified by digital tools, against a democracy that feels rigged.

The governments reversal of the social media ban on September 8, after Home Minister Ramesh Lekhaks resignation, was a startbut a grudging one, overshadowed by Olis exit and the militarys deployment. Real change demands structural reforms: an independent, powerful anti-corruption body, not just the toothless Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority.

Gen Zs digital fluency and global awareness make them uniquely suited to shape policyperhaps through a national youth council with real power, not tokenism. Economic opportunity must replace despair. Investments in education and local jobs could stem the brain drain, keeping talent in Nepal. Finally, democracy needs transparency. Open data on government spending and public trials for corruption cases would signal accountability.

But Olis government argued that social media regulation was about curbing misinformation and fraud, not silencing dissent. They pointed to Nepals economic recovery efforts and claimed protesters exaggerated the scope. Yet, this justification crumbles when police fire on unarmed youth, curfews choke free expression, and the army is called in to quell a movement that has now set the nations capital and various parts of the nation ablaze.

Nepals Gen Z is doing more than protesting; they are forcing a reckoning. Their movement challenges us all to rethink democracys wiring. With Oli gone and the military stepping in, the protesting leaders should suspend demonstrations and pursue a peaceful resolution through dialogue.

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The writer is a columnist. His articles have appeared in various publications like The Independent, The Globe and Mail, South China Morning Post, The Straits Times, etc. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.

First Published: September 10, 2025, 20:41 IST

News opinion Opinion | Nepal's Gen Z And The Reckoning: Rewiring A Broken Democracy

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Opinion: Not A Revolution, Mobocracy Ousted Oli-garchy In Nepal

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 16:27 IST

Its being said that the eruption in Nepal was a spontaneous coming together of long-felt resentments.

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The Nepali Army has assumed control of the capital, with the Army Chief publicly urging demonstrators to maintain calm. (PTI Photo)

Theres no heroism in anarchy. Indeed, to elevate the deprivations witnessed on the streets of Kathmandu to the level of dissidence is an act of profound dishonesty.

Its being said that the eruption in Nepal was a spontaneous coming together of long-felt resentments. That a leaderless phalanx of idealistic youth banded together under the banner of Gen Z to reflect their generations disillusionment with a government that had stopped listening. A government that was serving only its own at the cost of those who voted for it.

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Within two days of Gen Z hitting the streets, the Communist Party-led coalition government of K.P. Oli was ousted. But not before Oli, who had been prime minister for the last year, had to seek refuge in the Army Headquarters to escape the clutches of blood-baying mobs. Olis cabinet colleagues and other coalition partners were not so lucky, as they were chased and murderously assaulted in the streets. The malevolent mob didnt even spare the Parliament building, the Supreme Court, offices belonging to private and state media, hotels, and locally owned shops. All were set alight with an indiscriminate zeal that bordered on vandalism for the sake of vandalism.

Mass lynchings, lootings, and lawlessness are not the work of revolutionaries". Even revolution requires a foundation of order and constitutionalism, if only to provide a meaningful context for what comes next.

In Nepal, the almost casual embrace of a morally stripped extra-constitutionalism suggests that only decay is destined to follow.

The coup, from its conception to its execution, followed a trajectory that has played out in Kabul, Colombo, Dhaka, and now Kathmandu. Coincidence? Unlikely.

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While it would be premature to attribute all these instances of regime change to a foreign hand or a non-state actor, theres little doubt that the eruptions are not organic  the unintended consequence of idealism gone too far.

Creative headlines thought up to romanticise the horsemen of the apocalypse that ravaged Nepal are undermining the Weberian order. They are setting a precedent for the normalization of mob justice as a political instrument. Are we entering an era where no constitution, no popularly elected executive authority, can remain safe from the next eruption of public rage?

About the Author Rahul Shivshankar Rahul Shivshankar is Consulting Editor at Network18. He tweets at @RShivshankar

First Published: September 10, 2025, 16:27 IST

News opinion Opinion: Not A Revolution, Mobocracy Ousted Oli-garchy In Nepal

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Opinion | The Shanghai Cooperation Organization: Looking Beyond India-China Dynamics

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 19:17 IST

The SCO, was formed in Shanghai in 2001, on the initiative of China and the Russian Federation, along with Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan

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Beginning as what was billed as Eurasias response to the NATO, the SCO is no longer a symbolic regional alliance.

The Tianjin Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), will go down in history as a watershed moment in global politics. It heralded a moment which expressly demonstrated that the western world no longer held imminence and power was shifting to the east. Though the SCO is a bloc that is still evolving, has the potential to reshape the global balance of power and this was most soundly manifested at Tianjin. And that is why, though at the core of this summits historicity and significance lies Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to Tianjin, after seven long years, and participation in the summit amidst the backdrop of worsening Indo-US ties, the organization is more than that.

Beginning as what was billed as Eurasias response to the NATO, the SCO is no longer a symbolic regional alliance. Currently it represents nearly 40% of the worlds population and close to 30% of global GDP. Its ten full members  China, India, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Belarus. There are 16 more partner states.

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The SCO, as the name suggests, was formed in Shanghai in 2001, on the initiative of China and the Russian Federation, along with the Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan. It was meant to be a regional security bloc, for countries in the region coordinating and pooling resources to jointly battle terrorism, and transnational crimes like narcotics smuggling, human trafficking, and religious radicalism. The immediate reason was instability in Afghanistan which affected all these countries. The main reason, however, was to check Chinese expansion in Central Asia where five sovereign states appeared in the post-Soviet space, in Russias traditional sphere of influence. The SCO was a means to delineate the spheres of influence in Central Asia  while China could economically, Russia would retain control over defense and security in the region which it continues through the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO). Hence, Central Asia was central to the initiative, no pun intended.

When India joined the SCO in 2017, it was Russia that facilitated its entry into the organization in order to balance Chinas heft there. Simultaneously, China facilitated Pakistans entry into the SCO the very same year. Though known as a Eurasian security bloc, the SCO, however, has no military alliance, and the only institution is the Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS) headquartered in Tashkent.

Hence, one of the primary reasons that India joined the SCO was to engage more closely with the Central Asian Republics (CARs) that were part of the SCO  Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, actively encouraged by Russia. The SCO thus serves as a platform for annual meetings with these countries, with whom India has been trying to forge close ties. These countries represent an economic power bloc, with an abundance of natural resources, untapped manufacturing potential, and a united market. Strategically located, between Russia and China, and where Chinas footprint is increasingly expanding, their importance has not been lost on India which for this reason initiated the India-Central Asia Dialogue. The first India-Central Asia Dialogue in 2022 was held virtually because of covid disruptions. The second summit has yet to take place though this year a Ministerial meet at the Foreign Ministers level did take place. However, Indias distraction with its G20 Presidency and Modis non-appearance at the summit last year in Astana was perceived by some of the countries as Indias non-interest in cultivating further ties with them.

The SCO summit thus provided a valuable platform for India and Prime Minister Modi to interact with his counterparts from these countries, allaying fears and rejuvenating ties.

The bloc, geographically compact as it is, is also important to combat the many threats that face the region  radicalism, jihadism, terrorism, drug and human trafficking. All the countries of the SCO have suffered from these threats and continue to wage sometimes overt and often covert battle against them. Hence, counter-terror coordination and cooperation becomes an important part of SCO activity.

This is particularly relevant now as the region is faced with the new spectre of the Islamic State- Khorasan Province (ISKP). Most of the SCO members have been impacted in some degree or the other by this terror group  Russia, Iran, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and India. For India in particular, a new threat is rising in the subcontinent in the form of the Hizb-ut-Tahrir in neighbouring Bangladesh. This is a terror threat that the CARs and Russia have already dealt with. (The organization is banned in all these countries). Hence, the SCO becomes imperative for a united approach to the threat of terror.

This approach was well reflected in the groupings declaration which condemned the Pahalgam massacre as well as the Jaffar Express attack in Pakistan.

A unified regional approach is equally true and needed in the case of Afghanistan too. As mentioned earlier, the chaos and instability in Afghanistan and the rise of the Taliban was the immediate raison detre for the establishment of the SCO. Every founding member of the SCO had been detrimentally impacted by the Afghan jihad and ensuing instability in the country. Afghanistan under Taliban 2.0 still remains an issue for the region. All the SCO countries are on the same page regarding their approach to Taliban ruled Afghanistan. In direct contrast, the western world that was instrumental in bringing the Taliban to power in Kabul in 2021 has taken a rather contrarian position towards the country. Here again the SCO is a bridge to Afghanistan, as it was member Uzbekistan who in 2018 hosted an international conference on Afghanistan in Samarkand where the willingness of the US to have the then Ashraf Ghani-led government, together with the US announced officially that it would negotiate a peace deal with the Taliban. It was at this conference, that the Taliban officially became a legitimate political stakeholder in Afghanistan.

The SCO offers a platform for joint coordination and action of all regional states to find pathways for peace and stability in Afghanistan. India will find it wiser and more beneficial to work together with the SCO to engage with the Taliban and stabilize Afghanistan. Russia and Uzbekistan have taken the lead, enabling others like India to engage with Afghanistan again.

The SCO represents 30 percent of global GDP and with the inclusion of more states, this will grow. It is also an energy powerhouse with members like Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan. There are tremendous trade opportunities within the organization for India which India will find useful especially now as it seeks to diversify its trade and export destinations.

Finally the Tianjin Summit, possibly the most consequential in the history of the SCO till now, proved that India occupies important strategic space, where it can prevent any anti-India regional subgroups as agreements are taken by consensus.

Finally, the SCO shows potential to offer an alternative to the western power bloc. It even has as one of its partner members a NATO member  Turkiye. It may never actually be the alternative, but its geopolitical signalling was potent. This was most illustrated in the angst exhibited in western capitals as the iconic photo of the leaders of the three eastern powerhouses  President Vladimir Putin, President Xi Jinping, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi  went viral. And the quick turnaround that occurred in the White House.

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The SCO, thus is important in its own rights, with its own merits. India needs to stay put in it, and not use it simply for reactive responses.

The author is a writer and commentator. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.

First Published: September 10, 2025, 19:14 IST

News opinion Opinion | The Shanghai Cooperation Organization: Looking Beyond India-China Dynamics

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Opinion | Three Lessons India Can Learn From The Coups In Nepal And The Neighbourhood

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News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 20:22 IST

Who throws the wrecking ball is anybodys guess. But the fall of the skittles in the region is for all to see

People displaying Nepal's national flag burn tyres during a demonstration to condemn police action on protesters in Kathmandu on September 9. (Image: AFP)

Indias neighbourhood resembles a bowling alley. Regimes falling one after the other like pins as an invisible force rolls its wrecking ball through nations, overturning governments, and installing a new set of pins of its choice till those fall again.

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Who throws that wrecking ball is anybodys guess. But the fall of the skittles in the region is for all to see.

In spite of winning the 2020 elections, Myanmars Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested in a February 2021 coup by the Tatmadaw, or military. She is serving a 27-year sentence.

Then the Taliban stormed back to power in August 2021, overthrowing the elected Afghanistan government, sending back US and NATO troops in a hurried, disgraceful withdrawal.

Then Pakistans Imran Khan government was toppled, and the leader jailed. Coup attempts by his supporters failed.

In 2022, massive public protests in Sri Lanka against President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his family led to a mob storming the presidential palace. Five days later, Rajapaksa fled the country and sent his resignation from Singapore. It was hailed as a victory for the aragalaya", or peoples struggle.

Next to go was Bangladeshs Sheikh Hasina on August 5, 2024, chased out by a murderous mob protesting her allegedly autocratic ways. Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, known to be a US Deep State plant, was put in charge, who later turned out to be a puppet in the hands of the Jamaat-i-Islami and other Islamist forces.

And now, Nepal PM KP Sharma Oli is gone. Believed to be Chinas man, Oli fled in a helicopter after protests by young Nepalis reached his doorstep. Again, it is hard to believe that an agitation of this scale, intensity, and purpose is entirely spontaneous, without any external help.

Who gains from this series of regime changes is not the subject of this piece. Since all this has been happening in Indias neighbourhood, it is prescient to ask if India is immune to regime change ops.

Didnt we witness such attempts to fuel mass protests and provoke some reckless government action with the anti-CAA agitation, anti-farm law stir, and the Nupur Sharma episode?

The Narendra Modi government handled it calmly, maturely, and with the kind of restraint and deftness which comes from foreseeing trouble from a long distance.

But there are still lessons to be learnt from Nepal or Bangladesh, for instance.

First, if regime-change agents bring a five-lakh-strong mob on the streets, the ruling dispensation must be able to counter-mobilise 10 lakh people to take them on. If Oli, instead of manipulating weak coalitions, spent energy and resources in building a strong party and popular government, his own people would have confronted the protesters. If you have genuine popularity, regime change attempts are destined to fail.

Second, to retain that popularity, make sure that the government or the party in power does not lose touch with the ground. Hasina did, Rajapaksa did. They sidelined genuine leaders and party workers. In their hubris, they started running the government with a small coterie of stooges, totally cut off from the ground.

Such lackeys are parasites who shun the grassroots and derive power by sucking up to their bosses and telling them only what they wish to hear.

Third, do not dilute the street power of your cadre and rely excessively on the police, army, and the rest of the government machinery. Ones own people power is the most effective way to defeat sponsored mobs.

When it comes to dealing with civilians, uniformed forces either make the mistake of committing excesses and triggering sympathy for the opponent, or when the water rises above their nose, they refuse to protect the government and meekly surrender to those they feel could be their next bosses.

Indias democracy is too strong, its forces too seasoned, and its silent majority too wise to upstage governments through sponsored coups instead of the ballot box. But the US, China, or the Islamist collectives are not enemies one should underestimate. Which is why this is a time to watch and learn and not lean to any side in haste.

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Abhijit Majumder is a senior journalist. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.

First Published: September 10, 2025, 20:22 IST

News opinion Opinion | Three Lessons India Can Learn From The Coups In Nepal And The Neighbourhood

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 10:17 IST

1 / 9 Saturn, currently positioned in Pisces, will turn extremely retrograde from September 10 to November 28. Astrologers note that when Saturn transits the 6th, 7th, and 8th houses of the Sun, it comes under the effect of an extremely retrograde dosha. Unlike its usual slow-moving influence, Saturn in this phase acts swiftly and independently, paving the way for rapid changes in life. (News18 Telugu) + Follow us On Google

2 / 9 During this period, Saturn will create powerful yogas that bring unexpected opportunities, especially for six zodiac signs, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Libra, Scorpio, and Capricorn. Astrologers also suggest symbolic remedies such as lighting a lamp for Saturn or shaving the head to strengthen its positive influence. (News18 Telugu)

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3 / 9 Taurus: For Taurus, Saturn is placed in the eleventh house, the house of profit, which promises sudden financial gains and promotions. Career and business ventures will expand, while auspicious events may unfold within the family. The unemployed will receive new offers, with strong chances of job changes and foreign travel. (News18 Telugu)

4 / 9 Gemini: Saturns placement in the tenth house, connected with employment, will bring notable career progress. Job seekers and professionals may receive foreign offers. Work pressure will reduce, allowing faster growth in career and business. Profits will exceed expectations, valuable contacts will be made, and recovery from long-term health issues is likely. (News18 Telugu)

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5 / 9 Cancer: For Cancer, Saturn occupies the ninth house, the house of fortune. Obstacles to foreign travel will be cleared, opening opportunities for both employees and job seekers abroad. Even marriage alliances may link to foreign connections. Income will grow steadily, while long-standing financial, health, and personal issues are resolved. Progress in career and business will be swift. (News18 Telugu)

6 / 9 Libra: In Libra, Saturn rests in the sixth house, considered auspicious for this sign. This period promises rapid career growth and possibilities of authority. Profits in business will exceed expectations, while challenges in work and finances will ease. Beneficial connections with influential people are likely. Family life will improve, and sudden financial windfalls may occur. (News18 Telugu)

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7 / 9 Scorpio: With Saturn strongly positioned in the fifth house, Scorpio natives will enjoy increased recognition both at home and abroad. Investments, speculation, and financial dealings will bring greater-than-expected returns, possibly doubling income. Promotions and career expansion are on the horizon, while all efforts taken during this period are bound to succeed. (News18 Telugu)

8 / 9 Capricorn: Capricorn, ruled by Saturn itself, will experience powerful blessings. Saturns influence in the house of wealth means rising income from multiple sources. Property disputes will be resolved favourably, and family life will be filled with joy. Respect and influence will grow, while careers and businesses will flourish. The unemployed may land their dream jobs, and some will even marry into wealthy families. (News18 Telugu)

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Last Updated: September 11, 2025, 11:07 IST

Nepals Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli resigned on Tuesday amid violent nationwide anti-corruption protest, plunging the Himalayan country into a fresh political unrest. The crackdown followed the Nepals Army takeover of national security responsibilities from 10 PM on Tuesday. Since the abolition of the monarchy in 2008, Nepal has witnessed 14 governments, none have managed to complete a full five-year term. Heres a comprehensive look at the major events in Nepals turbulent political journey.

1 / 10 1768 (Shah Dynasty Established): King Prithvi Narayan Shah unified the Kingdom of Nepal, establishing the Shah dynasty. This marked the beginning of a centralised monarchy that ruled the Himalayan country for more than two centuries. (Image: Wikimedia Commons) + Follow us On Google

2 / 10 1846 (Rana Auticracy Begins): Jung Bahadur Rana orchestrates the Kot Massacre, eliminating rivals and establishing the Rana regime. The Shah Kings become figureheads while the Ranas hold real power, ruling Nepal autocratically for over a century. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

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3 / 10 1951: A popular movement backed by King Tribhuvan and political parties ends Rana rule. King Tribhuvan returns from exile and restores his authority, paving the way for Nepals first attempts at democratic governance and political modernization. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

4 / 10 1959: The Himalayan country holds its first multiparty election. The Nepali Congress party wins and Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala becomes Prime Minister. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

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5 / 10 1961-1990: King Mahendra banned political parties in 1961 and imposed a return to a centralised system of government that consolidated his powers, known as Panchayat. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

6 / 10 1990 (Peoples Movement): Peoples frustration with the system grew and reached a peak in 1990 when some parties launched a campaign and staged demonstrations to restore multi-party democracy. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

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7 / 10 1991: Nepali Congress wins the general elections, marking Nepals first democratic government in decades. The king remains a constitutional monarch with limited powers, and parliamentary democracy is firmly established. (Representative Image: Wikimedia Commons)

8 / 10 1996: The countrys left-wing Maoists started a violent bid to replace parliamentary system with a peoples republic. This led to a decade-long civil war and caused over 17,000 deaths. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

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9 / 10 2006-2015: Civilians protested against the monarchy in 2006, leading to its abolition in 2008, making Nepal a federal democratic republic. In 2015, Nepal adopted a new constitution. (Image: X)
'Anarchy Is Happening Because': Bihar Deputy CM Blames 'Congress' For Nepal Unrest

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 17:16 IST

Nepal crisis: Bihar Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary blames Congress for unrest, says Nepal would be peaceful if part of India.

Nepal is reeling under a serious political crisis after violent anti-government protests

Nepal Unrest: As the neighbouring Himalayan nation of Nepal reels under a serious political crisis after violent anti-government protests, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary blamed the Congress party for the unrest, saying that such anarchy is happening because Congress has kept these countries isolated.

Choudhary asserted that if Nepal had been a part of India at present, there would be peace and prosperity in the neighbouring country.

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All this is the mistake of Congress. Anarchy is happening because Congress has kept these countries separate. If Nepal had been a part of India today, there would have been peace and happiness in Nepal," news agency ANI quoted the BJP leader as saying.

#WATCH | Patna: On the situation in Nepal, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary says, All this is the mistake of Congress. Anarchy is happening because Congress has kept these countries separate. If Nepal had been a part of India today, there would have been peace and pic.twitter.com/fAwYK0hhMY ANI (@ANI) September 10, 2025

He further emphasised that there is discontent among people, but there should not be anarchy. Choudhary further said that if Pakistan had been a part of India, then today it would also have prospered along with India.

I said that if Nepal had been a part of India, it would have been prosperous today. Similarly, if Pakistan had been a part of India, it would also be prosperous today. I want to make it clear that this is the mistake of the Congress, because of which we are facing these challenges," he added.

Nepal Crisis

Nepal is reeling under a serious political crisis after two days of anti-government protests saw attacks on private residences of several high-profile leaders, the headquarters of political parties and even the Parliament.

Nepals political landscape was thrown into unprecedented turmoil on Tuesday, as Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and President Ram Chandra Poudel resigned in the face of a furious and violent youth-led uprising.

The protests led by students appeared to reflect the growing public anger with the Oli dispensation over a range of issues, including a ban on social media and alleged inaction against corruption.

The unrest reached a boiling point with deadly clashes on September 8, when security forces response to the protests resulted in at least 19 fatalities. This sparked even greater outrage among demonstrators, predominantly from the digitally native Gen Z" demographic.

Though the Nepal government on Monday night revoked its ban on social media, following what has been dubbed as Gen Z protests in the neighbouring country, yet the anti-government demonstrations intensified on Tuesday, leading to arson and violence in many cases.

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At present, Nepal is under military rule.

(With inputs from agencies)

About the Author Shobhit Gupta Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degre... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 17:16 IST

News politics 'Anarchy Is Happening Because': Bihar Deputy CM Blames 'Congress' For Nepal Unrest

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'Give Up Some Seats': Congress's Message To Mahagathbandhan Allies For Bihar Polls

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 18:06 IST

The party also said that existing allies must contribute from their "kitty" to accommodate any new entrants into the alliance

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Gujarat Congress working president Jignesh Mevani with Bihar Congress President Rajesh Ram and AICC in-charge of Bihar Krishna Allavaru. (PTI file photo)

Amid ongoing seat-sharing talks in Bihar, the Congress on Wednesday called for a balanced approach among Mahagathbandhan allies, stressing that all parties should share both good" and bad" constituencies to ensure fairness.

The party also said that existing allies must contribute from their kitty" to accommodate any new entrants into the alliance.

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The remarks come as discussions are underway to include the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and the Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP) in the Grand Alliance ahead of the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections.

Speaking at a press conference in Patna, Congress leader and AICC in-charge for Bihar, Krishna Allavaru, said, All parties will have to give up some seats. There are winnable and non-winnable seats. One should not get only seats that cannot be won. One should also get all winning seats also. There has to be a mix."

In every state there are good seats and bad seats (in terms of winnability) and we believe that one party should not get all the good seats and the other gets the bad ones. In the sharing of seats, there should be a balance between good and bad seats," he noted.

The Congress leader also said the party is working to finalise seat-sharing arrangements soon, adding, Our endeavour is to take the seat sharing forward positively in good time and we are successfully doing that."

Alongside seat talks, Allavaru took aim at the BJP, accusing it of vote chori" (vote theft) in collusion with the Election Commission. He alleged that changes made to the selection process of the Election Commissioner and tampering with electoral rolls are part of a wider plan to undermine free elections.

Citing the Varanasi Lok Sabha result, he said, Our candidate was winning for several rounds, but when the live updates were stopped, Narendra Modi was declared the winner at the last moment."

He further stated that vote chori" lies at the heart of many problems in the country, from unemployment to poor governance. If the situation in Bihar is to change, the government must be changed," he said.

Referring to a meeting with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday, Allavaru said the partys strategy for campaigning, manifesto, and seat selection was discussed in detail.

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The Congress is part of the INDIA bloc in Bihar, alongside the RJD and other regional parties.

(With inputs from PTI)

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

Location : Bihar, India, India

First Published: September 10, 2025, 18:06 IST

News politics 'Give Up Some Seats': Congress's Message To Mahagathbandhan Allies For Bihar Polls

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'Nationalistic Ideology Victorious': Elected VP After Decisive Win, Radhakrishnan Takes Dig At Oppn

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 07:10 IST

The Vice President-elect asserted that the election had been a battle of ideologies

PM Modi congratulates CP Radhakrishnan. (File image)

Following his election as Indias 15th Vice President on Tuesday, CP Radhakrishnan wasted no time in framing his victory as a powerful ideological statement. In his first remarks to the media, the Vice President-elect asserted that the election had been a battle of ideologies and that the voting pattern demonstrated that nationalistic ideology is overall victorious".

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Radhakrishnans decisive win, with a final vote count of 452 against opposition candidate B Sudershan Reddys 300, provides a clear numerical backing to his claim of a mandate. The victory margin of 152 votes in an electoral college of 767 MPs underscores the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliances (NDA) strong parliamentary position. This was in contrast to the oppositions INDIA bloc, which, despite framing the contest as an ideological battle," fell short of its expected vote count.

The victory also marks a significant milestone in Radhakrishnans long political career, which is deeply rooted in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP. A two-time Member of Parliament from Coimbatore and a former state president of the BJP in Tamil Nadu, he has consistently championed a nationalist agenda. Before his election, he served as the governor of Maharashtra and Jharkhand.

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His victory is being seen by the ruling side as a confirmation of its growing ideological and political dominance, as it secures the countrys second-highest constitutional office. In his comments, he also emphasised the need to move beyond politics and focus on development to achieve the goal of a Viksit Bharat" by 2047.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 07:10 IST

News politics 'Nationalistic Ideology Victorious': Elected VP After Decisive Win, Radhakrishnan Takes Dig At Oppn

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PM Modi To Visit Bihar Next Week, Cabinet Nod To Major Infra Projects Worth Rs 7616 Crore

Curated By :

News18.com Edited By: Oindrila Mukherjee



Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 19:13 IST

The cabinet approved the Mokama-Munger greenfield corridor and Bhagalpur-Dumka-Rampurhat railway line doubling, boosting Bihars connectivity and employment ahead of the PM's visit

PM Narendra Modi during the launch of the Bihar Rajya Jeevika Nidhi Saakh Sahkari Sangh Limited, via video conferencing, earlier this month. (Image: PMO/PTI)

Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to poll-bound Bihar next week, the cabinet committee on economic affairs on Wednesday gave its nod to two major Infrastructure projects worth Rs 7,616 crore in the state.

Chaired by Modi, the committee approved the construction of a four-lane greenfield access-controlled Mokama-Munger section of the Buxar-Bhagalpur high-speed corridor and the doubling of Bhagalpur-Dumka-Rampurhat single railway line section (177 km) in Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

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We are committed to further accelerate the economic development of the state with the expansion of connectivity in Bihar. In this regard, today our government has approved the Mokama-Munger 4-lane Greenfield section. This will save travel time and also create new employment and business opportunities," Modi said in a post on X.

                           - 4-           ,   -    https://t.co/dSxOAJAzMT Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 10, 2025

WHAT IS THE MOKAMA-MUNGER GREENFIELD PROJECT?

The Mokama-Munger project will be a four-lane greenfield access-controlled section of the Buxar-Bhagalpur high-speed corridor in Bihar.

The project will be built under hybrid annuity mode (HAM) with a total length of 82.4 km at an estimated cost of Rs 4,447.38 crore. It passes through or provides connectivity to important regional cities such as Mokama, Barahiya, Lakhisarai, Jamalpur, Munger connecting to Bhagalpur.

The Munger-Jamalpur-Bhagalpur belt in eastern Bihar is emerging as a key industrial region focusing on ordinance factory, locomotive workshop (in Jamalpur), food processing (for example, ITC in Munger) and related logistics and warehousing hubs.

Bhagalpur stands out as a textile and logistics hub, led by Bhagalpuri silk while Barahiya is emerging as a region for food packaging, processing and agro-warehousing.

The increased economic activity in the region is expected to drive up the freight movement and the traffic on the Mokama-Munger section in the future. The four-lane access-controlled corridor with close tolling, supporting average vehicular speeds of 80 kmph with design speed of 100 kmph will reduce the overall travel time to approximately 1.5 hours, while offering safer, faster, and uninterrupted connectivity for both passenger and freight vehicles.

According to government estimates, the project will generate about 14.83 lakh man days of direct employment and 18.46 lakh man days of indirect employment.

The project will also induce additional employment opportunities due to increase in economic activity in the vicinity of the proposed corridor," the government said.

WHAT IS THE RAILWAY PROJECT?

The cabinet also approved the doubling of Bhagalpur-Dumka-Rampurhat single railway line section (177 km) in Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal at an estimated cost of Rs 3,169 crore.

The enhanced line capacity will improve mobility, providing enhanced efficiency and service reliability for the Indian Railways.

The multi-tracking proposal will ease operations and reduce congestion, providing the much-required infrastructural development on the busiest sections across Indian Railways. The projects are in line with the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modijis vision of a New India which will make people of the region atmanirbhar by way of comprehensive development in the area, which will enhance their employment/self-employment opportunities," the government said.

PM MODIS VISIT ON SEPTEMBER 15

Bihar deputy chief minister Samrat Choudhary said Modi will be in Bihars Purnea district next week to inaugurate an airport and launch development schemes worth around Rs 45,000 crore.

Choudhary spoke to journalists after reviewing preparations for the Prime Ministers tour scheduled on September 15.

Modi, in the presence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, will declare the airport open for routine flights, which has been a long-standing demand of the people of the area. Purnea airport boasts of the largest runway in Bihar," Choudhary said.

Notably, the airport will be the fourth in the state after Patna, Gaya and Darbhanga. Private air carrier Indigo has announced that it will be running three flights a week between Purnea and Kolkata.

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Choudhary said Modi has so far launched development projects worth close to Rs 1.5 lakh crore in Bihar.

(With agency inputs)

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

Location : Bihar, India, India

First Published: September 10, 2025, 19:11 IST

News politics PM Modi To Visit Bihar Next Week, Cabinet Nod To Major Infra Projects Worth Rs 7616 Crore

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Seva As Statecraft: How PM Modi Turned A Birthday Ritual Into A Governance Model

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News18.com Edited By: Apoorva Misra



Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 15:17 IST

The celebration, which also works as a warm-up for a party that is an election machine, will focus on Make In India and going Swadeshi this year

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PM Modi frequently uses Seva as a central theme of his political and personal narrative, and it plays a big role in how the BJP frames its public outreach. (Instagram)

It is that time of the year when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) goes into what it calls service mode" to celebrate the birthday of its most popular faceNarendra Modifrom September 17 till October 2.

Instead of a big bash or cadres cutting gigantic birthday cakes, BJP, for the last 11 years, has been enforcing this ritual where blood-donation drives and fruit distribution among patients in hospitals, cleaning roads, and tree plantation are undertaken. The BJP calls it Seva Parv or Seva Pakhwada, which continues for a fortnight.

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HOW MODI USED SEVA AS A POLITICAL TOOL

PM Modi frequently uses Seva as a central theme of his political and personal narrative, and it plays a big role in how the BJP frames its public outreach. The prime minister has embedded the word in BJPs philosophy ever since 2014 through phrases like Seva aur Samarpan (service and devotion) and Seva hi Sangathan (service is organisation).

PM Modi has frequently said the governments role is to serve, not rule. When Covid-19 hit India, BJP workers were asked to distribute ration, masks, and medicines as part of Seva hi Sangathan" campaign.

Its important to look at him first as a reformer chief minister and then as a reformer prime minister. He is a reformer first and a politician later. His every initiative has a reform agenda at the core of it. Swachh Bharat and Beti Bachao right up to UN Security Councilthats the trajectory. As a reformer, the result is to ensure Seva of the weaker sections of society. Even if you see globally, he champions the lesser-privileged part of the world, which is the Global South. And that is what makes him stand out," explained BJPs national spokesperson Tuhin Sinha, elaborating on the significance of Seva as a tool for PM Modi.

During his early life as a pracharak in the 1970s-80s, when he travelled across India as a full-time RSS worker, Modi had an early exposure to the idea of nation as temple, service as worship". In 2001, when he became the chief minister of Gujarat, he preferred to call himself Mukhya Sevak" (Chief Servant) rather than CM. Between 2002 and 2014, as the Gujarat CM, he threw his weight behind programmes like Garib Kalyan Melas that solidified this brand of politics. When he became Indias prime minister in 2014, in his very first speech, he called himself Pradhan Sevak" (Chief Servant), not a ruler. Those who had tracked Modis career since Gandhinagar were not surprised in New Delhi that evening.

WHY SEVA PARV?

But why does the BJP need to hold a 15-day-long nationwide outreach that it brands as service? The most obvious answer is to celebrate PM Modis birthday in a unique stylepaying tribute to his leadership through public service.

The fortnight also concludes with Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastris birth anniversaries, honouring their values and subtly aligning their legacy with that of Modis in the subconscious.

Thirdly, it works as a warm-up for a party that is an election machine. Activities are carried out by MPs, MLAs, local leaders, and volunteersreaching villages, cities, slums, events near schools and hospitals. It helps the party as an initiative where representatives defy political norms to reach them when theres no election.

WHAT TO EXPECT THIS YEAR?

Vocal for local becomes very important from the national interest point of view this time because of the challenging situation resulting out of tariffs and also because Make in India has been a massive success," Sinha told News18. He added that as the first phone with Indian chip is about to hit the market, the outreach this time will try to ensure that best results of Make in India are also seen in peoples choices". PM Modi himself has at least four times batted for swadeshi" products in August, with the last being during his Mann Ki Baat programme.

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Meanwhile, BJPs youth wing will also host the Namo Yuva Run in 75 cities, with over 10,000 participants expected at each location. One of the core messages of the run will be de-addiction among youths.

District-level workshops were conducted between September 6-10, while Mandal-level workshops will be organised between September 11 and 13 before the 15-day event kicks off. In two phases, 1,000 district hospitals and separately camps in Mandals are being roped in for blood donations. Extensive cleanliness campaigns will be carried out at schools, hospitals, railway stations, bus stops, Namghars, temples, parks, riverbanks, and heritage sites. The events will end on October 2 on Gandhi Jayanti.

About the Author Anindya Banerjee Anindya Banerjee, Associate Editor brings over fifteen years of journalistic courage to the forefront. With a keen focus on politics and policy, Anindya has garnered a wealth of experience, with deep ... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 15:15 IST

News politics Seva As Statecraft: How PM Modi Turned A Birthday Ritual Into A Governance Model

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Tej Pratap Yadav Visits Brother Tejashwis Raghopur Constituency: Understand Pain

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News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 17:58 IST

Subtly targeting his younger brother, Tej Partap also advised him to meet the flood victims and understand their pain and suffering after coming out of home and family.

Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav. (X)

RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadavs estranged son Tej Pratap Yadav visited his younger brother, Tejashwi Yadavs assembly constituency of Raghopur in Vaishali district to distribute relief materials among villagers severely affected by floods.

Reaching the Diara area of Raghopur by boat, Tej Pratap distributed dry ration, medicines, and essential items among the victims. He also got motorboat laden with relief materials such as wheat flour, chura, biscuits, clothes, and medicines. He also brought a team of doctors who conducted health checks on residents trapped by the floodwaters. Tej Pratap deployed five additional boats to assist those in distress.

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Tejashwi, by contrast, was seen on camera visiting his constituency and only inquiring about the well-being of the people on Monday.

Taking a jibe at the Nitish Kumar government, Tej Pratap said that the people here are suffering from floods and are crying for help, but no concrete steps have been taken.

Most panchayats and villages in this assembly constituency have been submerged due to floods, but no assistance of any kind is being provided by the BJP Nitish government, nor by the MP and MLA of this area," he said in a post on X.

                                  ,                  pic.twitter.com/aMEyrRh4lx Tej Pratap Yadav (@TejYadav14) September 9, 2025

When the local people of the Raghoopur area informed me about their problems, I could not hold back, and today we ourselves went and met the flood-affected families and provided them with relief materials and medical assistance," he added.

Subtly targeting his younger brother, Tej Partap also advised the local Raghopur legislator to meet the flood victims and understand their pain and suffering after coming out of home and family.

The political tussle between RJD chief Lalu Prasads two sons  leader of opposition in the Bihar assembly Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and former minister Tej Pratap is getting intense ahead of the assembly elections.

Recently, Lalu Prasad Yadav expelled his eldest son from the party and family for six years after a social media post went viral.

The post, containing a photograph of a woman named Anushka Yadav, claimed that Tej Pratap had been in a relationship with her for the past 12 years.

The post created uproar in Bihars political circles, giving ammunition to rivals and deepening divisions within the RJD.

Tej Pratap later denied making the post, claiming that his Facebook account had been hacked and accusing his detractors of uploading the controversial content as part of a larger conspiracy.

After his expulsion from the RJD and distancing from Lalu Prasad Yadavs family, former minister Tej Pratap Yadav has launched a new political platform under the banner of Team Tej Pratap Yadav.

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In the run-up to the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections, Tej Pratap has intensified his campaigning across the state, repeatedly targeting his opponents with the phrase Jaychand (traitor).

On August 19, he announced the formation of a coalition of five minor parties to contest the elections later this year. He made the announcement at a press conference in Patna, which was also attended by national presidents of the five parties  Vikas Vanchit Insaan Party (VVIP), Bhojpuriya Jan Morcha (BJM), Pragatisheel Janta Party (PJP), Wajib Adhikar Party (WAP) and Sanyukt Kisan Vikas Party (SKVP).

About the Author Shobhit Gupta Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degre... Read More

Location : Vaishali, India, India

First Published: September 10, 2025, 17:58 IST

News politics Tej Pratap Yadav Visits Brother Tejashwis Raghopur Constituency: Understand Pain

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But What Did I Do?: Accidental Butt Dial Exposes How US Woman Covered Up Murder

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News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 23:49 IST

Joni Thomas was arrested in Texas after a butt dial recorded her helping Dennis William Day cover up the murder of flight attendant Rana Nofal Soluri.

Dennis Day told detectives he stuffed Rana Nofal Soluris body into a large black trash bin. (Representative Image/File)

A 62-year-old woman was arrested in Texas after an accidental butt dial allegedly recorded her helping a friend cover up the murder of a flight attendant. Police said Joni Thomas assisted her longtime friend, Dennis William Day, in disposing of the body of Rana Nofal Soluri, 47, an Envoy Air flight attendant who was reported missing in March.

According to investigators, Rana Nofal Soluri was killed by her roommate, Dennis Day, 66, following an argument at their home in Fort Worth. Dennis Day admitted he snapped" and strangled her with his bare hands."

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Dennis Day told detectives he stuffed Rana Nofal Soluris body into a large black trash bin and transported it about 70 miles away. He was arrested in June and charged with her murder.

How Joni Thomas Was Implicated

Police allege that after the killing, Dennis Day phoned Joni Thomas and asked her to bring her pickup truck. Together, they are accused of transporting Rana Nofal Soluris body to Bowie, Texas, where it was dumped off a bridge.

Detectives later discovered a voicemail on Joni Thomass phone that appeared to have been recorded accidentally. The audio, described as a butt dial," allegedly captured the pair struggling to move a heavy object. A male voice can be heard saying, Hey  help me," and Make sure the lids on  I got you messed up in this."

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Investigators said the recording was consistent with Dennis Days own account of how Rana Nofal Soluris body was moved.

Joni Thomas was taken into custody on August 26 and has been charged with tampering with physical evidence while Dennis Day remains behind bars facing a murder charge.

First Published: September 10, 2025, 23:49 IST

News viral But What Did I Do?: Accidental Butt Dial Exposes How US Woman Covered Up Murder

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200 Arrested Amid Nationwide Protests In France Over PM's Ouster, Planned Budget Cuts

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News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 14:58 IST

France saw a day of protests over budget cuts and political turmoil, with demonstrators clashing with police and blocking roads. Nearly 200 people were arrested.

French firefighters remove burnt objects from a barricade set up by students to block the traffic near a high school during a day of protests in Paris (Photo: Reuters)

Massive protests unfolded in France on Wednesday, where demonstrators disrupted traffic, burnt down trash bins, and clashed with the police in anger at the political class and planned budget cuts.

The protests were named the Block Everything movement, a broad expression of discontent with no centralised leadership and an ad hoc organisation by social media. It initially sprang up in May among right-wing groups, but has since been taken over by the left and far-left, according to Reuters.

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According to the Associated Press, nearly 200 people were arrested in the first hours of the planned day of nationwide protests.

Security forces were deployed across the country to clear blockades.

Multiple videos on social media showed chaos on the streets as police officers clashed with the demonstrators.

BREAKING: Civil unrest ERUPTS across France as protesters flood the streets, causing widespread disruption.Their goal: cripple the economy and get Macron out. The French Revolution has begun. pic.twitter.com/k7ml77n4eU  The British Patriot (@TheBritLad) September 10, 2025

Videos also showed protesters torching vehicles on the road.

 Radical far-left extremists launch major riots across France. pic.twitter.com/7ocG4R2pLB Visegrad 24 (@visegrad24) September 10, 2025

The demonstrations took place at a time of political turmoil, two days after the countrys Parliament ousted Prime Minister Francois Bayrou in a confidence vote over his plans to tame the countrys ballooning debt.

On Tuesday, President Emmanuel Macron appointed his fifth Prime Minister in less than two years, choosing a close ally, Sebastien Lecornu, a move that outraged left-wing politicians.

In the western city of Nantes, protesters blocked a highway with burning tires and bins. Police used teargas to disperse people trying to occupy a roundabout in the same city.

In Montpellier, in the southwest, police scuffled with protesters who had set up a barricade to block traffic at a roundabout.

Police used teargas to disperse the protesters, some of whom threw various objects at them.

Reuters said the Block Everything movement reflects popular discontent with what protesters deem a dysfunctional ruling elite preaching a painful gospel of austerity.

It is drawing comparisons to the 2018 Yellow Vest protests, which initially arose over fuel price hikes but morphed into a broader movement against Macron and his plans for economic reform.

About 50 hooded people tried to start a blockade in Bordeaux, while in Toulouse, in the southwest, a fire was quickly extinguished but still disrupted train traffic, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau told reporters early on Wednesday.

He said 80,000 security forces had been deployed throughout the country, including 6,000 in Paris.

French media had reported that one lakh people were expected to take part in the demonstrations.

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About the Author Vani Mehrotra Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.

First Published: September 10, 2025, 14:42 IST

News world 200 Arrested Amid Nationwide Protests In France Over PM's Ouster, Planned Budget Cuts

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31,000 KMPH Speed, 15,000-KM Range: China's DF-41 Missile Is Deadlier Than BrahMos

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Translation Desk

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 14:53 IST

China's DF-41 Dongfeng ICBM, inducted in 2017, boasts a 12000-15000 km range, MIRV capability, and rapid launch, marking China as a top nuclear power alongside the US and Russia

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China's DF-41 missile is seen as a rival to America's Minuteman III. (AP Photo)

Chinas rapid strides in defence technology have once again drawn global attention, with its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the DF-41 Dongfeng, emerging as the centrepiece of its growing strategic arsenal. While China has made remarkable achievements across sectors, from high-speed rail to fifth-generation fighter jets, it is its nuclear-capable missiles that have placed the country firmly in the league of top military powers.

The DF-41, formally inducted in 2017, is regarded as one of the most powerful ICBMs in existence today. With a reported range of 12,000-15,000 kilometres, the missile is capable of striking any part of the United States mainland. Travelling at speeds of up to Mach 25 (31,000 kmph), the missile can deliver devastation in minutes, a capability that few nations possess.

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Indias BrahMos cruise missile, though counted among the worlds most lethal tactical weapons, does not compare with the DF-41 in terms of range or payload. In contrast, the Dongfeng missile represents the cutting edge of Chinas long-range deterrent, forcing adversaries to re-examine their missile defence strategies.

Historical Evolution

The Dongfeng project dates back to 1986. Its first test was conducted in 1994, and by 2010, the missile was handed over to Chinas Second Artillery Corps, later reconstituted as the Peoples Liberation Army Rocket Force in 2016. Between 2012 and 2016, several tests were conducted before the missile was officially showcased at the 2019 military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the Peoples Republic of China.

The nomenclature itself carries symbolic weight. Dongfeng, meaning East Wind", was inspired by a remark by Mao Zedong during the Cold War, asserting that the East Wind prevails over the West Wind" after China acquired missile technology from the Soviet Union.

Technical Edge

Unlike earlier Chinese missiles that used liquid fuel and required lengthy preparation, the DF-41 is powered by solid fuel, enabling quicker launch readiness. It is a three-stage missile and is believed to carry MIRV (Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicle) warheads. Chinese state media claims the missile can carry up to 10 warheads, though most Western experts estimate its effective capacity at three to five.

The missile is also equipped with decoys and penetration aids, specifically designed to defeat advanced anti-missile systems such as those deployed by the United States. In addition, Beijing has developed the DF-41 in three deployment variants  road-mobile launchers, rail-based systems disguised as passenger trains, and silo-based launchers in remote regions such as Xinjiang, Gansu and Inner Mongolia.

Comparison With Global Peers

The DF-41 is widely seen as Chinas answer to Americas Minuteman III, which has a range of about 13,000 km but is a much older system, first fielded in the 1970s. Russia, meanwhile, is working on the RS-28 Sarmat, dubbed Satan 2", which may eventually extend to 18,000 km. Within Chinas own arsenal, the DF-41 far outperforms earlier variants such as the DF-4, DF-5, and DF-31, the latter limited to a range of 8,000 km with a single warhead.

Expanding Nuclear Stockpile

China continues to assert its adherence to a no first use" policy on nuclear weapons, claiming its deterrence strategy is based solely on retaliation. Yet, international reports suggest Beijing is rapidly expanding its nuclear capabilities.

According to a 2022 statement by the US Department of Defence, China possessed around 350 ICBMs, while a Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) report (2023), estimated its nuclear warhead stockpile at about 500, an increase of 90 within a year. Defence analysts predict that at its current pace, China could surpass both the United States and Russia in missile numbers over the next decade.

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A Strategic Signal

Chinas decision to test an ICBM outside its territory in recent years, after nearly four decades, was viewed as a deliberate signal of its expanding reach and strategic intent. While speculation surrounds whether that test involved the DF-31AG, attention continues to remain fixed on the DF-41, which military experts describe as the sharpest arrow in Chinas nuclear quiver.

Location : China

First Published: September 10, 2025, 14:53 IST

News world 31,000 KMPH Speed, 15,000-KM Range: China's DF-41 Missile Is Deadlier Than BrahMos

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As Nepal Unrest Triggers Jailbreaks, 22 Escaped Prisoners Nabbed At Border By India's SSB

Reported By :

CNN-News18

Last Updated: September 11, 2025, 03:17 IST

SSB has been on high alert since violence began in Nepal. Patrolling has been increased, deployment strengthened, and the border sealed

According to local media reports, hundreds of prisoners escaped from jails in Kathmandu, Pokhara, and Lalitpur. (Representational image/Reuters)

Twenty-two Nepali prisoners who allegedly escaped, taking advantage of the countrys unrest and power vacuum, have been apprehended by Indias Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB). An official confirmed to CNN-News18 that the prisoners were caught at the Indo-Nepal border near Siddharthnagar in Uttar Pradesh. They failed to show their documents when SSB personnel stopped and questioned them," an official from the force said.

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SSB has been on high alert since violence began in Nepal. Patrolling has been increased, deployment strengthened, and the border sealed.

According to local media reports, hundreds of prisoners escaped from jails in Kathmandu, Pokhara, and Lalitpur. In the Mahotari district, vandals set Jaleshwar prison on fire. Reports suggest all but one of the 576 prisoners escaped, taking jail properties with them.

Similarly, in Pokhara jail, 900 prisoners were given free passage as protesters forced police to retreat. In Kathmandus Nakhu jail, former home minister Ravi Lachimanes supporters allegedly broke through the prison gates to free him, and the remaining prisoners also took the opportunity to flee.

According to SSB officials, many of these prisoners tried to flee to India. Specific intelligence was available about these escaped prisoners. Multiple agencies are questioning them after detention," a source said.

SSB has been carrying out flag marches in Raxaul, Supaul, Maharajganj, and Sitamarhi districts. DIG rank officials are also monitoring the border with Nepal. The cyber wing of SSB is also monitoring social media posts that could spread rumours or foment trouble.

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Officials stated that after the Nepalese army took over, the situation was stable, but forces remained vigilant on the Indian side.

About the Author Arunima Arunima is Editor (Home Affairs) and covers strategic, security and political affairs. From the Ukraine-Russia War to the India-China stand-off in Ladakh to India-Pak clashes, she has reported from gr... Read More

First Published: September 11, 2025, 03:09 IST

News world As Nepal Unrest Triggers Jailbreaks, 22 Escaped Prisoners Nabbed At Border By India's SSB

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Charlie Kirk, Fatally Shot, Once Defended Gun Deaths To Preserve Second Amendment | Watch

Curated By :

Trending Desk

Last Updated: September 11, 2025, 03:27 IST

The footage, recorded during a TPUSA Faith event on April 5, 2023, at the Salt Lake City campus of Awaken Church, captured Kirk expressing strong support for gun rights.

The fatal shooting occurred while Kirk was addressing the audience (AFP)

Charlie Kirk, a US-based political activist and prominent conservative commentator known for his strong support of the MAGA movement, was shot and killed in broad daylight on Wednesday morning at Utah Valley University. He was rushed to a nearby medical facility but was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

Following the tragedy, an old video clip began circulating on social media, sparking fresh debate. The footage, recorded during a TPUSA Faith event on April 5, 2023, at the Salt Lake City campus of Awaken Church, captured Kirk expressing strong support for gun rights. When asked how to defend the Second Amendment amid public outcry after mass shootings, Kirk stated, Im a big Second Amendment fan."

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He went on to argue that the Second Amendment serves as a vital safeguard against government tyranny. In a controversial remark, Kirk added, I think its worth it. I think its worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights."

Charlie Kirk (2023): I think its worth to have a cost of unfortunately some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the 2nd Amendment. That is a prudent deal. It is rational. Nobody talks like this. They live in a complete alternate universe." pic.twitter.com/sEHw5suXEW Ron Smith (@Ronxyz00) September 10, 2025

On Wednesday, the fatal shooting occurred while Kirk was addressing the audience during his national speaking series, The American Comeback Tour. Just moments before he was shot, Kirk was answering a question about mass shootings. An audience member had asked, Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last ten years?" to which Kirk replied, Counting or not counting gang violence," before being gunned down.

Initial reports regarding Kirks condition remained unclear, but speculation ended when US President Donald Trump officially confirmed Kirks death. In a public statement, Trump announced that US flags would be flown at half-mast until Sunday at 6 p.m. in Kirks honour.

NBC reported that police briefly detained a suspect, but the individual was released after being found not guilty.

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Former President Barack Obama expressed his outrage among other leaders and officers, while former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson stated, The murder of Charlie Kirk is a tragedy, and a sign of the utter desperation and cowardice of those who could not defeat him in argument."

Location : Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)

First Published: September 11, 2025, 03:27 IST

News world Charlie Kirk, Fatally Shot, Once Defended Gun Deaths To Preserve Second Amendment | Watch

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Deterring, Interfering With China Futile: Beijing To Washington In Defence Talks

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 20:00 IST

China's Defence Minister Dong Jun warns the US against interfering with Beijing on Taiwan and South China Sea in talks with Pete Hegseth.

US President Donald Trump with Chinese leader Xi Jinping | File Image/Reuters

Chinas Defence Minister Dong Jun warned the United States that containing, deterring, or interfering with Beijing will be futile".

In a video call with his US counterpart Pete Hegseth on Wednesday, Jun discussed the fraught issues of Taiwan and the South China Sea, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

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Any attempt or interference to use force to support independence or use Taiwan to contain China will be thwarted", Jun told Hegseth during the video call.

Beijing considers self-ruled Taiwan part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to take it. Washington, meanwhile, is the islands main arms supplier and is committed to its defence.

In the South China Sea, Dong said Beijing firmly opposes infringement and provocation by certain countries and the deliberate incitement of chaos by countries outside the region", CCTV reported.

China claims almost all of the South China Sea, despite overlapping claims with several Southeast Asian nations, while the US has regularly sent warships on freedom of navigation" operations, infuriating Beijing.

We must build an equal, respectful, peacefully coexistent, stable and positive military-to-military relationship. We must respect each others core interests," Dong said.

On the other hand, the Pentagon described the talks as candid and constructive."

Secretary Hegseth made clear that the United States does not seek conflict with China nor is it pursuing regime change or strangulation of the PRC," spokesman Sean Parnell said.

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At the same time, he relayed that the US has vital interests in the Asia-Pacific, the priority theater, and will resolutely protect those interests."

(With inputs from agencies)

About the Author Shobhit Gupta Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degre... Read More

Location : Beijing, China

First Published: September 10, 2025, 20:00 IST

News world Deterring, Interfering With China Futile: Beijing To Washington In Defence Talks

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Donald Trump Urges EU To Impose 100% Tariffs On India, China To Pressure Russia: Report

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 07:09 IST

Donald Trump has asked the EU to impose tariffs of up to 100% on India and China to pressure Russia. The US has signaled it may follow with similar tariffs if the EU agrees.

A file photo of US President Donald Trump (AP)

Donald Trump has urged the European Union to hit India and China with tariffs of up to 100 per cent as part of a strategy to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin, Reuters quoted a US official and an EU diplomat as saying.

The US Presidents request was conveyed via a conference call to EU sanctions envoy David OSullivan and other EU officials. The EU delegation is currently in Washington to discuss sanctions coordination, it was known.

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According to the report, the EU diplomat said the United States had indicated it was willing to impose similar tariffs if the European Union heeded Americas request.

The US request, if heeded, would result in a change of strategy for the EU, which has preferred to isolate Russia with sanctions rather than tariffs.

A report by The Financial Times suggested that the European capitals were discussing potential secondary sanctions against countries such as China and India for buying Russian oil and gas.

However, many are nervous, given the EUs trade relations with Beijing and New Delhi, it added.

The move by Trump comes after Chinese President Xi Jinping, Putin, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi cemented their ties at a summit last week.

Also, China and India are major purchasers of Russian oil, and Trump has frequently threatened to impose tariffs on India and China as punishment for their purchases of Russian crude, even after a 25 per cent tariff on India as a penalty.

At times, he has complained that Europe itself has not fully decoupled from Russia, which supplied about 19 per cent of EU gas imports last year, although the bloc says it is committed to fully ending its dependency on Russian energy.

However, in a recent post on his Truth Social platform, the US President suggested that the US could in fact, boost trade with India.

He mentioned that the US and India are working to address trade barriers between the nations. He added that he was looking forward to speaking with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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ALSO READ | Will Trumps Tariffs Be Ruled Illegal? US Supreme Court Sets Urgent Hearing In November

About the Author Vani Mehrotra Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.

First Published: September 10, 2025, 06:57 IST

News world Donald Trump Urges EU To Impose 100% Tariffs On India, China To Pressure Russia: Report

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Here We Go!: Donald Trump On Russian Drone Incursions Into Poland

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 20:54 IST

Donald Trump reacted to reports of drones crossing into Poland, as Warsaw and European leaders condemned the incursion.

US President Donald Trump. (Reuters Image)

US President Donald Trump reacted on his social media platform Truth Social to reports of drones crossing into Polish territory, writing, Whats with Russia violating Polands airspace with drones? Here we go!"

Donald Trumps comments came after Poland said seven drones and debris of an unidentified object were discovered across its territory following overnight airspace incursions. The incidents triggered a security alert and drew strong reactions from Warsaw and European leaders.

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Poland Warns Of Danger

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told parliament that the country was facing its most perilous moment since World War Two. He said, I have no reason to claim were on the brink of war, but a line has been crossed, and its incomparably more dangerous than before. This situation brings us the closest we have been to open conflict since World War Two."

Five drones and debris were found in Lublin province, near the border with Belarus and Ukraine while two more were discovered deeper inside Poland- one in Mniszkow and another near Elblag close to the Baltic coast.

Kremlin Denies Role

The Kremlin rejected accusations that Russia was responsible as spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, We consider the accusations groundless. No evidence has been presented that these drones are of Russian origin."

He added that EU and NATO leadership accuse Russia of provocation almost daily, most often without even attempting to provide any justification."

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Europe Condemns Drone Attacks

The incursions provoked strong condemnation across Europe as French President Emmanuel Macron called the incident simply unacceptable," while European Council President Antonio Costa said Europe must step up defence investment against Russias reckless" actions. Leaders from the Czech Republic, Finland and Latvia also accused Moscow of escalating tensions by systematically testing NATOs resolve.

Location : Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)

First Published: September 10, 2025, 20:50 IST

News world Here We Go!: Donald Trump On Russian Drone Incursions Into Poland

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Hilton Kathmandu: From Nepals Tallest Hotel To A Charred Ruin In Anti-Government Protests

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 17:27 IST

Nepal Protests: Hilton Kathmandu, Nepals tallest hotel, was destroyed by fire amid protests, marking a major loss for the city.

Nepal Protests: More than a place to stay, Hilton Kathmandu was designed as a cultural statement.

The skyline of Nepals capital was engulfed in smoke this week as Hilton Kathmandu, the countrys tallest hotel, was gutted by fire during violent anti-government protests. Once a gleaming symbol of ambition and modern design, the 64-metre glass tower now stands as a charred shell, its windows blown out and interiors destroyed.

How Was Hilton Kathmandu Built?

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The Hilton was conceived by the Shanker Group, breaking ground in 2016 with the aim of lifting Nepals hospitality industry to international standards. Construction weathered repeated delays- most severely during the COVID-19 pandemic- before the property finally opened in July 2024.

At an investment of roughly 8 billion, the hotel boasted of 176 rooms and suites, banquet halls, meeting spaces and a cluster of luxury dining and leisure facilities. Its rooftop bar, Orion, with mandala-inspired decor and panoramic Himalayan views, quickly became a showcase of Nepalese heritage fused with global design.

#WATCH | Nepal: Hilton Hotel in Kathmandu all charred after it was set on fire during the recent anti-corruption protest. Drone visuals from the area. pic.twitter.com/uUGpuZ4rRZ ANI (@ANI) September 10, 2025

What Was the Vision Behind Hilton Kathmandu?

More than a place to stay, Hilton Kathmandu was designed as a cultural statement. Its shimmering facade of vertical glass fins drew inspiration from Buddhist prayer flags, shifting hues with the changing light. On one side, the building reflected the bustle of Kathmandus streets while on the other, it opened toward the Langtang range. Inside, the hotel delivered world-class hospitality: five restaurants, a spa, a gym, an infinity pool and extensive event spaces. Engineers built in advanced seismic safeguards, qualifying the tower as an immediate occupancy" building- an essential standard in quake-prone Nepal.

#WATCH | Nepal: Hilton Hotel in Kathmandu all charred after it was set on fire during the recent anti-corruption protest. pic.twitter.com/N7AuwVj5Td ANI (@ANI) September 10, 2025

How Did Hilton Kathmandu Fall To Flames?

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Demonstrations over restrictions on social media apps spiralled into a wider rebellion against corruption and political stagnation during which protesters clashed with security forces across Kathmandu. Amid the violence, Hilton Kathmandu was set ablaze. Flames tore through the landmark, leaving its glass exterior a blackened skeleton. Images showed thick plumes of smoke rising above the capital as fire consumed interiors painstakingly built over nearly a decade.

The fall of Hilton Kathmandu came alongside assaults on parliament buildings, government institutions and the private residences of political leaders.

Location : Nepal

First Published: September 10, 2025, 17:27 IST

News world Hilton Kathmandu: From Nepals Tallest Hotel To A Charred Ruin In Anti-Government Protests

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Houthi Rebels Say Israeli Strikes Hit Yemens Capital Sanaa

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 19:53 IST

Yemens Houthi rebels report Israeli air strikes on Sanaa, with explosions heard.

The extent of the damage or casualties from the reported strikes was not immediately clear.

Yemens Houthi rebels said Israeli air strikes targeted the rebel-held capital Sanaa as AFP reported the sound of powerful explosions.

Israeli aggression on the capital Sanaa," the Houthis al-Masirah television said in a statement posted on Telegram, without giving further details.

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The extent of the damage or casualties from the reported strikes was not immediately clear.

The Iran-backed Houthi movement, which controls Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, has in recent months launched drone and missile attacks against Israel and commercial shipping in the Red Sea, declaring solidarity with Palestinians amid the war in Gaza.

Location : Israel

First Published: September 10, 2025, 19:53 IST

News world Houthi Rebels Say Israeli Strikes Hit Yemens Capital Sanaa

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In Overnight Action, Nepal Army Arrests 26 Over 'Looting' During Gen-Z Protests

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 07:39 IST

The crackdown followed the Nepal Armys takeover of national security responsibilities from 10 pm on Tuesday, after days of violent anti-government demonstrations

Demonstrators weild stones and sticks as they clash with riot police personnel during a protest outside the Parliament in Kathmandu. (AFP)

The Nepali Army on Wednesday said it had arrested 26 people accused of looting and vandalism during the ongoing youth-led protests, as part of a special security operation launched to curb the ongoing unrest.

The crackdown followed the Nepal Armys takeover of national security responsibilities from 10 pm on Tuesday, after days of violent anti-government demonstrations that claimed at least 19 lives in police firing and led to Prime Minister KP Sharma Olis resignation.

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The arrests were made in Kathmandu and Bhaktapur districts, said officials, adding that five individuals were taken into custody for allegedly looting a bank in New Baneshwor, while 21 others were apprehended in connection with violent incidents in the Bouddha area.

In a statement, the Army said criminal groups had hijacked the peaceful movement" by resorting to looting, arson and other unlawful activities.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, 73, stepped down on Tuesday after protesters stormed his office demanding his resignation over the deadly police crackdown and alleged failure to address corruption.

In a letter to President Ramchandra Paudel, Oli cited extraordinary circumstances" as the reason for relinquishing office.

The demonstrations, which erupted after the government banned 26 social media platforms including Facebook and X, quickly snowballed into a wider movement against corruption and governance failures.

Armys Appeal To Nepali Citizens

The Nepali Army appealed to citizens to stay alert and cooperate with security forces to help preserve order.

The Army also urged the public to report destructive acts or suspicious activity through SMS, WhatsApp, or Viber at its designated number (9863029029).

Local communities, it added, should remain proactive in monitoring their neighbourhoods until security personnel arrive.

Amid a surge in misinformation on social media, authorities also cautioned citizens against spreading unverified or exaggerated claims and stressed the importance of relying on credible sources.

Security forces, the Army said, are working around the clock" to restore calm and stability.

Citizen awareness, community cooperation, and the sharing of accurate information are vital in overcoming this crisis," the statement added.

The Nepali Army assumed control of national security on Tuesday night, just hours after protesters stormed and torched major government installations, including Parliament, the Singha Durbar complex, the Supreme Court, political party offices, and residences of senior leaders.

The demonstrations, spearheaded by the youth-driven Gen Z movement, intensified despite curfews and a heavy police presence across the capital.

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Earlier in the day, the Army issued a public appeal urging restraint.

The Nepal Army is always committed to protecting the interests and security of the Nepali people. In view of recent events, we reaffirm our commitment to safeguard lives and property. We urge all youth and citizens to remain calm and uphold social harmony and national unity so the situation does not deteriorate further," its statement read.

Location : Nepal

First Published: September 10, 2025, 07:35 IST

News world In Overnight Action, Nepal Army Arrests 26 Over 'Looting' During Gen-Z Protests

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Indian Students In Nepal Fear For Safety Amid Violence: 'We Just Want To Go Home'

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News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 13:21 IST

According to one Indian student who News18 spoke to, hooligans are taking advantage of the unrest, leading to incidents of arson and looting.

News18 spoke to Binita Manna, a second-year MBBS student at Birat Medical College, Biratnagar. (AP Photo, News18)

The situation in Nepal has turned worrisome as incidents of violence, arson, and unrest continue to unfold. Videos of destruction from across the country highlight the tense atmosphere. Among those affected are a large number of Indian students studying in Nepal, many of whom are confined to their campuses as the situation outside remains unsafe.

News18 spoke to Binita Manna, a second-year MBBS student at Birat Medical College, Biratnagar. She is currently safe inside the campus but deeply anxious about the violence unfolding outside. On Monday, a shopping mall was set on fire, and a jailbreak incident shook the region.

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Inside the campus, we are safe, but outside its not safe at all. A lot of problems are there  we cant even think of going out," Binita said.

According to her, hooligans are taking advantage of the unrest, leading to incidents of arson and looting. A shopping mall just 1015 minutes from the campus was torched, heightening fears among students.

Though the college authorities have assured us they will protect us, the situation is not good. We are very afraid," she added.

Binita said her 2nd-year MBBS exams have been postponed indefinitely, and she is struggling to stay in touch with her family due to poor mobile networks.

Yes, Im in touch with my family, but the network is not working properly. My family is extremely worried, and so am I," she said.

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Her only wish now is to return to India.

I want to go home right now. I dont know how, but I want to go back," she said, her voice filled with fear.

About the Author Kamalika Sengupta Kamalika Sengupta is the Editor (East) at CNN-News18 / News18.com, focusing on politics, defence, and womens issues. She is a seasoned multimedia journalist with over 20 years of experience reporting... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 13:21 IST

News world Indian Students In Nepal Fear For Safety Amid Violence: 'We Just Want To Go Home'

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Indian Tourist Stranded In Nepal Appeals For Help, Says 'Entire Hotel Was Torched'

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 12:34 IST

Nepal is witnessing a massive student-led Gen Z protest that began against a government ban on social media.

indian

Amid the ongoing Gen Z" protests in Nepal, a video of an Indian woman appealing for help from the Indian government is going viral. The woman, who identified herself as Upasana Gill, talked about her experience in Nepal as the violent protestors set fire to the hotel, where she was staying.

Gill, in the video, stated that while she was at a spa inside the hotel, a mob carrying sticks was running behind her, leaving her to flee for safety. She stated that she had come to Nepal to host a volleyball league.

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My name is Upasana Gill, and I am sending this video to Praful Garg. I request the Indian embassy to please help us. All those who can help us, please help. I am stranded here in Pokhara, Nepal. I had come here to host a volleyball league, and currently, the hotel where I was staying has been burned down. All my luggage, all my belongings, were in my room, and the entire hotel was set on fire. I was in the spa, and people were running behind me with very large sticks, and I barely managed to escape with my life," the Indian woman is heard saying in the video.

Upasana Gill further stated the protesters did not spare even tourists. The situation here is very bad. Fires are being set on roads everywhere. They are not sparing tourists here. They dont care if someone is a tourist. They are setting fires everywhere without thinking, and the situation has become very, very bad here," she added.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Prafful Garg (@praffulgarg)

Gen Z Protests In Nepal

Nepal is witnessing a massive student-led Gen Z protest that began against a government ban on social media. The protest soon expanded into a larger campaign reflecting growing public criticism of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli-led government and the alleged corruption.

As the protests intensified, PM Oli resigned on Tuesday, even as the ban on social media was lifted late on Monday night. The demonstrators stormed many government buildings and set the parliament as well as homes of several high-profile leaders ablaze.

Indian Embassy Issues Advisory

The Indian Embassy in Kathmandu has issued an advisory for all its nationals in Nepal to defer travel" there until the situation has stabilised. The Ministry of External Affairs has advised nationals to shelter in their current places of residence, avoid going out onto the streets and exercise all due caution.

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In view of the developing situation in Nepal, Indian citizens are advised to defer travel there until the situation has stabilised. Indian citizens presently in Nepal are advised to shelter in their current places of residence, avoid going out onto the streets and exercise all due caution," the MEA said.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

Location : Nepal

First Published: September 10, 2025, 12:33 IST

News world Indian Tourist Stranded In Nepal Appeals For Help, Says 'Entire Hotel Was Torched'

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India's Keyboard Minions Are Hijacking: Trump Aide Navarro Rants Over X Notes On Russian Oil

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 07:32 IST

Peter Navarro mentioned that India's steep tariffs are costing American jobs, while its purchase of discounted Russian oil is seen as a profit-driven move

US White House Treasury advisor Peter Navarro. (AFP file)

White House Trade Advisor Peter Navarro continued his rant on the social media site X over Indias Russian oil purchases, but this time, his focus shifted to Indians who were fact-checking and adding context to his posts.

Taking a dig at contexts being added to his posts, Navarro, in a seven-part post, said, Indias keyboard minions are hijacking Xs Community Notes to bury the facts. Theyre furious about losing unfettered access to US marketseven as India, the Maharaja of Tariffs, keeps some of the worlds highest trade barriers."

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In the second post, he mentioned that Indias steep tariffs are costing American jobs, while its purchase of discounted Russian oil is seen as a profit-driven move that funnels revenues directly into funding President Vladimir Putins war machine.

 Indias keyboard minions are hijacking Xs Community Notes to bury the facts.Theyre furious about losing unfettered access to U.S. marketseven as India, the Maharaja of Tariffs, keeps some of the worlds highest trade barriers. pic.twitter.com/d72WoebqIa  Peter Navarro (@RealPNavarro) September 9, 2025

He added, Frenzied Indian partisans swarmedand cobbled together a flimsy Community Note to protest the truth."

White House trade advisor Peter Navarro had earlier said India must come around" at some point on trade negotiations with the US or else it wont end well" for Delhi.

Navarro, in an interview with the Real Americas Voice show, said the Indian government takes offense to him and described India as the Maharajah of tariffs.

But its absolutely true. They have the highest tariffs in any major country in the world against the United States. We got to deal with that," Navarro said.

He added that India never bought oil from Moscow before Russia invaded Ukraine, except for like little tiny drops of it. And then they go into this mode of profiteering with Russian refiners coming on to Indian soil and profiteering," and American taxpayers end up having to send more money for the conflict, he said.

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He listed the great" trade deals that the US has inked with the European Union, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Indonesia, saying all these countries are working very closely with us" because they realise that theyve been taking too much advantage of the US and also because they need American markets.

I think India must come around at some point. And if it doesnt, its laying down with Russia and China, and that wont end well for India," he warned.

About the Author Abhro Banerjee Covering day-to-day national and international news for the last nine years across print and digital. Associated with News18.com as Chief Sub-Editor since 2022, covering innumerable big and small even... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 07:17 IST

News world India's Keyboard Minions Are Hijacking: Trump Aide Navarro Rants Over X Notes On Russian Oil

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Kremlin Rejects Blame After Drone Incursions In Poland: Groundless Accusations, No Proof

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 18:05 IST

Poland-Russia Tensions. Kremlin denies Poland's claims of Russian drones in Polish airspace as Donald Tusk called it the most dangerous moment since World War II.

Poland-Russia Tensions: Poland PM Donald Tusk and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Kremlin dismissed accusations that Russian drones were behind overnight incursions into Polish airspace, calling the allegations groundless", even as European leaders warned the incidents marked a dangerous escalation. Polands Prime Minister Donald Tusk told parliament that the country faced its most dangerous moment since World War Two after seven drones and debris of an unidentified object were discovered across multiple provinces.

I have no reason to claim were on the brink of war, but a line has been crossed and its incomparably more dangerous than before," Donald Tusk said.

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What Kremlin Said On Polands Claims?

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that no evidence has been presented that these drones are of Russian origin, adding that EU and NATO leaders accuse Russia of provocation almost daily, most often without even attempting to provide any justification." The Kremlin said that all questions regarding the night attack had been forwarded to Russias Ministry of Defense.

Read more: Poland Closest To Conflict Since World War II: PM Tusk On Russian Drone Incursions

Drones Found Deep Inside Poland

Meanwhile, Polands interior ministry confirmed that five drones and wreckage were located in Lublin province near the borders with Belarus and Ukraine. Two others were discovered much further west and north- one in Mniszkow in central Lodz province, about 250 kilometers from the Belarusian border and another near Elblag close to the Baltic coast. Authorities said investigations were ongoing and security forces remained on high alert.

European Leaders Condemn Drone Incursions

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The incursions prompted swift condemnation across Europe as French President Emmanuel Macron called the incidents simply unacceptable" and said he would meet NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte soon. European Council President Antonio Costa warned that peace and security in Europe cannot be taken for granted," vowing greater investment in defence.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said it was hard to believe" the strikes were coincidental, accusing Russia of systematically probing to see how far it can go." Finlands President Alexander Stubb argued Russia seeks escalation" and bears responsibility for violating Polish airspace.

Location : Russia

First Published: September 10, 2025, 18:05 IST

News world Kremlin Rejects Blame After Drone Incursions In Poland: Groundless Accusations, No Proof

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'Look Forward To Speaking With Very Good Friend PM Modi': Trump Signals Resumption Of Trade Talks

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 06:45 IST

Trump's statement comes amid heightened geopolitical and economic coordination between Washington and New Delhi

India remains a crucial strategic partner for the US in the Indo-Pacific, and bilateral trade has grown steadily, reaching $192 billion in 2024. File pic/Reuters

US President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the United States and India are resuming negotiations aimed at resolving long-standing trade disputes between the two countries.

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In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump stated, I am pleased to announce that India and the United States of America are continuing negotiations to address the Trade Barriers between our two Nations. 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 of our Great Countries!"

While neither the White House nor the Indian Ministry of Commerce has officially confirmed a new round of talks, Trumps statement comes amid heightened geopolitical and economic coordination between Washington and New Delhi, particularly in areas such as defence, technology, and supply chains.

Background: A Fraught Trade Relationship

Trade tensions between the two countries date back to Trumps first term, when he imposed tariffs on Indian aluminium and steel in 2018, prompting retaliatory duties by New Delhi. In 2019, the US revoked Indias GSP (Generalized System of Preferences) statuseliminating duty-free access to the American market for over $6 billion worth of Indian goods.

Though efforts were made during the Trump and Biden administrations to reach a limited trade deal, negotiations stalled over disagreements on digital trade, data localisation, and tariffs on US agricultural and medical products.

India remains a crucial strategic partner for the US in the Indo-Pacific, and bilateral trade has grown steadily, reaching $192 billion in 2024, making the United States Indias largest trading partner.

Political Timing and Implications

Trumps statement appears timed to appeal to Indian-American voters ahead of the 2026 midterms and possibly to lay the groundwork for a renewed US-India trade pact. His warm reference to PM Modi as a very good friend" also signals continuity in personal diplomacy between the two leaders.

Analysts believe renewed talks could focus on restoring GSP benefits, removing tariffs, and joint frameworks on e-commerce and semiconductor cooperation.

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About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 06:45 IST

News world 'Look Forward To Speaking With Very Good Friend PM Modi': Trump Signals Resumption Of Trade Talks

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MAGA Activist Charlie Kirk Dies After Being Shot At Utah Valley University, Announces Trump

Curated By :

Trending Desk

Last Updated: September 11, 2025, 02:17 IST

Law enforcement officials continue to investigate the shooting and are urging anyone with information to come forward.

Kirk, 31, was speaking on campus as part of his national speaking series (AFP)

Political activist and conservative commentator Charlie Kirk has died after being shot during an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. He was rushed to a nearby hospital but succumbed to his injuries shortly after being admitted. His death was confirmed by US President Donald Trump in a Truth Social post.

The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. 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. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his Trump Truth Social Posts On X (@TrumpTruthOnX) September 10, 2025

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Kirk, 31, was speaking on campus as part of his national speaking series, The American Comeback Tour," when the shooting occurred. A video of the incident, which quickly spread on social media, appears to show Kirk being struck in the neck. Witnesses reported significant blood loss immediately following the gunfire. According to authorities, only a single shot was fired.

The suspect remains unidentified and has not yet been apprehended. Law enforcement officials continue to investigate the shooting and are urging anyone with information to come forward.

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Charlie Kirk is survived by his wife, Erika Frantzve, and their two children, including daughter Sarah Rose and a son born in 2023.

The investigation remains ongoing. Meanwhile, Utah Valley University has closed its campus following the incident, and cancelled classes until further notice," according to an X post by the school. The students were advised to secure in place" on campus until police can escort them off campus.

Location : Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)

First Published: September 11, 2025, 02:17 IST

News world MAGA Activist Charlie Kirk Dies After Being Shot At Utah Valley University, Announces Trump

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'Message To Entire Middle East': Israeli Official Issues Warning Amid Qatar Strikes

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 07:58 IST

Ohana's comments came after the Israeli military confirmed the air strikes in an operation targeting senior leaders of the Palestinian group Hamas.

This frame grab shows smoke billowing after explosions in Doha's capital Qatar on September 9. (AFP photo)

Hours after several explosions rocked the capital of Qatar, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana uploaded a video of an explosion in Doha on X, and wrote, This is a message to the entire Middle East". Ohanas comments came after the Israeli military confirmed the air strikes in an operation targeting senior leaders of the Palestinian group Hamas.

Notably, this is the first time that Israel has launched an operation in Qatar. The IDF (Israeli military) and ISA (security agency) conducted a precise strike targeting the senior leadership of the Hamas terrorist organisation," the military said.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus office had claimed the attack as wholly independent" after Israeli media reported the attack as one given a green light" by US President Donald Trump.

Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility," a statement from the PMs office said.

Qatar has long served as the mediator in talks between Israel and Hamas as the latters exiled leadership has been based there, even before the latest conflict in Gaza.

The attack came in the same week Trump had said that he was giving a last warning" to Hamas for a ceasefire.

Qatar has condemned the attack, terming it a cowardly Israeli attack" on the political headquarters of Hamas. Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari called it a flagrant violation of all international laws and norms."

Meanwhile, Israels Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich praised the attack by the Israeli military, stating that terrorists will never have immunity from Israel anywhere in the world, and praised IDFs decision and execution.

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A White House official has confirmed that Israel informed the US about the attack in advance, according to AFP.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

Location : Israel

First Published: September 10, 2025, 07:34 IST

News world 'Message To Entire Middle East': Israeli Official Issues Warning Amid Qatar Strikes

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Last Updated: September 11, 2025, 00:01 IST

Smoke and flames billow out after several structures were set on fire during massive anti-government protests in Kathmandu. (PTI photo)

Nepal Protest News Highlights: The death toll in the anti-government protests in Nepal has climbed to 25, police said on Wednesday. Over 600 people were injured in the deadly clash between the forces and the demonstrators, mostly youths leading what came to be called the Gen Z movement.

In the latest development, former Chief Justice Sushila Karki has been appointed as Nepals interim head, just a day after mass protests brought down the government. Karki will now lead the country through a period of transition until fresh elections are held.

The deadly protests triggered by the now-lifted ban on social media and anger over corruption also forced KP Sharma Oli to resign as Prime Minister on Tuesday.

Further, the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu resumed operations on Wednesday.

Despite the government rolling back the ban, protests intensified on Tuesday, with angry protestors attacking and injuring Nepalese leaders.

Meanwhile, the Nepali Army on Wednesday said it had arrested 26 people accused of looting and vandalism during the ongoing youth-led protests, as part of a special security operation launched to curb the ongoing unrest. The crackdown followed the Nepal Armys takeover of national security responsibilities from 10 pm on Tuesday.

The Nepali Army appealed to citizens to stay alert and cooperate with security forces to help preserve order. Amid a surge in misinformation on social media, authorities also cautioned citizens against spreading unverified or exaggerated claims and stressed the importance of relying on credible sources.
Nepal In Constitutional Crisis: No Provision On Interim Leader Who's Not MP, What Happens Next?

Reported By :

News18.com Edited By: Oindrila Mukherjee



Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 23:04 IST

Consultations are on about how to adjust an interim government chief in Nepal, as the army favours the 'Gen Z' choice but is exploring legal cover for the President

An aerial view shows firefighters dousing the torched Singha Durbar, the main administrative building for the Nepal government, a day after it was set ablaze by protesters in Kathmandu on September 10. (Image: by PRABIN RANABHAT/AFP)

Nepal is facing a constitutional crisis as consultations are ongoing to determine how to adjust the interim government chief within the Constitution.

There is no provision in the Nepalese Constitution for an interim prime minister, who is not a sitting member of Parliament. While the army supports the Gen Z protesters, it is seeking legal cover from the President.

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WHAT DOES THE NEPALESE CONSTITUTION SAY?

The Nepalese Constitution has provisions for extraordinary conditions such as Emergency Rule under Article 273 or when Parliament is dissolved.

Nepals President, however, has limited discretion to appoint anyone, except if they use articles 76 and 77 to justify appointing a neutral figure when no party can form a majority.

At present, a constitutional amendment is not possible as it requires a two-third majority in Parliament that is practically unattainable. In this case, the President has the option to declare an Emergency in the country to provide legal cover.

WHAT ARE THE OTHER OPTIONS?

Another scenario involves the Nepalese Army forcing political parties to reach a deal allowing them to nominate former chief justice Sushila Karki, who has been chosen as the interim chief by the student protesters.

Declaring fresh elections is another option for the President, but it is not practically feasible at the moment. According to sources close to Nepals army chief, the military is clear that the Gen Z group has popular support, making it impossible for it to go against their opinion. Any solution must meet their current demands, the sources said.

The sources said the army is not interested in taking charge except in operations related to peace and law and order. The main concern for the army is to manage the judicial challenge that may arise if any political party decides to move court against any interim leadership, they said.

Former chief justice Sushila Karki is the most likely choice to lead the interim government in Nepal. The development comes a day after the neighbouring country plunged into a serious political crisis as Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned in the face of a massive anti-government agitation.

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The Nepal Army has had to take over the law and order situation followed by nationwide restrictive orders and a curfew on Wednesday. There is no government in place over the past 24 hours or more since Oli resigned.

The student-led Gen Z protests that began against a government ban on social media expanded into a larger campaign reflecting growing public criticism of the Oli dispensation and the countrys political elite over alleged corruption and apathy towards the common people.

About the Author Manoj Gupta Group Editor, Investigations & Security Affairs, Network18

Location : Kathmandu, Nepal

First Published: September 10, 2025, 23:02 IST

News world Nepal In Constitutional Crisis: No Provision On Interim Leader Who's Not MP, What Happens Next?

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Ex-Nepal PM, Wife Arzu Rana Deuba Kicked, Assaulted Amid Violent Gen Z Protests In Nepal

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 13:50 IST

Ex-Nepal PM Sher Bahadur Deuba and Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba were brutally assaulted as protesters torched their Kathmandu residence during Gen Z-led anti-corruption unrest.

Sher Bahadur Deuba, his wife Arzu Rana Deuba thrashed by protesters in Nepal (Video screengrabs/Social Media)

Nepals former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and his wife, Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba, were brutally assaulted after their residence in Kathmandu was on Tuesday set on fire by Gen Z protesters over corruption and a social media ban.

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Multiple videos, widely shared on social media, showed protesters barging into Deubas house and thrashing him, while he lay on the ground.

Another group of people could be seen holding Arzu Rana Deuba. Moments later, a man could be seen kicking her, while she pleaded with the demonstrators to vacate her house.

Other videos also showed them being thrashed by protesters outside their house, which left both of them bleeding.

(News18 did not share the videos because of the graphic content/violence).

The deadly demonstrations by the youngsters also forced Prime Minister KP Sharma Olis resignation, leaving key buildings in flames and the nation on edge.

Protesters set fire to the Parliament, the Presidents Office, the PMs residence, government buildings, political parties offices and homes of senior leaders.

Nepals capital, Kathmandu, and other major cities wore a deserted look as army troops fanned out across the country.

On Wednesday, the Nepal Army imposed nationwide restrictive orders, followed by a curfew to quell possible violence under the guise of protest.

The restrictive orders are in effect throughout the country from morning to 5 pm, and then a curfew will be in place until 6 am on Thursday, the army said in a statement.

The measures were necessitated to curb possible incidents of looting, arson, and other destructive activities under the guise of agitation", it said.

The army, which took control of nationwide security operations at 10 pm on Tuesday, warned that any form of demonstrations, vandalism, arson, or attacks on individuals and property during the restrictive period would be treated as criminal acts and dealt with accordingly.

The statement clarified that vehicles and personnel engaged in essential services, including ambulances, fire engines, health workers, and security forces, would be permitted to operate during the restrictive orders and curfew.

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ALSO READ | Indian Students In Nepal Fear For Safety Amid Violence: We Just Want To Go Home

About the Author Vani Mehrotra Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.

First Published: September 10, 2025, 13:48 IST

News world Ex-Nepal PM, Wife Arzu Rana Deuba Kicked, Assaulted Amid Violent Gen Z Protests In Nepal

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Nepal's Streets Have Spoken, Echoing A Bangladesh-Style Power Shift With A Civilian-Led Interim Govt

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 13:00 IST

A senior bureaucrat, who did not wish to be named, however, told News18 that the Nepal protesters are now divided in terms of opinion

People displaying Nepal's national flag burn tyres during a demonstration to condemn the police's deadly crackdown on protesters in Kathmandu on September 9. (Image/AFP)

The parliament is burnt. The Supreme Court torched. The Presidents residence attacked and set on fire. Even former Prime Minister KP Sharma Olis home was set ablaze. Kathmandu is in revolt, and the demands from the streets include an interim government. This is not about patchwork reforms. Protesters, driven largely by Gen Z anger, say that the entire political order has collapsed.

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A source in the government in Kathmandu said that a section among the protesters now wants a civilian-led collective or a former chief justice-led interim government to steer the country, stating that Olis government has lost credibility. To geopolitical experts in Nepal, this has the unmistakable echo of the Bangladesh model, where street fury brought down a civilian regime and forced a judiciary-military transition in less than a week.

The establishment is, however, split. While one section sees an interim arrangement as unavoidable, the ruling camp insists on a structured dialogue with protesters, warning that yielding to raw street power would legitimise mob politics. But the protesters are unmoved.

Speaking with News 18, a senior bureaucrat, who did not wish to be named, said, The protesters are now divided in terms of opinion. A section of them demanded an interim government, which would have civilians, Gen Z members, leaders or representatives from all political parties, which might be led by a former chief justice or former army chief. They want the interim government to hold elections in six months. This now looks like a Bangladesh model to us."

But there are other opinions too, he added. As the violence crept in, the movement turned leaderless. A team of senior representatives from the army, the government, the civil society, and some political parties are trying to initiate a dialogue with the protesters," the official said.

The Nepal army has been consulted but remains cautious. The army has already announced that it would take control. The idea of a former chief justice heading the interim government has gained traction, offering a semblance of neutrality in a political landscape where everyone else looks compromised, another senior officer said.

News18 spoke with the Prime Ministers former media adviser. There should be scope to initiate a dialogue between the team of representatives of the government, army, civil society members, and the protesters. Whoever controls the interim arrangement will decide Nepals trajectory," said Gopal Khanal, a senior geopolitical commentator and former media adviser of ex-PM Oli.

For the protesters, the interim government is not a stopgap but the first step towards a new political contract. The stakes are, however, geopolitical. India, recalibrating after Sheikh Hasinas fall, is now wary of another unstable neighbour.

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Meanwhile, what seems clear is that the flames in Kathmandu have already delivered a verdict. The old order is finished. The demand for an interim government is no longer a slogan; it now seems to be the only roadmap the streets will accept.

About the Author Madhuparna Das Madhuparna Das, Associate Editor (policy) at CNN News 18, has been in journalism for nearly 14 years. She has extensively been covering politics, policy, crime and internal security issues. She has co... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 07:30 IST

News world Nepal's Streets Have Spoken, Echoing A Bangladesh-Style Power Shift With A Civilian-Led Interim Govt

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Poland Says Russian Drones Breached Airspace Amid Ukraine Strikes, Shuts Airports

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 09:22 IST

Polands military said Russian drones repeatedly violated its airspace during strikes on Ukraine, prompting the closure of Warsaws Chopin Airport.

Polish soldiers patrol along the border fence on the Polish-Belarusian border in Usnarz Gorny, Poland (Photo: Reuters)

The military of Poland on Wednesday said the countrys airspace was repeatedly" violated by drones during a Russian attack on Ukraine.

A US Federal Aviation Administration notice mentioned that four airports, including Warsaws main Chopin Airport, were closed, as it cited unplanned military activity related to ensuring state security".

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The RzeszowJasionka Airport in Polands southeast, a hub for passenger and arms transfers to Ukraine, was also among the airports that had been temporarily closed, the FAA notice mentioned.

Poland also said it scrambled its own and NATO air defences to shoot down drones.

It said the military operation was ongoing and urged people to stay at home, naming the regions of Podlaskie, Mazowieckie, and Lublin as most at risk.

During todays attack by the Russian Federation aimed at targets in Ukraine, our airspace was repeatedly violated by drones," the operational command of Polands armed forces said in a statement on social media.

It earlier said that Polish and allied aircraft had been mobilised in response to the Russian attack.

As of 0315 GMT, all of Ukraine, including western regions of Volyn and Lviv, which border Poland, had been under air raid alerts for several hours, according to Ukraines air force.

Later, in a social media post, Polands National Security Bureau said, The President of the Republic of Poland is being continuously informed about the situation regarding violations of Polish airspace."

We ask you to follow the announcements and rely on information coming from the strategic commands of the Polish Armed Forces and services," it mentioned.

We express immense gratitude to all those involved in protecting Polish skies. We also ask everyone to remain calm," it added.

Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said Polish aircraft had used weapons against hostile objects".

We are in constant contact with NATO command," he added on X.

The alleged incursion comes a day after Polands newly elected nationalist President Karol Nawrocki warned that Russian leader Vladimir Putin was ready to invade more countries after launching his war in Ukraine.

We do not trust Vladimir Putins good intentions," Nawrocki told reporters Tuesday at a press conference in Helsinki.

We believe that Vladimir Putin is ready to also invade other countries."

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been briefed on reports of Russian drones over Poland, according to CNN.

Poland has been on high alert for objects entering its airspace since a stray Ukrainian missile struck a southern Polish village in 2022, killing two people, a few months into Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

However, there have been no reports of Polish or allied defence systems destroying drones.

Poland earlier said it would close its border with Belarus on Thursday at midnight local time as a result of Russia-led military exercises taking place in Belarus.

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Russia and Belarus large-scale military exercises, known as the Zapad" drills, have raised security concerns in neighbouring NATO member states, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

ALSO READ | Zelenskyy Urges Tougher Actions As Trump Signals Sanctions On Russia

About the Author Vani Mehrotra Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.

First Published: September 10, 2025, 09:09 IST

News world Poland Says Russian Drones Breached Airspace Amid Ukraine Strikes, Shuts Airports

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Poland Closest To Conflict Since World War II: PM Tusk On Russian Drone Incursions

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 16:11 IST

Poland-Russia Tensions: Poland PM Donald Tusk warns of highest danger since World War Two after drone incursions spark strong European reactions.

Poland-Russia Tensions: Poland PM Donald Tusk and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Polands Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned that the country is facing its most dangerous moment since World War Two after multiple drones were found across Polish territory following overnight airspace incursions. Speaking to Polish Parliament, Donald Tusk said, I have no reason to claim were on the brink of war but a line has been crossed and its incomparably more dangerous than before. This situation brings us the closest we have been to open conflict since World War Two."

Drone Incursions Across Poland

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Authorities confirmed the discovery of seven drones and the remains of an unidentified object in several regions. According to Polish interior ministry, five drones and debris were located in Lublin province near Polands eastern border with Belarus and Ukraine.

But two other drones were found far deeper inside the country: one in a field in Mniszkow, central odz province, around 250 km from the Belarusian border and another near Elblag in northern Poland, close to the Baltic coast.

Interior ministry spokeswoman Karolina Galecka said investigations were underway and security forces remained on high alert. The origin of the drones has not yet been publicly confirmed though Warsaw has repeatedly accused Russia of violating its airspace during its war in Ukraine.

How European Leaders Reacted To Drone Incursions In Poland?

The incursions triggered swift and strong reactions across Europe as French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the drone incidents as simply unacceptable" and said he would meet NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte soon.

European Council President Antonio Costa warned that peace and security in Europe cannot be taken for granted," pledging increased defence investment in response to what he called Russias reckless" actions.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said it was hard to believe" the drone strikes were a coincidence, accusing Russia of systematically probing to see how far it can go."

Finlands President Alexander Stubb added that Russia seeks escalation" and carries responsibility" for violating Polish airspace.

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Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics expressed full solidarity with Warsaw, stressing that European allies must be working together."

Hungarys Viktor Orban, one of the few EU leaders maintaining ties with the Kremlin, also called the incident unacceptable."

Location : Poland

First Published: September 10, 2025, 16:11 IST

News world Poland Closest To Conflict Since World War II: PM Tusk On Russian Drone Incursions

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Polish Airport Temporarily Closed Amid Reports Of Russian Drones In NATO Airspace

Curated By :

Trending Desk

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 06:32 IST

Authorities stated that the situation is being closely monitored and that Polish forces remain fully prepared to respond if required.

Ukraines Air Force issued a warning between Tuesday night and early Wednesday (Representative Image)

The Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces has reported that the Russian Federation conducted a large-scale aerial attack on the night of September 910. The incident prompted an immediate military response from Poland.

In an official statement, the Polish military confirmed the activation of all necessary defensive procedures. Polish and allied aircraft are operating in our airspace, and ground-based air defence and radar reconnaissance systems have reached the highest state of readiness," the statement read.

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Uwaga, w nocy z 9 na 10 wrzesnia 2025 r. Federacja Rosyjska wykonuje kolejne zmasowane uderzenia na obiekty znajdujace sie na terytorium Ukrainy.W celu zapewnienia bezpieczenstwa polskiej przestrzeni powietrznej Dowodca Operacyjny RSZ uruchomi wszystkie niezbedne procedury. pic.twitter.com/fPscFKE7Cx  Dowodztwo Operacyjne RSZ (@DowOperSZ) September 9, 2025

Authorities stated that the situation is being closely monitored and that Polish forces remain fully prepared to respond if required.

According to data from FlightRadar24, US F-35 fighter jets were observed operating near the Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport in southeastern Poland, a key logistics hub for NATO forces. The airport was reportedly closed temporarily overnight due to what was described as unplanned military activity."

Reuters reported that Ukraines Air Force issued a warning between Tuesday night and early Wednesday, stating that Russian drones had entered Polish airspace during operations targeting Ukraine. The report has drawn attention to heightened regional tensions.

Additionally, Defence24 reported that four Iranian-made Shahed drones allegedly entered Belarusian airspace during the same timeframe. These drones are believed to have been launched by Russian forces. The report notes that this information was sourced from unofficial Ukrainian channels.

In response to the incident, NATO allied forces have increased their aerial presence in the region. Italian early warning aircraft reportedly departed from Estonia and headed south, while a Dutch air tanker is currently operating within Polish airspace.

US Representative Joe Wilson confirmed the incident in a post on X (formerly Twitter), stating that Russia had targeted NATO member Poland with Iranian Shahed drones. He described the incident as an act of war" and thanked NATO allies for their swift response. The representative also called for sanctions and additional military support for Ukraine.

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Russia is attacking NATO ally Poland with Iranian shahed drones less than a week after President Trump hosted President Nawrocki at the White House. This is an act of war, and we are grateful to NATO allies for their swift response to war criminal Putins continued unprovoked Joe Wilson (@RepJoeWilson) September 10, 2025

In his statement, Wilson reiterated comments attributed to Russian leadership, stating, Russia knows no borders," and added, Free and prosperous nations will teach Russia about borders."

Location : Poland

First Published: September 10, 2025, 06:32 IST

News world Polish Airport Temporarily Closed Amid Reports Of Russian Drones In NATO Airspace

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Prince Harry Holds First Meeting With King Charles In Over A Year At Clarence House

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 22:28 IST

Prince Harry last met King Charles in February last year. King Charles is recovering from cancer.

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Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, is set to meet with his father, King Charles, in more than a year. (IMAGE: REUTERS FILE)

Prince Harry arrived at Clarence House in the UK on Wednesday to meet King Charles in what will be their first meeting in more than a year, according to UK broadcaster Sky News.

The report by the broadcaster highlighted that the father and the son last met each other in February 2024 when the Duke of Sussex flew to London after King Charles announced he was having cancer treatment.

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Prince Harry is in the UK and earlier visited the Centre for Blast Injury Studies at Imperial College London and has attended several events after returning to the UK on Monday.

Prince Harry began his four-day working visit by laying flowers at Queen Elizabeth IIs resting place on the third anniversary of her death. The King, 76, meanwhile, travelled from his Balmoral residence, where he had been spending his summer break, the report said.

Harry remains estranged from Prince William, his older brother. The Prince Of Wales travelled to Cardiff on an event related to a mental health hub on World Suicide Prevention Day. The broadcaster said that there is no prospect of the pair meeting.

Prince Harry remains estranged from his elder brother, Prince William, who travelled to Cardiff on Tuesday for an event marking the launch of a mental health hub on World Suicide Prevention Day. The broadcaster reported there was no prospect of the brothers meeting.

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Harry, who flew in from California February last year to visit his father after his cancer diagnosis, was seen at the time as signalling a willingness on both sides to set aside strained ties, caused after the release of his memoir Spare.

Over the summer, senior aides to the King and Harry were photographed in London, in what the Mail on Sunday described as an early step toward mending the dukes relationship with the Royal Family.

About the Author Shankhyaneel Sarkar Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a senior subeditor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over five years of experience during which he has c... Read More

Location : London, United Kingdom (UK)

First Published: September 10, 2025, 22:18 IST

News world Prince Harry Holds First Meeting With King Charles In Over A Year At Clarence House

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'Ready For Responsibility': Sushila Karki After Being Named As Nepal's Interim Head | News18 Exclusive

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 19:45 IST

Karki said that her immediate focus would be on supporting the families of the young people who died during the protests

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Nepal's former Chief Justice Sushila Karki. (Image via X)

Former Chief Justice Sushila Karki has been appointed as Nepals interim head, just a day after mass protests brought down the government over allegations of corruption and nepotism. Karki, the first woman to serve as Nepals Chief Justice, will now lead the country through a period of transition until fresh elections are held.

Her name was finalised during a virtual meeting of the Gen-Z movement on Wednesday morning. The youth-led group, which spearheaded the protests, decided to back Karki to guide Nepal through the ongoing crisis.

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In an exclusive interview with CNN-News18, Karki said she is prepared to take on the role. The Gen-Z group led the recent movement in Nepal and that they trusted her to lead the government for a short period," she said.

Karki noted that her immediate priority would be to honour and support the families of those who lost their lives during the protests. Our immediate focus will be something for the young people who died during the protest," she added.

She confirmed that young members of the movementgirls and boys", as she describedvoted in favour of her name. I have accepted their request to lead the interim government," she told CNN-News18.

Reflecting on Nepals political history, Karki admitted that the current situation is difficult. There have always been problems in Nepal from the past. The situation is very tough now," she said.

Despite the challenges, she remained hopeful and committed. We will work together for the development of Nepal," she said, adding, We will try to establish a new beginning for the country."

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Speaking about Nepals ties with India, Karki said the relationship is strong and has been so for many years. There is a lot of respect and love for India. India has helped Nepal a lot," she said.

I have good relations with Indian leaders. I especially want to say, main Modi ji ko namaskar karti hoon (I greet Prime Minister Modi). I have a very good impression of Modi ji," she said.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 18:38 IST

News world 'Ready For Responsibility': Sushila Karki After Being Named As Nepal's Interim Head | News18 Exclusive

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'Simply Unacceptable': Macron, Zelenskyy Slam Intrusion Of Russian Drones Into Polish Airspace

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 14:28 IST

Russian drones violated Polish airspace, prompting condemnation from Emmanuel Macron and Volodymyr Zelenskyy and calls for NATO action

French President Emmanuel Macron called on Russia to end this dangerous escalation

Hours after Poland said that its airspace was violated by Russian drones, Ukraine and France condemned Moscows actions and called for a joint action by the NATO, Europe and the US.

In a post on X, French President Emmanuel Macron said: The incursion of Russian drones into Polish airspace during the attack carried out by Russia on Ukraine is simply unacceptable. I condemn this in the strongest terms."

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I call on Russia to end this dangerous escalation. I reiterate to the Polish nation and its government our full expressions of solidarity. I will soon hold a conversation with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. We will not make any compromises on the issue of the security of the Allies," he added.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russias move to send multiple drones into Polish airspace posed an extremely dangerous precedent for Europe".

Today there was another step of escalation  Russian-Iranian shaheds" operated in the airspace of Poland, in NATO airspace. It was not just one shahed" that could be called an accident, but at least eight strike drones aimed toward Poland. It was not just one shahed that could be called an accident, but at least eight strike drones aimed toward Poland. An extremely dangerous precedent for Europe," he said in a post on X.

Whether there will be further steps depends entirely on the coordination and strength of the response. The Russians must feel the consequences. Russia must feel that the war cannot be expanded and will have to be ended," he further said.

Emphasising that a strong response in needed, he said that it can only be a joint response by all partners: Ukraine, Poland, all Europeans, the United States".

Early Wednesday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on social media that Last night the Polish airspace was violated by a huge number of Russian drones. Those drones that posed a direct threat were shot down."

Warsaws Chopin Airport suspended flights for several hours, citing the closure of airspace due to military operations.

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The Polish armed forces said Wednesday morning that a search for possible crash sites is ongoing and urged people not to approach, touch or move any objects they see, warning that they may pose a threat and could contain hazardous material.

Location : Poland

First Published: September 10, 2025, 14:28 IST

News world 'Simply Unacceptable': Macron, Zelenskyy Slam Intrusion Of Russian Drones Into Polish Airspace

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Trump Asserts Decision To Strike Qatar Was Made By Netanyahu, Denies US Participation

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 02:54 IST

According to the President, he was informed about the incident by the US military earlier in the morning.

Trumps statement also condemned Hamas for profiting off the misery of those living in Gaza (Source: AFP)

US President Donald Trump condemned the Israeli strike in Doha in a Truth Social post on Tuesday, describing it as an unfortunate incident" and specifically denouncing the choice of location. Emphasising Qatars status as a strong US ally, Trump said he had assured Qatari leadership that no such attack would ever occur on their soil again.

While condemning the strike, Trump placed the responsibility solely on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, denying any involvement by the US administration. He argued that such an attack would be counterproductive for both Israel and the US. Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a Sovereign Nation and close Ally of the United States, that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker Peace, does not advance Israel or Americas goals," Trump wrote.

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According to the President, he was informed about the incident by the US military earlier in the morning and instructed Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to alert Qatari officials about the impending strike. However, the warning arrived too late to prevent the attack.

Trumps statement also condemned Hamas for profiting off the misery of those living in Gaza," calling for its elimination as a worthy goal. He reiterated demands for the release of hostages and the return of the bodies of those killed, emphasising the urgent need to end the conflict. I also spoke to Prime Minister Netanyahu after the attack. The Prime Minister told me that he wants to make Peace. I believe this unfortunate incident could serve as an opportunity for PEACE," Trump added.

This morning, the Trump Administration was notified by the United States Military that Israel was attacking Hamas which, very unfortunately, was located in a section of Doha, the Capital of Qatar. This was a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by Trump Truth Social Posts On X (@TrumpTruthOnX) September 9, 2025

In a related move, the US administration has tasked Secretary of State Marco Rubio with finalising the Defense Cooperation Agreement with Qatar, further strengthening ties with the Gulf nation.

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Earlier on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt echoed similar sentiments during a briefing with reporters. She stressed that a strike on Qatar, a key Washington ally, does not advance Israel or Americas goals," according to AFP.

The statement came as multiple explosions rocked Doha, Qatars capital, in an unprecedented Israeli strike targeting senior Hamas leaders. Qatars foreign ministry condemned the attack on Hamas political headquarters, with spokesperson Majed Al Ansari calling it a flagrant violation of all international laws and norms."

Location : Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)

First Published: September 10, 2025, 02:54 IST

News world Trump Asserts Decision To Strike Qatar Was Made By Netanyahu, Denies US Participation

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Untouched By Politics, Backed By The Streets: Meet Sushila Karki, Head Of Nepal's Interim Govt

Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 21:39 IST

Seventy-three-year-old Karki, Nepals first woman chief justice, is no stranger to history, and she shares a strong connection with India

Born in Biratnagar in 1952, Karki started her legal practice in 1979. (Pic: X/RONBUpdates)

In a dramatic turn of events in Kathmandus unrest, Gen Z protesters have named former chief justice Sushila Karki to lead an interim civilian government. The decision, reportedly taken in a virtual meeting, signals a generational push to sideline the political class and bring in a politically neutral" figure seen as incorruptible and untainted by party deals.

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Seventy-three-year-old Karki, Nepals first woman chief justice, is no stranger to history, and she shares a strong connection with India. Karki studied political science at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi before returning to Nepal to pursue a law degree at Tribhuvan University.

In 2016, she became the first woman chief justice of Nepals Supreme Court, breaking one of the countrys hardest glass ceilings and patriarchal barriers. During her 11-month tenure, she built a reputation for delivering multiple uncompromising rulings against corruption and left her mark in Nepals judicial system with bold judgments that expanded womens rights, including the right to confer citizenship to children.

However, her integrity made her a political target as well. In April 2017, the ruling party attempted an impeachment motion against her, accusing her of judicial overreach. The move collapsed following public outrage and a Supreme Court order, leaving Karki with her reputation intact and the political class red-faced.

Born in Biratnagar in 1952, Karki started her legal practice in 1979. She rose steadily, earning recognition as a senior advocate by 2007 and joining the Supreme Court in 2009. Following her retirement in 2017, she turned to writing, producing an autobiography, Nyaya, and also a novel, Kara, inspired by her own imprisonment during the Panchayat years. Both works cemented her image as not just a jurist but also a historical chronicler of Nepals struggle with justice and democracy.

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For Nepals restless Gen Z protesters, who brought down KP Sharma Olis government with their digitally driven street protests, Karki represents credibility in a system they view as hollowed out. She is not tied to any party and carries a legacy of judicial independence, and has already defied the political elite once.

About the Author Madhuparna Das Madhuparna Das, Associate Editor (policy) at CNN News 18, has been in journalism for nearly 14 years. She has extensively been covering politics, policy, crime and internal security issues. She has co... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 21:35 IST

News world Untouched By Politics, Backed By The Streets: Meet Sushila Karki, Head Of Nepal's Interim Govt

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Who Is Ashok Raj Sigdel? The Nepal Army Chief General Who Addressed Nation After Olis Resignation

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 13:07 IST

Nepal Army chief Ashok Raj Sigdel said: We need to normalise present difficult situation and protect our historical & national heritage and public as well as private property..."

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Ashok Raj Sigdel was conferred with the Honorary Rank of General of the Indian Army by President Droupadi Murmu in December 2024. (X)

Nepal Army chief Ashok Raj Sigdel on Tuesday appealed to the protesters to come forward for dialogue in the face of violent protests that continued for a second day even after prime minister K P Sharma Olis resignation.

In a televised address to the nation, General Sigdel said, We appeal to the protesting group to halt protest programmes and come forward for dialogue for a peaceful way out for the nation."

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We need to normalise the present difficult situation and protect our historical and national heritage and public as well as private property, and to ensure safety to the general public and diplomatic missions," the chief of army staff said.

A statement released by the Armys Public Relations Directorate said, The Nepal army, always committed to the safety and security of Nepal and its people, is fully dedicated to protecting lives and property in the current situation."

There are reports that Oli was told to step down by Sigdel.

Who is Ashok Raj Sigdel?

Ashok Raj Sigdel is the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) of the Nepal Army, officially assuming the position on September 9, 2024. Sigdel was born on February 1, 1967, in Rupandehi district, Lumbini Province. He was born into a middle-class family and is one of five siblings, including three sisters.

Sigdel joined the armed forces in 1986. He holds a bachelors degree from the Army Command and Staff College in Shivapuri and from Chinas National Defense University. Further training includes the Higher and Management Course at the Army War College and a Defense Management Course in India. He also earned a masters in strategic studies from Chinas National Defense University and an MA from Tribhuvan University.

President Droupadi Murmu conferred the Honorary Rank of General of the Indian Army on General Ashok Raj Sigdel, Chief of the Army Staff, Nepali Army at a special Investiture Ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan. pic.twitter.com/TMJNUXhKwR President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) December 12, 2024

Ashok Raj Sigdel: His career

He has served in UN peacekeeping missions in Yugoslavia, Tajikistan, and Liberia. He has held roles such as Chief of General Staff, Acting Chief of Staff, Director General of Department of Staff Duties (Policies & Plans), Master General of Ordnance, Inspector General, and Director of Military Operations.

During the COVID 19 pandemic, he served as the Secretary of Nepals COVID Crisis Management Centre (CCMC).

Sigdel has received several recognitions, including the Sainik Dirgha Sewa Patta, Suprabal Janasewa Shree, and the Chief of Army Staff Commendation Medal twice.

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On December 12, 2024, the President of India, Droupadi Murmu, conferred upon him the Honorary Rank of General of the Indian Army during a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavana longstanding tradition symbolizing the strong military ties between Nepal and India.

With PTI, Agency Inputs

About the Author Manjiri Joshi At the news desk for 17 years, the story of her life has revolved around finding pun, facts while reporting, on radio, heading a daily newspaper desk, teaching mass media students to now editing speci... Read More

First Published: September 10, 2025, 13:07 IST

News world Who Is Ashok Raj Sigdel? The Nepal Army Chief General Who Addressed Nation After Olis Resignation

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Who Is Sushila Karki, Former Chief Justice Appointed Interim Nepal's Prime Minister?

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Last Updated: September 12, 2025, 21:28 IST

Amid Nepals political turmoil, Gen-Z protesters chose former Chief Justice Sushila Karki, a seasoned and respected figure, to lead their push against nepotism and corruption.

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It is highly likely that former chief justice Sushika Karki will become the Nepal Prime Minister. (Image: X/RONBUpdates)

Nepals former Chief Justice Sushila Karki was sworn in as the countrys interim Prime Minister on Friday.

The announcement came after intense talks between President Ramchandra Paudel, Sushila Karki and representatives of the Gen-Z protests, who had demanded massive political change following this weeks violent unrest.

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After her appointment, Karki began the work of forming and leading the interim Council of Ministers.

Who Is Sushila Karki?

Karkis public credibility is reinforced by her rulings in Om Bhakta Rana v. CIAA/Government of Nepal, which addressed corruption in Nepals peacekeeping missions, and Prithivi Bahadur Pandey v. Kathmandu District Court, dealing with corruption in the printing of polymer banknotes in Australia.

The Banaras Hindu University alumna also delivered landmark judgments on surrogacy and property rights of former royal family members.

Born in Biratnagar in 1952, Karki earned a degree in political science from Tribhuvan University and served jail time during the monarchy-led Panchayat regime.

Why Shushila Karki?

On Wednesday morning, Nepals Gen Z protesters turned to someone far older and experienced to guide the nation through political turmoil. From this session, they chose former Chief Justice Sushila Karki to lead the country while the army maintains control and civilian leaders remain in hiding.

Karki is seen amongst the people of Nepal as a crusader against corruption. Among her notable cases and judgments she presided over, she delivered a landmark ruling that significantly advanced womens rights in the country. She ruled that Nepali women could pass citizenship to their children, a right that had previously been restricted to men.

Hari Phuyal, a senior lawyer and former student of Karki, who began her career as a teacher, told Reuters in 2016 that she strongly believes that competent women should be in leadership positions for the emancipation of women".

Gen Z protesters had also floated the name of Kathmandu Mayor Balen Shah but ultimately chose the septuagenarian for her stance against corruption.

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Her selection also reflects her longstanding neutrality. Back in 2017, the Prachanda-led government was thrown into turmoil when his party, along with the Nepali Congress, filed an impeachment motion against her, sparking widespread street protests.

This article was originally published on September 10, 2025.

About the Author Shankhyaneel Sarkar Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a senior subeditor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over five years of experience during which he has c... Read More

Location : Kathmandu, Nepal

First Published: September 10, 2025, 17:59 IST

News world Who Is Sushila Karki, Former Chief Justice Appointed Interim Nepal's Prime Minister?

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Why Did Pig Heads With Macron's Name Show Up At Mosques In France And What Does It Mean?

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 14:34 IST

The act has raised concerns over rising anti-Muslim sentiment in the country as pork is considered haram (forbidden) in Islam

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The Islah mosque, in Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis, on the outskirts of Paris, was one of the mosques where pigs' heads were discovered. (AFP/Getty Images)

Paris woke up to a rude shock on Tuesday when severed pig headssome inscribed with President Emmanuel Macrons namewere discovered outside at least nine mosques across Frances capital and its suburbs.

Speaking to The Guardian, Paris police chief Laurent Nunez confirmed that four of the pig heads were found outside mosques within the city proper, while five were placed at mosques in neighbouring suburbs. Several of the heads were scrawled with the name Macron" in blue ink.

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The act has raised concerns over rising anti-Muslim sentiment in the country as pork is considered haram (forbidden) in Islam. Calling the incident despicable", Nunez said authorities had launched an investigation under the charge of incitement to hatred aggravated by racial or religious discrimination".

As part of outreach, President Macron met with Muslim community leaders to offer support, while interior minister Bruno Retailleau described the acts as outrageous" and absolutely unacceptable". The Guardian quoted the rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, ChemsEddine Hafiz, as calling the pig heads an Islamophobic act" and a new and sad stage in the rise of antiMuslim hatred".

A Symbolic Act

Throwing porkor placing pig parts like heads or entrailsinto or near a mosque is often used in Islamophobic attacks to intimidate, offend, or desecrate spaces considered sacred by Muslims. According to the Quran, pigs and pork are strongly associated with impurity in Islamic theology and practice and thus Muslims are prohibited from consuming or even handling pork.

Rising Anti-Muslim Incidents in France

As per Firstpost, data from Frances interior ministry indicates that reported anti-Muslim incidents rose by 75 per cent between January and May 2025 compared to the previous year, with personal attacks tripling during that period. Experts have also observed a broader uptick in religiously motivated hate across Europe, particularly since the IsraelHamas conflict began in October 2023.

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The Collective Against Islamophobia in Europe (CCIE) recorded 1,037 anti-Muslim incidents in 2024significantly higher than the official Interior Ministry count of 173. The disparity raises concerns about underreporting and systemic gaps in tracking such incidents.

From January to March 2025 alone, 79 anti-Muslim acts were logged: a 72 per cent increase over the same period in 2024.

About the Author Apoorva Misra Apoorva Misra is News Editor at News18.com with over nine years of experience. She is a graduate from Delhi University's Lady Shri Ram College and holds a PG Diploma from Asian College of Journalism, ... Read More

Location : Paris, France

First Published: September 10, 2025, 14:34 IST

News world Why Did Pig Heads With Macron's Name Show Up At Mosques In France And What Does It Mean?

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Zookeeper Mauled To Death By Lions After Stepping Out Of Car At Bangkok Safari Park

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Last Updated: September 10, 2025, 23:01 IST

The victim, identified as Jian Rangkharasamee, had worked at the zoo for over 20 years. He was attacked by six or seven lions

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Officials said Rangkharasamee was usually responsible for feeding the lions. (File photo: Getty Image via AFP)

A 58-year-old zookeeper was mauled to death by lions at Safari World Bangkok, one of Asias largest open-air zoos, on Wednesday.

The victim, identified as Jian Rangkharasamee, had worked at the zoo for over 20 years. Officials said he was usually responsible for feeding the lions. The attack happened when he stepped out of his car inside the lion enclosure and was attacked by six or seven lions.

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Sadudee Punpugdee, wildlife protection director of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, told AFP, The deceased is a zoo staff member who usually fed the lions." He said that the man was apparently mauled after stepping out of the vehicle.

A visitor and doctor, Tavatchai Kanchanarin, witnessed the attack and told local media, A man got off an uncovered car and stood alone with his back turned to the animals, which I thought was weird. He stood for about three minutes, then a lion walked slowly and grabbed him from the back. He did not scream."

Safari World confirmed the death of the staff member in a statement. The zoo said, We will urgently review and strengthen safety measures to prevent such incidents from happening again."

A senior zoo official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, We have rules and we repeat them often as we work with dangerous animals." He added that all lions in the park were licensed and emphasised the importance of not getting out of vehicles while visiting the open zoo.

The official also described the victim as a kind man" who had been a zoo supervisor for over 30 years.

Animal rights group PETA issued a statement saying, Safari World must relocate the lions, who have done nothing wrong other than exhibit their natural behaviours, to a sanctuary."

Lion ownership is legal in Thailand, where nearly 500 lions are registered in zoos, breeding farms, petting cafes, and private homes.

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Safari World said this was the first such incident in 40 years and expressed condolences to the family of the deceased. The zoo promised to provide support to the family and to update its safety protocols.

(With inputs from AFP)

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, ... Read More

Location : Thailand

First Published: September 10, 2025, 23:01 IST

News world Zookeeper Mauled To Death By Lions After Stepping Out Of Car At Bangkok Safari Park

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Shanghai (Gasgoo)- The IAA MOBILITY 2025 is taking place in Munich, Germany, from September 9 to 14, 2025. Desay SV takes the stage with a broad portfolio of new products and solutions, aiming to showcase the depth of China's innovation ecosystem to an international audience, according to a post via Desay SV's WeChat account on September 9.

Photo credit: Desay SV

With the theme of "Smarter Mobility For All", Desay SV unveils its fifth-generation G10PH intelligent cockpit platform, the iBCM2.0 body domain controller, the 48.2-inch remote display, dual 15.6-inch mini LED local-dimming screens, the 3D augmented reality head-up display (AR-HUD), and the full-stack assisted driving suite. Collectively, these offerings underline the company's strategy of using continuous iteration to sharpen its competitiveness and define next-generation mobility through intelligence.

Photo credit: Desay SV

At the Munich show, Desay SV also demonstrates the localization of its full-stack assisted driving system in Germany. The company swiftly completes regulatory and data compliance preparations, enabling real-world performance across complex scenarios such as seamless freeway-to-city transitions, consecutive merging maneuvers, and unprotected turns. The solution is adapted to recognize German traffic signs, integrates smart speed-limit functions in line with local rules, and fine-tunes its yielding strategies to local road etiquette. These adjustments earns positive feedback from customers for both safety and driving smoothness.

Photo credit: Desay SV

For Desay SV, the IAA MOBILITY event is not only a platform to display innovation, but also a demonstration of its growing localization capabilities in Europe after years of building a regional presence.

Desay SV has accelerated its global expansion in recent years, entering Europe, Japan, and Southeast Asia while building ecosystems with local partners to boost product innovation and service efficiency. In Europe, it has adopted the slogan "In Europe, with Europe, for All", underscoring its approach of adapting R&D and services to local needs rather than exporting Chinese models wholesale. This strategy, the company says, enables rapid transfer of Chinese know-how into different markets under a philosophy of openness, agility, and full-stack capability.

Looking ahead, Desay SV will maintain a customer-first approach and continue to drive innovation through technology, aiming to integrate more deeply into the global automotive supply chain, according to the company. By delivering competitive products and services worldwide, the company hopes to contribute Chinese solutions to the industry's ongoing transformation.

Photo credit: Desay SV
A Texas man accused of killing his roommate, flight attendant Rana Nofal Soluri, may have inadvertently sealed his alleged accomplice's fate with an accidental phone call, according to police. Authorities say that after his arrest in June, Dennis Day, 66, confessed to strangling Soluri during a heated argument at their Fort Worth home in March, NBC News reports. He then allegedly loaded her body into a trash bin and drove 70 miles to Bowie, Texas, where he disposed of her remains over a bridge.

Investigators say they found a key piece of evidence: A nearly two-minute accidental voicemail on the phone of Joni Thomas, a 62-year-old friend of Day's. Investigators believe that Day called Thomas for help after he killed Soluri. In the audio, described by People as a "butt dial," a man and a woman, believed to be Day and Thomas, can be heard struggling to move something heavy. The male voice can be heard speaking in a panic, urging the woman to help and offering apologetic remarks like, "I'm sorry I got you messed up in this." Police say the recording matches Day's account of moving the body into a truck.

Thomas initially denied that Day had used her truck, the New York Post reports. She later said he had used her truck and she was with him, though she claimed she was asleep for most of the drive and thought he stopped at the bridge to use the bathroom. Detectives also recovered home surveillance footage from March 21 that appears to show Day dragging a lifeless figure out of the house and into the backyard. Investigators say he disconnected the surveillance system when he realized he was being recorded. Day was charged with murder in June and Thomas was arrested last month on charges of tampering with evidence.

,
More than 60 containers toppled off a cargo ship Tuesday morning in the Port of Long Beach, tumbling overboard and floating in the water. The shipping containers fell off a vessel named the Mississippi shortly before 9am and no injuries have been reported, according to Port of Long Beach spokesperson Art Marroquin. An estimated 67 containers were in the water, the US Coast Guard said in a news release . Long Beach, about 20 miles south of Los Angeles, is one of the busiest seaports in the country, with 40% of all shipping containers in the United States coming through it or the Los Angeles port.

Some of the containers appeared to have fallen on the STAX 2, an anti-pollution vessel that captures emissions, the AP reports. The barge was attached to the side of the Mississippi when the containers fell. The Pier G container terminal, one of six at the port, temporarily stopped unloading and loading ships as authorities worked to secure the containers. The Mississippi sails under the flag of Portugal and arrived in Long Beach after departing Aug. 26 from the Yantian port in Shenzhen, China, according to vessel tracking websites.

The Los Angeles Times reports that officials are scrambling to find out the cause of the incident, which happened just days after Asia Cargo News named Long Beach as North America's best West Coast seaport for the seventh year in a row. The Coast Guard, the Long Beach Fire Department, the Long Beach Police Department, and the Army Corps of Engineers are assisting the port's investigation, CBS News reports.
A Princeton University doctoral student who spent more than 900 days captive in Iraq has been released, President Trump announced Tuesday. Elizabeth Tsurkov, a dual Israeli and Russian citizen, was kidnapped in 2023 by Kata'ib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia group designated by the US as a terrorist organization. She is now reportedly safe at the US Embassy in Iraq, CBS News reports. It was negotiations, and not a military operation, that freed her, sources say. Among the terms, sources say, was the withdrawal of US forces in Iraq, as well as an assurance that the US and Israel would not strike Iraq.

Tsurkov's kidnapping and release drew international attention, as her family ties span multiple countriesher sister is an American citizen. "My entire family is incredibly happy. We cannot wait to see Elizabeth and give her all the love we have been waiting to share for 903 days," said her sister Emma, per the AP. The sisters have already spoken by phone. Trump, posting on Truth Social, highlighted the effort to secure Tsurkov's freedom and reiterated his call for the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, referencing the 48 hostages still believed to be in captivity since the October 2023 attack on Israel.

Princeton President Christopher L. Eisgruber welcomed the news, calling it a moment of relief and joy for the university, and thanked those involved in bringing Tsurkov home. Tsurkov, known for her work with Middle East human rights organizations, was also a fellow at the New Lines Institute and the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and contributed to New Lines Magazine before her abduction.
A Russian glide bomb struck a village in eastern Ukraine as people stood in line in the open air Tuesday morning to collect their monthly pension, the AP reports. The blast killed at least 24 people and injured 19 others, the Ukraine Emergency Service said. The Russian glide bomb on Tuesday hit the Donetsk region village of Yarova at around 11am. The village lies less than 6 miles from the front line. Donetsk regional head Vadym Filashkin said 23 of the dead were pensioners. Yarova resident Hennadii Trush said his wife was killed in the blast as she waited to collect the pension of her bedridden mother-in-law. Afterward, Trush fled Yarova with his elderly mother, who was carried out on a stretcher.

In shock and with soot still on his face, Trush wept as he described the scene of the attack. "It was beyond words," he told the AP. "Before, strikes landed on the outskirts. This time it was right in the center of the village." It was the latest Russian attack to kill civilians. More than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the three-year war, the United Nations says. "Frankly brutal," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on Telegram of Tuesday's attack, urging the international community to make Russia pay economically for its full-scale invasion through additional sanctions.

Pavlo Diachenko, head of communications for the Donetsk regional police, said he arrived at the scene in Yarova shortly after the strike. "The picture was horrificthe whole village is on fire," he told AP. "Private houses were burning, and people tried to put out the flames with their own hands. There were many drones overhead." Yarova is located north of the Donetsk city of Lyman, an area where Russia has intensified attacks recently as it probes for weaknesses in Ukrainian defenses and seeks to advance into northern parts of the region. Despite the risks, many people remain in their homes because they have no means of relocating or they need to care for elderly relatives with disabilities.
Charlie Kirk, who rose from a teenage conservative campus activist to a top podcaster, culture warrior, and ally of President Trump, was shot and killed Wednesday during one of his trademark public appearances at a college in Utah. He was 31. Kirk was married to podcaster Erika Frantzve. They have two young children.

Kirk died doing what made him a potent political forcerallying the right on a college campus, this time Utah Valley University, the AP reports. His shooting is one of an escalating number of attacks on political figures, including this summer's assassination of a Democratic state lawmaker and her husband in Minnesota and last summer's shooting of Trump, that have roiled the nation.
Beijing (Gasgoo)- Horse Powertrain, the joint venture established in May 2024 by Geely and Renault, made its first European appearance at IAA Mobility 2025 in Munich, held Sept. 812. The company showcased a full lineup of next-generation powertrain solutions covering hybrid systems, range extenders, hydrogen, and alternative fuels.

Photo credit: Horse Powertrain

Among the highlights was the global premiere of Horse's gallium nitride (GaN) range extender generator and amorphous motor technologies. Both are designed to offer automakers multiple technological pathways for decarbonization.

The company also staged a technical roadshow, unveiling an upgraded version of its Future Hybrid Concept, first shown at Auto Shanghai earlier this year. The new performance version (P1+P3 layout) measures 740 mm wide, while the ultra-compact version (P2 layout) is only 650 mm wide. Horse says the solutions can help automakers cut R&D and retooling costs by 20%, with mass production slated for 2027. A three-cylinder variant is also under development for smaller vehicles.

Photo credit: Horse Powertrain

In the intelligent hybrid segment, Horse presented its B15 (BHE15TDB) hybrid-dedicated engine paired with the 3DHT160 e-drive system. Already deployed in the Lynk & Co 08 EM-P, the setup delivers up to 436 kW of maximum power and 905 Nm of peak torque, now entering the European market to support Lynk & Co's global expansion.

On the other hand, Horse's amorphous motor achieves peak efficiency of 98.22% with core losses reduced by more than 50%, and is slated for use in next-generation super-hybrid systems by 2027. Its GaN range extender reduces system volume and axial length by 20%, with engineering samples to be supplied to overseas customers in 2026.
Fairbanks, AK (99701)

Today

Snow this morning will transition to snow showers this afternoon. High 7F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 90%. About one inch of snow expected..

Tonight

Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low -16F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph.
NARA, Sep 11 (News On Japan) - A pillar at Kasuga Taisha, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Nara, was found defaced with blue Chinese characters that read I love you forever, alongside what appear to be a mans and a womans names.

A shrine employee, alerted by a visitor on the morning of September 9th, confirmed graffiti on a pillar in the east corridor of the main sanctuary, which is designated as a National Important Cultural Property. The writing, in Chinese characters, measured roughly 7 centimeters wide and 28 centimeters tall.

A subsequent check located similar markings at a remote worship site northeast of the main hall. There, Chinese numerals reading 2022 were written, with additional charactersbelieved to be personal namesplaced around them.

Kasuga Taisha reported a separate incident three years ago in which red ink-like stains were found on stone lanterns within the grounds.

Police are investigating the latest vandalism on suspicion of violating the Cultural Properties Protection Law.

Source: FNN
WINNIPEG, MB, Sept. 9, 2025 /CNW/ - The annual conference of federal, provincial and territorial (FPT) Ministers of Agriculture was held in Winnipeg, Manitoba, from September 7 to 9, 2025. Ministers recognized the impacts of dry conditions and wildfire activity affecting regions across Canada, and the significant uncertainty caused by tariffs.

FPT Ministers met to advance collaborative efforts in support of a resilient, sustainable and competitive agriculture sector and affirmed their commitment to working together to support hard-working producers and processors to address a variety of existing and emerging challenges. Ministers highlighted ongoing engagement activities across governments, industry and with key sector partners and acknowledged the recently imposed tariffs' impacts on the sector and the economy. Trade action on Canadian canola, peas, pork, and seafood and other commodities has significant financial and economic implications for the agriculture and agri-food industry. To support the sector's ability to navigate evolving trade dynamics, Ministers emphasized the importance of ongoing engagement with key trading partners, including the United States and China, while expanding and diversifying market access and enhancing critical infrastructure. Ministers also heard from a panel of experts, composed of producers, processors, food manufacturers and others from across the agriculture and agri-food value chain on future trade opportunities, infrastructure and other investments. Ministers discussed the conditions of competition between domestic and imported agriculture and agri-food products, and agreed to examine the issue in further detail.

Throughout the conference, discussions focused on ensuring that Business Risk Management (BRM) programs are sustainable and reflect the needs of producers. Ministers reviewed recent adjustments to the AgriStability program for the 2025 program year, including increases to both the compensation rate and the maximum payment limit. Ministers confirmed their intention to implement the necessary adjustments to include feed costs associated with rented pasture as an allowable expense starting in the 2026 program year, while exploring the possibility of adding further allowable expenses to improve program effectiveness. In their discussions on the next policy framework, Ministers explored opportunities for potential reforms to the BRM suite and tasked officials with continuing to assess and develop options that ensure programs are more coherent and responsive.

FPT Ministers discussed their commitment to preserving the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations as the basis for interprovincial and territorial trade of food in Canada, while continuing joint efforts on the slaughter availability pilot projects and pursuing a number of other opportunities to further facilitate internal trade. Seizing these opportunities will help ensure food safety while protecting continued access for Canadian businesses to critical export markets.

Ministers reaffirmed commitments to take collaborative action on key initiatives related to animal disease preparedness, prevention and response activities. Ministers highlighted progress with governments and industry, including on preparedness activities related to African swine fever, a Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccine bank for Canada, and work to reduce the impact of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). Ministers also underscored the importance of biosecurity to safeguard animal health and the sector's resilience.

Ministers heard a presentation from the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA). They highlighted the importance of a science and evidence-based regulatory system that is predictable, reliable, economic-minded and timely. Ministers discussed the need to enhance collaboration and consultation among governments to improve the efficiency of the pesticide regulation system, investment in research to promote innovative pest management and preventative tools.

Ministers welcomed recent progress on reducing red tape, regulatory modernization efforts and improving service delivery for regulated parties. Initiatives include a streamlined pathway for the approval of feed products, and the launch of a centralized website to simplify licencing. Ministers supported continued work to pursue harmonization of Canada's Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) enhanced feed ban with the U.S. to improve competitiveness for producers and processors. These efforts support regulatory modernization, economic growth, and better outcomes for producers and consumers across Canada. Ministers discussed the importance of addressing food waste.

The next Annual FPT Ministers' meeting will be held in Halifax, Nova Scotia. For more information, please see the Backgrounder: Summary of Items from the 2025 Annual Meeting of Federal Provincial and Territorial (FPT) Ministers of Agriculture.

Quotes

"From coast to coast to coast, we want to see our producers seize new opportunities, reduce regulatory barriers, expand market access, and drive solid economic growth for the sector as a whole. By working together, we will help ensure producers have the tools they need to succeed, while strengthening the resilience and competitiveness of the sector for years to come."

- The Honourable Heath MacDonald, federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food

"The Manitoba government recognizes farmers and the critical job they do. It was our pleasure to welcome provincial and territorial ministers to share producers' concerns with the federal Minister of Agriculture. During times of uncertainty, we are committed to working with federal, provincial and territorial partners, as well as with industry, to keep agriculture strong. Our focus remains on long-term economic stability, while continuing to advocate for initiatives that help producers navigate global market and trade pressures."

- The Honourable Ron Kostyshyn, Manitoba Minister of Agriculture

Quick facts

In 2024, Canada's agriculture and agri-food system generated $149.2 billion , representing about 7 per cent of Canada's gross domestic product (GDP), and provided 1 in 9 jobs in Canada .

agriculture and agri-food system generated , representing about 7 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), and provided 1 in 9 jobs in . Canada's global exports of agriculture and agri-food in 2024 overall were $92.2 billion in 2024, compared to $91.6 billion in 2023.

global exports of agriculture and agri-food in 2024 overall were in 2024, compared to in 2023. In 2024, Canada exported nearly $100.3 billion globally in agri-food, fish and seafood products combined. In 2023, that number was $99.2 billion .

exported nearly globally in agri-food, fish and seafood products combined. In 2023, that number was . The Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership is a five-year, $3.5-billion investment between federal, provincial and territorial governments. This includes $1 billion in federal programs and $2.5 billion in cost-shared programs and activities that are cost-shared at 60 per cent federally and 40 per cent provincially/territorially for programs that are designed and delivered by provinces and territories.

Related products

Backgrounder: Summary of Items from the 2025 Annual Meeting of Federal, Provincial and Territorial (FPT) Ministers of Agriculture

Business Risk Management (BRM)

Ministers were updated on the full range of activity by FPT officials related to the implementation of BRM programs under Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, including recent adjustments agreed to at their meeting in July. They also had a forward-looking discussion on examining the entire BRM suite as part of the Next Policy Framework negotiations. Discussions included the consideration of further work on AgriStability allowable expenses, such as those that may benefit smaller farms, and disaster support.

Next Policy Framework

The Next Policy Framework (NPF) is the five-year agreement between FPT governments that will guide future investments and priorities for Canada's agriculture and agri-food sector. It will build on the current Sustainable CAP and will outline programs, funding, and policy directions. To support this work, Ministers instructed FPT officials to begin work to develop a Policy Statement for Ministers to review at the next Annual Conference, which will provide direction on the key priorities for the framework.

Internal Trade of Food

Ministers received an update on work underway to support food businesses that wish to trade across Canada. The federal government regulates food that crosses provincial, territorial, or international borders. The Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR) set consistent rules for businesses who prepare food for trade across Canada or internationally, as well as for those who import food. Provinces and territories regulate food and food safety within their own borders, including intra-provincial and territorial supply management systems and quotas resulting from federal-provincial-territorial agreements. Ministers agreed that the federal, provincial and territorial governments must continue to work closely with industry to uphold food safety while reducing trade barriers and improving the movement of food products across Canada without putting our access to export markets at risk.

Animal Disease Preparedness and Response

FPT governments, industry and sector partners continue to work collaboratively to advance preparedness measures to safeguard against animal and plant threats. This work continues through integrated prevention, surveillance, and response activities on avian influenza, African swine fever, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, Bovine Tuberculosis, and aquatic diseases, among others.

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Web: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

SOURCE Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Contacts: For media: Annie Cullinan, Director of Communications, Office of the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, [email protected]; Media Relations, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, 613-773-7972, 1-866-345-7972, [email protected]
The KDF marks a critical milestone in validating the design, technology, and operational concepts that will shape the future of air navigation across the country. Temporary by design, the facility is expected to be completed by summer 2026. Once validated, it will support Kingston and an additional airport. It will also serve as the foundation for Canada's first permanent digital hubalso to be built in Kingstonwhich will eventually host remote services for up to 20 airports.

Digital facilities reimagine how air navigation services are delivered, providing NAV CANADA with the flexibility to manage multiple airports from one location. This approach enhances resilience, sustainability and adaptability in a rapidly changing aviation landscape, while maintaining the same high-quality services that pilots, operators and communities rely on every day.

"The Kingston Digital Facility is more than a temporary facilityit's a key step on the journey towards a new way of delivering air navigation services," says David Sheppard, Vice President & Chief Technology and Information Officer. "This is about harnessing innovation and building resilience into Canada's aviation system, ensuring we embrace technology that keeps our skies safe in lockstep with the global aviation community."

"Our people are at the heart of this technological shift," says Marie-Pier Berman, Vice President & Chief of Operations. "By combining high-resolution sensors, secure data networks, and advanced digital displays, our skilled air traffic services teams will leverage additional capabilities to safely manage aircraft operations."

"This is a proud moment for Kingston. Hosting Canada's first digital air traffic facility puts our city at the forefront of aviation innovation, bringing high-skilled, future-ready jobs to our community. Kingston has long been known for its leadership in education, research, and innovation, and this milestone positions us as a key partner in shaping the future of air traffic management in Canada," says Bryan Paterson, Mayor of Kingston.

The Kingston project is part of the broader Digital Aerodrome Air Traffic Services (DAATS) initiative, joining a global shift already underway in 16 countries, including Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. With more than 65 digital facilities operating or in development worldwide, this milestone places Kingston and Canada at the forefront of an emerging international aviation trend.

This facility provides Kingston the opportunity to lead the next generation of Canadian aviation. NAV CANADA remains committed to maintaining the highest standards of safety, ensuring seamless continuity of service for the aviation community throughout this transition.

Quick Facts

DAATS is a multi-year, evolutionary program that will gradually expand to multiple hubs across the country.

Similar digital facilities are already operating in more than 16 countries, including Norway , Sweden , and the UK. Over 65 sites are now in use or in development worldwide.

, , and the UK. Over 65 sites are now in use or in development worldwide. This initiative will not change existing levels of service at Kingston or other participating airports.

or other participating airports. Additional airports to be connected to both Kingston's temporary facility and the future digital hub will be announced in due course.

Related Links

About NAV CANADA

NAV CANADA is a private, not-for-profit company, established in 1996, providing air traffic control, airport advisory services, weather briefings and aeronautical information services for more than 18 million square kilometres of Canadian domestic and international airspace.

The Company is internationally recognized for its safety record, and technology innovation.

SOURCE NAV CANADA

For further information, please contact: Media Relations, [email protected], Media Information Line: 1-888-562-8226
$150,000 in prizes available to help Canadian small businesses strengthen their local impact

TORONTO, Sept. 10, 2025 /CNW/ - Purolator has opened nominations for the 2025 True North Small Business Grant Contest, with this year's contest offering its largest-ever funding to support Canadian small businesses. The grant helps small businesses scale by improving operations, accessing new market opportunities, and increasing brand visibilityultimately expanding their impact in communities across Canada.

Purolator has opened nominations for the 2025 True North Small Business Grant Contest with $150,000 in prizes available to help Canadian small businesses strengthen their local impact. (CNW Group/Purolator Inc.)

Five Canadian small businesses will each receive $25,000 in cash and $500 to ship with Purolator. New this year, two of the five grant prizes will be reserved for current Purolator customers. Additionally, 33 finalists and 12 nominators will each receive a $500 Visa gift card.

"Canadian small businesses are showing remarkable strength as they navigate increasing economic and political challenges. Purolator has always been committed to helping businesses move forward, and our True North Small Business Grant Contest is one way we're doing even more," said Stacey Cummings, Director, Marketing, Purolator. "This year, we've increased our support to amplify the impact of entrepreneurs whose work helps shape vibrant communities and strengthen Canada's economy."

How to enter the Purolator True North Small Business Grant Contest:

Community partners or any Canadian resident of legal age of majority can nominate a Canadian small business of their choice, and small businesses can also self-nominate.

Nominations can be made online here from Sept. 10 to Nov. 5, 2025 .

. Nominations must include a description of the business and a brief explanation of how the business makes Canada stronger.

"Purolator's commitment to investing in small businesses through the True North Small Business Grant is the kind of support that helps businesses like ours grow with purpose and continue to create positive change in our communities," said Melissa Minks, First Indigenous Biomass Future Inc. and a 2023 True North Small Business Grant Contest recipient. "If you know a small business making a meaningful difference for Canadians, nominate themit's a chance to bring awareness to the impact they're having every day."

Details on contest entry, eligibility requirements and frequently asked questions along with contest rules are available online at purolator.com/small-business-grant.

Fast facts:

Purolator's True North Small Business Grant Contest began in 2021 , and over the past few years the organization has awarded $330,000 in cash and prizing to small businesses and their community members.

and over the past few years the organization has awarded in cash and prizing to small businesses and their community members. As of Dec. 2023 , there were 1.07 million small businesses, employing approximately 5.8 million individuals in Canada , or 46.5 per cent of the total private labour force. (Source: Key Small Business Statistics, Government of Canada , 2024)

, there were 1.07 million small businesses, employing approximately 5.8 million individuals in , or 46.5 per cent of the total private labour force. In the second quarter of 2025, Canadian business optimism fell to 70 per centits lowest level since early 2024as companies face rising costs and growing uncertainty. (Source: Canadian Survey on Business Conditions, Second Quarter 2025, Statistics Canada, 2025 )

) In the third quarter of 2025, nearly one-fifth (16 per cent) of Canadian businesses reported an increase in sales of Canadian-made productsdriven by renewed marketing efforts and consumer interest in local goods. (Source: Canadian Survey on Business Conditions, Third Quarter 2025, Statistics Canada, 2025

About Purolator

Purolator Inc. is a leading integrated freight, package and logistics solutions provider. Delivering its customers' promises since 1960, Purolator continues to expand its reach, renowned service levels and reliability to more people, more businesses and more places across Canada and around the world, utilizing 200+ facilities across Canada and 30+ branches in the United States. Purolator is committed to contributing to the well-being of the communities it serves and where more than 14,000 of its employees live, work and play.

SOURCE Purolator Inc.

Media contact: Emily Innes-Leroux, Senior Consultant, Corporate Communications, 416 809-9892, [email protected]
Sofia, Bulgaria, September 10th, 2025, CyberNewsWire

Kikimora, a cybersecurity specialist and a product developer, has announced the launch of Kikimora Agent, a new AI-powered platform providing accessible cybersecurity management, vulnerability detection, and asset monitoring for businesses, individuals, and students. Kikimora Agent combines conversational AI with automated security workflows, reducing the workload for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) facing increased cyber attacks and growing security skills shortages.

Kikimora Agent reduces manual tool juggling and high skill requirements. The platform allows users to easily manage assets, run vulnerability scans, and generate compliance reports with simple prompts. It delivers immediate value to security teams with minimal setup and almost no learning curve., highlights Krasimir Kotsev, CEO of Kikimora.

Kikimora Agent is designed to simplify traditionally complex cybersecurity processes and provides a split-screen interface for conversational interactions and live inventory management. Users can interact via natural language prompts to access security tools, manage infrastructure, monitor vulnerabilities, and receive actionable recommendations for remediation and compliance.

Key segments supported include Attack Surface Management, Vulnerability Management, Asset Management, Endpoint Security, and Security Project Management.

Automation in cybersecurity is no longer a luxury  its a necessity for organizations with limited resources, said Martin Malinov, Head of Product of Kikimora Agent.

Kikimora Agent combines a range of security integrations  such as Qualys web application scanning and Wazuh endpoint monitoring  ensuring users maintain control over data privacy and compliance requirements. Kikimora Agent supports full workflow management, including listing and updating assets, executing and tracking vulnerability scans, assigning remediation tasks, querying OWASP checklists, and onboarding new endpoints. The agents experiment-and-estimate vertical allows rapid learning, scenario analysis, and tool migration without lengthy setup cycles.

The agent can perform tasks based on local context, and provide actionable recommendations to improve your remediation efforts. Simply typing Scan my web application, List my current assets, or Create a plan for NIS2 compliance will prompt the agent to provide detailed information and a step-by-step guide to accomplish current objectives.

The launch comes at a time when European SMEs are facing more cyber threats, with rising attack rates and stricter regulations like GDPR and NIS2. The goal of the Kikimora Agent is to reduce operational complexity and provide consolidated access to AI-enhanced security tools to a wider range of organizations and budgets.

Users can start using Kikimora Agent at: https://agentic.kikimora.io/

Users can find Get Started Guides, Documentation & Example Prompts: https://kikimora.gitbook.io/kikimora-agent-guide-early-access/

About Kikimora

Built by the experienced team of SoCyber, Kikimora provides cybersecurity solutions for organizations across Europe, specializing in cybersecurity product development and accessible automation. The company is committed to improving accessibility and security through practical, AI-powered tools that simplify operations for small and midsize teams.

Contact

CEO

Krasimir Kotsev

Kikimora

[email protected]


Jaime Sevilla (Director of Epoch AI) and Yafah Edelman (Head of Data and Analysis at Epoch AI) discuss AI scaling trends, future projections, economic impacts, and potential bottlenecks, extrapolating from current data on compute growth, training runs, and infrastructure.

NOTE: Elon Musk in his interview at the 2025 All In Summit says that AI intelligence is still scaling with increased compute. Elons metric is 10X the compute is still double the intelligence. This scaling of intelligence with compute is nuanced. How is the training done? Is it pretraining or is it reinforcement learning and how effective is the synthetic data and what is the quality of the synthetic data.

They analyze and project from historical trends, aiming to project straight-line forecasts while acknowledging uncertainties. They outline a modal world scenario where AI development unfolds in three eras, leading to transformative changes by 20352040. Key themes include compute scaling slowdowns, AI capabilities, automation of jobs, economic growth acceleration, and cruxes for post-2035 trajectories.

Current Scaling Regime and Near-Term Projections (20252030)

Scaling Trends and Slowdown: They note AI training compute has scaled 5x per year recently, driven by larger clusters, more GPUs, and slightly longer training durations (30% growth/year). However, they predict a slowdown to 2.53x/year within 2 years due to training durations stabilizing at 36 months. This assumes it is not extending due to algorithmic progress making later starts more efficient, R&D/post-training needs, and some level of diminishing returns. However, there is a lot of effort to keep the returns from diminishing.

Not using full clusters for single runs (e.g., R&D, experimentation, or parallel projects take priority).

Infrastructure delays (data centers take time to build).

They use xAIs Memphis cluster as an example. Grok 3 was trained on ~80,000 GPUs, while the cluster had 100,000200,000 GPUs available (not fully utilized). Grok 4 was Grok 3 with added reinforcement learning (RL), using less additional computepossibly fewer GPUs for shorter time or similar. They believe xAIs full cluster wasnt dedicated to Grok runs, supporting their view of partial cluster usage industry-wide.

By 2030, largest runs could reach 1e29 FLOPs (1,000x more than current, akin to GPT-2 to GPT-4 gap). Capabilities include:Competent agents for consistent, cheap computer tasks with fewer reasoning failures.

Novel discoveries in math/physics (e.g., AI solving famous problems like Riemann hypothesis with human guidance).

Automation of coding (AI writes bug-free code; humans design systems but dont code manually).

Some of the broader impacts are

 Automate call centers

 draft contracts

 higher-quality software

 agents for complex tasks.

Economic impacts will see AI revenues grow from tens of billions to hundreds of billions/year. This could feasibly keep doubling every year. This doubles US growth from ~2% to 4% in the near tern but would be 1000 times in ten years if it was sustained.

Infrastructure spending (e.g., GPUs, data centers, fabs) could hit trillions/year, showing in GDP via secondary effects.

NVIDIAs $100B/year revenue exemplifies this; AI drives investment in chips/fabs (e.g., TSMC).

Post-2030 Bifurcation and Mid-Term Projections (20302035)

Slowdown vs. Takeoff: Post-2030, scaling slows further (e.g., each 10x infrastructure takes an extra year due to planning/investment reluctance). Investment follows Yafah Math: ~10x current revenue, with build-out time increasing per 10x scale. However, revenues grow with automation, justifying continued scaling.

Automation and Capabilities: By 2035 (modal: 20342035), AI automates all cognitive tasks as cheaply as humans (via 1,00010,000x more compute than 2030). This includes entry-level jobs, scientific R&D (e.g., solving hard problems in days), and de-skilling (AI oversight turns skilled work into unskilled). Physical tasks lag due to robot bottlenecks.

Economic and Societal Impacts: Growth accelerates to 10%+/year (sustainable for years), with AI generating trillions in revenue. Unemployment spikes (e.g., coders, call centers); jobs shift to AI management/oversight. Diffusion is fast (e.g., ChatGPT adoption precedent; AI self-integrates). Societal reactions: High unemployment leads to crime, policy responses (e.g., stimuli like COVID), elections dominated by AI issues (automation, x-risk, environment). De-skilling lowers wages, enables outsourcing, unlocks larger workforces.

Rule of Thumb for Growth: Automating 1% of tasks/year adds 1% to growth. By 2030, <10% tasks automated; by 2035, all cognitive (30% of US tasks are remote-only, enabling 10% growth over a decade). Physical vs. Cognitive Automation: Cognitive automation easier; physical requires robots (costly to manufacture/scale). Alternatives: AI-augmented humans (e.g., AR headsets, phone cams for guidance) de-skill blue-collar work, boosting manufacturing output without full robots. Long-Term Projections (2035+) and Cruxes

Robot Era and Hyperbolic Growth: Robots start scaling ~2035; takes 3+ years to reach hundreds of millions/billions (e.g., $100B for 1M robots at $100K each, scaling to $10T for 100M). By 20382040, robots enable full task automation (cognitive + physical), leading to bananas (wild sci-fi) world: Explosive growth (30%+/year for 5+ years), AI as the economy (1,000%+ GDP contribution). Models break down; possible Dyson spheres in decades (but bottlenecks like energy/space slow to centuries/millennia).

Three Key Cruxes for Post-2035 Speed:Robot Manufacturing: How fast/cost-effective? Needs foresight/investment; current humanoid robots ($100K$1M) worse than humans.

Returns to Scientific Labor: 1,000x more AI researchers could skip decades in fields (e.g., cure diseases, double lifespans), but diminishing returns if experiments bottlenecked by scale/physical limits.

Returns to Intelligence: Superintelligence (e.g., Von Neumann the world) might accelerate everything 2100x, but tied to compute/experiments. If not, progress slows with compute.

Algorithmic Progress: Tied to large-scale experiments/compute; slows if compute does. If independent, leads to faster superintelligence (e.g., 2027 singularity).

Overall Modal View: Trends continue unless intervened; world feels too fast yet plausible. Faster worlds (e.g., high returns to intelligence) more salient for planning; slower (e.g., investment reluctance) push medians later (Jaimes median: ~decade later than modal).

Could They Be Wrong About xAI and the Percentage of Compute Used for Grok Model Runs?

Yes, they could be partially wrong or outdated in their specifics on xAI, based on available data as of September 9, 2025. Their claims stem from public reports and estimates up to mid-2025, but xAI (led by Elon Musk) has been opaque, with details often from Musks X posts or leaks. Lets break it down:Grok 3 Training: They claim ~80,000 GPUs used, out of a Memphis cluster of 100,000200,000. This aligns with reports: Musk announced in July 2024 that the Memphis supercluster started with 100,000 H100 GPUs, scaling to more.

Grok 3 (released April 2025) was trained on ~100,000 GPUs per estimates from Epoch AIs prior work, but not the full clusterlikely 7080% utilization due to downtime, testing, or parallel runs. However, they might underestimate: Musk claimed in August 2025 X posts that Grok 3 used most of the cluster during peak training, implying higher % (possibly 90%+ efficient utilization after optimizations).

Grok 4: They describe it as Grok 3 + RL, with less additional compute (possibly fewer GPUs/shorter run). This is accurate based on xAIs November 2024 announcement: Grok 4 was a fine-tuned/RLHF version of Grok 3, not a full pre-train, using ~50,00070,000 GPUs for weeks (vs. Grok 3s months). But they could be wrong on less than Grok 3total FLOPs for Grok 4s post-training might exceed Grok 3s if including inference-heavy RL, per recent xAI updates.

Overall Compute Usage %:

Their core pointnot using 100% of clusters for frontier runsholds broadly (industry norm: 6080% utilization due to maintenance, multi-tenancy). For xAI specifically, Memphis (now ~300,000 GPUs as of Q3 2025) is reportedly 8090% dedicated to Grok iterations, per Musks September 2025 posts on scaling. They might be wrong if xAI optimized for near-full usage (e.g., via better orchestration), but evidence supports partial usage historically.

They could be wrong due to underestimating xAIs aggression:

Musks goal is rapid scaling, and recent data centers (e.g., Abilene expansion) suggest fuller utilization for Grok 5 (in training as of now, potentially on 200k+ GPUs).

Could the Scaling Be Tapering Off Less Than They Think?

Yes, scaling could taper less (i.e., stay closer to 5x/year longer) if their assumptions underestimate key drivers:

Longer Training Durations: They predict stabilization at 36 months, but if companies prioritize Chinchilla-optimal runs (longer for data efficiency), durations could grow 50%+/year, maintaining 45x scaling.

Fuller Cluster Usage: If labs like xAI shift to dedicating 90100% of clusters to single runs (e.g., via better fault tolerance), this boosts effective compute without new hardware.

Faster Infrastructure: Stargate/Abilene (Microsoft/OpenAI/xAI plans) could come online sooner (mid-2026) with 1M+ GPUs, enabling 5x jumps if used aggressively.

Algorithmic Gains: If progress allows shorter runs or multi-cluster federation, tapering slows.

Their 2.53x prediction assumes R&D bottlenecks dominate, but if economic incentives (e.g., AI revenues exploding) push fuller utilization, scaling holds at 4x+ for 34 years.

What Would Tell Us in the Next Models and Data Centers If Scaling and Performance Will Be Better Than They Expect?

To assess if scaling/performance exceeds expectations (e.g., >3x/year compute growth, better-than-projected capabilities), monitor these indicators in upcoming models (e.g., Grok 5, GPT-5/Orion, Claude 4) and data centers (20262027 builds):

Next Models (Grok 5, Grok 6 Models and beyond):Compute Scale:

If Grok 5 uses >200,000 GPUs (full Memphis+ expansions- B200s at 550k for 2.5 million H100) for >6 months, or >1e28 FLOPs total, it signals less tapering (fuller usage).

Grok 6 in early 2026 at 1 million B200/B300s and getting a leap with Rubin chips in 2026. Get to 10 million H100 equivalents in 2026 and 50 million in 2027.

Performance: If it achieves >95% on benchmarks like GPQA (math/physics) or solves novel problems (e.g., IMO gold-level without human aid), it implies better scaling laws (e.g., emergent capabilities from compute alone).

Duration/Utilization: Runs >6 months or reports of 90%+ cluster efficiency would counter their duration-stabilization view.

Capability Jumps: Exceeding linear scaling (e.g., 10x compute yields >10x better reasoning/agents) suggests tapering less (stronger returns).

Track via X searches (e.g., Musk on compute) or benchmarks (e.g., LMSYS, Epoch evals). If 2026 models automate >20% cognitive tasks (vs. their <10% by 2030), expect acceleration. Need 10 million robotaxi by 2028, 1 million robotruck by 2030 and 10 million teslabots by 2030.
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Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On September 9 at the 2025 IAA MOBILITY show in Munich, Thundersoft and Geely Auto Group unveiled a jointly developed in-car computing solution called AIBOX, powered by NVIDIA technology, according to a post on Thundersoft's WeChat account.

Built on Thundersoft's AIOS and the NVIDIA DRIVE AGX platform, the system is the first to demonstrate smooth, real-time operation of a 7-billion parameter AI large model directly inside a production vehicle. The debut marks a milestone for the auto industry, signaling the arrival of mass production for AI-driven smart cockpits.

Photo credit: Thundersoft

The launch comes at a pivotal moment as the global auto industry accelerates toward intelligent mobility. Scaling large AI models into vehicles is driving rapid evolution toward multi-agent smart cockpits, but limited on-board computing power has been a critical bottleneck. Addressing this, Thundersoft, Geely, and NVIDIA developed AIBOX as a plug-and-play, full-stack AI solution that allows automakers to integrate large models at lower cost and higher efficiency, paving the way for broader adoption of intelligent vehicles.

AIBOX is positioned as a new pathway for scaling AI models into vehicles, combining softwarehardware synergy with cross-domain integration.

 It incorporates Thundersoft's AIOS alongside NVIDIA's DriveOS, enabling fine-grained resource allocation, model scheduling, and adaptive scene management with millisecond-level multimodal response.

 The system supports a matrix of AI "agents" for functions such as driver interaction, proactive recommendations, enhanced security, parking memory, and graphical user interface control.

 Built on the NVIDIA DRIVE AGX platform, it adapts seamlessly across entry-level to premium vehicle trims without altering existing EE architectures.

 Its hardware design accommodates both air and liquid cooling to ensure reliability under varying driving conditions, while standardized open protocols allow integration with cockpit domains for data fusion and feature expansion.

At the launch, Thundersoft co-founder and executive president Geng Zengqiang emphasized that competition in the intelligent vehicle sector ultimately hinges on AI computing power and the ability to implement it in real-world scenarios. He noted that AIBOX tackles the cockpit compute bottleneck through its integrated hardwaresoftware approach, giving automakers an AI solution that balances cost and performance. The collaboration with Geely and NVIDIA, he added, not only combines technologies but also establishes a standardized pathway for bringing large AI models into vehicles globallyhelping the industry accelerate its transition into the intelligent era.
Beijing (Gasgoo)- On Sept. 8, GAC Group (GAC) showcased five of its new energy vehicle models at IAA Mobility 2025 in Munich, where it shared European market updates and announced the official market launch of the AION V battery-electric SUV in the region. The model, GAC's first global strategic vehicle, will begin deliveries this month in Poland, Portugal, and Finland.

Photo credit: GAC

The AION V is a long-range smart electric SUV with a WLTP range of 510 km. It supports fast charging from 10% to 80% in just 24 minutes. Its intelligent cockpit and advanced driver-assistance features enhance user convenience, while a 2,775-mm wheelbase and ergonomic seating deliver spacious comfort for both daily and long-distance journeys.

Photo credit: GAC

To reassure European customers, GAC announced it will provide an eight-year/160,000-km vehicle warranty and an eight-year/200,000-km battery warranty. The company has also partnered with Allianz Partners to offer three years of free, Pan-European roadside assistance, including software support tailored for electric vehicles.

Photo credit: GAC

In addition to the AION V, GAC also presented the AION UT at the event, a lifestyle-oriented electric vehicle designed for global markets and slated for European market launch in 2026.

Over the past year, GAC has accelerated its European expansion, with sales operations starting in Poland, Portugal, and Finland in September and a plan to cover the entire region in 2028. The automaker is also advancing energy replenishment networks, with longer-term plans to localize production and establish R&D centers in a bid to underpin its European expansion.
Ocean State Job Lot, which has been taking over locations vacated by Big Lots' closure, announced its 11th New Jersey location opening soon. Mark Pynes | mpynes@pennlive.com

Discount retailer Ocean State Job Lot is planning to open its 11th New Jersey store and second location Atlantic County this fall.

The grand opening date for the store at Hamilton Commons in Mays Landing has not yet been announced.

The 34,120-square-foot store, located at 4215 Black Horse Pike, Unit 31, will occupy a former Big Lots space.

Ocean State Job lot announce plans earlier this year to take over Big Lots stores throughout several states after Big Lots filed for bankruptcy and closed all of its locations.

This opening represents the companys second location in Atlantic County, following its existing store in Somers Point.

Opening our new Mays Landing store is an exciting opportunity for us to bring our unique value-driven shopping experience to residents and visitors alike, Mark OConnor, director of real estate at Ocean State Job Lot said in a statement.

Were proud to invest in Atlantic County and, with our new Mays Landing store complementing our recently opened Somers Point location, we look forward to having an even bigger presence in the community.

The new store is expected to create up to 60 new jobs in the community, including store leadership, supervisory, full-time, part-time, and seasonal positions, company officials said.

The company offers competitive benefits including medical, vision and dental insurance for eligible employees, profit participation, paid time off, and a 30% store discount.

Shoppers can expect to find the retailers signature closeout deals on a variety of merchandise including seasonal products, household goods, apparel, pet supplies, and gourmet pantry staples, according to the company.

The current locations in New Jersey include:

Ocean State Job Lot operates 176 stores across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.

Generative AI was used to produce an initial draft of this story, which was reviewed and edited by NJ Advance Media staff.
Atlantic City officials gathered near the Cocorico Beach Bar on Wednesday, Sept. 10, to announce the bar is moving to new location to resolve noise complaints from nearby residents. Eric Conklin

After years of noise complaints from nearby residents, an Atlantic City beach bar will be moving to a new location next summer.

The Cocorico Beach Bar will be moving to a site adjacent to Boardwalk Hall, ending years of complaints from the Ocean Club Condominium, Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. announced Wednesday.

Small announced the move at a press conference. Afterward, while speaking the condominium residents, he said the city will never again allow a beach bar to operate on the space occupied by the bar. A beach bar has operated on the site for the last 10 years.

This is not about this group  this is any other group that wants to entertain a beach bar in front of that beach, Small said. Were going to do this beach how we do every other beach fair and open, be it chairs and umbrellas and more. But, one thing it will not be is a beach bar.

Iris Pincus, a resident of the condominiums, said she hopes the move finally ends years of conflict between residents and the bars owners.

Im very happy for today, lets put it that way, Pincus said. I dont know what tomorrow brings. I dont know what next summer brings. When you see it, Ill believe it, and not before then.

The bar will move to an area of the citys beach between Bellevue and Georgia avenues, adjacent to John F. Kennedy Memorial Plaza and across the street from Boardwalk Hall.

City officials said the move has support from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

The move will also need backing from the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, the state agency that regulates Atlantic Citys tourism district, Small said.

Domenico Gaggiano, one of Cocoricos owners, said the bar is expected to be moved by the end of October. Steven Tabeek, Gaggianos business partner, previously suggested having the condominium association cover the cost of the move. Gaggiano said that is still being considered.

Gaggiano said the move may not ultimately prevent further complaints. Who knows, anything is possible, Gaggiano told reporters after the press conference.

Tabeek and Gaggiano previously said they had reduced their operating hours this summer to prevent a continuation of complaints from the residents of the condominiums.

But residents this summer said the bar continued to play loud music as late as 4 a.m., violating the terms of its beach lease agreement. The bar agreed to relocate BRT Weekend, a Caribbean-themed music festival, when the condo association sued.
A New Jersey man wanted for a fatal shooting in Camden County was arrested Monday at the New YorkCanada border in Niagara Falls, officials said.

Everton Thomas, 41, was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers while entering the country on a commercial bus at the Rainbow Bridge border crossing at the Port of Buffalo, according to a statement from the agency said.

The officers found a National Crime Information Center match that showed he had an active warrant for his arrest out of Camden County for a homicide with a gun, a first-degree felony, authorities said.

No other information on the nature of his alleged crime in Camden County was released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. A spokesperson for the Camden County Prosecutors Office could not immediately be reached for comment.

After he was processed and authorities confirmed the arrest warrant, Thomas was turned over to the New York State Police and was in custody and awaiting extradition to New Jersey, officials said.
Billy McFarland in 2023. The founder of the doomed Fyre Festival grew up in New Jersey. Theo Wargo | Getty Images

Fyre Fest never lived up to its promises, but the Fyre Fest musical?

Thats another story.

The doomed music festival is getting the stage treatment.

Per the Hollywood Reporter, Fyre Fest The Musical is in the works.

The show will be based on the life of Fyre Fest founder Billy McFarland, who grew up in Short Hills.

Married stars Taika Waititi and Rita Ora are producing the musical comedy about the chaos that ensued when people headed to the Bahamas in 2017 for a star-studded event that ended up being less than half-baked.

Despite all the social media influencing and celebrity endorsements around the event, none of the headliners materialized at the hyped up music festival.

McFarland, now 33, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in 2018. He was sentenced to six years in prison for fraud related to Fyre Fest and for selling other fake event tickets. He served less than five years in prison and was released in 2022.

Bryan Buckley, who has worked with Waititi through his Hungry Man production company, is set to write and direct the musical. Hes directed both commercials and narrative films.

I never saw something completely mind-bendingly ridiculous and intriguing as what went down with Fyre Festival, Buckley told the Hollywood Reporter. A spectacular failed endeavor  that will haunt a generation forever. I cannot wait to get this show out to the world. And yeah man, this time there will actually be music or your money back.

Rita Ora and Taika Waititi are producing the musical. Daniele Venturelli | WireImage

Grammy winner Paul Epworth is writing the music and David Korins (Hamilton) will be designing the set.

Working in the theater is always fun, Waititi told the outlet.

I mean I havent done it for 15 years because it was no longer fun, but Ive been told it will be fun this time, the Oscar winner said. And I believe them. When Bryan Buckley told me he wanted to make a musical about the Fyre Festival, I said Who the hell is Bryan Buckley? I then remembered weve been friends and work mates for 15 years so it was kinda hard to say no. Honestly, I think the idea is exciting, weird, and potentially disastrous, which seems apt and is how I like to work. I cant wait to get started and snatch me some of that sweet American theatre money.

McFarlands ill-fated Fyre Fest was the subject of two documentaries released in 2019  Netflixs Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened" and Hulus Fyre Fraud.

All of the bad press, prison time and reality of what happened in 2017 did not deter McFarland from trying to launch Fyre Fest 2.

He even started selling tickets.

Ultimately, however, he sold the brand.

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Actor James McAvoy was sucker punched by a stranger while dining in Toronto after the premiere of his directorial debut movie. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP) Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP

Hollywood star James McAvoy was assaulted by a stranger recently while visiting Toronto to promote his film directorial debut.

McAvoy, known widely for his roles in films Split and Glass, was allegedly sucker-punched at Charlottes Room bar on Monday. The event occurred just two days after McAvoys California Schemin premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, according to People.

The Scottish actor was dining with the films producers when a drunk man, who was already being escorted out of the establishment, punched McAvoy. Other guests of the bar rushed to restrain the attacker and remove him from the bar.

James back was to him and the man just punched him, a source close to McAvoy told People.

The Speak No Evil actor reportedly stayed at the bar and even laughd off the incident with other customers in attendance.

McAvoy has yet to comment publicly on the situation. The attackers identity has not been revealed and no charges have been announced.

McAvoy is popular for his role as Kevin Wendell Crumb in Split and Glass. Some of his other notable appearance include The Last King of Scotland, Atonement and X-Men: First Class.

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The mayor of South Orange said on Tuesday that ICE is terrorizing communities after the agency made arrests in two neighboring suburbs in two days.

In a social media post on Tuesday evening, Mayor Sheena Collum said that a person in the village had been taken into custody by the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. This came just a day after two people in the neighboring community of Maplewood were taken into custody.

Following the arrest on Tuesday, Collum was able to speak to the family of the individual with assistance of Capt. Adrian Acevedo, who is bilingual. In the social media post, the mayor condemned the Trump administrations recent immigration enforcement actions.

The Trump Administration and ICEs subsequent actions are terrorizing communities, as you have all witnessed, the post reads. Their tactics are nothing but thuggery that thrives on threatening the vulnerable. Please keep looking out for one another.

Collum declined to release further details or identify the person who was arrested.

On Monday, Maplewood Mayor Nancy Adams similarly condemned the arrest of the two people in her town.

This is not who we are, Adams said. Our town stands for dignity, safety, and belonging  not intimidation. Our police were not notified, nor do we cooperate with ICE. I will be demanding accountability from state and federal leaders."

The two men were arrested about 11 a.m. on Prospect Street between Courter and Oakview avenues, MaplewoodGreen.com reported.

A state law implemented by the New Jersey Attorney Generals Office in 2018 prohibits law enforcement from stopping, questioning, arresting, searching or detaining a person simply because they are suspected to be undocumented.

On Tuesday evening, Adams said reports surfaced of an unmarked SUV with strobe lights and several ICE officers stationed near Jacoby Street. The mayor said she had not yet confirmed whether there were additional arrests.

ICE has not yet released details on the Monday and Tuesday arrests.

Last month, 29 people were arrested during an ICE raid at a warehouse in Edison.

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Nicolas Fernandes may be reached at nfernandes@njadvancemedia.com.
Republican state Sen. Michael Testa accused Gov. Phil Murphy, left, of "gifting" millions of dollars in state funds to Newark to aid a bid by Mayor Ras J. Baraka, right, to succeed Murphy as governor. The two attended a groundbreaking ceremony in Newark on Sept. 19, 2023. Mary Iuvone / For NJ Advance Media

A South Jersey Republican lawmaker is accusing Gov. Phil Murphy of gifting $52 million in state funds to the City of Newark over the past two years to help close successive budget gaps and aid fellow Democrat Mayor Ras J. Baraka in his primary campaign for governor.

State Sen. Michael Testa, R-Cumberland, a member of the state Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, made the accusation in a letter to Murphy on Tuesday. He cited what Newark officials have characterized as loans of $22 million in 2024 and another $30 million pledged for 2025.

Last September, your Administration gave $22 million to Newark to prop up a profligate and unbalanced budget so the mayor could avoid difficult decisions while running for governor, Testa wrote. The grant was disingenuously labeled a loan to circumvent a statutory requirement that municipalities receiving grants to address unbalanced budgets must be placed under state oversight.

Testa said the loans were actually grants intended to balance Newarks budget, and therefore, state law requires that the state install a fiscal monitor to oversee city spending.

I am writing to demand that your administration place the City of Newark under state oversight in return for the special $22 million your administration gifted the city last year, Testa wrote.

A spokesperson for the governor declined to comment.

Spokespeople for the city referred to an Op-Ed Baraka published Tuesday on Insider NJ.

First and foremost, the money we have received from the state are not gifts, as Testa says in the letter, but loans the city will use to cover increased costs (owed) to Essex County due to increased property assessments, Baraka wrote. The first loan is for a six-year, $22 million [loan] with zero percent interest. The second is a bridge loan for $30 million that will be paid back in six months, also with zero percent interest.

Without these loans, we would have to increase taxes on our residential homeowners by 30%, Baraka added, impossible in a city where the average annual income is $36,000.

Baraka was the runner-up in the June Democratic gubernatorial primary to U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-11th Congressional District. Murphy and Baraka have been close political allies, though the governor did not endorse Baraka, Sherrill, or any of the four other Democrats vying to succeed him.

Sherrill will face Republican Jack Ciattarelli in the Nov. 4 election.

Newark introduced its $970.2 million budget for the 2025 calendar year on Aug. 28, which the City Council may vote to adopt following a public hearing scheduled for Oct. 1. It would result in a $564 tax hike for the average Newark homeowner, not counting school or county taxes.

The citys 2024 budget, adopted that September ahead of the June primary, resulted in a much more modest $190 tax increase.

For both budgets, Newark Business Administrator Eric Pennington told the City Council that the loans were needed to fill budget gaps caused by a longtime lag in the citys assessed value of its taxable property compared to actual market values.

The difference means the city initially underpays its share of Essex County property taxes relative to other Essex municipalities, and later has to make up the difference under a process known as equalization.

Newark is undergoing a citywide revaluation to address its lagging assessments, though the massive undertaking may not be complete until 2027.

In his letter to Murphy, Testa said it was clear that the loan to plug the 2024 budget gap was actually a gift by the absence of a $4.4 million line item expenditure in Newarks proposed 2025 budget that would account for the first of five payments due this month, according to a copy of the agreement Testa linked to his letter.

It was equally clear that the outgoing Murphy Administration did not expect to be repaid, Testa insisted, because the current state budget does not include a $4.4 million revenue line item anticipating a payment.

But Newark officials said the finalized 2024 loan agreement pushed back the due date of the first payment by two years, to September 2027.

Testa said Murphy had made $150 million in aid reductions to municipalities around the state, including $440,250 in cuts to Millville and $644,737 to Vineland City, both in the 1st Legislative District, which he represents.

Other South Jersey Republicans have made similar complaints about Newark school spending amid increases in state aid, even as districts they represent are forced to slash programs because of aid cuts.

Testa ended his letter with a warning to Murphy, his successor, and Newark.

If you look the other way while Newark doesnt repay its outstanding loan and dole out another $30 million without supervision, the financial mess will worsen for the next Governor, Testa wrote.

Unless he or she has made a special deal with Newark to continue the favoritism, he continued, the end to slashing everyone elses municipal aid while shoveling money at Newark will come to an end.

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Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com
Labcorp is expanding its portfolio of diagnostic cancer tests by acquiring part of the New Jersey-based BioReference Health. SL

A laboratory testing company headquartered in New Jersey is shrinking its workforce as Labcorp prepares to take over some of its business.

BioReference Health, part of OPKO Health, a multinational biopharmaceutical and diagnostics company, is dismissing 69 employees from its Elmwood Park headquarters, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filing with the state.

The layoffs commenced July 14 and will conclude on Sept. 15  the date Labcorp is expected to finalize an agreement to acquire select assets of BioReferences oncology and clinical testing services.

The agreement was initially announced by Labcorp and OPKO back in March, but both parties said it would take months to close the deal.

The assets being acquired currently generate up to $100 million annually and Labcorp is paying $237.5 million to buy them, according to a press release.

By integrating BioReference Healths oncology and related clinical testing services into our portfolio, were providing greater access to our world-class services to patients, physicians and healthcare providers across the country, said Mark Schroeder, Labcorps executive vice president and president, in a statement.

OPKO Chairman and CEO Phillip Frost said the transaction represents another important step for OPKO Health to further streamline BioReference Healths operations to achieve profitability, according to a company press release.

At the time, Frost said BioReference would maintain its core clinical testing services in the New York and New Jersey region.

Neither BioReference nor its parent company OPKO responded immediately Tuesday to requests for comment.

The latest round of job cuts follow a layoff action affecting 81 employees earlier this year.

BioReference operates 10 laboratory facilities around the country, is in-network with some of the largest health plans in the United States, serving over 19 million patients annually, according to its website.

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U.S. District Judge Esther Salas stood before a room of attorneys general on Tuesday to relive the day her only child was murdered, warning that such tragedies could recur if judicial security remains inadequate.

Her message was deeply personal, rooted in the loss of her son, Daniel Anderl, at the hands of a man who had once appeared before her in court.

Salas, who is the first Hispanic woman appointed to the U.S. District Court in New Jersey, spoke at an annual gathering led by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin, which focused on reimagining public safety and strengthening justice systems through community-centered strategies.

My heart continues to break for Judge Salas and her family, Platkin said in an interview with NJ.com. There are no words that will bring Danny back. And that senseless tragedy is one that we should all be motivated to avoid.

On July 19, 2020, Roy Den Hollander, a disgruntled attorney, went to Salass home in North Brunswick, New Jersey, posing as a FedEx deliveryman.

When 20-year-old Daniel answered the door, Den Hollander opened fire, killing him and critically wounding Salas husband, Mark Anderl.

Salas was in her basement at the time of the attack.

She recalled hearing what sounded like mini bombs going off and running upstairs to find her husband dragging himself across the porch, trying to get the license plate of the fleeing gunman. Her son lay near the door, clutching his chest.

I was there when that beautiful creature drifted into this world, and I was there when he drifted out, Salas said, tearfully quoting from the film Steel Magnolias.

Her emotional account underscored a broader warning: threats against judges are real, rising and deadly.

I stand before you as the mother who lost her only child for one reason  for doing my job, Salas said.

In the months after Daniels death, New Jersey lawmakers passed Daniels Law, which makes it a crime to publish or post the home addresses or unpublished phone numbers of judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officerswhether active, retired, or formerly activeas well as their spouses and children.

The law, enacted by Gov. Phil Murphy on Nov. 20, 2020, applies to individuals, businesses, and government agencies.

The federal version of the law, called The Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act, was signed into federal law in December 2022 as part of the National Defense Authorization Act.

Despite passage of new laws, Salas cited several recent incidents of judges who have been threatened or attacked.

In 2022, a man was arrested who allegedly planned to assassinate Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Retired Wisconsin Judge John Roemer was murdered by a man he had sentenced.

And in 2023, Maryland Judge Andrew Wilkinson, was shot and killed in his driveway by a disgruntled litigant.

Judges are increasingly being targeted by threats and harassment, Salas said, including bomb threats, swatting incidents, and a tactic known as pizza doxxingunwanted food deliveries sent late at night.

In some cases, pizzas were ordered using her son Daniels name.

Theyre weaponizing my murdered sons name to inflict fear on judges throughout this country, Salas said. What does a pizza arriving at midnight say to a judge? It says, We know where you live.

She said deliveries have also been sent to judges adult children in other states.

What does that say? she asked. We know where your kids live.

Platkin said that threatening a judges safety by sending someone a pizza box with Daniels name on it is appalling.

Thats not the type of stuff you see in a democracy, Platkin said. Its not the type of stuff that were used to seeing in America. And we should be rejecting it with one voice.

Platkin said that even though he had to shield his own family from things he called totally over the line, it has not deterred him from public service. However, he expressed concern that it could deter others from serving the state.

We need the best and brightest in this country, people most committed to the causes that they care about, Platkin said.

These attacks dont discriminate, Salas said. Theyre not about party lines  theyre about undermining the rule of law.

She noted that Den Hollander had murdered another attorney in California days before killing her son and had compiled a hit list of judges, including a dossier on U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Our democracy is under attack, Salas said. The rule of law is under attack.

Since the tragedy, Salas and her husband have become vocal advocates for judicial security, helping pass Daniels Law in New Jersey and the Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act at the federal level. But she warned that legislation alone is insufficient.

There was nothing we could do proactively. He didnt threaten me, she said. So how do we protect ourselves if we dont have laws that safeguard our personally identifiable information?

Salas urged state leaders to uphold their oaths and defend judicial independence.

This is not a Republican issue. This is not a Democrat issue. This is an American issue, she said. Without an independent judiciary, there is no rule of law.

Despite their grief, Salas said she and her husband have chosen to live with purpose.

We choose to celebrate Daniels life, not agonize over his unthinkable death, she said. Weve chosen to forgive our sons killer because through forgiveness, weve opened a space in our hearts for joy, peace, love and acceptance.
A fire in Paterson early Wednesday scorched five buildings and displaced dozens of people, local officials said.

The blaze erupted at about 3:30 a.m. on Elm Street, the Paterson Fire Department said.

Two multifamily residential buildings had already sustained extensive damage when authorities arrived, fire officials said. The fire quickly spread to surrounding structures, resulting in damage to five buildings.

Firefighters brought the fire under control shortly after 5 a.m., authorities said. Fire departments from several towns assisted.

Forty-two people in 10 families were displaced after evacuating their homes, said Diane Concannon, communications director for the New Jersey Red Cross.

One resident was transported to an area hospital for treatment of minor smoke inhalation. No other injuries were reported, fire officials said.

A team of American Red Cross volunteers is assisting the families, Concannon said.

In partnership with the city of Paterson, the organization launched a temporary reception center and provided emergency financial assistance for lodging and other necessities.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the Paterson Fire Department.

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Rebecca Heath may be reached at RHeath@njadvancemedia.com.
A New Jersey man has been found guilty of raping his 14-year-old relative outside of her Cape Cod home in 2021, the Cape and Islands District Attorneys Office announced Tuesday.

After a six-day trial and over two hours of deliberations, a Barnstable County Superior Court jury found 46-year-old Hasbrouk Heights resident Cheldon Clare guilty of aggravated child rape and two counts of indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or older, the district attorneys office said in a press release.

On Monday, a judge sentenced Clare to 12 to 14 years in prison, to be followed by five years of probation, the district attorneys office said. He must also now register as a sex offender.

Authorities began investigating Clare after his family member  a 14-year-old girl  and her mother made a report to Barnstable police on Sept. 6, 2021, alleging that hed sexually assaulted the girl, the district attorneys office said. The teen told police Clare had driven from his home in New Jersey to her home in Hyannis on the morning of Aug. 27, 2021, and sexually assaulted her in his car.

Detectives obtained Clares phone records, which revealed that hed groomed the girl for a month prior to the assault and that the phone had been near the girls home the day of the assault, the district attorneys office said. The teens pants also tested positive for Clares DNA.

District Attorney Galibois acknowledges the bravery shown by the young victim and the commitment by the law enforcement officers to secure evidence in our pursuit of justice, the release reads. My office will continue to stand with survivors and work alongside our law enforcement partners to hold offenders accountable.
This is a rendering of the huge Hillsborough Township Homestead Road Warehouse project, which has been rejected by local officials. Hillsborough Township Planning Board

A developers plan to build one of the largest warehouse projects ever proposed in Somerset County has been blocked by local officials.

Following a lengthy hearing on Sept. 4, the Hillsborough Township Planning Board unanimously rejected the project, which called for two warehouses totaling more than 537,000 square feet.

The proposal, first submitted by Homestead Road LLC in December 2021, would have turned nearly 90 acres of undeveloped farmland in the town into an industrial complex.

The site lies east of the Route 206 bypass, near schools and residential neighborhoods.

Residents and advocacy groups spent the past four years battling the project, speaking out at hearings and circulating a petition that gathered more than 3,000 signatures.

In their final decision, the planning board said the mega-warehouse plan was flawed and did not align with the townships character.

Putting this warehouse in the center of town is counter to being compatible with neighborhoods and the peace and solitude of residents, Mayor John Ciccarelli said before making the motion to deny the application.

Other planning board members chimed in saying the project was too massive and carried too many problems.

Instead of coming in with an application that could fit there and be harmonious with the neighborhood, they decide to go for the biggest building they could find and jam it in there, said former Mayor Shawn Lipani, who also serves on the board.

Attorneys for Homestead Road LLC did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

New Jersey environmental and advocacy groups, including Stop Warehouses and Traffic, the Watershed Institute and the Sourland Conservancy, also opposed the project.

They pointed to traffic on Homestead Road as a major concern, noting it would have sent about 322 trucks a day over a narrow bridge and through areas heavily used by school buses.

Board members also raised concerns about stormwater management, saying the applicant failed to explain how it would reduce runoff or prevent downstream flooding on local roads.

Another unresolved issue was the lack of detail about who would occupy the warehouses, board members said. No tenant had been identified, and developer representatives only said the space could store noncombustible goods ranging from beverages to tires.

Spanning more than 50 square miles, Hillsborough is Somerset Countys largest municipality by size. Nearly 40% of its land is preserved as open space.

The property targeted for the warehouse project is one of the few remaining areas designated for low-density land use, according to local advocacy groups.

Township officials have taken aggressive steps to curb warehouse growth in recent years.

In November 2023, the Township Committee voted to spend nearly $10 million from the Open Space Trust Fund to buy two vacant parcels that had been targeted for warehouse projects.

That same year, officials also passed an ordinance banning large warehouses and shipping facilities in industrial zones, citing concerns over traffic, pollution and quality of life. The measure has since been challenged in multiple lawsuits, including one from Homestead Road LLC.

Developers can appeal the planning boards recent decision. Ciccarelli told TapInto Hillsborough he expects an appeal but believes the townships case is strong.

Part of the appeal process is to bring us to the table to negotiate, the mayor said. But we have a strong hand. What is there to negotiate?
Hey there New Jersey! Heres your audio update highlighting ICE arrests in the North Jersey suburbs and a major media company implementing a return to office mandate.

Well also tell you about a rescue squad that may be forced to shut down and more.

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This audio presentation is an editorially-curated selection of stories, selected by an editor, and then summarized and read aloud by artificial intelligence. Some variations in pronunciation, tone or diction may result.

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Charlie Kirk speaks before he is shot during Turning Point's visit to Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP) AP AP

Charlie Kirk died on Wednesday after being shot during an event at a Utah college, President Donald Trump said on Truth Social.

Kirk, 31, was the CEO and co-founder of conservative youth organization Turning Point USA. He was shot while speaking on the campus of Utah Valley University.

Video footage widely shared on social media showed attendees running from the event after Kirk was shot near his neck.

Law enforcement tapes off an area after Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was shot on Wednesday in Orem, Utah. (Tess Croewley/The Deseret News via AP) AP

The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead, Trump said in his Truth Social post. 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. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!

Turning Point confirmed Kirks death in a statement released later on Wednesday.

It is with a heavy heart that we confirm that Charles James Kirk has been murdered by a gunshot that took place during Turning Point USAs The American Comeback Tour campus event at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025, the statement read.

Kirk was a close ally of Trump and a staunch supporter of the Make America Great Again movement. He is survived by his wife, Erika, and their two children.

He rose to prominence through his work with his organization, holding events at college campuses across the country to promote conservative values to students.

Charlie Kirk, left, shakes hands with Donald Trump before speaking during the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit on July 23, 2022 (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File) AP

Kirk co-founded Turning Point in suburban Chicago in 2012 alongside William Montgomery, a tea party activist, to promote a smaller government and call for lower taxes.

According to its website, Turning Point has chapters across 3,500 high school and college campuses throughout the country.

Both Democrats and Republicans immediately condemned the shooting, with many calling it an act of political violence.

Tributes quickly poured in for Kirk after news broke of his death on Wednesday.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, Vice President JD Vance wrote on X.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) held a moment of prayer in the lower chamber for Kirk and his family.

Right-wing activist Laura Loomer wrote that she was heartbroken, while MAGA influencer Riley Gaines said that she did not have any words right now.

Lord be with his family, TPUSA staff, all who knew him, and all who admired him. No one loved this nation, God, or the truth more than Charlie, Gaines wrote on X.

Ben Shapiro, a conservative podcaster, said in a statement shared on X that it was unimaginable to write these words.

All of us will miss him, and I cant imagine the pain of his beautiful young family, and we must all pray for them. And we must pick up the baton where Charlie left it, fighting for the things he believed in so passionately. And we must fight for a better America - an America where good people can speak truth and debate passionately without fear of a bullet. I weep for Charlies family, and I weep for my country today. Most of all, I weep for Charlie, Shapiro wrote.

Allison Hemingway-Witty cries after Charlie Kirk is shot during Turning Point's visit to Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP) AP AP

Former Rep. Joe Walsh, who joined the Democrat Party earlier this year after leaving the GOP, said Kirk was like a son to him.

Even though we were on opposite sides of the political divide these past 7yrs, I still considered him a son. Im broken for him & his family. And Im scared for this country. Neither side has a monopoly on political violence. But most people on both sides wont acknowledge that. And if we dont get off this dangerous road of hate, America will not stay together, Walsh wrote on X.

Former President Joe Biden also offered his condolences in a statement shared on X.

There is no place in our country for this kind of violence. It must end now. Jill and I are praying for Charlie Kirks family and loved ones, Biden said.

Former President Barack Obama also weighed in: We dont yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlies family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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UPDATE: President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that Kirk has died.

***

Leaders on both sides of the political aisle strongly condemned the shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk during an event at an Utah college on Wednesday afternoon.

Turning Point USA, a conservative youth organization, confirmed to the Associated Press that Kirk, its co-founder, was shot while speaking on the campus of Utah Valley University. Video footage shared on social media showed attendees running from the event.

Kirk appeared to be shot near his neck. A law enforcement official confirmed to the AP that Kirk is in critical condition at a hospital as of Wednesday afternoon.

The university confirmed in a post on X that a suspect has been taken into custody, and campus police are investing.

Today at about 12:10 a shot was fired at the visiting speaker, Charlie Kirk, the university wrote. He was hit and taken from the location by his security.

President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social asking his following to pray for Kirk, who is a staunch supporter of the MAGA movement.

We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot. A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM! Trump wrote minutes after reports about the incident.

Vice President JD Vance also offered his support for Kirk, posting a photo of himself with the conservative influencer.

Say a prayer for Charlie Kirk, a genuinely good guy and a young father, Vance wrote on X.

FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed that agents will be arriving on the scene quickly, noting that the law enforcement agency stands in full support of the ongoing response and investigation.

We are closely monitoring reports of the tragic shooting involving Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University. Our thoughts are with Charlie, his loved ones, and everyone affected. Agents will be on the scene quickly and the FBI stands in full support of the ongoing response and  FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) September 10, 2025

Democrats also shared messages of support for the MAGA activist on social media.

The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible. In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form, California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on X.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called the shooting reprehensible, adding that political violence has absolutely no place in our nation. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the shooting was horrifying, adding that he will be sending prayers to Kirk and his family.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) also weighed in: An open forum for political dialogue and disagreement was upended by a horrific act of targeted violence. In America, we dont settle our differences with violence or at gunpoint. Im praying for Charlie, his family, and his young children.

Pod Save America co-hosts Tommy Vietor and Jon Favreau, former aides to President Barack Obama, condemned the shooting.

Vietor said: Political violence is evil and indefensible. Its a cancer that will feed off itself and spread. Charlie Kirk is a human being with a family. Harming him or anyone else for their political views is disgusting and will rip this country apart and hurt everyone.

Horrifying news that Charlie Kirk has been shot. Praying for him and anyone else who was hurt in the shooting, Favreau said in a separate post.

Progressive political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen described the shooting is beyond horrific, adding, Legitimately disgusted at the broken state of this country. Harry Sisson, a liberal influencer, said that There is no place for this type of violence in America. He is a father and a human being. Despite our differences, I truly hope hes ok and makes a full recovery. Just insane.

Other conservative influencers also asked their audiences to pray for Kirk.

MAGA podcaster Nick Sortor said that a circulating video is HORRIFIC to watch.

Pray for Charlie Kirk, a popular account known as johnny maga posted.

Nick Fuentes, a far-right political activist, wrote that This feels like a nightmare.

One of the most horrific things Ive ever seen, Fuentes said. I feel absolutely gutted and devastated. Pray for Charlie Kirks soul, his young family and for our country.

Several New Jersey lawmakers denounced the shooting.

Gov. Phil Murphy (D) posted that he is horrified by the shooting.

We must unequivocally condemn political violence, Murphy wrote. Please pray for Charlie, his wife, and children.

Sen. Cory Booker (D) said political violence is evil and an attack on our most fundamental values.

The shooting of Charlie Kirk today in Utah must be condemned by all. My heart is with Charlie Kirk, his family, and all those who are impacted, Booker added.

Sen. Andy Kim (D) called the incident simply abhorrent.

There is no justification for political violence. We all must condemn this attack on Charlie Kirk, Kim continued.

The two nominees for New Jerseys governor race shared their support for Kirk.

Republican Jack Ciattarelli said: There must be zero tolerance for political violence and harsh punishment for the perpetrators of it. Pray for Charlie Kirk and his young family.

There is absolutely no place for political violence in this country. My thoughts are with Charlie Kirk, his loved ones, and the community at Utah Valley University. The perpetrator of this abhorrent act should be brought to justice, Democrat Mikie Sherrill posted.

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Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, questions the witnesses during a Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, June 18, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.) AP

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was caught agreeing with a former aide of President Barack Obama at the expense of President Donald Trump.

Jon Favreau, co-host of the Pod Save America podcast, mocked MAGA supporters on Tuesday for their outrage over the murder of a woman on a North Carolina train. While his statement appeared to criticize Democrats, Favreau was actually trolling Trump over his pardons of violent Jan. 6 rioters.

Real talk: Democrats should just admit that some politicians have been way too lenient in releasing dangerous criminals from prison these last few years, Favreau wrote on social media platform X.

He then listed crimes committed by people after some politicians let them out of prison early. The crimes included violent assault, sexual assault of a child, solicitation of a minor, possession of child pornography, domestic abuse and attempted murder.

Real talk: Democrats should just admit that some politicians have been way too lenient in releasing dangerous criminals from prison these last few years.



Just a few of the crimes committed by people they let out early:



- Violent assault

- Sexual assault of a child

-  Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) September 10, 2025

He clarified that he was talking about Trump, who he said "has released more dangerous criminals from prison than anyone else." Favreau was referring to Trumps decision to pardon hundreds of those convicted of crimes, including violent offenses, in connection to the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection on the Capitol.

Even Cruz agreed with Favreaualthough the Texas Republican may have missed that Favreau was speaking about Trump.

True. But by some politicians you mean Obama, Biden & EVERY Democrat in the Senatethe same people youve been supporting in every single election," Cruz wrote in response.

Favreau then sarcastically thanked Cruz for criticizing the pardons of the Jan. 6 rioters.

Senator, thank you for finally criticizing Donald Trump over his Jan 6 pardons. This is, appallingly, the first time youve ever commented on the issue, Favreau wrote.

Senator, thank you for finally criticizing Donald Trump over his Jan 6 pardons.



This is, appallingly, the first time youve ever commented on the issue https://t.co/TkyzNeoJJt  Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) September 10, 2025

Trump and his MAGA base have condemned the killing of the young Ukrainian woman, Iryna Zarutska, traveling on a North Carolina train last month. Video footage of the incident spurred outrage on social media, especially within conservative circles.

The case has become latest flashpoint in the debate over whether cities such as Charlotte are adequately addressing violent crime, mental illness and transit safety. The Trump administration says the killing shows how local leaders, judges and policies in Democratic-led cities are failing to protect their residents from violent crime.

Iryna Zarutska was a young woman living the American dream  her horrific murder is a direct result of failed soft-on-crime policies that put criminals before innocent people, said Attorney General Pam Bondi in a statement. We will seek the maximum penalty for this unforgivable act of violence  he will never again see the light of day as a free man.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he arrives for dinner at a restaurant near the White House, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025, in Washington, with Vice President JD Vance. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) AP

As President Donald Trump made a rare public dining stop in Washington, D.C., late Tuesday, he was confronted with an unwanted surprise.

Videos circulating on social media show Trump coming face to face with protesters at Joes Seafood, Prime Steak and Stone Crab, which is less than a quarter mile away from the White House.

Before entering the restaurant, Trump was first heckled by chants of Free Palestine as he briefly answered questions from reporters on the street. He then was met by a group on the inside, who continued to shout Free D.C., free Palestine and Trump is the Hitler of our time.

What do you want your legacy to be? a protester could be heard shouting in one video.

CODEPINK, a feminist grassroots organization, claimed credit for the demonstration in posts on its social media accounts. On X, the group attached a video that shows Trump walking toward the protesters  one who is recording  and appearing to smirk. He then gestures for them to leave several times, before they are escorted out of the restaurant.

CODEPINK activists disrupted Trump, Vance, Hegseth, Rubio, and other cabinet members dinner.



They feast while Gaza starves.

Trump is the Hitler of our time.

Free DC. Free Palestine!

Stop terrorizing communities all over the world!! pic.twitter.com/dPLeWIwHLH  CODEPINK (@codepink) September 10, 2025

Some of Trumps most ardent supporters questioned how the president came in such close proximity to demonstrators.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) asked on X, "Did someone leak the Presidents location to the organization that showed up to protest him?"

"Where was Secret Service and was there someone in Secret Service that leaked his location? This needs to be looked into," she added.

Far-right activist Laura Loomer, dubbed as a Trump whisperer, said that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) "almost became US PRESIDENT."

"POTUS could have been assassinated tonight, she claimed. They could have stabbed him or shot him."

There appears to be no evidence of an assassination attempt or that the protesters were armed.

Loomer also argued that Someone at @SecretService needs to be fired for this one.

Tonight, @SpeakerJohnson almost became US PRESIDENT.



President Trump, @JDVance, @marcorubio and @PeteHegseth all went out to dinner tonight at @joesstonecrab in DC when they were accosted by rabid jihadist Palestinians waving terror flags and carrying props in their hands. There https://t.co/89hZDqIBRA  Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) September 10, 2025

47 is UNFAZED by leftist bulls--, MAGA podcaster Nick Sortor posted.

Another user added, What am I missing? How did they get THAT close to the POTUS????

This is a failure by the secret service not vetting who was near Donald Trump. What the f--- are guys doing? a different user wrote.

Other critics celebrated the interaction.

Protesters were able to get past secret service to Trumps table and call him Hitler to his face.very impressive," one account said.

Harry Sisson, a popular liberal commentator, chimed in: I respect the hell out of them for confronting Trump!!!

Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann told the president to eat sh--.

The unexpected protest comes as Trump has recently touted that D.C. restaurants are more crowded and the city is safe amid his federal takeover of the nations capital. At the time, data showed that restaurant attendance had instead taken a dive since his crackdown on crime.

Here I am standing out in the middle of the street. I wouldnt have done this three months ago, four months ago, I certainly wouldnt have done it a year ago, Trump said to reporters while outside.

This was one of the most unsafe cities in the country. Now its as safe as there is in the country. Everybody should go out, he continued.

Trumps 30-day takeover is expected to expire on Wednesday night. He previously said he is eyeing Chicago and New Orleans as his next cities to deploy National Guard troops.

During his dinner outing, Trump was accompanied by Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other administration officials.

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Charlie Kirk hands out hats before speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP) AP

UPDATE: MSNBC analyst fired after shocking Charlie Kirk comments on air

***

Political strategist Matthew Dowd faced a grilling on social media after he speculated on MSNBC about the shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk during an event at a Utah college on Wednesday.

Turning Point USA, a conservative youth organization, confirmed to the Associated Press that Kirk, its co-founder, was shot while speaking on the campus of Utah Valley University. He appeared to be shot near his neck.

President Donald Trump has since announced that Kirk, 31, has died in a post on his Truth Social platform.

The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead, Trump wrote. 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. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!

Video footage shared on social media showed attendees running from the shooting. The university has said there is no suspect in custody as of Wednesday afternoon.

Host Katy Tur asked Dowd to talk about the environment in which a shooting like this happens, while she acknowledged that reports have yet to be confirmed.

Dowd said he wanted to emphasize that we dont know any full details of this, but began to question the perpetrators motives, saying We dont know if this was a supporter shooting their gun off in celebration.

But following up with what was just said, hes been one of the most divisive, especially divisive younger figures, in this, who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech, or sort of aimed at certain groups, Dowd said.

And I always go back to hateful thoughts, lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions, and I think thats the environment that were in, he added.

Dowd continued: People just... you cant stop with these sort of awful thoughts you have, and then saying these awful words, and then not expect awful actions to take place. And thats the unfortunate environment we are in.

A number of social media users  and particularly conservative voices  immediately criticized Dowds reaction.

MSNBC is now blaming Charlie Kirk for being shot, the account for Townhall.com posted on X, adding, What a disgusting thing to say.

MSNBC is now blaming Charlie Kirk for being shot.



You cant stop with these awful thoughts you have and then saying these awful words and then not expect awful actions to take place



What a disgusting thing to say. pic.twitter.com/iPX4NiQXZl  Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 10, 2025

A popular conservative account wrote that MSNBC just speculated the Charlie Kirk shooting could have been a supporter shooting their gun off in celebration. I have no words for how awful these people are.

Hey @MSNBC Im gonna go ahead and rule out that it was one of Charlie Kirks supporters that accidentally shot him with a celebratory gun shot, Barstools Dave Portnoy added.

Writer Rich Lowry also weighed in on the comments: Charlie Kirk was a fierce advocate, out in the pubic square doing it how its supposed to be done in our glorious free Republic. Blaming him for an infernal act of violence committed against him while he was engaged in a full and open debate is shameful and disgusting.

Sen. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said that Everyone @MSNBC needs to be fired!

Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle have condemned the shooting and sent their prayers to Kirk, who is a prominent voice of the MAGA movement, before his death.

We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot. A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM! Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Vice President JD Vance also offered his support for Kirk, posting a photo of himself with the conservative influencer.

Say a prayer for Charlie Kirk, a genuinely good guy and a young father, Vance wrote on X.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris said she is deeply disturbed by the shooting.

Let me be clear: Political violence has no place in America. I condemn this act, and we all must work together to ensure this does not lead to more violence, she added.

Rebecca Kutler, the president of MSNBC, later issued a statement apologizing for the remarks.

During our breaking news coverage of the shooting of Charlie Kirk, Matthew Dowd made comments that were inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable. We apologize for his statements, as has he. There is no place for violence in America, political or otherwise, the statement posted on X reads.

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The political and media world was left shocked on Wednesday after President Donald Trump announced that popular conservative activist Charlie Kirk has died following a shooting during an event on the campus of Utah Valley University.

Kirk, 31, was the co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA and a staunch supporter of the Make America Great Again movement. He first rose to prominence by promoting conservative values at college campuses nationwide through civil discourse.

Major TV stations covered the news in real time on Wednesday, while tributes from political leaders quickly poured in. Video footage widely circulated on social media showed attendees running from the event after Kirk appeared to be shot near his neck.

During an appearance on Newsmax, Matt Schlapp  the chair of the American Conservative Union  argued that the best way to honor Kirk is to continue his effort with empathy.

My message to these young people who are so impacted by Charlie is youd make Charlie awfully proud if you continued fighting, but also if you fought in a way where at the end of the day, you could go have a cup of coffee with someone who you violently disagree with and show that theres a humanity to this important endeavor that were involved in, Schlapp said. That is what we have lost.

My message to young people who are so impacted by Charlie Kirk:



You'd make Charlie awfully proud if you continued fighting. But also if you fought in a way where at the end of the day, you can go have a cup of coffee with someone who you disagree with, and show that there's a pic.twitter.com/tAg9rOigEm  Matt Schlapp (@mschlapp) September 10, 2025

Others quickly reflected on the legacy of the prominent activist, including from Trump, who described him as the Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk. Trump also ordered U.S. flags to half-staff in honor of Kirk.

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. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you! Trump continued in his post.

Vice President JD Vance also weighed in on X: Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) held a moment of prayer in the lower chambers gallery for Kirk and his family.

Turning Point USA released a statement confirming Kirks death.

May he be received into the merciful arms of our loving Savior who suffered and died for Charlie. We ask that everyone keep his family and loved ones in your prayers. We ask that you please respect their privacy and dignity in this time, the organization said.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, calling the shooting a political assassination, announced that a person of interest was taken into custody as of Wednesday evening. FBI Director Kash Patel later posted on X that the individual has been released following an interrogation by law enforcement.

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Kevin Walsh, the state's acting comptroller, seen in this 2024 file photo, issued a report Tuesday critical of an influential insurance brokerage firm. Jelani Gibson for NJ Advance Media

A state government watchdog agency has accused an insurance brokerage firm overseen by one of New Jerseys most influential political leaders of violating conflict-of-interest rules and public contracting laws while managing health benefits for 100,000 local and school employees.

The Office of the State Comptroller, an independent agency that investigates government corruption, released a report Tuesday that claims Conner, Strong & Buckelew of Camden and PERMA, a related company, gained control over millions of dollars in insurance contracts. According to the report, this was done without adequate disclosure, competition, or accountability."

The Comptrollers team said it found the problems while examining three health insurance funds: the Southern New Jersey Regional Employee Benefits Fund, the Schools Health Insurance Fund and the Municipal Reinsurance Health Insurance Fund. All three are managed by Conner, Strong & Buckelew, and administered by PERMA. George E. Norcross III, the companys executive chairman, is considered one of the most influential unelected political figures in the state.

The comptroller said the two related companies improperly steered contracts to preferred vendors, effectively eliminating competition.

New Jerseys Health Insurance Fund system, which was created to save money and pool risk, has allowed a single private company to control key decisions about public employee health insurance, including how contracts are written, awarded, and priced, according to the comptrollers report.

The comptroller ordered the Southern New Jersey Regional Employee Benefits Fund and the Schools Health Insurance Fund to delay approving contracts until the issues raised here have been fully resolved, the report said.

What makes this worse is that the vendor concealed from the State and its public entity clients that it was operating on all sides of contracting processes that are supposed to protect taxpayer funds, acting State Comptroller Kevin Walsh said in a statement.

Norcrosss spokesman Daniel Fee responded by issuing a blistering statement that accused the comptroller of issuing a report full of mistakes and innuendo  a sign, he said, that Walshs team does not understand the health insurance industry.

In this 2024 file photo, George Norcross speaks to reporters outside the Hughes Justice Complex in Trenton after authorities outlined criminal charges against him. A judge has since tossed the indictment and the Attorney General's Office has appealed. S.P. Sullivan

Attorneys for PERMA and Conner, Strong and Buckelew also sent a letter asking Gov. Phil Murphy to appoint a special counsel to investigate Walsh and his office, which the attorneys said questionably asked for documents during their investigation that are protected under attorney-client privilege.

The Comptroller sees improprieties despite the Health Insurance Funds having undergone regular reviews and audits by both the Departments of Banking & Insurance and Community Affairs without issue for three decades, Fee said.

The entire matter has been reviewed by former State Comptroller Matt Boxer and has been found to be in compliance with all state laws and regulations by the Departments of Banking and Insurance and Community Affairs.

Boxer, the former state comptroller and now a private attorney who represents PERMA, said the health insurance funds created by local and school officials have a solid track record of saving taxpayers money. Meanwhile, the Comptrollers office, with its demand to halt new contracts, is delaying the public benefit of saving $1.5 million to $2 million in insurance costs, Boxer said.

Boxer also questioned how the Comptroller could characterize the parent-sibling relationship between Conner, Strong & Buckelew and PERMA as something secretive and nefarious. All that has been disclosed to the Department of Banking and Insurance and signed off in writing by the state, he said.

Additionally, six officials who serve as commissioners from the three insurance funds sent a letter to Murphy, state Senate President Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, and state Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, asking they rein in this out-of-control agency and end these abuses of power. They also asked the officials to retract the report.

The public deserves accurate oversight and constructive solutions  not a report that undermines confidence in one of New Jerseys most effective shared-services models," the letter said.

Walsh and his offices investigations are no stranger to criticism and calls for his ouster. Last year, the New Jersey Association of Counties asked legislative leaders to curb the comptrollers powers and establish procedures that could challenge the agencys findings.

Fee noted this is the second law enforcement official who has attempted to take down Norcross. In 2024, state Attorney General Matt Platkin obtained an indictment that accused Norcross of running a criminal enterprise  to essentially hijack New Jerseys economic development program and conspire to extort and coerce other prospective developers so he might obtain property rights on the Camden waterfront. A judge tossed the indictment, saying no crimes had been committed. Platkin appealed in April.

Susan K. Livio may be reached atslivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her at X at @SusanKLivio.
U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) got into a heated exchange with the governor of his own state on Wednesday.

Cassidy, a physician, suggested that the surgeon general of Louisiana write a blanket COVID-19 vaccine prescription for those in the state who want the shot and will have trouble accessing it under the Trump administrations new guidelines. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) shot down Cassidys suggestion on Tuesday and falsely described the COVID-19 vaccine as dangerous.

@senbillcassidy the last time I checked you have a prescription pad, why dont you just leave a prescription for the dangerous Covid shot at your district office and anyone can swing by and get one! I am sure big pharma would love you for that one! Landry wrote on social media platform X.

Cassidy fired back, telling Landry that true conservatives should empower patients.

Big government liberals make it harder for them to take action, Cassidy wrote. Get big government out of a patients life.

True conservatives should empower patients. Big government liberals make it harder for them to take action. Get big government out of a patients life. https://t.co/QIAoKC7zzc  U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (@SenBillCassidy) September 10, 2025

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) narrowed the use of COVID-19 shots for younger adults and children to those with at least one high-risk health condition, such as asthma or obesity. Millions of Americans now will have to prove their risk to get a vaccine while others who may want to get vaccinated no longer qualify.

Many states, including New Jersey, have taken action to combat the new restrictive vaccine policy. Acting New Jersey Health Commissioner Jeff Brown said in an announcement on Tuesday that children under 3 will be able to receive the vaccine from their doctor, while anyone over age 3 may get vaccinated at pharmacies across New Jersey.

Cassidy has criticized Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over the new vaccine policy, which he has argued limits access to the shots for Americans. During a heated Senate hearing last week, Cassidy noted that the government is denying people vaccine, prompting a sharp retort from Kennedy.

Youre wrong! Kennedy responded.

U.S. Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), who is also a doctor, said last week he has grown deeply concerned about Kennedys tenure.

I support vaccines. Vaccines save lives. If were going to make America healthy again, we cant allow public health to be undermined, Barrasso said.

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A new poll reveals widespread support for agriculture across New Jersey, with 64% of voters considering farming "very important" to the state's economy. Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Med

A new poll reveals widespread support for New Jersey farmers with 64% of voters saying farming is very important to the states economy.

The survey, conducted by the Fairleigh Dickinson University Poll in collaboration with the New Jersey Farm Bureau, also found strong opposition to using farmland for affordable housing developments.

The poll revealed particularly strong opposition to municipalities using eminent domain to acquire farmland for affordable housing, with 79% of voters against such measures.

This issue recently gained attention after Cranbury Township designated a historic working farm as an affordable housing site, sparking public outcry.

New Jersey has evolved since our origins as the breadbasket of New York and Philadelphia, said Dan Cassino, executive director of the FDU Poll. But people here still see farming as being an important part of what the state has.

The support for agriculture transcends party lines, with 65% of Democrats, 70% of Republicans, and 59% of independents rating farming as very important to the states health, according to the FDU poll.

Regional differences emerge, however, with 72% of northwestern New Jersey voters strongly supporting agriculture compared to 55% in urban core counties.

Age also plays a factor, as 74% of voters aged 65 and older consider farming very important, while 48% of voters under 30 share this view.

The survey also addressed food security concerns, finding that 37% of New Jersey voters struggled to feed their families in the past year, with younger residents particularly affected.

To address this, the state budget includes funding to purchase produce from local farmers for distribution through food banks and pantries.

Generative AI was used to produce an initial draft of this story, which was reviewed and edited by NJ Advance Media staff.
Scott Presler, a conservative activist, has been on the ground to register more Republicans. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) AP

Popular MAGA activist Scott Presler has a pressing warning for President Donald Trump and the GOP ahead of the 2026 midterms.

In a post on X, Presler reacted to the overwhelming defeat on Tuesday of a Republican candidate in a special election to fill the House seat of late Virginia Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly.

Although Democrat James Walkinshaw, a Fairfax County board supervisor, was heavily favored to win in the deep-blue 11th Congressional District, he defeated Republican Stewart Whitson, an Army veteran and former FBI agent, by a landslide.

Walkinshaw secured 75% of the vote, according to The New York Times, while Connolly has historically taken home around 66%, or a two-to-one margin, The Washington Post reported. Former Vice President Kamala Harris won around two-thirds of the vote in the district during the 2024 presidential election.

Presler, who has been on the ground helping register Republican voters across the country, found the election outcome to be quite revealing.

Scott, Republicans are going to vote on Election Day. Scott, theres no need to vote early or vote by mail. Scott, we need everyone to vote on one single day, Presler wrote, mocking common responses that he appears to hear from fellow Republicans.

Yall are going to lose 2026 & its going to be bad, he added.

Scott, Republicans are going to vote on Election Day.



Scott, theres no need to vote early or vote by mail.



Scott, we need everyone to vote on one single day.



Yall are going to lose 2026 & its going to be bad. pic.twitter.com/CeXTw9MMM4  ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) September 9, 2025

In a separate post, Presler responded to a previous video he made, in which he claimed that Republicans will "lose everything this November."

"Dont make the same mistake this November, Presler wrote.

Yes, we have statewide elections this November. Yes, NJ, PA, & VA are voting this November," he continued.

He went on to encourage voters to cast their ballots for Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli for New Jersey governor, adding that he has events lined up across the state.

Presler, who has claimed credit for Trump swinging Pennsylvania red in 2024, has traveled to different states through his PAC Early Vote Action, which targets groups including frat guys, hunters and the Amish, according to CNN. Tech billionaire Elon Musk previously donated $1 million to support its efforts.

The New York Times reported last month that the Democratic Party has lost ground to Republicans in all 30 states that track voter registration by political party between the 2020 and 2024 elections. Meanwhile, Republicans gained 2.4 million registered voters.

The analysis also showed that Democrats fell from an 11-percentage point advantage over Republicans in 2020 to a 6-percentage-point edge in 2024.

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President Donald Trumps border czar, Tom Homan, is taunting Democratic governors across the country as the administration looks to increase its crackdown on illegal immigration.

During an appearance on Fox News, Homan responded to how Boston Mayor Michelle Wu surged ahead in the citys preliminary election, winning over 72% of the vote, according to the Associated Press. She will face Josh Kraft, the son of the Patriots, during Novembers mayoral election.

Wu has been a constant target of the Trump administration, as several officials  including Homan  have repeatedly accused the mayor of not doing enough to combat crime and increase arrests in the sanctuary city. Wu has maintained that she wants Boston to be welcoming for immigrants.

Is this what the voters want? Lawrence Jones, a co-host of Fox & Friends, asked Homan on Wednesday, adding that she has a ton of support in the city, even though she protects these criminal migrants.

Homan fired back: I dont care who the mayor is. Were going to do our job.

He went on to say that not every illegal alien is considered a significant public safety threat, but he noted that many are.

They can stay on the sideline and watch us do their job. However, they better not step over the line. They better not impede our efforts or theres going to be consequences, Homan said.

Were coming. Were gonna be there tomorrow. Were gonna be there the next day. Were gonna be there next month. Were gonna be there next year. Youre not stopping us from what were doing, he continued.

The Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Wu, the city and its police department last week, claiming that their sanctuary city policies are impeding immigration enforcement. Wu has since slammed Trump for attacking cities to hide his administrations failures.

In a press release on Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security revealed that federal agents had arrested seven people as part of its Patriot 2.0 initiative, which targets the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens living in the state of Massachusetts, according to the announcement.

Sanctuary policies like those pushed by Mayor Wu not only attract and harbor criminals but protect them at the peril of law-abiding American citizens. ICE is arresting rapists, child abusers, drug traffickers, and other violent thugs, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin wrote in a statement.

Wu has continued to take aim at Trump and her opponent in the mayoral race, arguing on Tuesday that Boston was not for sale.

Its a test of whether we believe in our city as a place of possibility and promise, whether Boston will keep going as a home for everyone, Wu told a crowd of supporters. Its a test of whether Boston can still be that beacon of freedom, whether 250 years later, with tyranny again at our door, whether Boston still got it.

On Monday, the DHS also announced an immigration enforcement operation in Chicago, called Operation Midway Blitz, as Trump has repeatedly threatened a federal takeover of the city, similar to what has been seen in Washington, D.C.

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Watertown, NY (13601)

Today

Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy this afternoon. A few flurries or snow showers possible. High 27F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Periods of snow. Low near 20F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 90%. About one inch of snow expected.
Nothing thrills chef Yuwa Tomihira more than introducing his guests to a new fish from Japan. Thats why he flies fish in from Pacific waters and elsewhere at Nanami Sushi Diner & Onigiri.

Tomihira officially opened Nanami on Sept. 2 at 2901 Magazine St., across from French Truck Coffee, with his wife Amy and his father, Allan Ng. The restaurant does things the Japanese way, and the local sushiverse seems to approve.

While there are plenty of local sushi restaurants that like to play fusion and feature cream cheese in all kinds of maki rolls, this is not one of them. Here, tradition rules.

Nanami Sushi Diner & Onigiri Where 2901 Magazine St., (504) 354-8039; Instagram: @nanamiuptown When Lunch Tue.-Sun., dinner Tue.-Sat. How Dine-in Check it out A new sushi spot focuses on Pacific fish and Japanese tradition

Born in Okinawa to a Japanese mother and a Chinese father, Tomihira was customarily given his mothers Japanese last name to tie him to his home country. His family came to New Orleans in 2006 to take care of his fathers parents, who lived in Kenner.

Tomihira, now 34, has trained for 12 years as a sushi chef, starting at Origami in 2013. Its a passion project that connects him deeply to his culture.

My dad knew the owner at Origami, he says. She offered me a job, the chance to learn some skills and make a more informed decision. The first day, she had me working the sushi bar.

The chef found his vibe, and as word got around, Masako "Peggy" Kamata, the now retired owner of Shogun, came calling. She offered him a job, and at Shogun he met his mentor, sushi master Seiji Nakano, who now runs Seiji's Omakase in Little Tokyo Restaurant on Causeway Boulevard.

Seiji asked if I really wanted to learn the Japanese traditional way, and of course I said yes, Tomihira says.

Despite his experience, his new teacher wouldnt let him even touch the fish for a while, let alone cut it.

I was washing a lot of rice in the beginning, Tomihira says. I was young and wanted to hurry up and learn, but in Japan an apprenticeship takes eight years.

Working with Japanese chefs changed his perspective and lead him to become more passionate about the craft. I decided this was my calling, he says.

He took a detour to work for another brilliant chef in Vail, Colorado, chef Takeshi Osaki. Osaki used traditional methods and flew fish in daily to use at the restaurant.

After returning to New Orleans and Shogun, he met his wife.

The chef and his father talked for years about opening their own place. Ng already was running his own auto repair business, but he's also a cook in his own right. With the help of a few Japanese cooks in the kitchen at Nanami, he handles dishes like hand-made gyoza, tempura items, pork katsu and karaage chicken, the popular Japanese-style fried chicken.

Nanamis lunch menu includes hand rolls, cooked appetizers like crispy tuna rice and bento box specials for $18.50. There is a variety of onigiri, or rice balls wrapped in seaweed and filled with the likes of salted salmon, miso eggplant or tuna with mayo.

At dinner, there are hand rolls and sushi rolls, or for $111, he offers Japanese-style tapas, with nine pieces of fish, soup and dessert. The 20-course omakase menu is around $200 (depending on the fish), but its only available with at least a days advance notice.

For now, the restaurant has a bring your own alcohol policy, with no corkage fee.

Diners at the seven-person sushi bar can watch Tomihira at work. Besides a range of sashimi, nigiri and daily specials, there are several seasonal crudos on the menu, which could include wild salmon marinated in sweet miso and served with shiso sauce and fruity ponzu.

Orawin Yimchalam opens Thai and Italian food stalls at St. Roch Market in New Orleans Orawin Yimchalam told us about opening a Thai food stall at St. Roch Market, learning to cook Italian and her plans for Padrona.

Named for Tomihiras daughter, Nanami means seven seas. The fish he serves come mostly from the Pacific and the Sea of Japan, such as sea bream, cherry blossom snapper and black snapper. He sources wild salmon from the cold water of the North Atlantic surrounding the Faroe Islands.

On a recent weekday, eight fish were in the case along with the chefs dry-aged tuna and wild salmon, including uni and octopus sourced from Hokkaido, Japans northern island. The chef and his father pick up the order of Japanese fish weekly at the airport.

We wouldnt trust a delivery service with our fish, Ng says.

Diners have embraced the variety they source, Tomihira says.

In other places Ive worked, people always get the same fish, he says. Here, they want to taste a new kind of fish if I have it, and the person sitting next to them wants to try it, too.
Videos featuring smart toilet paper dispensers that require people to watch short ads to receive toilet paper strips in public toilets have gone viral in China.

Ever since it started its new era of booming national tourism, China has experimented with ingenious ways of preventing toilet paper waste. Back in 2017, international news outlets reported the introduction of facial scanners connected to toilet paper dispensers that only offered one 60-cm-long strip of paper per scan, or every nine minutes. It was reported that the system was implemented at popular tourism spots where people took as much toilet paper as possible for fear of not finding any when they came back later. AI technology was introduced in 2019, when toilet paper dispensers began dispensing strips of paper once every 10 minutes per individual user. But now, technology has evolved even more with toilet paper dispensers that play ads to release short strips of paper.

Last week, China Insider posted a short clip that quickly went viral on its Facebook page. In it, a young woman at a public toilet scans a QR code with her phone and then watches an ad on her handheld to activate the release of a strip of toilet paper from a dispenser. According to the news outlet, users have the option to watch an ad on their phones or pay 0.5 yuan ($0.07) for every strip of toilet paper they need.

Just like previously mentioned systems, the watch-an-ad model was implemented to cut down on toilet paper use, but the burning question is what do you do if you need to use the bathroom and dont have your phone with you, or you run out of battery?
Following her sell-out show at Nenagh Arts Centre last year, which raised significant funds for CF Ireland Nenaghs very own, Grace Shesgreen will once again take to the stage to bring you a night of cinematic features and timeless classics.

Taking place this September on Friday 26th and Saturday 27th at 8.00pm in Nenagh Arts Centre as she brings Movies, Musicals and More to the Nenagh stage in aid of the North Tipperary Hospice Support Services and the North Tipperary Branch of the Alzheimers Society of Ireland.

Grace feels privileged to say this will be her second headlining show she brings to her hometown. Alongside Grace on both nights are only some of the friends she has made along her journey.

Making their return to the Nenagh stage are April Kelly, Andrew OGrady and Rachel Gaughan, as well as some newcomers, Dan Whelan and Kacey Mooney.

The voices of these performers will form the centre piece of the evening, and focus not only on songs of nostalgia, but delve into the classics. These performers promise you a night of Irelands upcoming and emerging talent.

Grace is thrilled to also have two very special local guests performing on each night. On Friday evening she will be joined by Nenaghs very own, Misneach Choir.

A vibrant group of thirteen ladies and one gentleman, who promise to bring a night filled with harmonies and heart on the back of their recent launch of their single Everybody Hurts.

Following on from this, the very talented Paul Brown, a stranger to no stage and member to several musical and drama societies, will make an appearance on the Saturday evening.

Both nights are not to be missed as these performers are guaranteed to wow each and every member of the audience.

Friday nights performance will be in aid of the North Tipperary Hospice Support Services, and Saturday nights performance is in aid of the North Tipperary Branch of the Alzheimers Society of Ireland, with Grace making a donation to both organisations along with each charity hosting an interval raffle on the night.

Grace now holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from American College Dublin, something she has worked towards since the age of 6, when her love for the stage first bloomed.

She will never forget the very important job she was given back then to stick her tongue out to a fellow performer on stage in Nenagh Choral Societys 2007 production of Carousel.

Since then, she has performed in several AIMS affiliated productions, most recently appearing as Martha in the A.I.M.S Awarded production of Spring Awakening with North Wexford Musical Theatre. Prior to her studies, Grace has been both classically and theatrically trained by Deirdre Hannifey, Birr, affiliated to the Royal Irish Academy of Music.

Following a chance opportunity, thanks to Albert Purcell of BSR, Grace became a featured soloist for three years running in the highly successful An Evening With... concerts in St.Marys Church, Nenagh.

She briefly collaborated with Joe Csibi of the RTE Concert Orchestra, the local In Tune For Life Orchestra led by TG4 Gradham Ceol Winner, Ned Kelly, and performed alongside Eurovision winner Eimear Quinn, Liam Lawton and Phil Coulter.

She remains forever grateful to all for these opportunities and learnings she received in her early years.

READ NEXT: New website aims to promote Roscrea

Throughout her training, she took on many roles such as Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, and Lucy in the Irish premiere of Bright Star, both of which were ACD affiliated productions that took place in the dlr Mill Theatre.

Whilst training she also appeared as a featured performer in a graduate showcase on the Peacock Stage in The Abbey Theatre, Dublin, a soloist in the Artane Bands Annual Showcase in The OMahony Hall in the Helix Theatre, Dublin, and a soloist supporting Deirdre Mastersons album release. Mo Chroi in The

Strand Theatre, alongside well- known performer, Derek Ryan. In honour of her dedication to her studies and her contribution and potential within the future of Irish theatre, Grace was a recipient of the A.I.M.S bursary in 2022.

Since graduating she has appeared as Jill in Jack and The Beanstalk in the dlr Mill Theatres annual Christmas panto. Grace is also delighted to inform the Nenagh theatre goers that she will also feature as a soloist at the A.I.M.S 60th Anniversary Concert: Ovation, this October 11th in the Convention Centre, Dublin.

Following a busy year within the industry, Grace felt the timing was right to create these special nights once again. To get the opportunity to perform with her friends in her hometown and for their voices and talents to shine through, before they all begin the next stage of their careers.

SEE NEXT - PICTURES: Onam Festival marked by Roscrea's Indian community

These are nights not to be missed and with a guarantee of bright futures ahead for these performers... you can say you were there to witness the talent of tomorrow!

Movies, Musicals & More, Nenagh Arts Centre, Friday 26th and Saturday 27th September 2025 @ 8.00pm with doors open from 7.30pm. Tickets are available now only at Nenagh Arts Centre, www.nenagharts.com or on 067 34400, priced 30.
A Sinn Fein TD has expressed concern for Irish pensioners as the Government looks set not to include any one-off payments in the upcoming Budget.

Last year, pensioners receiving the Living Alone Allowance received a once-off lump sum of 200. Meanwhile, those on the Fuel Allowance received a 300 lump sum payment.

As well as that, any individuals receiving the Disability Allowance, Invalidity Pension, Blind Pension, or the Carers Support Grant were given a 400 one-off payment.

All households, including pensioners, were also provided with an energy credit of 250, which was paid in two instalments of 125 each.

It is understood that no such payments will be repeated as part of Budget 2026.

READ NEXT: One-off Budget measures not a good way to run a country, says Harris

However, Deputy Rose Conway-Wash, who is the Sinn Fein Spokesperson on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, believes that the Government simply has to repeat such one-off payments.

Speaking on Virgin Medias Tonight Show on Tuesday night, Deputy Conway-Walsh said the Government is in complete denial that we are in the middle of a cost of living crisis.

She continued: [There are] people who get tax relief on huge pensions while you have pensioners who are struggling on the ground, struggling for transport, struggling to make ends meet and struggling to put their heat on.

Deputy Conway-Walsh concluded by saying that the only certainty is that people will have a really tough winter under Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.

Fianna Fail TD Shane Moynihan, who was also appearing on the programme, responded by saying that there were more pensioners receiving the Fuel Allowance than ever before.

He added that payments to pensioners have been consistently increased over the past five years and that retrofit grants have been made available so that people can bring down their energy costs.

I think its indigenous to suggest that nothing has been done to help these people over the past five years, Deputy Moynihan concluded.

In recent days, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe and Tanasite Simon Harris have both spoken out against including one-off payments in this years Budget, with the latter stating that it was not a good way to run a country.

Minister Donohoe, along with Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers, will present the Budget to Dail Eireann on October 7.


Zohran Mamdani for Mayor

(Image by edenpictures) Details DMCA



By Robert Weiner and Ingrid Lang

Originally published in the PuLSE Institute

Zohran Mamdani has been getting an enormous amount of attention as the Democratic nominee for Mayor of New York City, and the way he presents himself. He is the cover of the latest Time Magazine, has constant interviews on the television networks, and even half-hour features with panelists breaking down what his significance is. That level of coverage shows how quickly Mamdani has become a candidate reshaping the city's political conversation -and possibly the nations.

Even former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio acknowledged Mamdani's appeal. Speaking to MSNBC, de Blasio said Mamdani does a better job explaining a vision than he himself once did, with passion and succinctness. Few New Yorkers had Zohran Mamdani on their short list for mayor just one year ago. Now Trump wants to pull Adams out and may give his immigration lackey a job. The New York Times is reporting that Adams may indeed drop out. But with only single digits, that may not change the race's complexion.

Mamdani draws nearly a million followers on TikTok with a message put into one word: affordability.

Affordability is more than a slogan to Mamdani. To the fast-rising politician, it is the lived experience of a city where rent eats half a paycheck, groceries climb by the week, and the dream of raising a family feels increasingly out of reach. Mamdani's rise shows that New Yorkers are gravitating toward a candidate who speaks plainly about affordability in the basics in a three-plank platform: rent freezes, free buses, and free childcare. These planks are simple, tangible, and touch almost everyone. Trump's sweeping economic changes with serious cutbacks across the country only make them more relevant.

What his critics feel is too ambitious, voters seem to recognize as the bare minimum. Polls show that most New Yorkers are unsatisfied with the direction of the city, and that is the real pulse of this election: not whether Mamdani is too left, but whether New Yorkers believe affordability should be a right, not a privilege.

With only about two months until the mayoral election on November 4, the latest polls from The New York Times show Mamdani holding a lead in the general election for mayor of New York City. But the race is far from sealed. A new poll released on August 27 by Tulchin Research complicates the story. For the first time, in a head-to-head matchup between Mamdani and Cuomo, Cuomo would lead: 51% to 41%. That finding breaks with months of surveys showing Mamdani in the lead and signals that while his affordability agenda has captured the public of New York, doubts remain about whether he can deliver. However, the lead is now widening again. The latest polls show Mamdani 42-26 over Cuomo with all current candidates in.

Cuomo's numbers aren't about bold ideas for the city the way that Mamdani's numbers are. They're about name recognition and nostalgia in a city that can be hesitant to change. His vision still feels vague, especially next to Mamdani's clear and simple message of affordability. This race could be about contrast whether New Yorkers want a city where affordability is treated as a right, or whether they fall back on a familiar face despite all the baggage. More important, Cuomo's head-to-head option only exists if the other candidates step aside.

In an interview with CBS News, a Mamdani spokesperson said:

"Everybody knows that Andrew Cuomo is Donald Trump's choice candidate for mayor--they share the same billionaire donors, colluded on the race, and Trump himself said the two have always gotten along."

Cuomo has openly welcomed Trump's support, sharing donors with him and expressing hope that the former president will help him win. That may boost his numbers in the latest head-to-head poll. Then New Yorkers will have to choose between a candidate trying to make the city livable again for ordinary people, and one whose biggest bet is that Trump can help him get what he wants, should the other candidates step aside.

Critics have also attacked Mamdani's identity, accusing him of antisemitism or even promoting Palestinian issues. To these criticisms, Mamdani has pushed back clearly. He is emphasizing that he has been and will continue meeting regularly with Jewish groups and will expand hate-crime prevention funding tenfold.

As November 4 approaches, Mamdani's lead in the polls makes him the clear front-runner. But even if the race tightens, his candidacy has already shifted the conversation. That shift matters beyond New York. If Mamdani wins, his agenda will test whether a major U.S. city can treat affordability as a public good. If he loses, his rise still proves that a clear and unapologetic anti-poverty message can mobilize people across age, class, and neighborhood lines. Either way, the pulse of New York politics is affordability, and Zohran Mamdani is the candidate who has put it there. Democrats and the country are watching closely and learning.

Robert Weiner is a former spokesman in the Clinton and Bush White Houses and senior staff for Congressmen John Conyers, Charles Rangel, Claude Pepper, Ed Koch (later NYC Mayor), Sen. Ted Kennedy, and 4-Star Gen. Barry McCaffrey. Bob is a member of The PuLSE National Advisory Board.

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Don't throw stones at your neighbors if your own windows are glass.



Benjamin Franklin

Working as a swing shift Supervisor, my team often becomes the fall guys for problems we did not create. It is easier for others to point fingers than to look inward. I reminded my crew that before we criticize, we must first ask: Is our own house in order?

I thought about this lesson as I watched an interview with Congressman Ralph Norman, a Republican from South Carolina. In voicing his support of sending National Guard troops to fight crime in large cities within Blue states, Norman exclaimed, The numbers speak for themselves. After specifically mentioning Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City, he stated, "Let the politicians complain about those who want to keep them safe."

The problem for Norman is that the numbers tell a story more nuanced than the one Republicans are trying to sell to the American people. With a homicide rate of 21.7 per 100,000, Chicago is the least safe city on his list, but there are seven cities, including four in Red States, that had a higher rate last year. The rate for St. Louis, Missouri, was more than double that of Chicago.

When the homicide rate of states are compared, those dominated by Republicans are considerably less safe than their Democratic counterparts. Normans, South Carolina, is the sixth most dangerous in the country when measured by its homicide rate. This should not be surprising, as seven of the states with the highest murder rates are Red. The swing state on this list, North Carolina, voted for Trump in the last election.

It is interesting to note that three of the six Republican-led states that have sent National Guard troops to Washington D.C. as part of Trump's crackdown on crime are among the ten most dangerous states in the country. South Carolina is sending 200 troops, Louisiana is sending 135 soldiers, and Tennessee is sending 160 Guardsmen. If indeed National Guard troops could help reduce crime, wouldn't these resources be better spent addressing their own problems?

On the other side of the spectrum, six of the safest states are Blue. This includes New Hampshire, which is in the top position with a homicide rate of just one. None of these states has sent National Guard troops to Washington, D.C.

When Homicide Rates are averaged, the states that voted for Kamala Harris are shown to be noticeably safer than those that voted for Donald Trump:

Assigning homicide rates by party affiliation can make for easy soundbites, but it distracts from the real question: Why is America's murder rate so high compared to the rest of the developed world? In 2023, our national rate stood at 5.76 per 100,000; more than double Canada's, and far higher than most peer nations. So much for American Exceptionalism.

Perhaps our elevated homicide rate has something to do with our country's obsession with firearms. While guns may not kill people, having access to them certainly provides a means. Instead of militarizing our cities, we should be having a conversation about common-sense gun laws. Expanding background checks, closing loopholes, and limiting access to military-grade weapons will keep Americans safer than sending soldiers to patrol our streets.

If we are serious about reducing violence, we should stop throwing stones across state lines and start putting our own house in order together.


Jeffrey Epstein y trump........... acusado de gestionar 'una vasta red' de menores de edad a las que presuntamente pagaba por servicios sexuales, incita'ndolas a visitar sus mansiones de Manhattan y Florida.

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When I tell friends about my involvement with OpEdNews Arc of Justice Alliance (AJA), their response often borders on disbelief. They'll say, Sure, sounds noble but for something like that to succeed, the entire U.S. and NATO system would have to collapse first.

Sometimes Ive found myself agreeing with them. After all, AJA's vision is sweeping. It aims to build on the left, the kind of powerful infrastructure that MAGA Republicans have laid out for themselves in their Project 2025 manifesto. Its goal is nothing less than reinventing government to serve ordinary people rather than the rich and powerful.

But heres the problem: the existing system is so entrenched that genuine change often feels impossible. Unless some catastrophic rupture occurs, the machinery of empire and corporate control looks immovable.

Then came Jeffrey Epstein.

The Epstein affair, I have come to realize, contains the explosive potential to unravel the entire Western system.

Why? Because the case points toward something almost unspeakable: the governments of the United States and Israel are implicated not only in covering up sexual violence against children, but in actively organizing and sponsoring it as a tool of blackmail. If that is true -- and the circumstantial evidence strongly suggests it is -- then we are not just confronting corruption or incompetence. We are confronting a system so depraved that it has turned pedophilia into a weapon of statecraft.

And once ordinary people grasp that truth, no amount of partisan spin will save the system from collapse.

The Weight of Circumstantial Evidence

To understand the gravity of this possibility, it is important to stress the role of circumstantial evidence in criminal justice.

As Ive recently pointed out, and contrary to popular belief, most convictions especially in white-collar cases do not rely on smoking gun documents or direct eyewitnesses. They rely on inference: the accumulation of facts that, taken together, point beyond reasonable doubt. Motive, means, opportunity, DNA traces, fingerprints, destruction of evidence, false statements, suspicious associations all these can convict without a single direct witness to the act.

That is exactly the kind of evidence accumulating around Epstein. Consider the essentials of what has emerged:

The systematic rape of underage girls.

Apparently orchestrated by intelligence agencies, the CIA and Mossad, through assets like Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and their associates.

Carried out for the purpose of collecting compromising material (kompromat) on powerful men.

Deployed to ensure that the world's elites could be controlled and manipulated to serve U.S. and Israeli interests.

This is not conspiracy fantasy. It is where the trail of evidence leads.

Signs of Cover-Up

The circumstantial evidence is damning:

Official deception : U.S. authorities initially promised to release Epstein files in full, later claimed no such files existed, and finally released a mere 33,000 pages, less than 1% of what the FBI possesses.

The prison suicide : Epstein himself, the most important witness, died under conditions so suspicious that even Ghislaine Maxwell believes he was murdered. Surveillance cameras malfunctioned, guards fell asleep, and evidence was tampered with.

Censored names : The FBI redacted Donald Trumps name, along with those of other high-profile figures, from the released documents. Redaction of such relevance is indistinguishable from destruction of evidence.

Intelligence ties : Ghislaine's father, Robert Maxwell, had well-documented Mossad connections. Based on such ties, respected figures including economist Jeffrey Sachs and congressman Thomas Massie have concluded that Epstein was indeed a Mossad asset.

The sweetheart deal : Despite overwhelming evidence of sex crimes against minors, Epstein secured an astonishingly lenient plea bargain in 2008. The prosecutor, Alexander Acosta, later testified that he was told Epstein belonged to intelligence and that the case was above his pay grade.

Suspicious leniency for Maxwell : After discussions with Trumps lawyer Todd Blanche, Ghislaine Maxwell was quietly moved from a maximum-security facility to a minimum-security prison whose policy specifically excludes sex offenders.

Unusual bargaining power: Maxwell now conditions any congressional testimony on immunity, advance questions, and testimony outside prison walls. Few convicted felons enjoy that kind of leverage.

Taken together, these facts paint a chilling picture of deliberate obstruction and protection.

Questions of Character

Equally troubling is the character of those who have denied Epstein's intelligence connections.

Donald Trump insists he barely knew Epstein, despite ample photographic and testimonial evidence to the contrary. Trump's record of habitual lying is a matter of public record.

Ghislaine Maxwell has twice been indicted for perjury. Her status as a jailhouse informer who stands to personally benefit from exonerating the rich and powerful connected with the case hardly qualifies her as a trustworthy source.

And as for the CIA, its former director Mike Pompeo openly admitted that agency operatives are trained to lie, cheat, and steal. To accept denials from such sources at face value is to accept testimony from admitted professional liars.

Neither President Trump, Ghislaine Maxwell, nor any CIA operative is a credible witness. All of them are compromised actors whose interest lies in suppressing the truth.

A Crisis That Could Change Everything

As the Epstein revelations continue to unfold, the implications are staggering.

This is not about partisan politics. It is not about Republicans versus Democrats, or about conservatives versus liberals. It is about a system in which the ruling class of the United States and its closest ally, Israel, have apparently used the rape of children as a tool of blackmail to maintain global dominance.

No matter where ordinary people stand politically whether left, right, or center, this is a line too far. Few Americans or Europeans will tolerate their government's being complicit in the systematic violation of schoolgirls.

That is why the Epstein case has revolutionary potential. It exposes rot so deep, depravity so shocking, that once the public fully grasps it, the legitimacy of the system itself could collapse.

The Arc of Justice and the Opportunity Ahead

Here lies the paradox: while many dismiss projects like the Arc of Justice Alliance as quixotic, the Epstein case may provide exactly the systemic rupture that movements for justice have been waiting for.

If the truth about Epstein, the CIA, and Mossad becomes undeniable, a massive crisis of legitimacy will follow. That crisis could open the door to fundamental change that AJA and allied movements are preparing to advance.

Far from tilting at windmills, we may soon find ourselves at the forefront of a historic turning point.

The Epstein scandal is not just another corruption story. It may well be the crack in the dam, the event that triggers the collapse of a system too evil to sustain itself.

And if that collapse comes, the task will be to ensure that what rises from the rubble is a system finally dedicated to justice for the many, not the few
Russian strikes in Ukraine last weekend were among the heaviest in a while. They even struck a government building housing Ukraine's cabinet. Apparently over 800 drones and 13 missiles were used, the most in a single barrage since the war began according to the Ukrainian air force.

The US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said tougher sanctions including on those who buy Russian oil could cripple the Russian economy and bring Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table. It might be better to understand Putin's motives. He can not leave the ethnic Russian minority in the lurch and to the mercy of Ukrainians. Thus it is possible he is giving Zelenskyy food for thought.

Ukraine has hardly ever been a country, and not for the last five hundred years -- a period spanning the Mughal empire in India and subsequent British rule, or England from the rule of the Tudors to the present -- in effect a very long time. As part of the Russian Empire under the Czars and the Soviet Union later, the government added to (or subtracted from) the region known as Ukraine, for administrative convenience.

The people living there now will choose whatever benefits their economic future. For example, if they believe that being an independent state will have money rolling in from the US and the EU, that is what they will choose. They might be in for a disappointment. Moreover, the Russians with troops already in the eastern areas are not going to be a pushover.

Mr. Bessent's sanctions targeting Russian oil buyers are unlikely to be as successful as he thinks. The rapidly growing Chinese economy needs oil and minerals, and the recent victory-day celebrations in Tianjin with Putin an honored guest and Modi a hanger-on displayed the ambit of Chinese influence.

An eye-opener, as when Chinese leader Xi Jinping talked of a new world order without any bullying - a direct swipe at the Trump tariffs - in fact they hit the American consumer too as they will naturally result in higher prices. A consequence of the reduced buying power could well be a recession. Clearly then in an interconnected world we have to learn to live with each other.

It is even more important now as the earth faces a period of global warming and mankind needs to act together to alleviate its effects. It is a question of faith in each other, and in the simple fact that alternative forms of energy not using fossil fuels will reduce emissions and prevent carbon dioxide blanketing us in a greenhouse.

In comparison, Ukraine is just a pimple that will clear up eventually... with one hopes, the least loss of lives.
The Port of Portland's Terminal 6, shown in an undated handout photo, handles imported and exported cargo in shipping containers. The California company Harbor Industrial has agreed to lease the facility from the port. Port of Portland

The Port of Portland finalized a deal Wednesday to save cargo container service at Terminal 6, which had been in danger of shutting down early last year.

The deal cements a tentative agreement announced in December to lease the shipping facility to a California firm called Harbor Industrial.

The privately-owned company agreed to lease the 202-acre cargo container part of the terminal for seven years, with four options to extend the lease at five-year increments. Harbor Industrial also agreed to purchase seven cranes from the port.

Terminal 6 is Oregons only international container terminal and handles cargo for some of the states largest businesses, including Les Schwab Tire Centers, Jeld-Wen and Pacific Seafood.

Scores of businesses throughout Oregon rely on Terminal 6 to ship their goods, Gov. Tina Kotek said in a press release. Oregon communities will be better off because we came together and worked toward this shared goal.

In mid-2024, Kotek stepped in with state funding in hopes of keeping the money-losing terminal open. While the terminal has operated in the red, the port estimates cargo shipping supports more than 1,500 family-wage jobs and generates $20 million in tax revenue annually for state and local governments.

This is great news for the workers and businesses who rely on access to global shipping, said Kimberly Branam, the ports chief trade and economic development officer, in the press release. A thriving Oregon economy relies on international trade, whether youre a business owner, a farmer, a rancher, or a consumer anywhere in the state.

The lease calls for the port to become the facilitys landlord. Harbor Industrial will operate the terminal and pay the port based on how much cargo moves through the terminal, with years three through seven of the lease requiring total payments to the port of at least $27 million.

As landlord, the port will continue to maintain the terminal and invest in upkeep. In June, Oregon lawmakers approved $20 million in capital improvements to the facility.

Speaking at Wednesdays meeting of port commissioners, Tim McCarthy, Harbor Industrials chief operating officer, said the company wants to grow cargo service at the terminal.

Harbor Industrial is committed to keeping the facility open and revitalizing Terminal 6, he said. We recognize the global markets remain uncertain, but one fact is clear: Regional shippers need this terminal open. Without it, too much of Oregons cargo is leaving our state to other terminals elsewhere, weakening our economy.

NH-Hay, an Albany-based company that specializes in hay and straw, shipped 90,000 metric tons through Terminal 6 last year, much of it going to Korea and Japan.

Terminal 6 is the main gateway to overseas customers, said Martin Son, president of NH-Hay, at Wednesdays meeting. It is not just a convenient shipping point, it is a key export hub that supports the entire industrys ability to reach international markets efficiently and reliably.
A legal fight between two of the men responsible for downtown Portland's Block 216 tower, on Southwest Washington Street, intensified this week with yet another lawsuit. Mark Graves, The Oregonian/OregonLive

A $20 million lawsuit filed this week escalated the legal brawl between the developer of Portlands Ritz-Carlton and his former right-hand man.

Barclay Grayson, an ex-senior vice president at real estate firm BPM Real Estate Group, sued his employer in May to enforce an alleged sale agreement that would allow him to buy a penthouse in the Ritz-Carlton tower, as The Oregonian/OregonLive first reported. BPMs chief executive, Walter Bowen, and his companies shot back with their own civil suit in August, accusing Grayson of financial elder abuse in his business interactions with Bowen.

In a third case in five months, filed Monday in Multnomah County Circuit Court, Grayson claims that he was fired in retaliation for the condo lawsuit, and his former boss has undermined his hunt for new work.

Graysons attorney, Thomas R. Rask III, declined to comment Tuesday. Bowens spokesperson did not return a request for comment.

In August, the owner of a Southern California property developer contacted Grayson about coming on as the firms chief operating officer, according to the latest lawsuit.

Grayson wrote in court documents that, on Aug. 22, he went to the Golden State to meet the owner, visiting the firms headquarters and reviewing its pending deals, as well as giving feedback on incoming hires whom hed oversee as operations chief.

They spent a day visiting future potential development sites and reviewing project financials, the Grayson lawsuit alleged. The net result, the lawsuit alleged, is the owner said the company would offer Grayson a three-month consulting agreement worth $25,000 a month, a precursor to an employment offer with a base salary of $288,000  the same amount Grayson made at BPM.

It was a job Grayson could likely retain for more than a decade and a half, likely taking him up to retirement from work, according to his complaint, and included profit-sharing options he calculated as worth millions per year.

The firms owner told Grayson hed work on a term sheet for the employment offer over the Aug. 23 weekend, and to fly back soon with his wife so they could all get dinner and form a solid bond given that they would be working so closely together shortly, the lawsuit alleged.

That following Monday, the company owner reached out to Grayson to say hed contacted Bowen about the condo lawsuit and ask about hiring Grayson. (Grayson said hed disclosed the condo lawsuit previously.)

Bowen declined to give a recommendation because of the ongoing litigation between the former business partners, Grayson alleged in court records. Bowen told the hiring firms owner he would only give a recommendation if Grayson dropped his claims against Bowen, Grayson claimed.

The owner told Plaintiff that Defendant Bowen said that hiring Plaintiff could lead to a situation where Plaintiff would one day get jealous of the owner and try to take over what the owner had built, Grayson argued in his lawsuit.

(The California firm owner) also said that Defendant Bowen threatened that, if the owner hired Plaintiff, the owner would be at risk of being pulled into the pending litigation between Plaintiff and Defendant Bowens companies, Grayson added in court records.

The California real estate owner told Grayson he couldnt hire him because of the Bowen conversation, Grayson alleged, but the owner said to reach back out if he resolved his legal dispute.

That condo lawsuit, filed in May, is pending in Multnomah County Circuit Court and claims that Grayson spent nearly $2 million to improve a condo in the Block 216 tower, which includes residences and offices in addition to the Ritz-Carlton hotel. Grayson alleged he had a contract to buy the unit but that one of Bowens companies never agreed to close the deal.

Graysons condo lawsuit came at a precarious time for Bowen and BPM, then wrapping up a deal to return the financially foundering Block 216 to its lender as too many guest rooms, condos and offices sat empty.

It was the first clear sign of a legal schism between the CEO and his longtime top deputy, whom Bowen once credited with laying much of the groundwork for the development.

Bowen and his companies lawsuit last month claimed, among other allegations, that Grayson took advantage of Bowens advanced years by affixing his signature to financial documents without his consent. Attorneys for Bowen, 83, made the elder financial abuse claim in a civil complaint filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

Bowens lawsuit also alleged Grayson misused a construction subsidiary of BPM, called BDC Construction, to build out the Ritz-Carlton penthouse he wanted to acquire.

Grayson previously denied the civil charges through his attorney.

Earlier this month, attorneys for Bowen said in court filings they referred the elder financial abuse allegations to the Oregon Department of Justice, which could investigate. Oregon law requires plaintiffs who bring elder abuse allegations to mail a copy of their complaint to the attorney generals office.

Lydia Anderson-Dana, a lawyer with Stoll Berne, said in a court filing last week that Attorney General Dan Rayfields office received a copy of the Bowen complaint. Anderson-Dana also filed a signed certified mail receipt from the Aug. 27 delivery.

A Department of Justice spokesperson said the agencys elder abuse unit will review the complaint.

That doesnt mean there will be an investigation, necessarily, but that is the process, said the spokesperson, Jenny Hansson.

Hansson added the agency typically doesnt disclose when it does launch those investigations.

In the latest action, Grayson claims he has lost the ability to earn his $288,000 per year salary from the California company, along with the profit-sharing opportunities that could have brought him millions per year, due to Bowens statements.

Grayson is asking a court to award him $20 million.

-- Jonathan Bach covers housing and real estate. Reach him by email at jbach@oregonian.com or by phone at 503-221-4303.

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First responders from Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue strap Jonathan Edwards III to a board and render medical aid on Dec. 21, 2023, after a train dragged him away from the Beaverton Transit Center. (Photo courtesy of Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue)

TriMet quietly paid $830,300 last year to the family of a 65-year-old man who died after he was dragged 100 yards by a MAX train when his trench coat got stuck in its doors.

Jonathan Ignatious Edwards III was the first and only MAX train rider to die after such an incident in the rail systems nearly 40-year history, the transit agency said. The system has provided hundreds of millions of rides over that span, including nearly 23 million boardings in the past year.

The settlement  which is the most Oregon law allowed against a government agency like TriMet at the time of the incident  only came to light last week, after Edwards family filed a $9 million lawsuit against Legacy Emanuel Medical Center. After his initial injury at the Beaverton Transit Center in December 2023, the suit claims Edwards died an agonizing death 26 days later, paralyzed from the neck down in a hospital bed.

In researching the lawsuit, The Oregonian/OregonLive discovered a reference to a $830,300 settlement paid by an unnamed entity. The news organization confirmed with TriMet last week that it indeed was the transit agency that paid the settlement to Edwards three children. Two are adults and one is a teenager.

Our hearts go out to the loved ones of Mr. Edwards, said TriMet, in a statement to The Oregonian/OregonLive. This was a unique incident, and TriMet has taken additional steps to prevent this from ever occurring again.

Safety concerns

Spokesperson Roberta Altstadt said the agency conducted an emergency inspection of all MAX train doors immediately after Edwards coat was caught to make sure the sensitive edges that are supposed to open upon contact with people or objects were functioning properly. TriMet determined that they were in Edwards case.

At the time Edwards was injured, MAX operators were required to visually check that the doorways were clear before closing the doors and moving the train. A camera and a mirror mounted to the train allows operators to view the doors to determine this.

Altstadt said the agency has since updated its procedures to instruct all MAX operators that if their view is encumbered, they can step outside the train and look. Or they can call TriMet staff and ask them to look at video captured by cameras at the station and give the all-clear.

Three days after Edwards died, the agency sent out a reminder to all operators to use their mirrors and monitors to look before moving the train to confirm that nothing is being dragged.

Questions still persist about how Edwards coat became stuck in the doors.

The Oregonian/OregonLive requested video footage of the incident last week to better understand what occurred, but TriMet denied the request. The Oregonian/OregonLive has appealed to the Multnomah County District Attorneys Office, which oversees all public records denials by TriMet, even if the incident happened in Washington County and not Multnomah County.

Reports paint a partial picture

Edwards, a Portland resident whose address was listed only as the downtown UPS Store, was the last passenger to step off the MAX train at the Beaverton Transit Center shortly before 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 21, 2023, according to records in his probate case, which was filed to distribute his assets to his children.

According to TriMet reports released Tuesday to The Oregonian/OregonLive through a public records request, Edwards exited the train and then turned back with his right hand holding his coat toward the doors, resulting in his coat getting caught in the closing doors. Edwards also stuck his left hand between the doors before pulling it back toward his body, according to the reports. As the train began to move, he stumbled and then was dragged along the platform and the tracks.

Two TriMet security officers witnessed the scene, radioed TriMets operations center and the center immediately alerted the driver to STOP! STOP! STOP!, according to the report. Multiple bystanders saw Edwards being dragged.

Firefighters are on scene treating a patient who was injured in incident involving a Trimet Max train in Beaverton. The patient is being transported to a local trauma center by our partners at @AMR_Social #pdxalerts pic.twitter.com/iW91shzgG9  TVF&R (@TVFR) December 21, 2023

He was rushed to Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in North Portland with a fractured neck, among other injuries.

According to the TriMet reports, the train operator told a police officer he had been having trouble with the trains mirrors being loose and he had needed to adjust them multiple times earlier but that hed used a monitor with video that showed the outside doors of the train. The operator said he looked at the monitor before pulling the train away from the station.

According to the TriMet reports, a train passenger said Edwards had been moving slowly.

In a statement, TriMet also described Edwards coat as made of thin fabric.

Litigation ongoing

Edwards family never filed a lawsuit against TriMet, settling the claim before the case advanced to that stage. Attorneys for the family notified the court in Edwards probate case that the claim had been settled, but they didnt name TriMet as the entity handing over the cash.

TriMet also didnt publicly announce the settlement, though government agencies from school districts to state agencies rarely do.

The familys Sept. 3 lawsuit against Legacy Emanuel Medical Center faults the hospital, as well as a doctor, Tiffany Dian Wong Odell  claiming that they provided substandard care by performing a high-risk posterior C3-T2 fusion of Edwards spine, leading to his death on Jan. 16, 2024.

But for defendants negligence, Jonathan Edwards would not have suffered quadriplegia and would not have died when he did, the suit alleges. Defendants departures from the standard of care directly and foreseeably resulted in his catastrophic injuries and premature death.

A spokesperson for Legacy declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.

Ernest Warren, Jr., who is the Portland lawyer who filed the lawsuit, declined to comment about the TriMet settlement or the Legacy lawsuit.

In light of Edwards death, TriMet said in its statement that it remains dedicated to safety and will continue to work diligently in providing safe and reliable transit service for our region.

 Reporter Aimee Green covers politics, personal finance and issues that matter to consumers. She can be reached at 503-294-5119, agreen@oregonian.com or on Bluesky.
Protesters gather outside the boarded-up U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in South Portland on Monday, Sept. 8, 2025, days after President Donald Trump suggested federal intervention. Mark Graves/The Oregonian

President Donald Trump said last Friday he may send troops to Portland to quell protests that had ruined the city.

Its like living in hell, he said.

The presidents cataclysmic assessment stemmed from a television news report, he said, seemingly alluding to ongoing protests outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in South Portland. The demonstrations have continued since at least June 6.

Trumps criticism quickly drew condemnation from local officials who dont want federal agents further antagonizing protesters, as they did in 2020.

But the presidents comments also sparked jokes from Portlanders who didnt recognize their city in Trumps description of a few isolated blocks. On social media, Portlanders posted pictures of roses, hiking trails and sunsets juxtaposed with living in hell.

To be sure, the protests outside the ICE building on South Macadam Avenue have drawn the ire of some neighbors, including from an adjacent low-income housing apartment complex. One resident filed a lawsuit against the city over the onslaught of noise from protesters music and megaphones and the near-nightly toxic environment.

Officials at a nearby school said they were forced to move for fear that their playground was contaminated with chemical agents.

And recent confrontations between protesters and federal law enforcement have sometimes escalated, with officers deploying gas and detaining people.

At least one protester filed suit against the federal government, alleging Department of Homeland Security officers assaulted him twice, leaving him with a concussion and other injuries.

Compared with 2020 protests, the gatherings around the ICE facility are small. But Trumps statements  coupled with the Portland Police Bureaus relatively hands-off approach  could be what opens Portland to federal intervention.

The president has followed through on similar statements to send troops and federal agents into Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and now agents have been sent to Chicago to conduct immigration sweeps.

If we go to Portland, were going to wipe them out, Trump said last week. Theyre going to be gone. They wont even stand to fight.

In the days after Trumps statements, the scene outside the ICE facility has been relatively uneventful.

A small group of about half a dozen protesters sat in camping chairs across the road from the headquarters Monday night, with music playing from a speaker. Another protester standing in front of the ICE driveway spoke into a megaphone directed at the agents inside. A man barbecued chicken in a makeshift camp on a sidewalk, next to boxes of medical supplies and food.

Several times that night, the white gates opened, stirring the approximately two dozen protesters within a block of the facility to gather near the driveway and shout anti-ICE statements. Then, they cleared the way and a car pulled out and sped up South Macadam, and the gates closed and within a few minutes the protesters were back to their previous activities.

Around 12:30 a.m., several people with face coverings appeared on the roof of the building and shined a painfully bright light at the protesters below.

Its time for everybody to go home! a man on the roof shouted.

You go home! a protester responded.

I am home, the man said.

The exchange prompted the loudest activity up to that point, as several protesters stood up and chanted no justice, no peace. The people on the roof disappeared from view and the chant died down.

22 1 / 22 Protests continue at Portland ICE buildingMark Graves

Graciella Sobieralski, 46, said she has been protesting outside the ICE center most nights since June 13. She said she was exposed to so much gas early on that she vomited and bled from her nose and throat. But she came back.

A week later, she said she had walked up to the ICE driveway when federal agents ran out and threw her to the ground, breaking one of her fingers. She was held for four hours inside the facility, where she said she was patted down by a male officer and questioned about why she had come and whether she had been paid. She said no, and they let her go with a citation.

Sobieralski said she returned to the protest the same day she was released.

Were going to continue to stand, regardless if he sends the National Guard, she said. Were going to continue to stand against tyranny and oppression.

Heres how events in Portland have developed to this point:

June 2: Federal authorities arrest an asylum-seeker at Portlands Immigration Court. Observers believe it to be the first such arrest in Portland in Trumps accelerating immigration dragnet.

June 4: Federal officers detain three protesters who had been blocking a van at the ICE building that they believed was headed to Tacoma, where ICE has a much larger detention facility. Federal authorities make another arrest of an asylum-seeker in Portland Immigration Court.

June 6: Protests erupt in Los Angeles as federal agents conduct immigration sweeps in the city. Trump soon vows to send 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles, sparking wider protests, including in Portland.

June 8  June 13: Portland police clear a barricade protesters had set up in front of the ICE building. The next day, Police Chief Bob Day says officers will no longer help clear barricades and will not be engaging with any kind of perceived or actual support of vans or transports or anything of that nature.

Portland police, seen on body-cam footage, clear a barricade set by protesters at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office on Sunday, June 8, 2025. Courtesy of Portland Police Bureau

Due to Oregons sanctuary law, no state or local law enforcement agencies are allowed to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.

Protests continue, with federal agents deploying tear gas. Portland police arrest 13 people in this period for crimes such as arson, assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest, with 10 alone the night of June 12.

June 14: Hundreds of people protest outside the facility following a No Kings march earlier that day attended by tens of thousands of demonstrators. Several people use a stop sign as a makeshift battering ram and break the front door of the ICE building. Portland police declare a riot and federal officers deploy smoke, tear gas, flash grenades and other projectiles. Police make three arrests.

June 15: Portland Mayor Keith Wilson, reacting to troop deployment in Los Angeles, says Portland does not need the help or presence of National Guard troops.

Federal officers deployed CS gas, flash grenades and less-lethal rounds outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland on June 14, 2025, after protesters formed a shield wall and broke a glass door with a stop sign. The confrontation, declared a riot by police, followed a citywide No Kings protest that drew thousands earlier in the day. Mark Graves/The Oregonian

June 19: The last time Portland police make an arrest in the protests, bringing the total to 25.

June 24: Portland police chief tells members of the Portland City Council that his agency is looking at ways to scale back its policing of ICE protests. The same night, a Portland police team observing a protest says in a debrief, if it were not ICE, we could assist directly, according to a police activity log.

July 4: A large protest outside the ICE facility leads to four more arrests on federal charges, bringing the number of people federal authorities have arrested to 22. Portland police monitor the protest from an airplane and bike officers remind protesters they cant set off fireworks but dont make any arrests as federal officers and protesters clash.

July 8: Trumps Border Czar Tom Homan name-checks Portland, pledging that immigration agents would be doubling down, tripling down on enforcement. Im going to Portland, Homan said. Im going out there. They are not going to bully us.

July 11: Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says anarchists and antifa-affiliated groups in Portland were publishing names, photos and personal addresses of ICE officers.

July 19: Around 60 people gathered at the ICE building and several called 911 dispatchers about an altercation with a counterprotester armed with a pepperball gun, according to 911 call records. The crowd dwindled to about 30 by around midnight. The groups were low energy and seated quietly, a police sergeant wrote in an email to his superiors, records show.

July 25: The first hearing begins in Multnomah County Circuit Court for a lawsuit filed by the resident of the nearby low-income housing complex. It asks a judge to force the city to enforce noise ordinances around the ICE building. Top Police Bureau officials are called to testify.

Aug. 14: Multnomah County Senior Judge Ellen Rosenblum, a former Oregon attorney general, rules police arent required to enforce noise rules at protests outside the ICE facility.

Aug. 20: Homan visits Portlands ICE facility. In a message posted to social media platform X, Homan says he visited to let agents know that President Trump and I have their six  a reference to having someones back.

Aug 21: A protester who was shoved from behind and tackled by federal authorities notifies the Department of Homeland Security he plans to sue, according to a copy of his tort claim notice. The protester, Daryn Herzberg, claimed that federal officers pinned him down during a protest Aug. 13 and held him in teargas for several minutes. Officers tackled him again three days later, he claimed, with one of them repeatedly hitting Herzbergs face into the ground.

Aug. 26: Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer tells Trump, I hope you will come to Portland, Oregon and crack down.

Sept. 1: Following a large protest downtown, over 100 people march from a nearby park to the ICE building. Some protesters bring a makeshift guillotine. Federal officers deploy chemical gas and pepperballs at the crowd.

Sept. 4: Fox News airs a report about the Labor Day protest with footage of 2025 protests outside ICE. Mixed in misleadingly are clips from 2020 protests. One shows a federal officer pepper spraying a person in downtown Portland. Another shows protesters burning the base of the Thompson Elk Fountain.

Sept. 5: Citing television news reports, Trump says he is weighing federal intervention in Portland due to the protests. Theyve ruined that city, Trump says. Its like living in hell. Gov. Tina Kotek decries the threats to deploy National Guard troops in Portland as absurd, unlawful and un-American.

Sept. 8: The U.S. Attorneys Office says 26 people have been charged with federal offenses at the ICE building since June 13.

 Fedor Zarkhin is a breaking news and enterprise reporter. Do you have a story? Reach him by phone or text at 971-373-2905 or by email at fzarkhin@oregonian.com.

Zaeem Shaikh covers the Portland Police Bureau and criminal justice issues for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reach him at 503-221-4323, zshaikh@oregonian.com or on X@zaeemshake.
Oscar Burell Jr., 33, was sentenced Monday to probation and had his license suspended for 90 days after he was convicted of driving recklessly in March 2025 in Portland. MCDA

The Multnomah County Distict Attorneys Office issued a dire warning after a judge handed down a probationary punishment to a Portland man who posted his dangerous driving exploits to social media.

During a Monday bench trial, Circuit Judge Katharine von Ter Stegge found the driver, Oscar Burell Jr., guilty of two counts of reckless driving and a single charge of reckless endangerment  but acquitted him of eight other similar misdemeanors.

The judge also suspended Burells license for 90 days, though prosecutors claim the punishment wont stop Burell from driving.

In a statement issued Tuesday, Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vasquez called the decision to acquit Burell on some charges bewildering.

I strongly disagree with Judge Von Ter Stegges evaluation of the facts in this case, Vasquez said.

Known by his nicknames ODawg or 06, Burell attracted dubious attention earlier this year by posting videos of himself flouting traffic laws.

Portland police issued a bulletin seeking information as an uproar grew online. Burell was ultimately arrested April 18 after calling 911 and reporting that hed been sideswiped by another driver on Hawthorne Boulevard.

Prosecutor Alexander Garcia called Burells conduct egregious and said it posed a grave risk of danger to members of our community.

I believe that Mr. Burell will not stop driving dangerously, Garcia said. He is fueled by social media and posting to social media. Mr. Burells conduct is 100% criminal and he will continue to do it for the likes.

Burell has posted a series of chaotic and profane selfie videos to social media in the hours since the trial, denying that he drove dangerously for clout.

He said in one of the clips he needed to figure out how to get my truck and my phones and my keys back.

The 33-year-old represented himself in court.

At trial, von Ter Stegge found Burell guilty of misdemeanor reckless driving and reckless endangerment for hanging out the window of his truck while driving on Interstate 5 on March 28.

She also found him guilty of a single count of recklessly driving for spinning donuts on the grass at Peninsula Park in North Portland the same month.

Burells punishment includes 1 years of bench probation and 80 hours of community service. He can reduce his community service to 60 hours by posting a video to social media cautioning others not to follow his example, according to court records.

He must also attend a victim impact panel.

In a statement provided on behalf of the judge by a spokesperson, von Ter Stegge said her punishment was consistent with what prosecutors requested after the trial during a sentencing hearing.

The courts decision was based on the evidence presented, applicable legal standards and the arguments of all parties as reflected in the official court record, the spokesperson said.

Burells main Instagram account, keepingitlittlike06, has been suspended but he has begun posting on an alternate channel.

Less than day-old postings show him laughing after his ankle monitor was removed, while in others his grandfather drives him through the city. He does not express remorse in the videos.

I dont give a [expletive] what the cops like, he remarks at one point, noting that he was self-represented at trial. Im saying a lawyer cant afford to represent me.

Zane Sparling covers breaking news and courts for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reach him at 503-319-7083, zsparling@oregonian.com or @pdxzane.

Correction: The photo caption has been updated to correct the length of Oscar Burells license suspension. It is 90 days.
A firefighter walks along a dirt road in the Lookout Mountain region in eastern Oregon near Durkee, OR on Sun., July 28, 2024. Dave Killen / The Oregonian

The U.S. Forest Service will begin providing wildfire crews with masks to protect against smoke, reversing a decades-long policy banning protective gear after The New York Times spotlighted severe health impacts from smoke exposure, including a case involving a young Oregon firefighter now battling cancer.

For decades, federal wildland firefighters were not given masks, even as researchers and labor groups warned of the long-term risks, the Times found. The Forest Service said masks could cause firefighters to overheat.

One story focused on Joel Eisiminger, a 25-year-old private contract firefighter from southern Oregon who developed acute myeloid leukemia after breathing thick smoke across multiple fire seasons. He told the Times never saw any firefighters wear masks.

The agency now recommends masks for light use, though still bans it for arduous work. The Times reported that the agency has said it has a stockpile of 80,000 N95 masks and will begin providing them as standard equipment for all large fires.

The decision came the same week that U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Rep. Maxine Dexter, who is a pulmonologist, called for changes in the federal policy. Merkley, joined by Sen. Ron Wyden and three other senators, sent federal officials a letter Tuesday with a host of questions about the policy.

Experts have clearly stated that there is no safe level of exposure to wildfire smoke, the senators wrote. Keeping wildland firefighters safe from  not just wildfires  but also the effects of smoke exposure is vital to ensuring this workforce can continue to keep us safe.

Dexter and two California representatives submitted a letter requesting briefings with federal agencies.

Recent reporting suggests that federal agencies are neglecting their duty to protect the health of wildland firefighters, the lawmakers wrote. Making matters worse, agencies are already struggling to fill vacant wildland firefighter positions. Neglecting the health of current firefighters will make future recruitment harder and leave our communities vulnerable.

 Fedor Zarkhin is a breaking news and enterprise reporter. Do you have a story? Reach him by phone or text at 971-373-2905 or by email at fzarkhin@oregonian.com.
Police are still trying to identify and find a man who detectives believe vandalized the windows of the Oregon Jewish Holocaust Museum in July  and theyre now asking for the publics help.

The suspect, caught by a surveillance camera at the museum, allegedly used a paint pen to draw swastikas on windows around 12:30 a.m. on July 29, the Portland Police Bureau said in a statement. The man also wrote the tag @cowface23.

Police are asking for help in identifying the suspect, who was caught on a security camera on July 29. Portland Police Bureau

Police on Tuesday released an image of the suspect captured from the security footage in the hopes that someone in the community will recognize him.

Police ask anyone with information about the case to send an email to crimetips@police.portlandoregon.gov.

 Tatum Todd is a breaking news reporter who covers public safety, crime and community news. Reach them at ttodd@oregonian.com or 503-221-4313.
An urgent care company with locations in Central Oregon and its former owner has agreed to pay the state nearly $490,000 to settle claims they overbilled the states Medicaid program during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The case centers around Family Choice Urgent Care, which operated clinics and drive-thru COVID-19 testing sites in Bend and Redmond. According to the Oregon Department of Justice, Family Choice submitted thousands of claims between 2020 and 2022 for medically unnecessary COVID-19 tests and inflated the billing codes for routine visits that lasted only a few minutes.

The state alleges that the false claims cost taxpayers at least $300,000.

According to the states complaint, at least 1,900 Medicaid claims were tied to patients who reported no symptoms, no exposure and later tested negative. Another 1,900 claims involved upcoding, or charging for higher-level evaluation and management visits than were actually provided.

Investigators said that Dr. Terrace Mucha, Family Choices former owner, directed staff to use these higher billing codes despite warnings from insurers, billing specialists and her own physician assistants.

The settlement requires Family Choice and Mucha to repay $305,800 in restitution as part of the larger payout to the state. In exchange, the state agreed to drop its civil claims connected to the disputed billing but kept the option to pursue criminal or consumer protection actions. Family Choice and Mucha denied any wrongdoing.

Amanda Marshall, a former U.S. attorney who represents Mucha, said the former Family Choice owner maintains her innocence. She said Mucha had cooperated with the investigation and argued that the billing and coding rules during the pandemic were evolving day to day, which made compliance difficult for physicians.

Marshall said Family Choice hadnt previously taken on Medicaid patients before the pandemic but stepped in to offer COVID-19 testing and office visits to fill in the gaps of care. At the same time, she said Mucha was unfamiliar with Medicaid billing and reporting rules. She said Mucha was happy to pay back the claims regarding upcoming and pay extra to settle the case.

This all started because of a disgruntled employee who was fired, Marshall said. That office manager reported my client for improper billing and the states case rested its investigation on this one employee.

Attorney General Dan Rayfield said the resolution protects taxpayer dollars.

It is a betrayal of public trust when any business or individual exploits their position for profit, he said.

Family Choice sold its clinics in 2022 to Community Care Partners, a private equity-backed urgent care firm. Community Care Partners runs 28 urgent care and primary care clinics across the state.

-- Kristine de Leon is a reporter for The Oregonian/OregonLive focusing on consumer health and data enterprise stories. Contact her at kdeleon@oregonian.com.
UPDATE: Charlie Kirk has died after being shot at a college event in Utah, President Trump says

OREM, Utah  Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA and a close ally of President Donald Trump, was in critical condition at a Utah hospital Wednesday after being shot at a college event, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.

A person who was taken into custody at Utah Valley University was not the suspect, according to a person familiar with the investigation who was not authorized to speak publicly. It was not clear if authorities were still searching the campus for a suspect.

Videos posted to social media from Utah Valley University show Kirk speaking into a handheld microphone while sitting under a white tent emblazoned with the slogans The American Comeback and Prove Me Wrong. A single shot rings out and Kirk can be seen reaching up with his right hand as a large volume of blood gushes from the left side of his neck. Stunned spectators are heard gasping and screaming before people start to run away. The AP was able to confirm the videos were taken at Sorensen Center courtyard on the Utah Valley University campus.

We are confirming that he was shot and we are praying for Charlie, said Aubrey Laitsch, public relations manager for Turning Point USA.

Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by his nonprofit political organization. The event had been met with divided opinions on campus. An online petition calling for university administrators to bar Kirk from appearing received nearly 1,000 signatures. The university issued a statement last week citing First Amendment rights and affirming its commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.

Last week, Kirk posted on X images of news clips showing his visit to Utah colleges was sparking controversy. He wrote, Whats going on in Utah?

The college said a single shot had been fired at Kirk and a suspect was in custody.

Trump and a host of Republican and Democratic elected officials decried the shooting and offered prayers for Kirk on social media.

We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot. A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM! Trump posted on Truth Social.

The shooting comes amid a spike in political violence in the United States across all parts of the ideological spectrum. The attacks include the assassination of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband at their house in June, the firebombing of a Colorado parade to demand Hamas release hostages, and a fire set at the house of Pennsylvanias governor, who is Jewish, in April. The most notorious of these events is the shooting of Trump during a campaign rally last year.

Former Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz, a Republican who was at the event, said in an interview on Fox News Channel that he heard one shot and saw Kirk go back.

It seemed like it was a close shot, Chaffetz said, who seemed shaken as he spoke.

He said there was a light police presence at the event and Kirk had some security but not enough.

Utah is one of the safest places on the planet, he said. And so we just dont have these types of things.

Turning Point was founded in suburban Chicago in 2012 by Kirk, then 18, and William Montgomery, a tea party activist, to proselytize on college campuses for low taxes and limited government. It was not an immediate success.

But Kirks zeal for confronting liberals in academia eventually won over an influential set of conservative financiers.

Despite early misgivings, Turning Point enthusiastically backed Trump after he clinched the GOP nomination in 2016. Kirk served as a personal aide to Donald Trump Jr., the presidents eldest son, during the general election campaign.

Soon, Kirk was a regular presence on cable TV, where he leaned into the culture wars and heaped praise on the then-president. Trump and his son were equally effusive and often spoke at Turning Point conferences.

--The Associated Press
In this image made from video, police secure parts of a damaged object shot down by Polish authorities at a site in Wohyn, Poland, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafal Niedzielski) AP

WOHYN, Poland  Poland said Wednesday that several Russian drones entered its territory over the course of many hours and were shot down with help from NATO allies, describing the incursion as an act of aggression carried out during a wave of Russian strikes on Ukraine.

Russias Defense Ministry said it did not target Poland, while Belarus, a close ally of Moscow, said it tracked some drones that lost their course because they were jammed.

Several European leaders said they believe the incursion amounted to an intentional escalation by Russia of its war on Ukraine  and that it must be met with a strong response.

Poland said some of the drones came from Belarus, where Russian and Belarusian troops have begun gathering for war games starting on Friday.

Polish airspace has been violated many times since Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but there has been nothing on this scale in Poland or anywhere else on NATO territory. A spokesman said it was the first time the alliance has confronted a potential threat in its airspace.

NATO met to discuss the incident, which came three days after Russias largest aerial attack on Ukraine since the war began.

Russias war is escalating, not ending, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.

What (Russian President Vladimir) Putin wants to do is to test us she later told reporters in Brussels. What happened in Poland is a game changer and it should result in stronger sanctions.

The extent of the incursion was still becoming clear: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told parliament 19 violations were recorded over seven hours, but that information was still being gathered. Nine crash sites have been found, Polish authorities said, and some were hundreds of kilometers from the border. Dutch fighter jets came to Polands aid and intercepted some drones, the Netherlands defense minister said.

There are definitely no grounds to suspect that this was a course correction mistake or the like, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told parliament. These drones were very clearly put on this course deliberately.

Poland says some drones came from Belarus

Tusk told parliament that the first violation came at approximately 11:30 p.m. Tuesday and the last around 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday. He said that the 19 violations recorded so far were not the final data. Earlier, Defense Minister Wadysaw Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote on X that more than 10 objects crossed into Polish airspace.

What is new, in the worst sense of the word, is the direction from which the drones came. This is the first time in this war that they did not come from Ukraine as a result of errors or minor Russian provocations. For the first time, a significant portion of the drones came directly from Belarus, Tusk said in parliament.

Russias Defense Ministry said that its overnight strikes targeted Ukraines military-industrial complex in the western regions of the country  which border Poland  with no planned targets on Polish territory.

In an unusual message of outreach, the ministry said it was ready to hold consultations with Polands Defense Ministry.

Belarusian Maj. Gen. Pavel Muraveiko, the chief of the General Staff and first deputy defense minister, appeared to try to put some distance between his country and the incursion.

In an online statement, he said that as Russia and Ukraine traded drone strikes overnight, Belarusian air defense forces tracked drones that lost their course after they were jammed, adding that Belarusian forces warned their Polish and Lithuanian counterparts about unidentified aircraft approaching their territory.

Drones or parts of drones were found in eight locations in Poland, according to Polish officials. At a ninth site, objects of unknown origin were found.

A house was hit in the village of Wyryki in the Lublin region near the Ukrainian border, Mayor Bernard Blaszczuk told TVP Info. The roof was severely damaged but no one was hurt.

Rattled NATO members vow support

NATO air defenses supported Poland in what spokesman Col. Martin ODonnell called the first time NATO planes have engaged potential threats in Allied airspace. That included Dutch F-35 fighter jets that intercepted drones, according to Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans.

The alliance is committed to defending every kilometer of NATO territory, including our airspace, ODonnell said.

Tusk told parliament consultations took place under Article 4 of the NATO treaty  a clause that allows countries to call for urgent discussions with their allies. The consultations happened at a pre-planned meeting on Wednesday. They do not automatically lead to any action under Article 5, which is NATOs collective security guarantee.

Mark Lyall Grant, U.K. national security adviser from 2015 to 2017, said the incursion was obviously an escalation of Russias war in Ukraine but there wasnt yet enough evidence to say it was an attack on a NATO member.

But many European leaders, including those in the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia that are the NATO members most nervous about Russian aggression, expressed deep concern.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, called it an extremely dangerous precedent for Europe and called for Russia to feel the consequences.

Moscow always tests the limits of what is possible and, if it does not encounter a strong response, remains at a new level of escalation, he said. Not just one Shahed (drone), which could be dismissed as an accident, but at least eight attack drones that were aimed in the direction of Poland.

U.S. President Donald Trump has not yet made any public comments about the incursion. He is set to speak on Wednesday to Polish President Karol Nawrocki, according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Phillips OBrien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, said the incident underscored the failure of NATO member states to accurately assess the threat posed by Russia and properly prepare for war.

NATO states, even front line ones, have clearly not prepared for war of the type that is happening now, he said in his Substack newsletter.

Poland has complained about Russian objects entering its airspace during attacks on Ukraine before.

In August, Polands defense minister said that a flying object that crashed and exploded in a cornfield in eastern Poland was identified as a Russian drone, and called it a provocation by Russia.

In March, Poland scrambled jets after a Russian missile briefly passed through Polish airspace on its way to a target in western Ukraine, and in 2022, a missile that was likely fired by Ukraine to intercept a Russian attack landed in Poland, killing two people.

Russian attacks hit central and western Ukraine

Meanwhile, Ukraines Air Force said Russia fired 415 strike and decoy drones, as well as 42 cruise missiles and one ballistic missile overnight.

Ukrainian air defenses intercepted or jammed 386 drones and 27 cruise missiles, according to the report.

One person was killed and at least five injured, while several homes and businesses were damaged, according to local officials.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in its morning report on Wednesday that it had destroyed 122 Ukrainian drones over various Russian regions overnight, including over the illegally annexed Crimea and areas of the Black Sea.

-- The Associated Press
While Portlanders should be prepared for the possibility that Trump will follow through with threats to send National Guard troops to Portland, they should not let his bluster interrupt the ongoing work restoring the city. Sean Meagher/The Oregonian

Its hard to know how serious President Donald Trump is about the possibility of sending National Guard troops to Portland to confront protesters and wipe them out.

This is a man for whom bluster is like breathing. Many of his musings, threats and diatribes dissolve days after they were uttered. As pundits have noted, the man who penned The Art of the Deal has mastered the Art of Distraction, with one outrageous comment after another.

At the same time, it would be foolish to ignore the threat, considering the ruthlessness of his administrations actions and Trumps willingness to bulldoze laws and limits that stand in his way. Trump dispatched thousands of National Guard troops to Los Angeles in June an alarming move that a federal judge has since ruled illegal. But that ruling applies only to California, and Trump has doubled down, mobilizing the National Guard to patrol Washington, D.C. He has since threatened to also send troops to Chicago, Baltimore, Boston and New Orleans for crime or immigration raids, and now, Portland.

By Trumps telling, Portland wasnt on his radar, according to reports from a news interview last Friday. But after seeing some footage of protests outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in South Portland, he said he was going to look at the possibility. He bemoaned that protesters have ruined Portland, and that its like living in hell.

This is, of course, what his base loves to hear, even if it has no connection to reality. Because while Portland undeniably has its problems, it is far from hell or ruined by any stretch of the imagination. Contrary to U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemers repugnant comments urging Trump to crack down on Portland, theres no need for federal intervention. We know already how disastrous such intervention can be. Trumps sending of federal officers to quell protests in Portland in 2020 only inflamed tensions and increased the violence, most notably with a federal agents shooting a less-lethal munition at an unarmed protester, causing permanent brain damage.

Now, downtown is staging a comeback. The Portland Art Museum is finishing a stunning $111 million-renovation that will not only burnish its reputation as a cultural landmark, but also create welcoming spaces for the public. An initiative dreamed up years ago to create the James Beard Public Market is barreling forward with plans to open next year. Foot traffic is rebounding. And in the days since Trumps living in hell comments, Portlanders have responded in droves with social media posts showing all the different moments, scenes and people that continue to make this city an incredible place to live.

Yes, the ongoing protests outside the ICE facility in South Portland have tested the citys ability to balance First Amendment expression with preserving the peace of those living nearby. But thats a challenge that leaders in many U.S. cities face; and while demonstrations are continuing in Portland, so are targeted arrests. And yes, Portland remains mired in a housing and homelessness crisis while struggling to hold onto downtown businesses and boost public safety. Elected leaders and the community have a lot of work to do before we can claim full recovery from Portlands low point in 2020, when the pandemic and destructive protests created the chaotic images that continue to haunt Portland.

But leaders and the public are facing those problems head-on. Portland has seen a drop in violent crime, a build-out of beds for the homeless and a new direction on treating those with substance abuse problems. Even if progress comes in fits and starts, there has been progress.

Mayor Keith Wilson struck the right tone in making clear that the city does not need nor welcome federal intervention. As The Oregonian/OregonLives Fedor Zarkhin reported, Portland Police Chief Bob Day has already contacted Los Angeles Police to understand how that city responded. Attorney General Dan Rayfield said hes prepared to take legal action if Trump follows through. Elected leaders should continue to explore what actions they can take to ensure that the city and state retain control against the unconstitutional deployment of the military to enforce domestic laws.

For their part, Portlanders should stay vigilant while not getting baited into overreacting or interrupting the citys forward momentum. No one wants a return to the toxic clashes of 2020 between federal agents and Portlanders that damaged both our downtown and our reputation. Building and protecting a thriving city that remains true to its values of diversity, compassion and community is what will prove Trump wrong, again.

-The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board
Michelle, 45, shared her opinion about Portland Mayor Keith Wilson's sheltering plan from the front door of her tent in Old Town on Tuesday morning while her dog, Penny, watched. Lillian Mongeau Hughes

Early on Tuesday morning, Michelle woke up in her beige tent, which shed placed in a line of eight others on Northwest Fourth Avenue between Flanders and Glisan a few days earlier. Her small brown pup, Penny, was her only tent-mate. Shed adopted the dog two years ago when its original owner died of an overdose, she said.

I havent been out on the streets like this for a minute, said Michelle, 45, as she stood in front of her tent just before 8 a.m., organizing her things.

Michelle, who declined to give her last name, has been more or less homeless since before the pandemic, but has spent much of the last several years staying with friends or in motels, she said. She said she is from Vancouver originally. She has lived in Portland for 10 years.

Michelle was about to be one of the first people approached in a new initiative by a collection of homeless service providers working with the city of Portland to increase street outreach by mobilizing volunteers. The effort, called We All Have a Name, perfectly encapsulates the kind of roll up your sleeves and help ethos Portland Mayor Keith Wilson has championed since he took office, including most recently with a widely distributed email asking for donations and volunteers for the citys sheltering services.

About 10 minutes earlier, Wilson had greeted a small but enthusiastic crowd a few blocks away from Michelles tent at the Old Town location for CityTeam, a faith-based shelter and recovery nonprofit.

Portland Mayor Keith Wilson delivers opening remarks and praises the city's outreach director, Kim James (left), ahead of a new volunteer outreach initiative launched from CityTeam's Old Town location on Sept. 9, 2025. Lillian Mongeau Hughes

Wilson told the collection of volunteers, city staff, street outreach workers and homeless service providers that it has become sadly normal for Portlanders to ignore people sleeping or passed out on the citys streets. He urged everyone to call 911 whenever they saw someone in need and just say, I need Portland Street Response rolling.

The mayor said hed just added 14 people to Portland Street Response, the citys unarmed emergency response service for people in mental health crises. As of this spring, the service is also allowed to transport anyone in need of help. All of this is part of the mayors laser-focus on ending unsheltered homelessness in Portland, an approximately 7,500-person problem he says can be solved this winter.

I am readying in my public safety system a person down approach, Wilson told the crowd. It is not code to leave your citizens lying incapacitated on the street. It is not moral, it is not legal, it is not logistically supported.

Much attention has been given to the sheltering part of the mayors homelessness plan  Wilson has pledged 1,500 new shelter beds by Dec. 1 and has opened nearly 500 as of this week. But the mayor has also invested city funds to increase street outreach, accelerate RV removal and send 14 people a week home to friends and family outside of Portland. He also believes it is time for firmer messaging about the citys camping ban, he said Tuesday.

The point is, you have the services at your disposal right now, Wilson said to the assembled crowd. It is up to us to recognize Dec. 1st is coming  the cold months. Were not leaving people on the street this December.

Stephanie Wieber picks up a T-shirt at the CityTeam Old Town shelter on Tuesday ahead of her first shift as an outreach volunteer for the We All Have a Name initiative. Lillian Mongeau Hughes

After the mayor wrapped up his remarks, he passed the microphone to Lance Orton, executive director of CityTeam and a new board member of ShelterPortland, the nonprofit Wilson founded before becoming mayor.

Orton, formerly homeless and addicted himself, gave the mornings outreach volunteers a few tips: Dont give people money, lest they spend it on cheap drugs that could lead to an overdose death. Dont approach in large groups, but solo or in pairs. Do ask people their names. Do offer bus tickets to anyone who wants one. Do hand out water, granola bars and warm socks.

The volunteers and outreach workers then walked over to a table set up with bright blue drawstring backpacks containing just those supplies.

This is going to be one way we can connect folks to the issue, said volunteer Stephanie Wieber as she picked up her kit and pulled on a teal blue T-shirt, subtly branded with We All Have a Name in white lettering. She said shed worked for several organizations attempting to tackle homelessness and she was inspired by the volunteer outreach effort.

Its a creative idea, Wieber said. We just have to keep being creative. If we leave it to social services, they will drown.

Organizers assign volunteers to outreach teams outside the CityTeam Old Town shelter at the launch of the We All Have a Name initiative on Tuesday morning. Lillian Mongeau Hughes

Volunteers gathered outside on Fourth Avenue and sorted into groups led by professional outreach workers.

Michelle and a man she was chatting with outside her tent were two of the first to be approached by the volunteers. The man took a granola bar and socks and offered his thanks. Michelle shared her street name, Pinky, and said shed love help getting into shelter.

Sash Jarmer, a group leader and regular outreach worker for CityTeam, happily filled out a voucher for her to stay at the organizations shelter that evening. The vouchers act as a ticket to get into CityTeams privately funded facility, though they also take people on a first-come, first-serve basis if space allows.

Michelle asked if it was a low-barrier shelter, meaning a place where someone could go even if they were actively using drugs.

No, Jarmer said, explaining that it was a sober shelter, where you could be turned away for being drunk or high.

Michelle, 45, organized her belongings on Tuesday morning as she prepared for a move ahead of a planned sweep of the city block where she'd been camping. Lillian Mongeau Hughes

Michelle said that wasnt going to work for her, but thanked him. They chatted for another couple minutes and then Jarmer and his volunteer counterpart moved down the line of tents.

I understand that, Michelle told a reporter about CityTeams shelter rules. People who really want to get their lives together cant be around (open drug use).

She could go to one of the citys five new overnight-only shelters, which are low-barrier and allow anybody in, no questions asked. Shes stayed in the new shelters though, she said, and has been underwhelmed.

You want my opinion? she asked. These overnight shelters the mayor opened because of his promise to the community - its (bull). You dont get no services at those shelters.

As she was speaking, a woman wearing a yellow traffic vest and the navy Rapid Response T-shirt that is the uniform of the citys tent removal contractor, leaned in over the curb.

Im sorry if its a bad time, she said, but I just wanted to warn you. The woman, who did not give her name, said the tents on the block had been posted for removal a week earlier and everyone needed to clear out within the hour.

There goes my shower, Michelle said as the Rapid Response worker walked away. Shed been planning to take a shower at a nearby resource center and then make some phone calls to 24-hour shelters where she was trying to get a bed. I didnt even know this (site) was posted.

Without any other comment, Michelle started pulling items out of her tent: A green suitcase with a pink and yellow stripe on it. A buffalo plaid blanket and a green fleece one that she folded over a nearby bike rack. Toys for Penny that she tossed into the dogs stroller. A pillow.

Michelle, 45, tossed her dog's toys into the pup's stroller Tuesday as she prepared her stuff for a move ahead of a planned sweep of the city block where she'd been camping. Lillian Mongeau Hughes

As she packed, Michelle wanted to keep talking about the overnight-only shelters introduced by Wilson. A bed to sleep in on a cold night is great, she said, but it wasnt going to fix anything without a connection to housing and other services. She felt similarly about the bare bones outdoor day center that opened last week in Old Town.

To me, its just (the mayor) trying to bluff the community that hes doing what he said he would do, she said. And hes just putting a Band-Aid on it. A cheap Band-Aid too, like the grocery store kind, not Band-Aid brand.

By 8:50 a.m., the outreach volunteers had wrapped up their shifts. The mayor had gone on his way and Orton was preparing for his next meeting of the morning. Orton said anyone wishing to volunteer next week could sign up on the initiatives new website and that there would be information soon about weekly outreach efforts in other parts of the city on other days. He said the group hadnt tracked the number of people volunteers met Tuesday, but that they planned to do so in future.

A Rapid Response van and a Portland Police patrol car pulled up to Michelles line of tents at 9:23 a.m. She and Penny were already gone.

Another woman, still packing her belongings further down the sidewalk, slipped a candy bar into a bright blue drawstring backpack. By 10:15 a.m., she and all but one of her neighbors, had left too.

Penny, a 5-year-old dog, used to belong to a man who died of an overdose, according to her current owner, a woman named Michelle who is homeless and has cared for Penny for two years. Lillian Mongeau Hughes

Lillian Mongeau Hughes covers homelessness and mental health for The Oregonian. Email her with tips or questions at lmhughes@oregonian.com. Or follow her on Bluesky @lmonghughes.bsky.social or X at @lrmongeau.
The Senate chamber in the the Oregon Capitol sits empty in this picture from 2019. The Oregon Senate is on a break until Sept. 17, as it waits for one lawmaker to return so it can consider a tax vote. Dave Killen

Rep. Lesly Munoz, a Democrat from Woodburn, stood in front of an empty Oregon House of Representatives chamber Monday morning. In less than four minutes, she opened a session of the House, excused all 59 of her colleagues from attending, then closed the session.

Holding intermittent meetings of the House is required as a technicality while the special session to address Oregons lack of transportation funding is on a two-week hold. As the Oregon Capital Chronicle reported last week, the House has to gavel in at least every four days while it waits for the Senate to vote on a funding package on Sept. 17.

Every day that the House holds a floor session, its 60 members earn a $178 paycheck, even if they dont show up, said Joshua Sweet, who manages legislative finances.

Mondays four-minute House meeting cost Oregon taxpayers about $10,680.

Costs for the special session are likely to reach or exceed $180,000 due mostly to the per diem pay Oregon lawmakers receive during the delay. While Oregons 60 House members get paid for every floor session, the states 30 senators get paid every day of a session  including the days theyre on break.

Lawmakers in both chambers gaveled in for the special session on Aug. 29. Despite some delays, the House passed a transportation funding package on Sept. 1. But the session hit a snag in the Senate, where a key Democrat was absent as he recovers from major surgery. Leaders opted to pause the session for two weeks until he can return.

If senators finish their business on Sept. 17, as they plan, the special session will have lasted 20 days, netting each senator about $3,560 and costing taxpayers $106,800 in per diem Senate pay.

The House has held five floor sessions so far, racking up about $53,400 in per diem payments for its members, and is scheduled to hold at least two more before Sept. 17, adding more than $20,000 to the cost.

The Oregon House and Senate are allowed to set different rules. Timothy Sekerak, chief clerk of the House, said the current per diem rules were adopted in 2002 and have been a standard part of the House special session rules ever since.

The Senate could vote to change its rules, said Senate Clerk Obie Rutledge, but any changes would be forward-looking and not retroactive. Connor Radnovich, spokesperson for Senate President Rob Wagner, a Lake Oswego Democrat, said the Senate does not plan to take any action during the remaining time of the special session beyond considering the transportation package.

Senate Majority Leader Kayse Jama said in a statement that legislative lawyers told him per diem pay is mandatory for senators while the session is underway. He encouraged fellow Senate Democrats to donate their payments for Sept. 4 through Sept. 16, when theyre not conducting official business, to a cause of their choice. Oregon Public Broadcasting reported last week that several Democrat senators intend to do so, but that Senate Republican Leader Daniel Bonham did not issue that same guidance to the Republican caucus.

Sami Edge covers higher education and politics for The Oregonian. You can reach her at sedge@oregonian.com or (503) 260-3430.
Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk arrives to speak before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Las Vegas in 2024. AP

Oregon politicians from both major parties were quick to voice their concerns Wednesday about political violence in the wake of the shooting of Donald Trump ally Charlie Kirk.

Kirk died Wednesday after being shot at a college event at Utah Valley University, Trump said. He was 31 and the CEO of conservative youth organization Turning Point USA.

Immediately before the shooting, Kirk was taking questions from an audience member about mass shootings and gun violence, the Associated Press reported.

Oregons two Democratic senators posted online that their thoughts are with Kirks family.

Opposing views should never be suppressed with violence, Sen. Jeff Merkley wrote on Threads.

Political violence has no place in our country, Sen. Ron Wyden said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Political violence has no place in our country. My thoughts are with Charlie Kirk and his loved ones.  Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) September 10, 2025

Rep. Maxine Dexter, a Portland Democrat, called the shooting absolutely horrific.

Rep. Cliff Bentz, Oregons only House Republican, wrote on X that Kirk was a passionate voice and leader for the conservative movement.

Charlie was a passionate voice and leader for the conservative movement. My prayers are with Charlie and his family.  Congressman Cliff Bentz (@RepBentz) September 10, 2025

State officials also seized the opportunity to rail against political violence.

Gov. Tina Kotek, a Democrat, wrote on Threads that the attack on Charlie Kirk is inexcusable.

America is better than this, she added.

Rep. Christine Drazan, leader of Oregons House Republicans, wrote in a statement that the assassination should horrify every American who believes in free speech and public debate.

Any extremist who has called for violent action against their political opponents should be ashamed of what they have brought on our country, Drazan wrote. Violence and hatred must end. My deepest condolences to the Kirk family and prayers for our country.

House Republican Rep. Jeff Helfrich, a retired police sergeant, wrote in a statement that the string of assassination attempts, including the killing of Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman, and attempt to kill Trump, isnt politics anymore; its terrorism.

We might disagree on taxes, housing, or how to run our schools but we settle our differences with votes, not bullets, Helfrich wrote. Thats the Oregon way, and that should be the American way.

Senate Republican Leader Daniel Bonham wrote that Kirk played an instrumental role in connecting the conservative movement with todays youth.

How have we reached a point in our society where someone would resort to violence to silence a voice? Bonham wrote.

Sami Edge covers higher education and politics for The Oregonian. You can reach her at sedge@oregonian.com or (503) 260-3430.
Mayor Heidi Lueb announced her resignation Tuesday night. It comes after an investigation into complaints against her. City of Tigard

Tigard Mayor Heidi Lueb resigned Tuesday night shortly before the City Council was scheduled to consider the dismissal or disciplining of a public officer during a confidential executive session.

She announced her resignation in a statement posted to her website and on social media, saying it was effective immediately. She attributed her decision to resign to strained relationships and tension between herself, members of the city council and city staff.

The city opened an investigation into complaints against Lueb in April, she wrote. She wrote that she wasnt made aware of the investigation until June.

The details of that investigation, or its findings, have not been disclosed.

While Lueb acknowledged that the investigation was opened after complaints were made against her, she contended that the decision to investigate her came in response to her reporting another councilor for crossing the line by asking me on my personal phone how much I paid another councilor to say something nice about me.

They say there are three versions to a story, one for each side, and the truth, she wrote.

Members of the City Council declined to comment Tuesday night following the executive session. Lueb could not be reached for comment.

Lueb claimed that city staff filed complaints against her after she tried to hold employees accountable for mistakes or stood up for the community. She also wrote that she got into a disagreement with city workers over changes to City Council health benefits.

In addition, she also wrote that members of the council lodged complaints against her for age discrimination and for her behavior. The former mayor wrote that she often called new councilors inexperienced, and that she is a direct, honest communicator.

Lueb was elected mayor in 2022, becoming the first woman to serve as the citys mayor. Her term was scheduled to run through the end of 2026.

Council President Maureen Wolf will serve as mayor pro tem in place of Lueb. Wolf said in a public meeting Tuesday night that news of the resignation was accepted with a heavy heart.

The City Council will discuss next steps at a Sept. 23 meeting, Wolf said.

The city did not publicly release any details about the findings from the investigation into Lueb. Lueb wrote that she expected the report would inevitably come out, speculating that either the district attorney would release it or city councilors would talk about it.

The city said in a statement late Tuesday that it was focused on fostering a good working environment for its employees.

At the city of Tigard, we are committed to ensuring a respectful workplace for everyone, where all people are treated with dignity and conflicts are addressed constructively, the city said in a statement. We work to cultivate an inclusive culture that celebrates diverse opinions and experiences, honest dialogue and mutual trust.

 Austin De Dios covers county politics, programs and more. Reach him at 503-319-9744, adedios@oregonian.com or @AustinDeDios
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With decorative pumpkins, cropped trench coats, and a Taylor Swift preorder all dropping this week, fall shopping at Target is looking pretty good.

The aisles are already buzzing with spooky Stanley tumbler drops and new-season fashion, and now Swifties have one more reason to circle October 3 on the calendar: The Life of a Showgirl midnight release event at Target.

Taylor Swifts The Life of a Showgirl lands Friday, October 3, 2025, and Target is pulling out all the stops. Fans can preorder now and either have the album shipped to their door or pick it up at a midnight release event, where the aisles will likely buzz with friendship bracelets, merch swaps, and plenty of Swiftie energy.

Target is the only retailer offering three exclusive CD editionsIts Frightening, Its Rapturous, and Its Beautiful. Each sells for $14.99 and includes a poster, collectible art, lyrics, and photos. Orders are capped at four copies per customer, and preorders guarantee release-day pickup or delivery.

Vinyl collectors can get some fun extras during the pre-order phase too. The Life of a Showgirl LP comes with a Sweat and Vanilla Perfume poster and ships on release day. A cassette version is also available, rounding out the lineup of physical formats.

Here in Oregon, eight Target stores will unlock doors at midnight, October 3 for the release:

Beaverton | 10775 SW Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy, Beaverton, OR 97005

Bend | 63435 N Highway 97, Bend, OR 97703

Clackamas | 9000 SE Sunnyside Rd, Clackamas, OR 97015

Keizer | 6450 Keizer Station Blvd NE, Keizer, OR 97303

Medford | 2000 Crater Lake Hwy, Medford, OR 97504

Springfield | 2750 Gateway St, Springfield, OR 97477

Tanasbourne | 11095 NE Evergreen Pkwy, Hillsboro, OR 97006

Washington Square | 9009 SW Hall Blvd, Tigard, OR 97223

Swift albums rarely arrive quietly, and The Life of a Showgirl is shaping up to be no exception. Whether youre there for the music, the midnight energy, or simply the thrill of owning an exclusive edition, Targets exclusive release promises to turn an album drop into a communal celebration. For Swifties, its more than a purchase, its a shared moment in the story of an artist who keeps defining them, with friendship bracelets!
The fire has triggered evacuation notices in three counties. Inciweb

The Black Rock fire near Clarno has triggered evacuation notices in multiple central Oregon counties.

Lightning strikes started the wildfire on Thursday, and heavy winds quickly drove it to about 32,453 acres by Sunday, prompting officials to deploy four single-engine air tankers, five helicopters, an air-attack fixed-wing plane and other resources, Central Oregon Fire officials said in a statement.

As of Wednesday, the fire has burned more than 40,000 acres and is 20% contained, the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center reported. More than 340 firefighters are battling the blaze.

Officials issued Level 3 (go now) evacuation orders for people northeast of Clarno in Wheeler County, as well as Level 1 (get ready) orders for people living west of the fire in Wasco County. The fire also triggered Level 2 (get set) orders for people near North Pole Ridge in Sherman County.

Fire officials said that federal Bureau of Land Management land near the John Day River, the OMSI Field Station and the Clarno unit trails of the John Day Fossil Beds are all closed as firefighters work to contain the wildfire.

Nine other large wildfires continue to burn across Oregon. So far this fire season, wildfires have burned 213,000 acres in the state, the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center reports.

 Tatum Todd is a breaking news reporter who covers public safety, crime and community news. Reach them at ttodd@oregonian.com or 503-221-4313.
The Miller Historic District's eighth annual Porch Fest music festival will feature 38 bands across 11 different porches.

Porch Fest started in 2007 in Ithaca, New York as a free, local music festival held on neighborhood porches during the last Saturday of August in different communities around the United States. The tradition came to Norman in 2016.

Wess McMichael, owner of McMichael Music, co-founded Porch Fest in the Miller Historic District with Sara Kaplan, Norman's chief business and community relations officer.

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She came up with the idea. She read about it or something. It's like,  we could have music on porches, McMichael said. As a musician, I know tons of musicians in the Norman, Oklahoma City area, and so the two ideas just kind of came together.

According to McMichael, Porch Fest paused for two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so this will mark their eighth year putting on the festival.

It builds itself. The people that have the porches love it, McMichael said. There's no sponsorship. It's just grassroots, and they help me. They're helping me a lot this year, so it just kind of was a good idea, and people want to have it continue.

This year's Porch Fest event was scheduled later in September in hopes of cooler weather, McMichael said.

The musician line-up and playing times can be found on McMichaels website. Parking and t-shirt purchases can be found at 230 Alameda St.

The Miller Historic District streets will be closed for the event. If the provided parking is full, there are public parking lots and ample street parking in the surrounding area.

Porch Fest is 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, and performances are mainly at houses on Miller Avenue.

This story was edited by Madisson Cameron. Hannah Lambert and Avery Avery copy edited this story.
OpenAI announced new parental controls that will be implemented within the month, following a lawsuit over a California teenager who committed suicide after having conversations with ChatGPT.

The development comes as AI researchers warn that the safeguards may not be enough, noting that the company's chatbot's safety protections are vulnerable to degradation during long conversations and emotional connections with users.

OpenAI's Planned Parental Controls

The news comes weeks after OpenAI was sued by a Rancho Santa Margarita family for ChatGPT's role in their teenager's death. After the parental controls are implemented, parents can link their teens' accounts to their own, disable various features, and receive notifications if the chatbot detects "a moment of acute distress."

The teenager who committed suicide and prompted the changes was 16-year-old Adam Raine, who died in April after taking his own life. After the teen's death, his parents found out that he had been talking with ChatGPT for months, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The family said that the dialogues started with simple homework questions and later turned into deeply intimate conversations where Adam talked about his mental health struggles and plans to commit suicide.

Read more: New Zealand Authorities Search for Children Taken by Father Fatally Shot by Police

Some AI researchers and suicide prevention experts commended OpenAI's latest efforts to address the issue and its willingness to make changes to its model. However, they also argued that it is impossible to know if there is any kind of change that will be enough to completely fix the issue.

On top of the planned parental controls, OpenAI is also expanding its Global Physician Network and real-time router. This is a feature that can instantly switch a user interaction to a new chat or reasoning model depending on the conversational context that is detected, Mashable reported.

Dangers of Sensitive Conversations

The company explained that "sensitive conversations" will now be transferred over to one of its reasoning models, such as GPT-5-thinking. This is so that it can provide more "helpful and beneficial responses, regardless of which model a person first selected."

AI companies have, over the last year, faced heightened scrutiny for failing to address various safety concerns with their chatbots. These bots have become increasingly more used as emotional companions by younger users.

In its blog, OpenAI said it felt a deep responsibility to help those who need it most as the world continues to adapt to new technology. It added that it had been improving how its models respond in sensitive interactions with its users, as per AI Business.
Florida police officers arrested a nine-year-old boy after the child was found to have brought a loaded gun onto a school bus.

There were no reports of anyone being injured during the incident, which occurred on a school bus on Monday morning while students were going to an elementary school in Ocala. The Ocala Police Department said officers responded to the bus for a report of a student who had a firearm after other kids alerted the bus driver, who was the one who called 911.

Police Arrest 9-Year-Old for Bringing Gun Into School Bus

When law enforcement personnel arrived at the scene, several students directed them to a nine-year-old boy on the bus, who is the one believed to have a loaded firearm. In a statement, officials said that the juvenile was then safely detained after initially resisting officers. The latter found a loaded .38 caliber revolver from the floor near the child's seat.

Officers found out that the nine-year-old boy took the gun without permission from the "secured bedroom" of his relative. The arrest affidavit noted that the minor's uncle told police that he keeps the gun in the top drawer of his nightstand in their apartment, according to ABC News.

Read more: Juvenile Responsible for UMass Lowell Lockdown Was Carrying Replica Firearm

The uncle said that he was aware the young boy knew he had a gun, but he was not aware that the nine-year-old knew where it was actually stored. Police also found that the firearm was stored lawfully by its owner.

The student who had the gun allegedly admitted to taking the firearm on Sunday while his uncle was inside the shower. He then brought it into the school while hiding it in his pocket. Police added that the nine-year-old admitted to showing the gun to other students, but noted that he had no plans to use it on anyone.

Ensuring Everyone's Safety

After the young boy was arrested for bringing the gun into the school bus, he is now facing several serious charges. These include possession of a firearm on school property, armed burglary, grand theft of a firearm, carrying a concealed firearm, and disruption of a school function, STN Online reported.

Ocala police authorities said that the latest incident shows why staying vigilant and reporting concerns quickly is vital to protecting people's safety. They added that children are their top priority and are committed to supporting schools and the community while pursuing justice.

Officials also praised the students on the school bus for alerting the bus driver and, in doing so, helped ensure the safety of everyone onboard, as per First Coast News.
Imagine if that refrigerator you bought just five years ago suddenly up and diedand not because of some technical glitch, but because the manufacturer deliberately reached out and deactivated it, permanently. Youd be furious, right? And youd probably want a refund, too.

As wild as that scenario sounds for a major appliance like a refrigerator or a TV, it happens more often than youd think in the smart home world. From the doomed Dropcam to the abandoned Revolv smart hub, theres a long, sad parade of smart home devices that have turned into paperweights.

Weve compiled a list of 12 infamous examples of killer smart home products thatfor one reason or anotherwere abandoned by their manufacturers.

These deactivated smart home gadgets have either mostly or completely ceased to function. In some cases, the makers of these bricked devices offered refunds, or a discount on an upgraded or replacement product. But in other instances, customers were left high and dry.

Read em and weep.

12 stone-dead smart home gadgets

Amazon Echo Look

Launched: 2017

Original list price: $200

Date deactivated: July 24, 2020

Amazon

It was a heady concept: an Alexa-powered smart camera that could scan your daily outfits and give you fashion advice. Indeed, the Echo Look was one of the original look what Alexa can do! devices, predating such out-there Alexa gadgets as the Echo Loop (Alexa on a ring) and the Amazon Astro (Alexa on a robot).

But the Echo Look never really took offin part, perhaps, because the Looks camera lacked a privacy shutter, a minus for a device thats supposed to sit on your bedroom dresser. In May 2020, Amazon announced that the 3-year-old Look would go dark just two months later.

Amazon did offer Echo Look owners a free Echo Show 5 in compensation, but still, the $90 smart display didnt exactly cover the $200 asking price for the dead-as-a-doornail fashion camera.

Amazon Echo Connect

Launched: 2017

Original list price: $35

Date deactivated: February 29, 2024

Amazon

Landing right around the same time as the doomed Echo Look, the Echo Connect unlocked a killer Alexa feature: the ability to make phone calls on your landline using voice commands. All you had to do was plug your landline cable into the back of the Connect box, no additional fees required.

But as landlines gave way to cell phones and Alexa gained the ability to place calls from mobile phone numbers, the Echo Connect began to look increasingly outdated, and some bad reviews didnt help.

Still, Echo Connect users were caught off guard when, in February 2024, Amazon gave them just a few weeks notice that the Connect would soon go dead. On the bright side, each Echo Connect owner got a $10 Amazon gift card for their trouble.

Revolv smart home hub

Launched: 2013

Original list price: $299

Date deactivated: May 15, 2016

YouTube

One smart hub to rule them all? That was the idea behind Revolv, a fire engine-red gadget packed with seven wireless radios that allowed you to control smart products from different manufacturers, all from a single app.

That was, at the time, a killer conceptso killer that Nest, which had itself just been acquired by Google, snapped up Revolvs parent company in 2014 and promptly yanked the hub from store shelves.

Initially, Nest promised to keep existing Revolv smart hubs up and running. But by early 2016, Revolv owners learned that their hubs would stop working entirely by May of the same year, leaving them stuck with $300 paperweights while scrambling for alternatives.

Iris by Lowes Home Automation platform

Launched: 2012

Original list price: $50 hub, $99 Security Pack (with various contact and motion sensors, plus a keypad), $129 Automation Pack (contained Security Pack components plus a smart plug and button)

Date deactivated: March 31, 2019

Lowes

Lowes jumped into the smart home market early, going all-in with a hub (a second-generation hub landed in 2015 as a free upgrade for original hub owners) and a variety of sensors, security cameras, smoke detectors, and other smart components.

But from the start, Lowes Iris platform was beset with problems, from a lengthy and bug-ridden setup process to promised features that were slow to materialize (such as professional home monitoring), while support for third-party smart brands arrived only in dribs and drabs. Lowes eventually rolled out a raft of welcome updates to address the lengthy list of customer complaints, but the Iris platform never truly recovered from its rocky launch.

By 2019, Lowes finally threw in the towel, announcing that its Iris products would stop working by March 31 of that year.

While Iris users were faced with the prospect of rebuilding their smart home setups, Lowes at least offered to refund customers for any Iris products that wouldnt work on any other platforms, while Samsung SmartThings stepped up to help Iris users migrate to its own smart platform.

Hive home security products

Launched: 2017

Original list price: Various

Date deactivated: September 1, 2023 (Hive Leak sensor), August 1, 2025 (all other Hive security products)

Amazon

UK-based Hive had big plans for the smart home back in 2017. Originally focused on smart heating and thermostats, the brand was poised to branch out into home security with the Hive HomeShield alarm and the Hive View indoor and outdoor cameras (pictured above), while the Hive Leak Sensor would keep its wireless-enabled feelers out for water leaks.

But by 2019, Hive began dialing down its smart home ambitions, first withdrawing from the U.S. and Canadian markets (Hive gave instructions to users in North America on how to dispose of its useless smart gadgets on a support page) and then announcing it would exit the home security market altogether, with its portfolio of camera and security devices slated to go dead by August 1, 2025. (The Hive Leak lost support and connectivity in 2023.) As for refunds, the options arent great.

Hive chose to chop the products because as a smart technology brand in the middle of a climate crisis, we know our focus needs to change, according to a company statement.

Samsung SmartThings first-generation Hub, ADT SmartThings Home Security & Safety System, SmartThings Link

Launched: 2014 (first-gen Hub), 2017 (ADT SmartThings Home Security & Safety System), 2018 (Samsung Link)

Original list price: $99 (hub), $550 and up (ADT SmartThings Home Security kits), $40 (SmartThings Link)

Date deactivated: June 20, 2021

Jared Newman / Foundry

One of the biggest and most stalwart of smart home brands, Samsung SmartThings has nonetheless seen fit to turn some of its older products into paperweights.

Back in 2021, Samsung pulled support for the original SmartThings Hub from 2014not a huge shock, given that the hub was seven years old at the time. Still, due to compatibility issues, first-generation Hub owners were faced with the prospect of recreating their smart home setups from scratch.

More vexing was the decision to axe the much newer Samsung Link (a dongle that allowed the Nvidia Shield to perform double duty as a SmartThings hub, pictured above) and the pricey ADT SmartThings Home Security system, which were (respectively) only three and four years old.

Samsung and partner ADT offered owners of their dead products a combination of refunds and discounts on newer hardware, and the SmartThings ecosystem itself lives on, centered around the SmartThings Station, Aeotecs Smart Home Hub, and Smart Home Hub 2 (just announced at IFA in September) .

Phillips Hue Bridge (first-generation)

Launched: 2012

Original list price: Included in a $199 Hue starter kit

Date deactivated: April 2022

Signify

Signify-owned Philips Hue first began selling its industry-leading smart lights way back in 2012, and the first Hue Bridge (pictured above on the right, with a big red slash through it) came bundled with three Hue bulbs.

Hue discontinued the original Bridge in 2015 in favor of an upgraded (and now square) model with more robust processing power and Apple HomeKit support, but continued to keep the older Bridge operating with frequent software updates.

By 2020, however, Philips Hue announced that first-gen Bridge no longer has the resources to guarantee the evolution of the Hue system.

While owners of the outdated Bridge could still use it locally with the Hue app (so strictly speaking, its not stone dead), the device lost all online services after April 2020, including out-of-home control and voice commands.

Leeo Smart Alert Nightlight

Launched: 2014

Original list price: $99

Date deactivated: Late 2019

Best Buy

Released back in 2014, the Leeo Smart Alert Nightlight was a simple connected device that could listen for smoke, carbon dioxide, and water leak detectors going off. Doubling as a night light, the Leeo Smart Alert could warn you via mobile alert if it heard any home alarms blaringand best of all, the monthly service charge was zip, a rarity in the smart home world.

Sadly, the no-cost service (meaning no recurring income for Leeo) may have sealed the fate of the Smart Alert Nightlight. After notifying customers in August 2019 that it was facing choppy financial waters (the company said it explored the possibility of imposing monthly fees, but never followed through), Leeo announced two months later that it was unable to keep the network on.

Its internet connection gone, the Smart Alert lost all its smarts, although it could still work as a nightlight. (The color-capable light turned white once the network support shut down).

Logitech Harmony universal remotes (first-generation models)

Launched: Various dates

Original list price: Various price points

Dave deactivated: March 2025

Amazon

Ever since 2021, when Logitech first announced it would stop making Harmony remotes, users knew their beloved devices were living on borrowed time.

While Harmony remotes were never widely popular, they were cherished by home theater enthusiasts with multiple A/V devices to juggle. Rather than dealing with a pile of remotes on their coffee tables, they could use a single Harmony remote to control all their components.

The most powerfuland expensiveHarmony remotes could be programmed using an online database of tens of thousands of home theater products, while a Harmony desktop application allowed you to set up elaborate automations that would power up your TV, your A/V receiver, and other components in the right order, and with the correct inputs selected.

When it first announced it was discontinuing the Harmony line, Logitech (which acquired the Harmony brand in 2004) promised to keep the Harmony servers up and running for as long as customers are using [them].

To date, Harmonys servers are still running, but Logitech did go ahead and cut support for two dozen of its first-generation Harmony remotes, including the Harmony 670, 720, 880 and 880 Pro, 1100i, and the Harmony for Xbox 360, while also killing off the legacy desktop app that those older remotes relied on. (Newer Harmony remotes that work with the MyHarmony website and Harmony mobile app are still functional.)

With their support cut off, older Harmony remotes cant be reprogrammed anymore, nor can users add new devices to them or configure new automations. The remotes will still work with their last programmed configurations, but without online Harmony support, their smarts are effectively gone.

Nest Learning Thermostats (first and second generations)

Launched: 2011 (first generation), 2012 (second generation)

Original list price: $250

Date deactivated: October 25, 2025

Walmart

The 2011 arrival of the first Nest Learning Thermostat arguably kicked off the smart home eraand indeed, if you asked a random person on the street back then to name a smart device, the Nest thermostat would probably be the one theyd say.

There have been several iterations of the Nest thermostat over the years, including new and improved Nest Learning Thermostat versions (the fourth generation is the most recent), along with a couple of budget-priced versions: the Nest Thermostat E from 2017, and the plain-old Nest Thermostat in 2020. Through it all, plenty of loyal Nest users kept using their older Nest thermostatswhy fix what aint broke, right?

But in April 2025, Google delivered a hammer blow, announcing that it would drop support for the first- and second-generation Nest Learning Thermostats on October 25, 2025. Not only would the devices stop getting software updates, they would also no longer connect to the Google Home app, nor would they be controllable remotely or by Google Assistant.

The two oldest Nest Learning Thermostats wont go completely dead on October 25, 2025; youll still be able to adjust the temperature, mode, schedules, and other settings manually on the device itself, just as you would on any other dumb thermostat. But once Google cuts off support for the devices, the very quality that made those aging Nest thermostats so specialtheir smartswill vanish.

Its not all bad news for owners of the first- and second-gen Nest Learning Thermostats, however; Google has said it offer those users $130 off the purchase of a fourth-generation Nest Learning Thermostat (which is currently selling for $280).

Dropcam HD and Dropcam Pro

Launched: 2012 (Dropcam HD), Dropcam Pro (2013)

Original list price: $149 (Dropcam HD), $199 (Dropcam Pro)

Date deactivated: April 8, 2024

Amazon

Two of the original smart security cameras, the Dropcam HD and Dropcam Pro revolutionized the DIY home security market with their handsome designs, top-notch (for the time) video quality, and affordable price tags.

None of this escaped the notice of Nest, which scooped up Dropcam in 2014, just prior to Googles acquisition of Nest.

Unlike what happened with the Revolv smart hub, Nest kept both Dropcam units operational for a decade before finally cutting off online support for both models in early April, 2024. Nest even offered the last remaining Dropcam users a free Nest Cam, provided they were Nest Aware subscribers.

Nest Secure

Launched: 2017

Original list price: $499

Date deactivated: April 8, 2024

Google

The Dropcam HD and Dropcam Pro werent the only products that Nest reached out and killed on April 8, 2024. On the same day, the Google-owned brand also pulled the plug on Nest Secure, its DIY home security system.

Released in 2017, the Nest Secure bundle includes the central Nest Guard component, which offers an integrated keypad, siren, and motion sensor, plus two contact sensors and a pair of NFC-equipped Nest Tags that can arm or disarm the system with a tap.

Nest Secure garnered some admiring notices for its attractive industrial design, as well as the tight integration with Nests other smart home devices. But the hefty $500 price tag for just two contact sensors and an alarm was a major turnoff, and Nest discontinued Secure in 2020right around the time that Google sunk $450 million in ADT.

As with the Dropcams, Nest Secure stopped working in April 2024, rendering its alarm and window/door sensors useless. That said, Google did offer Nest Secure users a new ADT security system worth up to $485either that or a $200 Google Store credit.
One of the best things you can do to tangibly step up any PC setup is upgrade your monitor. If youre on a small budget screen, youd be surprise how much more enjoyable things can be with something larger with better colorslike this Samsung 34-inch ViewFinity S6 ultrawide, which is now $349.99 (was $539.99) on Amazon with this significant 35% discount. Thats pretty awesome!

The Samsung ViewFinity S6 is a beautiful display with a 34-inch diagonal and a 21:9 ultrawide aspect ratio, putting the resolution at a crisp 34401440 for true widescreen goodness. Whether youre churning through massive spreadsheets or streaming KPop Demon Hunters for the 10th time, thats enough screen real estate for anythingand with an ultrawide like this, you can even do both side-by-side if you want to.

This isnt a gaming monitor, so you might want to pass if youre planning to build a proper gaming battlestation. But with a refresh rate of 100Hz, its adequate for light gaming. The 1000R curve wraps around your vision and helps alleviate eye strain during long PC sessions. For connectivity, its versatile with HDMI, DisplayPort, and USB-C ports.

If you want a name-brand ultrawide that wont break the bank, get the Samsung ViewFinity S6 for $349.99 while you can! This hot limited-time deal wont last forever, not even on Amazon.

Save $190 on this 34-inch 1440p ultrawide monitor for home PCs
West Shore Home has moved its branch office to Rossmoyne Business Center at 5073 Ritter Road in Upper Allen Township. Photo provided

West Shore Home, which has been opening offices across the country, recently moved one of its Cumberland County offices.

The home improvement company, which provides window, door, and flooring installation, moved its branch office in Lower Allen Township to a 22,000-square-foot building in the Rossmoyne Business Center at 5073 Ritter Road in Upper Allen Township.

West Shore Home has moved from its branch office at 5024 Simpson Ferry Road in Lower Allen Township. Photo provided

West Shore Home had a branch office at 5024 Simpson Ferry Road in Lower Allen Township for 11 years. West Shore Home sold its 13,225-square-foot building, according to the real estate company, Campbell Commercial Partners.

West Shore Home leases its new space on Ritter Road.

The companys corporate headquarters remains at the 56,000-square-foot building at 3 Crossgate Drive in Hampden Township. West Shore Home was founded in 2006 and has offices in 20 states.

Mechanicsburg Simpson Ferry LLC purchased the building on Simpson Ferry Road and plans to redevelop the building into a Caliber auto repair facility. Art Campbell, Jessica Gasper, and Larry Kostelac of Campbell Commercial Partners represented the buyer and seller in the Simpson Ferry Road real estate transaction, as well as the tenant in the Ritter Road real estate transaction.
Law enforcement and emergency personnel respond to a shooting at Evergreen High School Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, in Evergreen, Colo. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post via AP) AP

Update: Authorities say a student is dead after shooting 2 peers and then himself at Colorado high school

DENVER (AP)  Three teens were critically wounded Wednesday in a shooting at a high school in the foothills of suburban Denver, including the suspected shooter, authorities said.

The shooting was reported around 12:30 p.m. at Evergreen High School in Evergreen, about 30 miles west of Denver, Jefferson County Sheriffs Office spokesperson Jacki Kelley said.

It is not clear what led up to the shooting or how the suspected shooter, believed to be a student at the school, was shot. None of the law enforcement officers who responded to the shooting is believed to have fired any shots, Kelley said.

The shooting happened on school grounds, but it wasnt immediately known whether it was inside the school building, she said. Investigators dont believe there is any further threat to the community, she said.

All three teens taken to St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood, Colorado, were shot, CEO Kevin Cullinan said. The high school with more than 900 students is largely surrounded by forest. It is about a mile from the center of Evergreen, which has a population of 9,300 people.

Over 100 police officers from around the Denver area rushed to the school to try to help, Kelley said. A 1999 school shooting at Jefferson Countys Columbine High killed 14 people, including a woman who died earlier this year of complications from her injuries in the shooting.

Parents of Evergreen High School students were told to go to an elementary school to reunite with their children.

This is the scariest thing you could ever think that could happen, and these parents were really frightened and so were the kids, Kelley said.

Parents gathered outside nearby Bergen Meadow Elementary School waiting to reunite with their children.

Wendy Nueman said her 15-year-old daughter, a sophomore at the school, didnt answer her phone right away after the shooting, The Denver Post reported. When her daughter finally called back, it was from a borrowed phone.

She just said she was OK. She couldnt hardly speak, Nueman said, holding back tears. She gathered that her daughter ran from the school.

Its super scary, she said. We feel like we live in a little bubble here. Obviously, no one is immune.

Students board a bus amid heavy police presence at the Evergreen Library after a shooting at Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Colo., on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post via AP) AP

Eighteen students who fled from the shooting took shelter at a home just down the road, after an initial group of them pounded on the door asking for help, resident Don Cygan told Denvers KUSA-TV. One student said he heard gunshots while in the schools cafeteria and ran out of the school, Cygan said.

Cygan, a retired educator familiar with lockdown trainings to prepare for possible shootings, said he took down the names of all the students and the names of the parents who later arrived there to pick them up. His wife, a retired nurse, was able to calm the teens down and treat them for shock, he said.

I hope they feel like they ran to the right house, he said.

Associated Press writer Matthew Brown contributed to this report from Billings, Montana.
An electronic bicyclist crashed into a car while on a Tuesday afternoon ride in Mechanicsburg, then got back up and rode away.

Now, the police are looking for them because they didnt exchange information with the driver whose car they hit.

In Pennsylvania, cyclists have the same rights as drivers while sharing the road. That means they also have a legal responsibility to exchange information, as two drivers would in a crash.

Mechanicsburg police said a driver was turning left onto Weaver Alley from Simpson Street when an e-bicyclist riding west on the sidewalk of Simpson Street crashed into them around 3:30 p.m.

The extent of injuries to the cyclist is unknown. After falling to the ground, police said they got back on the bike and left. Its unknown if the vehicle was damaged.

Police did not provide a description of the bicyclist or the e-bike.

Police are asking anyone with information to call the Mechanicsburg Police Department at 717-691-3300.
News / National

by Staff reporter

A major milestone in Zimbabwe's road infrastructure upgrade was achieved yesterday with the opening of a 3.3km stretch of the Harare-Mazowe road dualisation project, bringing relief to motorists long burdened by congestion along the busy route.The section was officially commissioned by a high-level delegation led by Transport and Infrastructural Development Deputy Minister Joshua Sacco, the ministry's Permanent Secretary Engineer Joy Makumbe, and senior officials from the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA).In remarks delivered on behalf of Transport Minister Felix Mhona, the project was described as more than just a road expansion, but part of a vision to transform the corridor into a modern dual carriageway extending all the way to the Kanyemba Border Post in northeast Zimbabwe."This project represents a key that will unlock immense potential for Zimbabwe, transforming a neglected corridor into a vibrant economic route," Mhona said.He underscored the project's benefits in positioning Zimbabwe as a strategic transit hub within the Southern African Development Community (SADC), offering the shortest route from Harare to Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The upgraded road is also expected to support the movement of minerals and agricultural produce from surrounding districts.The contractor, Exodus and Company, which began work in February last year, was praised for its progress. Project director Engineer Alex Mashangu reaffirmed the company's commitment to seeing the dualisation through to Kanyemba.ZINARA chairperson Dr George Manyaya assured that funding for such projects remains secure, revealing that ZIG6.1 billion had already been disbursed this year for road works across the country.The development forms part of the broader Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP2), under which more than 50,000km of roads have been rehabilitated and reconstructed since 2021.For commuters and businesses, the newly opened stretch offers safer and quicker travel, while for Zimbabwe at large, the project is seen as a vital artery for unlocking trade, investment, and economic growth across northern regions and beyond.
Update: Charlie Kirk, prominent right-wing activist, dies after shooting in Utah

Note: This is a breaking news story that has been updated with new information.

Charlie Kirk, a right-wing political activist and co-founder of Turning Point USA, is in critical condition after he was shot during a Wednesday event at a Utah university, according to multiple news reports.

The event was being hosted at Utah Valley Universitys Sorensen Center courtyard in Orem. Kirk was speaking into a handheld microphone under a white tent with the slogan The American Comeback and Prove Me Wrong.

A university spokesperson told the NYT at least one gunshot was fired from the Losee Center on campus, a building near the courtyard where Kirks event was taking place.

At least one gunshot was fired according to an alert issued to UVU students, DesertNews said.

A single shot was fired on campus toward a visiting speaker. Police are investigating now, suspect in custody, the alert said.

It is unclear who was arrested, but the New York Times reported the person who was taken into custody was not the shooter.

A video of the shooting on social media appear to show Kirk being shot in the neck during a Q&A. Another angle from the crowd showed Kirk lean back as blood poured out of his neck.

According to the Associated Press, Kirk was seen reaching for his neck with his right hand as spectators gasped, screamed and ran away.

Moments before the gunshot, Kirk is heard speaking about gang violence.

PennLive is opting to not publish videos of the shooting circulating online because of their violent nature.

A lockdown was ordered for UVUs campus, but it is unclear how long it will remain in place.

Turning Point USA is a nonprofit organization that advocates for conservative politics on high school, college, and university campuses.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday issued a statement on Truth Social and as a White House press release.

We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot. A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM! the release said.

President Donald Trump, in July 2022 before his re-election, shakes hands with Turning Point CEO Charlie Kirk before speaking during the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit. AP

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro also condemned the shooting in a statement.

The attack on Charlie Kirk is horrifying and this growing type of unconscionable violence cannot be allowed in our society, Shapiros post included.

Political violence has no place in our country.



We must speak with moral clarity. The attack on Charlie Kirk is horrifying and this growing type of unconscionable violence cannot be allowed in our society.  Governor Josh Shapiro (@GovernorShapiro) September 10, 2025

Former Republican Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz, who attended Kirks Wednesday event, spoke about the shooting during a Fox News interview.

It seemed like it was a close shot, Chaffetz said as he described hearing the gunshot and seeing Kirk go back.

Chaffetz said Kirk had some security, but not enough, and a light police presence was there to assist.

Utah is one of the safest places on the planet, Chaffetz said. And so we just dont have these types of things.
This screengrab made from video provided by the Charlotte Area Transit System shows Iryna Zarutska, bottom right, before she was fatally stabbed on a commuter train on Aug. 22, 2025. (Charlotte Area Transit System via AP) AP

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and ERIK VERDUZCO, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Justice Department on Tuesday charged a man accused of fatally stabbing a Ukrainian refugee on a North Carolina commuter train last month with a federal crime that could carry the death penalty.

The federal charge comes amid growing questions about why Decarlos Brown Jr. was on the street despite 14 prior criminal arrests before he was accused of pulling out a knife and killing 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska in an apparently random attack captured on video.

The case has become the latest flashpoint in the debate over whether cities such as Charlotte are adequately addressing violent crime, mental illness and transit safety. The Trump administration says the killing shows how local leaders, judges and policies in Democratic-led cities are failing to protect their residents from violent crime.

Iryna Zarutska was a young woman living the American dream  her horrific murder is a direct result of failed soft-on-crime policies that put criminals before innocent people, said Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. We will seek the maximum penalty for this unforgivable act of violence  he will never again see the light of day as a free man."

Zarutska had been living in a bomb shelter in Ukraine before coming to the U.S. to escape the war, according to relatives, who described her as determined to build a safer life.

This booking photo provided by the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025, shows Decarlos Brown Jr., who is charged with the fatal stabbing of a Ukrainian refugee. (Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office via AP) AP

Video released Friday shows Zarutska entering a light-rail train on Aug. 22 and taking a seat in front of Brown, who was seated behind her. Minutes later, without any apparent interaction, he pulls out a pocketknife, stands and slashes her in the neck, investigators said. Passengers scream and scatter as she collapses.

He is charged federally with causing death on a mass transportation system, which carries up to life in prison or the death penalty. Russ Ferguson, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, said additional charges could be brought as the investigation continues.

The federal case will run parallel with the state case charging Brown with first-degree murder.

The death penalty is also a potential punishment for people convicted of first-degree murder in North Carolina. However, the state has not executed anyone since 2006. Legal challenges over the use of lethal injection drugs and a doctors presence at executions have in part delayed action.

Brown had cycled through the criminal justice system for more than a decade, including serving five years for robbery with a dangerous weapon in Mecklenburg County, according to court records. He was arrested earlier this year after repeatedly calling 911 from a hospital, claiming people were trying to control him. A judge released him without bail.

This undated photo posted to Instagram on June 9, 2025, by Iryna Zarutska shows a picture of herself. (Iryna Zarutska via AP) AP

His mother told local television she sought an involuntary psychiatric commitment this year after he became violent at home. Doctors diagnosed him with schizophrenia.

Court records show a judge ordered a psychological exam in July at the request of his public defender to determine whether he was capable of contributing to his own defense. It wasnt clear if the exam was scheduled or why it didnt happen before the late August attack.

The Mecklenburg County public defenders office did not answer a call Tuesday.

The Trump administration has repeatedly blamed Democrats for what they say is out-of-control crime and violence in blue cities. The White House highlighted the case during Tuesdays press briefing, while Trump has repeatedly spoken about the killing, saying in one social media post: Criminals like this need to be LOCKED UP.

Americans have to feel safe in the cities that they live in, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Fox News. And this is a stark example of how leftist liberal policies are failing.

Charlotte has increased security along its transit lines in response to the fatal stabbing, Mayor Vi Lyles said in a letter to the citys residents. The Democratic mayors letter was also critical of the court system, echoing some of the critics of the citys response.

People enter and exit a Charlotte Area Transit System light rail, Monday, Sept. 8, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Erik Verduzco) AP

Lyles called the killing a tragic failure by the courts and magistrates, saying the citys officers arrest people who are then quickly released.

The state auditor, Republican Dave Boliek, said his office would audit Charlottes transit system, looking at its safety and security budget and private security contracts.

Associated Press reporter Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia contributed. Verduzco reported from Charlotte, North Carolina.
Pennsylvanias governor and lawmakers have responded to the shooting of right-wing and Turning Point USA co-founder activist Charlie Kirk on Wednesday at a Utah University.

Political violence has no place in our country, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a post on X. We must speak with moral clarity. The attack on Charlie Kirk is horrifying and this growing type of unconscionable violence cannot be allowed in our society.

Lawmakers condemned the attack after videos appeared to show Kirk being shot in the neck.

I condemn this in the strongest terms. There is ZERO place in our great country for these horrendous acts of political violence, Sen. John Fetterman said on X. We must find a better way forward. May Charlie Kirk have a full and quick recovery."

Rep. Dan Meuser also shared his sentiments on X.

I am praying for Charlie Kirk, his wife, and his young family. Charlie has been a driving force in the conservative movement, inspiring countless people to stand up for their values and for America, Meuser said. He worked tirelessly to foster civil discourse and promote open dialogue where ideas could be debated freely.

The fact that he was shot is heartbreaking and infuriating  and it is the very antithesis of what he stood for. Charlie believed in debate, in persuasion, in the power of words over violence. Political violence has absolutely no place in our society. It is cowardly, it is destructive, and it is an attack on free speech itself. Lets come together and all say a prayer for Charlie Kirk.

Lieutenant Gov. Austin Davis focused his reaction on safety.

People deserve to be safe at school, safe on their campus, and safe in their community. Full stop, Davis said. The shooting of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University is horrifying and targeting anyone for their speech or their beliefs is unacceptable. Gun violence is uniquely an American problem, and it is one we can and must do something about.

Pa. Attorney General Dave Sunday said We must speak with one voice- Political violence is never acceptable and has to stop. I join so many in praying for Charlie Kirk after this disgusting attack on his life.

Lawmakers in Pennsylvanias general assembly also reacted to the shooting.

I condemn todays violent act in Utah as I would an act of violence in my own community, Rep. Joanna McClinton, speaker of the Pa. House, said. Guns should never be a tool for resolving our differences, and violence is wrong no matter whom it is perpetrated against. Acts like these have no place in our political discourse and violence will never make our communities or our country stronger.

Pa. Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward condemned the shooting on X.

Political violence is a tragic reality fueled by hateful rhetoric that leads to unspeakable acts, Ward said. Im praying for Charlie Kirks recovery. God bless him and our nation.

Republican House leader Rep. Jesse Topper also released a statement.

My thoughts and prayers go out to Charlie Kirk and, importantly, his young family, Topper said. We live in a civil society where we engage in responsible discourse, not political violence. To put it plainly: These horrific acts must cease.

Kirk was shot at an event at Utah Valley universitys Sorensen Center courtyard in Orem. The university said a single shot was fired at Kirk and a suspect is in custody.
Before his tragic death due to drowning while on vacation in Costa Rica this summer, Cosby Show alum Malcolm-Jamal Warner opened up about the iconic sitcom that ran from 1984 to 1992.

The late actor, who was 54 when he died, was interviewed for the two-part HBO documentary Seen & Heard, which premiered Sept. 9 and 10.

The documentary, executive produced by Issa Rae, follows the past, present and future of Black talent and Black programming on television.

The first episode, Seen, debuted on the platform Sept. 9 at 9 p.m. ET, while the second episode, Heard, premieres today at the same time.

Per People, in a segment focused on The Cosby Show, Warner opened up about how a stark, early interaction with Bill Cosby influenced his acting on the show.

When I auditioned for Cosby, I was 13, Warner recalled, who played the only Huxtable son, Theo. Id been watching, you know, Diffrent Strokes and watching these kids on television be smart alecks and what have you. Thats what my acting had been influenced by."

When he auditioned for the part, he thought it went well  initially.

I mean, I killed in the room. I was getting the laughs, and Im 13, Im killing in the room. And I finished my audition, and everybody was smiling, except Mr. Cosby, and he looked at me, and he said, Would you really talk to your father like that? And I said, No. He said, Well, I dont want to see that on this show.

Warner also remembered how Cosby fought with executives over the tone of the show because he wanted the sitcom to remain authentic to his vision.

Mr. Cosby made certain that everyone was acutely aware The Cosby Show was his brainchild," Warner explained. But then you have these other creatives, you know, theres a network producer, writers, you know, studio coming in, trying to tell him how to do his show, and every step of the way, Mr. Cosby had to stop them and remind them thats not the show that were doing.

This was a fight Cosby constantly found himself ingratiated in but won every time.

I watched him do that from year one to year eight, he added. That battle never, never stopped, until the show stopped.

But to Warner, the constant battle was well worth the warfare because the impact the show had on fans was indescribable.

I was getting tens of thousands of letters from people who were saying, Thank you. Thank you for the show. We are the Huxtables, and you know, and the show obviously got criticized for not being Black enough, not being a real depiction of the black experience, he said in the documentary.
On a statement posted on its website, Cracker Barrel said it is reversing course on plans to remodel stores after online backlash from customers. (AP File Photo/Ted Shaffrey) AP

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store announced its rocking chairs, peg games and nostalgic knick-knacks will remain in its restaurants

On Tuesday, in a statement posted on its website the chain said it is reversing course on plans to remodel stores after online backlash from customers.

Old country store is here to stay, Cracker Barrel shared, emphasizing only four out of 660 locations had been remodeled.

We heard clearly that the modern remodel design does not reflect what you love about Cracker Barrel, the statement read. Of course, we will continue to invest in our restaurants to make sure they are in good shape and meet your expectations.

The remodels were an effort by the chain to modernize and declutter country-themed items decorating the restaurants walls.

It tested the modern, brighter look at four locations. But customers said they preferred nostalgia, not a modern look.

On Tuesday, Cracker Barrel reassured customers it will retain the vintage Americana customers love.

We want you to have a warm, welcoming space for friends and family to gather and enjoy our craveable food and country hospitality, it said.

The announcement comes two weeks after the Tennessee-based chain reverted back to its original Old Timer logo following widespread criticism over a new simplified logo.

The chain wanted to create a fresh look and eliminate the logo featuring a man, known as Uncle Herschel, next to a barrel.

But critics accused the chain of being woke and eliminating its Southern heritage. Even President Donald Trump weighed in, saying Cracker Barrel should return to the way it was.

In its message on Tuesday, Cracker Barrel said moving forward its focus will be on the menu and food.
Brent Hinds, one of the founding members of Atlanta, Georgia-based Mastodon, was killed in a motorcycle crash last month. (Photo by Sam Newman/WireImage) WireImage

It was reported last month that one of the founding members of a popular American heavy metal band was killed in a motorcycle crash.

Now, police have provided the public with more details about the crash.

Atlanta News First reports that 51-year-old Brent Hinds  the former guitarist of Atlanta, Georgia-based Mastodon  was found at fault by police for the crash that occurred on the night of Aug. 20.

Cops initially stated in their preliminary report that the driver of the SUV that collided with Hinds failed to yield while making a left turn at an intersection, Atlanta News First explains.

However, Blabbermouth.net adds that a newly released crash reports states Hinds was going between 63 and 68 miles-per-hour at the time, about twice the speed limit at the crash site. Police also relied on video of the intersection that they say clearly depicts what occurred, as well as the testimony of two witnesses who spotted Hinds driving fast.

Billboard reported earlier in the year that Hinds and the other Mastodon members had parted ways after about 25 years together. Hinds later claimed via social media that he had been kicked out of the band.

According to Hindss obituary, he is survived by his mother, father, stepmother, stepsister, nephew, niece, and many cousins, extended family, friends, and fans.
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) AP

By RUSS BYNUM and KATE BRUMBACK, The Associated Press

POOLER, Ga. (AP)  After more than 300 South Korean workers were taken into custody during a raid on an electric battery plant in Georgia, the countrys foreign minister traveled to the U.S. this week in hopes of bringing them home.

Law enforcement agents detained some 475 workers during the raid Thursday at the battery factory under construction on the campus of Hyundais sprawling auto plant west of Savannah. South Koreas Foreign Ministry said Seoul and Washington were discussing details for the workers return.

Here are some things to know about the raid and its aftermath.

What efforts have been made to get the South Koreans home?

Korean Air says a Boeing 747-8i will fly from South Korea to Atlanta as early as Wednesday to bring the workers home. Asked about the flight and about Foreign Minister Cho Hyuns visit to the U.S., the Korean embassy said it is staying in close contact with U.S. authorities and that its priority is the safety of our citizens.

The South Korean workers were being held at an immigration detention center in Folkston, in southeast Georgia, near the state line with Florida. Its a 285-mile (460-kilometer) drive from there to Atlanta.

South Korean television stations showed Cho Ki-joong, consul general at the Korean Embassy in Washington, speaking outside the detention center. He said some administrative steps remained to be completed but that things were going smoothly. The South Korean Foreign Ministry declined to comment on media reports that he and other diplomats met with detained workers.

What are the immigration consequences for the workers?

U.S. authorities have said that those detained during the raid were unlawfully working at the plant. But Charles Kuck, a lawyer representing several of the detained South Koreans, said the vast majority of the workers from South Korea were doing work that is authorized under the B-1 business visitor visa program.

A B-1 visitor for business visa allows foreign workers to stay for up to six months, getting reimbursed for expenses while collecting a paycheck back home. There are limits  for example, they can supervise construction projects but cant build anything themselves  but if its spelled out in a contract, they can install equipment, Los Angeles immigration lawyer Angelo Paparelli said.

Also, South Korea is one of 41 countries whose citizens can use the U.S. Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), which provides a visa waiver if they can provide a legitimate reason for their visit, and this basically gives them B-1 visa status for up to 90 days, said immigration attorney Rita Sostrin in Los Angeles.

South Koreas Foreign Ministry has said that officials from Seoul and Washington are discussing details that could allow all of that countrys detained workers to leave the U.S. voluntarily instead of being deported. A deportation order could make someone ineligible to return to the U.S. for up to 10 years, while people who agree to voluntary departure may be able to apply for a visa to return to the U.S., according to a guide on the Justice Departments website.

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun holds his mobile phone before a session of the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Sept. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) AP

What effect has the raid had on the area around the plant?

In Pooler, a suburb of Savannah, the sprawling Hyundai electric vehicle plant has triggered noticeable growth.

Signs in shopping center parking lots point to homes for sale in new subdivisions nearby. Construction crews work on multistory apartment buildings while finished apartments in the same complex display large banners proclaiming theyre ready for new residents.

Meanwhile, a growing number of Korean restaurants and Asian grocery stores have found a home among standard American fast-food franchises and chain eateries like Starbucks and Cracker Barrel.

Ruby Gould, president of the Korean American Association of Greater Savannah, said theres no question that last weeks raid has raised anxiety among the areas Korean immigrants.

People are very upset about the incident, the arrest of the workers, Gould said. Im sure there are some people in fear about this visa situation after they witnessed whats happened.

The U.S. Census Bureau says Poolers population jumped to 31,171 last year, an increase of 21% since 2020. That period includes the groundbreaking and construction of Hyundais EV factory.

People of Asian origin made up just 6% of the suburban citys residents in 2020. While newer demographic data isnt available, people in the area say Korean-Americans and South Korean immigrants make up a sizable share of recent newcomers.

Pastor Robin Kim and his wife closed last month on a new home in Pooler, where Kim is starting his own church. He left the Army a few months ago after serving as a chaplain to soldiers at nearby Fort Stewart. Kim said they wanted to be a part of the Savannah suburbs growing Korean community.

Kim, 51, has sought to calm some of the anger and anxiety in the community since last weeks raid. He noticed fewer Korean people out shopping over the weekend, and reads a constant stream of messages posted in a chat group of 1,900 local Korean residents.

The people feel like theyre being watched, like theyre being judged by the American people, Kim said. They are scared right now. They dont want to be trouble.

He said some are resentful at the U.S. government considering the billions of dollars Hyundai has invested in the Georgia plant and the thousands of U.S. jobs its creating. Others worry the immigration arrests will mean increased scrutiny that hinders their own efforts to extend visas or obtain green cards.

FILE - Euisun Chung, Executive Chair, Hyundai Motor Company, left, stands with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp as Chung signs an IONIQ 9 EV vehicle during a media tour and grand opening at the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America, March 26, 2025, in Ellabell, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart) AP

A suggestion that local Korean residents stage a protest, Kim said, was quickly stifled by others who cautioned against drawing attention.

Theyre trying to keep a low profile right now, he said, to not go out much and stay home.

For his part, Kim hopes the raid doesnt have lasting impacts.

I hope the Korean community keeps thriving here, he said, and we get over this incident real soon.

Brumback reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Hyung-Jin Kim in Seoul, Didi Tang and Paul Wiseman in Washington.
The Cruise ship " Rhapsody of the Seas " seen in 2015 from the Greek island of Santorini. A man was recently arrested after authorities said he leapt off of the ship in order to avoid paying a $16,000 gambling debt. Getty Images

A man was arrested last weekend after authorities said he leapt off of a Royal Caribbean cruise ship in order to avoid paying a $16,000 gambling debt.

Jey Gonzalez-Diaz jumped off the Rhapsody of the Seas near the Port of Suan Juan, Puerto Rico, at around 9:15 a.m. Sunday during a U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspection. The ship was coming back from a trip to Barbados.

Gonzalez-Diaz was taken to shore by someone nearby on a jet ski. Police later found him near the Puerto Rico Capitol Building, according to CBS News. He had $14,600 in cash, two phones and five IDs on him.

He told police that he jumped off the ship because he did not want to report the currency on his possession because he thought he was going to be taxed duties for bring in the currency.

When asked for his full name, he told officers, If you guys were good at your job, you would know that, according to a criminal complaint.

Royal Caribbean, however, told police that Gonzalez-Diaz had booked his trip under the name Jeremy Diaz, and that he owed $16,710.24 to the cruise line from gambling on the ship.

Gonzalez-Diaz is charged with attempting to avoid monetary reporting requirements when traveling into the U.S. If convicted he faces up to a $250,000 fine and/or five years in prison.
By DORANY PINEDA, The Associated Press

The Trump administration is reviewing material about slavery, the destruction of Native American culture, climate change and more at federal parks after employees flagged information that could be disparaging to Americans, according to screenshots shared with The Associated Press.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March directing the Interior Department  which manages parks, monuments and other designated land  to ensure public property doesnt contain elements that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living. Instead, it said to focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people and the beauty, abundance, and grandeur of the American landscape.

The National Park Service had until July 18 to flag inappropriate signs, exhibits and other material, according to a document shared with the AP by the National Parks Conservation Association, which obtained internal information from an anonymous source within the Interior Department. The public was also encouraged to participate.

As we carry out this directive, well be evaluating all signage in the park along with the public feedback weve received, said Elizabeth Peace, spokesperson for the Interior Department. This effort reinforces our commitment to telling the full and accurate story of our nations past.

The department said any signs inconsistent with the executive order will be removed or covered and reinstated once edits are made. The administration said it would remove all inappropriate material by Sept. 17, according to The New York Times, citing internal agency documents.

The directive has raised concerns about sanitizing and erasing dark sides of American history.

Pretending that the bad stuff never happened is not going to make it go away, said Alan Spears, a senior director with the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonpartisan group separate from the national parks system that advocates for it. We need to be able to talk about these things if were going to have any hope of bringing people together.

A look at some of the material that was flagged for review:

The Cape Hatteras lighthouse in Buxton, N.C. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File) AP

North Carolina: Climate change, pollution

WHATS IN DISPUTE: A sign titled The Air We Breathe was flagged because it discusses the importance of clean air. Pollution from human-caused ozone, it explains, threatens peoples health and vegetation, and power plants, cars and industries that burn fossil fuels are the pollutants primary sources.

In North Carolinas Cape Hatteras National Seashore, there are signs about sea level rise due to climate change. We do not believe it to be in violation, but would like someone to review if messaging of climate change and sea level rise reduces the focus on the grandeur, beauty and abundance, one employee wrote.

THE BACK STORY: Emissions from burning fossil fuels are heating the planet, causing ice sheets and glaciers to melt and seawater to expand. Rising seas threaten the people and ecosystems that live by the coast.

THE REACTION: Carlos Martinez, climate scientist for the Union of Concerned Scientists, thinks the agency should be educating the public about the threats national parks face.

These public parks are places to learn about pollution, climate change and environmental degradation, he said, and eliminating this information limits the ability for our population, especially for the younger generation, to understand these issues that allow them to then take action.

An informational panel is seen at President's House Site Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) AP

People look at an informational panel on slavery at the President's House Site Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) AP

South Carolina and Pennsylvania: Enslavement of Black people

WHATS IN DISPUTE: At a gift shop in Charles Pinckney National Historic Site in South Carolina, marked for review were books for sale, including Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs. Similar books were flagged elsewhere, including at the Washington Monument, where someone identified a book discussing George Washington as a slave owner.

In Philadelphias Independence National Historical Park, flagged were descriptions of the whipping, kidnapping, rape and other brutality slaveholders inflicted on Black people. At another, an employee identified an exhibit about Black Americans escaping to freedom that names slave owners.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Angela Val, president and CEO of Visit Philadelphia, said that if displays about slavery at the Presidents House Site, near the Liberty Bell, are removed, her organization would step in to keep that history alive for visitors in another location.

THE BACK STORY: The legacy of slavery and racism has laid the foundation for the inequalities Black people face in the U.S., including greater rates of poverty, disease and illness, and incarceration at more than five times the rate of white people.

THE REACTION: Slavery is not a side story. Its the engine of American economic growth for more than two centuries, said Cedric Haynes, vice president of policy and legislative affairs with the NAACP. And there are individuals who played a part in this.

Its important to name the people who perpetuated slaverys atrocities, he said, because that legacy is embedded in American laws, institutions and the nations wealth.

Alaska and Florida: A complex history with Native Americans

WHATS IN DISPUTE: At Sitka National Historical Park in Alaska, an employee flagged a panel about missionaries who sought to destroy the language and culture of Alaska Natives and forcefully remove them from their lands. The concerning text says: The history of this land includes a series of actions that attempted to remove the Sheetka Kwaan from their land, culture, and language which includes forced relocations under both Russian and American governance.

In Floridas Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, tagged was a panel discussing imprisonment of Plains Indians. Text of panel needs review for language referring to tribes having choice of extinction or assimilation. Language of U.S. Government giving the choice of extinction could be considered negative towards the United States, they wrote.

THE BACK STORY: The relationship between the United States and Indigenous nations has been fraught, violent, dispossessive and complex over the centuries, and the national parks are part of that story, said Jessica R. Cattelino, American Indian studies professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. To cut off parts of those stories because they might make someone uncomfortable, thats a disservice to the ecological and cultural value of these lands.

Brenda Child, a Red Lake Ojibwe tribe member and American and American Indian studies professor at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, said its only been about two decades since we started telling the accurate history of the United States and Native Americans.

THE REACTION: Its sad to think about efforts to rewrite it now, she says, at a time when more accurate portrayals of Indigenous history in the U.S. finally exist. But the way I always look at these things is: You can try to suppress it, but the cats out of the bag. We know what happened. The books have been written.

A visitor reads information outside of the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center in Everglades National Park in Homestead, Fla., on Friday, Jan. 4, 2019. (Lynne Sladky, The Associated Press, file) AP

Florida: A slight to Industrial America?

WHATS IN DISPUTE: Is Floridas Everglades National Park a slight to industrial development in America? Stories of the lands urbanization, agriculture and more presented across the park could be conceived as being disparaging to the development of Industrial America, one employee wrote.

THE BACK STORY: The Everglades is a subtropical wilderness that protects 1.5 million acres of habitats and biodiversity and is a vital source of drinking water for millions. The Seminole and Miccosukee tribes have called these lands home for centuries.

Decades of urban and farming development degraded the ecosystem, until, in 1947, the park was established to protect what remained. Underway is a massive state-federal project, approved by Congress in 2000 with bipartisan support, that aims to undo the damages.

THE REACTION: People committed these harms generations ago without knowing better. And we know better now, and we cannot lose sight of the lessons learned, said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades. If we dont keep in clear view that history and the mistakes that we made in our past, then we are doomed to repeat them.
Hundreds of Bhutanese and Nepali community members gathered in Dauphin County Tuesday night for a candlelight vigil honoring those killed and injured in protests across Nepal this week. Madison Montag

Hundreds of Nepali and Bhutanese community members gathered in Dauphin County on Tuesday night for a candlelight vigil honoring those killed and injured in protests across Nepal this week.

The local gathering was organized after at least 22 people died protesting a sweeping social media ban in the country. Protestors tried to swarm parliament after the government imposed a ban on more than two dozen social media platforms, including Facebook, X, YouTube, WeChat and LinkedIn, the New York Times reported.

Government forces on Monday opened fire on protesters, with first reports indicating that at least 19 were killed and dozens more were injured. The death toll was later adjusted higher.

By Tuesday morning, all of the social media services that had been banned were restored.

Nepali officials said the social media ban was imposed because the 26 platforms failed to register with authorities regarding fake accounts used for hate speech, fake news and fraud, Reuters said.

However, social media platforms play an important role in Nepal, where many citizens work internationally and electronically send money home to their loved ones. According to Reuters, about 90% of the countrys 30 million people use the internet.

Hundreds of Bhutanese and Nepali community members gathered in Dauphin County Tuesday night for a candlelight vigil honoring those killed and injured in protests across Nepal this week. Madison Montag

Tuesdays candlelight vigil, held in the 5600 block of Derry Street in Swatara Township, brought together people of all ages, but emphasized the younger generation, specifically Gen Z.

A group of Gen Z youth held signs that read, There is no flag big enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people; Stand for Nepal, Stand for Justice; Lets Go Gen-Z, Justice for Nepal, Enough is Enough and Our future is not for sale.

Hundreds of Bhutanese and Nepali community members gathered in Swatara Township Tuesday night for a candlelight vigil honoring those killed and injured in protests across Nepal this week. Madison Montag

Many in the crowd were flying Nepali flags as the group gathered around a painting on the floor that said Nepal and We Are With Gen-Z.

The rally started at 6:30 and ran for close to an hour.

Hundreds of Bhutanese and Nepali community members gathered in Swatara Township Tuesday night for a candlelight vigil honoring those killed and injured in protests across Nepal this week. Madison Montag

Many of the protestors in Nepal appear to be teenagers and young adults, who dubbed it the Gen Z protest, the Times said.

Tilak Niroula, president of the Bhutanese Nepali Community in Harrisburg, said Tuesdays vigil represents the tight-knit community his people share with each other worldwide.

We stand up for Nepal, Niroula said. We stand today, and we will continue to stand tomorrow.

The protests are a result of new generations and ideologies, Niroula added.

The change in Nepal, as we see in the movement and protests by Gen Z, I think it is all about transformation. Everybody wants to see a new system, a new government and wants to make a really beautiful country, he said.

After several people spoke, the crowd observed a moment of silence before lighting candles and filling the air with Nepali music.

The energy that we see in Nepal is wonderful, but in the meantime, we are very devastated by the news of 22 young children and youths killed by the government of Nepal, Niroula said. We feel so sad, and that is the reason why we are here.
News / National

by Staff reporter

The High Court has found businessman Regis Maburutse in contempt of court and sentenced him to six months in prison, wholly suspended on condition he complies with a 2023 order barring him from interfering in the affairs of Matebeleland Engineering (Pvt) Ltd.Justice Regis Dembure ruled that Maburutse had "wilfully and blatantly" defied a previous judgment by Justice Gladys Mhuri, which interdicted him from disrupting fellow director and shareholder Tony Renato Sarpo.In his affidavit, Sarpo accused Maburutse of forging records, harassing employees and even rebranding the company's signage in Harare and Bulawayo under new names to sidestep the order."The 1st respondent continues to hold himself out as such [a director], blatantly illegally, and continues to usurp the functions of the board," Sarpo told the court.Maburutse's defence collapsed after the court struck out his opposing affidavit, ruling it had been improperly commissioned. Justice Dembure noted:"Once an affidavit is found to have been improperly commissioned, it is a nullity. Nothing can flow from it."With the affidavit invalid, Sarpo's claims stood unchallenged. The court stressed that its orders must be respected, warning that Maburutse risks actual jail time at Chikurubi Maximum Prison if he persists in defying the ruling.Meanwhile, co-respondent Wayne Williams was cleared of contempt, with the judge noting that the 2023 order had imposed no obligations on him.The ruling is the latest twist in a bitter shareholder battle over Matebeleland Engineering, which has been marred by allegations of forgery, asset stripping and multiple appeals  most of which Sarpo has so far won.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) has invited high school students throughout the state to participate in this years PennDOT Innovations Challenge, which encourages students to use their problem-solving, creative, and strategic-thinking abilities to solve real-world transportation challenges in a competition among their peers.

The Innovations Challenge is open to all students in grades 9-12, regardless of their schools learning model, a press release said.

The submission deadline is Jan. 30, 2026.

For this years challenge, students are asked to develop a concept for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in work zones to dramatically improve safety for work crews and road users. The concept must outline how PennDOT can use smarter systems to prevent accidents and protect those who are working to build a better Pennsylvania.

The concept should also take into consideration cost-benefit information, statewide deployment implications, and public outreach.

Each year, I have the honor of meeting some of the brightest young minds in the Commonwealth who present their solutions for the issues we face every day in transportation. Its rare that we have the opportunity to explore such new technology with a fresh set of eyes, PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll said. Safety is the most critical aspect of maintenance and construction, and I know were going to see some truly unique solutions put forward by this years teams.

Regional Innovations Challenge winners will be selected and invited to present their solutions to Carroll and a panel of judges, who will determine the statewide winner.

For this years challenge, PennDOT is partnering with several organizations to provide a monetary award to the statewide winning team to be announced on the Innovations Challenge webpage at a later date. These organizations include:

For complete Innovations Challenge details, visit www.penndot.gov/innovation and click on the PennDOT Innovations Challenge link.
An 87-year-old woman who died last week was injured in a York County crash more than four months ago involving a Pennsylvania State Police cruiser, the coroners office said Wednesday.

York Township resident Patricia Weidner was driving a vehicle that a trooper crashed into on April 15 at South Pleasant Avenue and Blymire Road in the township, Coroner Pamela Gay said.

Gay said the trooper was headed to a call when the crash happened around 10 a.m.

The intersection is in a rural area surrounded by farmland, with clear visibility from all directions.

State police were not immediately available Wednesday to answer questions about the crash, including the call the trooper was headed to at the time.

Weidner was hospitalized at WellSpan York Hospital for two months, then transferred to York South Nursing and Rehab, where she died at 6:30 a.m. on Sept. 3.

An autopsy was completed on Sept. 4 at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown. Weidners cause and manner of death are still pending as of publication.
Smoke rises from an explosion on the Islamic National Bank following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City, at Gaza City, Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) AP

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Author: David Mednicoff, UMass Amherst

The oil-rich states of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have a lot going for them: wealth, domestic stability and growing global influence. In recent months, these Gulf kingdoms also appear closer to something they have long sought: reliable U.S. support that has become stronger and more uncritical than ever, just as Iranian power in the region has significantly degraded.

In Donald Trump, the non-elected Gulf Arab monarchs have an ally in Washington who has largely shed previous American concerns for democracy and human rights. That the American president made his first scheduled international trip of his second term to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE only underscores their international clout.

Additionally, the popular overthrow of the Assad government in Syria and Israels war against Iran and its allies in Lebanon and Yemen have served to greatly weaken Tehrans perceived threat to Gulf Arab interests.

Yet, as an expert on Middle Eastern politics, I believe Gulf Arab countries must still navigate a regional political tightrope. And as the Israeli targeting of senior Hamas leaders in Qatar on Sept. 9, 2025, shows, events by other Middle Eastern actors have a nasty habit of derailing Gulf leaders plans.

How these countries manage four particular uncertainties will have a significant effect on their hopes for stability and growth.

1. Managing a post-civil war Syria

In Syria, years of civil war that had exacerbated splits among ethnic and religious groups finally ended in December 2024. Since then, Arab Gulf countries, which once opposed the Iranian-allied government of Bashar Assad, have been pivotal in supporting new Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa. They successfully lobbied the U.S. to drop sanctions.

In addition to sharing mutual regional interests with Sharaa, the leaders of Gulf Arab states want a Syrian state that is free from internal war and can absorb the millions of refugees who fled the conflict to other countries in the Middle East.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman greets Syrias interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa in February 2025. Saudi Ministry of Media via AP

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman greets Syrias interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa in February 2025. Saudi Ministry of Media via AP Saudi Ministry of Media via AP

Gulf states can support postwar Syria diplomatically and financially. However, they cant wish away the legacy of long war and sectarian strife. Israeli attacks on Syrian soil since Assads fall, as well as recent outbreaks of fighting in the Sweida region of southern Syria, underscore the ongoing fragility of the Syrian government and concerns over its ability to contain violence and migration outside of its borders.

2. The challenge of regional politics

Syria illustrates a broader policy challenge for Gulf states. As their wealth, military strength and influence have grown, these countries have become dominant in the Arab world.

As a result, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have invested billions of dollars in efforts to influence governments and groups across the world. This includes the mostly authoritarian governments in the Middle East and North Africa, such as Egypts.

But here, Gulf states are torn politically. If democratic systems form elsewhere in the Arab world, this could encourage Gulf citizens to push for elected government at home. Yet overly coercive Arab governments outside of the Gulf can be prone to popular unrest and even civil war.

Propping up unpopular regional governments risks backfiring on Gulf Arab leaders in one of two ways.

First, it can entice Gulf states into protracted and damaging wars, such as was the case with Saudi Arabia and the UAEs failed military intervention in Yemen against the Houthis. Second, it can drive a wedge between Gulf states, as is seen with the current conflict in Sudan, in which the Saudis and Emiratis are backing rival factions.

3. Watching which way Iran will turn

Always looming behind complicated Middle Eastern politics is Iran, the historically powerful, populous, non-Arab country whose governing Shiite Islam ideology has been the chief antagonist to the Sunni-led Gulf Arab states since the Iranian Revolution in 1979.

Opposing Gulf Arab and American strategic interests, Iran has for years intervened aggressively in Middle Eastern politics by funding and encouraging militant Shiite groups in Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and elsewhere.

An assertive Iran has been especially a thorn in the side of Saudi Arabia, which strives to be the dominant Muslim majority power in the region. Dealing with Iran has required careful balancing from Qatar and the UAE, which are more directly exposed to Tehran geographically and have maintained relatively stronger relations.

Given this, Gulf countries may silently welcome the decrease in Irans military power in the wake of Israels recent war against Iran and its allies, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, while also fearing further Iranian-Israeli conflict.

At the same time, a less powerful Iran runs two types of new potential dangers for Gulf states. Should Iran become more unstable, the resulting turmoil could be felt across the region.

In addition, should Irans military, policy and economic turmoil lead to a new political system, it could disturb Gulf countries. Neither a Muslim majority democratic government nor a more hard-line nationalist variant in Iran would sit well with nearby Gulf monarchs.

Conversely, concerns that the Israeli and U.S. bombing of Iran may actually lead to increased Iranian determination to pursue a nuclear program also worry Gulf leaders.

4. Living with Israels military assertiveness

Israel, the unquestioned military power and sole nuclear weapons state in the region, has long posed particularly deep political dilemmas to Gulf Arab states. The current challenge is how to balance the immense global unpopularity of the Israeli governments war in Gaza  including among Gulf Arab citizens  with common strategic interests the Gulf states hold with Israel.

Gulf Arab leaders face domestic and regional pressure to show solidarity for Palestinians and their aspirations for statehood.

Yet Gulf rulers also share strategic goals with Israel. Along with opposition to Iranian influence, Gulf states maintain strong military links to the U.S, like Israel. They also appreciate the economic and other security value of Israels high-tech products, including software used for espionage and cybersecurity.

This helps explain the UAEs 2019 decision to join the short list of Arab states with full diplomatic relations with Israel. Hamas attacked Israel in 2023 in part to stop Saudi Arabia from following suit  something that might have further sidelined Palestinians bargaining power.

Indeed, moves toward open Saudi diplomatic recognition of Israel were stopped by Hamas attack and the global backlash that followed Israels ongoing devastation of Gaza.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, right, welcomes President Donald Trump for the group photo with Gulf Cooperation Council leaders during the GCC Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on May 14, 2025. AP Photo/Alex Brandon Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, right, welcomes President Donald Trump for the group photo with Gulf Cooperation Council leaders during the GCC Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on May 14, 2025. AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, right, welcomes President Donald Trump for the group photo with Gulf Cooperation Council leaders during the GCC Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on May 14, 2025. AP Photo/Alex Brandon AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Gulf leaders may still believe that normalized ties with Israel would be good for the long-term economic prospects of the region. And Bahrain and the UAE  the two Gulf Arab states with diplomatic relations with Israel  have not backed away from their official relationship.

Yet expanding open relations with Israel further, and taking in other Gulf states, is unlikely without a real reversal in Israels policy toward Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank.

All this is more true in the immediate aftermath of Israels attack in Qatar  the first time Israel has launched a direct strike within a Gulf Arab state. That action, even if ostensibly directed at Hamas, is likely to exacerbate tensions not only with Qatar but place increasing stress on the calculus allied Gulf Arab countries make in their dealings with Israel.

Tricky way forward for Gulf Arab states

These challenges underscore an inescapable truth for Gulf leaders: They are hostage to events beyond their control.

Insulating them from that reality takes regional unity.

The Gulf Cooperation Council, nearly 45 years old, was established precisely for this purpose. While it remains the most successful regional organization in the Middle East, the GCC has not always prevented major rifts, such as in 2017 when a coalition of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia cut ties with and blockaded Qatar.

The conflict was resolved in 2021. Since then, the six members of the GCC have worked together more closely.

No doubt, rivalries and disagreements still exist. Yet Arab Gulf leaders have learned that cooperation is useful in the face of major challenges. This can be seen in the recent collaborative diplomatic approaches toward Syria and the U.S.

A second lesson comes from the broader Middle East. Key issues are often interdependent, particularly the status of Palestinians. Hamas attack on Israel, and the resulting destruction of much of Gaza, resurfaced the deep popularity across the region of addressing Palestinian needs and rights.

The monarchs of the Arab Gulf would like to maintain their unchallenged domestic political status while expanding their influence in the Middle East and beyond. However, even when Gulf leaders wish to be done with the regions challenges, those challenges are not always done with them.

Isabella Ishanyan, a UMass Amherst undergraduate, provided research assistance for this article.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/israels-attack-in-doha-underscores-a-stark-reality-for-gulf-states-looking-for-stability-and-growth-they-remain-hostage-to-events-261146.
Update: FBI releases person detained in Charlie Kirk shooting investigation

Four hours after Charlie Kirk was fatally shot at a speaking engagement in Utah as part of a tour of college campuses, FBI officials announced a suspect had been arrested.

FBI Director Kash Patel posted on social media at 6:21 p.m.: The subject for the horrific shooting today that took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody. Thank you to the local and state authorities in Utah for your partnership with the FBI. We will provide updates when able.

This update came after news widely circulated of a different man being arrested by police, and school officials announcing that man was not the shooter.

Social media videos showed police dragging a balding man in a blue shirt through the crowd toward a police vehicle until his pants fell off.

I have the right to remain silent, one video depicted the man saying.

But university spokesperson Ellen Treanor confirmed a shooting suspect was not in custody as of around 5 p.m., according to the New York Times.

Kirk, a 31-year-old Turning Point USA conservative activist, rose to prominence hosting question-and-answer-style debates with students on college campuses across America.

He had been answering a question from a member of his audience when a shot rang out at around 2:20 p.m. EST. Blood began to pour from his neck as members of his security detail pounced on him.

Videos circulating online show

Police work on the campus after Charlie Kirk was shot during Turning Point's visit to Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum) AP

Kirk was transported to a nearby hospital in critical condition before President Donald J. Trump and Andrew Kolvet, Kirks spokesperson, confirmed he died at around 4:40 p.m. EST.

Trump later ordered all American flags to be lowered to half staff until Sunday evening at 6 p.m. in honor of Kirk, the New York Times said.

The shooting is under active investigation by Orem Police, Utah Valley University Police, the FBI and Utah Department of Public Safety.

Utah Valley University instructed students and staff to evacuate the campus as armed agents continue to search the premises. Classes have been canceled until further notice.
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A pardon for the Chrisleys first was denied and then unexpectedly approved overnight on the next episode of The Chrisleys: Back to Reality.

The Chrisleys: Back to Reality, season one, episodes five and six, will air starting at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9, on Lifetime.

LIVE STREAM: Fans can watch Lifetime without cable on : Fans can watch Lifetime without cable on Philo, which has a seven-day free trial; and SlingTV, which has new, flexible one-day, weekend and week passes.

The series features reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, who were pardoned by President Trump in May and released from prison.

Episode five is called Chasing Chase.

The synopsis is, Savannah and Grayson reel from the news that the pardon will not be going through this time, triggering painful memories; Chase finally decides to let his guard down and seek therapy; Faye attempts to get Savannah and Grayson to see the light.

Episode six is called Freedom Frenzy.

The synopsis is, Todd and Julie are suddenly pardoned overnight, sending the Chrisleys into a frenzy to bring them home; Chase, Faye, Pam and Harvey are excluded from plans to bring the home, leading to increasing tensions.

The original show, Chrisley Knows Best aired on USA Network from 2014 to 2023.

In 2019 the couple were indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, wire fraud and tax evasion. They were convicted on all charges in June 2022. In November of 2022, Todd Chrisley was sentenced to 12 years in prison, Julie Chrisley was sentenced to seven years.

Lifetime said the new series begins during the wake of the familys controversy and upheaval with Todd and Julie in federal prison and follows the family as their parents are eventually pardoned, released from prison and return home.

The series shows a side of the Chrisleys that has never been seen before with exclusive access to the family  Julie and Todd from prison and upon their release, Savannah, Chase, Grayson, Chloe, Nanny Faye, and for the first time, Julies parents Harvey and Pam."

What is Philo?

Philo is a streaming service that offers more than 70 live channels and more than 70,000 titles on demand for $28 a month. Philo has a SEVEN-DAY FREE TRIAL. Channels include AMC, AMC+, A&E, MTV, BET, Discovery, VH1, Food Network, History, Nickelodeon, OWN, TLC, Lifetime, Hallmark, Paramount and TV One. Add-on packages include EPIX, STARZ and Movies and More. Philo offers an unlimited 1-year DRV.

What is SlingTV?

Sling streaming service is $45.99 a month for the Orange (35 channels) or Blue (43 channels) Levels. Orange plus Blue is $60.99 a month. Premium subscribers also can get a month of Showtime, STARZ and EPIX for free. Channels include CMT, Bravo, BET, Comedy Central, A&E, AMC, Animal Planet, Discovery+, Hallmark, History, National Geographic, Lifetime, TLC and USA.

SlingTV is offering new day passes (24 hour access) for $4.99; weekend pass (Friday-Sunday) for $9.99 and a week pass (seven days) for $14.99.
News / National

by Staff reporter

More than half of Zimbabweans believe the death penalty is a fair punishment for heinous crimes, according to the latest report by Afrobarometer, a continental public opinion research organisation.The survey, conducted a few months before the formal abolition of capital punishment on December 31, 2024, explored public perceptions of the country's judicial system and attitudes toward criminal justice."Afrobarometer surveyed Zimbabweans to find out what they think about the death penalty as part of a broader exploration of their perceptions of the country's judicial system," reads the report's summary. "More than half of Zimbabweans believe the death penalty is a fair punishment for those who commit the most serious crimes, although a significant minority think there is no crime for which the death penalty can be justified."The move to abolish the death sentence in Zimbabwe was hailed as progressive by human rights groups such as Amnesty International. Zimbabwe became only the fifth African country to formally remove capital punishment, a decision shaped in part by President Emmerson Mnangagwa's own history. Mnangagwa had been sentenced to death in the 1960s by the colonial regime for his role in the fight for independence.Since the abolition, 59 inmates who were on death row have had their sentences commuted. High Court judges have been tasked with re-sentencing these individuals, taking into account the nature of their crimes, the length of time spent on death row, and their personal circumstances.The Afrobarometer findings highlight a tension within Zimbabwean society, where a strong desire for justice and accountability exists alongside a broader cultural inclination toward non-violence.
Aiken Standard reporter

Dede Biles is a reporter for the Aiken Standard. She covers Aiken County government, business and horse industry.

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News / National

by Gideon Madzikatidze/Simbarashe Sithole in Plumtree

A 44-year-old man, Philani Nkomo from Dupute village under Chief Masendu in Madlambuzi area (Plumtree) was slapped with a nine-year jail sentence for stealing a stray bull.Appearing before Plumtree magistrate Mr Joshua Nembaware this Monday, Nkomo pleaded guilty to the charges whilst the two other accomplices including Wicked Tubhu Ncube (52) of Dupute village (under Chief Masendu in Madlambuzi) and Wisdom Mutarika (40) of Mathendele in Plumtree who is the owner of Mabizela butchery (Ndolwane business centre) pleaded not guilty were remanded in custody to September 17 for trial.State led by Sheila Nyathi told the court that sometime during the month of April 2024, a branded black bull joined the complainant's herd of cattle, who (complainant) then kept it on behalf of the state as stray stock.During the month of July, but on an unknown date, the three accused persons connived to steal the stray bull at Dupute pastures in Madlambuzi area. The court further heard that on an unknown date, but during the same month (July 2025), Nkomo and Ncube proceeded to Dupute pastures and drove the stray bull to Ndolwane slaughter house.Nkomo and Ncube then handed over the beast (stray bull) to Mutarika who then slaughtered it and sold the meat in his butchery. The stolen bull was valued at ZAR10 000 and nothing was recovered.
Leaders break ground at the MUSC Health Nexton Center. From left: Russ Touchberry, mayor of Summerville; Saj Joy, M.D., CEO, MUSC Health Charleston division; Raymond N. DuBois, M.D., Ph.D., director, Hollings Cancer Center; Barbara Johnson-Williams, MUSC Board of Trustees; W. Melvin Mel Brown III, M.D., vice chairman, MUSC Board of Trustees; Berkeley County Supervisor Johnny Cribb; Cole; Cawley; Donald R. Johnson II, M.D., MUSC Board of Trustees; and Michael Stavrinakis, MUSC Board of Trustees.
Business Reporter

Andy Tsubasa Field covers business and development for The Post and Courier's Columbia bureau. He has reported on business for the Albany Times Union, general assignment news in Bridgeport for the Connecticut Post, Kansas state politics for the Associated Press and city hall for the Bismarck Tribune.
Senior Reporter

Tiffany Tan is a senior reporter at The Post and Courier's Columbia newsroom. She covers statewide issues, particularly in the criminal justice system. She previously reported on the courts, the opioid epidemic and regional news in Vermont for VTDigger. She has also worked for newspapers and television outlets in South Dakota, Beijing, Singapore and Manila.
Clemson University announced on Sept. 3, 2025, that it would disband all commissions that have advised administrators over the years on issues around diversity that students and staff have encountered on campus.
News / National

by Gideon Madzikatidze/Simbarashe Sithole

HARARE - Despite dishing out fleet of vehicles and indiscriminate amounts of revolving funding worth millions (including US$ cash) to some undeserving characters, President Emmerson Mnangagwa's administration and Zimbabwean tenderpreneurs have starved anti-sanctions removal lobby (and advocacy) group, Citizens Against Economic Sanctions (CAES) to an extent that its founder hires a scotch cart amongst Binga communities in order to preach gospel against American targeted punitive measures.The CAESZ and other like-minded organisation received no dime from the individuals they are purporting to represent, with its membership and following dwindling to unprecedented levels.Some drastically withdraw from camping at the American Embassy in Harare citing starvation and dwindling support from citizens including the targeted individuals.Speaking during a press briefing in Harare this Tuesday, CAESZ executive director, Martin Zharare has pleaded with some individuals from ZANU-PF party, Sir Wicknell Chivhayo, Mnangagwa's advisor, Paul Tempter Tungwarara, Kudakwashe Tagwirei, among other individuals in helping them mobilising for more petitions until final submission of hard copies to Trump administration and United Nations headquarters."We are appealing to Sir Wicknell Chivhayo, Presidential advisor, Paul Tempter Tungwarara, Elder Kudakwashe Tagwirei, our revolutionary party, ZANU-PF and other like-minded comrades to rescue us from the current predicament in our quest to force America to remove sanctions," Zharare said."As CAES, we are happy that President Mnangagwa has enabled our organisation to be legally registered as a private voluntary organisation (PVO), hence this has given us an opportunity to further lobby for more petitions until Trump consider our request for immediate removal of the punitive economic measures against Zimbabwe," Zharare added."We appeal for assistance even from well-wishers to contribute towards this initiative because we have suffered enough. We ended up hiring scotch carts in Binga in our quest to spread out vision and mission against targeted sanctions in as far as Binga communities. We need everyone to understand that harming President Mnangagwa and some individuals simply means America is harming all of Zimbabwe citizens," Zharare claims.The CAESZ stepped up its campaign for the removal of economic sanctions imposed by Western countries, which it claims are hindering the country's economic growth and development. The organization has been engaging with communities across Zimbabwe, spreading messages of resilience, unity and economic patriotism.Zharare emphasised that sanctions are a significant barrier to Zimbabwe's development, preventing the country from reaching its full economic potential."These sanctions are a deliberate attempt to hinder Zimbabwe's economic growth, and we will do everything in our power to raise awareness and mobilize our people against them," he said.The organization estimates that sanctions have cost Zimbabwe over $150 billion in lost economic opportunities.Meanwhile, CAESZ has expressed its commitment to supporting the government's Vision 2030, which aims to transform Zimbabwe into an upper-middle-income economy by the end of the decade.Zharare highlighted the government's progress in securing over $2.5 billion in infrastructure investments, but noted that sanctions continue to slow down the full implementation of economic projects.
Quick Response and Public Safety Reporter

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Opinion / Columnist

Binary positions often emerge in blame-shifting narratives. In most media outlets, Chiwenga has been nearly sanctified. Listening to Shona media, one hears reverence for Chiwenga - while Mnangagwa is cast as the villain. He's described as a foreigner, born in Rhodesia and deported to Zambia, his supposed homeland. I refute this claim, though I have no evidence that Mnangagwa is Zambian. His long history of orchestrated killings on behalf of Mugabe began before independence.ZANU was rife with killings and counter-killings during the liberation war. That Mnangagwa is a known killer does not make him Zambian. Justifying his crimes by questioning his citizenship implies that murder is a Zambian trait - an absurd and dangerous claim. The list of politicians labeled "Zambian" is long, and many are branded as murderers. Even Chamisa is said not to be Zimbabwean. This is how sick defamation becomes. Next, they'll say Fadzayi Mahere isn't Zimbabwean. Then Jessie Majome. Then Sekai Holland.Why is the murder of Advocate Herbert Chitepo now pinned on Mnangagwa, and not Josiah Tongogara? History has sanitized Tongogara into a lesser evil - a near angel, a hero of liberation. Mnangagwa, meanwhile, is burdened with every atrocity, including the Gukurahundi genocide. But historical narratives must be accurate. When it comes to the deaths of ZANU commanders before independence, many names are forgotten. Who remembers Dr. Edgar Madekurozva, a lecturer at a Zambian university? The methods of eliminating adversaries haven't changed.I beg to differ: Mnangagwa did not murder Chitepo. While in Zambia, I heard from a credible source that Tongogara's murder was ordered by Dare reChimurenga - the presidium that unanimously sentenced Chitepo to death. It was an internal tribal conflict among Shona factions: Karangas, Manyikas, and Zezurus. The Zezurus demanded the presidency, which ultimately landed in Mugabe's lap. He exploited it fully. By the end of his rule, Mugabe viewed Shona people as expendable - he devoured them too. No tribe in Zimbabwe escaped Mugabe's wrath; only the scale differed.It's equally true that Mnangagwa was Mugabe's enforcer, eliminating perceived threats to his presidency - especially in Mashonaland. Dr. Christopher Ishewokunze died in a suspicious car accident. Dr. Zvobgo died mysteriously. Several army officials were murdered. Then came Solomon Mujuru. Mnangagwa was the one Mugabe trusted to carry out these eliminations.General Chiwenga reported directly to Mnangagwa, who was Minister of Security. The Fifth Brigade maimed, killed, bayoneted pregnant women, and abducted young girls to use as sex slaves. Catholic CCJP documents detail the destruction of livelihoods in Matabeleland and Midlands during the 1983 genocide. How does Miniyothando, a Ndebele woman, live daily beside a man responsible for such atrocities? He is her next skin. Just saying.My concern is the sanitization of Chiwenga into a near-angel, like Tongogara. This impedes reconciliation between rival tribes. There's a deep insensitivity among Shonas regarding reconciliation with Ndebele people. It's difficult to separate Chiwenga from the genocide - he was one of its architects.Language itself perpetuates tribal animosity. These binary tribal narratives are nurtured for political mileage. A "good Ndebele" is one who marries General Chiwenga; the rest are dissidents. Miniyothando Chiwenga has been elevated because of her marriage to the man who maimed and murdered Ndebele women in Matabeleland South. The irony is staggering. Women often nurture genocidists - Eva Braun stood by Adolf Hitler to the bitter end. They even committed suicide together, history tells us.Inherently, many Shonas wish Ndebele people would relocate back to South Africa. It's an unspoken wish, but the message hangs in the air. Without formidable leadership in Matabeleland, this is a tragedy. ZAPU is weak. Ndebele people need a strong leader to voice daily injustices without fear.Social media and Shona commentators claim Chiwenga's leadership is better than Mnangagwa's. He's elevated as a saviour of Zimbabwe. But there's no evidence that Chiwenga is better. The two are one coin with two sides - cut from the same cloth. Yet opposition members who suffered human rights abuses in 2008 now claim Chiwenga is the "better evil."How long will Ndebele people be used in ZANU PF's internal battles? Earlier this year, the Geza "revolution" invited ZPRA veterans to help unseat Mnangagwa. Some were even shown in a video broadcast, lending credibility to a revolution that never was. On the day of the uprising, Geza vanished - fleeing to Polokwane and leaving his allies vulnerable to ZANU PF retaliation.Meanwhile, Sengezo Tshabangu is self-destructing. He's not politicking - he's committing political suicide.There is nothing in Chiwenga's record that qualifies him to be Zimbabwe's third president. He failed multiple military exams after independence. His doctorate was ghostwritten. Naming the author would cost her every property she owns in Zimbabwe. Chiwenga's inability to read Mnangagwa's intentions during the coup transition shows poor intuition. Having worked with Mnangagwa for so long, he should never have trusted him. Even Mugabe advised him to take power himself and not hand it to Mnangagwa. This is what happens when our heads are thick.It's clear Chiwenga is struggling to enforce his agreement with Mnangagwa. But the truth is: he will never be president. If he fails, it's good for Zimbabwe. We need someone better. Eventually, people will say "enough." The critical mass hasn't been reached yet. There is no viable opposition leadership on the ground. Any revolutionary movement needs honest, capable leadership. Chamisa is not that leader. He has survived this long in politics thanks to tribal affiliations. Good CCC leaders are suppressed by Nero - he won't allow them to rise.The question is: how do we revive the Matabeleland spirit that has sunk so low? Devolution is the answer. Political leaders from Matabeleland must use their mandates to demand devolution. Without it, Mnangagwa will continue teasing the region with the incomplete Matabeleland Water Project - over a century overdue.This region must begin thinking about development not from the central government, but at the regional level. We cannot wait indefinitely for ZANU PF to improve Matabeleland. Even Chamisa won't. He wants Ndebele votes to reach State House - but nothing beyond that.
PR-Inside.com: 2025-09-10 14:00:50

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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 /Aeonian Resources Ltd. ("Aeonian" or the "Company") reports results from a helicopter-borne magnetic and electromagnetic survey over the western Koocanusa Copper Project in southeastern British Columbia. The new data strengthens the Company's geological modelling of copper mineralization within the upper Creston Formation (Revett Formation equivalent). This geophysical survey provides compelling structural targets for follow-up.District-scale corridor: Geophysical interpretation outlines a NNW-SSE corridor approximately 50 kilometres ("km") long within the Creston Formation that Aeonian considers to be the primary copper-bearing unit.Strong geophysical-geochemical agreement: Magnetic highs show spatial correlation with prior field samples which graded 0.2% or greater copper collected on surface. These results supporting target ranking objectives.Fold controls on mineralization: Two well defined regional fold hinges demonstrate associated parasitic "trap" structures; geophysics also expresses a third, previously unknown and untested hinge.Prospective feeder structure: A prominent southwest to northeast trending fault ("McGillivray Fault") coincident with a magnetic lineament has been interpreted to be a potential fluid upwelling conduit, with associated mineralization inferred to continue beneath the Kitchener unit cover. This may represent an extension of subsurface mineralization mobilized from within the interpreted fault towards the Jake and Yahk East showings located as far as 5 kilometres to the north.Next steps: This survey provides Aeonian the final information it needs to plan an effective exploration drill program. Aeonian has obtained all the necessary drill permits to conduct such a program. (see News Release dated 9th July 2025).The survey ties together a continuous north-northwest to south-southeast structural-lithologic corridor within the Creston Formation which is the same stratigraphy that hosts copper mineralization across the Canada-USA border into Montana, (within the Revett Formation). Where magnetic highs coincide with the Company's high-grade surface results, the confidence increases in the belief that the same mineralized horizons observed in Montana persist into Canada along strike, under shallow cover and down-plunge of structural folding events.The survey improves detailed resolution of the folding and general geological architecture viewed as a key control required to understand copper grade distribution and confirms the extensive field mapping and sampling completed to date. Two regional hinges with parasitic folds, which can create ideal permeability contrasts and fluid mineralization trap sites, are now better constrained for detailed targeting. A third hinge has been recognized from the survey located northwest of Jake which remains to be evaluated in the field.A major southwest to northeast trending fault with a clear magnetic signature is interpreted as a potential feeder structure that focused copper-bearing fluids, with mineralization likely stepping down under the Kitchener Formation cap rocks and dips toward the fault. The Jake showing lies approximately 5 km from this feature, providing a strong structural linkage for near-term work and target for drill testing.Aeonian holds multi-year drill permits for the Koocanusa Project, valid through July 2028. In accordance with permit conditions, archaeologists from the Shuswap Band completed an archaeological assessment of the Jake Hill target and classified the area as low potential for cultural heritage finds. The Wildlife Management Plan, prepared in collaboration with the Shuswap Band, has also been completed. With these requirements now satisfied, the Jake Hill target is now ready for drill testing."Today's airborne results pull our western claim block into sharp focus. The survey ties together pockets of mineralization within the Creston Formation and line up strongly with our best copper grades at surface. Just as importantly, they tighten two known fold-hinge targets and reveal a third, completely untested hinge-adding meaningful running room. With a clear set of priorities, multi-year permits in hand, and drilling next on the plan, we're excited to advance Koocanusa and continue building value through disciplined exploration." says Andy Randell, President & CEO, Aeonian Resources Ltd.With permits in place and targets defined, Aeonian's next step is first-pass drilling at Koocanusa, subject to securing appropriate financing. The Company is assessing a range of equity and non-dilutive funding options and will provide further detail as and when available. No agreements are in place at this time and there can be no assurance that financing will be completed.About Aeonian Resources Ltd.Aeonian Resources is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on advancing sediment-hosted copper and critical mineral projects in British Columbia. With a strong commitment to environmental responsibility, Indigenous engagement, and sound science, Aeonian aims to uncover the next generation of sustainable mineral resources. For additional information, visit the Company's website www.aeonianresources.com The scientific and technical information in this news release was reviewed and approved by Kristian Whitehead, P.Geo., a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101. Mr. Whitehead is not independent of the Company.ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF AEONIAN RESOURCES CORP."Andy Randell"Chief Executive OfficerNeither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.Technical disclosureSurvey contractor and dates. The helicopter-borne magnetic and time-domain electromagnetic ("1TEM") survey was completed by Precision GeoSurveys Inc. between May 22 and 26, 2025 over the western portion of the Koocanusa Copper Project (southeastern British Columbia).Acquisition parameters. The program acquired 1,343 line-km of high-resolution data across approximately 364 km on nominal 300 m traverse spacing (azimuth 090/270) with 3,000 m tie-lines (azimuth 000/180). The planned drape height was ~50 m above ground level (AGL), subject to terrain and safety constraints. Navigation and positioning utilized differential GPS. All survey locations are referenced to WGS84 / UTM Zone 11N.Processing and products. Precision processed the magnetic dataset to produce standard and derivative products including TMI, RMI, RTP, first vertical derivative/CHG, horizontal gradient/CVG, analytic signal and associated grids. The EM dataset (1TEM) was processed to provide time-channel decays, stitched da
PR-Inside.com: 2025-09-10 16:00:57

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RENO, NEVADA / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / Small businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy, and the number of them being created daily is incredible. However, protecting against liability and expensive legal surprises is paramount for the success and longevity of a business.Key insurance elementsto consider when owning or launching a small business include, but are not limited to, the following:Mandatory Coverage: Specific insurances are required in various states (e.g., workers' compensation, unemployment, commercial auto), and noncompliance can result in expensive penalties.Contractual Obligations: Certain agreements with landlords or vendors will warrant specific insurance requirements.Duty to Disclose: Businesses are required to fully disclose all relevant information to insurance providers or face the possibility of coverage denial.State-Specific Laws: Insurance regulations are geographically specific, and different states require different compliance.Liability Protection: Businesses will need to have insurance protection against property damage, on-site injuries, etc."As a small business owner, many hats will be worn simultaneously. It is important to confirm legal compliance and to have the business properly insured in all necessary aspects to avoid costly mistakes," says Ken LaMance, LegalMatch's General Counsel.Small businesses interested in remaining compliant and continuing to flourish are urged to seek legal counsel to accomplish that.LegalMatch.com , the first-ever attorney-client platform, can match a business owner with anexperienced insurance lawyerfor free to receive expert guidance and direction.The platform also has a largeOnline Law Librarywith articles on a multitude of legal topics, including business insurance. Small business owners can confide in LegalMatch as a trusted source for legal direction and representation.LegalMatchis the nation's oldest and largest online legal lead-generation service. Headquartered in Reno, Nevada, LegalMatch helps people find the right lawyer and helps attorneys find new clients. LegalMatch's service is free to individuals and small businesses looking for legal help. For more information about LegalMatch, please visit our website or contact us directly.Contact InformationKen LaMance LegalMatch's General Counselpress@ legalmatch.com 415-946-0856SOURCE: LegalMatch.com
PR-Inside.com: 2025-09-10 17:01:34

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NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC is investigating potential claims on behalf of purchasers of Freeport-McMoran Inc. ("Freeport" or "the Company") (NYSE:FCX). Investors who purchased Freeport securities are encouraged to obtain additional information and assist the investigation by visiting the firm's site: bgandg.com/FCX Investigation DetailsOn September 9, 2025, Freeport issued a press release announcing the suspension of mining activities at its Grasberg Block Cave operation in Indonesia, after "a large flow of wet material from a production drawpoint . . . blocked access to certain areas within the mine," trapping seven workers. On this news, Freeport's stock price fell $2.80 per share, or 5.99%, to close at $43.87 per share on September 9, 2025.What's Next?If you are aware of any facts relating to this investigation or purchased Freeport securities, you can assist this investigation by visiting the firm's site: bgandg.com/FCX . You can also contact Peretz Bronstein or his client relations manager, Nathan Miller, of Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC: 332-239-2660There is No Cost to YouWe represent investors in class actions on a contingency fee basis. That means we will ask the court to reimburse us for out-of-pocket expenses and attorneys' fees, usually a percentage of the total recovery, only if we are successful.Why Bronstein, Gewirtz & GrossmanBronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC is a nationally recognized firm that represents investors in securities fraud class actions and shareholder derivative suits. Our firm has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors nationwide.Follow us for updates on LinkedIn, X, Facebook, or Instagram.Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.ContactBronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLCPeretz Bronstein or Nathan Miller332-239-2660 | info@ bgandg.com SOURCE: Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC
PR-Inside.com: 2025-09-10 20:45:27

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Completes Its First Home Rebuild with Innovative Two-Step Defense SystemOCEANSIDE, CA / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 /General Enterprise Ventures, Inc. (OTC:GEVID), which is currently trading with a temporary "D" suffix following a recent share consolidation, today announced its subsidiary, Mighty Fire Breaker LLC (MFB), has successfully launched America's Best Fire Risk Reduction Program with the completion of a first-of-its-kind installation on a newly rebuilt home in Pacific Palisades, California.As deadly and devastating wildfires continue to escalate across the western United States, MFB's solution represents a significant advancement in risk reduction for homeowners, insurers and the construction industry."The catastrophic Los Angeles wildfire has accelerated the adoption of what we believe is the greatest advancement in wood-framed buildings since World War II," said Ted Ralston, CEO of Mighty Fire Breaker. "Our program is designed to protect firefighters, support insurers seeking real risk reduction and provide builders in Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) regions accredited, ASTM-tested tools to deliver true fire defense. Given the devastation caused by recurring wildfires, we believe our innovative solution is essential for the future of wildfire defense in American communities." Ralston, added, "Architects and designers are quickly recognizing the importance of our solution. Through our AEC Daily continuing education course, we are equipping industry professionals to integrate Safer Choice-certified fire defense systems directly into new construction, a critical catalyst for widespread adoption. As catastrophic wildfire events continue to disrupt insurance, real estate and construction markets, we see our program as uniquely positioned to deliver both life and property saving protection for communities and long-term value creation for our shareholders." Alain Yotnegparian, AIA, award-winning and widely respected leader in residential design, said, "As an architect working in wildfire-impacted regions of Los Angeles, I recognize the critical need for resilient design strategies. The Mighty Fire Breaker two-step defense system, which integrates both interior and exterior fire protection, represents a major advancement in wildfire risk mitigation. Implementing this dual-layered approach is essential for the continued viability of wood-framed construction in high-risk zones, and it also has the potential to improve clients' access to more favorable insurance coverage." The Two-Step Fire Risk Reduction ProgramStep 1 - Interior Lumber TreatmentMFB treats 100% of the interior lumber with MFB-34 CitroTech, backed by ASTM E84 extended testing on solid Douglas Fir, OSB, and LVL. This chemistry is the only EPA Safer Choice-certified fire retardant available, and it also holds the UL GREENGUARD Gold certification, ensuring ultra-low VOC emissions and the highest indoor air quality standards.Step 2 - Integrated Wildfire Defense SystemMFB installs the MFB-31 CitroTech Tank and Pump in the home's crawlspace, with plumbing routed through the walls and up to the roof to support a fully integrated wildfire defense (WFD) sprinkler system. Once complete, the CitroSafe Wildfire Defense System will allow homeowners to remotely activate the system long before wildfire arrival. Unlike traditional water-based systems, this chemistry-based solution blocks ember attacks and advancing fire even under bone-dry conditions.Following the milestone installation in Pacific Palisades, Team Palisades, a grassroots, community-led initiative, invited MFB to present its program to architects, designers and property owners at the Pacific Design Center in Beverly Hills where they will learn firsthand how MFB's technology is reshaping wildfire defense and redefining standards in resilient home building.Team Palisades was formed in response to the devastating January 2025 wildfires in Pacific Palisades. Dedicated to supporting recovery and rebuilding, the organization unites neighborhood representatives, volunteers and subject-matter experts to drive long-term resilience and protection for residents, making its collaboration with MFB a natural fit.For more information on Mighty Fire Breaker, visit www.mightyfirebreaker.com About General Enterprise Ventures, Inc.General Enterprise Ventures, Inc., through its wholly owned subsidiary Mighty Fire Breaker, LLC, offers an innovative portfolio of non-toxic and environmentally safe wildfire defense solutions. The Company's offerings include wildfire home defense systems, mobile and ground application systems, and products for use in the manufacturing of fire-resilient building products.Mighty Fire Breaker's CitroTech fire inhibitor is the only fire inhibitor designated as EPA Safer Choice and also has UL GREENGUARD GOLD certification.Twitter: @GEVIOfficialWebsite: https://generalenterpriseventures.com/ Contact:Brett Maas, Managing PrincipalHayden IR, LLC brett@ haydenir.com (646) 536-7331SOURCE: General Enterprise Ventures, Inc.
PR-Inside.com: 2025-09-10 22:00:15

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SAN ANTONIO, TX / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / Any investors concerned about potential losses of money invested with stockbroker Jose 'Joe' Abel Gamez in First Capital Investment Services or other affiliated entities are encouraged to contact Rosca Scarlato LLC, a prominent nationwide investor law firm with extensive experience seeking compensation related to investor harm, for a free evaluation of potential compensation claims.Rosca Scarlato LLC partner and veteran investor advocate, Alan Rosca, along with co-counsel in Texas, have launched an investigation following Gamez's recent termination from Raymond James.Joe Gamez investors may contact attorney Alan Rosca and his colleagues for a free, no-obligation evaluation of their options, toll-free at 888-998-0530 (toll free), via email at arosca@ rscounsel.law , or leave a message through the contact form on the Joe Gamez Investor Center page. Claims that are not timely pursued may expire or otherwise be lost, generally speaking.Joe Gamez Employment Separation Disclosure Reveals Concerning AllegationsAccording to his FINRA BrokerCheck Report, Joe Gamez was discharged by Raymond James, with employment separation disclosure dated June 25, 2025 indicating that Gamez is "alleged to have used client funds for personal reasons." Gamez was a registered broker with Raymond James in San Antonio, TX from April 2017 until late June 2025. His BrokerCheck Report indicates that he is not currently affiliated with any securities broker-dealer firm.Joe Gamez Investors Concerned About Their Investment May Contact an Investor LawyerThe Rosca Scarlato attorneys are investigating the circumstances surrounding Mr. Gamez's termination due to alleged use of client funds for personal reasons. They have decades of combined experience seeking compensation related to investor harm and pursuing claims arising out of alleged violations of securities law, investment fraud, and/or broker misconduct, and typically provide representation on a contingency fee basis. Case expenses are advanced by the law firm and the firm only gets paid for its fees and expenses if and when there is a recovery, wherever permitted.Investors may visit https://investorlawyers.org for more information about the Rosca Scarlato attorneys' background and admissions to practice law. This release may be deemed to include Attorney Advertising. There has not been an adjudication on the merits of any allegations referenced herein, as of the publication date.  Rosca Scarlato 2025.SOURCE: Rosca Scarlato LLC
PR-Inside.com: 2025-09-10 06:20:09

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JACKSON, WY / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / Labor Smart, Inc. (OTCID:LTNC) ("LTNC" or the "Company") today issued a corporate update following the Company's public discussion hosted on X (formerly Twitter) Spaces on September 9, 2025, hyperlink: Labor Smart Inc.'s Space Sept 9, 2025 .Chapter 7 Filing for SubsidiaryThe Company was informed that a voluntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition is being filed for its subsidiary, Takeover Industries, Inc. The Chapter 7 process will be handled through the applicable U.S. Bankruptcy Court. LTNC will cooperate as required by law. At this time, the Company does not anticipate that the Chapter 7 process will impair its ability to continue operating other lines of business; however, outcomes are inherently uncertain and subject to court processes.Adios Brand - Collegiate Partnership in ProgressLTNC's subsidiary, NextGen AP, is working toward a definitive agreement with a major U.S. university related to the Company's Adios brand. Discussions are active and progressing. No assurances can be given that a final agreement will be executed, and any ultimate collaboration remains subject to definitive documentation and customary approvals.Share Structure Reform InitiativeAs part of its ongoing initiative to streamline and reform the Company's share structure, LTNC confirms that its Board has adopted a resolution addressing approximately 4.157 billion shares in total (a combination of Common and Preferred H shares), portions of which have been previously announced in past press releases. Implementation of any retirements, cancellations, conversions, or reclassifications will proceed in coordination with the Company's transfer agent and in compliance with applicable regulations. The Company intends to provide additional specifics as material milestones are achieved."We're executing on two tracks: cleaning up legacy complexities while pushing forward on brand and distribution opportunities," said Brad Wyatt, CEO. "Today's update reflects that dual focus-responsibly addressing the subsidiary matter while advancing commercially meaningful initiatives like Adios."About Labor Smart, Inc. (OTCID:LTNC)Labor Smart, Inc. is a Wyoming-domiciled public company focused on building and scaling consumer brands through subsidiary operations and strategic partnerships. The Company is headquartered in Jackson, Wyoming.Investor & Media Contact Labor Smart, Inc. (OTCID:LTNC)Jackson, WyomingEmail:ir@ laborsmartinc.com Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release may contain forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect current expectations, estimates, and projections about future events and are based on assumptions and subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Forward-looking statements in this release include, but are not limited to: (i) the anticipated effects of the Chapter 7 process for Takeover Industries, Inc. or its parent company; (ii) the status, timing, terms, and potential outcome of discussions regarding a possible agreement between NextGen AP and a major university; and (iii) the Company's plans with respect to its share structure reform initiative. Actual results may differ due to factors beyond the Company's control, including but not limited to bankruptcy court determinations and timelines, the ability to negotiate and finalize agreements, and obtain required approvals, market conditions, regulatory matters, and operational risks. Readers are cautioned against placing undue reliance on these statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable law.SOURCE: Labor Smart, Inc.
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HOUSTON, TX / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / Monkey Island LNG ("MILNG") announced today the execution of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with an investment-grade International Oil Company (IOC) for the offtake of up to 5.20 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of liquefied natural gas (LNG). MILNG is developing a 26 MTPA LNG export facility in two phases, with Phase 1 targeting 15.6 MTPA across three trains. This offtake agreement represents the output of MILNG's entire first LNG train in Phase 1.While the IOC's name remains confidential at this stage, the MOU demonstrates a growing commercial demand for MILNG's TrueCost LNG model featuring a transparent, cost-efficient framework that aligns incentives from gas supplier to LNG buyer."Partnering with a company of this caliber highlights the depth of industry confidence in MILNG's next-generation development strategy. This agreement is an unprecedented milestone," said Greg Michaels, CEO of MILNG. "Securing an MOU for up to 5.20 MTPA with an investment-grade counterparty not only validates our commercial model but also provides critical momentum as we move toward regulatory approvals and Final Investment Decision (FID). When converted into a Sales and Purchase Agreement, the total revenue of this deal would likely exceed $35 billion." The MOU reinforces MILNG's commercial strategy of building long-term, creditworthy offtake partnerships that support financing and development of its 15.6 MTPA Phase 1 of the project. The agreement also aligns with a broader trend of buyers seeking contract transparency and operational reliability in a dynamic global LNG market. MILNG continues to advance commercial and engineering milestones across the project and is in active discussions with additional offtakers for remaining volumes on Phase 1.Michaels added, "With regulatory advancements underway, engineering contracts awarded, a long-term supply agreement secured, and now a major offtake agreement, MILNG has positioned itself as a next-generation leader in the global LNG marketplace. With the strong market validation on our differentiated development model, we look forward to playing a key role in the next wave of U.S. LNG exports." Key HighlightsUp to 5.20 MTPA of LNG offtake securedAgreement covers output of MILNG's first liquefaction trainTotal potential revenues exceeds $35 billion when converted to an SPASignals strong market demand for MILNG's TrueCost LNG modelSupports progress toward regulatory milestones and FIDAbout Monkey Island LNGMonkey Island LNG ("MILNG") is a private company addressing the global energy crisis and growing demand for LNG through the development of critically needed U.S. natural gas infrastructure. Its flagship project, located on Monkey Island in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, sits just 2 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico near abundant gas supply and features a proven and stable liquefaction technology of COP, an innovative commercial structure, and a low-cost construction plan leveraging an industry-proven EPC contractor McDermott. For more information, go to www.monkeyislandlng.com Press ContactsFor Monkey Island LNG:Greg Michaels, CEO, Monkey Island LNG Greg.m@mkyisland.com 949-636-5900Forward-Looking StatementThis communication contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. These include, without limitation, statements regarding the expected scope, design, and timing of the Monkey Island LNG project; the execution, terms, and timing of definitive agreements; anticipated commercial progress; and other future events or developments.Although Monkey Island LNG ("MILNG") believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that they will prove correct. Forward-looking statements are based on current assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. These risks include, but are not limited to: changes in market conditions, credit and capital markets, and industry norms; failure to successfully execute or complete contracts; changes in project scope, design, or schedules; availability of qualified personnel and resources; contract modifications, cancellations, or disputes; and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied.Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this communication. MILNG undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof, except as required by applicable law. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.SOURCE: Monkey Island LNG
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Enabling energy-efficient AI with breakthrough advances in compute efficiencyBERKELEY, CA / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / Opticore secured $7.5 million in additional financing to accelerate the development of its breakthrough optical computing technology. This funding builds on the company's pre-seed round last year to bring its total funding to $14.5 million.Opticore is building a next-generation photonic computing chip that is up to 100 times more energy efficient and offers 25 times the computing density compared to leading GPUs. "Energy-intensity of existing electronics-based AI compute solutions is straining electrical grids, capping the scale-out of data centers. Scaling AI requires fundamentally new approaches to computing efficiency," said Prashant Shukla, partner at Origin Ventures, which co-led Opticore's seed round alongside Jetha Global. Karan Danthi, CIO at Jetha Global, added "we see the silicon photonics roadmap unfolding in stages: first switches and co-packaged optics, then optical interconnect solutions, and ultimately full optical processing." Co-founder Zaijun Chen explains, "our photonic computing architecture isn't constrained by Moore's Law and can achieve world-class performance while consuming a fraction of the energy budget. We envision a future where data centers won't need their own power plants, and the heaviest compute workloads can be offloaded to photonic processors, shaping the multi-trillion-dollar AI infrastructure buildout." "The ability to produce better-than-leading-edge CMOS performance on lagging nodes opens up latent capacity in semiconductor fabrication - and all in the United States" adds Opticore's first investor, Alex Turnbull of Sagax Capital. Opticore's financing also included investment from Neotribe Ventures and Thunderbolt Ventures.Opticore's patented approach leveraging time-multiplexed computing enables Opticore to encode a trillion parameters on a single chip while achieving 100 TOPS/W compute efficiency through parallel computation. Unlike other optical approaches with high energy overhead and limited scalability, Opticore uses dynamic weights for real-time training and inference. The technology is compatible with standard foundry processes, making it highly scalable for commercial production. Following successful demonstration tapeouts this year, the company expects to have its first scaled system demonstration in 2026.About Opticore:Opticore's technology is built with exclusive patents from groundbreaking academic work: co-founder Dr. Ryan Hamerly and advisor Prof. Dirk Englund proposed the theoretical basis inPhysical Review X (2019) , while CEO and co-founder Dr. Chen demonstrated the core principles inNature Photonics(2023). The latest validation of Opticore's approach is inScience Advances(2025).For more information about Opticore, please visit https://www.opticore.ai/ and for an outline of the company's technology and vision please see our post"Hurdling the Power Wall With Photonic Computing" .For media inquiries, please contact Adam Cai adam@ opticore.ai SOURCE: Opticore
PR-Inside.com: 2025-09-10 07:00:11

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ADELAIDE, AU / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / Barton Gold Holdings Limited (ASX:BGD)(FRA:BGD3)(OTCQB:BGDFF) (Barton or Company) advises that the attached presentation is due to be presented today at the Beaver Creek Precious Metals Summit.A copy of this presentation can be accessed on the ASX website, the investor section of Barton's website, or directly by clicking here.Authorised by the Managing Director of Barton Gold Holdings Limited.For further information, please contact:Alexander ScanlonManaging Director a.scanlon@ bartongold.com.au +61 425 226 649Jade CookCompany Secretary cosec@ bartongold.com.au +61 8 9322 1587About Barton GoldBarton Gold is an ASX, OTCQB and Frankfurt Stock Exchange listed Australian gold developer targeting future gold production of 150,000ozpa with 2.2Moz Au & 3.1Moz Ag JORC Mineral Resources (79.9Mt @ 0.87g/t Au), brownfield mines, and 100% ownership of the region's only gold mill in the renowned Gawler Craton of South Australia.*Challenger Gold Project313koz Au + fully permitted Central Gawler Mill (CGM)Tarcoola Gold Project20koz Au in fully permitted open pit mine near CGMTolmer discovery grades up to 84g/t Au & 17,600g/t AgTunkillia Gold Project1.6Moz Au & 3.1Moz Ag JORC Mineral ResourcesCompetitive 120kozpa gold & 250kozpa silver projectWudinna Gold Project279koz Au project located southeast of TunkilliaSignificant optionality, adjacent to main highwayCompetent Persons Statement & Previously Reported InformationThe information in this announcement that relates to the historic Exploration Results and Mineral Resources as listed in the table below is based on, and fairly represents, information and supporting documentation prepared by the Competent Person whose name appears in the same row, who is an employee of or independent consultant to the Company and is a Member or Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM), Australian Institute of Geoscientists (AIG) or a Recognised Professional Organisation (RPO). Each person named in the table below has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and types of deposits under consideration and to the activity which he has undertaken to quality as a Competent Person as defined in the JORC Code 2012 (JORC).ActivityCompetent PersonMembershipStatusTarcoola Mineral Resource (Stockpiles)Dr Andrew Fowler (Consultant)AusIMMMemberTarcoola Mineral Resource (Perseverance Mine)Mr Ian Taylor (Consultant)AusIMMFellowTarcoola Exploration Results (until 15 Nov 2021)Mr Colin Skidmore (Consultant)AIGMemberTarcoola Exploration Results (after 15 Nov 2021)Mr Marc Twining (Employee)AusIMMMemberTunkillia Exploration Results (until 15 Nov 2021)Mr Colin Skidmore (Consultant)AIGMemberTunkillia Exploration Results (after 15 Nov 2021)Mr Marc Twining (Employee)AusIMMMemberTunkillia Mineral ResourceMr Ian Taylor (Consultant)AusIMMFellowChallenger Mineral Resource (above 215mRL)Mr Ian Taylor (Consultant)AusIMMFellowChallenger Mineral Resource (below 90mRL)Mr Dale SimsAusIMM / AIGFellow / MemberWudinna Mineral Resource (Clarke Deposit)Ms Justine TraceyAusIMMMemberWudinna Mineral Resource (all other Deposits)Mrs Christine StandingAusIMM / AIGMember / MemberThe information relating to historic Exploration Results and Mineral Resources in this announcement is extracted from the Company's Prospectus dated 14 May 2021 or as otherwise noted in this announcement, available from the Company's website at www.bartongold.com.au or on the ASX website www.asx.com.au . The Company confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the Exploration Results and Mineral Resource information included in previous announcements and, in the case of estimates of Mineral Resources, that all material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning the estimates, and any production targets and forecast financial information derived from the production targets, continue to apply and have not materially changed. The Company confirms that the form and context in which the applicable Competent Persons' findings are presented have not been materially modified from the previous announcements.Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking InformationThis document may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "expect", "target" and "intend" and statements than an event or result "may", "will", "should", "would", "could", or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions. Forward-looking information is subject to business, legal and economic risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among other things, risks relating to property interests, the global economic climate, commodity prices, sovereign and legal risks, and environmental risks. Forward-looking statements are based upon estimates and opinions at the date the statements are made. Barton undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements for events or circumstances that occur subsequent to such dates or to update or keep current any of the information contained herein. Any estimates or projections as to events that may occur in the future (including projections of revenue, expense, net income and performance) are based upon the best judgment of Barton from information available as of the date of this document. There is no guarantee that any of these estimates or projections will be achieved. Actual results will vary from the projections and such variations may be material. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied upon as, a promise or representation as to the past or future. Any reliance placed by the reader on this document, or on any forward-looking statement contained in or referred to in this document will be solely at the readers own risk, and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty thereof.* Refer to Barton Prospectus dated 14 May 2021 and ASX announcement dated 8 September 2025. Total Barton JORC (2012) Mineral Resources include 1,049koz Au (39.7Mt @ 0.82 g/t Au) in Indicated category and 1,186koz Au (40.2Mt @ 0.92 g/t Au) in Inferred category, and 3,070koz Ag (34.5Mt @ 2.80 g/t Ag) in Inferred category as a subset of Tunkillia gold JORC (2012) Mineral Resources.SOURCE: Barton Gold Holdings Limited
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THIS ANNOUNCEMENT AND THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS RESTRICTED AND IS NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN, INTO OR FROM AUSTRALIA, JAPAN OR THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA OR TO BE TRANSMITTED, DISTRIBUTED TO, OR SENT BY, ANY NATIONAL OR RESIDENT OR CITIZEN OF ANY SUCH COUNTRIES OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION IN WHICH SUCH RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION MAY CONTRAVENE LOCAL SECURITIES LAWS OR REGULATIONS.CASCAIS, PT / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / Pulsar Helium Inc. (AIM:PLSR)(TSXV:PLSR)(OTCQB:PSRHF) ("Pulsar" or the "Company") a leading helium project development company , is pleased to announce that Thomas Abraham-James, Pulsar's CEO and President, will present live at the European Growth Virtual Investor Conference on September 11, 2025, at 12:00 PM ET (17:00 PM BST).This will be a live, interactive online event where investors are invited to ask the Company questions in real-time. If attendees are not able to join the event live, a recording will be made available after the event.Pulsar invites individual and institutional investors to attend online by visiting the following link: REGISTER HERE.On behalf Pulsar Helium Inc."Thomas Abraham-James"President, CEO and DirectorFurther Information:Pulsar Helium Inc.connect@pulsarhelium.com + 1 (218) 203-5301 (USA/Canada)+44 (0) 2033 55 9889 (United Kingdom) https://pulsarhelium.comhttps://ca.linkedin.com/company/pulsar-helium-inc Strand Hanson Limited (Nominated & Financial Adviser, and Joint Broker)Ritchie Balmer / Rob Patrick / Richard Johnson+44 (0) 207 409 3494OAK Securities* (Joint Broker)Richard McGlashan / Mungo Sheehan+44 7879 646641 / +44 7788 266844 richard.mcglashan@oak-securities.com mungo.sheehan@oak-securities.com*OAK Securities is the trading name of Merlin Partners LLP, a firm incorporated in the United Kingdom and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority.Yellow Jersey PR Limited (Financial PR)Charles Goodwin / Annabelle Wills+44 777 5194 357 pulsarhelium@ yellowjerseypr.com About Pulsar Helium Inc.Pulsar Helium Inc. is a publicly traded company quoted on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange and listed on the TSX Venture Exchange with the ticker PLSR, as well as on the OTCQB with the ticker PSRHF. Pulsar's portfolio consists of its flagship Topaz helium project in Minnesota, USA, and the Tunu helium project in Greenland. Pulsar is the first mover in both locations with primary helium occurrences not associated with the production of hydrocarbons identified at each.Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.SOURCE: Pulsar Helium Inc.
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NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / September 9, 2025 /WHY: New York, N.Y., September 9, 2025. Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of securities of Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) between January 23, 2024 and July 21, 2025, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), of the important September 26, 2025 lead plaintiff deadline.SO WHAT: If you purchased Lockheed Martin securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the Lockheed Martin class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=2661or call Phillip Kim, Esq. at 866-767-3653 or email case@ rosenlegal.com for more information. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than September 26, 2025. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources, or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually litigate securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company at the time. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, throughout the Class Period, defendants made false and misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Lockheed Martin lacked effective internal controls regarding its purportedly risk adjusted contracts including the reporting of its risk adjusted profit booking rate; (2) Lockheed Martin lacked effective procedures to perform reasonably accurate comprehensive reviews of program requirements, technical complexities, schedule, and risks; (3) Lockheed Martin overstated its ability to deliver on its contract commitments in terms of cost, quality and schedule; (4) as a result, Lockheed Martin was reasonably likely to report significant losses; and (5) as a result of the foregoing, defendants' positive statements about Lockheed Martin's business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.To join the Lockheed Martin class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=2661 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. at 866-767-3653 or email case@ rosenlegal.com for more information.No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm , on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/ Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.---Contact Information:Laurence Rosen, Esq.Phillip Kim, Esq.The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.275 Madison Avenue, 40th FloorNew York, NY 10016Tel: (212) 686-1060Toll Free: (866) 767-3653Fax: (212) 202-3827 case@ rosenlegal.comwww.rosenlegal.com SOURCE: The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.
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NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / September 9, 2025 /WHY: New York, N.Y., September 9, 2025. Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of securities of Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) between May 7, 2025 and July 28, 2025, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), of the important September 30, 2025 lead plaintiff deadline.SO WHAT: If you purchased Novo Nordisk securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the Novo Nordisk class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=34168 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. at 866-767-3653 or email case@ rosenlegal.com for more information. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than September 30, 2025. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources, or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually litigate securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company at the time. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, defendants provided overwhelmingly positive statements to investors while, at the same time, disseminating materially false and misleading statements and/or concealing material adverse facts concerning the true state of Novo Nordisk's growth potential. Notably, Novo Nordisk's asserted potential to capitalize on the compounded market greatly understated the potential impact of the personalization exception to the compounded GLP-1 exclusion and overstated the likelihood that such patients would switch to Novo Nordisk's branded alternatives. Further, defendants greatly overstated the potential GLP-1 market or otherwise, Novo's capability to penetrate said markets to achieve continued growth. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.To join the Novo Nordisk class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=34168 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. at 866-767-3653 or email case@ rosenlegal.com for more information.No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm , on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/ Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.---Contact Information:Laurence Rosen, Esq.Phillip Kim, Esq.The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.275 Madison Avenue, 40th FloorNew York, NY 10016Tel: (212) 686-1060Toll Free: (866) 767-3653Fax: (212) 202-3827 case@ rosenlegal.comwww.rosenlegal.com SOURCE: The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.
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MONTREAL, QC / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 /Sadie, the AI-powered voice host for the hospitality industry, today announced a new strategic integration with OpenTable, a global leader in restaurant tech, to offer restaurants a new way to capture booking interest 24/7.For diners, Sadie takes reservations, answers common questions, and provides confirmations and reminders. All activity flows seamlessly into the OpenTable platform, giving restaurants that opt in one connected view of their reservations and guest interactions."Partnering with OpenTable gives restaurants a powerful advantage: the ability to capture and manage every booking opportunity, no matter how guests choose to connect," said Mitch Bourassa, Partner at Sadie. "By combining OpenTable's network with Sadie's always-on support, we're helping restaurants reduce missed reservations, strengthen guest relationships, and free up staff to focus on the in-person moments that matter most." "Our restaurant partners are continuing to embrace voice AI to run their businesses more efficiently," said Sagar Mehta, CTO of OpenTable. "By partnering with Sadie, we're expanding our offerings to streamline bookings and ensure restaurants never miss the chance to welcome a guest." By pairing OpenTable's global network with Sadie's conversational AI, restaurants can recover missed calls, and maintain stronger guest connections during peak hours and outside of business times to ultimately help increase booking volume. The integration ensures restaurants remain accessible to diners anytime, anywhere-helping restaurants grow their bottom line while delivering consistently excellent hospitality.This announcement adds to Sadie's growing ecosystem of integrations. By connecting with both regional innovators and leaders, Sadie continues to expand the ways restaurants can deliver personalized, efficient, and profitable guest experiences.The integration is now available on OpenTable's Integration Marketplace.- ENDS -About Sadie Sadie empowers hospitality businesses with AI-driven solutions that streamline customer interactions and free up staff to focus on in-person service. As the AI-powered host for the industry, Sadie delivers seamless, intelligent voice experiences that help venues secure bookings, manage guest inquiries, and improve operational efficiency. Headquartered in Montreal and owned by Valsoft, Sadie is on a mission to transform how hospitality connects with customers-making every interaction effortless, personal, and revenue-generating. For more information, visit heysadie.ai About OpenTableOpenTable, a global leader in restaurant tech and part of Booking Holdings, Inc., helps more than 60,000 restaurants worldwide fill 1.9 billion seats a year. OpenTable's world-class technology empowers restaurants to focus on what matters most - their team, their guests, and their bottom line - while enabling diners to discover and book the perfect restaurant for every occasion.About ValsoftValsoft acquires and develops vertical market software companies with the goal of driving long-term growth and value creation. Valsoft partners with companies to provide operational support, capital, and strategic expertise while allowing them to retain their entrepreneurial spirit. Headquartered in Montreal, Valsoft has a presence in over 20 countries and operates in more than 30 vertical markets. For more information, visit www.valsoftcorp.com Media Contact Thierry Tardif Communications and Public Relations Valsoft Corporation +1 514-799-6679t.tardif@ valsoftcorp.com SOURCE: Valsoft Corp
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DALLAS, TX / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / Swanson Reed, a leading global R&D tax advisory firm, announced today that it has completed the acquisition of AusGrant. ( www.ausgrant.com) , a premier U.S. and Australian consultancy specializing in helping companies apply for and secure government research grants. The strategic acquisition unites two specialist firms, creating an unmatched service offering for innovative companies across the region.By integrating AusGrant's deep expertise in the research grant landscape, Swanson Reed will provide a comprehensive, end-to-end solution for businesses seeking non-dilutive funding. This move solidifies the company's commitment to offering highly specialized, data-driven advice to maximize returns on innovation."This acquisition represents a powerful synergy of two specialist firms," said Cherie Jones, Director of Swanson Reed. "AusGrant has a stellar reputation for securing critical funding for innovators. By combining our global R&D tax experience with their localized grant expertise, we are creating a single, seamless resource for our clients." Key Benefits of the Acquisition:A Comprehensive Funding Solution:The merger provides a one-stop shop for companies seeking to leverage the full spectrum of government incentives, from R&D tax credits to a wide array of federal and state grants.Deepened Specialization: The combined entity brings together two dedicated teams of engineers, scientists, and tax professionals who live and breathe innovation funding, offering a level of focus that generalist firms can not match.Expanded Footprint: The acquisition significantly strengthens Swanson Reed's presence and capabilities within the U.S. and Australian markets, ensuring clients receive expert, on-the-ground support.Seamless Client Experience: Both firms are committed to a smooth transition, ensuring all existing AusGrant clients continue to receive the highest level of service and support without interruption.A Stronger Future for Innovation FundingThe acquisition moves beyond a simple business transaction; it creates a holistic platform for fueling innovation. This unique, specialist-driven approach ensures:A complete, end-to-end strategy, from identifying R&D activities to securing grant funding.A focus on maximizing non-dilutive funding for founders, allowing them to preserve equity.An integrated team with deep expertise in both tax law and the intricacies of grant applications."We are thrilled to welcome the AusGrant business into the Swanson Reed family," added Jones. "In an increasingly complex funding environment, our goal is to provide clarity and maximize outcomes for innovative companies. Swanson Reed will continue to exclusively provide R&D tax services, and AusGrant will continue to help clients receive government Grants. In the world of AI, where much of the grant application process is now automated, this move will help strengthen both businesses." About Swanson ReedFounded in 1984 by J.W. Norris, Swanson Reed has grown to become one of the largest specialist R&D tax advisory firms in the world, employing over 60 people across seven countries. With offices in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore, its people have published in over 100 academic journals and magazines. Unlike generalist firms, Swanson Reed exclusively prepares R&D tax credit claims, providing businesses with unmatched precision, support, and audit protection.About AusGrantFounded in 2010, AusGrant established itself as a leading advisor for Australian and U.S. businesses, securing government funding. The firm specializes in the provision of consulting services to help companies and universities secure research grants.Media ContactOrganization: Swanson ReedContact Person Name: Cherie Jones Director Swanson ReedWebsite: http://www.swansonreed.com/ Email: clj@ swansonreed.com Contact Number: +18009864725Country: United StatesSOURCE: Swanson Reed
PR-Inside.com: 2025-09-10 12:30:22

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Agreement strengthens Canadian veterinarians' access to Zomedica's advanced therapeutic and monitoring solutionsANN ARBOR, MI / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / Zomedica Corp. (OTCQB:ZOMDF), a veterinary health company offering point-of-care diagnostic and therapeutic products for equine and companion animals, announced today that it has expanded its distribution agreement with UXR Inc., a leading Canadian animal health company focused on supporting the needs of veterinarians across Canada.Under the expanded agreement, UXR will become:Exclusive distributor of Zomedica's PulseVet system in Canada and co-exclusive distributor of the system's consumable Trode accessories.Exclusive distributor of Zomedica's VETGuardian products in Canada.Distributor of Zomedica's Assisi product portfolio in Canada, including the Assisi Loop, DentaLoop, Loop Lounge, and Calmer Canine products."Penetrating the Canadian small animal health market of over 4,000 veterinary practices represents an important growth opportunity for Zomedica," noted Larry Heaton, Zomedica's Chief Executive Officer. "Canadian pet parents love their 28 million pets as we do in the United States, fueling a projected 7% compound annual growth rate. While we have historically sold Zomedica's PulseVet system directly from the United States to equine veterinarians, we have been seeking in-country distribution for the full array of Zomedica's small animal products and are pleased to partner with UXR to grow together." This collaboration strengthens Zomedica's ability to deliver innovative technologies that reduce pain, improve recovery, and enhance monitoring in veterinary practices throughout Canada.Casmir Palmarella, Vice-President of UXR, added: "Our mission has always been to provide veterinarians with technologies that enhance their ability to deliver the highest level of care. By partnering with Zomedica, we are bringing proven, trusted products to clinics across Canada that will support both practitioners and pet owners." "We are excited to partner with UXR, whose strong presence and relationships with veterinarians across Canada make them an ideal distributor for our therapeutic and monitoring solutions," said Kevin Klass, Senior Vice President of Sales at Zomedica. "Together, we will expand access to advanced tools that improve patient care, including the gold standard PulseVet shock wave therapy and the breakthrough VETGuardian remote monitoring system." The agreement is effective immediately and covers distribution throughout Canada.About UXR, Inc.UXR Inc. is a leading Canadian distributor of veterinary equipment, with a strong reputation for innovation, reliability, and customer service. Founded in 1949, UXR is the largest independent supplier of X-Ray solutions for the veterinary market in Canada. We provide a full range of veterinary solutions including X-Ray and imaging systems, anesthesia equipment, surgical lighting, monitors, sterilizers, infusion pumps, rehabilitation, lasers, and more. For more information visit.www.uxr.ca About ZomedicaZomedica is a leading equine and companion animal healthcare company dedicated to improving animal health by providing veterinarians innovative therapeutic and diagnostic solutions. Our gold standard PulseVet shock wave system, which accelerates healing in musculoskeletal conditions, has transformed veterinary therapeutics. Our suite of products also includes the Assisi Loop line of therapeutic devices and the TRUFORMA diagnostic platform, the TRUVIEW digital cytology system, and the VetGuardian no-touch monitoring system, all designed to empower veterinarians to provide top-tier care. In the aggregate, their total addressable market in the U.S. exceeds $2 billion. Headquartered in Michigan, Zomedica employs approximately 150 people and manufactures and distributes its products from its world-class facilities in Georgia and Minnesota. Zomedica grew revenue 8% in 2024 to $27 million and maintains a strong balance sheet with approximately $59 million in liquidity as of June 30, 2025. Zomedica is advancing its product offerings, leveraging strategic acquisitions, and expanding internationally as we work to enhance the quality of care for pets, increase pet parent satisfaction, and improve the workflow, cash flow and profitability of veterinary practices. For more information visitwww.zomedica.com Follow ZomedicaEmail Alerts: http://investors.zomedica.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/zomedica Facebook: https://m. facebook.com/zomedica X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/zomedica Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zomedica_inc Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking StatementsExcept for statements of historical fact, this news release contains certain "forward-looking information" or "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur and include statements relating to our expectations regarding future results. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. We cannot guarantee future results, performance, or achievements. Consequently, there is no representation that the actual results achieved will be the same, in whole or in part, as those set out in the forward-looking information.Forward-looking information is based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made, including assumptions with respect to economic growth, demand for the Company's products, the Company's ability to produce and sell its products, sufficiency of our budgeted capital and operating expenditures, the satisfaction by our strategic partners of their obligations under our commercial agreements and our ability to realize upon our business plans and cost control efforts.Our forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking information. Some of the risks and other factors that could cause the results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information include, but are not limit
In its first full-year result since its controversial acquisition deal, NNPC Retail Limited incurred a loss of N395.5 billion, according to its financial statement seen by PREMIUM TIMES.

This contrasts with the N20.18 billion profit the company recorded in its 2022 financial statement, before it controversially acquired OVH mid-2023 and transferred the management of NNPC retail to the acquired company.

The company reported a loss after tax of N395.5 billion for the year ended 31 December 2024 (2023: profit after tax of N20.18 billion).

As at 31 December 2024, the company is in a net liability position of N278.8 billion (2023: N79.51 billion) and a net current liability position of N423.6 billion (2023: net current assets of N29.62 billion), the report said.

The latest report, titled Annual report, Consolidated and Separate Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2024 comprises the financial information of NNPC Retail Limited (the Company) and its subsidiaries, Apapa SPM Limited (ASPM) and NNPC Retail Limited Togo S.A (together the Group).

The subsidiaries are controlled by NNPC Retail Limited.

It explained that these consolidated and separate financial statements cover the period from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2024 with comparative figures for the financial year from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2023 for both Group and Company.

For the year ended 31 December 2024, the report said the group reported a loss after tax of N391.1 billion (2023: profit after tax of N20.08 billion).

It noted that as at 31 December 2024, the Group was in a net liability position of N269.7 billion (2023: net assets of N82.25 billion) and a net current liability position of N434.1 billion respectively (2023: net current assets of N28.96 billion).

Concern

According to the report, in preparing the consolidated and separate financial statements, the directors assessed the Groups and the Companys ability to continue as a going concern for the foreseeable future.

The directors attributed the losses to non-recurring transactions, including impairment of receivables and reconciliation differences on intercompany ledger balances, which are not expected to recur in future periods.

The loss recorded in the current year was largely driven by non-recurring transactions including an impairment of receivables amounting to N117 billion and an amount of N133.9 billion expensed in the current year, relating to reconciliation differences on intercompany ledger balances. These items are not expected to recur in future periods, it said.

The report added that the Group has historically been profitable, with both the defunct NNPC Retail Limited and the new NNPC Retail Limited (formerly OVH Energy Marketing Limited) reporting profits in the prior year.

The directors expect it to return to profitability in the foreseeable future, supported by its established market share in the sourcing, distribution, retailing, and marketing of petroleum products in Nigeria.

A significant portion of the Groups current liabilities comprises balances with related parties, which constitute approximately 38 per cent of total current liabilities (N526.6 billion). Excluding these balances, the Group would be in a positive net current asset position.

The related parties are under common control of NNPC Limited, which has provided confirmation of its continuing financial support to the Group and the Company for at least the next 12 months, it said.

Controversial acquisition

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) announced in October 2022 the acquisition of OVH Energy Marketing Limiteds downstream assets. This acquisition would merge OVH Energy with NNPC Retail, a subsidiary of NNPC Ltd.

The assets acquired from the company, which operated Oando filling stations, also include a reception jetty with 240,000 metric tonnes monthly capacity and eight liquefied petroleum gas plants, three lube blending plants, three aviation depots, and 12 warehouses.

But in June 2023, PREMIUM TIMES investigation on the acquisition exposed the secret deals and the complicated ownership structure that left managerial control of NNPC Retail in the hands of OVH Energy Marketing.

The report also exposed that OVH Energy Marketing may not have owned as many filling stations as it claimed during the merger talks.

In addition, the report highlighted how Huub Stokman, an expatriate and former Chief Executive Officer of OVH Energy, emerged as the new Managing Director of NNPC Retail, a development that further compounded the structure of NNPC Retail.

This newspaper also found out that the acquisition of OVH Energy had turned NNPC Retail into a toxic workspace, with officials of the former taking over the latters running.

In July 2023, the House of Representatives, following the adoption of a motion by Miriam Onuoha (APC, Imo), directed NNPC Ltd to suspend the acquisition pending an investigation by its committee.

Consequently, the House, in September 2023, set up an ad-hoc committee with Hassan Nalabraba (APC, Nasarawa) as the chairperson to investigate the acquisition.

The ad-hoc committee requested the NNPC Ltd to furnish it with information about registration documents/history from CAC for OVH, Nueoil, and NNPC Retail Limited (NRL), Board Resolution of NNPC Ltd on purchase of OVH, Audited Financial Statement and Management Accounts from 2015 to Date OVH, Nueoil, NRL and NNPC Ltd and the payroll from 2015 to date for NRL and OVH, Board Resolution of NRL/CHQ for movement of head office to Lagos and evidence of Tax Payments for NRL and OVH from 2015 to date.

The committee also requested documents on all financial transactions associated with the acquisition, including payment records and fund transfers.

In September 2023, the then Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Ltd, Mele Kyari, while appearing before the committee investigating the acquisition, said NNPC Ltd operated like a private limited liability company and entered the commercial relationship with OVH to take over market shares in the downstream petroleum sector.

He said NNPC Ltd did nothing wrong in the acquisition.

Meanwhile, some NNPC Retail concerned staff, in a letter dated 25 September 2023, addressed to the Chairperson of the House Committee, and signed on their behalf by Mohammed Muazuo, noted that the request by the committee was not met.

In October 2023, Mr Nalabraba presented a report on the investigation. In January 2024, NNPC Ltd announced that it was unable to complete the OVH acquisition. It said it intended to apply for operating licences for the facilities under OVH Energy Marketing Limited.

In February 2024, the House of Representatives dissolved the committee investigating the controversial acquisition after the panel presented a report many lawmakers described as suspicious and shabby.

The task was subsequently transferred to the House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) for a fresh investigation.

PREMIUM TIMES in August 2024, reported how a court ruling had effectively dissolved the NNPC Retail and transferred its ownership to OVH Energy Marketing Limited.

This newspaper also reported that the NNPC Retail, with registration number 826223, incorporated on 21 June 2009, and Nueoil Energy with registration number 1902885, incorporated on 8 March 2022, were dissolved by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), while the OVH Energy Marketing Limited with registration number 655791, incorporated on 5 June 2006 remained active.

An official search by this newspaper at the time showed that the OVH Energy Marketing Limited, with registration number 655791, incorporated on 5 June 2006, had been renamed as NNPC Retail Limited.

In July 2025, the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) commenced a fresh investigation into the acquisition.
Editors Note: This story is undergoing further editorial review following concerns about the document upon which it is based. We apologise to our readers for the inconvenience this may have caused.
Stakeholders on Tuesday renewed calls for multi-sectoral collaboration and sustainable domestic financing to sustain Nigerias response to HIV and Tuberculosis (TB), amid dwindling foreign aid.

The appeal was made at a stakeholders dialogue on domestic financing for HIV and TB, and the domestication of the HIV anti-stigma law, organised by the Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, in collaboration with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), and other partners in Abuja.

Although recent steps, such as the N4.8bn budgeted for HIV treatment and the establishment of an AIDS Trust Fund, reflect government commitment, stakeholders say financing remains insufficient to meet national needs.

Nigeria requires an estimated $8bn annually to sustain its HIV/AIDS response, according to the Chairman of the House Committee on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (ATM), Amobi Ogah.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr Ogah, represented by his deputy, Abubakar Zango, emphasised that Nigeria must take ownership of its health response rather than depend solely on external donors.

But in the face of recent changes in the global funding landscape, occasioned by the suspension of funding for African health systems by the US government, further gaps in funding will negatively impact the countrys fight against HIV/AIDS and TB, he said.

It is my opinion that the suspension of funding of Africas health systems by the US government is a blessing in disguise because I believe that the Nigerian government must take the lead in funding the response to public health threats such as HIV, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, and not rely solely on foreign interventions.

He explained that since the withdrawal of funding, Nigerians in both the public and private spaces have begun conversations on how to rejig their financing architecture.

So far, many brilliant and innovative solutions on how to mobilise domestic funding for the response against HIV and TB in Nigeria have been rolled out. But there is a need to streamline some of these solutions and, if need be, provide a legislative framework for their implementation, he said.

He further called for multi-sectoral collaboration and stronger partnerships among civil society organisations, government, and the private sector to ensure cost-efficient and sustainable interventions.

The dialogue aims to catalyse action, foster collaboration among key stakeholders, state and non-state actors, the business community, international and national non-governmental organisations, civil society organisations, community-based organisations, and the general population.

Looking inward

In his remark, the National Coordinator of NEPWHAN, Abdulkadir Ibrahim, emphasised the urgency of strengthening domestic health financing, especially for HIV, due to uncertainties in global health funding and shifts in US government policy.

Mr Ibrahim stated that about 8085 per cent of HIV funding in Nigeria comes from foreign aid, while the Nigerian government contributes only about 15 per cent.

He stressed the need to look inward for sustainable financing through health insurance schemes, local philanthropy, and domestic resource mobilisation, since free drugs are ultimately funded by taxpayers abroad.

We are looking into issues around health insurance, how our people will be registered into a health insurance scheme, which will be more sustainable and affordable if people have to pay, he said.

The drugs that people are currently getting for free are being paid for by someoneit is taxpayers money, either from the US or from contributions by other countries.

The Chairman of NEPWHANs Board of Trustees, Abdul-Rahman Momodu, emphasised commitment and leadership in the fight against HIV.

Mr Momodu noted that HIV is not just a health issue but also a social one that must be openly addressed.
As the world marks the 2025 World Suicide Prevention Day, Nigeria confronts a suicide crisis that remains largely hidden behind stigma and silence.

Despite an estimated 15,000 deaths annually, attempted suicide in the country is still criminalised, worsening fear and discouraging people in distress from seeking help.

According to Lifeline International, Nigeria is among the few nations where survivors of suicide attempts may face imprisonment under Section 327 of the Criminal Code and Section 231 of the Penal Code.

These laws, dating back to the colonial era, criminalise what is often a desperate cry for help.

PREMIUM TIMES has, over the years, reported several such cases.

In one instance, police arrested a man in Abuja after he allegedly attempted suicide by climbing a radio mast.

This case highlights how, instead of being offered psychological support, individuals in crisis risk prosecution under existing laws.

Nigeria ranks sixth globally

A Professor of Psychiatry at Obafemi Awolowo University and Consultant Psychiatrist at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife, Adesanmi Akinsulore, has revealed that Nigeria ranks sixth globally among countries with the highest suicide rates.

Mr Akinsulore explained that while men account for nearly 79 per cent of suicides, women are more likely to struggle with suicidal thoughts.

He stressed the urgent need for collaborative action, particularly among young people and students, where the problem is most acute.

His warning reflects a wide pattern. Data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) shows that suicide is the third leading cause of death among people aged 1529 worldwide, highlighting the vulnerability of youth to social pressures, mental health struggles, and economic hardship.

A silent burden in Nigeria

The real scale of the problem is believed to be far higher than reported. Fear of prosecution and entrenched social stigma mean many cases go unrecorded.

According to the Lifeline International report, which cited the WHO, for every person who dies by suicide, at least 20 others make an attempt.

In Nigeria, this translates to more than 300,000 people in suicidal distress each year, many of whom are left without safe avenues to seek help.

The impact is not limited to individuals. For every life lost, at least six others, relatives, friends or colleagues, struggle with the emotional and psychological aftermath.

In Nigeria, that means close to half a million people require psychosocial support annually, underscoring the ripple effect of suicide on society.

Suicide as a global health emergency

Globally, suicide claims more than 720,000 lives each year, with nearly three-quarters of these deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries.

WHO points out that while depression and alcohol use disorders are established risk factors, many suicides happen impulsively during moments of crisis, triggered by relationship disputes, financial problems, chronic illness or violence.

Certain groups face heightened vulnerability, including refugees, prisoners, migrants, indigenous peoples and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) individuals.

WHO stressed that suicide must be treated as a serious public health problem requiring a coordinated response across multiple sectors.

The health body also emphasised that most suicides are preventable with timely, evidence-based and often low-cost interventions, including restricting access to means of suicide, fostering life skills in young people, promoting responsible media reporting and ensuring early support for those at risk.

WHO and IASP intervention

To mark World Suicide Prevention Day 2025, WHO and the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) have renewed calls for urgent action on the global suicide crisis.

Both organisations noted that open conversations about suicide and mental health are essential in creating societies where individuals feel safe to seek help.

While suicide affects every region, the WHO reports that in its South-East Asia Region alone, more than 200,000 people die by suicide each year, making it one of the leading causes of death across age groups and genders.

The agency emphasised that prevention is possible but demands a collective effort from governments, communities, and individuals alike.

IASP and WHO point to practical measures through the LIVE LIFE initiative, which encourages countries to restrict access to common means of suicide, promote responsible media reporting, build socio-emotional skills in young people, and strengthen early identification and support systems for people at risk.

These measures are reinforced by broader strategies such as awareness campaigns, multi-sectoral collaboration, improved financing and regular monitoring.

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In their joint message, the organisations urged communities to take simple but meaningful steps, listening without judgement, showing compassion and offering support, as part of wider national strategies.

They stressed that suicide is not inevitable but preventable, and that preventing it requires societies where people feel valued, connected and supported.

World Suicide Prevention Day

World Suicide Prevention Day was established in 2003 by the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) in partnership with WHO.

Observed annually on 10 September, it seeks to unite communities, governments and organisations under the shared belief that suicide is preventable.

The triennial theme for 20242026 is Changing the Narrative on Suicide.

The campaign urged societies to challenge myths, break stigma and create safe spaces for compassion and dialogue.

It also called on governments to make suicide prevention and mental health care a priority in public policy.
The federal government has said Nigeria is on course to decriminalise attempted suicide by December 2025, in a move designed to replace punitive laws with a health-centred approach.

The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Pate, disclosed this on Wednesday at a press briefing in Abuja to mark the 2025 World Suicide Prevention Day, themed Changing the narrative on suicide, creating hope through action.

World Suicide Prevention Day was established in 2003 by the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) in partnership with WHO.

Observed annually on 10 September, it seeks to unite communities, governments and organisations under the shared belief that suicide is preventable.

The triennial theme for 20242026 is Changing the Narrative on Suicide.

The campaign urges societies to challenge myths, break stigma and create safe spaces for compassion and dialogue. It also calls on governments to make suicide prevention and mental health care a priority in public policy.

From punishment to care

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that Nigeria records an estimated 15,000 suicide deaths annually.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that over 720,000 people globally die by suicide every year, ranking it as the third leading cause of death among people aged 15 to 29. Nearly three-quarters of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries.

Lifeline International, drawing on WHO data, further highlights that for each suicide, at least 20 others attempt to take their own lives.

Applied to Nigeria, this translates to more than 300,000 people experiencing suicidal distress each year, many of whom remain without safe or supportive avenues to seek help.

The countrys sections 327 and 231 of the Criminal and Penal Codes make attempted suicide a criminal offence.

To change course, the government in October 2024 inaugurated a National

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that Nigeria records an estimated 15,000 suicide deaths annually.

Taskforce on the Decriminalisation of Attempted Suicide, chaired by legal scholar, Cheluchi Onyemelukwe.

The taskforce was mandated to guide the countrys transition to a more compassionate, public health-oriented response.

Mr Pate, represented at the event by the ministrys Permanent Secretary, Daju Kachollom, said significant progress had been recorded since the taskforce began work.

A government white paper has been finalised to guide national policy, while a draft amendment to the National Mental Health Act 2021, now the National Mental Health Amendment Bill 2025, proposes the repeal of punitive provisions in the Criminal and Penal Codes, he said.

The draft bill also seeks to bar the prosecution of suicide survivors and provide for care and psychosocial support.

Next steps

According to Mr Pate, the draft bill has been adopted as the official position of the ministry and is undergoing statutory review with the Attorney-General of the Federation.

He added that the next stage will be presenting a memo to the Federal Executive Council for transmission of an Executive Bill to the National Assembly.

The evidence is clear; increasing public awareness, early identification of warning signs, access to quality mental health care, and community support can reduce suicide rates. This reform is both urgent and necessary, he said.

A growing concern

Daju Kachollom, in her opening remarks delivered on her behalf by the Director of Port Health Services, Nse Akpan, admitted that suicide cases are under-reported in Nigeria but remain a growing concern.

Ms Kachollom noted that criminalising suicide attempts does not save lives. Rather, it worsens stigma and discourages people from reaching out for help.

She stressed the ministrys determination to pursue a more humane response to mental health emergencies.

The National Coordinator of the National Mental Health Programme, Tunde Ojo, also reaffirmed the governments commitment, noting that those struggling with suicidal thoughts require compassion, not punishment.

Support from partners

In a goodwill message, the Vice President of Integration and Nigeria Country Director at the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), Olufunke Fasawe, noted that Nigeria is among top countries with high suicide cases.

Represented by Chizoba Fashanu, Director of Infectious Diseases, Essential Medicines, Mental Health and Commodities Access at CHAI, she said the initiative has worked with the government for nearly two decades and, in the last two years, has supported innovative mental health programmes focusing on depression, anxiety, and suicide management.
Nigerias healthcare system is underfunded and overstretched, with millions of citizens paying directly for services at the point of use.

More than 70 per cent of total health expenditure comes directly from households, one of the highest rates in the world, leaving families vulnerable to high costs and deepening poverty.

Against this backdrop, from 1 to 4 September 2025, the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare convened a National Health Financing Policy Dialogue in Abuja under the theme Reimagining the Future of Health Financing in Nigeria.

The theme reflects Nigerias aspiration for enhanced domestic and sustainable financing in pursuing Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

For four days, policymakers, civil society leaders, academics, the private sector, development partners, and the media debated moving from repeated policy declarations to strategic implementation.

PREMIUM TIMES followed the deliberations, capturing the key ideas, concerns and proposals that emerged.

Insurance expansion, Out-of-pocket challenges

The most pressing concern for many was Nigerias heavy reliance on direct household payments.

Health financing scholar John Ataguba described the dependence on out-of-pocket spending as really problematic.

Mr Ataguba explained that Nigerians spend about $70 per person directly on healthcare, compared to only $14 per capita spent by the government.

For him, genuine financial protection can only be achieved when out-of-pocket expenditure drops below 20 per cent.

In response to the concerns, the federal government announced one of the dialogues headline commitments, which is to enrol 44 million Nigerians into health insurance by 2030, up from fewer than 20 million today.

This pledge, according to the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Iziaq Salako, is part of a broader effort to reduce health spending and strengthen financial protection for households.

The pledge generated optimism, but many cautioned that it could remain aspirational unless budget releases are consistent and financial management improves.

Also, coverage under the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) still falls below 10 per cent, raising doubts about whether the new promises will translate into real access for Nigerians.

Primary Health Care

If health financing reforms are to deliver tangible results, many participants stressed that Primary Health Care (PHC) must be the entry point. Despite repeated pledges, PHC facilities across Nigeria remain under-resourced, poorly staffed, and in many cases, barely functional.

They highlighted structural issues that weaken PHC delivery: health worker migration, fragmented state-level programmes, and poor integration of local government budgets. Even where resources exist, delays in fund release and weak accountability mechanisms mean services often fail to reach citizens.

In response, Mr Salako announced that the ministry was considering approaching the National Assembly to increase the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) from the current one per cent to two per cent of consolidated revenue. Officials argued the increase would help revitalise thousands of PHC centres nationwide.

Experts, however, highlighted that revitalising PHC requires more than additional funding, noting that efficiency, transparency, and stronger community engagement must be at the core.

Reducing donor dependence

Sustainability was another recurring theme during the dialogue. Nigeria continues to rely heavily on donor financing for key programmes in immunisation, HIV, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. Experts cautioned that these vertical funding streams often bypass or even weaken domestic systems.

At the event, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Pate, stressed that the country cannot depend indefinitely on aid to solve its health problems, noting that domestic resource mobilisation is the only sustainable path.

The call resonated across sessions, with participants urging federal, state and local governments to prioritise health in their budgets and ensure that approved funds are disbursed.

Increase Health Budget

Mohamed Janabi, WHO regional director for Africa, urged Nigeria to move beyond communiques and increase health spending to at least 20 per cent of the national budget, while reducing out-of-pocket payments.

Mr Janabi said this will ensure Nigeria moves towards achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

He also highlighted the need for evidence-based policymaking and accountability in implementation, stressing that sustainable domestic financing does not mean shutting out donor support.

Mr Salako, the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, said that to achieve its goal of health financing, Nigeria is prepared to learn from best practices in other countries.

Ghana and Kenya, for example, demonstrate that successful healthcare financing requires political commitment, innovative funding mechanisms, strong legal frameworks, community engagement, decentralised implementation, and expanded coverage, he said.

He said Nigeria aims to adapt such models, strengthen regional collaborations, and apply context-specific innovations.

Bridging research, policy gap

To achieve Universal Health Coverage, experts agreed that Nigeria must strengthen its health financing systems and build stronger links between research and policymaking.

Chigozie Uneke, a professor of Health Systems and vice-chancellor of the David Umahi Federal University of Health Sciences (DUFUHS), argued that most Nigerian health research is underutilised because it is not aligned with policymakers priorities.

Mr Uneke blamed a publish or perish academic culture that rewards volume over relevance.

He proposed that government-funded research grants be linked to ministry priorities, ensuring that researchers focus on studies with practical policy impact.

Kamil Shoretire, director of Health Planning, Research and Statistics at the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, echoed the concern, saying researchers must go beyond academic output and engage directly with decision-makers.

On her part, Susana De, the Gates Foundations deputy director for Health and Nutrition in Ethiopia, stressed that success should not be judged by prestigious journal publications but by whether findings influence change.

Prudent use of fiscal gains

At the high-level dialogue, finance leaders warned that rising government revenues must not be allowed to dissipate without impact.

Akin Oyebode, Ekiti States Commissioner for Finance, cautioned that sudden fiscal gains risk becoming numbers on paper if not matched by executed expenditure.

He flagged weaknesses in fragmented nutrition programmes and noted that health-worker migration, driven by pay disparities across states, is hollowing out primary care.

The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Muyi Aina, echoed a similar concern, saying costs for vaccines and other essential commodities are rising faster than budget adjustments.

He stressed that efficiency, transparency, and accountability must accompany additional resources. Donors and partners can support, he said, but Nigeria must first demonstrate its own commitment.

State, local govts roles

At the event, the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Health Care Services, Amos Magaji, called for stronger legislative backing, deeper state involvement, and innovative financing models to strengthen Nigerias health system and expand access to quality healthcare.

Mr Magaji stressed that healthcare financing should not be left to the federal government alone, noting that states and local governments are closest to the people and play a pivotal role in mobilising resources.

Aminu Hassan, chairman of Jalingo Local Government in Taraba State, argued that councils must commit more resources at their level, insisting that 25 per cent of local government budgets should be dedicated to healthcare.

Similarly, Samuel Gejere, a former Karu council chairman who represented the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), pressed for an increase in councils share of the federation account, from 20.6 per cent to 35 per cent.

He criticised the culture of empowerment projects such as motorcycle distributions and urged that funds be channelled instead toward sustainable health investments.

Diaspora, private sector roles

At the event, Mr Pate highlighted the potential role of the diaspora and the private sector in achieving a reliable health system in Nigeria.

He encouraged Nigerians abroad to move beyond ad hoc remittances and pay directly into insurance schemes for relatives at home.

Instead of sending money when an aunt or uncle is sick, you can pay for their insurance. That brings the diaspora closer home, he said.

Mr Pate also cited new initiatives, including dialysis subsidies, fistula repair programmes, and a planned catastrophic health fund, as signs of reform momentum, stressing that private sector engagement will be central to sustaining progress.

The road ahead

The country is making bold promises on insurance expansion and funding, yet it remains heavily dependent on donors. Revenues are rising, but budget execution and accountability remain weak.

Sub-national governments hold key responsibilities, but their commitment is uneven. Also, plenty of research exists, but they are often disconnected from the policy cycle.

Meanwhile, these challenges are not new to Nigerias health system. Nigeria has signed ambitious declarations before, including the Abuja target of 15 per cent budgetary allocation to health and the rollout of national and state-level insurance schemes.

However, implementation has consistently lagged with the countrys health budget still a little above five per cent of the total annual budget.

Now, with donor contributions declining, particularly as global priorities shift and traditional funders such as the United States scale back support, the pressure on Nigeria to mobilise domestic resources has never been greater.

The health financing dialogue has set a fresh round of promises, but the test will be whether these translate into measurable improvements in health outcomes for all Nigerians.

Until then, the health system will remain overstretched and ordinary citizens will keep paying the price.
The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), on Tuesday, suspended its strike following an agreement with the management of Dangote Refinery to recognise workers rights to unionise.

The agreement was reached at a closed-door meeting convened by the State Security Service (SSS or DSS) and attended by the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, and representatives of the Nigeria Labour Congress.

The resolution was contained in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed on behalf of the management by Managing Director of Dangote Group, Sayyu Dantata; Ogbugo Ukoha of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) and Ojimba Jibrin of Dangote Group.

Representatives of labour unions were Benson Upah for the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Nuhu Toro for the Trade Union Congress (TUC), NUPENG President Akporeha Williams, and General Secretary of NUPENG, Afolabi Olawale.

The Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment was represented by Amos Falonipe, director, Trade Union Services & Industrial Relations, who signed on behalf of the minister.

The resolution followed a meeting convened by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment on Monday, which ended in a deadlock.

According to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed at the meeting, both parties agreed that unionisation is a right under extant labour laws, and employees of Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals who wish to unionise would be allowed to do so.

The MoU added that the process of unionisation would begin immediately and be completed within two weeks.

After exhaustive deliberations, the following resolutions were reached by both parties: That since workers unionisation is a right in line with the provisions of the extant laws, the management of Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals agreed to the unionisation of employees of Dangote Refinery and the unionisation of employees of Petrochemicals, who are willing to unionise.

That the process of unionisation shall commence immediately and be completed within two weeks (9th  22nd September, 2025), and it was agreed that the employer will not set up any other union. Arising from the strike notice, no worker or employee of Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical will be victimised, the MoU reads.

IPMAN

Following the agreement, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Western Zone, also suspended its strike action.

The suspension was contained in a statement issued by the Western Zone Chairman of IPMAN, Oyewole Akanni, on Tuesday.

Mr Akanni said the suspension took effect immediately, adding that the decision followed productive discussions and mutual agreements that addressed issues raised by NUPENG over alleged anti-labour and monopolistic practices by Dangote Groups.

Following productive discussions and compliance by Dangote Group on agitation by NUPENG, we have decided to call off the strike action effective today, 9 Sept. This decision comes after careful consideration and assurances addressing concerns regarding anti-labour and monopolistic ideas by Dangote Group, he said.

Mr Akanni commended members of IPMAN for their unity and solidarity during the industrial action, noting that their efforts were instrumental in advocating for fair competition in the downstream oil sector.

He however, urged marketers to resume their daily and operational activities without delay.

The strike

Last week, NUPENG announced that its members would commence a nationwide strike from Monday, 8 September.

The strike was proposed in protest against what it described as anti-union labour practices, linked to the deployment of newly imported Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) trucks by the Dangote Refinery, for direct distribution of petroleum products.

The strategic programme is part of Dangotes broader commitment to eliminating logistics costs, enhancing energy efficiency, promoting sustainability and supporting Nigerias economic development.

On Sunday, the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) expressed support for NUPENG in its ongoing struggle against the Dangote Group.

NARTO National President, Othman Yusuf, in a statement, said it rejected Dangotes plan for free distribution of petroleum products, citing its unsustainability and potential to eliminate independent transporters who operate over 30,000 trucks across the country.

Similarly, the NLC backed NUPENG as its president, Joe Ajaero, accused the Dangote Group of exploiting Nigerian workers while disregarding their constitutional rights.
A United States judge has found Paulinus Okoronkwo, a Nigerian lawyer based in Los Angeles, guilty of receiving a $2.1 million bribe from a Chinese oil company to secure drilling rights in Nigeria.

He was said to have accepted the bribe while serving as an official of the state-owned oil firm, NNPC, now NNPC Ltd.

Mr Okoronkwo, 58, also known as Pollie, was found guilty of three counts of money laundering, one count of tax evasion, and one count of obstruction of justice.

The verdict was delivered on 29 August after a four-day trial in California.

Prosecutors told the court that Mr Okoronkwo, a dual US-Nigerian citizen, collected the payment in 2015 while serving as general manager of the upstream division of the NNPC. In that role, he was a public officer and owed a duty of loyalty to Nigerias government, the court said.

In October 2015, Addax Petroleum, a Swiss subsidiary of Chinese state-owned oil giant Sinopec, paid a bribe to Mr Okoronkwo in exchange for his influence in securing more favourable financial terms relating to its crude oil drilling in Nigeria, the court ruled.

Evidence showed that Addax wired the funds to a trust account in the name of Mr Okoronkwos Los Angeles law firm under the guise of legal consultancy.

Prosecutors described the agreement as a sham designed to cover up the bribe.

Addax was seeking to protect its lucrative drilling rights in Nigeria, which prosecutors said were worth billions of dollars.

In an attempt to cover up the bribe, Addax fired executives who raised concerns about the payments legitimacy and lied about the transaction during an audit, the court said.

Investigators revealed that in November 2017, Mr Okoronkwo used $983,200 of the illegally obtained funds to make a down payment on a house in Valencia, California, and failed to declare the money on his 2015 tax returns.

Then in 2022, he lied to federal agents, insisting the money was client funds and not his income.

US District Judge John F. Walter has scheduled 1 December for a sentencing hearing, at which time Mr Okoronkwo will face a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison for each money laundering count, up to 10 years in federal prison for the obstruction of justice count, and up to five years in federal prison for the tax evasion count.

READ ALSO: NNPC appoints new Corporate Communications Officer

Mr Okoronkwo is currently released on a $50,000 bond.

The FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation led the investigation, with support from the Justice Departments Office of International Affairs.

The case is being prosecuted by the Assistant US Attorneys Alexander Schwab, Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division Nisha Chandran of the Major Frauds Section, and Alexander Su of the Asset Forfeiture and Recovery Section.
The Adamawa State government has confirmed the death of eight persons following a suspected Buruli ulcer outbreak in Malabu community, Fufore Local Government Area of the State.

The state Commissioner for Health, Felix Tangwami, disclosed this to journalists on Tuesday in Yola.

Mr Tangwami said the government is deeply concerned, noting that some victims are currently receiving treatment at the Modibbo Adama University Teaching Hospital, Yola.

He revealed that samples have already been collected and dispatched to the National Reference Laboratory for further testing.

According to him, health officials have placed the community under close monitoring to prevent further spread of the suspected disease.

The commissioner assured that the state, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the WHO, and partners, is taking proactive steps to contain the situation.

Our medical team is working around the clock to stabilise the victims condition, he said.

He added that ongoing measures to contain the spread include the deployment of emergency response teams, awareness campaigns, and the provision of medical supplies to the affected community.

Mr Tangwami appealed to residents to remain calm, avoid panic, and maintain good hygiene practices.

He also advised them to report suspicious cases to health facilities and avoid patronising traditional remedies to prevent worsening infections.

About Buruli Ulcer

It is a rare bacterial infection of the skin and soft tissue, caused by an infection with Mycobacterium ulcerans.

Its mainly found in tropical areas, including West Africa and Australia.

READ ALSO: Tinubu reaffirms commitment to tackle health sector electricity challenges

It often starts as a painless swelling of the affected area, usually the arms, legs or face. It may culminate in large ulcers eventually, usually on the arms or legs.

Treatment involves antibiotics. If left untreated, it could lead to permanent disfigurement and disability.

(NAN)
The Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday rejected the bail application of five men standing trial for the June 2022 massacre in a church in Owo, Ondo State.

At least 40 worshippers were killed and over 100 others injured in the attack on the church.

Trial judge Emeka Nwite ruled that the suspected assailants bail application lacked merit. He also ruled that they could not be granted bail considering the gravity of the offences and the strength of evidence against them.

The seriousness of the offence, the nature and strength of the evidence, and the likelihood of interference with witnesses are matters this court cannot gloss over, he held.

The judge added that, considering the number of casualties and injuries resulting from the church attack alleged in the case against them, granting bail in these circumstances poses a judicial risk.

He agreed with the prosecution that there was compelling evidence that the defendants might jump bail, considering their alleged links with foreign terrorist groups.

In the interest of justice, the bail application is refused for lacking in merit, he ruled.

The defendants, charged with five counts of terrorism, are Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza (25 years old), Al Qasim Idris (20 years old), Jamiu Abdulmalik (26 years old), Abdulhaleem Idris (25 years old) and Momoh Otuho Abubakar (47 years old).

They were arraigned on 11 August over the 5 June 2022 terror attack on St. Francis Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State. They all pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Their lawyer subsequently applied for the defendants bail, arguing during 19 August hearing that they were presumed innocent. He also assured the judge that the defendants would always attend court for their trial and would not interfere with prosecution witnesses.

Defence lawyer Abdullahi Mohammad told the judge that the defendants had been in custody since their arrest in 2022 and were ready to present reliable sureties for their proposed bail

However, the prosecution in a counter-affidavit opposed the bail on grounds, including the defendants alleged links to foreign terrorist groups like Al-Shabab. The prosecution also said their accomplices were still at large, constituting a threat to prosecution witnesses.

Prosecution lawyer Calistus Eze called on the judge to throw out the bail applications, citing the seriousness of the terrorism charges, the severity of the prescribed punishment, the strong evidence against the applicants, the likelihood of absconding, and possible intimidation of witnesses.

Presumption of innocence not enough

Ruling on Wednesday, the judge rejected the defences reliance on the presumption of innocence in their bail application.

Although, the Nigerian constitution presumes an accused person innocent until proven guilty, the judge said, the right is not absolute. In a bail application, all factors must be considered, he said.

He added that the court must consider established other factors, including the nature of the charge, severity of punishment, strength of evidence, criminal record, likelihood of attendance at trial, and risk of interference with witnesses.

The judge stressed that the likelihood was high that the suspects could interfere with the trial if granted bail, noting that they did not oppose the claims in the prosecutions counter-affidavit that they could abscond from trial, intimidate witnesses and commit more crimes if their application was granted.

He said facts not opposed are believed to be true.

Mr Nwite cited some of the claims in the prosecutions counter-affidavit unopposed by the defence to include the fact that defendants accomplices were still walking free and making frantic efforts to interfere with and compromise prosecution witnesses and trial.

He also noted the fear expressed by prosecution witnesses and their cry for protection as a condition to appear in court. The judge recalled that following intimidation of the proposed witnesses from the people connected to defendants, the prosecution had to apply for the shielding of the witnesses faces while giving evidence.

He also alluded to the possibility of the defendants committing other crimes if released on bail.

He cited sections 162 and 163 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015, which provides that a defendant can be denied bail if there is a reasonable ground that he will commit another offence, jump trial, interfere in the case, attempt to conceal evidence, or undermine the purpose of criminal justice administration.

The judge also pointed out that while there five defendants standing trial, only the first defendants name was stated on the motion paper, with the others included by reference.

He held that each applicant was required to file a separate affidavit stating reasons why bail should be granted. He held the joint application as filed was incompetent.

The judge fixed 16 October for commencement of trial.
The federal government will on Thursday arraign two top leaders of Ansaru, an Al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group, at the Federal High Court in Abuja.

The globally wanted defendants are Mahmud Muhammed Usman (a.k.a. Abu Baraa/Abbas Mukhtar) and his deputy, Abubakar Abba (a.k.a. Isah Adam/Mahmud Al-Nigeri).

They will face trial before judge Emeka Nwite on 32 counts of terrorism.

The federal government, through M.B. Abubakar, the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation, filed the charges on 4 September, on behalf of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi.

One of the counts accused Mr Usman, from Okene Local Government Area of Kogi State, and Mr Abba, from Daura LGA of Katsina State, of aiding and abetting terrorism between 2013 and 2015.

They were also accused of conspiring and agreeing to be part of the formation and leadership of Jamaatu Ansarul Muslimeena Fii Bilaadis Sudan (Ansaru), a proscribed terrorist organisation in Nigeria.

The offences are said to be contrary to and punishable under Section 17 of the Terrorism (Prevention) (Amendment) Act, 2013.

Counts three and four accused the defendants of receiving training in weapons handling and in the fabrication of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) from various terrorist camps.

Count five alleged they committed an act preparatory to terrorism by receiving war tactics training from Jamaatu Nusratil Islami Wal Muslimin (JNIM), a terrorist group in Mali.

Count seven accused them of contributing to the attack on Wawa Cantonment of the Nigerian Army in Kainji, New Bussa, Borgu LGA of Niger State, in 2022, which resulted in mass casualties.

Their arrest

PREMIUM TIMES reported that two high-profile terrorism suspects were captured alive following a high-risk, intelligence-led, multi-agency operation conducted between May and July 2025.

The National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, announced the arrest during a press conference in mid-August 2025.

Mr Ribadu described the arrests as a major breakthrough, saying they marked the beginning of the end of impunity for terrorist leaders in Nigeria. He added that the men had long been on both national and international terror watch lists.

The two were identified as among the most wanted Ansaru commanders.

Ansaru, an Al-Qaeda-affiliated group, has been linked to numerous high-profile attacks and kidnappings across the country.
Multiple roadside petrol vendors emerged in the Calabar metropolis on Monday as petrol stations shut down operations in solidarity with the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG).

A News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) survey around the Calabar metropolis on Tuesday showed that many petrol stations were not open for business.

NUPENG had directed its members to commence an indefinite nationwide strike over alleged anti-labour practices by Dangote Refinery.

The union had accused the refinery of planning to render no fewer than 250,000 members jobless following alleged move to hire non-affiliated drivers.

Some petrol station managers who spoke to NAN said that the closure of their business premises was in compliance with the NUPENGs directive.

At a popular filling station in the Atimbo area of Calabar, the manager, who preferred anonymity, said, We were ordered by our union to suspend services, and that is what we are doing.

We were told that any station found dispensing petrol to the public risked being fined up to N1 million, so we are closed for now, the manager said.

Some motorists who spoke to NAN described the development as disheartening and unnecessary.

Aniekan Edet, a commercial bus driver, said the development would end up bringing untold hardship on members of the public.

We now buy petrol above the approved pump price from roadside sellers. This will eventually add to the cost of transportation if the situation persists, he said.

Adebisi Adelabu, a resident, said that it was wrong for the authorities to handle industrial matters in ways that negatively impact the public.

I have no petrol in my car, my intention was to refuel at a nearby station so that I can take my kids to school. I am stranded now.

If I dont get petrol today, it means that I cant move out tomorrow, this is annoying and frustrating, she said.

Meanwhile, NUPENG on Tuesday evening suspended its strike following an agreement with the management of Dangote Refinery to recognise workers rights to unionise, Channels TV reported.
A combined team of security operatives in Enugu State, Nigerias South-east, have arrested two crime suspects and recovered arms and ammunition in multiple operations in the state.

The police spokesperson in the state, Daniel Ndukwe, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday.

Mr Ndukwe, a superintendent of police, said the suspects were arrested during the operations in the state.

He said arms and ammunition were recovered when security operatives raided a criminal hideout during the operations.

The operations

Mr Ndukwe said the multiple operations began on 3 September when operatives from Umabor Divisional Police Headquarters rescued and then arrested a 23-year-old man, Collins Ugwu, accused of threatening another man with a rifle.

He said the operation was carried out in collaboration with local vigilantes in the area.

The suspect further confessed to membership of the Black Axe Confraternity, the police spokesperson said.

One locally fabricated double-barrelled pistol loaded with a live cartridge was recovered from him.

Mr Ndukwe said, in another operation on 5 September, police operatives from Abakpa Division arrested a 26-year-old man, Peter Kalu, for allegedly causing public disturbance.

He said the suspect was arrested when the operatives were conducting their night patrol at about 11:05 p.m. in the area.

A search conducted on him led to the recovery of a locally fabricated imitation pistol, he said.

Mr Ndukwe said, in a separate operation on 6 September, police operatives from the Anti-Cultism Tactical Squad raided a criminal hideout in Ameke Ngwo, a community in Udi Local Government Area of the state.

The spokesperson said the operation, which was conducted in collaboration with members of the Neighbourhood Watch Group, followed a tip-off on the activities of the suspects.

On sighting the operatives, a group of suspected criminals fled, abandoning a bag.

A search of the bag led to the recovery of two locally fabricated firearms: one triple-barreled pistol and one single-barreled pistol, he said.

Mr Ndukwe stressed that these operational breakthroughs were part of the sustained efforts of the police in the state to rid Enugu State of criminality.

Further discreet investigations into the cases are ongoing, while the arrested suspects will be arraigned in court upon conclusion of investigations, he assured.

Commissioner speaks

Mr Ndukwe said the Commissioner of Police in Enugu State, Bitrus Giwa, has commended the operatives for their swift responses and successful operations.

Mr Giwa reassured residents of Enugu State that the police in the state were committed to sustained operations against criminals.

The police commissioner urged the residents to remain law-abiding, vigilant, and support the police with timely provision of credible information.

Prohibited in Nigeria

Illegal possession of firearms is outlawed in Nigeria. Firearms Act 1959 and the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provisions) Act (2004) remain the principal legislation against the illegal possession of firearms.

The Robbery and Firearms (Special Provisions) Act (2004) prescribes a 10-year jail term for persons convicted of the offence.

However, a legislation proposed by Nigerias National Assembly includes a five-year jail term for firearms possession without a license.

Like the illegal possession of firearms, cultism, also known as secret societies, is outlawed in Nigeria.

However, the laws vary from state to state. In Enugu State, for instance, cultism is outlawed in the Public Order (Prohibition of Secret Cults and their activities) Law No. 17 of the Enugu State of Nigeria 2009.

READ ALSO: Adamawa confirms eight deaths from suspected Buruli ulcer outbreak

It is also outlawed in the Criminal Code, Cap. 30, Vol II Revised Laws of Enugu State of Nigeria 2004.

Several persons have been convicted in Nigeria for offences of illegal possession of firearms and cultism across Nigeria.

In July 2021, a Magistrate Court in Lokoja, Kogi State, sentenced a student of Kogi State Polytechnic, Shehu Mohammed, to eight years imprisonment for illegal possession of a firearm and cultism.

An Ekiti High Court, in 2019, sentenced a Nigerian man to 10 years imprisonment for unlawful possession of firearms.
The Niger State Government has entered into a partnership with the Zenith Kidney and Medical Centre to improve healthcare delivery in the state.

Governor Mohammed Bago and the medical director of the centre, Olatise Olalekan, signed the agreement in Minna, the state capital, on Tuesday. The deal comprises training, referrals, consultancy, and knowledge exchange aimed at strengthening the states healthcare system.

Speaking at the ceremony, Governor Bago said the government was taking deliberate steps to reverse the trend of brain drain in the health sector by investing in infrastructure and partnerships.

He said the collaboration was part of a wider effort to make quality healthcare more accessible and reduce residents reliance on medical treatment abroad.

Zenith Kidney and Medical Centre, which has performed more than 1,200 kidney transplants in Nigeriaincluding 20 for Niger State residentshas been accredited to train postgraduate doctors in nephrology and urology. The facility is also constructing a 250-bed capacity hospital, which is nearing completion.

Mr Olalekan said the centre would commit to achieving the objectives of the agreement. This partnership is an opportunity to strengthen healthcare services in Niger State, and we are confident it will reduce the need for medical tourism, he said.

The state government expects the arrangement to reduce the financial burden on citizens by making advanced care available locally, while also building the capacity of healthcare workers through postgraduate training and specialist exposure.
The Kwara State Environmental Protection Agency (KWEPA) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin, to establish a National Diploma (ND) programme in environmental health.

The initiative aims to equip young Nigerians with the technical skills and practical knowledge needed for effective environmental health management.

Speaking at the MoU signing ceremony, the General Manager of KWEPA, Jide Aina, described the partnership as a strategic effort to train a new generation of environmental health officers in waste management, pollution control, and environmental sustainability.

Mr Aina said KWEPA will provide technical support, mentorship, and hands-on field experience to ensure students gain maximum benefit from the programme.

In his remarks, the representative of the Rector of the Kwara State Polytechnic, Kudabo Ajeigbe, praised KWEPA for its forward-thinking approach to environmental health education.

Mr Ajeigbe said the polytechnic is prepared to provide the academic structure, qualified faculty, and a conducive learning environment required for the successful delivery of the programme.

He said the curriculum will integrate both theoretical and practical components to produce well-rounded graduates.

Both institutions pledged to collaborate to ensure the smooth take-off and effective implementation of the programme.

They emphasised the importance of producing competent professionals to support government efforts in creating cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable communities.

The ND programme is also expected to create employment opportunities for young people and foster research and innovation in environmental management.

KWEPA and the Kwara State Polytechnic affirmed commitment to advancing human capital development, environmental protection, and sustainable growth.

The two parties said they will begin work on curriculum development, accreditation processes, and other groundwork ahead of the launch of the programme and the admission of its pioneer students.
African health leaders have stressed the urgent need to strengthen national epidemic surveillance and research systems as the foundation for regional and global preparedness.

The call was made at a panel on epidemic surveillance at the 2nd Lassa Fever International Conference in Abidjan, Cote dIvoire, on Wednesday.

The event, convened by the West African Health Organisation (WAHO), has the theme: Beyond Borders: Strengthening Regional Cooperation to Combat Lassa Fever and Emerging Infectious Diseases.

The gathering seeks to reaffirm regional commitment, mobilise political will, and drive collective action against Lassa fever and other emerging infectious diseases.

West African experts said there is urgent need to strengthen the response to Viral Haemorrhagic Fevers (VHFs), including Lassa fever.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that experts from Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Cote dIvoire and the World Health Organisation (WHO) shared their experiences and lessons from past VHFs outbreaks, including Ebola and Mpox at the event.

Minnie Sankawulo-Ricks, medical director of Phebe Hospital and School of Nursing, Liberia, said that early detection of outbreaks in her facility begun with a community-based surveillance system integrated into the national health structure.

Ms Sankawulo-Ricks noted that community health workers and volunteers act as the first line of defence, reporting unusual symptoms, deaths, or disease clusters from even the most remote villages.

My facility uses WhatsApp groups for real-time reporting between the community, facility and county levels, she said.

This has greatly improved the timeliness and accuracy of data shared with health authorities.

She added that her centre now has a PCR laboratory, reducing test results from more than a week to less than six hours.

However, she highlighted ongoing barriers such as logistical delays, poor infrastructure, limited internet access and inadequate incentives for community health workers.

From Guinea, Alpha Keita, rector of the University of Conakry, underscored the progress in genomic surveillance since the 2013 to 2016 Ebola outbreak.

In 2013, it took three months to confirm the first Ebola cases. By 2021, confirmation was possible in 24 hours and sequencing within nine days, he said.

Mr Keita warned that political commitment and sustainable financing are still lacking, with genomic surveillance often dismissed as a research luxury.

In Sierra Leone, Donald Grant, head of clinical, public health and research activities related to Lassa fever, recalled how the 117 hotlines introduced during Ebola transformed reporting.

Today, community health workers and epidemiology trainees feed into an integrated system that covers both human and animal health, Mr Grant said.

Yet challenges remain, including internet connectivity, dependence on donor funding and limited laboratory access outside major cities.

The Deputy Director and Head of the Surveillance Division at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Muntari Hassan, called for regional harmonisation of data platforms, noting past efforts by WAHO and ECOWAS to develop a unified reporting system.

READ ALSO: ECOWAS justice ministers meet in Banjul over key legislations concerning regional court

Ibrahima Fall, Global Public Health leader and the CEO of Institut Pasteur de Dakar, said Africa must not only adopt new digital tools but also invest in national analytical capacity.

Mr Fall said 80 per cent of African countries still lack adequate institutional capacity for data analysis.

Without strong national systems, regional or global platforms cannot function effectively, he warned.

The Director-General of Health, Cote dIvoire, Mamadou Samba, closed the session by stressing that Africa must finance its own research and health priorities, rather than rely on external partners.

These are our diseases, our families and our populations. Unless we take responsibility and invest in our own systems, progress will remain limited, Mr Samba said.

NAN reports that the experts agreed that building trust with communities, investing in digital tools and ensuring sustainable domestic financing are critical for Africas preparedness against future epidemics.

(NAN)
The Children, Sexual and Gender-based Violence Offences Court in Awka, Anambra State, has ordered the remand of a 35-year-old civil servant, Joseph Chigbo, in a correctional centre for allegedly raping a five-year-old girl.

The Magistrate, U.E. Onochie, ordered the remand of Mr Chigbo after his arraignment on a one-count charge of defilement.

She adjourned the case until 8 December for the hearing.

Earlier, the prosecutor, Chinyere Okechukwu, a police inspector, told the court that the defendant allegedly committed the offence on 13 July at Ezinifite in Aguata Local Government of Anambra State.

Ms Okeckukwu told the court that the case was reported on 13 July by the father of the five-year-old girl.

He stated that he was in his backyard washing breadfruit on the said date when he heard his friend, the defendant, talking with his daughter.

After a while, he realised he could no longer hear their voices. Concerned, he went to check and discovered that the door to his room was open.

He said he went in and saw his friend naked and holding his penis while his daughter was lying naked on the bed.

After medical examination at the General Hospital Ekwulobia, a medical practitioner confirmed that the girl had been defiled, she said.

She said the offences contravened Sections 130(2) (a) (b) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law 2022.

The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charge.

(NAN)
The West Africa Association of Public Accounts Committees (WAAPAC) has lauded President Bola Tinubu and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Abbas Tajudeen, for Nigerias successful hosting of its 11th Regional Conference and General Assembly.

It described the event as a milestone for parliamentary accountability in the subregion.

The conference, which was held in Abuja, marked the first time Nigeria hosted the gathering since WAAPAC was established in 2009.

The event attracted delegates from 13 African countries, members of the Nigerian National Assembly, and representatives of various State Houses of Assembly.

It also brought together public finance oversight experts and legislators committed to advancing accountability and transparency in governance across West Africa.

Hosted by the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives, the conference served as a platform for peer learning, experience sharing, and the strengthening of inter-parliamentary collaboration.

Sessions covered critical issues such as improving audit practices, enhancing financial oversight, and ensuring that public institutions across Africa remain accountable to the people they serve.

In his remarks at the closing ceremony, WAAPAC President, Traore Issouf, praised Nigeria for setting what he called a model of parliamentary standards in Africa.

He highlighted the hospitality extended to participants and commended the planning and organisation that made the conference a success.

Nigeria has set a model for parliamentary standards in Africa. The planning and organisation of this conference have been second to none, Mr Issouf said.

He expressed particular appreciation for the leadership of Bamidele Salam, Chairman of the House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee, who spearheaded Nigerias preparations for the event.

Mr Issouf described Mr Salams commitment as a reflection of Nigerias broader dedication to accountability and legislative oversight.

Beyond commendations, Mr Issouf used the platform to call for deeper regional cooperation.

He urged African leaders to Charlie Kirk visa barriers, stressing that free movement within the continent would accelerate economic integration, boost cross-border trade, and strengthen interpersonal relations among citizens of member states.

He also charged national parliaments across West Africa to prioritise the funding of Public Accounts Committees and Supreme Audit Institutions.

According to him, these institutions play a critical role in ensuring transparency in the management of public resources, curbing corruption, and safeguarding against abuse of office.

The conference ended with resolutions aimed at strengthening parliamentary networks across the continent and a renewed commitment by member states to support each other in the fight against corruption.

The next WAAPAC Regional Conference is said to hold in Liberia, with expectations that lessons from Nigerias hosting will guide future organisers.

Key discussions at the conference

Earlier in the week, Mr Tajudeen raised alarm over Nigerias 149 trillion debt profile, urging governments across the subregion to adopt more sustainable borrowing practices.

Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, in his presentation, assured delegates that Nigeria was already working to stabilise its economy through improved revenue mobilisation and fiscal discipline.

Also, Mr Salam used the opportunity to highlight Nigerias recent recovery of over 200 billion in lost public revenue, stressing that audit institutions must be adequately empowered to sustain such gains.
Troops of the 63 Brigade of the Nigerian Army have rescued a major abducted on Monday by gunmen suspected to be kidnappers in Delta State, southern Nigeria.

The rescued officer has been identified as MD Josiah.

The spokesperson for 63 Brigade, Iliyasu Rijau, in a statement on Tuesday, said the operation was carried out in Bomadi Local Government Area of the state.

The abduction

According to a report by Vanguard newspaper, Mr Josiah attended a marriage ceremony in Kpakiama, a community close to Bomadi, over the weekend. After the ceremony, he went to his lodge at Bomadi, the councils headquarters, where he was kidnapped.

Vanguard, relying on an unnamed source, reported that the gunmen struck at the lodge between 2 a.m. and 2.30 a.m., ransacked the rooms, took the phones, and whisked away the officer in a ready vehicle.

The 63 Brigade spokesperson stated that Mr Josiahs rescue was successful due to meticulous planning, intelligence gathering by the troops, and collaboration with community leaders and members.

This synergy enabled the troops to track down the abductors and rescue the senior officer at Tuomor Waterside in Bomadi Local Government Area, Delta State, on Tuesday.

Mr Rijau, a captain, said that although Mr Josiah sustained gunshot wounds during the rescue operation, he was conveyed to a medical facility for treatment and is receiving adequate care.

He said the Commander of the 63 Brigade of the Nigerian Army/Sector 1, Joint Task Force, South-South, Operation DELTA SAFE, M. A Shonibare, commended the troops for their bravery and tactical prowess.

Mr Shonibare, a brigadier general, assured the public that the Nigerian Army remains committed to maintaining peace and security in Delta State and its environs.

He expressed appreciation to the communities in Bomadi Local Government Area for their cooperation and support.

READ ALSO: Police rescue kidnapped Egyptian in Oyo State

He said the collaboration is a testament to the growing trust and partnership between the Nigerian Army and local communities in the fight against crime, and that the successful rescue operation demonstrated the Nigerian Armys capacity to respond decisively to security challenges and protect the lives and property of citizens.

Abduction for ransom has become one of the prevalent crimes in many Nigerian cities, with just anyone, including clerics and students, as targets.
Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State has ordered the arrest and prosecution of officials of a task force known as Operation Clean and Healthy Anambra Brigade (OCHA) who opened fire on traders at Onitsha Main Market.

The Commissioner for Information in Anambra State, Law Mefor, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday night.

OCHA Brigade is a state-run task force in the south-eastern state that ensures a clean environment in the state.

Officials of the agency usually clear illegal structures and confiscate goods obstructing roads, particularly around markets.

The fatal shooting

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the enforcement officials opened fire on some traders when the traders resisted the attempt to confiscate their wares.

Of the seven traders shot by the officials, police said one woman has been confirmed dead.

However, witnesses said at least four were killed during the incident which occurred at about 10 a.m. on Tuesday near Emeka Plaza Axis of the market.

Save for sticks and machetes, the task force officials do not bear arms.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that some armed operatives of Agunechemba Vigilante Group usually accompany the task force during their operations.

Soludos order

In the Tuesday statement, Mr Mefor said Governor Soludo has ordered that the officials who opened fire on the traders be arrested and handed over to the police for prosecution.

An investigation into the incident has commenced, and the government will ensure that all necessary measures are taken to prevent similar occurrences in the future, he said.

The commissioner said the state government appreciated the police in the state for their swift intervention and restoring calm and order in the area.

He said the governor has also directed that the medical bills of the injured victims should be taken care of.
Human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, on Tuesday, described as embarrassing the Senates decision barring Kogi Central Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan from resuming legislative duties despite completing her six -month suspension.

I find the letter of the Senate embarrassing. I find it scandalous. I find it contentious. And I find it very disparaging of the sensibility of the Nigerian people because it is simple, Mr Effiong said Tuesday evening on Channels Televisions prime time programme, Politics Today.

He also faulted anchoring the Senates decision on pending case at the Court of Appeal regarding Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghans legal challenge to her suspension in March.

He said the pending appeal could not serve as a basis to stop her from resuming after serving the punishment apportioned to her exhaustively.

Having now served for six months, the issue of suspension has elapsed by operation of law. Suspension no longer exists because it is a definite appeal, Mr Effiong said.

On 4 August, the National Assembly wrote a letter to Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan, insisting that she could not yet resume legislative activities despite the expiration of her six-month suspension from the Senate.

It was the second time the National Assembly would prevent her from resuming from the suspension. In July, her attempt to resume based on a court judgement was rebuffed.

Personal battle

Mr Effiong pointed out that the saga between Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan and the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, leading to her suspension and refusing her to resume her Senate duties was driven by personal ego, which he noted was evident in the lawlessness of the Senate.

He accused Mr Akpabio of using his office to pursue a personal vendetta.

It now calls into question whether really there was a modicum of veracity in what Natasha said, the lawyer said.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan accused Mr Akpabio of sexual harassment.

This is a personal matter. Nigeria should stop making it about the legislative institution. This is a personal grievance between Senator Akpabio, who is the Senate President, and Senator Natasha. He is now using his office to achieve his own agenda, Mr Effiong said.

He advised the Senate President to allow time and history to vindicate him.

Mr Effiong also criticised the Senate, noting that its actions towards Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan would turn the country into a laughing stock in the global community.

He stressed that it was unfair for Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghans constituency to suffer for six months simply because she refused to change seats. He stated that there was no law in support of it. The Senate had anchored its decision to suspend Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan on the altercation she had with Mr Akpabio during the 20 February Senate proceedings where she protested the seat allocated to her.

Mr Effiong advised the Senate to recall her immediately.

Similarly, earlier on Tuesday, Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghans party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), asked her to disregard any attempt by the management of the National Assembly to prevent her from resuming legislative duties, having already served her suspension period.

The PDP condemned the National Assemblys position, describing it as an attack on womens rights.

Background

Ms Akpoti-Uduaghan launched her legal action on 3 March, initially, to halt an investigation by the Senate and its Committee on Ethics into alleged misconduct stemming from Senate proceedings where she had an altercation with the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, over her assigned seat.

She sued the Clerk of the Senate, the Senate, Senate President Akpabio and Neda Imasuem, who is the chairperson, Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Code of Conduct.

Despite the suit and the initial restraining order issued by the former judge Obiora Egwuatu asking the Senate to stay action on its disciplinary proceedings, the Senate proceeded to suspend her on 6 March for six months.

While pursuing the suit, Mrs Uduaghan-Akpoti alleged at various fora that she was targeted as part of alleged sexual harrassment she faced from Mr Akpabio.

On 11 March, Akpoti-Uduaghan reported her suspension and alleged sexual harassment by the senate president to the Inter-Parliamentary Union during its meeting in the United States.

Her suit led to the judgement delivered in July by Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja.

The court held that suspending an elected senator for six months was not only disproportionate but also effectively silenced an entire senatorial district for most of the legislative year.

However, the judge controversiallly toned down her order, framing it like an advisory that left the Senate with the discretion to recall or not to recall her.

On 12 July, Ms Akpoti-Uduaghan notified the management of the National Assembly of her intention to resume legislative duties based on the judgement.

However, on 13 July, the National Assembly management maintained that the judgement by the Federal High Court was merely advisory, not an enforceable order.

Despite this, Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan, accompanied by her supporters, was blocked from entering the National Assembly premises.

The Senate said that it could not reinstate her.
Ata Ikiddeh, a close ally of Nigerias Senate President Godswill Akpabio, has attacked aides of Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State, accusing them of betraying the governor by going to the airport to welcome the governors predecessor, Udom Emmanuel.

On Thursday, some politicians, including aides of Mr Eno, trooped to the airport to welcome Mr Emmanuel, who was in Akwa Ibom for his cousins burial  his first visit to the state after his successor, Mr Eno, whom he helped to become governor, left the PDP for the APC. Some of the aides also served the former while in office.

Describing the reception as a honey trap laid by Mr Emmanuel, Mr Ikiddeh, a former aide to Mr Akpabio, said that Mr Enos aides who fell for it have demonstrated their lack of loyalty to the governor and cannot be trusted.

According to Mr Ikiddeh, while Mr Emmanuel would have banished those aides, Mr Eno was silent about it. Mr Ikiddeh warned that the aides should not take advantage of the governors meekness.

Mr Emmanuel may posture as the opposition leader, but let no one mistake Mr Enos silence for weakness. Meekness is not weakness. Courtesy is not surrender.

Those aides of Governor Eno, who ran into Mr Emmanuels honey trap at the airport, have already marked themselvesthey cannot be trusted. Under Mr Emmanuel, they would have been banished into political exile, Mr Ikiddeh wrote on Facebook, suggesting that the aides should be sanctioned, warning that Mr Enos patience should not be mistaken for naivety.

While arriving at his Awa Iman country home in Onna Local Government Area of the state, Mr Emmanuel was treated to a fanfare reception by supporters, who held banners, waved the PDP flags, and chanted songs in solidarity with the former governor, prompting Mr Ikiddeh to dismiss the visit as sheer political theatre disguised as a family event.

Every drumbeat, every banner, every hired hand last week bore his (Mr Emmanuels) signature. And everyone knows nothing in politics is free. So, who funded it? Who paid for the carnival? The fingers all point one wayMr Emmanuel. Am I blaming him  No! They say politics is a game, Mr Ikiddeh wrote.

Not the first Akpabio ally to criticise Enos aides

Mr Ikiddeh is not the first ally of Mr Akpabio to demand sanctions against Governor Enos aides who received Mr Emmanuel at the airport; earlier, Anietie Ekong, a media aide to Mr Akpabio, made a similar call.

What I found most disturbing and concerning are the appointees of Governor Eno who trooped out to welcome their former boss and rubbed it in our faces where their allegiance and loyalty stand. They stumbled over themselves to take selfies with the former governor and, without qualms, splashed (the photographs) in our faces on social media; their bodies may be with Governor Eno, but their hearts are with Mr Udom Emmanuel, Mr Ekong wrote on Facebook about Mr Emmanuels visit.

This is me calling out the appointees of Governor Umo Eno to state today, whom they shall serve: their present boss or the former boss, Mr Ekong added.

Governor Eno confirmed to an online newspaper, Policy and Politics, that he had read the piece by Mr Akpabios aide, but said he would not fight his predecessor.

For me, those to watch out for are not those who pay respect to our leaders in the open. It is those who sneak surreptitiously to tell lies and plant evil seeds and yet come to smile with you, the newspaper quoted Mr Eno as saying.

The Policy and Politics report is authored by Etim Etim, the papers publisher and editor-in-chief. Mr Etim, a former editorial board member at the Guardian newspaper, is a chieftain of the APC in Akwa Ibom.

Loyalty debates, Enos promises before defection

Before leaving the PDP for APC, Mr Eno repeatedly told the people he was not doing party politics in the state, stressing that he could accept other appointees refusing to join him, but that his commissioners, whom he described as his first eleven, must join him in the APC or resign their appointments.

And after defection, he doubled down  integrating Akwa Ibom United, a phrase he used to refer to governance across party lines, into the APC slogan in the state, apparently to convince people that his policies are not party-based.

In a leaked video, which led to the eviction of Channels TV crew from Government House Press Corps, Mr Eno had also promised that he would not dissolve the state executive council, but he might rejig.

Dont let people poison your mind. You can only leave this council if youre not performing. Until I finish my first term, I am not going to dissolve the (state executive) council again. But as it goes, I might rejig, drop two, add two, he told the commissioners, stressing, but it is not going to be based on partisan politics.

On the future of the PDP, the party, whose platform he became governor, Mr Eno vowed to retain control of the party structure in the state so that thieves dont hijack and use it to fight against him.

These policies appear to have unsettled Akpabios camp, who are apparently considering the continuous alliance between Mr Enos aides with Mr Emmanuel as a demonstration of disloyalty to Mr Eno, and an act of serving two masters.
The Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) has defended the demolition of shanties and unapproved buildings in Oworonshoki, saying the action followed due process and years of ignored warnings by the residents.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Gbolahan Oki, told reporters on Tuesday that the affected residents were served notices and given ample opportunity to regularise their buildings.

He said the government launched an amnesty programme in May 2024 with a 90-day window for owners of unapproved buildings to obtain planning permits. The programme was extended twice and ended in December 2024.

Only two or three persons in that community took advantage of the amnesty, and their buildings were spared. Others ignored all warnings, Mr Oki said.

He explained that officials, in partnership with traditional and community leaders, held sensitisation meetings before the demolition.

Many of the demolished structures, he said, were distressed, blocking drainage and posing security threats.

Some of the buildings tilted backwards, had visible cracks or were merely patched with paint. The government cannot allow people to live in houses that are not fit for habitation. We are now insisting that every property in Lagos must have a certificate of fitness for habitation, he added.

The official noted that planning permits now take between 10 and 15 days once documents are complete and that permit offices have been decentralised across all local governments.

He also presented a video showing marked buildings and meetings with residents before the exercise.

Mr Oki said the demolition was necessary to protect lives, improve drainage and enhance security in the community. Data from the ministry shows that during the amnesty period, 18,489 applications were submitted and 8,856 planning permits were issued.

Third Mainland Bridge

On Monday, Oworonshoki residents blocked part of the Third Mainland Bridge to protest the demolition of their buildings along the coastal line.

The demonstrators, including women and children, demanded compensation and resettlement. The protest caused heavy gridlock, with motorists stranded for hours.

Some residents accused the government of arriving at night with bulldozers and security operatives, leaving families homeless without alternatives. Community leaders also argued that some of the affected structures had stood for decades without challenge.

The Lagos State traffic agency said the gridlock began to ease by 4:40 p.m. Police later confirmed that calm had been restored after Commissioner of Police Olohundare Jimoh personally intervened.
The House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations on Wednesday held a closed-door session lasting nearly four hours with some members of the executive arm to assess ongoing budget performance.

Those at the meeting were the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun; the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Bagudu; Accountant-General of the Federation, Shamsedeen Ogunjimi and the Director-General (DG) of the Budget Office of the Federation, Tanimu Yakubu.

Emerging from the meeting, both sides stressed that the implementation of the 2024 and 2025 Appropriation Acts remains on track, with the ministers highlighting progress and lawmakers reiterating their support for the federal governments reform agenda.

Mr Edun explained that the 2024 budget, extended by the National Assembly until December 2025, has reached about 80 per cent implementation, with a focus on grassroots-driven projects such as roads, irrigation schemes, and other infrastructure.

As is customary, we reviewed the budget performance, and overall its around 80 per cent. As you know, the budget for 2024 was extended to December, so it is still running. It is still a work in progress, he said.

He added that the focus of government spending under the extended cycle has been on projects with direct impact on communities, especially in critical areas such as road infrastructure, irrigation, and other grassroots initiatives designed to boost livelihoods and stimulate local economies.

Mr Edun stressed that the President Bola Tinubu administration is committed to faithful and full execution of the extended budgets, promising that the gains will become more visible in the coming months.

Lawmakers express satisfaction

Committee Chairperson, Abubakar Bichi, said members were satisfied with the level of implementation so far and appreciated the ministers assurances.

We discussed the 2024/2025 Appropriation Act. Nigerians are concerned about implementation, and both ministers acknowledged this and they have agreed to work so hard so that at least Nigerians can see the progress of the budget, he said.

On the 2025 budget, signed into law in February, Mr Bichi explained that while Nigerians were eager to see the results, initial delays caused by the procurement process slowed down early implementation.

He added that while the 2026 budget timeline has not yet been communicated, the legislatures current focus is on seeing that the extended 2024 budget and the 2025 budget are properly delivered before the next fiscal cycle begins.

Commendation for Tinubus reforms

Mr Bagudu told journalists that lawmakers restated their appreciation of Mr Tinubus economic policies, including ongoing tax reforms, and commended the executives respect for the National Assembly.

The members of the National Assembly restated their appreciation of all the achievements under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and they commended the respect for the National Assembly and the excellent working relationship with the federal government and they restated that they have supported all the major reform initiatives which have produced the result, including the latest tax reforms, Mr Bagudu said.

He described the meeting as another demonstration of the strong collaboration between the executive and legislature in steering Nigerias economy through challenging times.

Context: Overlapping budgets and unusual extensions

Nigerias budgetary process has faced significant adjustments over the past two years.

The 2024 Appropriation Act, initially set at over 27.5 trillion, was extended into 2025 to ensure the completion of key projects.

Meanwhile, the 2025 budget, passed in February 2025 with a total of 54.9 trillion, has been slow to take off.

Ordinarily, one fiscal years budget lapses as another begins, but the extension of the 2024 budget has created a rare overlap, with both the 2024 and 2025 fiscal plans running concurrently in the same year.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Wednesday inaugurated the Disability Inclusion Technical Working Group (DITWG) to support the enforcement of the rights of Persons Living With Disabilities under local law and international instruments.

Specifically, the group will coordinate and push for the implementation of the protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on Persons with Disabilities (PWD) and Nigerias Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act 2018.

This inauguration was held during a consultative meeting at the NHRCs headquarters in Abuja.

A representative of the Executive Secretary of the NHRC, Harry Obe, said the establishment of this Technical Working Group is therefore in accordance with Articles 33 and 34 of the African Disability Protocol (ADP) to give capacity and ensure good participation as well as designate mechanisms to monitor the implementation of the Protocol.

Mr Obe said the DITWG was necessary for strengthening coordination, implementation, and technical support for inclusive policies, programmes, and practices.

The members of the DITWG include representatives of the ministries of Information, Education, Health, Justice, Interior, Labour and Productivity.

Other members are representatives of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, the National Bureau of Statistics, the National Population Commission, the NHRC, the National Orientation Agency, the Nigerian Police, the Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD), and The Ability Life Initiative (TALI).

The group is expected to meet and share information, support the implementation of agreed recommendations, and collaborate with member African States in respect of ADP.

He also quoted the NHRCs executive secretarys speech charging members of the DITWG to remain committed and focused to a vision of a society where everyone, regardless of ability, has equal opportunity to contribute and succeed.

While inaugurating the members, the Director of the Vulnerable Groups, NHRC, Dahiru Bobbo, stated that the list for members was still open for inclusion.

Both representatives of the European Union, Winifred Achu and SightSavers, Esther Bature, pledged the support of their organisations to promote social inclusion.

Plight of PWD

Over 35 million Nigerians are living with disabilities, who face many challenges such as unemployment, difficulties in accessing healthcare, and negative attitudes such as discrimination and stigmatisation.

To address these challenges, the Nigerian government ratified the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act 2018 in 2019.

However, the law has made little impact, which informed the need for the setting up of the of the DITWG, which brings together federal ministries and agencies, non-governmental organisations, and PWD groups to address the implementation gaps.

While commenting on the DITWG, the NHRC boss said, Creating more inclusive environments where persons with disabilities will be able to realise their potential, which aligns with the agendas and principles of establishment to create an enabling environment for the promotion, protection, and enforcement of human rights of everyone in Nigeria.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has recognised former Senate President, David Mark and former Osun State governor, Rauf Aregbesola, as the chairperson and national secretary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), respectively.

In a publication on its website on Wednesday, INEC also listed Mani Ibrahim as the partys national treasurer, Akibu Dalhatu as the national financial secretary and Oserheimen Osunbor, a former governor of Edo State, as the national legal adviser.

ADC

The Atiku Abubakar-led opposition coalition had adopted the ADC to challenge President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 election, following allegations of delay by INEC to register their preferred All Democratic Alliance (ADA).

Mr Mark was later named the interim leader of the ADC with Mr Aregbesola, a former ally of President Tinubu, as national secretary.

The former Senate president, a long-time member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) resigned his membership of the party, noting that it had lost its way despite attempts to remedy the deepening divisions, persistent leadership crisis, and irreconcilable differences.

The opposition coalition includes prominent political heavyweights such as Atiku, a former vice president, Peter Obi, Nasir El-Rufai, Rotimi Amaechi, all former governors, Abubakar Malami, a former attorney general of the federation, and others.

Although, former National chairperson of ADC, Ralph Nwosu, handed over to the Mark-led NWC, some groups within the party are still laying claim to the leadership of the party.

Its presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Dumebi Kachikwu had repeatedly insisted the Mr Nwosu had been sacked by the court.

Political Parties in Nigeria

The registered political parties in Nigeria are Accord (A), Action Alliance (AA), African Action Congress (AAC), African Democratic Congress (ADC), Action Democratic Party (ADP), All Progressives Congress (APC), All, Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Action Peoples Party (APP), Boot Party (BP), Labour Party (LP), and National Rescue Movement (NRM).

Others are New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Young Progressive Party (YPP), Youth Party (YP) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
The Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the remand of two people allegedly arrested with N26 million cash during the last Chikun/Kajuru Federal Constituency by-election in Kaduna State.

Trial judge Emeka Nwite gave the remand order after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned the duo  Esther Ashivelli Dawaki and Shehu Fatange  on Wednesday.

They were arraigned on five counts of money laundering, involving N26 million cash allegedly meant for vote buying. The defendants denied all the charges.

They were arraigned in Abuja instead of Kaduna due to ongoing judges vacation. The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court was designated to hear emergency cases from Abuja and its environs during the judges vacation which ends later this month.

The commission said in a statement on Wednesday that its operatives arrested them on 16 August, during the by-election for Kaduna States Chikun/Kajuru Federal Constituency seat in the House of Representatives.

The by-election was part of 16 rerun polls conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on 16 August.

EFCC said Mr Fantage identified himself as the Director General of the campaign office of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the Chikun/Kajuru Federal Constituency by-election.

The PDP lost the rerun poll to the All Progressives Congress (APC), which swept most of the by-elections held that day across different state and federal constituencies in many states.

How defendants were arrested

EFCC said the arrest of the defendants followed credible intelligence that exposed them to have possessed the sum of N26,463,000.00 (Twenty-six Million Four Hundred and Sixty-three Thousand Naira). EFCC said it suspected the money was meant for vote buying.

According to the commission, the defendants kept the money inside a Toyota Corolla 2010 model, belonging to Mr Fatange, and packed within a hotel premises in Kaduna, the Kaduna State capital.

Charges

The five charges filed against the defendants includes alleging that Ms Dawaki procured Mr Fatange to accept a cash payment of N26 million on 16 August in Kaduna, without going through a financial institution. The prosecution said the money exceeded the cash transactions limit authorised by the law. It said the act constituted an offence contrary to Section 21(C )(a) and 19(1)(d) of Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and punishable under Section 19(2)(b) of the same Act.

Another count accuses Mr Fatange of directly accepting the funds from Ms Dawaki, a cash amount said to be far above legal limits. The offence is also said to be contrary to Sections 2(1)(a) and 19(1)(d) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022 and punishable under Section 19(2)(b) of the same Act.

The two defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Remand

The prosecution counsel, M. O. Arumemi, asked the court for a trial date and for the defendants to be remanded in a correctional centre.

Defence lawyers  E. N. Ogbu and A.A. Ashat  made oral applications for their clients bail.

They also appealed to the court to remand their clients in EFCC custody pending determination of the bail applications.

Trial judge, Mr Nwite, ordered the remand of Ms Dawaki in the Suleja Correctional Centre and Mr Fatange in Kuje Correctional Centre.

He then adjourned the matter until 15 September for the hearing of the defendants bail applications.
The International Press Centre (IPC), Lagos, has condemned the killing of an Ibadan-based journalist, Peter Ojo, and called for a thorough investigation into the incident.

Mr Ojo, who worked with the Daily Monitor, was confirmed dead after being shot by suspected armed robbers along the MoleteOke Ado axis of Ibadan on 18 August. His death was initially thought to be health-related until his younger brother, Enahoro Peter, clarified that he had been attacked.

In a statement, IPCs Press Freedom Officer, Melody Akinjiyan, described Mr Ojos death as a tragic loss to the Nigerian media industry.

This unfortunate loss is a sad one for the media industry, considering the fact that Peter Ojo must have left home in perfect health and was looking forward to returning, only to be gunned down in broad daylight, she said.

Ms Akinjiyan urged the police to leave no stone unturned in their investigation.

While we acknowledge the ongoing investigations by the police, we urge them to examine all possible angles and ensure that justice is served, she added. The suspect in police custody should be immediately charged in court, while efforts are made to arrest the remaining suspects who were said to have escaped.

Ms Akinjiyan said this will go a long way to bring succour to the family and colleagues that he left behind.

Rising attacks on journalists

Although there is no indication yet that Mr Ojo was killed because of his work, his murder adds to the growing concerns over journalist safety in Nigeria. Press freedom groups have repeatedly raised alarm about rising attacks, intimidation and harassment of media professionals.

The IPC documented 45 incidents of attacks on journalists in 2024 alone, affecting more than 70 individuals and three media outlets. Security operatives were often implicated as perpetrators.

Other organisations, including the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), have consistently raised concerns about the worsening climate for press freedom in Nigeria.

Through its Press Attack Tracker, the CJID documented more than 1,200 verified cases of violations against journalists between 1986 and 2025, with the most alarming figures recorded in the last five years. In just one year, between May 2023 and June 2024, CJID recorded 51 cases of violations, followed by another 90 cases between July and October 2024.

CJIDs 2024 Subnational Press Freedom Index further highlights the risks faced by journalists across Nigeria. States such as Imo, Bauchi, and Lagos were ranked among the most dangerous places for media professionals, while Cross River emerged as the most open and tolerant state, with the highest score for transparency and press safety.

These findings, based on feedback from journalists, civil society groups and media owners, reveal that despite constitutional guarantees, the press in many parts of the country still operates under conditions of hostility, censorship, and violence.

In January, the Centre for Media and Society (CEMESO) reported that more than 70 per cent of recorded press freedom violations involved direct attacks on journalists, with security agencies responsible for more than half of the cases.

Similarly, the Media Rights Agenda (MRA) recorded 141 cases of assaults on journalists and media workers between May 2023 and May 2025, ranging from physical assaults to arrests and surveillance.

Historical fatalities

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has documented at least 24 journalists killed in Nigeria between 1992 and 2023, many of them in connection with their reporting. UNESCO also reported nine journalist killings between 2006 and 2019, none of which were resolved.

High-profile cases include the 2012 killing of Channels Television correspondent Enenche Akogwu, who was shot while covering a Boko Haram bombing in Kano.

In 2009, The Guardian assistant news editor Bayo Ohu was murdered in Lagos in what was initially described as a robbery, though colleagues strongly suspected he was targeted for his work. These cases, among others, remain stark reminders of the risks faced by journalists in Nigeria and the lack of accountability for perpetrators.

Press Freedom Under Constraint

Nigeria continues to struggle with press freedom rankings. In the 2024 World Press Freedom Index, the country was placed 112th out of 180, reflecting persistent challenges such as censorship, intimidation and the economic vulnerability of journalists.

Studies by MRA show that most press freedom violations are linked to politicians and security forces, with a significant share involving physical assaults and threats.

Rights groups argue that the lack of accountability for attacks emboldens perpetrators and fosters a climate of impunity. This climate, they warn, not only threatens the safety of journalists but also weakens democratic accountability by restricting the flow of information to the public.
The former Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mele Kyari, is under interrogation at the headquarters of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Abuja.

An EFCC insider, who is familiar with the case but craved annonimity to discuss the sensitive case, confirmed the development, earlier reported by Daily Trust, to our reporter Wednesday evening.

The source said via a phone call that Mr Kyari, who had earlier been placed on a watchlist, arrived at the commissions office for questioning around 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday. EFCC spokesperson Dele Oyewale did not respond to our reporters calls seeking his comments on Wednesday evening.

While the exact issues Mr Mele was questioned for on Wednesday are unclear, public disclosures on the cases agaisnt him has included suspicious use of funds earmarked for the maintenance of refineries during his tenure at the NNPC. Other former officials of the state-owned oil company have also faced similar allegations.

PREMIUM TIMES has yet to confirm if Mr Mele was released after facing questions from EFCC detectives on Wednesday.

Court-ordered account freeze

Wednesdays interrogation came less than a month after the Federal High Court in Abuja ordered the temporary freezing of four Jaiz Bank accounts linked to Mr Kyari over allegations of conspiracy, abuse of office and money laundering.

The judge, Emeka Nwite issued the order in August after EFCC lawyer Ogechi Ujam moved an ex parte application.

The agency told the court the accounts were under investigation for suspicious transactions.

The EFCC, in its filing marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1641/2025 seking the order, alleged that the accounts were controlled by Mr Kyari and tied to offences of conspiracy, abuse of office, and money laundering.

Also, preliminary findings reportedly traced N661.4 million, suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activity, to the accounts.

According to an affidavit by EFCC investigator Amin Abdullahi, the probe followed a petition from a civic group, Guardians of Democracy and Rule of Law, filed on 24 April.

He said suspicious inflows from NNPCL and oil companies were disguised as donations for a book launch and funding for a non-governmental organisation, with the accounts allegedly managed through Mr Kyaris relatives acting as fronts.

Wider EFCC probe

The investigation into Mr Kyari forms part of a broader EFCC probe into the management of refinery rehabilitation funds. At least 14 current and former NNPCL officials, including two other ex-CEOs, are under scrutiny.

The commission has demanded emolument records of those officials, with over N80 billion reportedly traced to the personal accounts of a former refinery managing director.

Mr Oyewale had confirmed the ongoing probe, saying it involves funds released for the rehabilitation of the Kaduna, Warri and Port Harcourt refineries.

President Bola Tinubu has since appointed Bashir Ojulari as NNPCL Group CEO and Ahmadu Kida as non-executive chairman, directing them to restore investor confidence and improve operational efficiency.

Kyaris response

Mr Kyari, who led NNPCL until April when President Bola Tinubu dissolved the board and management, has denied wrongdoing.

In May, he dismissed reports of his arrest over the alleged diversion of $2.9 billion for refinery rehabilitation as clear mischief aimed at damaging his reputation.

I must emphasise that I served with the fear of God, knowing fully well that if I do not account before man, I will account before Allah, the 60-year-old said in a statement on his X handle.
Ogun State, on Wednesday, emerged as the winner of the Most Sustainable Going Green Stand award at the Intra African Trade Fair (IATF) 2025 event held in Algiers, Algeria. According to the organisers, the award is in recognition of Ogun States exceptional contribution to the 2025 IATF held in Algiers, Algeria between 4 September and 10 September.

The extraordinary exhibition was organised by the African Export Import Bank (Afreximbank) in partnership with the African Union Commission and the AfCTA Secretariat and hosted by the Peoples Democratic Republic of Algeria. The plaque indicating Ogun States success was signed by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, former President of Nigeria and Chairman of the IATF 2025 Advisory Council.

It will be recalled that while participating in a high-level panel session titled Investment Showcase: Unveiling Opportunities from Select African and Caribbean Sub-Sovereigns at the IATF 2025, Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, had shown the international community that Ogun State is actively breaking trade barriers through bold initiatives designed to attract investment and deepen trade.

Reaffirming Ogun States position as Nigerias leading investment destination, Governor Abiodun had highlighted the pivotal role of subnationals in driving the success of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). He noted that despite Africas enormous potential, intra-continental trade still accounts for only about 15 percent of total trade, largely due to weak infrastructure, cumbersome regulations, and fragmented value chains.

According to him, Ogun States blueprint for economic transformation includes multi-modal infrastructure development: the Gateway International Cargo Airport, Ijebu-Ode and Kajola Dry Ports, over 1,200 kilometres of upgraded roads, and expanded gas reticulation networks.

The blueprint, he said, also includes economic development clusters and free trade zones, including the Remo Economic Development Cluster, anchored by the newly licensed Gateway International Airport; the Ijebu Economic Development Cluster with proximity to the Dangote Refinery and Agro-Allied Industries; the Agbara Industrial Cluster; the Ogun-Guangdong Free Trade Zone; and several other hubs designed to support co-location, shared utilities, and value-chain optimisation.
Leading financial institution, Fidelity Bank Plc, has announced that Lagos State Governor  Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu- will lead the Lagos State delegation to the 2025 Fidelity Nigeria International Trade & Creative Connect (FNITCC).

In a press statement issued to journalists over the weekend, the tier one lender stated that Governor Sanwo-Olu will use the FNITCC platform to highlight Lagos States unique positioning as the largest economy on the African continent and explore possible areas of sister city partnership with the City of Atlanta as well as Georgia State.

Lagos is a city of enterprise, creativity, and boundless opportunity. At FNITCC Atlanta, we are not only showcasing Lagos as Africas largest economy, but also building bridges of trade, investment, and cultural exchange with our partners in Atlanta and the wider United States. This engagement underscores our commitment to positioning Lagos as a truly global city, where innovation thrives, partnerships flourish, and prosperity is shared, stated Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

Hosted in collaboration with AFRICONthe leadingglobal forum for African innovators and change leadersFNITCC Atlanta is scheduled to take place from September 18 to 20, 2025. The event is expected to attract over 3,000 participants, including investors, trade agencies, exporters, and diaspora professionals. It is expected to facilitate trade and investment transactions exceeding US$500 million.

Commenting on the opportunities presented by the conference for Lagos State, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Fidelity Bank Plc., Dr. Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe, said, We are honoured to host the Lagos State delegation, led by His Excellency Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, at the third edition of our global trade initiativeFNITCCtaking place in Atlanta.

As the largest economy on the continent, Lagos State is well-positioned to capitalise on the wide range of opportunities we are creating to ensure Nigerian products are effectively received within the global marketplace, especially on the American continent through FNITCC Atlanta. This aligns with our mission to help individuals to grow, businesses to thrive, and economies to prosper.

FNITCC Atlanta will feature a variety of workshops, seminars and panels featuring prominent figures such as Mustafa Chike-Obi, Chairman of Fidelity Bank Plc; Aishah Ahmad, Global Finance Leader and former Deputy Governor (Financial System Stability), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); Abba Bello, Managing Director of Nigerian Export Import Bank (NEXIM); and Olasunkanmi Owoyemi, Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Sunbeth Global Concepts Nigeria Ltd.

Further highlights include dedicated deal rooms, an exhibition showcasing African products and services across agriculture, extractive industries, fashion, creative sectors, and professional services; as well as targeted matchmaking sessions connecting US buyers, investors, and partners.

Interested participants are encouraged to register for the conference at www.fidelitybank.ng/fnitcc .

Fidelity Bank Plc is a full-fledged commercial bank with over 9.1 million customers who are serviced across its 251 business offices and various digital banking channels in Nigeria and the United Kingdom.

The Bank is the recipient of multiple local and international Awards, including the 2024 Excellence in Digital Transformation & MSME Banking Award by BusinessDay Banks and Financial Institutions (BAFI) Awards; the 2024 Most Innovative Mobile Banking Application award for its Fidelity Mobile App by Global Business Outlook, and the 2024 Most Innovative Investment Banking Service Provider award by Global Brands Magazine. Additionally, the Bank was recognized as the Best Bank for SMEs in Nigeria by the Euromoney Awards for Excellence and as the Export Financing Bank of the Year by the BusinessDay Banks and Financial Institutions (BAFI) Awards.
A magistrates court in Makurdi, Benue State, on Wednesday, ordered the remand of a 34-year-old pastor, Kelvin Imo, at the Correctional Centre, Makurdi for allegedly raping a church member.

Mr Imo, who resides at No. 5, Gboko Road, Makurdi, was charged with rape.

However, the chief magistrate, Kevin Mbanongun, did not take his plea for lack of jurisdiction over the matter.

Mr Mbanongun adjourned the matter until 8 October for further mention.

Earlier, the prosecutor, Friday Kanshio, who is an inspector of police, told the court that the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Makurdi, received a petition written by the victim against the pastor on 2 September.

How it happened

Mr Kanshio said the complainant stated in the petition that she went to a Living Faith Church branch, opposite Coca-cola Camp, Km 5 Gboko Road, Makurdi, on 22 April to see the accused, who was her pastor, for prayer and counselling.

According to the prosecutor, the victim reported that after praying for her, the pastor used a handkerchief to wipe her face and she lost strength as a result.

READ ALSO: Police arrest village head for shooting sister

The complainant said that the pastor overpowered her because she could not struggle and he forcefully had carnal knowledge of her inside the church without her consent.

Mr Kanshio said that the pastor was arrested for police investigation into the allegation.

He added that the alleged offence contravened Section 284 of the Penal Code Laws of Benue State, 2004.

(NAN)
Gunmen have killed three police officers after ambushing a security checkpoint in Kogi State.

The incident occurred on Wednesday morning in Egbe, a town in Yagba West Local Government Area near the boundary with Kwara State.

Local residents said the attackers opened fire on the officers, leading to a fierce gun battle.

The assailants came for their guns, which they carted away. Three police officers died in the gun battle, a witness told reporters.

Kogi State police spokesperson, William Aya, confirmed that the command lost three officers in the attack.

He said the commissioner of police, Miller Dantawaye, had deployed a tactical response team to the ares.

READ ALSO: Police rescue kidnapped Egyptian in Oyo State

I can confirm to you that three officers on duty were killed today in Egbe, a border community with Kwara State, Mr Aya said.

The commissioner of police has deployed a tactical squad to the area. We are currently on the trail of these men of the underworld and they will be arrested.

The attack underscores security challenges in Nigeria, where armed groups routinely target security operatives, seize weapons and launch raids on rural communities.
Some petrol stations in Port Harcourt City, Rivers State, have returned to business following the suspension of the strike declared by the Nigeria Union of Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG).

A News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) survey conducted around the Port Harcourt metropolis on Wednesday showed that many petrol stations were open for business.

Recall that NUPENG directed its members to embark on a strike over alleged anti-labour practices by Dangote Refinery.

The union had also accused the firm of planning to render its members jobless following moves to hire non-affiliated drivers.

Some petrol station managers who spoke to NAN said that the reopening of their business outlets followed a directive from their union.

At a major petrol station along Eleme Road, a manager who preferred anonymity said that the alleged issue of victimisation of staff due to union membership should be given proper attention.

We believe that all the issues raised have been given the right attention; this will ensure stability and harmony, the manager said

It would be recalled that Billy Harry, the national president of the Petrol Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria, issued a statement on Tuesday, urging members to suspend the strike.

READ ALSO: Court remands pastor for alleged rape

Mr Harry said the decision to call off the strike followed intense negotiations between NUPENG and Dangote Refinery.

Based on the resolutions reached during the negotiations, we have to give a fresh directive to our members to open for business, he said.

Also speaking to NAN, Ekene Kamsi, a commercial taxi driver, described the suspension of the strike as a welcome development.

He said that the price of petrol increased unimaginably within 24 hours after filling stations stopped selling fuel to the public. We bought petrol at N1,800 per litre from roadside sellers, Mr Kamsi said.

With the suspension of the strike, we already have too many issues to grapple with, he said.
Tonye Cole, a former governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Nigerias South-south, says he will contest in the 2027 governorship election in the state.

He disclosed this on Tuesday when he appeared as a guest on the Arise Television programme, Prime Time.

Mr Cole, who contested and lost the 2023 Rivers governorship election, said he has a goal to become the governor of the oil-rich state.

Before the 2023 election, Mr Coles ambition to become Rivers governor was frustrated by a protracted factional fight in the Rivers APC; he won the APC primary organised by a faction led by Rotimi Amaechi, a former governor of Rivers, while a different primary organised by another faction produced Magnus Abe as the winner. The court eventually barred the APC from fielding a candidate in the election.

Mr Cole, a wealthy businessman, resigned from the board of directors of the Sahara Group of Companies in September 2018 to join Rivers politics.

Relationship with Amaechi

Speaking about his relationship with Mr Amaechi, he acknowledged that the former minister of transportation introduced him into politics.

Mr Amaechi was the governor of Rivers from 2007 to 2015.

Mr Cole said he remains committed to the APC and has no intention of joining Mr Amaechi in the African Democratic Congress (ADC).

Nobody can take away the fact that he brought me into politics, Mr Cole said, noting that while Mr Amaechi wants to be Nigerias president, he remains focused on Rivers State.

I have always had a lot of respect for individuals like Rotimi Amaechi and others. I have consistently said he has a goal and ambition where he wants to go, and so do I. I have my own ambition and goals, he said.

The Rivers politician said he did not agree with the way the recent Rivers local elections were conducted.

Mr Amaechis arch-rival, Nyesom Wike, the FCT minister, controls both the APC and the Peoples Democratic Party in Rivers. It is unclear how Mr Cole will manage the ministers overbearing influence in the APC.
The Lagos State Government has issued a fresh warning to estate developers against bypassing planning regulations and misusing land designated for other purposes.

The warning came about a month after the government publicly listed 176 illegal estates operating approved layouts.

Speaking during a stakeholder briefing in Lagos on Wednesday, the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Oluyinka Olumide, said recent inspections revealed widespread non-compliance in several areas, especially Ibeju-Lekki, Eti-Osa, and adjoining communities.

According to him, many developers have been converting agricultural and industrial land into residential estates without securing the necessary layout and planning approvals. Some of these illegally partitioned lands, he noted, have already been sold to Nigerians in the diaspora despite their unsuitability for housing development.

He stated that tracts of land were not endorsed for use by the ministry and would not get the necessary planning packages .

Before you go into estate development, you are supposed to obtain your layout approval. And what weve seen so far, particularly around Lekki axis, Eti-osa, and Ibeju-lekki area is that people have gone to purchase those (parcels of) land for the purpose of estate development.

A lot of money has been committed into this area, and it will be difficult for those people to come back and say they want to show up in that area, because they will not be able to get a planning package out of that, he said.

Mr Olumide said the ministry recently issued public notices to offending developers, giving them 21 working days to obtain approvals. While some have complied, the commissioner warned that others risk having their estates sealed and declared illegal.

We went out very aggressively, and we collated some estates, even the cases of some that actually commenced the processes, but they did not finish it all. And that was why we went out and we made that publication.

And we gave them 21 working days to enable them to effect the regularization of their various approvals. Some of them have responded, and we are already commencing the process of collecting all the approvals, he said.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the Lagos State Government listed 176 illegal estates without layout approvals in its domains in the state in August. The government issued a 21-day ultimatum to their developers and promoters to regularise their operations by obtaining proper layout approvals.

Lower threshold for approval

Mr Olumide also disclosed the ministry has begun a process to recognise houses that were originally built independently but have now come together to operate as estates, particularly for security and community management purposes.

He explained that modalities have been mapped out to reassess and approve such requests, stressing that the move will help regularise developments and ensure better planning.

Previously, only developments on a minimum of one hectare of land (10,000 square metres) qualified for layout approval for estate development. However, with the growing influx of residents into estate development, the ministry has now reduced the threshold to 5,000 square metres.

With the current influx and move into estate development, we are reducing that now to 5,000 square meters. So, if you have a development now on a land of 5,000 square meters and above, you will be qualified to have a layout approved before you go into the independent planning permit, he said.

The commissioner also highlighted the importance of producing guiding documents such as regional plans and model city plans, which serve as critical frameworks for regulating estate development across the state.

According to him, these planning documents remain key to guiding its activities and ensuring orderly growth within residential communities.

READ ALSO: Lagos real estate developers decry infiltration of association

Lagos illegal estate problem

Lagos, Nigeria commercial nerve centre is experiencing a boom in estate development to cater to the citys rising population. However, this expansion is often at the expense of lands ear marked for agricultural and industrial purposes.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported that the state government declared 176 estates illegal for not possessing an approved layout. The developers were issued a 21-day ultimatum to regularise their operations or face sanctions.

Beyond the encroachment on scarce farmlands, poorly planned estates often create additional problems such as flooding, disrupted drainage systems, and blocked waterways. Also, individuals who invest in these estates face disputes and litigation when these properties are eventually demolished.
The Ondo State Police Command says it has apprehended one Abdullahi Saliu of Top Quality Hotel, who notoriously paraded himself as a colonel in the Nigerian Army.

The command also said the suspect deceitfully lured and defrauded two unsuspecting victims, Oshoade Janet f and Daisi Remilekun Joy f, under the false pretext of securing employment opportunities for their sons in the Nigeria Customs Service and Nigerian Immigration Services.

Through this fraudulent scheme, he obtained the sum of One Million, Three Hundred and Seventy-Seven Thousand Naira (1,377,000), which he subsequently converted to his personal use, a statement by police spokesperson, Olayinka Ayanlade, said on Tuesday.

Investigations further revealed that the suspects operations cut across state lines, with victims traced to Edo, Delta, Kogi, and Ondo States.

He has long been on the Commands watchlist as a notorious job racketeer, known for impersonating senior officers of different security agencies. His disguise and fraudulent claims include presenting himself variously as a colonel in the Nigerian Army, a Naval officer, a senior Immigration and Customs officer, among others, all in a bid to defraud unsuspecting citizens of their hard-earned money.

The suspect has since been arraigned before Magistrate Court 1 for appropriate prosecution.

This feat represents one of the several cases successfully cracked by the command in recent times.

The command reaffirmed its commitment to protecting the lives, property, and interests of all residents, while ensuring that fraudsters and criminally-minded elements are brought to justice.

Four days ago, the command arrested a suspected fraudster allegedly behind a fake admission syndicate targeting the Nigeria Police Academy (POLAC), Wudil, Kano.

The suspect, identified as Samson Owolade, a native of Ipogun in Akure, was apprehended following credible intelligence linking him to a scam involving fraudulent admission offers, misleading social media posts, and online platforms designed to defraud aspiring cadets.

Investigations revealed that Mr Owolade created and managed a WhatsApp group titled NPA RC12 Guide and Updates with over 370 members, at least 100 of whom are believed to have fallen victim to the scheme.

He was also found to be behind a Facebook page, POLAC UPDATES GROUP, used to spread false information and defamatory content against the Police Academy.

Operatives of the Cybercrime Unit later tracked and arrested the suspect within an hour. A preliminary investigation led to the recovery of several mobile phones, laptops, internet routers, and SIM cards allegedly used in the fraud.

There are indications that the suspect will be transferred to the POLAC for further investigation and prosecution, even as Mr Ayanlade said efforts were ongoing to track down other members of the syndicate.
KUNSHAN, China, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2025 Chinese Opera (Kunshan) Festival, co-organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Jiangsu Provincial People's Government, opened on September 8 in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province. Building on past festivals that highlighted the classic role types of Sheng (male), Dan (female), Jing (painted face), and Chou (clown), this year's program focuses on martial arts theater. The opening performance featured martial arts excerpts presented by six renowned masters of Chinese opera, and throughout the festivalwhich continues through September 2020 martial artists from across China will present 10 joint performances, reflecting the ongoing preservation and innovation of traditional Chinese opera.

The opening performance featured the Beijing Opera excerpt The Eighteen Arhats Subdue the Raptor Demon (Provided by Kunshan Converged Media Center) (PRNewsfoto/)

At the opening ceremony, certificates were awarded to participants selected for the 2025 National Leading Talent Development Program for Chinese Opera, along with honors for institutions recognized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism between 2020 and 2024 as Outstanding Opera Production Initiatives.

This year's festival is anchored by five signature programs: opening and closing ceremonies, a national showcase of opera performers (martial arts theater), invited performances of acclaimed productions, opera symposia, and initiatives to preserve endangered opera forms. It also includes five extension programs: opera exchange and promotion activities, the "Watch Opera, Visit Jiangsu" cultural tourism campaign, a special exhibition at the Chinese Opera Museum, a traditional opera cultural marketplace, and a digital promotion platform.

Over the course of the festival, 39 performances will be staged, featuring 107 productions from 53 ensembles representing 31 distinct opera traditions. Performances and activities will be hosted at a variety of venues, including traditional theaters, historic towns, museums, universities, and scenic sites, offering audiences immersive cultural experiences.

Kunshan, the birthplace of Kunqu Opera, the earliest form of Chinese opera, is hosting the festival for the seventh consecutive year. A new three-year action plan has now been launched to guide its future development. From 2018 to 2024, the festival presented 348 opera genres, including puppetry and shadow theater, bringing together 494 organizations that staged 295 performances featuring 606 excerpts, while drawing record audiences both in person and online.

SOURCE Jiangsu Provincial People's Government
 Diana Birkett Rakow to be named CEO of Hawaiian Airlines, succeeding Joe Sprague who will retire this Fall after a distinguished career in aviation.



 Kyle Levine to be promoted to Executive Vice President, Corporate & Public Affairs, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary and assume responsibility for Public and Government Affairs.

SEATTLE and HONOLULU, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Alaska Air Group today announced that Diana Birkett Rakow, senior vice president of public affairs and sustainability at Alaska Airlines, will become CEO of Hawaiian Airlines effective Oct. 29, succeeding Joe Sprague who will retire after a long career at Alaska Airlines, Horizon Air and Hawaiian Airlines.

Diana Birkett Rakow Kyle Levine

Birkett Rakow will be based in Honolulu, the company's second largest hub after Seattle, and will be responsible for the long-term performance and advancement of the Hawaiian Airlines brand and Alaska Air Group's business in Hawai'i, supporting the company's guests and over 6,600 employees across the Islands. She will continue to report to Ben Minicucci, CEO of Alaska Air Group, and remain on the company's Executive Committee. Birkett Rakow's role will also continue to include oversight of company-wide sustainability and venture investment strategies.

"Hawai'i and the Hawaiian Airlines brand are critical to Alaska Air Group's future and key to our vision of connecting the world to a remarkable travel experience rooted in safety, care and performance," said Minicucci. "Diana has proven herself over an established career as a leader who builds strong teams, delivers results and cares deeply about people and culture. She will be a tireless advocate for the Hawaiian Airlines brand and for Hawai'i, and I'm confident she will lead with authenticity and vision."

"I'm deeply grateful to Joe for his tremendous contributions to Alaska Air Group over the past 25 years. Joe has served Alaska Airlines, Horizon Air, and most recently Hawaiian Airlines, by prioritizing culture and creating deep connections with employees and communities, while driving results," added Minicucci. "All those who know Joe, know that he is all-in for the people and purpose of Air Group  and I especially appreciate how he has brought that spirit to his time in Hawai'i, ensuring that Hawaiian Airlines  its people and its brand  is set up as a strong and enduring part of our team and company."

During her eight years at Alaska, Birkett Rakow has led the company's sustainability and corporate impact efforts, government affairs, communications, community and cultural relations, sales and customer engagement in Hawai'i and Alaska, and the airline's venture investment arm, Alaska Star Ventures. Over the last year, she has also served on the board of Hawaiian Airlines. Prior to joining Alaska, she held senior executive roles at Group Health and Kaiser Permanente, and earlier in her career was a health policy advisor for the U.S. Senate Finance Committee. Birkett Rakow holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Harvard University and master's degrees in public health and public administration from the University of Washington. She is actively engaged in her community as a board director for Puget Sound Energy and serves on several international councils to advance sustainability and clean energy.

Over the last year, Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines teams have worked together to build and execute the plan to become a single mainline operating carrier under a single operating certificate (SOC) from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which is anticipated later this fall. As the company moves forward as one team with two beloved brands, we have also taken big steps to deliver on our vision  announcing new routes that enable our customers to travel to new regions of the world on our airlines, launching a new combined loyalty program, Atmos Rewards, with enhanced benefits, and making investments in the guest experience across our fleet and airport spaces.

Sprague, who has been responsible for leading all aspects of Hawaiian Airlines' operations from deal close though SOC, will remain engaged through the transition to ensure continuity and support for employees and guests. Sprague started with Alaska over 25 years ago and held several executive positions at the airline before becoming president of regional subsidiary Horizon Air in 2019. He became CEO of Hawaiian Airlines when the combination with Alaska was made official in September 2024. He will also remain a member of the Hawaiian Airlines board.

"It has been an honor to serve Hawaiian Airlines and its incredible team," said Sprague. "We accomplished a lot together over the past year and, with a single operating certificate imminent, we are at a natural transition point. Diana is the right person to guide Hawaiian Airlines into a new chapter."

In a related move, Kyle Levine, currently Alaska Air Group's senior vice president, legal, general counsel and corporate secretary, will be promoted to executive vice president, corporate and public affairs, chief legal officer and corporate secretary. In this role, Levine will assume responsibility for public and government affairs, including the company's corporate philanthropy and sales and community marketing for the state of Alaska, in addition to his current responsibilities overseeing legal, compliance and corporate governance functions. Levine has held the chief legal post for 10 years and led the legal functions for the Virgin American and Hawaiian Airlines acquisitions. He also serves on the Executive Committee and has held various legal roles within Air Group since joining the company in 2006.

"Kyle's deep commitment to our values makes him a fitting leader to support the important efforts of our public and government affairs teams, and to ensure that our company remains deeply connected to local communities and key stakeholders," said Minicucci. "His thoughtful leadership and deep understanding of our business make him a vital part of our executive team."

About Alaska Air Group

Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines and Horizon Air are subsidiaries of Alaska Air Group, and McGee Air Services is a subsidiary of Alaska Airlines. We are a global airline with hubs in Seattle, Honolulu, Portland, Anchorage, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. We deliver remarkable care as we fly our guests to more than 140 destinations throughout North America, Latin America, Asia and the Pacific. We'll serve Europe beginning in spring 2026. Guests can book travel at alaskaair.com and hawaiianairlines.com. Alaska is a member of oneworld, with Hawaiian scheduled to join the alliance in spring 2026. With oneworld and our additional global partners, guests can earn and redeem points for travel to over 1,000 worldwide destinations with Atmos Rewards. Learn more about what's happening at Alaska and Hawaiian at news.alaskaair.com. Alaska Air Group is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as "ALK."

SOURCE Alaska Airlines
MONTREAL, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ - Alithya Group inc. (TSX: ALYA) ("Alithya" or the "Company") today held its annual general meeting of shareholders (the "Meeting") virtually. A total of 40,521,385 Class A subordinate voting shares and 7,326,880 Class B multiple voting shares were represented at the Meeting, representing approximately 68.58% of the total votes attached to all issued and outstanding shares as of July 14, 2025, the record date for the Meeting.

Alithya's Board of Directors had fixed at eight the number of directors to be elected at the Meeting. All eight director nominees proposed for election in Alithya's Management Information Circular dated July 14, 2025 were duly elected by a majority of the votes cast. The votes cast for the election of directors were as follows:



Votes for Votes withheld Dana Ades-Landy 99.15 % 0.85 % Andre P. Brosseau 99.65 % 0.35 % Ines Gbegan 99.56 % 0.44 % Lucie Martel 99.58 % 0.42 % Paul Raymond 99.14 % 0.86 % Ghyslain Rivard 95.70 % 4.30 % C. Lee Thomas 99.61 % 0.39 % Pierre Turcotte 97.82 % 2.18 %

About Alithya

We are trusted advisors who leverage AI and the latest technologies in our strategic consulting and digital transformation services. We help solve business challenges that enable our clients to unlock new opportunities, modernize processes and gain efficiencies. We leverage a world-class team of passionate industry experts, AI-based IP solutions, the latest digital technologies, a solid understanding of mission critical business applications and a partner ecosystem to accelerate results. We've built a foundation of success that includes a specialized global delivery network to provide end-to-end solutions.

We strive to make a difference. We are Alithya.

SOURCE Alithya Group inc.
AI-powered platform to support new business, policy, and billing for APL's group benefit products, including life, health, and supplemental lines.

NEW YORK and SINGAPORE, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Neutrinos, a leader in AI-powered intelligent automation for insurers, today announced its selection by American Public Life Insurance Company (APL) to support a transformation of its group benefits business. APL is building on over 80 years of broker-first excellence as it embarks on a bold transformation to modernize its business processes. The partnership will focus on creating a modern foundation for new business, policy administration, and billing across group insurance products, including Accident, Cancer, Critical Illness, Disability, Gap, Hospital Indemnity, and Term Life.

Built in a coreless architecture and powered by APL's unified Data Hub as the backbone, this approach establishes a flexible, future-ready environment where data, policy, and billing capabilities are seamlessly orchestrated without the constraints of traditional core systems. By leveraging the Data Hub's central role, the Neutrinos platform integrates and automates critical workflows across enrollment, servicing, billing, and broker management, enhancing speed, scalability, and service in group benefits.

"We're very excited to partner with Neutrinos to build one of the most significant foundational components of our technology transformation," said Susan Relland, JD, President of Operations at APL. "In our old environment, automation was nearly impossible and manual processes and years of customization constrained growth. Our goal is to provide a 10x better customer service experience, delivering the speed, accuracy, and connectivity our brokers and policyholders expect, while preserving the personal touch that has defined us over the past 80 years."

"We're honored that APL has chosen Neutrinos as a strategic partner for such a visionary transformation," said Ramya Babu, Co-Founder and President of U.S. Business at Neutrinos. "Our platform is built for exactly these kinds of challenges, enabling full system integration, end-to-end automation, and long-term solutions that reduce friction, improve accuracy, and set the stage for future growth."

About Neutrinos:

Neutrinos is the leading AI-powered intelligent automation platform purpose-built for the insurance industry. At the core of our offering is the industry's most advanced agentic AI composer and orchestrator, designed specifically to automate and optimize complex, end-to-end insurance processes. From underwriting and claims to distribution, our platform empowers insurers with deep domain expertise, intelligent automation, and pre-built accelerators to drive faster innovation, operational efficiency, and seamless omni-channel experiences. Learn more at www.neutrinos.com and follow Neutrinos on LinkedIn.

Media Contact: [email protected]

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2532156/Neutrinos_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Neutrinos
ATHENS, Ala., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- DDB Capital Fund, LLC ("DDB Capital"), a leading real estate investment fund located in the Southeast, announced city approval of a conditional rezoning for a planned 255 home community in Athens, Alabama. The milestone aligns with the relocation of U.S. Space Command headquarters to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, reinforcing long term housing demand across the Huntsville metro, of which Athens is an important part of.

Designed for active living and everyday convenience, the community plan emphasizes movement, connection, and relaxation. Residents will enjoy connected trails for evening walks, a resort style pool, pickleball courts, and generous green space with room for neighborhood gatherings.

"Zoning approval is a vote of confidence in our plan to deliver a high-quality neighborhood for families, builders, and long term investors," said Derek Distenfield, Managing Director at DDB Capital. "With Space Command coming to Redstone Arsenal and regional job growth accelerating, Athens is positioned for durable demand and value creation. Our plan balances housing, open space, and connectivity so the community performs for residents and stakeholders alike."

Community at a Glance:

Homes and scale: Up to 255 single family homes across approximately 122 acres

Up to 255 single family homes across approximately 122 acres Amenities and lifestyle: Resort style pool, pickleball courts, connected walking trails, neighborhood green spaces, and gathering areas that support an active daily routine

Resort style pool, pickleball courts, connected walking trails, neighborhood green spaces, and gathering areas that support an active daily routine Connectivity: Convenient reach to Redstone Arsenal and Huntsville employment centers, with everyday services and schools nearby

Convenient reach to and employment centers, with everyday services and schools nearby Zoning designation: Split residential zoning under R-1 and R-3, approved with conditions

Split residential zoning under R-1 and R-3, approved with conditions Maximum yield: Development limited to a maximum of 255 residential lots within the rezoning boundaries

Development limited to a maximum of 255 residential lots within the rezoning boundaries Open space requirement: A minimum of 45 percent of the overall property must be identified as active or passive open space, Floodway or Floodplain, and Riparian Buffers

A minimum of 45 percent of the overall property must be identified as active or passive open space, Floodway or Floodplain, and Riparian Buffers Next steps: Engineering and builder coordination begin immediately, including refinement of amenity, trail, and open space networks consistent with the approved conditions.

Interested residents can join the VIP list for early updates at: https://higherliving.carrd.co/

About DDB Capital:

Our mission is to drive innovation in real estate development while fostering thriving communities and sustainable growth. We are committed to delivering transformative developments that create lasting value for both investors and residents across the Southeast. For more information, visit www.ddbcapital.com .

SOURCE DDB Capital
STUART, Fla., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Base Molecular Resonance Technologies (BMRT) today announced a breakthrough in the detection of fentanyl and its chemical precursors, strengthening America's ability to confront the most lethal drug crisis in history.

More than 70,000 Americans die each year from fentanyl overdoses, a toll greater than all U.S. casualties in the Vietnam War. Fentanyl is inexpensive to manufacture, lethal in doses as small as two milligrams, and nearly impossible to stop with conventional methods. Current interdiction techniques capture only 10% to 15% of fentanyl entering the country, leaving the vast majority to devastate communities.

A Shifting Threat Landscape

Transnational criminal organizations are rapidly adapting their trafficking routes, shifting significant fentanyl production and precursor flows from the southern U.S. border to Canada. With 5,000 miles of largely unmonitored northern border and only 1% of containers inspected at the Port of Vancouver, the operational gap is widening, and so is the national security risk.

According to Robert "Bo" Short, Co-Founder & CEO of BMRT , "For the first time, we have a technology that doesn't just slow fentanyl trafficking; it can actually stop it. BMRT's breakthrough gives agencies the unprecedented ability to detect and interdict this threat in real time, before it reaches our communities."

BMRT's Validated Solution

BMRT's multi-patented Base Molecular Resonance (BMR) technology delivers what traditional interdiction methods cannot: certainty. It detects narcotics and precursor chemicals at long range, even through packaging, vehicles, and containers. Scans are instant, results are real time, and independent validation confirms zero false positives.

BMRT can give agencies like DHS, FBI, CBP, and DEA persistent chemical intelligence, enabling them to detect, track, and interdict fentanyl trafficking before it can harm U.S. citizens.

To see how this game-changing technology works and hear reactions from globally recognized security authorities, CLICK HERE .

Mission-Critical Applications

BMR is built for the front lines of the fentanyl crisis. On the northern border, it can uncover flows across Canada-U.S. routes and containers moving through Vancouver. At the southern border and cargo ports, it can reveal concealed shipments hidden in vehicles and freight.

Inside postal facilities, it can detect fentanyl and other illegal narcotics in parcels without disrupting commerce. In the field, it protects first responders from accidental exposure. And in communities, from schools to stadiums, it acts as a shield, stopping distribution before it reaches the public.

The National Imperative

"The fentanyl crisis is not only a public health catastrophe, it is a growing national security threat," said Lee Duke, BMRT Co-Founder and President . He added, "BMRT offers the U.S. government and law enforcement agencies a game-changing advantage: the ability to see fentanyl and its precursors instantly, at distance, and without error. This technology can close the detection gap and save tens of thousands of lives every year."

BMRT's breakthrough represents a decisive step forward in the fight against fentanyl, transforming detection from a game of chance into a science of certainty.

BMRT's multi-patented Base Molecular Resonance (BMR) technology has been independently validated by the Centre for Applied Innovation at York St. John University in England , demonstrating 100% accuracy in blind and double-blind tests with no false-positives or negatives, both up close and at great distances. The technology enables non-invasive, real-time detection of every element on the periodic table, over 200 cancers and other diseases, and high-threat substances including weapons, explosives, and narcotics.

BMRT currently holds 20 patent assets and has received an independent $60.3 billion intellectual property valuation across 56 global use cases.

For more information, visit www.BMRT.io

Investment Inquiries

Robert "Bo "Short

Co-Founder & CEO

[email protected]

Media Contact

Bryan Adams

Chief Marketing Officer

[email protected]

About Base Molecular Resonance Technologies (BMRT)

BMRT has discovered a new area of quantum physics that utilizes resonant frequencies to detect particle interactions at subatomic levels. This technology, called Base Molecular Resonance (BMR), can detect any compound or biological substance, including every element on the periodic table, and up to 200 cancers and other diseases. With over 20 years of prototyping and testing proving its unmatched detection capabilities, BMR has the potential to save millions of lives by pinpointing weapons, explosives, and other physical threats both up close and at great distances, and detecting cancers and other diseases long before they present clinical symptoms. The non-invasive, harmless, and instant scan has broad implications in Cancer Diagnostics, Public Safety, Law Enforcement, National Security, and Military Services.

SOURCE Base Molecular Resonance Technologies, LLC
At a forum today with higher education experts, Brandeis unveiled its 21st-century approach, which includes a skills-based core curriculum, a career competency transcript, ongoing employment guidance, and the integration of professional schools with the liberal arts

WASHINGTON, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- In a resounding call to action, Brandeis University President Arthur Levine today presented a blueprint for reimagining liberal arts education during a forum with higher education and policy leaders. At the National Press Club, he outlined a transformative vision, highlighting the urgent challenges facing colleges, employers, parents, and students.

Levine unveiled "The Brandeis Plan to Reinvent the Liberal Arts," a sweeping redesign of academic structures, curricula, degree programs, teaching methods, career education, and student support systems. Developed in close partnership with Brandeis faculty, the plan responds to a rapidly shifting landscape in which the demands on higher education are evolving at unprecedented speed in a global, digital economy.

"We are living through a time of extraordinary change across technology, the economy, and society," Levine said. "Today's students need more than knowledge. They need the skills, experiences, and confidence to lead in a world we cannot yet predict. We are advancing a new model. We need reinvention. And that's exactly what Brandeis is establishing."

The Brandeis Plan transforms the student experience by integrating career preparation into every stage of a student's education, requiring internships or apprenticeships, sustaining career counseling, and implementing a core curriculum built around the skills that employers value most. The plan also reimagines teaching. It will be more experiential and practical, and introduce new ways to measure and showcase student learning and growth over time.

Levine said that liberal arts education is designed to 'future-proof' students. "By helping students learn to solve problems and think critically, the liberal arts prepare students for the jobs envisioned for the future," he said. "As new technologies reshape the workforce and employers prioritize proven skills, it's time to strengthen the liberal arts with tools that ensure students are prepared to thrive."

The Brandeis Board of Trustees is investing $25 million to expand internships and career pathways, support faculty in redesigning programs and degrees, and launch a Center for Careers and Applied Liberal Arts. The center will drive innovation across the curriculum, designing courses, programs, and practical learning experiences that prepare students for a rapidly changing world, including the use of technologies like AI and virtual reality.

The university is also partnering with ETS, a global education and talent solutions organization. ETS will deploy its AI-centric Futurenav Compass, which it refers to as "a GPS for the education-to-workforce journey," enabling Brandeis to support students from career exploration to career placement. Futurenav Compass will help students demonstrate their career readiness by highlighting skills that employers are looking for, leveraging competencies developed in Brandeis' academic work and experiential activities, and captured through Futurenav Compass assessments and skill extractions.

Notably, the collaboration will support the creation of a "second transcript" for students showcasing and verifying their achievements and competencies.

"Brandeis is putting students in the driver's seat," said Amit Sevak, CEO of ETS.

"With Futurenav Compass, we're turning what learners know and can do into a clear path to opportunityusing ETS's measurement science and AI to surface real skills, map them to in-demand roles, and connect students directly to internships and first jobs."

Speaking to the gathering in a recorded video message, Massachusetts Sen. Edward Markey said, "I am pleased to see Brandeis University having important conversations about the future of education. William Butler Yeats said that 'education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.' That has been the promise of liberal arts education in Massachusetts and nationwide, and it will be our challenge to defend that promise together."

Levine emphasized that employers are increasingly prioritizing real-world skills beyond traditional credentials. In response, he laid out this redesign of Brandeis' academic and career-preparation model, which was endorsed by 88 percent of Brandeis faculty members and built on four key components:

An enhanced core curriculum that provides students with the skills, knowledge, and values to thrive in a global, digital, knowledge economy.





Integrated career development, including four years of career counseling beginning at orientation, plus at least one required internship or apprenticeship. Each student will be supported by both an academic and career advisor (either a professional counselor or an accomplished professional in the student's intended career field).





A career-competency, second transcript that complements the academic record by documenting skills and knowledge gained through coursework and experiential learning. It includes microcredentials in job-relevant skills, aligning academic achievement with career readiness.





A unified academic model that brings together professional schools with the liberal arts. This integration enhances professional programs by providing a deeper academic foundation and offering undergraduates increased access to professional pathways, hands-on experiences, and faculty mentors across various disciplines.

Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, recognized Brandeis for charting a bold course that responds to the changing demands on colleges and universities. "Thanks to its forward-looking faculty, Brandeis is the first major research university and highly selective institution to really put a bet on skills and has done so without lessening the rigor of its curriculum," he said. "Brandeis making this move is significant and influential, offering an example other colleges and universities may find inspiring."

Lisa Kranc, chair of the Brandeis Board of Trustees, applauded the new approach. "We're choosing a bold path forward, one that invests in Brandeis' academic future and reaffirms our leadership in higher education," she said. "This plan is both visionary and grounded in our founding mission and values. We are fully committed to supporting it every step of the way."

Levine said that Brandeis was "founded to break barriers and rethink" what's possible. "This plan renews that founding spiritbold in its vision, grounded in our values, and committed to leading where higher education must go next."

Media Contacts:

Michael K. Frisby

[email protected]/ 202-625-4328

Shep Ranbom

[email protected]/ 202 365 4774

SOURCE Brandeis
San Francisco, Seattle, and the newly added city Houston, will host exclusive wine walkaround tastings and masterclasses featuring celebrated DOs,including Ribera del Duero, Toro, Bierzo, Rueda, Cebreros and Tierra del Vino de Zamora.

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- After a highly successful year of events in 2024,and a celebrated 2025 East Roadshow, the Spanish Castilla y Leon Wines Roadshow is making its return to the West Coast in 2025.

Organized by the Institute for Business Competitiveness of Castilla y Leon (ICECYL) and Food and Wines from Castilla y Leon , this exclusive event series will showcase the finest wines and unique terroirs of Spain's renowned Denominations of Origin (DOs) to industry professionals, sommeliers, and wine enthusiasts.

Roadshow 2025, Castilla y Leon

Event Schedule:

San Francisco September 15th

Masterclass led by Master Sommelier David Glancy | 11:00 AM  12:00 PM

|  Walkaround Tasting | 12:30 PM  4:30 PM

Seattle - September 17th

Masterclass led by Alberto Martinez Interiano | 11:00 AM  12:00 PM

|  Walkaround Tasting | 12:30 PM  4:30 PM

Houston - September 19

Masterclass led by Master Sommelier Keith Goldston | 10:00 AM  11:00 AM

|  Walkaround Tasting | 11:30 AM  3:30 PM

Each event will offer an immersive experience, allowing attendees to explore the diverse landscapes and climates that shape Castilla y Leon's exceptional wines. As Spain's largest wine-producing region, Castilla y Leon boasts:

Over 80,000 hectares of vineyards , accounting for 6% of Spain's total wine production

, accounting for More than 600 wineries committed to quality winemaking

committed to quality winemaking 10 Denominations of Origin (DOs) and 4 Protected Geographical Indications (PGIs), each with distinct characteristics and terroirs

Featured DOs include Ribera del Duero, Rueda, Bierzo, Toro, Cigales, Arlanza, Arribes, Tierra del Vino de Zamora, Cebreros, and Leon, as well as Vino de la Tierra de Castilla y Leon. While internationally acclaimed DOs such as Ribera del Duero and Rueda will be presented, the Roadshow will also highlight lesser-known appellations like Cebreros and Tierra del Vino de Zamora, offering attendees the chance to discover hidden gems and unique expressions of the region.

Attendees will also explore the richness of Castilla y Leon's diverse grape varieties, including Verdejo, Sauvignon Blanc, Albillo Mayor, Malvasia Castellana, Tempranillo, Tinta de Toro, Garnacha, Syrah, Pinot Noir, and Mencia. These varieties, cultivated across distinct climates and soils, represent the diversity, innovation, and tradition that define the region's wines.

The West Coast Roadshow 2025 is designed for importers, distributors, retailers, sommeliers, and wine media professionals, offering a unique opportunity to experience curated tastings, expert-led masterclasses, and valuable industry networking sessions. Participants will gain exclusive insights from leading wine professionals and deepen their understanding of Castilla y Leon's commitment to excellence.

Don't miss this exceptional opportunity to discover Castilla y Leon's wines firsthand! Spaces are limitedsecure your spot today.

For more information and to register, visit the links for San Francisco , Seattle. , and Houston , or contact Gemma Bosch at [email protected] .

About the Institute for Business Competitiveness of Castilla y Leon (ICECYL)

The Institute for Business Competitiveness of Castilla y Leon (ICECYL) is a government agency dedicated to fostering economic growth and supporting the internationalization of companies from Castilla y Leon. Through strategic initiatives and partnerships, ICECYL empowers local businesses to expand their global footprint, promotes innovation, and facilitates access to new markets. Committed to enhancing the region's economic development and competitiveness, ICECYL offers a comprehensive range of resources and support, from export assistance to business development programs, helping to elevate the global presence of Castilla y Leon's industries, including its renowned food and wine sectors.

SOURCE Institute for Business Competitiveness of Castilla y Leon (ICECYL)
Fast casual concept to celebrate grand opening on September 23, offering free chicken salad for a year

ATLANTA, Sept 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Chicken Salad Chick, the nation's only fast casual chicken salad restaurant concept, announced today the opening of its second restaurant in New Mexico, located at 2100 Louisiana Blvd. NE at Winrock Town Center in Albuquerque. The local community is invited to celebrate this grand opening on Tuesday, September 23, where the first 100 guests in line will win free chicken salad for a year*.

During the grand opening week, guests can expect to experience the Southern hospitality that Chicken Salad Chick is known for, as well as a community focused mindset with various specials and giveaways. These include:

Tuesday, September 23  Free Chicken Salad for a Year to the First 100 Guests  The first guest in line at 10am will receive one FREE large Quick Chick of chicken salad per week for an entire year. The next 99 guests in line will receive one FREE large Quick Chick of chicken salad per month for a year.*

  The first guest in line at will receive one FREE large Quick Chick of chicken salad per week for an entire year. The next 99 guests in line will receive one FREE large Quick Chick of chicken salad per month for a year.* Wednesday, September 24  The first 50 guests to purchase a Specialty Meal and drink will receive a FREE Lime Green Insulated Chicken Salad Chick Water Bottle!**

 The first 50 guests to purchase a Specialty Meal and drink will receive a FREE Lime Green Insulated Chicken Salad Chick Water Bottle!** Thursday, September 25  The first 50 guests to purchase a Chick Meal and drink will receive a FREE Chick Meal on a future visit!***

 The first 50 guests to purchase a Chick Meal and drink will receive a FREE Chick Meal on a future visit!*** Friday, September 26  The first 50 guests to purchase two large Quick Chicks will receive a FREE Red Chicken Salad Chick tote bag!****

 The first 50 guests to purchase two large Quick Chicks will receive a FREE Red Chicken Salad Chick tote bag!**** Saturday, September 27  The first 50 guests to purchase a Chick Meal and drink get a Chick frisbee (perfect for pet parents enjoying our outdoor patio with their dogs), plus their choice of a doggie bandana or water bowl!***

Chicken Salad Chick of Albuquerque  Winrock is owned and operated by Jennifer Sanchez and Keith Murray. Before opening her restaurants, Jennifer worked as a franchise business consultant at Chicken Salad Chick's support center, where she helped franchise owners streamline their operations. Her experiences there inspired her to bring the brand to her hometown of Albuquerque. She and Keith eventually moved back to New Mexico to make that dream a reality, opening their first Chick back in April 2024, located at 10621 Unser Blvd. NW near McMahon Boulevard. Since then, the response from the community has been overwhelmingly positive, with regular guests visiting from as far as Taos, Santa Fe, Grants, and Los Lunas. The duo has plans to open multiple locations throughout New Mexico and Durango, CO in the coming years.

"I'm thrilled to open our second Chicken Salad Chick restaurant at Winrock," said Jennifer Sanchez, franchise owner, Chicken Salad Chick of Albuquerque  Winrock. "It's been incredible to see how the community has embraced all that we have to offer. We're proud of our amazing team, who show up every day to create memorable experiences and genuinely care about every guest who walks through our doors. Over the past year, so many of our guests have asked us to open closer to their neighborhoods, and Winrock is a more central spot in Albuquerque doing just that. We're beyond grateful for this community  their support has made us feel like coming home was the best decision we've ever made. We can't wait to keep bringing the Chick to you!"

Chicken Salad Chick is known for its dozen-plus variety of made-from-scratch chicken salad flavors, fresh side salads, gourmet soups, signature sandwiches, and desserts. The new Albuquerque  Winrock restaurant offers in-restaurant and outdoor patio dining, take-out, third-party delivery, and catering options.

"We're so proud to have one of our own, Jennifer Sanchez, leading the helm for Chicken Salad Chick's expansion in New Mexico," said Scott Deviney, CEO and president of Chicken Salad Chick. "Winrock Town Center is the perfect location for us to introduce more guests to the Chick experience. With lots of great shops, activities and a beautiful park, it truly aligns with the community and family-focused atmosphere we aim to create. We're excited to continue growing alongside Jennifer and become Albuquerque's go-to spot for fresh, made-from-scratch meals."

Giving back to the community is an important focus for the Albuquerque  Winrock team and the Chicken Salad Chick brand, which established the CSC Foundation to support CURE Childhood Cancer and local food banks with fundraisers throughout the year. As part of pre-opening Friends & Family events in Albuquerque, the restaurant will be raising money for St. Felix Pantry, a non-profit organization providing over 1,000 meals a week for those with need throughout New Mexico for the last 30 years.

Chicken Salad Chick of Albuquerque  Winrock will be open Monday  Saturday from 10am  8pm. For more information, visit www.chickensaladchick.com. Follow Chicken Salad Chick on Facebook and Instagram for the latest news and trends.

For more information on giveaways and specials, visit:

https://www.facebook.com/ChickenSaladChickAlbuquerqueNMWinrock/

*Guests should arrive early to secure a place in line. The first 100 guests must remain in line and download the Chicken Salad Chick app. Wi-Fi will not be available on site. Once the restaurant opens, guests will make a purchase of "The Chick" or anything of equal/greater value and enter a code in the Chicken Salad Chick app to officially secure their spot. If you leave the line for any reason, your spot will be awarded to the next guest in line. Guests will receive their first free Large Quick Chick electronically to their app the Monday following Grand Opening Day. Your reward will be valid for redemption for 30 days upon delivery.

**Guests must be 16 years or older and must purchase the Specialty Meal and Drink. Limit 1 reward per guest present. Not valid with any other offers. In restaurant only.

***Guest must download the Chicken Salad Chick app, be 16 years or older and purchase a Chick Meal and Drink. Limit 1 reward per guest present. Not valid with any other offers. In restaurant only.

****Guest must download the Chicken Salad Chick app, be 16 years or older and purchase two Large Quick Chicks. Limit 1 reward per guest present. Not valid with any other offers. In restaurant only.

About Chicken Salad Chick

Chicken Salad Chick serves full-flavored, Southern-style chicken salad made from scratch and served from the heart. With more than a dozen original chicken salad flavors as well as fresh side salads, gourmet soups, signature sandwiches and delicious desserts, Chicken Salad Chick's robust menu is a perfect fit for any guest. Founded in Auburn, Alabama, by Stacy and Kevin Brown, in 2008, Chicken Salad Chick has grown to more than 310 restaurants in 22 states. Today, under the leadership of Scott Deviney and the Chicken Salad Chick team, the brand is continuing its rapid expansion with both franchise and company locations. Chicken Salad Chick has received numerous accolades including rankings in the 2023 Entrepreneur Franchise 500, Franchise Times' Fast & Serious for the third consecutive year, Fast Casual's Top Movers and Shakers from 2018 to 2024, QSR's Best Franchise Deals in 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2024, and Franchise Business Review's Top Food Franchises list from 2019-2024. See www.chickensaladchick.com for additional information.

Contact:

Alexis Paul

Fish 919

954-893-9150

[email protected]

SOURCE Chicken Salad Chick
In partnership, Chipotle and SPC Group plan to open the first Chipotle restaurants in South Korea and Singapore in 2026.

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) today announced it has signed a joint venture to open restaurants in Asia for the first time. In partnership, SPC Group, a leading South Korea-based food company, and Chipotle plan to open the first Chipotle restaurants in South Korea and Singapore in 2026.

Chipotle and SPC Group are planning to open the first Chipotle restaurant in South Korea in 2026. (PRNewsfoto/Chipotle Mexican Grill) Heesoo Hur, Executive Vice President and owner of SPC Group (left), and Scott Boatwright, Chief Executive Officer of Chipotle (right), sign a joint venture agreement to open Chipotle restaurants in South Korea and Singapore for the first time. (PRNewsfoto/Chipotle Mexican Grill)

"With a rapidly evolving dining-out business, fueled by preferences for variety and convenience, expanding into Asia presents an incredible growth opportunity for Chipotle," said Scott Boatwright, Chief Executive Officer of Chipotle. "Real food prepared fast is in high demand in these markets and with notable brand awareness among consumers, we see potential for strong adoption out of the gate."

"Given the familiarity of this iconic brand among Koreans and Singaporeans, and their passion for exceptional culinary experiences, these two markets are ideal entry points for Chipotle in Asia," said Heesoo Hur, Executive Vice President and owner of SPC Group. "In addition, we have a proven track record of developing global brands and we see an opportunity for leveraging our market expertise to introduce Chipotle's delicious, responsibly sourced food to guests across the continent who aren't yet familiar with the concept's real ingredients prepared fresh daily."

Chipotle's Cultural Relevance

Over the years, many Korean consumers including popular K-Pop artists have developed a passion for the brand after trying Chipotle's real food for the first time while visiting the U.S. In 2021, a member of the best-selling K-pop group of all-time famously referred to the restaurant as "Chicotle" and said he wanted to "eat [it] every day." In response, Chipotle temporarily changed its name on X to "Chicotle" in honor of its newest fan and partnered with a fan account of the band on X to give away thousands of free entrees to followers of the group in the U.S. (see here).

In 2023, Chipotle received another notable shoutout from two members of a prominent K-pop girl group who explained they "couldn't live without Chipotle" despite not being able to access it in Korea (see here).

Chipotle's International Expansion

Chipotle signed its first international development agreement in July 2023 with Alshaya Group to open restaurants in the Middle East. Alshaya Group currently operates three restaurants in Kuwait and three in the United Arab Emirates. In April 2025, Chipotle signed a development agreement to open restaurants in Mexico for the first time. Alsea, S.A.B. de C.V. (Alsea), a leading restaurant operator in Latin America and Europe, will open the first Chipotle location in Mexico in 2026 and begin exploring additional expansion markets in the region.

Chipotle's existing international portfolio of owned and operated restaurants includes over 60 locations in Canada; 20 in the United Kingdom; six locations in France; and two in Germany. The company currently operates over 3,800 restaurants and plans to open between 315 and 345 new restaurants this year, with a long-term target of operating 7,000 locations in the U.S. and Canada.

Chipotle's business development group, led by Chief Business Development Officer Nate Lawton, is exploring additional opportunities for growth via outside partnerships. Information on submitting a proposal can be found at https://ir.chipotle.com/contact-us.

About Chipotle

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG) is cultivating a better world by serving responsibly sourced, classically-cooked, real food with wholesome ingredients without artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. There are over 3,800 restaurants as of June 30, 2025, in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Kuwait, and United Arab Emirates and it is the only restaurant company of its size that owns and operates all its restaurants in North America and Europe. With over 130,000 employees passionate about providing a great guest experience, Chipotle is a longtime leader and innovator in the food industry. Chipotle is committed to making its food more accessible to everyone while continuing to be a brand with a demonstrated purpose as it leads the way in digital, technology and sustainable business practices. For more information or to place an order online, visit chipotle.com.

About SPC Group

SPC Group is a Korea-based global food company with over 80 years of history. It owns 30 renowned brands and operates 7,000 stores worldwide, including Paris Baguette, Paris Croissant, Passion 5, Coffee@Works and StrEAT. SPC Group has successfully introduced global brands to the Korean market, including Baskin Robbins, Dunkin, Pascucci, LINA's, Jamba and Shake Shack. SPC Group remains committed to innovation, quality and sustainable growth, shaping a healthier and happier global food culture.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements about the timing of openings the first Chipotle restaurants in South Korea and Singapore, Chipotle's prospects for business in Asia, Chipotle's plans to open between 315 and 345 new restaurants in the U.S. and Canada in 2025 and its long-term target of operating 7,000 locations in the U.S. and Canada. We use words such as "anticipate", "expect," "believe", "could", "should", "may," "are confident" and similar terms and phrases to identify forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this press release are based on currently available operating, financial and competitive information, available to us as of the date of this release and we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the statements, including the risks described from time to time in our SEC reports, including our annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, all of which are available on the investor relations page of our website at ir.chipotle.com.

SOURCE Chipotle Mexican Grill
What to work on in 2025 to overcome the 'hump' of deadlines in 2026

OTTAWA, ON, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ - On September 18th, Claigan will host a webinar detailing the key restricted materials deadlines for 2026 and the compliance process for each of these regulations.

The second half of 2026 will see a 'hump' of regulatory reporting deadlines. Minnesota PFAS reporting, Australian Dechlorane Plus / UV-328 regulation, Canada Federal Plastics Registry reporting for professional products and facilities, California GHG reporting, and US TSCA PFAS deadlines will all be taking effect within a similar timeframe, otherwise known as the 'hump.'

These deadlines may be in 2026, however Claigan has already completed the necessary work for a number of companies. We will present the most pressing areas of work to overcome the hump in 2026, and the common pitfalls.

For example, companies may believe their use of UV-328 is exempted in Australia, however there is still a REACH SVHC-like declaration requirement. Additionally, companies may have a random collection of part-level PFAS data, but have not put any thought into how they can summarize that data and categorize their product families.

Key topics will include:

Minnesota PFAS reporting

Canada Federal Plastics Registry reporting for professional products

Canada Federal Plastics Registry reporting for facility plastic waste

Australia restriction of Dechlorane Plus and UV-328

restriction of Dechlorane Plus and UV-328 Australia REACH SVHC-like declaration of products with exempted UV-328 uses

California Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas reporting

EU Battery labelling

EU Packaging Declaration of Conformity

Note - due to the expected demand, there will be two (2) webinars scheduled on September 18.

Webinars - Restricted Materials in 2026

Date: 18 September 2025

Time: 10am and 2pm

Duration: 1 hour including Q&A

To Register:

10am - https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_pPvQWdwEQGeO_p4xd_o8QA

2pm - https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_NFxzJ1M4SS63T7VVVmR57A

or on Claigan's Website at www.claigan.com/webinars

About Claigan Environmental (www.claigan.com)

Claigan is the leading provider of restricted materials compliance. Claigan has tested tens of thousands of products for restricted materials compliance and offers complete cost effective solutions for even the most complex products. Claigan is an ISO 17025 certified laboratory and is dedicated to providing practical solutions for supply chain due diligence and social responsibility.

At Claigan, we believe in 'Less Journey. More Results.'

SOURCE Claigan Environmental Inc.
LAS VEGAS, Sept. 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- CLOU, a BNEF Tier 1 energy storage system provider, unveiled its next-generation Aqua-C3.0 Pro liquid-cooled energy storage system at RE+ 2025, North America's largest energy event. The company also showcased multiple integrated energy storage systems and comprehensive multi-scenario solutions covering the full lifecycle.

CLOU Aqua-C3.0 Pro Liquid-Cooled Energy Storage System CLOU booth at RE+2025

Building upon its well-known predecessor, the Aqua-C2.5, the Aqua-C3.0 Pro features a 600Ah+ capacity cell and up to 6.88MWh energy storage capacity. It achieves a significant leap in system efficiency, safety, and O&M convenience, reducing total cost of ownership (TCO) by 10.63% to drive further revenue growth across the industry.

Efficiency leap: Breaking through energy conversion bottlenecks with multiple innovations

Under demanding high-energy-density conditions, the Aqua-C3.0 Pro reliably delivers performance that closely matches its rated capacity, thanks to several core innovations. Its direct-cooling technology sends refrigerant straight to battery cells, minimizing heat transfer stages and shortening thermal pathways. This translates into smaller temperature variations between cells, a smoother efficiency curve, and a 10% reduction in operational costs.

CLOU's proprietary Smart Scales technology actively balances cell energy in real-time during charging and discharging. By continuously transferring energy between cells, it quickly minimizes performance gaps, reduces power derating, and prevents premature shutdowns, ultimately boosting total lifetime energy output by 4%.

Further enhancing efficiency, the system's SiC String PCS operates with reduced electrical losses and maintains stable performance even under partial loads. By cutting internal energy waste and easing cooling demands, this approach achieves an exceptional system RTE of up to 92.3%.

Working seamlessly with these, the CTR architecture eliminates redundant modules and connection points. This significantly improves consistency across battery clusters.

Ultimate safety: Systematic design ensuring safety for the high-capacity cell era

Safety originates from systematic design. The CTR architecture isolates thermal and electrical pathways while enabling controlled venting, thereby localizing and containing abnormal conditions more effectively. Real-time active cell balancing minimizes weak cell deviations and prevents abrupt temperature surges, expanding the safety margin. Utilizing the SiC String PCS ensures smoother transient responses during grid disturbances and operational switching, significantly reducing power-stage stress and thermal/electrical impact on battery cells. These integrated, multi-layered safeguards work together across the system, creating a robust safety foundation for the era of high-capacity ESS cells.

In addition, in view of safety challenges brought by larger capacity cells, the Aqua-C3.0 Pro introduces the 2.0 ThermoFlux active ventilation explosion-proof system. Developed by CLOU together with the Corporate Research Center of the Midea Group under the safety standards framework of the National Fire Protection Association in North America, the system has engineered an end-to-end protection chain spanning the entire disaster lifecycle through the multi-tiered integrated design of thermal runaway detection, water-based suppression, explosion venting, and active ventilation.

O&M simplicity: Accelerating project implementation and payback

The Aqua-C3.0 Pro simplifies every step, from deployment to operation, targeting key project implementation pain points. A standard 20-foot container is applied for greater transport convenience. The CTR architecture is characterized by fewer components and interfaces, shorter harnesses, more direct bus bars with shorter assembly times, a lower MTTR, and further streamlined spare parts; effective active balancing reduces the frequency of manual intervention and onsite balancing; moreover, the self-powered aux moves the boundary of power supply and distribution forward to the near side of the equipment, and further simplifies the in-station low-voltage range and wiring to facilitate parallel construction and pre-commissioning. This results in shorter lead times, lower lifecycle costs, and more stable long-term operational performance, providing critical support for customers to accelerate project implementation and payback.

"The Aqua-C3.0 Pro is the result of our efforts to delve into energy storage technology and respond to customer needs directly. We believe that only through real technological innovation can we create extra value for customers in the three dimensions of efficiency, safety and convenience, and promote the healthy development of the industry. The Aqua-C3.0 Pro will become powerful support for worldwide customers to develop high-quality energy storage projects," said Wang Kai, Product Director of CLOU Energy Storage Company.

In addition to releasing the Aqua-C3.0 Pro, CLOU also showcased its advanced energy storage technology matrix covering all scenarios, including the Aqua-C2.5 liquid-cooled energy storage system, and Aqua-E233 C&I energy storage system, and CLOU EMS.

CLOU has made remarkable achievements in the U.S. market such as the first large-scale lithium-ion ESS project in Indiana, the largest energy storage power station in Mississippi, and the lithium energy storage project with the highest compliance level in California. In order to serve the North American market better, CLOU has also built a localized team to create localized products, , and strengthened the coordinated application of international standards in product R&D.

SOURCE CLOU Electronics Co., Ltd.
DELRAY BEACH, Fla., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The global cold chain monitoring market is expected to grow from USD 8.31 billion in 2025 to USD 15.04 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 12.6% according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets. The rising consumption of fresh and processed foods, particularly dairy products, seafood, meat, and ready-to-eat food, is significantly reshaping the logistics landscape globally. As consumers increasingly prioritize convenience, nutritional value, and food safety, the need for temperature-controlled supply chains has intensified. This shift places strong emphasis on chilled and frozen logistics, which require precise monitoring to preserve freshness, maintain regulatory compliance, and prevent spoilage or contamination. Consequently, companies are investing in advanced cold chain monitoring solutions with integration of IoT sensors, real-time tracking, and predictive analytics to safeguard product integrity across transportation and storage networks. The result is a growing dependence on intelligent monitoring systems that not only enhance quality assurance but also optimize efficiency and reduce waste, reinforcing their strategic role in supporting the region's evolving food consumption patterns.

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Cold Chain Monitoring Market Scope:

Report Coverage Details Market Revenue in 2025 $ 8.31 billion Estimated Value by 2030 $ 15.04 billion Growth Rate Poised to grow at a CAGR of 12.6% Market Size Available for 20212030 Forecast Period 20252030 Forecast Units Value (USD Million/Billion) Report Coverage Revenue Forecast, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors, and Trends Segments Covered By temperature type, logistics, application, offering, and region Geographies Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of World Key Market Challenge Integration complexity and cybersecurity risks Key Market Opportunities AI-driven predictive analytics and emerging markets Key Market Drivers Rising demand for temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals and technological advancements

The chilled temperature type is projected to account for a significant share of the cold chain monitoring market in 2024.

Chilled temperature type holds the largest share in the cold chain monitoring market, driven by growing demand for perishable products such as dairy, meat, fruits, vegetables, and beverages requiring storage between 0C and 10C. Rising consumption of fresh and minimally processed foods, coupled with the expansion of retail, e-commerce groceries, and quick-service restaurants, has accelerated the need for efficient chilled logistics. Additionally, certain pharmaceutical products, including vaccines and biologics, depend on chilled storage. This strong demand highlights the critical role of chilled monitoring in ensuring safety, quality, and compliance across food and pharmaceutical supply chains.

The software segment is expected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

The software segment of the cold chain monitoring market is expected to grow to the highest CAGR. This is driven by stricter regulations such as the US Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and the FDA's 21 CFR Part 11, which require digital traceability and compliance. Recent solutions like Overhaul's Cold Chain Quality platform and AI-enabled systems introduced by Lineage Logistics and Americold show how predictive analytics and real-time tracking are improving storage efficiency. As governments emphasize food and pharmaceutical safety, software is becoming a key driver of transparency, cost optimization, and risk reduction in the cold chain.

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Asia Pacific is expected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

Asia Pacific is projected to grow at the highest CAGR in the cold chain monitoring industry from 2025 to 2030. This high growth is driven by the rising demand for perishable food, beverages, and pharmaceuticals, rapid urbanization, and increasing e-commerce penetration. Investments in modern cold storage, refrigerated transport, and last-mile delivery, along with government initiatives and heightened awareness of product safety, are fueling market expansion. The adoption of IoT-enabled sensors, cloud platforms, and AI-driven analytics is enhancing real-time monitoring, efficiency, and traceability. Countries like China, India, Japan, and South Korea are leading this growth, making the region the fastest-growing market with significant revenue opportunities.

Major companies operating in the cold chain monitoring companies include Carrier (US), Testo SE & Co. KGaA (Germany), Cryoport Inc. (US), ORBCOMM (US), Controlant hf. (Iceland), Zebra Technologies Corp. (US), Xylem (US), Digi International Inc. (US), AgroFresh (US), and Rotronic AG (Switzerland).

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ALGIERS, Algeria, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the Government of Cross River State have officially signed a Hosting Agreement for the 6th African Sub-Sovereign Governments Network Investment Conference 2026, marking a significant milestone in regional cooperation and investment promotion across Africa.

Cross River State and Afreximbank sign Hosting Agreement for AfSNET 2026 Investment Conference

The agreement was signed during the Sub-Sovereign Business Engagement session held on the margins of the ongoing Intra-African Trade Fair 2025 (IATF2025) in Algiers, Algeria. It was signed by President & Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank, Prof Benedict Oramah and the Executive Governor of Cross River State, H.E Prince Bassey Edet Otu.

The agreement formalises Cross River State's role as the official host of the 2026 AfSNET Investment Conference, scheduled to take place in Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria. The event will convene sub-sovereign leaders, investors, development partners, and key stakeholders to explore trade and investment opportunities across Africa's regions.

AfSNET, launched by Afreximbank in 2021 in collaboration with the AfCFTA Secretariat, serves as a platform to strengthen the role of Sub-Sovereign entities in driving intra-African trade and development. The annual conference aims to put city and state governments at the centre of intra-African trade. The 2026 edition will spotlight investment-ready projects, facilitate matchmaking between investors and local governments, and promote regional integration.

Speaking during the signing ceremony, President Oramah said: "When Afreximbank launched AfSNET in 2021, our vision was clear: to amplify the voices of sub-sovereign governments in shaping economic policy, unlocking investment opportunities, and accelerating trade across Africa. We firmly believe that development must be decentralised, originating where the needs are most pronounced in our cities, provinces, counties, and regions and cascading outward to influence national and continental progress".

Speaking at the same event, Secretary General of the AfCFTA Secretariat, H.E. Wamkele Mene said: "Africa's integration and transformation will not be achieved from the top down alone. It will be built from the ground up; in municipalities, states, and provinces where policy becomes reality in people's lives. AfCFTA provides the framework, IATF provides the marketplace, and AfSNET is the bridge between local power and continental impact. Let us seize this moment to empower our sub-sovereigns, accelerate the AfCFTA, and build an Africa that is more connected, inclusive, and globally competitive".

Executive Governor of Cross River State, Prince Bassey Edet Otu, expressed enthusiasm for the opportunity:

"We are honoured to host AfSNET 2026 and showcase Cross River as a gateway to investment in Nigeria and West Africa. This event will catalyse economic growth, foster partnerships, and elevate our state's profile on the continental stage."

Preparations for AfSNET 2026 are already underway, with both parties committed to delivering a world-class event. The conference will feature plenary sessions, exhibitions, B2B meetings, and cultural showcases, offering a dynamic environment for dialogue and deal-making.

This year's Sub-Sovereign Business Engagement in Algiers marks its fifth edition since 2021, when it was founded. It was attended by governors, mayors, and leaders of sub-sovereign governments from across Africa and the Caribbean. Past editions of the conference were held in Durban, South Africa (2021), Abuja, Nigeria (2022), Cairo, Egypt (2023), and Kisumu, Kenya (2024). The annual event brings together sub-national leaders from across the continent to exchange ideas on how to promote development in African regions.

Some of the projects that have materialised from the AfSNET initiative include funding for industrial parks and Special Economic Zones in Ogun State, Nigeria, supporting deep seaport development in Cross River State, Nigeria, and helping prepare major projects like the Nyanza Light Metals initiative in KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa for bankability, and supporting feasibility and bankability studies for Africa's first blockchain-enabled, continuous manufacturing facility for essential medicines in Kisumu, Kenya.

For more information, please visit www.intrafricantradefair.com.

About the Intra-African Trade Fair

Organised by African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), African Union Commission (AUC) and African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, the Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF) is intended to provide a unique platform for facilitating trade and investment information exchange in support of increased intra-African trade and investment, especially in the context of implementing the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). IATF brings together continental and global players to showcase and exhibit their goods and services and to explore business and investment opportunities in the continent. It also provides a platform to share trade, investment and market information with stakeholders and allows participants to discuss and identify solutions to the challenges confronting intra-African trade and investment. In addition to African participants, the Trade Fair is also open to businesses and investors from non-African countries interested in doing business in Africa and in supporting the continent's transformation through industrialisation and export development.

https://www.afreximbank.com/cross-river-state-and-afreximbank-sign-hosting-agreement-for-afsnet-2026-investment-conference/

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Data from 2018 through 2024 demonstrates measurable progress in a variety of categories, including increased operating efficiency and uptake of alternative fuels

WASHINGTON, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the leading voice of the global cruise industry, today released its annual Environmental Technologies and Practices (ETP) report. The report provides a profile of the CLIA-member oceangoing cruise fleet and highlights environmental technologies in use by CLIA-member ocean-going cruise lines, which comprise more than 90% of the cruise sector.

This year's report shows continuous and measurable progress by CLIA-member cruise lines as they advance an ambitious environmental agendafrom testing and piloting biofuels, to investing in fuel-flexible engines, to the increasing use of lower emissions fuels, and maximizing energy-efficiency measures.

"Cruise lines are early adopters and innovators of maritime technology  examples include advanced wastewater systems, onshore power supply, air lubrication systems, and the newest generation of dual- fuel enginesfrom which other sectors of maritime also benefit," said Bud Darr, president and CEO of CLIA. "Cruise lines are investing tens of billions of dollars to build the fleet of the future, including more than 80 new ships on order worldwide that feature these and other innovations. These orders represent tangible steps that are significantly enhancing the operational capability and efficiency of the collective global cruise ship fleet of our members," Darr added.

Highlights from the industry's 2025 Environmental Technologies and Practices Report

Fleet Profile of CLIA-member Cruise Lines (source: CLIA membership profile data)

CLIA-member Cruise Lines: As of August 2025 , 45 cruise lines, representing 90% of global oceangoing capacity, are members of CLIA. Combined, these cruise line members operate 310 ships and 637,847 lower berths, compared to 303 ships and 645,034 lower berths last year.





As of , 45 cruise lines, representing 90% of global oceangoing capacity, are members of CLIA. Combined, these cruise line members operate 310 ships and 637,847 lower berths, compared to 303 ships and 645,034 lower berths last year. Fleet Profile: Analysis of the current CLIA member cruise line fleet indicates that the majority of oceangoing ships73%  are small to mid-size ships (<3,000 lower berths), with the percentage of ships by size remaining relatively balanced through at least 2036 (based on the orderbook, which runs through December 2036 ):

Ship Category % of Ships: 2025 % of Ships: 2036 Small ships (<1,000 lower berths) 34.2%, or 106 ships 34.1 % Mid-size ships (1,000 to 3,000 lower berths) 38.4%, or 119 ships 35.5 % Large ships (>3,000 lower berths) 27.4%, or 85 ships 30.4 %

Pursuit of Net-Zero Emissions and Operational Efficiency

Multi-fuel capable ships: Multi-fuel engine technology provides the fuel flexibility needed to utilize zero- and near-zero emission fuels as they become available, at scale, with little to no engine modifications.

The number of ships operating with multi-fuel engines that can switch from conventional fuels to zero- and near-zero emission fuels both in port and at sea has increased from just one ship in 2018 to 19 ships today. All 19 are dual-fuel ships.



By year-end 2025, 23 ships with fuel-flexible engines are forecast to be in service, including the first cruise ship with tri-fuel capability.



Through 2036, 32 dual-fuel ships are forecast to launch, including seven capable of using methanol and 25 capable of using LNG.



Uptake of alternative, zero- and near-zero emissions fuel pathways: Cruise lines continue to increase their use alternatives to Heavy Fuel Oil as options begin to emerge, including biofuels, LNG, and others, as exemplified by the delivery of one ship in 2024 specified for methanol use by 2026, and another slated for delivery by the end of this year.

Onshore power supply (OPS) connectivity: Also referred to as shoreside electricity (SSE) capability, allows ships to turn off their engines while in port for emissions reductions of up to 98% (with all emissions covered) depending on the mix of energy sources, according to studies conducted by a number of the world's ports and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The number of CLIA-member cruise line ships with the ability to utilize OPS has nearly doubled since 2018, when 55 ships, representing 25% of the fleet and 28% of capacity, had OPS capability. Today, 166 ships are able to plug in at port, a 12% increase from the prior year. These ships represent 58% of the fleet and 65% of capacity.



By 2036, 273 ships that can connect to OPS are expected to be in service (based on the number of ships scheduled to be retrofitted and new ships on the order book specified for OPS connectivity). This includes 166 currently with OPS, plus 59 currently in service scheduled for retrofit and each of the 48 CLIA-member cruise ships on the 2025-2036 order book.



Currently 41 of the ports worldwide where cruise ships call (fewer than 3%) have a cruise berth with OPS, an increase of eight ports since last year.



Europe has led the expansion over the las12 to 18 monthswith OPS being launched in six additional cruise ports, and the UK and North America each added one new cruise port with OPS.



There are 19 ports that have secured funding for OPS and 26 more with plans to do so.



As part of the EU's Fit for 55 decarbonization regulations, by 2030 major ports in Europe will be required to have shoreside power, which will further accelerate port infrastructure investment in that region.



To view a map of ports that have at least one cruise berth with OPS, please go to this link .



Selective Catalytic Reduction Technology (SCR): SCR reduces particulate matter and nitrogen oxide emissions, thus helping ships to meet IMO Tier III classification standards for nitrogen oxide emissions (NOx).

The number of CLIA-member cruise line ships with SCR systems has increased tenfold, from 7 ships in 2018, representing 3% of the fleet and 3.2% of capacity, to 81 ships, representing 28.5% of the fleet and 22.3% of capacity.



Shipboard Water Production

Freshwater Production: State-of-the-art systems that enable most CLIA-member cruise lines to produce the majority of their water needs on board rather than drawing from ports and destinations where resources may be limited. This is made possible by a range of environmental practices that include steam evaporation, reverse osmosis, aeration, and other systems that enable cruise lines to conserve water. Today, 279 ships, representing more than 98.2% of the fleet and 99.9% of global capacity, are able to do so.

State-of-the-art systems that enable most CLIA-member cruise lines to produce the majority of their water needs on board rather than drawing from ports and destinations where resources may be limited. This is made possible by a range of environmental practices that include steam evaporation, reverse osmosis, aeration, and other systems that enable cruise lines to conserve water.

Wastewater Treatment

Advanced Wastewater Treatment Systems (AWTS): The majority of CLIA member cruise ships sailing today utilize advanced wastewater treatment systems (AWTS) which are capable of exceeding MARPOL Annex IV requirements. In addition, as part of their overarching sustainability focus, cruise lines have committed to not releasing untreated sewage anywhere in the world during normal operations.

Across the CLIA cruise line member fleet, 234 ships, representing 82.4% of the fleet and 85.4% of global passenger capacity, are equipped with AWTS, a 4% increase in the number of ships and passenger capacity year-over-year, and a 72% and 71% increase, respectively, since 2018.



Today, more than one-third of the ships equipped with AWTS are capable of meeting the more stringent wastewater standards of the Baltic Sea Special Area.



By 2036, 273 ships and 685k LBs of capacity are specified to have AWTS.



Waste Management

Waste Management: Alongside the uptake of lower-emissions fuels and increasingly energy efficient fleets, cruise lines are beginning to deploy a new generation of shipboard waste management technologieswith some ships able to recycle or repurpose nearly all waste generated on board. Some of the state-of-the-art systems currently used on cruise ships include:

Waste-to-energy gasification systems: Currently in use on eight cruise ships, these systems convert waste into usable energy to support the ship's operations, thus reducing waste sent to landfills and decreasing the ship's energy demand.



Microbial digesters for food waste : Currently in use on 128 cruise ships, representing 45% of member ships and 52% of capacity, to significantly reduce food waste, few of these types of waste management systems were present on cruise ships five years ago.



Notes to editors:

About the report:

The CLIA Environmental Technologies and Practices Report has been published annually since 2018 and provides highlights of environmental technologies in use by CLIA-member cruise lines.

has been published annually since 2018 and provides highlights of environmental technologies in use by CLIA-member cruise lines. Each year the report may include additional technologies tracked that were not tracked in prior years. To view the summary chart of results, please go to this link .

This year's report includes highlights of environmental technologies and practices currently in use by CLIA-member cruise lines and is not intended to be a comprehensive review of all of the technologies and practices cruise lines employ.

All information provided in the annual ETP report is sourced from the annual ETP survey report, unless otherwise noted.

To view a list of CLIA-member cruise lines, please go to this link .

About Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA)

Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) is the preeminent cruise trade association, providing a unified voice for the industry and its members as the leading authority of the global cruise community. CLIA represents oceangoing member lines which comprise 95% of global cruise passenger capacity, including the world's most prestigious ocean, river, and specialty cruise lines, as well as a business community of leading ports, destinations, shipyards and maritime product and service providers, and the largest network of travel professionals who specialise in cruise travel. Together with its members and partners, CLIA supports policies and practices that foster safe, secure, healthy and sustainable cruise operations; tourism strategies that maximise the socioeconomic benefits of cruise travel; and technologies and innovations designed to support the industry's pursuit of net-zero emissions by 2050. The organization's global headquarters are in Washington, DC, with regional offices located in North and South America, Europe, and Australasia.

For more information, please visit cruising.org or follow us on Facebook , Instagram , X (formerly Twitter) , and YouTube with our handle @CLIAGlobalor on LinkedIn .

SOURCE Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA)
Funding to support Phase 3 trial of denovoSkin and preparation for its commercialization, to advance the automation platform for tissue bioengineering, and to enable the market launch of VitiCell.

Agreement with Rode Kruis Ziekenhuis establishes basis for a future CUTISS production center in The Netherlands .

ZURICH, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- CUTISS, a late-stage clinical TechBio at the forefront of tissue therapeutics and regenerative medicine, has announced the closing of its Series C round for a total of CHF 56M with existing and new investors, bringing total funds raised to more than CHF 125M.

denovoSkin, a personalized bio-engineered human skin graft developed by CUTISS. Currently in Phase 3 clinical trials in Europe. (c) Frank Bruderli (PRNewsfoto/CUTISS AG)

The proceeds will be used to progress with the Phase 3 trial of the lead product denovoSkin which started earlier this year, and to prepare for its commercialization. The denovoSkin is a bio-engineered, personalized skin graft that promises to transform skin surgery and significantly improve patient outcomes, compared to the standard of care.

The funds will also advance the industrialization and clinical readiness of the world's first automated manufacturing platform for personalized tissue therapy, a key component for bringing denovoSkin to market at scale.

CUTISS has also signed a collaboration agreement with its new investor Rode Kruis Ziekenhuis (RKZ), which could see the creation of CUTISS' first international commercial production facility in the Netherlands, once denovoSkin is approved. RKZ is a leading EU clinical trials center, participating in the Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials for denovoSkin.

Dr. Daniela Marino, CEO and co-founder of CUTISS, stated: "The successful closing demonstrates confidence in our vision and ability to bring transformative skin therapies to patients. We're grateful for the continued trust of existing investors and warmly welcome new investors on board. Furthermore, the agreement with RKZ sets the stage for our future expansion with the potential to revolutionize the skin surgery market in Europe and globally."

Nadine Vieleers, CEO Rode Kruis Ziekenhuis / Burn Center Beverwijk, commented: "As a clinical institution dedicated to advancing burn care, we're committed to support CUTISS and the development of denovoSkin. We're excited to continue our closer collaboration, and the agreement we've signed sets out our vision for bringing their revolutionary skin tissue therapy to our patients as a priority."

Further details regarding the announcement available here: https://cutiss.swiss/newsroom/

For media enquiries: Toomas Kull, [email protected], +41 767 480 174

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LONDON and JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Dar Global PLC, a Saudi-born international luxury real estate developer, proudly announces the completion of its transfer of ordinary shares from the Equity Shares (Transition) category to the Equity Shares (Commercial Companies) category of the Official List of the UK Financial Conduct Authority (the "FCA"). The transfer became effective at 08:00 BST on September 8, 2025.

This achievement marks a historic milestone as Dar Global becomes the first-ever Saudi Arabian company, and the first from the wider Middle East, to complete such a transition on the London Stock Exchange's Main Market.

The transition is more than a technical shift: it represents the maturing of Dar Global's journey from its origins in Saudi Arabia to becoming a listed international champion, carrying the Kingdom's ambitions into global markets. Aligned with the goals of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, the move emphasizes the Kingdom's ability to nurture homegrown enterprises that operate at the highest international standards while contributing to the global economy.

Dar Global CEO, Ziad El Chaar, said: "Dar Global was born in Saudi Arabia and has grown into a company that represents the Kingdom on the world stage. This transition is a landmark moment, not just for our company but for Saudi enterprises, showing they can thrive internationally while advancing the goals of Vision 2030. Today, we stand as proof that Saudi ambition can set new standards in global markets."

Dar Global is also pleased to confirm that Rothschild & Co acted as the company's sole sponsor and financial adviser for the transition, bringing its global expertise and trusted advisory to support this historic achievement.

With this milestone, Dar Global continues its mission to bring Saudi innovation, ambition, and excellence to international marketsreinforcing both its Saudi identity and its global reach.

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DELRAY BEACH, Fla., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The global Endoscope Reprocessing Market, valued at US$2.49 billion in 2024, stood at US$2.71 billion in 2025 and is projected to advance at a resilient CAGR of 9.4% from 2025 to 2030, culminating in a forecasted valuation of US$4.24 billion by the end of the period. The endoscope reprocessing market is experiencing significant growth driven by multiple factors. The rising global burden of gastrointestinal cancer and chronic diseases, along with the increasing number of endoscopic diagnostic and surgical procedures, is a major driver of market expansion. As healthcare systems focus more on infection prevention and hygiene standards, the demand for effective endoscope reprocessing has become more vital than ever. Additionally, growing awareness of endoscope-associated infections (EAIs) and efforts by global health authorities to elevate reprocessing standards have further propelled market growth. Rapid advances in healthcare infrastructure and infection control practices in emerging economies offer promising opportunities for endoscope reprocessing manufacturers. The shift toward automated high-level disinfection systems, innovations in reprocessing consumables, and greater hospital investments in centralized sterile processing departments (CSPDs) also support this upward market trend.

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By product, the endoscope reprocessing market is segmented into endoscope reprocessing equipment, endoscope reprocessing consumables, and endoscope tracking solutions. During the forecast period, the endoscope reprocessing consumables segment is expected to grow at a faster rate in the endoscope reprocessing market. This is mainly due to the recurring demand for disinfectants, detergents, enzymatic cleaners, test strips, and other consumables required in every cycle of endoscope reprocessing. Moreover, the increasing volume of endoscopic surgeries and diagnostic procedures is fueling the regular consumption of these products. The growing focus on infection prevention, tighter regulatory guidelines for disinfection, and ongoing product advancements in high-level disinfectants and enzymatic formulations are further boosting this segment's growth.

By end user, the endoscope reprocessing market is segmented into hospitals & ASCs, specialty clinics, and other end users. In 2024, hospitals & ASCs held the largest market share, mainly due to the high volume of endoscopic procedures performed in these settings, the presence of advanced infrastructure for reprocessing, and a greater focus on following infection control guidelines. Additionally, rising hospital admissions related to gastrointestinal, respiratory, and urological disordersespecially among the aging populationare driving higher endoscope usage and increasing the demand for reprocessing products. The availability of skilled personnel dedicated to reprocessing departments and integrated tracking systems also support this segment's dominance.

By geography, the endoscope reprocessing market is divided into North America, Europe, the Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. In 2024, North America held the largest portion of the global market. This leadership is due to several key factors, including the high number of endoscopic procedures performed each year, especially in the United States and Canada. For example, the U.S. alone conducts over 17.7 million gastrointestinal endoscopies annually, greatly fueling the need for reliable and efficient reprocessing solutions. Additionally, the strong healthcare infrastructure, strict infection control regulations enforced by agencies such as the FDA and CDC, and increased awareness of endoscope-related infection risks have resulted in greater adoption of advanced reprocessing systems in healthcare settings. Furthermore, the presence of major global market players in this region such as Ecolab, CONMED Corporation, Micro-Scientific, LLC (all US-based), ARC Healthcare Solutions (Canada), and Metrex Research, LLC (Canada) has further strengthened North America's leadership. These companies play a crucial role in driving innovation, launching new products, and supporting large-scale adoption through strategic collaborations and robust distribution networks. The region also benefits from favorable reimbursement policies, rising chronic disease prevalence, and increasing investments in hospital infection control measures, all of which contribute to sustained market growth.

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Prominent players in the endoscope reprocessing market are ASP (US), Olympus Corporation (Japan), Ecolab (US), STERIS (Ireland), Getinge AB (Sweden), HOYA Corporation (Japan), CONMED Corporation (US), Miele (Germany), Endo-Technik W. Griesat GmbH (UK), and FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation (Japan).

Steris (Ireland):

Steris is a leading player in the global endoscope reprocessing market, with a strong presence across North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. STERIS is a top provider of products and services focused on infection prevention. As of March 2024, the company employed 18,000 people operating in over 100 countries across Asia, Europe, Latin America, South America, and North America through its field sales and service facilities, along with a network of dealers and distributors. The company owns 52 contact sterilization facilities and leases 12 across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Over the past three years, investments in R&D and product innovation have been key strategies for the company's long-term growth. In 2024, 2023, and 2022, the company's R&D expenses were USD 107.6 million, USD 103.6 million, and USD 98.4 million, respectively. Aside from R&D, the company collaborates with other market players to reduce external sourcing of innovations. It also plans to expand its global presence and strengthen its marketing and manufacturing capabilities.

ASP (US)

ASP ranks as the second-largest player in the endoscope reprocessing market, holding a significant market share in 2024. It has extensive geographic coverage through its manufacturing facilities, subsidiaries, and distributors across all regions. The demand from existing businesses in the Advanced Healthcare Solutions segment increased in both developed and high-growth markets in 2024, driven by higher demand for endoscope reprocessing equipment and consumables, especially from growth in North America and Asia. ASP also prioritizes creating the safest environment for patients and healthcare providers worldwide. In this effort, it established a Centre of Excellence Program that recognizes hospitals dedicated to high infection prevention. Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, one of the UK's largest hospital trusts, works with Essentia (UK) (the in-house sterile service unit of Guy's and St Thomas's) and is an officially recognized ASP Centre of Excellence. As part of this program, ASP hosts conferences, training sessions, educational seminars, and site visits led by infection prevention experts and scientists across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Olympus Corporation (Japan)

Olympus Corporation was recognized as the third leading player in the endoscope reprocessing market in 2024. The company has a dedicated business segment that focuses on solutions in the field of endoscopy, enhancing its product offerings in related markets. Operating in over 40 countries, Olympus supports global distribution, local manufacturing hubs, and quick technical service, which are essential for strong market penetration. The company mainly concentrates on R&D activities to introduce innovative products. Importantly, during the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, the Olympus Group invested USD 693.05 million (YEN 103,890 million) in research and development, highlighting its commitment to innovation across various product lines, including hygiene and safety systems. Additionally, its brand reputation, compliance with international hygiene standards, and deep understanding of clinical needs give Olympus a significant advantage over regional and less-integrated competitors.

For more information, Inquire Now!

Related Reports:

Infection Control Market

Top 10 Medical Device Technologies Market

Medical Device Cleaning Market

Endoscopy Equipment Market

Laparoscopic Instruments Market

Get access to the latest updates on Endoscope Reprocessing Companies and Endoscope Reprocessing Market Size

About MarketsandMarkets:

MarketsandMarkets has been recognized as one of America's Best Management Consulting Firms by Forbes, as per their recent report.

MarketsandMarkets is a blue ocean alternative in growth consulting and program management, leveraging a man-machine offering to drive supernormal growth for progressive organizations in the B2B space. With the widest lens on emerging technologies, we are proficient in co-creating supernormal growth for clients across the globe.

Today, 80% of Fortune 2000 companies rely on MarketsandMarkets, and 90 of the top 100 companies in each sector trust us to accelerate their revenue growth. With a global clientele of over 13,000 organizations, we help businesses thrive in a disruptive ecosystem.

The B2B economy is witnessing the emergence of $25 trillion in new revenue streams that are replacing existing ones within this decade. We work with clients on growth programs, helping them monetize this $25 trillion opportunity through our service lines  TAM Expansion, Go-to-Market (GTM) Strategy to Execution, Market Share Gain, Account Enablement, and Thought Leadership Marketing.

Built on the 'GIVE Growth' principle, we collaborate with several Forbes Global 2000 B2B companies to keep them future-ready. Our insights and strategies are powered by industry experts, cutting-edge AI, and our Market Intelligence Cloud, KnowledgeStore, which integrates research and provides ecosystem-wide visibility into revenue shifts.

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CHAPEL HILL, N.C., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy reached an all-time high with more than $99.3 million in federal fiscal year 2024.

The UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy has retained its No. 1 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy ranking for external research funding among U.S. schools and colleges of pharmacy.

UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy Danny Alexander / UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy

The school reached an all-time high of more than $99.3 million in federal fiscal year 2024, which covers grants received between Oct.1, 2023, and Sept. 30, 2024.

"Throughout my 40 years at Carolina, the exceptional research rigor and collaborative spirit that defines the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy sets us apart," said interim Dean Kim Brouwer. "Congratulations to all the faculty, postdoctoral scholars, Ph.D. students and our entire school community! Each of you have played a part in fueling our research engine to advance pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences, and you continue to innovate new ways to improve the health of our communities both locally and globally  what an accomplishment."

This No. 1 ranking represents the work of 88 faculty members and their research teams. Over the past five years, Eshelman has seen a steady increase in research funding, from $39 million in FY 2019 to more than $92 million in FY 2023. Last year was the first time the school earned the top spot in total external research funding.

About the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the nation's first public university, is a global higher education leader. Carolina is committed to ensuring that every student who earns admission can come to Carolina and thrive. Addressing the greatest challenges of our time through innovative teaching, research and public service, Carolina is an engine of opportunity for the next generation of students, the economy and innovation in North Carolina and beyond. A member of the prestigious Association of American Universities, Carolina regularly ranks as the best value for academic quality in U.S. public higher education. For additional facts and figures, visit this webpage.

Inquiries may be sent to [email protected].

SOURCE University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
New framework unifies policy, operations, and accountability for modern community use

LOS GATOS, Calif., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Facilitron, the country's leading platform for public facility use, today announced that its upcoming leadership conference, Facilitron University 5, will serve as the national launchpad for the first-of-its-kind governance standard for community use of public school facilities. Designed with Facilitron's implementation guidance and tools, this framework represents a historic step toward modernizing how America's public schools oversee, manage and safeguard community use of their facilities.

Set for November 1213, 2025, at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in La Jolla, CA, Facilitron University 5 will debut this governance reform on a national stage, while also tackling other high-impact issues districts face today  from school safety to real estate strategy and teacher housing to risk management and pricing equity. Learn more here

A First-of-Its-Kind Governance Framework

For decades, public schools have operated under outdated, inconsistent, and often unenforceable facility-use policiescosting districts millions in subsidies, liabilities, and lost trust. Facilitron's new governance initiative establishes a national standard designed to:

Reduce risk and legal exposure

Ensure equitable access for communities

Align facility use with district mission and strategy

Provide transparency and consistency across operations

Unlike prior "model policies" that stop at board language, Facilitron's new framework unifies every layer of governance and operationsboard policy, administrative regulations, site manuals, renter terms, and audit toolsinto a single standard. It's informed by Facilitron's data from more than 15,000 schools, exposing where current systems fail, and it reframes facility use as a governance issue rather than an operational one. No other guidance has combined this level of policy clarity with the practical mechanisms districts need to enforce it.

It includes:

Model school board policies and administrative regulations

A site-level operations manual and modular policy toolkit

National terms & conditions template

FAQs, case studies, and board-ready resources

The Facility Use Audit Framework  a diagnostic tool that reveals cost, risk, and underperformance

"Every school district manages facilities. Few govern them strategically," says Jeff Benjamin, CEO of Facilitron. "This initiative fills that gap and ensures public assets are managed transparently, equitably, and with mission in mind."

Facilitron University 5: The National Stage for Change

Facilitron University is more than a conference; it's a national stage for change and a must-attend gathering for district leaders redefining how schools manage and govern their facilities. Designed for superintendents, chief business officials, operations leaders, and board members, Facilitron University 5 will spotlight the launch of the National Model School Board Facility Use Policy and introduce tools like the new Facility Use Audit Framework, helping districts modernize oversight, standardize processes, and align policy with mission.

This year's program will feature keynotes, panels, and case studies that confront governance failure, pricing reform, and equity in accesswhile showcasing how technology and governance together form the foundation of strategic facility management.

Why It Matters

With nearly 100% of public schools supporting some form of community use, Facilitron University 5 reframes facilities not as rentals, but as public assets requiring modern governance and strategic oversight. By establishing the first national governance standard, Facilitron is setting a new baseline for how districts manage community accessunlocking hidden value, improving efficiency, and restoring public trust.

About Facilitron

Facilitron, headquartered in Los Gatos, California, is the world's largest public spaces rental marketplace and a pioneer in modern facility management. Since 2014, Facilitron has built a national network of more than 15,000 schools across 31 statesincluding 8 of the 10 largest school districtsalong with higher education institutions and municipalities. Together, they support billions of square feet of facilities and millions of community events each year.

Facilitron's purpose-built platform is more than scheduling software: it's a revenue-generating engine and operational backbone for shared spaces. By managing who uses facilities, when, and under what conditions, Facilitron enables public agencies to streamline operations, recover costs, reduce risk, and expand equitable access. Beyond rentals, Facilitron's AI-powered tools and strategic services extend into energy management, building automation, maintenance, and inspectionswhile positioning the platform to unlock entirely new categories of value, from integrated services to untapped revenue streams that redefine the economics of both public and private spaces.

For more information, visit www.facilitron.com.

Contact:

Mercer Brockenbrough

[email protected]

SOURCE Facilitron
The two melty, flavor-packed sandwiches are built for dipping into the perfect portion of soup  no spoon necessary

ST. LOUIS, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, spoons have been put on notice as Panera Bread announces the return of fan-favorite Ciabatta Dippers to the menu. Available starting today at participating cafes nationwide, guests can enjoy the beloved French Dipper alongside the brand-new Chicken Pesto Dipper, both crafted on Panera's rustic, crisp ciabatta bread. Inspired by the satisfying combination of sandwiches and soups that Panera guests already love, both are served with the perfect portion of soup for dipping.

FAN-FAVORITE FRENCH CIABATTA DIPPER RETURNS SEPTEMBER 10, JOINED BY ALL-NEW CHICKEN PESTO CIABATTA DIPPER

Panera's Ciabatta Dippers are available in two delectable, dippable duos for a limited time:

French Dipper  A returning favorite sandwich dipping pair featuring tender, marinated steak, melty provolone and asiago cheese, and garlic aioli drizzle on Panera's iconic Ciabatta paired with a dipping portion of Bistro French Onion Soup.

 A returning favorite sandwich dipping pair featuring tender, marinated steak, melty provolone and asiago cheese, and garlic aioli drizzle on Panera's iconic Ciabatta paired with a dipping portion of Bistro French Onion Soup. NEW! Chicken Pesto Dipper  A new combination of grilled chicken, melty provolone and parmesan cheese, and basil pesto spread on Ciabatta paired with a dipping portion of Creamy Tomato Soup.

"Dipping sandwiches into soup is one of our guests' favorite rituals and we love seeing it coming to life in our cafes every day," said Mark Shambura, Chief Marketing Officer, Panera Bread. "That's why we created Ciabatta Dippers - they make dipping easier, more delicious and more enjoyable. The French Dipper was a fan favorite when first launched last year, and now our new Chicken Pesto Ciabatta Dipper give guests another crave-worthy reason to ditch the spoon and embrace the dip."

Panera's Ciabatta Dippers are available for dine-in, delivery, Rapid Pick-Up, or drive-thru where available. Prices will vary by cafe. To learn more or place your order today, download the Panera Bread app or visit PaneraBread.com.

About Panera Bread

Our first cafe opened in 1987, founded with a secret sourdough starter and the belief that the best part of bread is sharing it. That vision led to the invention of the Fast Casual category with Panera at the forefront, serving as America's kitchen table centered around our delicious menu of chef-curated recipes that are crafted with care by our team members. We make food that we are proud to serve our own families, from crave-worthy soups, salads and sandwiches to mac & cheese and sweets. Each recipe is filled with ingredients we feel good about and none of those we don't because we are committed to serving our guests food that feels good in the moment and long after. While our company is now about 2,200 cafes strong, our values and belief in the lasting power of a great meal remain as strong as ever. We spend each day filling bellies, building empowered teams and inspiring communities. Nothing beats breaking bread together.

As of July 29, 2025 there were 2,208 cafes, company and franchise, in 48 states and Washington D.C., and in Ontario, Canada, operating under the Panera Bread or Saint Louis Bread Co. names. Panera Bread is part of Panera Brands, one of the largest fast casual restaurant companies in the U.S., comprised of Panera Bread, Caribou Coffee and Einstein Bros. Bagels. For more information, visit panerabread.com or find us on X (@panerabread), Facebook (facebook.com/panerabread) Instagram (@panerabread) or TikTok (@panerabread).

Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Panera Bread
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Moses Castillo Investigations, LLC acknowledges the unsealed federal indictment against Naason Joaquin Garcia, leader of the La Luz del Mundo church, and five co-defendants. The chargesfiled in the Southern District of New Yorkinclude racketeering, sex trafficking, and child exploitation spanning decades.

Garcia, currently serving a 16-year sentence in California for prior convictions involving minors, was taken into federal custody in Chino, CA. Prosecutors allege that Garcia and his inner circle weaponized religious doctrine and institutional power to systematically abuse children and women under the guise of spiritual authority.

"This indictment is a testament to the courage of survivors and the persistence of investigators. It underscores the urgent need for transparency, accountability, and trauma-informed support for those harmed by institutional betrayal," said Moses Castillo, retired LAPD detective and nationally recognized advocate for victims.

Mr. Castillo brings over 25 years of experience investigating sex crimes, including two decades with the Los Angeles Police Department's elite Robbery-Homicide and Juvenile Divisions, and five years with Dordulian Law Group, where he led complex investigations into sexual abuse and exploitation. His career has been defined by a relentless pursuit of justice and a deep commitment to victim advocacy.

The indictment details how Garcia and his predecessors manipulated congregants into silence, using threats of spiritual damnation and financial coercion. Several defendants remain at large and are believed to be in Mexico.

Call to Action

Moses Castillo Investigations urges survivors, witnesses, and concerned community members to come forward. Our team offers confidential, bilingual support and investigative services to ensure justice is pursued with dignity and care.

Contact

Moses Castillo Investigations, LLC

714-599-2233

[email protected]

[MosesCastilloInvestigations.com](https://MosesCastilloInvestigations.com)

SOURCE Moses Castillo Investigations, LLC
Celebrating off-the-beaten-path hotels and cruises that define 'luxury without limits'

ATLANTA, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Forbes Travel Guide ("FTG"), the global authority on luxury hospitality, today announced The Edge List 2025, honoring 20 hotels, resorts and cruises that redefine the boundaries of travel, providing access to remote, awe-inspiring destinations while delivering uncompromising comfort and elevated experiences.

The six categories of the 2025 list include: Animal Encounters, Beach Adventures, Cultural Immersion, Natural Wonders, Ocean Expeditions and Wilderness Retreats.

Winners include Phulay Bay, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve in Krabi, Thailand, a secluded 54-room resort surrounded by limestone cliffs, verdant rainforests and the emerald Andaman Sea (Beach Adventures); Hotel das Cataratas, A Belmond Hotel, Iguassu Falls, the only hotel inside Brazil's Iguacu National Park (Natural Wonders); and Silversea's Silver Origin, a sleekly modern small cruise ship built specifically to navigate the Galapagos Islands (Ocean Expeditions).

Ritz-Carlton Reserve has the most winners with Nujuma in the Red Sea, Saudi Arabia, and Mandapa in Bali joining Phulay Bay on the list. The brand focuses on creating a sense of discovery with its remote and intimate locations.

"Edge" is an acronym that represents: E xceptional Access to remote, awe-inspiring destinations; D aring Innovation in providing boundary-pushing adventures and once-in-a-lifetime experiences; G lobal Stewardship with a prioritization on conservation, minimizing impact and care for the community; and E levated Experience, delivering excellence even in far-flung environments.

"The Edge List celebrates the spirit of discovery that defines great travel," said Hermann Elger, CEO of Forbes Travel Guide. "These honorees combine access to extraordinary, off-the-beaten-path destinations with the elevated comfort and service that discerning travelers expect. We are proud to recognize these properties for delivering such unique and memorable experiences."

The Edge List honorees were determined through in-person visits from Forbes Travel Guide's incognito inspectors or editorial team, combined with research and inspection data.

One of the honorees will be announced as the winner of the year at The Summit 2026, Forbes Travel Guide's annual event bringing together the worlds of travel and luxury, to be held in Monaco in February.

To view the full list of The Edge List honorees, visit ForbesTravelGuide.com.

Connect with Forbes Travel Guide:

Instagram: @ForbesTravelGuide

X: @ForbesInspector

Facebook: ForbesTravelGuide

About Forbes Travel Guide:

Forbes Travel Guide is the only global rating system for luxury hotels, restaurants, spas and ocean cruises and their restaurants. Our anonymous professional inspectors evaluate based on hundreds of exacting standards, with an emphasis on exceptional service, to help discerning travelers select the world's best experiences. The only way to get a Five-Star, Four-Star, or Recommended rating is by earning it through our independent inspection process. For more information about Forbes Travel Guide, please visit ForbesTravelGuide.com.

SOURCE Forbes Travel Guide
Kayleigh McEnany to Helm New Two-Hour Show 'Saturday in America'

Senior White House Correspondents Peter Doocy and Jacqui Heinrich to Anchor 'The Sunday Briefing'

Griff Jenkins is Named Co-Host of 'FOX & Friends Weekend'

'The Big Weekend Show' Names Johnny Joey Jones and Tomi Lahren as Hosts; Panel Program Expands to Three Hours from 5-8 PM/ET

NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- FOX NewsChannel (FNC) will unveil a new weekend programming lineup beginning Saturday September 20th, announced FOX News Media president and executive editor Jay Wallace. Outnumbered's Kayleigh McEnany will begin hosting her own program Saturday in America from 10 AM/ET-12 PM/ET on Saturdays, while Griff Jenkins will join FOX & Friends Weekend (Saturdays & Sundays, 6-10 AM/ET) as the third co-host. Beginning Sunday, September 21st, FNC will debut The Sunday Briefing, anchored by senior White House correspondents Peter Doocy and Jacqui Heinrich who will rotate weekly as solo hosts from 11 AM-12 PM/ET, while Howie Kurtz will step down as host of MediaBuzz and transition to a political media analyst role on the network. Additionally, Johnny Joey Jones and Tomi Lahren have been named two of the four co-hosts of The Big Weekend Show as the ensemble program expands to three hours (Saturdays & Sundays, 5-8 PM/ET).

In making the announcement, Wallace said, "As we expand and innovate our weekend programing, we are proud to bring our audience unrivaled depth and expertise. This new dynamic roster underscores our continued commitment to delivering incomparable coverage, reinforcing FOX News Media as the leader in both news and opinion content. For more than a decade, Howie Kurtz has served as the lead authority for media coverage in cable news and we look forward to continuing his smart analysis across our programming."

On Saturday, September 20th, national correspondent Griff Jenkins will join the curvy couch as a co-host of FOX & Friends Weekend, filling the seat alongside Rachel Campos-Duffy and Charlie Hurt. Jenkins joined the network in 2003 and has covered a multitude of major news stories, including the southern border, numerous election cycles, protests across the country and the wars in the Middle East, where he was embedded several times earlier in his tenure as an enterprise reporter. The FOX & Friends franchise continues to crush the competition with the weekend edition averaging 1.2 million viewers.

Featuring conversations with newsmakers across the political landscape, Saturday in America with Kayleigh McEnany will provide a comprehensive look at the headlines dominating the news cycle. She will remain a co-host on the weekday hit ensemble program Outnumbered at 12 PM/ET, which averages nearly 2 million viewers and occasionally outpaces The View on ABC. McEnany joined FNC as a commentator in March 2021 and previously served as the White House press secretary during President Donald Trump's first administration. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and earned an undergraduate degree in international relations from Georgetown University and studied at Oxford University, St Edmund Hall

The Sunday Briefing will debut on Sunday, September 21st at 11 AM/ET with senior White House correspondents Jacqui Heinrich and Peter Doocy anchoring the one-hour show alternating weeks live from Washington. Each anchor will tackle all facets of the White House beat, including the President of the United States' national and international moves as well as the key issues impacting the administration. Heinrich and Doocy have covered the White House since 2021, reporting extensively on both the Biden and Trump administrations and consistently asking questions that drive the news cycle.

Since joining the network in 2009, Doocy has covered every major election, including serving as an embedded political reporter during the 2020 Biden presidential campaign. He became a White House correspondent in 2021 and was elevated to senior White House correspondent in 2024. Heinrich joined the network in 2018 and reported from the 2020 campaign trail, covering the presidential race. In 2021, she was named a Congressional correspondent before being elevated to White House correspondent later that year and named senior White House correspondent in 2024. She is on the board of the White House Correspondents Association and was elected to an at-large seat in which she will serve as president for the 2027-2028 term.

MediaBuzz with Howie Kurtz will air its final show on Sunday, September 14th after 12 years in the 11 AM-12 PM/ET timeslot where it easily led the cable news competition. Kurtz will serve as a political media analyst and continue to provide his signature media commentary and reporting across all FOX News Media platforms which includes hosting the Media BuzzMeter podcast and writing for FOX News Digital.

In commenting on the move, Kurtz said, "I'm extraordinarily proud of the program, which was number one for over 12 years and built a loyal audience that liked our down-the-middle approach of contrasting viewpoints and tackling sensitive subjects, with great independence, but time marches on."

Both Jones and Lahren will take on new roles as two of the four co-hosts of the weekend panel program The Big Weekend Show as the show expands to three hours (5-8 PM/ET) on Saturdays & Sundays. Joined by two rotating panelists each week, Jones and Lahren will delve into a variety of hot topics, from politics to pop culture. Currently, the program leads all competition throughout the weekend with over 1.2 million viewers dominating the early evening timeslot. Jones is a FOX News contributor whose FOX News Books titles, "The Unbroken Bonds of Battle" and, more recently, "Behind the Badge" were instant New York Times bestsellers. A combat veteran, he recently celebrated the 15th anniversary of his Alive Day with a FOX Nation special, commemorating the day he was injured by an IED in Afghanistan, which resulted in the loss of his legs and part of his arm. Lahren is the host of Outkick's Tomi Lahren is Fearless and has hosted live event programming and specials for FOX Nation. She has been an FNC contributor since 2017 and regularly appears on the network's top-rated programs from Hannity to Outnumbered.

FOX News Media operates the FOX News Channel (FNC), FOX Business Network (FBN), FOX News Digital, FOX News Audio, FOX News Books, the direct-to-consumer streaming services FOX Nation and FOX News International and the free ad-supported television service FOX Weather. Currently the number one network in all of cable, FNC has also been the most watched television news channel for more than 23 consecutive years, while FBN is the top business channel on cable. Owned by Fox Corporation, FOX News Media reaches nearly 200 million people each month.

FOX News Media Contacts:

Caley Cronin: 212.301.3972 or [email protected]

Jessica Ketner: 212.301.3976 or [email protected]

SOURCE Fox News Network, LLC
MONTREAL, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Spatial Technology Solutions (GSTS), a Maritime AI company, is excited to announce it has been awarded a contract through the Government of Canada's Department of National Defence's, Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) program, for further advancement of its latest solution, OCIANA Predictive Maintenance (OPM).

Global Spatial Technology Solutions Inc. logo

OCIANA is GSTS's maritime AI platform that ingests and correlates real-time vessel, environmental, and operational data to deliver global awareness and predictive insights. Built on the OCIANA platform, OPM leverages AI to enhance the prediction of equipment and system failures, enabling proactive digital maintenance planning. This capability supports the transformation of traditional maintenance practices by reducing unexpected downtime, improving equipment reliability, and minimizing lifecycle costs, ultimately increasing operational readiness for military assets.

Through this development, GSTS continues to expand its leadership in maritime AI, providing national and international stakeholders with next-generation capabilities that deliver tangible operational advantages.

"This Test Drive moves OPM from the lab to the water and is a key step toward operational use," said Richard Kolacz, CEO of GSTS. "By supporting DND's evaluation in real-world conditions, we aim to show that earlier detection and faster planning can cut unplanned downtime. Over time, that shift reduces a significant contributor to total lifecycle costs, while raising availability for ships and submarines with clear carryover to coast guard and commercial fleets."

The maritime predictive maintenance market is projected to grow to $3B USD by 2034 (CAGR 21.75%). OPM is designed for both defence and commercial fleet operators, opening opportunities across naval, coast guard, and merchant fleets, with potential adaptation to air and land platforms.

OCIANA's AI capabilities combine onboard sensor data with sea state and weather conditions to deliver advanced predictive performance. For complex naval platforms, with thousands of interdependent systems and demanding reliability and availability targets, OPM offers potentially substantial lifetime cost savings, with increased operational readiness and higher availability.

About GSTS

Global Spatial Technology Solutions (GSTS) is a global maritime intelligence company delivering solutions to enhance decision making across the maritime and logistics industries. Our predictive and optimisation solutions are enabled by a range of operational, environmental, vessel and cargo data to provide real-time decision-making intelligence for the maritime supply chain (ports, terminal operators, shipping companies, commodity owners, charterers and logistics companies) and to provide comprehensive and proactive risk management for national and international security organisations.

OCIANA is GSTS' leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform that provides advanced analytics, prediction, and optimisation solutions for comprehensive maritime risk management and for optimizing shipping and port operations. The platform ingests, integrates, and cleans a wide range of real-time satellite, operational, oceanographic and sensor data sets. Through patented and proprietary algorithms, OCIANA enhances real-time decision making and collaboration to ensure safe and efficient movement of people and goods worldwide.

1 Wissen Market Research, Predictive Maintenance in Maritime Market  Global Industry Size, Share, Trends, Opportunity, and Forecast, 20182028, accessed July 17, 2025, https://www.wissenmarketresearch.com/reports/predictive-maintenance-in-maritime-market/

For more information and to explore opportunities to join our consortium: Contact Us  GSTS

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- Participating in the world's largest gas exhibition from Sep 9-12 in Milan, Italy

- A total of 36 certifications received and multiple MOUs signed, presenting digital transformation and eco-friendly solutions

SEOUL, South Korea, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- HD Hyundai is set to unveil the future of sustainable gas carriers applied with eco-friendly, AI technologies at Gastech, the world's largest gas exhibition.

Six affiliates  HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, HD Hyundai Mipo, HD Hyundai Samho, HD Hyundai Marine Solution, and HD Hyundai Electric  participate in the exhibition held in Milan, Italy, from September 9 to 12.

A birds-eye view of HD Hyundais exhibition booth at Gastech 2025 in Milan, Italy

HD Hyundai Executive Vice Chairman Chung Kisun, along with executives and staff members from the Sales, R&D, and Engineering divisions, will introduce their eco-friendly technologies to major shipping companies and leading classification societies and present future strategies for the maritime industry.

During the exhibition, HD Hyundai is set to participate in a total of 36 events, obtaining technology certifications from global classification societies and signing multiple MOUs with major companies.

HD Hyundai will receive an Approval in Principle from classification societies, including DNV, for their next-generation gas carrier design. The design places the crew accommodation block at the forward section to maximize upper deck space, which allows for the installation of multiple wind-assisted propulsion systems to enhance fuel efficiency.

HD Hyundai will also be certified for AI-based solutions that improve fuel efficiency. HD Hyundai will receive AIP from the American Bureau of Shipping for VesselWise, a solution that autonomously optimizes equipment operation without crew intervention. They will also receive a Product Design Assessment for its AI-driven Cargo Handling Solution, a solution that optimizes the use of boil-off gas during voyages.

They are also collaborating to demonstrate an AI solution that helps respond to fire accidents on ships. HD Hyundai will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Sweden's Consilium to integrate its AI-based integrated safety control solution with a ship's existing fire detection system.

In addition, HD Hyundai will sign an MOU with Lloyd's Register for a joint development project to convert an LPG carrier into an ammonia dual-fuel vessel.

"HD Hyundai possesses optimal technologies that not only comply with environmental standards but also maximize vessel performance," an HD Hyundai official said. "Through continuous investment and innovation, we will lead the era of carbon-neutral shipping."

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Hitachi invests over $1 billion in U.S. manufacturing and innovation, including a $457 million transformer facility in Virginia , a $100 million digital railcar factory in Maryland and a $72.8 million industrial automation headquarters in Michigan .

in U.S. manufacturing and innovation, including a transformer facility in , a digital railcar factory in and a industrial automation headquarters in . "One Hitachi" in action: energy, mobility, and automation initiatives powered by Lumada showcase how Hitachi is turning data into insights to build smarter infrastructure, resilient industries, and sustainable communities.

Thousands of high-value American jobs are created to strengthen critical infrastructure and drive long-term economic impact while advancing Hitachi's vision of digital and sustainable transformation

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Hitachi America, Ltd. ("Hitachi America"), announced a series of significant investments and strategic initiatives across the United States, reinforcing its long-term commitment to driving innovation, strengthening critical infrastructure and creating high-value jobs. These milestones, all unveiled in September, span advanced manufacturing, power grid infrastructure, and digital solutions, which are tangible proof of Hitachi's strategy to leverage its global expertise to solve local challenges and contribute directly to U.S. economic growth.

"These investments represent True One Hitachi, bringing together the Group's vast combined expertise aligned to a shared vision," said Toshiaki Tokunaga, President & CEO of Hitachi, Ltd. "With digital technologies at the core of our business, we are delivering comprehensive solutions that solve significant societal problems. By investing in the United States, we are strengthening local economies while accelerating innovation."

Reinforcing the company's commitment to the American economy through long-term investment and job creation, these initiatives are central to Hitachi's global vision and its "Inspire 2027" management plan. This strategy envisions a harmonized society where environment, well-being, and economic growth coexist in balance. By leveraging its advanced solutions and domain expertise in energy, mobility, industrial, and digital sectorsHitachi is committed to building a more sustainable, resilient, and prosperous future while addressing some of society's most pressing challenges.

"Incorporated in the U.S. since 1959, Hitachi has been contributing to the economic, cultural, and innovation fabric in the U.S. while growing our business in the region," said Shashank Samant, Executive Chairman of Hitachi Americas. "We are thrilled about our shared success, and we are committed to building on this momentum in the U.S., working hand-in-hand with our public and private sector partners and clients  to build a more prosperous, sustainable future together."

"Hitachi was founded on the principle of contributing to society through technology, and our growing presence in the United States is a modern expression of that core mission," said Yasuhiro Takeuchi, CEO of Hitachi Americas. "The U.S. is one of our most important markets, not just for its size, but for its spirit of innovation. By investing in local manufacturing and empowering a skilled American workforce, we are building the future of energy, mobility and industry, ultimately improving everyday lives."

This commitment is demonstrated by a series of significant announcements and milestones this week:

Digital Railcar Factory in Maryland : Hitachi Rail's 'lighthouse' digital factory officially opened on Monday, Sept. 8th in Hagerstown, Maryland . The $100 million site incorporates more than $30 million in digital enhancements and operates as a carbon-neutral factory. It can produce up to 20 railcars per month and is set to deliver next-generation fleets for metros that serve the Washington D.C. area, Baltimore and Philadelphia . As a flagship for Hitachi's global digital manufacturing strategy, it includes Lumada-powered AI and smart manufacturing. The plant features an immersive digital customer experience center, where visitors can see examples of Hitachi's digital mobility solutions  including HMAX  that are benefiting customers around the world. The factory is creating up to 460 direct jobs and supporting over 1,300 in total, generating an estimated $350 million in annual economic impact for the region.

: 'lighthouse' digital factory officially opened on in . The site incorporates more than in digital enhancements and operates as a carbon-neutral factory. It can produce up to 20 railcars per month and is set to deliver next-generation fleets for metros that serve the area, and . As a flagship for Hitachi's global digital manufacturing strategy, it includes Lumada-powered AI and smart manufacturing. The plant features an immersive digital customer experience center, where visitors can see examples of Hitachi's digital mobility solutions  including HMAX  that are benefiting customers around the world. The factory is creating up to 460 direct jobs and supporting over 1,300 in total, generating an estimated in annual economic impact for the region. As an example of the One Hitachi approach to the factory's development, the site features Flexware Innovation's LIFT intralogistics software. Developed in partnership with Hitachi owned GlobalLogic, this technology has been deployed in the factory to optimize material flow and advance digital transformation. In addition, GlobalLogic has also partnered with Ericsson to design and deploy a state-of-the-art private 5G networkwithin the factory, establishing the Hagerstown plant as a benchmark for the future of smart, digital-first rail production.





plant as a benchmark for the future of smart, digital-first rail production. Powering America's Energy Future : Hitachi Energy announced a historic $1 billion USD investment to expand U.S. manufacturing of critical electrical grid infrastructure. This includes a $457 million power transformer facility in South Boston , Virginiathe largest of its kind in the nationalongside expansions of existing facilities nationwide. As part of this investment, Hitachi Energy is also committing $106 million to expanding its transformer components facility in Alamo, Tennessee , $22.5 million to expand and modernize its dry-type transformer operations in Southwest Virginia , and $70 million to bolstering its high-voltage components manufacturing footprint in and around Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania . Collectively, these projects will create thousands of high-paying jobs, including nearly 950 jobs in Virginia , 100 new positions in Tennessee and 100 more in Pennsylvania . This investment is integral to bolstering the resilience of the U.S. electrical grid and ensuring reliable access to the transformers and critical high-voltage equipment required to support AI data centers, renewable energy, and industrial growth.





: Hitachi Energy announced a historic investment to expand U.S. manufacturing of critical electrical grid infrastructure. This includes a power transformer facility in , Virginiathe largest of its kind in the nationalongside expansions of existing facilities nationwide. As part of this investment, Hitachi Energy is also committing to expanding its transformer components facility in , to expand and modernize its dry-type transformer operations in , and to bolstering its high-voltage components manufacturing footprint in and around . Collectively, these projects will create thousands of high-paying jobs, including nearly 950 jobs in , 100 new positions in and 100 more in . This investment is integral to bolstering the resilience of the U.S. electrical grid and ensuring reliable access to the transformers and critical high-voltage equipment required to support AI data centers, renewable energy, and industrial growth. New Automation Headquarters : JR Automation, a Hitachi Group company and global leader in advanced automation, announced plans for a $72.8 million global headquarters in Zeeland, Michigan . Breaking ground on September 17 , the 286,000-square-foot facility will bring together 350 employees into a modern, state-of-the-art campus designed for collaboration, customer demonstrations, and global innovation. The new HQ will also serve as a hub for Hitachi's Integrated Industry Automation, harnessing digital twin technology, edge computing, and AI to deliver next-generation intelligent manufacturing ecosystems.





: JR Automation, a Hitachi Group company and global leader in advanced automation, announced plans for a global headquarters in . Breaking ground on , the 286,000-square-foot facility will bring together 350 employees into a modern, state-of-the-art campus designed for collaboration, customer demonstrations, and global innovation. The new HQ will also serve as a hub for Hitachi's Integrated Industry Automation, harnessing digital twin technology, edge computing, and AI to deliver next-generation intelligent manufacturing ecosystems. Charting 'New Horizons': Hitachi recently hosted its annual Hitachi Inspire Summit 2025 in Washington, D.C. under the theme "New Horizons". With over 120 delegates in attendance from 95 unique global brands, the event was designed to engage senior leaders from across major industries in dialogue about business, technology, and talent strategies in the AI era. The summit featured presentations and insights from experts and thought leaders, collectively exploring the future of energy, mobility and industrial transformation. Alongside the summit, Hitachi's Innovation Expo showcased over 45 groundbreaking R&D and business unit demonstrations  from AI vision and sustainable energy to digital manufacturing and smart mobility  highlighting Hitachi's leadership in transforming innovative ideas into impactful solutions that address global challenges and drive industry forward.

About Hitachi America, Ltd.

Hitachi America Ltd. serves as the regional headquarters for Hitachi Group companies in the Americas, overseeing operations in the Unites States, Canada, and Latin America. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Hitachi Americas has been advancing the Social Innovation Business since its establishment in 1959  addressing society's most pressing challenges through innovative, forward-looking solutions. Hitachi Americas and its 54 subsidiary companies operate across four sectors: Digital Systems & Services, Energy, Mobility, and Connective Industries. By combining IT, operational technology (OT), and products, Hitachi Americas remains at the forefront of pioneering solutions that shape a more sustainable and connected future. For further details, please visit https://www.hitachi.us/.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Through its Social Innovation Business (SIB) that brings together IT, OT (Operational Technology) and products, Hitachi contributes to a harmonized society where the environment, wellbeing, and economic growth are in balance. Hitachi operates globally in four sectors  Digital Systems & Services, Energy, Mobility, and Connective Industries  and the Strategic SIB Business Unit for new growth businesses. With Lumada at its core, Hitachi generates value from integrating data, technology and domain knowledge to solve customer and social challenges. Revenues for FY2024 (ended March 31, 2025) totaled 9,783.3 billion yen, with 618 consolidated subsidiaries and approximately 280,000 employees worldwide. Visit us at www.hitachi.com.

Media Contact

Judy Shebib

Sr. Media Relations & Communications Specialist

[email protected]

SOURCE Hitachi
Proven in NATO exercises, the ISR Cell is a first-of-its-kind, easy-to-deploy mobile unit that radically compresses the ISR loop from hours to minutes  from collection requirements to intelligence dissemination.

HELSINKI, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- ICEYE , the global leader in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite operations, today launched the ISR Cell  an end-to-end containerized unit that gives defense forces direct access to space-based tactical Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) in near-real-time, enhancing decision-making speed and effectiveness.

ICEYE ISR Cell.

Designed to plug-and-play with any ICEYE mission, sovereign or ICEYE-operated, the ISR Cell moves space-based intelligence from centralized nodes to the edge. Proven in military exercises, the ISR Cell strengthens ICEYE's offering to defense customers and advances its ambition to become a primary provider of critical ISR infrastructure to allied nations.

The ISR Cell directly addresses the primary bottleneck in the ISR cycle: the rapid, reliable exploitation of increasingly complex data. It provides every level of command direct access to satellite tasking, downlink, AI-assisted analysis, and secure intelligence dissemination  on-site and on tactical timelines. This capability, previously limited to strategic command levels, can now be rapidly deployed to high-risk environments and act as a critical backup in the event of an outage of a fixed, centralized ground segment.

Unlike traditional satellite intelligence, which is optimized for strategic or operational decisions over hours or days, the ISR Cell is engineered to bring satellite intelligence to tactical timescales, delivering critical intelligence in minutes. Aerial systems can be used effectively for real-time intel, but their utility is limited by range, line-of-sight, and vulnerability to electronic warfare. The ISR Cell overcomes these constraints by bringing space-based intelligence directly to the tactical edge.

Beyond its utility in conflict zones, where it provides access to tactical space-based ISR, the ISR Cell provides critical resilience and operational flexibility for a wide range of tactical applications, including on-site tasking and independent downlinking. This creates a much-needed layer of resilience on the ground for the increasingly critical infrastructure in space.

"The ISR Cell is a massive leap forward in transforming how military organizations gain access to critical intelligence. It puts strategic-grade space intelligence tools in the hands of the commander in minutes, not hours or days, fundamentally changing how modern operations are planned and executed," said Pekka Laurila, CSO and Co-founder of ICEYE.

Laurila continued, "The ICEYE ISR Cells are already in production, with first customer deliveries scheduled for early 2026. This foundational capability, combined with our latest Gen4 satellites, makes satellite intelligence more efficient and directly accessible to every decision node, enabling faster and more reliable ISR loops across the force at scale."

ICEYE has recently solidified its position in the military and defense sector by securing several key agreements. The company will deliver its SAR satellite technology and space-based ISR capabilities to the Armed Forces of Poland , the Portuguese Air Force , the Royal Netherlands Air Force , and the Finnish Defence Forces . These partnerships, along with a separate agreement to provide SAR data to NATO Allied Command Operations , highlight ICEYE's role as a crucial provider of intelligence infrastructure for allied nations.

About ICEYE

ICEYE delivers unparalleled persistent monitoring capabilities to detect and respond to changes in any location on Earth, faster and more accurately than ever before.

Owning the world's largest synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite constellation, ICEYE provides objective, near real-time insights, ensuring that customers have unmatched access to actionable data, day or night, even in challenging environmental conditions. As a trusted partner to governments and commercial industries, ICEYE delivers intelligence in sectors such as defense and intelligence, insurance, natural catastrophe response and recovery, security, maritime monitoring, and finance, enabling decision-making that contributes to community resilience and sustainable development.

ICEYE operates internationally with offices in Finland, Poland, Spain, the UK, Australia, Japan, UAE, Greece, and the US. We have more than 900 employees, inspired by the shared vision of improving life on Earth by becoming the global source of truth in Earth Observation.

Media contact: [email protected]

Visit www.iceye.com and follow ICEYE on LinkedIn and X for the latest updates and insights.

SOURCE ICEYE
NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- ImmunoBrain, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel immunotherapies for neurodegenerative diseases, today announced the appointment of Dr. Rochelle Walensky to its board of directors. The company is currently conducting a Phase 1b clinical trial in patients with Alzheimer's disease, with encouraging interim study data. Its lead drug candidate, IBC-Ab002, is a proprietary antibody, tailored to AD and other forms of dementia, that targets an inhibitory immune checkpoint pathway.

Dr. Walensky, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, spent her career in infectious disease clinical practice, research, and policy, with a particular focus on the promotion of global access to HIV prevention, screening, and care. She served as the 19th director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Walensky also serves as chair of scientific council at the Global Brain Care Coalition.

"I am truly inspired by Professor Michal Schwartz's pioneering discoveries related to the brain-immune relationship and her groundbreaking approach to treating neurodegeneration by targeting neuroinflammation," said Dr. Walensky. "Almost everyone has been either directly or indirectly touched by dementia. With the aging population expected to triple over the next few decades, I am deeply engaged in understanding the far-reaching implications of this trend. The potential public health impact of neurodegenerative diseases represents one of the most pressing challenges of our time."

"I welcome Dr. Walensky to the ImmunoBrain board with great pride," said Chairman of the Board Avraham Kadar, MD. "As physician-scientists, Dr. Walensky and I share a commitment to dogma-breaking science and patient-centered care. Throughout her career, and at the highest levels of leadership, Dr. Walensky has pursued public health as a personal mission, and she understands the urgency of combatting neurodegenerative diseases. There is a critical need to bring rigorously validated, innovative therapies to patients, and Dr. Walensky has the dedication and experience to help make our vision a reality."

About ImmunoBrain

Founded in 2015, ImmunoBrain builds on over 25 years of research led by Scientific Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer Professor Michal Schwartz, PhD. Together with her team at the Weizmann Institute of Science, she discoveredcontrary to the prevailing dogma at the timethat the brain is tightly dependent on support from the immune system for its maintenance and repair. Her research further revealed that age-related decline of immune function plays a key role in brain aging and neurodegenerative diseases. These discoveries led to the development of IBC-Ab002, a proprietary Fc-modified anti-PD-L1 antibody, designed and optimized by ImmunoBrain for the treatment of neurological diseases, based on the understanding of its mechanism of action in preclinical studies. The company is currently evaluating IBC-Ab002 in a Phase 1b clinical trial in patients with Alzheimer's disease [ NCT05551741 ], supported in part by grants from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the Alzheimer's Association. Topline data from the completed study is expected in Q1 2026.

Disclaimer: Research reported in this press release is supported by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Aging, Award Number R01AG071810. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

ImmunoBrain worked with NU Advisory Partners on the search for the board director.

Contact

ImmunoBrain Investor and Media Relations

[email protected]

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2770434/ImmunoBrain_Logo.jpg

SOURCE ImmunoBrain Checkpoint Inc.
BOISE, Idaho, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Inspire Investing is pleased to announce major milestones for the Inspire Fidelis Multi Factor ETF (NYSE: FDLS) which recently celebrated its three-year anniversary and surpassed $100 million in assets under management as of August 25, 2025 the first trading day following the anniversary.

Inspire Investing is pleased to announce major milestones for the Inspire Fidelis Multi Factor ETF (NYSE: FDLS) which recently celebrated its three-year anniversary and surpassed $100 million in assets under management as of August 25, 2025 the first trading day following the anniversary.

"FDLS reaching this milestone is more than just a numberit's a signal that investors are hungry for values-driven alternatives that don't compromise on performance or integrity," said Robert Netzly, CEO of Inspire Investing. "This achievement reflects the growing desire to invest with conviction, and we are grateful to serve investors who want their money to make a difference."

Launched in 2022, FDLS provides investors with access to a diversified equity portfolio that integrates momentum, value, and quality factorsall screened for alignment with biblical values using Inspire's proprietary Inspire Impact Score methodology.

FDLS was awarded a 4-star Overall Morningstar Rating based on the 3-year period out of 381 mid-cap blend funds as of 8/31/25. Morningstar's rating system evaluates funds based on their risk-adjusted returns relative to similar funds. 

FDLS is one of nine exchange-traded funds (ETFs) offered by Inspire and is part of the firm's growing lineup of faith-based investment solutions. Inspire's ETF platform now manages over $2.1 billion in assets (as of 6/30/25), contributing to the firm's total $3.5 billion+ in assets under management across ETFs and separately managed accounts.

About Inspire Investing

Inspire Investing is the world's largest provider of faith-based ETFs as of 6/30/25, and creator of the Inspire Impact Score, which applies a proprietary methodology combining exclusionary screening with positive impact factors, aligned with Inspire's biblically responsible investing framework.

Inspire has gained recognition by FA Magazine nine times since 2017, making the Top 50 Fastest Growing Firms list three of those times. Inspire was also recognized in The Financial Times' "Americas' Fastest Growing Companies" four times and the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in America six years running.

Inspire also donates 50% or more of its net corporate profits from management fees to support impactful ministry projects around the globe through its Give50 Program. Ministries supported by the Give50 Program include Lifewise Academy, PreBorn!, World Help, and International Justice Mission (IJM).

Visit www.inspireinvesting.com to learn more about Inspire and biblically responsible investing. To learn more about FDLS and Inspire's full lineup of ETFs, visit www.inspireetf.com.

Advisory services are offered through Inspire Investing, LLC, a Registered Investment Adviser with the SEC. All expressions of opinion are subject to change without notice and are provided for informational purposes only. Nothing in this article should be construed as an offer, solicitation, recommendation, or endorsement of any particular security, strategy, or investment product. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. Please consult your financial advisor before making any investment decision.

Past performance is not indicative of future results. All performance figures referenced herein are historical and may not reflect current or future market conditions. Actual investor outcomes may vary. There is no assurance that any investment strategy will achieve its objectives or avoid losses.

The Inspire Impact Score applies a proprietary methodology combining exclusionary screening with positive impact factors, aligned with Inspire's biblically responsible investing framework.

The Morningstar Rating for funds, or "star rating", is calculated for managed products (including mutual funds, variable annuity and variable life subaccounts, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, and separate accounts) with at least a three-year history. Exchange-traded funds and open-ended mutual funds are considered a single population for comparative purposes. It is calculated based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a managed product's monthly excess performance, placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of products in each product category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars, and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. The Overall Morningstar Rating for a managed product is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its three-, five-, and 10-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. The weights are: 100% three-year rating for 36-59 months of total returns, 60% five-year rating/40% three-year rating for 60-119 months of total returns, and 50% 10-year rating/30% five-year rating/20% three-year rating for 120 or more months of total returns. While the 10-year overall star rating formula seems to give the most weight to the 10-year period, the most recent three-year period actually has the greatest impact because it is included in all three rating periods.

Rankings, awards, and recognition by unaffiliated rating services or publications should not be construed as a guarantee that a client or prospective client will experience a certain level of results if Inspire Investing is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services, nor should they be construed as a current or past endorsement of Inspire by any of its clients. The Inc. 5000 rankings are based on percentage revenue growth over a three-year period among participating private U.S. companies meeting specific eligibility criteria; Financial Advisor Magazine's Top RIA ranking is based on assets under management as reported to the SEC, growth in assets, and other factors; Financial Times rankings are based on revenue growth over 3-year periods. No compensation was paid by Inspire for consideration for these rankings. Rankings are generally based on information prepared and submitted by the adviser and do not ensure that a client or prospective client will experience a higher level of investment performance. Past recognition is not indicative of future performance.

Inspire Investing, LLC serves as the investment adviser to certain proprietary ETFs used in Inspire portfolios. Inspire receives management fees from these ETFs, creating a potential conflict of interest. Inspire seeks to mitigate this conflict through policies and procedures that ensure recommendations are made in clients' best interests and consistent with their unique goals and risk profiles. Additional details can be found in Inspire's Form ADV Part 2A.

Inspire Investing integrates biblical principles into its investment philosophy through a Biblically Responsible Investing (BRI) approach. This value-based methodology reflects Inspire's interpretation of Scripture and may not align with the views or beliefs of all investors. Inspire does not claim divine endorsement of any investment outcome or specific company behavior.

Charitable giving referenced in this article is made by Inspire Investing through its business operations and partnerships. These efforts are not tied to specific investment results. Investors are not guaranteed a charitable impact from their participation in Inspire's products or services. Inspire's charitable efforts are subject to change and are not tax-deductible for investors.

Before investing, carefully consider the funds' investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses before investing. To obtain a prospectus which contains this and other information, call 877.658.9473, or visit www.inspireetf.com. Read it carefully before investing.

The Inspire ETFs are distributed by Foreside Financial Services LLC

Investments involve risk. Principal loss is possible.

Securities in the Index or in the Fund's portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes. The Fund is not actively managed and the Adviser will not sell shares of an equity security due to current or projected underperformance of a security, industry or sector, unless that security is removed from the Index or the selling of shares of that security is otherwise required upon a rebalancing of the Index as addressed in the Index methodology. Tracking error may occur because of imperfect correlation between the Fund's holdings of portfolio securities and those in the Index. The Fund's use of a representative sampling approach, if used, could result in its holding a smaller number of securities than are in the Index. To the extent the assets in the Fund are smaller, these risks will be greater.

The Fund invests its assets in securities with an Inspire Impact Score of zero or higher. As a result of its strategy, the Fund's exclusion of securities of certain issuers for nonfinancial reasons may cause the Fund to forgo some market opportunities available to funds that do not use these criteria. The value of investments in larger companies may not rise as much as smaller companies, or larger companies may be unable to respond quickly to competitive challenges, such as changes in technology and consumer tastes.

 2025 Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete, or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information.

SOURCE Inspire Investing
Milestone coincides with organization's 50th anniversary and continued investment in lifesaving cancer research in Israel

NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Israel Cancer Research Fund (ICRF), the largest non-governmental funder of cancer research in Israel, today announced that it has officially surpassed $100 million in total funding for groundbreaking cancer research. The milestone comes as ICRF awards its newest round of research grants and celebrates its 50th anniversary.



Since its founding in 1975, ICRF has awarded nearly 3,000 grants to brilliant scientists at every major research institution across Israel, fueling breakthroughs that have shaped global understanding of prevention, detection, and treatment of cancer. For 50 years and beyond, ICRF's discoveries have given cancer patients and their families the most precious commoditymore time.



"This incredible milestone represents decades of partnership, progress, and unwavering beliefnot only in Israel's scientific excellence, but in its resilience," said Alan Herman, Executive Director of ICRF. "As we celebrate our 50th year, surpassing $100 million in funding is a testament to our scientists' determination to find a cureeven in the face of adversityand to our community's extraordinary commitment to advancing world-class cancer research for the benefit of patients everywhere."



"As a surgical oncologist, I've seen firsthand the power of research to change outcomesand save lives," said Dr. Arnold Baskies, Chair of ICRF's International Board of Trustees. "Fifty years ago, ICRF was founded on a bold belief in the potential of Israeli science. Today, that belief has resulted in global breakthroughs that have saved and prolonged livesand we are proud to continue investing in the next generation of discoveries."



For the 20252026 funding year, ICRF is supporting 25 new and 49 continuing grantsa total of 74 grants valued at more than $4.5 million. These grants advance innovative projects across all major and emerging areas of cancer research. Awards are decided through ICRF's rigorous peer-review process, modeled after the National Institutes of Health, and represent the organization's mission: to identify and fund the most promising cancer research in Israel and invest in the brightest scientific minds on the quest to find a cure.



While researchers at all levels receive awards, ICRF has a unique legacy of supporting early-career scientists who go on to make landmark contributions to the field. Notable breakthroughs by ICRF-funded scientists include three FDA-approved targeted therapies (Doxil, Gleevec, and Velcade). Two Nobel Prizes and nine Israel Prizes have been awarded to ICRF-funded scientists for their innovative research, and past and present grantees have played key roles related to advancements in DNA methylation, BRCA, the RAD51 gene, novel bone marrow transplant technique, and much more.



As Israel and its people continues to face unprecedented challenges, ICRF remains steadfast in its mission to support its scientific community and accelerate progress in the fight against cancer.



"We're not just celebrating 50 yearswe're investing in the next 50 and beyond," said Herman. "We're proud to do that by awarding new grants that will shape the future of cancer detection, treatment, andsomedaya cure."



To view the full list of ICRF's current grant recipients, visit www.icrfonline.org/current-grant-recipients/.

For more information about Israel Cancer Research Fund, visit www.icrfonline.org.

Media Contact:

Gayle Peck, Director of Communications, Israel Cancer Research Fund

347.292.7951

[email protected]

SOURCE Israel Cancer Research Fund
SANTA CLARA, Calif. and MILAN, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Picarro Inc., a global leader in methane emission management and reduction solutions, today announced that Italgas, following its recent acquisition of 2i Rete Gas, will extend the deployment of Picarro's Network Intelligence technology and solutions to cover its newly expanded infrastructure. Italgas now serves approximately 13 million customers with more than 150,000 kilometers of distribution main pipes in Italy and Greece, making it Europe's largest gas distribution system operator (DSO). Deploying Picarro's data-driven solutions will further strengthen its leadership in digital transformation of gas network operations.

Italgas, Europes largest gas distribution system operator (DSO), will deploy Picarro Network Intelligence Solutions to its 150,000+ kilometers of distribution main pipes in Italy and Greece.

Through its partnership with Picarro, Italgas has been firmly at the forefront of Network Intelligence. Picarro's advanced data and analytics solutions enable the DSO to manage its network operationsincluding leak detection and repair (LDAR) programs, methane emissions abatement and predictive asset maintenancewith unmatched accuracy. These capabilities support Italgas in enhancing safety, reducing methane emissions in line with the highest industry standard (OGMP 2.0 Gold Standard), and extending the lifespan of critical gas assets.

"Picarro's Network Intelligence is central to the realization of our growth strategy, supporting the digitization and AI-driven transformation of our networks," said Paolo Gallo, CEO of Italgas. "With the actionable insights provided by Picarro technology, we can boost efficiency, safety, environmental protection, and service quality for all of the more than 4,000 towns in which we operate and the 13 million customers we serve in Italy and Greece."

"Italgas's commitment to making its energy infrastructures increasingly resilient and safe is unmatched in Europe," said Alex Balkanski, President and CEO of Picarro Inc. "By expanding its adoption of Picarro's Network Intelligence, Italgas is setting a new standard for operational excellence, efficiency, and sustainability at an impressive scale."

From Leak Detection to Network Intelligence

Picarro's integrated solution combines advanced hardware, cutting-edge analytics, and robust software to deliver unparalleled insights into methane emissions, network safety, and operational efficiency. Operators leverage Advanced Mobile Leak Detection (AMLD) technology to create a data-driven, GIS-centric representation of a gas network and its emissions. They tap into this holistic and consolidated view to strategically plan maintenance activities, deploy resources and maximize asset value. By embracing Network Intelligence, operators can enhance safety, meet regulatory demands, and lead the way in environmental stewardship.

Scaling Network Intelligence Across the Globe

Picarro technology and solutions are now employed by more than 50 DSOs worldwide, serving over 50 million customers. Over the past decade, our DSO partners have cumulatively collected actionable data on more than 1.5 million kilometers of gas mains, are on pace to cover 800,000 kilometers of mains in 2025 and expect to accelerate their coverage even more in the years ahead.

About Italgas

Italgas is the leading gas distribution system operator in Italy and, following the acquisition of 2i Rete Gas, the largest in Europe. With approximately 13 million customers and over 150,000 kilometers of pipeline, Italgas is committed to advancing innovation, safety, and sustainability in the energy transition. For more information, visit www.italgas.it/en.

About Picarro

Picarro is a global leader in leak management and emissions reduction, providing operators with tools to revolutionize risk management. The enterprise solution helps lower emissions, optimize asset management, and reduce costs within a unified framework. With Picarro Network Intelligence technology and analytics, operators can proactively manage leaks, prioritize critical issues, and assess gas system health and performance continuously. For more information, visit www.picarro.com/gas.

Media Contact:

Monica Marmie

Senior Marketing Manager

Picarro

[email protected]

SOURCE Picarro, Inc.
New Studio Aims to Build Connection, Wellness, and Strength Within the Montclair-Verona Community

MONTCLAIR-VERONA, N.J., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- JETSET Pilates, the fast-growing modern Reformer Pilates franchise offering premium, full-body workouts, is proud to announce the opening of its newest studio in Montclair-Verona. The studio marks another milestone in the brand's rapid expansion and introduces the community to JETSET's unique approach to high-end Pilates. Located at 307 Pompton Ave, Verona, NJ, JETSET Pilates Montclair-Verona will celebrate its grand opening on Sept. 13 from 11 a.m.  1 p.m. Guests will enjoy an exclusive look at the studio, live DJ, light bites and drinks, special gifts, and access to discounted Founding Memberships, available for a limited time.

The Montclair-Verona studio is owned by Zhana Gali, a passionate entrepreneur dedicated to bringing innovative wellness experiences to this amazing community. Gali was drawn to JETSET Pilates for its blend of cutting-edge fitness, community-driven energy, and proven franchise model. By introducing JETSET to Montclair-Verona, Gali aims to create a welcoming space in his local community that empowers individuals to strengthen both body and mind.

"I wanted to bring something to Montclair-Verona that inspires connection, growth, and confidence," said Gali. "JETSET's workout is not only transformative physically but also provides the kind of supportive, energetic environment people are craving. I'm thrilled to introduce this brand to the Montclair-Verona community and turn our new studio into a role model community business."

JETSET Pilates Montclair-Verona offers personalized, high-end 50-minute classes on custom reformers, combining strength training, cardio, and Pilates-inspired movements set to DJ-curated music for transformative results. The studio's modern approach adapts to all experience levels, appealing to both new and seasoned Pilates enthusiasts alike.

"Gali's passion for creating meaningful community spaces makes her an ideal partner for JETSET," said Bertus Albertse, Chief Executive Officer and President of JETSET Pilates. "We're excited to see her lead our expansion into New Jersey and bring the JETSET experience to Montclair-Verona for the first time."

To learn more about JETSET Pilates Montclair-Verona, schedule a class, or inquire about memberships, visit https://jetsetpilates.com/nj/montclair/, or call (973) 566-3596.

About JETSET Pilates

Founded in 2010 and franchising since 2022, JETSET Pilates has rapidly established itself as one of the most attractive concepts in the boutique franchise business space. JETSET Pilates currently has plans to open studios across the U.S. and Australia, with over 200 studios in development. JETSET now offers franchising opportunities to entrepreneurs in some of the largest and fastest-growing markets within the fitness franchise sector. For more information, please visit https://jetsetpilates.com/franchise/ , or follow JETSET Pilates on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Contact: Alec Miszuk | Franchise Elevator PR | [email protected]

SOURCE JETSET Pilates
NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- On Thursday, September 11, 2025, at 11 a.m. EDT/8 a.m. PDT, Jewish National Fund-USA will livestream its annual 9/11 Commemoration Ceremony from the 9/11 Living Memorial in Jerusalem to tens of thousands of Americans via its Facebook and YouTube channels.

Jewish National Fund-USA's 9-11 Living Memorial in Jerusalem, created with the support of KKL-JNF, Mr. Edward Blank and his family, and the Bronka Stavsky Rabin Weintraub Trust US Service Members at a previous 9/11 Ceremony in Jerusalem

The moving ceremony will unite U.S. and Israeli leaders, including the U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, first responders, victims' families, Americans traveling abroad, and U.S. students attending Alexander Muss High School in Israel. Together, they will honor the nearly 3,000 innocent lives lost in the 2001 terrorist attacks and pay tribute to the first responders who embody courage and sacrifice.

Ceremony highlights include:

Presentation of the Colors by the United States Marines

Remarks by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee

Remarks from Jewish National Fund- USA President Deb Lust Zaluda , KKL-JNF Chairwoman Ifat Ovadia-Luski , and NYPD Chief of Intelligence and Counterterrorism Thomas Galati

President , KKL-JNF Chairwoman , and NYPD Chief of Intelligence and Counterterrorism Thomas Galati Performances by the Special in Uniform Band, a Jewish National Fund- USA -supported program for young people with disabilities, and freed hostage Dafna Elyakim, the Israeli teenager who survived captivity after being kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023

"As we mark the 24th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, we honor the memory of the fallen and the heroism of the firefighters, police officers, EMTs, and others who sacrificed their lives to save thousands," said Jewish National Fund-USA President Deb Lust Zaluda. "We understand that the devastation and tragedy of 9/11 echoes the devastation and tragedy of October 7. Innocent livesmothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, children and grandparentswere stolen not because they fought, but simply because they lived. This ceremony is not only about remembranceit is a powerful testament to the everlasting bond between the United States and Israel, grounded in our shared values of freedom, resilience, and democracy. Memorials matterbut memory alone is not enough. What we build, what we plant, the actions we take every day in how we livethat is how we honor the fallen. Whether in New York City or Kiryat Shmona or the Israel Envelope, when tragedy strikes, we stand together and we choose life."

Established in 2009, Jewish National Fund-USA and KKL-JNF's 9/11 Living Memorial in Jerusalem is the only memorial site of its kind outside of the United States that lists the names of all the victims who perished on that infamous day and stands as a lasting reminder of the global responsibility to confront terrorism and hatred wherever it appears. Its striking 30-foot sculpture depicts an American flag transforming into a flame of liberty and hope. The memorial's base includes a piece of metal from the ruins of the Twin Towers.

"For the families who lost loved ones, the first responders who answered the call, and for every American who remembers that day, the 9/11 Living Memorial offers a sacred place of healing," added Zaluda. "It reminds us that though tragedy struck, the human spiritand the bonds between America and Israelremain unbreakable."

Where to Watch

Thursday, September 11, 2025, at 6 p.m. Israel Time/11 a.m. EDT/8 a.m. PDT

Jewish National Fund-USA's Facebook Page or Jewish National Fund-USA's YouTube Channel



For more information, visit jnf.org.

MEDIA CONTACT

Jennifer Milton: 561-447-9733 x875 or [email protected]

SOURCE Jewish National Fund-USA
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Law Offices of Frank R. Cruz announces that investors with losses related to KinderCare Learning Companies, Inc. ("KinderCare" or the "Company") (NYSE: KLC) have opportunity to lead the securities fraud class action lawsuit.

IF YOU ARE AN INVESTOR WHO SUFFERED A LOSS IN KINDERCARE LEARNING COMPANIES, INC. (KLC), CLICK HERE BEFORE OCTOBER 14, 2025 (THE LEAD PLAINTIFF DEADLINE) TO PARTICIPATE IN THE ONGOING SECURITIES FRAUD LAWSUIT.

What Is The Lawsuit About?

The complaint filed alleges that, pursuant and/or traceable to the Company's October 2024 initial public offering (the "IPO"), Defendants failed to disclose to investors: (1) that numerous incidents of child abuse, neglect, and harm had occurred at KinderCare facilities; (2) that KinderCare did not provide the "highest quality care possible" at its facilities, and, indeed, in numerous instances had failed to provide even basic care, meet minimum standards in the child care industry, or comply with the laws and regulations governing the care of children; (3) that, as a result of the foregoing, KinderCare was exposed to a material, undisclosed risk of lawsuits, adverse regulatory action, negative publicity, reputational damage, and business loss; and (4) as a result, Defendants' positive statements about the Company's business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times.

Contact Us To Participate or Learn More:

If you wish to learn more about this action, or if you have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact us.

The Law Offices of Frank R. Cruz,

Email us at: [email protected]

Call us at: 310-914-5007

Visit our website at: www.frankcruzlaw.com

Follow us for updates on Twitter: twitter.com/FRC_LAW .

If you inquire by email, please include your mailing address, telephone number, and number of shares purchased.

To be a member of the class action you need not take any action at this time; you may retain counsel of your choice or take no action and remain an absent member of the class action.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.

SOURCE The Law Offices of Frank R. Cruz, Los Angeles
SAN DIEGO, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The law firm of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP announces that purchasers of KinderCare Learning Companies, Inc. (NYSE: KLC) common stock in or traceable to KinderCare's October 2024 initial public offering (the "IPO"), have until Monday, October 13, 2025 to seek appointment as lead plaintiff of the KinderCare class action lawsuit. Captioned Gollapalli v. KinderCare Learning Companies, Inc., No. 25-cv-01424, and pending in the District of Oregon, the KinderCare class action lawsuit charges KinderCare as well as certain of KinderCare's executives and directors, KinderCare's controlling shareholder, and the underwriters of the IPO with violations of the Securities Act of 1933.

If you suffered substantial losses and wish to serve as lead plaintiff of the KinderCare class action lawsuit, please provide your information here:

https://www.rgrdlaw.com/cases-kindercare-learning-companies-inc-class-action-lawsuit-klc.html

You can also contact attorneys J.C. Sanchez or Jennifer N. Caringal of Robbins Geller by calling 800/449-4900 or via e-mail at [email protected].

CASE ALLEGATIONS: KinderCare provides early education and child care services in the United States. In the IPO, KinderCare sold over 27 million shares of common stock to investors at $24 per share, raising $648 million in gross offering proceeds.

The KinderCare class action lawsuit alleges that the registration statement for the IPO was false and/or misleading and/or failed to disclose that: (i) numerous incidents of child abuse, neglect, and harm had occurred at KinderCare facilities; (ii) KinderCare did not provide the "highest quality care possible" at its facilities, and, indeed, in numerous instances had failed to provide even basic care, meet minimum standards in the child care industry, or comply with the laws and regulations governing the care of children; and (iii) as a result, KinderCare was exposed to a material, undisclosed risk of lawsuits, adverse regulatory action, negative publicity, reputational damage, and business loss.

Since the IPO, the price of KinderCare stock fell to lows near $9 per share.

The plaintiff is represented by Robbins Geller, which has extensive experience in prosecuting investor class actions including actions involving financial fraud. You can view a copy of the complaint by clicking here.

THE LEAD PLAINTIFF PROCESS: The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 permits any investor who purchased KinderCare common stock in or traceable to the IPO to seek appointment as lead plaintiff in the KinderCare class action lawsuit. A lead plaintiff is generally the movant with the greatest financial interest in the relief sought by the putative class who is also typical and adequate of the putative class. A lead plaintiff acts on behalf of all other class members in directing the KinderCare class action lawsuit. The lead plaintiff can select a law firm of its choice to litigate the KinderCare class action lawsuit. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff of the KinderCare class action lawsuit.

ABOUT ROBBINS GELLER: Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP is one of the world's leading law firms representing investors in securities fraud and shareholder litigation. Our Firm has been ranked #1 in the ISS Securities Class Action Services rankings for four out of the last five years for securing the most monetary relief for investors. In 2024, we recovered over $2.5 billion for investors in securities-related class action cases  more than the next five law firms combined, according to ISS. With 200 lawyers in 10 offices, Robbins Geller is one of the largest plaintiffs' firms in the world, and the Firm's attorneys have obtained many of the largest securities class action recoveries in history, including the largest ever  $7.2 billion  in In re Enron Corp. Sec. Litig. Please visit the following page for more information:

https://www.rgrdlaw.com/services-litigation-securities-fraud.html

Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.

Services may be performed by attorneys in any of our offices.

Contact:

Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP

J.C. Sanchez, Jennifer N. Caringal

655 W. Broadway, Suite 1900, San Diego, CA 92101

800-449-4900

[email protected]

SOURCE Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP
Managed services provider fully deploys cost-friendly, outcome-driven services platform for stronger customer experience

TROY, Mich., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading global technology services provider Logicalis US has developed LogicalisOne, a flexible services offering to supplement IT teams and enable them to achieve their technology objectives. It meets customers in the middlebetween professional services and ad-hoc serviceswith a tailored suite of services based on their business and consumption needs.

"We developed LogicalisOne to ensure that no matter what an organization's needs are, we put the customer first," said Nickie Peters, Sr Director, Portfolio Management at Logicalis. "While the technology is a critical component, each company manages those resources differently. Through this consumption-based, outcome-driven approach, customers can capitalize on our partnership and expertise to enable strong, and successful, digital transformation."

Customers can access Logicalis' full suite of skills through LogicalisOne. Each organization is also assigned a Customer Success Manager, who prioritizes customer objectives and aligns resources accordingly to ensure customers receive their desired outcomes.

The platform has been available to test users since July 2024 and is now widely available. During these test stages, LogicalisOne has helped achieve success for several organizations:

A healthcare customer eliminated technical debt and successfully transformed its IT infrastructure into a world-class healthcare environment.

One organization saw particular success using LogicalisOne to manage its security remediation services to not just identify security problems but remedy them as well.

An enterprise addressing identity management spread its cloud adoption journey and budget over a year with LogicalisOne, setting a clear roadmap to secure cloud identities.

LogicalisOne has become a critical tool for tackling urgent IT challenges, including staff shortages, emergency response needs, project backlogs, risk management, and stalled digital initiatives. Logicalis also works closely with its OEM partners to ensure LogicalisOne can help customers take advantage of all the features and functionalities that they purchase.

"We understand that every organization's needs and budgets differ," said Peters. "Through LogicalisOne, we are able to provide a flexible, cost-effective, friendly service that still keeps the customer's priority outcomes top-of-mind."

Organizations interested in LogicalisOne should reach out to their Logicalis US representative or visit Contact us | Logicalis.

About Logicalis US

We are Architects of Change. We help organizations succeed in a digital-first world. At Logicalis, we harness our collective technology expertise to help our clients build a blueprint for success, so they can deliver sustainable outcomes that matter.

Our lifecycle services across cloud, connectivity, collaboration and security are designed to help optimize operations, reduce risk and empower employees.

As a global technology service provider, we deliver next-generation digital managed services, to provide our clients with real-time visibility and actionable insights across the performance of their digital ecosystem including reliability, user experience, security, economic performance and sustainability.

Our 7000+ 'Architects of Change' are based in 30 territories around the globe, helping our 10,000+ clients across a range of industry sectors, create sustainable outcomes through technology.

Logicalis has annualized revenues of $1.63 billion, from operations in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Africa. It is a division of Datatec Limited, listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, with revenues of over $3.6 billion.

For more information visit https://us.logicalis.com

SOURCE Logicalis
VANCOUVER, BC, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Loulou Lollipop announced today that the TENCEL Lyocell Baby Sleep Bag was named a winner in Good Housekeeping's 2025 Parenting Awards. The full list of awards can be found on goodhousekeeping.com/parenting2025.

Loulou Lollipop Sleep Bag Loulou Lollipop Magical Dragons Sleep Bag

Made from silky-soft TENCEL Lyocell, the Loulou Lollipop Sleep Bag is gentle on delicate skin, breathable for comfortable sleep, and durable through repeated washes. A two-way zipper makes diaper changes easier without needing to remove the garment. The sleep bag comes in multiple sizes and adorable prints for everyday usefrom naptime at home or daycare to bedtime and overnight.

The award-winning Loulou Lollipop Sleep Bag is available now in a variety of prints and 0.5 TOG to 2.5 TOG, starting at $53.95 CAD / $41.95 USD at:

ABOUT LOULOU LOLLIPOP

Loulou Lollipop is a leading B Corp-certified children's lifestyle brand that offers a curated selection of high-quality, eco-friendly, and playful products for babies and toddlers. The company is committed to responsible business practices, ethical sourcing and donates 1% of every online purchase to community-focused non-profits. Loulou Lollipop clothing and accessories are available at Louloulollipop.com, Amazon.com, several major retailers, and independent children's boutiques globally.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Sara Lavoie

[email protected]

(516) 578-0541

SOURCE Loulou Lollipop
Partnership spans three regions, positioning Swixx as a strong player in CNS therapy area

Builds on global pharma trend of outsourcing access and commercialization in the emerging markets

Underscores Swixx scale in Latam and leverages Swixx entry into Israeli and Turkish markets

BAAR, Switzerland, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Swixx BioPharma AG, a global commercial platform dedicated to unlocking access to innovative medicines worldwide, and its affiliates and affiliated companies, announces today the signature of Distribution and Services Agreements with H. Lundbeck A/S. Under the Agreements, Swixx is appointed to distribute and commercialize the entire portfolio of Lundbeck across selected markets in the three regions: South-East Europe (SEE including Israel and Russia), Turkey and Latin America.

The partnership is designed as a full-service support to all Central Nervous System (CNS) products currently marketed by Lundbeck across the territory, aligned with specifics of each market. This includes medicines for the treatment of psychiatric disorders such as major depressive episodes and schizophrenia, as well as a novel therapy for the prophylaxis of migraine. Swixx will also support patient and physician access to Lundbeck's mature portfolio, including several well-known medicines.

Jean-Michel Lespinasse, CEO of Swixx, commented: "We are truly honored to be selected by Lundbeck as strategic partner across 3 regions. This decision reflects the broader shift we see across the pharma industry, where outsourcing in the emerging markets is becoming a strategic direction for future growth. This partnership is truly transformative for Swixx. First, its multiregional span across three key geographies allows us to operate at a new scale. Second, it positions us as a strong player in the CNS therapeutic area. Third, it enables us to create new positions for those Lundbeck employees that wish to continue their career with Swixx. We will on-board new talent while retaining the valuable know-how that will ensure a smooth transition and full business continuity. Indeed, this partnership illustrates how local and therapeutic expertise, combined with transition know-how can open up new multi-regional opportunities. We see this as a unique precedent and benchmark as to how outsourcing can be used not just operationally, but as a strategic model delivering long-term value."

Dr. Dezso Martha, COO of Swixx's European markets, added: "Lundbeck has built a well-established and long-standing presence in the CNS space, and we are proud to carry that legacy forward. To strengthen our ability to support this strategic partnership, we will establish a dedicated CNS Business Unit within the Swixx organization." Dr. Marek Vasicek, COO of International markets / Expansion, continued: "This partnership strengthens our international footprint and supports our ambition to grow both novel and mature portfolios. We are excited to bring Lundbeck's therapies to more patients, leveraging our commercial platform and local expertise for seamless continuity and expansion." Pascal Forget, Executive Regional General Manager LATAM, added: "This partnership covers key territories across LATAM, including four strategic markets of Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Mexico. It further strengthens our leadership in the CNS space across the region. In addition, by welcoming new Lundbeck talents into our organization, we aim to enrich our collective expertise and accelerate growth in the CNS domain."

Charl van Zyl, President and CEO of Lundbeck, commented: "I am pleased that we have announced a key partnership with Swixx. After careful consideration, we chose Swixx for their strong regional presence, proven expertise, and cultural alignment with our values. We are confident they will be an excellent representative for Lundbeck in ensuring and expanding access for patients to our medicines."

About H. Lundbeck A/S

Lundbeck is a biopharmaceutical company focusing exclusively on brain health. With more than 70 years of experience in neuroscience, we are committed to improving the lives of people with neurological and psychiatric diseases.

Brain disorders affect a large part of the world's population, and the effects are felt throughout society. With the rapidly improving understanding of the biology of the brain, we hold ourselves accountable for advancing brain health by curiously exploring new opportunities for treatments.

As a focused innovator, we strive for our research and development programs to tackle some of the most complex neurological challenges. We develop transformative medicines targeting people for whom there are few or no treatments available, expanding into neuro-specialty and neuro-rare from our strong legacy within psychiatry and neurology.

We are committed to fighting stigma and we act to improve health equity. We strive to create long term value for our shareholders by making a positive contribution to patients, their families and society as a whole.

Lundbeck has approximately 5,700 employees in more than 50 countries and our products are available in more than 80 countries. For additional information, we encourage you to visit our corporate site and connect with us via LinkedIn.

About Swixx Group

Swixx Group is one of the largest commercialization platforms representing the portfolio of pharmaceutical companies in those markets in which they choose not to enter or decide to exit. Swixx Group of companies and affiliates operates across multiple countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Greece, Eurasia and several CIS countries, the Middle East and Latin America. With presence in 46 countries, more than 1,700 employees and sales which exceeded 1.2 billion Euros in 2024, the Group is one of the fastest-growing independent commercialization platforms for biopharma globally. Swixx has gathered outstanding rare disease, oncology-hematology, specialty, vaccines and self-medication talent under one roof. For more information about Swixx, please visit: www.swixxbiopharma.com.

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2767325/Swixx_BioPharma_Award.jpg

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2767324/Swixx_BioPharma_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Swixx BioPharma
ORLANDO, Fla., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- M-tron Industries, Inc. (NYSE American: MPTI) ("Mtron" or the "Company"), a U.S.-based designer and manufacturer of highly-engineered electronic components and solutions for the aerospace and defense, avionics, and space industries, announced that Cameron Pforr, Interim Chief Executive Officer, and other members of Mtron management team will present and host one-one-one meetings with investors at the Sidoti Small-Cap Virtual Conference, taking place on Wednesday and Thursday, September 17 - 18, 2025, featuring a range of compelling presentations from various small-cap companies.

Mr. Pforr will speak to Mtron's continued momentum in the defense and aerospace sector, including its products' use in precision guided munitions, radar, electronic warfare, airframes, drone/UAVs, and space and satellite systems. Mtron plays a key role in the U.S. national security space as a U.S.-based manufacturer of radio frequency components and solutions for the U.S. Department of Defense as well as our allied nations.

The presentation will begin at 9:15 a.m. Eastern Time (US and Canada) on Wednesday September 17, 2025, and can be accessed live here: https://sidoti.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_dXa5TvMLTPOX3gwOrdgKhA.

Mtron will also host virtual one-on-ones with investors on Wednesday and Thursday, September 17  18, 2025. To register for the presentation, visit www.sidoti.com/events. Registration is free and you don't need to be a Sidoti client.

About Sidoti Events, LLC ("Events") and Sidoti & Company, LLC ("Sidoti")

In 2023, Sidoti & Company, LLC , Sidoti & Company, LLC (www.sidoti.com) formed an affiliate company, Sidoti Events, LLC in order to focus exclusively on its rapidly growing conference business and to more directly serve the needs of presenters and attendees. The relationship allows Events to draw on the over 25 years of experience Sidoti has as a premier provider of independent securities research focused specifically on small and microcap companies and the institutions that invest in their securities, with most of its coverage in the $200 million-$5 billion market cap range. Sidoti's coverage universe comprises approximately 150 equities, of which almost 70 percent participate in the firm's rapidly growing Company Sponsored Research ("CSR") and Sidoti Lighthouse Equity Research ("Lighthouse") programs. Events is a leading provider of corporate access through the many investor conferences it hosts each year. By virtue of its direct ties to Sidoti, Events benefits from Sidoti's small- and microcap-focused nationwide sales force, which has connections with over 2,500 institutional relationships in North America. This enables Events to provide multiple forums for meaningful interaction for small and microcap issuers and investors specifically interested in companies in the sector.

About Mtron

M-tron Industries, Inc. (NYSE American: MPTI) designs, manufactures, and markets highly engineered, high reliability frequency and spectrum control products and solutions. As an engineering-centric company, Mtron provides close support to its customers throughout our products' entire life cycle, including product design, prototyping, production, and subsequent product upgrades. Mtron has design and manufacturing facilities in Orlando, Florida, and Yankton, South Dakota, a sales office in Hong Kong, and a manufacturing facility in Noida, India. For more information, visit www.mtron.com.

SOURCE Mtron
SAN MATEO, Calif., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Madigan & Lewis, LLP is proud to announce that Partner Victoria K. Lewis has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America 2026 Edition for her outstanding work in the area of family law. This marks the third consecutive year that Ms. Lewis has earned this prestigious honor, underscoring her reputation as a leading advocate for clients navigating complex family law matters.

Best Lawyers is widely regarded as the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession. Recognition in The Best Lawyers in America is based entirely on peer review, with attorneys evaluated by their professional colleagues on the basis of professional excellence and legal expertise.

Victoria K. Lewis has been recognized for the third consecutive year for her outstanding work in the area of family law. Post this

"We are thrilled to see Victoria honored once again for her dedication to her clients and her depth of knowledge in family law," said Kimberly Madigan, Founding Partner of Madigan & Lewis, LLP. "Her continued recognition reflects not only her skill and experience but also the high level of trust she has earned within the legal community."

Victoria's family law practice focuses on complex family law matters both in mediation and through all stages of negotiation or litigation, including trial and appeal. Victoria's areas of expertise include divorce, property characterization and division, child and spousal support proceedings, high-conflict custody disputes, including relocation cases and cases involving resist-refuse dynamics, as well as post-judgment proceedings. Ms. Lewis is also certified as a mediator by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.

For more information about Madigan & Lewis, LLP and its family law services, please visit madiganlewis.com .

SOURCE Madigan Lewis LLP
LAS VEGAS, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Virtue Recovery is proud to announce the expansion of its Business Development Team with the addition of two U.S. military veterans: Adam Khosroabadi, U.S. Marine Corps Veteran, and Chauncy Nash, U.S. Army Veteran. Both men bring lived experience, professional expertise, and a passion for service to Virtue Recovery's mission of supporting individuals and families facing addiction, PTSD, and mental health challenges.

A Shared Mission of Service

Adam Khosroabadi and Chauncy Nash join Virtue Recovery's Business Development Team

Adam Khosroabadi joins as Community Outreach Specialist, supporting Virtue At The Pointe Recovery Center in Astoria, Oregon, and Virtue Recovery Center in Milwaukie, Oregon. A Marine Corps Combat Veteran with deep ties to the Portland behavioral health community, Adam combines his outreach experience with his personal recovery journey, fostering trust and hope for veterans and civilians alike.

Chauncy Nash, a Business Development Liaison, served 20 years in the U.S. Army before transitioning into healthcare. Originally from Oahu, Hawaii, he brings a unique blend of military leadership, healthcare experience, and academic focus in business analytics and software development. With a strong family foundation and three children, Chauncy Nash exemplifies resilience and commitment both at home and in his community.

Why It Matters

Veterans often face unique barriers to treatment, from PTSD to substance use disorders. Having leaders like Adam and Chauncywho not only understand those struggles but have lived themensures that Virtue Recovery's outreach is authentic, compassionate, and impactful.

"Adam and Chauncy bring more than just experience to Virtue Recoverythey bring heart, grit, and a relentless dedication to helping others heal," said Michael Banis, Chief Development Officer. "Their presence strengthens our mission to provide hope, healing, and lasting recovery for individuals and families in Oregon and across the country."

About Virtue Recovery

Virtue Recovery has expanded its Business Development Team by hiring two VeteransAdam Khosroabadi and Chauncy Nashwho bring military service and outreach expertise to strengthen Virtue's mission across its nationally accredited centers (including dual-diagnosis treatment in Las Vegas, Arizona, eating disorder treatment in Nevada, and Texas). The company now also highlights its sister facility in Las Vegas, Silver State Adolescent Treatment , offering evidence-based residential programs and holistic teen mental health and substance use treatment.

To learn more about Virtue Recovery or to schedule a free assessment, visit VirtueAThePointe.com or call (866) 271-9748.

Media Contact:

Michael Banis

(866) 271-9748

SOURCE Virtue Recovery Center
NEA president: This technology will continue to fundamentally change the way we teach and learn

WASHINGTON, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- NEA, the largest provider of education micro-credentials in the United States, announced on Wednesday that it has received an initial $325,000 grant from Microsoft Elevate to expand its ongoing efforts to support educators as they navigate the opportunities and challenges of artificial intelligence (AI) in education. The partnership will also provide opportunities for educators to inform the development of Microsoft AI tools.

"Understanding AI goes far beyond tools and apps. This technology will continue to fundamentally change the way we teach and learn, and the ways we interact with the world and each other," said NEA President Becky Pringle. "Our students and educators cannot be passive users; they must have agency with this technology and an appreciation for the uniquely human assets we bring to learning and to our professions."

"Educators prepare every generation to meet the future  and today, they're shaping how AI becomes a tool for confidence, creativity and critical thinking," said Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President of Microsoft. "Our partnership with NEA is rooted in a simple truth: Technology is only as valuable as the people empowered to use it. Through Microsoft Elevate, we're investing in AI literacy and leadership, so educators and students stay at the center of AI in the classroom."

Last year, NEA partnered with the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) to deliver an AI learning series that reached thousands of members. Building on that success, the new Microsoft grant will enable NEA to engage an additional 10,000 members with fresh content and micro-credentials, further strengthening the knowledge and fluency of both educators and leaders in this emerging field. The grant will also support a dedicated focus on policy and leadership development for NEA's state affiliates.

"By preparing educators and leaders with the knowledge to lead and innovate educational practices and policies, and by providing avenues of practitioner input into the design of AI tools, we strive to ensure AI technologies are used in human-centered ways that promote equity, mitigate potential harms, and enrich both teaching and learning," said Pringle.

Through this grant, NEA reaffirms its commitment to elevating professional excellence, amplifying educator voice, and guaranteeing that every student has access to safe, equitable and high-quality learning opportunities amid rapid technological change.

Last July, nearly 7,000 educator delegates gathered at the Philadelphia Convention Center for the National Education Association's 103rd Representative Assembly (RA), where they approved a policy statement to address the emerging phenomenon of AI and its impact on public schools.

At the heart of the new policy is the principle that the student-educator connection must always be the center of the teaching and learning experience and must play a significant role in every consequential education decision.

"Decades of research tell us that student success relies on our ability to build healthy and effective relationships with students. Their sense of feeling supported and valued predicts their success and their love of learning," said Pringle. "The work we will do together with Microsoft is intended to enhance  not diminish  that relationship by giving educators the tools and voice they need to use AI in ways that deepen learning, foster trust and keep students at the heart of everything we do."

Read NEA's full NEA's full Policy Statement on AI in education.

Visit NEA AI hub page for guidance, tools and professional learning opportunities to help educators navigate the evolving role of artificial intelligence in schools and classrooms.

Follow us on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/neapresident.bsky.social and https://bsky.app/profile/neatoday.bsky.social.

About The National Education Association

The National Education Association is the nation's largest labor union, representing nearly 3 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators, students preparing to become teachers, healthcare workers, and public employees. Learn more at www.nea.org

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft) creates platforms and tools powered by AI to deliver innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers. The technology company is committed to making AI available broadly and doing so responsibly, with a mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

SOURCE Microsoft Corp.
To celebrate the brand's 30 year anniversary, Blue Moon is officially renaming the orange and offering limited-edition bags of BlueMoonGarnishes

CHICAGO, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Since 1995, Blue Moon has been synonymous with oranges. From being brewed with Valencia orange peel to its iconic serve with a full-wheel orange garnish, nothing pairs better with the brightness of Blue Moon than an orange. Now, in honor of the brand's 30th anniversary, Blue Moon is rebranding the orange to what it truly is: BlueMoonGarnish.

Orange You Glad Its Now a BlueMoonGarnish? Orange You Glad Its Now a BlueMoonGarnish?

BlueMoonGarnish goes beyond just renaming fruit. It's a full-on cultural movement. Orange sweater? That's a BlueMoonGarnish sweater. Orange chicken? BlueMoonGarnish Chicken. The Orange Line on the Chicago elevated tracks? It's actually the BlueMoonGarnish line. Wherever you see orange, Blue Moon sees BlueMoonGarnish. So, in the next few weeks, the brand will introduce BlueMoonGarnish to places where the color formerly known as orange once was.

BlueMoonGarnish isn't just a name change, it's an invitation to join the fun. After all, what's a cultural movement without our fans? Starting September 10, Blue Moon fans 21 and older can visit BlueMoonGarnish.com and, with the purchase of Blue Moon beer for delivery in Chicago, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Nashville, New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, they will receive a complimentary bag of BlueMoonGarnishes  custom-labeled oranges designed to garnish and brighten their Blue Moon beer.

Additionally, Blue Moon is sampling BlueMoonGarnish and delighting beer drinkers at select locations in Boston, Denver, Long Island, Nashville, and Philadelphia, with complimentary BlueMoonGarnish bags and fresh garnishes to top off their Blue Moon.

"For three decades, a Valencia orange garnish has been part of the Blue Moon experience, so we thought why not make it official and give oranges the name they were meant to have: BlueMoonGarnish," says Courtney Benedict, Vice President of Marketing for Above Premium Beer at Molson Coors Beverage Company, "This is more than a garnish  it's a celebration of what makes Blue Moon a Blue Moon."

Created and produced by Mischief @NoFixedAddress, the BlueMoonGarnish campaign includes a comedic video visiting the BlueMoonGarnish farm, influencer partnerships, and eye-catching contextual out-of-home placements in high-traffic areas across the country, such as Chicago and Boston's Orange Lines (now BlueMoonGarnish lines), all designed to brighten feeds and city streets alike.

To get a complimentary bag of BlueMoonGarnishes with the delivery purchase of Blue Moon, visit BlueMoonGarnish.com, while supplies last for customers 21+. To learn more, check out Blue Moon on Instagram at @BlueMoonBrewCo .

ABOUT MOLSON COORS BEVERAGE COMPANY

For more than two centuries, Molson Coors has brewed beverages that unite people to celebrate all life's moments. From our core power brands Coors Light, Miller Lite, Coors Banquet, Molson Canadian, Carling and Ozujsko to our above premium brands including Madri Excepcional, Staropramen, Blue Moon Belgian White and Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy, to our economy and value brands like Miller High Life and Keystone Light, we produce many beloved and iconic beers. While Molson Coors' history is rooted in beer, we offer a modern portfolio that expands beyond the beer aisle as well, including flavored beverages like Vizzy Hard Seltzer, spirits like Five Trail whiskey and non-alcoholic beverages like ZOA Energy. As a business, our ambition is to be the first choice for our people, our consumers and our customers, and our success depends on our ability to make our products available to meet a wide range of consumer segments and occasions.

Molson Coors Beverage Company is a publicly traded company that operates through its Americas and EMEA&APAC reporting segments and is traded on the New York Stock Exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange. To learn more about Molson Coors Beverage Company, visit molsoncoors.com.

MEDIA CONTACTS

ALISON BROD MARKETING + COMMUNICATIONS

Brooke Scher Mogan

[email protected]

MOLSON COORS BEVERAGE COMPANY

Jenna Reimler

[email protected]

SOURCE Blue Moon
In 'A Conversation on Courage,' Lord Cameron and Morgan Stanley's Andy Saperstein discussed philanthropy as a catalyst for rare disease innovation

OXFORD, England and CLEVELAND, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre ('OHC'), a partnership between the University of Oxford, UK and Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals, Cleveland, Ohio, dedicated to creating new medicines for rare diseases, announces that Lord Cameron, former UK Prime Minister and Chair of the OHC Advisory Council, was a featured guest speaker at the Morgan Stanley Exchange 2025 conference in New York City on Tuesday, 9 September 2025.

Pictured Left to Right: Andy Saperstein, Co-President of Morgan Stanley; Lord Cameron, former UK Prime Minister, and Chair of the OHC Advisory Council; Melanie Schnoll Begun, Head of Family Office Resources Field Engagement and Philanthropy Management, Morgan Stanley, and President of Morgan Stanley GIFT.

Lord Cameron joined Andy Saperstein, Co-President of Morgan Stanley, for the session entitled "A Conversation on Courage", an intimate dialogue exploring leadership, philanthropy, and their shared commitment to advancing progress in rare disease research and treatment.

As Chair of the OHC Advisory Council, Lord Cameron leads international efforts to advance the Centre's bold mission: to deliver 40 new rare disease treatments by 2034. His leadership builds on a personal dedication to this cause, rooted in his family's own experience of rare disease and his role in founding Genomics England and the landmark 100,000 Genomes Project.

Lord Cameron, Chair of the OHC Advisory Council, said: "Of the causes I have advocated, this one is personal. The Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre brings together the very best of academia, life sciences, philanthropy, and industry to deliver hope for millions worldwide living with rare diseases. I was honoured to represent the OHC at Exchange 2025, to discuss our work to help the many millions of families whose lives are affected by these devastating conditions. Progress at the scale we need will only happen if philanthropy and investment step forward boldly. By convening leading institutions, funders, and innovators, we hope to accelerate the development of treatments and create real change for patients and their loved ones."

Andy Saperstein, Co-President of Morgan Stanley, said: "We were honored to welcome Lord Cameron to Exchange 2025 for a truly inspiring conversation. His leadership at the Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre highlights how collaboration across science, philanthropy, and investment can transform the future for millions of patients worldwide. At Morgan Stanley, we believe in the power of courageous ideas, as illustrated by our partnership with Harrington Discovery Institute, to drive new cures, and this dialogue shined a light on the role we can all play in advancing solutions for rare diseases."

The Morgan Stanley Exchange brings together leaders in philanthropy, healthcare, and innovation to explore bold ideas for addressing global challenges. Lord Cameron's participation underscored the importance of investment, partnership, and the role of philanthropy in bridging funding gaps to deliver new treatments for rare diseases.

SOURCE Harrington Discovery Institute
From ceviche to superfoods, Peru Mucho Gusto brings the flavors, creativity, and traditions of Peru to Brooklyn for a three-day cultural feast.

NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Peru Mucho Gusto Culinary Festival , organized by the Commission for the Promotion of Peru for Exports and Tourism ( PROMPERU ), has officially announced the full lineup of exhibitors for its highly anticipated U.S. debut in New York City, September 1921, 2025 at Greenpoint Terminal Warehouse .

The festival will bring together 14 Peruvian restaurants from New York and New Jersey, alongside a vibrant Superfoods & Lifestyle Pavilion featuring leading Peruvian export companies. Visitors are now invited to register for free entry at Peru Mucho Gusto

Peru Mucho Gusto Culinary Festival Debuts in New York City in September

"With Peruvian cuisine consistently ranked among the world's most celebratedand New York City home to a growing community of acclaimed Peruvian restaurants, bringing Peru Mucho Gusto to New York is not only a celebration of our country's world-class cuisine but also an opportunity to strengthen cultural ties between Peru and the United States", said Diana Pita, PROMPERU's Economic and Commercial Counselor in New York. "New Yorkers will have the chance to experience the diversity of our gastronomy, from traditional flavors to innovative creations, while discovering the superfoods and artisanal products that connect our heritage with today's global trends".

Attendees can expect a fully immersive experience over three days, with live cooking demonstrations, interactive tastings, cultural performances, and masterclasses that showcase the depth and diversity of Peruvian gastronomy. From hands-on workshops with chefs to sampling superfoods and artisanal products, Peru Mucho Gusto offers visitors a chance to engage with Peru's culinary and cultural heritage like never before. The festival also highlights Peru's world-renowned Pisco, with dedicated tasting sessions, mixology demonstrations, and seminars led by experts such as Johnny Schuller and Claudia Moquillaza, giving visitors an authentic and educational exploration of Peru's iconic spirit. Culinary visionaries Flavio Solorzano Alvarezcelebrated for his research and publications on regional Peruvian cuisines and Andean superfoodsand Javier Angeles Beron, founder of the Peruvian American Chef Association and a leading promoter of Peruvian gastronomy in the U.S., will host interactive sessions, share their expertise, and provide visitors with an authentic and educational exploration of Peru's flavors, techniques, and ingredients.

Since its launch in 2008, Peru Mucho Gusto has become the country's flagship gastronomic event, with 28 editions across 12 regions of Peru. This year, the festival expanded internationally for the first time with a successful debut in Madrid.

Peru Mucho Gusto New York will be the festival's North American debut and is expected to welcome 5,000+ visitors over three days to celebrate the colors, flavors, and traditions of Peru in New York City.

Participating Restaurants

Attendees will have the opportunity to taste iconic dishes like ceviche, pollo a la brasa, causas and Peruvian-style desserts from a diverse group of restaurants:

Superfoods & Lifestyle Pavilion Exhibitors

Showcasing Peru's biodiversity and creativity beyond the plate:

Event Details:

Dates: September 1921, 2025

Venue: Greenpoint Terminal Warehouse

73 West Street, Brooklyn, NY 11222

Event Times:

Friday Sept 19 : 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

: Saturday Sept 20 : 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

: Sunday Sept 21 : 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Registration is now open at Peru Mucho Gusto

About Peru Mucho Gusto

Launched in 2008, Peru Mucho Gusto is the country's premier culinary festival, organized by PROMPERU to highlight the excellence of Peruvian cuisine and culture. After 28 editions across Peru and the first international edition in Madrid in April 2025, the fair is now expanding to the United States, reinforcing Peru's position as a world leader in gastronomy and cultural tourism.

For more information, please contact:

Trish Heywood

[email protected]

Carla Castorina

[email protected]

Colangelo & Partners

www.colangelopr.com

SOURCE PROMPERU
Recognizing lifetime achievement in craft, service to the literary arts, and poetry criticism.

CHICAGO, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Poetry Foundation is proud to announce the recipients of the 2025 Pegasus Awards, a suite of literary prizes established by the Foundation in 2004:

Rigoberto Gonzalez, 2025 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize

Amy Stolls , 2025 Pegasus Award for Service in Poetry

, 2025 Pegasus Award for Service in Poetry Kazim Ali , 2025 Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism

The Poetry Foundation is proud to announce the recipients of the 2025 Pegasus Awards, a suite of literary prizes. Post this

The recipients will be honored at the Pegasus Awards ceremony in Chicago in October 2025. Additionally, they will read together at the 2025 Pegasus Awards Reading , a free public event at the Poetry Foundation on October 24, 2025.

"It is the Poetry Foundation's great honor to recognize the extraordinary talents of Rigoberto Gonzalez, Amy Stolls, and Kazim Ali for dedicating their lives and careers to supporting poetry," said Poetry Foundation president and CEO, Michelle T. Boone. "I, along with the Poetry Foundation staff and board of trustees, commend them for inspiring hope and enriching our lives through their art, service, and scholarship."

Rigoberto Gonzalez Wins Lifetime Achievement Award

The Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize recognizes a living United States poet for outstanding lifetime achievement with an award of $100,000. Presented annually, it is one of the most prestigious honors awarded to poets and is one of the nation's largest literary cash prizes.

Over the past three decades, Rigoberto Gonzalez has written 17 books in nearly every genre imaginable, from criticism to memoir and fiction to books for children. The Poetry Foundation is honoring him for his poetry, which Poetry magazine editor Adrian Matejka describes as "sumptuous and rich in its curiosities and carnalities."

Matejka goes on to say, "There is wonder abounding in Gonzalez's poems, but not at the expense of clarity. He is both a creator of poems and a creator of space for others through his mentorship, critical work, and anthologies, most recently Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology. His work on and off the page has inspired generations of writers and shown them the true power of literature."

Gonzalez was born in Bakersfield, California, and raised in Michoacan, Mexico. He earned a BA from the University of California, Riverside and graduate degrees from University of California, Davis and Arizona State University. A former critic at large for the LA Times and contributing editor for Poets & Writers, Gonzalez is the series editor for the Camino del Sol Latinx Literary Series at the University of Arizona Press. He is currently distinguished professor of English and creative writing at Rutgers University-Newark.

Pegasus Award for Service in Poetry Recognizes Amy Stolls

The Pegasus Award for Service in Poetry is bestowed in recognition of commitment and extraordinary work in poetry and the literary arts through administration, advocacy, education, publishing, or service. The award includes a cash prize of $25,000, awarded annually.

In 2025, Amy Stolls completed 26 years of distinguished service at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), where she steadfastly championed writers, readers, publishers, translators, and literary institutions.

Joining the NEA's Literature Office in 1998, Stolls oversaw major programs, including the NEA Creative Writing Fellowships program, Poetry Out Loud, the Big Read, and the National Book Festival, advising on thousands of proposals and moderating panels nationwide. Prior to her time at the NEA, Stolls taught literature at American University in Washington, D.C., and worked as an environmental journalist in Seattle, Washington. She is the author of two novels: Palms to the Ground and The Ninth Wife.

Kazim Ali Receives Award for Work of Poetry Criticism

The Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism is an annual $10,000 cash prize that commends an outstanding book-length work of criticism published in the United States in the prior calendar year.

Kazim Ali 's Black Buffalo Woman: An Introduction to the Poetry and Poetics of Lucille Clifton is a revelatory and deeply researched exploration of Lucille Clifton's extraordinary poetic legacy. Describing the book as an invitation into Clifton's poems, Ali opens the door for readers to engage more deeply with her formal range, fierce clarity, and spiritual depth.

Ali has published six poetry collections, including The Far Mosque, which won Alice James Books' New England/New York Award, and six works of prose, including Northern Light: Power, Land, and the Memory of Water, winner of the Banff Mountain Book Award in Environmental Literature. Ali was born in the United Kingdom to Muslim parents of Indian descent and has lived transnationally in the United States, Canada, India, France, and the Middle East. He is currently a professor of literature and creative writing at the University of California, San Diego.

Eleni Stecopoulos was the 2025 Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism finalist for her book Dreaming in the Fault Zone: A Poetics of Healing.

About the Poetry Foundation

The Poetry Foundation recognizes the power of words to transform lives. The Foundation works to amplify poetry and celebrate poets by fostering spaces for all to create, experience, and share poetry. Follow the Poetry Foundation and Poetry magazine on Facebook , Instagram , and LinkedIn.

SOURCE Poetry Foundation
The Dublin-Founded Retailer Celebrates this Major Market Milestone and Continued US Growth Across its 33 US Stores Including with Boston Flagship Festivities

BOSTON, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Primark, the international retailer offering quality fashion at value prices, today celebrates its 10-year anniversary of entering the United States. Since opening its first US store at Downtown Crossing in Boston in 2015, the brand has opened 33 stores across 13 states, including most recently in El Paso, Texas, Jersey City, N.J. and Memphis, Tenn.

"Primark came to the United States a decade ago very deliberate in our approach, testing and learning to ensure that as we continued to expand our footprint in-market, we were getting it just right for US shoppers," said Kevin Tulip, President of Primark US. "To say we're thrilled with the success we've seen in the US to-date is an understatement. US shoppers have welcomed Primark with arms wide open, and continue to be wowed by the value, quality and style we offer. We look forward to meeting these same needs for US shoppers for decades to come!"

Primark is dedicated to its US growth with 18 additional leases signed, four of which were just announced - including the entry into a new state of Minnesota - at the following locations:

Mall of America, Bloomington, Minn.

Brandon Exchange, Brandon, Fla.

Vineland Premium Outlets, Orlando , Fla.

, Fla. Sugarloaf Mills, Lawrenceville, Ga.

Looking forward, Primark has plans to open a new flagship, Primark's first ever Manhattan location next year. Located in Herald Square, directly across the street from Penn Station, the store will offer Primark's unique combination of style, quality and affordability to more shoppers than ever before.

In addition to store openings, Primark has invested in its US team with key hires and the opening of a new office in Downtown Boston this year. Primark is consistently selected as an employer of choice in the US. This year the company was named one of the Top 100 Inspiring Workplaces in North America as well as one of the Global Top 100 Inspiring Workplaces by Inspiring Workplaces Group. The US recognizes Primark's value as a key industry competitor. Most recently Primark was honored in the number two spot on the National Retail Federation's "2025 Hot 25 Retailers" list compiled by Kantar  an annual look at the fastest-growing retailers in the United States.

For those based in Boston hoping to join in on the 10-year anniversary festivities, shoppers can head to Primark's Downtown Crossing location on September 12, between 2:00 and 8:00 p.m. ET. The celebration will include fun for the whole family with a live DJ, branded giveaways, a braid bar, photo booth and ice cream treats, first come, first served.

To help shoppers find what they're looking for, Primark's website allows customers to browse its product offerings and check which products are available in their local store. To check it out, please visit: www.primark.com. Shoppers can also sign up here to get email updates on Primark's latest product drops, style inspiration, store opening dates, and more.

About Primark

Primark is an international fashion retailer employing more than 80,000 colleagues across 17 countries in Europe and the US. Founded in Ireland in 1969 under the Penneys brand, Primark aims to provide affordable choices for everyone, from great quality everyday essentials to stand-out style across women's, men's and kids, as well as beauty, homeware and accessories. With a focus on creating great retail experiences, Primark has 450 stores globally and continues to expand.

Primark is working to make more sustainable fashion affordable for everyone through its Primark Cares strategy, a multi-year program that focuses on giving clothing a longer life, protecting life on the planet and supporting the livelihoods of the people who make Primark clothes. As part of this, Primark unveiled a series of commitments it is working to achieve by 2030. These commitments include making all of its clothes from recycled or more sustainably sourced materials by 2030, halving carbon emissions across its value chain and pursuing a living wage for workers in its supply chain. More information can be found here.

SOURCE Primark
Corra, CEO of Frederick Wildman and Managing Director of Gruppo Italiano Vini, recognized for her leadership in shaping Italy's largest wine group and advancing the global wine industry.

NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Roberta Corra, CEO of Frederick Wildman & Sons and Managing Director of Gruppo Italiano Vini (GIV), has been nominated as Person of the Year by Wine Enthusiast for the 2025 Wine Star Awards . The annual Wine Star Awards recognize the most influential leaders in the wine, spirits, and beverage industry, honoring their exceptional achievements, vision, and impact.

As CEO of Frederick Wildman & Sons, Roberta has played a pivotal role in strengthening and expanding the company's portfolio of premium Italian wines in the U.S. market. Under her guidance, Frederick Wildman has solidified its position as a vital link between Italy's leading wine producers and American consumers, further enhancing the company's reputation for quality, expertise, and market influence.

At the same time, Roberta has driven remarkable growth for GIV, Italy's highest revenue-generating wine group, encompassing 15 wineries across 11 regions, and over 1,600 hectares of vineyards. With a turnover of 212 million, GIV has evolved into Italy's most commercially successful wine group. A trailblazer in the Italian wine industry, Roberta has strategically driven the growth of respected brands such as Bolla, Lamberti, Nino Negri, Re' Manfredi, Tenuta Rapitala, Santi, Melini, and Vigneti La Selvanella, reinforcing Italy's wine heritage both domestically and internationally.

Roberta is one of the very few women leading at the highest levels in Italy's wine industry, bringing a background in law and business organization from SDA Bocconi and extensive experience in multinational companies. Beyond Frederick Wildman and GIV, her influence spans across Europe, with leadership positions in Granarolo Suisse (Switzerland), Carniato Europe S.A. (France), GIV CZ Sro (Eastern Europe), and in the Canadian Phildan Inc. She is also president of the Consorzio Italia del Vino, which brings together 25 prestigious Italian wine producers.

Roberta's recent appointment to the Scientific Committee of the Wine Management Executive Program at Luiss Business School, an initiative training young talent for strategic roles in Italian wine companies, underscores her commitment to mentoring the next generation of wine professionals. Her leadership has consistently combined strategic acumen with empathy, making her a role model in both wine and global business.

Roberta Corra's nomination for the 2025 Wine Star Award for Person of the Year highlights her exceptional leadership, strategic vision, and lasting impact on the global wine industry. Her achievements at Frederick Wildman, Gruppo Italiano Vini, and beyond continue to set a benchmark for excellence, inspiring both colleagues and the next generation of wine professionals worldwide.

High-resolution imagery available here .

About Frederick Wildman

Founded in 1934, Frederick Wildman & Sons is a leading importer and distributor of fine wines, renowned for its commitment to quality, authenticity, and innovation. With a portfolio that includes some of the world's most iconic and prestigious brands, the company has long been a trusted partner for top-tier producers and a go-to source for discerning trade professionals. From legendary European estates to groundbreaking new-world wineries, Frederick Wildman & Sons continues to set the standard for excellence in the wine and spirits industry.

About Gruppo Italiano Vini

Gruppo Italiano Vini (GIV) is one of Italy's leading wine groups, managing over 1,600 hectares of vineyards and 15 historic wineries across the country's most prestigious regions. Rooted in local communities and traditions yet focused on innovation, GIV brings together agronomists, oenologists, and winery managers dedicated to quality, sustainability, and preserving the essence of each territory. With a portfolio of established brands available in 96 countries, GIV offers a diverse range of wines crafted for every occasion and consumerfrom casual wine lovers to the most discerning connoisseurs.

Media Contact

Shelby Sonkin

[email protected]

SOURCE Frederick Wildman
MILAN, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Global law firm Ropes & Gray has opened a new office in Milan, Italy, strengthening its position as a leading advisor to private equity clients worldwide. The firm also welcomes partners Cataldo (Aldo) Piccarreta, Giorgia Lugli, and Luca Maranetto, who join the firm's Private Equity group and bring substantial experience and deep relationships across Italy and Europe. Aldo will become one of the co-heads of Ropes & Gray's European Private Equity Transactions practice.

The move aligns with the firm's ongoing investment in scaling its European footprint and capabilities, building on the established strength of its London and Paris offices. Earlier this year, Ropes & Gray opened its Paris office, and the addition of Milan addresses increasing client demand for cross-border expertise.

"Our clients rely on us to lead on mission-critical work in the markets that matter most to them," said Julie Jones, Ropes & Gray chair. "The addition of best-in-class talent like Aldo, Giorgia and Luca will help us to move faster and more seamlessly across many of the geographies where our private equity clients are pursuing their most compelling opportunities. Our new partners' deep expertise and impressive track records leading on complex, high-profile transactions significantly enhance our client offering."

Italy is a key market for many of Ropes & Gray's clients. In 2024, the country was the fastest growing private equity market in Europe, with deal volume more than doubling from the prior year, and it surpassed the Netherlands to become the fourth largest private equity market in Europe by total investment. Establishing a presence in Italy advances the firm's ambition to further globalize client relationships and better support clients' needs in one of Europe's fastest-growing private markets.

"With its strong focus on private equity and its longstanding relationships with the world's leading sponsors, Ropes & Gray is an ideal home for our team," said Cataldo (Aldo) Piccarreta. "Italy offers tremendous opportunities as a dynamic and rapidly expanding market for private equity, M&A, and direct investment. We are energized to partner with clients who are already leading in the Italian market, as well as those who aspire to do business in the region."

Cataldo (Aldo) Piccarreta is recognized as a leading lawyer in private equity and M&A by Chambers Europe and Chambers Global, which describe him as "an outstanding professional with strong commercial acumen and client dedication." Specializing in private equity, corporate finance, and real estate, Aldo has advised private equity funds and corporates on a wide range of transactions, including high-profile buyouts and joint ventures.

Giorgia Lugli advises multinational private equity firms, financial institutions, and companies operating in Italy on investments, M&A transactions, and restructurings. With significant experience in complex, cross-border transactions, Giorgia specializes in supporting private equity clients throughout the investment lifecycle.

Luca Maranetto advises domestic and international clients, including private equity funds and portfolio companies, on complex transactions such as acquisitions, disposals, mergers, and joint ventures. Luca has played key roles in several high-profile deals in the Italian market from preliminary structuring to post-closing activities.

Ropes & Gray's new Milan office address:

Ropes & Gray Studio Legale

Milan Via Broletto 46,

20121 Milano MI, Italy

About Ropes & Gray

Ropes & Gray, a preeminent global law firm, has been ranked in the top three on The American Lawyer's prestigious "A-List" for nine consecutive years. The firm has more than 1,500 lawyers and legal professionals serving clients in major centers of business, finance, technology, and government in New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Washington, D.C., London, Dublin, Milan, Paris, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, and Tokyo. The firm has consistently been recognized for its leading practices, including asset management, private equity, M&A, finance, real estate, tax, antitrust, life sciences, healthcare, intellectual property, litigation & enforcement, privacy & cybersecurity, and business restructuring.

Media Contact: Jack Levy, 617-235-4974, [email protected]

SOURCE Ropes & Gray
Unique LEO Satellite Network is Key for Aero, Maritime and Land Communications

Unique global data constellation using satellite-to-satellite laser links

Ultra-secure and low latency network

Combining the speed of fibre with the reach of satellite

Telecom, Enterprise, Maritime, Energy and Government Services markets

MUNICH, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Satlink, a Spanish technology company specializing in satellite telecommunications, is partnering with Rivada Space Networks to provide a unique next generation connectivity network with the necessary security and performance to support Spanish enterprises and Defense Forces. Rivada has now lined up over $US17 billion of business globally for its unique LEO network.

Rivada's Outernet, the first unified global communications network. (PRNewsfoto/Rivada Space Networks)

Founded in 1992, Satlink is a global leading provider of satellite communication solutions, serving the maritime, government and defense sectors, with capabilities spanning maritime, terrestrial, and aerial environments. Headquartered in Madrid, Satlink has offices in Vigo, Seychelles, Canada, Ecuador, USA, Fiji, Korea and Taiwan.

Today's geopolitical environment is fueling an increase in the demand to secure data communications networks around the world, placing existing digital infrastructure under greater pressure than ever. European organisations in telecommunications and defense are looking for innovative and future-forward networking technologies that give them the strategic edge in data security, data sovereignty and network resilience.

Rivada's global low-latency point-to-point connectivity network of 600 low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, the "Outernet," is a unique next-generation architecture combing inter-satellite laser links with advanced onboard processing that provide unique routing and switching capabilities to create an optical mesh network in space. This approach to "orbital networking," in which data stays in space from origin to destination, creates an ultra-secure satellite network with pole-to-pole coverage, offering end-to-end latencies much lower than terrestrial fiber over similar long distances. And by routing traffic on a physically separated network, it provides a layer of defence for any organisation that needs to securely share data between widely distributed sites.

Satlink will harness Rivada's Outernet to provide a truly private data network and a new level of cybersecurity to the enterprise, government and defense sectors. The Outernet's fast, seamless and secure connectivity will ramp up network performance and enable true digital transformation and new business opportunities through multi-gigabit bi-directional performance, combined with worldwide reach.

David Carmona, Satcom director at Satlink said, "We are proud to be partnering with Rivada to develop new opportunities for secure satellite communications in the Spanish market and beyond. Rivada's Outernet offers a unique digital architecture uniting innovation and resilience, which supports our goal to provide secure high-performance solutions and new opportunities for companies looking for scalable, flexible and resilient connectivity for their expanding networks."

Declan Ganley, CEO, Rivada Space Networks, said: "We are delighted to be working with our first Spanish partner to develop space-based solutions to power enterprise and government communications." Ganley added: "In the digital economy, the security and resilience of communications is becoming hugely important. Global subsea cables, which carry much of the world's data traffic, are increasingly becoming a focal point of geopolitical tensions, with frequent cable cuts resulting in severe outages. The Outernet is key to enhancing the telecommunications infrastructure in terms of data sovereignty and security, supporting AI digital strategies, ensuring uninterrupted connectivity and expanding the reach of international networks."

Satlink will join Rivada's Customer Advisory Board and conduct a series of technical workshops to structure the collaboration and exchange information on the Outernet's capabilities.

Rivada will be participating at World Space Business Week and Space, Defense & Security Summit in Paris from 15-18 September 2025.

Declan Ganley, CEO: Building Services Leveraging All Capacity Options

16 September, 16:55pm-17:55pm.

Declan Ganley, CEO: The Promise of Next-Generation Satcom Systems for Military Forces

17 September, 11:30am-12:30pm.

NOTE TO EDITORS

Representatives from Rivada Space Networks will be at World Space Business Week from 15-18 September. To arrange an interview, please contact Melanie Dickie at [email protected]

About Rivada Space Networks

Rivada Space Networks GmbH is deploying the first true "Outernet": a global, low-latency, point-to-point connectivity network of LEO satellites. By connecting its satellites with lasers, Rivada will provide resellers and B2B customers with the ability to securely connect any two points on the globe with low latency and high bandwidth. The constellation, comprising 600 low-earth-orbit communications satellites, will represent a fundamental change in the availability of secure, global, end-to-end enterprise-grade connectivity for Telecom, Enterprise, Maritime, Energy and Government Services markets. Rivada Space Networks is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rivada Networks, Inc. www.rivadaspace.com

Media Contacts

Melanie Dickie, Chief Marketing & Communication Officer

Rivada Space Networks GmbH

Tel: +31 6 14 22 97 62

Email: [email protected]m

Brian Carney, SVP Corporate Communications

Rivada Networks, Inc

Tel: +1 (207) 256-0386

Email: [email protected]

About Satlink

Founded in 1992, Satlink is a Spanish technology company specializing in satellite communications., A global leader in developing technological solutions for the maritime industry, Satlink delivers advanced satellite communication solutions for governments, industries, and all stakeholders across maritime, terrestrial, and aerial environments. Headquartered in Madrid, Satlink has offices in Vigo, Seychelles, Canada, Ecuador, USA, Fiji, Korea and Taiwan. For more information, please visit www.satlink.es

Media Contact:

Camila Pan de Soraluce

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Rivada Space Networks
Company marks three decades of excellence, unveiling international expansion plans and next-generation AI-powered solutions

MIAMI, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Seguritech, a leader in advanced security technology integration, today celebrates its 30th anniversary, marking three decades of innovation and excellence. Beginning with alarm systems in 1995, the Company has evolved into Latin America's undisputed leader in comprehensive AI-powered safety solutions, positioning itself for further global expansion.

With over 2,100 employees and a client retention rate above 95%, Seguritech has transformed Mexico's security landscape and has successfully expanded its service offerings to other countries in the region. The Company's integrated approach encompasses every aspect of modern security infrastructure, from sophisticated video surveillance networks to drone operations and helicopter fleets to the recently launched Early Warning Smartwatch  a wearable consumer-facing device that connects users directly to first responder networks. The Company's engineering prowess extends to the design, construction and maintenance of its command centers, having built more than 180 facilities across Mexico and Colombia. These centers integrate cybersecurity, intelligence operations, and contact capabilities, serving as the technological backbone of critical-response infrastructure protecting millions of citizens and creating hundreds of jobs.

Seguritech, a leader in advanced security technology integration, today celebrates its 30th anniversary. Post this

At the heart of Seguritech's forward-looking strategy lies SAIMON Tech, a proprietary artificial intelligence platform that represents a significant leap in emergency response capabilities. This sophisticated system processes vast amounts of real-time data to deliver 911 call response times between 1 and 30 seconds, while providing predictive analytics, automated incident classification, and intelligent vehicle tracking.

"As we celebrate 30 years of innovation, we're accelerating forward into an era of unprecedented global opportunity," said Ariel Picker, CEO of Seguritech. "SAIMON Tech represents the next evolution of our security leadership, adding sophisticated AI-powered intelligence to our proven comprehensive solutions. We are ready to transform public safety on an international scale, creating safer, more resilient communities around the world."

As Seguritech enters its fourth decade, the Company is uniquely positioned to address the complex security challenges of an increasingly connected world. With its proven platform capabilities, experienced leadership team, and track record of sustained client partnerships, Seguritech is poised to expand its impact from regional leadership to global influence in the security technology industry.

About Seguritech

Seguritech is a pioneer in the integration of advanced security technologies, with over 30 years of experience transforming and evolving to become a benchmark in the industry. The Company delivers comprehensive, innovative solutions that combine surveillance, communications, and data systems to support residential, institutional, and governmental clients. Seguritech is recognized for its commitment to performance, reliability, and the development of smart, integrated safety systems that help create safer, more resilient communities.

For more information, please visit seguritech.com .

Media Contact:

Dan McDermott, ICR

[email protected]

SOURCE Seguritech
TORONTO, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ - Silverts , North America's leading adaptive apparel brand with nearly 100 years of expertise in accessible fashion, announces the acquisition of IZ Adaptive , the award-winning adaptive clothing line founded by Canadian designer Izzy Camilleri. This strategic move unites two pioneers in adaptive fashion to accelerate innovation, expand distribution, and provide stylish, functional clothing to a broader demographic across North America.

Izzy Camilleri / Photo by Tara West (CNW Group/Silverts Adaptive Clothing & Footwear)

Under the new structure, IZ Adaptive will retain its own brand identity and dedicated website, while Silverts will lead supply chain, sourcing, and distribution operations. Camilleri will serve as Chief Design Officer for both Silverts and IZ Adaptive, applying her design expertise and commitment to functionality to the next generation of inclusive apparel.

"IZ Adaptive was founded to make great-looking, well-fitting clothing accessible to everyone," said Camilleri. "Joining forces with Silverts allows us to reach more people than ever and continue setting the standard for inclusive fashion."

As part of this expansion, Silverts recently opened doors to a new Canadian distribution center, based in Toronto, which will:

Reduce transit times across Canada to 23 days, including the West Coast.

to 23 days, including the West Coast. Lower shipping costs for consumers.

Increase inventory capacity to better serve individuals, nursing homes, and wholesale partners.

Enhance overall customer experience and operational efficiency.

"Our mission has always been to serve our customers with dignity, comfort, and style," said Josh Norris, CEO of Silverts. "With Izzy's visionary design leadership and Silverts' nearly century-long operational expertise, we are creating modern, accessible clothing at scale and strengthening our leadership in adaptive fashion."

This announcement serves as a drumbeat to the hugely successful July launch of the legacy B.E. Collection , which is a first-of-its-kind adaptive fashion capsule with influencer and disability advocate Brooke Eby.

About Izzy Camilleri and IZ Adaptive

Izzy Camilleri, one of Canada's most celebrated designers, has dressed global icons including Daniel Radcliffe, Meryl Streep, Angelina Jolie, and David Bowie. Her adaptive clothing journey began in 2004, leading to the launch of IZ Adaptive in 2009, a line recognized with multiple awards including the Women's Empowerment Innovation Award, the Canadian Arts & Fashion Award for Fashion Impact, and CAFA's coveted Womenswear Designer of the Year Award. IZ Adaptive creates stylish, functional clothing explicitly designed for people with disabilities. https://izadaptive.com/

About Silverts

Founded in 1930, Silverts is North America's leading adaptive apparel brand, dedicated to making dressing easier, more comfortable, and dignified for people with disabilities. Partnering with caregivers, nursing homes, and healthcare providers, Silverts offers direct-to-consumer solutions for everyday adaptive fashion in both the United States and Canada. www.silverts.com

SOURCE Silverts Adaptive Clothing & Footwear
CLEVELAND, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Standard Wellness Holdings, LLC ("Standard Wellness" or the "Company"), a leading multi-state cannabis operator, today announced the appointment of Rob McCourt as its Vice President of Wholesale. In this role, Rob will be responsible for driving the company's wholesale strategy, expanding market share, and building strong relationships with retail partners. He will report to Jared Maloof, Chief Executive Officer of Standard Wellness.

"We are excited to welcome Rob to the Standard Wellness team," said Mr. Maloof. "His deep understanding of cannabis markets and proven track record of building successful brands and sales organizations make him the ideal leader to drive our wholesale growth. Rob's entrepreneurial spirit and expertise in scaling high-growth businesses will be invaluable as we continue to expand our footprint and deliver our products to patients and consumers across our operating states."

McCourt joins Standard Wellness from Firelands Scientific, where he was a co-founder and Executive Vice President of Revenue. During his time there, he played a pivotal role in scaling the company from a pre-revenue startup into a leading multi-state operator with over 250 employees. He led all revenue growth efforts, built a commercial organization of more than 160, and spearheaded the development of a world-class house of brands and retail footprint. Prior to his work in the cannabis industry, McCourt held leadership roles at Cisco Systems and Verizon, where he specialized in go-to-market strategy and high-ticket consultative selling.

"I am thrilled to join the Standard Wellness family, and to be a part of such an accomplished leadership team," said Rob McCourt. "I look forward to leveraging my experience to strengthen our wholesale channels, drive strategic partnerships, and contribute to the company's mission of providing safe, effective, and high-quality cannabis products to those who need them."

Rob's appointment underscores Standard Wellness's commitment to investing in strong leadership as it scales its retail footprint and continues to deliver on its mission of providing safe, effective, and high-quality cannabis products.

About Standard Wellness

Founded in 2017 in Ohio, Standard Wellness is a vertically integrated cannabis company operating across Ohio, Missouri, and Utah, with cultivation, processing, and dispensary licenses in Maryland. The Company operates five retail locations under The Forest brand and has been a pioneer in the industry, including making the first-ever legal marijuana sale in Ohio through its dispensary The Forest Sandusky and the first ever delivery to a Utah pharmacy in February 2020. With approximately 350 employees, Standard Wellness is dedicated to improving quality of life by providing safe and legal access to cannabis for medical and adult use.

Contact:

Standard Wellness Chief Executive Officer: Jared Maloof Chief Executive Officer [email protected]

SOURCE Standard Wellness Holdings, LLC
ORLANDO, Fla., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Steven J. Jerina, CAP, has joined Central Florida Foundation (CFF) as Vice President of Philanthropic Strategies and Partnerships. In this role, Steven leads and manages the annual plan for business revenue, asset growth, and fundholder satisfaction.

Steven's experience includes serving as a Senior Director of Regional Giving with Rollins College and working with Omaha Community Foundation, where he led efforts in planned and collective giving. He has also worked with professional advisors and donors to advise on charitable gift strategies.

"It's rare to find the unique qualities that Steven brings to this role. His experience in community foundation work, combined with his belief that philanthropy is about far more than dollars, makes him a powerful addition to our team," shared Mark Brewer, President/CEO of CFF. "He understands that at its core, philanthropy is about building meaningful relationships and creating lasting impact that goes beyond treating the symptoms of an issue."

Steven is already leaning into this new role, getting out into the community and co-leading CFF initiatives, such as its Thrive Venture Philanthropy Cohort and Professional Advisory Council.

"I'm truly excited to return to community foundation work, because I believe it is critical to any region's ability to thrive," said Steven on his new role. "I look forward to getting out into the community, engaging with fundholders, those who are new to philanthropy, and those simply looking to bring impact home to Central Florida."

Steven leads CFF's Philanthropy team, which focuses on developing personalized giving strategies for individuals, families, and organizations seeking high-impact philanthropy and a deeper connection to collaborative, effective community work.

About Central Florida Foundation

As our region's community foundation, Central Florida Foundation serves as a launchpad for high-impact philanthropy. Championing the collective power of head, heart and dollar, we coordinate the commitment and investment of philanthropists, nonprofits, and community partners to target today's most critical challenges and those on the horizon. The Foundation also offers expert giving advice, a personalized approach to managing charitable funds, and the capacity to convene collaboration across sectors. Learn more at cffound.org.

CONTACT:

Laurie Crocker

Central Florida Foundation

407-872-3050 x111 [email protected]

SOURCE Central Florida Foundation
SEATTLE, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Pathfinder, the fermented and distilled non-alcoholic elixir that's redefining the zero-proof spirits category, is pleased to announce it has closed a $3.6 million Series B funding round, led by global spirits leader Stoli Group.

The Pathfinder Spritz with Pour and Hemp and Root Bottle. The Pathfinder Logo

This will enable The Pathfinder to deepen its U.S. footprint through expanded distribution, new retail partnerships, and strategic team growth. Proceeds will support the scaling of the company's national operations, with key hires including Jill Sites (Sales and Marketing), William Howe (CFO), and Marilyn Canderloro (Head of Supply Chain), all joining to support The Pathfinder's transition into a nationwide portfolio brand.

"This raise gives us the capital we need to execute a nationwide rollout combining The Pathfinder's dynamic brand and unique liquid proposition with the power of the Stoli distribution network," said Chris Abbott, co-founder of The Pathfinder. "We've done the hard work getting into some of the best bars in the world. Now it's time to scale off-premise, and meet the rising demand across the country."

The investment expands upon Stoli Group's initial backing in 2023, which marked the company's first foray into the non-alcoholic spirits category. The Pathfinder now projects availability in 41 states by year-end, with national retail partners including Whole Foods Market (launching in September), Total Wine & More, Sprouts, and premium on-premise accounts such as Clemente Bar (NYC), True Laurel and Trick Dog (SF), and Mother Wolf and Thunderbolt (LA).

While 70% of The Pathfinder's accounts year-to-date remain on-premise, the brand expects a dramatic shift in off-premise growth, especially outside of its current strongholds in the Pacific Northwest and New Yorkregions that currently represent 55% of revenue.

"The Pathfinder has emerged as a true trailblazer in the non-alcoholic spacepushing boundaries with both bold liquid and bold vision. As consumer interest in zero-proof spirits accelerates, we're proud to deepen our partnership and help scale a brand that's rewriting the rules of the category. This next chapter marks a pivotal step in bringing The Pathfinder to more shelves, more menus, and more consumers nationwide," said Michael Howard, President, Stoli Group, North America.

The raise also supports continued rollout of The Pathfinder's new 200ml ready-to-drink formats, including The Pathfinder Spritz and The Pathfinder Negroniboth designed to offer category-leading versatility for retailers and consumers alike. Notably, The Pathfinder Negroni is the only non-carbonated Negroni RTD currently available in the non-alcoholic space, offering a true stirred-and-sipped experience rarely seen in the zero-proof market.

With velocity up 82% and total sales dollars increasing 181% in the last quarter (NIQ/IRI, 13 weeks ending June 14), The Pathfinder is primed to capitalize on rising consumer demand for complex, bartender-approved non-alcoholic spirits and RTDs.

About The Pathfinder

The Pathfinder launched Hemp and Root, its flagship zero-proof spiritand the first in a line of unprecedented disruptors to both the non-alcoholic and alcoholic sectorsin fall 2021. Made from fermented and distilled hemp, this elixir boasts the intense flavor and aromatic complexity of a traditional spirit, quickly rising to cult status among bartenders and consumers alike. The Pathfinder has been featured in The New York Times, Bloomberg Pursuits, Forbes, Food Network, Liquor.com, Oprah Daily, and The New York Post, and has found a home on backbars and menus at world-renowned venues including Death & Co, Amor y Amargo, Trick Dog, PDT, Thunderbolt, Pacific Standard, Zig Zag, Clemente Bar, The Aviary, Yacht Club, Milady's, Attaboy, Eleven Madison Park, Press Club, Pastis, I Sodi, and Nickel City, as well as in notable national retail accounts such as Whole Foods, Sprouts, Austin Shaker, and Twin Liquors.

Crafted with bad-vibe-dispelling mystique, Hemp and Root is made from fermented hemp and copper pot distilled, then blended with an alchemy of botanicalsincluding wormwood, angelica root, ginger, sage, juniper, saffron, orange peel, and wild-crafted Douglas-firto yield a revolutionary spirit of character and complexity. In 2025, The Pathfinder expanded into the RTD category with The Pathfinder Negroni, a zero-proof, non-carbonated cocktail that captures the essence of the classic. It was soon followed by The Pathfinder Spritz, a bubbly, botanical, citrus-forward serve with a striking caramel huean aesthetic and flavorful departure from the oversaturated pink and orange spritz market.

This fall, The Pathfinder will continue its innovation streak with the release of a new RTD coffee-based expression, offering imbibers another spirited way to sip without compromise.

The Pathfinder

PURCHASE ONLINE HERE

www.drinkthepathfinder.com

Instagram @drinkthepathfinder

About Stoli Group

Stoli Group was established in 2013 and is responsible for the production, management, and distribution of a global spirits and wines portfolio. Mainly known for the Stoli Vodka brand, Stoli Group has expanded to appeal to luxury on-premise and more sophisticated global consumers. Signature brands are: Stoli Vodka, elitVodka, Bayou Rum, Kentucky Owl, Villa One, Gator Bite Rum Liqueurs, Cenote Tequila, Tulchan Gin, Se Busca Mezcal and Stoli Group's wine division, Tenute del Mondo. With a presence across a network of more than 176 markets, Stoli Group works with a passionate team of 200 distributors around the world. Headquartered in Luxembourg, Stoli Group has production facilities in Argentina, Latvia, Spain, and the United States, some of which are steeped in history dating back to the early part of the last century. For more information, visit stoli-group.com .

Drink Responsibly.

SOURCE Stoli Group (USA) LLC
PUNE, India, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Tata Elxsi, a global leader in design and technology services, today announced the inauguration of the 'Bayer Development Centre in Radiology' at Tata Elxsi, Pune, India. The centre is designed to co-develop with Bayer, a leader in key areas of Radiology, advanced radiology devices and technology that enable early and accurate diagnosis and treatment of critical illnesses, supporting Bayer's global mission to bring innovative, safe, and compliant solutions to patients and clinical staff worldwide.

This centre will provide a wide range of engineering for complex radiology devices, with an initial focus on Molecular Imaging. The facility's integrated approach, which combines design, development, and validation, the centre will help accelerate time-to-market, enhance cost efficiency, and help deliver new technology to market fast, efficiently, and at an optimized cost, while meeting highest regulatory compliance standards.

This collaboration leverages Tata Elxsi's healthcare engineering expertise and the strength of the Tata and India ecosystemsenabling access to advanced labs, regulatory partnerships, and specialised technology talent. This creates a scalable foundation for innovation and strengthens Bayer's ability to deliver radiology solutions across multiple geographies, including the US and EU.

Dr. Konstanze Diefenbach, Head of Research & Development, Radiology, Bayer, commented: "Bayer is committed to innovative products and high-quality services in diagnostic imaging, and device innovation plays a critical role in delivering precision and safety in patient care. This new centre gives us direct access to specialised engineering capabilities through Tata Elxsi, enabling us to accelerate our pipeline of advanced radiology devices while maintaining the quality and reliability that healthcare providers expect from Bayer."

Sreevatsa Sahasranaman, Sr. Vice President & Head  Healthcare & Life Sciences, Tata Elxsi, said, "This centre is more than an engineering hubit is where Bayer's radiology vision meets Tata Elxsi's design, AI/ML, and regulatory expertise. Our teams will work together to translate ideas into devices that address real-world diagnostic challenges, with the assurance of safety, compliance, and global scalability."

About Tata Elxsi

Tata Elxsi is a global design and technology services company headquartered in Bangalore. It addresses the healthcare, automotive, broadcast, and communications consumer electronics industries. This is supported by a network of design studios, development centres, and offices worldwide. Tata Elxsi's Healthcare & Life Sciences practice is ISO 13485 certified and collaborates with prominent medical device and pharmaceutical OEMs, as well as technology companies. With a comprehensive services and solutions portfolio, Tata Elxsi adds value at every stage of the customer's product development lifecycle. Recognised as a leader in technology consulting, new product design, development, verification & validation, as well as regulatory compliance services, Tata Elxsi is a trusted name in the industry.

For more information, visit tataelxsi.com.

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/742257/Tata_Elxsi_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Tata Elxsi
PASADENA, Md., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Lodge Pasadena, a rustic-chic dining destination from Titan Hospitality, is thrilled to unveil its all-new menu, extended family-friendly offerings, and the introduction of its charming mascot, Clark the Lodge Bear. To celebrate, The Lodge Pasadena warmly invites the community to a free, fun-filled event on Saturday, September 13 at 12:00 PM.

Clark the Lodge Bear

Guests will enjoy photo opportunities with Clark, engaging kid-friendly activities, and a delicious preview of a menu designed for everyonefrom elevated comfort fare made with fresh, local ingredients to dishes that bring families together in warmth and flavor.

"Many of life's most memorable moments are centered around the dining table with family, friends, and colleagues," said James King, Founder & CEO of Titan Hospitality Group. "With our new menu and Clark the Lodge Bear, we're deepening our commitment to the Pasadena communityoffering dishes crafted with care, a gathering place full of familiarity, and heartfelt hospitality where everyone feels recognized and delighted."

Clark the Lodge Bear carries a story bigger than himself. Created in collaboration with the Clark Memphis Foundation, he embodies the light, love, and community the Foundation stands for.

"Though our sweet Clark Memphis was with us for only four months, his light continues to shine," shared Clark Memphis' parents on behalf of the Foundation. "To see his memory honored in a place where families gather and children smile means more than we can put into words. It comforts us to know that Clark's name will never be forgotten in our community."

This event isn't just a celebration of a new menu and mascotit's a moment to bring people together, support families, and honor a meaningful legacy in a welcoming, community-focused space.

For more information on The Lodge Pasadena, please visit www.lodgepasadena.com.

About Titan Hospitality Group:

Titan Hospitality Group is the premier restaurant group in the mid-Atlantic. Headquartered in Anne Arundel County, Titan Hospitality Group owns, operates, and is affiliated with restaurants in DC, Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware. Its portfolio includes six restaurant concepts, including Blackwall Barn & Lodge, Blackwall Hitch, Smashing Grapes, The Lodge, The Farmhouse, and Creekside Bar & Grill. For more information, visit www.titanhospitality.com.

About the Clark Memphis Foundation

The Clark Memphis Foundation supports families experiencing the heartbreak of infant loss by offering financial and emotional aid, raising awareness, and building community through events and Comfort Boxes. Their mission is to honor Clark's memory by carrying his light forward and creating comfort for other families in need.

SOURCE Titan Hospitality Group
DALLAS, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Milestone Group ("Milestone"), a leading private equity real estate investment firm, announces the final close of its sixth discretionary equity vehicle, Milestone Real Estate Investors VI, LP ("Fund VI"), at its hard cap of $1.1 billion. The fund was oversubscribed, reflecting strong demand for Milestone's value-add investment strategies and historic performance despite a challenging fundraising environment.

"We are grateful for the continued confidence and support of our investors, particularly given the dislocation in today's capital markets," said Chris Bartlett, Chief Operating Officer of Milestone. "The strong demand for Fund VI underscores Milestone's 20-year track record of delivering consistent, strong performance across market cycles. Fund VI is well-positioned to capitalize on what we view as an exceptional opportunity to acquire high-quality multifamily assets at attractive pricing, while continuing to execute our disciplined, risk-aware investment strategy."

Fund VI continues Milestone's flagship value-add investment strategy of acquiring and repositioning middle-market suburban multifamily communities in high-growth U.S. markets across the Sunbelt and Mid-Atlantic regions. Building on the firm's cycle-tested approach, Fund VI will target well-located, undercapitalized, and undermanaged properties that offer embedded growth opportunities.

"At Milestone, we take a solutions-oriented approach to transactions, with the objective of creating outcomes that deliver value for all stakeholders while positioning our funds for long-term success," said Jeffrey Goldberg, Co-Managing Partner of Milestone. "We collaborate closely with sellers to address their unique circumstances, leveraging creative structures such as recapitalizations, debt assumptions, entity purchases, portfolio acquisitions, and rescue capital to facilitate refinancings and optimize capital structures."

Since its inception, Milestone has invested over $9 billion across more than 90,000 multifamily units, delivering top quartile returns in all prior discretionary funds based on the most recently available Cambridge Private Real Estate Index and Benchmarks Statistics Report.

Fund VI has already closed on several investments, including multifamily communities in South Florida, Northern Virginia, and Denver, each acquired at a meaningful discount to replacement cost and supported by strong market fundamentals.

Milestone's investor base for Fund VI includes leading global institutions such as public and private pension funds, insurance companies, foundations, a sovereign wealth fund, family offices and ultra-high net worth investors.

About Milestone

The Milestone Group is a leading, privately held real estate investment management firm with strong expertise and focus on value-add multifamily assets in major metropolitan markets of the United States. Founded in 2003, Milestone has created trust and confidence with its investors through successfully navigating multiple economic cycles across over $9 billion of multifamily investments totaling more than 90,000 units. Milestone invests through a series of discretionary equity funds and has corporate offices in Dallas, TX, Boca Raton, FL, and Atlanta, GA. For more information, please visit www.milestonegp.com or contact [email protected].

Media Contact: Karen Widmayer

KW Communications LLC

[email protected]

301.661.1448

SOURCE The Milestone Group
CHICAGO, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Protege Project, a leading Chicago-based nonprofit focused on youth empowerment and violence prevention, has been awarded a $199,712 grant through the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority's Community-Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Program (CB-VIP).

This funding will support Pathways to Peace & Prosperity, a comprehensive initiative serving youth ages 14 to 24 in five South Side communities: Auburn Gresham, Greater Grand Crossing, Chatham, Brainerd, and Riverdale. The program focuses on reducing violence and expanding opportunities through mentorship, workforce development, conflict resolution, mental health support, and trauma-informed care.

"This investment is transformative for the young people we serve," said Kewana Reese, Founder and Executive Director of The Protege Project. "With ICJIA's support, we can expand our reach, build safer communities, and provide youth with the tools and opportunities they need to thrive."

The Pathways to Peace & Prosperity program connects participants with credible mentors, offers individualized case management, and provides hands-on workforce and entrepreneurship training. It also integrates restorative justice workshops, mental health services, and community-based pop-up events to make resources more accessible where youth live and gather.

The Protege Project has a proven record of impact, including a 90% reduction in violent incidents among participants and a 75% employment rate within six months of program completion.

For more information about The Protege Project or to get involved, visit www.theprotegeprojectnfp.org or contact [email protected] | 708-991-7458.

About The Protege Project

The Protege Project is a Chicago-based nonprofit dedicated to equipping youth with the skills, mentorship, and opportunities needed to succeed. Through trauma-informed programs, workforce development, and community engagement, the organization empowers youth to disrupt cycles of poverty and violence while creating pathways to lasting success.

SOURCE The Protege Project NFP
According to DelveInsight's analysis, the TROP2 ADC in the NSCLC market landscape is expected to evolve significantly, driven by new opportunities, following the approval of DATROWAY. Additionally, the expected launch of TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC, such as TRODELVY (sacituzumab govitecan) (Gilead Sciences), sacituzumab tirumotecan (Merck and Kelun-Biotech), DB-1305/BNT325 (Dualitybio/BioNTech), OBI-992 (OBI Pharma), and others, will further propel the market size over the forecast period (20252040).

LAS VEGAS, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- DelveInsight's TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC Market Size, Target Population, Competitive Landscape & Market Forecast report provides a comprehensive understanding of current treatment practices and the addressable patient population. The report also provides insights into the emerging TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC, market share of individual therapies, and current and forecasted market size from 2020 to 2040, segmented into leading markets (the US, EU4, UK, and Japan).

TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC Market Summary

The total TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC market size in the leading markets (the US, EU4, UK, and Japan ) is expected to surge significantly by 2040.

) is expected to surge significantly by 2040. About 1015% of all lung cancers are SCLC, and about 8085% are non-small cell lung cancer.

of all lung cancers are SCLC, and about are non-small cell lung cancer. Based on DelveInsight's assessment in 2024, the 7MM had approximately 538K incident cases of NSCLC. These are expected to rise due to the growing incident population and advancements in diagnostic capabilities during the forecast period (20252040).

incident cases of NSCLC. These are expected to rise due to the growing incident population and advancements in diagnostic capabilities during the forecast period (20252040). Key TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC companies, such as Gilead Sciences, Merck, Kelun-Biotech, Dualitybio, BioNTech, OBI Pharma, and others, are developing novel TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC that can be available in the TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC market in the coming years.

and others, are developing novel TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC that can be available in the TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC market in the coming years. Some of the key TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC in the clinical trials include TRODELVY (sacituzumab govitecan), sacituzumab tirumotecan, DB-1305/BNT325, OBI-992, and others.

Discover which indication is expected to grab the major TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC market share @ TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC Market Report

Key Factors Driving the Growth of the TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC Market

High Expression of TROP2 in NSCLC

TROP2 is overexpressed in a significant proportion of NSCLC cases, including up to 64% of adenocarcinomas and 75% of squamous cell carcinomas. This widespread expression makes TROP2 an attractive target for ADCs, allowing for precise delivery of cytotoxic agents directly to tumor cells while minimizing damage to healthy tissues.

DATROWAY: Advancing TROP2-Directed ADCs

ADCs allow for the specific delivery of potent cytotoxic agents directly to tumor cells, increasing tumor cell kill and reducing off-target effects compared to conventional chemotherapy. TROP2 is highly expressed in a majority of NSCLC cases, making it a broadly applicable target. DATROWAY represents a major advancement in TROP2 ADCs, offering a promising alternative to chemotherapy for lung cancer.

Next-Generation Linker and Payload Technologies

Advances in antibody engineering, linker technology, and payload selection offer opportunities to increase therapeutic index, minimize toxicity, and overcome resistance observed with current regimens.

Competitive Landscape of TROP2-Targeted Therapies

With only one therapy approved, there is an opportunity for the competitive landscape of TROP2 ADCs to treat NSCLC. Currently, the pipeline is minimal, including products such as TRODELVY (sacituzumab govitecan) (Gilead Sciences), sacituzumab tirumotecan (Merck and Kelun-Biotech), DB-1305/BNT325 (Dualitybio/BioNTech), OBI-992 (OBI Pharma), and others.

TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC Market Analysis

Non-small cell lung cancer continues to pose a significant global health challenge, but the therapeutic landscape is rapidly advancing with the development of antibodydrug conjugates. These targeted therapies are engineered to deliver potent cytotoxic agents directly to tumor cells, offering new treatment opportunities for patients with specific biomarkers. Among these, TROP2 has emerged as a key therapeutic target across multiple cancer types.

TROP2-directed therapies are particularly promising, showing strong efficacy and favorable safety profiles in several major cancers. By delivering cytotoxic drugs specifically to tumor sites, they have the potential to minimize the side effects commonly associated with conventional treatments.

To date, only one TROP2 ADC, DATROWAY (datopotamab deruxtecan), has been approved for NSCLC. In June 2025, Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca received approval for its use in adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic EGFR-mutated NSCLC who had previously undergone EGFR-targeted therapy and platinum-based chemotherapy.

The broader adoption of TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC remains uncertain. While AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo had initially withdrawn their wider marketing application for DATROWAY in NSCLC, its approval for EGFR-mutated cases represents a first-in-class achievement and an essential milestone in the field.

Learn more about the TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC @ TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC Market Size

TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC Competitive Landscape

Some of the TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC in clinical trials include TRODELVY (sacituzumab govitecan) (Gilead Sciences), sacituzumab tirumotecan (Merck and Kelun-Biotech), DB-1305/BNT325 (Dualitybio/BioNTech), OBI-992 (OBI Pharma), and others.

TRODELVY (sacituzumab govitecan) is a first-in-class antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targeting TROP2. It features a proprietary hydrolyzable linker that connects to SN-38, a topoisomerase I inhibitor, enabling potent activity against TROP2-expressing cells and their surrounding microenvironment. TRODELVY is also under investigation for potential use in metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Currently, TRODELVY is being studied in the Phase III EVOKE-03 trial in combination with KEYTRUDA for patients with metastatic NSCLC and a PD-L1 Tumor Proportion Score (TPS) 50%. In January 2022, Gilead Sciences entered two clinical trial collaboration and supply agreements with Merck to assess the combination of TRODELVY and Merck's anti-PD-1 therapy, KEYTRUDA, in first-line metastatic NSCLC.

Sacituzumab tirumotecan, developed by Kelun-Biotech and licensed to Merck outside Greater China, is another investigational TROP2-targeting ADC comprising a monoclonal antibody, a topoisomerase I inhibitor payload, and a novel hydrolyzable linker. As of June 30, 2024, Merck is conducting ten global Phase III trials and Phase II basket studies evaluating sacituzumab tirumotecan alone or in combination for multiple solid tumors, including NSCLC.

In June 2025, Merck presented data at ASCO showing that sacituzumab tirumotecan significantly improved response rates and overall survival compared with docetaxel in previously treated patients with locally advanced or metastatic EGFR mutant nonsquamous NSCLC. Additionally, in December 2024, the US FDA granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) for sacituzumab tirumotecan in patients with advanced or metastatic nonsquamous NSCLC harboring EGFR mutations, whose disease progressed after tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) and platinum-based chemotherapy.

DB-1305 (BNT325) is a novel TROP2-targeting ADC co-developed by DualityBio and BioNTech, designed to deliver cytotoxic agents specifically to TROP2-overexpressing cancer cells across various solid tumors. DB-1305/BNT325 is currently being evaluated in Phase II trials, including patients with NSCLC.

The anticipated launch of these emerging therapies are poised to transform the TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC market landscape in the coming years. As these cutting-edge therapies continue to mature and gain regulatory approval, they are expected to reshape the TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC market landscape, offering new standards of care and unlocking opportunities for medical innovation and economic growth.

To know more about TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC clinical trials, visit @ TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC Treatment

Recent Developments in the TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC Market

In June 2025 , AstraZeneca announced the approval of DATROWAY in the US for the treatment of adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic EGFR-mutated NSCLC who have received prior EGFR-directed therapy and platinum-based chemotherapy.

announced the approval of DATROWAY in the US for the treatment of adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic EGFR-mutated NSCLC who have received prior EGFR-directed therapy and platinum-based chemotherapy. In June 2025 , Merck presented American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) data showing that sacituzumab tirumotecan significantly improved response rates, Progression-Free Survival (PFS), and Overall Survival (OS) vs. docetaxel in previously treated EGFR-mutant nonsquamous NSCLC.

TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC Overview

TROP2 is highly expressed in various lung cancers. It is associated with patient prognosis, positioning TROP2-targeted ADCs as a potentially practical approach to enhance outcomes and lower toxicity relative to conventional treatments, although research is still ongoing. Advancing TROP2 ADCs for lung cancer involves enhancing linker stability, reducing off-target effects, addressing resistance mechanisms, and optimizing dosing schedules and combination therapies to maximize therapeutic benefit while controlling adverse effects.

TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC Epidemiology Segmentation

The TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC market report is a comprehensive and specialized analysis, offering in-depth epidemiological insights for the study period 20202040 across the leading markets, including the US, EU4 (Germany, France, Italy, and Spain), the UK, and Japan. The TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC target patient pool is segmented into:

Total Incident Cases of Lung Cancer

Total Incident Cases of NSCLC

Total Incident Cases of NSCLC by Stage

Total Incident Cases of NSCLC by Genetic Mutations/Biomarkers

Treatment Eligible Cases of NSCLC

TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC Market Report Metrics Details Study Period 20202040 TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC Market Report Coverage 7MM [The United States, the EU-4 (Germany, France, Italy, and Spain), the United Kingdom, and Japan] Key TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC Companies Gilead Sciences, Merck, Kelun-Biotech, Dualitybio, BioNTech, OBI Pharma, Daiichi Sankyo, AstraZeneca, and others Key TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC TRODELVY (sacituzumab govitecan), sacituzumab tirumotecan, DB-1305/BNT325, OBI-992, DATROWAY, and others

Scope of the TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC Market Report

TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC Therapeutic Assessment: TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC' current marketed and emerging therapies

TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC' current marketed and emerging therapies TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC Market Dynamics: Conjoint Analysis of Emerging TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC Drugs

Conjoint Analysis of Emerging TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC Drugs Competitive Intelligence Analysis: SWOT analysis and Market entry strategies

SWOT analysis and Market entry strategies Unmet Needs, KOL's views, Analyst's views, TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC Market Access and Reimbursement

Discover more about TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC in development @ TROP2 ADCs in NSCLC Clinical Trials

Related Reports

Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Market

The NSCLC market size has undergone a revolutionary transformation over the last decade, driven by an increase in incident cases, the continuous adoption of approved therapies primarily immune checkpoint inhibitors, the anticipated introduction of premium-priced treatments, and growing awareness of mutations such as KRAS, BRAF, c-Met, and others. NSCLC is increasingly becoming a biomarker-driven market. EGFR is one of the profitable biomarker segments, with blockbuster therapies such as TAGRISSO. TAGRISSO is now the dominant EGFR inhibitor, selling nearly USD 6 billion annually. The non-small cell lung cancer market size is estimated to be ~USD 30 billion in the leading markets (the US, EU4, the UK, and Japan) in 2024. It is anticipated to grow with a significant CAGR during the study period (2020-2034). Leading NSCLC companies include Daiichi Sankyo, AstraZeneca, Gilead Sciences, BieGene, AbbVie, Roche, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly, BerGenBio, GlaxoSmithKline, and Duality biologics, among others.

Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Clinical Trial Analysis

Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Pipeline Insight  2025 report provides comprehensive insights about the pipeline landscape, pipeline drug profiles, including clinical and non-clinical stage products, and the key non-small cell lung cancer companies, including BridgeBio Pharma, Daiichi Sankyo, EMD Serono, Merck, BridgeBio Pharma, Abbvie, Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Company BioNTech SE, Shenzhen TargetRx, Taiho Pharmaceutical, Chong Kun Dang, Bristol Myers Squibb, Innovent Biologics, Xuanzhu Biopharmaceutical, Bayer, GeneScience Pharmaceuticals, InventisBio, Apollomics, Imugene, Ono Pharmaceutical, Pierre Fabre, Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb, Surface Oncology, Inhibrx, Sinocelltech, Mirati Therapeutics, REVOLUTION Medicines, Yong Shun Technology Development, Iovance Biotherapeutics, Galecto Biotech, among others.

TROP-2 Inhibitors Market

TROP-2 Inhibitors Market Size, Target Population, Competitive Landscape & Market Forecast  2034 report delivers an in-depth understanding of the market trends, market drivers, market barriers, and key TROP-2 inhibitor companies, including Gilead Sciences, AstraZeneca, Daiichi Sankyo, Merck, Kelun Biotech, Dualitybio, BioNTech, OBI Pharma, Biohaven Pharmaceuticals, among others.

Antibody Drug Conjugates Market

Antibody Drug Conjugates Market Size, Target Population, Competitive Landscape & Market Forecast  2034 report delivers an in-depth understanding of the market trends, market drivers, market barriers, and key ADC companies, including AbbVie, Genmab, Daiichi Sankyo, AstraZeneca, Astellas, Roche, Pfizer (Seagen), Takeda, Ambrx, Daiichi Sankyo, Merck, Eisai, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Sanofi, NBE-Therapeutics, ImmunoGen, Inc., Seagen Inc., ADC Therapeutics, Mythic Therapeutics, Sutro Biopharma, Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc., Peak Bio, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Asana BioSciences, Tanabe Research Laboratories USA, OBI Pharma, Navrogen, Inc., among others.

About DelveInsight

DelveInsight is a leading Business Consultant and Market Research firm focused exclusively on life sciences. It supports pharma companies by providing comprehensive end-to-end solutions to improve their performance. Get hassle-free access to all the healthcare and pharma market research reports through our subscription-based platform PharmDelve.

Contact Us

Shruti Thakur

[email protected]

+14699457679

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SOURCE DelveInsight Business Research, LLP
PARIS, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Supported by 21 Invest France and its minority co-investors, the TVH Consulting group, a key player in software integration and publishing in Europe, announces three strategic acquisitions: Augusta Reeves (SAP S/4HANA Cloud integrator in France and Switzerland), Olivia Sistemas (ERP Microsoft Business Central in Spain) and BCSYS (ERP Microsoft Business Central in France).

The group now generates revenues exceeding 110 million euros, with more than 600 employees and 11 agencies in France, Morocco, Spain and now Switzerland and Madagascar.

These acquisitions consolidate TVH's position as an ERP, DATA/AI, cybersecurity and CRM pure player.

The union with Augusta Reeves (150 consultants, member of the United VARs network) strengthens the partnership with SAP and enables us to offer a comprehensive support, from the implementation of business processes to data enhancement via SAP S/4HANA Cloud ERP, SAP DRC or SAP Business Data Cloud. The transaction expands TVH's portfolio around the Business Technology Platform and AI.

The group now covers a wide variety of sectors - pharmaceutical, cosmetics, fine chemistry, building and construction, engineering, consulting and services - with solutions tailored to each customer's business and size.

TVH strengthens its position in Microsoft Business Central with the acquisitions of Olivia Sistemas and BCSYS. Olivia Sistemas joins Algoritmia by TVH Group, forming a subsidiary with 130 employees and revenues of 12 million. In France, the integration of BCSYS brings the number of Microsoft consultants to over 100, making TVH one of the Top 3 Business Central ERP integrators.

"These acquisitions mark a key milestone, consolidating our historic position in the ERP sector and enhancing our geographical presence as well as our offering to better meet our customers' digital transformation challenges," Ahmed Mahcer, Chairman of the TVH Consulting group.

About TVH

Founded in 2003, the TVH Consulting group has established itself as a major player in software integration and publishing in Europe. Specializing in ERP, CRM, DATA/AI and cybersecurity solutions, the company relies on strategic partnerships with powerhouses in the sector, such as Microsoft, SAP, Salesforce and Talend, to offer its customers unrivalled expertise. The group is also a leader in cybersecurity through its subsidiary Fidens. www.tvhconsulting.fr

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Press contact: Marie-Laure Laville - MLD Consulting, Email: [email protected]

SOURCE TVH Consulting
By solving the complexity of voluntary benefits at scale, UnionHub expands access to protections that strengthen retention, workforce health, and financial security.

DENVER, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- UnionHub, the fintech and insurtech platform built for enterprise scale, has unveiled a new wave of innovation designed to solve one of the hardest challenges in employee benefits, managing national employers with workforces of 50,000 or more. The platform scales effortlessly to organizations with tens or hundreds of thousands or even millions of employees, spanning both W-2 and 1099 workforces across industries such as freight rail, airlines, logistics, retail, infrastructure, and the public sector.

UnionHub was purpose-built for employers where complexity is amplified. These are organizations with locations in every state, workers spread across rural and urban areas, and enrollment needs that never fit legacy systems. UnionHub eliminates those barriers with a self-service, recommendation-driven, education-based platform that delivers real benefits with elections that matter and make a difference.

Much of this new scale is driven by recent advancements in UnionHub's core technology stack, including an intelligent data fabric, fortified security and vaulting, and the launch of a fully redesigned self-service portal. At the center is UnionHub's proprietary recommendation engine, powered by decision support and real-life data analytics, which guides employees through the benefits election process. UnionHub also shatters industry standards by reducing average enrollment times to just three minutes. Combined with expanded automated communications, these innovations deliver sharper insights, greater reliability, and a more seamless experience for employers, carriers, and workers alike.

UnionHub now operates as a true enterprise system for benefits administration, purpose-built around voluntary benefits. It provides the infrastructure national employers need to unify enrollment, payments, compliance, and workforce engagement in one platform designed to perform at massive scale. By integrating directly with insurance carriers, UnionHub is creating the software infrastructure for how voluntary benefits are offered, managed, administered, and paid for, while enabling carriers to design products built natively on the platform.

UnionHub has already proven this model at national scale with some of the largest organizations in America, including those representing more than 1.4 million members. That same infrastructure is now being brought to America's enterprise employers and associations.

While UnionHub has also been proven with small- and mid-sized groups through GA, MGA, and broker partners, its true differentiation is at the national level. Employers with 50,000 or more workers face challenges that traditional distribution models cannot handle. UnionHub delivers the enterprise infrastructure these employers and their consulting partners need to improve retention and solve complex, real-world challenges at scale.

For insurance carriers, UnionHub closes the information gap by providing immediate enrollment data, aligning premiums with payroll cycles, and opening market access to employers once considered too complex or costly to serve. Employers gain a simplified experience with no HR burden, no payroll integration requirements, and no cashflow exposure, making it easier to offer benefits they once rejected. Workers, meanwhile, finally gain access to protections like disability, life, and supplemental coverage, with deductions that sync to their paydays through UnionHub's payday deduction model, making coverage affordable, predictable, and less likely to lapse.

"UnionHub is essentially building the operating system for benefits," said Edward Haley, Founder of UnionHub. "It is not just software. It is infrastructure. One ecosystem that eliminates friction for carriers, employers, and workers alike. That is why this matters. If we execute it right, UnionHub can become as indispensable to benefits as Stripe became to payments."

UnionHub is now powering benefits for thousands of workers nationwide and actively scaling with some of America's largest employers, associations, and partners.

To learn more or schedule a demo, visit www.unionhub.com

UnionHub is an intelligent, all-in-one platform designed to simplify benefit management for TPAs, brokers, associations, and insurance carriers. By integrating enrollment, communications, compliance, payments, and CRM into a single system, UnionHub eliminates paperwork, reduces manual tasks, and streamlines operations. The platform empowers teams to manage benefits and serve members more efficientlyall from one centralized hub.

SOURCE UnionHub
Move freely with AirSuit , the slimmest armor grade clear case. safeguards your iPhone 17 with a 1.3mm reinforced scratch shield and built-in ImpactFrame for full-frame camera defense. With precise cutouts and tactile buttons, every interaction feels effortless. Light in hand, strong in protection, made to move at your pace.

Experience protection with purpose. Clario , crafted from durable recycled plastic, delivers reliable defense against daily bumps and scratches while keeping its color and clarity over time. Designed for performance and sustainability, it offers lasting protection with a lighter footprint.

Built for adventure, Combat Active blends rugged durability with modern style. Triple-layered protection, drop-tested to 13 feet, keeps your device safe with military-grade strength. With a textured grip and reflective lanyard, it's made for comfort, versatility, and life on the move.

Woven with genuine aramid fiber, Keva delivers lightweight yet powerful protection against life's toughest knocks. With tactile haptic buttons and a refined design, it's light as a feather, tough as steelbuilt for those who demand both resilience and style.

"Today's users expect more than generic solutions. The emphasis is now on innovative features that empower Apple users to express their style and elevate their everyday experience," UNIQ Co-Founder and Managing Director, Andy Wong said.

Completing the iPhone 17 experience, UNIQ also introduces Optix Screen and Lens Protector, protection that feels invisible, coverage that's complete.



From daily commutes to weekend getaways, Optix keeps your iPhone 17 safe with edge-to-edge coverage. Ultra-clear and touch-responsive, it shields against scratches and knocks while maintaining screen and camera clarity. From our most accessible to highest-tier options, there's an Optix for every iPhone user.

UNIQ iPhone 17 Series is now available at www.uniqbetterbydesign.com . Follow @uniqbetterbydesign on Instagram for the latest updates and product inspiration.

About UNIQ

UNIQ, a Singapore-based brand, is driven by the belief that products should be both functional and purposeful. Specializing in tech accessories like iPhone cases, AirPods covers, and screen protectors, UNIQ enhances everyday experiences by seamlessly integrating with Apple users' lifestyles. Expanding into carry accessories, the brand caters to diverse needs worldwide. With a strong presence across the US, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific, UNIQ has earned the trust of over 150 million users globally, prioritizing quality and responsibility in every product.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uniqbetterbydesign

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uniqbetterbydesign

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@uniqbetterbydesign

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VALLEY FORGE, Pa., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Vanguard today announced changes to the investment advisory arrangements of Vanguard Mid-Cap Growth Fund (VMGRX). Tremblant Capital will be added as the sole advisor to the fund, and existing managers, Frontier Capital Management Co., LLC and Wellington Management Company LLP, will be removed.

Vanguard expects the expense ratio to increase from 0.33% to 0.39% as a result of the change in advisory arrangements. However, Tremblant Capital will provide a one-year fee waiver of five basis points for the fund, which is expected to result in an expense ratio increase of only one basis point in the first year (0.34%). The fund will continue to be in the lowest-cost quartile of its peer group.

Tremblant Capital is a global equity investment firm founded in 2001 by Brett Barakett. Mr. Barakett leads an experienced investment team that employs a long-term, research-driven, growth-oriented approach. The team seeks to identify attractively valued businesses undergoing "consequential change." These are industry- or company-specific shifts that serve as catalysts for a company's growth and can lead to better long-term free cash flow generation than the market anticipates.

The portfolio management team will be led by:

Brett Barakett, Founder, Chairman, and Co-CIO of Tremblant Capital. He has worked in investment management since 1996 and founded Tremblant Capital in 2001. He holds an HBA from Western University (Ivey) and an MBA from Harvard University.

Michael Cling, Co-CIO of Tremblant Capital. He has worked in investment management since 1998 and has been with Tremblant Capital since 2005. He holds a BS from Georgetown University.

Vanguard's manager research team conducts ongoing reviews of current and prospective investment advisors, looking beyond short-term performance to focus on the drivers of long-term success for investors. The fund's investment committee, which is comprised of a majority of independent trustees of the fund's board of trustees, believes that the addition of Tremblant will serve the best interests of current and future shareholders of the fund. Tremblant is a new advisor to Vanguard.

About Vanguard

Founded in 1975, Vanguard is one of the world's leading investment management companies. The firm offers investments, advice, and retirement services to tens of millions of individual investors around the globedirectly, through workplace plans, and through financial intermediaries. Vanguard operates under a unique, investor-owned structure where Vanguard fund shareholders own the funds, which in turn own Vanguard. As such, Vanguard adheres to a simple purpose: To take a stand for all investors, to treat them fairly, and to give them the best chance for investment success. For more information, visit vanguard.com.

For more information about Vanguard funds, visit vanguard.com to obtain a prospectus or, if available, a summary prospectus. Investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses, and other important information are contained in the prospectus; read and consider it carefully before investing.

All investing is subject to risk, including the possible loss of the money you invest.

Vanguard Marketing Corporation, Distributor.

SOURCE Vanguard
PALM SPRINGS, Calif., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The VIVA Foundation will once again showcase the most influential new data in vascular medicine on a global stage. From Saturday, November 1, through Tuesday, November 4, results from 23 clinical trials will be presented during The VEINS and VIVA conferences at Wynn Las Vegas.

The VIVA Foundation Set to Unveil Latest Trial Data at The VEINS and VIVA 2025 Post this Late-Breaking Clinical Trial Panel

For 23 years, VIVA (Vascular InterVentional Advances) has set the benchmark for premier education and clinical excellence in peripheral vascular disease. Known for delivering the most up-to-date, practice-changing data, VIVA brings together the latest science, technological innovation, and international expertise.

The VEINS (Venous Endovascular INterventional Strategies) complements this tradition with a dedicated focus on the diagnosis, intervention, and management of venous disorders, creating a comprehensive educational experience across the full vascular spectrum.

An international, multispecialty faculty will deliver live cases, interactive workshops, and expert discussions, alongside the presentation of groundbreaking clinical trial results, providing unmatched access to the latest advances in vascular care.

Media outlets are invited to attend in person or virtually. For press registration, contact [email protected].

The full agenda for both conferences is available at viva-foundation.org/agenda.

Clinical trial results to be presented:

Listed in presentation order*

The VEINS

Randomized Comparison of Cyanoacrylate Closure and Endothermal Ablation: Spectrum Secondary Outcomes Through 12 Months

Manj Gohel, MD

Clinical Feasibility and Safety Study of the Use of a Novel Device for the Treatment of Chronic Venous Insufficiency of the Lower Limb

Gastone Bergamaschi, MD

Impact of Junctional Reflux on the Effectiveness Of Endovenous Ablation In Patients With Great Saphenous Vein Insufficiency (JURY-2 Study)

Yana Etkin, MD

Short-Term Cost Effectiveness of Large Bore Mechanical Thrombectomy Versus Catheter-Directed Thrombolysis for Intermediate-Risk Pulmonary Embolism From the PEERLESS Randomized Controlled Trial

Samuel Horr, MD

Comparison of Real-World Outcomes in Pulmonary Embolism Patients Undergoing Large Bore Mechanical Thrombectomy or Receiving Anticoagulation Alone: Insights From the Premier Healthcare Database

Jay Giri, MD, MPH

Two-Year Clinical Outcomes From the Single-Arm Arteriovenous Graft Cohort of the WAVE Trial

Mahmood Razavi, MD

VIVA

Prolonged Efficacy and Safety of a Drug-Eluting Resorbable Scaffold in CLTI: Three-Year Outcomes and Subgroup Analyses From the LIFE-BTK Trial

Sahil A. Parikh, MD

One-Year Outcomes From the Disrupt PAD BTK II Study: Treatment of Patients With Calcified Below-the-Knee Lesions With a Peripheral Intravascular Lithotripsy System

Ehrin Armstrong, MD

Novel Thrombectomy System for Acute Intermediate-Risk Pulmonary Embolism: Full Results From the Pivotal ENGULF Trial

Andrew Klein, MD

STRIKE-PE: One-Year Functional Outcomes and Quality of Life in Pulmonary Embolism Patients Treated With Computer-Assisted Vacuum Thrombectomy Using the 16F Catheter System

John Moriarty, MD

Randomized Controlled Trial of Mechanical Thrombectomy With Anticoagulation Versus Anticoagulation Alone for Acute Intermediate-High Risk PE: Primary Outcome, Functional Endpoints, and Core Lab Findings From STORM-PE

Rachel Rosovsky, MD, MPH

Prospective, Multicenter Evaluation of Transcarotid Artery Revascularization (TCAR) In Standard-Risk Patients: 1-Year Outcomes of The ROADSTER 3 Study

Meghan Dermody, MD

Integrated Embolic Protection in TCAR: 30-Day Results From the PERFORMANCE III Trial

Sean P. Lyden, MD

Potential for Sustained Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Growth Stabilization After a Single Intra-Aortic Administration of Pentagalloylglucose: Clinical Evidence From a Phase I Study With the Nectero EAST System

Ramon L. Varcoe, MBBS

AGILITY: A Prospective, Multi-Center Evaluation of the BD Low Profile Vascular Covered Stent (Revello) in Peripheral Artery Disease

Sean P. Lyden, MD

Transcatheter Arterialization of the Deep Veins: Initial 6-Month Outcomes From the PROMISE III Trial

Dan Clair, MD

Peripheral Retrievable Stent Therapy: DEEPER REVEAL Clinical Trial 6-Month Outcomes

Mahmood Razavi, MD

MOTIV BTK RCT: Safety & Effectiveness Study of the MOTIV Sirolimus-Eluting Bioresorbable Coronary Scaffold Compared with Plain Balloon Angioplasty for the Treatment of Infrapopliteal Lesions Primary Safety Endpoint

Ehrin Armstrong, MD

One-Year Outcomes From the FORWARD PAD IDE and Feasibility Studies of the Treatment of Calcified PAD With a Novel Forward Peripheral Intravascular Lithotripsy System

Andrew Holden, MBChB

Additional Results From Pulse Intravascular Lithotripsy (Pulse IVL) to Open Vessels With Calcific Walls and Enhance Vascular Compliance and Remodeling for Peripheral Artery Disease (POWER PAD II)

D. Christopher Metzger, MD

Two-Year Clinical Outcomes From the Randomized-Controlled Arm of the WAVE Trial

David J. Dexter, MD

Wearable, Non-Invasive Therapeutic Ultrasound for Treatment of Critical Limb Threatening Ischemia: A Sham-Controlled Randomized Controlled Trial

Mahmood Razavi, MD

36-Month Performance of a Sirolimus-Eluting Balloon in Diabetic and Nondiabetic Patients With Femoropopliteal Artery Disease From the SELUTION SFA Japan Study

Yoshimitsu Soga, MD, PhD

*Order and presenters subject to change

About the VIVA Foundation

The VIVA Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing the field of vascular medicine and intervention through education and research, strives to be the premier educator in the field. Our team of specialists in vascular medicine, interventional cardiology, interventional radiology, and vascular surgery is driven by the passion to advance the field and improve patient outcomes. Educational events presented by the VIVA Foundation have a distinct spirit of collegiality attained by synergizing collective talents to promote awareness and innovative therapeutic options for vascular disease worldwide.

SOURCE The VIVA Foundation
DELRAY BEACH, Fla., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Vidle Housing, the leading platform for fully furnished, mid-term housing designed for healthcare travelers, proudly announces a new collaboration with FIGS, the premium healthcare apparel brand, and Nurse.com, a community where more than 3 million nurses connect with peers, apply for jobs, and earn continuing education.

Empowering healthcare travelers through collaboration: Vidle Housing  FIGS  Nurse.com.

As part of the FIGS and Nurse.com partnership, Vidle Housing is introducing new traveler rewards designed to empower and support healthcare professionals on the move. Every healthcare traveler who books housing through the platform will receive premium scrubs from FIGS and free access to accredited continuing education (CEUs) through Nurse.comdelivering practical tools that combine wellness, comfort, and professional development.

"Healthcare travelers are true heroesanswering the call to serve in communities that need them most," said Randy Holloran, CEO of Vidle Housing. "We're proud to support them not just with comfortable and affordable housing options located near hospitals and healthcare facilities, but also with meaningful perks like premium scrubs from FIGS and educational resources from Nurse.com. It's our way of giving back to those who give so much."

The offer includes:

Free FIGS scrubs , known for comfort, style, and durability.

, known for comfort, style, and durability. Free access to accredited continuing-education courses via Nurse.com to help travelers stay certified and competitive.

These perks are automatically available to travelers booking qualifying housing through the Vidle Housing platform.

In conjunction with this collaboration, Vidle Housing has introduced platform updates to create a smoother experience for the entire community. For travelers, that means upgraded search tools and streamlined booking that make finding housing faster and more reliable. For hosts, these updates bring enhanced dashboards, improved listing management, and clearer performance insights to simplify oversight and communication.

Together, these improvements highlight Vidle Housing's role as the only platform built exclusively for the travel healthcare communityoffering fully furnished mid-term rentals near hospitals, transparent booking, and exclusive traveler perks. Learn more at www.vidlehousing.com.

About Vidle Housing

Vidle Housing is a mission-driven platform built exclusively for traveling healthcare professionals in need of fully furnished, mid-term housing. It is designed to streamline the booking experience for travel nurses, allied professionals, and other healthcare travelers. Led by a team of healthcare, housing, and tech experts, Vidle Housing delivers clarity, support, and peace of mind for those working on the front lines. The platform reflects a deep understanding of the challenges faced by mobile clinicians and aims to ease the burden of housing so they can focus on what matters most: patient care.

About FIGS

FIGS is a founder-led, direct-to-consumer healthcare apparel and lifestyle brand dedicated to celebrating, empowering, and serving current and future generations of healthcare professionals. FIGS designs technically advanced apparel that offers an unmatched combination of comfort, durability, function, and style. It serves healthcare professionals across North America, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, and the Middle East through its e-commerce platform, retail stores, and TEAMS division.

About Nurse.com

As the trusted career resource built by and for nurses, Nurse.com fosters one of the largest online communities of nurses, reaching nearly 3 million nurses per month. Nurse.com serves nurses with lifelong career support through accredited continuing education, job opportunities, and a thriving community. Nurse.com is part of Relias' family of brands, including the Wound Care Education Institute, Relias Academy, FreeCME, and Relias Media, which share a common goal of improving the lives of the most vulnerable members of society and those who care for them.

Media Contact

Stephanie Angelino

Director of Marketing, Vidle Housing

[email protected] | 786-307-1721

SOURCE Vidle Housing
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Viewpoint with Dennis Quaid is excited to announce its collaboration with Commonwealth Academy for an upcoming episode that will spotlight excellence in education through individualized learning approaches. Filmed on September 25th, 2024, at the School's Alexandria, VA campus, the episode will feature insights from multiple members of the Commonwealth staff and highlight the institution's commitment to providing exceptional educational opportunities in a supportive environment.

Commonwealth Academy, renowned for its dedication to tailoring educational experiences to meet the diverse needs of its students, will be the focus of this episode. The segment aims to explore how the School's strategies and goals ensure that each learner receives personalized attention and support, fostering an environment where every student can thrive.

The episode will delve into the School's comprehensive approach to education, including their methods for identifying and addressing the unique needs of each student. Viewers will gain an understanding of how Commonwealth Academy's programs are designed to provide not only academic excellence but also emotional and social support, ensuring a well-rounded educational experience.

Key highlights of the episode will include:

Personalized Learning: How Commonwealth Academy develops customized educational plans that cater to the individual strengths and needs of each student.

How Commonwealth Academy develops customized educational plans that cater to the individual strengths and needs of each student. Supportive Environment: The role of a caring and nurturing atmosphere in helping students achieve their full potential.

The role of a caring and nurturing atmosphere in helping students achieve their full potential. Innovative Strategies: The School's use of cutting-edge educational practices and technologies to enhance learning outcomes.

The segment will feature interviews with Commonwealth Academy's educators, administrators, and students, providing a comprehensive look at the institution's impact on its learners and the broader community.

*Our tight-knit community allows for the types of learning environments, relationships, and opportunities where students are seen and supported for who they are so that they can become their very best selves. At Commonwealth Academy, we empower students to fully explore their intellectual passions and potential while fostering the growth that enables them to excel now and in the future - Anabelle Morgan, Head of School*

Scheduled to air in September (this month), this episode of Viewpoint with Dennis Quaid aims to inspire educators, parents, and students by showcasing how dedicated educational institutions like Commonwealth Academy are making a difference in the lives of their students.

For more information about Viewpoint and upcoming episodes, visit www.viewpointproject.com.

About Viewpoint:

Viewpoint with Dennis Quaid is an acclaimed educational program that explores a wide range of topics and trends affecting the world today. With a focus on integrity and innovative storytelling, the program highlights impactful stories and insights from leading experts across various fields.

SOURCE Viewpoint
CROTON-ON-HUDSON, N.Y., Sept. 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Village of Croton-on-Hudson has withdrawn the violation and appearance ticket issued to Mr. Leonard Amicola for the display of a banner, in violation of the Village's Zoning Code.

This violation was part of routine, Village-wide code enforcement that identified 17 non-compliant locations. Our code enforcement team worked with each property owner to seek voluntary compliance, successfully resolving most violations without further action.

Village staff have been falsely accused of engaging in a politically motivated enforcement action. The facts above make it clear that this is categorically false.

What began as routine code enforcement was transformed into a national spectacle through social media and traditional media coverage before any hearing could take place. This has resulted in abusive messages and threats of violence directed at Village personnel who were simply performing their professional duties. These threats are under law enforcement investigation.

Further, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has sent correspondence to the Village regarding this matter. While the DOJ letter drew no conclusions about the claims being made about the Village, the letter stated the Department has the authority to initiate civil action against local governments. The DOJ encouraged "the Village to review its ordinance and enforcement practices promptly to ensure compliance with constitutional requirements."

Our village government is not in a position to contend with continuous anonymous abuse of staff, threats to personnel and a federal intervention regarding a minor civil citation for a non-safety related provision of the Village Code.

Given these circumstances, the Village must prioritize the safety of its personnel and the conservation of taxpayer resources. After speaking with the Village Prosecutor, the current case has been withdrawn and no further enforcement actions will be taken.

I will be recommending to the Village Board that the section of the Village Code at issue be reviewed to ensure it is written and it remains fair and easily understood and directing our code enforcement team to suspend enforcement of the section of the Village Code at issue until the Code is amended. This is the best option to ensure the safety of village staff, the orderly administration of municipal government and uphold the spirit of fair and consistent enforcement.

Media inquiries: Village Manager's office, 914-271-4848.

SOURCE Village of Croton-on-Hudson
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Westcove Partners, LLC ("Westcove"), a highly specialized investment bank, announced that it acted as the exclusive financial advisor to New York Breast Reconstruction & Aesthetic Plastic Surgery ("NYBRA") in its partnership with Advanced Reconstructive Surgery Alliance ("ARSA"), a portfolio company of Webster Equity Partners ("Webster"). The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Westcove's deal team included Justin Hand, Managing Director; Abe M'Bodj, Director; Bill Bolding, Vice President; Scott Schulkin, Vice President; and Amr Baumy, Analyst.

Westcove announced that it acted as the exclusive financial advisor to NYBRA Plastic Surgery in its partnership with ARSA, a portfolio company of Webster Equity Partners. (PRNewsfoto/Westcove Partners, LLC)

NYBRA is a leading independent reconstructive and cosmetic plastic surgery practice based in Long Island, New York. NYBRA's five shareholder physicians specialize in advanced microsurgical breast reconstruction and are some of the foremost thought leaders when it comes to the latest techniques in advanced breast microsurgery. The Company is headquartered in Great Neck, NY, with additional locations in Manhattan, Commack, and Huntington, NY. NYBRA is widely recognized for its innovative surgical techniques and transformative care for cancer survivors and patients across the region.

Randall Feingold, M.D., Founding Partner at NYBRA, stated, "We are excited to partner with ARSA and believe this collaboration will enhance our ability to deliver innovative, patient-centered care while preserving the physician-led culture that defines NYBRA. For physicians with limited knowledge in this space, Westcove provided us with detailed education and unparalleled availability to allow us to stay focused on our clinical practice during a comprehensive process."

"It was a privilege to work alongside the physicians of NYBRA throughout this process," said Justin Hand, Managing Director at Westcove. "Their reputation as thought leaders in reconstructive and cosmetic surgery is well deserved, and we are proud to have helped them find a partner in ARSA that will support their continued growth and success."

About NYBRA Plastic Surgery

NYBRA Plastic Surgery is a leading independent reconstructive and cosmetic plastic surgery practice, specializing in advanced microsurgical breast reconstruction. The Company has four locations in Great Neck, Manhattan, Commack, and Huntington, and is led by five physician shareholders  Drs. Randall Feingold, Ron Israeli, Peter Korn, Jonathan Bank, and David Light  who are regarded as thought leaders in the field. For more information, visit https://nybra.com/.

About Advanced Reconstructive Surgery Alliance

ARSA is a premier surgical support organization that partners with high-quality reconstructive and specialty surgical practices, providing business support while preserving clinical autonomy. For more information, visit www.arsahealth.com.

About Webster Equity Partners

Founded in 2003, Webster Equity invests in healthcare services companies with high-impact growth strategies that deliver the highest-quality care and extraordinary service. For more information, visit www.websterequitypartners.com.

About Westcove Partners

Westcove Partners is a premier healthcare-focused investment bank specializing in mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity financings, and other complex corporate finance transactions. The firm is dedicated to advising founder-operated businesses, tailoring its advisory services to address the unique challenges and opportunities these businesses face. For more information, visit www.westcove.com.

Contact:

Amr Baumy, [email protected]

SOURCE Westcove Partners, LLC
Online Day 1 Qualifier takes place this Sunday, with lower-cost Last-Chance Satellites also running

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- ACR Poker is giving players another chance to turn their online grind into a live poker dream with an Online Day 1 Qualifier to the coveted Battle of Malta (BOM) Main Event which guarantees 1.5 million.

Online Day 1 Qualifier takes place this Sunday, with lower-cost Last-Chance Satellites also running.

BOM stands as one of Europe's most iconic poker festivals, celebrated for its electric atmosphere, elite competition, and unforgettable player experiences. This year, players can skip the live Day 1 Main Event grind and qualify straight from home with ACR Poker's Online Day 1 Qualifier this Sunday, September 14th, heading to Malta already locked in for a payout.

The Online Day 1 Qualifier starts at 10:30am ET with a $625 + $75 buy-in, and competitors will play down to 15% of the field. Players who survive will receive the tournament's minimum cash when they check in at the BOM live event and their chip count will be automatically transferred to Day 2 in Malta (November 2nd-5th, 2025).

Players seeking lower-cost routes to the Online Day 1 Qualifier can join Last-Chance Satellites, including a $66 Mega Satellite on Sunday, September 14th at 9:05am ET, with Super Sats Freerolls and $6.60 feeders available starting Friday, September 12th.

"Opportunities like this are what poker is all about," said ACR Pro Chris Moneymaker. "The Battle of Malta is a bucket-list event for many players, and being able to qualify online makes it accessible to everyone, with a shot at huge prizes in one of Europe's most exciting live events. I love that ACR is opening that door for players everywhere."

BOM runs from October 28th-November 5th at Casino Malta, featuring a revamped nine-day schedule with a 2 million guarantee, including the 2,200 buy-in ACR Super High Roller and plenty of exciting off-the-felt activities. Last October, BOM reached new heights with a prize pool exceeding 4.7 million and participants from over 60 countries.

In July, ACR Poker and BOM hosted the first-ever online edition of the beloved European live poker festival, featuring 68 events and $5 million guaranteed. With buy-ins from $5.50, players of all levels had the chance to join the fun and compete for great prizes. Ten players were also awarded 8,000 travel packages to October's BOM live event, courtesy of ACR Poker's Beast tournament.

For further details about the Online Day 1 Qualifier, visit ACRPoker.eu.

About ACR Poker

Formerly known as Americas Cardroom, ACR Poker joined the Winning Poker Network in 2011. The Winning Poker Network has been dealing cards since 2001 and continues to be one of the most trusted names in the industry. Rated first place for payment processing and cashout reliability repeatedly over the last few years, ACR Poker offers outstanding customer service and a friendly environment for all poker players around the world.

Contact:

Adam Neal

+447845582487

SOURCE ACR
Alumnus H. Kent Baker, A Leading Voice in the Field, Aims to Expand UMD's Research

COLLEGE PARK, Md., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business will establish the H. Kent Baker Center for Behavioral Finance following a generous gift from the alumnus and noted scholar, creating only the second named center of its kind in the United States.

Through Baker's support, the center will bring together powerhouses of financial research and innovation at the Smith School to advance understanding of how human psychology, not just rational economic calculations, shapes financial decision-making.

"The Smith School has a wonderful finance faculty and great researchers in the area of behavioral finance," said Baker, MBA '69, DBA '72, M.Ed. '74. "It's vital for understanding how emotions and biases affect financial decisions and using that to be a better decision maker. The Smith School is the ideal place where that research could occur."

UMD President Darryll J. Pines said the new center and faculty positions funded by Baker will put the Smith School at the forefront of the developing field.

"Dr. Baker's generosity will provide our business students with unsurpassed learning opportunities, reinforcing the critical value of a top-flight public institution of higher education while advancing faculty research that solves business problems," he said.

Baker's gift will also create the Baker Endowed Chair in Behavioral Finance and provide additional endowed faculty support.

"We are deeply grateful to Dr. Baker for his generous contributions to the Smith School," said Smith School Dean Prabhudev Konana. "His investment in establishing the H. Kent Baker Center for Behavioral Finance will shine a spotlight on the school's strong research enterprise and its pivotal role in advancing understanding of psychological biases and human behavior in financial decisions."

A University Professor of Finance at American University's Kogod School of Business, Baker is a lifelong educator and scholar; he earned eight postsecondary and postgraduate degrees in the fields of education and finance, in addition to acquiring CFA and CMA designations.

Over his 56-year career in academia, he has been a leading voice in finance, particularly in the areas of behavioral finance, dividend policy and survey research methodology. His interdisciplinary research has transformed modern finance and changed how scholars, practitioners and policymakers approach market behavior.

The Journal of Finance Literature has recognized him as among the top 1% of the most prolific authors in finance during the past 50 years. In 2024, Stanford University ranked him among the top 2% of scientists in the world. Baker is an award-winning author and editor who has published 46 books, 225 peer-reviewed articles, and more than 100 practitioner-oriented works.

Baker has also spoken publicly about his pride in serving as a steward of education for future generations of business leaders. In 2005, he established an award supporting Smith School doctoral candidates in finance, helping cover the costs of attending academic conferences. In 2025, he made another transformational gift, resulting in the naming of the Linda A. and H. Kent Baker School of Education at American University in memory of his wife.

With this latest gift to UMD, he said, he hopes to pay it forward to help others. "One of the greatest things to me is education, and the University of Maryland has been one of the most influential institutions in my life," Baker said.

About the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business

Located eight miles from Washington, D.C., 35 miles from Baltimore, and situated inside the Capital Beltway, the Robert H. Smith School of Business is a recognized leader in management education and research. Smith's over 70,000 alumni are part of the 400,000-strong University of Maryland alumni community. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland in College Park, the Smith School is plugged into the business, government, nonprofit and professional networks of the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., metroplex. We offer undergraduate, online and on-campus business master's, full-time, part-time, online and executive MBA, PhD and DBA degree programs, graduate certificates, and non-degree and executive education programs.

Contact: Veronica Robinson, [email protected]

SOURCE University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business
WITHit's Versatile and Fashion-Forward Bands are Compatible with the Coveted New Apple Watch Devices

NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- WITHit ( www.withitgear.com/ ), America's #1 smartwatch accessories brand, is among the first to announce the compatibility of its bands following Apple's "Awe Dropping" event on September 9, 2025, which introduced the highly anticipated Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch Ultra 3, and third-generation Apple Watch SE.

WITHit

WITHit is ready to help Apple Watch fans show off their latest devices and upgrades in style. From sleek stainless-steel bracelets to rugged sport silicone and timeless genuine leather, WITHit's bold collection of watch bands for men and women lets Apple Watch wearers swap, style, and personalize their look for every occasion.

Designed for comfort, versatility, and everyday wear, WITHit bands are available at www.withitgear.com , with prices ranging from $15 to $145 to suit every budget. WITHit bands fit most wrists and are designed for various Apple Watch sizes, making it fun and easy to upgrade looks with the future of wearable tech. For each new Apple Watch release, there is a WITHit band to complement its vibe, tech-savvy abilities, and size specifications.

"With the exciting evolution of Apple Watches, we at WITHit have eagerly anticipated each new product announcement, carefully strategizing the design of our bands and accessories behind the scenes," said Matt Shell, Head of Design at WITHit. "Our goal is to complement these innovations with thoughtfully crafted, fashion-forward designs that marry style and functionality. From premium stainless steel and supple leather to versatile silicone, every WITHit band allows Apple Watch users to express their individuality while seamlessly keeping pace with life's dynamic moments."

Take your Apple Watch game to the next level and choose from WITHit bands compatible with Apple Watch Series 11's lightweight, everyday functionality and 42mm and 46mm sizing. WITHit bands like the Stainless Steel Pyramid Bracelet for Apple Watch ($75) or the Croco Grain Leather Band for Apple Watch ($40) in black, red, navy, tan, and brown, make for great everyday wear.

WITHit's performance-driven bands pair perfectly with the new Apple Watch Ultra 3's rugged yet luxe appeal and are compatible with the 49mm sizing. Bands like the Sport Iconic Silicone Band for Apple Watch ($25) or the Tactical Nylon Strap for Apple Watch ($30) are durable and attractive, highlighting the watches' new features.

Finally, there's the fun and affordable Apple Watch SE. Pair it with WITHit's Textured Silicone Band for Apple Watch ($15) or the Hybrid Leather Band for Apple Watch ($30), it's ideal for budget-conscious trendsetters and compatible with 40mm and 44mm sizes.

WITHit's latest releases are fully compatible with the new Apple Watches as well, including an exciting licensing collaboration with Wrangler . This unisex, western-inspired collection brings rodeo-ready style to your wrist with calf hair textures, Aztec patterns, saddle-stitched denim, and bold starburst designs. In addition, Band Candy 's collection of silicone and silicone metal bands, whimsical charms, and slides features universal sizing lugs that ensure a perfect fit for nearly every Apple Watch from 38/40/41mm and 42/44/45/46mm sizes. Together, they deliver the perfect union of trend and tech.

For more information about WITHit Apple Watch bands for the new Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch Ultra 3, and Apple Watch SE please contact BPM-PR Firm at [email protected] or call 877.841.7244.

About WITHit

WITHit, founded in 2004, is a leading innovator in designing, manufacturing, distributing, and curating accessories that significantly enhance wearable tech and reading experiences. WITHit excels in the rapid development of creative designs, employing diverse techniques and materials. As America's #1 wearable tech accessory brand, WITHit accessories are sold in 9,000 retail stores throughout the U.S. The company takes pride in its robust technology portfolio, holding 36 patents and producing licensed products for renowned brands. Visit www.withitgear.com for more information.

Media Contact:

Erika Vives

[email protected]

BPM-PR Firm

877.841.7244

SOURCE WITHit
WASHINGTON, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA) today elected Cutter Smith, President of Eder Bros., Inc., as the association's new Chairman. Smith succeeds Dina Opici, President of Opici Family Distributing, who has completed her term as Chairwoman.

Cutter Smith, President of Eder Bros., Inc., Chairman of WSWA

"It is a privilege to serve as Chairman of WSWA," said Cutter Smith. "Following in the footsteps of so many who have led before me, my focus will be on ensuring WSWA remains resourceful, nimble, and dynamic  a true partner to our members as they navigate challenges and uncover opportunities in an evolving industry."

Smith, a leader in family-owned Connecticut-based wholesale business, takes the helm as WSWA continues to navigate evolving consumer preferences, an increasingly complex regulatory environment, and significant economic pressures facing the beverage alcohol marketplace.

"On behalf of WSWA and our members, I want to sincerely thank Dina Opici for her outstanding service and leadership during one of the most dynamic times our industry has ever experienced," said Francis Creighton, WSWA President and CEO. "Dina has been a tireless advocate for distributors, championing their role in communities across the country while helping to guide WSWA through key challenges like tariffs and regulatory changes. I am excited to work alongside Cutter as he takes on this role, bringing his experience, vision, and commitment to advancing the interests of our members and strengthening the industry."

Read Smith's address to WSWA members HERE.

About Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America

Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA) is the national trade association representing the wholesale tier of the wine and spirits industry. With operations in every state and congressional district, WSWA members distribute the vast majority of wines and spirits sold at retail in the U.S. The association advocates for sound public policy, promotes responsible consumption, and provides resources that advance the success of its members.

MEDIA CONTACT

Christina Cross

Director, Strategic Communications

[email protected] | (919) 247-5607

SOURCE Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America
Launching a Comprehensive Womenswear Industrial Chain Solution for the European Market

HANGZHOU, China, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- During the Milano Fashion Week SS 2026, Yifa Commercial Group will present a range of original womenswear brands at the WHITE MILANO (September 25-28, 2025, Superstudio Piu | YIFA Via Tortona, 27 - Milano). Positioning itself as an global industry resource connector, Yifa will demonstrate its integrated strengths in high-end original design and responsive supply chain management, offering European buyers and brands a renewed partnership experience.

(PRNewsfoto/Yifa Commercial Group)

China's textile and fashion industry is entering a new phase characterized by agility, higher value, and design-driven innovation. Since its founding in Hangzhou in 2002, Yifa has remained committed to a strategy of original design and original manufacturing, building an end-to-end ecosystem that spans design, production, and global distribution. Through Yifa Exhibition, the group will introduce to the European market a selection of partners that demonstrate creative vitality, reliable quality, and strong commercial potential.

In response to the European market's increasing demand for flexible, reliable, and design-driven supply chains, Yifa offers a comprehensive solution with the following advantages:

Full product range covering varied style preferences and occasion-based needs; Professional in-house design teams supporting each brand, ensuring smooth translation of creative vision into accurate samples and finished collections; A flexible supply chain designed to support Europe's small-volume, multi-batch procurement model, reducing lead times and minimizing inventory risk; Direct access to manufacturing sources, ensures efficient communication, cost control, and stable transparent cooperation; Adoption of low-carbon production practices and full compliance with international social accountability certifications, mitigating compliance risks for European partners.

At the Yifa SHOWROOM, visitors will discover a group of highly-qualified suppliers with proven experience serving leading Chinese womenswear brands and deep industry expertise

MAIKU: An award-winning urban commuter brand offering full categories.

HAOQIJIA: Interpreting elegant urban aesthetics.

ISPRIN: Specializing in minimalist commuter wear.

9roove: Embrace inner strength and confidently showcase feminine charm.

KIPMIC STYLE: Outlining the multifaceted modern woman.

CENEECHO: Crafting classics with natural fabricsAdvocate for a genuine way of life.

VAXXLON: Interpreting the aesthetics of simplicity and relaxation

The presentation also features niche designer labels including:

CIRCLE HUES: Blending Eastern elements with structural innovation.

Must Bloom, presenting wearable art rooted in nature.

And down jacket specialists:

B'QN'YREN: A women's clothing supply chain brand that integrates design, production, and sales, suitable for various lifestyle scenarios across all categories.

ID-PLACE: Focusing on "lightweight" down jackets.

DTU: Embodying "new modernity" through premium differentiation.

Other vertical experts:

RUNXI: 20 years of expertise in knitwear.

MINASELF: Specializing in suits, trench coats, and shealing jackets.

SECRETANA: Focused on high-end home wear.

We have prepared interactive gifts with Chinese characteristics, reserved exclusive one-on-one meeting spaces, and will host an "EU-China Apparel Supply Chain Partnership Salon" with industry experts. Your presence is cordially invited.

Official website: https://www.yffsc.com/en/

SOURCE Yifa Commercial Group
Seasoned executive sales leader brings over two decades of experience driving enterprise success in financial services

NEW YORK and TORONTO, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- FutureVault, the leading provider of AI-powered Digital Vault solutions for financial services enterprises, lines of business, advisors, and clients, today announced the appointment of New York-based Young Mi Han as Vice President, Sales and Business Development. In her new role, Young Mi will play a significant role in FutureVault's enterprise sales strategy, strengthening customer partner relationships, and accelerating the company's growth across the United States.

Young Mi Han Joins FutureVault as VP, Sales and Business Development to Grow FutureVault's Footprint in the US

With more than 20 years of proven success in enterprise sales and revenue generation, Young Mi is widely regarded as a trusted sales executive with deep expertise in building relationships and delivering technology solutions to financial institutions. She has held senior sales leadership roles at leading firms including Orbital Insight, Privateer Space, Bottomline Technologies, FIS, SunGard Financial Systems, Markit, and FactSet Research Systems. Throughout her career, Young Mi has consistently guided enterprises through complex sales cycles, enabling organizations to achieve operational efficiency, compliance, and growth.

"FutureVault is redefining how financial services firms manage documents, data, and relationships, and I am thrilled to join the team at such an important stage of growth," said Young Mi Han, Vice President, Sales and Business Development at FutureVault. "I could not be more pleased for the opportunity to work with this incredible team, and importantly, to drive stronger relationships to deliver innovation and value for the industry."

Daniel Kenny, Chief Executive Officer of FutureVault, commented:

"We are thrilled to welcome Young Mi to the FutureVault leadership team. Her track record in enterprise sales and her reputation as a trusted relationship builder will be a tremendous asset as we continue to scale our platform with leading financial institutions. Young Mi will play a very significant role for FutureVault as we look to expand our presence in the United States".

By welcoming Young Mi into this role, FutureVault is further positioning itself for the next stage of growthparticularly in building and strengthening enterprise relationshipsas the company continues to expand its footprint across the United States and recognition as a well-established leader in the Digital Vault and Intelligent Document Processing space.

About FutureVault

FutureVault is an award-winning AI-Powered Digital Vault platform for modern financial institutions, wealth management enterprises, advisors, and clients, pioneering the Client Life Management Vault.

FutureVault's white-labelled platform automates, aggregates, and centralizes critical client, advisor, and enterprise documentation. Powered by AI in combination with OCR, FutureVault's Intelligent Document Processing engine extracts critical data from documents, driving straight-through processing for back, middle, and front office functions, while delivering intelligence and insights for advisors and their clients.

FutureVault's architecture supports and syncs with enterprise-level tiering and permission structures, ensuring data governance across lines of business and teams. FutureVault is built on modern APIs and is SOC 2 Type II and PCI DSS compliant.

Learn more about FutureVault at www.futurevault.com.

Media Contact

Kristian Borghesan

Chief Marketing Officer

[email protected]

M: 416-998-9639

SOURCE FutureVault
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Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here
Malaysian 5G operator U Mobile and Axiatas telecoms infrastructure company Edotco announced on Wednesday they have deployed and launched U Mobiles Ultra5G service inside the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Kuala Lumpur City Centre.

U Mobile said the deployment  which leverages Edotcos 5G in-building coverage infrastructure  makes the Mandarin Oriental the first hotel in Malaysia to have full 5G coverage on every floor, including ballrooms, meeting rooms, event venues and shared guest areas.

U Mobile added that the Ultra5G network is able to support potential applications such as 4K livestreaming for conferences and ultra-immersive virtual meetings, made possible by the networks low latency, high capacity and network slicing ability.

U Mobile CTO Woon Ooi Yuen said the Mandarin Oriental deployment will serve as a showcase for 5G smart hotel applications and boost the the hotel and MICE [meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions] sector with advantages such as improved efficiency, safety and guest experience as well as unlocking the potential for experiences like 4K conference livestreaming or ultra-immersive virtual meetings.

By offering this platform, Edotco is ensuring that building owners, operators and tech providers can connect seamlessly, unlocking better digital experiences for Malaysians while driving broader economic benefits for the nation, added Gayan Koralage, Edotcos director of Malaysia business.

Mohd Salem Kailany, CEO of KLCC Property Holdings (which owns the Mandarin Oriental and other properties in Kuala Lumpur City Centre), said that the availability of 5G at the hotel is a key step in future-proofing guest experience, strengthening Kuala Lumpur City Centres position as a premier destination for hospitality, MICE, and tourism.

The Mandarin Oriental launch is the latest manifestation of U Mobiles strategy to push indoor coverage at strategic locations as a key differentiator for its Ultra5G service, which was officially launched last month.

Yuen said the Mandarin Oriental was the first of many planned indoor deployments with Edotco. Together we will bring the Ultra5G experience to more high impact locations nationwide, including airports, hospitals and convention centres, underlining our commitment to provide the widest and deepest 5G coverage in Malaysia.

Edotco signed on with U Mobile as a preferred 5G in-building coverage (IBC) infrastructure partner at this years Mobile World Congress, following a 5G partnership deal signed last year. U Mobile has also signed on EdgePoint Infrastructure and OCK Telco Infra (a subsidiary of Malaysian telecoms network solutions provider and regional towerco OCK Group) as preferred 5G IBC partners.

U Mobile is targeting 80% 5G coverage of populated areas by the second half of 2026.
Author-illustrator Hyewon Yums picture book A Spoonful of the Sea examines the Korean tradition of miyeok-guk, a seaweed soup thats served to both nursing mothers the month after they give birth, and to children as birthday soup. Yum highlights the role of haenyeo, Korean women divers who for hundreds of years have gathered shellfish, octopus, and seaweed for food. The girl learns that her great-great-grandmother was haenyeo, and that a pregnant haenyeowhod witnessed a mother whale eating seaweed alongside her newborncame up with the idea to make miyeok-guk after she gave birth. Yum, who grew up in Seoul and now lives in Brooklyn, attended the School of Visual Arts, where her graduation project was published in 2009 as her first picture book, Last Night. Shes written and illustrated 12 picture books, and illustrated more than a dozen more by other authors. PW spoke with Yum about her latest book, the mother-child bond, and her own memories of birthday soup.

In the picture books youve written and illustrated, this is the second oneafter Grandpa Across the Oceanthat leans into your Korean heritage. Why this story above so many other cultural narratives?

This story started with my friend Hana Nakamura, Norton Young Readers art director. I didnt know that this tradition of eating miyeok-guk soup comes from humans watching the whales eating seaweed. Hana told me this story, and it sparked my imagination. And then I sat with it for a very, very long time and I read other books about haenyeo and it all came together. Its not that I specifically wanted to write about Korean traditions. Its just that this story came to me.

You depict the childs first four birthdays with traditional Korean food giving way to Western sweets. Why include the push-pull of cultural assimilation vs. maintaining Korean customs?

Thats how we eat in Korea. The food and habits continue to this day. We have cakes and other foods to celebrate. But the first birthday we celebrate in traditional ways, so we have a special way of setting the table. Thats why its different from year to year. I wanted to show that though the culture is different, we all celebrate birthdays and we all do similar things.

At age five, children go to kindergarten, meet kids from other cultures, and make friends. Children discover differences between their home culture and other cultures. Thats why I chose the fifth birthdayat five, children communicate with their moms and learn. Its a golden age.

And though miyeok-guk comes from our Korean culture, I didnt want to only focus on Korean culture. We are all human beings, and as a human beings, we learn from nature. We try something new from nature, and then we make it part of our own culture. Thats what I wanted to talk aboutlearning from nature. So, when Hana told me about the whales eating seaweed, it stuck with me. Its the point of the booka pregnant haenyeo learning from nature.

In your illustrations, shapes and borders contain the mother and childs lives, but when the haenyeo story begins, why do all borders disappear?

Thats how I feel when I see the sea. When I made Grandpa Across the Ocean, I talked about the sea, and that there are no borders. It just connects us from here all the way to Korea.

In this book, there is a borderthe sea is contained in the bowl. So the girl can look into it and see Grandmas house, and the haenyeo, and the whales. Before, I was only writing about my own experiences, my own feelings, my relationships, but this book is different. Its about Korean culture and lineage, all these things. Im living far away from my home, but as I grow older, I look more like my mama. And I speak like her, even though Im far away. I wanted to talk about that relationshipthat mother-child lovewhich is so critical when we are young.

As a child eating birthday soup, what did you think of it, and did you know its origin story?

I didnt like miyeok-guk at all when I was a kid. Just like the child [in the book], I found it hot and smelly with a very slippery texture. I never thought about why we eat miyeok-guk for our birthdays, or why women eat it after giving birth. It was just something we did, just a natural part of our lives.

I wasnt interested in the story behind it until after I had a child in the U.S. I gave birth, and they told me to drink ice water right away. That seemed wrong, because water is so cold. And they served me mac and cheese in the hospital. Its so different that I became curious: how do we have this tradition, and where did it come from?

When I left the hospital, my mom made me miyeok-guk. I ate it for a month while breastfeeding my child, and I came to like it. Afterwards, I searched the internet, found the story and interesting details about haenyeo, and thought, Yes, that makes sense.

And now, whenever I cook it, I remember those days with heartfelt joy. I think food brings back those memories. Im not Proust, but miyeok-guk is my madeleine.

A Spoonful of the Sea by Hyewon Yum. Norton Young Readers, $18.99 Sept. 9 ISBN 978-1-324-05369-9
Justin Chanda at Simon & Schuster has acquired North American rights to two books by Morgan Matson. Who Dunne It?, pitched as a YA Knives Out, is a murder mystery following college freshman Elliot, who accepts an invitation to spend Thanksgiving with her crush on his family's private island in Maine. But she soon realizes it isn't about getting the guyit's getting out alive. And Lucky & Gertrude is a sixth-grade adventure highlighting the importance of family, full of magic tricks, long cons, and shortcuts. Publication is set for fall 2027 and spring 2028 respectively; Emily van Beek at Folio Jr./Folio Literary Management did the two-book deal.

Emily Settle at Feiwel and Friends has bought Daughters of Misery by Judy I. Lin, a dark fantasy that launches a new duology set in the same world as Song of the Six Realms. It follows three demon sisters who concoct a plot to save themselves from the ambitions of their father's new wife and the intrigue of the demon court, but when their plans go awry, they have to use all of their wits, connections, and magical prowess to survive. Publication is slated for winter 2027 and winter 2028; Rachel Brooks at BookEnds Literary Agency negotiated the deal for world rights.

Ben Rosenthal at Stonefruit Studio has acquired Born Lucky, a YA memoir by Lucky Karim (l.), written with Jessica Olney, which tells the story of the stateless Rohingya genocide victims of Myanmar, through the author's own story of persecution, survival, and resilience while living in the world's largest refugee camp. Publication is scheduled for fall 2027; Eric Smith at Neighborhood Literary brokered the deal for world rights.

Kelly Delaney at Crown has bought world rights to Nine Months by Karina Manta (l.), illustrated by Lilith Wu, a YA graphic novel about a young woman's decision to have an abortion and all the different ways a person can change in nine months. Publication is planned for summer 2027; Jessica Regel at Helm Literary represented the author, and Victoria Wells Arms and Wendi Gu at HG Literary represented the illustrator.

Polo Orozco at Putnam has acquired The Great Ramzys by Nedda Lewers (Daughters of the Lamp), a middle grade mystery pitched as The Swifts meets The Westing Game. The story follows an 11-year-old girl who must unmask which of the famed Egyptologists gathered at her grandmother's Luxor mansion has stolen Nefertiti's legendary bust. Publication is slated for spring 2027; Kelly Dyksterhouse at Tobias Literary Agency sold world English rights.

Annie Berger at Sourcebooks Young Readers has bought world English rights to The Secret Bookstore Sleuth Society by Lindsay Currie (The Mystery of Locked Rooms). In this middle grade mystery, four close friends are trapped in a book-themed lodge during an ice storm and must use each of their special skills, as well as a few tips from an armchair-detective Grandma, to figure out who killed one of the regular customers. Publication is set for fall 2026, with an untitled second novel to follow in 2027; Shannon Hassan at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency did the two-book deal.

Andrew Arnold at HarperAlley has acquired The Acacia Tree by Chamisa Kellogg, a middle grade graphic novel about a trio of girls who form a coven and begin to uncover the long-slumbering secrets of their magical town. Publication is scheduled for fall 2028; Claire Morance at Painted Words sold world rights.

Tom Russell at Bright Matter Books has bought, at auction, American Revolutionaries, a middle-grade narrative nonfiction book by Ilyon Woo, author of the Pulitzer Prizewinning adult title Master Slave Husband Wife. It's a retelling of the story of Ellen and William Craft, a married enslaved couple who escaped from Georgia in 1848 in disguiseEllen as a rich white man and William as "his" slave. Publication is planned for fall 2027; Faye Bender at the Book Group did the deal for North American rights.

Siobhan Ciminera at Simon Spotlight has acquired two Ready-to-Read titles by Michael Rex: Step, Kick, Spin!, about two dancers who spin, slide, and turn together; and Pile of Pizzas, about whether a little monster and a big monster can eat a huge stack of pizzas. Karen Nagel will edit; publication of the first book is slated for fall 2026; Timothy Travaglini at Transatlantic Agency sold world rights.

Caitlyn Dlouhy at Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books has bought North American English rights to a debut picture book by Rocky Callen (l.), illustrated by Eisner Award nominee Sonia Sanchez, tentatively titled Hope Is, which explores in poetic prose how hope finds its way into our lives, even in its darkest moments. Publication is set for spring 2027; Holly McGhee at Pippin Properties represented the author, and Teresa Kietlinski at Bookmark Literary represented the illustrator.

Kathleen Keenan at Kids Can Press has acquired world rights to Vida Wishes by Paola Santos (l.), illustrated by Marianne Ferrer, a picture book about Vida, whose father has left their country of Venezuela to find a new home for the family, and the wishes Vida has for her family and country. Publication is scheduled for spring 2027; Jennifer Rofe represented the author, and the illustrator was unagented.

Carolyn Yoder at Astra/Calkins Creek has bought, in an exclusive submission, world rights to The Forgotten: Patriots of Color at Lexington and Concord by Ray Anthony Shepard (Runaway; A Long Time Coming), illustrated by R. Gregory Christie, an historical fiction picture book that gives voice to the Black and Brown men and women who participated in the events at Lexington and Concord in the first battles of the American Revolution. Publication is planned for 2027; Caryn Wiseman at Andrea Brown Literary Agency represented the author, and the illustrator represented himself.

Brian Hurley while at Little Bigfoot acquired world rights to the picture book Big Fat Bear Fight! by Brooke Hartman (l.), illustrated by Can Tugrul. It's Fat Bear Week again in Katmai National Park, Alaska, and the whole forest is ready to see which gorged grizzly is burly enough to take home the coveted Fat Bear Week prize. Jill Saginario will edit; publication is slated for September 2026. Sera Rivers at Speilburg Literary Agency sold world rights.

Reka Simonsen at Atheneum has bought Romina Galotta's debut author-illustrated work, Orchard House, a picture book biography of American author Louisa May Alcott, told from the point of view of the home she lived in during the era that inspired her seminal work, Little Women. Publication is set for fall 2027; Christy Ewers at the CAT Agency negotiated the deal for world rights.

Jaime Gelman at Little Bee Books has acquired the picture book Nibbles vs. the Universe, written and illustrated by Kathryn Rammell. Nibbles is a class pet with a mission to keep the world spinning, by running on her hamster wheel. But when Nibbles collapses, her concerned friends help her see that she cannot protect the world alone. Publication is scheduled for spring 2027; Christie Megill at the CAT Agency sold world rights.

Nick Magliato and Celina Sun at Grosset & Dunlap have bought Un Dia at Home and Un Dia at the Park by Ariela Rudy Zaltzman (l.), illustrated by Peruvian-born illustration team Cocoretto. These two lift-the-flap board books introduce Spanish first words to the youngest readers. Publication is planned for summer 2027; the author and illustrators represented themselves.

Cecily Kaiser at Rise x Penguin Workshop has acquired, in an exclusive submission, Friends Belong, Friends Can, and Friends Grow, a set of three board books by Dan Saks (l.), illustrated by Delphine Lee, which explores the budding friendships of preschoolers. Publication of the first book is slated for fall 2026; Kevin O'Connor at O'Connor Literary Agency represented the author, and Aliza Hoover at the CAT Agency represented the illustrator.

Wendy McClure at Sourcebooks Jabberwocky has bought world rights to Baby Truck by JD Davis (l.), illustrated by Erica Sirotich, first in a board book series about an infant truck whose days are filled with exciting activities and fun routines as he learns how to be a big boy truck. Publication is set for fall 2026; Jennifer Newens at Martin Literary Management represented the author, and Jennifer Laughran at Andrea Brown Literary Agency represented the illustrator in the three-book deal.

Annie Berger at Sourcebooks Fire has acquired The Murder Party, a YA thriller by Cindy R. X. He (Perfect Little Monsters). When her sister is killed at a party thrown by a secret murder mystery games club, it's up to June Chan to catch the killer by hosting the deadliest game of all. Publication is slated for fall 2026; Michael Bourret at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret sold North American rights.

Jenny Bak at Viking has bought, in an exclusive submission, Queensmage by Robyn Schneider, a YA romantasy pitched as Kingsman meets Throne of Glass, set in an 1800s French-inspired kingdom, in which two former magic school rivals, one a rakish noble, and one a convicted thief, enter a competition to become the new royal mage that unexpectedly turns deadly. Publication is planned for spring 2027; Barbara Poelle at Word One Literary sold world rights.

Emilia Sowersby at Roaring Brook Press has acquired Garden Girls by Amanda Linsmeier (Starlings; Six of Sorrow), an original YA fairy tale about a haunting magic, and what happens when dark family secrets are unburied. The story is told in dual points of view of two girls, both seeking escape from oppressive households, where the reader is unsure who to trust. Publication is scheduled for winter 2027; Juliana McBride at Rebecca Friedman Literary did the deal for world rights.

Kade Dishmon at Holiday House has bought, in an exclusive submission, A Death Kissed Song by De Elizabeth (This Raging Sea), a YA dark fantasy in which an ambitious but struggling senior at a prestigious music conservatory joins a secret society led by her cutthroat childhood-friend-turned-academic-rival, where she discovers his group is using dangerously alluring magic to enhance their craftmagic that may claim the life of the boy she still can't help but love. Publication is set for summer 2027; Samantha Fabien at Root Literary negotiated the deal for world rights.

Karen Sargent at Simon Pulse has acquired Most Accomplished Liars by Jenni Howell (l.) (Boys with Sharp Teeth) and Jamie Howard, pitched as for fans of If We Were Villains and One of Us Is Lying, in which a senior drama troupe still reeling from the unexpected death of their star performer goes on an acting retreat at a former summer camp, but as dark secrets start coming to light, they realize they're not all innocentand they're not alone. Publication is slated for spring 2027; Claire Friedman at InkWell Management sold U.S. and Canadian rights.

Dana Leydig at Viking has bought Emily Wibberley (r.) and Austin Siegemund-Broka's (authors of Reese's YA Book Club pick Heiress Takes All) YA Regency romance murder-mystery To Court a Killer. A debutante with a tarnished reputation seeks to turn her prospects around by competing in a competition to solve a murder for a mysterious and wealthy bachelor in exchange for his hand in marriage. Publication is planned for spring 2027; Katie Shea Boutillier at Donald Maass Agency brokered the deal for world rights.

Lisa Mangum at Shadow Mountain has acquired Janette Rallison's We Are Never Getting Together, a reverse Parent Trap in which two feuding teenagers pretend to be in love in order to keep their single parents apart, but the longer their fake-relationship continues, the more they discover that there may be things they actually like about each other. Publication is scheduled for spring 2026; Timothy Travaglini at Transatlantic Agency negotiated the deal for world English rights.

Hannah Hill at Delacorte Press has bought Sweet Disaster, the middle grade debut by Julian Winters (Right Where I Left You). Twelve-year-old Jevon Lawrence is going to be a world class chefif he can ace his apprenticeship at his grandmother's bakery this summer. But when a developer threatens to shut the place down and G'Ma's health takes a turn, Jevon must whip up a plan to save the shop with the help of a cute boy from the neighboring bubble tea cafe. Publication is set for spring 2027; Thao Le at Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency did the deal for world English rights.

Jen Besser and Hana Tzou at FSG Books for Young Readers have acquired Berserkers, the next middle-grade novel by M.A. Larson. Pitched as The Goonies meets Holes, this adventure follows a group of kids on a hunt for Viking treasure in the caves of small-town Minnesota, with an evil Spanish conquistador and his school-principal sidekick hot on their heels. Publication is slated for spring 2026; Alexandra Machinist at CAA sold world rights.

Andrew Karre at Dutton has bought, in an exclusive submission, North American rights to E.K. Johnston's middle grade debut, The Third Period Comeback, about an aspiring Canadian hockey player who must break her family curse if she wants to play professional hockey, for publication in summer 2026. Josh Adams at Adams Literary handled the two-book deal.

Alyson Heller at Aladdin has acquired Lambda finalist Isaac Fitzsimons's middle grade debut Astra Fox and the Wonderworkers Rebellion, set in an alternate Gilded Age where an aspiring wonderworker gains a once-in-a-lifetime apprenticeship, only to discover the illusions she creates uphold the very system that exploits her people and conceals the city's rotten core, in a magical take on Newsies. Publication is planned for fall 2026; Jordan Hamessley at JABberwocky Literary Agency did the deal for world English rights.

Emma Hintzen and Anna Luketic at Sourcebooks eXplore have bought world rights to Silly Science and Scary Science, a two-book middle grade collection by Chris Ferrie (l.) (Quantum Physics for Babies) and Kari Lavelle (c.) (Butt or Face?), in which kids discover hard-to-believe yet fascinating facts about a variety of STEM topics; Daniel Sulzberg (r.) will illustrate. Publication of the first book is set for fall 2027; Elizabeth Bennett at Transatlantic Agency represented Lavelle, Ferrie represented himself, and Lauren Ashleigh at Illustrator X represented the illustrator.

Jaime Gelman at Little Bee Books has acquired world rights to the first four books in Jenna Elyse Johnson's (l.) Mae and Malibu chapter book series, illustrated by Anuki Lopez, about a girl and her service dog. Publication for books one and two is scheduled for fall 2026, with book three in spring 2027 and book four in summer 2027; Christie Megill at the CAT Agency represented the author, and Vickie Savanella at Advocate Art represented the illustrator.

Deirdre Jones at Little, Brown has bought world rights to Round and Round, a celebration of the world's natural rhythms and cyclesfrom changing seasons and shifting tides, to the life cycles of plants and the stages of our own livesby Megan Litwin (l.) (Gather Grateful), illustrated by Melissa Castrillon (If I Had a Little Dream). Publication is slated for fall 2027; Lindsay Auld at Writers House represented the author, and Helen Boyle at Pickled Ink represented the illustrator.

Lawrence Schimel while at NorthSouth acquired world rights to The Crowded Crib by Bruce Coville (l.) (My Teacher Is an Alien),a bedtime picture book about a girl who must sleep with all of her stuffies, illustrated by German artist Miriam Zedelius in her first book for the U.S. market. Alisha Niehaus Berger and Alex Robertson will edit; publication is planned for summer 2027, simultaneously in Spanish, English, and German. Barry Goldblatt at Barry Goldblatt Literary represented the author, and Diana Steinbrede at Peretti Literary Agency represented the illustrator.

Elizabeth Lee at Penguin Workshop has bought world rights to My Barrio Sings in Spanglish by Monica Mancillas (l.), illustrated by Gabby Zapata. This picture book follows Liliana who loves to sing along to the natural music and movement of her Los Angeles barrio. Publication is set for fall 2027; Melissa Edwards at Stonesong Press represented the author, and Kelly Sonnack at Andrea Brown Literary Agency represented the illustrator.

Sarah Soldano at Barefoot Books has acquired Look at the City and Look at the Farm, illustrated by Juliana Eigner (Mari and the Great Market Swap); Elizabeth Jayasekera will edit. These concertina books explore the sights of the city and the farm. Publication is scheduled for spring 2026; Vickie Savanella at Advocate Art sold world rights.

Barb McNally at Sleeping Bear Press has bought world rights to the picture book Penny's Pages by Jenna Elyse Johnson (l.), illustrated by Janna Mattia. Penny is a bookstore dog who reigns over the neighborhood. When a new mail carrier takes on the bookstore route, Penny is eager to make another best friend, until she learns this mail carrier is afraid of dogs. Publication is slated for spring 2027; Christie Megill at the CAT Agency represented the author, and Emily Fernandez at the Bright Agency represented the illustrator.

Naomi Krueger at Beaming Books has acquired world rights to Naming the Moon by Kristen Witte (l.) (The Children's Illustrated Book of Tarot), illustrated by Vu Thuy Ngoc Ha. This picture book takes readers on a journey through the seasons to learn about the lore behind the name of each month's full moon. Publication is planned for January 2027; Kelly Bergh at Lucinda Literary represented the author, and Christina Doffing at Astound US represented the illustrator.
With good reason, Nathan Hale could refute the age-old superstition that the number 13 portends bad luck. Thirteen years after the debut of Nathan Hales Hazardous Tales, the author-illustrator has added volume 13 to the series with Bones and Berserkers:13 True Tales of Terror from American History. Due today from Abrams Fanfare with a 150,000-copy first printing, the anthology continues this Eisner-nominated series of graphic novels that illuminate dark, sometimes chilling events in U.S. history. Hales premise has hardly scared off middle grade readers: the series has racked up an in-print tally of two million copies worldwide since its 2012 launch with One Dead Spy: A Revolutionary War Story.

That inaugural titlesomewhat eerilyspotlights Continental Army soldier and spy Nathan Hale (no relation to the author) who dramatically and famously declared his only regret moments before he was hanged by the British in 1776. In a wry spin, the doomed patriot, his executioner, and a British officer who witnesses his hanging serve as narrators of the series first installment and return to play the same role throughout the series.

Prior to treading on hazardous historical turf, Hale illustrated two full-color graphic novels from Bloomsbury USA, Rapunzels Revenge and its follow-up, Calamity Jack, written by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale (again, no relation).

In a conversation with PW, Nathan Hale credited those two books meshing fantasy and history with sparking his interest in the latter. Since his reading taste as a kid gravitated toward the daily funnies and the editorial cartoons in the newspaper, he noted, The fact that I have stumbled into being a history buff as a comics guy is really funny to me now!

Before illustrating Rapunzels Revenge, which is set in the Wild West, the Utah resident boned up on the era extensively. I researched Western costumes, vehicles, and buildings to make it feel real, since that part of the story was so much more interesting to me than the fairy tale aspect, Hale recalled. And that was one of the things that put me on the path to digging into history.

A Successful Excavation

A stroke of serendipity led Hale to Abrams, where then-art director Chad Beckerman (now a literary agent who represents the author) spotted a one-page comic about Lewis and Clark in Hales online artist portfolio. Recognizing Hales potential as a graphic novelist, Beckerman showed the comic to Maggie Lehrman, who has spent two decades at Abrams and is now associate publisher of childrens books.

Agreeing with Beckermans assessment, Lehrman said, We reached out to Nate and started developing what would become Hazardous Tales, and we never looked back. (Though the series doesnt yet include a book about Lewis and Clark, Lehrman mused, Maybe one day!)

Lehrman praised Hales ability to juggle essential ingredients of middle grade nonfiction that inform and entertain. Nate manages to combine historical fact and humor in a way that I have rarely seen before, she noted. His sense of humor was the first thing that jumped out at me, and his art was immediately appealing. That, combined with the books pace and voice and Nates deep research, meant that it all clicked.

Hale, in turn, credited Lehrman for her balanced approach to editing Hazardous Tales, saying, Maggie steers me in the right direction but always knows when to let me do my own weird thing!

That artistic freedom is particularly important to Hale, who explained that when he is writing history for young readers, he adheres to the facts. But, he added, When Im drawing history books, I like to let the artwork run wild. History is filled with interesting things to draw, and with comics I can go bonkers and really have fun.

To that end, Hale gave himself free rein in Bones and Berserkers. Since this is book 13, I wanted to make it the Halloween Special of the series and include 13 scary stories, along with some crazy supernatural visuals, he said. Im breaking some rules with this book, since its not strictly about American history, but spills over into mythology and fantasy. And one story is an adaptation of an Edgar Allan Poe storythe final one he wrote before he died.

Given Hales goal of creating the scariest, grossest illustrations that I couldand still make the book publishable, his dedication for Bones and Berserkers comes as no surprise: To Stephen Gammell and Alvin Schwartz, creators of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and to the publishing team who allowed them to make the most horrifying illustrations ever created for children.

Next fall, Hale returns to the realm of stark historical realism with his 14th, still untitled, Hazardous Tale, which centers on World War II. I wrote about that wars Pacific Theater in Raid of No Return, but Ive steered clear of the European Theater until now, he said. This book began as a story about the rise of the Nazis, but I took a step back from that, because it was so difficult to deal with. Its hard not to live in the world youre writing about. So, instead I decided to focus on the end of World War II when we see Nazism falling apart.

Lehrman noted that she looks forward to additional hazards Hale decides to spotlight from the annals of U.S. history. It has been incredibly rewarding to have worked on all of Nates Hazardous Tales, plus the five or six additional books that he and I have published together during that time, she said. Nate has such a strong sense of what his audience wants to read, and hes never been wrong yet!

Bones and Berserkers: 13 True Tales of Terror from American History by Nathan Hale. Abrams Fanfare, $15.99 Sept. 9 ISBN 978-1-4197-7320-4
Twin Cities childrens authors are responding to the August 27 mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis in the best way they know how: providing solace with books. Two local childrens book authors are spearheading book drives, and a third is using donations made to her literary nonprofit organization to buy books for the school.

Karlyn Coleman, a former English teacher at Annunciation Catholic School whose children graduated from there, is leading a book drive and has compiled a list of recommended titles that includes categories specifically requested by Annunciation students. Coleman has been soliciting book donations since September 3, when she proposed the book drive to the schools librarian and media specialist, Megan Stebbins.

More than 800 books have been donated to date, including 200 copies of The Rabbit Listened by Minneapolis author Cori Doerrfeld that were donated by PRH. Another 300 copies of Doerrfeld's 2018 picture book about the power of empathy and kindness, also donated by PRH, have been distributed already to other schools in the neighborhood. Stebbins will distribute the books gathered by Coleman to Annunciation students. Books will also be donated to three public schools nearby and to Childrens Minnesota Hospital  Minneapolis.

Book donations can be mailed to or dropped off at 5333 Colfax Avenue S., Minneapolis, MN 55419, or else ordered from local indie childrens bookstore Wild Rumpus.

As for author Abby Cooper, the day after the shooting she left a stack of books at a memorial set up outside Annunciation that were gone instantly, she told PW. She said she has now earmarked all donations received this month by A Book of My Own, the nonprofit she founded in 2023 to provide books free of charge to Minnesota school children, for Annunciation. To date, Cooper has raised more than $1,000 and donated more than 50 new books to Colemans book drive.

Books are a powerful tool to help students process, cope, and grieve, Cooper said. They also provide a much-needed comfort and escape. I am so glad to be part of this effort.

Meanwhile, author Anne Ursu is raising money to buy copies from Wild Rumpus of the newly published Not Like Every Day: Finding Calm During School Lockdown Drills by Stephanie Lucianovic, a Bay Areabased childrens author who, coincidentally, grew up in Minneapolis around the corner from Ursu and attended high school less than three miles away from Annunciation.

Ursu, who lives a mile from Annunciation, launched her fundraiser last week. She has to date raised $2,300, enough to buy about 150 copies of Not Like Every Day from Wild Rumpus. Copies of the book, which was released by Random House Books for Young Readers on September 2, will be distributed at Annunciation and donated to other Twin Cities area schools as well. Ursu also plans to buy a crate of books from Red Balloon Bookshop in St. Paul to be handed out to attendees at RBBs educators night on September 25.

This has shaken everybody in the community, Ursu said, and it has put so much more fear into childrens hearts. Theres nothing more to be said about it, except for how horrific that we live like this as a society. Its sickening that there would be such a demand for a book like this that a Big Five publisher decided to publish it. But Im grateful that they did have the courage to publish it.

For Lucianovic, the newfound relevance of her book is bittersweet. While I know that school shootings have become a horrifically and seemingly inevitable part of our everyday realitywhich is why I wrote the book in the first place, I definitely never thought my book would be put to use in this exact way, Lucianovic told PW from her home in California. Having my book involved makes me feel like I'm able to hug my hometown from afar.
The aftershocks of the Alaskan summit have revived a geopolitical triangle that can stabilize the Middle East. Despite controversy, the revival of U.S.Russian relations are not a harbinger of Cold War regression, but an opportunity to solve the endless conflicts in the Middle East, including those that are tied to Israeli security and regional stability.

Putins positive response to the August summit, followed by Zelenskyys successful visit to the White House, signals a breakthrough in the Eastern Hemisphere and a potential domino effect to peaceful global relations. Trump immediately took to Fox News to remind Zelenskyy that an immediate security guarantee and end to the war can be reached, in exchange for unofficial land concessions and a rejection of NATO membership. Putin silently affirmed these remarks in his agreement to meet with Zelenskyy at a US-hosted bilateral meeting in the near future. Though extremely unpopular across Europe, pacifying Russias territorial desires may foster a diplomatic approach from Putin towards other key conflicts.

Immediately following the summit, both leaders delivered a joint press conference reassuring the audience of great progress made in regards to ending the Ukrainian war. Though no concrete deal has been reached, Putin recently touted continued constructive dialogue and an understanding that was absent during the Biden Administration.

President Trumps renewed relationship with Putin should be seen as an opportunity to achieve American diplomatic interests in various conflicts, including Gaza and Syria. Realistically, Putin is in it for the long haul, and has already demonstrated passive willingness to provide a buffer between Israel and Syria in the midst of the Suwayda conflict, and accepted the American-run Zangezur corridor in the caucuses for the next 99 years that counters Iranian and Turkish dominance. All are high-profile interests for Israel and Syria, and its not a reach to assume that Putin would consider adding the United States to its extensive list of opportunistic partnerships. The US should continue its cautious optimism for a fair compromise in Ukraine that would deliver wins for the peace president in the Middle East, as renewed US-Russian diplomacy could diffuse the Israeli-Syrian tension, weaken Iranian influence, and place Turkeys regional expansion on the backburner.

In Syria, for example, recent fighting between Sharaas government forces and the Druze in the south prompted Israeli strikes in Damascus and conflict zones, forcing the former terrorist group to call for Russian military presence as a buffer for a ceasefire. Admittedly, Russias buffer would offset the insanely complex American position in the region, which is awkwardly in the middle of backing Israel as an ally and historically propping up the SDF in the north; both recent adversaries of Sharaas new government in Syria, which Trump has also recently and very publicly supported.

Israels attempt to deliver aid to Suwayda a month ago was blocked by neighboring Jordan, forcing an airdrop instead, which serendipitously kickstarted a discussion on the feasibility of a humanitarian corridor between Syria and Israel, a small but mighty step towards Trumps endless push for normalization. Russias strategic placement in the area could continue as a buffer for protection during its constructionand a US-mediated corridor could finally restart normalization talks. The plain hard truth? Partnership with Russia is the quickest and most peaceful way to end the Ukrainian and Syrian conflicts.

Additionally, partnering with Putin in the caucasus would help counter Turkish territorial ambitions and provide a mediator for Iranian discontent with our Zangezur corridor, a promising avenue for American economic growth and diplomacy in the hemisphere. The Twelve Day Wars artillery phase may have passed, but its transmutation into recent cyber warfare between Iran and Israel indicates the need for more diffusion, which is not impossible with Putins past attempts to persuade Iran on various issues.

As unpopular as the idea may be, cooperation with Russia through Trump-era means may be the key to finally achieving an end to relevant conflicts. In the medium-to-long term, it could create a needed humanitarian corridor in Syria, foster Israeli-Syrian backchannel diplomacy, contain Iran and Turkey without US military intervention, and de-escalation in Ukraine.

Its time to retire Cold War-era animosity and accept Putins invitation to a diplomatic session in Moscow. Trumps transactional diplomacy and a pragmatic US-Russian deal on Ukraine could deliver broader strategic progress for peace in the Middle East. Though its not guaranteed, formal rapprochement with Russia is certainly the next right step for both suffering civilians and the United States.

Lora Karch is a Middle East History and Peace Fellow with Young Voices and an independent analyst focused on national security and political issues in the Middle East and Europe. She works at The Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C. and is passionate about individual liberties, fostering peace, and safeguarding legacies of ancient civilizations. Her work has appeared in The National Interest, The Libertarian Institute, Free the People, RealClearWorld, Times of Israel, and more. Follow her on X: @LoraKarch
Disney/Michael Kirchoff

By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 09/10/2025



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Taylor Frankie Paul has been announced as the next star, and ABC has called on "saints, sinners and suitors" to be a part of her journey.Taylor, a 31-year-old divorced mother of three and the creator of #MomTok, will be handing out roses on 's 22nd season when it premieres in 2026."After igniting MomTok and going viral for pulling back the curtain on Salt Lake's soft-swinging scene... the Utah native is ready to trade headline-making heartbreak for hometown dates as she begins making her mark on Bachelor Nation," ABC teased of Taylor's upcoming season.Taylor boasts millions of followers on TikTok by posting comedic and sharp content that many fans find heartwarming, honest and resilient."She inspires others to embrace life's chaos and own their story," ABC says of Taylor.The announcement of Taylor's casting was first made on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast on Wednesday.Taylor told the podcast's host Alex Cooper that she's open to dating outside of her Mormon faith.She also said she'd like to meet a "hardworking and motivated" man between the ages of 27 and 43 who will be willing to move to Utah."I'm sorry if that is a make or break for them, but yeah, I am in Utah, and I have two baby daddies. I'm going nowhere," she quipped.Taylor doesn't present a squeaky-clean image has typically gone for in the past by casting leads such as bridal designer Desiree Hartsock , widowed single mom Emily Maynard , elementary school teacher Michelle Young , and mental health therapist Charity Lawson Taylor married Tate Paul in 2016 and the pair welcomed two children together: daughter Indy, 8, and son Ocean, 5.In 2022, Taylor revealed on social media that she and Tate had been "soft-swinging," which is a term used to describe consensual partner swapping in a non-monogamous arrangement.Taylor admitted to violating the rules the couple had set for themselves by becoming more intimate with another man in their friend group, which led to their separation and eventual May 2022 divorce.The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, which premiered in 2023, featured the cheating scandal and documented the highs and lows of Taylor's friendships as well as her rocky romance with Dakota Mortensen, the first man she dated after her divorce from Tate.The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives also documented Taylor's arrest in 2023.Taylor was taken into custody following a fight with Dakota in which she had allegedly thrown furniture at him and accidentally struck one of her children with a barstool.Taylor was booked for aggravated assault, two counts of domestic violence in the presence of a child, child abuse with injury, and criminal mischief, according to Us Weekly.The influencer pleaded guilty in August 2023 to aggravated assault. In exchange, the other four charges were dropped and Taylor ultimately reached a plea deal.Taylor and Dakota, however, stayed together through the drama and welcomed a son, Ever True, in March 2024. They broke up months later in the fall.Taylor had reportedly pitched herself as the next possible star earlier this summer and ABC took her into consideration since ABC and Hulu are each subsidiaries of The Walt Disney Company."Honestly, it was a joke. I was just throwing it out there, like, 'What do I lose in a relationship sense?'" Taylor told Us in an interview."I actually made [a different video] three years ago, and then I made another [in June], like, 'This is my audition for .' It's very surreal, and I think it's not going to hit until that limo pulls up with that first guy coming out."Taylor assured Us that there is a side of her that is "completely different" from how she is perceived on reality TV and social media.She also told Alex on her podcast that the soft-swinging lifestyle is "not who I am anymore."Taylor explained how she has turned her mistakes into life lessons."I think [that makes you] more wise and aware -- or at least self-aware," Taylor told the magazine."I can't say that I'll never make mistakes again. We're human. We always will. But it's learning, growing and then having the tools to navigate the next one."While won't be returning until next year, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is set to release new episodes on November 13 on Hulu.Two other stars from The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, Whitney Leavitt and Jen Affleck, will also be competing on Dancing with the Stars' 34th season on ABC and Disney+ this fall.'s official premiere date and cast of bachelors for Season 22 will be announced at a later date.Interested in more The Bachelor news? Follow our Bachelor Nation News Page on Facebook or join our The Bachelor Facebook Group
Optionele Inhoud

As the title suggests, this is not a definitive report on the functioning of the NCC. Rather, it is an interim assessment of the NCC's first six years since its launch in 2019. It provides insight into possible developments and improvements in the NCC's remaining inaugural term. When the NCC was established in 2019, it was anticipated that the start-up phase would span a decade. However, this was just an expectation. The report seems to suggest, albeit cautiously, that the start-up phase may take a little longer.



According to the NCC, this is not unusual for new initiatives undertaken on a completely voluntary basis, with all parties having to opt for the NCC before it will hear a case. Evidence of this can be seen in the report's examples of previous initiatives by the Council for the Judiciary based on Article 96 of the Dutch Code of Civil Procedure (p. 61), the Enterprise Chamber and the English-language Maritime Court (p. 62). The Enterprise Chamber also had a slow start in terms of caseload, but there now appears to be a significant demand for this specialised form of judicial procedure.



It is also evident from the experiences of foreign commercial courts comparable to the NCC that a fully voluntary commercial court will have a low caseload in its start-up phase. In the first six years of the Frankfurt Commercial Court's existence, only ten cases were filed.



See Figure 3.24 on page 105. Incidentally, the relevant statutes were recently amended in Germany, often citing the NCC as an example. The WODC has not researched other English-language commercial courts, either existing or those currently being established in countries such as Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Cyprus.



A total of 43 cases were filed with the NCC/NCCA in the first six years: 37 with the NCC (p. 42) and 6 with the NCCA (p. 52). In addition to Netherlands-based litigants, the parties to these cases came from all over the world: Asia (India, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Singapore); Russia; Turkey; the United States; the United Kingdom; Switzerland; and the European Union (see Figure 2.5). This suggests that parties from all over the world are familiar with and have confidence in the NCC.

The commercial courts of Paris (more than 200 cases per year; see Figure 3.25) and London (more than 500 cases; Figure 3.22), investigated by the WODC, handled substantially more cases. However, these courts are not comparable to the NCC because they hear cases on a statutory, rather than a voluntary basis. This demonstrates the significant potential for international cases, but highlights the need for the mandatory use of the international commercial division, as opposed to the legislator's voluntary approach in the case of the NCC (p. 11).


On Aug. 30 around 2:23 p.m. on the day of the University of Georgia vs. Marshall football game, a UGA Police Department officer was dispatched to the North Campus Parking Deck, located at 21 S. Jackson St., in response to a report of theft by deception.
'I can sanction projects worth Rs 20 trillion annually as of today.'

'But my system is only capable of executing projects worth Rs 3 trillion to Rs 4 trillion.'

IMAGE: Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari during the inauguration of India's second-longest cable-stayed bridge, the 6-kilometre-long Ambaragodlu-Kalasavalli Bridge, in Shivamogga, July 14, 2025. Photograph: @nitin_gadkari X/ANI Photo

Infrastructure is core to India's ambition to be a $5 trillion economy, creating jobs, attracting investments and fighting poverty, said Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways, at the Business Standard Infrastructure Summit 2025 in New Delhi.

"Infrastructure needs a virtuous cycle of investments," Gadkari tells Nivedita Mookerji/Business Standard in the first of a two-part interview.

I will begin by asking you for your assessment of the infrastructure sector in India. How do you consider it and how can it be made world class?

Infrastructure is very important for the development of our country. Water, power, transport and communication: These are the main [components of] infrastructure.

Without having good infrastructure, we cannot have capital investment, which in turn will result in poor employment opportunities, thus limiting our fight against poverty.

It is the virtuous cycle of investments [in infrastructure] that will lead to greater productivity, job creation and demand, which in turn encourages further investment and the cycle continues.

Everywhere we are constructing roads, hence industrial clusters, logistics parks and real estate are being developed.

For example, the newly inaugurated Dwarka Expressway has resulted in a real estate development of around Rs 8 trillon to Rs 10 trillion.

It's our government's vision to create the third largest economy, and that is the reason it has given the highest priority to infrastructure development.

Anywhere we construct a road, there is huge potential for development of real estate, logistics parks etc.

A recent study conducted jointly by IIM Bangalore, IIT Kanpur and IIT Roorkee showed that logistics cost in India has reduced by 6 per cent.

I am confident that by the end of December, logistics costs would be reduced to single digit -- it is around 16 per cent at present.

By reducing this cost, we are going to increase our exports. To achieve the $5 trillion economy goal [set by the central government], it is important to have good infrastructure.

This will be in line with the logistics cost for other developed economies such as China (8 per cent), US (12 per cent), and Europe (12 per cent).

A few days ago, I released a report by a reputed company. It showed that the share of road transport in logistics is around 82 per cent; the share of railways is 1 per cent and the rest is by air and other means.

You must understand that by reducing logistics costs, we are going to increase exports and our prime minister's vision is to make India a $5 trillion economy.

For that reason, if we need to increase the growth of our country -- be it the agricultural or industrial sector -- we need good infrastructure and we are giving it the highest priority.

I am 100 per cent sure we will shortly become the world's third largest economy.

The prime minister, while inaugurating road projects recently, praised infrastructure creation.

As minister, what challenges have you faced in infrastructure creation, especially in attracting private funds?

Challenges are everywhere. I always tell people that there are some people who convert opportunities into challenges and there are some people who convert challenges into opportunities.

It's a test of leadership and their vision. It's like an examination for them.

There are challenges related to land acquisition, environment clearance, Railway clearance, etc. But we are constantly pursuing the matter and following up on that.

I know the position of each and every project. Even when Parliament is in session, I am holding review meetings.

I meet with 100-150 parliamentarians who tell me about the status of each and every project.

I meet my officials as well and ask them about challenges. I instruct them to resolve problems that might be arising in any of the projects.

At present, we do not have much of a problem. The problem is not resources; it's the expenditure of resources and not raising money itself.

For example, in the Infrastructure Investment Trust (InVIT) model, we were able to raise the required money within hours in the IPO market, and it [the offer] was oversubscribed.

We are giving 8.05 per cent interest return yearly on that. The cost of the bond was Rs 100 -- it now comes to Rs 140, so the return is more than 22 per cent.

I request people from all income groups to invest in National Highways Authority of India bonds, as they yield good returns.

Every project of mine is economically viable -- I don't have any problem. The only challenge lies in pushing the projects through the system.

I can sanction projects worth Rs 20 trillion annually as of today. But my system is only capable of executing projects worth Rs 3 trillion to Rs 4 trillion.

So, money is not a problem for me. Toll collection today stands at Rs 55,000 crore annually; it's slated to go up to Rs 140,000 crore in the next two years.

I will monetise it for 15 years; tremendous money is available to me.

You spoke about the goal of Viksit Bharat. Do you think structural reforms are required for that as the government focusses on boosting growth, demand and consumption?

Have you discussed infrastructure in your meetings with the prime minister?

Reform is a continuous process. We are thinking of using AI in road construction; we have issued a circular making it mandatory to use pre-cast technology in road construction.

We have decided to make green highways; we are also thinking of using construction equipment that runs on alternative fuels and not on fossil fuels.

We have already used 80 tonnes of municipal garbage in road construction.

We are also in the testing phase of using bio-bitumen obtained from rice straw to make roads.

We are always innovating and finding newer ways to adapt to the arising conditions.

All of this is possible because of the feedback that we get from various stakeholders, especially people like you in the press.

We are always open to receive suggestions and feedback. We are using the best of the technology that is available anywhere in the world.

For example, in the Zojila Tunnel in Kashmir, we saved around Rs 5,000 crore because we made the best of the technology available to our people.

Reforms are a continuous process and everywhere we are making changes as and when they are arising.

IMAGE: Nitin Gadkari with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Saini at the Dwarka Expressway during the inauguration of its Delhi section, August 17, 2025. Photograph: DPR PMO/ANI Photo

While great bridges and tunnels are being built, there is a concern that highways and roads are not great. Road quality is an issue

There are challenges and problems. Landslides, particularly in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand are a big problem.

We are trying to use AI in detecting landslide-prone stretches, accident-prone spots, waterlogging, and black spots along the national highways.

We have already issued the circular. Wherever there is flooding, we are trying to use technology to check the strength of the bridges and (other structures).

I am the minister for national highways. I am not the minister for Delhi roads, municipal roads, panchayat roads, state roads, rural roads.

My problem is that anywhere a new road is being built, people are giving me credit.

Similarly, if anywhere there is a problem in roads, people are giving me the discredit. I am only responsible for national highways.

I ask you, where is the problem in national highways? If anyone can tell me.

As far as quality is concerned, I am very much conscious of it. I take strict action against erring contractors.

I am blacklisting them, charging fines and even pursuing criminal charges as well. I am not going to tolerate anything regarding quality.

Though sometimes there are genuine problems as well. We are looking into that as well. If mistakes are bona fide we will forgive them, but if these are mala fide we are not going to spare them.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff
As the potential threat of a steep 200 per cent tariff on pharmaceutical imports hangs in the air, analysts and industry insiders feel that focus on exports to non-US regions as well as domestic market will increase as a long-term trend.

Photograph:Yves Herman/Reuters

US President Donald Trump told CNBCs Squawk Box in the first week of August that planned tariffs on import of pharmaceutical products to the US could eventually reach up to 250 per cent.

According to AP, US administration officials have suggested duties of up to 200 per cent on drugs as they invoked the national security provisions under Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act of 1962, arguing that America needs to boost domestic drug manufacturing.

India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) said they expect this exemption may be temporary due to changes in tariff policies and negotiations between several countries and the US government.

Even with an exemption, Indias pharmaceutical sector might face targeted tariffs if the US identifies trade or security reasons.

"The US generic market is crucial for India, contributing about 35 per cent or $10.7 billion to its total revenue, said an analyst.

Indian pharma firms have posted a 4.2 per cent CAGR (compound annual growth rate) in US sales from FY17 to FY25 due to price erosion, channel consolidation, and regulatory changes.

With muted Ebitda margins and returns from the US, Indian pharma companies have been diversifying their operations to reduce the cash flow impact, focusing on expanding sales in non-US markets, emphasising high-margin branded generics, and boosting API manufacturing, the analyst said.

Ebitda stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, API represents active pharmaceutical ingredient.

Ind-Ra anticipates this trend to persist as the US markets appeal diminishes compared to domestic and non-regulated export markets.

Indian pharma companies are shifting focus from the heavily competitive US generic market to developed markets such as Europe and Japan (increasing demand for generics), and other semi-developed markets, such as Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.

Moreover, focus on the domestic market is rising.

The Indian pharmaceutical market (IPM) is crucial for domestic pharma firms, contributing 41 per cent to the sales for the selected coverage universe.

Despite challenges, the IPM has grown at a CAGR of 10 per cent over the past decade, and Ind-Ra projects IPM to achieve 8-9 per cent (Y-o-Y) growth in the coming years.

As of now, sheer volumes partly shield Indian firms from US tariff threat.

The US heavily relies on Indian generics due to their low-cost, high-volume nature, making it challenging to replace them with higher-cost local production.

This somewhat shields Indian pharma firms from future US tariffs, as they help reduce US health care costs by around $15,000 per capita.

Ind-Ra said the price gap between generic and patented products in the US is about 95 per cent.

Issues such as price erosion, regulatory challenges, and substantial R&D costs result in low Ebitda margins for many Indian pharma firms in the US generic market.

Although the generic market represents just 11 per cent of the total US pharma market ($753 billion) in value terms, it accounts for 90 per cent of US prescriptions.

India commands a 45 per cent share of these prescriptions due to its low-cost, high-volume production.

Indian firms are crucial for US healthcare, manufacturing at 25-30 per cent of the US cost.

According to IQVIA, Indian firms provided over half of the prescriptions in five of the top 10 therapies by volume, including hypertension and mental health.

Indian generics saved the US healthcare system $219 billion in 2022 and $1.3 trillion from 2013 to 2022, with expected savings of another $1.3 trillion over the next five years.

Companies, nonetheless, are considering long-term plans to have production at multiple locations.

Several firms that Business Standard spoke to said they were engaged in scenario-building exercises, which include options for mid-term and long-term solutions like developing offshore manufacturing, securing raw material supplies from multiple sources, exploring contract manufacturing in the US, etc.

The executive director of a leading Indian drug firm, which has a strong presence in the US, told Business Standard that companies are indeed considering multiple options to safeguard their interests as America is the largest market for Indian pharma exports.

As for immediate purposes, the discussion is around how much of the tariff, if imposed, can be passed on.

"This will vary greatly across molecules. In those molecules where some Indian players will slash prices, others may find them unviable and exit, leading to drug shortages in the US, he said.

Another option being considered is whether it is prudent to have offshore manufacturing.

Indian companies are indeed studying the options about shifting some manufacturing to the US.

"Already some companies have a presence. However, this has a gestation period, said another industry veteran.

He further elaborated that as the cost of conversion (money you spend turning raw materials into finished products) is almost three-four times more in the US due to manpower costs.

Manpower costs would be almost 70 per cent of this.

"If one shifts manufacturing to the US, then the overall cost of production goes up 1.5-times vis-a-vis India, he said, adding that companies are considering contract manufacturing.

One could split the contract  do processes A to X in India and complete processes Y and Z in the US, he further said.
Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran on Wednesday said that the country is not pursuing any proposal to replace the US dollar as international currency for global trade.

Photograph: Dado Ruvic/Reuters

"No, certainly not. I think India is not part of any such initiative," he said in response to a question if India is looking at an alternative currency to the US dollar for global trade.

Although last year, at the BRICS Summit held in October in Kazan, Russia, India and other BRICS nations had contemplated settlement of cross-border payments in local currency and had agreed for creation of a special BRICS currency.

"We recognise the widespread benefits of faster, low cost, more efficient, transparent, safe and inclusive cross-border payment instruments built upon the principle of minimising trade barriers and non-discriminatory access.

"We welcome the use of local currencies in financial transactions between BRICS countries and their trading partners," the declaration of the 16th BRICS Summit held in October 2024 had said.

BRICS is a grouping of emerging economies comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates.

It aims to promote unified emerging economy perspectives in multilateral forums.

Nageswaran further emphasised that there is not a very viable alternative to the US dollar at this point, and it may take even a much longer time to emerge.

However, central banks are keeping their portfolio of foreign exchange reserves on a diversified basis.

The Reserve Bank has also increased its share of gold purchases etc in the last few years, he said.

"So, there is a constant attention being paid to the composition of the foreign exchange reserves, including gold," he added.
New business premiums of life insurance companies dropped 5.2 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in August to Rs 30,959 crore, owing to a double-digit decline reported by state-owned Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), data from the Life Insurance Council showed.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh

LIC recorded a 17 per cent YoY fall in new business premiums to Rs 16,023 crore during the month, while private life insurers reported a 12 per cent YoY increase to Rs 14,936 crore.

Within LICs portfolio, group single premiums fell 26 per cent YoY, contributing to an overall 21.3 per cent decline in the group insurance segment.

In individual premiums, LIC posted a 5 per cent YoY drop in August.

Among private players, SBI Life Insurance, the largest private sector life insurer, reported 23 per cent YoY growth in premiums in August to Rs 3,321.24 crore.

HDFC Life Insurance recorded 9.54 per cent growth to Rs 3,063.85 crore, while ICICI Prudential Life Insurance posted a 17.70 per cent rise to Rs 1,776.3 crore.

Other major players also reported strong growth, with Axis Max Life Insurance rising 19.63 per cent YoY and Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance jumping 55.89 per cent YoY.

There is a possible normalisation in growth of LICs group business, which had seen strong growth in August 2024.

"Further, the industry is also seeing the impact of a high base effect due to changes in regulations, which is likely to adjust by September 2025.

"However, the industry will see the impact of the recently introduced GST reforms from October 2025.

"Although the norms will cause more volatility in the short term, in the long run they are beneficial and will result in additional coverage by existing customers and more people buying fresh insurance covers due to increased affordability, said Saurabh Bhalerao, associate director, BFSI, CareEdge Ratings.

For the AprilAugust period of FY26, new business premiums of life insurers grew 6 per cent YoY to Rs 1.63 trillion.

LIC posted a 3 per cent YoY increase to Rs 98,051 crore, while private insurers registered 10.84 per cent growth to Rs 65,410.4 crore.
'First-time investors, busy professionals, NRIs and those with modest sums looking for curated strategies may find FoFs especially appealing.'

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff

Fund-of-funds (FoFs), once largely focused on debt-plus-arbitrage strategies, are now expanding into diversified equity and hybrid categories.

At least five new equity and multi-asset FoFs are set to launch soon.

So, why the growing interest in this space?

What is a fund-of-funds?

An FoF does not directly invest in stocks or bonds but instead allocates money to other mutual funds.

"Whether it's equity, debt, international funds or even passive strategies -- FoFs bring them all together under one umbrella. It gives you exposure to a wide range of ideas and themes without having to chase them individually," says Nikunj Saraf, CEO, Choice Wealth.

Why the surge in launches?

The surge in FoF launches -- particularly in the equity and hybrid segments --is being driven by two converging factors: Rising investor sophistication and the evolving strategy of fund houses.

"Investors want diversification, expert allocation and access to multiple strategies, but without the hassle of piecemeal investing or constant rebalancing. FoFs offer exactly that--a bundled, expert-managed solution," says Sanjeev Govila, certified financial planner and chief executive officer, Hum Fauji Initiatives.

Investors want simplicity without diluting the strategy.

"Asset management companies are catching on to this shift in investor mindset. Instead of offering yet another plain vanilla equity or debt fund, they're packaging multiple strategies into a single product that feels complete," adds Saraf.

Some fund houses also find it easier to sell new fund offers (NFOs) rather than existing schemes.

"Fund houses have mostly run out of the existing fund categories specified by Sebi. Thematic fund NFOs were popular last year and attracted significant new assets under management," says Vikas V Gupta, CEO and chief investment strategist, Omniscience Capital Advisors.

"Now, FoF is a category that can attract new AUM," adds Gupta.

Diversification benefit

FoFs offer instant diversification by spreading your investment across multiple mutual funds.

"These funds are often managed by different teams with varied philosophies.

"Investors also benefit from consolidated rebalancing, tactical allocation shifts and exposure to global or thematic opportunities that might be tough to access otherwise," says Govila.

Saraf adds that retail investors do not have to stress about which funds to pick, as professionals take that decision on their behalf.

Gupta highlights that FoFs are likely to be less volatile, especially if they invest across multiple asset classes.

Costs and overlaps a concern

Their biggest drawback is cost.

Since an FoF invests in other mutual funds, the expense ratio includes both its own fees and those of the underlying funds.

Such double-layered costs can eat into returns.

"Investors pay not one but two sets of fees--one at the FoF level and another at the underlying fund level," says Saraf.

Sometimes the diversification may be less effective than it appears: two underlying funds might hold similar stocks.

Another risk is over-diversification, where excessive spread dilutes impact.

Taxation can also be tricky.

"Even if the underlying fund is equity-oriented, a fund-of-funds is not directly classified as an equity fund unless it meets the 90 per cent criteria under Section 112A. Otherwise, it is taxed as a debt fund," says Naitik Doshi, director, Nangia Andersen.

Who should invest?

FoFs work well for those who want diversified exposure and professional oversight, but prefer a hands-off approach.

"First-time investors, busy professionals, non-resident Indians and those with modest sums looking for curated strategies may find FoFs especially appealing," says Govila.

Saraf says they work well for those who want to delegate fund selection and rebalancing to experts.

"Investors who don't have trusted advisers or mutual fund distributors and don't have the time, resources or understanding to allocate across funds or asset classes over time, should also consider them," says Gupta.

Even seasoned investors can consider FoFs.

"In particular, those seeking international exposure may go for them, as most global mutual fund options in India are offered through the FoF route," says Anand K Rathi, co-founder, MIRA Money.

Who should avoid them?

Experienced investors who prefer building and managing their own portfolios may find FoFs too restrictive.

"If you are cost-conscious, want full control over fund selection, or already have a well-balanced portfolio, adding an FoF may bring more duplication than value," says Govila.

Adding an FoF to an existing portfolio can also make it difficult to control its asset allocation.

Saraf adds that investors particular about tax efficiency might want to consider other options.

Gupta says that sophisticated investors and those with access to good advisers or wealth managers need not opt for FoFs. Investors seeking aggressive growth may also find them misaligned with their financial goals.

Key checks before investing

Assess the quality and consistency of the underlying schemes.

"Are they top-quartile, benchmark-beating funds, or just average names bundled together?" says Govila.

Understand the fund's asset allocation model.

"Is it static or dynamic? Also assess whether it aligns with your risk profile," says Govila.

Avoid FoFs that merely mimic your existing portfolio and offer no additional diversification.

Understand the fund manager's philosophy and track record across market cycles. Also, review the total expense ratio.

Know the type of funds the FoF invests in.

"Is it a mix of equity and debt? Are the funds domestic, global or both?" says Saraf.

Gupta stresses the importance of checking whether the FoF allows investment across different fund houses or restricts it to its own AMC.

How are FoFs taxed?

Equity FoF

Equity-oriented FoF classified as equity fund if it meets 90 per cent criteria under Section 112A

At least 90 per cent of FoF's investments (by value) must be in units of equity-oriented MFs (with at least 65 per cent investment in equity shares of domestic companies)

Debt FoF

Gains added to income, taxed at slab rates

Hybrid FoF

65 per cent equity: equity taxation (12.5% LTCG above Rs 1.25 lakh; 20% STCG; 12-month holding)

35 per cent equity: debt tax (slab rate; no holding period benefit)

3565 per cent equity: 12.5% LTCG; STCG at slab rate; 24-month holding

Source: Nangia Andersen LLP

Disclaimer: This article is meant for information purposes only. This article and information do not constitute a distribution, an endorsement, an investment advice, an offer to buy or sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any securities/schemes or any other financial products/investment products mentioned in this article to influence the opinion or behaviour of the investors/recipients.

Any use of the information/any investment and investment related decisions of the investors/recipients are at their sole discretion and risk. Any advice herein is made on a general basis and does not take into account the specific investment objectives of the specific person or group of persons. Opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff
It is high time India ends its silence on the human cost of the Gaza war and takes a principled stand without diluting its relations with Israel.

A largely friendless Tel Aviv today needs New Delhi more than the other way around.

India's failure now may cost it diplomatically in the long run. After all, seeing the mass anger within Israel, Netanyahu is unlikely to last in power for long, points out M R Narayan Swamy.

IMAGE: A child flees after Israel strikes a school sheltering displaced people at the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, July 17, 2025. Photograph: Reuters

India's self-claimed leadership of the Global South will be under scrutiny when the lingering issue of Palestine takes the centrestage at the United Nations this month amid New Delhi's deafening silence on Israel's genocidal war on Gaza.

Decades after India and much of the world recognised the State of Palestine in 1988, some long-time Western allies of Israel will now take the same step in what is bound to be a significant diplomatic setback to the political leadership in Tel Aviv.

Although all that remains of an originally conceived Palestinian State now is a ruined Gaza Strip and a tottering West Bank, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reacted with fury after France, Canada, Australia, the UK as well as Belgium announced their decision to recognise Palestine.

Netanyahu's anger is understandable.

These predominantly European countries had for long desisted from recognising Palestine but decided enough was enough in the wake of Israel's brutal onslaught on Gaza which has claimed more than 64,000 lives -- most of them innocent civilians -- and shows no signs of ending.

It is noteworthy that Australia and the European countries have taken the plunge despite having had good relations with Tel Aviv and knowing well that their move is bound to upset US President Donald Trump as well.

This is where India, once a vocal champion of Palestinian rights, comes in.

It seems a long way back when India established ties with the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1974, allowed a PLO office to come up in New Delhi the next year, and joined the world at large in recognising Palestine soon after the PLO officially declared a State in November 1988.

PLO founder leader Yasser Arafat was a frequent visitor to India.

India's pro-Israel tilt did not begin after Narendra Modi became prime minister in 2014.

The process started a long time ago, culminating in Congress Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao's decision to establish diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv in 1992.

Since then, there have been a slow and steady deepening of multi-faceted ties with Israel.

But India continued to express its support for a two-State solution to the Palestinian crisis -- a long-standing UN view -- even as the secular Arafat passed away and more militant Palestinians took an Islamic hue.

India-Israel engagement deepened dramatically after Modi took office over a decade ago.

He became the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel officially in 2017.

This is when bilateral relations were upgraded to a 'strategic partnership'.

If Modi spent three days in Israel, he paid a three-hour visit to Ramallah in the West Bank in 2018. The difference could not have been more telling.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi accompanied by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Israeli Museum for Exhibition on India-Jewish Heritage, in Jerusalem, July 5, 2017. Photograph: Press Information Bureau

Although the Indian leader met Mehmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, the rump successor to the PLO, there was no more reference to a 'united' Palestinian State which could include Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Since Hamas unleashed a brutal and bloody assault on Israel in October 2023, triggering a political and diplomatic tsunami in the region, New Delhi has come out vociferously in support of Tel Aviv.

True, India still airs the usual platitudes about the need for a ceasefire in the ongoing war, release of Israeli hostages and unhindered humanitarian assistance for the people of Gaza.

But it is more than clear that New Delhi's heart lies with Israel, not the Palestinians.

And for a country which calls itself the world's largest democracy, street protests in support of the Gazans - not Hamas -- are almost absent compared to the rest of the democratic world.

Although the Gaza war has turned out to be bloodier than the Russia-Ukraine conflict, there is hardly any meaningful discussion in Parliament either.

IMAGE: Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen in Gaza City. Photograph: Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters

This Indian silence, in sharp contrast to the upheaval the war on Gaza has caused around much of the world, could end up costing New Delhi dear at a time when it needs more and more allies as it battles a narcissist now presiding over the White House.

Even for the sake of minimum diplomatic decency, India has stopped denouncing the mounting civilian casualties -- most of the dead are children and woman -- though it is well known that the Hamas attack on Israel did not have the approval of ordinary Gazans who are now suffering immensely.

If the war was not enough, Israel has willfully impeded supplies of food, medicines and other essentials in Gaza to force its people into submission after failing to militarily crush the Hamas and free the hostages despite a war that will complete two years in October 2025.

Indeed, the famine conditions now foisted on Gaza has what forced Australia and the European countries to accord diplomatic recognition to Palestine.

Mind you, none of these countries have even an iota of sympathy for Hamas.

A July international conference co-hosted by France and Saudi Arabia denounced both Hamas and Israel and called for an independent and de-militarised Palestinian State coexisting peacefully with Israel.

It was the first time the entire Arab League condemned the 2023 brutalities on Israel by Hamas.

When it comes to Russia, India has taken a principled stand that its historic ties with Moscow cannot be compromised for the sake of pleasing the West, however much the latter may provide Delhi a large share of the global market.

But in the turbulent Middle East, India has virtually put all its diplomatic eggs in the Israeli basket at a time when even the United Arab Emirates, one of the three countries to normalise ties with Israel during Trump's first presidency, is warning Tel Aviv not to overrun the West Bank.

The UAE and other Gulf countries, Qatar being the exemption, have no love for the Iran-backed Hamas.

IMAGE: Israeli soldiers during the Israel defense forces' ground operation in the Gaza Strip, September 13, 2024. Photograph: Amir Cohen/Reuters

More important, Netanyahu's decision to keep changing his goalposts and obstinately continue the war on Gaza for political expediency has caused unprecedented divisions within Israel between its people and a government that depends on rightwing and brazenly anti-Palestinian groups to survive.

It is high time India ends its silence on the human cost of the Gaza war and takes a principled stand without diluting its relations with Israel.

A largely friendless Tel Aviv today needs New Delhi more than the other way around.

India's failure now may cost it diplomatically in the long run.

After all, seeing the mass anger within Israel, Netanyahu is unlikely to last in power for long.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff
France today increasingly resembles the Italy of the past, when governments fell with bewildering regularity, prime ministers came and went in rapid succession, and political instability became the norm rather than the exception, point out Krishnan Srinivasan and Manoj Mohanka.

IMAGE: French President Emmanuel Macron. Photograph: Ludovic Marin/Pool/Reuters

In a vote of no confidence on September 8, French MPs ousted Prime Minister Francois Bayrou, pushing France into the prospect of having its fifth prime minister in less than two years.

An economic crisis, civil unrest, and parliamentary deadlock now converge, deepening the country's malaise and casting doubt over the remainder of President Emmanuel Macron's tenure.



France today increasingly resembles the Italy of the past, when governments fell with bewildering regularity, prime ministers came and went in rapid succession, and political instability became the norm rather than the exception.

Bayrou, a 74-year-old political veteran, had been in office only since December last year, though he outlasted his immediate predecessor who survived barely three months.

He proposed a drastic budget with $52 billion in savings, including pension cuts and the abolition of two public holidays, notably Whit Monday and another holiday, aimed at boosting productivity.

His plan sought to bring France's deficit -- nearly double the EU's three percent ceiling --under control.

Under the EU's Stability and Growth Pact, Brussels is pressing France to meet that limit by 2029 or risk sanctions, a pressure point Bayrou highlighted in defence of his austerity plan.

The proposed measures were met with public anger, though Bayrou and economists warned that the EU's second-largest economy faced a Greek-style debt crisis if it did not act urgently.

Before the vote, Bayrou told lawmakers: 'You have the power to bring down the government, but you do not have the power to erase reality.'

'Expenses will continue to rise, and the burden of debt, already unbearable, will grow heavier and more costly.'

But parliament rejected his appeal with 364 votes against and only 194 in favour.

In an unusual convergence, the Socialists and National Rally, despite deep ideological differences, united to reject Bayrou's budget, with the former opposing cuts to social programmes and the latter seizing a chance to weaken Macron.

Socialist MP Celine Thiebault-Martinez declared that it 'once again penalises the most vulnerable, working-class families and ordinary workers.'

Instead, her party advocates raising taxes on the wealthy, achieving only half the savings Bayrou proposed, and amortising the debt over a longer period.

She dismissed warnings of an impending Greek-style collapse as 'false arguments made to scare us.'

But the numbers remain stark. France has not balanced its budget since 1974.

France's debt, at 114% of GDP, ranks third-highest in Europe behind Greece and Italy, though Portugal and Spain face similar pressures.

Annual debt servicing already exceeds spending on defence or education.

France's fiscal squeeze is also worsened by external shocks -- from higher energy costs linked to the Ukraine war, to trade and tariff uncertainties that began under the Trump administration and continue to ripple through global markets.

IMAGE: Francois Bayrou who resigned as France's prime minister this week. Photograph: Kind courtesy Francois Bayrou/X

The far-right National Rally, led by Marine Le Pen and rising in national polls, favours new parliamentary elections, confident of increasing its share of MPs and gaining leverage.

Its MP Gaetan Dussaussaye declared: 'For eight years now (since Macron was elected) it's always been the same recipe: More rules, more taxes, preventing the French economy from working and moving forward.'

But when pressed on their alternative, his party is vague: 'What we want is a complete change in how the economy is managed in France. That means giving the power back to the French people to decide.'

Macron now faces a familiar trilemma: Call new elections in hopes of a sympathetic majority, appoint yet another centrist or technocrat prime minister where the previous four have failed, or resign -- something he has ruled out despite growing opposition.

Far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon has urged Macron to 'go himself', while Le Pen has declared the end of 'the agony of a phantom government'.

Macron insists he will serve until 2027, continuing to style himself as Europe's leader against Russia in Ukraine despite his faltering position at home.

His gamble on snap elections in June last year produced the fractured lower chamber that now blocks his every move.

There is a pervasive feeling among the French public that the political system is broken; that no one feels represented on issues like purchasing power or job creation.

This disillusionment has fuelled the rise of Le Pen's National Rally, which currently leads the polls and is favoured to win the presidency in 2027 -- if not sooner.

A day of civil action has been called for September 10.

Organisers hope to shut businesses and block major roads, while trade unions are already planning fresh strikes and protests.

If Macron fails to act swiftly, France risks deeper political paralysis and greater public frustration.

Squaring this circle will prove immensely difficult. Both France and Macron personally face stormy weather.

Krishnan Srinivasan is a former foreign secretary. Manoj Mohanka serves on several corporate boards and follows geopolitics closely.

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff
CreativeCubes.Co launches ninth Pitch for a Spot competition, offering 12 months free office space

Whats happening: CreativeCubes.Co has launched its ninth Pitch for a Spot competition, offering 12 months of free office space at its new Balaclava venue, bringing total rent giveaways to $1 million since the program began.

Why this matters: With rent often being the largest initial expense for growing businesses, free workspace can provide crucial breathing room for startups to focus resources on product development and scaling operations instead of overhead costs.

Melbournes startup ecosystem continues to attract support as coworking community CreativeCubes.Co reaches a significant milestone in supporting emerging businesses through its innovative rent relief program.

Million-dollar milestone reached

CreativeCubes.Co has helped hundreds of startups scale through its Pitch For A Spot program, with this latest competition marking the ninth iteration of the initiative that has now distributed $1 million worth of free office space to emerging businesses.

The program targets the financial reality facing many startups  rent represents one of the heaviest initial burdens for businesses attempting to establish themselves in expensive metropolitan markets.

Winners of the current competition will secure 12 months of free workspace at the companys brand-new Balaclava location, joining established companies including Cannatrek, Butn (ASX listed), Purpose Productions, and AI expert Justin Kabanni, as well as local leaders including MP David Southwicks office.

Success stories emerge

The program has generated tangible results for past participants. Ben Chamberlin, founder of Authenticate, won desks in an earlier Pitch for a Spot campaign and has since scaled his team significantly, moving into a larger private office within CreativeCubes.Co.

The networking opportunities extend beyond the initial location, with CreativeCubes.Co members across other sites including household names such as Lululemon, Campari, Gami Chicken & Beer, Mortgage Choice and Strong Pilates.

Applications now open

The competition remains open exclusively to new CreativeCubes.Co members, targeting fresh businesses seeking to launch and scale without the financial strain of commercial rent commitments.

Key dates for interested applicants include applications closing on 3rd October 2025, with shortlisted applicants to be notified on 13th October 2025, culminating in the final pitch event and open day on 23rd October 2025.

Melbournes startup ecosystem has shown significant growth, creating increased demand for affordable workspace solutions that allow emerging businesses to focus capital on development rather than overhead expenses.

The initiative reflects broader industry recognition that traditional commercial lease structures can create barriers for innovative businesses seeking flexible, community-oriented workspace environments that support collaboration and networking opportunities.

More information about the Pitch for a Spot campaign is available through the companys dedicated competition portal.

More details about the Pitch for a Spot campaign can be found here https://creativecubes.co/pitch/

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'You can't have a one-sided deal. If you have a lopsided deal then it won't be sustainable.'

IMAGE: US President Donald Trump. Photograph: Reuters

"We are working behind the scenes, talking to the State Department, Commerce Department and the NSC so there's a lot of effort being put in to basically ensure that we bring back the relationship back to the track," Dr Mukesh Aghi, President and CEO, US-India Strategic Partnership Forum, tells Rediff US Special Contributing Correspondent Abhijit J Masih.

The concluding segment of a two-part interview.

Part 1 of the Interview: 'India Is Collateral Damage Between Trump And Putin'

You talked about lobbyists so what is your organization doing to help in this situation to sort of veer the White House away from Pakistan and towards India?

We are working behind the scenes, talking to the State Department, Commerce Department and the NSC so there's a lot of effort being put in to basically ensure that we bring back the relationship back to the track.

Do you think India will need to open at least a part of its agricultural markets to American imports?

I don't think so and in the current deal they don't include dairy products and they don't include rice, maize and wheat. So India was quite protected from that perspective.

Will the Trump administration be willing to make allowances for a treaty or do you believe the American trade negotiators are too obdurate?

The President is a practical man, he is a businessman and he'll get a deal done. So we're optimistic.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump attend a press conference at the White House, February 13, 2025. Photograph: Nathan Howard/Reuters

But will the deal be beneficial to India?

You can't have a one-sided deal. If you have a lopsided deal then it won't be sustainable. And the Indian public will also not tolerate India signing that kind of a deal.

Would it help if influential voices in the Diaspora, such as yourself, reach out to the Trump administration?

It always helps. If you get the voting public expressing their desire to maintain the relationship for that prospect, yes it does help.

An Indian diplomat pointed out that India could reach out to the White House but Pakistan reached out to Mar-a-Lago.

I would say that it's a little more complicated than just reaching out because Prime Minister Modi has a good relationship with the President.

After G7 the President invited the prime minister to come (to Washington) but he (Modi) had other pending issues in India, so he flew back.

So the relationship is there. It's not like the relationship doesn't exist.

Pakistan has much more flexibility because it's not a democracy as compared to India.

India has to deal with the Opposition parties. India could not take certain decisions until they bring the Opposition into confidence.

Have you been in touch with either side of the negotiators?

Absolutely. We're in touch with the PMO, we've been touch with the White House, coordinating different activities to ensure that we are able to provide them the right support so that they come to an understanding which is a win-win value proposition or a deal between the two countries.

Photograph: ANI Photo

Do you think a meeting is on the cards for the prime minister and the President?

I don't know. The prime minister is coming to the UNGA in New York and the President will be there and hopefully there could be a meeting between the two. (This interview was recorded before Prime Minister Modi decided not to travel to New York to address the United Nations General Assembly this month.)

Do you think that is all that needs to happen? Why do you think they speak since they are so close and have met so many times to just sort this out?

It will be desirable to have a call but I think there are certain domestic issues in India which kind of put pressure on the prime minister not to be seen as a weaker one here.

They will meet. Let the dust settle down and then they will meet and sort this one out.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff
'Punjab floods are a calamity.'

'Right from Firozpur to Amritsar nearly 1 lakh homes have been completely damaged due to floods.'

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi conducts an aerial survey of flood-affected areas in Gurdaspur, September 9, 2025. Photograph: DPR PMO/ANI Photo

Punjab is grappling with one of the worst flood crises in its history, with vast stretches of the state submerged under water.

From Firozpur to Amritsar, nearly 100,000 homes have been destroyed, entire farmlands have been washed away, and livestock casualties are mounting.

In many areas, the water level reached up to 30 feet, making it impossible for residents to continue their daily lives.

The impact is catastrophic, and the situation continues to worsen by the day.



"Approximately 350 km in Punjab is completely submerged in water. In some villages the water level is 30 feet making living impossible in those places. Homes are destroyed and so have crops," Parminder Singh Pinki, the Congress MLA from Firozpur, tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.

What is the situation in Punjab now?



It is very bad. The last time we faced this kind of situation was in 1988. It is worse this time.

Punjab floods are a calamity. Right from Firozpur to Amritsar nearly 1 lakh homes have been completely damaged due to floods. Cattle have died. And farmers have lost their farmlands. They won't be able to sow anything this season because water has flooded their fields.

Moreover, the Punjab state government is doing nothing to improve the situation.

What about the central government?

I am appealing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he needs to immediately do something to solve the problems of the people of Punjab. Rajiv Gandhi in 1988 had given Rs 1,000 crore as aid to Punjab.

Today, Punjab needs Rs 40,000 crore in aid. Punjab has always stood with the nation in times of crisis and today it is time for the Government of India to stand by Punjab.

IMAGE: An aerial view of flood-affected areas in Gurdaspur, September 9, 2025. Photograph: DPR PMO/ANI Photo

Is the situation so bad because you are demanding Rs 40,000 crore from the Government of India which is a lot of money?

Approximately 350 km in Punjab is completely submerged in water. In some villages the water level is 30 feet making living impossible in those places. Homes are destroyed and so have crops. Schools have shut down in most parts of the state which are submerged in floods.

We don't have any industries to support us and it is only agriculture that supports us which is ruins at the moment. Therefore, I am stating we need Rs 40,000 crore for Punjab.

Is it true that the boundary fencing with Pakistan has been damaged due to the floods?

Barbed wires (at the India-Pakistan border) has broken in some places. This time the weather bureau warned the state there will be heavy to very heavy rains but the state government of Punjab (which is ruled by the Aam Aadmi Party) did not pay heed.

The government should have got active and worked in coordination with disaster management committees but they did not do it. From our party's side, all the Congress MPs are contributing Rs 25 lakh to help the people of Punjab.

IMAGE: Senior officials brief the prime minister on the flood situation in Punjab, September 9, 2025. Photograph: DPR PMO/ANI Photo

What impact will the floods have on India because agricultural land is submerged?

It will impact foodgrains because the rice crop has been destroyed. Moreover, farmers won't be able to grow the wheat crop because the land is submerged in water.

How did the Punjab government fail in dealing with the floods?

It is failure for sure. The rains started pouring from August 21 non-stop and till August 25 nobody took this matter seriously. Nobody could foresee the danger. The authorities let the water accumulate in the Ranjit Sagar dam till 150,000 cusec. They released the water all in one go which caused the flood.

They should have let the water discharge slowly which they did not do. Had they discharged the water slowly the ground too would have absorbed the water slowly.

(Note: When flood waters submerged villages and breached embankments in Gurdaspur, Pathankot and Amritsar, many thought the Bhakra Nangal and Pong dams were responsible for the flood.

But this time, it wasn't the Sutlej or Beas rivers that unleashed the greatest fury. It was the Ravi, fed by sudden release from Punjab's Ranjit Sagar dam that brought flood devastation to the state.)

I thank all the NGOs who have come from across India and are working on the rescue efforts. Unfortunately, the Punjab government is sleeping.

IMAGE: Senior officials in Gurdaspur, September 9, 2025, brief Prime Minister Modi about the extent of damage due to the floods in Punjab. Photograph: DPR PMO/ANI Photo

What is the situation in your constituency?

In my constituency 35 villages are submerged in water. One of my party workers who was involved in rescue efforts unfortunately died due to drowning. I have given motorboats in my constituency to help people.

I am trying my best to send medicines and relief material to every nook and corner of my constituency.

In material terms, what does Punjab needs now?

Crops have been destroyed, people want money in their hands. Atleast, Rs 50,000 must be compensated by the government for each person who has 1 acre land of farming. Everyone has identity cards and proof of holding land. Money must reach the right hands.

Photograhs curated by Anant Salvi/Rediff
The police have nabbed two brothers, one of them serving as an Agniveer, from Telangana in connection with the theft of a rifle and two magazines containing 40 live cartridges from Mumbai's high-security Navy Nagar area, an official said on Wednesday.

Photograph: Sahil Salvi for Rediff.com IMAGE: Kindly note that this image has been posted for representational purposes only.

The Mumbai police's Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) apprehended Rakesh Ramesh Dubbula (22), an Agniveer (seaman) in the Navy, and his brother Umesh Ramesh Dubbula (25), from Asifabad district in Telangana on Tuesday night, said the official.

According to the crime branch official, on Saturday night (September 6), Rakesh Dubbula, dressed in a naval uniform, approached a junior sailor on sentry duty in a residential area in Navy Nagar in south Mumbai and pretended to have come to relieve him.

The unsuspecting sailor gave his rifle and ammunition to Rakesh Dubbula. After some time, he put the weapon and two magazines containing 20 live rounds each in a bag and threw it on the other side of a wall where his brother Umesh was standing, stated the official.

Both brothers fled the spot and reached Mumbai LTT station, where they boarded a train to Telangana. After going through multiple CCTV footage, a CIU team traced the duo to Asifabad district and apprehended them, he said.

During probe, the police found that Rakesh Dubbula, who has completed Class 12, had worked in naval areas and was well aware of the security in such localities. His brother is a school dropout, according to the official.

The police team is bringing the duo to Mumbai for further interrogation and to establish the motive behind the crime, he stated.

The stolen rifle, two magazines with 40 live cartridges and an empty magazine were recovered from their possession, the official added.
The Nepal Army on Wednesday imposed nationwide restrictive orders followed by a curfew to quell possible violence under the guise of protest, a day after deadly anti-government demonstrations forced Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli's resignation, leaving key buildings in flames and the nation on edge.

IMAGE: Security personnel fire tear gas to disperse protesters, in Kathmandu. Photograph: ANI video grab

Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, and other major cities wore a deserted look as army troops fanned out across the country.

The restrictive orders are in effect throughout the country from morning to 5 pm, and then a curfew will be in place until 6 am on Thursday, the army said in a statement.

The measures were necessitated to curb possible incidents of looting, arson, and other destructive activities "under the guise of agitation", it said.

The army, which took control of nationwide security operations at 10 pm on Tuesday, warned that any form of demonstrations, vandalism, arson, or attacks on individuals and property during the restrictive period would be treated as criminal acts and dealt with accordingly.

"There are also possible threats of rape and violent attacks against individuals," the statement said.

"Keeping in view the security situation of the country, restrictive orders and a curfew have been enforced," it said.

The statement clarified that vehicles and personnel engaged in essential services, including ambulances, fire engines, health workers, and security forces, would be permitted to operate during the restrictive orders and curfew.

In another statement, the army expressed concern over the actions of certain groups, which are "taking undue advantage of the difficult situation" and causing severe damage to ordinary citizens and public property.

"We have deployed our troops to prevent any untoward incidents, including looting and vandalism, said an officer from the Nepal Army headquarters.

Authorities have also issued orders for residents to remain indoors unless "absolutely necessary", in a bid to prevent further unrest, he said.

Since early morning, the normally bustling streets of Kathmandu wore a deserted look. Only a few residents ventured out, primarily to stock up on daily essentials.

Roads were heavily patrolled by security personnel, and fire trucks were deployed to douse blazes in government and private buildings torched by agitators on Tuesday.

The army also urged people to return guns, weapons and bullets looted or found during the student-led agitation to the nearest police post or security personnel.

"As there are chances of such weapons being misused, please inform the authorities and return them to the security agencies at the earliest, the military said in another statement.

It warned that legal action would be taken against anyone found possessing such arms or ammunition without returning them.

The army also appealed to citizens "not to wear army uniforms in this sensitive period, as it is illegal to do so".

Meanwhile, security personnel arrested 27 people involved in looting, arson and vandalism from different parts of Kathmandu, officials said.

During the operations, Rs 3.37 lakh in cash, along with 31 weapons, magazines and bullets, were recovered from individuals in Chabahil, Bauddha and Gaushala areas of Kathmandu.

The army appealed to the public to cooperate with security agencies in restoring peace and maintaining law and order.

Prime Minister Oli quit on Tuesday shortly after hundreds of agitators entered his office demanding his resignation for the death of at least 19 people in police action during Monday's protests over corruption and a social media ban. The ban on social media was lifted Monday night.

However, the demonstrations continued even after his resignation.

Protesters set fire to the Parliament, the President's Office, the PM's residence, government buildings, political parties' offices and homes of senior leaders.
A 48-year-old Rapido cab driver has been arrested for allegedly masturbating in front of a woman during a ride in north Delhi's Maurice Nagar area, the police said on Wednesday.

Kindly note that this image has been posted for representational purposes only. Photograph: Pixabay

The incident took place on Monday when the 22-year-old student booked a Rapido cab to go to college. The driver, identified as Lom Shankar, allegedly began misbehaving with her and subsequently, indulged in the indecent act while she was seated in the vehicle, the police said.

"The incident took place on Monday when a student was travelling in a Rapido cab. She noticed that the driver's behaviour was suspicious as he asked her to sit in the front seat and then began acting inappropriately," Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Raja Banthia said.

"The student immediately grew alert and spotted a few of our officers deployed at Kranti Chowk. She approached them and raised an alarm. By the time the officers reached the cab, the driver had fled. We later obtained his details from Rapido and subsequently, arrested him," the officer added.

According to the police, the woman, a native of Bengaluru, shifted to Delhi only two months ago after securing admission in a postgraduate course.

She told the police that she was running late for her classes on Monday morning and had booked a cab. The app showed an estimated arrival time of 10 minutes, but the driver called her requesting her not to cancel the ride and assuring her that he was on his way.

When she boarded the cab, Shankar first asked her to sit in the front seat, but she declined and chose the rear seat. He allegedly attempted to touch her and soon began masturbating while driving the vehicle, the police said.

Despite her protests and raising an alarm, the driver did not immediately stop the vehicle. After covering some distance, he halted the cab, when the student managed to get out of it and run, they said.

Following a written complaint from the woman, an FIR was lodged and Shankar, a resident of Malka Ganj, was arrested. The cab was also seized, the police said.

A forensic and crime team has inspected the vehicle and collected evidence.

A Rapido spokesperson said the company unequivocally condemns the driver's reported misconduct and will extend its full cooperation to the police investigation.

"Immediately upon receiving the complaint, our safety and support teams activated emergency protocols, coordinated with law enforcement, and personally escorted the accused driver to the police station to ensure swift action. At every stage, we kept the customer proactively informed to maintain complete transparency and reassurance," the spokesperson of the company said in a statement.

He added that Rapido has zero tolerance for any form of harassment and is unwavering in its commitment to passenger safety, especially the safety of women.

"In addition to strict KYC verification and immediate suspension of accounts upon credible reports, we have introduced proactive safeguards including post-10 pm safety calls to women riders to confirm ride completion, 24x7 in-app SOS support with rapid escalation, and ongoing safety reminders urging riders to verify vehicle and captain details before every trip," the statement said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday reacted warmly to US President Donald Trump's positive assessment of trade talks between the two countries, expressing confidence that the ongoing negotiations will pave the way for unlocking the limitless potential of the partnership between them.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets US President Donald Trump at the White House, in Washington, DC. Photograph: Press Information Bureau

India and the US are close friends and natural partners, Modi said on X, adding that both countries are working to conclude the trade discussions at the earliest.

He said, "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."

Modi's comments came hours after Trump said he feels certain that there will be "no difficulty" for the two countries to come to a successful conclusion in trade talks and he looks forward to speaking with his "very good friend" Modi in the coming weeks.

After weeks of strain in ties over Trump's tough rhetoric following his decision to impose 50 per cent tariff on India, the relations between the two countries have shown signs of a thaw of late.

This is the second time of late when Trump has spoken highly of his country's ties with India and mixed it with his praise of Modi, who has positively reacted to his comments.
An influential US Senator has called out the Trump administration for 'threatening' India over its oil imports from Russia, saying it is 'unfortunate' that the relationship built over years with New Delhi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been undone in just months.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi makes a point at the joint press conference with United States President Donald John Trump at the White House, February 13, 2025. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen's comments came amid a major downturn between New Delhi and Washington after US President Donald Trump doubled tariffs on Indian goods to a whopping 50 percent, including a 25 percent additional duties for India's purchase of Russian crude oil.

"I think our foreign policy should always advance America's interests, but President Trump's policies have not delivered. Instead, they've undone six decades of investments that have made the United States respected and influential," Shaheen, a senator from New Hampshire, said in remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington on Tuesday.

When asked if the US should be imposing the similar 50 percent tariff slapped on India for buying oil from Russia, on China as well, she said "I do."

"I think the reason the President didn't do that is because when he talked about imposing tariffs on China earlier, China said, "Okay, you want to do that. We're going to deny your critical minerals. We're going to deny all these other goods that we provide to the United States that you depend on us'," she said.

"I think that is part of what's going on" And it's unfortunate, in my mind, that after years of trying to build this relationship with India and with Prime Minister Modi, that it's been undone in just months," Shaheen, a Democratic Senator, said.

A Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a Senior Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, she highlighted the 'contradictions' in Trump's foreign policy that are 'glaring.'

"We've been imposing tariffs on Brazil even though the US runs a trade surplus there. We're threatening India because of their oil imports from Russia, but we're looking the other way when it comes to China," she said.

Shaheen also referred to the recently concluded Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Tianjin, China and the photograph of Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping from the summit.

"All you had to do was to look at those pictures coming out of the Shanghai summit, last week with Modi, Xi and Putin 'all holding hands."

"India has described the US action as 'unfair, unjustified and unreasonable.'

Earlier on Tuesday, Trump, in a post on social media, said he was looking forward to speaking to Prime Minister Narendra in the upcoming weeks.

"I feel certain that there will be no difficulty in coming to a successful conclusion for both of our Great Countries!"

However, hours later, White House Trade Advisor Peter Navarro said the US doesn't need 'unfair trade' with India but New Delhi is 'desperately' looking for access to the American markets.
The Congress on Wednesday extended best wishes to vice president-elect C P Radhakrishnan and recalled first vice president Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan's words in the Rajya Sabha in 1952 that a democracy is likely to "degenerate into a tyranny if it does not allow the opposition groups to criticise fairly, freely, and frankly the policies of the government".

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets and congratulates CP Radhakrishnan on being elected as the vice president of India, New Delhi, September 9, 2025. Photograph: @narendramodi X/ANI Photo

The opposition party asserted that Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan practised what he preached, both in letter and spirit.

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, "While extending its best wishes to Shri C P Radhakrishnan, the newly-elected Vice President of India who will also be the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, the Indian National Congress recalls the wise words of Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the very first Vice President and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha."

"On the opening day of the Rajya Sabha on May 16, 1952, the very eminent philosopher-educationist-author-diplomat had said: 'I belong to no party, and that means I belong to every party in this House. It shall be my endeavour to uphold the traditions, the highest traditions, of parliamentary democracy and act towards each party with fairness and impartiality with ill-will to none and goodwill to all....A democracy is likely to degenerate into a tyranny if it does not allow the opposition groups to criticise fairly, freely, and frankly the policies of the Government'," Ramesh posted on X.

"Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan practised what he preached, both in letter and spirit," he added.

NDA candidate C P Radhakrishnan was elected the next vice president of India as he bagged 452 votes against the opposition candidate B Sudershan Reddy's 300, winning the contest with a bigger than expected margin.

After the results for the vice presidential polls were declared, the Congress on Tuesday had said the BJP's "arithmetical" victory in the vice presidential election is both a "moral and political defeat" for the ruling party. It had asserted that the Opposition stood united in the election with "most respectable" performance.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had extended best wishes to Radhakrishnan on securing victory in the election, while also expressing sincere gratitude to Reddy for being the "united Opposition's joint candidate" and for his spirited and principled fight.

Ramesh had asserted that the Opposition stood united for the vice presidential election.

"Its performance has undeniably been most respectable. Its joint candidate Justice (retd) B Sudershan Reddy secured 40% of the vote. In 2022, the Opposition had received 26% of the vote in the vice presidential elections," Ramesh had said on Tuesday.

"The BJP's arithmetical victory is really both a moral and political defeat. The ideological battle continues undiminished," Ramesh had said.

Announcing the result of the vice presidential election, Rajya Sabha Secretary General and Returning Officer P C Mody had said 767 MPs out of 781 cast their votes with a total turnout of 98.2 per cent. He said 752 ballots were valid and 15 were invalid, bringing down the required majority of first preference votes to 377.

Following the result, Reddy said he humbly accepts the defeat in the vice presidential polls and asserted that democracy is strengthened not by victory alone, but by the spirit of dialogue, dissent, and participation.

In a statement issued soon after NDA's Radhakrishnan was declared elected to the post of vice president, Reddy said that though the result was not in his favour, the larger cause "we have collectively sought to advance, remains undiminished".
'At this point in time, we can really have a role, and our intervention will become a counterproductive act. So we have to first see, assess the situation'

IMAGE: Protesters set a vehicle on fire during a protest against the Nepal government, in Kathmandu. Photograph: ANI video grab

As Nepal plunged into chaos in the face of massive anti-government protests, various former Indian ambassadors on Tuesday said New Delhi must watch this unfolding situation "very closely," with some underlining that India's neighbourhood is "indeed in turmoil" which is not a healthy sign.

They cited instances of public protests, largely led by youth, that had led to political upheavals and the toppling of governments in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in recent years.

The Himalayan nation reeled under a grave political crisis with Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli resigning on Tuesday amid large-scale demonstrations in Kathmandu, and protesters setting on fire the Nepalese leader's private house in Balkot and attacking the residences of various former ministers.

Violent protests by youths against a government ban on social media sites rocked Nepal on Monday, with police's use of force leaving at least 19 people dead and over 300 others injured.

Veteran diplomat Venu Rajamony said what is happening in Nepal is "not just shocking, but also worrying".

"It comes on the trail of what happened in Sri Lanka and in Bangladesh. So, in that sense, there has been a series of incidents of instability in countries in the neighbourhood, which have led to the collapse of regimes and their leaders fleeing, etc. It is clearly not a healthy sign," he told PTI.

Rajamony, who served as India's ambassador to the Netherlands from 2017 to 2020, and various other ambassadors suggested that while India should "let domestic process play out" in Nepal, New Delhi should carefully watch the unfolding situation in the neighbouring country.

"I think we have to wait for things to settle down...(but) we should watch this very carefully, because of all the implications it has for us and for our interests in Nepal," Rajamony said.

Ashok Kantha, who has served in Nepal as a deputy chief of mission in Kathmandu from 1997 to 2000, also called for a 'wait and watch' approach for now.

"My own experience has been that we should let domestic process play out. I don't think, at this point in time, we can really have a role, and our intervention will become a counterproductive act. So we have to first see, assess the situation," he told PTI.

He, however, stressed the need to ensure that Indians in Nepal are protected and India's interests safeguarded.

The embassy of India in Kathmandu on Tuesday issued emergency contact numbers for its nationals in Nepal, asking them to contact in case of any emergency or need for assistance.

On suggestions that the turmoil in Nepal is happening at a time when India-China relations are on the mend, Kantha said, "I think, we should not look at all these things through the prism of our relations with China."

Rajamony echoed his views, saying "I don't think China is a factor here", but emphasised "our neighbourhood is indeed in turmoil".

In Sri Lanka's case, there is stability after the 2022 protests, and Bangladesh is supposed to be moving towards an election, he said.

"Myanmar continues to be unstable place but also moving towards election. But you also have the Taliban sitting in Afghanistan, as well as the uncertainties in Pakistan. So, overall, it is a difficult neighbourhood for us...(it) calls for heightened attention and deft diplomacy on our part," Rajamony added.
The Delhi high court on Wednesday directed Priya Kapur, wife of late businessman Sunjay Kapur, to disclose all movable and immovable assets belonging to him as of June 12, the day of his death.

IMAGE: Actor Karisma Kapoor at her ex-husband and industrialist Sunjay Kapur's funeral, New Delhi, June 12, 2025. Kapur died while playing a polo match in London. Photograph: Shrikant Singh/ANI Photo

Justice Jyoti Singh passed the direction while hearing a plaint filed by Sunjay's two children with former wife and actor Karisma Kapoor, challenging his purported will and seeking shares in the assets reportedly worth Rs 30,000 crore.

Priya, meanwhile, informed Justice Jyoti Singh that the two children, Samaira Kapur, 20, and Kiaan Raj Kapur, 15, had already received Rs 1,900 crore from the family trust and asked, "What more do they want"?

Priya's counsel, senior advocate Rajiv Nayar, submitted though the will was not registered, it wasn't "invalid" and added, "Not as if people are left on the streets."

The submissions were made in response to the judge's query whether the will was registered.

"It's not registered. Unregistered does not take the nature away. There is a judgment which says an unregistered does not take the validity away. When I set up the will, my lady will be entitled to examine if it is suspicious in nature. All this crying and weeping that is going on, just six days before the suit, the plaintiffs received Rs 1900 crore from the trust. What more do they want?" the counsel asked.

The court issued notice to Priya and posted the matter for October 9.

"For the moment I am only going to register it (the plaint) and ask you to file replies. Along with replies, defendant 1 (Priya) will file a list of all movable and immovable assets known to defendant 1. Assets to be declared as of June 12," the judge said.

The counsel also mentioned Karisma's divorce case proceedings with Sunjay.

"There were litigations after litigation it ultimately culminated in bitter divorce process which ended in SC. Please have some sympathy for the soul of the deceased. I (Priya) have a 6-year-old child. I am a widow. I am his last wife. You (Karisma) were nowhere to be seen for the last 15 years. It's not as if these people are left on the streets," the counsel said.

Sunjay's mother, Rani Kapur, has also challenged the will, saying there was nothing left to her while calling the entire process "unholy".

"Today I have nothing. I have written at least 15 emails asking about the will, what are the documents? Not a word has been shared. I have been told that my emails have been compromised. There is something incredibly unholy. Rs 10,000 crore worth of assets should have been mine. I am 80-years-old. Mother, her vested interest goes into trust. All gone. I am nowhere. Ms Sachdeva (Priya) comes in, within three months of her getting married, everything goes? My son today leaves me with not a roof on my head," her counsel, senior advocate Vaibhav Gaggar, asked.

The counsel claimed the assets were being sold.

The plaintiffs, represented by senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, have questioned the authenticity of the will which they allege was forged by Priya to gain control over the assets.

The plaint has claimed neither Sunjay mentioned about the will, nor Priya or any other person ever mentioned about its existence.

It alleges the conduct of Priya demonstrates, "without a doubt, that the alleged will has been fabricated" by her.

Karisma and Sunjay married in 2003 but divorced in 2016.

Sunjay passed away on June 12 during a polo match in London, when he suffered a heart attack after reportedly swallowing a bee.

According to reports, Rani recently wrote to the UK authorities demanding an investigation into her son's death, ruling out natural causes and claiming possible murder, conspiracy and financial fraud.
New data reveals 17% of Australian SMEs lose over $2,500 monthly to late payments, forcing businesses into survival mode.

Businesses cant solve the late payment crisis by themselves, but there are things every business can do to better insulate themselves from the impact

Whats happening: GoCardlesss 2025 Pursuing Payments report reveals Australian and New Zealand small businesses are losing substantial revenue monthly to late payments, with 17% of Australian SMEs estimating losses exceeding $2,500 per month compared to 11% in 2024.

Why this matters: The crisis is forcing businesses to delay growth plans, freeze hiring, and consider closure. With 68% now accepting late payments as inevitable, the issue threatens Australias economic productivity and small business viability nationwide.

The late payment crisis afflicting Australian small and medium businesses has reached alarming new heights, according to fresh research that paints a picture of an economy where cash flow problems are becoming the norm rather than the exception.

GoCardlesss 2025 Pursuing Payments report, surveying 800 business owners and decision-makers across Australia and New Zealand, reveals that more than 1 in 6 (17%) Australian SMBs estimate losing more than $2,500 per month on average due to late payments, compared to 11% in 2024. The escalation represents a concerning trend thats reshaping how businesses operate.

The time burden alone is staggering. 1 in 5 companies (20% of respondents) now wholly devoting 6 to 12 working days a year on average to chasing overdue payments, turning business owners into reluctant debt collectors rather than focusing on growth and innovation.

This aligns with broader industry data showing the rate of B2B payments that are 60+ days in arrears is up 21.4 per cent year-on-year and 7.9 per cent since January, according to CreditorWatch research from October 2024.

Growth plans frozen

The financial drain extends far beyond administrative inconvenience. 63% of Australian businesses and 62% of New Zealand businesses saying they are losing money  some even reporting estimated losses of over $10,000 per month on average  to late payments.

Perhaps most concerning is how the crisis is stifling business expansion. If customers paid on time, 24% of Australian and 32% of New Zealand businesses would invest in expanding their businesses, and 17% and 14% respectively would be directly hiring more people.

This represents a significant drag on economic productivity at a time when Australias jobs market is already showing signs of stagnation. The implications reach beyond individual businesses to national economic performance.

Even as we see economic conditions improving in Australia, the impact of late payments is only worsening for businesses across both Australia and New Zealand, says Ian Boyd, General Manager, Australia and New Zealand at GoCardless.

Businesses are fundamentally altering their operating models in response. 26% of Australian and 29% of New Zealand businesses say theyve considered adjusted pricing to offset payment delays, while 34% in Australia and 28% in New Zealand have considered refusing future work from chronic late payers.

Mental health toll

The crisis extends beyond balance sheets to personal wellbeing. Of Aussie SMB decision-makers who avoided a conversation about money in the last 12 months, 38% said it resulted in increased stress at work, and 36% reported increased stress for them personally. In NZ, this impacted 43% and 48% of respondents, respectively.

Most alarmingly, 10% of all respondents have considered closing their business due to the ongoing payment challenges. Of those who have avoided conversations about money with customers in the past 12 months, 29% have cited immediate cashflow issues due to late payments, and 27% reported overall financial losses.

The psychological shift is profound. A striking 68% of all respondents now agree that late payments are simply an inevitable cost of doing business. This represents a concerning normalisation of what should be considered unacceptable business practice.

This is not only having a huge toll on business growth, but also on the mental health of individuals within businesses. Its clear many SMB decision-makers arent aware of how to source and integrate solutions that can help them solve the pursuing payments puzzle, Boyd explains.

Solutions emerging

Despite the grim outlook, Boyd suggests practical steps businesses can take to mitigate the impact. His recommendations focus on modernising payment systems and embracing automation.

Businesses cant solve the late payment crisis by themselves, but there are things every business can do to better insulate themselves from the impact, he says. Firstly, every business should be routinely reviewing its payments stack to ensure there are no redundant or costly payment methods on offer that are causing friction.

The solution involves embracing digital payment infrastructure. All businesses that rely on invoicing should be embracing eInvoicing and using automated follow-ups to reduce both admin time and the risk of awkward conversations with customers, Boyd advises.

For businesses seeking more control, Boyd points to emerging payment technologies. Where feasible, the NPPs new payment method, PayTo, can make repeat transactions simpler and more transparent for both payer and payee, solving some of the key issues around customers missing due dates.

The crisis reflects broader challenges facing Australias small business sector, which according to government data employs almost half of the Australian workforce. Previous research from Xero indicated late payments cost Aussie small businesses $1.1 billion per year, demonstrating the scale of economic impact.

As businesses navigate this challenging landscape, the focus shifts from simply managing late payments to actively preventing them through smarter payment infrastructure and clearer customer communication strategies.

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Rapper Hirandas Murali, known as Vedan, was arrested by the police on Wednesday in connection with a rape case.

IMAGE: Popular rapper and songwriter Vedan (Hirandas Murali during a concert. Photograph: Courtesy Instagram

The Thrikkakara police formally recorded his arrest after an hour-long interrogation.

However, he is expected to be released soon, as the Kerala high court granted anticipatory bail to him in the case, late last month.

"His arrest was recorded. Now, he is taken for a medical examination. After that, some more interrogation will be carried out, and necessary procedures need to be completed. He will be released on bail later," a senior police officer said.

The rapper was asked to appear before the investigation officials for two days -- Tuesday and Wednesday.

He was questioned by the police for a few hours on Tuesday as well, the officer added.

The Kerala high court, on August 27, granted the anticipatory bail to the rapper, who was accused by a lady doctor of entering into a sexual relationship with her on the promise of marriage and later withdrawing from the same.

She has also accused him of sexually harassing her multiple times between 2021 and 2023.
Leading Kuki-Zo groups on Wednesday welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's likely visit to Manipur on September 13, and termed it as a "historic and rare occasion".

IMAGE: Security arrangements are underway at Kangla Western Gate, Imphal, for the likely visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 13, 2025. Photograph: ANI Photo

The Kuki-Zo Council, one of the organisations representing the community, claimed that the proposed visit comes nearly four decades after a prime minister last came to the region.

The council also hoped that the PM would address the aspirations of the people belonging to the community.

"The Kuki-Zo Council (KZC), on behalf of the entire Kuki-Zo community, warmly welcomes the forthcoming visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to our land. This is a historic and rare occasion," said a statement issued by the organisation.

The people of the Kuki-Zo community have endured immeasurable hardships over the past years, it said.

Expressing "faith in the democratic spirit and leadership of India", the organisation claimed that the Kuki Zo people have been seeking a separate administration in the form of a union territory with legislature under Article 239A of the Constitution.

Article 239A of the Constitution allows Parliament to create a local legislature, a council of ministers, or both.

The Kuki-Zo Council hoped that the prime minister would "give due recognition to the voice, pain, and aspirations of Kuki Zo people".

"We place our trust in your leadership to heal our wounds, restore our dignity, and safeguard the future of the Kuki-Zo people," the council said, referring to PM's likely visit.

Several other organisations representing the Kuki-Zo community in Manipur also hailed Modi's likely visit to the state this week, but opposed a planned dance programme as part of a ceremony to welcome him.

The Imphal Hmar Displaced Committee claimed that the PM should interact with those affected in the ethnic violence instead of participating in the welcome ceremony.

Gangte Students Organisation in Churachandpur district also said it would welcome the PM's likely visit, but "we can't dance with tears in our eyes!"

"Our mourning is not yet over, our tears are not yet dried, our wounds are not yet healed, we cannot dance with joy," the Imphal Hmar Displaced Committee said in a statement.

Instead of taking part in a grand welcome ceremony, the PM should interact with the displaced people who are lodged at relief camps, it said.

The Churachandpur-based students' organisation, however, claimed that the PM's presence would help the ethnic violence-hit people heal their wounds and express grievances.

Kuki Inpi Manipur, the apex body of the Kuki community, stressed that the prime minister should be welcomed in the state, but the visit must also "serve justice and recognition of the Kuki-Zo people's collective aspirations".

The organisation claimed that the demand for a political solution remains "clear and firm" and that "temporary relief measures cannot bring a lasting solution".

The PM's likely visit is seen as an opportunity for a section of people in the Meitei-majority Imphal valley to express their hardships.

"The prime minister's presence in the state will offer us a platform to share long-standing grievances and how innocent villagers have been affected by the ethnic strife," said Soibam Reagan, a villager in the Imphal East district.

A women's organisation Imagi Meira said the PM, during his proposed visit to Manipur, should direct officials to allow Meiteis to move along the national highway and to ensure their safety.

More than 260 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic violence between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo groups since May 2023.

The Centre had imposed the President's rule in Manipur after Chief Minister N Biren Singh resigned.

The state assembly, which has a tenure till 2027, has been put under suspended animation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday condemned the violation of Qatar's sovereignty in the wake of Israel's air strikes on Doha targeting Hamas leaders that triggered fears of further escalation of the already fragile situation in the region.

Photograph: / Rediff.com IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi and Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim ibn Hamad Al Thani in Doha, February 15, 2024.

The prime minister's rare criticism directed at Israel came after he spoke to Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani and conveyed India's "deep concern" at the attacks in Doha.

Israel carried out the air strikes on Qatari capital Doha on Tuesday in the latest in a series of attacks it launched against Syria, Iran and Lebanon. The attack on Doha triggered global outrage.

"Spoke with Amir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani and expressed deep concern at the attacks in Doha," Modi said on social media.

"India condemns the violation of the sovereignty of the brotherly State of Qatar. We support resolution of issues through dialogue and diplomacy, and avoiding escalation," he said.

The prime minister said India "stands firmly" in support of peace and stability in the region, and against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

Following the attack, Hamas said five of its members were killed in the Israeli air strike. However, it said Israel's attempt to assassinate its leaders "failed".

Hamas said its negotiating team was holding deliberations to discuss a proposal from the US for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip at a building when the attack took place.

The prime minister's rebuke came days after India joined other member nations of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in strongly condemning the military strikes by Israel and the US on Iran.

An Indian readout said Prime Minister Modi appreciated the role being played by Qatar in promoting regional peace and stability, including its mediation efforts in Gaza to achieve a ceasefire and release of all hostages.

The prime minister reiterated support for resolution of all issues through dialogue and diplomacy and the need to avoid escalation, it said.

"Sheikh Tamim thanked Prime Minister Modi for the expression of solidarity with the people and the State of Qatar," it said.

The SCO summit in the Chinese city of Tianjin also condemned actions that have led to numerous casualties among the civilian population and a catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.

PM Modi was among the leaders who attended the SCO summit.

"Reiterating their deep concern over the continuing escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the member states strongly condemn the actions that have led to numerous casualties among the civilian population and a catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip," the SCO declaration said.

It said the SCO leaders noted that the only possible way to ensure peace and stability in the Middle East is through a comprehensive and just settlement of the Palestinian question.

"Member States strongly condemned the military strikes by Israel and the US against the Islamic Republic of Iran in June," it said.

"Such aggressive actions against civilian targets, including nuclear energy infrastructure, which resulted in the death of civilians, are a gross violation of the principles and norms of international law and the UN Charter, and an infringement on the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran," it said.

PM Modi's comments on Wednesday are seen as very significant. He had previously condemned the deaths of civilians in the Israel-Hamas conflict during a speech in 2023.

"Bharat has condemned the heinous terrorist attack in Israel on October 7. We have also emphasised on dialogue and diplomacy besides restraints," Modi said in his address at the second Voice of Global South Summit on November 17 that year.

"We strongly condemn the deaths of civilians in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. After talking to President Mahmoud Abbas, we have also sent humanitarian aid to the people of Palestine. It is time that the countries of the Global South speak with one voice for the greater global good," he had said.

Israel has been continuing its military offensive in Gaza as part of its retaliation against the unprecedented attack on Israeli cities by Hamas on October 7.

Hamas killed around 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped more than 220 others, some of whom were released during a brief ceasefire.

Over 60,000 people have been killed in Gaza in the Israeli offensive, according to the Hamas-run authorities in Gaza.

India has been calling for de-escalation of the situation and creating conditions for an early resumption of direct peace negotiations towards a two-state solution to the Palestine issue.

India has strong economic ties with Qatar, which is home to more than 8,30,000 Indian nationals. Qatar is also India's largest LNG supplier.

PM Modi and Sheikh Tamim also expressed satisfaction at the sustained progress in the India-Qatar Strategic Partnership and reiterated their commitment to advance bilateral cooperation in all areas of mutual interest, the Indian readout said.
The death toll in the September 8 protest led by Gen-Z in Nepal has risen to 30, the ministry of health and population announced on Wednesday evening.

IMAGE: People stage a massive protest against the Nepal government outside the parliament building, in Kathmandu on September 9, 2025. Photograph: ANI video grab

Issuing a release, the health ministry stated that 1,033 injuries have been recorded nationwide, out of which 713 injured individuals have already been discharged, while 55 were referred to other facilities for further treatment. Another 253 patients remain newly admitted.

The Civil Service Hospital in Kathmandu is currently handling the largest caseload, treating 436 people.

The National Trauma Centre is caring for 161 patients, and Everest Hospital is treating 109. In all, 28 hospitals across the country are providing care to those affected, the ministry added.

The health ministry said emergency services have been mobilised to cope with the surge in patients and instructed hospitals to remain on high alert.

Thousands of Nepali youths took to the streets of Kathmandu on September 8, demanding transparency and the lifting of the social media ban.

The KP Sharma Oli-led government at the time defended the ban as a means to curb the spread of fake news. However, the move was criticised by rights groups, who said it was a tool for censorship.

The protesters, especially college and school-going students, highlighted broader frustrations over shrinking economic opportunities and persistent corruption. In a single day, at least 19 people were killed across the nation, with hundreds more injured.

The protest under the banner of Gen-Z Nepal saw a spree of shooting by security forces as they tried to break into the parliament. Police indiscriminately fired upon protesters with live rounds, followed by tear gas.

In Kathmandu, protesters marched from Maitighar to New Baneshwar, attempting to enter the Parliament building.

The NHRC said Nepal's Constitution and international human rights law guarantee the right to peaceful dissent and called the escalation into vandalism and the use of excessive force by security personnel "regrettable."

The commission directed the government to implement high security measures to prevent further harm, provide relief and compensation to victims' families, ensure free treatment for the injured, and conduct a fair and thorough investigation to hold perpetrators accountable. Protesters were also urged to maintain peaceful and disciplined demonstrations.
'It feels like the country is being torn apart'

'When your country suffers, you feel helpless sitting far away. The violence was tragic, but I hope the protests open the way for something positive'

IMAGE: Protesters march during a protest against the governments decision to block several social media platforms, in Kathmandu. Photograph: TV Today Nepal/ANI video grab

Nepali students in India say they have put their plans to travel home on hold and call up their families repeatedly, fearful of their safety amid the violent protests rattling the Himalayan nation.

The student-led "Gen Z" protests in Nepal that began against a government ban on social media expanded into a larger campaign reflecting growing public criticism of the KP Sharma Oli dispensation and the country's political elite over alleged corruption and apathy towards the common people.

Prime Minister Oli resigned in the face of massive protests for a second day, even as the ban on social media was lifted late on Monday night. The demonstrators stormed many government buildings and set the parliament as well as homes of several high-profile leaders ablaze, a day after 19 people died in violence.

Against this backdrop, Nepali students in India are living in anxiety.

A master's student at Delhi University's Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) said he had cancelled his plans to travel home, which is near Kathmandu, for the Dussehra festival.

"I was looking forward to being with my family, but they have advised me to stay back in Delhi until the situation there stabilises," he said.

Manoj Chaudhary from Nepal's Birgunj, pursuing MBA at IIT-Dhanbad, said the situation in his hometown was calmer compared to the capital. Still, he has suspended his plans to visit home.

"I was planning to visit Nepal soon, but now all my plans are on hold. My family is safe, but I am worried about Kathmandu, where buildings have been set on fire and students have lost their lives. That should never have happened. I only hope peace returns quickly," he said.

Another Delhi University student said her immediate parents and siblings live with her in Delhi, but her grandparents and extended relatives are in Nepal.

"I am deeply worried about them. Every day we hear news of protests turning violent, and it is painful not knowing how safe they are," she said.

A first-year DU student said the reports of deaths and destruction had shaken him. "I never thought students would be killed for raising their voice. It feels like the country is being torn apart."

"I used to ask friends here to visit Nepal for its beauty, but now I feel sad about what is happening," he said, adding that he calls his family every few hours to check on their safety.

A PhD scholar at the South Asian University, who earlier studied at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said the unrest had left her disturbed even though her family lives in a rural area, which is relatively safe.

"When your country suffers, you feel helpless sitting far away. The violence was tragic, but I hope the protests open the way for something positive," she said.

Another DU student said he had deferred his trip home indefinitely.

"I was supposed to see my parents later this month, but I can't take that risk now. All I do is wait for messages from family and friends, hoping they are safe," he said.

India advised its citizens to defer travelling to Nepal until the condition stabilises.
The Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that it was not justifying governors indefinitely sitting on bills passed by state legislature but barring a few exceptions most had acted in a way which the apex court would have perhaps desired.

IMAGE: A view of the Supreme Court of India. Photograph: ANI Photo

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta further submitted before a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice BR Gavai that Governor was "not a rubber stamp".

According to Mehta, who was representing the Centre, the argument that Governor had no power to withhold a bill in any circumstances whatsoever besides having no discretion under Article 200 of the Constitution, would defy the oath he takes to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.

"Governors, except a few aberrations, have acted in a way the Supreme Court would have desired them to act," he said, contesting arguments of those opposing the presidential reference being heard by the top court.

"I am not justifying the act of governors keeping the bills pending for indefinite period but there cannot be a straight jacket formula," Mehta argued before the bench, which also comprised Justices Surya Kant, Vikram Nath, P S Narasimha and AS Chandurkar.

The law officer countered the arguments of opposition-ruled Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh opposing the reference, saying if their contention was accepted then it would turn Governor's office, who represents President of India, into a "mute spectator" without any "participative, collaborative or even limited advisory role" in the entire process.

He said accepting their argument would make the power/function of assent on bills, a mere formality and render the options and the choices, a vestige of the council of ministers, who would always exercise only one option -- assent.

Referring to the oath taken by Governor under Article 159, Mehta said, "The oath of not only preserving and protecting the Constitution but also defending the Constitution is taken only by the President of India and the governors. If Governor's role is restricted as argued by the parties opposing the reference, he will not be able to do anything even if some action on his part is required to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution."

Even if a bill was not just repugnant to any central law but downright unconstitutional, Governor would be deprived of her duty to withhold assent, he added.

"The said reading is contrary to the genesis of the Constitution and, more importantly, sets a dangerous precedent for the future," Mehta said.

His argument was pointed to Kerala's counsel, senior advocate KK Venugopal's submission that governors should hold consultation when dealing with assent to bills.

Mehta ruled out any "straightjacket formula" in a democratic and federal setup of the country.

"This consultative and collaborative approach has been in existence for the past 75 years. Where chief ministers of states come and meet the Prime Minister and the President to resolve the impasse over bills. Not every matter has reached the Supreme Court for the past 75 years. This is a new trend, where states are directly rushing to the Supreme Court," he said.

The Constitution expects Governor, Mehta argued, to play a pivotal role in the functioning of the state government.

He said neither was Governor a "super chief minister" nor expected to be one -- as contended by some parties.

The law officer said Governor's office was conceived as a "high constitutional trust" and not as an "appendage" to day-to-day politics.

"The office of the Governor is crucial in maintaining institutional balance and managing political contestation with statesmanship, restraint, and reasoned engagement, ensuring constitutional governance in practice, and not merely in theory," he added.

Mehta also contested the arguments of senior advocate Arvind Datar, appearing for the Punjab government, on the comparison between President and the British Crown.

"There cannot be any comparison between the British Crown and the President of India. The submission on behalf of the state of Punjab frequently compared the King/Queen, i.e., the British Crown, with the President of India. The Constitution of India has merely borrowed the parliamentary form of government while suitably altering the structure of the Constitution to suit the Indian context. Whatever may be true for Britain need not be true in the Indian context," he said.

Mehta said the British Crown was a hereditary, unlike President of India, who is elected by an indirect election, but by the elected representatives of the entire country.

He said the court should not interpret the Constitution in such a way that it amends it.

In May, President Murmu exercised powers under Article 143(1) to know from the top court whether judicial orders could impose timelines for the exercise of discretion by the President while dealing with bills passed by state assemblies.
Poland on Wednesday said that it has shot down drones which breached its airspace during a Russian strike on Ukraine, CNN reported.

IMAGE: Thick smoke from a nearby strike site fills the sky during a Russian drone strike in Ukraine, September 7, 2025. Photograph: ANI Photo/Reuters

This is the first time Poland has taken such action, raising fears of a major provocation for Europe and NATO forces.

"This is an act of aggression that posed a real threat to the safety of our citizens," Poland's Operation Command said in a post on X.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed that the country's airspace had been violated by "a huge number of Russian drones" which were shot down by its military.

Tusk was in close communication with Poland's allies and the Secretary General of NATO regarding the incident, according to CNN.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also warned Europe and NATO of an escalating threat from Russia after a massive barrage of missiles and drones struck Ukraine. Among them were Russian-Iranian "Shahed" drones, eight of which crossed into Polish airspace.

"The attacks targeted at least 15 regions, causing one death. Rescuers were working in Volochysk, Khmelnytskyi region, after a missile hit a sewing workshop. As of now, three people are reported injured. This is just one of the sites of today's massive Russian attack: about 415 drones of various types and more than 40 cruise and ballistic missiles. Fifteen of our regions were under attack. Sadly, one person was killed as a result of shelling in the Zhytomyr region. My condolences to the family and loved ones," Zelenskyy said.

Using the drones' breach of NATO airspace as an example of rising risks, Zelenskyy addedn "Today there was another step of escalation - Russian-Iranian 'shaheds' operated in the airspace of Poland, in NATO airspace. It was not just one 'shahed' that could be called an accident, but at least eight strike drones aimed toward Poland."

Calling the incident an "extremely dangerous precedent for Europe," he urged for stronger measures. "The Russians must feel the consequences. Russia must feel that the war cannot be expanded and will have to be ended. The pause in sanctions has gone on far too long. Delaying restrictions on Russia and its accomplices only means increasing the brutality of the strikes. Sufficient weapons are needed to deter Russia. A strong response is needed - and it can only be a joint response by all partners: Ukraine, Poland, all Europeans, the United States. I thank everyone who is helping," Zelenskyy said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also pressed Western partners to act faster against Moscow. "Russian drones flying into Poland during the massive attack on Ukraine show that Putin's sense of impunity keeps growing because he was not properly punished for his previous crimes. Putin just keeps escalating, expanding his war, and testing the West. The longer he faces no strength in response, the more aggressive he gets. A weak response now will provoke Russia even more--and then Russian missiles and drones will fly even further into Europe," he said.

Sybiha called on NATO members and neighbouring countries to let their air defence systems intercept drones and missiles inside Ukraine's airspace. "This situation shows that finally the decision needs to be taken to enable partner air defence capabilities in neighbouring countries to be used to intercept drones and missiles in the Ukrainian airspace, including those approaching NATO borders. Ukraine has suggested such step for a long time. It needs to be taken for the sake of collective security. This is also a call for partners to urgently strengthen Ukraine's air defence and better protect against a growing number of Russian drones and missiles attacking us on the regular basis," he wrote on X.

He also stressed the need for tougher sanctions. "Furthermore, sanctions must be ramped up without delay. Putin will only get serious about peace negotiations when he faces serious transatlantic pressure. The Russian War Machine must be stopped--and it can only be stopped by strength, not weakness," Sybiha said.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda echoed the concerns, calling the Russian drone incursion a sign of wider danger for Europe. "Russia is deliberately expanding its aggression, posing an ever-growing threat to Europe. The drone swarm over Polish territory is yet another proof, as is its threatening rhetoric towards NATO's Eastern flank. The world must stop the aggressor -- break its war economy and its ability to destroy and kill," Nauseda said.
Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan has said his 13-month tenure in the state was the happiest period in his public life and he would carry with him fond memories as he is set to move to Delhi as the next Vice President of India.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets and congratulates CP Radhakrishnan on being elected as the vice president of India, New Delhi, September 9, 2025. Photograph: @narendramodi X/ANI Photo

Radhakrishnan, 67, won the vice presidential election on Tuesday, defeating the joint opposition nominee B Sudershan Reddy by a margin of 152 votes. He is likely to be administered the oath of office by President Droupadi Murmu on Friday.

Speaking at an informal felicitation meeting at the Raj Bhavan here on August 25 after his candidature for the vice presidential election was announced, Radhakrishnan called himself an "uncompromising nationalist".

He said his mother had narrated inspiring tales of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj to him.

He also hailed Dr BR Ambedkar for giving India its Constitution and fighting social evils with courage.

"Chhatrapati Shivaji fought foreign aggressors, while Ambedkar fought oppression. Because of such visionaries, India has remained a democracy while our neighbour Pakistan struggled to sustain it," he said.

Radhakrishnan, who took over as the Maharashtra governor in July 2024, said he had the unique experience of working with two chief ministers during his tenure.

"When I took charge, the present deputy Chief Minister (Eknath Shinde) was the Chief Minister and the present Chief Minister (Devendra Fadnavis) was the deputy chief minister. Later, their roles were reversed. Yet, their cordial relationship and spirit of teamwork spoke volumes about the political culture of this great state," he said.

Radhakrishnan said Maharashtra had given him an invaluable administrative and political experience.

Referring to the official state song of Maharashtra, he likened his move to Delhi as going to guard another throne, that of democracy.

"I feel privileged that after former President Shankar Dayal Sharma, I too have the opportunity of moving from the post of Governor of Maharashtra to that of the Vice President of India," he said.

Radhakrishnan said development must be inclusive and benefit Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and every section of society.

"Development can only be called true development when it uplifts all sections of society," he added.

Radhakrishnan earlier served as the governor of Jharkhand and held an additional charge of Telangana and Puducherry, said Maharashtra would always remain special for him.

"I once again express my gratitude for the warmth, cooperation and friendship I received during my tenure here. I carry with me fond memories of Maharashtra and its people," he said.
The Congress on Wednesday protested in the Rajasthan assembly over the alleged installation of additional cameras in the area of opposition benches, disrupting proceedings in the House.

IMAGE: A view of the Rajasthan assembly. Photograph: ANI Photo

The opposition party alleged that the cameras have been put up to "spy" on its members.

Leader of Opposition Tikaram Jully raised the issue during the Question Hour and urged Speaker Vasudev Devnani to make a formal ruling. The Speaker assured the House that he would address the matter after the Question Hour.

However, Jully insisted that a ruling be given immediately, saying that the Opposition would not participate in the proceedings until the issue was resolved.

Following this, Congress MLAs stormed into the well of the House, raising slogans. After protesting for nearly 15 minutes, they staged a walkout.

During the Zero Hour, chaos ensued in the House as Parliamentary Affairs Minister Jogaram Patel criticised the Congress over the issue, triggering a heated exchange between the treasury and opposition benches.

The Speaker subsequently adjourned the proceedings. When the House reassembled, the Congress raised the issue again.

When Devnani said that it was an "upgradation of cameras", Jully retorted that installing extra cameras does not mean an upgrade.

The Congress had also raised the issue on Tuesday.

Jully has alleged that placing extra cameras on the opposition side was a breach of legislative tradition and an attempt at surveillance.

Earlier in the day, Congress MLAs marched on foot from the legislators' quarters to the Assembly building in protest. They entered the Assembly premises shouting slogans. They claimed that installing extra cameras was aimed at spying on the opposition members.
Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray chief Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday visited the home of his cousin and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray in Mumbai amid the buzz of an alliance between the two parties ahead of local body polls after years of estrangement.

IMAGE: Shiv Sena-UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray and MNS president Raj Thackeray at the NSCI Dome in Worli, Mumbai, July 5, 2025. Photograph: @ShivSenaUBT_/X

The latest meeting between the two party chiefs and their leaders was held at 'Shivtirth', the residence of Raj Thackeray in the city's Dadar area.

Incidentally, Maharashtra Congress leaders had met Uddhav Thackeray on Monday during which the issue of possible alliance between the Shiv Sena-UBT and the MNS cropped up. Leaders of the Congress, an ally of the Shiv Sena-UBT, had then said they will discuss the issue with their high command.

This was the second public interaction between the once-estranged cousins in the past fortnight. Uddhav had visited 'Shivtirth' late last month on the occasion of the Ganesh festival.

Shiv Sena-UBT MP Sanjay Raut later told reporters Uddhav Thackeray visited 'Shivtirth' to meet Raj's mother Kunda, who is his 'mavshi' (mother's sister), but did not dwell on the political angle of the meeting.

Both Raj and Uddhav Thackeray are maternal as well as paternal cousins.

However, an MNS leader insisted this was the first time the two leaders met to discuss the possibility of a formal alliance between their parties and broad contours of it.

The Thackerays had shared a stage on July 5 in Mumbai to celebrate their "victory" after the Maharashtra government rolled back its contentious orders on three-language formula for students of Classes 1 to 5 amid charges of imposition of Hindi in the state dominated by Marathi speakers.

In July-end, Raj visited Matoshree', the residence of Uddhav Thackeray in suburban Bandra, to wish the latter on his birthday.

Although Raj Thackeray quit the undivided Shiv Sena in 2005, blaming Uddhav for his exit, the drubbing of their parties in the 2024 Maharashtra assembly polls appears to have pushed the rivals to improve ties and create their own political space in the state.

Both parties have dropped enough hints of forging an alliance for the upcoming local body polls, including elections to the cash-rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), but have not yet announced a formal tie-up.

If a tie-up does take concrete shape, the BJP, a fierce critic of the Shiv Sena (UBT), will be its main rival. Raj Thackeray has had been a critic as well as a supporter of the BJP in the past.

Asked about the latest meeting between the Thackerays, Mumbai BJP chief and MLA Ameet Satam sought to downplay its significance, saying citizens are more concerned about development than family meetings between political leaders.

"It is not about who is meeting whom and their family-related bonding, but it is more about who constructed Atal Setu, the Coastal Road, the redevelopment of BDD chawls in Worli and neighbouring areas, and who set up a vast network of CCTV cameras across Mumbai. These are the key issues, and Mumbaikars will vote on that basis," Satam told reporters.

He asserted Mumbai voters have supported Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in past elections and they will continue to do so in future polls also.

Harping on the BJP-led coalition's development agenda, the MLA noted the Union and state governments have expedited the construction of the Navi Mumbai International Airport.

Citizens want this pace of development, which was never offered during the 25 years of rule by others. Just meetings between cousins have no political value; people are more interested in who will solve their problems, the BJP leader affirmed.

BJP MLC Pravin Darekar also sought to downplay the meeting.

"As a junior political worker, I would be delighted to see the two cousins come together as Maharashtra has a history of civil discourse and aligning with like-minded groups. But it is not the time to speak of their alliance," Darekar said.

He sought to know what would be Uddhav Thackeray's position in the Opposition bloc Maha Vikas Aghadi if he chose to align with Raj.

There is no point in rushing to claim their alliance will bring the Shiv Sena-UBT and the MNS to power in the BMC, Darekar said.

The Shiv Sena-UBT, Congress and Sharad Pawar-led NCP-SP are partners in the MVA.

Amid the buzz over their pan-Maharashtra alliance, the Sena-UBT and MNS faced a setback last month in the election to the BEST Employees Cooperative Credit Society Ltd, where the panel backed by the two parties lost all 21 seats up for grabs.
Over 150,000 tonnes of durian shipped to China through Laos rail link

A railway linking Laos with China is serving as a key transportation vehicle for durian, bringing 150,000 tonnes the fruit to Chinese customers so far this year.

The figure, compiled as of August 26, rose 91% year-on-year, according to China Railway Kunming Group, as reported by Xinhua.

During peak durian season, rapid transfer operations are carried out daily at the Hongyun International Logistics Port container platform near a rail station in Kunming, the capital of southwest Chinas Yunnan Province.

his photo taken on July 19, 2024 shows domestic durians for sale at a fruit store in Sanya City, south China's Hainan Province. Photo by Xinhua via AFP

In less than 40 minutes, around 18 tonnes of durian are shifted from railway containers to trucks and then delivered to nearby fruit markets.

"Through the China-Laos Railways Lancang-Mekong Express, goods can be delivered from Vientiane, Laos, to Kunming in just 26 hours," said Ou Daoqing, head of the marketing department at the Kunming International Land Port.

Since opening on Dec. 3, 2021, the China-Laos Railway has become a key logistics link between China and ASEAN.

Before the railway was built, durians from Southeast Asia reached China by road or sea, which meant long transit times, delays from weather, and a higher risk of damage.

An international freight train bound for Lao capital Vientiane prepares to depart from Yanhe Station of China-Laos Railway in Yuxi City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Aug. 23, 2025. Photo Xinhua via AFP

"The China-Laos Railway has significantly reduced both the damage rate and transportation costs for imported durian," said Wang Hao, general manager of a Chinese trading company, as cited by Xinhua.

Along with efficient railway transport, improved logistics facilities have also boosted the durian supply chain.

Five combined rail-road transport routes now connect Laos with southwestern China's Sichuan Province, enabling fast distribution throughout China.

A cold-chain special train recently carried nearly 300 tonnes of durian arrived in Sichuan from Vientiane.

After transshipment, the fruit was rapidly sent to markets in Beijing, Xian, Lhasa and Guangzhou.

Since its launch, the China-Laos Railway has transport 60 million tonnes of goods as of May, according to The Laotian Times.

It now handles more than 3,000 product categories, compared to 10 initially.

China is the worlds largest durian market, importing nearly $7 billion worth of the fruit last year, mainly from Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.
The United States doesn't need "unfair trade" with India but New Delhi is "desperately" looking for access to the American markets, White House Trade Advisor Peter Navarro has said.

IMAGE: Peter Navarro, senior counselor for trade and manufacturing in the Donald Trump administration, speaks to the media outside the White House. Photograph: Kent Nishimura/Reuters

In the last few weeks, Navarro has made a series of critical remarks against India, especially for its continuing procurement of Russian crude oil.

The White House trade advisor's remarks came on a day US President Donald Trump announced that India and the US are continuing negotiations to address the trade barriers.

Trump, in a post on social media, said he was looking forward to speaking to Prime Minister Narendra in the upcoming weeks. "I feel certain that there will be no difficulty in coming to a successful conclusion for both of our Great Countries!"

However, Navarro, in a series of posts on 'X', hit out at India.

"The US doesn't need unfair trade with India. But India desperately needs access to US markets and schools and intends to continue taking U.S. jobs," he said.

The Trump administration official also repeated his previous allegations that India is fuelling Russia's war machinery.

"India fuels Russia's war chest. India is protectionist, with sky-high tariffs. The US runs a massive trade deficit with India," he said

Navarro also claimed that "India's sky-high tariffs" are costing the US its jobs.

"India buys Russian oil purely to profit. Those revenues fuel Putin's war machine," he alleged.

The relations between New Delhi and Washington witnessed a major downturn after Trump doubled tariffs on Indian goods to a whopping 50 per cent including a 25 per cent additional duties for India's purchase of Russian crude oil.

India described the US action as "unfair, unjustified and unreasonable".
The Boys & Girls Club of Brattleboro continues to meet the moment as it builds upon its events, programming and connections to the community.
Tim Stevenson is a community organizer with Post Oil Solutions from Athens (bereal@vermontel.net), and is the author of Resilience and Resistance: Building Sustainable Communities for a Post Oil Age and Transformative Activism: A Values Revolution in Everyday Life in a Time of Societal Collapse," and is currently at work on a book about mutual care associations
Thai customs officials have arrested a Vietnamese man at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport after seizing nearly US$200,000 worth of rhino horns hidden in his luggage.

The man had flown from Luanda, Angola, with a stopover in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, before arriving in Bangkok on Sept. 6. His final destination was Vientiane, Laos.

Authorities said he was flagged as a potential wildlife smuggler through advanced screening systems and intelligence data, Khaosod reported.

A search of his luggage uncovered five pieces of rhino horn weighing 6.86 kilograms, valued at around 6.9 million baht ($200,000), the Bangkok Post reported.

The arrest comes as Thai authorities intensify their crackdown on illegal wildlife trafficking.

Rhino horn continues to fetch high prices in some Asian markets despite a global trade ban. Southeast Asia has long been a favored transit hub for criminal networks smuggling contraband from Africa to buyers across the region.
Health Minister Simeon Brown has announced early wins in the governments drive to deliver 247 telehealth services to boost access to medical care.

In its first months, the service had delivered 21,740 consultations to 19,331 people across New Zealand, Brown said today. It had been used most often when a timely GP appointment wasnt available (71.6% of bookings) and provided treatment for 83.5% of patients, without needing an in-person GP follow-up.

This service is giving New Zealanders faster access to care when they cant see their usual GP, helping them get the support they need when they need it, Brown said.

The service is still being streamlined after an initial procurement resulted in a panel of eight established telehealth providers and the launch of an initial Online GP minimal viable product.

This group is expected to expand as awareness and usage grows, a registration of interest notice (ROI) for a booking and appointments platform for the new service said.

A new national health target is also being developed in partnership with the primary care sector, aiming for over 80% of people to be able to see a primary care provider within a week, a target expected to take effect from 1 July 2026, the ROI explained.

The telehealth providers will be designated as trusted partners who will work with Health NZ to streamline the patient experience over time, the document explained.

As part of building core capabilities required to facilitate ongoing encounters, Health NZ is considering an iterative implementation of an integrated booking solution.
Protesters gathered on September 9 in the Georgian capital a day after supporters of the ruling Georgian Dream party attacked protesters participating in ongoing demonstrations over a government decision to halt European Union membership talks.

Georgian Dream supporters pelted the demonstrators with bottles and rocks on September 8 in front of the campaign headquarters of Mayor Kakha Kaladze, who is running for reelection in local elections on October 4.

Demonstrators rallied again in front of the Georgian Dream politicians campaign headquarters on September 9, this time without incident.

Georgia has been thrown into turmoil since parliamentary elections in October 2024 in which Georgian Dream secured 54 percent of the vote. The opposition and Western governments argued that the poll was marred by violations and Russian influence.

Opposition activists have been holding daily demonstrations since the elections. More protests followed the election after the Georgian Dream partys decision to stop accession talks with the European Union.

Tensions were high on September 9 after at least 10 people, including journalists, reportedly were injured the day before. No arrests were made, according to police, but authorities launched a criminal investigation over damage to the mayors campaign posters.

During the protest on September 9, yogurt reportedly was poured over an election banner near Kaladze's campaign headquarters and an inscription on one of the banners reportedly was erased and replaced with the words Russian Dream.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement after the September 8 rally that law enforcement officers took appropriate measures to defuse the situation and prevent further escalation of the conflict.

Demonstrators, however, complained that police failed to take action during attacks started by party supporters.

"What did the participants of the protest yesterday do that endangered the work of the headquarters?" wrote former Deputy Ombudsman Giorgi Burjanadze.

"People were organizing the protest and were attacked. It is shameful and shameful to write about this. Did any employee document the disruption of the headquarters' activities?" he added.

Last week, one of the leaders of the party's youth wing was filmed spitting in the faces of several activists and a journalist, while a verbal altercation took place between a former Georgian Dream MP and protesters.

Protests launched since the decision on EU membership have been met with accusations of police using excessive force and even torture.

Despite the continued protests, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has refused to back down and has threatened to punish political opponents, whom he accuses of being behind violence that has occurred at the protests.

A majority of Georgians support EU membership, and efforts to join the bloc are mandated by the Georgian Constitution.

Georgia received EU candidate status in December 2023 but relations with Brussels have soured in recent months, beginning with the adoption of a Russian-style "foreign agent" law, which critics say threatens media outlets and civil society groups.
The shock of Israels first-ever strike on Qatari soil is reverberating in Tehran, where the attack is fueling doubts over the very purpose of negotiations with the West.

For many Iranian pundits, the timing of the strike -- hitting Hamas leaders as they allegedly reviewed a US-backed cease-fire and prisoner exchange proposal with Israel -- has reinforced suspicions that diplomacy is little more than a trap.

In the aftermath, Qatars Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani told Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian that the targeted Hamas leaders were not only reviewing the US proposal but were also allegedly leaning toward accepting it.

Iranian hard-liners quickly seized on this detail.

The Tasnim news agency, an affiliate of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), accused Israel of using the mask of diplomatic negotiations to attempt to assassinate Hamas leaders.

The agency, like many other conservative media outlets, noted that despite hosting the largest US military installation in the Middle East and signing contracts worth billions of dollars with the United States, Qatar was unable to secure its own safety.

Notably, even moderate and reformist commentators who support diplomacy with the West drew parallels to Israels June airstrikes on Iran, which occurred as Tehran and Washington were preparing for a new round of nuclear talks.

It appears that America and Israel believe the purpose of missiles is to strike the negotiating table, senior reformist figure Mohammad Ali Abtahi wrote on X. They dont like negotiations.

Where Were The Air Defenses?

Qatars air defenses include Patriot missile batteries and the THAAD anti-ballistic missile system, both advanced US-made military hardware. Yet, Israeli missiles struck their target without a problem.

This has led some in Iran to claim that Qatar either ignored warnings of inbound missiles or its air defenses are entirely operated by the United States.

Masoud Barati, a hardline commentator, mocked Qatar on X for not being control of its own air defenses.

Some noted that Qatari air defenses intercepted Iranian missiles when Tehran attacked the Al Udeid Air Base -- where US Central Command (CENTCOM) forward headquarters is based -- in June in retaliation for the US bombing of its nuclear facilities.

Mehrdad Farahmand, a Middle East analyst based in Turkey, told RFE/RLs Radio Farda that the air defenses did not detect the missiles shows that Americahad no objections to the attack.

Farahmand said this raises major questions, given the extensive US-Qatar defense cooperation agreements.

Boon For Iran?

Some conservatives view the attack as a boon for Iran to raise its regional profile as a defender of sovereignty.

Political commentator Mohammad Hossein Khoshvaght said Arab states in the Middle East may recalibrate their policy toward Tehran and regard Iran with more open eyes.

Similarly, the IRGC-affiliated news website Mashregh argued that the attack allows Iran to strengthen its narrative in global public opinion.

It noted that Tehran can use the incident to bolster the so-called axis of resistance -- its regional network of proxies and armed groups -- against Israel.

The outlet added that this move has not only further isolated Israel regionally and globally but also enhanced Irans position as a defender of national sovereignty and the axis of resistance across regional, diplomatic, military, and public opinion fronts.

Despite the commentary against negotiating with the United States, Tehran seems keen on resuming talks, even if indirect, with Washington in a bid to prevent the return of UN sanctions, which could happen by the end of the month.

Reza Jamali of RFE/RLs Radio Farda contributed to this report.
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Hours after Polish authorities said they shot down Russian drones that had entered its airspace, emergency crews inspected damage to a farm in the eastern settlement of Wyryki-Kolonia.
Poland said it scrambled fighter jets and shot down Russian drones that crossed into its airspace, a move NATO called "absolutely reckless" and the European Union a "test" of the continent's unity.

It was the first time a NATO nation has fired shots since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February 2022, and Poland requested NATO consultations under a treaty article addressing external threats.

"Last night the Polish airspace was violated by a large number of Russian drones. Those drones that posed a direct threat were shot down," Prime Minister Donald Tusk told an emergency government meeting on September 10.

"I have no reason to claim we're on the brink of war, but a line has been crossed, and it's incomparably more dangerous than before," Tusk later told parliament, saying this is "the closest we have been to open conflict since World War II."

As condemnations of Russia from European leaders poured in, Tusk said there were 19 intrusions into Polish airspace overnight, with several drones flying in from Belarus, and that four were likely shot down.

However, Interior Ministry spokeswoman Karolina Galecka said "seven drones and debris of one missile of unidentified origin" had been found.

Poland Invokes NATO Article 4

"The fact that these drones, which posed a security threat, were shot down changes the political situation. Therefore, allied consultations took the form of a formal request to activate Article 4 of the NATO Treaty," Tusk said.

Article 4 states members "will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened." A NATO spokesperson said it was the first time its planes had engaged potential threats in allied airspace.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said that whether the airspace violation was intentional or not, "it was absolutely reckless," and that NATO's reaction was "very successful."

"My message to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin: Stop the escalating war in Ukraine, stop violating allied airspace, and know that we are vigilant and will defend every inch of NATO territory," Rutte said after a meeting of the North Atlantic Council, the alliance's main political decision-making body.

Tusk said there were no casualties in the incursion into Polish airspace, which came amid a massive attack on Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia targeted 15 regions, firing at least 415 drones and more than 40 missiles. At least one person was killed and three others wounded, he said, repeating his call for a stronger Western response.

"Moscow always pushes the boundaries of what is possible, and if it does not encounter a strong reaction, it remains at the new level of escalation," he said.

Russia Says 'No Evidence'

Russia's charge d'affaires in Poland, Andrei Ordash, told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that Moscow considers "the accusations to be unfounded. No evidence has been provided to show that these drones are of Russian origin."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment, saying it was a matter for the Defense Ministry.

While discussing further sanctions pressure on Russia, Kyiv's Western backers are also trying to hammer out plans for a postwar "reassurance force."

But the unprecedented incident comes as peace talks founder, with Russian President Vladimir Putin refusing to meet with Zelenskyy and vowing to achieve his goals by force if necessary as Moscow's troops press to take more territory, particularly in the Donetsk region in the east.

EU Leaders Condemn Russian Drone Incursion

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas accused Putin of seeking to test the West's resolve with the drone incursion.

"What he wants to do is to test us -- really how far he can go. And every time he's bolder, because he's able to be bolder because our response hasn't been strong enough," Kallas told journalists in Strasbourg, France.

"I think it's a message that they are trying to send to really test our unity," she added.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban also called the "violation of Poland's territorial integrity...unacceptable," saying it underscored the need for peace. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said it was "extremely reckless" and demonstrated "Putin's blatant disregard for peace."

"Russia's plan to destroy Ukraine is just the beginning of its ambition in Europe," said Czech Prime Minister Jan Lipavsky. 'No matter where peace is reached in Ukraine, Putinism will remain the main threat to European security."

With reporting RFE/RL Europe Editor Rikard Jozwiak, Reuters, AP, and AFP
Southeast Asia's second largest economy receives 22 million tourists in over 8 months

Bangkok's skyline is photographed during sunset in Bangkok, Thailand, July 3, 2023. Photo by Reuters

Thailand's foreign tourist arrivals from Jan. 1 to Sept. 7 fell 7.11% from the same period a year earlier, the Tourism Ministry said on Tuesday.

There were 22.39 million foreign visitors during the period, it said in a statement.

China was the largest source market, with 3.16 million visitors, followed by Malaysia.

In August, the state planning agency cut its forecast for foreign tourist arrivals this year to 33 million from 37 million.

Thailand, the second largest economy in Southeast Asia according to 2024 GDP figures, welcomed a record of nearly 40 million visitors in 2019, before the pandemic.
Russian drones entering Polish airspace represent more than a border violation, says Peter Doran, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.



Speaking with RFE/RLs Todd Prince after Poland became the first NATO state to shoot down Russian drones, he said Russian leader Vladimir Putin is probing Western defenses and challenging the alliance and US President Donald Trump to respond.



RFE/RL: This is the first time a NATO country took down Russian drones. How serious is this incident?

Peter Doran: The overnight incursion into Poland represents a significant escalation in Russia's efforts to shake NATO, shake the tree in NATO. This is an attempt to probe NATO responses, and more importantly, it is a direct challenge to President Trump's efforts to make peace in Ukraine.



RFE/RL: So why would Russia be doing this now?

This event underscores the need to prioritize gaps in air defenses, not just along the front line, but for all NATO member states...

Doran: I believe Vladimir Putin has miscalculated. His miscalculation is that Trump will not pressure him to end his expanded invasion of Ukraine. Even if the drones may or may not have gone off course or they were skirting around electronic warfare defenses of the Ukrainians, that is irrelevant.



A violation of NATO airspace is major. Putin is testing our Western response. And if the West fails to rally and demonstrate a unified front against this action, it will only get worse.



RFE/RL: What should a unified response look like? What actions should NATO take?



Doran: Thankfully, NATO has a lot of options at its disposal, and the United States should absolutely be in the lead. The most important one is to invoke not Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, but Article 4. That covers consultations between allies, and there are different levels of consultations.

But most importantly, this needs to be escalated to a NATO level under the North Atlantic Treaty using Article 4 consultations. That would be significant.

Article 4 has only been invoked seven times previously and only twice related to the war in Ukraine, first in 2014 and then again in 2022 after Russia expanded its invasion.

This is a significant escalation by Putin -- now violating NATO airspace -- and it requires an equally significant response from the alliance now.

RFE/RL: Following the consultations, what kind of actions do you think NATO might take?



Doran: We need a unified message from all of NATO communicating to Russia that future incursions will be met with the same forceful response, and together with Europe, the United States must now make good on President Trump's threat to increase economic sanctions and penalties on Russia.

Most importantly, this should cut off the flow of petro dollars that Putin needs to pay for this war. That's where he's weakest. That's where we should press hardest.

RFE/RL: What about deploying additional air defense to prevent future incursions?



Doran: NATO must absolutely double and triple up its air defenses along the front line with Russia.



But more importantly, this incursion comes at a time when European allies are trying to rapidly increase their defense spending.

And this event underscores the need to prioritize gaps in air defenses, not just along the front line, but for all NATO member states, including Germany, including Belgium, including the Netherlands.



Countries that are far away from Russia must take these kinds of threats seriously because Russia has the ability to challenge all of NATO.

RFE/RL: Could this additional NATO air defense also cover parts of Ukraine?

Doran: I think that the time is now for NATO to extend its air defense umbrella deeper into western Ukraine. Recall early in 2022 there was a consideration about a so-called no fly zone."



Some members of the alliance were uncomfortable with this option because they feared it could be viewed by Putin as escalatory. However, Putin has now escalated against NATO, and the time is right to impose a defensive no fly zone over western Ukraine.
This was the fear.



Since February 2022, when Russia chose to attack Ukraine and launch Europes largest land war in nearly eight decades, the fear was that Ukraine's neighbors would be collateral damage.

Not just any neighbors, moreover.

Ukraine shares land borders with four NATO members  Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Hungary plus a maritime borders with Romania and Turkey.

How would the alliance react if Russias war spilled into a NATO member? If a Russian weapons hit, or landed, in an alliance member, would that member invoke the treatys one-for-all-all-for-one Article 5? Would NATO go to war with Russia?

As of September 10, when around 19 Russian drones entered Polish airspace, some shot down by fighter jets from other NATO members, that Rubicon was crossed.

What happens now depends on several things: above all, what exactly Russias intentions were, if the drones were intentionally fired, or were jammed and drifted off course. Polish officials called it an act of aggression and large-scale provocation but did not outright call it an attack.

For years, experts have warned that an emboldened Kremlin might try to test NATOs resolve, independent of the Ukraine invasion.

If the Polish incident was a test -- EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of launching a "test of unity" -- how the alliance responds will be critical.

Warsaw invoked the NATOs treatys Article 4  which is a mandatory convocation of members. Its the second time that has happened since February 2022. Thats short of the more serious Article 5.





Watch also how the alliance responds on the question of whether to send European peacekeepers to Ukraine, something under active discussion. Moscow says European boots on the ground in Ukraine would be a red line.

I'd say the Russian goal is to instill fear in European leaders, said Oscar Johnson, a military analyst at the Swedish Defense University, in Stockholm. Fear of escalation is their main tool for keeping substantial and determined European troops out of Ukraine.

Close Calls

There have been close calls in the past, when Russias war spilled past Ukraine's borders.

In November 2022, a Russian-made missile stuck a Polish village, killing two people. Warsaw was outraged. NATO alarm bells sounded. It turned out later to be Russian-made antiaircraft missile that had been fired by Ukraine and went off course. The alliance stood down.

Russian drones, not to mention fighter jets and surveillance jets, routinely skirt airspace of NATO members, who do the same themselves, particularly over the Baltic, Black and Bering seas. Russian drones have entered Latvian and Estonian airspace in the past.

Romania has raised its alarms dozens of times for drones crossing into its airspace, and scrambled NATO member fighter jets on several occasions. Russian drone debris has fallen in Romanian territory several times, including in July 2024.

Romania, however, has never escalated its concerns, or called for urgent action from the alliance.

The Polish incident was a first for NATO: the first time alliance aircraft responded directly, in allied airspace, to Russian weapons.

"I have no reason to claim we're on the brink of war, but a line has been crossed, and it's incomparably more dangerous than before," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told parliament, calling it "the closest we have been to open conflict since World War II."

Johnson predicted that countries determined to protect NATO borders, or support Ukraine  think Poland, the Baltics, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands -- will be galvanized by the incident. More risk-averse countries will be hesitant.

We can see a more determined majority, but a more hesitant minority. The most important consequence will be if this alters the US hesitancy to impose significant consequences on Russia, whether it be sanctions or military support, he told RFE/RL.

Look To The Zapad

Further stoking the flames: Zapad 2025, a major military exercise involving thousands of Russia and Belarusian troops, that kicks off September 12. Poland ordered its borders with Belarus closed in response, and flight trackers have reported an uptick in Western surveillance fights.

Its a very militarily tense situation which Russia is now using to show basically its strength and its ability to also interfere with NATO territory, Marta Prochwicz-Jazowska, a Warsaw-based policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Nick Reynolds, a land warfare research fellow at London's Royal United Services Institute, downplayed the significance of the Polish shootdown.

It looks like Russia is testing NATO. Theyre certainly testing Poland, and the response is pretty predictable, the Poles have been preparing for months for this, he said. Its exactly the kind of boundary testing that we would expect.

It's not something that should be ignored, Reynolds told RFE/RL. However, I think the Polish response is completely predictable, completely proportionate, and I just don't see this as a game changer.

RFE/RL Europe Editor Rikard Jozwiak contributed to this report.




It was no surprise that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen came out swinging in all directions, though notably to the east, as she delivered her annual State of the European Union (SOTEU) speech in Strasbourg.

Only hours before her appearance in front of the European lawmakers on September 10, several Russian Shahed drones had entered Polish, and EU, territory in an unprecedented incursion.

Warsaw called for immediate NATO article 4 consultations, not triggered since shortly after Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine over three years ago, and the mood was decidedly bullish.

Von der Leyen immediately expressed full solidarity with Poland and noted we have all seen what Russia means by diplomacy.

Russian President Vladimir Putins message is clear, she said, and Europes answer must be as well.

But what will that answer be?

More sanctions for sure.

A 19th package on Russia is in the works already.

The bloc will speed up the process of cutting off Russian energy imports by 2027, will target further the Russian shadow fleet that helps keep Russian oil flowing out of the country to fund the war, and for the first time, Brussels might hit foreign companies with secondary sanctions.

Though von der Leyen didnt mention it, European officials are also working on the possibility of limiting Russian tourist visas into the EU and to further limit the presence of Russian diplomats in the bloc.

Privately, few EU officials believe that this will change the calculations being made inside the Kremlin, but the EU will churn out more restrictive measures against Moscow for want of better ideas.

However, on the Ukraine side of the equation, the bloc is likely to act more decisively and attempt to strengthen Ukraine and the groups eastern flank countries that she toured last week.

On Ukraine, she floated the idea of a reparations loan based on the cash balances associated with the over 200 billion euros of Russian frozen assets in the bloc.

Quite how this will work out and how much money this will garner remains to be seen, but she made clear that the money will not be outright confiscated, that the risk will be carried collectively and that Kyiv only has to pay back once Russia pays reparations.

Another proposal was the frontloading of 6 billion euros to support drone production in Ukraine.

With Poland under attack, von der Leyen devoted a large part of her speech on how countries in the eastern part of the EU will be defended.

Vowing to defend every inch of EU territory from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, she suggested financial support into what she called an Eastern Flank Watch which means money for real-time space surveillance and the building of a drone wall.

A roadmap, to be presented in October, with new common defense projects, was also touched upon, as was the September 9 distribution of 150 billion euros for joint military procurement.

Some 19 EU member states have so far tapped into the fund with Poland being the overwhelming beneficiary, followed by Romania.

Curiously, there wasnt too much talk about EU enlargement -- and definitely no pronouncement of when the club may enlarge.

Instead, von der Leyen simply noted that a larger and stronger Union is a security guarantee for all of us. She also gave a rather half-hearted let's make the next reunification of Europe happen cheer as well.

In this context, she name-dropped Ukraine and Moldova and the Western Balkans. But Georgia and Turkey were notable omissions.

More than ever though, this speech was a battle-call for a more independent EU.

This must be Europe's independence moment, she asserted, adding that Europe must fight for its place in a world in which many major powers are either ambivalent or openly hostile to Europe.

Here, she had not only Russia and China in mind, but also the United States.

She noted that the images of US President Donald Trump and Putin meeting recently in Alaska were not easy to digest, and pointed out that 80 percent of EU trade is with countries other than the United States.

But she also urged her listeners to picture the chaos and repercussions of a full-fledged trade war with the US.

She went on by adding: Put that image next to the one from China just last week. China flanked by the leaders of Russia and North Korea. Putin gloating about how Russia-China relations are at an unprecedented high.

She may be right that battle lines for a new world order based on power are being drawn right now and that there is no room or time for nostalgia.

The bigger question, however, is whether the Europeans, including herself, are capable of delivering on their grand speeches. Especially, given Russia already is testing their resolve.
The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war is the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, stated Ambassador Shea, Acting U.S. Representative to the United Nations. It continues to rage on, and the death toll and destruction in both Ukraine and Russia continue to grow. This is a devastating war that should never have started, stressed Ambassador Shea in remarks to the UN General Assembly.



That is why the United States, under President Donald Trumps leadership has undertaken exceptional efforts to bring this war to an end, said Ambassador Shea.



President Trump met face-to-face with Russian President [Vladimir] Putin in Alaska on August 15 and then hosted Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and seven other European leaders at the White House on August 18 to build on the progress of multiple rounds of talks. The next step is for Russia and Ukraines leaders to meet bilaterally, and ultimately to agree on an end to the fighting.



But instead, just days after President Trump welcomed President Putin on American soil to discuss ending the war, Russia launched the second largest aerial attack on Ukraine since the war began, hitting Ukrainian homes, as well as buildings housing the European Union Delegation and the British Council. Strikes on civilian areas must stop immediately, said Ambassador Shea.



Moreover, she noted, these continued onslaughts cast doubt on the seriousness of Russias desire for peace.



While the United States continues its efforts to encourage direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, it should be noted that the war did not begin with Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.



At that point, Russia had already illegally purported to annex Crimea and had occupied Ukrainian sovereign territory for eight years.



The United Nations, stressed Ambassador Shea, was established to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.



We call on Russia to fulfill its obligations and both parties to negotiate in good faith and end the war in a durable manner through diplomacy.



We urge all UN Member States, said Ambassador Shea, to join the United States in demanding an immediate, durable, and lasting end to a war of choice that is devastating lives and destroying two countries.
The Taliban regime in Afghanistan committed serious violations of human rights during 2024 according to a recent report by the State Department.



There was significant deterioration in respect for womens rights, the report found, due to edicts that further restricted access to education, employment, and freedom of movement for women and girls  effectively removing them from public spaces.



On August 21, 2024, the publication of a so-called morality law codified many previous edicts and placed severe restrictions on the personal lives of all Afghans, especially women and girls.



The Taliban instituted such laws based on its interpretation of Islam, severely infringing on freedom of religion or belief and effectively outlawing other interpretations of Islam and Islamic practice, as well as the practice of other religions.



The Taliban did not purport to formally change laws enacted prior to August 2021; however, they promulgated laws and edicts that contradicted existing laws and were inconsistent with the countrys obligations and commitments under international law.



Significant human rights issues included credible reports of arbitrary or unlawful killings; disappearances; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; serious abuses in a conflict; unlawful recruitment or use by the Taliban of children in armed conflict; serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, including violence or threats of violence against journalists and censorship; restrictions on religious freedom; trafficking in persons, including forced labor; significant restrictions on workers freedom of association; and the significant presence of the worst forms of child labor.



There was widespread disregard for the rule of law and official impunity for those responsible for human rights abuses.



The Taliban and The Islamic State  Khorasan Province or ISIS-K, which is active in Afghanistan and South Asia, reportedly separately engaged in child recruitment. Armed groups threatened, robbed, kidnapped, and attacked foreigners, medical and nongovernmental organization workers, and other civilians. Members of the Taliban reportedly killed persons in retaliation for their association with the pre-August 2021 government.



The Taliban selectively restricted access to the internet and blocked websites. There was no expectation of privacy of communications from Taliban monitoring. According to reporting from the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan, or UNAMA, media, and other sources, Taliban instituted internet blackouts or severe slowdowns in locations of active dissent and following periods of political discord in the population.



There were numerous reports the Taliban subjected journalists to violence, harassment, and intimidation. Threats of detention and violence against journalists drove several media organizations to close and journalists to flee.



UNAMA reported punishments carried out by the Taliban included beatings, floggings, and executions.



The United States strongly condemns the Taliban regime for its violations of basic human rights and stands with the people of Afghanistan in their struggle for dignity, democracy and freedom.
Nepali Jail Escapee Caught at India-Nepal Border, Security Stepped Up Along Frontier (Representative Image)

The official further said that the SSB's intelligence wing is also actively monitoring border villages to prevent infiltration

Nepali Jail Escapee Caught at India Nepal Border, Security stepped up along the border Latest News: As prisoners escaped from a jail in Nepal, intelligence and security measures have been intensified along the India-Nepal border to prevent the fugitives from sneaking into Indian territory, news agency ANI reported citing top officials.

The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), which guards Indias 1,751 km-long border with Nepal, has enhanced checks at all entry points. The report added that special focus is being placed on verifying the identity cards of individuals crossing into India, as jail escapees are unlikely to carry valid documents.

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As part of the move, 26 mutual routes, 15 traffic routes, six integrated check-posts, and 11 border check-posts have been placed on high alert, the news agency said citing an official.

The official further said that the SSBs intelligence wing is also actively monitoring border villages to prevent infiltration and the spread of misinformation.

SSB personnel have already apprehended five prisoners who, according to the ANI report, had escaped from a jail in Nepal and were attempting to enter India. The five escapees were caught along the India-Nepal border in Uttar Pradeshs Siddharthnagar district.

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They were later handed over to the local police. Officials stated that the situation at the border is under control and that precautionary measures have been taken to deal with any untoward situation.

(For more news apart from Nepali Jail Escapee Caught at India-Nepal Border, Security Stepped Up Along Frontier, stay tuned to Rozana Spokesman.)
Joint Patrolling at Uttarakhand Border as Situation Worsens in Nepal

Meanwhile, the country has resumed Kathmandu Airport operations.

Uttarakhand News: Joint Patrolling at Uttarakhand Border as Situation Worsens in Nepal: In view of the prevailing situation in Nepal, joint patrolling and surveillance are being carried out in the border areas of Pithoragarh, the Uttarakhand Police Headquarters said in a statement.

The state police are fully vigilant and on alert. PHQ stated that Uttarakhand shares a direct border with Nepal, and accordingly, joint patrolling and surveillance are being carried out in the border areas of Pithoragarh by the police force and the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).

Nepal is in complete chaos following the Gen Z-led protest against corruption in the country. The situation remains critical as government buildings were vandalized, and offices and houses of several former Prime Ministers were set on fire after 19 young protesters were killed in firing by police in Kathmandu.

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The home of former PM Jhalanath Khanal was set on fire, killing his wife Rajyalaxmi Chitrakar. Former PM Sher Bahadur Deuba was beaten up by the mob. He was saved by the army.

The protest escalated after the government banned 26 social media platforms, including WhatsApp, YouTube, X, and Facebook, citing that the companies refused to register under state oversight.

Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli has given his resignation and was reportedly seen fleeing in a helicopter. President Ram Chandra Poudel is reportedly at an undisclosed location under the protection of the Army.

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The death toll in Nepal has risen to 25, according to a report by India Today, which cited Nepal's Health Ministry in a statement on Wednesday, adding that 633 people were injured.

Meanwhile, the country has resumed Kathmandu Airport operations.

Amid the ongoing turmoil in Nepal following KP Sharma Oli's resignation, former Chief Justice Sushila Karki's name comes up as one of the possible candidates to lead the new transitional government: Sources  ANI (@ANI) September 10, 2025

(For more news apart from PM Announces Rs. 1600 Crore For Punjab In Addition To Rs 12,000 Crore Already In The States Kitty, stay tuned to Rozana Spokesman.)
Anti-Semitism to be punished more severely

In the 1930s Romania was home to over 750,000 Jews. Today, about a hundred years later, their community numbers less than 2,500.

Radio Romania International

Roxana Vasile, 10.09.2025, 14:00

In the 1930s Romania was home to over 750,000 Jews. Today, about a hundred years later, their community numbers less than 2,500. In other words, during the interwar period, Romania had the third largest Jewish community in Europe, after Poland and the USSR. The historical events that followed, at national and international level, left their mark on the existence of this national minority. The Holocaust, as it is well known, had devastating consequences. Many of the survivors emigrated to Israel or to other countries, so the Jewish community in Romania shrank significantly. Those who remained, continued to be an integral part of the countrys history and identity, contributing to its cultural, social and economic life. Most of them are located in Bucharest, but also in Iasi, Cluj-Napoca and Timisoara.

Last year, the Government launched the 2024-2027 National Strategy for Preventing and Combating Antisemitism, Xenophobia, Radicalization and Hate Speech. The document, as stated at the time, was a continuation of the exercise begun by implementing the previous strategy (2021-2023). Antisemitism, xenophobia, radicalization and hate speech are threats that can structurally affect society, by eroding respect for fundamental rights and freedoms. However, developing societal resilience to these dangers requires a complex approach and a solid partnership between the state, civil society and academia, reads the preamble of the document, welcomed by MP Silviu Vexler, president of the Federation of the Jewish Communities in Romania.

Recently, at his initiative, the Chamber of Deputies plenary adopted  as the decision-making body in this case  a bill punishing the initiation or support of organizations with a fascist, legionary, racist or xenophobic character, with up to 10 years in prison. Those who make such materials available to the public, by any means, risk between 1 and 5 years in prison with the prohibition of certain rights, and promoting the cult of persons guilty of genocide or denying the Holocaust will be punished with up to 3 years in prison. Why was there a need to tighten the legislation in this field? Silviu Vexler explains: First of all, the massive spread within society and especially in the online environment of anti-Semitic materials, excessively promoting war criminals from the Holocaust period as national heroes and, at the same time, the alarming increase in anti-Semitic incidents nationally, is one reason. Another reason was the dysfunctions in the legislation that was already in force for over 20 years, not adapted to the current situation. 

The reality in society did not require new, harsher regulations with a real potential to restrict freedom of expression, according to other MPs. In the opinion of some MPs from the nationalist opposition, there is no anti-Semitic current or anti-Semitic organization in Romania. Silviu Vexler: I see absolutely no restriction of the freedom of expression. Including in numerous cases that have been before the European Court of Human Rights, it has been established very clearly that what constitutes anti-Semitism and the promotion of the cult of war criminals, restricting these things that affect entire societies, which affect democracy itself, does not represent a restriction of freedom of expression. Furthermore, I provided examples that, by the way, are public, regarding the existence of anti-Semitic incidents on Romanian territory. It is very true that there were no incidents as serious as there were in other countries, but that does not mean that there were not extremely difficult situations, that there are not extremely difficult and dangerous situations. However, you always take measures in advance, when you anticipate and not when you have to respond. From the vandalism of cemeteries, of synagogues, repeated threats directed against members of Jewish communities, and the list goes on.

The purpose of the bill  its initiator also said on Radio Romania  is not to ban any writer, any books or work of art: The law very clearly provides for the differentiation between the cult of persons responsible for committing the Holocaust in Romania, for example, and what art, culture, science, education and so on mean. The main danger brought by the lack of knowledge, the lack of sanctions, the fact that the population in general sees that extremely negative things are happening that should be sanctioned and are not sanctioned for various reasons is that all these things, all these feelings and ideas become normal again. Now, this does not only affect Jews, only Jewish communities, it affects the entire society. Extremism is a danger, regardless of the type of extremism. Whether it is anti-Semitism or of another nature, it is a danger for democracy itself and for every citizen of Romania.

The law, as it was adopted  it was said in the Chamber of Deputies  is, in fact, an expression of freedom according to the well-known principle that someones freedom ends where the freedom of those around them begins. (EE)
September 10, 2025 UPDATE (I)

A roundup of domestic and international news

September 10, 2025 UPDATE (I)

Newsroom, 10.09.2025, 19:58

Drones. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Wednesday denounced Russias dangerous behavior after Russian drones entered Polish airspace, to which the North Atlantic Alliance responded very effectively, AFP reports. According to the NATO chief, the North Atlantic Council met on Wednesday morning and discussed the situation based on Polands request for consultations under Article 4 of the Washington Treaty. The allies expressed their solidarity with Poland and denounced Russias reckless behavior, Rutte said, adding that its clear that the incursion into Poland was not an isolated incident. Europe stands in full solidarity with Poland, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday in the European Parliament plenary. Reactions also came from Bucharest. The countrys president, Nicusor Dan, said that the flagrant violation of Polish airspace was unacceptable and that Russia had once again demonstrated that it was behaving aggressively and defying peace efforts in Ukraine. Romania stands in full solidarity with Poland, our ally and strategic partner. We are united in making NATO, and in particular the Eastern Flank, from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, more secure, Dan said. On the other hand, Moscow representatives said that Warsaw had not presented any evidence that the downed drones came from Russia.



Resolution. On Wednesday, the European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning Russias attempts to destabilize the Republic of Moldova (a former Soviet republic with a Romanian-speaking majority) and stating that Russias interference aims to reverse the democratic progress of this state. MEPs criticise the intensification of hybrid operations and attempts at interference by Russia ahead of the parliamentary elections in Moldova on 28 September, according to a statement published on the European Parliaments website. MEPs welcome Chisinaus exemplary commitment to EU accession reforms and the steady progress made in this regard, despite significant internal and external challenges, including Russias full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine and the Kremlins specific hybrid threats.



Spy. Alexandru Balan, former deputy director of the Information and Security Service of the Republic of Moldova, has been remanded in custody on charges of treason. The decision was taken on Wednesday evening by the Bucharest Court of Appeal, at the request of prosecutors. The evidence gathered showed that Alexandru Balan, who has dual Moldovan and Romanian citizenship, had been involved since last year in divulging state secrets to officers of the KGB service of the Republic of Belarus, a country close to Russia, and that the information sold is likely to endanger Romanias national security. The former Moldovan officer was caught on Monday in Timisoara (west) after an operation carried out in several countries to dismantle a Belarusian spy network.



AmCham. American businesspeople operating in Romania are asking the countrys president, Nicusor Dan, to intervene to eliminate the turnover tax. Representatives of the Romanian-American Chamber of Commerce believe that this tax sends a negative message to investors, who would be very difficult to convince to come to Romania if they have to pay tax before making a profit. Speaking at a specialist forum, the Romanian president said that the presence of American companies in Romania has meant development and prosperity, but also the transfer of know-how. Nicusor Dan told businesspeople from across the Atlantic that the main priority of the coalition government in Bucharest is stability. The Romanian-American Chamber of Commerce represents over 600 American, international, and Romanian companies operating in Romania in over 30 sectors.



Education. Romanian education ministry says it is monitoring activity in schools amid protests from trade unions, including a rally and a protest march by teachers on the first day of the new school year. Data centralised by the ministry show that classes were held regularly in 98% of schools. Teachers are unhappy with the increase in teaching hours, the merger of some schools and bigger class sizes, among others. Trade unions call on the government to give up on these measures, which they say will affect children, and ask for the resignation of the education minister Daniel David. On Monday, on the day of the protest, after talks with president Nicusor Dan, they said protests will continue and are not ruling out a general strike.



Protests. Groups of protesters blocked roads and attacked infrastructure in towns across France as part of anti-government protests organized by a new movement called Lets block everything, the BBC reports. Nearly 1,000 people tried to storm the main train station in Paris, but were repelled by police using tear gas. The protests took place after French President Emmanuel Macron appointed Sebastien Lecornu as prime minister on Tuesday evening. He will succeed Francois Bayrou, who was dismissed on Monday by a vote of the National Assembly, which refused to give him its confidence for the 2026 budget. One of Macrons closest associates, Lecornu (39) will begin consultations with parliamentary parties in an attempt to find support agreements before forming a new government. None of the three major political blocs  the far left, the moderate right, and the radical right  has enough seats to support its own government. In just three years, there have been no fewer than five cabinets. Almost two-thirds of French people surveyed said they wanted President Emmanuel Macron to resign. Fifty-six percent of those surveyed also called for the dissolution of parliament and early legislative elections.

Oscars. The feature film The Heist of the Century, directed by Teodora Ana Mihai, based on a screenplay by Cristian Mungiu, will represent Romania in the Best International Feature Film category at the 2026 Academy Awards (Oscars). The film won the Grand Prix at the Warsaw International Film Festival (2024), the Best Actress Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival (2024) for actress Anamaria Vartolomei, the Balkan Film Award (award for best film in the Balkan competition) at the Sofia International Film Festival, and the Audience Award at the Shanghai International Film Festival. The film is a Romania-Belgium-Netherlands co-production. The shortlist for the 2026 Oscar nominations will be announced by the American Film Academy on December 16, and the final selection on January 22, 2026. The 98th Academy Awards ceremony is scheduled for March 15, 2026, in Los Angeles. (MI)
Maia Sandu addresses the European Parliament

It is the responsibility of the citizens of the Republic of Moldova to elect a Parliament that will lead the country to the European Union, President Maia Sandu said in her address to the European Parliament.

Maia Sandu (sursa foto: acebook.com/presedinte.md/

Stefan Stoica, 10.09.2025, 13:50

The speech of Moldovas president, Maia Sandu, was the highlight of Tuesdays session of the European Parliament, also because it came at a crucial moment for the future of the Republic of Moldova. On 28 of September 2025, Moldova will hold the most consequential election in its history. Its outcome will decide whether we consolidate as a stable democracy on the path to EU membership  a safe neighbour to Ukraine and a security provider to the Union  or whether Russia destabilizes us, pulls us away from Europe, and turns us into a threat on Ukraines southwestern border and Europes eastern frontier, Maia Sandu said. According to the Moldovan president, the stability of Moldova is the stability of Europe, and the peace of Moldova is also the peace of Europe. The Moldovan head of state said the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine are ready to advance their EU accession negotiations, in a merit-based process that reflects the progress of each country. In her opinion, the European Union has never been about perfection, but about protecting fragile democracies until they are consolidated. The European Union, Maia Sandu pointed out, is a steadfast partner of Moldova, which it has helped to reform, modernize and build institutions capable of withstanding pressure.

Maia Sandu paid tribute to Ukraine and its citizens, who are fighting to defend their country and freedom, thus protecting Moldova as well. We owe them our peace. But their sacrifice is also a reminder: peace is never guaranteed. That is why our European path is not just a matter of values  it is a matter of survival. And precisely because we have advanced greatly on this path, Russia has unleashed its full arsenal of hybrid attacks against us. The battlefield is our elections, the president warned.

At the end of her speech, Maia Sandu addressed Moldovan citizens in Romanian, telling them that they should be proud they have built a living democracy and preserved it for three decades, even when some have tried to silence or destroy it. Today, however, our independence and peace are once again being put to the test: interference in our elections, illegal funding from abroad, disinformation campaigns, cyber-attacks, paid protests, tactics to sow hatred between people. These are the methods by means of which Moldova is being tested to stop its European path. Now we must take the decisive step: to elect a parliament that will lead Moldova into the European Union. This is our responsibility. The future of Moldova depends on the courage and unity with which we will vote, the president went on to say. Towards the end of the Moldovan presidents speech, the unaffiliated MEP Diana Sosoaca, the representative of the sovereignist, ultranationalist movement in Romania, shouted Moldova is Romania, Maia Sandu! Her intervention was received with boos from the majority of MEPs in attendance. (VP)
SAFE, a program for Europes defense

Romania will benefit billions of euros in investments under the SAFE program, by which the European Union wants to re-launch the defense industry.

militari-romani-armata-foto-mapn-fb

Mihai Pelin, 10.09.2025, 14:00

The European Commission has approved the preliminary allocation of 150 billion euros in the form of financial support under the SAFE defense program, the purpose of which is to increase the defense capabilities of EU member states and promote joint weapons acquisitions. Poland will receive the largest share of the amount, 43.7 billion euros, followed by Romania, with 16.7 billion euros.

The Ministry of Defense in Bucharest speaks of a strategic opportunity for increasing defense capacity by financing projects for the acquisition of state-of-the-art military equipment and the modernization of military infrastructure. In turn, the Ministry of Finance has siad that the European Commission thus acknowledges Romanias role in consolidating a safer Europe. Also under SAFE, Hungary and France will each receive 16.2 billion euros, Italy 14.9 billion euros, Belgium 8.3 billion euros, Lithuania 6.4 billion euros, Portugal 5.8 billion euros and Latvia 5.7 billion euros. Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Slovakia and Spain will also join the program.

According to the European Comission, SAFE will support member states with long-term, low-interest loans to help them acquire urgently needed defense equipment, such as air and missile defense systems, artillery, missiles, ammunition, drones and anti-drone systems. The scheme provides for a 10-year period for repayment and also for the possibility of signing bilateral agreements with third countries. On the other hand, SAFE will also create the possibility for the inclusion of the Ukrainian defence industry, as well as for the participation of candidate countries and EU partners in security cooperation in joint public procurement.

Member states must submit their investment plans by the end of November, based on which the European Commission will start making the first payments in early 2026. The additional resources will contribute to deterring our enemies and strengthening European defence, EU Commissioner for Defence and Space, Andrius Kubilius said, adding that the European Commission will work closely with Member States to improve interoperability, develop the European defence industry, as well as strengthen collective capabilities. In turn, Commission Vice-President Henna Virkkunen said that the decision proves the EUs commitment to defence cooperation and a more secure future. The programme is part of the EUs comprehensive defence package, Readiness 2030, adopted in May and is a central element to the European rearmament efforts. The main objective of SAFE is to overcome faster the existing deficiencies in terms of military resources and to create conditions for the acquisition of modern military equipment. (EE)
CORRALES  The village of Corrales councilors unanimously approved a proclamation that defends the United States Constitution and separation of powers Sept. 9 at the regular council meeting, but not before a change was made to the proclamation and the council heard public comments on the subject.

The proclamation was in direct response to President Donald Trump and his administrations recent actions, according to Mayor James Fahey.

The proclamation

Resident Carol Welch said she strongly supports the proclamation during public comment.

I believe that it addresses a lot of what is happening from the White House. Our democracy, as well as our Constitution, are being challenged as never before. I have never worried about our democracy being taken away or my rights, which are granted to me through the Constitution, being taken away or even threatened. This is not true today. Our time now is not normal. We the people have got to come together to fight the changes that are happening. My hope that you, our mayor, and all of you on the council will pass, approve and adopt the proclamation, she said.

However, this sentiment was not shared by Bob Eichhorst, who up until the local election filing date was going to run for Corrales mayor. Eichhorst said he dropped out so Fred Hashimoto could run against current Mayor Jim Fahey.

I used to be a Democratic precinct chairman in Corrales. But Im damn sure not progressive, he said.

Eichhorst accused Fahey of using the proclamation for his own candidacy in the mayoral race. He also claimed that there was not enough notice given about the proclamation.

If the mayor wants to write this letter, put it in your name. If the council wants to write this letter, put it in your name. Once that seal from the village of Corrales goes on it, it represents everybody in Corrales, he added. You didnt give anybody notice that this was going to happen, or else youd be flooded with a ton of Republicans in here.

He went further, stating he is a very conservative Democrat and completely disagrees with the proclamation.

This is going in the wrong direction. This is supposed to be a nonpartisan board. This is not nonpartisan proclamation. What happened to the nonpartisanship? he said.

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After the item quickly got a motion and a second, it was the councilors turn to comment on the proclamation.

Bill Woldman, councilor for District 2, thanked the mayor and administration for the comprehensive and important statement in our democracy.

He disagreed with Eichhorst, stating the proclamation is not a partisan statement but rather an acknowledgment of a significant deviation from 250 years of practice of the separation of powers, he said.

District 6 councilor Stuart Murray also disagreed with Eichhorst.

I was looking at the definition of proclamation, and it does not require any input anywhere from residents. This is just a statement being made by council, so Im comfortable with it, he said.

One councilor, Zachary Burkett of District 5, was unsure if the council had the purview to issue such a statement.

Despite the fact that I agree with virtually everything on this page, I do have some misgivings about whether this is within our job to to do this, he said.

Burkett was mostly concerned that the proclamation was too specific about issues in one of the statements and made a motion to change it.

The section of the proclamation first read: the Village of Corrales Council acknowledges the unconstitutional consolidation of power in the Executive Branch by Executive Orders and willful misdeeds such as, but not limited to: the revocation of birthright citizenship; freezing of federal spending approved by Congress; shuttering of federal agencies; demonstrating a pattern of usurping the duties of the legislative branch; violating due process rights of persons of the United States; infringing upon civil service protections for federal employees; threatening deportation and/or prosecution based on political views; ignoring or disobeying judicial mandates; politicizing law enforcement and the military; and generally expressing contempt for the separation of powers, freedom of speech and equal justice under the law.

Burketts motion was also approved unanimously by the council.

Now it reads: the Village of Corrales Council acknowledges the unconstitutional consolidation of power in the Executive Branch by Executive Orders.

Burkett added that the systemic issues have been there with previous administrations in the U.S. but that the current administration is just at a higher degree than previous ones.

Fahey also spoke up, stating he introduced this because it had been bothering me for about three months.

I felt like we needed to say something, and it all starts down here in the small communities, he said.

He recognized that he doesnt get a vote but that his signature appears on the proclamation.

I can certainly feel comfortable with it, but you know, for those of us my age who have served the military and did their duty and have been around a long time and have seen things change, not for the for the good sometimes. Weve become too polarized. Its very unfortunate, he said.

To read the full proclamation visit corrales-nm.org, navigate to the village meetings tab, click on recent meetings and click on the Sept. 9 agenda packet. The proclamation is on page 41 of the packet.
RIO RANCHO  Funding for buses, cybersecurity resources and special education positions were just a few priorities from the 2026 legislative session that the Rio Rancho Public Schools Board of Education approved Monday.

The board passed eight resolutions, each covering different priorities following an Aug. 25 meeting in which they were first discussed.

The board members action came on the same day the New Mexico School Boards Association ended its call for all school districts to submit resolutions, which will be used to help form NMSBAs priorities for the next legislative session  limited to budget and finance matters.

Joe Guillen, executive director of the New Mexico School Boards Association, confirmed in an email to the Observer Tuesday that the SBA received resolutions from Rio Rancho schools.

Heres a look at the priorities the school board approved:

Adequate busesRRPS and school districts throughout the state are calling on the New Mexico governor and Legislature to fund all transportation costs for public and charter schools since not all school districts received enough money to transport their students to school in a timely manner, a resolution said.

RRPS, which released an outside study on its multi-tiered bus schedule earlier this year, stated in the resolution that it needs at least 25 more buses just to cover elementary school students on one tier.

I think you all know the crazy schedule we have, especially for elementary, Superintendent Sue Cleveland said during the meeting. We would like to see that challenge eliminated for our district and others.

Career-technical

educationThe resolution calls on permanent, per-student funding to cover the increased costs of career-technical education operations as well as start-up costs for facilities and equipment.

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The funding emphasis should be placed on future job market needs, including IT or cybersecurity and trades in which current shortages exist such as HVAC certification, construction trades, auto mechanics, teaching, and health care, the resolution states.

The resolution coincides with the opening of RioTECH, the districts CTE school, at the start of the new school year.

Teacher licensure

advancementAn option within New Mexicos three-tiered licensure advancement system for teachers ended during the 2023-24 school year, according to an RRPS resolution. That loss put into the spotlight how micro-credentialing limits the number of teachers able to complete advancement requirements, among other issues, the resolution said.

On that note, RRPS would like the Legislature to revive the lost professional development dossier option until a new licensure advancement system can be developed, as well as form a task force to create a new advanced licensure system.

Special education

positionsRetention and recruitment of special education teachers is a challenge due to the nature of their role  and compensation for existing specialists is not commiserate with their duties, according to a resolution.

During Mondays school board meeting, Cleveland noted that RRPS has 15 special education positions it has not filled and there is nobody on the horizon who has applied.

Then, we end up going out and contracting  and those contractors end up making more money, Cleveland said.

The resolution calls on the Legislature to increase funding for special education teachers and work with schools to develop a retention and recruitment strategy.

Capital improvement fundingAs construction costs increase, school districts dont have enough money to meet their construction needs  and putting them off only increases costs, an RRPS resolution stated.

Thats why the school district and others want the Legislature to increase funding for construction projects and decrease the local match requirement allocated to each district.

We have so many needs that far exceed our ability to bond, Cleveland said, noting the bond to be placed on the ballot Nov. 4.

Technology counts as a capital project, she said. Cleveland would also like to tear down and replace the aging Rio Rancho Elementary School and Lincoln Middle School.

Cybersecurity and

computer refreshEven as schools face an average of more than one cybersecurity incident per day, many school districts struggle with insufficient IT resources and cannot single-handedly identify and prioritize emerging threats, according to the resolution.

Cleveland stressed the urgency of the problem, in part, by bringing up the technological difficulties that caused Mondays school board meeting to have a late start.

We live and die by our computer system, Cleveland said. We need to be sure we can protect our district.

She added that the school district has a really strong team of information technology experts, but it needs funding to stay ahead of challenges.

In terms of the computer refresh issue, Cleveland said many of the school districts machine are aging out in very large numbers and an investment between $5-6 million is needed.

Wed love the state to help with the refresh process, Cleveland said.

SEG funding formulaRRPS believes the state equalization formula  a decades-old funding mechanism meant to provide fair and equitable support for all students  needs to undergo a review, similar to one in 2008.

The review should specifically consider increased sustainable funding for instructional materials, teacher professional development, and new factors to address school safety needs and to support social workers and related personnel, according to the resolution.

Cleveland, who helped craft the 2008 review, said in an interview said changes to SEG will take a real commitment by the governor and the Legislature.

She noted House Bill 63, which made changes to the formula, was signed into law by the governor earlier this year.

(The bill) was a help, but it doesnt even begin to cover all the safety and security needs in the state, Cleveland said.

Insurance coverage for school districtsThe resolution urges a comprehensive review of insurance coverage provided to public schools through the New Mexico Public Schools Insurance Authority and consider legislative or regulatory measures of public school insurance coverage.

The call comes as NMPSIA recently proposed imposing significant deductibles (up to $500,000 per occurrence) on school districts when school districts are already paying steep premiums that increase every year, according to the resolution.

Cleveland said she does not believe school districts should be liable for up to $2 million in cases where districts did everything right and it could not have known of a problem before it happened.

Then, I dont think we should be liable, and I think thats what insurance is for, Cleveland said. If we saw a child being abused and we knew it and didnt report it  OK, youre probably going to get hit.
Biotech stocks lit up the after-hours session on September 9, 2025, with several small- and mid-cap names posting sharp gains following fresh clinical updates, insider buying, and investor conference appearances. Companies like Immutep, Nautilus Biotechnology, Pliant Therapeutics, Phio Pharmaceuticals, and Kura Oncology all saw renewed momentum, driven by near-term catalysts that are drawing attention across the healthcare sector. Here's a quick look at the biggest movers and what's fueling their post-market rallies.

Shares of Immutep Ltd. (IMMP) rose by 4.37%, reaching $1.67 in after-hours trading. This rebound followed a sharp decline during regular market hours, where the stock closed at $1.60, down 6.98% from the previous session.

The most recent news came on September 9, 2025, when Immutep announced that data from its EFTISARC-NEO Phase II trial has been accepted for oral presentation at CTOS 2025, a major oncology conference scheduled for November. This trial is the first to evaluate eftilagimod alpha (efti) in a neoadjuvant setting for soft tissue sarcoma (STS), combining efti with radiotherapy and KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab). The trial, conducted in Poland and funded by the Polish Medical Research Agency, targets a rare cancer with high unmet need and poor prognosis. The presentation is scheduled for November 13, 2025, and will highlight primary endpoints and translational correlates.

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Shares of Nautilus Biotechnology Inc. (NAUT) surged by 12.25%, rising to $0.7521 in after-hours trading. This sharp rebound followed a disappointing regular session, where the stock closed at $0.6700, down 4.42%.

The most recent catalyst came from insider buying activity. On September 8, 2025, CEO Sujal M. Patel purchased 83,500 shares of Nautilus stock, following an earlier acquisition of 116,500 shares on September 5. These transactions, totaling over $135,000, signal confidence from the company's leadership and have drawn attention from investors seeking undervalued biotech plays.

Additionally, Nautilus is scheduled to participate in the Q3 Investor Summit Group Virtual Conference on September 16-17.

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Shares of Pliant Therapeutics Inc. (PLRX) ended the regular trading session on September 9, 2025, at $1.75, up 1.16% for the day. In after-hours trading, the stock jumped sharply by 16.00%, reaching $2.03. This strong post-market move reflects heightened attention around the company's upcoming milestones.

The next key event on the calendar is the company's third-quarter earnings report, scheduled for November 6, 2025. Updates are expected on bexotegrast, Pliant's lead candidate targeting idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, along with progress across its broader fibrosis-focused pipeline.

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Shares of Jin Medical International Ltd. (ZJYL) closed at $0.6532 on September 9, 2025, marking a gain of 3.65% during regular trading hours. In after-hours trading, the stock extended its rally, rising 7.15% to $0.6999.

The most recent catalyst came from the company's announcement of expanded production capabilities. In August 2025, Jin Medical launched operations at Plant No. 3 in Chuzhou, China, aimed at accelerating global delivery of its medical equipment, including wheelchairs and rehabilitative devices. This expansion is expected to enhance supply chain efficiency and support international growth, particularly in such as the United States, Japan, and Southeast Asia.

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Phio Pharmaceuticals Corp. (PHIO) saw a notable surge in after-hours trading on September 9, 2025, with its stock rising 8.20% to $2.64. This move extended the momentum from the regular session, where shares had already climbed 13.49% to close at $2.44. The continued rally highlights increased focus on the company's clinical pipeline and near-term visibility.

The most recent catalyst is Phio's participation in the H.C. Wainwright 27th Annual Global Investment Conference, taking place from September 8 to 10, 2025 in New York City. CEO Robert Bitterman is scheduled to present on September 10, offering updates on the company's ongoing Phase 1b clinical trial for PH-762, an INTASYL siRNA compound targeting PD-1 in skin cancers such as cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, melanoma, and Merkel cell carcinoma. The presentation is expected to outline strategic next steps following the treatment phase of the study.

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Shares of Kura Oncology Inc. (KURA) jumped 6.12% in after-hours trading on September 9, 2025, reaching $8.50 after closing the regular session at $8.01, down 1.60%. The post-market rally reflects renewed focus on the company's advancing pipeline and upcoming regulatory milestones.

The most recent catalyst came from Kura's presentation at the H.C. Wainwright 27th Annual Global Investment Conference on September 8, 2025. CEO Troy Wilson outlined key developments, including preparations for the PDUFA action date on November 30 for Ziftomenib, a menin inhibitor targeting relapsed/refractory NPM1-mutant acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Two Phase 3 trials are also underway, evaluating Ziftomenib in frontline AML settings, with the potential to tap into a market opportunity exceeding $7 billion annually.

In addition, Kura is advancing its Farnesyl Transferase Inhibitor (FTI) program, with Phase 1 data expected to be presented at ESMO. This program targets resistance mechanisms in solid tumors and complements the company's broader oncology strategy.

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For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
DCC plc (DCC.L, DCCPY), a Dublin-based international sales, marketing, and support services group, on Wednesday said it has completed the sale of its healthcare division, DCC Healthcare.

Details of the deal were disclosed in its April 22 stock exchange announcement.

As announced on May 13, DCC intends to return 800 million pounds of the proceeds to shareholders. It launched a 100 million pounds on-market share buyback in May, which is expected to complete in the coming weeks.

The company also plans to launch a 600 million pounds tender offer shortly after releasing interim results in November, with completion expected in December. The remaining 100 million pounds will be returned following receipt of unconditional deferred consideration in about two years.

The company said the transaction is a material step in its strategy to simplify operations, maximize shareholder value, and accelerate the growth of its energy , its largest and highest-returning division.

As of the announcement made on April 22, the proposed deal valued DCC Healthcare at a total enterprise value of 1.05 billion pounds on a cash-free, debt-free basis.

The transaction was expected to complete in the third quarter of 2025. Following the deal closure, DCC anticipates a significant return of capital to shareholders.

Total expected net cash proceeds was anticipated to be around 945 million pounds, including an unconditional deferred amount of 130 million pounds receivable within two years.

On Tuesday, DCC closed trading, 1.44% lesser at 4,670 pence on the London Stock Exchange.

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President Donald Trump has expressed his displeasure over the Israeli strike targeting Hamas leaders in Doha, saying he was very unhappy about every aspect of it.

"I'm not thrilled about the whole situation. It's not a good situation, but I will say this - we want the hostages back, but we are not thrilled about the way that went down today." he told reporters in Washington Tuesday night.

"I'm never surprised by anything, especially when it comes to the Middle East," he added.

Trump said on social media earlier that he could not prevent the attack as he came to know about the decision made by Israel's leadership "too late".

"This was a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me," Trump said in statement posted on his social media platform Truth Social.

"I immediately directed Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to inform the Qataris of the impending attack, which he did, however, unfortunately, too late to stop the attack," Trump added.

He said bombing Qatar, a "sovereign nation and close ally" of the US, does not advance the goals of either Israel or the U.S.

Trump was adding to the White House Spokesperson's statement earlier that the President had been informed in advance and directed his officials to alert Doha - but the message was conveyed too late to stop the attack.

Hamas reported that six people, including five of its members and one member of the Qatari security forces, were killed in the Israeli attack Tuesday night. The son of one of Hamas' exiled leaders from the Gaza Strip was also among the casualties. The Palestinian militant group added that its senior negotiators and top officials who were in the capital of Qatar for ceasefire talks had all survived the attack.

The leaders of Qatar, the UK, Canada, France and the UN have criticized the attack.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke out against what he called a "flagrant violation" of Qatari sovereignty and territorial integrity. He insisted that all parties must focus on achieving a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, "not (on) destroying it".

The Qatari Government condemned the attack as a "blatant violation of international law" and the Qatari Prime Minister said at a press conference that "there must be a response from the entire region to such barbaric actions."

Qatar - alongside the US and Egypt - had brokered extensive efforts to end the Gaza war which began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas and other militants attacked settlements in southern Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Tuesday's attack had been Israel's sole responsibility.

BBC reported that the UN Security Council will hold a meeting Wednesday afternoon to discuss the consequences from Israel's strikes targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar.

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Business News
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has named Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro as among those leaders who are helping to poison the American people by trafficking narcotics to the country.

While interacting with U.S. troops in the Caribbean region, Hegseth said that the War Department knows who the traffickers are, what illegal substances they are trafficking, the routes they take, and who their leaders are  including Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela.

"What we have declared  and we are [currently] declaring  is that, in international waters, we are not going to tolerate narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people," Hegseth told a gathering of Air National Guardsmen at Muniz Air National Guard Base, just outside of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The visit came amid the deployment of various U.S. Navy vessels to the region, and just under one week since U.S. Southern Command forces conducted a kinetic strike in the Caribbean Sea against positively identified members of the Tren de Aragua narco-terrorism organization, resulting in 11 terrorists killed.

"There are 11 narco-terrorists at the bottom of the Caribbean [Sea] right now who found out, at the hands of American power, that you will not be poisoning the American people anymore," Hegseth told a large crowd of sailors during an afloat visit to the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima.

During both the Air National Guard and Navy troop visits, Hegseth emphasized the importance of the service members' contribution to the mission of protecting the homeland.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on January 20, designating cartels and other organizations as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists, thus authorizing the military to engage any perceived threats from such entities.

More than 82,000 Americans suffered drug-related deaths in 2024, as per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The secretary was joined on the trip by Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
Samkelo Mngadi, Rhodes University Convocation President (2025-2027)

Samkelo Ntobeko Vukani Mngadi, University of South Africa (Unisa) lecturer and Rhodes University Student Representative Council (SRC) President of 2019, is the new Universitys Convocation President.

He was elected by the alumni at the Convocation gathering on 6 September 2025, the University Acting Registrar, Professor Michelle Karels, announced today.

He takes over the reins from Dr Michele Ruiters, a Gordon Institute of Business Science (University of Pretoria) academic, whose term ended this year.

Mngadi graduated from Rhodes University in 2022 with a Master of Arts in History, having completed his honours and undergraduate degrees in 2016 and 2017. Currently, he is registered to complete his PhD at Unisa.

He has a formidable leadership pedigree, which the University has recognised. It includes being the recipient of the Memorial Prize for History for his masters degree at Rhodes University, securing the Rodney Davenport and Residence Merit Scholarships, and receiving the Nelson Mandela Hall Leadership Award.

He is also recognised at a national level. In 2015, he received the Toastmasters International Communicator Award. In 2017 and again in 2019, he was named in Investecs Top 100 leadership category.

He is becoming a sought-after academic speaker and panellist, having featured at the Chief Albert Luthuli two-day colloquium, the Biennial Conference of the Historical Association of South Africa, and the Namibian-German Student Conference of Humanities International Student Conference.

Yet his heart for young people is evidenced by the many roles he has played in teaching, mentoring, and leading.

These roles began as early as 2015 when he was appointed as a sub-warden for Stanley Kidd House. Several tutoring and warden roles followed, culminating in his election as SRC President.

Today, he is a history lecturer and postgraduate assistant at Unisa.

He also serves as an advisory board member of the Uyinene Mrwetyana Foundation, to which he was nominated in 2021, and played a critical role in the foundation's earliest advocacy efforts.

Mngadi's term as Convocation President runs until September 2027.
The Indian Government has announced GST 2.0 tax rates and new slabs which are set to take place from September 22nd. A few industries have expressed concerns and scepticism regarding passing on the full benefits to customers as they do not get to adjust Input Tax Credit rates (GST paid on input costs and materials).

Brand-Wise Car Price Cuts

Automotive sector, however, still has a lot of wiggle room to adjust Input Tax Credit. Most of the automotive brands are passing on the full GST reform benefits to buyers. Depending on the brand and model, GST 2.0 has ensured price cuts of up to Rs 30.4 lakh (Ex-sh). Lets take a closer look at brand-wise car price cuts facilitated by GST 2.0.

Honda Cars India Ltd  Up To Rs 95,500

HCIL has just announced that it will reduce the car prices by up to Rs 95,500 (Ex-sh) with reduced GST 2.0 tax rates. Owing to its Sub 4m length constraint, Amaze gets the most price cut within Hondas lineup of up to Rs 95,500. C Segment vehicles like Elevate SUV and City sedan, on the other hand, get a price cut of up to Rs 58,500 (Ex-sh).

Renault India Pvt Ltd  Up To Rs 96,395

After launching the Kiger facelift, Renault has introduced a price cut on their cars owing to GST 2.0 revised rates. The company is passing on full benefits of GST 2.0 reforms to buyers by offering price cuts of up to Rs 96,395 (Ex-sh). All three Renault models in India are sub 4m in length, enjoying maximum tax cuts.

Nissan Motor India Pvt Ltd  Up To Rs 1,00,400

With just one horse in its chariot, NMIPL has been pushing ahead in the Indian market with Magnite Sub 4m SUV. Being a B Segment vehicle, Magnite now falls under the 18% GST rates attracting a price cut of up to Rs 1,00,400 (Ex-sh).

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd  Up To Rs 1,11,190 (Arena)

Indias largest car manufacturer by volume, Maruti Suzuki, is passing on the full benefits of GST 2.0 reforms. Maruti Suzuki operates Indias largest sub 4m vehicle portfolio and benefits massively from the new GST rates. Price cuts are up to Rs 1,11,190 on premium sub 4m vehicles like Dzire. Sadly, Brezza misses out on 18% GST slab owing to its 1.5L engine.

Tata Motors Ltd  Up To Rs 1,55,000

One of Indias leading passenger car manufacturers, Tata Motors Ltd, is also passing on the full GST 2.0 benefits over to the buyers. This has created a major price cut in Tata portfolio that goes till Rs 1,55,000 for Nexon, owing to its sub 4m nature. Other Tata products get a price cut too, as seen in the table below.

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd  Up To Rs 1,56100

Indias favourite SUV manufacturer (traditional SUVs), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, is passing on full benefits of GST 2.0 to its buyers. Max discounts go up to Rs 1,56,100 for XUV3XO, which fully benefits from GST 2.0 reforms owing to its sub 4m nature. All other Mahindra vehicles including the sub 4m Thar 3-Door also get attractive price cuts as seen in the table below.

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Hyundai Motor India Ltd  Up To Rs 2,40,303

The maker of Creta SUV, Hyundai Motor India Ltd, is offering a price cut of up to Rs 2,40,303 with its portfolio. This is due to the new GST 2.0 reforms and the company is passing on GST benefits to buyers who can now afford their favourite Hyundai product. Highest price cut is with Tucson, while highest price cut within sub 4m segment is with Venue at Rs 1,23,659.

JSW MG Motor India Pvt Ltd  Up To Rs 3,04,000

After launching MG M9 and Cyberster sportscar in India, JSW MG Motor India Pvt Ltd is stepping into the festivities with a major price cut with its ICE portfolio. The company is passing on the GST 2.0 reform benefits to buyers offering price cuts of up to Rs 3,04,000 with Gloster SUV. Hector and Astor also get respectable benefits.

Skoda Auto Volkswagen India Pvt Ltd  Up To Rs 3,28,267

SAVWIPL is passing on the GST 2.0 tax benefits to buyers with price cuts of up to Rs 3,28,267 offered with Skoda Kodiaq SUV. With Volkswagen vehicles, max price cut is with Tiguan R Line up to 3,26,900. Falling in the lucrative sub 4m segment, Skoda Kylaq enjoyed a price cut of up to Rs 2,26,900.

Kia India Pvt Ltd  Up To Rs 4,48,542

One of Indias leading mass market premium vehicle maker, Kia India Pvt Ltd, is also stepping into the festivities with a major price cut with its ICE portfolio. The company is passing on full GST 2.0 benefits of up to Rs 4,48,542 with Kia Carnival. Notably, Kias sub 4m SUVs like Sonet and Syros has received some of the healthiest price cuts of up to Rs 1,86,003.

Mercedes-Benz India Pvt Ltd  Up To Rs 11 Lakh

The three-pointed star has introduced a price cut on their made-in-India ICE portfolio of up to Rs 11 lakh with its flagship S-Class sedan. Other vehicles have also received respectable price drops now that 28% GST + 22% cess has been reduced to a flat 40% GST rate.

Jaguar Land Rover India Ltd

The highest price cuts announced till now with GST 2.0 reforms is Jaguar Land Rover India Ltd. The max price cut is up to Rs 30.4 lakh. This is with Land Rover Range Rover (full size), which is locally assembled in India. Defender and Discovery lineups have received respectable price cuts as well.
Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 9, 2025. (Xinhua/Huang Jingwen)

BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro in Beijing on Tuesday.

Xi said both China and Portugal are nations with a long history and rich culture, and the two peoples share the character traits of being open, inclusive, enterprising and self-reliant, adding that the two sides have appropriately resolved the Macao issue through friendly consultations.

Xi said in recent years, the two countries have achieved fruitful outcomes in cooperation across various fields, setting a model of mutual respect and mutual benefit for countries with different social systems and national conditions.

Noting that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the China-Portugal comprehensive strategic partnership, Xi said China is willing to strengthen strategic communication with Portugal, steer the bilateral relations in the right direction, make the good relations even better, and contribute more to the prosperity and progress of the two countries and the world through solidarity and cooperation.

Xi called on the two sides to carry forward the traditional friendship, maintain mutual trust and support, deepen the alignment of development strategies, and expand practical cooperation in areas such as innovation, green development, maritime affairs and healthcare.

He noted that the two sides should give full play to Macao's unique role as a bridge and make good use of mechanisms like the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes at a higher level. They should also encourage exchanges in culture, education, tourism and scientific research, as well as deepen people-to-people and cultural exchanges, he added.

"The more turbulent the international landscape becomes, the greater the need for China and Europe to strengthen communication, enhance mutual trust and deepen cooperation," Xi said, expressing the hope that Portugal will work with China to uphold the orientation of the China-EU partnership and promote the sustained, stable and healthy development of China-EU relations.

Noting this year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, as well as the 80th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations (UN), Xi stressed that China is ready to work closely with Portugal in multilateral affairs to jointly practice true multilateralism, safeguard the authority of the UN and the free trade system, and promote the building of a more just and equitable global governance system.

Montenegro conveyed Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa's sincere greetings to President Xi, adding that the future-oriented relations between Portugal and China have a long history, and the two countries have properly resolved the Macao issue through friendly consultations.

Montenegro said the successful practice in Macao over the past 25 years fully demonstrates that the Portuguese government made the right decision. Portugal will continue to adhere to the one-China policy and will not forget the valuable support and assistance provided by China during the most difficult period of Portugal's economy, he said.

Montenegro expressed Portugal's willingness to deepen cooperation, enhance political mutual trust, and strengthen economic and trade ties with China.

He noted that Portugal agrees with the important concepts embodied in the Global Governance Initiative proposed by President Xi and is willing to jointly uphold multilateralism with the Chinese side. Portugal welcomes China's greater contributions to improving the global governance system, he said.

China is an indispensable partner for Europe, and Portugal is ready to play a positive role in promoting the healthy and stable development of EU-China relations, Montenegro added.

Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 9, 2025. (Xinhua/Ding Lin)

Editor: ZAD
Data from the International Trade Center indicate that in 2024, Africa's trade with the United States totaled approximately 67.4 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for only 5 percent of the continent's overall foreign trade.

China-Africa trade continues to lead, acting as a stable anchor in Africa's trade structure. In 2024, bilateral trade reached 295.6 billion dollars, setting a new record for the fourth consecutive year. China has remained Africa's largest trading partner for 16 straight years.

NAIROBI/BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- As the U.S. tariff storm disrupted Africa's commercial landscape, the continent has responded by actively strengthening regional integration, diversifying markets and enhancing its role in industrial and supply chains.

On July 31, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to further modify tariff rates with 69 trading partners. Most African economies are now subject to tariffs of 15 percent, while South Africa and several others face duties of up to 30 percent.

Despite the mounting pressure from the U.S. trade policy, Africa has demonstrated remarkable adaptability and resilience in navigating the shifting global trade environment.

CUSHION TARIFF IMPACTS

The new U.S. tariffs have fundamentally shifted the 25-year-old framework of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) from a U.S. trade program granting duty-free access to African countries to a so-called "reciprocal" trade model marked by punitive tariffs.

Nonetheless, their overall impacts on Africa remain manageable, primarily because the United States' share in Africa's trade is limited and has been steadily declining.

According to the African Trade Report 2025 released by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), between 2010 and 2023, North America's share of Africa's imports fell from 7 percent to 5 percent, while its share of exports dropped sharply from 17 percent to just 7 percent. Intra-African trade, together with trade with Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, currently accounts for more than 90 percent of Africa's total imports and exports.

Data from the International Trade Center (ITC) indicate that in 2024, Africa's trade with the United States totaled approximately 67.4 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for only 5 percent of the continent's overall foreign trade.

Meanwhile, China-Africa trade continues to lead, acting as a stable anchor in Africa's trade structure. In 2024, bilateral trade reached 295.6 billion dollars, setting a new record for the fourth consecutive year. China has remained Africa's largest trading partner for 16 straight years.

This photo taken on June 12, 2025 shows guests talking prior to the opening ceremony of the fourth China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo in Changsha, central China's Hunan Province. (Xinhua/Jin Liangkuai)

Even under the pressure of additional U.S. tariffs, China's imports from Africa have continued to grow, providing vital support for African exports.

China's recent decision to extend zero-tariff treatment to 100 percent of tariff lines for 53 African countries with which it has diplomatic relations has been widely welcomed.

This policy not only effectively lowers export costs for African goods but also delivers a clear and positive signal: China is ready to share development opportunities and work hand in hand with Africa to withstand external shocks.

Cameroonian economist Nformi Eugene Tawe said that as Africa keeps diversifying its trade partners, the continent should pay more attention to Asia, particularly China.

In the era of global chaos caused by U.S. trade policy, he said, "this Chinese initiative offers major opportunities for African traders."

STRENGTHEN INTERNAL RESILIENCE

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is steadily gaining traction as a buffer against global market volatility.

Launched as a flagship project of the African Union's Agenda 2063, the pact aims to create a single continental market to expand trade in goods and services across Africa.

According to Afreximbank, Africa's merchandise trade rebounded by 13.9 percent in 2024 to 1.5 trillion dollars, reversing a 5.4 percent decline in the previous year. Meanwhile, intra-African trade rose 12.4 percent to 220.3 billion dollars, underscoring the renewed momentum the AfCFTA is helping to sustain.

As of February 2025, 48 countries had ratified the agreement and 19 had begun trading under its protocols, according to The EastAfrican, a Kenyan newspaper. The progress marks a significant step toward continental integration.

The AfCFTA has also begun to serve as an "economic shock absorber." Faced with steep U.S. tariffs, African nations are reducing reliance on external markets by deepening intra-African trade. Efforts to harmonize standards and lower tariffs are creating a more predictable environment for boosting industrial capacity and value addition.

Photo taken on April 9, 2020 shows the Dar es Salaam Port undergoing upgrading of port berths 1 to 7 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. (Xinhua)

Governments are also investing heavily in transport, energy and telecommunications, lowering the cost of regional commerce. Coordinated trade policies and streamlined customs procedures are further paving the way for smoother implementation of the trade pact.

Analysts say these measures could unlock the AfCFTA's full potential and accelerate Africa's long-sought pursuit of economic integration.

DEEPEN COOPERATION

Facing pressure from U.S. tariffs, Europe -- Africa's traditional partner -- continues to play a stabilizing role. Trade between the two regions accounted for 34.3 percent of Africa's global commerce in 2024, with volumes holding steady, according to ITC data. The partnership has been deepened through supply chain integration, harmonized standards and enhanced quality controls.

India and the Gulf states, meanwhile, are emerging as new drivers of South-South cooperation.

Trade between India and Africa has grown steadily, reaching about 103 billion dollars in 2023, according to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies. In the Gulf, the United Arab Emirates has been expanding non-energy trade with African partners, which reached 60 billion dollars in 2022, the Observer Research Foundation Middle East reported.

"The only true resilience lies in integration, production and self-determination," said Chloe Maluleke, a South African expert on BRICS issues. Analysts say Africa's pursuit of deeper integration and diversified cooperation is helping it secure a stronger position in the shifting global trade order.

Looking ahead, African leaders are signaling an open approach to global partnerships while seeking to drive a commercial renaissance marked by greater breakthroughs in trade and investment.

by Xinhua writers Xu Jiatong, Yang Jun

Editor: ZAD
Marine biologists have described three new species of deep-sea snailfishes in the family Liparidae from the eastern abyssal Pacific (depths 3,268 to 4,119 m).

Snailfishes in the family Liparidae inhabit temperate to cold habitats across ocean basins.

These fishes play important roles in ecosystems from the intertidal zone to hadal trenches (over 6,000 m).

They are well adapted to a wide variety of habitats, likely due to rapid evolutionary rates.

In shallow waters, the snailfishes use a specialized ventral suction disk to cling to rocks, forming a curled, snail-like posture that gives the group their English common name.

The Liparidae include 31 accepted genera and 450 valid species, 43 of which have been described in the last ten years, said Dr. Mackenzie Gerringer from the State University of New York at Geneseo and colleagues.

At the family level, the liparids are well distinguished by their scaleless bodies, ventral suction disk formed from modified pelvic fins in many genera, and elongated body forms.

With the ecological importance of the family, the high rate at which new snailfishes are being discovered, and the significant work needed in revising snailfish classifications, snailfish taxonomy remains an important undertaking to better understand marine biodiversity.

The three new species are the bumpy snailfish (Careproctus colliculi), the dark snailfish (Careproctus yanceyi), and the sleek snailfish (Paraliparis em).

Paraliparis em and Careproctus yanceyi were collected by suction sampler from 4,100 m water depth, using the human occupied vehicle (HOV) Alvin on the R/V Atlantis.

Careproctus colliculi was collected by the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Doc Ricketts on the R/V Western Flyer via suction sampler from 3,268 m water depth, less than 100 km offshore from Monterey Bay, California.

To describe these new species, the authors used microscopy, micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) scanning, and careful measurements to collect specific information about their size, shape, and other physical characteristics such as the number of fin rays and vertebrae each fish has.

Careproctus colliculi can be identified by its pink color in life, 22 pectoral-fin rays, round head, eight caudal rays, large eye, and well-developed pterygiophores that form a large suction disk, they said.

Careproctus yanceyi bears a moderate ventral suction disk, single nostrils, six branchiostegal rays, and is distinct from other eastern Pacific deepwater snailfishes in having a fully black body with a rounded head and horizontal mouth.

Paraliparis em is distinguished from other snailfishes by its long, black, laterally compressed body, absence of a suction disk, prominently angled jaw, single pectoral-fin radial, anteriorly positioned anus, and five branchiostegal rays.

The researchers also sequenced the DNA of the fish to compare them to other snailfishes and position the new species within an evolutionary context.

Taxonomy is essential for understanding the organisms with whom we share our planet and for studying and conserving the global biodiversity, Dr. Gerringer said.

The deep oceans are home to an incredible diversity of organisms and a truly beautiful array of adaptations.

These three snailfishes are a reminder of how much we have yet to learn about life on Earth and of the power of curiosity and exploration.

The discovery is described in a new paper in the journal Ichthyology & Herpetology.

_____

Mackenzie E. Gerringer et al. 2025. Descriptions of Three Newly Discovered Abyssal Snailfishes (Liparidae) from the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Ichthyology & Herpetology 113 (3): 487-506;l doi: 10.1643/i2024069
NASA research has shown that cell-like compartments called vesicles could form naturally in the lakes of Saturn's moon Titan.

Titan is the only world apart from Earth that is known to have liquid on its surface. However, Titan's lakes and seas are not filled with water. Instead, they contain liquid hydrocarbons like ethane and methane.

On Earth, liquid water is thought to have been essential for the origin of life as we know it. Many astrobiologists have wondered whether Titan's liquids could also provide an environment for the formation of the molecules required for life - either as we know it or perhaps as we don't know it - to take hold there.

New NASA research, published in the International Journal of Astrobiology, outlines a process by which stable vesicles might form on Titan, based on our current knowledge of the moon's atmosphere and chemistry. The formation of such compartments is an important step in making the precursors of living cells (or protocells).

The process involves molecules called amphiphiles, which can self-organize into vesicles under the right conditions. On Earth, these polar molecules have two parts, a hydrophobic (water-fearing) end and a hydrophilic (water-loving) end. When they are in water, groups of these molecules can bunch together and form ball-like spheres, like soap bubbles, where the hydrophilic part of the molecule faces outward to interact with the water, thereby 'protecting' the hydrophobic part on the inside of the sphere. Under the right conditions, two layers can form creating a cell-like ball with a bilayer membrane that encapsulates a pocket of water on the inside.

When considering vesicle formation on Titan, however, the researchers had to take into account an environment vastly different from the early Earth.

Uncovering Conditions on Titan

Titan is Saturn's largest moon and the second largest in our solar system. Titan is also the only moon in our solar system with a substantial atmosphere.

The hazy, golden atmosphere of Titan kept the moon shrouded in mystery for much of human history. However, when NASA's Cassini spacecraft arrived at Saturn in 2004, our views of Titan changed forever.

Thanks to Cassini, we now know Titan has a complex meteorological cycle that actively influences the surface today. Most of Titan's atmosphere is nitrogen, but there is also a significant amount of methane (CH 4 ). This methane forms clouds and rain, which falls to the surface to cause erosion and river channels, filling up the lakes and seas. This liquid then evaporates in sunlight to form clouds once again.

This atmospheric activity also allows for complex chemistry to happen. Energy from the Sun breaks apart molecules like methane, and the pieces then reform into complex organic molecules. Many astrobiologists believe that this chemistry could teach us how the molecules necessary for the origin of life formed and evolved on the early Earth.

Building Vesicles on Titan

The new study considered how vesicles might form in the freezing conditions of Titan's hydrocarbon lakes and seas by focusing on sea-spray droplets, thrown upwards by splashing raindrops. On Titan, both spray droplets and the sea surface could be coated in layers of amphiphiles. If a droplet then lands on the surface of a pond, the two layers of amphiphiles meet to form a double-layered (or bilayer) vesicle, enclosing the original droplet. Over time, many of these vesicles would be dispersed throughout the pond and would interact and compete in an evolutionary process that could lead to primitive protocells.

If the proposed pathway is happening, it would increase our understanding of the conditions in which life might be able to form.

"The existence of any vesicles on Titan would demonstrate an increase in order and complexity, which are conditions necessary for the origin of life," explains Conor Nixon of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "We're excited about these new ideas because they can open up new directions in Titan research and may change how we search for life on Titan in the future."

NASA's first mission to Titan is the upcoming Dragonfly rotorcraft, which will explore the surface of the Saturnian moon. While Titan's lakes and seas are not a destination for Dragonfly (and the mission won't carry the light-scattering instrument required to detect such vesicles), the mission will fly from location to location to study the moon's surface composition, make atmospheric and geophysical measurements, and characterize the habitability of Titan's environment.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang holds talks with Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, who is in China for an official visit, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 9, 2025. (Xinhua/Li Xiang)

BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Qiang held talks with Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro in Beijing on Tuesday, with the two sides pledging to enhance cooperation and work together to safeguard free trade.

Li said that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of China-Portugal comprehensive strategic partnership, which presents new opportunities for the growth of bilateral relations and cooperation.

China is willing to work with Portugal to enhance high-level exchanges, strengthen political mutual trust, deepen and solidify cooperation across various fields, and bring more benefits to the people of both countries, he noted.

Li said China is ready to strengthen its alignment of development strategies with Portugal, continue joint efforts in high-quality Belt and Road development, tap into the potential of emerging areas such as the digital economy and the green economy, create more growth drivers for cooperation, and support enterprises from both countries in exploring third-party markets together.

He noted that China is ready to import more high-quality agricultural and food products from Portugal, and encourages more Chinese enterprises to invest in Portugal. He also expressed hope that Portugal will foster a favorable business environment.

The Chinese premier called on both sides to further facilitate personnel exchanges, unleash the vitality of tourism-driven economic activities, and enhance exchange and cooperation in cultural fields such as higher education, language teaching, digital education and youth engagement.

Li said that at present, unilateralist and protectionist acts are severely impacting the international order. As two major global forces, China and the European Union (EU) should strengthen coordination and work together to address these challenges, he added.

He expressed China's hope that Portugal will encourage and guide the EU to adhere to its positioning as a partner of China, adopt a positive and pragmatic policy toward China, and work with China to safeguard free trade and protect the common interests of both sides.

Montenegro said that the Portuguese government is willing to use the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries as an opportunity to enhance dialogue and exchange at all levels, deepen cooperation in areas such as trade, agriculture, maritime affairs, culture and sports, and create new highlights in sci-tech innovation, the digital economy, green energy and tourism cooperation.

He added that Portugal is willing to strengthen communication and coordination with China on multilateral platforms such as the United Nations, to work with China to oppose protectionism, and to uphold open and fair free trade. 

Chinese Premier Li Qiang holds talks with Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, who is in China for an official visit, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 9, 2025. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao)

Editor: Zhang Zhou
The European Business Association has appealed to the Ministry of Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine and relevant parliamentary committees with an initiative to exempt from land tax the land of railway transport located within the right-of-way under the railway track and its arrangement.

According to the press service of the association on Wednesday, after the abolition of the tax benefit in 2019, JSC Ukrzaliznytsia pays billions of hryvnias in land tax every year. In 2020-2023 alone, this amount exceeded UAH 13.2 billion.

According to the association's experts, such a tax burden is economically unjustified and leads to a number of negative consequences for the railway (reduction of the competitiveness and investment attractiveness of the industry, underestimation of the profitability of rail transport, etc.). This especially affects the cost of rail transportation, which is directly reflected in the cost of logistics for business.

As noted by the EBA, in many EU countries, in particular, in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Poland, etc., land tax for railway enterprises is not applied at all. After all, rail transport performs an important socio-economic function for local communities, providing interregional connections and creating jobs.

"Instead, in Ukraine, the railway is forced to cover the costs of land tax by increasing freight tariffs for business. So, it is business that actually compensates for Ukrzaliznytsia's tax obligations, and also losses from passenger transportation, which in 2024 exceeded UAH 18 billion," the organization emphasizes.

The EBA added that the Ministry of Development supported the position of the business community and confirmed the existence of unequal conditions in the transport sector.
Director General of the Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Mariano Grossi expressed concern about military actions near the Rivne and Khmelnytsky nuclear power plants last night, the agency reported on its website on Wednesday.

Im deeply concerned about last nights events. According to our teams on the ground, these were unusually large-scale military activities close to these two nuclear power plants, which should never happen. Once again, I reiterate my call for maximum military restraint near such facilities. A severe nuclear accident would be in no ones interest and must be avoided at all cost, he said.

Coinciding with reports of widespread attacks in the countrys west, IAEA team members deployed at two of Ukraines operating nuclear power plants (NPPs)  Khmelnytskyy and Rivne  heard drones as well as bursts of gunfire while in their accommodations in the cities of Netishyn and Varash, both located just a few kilometres from the two respective plants.

Following up this morning, the IAEA team at the Khmelnytskyy NPP was informed that the plant overnight detected nine drones flying as close as three kilometres from the site, while the Rivne NPP said it observed 13 such unmanned aerial vehicles in its surveillance area. This comes a week after the team at Rivne previously heard military activity from their hotel, which until now has been rare.

General Grossi said such military activity in the proximity of NPPs posed a threat to the Seven Indispensable Pillars for ensuring nuclear safety and security during an armed conflict that he outlined in March 2022, especially Pillar 1 on the physical integrity of nuclear facilities and Pillar 3 regarding the safety of operating staff.

The worlds attention has  rightly  been very much focused on the extremely challenging situation at the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) located on the frontline. However, the nuclear safety and security situation remains extremely vulnerable also at the four other sites where we have teams, as demonstrated all too clearly last night, he said.
Inditex 's share price surged on Wednesday after the Spanish retail giant impressed with a solid start to the autumn-winter selling season, even though headline sales figures for the first half missed analysts' estimates.

The company, which owns Zara and a host of other brands like Massimo Dutti and Bershka, reported just a 1.6% increase in overall sales to 18.36bn over the first half, missing the 18.55bn consensus forecast.

However, sales at constant currencies were up 5.1% over the six-month period, picking up from the 4.2% year-on-year growth seen in the first quarter.

First-half EBITDA was up 1.5% on last year at 5.1bn.

"We have again achieved a solid performance in this first half of 2025, with satisfactory sales in a complex market environment and maintaining strong levels of profitability," said chief executive Oscar Garcia Maceiras.

Looking ahead, the company said the autumn-winter collections have been "very well received by our customers" with constant-currency sales between 1 August and 8 September up 9% on last year.

The stock was up 7.4% at 45.80 by 1014 in Madrid.
Meta Platforms and TikTok won their challenge against the way European Union regulators calculated supervisory fees under the blocs new tech rules on Wednesday, forcing officials to revise the methodology within a year.

The General Court in Luxembourg, the EUs second-highest tribunal, ruled that the European Commission used an improper legal basis when it set the levy, which was designed to cover the cost of monitoring compliance with the Digital Services Act.

Judges said the methodology should have been adopted through a delegated act rather than implementing decisions.

Meta and TikTok argued the calculation was flawed and disproportionate, inflating their payments and in TikToks case leading to discriminatory results.

The companies said the formula relied on group-level revenues and inaccurate user data, while Commission lawyers countered that the approach was transparent and based on financial resources available across corporate groups.

The courts decision gave regulators 12 months to correct the process but does not require repayment of fees already collected for 2023.

A Commission spokesperson said the ruling confirmed the validity of the levy itself and only necessitated a purely formal correction in procedure.

The DSA, which took effect in late 2022, obliges very large online platforms to do more to tackle illegal and harmful content or face penalties of up to 6% of annual global turnover.

Alongside Meta and TikTok, the supervisory fee also applies to Amazon, Apple, Booking.com, Alphabet's Google, Microsoft, Elon Musks X, Snap Inc's Snapchat and Pinterest.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.
London stocks were set to gain at the open on Wednesday following a solid close on Wall Street, where all three benchmarks hit records amid rate cut hopes.

The FTSE 100 was called to open around 15 points higher.

Investors will be turning their attention to the US, where the producer price index for August is due at 1330 BST.

Danske Bank said: "This time, the PPI will attract even more attention than usual both because it is released ahead of the August CPI and because the previous July release surprised significantly to the upside.

"It will provide markets with the first sense of how tariff-related costs have continued to build."

In UK corporate news, Associated British Foods said that trading in the second half of its financial year had been resilient, with Primark gaining market share in the UK and delivering strong growth in the US, despite softer conditions in continental Europe.

AB Foods said Primark's total sales growth for H2 was expected to be around 1%, with like-for-like sales down 2% year-on-year. In food, grocery sales were flat, with growth in Twinings and Ovaltine offset by weaker performance in Allied Bakeries and US oils.

Housebuilder Vistry held full-year guidance and said it expected to deliver a year-on-year increase in profits this fiscal year despite an uncertain economic environment and a 33% fall in interim earnings.

Pre-tax profit came in at 80.6m for the six months to 30 June, with completions down 12% to 6,889 units. Vistry is pinning its hopes on the governments 39bn social and affordable home programme.

Residential landlord Grainger announced that its new Seraphina Apartments asset in Canning Town has experienced stronger-than-expected demand, with 50% of units leased out in under a month.

The lease-up performance, which the company said was well ahead of expectations, is a fantastic result and a clear demonstration of the demand for our high-quality rental homes, according to chief executive Helen Gordon.
Associated British Foods reported a weaker performance in its sugar division and muted growth at Primark on Wednesday, overshadowing otherwise resilient trading across the board.

AB Foods traded lower at the bell after announcing that it will close its Vivergo bioethanol plant and restructure its Spanish sugar business, triggering impairment charges of around 200m.

The sugar unit, which makes up roughly 11% of group sales, was now expected to post a 40m annual loss, well below previous forecasts of up to 75m in profit, due to lower European sugar prices and higher beet costs.

AB Foods said Primark's total sales growth for H2 was expected to be around 1%, with like-for-like sales down 2% year-on-year. UK and Ireland sales rose 1%, lifting market share from 6.6% to 6.8%, while US sales jumped 23%, supported by four new store openings. Sales in Spain and Portugal rose 2%, but France and Italy declined 4% amid weaker consumer demand. Central and Eastern Europe saw a 9% uplift, while Northern Europe fell 2%.

However, Primark, AB Foods' largest division, also weighed on sentiment, revealing that while UK and US sales improved, overall growth was modest and like-for-like sales were expected to decline 2% in the second half and H2 margins were also anticipated to be lower due to the phasing of one-off items.

In food, grocery sales were flat, with growth in Twinings and Ovaltine offset by weaker performance in Allied Bakeries and US oils.

The FTSE 100-listed group added that it has made "substantial strategic progress" and that it now expects to benefit from recent actions and continued investment. However, ABF warned that the consumer environment remained uncertain heading into FY26.

Interactive Investor's Richard Hunter said: "As ever, the main focus is on the group's jewel in the crown, Primark, which is responsible for 47% of overall revenues. However, growth has been hard to come by and has come up against some tough comparatives from the prior year. In addition, cautious consumer sentiment is already beginning to weigh on prospects, as had largely been predicted following the measures announced in the Budget, which were seen as being particularly harmful to the retail sector.

"The shares are currently being severely punished as a result of the headline difficulties in Primark and Sugar in particular, and the vertiginous fall at the open will do little to improve prospects for the market consensus."

As of 0835 BST, AB Foods shares were down 8.97% at 2,040p.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com
The Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces has said it shot down some UAVs that violated the country's airspace on Wednesday morning. The corresponding message was posted by the Command on X.

"As a result of today's attack by the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine, an unprecedented violation of Polish airspace by drone-type objects occurred. This is an act of aggression that created a real threat to the security of our citizens," the message said.

"Polish and allied surveillance means tracked more than a dozen objects using radar, and as for those that could pose a threat, the commander of the Operational Command of the Armed Forces made a decision to neutralize them. Some of the drones that invaded our airspace were shot down. The search and localization of the possible crash sites of these objects is ongoing," the Command added.
Donald Trump has called on the European Union to impose swinging tariffs on China and India, it was widely reported on Wednesday, as part of a combined action to pressurise Russia into ending the war in Ukraine.

According to multiple reports, including by the BBC and Financial Times, the US president wants Brussels and America to impose tariffs of up to 100% on the two countries for their energy imports for Russia.

The unprecedented demand was made following a late night call between American and European officials on Tuesday.

The FT quoted an unnamed US official as saying: "Were ready to go, ready to go right now, but were only going to do this if our European partners step up with us."

Another official said: "The president came on this morning and his view is that the obvious approach here is, lets all put on dramatic tariffs and keep the tariffs on until the Chinese agree to stop buying the oil. There really arent many other places that oil can go."

During his presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly said he would end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office.

However, all attempts by the White House to secure an end to the fighting have so far failed. Moscow has also stepped up drone attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks.

Myriad sanctions on the country, imposed after it invaded Ukraine in February 2022, have significantly reduced the market for its oil and gas.

However, Moscow has found willing customers outside of the west, including India and China, and ties remain strong between the countries.

Earlier this month, president Vladimir Putin further cemented the relationship when he met with Indian prime minister Narenda Modi and Chinese premier Xi Jinping at a showpiece summit in China.

In August, the US increased tariffs on Indian imports to 50%, inflaming tensions between the two countries, in response to Indias continued purchase of Russian oil.

However, Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday evening that trade negotiations with the country were continuing.

Trump separately also told reporters that he expected to speak with the Russian president "this week or early next week".
Vodafone has launched a fourth investigation into the historical conduct within its franchising division, which is at the centre of a 120m high court claim against the mobile phone group. Vodafone is also understood to have offered financial settlements to a selection of former franchisees who are outside the group of 62 currently suing the business.  Guardian

The boss of the Confederation of British Industry has suggested the chancellor should tear up Labours manifesto pledge not to raise taxes on working people, in a significant intervention before the budget. Rachel Reeves is widely expected to present a package of tax rises in her 26 November statement to offset deteriorating economic forecasts. However, the chancellor has been hamstrung by Labours promise not to increase the three main revenue-raisers for the Treasury: income tax, national insurance and VAT.  Guardian

Rachel Reeves has dismissed suggestions that Labour should introduce a wealth tax when challenged on the issue by a deputy leader contender. Ms Reeves said it would be a mistake to implement wealth taxes that were unproven, even as she gave one of the clearest signals yet that she was preparing another round of tax rises.  Telegraph

Around 30 million car finance loans are under scrutiny by the City watchdog to see if they qualify for mis-selling compensation payments, according to its chief executive. On Tuesday, Nikhil Rathi, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) chief executive, said the agency was examining the agreements  which were taken out between 2007 and 2020  to see if they were mis-sold by banks and qualify for the FCAs mass redress scheme.  Telegraph

Companies, increasingly aware that they might have overdone their post-lockdown resizing, are wanting to move back into bigger, newer offices but are finding that there is next to no space like that available. The trend during the pandemic was to move to better but smaller offices, with bosses and workers expecting working from home to stick around. However, more businesses are now asking their staff to come back into the office more regularly, which has led to growing demand for bigger spaces.  The Times

Britains legal services trade balance increased by more than half in the past four years, scotching fears that Brexit would harm solicitors work for foreign clients. Figures from the Law Society, which represents solicitors in England and Wales, showed that the balance of legal services exports relative to imports rose from 4.8 billion in 2020 to slightly more than 7.4 billion last year.  The Times
Photo: https://www.facebook.com/Nawrocki25

Polish President Karol Nawrocki has called a meeting of the National Security Bureau, announced it on X on Wednesday morning.

"Since the violations of the Polish airspace began, I have been in constant contact with the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister of National Defense and the top commanders in the Polish Armed Forces. I took part in a meeting of the Operational Command of the Armed Forces. I will hold a meeting at of the NSB, which will be attended by the Prime Minister. The security of our Fatherland is the highest priority and requires close cooperation," Nawrocki said.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Nearly three dozen tiny turtles returned to the wild Tuesday morning after conservation efforts saved them from being potential meals for local predators.

In their first year on the job, the Staten Island Terrapin Project assured that three clutches of diamondback terrapin turtles  31 babies in total  safely hatched and grew within the confines of the Staten Island Zoo before making their big trip home at Freshkills Park.

We were at North Park all of June, watching the females come up and nest, which is really cool. We had about 95 total nests laid at North Park, and of those, we excavated three nests and brought them back to the zoo to incubate artificially, said Elle Fenton-Hulett, the lead researcher of the Staten Island Terrapin Project and Staten Island Zoo zookeeper.

Staten Island Zoo zookeepers help diamondback terrapin babies out of their enclosure in Freshkills Park on Sept. 9, 2025. Advance/SILive.com | Jillian Delaney

And out of those three nests, they all hatched!

Separated by nest (or clutch, as theyre called), the terrapins clambered over each other in a bid to get to the water; save a few stragglers who found the beach more interesting.

With a bit of coaxing from the zookeepers, the wayward terrapins managed to find their way home after spending roughly 38 days at the zoo.

Diamondback terrapins are listed as a vulnerable species in New York, according to the New York Natural Heritage Program. These small turtles are the only estuarine turtle in the state  and being little means that they have to worry about a variety of predators.

Diamondback terrapins swim in the waters of Freshkills Park on Sept. 9, 2025. Advance/SILive.com | Jillian Delaney

By hatching and raising the babies in a controlled environment, it gives them an edge against birds, foxes, skunks, raccoons, and even fish, looking for a snack.

Slipping into the brackish waters of Freshkills Park, the babies easily disappeared from view as they began to explore the waters their mothers and other terrapins inhabit.

Over 25 people came to wish them well and send them off, including Suren Malimage, a security officer at Freshkills Park.

Malimage helped place protective covers over the clutches and even watched as mother turtles laid their eggs on the embankments.

Suren Malimage holds the enclosure of a clutch of diamondback terrapins on Sept. 9, 2025. Advance/SILive.com | Jillian Delaney

We all get a little help from our friends The Beatles said it first, the turtles are going to hear it last, President of the Freshkills Alliance Mark Murphy joked.

The project is an interdepartmental effort between five organizations and city departments a bid to head start the terrapin population on Staten Island.

Those organizations and departments include: The Staten Island Zoo, the Freshkills Parks Alliance, the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Department of Sanitation, and the Department of Environmental Conservation.

Attendees smile with the diamondback terrapins on Sept. 9, 2025. Advance/SILive.com | Jillian Delaney

Go visit your parks and just sit there  its just a very healthy thing to do for people Its the borough of parks, so [there are] so many places that you can go close to home and just find a couple minutes, and if youre really, really, lucky, youll see a terrapin, Staten Island Zoo Curator Cathy Eser said. Its just wonderful, and its a wonderful community. Everybody just works so well together and [its] good from beginning to end, and hopefully we can improve on the project. Every year wed like to do a little bit more.

The project will continue in 2026.

Attendees gather at an embankment where diamondback terrapins lay their eggs to release babies back in the brackish waters of Freshkills Park on Sept. 9, 2025. Advance/SILive.com | Jillian Delaney

We are planning on doing it again. Were going to go through this, we show our metrics, and then were going to make the application again. DEC [state Department of Environmental Conservation] [is] our partners that approve this permit...Its a wonderful partnership. So many different pieces of government, whether its Sanitation, Parks on the state level, DEC and the different regulatory bodies all getting together and understanding that we want to do something good, and were doing it, Murphy said. Freshkills Park is more than a park. It is a platform for doing wonderful things for the people.
James McAvoy poses for photographers upon arrival at the British Fashion Awards in London, Monday, Dec. 5, 2022. Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP

Actor and director James McAvoy was punched by a drunken man at a bar in Toronto, Canada, according to Entertainment Weekly.

McAvoy, star of the horror flick Speak No Evil, was allegedly assaulted by a stranger in Charlottes Room, a tavern near the event, while attending the Toronto Film Festival, the publication reported.

Staff asked the intoxicated man to leave the bar before he allegedly took a swing at the actor, according to Entertainment Weekly.

McAvoy was in Toronto to promote California Schemin, a project in which he both directed and starred, when the incident occurred.

The actor also portrayed Prof. Charles Xavier in several movies in the X-Men franchise.
Charlie Kirk speaks before he is shot during Turning Point's visit to Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP) AP AP

OREM, Utah  Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and close ally of President Donald Trump, died Wednesday after being shot at a college event, Trump said.

The co-founder and CEO of the youth organization Turning Point USA, the 31-year-old Kirk is the latest victim in a spasm of political violence across the United States.

Charlie Kirk hands out hats before speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP) AP

Videos posted to social media from Utah Valley University show Kirk speaking into a handheld microphone while sitting under a white tent emblazoned with the slogans The American Comeback and Prove Me Wrong. A single shot rings out and Kirk can be seen reaching up with his right hand as a large volume of blood gushes from the left side of his neck. Stunned spectators are heard gasping and screaming before people start to run away. The AP was able to confirm the videos were taken at Sorensen Center courtyard on the Utah Valley University campus.

We are confirming that he was shot and we are praying for Charlie, said Aubrey Laitsch, public relations manager for Turning Point USA.

A person who was taken into custody at Utah Valley University was not the suspect, according to a person familiar with the investigation who was not authorized to speak publicly. It was not clear if authorities were still searching the campus for a suspect.

Law enforcement tapes off an area after Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was shot at the Utah Valley University, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, in Orem, Utah. (Tess Croewley/The Deseret News via AP) AP

Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by his nonprofit political organization. Immediately before the shooting, Kirk was taking questions for an audience member about mass shootings and gun violence.

Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years? an audience members asked. Kirk responded: Too many.

The questioner followed up: Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?

Counting or not counting gang violence? Kirk asked.

Then a single shot rang out.

The crowd reacts after Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, is shot at the Utah Valley University Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, in Orem, Utah. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP) AP

The event had been met with divided opinions on campus. An online petition calling for university administrators to bar Kirk from appearing received nearly 1,000 signatures. The university issued a statement last week citing First Amendment rights and affirming its commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.

Last week, Kirk posted on X images of news clips showing his visit to Utah colleges was sparking controversy. He wrote, Whats going on in Utah?

Trump and a host of Republican and Democratic elected officials decried the shooting and offered prayers for Kirk on social media.

We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot. A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM! Trump posted on Truth Social.

The crowd reacts after Charlie Kirk is shot during Turning Point's visit to Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP) AP

The shooting comes amid a spike in political violence in the United States across all parts of the ideological spectrum. The attacks include the assassination of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband at their house in June, the firebombing of a Colorado parade to demand Hamas release hostages, and a fire set at the house of Pennsylvanias governor, who is Jewish, in April. The most notorious of these events is the shooting of Trump during a campaign rally last year.

Former Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz, a Republican who was at the event, said in an interview on Fox News Channel that he heard one shot and saw Kirk go back.

It seemed like it was a close shot, Chaffetz said, who seemed shaken as he spoke.

He said there was a light police presence at the event and Kirk had some security but not enough.

Utah is one of the safest places on the planet, he said. And so we just dont have these types of things.

FILE - Former President Donald Trump, right, shakes hands with Turning Point CEO Charlie Kirk before speaking during the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit, July 23, 2022, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File) AP

Turning Point was founded in suburban Chicago in 2012 by Kirk, then 18, and William Montgomery, a tea party activist, to proselytize on college campuses for low taxes and limited government. It was not an immediate success.

But Kirks zeal for confronting liberals in academia eventually won over an influential set of conservative financiers.

Despite early misgivings, Turning Point enthusiastically backed Trump after he clinched the GOP nomination in 2016. Kirk served as a personal aide to Donald Trump Jr., the presidents eldest son, during the general election campaign.

Soon, Kirk was a regular presence on cable TV, where he leaned into the culture wars and heaped praise on the then-president. Trump and his son were equally effusive and often spoke at Turning Point conferences.
FILE - Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk speaks during a campaign rally, Oct. 24, 2024, in Las Vegas. Kirk has been shot at an event at a Utah college. (AP Photo/John Locher, File) AP

OREM, Utah  Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was shot Wednesday at an event at a Utah college, Turning Point said. A suspect was in custody, the college said.

We are confirming that he was shot and we are praying for Charlie, said Aubrey Laitsch, public relations manager for Turning Point USA.

Charlie Kirk speaks before he is shot during Turning Point's visit to Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP) AP AP

Videos posted to social media from Utah Valley University show Kirk speaking into a handheld microphone while sitting under a white tent emblazoned with the slogans The American Comeback and Prove Me Wrong. A single shot rings out and Kirk can be seen reaching up with his right hand as a large volume of blood gushes from the left side of his neck. Stunned spectators are heard gasping and screaming before people start to run away. The AP was able to confirm the videos were taken at Sorensen Center courtyard on the Utah Valley University campus.

Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by his nonprofit political organization. The event had been met with divided opinions on campus. An online petition calling for university administrators to bar Kirk from appearing received nearly 1,000 signatures. The university issued a statement last week citing First Amendment rights and affirming its commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.

Charlie Kirk hands out hats before speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP) AP AP

The college said a single shot had been fired at Kirk and a suspect was in custody.

President Donald Trump and a host of Republican and Democratic elected officials decried the shooting and offered prayers for Kirk on social media.

We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot. A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM! Trump posted on Truth Social.

The shooting comes amid a spike in political violence in the United States across all parts of the ideological spectrum. The attacks include the assassination of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband at their house in June, the firebombing of a Colorado parade to demand Hamas release hostages, and a fire set at the house of Pennsylvanias governor, who is Jewish, in April. The most notorious of these events is the shooting of Trump during a campaign rally last year.

Allison Hemingway-Witty cries after Charlie Kirk is shot during Turning Point's visit to Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP) AP AP

Former Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz, a Republican who was at the event, said in an interview on Fox News Channel that he heard one shot and saw Kirk go back.

It seemed like it was a close shot, Chaffetz said, who seemed shaken as he spoke.

He said there was a light police presence at the event and Kirk had some security but not enough.

Utah is one of the safest places on the planet, he said. And so we just dont have these types of things.

Turning Point was founded in suburban Chicago in 2012 by Kirk, then 18, and William Montgomery, a tea party activist, to proselytize on college campuses for low taxes and limited government. It was not an immediate success.

But Kirks zeal for confronting liberals in academia eventually won over an influential set of conservative financiers.

Despite early misgivings, Turning Point enthusiastically backed Trump after he clinched the GOP nomination in 2016. Kirk served as a personal aide to Donald Trump Jr., the presidents eldest son, during the general election campaign.

Soon, Kirk was a regular presence on cable TV, where he leaned into the culture wars and heaped praise on the then-president. Trump and his son were equally effusive and often spoke at Turning Point conferences.
A 9/11 first responders family has endorsed Andrew Cuomos bid for New York City mayor, stating that the former state governor has a track record of supporting Sept. 11 survivors and their families.

Wendi and Sal Turturici announced their support for Cuomos campaign on Sept. 9. Sal Turturici was a FDNY EMT and conducted rescue and recovery work at Ground Zero following the Sept. 11 attacks. Almost 15 years later, he developed cancer linked to his service and underwent multiple surgeries related to his treatment.

As governor, he fought to secure benefits for 9/11 families, and he treated our community with the respect and dignity we deserve, Wendi Turturici said.

Wendi Turturici also criticized Cuomos opponent, Zohran Mamdani, for his association with Hasan Piker, who she said had made controversial statements about 9/11.

In a press conference on Sept. 9, Cuomo also presented images of Mamdani with the Turkish-American podcaster.

I am calling on Zohran Mamdani to disavow Hasan Piker and his hateful words. His association with Hasan Piker disqualifies him to serve in any role for New York City, let alone one as important as mayor, she said in the endorsement.

A spokesperson from Mamdani campaign responded to the claim in a statement to CBS News: Andrew Cuomo knows exactly what hes doing. Hes holding a press conference to suggest that Zohran Mamdani, who is poised to become New Yorks first Muslim mayor, somehow supported 9/11. Its vile, its dangerous, and its deliberate.

In 2017, Cuomo signed legislation providing unlimited sick leave for first responders suffering from 9/11-related illnesses, with Sal Turturici present at the signing. The two marked the occasion by riding motorcycles together in honor of first responders.

During his time as governor, Cuomo supported the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. He also directed state agencies to provide interim support for 9/11 families when federal action was delayed. He also expanded workers compensation benefits, pension provisions, and survivor benefits for affected families, while increasing access to mental health services for survivors.
This 2024 photo shows a walking team prior to the Staten Island Out of the Darkness Community Walk. The annual event will take place Sunday, Sept. 14, at Wolfe's Pond Park, Prince's Bay. (Advance/SILive.com | Mike Matteo)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Suicide is currently a leading cause of death in New York City among those ages 15 to 34, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, which invites the Staten Island community Sunday to walk to raise awareness of the availability of resources.

The Staten Island Out of the Darkness Community Walk, hosted by AFSP NYC chapter, will be held at noon in Wolfes Pond Park in Princes Bay on Sunday, Sept. 14.

Funds raised by the event will support AFSP research, education, advocacy, and loss support services.

In addition to raising awareness and funds to fight suicide, the walk will give those who attend a chance to connect with others and know they are not alone, whether they walk in memory or in support of a loved one -- or in honor of their own mental health journey.

For me, Im walking in memory of my son, and I think he would be proud of me, said Carol Doodian-Russo, a Staten Island mom who lost her 20-year-old son, Nicholas, to suicide in 2023. People dont like to use the word suicide, but I dont think you should be ashamed to use it, because it could help others."

Doodian-Russo has formed a walking team and is quite competitive with her fund-raising efforts, she admitted. But the free walk is open to all who wish to bring awareness to the cause.

Suicide touches one in five families in the United States, according to AFSP. But it needs to be acknowledged and spoken about openly, said Doodian-Russo.

I think its not addressed, its not noticed,' she said. People dont like to use the word suicide. I think were kind of blinded on Staten Island. I dont think the word is out there, and I feel like Staten Island is not fully aware of what really goes on.

The AFSP provides services to all five boroughs of New York City.

A company or school can request a program, and representatives will visit with details on subjects including finding treatment, preventing a loss and surviving the loss of a loved one to suicide. To inquire, visit the AFSP website at afsp.org.

The Staten Island Walk creates a safe space for unconditional support, honest conversations, fostering hope and understanding in our local community said Felicia Gambino, AFSP Staten Island Walk co-chair.

The Staten Island Out of the Darkness Community Walk is one of the hundreds of events being held nationwide this year.

Its important to recognize the signs of potential suicide, said Doodian-Russo, and to have an open, honest conversation with your loved one if you suspect they might have thoughts of suicide.

Warning signs to look for include withdrawal, lack of appetite, sudden weight loss, anti-social behaviors and difficulty sleeping, Doodian-Russo said.

Talk about the issue with loved ones. Guidance is available from the AFSP. In crisis, call the suicide crisis hotline at 988. It is available 24/7 and can be reached by texting. Additionally, to reach an additional Crisis Text Line, text HOME to 741741).

Local sponsors for the Staten Island Out of the Darkness Walk include Hands of Hope, Richmond University Medical Center, Shamanista Lifestyle, UrgentVet Staten Island, and Richmond Behavioral Associates, and in-kind sponsor(s) DJ Ricardo Phillips and Starbucks.

To donate or join the event, visit afsp.org/StatenIslandWalk.
Protester Annie Jones holds a U.S. Flag upside down as a sign of distress while California National Guard stand behind a barricade in Santa Ana, Calif. on Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo Jae C. Hong) AP

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  New York City officials backed California Wednesday in the Golden States fight against President Donald Trumps deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles.

Attorneys for Mayor Eric Adams administration signed onto an amicus brief supporting Gov. Gavin Newsoms push against the deployment, which a California district court blocked in June.

A federal appeals court is considering that courts decision to block the National Guard deployment, which the amicus brief called an unprecedented assault on fundamental American values.

Other cities leaders, including those from Boston, Chicago and Baltimore, have signed onto the brief, in part as a preemptive challenge against Trumps threats of National Guard deployments to their cities.

New York City is the safest big city in America and home to the best police force in the world, and our results speak for themselves: crime is plummeting across the five boroughs, with major violent crimes reaching record lows, Adams said. Collaboration with state and federal law enforcement has always been a key part of our public safety strategy. We do not need a deployment of the National Guard to our city. Instead, we hope to continue to work with the federal government to stop the flow of illegal guns to our city from other cities and states. We remain committed to keeping New Yorkers safe through smart, precision-driven policing.

Trump deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles in June after protests broke out in that city against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions targeting the local immigrant community.

The president has since deployed the National Guard to Washington D.C. to address crime in the nations capital, and has threatened to do the same in other cities, including New York City.

This brief highlights the risks of allowing the National Guard to become President Trumps personal police force, said New York City Corporation Counsel Muriel Goode-Trufant. An unlawful military presence trampling on the sovereign rights of cities and undermining local law enforcement efforts should not be tolerated in any of our communities.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  The NYPD is heightening security measures around East River bridges and tunnels connecting Manhattan and Queens in response to a potential terror threat as the city approaches the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, the Daily News is reporting.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced Tuesday at One Police Plaza that while the threat remains unspecified and uncorroborated, the department is taking precautionary measures.

The announcement came during a press conference at which Tisch had initially addressed an unrelated Queens double murder investigation.

Out of an abundance of caution we are surging resources, Tisch said. And you can expect to see an increase in police presence at critical infrastructure locations.

The elevated security measures coincide with a traditionally sensitive period for the city, marked by multiple significant events.

Based on threat reporting, which increases this time of year around the anniversary of 9/11, UN General Assembly and the Jewish high holidays, we are monitoring threats against critical infrastructure, Tisch explained.

Law enforcement sources described the threats as vague, and investigators have not linked them to any specific country or terrorist organization, the report said.
New Yorks culinary scene continues to lead the nation, with four restaurants earning spots on the New York Times prestigious 2025 list of the Best Restaurants in America. Getty Images

New Yorks culinary scene continues to lead the nation, with four restaurants earning spots on the New York Times prestigious 2025 list of the Best Restaurants in America.

This is a rigorous selection process, with 14 food reporters eating more than 200 meals in 33 states to get a true picture of what is happening at restaurants across the country.

Chef Paul Carmichaels Kabawa, a Caribbean spot located in the East Village of Manhattan, just opened last year. It was recognized for its bold yet personal dishes, helping to elevate diasporic cuisines to fine dining levels. The list also noted that the restaurant focused highly on the storytelling aspect of the meal, with a tasting menu rooted in heritage and tradition.

It is no surprise that Borgo, a seasonal Italian spot in Kips Bay of Manhattan made an appearance on the list. The intimate yet sophisticated candle-lit dining room offers classics with confident twists and focuses on craftsmanship in every bite. The list highlights several standout offerings, including their handmade ravioli with Sungold tomatoes, coffee-glazed sweetbreads, and their traveling martini cart.

Smithereens in the East Village of Manhattan is a recognizable seafood spot for many New Yorkers, and earned its national recognition due to its impressive homage to New England summers and unique offerings. The NYT recognizes their creamy rice chowder and juicy apple cider donuts.

Has Snack Bar, a tiny bistro on the Lower East Side, earned its spot on the coveted list due to its mixture of French classics and Vietnamese home cooking. It features exciting dishes that range from a Vol-au-vent with tripe and Sungold tomatoes to lemon meringue pie.

As the countrys food scene continues to evolve, New York remains a foodies heaven.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called the appearance of Russian drones in Polish airspace a dangerous precedent for Europe and said that its consequences depend on the coordination of response actions.

"An extremely dangerous precedent for Europe. Whether there will be further steps depends entirely on the coordination and strength of response actions. The Russians must feel the consequences. Russia must feel that the war cannot be expanded and will have to be ended," Zelenskyy said on Telegram on Wednesday morning.

He noted that Moscow "always tests the limits of the possible and, if it does not meet a strong reaction, remains at a new level of escalation."

"Today there was another escalation step - Russian-Iranian UAVs operated in the airspace of Poland, in the airspace of NATO. Not one UAV, which could be called an accident, but at least eight strike drones that were aimed in the direction of Poland," Zelenskyy said.

According to him, the sanctions pause against the Russian Federation has been going on for too long. "Postponing restrictions on Russia and its accomplices only means increasing the severity of the strikes. Enough weapons are needed to restrain Russia. A strong response is needed, and this can only be a joint response of all partners: Ukraine, Poland, all Europeans, the United States," Zelenskyy said.
Roughly 70,000 New Yorkers have received checks in the mail worth up to $250 in unclaimed funds from the Office of the New York State Comptroller. Provided by the Office of the State Comptroller

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Tens of thousands of New Yorkers are receiving checks in the mail worth up to $250 in money they may have not even known they were entitled to.

Each year, the Office of the New York State Comptroller reconnects New Yorkers with hundreds of millions of dollars in unclaimed funds, which is money thats been lost or forgotten over time, including old bank accounts, uncashed checks, stock certificates and unused gift cards.

The Comptrollers Office of Unclaimed Funds returns an average of more than $2 million each day to New Yorkers, having already returned more than $435 million so far this year.

In the past, New Yorkers were required to file a claim through the Office of the New York State Comptroller to receive any of their unclaimed funds.

But new legislation now allows the state to automatically mail out checks to New York residents for unclaimed funds totaling $250 or less.

So far this year, the comptrollers office has sent roughly 70,000 such checks totaling $5.4 million, the comptrollers office told Syracuse.com. About half of the checks have been cashed. Another 16% were undeliverable. Most claims were valued between $50 and $100.

All checks are sent from Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapolis Office of Unclaimed Funds. So if you received a check from that office totaling $250 or less, its real.

Unclaimed funds exceeding $250 still need to be claimed by residents, as the law does not allow for them to be sent out automatically.

To see if there are any unclaimed funds waiting for you or your organization, visit the state comptrollers website.

On Staten Island, there are currently 232,260 borough residents, businesses and organizations owed unclaimed funds totaling more than $139 million.
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a Republican moderate, tells reporters he has not changed his mind and will not be voting for Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, to become speaker of the House, following a closed-door GOP meeting at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Oct. 16, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) AP

U.S. Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) heavily criticized President Donald Trump for his policy on Russia, saying on Monday that he is even worse than his predecessor.

Bacon, a frequent GOP critic of Trump, slammed the president for his stance on Russia and Ukraine in comments to CNNs Manu Raju on Monday. His comments come as Congress waits for Trumps support on a bill that would place sanctions on Russia.

Hes been weak on Russia. I think hes been good on Iran. I want to  I want to give kudos where theyre earned. I think hes been great on Iran, but he has been terrible on Russia, Bacon said.

Weve tried to be hoping the president would get to the right spot on Russia and Ukraine, and hes not. And, you know, Biden was weak. And Bidens actions in Afghanistan helped fuel this thing with Ukraine. But what I see with this president is even worse, he added.

GOP Rep. Don Bacon on Trump: Hes been weak on Russia, he said, praising him on Iran. But hes been terrible on Russia.



Says hes even worse than Biden was on Russia. pic.twitter.com/jG8gqThBrd  Manu Raju (@mkraju) September 9, 2025

Bacons comments come more than a month after Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the ongoing war in Ukraine. Trump repeatedly vowed to end the war in 24 hours after being sworn into office, but has not announced any resolution to the conflict.

The president has grown increasingly frustrated with the Russia-Ukraine war, saying on Sunday that he expected to speak with Putin in the coming days.

Since Putins summit with Trump, Russia launched a rare drone and missile attack on western Ukraine last month, striking an American-owned electronics plant. Trump has expressed increasing anger towards Putin but has stopped short of imposing new sanctions.

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office as he met Polish President Karol Nawrocki last week that whatever Putin decides to do well either be happy about it or unhappy. And if were unhappy about it, youll see things happen.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Coastal areas such as Great Kills Park, pictured here, are facing challenging conditions with high rip current risks and easterly winds creating rough seas, but a significant weather improvement is coming tomorrow. Jan Somma-Hammel

Staten Island residents should prepare for challenging coastal conditions on Wednesday, with a high risk of rip currents and a coastal flood advisory in effect, according to the National Weather Service.

The National Weather Service warns of persistent easterly winds with gusts up to 25 mph, generating rough ocean conditions and building seas to 5-7 feet. A coastal flood advisory has been issued for Staten Islands tidal waters, with water levels expected to reach minor flood stages. Residents near coastal areas should exercise caution and avoid unnecessary water activities.

Temperatures will remain mild, with highs in the upper 60s to low 70s, accompanied by cloudy conditions and a chance of light showers. The National Weather Service predicts gradual clearing through the afternoon, with winds backing from east-northeast to northeast.

For New York City, similar conditions are expected, with occasional light precipitation.

Looking ahead, Thursday will bring warmer and clearer conditions, with temperatures rising to the upper 70s and lower 80s. A cold front will move through late Thursday night, followed by high pressure building in on Friday, promising more stable and sunny weather.

The extended forecast suggests a stable weather pattern through the weekend, with temperatures remaining in the 70s and predominantly clear skies. Residents should continue to monitor local weather updates for any changes in conditions.

A draft of this story was generated using AI. It was reviewed, edited and approved by Advance/SILive.com staff.
National Australia Bank will lay off 410 workers as it restructures its technology and enterprise operations division in the latest round of job-cutting by a big four bank.

The Finance Sector Union (FSU) on Wednesday slammed the bank over the decision, which will affect 728 workers, though the bank said some of these people will move to another area, rather than losing their jobs. The net result of the changes will be 410 redundancies, it said.

NAB is the latest big-four bank to announce job cuts. Credit: Will Willitts

At the same time, the bank is establishing 127 new roles in India and Vietnam to perform work that was previously done in Australia, the union said.

NABs job losses come just a day after ANZ Bank chief executive Nuno Matos announced a plan to cut global staff numbers by 8 per cent, a move expected to mainly hit the banks Australian workforce of more than 21,000. As part of the sweeping cost-cutting plan, ANZ said it will slash 3500 jobs over the next year, and a further 1000 contractors.
The Russian occupiers launched a combined strike on the territory of Ukraine on Wednesday night using strike drones and ground-based, air-based, and sea-based missiles. The Defense Forces neutralized 413 air targets, including 386 enemy drones and 27 missiles of various types. It was previously recorded that 16 missiles and 21 strike drones were hit at 17 locations, the Air Force said.

"According to preliminary data, as of 09:00, air defense systems shot down/suppressed 413 air targets: 386 enemy UAVs of the Shahed, Gerbera and other types of drones, 27 cruise/aircraft missiles Kh-101/Kalibr/Kh-59(69). It was previously recorded that 16 missiles and 21 strike UAVs were hit at 17 locations. At least eight enemy UAVs crossed the state border of Ukraine in the direction of the Republic of Poland," the message on Telegram says.

In total, during the strike, the Air Force radio-technical troops detected and escorted 458 air attack vehicles: 415 Shahed, Gerber attack UAVs and drones of other types from the directions of Kursk, Bryansk, Millerovo, Orel, Shatalovo, Primorsko-Akhtarsk - Russia, Chauda  temporarily occupied Crimea, more than 250 of them  Shahed UAVs, 42 cruise/aviation missiles Kh-101/Kalibr/Kh-59(69) from Saratov region - Russia, Black Sea waters; one Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missile from Voronezh region, Russia.

The air attack was repelled by aviation, anti-aircraft missile troops, electronic warfare and unmanned systems units, and mobile fire groups of the Defense Forces of Ukraine.

Thus, the overall efficiency of the air defense was 90.17%, with the efficiency of shooting down UAVs - 88.19%, missiles - 64.29%.

As reported, on the night of August 9, the Defense Forces neutralized 60 enemy UAVs out of 84 that attacked Ukraine, and 23 strike UAVs were recorded hitting 10 locations, the Air Force said.

The previous massive air strike was carried out on September 7 using strike UAVs and ground-based missiles. In total, during the strike, the Air Force radio-technical troops detected and accompanied 818 Russian air attack vehicles, the air defense directly shot down/suppressed 751 air targets: 747 enemy Shahed UAVs and drone-simulators of various types, four Iskander-K cruise missiles. Hits of nine missiles and 56 strike UAVs were recorded at 37 locations, and downed aircraft (fragments) fell at eight locations.
Now the Murdoch succession fix has been inked, we can usher in a new chapter and introduce a new family WhatsApp group  the multibillionaire Murdoch sibling refugees.

The members of this unity ticket of Elisabeth, James and Prudence have freedom from any constraints imposed from their former roles as shareholders in the family trust that owns the controlling stake in News Corp and Fox Corp.

The Murdoch familys multibillion-dollar feud has come to an end. Rupert Murdoch and his four eldest children (from left), Lachlan, Elisabeth, Prudence and James. Credit: SMH

The $US1.1 billion ($1.7 billion) they will each receive from this weeks settlement for them is just a top-up from the payment of about $US1.7 billion in Disney shares they received when the empire sold assets to Disney in 2019. Murdochs two youngest children, Chloe and Grace from his marriage to Wendi Deng, received an equivalent payment from the Disney deal.

Sure, they wont be Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg rich, but they will be billionaires at least two times over.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size At the global launch of her new book at the start of this month, Arundhati Roy gathered her friends, her agents and publishers from around the world to Kochi, Kerala, in a venue fittingly called the Mother Mary Hall. There, in front of an audience of many hundreds that spilled out of the building, her brother sang the Beatles Let it Be, from which the title of the book was drawn. Later, at her mothers school in the nearby town of Kottayam, students also sang the song, aged five to 15 in their best Paul McCartney pouts, describes the author, whose spoken words are every bit as lyrical as her written ones. Mother Mary Comes To Me is Roys memoir, which is in large part about the often-difficult relationship between herself and her mother, Mary Roy. The poignancy of the song extends further: as alarming as the retellings of the minutiae of their relationship are  the spats that sometimes spilled over into neglect, verbal abuse and abandonment  the writer wants her readers to know that she is fine. We were so imperfect, the both of us, and you know, its OK. I survived, she survived. Let it be. Arundhati Roy, often described as the enfant terrible of Indias literary world for her passionate and polemical non-fiction writings on issues of development, politics and society, is now in her early 60s, a time when many slow down, take stock and reflect. For Roy, this reflection was precipitated by the 2022 death of her mother, whom she calls Mrs Roy throughout the book, a reference to her position as a school principal. When we speak she is relaxed, smiling beatifically via Zoom. Roy after winning the 1997 Booker Prize for her novel The God of Small Things. Credit: AP She has just arrived in London for the next leg of her book tour, and is propped up on her bed and wedged against chintzy wallpaper, awkwardly angled as she speaks into her plugged-in phone. She is upbeat, even giggly, throughout our conversation, which comes as a surprise. I assumed that her manner would reflect the darkness of the subject.

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I dont think of this as publicity. Its political protection, and my readers are my protection in this political landscape I find myself in. And I dont take this [travel] as a burden at all, I love it, she says, smiling widely. A new Arundhati Roy book is no small thing. And this book in particular is one of the big releases for 2025, perhaps even the biggest for Penguin India, which Ive heard anecdotally started planning its marketing strategy a full year ago. Kochi has gone all out: readers citywide are sporting tote bags featuring the cover, and a city bus has been painted accordingly. Social media is teeming with clips of the launch and snippets of Roys early interviews. Roy with her brother, Lalith Kumar Christopher Roy, and her mother, Mary Roy, in front of their house in Ooty, India, in 1963. Credit: Courtesy Arundhati Roy Mary Roy herself is known throughout India, particularly in her home state of Kerala, where she blazed a trail: firstly by establishing a school in 1967. Pallikoodam, in the wealthy city of Kottayam, is now hailed for its progressive values and high educational standards. Mrs Roy also famously took her fight for a change to legislation to allow women in her Syrian Christian community to be granted equal inheritance rights to the Supreme Court, winning in 1986. In Kerala, she is revered and every bit as famous as her Booker Prize-winning daughter. However, she found motherhood difficult, which Roy excavates in often excruciating detail in Mother Mary Comes To Me. My early childhood was about trying to negotiate an unpredictable and difficult [relationship], and yet even from the time I was really small, I could tell she was an extraordinary woman, Roy says. And as I say, my brother and I had to absorb the darkness so that others could see the light. There are numerous anecdotes depicting this troubled relationship in the book. One came when Roy was six, and asked her mother why Aunt Joseph was so much thinner. Mrs Roy, whose weight gain could be traced to the steroids she took to treat her chronic asthma, reacted in a blazing fury. My mother turned on me in a rage and mimicked me. I felt myself shrinking from my own skin and draining away, swirling like water down a sink until I was gone.

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In other tellings, Roy returned home to find her beloved dog Dido put down, after mating with a street dog. And in yet another incident, Mrs Roy banished her from the car for a perceived transgression. Roy waited, and the car returned, and the ensuing five-hour drive home was in complete silence. How did Roy manage? I left when I was a teenager and didnt see her for seven years, and when we re-met I was an adult woman, and trying to watch her from a safe distance, trying to be near her but not near her, she says. So my relationship with her, as I say in the book, she was my shelter and my storm. It was never a settled relationship. And to write about her was important because I believe shes a woman who deserves to be in literature, not just because she was wonderful but also because she was terrible. The idea that a woman could unleash all of herself, including her very obviously prickly relationship with motherhood itself, was important. The book traces Roys journey from a small-town girl, child of a single mother, to the cosmopolitan Delhi-dwelling writer and activist she was to become. Roy left home at 17, spending three days on a train from Kerala, at the very south of India, to the capital Delhi, in the north, where she attended architecture college and married a fellow student who, in the style of the early 1970s, resembled a kind of rock-star Jesus (they divorced four years later). She later married again, to filmmaker and environmentalist Pradip Krishen, who came with two daughters from his first marriage. The pair collaborated on a couple of independent films, with the screenplays written by Roy. One won an award. It was hilarious because that first screenplay that I wrote won my favourite award: Best film in languages other than those specified in Schedule 8 of the Indian Constitution. Still wedged against the wallpaper, she laughs heartily at the memory. There is a separate cast of characters: Roys brother LKC, her maternal uncle G Isaac  who had tried to expel the family from the house, then bitterly fought his sister for inherited assets, but is remembered fondly by Roy.

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And then, there is her father, known as Micky Roy. When I mention his name, her face lights up. Im so glad you asked about him! Nobody ever does! Micky Roy had been an assistant manager on a remote tea estate in Assam when the children were young, but his alcoholism had driven his family away. Roy has no memories of him from childhood, but met him as an adult  and was shocked by what she saw. By then, his addiction had progressed a lot, he had been living on the street, he had been in Mother Teresas home for the dying and destitute, and he was perfectly cheerful. One eye was blind with cataracts, his ear bitten off in some brawl. And at first, I thought, oh no, this cannot be, and within a second I thought, well, how would you have felt if it had been some smarmy cigar-smoking CEO? It would have been worse. Years later, Micky went missing, and Roy and her cousin walked the outskirts of Delhi looking for him. And we found him in this building site living in this shack with some other drunk guy, perfectly happy. She chuckles at the memory. And I tricked him into getting into the car, then to hospital, then to rehab. Roy being showered with flower petals at Parthrad village in central India, in 1999, where she lent her support against the Narmada Dam project. Credit: AP In the three decades since The God of Small Things won her the Booker Prize, Roy has carved out a place for herself as a teller of political truths  which has often landed her in trouble. Whether railing against the depiction of gang-rape scenes in the Shekhar Kapur-directed Bandit Queen movie  Roy wrote a magazine article criticising their gratuitous nature, thereby killing a commission to write another screenplay  or standing up for villagers who could be displaced by the flooding of a river, she has never shied away from difficult, complex, controversial issues. Kashmir is perhaps the most vexed of all, and Roy has thrown her heart into the region, supporting activists, including those jailed. She has also been a vocal antagonist of the Modi administration. While many voices of dissent have fallen quiet, Roy has been unfailing in her criticism. And given the international stage she occupies, this is something that has earned her few fans.

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She now sees India in events in the US. To people who dont know India, I can say that what is happening in the US right now happened in India in 2014. And the January 6 attempted coup in America actually succeeded in India. And the people in furs and antlers actually rule us. Loading And now, in Modis third term the terribly fearsome thing is that the violence, the cruelty, the hatred, the nationalism, the filth of it all has been normalised. So you can have thousands of people with swords calling for Muslims to be killed, for mosques to be demolished, for women to be raped, and it hardly makes the news. India, she adds, has lost its dignity, it has lost the moral core. The author has often faced criticism for statements such as this bald pronouncement about the state of Indias sociopolitical climate without delving into the nuance. Its why historian Ramachandra Guha famously criticised her for a tendency to exaggerate and simplify, a Manichean view of the world, her shrill hectoring tone, have given a bad name to environmental analysis. It cannot, however, be denied that she has shown an uncanny prescience in articulating what is to come. In 2009 she wrote an essay, Democracys Failing Light, later published in a book of essays, Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers. In it, she questioned whether there is life after democracy: What happens when each of [democracys] institutions has metastasised into something dangerous? What happens now that democracy and the free market have fused into a single predatory organism with a thin, constricted imagination that revolves almost entirely around the idea of maximising profit? Reading this essay in 2025, when many of the questions she posed are now part of mainstream discourse, feels unsettling. Does she think that democracy remains important?

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Human specimens were collected, and in some cases publicly displayed, by a museum for decades without the knowledge or consent of families.

The University of Tasmanias R. A. Rodda Museum collected remains from coronial autopsies from 1966 to 1991 for teaching and research purposes.

The University of Tasmanias R. A. Rodda Museum collected remains from coronial autopsies. Credit: Gabriele Charotte

A coronial probe was launched in 2016 after the museums curator raised concerns three specimens had been kept without the consent or approval of the coroner or families involved.

The investigations final report, published today, confirmed 177 samples were kept by the museum without permission.

The handling of the remains was not in accordance with national standards, which were set up in 2002 but not acted upon by the Tasmanian government, coroner Simon Cooper said.

The belated discovery that human remains were removed from autopsy and not returned to the body has been a source of pain for many families, Cooper said.

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University of Tasmania deputy vice chancellor for health Graeme Zosky said the organisation was deeply sorry for the sadness and hurt caused.

University staff met personally with many families who were seeking further information and understanding of the history of this matter, he said.

We will carefully consider the coroners report to determine any further actions.

It appeared one now-deceased forensic pathologist provided the large majority of the specimens to the museum, Cooper said.

The remains in question were removed from public display in 2018, before the coroners office spent years reconciling records to determine their origin.

In January, the names of 126 people whose specimens had been identified were published online and family members urged to come forward.

The coroner said 100 specimens were identified and disposed of in line with the wishes of families.

Remains that were unable to be identified have been respectfully disposed of.

AAP
The coming weeks loom as an important period in the seemingly never-ending climate wars, with Australias green credentials to be put to the test on three fronts.

The first involves impending advice from the Climate Change Authority on a new national 2035 emissions reduction goal. The independent authority, chaired by former NSW Liberal treasurer and climate change minister Matt Kean, is expected to recommend a target to Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen in the 65 to 75 per cent range.

Matt Kean is chair of the Climate Change Authority which will soon advise the government on a new national 2035 emissions reduction goal. Credit: Janie Barrett

Australias current target is a 43 per cent reduction in net emissions by 2030, set against the 2005 emissions level. Most experts believe that while Australia will fall short of reaching that, a more ambitious 2035 target of 65 to 75 per cent will still be set by the Albanese government.

Politically, the stakes are high. A bolshy target is likely to increase pressure on the government over stubbornly high electricity prices, and could get the business community seriously offside. However, the Herald urges the government to be ambitious on emissions reductions and be upfront with voters on the opportunities  and risks  of a deep cut.
Liverpool councillors have called for an extraordinary meeting to suspend the embattled councils chief executive, Jason Breton, after an inquiry heard allegations that Mayor Ned Mannoun solicited a $1000 donation from a property developer to help fund Bretons failed local government election run.

Labors Sam Karnib and Ethan Monaghan on Tuesday submitted a written request for Mannoun to call an urgent extraordinary meeting to allow councillors to debate a motion calling for the alleged donation to be referred to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

Liverpool Council chief executive Jason Breton, a former NSW Police detective chief inspector.

The motion calls for councils community and lifestyle director, Tina Bono, to be appointed as acting chief executive, with Breton to be immediately suspended until an external investigation considers the evidence aired in the Office of Local Government inquiry into alleged dysfunction and maladministration at the council. Mannoun must have the motion heard within 14 days of receiving the request.

With five of the 11 councillors in favour, Labor requires independent Peter Harle to reach the numbers for the motion to pass. Harle did not respond to requests for comment.
An investigation into a Sydney childcare worker accused of filming abuse of children in his care has uncovered more than a half a million files many allegedly depicting horrific abuse, with federal police still picking through mountains of evidence to identify victims.

The man, who cannot be named under court order, was charged in July with seven counts of using a child to make abusive material  three counts were aggravated.

An investigation into a Sydney childcare worker has unearthed more than half a million unique files of abuse.

He was also charged with possessing child abuse data through a phone. The Australian Federal Police fear the man abused multiple children over an extended period of time, and the case could come to mirror that of Victorian childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown, 26, accused of abusing eight children in his care at the Creative Garden Early Learning Centre in Point Cook.

Brown had worked across 20 Melbourne childcare centres since 2017, and Victorias Health Department recommended sexual disease tests for 1200 children as part of the investigation.
Its not every day that a stranger will come knocking on your door to convince you to sell your house so they can build a multi-storey $750 million apartment complex.

But that was precisely what happened six months ago when 12 home owners in Sydneys well-heeled suburb of Mosman were approached by a developer keen to demolish the properties to make room for an amalgamated 5368 square metre site.

The sale was finalised three months ago. A block of between six and eight storeys with 80 to 100 apartments will be built, subject to local council and state government approval.

The developer first made contact with the owners six months ago, and the sale was finalised three months later. Credit: Matt Willis

The 12 properties on Brierley Street and Rangers Avenue in Mosman to be stitched together have an average value of $4.36 million and an average land size of 472 square metres each, according to Domain.
Police have slammed the release of new images that detail the moments before Dezi Freeman allegedly opened fire on police from inside his bus near Porepunkah.

The images show officers clustered at the doorway of his home as he reportedly shouted Nazis and psychopaths from behind closed curtains.

The photos, published by Daily Mail Australia, are taken from a 27-minute video taken by a family member of Freemans, police confirmed on Wednesday.

The Daily Mail said this image was taken from 27 minutes of footage.

Freeman, his wife, Amalia, and their two-year-old child were inside the bus when police were serving a warrant over alleged historical sexual abuse on the morning of August 26.
A driver who was speeding through Kings Park when he struck and killed a woman on her morning walk has pleaded guilty to aggravated dangerous driving causing death.

Lucas Martins Da Silva, 30, was captured on CCTV reaching speeds of around 104km/h in a 60km/h zone, and swerving and overtaking cars, in the West Perth park when he hit university academic Brenda Walker, 67, as she walked across the road at a median strip.

Lucas Martins Da Silva leaves Perth Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to dangerous driving causing death. Credit: 6PR

The incident occurred just before 7am on December 10, when Martins Da Silva was on his way to work.

Police confirmed there were no drugs or alcohol detected in his system at the time, and that Martins Da Silva stopped, called 000, and tried to help Walker after the crash.

The Brazilian national, who is in Australia on a working visa, pleaded guilty in Perth Magistrates Court this morning and will be sentenced in November.

He declined to comment outside court.
Australia and Papua New Guinea will vow to defend each other if they come under attack in a historic defence treaty that will elevate the relationship to a top-tier alliance.

As the Albanese government spends almost $2 billion on underwater drones called Ghost Sharks to compete with Chinas rapid military build-up, it is also deepening ties with Pacific neighbours to prevent Beijing from gaining a permanent security foothold in the region.

PNG Prime Minister James Marape and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in December. Credit: Kate Geraghty

Sources familiar with the Australia-PNG defence treaty, set to be signed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and counterpart James Marape early next week, said it will include a clause obliging the two nations to act together to meet a common danger, language echoing Australias existing military alliances with the United States and New Zealand.

Papua New Guineans will also be allowed to serve in the Australian Defence Force and put on a path to Australian citizenship under the treaty.
Photo: https://www.facebook.com/kallaskaja/

The European Union's (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaia Kallas, expressed solidarity with Poland over the violations of Polish airspace by Russian drones and called for support for Ukraine.

"Last night in Poland we witnessed the most serious violation of European airspace by Russia since the start of the war, and there are indications that it was deliberate and not accidental. I am in contact with the NATO Secretary General and Radosaw Sikorski. The EU stands in full solidarity with Poland," she wrote on the X social network on Wednesday morning.

Kallas called for "raising the price" of the war for Moscow, strengthening support for Ukraine and investing in Europe's defense.

"The EU plays an important role and we will support initiatives such as the Eastern Border Shield defense line," she stressed.
Sussan Ley is expected to placate frustrated conservatives with plum gigs in a reshuffle forced by Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Prices sacking, as the Coalitions right faction splinters over the opposition leaders future.

Ley formally apologised to Indian-Australians on Thursday, a week after the controversial senator falsely claimed the government was bringing in Indian migrants because they voted Labor.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley (left) sacked firebrand senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price from her frontbench this week. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Influential right-wing frontbenchers James Paterson and Andrew Hastie threw their support behind Ley on Thursday, though some MPs said they expected Price to return to the shadow ministry, demonstrating the depth of support the charismatic former defence industry spokeswoman has in the partys base.

Paterson is a key member of an emerging and informal faction on the right which is more pragmatic and wants to give Ley time and space to succeed, bolstering Leys job security.
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Reviews & adviceAir travel What the codes on boarding passes mean (and the one you dont want to see) Chris Leadbeater September 11, 2025  5:00am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share 48 View all comments

Once upon a time, they were the rectangular strips of card without which you could not catch a plane. Increasingly, they are discreet e-tickets in the digital wallet on your phone  or else, home-printed pieces of paper, with a smudgy QR code that defeats the purpose. What do all those numbers and codes on your boarding pass actually mean? iStock But whatever form the boarding pass for your next flight takes, it features a wealth of information, digits and data. Some of it is easily recognisable, or simple to decipher. However, other combinations of numbers and letters may need a little more explanation. Which is where this article comes in. Why is there a lone Y idling in the corner of your boarding pass? What does S/O mean? And why is SSSS unhappy news? Read on QF1

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An obvious one. The combination of letters and digits which appears most prominently on any boarding pass is, of course, the flight number. In this case, its the kangaroo route - Qantas flight from Sydney to London with a stop in Singapore. The QF part of the above flight number  the two-character code assigned to the airline by the International Air Transport Association (IATA)  is self-explanatory. As is any flight number that starts with BA (British Airways), AA (American Airlines), AF (Air France), LH (Lufthansa), AR (Aerolineas Argentinas), KL (KLM) and NZ (Air New Zealand). But then, some airline codes are less clear  such as VS (Virgin Atlantic) or Emirates (EK). (The latter is a legacy from Emirates first ever flight, which travelled from Dubai to Karachi, Pakistan  hence the K  in 1985). And some are downright obtuse. WB is Rwandair, FR is Ryanair, SU is Aeroflot, AY is Finnair  and OL is Samoa Air. Most curious is the IATA code for easyJet  U2. This is not because Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou is a obsessive fan of The Unforgettable Fire, but because, when the airline came into existence in 1995, the most obvious options were already taken: EJ was assigned to New England Airlines, while EZ belonged to Scandinavian carrier Sun-Air. There is no link to Irish stadium-rockers in the chosen code  the allocation was random. When flights crash, the flight number is usually retired  so you wont find yourself flying United 93 in the US (though in 2011, during the airlines merger with Continental, the numbers for the flights in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were accidentally reinstated. United quickly removed them again after discovering the mistake). Although the plane landed safely, Qantas also retired QF32 following the engine explosion on its Airbus A380 near Singapore in 2010.

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TPBRDQ Related Article Opinion

Tripologist Transit traps: The connecting flight issues that could ruin your holiday Michael Gebicki The Tripologist Here in 2025, where online check-in has become a familiar part of the travel process, the six-character smush that is your booking reference (to clarify, TPBRDQ has been made up for the purposes of this feature) no longer holds the mystery it once might have done. Officially, the code is known as a Passenger Name Record, and it is the tip of a sizeable iceberg of digital information. It identifies you as a traveller on your particular flight, and is linked to five pertinent details: your name, where you are going, and your ticket number, as well as the contact details for, and the name of, the airline/travel agent who has made the booking (if applicable). But, increasingly, the PNR also provides data on your age and gender, date and place of birth, passport number and credit card digits. It reveals an enormous amount about you  which is why you need it to check in remotely. Y

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The penultimate letter of the alphabet, sitting there all by itself, is confirmation that you have a reservation for a seat in the economy-class section of the aircraft  and that you have paid the full rate for this unremarkable experience (why, indeed). The same applies to H, M and B. Q Not only are you in economy, you have bought your seat via a discounted fare which offers less scope for changes or cancellations. Moreover, you are at the bottom of the list should there be an opportunity for an upgrade. See also: K, L, N, M, S, T, U, V, W and X. J You are in business. You have  or your company has  coughed up full whack for this privilege, so make sure you grab a glass of fizz and the bag of fancy peanuts. See also C.

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I You are also in the business seats  but at a discounted rate. See also D. E You are in the sometimes vague and unspecified border world that is Premium Economy. Does that mean a free drink? An extra-reclinable seat? A rare moment of peace and quiet, safe from the screams of fractious children. Maybe. Or maybe not. Check the small-print. A

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Yes, A as in A-list. You are in First. See F and P as well. 4 (or 5, 6, 7...) Related Article Opinion

Tripologist More than basic details: What border officials know about you Michael Gebicki The Tripologist A few years ago, a single digit on a boarding pass might have been a minor reason for head-scratching. Now  in an era where hefty baggage fees mean many of us attempt to travel with hand-luggage, and the demand for space in the overhead baggage bins is high  we have become used to milling around the gate, waiting for our number to be called. And that number refers, of course, to your boarding group. Its precise deployment varies from carrier to carrier  but, generally, the higher the figure, the longer you will have to wait before you are summoned aboard. You know the feeling. Hello at the back, Group 9.

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S/O Good news or bad news, depending on how keen you are to reach your destination without delay. S/O stands, simply, for Stopover. You are going somewhere else on the way to the destination you have in mind. Prepare for take-off and landing. twice. SPTC You are not just facing a stopover, but a stopover long enough that you are entitled to request a hotel room, free of charge, from your airline. To spell this out exactly, those letters mean Stopover Paid [for by] The Carrier. Various conditions apply, of course. Your onward connection needs to be with the same airline. And the exact definition of what constitutes a long stopover varies from carrier to carrier, and depends on which cabin you are travelling in. That said, as a general rule, if you are flying in first class, and your stopover is six hours or longer, you should be asking for some gratis accommodation. Sadly, it has to be eight hours if you are squished into an economy seat. SSSS

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The SSSS code means youre set for enhanced screening in the US. Getty Images You do not want to see this. Particularly if you are flying in the USA, where that four-letter snake-like hiss declares that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has selected you for a session of added scrutiny. It stands for Secondary Security Screening Selection, and it means that Uncle Sam is concerned about you. He has some prior information that he would like to discuss further. Probably not over coffee and cake. Five interesting flight numbers Related Article Opinion

Air travel I tried the game-changing shortcut for Aussies entering the US Rob McFarland Travel writer BA364

A number can often be an indication of destination. A British Airways flight with 36 or 37 as its first two digits will be touching French soil at some point. BA364 goes from Heathrow to Lyon. BA373 is the regular two-hour jaunt between Toulouse and Heathrow.

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MH318

As mentioned above, airlines generally retire a flight number if that service has suffered a fatal accident. MH318 now denotes the Malaysian Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing  the number used to be the infamous MH370. The return leg  formerly MH371  is MH319. AA1776

Some numbers have more celebratory connotations. The American Airlines flight from Boston to Philadelphia bears the number 1776  in tribute to the year the US Declaration of Independence was signed in the destination city. A coincidence? No. AA1776 used to refer to a cross-country flight to Dallas-Fort Worth. Its departure point? Philadelphia. UA500

Some shameless playing to the gallery here from United Airlines  its flight from Indianapolis to San Francisco is so-numbered in salute to the Indianapolis 500 car race. UA888

Eight is seen as a lucky number in Asia. The United Airlines flight between San Francisco and Beijing hedges no bets by including three examples of the fortunate figure. This edited article originally appeared in The Telegraph, London.

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Prince Harry donated more than $2 million to a childrens charity during a UK visit that highlighted his estrangement from Prince William, as the brothers attended events near each other with no apparent plans to meet.

One of the largest individual sums publicly given by a member of the British royal family, the donation came from Harrys personal funds while he visited a program to curb youth violence in Nottingham. There, he listened to rappers and showed off his dance moves with a group of teenagers.

Prince Harry at the Community Recording Studio in Nottingham, where he announced a donation to Children in Need to help tackle violence impacting young people. Credit: AP

The event brought the prince back to a charity he had visited several times as part of his official duties over many years, in a reminder of his place in the royal family, despite the rupture with his brother and his father, King Charles.

Harry last met his father face to face in February last year, soon after Buckingham Palace revealed the King had been diagnosed with cancer.
London: US President Donald Trump has responded to an extraordinary Russian incursion into Polish territory by warning that it was violating airspace, as key Republicans urged him to impose harsher sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine.

Trump sent the message as European leaders met to consider stronger air defences after Polish authorities revealed that 19 Russian drones had entered the countrys airspace, many more than first thought.

But there were no statements on imminent sanctions or military responses to the drone incursions despite a warning from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk that his country was the closest to conflict it had been since World War II.

Trump did not announce new measures against Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, after considering more drastic economic sanctions and tariff measures in recent weeks.
London: King Charles has held a meeting with Prince Harry after suddenly returning to London to see his son, moving to ease tensions within the royal family in their first face-to-face talks in more than 18 months.

Harry made a surprise visit to Clarence House to see his father during a break in a brief trip from California that has been dominated by events with major charities.

King Charles III is seen arriving at Clarence House in London, England. Credit: Getty Images

While the King was at Balmoral Castle in Scotland hours earlier, he flew to London at short notice and sparked instant speculation that he would see his son despite official comments in recent days that played down the prospect of a meeting.

Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has been in the UK since Monday seeing charities he helped when he held royal duties several years ago, before he gave up his official roles to move to California with his family.
A NATO source told Reuters the Russian drones entered Polish airspace shortly after midnight on Tuesday night (8am Wednesday AEST), and initial indications suggested it was an intentional incursion. The incident marks the first time NATO aircraft have engaged potential threats in allied airspace, a NATO spokesperson said. Polish F-16 fighters, Dutch F-35s, Italian early warning aircraft and NATO midair refuelling planes were involved in the operation. The NATO council is meeting on Wednesday for a regular session and will discuss the response to the drone incursion, the spokesperson added. French President Emmanuel Macron said the drone incursion into Poland was simply unacceptable, adding that he would speak soon to NATO chief Mark Rutte.

A Shahed drone flies during a Russian air strike on Kyiv last Sunday. Credit: Bloomberg We will not compromise on the safety of our allies, Macron wrote in a post on X. European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said early indications suggested the incident was intentional and described it as the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began in early 2022. The EU stands in full solidarity with Poland. Russias war is escalating, not ending. We must raise the cost to Moscow, strengthen support for Ukraine and invest in Europes defence, she said.

Kallas said that she was in contact with NATO and Polands foreign minister and was following developments. The Polish military said efforts were under way to locate the drone crash sites and warned members of the public not to touch wreckage or fragments. A drone or similar object hit a residential building in Wyryki in eastern Poland, but nobody was injured, the local mayor told state-run news channel TVP Info, and Polish police said a damaged drone had been found in the eastern village of Czosnowka. Firefighters work to recover remnants of a drone shot down near Czosnowka in eastern Poland. Credit: AP A Russian diplomat said Poland had not provided any evidence that the drones were of Russian origin, Russias RIA state news agency reported.

We see the accusations as groundless. No evidence that these drones are of Russian origin has been presented, Andrey Ordash, Russias charge daffaires in Poland, was quoted as saying. Moscow always pushes the boundaries Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian forces sent 415 drones and more than 40 cruise and ballistic missiles into Ukraine in the latest attacks. He said that at least two of the Russian drones that entered Poland had used Belorusian airspace and that around two dozen drones might have entered Polish airspace as part of a bigger group flying along the border of Ukraine and Belarus. Moscow always pushes the boundaries of what is possible, and if it does not encounter a strong reaction, it remains at the new level of escalation, he said on X.

Loading Today there was another step of escalation  Russian-Iranian Shaheds [drones] operated in the airspace of Poland, in NATO airspace. It was not just one Shahed that could be called an accident, but at least eight strike drones aimed toward Poland. Russias version of Irans Shahed-136 drone is a small, delta-winged aircraft guided by GPS to hit a target with a warhead of up to 50 kilograms of explosives. The propeller-driven drone has a range of about 2500 kilometres. Zelensky said the incident was an extremely dangerous precedent for Europe and called for tougher sanctions against Russia from Western allies, although he did not name US President Donald Trump or make any direct criticism of American policy. The Russians must feel the consequences. Russia must feel that the war cannot be expanded and will have to be ended.

Russias Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The emergency over Poland came after a wave of Russian missiles and drones struck areas across Ukraine, including a strike that killed 24 elderly people who were collecting pensions in a village in the countrys east. Unplanned military activity Polish and NATO aircraft were scrambled about midnight on Tuesday after the Ukrainian Air Force warned on social media that Russian drones had entered Polish airspace. Flight tracking accounts on X reported that NATO aircraft, including F-35 fighters, were operating over Poland. A Dutch Air Force A330 tanker aircraft used to refuel fighter jets appeared to be flying in a holding pattern over the east of the country, Flightradar24 data showed.

Four airports in Poland, including the countrys largest, Chopin Airport in Warsaw, were closed due to unplanned military activity related to ensuring state security, notices posted to the US Federal Aviation Administrations website said. Chopin Airport reopened early on Wednesday, the airport said in a statement on X, but warned that disruptions and delays might last throughout the day. Overnight, most of Ukraine, including the western regions of Volyn and Lviv, which border Poland and are far from the Russian-Ukrainian war front line, were under air raid alerts for several hours, according to Ukrainian air force data. Police and medics evacuate Olha Trush, 86, from Yarova, a village hit by a Russian airstrike that killed dozens of civilians, in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, on Tuesday. Credit: AP

In a separate development, Poland announced it would close its border with Belarus on Thursday at midnight (Polish time) as a result of Russia-led military exercises taking place in Belarus amid escalating tensions between Minsk and Warsaw. Loading Russia and Belarus large-scale military exercises, known as the Zapad drills, have raised security concerns in neighbouring NATO member states Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Zapad-2025 (West 2025) will be held in western Russia and Belarus. NATO is holding drills on its side of the border about the same time. Poland and Lithuania began exercises this month, with allied troops taking part. Russian troops have pressed a grinding offensive across much of the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
It is where the Taliban leadership gathered to make a deal allowing the exit of US troops from Afghanistan in Trumps first term as president in February 2020. In short, it is supposed to be neutral territory. It is also where many of the Hamas leaders cheered on the October 7 massacres in relative luxury, many kilometres from Gaza. The terms of the peace proposal they were discussing on Tuesday were agreed by Israel, and there would be consequences if Hamas failed to respond in kind, Trump said. I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting. This is my last warning, there will not be another one! Trump wrote in a social media post on Sunday evening.

The Israeli plan would put a bloody end to talks. If, that is, the targets were eliminated. According to Hamas, just five of its number were killed in the strike. It said key leaders had escaped. Israel, it claimed, had failed in its bid to take out its entire negotiating team. The daytime Israeli strike targeted Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar. Credit: ABC Although pictures from the scene show substantial damage to the building, it was not destroyed. Among the dead, Hamas said, were Himam al-Hayya, the son of Hamas leader in Gaza, the office director of Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas chief negotiator, and three associates  apparently bodyguards or advisers.

The property was later described by Qatari officials as the residential headquarters of Hamas in Qatar  a place where the organisations political leadership lived and worked when in the Middle Eastern country. The missiles used to hit the building were not, it seems, surgical weapons designed to take out a single room, say, nor were they bunker-busting weight munitions. Smoke is seen on the Doha skyline. Israel says it targeted Hamas leadership in the Qatar strike. Credit: AP BritainsTelegraph understands that the operation was directed from Shin Bets special operations headquarters in central Israel. It is reported to have involved 15 Israeli fighter jets carrying at least 10 munitions. Images released by Israel show Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others overseeing the operation in real time.

Early reports said al-Hayya, the leader and top negotiator, had been killed in the Israeli strike, but it was later suggested he had survived. The Qataris were furious about the attack, describing it as a cowardly and flagrant violation to all international law. The Qatari interior ministry confirmed that one member of its internal security forces was killed and several others injured. It also stated about 9.35pm on Tuesday evening (Wednesday AEST) that it continued to secure the area.

A key question about the attack that has yet to be settled is how much the US knew of it and when. Loading Netanyahu was quick to say that he and his security cabinet had acted alone. In a statement issued soon after the missiles landed, he said: Todays action against the top terrorist chieftains of Hamas was a wholly independent Israeli operation. Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility. Israels Channel 12 initially said the US had been notified right before the Israeli strike but then said notification came only when the missiles have been launched. The Trump administration did not therefore have a possibility to weigh in, it added.

The White House said only that Trump was made aware of the strike before it happened. However, the president also said on Tuesday evening that unilaterally bombing Qatar does not advance US or Israelis goals. Hint of US involvement A possible hint of US involvement  or at least a lack of its active deterrence  is that Qatar is home to US Central Command (Centcom), a massive military presence responsible for defending US interests across the Middle East and Central and South Asia. Donald Trump with Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani (left) and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani (right) at the Al Udeid airbase in May. Credit: Getty Images The US-run Al Udeid airbase in Qatar, which serves as Centcoms forward operating headquarters, is bristling not just with offence weaponry but some of the most sophisticated air defence systems.

It played a leading role, with the help of British, French and other allied forces, in defending Israel against the three separate missile and drone barrages it has faced from Iran over the past 17 months, starting in April 2024. Loading When the Israeli strike hit Doha on Tuesday, a British military refuelling aircraft was, coincidentally, heading towards the Centcom base. Britain, France, and Spain  all members of the broader Centcom coalition  condemned Israels strikes on Doha as violations of international law and called for de-escalation in the region. British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the strikes violate Qatars sovereignty and risk further escalation across the region. He urged an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages and a huge surge in aid into Gaza.

Diplomatic damage At the time of writing, the extent to which Hamas has been dismantled is unclear, as is the diplomatic damage that has been done to the US and Israel in the wider region. Loading One thing does seem clear, however: a claim from Katz that the strike was sparked by Mondays attack by Palestinian gunmen on a Jerusalem bus, killing six, is an oversimplification  Israeli sources say it had been planned for months. Ever since the pager attack in Lebanon in September last year, which took out many of Hezbollahs leadership strata, it has been clear that no one at the top of a terrorist group fighting Israel is safe.

Yesterday, after the murderous attacks in Jerusalem and Gaza, Prime Minister Netanyahu directed all security elements to prepare for the possibility of striking the Hamas leadership, Katz said on Tuesday evening. The defence minister fully supported this initiative. This afternoon, in light of an operational opportunity, and in consultation with all security establishment heads, and with full backing, the prime minister and the defence minister decided to implement the directive that was given last night to the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] and the ISA [Israeli Security Agency], which did so with precision and in an optimal manner. The Hamas targets were at least going through the motions of assessing Trumps peace deal when the attack happened. They did not immediately accept the pact but said they were willing to engage with it and talk through the details. On Sunday evening, they had put out a statement saying Hamas had received through the mediators some ideas from the American side aimed at reaching a ceasefire agreement and that it welcomed the initiative. The movement is in constant contact with the intermediaries to develop these ideas into a comprehensive agreement that meets the needs of our people, it added.
But the political fallout began immediately. Trump went on to blame the radical left for comparing Kirk to Nazis and mass murderers  rhetoric he said was directly responsible for the terrorism we are seeing in our country today. And what was supposed to be a bipartisan moment of silence on the floor of the House of Representatives quickly descended into chaos as Republicans and Democrats yelled at each other across the floor after far-right Colorado representative Lauren Boebert asked for a spoken prayer, rather than a silent one. A screen grab from a video shows security personnel carrying Kirk after he was shot. Credit: AFP Representative Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, a former conservative influencer and close ally of Kirk, stood up to blame Democrats for the shooting. You all caused this, she said, pointing angrily at the Democrats side of the chamber. The yelling escalated again, with one Democrat yelling at the Republicans to pass some gun laws. At a press conference, Utah public safety commissioner Beau Mason said the CCTV footage was of poor quality, but a suspect dressed in dark clothing had been identified. The shot came from here on campus, from a location, potentially from the roof. [It was a] longer distance shot, he said.

University authorities said the shot was fired from the Losee Centre, a building a little less than 200 metres from the courtyard where Kirk was speaking. Video obtained by The New York Times showed a person rushing away from a spot near the edge of the buildings roof immediately after the shooting. Utah Governor Spencer Cox characterised the shooting as a political assassination. This is a dark day for our state; its a tragic day for our nation, he said. Cox said it was thought the gunman acted alone, and there was no information that would lead us to believe that there is a second person involved. Another man arrested immediately after the shooting was charged with obstruction of justice and later released.

Utah Valley University police chief Jeff Long said there were six police officers acting as security at the time of the shooting, as well as Kirks travelling private security team. We had some plain-clothes police officers that were in the crowd. We train for these things, Long said. You think you have things covered ... you try to get your bases covered. And, unfortunately, today we didnt, and because of that, we had this tragic incident. Long estimated that the event was attended by about 3000 people. It was open to members of the public; attendees included university students, children and families. Witnesses told Fox News there were no security checks on entering the outdoor venue. Immediately before the shooting, Kirk was taking questions from an audience member about mass shootings and gun violence, AP reported.

Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years? an audience member asked. Kirk responded: Too many. The questioner followed up: Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years? Counting or not counting gang violence? Kirk asked. Then the shot was heard. Kirk co-founded the conservative political advocacy group Turning Point USA, as well as a political action committee by the same name. He was an evangelical Christian, and the group conducts a lot of its work with Christian communities and students on campus.

During last years election, Kirk appeared with Trump at various rallies, and the Trump campaign outsourced a significant amount of its voter turnout work to Turning Point Action and other groups, rather than using the Republican National Committee. The event at Utahs largest public university was Kirks first stop on a new college campus tour that involved the Prove Me Wrong Table, where audience members were invited to debate Kirk in a public setting. The event met with divided opinion on campus. An online petition calling for university administrators to bar Kirk from appearing received nearly 1000 signatures. The university issued a statement last week citing the First Amendment and affirming its commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue. On September 3, Kirk posted screenshots of a series of headlines about the controversy to X, along with the caption: What is going on in Utah?

Vice President JD Vance, a devout Catholic, said he became friends with Kirk after the young man sent him a direct message on Twitter following a TV appearance. He said Kirk was one of the first people he called when considering running for the Senate in 2021, and Kirk introduced him to people who would run his campaign. Vance praised Kirk as a true friend, a family man and a person of profound faith who loved discussing ideas. The crowd reacts after Kirk was shot at Utah Valley University. Credit: AP Charlie was fascinated by ideas and always willing to learn and change his mind, he said. He would go into these hostile crowds and answer their questions  He exemplified a foundational virtue of our Republic: the willingness to speak openly and debate ideas. Former president Joe Biden said he and his wife, Jill, were praying for Charlie Kirks family and loved ones. There is no place in our country for this kind of violence. It must end now, he said.

In a similar message, former vice president and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris said she was deeply disturbed by the shooting. Let me be clear: political violence has no place in America. I condemn this act, and we all must work together to ensure this does not lead to more violence. Australias acting Prime Minister Richard Marles said the shooting was an absolute tragedy and was rightly being condemned across the political spectrum in the US. Our thoughts go out to Charlie Kirks family, he said. There is no place for political violence. Kevin Rudd, the Australian ambassador to the US, said Kirks death was deeply distressing. There is no place for political violence in any democracy.

Credit: Matt Golding As the news of Kirks death circulated, another shooting in the neighbouring state of Colorado was unfolding. A male student at Evergreen High School, about 50 kilometres west of Denver, wounded two fellow students before turning the gun on himself, officials said. He died of self-inflicted injuries. Dr Brian Blackwood, head of trauma at CommonSpirit St Anthony Hospital, said one of the wounded students was in a critical condition, while the other students injuries were non-life-threatening. With AP, Reuters
Washington: The assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk is a shocking tragedy and an awful, scary reflection of the extreme political violence that now afflicts the United States of America.

It will reverberate across the country and around the world in ways that we cannot know in the immediate aftermath. But surely, American civic life just cannot go on like this.

Conservative activist Charlie Kirk was a close ally of US President Donald Trump. Credit: Marija Ercegovac

Anyone and everyone might be next. It was only three months ago that Melissa Hortman, a Democratic member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, and her husband were shot and killed in their Minneapolis home in the middle of the night. One of her colleagues was shot and survived.

A couple of months before that, the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, had his home set on fire while he and his family slept inside.
We are currently looking at a number of items at the site. Aside from the burglaries we are now able to link to Tom, it is apparent that he had outside help. He also said police did not believe it was the main site where the children had been living for the past four years, and they had probably moved to the camouflaged spot a few months ago. A garage-style area at the campsite where Tom Phillips children were found south of Auckland. Credit: NZ Police The childrens mother, Cat, has told New Zealand outlet Mata that she is yet to be told when she will be reunited with her children, who were aged eight, seven and five when she last saw them four years ago. New Zealand Police Minister Mark Mitchell said it was a complex situation and that the authorities were governed by court orders.

We dont know what theyve fully been exposed to, but we know that theyve been put in a fairly bad position by their father, he said. We know that one of them has witnessed him trying to kill a police officer and then having been killed himself ... I think everyone at the moment is just focused on trying to settle the children and figure out what is the best thing for them in terms of what theyve been exposed to. The Phillips children Jayda, Maverick and Ember, with their mother, Cat, a month before they were taken by their father, Tom Phillips, in 2021. On Tuesday night, New Zealand Police Commissioner Richard Chambers said police were liaising with Cat. My staff were talking to her a number of times yesterday, but there are court matters in place, which need to be considered before any access to the children may be considered, as far as Im aware, he said.

Chambers said once police recovered the children at the campsite, they were fairly quickly handed over to welfare authorities to ensure that they had the care and the protection that they deserved. Chambers sympathised with their mothers plight and understood that she would be desperate to see them, but said that was not up to the police. I totally appreciate that as a parent, and as a parent myself, however thats something that [welfare authority] Oranga Tamariki will need to consider, he said. Theres obviously things that need to be considered first. Police approached the campsite carefully to recover the children because Jayda had told them there were guns and ammunition there, and said they had to negotiate with the children once they got there.

Ive got very skilled negotiators, and they kicked in and did what they do so incredibly well and were able to ensure that those children were safe, Chambers said. Of course, they were pleased to see another one of their other siblings, who had been with us since the morning, and so we were very delighted that they were in our care. The scene where Tom Phillips was killed in a shootout with police. Credit: Mark Taylor/Stuff.co.nz When asked whether the children seemed relieved at the time of rescue, Chambers said that he had no doubt that there was emotion present when the young children were reunited with their older sibling. Their reintegration to society is probably going to take some time, he said.

Tom Phillips was shot dead by police on Monday. I have no doubt that theyre good Kiwi kids. So Im sure that a nice warm shower, a home-cooked meal and to engage with society in the way they deserve to engage, that will be something that they look forward to, he added. But its certainly going to take time and our job as police is to support Oranga Tamariki and anybody else to ensure that those kids are given the best opportunity going forward. Chambers confirmed all the children were aware that their father had been killed in the confrontation with police, and they were being helped to process their grief. Yes, they are being supported. So too is the wider family, Chambers said.

Its not an end that any of us wanted, but, you know, for four years, we have known that Mr Phillips is armed, hes dangerous, and hes been very motivated. Loading We had hoped, of course, that all persons would be safe and well, without harm, but my staff are trained to deal with these situations. They did everything that I would expect them to do, given the threat that was presented to them. Its quite remarkable actually that  and thank heavens  that one of my staff has not lost their own life. Chambers said it was too early to tell if the officer hurt in the shootout with Phillips would have permanent injuries as a result of being shot multiple times in the head and shoulders by a high-powered rifle, at close range.

This experience for my colleague has been extremely traumatic, he said. Hes a young father as well himself. I have no doubt that there will be injuries that hell deal with  probably both physical and in terms of the trauma  for many years to come. The officer has been undergoing surgery on his eye and Chambers said it was too early to tell if he would lose his sight. He spent most of [Monday] in surgery, therell be more surgery to come, his injuries are significant. Its gonna take a lot of time and it was very, very confronting. Chambers said that if others were found to have been involved in helping Phillips over the past four years, police would apply the full force of the law, calling the childrens treatment appalling and stressing that no loving father would do such a thing.
The Ukrainian side has information about eight Russian drones that invaded Polish airspace on Wednesday night and is ready to share it with the Polish side, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

"Ukraine is ready to provide Poland with the necessary data on this Russian strike. Ukraine is ready to help Poland build an appropriate warning and protection system against such Russian challenges," Zelenskyy said on Telegram on Wednesday morning.

He noted that more and more facts indicate that the incursion of Russian strike drones into the territory of Poland was not accidental.

"There have been incidents with individual Russian drones that crossed the border and covered a short distance on the territory of neighbors before. But now we are recording a much larger scale and purposefulness," he said, adding, "Ukraine has long proposed to partners to create a joint air defense system and ensure guaranteed shooting down of Shahed UAVS, other drones and missiles thanks to the combined power of our combat aviation and air defense. Together, Europeans are always stronger."
PHILIPSBURG (DCOMM):--- Suicide is a major public health challenge, claiming the lives of more than 720,000 people every year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Wednesday, September 10, 2025, marks World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD), the Collective Prevention Service (CPS), an executive agency of the Ministry of Public Health, Social Development and Labor (Ministry of VSA) said on Tuesday, adding that suicide is the third leading cause of death among 15-29-year-olds at a global level.

The national theme for WSPD is, Are You OK? Providing information about WSPD is part of CPS annual calendar of health observances.

CPS says, according to the WHO, suicide does not just occur in high-income countries but is a global phenomenon in all regions of the world. In fact, close to three quarters (73%) of global suicides occurred in low- and middle-income countries in 2021.

The reasons for suicide are multifaceted, influenced by social, cultural, biological, psychological, and environmental factors present across the life course.

For every suicide, there are many more people who attempt suicide. A prior suicide attempt is an important risk factor for suicide in the general population.

WSPD was established in 2003 by the International Association for Suicide Prevention in partnership with the WHO.

Each year, on 10 September, WSPD focuses global attention on suicide prevention, uniting communities, organizations, and governments with the shared belief that suicides are preventable.

Each life lost has profound social, emotional, and economic consequences, deeply affecting families, friends, workplaces, and entire communities around the world.

The link between suicide and mental disorders (in particular, depression and alcohol use disorders) and a previous suicide attempt is well established.

However, many suicides happen impulsively in moments of crisis with a breakdown in the ability to deal with life stresses, such as financial problems, relationship disputes, or chronic pain and illness.

In addition, experiencing conflict, disaster, violence, abuse or loss and a sense of isolation are strongly associated with suicidal behaviour.

Suicide rates are also high among vulnerable groups who experience discrimination, such as refugees and migrants; indigenous peoples; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex (LGBTI) persons; and prisoners, WHO points out.

There are several measures that can be taken at population, community, and individual levels to prevent suicide and self-harm.

LIVE LIFE, WHOs initiative for suicide prevention, recommends the following key effective evidence-based interventions: limit access to the means of suicide (e.g. pesticides, firearms, certain medications); interact with the media for responsible reporting of suicide; foster socio-emotional life skills in adolescents; and

early identify, assess, manage and follow up anyone who is affected by suicidal behaviours.

If you need to talk with someone or need help, contact the Sint Maarten Mental Health Foundation (MHF) crisis line 721 585-5556 which will be answered by a professional. All information will be kept confidential.
By Mata Press Service

Canadas reliance on temporary foreign workers (TFWs) has never been greater, with new Statistics Canada data showing they are now essential to hospitals, care homes, farms, and restaurants.

But as their numbers rise, so does the political fight over whether the TFW program should be overhauled or scrapped entirely.

In health care and social assistance, more than 130,000 positions were vacant nationally in 2024, with B.C. alone facing shortages in nursing and long-term care that experts warn are at critical levels.

The food service industry reported nearly 70,000 unfilled roles, while agriculture continues to battle chronic shortages during peak harvest seasons.

Ryan Mitton of the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses (CFIB) said the reality is stark: Without foreign labour, parts of our health-care system and food supply chain would grind to a halt.

Not everyone sees the program as a solutionboth federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and B.C. Premier David Eby has framed it as a problem, though for different reasons.

Eby argues that the TFW system and international student programs are putting unbearable pressure on housing, schools, and social services, while contributing to youth unemployment.

We cant have an immigration system that outpaces our ability to build schools and housing, he said. Nor can we have one that results in high unemployment among young Canadians.

His comments came as a Food Banks BC report revealed that 39 per cent of food bank users in the Vancouver coastal region identify as immigrants or refugees, illustrating the strain on support networks.

Poilievre, meanwhile, has vowed to dismantle the TFW program entirely, claiming it depresses wages and pushes young Canadians out of the job market. Citing data showing a 1,131 per cent increase in TFW hires at Tim Hortons over four years, Poilievre said, Its time to take decisive action to protect our youth and workers.

His plan would phase out the program everywhere except for a narrow carve-out for seasonal farm labour, arguing that companies are using foreign labour to pad profits while leaving Canadian graduates struggling to find work.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has taken a more cautious stance, acknowledging the programs role while stressing the need for reform.

Businesses tell me their top issue is tariffs, and their second issue is how to get more foreign workers, Carney said during a cabinet meeting in Toronto. The program has a role, but it needs to be focused and managed carefully.

Meanwhile, a new Statistics Canada report shows just how deeply the program has become embedded in the system.

In 2000, just 3,200 TFWs were employed in healthcare. By 2022, that number had skyrocketed to 57,500, a nearly 17-fold increase. The most dramatic jump came during the COVID-19 pandemic, when hospitals and long-term care homes were desperate for staff. From 2019 to 2020 alone, the number of foreign workers in health care jumped 50 percent, reaching 39,300. Nursing and residential care facilities now rely on TFWs for almost five per cent of their total workforce, while home health services sit even higher at nearly eight per cent.

Ontario employs the largest share of these workers at 43 per cent, followed by Quebec at 26 per cent and B.C. at 13 per cent. Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia both have nearly four percent of their health-care workforce filled by temporary workers. Even with these numbers, its not enough to close the gap.

The Canadian Nurses Association pegs the shortfall of nurses at 117,600 nurses in Canada by 2030, with retirements accelerating and Canadian graduates unable to meet demand.

The CFIB has warned that scrapping the program entirely would devastate small businesses, especially in rural and remote areas. Without it, many B.C. restaurants, farms and care providers would shut down, displacing Canadian workers too, Mitton said, calling the program a last resort to keep doors open.

In primary agriculture, farms report tens of thousands of unfilled jobs during harvest seasons, with Canadian workers increasingly unwilling to take on physically demanding, seasonal labour. Despite this need, fewer than 10 per cent of TFWs in agriculture become permanent residents within five years. Even among those who gain permanent status, 80 per cent leave the sector within five years, forcing farmers to start the hiring cycle all over again. Without foreign workers, crops would rot in the field and livestock operations would shut down, said B.C. agriculture advocates.

The restaurant and accommodation sector faces similar challenges. In 2024, vacancies topped 68,000 nationwide, forcing many businesses to cut hours or close locations. While lower-skilled TFWs initially fill these roles, retention collapses after they gain permanent residency, with fewer than 30 per cent remaining in the sector five years later.

Health care, by contrast, stands out as the only sector where the TFW pathway reliably builds a permanent workforce. Fifty-eight per cent of healthcare TFWs eventually become permanent residents, and two-thirds remain in the sector. By contrast, agriculture, hospitality, and food manufacturing act as revolving doors, with high turnover and limited retention.

In total, there were 845,000 TFWs in Canada in 2021, more than double the 356,000 a decade earlier. In just the first half of 2025, Canada issued 105,000 new permits, already surpassing its target of 82,000 for the year. These numbers illustrate how vital the program has become, but also highlight why critics fear its consequences for housing, wages, and youth unemployment, said an immigration advocate.

For now, one fact is clear. Without temporary foreign workers, thousands of jobs would remain empty, shelves and fields would go unstocked, and patients in hospitals and care homes would face even longer waits, she said.
By Brett McKay

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police paid out $979,067 in compensation for injuries caused by interactions with police service dogs between 2013 and May 2024, according to documents made public through the IJFs Open By Default database.

Canadas provincial RCMP divisions reported 30 individual payments related to police service dog bites during this ten-year period, nearly all of which occurred in British Columbia and Alberta.

In civil actions, the RCMP is represented by the federal department of justice, and It is very difficult to get any settlement out of them, said Tom Engel, lawyer and chair of the Criminal Trial Lawyers Associations policing committee.

I consider that if they're paying out anything, it must have been a bad bite, he said, and that the number of settlements doesnt reflect the actual number of injuries caused by police dog bites.

These dogs are not machines, Engel said. When they bite, they will also shake their head back and forth, as dogs do, ripping muscle, tendon, and other tissue.

Nova Scotia RCMP had a single dog bite settlement in the amount of $17,000 between 2013 and 2024, and records from Quebecs RCMP division also show only one payment for $25,000.

There were 17 settlements totalling $107,528 stemming from injuries caused by Alberta RCMP police dogs, and B.C. RCMP reported 11 settlements totalling $829,539.

Information about the individual settlements was not included in the released documents, but data on the use of force by RCMP members sheds some light on why injury claims are concentrated in the two westernmost provinces. In 2023, police service dogs were used as a police intervention option 785 times nationwide, with B.C. and Alberta accounting for 472 and 220 incidents, respectively. About 50 per cent of the time a police service dog was deployed, a bite was reported.

The number of RCMP Police Service Dog criminal apprehensions where a bite occurs has a direct relationship with the number of police service dogs available in a province, RCMP Staff Sergeant Kris Clark told the Investigative Journalism Foundation.

Clark said the B.C. RCMP has about one third of the forces police officers, and the largest number of police service dogs within the RCMP structure, and hence the largest number of situations where a dog is deployed and a bite could occur.

Despite RCMP protocols and training on the use of police dogs recognizing their potential to cause injuries, Engel said hes observed several cases where dogs have been deployed without appropriate safety precautions  such as letting the dog off leash and out of sight of the handler  and egregious cases where dogs have been used for non-violent offenders or suspects who present no risk to the public.

In a recent case involving the arrest of a man suspected of aggravated assault, a B.C. provincial court judge criticized the RCMP for its culture of complacency and an institutional nonchalance that has led to dog handlers operating with almost no supervision or oversight and as an intermediate weapon being used in non-urgent circumstances.

The use of a dog, as with all other force options, must be proportional to the level of respect posted to the officer, the suspect, and the community as a whole. Here, an institutionally assumed, accepted, presumptive pre-deployment of an intermediate weapon is quite concerning on an operational level, Judge Dwight Stewart wrote in his decision.

When asked about Stewarts criticism and how incidents involving police dogs are reviewed by the force, Clark said all service dogs and handlers undergo required training, and all incidents of use of force that result in an injury, or where certain intervention options are used (such as a police service dog) must be reported, and incident reports must then be reviewed by a supervisor, at the very least.
Press Release from Business Wire: Stonebranch



(AFP) Sep 10, 2025



FRANKFURT, Sept 10, 2025 (BSW) - Stonebranch, a leading provider of service orchestration and automation platforms (SOAP), today announced the acquisition of HONICO Systems, a recognized pioneer in SAP automation. This strategic move unites Stonebranch with HONICO's SAP-native technology to deliver the most comprehensive, hybrid-ready SAP automation solution available today.

HONICO is best known for its flagship solution, BatchMan, an advanced workload automation platform purpose-built for SAP landscapes. BatchMan enables organizations to manage complex SAP jobs with ease, delivering improved visibility, control, and automation across mission-critical SAP business processes.

"This acquisition marks a significant milestone for Stonebranch as we continue to expand our leadership in the SOAP market," said Stonebranch CEO Giuseppe Damiani. "HONICO's unparalleled expertise in SAP automation complements our vision of delivering end-to-end orchestration across all enterprise systems. Together, we're providing our customers with even greater control, visibility, and efficiency in automating their most critical business processes-whether in SAP, cloud-native applications, or legacy systems."

A Strategic Step Toward Unified Enterprise Automation

Stonebranch intends to integrate HONICO's powerful SAP automation solutions directly into its industry-leading Stonebranch Universal Automation Center (UAC) platform. The combined offerings will empower organizations to orchestrate and automate workloads across hybrid IT environments, including SAP systems, cloud platforms, and on-premises infrastructure. In addition, BatchMan will continue to be offered as a standalone solution.

Today's enterprise customers increasingly demand automation solutions that seamlessly orchestrate both SAP and non-SAP environments. Organizations are under pressure to break down silos of automation, ensuring that business processes flow efficiently across disparate platforms without manual intervention. Combined, Stonebranch and HONICO directly address that market need, enabling enterprises to achieve true end-to-end orchestration, transfer data seamlessly, streamline operations, and accelerate digital transformation initiatives.

Building an SAP Automation Powerhouse

Stonebranch and HONICO bring an impressive portfolio of SAP certifications, validating their deep expertise and technical alignment with SAP technologies. They hold SAP Certified Integrations with SAP S/4HANA(R) and RISE with SAP S/4HANA(R) Cloud and are certified by SAP as an ABAP add-on for SAP NetWeaver(R), ensuring seamless integration with the latest SAP environments and legacy systems alike.

Together, these certifications form the cornerstone of an SAP automation powerhouse. By combining certified solutions and proven technical integrations, enterprises are empowered to seamlessly orchestrate and automate jobs across SAP's product ecosystem, spanning ERP, Business Technology Platform (BTP), industry-specific applications, data solutions, and more.

"Stonebranch provides what others merely claim: true hybrid IT automation that's SAP intelligent by design, not by workaround," said Damiani. "We're not retrofitting old tools for modern needs-we're setting a new bar for what SAP orchestration should be."

This combined strength ensures organizations can automate SAP workloads with precision while eliminating silos and delivering cohesive enterprise-wide orchestration.

Enhanced Benefits for Customers of Both Organizations

The acquisition creates immediate value for both Stonebranch and HONICO customers. Stonebranch clients benefit from additional deep integration with SAP platforms, while HONICO customers gain access to Stonebranch's expansive library of integrations across on-premises, cloud, and container solutions.

"We're excited to join forces with Stonebranch, a company that shares our passion for innovation and automation excellence," said HONICO CEO Claus-Uwe Hodum. "By combining our strengths with Stonebranch, we can offer our customers a broader, more powerful set of solutions that accelerate digital transformation and improve operational efficiency across both SAP and non-SAP systems alike. Together, we're breaking down the silos of automation and helping enterprises achieve seamless, unified orchestration."

The terms of the transaction have not been disclosed. The transaction is expected to close subject to customary regulatory approvals.

About Stonebranch

Stonebranch builds IT automation solutions that transform business IT environments. The Stonebranch Universal Automation Center (UAC) enables organizations to automate, manage, and orchestrate workloads and data pipelines in real time across hybrid IT environments, from on-premises to cloud and containerized microservices. Learn more at www.stonebranch.com

About HONICO

HONICO Systems specializes in workload automation and business process integration for SAP environments. With its flagship product BatchMan, HONICO helps enterprises streamline and optimize complex SAP job scheduling and automation processes. Headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, HONICO serves a global customer base across multiple industries. Learn more at www.honico.com







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Media Contact:Scott DavisChief Marketing [email protected]







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Europe hyperloop test hits new speed record in Dutch trial



The Hague, Sept 10 (AFP) Sep 10, 2025



A Dutch tech startup said Wednesday it had set a European speed record for its futuristic hyperloop transport system and could reach 700 kilometres (435 miles) per hour once longer tracks are built.

Hardt Hyperloop said its vehicle had reached 85 kph at the 420 metre (1,378 feet) European Hyperloop Center test track in the Netherlands and had carried out a complex lane switching test.

It said the lane switching manoeuvre -- essential for networked routes -- showed there were no technical barriers to operating at aircraft-like speeds.

The development comes as China pushes ahead with its own high-speed projects, with state media reporting tests above 600 kph and a goal of linking Shanghai and Guangzhou by 2035.

Europe has yet to commit to a long test facility, though Germany and Italy are considering tracks.

"We are ready to go for higher speeds -- up to 700 kph -- as soon as the infrastructure so permits," co-founder Tim Houter told AFP.

The European Hyperloop Center, which opened last year, has hosted more than 750 test missions.

Hardt is one of several firms seeking to commercialise the hyperloop, a concept in which passengers travel in pods at near-supersonic speeds through vacuum tubes.

The test marks progress from a year ago, when the same track hosted trials at just 30 kph.

Backers insist the technology will eventually replace short flights in Europe and could cut energy use to a fraction of trains or planes.

First floated by Elon Musk in 2013, the hyperloop has consumed billions of dollars in trials but has yet to produce a viable commercial route.
Press Release from Business Wire: ROYC



(AFP) Sep 10, 2025



STOCKHOLM & LUXEMBOURG, Sept 10, 2025 (BSW) - ROYC, together with leading law firms Elvinger Hoss and GDA, today announced the publication of a joint white paper, Strategic Fund Architecture - Capturing the Next Wave of Private Capital. The report offers General Partners (GPs) and asset managers a practical roadmap to navigate Europe's rapidly evolving fund structuring and distribution landscape.

With ELTIF 2.0 now in force, AIFMD II implementation approaching, and the EU's Savings & Investments Union (SIU) expected to channel trillions of euros of household savings into long-term private markets, fund structuring has become a board-level strategic priority.

"Fund structuring is no longer just a back-office concern. Operational platforms and technology are now decisive in determining capital access, speed-to-market, and GP profitability," said Mathias Leijon, Founder & President at ROYC. "This paper shows how integrating legal, operational, and technology architecture from day one transforms fund formation and lifecycle management into distinct competitive advantages."

Key market forces shaping the next vintage cycle (2026-27):

-- Broadened LP base - from sovereign wealth funds to first-time HNWIs, requiring digital onboarding, transparent reporting, and harmonized data.

-- Regulatory reform - ELTIF 2.0 and SIU create new channels to mass-affluent and retail markets, demanding compliant and scalable structures.

-- Technology-driven scale - modular, cloud-native platforms lower cost-to-serve, accelerate time-to-market, and enable semi-liquid and evergreen funds alongside closed-end funds and co-investment vehicles.

For GPs, the next vintage cycle (2026-27) will set new benchmarks in fund design, governance, and investor experience. Firms that act now-embedding integrated operating platforms alongside best-in-class structuring-will secure lasting advantages in capital access and cost of capital.

The white paper provides actionable guidance across five dimensions: strategic scoping, wrapper selection, regulatory timelines, platform-driven operating models, and distribution activation. It also outlines use cases ranging from first-time managers seeking institutional-grade platforms to global GPs building cross-border strategies.

ABOUT ROYC

ROYC is the leading European B2B financial technology company that provides a complete private markets operating system, empowering private equity firms, banks, wealth managers, and multi-family offices to seamlessly access, distribute, and manage private investments at scale. As private markets expand, financial institutions require scalable, technology-driven solutions to manage complexity, optimizing fund operations, and delivering exceptional client experiences. ROYC combines state-of-the-art private markets technology with tailored fund structuring and investment solutions. Its intuitive, scalable platform replaces manual processes with automation and real-time data access, transforming how private market investments are managed across the entire fund lifecycle.







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Contact

For additional information or interview requests:Mathias LeijonFounder and President, [email protected] roycgroup.com







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Press Release from Business Wire: PsiQuantum



(AFP) Sep 10, 2025



PALO ALTO, Sept 10, 2025 (BSW) - PsiQuantum today announced it has raised $1 billion in funding for its Series E round to build the world's first commercially useful, fault-tolerant quantum computers. This funding will equip the company to break ground on utility-scale quantum computing sites in Brisbane and Chicago, deploy large-scale prototype systems to validate systems architecture and integration, and further advance the performance of its quantum photonic chips and fault-tolerant architecture.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250910135739/en/

Omega, PsiQuantum's silicon photonic quantum chipset, designed by PsiQuantum and manufactured at GlobalFoundries' Fab 8 in New York.



Led by funds and accounts managed by affiliates of BlackRock, along with Temasek and Baillie Gifford, this fundraising values the company at $7 billion and brings in new investors, including entities administered by Macquarie Capital, Ribbit Capital, NVentures (NVIDIA's venture capital arm), Adage Capital Management, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Type One Ventures, Counterpoint Global (Morgan Stanley), 1789 Capital, and S Ventures (SentinelOne). The round also included participation from existing investors including Blackbird, Third Point Ventures, and T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc.

PsiQuantum was founded on the premise that commercially valuable quantum computing requires error correction-and therefore on the order of a million physical qubits. Teams worldwide are now racing to build fault-tolerant systems at this scale, and are increasingly facing scaling challenges of manufacturability, cooling, and networking. PsiQuantum's thesis is that the unique strengths of photonic qubits, combined with direct leverage of high-volume semiconductor manufacturing, provide a fast path through these barriers.

"Only building the real thing-million-qubit scale, fault-tolerant machines-will unlock the promise of quantum computing," said Prof. Jeremy O'Brien, PsiQuantum co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. "We defined what it takes from day one: this is a grand engineering challenge, not a science experiment. We tackled the hardest problems first-at the architectural and chip level-and are now mass-manufacturing best-in-class quantum photonic chips at a leading U.S. semiconductor fab. With this funding, we're ready to take the next decisive steps to deliver the full potential of quantum computing."

"Nearly nine years after we started, we have pushed the technology to an unprecedented level of maturity and performance," said Dr. Pete Shadbolt, PsiQuantum co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer. "We have the chips, we have the switches, we have a scalable cooling technology, we can do networking, we have found the sites, we have the commercial motive and the government support - we're ready to get on and build utility-scale systems."

In addition to investment support from NVentures, PsiQuantum is collaborating with NVIDIA across a broad range of development areas, including quantum algorithms and software, GPU-QPU integration and PsiQuantum's silicon photonics platform.

Since the company's Series D financing in 2021, PsiQuantum has established a high-volume manufacturing process for its integrated photonic chipset, containing the components needed for photonic quantum computing-all of which perform beyond the state-of-the-art. This chipset is designed by PsiQuantum and manufactured at GlobalFoundries' Fab 8 in New York-a high-volume, commercial semiconductor foundry.

Critically, PsiQuantum has integrated Barium Titanate (BTO) into its manufacturing flow. BTO is one of the world's highest-performing electro-optic materials, which makes it ideally suited for ultra-high-performance optical switches; the missing component for scaling optical quantum computing. PsiQuantum manufactures 300mm wafers of BTO at its facilities in California, which are then integrated together with wafers manufactured at GlobalFoundries.

This new funding will enable PsiQuantum to further scale up BTO production towards the volumes needed for utility-scale quantum computing. The BTO-enabled optical switch also has potential in next-generation AI supercomputers, an area of increased interest given rapidly-growing AI workloads-where low-power, high-speed optical networking is increasingly relevant.

In addition to the photonic chips which generate, manipulate and measure qubits, PsiQuantum also develops the cooling, networking, and control systems for utility-scale machines. Due to its photonic approach, the company does not depend on the "chandelier"-style cryostats frequently used in quantum computing and has designed and commissioned a new high-density cooling solution, similar to the modular racks found in a datacenter, with the capacity to cool hundreds of quantum chips in a single cabinet. The company has also demonstrated high-fidelity quantum networking between distant cabinets using standard telecom fiber-a key requirement for most approaches to utility-scale quantum computing.

Tony Kim, Head of the Fundamental Equities Technology Group at BlackRock:

"AI is built on classical computing, which has underpinned the last fifty years of technology. Now, we are at the dawn of an adjacent computing platform - rooted in quantum mechanics - that will allow us to simulate the physical world with transformative accuracy."

Luke Ward, private companies investment manager, Baillie Gifford:

"We first backed PsiQuantum over six years ago, recognising its unique approach to scaling quantum computing. Since then, the company has consistently hit technical milestones while forging deep partnerships across industry and government. With a vision rooted in practicality, PsiQuantum is now positioned at the forefront of what could be a trillion-dollar industry, able to solve some of humanity's biggest challenges. This goes beyond what is possible with AI."

About PsiQuantum

PsiQuantum was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. The company's mission is to build and deploy the world's first useful quantum computers. PsiQuantum's photonic approach enables it to leverage high-volume semiconductor manufacturing, existing cryogenic infrastructure, and architectural flexibility to rapidly scale its systems. Learn more at www.psiquantum.com.







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Press Release from Business Wire: Andersen Consulting



(AFP) Sep 10, 2025



SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 10, 2025 (BSW) - Andersen Consulting broadens its capabilities in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos as VDB Loi brings consulting capabilities to its existing tax and legal offering. Led by Managing Director Jean Loi, who also serves as managing director for Andersen in Cambodia and Vietnam, VDB Loi was founded in 2012 as a tax and legal firm and has been a collaborating firm of Andersen Global since 2021.

With the addition of its full suite of consulting services, VDB Loi is now a member of Andersen Consulting offering comprehensive solutions in business strategy, AI, technology transformation, and cybersecurity to complement its existing tax and legal platform.

"We have been a part of the Andersen family for several years now and recognize the value and synergy this multidisciplinary approach provides for our clients," Jean said. "In our current business landscape, it is not enough to be solely a tax firm or solely a legal firm as a single service offering does not effectively cover clients' overall business needs. Andersen's global platform elevates advisory support for the new generation that differs from traditional professional service models."

Global Chairman and CEO of Andersen Mark L. Vorsatz added, "The addition of VDB Loi allows us to maintain a competitive edge in the market. Their consulting expertise complements our existing presence in the region and provides clients with a multidimensional suite of services that includes tax, legal, and advisory support. This aligns with our broader vision of providing integrated, seamless service globally."

Andersen Consulting is a global consulting practice providing a comprehensive suite of services spanning corporate strategy, business, technology, and AI transformation, as well as human capital solutions. Andersen Consulting integrates with the multidimensional service model of Andersen Global, delivering world-class consulting, tax, legal, valuation, global mobility, and advisory expertise on a global platform with more than 20,000 professionals worldwide and a presence in over 600 locations through its member firms and collaborating firms. Andersen Consulting Holdings LP is a limited partnership and provides consulting solutions through its member firms and collaborating firms around the world.







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[email protected]







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Photo: https://t.me/V_Zelenskiy_official

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called the incursion of Russian drones into its airspace on Wednesday night an attempt to humiliate Poland, and called for the creation of a joint air defense system with other European countries.

"Ukraine has long proposed to partners to create a joint air defense system and ensure the guaranteed shooting down of UAVs, other drones and missiles thanks to the combined power of our combat aviation and air defense. Together, Europeans are always stronger. Russia must feel that the response to this escalating step and, especially, to an attempt to humiliate one of the key European countries will be a clear and strong response from all partners," Zelenskyy said on Telegram on Wednesday morning.

He stressed that Russia's aggression "is a threat to every independent nation in our region." "Accordingly, only joint and coordinated actions can guarantee reliable security," he added.

Zelenskyy noted the importance of the precedent of using combat aircraft from several European countries simultaneously to shoot down Russian weapons and protect people's lives.
Speckled Martian rocks 'clearest sign' yet of ancient life



Washington, Sept 10 (AFP) Sep 10, 2025



Colorful, speckled rocks found on the surface of Mars have offered among the most encouraging evidence yet of ancient life on our neighboring planet, scientists at NASA announced Wednesday.

The Perseverance Mars rover collected the "Sapphire Canyon" rock samples in July 2024 from what's thought to be an ancient lakebed, and its poppyseed and leopard-esque spots pointed to potential chemical reactions that piqued the interest of researchers.

If the features resulted from microbial activity that created minerals in the way they do on Earth -- well, that might point to life on Mars.

It's far too soon for scientists to say that definitively, but the findings, which were detailed in research published in the journal Nature, are alluring.

"We put it out to our scientific friends to pressure test it, to analyze it, and go, did we get this right? Do we think this is signs of ancient life on Mars?" NASA's Acting Administrator Sean Duffy said at a news conference.

"They said, 'Listen, we can't find another explanation.' So this very well could be the clearest sign of life that we've ever found on Mars."

"It's kind of the equivalent of seeing like leftover fossils, leftovers from a meal, and maybe that meal has been excreted by a microbe," Nicky Fox, administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, told journalists.

When those kinds of mineral and textured features form in sediment on Earth, it's frequently the product of reactions from mud and organic matter, explained the study's lead author Joel Hurowitz -- a potential "biosignature," or sign of life.

Specifically, Perserverance's instruments identified the minerals vivianite and greigite. On Earth, vivianite is often found in sediments, peat bogs, and around decaying organic matter. Some forms of microbial life on Earth can produce greigite.

"But there are non-biological ways to make these features that we cannot completely rule out on the basis of the data that we collected," Hurowitz said.

Still, the findings are "exciting," he told journalists, explaining that researchers would need to analyze the sample in person to better understand if microbial activity had created the "fantastic textures" and colors including blue and green.



- 'Are we alone in universe?' -



That's no small feat, particularly in light of President Donald Trump administration's plans to cancel the Mars Sample Return program -- a robotic mission planned for the 2030s to bring Perseverance's samples back to Earth.

Asked by journalists if that was still the plan, Duffy was non-committal, hinting the samples might be brought back by a future crewed mission instead.

"We care about resources, we care about the timeframe, we believe there's a better way to do this, a faster way to get these samples back. And so that is the analysis that we've gone through. Can we do it faster? Can we do it cheaper? And we think we can," he said.

There are several rovers ambling across Mars -- Perseverance has been there since 2021 -- seeking signs of life that could have existed millions to billions of years ago, when the planet was thought to have been more habitable.

Evidence that ancient rivers and lakes carved into the planet's surface would indicate that water once flowed there.

And the latest discovery, said Fox, brought researchers "one step closer" to answering the burning question: "Are we truly alone in the universe?"
Faced with US deployment, Brazil, Colombia reject 'intervention'



Manaus, Brazil, Sept 9 (AFP) Sep 09, 2025



The presidents of Brazil and Colombia spoke out against "foreign intervention and threats to our sovereignty" Tuesday amid a US military deployment off the coast of South America.

The US government recently sent warships with thousands of troops to the southern Caribbean and F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico in what it has labeled an anti-drug operation.

Last week, US forces blew up a suspected Venezuelan drug boat with 11 people aboard, and President Donald Trump threatened to shoot down Venezuelan jets if they endanger US forces.

Washington recently upped a bounty to $50 million for Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro's capture on drug charges, claiming he leads a narco-terrorist cartel.

Maduro, whose last two reelections were rejected as fraudulent by the United States and many other countries, denies the charges and any suggestion that Venezuela is a major drug hub.

"We do not need foreign interventions or threats to our sovereignty," Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva insisted Tuesday.

"We are perfectly capable of being the protagonists of our own solutions."

Lula was launching a multi-national anti-crime center in the Amazonian city of Manaus with Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro.

The International Police Cooperation Center will oversee anti-crime operations by the security forces of nine countries with Amazonian territory, ravaged by criminals involved in deforestation, illegal mining and drug trafficking.

Petro, for his part, warned of a "possible invasion" of Venezuela, and said no one in South America should support it.

"One thing is resolving a political problem. Another is losing our dignity and sovereignty," said Petro.

The Colombian leader said criminal groups buy "police, judges, prosecutors, politicians, even presidents, not only in Latin America but also in the United States.

"These mafias have become the primary destroyer of the Amazon," he added.
Kidnapped academic Elizabeth Tsurkov released in Iraq



Baghdad, Sept 9 (AFP) Sep 09, 2025



Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and US President Donald Trump announced Tuesday the release of Israeli-Russian academic Elizabeth Tsurkov who was kidnapped in Baghdad in March 2023.

While Iraq said a "group of outlaws" kidnapped Tsurkov, Trump announced she was released by the powerful pro-Iran Kataeb Hezbollah group.

"As a culmination of extensive efforts exerted by our security services over the course of many months, we announce the release of the Russian citizen, Elizabeth Tsurkov," Sudani said on X.

Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that Tsurkov "was just released" by Kataeb Hezbollah "after being tortured for many months" and was now at the US embassy in Baghdad.

Sabah al-Numan, the military spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister, said later in a statement that "following extensive and high-level security and intelligence efforts... authorities succeeded, on September 9, in locating and reaching the site of her detention."

Tsurkov was delivered to the US embassy to "facilitate her reunion with her sister, a US citizen," he added.

The former captive's sister, Emma Tsurkov, thanked Trump, his special envoy Adam Boehler, the US embassy in Baghdad and the non-profit group Global Reach for their roles in securing the release.

"My entire family is incredibly happy. We cannot wait to see Elizabeth and give her all the love we have been waiting to share for 903 days," she posted on social media

Numan said Tsurkov was kidnapped by a "group of outlaws" without naming any party, and added that Iraq's security forces "will continue to pursue all those involved in this crime and ensure they are held accountable."



- Phd candidate -



Tsurkov, a doctoral student at Princeton University and fellow at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, went missing in Iraq in March 2023.

She had likely entered Iraq on her Russian passport and had travelled to the country as part of her doctoral studies.

She was active on Twitter, where she has tens of thousands of followers and describes herself as "passionate about human rights".

In Baghdad, she had focused on pro-Iran factions and the movement of Iraqi Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr as part of her research on the region.

She was abducted as she was leaving a cafe in the Iraqi capital's Karrada neighbourhood, an Iraqi intelligence source told AFP in 2023.

Israeli authorities blamed Kataeb Hezbollah for her disappearance, but the group implied that it was not involved.



- Kataeb Hezbollah? -



Kataeb Hezbollah did not claim in 2023 the abduction, but a source in the group told AFP Tuesday Tsurkov was released to spare Iraq any "conflicts".

She "was released according to conditions, the most important of which was to facilitate the withdrawal of US forces without a fight and to spare Iraq any conflicts or fighting," the source said.

"She was released and not liberated. No military operation was carried out to free her," the source added.

Like other armed groups trained by Iran during the war against the Islamic State group (IS), Kataeb Hezbollah were integrated into the regular security forces as part of the Hashed al-Shaabi or the Popular Mobilisation force (PMF).

However, the faction has developed a reputation for sometimes acting on its own.

The group and other Iran-backed Iraqi factions have been calling for the withdrawal of US troops deployed in Iraq at Baghdad's invitation as part of the anti-IS coalition.

US forces in Iraq and neighbouring Syria were repeatedly targeted by Kataeb Hezbollah and other pro-Iran groups following the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023.

They have responded with heavy strikes on Tehran-linked targets, and the attacks have halted.

The US and Iraq have announced that the anti-IS coalition would end its decade-long military mission in federal Iraq in 2025, and by September 2026 in the autonomous Kurdistan region in the country's north.

cbg-rh/dc
Trump ready to match EU tariffs on China, India to pressure Putin: US official



Washington, Sept 9 (AFP) Sep 09, 2025



The United States is ready to broaden tariffs targeting buyers of Russian oil -- if the EU takes similar moves -- to hit at revenue Moscow needs for the war in Ukraine, a US official told AFP Tuesday.

Dialing in to talks between United States and European Union officials, President Donald Trump raised the possibility of tariffs between 50 percent and 100 percent on oil buyers such as China and India, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss these details publicly.

The talks come as EU sanctions envoy David O'Sullivan, who has spearheaded the bloc's global outreach on preventing Moscow's evasion of sanctions, is leading a delegation in Washington for meetings on Monday and Tuesday.

Trump dialed in for discussions Tuesday alongside Ukraine's prime minister, the US official said.

"The source of the money for the Russian war machine is oil purchases by China and India," the official added. "If you do not get at the source of the money, there's no way to stop the war machine."

Also involved in talks were Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and officials from the US Trade Representative's office and State Department.

But the government official stressed that although Trump is "ready to go," he believes that "the EU has to be with us."

Another US official referred to a bill with 85 Senate co-sponsors that would authorize Trump to impose secondary tariffs on countries trading with Russia -- but questioned if the European Parliament "has the political will" to step up economic pressure via tariffs.

Besides potential tariffs, which were Trump's preferred option, officials also discussed the issue of immobilized Russian sovereign assets.

Trump on Sunday had threatened to impose more sanctions on Russia, after the Kremlin unleashed its biggest-ever aerial barrage at Ukraine.

He has also threatened to penalize countries that buy Russian oil, seeking to cut off a key revenue source for Russian leader Vladimir Putin's war. But so far, he has only hit India with so-called secondary sanctions.

"We want to get serious. We want to get this war over with, and so we're strongly encouraging our European friends to get moving," the US official said Tuesday.

The EU is preparing a fresh round of sanctions on Russia, marking its 19th since Moscow's invasion in 2022. It has said that this should include more secondary sanctions targeting countries that help Moscow avoid punishment.

Germany and France are pushing to target Russian oil giant Lukoil as part of the new round of EU sanctions, diplomats said Monday.

Bessent wrote in a post on X after Monday's meeting that "all options remain on the table" as part of Trump's strategy to support peace negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv.

The Treasury Department did not immediately have a comment on Tuesday's talks.
Australia to deploy fleet of underwater strike drones



Sydney, Sept 10 (AFP) Sep 10, 2025



Australia said Wednesday it will deploy a US$1.1 billion fleet of "Ghost Shark" underwater attack drones to bolster its firepower in a "threatening" regional landscape.

The Royal Australian Navy will arm itself with dozens of the home-developed, cutting-edge autonomous drones, with the first entering service in January, it said.

Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, equipping its navy with long-range strike capabilities in an effort to balance China's expanding military might in the Pacific.

The government said it had signed a Aus$1.7 billion (US$1.1 billion) five-year contract with Anduril Australia to build, maintain and develop the extra-large, uncrewed undersea vehicles, creating 150 jobs.

"This is the highest tech capability in the world," Defence Minister Richard Marles told a news conference, saying it would have a "very long range" as well as stealth capabilities.

"Australia is leading the world in terms of autonomous underwater military capabilities and Ghost Shark is capable of engaging in intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and strike," he said.



- 'Threatening' landscape -



The drones, which can be launched from shore or warships, will complement Australia's strategic enhancements to its submarine and surface fleets, the minister said, declining to provide the exact number to be built.

"Australia faces the most complex, in some ways the most threatening strategic landscape that we have had since the end of the Second World War," Marles said.

"All that we are doing in terms of building a much more capable Defence Force is to deter conflict and to provide for the peace and stability of the region in which we live."

Australia aims to acquire stealthy, nuclear-powered submarines in a multi-decade 2021 AUKUS agreement with Britain and the United States.

In the United States, however, critics have questioned why Washington would sell nuclear-powered submarines to Australia without stocking its own military first.

US President Donald Trump's administration has put AUKUS under review to ensure it aligns with his "America First agenda".

Marles said he was confident that the "Ghost Shark" drones and future nuclear-powered submarines would provide a "fundamentally critical" military capability.

Last month, Australia said it would also upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, first entering service by 2030.

Billed as one of Japan's biggest defence export deals since World War II, Australia has agreed to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates.

Mogami-class warships -- advanced stealth frigates equipped with a potent array of weapons -- are to replace Australia's ageing fleet of Anzac-class vessels.

djw/oho/hmn
Human Rights Watch urges Niger to protect civilians against IS attacks



Abidjan, Sept 10 (AFP) Sep 10, 2025



Nigerien authorities must "do more to protect" civilians against deadly attacks by the Islamic State Sahel Province, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.

Niger is ruled by a military junta led by General Abdourahamane Tiani, who came to power after a coup in July 2023.

The country is facing deadly jihadist attacks on all sides -- from Boko Haram near Lake Chad in the east, and from groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group in the western Tillaberi region.

In the western area bordering Burkina Faso and Mali, which are also ensnared in jihadist violence, HRW said the Islamist militant group has "summarily executed" more than 127 villagers and Muslim worshippers during five attacks recorded since March.

One of the deadliest attacks took place in a village mosque in Manda on June 21, when the jihadists opened fire on worshippers and killed more than 70 people.

"There were bodies everywhere, one on top of the other," a 77-year-old resident who said she lost three sons in the attack told HRW.

Other testimonies recorded by the global rights monitor mention bodies -- including those of children -- riddled with bullets.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks but eyewitnesses blame Islamic State jihadists, who HRW says are identifiable by the red-banded turbans they wear.

Residents also said that targeted communities were threatened by IS fighters and accused of collaborating with the Nigerien army before each attack occurred.

According to testimonies, the army "did not adequately respond to warnings of attacks, ignoring villagers' requests for protection".

"Despite warnings of attacks, the army repeatedly fails to protect villagers," HRW said.

"Nigerien authorities need to do more to protect people living in the Tillaberi region" against "atrocities" committed by armed Islamist groups, said HRW's senior Sahel researcher Ilaria Allegrozzi.

The attacks "violated international humanitarian law and are apparent war crimes", the NGO stated, calling on authorities to "bring those responsible to account".

According to figures collected by the conflict monitoring group Acled and cited by HRW, Islamic State fighters have killed around 1,600 civilians in Niger since the military coup over two years ago.
Top EU court upholds nuclear green label



Vienna, Sept 10 (AFP) Sep 10, 2025



The EU's top court on Wednesday upheld the European Commission's decision to give a sustainable finance label to investments in natural gas and nuclear power, dismissing a complaint by Austria.

The European Commission in 2022 defied protests from green campaigners and dissent in its own ranks to give a sustainable finance label to investments in both gas and nuclear power.

The EU argued that both have a role to play as cleaner power sources during the transition to a net-zero carbon future.

But fiercely anti-nuclear Austria challenged the decision in court, with its government highlighting safety concerns and uncertainty over how to deal with nuclear waste.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) found that the commission did "not exceed" its power and "was entitled" to the view in its so-called "taxonomy".

The court "endorses the view that economic activities in the nuclear energy and fossil gas sectors can, under certain conditions, contribute substantially to climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation," it said in a statement.

Austrian climate minister Norbert Totschnig said in a statement sent to AFP that the court's decision was "very regrettable".

Austria has been fiercely anti-nuclear since an unprecedented vote by its population in 1978 prevented its only nuclear plant -- meant to be the first of several -- from starting operations in the Alpine nation of nine million people.

Environmental groups have also challenged the European Commission's definition of natural gas and nuclear as "green" energy sources.
Kidnapped Israeli-Russian academic Tsurkov released in Iraq



Baghdad, Sept 10 (AFP) Sep 10, 2025



Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and US President Donald Trump announced Tuesday the release of Israeli-Russian academic Elizabeth Tsurkov who was kidnapped in Baghdad in March 2023.

While Iraq said a "group of outlaws" kidnapped Tsurkov, Trump announced she was released by the powerful pro-Iran Kataeb Hezbollah group.

"As a culmination of extensive efforts exerted by our security services over the course of many months, we announce the release of the Russian citizen, Elizabeth Tsurkov," Sudani said on X.

Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that Tsurkov "was just released" by Kataeb Hezbollah "after being tortured for many months" and was now at the US embassy in Baghdad.

Sabah al-Numan, the military spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister, said later in a statement that "following extensive and high-level security and intelligence efforts... authorities succeeded, on September 9, in locating and reaching the site of her detention."

Tsurkov was delivered to the US embassy to "facilitate her reunion with her sister, a US citizen," he added.

The former captive's sister, Emma Tsurkov, thanked Trump, his special envoy Adam Boehler, the US embassy in Baghdad and the non-profit group Global Reach for their roles in securing the release.

"My entire family is incredibly happy. We cannot wait to see Elizabeth and give her all the love we have been waiting to share for 903 days," she posted on social media.

Tsurkov, a doctoral student at Princeton University and fellow at the Washington-based New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, went missing in Iraq in March 2023.

She had likely entered Iraq on her Russian passport and had travelled to the country as part of her doctoral studies.

Her research focused on the Levant, and she worked extensively on Syria during its civil war as well as on Iraq. She speaks English, Russian, Hebrew and Arabic.

Numan said Tsurkov was kidnapped by a "group of outlaws" without naming any party, and added that Iraq's security forces "will continue to pursue all those involved in this crime and ensure they are held accountable."



- 'Peace through strength' -



In a post on X, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed the release, saying US measures against hostage diplomacy played a key role.

"Less than a week after @POTUS (Trump) signed an executive order to strengthen efforts against hostage diplomacy, Princeton student Elizabeth Tsurkov has been released," Rubio wrote.

"This is peace through strength in action," he added, thanking Iraq's Sudani for his support.

Tsurkov was active on social media, with tens of thousands of followers on X. She describes herself as "passionate about human rights".

In Baghdad, she had focused on pro-Iran factions and the movement of Iraqi Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr as part of her research on the region.

She was abducted as she was leaving a cafe in the Iraqi capital's Karrada neighbourhood, an Iraqi intelligence source told AFP in 2023.

Israeli authorities blamed Kataeb Hezbollah for her disappearance, but the group implied that it was not involved.



- Kataeb Hezbollah? -



Kataeb Hezbollah did not claim in 2023 the abduction, but a source in the group told AFP Tuesday Tsurkov was released to spare Iraq any "conflicts".

She "was released according to conditions, the most important of which was to facilitate the withdrawal of US forces without a fight and to spare Iraq any conflicts or fighting," the source said.

"She was released and not liberated. No military operation was carried out to free her," the source added.

Like other armed groups trained by Iran during the war against the Islamic State group (IS), Kataeb Hezbollah were integrated into the regular security forces as part of the Hashed al-Shaabi or the Popular Mobilisation force (PMF).

However, the faction has developed a reputation for sometimes acting on its own.

The group and other Iran-backed Iraqi factions have been calling for the withdrawal of US troops deployed in Iraq at Baghdad's invitation as part of the anti-IS coalition.

US forces in Iraq and neighbouring Syria were repeatedly targeted by Kataeb Hezbollah and other pro-Iran groups following the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023.

They have responded with heavy strikes on Tehran-linked targets, and the attacks have halted.

The US and Iraq have announced that the anti-IS coalition would end its decade-long military mission in federal Iraq in 2025, and by September 2026 in the autonomous Kurdistan region in the country's north.

cbg-rh/dv/ser
Poland invokes NATO Article 4 for urgent talks after drone incursion



Warsaw, Sept 10 (AFP) Sep 10, 2025



Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Wednesday that the NATO member had invoked the Western defence alliance's Article 4 for urgent talks after Russian drones violated its airspace.

Tusk told parliament that Poland had identified 19 violations of its airspace overnight and shot down at least three drones, adding that no one was harmed in the "Russian action".

"The allied consultations I am referring to have now taken the form of a formal request to invoke Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty," he added.

The North Atlantic Council, NATO's main political decision-making body, met on Wednesday morning for its regular weekly meeting.

However, according to diplomats, the allies decided that the meeting would be held under Article 4 of the alliance treaty.

Under Article 4, any member can call urgent talks when it feels its "territorial integrity, political independence or security" are at risk.

The Polish case marked the eighth time the article has been invoked since the alliance was founded in 1949.

Wednesday's talks are the third time Article 4 has been invoked to address Russia's incursions into and invasion of Ukraine.

NATO's collective security is based on its Article 5 principle: if one member is attacked, the entire alliance comes to its defence.

That article has only been invoked once in the history of NATO, following the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

burs-amj/yad
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced a summit of the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children Abducted by Russia.

"And that is why I can announce that, together with Ukraine and other partners, I will hold a summit of the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children. Every abducted child must be returned," she said during her annual address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday.

In her speech, Ursula von der Leyen told the story of an 11-year-old boy, Sasha, from Mariupol, who was injured and later separated from his mother in a "filtration camp." The child was taken to occupied Donetsk, where he was able to call his grandmother Lyudmila in Ukraine and ask her to find him. She crossed Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Russia to pick up her grandson.

"There are still tens of thousands of Ukrainian children whose fate is unknown, they are trapped, under threat, forced to deny their identity. We must do everything possible to support Ukrainian children," she said.
At least 10 hurt in explosion at S. Korean military base



Seoul, Sept 10 (AFP) Sep 10, 2025



At least 10 soldiers were injured in an explosion during a live-fire simulation drill at a South Korean military base on Wednesday, the defence ministry in Seoul said.

The explosion happened at a military base in the northern border city of Paju, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement, where an artillery unit was conducting a drill simulating live-fire procedures but without real ammunition.

"At approximately 3:24 pm (0624 GMT) Wednesday, a mock training round designed to simulate artillery fire and smoke unexpectedly exploded," the statement said.

The ministry said that at least 10 soldiers were injured, including two who suffered serious burns to their arms and thighs.

Military medics provided first aid at the scene, while fire and rescue authorities sent six ambulances, according to the ministry's statement.

It did not provide any further details but said the cause of the explosion was being investigated.

The Paju base is about 50 kilometres (30 miles) northwest of Seoul, near the heavily fortified border with North Korea, where there are several South Korean military installations.

The two Koreas remain technically at war since their 1950-1953 conflict ended in an armistice and not a peace treaty.

Mandatory military service is required of all men under 30 in South Korea due to long-running tensions with the nuclear-armed North.
NATO says its air defences helped counter drones in Polish airspace



Brussels, Belgium, Sept 10 (AFP) Sep 10, 2025



NATO air defences helped counter drones that entered Polish airspace overnight and alliance chief Mark Rutte is in contact with Warsaw, a NATO spokeswoman said Wednesday.

"Numerous drones entered Polish airspace overnight and were met with Polish and NATO air defences. The NATO Secretary General is in touch with Polish leadership and NATO is consulting closely with Poland," spokeswoman Allison Hart wrote on X.

NATO's top commander in Europe, US General Alexus Grynkewich, said the alliance reacted "quickly and decisively to the situation".

A spokesman said in a statement the incident was the "first time NATO aircrafts have engaged potential threats in allied airspace".

The statement said fighters from the Netherlands' air force had responded and engaged the potential threats.

German Patriot air defence systems in Poland were placed on alert and an Italian early warning aircraft was launched.

"NATO... is committed to defending every kilometre of NATO territory, including our airspace," the statement said.
UN nuclear watchdog says new deal with Iran covers 'all facilities'



Vienna, Sept 10 (AFP) Sep 10, 2025



Iran's new cooperation framework with the UN nuclear watchdog includes "all facilities and installations in Iran", agency head Rafael Grossi said Wednesday.

Iran agreed a deal with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Tuesday, after it suspended cooperation following the war with Israel in June.

The 12-day war saw Israeli and US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, which the IAEA has not been able to access since.

Grossi said the agreed document "provides for a clear understanding of the procedures for inspections".

It "includes all facilities and installations in Iran, and it also contemplates the required reporting on all the attacked facilities, including the nuclear material present at those," Grossi told the Vienna-based agency's Board of Governors meeting.

Tehran's suspension of cooperation saw the agency's inspectors leave Iran, before a team briefly returned last month to oversee the replacement of fuel at the Bushehr nuclear power plant.

Access to nuclear sites now requires the approval of the Supreme National Security Council, and the most recent inspection was not granted access to other key sites, including Fordo and Natanz, which were hit in the June strikes.

"Iran and the agency will now resume cooperation in a respectful and comprehensive way," Grossi said, adding the "practical steps... need to be implemented now".

"There may be difficulties and issues to be resolved for sure, but we now know what we have to do," he added.

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said on Tuesday that Iran would end cooperation with the agency "in the event of any hostile action against Iran".

"I emphasise that in the event of any hostile action against Iran, including the reinstatement of lifted UN Security Council resolutions, Iran will consider these practical steps ended," he said.

In August, Britain, France and Germany initiated steps to reimpose UN sanctions after weeks of warnings, citing Iran's continued non-compliance with its commitments under a 2015 nuclear agreement.

Iran has condemned the move as "illegal" and warned that it could lead to the exclusion of the European powers from any future negotiations.

While Iran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes, Western countries accuse the government of seeking an atomic weapon -- a claim Tehran has systematically denied.
NATO condemns 'Russia's reckless behaviour' after Poland drone incursion



Brussels, Belgium, Sept 10 (AFP) Sep 10, 2025



NATO chief Mark Rutte on Wednesday slammed Moscow's "reckless behaviour" after Russian drones violated Polish airspace, and hailed the alliance's "very successful reaction" to counter the incursion.

"A full assessment is ongoing. But of course, whether it was intentional or not, it is absolutely reckless, it is absolutely dangerous," alliance chief Mark Rutte said after NATO members held emergency discussions.

Rutte said that NATO's "air defences were activated and successfully assured the defence of NATO territory, as they are designed to do".

"To Putin, I mean, my message is clear: stop the war in Ukraine, stop the escalating war, which he is now basically mounting on innocent civilians and civilian infrastructure," he added.

"Stop violating allied airspace, and know that we stand ready, that we are vigilant, and that we will defend every inch of NATO territory," he said.
Kony defence urges ICC judges to halt case



The Hague, Sept 10 (AFP) Sep 10, 2025



The main defence lawyer for Ugandan rebel chief Joseph Kony Wednesday urged International Criminal Court judges to freeze the case against his client, as he cannot challenge evidence in his absence.

Peter Haynes said he had the "paradoxical mandate" of representing Kony's interests without having any way of receiving his client's instructions.

The fugitive warlord faces 39 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, torture, enslavement and sexual slavery, allegedly committed between July 2002 and December 2005 in northern Uganda.

The three-day hearing at the ICC in The Hague is the first-ever to be held without the suspect present. Kony has not been seen in public since 2006.

It is not a trial but a so-called "confirmation of charges" hearing, where a three-judge panel decides whether the prosecution's allegations are strong enough to proceed to trial.

But in Kony's case, this is a moot point, as the ICC does not allow a full trial to take place in absentia.

Given that Kony cannot challenge the evidence presented against him, Haynes argued the court should "draw a line in the sand" and order a "conditional stay of proceedings".

He took aim at the prosecution's case that confirming charges against Kony would expedite proceedings if he were ever to be found and arrested.

"Seriously? Who does the deputy prosecutor think will arrest Joseph Kony? And where does he think he might be arrested?" he asked.

"In Uganda? By the Ugandan authorities? Well, if that happens, he ain't coming here."

Haynes noted that the high-profile case came at a sensitive time for the ICC.

The United States has slapped sanctions on the court, after judges issued arrest warrants against Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a US ally.

"Looking at the bigger picture, compromising the rights of suspects through issuing confirmation of charges decisions without any participation of those suspects should not be the future of ICC proceedings," said Haynes.

"Doing so would only give fuel to the fire of its detractors, who wish to portray this institution as illegitimate," he added.

He said the best way to safeguard the court's legitimacy would be for judges to "impose a conditional stay of proceedings at the end of this hearing which can be lifted if Joseph Kony ever appears".
Poland warns of escalation, holds NATO talks after Russian drone intrusion



Warsaw, Sept 10 (AFP) Sep 10, 2025



Poland gathered its NATO allies for urgent talks on Wednesday after Russian drones flew into Polish airspace during an attack on Ukraine, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said, warning that the situation was inching closer to "open conflict".

Poland's airspace was violated 19 times, Tusk said, and at least three drones were shot down after Warsaw and its allies scrambled jets -- but authorities said nobody was harmed.

Footage posted by local media showed firefighters and police in the village of Wyryki, eastern Poland, inspecting a house with its roof ripped open and debris littered nearby following an impact from a drone.

Russian drones and missiles have entered the airspace of NATO members including Poland several times during Russia's three-and-a-half-year war, but a NATO country has never attempted to shoot them down.

Tusk said he had invoked NATO's Article 4 under which any member can call urgent talks when it feels its "territorial integrity, political independence or security" are at risk -- only the eighth time the measure has ever been used.

"This situation... brings us closer than ever to open conflict since World War II," Tusk told parliament, but added there was "no reason today to claim that we are in a state of war".

The incident came as Russia unleashed a barrage of strikes across Ukraine including in the western city of Lviv, less than two hours' drive from the Polish border.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the airspace violation was a "dangerous precedent" for Europe and "no accident", and urged a strong response from Kyiv's Western allies.

Poland's interior ministry said a house and a car had been damaged overnight, adding that seven drones and debris from an unknown projectile had so far been located.

The North Atlantic Council, NATO's main political decision-making body, changed the format of its weekly meeting on Wednesday to hold it under Article 4 of the treaty.

A cornerstone of the Western military alliance is the principle that an attack on any member is deemed an attack on all.

NATO chief Mark Rutte hailed his organisation's "very successful reaction", telling journalists the alliance's air defences had done their job.

He slammed Moscow's "reckless behaviour" and called on Putin to halt a war that he said was now being waged on civilians.

Russia's defence ministry denied targeting Poland, saying they were ready to talk with Warsaw.

"There were no intentions to engage any targets on the territory of Poland," the ministry said in a statement in English, without confirming or denying that its drones had entered Polish airspace.

- 'Act of aggression' -



Russia's top diplomat in Poland, Andrei Ordash, told RIA Novosti earlier on Wednesday he had been summoned to the foreign ministry for a meeting.

The operational command of Poland's military said the airspace violations were "unprecedented" and called it "an act of aggression".

As European capitals rushed out condemnations, several portrayed the incident as Russia testing Ukraine's allies.

"What he wants to do is to test us," said EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas. "And every time he's bolder, because he's able to be bolder because our response hasn't been strong enough."

A senior NATO diplomat, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the response from NATO would probably be "shifting a few extra assets" to Poland or elsewhere in the east, and pushing a "tough line" from the NATO secretary general.

Polish authorities had temporarily closed the airspace over part of the country following the incident.

The intrusion came just days before the Zapad-2025 military drills, due on September 12-16 in Belarus and Russia, both Polish neighbours.

Tusk said on Wednesday "critical days related to the Belarusian-Russian maneuvers are ahead of us". On Tuesday, Warsaw announced closing its few remaining border crossings with Belarus over the drills.

Poland, a major supporter of Ukraine, hosts over a million Ukrainian refugees and is a key transit point for Western humanitarian and military aid to the war-torn country.

burs-mmp/amj/jxb
Tehran must give access to nuclear inspectors 'as soon as possible': French diplomat to AFP



Paris, Sept 10 (AFP) Sep 10, 2025



Iran must give access to UN nuclear inspectors "as soon as possible", a senior French diplomat told AFP on Wednesday, following an agreement between the two sides to resume cooperation.

"It is crucial that the IAEA be able to resume its monitoring and verification activities as soon as possible so that the international community can receive assurances about the nature of Iran's nuclear programme," said the diplomat, asking not to be named.

"It is actions on the ground that will be decisive," they said, referring to a decision to reimpose sanctions on Iran.

"Iran must immediately implement measures requested by the IAEA."

Iran agreed a deal with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Tuesday, after it suspended cooperation following a 12-day war with Israel in June.

Israel and the US launched strikes in June on Iranian nuclear facilities, which the IAEA has not been able to access since.

Iran, which criticised the IAEA for failing to condemn those strikes, has said future cooperation with the agency would take "a new form".

In an interview aired Wednesday Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran was withholding access to UN nuclear inspectors despite the deal. The agreement itself does not create any access, he added.

Western countries accuse Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons -- something Tehran denies, defending its right to what it insists is a civilian nuclear program.

In late August, France, Germany and the UK triggered a mechanism to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran for failing to comply with commitments over its nuclear programme signed a decade ago.

They gave Iran a month to negotiate before sanctions were reimposed.
Mozambique forces killed 16 fishermen: conflict monitor



Johannesburg, Sept 10 (AFP) Sep 10, 2025



Conflict monitoring group ACLED said Wednesday its sources in Mozambique reported that troops shot and killed at least 16 fishermen in an area where they are chasing Islamist insurgents.

The incident off the northern Cabo Delgado province on Monday was reported separately by a local news platform but denied by a government spokesman.

ACLED, an independent global group that gets information from networks of local sources, told AFP that the fishing community was targeted while camped on the tiny Rolas islet, about eight kilometres (five miles) off the coast.

"Some patrol boats used by FADM (Mozambique Defence Armed Forces) approached the island from Ibo island where they're based ... and apparently came on shore and opened fire on them," ACLED analyst Peter Bofin told AFP.

The independent monitor knew of "at least 16 fatalities," he said.

Mozambican forces deployed in Cabo Delgado to stem a deadly Islamic State-linked insurgency have already been accused of violence against civilians in their operations.

Mozambique defence ministry spokesman Benjamim Chabualo denied the latest claim, telling AFP, "It is not true that the armed forces killed fishermen."

"The armed forces cannot attack fishermen, nor do they do so," he said. "They are there to protect."

ACLED reported at least three similar incidents in July and August in the same area, where jihadist insurgents have a strong presence, Bofin said.

In one, five people were killed on August 22 when "soldiers on a FADM naval vessel opened fire on two civilian vessels near Pequeue in Macomia", ACLED's report said. The FADM denied involvement.

"We are seeing in recent weeks a pattern of essentially any boats at sea being attacked by part of the navy off the Macomia coast on the assumption that they are insurgents," Bofin told AFP.

"But the communities that are living on the coast are maritime communities that get around by boat."

Insurgent attacks have recently picked up in Cabo Delgado, where construction on a multibillion-dollar liquefied natural gas project operated by French energy giant TotalEnergies has been stalled since a deadly assault in 2021.

jcb/br/giv
Germany condemns 'reckless' Russian drones in Poland



Berlin, Sept 10 (AFP) Sep 10, 2025



German Chancellor Friedrich Merz condemned Russia on Wednesday for sending drones into NATO member Poland in a "reckless action" that he said had threatened lives.

"Russia has endangered human lives in a state that is a member of NATO and the EU," Merz said in a statement.

"This reckless action is part of a long chain of provocations in the Baltic Sea region and on NATO's eastern flank. The German government condemns this aggressive Russian action in the strongest possible terms."

Government spokesman Sebastian Hille earlier said Moscow was "testing" Ukraine's allies with the violation of Polish airspace, which he called a "very serious" incident.

Hille said it "once again shows the threat that we face" and how much Germany and other NATO countries "are being tested by Russia".

Defence Minister Boris Pistorius told parliament the drones were "clearly set on this course" and "did not have to fly this route to reach Ukraine".

"There is absolutely no reason to believe that this was a course correction error or anything of the sort," Pistorius said.

According to Polish sources, the drones were "suitably armed", Pistorius said. "So something could have happened at any time."

Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Russia had "carelessly risked a dangerous escalation" with drones entering Polish airspace "on a significant scale".

He added: "Russia must know that NATO is capable of action and that it will react to defend NATO territory."

Poland was gathering its NATO allies for urgent talks Wednesday after the Russian drones flew into its airspace during an overnight attack on Ukraine.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he had invoked NATO's Article 4 under which a member can call urgent talks when it feels its "territorial integrity, political independence or security" are at risk.

Pistorius said Germany was cooperating with Poland in the form of consultations under Article 4, saying: "We support this approach, which we consider to be correct."
Israel launches deadly strike on Yemen rebel media arm



Sanaa, Sept 10 (AFP) Sep 10, 2025



Israeli air strikes hit the media operation of Yemen's Huthi rebels on Wednesday, killing and wounding an unspecified number of people, the group said.

A large plume of grey smoke billowed above Sanaa as the sound of strikes echoed across the city, controlled by the Iran-backed Huthis for more than a decade.

"Martyrs, wounded, and several homes damaged as a result of the Israeli attack on the Moral Guidance Headquarters," the rebels' Al-Masirah TV reported.

The Israeli military said it struck Huthi rebel targets in Yemen, including in Sanaa, in the latest of a series of attacks during the Gaza war.

"A short while ago, the IAF (Israeli air force) struck military targets belonging to the Huthi terrorist regime in the areas of Sanaa and Al-Jawf in Yemen," an Israeli military statement said.

It said the targets included "military camps in which operatives of the terrorist regime were identified, the Huthi's military public relations headquarters and a fuel storage facility that was used by the terrorist regime".

The Huthis said they were fighting back with air defences.

"Our air defences are currently confronting Israeli aircraft that are launching an aggression against our country," said Huthi military spokesman Yahya Saree on his Telegram channel.

Two AFP journalists said a building used by the armed forces was hit.

Al-Masirah also reported Israeli strikes on government buildings in Al-Jawf, a northern province bordering Saudi Arabia.

The latest attack comes days after a drone launched from Yemen wounded a man when it struck Ramon airport in southern Israel.

Last month, Israeli strikes killed the Huthi prime minister and 11 other senior officials -- the most high-ranking assassinations since Israel and the Huthis began exchanging fire over the Gaza war.

Since the Gaza war erupted in October 2023, the Huthis have launched repeated drone and missile attacks against Israel claiming solidarity with the Palestinians.

In response, Israel has carried out repeated rounds of retaliatory strikes in Yemen, targeting ports, power stations and the international airport in Sanaa.
We are working on the 19th package of sanctions against Russia  EC President

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced that she is working on the next sanctions package against Russia in close coordination with partners.

"We are currently working on the 19th package in coordination with partners. We are particularly focused on accelerating the transition away from Russian fossil fuels. We are paying attention to the shadow fleet and third countries," she said during her annual address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday.
Germany condemns 'reckless' Russia for drones in Poland



Berlin, Sept 10 (AFP) Sep 10, 2025



German Chancellor Friedrich Merz condemned Russia on Wednesday for sending drones into NATO member Poland in a "reckless action" that he said had threatened lives.

"Russia has endangered human lives in a state that is a member of NATO and the EU," Merz said in a statement.

"This reckless action is part of a long chain of provocations in the Baltic Sea region and on NATO's eastern flank. The German government condemns this aggressive Russian action in the strongest possible terms."

Later, Merz said he had spoken on the phone with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and that he shared his view that "this is a very serious threat to peace throughout Europe".

"This is a new level of attacks that we are seeing from Russia," Merz said at a press conference in Berlin.

"The Russian government's claim that this was... an accident or mistake is not credible."

Government spokesman Sebastian Hille earlier said Moscow was "testing" Ukraine's allies with the violation of Polish airspace, which he called a "very serious" incident.

Hille said it "once again shows the threat that we face" and how much Germany and other NATO countries "are being tested by Russia".

Defence Minister Boris Pistorius told parliament the drones were "clearly set on this course" and "did not have to fly this route to reach Ukraine".

"There is absolutely no reason to believe that this was a course correction error or anything of the sort," Pistorius said.

According to Polish sources, the drones were "suitably armed", the defence minister added. "So something could have happened at any time."

Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Russia had "carelessly risked a dangerous escalation" with drones entering Polish airspace "on a significant scale".

He added: "Russia must know that NATO is capable of action and that it will react to defend NATO territory."

Poland was gathering its NATO allies for urgent talks Wednesday after the Russian drones flew into its airspace during an overnight attack on Ukraine.

Tusk said he had invoked NATO's Article 4 under which a member can call urgent talks when it feels its "territorial integrity, political independence or security" are at risk.

Pistorius said Germany was cooperating with Poland in the form of consultations under Article 4, saying: "We support this approach, which we consider to be correct."
Union to vote on deal to end strike at Boeing defense branch



New York, Sept 10 (AFP) Sep 10, 2025



Labor leaders reached a tentative agreement with Boeing that could resolve a strike in the aviation giant's defense business, the union announced Wednesday.

Some 3,200 workers in Missouri and Illinois are set to vote Friday on a preliminary agreement that includes wage increases, said a press release from the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Union.

Boeing confirmed the development and expressed hope that striking workers would accept the deal.

"We've found a path forward on a 5-year contract offer that grows wages by 45% on average," said Boeing vice president Dan Gillian. "It remains the best deal we've ever offered to IAM 837 and we encourage our team to vote yes so we can get back to work building amazing products for our customers."

Workers walked off the job on August 4 after voting down an earlier contract offer. Boeing announced last week that it was launching a recruitment drive to find "permanent" manufacturing workers to replace the striking employees.

IAM is one of North America's largest unions, representing some 600,000 members in aerospace, defense, shipbuilding, transportation, health care, manufacturing and other industries.

Products produced at Boeing's St. Louis operation include the F-15 and F-18 combat aircraft, the T-7 Red Hawk Advanced Pilot Training System and the MQ-25 unmanned aircraft. The site was originally part of the McDonnell Douglas company, which Boeing acquired in 1997.

The strike comes on the heels of a much larger stoppage in Boeing's commercial aviation business involving some 33,000 workers who halted production at Pacific Northwest factories for more than seven weeks.
US approves $1 bn missile sale to Finland



Washington, Sept 10 (AFP) Sep 10, 2025



The United States on Wednesday announced the approval of a $1.07 billion sale of advanced air-to-air missiles and related equipment to NATO ally Finland, which shares a long border with Russia.

"The proposed sale will improve Finland's capability to meet current and future threats and enhance its interoperability with US and other allied forces," the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said in a statement.

It will also "support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a NATO ally that is a force for political stability and economic progress in Europe," DSCA said.

The State Department approved the possible sale of the missiles to Finland and the DSCA provided the required notification to the US Congress, which still needs to sign off on the transaction.

Finland along with Sweden abandoned decades of military non-alignment and joined NATO in the wake of Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
Kidnapped academic Tsurkov in Israel after release from Iraq



Baghdad, Sept 10 (AFP) Sep 10, 2025



Israeli-Russian academic Elizabeth Tsurkov arrived in Israel on Monday, a day after she was released more than two years after her kidnapping in Baghdad.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced the release of Tsurkov, who had been held hostage since March 2023.

"Elizabeth Tsurkov, who had been held hostage in Iraq and was released last night, has landed in Israel," said a joint statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office and the Mossad intelligence service.

The statement added that she had transited through Cyprus, while Israeli media said she would be taken to Sheba Hospital near Tel Aviv.

While Iraq said "outlaws" kidnapped Tsurkov, Trump announced she was released by the powerful pro-Iran Kataeb Hezbollah group.

Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that Tsurkov "was just released" by Kataeb Hezbollah "after being tortured for many months", and had arrived at the US embassy in Baghdad.

Sabah al-Numan, the military spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister, said later in a statement that "following extensive and high-level security and intelligence efforts... authorities succeeded, on September 9, in locating and reaching the site of her detention."

Tsurkov was delivered to the US embassy to "facilitate her reunion with her sister, a US citizen," he added.

The former captive's sister, Emma Tsurkov, thanked Trump, his special envoy Adam Boehler, the US embassy in Baghdad and the non-profit group Global Reach for their roles in securing the release.

"My entire family is incredibly happy. We cannot wait to see Elizabeth and give her all the love we have been waiting to share for 903 days," she posted on social media.

Tsurkov, a doctoral student at Princeton University and fellow at the Washington-based New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, went missing in Iraq in March 2023.

She had likely entered Iraq on her Russian passport and had travelled to the country as part of her doctoral studies.

Her research focused on the Levant, and she worked extensively on Syria during its civil war as well as on Iraq. She speaks English, Russian, Hebrew and Arabic.

Numan said Tsurkov was kidnapped by a "group of outlaws" without naming any party, and added that Iraq's security forces "will continue to pursue all those involved in this crime and ensure they are held accountable."



- 'Peace through strength' -



In a post on X, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed the release, saying US measures against hostage diplomacy played a key role.

"Less than a week after @POTUS (Trump) signed an executive order to strengthen efforts against hostage diplomacy, Princeton student Elizabeth Tsurkov has been released," Rubio wrote.

"This is peace through strength in action," he added, thanking Iraq's Sudani for his support.

Tsurkov was active on social media, with tens of thousands of followers on X. She describes herself as "passionate about human rights".

In Baghdad, she had focused on pro-Iran factions and the movement of Iraqi Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr as part of her research on the region.

She was abducted as she was leaving a cafe in the Iraqi capital's Karrada neighbourhood, an Iraqi intelligence source told AFP in 2023.

Israeli authorities blamed Kataeb Hezbollah for her disappearance, but the group implied that it was not involved.



- Kataeb Hezbollah? -



In 2023 Kataeb Hezbollah did not claim the abduction, but a source in the group told AFP Tuesday Tsurkov was released to spare Iraq any "conflicts".

She "was released according to conditions, the most important of which was to facilitate the withdrawal of US forces without a fight and to spare Iraq any conflicts or fighting", the source said.

"She was released and not liberated. No military operation was carried out to free her," the source added.

Like other armed groups trained by Iran during the war against the Islamic State group (IS), Kataeb Hezbollah was integrated into the regular security forces as part of the Hashed al-Shaabi or the Popular Mobilisation Force (PMF).

However, the faction has developed a reputation for sometimes acting on its own.

The group and other Iran-backed Iraqi factions have been calling for the withdrawal of US troops deployed in Iraq at Baghdad's invitation as part of the anti-IS coalition.

US forces in Iraq and neighbouring Syria were repeatedly targeted by Kataeb Hezbollah and other pro-Iran groups following the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023.

They have responded with heavy strikes on Tehran-linked targets, and the attacks have halted.

The US and Iraq have announced that the anti-IS coalition would end its decade-long military mission in federal Iraq in 2025, and by September 2026 in the autonomous Kurdistan region in the country's north.

cbg-rh/dv/ser/sbk
Photo: Website of the President of Ukraine

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, speaking before the Sejm, announced that after agreement with the country's President Karol Nawrocki, Poland will invoke Article 4 of NATO, demanding formal consultations within the alliance.

"The shooting down of drones that threaten our security is a success for Polish and NATO forces, which also changes the political situation. Therefore, the consultations of the allies have taken the form of a formal request to activate Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty," he said.

Tusk said that while he appreciated all the expressions of solidarity, "words are not enough" and Poland would demand "much more" support from its NATO allies.

The prime minister also warned that yesterday's violations were only part of a wider security picture, with Russia and Belarus set to hold "aggressive" military exercises later this week.

"There is no reason to say that we are at war... but the situation is much more dangerous than ever before," Tusk said, adding that the prospect of a major military conflict was "closer than at any time since World War II."
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More recently, he mentioned his wish to bring British food over to the States in a GQ interview this July. Obviously, growing up in England, fish and chips, pie and mash, beans on toast, those were my go-tos, Beckham said. At some point I would love to try and bring British culture and British food to the US. Well see.
Danish babies cry less than those in any other country (true) and it might just be because their capital city caters for their every need. Almost everywhere has a clean, functioning baby change and is accessible for prams - if its not, you can safely leave yours outside and not worry about it being pinched (imagine parking your YoYo outside a bar in London and expecting to see it again). The low crime rate makes it one of the safest cities in the world, ideal for parents with a little one and a mountain of their stuff in tow.
She said: This, sir, is an issue of concern to many in the patient group who have become aware down through the many years that their medical records may be incomplete, or that they may even have been falsified.
Defend Our Juries, which has organised marches against the banning of Palestine Action, said: As Banksys artwork shows, the state can try to strip away our civil liberties, but we are too many in number and our resolve to stand against injustice cannot be beaten.
For this reason, we believe that a strenuous and binding condition needs to be baked into the consent for this scheme at Customs House, the RRG wrote. This is not just to ensure that the public realm is protected from self-generated overdevelopment but also to make sure it is protected from consequent and parasitic uses arising from the space being perceived as a drinking area.
"In law the PRC's assurances are meaningless," he added. "The PRC would be free in domestic and international law to U-turn on them at any time and there is nothing that planning conditions could do to stop this."
EU allocates about EUR170 bln in military, financial aid to Ukraine since 2022

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has called for increased support for Ukraine, on top of the nearly 170 billion in military and financial aid since Russia's full-scale invasion began.

"And at the same time, we need more support for Ukraine. Nobody has done as much as Europe. It is currently around EUR 170 billion in military and financial aid," she said during her annual address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday.

Ursula von der Leyen added that "even more will be needed."
He said: Its important to act at an EU level, that is the way you maximise the impact, to end the violence, end the killing of civilians and the famine, release the hostages, and see a surge in humanitarian aid.
He said: Last night Putin took this aggression to a new level of hostility. A violation of Polish airspace deep enough for Warsaw airport to be closed and Nato jets forced directly to shoot down Russias drones while, of course, the attacks on Ukraine continue to intensify.
We have to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position to go into any talks, and we have to work together to put pressure on Putin to do what he says. And what he says is he wants to talk.
But the point he raised is a very serious one. We all want an outcome that ensures peace, that the hostages get out, that aid gets in under a two-state outcome. It is the only way we will get peace in a region that has suffered conflict for a very, very long time.
The UK Government has stopped short of accusing Israel of genocide, saying it has not concluded that Benjamin Netanyahus government is acting with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, the legal definition for the crime.
Asked by an audience member why the Royal Navy is not being deployed to deal with the small boats crossings and help send the migrants back to northern France, Mr Tapp said the issue was complex and that the UK would need permission to be in French territory.
Speaking to reporters, Mr Martin said: I will be updating Cabinet in terms of the four meetings I had over August in respect of the coalition of the willing, and in terms of Ukraine and the need to do everything we possibly can to continue to support Ukraine.
Violations of Polish airspace recorded, four drones likely shot down - Tusk on Russian attack

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told the Sejm that 19 violations of Polish airspace were recorded overnight Wednesday, with four drones likely shot down.

He said the first violation of Polish airspace occurred at around 00:30 (Kyiv time) on Tuesday, while the last was recorded at 7:30 this morning. "This gives an idea of the scale of this operation," Tusk added.

Tusk said the Polish army had decided to step up its response to Russian attacks on Ukraine for the first time just after 23:00 Kyiv time.

Preliminary reports indicate 19 violations of airspace, with a significant number of drones crossing Poland's border with Belarus. Three drones have been confirmed shot down, and a fourth is also believed to have been shot down. Authorities are working to verify and finally confirm these figures, Tusk said.

As reported, Tusk, at an emergency meeting of the Council of Ministers, convened after the incursion of Russian drones into the country's airspace, stated that the Polish armed forces "are ready to repel such provocations and attacks." Earlier, Tusk confirmed that the UAVs were of Russian origin.
In Cold Blood is widely considered the greatest true crime novel of all time, despite being an inexplicable literary detour at the time of its release from the author of Breakfast at Tiffanys, the famed Truman Capote.

Blending a high literary writing style imbued with emotional poeticism with the clinical documentation of evidence and transcriptions of Capotes own meetings with the killers in question utterly transformed the way in which true crime was written for years to come.
So I would like to from the heart just like to embolden and invite everyone in this room that when they are faced with an opportunity to extend the scope of humanity to those places where it's not been extended - to places like Sudan, to places like Gaza - to speak on politicians and story spinners who are really trying to divide us and to try shrink the scope on what it is to be human.
True to this, the log line of the documentary reads: Her Posh Spice days may be behind her, but today Beckham is on a journey to build a fashion empire  and now, fans will be able to see the story behind it all.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for work on a new solution to finance Ukraine's defense at the expense of frozen Russian assets.

"This is Russia's war. And it is Russia that should pay. This is why we need to work urgently on a new solution to finance Ukraine's war effort on the basis of the immobilised Russian assets. With the cash balances associated to these Russian assets, we can provide Ukraine with a Reparations Loan," von der Leyen said during her annual address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday.

The EC President added that the assets would not be directly touched and the risk would be "carried collectively" by countries.

"Ukraine will only pay back the loan once Russia pays for the reparations," von der Leyen said.
Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel performs at the Capitol on HAAM Day on Sept. 24, 2024. During HAAM Day, local musicians perform all over town to raise money for the nonprofit HAAM which provides affordable health care for musicians. Jay Janner/American-Statesman

Just like the colorful leaves that will soon blanket the ground, fall in Austin comes scattered with music festivals. While everyone in town is hyped for Austin City Limits Music Festival, we cant forget about the music moments this season that will support nonprofit organizations in our city and beyond. If youre looking for a noble reason to jam out at a concert, youre in luck. From a Beastie Boys collaborator to a member of Run The Jewels, here are eight upcoming concerts that will donate profits to worthwhile causes.

Ben Kweller performs at Austin City Limits Music Festival in 2023. Briana Sanchez / American-Statesman

Sept. 10: SIMS Foundation 30th anniversary at Assembly Hall

Music for the Mind is celebrating SIMS Foundations 30th anniversary by honoring a beloved champion of the Austin music scene. Steve Wertheimer, longtime owner of the Continental Club and C-Boys Heart and Soul, will receive the foundations inaugural Sims Ellison Impact Award. The award is named after the songwriter and bassist of the Austin band Pariah who died by suicide in 1995. His friends and family started the SIMS Foundation later that same year.

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Three decades later, Music for the Mind will gather 200 of Austins most influential musicians, industry leaders, creatives and philanthropists for an intimate three-course seated dinner, open bar, silent auction and performances from local musicians Ben Kweller and BROSFRESH. Some tickets may still be available for this milestone in Austin music philanthropy.

Old Dominion and Megan Moroney perform at the CMT Awards concert in front of the University of Texas Tower on Wednesday, April 3, 2024. Mikala Compton/American-Statesman

Sept. 11: Stand Together and Red River Rising Benefit Concert at Moody Center

National philanthropic community Stand Together is partnering with Austin community outreach platform Red River Rising for their second annual benefit concert supporting the Travis Manion Foundation on the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks. The concert features country music group Old Dominion, Austin native Ty Meyers and special guest John Morgan. Last year, the nonprofit raised $45,000 for Mobile Loaves and Fishes at their inaugural benefit concert featuring Alabama.

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All proceeds from this year's show will be donated to the Travis Manion Foundation (TMF), a national organization that empowers veterans and families of fallen service members after their military tenure. Aligned with the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America, TMF highlights the sobering number of military personnel who die by suicide every day and the need for proactive community support for veterans following active duty. In addition to the concert, TMF is hosting their annual Heroes Run at Camp Mabry on Sept. 14.

Info: All ages, $50 and up, moodycenteratx.com.

Michael Render, known as Killer Mike, during his South by Southwest Keynote on March 15, 2023. Sara Diggins/American-Statesman

Sept. 12: 4DAWA Fest at Radio/East

DAWA (Diversity and Wellness in Action) is celebrating its sixth anniversary with a special concert featuring Killer Mike & the Mighty Midnight Revival, David Shabai & the Nu Leopards, Anastasia Hera and more. All proceeds will benefit DAWA, a local nonprofit started by Riders Against the Storm's Jonathan Chaka Mahone in 2019. The group's goal is to support and uplift Austins communities of color through health programs and financial assistance. This year, the City of Austin is declaring Sept. 11 DAWA Day.

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DAWA's programs include financial backing for community leaders through the DAWA Fund, grassroots organization support with Vision:8291, a no-cost media production space DAWA Studios and the Black Live Music Fund. Since its inception, DAWA has distributed over $530,000 to artists and healers across Austin.

Info: All ages, $55 and up, dice.fm.

Travis Heights Elementary on Aug. 9, 2021. Aaron E. Martinez/American-Statesman

Sept. 20: Grahams Give Back presents GrahamStock

In 2022, Austin musicians Graham Weber and Graham Wilkinson started Grahams Give Back, a concert series that benefits local nonprofit organizations including DAWA, SIMS Foundation, HAAM, the Other Ones Foundation and Free Lunch. This years GrahamStock is raising money for Travis Heights Elementary, one of Austins most ethnically diverse schools with more than 62% of the student body identifying as economically disadvantaged.

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The show will culminate in a star-studded lineup of Austin musicians playing a tribute to Wilcos debut album A.M. on the 30th anniversary of its release. Performances from S.L. Houser, Jane Leo, Restos, Macy Todd, Pecan Street Preachers, Taylor Rae and more will be spread across two stages throughout the day.

Nakia, with Travis Deardorff on guitar, performs at the Lake Austin H-E-B for HAAM Day Sept. 24, 2024. Jay Janner/American-Statesman

Sept. 23: 20th anniversary HAAM Day Music Festival

Health Alliance for Austin Musicians (HAAM) is celebrating the 20th anniversary of HAAM Day, the organizations biggest fundraiser of the year. The day-long, multi-venue festival will be packed with over 250 free, family-friendly performances by local musicians across Austin, all open to the public. Founded in 2005, HAAM has provided essential health services  such as dental care, eye exams, counseling sessions and more  to low-income, working musicians across the Austin area. In 2024, HAAM Day raised over $850,000 for Central Texas musicians.

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This year, HAAM Day will kick off at the new H-E-B Plus! location on South Congress Avenue, which will be hosting music from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Organizers have made an interactive map to help music lovers navigate where to eat, drink and see music around town on Sept. 23. Programming will be extended to new stages in Lockhart and Round Rock, and will also feature a performance from Gina Chavez on the south steps of the Texas State Capitol.

Heartless Bastards performs at the SXSW Outdoor Stage at Lady Bird Lake at South by Southwest on March 17, 2022. Jay Janner / American-Statesman

Sept. 26-Dec. 5: The Next Stage at Central Machine Works

For the next three months, Central Machine Works and Resound Presents are presenting a free concert series to celebrate the construction of the brewerys new stage. The Next Stage will benefit eight local nonprofits: Colorado River Alliance, ATX Free Fridge Project, Central Texas Food Bank, Good Work Austin, Save Our Springs, Austin Parks Foundation, Austin Powwow and KUTX 98.9. Participating acts include Adrian Quesadas Trio Asesino, Grupo Fantasma, Briscoe, Heartless Bastards, Rattlesnake Milk, Wild Child and more. The final two dates will feature special guests yet to be announced, so follow Central Machine Works' social media for updates.

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Michael Angelakos of Passion Pit performs at the Austin City Limits Music Festival at Zilker Park on Oct. 5, 2013. Jay Janner/American-Statesman

Oct. 8: Party for the Parks at Zilker Park

Austin Parks Foundations annual fundraiser Party for the Parks is back at Zilker Park on the Wednesday between Weekend 1 and Weekend 2 of the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Passion Pit will be playing the Tito's stage this year to raise funds for the nearly 400 parks, trails and green spaces throughout Austin. Tickets for Party for the Parks include access to an open bar, shuttle service, Tacodeli catering and more evening activities.

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Since the Austin Parks Foundation is ACL Fests main beneficiary, a portion of every ticket sold supports parks across the Austin area. In 2024, the festival generated $8.4 million toward park improvements and brought its total contributions to more than $71 million over the last 20 years.

TC Superstar performs during South by Southwest at Lustre Pearl on Rainey Street on Thursday, March 17, 2022. Mikala Compton/American-Statesman

Nov. 8: Been There 4 Fest at Radio/East

Mix Master Mike, the former Beastie Boys tour DJ, is coming to Austin for Been There 4 Fest, an annual music festival raising money to support unhoused communities. Been There is a nonprofit that hosts creative projects and events to get community members involved in social causes. The day will also include performances by Ben Kweller, Grandmaster, DeadEye (a Grateful Dead tribute band), Panic Stricken, TC Superstar, Benji Hughes, Ruby Jane and more.

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Proceeds from the event will be shared among Been There and three other service organizations: Sunrise Navigation Center, the Other Ones Foundation and Caritas of Austin. Past events from the organization have raised over $3 million. Ticket prices come with a minimum donation, but you can always give more with your purchase.
Members of "Mexicanas en Austin" celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month in 2020 with a car parade in downtown Austin. Stephen Spillman for the American-Statesman

The second annual Juntos Festival is taking place this Sunday at Fair Market in East Austin, bringing together food, music and art to celebrate Latino culture in Texas.

Organized by Austin-based Siete Family Foods, the free event coincides with the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month, a national observance recognizing the histories and contributions of Hispanic and Latino communities across the United States.

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When is Hispanic Heritage Month?

Attendee Laura Cavazos, in Dia de los Muertos makeup, listens to speakers during the Alma y Corazon Ceremony in the Oakwood Cemetery chapel on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023 in Austin. Aaron E. Martinez/American-Statesman

Hispanic Heritage Month begins each year on Sept. 15, a date chosen to coincide with the independence anniversaries of several Latin American countries, including Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Mexico and Chile also celebrate their independence days in the same week.

Cuantos Tacos, an Austin food truck specializing in Mexico City-style tacos, was named the Best Taco Spot in Texas by Yelp in 2024. The taqueria will be serving food at Juntos Festival. Courtesy of Shelby P./Yelp

The observance originated in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon B. Johnson and was expanded to a month-long celebration in 1988. Today, it recognizes the cultural and economic impact of more than 63 million Latinos living in the U.S.  a group that represents nearly one in five Americans.

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The month carries particular resonance in Texas, where Latino communities have shaped the states foodways, music, politics and daily life for centuries. In Austin, that influence can be seen in everything from the murals on East Cesar Chavez Street to the rhythms of conjunto and cumbia that animate local dance floors.

What to expect at Juntos Festival 2025?

Pork burrito at Mercado Sin Nombre. The acclaimed alleyway cafe will pop-up at Juntos Festival. MATTHEW ODAM/AMERICAN-STATESMAN

This years festival will run from noon to 6 p.m. and feature food from Mercado Sin Nombre, Cuantos Tacos, La Mapachita Tamaleria and La Plancha. The program also includes an autograph session with Austin FC players CJ Fodrey and Riley Thomas, a performance by local band the Tiarras and childrens activities hosted by the Thinkery.

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For many of the festivals organizers and participants, Juntos is as much about unity as it is about celebration. By gathering artists, musicians, food vendors and families under one roof, the event reflects both the diversity and the interconnectedness of Latino culture in Austin.

Other events happening in Austin for Hispanic Heritage Month

La Pena Gallery showcases the work of Latino artists. The gallery's current exhibit, 'The Photography of Gilberto Cardenas,' opens on Sept. 20. Austin American-Statesman

Sept.: 'The Photography of Gilberto Cardenas' at La Pena Gallery

A month-long exhibit (through Sept. 30), showcasing the work of Gilberto Cardenas, a scholar and collector who chronicles Mexican American life through striking photography. The opening reception takes place Sept. 20 from 6 to 8 p.m. Entry is free to the exhibit.

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227 Congress Ave. lapena-austin.org. 512-477-6007.

Balthvs poses for a portrait inside the Austin American-Statesman tent at Austin City Limits Music Festival Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, in Zilker Park. Dave Creaney/Special to American-Statesman

Sept. 17: BALTHVS Concert at the Historic Scoot Inn

Colombian trio BALTHVS will fill the venue with hypnotic funk, psychedelic grooves, and global rhythms. Doors at 5 p.m. Tickets begin at $31 on TicketMaster.

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1308 E. Fourth St. scootinnaustin.com. 512-777-0873.

Sept. 17 - Oct. 15: Latino Art MNTH at The Cathedral

The multi-week series features a group exhibition of 12 Latino visual artists and events that include music, dance, film and community engagement. The exhibit is presented by The Cathedral and OfColor. Admission varies by day and a full list of events can be found on EventBrite.

2403 E. 16th St. thecathedralatx.com. 512-220-4108.

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Sept. 20: Los Caminos de la Vida: Fashion Runway at dadaLab

A Latino-led fashion showcase celebrating cultural expression and creativity on the runway. Show at 7 p.m. Tickets start at $28.52 on EventBrite and include complimentary beverages while supplies last. This is a 21+ event.

2008 Alexander Ave. facebook.com/MUSICARTSOULCULTURA.

La Mexicana Bakery served up Mexican treats on South First Street in Austin for over 30 years. BRIANA SANCHEZ/AMERICAN-STATESMAN

Sept. - Oct. : Roots of Pan Dulce at the French Legation State Historic Site

The event pairs the aroma of conchas and pink cakes from Joes Bakery with an archival audio installation that explores Mexican American baking traditions. Entry is free with museum admission. Guests can experience the event on Sept. 30, and Oct. 1-3, from 11 a.m. to 4: 15 p.m. A related program, A Taste of History: Pan Dulce, will follow on Oct. 4.

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Crispy chili prawns at Lao'd Bar on Thursday, June 27, 2024. Mikala Compton/American-Statesman

The New York Times released the 2025 version of its Top 50 restaurants in America list, and the collection  which features everything from counter-service spots to fine dining establishments across the country  includes two casual Asian eateries in Austin.

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Chef-owner Bob Somsith's Lao'd Bar is located next to Sign Bar in a sprawling complex in far East Austin and has the feel of a Southeast Asian night market. The open-air space from the chef who originally opened his food business as the SXSE food truck features bold and aggressive flavors from Southeast Asia, blended with some inspiration from the United States, where the chef was raised.

The Times' Priya Krishna praised Lao'd Bar's ribeye lahb, papaya salad and smash burger, along with the convivial vibe of the unique offering.

"Mr. Somsith has created a restaurant that feels more like a house party, with garage doors, string lights and colorful tablecloths  and where one frozen guava cocktail may easily give way to more," Krishna writes.

#7: Khao moo dang at P Thai's Khao Man Gai and Noodles. MATTHEW ODAM/AMERICAN-STATESMAN

P Thai's Khao Man Gai, from chef-owner Thai Changthong, similarly pulls no punches with its flavors inspired by the Chinatown area of Bangkok, where the chef who previously ran Thai Kun was raised.

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The counter-service restaurant on Airport Boulevard is known for its eponymous poached chicken and rice dish, along with housemade noodle dishes that will have you reaching for your water and dabbing your forehead.

"This cooking speaks to the distinct cuisine born of Chinese immigrants who moved to Thailand, adapting their dishes to the electric flavors of their new home," Krishna writes.

Lao'd Bar and P Thai's are not the first Austin restaurants to land in the pages of the Times, which started its national Top 50 list in 2021. Birdie's, which tied for the Statesman's #1 spot in 2024, made the inaugural list; Canje landed a spot in 2022; Este and Wee's Cozy Kitchen (since closed) made the list in 2023; and Barb's B Q in Lockhart was honored in 2024.

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The Top 50 list also includes a restaurant from Emmer & Rye Hospitality Group, though the Austin-based company's concept featured is in San Antonio's Pullman Market  the fine dining restaurant Isidore  which features the bounty of land and sea in Texas. Houston West African restaurant Chopn Blok also made the list.
An early morning wave of violence that began with the nonfatal shooting of an Austin police officer sparked a three-hour manhunt in the Barton Hills neighborhood on Wednesday, ending when an armed homeowner shot the suspected gunman.

The first shooting left a woman with life-threatening injuries and nearby school communities on edge as authorities sent mixed messages to parents about when to shelter in place as the school day was beginning.

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"It's a horrible situation," Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said at a media briefing. "I'm just grateful that our officers are OK, and that we have a homeowner who defended himself and defended his home."

Police search for a suspect after an officer was shot on Barton Springs Road in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

The first shooting took place while an officer was assisting in repossessing a stolen car during an early-morning curfew sweep in Zilker Park, Davis said. The officer saw a man and a woman emerge from a nearby tree lining and ordered them to walk toward him. As they approached, Davis said, the man trailed the woman and the officer noticed the man hiding something in his hands.

As the officer issued commands for the man and woman to show their hands, the man raised a gun and shot the woman in the back of the head. The man continued firing, striking the officer. After being shot, the officer drew his weapon and returned fire. Davis said the officer's body-worn camera footage does not clearly show if the officer struck the man, who then proceeded to run into a wooded area.

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Another officer transported the injured officer to Dell Seton Medical Center where Davis said he is currently in stable condition.

A crime scene investigator documents a stolen car in a parking lot at Zilker Park after an Austin police officer was shot while preparing to tow it Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

Police officials deployed SWAT to carry out a manhunt in the area, according to Davis. An Austin school district police sergeant on patrol at a nearby campus called for backup after seeing a suspicious person just after school had started for the day.

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Police search for a suspect after an officer was shot on Barton Springs Road in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman An Austin police officer interviews a resident near house on Homedale Drive where a man who is suspected of shooting an Austin police officer was arrested in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman Barton Hills Elementary School in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, hours after a man suspected of shooting an Austin police officer was arrested nearby. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman Barton Hills Elementary School, top left, is about a block away from where police investigate at a house on Homedale Drive where a man suspected of shooting an Austin police officer was arrested Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman Police officers leave the scene after a man who is suspected of shooting an Austin police officer was arrested at a house on Homedale Drive in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman A police officers jacket remains in a parking lot at Zilker Park after the officer was shot while preparing to tow a stolen car Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman A stolen car remains in a parking lot at Zilker Park after an Austin police officer was shot while preparing to tow it Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman A crime scene investigator documents a stolen car in a parking lot at Zilker Park after an Austin police officer was shot while preparing to tow it Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis works during the search for a suspect after an officer was shot on Barton Springs Road in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman An Austin police officer checks his weapon during a search for a suspect after an officer was shot on Barton Springs Road in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman Police search for a suspect after an officer was shot on Barton Springs Road in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman The Austin Police Department blocks off Barton Springs Road following a shooting near Zilker Park in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman Pedestrians walk across Barton Springs Road as the Austin Police Department blocks it off following a shooting near Zilker Park in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman Austin Police Department SWAT responds to a shooting near Zilker Park in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman Police in a helicopter search for a suspect after an officer was shot on Barton Springs Road in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman Austin police officers respond to the scene where a person was apprehended on Homedale Drive following a shooting near Zilker Park in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman Police officers leave the scene after a man who is suspected of shooting an Austin police officer was arrested at a house on Homedale Drive in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman Austin police officers stand outside a house on Homedale Drive where a man who is suspected of shooting an Austin police officer was arrested in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman Andy Means, a resident of the Barton Hills neighborhood, shows the emergency alerts he received on his phone. The man lives across the street from the house on Homedale Drive where a man who is suspected of shooting an Austin police officer was arrested in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman Police search for a suspect after an officer was shot on Barton Springs Road in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman Austin Independent School District officers are seen outside Barton Hills Elementary near where a person was apprehended on Homedale Drive following a shooting near Zilker Park in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman Residents speak to Austin police officers near house on Homedale Drive where a man who is suspected of shooting an Austin police officer was arrested in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman Austin Chief of Police Lisa Davis holds a press conference at the Austin Police Department Headquarters following a shooting near Zilker Park in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman Austin ISD Chief of Police Wayne Sneed attends a press conference at the Austin Police Department Headquarters following a shooting near Zilker Park in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman Austin Independent School District officers meet outside Barton Hills Elementary, near where a person was apprehended on Homedale Drive, following a shooting near Zilker Park in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman Police search for a suspect after an officer was shot on Barton Springs Road in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman Austin police officers respond to the scene where a person was apprehended on Homedale Drive following a shooting near Zilker Park in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman The Austin Police Department blocks off Barton Springs Road following a shooting near Zilker Park in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman Austin Police Department SWAT responds to a shooting near Zilker Park in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman Pedestrians walk across Barton Springs Road as the Austin Police Department blocks it off following a shooting near Zilker Park in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman Austin Independent School District officers are seen outside Barton Hills Elementary near where a person was apprehended on Homedale Drive following a shooting near Zilker Park in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman Austin Independent School District officers meet outside Barton Hills Elementary, near where a person was apprehended on Homedale Drive, following a shooting near Zilker Park in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis works during the search for a suspect after an officer was shot on Barton Springs Road in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman Police in a helicopter search for a suspect after an officer was shot on Barton Springs Road in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman An Austin police officer checks his weapon during a search for a suspect after an officer was shot on Barton Springs Road in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman Police search for a suspect after an officer was shot on Barton Springs Road in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

See photos of aftermath: Zilker Park shootings in Austin ends with suspect arrested

Austin police officers initiated a chase during which the suspect ran into a residence in the Barton Hills neighborhood where he was shot in the arm and the leg by the homeowner. The suspected gunman, believed to be the same person who shot the woman and officer earlier that morning, is in stable condition.

The home where the gunman was shot is on Homedale Drive, according to Barton Hills resident Andy Means. Means hopped on his bike shortly before 8 a.m. to see if he could track down the suspected shooter.

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Police officers leave the scene after a man who is suspected of shooting an Austin police officer was arrested at a house on Homedale Drive in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

Almost immediately he spotted a man in a black face mask and khaki shorts emerging from the tunnel under the intersection of Barton Parkway and Wilke Drive.

Means tapped on the hood of a parked cop car to alert the officer and the suspected gunman ran. "It was adrenaline," said Means, who had just dropped off his 5-year-old son at a nearby school. "Im not going to let him get away.

The officer chased the suspected gunman on foot, Means said. Shortly before 8 a.m., Means saw the suspect enter the residence where he was shot as police cars streamed down the street.

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Austin police officers respond to the scene where a person was apprehended on Homedale Drive following a shooting near Zilker Park in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman

Means saw a man and woman, both barefoot, flee from the house screaming as police officers ran toward the home. Means said he did not hear any gunshots.

In an alert at about 5:30 a.m., authorities warned people in the Zilker area to stay indoors and to watch for a white man wearing a green shirt and tan pants.

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He is armed and dangerous, the alert said. Stay away from the area.
Barton Hills Elementary School, top left, is about a block away from where police investigate at a house on Homedale Drive where a man suspected of shooting an Austin police officer was arrested Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

When Andy Means walked alongside his 5-year-old son as he biked to Barton Hills Elementary Wednesday morning, he believed the campus was safe. An hour earlier, the longtime Zilker resident had received an emergency alert from the city suggesting the danger had passed after an early-morning shooting nearby. The school district also had given parents the all clear.

But when Means returned home, his wife frantically showed him a social media post from the Austin Police Department indicating that the shelter-in-place order was still active and a manhunt underway for the suspect. AISD, the city and APD need to get on the same page, she later told the American-Statesman.

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The jarring discrepancy between official alerts underscored a morning of confusion for Barton Hills families, many of whom sent their children to school just as police and SWAT teams were closing in on a man accused of shooting an Austin police officer and a woman in Zilker Park. The officer was hospitalized in stable condition, while the woman suffered life-threatening injuries that authorities said were likely fatal.

Andy Means, a resident of the Barton Hills neighborhood, shows the emergency alerts he received on his phone. The man lives across the street from the house on Homedale Drive where a man who is suspected of shooting an Austin police officer was arrested in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

Parents frustrated with school alerts: Are we doing the right thing?

Means experience mirrored that of other parents across Barton Hills who spent the morning preparing children for school while simultaneously parsing emergency messages that often contradicted each other.

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At 6:44 a.m., the Austin school district notified families that Zilker and Barton Hills neighborhoods were now safe after an incident and that schools would remain on schedule. Relieved, Michelle Smith and her husband began walking their fourth grader to Barton Hills Elementary around 7:15.

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But upon arriving, Smiths husband and another father spotted the suspect near campus. It was very disconcerting, Smith said. We were all kind of looking at each other like, Are we doing the right thing?

Even as police continued the manhunt, the districts first alert remained in effect. Parents weren't notified of a two-hour delay until 7:52 a.m.

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That threw a big wrench in the mornings of parents and students at Austin High School, where classes don't start until 9 a.m. "Families who have not yet left home are encouraged to make the best decisions for their families," the district said in a notification to parents.

By then, elementary school students were already in class so the district opted to implement a campus lockdown. At 8:11 a.m., families were told students were safely inside and urged to stay away from campus. A final alert at 8:31 announced the suspects capture.

It was truly confusing, Smith said. This guy was right around the elementary school when hundreds of people are being walked to school.

Barton Hills shooting: Videos capture Austin residents running, screaming as police search for suspect

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Police chief, school district promise answers and fixes

At a late-morning news conference, Police Chief Lisa Davis acknowledged the shelter-in-place order had been prematurely downgraded to an avoid the area notice despite the ongoing manhunt and empathized with the concerned community.

I have serious concerns about why that happened myself, Davis said. That never should have been changed. I will get to the bottom of why it was changed, how it was changed, how it happened, and ensure that it does not happen again.

She emphasized that such alerts are critical to safety, recounting how the homeowner who shot the suspect told her that the initial shelter-in-place saved our family.

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Austin ISD Police Chief Wayne Sneed declined to answer detailed questions about the districts alert system, saying only that information often comes from multiple sources  including parents, media, and law enforcement  and that administrators try to use the best judgment we can under those circumstances.

District officials offered some insight into their decision making in a letter to parents at Zilker and Barton Hills elementary schools, O. Henry Middle School and Austin High School. The gist: They were simply operating based on information from law enforcement. The letter noted that the district didn't learn the shelter order had been lifted in error until 7 a.m. By that time, elementary school students were already en route to campus.

"Unfortunately, due to the premature messaging regarding the lift of the secure in place, our plans moved forward to have school and students began coming onto campus before it [sic] the shelter in place was reinforced," district spokeswoman Maritza Villela said in a statement to the Statesman. "We will be working with the city to adjust communication in the future to ensure this does not happen again."

Residents speak to Austin police officers near house on Homedale Drive where a man who is suspected of shooting an Austin police officer was arrested in Austin, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

A shaken trust

Means described Wednesdays chaos as part of a troubling pattern for the neighborhood. He recalled other violent episodes  including the recent capture of a Target shooting suspect and an assault on a woman walking nearby  and said helicopter flyovers have become a routine backdrop.

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The whole neighborhood talks about it. Theres no police presence, Means said.

But for him and his wife, the most galling aspect of Wednesdays incident was the conflicting alerts. The last text he received at 6:39 a.m. only warned of heavy police presence near Barton Springs Road, about a mile from their home. At that point, the suspect was still on the loose.

We had taken our kid to school when this was all happening, Means said. They never sent another shelter in place and the guy was right here.

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Smith said the mornings chaos broke her faith in the districts alert system. While she doesn't think the confusion was ill-intentioned, she said it could have caused real harm.
U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon meets Alpha School students Milam Morgan, 7, left, his brother Rivers Morgan, 5, and their parents Searcy and Brooks Morgan, during a tour of the Alpha School to highlight the importance of national AI literacy in Austin, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

Everest Nevraumont, a 10-year-old student at Alpha School Austin, scrolled through a lesson on a laptop Tuesday morning while U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon gazed over her shoulder. Nevraumont explained how she can go through the lessons, created by artificial intelligence, largely at her own pace.

In reading, Im grade nine, but in math Im only grade five, Nevraumont said. In reading, Ive advanced way faster.

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U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon meets Alpha School students Rivers Morgan, 5, his brother, Milam, 7, left, and their parents Searcy and Brooks Morgan, during a tour of the Alpha School in Austin on Tuesday to highlight the importance of AI literacy. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman Alpha School student Everest Nevraumont, 10, gives a demonstration to U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon during a round table discussion at the Alpha School to highlight the importance of national AI literacy in Austin, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon tours the Alpha School with students Jaxon Siers, 10, left to right, Everest Nevraumont, 10, and Love Lalla-Pagan, 12, to highlight the importance of national AI literacy in Austin, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon participates in a round table discussion at the Alpha School to highlight the importance of national AI literacy in Austin, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

Looking on, McMahon said the model was the most exciting thing (shes) seen in the education world in a long time.

McMahon visited Alpha School, a private school in the Barton Hills area of Southwest Austin, to learn about its 2-hour learning model, which uses AI-developed curriculum to teach core instruction.

The Austin visit was another stop on McMahons Returning Education to the States tour, in which she has so far visited roughly a dozen schools, following a March executive order from President Donald Trump to dismantle the Education Department.

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During the visit, McMahon praised the Alpha Schools use of AI as an opportunity for other schools to develop new tools for teachers.

Lets be motivated in our states and in our school systems to inspire them to be curious enough to come and understand what is happening here, McMahon said.

U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon, left, and Alpha School co-founder MacKenzie Price, participate in a round table discussion at the Alpha School to highlight the importance of national AI literacy in Austin, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

Alpha School, founded in 2014, has locations in Arizona, California, Florida and New York. A Houston location is set to open this winter.

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Students learn through AI-driven curriculum for two hours a day with assistance from adult staff members known as guides, rather than teachers. They spend the remaining hours of the school day developing practical skills in finance, entrepreneurship and public speaking through workshops or group projects.

This approach keeps students engaged and uses personalized instruction, said MacKenzie Price, co-founder of the national school.

Its time for us to all hold ourselves responsible for delivering better for these kids. I think that using artificial intelligence is what enables us to raise human intelligence, not just for the students but also for the teachers, Price said.

Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath, who also visited the school Tuesday, said AI use can be a tool when designed with sensitivity.

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Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath listens during a round table discussion with U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon at the Alpha School to highlight the importance of national AI literacy in Austin, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

You have to know how the technology can be used, and used effectively, because if you dont use it in the right way, it can either become districting or ultimately become harmful, Morath said. It just depends on how it is deployed.

McMahon is the second education secretary to visit an Austin campus in just two years.

In March 2023, Miguel Cardona, who was education secretary under President Joe Biden, toured Webb Middle School in North Austin to promote bilingual education.

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McMahons visit comes as significant change is underway at the federal department.

A budget proposal released last week would reduce education spending by $12 billion, about 15%, in the 2026 fiscal year. The cuts would include reductions to Title I money, which helps fund school serving low-income students, but would increase funding for special education and charter schools.

U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon chats with Alpha School student Everest Nevraumont, 10, and school co-founder MacKenzie Price after a round table discussion to highlight the importance of national AI literacy in Austin, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman

McMahon said part of the intention of her tour across the county is to understand the most effective education practices in each state.

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Thats a big part of what we can do to help different schools in different areas to understand what might be available, McMahon said.

Texas has leaned into additional options for technology in school in recent years.

In 2021, lawmakers passed legislation to increase options for virtual learning. In 2023, the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness moved all-digital, rather than a paper and pencil test.
At the direction of Gov. Greg Abbott, Texas A&M President Mark Welsh, above, fired a professor who was seen on video discussing gender identity in a childrens literature course. Ricardo B. Brazziell/American-Statesman

Gov. Greg Abbott directed Texas A&M President Mark Welsh to fire a professor whom a state lawmaker had blasted on social media for discussing gender identity in a childrens literature course  and Welsh listened.

In an email to Texas A&M families Tuesday night, Welsh said he directed the provost to fire the professor for teaching about gender identity when it wasnt clearly stated in the course description.

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This isnt about academic freedom; its about academic responsibility, Welsh wrote. We must ensure that what we ultimately deliver to students is consistent with what was approved.

On Monday, video of the professor's discussion on gender identity went viral and solicited a response on X from the assistant attorney general for the U.S. Justice Departments Civil Rights Division who said the department will "look into" the conduct and a statement from new Chancellor Glenn Hegar, who called the professors' action "unacceptable." That night, Welsh announced that that he removed the College of Arts and Sciences dean and department head from their administrative positions when he found they "approved plans to continue teaching course content that was not consistent with the courses published description," he said in a statement.

Texas A&M University System regents also ordered an audit of all courses after the backlash for all its 12 campuses, the Houston Chronicle reported.

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In a statement before the firing of the professor was announced, PEN America, a free speech advocacy group for literature, decried the developments at A&M.

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We are witnessing the death of academic freedom in Texas, the remaking of universities as tools of authoritarianism that suppress free thought, Jonathan Friedman, the Sy Syms managing director of U.S. free expression programs at PEN America, said in a news release. The decision to remove these academic leaders to satisfy politicians demands is an excessive punishment for the alleged violation of transparency requirements.

The firing of the professor came less than 48 hours after Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, posted videos shared by an anonymous whistleblower of a professor talking about gender identity in the childrens literature class. The video showed audio of the student confronting the professor, but not the class or lesson that preceded it.

The student in the recording asked the professor if this was legal given President Donald Trumps executive order stating there are only two genders and saying it was against her religious beliefs. The professor, who has expertise in gender studies according to a university website, told her she could leave, and she did.

Texas A&M verified to the Houston Chronicle that the recording was real.

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Harrison, known for blasting state universities for LGBTQ education and decrying diversity, equity and inclusion, demanded that both Welsh and the professor be fired in response to the videos. Welsh terminated the professor just hours after Abbott said Tuesday now fire the professor who acted contrary to Texas law, but Abbott did not call for the president's removal as Harrison has wanted.

There is no law in Texas against teaching diverse studies or about LGBTQ or transgender history or inclusion. Though a version of Senate Bill 37 last session would have restricted core courses on race or gender, the final version passed did not.

The state does have a law, House Bill 229, strictly defining two genders. SB 37 did limit facultys control over curriculum, hiring and programs, putting the power instead to politically appointed regents who serve at the pleasure of the governor.

Harrison previously took credit for A&M's decision to cut its LGBTQ minor program last year after his advocacy, though the university said it was due to enrollment. The faculty council said the decision was made from the top down, without allowing faculty to boost enrollment or give their input.

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All U.S. major medical organizations recognize the existence and support the care of transgender people.

Friedman, from PEN America, said the decision will hurt Texas A&M.

When university presidents have little choice but to dismiss faculty members expertise and enforce ideological edicts, Friedman said, the space for free speech and open inquiry on our campuses is undeniably being suffocated.
Joseph Vogl stands outside Timpanogos Regional Hospital on Wednesday in Orem, Utah, where conservative activist Charlie Kirk was treated after being shot. Kirk died from his injuries. Alex Goodlett/Associated Press

Not now. Not again.

The gunfire that claimed the life of conservative activist Charlie Kirk during an event Wednesday at Utah Valley University in Orem marks an alarming escalation of violence against political figures. This violence has no place in America.

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Kirk was 31, a husband and young father, and a familiar presence on college campuses where he often sparred with critics and engaged with supporters. However much some Americans may have disagreed with his views, his right to speak freely and openly was beyond dispute. It is that right  a foundational pillar of our democracy  that came under fire along with him.

We recognize the need for caution about the particulars: As of this writing, authorities had not yet identified the shooter or confirmed the motive. Still, whether the goal was to silence Kirk or advance another cause, Americans across the political spectrum must stand united in rejecting violence and defending free political discourse.

The past few years have seen a disturbing rise in attacks on political figures  including two assassination attempts on Trump, the murder of a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband, and the break-in at former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosis home that left her husband severely injured. These assaults target more than individuals. They threaten the very idea of an America where people can debate ideas openly and choose leaders without fear.

When the threat of violence hangs in the air, Americans pull back from democracy itself. They think twice about running for office, attending public events or even showing up at the polls if civic participation comes with the risk of being gunned down.

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Divided as we are on many issues, most Americans recognize the perilous place we are in. A June NPR/PBS News/Marist poll found three-quarters of Americans believe democracy is under serious threat, and nearly as many (73%) say politically motivated violence is a major problem. Too many voices continue to inflame divisions and portray political opponents as enemies rather than fellow citizens.

It is incumbent on all of us to cool the temperature wherever we can  by seeking to understand others even when we disagree, by turning to reliable information sources instead of incendiary ones, and by supporting leaders who build solutions rather than deepen divides.

And  crucially  by rejecting the premise that violence has any place in our political life.

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A vibrant memorial of flowers and tributes surrounds a sign for Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, Minn., where a gunman two weeks ago killed two children and wounded at least 21 others. Kerem Yucel/Associated Press

Prayers are not enough

Another mass shooting, this time at Annunciation Catholic School in Minnesota, where two children were murdered and 21 injured.

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Our hearts are broken. In America, this has become routine. Congress does nothing, while elected officials offer only thoughts and prayers.

Our anger grows as leaders at both the state and federal levels block reforms that could protect our children. They focus instead on political careers and divisive agendas.

I am a gun owner and military veteran. I favor smart reforms that will save lives.

No one is coming to take your guns. I have met with the offices of Rep. John Carter, Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. John Cornyn to push for reforms  even with petitions from fellow gun owners  to no avail.

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We must demand action from Congress:

 Reinstate the assault weapons ban.

 Limit magazine capacity.

 Enforce secure storage.

 Raise the purchase age for semi-automatics to 21.

 Expand background checks and red flag laws.

 Ban firearm modifications.

How can legislators claim to be pro-life yet refuse to protect children?

Thoughts and prayers are not enough. Pass meaningful gun reform now.

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Brenda Alicea, Georgetown

The new logo for the city of Austin has drawn strong responses, given the cost of the branding campaign while the city faces a budget crunch. City of Austin New Logo

Try again on new logo

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You have to be insane! This is not a logo, its two colored lines.

This is a waste of time and money. We are paying city employees six figures and the city is asking for a tax increase. I spent 11 years on the Ethics Review Commission. Im sure there is a city code that applies to this.

Austin has education institutions that could have contributed  for free  to a logo that would truly identify our city. It could have been a contest with an award.

We are in a financial crisis. The residents of Austin come first, and we pay a lot of taxes.

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There is nothing wrong with the current insignia for Austin.

The two lines are an embarrassment and we have enough of that in Austin, one being the very tall buildings that cover the Capitol and the Tower.

As Mayor Kirk Watson says, Texas Can Do Better.

Donna Beth McCormick, Austin

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SAFE Act needs support

As a physical therapist, I see firsthand how one fall can change a seniors life forever.

In Texas, 29% of seniors fall annually, leading to life-threatening injuries, loss of independence and high health care costs. When most falls are preventable with a risk assessment from a trained expert, why are we focusing only on treatments and ignoring prevention?



Physical and occupational therapists are trained falls prevention experts who can identify risks with simple assessments and rehabilitation. The bipartisan Stopping Addiction and Falls for the Elderly (SAFE) Act  Senate Bill 2612 and House Resolution 1171  would ensure Medicare covers no-cost falls risk assessments, giving seniors access to preventative care before a crisis occurs. I recently hosted Sen. John Cornyns staff at our Austin Texas Physical Therapy Specialist clinic to discuss the SAFE Acts impact of falls on Texans.

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We encourage Cornyn to cosponsor the SAFE Act and help us deliver preventative care to senior Texans.

Tony Lauretta, Texas Physical Therapy Specialists
The Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces has officially confirmed that the drones that flew into Polish territory on the night of September 10 were shot down by F-35 fighters of the Royal Netherlands Air Force.

"Thank you for the support of @NATO_AIRCOM and the Royal Netherlands Air Force, whose F-35 fighters helped to ensure security in the Polish sky tonight," the operational command said in a message on the X social network on Wednesday.

The Minister of Defense of the Netherlands, Ruben Brekelmans, also confirmed that it was the Dutch F-35 fighters that intercepted the Russian drones over Poland. "Within NATO, our F-35 fighters make a significant contribution to protecting our collective security. This is what we are ready for," he said on X.

"This is how we keep the escalation of the Russian threat at bay," the Dutch Defense Minister believes.

As reported with reference to Polish media, more than 20, most likely 23, Russian drones were detected during a nighttime violation of Polish airspace.
Hemp flowers are seen in containers at Happy Hippy Haus on Texas-105, Tuesday, July 2, 2019, in Cleveland. Jason Fochtman/Staff photographer The governors order directs the Department of State Health Services and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission to set new rules for THC products, including restricting sales to those 21 and over and requiring stores to check IDs when selling THC products such as seltzers and snacks. Sara Diggins/American-Statesman A hemp / legal cannabis plant in a greenhouse at Texas A&M Soil and Crop Sciences Friday, April 8, 2022, in College Station. The cannabis plants greenhouse, each containing no more than the legal limit of THC in Texas. These hemp plants can be grown and sold legally. Steve Gonzales/Staff photographer

Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday issued an executive order aimed at banning the sale of hemp-based THC to minors  an effort to rein in the booming market through state agency rules after lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on regulations he sought this summer.

The governors order directs the Department of State Health Services and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission to set new rules for THC products, including limiting sales to those 21 and over and requiring stores to check IDs when selling THC products such as seltzers and snacks.

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Abbott framed the order as "safety for kids, freedom for adults."

Texas will not wait when it comes to protecting children and families, Abbott said in a statement. While these products would still benefit from the kind of comprehensive regulation set by the Texas Legislature for substances like alcohol and tobacco, my executive order makes sure that kids are kept safe and parents have peace of mind now, and that consumers know the products they purchase are tested and labeled responsibly.

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The move comes amid a protracted political battle over THC that has divided the states top Republicans. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick pushed a total ban on the products through the Legislature earlier this year, but Abbott vetoed the ban in June, arguing it would not survive legal challenges.

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The governor called lawmakers back to Austin for a special session to regulate the industry in a way similar to alcohol, but after two sessions dominated mostly by redistricting and flood relief efforts, lawmakers could not come to an agreement.

A 21-and-up requirement has long been discussed as a baseline regulation and has support from members of the hemp industry who say they want to stamp out bad actors. Patrick has warned that children would still end up accessing and using dangerous products.

State Sen. Charles Perry, a Lubbock Republican who authored the total ban this year, vowed to keep fighting for it.

"Placing an age restriction does not fix this problem," Perry posted on X Tuesday, ahead of Abbott's announcement. "It leaves the products on the shelves, gives the industry exactly what it wants, and ensures the legislature will never come back to close the loophole."

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The order also tweaks the current 0.3% concentration threshold on the psychoactive compound Delta-9, expanding it to include a chemical precursor known as THC-A. That could ban a swath of smokable flower products currently sold under a THC-A label, industry members said.

Heather Fazio, director of the Texas Cannabis Policy Center, which advocates for the industry, called the order an important step toward a responsible hemp market." But she also warned the people seeking flower products could be pushed towards the illicit market.

Governor Abbott has shown that Texas can protect children without turning back to prohibition, Fazio said. While we have some concerns, this is a win for safety, freedom, and free markets.

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Public polling has shown Texas voters, including Republicans, oppose banning the products, and few see regulations as urgently needed. A recent poll from the University of Texas at Austin found just 3% of Republicans, 0% of independents and 6% of Democrats said regulating the market was the most important thing lawmakers should do during the special session.
The State Service of Ukraine on Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) has asked the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal to terminate the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), which is recognized as affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), and to transfer its property, funds and other assets, except for cult assets, to the state.

According to the decision of September 3, the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal accepted the statement of claim for consideration and opened proceedings in the case on the administrative claim of the State Policy Committee against the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

In particular, DESS asks the court to: terminate the religious organization Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC as a result of liquidation; transfer the property, funds and other assets owned by this religious organization, except for cult assets, to the state.

The hearing of the case is scheduled for 11:40 on September 30 in the premises of the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal (courtroom No. 6) at the address: Kyiv, Knyaziv Ostrozkyh St., 8, building 30.

As reported, in August 2024, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the law "On the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Sphere of Activities of Religious Organizations", which prohibits the activities of religious organizations affiliated with the ROC in Ukraine.

On May 9, 2025, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the procedure for conducting a study on the issue of the presence of signs of affiliation of a religious organization with a foreign religious organization, the activities of which are prohibited in Ukraine, as well as the procedure for considering the issue of confirming the facts of using a religious organization to propagate the ideology of the "Russian world."

The UOC (MP) appealed in court the government's resolution on approving the procedure for conducting a study on the issue of the presence of signs of affiliation of a religious organization with a foreign religious organization, the activities of which are prohibited in Ukraine.

On May 20, the State Committee for National Policy began an investigation into the presence of signs of affiliation of the UOC (MP) with a banned foreign religious organization.

On July 9, the State Committee for National Policy announced that it had discovered signs of affiliation of the UOC (MP) with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), whose activities are banned in Ukraine.

On July 17, the State Committee for National Policy issued an order to the UOC (MP) to eliminate violations of the legislation on freedom of conscience and religious organizations by August 18, and also approved a list of religious organizations that are part of the structure or are related to the UOC (MP).

Later, the UOC (MP) sent a letter to the State Committee for National Policy explaining its position on the status of the Church, and also stated that the order is an interference in the internal life of the church and cannot be executed.

On August 20, the head of the State Committee for Public Policy Viktor Yelensky stated that if the UOC (MP) does not comply with the order, it will be recognized as affiliated with the ROC and a lawsuit will be filed to terminate it.

On August 27, the State Committee for Public Policy recognized the UOC (MP) as affiliated with the ROC. According to the law "On the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Sphere of Activities of Religious Organizations", the UOC (MP) will lose its right to use state and municipal property in 60 days ahead of schedule.

On August 29, the State Committee for Public Policy filed a lawsuit to terminate the activities of the UOC (MP), which has been recognized as affiliated with the ROC.
Fatal sinking of the 'Sea Story': The evidence Egypt is withholding

Death at Sea Fatal sinking of the 'Sea Story': The evidence Egypt is withholding

 stern-Montage: Illustration: Marta Kochanek / Gibson Kochanek; Fotos: dpa Picture Alliance / Adobe Stock; Video: GFS Ship Management FZE

On November 25, 2024 the 'Sea Story' sank off the coast of Egypt

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Serious safety deficiencies and violations prior to fatal voyage in the Red Sea: German stern magazine and RTL uncover causes of the sinking of the dive boat 'Sea Story' in Egypt.

Egyptian authorities are withholding evidence of serious safety problems that led to the fatal accident involving the tourist ship 'Sea Story'. Last november, eleven tourists and crew members died in the accident involving the luxury yacht on the Red Sea, and the case made headlines around the world for days. Now, German magazine stern and broadcaster RTL are reporting that the captain, operator, and authorities failed in their duties  citing investigation files from Egyptian prosecutors. According to the report, the ship also had structural stability deficiencies.

The Hamburg public prosecutor's office is investigating the case on suspicion of negligent homicide. However, Egypt is revealing little information, according to an internal memo from investigators at the federal criminal police Bundeskriminalamt cited by stern and RTL.

The tourist yacht capsized and sank on November 25, 2024, with 30 divers and 15 crew members on board. Shortly after the accident, Amr Hanafy, governor of the Red Sea region, said that a giant wave had struck the ship and caused it to capsize.

According to research by stern and RTL, weather service data show that the waves in the area where the 'Sea Story' capsized were about two meters high at the time of the accident.

The last photo of German passenger Susanne Andres (right) was taken shortly before departure. Her friend Danilo Roger survived  stern-Montage: Illustration: Marta Kochanek / Gibson Kochanek; Fotos: Adobe Stock, Danilo Roger

In addition, according to the public prosecutor's office in Hurghada, the ship should not have been allowed to set sail at all. The captain did not have the mandatory operating license to steer a vessel like the 'Sea Story'. According to investigators, the operating company Dive Pro, based in Hurghada, did not have a license for the ship to operate on the high seas. Military forces based at the port presumably could have had this information yet nevertheless approved the ship's departure.

Several state authorities, Governor Hanafy, and the operating company Dive Pro left extensive questions unanswered.

Professor Stefan Kruger from the Institute for Ship Safety at the Technical University of Hamburg evaluated the circumstances investigated and said: "I."

It was the second fatal accident involving the operating company Dive Pro within just a few months.

The Red Sea, a popular travel destination for European tourists, has experienced a series of fatal diving tour accidents for some time. In recent years, dozens of ships like the 'Sea Story' have run aground, burned out, or sunk worldwide. More than half of them off the coast of Egypt.

In search of the causes, a team of reporters from German stern magazine and broadcaster RTL spent many months investigating. Three reporters went undercover in the country, using disguised identities. This gave them access to locations secured by soldiers, to insiders, and to around 600 pages of investigation files on the 'Sea Story' case, which the authorities guard like a kind of state secret.

Among the eleven fatalities of the 'Sea Story' accident were three Germans, two Britons, two Poles, one Slovak, and three Egyptians.
Ukraine has received another tranche of macro-financial assistance from the European Union in the amount of EUR1 billion under the ERA Loans program, Prime Minister Yulia Svirydenko announced.

"This tranche was financed from the proceeds from the frozen assets of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. This is more than assistance - it is a clear signal: Europe is resolutely strengthening Ukraine's defense and resilience against massive missile attacks and attempts at destabilization," Svirydenko wrote in a Telegram channel on Wednesday.

The Ministry of Finance recalled that in total, EUR 10 billion has already been attracted from the European Union within the framework of the ERA initiative, and it is expected that Ukraine will receive the remaining EUR 8.1 billion of EU funds in installments by the end of 2025.

The Prime Minister thanked the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the European Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis for their leadership and steadfastness.

"These funds mean lives saved, cities rebuilt and a secure European future for Ukraine," she stressed.

The ERA envisages providing Ukraine with $50 billion, which will be secured by future revenues from frozen Russian assets. The EU contribution is EUR 18.1 billion (EUR 20 billion).

In March of this year, European Commissioner for the Economy Valdis Dombrovskis announced that this year the EU plans to allocate EUR 30.5 billion to Ukraine, including EUR 12.5 billion under the Ukraine Facility program and EUR 18 billion under the ERA mechanism: the first EUR 3 billion was allocated in January, EUR 1 billion monthly in March-November, and EUR 6 billion in December.

The EFF Extended Fund Facility with the IMF provides that Ukraine will receive $39.4 billion under the ERA mechanism this year after $1 billion last year.

According to the Ministry of Finance, since February 2022, the European Union has been the largest provider of direct budget assistance to Ukraine  EUR 58.5 billion for priority state budget expenditures, including over EUR 16.5 billion in the first eight months of 2025.
Photo: PAP

The Polish Foreign Ministry is summoning the Russian ambassador to Warsaw on Wednesday evening to hand him a note of protest, the Polish Press Agency (PAP) has reported.

"Following the violation of Polish airspace, the Foreign Ministry will summon a Russian representative on Wednesday to hand him a note of protest. This was reported to the agency by Foreign Ministry spokesman Pawel Wronski," agency said.

Wronski noted that the Foreign Ministry does not disclose the contents of the note before its delivery.

Earlier, the Polish publication Rzeczpospolita reported that more than 20, most likely 23, Russian drones were detected during the nighttime violation of Polish airspace, and they were shot down mostly by Dutch F-35 fighter jets.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk counted 19 violations of Polish airspace and said that four Russian drones were shot down.
Multiple calls have been made for food systems transformation, since food systems contribute to exceeding several planetary boundaries, including impacting climate, changing biochemical flows and causing resource degradation and biodiversity loss.

Simultaneously, advances in technology fields such as robotics, artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, and nanotechnology open new technological possibilities and opportunities.

As a response to these problems, challenges, and opportunities, multiple public, private and third sector actors, including farmers, grassroot NGOs, Big Food companies, start-ups, think tanks, financiers, and policy makers in agrifood innovation systems are working on shaping different pathways for food systems transformation.

These pathways are underpinned by a variety of names, concepts, technologies, business models and value systems. These include agroecology, nature-based or nature-positive farming, circular agriculture, and permaculture on the one hand, and Agriculture 4.0 and Food 4.0 concepts such as vertical farming, cellular agriculture, and precision fermentation on the other hand. It also includes hybrids such digital agroecology.

In view of the transformative ambitions and actions needed for food systems transformation, agrifood innovation (eco)systems have become increasingly mission-driven.

In this seminar, Professor Laurens Klerkx will talk about how mission-driven agrifood innovation (eco)systems have emerged, touching on aspects such as the shapes and boundaries of mission-oriented agrifood innovation (eco)systems, the role of transformative innovation policies for both innovation and exnovation, and the politics and limitations of mission-driven agrifood innovation (eco)systems. Klerkx will give a few examples of what emerging mission-driven agrifood innovation (eco)systems look like in practice, from experiences in countries such as The Netherlands, New Zealand, and Chile.

About the speaker

Laurens Klerkx is Full Professor of Agrifood Innovation and Transition at the University of Talca, Chile, and visiting full professor at Wageningen University, The Netherlands. Initially trained in plant production systems science, he moved to doing social science on innovation in and transformation of agrifood systems. His interests and expertise are in agricultural advisory services, agricultural innovation systems, transformative innovation policy, agrifood system digitalization, and most recently agrifoodtech start-up ecosystems. With his team of PhD and postdoc researchers, as well as international colleagues, he has published widely on these topics over the past 20 years. He was editor-in-chief of The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension and is currently editor of Agricultural Systems.
Viaccess-Orca and ContentWise Announce Strategic Partnership to Elevate TV User Experiences

Viaccess-Orca announced today a strategic partnership with ContentWise, a leader in AI-based digital experience solutions.

PARIS( )

Unified Solution Combines VOs Service Delivery Platform, TV Apps, and ContentWise UX Engine to Deliver Personalized, Editorially Controlled Viewing Across All Screens

PARIS  Sept. 9, 2025  Viaccess-Orca (VO), an Orange Group subsidiary and a global leader in OTT / TV platforms, content protection, and data-driven solutions, announced today a strategic partnership with ContentWise, a leader in AI-based digital experience solutions. Aimed at delivering a unified solution that empowers TV operators and service providers to offer deeply personalized, editorially curated viewing experiences, this collaboration brings together VOs Service Delivery Platform (SDP), customizable TV Apps, and the ContentWise UX Engine to create a seamless, scalable, and highly engaging user experience across all devices.

This partnership reflects our shared commitment to helping service providers deliver premium user experiences with full editorial control, said Pierre-Alexandre Bidard, EVP Product and Services at Viaccess-Orca. Unifying VOs robust delivery and personalization capabilities with ContentWises UX intelligence, were enabling operators to engage viewers more effectively and bring new services to market faster.

In todays competitive media landscape, service providers face growing pressure to deliver personalized content while maintaining control over their editorial priorities and business rules. The VO-ContentWise solution addresses this challenge by enabling operators to balance AI-driven recommendations with licensing obligations and marketing strategies. By integrating VOs modular, cloud-native SDP with ContentWises intelligent UX capabilities, the solution ensures that viewers receive relevant content tailored to their preferences, while operators retain full control over what is promoted and how.

Todays viewers expect more than just access to content  they expect relevance, simplicity, and a sense of connection, said Alessandro Vacca, COO at ContentWise. Our collaboration with Viaccess-Orca brings together the best of UX intelligence and platform agility, allowing operators to craft viewing experiences that are not only personalized but also aligned with their editorial voice and business strategy.

VOs platform serves as the backbone of this offering, facilitating the delivery of live channels, on-demand video, catch-up TV, and network personal video recording services across IPTV, OTT, broadcast, and satellite platforms. It supports a wide range of monetization models  including subscriptions, pay-per-view, and targeted advertising  while integrating industry-leading content protection technologies such as CAS, DRM, and dynamic watermarking. Combined with VOs customizable TV Apps, which offer white-label branding, real-time updates, and cross-platform compatibility, the solution ensures rapid deployment and consistent user experiences across smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, and set-top boxes.

ContentWises UX Engine enhances this foundation by orchestrating personalized recommendations based on individual viewing habits, editorial priorities, and market trends. This allows service providers to engage users more effectively, reduce churn, and optimize monetization strategies. The joint solution is designed to be flexible and future-proof, with open APIs and modular services that simplify integration and allow operators to adapt quickly to evolving technologies and consumer expectations.

The collaboration will be showcased at IBC2025, where VO and ContentWise will demonstrate the solutions capabilities and highlight its upcoming Q4 2025 deployment with a tier-1 customer. To schedule a demo, visit www.viaccess-orca.com/ibc-2025.

More information about VO and the companys solutions is available at www.viaccess-orca.com.

# # #

About Viaccess-Orca

Viaccess-Orca (VO) is a leading provider of data-driven, end-to-end solutions that empower TV operators and service providers to deliver, secure, and monetize viewing experiences on every screen. From enabling AI-powered personalized TV and targeted advertising to offering robust security and anti-piracy services, VO is continually evolving to meet changing viewer preferences and industry needs.

Deployed by over 100 customers worldwide to power advanced video services for millions of subscribers, VOs cloud-native solutions allow easy integration with any ecosystem and quick time to market for new features and top-notch technologies.

About ContentWise

ContentWise is the AI-powered customer experience company that transforms how leading video operators, digital publishers, and online brands engage their audiences. Our intelligent platform combines advanced recommendations, personalization, and discovery technologies to create exceptional digital experiences at every touchpoint. Serving 100+ million users globally with 1 billion personalization calls daily, ContentWise powers experiences for industry leaders including Allente, ITV, Dish, PCCW, RAI, Telecom Argentina and Telefonica. Our AI expertise spans two decades, from pioneering recommendation engines to today's cutting-edge generative AI applications. As part of Moviri, ContentWise now extends its proven AI capabilities through AI Labs  delivering enterprise-grade solutions including process automation, intelligent content curation, and advanced search systems using multi-agent architectures and Graph RAG technology.

For more information, visit www.viaccess-orca.com or follow @ViaccessOrca on X or LinkedIn.

Link to Word Doc: www.wallstcom.com/ViaccessOrca/250909-Viaccess-Orca-ContentWise.docx

Photo Link: www.wallstcom.com/ViaccessOrca/VO-contentwise-logo.png

Photo Caption: ContentWise Logo
From left, U.S. Rep. Michael Turner, Gen. T. Michael Moseley, Lt. Gen. Carl E. Schaefer, Maj. Gen. John C. Harris Jr., and Capt. Eric Doucette, stand for a photo following a panel discussion at the Ohio Defense & Aerospace Forum on Oct. 3, 2022, in Columbus, Ohio. (Aven Santiago/U.S. Army)



(Tribune News Service)  The 2025 Ohio Defense & Aerospace Forum agenda is heavy with top officers and decision-makers from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and beyond.

The forum opens Monday morning at Wright State Universitys Student Union.

Space Force Brig. Gen. Robert Schreiner  the deputy director for operations, Operations Directorate, the Joint Staff, National Military Command Center in Arlington, Va.  is scheduled to speak at the forum.

A 2011 graduate of the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson, Schreiner is responsible to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for ensuring operations from the National Joint Operations and Intelligence Center, including nuclear command and control and direction to combatant commands.

Also on the agenda: Col. Dustin Richards, commander of the 88th Air Base Wing at Wright-Patterson; and Col. Kenneth Stremmel, commander of the National Air and Space Intelligence Center, better known as NASIC, who also calls Wright-Patterson home.

Cheryl Richmond, deputy director of the National Space Intelligence Center, again from Wright-Patterson, will also take part.

Leaders of businesses important to the Dayton area will also participate. Look for Gregory Bowles, Joby Aviations head of government policy; Mark Williams, senior vice president for Sierra Nevada Corp.; and Michael North, chief executive of Resonant Sciences, to be there. Zachary Mears, senior vice president of strategy at Anduril, is also scheduled to participate.

Other speakers and participants include U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, Sen. Jon Husted and leaders of the Dayton Development Coalition, the events organizer.

While the forum was held in Columbus since its inception in 2016, in 2023, it moved to the Dayton area.

Ohio is home to Wright-Patterson  still Ohios largest single-site employer with some 38,000 military and civilian employees  the Ohio National Guards 179th Cyberspace Wing; NASAs Glenn Research Center and the Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility, among other important sites. The state is a top supplier to Boeing and Airbus.

Ohio has the 7th largest aerospace and defense employment base in the U.S., according to the Ohio government.

2025 the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio).

Visit www.daytondailynews.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Naha District Court in Naha city, Okinawa, Sept. 10, 2025. (Brian McElhiney/Stars and Stripes)



NAHA, Okinawa  A Japanese High Court on Wednesday upheld a U.S. airmans conviction for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a minor on Okinawa in December 2024.

Senior Airman Brennon Washington, 26, previously assigned to Kadena Air Base, must serve out the remainder of his five-year sentence in a Japanese prison, a three-judge panel presided over by Judge Takashi Miura ruled at the Naha branch of Fukuoka High Court. Washington received credit for 210 days already served.

Washington appeared before the appellate court on Wednesday looking gaunt and pale. He did not speak.

Miura, from the bench, said the high court found Washingtons appeals to be without merit.

A three-judge panel in Naha District Court convicted Washington on Dec. 13 of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl. He immediately appealed the verdict.

The district court found that Washington picked up the girl at a park in Yomitan on Dec. 24, 2023, and took her to his home.

Defense attorney Junji Shimizu argued that Washingtons sentence should be overturned due to a misinterpretation of the facts, according to a statement submitted to the high court on Feb. 17.

The district court found that the girls testimony was partially corroborated by security footage from the park. The court ruled that Washington knew he did not have consent, citing the girls repeated pleas for him to stop.

Japan raised the age of consent in July 2023 from 13 to 16.

Shimizu argued that the district court overlooked changes in the girls testimony and inconsistencies with her mothers testimony. He also argued that the girl showed interest in Washington and did not resist when he kissed her, according to the statement.

Washington testified on Aug. 30, 2024, that he believed the girl was 18 and their interaction was consensual. He also told the court that he did not penetrate her, which Shimizu also included in the appeal.

Miura on Wednesday dismissed Shimizus arguments, saying the girls testimony was internally consistent.

There are no circumstances that warrant denying the credibility of [the girls] testimony, at least with respect to the core claim that she did not consent in this case, he said.

The case, along with that of Marine Lance Cpl. Jamel Clayton  convicted in July of attempted sexual assault in a separate incident  sparked public outcry and protests from Okinawa officials. In response, U.S. Forces Japan implemented stricter liberty policies for service members.

Sexual assault is reprehensible, and we share the local communitys outrage over this case, the 18th Wing at Kadena told Stars and Stripes in an unsigned email Wednesday. All U.S. service members are expected to always uphold the highest standards of conduct.

Washington will have 14 days to appeal the high court decision to Japans Supreme Court.

Shimizu declined to comment after the sentencing.
An AEVEX Atlas III takes flight at Joint Base Lewis-McChord during tests in August 2025. (Matthew Ryan/U.S. Army)



JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash.  Americas First Corps was the first to get its hands on a new multipurpose drone system the Army has fast-tracked to deploy with all Army divisions by the end of 2026.

Teams of soldiers in late August double-timed through a three-week course with simulators and then in the field at a remote part of the sprawling 86,000-acre Pacific Northwest base shared by the Army and Air Force.

The drones are dubbed LE-SR for Launched Effects  Short-Range. Towed or trucked to the battlefield or fired from helicopters, the effects refer to multiple roles the payload can play.

Non-lethal effects include unmanned reconnaissance, communications and enemy signal jamming. With lethal effects, the payload is a warhead, and the drone swoops, loops or spirals down to explode on enemy command posts or troop concentrations, or it knocks out radar and air defenses to clear the way for manned attack aircraft.

We can push further, faster into more restricted terrain because we know we can use the scout drone to know whats ahead of us, said 1st Lt. Zach Glenn of the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment. And we can also use the attack drones with information from the scout to eliminate the enemy assets at up to a 70-nautical-mile range.

Launched Effects is one of several drone initiatives, from unmanned drone wingmen for future Air Force fighter jets to uncrewed surface ships and submersible drones for the Navy.

The goal is to buy or build first-person-view or kamikaze drones that can be carried, launched and controlled by a single soldier.

The United States is lagging behind, and the gap is growing, Army Col. Neil Hollenbeck, an assistant chief of staff for NATO Rapid Deployable Corps-Turkiye, wrote in the U.S. Armys September issue of Military Review.

Hollenbeck said the war in Ukraine showed how short-lived an advantage in drone technology can be. With each innovation by Ukraine or Russia, the other side quickly found weaknesses, adapted and now they are shooting down swarms of drones.

In the first two years of the war, drone warfare went through four evolutions of tactics and technology, Hollenbeck wrote. Today, the innovation cycle for drones in Ukraine is closer to three months.

Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll and Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Randy A. George wrote in May that the service needed to abandon obsolete technology and move quickly on drones and counter-drone technology.

Adaptation is no longer an advantage  its a requirement for survival, Driscoll and George wrote.

An AEVEX Atlas III System was one of three Launch Effects systems tested at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. (AEVEX)



The Pentagon wants to deploy weapons on the battlefield significantly faster than the current years-long development process, from concept to prototype to production. That timeline that doesnt include training soldiers to use the weapons, or the logistics of how to get them deployed worldwide.

The Army plans to test several types of existing and planned drones in a continuous feedback loop between what the defense industry produces and what soldiers want. The back-and-forth iteration will inform changes in the choices for new and future drones.

The new Launched Effects drones are being designed so that most soldiers can use the systems without being designated as experts. Eventually, modular controllers and launchers will be developed so that any soldier can use an LE at any time. Troops taking part at Lewis-McChord included a Stryker battalion, helicopter crews and infantry units.

Whats hard for people in the Army to visualize is what the next fight looks like, said Lt. Col. Michael Wallace, commander of 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment. These soldiers are walking point on what comes next.

The Lewis-McChord training and simulation was designed to test the platforms for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions. The teams set up launch plans and strike targets about 3 to 4 miles out, and the drones crossed different terrains.

A battery of launch tubes for the Raytheon Coyote Block 3 Launch Effects drones are set up up at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. (Matthew Ryan/U.S. Army)

Soldiers put into place a portable Anduril Altius 600 LE system to the staging area at Joint Based Lewis-McChord in Washington. (Matthew Ryan/U.S. Army)



The Army teams fielded three systems. Raytheons Coyote Block III drone flew from a rectangular launcher; Anduril Industries Altius 600 was fired from three long tubes; and the Atlas system by AEVEX Aerospace flung silver glider-like fuselages skyward with compressed air.

When announcing the Armys priority changes April 30, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he wants development and testing to coincide to increase the speed of production  even if there are bumps along the way.

And there were some bumps: The first Raytheon Coyote Block III failed to deploy its wings fully on launch and spun into nearby pine trees. A second Raytheon round put into a launch fared worse, plopping out of the launcher and nosediving into thick brush, igniting a fire of several acres that required a response from a base firefighting team and put more launches on hold.

The system did execute a successful launch late in the day, officials said. The other two systems flew successfully the following day.

Brig. Gen. Cain Baker, director of the Armys Future Vertical Lift-Cross Functional Team, based at Redstone Arsenal, Ala., said the program would have moments where things didnt work as planned.

When you have a mis-launch, or you have something where it doesnt perform correctly, we have to learn from that, right? Baker said. At the end of the day, we had a lot more successes than we had failures.

Baker said getting the systems into the field for I Corps to fly, then incorporating their ideas into design changes invests the soldiers in the systems rapid development.

When you bring a capability out to the field and you put it in the hands of soldiers, and you get the feedback that they really want it and they like it, and they need it  that is the biggest accelerator that I can have, Baker said.
Former soldier Austin Michael Burak, 32, was sentenced Sept. 4, 2025, to two life terms for sexually abusing two boys at Fort Stewart, Ga., in 2017. The victims were ages 9 and 13 at the time. (File)



A former U.S. soldier will spend the remainder of his life in prison for sexually abusing two boys at Georgias Fort Stewart more than eight years ago, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

Austin Michael Burak, 32, of Oak Harbor, Wash., was given two life sentences to be served concurrently, a DOJ statement Tuesday said.

He was sentenced Sept. 4 in U.S. District Court in Savannah by Judge R. Stan Baker, according to court documents.

He was convicted by a federal jury in May of abusive sexual contact with a 9-year-old boy and aggravated sexual abuse of a 13-year-old boy, the statement and court documents said.

Jurors also heard testimony that Burak had sexually abused three other children, starting when he was about 10 years old and lasting until he was 24, according to court documents. He was never charged with those offenses.

The crimes for which Burak was convicted occurred after a night of drinking in August 2017 while he was staying in military housing on Fort Stewart, according to court documents.

In coordination with Army investigators, Burak was confronted about his actions by someone close to the victims nearly two years later. He claimed to have zero recollection of that night but never denied his behavior, according to court documents.

FBI agents arrested Burak in January 2024 during a high-profile traffic stop in Oak Harbor, the Whidbey News-Times reported at the time.

Testimony from three women who alleged Burak sexually abused them while they were children was also introduced during the trial, according to court documents.

Information on Buraks military service was not immediately available Wednesday.

The community is safer now that a sexual predator will spend the rest of his life imprisoned, Meg Heap, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, said in the statement.

Burak was a wheeled vehicle mechanic in the regular Army from May 2013 to August 2017 and the Army Reserve from October 2018 to April 2022, service spokesperson Tony McCormick said.

He was stationed at Fort Stewart from November 2014 to August 2017 and deployed to Kuwait from June 2016 to March 2017. He was a sergeant when he left the Army.
Army Cpl. Nakealon Mosley, 28, was an automated logistics specialist assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, when he shot Sgt. Francine Martinez, 24, in 2021 outside of a nightclub in Killeen, according to court records. (Bell County (Texas) Jail)



A Fort Hood soldier was sentenced to 60 years in prison for his role in the shooting death of a fellow soldier who was the mother of his child, according to court documents.

Army Cpl. Nakealon Mosley, 28, was an automated logistics specialist assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division at the time of the shooting, Sept. 4, 2021, outside of a nightclub in Killeen, Texas.

Sgt. Francine Martinez, 24, was hit by gunfire in her vehicle and died in the hospital nearly two weeks later.

Mosley and his roommate Demetrius Lavar Jones Jr., a 26-year-old former Army private, were at the nightclub together when they ran into Martinez, according to the Killeen Police Department. After arguing in the parking lot, Martinez left in one vehicle, and Mosley and Jones left in another.

Gunshots fired from the mens vehicle hit Martinez, according to police. Witnesses of the shooting told Killeen police officers that Mosley and Martinez had been romantically involved in the past and had a child together.

A Bell County jury found Mosley guilty of murder in July, and Judge Wade Faulkner sentenced him Tuesday.

The Army has begun the process to discharge Mosley, who enlisted in 2016, from the service, according to the 1st Cavalry Division.

An attorney listed for the soldier did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment.

Jones, a cavalry scout from 2018 to 2021, is also charged with murder in connection to Martinezs death, according to court and military records.

His jury trial is set to begin Monday with the same judge, according to court records.

Martinez was a cannoneer with the 1st Calvary Division. She enlisted in April 2018 and served one deployment to Afghanistan, according to Fort Hood.
The State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) officers have reported suspicions to Director of the Russian FSB Alexander Bortnikov and Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Vladimir Kolokoltsev and their subordinates of aiding Ukrainian law enforcement officers during the violent suppression of protests in Kyiv in November 2013 - February 2014, the SBI reports.

On Wednesday, the Bureau reported on its Telegram channel that the heads of the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation "through their subordinates contributed to the abuse of official powers, the use of excessive force, special means and weapons, which led to the murders and injuries of participants in the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine."
Army Staff Sgt. Kristopher Gorbea, a drone squad leader with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, carries a drone out of a smoke cloud during exercise Saber Junction on Sept. 9, 2025, at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)



HOHENFELS, Germany  Army Staff Sgt. Kristopher Gorbeas squad was using a quadcopter to monitor another drone above a training area in southern Germany this week when the target suddenly buzzed upward, causing a midair collision.

The opposition forces pilot thought the aircraft had been struck by a bird, said Gorbea, a drone squad leader with the 1st Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment. His team managed to fly its off-the-shelf model back to the original position, minus a rotor blade.

I could put 10 of these in my backpack and its still a tenth or less the weight of a Javelin (anti-tank weapon), Gorbea said. And I can hit targets almost four times the distance, and I dont have to put myself in a position where I can lose my life to shoot it.

The incident at the Hohenfels Training Area in Bavaria is emblematic of the seismic shift taking place in modern warfare, where unmanned systems are used to make first contact with the enemy and shape the battlefield.

This years Saber Junction exercise at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center features more than 300 drones, the most in the annual exercises history, said Capt. Matthew Kemelek, the centers unmanned aerial systems program manager.

The drones are performing a host of functions ranging from intelligence gathering to surveillance, reconnaissance and even simulated strikes.

An EchoShield drone detector sits atop a 2nd Cavalry Regiment Stryker vehicle during exercise Saber Junction at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, on Sept. 9. 2025. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

Homemade attack drones await a demonstration flight at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, during exercise Saber Junction on Sept. 9, 2025. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

Army Lt. Col. Jeremy Medaris, commander of 3rd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, stands inside his unit's perimeter during exercise Saber Junction in the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, on Sept. 9, 2025. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

Army Sgt. Koby Jones, a drone operator with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, calibrates the signals frequency on his drone controller during exercise Saber Junction at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, on Sept. 9, 2025. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

Soldiers with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment watch a homemade attack drone during a flight demonstration for exercise Saber Junction in Hohenfels, Germany, on Sept. 9, 2025. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

Army Sgt. Koby Jones, a drone operator with 2nd Cavalry Regiment, flies a homemade attack drone during a demonstration at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, on Sept. 9, 2025. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

Soldiers with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment prepare to move positions at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, during exercise Saber Junction on Sept. 9, 2025. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

A soldier with 2nd Cavalry Regiment secures a perimeter during exercise Saber Junction at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Germany on Sept. 9, 2025. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

Army Staff Sgt. Kristopher Gorbea, a drone squad leader with 2nd Cavalry Regiment, holds a soldier-made kamakaze drone awaiting lift off at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Germany during exercise Saber Junction on Sept. 9, 2025. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)



The exercise, which began in August and ends Sept. 21, features more than 7,000 soldiers from Vilsecks 2nd Cavalry Regiment and 14 NATO allies and partners, supported by more than 1,000 vehicles, an Army statement said.

It is conducted by the 7th Army Training Command and tests combat readiness along the rugged, wooded hillsides of the Hohenfels Training Area in Bavaria.

The Polish army is operating as the headquarters command element for this iteration. Poland was the scene of a Russian drone incursion Tuesday, prompting NATO to scramble fighter jets to shoot down the offending aircraft in what the alliance called a historic first.

Soldiers at the exercise are also employing a host of anti-drone technology, such as the EchoShield high-fidelity radar, the vehicle-mounted Titan detector and jammer and smaller personal systems like the Beast+, which can fit in a backpack.

Were constantly under attack in our position right now, platoon leader 1st Lt. Cammack Shepler said.

The evolving reliance on both offensive and defensive drone technology started on the battlefields of Ukraine and quickly became integrated into Army doctrine through modernization initiatives dubbed Transforming in Contact and Project Flytrap.

Squadron commander Lt. Col. Ryan David said the scenes in the skies over the training area will be a regular occurrence in future combat encounters, even if they are new to Saber Junction.

The modern battlefield is congested; its contested, David said Tuesday. That isnt uncommon. Theyll fly multiple drones at a single time. Now do that across the entire breadth of the brigade and you have five, 10, 20, 50 drones up at a single time.
The Fast Response Cutter John Witherspoon near Juneau, Alaska, on Jan. 23, 2025. (Logan Hoover/U.S. Coast Guard)



The U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday it has moved to accelerate the acquisition of 10 more Fast Response Cutters using money from the record $25 billion one-time funding it received in the 2025 reconciliation bill passed by Congress.

This is a historic accomplishment for the service, said Rear Adm. Mike Campbell, the Coast Guards top acquisition officer.

The $507 million in contract options signed with Bollinger Shipyards of Lockport, La., is the first money to be spent by the Coast Guard from the congressional boost in its bottom line. The Coast Guard currently operates 57 of the Sentinel-class cutters and had planned to buy 10 more. The funds will increase the purchase by another 10 to 77.

The first of the extra cutters would be delivered in 2028, Campbell said.

The 154-foot-long, Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutters were first introduced in 2012 as a larger, faster successor to the 110-foot Island class patrol boat. The ships are 353 long tons, have a top speed of over 28 knots and a range of 2,500 miles. They carry a crew of four officers and 20 enlisted personnel.

Under federal law, the Coast Guard is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

The Coast Guard will spend $6.6 billion on building, upgrading and maintaining its shore facilities.

The Coast Guard plans to spend over $8.6 billion on icebreakers, $4.3 billion on offshore patrol cutters, $2.3 billion for MH-60 Jayhawk search-and-rescue helicopters and just over $1 billion on HC-130J Hercules long-range patrol aircraft.

The spending will also go for $266 million to buy long-range unmanned drones, and $170 million for maritime domain awareness infrastructure, which includes radar, communications monitoring and other equipment.

The Coast Guard has about 55,000 members operating 250 cutters, including three icebreakers and 1,600 smaller boats. The aviation component flies 200 fixed-wing and rotary aircraft.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Lyndon Cosgriff-Flax, 22, died April 28, 2024, in a boating accident at Naval Weapons Station Yorktown, Va. Petty Officer 2nd Class Jackson Bower pleaded guilty Sept. 8, 2025, to dereliction of duty resulting in death and was sentenced to 70 days in jail. (Max Lonzanida/U.S. Navy)



A Navy sailor who pleaded guilty this week to charges stemming from the death of a fellow military police officer at a Virginia naval base last year isnt solely responsible for the tragedy, his attorney said this week.

On Monday, Petty Officer 2nd Class Jackson Bower pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty resulting in death related to a boating accident at Naval Weapons Station Yorktown on April 28, 2024.

For his role in the death of Petty Officer 3rd Class Lyndon Cosgriff-Flax, Bower was sentenced to 70 days in the brig by a military judge at a special court-martial at Naval Station Norfolk.

Bower, 24, originally faced additional charges of negligent homicide and making a false statement, which carried a penalty of up to eight years in prison. In the plea agreement, those charges were dropped.

Bowers guilty plea and sentencing should not be the end of the case, his attorney, Peter Kageleiry Jr., said in a statement on Tuesday. Kageleiry implored the Navy to fulfill its moral obligation to be fully transparent about what he called shortcomings that contributed to Cosgriff-Flaxs death.

It is my belief that the Navy could have prevented this tragedy, Kageleiry said in the statement. This is not the first small boat fatality. If reforms are not implemented, I fear it will not be the last.

The Navy did not immediately respond on Wednesday to a request for comment regarding Kageleirys statement.

The service has shared few details about what happened, except to say that the tragedy occurred during security boat training and area familiarization on the York River.

Cosgriff-Flax, 22, was standing near the front, or bow, of a Navy patrol boat piloted by Bower when he fell overboard after a sharp turn, suffering fatal injuries, according to media and official accounts.

The weapons station hosts 40 tenant commands, including Navy Munitions Command Atlantic, the Marine Corps Security Force Regiment and the Navy Expeditionary Logistics Support Group, among others, according to its website.

Cosgriff-Flaxs father spoke during Mondays hearing, and his remarks were included in the statement from Bowers attorney.

If there are others who share the burden of wrongdoing, I hope that the Navy will act righteously and bring them to accountability and execute the appropriate measures of justice, Corey Flax told the military judge presiding over the hearing, according to the statement.

As part of the plea deal, Bower will retain his rank but receive an other-than-honorable discharge after completing his jail sentence, Virginia-based WHRO Public Media reported Monday.
The Defense Department is moving ahead with the construction of 16 sites for a new missile defense system on Guam, with half of those sites situated on Naval Base Guam, seen here on Aug. 9, 2021. (Naomi Johnson/U.S. Navy)



The Defense Department announced Tuesday it would move forward with the construction of an $8 billion missile defense system for Guam, despite significant impacts to the remote islands environment and community.

Site preparation for the Enhanced Integrated Air and Missile Defense  designed to counter cruise, ballistic and hypersonic missiles potentially launched by China or North Korea  could begin later this year.

The DOD and Missile Defense Agency published the record of decision Tuesday in the Federal Register in Washington, D.C.

Guam Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero, advised by a letter from MDA director Air Force Lt. Gen. Heath Collins of the upcoming decision, expressed disappointment Monday.

We are taking the MDAs Record of Decision very seriously, she said in a news release. That said, I am not satisfied that the cumulative impacts that we have identified and provided to MDA during the [environmental impact statement] commenting period have been addressed.

The defense system, described as a comprehensive, persistent, 360-degree layered shield, would consist of 36 missile launchers, 23 communication towers and 14 radar systems across 16 sites  eight on Naval Base Guam, six on Andersen Air Force Base and two on Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz.

Sites at Blaz on Nimitz Hill at the naval base may require real estate action to obtain property inside an Explosive Safety Quantity Distance arc on property not already owned by the DOD.

Construction is expected to continue through 2035, according to the projects final Environmental Impact Statement, released July 25.

The DOD views Guam, the United States westernmost territory, as a forward logistics hub and a linchpin in regional security that allows the U.S. to project military forces farther east.

While the Pentagon has described the project as a critical defense measure for Guam, the impact statement and the record of decision both acknowledge that construction will carry heavy ramifications for the island.

Among those are loss of unique limestone forests, major traffic impacts on Guams roads and streets and an influx of workers, military personnel and their families.

Construction would destroy 282 acres of limestone forests and remove nearly 5,500 Cycas micronesica, commonly called fadang trees, an endangered species unique to the region.

Loss of that forest ecosystem would also impact the endangered Mariana fruit bat by removing foraging and roosting grounds, according to the report.

The addition of about 160 migrant workers per year, plus the phased arrival of 2,300 service members and their dependents by 2031, are expected to further strain Guams already overburdened housing market and medical services, according to the report.

Leon Guerrero also disagreed with the DODs decision not to convene the Economic Adjustment Committee, a council of 22 federal agencies that coordinates technical and financial assistance for communities impacted by defense projects, according to the release.

Guams security and the safety of our people remain our highest priorities, and we are committed to ensuring that this project also reflects the well-being of our island community, she wrote.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine conduct a press briefing at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., June 26, 2025. (Kashif Basharat/DoD)



Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with their Chinese counterparts, in the latest signal that the two sides are preparing for a meeting between their two leaders.

Hegseth told Chinas Minister of National Defense, Admiral Dong Jun, that the US doesnt seek conflict with Beijing nor is it pursuing regime change, the Pentagon said. The US also isnt aiming for strangulation of the PRC, according to the readout of the call.

He forthrightly relayed that the U.S. has vital interests in the Asia-Pacific, the priority theater, and will resolutely protect those interests, according to the statement from chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell.

On Wednesday, Rubio spoke with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and emphasized the importance of open and constructive communication on a range of bilateral issues, Tommy Pigott, the State Departments principal deputy spokesman, said in a statement. They also addressed other global and regional issues as a continuation of their first in-person discussions in Kuala Lumpur, Pigott said.

Both US statements employed diplomatic language around the candid and constructive conversations and agreement to hold further discussions, indicating that communications between the two global superpowers remain on track amid fragile trade negotiations and ongoing skirmishes in Asian waters.

Rubio said after that July meeting that a summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping looked likely, and Trump has said hed like it to happen. Neither the statement from Hegseth nor Rubio referenced a possible meeting.

Trump told European officials hes willing to impose sweeping new tariffs on India and China to push Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table with Ukraine, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.

The US defense attache in Beijing will represent the Department of Defense at Chinas top annual security gathering, the Xiangshan Forum, next week, a department official said in a separate statement to Bloomberg.

Dong called for a stable and open relationship with the US in his first talk with Hegseth. Any military attempt to support Taiwans independence or use Taiwan to contain China will fail, he told Hegseth in the video call, according to a statement from Chinas Defense Ministry.

He added that China and the US should maintain communications and build a relationship between the two militaries based on mutual respect.

China is committed to working with regional countries to safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea, firmly opposes individual countries acts of infringement and provocation, as well as deliberate disruption by external powers, Dong said. China described the call as candid, pragmatic and constructive.

Dong skipped a key defense forum in Singapore earlier this year, which would have allowed for the first encounter between the two officials. At the Shangri-La Dialogue, reporters asked about Dongs absence and a senior US defense official declined to preview any plans for a conversation between him and Hegseth.

In his remarks in Singapore, Hegseth said the US was not seeking war with China, but urged allies to invest more in defense due to the threat posed by Beijing, prompting a protest from the Chinese foreign ministry. With assistance from James Mayger and Foster Wong.
Japan Ground Self Defense Force members and Philippine marines conduct medical training during the annual Kamandag exercise at Quezon in Palawan, Philippines, June 2, 2025. (Keegan Jones/U.S. Marine Corps)



Japan and the Philippines agreed this week to boost cooperation on weapons and military technology amid Chinese aggression in the East and South China seas.

Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and his Philippine counterpart, Gilberto Teodoro, pledged deeper ties when they met on the sidelines of the annual Seoul Defense Dialogue security forum on Tuesday, according to Japans Ministry of Defense.

The two Ministers concurred to promote defense equipment and technology cooperation, the ministry said in a statement detailing the meeting.

The ministers discussed Japans transfer of retired Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers to the Philippines, according to a transcript of Nakatanis news conference after the meeting.

We discussed both the procurement of destroyers and the transfer of air surveillance radar systems, he said.

Japan may provide the Philippines with Abukuma-class warships commissioned in 1989 or later, the Kyodo news agency reported Tuesday, citing unnamed Japanese government sources.

The Philippines is poised to make a major commitment to build up its defense industry in collaboration with Japan, said Carlyle Thayer, emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales and lecturer at the Australian Defence Force Academy.

Japan permits transfers of defense equipment and technology if they are jointly developed and produced, he told Stars and Stripes by email Wednesday.

However, Patricio Abinales, a professor at the University of Hawaiis School of Pacific and Asian Studies, said the Philippines has little to offer Japan in terms of weapons and technology.

The Philippine military is reorienting itself away from its traditional role as a counterinsurgency force that is of no interest to its northern neighbor, he said by email Wednesday.

What the country has brought to the table is an opportunity for the Japanese military to synchronize its tactical capabilities and field exposure, and increase its collaboration with other Asian forces, he said.

The Philippines, where a series of multinational military exercises took place this year, would be central to any confrontation with China, Abinales said.

Japanese forces  which have been oriented to confront China in Northeast Asia  will need to acclimatize themselves, as it were, in this zone, he wrote.

The Philippines and Japan signed a reciprocal access agreement in 2024 that mirrors similar pacts Japan has with the United Kingdom and Australia. Such agreements facilitate the movement of forces and equipment into signatory countries for training.

At the opening of the Seoul defense dialogue, Teodoro called on South Korea and other small nations to band together as they did during the Korean War to resist Chinas creeping occupation of the Indo-Pacific.

The minister told the gathering of about 400 diplomats, service members and defense experts that geopolitical competition in maritime areas continues to stir unease, particularly in the South China Sea, Taiwan Strait, East China Sea and Yellow Sea.

What becomes of the rules-based order  in these waters will directly affect us, for better or for worse, he said.

Teodoro alleged China is the primary perpetrator of these tensions, as evidenced by its territorial claims over vast swaths of water and strategy of creeping occupation disguised as fishing activity.

Stars and Stripes reporter Yoojin Lee contributed to this report.
A Marine Corps F/A-18C Hornet with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 232 taxis across the flight line at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, Sept. 8, 2025. (Erick Reyes/U.S. Marine Corps)



A squadron of Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornets began arriving at an air station southeast of Hiroshima this week to replace the services first squadron of F-35B Lightning II fighters deployed to Japan.

The first Hornets with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 232 landed Monday at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni for a six-month stint, according to a news release from the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing that day.

Four aircraft arrived Monday, 1st Lt. Brady Mallory, spokeswoman for Marine Aircraft Group 12, told Stars and Stripes by phone the following day. Photos show a single-seat F/A-18C and a two-seat variant, the F/A-18D, arriving at the base.

Eventually, 12 Hornets will operate from MCAS Iwakuni under the Unit Deployment Program, replacing F-35Bs with Fighter Attack Squadron 214, deployed from Yuma, Ariz., Mallory wrote in an email Tuesday. She declined to say when, citing operational security concerns.

Also known as the Red Devils, the squadron is based at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif. It will join Marine Aircraft Group 12 to provide critical aviation support from naval and expeditionary environments, according to the release.

Marine Aircraft Group 12 is excited to welcome Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 232, said group commander Col. William Millett III, according to an email from Mallory on Wednesday. The Red Devils fly the F/A-18 Hornet, and are celebrating their centennial this year and represent the oldest fighter squadron in the Marine Corps.

MCAS Iwakuni is home to two permanently stationed Marine squadrons and another unit from Yuma, Fighter Attack Squadron 211, that arrived in May. All three fly the F-35B. The group also includes an aerial refueling squadron and logistics and support squadrons.

The departing Fighter Attack Squadron 214, the Black Sheep, was the first F-35B rotational unit in Japan as part of a modernization effort tied to the Corps Force Design restructuring plan, wing spokesman Maj. Joseph Butterfield told Stars and Stripes in May. The deployment program has traditionally involved squadrons of F/A-18 Hornets and AV-8B Harriers.

The Marine Corps is transitioning from the F/A-18 to the F-35B, but will continue to operate Hornets until 2030, according to a 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing news release from September 2023.

While the Marine Corps is switching from 4th to 5th generation fighters, they still have F/A-18 squadrons that are operational and benefit from UDP training, Mallory wrote.

The base is home to Carrier Air Wing 5, the Navys air component for the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, homeported at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan.

During its deployment, the squadron will participate with the group in exercises involving Japan and other international military forces, Mallory wrote, without elaborating.

F-35Bs with Squadron 214 participated in joint exercises at Misawa Air Base in June, deployed to Osan Air Base in South Korea from May 13-31, and flew alongside U.S. and South Korean air forces in Freedom Flag, which began in April and concluded May 2, according to official social media posts.

The last Hornets deployed to MCAS Iwakuni  from Fighter Attack Squadron 312 out of MCAS Beaufort, S.C.  departed in March, Mallory added.

The fourth-generation F/A-18s are all-weather, twin-engine and designed for use on carriers, according to a Navy fact sheet. In fighter mode, they provide escorts and fleet air defense; in attack mode they are used for force projection, interdiction and close air support.

The F-35B variant is a short take-off and vertical landing stealth fighter that can also operate from carriers.
A P-8A Poseidon attached to Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 1 sits on an airfield at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, July 27, 2025. (John Jarrett/U.S. Navy)



Singapore plans on buying four Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft, the countrys Ministry of Defense announced Wednesday.

Singaporean Defense Minister Chan Chun Sing announced the decision during a Tuesday meeting at the Pentagon with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to a ministry news release.

Chan, a former army general, told Hegseth that acquiring the Poseidons is phase one of Singapores plan to update its maritime security capabilities, according to the release.

The P-8s will replace Fokker 50 aircraft that have been in service since 1993. The new planes will strengthen the Singaporean air forces maritime situational awareness and ability to counter sub-surface threats, the ministry said.

The P-8 is a version of the commercial 737-800 airliner that the Navy first deployed in December 2013 to replace the older P-3 Orion, according to Boeing.

The Boeing P-8 Poseidon is a multi-mission maritime patrol aircraft excelling at anti-submarine warfare; anti-surface warfare; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; Maritime Domain Awareness; and search and rescue, the companys website states.

The P-8 can fly up to 41,000 feet with a maximum speed of 490 knots, according to Boeing. Fitted with an in-flight refueling system, the planes endurance and range allow it to conduct extended patrols over vast expanses of water.

A proven system with 172 aircraft delivered or in service, the P-8 has logged more than 660,000 flight hours around the globe, Boeings website states.

Boeings P-8 customers include the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Germany, Norway and India, according to the website.

The Singapore ministry did not provide information about what it expected to pay for its Poseidons. New Zealands fourth and final P-8A arrived July 2, completing an aircraft purchase worth $13.9 billion, or $347.5 million per plane, according to a defence ministry news release July 17.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which manages U.S. foreign military sales, had no information on its website as of Wednesday about a prospective sale of P-8As to Singapore.

Last month, the Department of the Air Force scrapped a plan to base a dozen Singapore air force F-15SG Eagle fighters on Guam.

Meanwhile, production has begun on 20 F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters that Singapore has purchased. The first of those aircraft are expected to arrive at the end of 2026, Chan said, according to the Singaporean release.

A Singaporean air force training detachment will be based at Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Arkansas, the release added.
Two Dutch F-35 Lightning IIs fly over the North Sea on April 28, 2025. Russian drones that crossed into Poland on Sept. 9 were shot down by Dutch fighter jets, in what NATO officials said was the first time the bloc's planes have fired on potential threats in allied airspace. (Christopher Campbell/U.S. Air Force)



Dutch fighter jets downing of Russian drones that crossed into Poland marks the first time in history that NATO planes have fired on potential threats in allied airspace, the blocs military command said just hours later.

NATO responded quickly and decisively to the situation, demonstrating our capability and resolve to defend Allied territory, Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, said in a statement Wednesday, a day after the incursion.

Besides the scrambling of Dutch and Polish aircraft, German Patriot missile defense units in Poland also were placed on alert as the drone incursion unfolded, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe said.

An Italian airborne early warning plane and an aerial refueler from NATOs multinational aircraft fleet also were launched. NATO officials said they were in close consultation with Poland over the incident.

This is the first time NATO planes have engaged potential threats in Allied airspace, SHAPE spokesman Col. Martin ODonnell said in the statement.

Western leaders lashed out at Russian President Vladimir Putin and called for a tough response to the incursion, which NATO says involved numerous drones.

On Wednesday, NATO leaders met at the request of Poland after invoking the alliances Article 4 provision, which allows for emergency talks in the event a member believes that its territorial integrity has been violated.

Although the response to the incursion proved that NATO can defend its airspace, allies must stay one step ahead of the Russians, Secretary General Mark Rutte told reporters Wednesday.

Some military observers said the situation highlights the need for more action to protect allied airspace.

Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, a former commander of the U.S. Army in Europe, said using fighter planes to take down drones indicated that NATO could be better prepared.

The alliance and U.S. European Command need to conduct theaterwide air and missile defense exercises to deter or defeat future Russian attacks, Hodges said in a statement. He called those exercises long overdue.

The drone flights into Poland show that the Kremlin was rehearsing now, checking our response times and capabilities, Hodges said.

Deployment of small drones and development of tactics to counter them have been hallmarks of the war in Ukraine, where both sides have put related technology to effective use.

In response, the U.S. military and other allies have been playing catch-up when it comes to equipping units with affordable and flexible weapons systems that can be used to take drones down.

Beyond tactics, Western officials stretching from Washington to Brussels are now calling for tougher sanctions on Russia and other measures in response to the incident.

This is an act of war, and we are grateful to NATO allies for their swift response to war criminal Putins continued unprovoked aggression against free and productive nations, U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., said in a statement.

Wilson called on President Donald Trump to respond with mandatory sanctions that will bankrupt the Russian war machine and arm Ukraine with weapons capable of striking Russia.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said violations of NATO airspace were a sign that Putin was testing allies resolve and willingness to protect Poland and the Baltic nations.

After the carnage Putin continues to visit on Ukraine, these incursions cannot be ignored, he said.

The European Unions chief diplomat made similar remarks.

Last night in Poland, we saw the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began, and indications suggest it was intentional, not accidental, Kaja Kallas, the EU foreign policy boss, said in a statement.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said allies need to consider more aggressive measures, such as intercepting drones and missiles in Ukrainian airspace that are headed toward NATO territory.

A weak response now will provoke Russia even more, and then Russian missiles and drones will fly even further into Europe, he said.

Russia has yet to respond publicly about the incident. SHAPE said that by early Wednesday morning, alerted forces had returned to standard readiness levels.

This story has been updated.
The 20-year-old youth was returned to government-controlled territory of Ukraine, said head of the Presidents Office, Andriy Yermak.

"As part of the Ukrainian President's initiative, Bring Kids Back UA managed to rescue a 20-year-old boy from the temporarily occupied territory," Yermak wrote on his Telegram channel on Wednesday.

According to him, the boy spent more than three years under constant pressure in the occupation, the occupiers forced him to apply for Russian documents and threatened his family. "The example of his sister, who managed to escape to free territory earlier, helped him decide to go home. Today, thanks to the help of the Ukrainian Network for Children's Rights and the Humanity initiative, the boy is already safe with his family and receives the necessary help and support in Ukraine," Yermak added.

Head of Kherson Regional Military Administration, Oleksandr Prokudin, in turn, reported that a fourteen-year-old girl was returned to the territory controlled by Ukraine from the temporarily occupied part of Kherson region.

"The child was separated from her mother for more than three and a half years, because on the eve of the Great War the woman went to Kyiv to earn money. The girl stayed with her grandfather in her native temporarily occupied town. The child was forced to glorify Russia at school, and the grandfather was repeatedly threatened to take his granddaughter to a boarding school if he tried to send her to her mother. Fortunately, the girl is already with her mother and is receiving the necessary help," he wrote on Telegram.

According to Prokudin, the rescue took place within the framework of the Ukrainian President's Bring Kids Back initiative and thanks to the efforts of the Ukrainian Network for Children's Rights.

On July 25, Advisor to the Head of the Presidents Office of Ukraine Daria Zarivna reported that within the framework of the initiative of the President of Ukraine Bring Kids Back UA, 1,458 children have already been returned, but more than 1.6 million Ukrainian children remain under the control of the enemy, the Presidents Office reports.

After this, more than 40 more children, teenagers and young adults, as well as some of their parents, returned from the occupied territory to Ukraine within the framework of the Bring Kids Back UA initiative.
A U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II lands at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in 2023. Experts say Israels attack on senior Hamas leaders in Doha on Sept. 9, 2025, could strain relations with key U.S. ally Qatar. Al Udeid is the largest base in the region and hosts 10,000 American troops. (Leon Redfern/U.S. Air Force)



Israels sudden attack on senior Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital this week could test U.S. ties with the key country and prompt Arab allies regionwide to rethink their relationship with Washington, according to analysts.

The attack Tuesday targeted Hamas political headquarters in Doha, where top leaders were gathered to discuss details of a ceasefire proposal for the war in Gaza, according to the Associated Press.

The strike marks a serious escalation, experts say, and has angered the oil-rich nation, which hosts 10,000 American troops at Al Udeid Air Base and serves as the forward headquarters of U.S. Central Command.

At the very least, Doha will feel let down by Washington, said Simon Henderson, a senior fellow and program director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Al Udeid houses the Combined Air Operations Center for U.S. Central Command, which helps to track and shoot down incoming enemy fire in the region, including rockets targeted at Israel.

Unlike other Persian Gulf nations, which are more cautious about what the U.S. can and cant do on their soil, Qatar gives American forces more leeway, and that makes the attack on Doha all the more shocking for Qataris, Henderson said.

Qatar must be wondering, What the hell is going on? We are giving this immensely important assistance to Israel for the defense of Israel, and then Israel comes and attacks us, Henderson said.

Leaders in Washington rushed to distance the U.S. from Israels actions in the hours following the attack. President Donald Trump in a social media post Tuesday evening emphasized that this was a unilateral decision made by Israel.

Trump added that his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, had sought to warn Qataris prior to the strike. A Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson, though, said the call came from the U.S. just as the sound of explosions rang out in Doha, according to a statement posted to social media.

A member of Qatars domestic security forces was killed in the attack and several others were injured, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Qatar, which has served as a mediator between Israel and Hamas throughout war, was swift to condemn the strike along with other Gulf nations, calling it a flagrant violation of all international laws and norms.

American allies elsewhere in the Middle East, several of which host American troops, could be reassessing their bilateral ties as well, Henderson said.

In addition to Qatar, the U.S. has troops stationed in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which serves as the headquarters for U.S. Naval Forces Central Command.

(The Gulf states) will be thinking now whether they can still trust Washington and in particular President Trump, who theyre not sure has their interests fully at heart, Henderson said.

Thomas Warrick, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who was previously at the Homeland Security Department, said its clear from the White Houses quick reaction that the Trump administration is invested in seeing the relationship with Qatar continue.

Its unclear what the long-term results of the strike may be, Warrick said, but Qatar has already said it will suspend mediations between Israel and Hamas.

Even with questions about the United States role in the attack, direct retaliation against American forces in the region is unlikely, Warrick said.

The last thing (Iran) should want to do is to bring down the wrath of the War Department on them, he said, using an alternate name for the Defense Department. I dont think were going to see anything other than words coming out of Tehran.

American bases in the Persian Gulf area were put on high alert earlier this summer after Israeli and U.S. forces targeted Irans top leaders and nuclear facilities. Iran retaliated by sending more than a dozen missiles to Al Udeid, most of which were shot down by air defenses.
This undated photo shows Muhammad Zahid Chaudhry. Chaudhry enlisted in the Washington Army National Guard in 2001. He served until 2005 before being honorably discharged due to a back injury sustained while training to go to Iraq in 2003. (Department of Homeland Security)



TACOMA, Wa. (Tribune News Service)  A U.S. Army veterans immigration case remains uncertain after he was recently denied bond by a judge, family members say.

As community members and elected officials continue to advocate for Muhammad Zahid Chaudhrys release from the Northwest ICE Processing Center, federal officials have taken new legal actions in recent days to deport Chaudhry, who has been living in the United States since 2000.

The bond denial leaves my husband in a bit of a due process limbo at this point, Melissa Chaudhry said Monday.

Chaudhry was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Aug. 21 after he arrived for a citizenship interview in Tukwila, she said. Federal officials say Chaudhry has several fraud charges in Australia from 1996 that he initially failed to disclose.

Known to many as Zahid, Chaudhry  who has now lived in the United States for over two decades  is originally from Pakistan and lives in Lacey with Melissa and their two children. Melissa Chaudhry ran for Congress in 2024 in Washingtons 9th Congressional District.

Zahid Chaudhrys arrest sparked outrage among supporters, who say Chaudhry has dedicated his life after military service to activism. He served on former Gov. Jay Inslees Committee on Disability Issues and Employment and is the president of the Veterans for Peace Olympia chapter.

Detaining him in that process is unjust and undermines faith in the system, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said in a statement Aug. 28 calling for his release.

This administrations immigration enforcement is targeting our neighbors, friends, and even veterans rather than focusing on real public safety threats.

Chaudhry, who has been working to secure his citizenship in a cascade of litigation spanning roughly two decades, has faced the threat of deportation since 2009.

He is fighting his removal in an ongoing case moving through the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The day after he was detained by ICE, he filed a stay of removal to prevent his deportation until the case concludes.

Federal officials have since taken additional steps to deport Chaudhry, filing a motion Sept. 2 to lift the removal stay. Melissa Chaudhry said they received a copy of the motion Sunday.

We see them actively shredding immigration law, she said Monday.

Chaudhry entered the U.S. on a tourist visa in September 2000 and applied for a green card in January 2001 after marrying an American woman that same month, according to court documents. (They divorced, then he married Melissa in 2022, she said.) Chaudhry received lawful permanent resident status in April 2001, he said in court records.

That year, Chaudhry enlisted in the Washington Army National Guard. He served until 2005 before being honorably discharged due to a back injury sustained while training to go to Iraq in 2003. Melissa Chaudhry said the injury left her husband with severe pain, forcing him to use a wheelchair. He never deployed overseas.

Chaudhry applied for citizenship on the basis of his military service in April 2004, noting in his application that he had criminal convictions for fraud in Australia where he lived before moving to the U.S.

Those convictions were related to using a passport that wasnt his to open a bank account and obtain medical benefits, and using a credit card that wasnt his, according to court records.

That disclosure raised a red flag with immigration officials, who argued in court Chaudhry previously failed to mention those convictions in his tourist visa application, as well as in an interview related to his green card application.

The Department of Homeland Security distributed a news release Sept. 4 to set the record straight and detail these allegations against Chaudhry. President (Donald) Trump and Secretary Noem have been clear: there is no place in the U.S. for illegal alien criminals, the release stated.

Melissa Chaudhry said her husband was coerced into pleading guilty to the fraud charges in Australia, and that he initially didnt disclose them on U.S. forms because police had told him there would be no criminal record associated with the convictions. She added Chaudhry has never broken the law in the U.S., and that the convictions in Australia carried a lenient sentence equivalent to paying a parking ticket.

Its really shameful and disgusting, the DHS statement, she said, adding that it included claims that were irrelevant, out of context or straight up lies.

In August 2008, an immigration judge denied Chaudrys application for naturalization. The following year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement moved to deport him, with federal officials saying he was inadmissible based on his convictions for crimes involving moral turpitude, court records stated.

Chaudhry challenged the deportation order, and a U.S. immigration judge ruled in 2018 he could keep his green card, Melissa Chaudry said, stopping his removal. Federal officials appealed the decision, and the Board of Immigration Appeals  an administrative body within the U.S. Department of Justice  overturned the immigration judges ruling in February 2020. Chaudhry filed his appeal to the Ninth Circuit court the following month.

Pending the outcome of (my) appeal, no final order of removal is effective, Chaudhry said in a filing to the Tacoma immigration judge last week.

In a separate legal case, Chaudhry filed a lawsuit in 2009 appealing his denied citizenship application. A federal judge upheld the denial, and a three-judge panel from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district courts ruling in 2013.

Chaudhry has continued to file applications for naturalization on the basis of his military status, despite the denial, Melissa Chaudhry said. In general, legal permanent residents can reapply for citizenship, though they may have to wait several years to do so depending on the reason for the denial.

The Chaudhrys went to the naturalization interview Aug. 21 as a show of good faith, his wife said, despite knowing the risk of detention.

My husband is neither a criminal nor illegal, Melissa Chaudhry said. We know him, we love him and we trust him, and were right.  But theyre trying to weaponize this case.

On Aug. 29, dozens of supporters showed up at the ICE detention center to attend a bond hearing for Chaudhry. Judge Theresa Scala did not issue an immediate ruling on whether Chaudhry could go home while his case plays out, telling the courtroom she would take a few days to review the case.

Scala denied his bond later that same day, according to Melissa Chaudhry, who said she saw a copy of the judges decision from her husband through the glass partition at the detention center on Sept. 4.

Many people detained at the center have struggled to secure a bond because of an unusual legal interpretation practiced by some judges at the Tacoma immigration court. The judges state they do not have jurisdiction to issue bonds in many cases. A class-action lawsuit filed in March is challenging the legality of the policy.

The bond denial has left Chaudhry with a shrinking number of options, his wife said. No new immigration hearing has been scheduled as of Monday. Its unclear when the Ninth Circuit court will issue a ruling on his appeal.

 2025 The Seattle Times.

Visit www.seattletimes.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., played a video during a House hearing on Sept. 9, 2025, that he said showed an MQ-9 Reaper striking an unidentified orb moving fast off the coast of Yemen in October 2024. The orb kept flying after being hit by a Hellfire missile, he said. (Screen capture from video/Facebook)



WASHINGTON  Descriptions of mysterious aircraft that withstood a missile strike and hovered over a U.S. Air Force base highlighted veterans firsthand reports of UFO sightings at a dramatic hearing by a special House task force collecting evidence on unidentified anomalous phenomena.

But one of the veterans speaking Tuesday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets complained he faced retaliation by the Defense Department and intelligence officials that included blacklisting from employment at federal intelligence agencies.

Air Force veteran Dylan Borland, a former geospatial intelligence specialist at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, claimed he faced reprisal after reporting a UAP event he witnessed.

Borland said a triangular aircraft hovered above him for several minutes after he stepped outside for a cigarette break while on overnight duty at Langley Air Force Base in 2012.

This craft interfered with my telephone, did not have any sound and the material it was made of appeared fluid or dynamic, Borland told the task force. It displayed zero kinetic disturbance, sound or wind displacement.

The UAP then rapidly ascended to commercial jet level and left the area at a high rate of speed, he said.

Air Force veteran Dylan Borland speaks before a special House task force about his experience witnessing and reporting unidentified anomalous phenomena  also known as UAP  while working at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. (Screenshot from hearing via C-SPAN.)



Borland said he was interviewed by AARO in 2023 about the incident, but his claims were dismissed.

AARO  the Pentagons All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office  was established to investigate UAP sightings by military personnel. He said the agencys assessments do not support the reported sightings by military personnel.

AARO has maintained it has no verifiable evidence from anecdotal reports of extraterrestrial activity or technology.

AARO uses a rigorous scientific framework and data-driven approach to better understand UAP. We will follow the science wherever it leads, according to the agencys website.

Borland said he faced discrediting because of his report, as well as workplace retaliation and manipulation of his security clearance.

I am unemployed now and have no job prospects, said Borland, who met with the Office of the Intelligence Community Inspector General about his experience.

I and many other individuals [who made UAP reports] feel discarded and separated from the country they served, he said. I have endured sustained reprisals from government agencies for more than a decade.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who is chairwoman of the task force, accused the Defense Department and intelligence community of a lack of transparency.

She said the task force has been denied access to video and files related to UAP incidents.

Luna suggested there is a cover-up by defense officials of evidence about UAP encounters. The American people are not fragile and do not need to be shielded like children from reality, Luna said.

For too long, the issue of unidentified anomalous phenomena  commonly known as UAPs  has been shrouded in secrecy, stigma and in some cases outright dismissal, Luna said at the start of the 2-hour hearing. This is about national security, and government accountability.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., a task force member, played a video he said showed an MQ-9 Reaper striking an unidentified orb moving fast off the coast of Yemen in October 2024. The orb kept flying after being hit by a Hellfire missile, he said.

Im not going to speculate what it is. But the question is, why are we being blocked from this information? said Burlison, who complained the Defense Department is not fully disclosing what it knows about UAP incidents.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, said many UAP sightings may be the work of adversaries with new capabilities to gain military advantage. Those are the likely explanations for these mysteries, she said.

But Crockett emphasized that military personnel who risk careers and reputations to report UAP sightings need protection.

We need to ensure that people who come forward and make reports can do so without fear of retaliation, she said.
Photo: https://www.facebook.com/RedCrossUkraine

The Ukrainian Red Cross Society (URCS) provided assistance to 10 victims at the sites of Russian shelling in Zhytomyr, and is also providing assistance in Vinnytsia.

Zhytomyr. The Ukrainian Red Cross emergency response team in Zhytomyr region is working on-site alongside the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SESU) following the recent attack. Volunteers have provided first aid to ten people with injuries of varying severity, URCS said on Facebook Wednesday.

The URCS representatives also provide first psychological aid to the victims and their relatives. Volunteers have set up an aid station where local residents and rescuers can get the necessary support, in particular, drink coffee or water, charge mobile devices. The URCS volunteers are distributing film and tarpaulin to local residents whose homes were damaged as a result of the shelling.

According to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, as a result of Russian shelling of Zhytomyr district, residential buildings were damaged in the private sector. A local resident was injured, received burns of varying degrees and later died in the hospital. Sappers of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine are working at the scene. Emergency rescue operations are ongoing.

Vinnytsia. The Ukrainian Red Cross emergency response team in Vinnytsia region provided assistance at the site of the recent attack, URCS said.

The victims and rescuers will receive the necessary assistance, in particular, they are provided with hot drinks, snacks and water. Volunteers are on duty at the scene to promptly provide first aid and psychological assistance.

The Ukrainian Red Cross will hand over tarpaulin to people whose homes were damaged.

According to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, one person was wounded as a result of Russian shelling of Vinnytsia, a total of 31 people were injured, including three children. Civil and industrial infrastructure facilities were damaged, windows were knocked out and roofs were damaged in more than 20 residential buildings.
Ukraine synchronized sanctions with Great Britain and introduced restrictions on 47 individuals and 81 legal entities that assist the military-industrial complex, the shadow fleet and the energy sector of the Russian Federation, as well as on 37 individuals and 35 legal entities involved in the supply and implementation of IT and communication solutions, involved in the processes of supply, development, production of electronic warfare for the Russian military-industrial complex, the press service of the President's Office has said.

"Ukraine has synchronized sanctions with the United Kingdom and introduced restrictions against persons who assist the military-industrial complex, the shadow fleet and the energy sector of Russia. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed the relevant decrees on the implementation of the decisions of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine on the introduction of sanctions," the President's Office said.

Relevant presidential decrees No. 676/2025 and 675 of September 10, 2025 were published on the website of the President of Ukraine.

It is reported that within the framework of the synchronization of sanctions with the United Kingdom, Ukraine has applied restrictive measures to 47 individuals and 81 legal entities that supply Russia with electronics, mine coal in the temporarily occupied territories and perform repair work in mines, as well as those involved in the functioning of the shadow fleet of Russia. In particular, among them are companies already under the U.S. sanctions: one of Russia's largest coal suppliers Stroyservice and the Russian coal mining and processing company Russkaya Energiya.

It is noted that Ukraine consistently synchronizes the sanctions of partners and continues to work to ensure that Ukrainian sanction restrictions are synchronized in the jurisdictions of allies.

In addition, Ukraine has imposed sanctions against 37 individuals and 35 legal entities involved in the supply and implementation of IT solutions for the Russian military-industrial complex, involved in the processes of supply, development, production and maintenance of electronic warfare, telecommunications, electronic components and equipment for the Russian military-industrial complex and law enforcement agencies, and related to the supply of imported equipment and components in circumvention of sanctions.

In particular, these are Sitronics KT, which develops comprehensive IT solutions for the Russian military-industrial complex; SINTO, a supplier of IT solutions, one of the largest Russian system integrators; Baltinfocom, a manufacturer of computers and software that cooperates with the Russian security forces; the Bee Pitron group of companies, which technically re-equips Russian military enterprises; Precision Mechanics, a Belarusian manufacturer of parts and equipment for the Russian aviation, automotive and space industries.
Sybiha: We are eagerly waiting our partners' decision on downing of Russian aerial targets over Ukraine's territory

Ukraine is eagerly waiting for the partners' decision on the shooting down of Russian air objects over the territory of Ukraine and the strengthening of sanctions against Russia, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha has said.

"Our understanding is the following: the time has come to act, condemnations alone are not enough, there must be a clear, firm reaction from our partners both in bilateral and multilateral formats. What this means: a quick decision, and we are very much waiting for it, on the shooting down of Russian air objects over the territory of Ukraine," he said, speaking to journalists in Kyiv on Wednesday.

According to Sybiha, Ukraine has discussed this with its neighbors, in particular Romania, Poland, and other neighbors, on whose territory either falling debris or violations of airspace have already been recorded.

"Our position is this: the time has come to finally make this decision, and it will help, among other things, protect our common European security space. The second is to increase Ukraine's capabilities in air defense systems. A concrete contribution from our closest allies in building our air shield," the foreign minister said.

As the minister explained, this consists in deploying as many as possible, including additional air systems, in places necessary to shoot down Russian air objects over the territory of Ukraine, including those heading into the airspace of EU countries.

Ukraine's third position, as the minister noted, is to deprive Russia of the ability to produce high-precision weapons.

He stressed that even in the missile that hit the Cabinet building, "many elements that were produced in Western countries have been identified as of now, despite the sanctions."

"We have already brought this information to the relevant capitals. The time has come to adopt devastating sanctions," Sybiha said.

Separately, the minister stressed the importance of implementing secondary sanctions.

According to Sybiha, it is crucial that this "sanctions strike" is synchronized with the U.S. pressure steps.
Jose Luis Piedra Seville Wednesday, 10 September 2025, 13:08 | Updated 13:23h. Share

The Junta de Andalucia regional government, through the ministry of agriculture, fisheries, livestock and rural development, has confirmed a new outbreak of avian influenza in the province of Huelva on a poultry farm in the municipality of Valverde del Camino. It is very close to the first bird flu outbreak detected in the neighbouring town of El Cerro del Andevalo. The virus has been detected in a farm of 8,400 poultry and the outbreak has been confirmed after the clinical suspicion was reported to the regional ministry and the corresponding tests were carried out at the national reference centre, the central veterinary laboratory in Algete.

According to the ministry's administrative department for agri-food production and animal welfare and the regional ministry of agriculture, this outbreak has been declared some 20 kilometres away from the one detected on 4 September on a farm in El Cerro del Andevalo, although there is no "apparent epidemiological link between the two".

The farm in Valverde del Camino has been visited by the veterinary services of the Junta de Andalucia and is currently immobilised, as well as other farms located within a radius of three to ten kilometres. The regional authority said that the actions of slaughtering the birds of the affected farm and the official destruction of carcasses, feed and other materials that could carry the virus have been initiated, as established by the protocols and in accordance with the delegated regulation of the European Commission.

The Andalusian government explained that "rapid and rigorous action is being taken to prevent the disease from spreading, stopping contagion in other areas and ensuring the protection of public health and the ecosystem".

The ministry's administrative department for agricultural and livestock production said: "The aim is to keep the Andalusian agricultural offices and the eight territorial delegations informed and trained in order to implement all possible measures to prevent the disease from spreading and to be vigilant in the event of any incident. Work is being carried out and farms throughout the region and province are being supervised to act if necessary."

The Andalusian regional minister, Antonio Sanz, pointed out that this new suspected outbreak in Valverde del Camino is in addition to two others under study in the provinces of Malaga and Seville, along with the five already confirmed, four in the province of Huelva and another in Seville.
SUR in English Gibraltar Wednesday, 10 September 2025, 13:49 Share

Gibraltar National Day, celebrated every year on 10 September, is the official national day of the British overseas territory. This date honours the Rock's first sovereignty referendum held in 1967, when Gibraltarian citizens were asked to choose between transferring to Spanish sovereignty or continuing under British sovereignty with self-governing institutions.

The Gibraltar National Day celebration has grown significantly since its inception, reflecting the territory's strong commitment to self-determination. The first time the event was held proved so popular that the crowds of people exceeded the capacity of John Mackintosh Square, prompting government intervention to help organise future celebrations. Recognising the event's importance in supporting Gibraltar's long-standing campaign for self-determination at the United Nations since 1963, authorities declared 10 September a public holiday. As attendance continued to grow, organisers relocated the festivities to the larger Grand Casemates Square in 1993, before moving to the even more spacious Naval Ground in 1998 to accommodate the crowds.

This year, in his speech, the prime minister, Fabian Picardo emphasised Gibraltar's permanent commitment to remaining British, declaring it an integral part of the British family that will never change. He highlighted the territory's right to self-determination as a choice to stay British forever, describing the bond with Britain as unbreakable. The Prime Minister celebrated achieving a deal with the EU alongside Britain that preserves Gibraltar's sovereignty without compromise.
The well where the body of Jose David Ruiz Hierrezuelo was found eight days after he disappeared, which has now been fenced off.

Eugenio Cabezas Velez-Malaga Wednesday, 10 September 2025, 18:29 Share

The relatives of Jose David Ruiz Hierrezuelo, the 51-year-old from Velez-Malaga on the eastern Costa del Sol who died on 24 August after accidentally falling into an abandoned well while walking his three dogs, believe that his death could have been prevented.

The family are "devastated" and at the same time "outraged" by the state of an old disused well located a few meters from the town's wholesale market.

Jose David's body was there for eight days before it was found by a passer-by, who alerted the emergency services, having noticed a strong smell coming from the area.

The plot of land where the tragedy occured, which is privately owned, is frequented by dog-walkers, as was the case of Ruiz Hierrezuelo, who that night went out, as usual, from his home with his three dogs. It is also used as a parking area, as it was not fenced off. However, only two of the dogs returned to the vicinity of the house. The third was found eight days later, alive, inside the same well.

Investigators suggest that the animal could have fallen first and that Jose David tried to help it, or that they both fell at the same time. The area where the fatal event took place was not marked. "My brother's death could have been avoided if the well had been marked. The investigations seem to show that he did not know that the well was there, but while walking his dogs, he fell into the well and he could no longer get out," his sister Beatriz told SUR. The well has now been fenced off and marked. "At last they listened to us and it is now safer so that there will not be another tragedy," said Beatriz.

"The well was not signposted, it was open, abandoned and full of bushes, you couldn't see it from anywhere"

According to Beatriz, the well "was not signposted, it was open, abandoned and full of bushes", so that "it was not visible from anywhere, but more tragedies could have happened, because it is frequented by people who live in the area, for walks, to take pets and as a parking area, even if it is on the outskirts of the town".

She believes that "the danger continues and the Real Feria de San Miguel [fair] is so close, I'm sure they will make use of it as usual". Beatriz added, "Next week there are more events and they are not looking for solutions. My family is devastated and my brother's life. My father and I are devastated, we have had two deaths in a row, my mother of a heart attack in February and my brother in August."

Beatriz added, "They continue with the festivities and don't offer solutions, they only sent me condolences with the black ribbon and all the events continue, without any help from them, they look the other way and San Miguel is very close. My brother is dead but what I hope is that it does not happen again."

The National Police have informed the family that Jose David fell accidentally and hit his head, which caused his death almost instantaneously. The dog was able to survive in the well, which was eleven metres deep and had three metres of water in it, by clinging to some stones. The three animals owned by the deceased have been adopted by a family from La Vinuela.

"Don't let it happen again".

Speaking on Cadena SER radio, Jose David's brother-in-law Jose Carlos Munoz said that they want responsibility to be established so that what happened "does not happen again". He added, "Right now we are trying to deal with the grief and then we will see how we act. What I don't want is for the life of my brother-in-law to be left there in oblivion, stagnant."

In the hours following the discovery of the body, the area was cordoned off and plastic fences with iron bars were placed around the base of the well. Since the news broke, residents of Velez-Malaga have been using social media to complain that the well was "unmarked, uncovered and without any warning". "The height of neglect, indifference and negligence is that it is still the same", they added in one of the messages.

Velez-Malaga company Carburantes Clavero has disassociated itself from the land, which it sold to a construction company in 2005

Velez-Malaga company Carburantes Clavero has disassociated itself from the ownership of the land in a statement released on its social media. "Firstly, we deeply regret the tragic death of our neighbour David Ruiz Hierrezuelo, after falling into a well that was not properly sealed. We join in the grief of his family and loved ones at this difficult time," they said.

"We wish to clarify that, contrary to what has been spread through various media and social media accounts, the land where the accident occurred does not belong to our company. It was sold to a construction company in Malaga in 2005 and currently belongs to a bank," they explained. Carburantes Clavero has reiterated its "respect for the truth and our willingness to collaborate with the authorities so that the circumstances of this unfortunate event are fully clarified".
Jose Rodriguez Camara Torremolinos Wednesday, 10 September 2025, 12:43 Share

Daniel Yabar, an architect who is a reference point for skating enthusiasts, is the author of the design on which the new skate park planned by Torremolinos will be based. It will be located in an area of the town which, despite its strategic position near the tourist monument roundabout, is currently abandoned.

It is a skate park - the construction of which has been put out to tender - that has the signature of an author who has already developed similar facilities all over Spain, from Vitoria to Seville, and including Arinaga, in Gran Canaria, which has been well received by users.

The project, which is already under way in the administrative phase, is less about a park and more about a square. The planned intervention will allow the transformation of a 2,400-square-metre municipal site, next to a supermarket, at the junction of Avenida de la Libertad and Los Manantiales, where the area for skateboarders will occupy 686 square metres. In addition, there will be a wave-style ramp for surf skate enthusiasts, that is, those who practice on boards that resemble the ones used to surf the waves in the sea.

The area will have nods to other squares that skaters already frequent in cities such as Malaga, Madrid and Philadelphia in the USA.

Urban regeneration

The community of municipalities of the Costa del Sol has been in charge of drafting the technical document for the work, which is included in the urbanisation and infrastructure provision project Linear Park  Avenida de la Libertad, a work carried out by the municipal technical services. Its objective is to achieve urban regeneration across a group of plots between Avenida de la Libertad and Avenida San Francisco, thereby improving the facilities along the entire route.

The investment amounts to 239,999.99 euros, partly financed through the grant from the municipal economic assistance plan of the Malaga provincial council. The execution period is five months, with a one-year warranty following completion.

The work also includes a pedestrian access from Avenida de los Manantiales, the improvement of the landscaped area and the opening of connections within the urban layout to guarantee accessibility, safety and respect for the environment.

With this new infrastructure, Torremolinos town hall explained it will respond "to the growing demand for spaces for urban sports, promoting healthy lifestyle habits, inclusive sport and coexistence" in a facility "designed for young people and families".

"We reaffirm our firm commitment to sport, fulfilling one of our main premises: to provide Torremolinos with the best facilities. At the same time, we promote sport as one of the fundamental pillars to achieve a healthy life and promote essential values such as teamwork," mayor Margarita del Cid said.
Jose Antonio Sau Malaga Wednesday, 10 September 2025, 19:51 | Updated 20:08h. Share

It's a fact that the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic (2020-2022), with the consequent lockdown and other restrictive measures in Spain, caused the suicide rate to soar across Malaga province. Furthermore, it cannot be denied that the effects of that period of alarm and fear are still present in Spanish society, according to data from the INE national statistics institute. In the years prior to this lockdown for a virus, 2017-2019, the number of suicides per year in Malaga province was 130, 134 and 122 respectively. However, things began to escalate in 2020 with 163 suicides, reaching a peak in 2021 of 187 and another high figure in 2022 (180 cases). In the post-pandemic year of 2023, the figure was the same as for 2020, but in 2024, the latest data available, the figure rose again to 168 cases, almost 38% more than in 2019 and nowhere near the much more moderate, pre-pandemic totals.

September 10 is World Suicide Prevention Day and some of the key help and prevention organisations and institutions in Malaga city set up two marquees in Plaza de la Constitucion to inform the public that the province is facing a real social and public health problem. Incidentally, Malaga's suicide rate is 9.47 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, which is higher than the nationwide average rate of 7.79. It is the leading cause of unnatural death in the Costa del Sol province, three times higher than traffic accidents and more than 11 times higher than homicides.

Zoom

"Those who already had a psychiatric problem saw it worsen during the pandemic and suicidal thoughts and actions increased significantly, as did loneliness due to being confined at home. The pandemic did a lot of damage and we are still in the post-pandemic period," says Juan Sanchez, national president of the suicide Telefono de la Esperanza helpline (telephone of hope). He also stresses that, behind suicide, there is a multifactorial reality. "It can be a health, work or family problem, emotional separation, loneliness, a mental or even physical illness, such as chronic pain. Mental health problems are behind nine out of ten suicidal thoughts or crises", with depression being the most influential pathology. Yet, he adds, it can also be a spur-of-the-moment thing or just creep up on the individual out of the blue.

"It can be a health, work or family problem, emotional separation, loneliness, mental or physical illness. Mental health problems are behind nine out of ten suicide thoughts or crises" Juan Sanchez President of NGO, Telefono de la Esperanza

"When someone is in a situation with tunnel vision and blinkers on, you have to walk beside them, respect them, treat them with dignity and talk. Above all, don't judge them. We try to get them to choose a different future, to convey to them that their story isn't over yet and we try to get them to put off that decision by looking for reasons to go on with life. And, above all, we tell them that their life matters", says Sanchez.

"We shouldn't tell them what to do, as that doesn't help, but we ask them what reasons they have for not living and look for a way for them to rediscover the desire to live" Noelia Espinosa Psychologist with the Alheli association

Silence, Sanchez explains, "can also kill". Nevertheless, a safety plan can be put in place. "If you're thinking about jumping from an open space, step away from all of them, including windows, head down to street level, or call someone, a friend, a therapist, the Telefono de la Esperanza helpline or 112. I insist, the key moment is to postpone the decision." Sanchez calls for more psychologists and psychiatrists in the public health system and for the state suicide prevention plan to move beyond just being on paper. "Suicide can happen to anyone, it's a social problem," he says.

He expresses concern for adolescents, suggesting that specific strategies must be developed for the digital environment, both via social media and ChatGPT, as many teenagers have developed a dependency for all the 'likes' on social media posts and an obsession with AI. He also gives out some more worrying data: for every suicide resulting in death, there are 20 attempted suicides.

"They want to stop suffering"

Noelia Espinosa, psychologist with Asociacion Alheli (a charitable association that receives support from Malaga's Diputacion provincial authority), explains that the pandemic led to "other illnesses such as depression and anxiety, loneliness and fear coming under the spotlight. Also at that time there were very complicated grieving experiences due to sudden deaths, because people saw family members taken away from home and they couldn't say goodbye." Those consequences are still being felt.

This mental health expert refuses to talk about a typical profile for suicidal patients: "there are risk factors, protective factors and precipitating factors. They are personal and social: a person under constant stress, or unemployed, also suffering from money worries, or with an emotional disorder, some dependency or even chronic pain." That said, she asks friends and family to be alert to a series of signs: if the person becomes more isolated or withdrawn, if there is an abrupt change in their personality, or the individual seeks more peace and quiet, even silence, or they become more irritable, if they stop doing things they used to enjoy or start to vocalise that they don't want to continue living. "It can happen to anyone," she adds.

The person, she explains, "wants to stop suffering, doesn't like their life and has no reason to go on." Listening must be active, the loved one or family member must "put themselves in the other person's shoes". "We shouldn't tell them what to do, as that doesn't help, but we ask them what reasons they have for not living and look for a way for them to rediscover the desire to live." She sums it up as follows: "We have to be very aware that active listening saves lives."

"The effects of the pandemic are being felt, it has left its mark on us. It's not that there are more mental illnesses since then, just that we are more aware of them," says Espinosa, adding that unwanted loneliness (perceived as such) is also one of the most common causes.

More psychologists in public healthcare services

On this special day for suicide awareness, the official, professional association for psychologists licensed in eastern Andalucia (COPAO) highlighted the urgent need to address mental health problems from an early age and noted that primary care consultations for anxiety have increased by 60% and suicidal tendencies by 30%, as well as a worrying increase in self-harm among adolescents. For this reason, it criticised the exclusion of psychologists from the assessment process for cognitive impairment.

The Junta emphasises prevention

Andalucia's mental health plan from the regional government mentions its focus on and attention given to older adults in situations of social isolation. Aligned with the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) and its motto "Changing the narrative about suicide", the regional health ministry considers it a priority to "raise awareness and transform how we perceive this complex problem".

"Moving from a culture of silence and lack of understanding to one of openness, empathy and support, with a shared effort between all public administrations (state, regional and local governments) and all sectors of society. The phenomenon of suicide, affected by social, cultural, political and economic determinants, has to be addressed, it transcends mental health and requires a public health perspective, recognising the profound influence of socio-economic factors, disconnection and social isolation as key elements," states the regional ministry.

Those responsible for this mental health plan for Andalucia explain that it is crucial to understand that, while suicide cannot be predicted or eliminated, it can be prevented and avoided through the implementation of evidence-based strategies that have been shown to reduce suicide rates. In this sense, every individual is an agent of suicide prevention and hope is a driving force for change.

Suicide attempts

In 2024, Andalucia's hospitals treated a total of 5,500 suicide attempts, of which 403 applied to under-18s and 5,097 to adults. In 2023, the number of attempted suicides treated in the region's hospitals was 5,374 (of which 393 were minors), while in 2022 there were 5,039 (of which 419 were under 18).
Cristina Vallejo Wednesday, 10 September 2025, 10:02 Share

"I don't even turn to property websites any more. Now I use WhatsApp groups, X, I look at Instagram stories... they're even offering rooms on TikTok. There are even people who, when they're looking for flatmates, use social media to show what they're like, what their hobbies are... because as well as finding someone for the room that's now free, they also want to make friends", says Maria Fuentes. In fact, she has just found an apartment in Malaga via WhatsApp: she will live in La Paz with two other young women and each will pay 290 euros for her own room. "The process of looking for a room is very tedious, you have to talk to a lot of people, but now, through social media, I talk more with tenants than with landlords," she says.

Flat hunting is a ritual in Spain that has been practised by each generation, especially at this time of the year, when the academic year begins. However, the profile of those who rent a room is no longer only that of students moving to a new city to pursue their dream studies, as there is an increasing number of workers, including those from overseas, who cannot afford to rent a whole apartment.

Nowadays, the search for a place to live is no longer just a matter of reading adverts posted on university bulletin boards, in local shops or plastered on traffic light poles. Classified ads in newspapers and trade publications have been taken over by real estate portals, but even these may be heading towards obsolescence, replaced by WhatsApp, Instagram and TikTok, which have proven to be useful places to look for an apartment or just a room within a shared flat. Sometimes links to property websites are posted on these social media channels and apps but, more often than not, they're just photos, property details and the type of tenant required. That, or what the person looking for a room needs. The fact is that these groups are packed full of people. Some have already reached the maximum number of members.

Sequence of rising prices

Maria Fuentes has been renting ever since she arrived in Malaga city from Antequera to study graphic design back in 2021. For her first year, she paid 250 euros monthly in Parque Sur. For her second year she was located in Cristo de la Epidemia, paying around 270 euros, an amount that later rose to 300 euros per month. Then she returned to the same apartment in Parque Sur and was charged the same, 300 euros. In the room where she has temporarily lived this summer, in Carranque, the price has already risen to 350 euros, so she has certainly witnessed the rise in housing prices in Malaga. However, the bill for her new apartment has dropped to 290 euros and she is very happy as it is also only ten minutes from the sea.

A recent report by real estate website Idealista ranked Malaga as the fourth most expensive city in Spain for flatshares, tying with Palma de Mallorca. According to this study, the average price of a room in the Costa del Sol capital is 425 euros, a 6% increase on last year. Ahead of the ranking are Barcelona with an average of 570 euros per room, Madrid (527 euros) and San Sebastian (475 euros). The cheapest provincial capital, meanwhile, is Jaen (240 euros, on average). That same report, while showing a 45% increase in room availability in Malaga, reflected a 19% fall in demand (measured by how many views of listings). This latter figure might be explained by the fact that those looking for accommodation have now turned to social media.

Another real estate portal, Fotocasa, puts the average price of a room in Malaga at over 500 euros and that of Barcelona, the most expensive capital in all of Spain, above 600 euros.

Alfonso del Rio Vazquez, head of Planetacasa's downtown office, is very in touch with prices on the ground and states that room prices in Malaga are around 400 euros, although some can be found at 320 or 350 euros. With additional bills, renting a room can very well reach 500 euros per month.

September to June

In her long experience as a tenant renting different rooms in Malaga city - despite being only 22 years old - Maria Fuentes has observed something that is confirmed when you pay a little attention to the ads that proliferate in WhatsApp groups these days: rentals are often for the months that coincide with the academic year, from September to June. Then, for the summer, the owners can dedicate the properties to holiday rentals, which are more profitable. In the real estate world, it is said that tourist rentals can even start earlier, coinciding with Easter. It also sometimes happens that landlords abandon the idea of tourist rentals and allow their tenants to stay on over the summer, provided they agree to pay a higher price.

Zoom Samantha Bontempi, 26, now lives in a short-term rental apartment in Teatinos. Marilu Baez

Samantha Bontempi, 26, an Italian resident in Malaga for three years, has been one of those affected by this situation: she needed accommodation for the summer months and is paying 500 euros a month in Teatinos. She is now looking to move in October: "It's difficult to find accommodation because most of the rentals are from September to June and I want to stay in summer too." Some tenants say that staying in the same room is so difficult that, in Samantha Bontempi's case, she has now lived in five apartments that have lasted her less than three years.

She is still looking for a room using the most popular real estate portals, but says that, if these websites are decreasing in popularity, it is because she suspects that most of the listings are from estate agents, and compliance with the law prohibiting charging fees to tenants is not yet fully implemented. Furthermore, she feels that contact with private individuals, with landlords, without intermediaries, is preferred, also including those who are going to be flatmates. However, Jose Antonio Jimenez, 21, who has been renting a room for the last three years, comments: "I'm the one in charge of finding flatmates, so I use Twitter and WhatsApp, but there are also landlords and estate agents in the groups", he says.

"It's difficult to find a room because most of the rentals are from September to June and I want to stay in the summer too."

In Bontempi's case, she follows Telegram groups and has also created a Facebook account. Nevertheless, she says that apartments are flying off the shelves and, within minutes of posting the ads, the rooms are no longer available because they've been taken. According to data from Idealista, for each listing on its platform for available rooms in Malaga city, there are 38 interested parties. The Spanish average is 22 applicants per room. There again, in Palma and San Sebastian, each listing has over 60 contacts and, in Tarragona, close to 50. The queues no longer form at the doors of the apartments up for rent as they are no longer physical, now the queues are in the ether.

38 interested parties per room in Malaga, according to Idealista. The Spanish average is 22. In Palma and San Sebastian the figure rises to more than 60 applicants per room.

As for Maria Fuentes, she perceives that there is a lot of supply, plenty of apartments, lots of rooms, but with problems in three main areas: price, the condition of the apartment and location. Despite the price being high, some apartments, especially in the city centre, are not well-equipped, while the location, especially those most sought by students, needs to be well-connected by public transport, which is not always the case.

Jose Antonio Jimenez, 21, who has been living in the same apartment for three years, during which time the rent has risen by 100 euros, comments that, as he is in charge of looking for roommates when someone vacates the place, it is difficult for him to find someone. All this despite his belief that demand for rooms is high. Still, from his surroundings, he knows that it is also increasingly difficult to find a room, not just because of the high prices. It is also due to the increasing requirements laid down by landlords: sometimes they ask for up to two or three months' deposit. Maria Fuentes adds that the difficulty in finding a room also has to do with the landlords' preferred tenant profile: a female student with guarantors. The rest have it tougher.

Choice: landlord or tenant?

Victoria Guerrero, 25, provides another example: she found the apartment she lives in by searching on Idealista. It is located in Capuchinos and she pays 367 euros per month plus bills. The total price of the apartment is 1,100 euros and they divide it between the three flatmates, because the contract is a single one, the whole apartment is rented. Since she moved into the property in April 2023, when a roommate leaves, they have their landlord's permission to look for a new tenant on their own. They usually post stories on Instagram or advertise in WhatsApp groups and also use real estate websites. In the event that they are unable to find anyone on their own, the landlord then delegates the search to an estate agent. Once a suitable candidate is found, whoever leaves the apartment signs their departure and whoever moves in is added to the contract, which stays frozen at 1,100 euros for at least the two years that Victoria has been a tenant.
Maria Albert Madrid Wednesday, 10 September 2025, 12:15 Share

After several days of weather instability in Spain, the torrential rains that devastated the eastern third of the Spanish mainland and the Balearic islands are over. According to the state meteorological agency (Aemet), the Atlantic trough that caused the very heavy downpours and flooding since lMonday will begin to move away this Wednesday 10 September, giving way to the arrival of an anticyclone.

This abrupt change in the weather will also affect the temperatures, which dropped at the beginning of the week to somewhat cooler than usual for this time of year. Now, with the stable environment expected at the end of the week, a new rise in the thermometers will also arrive, which will once again bring warmth to many regions of the country. From Thursday onwards, many regions of the Spanish mainland could once again reach over 35C.

Even so, rain will continue this Wednesday, especially in the far eastern parts of the mainland and Balearic Islands. The heaviest will be seen in the archipelago, where very heavy rain is expected, with locally torrential downpours not ruled out. In addition, the passage of a new Atlantic front from the west will complicate the situation in Galicia and the Cantabrian Sea in the coming hours.

Torrential rains are over, but instability will continue in Spain

After the brief passage of this Atlantic trough , which left some flooding on Monday and Tuesday in parts of Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands, the torrential rains of these days will begin to disperse from Wednesday 10 September. Even so, showers will continue throughout the day in many areas of Spain.

The front will continue to leave rain this Wednesday, especially affecting the far eastern parts of the mainland and the Balearic Islands, according to Aemet. The worst will be in the archipelago, where there will be locally strong showers and storms, very strong or persistent, without ruling out locally torrential intensities. These could also reach Catalonia and Levante in a weaker form.

A new Atlantic front will move in from the west this Wednesday, leaving cloudy skies over the northwest half of the Spanish mainland and will dump rainfall in Galicia, the Cantabrian Sea and surrounding areas. Some isolated showers are not ruled out in the northern plateau, northeast Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, as well as in the Ampurdan and Mallorca. In the south of Spain, there will be little cloudiness for the next few hours.

On Thursday the instability will disappear in the Levante and Balearic Islands areas, although it will remain in Galicia and in the western Cantabrian due to the passage of this new storm. According to the Aemet forecast, heavy and persistent rainfall will be accompanied by cloudy skies throughout the day.

In the rest of Spain, the anticyclone is expected to start to prevail again, leaving little cloudy skies in the south and east. Even so, some weak precipitation is not ruled out in the Central and Iberian Systems. Nor in the Canary Islands, where we will have cloudy intervals and precipitation in mountain areas of the islands.

Sharp change in temperatures: intense heat returns to these parts of Spain

After the drop in temperatures that has started this second week of September, the intense heat will once again prevail on the Spanish mainland. The anticyclone arriving in Spain will allow highs to rise again in the north, east and south of the country in the coming hours, bringing back almost summer-like weather.

According to Aemet meteorologists, it will be a much warmer environment which will also continue over the weekend. Therefore, from Thursday and especially on Friday, 32-34C could be exceeded in central and southern areas and even 36 degrees in the Guadalquivir valley.

This increase will also be noticeable in the minimum temperatures, which will rise considerably in the west and will not drop below 20C in the Mediterranean. Even so, the first frosts in the Pyrenees are not ruled out.
Susana Alcelay Madrid Wednesday, 10 September 2025, 18:51 Share

The Spanish parliament has passed a new law that improves parental leave for birth or adoption and childcare. Parental leave will be increased from 16 to 17 weeks and birth and care leave for single-parent families from 26 to 32 weeks. In addition, Social Security will pay two additional weeks to the eight weeks of parental leave for childcare until the child reaches the age of eight.

In total, three new weeks will be paid, which means that beneficiaries will receive their full salary during this time at a cost to the public coffers of 1,500 million this year alone, according to the second vice-president, Yolanda Diaz. Employees, civil servants and self-employed people will all benefit from the improvements.

These are the new features of the text approved on Tuesday 9 September:

How many weeks will birth, adoption or fostering leave be?

This leave will increase from 16 to 17 weeks paid at 100 per cent of the salary for both parents until the child is one year old. The law maintains that both parents must take the first six weeks after childbirth on a mandatory uninterrupted, full-time basis. The mother can start this period up to four weeks before the due date.

The remaining weeks of this leave (10 weeks until now, which will become 11 weeks) can be taken in weekly periods, accumulated or separately, in the first 12 months following the birth or the judicial or administrative decision in the case of adoption.

How do the changes affect single-parent families?

Single-parents' leave for childbirth and childcare is also increased. Leave for birth or adoption in single-parent families, 80 per cent of which are made up of women alone with their children, is extended from 26 to 32 weeks, with 100 per cent of the parents' salary. Four of these will be available until the child is eight years old.

What is the status of childcare leave for children under eight years old?

Social Security will pay two additional weeks to the current eight weeks of parental leave to care for children up to the age of eight. Until now, parental leave was configured as a suspension of employment, which meant that absences on these days were deducted from the salary. Unlike the 17th week of parental leave, which must be taken in the first year of the child's life or adoption, parental leave for children under the age of eight can be taken flexibly by parents.

When will the new law come into force?

The extension of parental leave will affect the parents of children born after 30 July this year, when the Royal Decree that modifies these benefits came into force. Meanwhile, the payment of the two weeks leave for the care of children up to eight years of age will be applied retroactively from 2 August 2024. This is in order to comply with the European Directive on work-life balance, which required Spain to pay part of this leave from the aforementioned date. It will be possible to apply for from 1 January 2026.

Do these permits pay the tax authorities?

The Social Security covers the total cost of the childbirth and childcare leave and will pay 100 per cent of the regulatory base and the benefit will be exempt from income tax, so the amount to be paid will be the gross salary of the payroll, without tax.

What will be the maximum amount of time that parents can accumulate paid leave?

The number of paid weeks that may be accumulated is 22, taking into account the 19 weeks for childbirth and care, plus the three additional weeks for breastfeeding.
Juan Ramon Negro Galan Caceres Wednesday, 10 September 2025, 19:07 Share

Talavan town hall in Caceres province in Spain's Extremadura region, has confirmed the presence of an Iberian lynx, close to the Tajo riverbed and in the Los Cuatro Lugares area. The public have been advised to take extreme precautions, especially with regard to the protection of domestic animals.

The town hall is advising dog owners to avoid, as far as possible, walking in natural areas close to where the protected animal has been sighted, until it has been removed from the area around the town.

Residents are reminded that the Iberian lynx is an endangered species, whose capture, possession or damage constitute serious offences punishable under current legislation on protected wildlife.

Any sightings should be reported immediately to the following telephone numbers:

Guardia Civil - Seprona: 062

Centro de Recuperacion de Fauna del Medio Natural (centre for the recovery of wildlife in the natural environment: 606 55 30 80

Emergencies Extremadura: 112

Talavan town hall in coordination with the Junta de Extremadura regional government and the bodies responsible for the conservation of the Iberian lynx, says it will continue to work to guarantee public safety and the protection of the fauna.

Other sightings this summer

There have also been sightings of an Iberian lynx in Bohonal de Ibor and the surrounding area, also in Caceres. The regional government reminded the population of the compulsory guidelines to act correctly in these situations.

Farmers, livestock breeders and hunters from the area received instructions from the director for sustainability, German Puebla, during a meeting held at the town hall.

The Junta de Extremadura stressed that observing lynx without following the rules can interfere with their natural behaviour and in serious cases, lead to a fine.
US President Donald Trump has called for the death penalty for 34-year-old homeless man Decarlos Brown Jr., who killed 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, North Carolina, on August 22.

"The ANIMAL who so violently killed the beautiful young lady from Ukraine, who came to America searching for peace and safety, should be given a Quick (there is no doubt!) Trial, and only awarded THE DEATH PENALTY. There can be no other option!!!" Trump said on the Truth Social network Wednesday.

A homeless man reportedly killed a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee in the American city of Charlotte. She was stabbed multiple times and died at a public transportation stop. A 34-year-old homeless man, Dearlos Brown Jr., has been charged with first-degree murder. Police have not released information about what led to the fatal stabbing. The investigation into the incident is ongoing.
Taylor Frankie Paul has been chosen as the leading lady for Season 22 of ABCs The Bachelorette.

The news was revealed on an episode of Alex Coopers hit podcast Call Her Daddy on Wednesday.

When asked how she was feeling, Paul answered surreal, adding, it has not hit me in this moment. Im just thinking about it, and its not real. And its not going to be until I think the limo is pulling up, you know? And meeting the people.

Paul had previously filmed a video joking that she should be on The Bachelorette, which seemingly helped her get her foot in the door.

People started tagging The Bachelorette, like, You should, you should, you should, she recalled to Cooper. I dont know if that got their attention or someone was like, Yeah, maybe. It was a joke to me, like unattainable.

Paul, who was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, and raised Mormon, first rose to fame on TikTok. In 2020, she created #MomTok, a group of Utah-based Mormon moms who began creating lifestyle and dancing videos together.

The internet became fascinated with the #MomTok vcommunity, especially after Paul revealed that she and her now ex-husband, Tate Paul, were swinging within their friend group.

Hulu pulled the curtain back even further on Paul and her friends scandalous lives on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, which came out in Sept. 2024 and has since been nominated for an Emmy. The show featured Pauls 2023 arrest on suspicion of domestic violence after an altercation between her and her boyfriend at the time, Dakota Mortensen. Paul later pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and was sentenced to probation.

Paul is a mom of three. She shares two children with her ex-husband Tate Paul, a son with Mortensen, who she began dating after her 2022 divorce. When discussing her decision to go through with The Bachelorette, Paul admitted she had to think long and hard about the logistics. How do I make this work? Im a co-parent. I have two baby daddies, not one, so Im dealing with two different people, my children, my home base is here. Can I travel that long? Can I be gone that long? she told Cooper.

The Bachelorette Season 22 is set to start filming this fall and will premiere in 2026. Meanwhile, Season 3 of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives drops on Hulu on Nov. 13.
Syracuse, N.Y.  Three teen boys and a man have been charged with stealing merchandise from Macys at Destiny USA on Tuesday and fleeing in two stolen vehicles, troopers said.

They were all captured miles away - one in Oneida in Madison County and the others in Marcy in Oneida County.

Osman U. Borrow, 20, of Utica, two 18-year-old boys and a 17-year-old boy  all wearing masks  entered the store around 11 a.m. and fled with mens merchandise, according to Trooper Jennifer Jiron, a State Police spokesperson.

Syracuse police initially pursued two cars leaving the mall, but stopped the chase. Both of the cars were stolen in Utica, troopers said.

A short time later, troopers spotted one of the cars  a 2015 Honda Civic  and chased it east on the state Thruway (I-90) where it crashed in the city of Oneida, Jiron said.

The driver, an 18-year-old boy who was alone in the car, suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was taken into custody, she said.

He was charged with third-degree criminal possession of stolen property, fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property and second-degree criminal mischief, all felonies.

He was taken to the Onondaga County Justice Center to await CAP Court arraignment.

The second car  a 2023 Hyundai Tucson  was found abandoned near Route 291 in Marcy, Jiron said. Osman, an 18-year-old and the 17-year-old, who drove the vehicle, ran from the abandoned car, she said.

This sparked a search involving State Police, the Oneida County Sheriffs Office, State Park Police, New York Mills, Whitestown, Whitesboro and Yorkville police, the state Department of Environmental Conservation, and other agencies, troopers said.

The three were taken into custody on Tuesday, police said.

Osman and the 18-year-old boy were charged with third-degree criminal possession of stolen property, fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property and second-degree criminal mischief, all felonies.

They were both taken to the Onondaga County Justice Center to await CAP Court arraignment.

The 17-year-old driver was charged with third-degree criminal possession of stolen property, fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, second-degree criminal mischief, second-degree reckless Endangerment 2nd degree, third-degree unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle, reckless driving and numerous traffic violations, including speeding in a posted work zone.

The juvenile was arraigned virtually via Onondaga Family Court and released.

Jiron said under state law and State Police policy, the names of anyone under 19 are not released because they may be eligible for juvenile offender status, which is determined by the district attorneys office. Names are only released in certain cases, such as serious violent felonies.

Staff writer Darian Stevenson covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, a story idea, a question or a comment? You can reach her atdstevenson@syracuse.com
Syracuse, N.Y.  An Onondaga County Judge has shut down a prosecutors late application to present evidence that three men accused of a double murder in Syracuse are gang members.

LaShawn Dixon, Donnell Thornton, and Jamel Weston are accused of killing Alexis Sellin, 32, and Jami Crawford, 46, after breaking into an apartment at 3101 Burnet Ave. with the intention to rob them, according to an indictment filed against them.

The killers of the man and woman in the summer of 2022 left a disabled boy alone with the bodies for 3 days.

Prosecutor Alphonse Williams made an application to the court seeking to introduce evidence that the three men are members of the 110 gang.

Williams said that the evidence would help tell the story and link the evidence that he admitted is only circumstantial.

Dixons defense attorney, Ken Christopher, said the application was inappropriate for several reasons, including the timing. The three men are set to begin trial on Sept. 22. The trial has been delayed multiple times.

I am asking the court to say enough is enough and let a jury decide, Christopher said.

Christopher said that there is no evidence that the homicide is connected to gang violence in any way.

The allegation is that Mr. Crawford somehow came up against the power of 110, Christopher said. Somehow, because there is no actual connection to a gang affiliation in this case.

Christopher said this is an attempt to change the theory of the case to allege the defendants were drug dealers trying to shut down a rival. Williams previously told the court he would not allege the men were drug dealers, Christopher said.

Christopher said the Central New York Crime Analysis Center, which maintains an extensive gang database, does not have Dixon registered as a gang member.

Williams is alleging that Dixon is a high-ranking gang member who gave orders to Weston and Thornton. He says that a 110 gang member would testify at trial, if allowed, that all three men were members. The name of that person was not revealed to the defense.

Thorntons attorney, Michael Kazmarek, said that the court should not allow the prosecution to continue surprising the defense with new evidence. He said that Williams should not be allowed to hide the identity of the person who would testify against the men.

Christopher pointed out that there is no indication or evidence that this claim was even made. There was no affidavit or recorded conversation with this supposed 110 member attached to the application, he said.

Discovery evidence being turned over in an untimely manner has been an ongoing issue in the case, Christopher has said.

New Yorks discovery laws require prosecutors to automatically turn over all discovery, or evidence, in a case. Evidence also must be turned over in a timely manner before trials, according to the law.

Just weeks before a trial date scheduled in July, Williams turned over around 200 photos to the defense, including pictures of cars and luxury items.

Williams previously said he would not use them at trial.

Now Williams wants to use the photos to prove Dixon is a high-level drug dealer, he said in his motion. Christopher said that Williams previously said he would not use those photos to connect the men to a drug trade.

Williams told syracuse.com | The Post Standard it is normal for theories of prosecution to change. He said new evidence arises when you are investigating a theory that has not been previously looked into.

Westons attorney, Graeme Spicer, said it was grossly untimely for the prosecution to change their entire theory of the case weeks out from trial.

Judge Matthew Doran on Thursday echoed the attorneys concerns and asked Williams to explain what evidence connected the men to the gang and why it was relevant.

Williams alleged that the gang ties the men together and gives them a motive.

The defense attorneys again pushed back, saying the concrete evidence connecting the men to a gang is almost non-existent.

Where is the proof for me to respond to? Christopher asked the court.

Ultimately, Doran sided with the defense attorneys and ruled that Williams could not introduce any testimony about gang affiliations.

It is uncommon for gang evidence to be admitted in trials but Doran allowed extensive gang evidence to be included in an enterprise corruption case that was prosecuted by Williams in January.

The case is set to begin jury selection on Sept. 22, three years after the murders.
Syracuse, N.Y.  A Syracuse city school teacher accused of raping a 16-year-old boy was an elementary music teacher who also worked with the districts marching band, according to district officials.

Lansing Dimon, 54, taught fourth, fifth and sixth graders at both Salem Hyde Elementary School and the STEAM at Dr. King school, according to Amanda Malinowski, a Syracuse district spokesperson. He joined the district in 2019.

He also was the visual coordinator for the Pride of Syracuse City Schools Marching Band, according to the districts website. The band includes students in 7th to 12th grade from the districts 17 middle and high schools.

Dimon also worked as elementary band and orchestra director in the district, according to the district website.

Syracuse police announced Dimons arrest on Tuesday. He was arrested on Aug. 28, according to Kieran Coffey, a spokesperson for Syracuse police.

Dimon has been charged with two counts of third-degree rape and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

The State Education Department contacted the district on Aug. 29, Malinowski said. Dimon was placed on paid leave the same day and has not taught any students this school year, she said.

The teen Dimon is accused of raping is not currently a student in the district, police said.

The district and police said they could not say how the victim and Dimon knew each other or if the victim was ever a student in the district.

The alleged rape happened off school grounds, according to a statement Tuesday by Syracuse School Superintendent Anthony Davis.

Before coming to the city schools, Dimon was a director of bands at Carroll University in Waukesha, Wisconsin and worked for a high school there too, according to the district website.

He has a masters degree in music education and instructional design, development and evaluation from Syracuse University, according to the district website.

Police ask anyone with information to call the Syracuse Police Department Criminal Investigations Division at (315) 442-5222.

Staff writer Darian Stevenson covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, a story idea, a question or a comment? You can reach her atdstevenson@syracuse.com
The Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard police blotter of arrests from police agencies around Central New York was updated today.

The arrests added this week mostly occurred between August 12 and September 6, with two from July. Those charged were from 17 to 81 years old.

One person was charged with drunk driving and menacing in a road rage incident. Cicero driver accused of pointing gun in I-81 road rage, found with 3 handguns, police say

One person was charged with reckless driving. Man on minibike riding with 100 other people arrested after crash in Syracuse

Another person was charged with reckless driving and driving under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol. Oswego County woman charged with DWAI after I-81 rollover crash

Information in the police blotter is provided by the arresting agencies. Arrests are also published in the Neighbors pages of The Post-Standard and are available in the ePost-Standard.

The police blotter is searchable by name, charge, date, and agency. If you dont find a particular arrest you are looking for, try adjusting the date range for your search.

You can search the blotter here:

Dont see the link? Click here to search the police blotter
Wendell Rotter contributed to the soundtrack of Central New York.

He entertained guests at the New York State Fairgrounds during Christmas time and during the state fair from the Empire Theatres Wurlitzer organ and at Romes Capitol Theatre where his music accompanied black-and-white silent classics from Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy.

Christmas music sounds richer when it comes from an organ, The Post-Standard said in 2010. Wendell Rotter will prove it when he performs on the Syracuse Wurlitzer Theater Pipe Organ.

Rotter passed away on Saturday, September 6, at the age of 89.

In his obituary, he was remembered as a prodigious musical talent.

Wendells legacy endures in the music he made, the knowledge he shared, and the family who will keep his memory alive.

Rotter was born in Vaux Hall, Union Township, New Jersey, in 1935. He was the son of Wendel Jr. and Elizabeth (Stolz) Rotter. He graduated from Union High School.

He became an accomplished accordionist who delighted audiences for many years as a member of the Farmer Boys square dance band, bringing joy to local dances throughout the region.

Harvyn Tarkmeel is the theatre organist in the Empire Theatre at the New York State Fair. He plays a Wurlitzer Opus organ, affectionately called Wilma. The 87-year-old pipe organ was restored and reinstalled at the NYS Fairgrounds in 1967. There are two Chamber Rooms that produce the sound from the pipe organ. Stephen D. Cannerelli / The Post-Standard

His passion for music led him to open his own music studio in Clark, NJ, after moving there in 1960, his obituary said, where he taught accordion to countless students.

In 1966, Rotter attended computer programming school, and, upon graduation, he worked in the field of data processing. In 1970, he began his career at General Foods Corporation, where he worked diligently until his retirement in 1995.

He and his beloved wife Carol (Fekete) Rotter made their home in Pequannock, NJ beginning in 1968.

After her passing in 1996, Rotter moved to Pompey, NY, where he devoted himself to collecting and restoring antique John Deere farm tractors.

A pursuit that brought him much fulfillment, his local obituary said.

He became a proud member of the local 2-Cylinder Club, the Historical Truck Club, as well as the Fabius-Pompey, Manlius, and Fayetteville Seniors, forging lasting friendships and sharing his love of history and machinery.

His love for music endured, his obituary said.

At the fairgrounds Empire State Theatre Musical Instrument Museum (ESTMIM), he meticulously kept and performed on the historic 1925 Wurlitzer theater organ.

His annual performances at the New York State Fair were cherished by many.

In later years, as his health declined, Rotter returned to Pequannock to be close to his son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter in 2015.

Rotter was predeceased by his wife, Carol (Fekete) Rotter, in 1996, his companion of 15 years Marie Pierce, in 2014, his sister, Betty Kitson, and sister-in-law, Ann Lischak.

He is survived by his son, Wendell, daughter-in-law, Jennifer, and granddaughter, Brielle. Rotter is also lovingly remembered by his nieces Kim De Saye and Carolann Pourciau, as well as his sisters-in-laws daughters, Alexcis Franchino and Deborah Heizmann.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his memory to the Manlius Senior Centre, Arkie Albanese Ave., Manlius NY 13104.
Sybiha: Russian aggression already affects almost all neighbors, hushing up won't work now

Photo: https://mfa.gov.ua/

Russian aggression has already affected almost all of Ukraine's neighbors; Russia is testing and provoking countries, said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha.

"This is in the nterests of our neighbors, whose airspace was violated by Russian facilities. Along our perimeter, this has already affected practically all of our neighbors," he said, speaking to journalists in Kyiv on Wednesday.

The minister noted that the overwhelming majority of neighbors have corresponding systems that can shoot down air targets over Ukrainian territory.

"Keeping silent won't work now. And I can tell you clearly that the policy of weakness, appeasement of the aggressor only encourages him," said Sybiha.

He separately noted that the drone intrusion into Polish airspace is "a violation of the airspace of a NATO country, this is a test."

"Russia is testing, it is provoking. The firmness of the reaction is the only thing that can stop the Russian aggressor," the minister said.
On the evening of Aug. 30, a 42-year-old jumped off a 50-foot cliff into a lake in the town of Lewisboro, Westchester County.

The cliff jumper suffered significant foot and back injuries when they hit the water and cried out in pain.

An off-duty New York State Department of Environmental Conservation forest ranger happened to be enjoying a day off on the same lake and heard the persons cries for help.

The ranger dove off his boat, swam to the injured cliff jumper, and performed a spine assessment. He determined it was a high-risk injury and borrowed a paddle board to stabilize the patient in a spine-safe position.

Pulling the paddle board behind him, the ranger then swam 150 yards to a camp where EMS was waiting. EMS transported the cliff jumper to the hospital for successful surgery.

The following reports are excerpted from DEC:

Lightning sparked a fire on Bear Den Mountain on Aug. 31. Rangers, assisted by NYS Police Aviation, declared the fire officially out on Sept. 4. NYS DEC

A hiker on Noonmark Mountain reported seeing smoke in the sky on the evening of Aug. 31. Three rangers located the fire near Gravestone Brook on the side of Bear Den Mountain and determined it was caused by lightning. They suppressed the one-acre fire using hand tools but it continued burning approximately three feet deep into the duff. A New York State Police helicopter flew in with pumps and hoses. Rangers declared the fire officially out on Sept. 4.

On the night of Sept. 1, hikers in the West Canada Lakes Wilderness called rangers to report a fire. Two rangers spent the night on site at Whitney Lake. Another ranger joined them in the morning and helped put out the .25-acre fire.

An unattended campfire on a remote, trailless peak spread into duff near the summit of Rocky Mountain on Sept. 3. Three rangers removed hazardous trees from the fire area and used hand tools to expose underground heat in preparation for overnight rain. Despite the rain, the fire grew to 20 feet by 30 feet. On Sept. 8, a state police helicopter made bucket drops while fire crews eliminated all heat and smoke. The fire is now in patrol status and rangers are monitoring.

A 74-year-old with dementia disappeared from their Manlius backyard on the evening of Sept. 3. Two rangers along with state police bloodhounds and a Manlius Police drone searched to no avail. Later that night, a member of the Manlius Fire Department found the person in a wooded area and turned them over to EMS for transport to the hospital.

A 39-year-old hiker from Michigan got separated from their hiking partner on Mount Marcy on Sept 7. Coordinates placed them near the summit of Skylight Mountain. Then the other hiking partner, a 42-year-old Michigander, called to report they were also lost near the Van Hoevenberg trail. Two pairs of rangers found the lost hikers in the early morning hours and reunited them the next day.

A 59-year-old went missing on Sept. 2 in the town of Salem after leaving a note indicating they were going for a walk. Six rangers joined members of the Shushan Fire Department and deputies from Washington County Sheriffs Office in a search for the missing person. On Sept. 6, a ranger-led search crew found the person deceased and turned the body over to the Washington County coroner.

If you or someone you know needs mental health assistance, help is available. 988 is a free 24-hour hotline to call or text anywhere in New York. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK.

Steve Featherstone covers the outdoors. Contact him at sfeatherstone@syracuse.com.
Protesters in a Rochester-area neighborhood confronted Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Tuesday at a work site.

Agents were seemingly forced to retreat from the site in the Park Avenue neighborhood after encountering over 100 protesters, according to WXXI in Rochester.

One worker at the site, a roofing job, was taken into custody, but agents left others unchecked.

Protesters shouted shame and Gestapo at the agents and applauded as a Border Patrol SUV drove away on four flat tires, which had been slashed, according to WXXI.

Roofing contractor Clayton Baker identified the man taken into custody by ICE as Chino, one of his employees. Baker said the man has been in the United States for about 25 years and had legal documentation to work, WXXI said.

They took my best worker thats been working with me for 5 years, and just basically, See you later, you know? Baker said, according to WXXI. Hes a family guy, and hes got a baby on the way. Hes never even had a speeding ticket that I know of. He goes to church every Sunday, and he pays his taxes.

But you want to come get him off of a hard-working job, Baker continued. Its bulls--t, and its inhumane and its sad.

Assemblymember Jen Lunsford, a Democrat who represents several Rochester suburbs, said she was told agents approached the rear of the home as roofers were doing work, according to WHAM in Rochester.

I showed up today at a call from the New York Immigration Coalition as an attorney out of concern that there needed to be official warrants, Lunsford said, according to WHAM. This is a private residence, so we just wanted to make sure that everything is happening within the bounds of the law.

Rochester police werent involved in the incident, WHAM said. Federal authorities said theyre investigating the damage to the Border Patrol vehicle.

A spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the Rochester action was led by ICE, which did not respond to a request for comment, according to WXXI. Agents from the IRS and other federal agencies were also involved.

President Donald Trump ran for president last year on a platform that included a harsh immigration crackdown. Authorities have been conducting raids across the country since Trump returned to office, including in Upstate New York.

About 70 people were taken into custody last week during a raid on a protein bar plant in Cayuga County.
NEW YORK (AP)  A New York City couple in their 70s was killed Monday in what the police commissioner said was a horrific double homicide, robbery and arson  the man tied to a pole and stabbed, the womans body severely burned as their home went up in flames.

Frank Olton, 76, and Maureen Olton, 77, were found dead around 3:30 p.m. Monday, about 20 minutes after surveillance video showed suspect Jamel McGriff walking near their Queens home. The couples son, a fire department EMT, called 911 after being alerted to the fire by the couples alarm monitoring service. A fire marshal ruled that the fire was intentionally set.

McGriff, 42, remained at large as of Tuesday afternoon, police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. He was last seen on video earlier Tuesday pawning two cellphones in the Bronx and should be considered armed and dangerous, she said.

McGriffs parole officer identified him as a suspect from surveillance video images obtained near the home, Tisch said.

Tisch said McGriff, a serial robbery suspect on parole after a previous conviction, was going door-to-door in the boroughs Bellerose neighborhood asking if he could come in and charge his cellphone.

After one homeowner rebuffed him, Tisch said, video showed McGriff approaching the Oltons home around 10:18 a.m. and talking with Frank Olton. He was allowed into the couples backyard and eventually entered the home with Olton through a rear door.

McGriff remained in the home for nearly five hours and was next seen on surveillance video leaving around 3:08 p.m., Tisch said. He carried a paper bag and a duffel bag and wore a black hat, black jacket, black sneakers and dark blue jeans, she said.

After getting the fire under control, firefighters entered the home and found Frank Oltons body in the basement, tied to a pole with multiple stab wounds, and Maureen Oltons body on the first floor with severe burns, Tisch said. Their exact causes of death are still under investigation, she said.

At this time, there is no known connection between Mr. McGriff, our suspect, and our victims beyond this chance encounter, Tisch said at a news conference on Tuesday.

McGriff has a lengthy, violent criminal history spanning several decades and is on parole after serving 16 years in prison for a conviction in a 2006 robbery, Tisch said. He is also wanted by police for two recent robberies  one at a Harlem GameStop store in July and another at a Manhattan Verizon store where the clerk noticed he had a fake gun and fought him off, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.

McGriff also failed last year to register as a sex offender, Tisch said, which should have violated his parole. The NYPD and a regional fugitive task force that combines local, state and federal officers are working to apprehend McGriff, the commissioner said.

For the public, the message is clear: the suspects MO is to go door-to-door asking for some kind of assistance until he can gain entrance, so do not allow someone you dont know or someone youre not expecting into your home, Tisch said.
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his appeal of the $1.4 billion judgment a Connecticut jury and judge issued against him for calling the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting a hoax staged by crisis actors.

The Infowars host is arguing that the judge was wrong to find him liable for defamation and infliction of emotional distress without holding a trial on the merits of allegations lodged by relatives of victims of the shooting, which killed 20 first graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut.

Judge Barbara Bellis, frustrated at what she called Jones repeated failure to abide by court rulings and to turn over certain evidence to the Sandy Hook families, issued a rare default ruling against Jones and his company in late 2021 as a penalty. That meant that she found him liable without a trial on the facts and convened a jury to only determine what damages he owed.

A six-person jury in Waterbury issued a $964 million verdict in October 2022 in favor of the plaintiffs  an FBI agent who responded to the shooting and relatives of eight children and adults who were killed. Bellis later tacked on another $473 million in punitive damages against Jones and Free Speech Systems, Infowars parent company that is based in Austin, Texas.

During the trial to determine damages, relatives of the shooting victims testified that people whom they called followers of Jones subjected them to death and rape threats, in-person harassment and abusive comments on social media. Jones argues there was never any proof presented that linked him to those actions.

Jones filed his request to the Supreme Court on Friday and it was released by the court on Tuesday.

Jones lawyers  Ben Broocks, Shelby Jordan and Alan Daughtry  insist in the petition that state courts cannot determine liability based only on sanctions such as default rulings. They say that constitutional law and Supreme Court precedent require public figures such as the Sandy Hook families to prove their defamation claims against journalists such as Jones.

They also say that the Connecticut judge imposed the default ruling on Jones based on trivial reasons and that Jones had substantially complied with the courts orders  which the Sandy Hook families lawyers deny.

Jones attorneys further cite First Amendment protections for free speech, saying Jones comments about the school shooting being a hoax were not defamatory but rather expressions of constitutionally protected opinion. Jones has since said he believed the shooting was 100% real.

The media landscape is rife with groups challenging various events, including Holocaust denial, moon landing skepticism, 9/11 conspiracy theories, and even flat Earth claims, the petition says. However, such statements critique or dismiss the events themselves, not the character, conduct, or reputation of those associated with them.

Among other claims, Jones petition says the $1.4 billion judgment is excessive punishment under the Eighth Amendment.

If the judgment is allowed to stand, Jones lawyers said it would chill the reporting of news and result in self-censoring fear of suits.

Lawyers for the Sandy Hook families disputed Jones arguments.

There is no legitimate basis for the U.S. Supreme Court to accept this last gasp from Alex Jones and we will oppose it in due course, Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the families, said in a statement.

A mid-level appellate court in Connecticut upheld all but $150 million of the $1.4 billion judgment in December, and the state Supreme Court declined to hear Jones appeal of that ruling in April.

In a similar defamation lawsuit filed in Texas by the parents of another Sandy Hook victim, Jones was found liable without a trial as punishment for failing to turn over documents. In that case, which also is being appealed, a judge and jury issued a $49 million judgment against Jones in August 2022.

Jones filed for bankruptcy in late 2022. In those proceedings, an auction was held in November to liquidate Infowars assets to help pay the defamation judgments, and the satirical news outlet The Onion was named the winning bidder. But the bankruptcy judge threw out the auction results, citing problems with the process and The Onions bid.

The attempt to sell off Infowars assets has moved to a Texas state court in Austin. Jones is now appealing a recent order from the court that appointed a receiver to liquidate the assets. Some of Jones personal property is also being sold off as part of the bankruptcy case.
Update: Charlie Kirk has died at age 31.

*****

OREM, Utah  Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was in critical condition at a Utah hospital Wednesday after being shot at a college event, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. A suspect was in custody, the college said.

Videos posted to social media from Utah Valley University show Kirk speaking into a handheld microphone while sitting under a white tent emblazoned with the slogans The American Comeback and Prove Me Wrong. A single shot rings out and Kirk can be seen reaching up with his right hand as a large volume of blood gushes from the left side of his neck. Stunned spectators are heard gasping and screaming before people start to run away. The AP was able to confirm the videos were taken at Sorensen Center courtyard on the Utah Valley University campus.

The crowd reacts after Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, is shot at the Utah Valley University Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, in Orem, Utah. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP) AP

We are confirming that he was shot and we are praying for Charlie, said Aubrey Laitsch, public relations manager for Turning Point USA.

Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by his nonprofit political organization. The event had been met with divided opinions on campus. An online petition calling for university administrators to bar Kirk from appearing received nearly 1,000 signatures. The university issued a statement last week citing First Amendment rights and affirming its commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.

Last week, Kirk posted on X images of news clips showing his visit to Utah colleges was sparking controversy. He wrote, Whats going on in Utah?

The college said a single shot had been fired at Kirk and a suspect was in custody.

President Donald Trump and a host of Republican and Democratic elected officials decried the shooting and offered prayers for Kirk on social media.

We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot. A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM! Trump posted on Truth Social.

The shooting comes amid a spike in political violence in the United States across all parts of the ideological spectrum. The attacks include the assassination of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband at their house in June, the firebombing of a Colorado parade to demand Hamas release hostages, and a fire set at the house of Pennsylvanias governor, who is Jewish, in April. The most notorious of these events is the shooting of Trump during a campaign rally last year.

Former Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz, a Republican who was at the event, said in an interview on Fox News Channel that he heard one shot and saw Kirk go back.

It seemed like it was a close shot, Chaffetz said, who seemed shaken as he spoke.

He said there was a light police presence at the event and Kirk had some security but not enough.

Utah is one of the safest places on the planet, he said. And so we just dont have these types of things.

Turning Point was founded in suburban Chicago in 2012 by Kirk, then 18, and William Montgomery, a tea party activist, to proselytize on college campuses for low taxes and limited government. It was not an immediate success.

But Kirks zeal for confronting liberals in academia eventually won over an influential set of conservative financiers.

Despite early misgivings, Turning Point enthusiastically backed Trump after he clinched the GOP nomination in 2016. Kirk served as a personal aide to Donald Trump Jr., the presidents eldest son, during the general election campaign.

Soon, Kirk was a regular presence on cable TV, where he leaned into the culture wars and heaped praise on the then-president. Trump and his son were equally effusive and often spoke at Turning Point conferences.
WARSAW, Poland (AP)  Poland said early Wednesday that multiple Russian drones entered and were shot down over its territory with help from NATO allies, describing the incident as an act of aggression carried out during a wave of Russian strikes on Ukraine.

Several European leaders said they believed Russia was intentionally escalating the war, and NATO was discussing the incident in a meeting. It came three days after Russias largest aerial attack on Ukraine since the war began, an attack that for the first time hit a key government building in Kyiv.

Russias war is escalating, not ending, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said. Last night in Poland we saw the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began, and indications suggest it was intentional, not accidental.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on social media that Polish airspace was violated by multiple Russian drones. Those drones that posed a direct threat were shot down, Tusk said.

Defense Minister Wadysaw Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote on X that more than 10 objects crossed into Polish air space, but he did not specify an exact number. He thanked NATO Air Command and The Royal Netherlands Air and Space Force for supporting the action with F-35 fighter jets.

Polish airspace has been violated multiple times since Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but there has been nothing on this scale either in Poland or in any other Western nation along the eastern flank of NATO and the European Union.

Drones rattle Baltic NATO members

Leaders in the strategically located Baltic states of Lithuanian, Latvia and Estonia  the NATO members that are most nervous about Russian aggression  expressed deep concerns.

Russia is deliberately expanding its aggression, posing an ever-growing threat to Europe, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda wrote on X. Estonias foreign minister Margus Tsahkna said that the overnight attacks on Ukriane and violations of Polish airspace were yet another stark reminder that Russia is not just a threat to Ukraine, but to all of Europe and NATO.

Bernard Blaszczuk, mayor of the village of Wyryki in Lublin region, told TVP Info that a house was hit by either a missile or a drone, we dont know yet. He said people were inside the building but nobody was hurt.

The Polish armed forces said Wednesday morning that a search for possible crash sites is ongoing and urged people not to approach, touch or move any objects they see, warning that they may pose a threat and could contain hazardous material.

Warsaws Chopin Airport suspended flights for several hours, citing the closure of airspace due to military operations.

Russian objects have entered Polish airspace before

Poland has complained about Russian objects entering its airspace during attacks on Ukraine before.

In August, Polands defense minister said that a flying object that crashed and exploded in a cornfield in eastern Poland was identified as a Russian drone, and called it a provocation by Russia.

In March, Poland scrambled jets after a Russian missile briefly passed through Polish air space on its way to a target in western Ukraine, and in 2022, a missile that was likely fired by Ukraine to intercept a Russian attack landed in Poland, killing two people.

NATO members vow support

NATO said its air defenses supported Poland, and chief spokesperson Allison Hart said the military organizations 32 national envoys will discuss the matter at a pre-planned meeting.

Col. Martin ODonnell, NATOs Supreme Allied Powers Europe, said: This is the first time NATO planes have engaged potential threats in Allied airspace.

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof confirmed in a message on X that Dutch F-35 fighter jets stationed in Poland under NATO provided support to the Polish air force overnight.

Let me be clear: the violation of Polish airspace last night by Russian drones is unacceptable. It is further proof that the Russian war of aggression poses a threat to European security, Shoof said in the Dutch language message on X.

German Patriot defense systems in Poland were also placed on alert, and an Italian airborne early warning plane and an aerial refueler from NATOs Multinational Multi-Role Tanker Transport aircraft fleet were launched, ODonnell said.

NATO, he said, is committed to defending every kilometer of NATO territory, including our airspace.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a message on Telegram that the deployment of European aircraft to intercept the drones was an important precedent.

Russia must know the response to escalation will be a clear and strong reaction from all partners, Zelenskyy said.

Russian attacks hit central and western Ukraine

Ukraines Air Force says Russia fired 415 strike and decoy drones, as well as 42 cruise missiles and one ballistic missiles overnight.

Ukrainian air defenses intercepted or jammed 386 drones and 27 cruise missiles, according to the report.

At least eight enemy UAVs crossed Ukraines state border in the direction of the Republic of Poland, the Air Force message said.

Russian drones injured three people in Ukraines western Khmelnytskyi region, its head Serhii Tiurin wrote on Telegram early Wednesday morning. He said a sewing factory was destroyed, a gas station and vehicles were damaged, and windows in several houses were blown out.

One person was killed and one injured in Zhytomyr region overnight, regional administration head Vitalii Bunechko wrote on Telegram, while homes and businesses suffered damage.

In Vinnytsia region, Russian drones damaged civilian and industrial infrastructure, according to regional head Natalia Zabolotna. Nearly 30 residential buildings were damaged and one person was injured.

In Cherkasy region, several houses and a power grid were damaged in a Russian attack. In Zolotonosha district, a shock wave destroyed a barn killing two cows, regional head Ihor Taburets wrote on Telegram.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in its morning report on Wednesday that it had destroyed 122 Ukrainian drones over various Russian regions overnight, including over the illegally annexed Crimea and areas of the Black Sea.
Photo: MFA of Ukraine

The invasion of Russian drones into the territory of Poland means a new phase of Russian aggression, this is an escalation that requires a firm response, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said.

"In my opinion, this means a new phase of armed Russian aggression, this is an escalation, this is Putin's mockery of all peace plans, proposals, primarily from the American side. This is a slap in the face to global efforts. And this requires a firm international response. I think it is becoming increasingly obvious that this aggression is not only against Ukraine. This is aggression against the EU, against NATO countries, against our common values," he said, speaking to journalists in Kyiv on Wednesday.

As the Foreign Minister noted, the Polish side informed Ukraine about the further steps they plan to take.

"I have been in touch with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy since the very morning, based on his instructions, I am also in contact with our Polish friends. I exchanged information, thoughts with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Radosaw Sikorski before the special meeting, which was held in Poland this morning after the direct violation of Polish airspace," the minister said.
The plan was to have breakfast at the Windows on the World restaurant on the top floors, 106 and 107, of the North Tower and then go see the Statue of Liberty after.
Main Street Holly, the villages downtown development authority, is welcoming a new interim executive director to fill the role after its previous interim director, Christina Shepard-Decius, stepped down during the last week of August.
MFA and Modern Ukraine Foundation donate 20 FPV drones on fiber optics to 21st Separate Mechanized Brigade, generators for hospitals in frontline cities

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, together with the Modern Ukraine Foundation, donated 20 FPV drones on fiber optics to the 21st separate mechanized brigade and generators for hospitals in frontline cities.

As an Interfax-Ukraine agency correspondent reported, three Ammann Olympian GEP 44X generators with a capacity of 35 kW were also transferred to regional clinical hospitals in Zaporizhia, Dnipro and Kharkiv.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs Andriy Sybiha was personally present during the transfer ceremony.

"I am especially pleased to participate in the ceremony of handing over drones to the 21st brigade and generators to frontline cities, together with the Foundation. This should be the reaction to the next escalation and growth of challenges. Specific solutions. And today we are showing that we have no right to fatigue in helping our soldiers," the minister said in Kyiv on Wednesday.

Sybiha added that a certain number of drones "will go to the front today." As the minister emphasized, "every drone and element of assistance is important for the Ukrainian military."

"Today there is no greater priority than strengthening the defense capability of our army. More weapons, weapons, weapons," he said.

The total cost of the transferred aid is over UAH 2 million. The Anacosma clinic and VORK UA LLC provided funds for drones for the 21st separate mechanized brigade, and the generators were purchased jointly with the Swiss company AXPO GRID AG, which assumed the costs of the purchase.

President of the Modern Ukraine Foundation Volodymyr Havrysh noted that the Foundation has already transferred "more than UAH 250 million to support the Defense Forces."

The head of the communications department of the 21st Separate Mechanized Brigade, Major Serhiy Dibrov, thanked for the assistance provided for the needs of the brigade.
Sweden's Sami fear for future amid rare earth mining plans



Kiruna, Sweden, Sept 10 (AFP) Sep 10, 2025



Sweden's indigenous Sami fear they will lose their livelihood and culture if plans go ahead to mine a large rare earths deposit located on their traditional reindeer grazing grounds in the far north.

Rare earth elements are essential for the green transition, including electric vehicle battery production, and the large discovery made in Sweden in early 2023, as well as an even bigger one in Norway in 2024, has boosted Europe's hopes of cutting its dependence on China.

The Asian country is home to 92 percent of the world's refined rare earth production and 60 percent of rare earth mining.

Almost a kilometre underground in the Arctic town of Kiruna, Sweden's state-owned mining company LKAB is blasting an exploration tunnel from its iron ore mine to the neighbouring Per Geijer deposit, to assess its potential.

Its machines are advancing five metres (16 feet) a day.

"We don't have any rare earths exploration or mining in Europe, so this has great potential," LKAB vice president Niklas Johansson told AFP on a recent visit.

However, there are "also a lot of challenges", he added.



- 'Legal hurdles' -



"There is political will" to mine the deposit, but also "a lot of legal hurdles, permitting processes, which the new rules are supposed to make easier," he said.

"But we still haven't seen any of it."

The "new rules" he's referring to are 47 "strategic projects" regarding rare earths and strategic materials drawn up by the European Commission in March 2025 and fast-tracked for approval.

Per Geijer is one of them. In theory, the mining permit procedure is supposed to take a maximum of 27 months.

LKAB has yet to receive its permit, and Johansson is seasoned enough to know it could take much longer.

"We might be looking at 10 years just to get the permit", and then "a couple of years in order to make a mine".



- 'Existential threat' -



The prospect of a mining eldorado in the region has Sami reindeer herders worried.

"We are really quite desperate," said Lars-Marcus Kuhmunen, a herder and head of the Gabna Sami community.

"We could be the last generation of Sami in this area," he said. Kiruna, he added, "will be a black spot on the map".

Their entire livelihood is at stake.

The planned mine "is set to obstruct the only remaining seasonal migration route connecting the winter pastures and summer pastures", said Rasmus Klocker Larsen, a researcher at the Stockholm Environment Institute.

"The risk is that people are pushed to quit herding, and Sami customs and knowledge are not handed down to new generations," he added.

Larsen is currently conducting a study on the impact that mining projects on Sami lands have on the indigenous community's human rights.

Kuhmunen said the rare earths mine would cut the community's land "in half".

"Then we can't conduct our traditional reindeer herding as we have done for 400 to 500 years."

LKAB insisted the company would find a solution with the Sami.

"The Per Geijer project is still at an early stage with a lot of studies ongoing, including on which protection, adaptation and compensation measures will need to be taken regarding reindeer herding," LKAB sustainability director Pia Lindstrom told AFP.

"We think it is possible for both of our businesses to continue to operate and grow," she said.



- 'Culture, not money' -



But the Sami and LKAB representatives "don't speak the same language", argued Kuhmunen.

The discussions always revolve around financial compensation, he said.

"We don't want money," he stressed.

"We want our culture and reindeer herding to improve."

According to LKAB, the rare earths in the Per Geijer deposit are located in what is mainly an iron ore deposit, and can therefore be produced as by-products.

LKAB intends therefore to continue to extract iron ore at the Kiruna mine as it has since 1890, in order to make the rare earth and phosphorus mining profitable.

While the Per Geijer deposit is the second-biggest known deposit in Europe, it remains small on a global scale, representing less than one percent of the 120 million tons estimated worldwide by the US Geological Survey.
Merz after NATO discussion of Russia's actions against Poland: NATO is and remains ready for defense

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, after a NATO Council meeting held at Poland's request in connection with the violation of its airspace by Russian drones, said that "NATO is and remains ready to defend itself."

"Today Poland informed NATO allies about the violation of its airspace by armed Russian drones. The German government strongly condemns this aggressive action by Russia," Merz wrote on the social network X on Wednesday evening.

"At Poland's request, the NATO Council today discussed Russia's actions under Article 4 of the NATO Treaty. NATO is and remains ready to defend itself," he wrote.

Merz stressed that "Russia has put the lives of people in a state that is a member of NATO and the EU at risk. These reckless actions are part of a long series of provocations in the Baltic region and on NATO's eastern flank. It is good that Poland, together with its NATO allies, recognized the danger in time and was able to eliminate it."
Australia approves chlamydia vaccine for koalas



Sydney, Sept 10 (AFP) Sep 10, 2025



Australian regulators have approved a chlamydia vaccine for koalas, researchers said Wednesday, as they seek to stamp out a sexually transmitted disease responsible for about half of all deaths of the fluffy marsupial in the wild.

For a decade, scientists at the University of the Sunshine Coast trialled the chlamydia vaccine in controlled settings.

But approval from the veterinary medicine regulator means the single-dose shot can be nationally rolled out.

Lead researcher Professor Peter Timms said the disease was driving wild koalas to extinction, particularly in southeast Queensland and New South Wales.

In those areas, "infection rates within populations are often around 50 percent and in some cases can reach as high as 70 percent," he said.

Trials of the vaccine showed it reduced the likelihood of the herbivores developing chlamydia during breeding age and decreased deaths in wild populations by at least 65 percent.

Antibiotics were previously the only treatment for the chlamydia-ridden tree-dwellers but it disrupted their digestive abilities and did not protect against future infections.

Chlamydia was first observed in koalas about 50 years ago.

The bacterial infection causes blindness, bladder infections, infertility and death.

The disease has taken a heavy toll on Australia's koala population.

The native species are shy and notoriously difficult to count, but the government considers the animal as endangered along the east coast.

Australia's official national monitoring programme estimates between 95,000 and 238,000 koalas live in the eastern states of Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.

Another 129,000 to 286,000 of the marsupials are estimated to be living in Victoria and South Australia.

Expanding cities, land clearance and the spread of chlamydia are devastating the populations of one of Australia's most well-loved animals.

Scientists believe Australia has the highest rate of mammal extinction in the world, with about 100 of the country's unique flora and fauna species wiped out in the past 123 years.

Australia halted logging in a large stretch of the eastern coast on Sunday to create a retreat for koalas and save the local population from extinction.
Fossil energy 'significant' driver of climate-fuelled heatwaves: study



Paris, Sept 10 (AFP) Sep 10, 2025



Fossil fuel and cement producers have contributed "significantly" to the growing number and intensity of climate-change-driven heatwaves, according to a study published on Wednesday in Nature.

An international team of scientists analysed more than 200 heatwaves around the world between 2000 and 2023 and found that climate change had made each of them more likely and more ferocious.

But they also took their attribution study one step further by teasing out the role of 180 major producers of polluting oil, gas, coal and cement.

They found emissions linked to these large companies contributed half of the increase in heatwave intensity compared to the pre-industrial era and also increased their probability.

The role of the 14 largest "carbon majors" -- including Saudi Aramco, Gazprom, Chevron and BP -- appears to be very significant, weighing as much as the 166 other companies studied.

The pollution from these firms has essentially been large enough to spark heatwaves, researchers said.

"Each producer alone can be enough to make heatwaves possible that would have been virtually impossible without climate change," said Yann Quilcaille of ETH Zurich, who led the study published in Nature.

Attribution studies generally measure the degree of influence of climate change on a particular extreme weather event.

To do this, scientists compare the current climate with a simulation of a climate that has not been warmed by human activities.

The latest study expanded the scope to a total of 213 heatwaves.

Researchers found that the influence of climate change had grown over time: it made heatwaves on average 20 times more likely between 2000 and 2009 and 200 times more likely from 2010 to 2019.

A quarter of the events studied (55 out of 213) were at least 10,000 times more likely. In other words, they would have been virtually impossible without global warming.

"We also show that emissions associated with the largest producers of fossil fuels and cement contribute significantly to heatwaves," Quilcaille told AFP.

Emissions from just one of these carbon majors would have been enough to cause events deemed 10,000 times more likely, they found.



- 'Leap forward' -



The authors took into account the entire value chain of the companies as well as the use of the products by customers. For example, they attributed to each oil group the emissions associated with the petrol it sold.

Pascal Yiou, from France's Laboratory for Climate and Environmental Sciences (LSCE), who was not involved in the study, told AFP it was "a summary of the current state of knowledge in heatwave attribution", playing down the effort to attribute the role of major polluters.

But Quilcaille said the study could aid corporate responsibility legal cases, which have not so far been able to draw on increasingly precise research linking carbon emissions with specific events.

In one, a Peruvian farmer sued German energy company RWE, accusing it of being indirectly responsible for the melting of a glacier near his home. In May, a German court rejected the case but recognised the principle of polluters' global responsibility for climate damage.

In a commentary published in Nature, Karsten Haustein, of the University of Leipzig, said the new research was a "leap forward" for climate litigation and diplomacy.

"It is another reminder that denial and anti-science rhetoric will not make climate liability go away, nor will it reduce the ever-increasing risk to life from heatwaves across our planet," said Haustein, who was not involved in the study.

jmi/klm/rh/phz

FOSSIL GROUP

Saudi Aramco

Gazprom

CHEVRON

BP

LEAP WIRELESS INTERNATIONAL
Photo: Konrad Laskowski / Ministry of Foreign Affairs Republic of Poland

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Radosaw Sikorski responded to the statement of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban regarding the incursion of Russian UAVs into Polish airspace, calling for tougher sanctions against the aggressor.

"No, Viktor. This incident proves you should get off the fence and condemn Russian aggression. We ask you to unblock the disbursement of EU funds for defence, approve tougher sanctions on the aggressor and withdraw your veto on starting Ukraine's EU accession negotiations," Sikorski said on the X social network.

As reported, Orban commented on the incident, calling the violation of Poland's territorial integrity unacceptable and calling for "peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine."

Earlier, the Polish publication Rzeczpospolita reported that over 20, most likely 23, Russian drones were detected during a nighttime violation of Polish airspace, and were shot down mostly by Dutch F-35 fighter jets.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk reported 19 violations of Polish airspace and that four Russian drones were shot down.
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Actor Glen Powell has claimed that Chris Pratts performance in Marvels Guardians of the Galaxy helped to change expectations for Hollywood leading men.

The 36-year-old, best known for his roles in Top Gun: Maverick and Anyone But You, was known mostly for supporting roles when Guardians of the Galaxy, in which he stars as space adventurer Peter Quill, was released in 2014.

Pratt has so far played Peter, aka Star-Lord, in a total of six Marvel movies. Although the character was considered to be a relatively obscure figure from Marvels comics, he has since become a fan favourite after being reinvented as a roguish, witty hero with a love of dancing.

Speaking to GQ, Powell said that the success of Pratts performance helped him as an actor, as he believed that Hollywood was previously only interested in casting leading men in brooding or dark roles, portrayed by the likes of Christian Bale and Robert Pattinson.

When Pratt kind of appeared on the scene where he was doing things that were a little more silly and buoyant, thats where I feel most at home, he said.

And thats where I feel like I had a gear that is a necessary flavour in terms of Hollywood, and not a gear that a lot of guys can play.

open image in gallery Chris Pratt in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (  MARVEL 2022 )

Powells next role is the lead in Edgar Wrights adaptation of The Running Man.

The film will be his first lead performance in an action movie; he revealed that he reached out to Tom Cruise for advice on the part.

I knew that based on the Stephen King book, [my character] Ben Richards was a tank, Powell said. I was like, Okay, I got to be a bit of a weapon. And so thats why I trained the way I trained on this. I put on a lot of muscle.

A lot of it was functional, he added. A lot of it was so I could absorb hits. But a lot of it was also authentically for an audience I went from going, Oh, Im an actor on a movie, to Im a high-performance athlete. And Im just very lucky that I have someone like Tom who I could literally go, Hey, what do I do to survive something?

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open image in gallery Glen Powell in The Running Man ( AP )

Pratt, meanwhile, has since gone on to become of the highest grossing actors of all-time, thanks to his Marvel role as well as lead parts in the Jurassic World franchise and The Super Mario Bros Movie.
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Bad Bunny has said his decision not to play any tour dates in mainland U.S. was partly due to his fears that ICE would target fans at his concerts.

The 31-year-old pop star, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, will conclude a 30 night residency at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico in the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan this weekend.

He chose to play the residency on his home island, which is an unincorporated U.S. territory, instead of touring the United States.

In a new interview with i-D magazine, the musician was asked whether this decision was out of a concern about the mass deportations of Latinos instigated by President Trump in recent months.

Man, honestly, yes, responded Ocasio. There were many reasons why I didnt show up in the U.S., and none of them were out of hateIve performed there many times. All of [the shows] have been successful. All of them have been magnificent. Ive enjoyed connecting with Latinos who have been living in the U.S.

Bad Bunny attending the Oscars in March 2024 ( AFP/Getty )

He continued: But specifically, for a residency here in Puerto Rico, when we are an unincorporated territory of the U.S.  People from the U.S. could come here to see the show. Latinos and Puerto Ricans of the United States could also travel here, or to any part of the world.

But there was the issue oflike, f***ing ICE could be outside [my concert]. And its something that we were talking about and very concerned about.

In June, Bad Bunny shared footage of an ICE raid in Puerto Rico on his social media, blasting the officers as motherf***ers and sons of b****es.

He posted a video showing officers standing by SUVs with blue flashing lights, which he appeared to have filmed himself, on his Instagram Stories.

He captioned the clip ice and could be heard saying in Spanish: Look, those motherf***ers are in these cars, RAV-4s. Theyre here in Pontezuela. Sons of b****es, instead of leaving the people alone and working there.

Pontezuela is a suburb to the east of the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan.

He was one of many celebrities to have spoken out against the mass deportation orders being carried out by ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) at the behest of the Trump administration.

In a video posted to TikTok, actor and producer Eva Longoria described mass deportations as inhumane and hard to watch.
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Stand-up comedian Andrew Santino has claimed that the Walt Disney Company threatened not to air his new Hulu special, White Noise, unless he edited his jokes about Disney adults.

White Noise is the 41-year-old actor and comedians third stand-up special and his first for Hulu, which is owned and controlled by Disney.

In a new interview with Variety, Santino spoke about a section of the special in which he rants about adults who make their devotion to Disney content, merchandise and theme parks a big part of their personality.

Asked how quickly Disney had contacted him about the jokes after submitting the special, Santino responded: Immediately.

He continued: They couldnt wait to trim the fat on those jokes. Candidly, we went back and forth, and they didnt really enjoy having that stuff in there. We found a happy medium, and I was able to keep the jokes in there, but [the jokes] were manipulated.

Comedian Andrew Santino says Disney changed the jokes in his Hulu special ( Getty )

Im not going to lie: They definitely changed the jokes. I was not stoked about that. We got into a little bit of a war. They did not want those jokes in there. My argument was: I joke about a lot of other stuff in the special thats controversial. I dont think joking about people who like Disney as grown-ups is a controversial take, but they disagreed.

Asked whether the joke was harsher before Disney intervened, Santino said: Yeah. It was funnier. It peeled open a little bit more than what you saw, on people going to Disney without kids and adults who wear Disney clothing. But Disney is a massive corporate conglomerate, and they were like: If you want it on here, this is how we want it. Otherwise we wont be able to air the special. We have to cut the jokes.

So we found a medium. We said wed find a way to manipulate the jokes in a way that works for everybody. [Disney] got kind of what they wanted, and I tried to get the best of what I wanted. This is compromise in the modern world of media.

The Independent has contacted Disney for comment.

Disney has been known to censor content it disapproves of in the past. In 2022, Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch released what he claimed were hilarious real notes he received from Disneys censorship department.

Among the notes from the network, one reads: Please revise poopface as it comes across as a replacement for s***face. Prior use of Mabel saying Poop. Poop. And Butts in the episode Fight Fighters came across as more childlike and not as offensive.

Hirsch responded: Ive never met a human on earth of any age who would be offended by a cartoon saying the word poop face. Not changing it.
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Influential right-wing activist Charlie Kirks wife Erika shared a Bible verse about seeking help during difficult times just hours before he was shot dead.

Psalm 46:1 - God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble, the former Miss Arizona USA, 36, shared Wednesday afternoon on X. Erika, who runs her own ministry as well as a faith-driven clothing brand, only resumed posting psalms to her X account two days before the fatal shooting.

Her post has now become a place where those in mourning have responded with tributes and condolences after her husband Charlie Kirk was fatally shot.

The Turning Point USA founder, 31, was about 20 minutes into his presentation at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, when a single shot rang out, striking him in the neck. Video from the scene shows Kirk bleeding profusely from his neck before falling backward.

He was rushed to a nearby hospital where he later died. His death was announced by President Donald Trump.

open image in gallery Charlie and Erika Kirk at President Donald Trump's inaugural ball in January 2025 ( Getty )

The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead, Trump wrote on Truth Social.

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. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!

A person of interest has been taken into custody, according to Utah Governor Spencer Cox. The alleged shooter is believed to have taken aim at Kirk from a campus building about 200 yards from where he was speaking.

Its unclear if Erika Kirk was in attendance for Wednesdays event, the first stop of a recently launched American Comeback Tour with visits to college campuses across the country.

open image in gallery A person of interest in the shooting death of Charlie Kirk has been taken into custody, according to Utah Governor Spencer Cox (  Deseret News 2025 )

Charlie and Erika were married in 2021. They share two children, a daughter born in August 2022, and a son born in May 2024. The family gathered to celebrate their daughters third birthday just weeks before the shooting.

The two have also used their social media platforms to share psalms and other religious beliefs. But they also commented on each others posts, uplifting one another in their roles as parents.

Despite sharing photos and stories of their young family on social media, the couple opted to keep the faces of their children hidden from the public.

Erika stood by Charlies side through many Turning Point USA events, delivering speeches and engaging with crowds gathered to hear him talk.

Both were in Washington, D.C. earlier this year for Trumps inauguration and surrounding celebrations, including a Turning Point USA inauguration-eve ball.
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Fawlty Towers star John Cleese has branded BBC comedy executives stupid and clowns after he was left frustrated by an ideas meeting with the broadcaster.

The 85-year-old actor who starred as Basil Fawlty in the popular Seventies sitcom, claimed one executive left the meeting early and the one who remained was one of the most stupid men I have ever met.

Cleese said the pair werent interested in his comedic ideas but were instead looking for Basil Fawlty on a shop or something.

It was a hopeless idea but they seemed keen on it, he added.

I wanted to say to him: You have absolutely no idea what youre doing, Cleese told former BBC newsreader Michael Buerk in an interview for Radio Times.

He said: Young writers go and see this clown and assume, as he is the one who commissions the programmes, he knows what hes doing. The people in charge now have no idea at all. The writers deserve better than this. The British people deserve better than this.

The actor said that the last BBC show he loved was Ricky Gervaiss The Office, which first broadcast in 2001 and concluded in 2003.

Cleese claimed BBC commissioners are so concerned with political correctness and fearful of upsetting audiences that it clouds their judgement when looking at new work.

John Cleese has dubbed BBC comedy executives clowns after a frustrating ideas meeting ( Getty Images )

We are a long way from the days when a BBC director-general would say: There are some people one would wish to offend, he said. Now theyre too influenced by the passion and nastiness of the extremely woke.

A huge slice of comedy is put straight into the fridge because executives dont want to get phone calls at dinner. They dont seem to realise you tease people, youre rude to people that youre fond of.

Jon Petrie, the BBCs director of comedy, said the genre has been having a blinder despite funding issues at the BBC Comedy Festival in May.

He pointed to the 21 million people who watched the final episode of Gavin & Stacey on Christmas Day, as well as the success of shows including Ludwig and Amandaland.

Cleese announced plans to revive Fawlty Towers alongside his daughter Camilla Cleese in 2023, but a broadcast partner for the project has yet to be announced. Its last episode aired in 1979.
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In a surprise casting, Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Taylor Frankie Paul has been tapped to lead the next season of The Bachelorette  a role normally handed to non-famous civilians.

The news was revealed on Wednesdays episode of Alex Coopers popular Call Her Daddy podcast  and has sparked debate among fans.

Paul has courted controversy in the past, such as when her MomTok video about soft swinging among her group of Mormon influencer friends went viral, ruining friendships and leading to her divorce from husband Tate Paul.

Then, in 2023, Paul pleaded guilty to aggravated assault stemming from an incident with her then-boyfriend and father of her third child, Dakota Mortensen. Ultimately, a plea deal was reached in that case.

After Pauls Bachelorette casting was announced, fans of the hit ABC show voiced their support  and concerns  online.

Taylor Frankie Paul is the new Bachelorette ( Disney )

I have to say Im not a fan of Taylor Frankie Paul being the next Bachelorette. ABC is wild for that. She is toxic and so is her family. Guess they are desperate for ratings, one wrote on X, while another agreed: Dare I say I dont think shes done the growth to be the bachelorette itll be a mess to watch but I dont think shes going to have a long relationship come from this.

Others were more supportive of the news. One person wrote on X: Having Taylor Frankie Paul from Secret Lives of Mormon Wives as the next Bachelorette is quite possibly one of the smartest moves in the reality television space that Ive seen in years! while someone else agreed: Taylor frankie paul as the next bachelorette is going to be peak reality television.

The Bachelorette (a spin-off of The Bachelor) follows one woman who dates a group of roughly 25 to 30 men over the course of a season. Each week, she eliminates contestants during rose ceremonies until just two remain, with the finale typically culminating in a proposal.

Speaking to Cooper about her feelings on becoming the new Bachelorette, Paul said: Surreal. It has not hit me right now in this moment. Im just thinking about it, and its not real. And its not going to be until I think the limo is pulling up, you know? And meeting the people.

Admitting she is nervous, Paul continued: How did I get here? In my head, Im like, How is this happening? Thats my answer. The mother of three said shes previously joked about starring on the show on TikTok, but never saw it as an attainable goal.

The news comes as Pauls Secret Lives of Mormon Wives co-stars Jen Affleck and Whitney Leavitt were announced among the cast of this seasons Dancing with the Stars, which Paul said helped her decision.

How do I make this work? Im a co-parent. I have two baby daddies, not one, so Im dealing with two different people, my children. My home base is here. Can I travel that long? Can I be gone that long? Paul said.

But then Im also thinking on the side, the other two moms that are in my group [Affleck and Leavitt] are doing Dancing with the Stars, and they brought their family out, but also they have their husbands, so for me, Im like, is this possible for me to do as a single mom? Can I make it work realistically, no matter how much I want this? And I was like, I can, if you want to, you can and it comes down to that, so I was just like, I will make it work... I can ask for help more, she added.

Paul also confirmed she will continue to appear on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.

I think most of them are going to be happy for me and support me, Paul said of her Hulu reality show co-stars. I cant speak for everyone and what they actually truly think, you know, never really know. But I think were all kind of doing our own thing, so everyone is getting their own shots, its not just about her, her, her.

The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives follows a group of women in Utahs Mormon community, documenting their friendships, family dynamics, and personal struggles.

The all-new season of The Bachelorette will debut on ABC and Hulu in 2026, and The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives returns November 13, 2025.
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Actor Derek Dixon has spoken out about sexual harassment and assault he says he endured at the hands of media mogul Tyler Perry.

Dixon, who starred as Dale in Perrys long-running political drama The Oval and its spinoff Ruthless, filed a $260m (192m) lawsuit against Perry in June, all claims the star has denied.

The actor said the ordeal had been hard due to the shame that often comes with sexual assault. Just trying to think what you could have done better and having to deal with the judgement of how you couldve ended it better without being in that situation, he said.

Dixon landed the role as Dale in The Oval in 2020 and appeared in 85 episodes between 2021 and 2025. According to his legal filing, Perry began sending him text messages of a sexual nature during this time.

One of them says, What's it going to take for you to have guiltless sex? Have yall found that in therapy yet? I would hope that you would let someone hold and make love to you, Dixon told ABC News.

The lawsuit claims Perry told Dixon to stay in his guest house in January 2020 after they had drinks together. The writer then allegedly climbed into bed with Dixon and started rubbing his leg.

Dixon said Perrys actions prompted him to jump out of bed. I thought after that instance, it was pretty clear that I was not interested in that type of a relationship, he said.

open image in gallery Actor Derek Dixon has spoken out about sexual harassment claims against media mogul Tyler Perry ( Instagram/Getty )

At the end of the second season of The Oval, Dixons character was shot four times in the chest. The actor said this made him realise, if I dont make him happy, I could stay dead on the show.

After they finished filming the shooting scene, Dixon claims Perry asked him to his trailer to have drinks and asked him if he was attracted to him.

Dixon claims he called the mogul an attractive man in an attempt to de-escalate the situation but wasnt interested, at which point he claims Perry pushed him against a wall and grabbed his buttocks.

I remember leaving his trailer and calling my friend immediately and just feeling sick about it, he said.

The actor also claims that when he visited Perrys home in Atlanta in June 2021, Perry asked why he wasnt having sex with anyone and told him to take off his clothes to use a weight monitor machine.

open image in gallery Perrys legal team have said the allegations are fabricated and a scam ( Invision )

He reached down and pulled my underwear down and grabbed my a** and I tried to stop him and pull back my underwear up and he grabbed my arms and said, No, no, no, it's OK, just go with it' I said, Stop, I don't want to be naked, Dixon said, adding he then locked himself in the guesthouse bathroom.

The actor said he ceased communication with Perry in the spring of 2024 and decided to leave The Oval in September that year. Losing It, another series he was writing that Perry owns the rights to, was never developed beyond the pilot.

Perrys lawyer Matthew Boyd told ABC News Dixonss claims are fabricated and a scam.

The Independent has contacted Perrys representatives for comment.
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Zosia Mamet has recalled an intense confrontation with a showrunner that she says made her leave one of the most popular programs on TV.

The 37-year-old actor wrote about landing a recurring role on one of the biggest shows on television in her new collection of essays, Does This Make Me Funny?

While she didnt name the program, she called it the kind of show that makes people fall in love with TV as a medium all over again, according to an excerpt shared with The Hollywood Reporter.

However, after filming a few episodes for one season, she had a difficult experience with the head of the program.

The shows creator and showrunner was an intense human. He directed some episodes every season but not all of them, Mamet wrote. The showrunner wasnt always around, but when he was, the entire vibe of the set would change, as if a cold front had swept the soundstage.

Zosia Mamet says she refused to go back to a TV program after being screamed at by the showrunner ( Getty )

The Girls alum recalled a blocking rehearsal with the showrunner, when she was supposed to remove photos from a manila envelope and put them on a table. However, when she walked onto set, the showrunner yelled cut immediately.

He gets up out of his chair at the monitors and walks toward me slowly, looking at the ground the entire time like hes trying to figure out how to word what hes about to say, she continued. And when he finally stops right in front of me, he takes a few more beats before he lifts his head, looks at me, and says, What the f***are you doing? To which I say, Umrehearsing?

The showrunner allegedly grabbed Mamets hand with the envelope and asked her what the f*** she was doing with it, before telling her to redo the scene.

According to Mamet, she acted out the scene multiple times, and every time she got to the part where she took the photos out of the envelope, the showrunner would call cut and get up and yell.

Well, first, he starts off just raising his voice, which escalates to yelling, which eventually mutates into fullout screaming, she added. He spews the kitchen sink at me: Youre doing it wrong! How the f*** can you think that looks right at all?...I dont understand  when I cast you, you knew how to act.

Mamet claimed the showrunner acted like this for about a half hour, before he gave up or got bored. However, everyone else on the set just stared at their shoes while he screamed at her.

I walked to my car and called my agents and told them I quit. I was supposed to do four more episodes that season, not including the one I was on, but I told them I didnt care what they had to do, I didnt care if the network sued me, I refused to go back on that set for one more day than I actually had to, she wrote.

While Mamet didnt name the show or the showrunner in question, fans on X immediately speculated that the experience was about Mad Men and Matthew Weiner.

The Independent has contacted Weiner for comment.

Mamet played Joyce Ramsay in seasons four and five of Mad Men, joining the show when it was already an Emmy-winning series. The show, set in the 1960s, explores the intertwined professional and personal lives of advertising executive Don Draper (portrayed by Jon Hamm) and his colleagues at the Sterling Cooper ad agency.

Theres also a scene in the fourth episode of season five when Mamets character delivers a manila envelope to Peggy Olson (portrayed by Elizabeth Moss), whos an employee at Sterling Cooper.
Photo: https://www.facebook.com/

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen discussed further strengthening of sanctions against Russia, in particular the US position on this issue, and support for Ukrainian children.

Ursula informed me about the joint work with American partners on strengthening sanctions against Russia, he said on X Wednesday.

We also discussed support for Ukrainian children. Ursula confirmed that the EU will help finance free meals for schoolchildren. We coordinated further steps for the return of abducted children, Zelenskyy added.

He also thanked the head of the EC for the strong State of the Union Address and the clear message regarding EUR 6 billion for drone production in Ukraine. We must find even more ways to use frozen Russian assets for the benefit of Ukraine, the President of Ukraine stressed.

We agreed to stay in contact, he added.
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People get excited by trainwrecks, Brooke Mueller, the ex-wife of Charlie Sheen, observes in aka Charlie Sheen, a new Netflix documentary about the actor. Unfortunately. It may be unfortunate but its perhaps inevitable. After all, Netflix currently has nine documentaries  from Balloon Boy to Poop Cruise  available in a separate series called, sure enough, Trainwreck. The streamer understands, like no other broadcaster, the tabloid allure of a very public disintegration. Here, with aka Charlie Sheen, a two-part film, Netflix serves as both train conductor and crash investigator as the Sheen locomotive heads off the rails.

Charlie Sheen, born Carlos Estevez, grew up part of a dynasty. His father was Seventies heartthrob Martin Sheen and his elder brother, Emilio Estevez, was a core member of the Brat Pack, a group of actors who captured the zeitgeist of the 1980s. But young Charlie threatened to overshadow the whole clan after breakout performances in the likes of Ferris Buellers Day Off, Wall Street, and the 1986 Best Picture winner, Platoon. That early promise feels a distant memory now, after a long career marred by drug abuse, legal issues, and (perhaps most troubling of all) an eight-season stint on Chuck Lorres much-maligned sitcom, Two and a Half Men. It is a different tale to the classic Hollywood story of persistence, of not succeeding at first but trying and trying again. But if at first you succeed, Sheen muses, what do you do?

His answer: drugs and sex workers and ill-fated marriages. Now 60, Sheen is photographed for the film in a diner, trapped behind a linoleum table, dragging on an e-cigarette. It got away from me, he confesses, of life after the first flush of fortune. It is a story, really, with two nadirs. His early drug use, partying hard with fellow nepo baby Nic Cage, which landed him in hospital and rehab, and then the second, starker breakdown, which saw him fired from Two and a Half Men amid a very high-profile unravelling. Contemporary news reports described the latter crisis as his assault on pop culture, which made him a bigger star than ever, even while he became unemployable (and probably uninsurable). That was in 2011; now hes sobered up and is telling his own story.

And this is very much his own telling. His father, Martin, and brother, Emilio, declined to appear (Would I love them both in this? Absolutely, he admits. But I completely understand why they chose not to). Two of his ex-wives  Mueller and Denise Richards  are in, while two of his five children opt for an appearance. It makes for a selective tale that privileges a narrative of manic but benign destruction. Allegations such as the discharge of a firearm that injured ex-girlfriend Kelly Preston, or Richards insinuations about his preference for young-looking men and women, are breezed over. In a final-act Q&A session, he rebuffs Corey Feldmans (admittedly very problematic) accusations that he sexually assaulted the late Corey Haim, and makes clear that, despite settling several lawsuits over recklessness about his HIV diagnosis, he has never actually infected any third party. Thats important, a disembodied voice, from behind the camera, says. Important, perhaps, but not quite an excuse.

But PR exercises (and Netflix has successfully conducted several: Robbie Williams, Miss Americana, Beckham etc) do allow for great access. aka Charlie Sheen brings in superb talking heads (including a bowl-cut-sporting, chain-smoking Sean Penn), as well as family videos, old Super 8 skits by the Estevez brothers, and decades of footage from across the actors projects. These movie and TV clips are deployed, very effectively, as a collage that reconstructs the highs and lows of Sheens off-screen life. The story of a drug relapse, for example, is set against shots of his father stumbling through the opening scene of Apocalypse Now. It is a visual gimmick that also makes an important point: the narrative of Sheens life has always been inextricably tied up with the false glamour of show business. Attempting to totally disentangle Charlie Sheen the Actor from Charlie Sheen the Drug Addict is folly.

Its been liberating, Sheen reveals, after finally copping to his much-rumoured bisexuality. Just to talk about stuff. A train didnt come through the side of the restaurant. Even if this is calculated candour, its still effective. Sheen is a product of a media infatuation, driven to become an icon of immoderation by a combination of inner demons and external devils. aka Charlie Sheen is an exercise in damage control that revels in the destruction, only pulling back right at the edge of excess. It is  as Sheen himself would put it  a winning formula.
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Kathy Bates is opening up about staying happy and healthy after her 100-pound weight loss.

Last October, the Matlock star, 77, revealed that she lost a significant amount of weight over about a seven-year span after being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 2017.

Now, Bates is elaborating on the circumstances surrounding her weight loss and defending herself from critics.

People say, Well, it was the Ozempic, she said during an interview with Variety Wednesday. F*** you, it was the Ozempic! It took me years to do this. I got this diagnosis about diabetes  my father died of it; his mother died of it; one of my sisters is in peril.

When they said diabetes, I figured out what to do to slowly, over years, to lose the weight. And then when Ozempic came along, I was able to lose the last 15 to 20 pounds and keep it off, she added.

Kathy Bates says shes getting healthy after diabetes diagnosis ( Getty )

Bates also said she has a clean bill of health following bouts of ovarian cancer in 2003 and breast cancer in 2012.

She said the juxtaposition of getting healthy and Matlock coming along was just unbelievable.

The timing of it is great, she added.

With her physical health currently in good standing, shes entering another big moment in her career: The 2025 Emmy Awards, where shes nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role in Matlock. Shes also the oldest-ever Emmy nominee in this category.

Bates plays a brilliant, retired lawyer, Madeline Matty Matlock, who returns to the workforce to seek justice for the death of her daughter Ellie in the opioid epidemic. She uses her wit and tactics to win multiple cases and expose wrongdoings within her company.

Following a successful first season, with nearly 16 million viewers across broadcast and streaming, the program was renewed for season two, which premieres on CBS on October 12, 2025.

Bates said her success from this show, including the Emmy nomination, feels totally different from anything shes had before  including multiple designers sending her dresses.

Its true, first of all, and its a badge of honor, she said during the Variety interview. Its just the serendipity of all of it. Ive never had any of this stuff happen before, where Ive got five different designers sending dresses.

She had a beautiful dress for me to try. I looked at it on the hanger, and I thought, Thats not gonna fit. I put it on, and it fit, and I just melted down, the American Horror Story star explained.

I just started crying and crying. Im still figuring out what its like to be without all of that weight. What was it for? she added. What was I hiding myself from? What are the emotions that are pouring out because I dont have that armor? It just really surprised me, really shocked me.
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Rosie O'Donnell has called the breakdown of her friendship with Ellen DeGeneres one of the most painful things that ever happened to me.

The Now and Then actor, 63, reflected on DeGeneress appearance on Larry King Live in 2004, when she denied knowing ODonnell during a TV interview, despite having what ODonnell described as a decades-long friendship.

I couldn't believe it. I have photos of her holding my newborn babies. I knew her for 30 years, ODonnell told Mamamia's No Filter podcast. That was one of the most painful things that ever happened to me, in show business and my life.

ODonnell remembered the friendship denial so well that she had T-shirts printed and I gave them to my staff that said I dont know Rosie. Were not friends.

DeGeneres famously appeared on The Rosie ODonnell Show in 1996, where she alluded to rumours that she was a lesbian before publicly coming out on her eponymous sitcom Ellen in 1997. ODonnell came out six years later in 2002.

ODonnell claimed that she supported DeGeneres when she came out, but instead of deciding to stand next to me and hold my hand, which is what I did to her, she did the opposite.

She was all of a sudden in the position I was in where she was starting a show and wanted it to be successful and get the money and the accolades that came with it, ODonnell added.

Since their friendship ended, ODonnell said that she and DeGeneres have never gotten over it and she has not received an apology. The Independent has contacted DeGeneres for comment.

ODonnell said that the breakdown of her relationship with DeGeneres was one of the most painful things that ever happened to me ( Getty )

ODonnell added: I would have said, I'm really sorry I hurt you that much and I don't know why I did that. It was a mistake and I hope you can forgive me.

That's what I would have done. I think in her mind, she thinks I keep rehashing it for pleasure.

ODonnell claimed that she and the former TV presenter are fundamentally different people, saying: My desire to create family is the biggest force in my life. I do it everywhere I go and I don't think that she's similar to me in that way.

While DeGeneres has not publicly spoken about her friendship with ODonnell, earlier this year she defended the Sleepless in Seattle actor after US president Donald Trump threatened to revoke her US citizenship, writing to ODonnell on Instagram: Good for you.

Earlier this year, Trump claimed on his Truth Social account that ODonnell  who relocated to Ireland after Trumps reelection  is a threat to humanity, and he was giving serious consideration to taking away her citizenship.

ODonnell has a family with ex-wife Kelli Carpenter, with whom she shares children Parker, 30, Chelsea, 27, Blake, 25, and Vivienne, 22. She also welcomed a child, Clay, 12, with her late ex-wife Michelle Rounds.

DeGeneres, who relocated to the Cotswolds in November last year, married Portia de Rossi in 2008.
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A Royal Caribbean cruise ship passenger is accused of jumping overboard in an alleged attempt to evade paying $16,000 gambling debts.

Jey Gonzalez-Diaz leapt into the water as the Rhapsody of the Seas disembarked in the Port of San Juan Sunday, according to a criminal complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico seen by CBS.

Surveillance footage captured the dramatic moment a passerby on a jet ski picked Gonzalez-Diaz up and took him to shore following his plunge into the harbor. The ship had left San Juan August 31, visiting Barbados before returning on September 7.

Gonzalez-Diaz was later detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in front of the Puerto Rico Capitol Building, carrying $14,600 in cash, two mobile phones, a handbag, and five identification documents, CBS reported.

The criminal complaint alleges Gonzalez-Diaz tried to avoid federal currency rules - which require reporting cash over $10,000 - the outlet added. He has now been charged with a federal crime, authorities said.

Royal Caribbean told investigators the passenger was booked under the name 'Jeremy Diaz' and had a $16,710.24 debt with the cruise line, that was almost exclusively associated to Casino and Gaming expenses," the complaint added.

open image in gallery The passenger is now facing federal charges ( Getty Images )

Gonzalez-Diaz told officers he jumped from the ship because he did not want to report the currency on his possession because he thought he was going to be taxed, the complaint said, per CBS.

He has since been released on bail, according to local news site Wapa.tv. If convicted, Gonzalez-Diaz could face a prison sentence of up to fine years and a fine of up to $250,000.

In a statement to USA TODAY, Royal Caribbean Group said: As this is an ongoing investigation, we are working with authorities and dont have any more information to share.
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The heartbroken family of Iryna Zarutska, the Ukrainian refugee stabbed to death on a North Carolina train, has demanded justice and public safety reform following her killing.

The 23-year-old recently fled her war-torn home and settled in the city of Charlotte in search of new beginnings when her life was tragically and violently cut short.

The accused, Decarlos Brown Jr., a 34-year-old man with a lengthy criminal history, has been slapped with a federal charge of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system and could potentially face the death penalty, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

Zarutskas family said that she texted her boyfriend that night to say she would be home soon, but when she did not arrive at her apartment, her loved ones became alarmed, WSOCTV reports.

We are heartbroken beyond words, Zarutskas family said in a statement obtained by the outlet via an attorney. Iryna came here to find peace and safety, and instead her life was stolen from her in the most horrific way. No family should have to go through this.

This could have been anyone riding the light rail that night, her family added. We are committed to making sure this never happens again.

open image in gallery The 23-year-old recently fled her war-torn home and settled in the city of Charlotte in search of new beginnings when her life was tragically and violently cut short ( GoFundMe )

The familys immediate priority is to ensure the man responsible for Irynas murder is brought to justice and remains behind bars, the statement continued. However they are also calling attention to a broader crisis in public safety and systemic failure.

Horrifying surveillance footage captured the young womans final moments, with Brown sitting behind her on the train.

Zarutska was traveling on the commuter light-rail train in the neighborhood of South End on August 22 when Brown allegedly pulled out a knife and stabbed her in the neck from behind, seemingly at random. She died at the scene, authorities said last month.

Questions are being asked of local and state officials as to why the accused was free and living on the street despite having 14 prior criminal cases. Doctors also diagnosed Brown with schizophrenia, according to the Associated Press.

open image in gallery Horrifying footage of the young womans final moments was caught on surveillance footage as she traveled on the commuter light-rail train in the neighborhood of South End on August 22 ( AP )

Even though people convicted of first-degree murder in North Carolina can face the death penalty, the state has not carried out an execution since 2006, in part due to legal challenges over the use of lethal injection drugs.

President Donald Trump sought to lay blame at the door of Democrats and accused them of refusing to put bad people in jail.

The blood of this innocent woman can literally be seen dripping from the killers knife, and now her blood is on the hands of the Democrats who refuse to put bad people in jail, including Former Disgraced Governor and Wannabe Senator Roy Cooper. North Carolina, and every State, needs LAW AND ORDER, and only Republicans will deliver it! Trump wrote Monday in a post on Truth Social.

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who has represented North Carolina in the Senate for a decade, said it would be a problem if the Trump administration looked to federalize Charlotte amid speculation the city could be targeted next.

open image in gallery Trump sought to lay blame at the door of Democrats and accused them of refusing to put bad people in jail ( Getty )

We do have challenges, but there are far more major metropolitan areas that we could focus our attention before you go to Charlotte, Tillis told NOTUS. I hope that people dont amplify this into something.

Tillis said that he has not seen evidence that Charlotte would be targeted next, but added: If they do, itll be a problem for me.

Trump administration officials have honed in on the case to justify drastic action on violent crime.

I have daughters the same age as Iryna Zarutska. We got here because we have leaders who dont stand up for Americans who have no choice but to take public transportation to get to work, said Transport Secretary Sean Duffy. POTUS and DOT are here to fight for hard working people. They deserve to be safe on the streets, on buses, and on trains.

Attorney General Pam Bondi also slammed the senseless killing as a direct result of failed soft-on-crime policies that put criminals before innocent people.

I have directed my attorneys to federally prosecute Decarlos Brown Jr., a repeat violent offender with a history of violent crime, for murder. We will seek the maximum penalty for this unforgivable act of violence  he will never again see the light of day as a free man, Bondi said.
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Federal prosecutors charged a Minnesota man Tuesday with threatening to assault and murder a federal judge after he allegedly printed and distributed a 236-page manifesto titled How to Kill a Federal Judge at a local library.

Robert Phillip Ivers, 72, previously convicted in 2019 for threatening to kill a federal judge, was arrested earlier this month at the Wayzata Library after printing the document, which allegedly had a gun on it.

According to the complaint, Ivers showed the manifesto to library staff and handed them a three-page flyer promoting it before leaving, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota.

The flyer described the document as a guide designed to teach extremists on how to plan, train, hunt, stalk and kill anyone, including judges, their family members, politicians and more!"

The flyer claimed Ivers had been "falsely indicted by a deceived U.S. grand jury" and ominously declared that the harsh reality is that judges are going to die.

open image in gallery Robert Phillip Ivers, 72, of Minnesota, has been charged with threatening to assault and murder a federal judge after allegedly printing and showing his manifesto to library employees. ( Hennepin County Sheriff's Office/Handout via REUTERS )

Prosecutors said the manifesto centered on perceived injustices by the judicial system and detailed Ivers desire for revenge. It allegedly included disturbing sketches, various writings and handwritten threats to kill judges, their children, and pets.

He explicitly stated he intended to instill fear, writing, If this book doesnt instill fear in you then your 9 (sic) already dead.

During the investigation, authorities discovered that an Episcopal church in Minnetonka had reported Ivers to police on August 28 for alleged "abnormal behavior" after he said he planned to attend events involving children and state lawmakers.

Ivers was taken into police custody on the night of September 3, and during transport, he claimed he was having a heart attack. He was briefly hospitalized and then released later that night.

A search of Ivers vehicle revealed further troubling evidence, including 20 spiral-bound copies of the manifesto, a replica firearm, a photo of the former pope marked with crosshairs, a copy of the Anarchist Cookbook, fireworks, CO cartridges with pellets, and lists naming multiple federal judges, including those connected to Ivers past legal cases, prosecutors said.

On September 5, the Wayzata Police Department re-arrested Ivers. During a subsequent interview, he admitted to showing his manifesto to library staff. When asked by law enforcement whether he believed his book might have frightened anyone, Ivers shouted, It was supposed to!

The earlier 2019 case had involved threats against U.S. District Judge Wilhelmina Wright and was presided over by U.S. District Judge Robert Pratt.

During his initial court appearance on September 9, Ivers was ordered detained pending a hearing scheduled for Friday.

His court-appointed attorney, Brett Kelley, was reportedly surprised at the new charges, noting that the manifesto had previously served as a government exhibit in earlier proceedings and had not led to any charges at that time.

"The government rightly did not charge him in relation to the book in either case because it should not," Kelley said, according to Reuters.

This case emerges amid growing alarm over threats targeting the federal judiciary. The U.S. Marshals Service reported that as of September 2, the 2025 fiscal year had seen 513 threats against 364 judges, the outlet reports.
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Police in New York City are warning residents that terror threats have reportedly been made against critical city infrastructure, including bridges and tunnels.

New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during a new conference on Tuesday that the law enforcement agency is currently "monitoring threats."

"We are monitoring threats against New York City critical infrastructure, including bridges and tunnels, connecting Queens and Manhattan," she said. "As always, we take all threats seriously and we are working with our federal partners through our joint terrorism task force as we investigate."

Tisch also noted that it's not unusual to receive threats this time of year. She pointed to the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the upcoming Jewish high holidays, and the UN General Assembly as events that tend to receive threats every year.

According to PIX 11, an NYPD official speaking off camera described the threats as "uncorroborated and unsubstantiated" at this time.

open image in gallery Traffic stopped on the Queensboro Bridge in New York City. Police in New York announced there has been a spike in threats made in September against bridges and tunnels between Manhattan and Queens and other city infrastructure ( Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. )

Even if that's the case, the NYPD is reportedly taking the alleged threat seriously.

Tisch warned residents that out of an abundance of caution, we are surging resources and you can expect to see an increased police presence at critical infrastructure locations.

New Yorkers, during your evening commute  especially across bridges and through tunnels  you may notice an increased police presence. As we do every year around this time, were closely monitoring for any potential threats to NYC infrastructure," Tisch said.

open image in gallery New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch warned on September 9, 2025, that there had been a spike of threats made against city infrastructure ( Getty Images )

She continued, saying that the NYPD and partnering federal agencies are "taking all threats seriously and [have] enhanced security at key locations."

Mayor Eric Adams also issued a statement alerting residents to the increased police presence in the city.

"New Yorkers, during your evening commute  especially across bridges and through tunnels  you may notice an increased police presence," he said in a post on X. "As we do every year around this time, we're closely monitoring for any potential threats to NYC infrastructure."

"You can be confident that New York City remains safe and well protected," she said.
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A convicted killer has been on the loose in Georgia for five days after slipping away from his work detail.

The Richmond County Sheriffs Office has asked for the publics help in locating inmate Stacy Huggins.

Huggins, who was in transitional housing, reported to his assigned work site in Hephzibah, about a two-and-a-half-hour drive Southeast of Atlanta, last Thursday.

It was then reported that sometime during the day Stacy Huggins left his work site on foot in an unknown direction and never returned to the site, the sheriffs office said in a Facebook post Tuesday.

Huggins was found guilty of a 1990 murder in Fulton County, local outlet WRDW reported, citing the Georgia Department of Corrections.

Convicted killer Stacy Huggins has been on the loose in Georgia for five days after slipping away from his work detail ( Georgia Department of Corrections )

Residents near the worksite questioned why the authorities did not warn them about Huggins' escape earlier.

They told WRDW they had heard rumors of an inmate on the run, and only after they called the sheriffs office did they inform them.

That should have been an immediate alert put out to everybody. He could be anywhere in this town, Deborah Clement said.

She continued, My question is, why is he even out? Why is he on a work detail?

Ralph Graham also questioned the decision to put Huggins on work detail: I dont know what a murderer is doing on a work detail either. That doesnt sound good.

Well, just hope he aint ready for another murder, he added.

Tracy Hyland, who runs a local daycare, said, We go outside all the time, and we have teachers and just a bunch of women. Were outside with a bunch of little kids.

Had we known that there was somebody, then we absolutely would not have gone outside, she said.

The sheriffs office told WRDW that when they learned he had a murder charge, they alerted the public and reached out to the U.S. Marshals.

The Georgia Department of Corrections said in a statement to The Independent that Huggins has been in transitional housing for nine months and was working at a lumber company.

Transitional Centers are our lowest security level facilities; therefore, offenders must meet specific guidelines and criteria, the department said. Once at the facility, the residents live in a structured setting while they are also provided counseling and assistance in finding and maintaining outside employment to assist with their reentry.

Unfortunately, Inmate Huggins chose not to take advantage of this opportunity by walking away from his place of employment; therefore, we have dedicated resources toward swift action and recapture, the department added.

The Independent has reached out to the sheriffs office for comment.
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A 22-year-old man who went viral after video showed Florida police smashing his car window and punching him multiple times in the face has sued the city and the sheriffs department.

William McNeil Jr. filed the suit Wednesday in Jacksonville, alleging that during the incident he had sustained a range of injuries, including an ongoing traumatic brain injury.

McNeil, who is Black, was pulled over by Jacksonville officer Donald Bowers in February and used his phone to record the encounter, in which his window was broken and he was violently pulled from his vehicle.

The civil lawsuit, seen by The Independent, names Bowers as a defendant alongside Sheriff Thomas Waters and the city of Jacksonville. The officers involved in the incident escaped criminal charges after the Florida State Attorneys Office concluded they did not violate any criminal laws.

open image in gallery William McNeil Jr, a 22-year-old man who went viral after video showed Florida police smashing his car window and punching him multiple times in the face, has sued the city and the sheriffs department. The altercation in February resulted in lacerations to his chin and lip, a fractured tooth, and a close head injury and he has been diagnosed with an ongoing traumatic brain injury following the incident ( William McNeil/ Federal lawsuit )

Mr. McNeil was struck in the face by Defendant Bowers while seated in the driver's seat of his vehicle, during which time he posed no immediate threat to Defendant Bowers or any other individuals, the suit states.

Subsequently, Mr. McNeil was again struck in the face by Defendant Bowers after being forcibly removed from his vehicle, and once more, he did not pose a threat, nor did he resist Defendant Bowers with violence.

After being removed, Bowers forcefully slammed McNeil's head and face into the pavement, the suit alleges, again without any threat or resistance.

The altercation resulted in lacerations to McNeils chin and lip, a fractured tooth, and a closed head injury, pictures of which were included in the complaint. McNeil has also reportedly been diagnosed with an ongoing traumatic brain injury following the incident.

open image in gallery Video footage captured by McNeil on his cell phone showed an officer smashing his car window and punching him in the face before dragging him out of the vehicle ( Law Office of Harry M. Daniels/TMX )

open image in gallery After being removed from his vehicle McNeil was forcefully slammed into the pavement by officers, the suit alleges. Police footage showed him being handcuffed on the ground ( Law Office of Harry M. Daniels/TMX )

In addition, the lawsuit states that through Waters the sheriffs office enforces a policy that allows its officers to utilize unwarranted and excessive physical force against an individual who poses no immediate threat to the officer or to others.

The practice is commonly referred to as "distractionary blows, the suit states, adding that the office policy also allows its officers to refrain from reporting instances of force when the physical force applied to an individual did not lead to, or was claimed to have led to, any injury.

This policy creates a setting that promotes its officers to engage in illegal or excessive use of force without the fear of encountering any repercussions or consequences, nor the obligation to report such actions.

open image in gallery McNeil is seeking $200,000 in damages from the defendants, which include officer D. Bowers, Sheriff Thomas Waters and the City of Jacksonville ( Law Office of Harry M. Daniels/TMX )

McNeil is seeking $200,000 in damages from the defendants.

The Independent has contacted the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office and the City of Jacksonville for comment about the civil lawsuit.

McNeils attorney, Harry Daniels, previously noted that his client was afraid during the encounter and noted that in this environmentyoung men of color are very afraid of police. McNeils arrest report states that at one point he "was reaching for the floorboard of the vehicle where a large knife was sitting, First Coast News reported.

The narrative in this report isn't just suspicious, it is completely divorced from reality, Daniels told the outlet.
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President Donald Trump has waded into the brutal murder of a Ukrainian refugee on a train in North Carolina to lay the blame at the door of Democrats, whom he accuses of refusing to put bad people in jail.

Iryna Zarutska, who had only recently arrived in the U.S. from her war-torn homeland, boarded the train in South End, Charlotte, just after 9.45pm on Friday August 22 when she was attacked by another passenger.

In security footage of the incident, a man can be seen rising up from the seat behind Zarutska and fatally stabbing her with a switchblade before fleeing through the carriage at the next station. Decarlos Brown Jr, a 34-year-old homeless man reportedly suffering from schizophrenia, was arrested six days later and charged with first-degree murder.

open image in gallery Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, who was stabbed to death in Charlotte, North Carolina, last month ( GoFundMe )

I have seen the horrific video of a beautiful, young Ukrainian refugee, who came to America to escape the vicious War in Ukraine, and was innocently riding the Metro in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she was brutally ambushed by a mentally deranged lunatic, President Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday.

The perpetrator was a well known career criminal, who had been previously arrested and released on CASHLESS BAIL in January, a total of 14 TIMES. What the hell was he doing riding the train, and walking the streets? Criminals like this need to be LOCKED UP.

Trump, who is currently promoting an anti-crime message, continued: The blood of this innocent woman can literally be seen dripping from the killers knife, and now her blood is on the hands of the Democrats who refuse to put bad people in jail, including Former Disgraced Governor and Wannabe Senator Roy Cooper.

North Carolina, and every State, needs LAW AND ORDER, and only Republicans will deliver it! Additionally, where is the outrage from the Mainstream Media on this horrible tragedy? VOTE FOR MICHAEL WHATLEY FOR UNITED STATES SENATE, HE WONT LET THIS HAPPEN AGAIN!

The presidents attack on the states former Democratic governor Roy Cooper, who is now running for the U.S. Senate, comes after the likes of Republican National Committee adviser Danielle Alvarez took to conservative media to accuse him of being soft on crime during his two-term tenure. A spokesperson for Cooper told Politico Zarutskas killing was a heartbreaking, despicable act of evil.

As Trump suggests, the suspect in the case does have an extensive criminal history that includes armed robbery, breaking and entering and larceny convictions dating back to 2011.

He spent six years in jail from 2014 to 2020 and was most recently arrested in January 2025 for misusing the 911 system after he allegedly submitted a complaint about police officers not taking a medical issue seriously. He had been awaiting a court-ordered mental health examination since July.

open image in gallery Surveillance footage shows the suspect sat behind Zarutska moments before the fatal attack ( Charlotte Area Transit System )

Since the shocking incident was first reported, GoFundMe has been forced to take down a number of fundraisers in support of Browns legal defense, started on the basis that he had been failed by the states public-facing institutions, following an outcry.

GoFundMes Terms of Service explicitly prohibit fundraisers that raise money for the legal defense of anyone formally charged with an alleged violent crime, a spokesperson for the platform has said.

Consistent with this longstanding policy, the fundraisers have been removed from the platform, and the donors who contributed have been fully refunded.

Conservatives on social media have meanwhile attempted to politicize the case along racial lines, accusing the media of failing to cover the murder of a white woman by a Black assailant with the same degree of zeal it showed when George Floyd was killed by white police officers in Minneapolis in May 2020.

Others have hit back by arguing it is grossly insensitive to attempt to exploit a tragedy of this nature for political gain.

Stop using a dead Ukrainian woman as fodder for your rage baiting, your conspiracy theories, one user wrote on X Monday. Say her name. This was Iryna Zarutska. She had an art degree from a Kyiv college and was working on her English to become a veterinary assistant. Her life was cut short by pure evil, and her story of joy and hope should be told.
Photo: https://www.facebook.com/petroporoshenko

During a visit to Strasbourg, MP of Ukraine, leader of the European Solidarity party Petro Poroshenko discussed with Chair of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee David McAllister new initiatives of the European Commission in support of the Ukrainian defense industry, the drone alliance, the use of frozen Russian assets and the return of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia, the political force said on their website on Wednesday.

"We also agreed to strengthen the role of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee in accelerating the start of negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the European Union," Poroshenko said.

He also discussed with European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos the situation on the front and the prospects for a peaceful settlement. "The latest massive shelling of Ukraine does not indicate the readiness of the Putin regime to end the war. In this regard, we strongly condemn the missile shelling of the village of Yarova in Donetsk region, which claimed the lives of more than two dozen civilians," Poroshenko said, adding that "everyone in Strasbourg is shocked by the massive missile and drone shelling of Ukraine."

"The entire Ukrainian society is united around the idea of Ukraine's European future... We agreed to continue our contacts to ensure a systemic process of Ukraine's integration into the EU," Poroshenko added after the conversation with Kos.

He agreed with President of the European People's Party (EPP) Manfred Weber to coordinate a strategy in support of Ukraine. The EPP has the largest group in the European Parliament, and European Solidarity is an associated member of the EPP.

"I called on European partners to pay attention to the importance of working on guarantees for Ukraine's democratic development, in particular in the context of negotiations on accession to the EU. We coordinated approaches to accelerating the resolution of the issue of the opening by the EU Council of the 'Fundamentals' negotiation cluster for Ukraine and Moldova, which will contribute to strengthening the control of Ukrainian society and international partners over the actions of the authorities in the field of the rule of law, justice, human rights and the fight against corruption," Poroshenko said.
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Japans biggest convenience store chain has started trials of robot workers in an effort to address a serious worker shortage in the country.

A 7-Eleven shop in Tokyo will be the first to test the autonomous machines, which can perform tasks like stacking shelves and cleaning windows.

The store already features a self-checkout register that customers can use to interact with remote customer support staff.

We aim to increase productivity and create an environment where we can challenge ourselves to create new product assortments and services, Hiroki Takei, head of operations at 7-Eleven, said in a statement shared with local media.

The company hopes to achieve a full-scale introduction of the robots in the future.

Japan is suffering from increasing labour shortages as a result of an aging and shrinking population.

The countrys working age population has been in decline since the late 1990s, with around a third of its population now over the age of 65.

A 2023 study by Recruit Works Institute found that Japan is facing a deficit of 3.4 million workers by the end of the decade, and 11 million workers by 2040.

This shortfall is driving automation in the country, as businesses look to advanced robots to fill the gaps.

Japan currently ranks fifth in the world for robot density in the manufacturing industry, with 419 units per 10,000 employees installed, according to a 2024 study by the International Federation of Robotics.

open image in gallery An automated robot on wheels from convenience store chain 7-Eleven delivering items during a demonstration in the Hachioji area of Tokyo on 15 May, 2025 ( JIJI Press/AFP via Getty Images )

Earlier this year, 7-Eleven began testing a delivery service using four-wheeled robots that travel on pavements in Tokyo.

It comes amid a truck driver shortage in Japan, as well as an aging clientele that has difficulty getting to the shops.

The delivery robot trials will continue until February 2026 before the company decides on a wider roll out of the service.

A 7-Eleven spokesperson said: We deliberately targeted an area with slopes and an aging population to clarify the problems we would face ahead of putting the service into practical use.
Poland's NATO allies expressed solidarity with Warsaw and condemned the irresponsible behavior of Russia, which violated the airspace of a NATO member state on the night of September 10. NATO member states are determined to defend every centimeter of Alliance territory, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said following a meeting of the North Atlantic Council.

"The North Atlantic Council met this morning and discussed the situation in light of Poland's request for consultations under Article 4 of the Washington Treaty. Allies expressed solidarity with Poland and denounced Russia's reckless behaviour. A full assessment of the incident is ongoing. What is clear is that the violation last night is not an isolated incident," Rutte said in a statement to reporters.

Rutte noted that numerous drones from Russia violated Polish airspace last night. "Our air defences were activated and successfully ensured the defence of NATO territory, as they are designed to do. Several Allies were involved alongside Poland. This included Polish F16s, Dutch F35s, Italian AWACS, NATO Multi Role Tanker Transport, and German Patriots. I commend the pilots and all who contributed to this quick and skillful response," he said.

"The Supreme Allied Commander will continue to actively manage our deterrence and defence posture along the entire eastern flank. Allies are resolved to defend every inch of Allied territory. We will closely monitor the situation along our eastern flank, our air defences continually at the ready," he said.

Rutte also stressed the importance of "NATO and the path to which Allies agreed at our Summit in The Hague earlier this year. We need to invest more in our defence, ramp up defence production so we have what we need to deter and defend, and we need to continue to support Ukraine, whose security is interlinked with our own." "And let me conclude by saying that Russia is waging a dangerous war of aggression against Ukraine that continually targets civilians and civilian infrastructure. Allies are determined to step up their support for Ukraine in the face of Russia's escalating campaign," he added.
Theres a $75 billion-plus question mark hanging over the $US50 billion merger of Anglo American and Canadas Teck Resources unveiled overnight. Which one, or ones, of the mining sectors heavyweights will attempt to gatecrash their party?

With both Anglo and Teck having been targeted unsuccessfully in the past  Anglo by BHP last year and Teck in 2023 by Glencore  and all the miners in a scramble to lift their copper exposure, it is inevitable that BHP, Glencore and Rio, among others, will have opened their M&A playbooks in response to this merger.

Everyone wants copper. So which of the mining sectors heavyweights will attempt to nix Anglo and Tecks deal? Credit: AP

Between them, Anglo and Tech produce about 1.2 million tonnes of copper a year. Given that it has been structured as a nil-premium deal, the proposed mergers pricing provides no deterrent.

There are, however, obstacles to an acquisition of either of the merger parties, or, for a more ambitious predator, both of them. The attempt by BHP to acquire Anglo and Glencores tilt at Teck both failed because of issues that had nothing to do with price.
Photo: https://www.spiegel.de/politik/

Following the results of the meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in the Ramstein format, there are results on new air defense systems, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

"I am waiting for a detailed report from Minister of Defense of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal on Ramstein [meeting]. I was in contact with him today. There are results on new air defense systems for Ukraine. There is a willingness of partners to finance the PURL program in the future  for the purchase of American weapons," Zelenskyy said in an evening address on Wednesday.

Ukraine is also negotiating with partners on additional funds for the production of Ukrainian weapons, in particular long-range drones, so that "Russia can feel what a response to war is." "We are also working on equipping our brigades," the president added.
If they can crack the gangs planning and participants, the police can scoop them up before they strike. Its an adventure, especially when Ashleigh takes Alison into a pub where the crooks are meeting to give her a direct line of sight.

Smart, underestimated, and just embittered enough to be reckless, Alison jumps at the opportunity. The hearing world finally wants something from her  even with the few words she can glean from the covert scrutiny, Ashleigh and her boss, Detective Inspector James Marsh (Andrew Buchan), are excited.

In this compelling British crime drama the protagonist is a character who yearns for something more, even if it puts her life and liberty at risk. Alison Woods (Rose Ayling-Ellis) is a young deaf woman, juggling jobs in the city of Canterbury. Her day shift is kitchen hand at the police station canteen, where a desperate officer Detective Sergeant Ashleigh Francis (Charlotte Ritchie), borrows her. A criminal gang planning a robbery is under surveillance, and the investigators need a lip-reader to parse their covert footage.

Created by Catherine Moulton, who bounces back after the unsatisfying Disney+ thriller The Stolen Girl, Code of Silence is an unconventional take on a familiar genre. It is a procedural, but the subject isnt really the police tactics. Instead, its how Alison and her mother, Julie (Fifi Garfield), who is also deaf, navigate a world that casually marginalises them. Using British Sign Language, the two support each other and try to find workarounds. Good jobs are difficult to find. Lousy ones are easy to lose.

Alison (Rose Ayling-Ellis) falls for gang member Liam (Kieron Moore) when she is recruited by the police to spy on the gang.

Periodically, the sound will drop out or distort downwards, offering a hint of how Alison experiences it. The story-telling does the same with her intentions. She wants to be involved with the investigation, even as the detectives caution her against encroaching where she wouldnt, and her eagerness gets further twisted when she sights Liam Barlow (Kieron Moore), the gangs new tech support. Attuned to peoples faces, Alison is struck by something in Liam. Its unclear whether she wants to convict him or save him.

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The storytelling is concise but telling when it comes to Alison. Shes in over her head, especially once she gets a barmaids job in the pub Liam frequents, which happens to be owned by the gangs enforcer, Braden Moore (Joe Absolom). Alison has to improvise as she tries to prove to the police and Liam that she is useful, while hiding her involvement with each from the other. Ayling-Ellis is particularly good at capturing the increasingly tense snap decisions Alison has to make.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Complaints of rampant rorting, intimidation and kickbacks across Big Build projects have been secretly lodged with Victorian government officials for years, undermining Labors claims it was blindsided by the scandal engulfing the construction industry and prompting the states former integrity chief to back a wide-ranging inquiry. A major investigation by this masthead has obtained a trove of leaked internal state government correspondence that, for the first time, shows government officials were repeatedly warned of Big Build corruption from early 2023 to as recently as June this year. Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan at a level crossing removal project in July. The program is one of those alleged to have overseen wasteful spending. Credit: Penny Stephens Some of the wrongdoing was reported in detailed spreadsheets maintained by the state governments multibillion-dollar Level Crossing Removal Project as part of its daily events reporting channel. In the confidential spreadsheets, government level crossing officials were told repeatedly throughout the first half of 2023 about extortion and blackmail tactics by a cabal of subcontractors aligned with the CFMEU. This unlawful behaviour was causing major financial impact to taxpayers, reports sent via the daily events reporting system to government officials in March, April and May 2023 state. Another internal file from June 2023 complained of a significant cost to the Big Build because of unlawful behaviour, while another file disclosed potentially unlawful demands to pay workers for shifts not actually worked.

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The list of allegations piling up against the Big Build is higher than the Rialto Towers. Clancy Moore, Transparency International Among the workers on this payment list, which has been separately seen by this masthead, are several bikie gang members. Another set of leaked confidential complaints from Big Build subcontractors, also sent to government agencies, describe claims that firms were forced to renovate the private homes of project supervisors or pay off middlemen to secure work. In one formal complaint, an engineering firm alleges it was directed to install a pergola removed from a railway station in the backyard of a Big Build project manager; to concrete the driveway of the grandmother of a second project manager; and to complete a $50,000 renovation on a third Big Build managers house. Other leaked formal complaints sent to top public servants managing the scheme document alleged corrupting of the Big Builds Indigenous employment scheme. Some of these complaints were copied to Labor ministers, with one Indigenous firm requesting in July 2024 a response to issues raised over two years ago about corruption. Another damning formal complaint, also obtained by this masthead, has been made by a senior ex-public servant who worked on delivering the Big Build scheme for the Victoria government.

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The senior ex-official alleged in a statement sent to the Victorian anti-corruption commission in early 2025 that they had witnessed a culture of maladministration, waste and cover-up inside the headquarters of Labors huge roads and rail infrastructure program. In a complaint sent to the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC), the former senior official described gross negligence and a lack of care with the use of public money within the Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority, which is responsible for delivering $100 billion worth of Big Build projects. My concerns regarding this have been over many years; however, I have not made any reports for fear of losing my job, the complaint states. The scale of reported alleged wrongdoing was so very alarming that former IBAC commissioner Robert Redlich, KC, told this masthead there was urgent and ample reason to consider a broad inquiry that could do what no other agency, including police or IBAC, had so far done. Former IBAC commissioner Robert Redlich. Credit: Jason South Redlich, a former Supreme Court judge, said that if police or IBAC were unable to do more than look at very specific allegations of criminal conduct, then consideration should be given to a royal commission. The volume of material suggests that there are things that plainly need to be very urgently reviewed and addressed, he said.

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By failing to deal with these issues, its particularly significant because the Big Build continues. If it is taking place in an environment which facilitates frivolous, wasteful expenditure or misconduct and a lack of proper oversight, then not only has money already been lost but it will continue to be lost. Transparency International chief executive Clancy Moore said the Big Build was plagued by allegations of corruption, cronyism and cost blowouts. Loading The list of allegations piling up against the Big Build is higher than the Rialto Towers, Moore said, demanding the Allan government launch a systemic inquiry. Despite the absence of a single substantive criminal charge, Premier Jacinta Allan has repeatedly insisted that her response to 14 months of Building Bad revelations by this masthead  including Labors moves to boost law enforcement powers and back CFMEU administrator Mark Irving, KC  is adequate. Last week, Irving demanded greater government intervention to fight endemic wrongdoing in the construction sector. On Wednesday, this masthead reported claims by a military veteran helping struggling ex-soldiers get jobs on the North East Link that he was forced to pay a gangland-linked figure to gain access to the $26 billion government project.

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On Wednesday, Allan said the government had no tolerance for illegal behaviour and that there were now requirements to report it on its projects. She accepted there had been issues with complaints being shuffled between agencies but said this was being addressed. Its not acceptable that these things get moved around within agencies, which is why we are setting up a mechanism for that, she said. She said the governments pledges to strengthen labour-hire rules and whistleblower protections along with the federal governments move to put the CFMEU in administration meant a broader inquiry was not needed. Weve had a royal commission in this country, and all it did was give a lot of work to lawyers and not deliver an outcome, she said, referring to the Abbott governments inquiry into trade unions. The public servants IBAC complaint focuses on conduct within the Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority (VIDA), which oversees and manages the Big Build. The authority is responsible for more than 200 projects, including the Metro Tunnel and North East Link and the removal of 110 level crossings, being built by alliances and joint ventures between giant civil construction companies such as Webuild, Laing ORourke, John Holland and Acciona.

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They are totally independent, they have no vested interests, they are not running for office, they are not paid, they have no powers or sanctions at their disposal.

It was slightly surreal, but also heartening, to be present at an event peopled with so many global leaders in such a relaxed gathering. In the evening, the Elders and a circle of advisers  including a Peruvian economist and a Chinese environmentalist  dined on a terrace, wrapped in borrowed ponchos and fleeces against the chill autumnal weather, listening to briefings from visiting analysts and experts on subjects ranging from Darfur to nuclear proliferation. If only all global problems could be resolved in such a genial atmosphere.

Addressing the gathering, the Elders, he said, had the opportunity to be a real role model for the world, leading, guiding, creating their own initiatives and supporting others, speaking freely and boldly, and working both publicly and behind the scenes on whatever actions needed to be taken.

I was at that meeting when Mandela arrived. Word had spread of his coming. A crowd of local villagers, and every member of staff of the lodge, had gathered at the gate to greet him, his arrival heralded by the sound of ululations and praise songs. As he made his way slowly into the room, the gathering rose as one in a round of spontaneous and prolonged applause  his newly found entourage of cooks, maids and drivers, joyfully ignoring privacy or protocol, crowding in behind him to hear him speak: the father of the nation with his children.

The occasion was the inaugural gathering of the Elders, an initiative led by Mandela to bring together a small number of leaders working objectively and without any vested personal interest in the outcome to act as honest brokers in conflict resolution, coming together to contribute wisdom, independent leadership and moral courage to tackle some of the worlds most serious problems.

Assembled around a table in the reserves great room was a group of former world leaders and elder statespeople. They included Jimmy Carter, the former American president; Archbishop Desmond Tutu; Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland and former United Nations high commissioner for human rights; and Graca Machel, Mozambiques first minister of education and an international advocate for womens and childrens rights. They were awaiting the arrival of Machels husband, Nelson Mandela, the former president of South Africa and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Kofi Annan, the former secretary-general of the UN, joined the meeting via video link.

Each morning, the group gathered in a large tented space in the grounds of the property, with Moroccan carpets on the floor and huge decorative lamps hanging from the rafters. The mood was informal. There was no conference table; rather, the group of Elders and a handful of staff and advisers, including a South American ambassador to Washington and London, a world-renowned economist and experts in multilateral leadership and strategic communications, were arranged on comfortable chairs and sofas, notepads and laptops on knees, with waiters ferrying water and coffee to side tables.

It is seldom the case that all the Elders are together in one place, but this July a handful of the group gathered for a meeting in Morocco, held over three days at Bransons hotel, the Kasbah Tamadot, in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. The gathering was private, with no outside observers, and conducted under the Chatham House rule  the principle of confidentiality used in meetings to encourage open discussion. I was the only journalist present.

Advocacy  bringing attention to humanitarian crises that might otherwise go unnoticed  is part of what they do, but much of their activity is done out of the spotlight in conflict resolution and influencing world leaders, in private meetings with presidents, prime ministers and heads of state, drawing on their ability to open doors that might otherwise be closed. Ukraine, Israel/Palestine and Myanmar are just some of the countries Elders have visited in recent times.

They are totally independent, they have no vested interests, they are not running for office, they are not paid, they have no powers or sanctions at their disposal. Their authority comes from their experience, their wisdom, their integrity and reputation as honest brokers and their network of relationships built up over the years.

That was 18 years ago. Unless you pay close attention to global affairs, international conferences on climate, nuclear proliferation and pandemic preparedness, you may not have heard of the Elders. While there are any number of organisations and institutions, from the UN down, through NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and peace and environmental groups, dedicated to solving the worlds myriad problems, the Elders are unique.

In 2001, over lunch at Bransons London home, he and Gabriel gently proposed the idea to Nelson Mandela. His response was guarded  not least, he told them, because the UN might look askance at a self-elected body presuming to step on its territory. But a working group was set up to explore the idea and how best to assemble 12 people  the number had been decided by an unspoken consensus  that would equitably represent gender, ethnicity and cultural pluralism.

While there were any number of organisations dedicated to solving the worlds myriad problems, there was no single group that was totally independent, deriving its authority not from political, economic, military or religious power but from wisdom and experience. What might such a group achieve?

The genesis of the Elders goes back to 1999 and a conversation between Branson and his friend, musician Peter Gabriel, about how the tradition in indigenous cultures of tribal elders, serving as the repository of wisdom, judgment and long-term thinking, might be applied in the global village.

The conversations ranged over Gaza, Ukraine, the environment, the rise of AI, the collapse of the international order, the waning influence of the UN, how best to restore trust in government and institutions in the face of the rising tide of populism, analysing the causes of conflict  including the battle for resources, notably water and minerals, extraction of minerals, the weapons industry and socioeconomic conditions  all the better to understand how to prevent them, and what role the Elders should best be playing in an increasingly multipolar world with a surfeit of conflict and as one participant put it, a deficit of wisdom. No problem, then.

What they look for first and foremost is moral integrity  the kind of person Mandela would have approved of. Weve tried hard to get gender balance. There are now six women and five men. We look for a mix of people. Seven of the present Elders are former presidents and prime ministers but theres a range of different backgrounds and experiences.

They have this sense of legacy that they need to look at any new candidate through the same eyes that Mandela looked at the original members, says Alistair Fernie, the chief executive of the group, talking between sessions. He is a former UN diplomat who led British government aid programs in Africa, Afghanistan and the Middle East and was the UK director responsible for World Bank policy.

Among the other members are Ernesto Zedillo, the former president of Mexico; Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the former president of Liberia and a Nobel Peace laureate; Denis Mukwege, a global campaigner on conflict-related sexual violence and another Nobel Peace laureate; Helen Clark, the former prime minister of New Zealand; Zeid Raad Al Hussein, the former UN high commissioner for human rights; Elbegdorj Tsakhia, the former president and prime minister of Mongolia; and Hina Jilani, a human rights activist from Pakistan. New members are elected by the group themselves. The choice must be unanimous. They are currently in deliberations over a 12th member after Ban Ki-moon, the former head of the UN, recently stepped down from his role as deputy chair to become an Elder emeritus.

The present chairman of the group is Juan Manuel Santos, who as president of Colombia was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016 for negotiating the peace deal with FARC (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), the Marxist-Leninist guerrilla group, and ending the bitter civil war that had raged for more than 50 years and killed at least 220,000 people.

Unsurprisingly, given the average age of the Elders, membership turnover has been high. Over the years there have been 22 Elders from 22 different countries. Of the original dozen chosen by Mandela, only three are still active: Graca Machel; Mary Robinson, the first female president of Ireland; and Gro Harlem Brundtland, the first female prime minister of Norway. Nine members have been Nobel Prize laureates.

In the years since then, the organisation has grown to encompass a staff, researchers and advisers. From the very beginning, the Elders have been an independent entity, funded by a collective of donors including Bransons Virgin Unite foundation, one of a number of independent non-profit organisations set up by Branson over the past 20 years.

The world is very different from the world of Nelson Mandela 18 years ago, says Santos. We live in a world which is so turbulent, where the respect for international law, even for international humanitarian law, is vanishing, the number of conflicts has increased immeasurably, and at the same time the wars have been degraded in terms of respect for human rights and civil society.

In January, Santos was in Washington, joining the Bulletins Science and Security Board, for the announcement that the time of the clock is now set at 89 seconds to midnight  the closest it has ever been to global catastrophe. A move of even a single second, the Bulletin warns, should be taken as an indication of extreme danger and an unmistakable warning that every second of delay in reversing course increases the probability of global disaster.

According to the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, there are more than 110 armed conflicts around the world, greater than at any time since the Second World War. Among the different organisations that the Elders are partnered with is the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which studies the existential threat posed by nuclear proliferation, climate change and disruptive technologies, and is indicated by the Doomsday Clock.

In January, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set the Doomsday Clock at 89 seconds to midnight  the closest it has been to global catastrophe. Credit: Getty Images

When Mandela launched the Elders in 2007, he singled out a range of challenges for the group: conflict resolution, for one, but also at that time, AIDS, malaria and diminishing natural resources. Global problems have only multiplied since then, but the current strategy focuses on three existential threats in particular: the climate and nature crisis, pandemics and nuclear weapons.

They are neither of the Left nor the Right, Fernie says. But they share a set of values and core beliefs about the way the world is, the problems facing the world, and the need for multilateral co-operation of different countries working together to help solve global challenges.

And thats where the Elders, who have no armies, no budgets  our only asset is our experience, the little moral authority that we have  are very much needed. That is the challenge we face now: what is the most effective way for us to use that authority and the prestige the group has, in this very difficult moment.

Santos was talking over dinner, on a terrace looking out to the Atlas Mountains, swathed in evening clouds. A quietly spoken, self-effacing man with a wry sense of humour, he was approached to join the Elders in 2019, shortly after leaving office as president of Colombia. I was 67. I remember saying, Well Im not that old. It was explained that the concept of Elders in Nelson Mandelas mind was that in South Africa, the elders are the wise men and women, not the oldest. I said, OK, in that case I accept.  He became chairman of the Elders last year, taking over from Mary Robinson.

While president, Santos negotiated the peace treaty with FARC by applying the principle of transitional justice, emphasising the recognition and protection of victims rights, including truth, justice and reparations. We had been fighting a very dirty war, with no respect for human rights, and I changed that completely. Respect humanitarian law, respect human rights, even of your adversaries  I call them adversaries and not enemies.

The former commander of the army taught me that, dont treat the FARC as your enemies but as your adversaries. I said, whats the difference? He said theres a great difference: enemies you eliminate, adversaries you meet, and if you meet them in a good way, with a humane attitude, you can live with them for the rest of your life.

Treat them as human beings  they have mothers, fathers, sons and daughters. That was a game-changer. It gave the army tremendous legitimacy. Instead of killing the FARC when they were wounded, they took them to hospital. And the commanders with whom I signed the peace treaty told me afterwards, that really changed the attitude of the guerrillas, not seeing the army as devils but as human beings also. That generated an environment that helped very much towards peace.

The peace agreement was much criticised in Colombia, but Santos believes that was inevitable. We say very often the Elders are not a group interested in winning wars but in preventing or stopping wars. And sometimes, to stop a war, you have to be a bit flexible. Some people think we gave too much to the guerrillas, and others say we were too harsh with the guerrillas. In my experience, the golden rule in many resolutions of a conflict is that you need to establish where you draw the line between peace and justice.

How much are you, a country, willing to sacrifice in order to have peace? And no matter where you draw the line, you will always have people saying they want more justice, and others saying they want more peace. Thats why most peace agreements are easily criticised, and at the beginning they are unpopular. But as time goes by, people realise that its better to live in peace than to live in war. Justice is a principle that should always be present, but to what degree is the question.

Amplification or negotiation?

As a group with limited resources  and a limited number of Elders  much of the discussion that I witnessed in Morocco focused on where they can be most effective in concentrating their efforts. To what degree should the Elders be an advocacy group, through a combination of public statements and working behind the scenes to influence different agendas, and to what degree should they be concentrating on private diplomacy in conflict resolution?

Alistair Fernie gives two examples of the Elders advocacy role. In 2022, in the wake of COVID-19, the Elders made it part of their strategy to become actively involved in the preparation for a better framework for international co-operation to deal with the next pandemic. Elders, Fernie says, were engaged in behind the scenes diplomacy to help negotiators from different parties find a way to an agreement. It was touch-and-go, he says. But in May this year, the WHO finally adopted the Pandemic Agreement for the prevention, preparedness and response to future pandemics.

In the end, the US did not participate in that agreement after the Trump administration said it was going to withdraw from the WHO, Fernie says, but an agreement has been reached. So thats a real tangible achievement. Helping a pandemic treaty is not in itself going to stop another pandemic, but it might make us better prepared to respond to it. Its an area where so clearly the world is a very small place and none of us are safe until everyones safe.

He cites climate change as another example. Elders pushed for several years, Fernie says, for a loss and damage component to the COP (Conference of the Parties) climate summit negotiations, a fund for small nations whose economy and in some cases  the Pacific island of Tuvalu, for example  very existence is threatened by climate change. That proposal was finally adopted at COP28, held in Dubai in 2023.

The Elders have pushed to fund nations threatened by climate change, including Tuvalu. Credit: Corbis via Getty Images

An unexpected talking point at that conference was the testy exchange in a video meeting between Mary Robinson, representing the Elders, and the COP president, Sultan Al Jaber, who is also chief executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, in which the then 80-year-old Robinson stood up to Sultan Al Jaber, telling him he was wrong about climate science and fossil fuels.

Answering questions later on whether she gets frustrated with countries talking big and then rowing back on commitments, Robinson said the Elders were in a position to call out such behaviour, because they are independent, have moral authority, and need to do it. The UN doesnt do it. Nobody else does it and so we do it across the board. Nobody is immune from that.

The Elders have a responsibility to speak out, Fernie says. Humility is an important part of the Elders. They dont have power or claim to have power, and they dont want power, so they can say things that will cause offence if they sometimes think its the right thing to do. And its undoubtedly the case that Elders views attack some vested interests, so of course were going to get criticised by those who dont like what we say.

Nelson Mandela predicted that in 2007, that you will be criticised. But he also said you wont be seeking elected office or financial gain, so you will have the courage to just carry on saying what you feel needs to be said.

We do it because its correct

The question of private diplomacy is more delicate. The Elders tend not to talk of their successes, saying that to do so might compromise their access, although they cite one example of a successful intervention from the early days of the group, in 2008, when civil war broke out in Kenya, largely along ethnic lines, following the disputed results of an election.

Various attempts at mediation between the two warring factions had failed, until Kofi Annan, along with Desmond Tutu and Graca Machel, intervened, and over the course of meetings with the rival leaders in a game reserve, as one observer puts it, basically knocked their heads together until an agreement was reached to cease fighting and form a coalition government.

We dont brag about what we do, and we should not brag about it. We do it because its correct. Elders chair Juan Manuel Santos

But such conflict negotiations involving the Elders have more usually taken place away from the glare of public attention. These missions, Santos says, depend on trust and confidentiality  and trust, as he puts it, is everything. And if the Elders were to start talking about the discussions that have taken place, and taking credit for any successes, that trust would be eroded.

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We have a policy of private diplomacy and public advocacy. Sometimes you need to have visibility, but private diplomacy requires discretion. You dont need to be delivering public statements, says Santos. We dont brag about what we do, and we should not brag about it. We do it because its correct, but you dont have to brag about doing something that is correct. In todays world, hatred and jealousy and bad feelings are being fed by social media. If you start bragging about things, its counterproductive.

To assume that simply sitting down at the table with a leader will lead to the end of conflict would be naive. Negotiations may not always produce immediate results, but wise counsel might come to fruition at a later time.

An Elders adviser gave me an example of accompanying one Elder engaged in just such a negotiation with the leader of a country. Theyd sought a meeting with that leader, and were pointing out the consequences of what he was planning to do, in a way he hadnt understood or considered before. Thats hard to quantify and say the tanks stopped in their tracks, but theres real value in that that may emerge in the longer term.

Santos says: The word trust is crucial, and the way you earn trust is by not taking sides. Also, in my experience, the ability to listen, to understand the reasons why one side or the other are defending or attacking, the roots of the conflict, in order to try to address both sides to agree on some kind of common denominator.

But if the neighbours in an asymmetrical war are not supporting a peace process, the peace process will most likely fail. If they are supporting it, the possibility of peace is much higher. If you compare conflicts to volcanoes, there are some that are active, some that are exploding and some that are relatively dormant.

The exploding ones are obvious. Among the more dormant are Ethiopia, Libya, the Sahel region and Haiti looming as failed states. The question is, where should the Elders be concentrating their attention?

There are some conflicts which are too complex and intractable for a self-selected group, no matter how honourable their intentions, to make any difference, particularly when caught in the dilemma between honouring the principles on which they were founded and remaining silent in the hope of gaining access.

In 2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, Santos and Ki-Moon met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to affirm their support for a peaceful resolution to the conflict rooted in justice and international law.

In 2015, six Elders had met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to discuss a range of geopolitical issues including Ukraine. But following Russias invasion, Putin has refused a meeting after the Elders publicly called for a special tribunal for Russias crime of aggression.

Jimmy Carter (centre) and Kofi Annan (right) met with Vladimir Putin in 2015 in Moscow. Putin has refused to meet with the Elders since his invasion of Ukraine. Credit: Getty Images

No leader likes that, Santos says. This is the permanent dilemma we have  sticking to our principles and making them known publicly, versus the private diplomacy of trying to solve the problem.

We have been trying to see how we can help in bringing the two parties together to start some kind of negotiation. Many people and many countries have been involved in trying to do the same, so our margin of manoeuvres is rather limited, but our stand is: the sooner we stop the war, the better.

But if the time comes and we have some access, we would talk to Putin with no problem whatsoever. In any negotiation, both sides have to understand that you dont make peace with your friends. You make friends with your enemies.

The mogul in the mix

Other than as the facilitator and a friend, Richard Branson has made a point not to involve himself in the running or governance of the Elders, while at the same time offering help and resources wherever it is needed.

Even before the launch of the organisation, in 2003, as America was preparing to invade Iraq, Branson, through the mediation of his friend the late King Hussein of Jordan, told Mandela that Saddam Hussein was willing to leave Iraq for Libya with his family, to help avoid the need for war, but wanted two Elders to fly out with him so I can hold my head high.

Mandela agreed to fly to Iraq if Kofi Annan, who was then secretary-general of the UN, and Thabo Mbeki, the president of South Africa, agreed to the plan. They did. But before Mandela could get to Baghdad, America invaded.

It may have come to nothing anyway, Branson told me at the Elders inaugural meeting in 2007. But it was an example of universally respected Elders, working outside the conventional political process, who could potentially have made a difference.

Such frustrations and what ifs are part and parcel of the Elders work. Its had some great successes, Branson says now, sitting in the big tent in Morocco during a lunch break. But like any organisation, it can be more effective going forward.

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Throughout the meetings, Branson sat quietly, listening intently to the discussions and scribbling in his notebook, only occasionally interjecting with a thought or a suggestion. That morning he had suggested that, given the number of issues confronting the Elders, perhaps it would be helpful to recruit a number of younger representatives who could both broaden the scope of the groups work and take some of the weight off the existing members.

One of the problems with the Elders is that theyre elderly, Branson says. Weve got Elders who are 86 years old, so there are only so many visits they can do. Annan, he points out, died in 2018 at the age of 80, following a trip to Zimbabwe for the Elders. But if we can get a group of younger ambassadors, maybe not as well known, maybe ex-foreign secretaries, who could go to Palestine or the Congo, which desperately needs visits, and instead of having to look for three or four Elders to go on these trips, have one Elder and three ambassadors. It was an idea they were considering.

The next meeting of the Elders is scheduled for October. But members of the group will be at the UN General Assembly in New York this month  at which all of their combined powers of influence and diplomacy will be brought to bear.

This is something since the time of Mandela that we are very clear about: that we should always say what we think is correct. Elders chair Juan Manuel Santos

As the gathering in Morocco drew to a close, Santos deliberated on what the future might hold  and what the group might continue to achieve. The biggest obstacle now, he says, is we have a set of values and principles that we believe in, and the world has been affected by a devaluation of those values and principles.

What we think is our major strength, which is our moral authority, is not as appreciated around the world. Because even many leaders are less sensitive to criticism by people with moral authority.

It is very sad, but we are very clear that we will never renounce our values and principles. This is something since the time of Mandela that we are very clear about: that we should always say what we think is correct. And perhaps the world will listen.

This is an edited version of a story that originally appeared in The Telegraph (UK).

To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times.
An elderly man has been released on bail after he was charged with allegedly touching several schoolgirls aged under 10 through a primary school fence in Sydneys inner west this month.

The 86-year-old was arrested at the intersection of Bridge Road and Ross Street in Forest Lodge, the location of Forest Lodge Public School, at 2pm on Tuesday.

The man was arrested at the intersection of Ross Street and Bridge Road in Forest Lodge on Tuesday. Credit: Google Maps

Police allege the man first spoke to children through the fence of a Forest Lodge primary school on Wednesday last week, with students reporting to teachers that the conversation unsettled them.

The man allegedly returned to the same school on Thursday and inappropriately touched girls aged under 10 years old through the fence, including touching one girl on the thigh, and giving a hard pinch to another.
A man who allegedly stole a food truck from Brisbanes CBD on Wednesday and led officers on an hours-long chase was under the influence and suspended from driving at the time, according to police.

The 39-year-old Fortitude Valley man was charged with a string of offences on Wednesday evening after the 240-kilometre pursuit.

The vehicle was taken from Elizabeth Street about 10.15am and driven through north Brisbane and Moreton Bay, with multiple police vehicles  including a helicopter  in pursuit.

As the truck was driven up the Bruce Highway, the back door was open and food from the vehicle was reportedly strewn along the road.
Councils have expressed frustration after the Allan government revealed designs to allow buildings up to 16 storeys tall in suburbs such as Oakleigh, Kew and Hawthorn without showing local planners first.

Premier Jacinta Allan on Wednesday unveiled draft maps for the first tranche of 25 train and tram zone activity centres across Melbourne, where the state government will relax planning rules to boost housing supply and improve affordability.

Shops on High Street, Armadale, in the Stonnington municipality, where six new activity centres were unveiled on Wednesday.

The precincts around transport hubs are predominantly in the citys wealthier east as the government argues these well-serviced suburbs must shoulder more of Melbournes booming population.

But Stonnington Council  which includes the new Tooronga, Gardiner, Glen Iris, Darling, East Malvern and Holmesglen activity centres  decried inadequate consultation about the draft maps, and argued it could deliver 17,000 more homes than the government wanted under its own plans.
Landowners wishing to subdivide or build a second dwelling on their properties will be able to gain approval in just two weeks from next month.

On Thursday, Premier Jacinta Allan will announce changes to fast-track approvals for Victorians who want to subdivide their block and sell the land or build a second home on their land.

Premier Jacinta Allan and Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny in Kew on Wednesday Credit: Sim Schulter

The new rules, details of which have been provided to The Age before the announcement, will include these applications in the Vic Smart approval process, which takes 10 business days. Currently, applications of this type take more than 60 days. It is estimated the change will save applicants more than $2400 in fees.

To access the faster approval process, applications will need to meet key standards for siting, privacy and design, and existing heritage and environmental overlays will remain in place.
This week The Age reported union accusations of unlawful behaviour against international construction giant Webuild and its subcontractor Future Form involving work at the new Western Sydney Airport at Badgerys Creek. Webuild also has the contract for Victorias North East Link.

Webuild is accused of having known that illegal employees were working at the new airport and having forced out an industrial relations manager who raised concerns about a lack of action against Future Forms suspected unlawful behaviour.

Victorias North East Link in March. Credit: Joe Armao

This masthead and 60 Minutes also exposed Future Form, a formwork company that sponsors the Canterbury Bulldogs NRL team, as being suspected of involvement in standover activity and underpayment of workers. The company denies this, and an interim report by the unions investigator has not been able to interview key personnel.

Today, it is also revealed that a labour-hire company paid bribes to get work on North East Link  a $26 billion project built using federal and state funds.
Photo: https://www.facebook.com/zelenskyy.official

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has held talks with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

Of course, first and foremost, we discussed the Russian drones launched against Ukraine last night that also entered Polish airspace. Incidents with one or two Russian drones had already happened before in NATOs eastern flank countries, including a few weeks ago in Romania. But this time the number of Russian drones was much larger, the brazenness much greater  the drones entered not only from Ukrainian territory but also from Belarus. And we all equally understand that this is a completely different level of escalation from Russia. There must be an appropriate response, Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram channel following the conversations.

During the conversation, Tusk informed about the consequences and circumstances that have already been established. In particular, he reported that the wreckage of Russian drones, among which were also Iranian shaheds, was found in many towns and villages.

Zelenskyy stressed that the Ukrainian military has been transmitting all available information since last night, and the Ukrainian side continues this cooperation.

There are several reasons for this brazen behavior of Russia, and they are absolutely obvious to everyone. We need to work on a joint air defense system and create an effective air shield over Europe. Ukraine has long proposed this, and we have concrete solutions. We must respond together to all current challenges and be ready for potential threats to all Europeans in the future. Likewise, we need to significantly increase joint funding for the production of interceptor drones. They have already proven their effectiveness, the President stressed.

He offered Poland assistance, training, and experience in shooting down Russian drones, including shaheds.

Donald and I agreed on appropriate cooperation at the military level. We will also coordinate with all NATO member states, Zelenskyy summed up.
Credit: Cathy Wilcox

To submit a letter to The Age, email letters@theage.com.au. Please include your home address and telephone number. No attachments, please include your letter in the body of the email. See here for our rules and tips on getting your letter published.

At last, the state government is proposing something wonderful and historic. The Treaty with First Nations People will make a difference to the whole of the Victorian community. Once you learn about our true history of colonisation, it sets up what historian Henry Reynolds calls a whispering in the heart.

This Treaty has the potential to still this.

First Nations People have suffered from unspeakable tragedies, had profound grief and loss inflicted upon them. Without laying blame or guilt on any current Victorians, the Treaty will support acknowledgment, healing and reconciliation. It is needed to address the historic and ongoing exclusion of First Peoples from decisions and opportunities that affect their lives.

What would be great is for the state opposition to support the Treaty bill, so its acceptance is unanimous.

Support for Aboriginal self-determination used to be bipartisan until the race card was played. State Opposition Leader Brad Battin wrongly says Victorians voted against the Treaty in the referendum. But this is not the Voice. The Constitution is not going to be changed. The First Peoples Assembly is not untested. It has been operating very effectively for six years.

It is also wrong to rabbit on about costs. First, consider what First People have lost  their land, culture and languages, wages and children. Second, it will actually save money with properly targeted programs. Even the Productivity Commission agrees that areas of improvement in Closing the Gap are where First People have control over programs dealing with the issues.

I look forward to Victoria celebrating peace and our 60,000 years-plus of history and culture.

Joan Doyle, Dromana

There is nothing to fear in this

We read that finally the Treaty will be presented to parliament next Tuesday (Indigenous leaders hail treaty as a turning point, 10/9. ) This has been their dream and work for 30 years. It is simply a mechanism for Indigenous people to give advice on matters that concern them (Nothing for us, without us is their motto). Targets of Closing the Gap for disadvantaged First Nations People have consistently not been reached on most measures. Taking advice directly from people knowledgeable in these matters and who experience the issues should make a huge difference and save money.

Further, non-Indigenous people need not fear this Treaty. It will have no power of veto over legislation. Sadly the Liberal Party has decided to ignore the Indigenous experts on this matter and want to release the partys own policies at some future date, which is going back to the non-productive and unfair past. By writing to your state MPs as soon as possible, to indicate you want them to vote for this Treaty will be something you can do for our Indigenous people, who have been disadvantaged for so long.

Jan Marshall, Brighton

Not the will of the people, premier

Premier, we said No to the Voice to parliament, which sought to divide us. This treaty you are about to pass through parliament is a complete disregard and disrespect to the will of the majority who voted against the Voice. Roll on election 2026.

Helen Leach, Bendigo
In this series, we explore all you need to know about Australias first treaty, between Victoria and its Indigenous peoples.

Treaty is here. It has taken decades, yet arrived in a rush. It is no longer an aspiration or a debate, but a negotiated agreement, set out in black and white, for black and white, missing only the final, ceremonial signatures on behalf of the state and Victorias First Peoples.

Ngarra Murray, one of the First Peoples Assembly co-chairs who helped negotiate the treaty agreement with the Victorian government, says she felt heavy with emotion, watching from the public gallery of state parliament, as Premier Jacinta Allan this week introduced the enabling legislation.

Aunty Jill Gallagher is comforted by First Peoples Assembly co-chairs Rueben Berg (left) and Ngarra Murray (right) as treaty legislation is introduced to state parliament. Credit: Justin McManus

She later walked with her brother, Djaran Murray-Jackson, to a corner of the parliamentary gardens, where twin statues of their great-grandparents Sir Doug and Lady Gladys Nicholls stroll arm-in-arm. Sir Doug was a league footballer, pugilist, pastor and one of his generations most prominent advocates for Aboriginal rights; Lady Gladys a community activist who campaigned for the 1967 referendum.

I was thinking of the many generations who fought for recognition and justice, Murray says. This moment speaks to resilience and survival, and gives hope for a future built on mutual respect, truth and shared responsibility.
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 Reviews & adviceHotel reviews Its more than 1000 years old, but this European hotel is still cutting edge Jenny Hewett September 10, 2025  5:00am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

The hotel Nobis Palma, Mallorca, Spain Check-in After missing our flight from Ibiza (a long and predictable story), we arrive at the hotel seven hours later than anticipated, at around 9.30pm. The handsome staff, dressed in stylish earth-toned threads from local designer Cortana, are instant mood-boosters, greeting us with smiles, champagne and few questions. The check-in process is over in a matter of minutes and were soon escorted to a suite on the second floor. The look

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Nobis Palma: Gothic archways, vaulted ceilings and baroque influences. Nobis Palma is no catfish; its even more exquisite in person than in photos. The palace was constructed more than 1000 years ago when Spain was under Muslim rule during a period of prosperity known as the Islamic Golden Age. The 37-room stay, part of the Design Hotels portfolio, is designed like a riad, centred around two interior courtyards. Over the centuries, it has undergone several architectural iterations, with gothic archways, vaulted ceilings and baroque influences. Guests enter through original soaring wooden doors (large enough for horses to pass through to what were the stables at the far end) and into a lush courtyard illuminated with soft, pin-drop lighting and a water feature with floating flowers. Rough walls, historical bricks and arches have been carefully preserved and contemporary, Scandi-cool interiors have been reimagined by Swedish studio Wingardhs. Beyond the grand entrance is a second courtyard with a restaurant, a tiny, emerald-cut Roman bath-esque pool and sun terrace with loungers and glimpses of Palmas historic old town. The room Dive in guest bathroom.

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A little like descending into a luxe basement, our junior suite is accessed via a staircase and features an original wall, king-sized bed and glossy ensuite. Custom-made furniture including bed frames by Carl Hansen and lighting by Flos and Orsjo are a nod to the hotel brands Scandinavian roots, as too, are tonal, natural textures of wool, leather and wood that complement perfectly the dusky tones of the preserved walls. A perfume bar on top of the vanity offers up two bottled scents from local brand Viti Vinci that we can drown ourselves in during our stay. Conveniently, both USB-B and the newer USB-C charging outlets have been installed next to the bed. One of the oldest design hotels in Europe. Food + drink Iranian caviar and champagne for breakfast? Why not. On our second night, we dine in the ethereal, candlelit courtyard containing the hotels only restaurant, NOI. When we visit, simple bites of oysters and anchovies feature alongside more inventive dishes such as smoked beetroots with strawberry dressing and parmesan ice-cream. However, the entrecote steak is disappointingly tough. Sole drinking spot Mirall Bar on level two is a knock-out space with nine-metre ceilings, curved sofas and oversized mirrors. You might spot the doorman spinning decks here every Thursday. Art-lined walls.

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Out + about Tucked up tightly in Palmas charming old town, the hotel is located in the type of area where one can just aimlessly wander and find something cool at every corner; graffiti, small bars and shops selling salami and pate. If youre feeling influenced by the staff uniforms, as I was, the Cortana flagship store is less than 10 minutes walk away. The verdict Restoring a stay steeped in this much history requires skill and restraint. This boutique hotel has been expertly and gracefully rebirthed into a queen. Essentials

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Superior rooms from 281 ($502) a night in low season. Carrer de les Caputxines, 9, Centre, 07003 Palma, Illes Balears, Spain. Two accessible rooms. Our score out of five  Highlight The 12th-century architecture, particularly the reception (spot the Arabic script wrapping around the high walls) and entrance, is staggeringly beautiful.

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Lowlight Breakfast is included in our stay, but waitstaff fail to communicate that its limited to certain dishes. Theyre quick to rectify the miscommunication and kindly deduct from the bill. The writer stayed as a guest of Nobis Palma Mallorca and Design Hotels. See designhotels.com

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Washington: Israel has pushed its luck on multiple occasions as it conducts its campaign to exterminate Hamas. This time, it may have gone too far.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a brazen attack inside the sovereign territory of a key US ally, Qatar  the country that, with broad agreement from all concerned, has hosted Hamas political leadership since 2012 and provided a space for peace talks to take place.

US President Donald Trump issued a rare rebuke of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the Doha strike. Credit: Illustration: Marija Ercegovac

Such negotiations are critical right now, with 48 hostages still held by Hamas from its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel  some alive, some dead  and Israel seemingly set on a ground invasion of Gaza City.

But Netanyahus strikes specifically targeted the people with whom he is supposed to be negotiating. Hamas claims top negotiator and exiled Gaza chief Khalil al-Hayya is alive, but says his son was killed.
Concept THREE, Hyundai Motor's first compact EV concept under the IONIQ sub-brand, embodies Art of Steel design language and signals the brand's planned expansion into the European compact EV market

Hyundai Motor's electrification roadmap includes offering an electrified version of every model in Europe by 2027 and introducing 21 EV models globally by 2030

by 2027 and introducing 21 EV models globally by 2030 At its striking IAA Mobility 2025 booth  an open, Parametric Pixel-inspired space  Hyundai Motor presents its entire European EV lineup, including the Concept THREE, INSTEROID concept and select IONIQ models

Visitors can experience Hyundai Motor's EV offerings firsthand through test drives of 9 models, including the IONIQ 9 and INSTER

MUNICH and SEOUL, South Korea, Sept. 9, 2025 -- Hyundai Motor Company has unveiled Concept THREE, its first compact electric vehicle (EV) concept under the IONIQ sub-brand, at IAA Mobility 2025 in Munich.

The debut represents Hyundai Motor's commitment to offering exceptional EVs in a rapidly evolving global market, where the focus shifts from technological advancement to experiences of emotional fulfillment.

At IAA Mobility 2025, Hyundai Motor will also showcase its full EV lineup and outline its European electrification strategy, reinforcing its role as a leader in Europe's transition to clean energy.

Global Unveiling of the Concept THREE

At the heart of Hyundai Motor's participation at IAA Mobility 2025 is the global debut of Concept THREE, an innovative compact EV concept that represents the next step in the company's electrification journey.

As the first compact EV concept under the IONIQ sub-brand, Concept THREE signals Hyundai Motor's future expansion into a new vehicle category, complementing its existing midsize and large EV models.

With Europe experiencing a surging demand for compact EVs  driven by urbanization, sustainability regulations and the growing need for space-efficient solutions  the Concept THREE demonstrates Hyundai Motor's vision for meeting this demand by drawing on its advanced electrification capabilities.

Complementing its strategic positioning, Concept THREE's innovative design also underscores the brand's commitment to delivering a meaningful, emotionally resonant experience in an accessible and practical package.

Hyundai Motor anticipates the introduction of Concept THREE to set the tone for its next chapter of design innovation and strengthen its competitive position in the electrification journey.

"Returning to IAA Mobility after four years away is a true milestone, and such as occasion deserves a milestone car," said Xavier Martinet, President and CEO of Hyundai Motor Europe. "Concept THREE represents the next step in Hyundai Motor's electrification journey. With its compact dimensions and Art of Steel design language, it embodies our vision of delivering mobility that is practical, accessible and emotionally resonant".

Design Highlights

Art of Steel transforms the strength and flexibility of steel into a language of sculptural beauty. Inspired by Hyundai Motor's advanced steel technologies, the material's natural formability reveals flowing volumes and precise lines that evoke the distinctive aesthetic quality of steel  powerful, gentle and timeless.

transforms the strength and flexibility of steel into a language of sculptural beauty. Inspired by Hyundai Motor's advanced steel technologies, the material's natural formability reveals flowing volumes and precise lines that evoke the distinctive aesthetic quality of steel  powerful, gentle and timeless. Aero Hatch: The sculpted body creates enveloping forms using three main surfaces, while intersecting lines add visual tension. The Aero Hatch profile delivers aerodynamic efficiency and a distinctive roofline combined with a vertical tailgate, emphasizing urban versatility.

The sculpted body creates enveloping forms using three main surfaces, while intersecting lines add visual tension. The Aero Hatch profile delivers aerodynamic efficiency and a distinctive roofline combined with a vertical tailgate, emphasizing urban versatility. Parametric Pixel: Parametric Pixel lightings are featured on both front and rear of the Concept THREE. The pixels are now more expressive, forming a gradient that adds depth and visual rhythm to the overall design.

Parametric Pixel lightings are featured on both front and rear of the Concept THREE. The pixels are now more expressive, forming a gradient that adds depth and visual rhythm to the overall design. Material-driven design: The exterior wears an anodized-effect finish that channels the spirit of Hyundai's Art of Steel design languagea celebration of material as muse. Lemon-tinted glass and matching wheels forge vibrant links between exterior and interior, the cabin defined by soft yellow and grey tonalities that play across shifting textures to create a space that's both calm and expressive.

The exterior wears an anodized-effect finish that channels the spirit of Hyundai's Art of Steel design languagea celebration of material as muse. Lemon-tinted glass and matching wheels forge vibrant links between exterior and interior, the cabin defined by soft yellow and grey tonalities that play across shifting textures to create a space that's both calm and expressive. Furnished Space: The cabin design creates environments that feel warm, intuitive, and calming. By embracing soft volumes and user-focused layouts, it fosters a sense of serenity and clarity.

The cabin design creates environments that feel warm, intuitive, and calming. By embracing soft volumes and user-focused layouts, it fosters a sense of serenity and clarity. Customizable Experience: Modular 'Bring Your Own Lifestyle (BYOL)' widgets offer tailored experiences that allow customers to personalize their journey.

Modular 'Bring Your Own Lifestyle (BYOL)' widgets offer tailored experiences that allow customers to personalize their journey. Mr. Pix: A symbolic character integrated throughout the car evokes curiosity, joy and emotional connection, offering playful storytelling through 'hidden surprises' and interactive design elements.

A symbolic character integrated throughout the car evokes curiosity, joy and emotional connection, offering playful storytelling through 'hidden surprises' and interactive design elements. Sustainability: The interior envisions the use of sustainable materials such as ocean waste textiles and lightweight aluminum foam. These materials underscore Hyundai Motor's long-term vision to reduce environmental impact while delivering premium design.

Europe: A Strategic Market for Hyundai Motor's Electrification Journey

Hyundai Motor views Europe as a hub of innovation in the EV era, driven by its diverse cultures, advanced environmental policies and urban-focused mobility needs. The region's demand for compact, sustainable vehicles positions Europe at the center of the company's global electrification goals.

Nearly 80 percent of Hyundai Motor vehicles sold in Europe are locally manufactured, reflecting the brand's deep integration and ability to tailor solutions to the unique mobility needs of both urban areas and rural communities.

Key elements of Hyundai Motor's electrification roadmap for Europe include:

Expanded EV Portfolio : Offering an electrified version of every model in Europe by 2027 and releasing 21 global EV models by 2030, to match customer's diverse mobility needs.

: Offering an electrified version of every model in by 2027 and releasing 21 global EV models by 2030, to match customer's diverse mobility needs. Hydrogen Innovations : Advancing hydrogen fuel cell technology as a clean energy solution for future mobility.

: Advancing hydrogen fuel cell technology as a clean energy solution for future mobility. Sustainable Manufacturing: Transitioning European production facilities to renewable energy while extending the integration of recycled and sustainable materials into vehicle designs.

Compact EVs play a critical role in addressing Europe's urban challenges, as exemplified by the debut of the Concept THREE at IAA Mobility 2025, underscoring Hyundai Motor's mission to make electrification accessible and attractive for European consumers.

Hyundai Motor's Participation at IAA Mobility 2025

Hyundai Motor's participation at IAA Mobility 2025 marks a major milestone, as the company returns to Europe's largest mobility event for the first time in four years. With 750 exhibitors and over 500,000 visitors expected from 110 countries, IAA Mobility represents not just a showcase of mobility innovation but a critical platform for engaging with Europe's largest EV market.

IAA Mobility has evolved significantly since 2021, transforming from a traditional motor show to a city-wide event that spans from Munich's Messe exhibition halls to the open space in the city center. This format allows brands to directly engage with consumers in immersive and interactive ways, making it a perfect stage for Hyundai Motor's ambition to lead Europe's electrification movement.

Hyundai Motor will draw eyes at the IAA Open Space with a 58-meter-wide, 7-meter-tall booth located in Munich's bustling city center, Ludwigstrae. Inspired by Parametric Pixel, a key design element on Hyundai Motor vehicles, the booth features six oversized glass pixels that exude a commanding presence. This design reinforces Hyundai Motor's commitment to innovation and emotive design leadership while creating a striking visual presence that stands out among competitors.

Key highlights of Hyundai Motor's booth include:

Parametric Pixel design: Inspired by Hyundai Motor's signature lighting, Parametric Pixel, the 7-meter-tall booth with blue glass facades draws eyes.

Inspired by Hyundai Motor's signature lighting, Parametric Pixel, the 7-meter-tall booth with blue glass facades draws eyes. Global unveiling of Concept THREE: Reflecting Hyundai Motor's ambitions in Europe's B-segment, a critical market for compact EVs, the Concept THREE is introduced for the very first time.

Reflecting Hyundai Motor's ambitions in B-segment, a critical market for compact EVs, the Concept THREE is introduced for the very first time. Design exhibitions: Design elements come to life through a curated showcase. A sculpture inspired by Concept THREE's exterior is a pure expression of how steel's beauty, strength and flexibility have been incorporated into the vehicle's design. A furnished lounge chair, with its hard-shell structure and curved upholstery, reflects the inspiration behind the concept's seat and console composition.

Completing the experience, the 'Hyundai AddGear' display  showcasing the solution for flexible item mounting in the vehicle  lets visitors experience modular in-car accessories firsthand.

Comprehensive EV lineup: Featuring seven electrified models, including KONA Electric, IONIQ 5, IONIQ 6 N, IONIQ 9 and INSTER Cross, along with Concept THREE and INSTEROID, Hyundai Motor's lineup spans from compact EV to three-row SUV.

Featuring seven electrified models, including KONA Electric, IONIQ 5, IONIQ 6 N, IONIQ 9 and INSTER Cross, along with Concept THREE and INSTEROID, Hyundai Motor's lineup spans from compact EV to three-row SUV. Test drive opportunities: For a firsthand electrified experience, 9 models are offered for test drives  KONA Electric, IONIQ 5, IONIQ 5 N, IONIQ 6, IONIQ 9, INSTER, INSTER Cross, TUCSON PHEV and SANTA FE PHEV.

IAA Mobility is not just an exhibition; it is a global stage for the future of mobility. Hyundai Motor's return to the event in 2025 reinforces its ambition to lead in the European EV market, leveraging the IAA Mobility as a platform to redefine urban mobility and introduce the next chapter of its electrification journey.

SOURCE Hyundai Motor Company
Photo: National Guard

Ukraine offers partners to jointly defend airspace in a coordinated and thoughtful manner, the details of this were presented, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

"Ukraine offers to jointly defend airspace in a coordinated, thoughtful manner. We presented to partners how to do this. The details are clear, how to prevent the war from expanding and how to stop Russian steps towards escalation. Joint forces are absolutely sufficient for this," Zelenskyy said in an evening address on Wednesday.

He noted that as of now, Russia has not received a harsh reaction from global leaders to the incident with drones in Poland. "The Russians are testing the limits of the possible. They are testing the reaction. They are recording how the armed forces of NATO countries operate, what they can and what they cannot do yet," he said.

According to the president, joint trainings with the Russians have begun on the territory of Belarus, and "this may be part of the training plan, so to speak."

In addition, the Russians are waging a disinformation campaign against Poland and Ukraine.

"We see how the Russians are trying to humiliate Poland. It is important that a strong countermeasure is nevertheless built  as needed," the head of state said.
Interfax-Ukraine to host press conference "Establishment of National Association of Lobbyists of Ukraine  beginning of transparent European lobbying practice in Ukraine"

On Tuesday, September 16, at 12.30, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency will host a press conference titled "Establishment of the National Association of Lobbyists of Ukraine  beginning of transparent European lobbying practice in Ukraine."

Participants include lawyer, chairman of the board of the National Association of Lobbyists of Ukraine, chairman of the Information Policy Committee of the National Bar Association of Ukraine Oleksiy Shevchuk; board member of the National Association of Lobbyists of Ukraine, managing partner of the AVER LEX law firm Olha Prosianiuk; board member of the National Association of Lobbyists of Ukraine, managing partner of the Leshchenko and Partners law firm Oleksandr Leshchenko; board member of the National Association of Lobbyists of Ukraine, managing partner of UA Absolut LLC Oleksandr Bondarchuk; a representative of the National Association of Lobbyists of Ukraine in Brussels, President of European Facilitation Platform Oleksandr Kamenets (8/5a Reitarska Street).

The event will be streamed on the Interfax-Ukraine YouTube channel.

Admission requires registration on the spot with press ID cards.
Several communities across British Columbia are opening new schools and expanding existing ones to meet growing demand. Thousands more student spaces are also under construction as part of the provinces effort to modernize and increase classroom capacity.

Weve been working hard to build and deliver new schools to meet the needs of students now and in the future, said Bowinn Ma, Minister of Infrastructure. Our historic investments in school infrastructure are already making a meaningful difference for B.C. students, and we look forward to welcoming young learners into even more brand-new classrooms this fall.

In Langford, one of B.C.s fastest-growing cities, a new Elementary School will open its doors this September. The school will provide 480 seats for students in kindergarten through Grade 5.

Camille McFarlane, the schools principal, said the facility will be more than just a place to learn.

SCINEW STEITKE Elementary reflects the exciting growth of our community, McFarlane said. This school will be a place where students can thrive, build friendships and learn while honouring the stories and traditions of this land.

In Trail, a full replacement school has been built for Glenmerry Elementary, increasing total capacity from 270 to 435 seats  an addition of 165 new student spaces.

I am thrilled for students in Trail to attend the new and expanded Glenmerry Elementary, said Steve Morissette, MLA for Kootenay-Monashee. With before- and after-school care provided by the new schools neighbourhood learning centre, this investment will make a real difference in supporting our growing community in the Kootenays.

Several existing schools are also receiving upgrades to expand capacity:

Abbotsford: Auguston Traditional Elementary and Margaret Stenerson Elementary will add a combined total of 360 new seats.

Delta: Ladner Elementary is adding 150 new seats.

Kelowna: Chief Tomat Elementary will expand by 165 seats.

Richmond: R.C. Talmey Elementary is adding 150 seats.

Families in Delta deserve access to quality education close to home, said Ravi Kahlon, MLA for Delta North. By adding 150 new seats at Ladner Elementary, were making sure more students can learn in safe, modern classrooms, while helping address the growing demand in our community.

Kelly Greene, MLA for Richmond-Steveston, said the upgrades will bring long-term benefits.

The addition at R.C. Talmey means more students can learn in modern and safe environments right in their own neighbourhoods, Greene said. Our governments historic investments in education are having a real impact, and Im excited to see students and communities in Richmond already experiencing the benefits.

Surrey will also see an additional 700 student seats this fall, with more expansions planned in Langley to keep up with rapid population growth.

Lisa Beare, Minister of Education and Child Care, said creating modern learning environments is a key part of student success.

Creating the right learning environment is essential to student success, Beare said. Im thrilled to see these investments making a real difference for students throughout the province, and I look forward to welcoming students back to classes for another great school year.

Since 2017, the province has committed more than $6 billion to school capital projects. These investments have created nearly 43,000 new student spaces and 39,000 seismically safe seats. The government continues to work with school districts and municipalities to ensure students have access to safe, modern classrooms as B.C.s population grows.
By Rochelle Baker

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The spectre of low-oxygen dead zones is surfacing along BCs Central Coast, threatening the regions rich marine ecosystems and fisheries.

Widespread hypoxia  when oxygen levels in the ocean fall below levels required by marine life  is being detected in the deep waters of Queen Charlotte Sound for the first time, said Sam Stevens, an oceanographer at the Hakai Institute and lead author of a new study.

Aggravated worldwide by climate change since warmer oceans generally hold less oxygen, marine hypoxia is now beginning to impact the sound, sandwiched between northern Vancouver Island and south of Haida Gwaii. Marine life, such as crabs, fish and a host of seabed creatures like sea stars and anemones, begin to suffer from hypoxia when dissolved oxygen levels fall below two milligrams per litre, Stevens said.

In 2022 and 2023, we saw large areas below this threshold, he said, adding projections from the research data suggest marine oxygen levels will get significantly worse by mid-century. Preliminary data gathered during 2024 and to date in 2025 suggest that the region's deep waters continue to experience oxygen starvation.

If that trajectory continues, by 2050, about half of the sea floor of the Queen Charlotte Sound could suffer hypoxia during summer, along with 40 percent of the volume of deep water below 100 metres, he said.

Thats a large fraction of the system, Stevens said. It suggests big changes for ecosystems and the species that depend on them.

The research raises alarms about the future of some of Canadas most productive waters.

The deep waters of the sound shelter celebrated conservation areas, like ancient glass sponge reefs and important commercial fisheries for groundfish like halibut, rock cod and hake. The region also falls within the HYPERLINK "https://www.nationalobserver.com/2023/02/05/news/milestone-agreement-vas..." \t "_blank Great Bear Sea, or BC Northern Shelf bioregion, where a string of new marine conservation areas is being developed.

The hypoxia levels on the Central Coast raise the threat of serious marine die-offs like those experienced in southern waters off the coast of Washington and Oregon, where, in several instances in the past two decades, huge numbers of Dungeness crabs perished, said Stevens.

Persistent low oxygen levels along the Central Coast could also cause a shift in the distribution of fish, which, unlike slower bottom-dwelling creatures, will migrate away from hypoxic areas, he said.

Data about changing oxygen levels can better help inform monitoring of fish stocks and conservation decisions, he noted.

That might look like managing the fisheries for certain species that might be more or less impacted by these conditions, Stevens said. Examining hypoxia data could help predict what areas in the region might be least affected  possibly acting as refuges for species needing protection.

The new study also suggests that the local oxygen levels are being driven by global warming halfway across the globe in the subarctic waters near Japan and Russia, Stevens said.

It was particularly interesting to make the connection between the Queen Charlotte Sound and climate change processes happening thousands of kilometres away on the other side of the Pacific, he said.

Oxygen levels of deep waters arriving on the coast of BC appear to be affected by climate impacts on the massive ocean circulation system called the North Pacific Gyre that rotates ocean water clockwise from North America west across the Pacific Ocean and back again.

However, winters in the distant subarctic waters may be changing with global warming, lessening the mix of atmospheric oxygen into ocean waters as a result of storms and winds. Freshwater layers on the surface of the ocean, caused by melting ice, also act like a cap that makes it more difficult for oxygen to mix into deeper seawater for eventual transport back to North America.

The combined effects mean there is less oxygen in deep ocean water when it returns to flow over the continental shelf along the BC coast eight to 10 years later, he said.

Additionally, the nutrient-rich but low-oxygen water becomes even more hypoxic once it wells upward in coastal waters and triggers plankton growth. When organic matter and dead microscopic creatures from these plankton blooms sink as marine snow into deeper water, bacteria breaking down the materials consume oxygen, aggravating hypoxia, Stevens said.

The research team drew on nearly 20 years of historical ocean data, much derived from shipboard studies. However, the new findings were discovered using robotic ocean gliders, Stevens said.

The autonomous, torpedo-shaped gliders collect detailed measurements on things like oxygen, temperature and salinity. The fleet of gliders with names like Eve or Hal dive from the oceans surface to the sea floor, and give a comprehensive, expansive picture of how ocean conditions change over time.

They can be out there year-round through any ocean conditions, and they take data at very high resolution, he said.

Whereas, us humans dont really like to be at sea all year round  especially not in the winter. Boats can be challenging and expensive. So, these gliders offer a really, really great platform to study things like this in high detail.

The fallout of low oxygen in deep water could ripple into coastal inlets, which are part of the sounds ecosystem, Stevens said. Fjords such as Knight Inlet, Bute Inlet and Rivers Inlet all draw on oxygen-rich waters from the soun,d and if dead zones develop, these ecosystems may also decline.

The events were seeing now are unique in the historical record, Steven said.

If these trends continue, hypoxia will continue to worsen in the coming decades.

Rochelle Baker / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada's National Observer.
Agrasen College celebrates Teachers Day





Staff reporter

RAIPUR

AGRASEN College celebrated Teachers Day with great enthusiasm at its Purani Basti-based campus in Raipur. First teacher and former President of India Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was remembered,and the day was observed with devotion and joy. Dr Avadh Bihari Dubey was the chief guest of the programme. In his welcome address, Secretary of the College Management Committee Dr Amit Agrawal said that the committee honours teachers every year and Agrasen College is the only institution where Teachers Day is celebrated on such a large scale by the management. College Director Dr V K Agrawal greeted students on Teachers Day.

Later, students from the Kathak center of the college presented a mesmerizing Guru Vandana performance. During the ceremony, Assistant Professor of Social Work Department Rukmani Agrawal was honoured with the prestigious Teachers Award. Professor Vikas Sharma (Head of the Computer Department), Professor Bhavna Grewal (Commerce Department) and Professor Ritulata Tarak (Journalism Department) were also honoured on the occasion. The programme concluded with a vote of thanks by Joint Secretary Dr Ravindra Agrawal.
Ukrainians have the most positive perception of EU countries and the UK, and the most negative perception of China and Hungary, according to a study by Active Group and Experts Club

Ukrainians have the most positive attitude toward Germany, the UK, Norway, and France, while Hungary, China, Iraq, and Serbia are among the countries with the worst ratings. This is evidenced by the results of a study conducted by Active Group and the Experts Club analytical center at the end of August.

"We conducted a representative survey of 800 respondents at the end of August, taking into account gender, age, and region of residence. The margin of error does not exceed 3.5%. This is not the first study of this type, but this time we selected 50 countries based on economic criteria  we asked about the countries with which Ukraine trades the most," said sociologist and founder of Active Group Andriy Yeremenko at a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Tuesday.

According to him, the study showed that public opinion is clearly divided between Western countries and countries outside the West.

"Ukrainians most often associate the achievement of peace with the European Union  42% of respondents believe this. The United States is supported by almost 26% of respondents, and the United Kingdom by 13%. Other large countries, such as China, India, and Brazil, are not really considered to be contributing to a peaceful settlement in Ukraine," Yeremenko emphasized.

Alexander Pozniy, director of the research company Active Group, added that in economic terms, Ukraine's key partners are China, Poland, Germany, Turkey, and the United States.

At the same time, attitudes toward them vary greatly. For example, more than 76% of Ukrainians have a positive attitude toward Germany, while only 12% have a positive attitude toward China, and 40% have a negative attitude. The case of Hungary is even more critical, with 16% having a positive attitude and 55% having a negative attitude, he said.

Maksym Urakyn, founder of Experts Club and deputy director general of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency, drew attention to economic imbalances in Ukraine's trade with its leading partners.

"In the first half of 2025, Ukraine's foreign trade deficit amounted to $18.5 billion, while in 2024 it was $12.4 billion. In other words, we have a significant deterioration. In particular, the negative balance exceeded $7 billion in trade with China alone, $2 billion with Germany, over $1 billion with Poland, and about $2 billion with the United States," the expert emphasized.

He clarified that Ukraine remains a powerful exporter of agricultural productsgrains, oilseeds, and metalswhile imports from the EU and China consist mainly of machinery, equipment, transport, electronics, and chemicals.

This once again confirms the need for profound structural changes in the economy and diversification of foreign economic relations. We cannot continue to depend on a narrow circle of suppliers, Urakin noted.

At the same time, according to the expert, sociological data demonstrate a certain paradox.

The most economically advantageous partners for us are Egypt, Spain, Moldova, Algeria, Lebanon, and Iraq. But Ukrainians' attitude toward most of these countries is neutral or even negative. This indicates that society forms its assessments not on the basis of economic benefits, but mainly on the basis of political statements or events, he added.

Urakin concluded that this discrepancy between the economy and public opinion could have long-term consequences for Ukraine's foreign policy.

"The representative offices of foreign countries that are Ukraine's trading partners should pay more attention to working with Ukrainian society, holding cultural events, supporting humanitarian projects, and forming a positive image. Otherwise, we will continue to have a situation where the country is an important trading partner, but at the same time is perceived negatively by the majority of citizens," emphasized the founder of Experts Club.

Learn more about the study
Bhopals suicide prevention cadre: 350 Mitram gatekeepers saving lives





Staff Reporter :

In a pioneering initiative by the Madhya Pradesh Health Department under the National Health Mission (NHM), a cadre of 350 trained individuals, comprising Government health workers and community volunteers, has emerged as a quiet force against suicide in Bhopal. Known as Mitram, these gatekeepers are helping prevent 20 to 30 suicides every month through early identification and timely intervention. The Mitram cadre includes ASHA workers, ANMs, community health officers, and citizens from various walks of life. Each member undergoes a one-day training to recognise symptoms of depression and suicidal tendencies. Once trained, they act as frontline mental health responders, identifying at-risk individuals and referring them to district mental health centres for expert care. Clinical Psychologist Dr Rahul Sharma, based at JP Hospital, said, Weve trained 350 people in Bhopal.

Theyre equipped with a toolkit to spot signs like social withdrawal, persistent negative speech, or sudden silence. If they suspect someone is at risk, they offer primary mental health support and bring them to us. This support includes empathetic listening, reassurance, and connecting individuals to professional help. If someone is suicidal, even a two-minute conversation can change their mind. Thats where Mitram becomes crucial, Dr Sharma added. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Madhya Pradesh reported 15,386 suicides in 2022, averaging nearly 42 deaths per day. Bhopal alone saw 527 cases last year. Experts say community-based intervention is key to reversing the trend. Khushboo Yadav, a health worker and Mitram at village Raipur Arogya Mandir, has become a vital link in her village, where five suicides were reported last year.

Ive informed villagers through panchayat and gram sabha meetings that if anyone shows symptoms, they should come to me. I identify 3-5 such cases every month and refer them to the district hospital, she said. With suicide rates rising, the health department plans to expand the Mitram network across districts. This is the need of the hour, Dr Sharma said. Mitram volunteers are not just saving lives, theyre restoring hope in communities that need it most. Doctor Raises alarm on police mental health: Dr Satyakant Trivedi, senior Psychiatrist and author of Overthinking Se Azaadi, Bhopals suicide prevention cadre: 350 Mitram gatekeepers saving lives Contd from page 1 has voiced serious concern over the mental health crisis brewing silently within police force. We often expect police personnel to be emotionally invincible, he says, but behind the uniform is a human being battling stress, trauma, and isolation. In his public awareness campaigns and writings, Dr Trivedi questions the systemic neglect of psychological well-being in law enforcement. He highlights how long working hours, exposure to violence, lack of emotional outlets, and stigma around seeking help contribute to rising cases of depression and suicide among officers.
C P Radhakrishnan becomes 15th Vice President of India





NEW DELHI :

NDA candidate bags 452 votes while joint Opposition candidate Sudershan Reddy gets 300 votes

NDA candidate C P Radhakrishnan was elected the next Vice President of India on Tuesday as he bagged 452 votes against the Opposition candidate B Sudershan Reddys 300, winning the contest with a bigger than expected margin, indicating cross-voting from the rival camp. Announcing the result of the vice presidential election this evening, Rajya Sabha Secretary General and Returning Officer P C Mody said 767 MPs cast their votes out of the total valid electors of 781 in a turnout of 98.2 per cent. He said 752 ballots were valid and 15 were invalid, bringing down the required majority of first preference votes to 377.

Though the victory of Radhakrishnan (67), currently the Maharashtra Governor and a seasoned leader with an RSS background and decades-long stint first in the Jana Sangh and then the BJP in Tamil Nadu, was a foregone conclusion due to the ruling alliances numerical edge but the extent of his victory margin is a setback to the Opposition. Hours before the result, senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh had claimed that the Opposition has stood united. All of its 315 MPs have turned up for voting, he said. The final tally in favour of Reddy, a retired Supreme Court judge, was 300, decidedly less than expected by the Opposition camp as some MPs unaligned to the two blocs had also announced their support to him.

BJP leaders were quick to claim that at least 15 Opposition MPs voted in favour of Radhakrishnan. There were hints from the ruling alliance that some Opposition MPs deliberately cast invalid votes. I declare C P Radhakrishnan elected to the post of Vice President of India and the results will be communicated to the Election Commission, Mody said. BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal claimed that nearly 40 Opposition MPs listened to the voice of their conscience and voted in some manner in support of the NDA candidate, showing a wider acceptance for him. His assertion of support from 40 opposition MPs appeared to include several invalid votes. Some Opposition leaders had appealed to MPs conscience in the polls to support Reddy, and the senior BJP leaders comments were seen as a retort to them. Radhakrishnan would be Indias 15th Vice President when he is sworn in to the post. President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Radhakrishnan, saying his decades of rich experience in public life will contribute significantly to the nations progress, strengthen constitutional values and enhance parliamentary discourse. The poll was necessitated due to the sudden resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar on July 21, almost two years before his term was to end. The electoral college for the vice presidential election comprises a total of 788 members - 245 from the Rajya Sabha and 543 from the Lok Sabha. The Congress congratulated the NDA nominee on his win, and said its ideological battle against the ruling alliance will continue undiminished.

Confident that Radhakrishnan will be an outstanding Vice President: PM

NEW DELHI,

Sept 9 (PTI)

CONGRATULATING BJP-led NDA candidate C P Radhakrishnan on winning the vice presidential poll, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday expressed confidence that he will be an outstanding Vice President. Radhakrishnan won the vice presidential election on Tuesday by bagging 452 votes, while Opposition candidate B Sudershan Reddy polled 300 votes, Returning Officer P C Mody said. Modi said on X that Radhakrishnans life has always been devoted to serving society and empowering the poor and marginalised. The Prime Minister said, Congratulations to Thiru CP Radhakrishnan Ji on winning the 2025 Vice Presidential election. His life has always been devoted to serving society and empowering the poor and marginalised. I am confident that he will be an outstanding VP, who will strengthen our Constitutional values and enhance Parliamentary discourse. A total of 767 MPs cast their ballot in a turnout of 98.2 per cent, of which 752 were valid and 15 votes were deemed invalid, Mody said. One postal ballot was cancelled as the MP declined to cast the vote.
Haldiram Foods & GoDaddy reach settlement in trademark dispute over domain names





Staff Reporter :

Haldiram Foods had approached the court against GoDaddy over the registration of several domain names allegedly misusing its brand name

A trademark dispute between Haldiram Foods International Pvt Ltd and GoDaddy.com LLC has been amicably settled before the Mediator, District Judge-3, Nagpur. The matter was registered as Suit Trade Mark Act No. 03/2025 along with Civil M.A. No. 523/2025. Haldiram Foods had approached the court against GoDaddy over the registration of several domain names allegedly misusing its brand name.

As per the joint pursis submitted by both parties, GoDaddy has agreed to suspend the disputed domain names in India whenever specific court orders are issued. The defendant also undertook to provide complete registrant and payment details of the impugned domain names, whether registered in India or abroad, upon directions from the court. Furthermore, GoDaddy will not contest applications filed by Haldiram that seek suspension of domain names registered in India or disclosure of registrant information. The domains identified for suspension include - [www.haldiramfranchises.com](http://www.haldiramfranchises.com), [www.haldiramsfranchise.in](http://www.haldiramsfranchise.in), [www.haldiramdeal.com](http://www.haldiramdeal.com), [www.haldiramsonline.com](http://www.haldiramsonline.com), and [www.haldirams.in] (http://www.haldirams.in). GoDaddy is also required to update the court on compliance with orders passed in this regard.

Haldiram Foods has agreed to withdraw Civil M.A. No. 523/2025, which was a contempt application, but retained the right to file fresh contempt proceedings in case of any future non-compliance. Both parties also agreed to modify the operative part of the earlier order dated May 3, 2025 to include the suspension of the disputed domain names. The settlement means that the ongoing trademark case will be put on hold once both parties officially sign the agreed terms. The proceedings were represented by Haris Khan, Counsel for Haldiram Foods and Saurav Rajurkar, Counsel for GoDaddy.com LLC.
Jabalpur 2nd in clean air survey





Mayor Jagat Bahadur Singh and Municipal Commissioner Preeti Yadav receiving the national-level award at the hands of Union Minister for Environment and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav at New Delhi.

Staff Reporter :

Jabalpur has once again showcased its leadership in environmental conservation by securing second position in the Swachh Vayu Survekshan, conducted under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP). At a national-level ceremony held in Delhi, Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav praised Jabalpurs consistent progress in the fields of green initiatives, public awareness campaigns and infrastructure development. He described the achievement as historic and urged other cities to follow Jabalpurs example. The Union Minister lauded the citys Green City and Clean City campaigns, crediting them for raising awareness and improving urban air quality. He also acknowledged the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Dr Mohan Yadav in promoting nationwide cleanliness and environmental drives.

During the ceremony, Mayor Jagat Bahadur Singh and Municipal Commissioner Preeti Yadav were felicitated on stage for their outstanding contribution. The Government of India also awarded Rs 1 crore to Jabalpur Municipal Corporation under NCAP in recognition of its achievements. Senior officials including Rajesh Verma, Chairperson of the Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and adjoining areas and Tanmay Kumar, Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, congratulated the Mayor, Municipal Commissioner and the Jabalpur team including Sambhav Ayachi, Nodal Officer for the Clean Air Programme and Abhinav Mishra, Nodal Officer of the Sanitation Cell. Speaking on the occasion, Mayor Jagat Bhadur Singh said that Jabalpur is steadily advancing and setting new benchmarks.

He highlighted that the city recently secured 5th place nationally in the Swachh Survekshan and now with the second position in the Clean Air Survey, Jabalpur has achieved another milestone. The Mayor further noted that multiple initiatives including massive plantation drives, creation of green walls and pathways, dust-free roads, new parks and deployment of de-fogger machines have played a crucial role in improving air quality. He assured that the Municipal Corporation would continue working for the health and well being of citizens. Expressing gratitude to the people of Sanskardhani, both the Mayor and Municipal Commissioner appealed for continued public support in coming cleanliness and environmental campaigns, so that the city can remain a national role model in sustainable urban development.
Malegaon blast: Victims move HC against acquittal of Pragya, 6 more





MUMBAI :

SIX family members of people who died in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast have moved the Bombay High Court, challenging a special court judgment acquitting the seven accused in the case, including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Colonel Prasad Purohit. The appeal claimed faulty investigation or some defects in the probe cannot be the ground for acquitting the accused. It also contended that a conspiracy is hatched in secrecy and hence there cannot be a direct evidence of it. he petitioners claimed the order passed by the special NIA court on July 31 acquitting the seven accused was wrong and bad in law and hence deserves to be quashed.

The appeal, filed on Monday by Nisar Ahmed Sayyed Bilal and five others through their advocate Mateen Shaikh, sought the HC to quash the special court judgment. As per the HC website, the appeal is likely to come up for hearing before a division bench headed by Justice A S Gadkari on September 15. An explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon town, located about 200 km from Mumbai in Maharashtras Nashik district, on September 29, 2008, killing six persons and injuring 101 others. The claim said the trial court judge should not act as a postman or mute spectator in a criminal trial. When the prosecution failed to elicit facts, the trial court can ask questions and/or summon witnesses, it added. The trial court has unfortunately acted as a mere post-office and allowed a deficient prosecution to benefit the accused, the appeal said.

It also pointed out that the previous special public prosecutor, Rohini Salian, had alleged pressure from the NIA to go slow in the case against the accused after which a new prosecutor was appointed. The appeal also raised concerns over the manner in which the National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted the probe and trial in the case and sought for the accused to be convicted. The State Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), by arresting the seven persons, unearthed a large conspiracy and since then there has been no blast in areas populated by the minority community, the appeal said. It claimed the NIA, after taking over the case, diluted the allegations against the accused persons. The appeal further claimed the special court had erred in coming to the conclusion that the motorcycle used in the blast was not owned by Thakur and the RDX used was not procured by Purohit. There was enough evidence to show the accused persons had hatched the conspiracy to carry out the blast and the special court had erred in holding that there was only strong suspicion against the accused but not sufficient evidence to convict them, it said. The appeal said a conspiracy is hatched in secrecy and hence there cannot be any direct evidence of the same.

The special court had in its judgment said mere suspicion cannot replace real proof and there was no cogent or reliable evidence to warrant conviction. Special judge A K Lahoti, presiding over the NIA court, had said there was no reliable and cogent evidence against the accused that proved the case beyond reasonable doubt. The prosecutions case was that the blast was carried out by right wing extremists with an intention to terrorise the Muslim community in the communally sensitive Malegaon town. The NIA court had in its judgment flagged several loopholes in the prosecutions case and the investigation carried out, and said the accused persons deserved the benefit of doubt. Besides Thakur and Purohit, the accused included Major Ramesh Upadhyay (retired), Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sameer Kulkarni.
Nepal on tenterhooks Arson, vandalism continue unabated on Day-2

By Shirish B Pradhan

KATHMANDU

PM Oli resigns Protesters torch Presidents residence, Parliament Army deployed

NEPALESE Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned on Tuesday in the face of massive anti-government protests with the demonstrators attacking private residences of several top politicians, including President Ramchandra Paudel, and vandalising the Parliament. The students-led protests reflected the growing public anger with the political class over a range of issues including a ban on social media and alleged corruption with demonstrators gathering at the heart of Kathmandu and elsewhere despite curfews and heavy deployment of security forces. Oli stepped down shortly after hundreds of agitators entered his office shouting slogans demanding his resignation for the death of at least 19 people in police action during the protests on Monday, officials said. In his resignation letter to President Paudel, Oli cited the extraordinary circumstances facing Nepal and said he is quitting to pave the way for a constitutional and political resolution of the current situation, they said. In view of the precarious security situation, the flight services at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu have been suspended, the officials said.

Though the Nepal Government last night revoked its ban on social media websites following the protests led by Gen Z youths, the agitators continued their demonstration against corruption and demanding accountability for deaths of 19 people. Hours before Olis resignation, the protesters set on fire the Nepalese leaders private house in Balkot, and attacked residences of former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Communication Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung, Former Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak among others. The protesters also attacked the private residence of President paudel. The agitators under the banner of Gen Z, shouted slogans such as KP Chor, Desh Chhod (KP thief, leave the country) and Take Action Against Corrupt Leaders. Protesters also torched the residence of former home minister Ramesh Lekhak at Naikap in Kathmandu, just a day after he resigned from his post, according to officials. Demonstrations were reported from Kalanki, Kalimati, Tahachal, and Baneshwor in Kathmandu, as well as Chyasal, Chapagau, and Thecho areas of Lalitpur district.

Protesters, mostly students, chanted slogans such as Dont kill students, defying the restrictions on public gatherings. In Kalanki, demonstrators burnt tyres to block roads. The agitating youths also pelted stones at the residence of Communication Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung in Sunakothi at Lalitpur district, eye witnesses said. Gurung had ordered a ban on the social media sites. They also vandalised former PM Sher Bahadur Deubas house at Budhanilkantha in Kathmandu. The Gen Z group, which has been campaigning against corruption for some time, has used social media platforms like Reddit and Instagram to expose what they called the extravagant lifestyles of the children of ministers and other influential figures. They have posted videos and images, questioning the sources of wealth that fund such opulence, purportedly derived from corrupt practices.

The ban of social media sites was an attempt to suppress freedom of speech, the agitators said. The Nepalese Government had ordered the ban of 26 social media sites, including Facebook and X, over their failure to register with the Government. However, in a late-night development on Monday, the Government announced the restoration of access to social media platforms, in an apparent bid to ease public anger. The protesters main demands include the resignation of Prime Minister Oli, the formation of a national Government, and strict action against corrupt politicians. Numerous posts on social media have called for Olis resignation and the establishment of a new Government. Among their other demands are guaranteed freedom of expression, and the introduction of a retirement age for those holding political office, according to Gen Z activists. Earlier in the day, Nepali Congress General Secretary Gagan Thapa has called for the immediate resignation of Oli. PM Oli should immediately resign, taking responsibility for the situation, he wrote on social media. Senior Nepali Congress leaders Bimalendra Nidhi and Arjun Narsingh Kesi have suggested that the party withdraw all its ministers from the government, form a government, and initiate dialogue with the agitating Gen Z group.

Talking to PTI, Nidhi said as the largest party in Parliament, Nepali Congress must safeguard democracy and the Constitution during these critical times. Nepali Congress should withdraw support to the Oli-led Government and initiate the process of forming a national Government, he said. Kesi also said that Nepali Congress should withdraw from the government and initiate the process of forming an all-party government. He also demanded the creation of a powerful anti-corruption body to investigate the assets of those in power and take decisive action, alongside initiating dialogue with the Gen Z group.

India issues emergency contact numbers for its nationals

KATHMANDU,

Sept 9 (PTI)

INDIA on Tuesday issued emergency contact numbers for its nationals in Nepal, asking them to contact in case of any emergency or need for assistance. All Indian nationals in Nepal are hereby requested to note the following telephone numbers from the Embassy of India, Kathmandu, for contact, in case they are facing any emergency situation or require assistance: 1. +977  980 860 2881 2. +977  981 032 6134, the Embassy of India in Nepal said in a post on X. In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs advised Indian nationals to defer travel to Nepal in view of the prevailing situation. Indian citizens presently in Nepal are advised to shelter in their current places of residence, avoid going out onto the streets and exercise all due caution, it said. It also advised Indian nationals to follow local safety advisories from the Nepal authorities as well as the Embassy of India in Kathmandu. Air India on Tuesday cancelled four flights between Delhi and Kathmandu. Air India operates six flights a day between Delhi and Kathmandu. IndiGo and Nepal Airlines also cancelled their flights from Delhi to Kathmandu on Tuesday as the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu has been temporarily closed.

Closely monitoring devpts in Nepal, says India

NEW DELHI,

Sept 9 (PTI)

INDIA on Tuesday said it is deeply saddened by the loss of many young lives during protests in Nepal and hoped that the issues will be resolved through peaceful means. We are closely monitoring the developments in Nepal and are deeply saddened by the loss of many young lives, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. Our thoughts and prayers are with families of deceased. We also wish speedy recovery for those who were injured, it said. It also asked Indian nationals to exercise caution in view of the prevailing situation in that country. As a close friend and neighbour, we hope that all concerned will exercise restraint and address any issues through peaceful means and dialogue, the MEA said in a statement. We have also taken note that authorities have imposed curfew in Kathmandu and several other cities of Nepal. Indian nationals in Nepal are advised to exercise caution and adhere to the steps and guidelines issued by the Nepali authorities, the MEA said.
NMRDA to get Rs 268 cr for sewage treatment plant





Staff Reporter :

Cabinet nod to raise HUDCO loan of Rs 2,000 crore to aid projects in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Nagpur

The Maharashtra Cabinet on Tuesday cleared a approval to raise Rs 2,000 crore from the Housing and Urban Development Corporation Ltd (HUDCO) under the Urban Infrastructure Development Loan Scheme to help municipal bodies mobilise matching funds for infrastructure projects. The decision will enable Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation to access Rs 822.22 crore for a water supply project, Nagpur Metropolitan Region Development Authority (NMRDA) to raise Rs 268.84 crore for four sewage treatment projects, and Mira-Bhayandar Municipal Corporation to get Rs 116.28 crore for a water supply project.

The scheme is designed to ensure that projects under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) 2.0, Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0, Maharashtra Suvarna Jayanti Nagarothhan Maha Abhiyan and other state/central initiatives do not stall due to lack of funds. Extension to electricity bill concession for lift irrigation schemes The Cabinet meeting held on Tuesday approved the extension of the electricity tariff concession scheme for ultra-high pressure, high pressure and low pressure lift irrigation schemes for farmers for another two years, i.e. till March 2027. The meeting was chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. This will result in huge savings in the cost of about 1,789 lift irrigation schemes in the State and the farmers associated with these lift irrigation schemes will benefit directly. This electricity tariff concession scheme has made it easier for farmers in the State to provide water for their crops. This is helping to increase agricultural income.

Therefore, this electricity tariff concession scheme announced earlier has helped in improving the standard of living of farmers and increasing their agricultural income. Considering this particular aspect the Cabinet decided to extend this welfare scheme till March 31, 2027. In this scheme, the concessional electricity rate for the customers of the ultra-high pressure and high-pressure lifting water irrigation scheme is Rs 1.16 per unit and a fixed rate of Rs 25 per month (per KVA) and the concessional electricity rate for the customers of the low-pressure lifting water irrigation scheme is Rs 1 per unit and a fixed rate of Rs 15 per month (per horsepower) has been approved to be maintained till March 31, 2027. With this concession, the State Government has approved the payment of Rs 886.15 crore for the annual year 2025-26 and Rs. 872.23 crore for the financial year 2026-27 to Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited to compensate for the revenue deficit.

Akolas 2 minor irrigation schemes to be repaired

The cabinet approved the provision of expenditure of Rs 4.76 crore for the repair of Ghonga and Rs 4.92 crore for Kanadi minor irrigation schemes in Murtijapur taluka of Akola district. The meeting was chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. The work of Ghonga minor irrigation scheme was completed in 1986. The work of Kanadi minor irrigation scheme was completed in 1977. The pitching of both these projects has not been repaired, trees and bushes have grown in the canal, and the service road on the project has not been repaired. For this, the expenditure was approved as a special matter for the repair of both these projects. Repairs worth Rs 4.76 crore have been approved for the Ghongha micro-irrigation project in Akola district, completed in 1986. It is expected to create 35 TMC of additional water storage and 45 hectares of irrigation capacity over its original 1,550 TMC storage and 350 hectares irrigation capacity, it said. Similarly, the Kanadi micro-irrigation project in Akola completed in 1977, will undergo repairs costing Rs 4.92 crore, which is expected to add 38 TMC storage and 46 hectares irrigation capacity over its original 1,700 TMC storage and 286 hectares irrigation capacity.
Over 500 Wayanad people in trouble after outsiders exploit their bank accounts





Wayanad :

OVER 500 people, mostly young men and women, have fallen prey to the mule account scam in Keralas hill district of Wayanad, cyber police sources said here on Tuesday. According to investigators, fraudsters from outside the district rented local residents bank accounts for money and then misused them for illicit transactions and other illegal activities. Several account holders in Wayanad are now facing cases registered in different States in northern and north-eastern India.

At least six people facing such cases are residents within the Kambalakkad police station limits. One of them has already been arrested by Nagaland police and taken to Kohima, a cyber police source told PTI. Twenty-seven-year-old Ismayil was arrested and taken to Nagaland. Muhammed Fanish (28), another youth, was served notice by Dehradun police in a similar case involving a transaction of Rs 58,000 through his account, the sources said. A case was also registered against Salmath, a local woman, by Lucknow police after her younger brother shared her bank account details with fraudsters, who then used it for a scam.
PM announces Rs 1,600 cr flood assistance for Punjab, Rs 1,500 cr for Himachal





CHANDIGARH/SHIMLA :

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced a financial assistance of Rs 1,600 crore for flood-hit Punjab and an immediate relief of Rs 1,500 crore for rain-affected Himachal Pradesh. He took stock of the situation in both the states in the wake of floods and landslides and also conducted aerial surveys of the affected areas. Modi first went to Himachal Pradesh and after an aerial survey, held a meeting in Kangra to review the relief and rehabilitation measures undertaken as well as assess the damage. He also announced Rs 2 lakh ex-gratia for the next of kin of the dead and Rs 50,000 for the injured in Himachal Pradesh, where cloudbursts, flash floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains wreaked havoc.

In the meeting with Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla, BJP leaders, affected families and people engaged in rescue services in Kangra, Modi assured all help for restoration and rebuilding of infrastructure in the affected areas. The financial assistance of Rs 1,500 crore to the hill state will be the advance release of the second instalment of SDRF and PM Kisan Samman Nidhi. Modi asked for a multi-dimensional view to be taken to get the entire region and people back on its feet. These would be done through multiple ways, like rebuilding homes through PM Awas Yojana, restoration of national highways, rebuilding schools, provision of relief under PMNRF along with release of mini kits for livestock. In Punjab, which is battling its worst deluge since 1988, Modi announced the Rs 1,600 crore assistance in addition to the Rs 12,000 crore already in the states kitty. He also announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to the seriously injured in the floods and natural calamity. From Himachal Pradesh, Modi landed in Gurdaspur -- one of the worst affected districts in Punjab -- after conducting the aerial survey.

He met flood-affected people as well as NDRF and SDRF teams. He also chaired an official meeting in Gurdaspur with officials and elected representatives and reviewed the relief and rehabilitation measures undertaken as well as assessed the damage. Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria, Punjab Agriculture minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian, Union Minister Ravneet Singh Bittu, Punjab Revenue Minister Hardeep Singh Mundian were also present in the official meeting. The assistance to Punjab will be advance release of the second instalment of SDRF (State Disaster Response Fund) and PM Kisan Samman Nidhi. In both the states, Modi emphasised the need for a multi-dimensional approach to help the entire region and its people recover. This would include measures such as rebuilding homes under the PM Awas Yojana, restoring national highways, reconstructing schools, providing relief through the PMNRF (PM National Relief Fund), and distributing mini kits for livestock. He also met families in both the states who were affected and expressed his complete solidarity with all those who had suffered and expressed deep sorrow who had lost their close ones. In Himachal Pradesh, a photograph of the prime minister holding 11-month-old Neetika, the lone survivor in her family, has also gone viral on the internet.

Himachal Pradesh suffered losses to the tune of Rs 4,122 crore due to cloudbursts, flash floods, and landslides triggered by heavy rains from June 20 to September 8 and 370 people have died in rain-related incidents and road accidents in the state, according to the state emergency operation centre. Out of the 370 fatalities, 205 were due to rain-related incidents, which include 43 deaths from landslides, 17 from cloudbursts, and nine from flash floods. Additionally, 41 people are still reported missing, while road accidents have accounted for 165 deaths. As of Tuesday morning, 619 roads, including four national highways, were closed in the state and 1748 power transformers and 461 water supply schemes were disrupted.

The monsoon has caused significant damage, with a total of 6,344 houses, 461 shops and factories being fully or partially affected, besides massive damage to government and private lands. Punjab is currently facing one of its worst flood disasters in decades. The floods are a result of swollen rivers the Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi along with seasonal rivulets caused by heavy rainfall in their catchment areas in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Besides, heavy rains in recent days in Punjab also aggravated the flooding situation. The death toll due to the devastating floods in Punjab stands at 51 while crops on 1.84 lakh hectares have been damaged. The state government has estimated a loss of over Rs 13,000 crore because of the floods that ravaged the state. A total of 2,064 villages have been impacted because of the floods, with maximum villages in Gurdaspur district at 329.
The Nepal Message





LONG building public frustration against the political class in Nepal exploded into a violent uprising by students as the Himalayan nation struggles to cope up with unprecedented violence, large numbers of deaths and an anarchy-like situation. The tiny nation saw protests by young demonstrators against ban on social media turning into a mob fury as Nepals parliament was stormed, houses of leaders were torched and the resultant action by police caused the death of 19 young people. The country is in a deep turmoil with Prime Minister Mr. K P Sharma Oli quitting his post and the protests spreading fast outside capital Kathmandu. Mondays protests were led by youngsters, under the banner of Gen-Z, over a ban on apps like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

However, the social media ban was only the tip of the pent-up anger against perceived lack of prosecution in corruption cases involving top leaders of the country. The ban on social media expressions became a trigger against the oppressive regime of Mr. Oli who had to finally relent and lift the gag order. However, the now-deposed PM could not stop the turbulence the political class in the country had caused over the last few years. Political situation in Nepal has been too fragile with the parties taking the revolving door to form a government. Instability has remained the hallmark in Kathmandu with the top three leaders -- Mr. K P Sharma Oli, Mr. Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda and Mr. Sher Bahadur Deuba -- taking their turns to rule the country. The entire political atmosphere has remained cloaked in distrust as new coalitions are being stitched at the drop of the hat. All the political foes have been warming up to each other with the sole aim of grabbing power which had left the people disillusioned.

There have been failed attempts of bringing back the monarchy system too even as perceived corruption by the leaders riled the masses. The lid on the piling frustration finally blew off against the establishment and Nepal now stares at a precarious future. That the protests were not only against the social media ban by the Oli government could be gauged from the spiralling violence even after roll-back of the decision. It became the reason for an uprising, much like what happened in Bangladesh last year when students gathered to topple the ruling Hasina government. Similar protests had earlier rocked Sri Lanka too when huge mobs ransacked the Presidential palace of the Rajapaksas. Anarchy ruled the streets of both Lanka and Desh and a repeat is on, now in Nepal. Leaders in both the countries had to flee their homes and take shelter in friendly countries. What future Mr. K P Sharma Oli and other top leaders face needs to be seen now. The situation in Nepal leaves a jittery feeling for the Asian region, especially India which has too many stakes in all these three countries. New Delhi has been living a hot-and-cold relation with Kathmandu in the last few years with power changing hands frequently.

The Oli regime remained under the Chinese sway while under Mr. Deuba, India found an old friend. But the volatility in the landlocked nation forced India to adopt a practical approach via diplomatic channels. Now, with a repeat of the Bangladesh situation in Nepal, India will have to be on high alert and safeguard its borders and strategic interests. The frequency and magnitude of the uprisings in the immediate neighbourhood come with some deep messages for India even as it fights a new front on the geopolitical chess board. The rapid developments smack of a sinister design. The upheaval in Nepal definitely has roots in the corruption allegations against its political class but the possibility of a foreign hand in play cannot be ruled out.




Petro Poroshenko, who is currently in Strasbourg, met with members of the European People's Party Group in the European Parliament and EPP President Manfred Weber. Poroshenko thanked representatives of the largest political group in the European Parliament for supporting the resolution on Ukraine. He called on European partners to put pressure on Putin to implement a ceasefire, and if that does not work, to implement plan B.

"We must stop the war, we must set a condition that if Putin does not accept our joint transatlantic demand for a ceasefire, we must implement the so-called plan B. This means weapons, long-range missiles, intelligence, a hundred F-16 fighter jets in Ukrainian skies to stop Russian air superiority, and effective air defence," Poroshenko explained.

"We cannot surpass Russia in terms of manpower. But we can definitely surpass it technologically, and we have the tools to put pressure on Putin to stop the war. Point number two is sanctions, and sanctions must be complex and transatlantic. These sanctions must deprive Russia of the ability to finance the war, must reduce Russian exports, and we know how to do this," Poroshenko said.

"Point number three: the defence industry and joint ventures with unique Ukrainian companies give us a serious advantage over Russia and make Europe much safer. Ultimately, it will be much cheaper. Of course, we must talk about security guarantees, but after the ceasefire, because if there is a ceasefire, we can build, just as Russia did in 2023, a 30-40 kilometre deep line with fortifications, minefields, and effective tools that will not allow Russia to even think about violating the ceasefire," notes the party leader.

"We must influence the use of frozen Russian assets, not just to rebuild Ukraine, because Ukraine is now completely different. We have a demographic crisis, our heavy industry is completely destroyed, but we must build a post-industrial Ukraine with a highly skilled workforce and a unique geographical location, as a symbol of a European state," Poroshenko said.

We must not accept Putin's blackmail, whether he has the right to veto Ukraine's membership in the European Union or not. Our answer is no, Mr. Putin, you have no right to Ukraine. We are a sovereign, independent European nation, Poroshenko emphasised.

"When someone asks what victory means for Ukraine? For us, Ukraine's victory is Ukraine's membership in the European Union and Ukraine's membership in NATO, and no one can close these doors for us. This is necessary for a stable security situation on the continent. And even if it is impossible now, it may become possible in a year, two years, three years," the opposition leader said.

As is well known, the European Parliament has adopted a resolution on Ukraine, which, in particular, refers to increasing aid for weapons production, opening accession negotiations and supporting democracy.

"The European Parliament has provided an honest, objective and friendly assessment of the state of affairs in Ukraine with regard to the effectiveness of democratic institutions, the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary. The resolution directly identifies the weak points of our democracy and reforms, without progress on which membership negotiations cannot be accelerated. First: the rule of law and the judicial system. The EP is sounding the alarm about the paralysis of the Constitutional Court and the vulnerability of the judiciary to political influence. This is a matter of trust in the state. Second: the independence and effectiveness of the anti-corruption architecture. The resolution supports NABU and SAPO and demands their protection from any political influence, the strengthening of ARMA, the restart of the DBR, and the resolution of the issue of selecting judges for the HACC. This is a signal to the Bankova: any attempts to manually control anti-corruption bodies are a direct blow to European integration," Petro Poroshenko said.

"Third  democracy and parliamentary pluralism. The EP calls for refraining from politically motivated court proceedings and sanctions against opposition representatives, as well as supporting parliamentary pluralism and promoting constructive dialogue between political factions in the Verkhovna Rada, and lifting restrictions on international parliamentary diplomacy. Fourth: media freedom and civil society. The EP stresses the inadmissibility of monopolising the airwaves and putting pressure on independent media," Poroshenko stated.

"The European Parliament's resolution and intense debates on Ukraine have proven that support for our country in the European Parliament remains unwavering, but the speed of our progress towards membership depends not on loud and beautiful statements, but on real democratic decisions and actions in Ukraine. I would like to thank the MEPs for taking into account our numerous proposals and improvements to the text of the resolution. Unity and solidarity are our strength," the fifth president said.
Green electricity, data centers, tourism fuel growth in NW China's Ningxia

People's Daily Online) 13:21, September 10, 2025

Green energy, data centers and tourism are emerging as key economic drivers for northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

The Ningxia-Hunan 800 kV ultra-high voltage (UHV) direct current transmission project goes into operation in Zhongwei city, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Aug. 20, 2025. (People's Daily Online/Liang Hongxin)

A major ultra-high voltage power transmission line linking northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and central China's Hunan province began operations Aug. 20 in Zhongwei city, Ningxia. The direct current transmission project runs from the Zhongning converter station in Zhongwei through Gansu and Shaanxi provinces, Chongqing Municipality and Hubei Province to the Hengyang converter station in Hunan.

The transmission line carries more than 36 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity from Ningxia to Hunan annually  enough to power more than 10 million households, said Ding Ning, head of the Zhongning converter station. More than half comes from renewable energy sources.

Ningxia has accelerated green development in recent years, promoting industrial upgrades and cleaner production while building a modern energy system.

Ningxia has abundant solar and wind resources and hosts China's first comprehensive renewable energy demonstration zone. The region's renewable capacity reached 41.33 million kilowatts by December 2024, accounting for 57.84 percent of total installed capacity.

Aerial photo shows a cloud data center in Zhongwei, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. (People's Daily Online/Ma Tianyi)

In a business park in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province, driverless security vehicles patrol the grounds, performing tasks such as artificial intelligence recognition and risk alerts. They gather audio, video, LiDAR, and millimeter-wave radar data in real time and transmit it via 5G networks to a cloud data center in Ningxia, where AI recognition and risk alerts take just 100 milliseconds.

Workers are building around the clock at China Mobile's second-phase data center in Zhongwei to meet year-end deadlines. The facility will add more than 80,000 server racks and five 10-gigabit clusters by December, providing computing power equivalent to 100,000 GPUs.

Ningxia's central location puts it within 2,000 kilometers of major Chinese cities, making it ideal for fiber-optic connections. The region's stable geology, dry climate and average temperatures below 8 degrees Celsius naturally cool data centers. Industrial electricity costs just 0.36 yuan ($0.05) per kilowatt-hour  less than half the price in eastern China.

In recent years, Ningxia has pursued the goal of building a demonstration zone for high-quality computing power and a hub for the "East Data, West Computing" initiative. A series of policies covering land, taxation and electricity have created a strong support system, drawing a wave of enterprises to the region.

Tourists at the Xixia Imperial Tombs in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. (People's Daily Online/Liang Hongxin)

The Xixia Imperial Tombs in Ningxia drew crowds during the summer travel season after being inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site on July 11. The designation brought China's total World Heritage sites to 60 and made the ancient burial complex a major tourist attraction.

After touring the Xixia Imperial Tombs, many visitors stay to watch stars in Ningxia. The region became China's first to launch the "hometown of stars" tourism brand and ranks among the country's first "all-for-one" tourism demonstration zones, thanks to its geography and natural advantages

"Stargazing at night is such a thrill!" said Ms. Deng, a tourist from Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, who recently revisited Shapotou, a scenic area in Zhongwei, with her family.

"Last time we couldn't book the Desert Star Hotel, so this time I planned a month ahead," she said.

Shapotou scenic area, China's first desert resort, sits between the Tengger Desert to the north and the Yellow River to the south, combining desert, river, mountains and oasis landscapes. Located 8 kilometers into the Tengger Desert, away from light pollution, it offers prime viewing for major meteor showers.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
Avant-garde womens watchmaking

When Paul Mercier stepped into William Baumes office at 2 Rue Ceard in Geneva on December 16, 1918, he knew that this meeting would change the course of his life. At 39, he was already well-traveled, having had a life filled with bold experiences; but the idea of a new beginning inspired him. Within minutes, the brilliant watchmaker William Baume said to him: Do you know what sets us apart, you and me? You are a visionary; a man of perspective.

In Paul Merciers vision of watchmaking, women were just as important as men. In addition to creating sensational jewelry watches that would earn the Brand a spotlight in the 1920 Davoine General Indicator of Watchmaking, praising its haute Fantaisie pour Dames (high fantasy for women), Mercier also recognized women as an emerging and influential market. He understood that women were not only drawn to the beauty and flair of timepieces, but also to their technological appeal. We are finally talking about watchmaking as if there were more to this world than men. They do not want to be relegated to the simple task of setting their husbands watches! They also want to be able to master time, and not simply by carrying a ridiculous mens turnip watch! Look at how women are becoming liberated today! he exclaimed, referring to the English suffragettes and the 1910 International Womens Conference in Copenhagen which advocated for the creation of International Womens Day.

He saw the miniaturization of movements and new technologies as tools to serve his creativity and daring spirit, which he dedicated as much to women as to men.

During the Roaring Twenties and the Art Deco period, Baume & Mercier brought forth some of the slimmest extra- and ultra-thin watches in the world. In particular, the Brand specialized in what were known as baguette movements, ideal for original womens watch cases in rectangular, square, barrel, and cushion shapes.

Baume & Mercier was among the first to spotlight the active, independent woman: one who is unafraid to break the rules, defy convention, and influence fashion, while embracing her femininity. In the 1950s, the Brand portrayed this ideal in a campaign featuring a female doctor. This was the portrait of a client who cared about more than just the beauty of a watch. She saw beyond appearances to take an interest in the movement and was willing to invest in a high-end mechanism. For her, it would be essential for her timepiece to be precise and reliable.

That same spirit lives on in the new Clifton Baumatic M0A10831 and M0A10833. Their elegant 34mm size is an ode to femininity. Their vintage aesthetic channels the timeless elegance of the 1950s. Their cutting-edge Baumatic Manufacture movement reinforces Baume & Merciers commitment to go one step further, offering women not just jewelry watches or quartz pieces like most of brands, but truly cutting-edge Swiss watchmaking at its finest. Always in step with the times  and indeed often ahead of them , the Maison honors strong, independent women for whom time is both an expression of aesthetic seduction and technical excellence, a mirror of their success and empowerment.
How on earth has Charlie Sheen made it to 60? How has he survived decades of cocaine  first snorted, then smoked as crack  endless parties with alcohol and friends? And his sexual excesses? Did he make enough to cover all the extortion money he gave to sex workers, including one to whom he reportedly paid as much as $1.4 million?

Netflix and a memoir provide the answer straight from Sheen himself. He stars in the documentary series aka Charlie Sheen, which premieres on the platform on Wednesday, September 10, in two 90-minute episodes. The book, written entirely by Sheen without a ghostwriter, is more reflective, judging by various excerpts published in the U.S.

However, the documentary is unbeatable thanks to the vast amount of material the actor has accumulated over his career and his years of wild behavior  and because on camera appear his friends, colleagues, his dealer, his fellow actors, two of his ex-wives (Denise Richards seems to be the only sane one on this rollercoaster), and even Heidi Fleiss, the infamous Hollywood madam who ran the citys most lucrative escort business in the early 1990s.

Sean Penn says in the documentary that his friend has a spectacular biology because he has survived an unparalleled journey of addictions, and because cocaine users usually suffer a sexual decline  except Charlie. The first person to appear on screen, however, is not Sheen, but Jon Cryer, co-star of Two and a Half Men, who, pointing to his bald head, begins: When the show started, I had hair.

The documentary can only be watched one way: wide-eyed and jaw-dropped. Sheen, who has been sober for eight years (not the first time  well, not the second or third either  that hes managed to stay away from alcohol and cocaine for a long stretch), looks into the camera and starts telling his story: he hides nothing, dodges no questions, and remembers everything. And everything means everything. Only a couple of times, out of respect for his ex-wives, does he hold back.

Charlie Sheen greets his fans after his dismissal from 'Two and a Half Men' in 2011. cordon press

At the start, he confesses: People dont know me as a person, but as a concept, something belonging to a time and a place. Indeed, Charlie Sheen embodies the idea of wild partying in the minds of half the planet. Not for nothing did he smoke seven-gram rocks of cocaine, spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on sex workers, and, in one brilliantly recounted anecdote, haggle over his admission to a rehab center for 24 hours because he had a meeting with Nicolas Cage (who doesnt come off well) and his crew to serve as judges at a bikini contest in Malibu.

Sheen came into the world struggling for life, choked by his own umbilical cord. Thats why his real name is Carlos Irwin (after the doctor who saved his life) Estevez. The third child of acting legend Martin Sheen  himself the son of a Spanish immigrant  Charlie grew up on his fathers sets (yes, as a child he went to the Philippines for the filming of Apocalypse Now, where he helped his father recover from the heart attack that almost killed him) and followed in the footsteps of his brother Emilio Estevez, who kept the familys original surname. When he finished high school, he asked his parents to let him have that summer free to attend auditions and see if he had any luck.

Unconsciously, Charlie Sheen was ready. For years, he had acted in home films shot on Super-8 by the Estevez brothers in their Malibu backyard (before it became a luxury residential area) with other local friends, including Sean and Chris Penn and George Clooney. We drank, smoked weed, and had a great time, Penn recalls.

Charlie Sheen, with Paris Hilton and his girlfriend Scottine at a party in Malibu.

His professional career begins: Sheen is hired for Grizzly II: Revenge, a B-movie (2.7 IMDb rating) of the worst kind, starring George Clooney and Laura Dern. During that shoot, hes considered for the lead in The Karate Kid, but his father warns him: hes given his word and cant abandon the other project. That opportunity slips away. In exchange, his friend Jennifer Grey asks him to play a role in Ferris Buellers Day Off, and he becomes the sensation of the moment while also becoming a father for the first time.

From there, its Platoon (the documentary rightly highlights the similarities between many father-and-son films): the Oscar nominations for Oliver Stones film catch him shooting with the same director and with his father on Wall Street. What could go wrong? Sheen doesnt dodge responsibility; he owns all his actions, even though at that time he hangs out with Nicolas Cage, who at that point was even more out of control than he was.

Charlie and Martin Sheen, in an image from the series 'Two and a Half Men.' Cordon Press

Its August 1990, and Martin Sheen manages to get him into rehab for the first time (though, in reality, its a phone call from Clint Eastwood that convinces him). At the clinic, he reads the script for Hot Shots!, and theres no way: once he leaves, hes back at it because he has too much money and fame.

Through his addiction to sleeping with prostitutes, he meets another 1990s figure, Heidi Fleiss, the Hollywood madam and the most tragic character in the documentary, who calls him a crybaby pussy bitch because, pressured by the police  who were also going to charge him with pimping  Sheen testified against Fleiss, sending her to jail. Incidentally, the actor recounts that he lost his virginity at 15 to a prostitute in Las Vegas, paid for with his devoutly Catholic fathers credit card. If youre watching, thanks, Candy.

From 1995, the downward spiral begins. Sheen recounts story after story: like when the shoot for Money Talks had to be halted because his nose bled for 18 hours from snorting cocaine, or when he showed up so drunk on another set that he fell asleep and, to wake up, shoved a bucket of ice up his anus (though he never forgot his lines). He moves on to crack, suffers an overdose, and even Slash from Guns N Roses advises him to rein it in.

Charlie Sheen and his ex-wife Denise Richards, last Thursday at the Netflix theater in Los Angeles, at the premiere of the documentary. Michael Buckner (Getty Images)

During one of his periods of sobriety, around 2003, he married Denise Richards and began his work on Two and a Half Men, the hit sitcom by Chuck Lorre, one of the kings of world television. Charlie Sheen is an icon of decadence, said his co-star Cyer. Everyone expects this Lothario guy. You start to realize a lot is going on there that hes covering, Charlie is actually a mass of fears.

Sheen switches from crack to pills, and this new addiction sparks irrational fits of rage. He divorces, remarries, and then returns to crack nine years later with his third wife, Brooke Mueller, who uses as much as he does. In the midst of this chaos, he wants to quit Two and a Half Men. Warner, having already sold two more seasons to TV networks, offers him anything he wants in 2009. With two million dollars per episode, he becomes the highest-paid actor in television history.

He wont finish those two seasons: in 2011, hes fired, reaching the peak of his fame, with hordes of people enjoying his downfall. His expressions  Winning! or claiming that his veins ran with tiger blood and Adonis DNA  echo across the U.S. Live Nation offers him a theater tour to tell his stories. For 100 days, he rambles outrageous tales from stage to stage, until fans of train wrecks grow tired.

Netflix requested that some of the surprises Sheen reveals in the final 20 minutes remain under wraps. In 2015, he disclosed that he is HIV-positive. How did he contract the virus? Has he passed it to anyone? The actor recently broke the news in previous interviews: during his crack years, he slept with men and also paid large sums to male prostitutes who blackmailed him. I just needed to be free of that. He said that he always used condoms and has not transmitted the virus to anyone.

Final coda: he gave up alcohol and drugs eight years ago for his daughter Sam; his son Bob now lives with him. Neither Martin Sheen nor Emilio Estevez appear in the documentary. The New York Times reports that they saw an early cut and decided not to participate because they wouldnt add anything new. Charlie Sheen adores them both and feels their love in return. He adds: I dont argue with my father anymore.

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The projectile fell on the deck next to a crew member and started a fire. Leaders of the Global Sumud Flotilla called it pyschological warfare

A second drone attack on Tuesday night hit one of the ships that make up the Global Sumud Flotilla, which is attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea, break the Israeli blockade and bring aid to Gaza, where over half a million people are experiencing famine according to a new U.N.-backed food security report.

The strike, caught on video, affected a vessel called the Alma, flying the British flag, which was docked in front of the port of Tunis in Tunisia. On this occasion, at least one of the crew members was standing near the spot where the drone struck. Nobody was injured and only minor damage to the boat was reported.

The attack was very similar to the one that had taken place just 24 hours earlier against the Family Boat, which was carrying the steering committee and the best-known members of the Global Sumud Flotilla, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau.

Tunisian police, who had claimed that the first incident was likely caused by a life jacket catching fire rather than an attack, arrived at the scene on Tuesday. Witnesses at the port said they had seen other drones flying over the area, including one belonging to the Tunisian Coast Guard. Due to fears of further attacks, security was increased and several organizers spent the night at the port. An investigation has been launched.

This is the second attack of this kind in two days. These attacks come amid intensified Israeli aggression against Palestinians in Gaza and are an attempt to distract and derail our mission, the organization said. They added that the Global Sumud Flotilla remains undeterred and assured that the mission to break the Israeli blockade and bring humanitarian aid to Gaza continues with determination and resolve.

Following the first attack, the fleets steering committee met with participants on Tuesday to remind them of the protocols on how to act in such situations, and asked them to take extreme precautions.

Their sole objective is to stop the more than 250 people from 45 countries who are traveling to Gaza with humanitarian aid. It is the same attempt at psychological warfare, said Saif Abukeshek, one of the organizers of the Global Sumud Flotilla, speaking from the port. What can you expect from a country that bombs hospitals and schools, and kills children? he added.

The mood among the participants in the mission is mixed. Some, such as the Irish activist Tara Sheehy, acknowledged after the first attack that it is a way of reminding all participants of the risk they are taking by embarking on this flotilla. It is a show of force by one of the largest armies in the world, and they have chosen to do so at a moment of weakness, due to our accumulated fatigue. However, she also added that it is an opportunity for activists to close ranks and show Israel that they will not be stopped.

Others, such as Sami Al Soos, a 57-year-old Palestinian currently residing in Bristol, U.K., said that this comes as no surprise. For a state that is committing genocide, this means nothing, he said. He also said that he is not afraid of further attacks and argued that humanitarian and international law protects them, which makes him feel even more determined to continue with the mission.

According to official plans, the fleet was scheduled to depart from Tunisia on Wednesday, but the incidents of the last two days and mechanical issues could delay departure by around 24 hours.

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Debris from the aircraft, which Russia is increasingly using in Ukraine, has fallen in at least four towns in the east of the country

Poland shot down several Russian drones on Wednesday that had entered its territory amid the invasion of Ukraine. This is the first time a NATO member  the military alliance of European and North American countries  has fired on such targets since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said 19 intrusions were detected. The first occurred around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, and the last around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday.

At least four drones were shot down by the Polish military. Local media reported Wednesday morning that wreckage from the drones has been found in eastern towns such as Zamosc, Polatycze, Czesniki, and Wyryki, where one home was damaged. Poland has temporarily closed its airspace and urged residents in the Podlachia, Masovia, and Lublin regions to stay indoors

Emergency services at a home damaged by falling debris from a downed drone in Wyryki, Poland. WOJTEK JARGILO (EFE)

Increasing numbers of Russian drones

The intrusion into Polish airspace comes three days after Russia carried out its largest drone attack on Ukraine since the start of the conflict in 2022. Early Sunday morning, Moscow launched a wave of attacks with more than 800 drones, hitting nearly all regions of Ukraine. This barrage was not an isolated incident, but part of a broader trend: Russian drone attacks in the invasion of Ukraine have increased significantly in recent months.

In December 2024, the average number of drones launched by Russia in a long-range strike against Ukraine was 58 per day. By June 2025, that average had risen to over 180 per day, according to a tally by EL PAIS based on data released by the Ukrainian Air Force.

What drones does Russia use?

Most of Russias air strikes against Ukraine are carried out with Geran-2 drones, an upgraded version of the Iranian Shahed. The main reason for the increased use of these drones is that Russia has vastly expanded its production capacity.

According to Ukrainian intelligence, Russias military industry now produces in three days in 2025 the same number of units it used to produce in a month in 2024. As a result, Ukrainian long-range strike drones have targeted Russian drone factories as their number-one objective over the past two months.

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The downing of Russian drones in Polish airspace has once again reminded Europe and NATO that war is at their doorstep and could break through at any moment. Condemnation of Russias dangerous and reckless violation of Polish airspace  the most serious clash between the Atlantic Alliance and Moscow since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine in February 2022  has been resounding and unanimous. And, although caution is still being urged in the face of an incident whose intentionality has not been proven  but which has not been ruled out either  the analysis is consistent: it demonstrates the risk of escalation of a conflict in Ukraine that the Kremlin has no interest in halting.

Therefore, European leaders have insisted, Europe must redouble its efforts to improve its deterrence and defense capabilities, in addition to increasing pressure on Moscow through more sanctions.

A full assessment [of the incident] is ongoing. But of course, whether it was intentional or not, it is absolutely reckless. It is absolutely dangerous, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned Wednesday at the end of a meeting of the North Atlantic Council (NAC), the Alliances main political decision-making body. The meeting, in Brussels, had been planned for some time. However, following the nighttime incident, the Russian violation of Polish airspace and the downing of the drones with the support of allied forces were the main topics discussed at the request of Warsaw, which invoked Article 4 of the Alliance.

This article establishes consultations between Allies whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened. This action demonstrates the seriousness of the situation: this is only the seventh time in NATO history that this provision has been used. Before Wednesday, the last occasion was in 2022, just after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when Estonia, in coordination with Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, requested its activation.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has ruled out a mistake on Russias part, saying that a significant portion of the drones flew to Poland directly from Belarus. The incident puts Europe the closest we have been to open conflict since World War Two, Tusk warned.

EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Kaja Kallas also denounced the incident. Last night in Poland, we saw the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began, and indications suggest it was intentional, not accidental, the head of European diplomacy wrote on the social network X.

Call for prudence

NATO, however, is urging caution. Rutte declined to assess the intent of the incident until the assessment of the facts is complete. In any case, he stressed, what is clear is that the violation last night is not an isolated incident.

The Dutch politician hailed the quick and skillful response of NATO and the allies: he explained that Polish and Dutch aircraft participated in the operation to shoot down the drones, with support from German and Italian teams.

In a message to the Kremlin, Rutte insisted that Russia must stop the escalating war and also stop violating allied airspace. Furthermore, the NATO Secretary General  who strongly promoted the agreement reached at the Hague summit in June to increase allied defense spending to 5% of GDP  has insisted on the need to invest more in defense in Europe and to build a true deterrent and defence posture along the entire eastern flank. Know that we stand ready, that we are vigilant, and that we will defend every inch of NATO territory, he stated.

It was a message also echoed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen from Strasbourg. The incident in Poland occurred hours before she was to deliver her annual State of the Union address, an assessment of her policies at the head of the European executive and a roadmap for the political year now underway. This must focus, she insisted, on redoubling efforts to increase Europes defensive capacity while increasing pressure on Russia through sanctions. The nineteenth package is already in full preparation.

[Russian President Vladimir] Putin refuses to meet President Zelenskiy. Last week, Russia launched the largest number of drones and ballistic missiles in a single attack. Yesterday, there was a missile attack on a village in Donetsk, targeting people waiting to pick up their pensions. And just today, we have seen a reckless and unprecedented violation of Poland and Europes airspace by more than 10 Russian Shahed drones, Von der Leyen said Wednesday.

Putins message is clear, and our response must be clear too, Von der Leyen stressed, calling for more pressure on Russia to come to the negotiating table with more sanctions and decisive support for Ukraine. This is Russias war, and Russia must pay.

At the same time, Von der Leyen announced that the EU will cooperate with Ukraine in drone manufacturing, establishing an alliance with Kyiv, whose drone industry is considered cutting-edge, and will advance 6 billion for the joint project.

Von der Leyen has also proposed the creation of an eastern flank surveillance system, with investments in strategic capabilities that allow for real-time surveillance so that no movement of forces goes unnoticed.

European leaders have rallied behind Poland in the face of Russian violation of its airspace, which, according to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, is unacceptable. It constitutes, added Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, whose country holds the rotating European presidency this semester, a threat to the security of Europe.

French President Emmanuel Macron expressed similar views, calling on Russia to end the reckless escalation of the conflict. This mornings barbaric attack on Ukraine and the egregious and unprecedented violation of Polish and NATO airspace by Russian drones is deeply concerning, said British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The UK, along with France, is leading the Coalition of the Willings efforts to prepare security guarantees for Ukraine once the conflict is over. This, as many European leaders have lamented and as this new provocation demonstrates, is still nowhere in sight.

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The Polish Army has described the entry of unmanned aircraft into its territory as an act of aggression and a threat to the security of its citizens

The Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces reported early this Wednesday that it had shot down several drones overnight that had entered its airspace as part of a new Russian attack against Ukrainian territory. According to a statement from the military command body, after monitoring a dozen objects on radar  both by Polish forces and NATO allied countries  it was decided to neutralize those that posed a threat to citizens safety. The military command described the action carried out by these explosive drones as an unprecedented violation of Polish airspace.

Polish Defense Minister Wadysaw Kosiniak-Kamysz confirmed that Polish fighter jets had used their weapons to destroy hostile objects. We are in constant contact with NATO command, Kosiniak-Kamysz noted. Prime Minister Donald Tusk expressed himself in the same terms, convening an extraordinary meeting Wednesday morning of the National Security Bureau. The security of our homeland is our highest priority and requires close cooperation, stated the countrys president, Karol Nawrocki.

In the early hours of the morning, the Polish Army had announced that, due to the development of a new Russian offensive against targets in Ukrainian territory, aircraft from its air force and those of NATO partners were on alert on a preventive basis, as were the deployed air defense systems on the ground.

Just minutes earlier, Ukrainian monitoring channels had reported that several Russian drones had crossed the border and had been shot down by Polish fighter jets. According to Ukrainian air tracking websites, unmanned Geran-type aircraft  a variant of the Iranian Shahed drones used by Moscow in its offensive against Kyiv  first flew over northern and western Ukraine before crossing into European Union and NATO territory. This is the first time that several of these drones have simultaneously entered Poland and continued their trajectory several miles beyond the Ukrainian border.

Their first destination, according to these channels, would have been the Polish city of Zamosc, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) from the border. This information has not been confirmed by Warsaw. Efforts are underway to search for and locate the possible crash sites of these objects, the Polish military command said in its statement. Polish police have already found a first damaged drone in the town of Czosnowka, near the Belarusian border.

The Polish General Staff has urged citizens that if they find a downed drone or any fragments, they should not approach, touch, or move the device. Such elements may remain dangerous and must be inspected by sapper patrols, it warned.

Airport closures

Rzeszow Airport, in eastern Poland about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the border crossing into Ukraine, announced its temporary closure overnight due to aerial activity. Later, according to a note from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, Warsaws Chopin International Airport also ceased operations due to unplanned military activity related to ensuring state security. The airports of Modlin and Lublin also halted operations.

Dozens of drones took off late Tuesday from southern Belarus and western Russia toward central and western Ukraine. Some Ukrainian monitoring channels counted more than a hundred drones. Russia broke all its previous records in the early hours of last Sunday by sending 810 drones against practically all regions of Ukraine. The impact of one of them on a residential building in Kyiv killed three people, including a woman and her baby.

At around 2:00 a.m. on Wednesday, some of those drones were shot down while flying over the Ukrainian capital itself. The Russian offensive, carried out in groups or swarms, launched a larger-than-usual number of these explosive drones toward cities such as Lviv and Lutsk, in the western region bordering Poland. In a second wave, Russia fired around 40 missiles, also toward the west of the country.

So far in September, Russia has launched nearly 3,000 attack drones against Ukrainian territory.

Polish police cordoned off the area where the drone debris fell on Monday, in Polatycze, near the Belarusian border. Wojtek Jargilo (EFE)

Since February 2022, Poland has kept its fighter jets on alert to prevent the war from crossing the border. Nevertheless, on several occasions, a Russian drone or fragments of one of these explosive devices have reached Polish soil after a large overnight offensive.

On Tuesday, Minister Kosiniak-Kamysz stated that drones entering through the eastern border should be shot down, although he left the final decision to the Operational Command. Twenty-four hours earlier, the countrys authorities had found the remains of one of these devices in the town of Polatycze, near the Belarusian border.

The violation of airspace by these attack drones represents an escalation in tensions between the West and Russia, unprecedented in the three and a half years of large-scale invasion of Ukrainian territory. The act of aggression, as described by the Polish operational command, could potentially invoke Article 5 of the NATO treaty. This clause states that an attack on one member of the Alliance is an attack on all, and therefore ensures collective security.

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Russias western neighbors, Europe, and NATO have been waiting for this for a long time: the moment when Vladimir Putin goes beyond Ukraine, attacks an allied country, and tests the strength of the Western alliance. It could happen with a more or less covert attack on one of the Baltic states. Or with an airstrike on a country like Poland. Would the allies respond in defense of the attacked country? Or, to avoid an escalation of the war, would they temporize with Moscow and abandon the principle of mutual defense?

The attack or provocation, in the words of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, when Russia launched 19 drones into Polish airspace, is not the first Russian air incursion into the skies of a European Union and NATO country. It wont be the last. NATO isnt even sure it was intentional. But it does represent the most tense episode between Europeans and Russians in decades, the closest we have been to open conflict since World War Two, according to the Polish leader.

The Atlantic Alliance exists because of its Article 5, which establishes that an attack against one member will be considered an attack against the rest. Donald Trump, since the beginning of his first term in 2017, has cast doubt on the validity of this principle. And in doing so he has opened a door for Putin: to test whether the U.S. would actually risk a direct confrontation with Russia, a nuclear power, to defend one of its allies. The Russian president wants to ascertain how far the Europeans are willing to go at a time of doubt about the U.S. commitment to Ukraine, and about Europes ability and willingness to support Kyiv without Washington.

Russia is testing Poland and NATO, says Jedrzej Bielecki, an international politics specialist for the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita. If there is no reaction, he adds, NATO will fall. For now, Bielecki emphasizes, there has been a reaction. Poland has invoked Article 4 of the NATO treaty. Not Article 5, as it has not been confirmed that the drone strike was an attack. But it can be understood as a preliminary step. Article 4 provides for consultations if one of the partners considers its territorial integrity, its political independence, or its security to be threatened.

Furthermore, for the first time, NATO aircraft have been activated to respond to threats to NATO airspace. To neutralize the Russian drones, the Polish Armed Forces called on Dutch, Italian, and German aircraft and weapons. For Poland, the attack confirms that Russia is a danger, says Joanna Maria Stolarek, director of the Heinrich Boll Foundation in Warsaw. And we must prepare to defend NATOs borders. This isnt theory, but rather a stark reality.

The Russian incursion into Poland is also testing the unity of this deeply polarized country. The division reaches all the way to the top of the state. Prime Minister Tusk is pro-European and pro-Ukraine; the new president, Pawel Nawrocki, is a Eurosceptic conservative and critical of Kyiv. On Wednesday, they closed ranks. The government and the president worked hand in hand, with good coordination of services, Stolarek observes. The daily conflicts between Tusk and Nawrocki have disappeared.

Due to its history, at the mercy of centuries of invasions from the west (Prussia and Germany) and the east (Russia), no country in Europe, except the Baltics, has been more vocal about the risk to Europe posed by Putin. Nor is there a country more interested in demonstrating the validity of alliances with Western democracies: the memory of World War II and the Cold War, when Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were devoured, is still alive.

Our common task today  and it must remain so in the near future  is to mobilize the entire West, Tusk said, so that Poland never again finds itself in a situation where what seemed like real alliances turned out to be empty alliances. Today, Poland  the country that has rearmed the most since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022  feels more than ever that the facts prove it right and is sending a message to its European partners, who see the threat as more distant, and to Trump: Putin will not stop in Ukraine, and if NATO fails, Russia wins.

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After the PM leaves, then what ? Looking to the near future

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After the Prime Minister leaves then what ? May sound a little premature for September 13 is still a few days to come, the date the Prime Minister is supposed to arrive here, but still relevant, for it is a question of looking forward to the near future. Will it be a case of either side back flexing their muscles in their own home turf, now that the Prime Minister has come and gone back, breaking a two year absence ? Or will a new roadmap be paved for Manipur to march forward ? It should be clear. The Prime Minister can only provide a roadmap and it is actually the people who will have to get down to the task of building that road, a road to normalcy. Much will depend on how Raj Bhavan and by extension the Union Home Ministry go about implementing the agreements that were inked a few days back and despite the interpretation of convenience given by the SoO groups to the agreements, particularly the re-opening of the National Highways, much will depend on how sincerely Delhi is in going ahead with the points arrived at. This is where it should be clear that the Union Home Ministry cannot afford to mess things up with their half baked approach to things as crucial as opening the National Highways and enough lessons should have been learnt from the March 8, 2025 fiasco that was enacted in full public view on the Imphal to Kangpokpi stretch of the highway. Perhaps it is in knowing the approach of the Union Home Ministry to this point that the SoO groups and organisations such as the Zomi Council and Kuki-Zou Council have set their manufacturing units at work to give an interpretation of their own on the re-opening of the National Highways. An inter- pretation which suits their agenda but puts it in collision with the agreement reached at Delhi. The only point where no interpretation of convenience has been given is the agreement to extend the SoO pact. Clearly a reflection that the Kuki-Chin-Zo folks have done their homework to throw wide open the meaning of re-opening the National Highways. The highways were never closed is the line that has been maintained, but this does not answer the question of why vehicles should be checked and the passengers verified. What happened at the Imphal to Sanakeithel road when a bus was forced to stop and the passengers verified and their mobile phones seized is a case that comes to mind. More than clear that it is the long rope given to the SoO groups and organisations such as CoTU, ITLF, Zomi Council and the Kuki-Zo Council that has emboldened the gun toting elements of the Kuki militant groups to check passenger vehicles as and when they wish !

What is the report that Raj Bhavan is likely to present to the Prime Minister when he comes ? To be sure, the Union Home Ministry must be receiving the daily updates from Raj Bhavan, but an official report to the Prime Minister must have been lined up, or is it going to be a question of the State administration more focused on the window dressing exercise that has been taken up in Imphal and obviously at Churachandpur too. And as things stand right now, Government machineries are out at work, levelling and even filling up the parts which were dug up for laying something or the other and had been left like that for months. Not surprisingly none of the otherwise hyper active social organisations had ever raised a voice of protest or concern over the unlevelled roads and dug out roads and left like that for months, to the Government or the departments concerned. And for the visit of the Prime Minister to have any meaningful impact on the situation here, it is important that the situation is presented as it is. Supposedly neutral bodies compiling their own stories and presenting it to the world as the truth has been dogging the narratives ever since the place went up in flames on May 3, 2023 and it is only right that care is taken to ensure that no rooms are created for any entity to emerge and tell a story that will go against the reality. Such manufactured stories do nothing except muddy the already muddied water further and Manipur certainly does not deserve this. Apart from taking up the necessary steps to roll out the red carpet for the Prime Ministers visit, it is also important for Manipur to see beyond and start thinking about what after he leaves. This is what is important for the visit of the Prime Minister to have any meaningful impact.
Scientists from the U.S. space agency NASA announced Wednesday the discovery of chemical and geological traces on the surface of Mars that could indicate the presence of life, although they acknowledge that they cannot confirm this until these samples are returned to Earth on a future mission as yet undated.

The discovery was made by the Perseverance rover in Jezero Crater, where a large lake and river system existed billions of years ago. During its exploration of the Neretva Valley, the vehicle examined outcrops of the Bright Angel Formation, composed of clayey rocks and conglomerates formed by sediments deposited by water.

Scientists have identified organic matter  carbon  in several samples, especially in the objectives the team named Chevaya Falls, Temple of Apollo, and Walhalla Glades. This organic matter could have reacted with minerals present in the rocks, giving rise to some striking nodule-shaped and greenish leopard-skin-like patches that NASA had previously highlighted as interesting samples in the search for past life.

Perseverance has collected a sample of these rocks  called Sapphire Canyon  which it has placed in a sealed capsule that will be left on the surface of the crater until the arrival of a new robotic mission that can collect it and bring it back to Earth for more detailed analysis.

The chances that this discovery is due to the presence of life, scientists argue, are slightly higher than the likelihood it was caused by an inert chemical phenomenon. But for now, it is impossible to rule out either hypothesis, researchers from NASA acknowledge in a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. Analysis in terrestrial laboratories would make it possible to determine precisely whether the minerals and organic matter found are indeed signs of past life.

The discovery of a possible biosignature on Mars [geochemical signs of a possible biological origin] has profound implications for the search for Martian life, but it also requires caution and a great deal of additional research before we can affirm that life has existed on the planet at some point, Alberto Gonzalez Fairen, co-author of the study, explains to this newspaper. It is imperative to continue the sample return program to Earth, where these samples can be analyzed and characterized with much more comprehensive and advanced instruments than those available on Mars.

The discoverys publication will also be presented at a press conference Wednesday with acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy, the agencys chief scientist, Nicola Fox, and other researchers responsible for the discovery.

According to the researchers, the nodules and spots known as reaction fronts  where biochemical processes would take place  could have been formed by biological processes similar to those that generate vivianite and iron sulfides on Earth from microorganisms that consume iron and sulfate. Non-biological chemical processes could explain the formation of these minerals, although they are less likely given the conditions observed in the Martian crater.

The environment where these rocks formed was watery and relatively mild, which would have allowed chemical reactions to occur and organic matter to be preserved.

We suggest that further in situ laboratory investigations, modeling, and terrestrial analog studies, focusing on both abiotic and biological processes that give rise to the array of mineral and organic phases observed in the Bright Angel Formation, will improve our understanding of the conditions under which they formed, write the papers authors, including Spaniards Alberto Gonzalez Fairen and Felipe Gomez. Ultimately, returning samples from Mars for study on Earth, including the Sapphire Canyon sample, would offer the best opportunity to understand the processes that gave rise to the unique features described, they add.

Since landing on Mars in 2021, Perseverance has explored the diverse landscapes of Jezero Crater in search of sediments and rocks that could prove whether Mars once hosted life. It has accumulated 30 samples, depositing them on the surface, and still has six more containers reserved for new materials.

The big question is whether the United States will be able to retrieve these samples before its greatest rival in space, China, beats it to it. The Mars Sample Return mission, planned for years and on which billions of dollars have already been spent, was scheduled for sometime in the next decade, and would have the collaboration of the European Space Agency. Donald Trumps arrival in power has disrupted the already shaky plans: the U.S. president wants to cut NASAs scientific missions by half and cancel the sample collection mission. According to several external analyses, this mission cannot be carried out before 2040, which would mean arriving after China, which plans to launch its robotic round-trip mission to the Red Planet between 2028 and 2030. To avoid being left behind, the United States would have to clarify its plans and launch them before the end of next year, and even then, it might not win the race.

Ricardo Amils, a researcher at the Center for Astrobiology in Madrid (CAB), believes that the publication and press conference on these findings have a dual scientific and political purpose. These new data were eagerly awaited, he acknowledges. They have found samples whose chemical and mineralogical analysis using Perseverances methodologies suggests that they are products of biological activity, what are known as biosignatures, mainly because there are indications that they formed under temperature conditions compatible with life as we know it.

But to confirm this, the material must be brought back to Earth, which is a clear maneuver to soften Trump, explains Amils, and resurrect the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission. This same year, hidden in his big, beautiful bill, Trump had to make significant concessions to keep some NASA missions alive, including one related to MSR.

Antonio Molina, a planetary geologist at the CAB, makes a key observation: They have found traces that living beings could have left behind, but not direct evidence of them. This means that even if they reach Earth one day, these samples would not be enough to claim the discovery of life on Mars. The researcher analyzes an important detail of the study. Above all, they talk about the mineral called vivianite, whose abiotic formation is not entirely compatible with what we know about the area, as it requires hydrothermal activity, which did not exist in this part of Mars. I think these are the possible biosignatures of this type with the greatest potential that have been found. It is worth considering whether, if there was life on Mars, it was so long ago that the most unequivocal biomolecules, such as nucleic acids or lipid markers, have already degraded, and this is the only remaining clue to its existence. Or perhaps it is necessary to search beneath the surface where markers like those raised in this study may be better preserved and provide more unequivocal evidence, he explains.

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The US president boasted at a downtown restaurant about the decline in crime in the city, which has been under National Guard control for weeks

Donald Trump went out to dinner Tuesday night in Washington. It was the first time he had done so since his return to the White House last January and one of the rare occasions he has gone out since eight years ago, when he first became president of the United States and often went to Trump Tower, the hotel he owned in the city and sold in 2022.

The occasion was special  at least for him. He wanted to promote the success of the deployment of the National Guard in the U.S. capital, a measure that, as of this Wednesday, marks one month, has few precedents, and was adopted to combat crime that statistics show is actually declining.

It was a brief outing. The chosen restaurant, a downtown classic with a menu focused on meat and seafood called Joes Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab, is just two blocks from the White House, and the president of the United States made his way there. He was joined by the vice president, J. D. Vance, and some of the most prominent members of his cabinet, including the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

At the restaurant entrance, some cheers could be heard. Trump said: Were standing right in the middle of D.C., which, as you know about over the last year was a very unsafe place  over the last 20 years. And now its got virtually no crime." Then, seemingly speaking of his own experience, he added: People are going out to dinner where they didnt go out for years.

Inside, however, a group of disgruntled residents who disagreed with that diagnosis awaited him. They greeted him with shouts of Free Palestine! Free D.C.! and called him the Hitler of our time. In a city that in the last elections gave 92% of its votes to Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, those protesters are not exactly isolated cases, as was evident last Saturday, when thousands of people took to the streets to protest what they see as a worrying authoritarian move by the Trump government.

U.S. President Donald Trump waves as he leaves from the Joe's Seafood restaurant near the White House after dinner, in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 9, 2025. Jonathan Ernst (REUTERS)

Trump considers the operation to be a complete success, despite the complaints. The data support him at least in terms of the drop in crime: according to figures from the Metropolitan Police, homicides are down 60%, car thefts 35%, robberies 19%, and violent crimes 10%. It is also true, however, that officers have displaced the homeless from downtown  simply pushing them across the river into neighboring Virginia  and that hundreds of undocumented migrants have been detained.

On Monday, the U.S. president lamented only that the cost of the operation  already high, given the expense of maintaining more than 2,000 troops, some brought in from other states, on the ground  was being spoiled by much lesser things, things that take place in the home they call crime. Theyll do anything they can to find something, he added. If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say this was a crime.

Beyond this apparent defense of domestic violence (a point the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, stressed again on Tuesday), the deployment of the National Guard has also had an impact on tourism, which has declined. Restaurants have also seen reservations drop, despite Trumps impression, according to estimates reported by CNN. And the citys judicial system, already overstretched, is struggling to process the flood of new cases  especially those of undocumented migrants intercepted on the streets, in schools, churches, and workplaces.

Dimmed streets

The truth is that the city feels subdued. Playgrounds are half-empty because many nannies are undocumented and afraid to leave their homes. Fourteenth and U Streets, hubs of nightlife, no longer buzz as they once did (which, to be fair, was never that much). Uber drivers complain they have fewer rides than before. There has also been criticism that soldiers are stationed in areas such as the National Mall  home to major museums and a tourist hotspot  rather than in neighborhoods with the highest crime rates, such as Anacostia.

Among disgruntled residents, there is a sense of resignation. Initially, the National Guard deployment was decided for 30 days, but last week that deadline was extended until November 30, because military authorities believe the mission is not complete. Trump has the authority to shorten the period if he deems it necessary.

Until then, he can count on the support of the mayor, Democrat Muriel Bowser, who has faced criticism for her weak opposition to the White Houses moves compared with the more combative leaders of other targeted cities, such as Los Angeles  where some 5,000 troops were deployed last June to quell protests against immigration raids  and Chicago, which is preparing to be the next city taken over by Trump. Not only that: Bowser, apparently satisfied with the decline in crime in the capital, has issued a directive ordering local police to coordinate with federal agents indefinitely.

Meanwhile, Trump has been using the supposed success of the deployment in Washington to justify his plans to continue sending troops to other parts of the country. Washington, D.C. IS A SAFE ZONE IN JUST A MATTER OF WEEKS. Thank you, President Trump, he wrote in one of his peculiar messages (full of capital letters and written in the third person) on his social network, Truth Social. Whos Next?

The names being floated include New Orleans, Baltimore, and Boston. The order is unclear, but what is clear is that this would mean an unprecedented military deployment on U.S. soil  forcing the Republican Party, and especially House Speaker Mike Johnson, into intellectual contortions as they celebrate one federal intervention after another in state and local affairs. To grasp what that contortion requires, its worth remembering this is a nation built on a slogan (Dont Tread on Me) and the image of a rattlesnake ready to strike back at central authority.

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A repeat offender stabbed Iryna Zarutska to death in August on public transportation in Charlotte, North Carolina. We have to be vicious, just like they are, the president says

It was a day packed with weighty issues, including Israels attack on Qatar, the spectacular downward revision of employment data, and the publication of Jeffrey Epsteins birthday book with the sketch of a naked woman attributed to Donald Trump. Nevertheless, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt chose to open the Tuesday news conference with the brutal murder of a Ukrainian refugee, Iryna Zarutska, who was stabbed to death without any apparent motive on a commuter train in Charlotte (North Carolina) by DeCarlos Brown Jr., a 35-year-old African-American with a history of mental illness and a lengthy record of previous arrests for crimes such as felony larceny, and robbery with a dangerous weapon.

It happened last month, but it became national news and sufficient reason for a new ideological war between the right and left in the United States when the horrific video of the attack emerged this past Friday. In it, Zarutska, 23, is seen entering the train car dressed in the uniform of the pizzeria where she worked; she sits down and, in a familiar gesture, becomes absorbed in her cell phone. Suddenly, the man sitting behind her stands up and stabs her three times. She looks at him in terror before collapsing on the spot as he calmly walks away down the train car. In the footage released by the media, the image freezes just before the first blow.

On Tuesday, Brown was charged with a federal crime  causing death on a mass transportation system  originally meant for terrorist attacks on public transit. This means he faces the death penalty.

00:32 The attack on a commuter train in Charlotte (NC). The attack on a commuter train in Charlotte (NC). Photo: Charlotte Area Transit System via AP | Video: AP, Reuters

While Leavitt reviewed the attackers record, which includes five years in prison, and blamed the Democratic Party for the death due to their lax handling of crime in the cities they govern, the White House released a message from Trump on Tuesday from the Oval Office.

A beautiful young girl that never had problems in life  with a magnificent future in this country. And now shes dead. She was slaughtered by a deranged monster who was roaming free after 14 prior arrests, Trump says in the video, which lasts just over two minutes. He went on to say that repeat offenders continue to wreak havoc and death across our country" and that America must respond with force and decisiveness. We have to be vicious, just like they are. Its the only thing they understand.

The president then added that 24 of the top 25 most dangerous cities in America are run by Democrat mayors and drew the connection between Zarutskas brutal murder, his own decision to intervene, against the advice of local authorities, in places like Los Angeles, where he sent some 5,000 troops to quell protests against immigration raids in June, or in Washington D.C., where the National Guard has been deployed for a month, and his plans to send troops to Chicago and Boston, two places where mass raids began on Monday. Everything suggests that these may be just the first cities on the list.

The District of Columbia, the capital of America, was a bloodthirsty, horrible, dangerous place  one of the worst  and now its a crime-free city, and were going to keep it that way, Trump said in the Oval Office recording, before asserting, in a threatening tone, that other mayors need help and would be better off asking for it.

Blood on their hands

Trump had already addressed in a social media post the young womans tragic death in Charlotte, a city that has seen a 25% drop in violent crime in one year. The blood of this innocent woman can literally be seen dripping from the killers knife, and now her blood is on the hands of the Democrats who refuse to put bad people in jail, he posted. In her press appearance, Leavitt also took the opportunity to say that the judge who released Debrown is a donor to Kamala Harris.

Instagram photo of Iryna Zarutska shared by her family. IRYNA ZARUTSKA VIA INSTAGRAM (via REUTERS)

Like almost everything else in the United St, a horrific murder with no apparent motive has become an ideal argument for political bickering. It has also taken a racial turn, amid a wave of criticism of the so-called legacy media, which prominent figures in the MAGA movement have accused of not covering the murder with the same degree of interest as if the victim had been Black and the killer white. There have also been parallels between Zarutska and George Floyd, the African-American killed by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, whose death sparked a wave of protests across the country.

Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, has shown particular interest in the issue on his social network, X, where he has aired other cases of Black repeat offenders and white victims and has disseminated statistics of dubious origin.

For the conservative network Fox News, the murder has also served to fill hours of television time, giving it something else to talk about instead of the scandal surrounding the publication of millionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epsteins birthday book, which includes a lewd drawing attributed to Trump, who maintains it is fake. And, in further proof that the two Americas are increasingly sharing less of what was once considered reality, this latter issue dominated television programming on the other side of the political mirror, from CNN to MSNBC.

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The federal agency eliminated the 12-hour deadline for migrants to be processed. Videos show the inhumane conditions they are being subjected to

In the past, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policies stipulated that arrested immigrants could be detained in hold rooms for up to 12 hours while awaiting transfer to detention centers or deportation; but with Trumps return to power, the federal agency overturned the old rule, and is now holding foreigners in these rooms for up to seven days, often in overcrowded conditions.

A CNN analysis indicates that the average stay of detainees in hold rooms is two to three days, but some have been held for a week or more. Figures from the Deportation Data Project show that 18% of detainees placed into ICE hold rooms were kept there longer than 12 hours, up from only about 4% in 2024. Orders limiting releases are listed as one of the main causes of the increase.

Two months ago, when complaints of violations of the 12-hour policy began to multiply, ICE modified the rule to keep immigrants in holding rooms for up to three days, justified under exceptional circumstances. Most of these rooms  about 160 nationwide  are located in the federal agencys offices, while a few are part of larger detention centers. The new rule has also not been enforced.

The situation at the Krome Processing Center in Florida is particularly extreme. More than 600 people were simultaneously held in its holding rooms in mid-February. Sixty-two percent of those transferred there exceeded the 12-hour maximum, a situation aggravated by the fact that the facility lacks beds, showers, and other infrastructure for long stays. There, as in other centers, ICEs measures ultimately amounted to torture and a threat to the health of the detainees, most of whom have no criminal records.

At the end of March, a leaked video recorded by a Mexican immigrant held at Krome highlighted the irregularities occurring there. Were practically kidnapped. There are people who have been held for more than 30 days and have not been processed, he denounced. An internal ICE audit revealed that detainees were being held in these spaces for too long, without pillows or blankets, sufficient food, or timely medical attention.

They treat us like dogs

The hold room at the ICE office in New York City held 191 people in early July, and the average stay is 32 hours. The foreigners were isolated, sleeping on the floor or on a chair, with a toilet in plain view, unable to shower, and putting up with an unbearable stench. Many became ill. They treat us like dogs, one Venezuelan immigrant complained in a video that went viral on social media.

Following a lawsuit filed by immigrant rights activists alleging that people were being detained in overcrowded, squalid, and punitive conditions, a federal judge ordered ICE last month to improve conditions in Manhattan detention facilities, reducing the number of detainees and ensuring they had sleeping mats and access to their attorneys.

In the hold rooms of an ICE office in Baltimore, 92% of detentions have lasted more than 12 hours, and the average stay is 53 hours. These complaints prompted a swift response from ICE, which in a statement denied that the hold rooms failed to meet its detention standards. All detainees receive adequate food, medical treatment, showers, blankets, and have the opportunity to communicate with their families and attorneys [...] Most of our facilities have higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons, which house American citizens. Ensuring the safety and well-being of those in our custody is a top priority, the document states.

@elfactonoticias Un video capturado por un migrante detenido en el centro de detencion ubicado en 26 Federal Plaza, en Manhattan, expone las condiciones de hacinamiento y falta de higiene dentro de los centros utilizados por la agencia de Inmigracion y Control de Aduanas (ICE). En las imagenes, difundidas esta semana, se observa a mas de una docena de hombres acostados en el suelo sobre mantas termicas delgadas o sentados en bancos pegados a las frias paredes blancas, con dos banos de metal a la vista. Un detenido, en idioma espanol, se queja de ser confinado como perros en esas instalaciones. Historicamente, estas celdas se usaban para retener brevemente a migrantes durante su procesamiento antes de ser trasladados a centros fuera de la ciudad; sin embargo, desde que ICE intensifico sus arrestos en la zona a partir de mayo de 2025, las habitaciones se han saturado  obligando a la gente a dormir en el suelo o permanecer sentada durante varios dias, segun relatos de detenidos y abogados. Los inmigrantes tambien denuncian la escasez de alimentos, la ausencia de duchas y ropa limpia, y la falta de atencion medica adecuada durante su estancia prolongada en estas pequenas habitaciones. Denuncias recientes indican que algunas personas han permanecido hasta 10 dias en condiciones precarias, recibiendo una o dos comidas al dia y sin acceso a higiene basica.Pese a estas denuncias, el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional sostiene que 26 Federal Plaza no es un centro de detencion, sino una instalacion temporal de procesamiento donde los detenidos solo permanecen brevemente. La portavoz Tricia McLaughlin califico las alegaciones de hacinamiento y malas condiciones como falsas y afirmo que se proporcionan alimentos, atencion medica y comunicacion con familia y abogados. #ElFacto #ElFactonoticias #Noticias #migrantes #ICE #Manhattan  sonido original - El Facto

Dora B. Schriro, former director of ICEs Office of Detention Policy and Planning during the Obama administration, told CNN that the 12-hour rule provided important protection for detainees in the past. Its very likely that there will be an increase in deaths in detention and serious medical conditions, she said. Immigrant advocacy organizations, for their part, believe the hostile conditions at ICE facilities are a strategy: to keep detainees from resisting deportation.

Whats even more concerning is that these harsh conditions are claiming the lives of dozens of foreigners in custody. In the nine months of Donald Trumps second term, 14 people have died in ICE detention centers.

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The Venezuelan government says it has deployed troops to the border and insists that the flow of drugs through its territory is minimal

As tensions with the United States grow over the U.S. armed fleet deployed in the Caribbean Sea near Venezuelan territory, the Venezuelan regime is making a special effort to publicize in detail its anti-narcotics operations in the countrys border and coastal areas, carried out by the Armed Forces and security agencies.

Venezuelas narrative about responsibility in the fight against drug trafficking  much more frequent now  is accompanied by a vigorous nationalist campaign aired on television and radio, calling on citizens to enlist for the defense of the country, with constant references to national dignity and the sacred nature of sovereignty.

Nicolas Maduros government insists on presenting itself as a legitimate administration, the result of a democratic decision it considers indisputable, and does everything possible to align the interpretation of its presence in power with the promotion of national values. Maduro has never shown the official records certifying his alleged victory at the polls in the national election of July 2024; meanwhile, the opposition published the paper vote tallies, validated by the Carter Center and the Organization of American States, that showed their candidate  Edmundo Gonzalez  won overwhelmingly.

Maduro ordered the deployment of 25,000 soldiers to Venezuelas borders. He stated that this was to reinforce the operations of the Rapid Reaction Units in the binational area with Colombia and the Caribbean front, from the La Guajira peninsula to Falcon state, and to reinforce all operations on the eastern front in the states of Nueva Esparta, Sucre, and Delta Amacuro. These maneuvers are, militarily speaking, highly significant.

According to the countrys military authorities, the operations objectives are to verify the absence of illicit crops and block the area from potential drug trafficking.

In addition to Maduro, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez; Minister of Interior and Justice Diosdado Cabello; and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino have held press conferences outlining military operations, the enlistment of volunteers for national defense, river and drone patrols in Apure state, and the recent downing of 40 aircraft carrying narcotics over Venezuelan airspace.

Government spokespeople maintain that drugs are neither produced nor trafficked in Venezuela, and that the so-called Cartel of the Suns does not exist. Maduros government argues that 87% of South American drug trafficking passes through the Pacific (this figure is correct), and that all recent United Nations reports on the matter exclude Venezuela from the critical zones of drug production and distribution in the region, which is true.

Delcy Rodriguez has criticized the hypocrisy and double standards of Washington regarding global drug trafficking, stating that 85% of drug trafficking profits remain in the United States, according to United Nations reports, especially in its financial system. Several U.S. banks have been fined for receiving drug money to launder it, she added.

Like other spokespeople for the Maduro government, Rodriguez claimed that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has known connections with the drug trafficking world, insisting that in Venezuela there is not a single square meter of drug cultivation, neither of coca leaves nor of cannabis. Nor are amphetamines or synthetic drugs in circulation.

Commenting on the unprecedented military threat that the United States poses to Venezuela, Padrino said that Washingtons political statements and military maneuvers are not aimed at combating drug trafficking, but rather to destabilize from within, provoke a division in the Bolivarian National Armed Forces so traitors emerge, and force a regime change. They will not succeed.

While announcing the involvement of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) in the activities of the Militias Community Units, Cabello  who is also the partys first vice president  stated that a psychological warfare operation against the country is underway.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other White House officials (and others such as Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele) have posted ambiguous messages on social media suggesting that something imminent is about to happen.

They wont be able to defeat the people, they wont be able to defeat the Bolivarian Revolution, said Cabello. Years, centuries will pass, and this history will be told by the revolution. History is written by the victors, and this history will be told by us, not them  neither those inside nor those outside.

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Botswanan President Duma Boko speaks at the opening of the three-day Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF11) in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, Sept. 10, 2025. Boko on Wednesday urged educators and policymakers to develop innovative solutions that ensure access to quality education and training for the most marginalized members of society. (Photo by Tshekiso Tebalo/Xinhua)

GABORONE, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- Botswanan President Duma Boko on Friday called for the adoption of modern technologies to transform agriculture into the backbone of the national economy.

Speaking at the National Agricultural Show in Gaborone, the country's capital, Boko stressed the need for substantial investment in farming, stronger support for farmers, and a shift in mindset toward treating agriculture as a strategic priority.

"We must develop, we must make agriculture the revolutionary engine of our economy," he said, highlighting the government's commitment to working with farmers to reshape agricultural policies, strengthen institutions, and unlock new opportunities within the sector.

He identified challenges such as climate change, recurring droughts, global economic shocks, and weak extension services as persistent barriers. He also pointed to the slow adoption of modern technologies, poor infrastructure, and limited financing options as key obstacles to growth.

Acting Minister of Lands and Agriculture Edwin Dikoloti emphasized the importance of unity, discipline, and shared responsibility in building a resilient food system, as well as the need to invest in research, innovation, and sustainable practices that can drive entrepreneurship and long-term growth.

Held under the theme "Enhancing Agricultural Productivity through Utilization of Modern Technologies," this year's exhibition runs from Aug. 18 to 24, drawing farmers from across the country and showcasing more than 1,000 small livestock and over 300 cattle. 

Botswanan President Duma Boko speaks at the opening of the three-day Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF11) in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, Sept. 10, 2025. Boko on Wednesday urged educators and policymakers to develop innovative solutions that ensure access to quality education and training for the most marginalized members of society.(Photo by Tshekiso Tebalo/Xinhua)
From a rise in handloom and sustainable brands to thrifting and conscious buying, sustainability is no longer a vague term in fashion. And rightly so, given the industry contributes 10 per cent of global carbon emissions, pollutes water bodies, with a whopping 85 per cent of textiles ending up in dumps each year as per estimates. The issue is especially crucial for India, with its fashion apparel industry projected to reach $146.3 billion by 2032.

Despite the rising awareness around the environmental and social benefits of sustainable fashion, price remains a problem. A bigger question is how the manufacturers are to gain by switching to more eco-friendly practices, which they can then transfer to the consumers.

The manufacturers need to become more sustainable for business reasons, to become more competitive, says Bernadette Blom, director of Amsterdam-based Good Fashion Fund, an impact fund organisation that works on sustainable solutions in the textile and apparel industry in Asia.

Climate solutions, including sustainable fashion, were much discussed at the AVPN Global Conference 2025 in Hong Kong, organised by AVPN, the biggest network of social investors in Asia. On the sidelines of the event, Bloom, along with Jayanth Kashyap B, Investment Lead at Good Fashion Fund, spoke to The WEEK on trends in the sustainable fashion space in India, the bottlenecks in making the transition, whats there for the manufacturers, and more:

Edited excerpts:

Why has the focus of Good Fashion Fund been on Asia?

Bernadette Blom: Its because most of the garment manufacturing hubs are in Asia. So our investors are looking to make an impact there in supporting manufacturers in becoming sustainable through solutions like supporting newer technologies.

We are focusing on two countries with GFF 1, which are India and Bangladesh. Its fully invested, and were establishing a follow-on fund. We closed it just before Covid at $19 million.

How much of it is invested in India?

Jayanth Kashyap B: Weve done six investments, out of which four are in India, of about $10 million.

What are the focus areas of your investments?

Bernadette Blom: Its mainly to help tier I, II, and III companies that are exporting to global brands.

Jayanth Kashyap B: These are basically mid-size manufacturers. Tier I includes those that deal with finished garments, where they cut, make, and trim. Tier II is the fabric mills that make fabrics that get converted into garments, and tier III is yarn, which gets made into fabric.

So the focus is throughout the value chain, across all three tiers, as long as it leads to a significant reduction in the consumption of energy, water, and materials. Were equally focused on the social part, to ensure the workers condition, well-being, safety, and health.

What changes have you seen in the sustainable fashion space in India since 2019 from both the consumer and the manufacturers side?

Jayanth Kashyap B: From the consumer's side, theres a little more awareness of the purchasing choices. But the onus still falls on the manufacturers and the brands. But do the consumers know what theyre buying? Most dont know what theyre purchasing, where it's made, and how its made; its pretty non-transparent in terms of awareness, and its not the consumer's fault. Thats how the industry operates.

And on the manufacturers side, the companies are seeing a value in making these improvements over time, and by doing that, they also hope that they can get more business out of this from international brands as well, because theres a business case that needs to be made.

But do the manufacturers have the monetary incentive there so the sustainable solutions dont end up increasing the cost, thereby discouraging customers, and the brands losing business?

Bernadette Blom: The manufacturers actually need to become more sustainable for business and become more competitive. This is what were seeing: when we install such technologies, the production process at times becomes more efficient, and the cost comes down. They also end up becoming more competitive and attractive to the global brands.

Jayanth Kashyap B: For example, we invested $25 million in Tamil Nadu-based Sri Kannapiran Mills. Within the first year of installing the technology, which was a mix of equipment for weaving, spinning, and transformer replacement, it showed results. The machinery was 25-30 years old, so you can imagine how resource and energy-intensive it would be.

And we did a comparison: The material wastage went down by about 95 per cent, and energy, more than 50 pc. The carbon dioxide savings amounted to 1,000 tonnes. And in terms of financial savings, it was about $250,000 in the first year itself.

What are the bottlenecks in moving towards sustainable fashion in India?

Jayanth Kashyap B: It requires much more private capital to come in.

Bernadette Blom: Theres also the need for access to long-term finance for the SMEs, who form a big part of the supply chain. It also needs more technical support.
In what could be another signal of thaw in trade war between India and the United States, President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he was looking forward to speaking with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whom he called a very good friend.

Trump said both India and the US were continuing negotiations to address the trade barriers between the two countries.

"I am pleased to announce that India and the United States of America are continuing negotiations to address the Trade Barriers between our two Nations. 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 of our Great Countries!, Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.

Trumps fresh overtures came a week after he announced that India and the US had a very special relationship and affirmed that he and PM Modi would always be friends.

He, however, expressed displeasure over what Modi was doing, insinuating Indias continued purchase of cheap Russian oil.

At the White House, US President Donald Trump made the following significant statements on the India-US relationship:



"I will always be friends with Modi, he is a great Prime Minister



"India and the United States have a special relationship. There is nothing to worry about" pic.twitter.com/lwoU4R9BcO  ANI (@ANI) September 6, 2025

Modi appreciated Trumps sentiments, and said India and the US have a very positive and forward-looking comprehensive and global strategic partnership.

The relations between New Delhi and Washington nosedived last month after Trump slapped a 25 per cent punitive tariff, taking the total levy on Indian goods to a whopping 50 per cent. The US has been accusing India of funding Moscows war in Ukraine by purchasing discounted oil from Russia.

India termed the move unjustifiable and unreasonable.

The tariff imposition and the disagreement over the ceasefire after Operation Sindoor have led India-US relations to a new low, stalling the trade negotiations. Last month, a US trade delegation had cancelled its scheduled visit to New Delhi for the next round of talks.
The ongoing inheritance dispute following the death of 53-year-old industrialist Sunjay Kapur reached its crescendo after the Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed his widow Priya Sachdev Kapur to file a list of her late husbands assets. This came on the heels of the Delhi HC registering a lawsuit filed by Karisma Kapoors children.

Days after the death of actor Karisma Kapoors ex-husband, their daughter Samaira, 20, and son Kiaan, 15, moved the Delhi high court, accusing their stepmother Priya Sachdev Kapurthe third wife of Sunjay Kapurof forging their fathers will.

Earlier, Sunjay Kapurs mother, Rani Kapur, questioned the circumstances of his death. However, a postmortem examination determined that he died of natural causes. She also claimed her share in Sona Comstar, part of the group company once led by Sunjays late father.

The latest Delhi HC order demands that model Priya Sachdev Kapur file a list of all movable and immovable assets of Sanjay Kapur known to her. Karisma Kapoors children alleged that Sachdev appeared to have forged their fathers will for control over his assetsclose to Rs 30,000 crore.

The High Court is expected to hear the matter on October 9.

Karisma Kapoor represented the children as their legal guardian as they attached a list of known properties, accusing Sachdev of concealing details. Sanjay Kapurs children with Karisma Kapoor want at least a fifth of the estate as legal heirs, after they were informed that they were not the beneficiaries under their late fathers will.

However, Sachdev informed the court that Kapurs trust already gave Karismas children Rs 1,900 crore.
An upgraded, lightweight BrahMos-NG supersonic cruise missile will be tested in 2026.

Alexander Maksichev, the Russian managing director of Russian-Indian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace, said the work on the design stage of the missile is currently in progress and will be completed by 2026. Following the completion, autonomous tests will be conducted.

"We are currently at the working design stage, which we will complete next year, and then we will move on to autonomous tests," Maksichev was quoted as saying by Russian news agency TASS.

The BrahMos-NG (Next Generation) will have a flight range of over 300 kilometers and will be half the weight of the original variant1.29 tonnes compared to 2.9 tonnes.

The production of the BrahMos-NG supersonic cruise missile, which is expected to have improved manoeuvrability, ease of deployment, and reduced radar signature, is expected in three to five years.

Another nightmare of Pakistan, Trump & Piddis to come real!



DRDO Chairman Dr. Samir V. Kamat- "We're looking at BrahMos-NG (Next Generation), smaller version of BrahMos to fit on all our aircrafts. Today, BrahMos can be fitted only on Sukhoi, we'll make it ready for all pic.twitter.com/ReGOAafERO  BhikuMhatre (@MumbaichaDon) August 9, 2025

The missile will give India a greater combat edge as it can be integrated into a wide range of fighter jets, including LCA (light combat aircraft) Tejas, Rafale, and MiG-29. The missile is expected to increase India's areal strike power as BrahMos-NGs smaller size allows fighters like Tejas Mk1A to carry two missiles and Su-30MKI up to three or four.

"We are looking at BrahMos-NG, smaller version of BrahMos to fit on all our aircrafts. Today, BrahMos can be fitted only on Sukhoi, we will make it ready for all aircrafts," DRDO chief Samir V. Kamat had said recently.

The BrahMos supersonic cruise missile is jointly developed by Russias NPO Mashinostroyeniya and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) of India.
India and Russia have began their multilateral joint military exercise'Exercise Zapad', which seeks to improve interoperability and providing a platform to exchange tactics, techniques and procedures in the domains of conventional warfare and counter-terrorism operations, on Wednesday.

The execise will continue till Tuesday.

A contingent of the Indian armed forces, comprising 65 personnel departed on Tuesday for Russia to participate in the exercise to be held at Mulino Training Ground, Nizhniy, according to the Indian defence ministry. The contingent includes 57 Indian Army personnel along with seven personnel from the Indian Air Force and one from the Indian Navy.

Indian Armed Forces contingent departs for multilateral exercise Zapad 2025 in Russia



The contingent comprises 57 Indian Army personnel along with 07 personnel from the Indian Air Force and 01 from the Indian Navy. The multilateral Exercise ZAPAD 2025 is aimed at enhancing pic.twitter.com/4ew1IGKB6k  PIB India (@PIB_India) September 9, 2025

The Indian Army contingent is being led by a battalion of the Kumaon Regiment along with troops from other arms and services.

According to the defence ministry the multilateral exercise is aimed at "enhancing military cooperation, improving interoperability, and providing a platform for participating armies to exchange tactics, techniques and procedures in the domains of conventional warfare and counter-terrorism operations."

It will focus on joint company-level operations in open and plain terrain, with troops undertaking missions ranging from joint planning, tactical drills, and special arms skills, officials said.

The exercise will offer a valuable opportunity to hone joint operational capabilities, integrate emerging technologies, and operate in a multinational combat environment, they said.

Participation in 'Exercise Zapad 2025' will further strengthen defence cooperation and foster camaraderie between India and Russia, thereby reinforcing the spirit of collaboration and mutual trust, the defence ministry statement said.
Key leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president J.P. Nadda visited Vice President-elect C.P. Radhakrishnan in Delhi and congratulated him on his election victory.

The prime minister was accompanied by the party president and Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda. Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and several other senior leaders of the ruling party met Radhakrishnan on Tuesday and extended wishes on his win in the 17th vice president election.

Radhakrishnan, currently serving as governor of Maharashtra, won against Opposition INDIA bloc's B. Sudershan Reddy by gaining 452 votes. Reddy, a former judge of the Supreme Court, was the Opposition's joint candidate and gained 300 votes.

Surprisingly, Radhakrishnan gained 25 votes more than the NDA's tally in the crucial contest, suggesting cross-voting. The MPs are not bound by party whips to vote in the vice presidential election, which takes place under a secret ballot system.

The electoral college for vice president election comprises members from the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, and the current strength of the electoral college is 781, as six seats are vacant in the Rajya Sabha and one in the Lok Sabha. The winning candidate must gain a majority of 391 votes. The NDA has 425 MPs, while the opposition camp has the backing of 324.
The real question is not the count of pending Bills but whether a governor can stall a law indefinitely, Justice Surya Kant observed on Wednesday, as the Supreme Courts Constitution Bench resumed hearing the presidential reference on gubernatorial powers.

The Bench headed by Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai is examining whether timelines can be imposed on the president and state governors when dealing with Bills duly passed by state legislatures.

The days proceedings reflected the judges unease with the Centres proposition that a Bill could effectively collapse at the threshold if a governor withholds assent, raising fundamental concerns about legislative supremacy and constitutional accountability.

Justice P.S. Narasimha also asked a pointed question to Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, "How do we reconcile to your argument that a governor, at the very outset, can withhold assent to a Bill so that it fails?

Should there not be a consultative process, by which the Bill is returned to the state legislature for reconsideration? This way, both the assembly and the governor get a role to play, Justice Narasimha pressed.

The solicitor general, leading the Centres defence of gubernatorial discretion, argued back that the governor cannot be reduced to an ornamental head of state.

Reasoned consultation and principled participation is necessary, Mehta insisted, rather than a mere mechanical signature from the governor. I am suggesting a balance. The opposing states are on an extreme stance that a governor is to mechanically sign Bills.

To stress his point, he recalled that for the past 55 years every governor has acted in a way expected of them, in a collaborative manner.

But the Bench was not convinced. CJI Gavai firmly rejected the SGs attempt to introduce empirical data; Mehta had cited that only 20 Bills had been withheld since 1970 out of over 17,000 passed. The question is not whether one Bill is withheld or a thousand, Justice Vikram Nath observed. The question is whether a governor can withhold a Bill indefinitely.

The chief justice too cut in, pointing out that if Mehtas interpretation of Article 200 meant 'withhold' was equivalent to Bill falling through, then it implied a governor could paralyse the legislature at will. We are proud of our Constitution, Justice Nath remarked, contrasting it with turmoil in Nepal, but stressed that the issue was one of principle, not numbers.

The SG sought to reassure the Court that his stand was not that governors could sit endlessly on Bills. He stressed that governors had a duty to protect the Constitution and sometimes had to act as neutral umpires when the interests of the states and Union clashed. He invoked the example of the Punjab governor withholding assent to the 2016 Satluj-Yamuna Link Canal Land Bill, arguing that assent in that case would have damaged cooperative federalism.

At the same time, he maintained, the governor was not a super CM but had a dual role, ordinarily acting on cabinet advice but also serving as a vital link between State and Union, and in certain rare circumstances, as the Unions representative. Governor is an independent constitutional office, not a servant of the government, he emphasised.

Opposing states, however, argued that the SGs interpretation turned the governor into a parallel legislative veto. Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and A.M. Singhvi rejected the Centres reliance on data, pointing out that the real problem was of recent trends, where governors have delayed or withheld assent for years. Nothing like this had happened with governors like now, Sibal said.

Advocates for the intervenors pressed that the constitutional silence around timelines could not be exploited to stall democracy.

Advocate Avani Bansal argued that without specified limits, governors and president could arbitrarily abuse their powers, creating a complete constitutional impasse by frustrating the will of the people. She invoked the Sarkaria Commission, which recommended time-bound decision-making to prevent governors from becoming political instruments.

If a Bill to bring healthcare to a far-flung place is delayed for three to four years, the citizen has nowhere to go. The citizen cannot become a sitting duck, she said.

Senior advocate P. Wilson, appearing for Tamil Nadus ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), said, A Bill is nothing but an expression of political will. A governor cannot act like a constitutional court and adjudicate on the constitutionality of a Bill,". He added that if no timelines were set, state legislatures would be left to wander the corridors of the court.

The hearing remained inconclusive and will continue on Thursday as well.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday extended his best wishes to C.P. Radhakrishnan, who was elected Indias 15th vice president, and reminded him of the importance of acting with fairness and impartiality towards each party.

Ramesh recalled the remarks made by Indias first Vice President, Dr S. Radhakrishnan, on the opening day of the Rajya Sabha on May 16, 1952, where he vowed to uphold the highest traditions of parliamentary democracy.

While extending its best wishes to Shri C. P. Radhakrishnan, the newly-elected Vice President of India who will also be the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, the Indian National Congress recalls the wise words of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the very first Vice President and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, the Congress leader wrote on X.

Ramesh quoted Dr S. Radhakrishnan as saying, I belong to no party, and that means I belong to every party in this House. It shall be my endeavour to uphold the traditions, the highest traditions, of parliamentary democracy and act towards each party with fairness and impartiality with ill-will to none and goodwill to all....A democracy is likely to degenerate into a tyranny if it does not allow the opposition groups to criticise fairly, freely, and frankly the policies of the Government".

While extending its best wishes to Shri C. P. Radhakrishnan, the newly-elected Vice President of India who will also be the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, the Indian National Congress recalls the wise words of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the very first Vice President and Chairman  Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) September 10, 2025

In a cryptic note, Ramesh added that Dr Radhakrishnan had practised what he preached, both in letter and spirit.

The Congress leaders post assumes significance as the Opposition MPs had accused former vice president Jagdeep Dhankhar of acting in a partisan and unfair manner as the Rajya Sabha vice chairman.

In December 2024, around 60 MPs submitted a notice seeking Dhankhars removal, saying he had repeatedly interrupted members of the Opposition while they were speaking and unfairly used privilege motions to silence them.

C.P. Radhakrishnan, in his first public remark after winning the vice presidential election, termed the ruling party and the opposition as the two sides of the same coin and asserted that the interest of democracy will be taken into account.
KIEV, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Russia launched more than 400 drones and missiles in an overnight assault targeting 15 regions across Ukraine, Ukrainian authorities reported Wednesday.

The Ukrainian Air Force reported that it intercepted 386 out of 415 Russian drones, and 27 out of 43 missiles. Sixteen missiles and 21 drones hit 17 locations across Ukraine.

At least one person was killed and nine others injured in the attacks, the State Emergency Service said.

An enterprise was hit in the western Volyn region, and private houses and industrial zone buildings sustained damage in the northern Zhytomyr region. Civilian and industrial infrastructure was targeted in the central Vinnytsia and the western Khmelnytskyi regions.

Authorities said that during the overnight assault on Ukraine, eight Russia-launched drones crossed into Poland.

"Russian-Iranian 'shaheds' operated in the airspace of Poland, in NATO airspace," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X, referring to the shahed drones used by Russia.

"It was not just one 'shahed' that could be called an accident, but at least eight strike drones aimed toward Poland," Zelensky said. 
As chaos spread, Nepalis are worried that India has reportedly banned them from entering the country through its borders. A report that appeared in local Nepali media says Indias Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) has stopped entry for Nepalis through the Gaddachauki border, a crucial Nepal-India transit point in Uttarakhand, and Gaurifanta checkpoint in Kailali.

Nepalis, who have dealings in India, have complained that they are being blocked at the border. This is because India fears that prisoners have escaped from Nepali prisons and could enter India, according to Kathmandu-based Nepal Khabar.

The unrest in Nepal has spread to prisons, resulting in many prisoners escaping. Local media reports state the Nepal Army has surrounded prisoners who broke out of the Dillibazaar prison. Though a few of them managed to break free, the army stopped them at the gate. However, many prisoners held in various districts have escaped.

#WATCH | Indian nationals from the Nepal side cross the India-Nepal border in Panitanki, Darjeeling in West Bengal and return to India, amid a tense situation in the neighbouring country. pic.twitter.com/mHFQT37Dqo  ANI (@ANI) September 10, 2025

High alert in border

According to reports, a high alert has been issued in Bihar, which also shares a border with Nepal; According to ADGP Law and Order Pankaj Darad, all border districts are under strict surveillance and some of the protesters were seen on the border areas, following which the security personnel sent them back.

Darad added that the movement of tourists going from India to Nepal and tourists coming from Nepal to India has been banned for the time being. However, people living near the border can come and go between the countries, showing their identity cards. The India-Nepal border spans 1,751 km across Uttarakhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim, and West Bengal.

Although the India-Nepal border has not been sealed, vigilance has been stepped up. The DGP has ordered 24-hour surveillance, increased patrolling, and deployment of additional police personnel in Balrampur, Bahraich, Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Siddharth Nagar, and Maharajganj.
A video of an Indian citizen in Pokara surfaced amid the the Gen Z protests in Nepal. In the video, the woman appeals to the Indian government, asking for help after the demonstrations against corruption turned violent.

Upasana Gill claimed that protesters had set fire to the hotel where she stayed. She also said that a mob chased her out of a spa and that she had to flee to get to safety. She had gone to Nepal to host a volleyball league.

In the video, she says, My name is Upasana Gill, and I am sending this video to Praful Garg. I request the Indian embassy to please help us. All those who can help us, please help. I am stranded here in Pokhara, Nepal. I had come here to host a volleyball league, and currently, the hotel where I was staying has been burned down. All my luggage, all my belongings, were in my room, and the entire hotel was set on fire. I was in the spa, and people were running behind me with very large sticks, and I barely managed to escape with my life.

She said that the fires were being set on roads everywhere, and the protesters do not care if a person was a tourist.

They are setting fires everywhere without thinking, and the situation has become very, very bad here. We don't know how long we will stay in another hotel. But I just request the Indian embassy that please, this video, this message, should be delivered to them. With folded hands, I request all of you, please help us. There are many people with me here, and we are all stranded here, said

As of now, the Nepali Army has ordered a nationwide curfew from Wednesday, citing threats to public security.

In a statement, the Army said that unruly groups had infiltrated protests and carried out vandalism, arson, looting, targeted attacks and even attempted sexual assaults, the Kathmandu Post reported from their X account after their servers were attacked during the protests.

The Nepali Army expressed gratitude to the public for their cooperation so far and conveyed condolences over the loss of life and property during the unrest. It urged citizens to support ongoing efforts to contain criminal activities during demonstrations.

Gen Z groups, including Hami Nepal, who had organised the initial protests, have denounced the violence and vandalism. An official statement online said that they were committed to peaceful civic engagement and distinguished themselves from the recent arson attacks and looting. Hami Nepal said, This is not us. This is not our movement. We do not promote it, and we will never stand with it

Essential services in the country will still be running. The Army cautioned that any protests involving vandalism, looting, arson or attacks would be treated as criminal acts and dealt with firmly by security personnel.

The Nepali Army remains committed to the security and humanitarian rescue of all Nepalis under any circumstances, the statement said.

On Tuesday, the Ministry of External Affairs issued an advisory asking Indian citizens to postpone travel to Nepal till the situation is stable. The MEA advisory read Indian citizens presently in Nepal are advised to shelter in their current places of residence, avoid going out to the street and exercise caution. They are also advised to follow local safety advisories from the Nepal authorities as well as the embassy in Kathmandu.

Army personnel were deployed at the India-Nepal Border as the situation in the country escalated.

The youth-led demonstrations in Nepal had been organised to protest against long-time government corruption and the political elite in Nepal. The protests were triggered by a recent ban on social media by the K P Sharma Oli-led government. Oli resigned from his post on the second day of the protests after about 19 people were killed by Nepal Police who tried to contain the protest using rubber bullets and tear gas.
Its been more than a month and Maharashtra does not have a Leader of Opposition in the state legislative assembly. Leader of Opposition in the state legislative council Ambadas Danve's term got over when the monsoon session of the state legislature came to end.

After the massive victory of saffron alliance in the 2024 Maharashtra assembly elections, there are only 46 opposition legislators in the state legislative assembly.

Of them, Shiv Sena (UBT) has 20, NCP Sharadchandra Pawar has 10 and the Congress 16. None of these parties have the required strength to stake claim for the post of Leader of Opposition in the legislative assembly.

They have sent several petitions to the speaker, Rahul Narvekar, explaining that there should be a Leader of Opposition in the lower house as these parties fought elections as one coalition  Maha Vikas Aghadi  and hence they have the right to have the post, which is equal to a cabinet minister rank.

So far, neither the speaker nor Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis have agreed to their demand. Hence Danve, who was the Leader of Opposition in state legislative council was seen as the Leader of Opposition. At the end of the monsoon session, he retired thus vacating the post of Leader of Opposition of the upper house.

For a state which has had a long list of eminent Leaders of Opposition in the past, there being no LoP is a rarity.

While Shiv Sena (UBT) has staked claim for Leader of Opposition in the lower house on the basis of being the opposition party with largest number of legislators, it is Congress which is interested in staking claim for the LoP post in upper house. A delegation of Congress leaders met chairperson of the upper house, Prof Ram Shinde, and formally urged him to appoint a LoP from the party benches.

Congress leaders also met Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Fadnavis. The delegation urged the CM that the LoP for both the houses should be appointed at the earliest as it helps in legislative functioning. They also met the speaker of the legislative assembly, Rahul Narvekar.

Satej Patil, the Congress bigwig from Kolhapur, has been named the candidate for the LoPs post in the state legislative council, while Bhaskar Jadhavs name has been suggested for the LoPs post in the legislative assembly, from Shiv Sena (UBT).
As Nepal is reeling under intense anti-government protests led by the youth, experts suggest that New Delhi adopt a wait and watch mode before making any intervention.

The Himalayan nation has plunged into a deep political crisis as the large-scale demonstrations in Kathmandu and many other cities forced Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli to resign.

At least two dozen people have lost their lives in the protests.

BREAKING 



The office of Kantipur Publications, Nepal's largest media house, was set ablaze amid ongoing anti-government protests.



Contributed by @vanguardintel pic.twitter.com/DpJZdJOMKm  Open Source Intel (@Osint613) September 9, 2025

Describing the situation as worrying, several former diplomats remarked that India should carefully watch the unfolding developments in the neighbourhood.

"It comes on the trail of what happened in Sri Lanka and in Bangladesh. So, in that sense, there has been a series of incidents of instability in countries in the neighbourhood, which have led to the collapse of regimes and their leaders fleeing, etc. It is clearly not a healthy sign," Veteran diplomat Venu Rajamony told PTI.

"I think we have to wait for things to settle down...(but) we should watch this very carefully, because of all the implications it has for us and for our interests in Nepal," Rajamony said.

Similar views were echoed by Ashok Kantha, another senior diplomat, who said India doesnt have a role at this point.

"My own experience has been that we should let the domestic process play out," Kantha said and warned that any intervention by New Delhi at this point would become counterproductive.

"So we have to first see and assess the situation," he told the news agency.

Both Kantha and Rajamony dismissed the insinuations that the crisis in Nepal should be looked at through the prism of India-China relations.

"I don't think China is a factor here, said Rajamony, though he admitted that Indias neighbourhood is indeed in turmoil.

On Tuesday, New Delhi said it is closely monitoring the unfolding situation in the Himalayan country and hoped that all issues will be resolved through peaceful means.

"As a close friend and neighbour, we hope that all concerned will exercise restraint and address any issues through peaceful means and dialogue," the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.

India has also advised its citizens to defer travelling to Nepal until the condition stabilises.

Though the protests seem spontaneous and the trigger was the Oli governments decision to ban certain social media sites, the anger over corruption and unemployment had been brewing among the young generation in the country for quite a while.

However, there are experts, like S.L. Kanthan, who strongly suspect the US's role in the unrest in Nepal, given the current regimes strong leaning towards China.

"Standard playbook seen dozens of times around the world  young brainwashed people burning down Parliament and residences of top politicians; leaders likely fleeing the country, etc. Now watch an American puppet sworn in as the new leader  just like in Bangladesh, Pakistan," Kanthan said in an X post.

100% US-engineered Color Revolution in Nepal.



Standard playbook seen dozens of times around the world  young brainwashed people burning down the parliament and residences of top politicians; leader likely fleeing the country etc.



Now watch an American puppet sworn in as the pic.twitter.com/s9S2YQEiGd  S.L. Kanthan (@Kanthan2030) September 9, 2025

Earlier, former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted from her post following the massive agitation in the country, had accused the US of orchestrating her removal from power.

Hasina claimed that her refusal to allow a US airbase on St Martin's Island had frustrated America, which has long been wary of increasing Chinese influence in the Bay of Bengal.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Jammu and Kashmir in the coming days to review the devastation caused by heavy monsoon rains, cloudbursts, floods and landslides. The visit follows his tour of flood-hit Himachal Pradesh earlier this week.

Senior BJP leader and organisational General Secretary Ashok Koul told THE WEEK that Modi will take a first-hand account of damages in Jammu and Kashmir. He will come. The date of the visit will be announced soon, he said.

Modi will conduct aerial surveys of Katra in Reasi district, where 35 pilgrims died en route to Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine on August 27 in a landslide.

He will also survey Chasoti in Kishtwar, where more than 60 pilgrims heading to Machail Mata shrine were killed in a massive cloudburst.

This is the third visit by a senior minister from the Centre to Jammu. On August 24, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visited Jammu to take stock of the situation in Chashoti. Singhs plan to visit the devastated village, on the way to Machail Mata shrine, was scuppered by inclement weather and the blocking of a road by a fresh landslide in Paddar subdivision.

Modis visit comes after Union Home Minister Amit Shahs two-day tour of Jammu for flood damage assessment on August 31.

Before his departure for Jammu, Shah announced the formation of an Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) for on-the-spot inspection of worst-hit areas.

The eight-member IMCT is currently touring J&K to prepare a report for financial assistance to victims.

Jammu and Kashmir witnessed deaths and destruction to private property and infrastructure due to monsoon rains, floods and cloudbursts in August. Several important bridges were damaged in Jammu while hundreds of kilometres of roads were damaged or washed away by floods and landslides.

The floods also caused extensive damage to defence infrastructure, including the fencing at the international border with Pakistan.

The JammuSrinagar National Highway suffered damage at several vulnerable points due to landslides and shooting stones.

The highway closure has left hundreds of vehicles stranded. The blockade has raised anxieties among apple farmers, who fear delays in transporting their produce outside Kashmir during peak harvest season.

After completing his tour of the flood-ravaged areas in Jammu, Modi is likely to announce a special relief package for victims to support rebuilding efforts and restore connectivity.

The relief package will be announced after the IMCT submits a report to the Central government.
Terming his election to the vice president post as a "victory of nationalist ideology", BJP leader C.P. Radhakrishnan said he will try his best for the development of the nation in his new capacity.

Radhakrishnan, the current governor of Maharashtra, won the polls by bagging 452 votes while the Opposition candidate, B. Sudarshan Reddy, polled 300 votes.

"The other side camp (opposition alliance) said that this (election) is an ideological fight, but from the voting pattern, we understand that the nationalistic ideology has emerged victorious," Radhakrishnan said.

#WATCH | Delhi: On being elected as the Vice President, CP Radhakrishnan says, "... In the new capacity, I will try my best for the development of the nation. In a democracy, both the ruling party and the opposition are important. It is the two sides of the same coin. The pic.twitter.com/V15amFzy0T  ANI (@ANI) September 9, 2025

"It is a victory for every Indian; we all have to work together. If we have to develop Viksit Bharat by 2047, which means we should not do politics in everything, now we will have to concentrate on development," he said.

Radhakrishnan, a former president of the BJP Tamil Nadu unit, termed the ruling party and the opposition as the two sides of the same coin and asserted that the interest of democracy will be taken into account.

According to Rajya Sabha Secretary General and Returning Officer P.C. Mody, 767 MPs out of 781 cast their votes with a total turnout of 98.2 per cent. He said 752 ballots were valid and 15 were invalid, bringing down the required majority of first preference votes to 377.

The victory of Radhakrishnan was a foregone conclusion due to the ruling alliance's numerical edge. However, the extent of his victory margin is a setback to the Opposition, which had claimed all its 315 MPs remained united in the election and voted for Reddy.
The Israeli airstrike on a residential compound in Doha on Tuesday is likely to have profound diplomatic consequences, particularly for President Donald Trumps Middle East policy. The attack, which targeted Hamas leadership present at the Qatari capital, not only violated the sovereignty of Qatar, a key American ally and mediator, but also exposed divisions among partners and stalled already fragile peace negotiations.

In the days leading up to the strike, Trump had stepped up his efforts to broker a truce between Israel and Hamas. On September 7, he issued what he called a last warning to Hamas, urging it to accept his proposed deal for the release of the remaining hostages. He insisted that Israel had already agreed to his terms and told Hamas there would be no further offers. His plan, passed through mediators, required Hamas to free all 48 to 50 hostages on the first day of a ceasefire in exchange for thousands of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. It also included a freeze on the Israeli offensive in Gaza City, with talks towards a broader settlement to be overseen personally by Trump. Hostilities would not resume while negotiations were underway.

Hamas acknowledged receiving what it called American ideas and indicated it was ready to negotiate if Israel agreed to a clear end to the war, the withdrawal of its forces from Gaza, and the formation of an independent Palestinian committee to run the territory. Netanyahus office said it was considering the proposal but doubted Hamas would accept it.

Trumps position had until recently been harder. He had insisted that the remaining hostages would be freed only once Hamas was confronted and destroyed and had questioned whether as many as 20 of them were still alive. Negotiations had already faltered earlier in the summer when US and Israeli envoys pulled out of Qatar, accusing Hamas of lacking seriousness. Netanyahu, who had once accepted a 60-day truce, later demanded a comprehensive agreement, creating further uncertainty. Critics argued that Trumps shifting approach to the Gaza conflict effectively gave Netanyahu freedom to pursue the war as he wished.

"The president views Qatar as a strong ally and friend of the United States and feels very badly about the location of this attack."



White House press sec. Karoline Leavitt read a statement after Israel's strike on Hamas leadership in Doha. https://t.co/X3EkiIHoZ7 pic.twitter.com/OdDyR4QcgF  ABC News (@ABC) September 9, 2025

The strike on Doha changed the calculus overnight. Trump said he had not been informed directly by Netanyahu but was notified by the US military, something he described as deeply unsatisfactory. He maintained that Washington had tried to warn Qatar of the impending attack but that the message arrived too late. He told reporters that Israels decision to bomb the territory of a sovereign nation and close American ally was unacceptable and would not serve either Israeli or US interests. Trump promised Qatars emir and prime minister that such an incident would not be repeated and instructed officials to conclude a new defence cooperation agreement with Doha.

Yet the president also said that eliminating Hamas remained a legitimate objective, which highlighted the inconsistency of his message. The White House press secretary avoided giving a direct answer when asked whether Trump was angry with Netanyahu or whether there would be consequences for Israel, and instead suggested that the strike might create an opportunity for peace. Senator Chris Coons remarked that it was striking that Israel had not informed its closest ally before acting, suggesting a serious erosion of trust, particularly given the large American military presence in Qatar. Analysts speculated that Washington might have had advance knowledge but chose not to act, or that Israel preferred to apologise afterwards rather than seek permission. Journalists noted that if the US had the chance to stop the strike, it had chosen not to.

The consequences for Qatar and the region were immediate. Doha called the attack a flagrant violation of its sovereignty and international law. The European Union declared it a violation of Qatars territorial integrity and pledged full solidarity. Britains prime minister Keir Starmer also condemned the attack, saying it breached international norms and risked wider escalation.

The strike also undermined Qatars pivotal role as a mediator between Israel and Hamas. Since 2012 it has hosted a Hamas political office, at the urging of successive American administrations, to facilitate back-channel diplomacy. The attack brought the already faltering peace talks to a halt. Commentators pointed out that this was bad news for both the Israeli hostages, whose lives were now in greater danger, and the population of Gaza, whose daily suffering continued. Observers concluded that Israel appeared to have abandoned negotiations and was determined to pursue Hamas wherever it operated. Qatars prime minister said his country would not be deterred from mediation, but the blow to Dohas credibility was undeniable.

The strike also inflamed regional tensions. The European Union warned of the danger of further escalation. President Erdogan of Turkey condemned what he called a heinous act designed to deepen conflict and instability, and pledged Ankaras support for Qatar. Starmer also stated that the action risked a dangerous widening of the war.

The episode struck at the heart of US interests. Qatar not only serves as a mediator but also hosts the vast al-Udeid air base outside Doha, one of the most important American military installations in the region. Commentators observed that members of Qatars ruling family must now be questioning the wisdom of hosting both the leadership of a proscribed movement and a large US base. The attack on its soil was seen as a reckless precedent and a costly gamble by Israel. Experts warned that if violence spreads, it is likely to target US facilities, which are more accessible than Israeli ones. Trumps assurance that such a strike would never recur and his instruction to cement defence ties with Qatar revealed Washingtons concern about shoring up this vital relationship.

In the wider picture, the strike in Doha has seriously damaged prospects for a negotiated end to the Gaza war. Trumps response combined criticism of Israel for acting unilaterally on allied territory with support for its goal of destroying Hamas. The contradiction reflected both the complexity of the situation and the presidents desire to reassure Qatar while preserving Israels confidence.
Nepal has plunged into an unprecedented crisis as mass anti-corruption and pro-freedom protests spiralled into a full-scale uprising, leaving the countrys key governmental structures in ruins. In just three daysSeptember 8, 9, and 10protesters have taken over government buildings, torched political party offices, and even stormed the residences of top political leaders.

#WATCH | Nepal: Hilton Hotel in Kathmandu all charred after it was set on fire during the recent anti-corruption protest. pic.twitter.com/N7AuwVj5Td  ANI (@ANI) September 10, 2025

The unrest was initially sparked by the governments move to shut down social media platforms. However, the crackdown on digital freedom quickly snowballed into broader demands for an end to rampant corruption, systemic misgovernance, and unaccountable leadership. The government's heavy-handed response, which resulted in the deaths of 19 people in a single day, only added fuel to the fire. The death toll has since risen to 24, with over 1,000 injured.

Core institutions destroyed

The extent of the damage is staggering. All three pillars of the state  the executive, legislative, and judiciary  have suffered irreparable blows. Key administrative buildings, including the historic Singha Durbar (the main government secretariat), have been completely destroyed. The prime ministers official residence in Baluwatar was set on fire, forcing security forces to evacuate K.P. Sharma Oli to an undisclosed location.

The Office of the President at Sheetal Niwas was also seized and demolished by protesters, prompting President Ram Chandra Paudel to flee under military protection. The Supreme Court, the Office of the Attorney General, and other judicial institutions have been attacked, with critical legal archives reportedly turned to ashes.

Political leadership targeted

Major political figures from the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, CPN-Maoist Centre, and CPN (Unified Socialist) parties were direct targets. Former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba were attacked at their Budhanilkantha residence, sustaining serious injuries. Protesters reportedly scaled the compound walls to enter the premises, accusing the couple of large-scale corruption.

Former PM Pushpa Kamal Dahals residences in both Kathmandu and Chitwan were also attacked, with the latter set ablaze. Jhalanath Khanals home was torched, resulting in injuries to his wife. Homes of other senior leaders, including Gagan Thapa and Mohan Basnet, were also burned.

Chaos nationwide

Government institutions, political party headquarters, and even controversial business establishments were torched or taken over. The Parliament building in New Baneshwor was set on fire and now lies in ruins. The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) was also attacked.

Public infrastructure, including airports, was not spared. Gautam Buddha International Airport in Bhairahawa faced arson attacks, while Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu was shut down amid repeated intrusion attempts by demonstrators.

#WATCH | Nepal: A large number of inmates from Dillibazar Jail are being held back by Army personnel in Kathmandu as they have stepped out of jail. The inmates are demanding that they be released from the prison.



Police personnel have fallen back from prisons, except the Police pic.twitter.com/pVHV5x7dny  ANI (@ANI) September 10, 2025

Even prisons have been breached. In a dramatic escalation, nearly 6,000 inmates reportedly escaped from various jails, including the Central Prison in Sundhara and facilities in Rautahat, Chitwan, Kanchanpur, Jumla, and Baitadi, among others.

Army deployed, martial measures imposed

As police and other security forces failed to contain the chaos, the Nepal Army was deployed across major cities and sensitive sites. However, the military refrained from directly engaging with protesters, allowing many to seize control of public institutions with minimal resistance.

From Tuesday night, security personnel began patrolling streets, urging civilians to stay indoors. Citizens found outdoors without valid reasons were sent back. Only essential workers were permitted to move after identity verification. Emergency services are overwhelmed, with hospitals filled beyond capacity and a dire shortage of ambulances and fire engines.

Looting incidents have also surged. At least 21 individuals have been arrested in connection with theft and violence in the Kathmandu Valley.

A collapse of governance

The situation has pushed Nepal into what many are calling the darkest chapter in its modern history. With the complete breakdown of legal order, governance, and public security, the nation faces uncertainty over what comes next.

Civil society, which played a critical role in maintaining local order during past democratic movements (such as in 1990 and 2006), appears disorganised and inactive. This absence of grassroots coordination has reportedly worsened the scale of destruction and lawlessness.

As the crisis continues to unfold, there is no immediate sign of leadership or reconciliation. The protesters remain defiant, the state remains incapacitated, and Nepal stands at a dangerous crossroads.

(Niranjan kumar Sah is a Kathmandu based freelance journalist)
The deadly protest of Gen-Z that rocked Nepal over the last two days saw agitators burning down the countrys Supreme Court to ashes. The arsonists barged into the apex court building on Tuesday afternoon, ransacking the place before setting it on fire, according to local media reports.

A group of protesters entered the Supreme Court premises when the lawyers were still there. They first barged into the building where case documents and files were kept, according to Kathmandu-based Online Khabar. Eyewitness said the arsonists piled the documents in one place and set them on fire. Another group gathered documents from two or three other branches in the same way and set them on fire again.

The report added that the facade of the Supreme Court building and the Shree Yantra, a symbol of justice, were destroyed.

    

Genz protesters set fire to the Supreme Court of Nepal. #GenZprotestnepal pic.twitter.com/P0k2vhnw90  Pratima Makhim (@pmakhim) September 9, 2025

The agitators set on fire all three floors of the Supreme Court, including the office of the Chief Justice, the meeting room, and the office of the Chief Registrar. The third floor is our most sensitive area. It is the data centre for all the Supreme Court records, which are in the process of being digitized at a rapid pace," the joint secretary of the Supreme Court told Online Khabar. "After the ground floor, they set fire to the data center directly and then started setting fire to other areas," he added.

Although there were security personnel on duty, they were unable to handle the large number of protesters. Another group of protesters then started setting fire to the archives branch on the ground floor of the Supreme Court Annex building. It was this building that housed all the judgments made by the Supreme Court. Now we have nothing, only ashes, the joint secretary added.

Though the court kept a backup of its data, the area where the servers were housed was burned down. The Supreme Court's website is now 'down' after attacks, and there is no way to proceed with cases through the software, as it is not possible to hear old cases without documents.

After the records were burned, all the evidence was destroyed, and there is confusion about what to do with those cases, according to reports.

The protesters also attacked the Attorney General's Office in the same style. They collected all the documents they could, brought them to one place, and set them on fire, an employee of the Attorney General's Office told Online Khabar.

A Supreme Court judge said Tuesday's arson attack had caused the judiciary's records to 'collapse'. We are supposed to decide cases by looking at documents and evidence, but nothing remains of them now. What should we do now? These records were not saved through months or years of effort, but decades of hard work. Everything has been destroyed, the judge added.

Another Supreme Court judge said they plan to hold a meeting after which they will attempt to run the court from somewhere, even if it is symbolic. "We provided services even during the earthquake. Now everything has been destroyed, but we will make an attempt to symbolically reopen the court," he said.
About 200 people were arrested on Wednesday by police in France amid nationwide demonstrations. The country has been in chaos after Prime Minister Francois Bayrou was defeated with a no-confidence vote at the National Assembly over his plans to control the debt. President Emmanuel Macron, who was tasked with naming the countrys fifth prime minister in two years, picked Sebastien Lecornu, a close ally and the countrys defence minister.

The choice had outraged left-wing politicians.

Immediately after his appointment, Macron told Lecornu "to consult the political forces represented in parliament with a view to adopting a budget for the nation and making the agreements essential for the decisions of the coming months."

President Emmanuel Macron tapped loyalist Sebastien Lecornu as Frances prime minister, the fifth in less than two years, as public discontent intensifies and leftist movements gain momentum https://t.co/poe6cMzDao pic.twitter.com/ycDgwthoc2  Reuters (@Reuters) September 9, 2025

The country sees high borrowing costs and is in debt. Bayrou was ousted while trying to deal with its budget deficit, the highest in Europe.

The Block Everything protests

Demonstrators took to the streets across France on Wednesday, aiming to Block Everything. The anger was directed towards the politicians and the planned budget cuts, policies which were drafted by the now ousted PM Bayrou.

#BREAKING |  France erupts in massive protests roads blocked, bins set ablaze, and clashes with police as the Block Everything movement intensifies against budget cuts and political unrest. pic.twitter.com/4hRF7XdJCe  Alpha Defense (@alpha_defense) September 10, 2025

Widespread disruptions followed as protesters stopped highway traffic, trains, and set a bus on fire. Security forces, which included 80,000 police officers, were deployed across the country to remove the blocks. About 200 protesters were arrested in the process.

The block everything movement was initially started online by a rightwing group, according to researchers, but was taken over by the left and the far left.

The protesters took out their anger on Macron. "The ministers, it's a problem, but it's more Macron and his way of working, which means he has to go," Fred, a representative for the RATP public transport branch of the CGT union, said while speaking to Reuters. Opposition parties said that Macron's choosing another loyalist has increased frustration among voters.

Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the far-left France Unbowed, said on social media, Only the departure of Macron himself can put an end to this sad comedy of contempt for the Parliament, voters, and political decency.

Far-right politicians also joined in to criticise the president. Jordan Bardella, leader of the National Rally, said, Emmanuel Macron's motto: you don't change a losing team.

What can Lecornu do?

Bayrou lost the Parliamentary confidence vote after announcing a list of measures to rein in the debt, including cutting public holidays and freezing pensions.

It's now upto Lecornu to appease the public dissatisfaction and the scrutiny of the hard left, who seek to topple him.

Lecornu has to send in a full draft of the 2026 budget by October 7 to the parliament, and to get it passed, will have to unite the socialists who want to tax the rich, with the right-wing party National Rally, which does not want tax rises.

Daniel Bretones, a union member protesting in Marseille, said, "We're on the fifth prime minister under Macron's second term, and it has never changed anything."
KABUL, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- A Dispute over a piece of land between two brothers in the eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar province has claimed two lives, provincial police spokesman Sayed Tayeb Hemad said Wednesday.

A clash erupted when two brothers of the same family claimed ownership over a piece of land in Rodat district, the officer said, adding that one side had killed his brother and nephew and made his good escape.

Police would spare no efforts to catch the culprit, the officer said. 
Nepal's 'Gen Z' protesters, who have been demanding an overhaul of the corrupt political system, have proposed former chief justice Sushika Karki as the head of the interim government.

The name of Sushika Karki was proposed during a virtual meeting of members of the Gen-Z movement.

Sushila Karki was Nepal's first and only woman to serve as chief justice.

Amid the ongoing turmoil in Nepal following K.P. Sharma Oli's resignation, former Chief Justice Sushila Karki's name comes up as one of the possible candidates to lead the new transitional government, news agency ANI said, citing sources.

Born in Biratnagar in 1952, Karki holds degrees in political science and law. She began her professional life as a lawyer and assistant teacher before rising through Nepals legal ranks.

The protesters appear to have selected her to head the interim government, motivated by her image as non-affiliated with any political party, and history of impartial public service and her civic activism.

She has been known to take a strong stance against corruption during her tenure as head of the Supreme Court.

In 2017, Karki faced an impeachment motion from major parties. The impeachment motion was later quashed following public opposition and a Supreme Court order.
The number of motorists blatantly breaking a major rule around parking has become a 'significant problem' across Britain, according to a new report.

In a huge poll of almost 15,000 drivers, 51 per cent said illegal parking on double yellow lines has become a scourge where they live.

The nationwide poll revealed a growing frustration with motorists who flout parking regulations - particularly in busy urban areas where visibility, access, and safety are paramount.

The study found that a third of respondents said it isn't a very serious problem in their area, and 11 per cent dismissed it as not a problem at all.

However, these could be people living in busy cities - especially London - where parking wardens are prevalent and unrelenting, which proves to be the best deterrent for rule breakers.

In fact, regional differences suggest that locality plays a major role in how the issue is perceived up and down the country.

Drivers in the West Midlands and North West England expressed the highest level of concern, with 55 per cent identifying it as a serious issue. In contrast, only 47 per cent of drivers in Eastern England felt the same.

Britain's scourge of double yellow line ignorers: Half of drivers say illegal parking is now a 'significant problem' where they live

The AA found that age of respondents also influenced attitudes towards parking on double yellows.

Among drivers aged 25 to 34, some 57 per cent said they viewed it as a 'serious issue' - potentially reflecting the pressures of commuting, childcare drop-offs, and navigating congested city streets.

Meanwhile, 44 per cent of motorists over the age of 65 said they did not see it as a serious concern, possibly due to different travel habits or living in less densely populated areas.

The greater use of blue badges by senior drivers - who are more likely to face mobility issues - could also be a factor for why they might have a more forgiving view on yellow-line infringements.

This is because blue permit holders can park on double yellows for up to three hours in England and Wales, granted they're not causing an obstruction.

The nationwide poll revealed a growing frustration with motorists who flout parking regulations - particularly in busy urban areas where visibility, access, and safety are paramount

The study found that a third of respondents said it isn't a very serious problem in their area, and 11 per cent dismissed it as not a problem at all. However, these could be people living in busy cities - especially London - where parking wardens are prevalent

What do the rules say?

Under the UK Highway Code, double yellow lines indicate that parking or waiting is not permitted at any time, regardless of whether there are accompanying signs.

The only other exception from Blue Badge holders is to load or unload where there are no yellow kerb markings or signage indicating additional restrictions.

Despite the clear instructions, the AA's survey found that 6 per cent of drivers park illegally on double yellow lines.

Their most common excuses: they were unaware of the restrictions, or they believed it was safe to do so. Other honest drivers would likely have provided more flippant responses, or admitted it was to avoid increasing public car park prices.

What needs to be done to crack down on double-yellow-line rule breakers?

The motoring group says its research 'highlights a need for clearer signage and improved public education around parking regulations'.

However, these could be people living in busy cities - especially London - where parking wardens are prevalent and unrelenting, which proves to be the best deterrent for rule breakers.

But there is also an argument for councils coming down harder on serial offenders.

Most councils have in recent years taken over civil parking enforcement in their areas after rules were changed to decriminalise illegal parking as on offence.

As such, this allowed authorities to apply to take back powers from underfunded local police forces who had previously been responsible for ticketing drivers, which had seen enforcement levels plummet and opened the door to more illegal parking.

Yet in many communities, the rules are still ignored.

The AA says the study 'highlights a need for clearer signage and improved public education around parking regulations'

While some might see double-yellow-line parking as a minor misdemeanour, it can create immediate and serious dangers.

Typically, they have been painted in areas where they are most needed to keep vulnerable road users safe.

By parking on the lines, inconsiderate motorists cannot only block sightlines, it also threatens to delay public transport and has been linked to increased risk of accidents.

The issue also affects delivery drivers, cyclists, parents with prams, and those using mobility scooters or with limited mobility, who often find themselves forced into the road to navigate around vehicles parked where they shouldnt be.

Large vehicles, like buses, vans and HGVs are also commonly forced to idle or reroute due to blocked highways, causing delays and contributing to congestion and pollution.

And beyond these physical impacts, the AA also found that illegal parking can erode trust within communities.

Residents says they often feel drivers ignore the rules without consequence, leading to frustration and a sense of unfairness.

In areas where enforcement is inconsistent, this can create a 'cycle of disregard', where one persons actions encourage others to follow suit.

Jack Cousens, AA head of roads policy, said: 'Parking on double yellow lines is illegal for a reason - its there to protect visibility, access, and safety for everyone using the road. But the impact of ignoring these rules isnt just legal; its social and practical too.

'In cities, it can block emergency vehicles, delay buses, and put pedestrians at risk. In quieter areas, it may not seem as urgent, but that doesnt mean its harmless.

'Thats why were urging councils to take a more localised approach by combining clear signage, consistent enforcement, and public education to address the issue in a way that fits the needs of each community.'

In a separate poll earlier this month, four in five motorists called for a nationwide ban on parking on pavements, which is only currently illegal in London and Scotland

Should there be a ban on parking on pavements?

The study comes hot on the heels of a report earlier in the month that found that four in five people would support a ban on drivers parking on pavements.

While illegal in London and Scotland, there are no rules outlawing drivers from mounting the kerb across the rest of the UK.

However, Labour has promised to take action on pavement parking in England after years of heel dragging by the previous regime. But before it does, the RAC ran its own straw poll to see how drivers would vote on a proposed policy change.

It found that 83 per cent want ministers to crackdown on motorists who park on the footpath.

In contrast, just one in ten per cent polled said they do not think pavement parking should be outlawed. The panel was made up of 1,703 drivers.

When the Daily Mail polled 2,700 readers last week, the breakdown was slightly less favourable towards an outright ban.

Just 70 per cent supported the introduction of new laws making it illegal to park with wheels on the kerb.
Anglo Americans 40billion merger with Canadas Teck Resources is unlikely to be the last word.

Copper is a hot commodity, in enormous demand by the car, military and power industries as the world electrifies.

One cannot imagine that investment bankers advising other mining behemoths wont be tempted into the fray.

Anglo has been busy divesting itself of surplus assets since it courageously fought off Australian-quoted colossus BHP last year. Teck closed the door on London-listed Glencore, too.

Neither ambitious BHP boss Mike Henry nor Glencores chief executive Gary Nagle are known for sitting on their hands.

And one can never discount Britains other big mining group Rio, with a freshly minted chief executive in Simon Trott, wanting to get in on the act.

Copper potty: London-listed mining giant Anglo American has signed a 40bn mega-merger with Canadian rival Teck Resources

Investing in new mining deposits is capital intensive, especially in these more environmentally challenging times. So buying ready-made assets and logistics channels always is more attractive.

The transaction is billed as a merger of equals but that is not strictly the case. Anglo American shareholders will own 62.4 per cent of the combined firm and Teck some 37.6 per cent.

That begs big questions about the future. Anglo investors are being promised a handsome 3.3billion special dividend  the kind of payout which doesnt come around very often.

The UK can afford some satisfaction that the main listing for Anglo Teck, as the new enterprise will be called, will remain in London.

That may have been politically necessary to satisfy interests in Johannesburg and Pretoria who have a proprietorial interest in Anglo as one of the few mining groups which refused to be browbeaten by apartheid.

The decision of Anglo to concede that the headquarters will be in Vancouver is contentious. I have been assured that the new company will be incorporated in London and the first chief executive will be Anglo boss Duncan Wanblad.

But where the headquarters go, the share quote often follows  although Vancouver or Toronto might be less liquid for a newcomer on the scale of Anglo Teck.

As for Wanblad, he has so far not managed to recreate the value of the BHP bid in spite of some impressive disposals, such as the spin-out of Anglo Platinum, now called Valterra.

Unlike diamonds, chief executives are not forever. And with the chairman  Tecks Sheila Murray  in Vancouver, there can be no guarantees.

Indeed, the executive spoils are being divided up between the parties, with chief executive and finance director from Anglo and chairman and deputy chief executive from Teck.

Such fuzzy outcomes often spell tension and trouble ahead. Cleaner breaks are always advisable.

There is a nervous bonhomie about selling the deal, with Wanblad declaring he is delighted. Plans are for Anglo Teck to press ahead with the sale of diamond producer De Beers.

The sale process has not been especially easy given the boom in cheaper, lab-generated sparklers, which are seen as undermining the exclusivity of De Beers.

Nevertheless, Taylor Swifts recent engagement ring and enthusiasm for vintage diamonds suggests that all is not lost.

Previous ideas that De Beers could be an initial public offering are now off the table. Both trade, national and even private equity buyers have De Beers in focus.

What the Anglo Teck deal does offer is some semblance of industrial strategy. There is lots of stuff about how the two companies have adjacent copper mines in Chile  Quebrada Blanca, partly owned by Teck, and Anglos Collahuasi.

That offers the chance for efficiencies. But there is also the risk of over-exposure to copper with 70 per cent of the new companys income to come from a single, sometimes volatile metal source.

The combined group becomes a top five copper producer with 1.2 metric tonnes of output a year and assets in Peru and Canada as well as Chile.

Shares in both companies enjoyed a boost from the merger prospects with Tecks stock doing better than Anglo.

It would be pity, however, if Anglo American, having seen BHP off the field of battle in 2024, opened the door to a counteroffer which saw the Sydney-quoted giant march off with the prize.

Stranger things have happened.
HSBC and Standard Chartered have been urged to unlock more than 1billion in frozen pensions owed to Hong Kong exiles who fled to Britain.

Labour MP Phil Brickell told Parliament on Monday that the banks should do the right thing and hand over the money.

These pensions could be spent in local shops, backing businesses or helping childrens futures, he said.

Brickell, a member of the foreign affairs select committee, cited the Mails reporting on the scandal and demanded action.

He said: The banks holding these pensions need to step up. Release the hard-earned money to the people who earned it.

The frozen savings are held in the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF)  a compulsory pension scheme most Hong Kongers and their employers pay into. HSBC and Standard Chartered are trustees for savings held through the MPF.

Ban: HSBC and Standard Chartered have argued that they cannot hand back Hong Kong exiles' pensions because of the Chinese governments directive

Hong Kongers can withdraw pensions early if they have permanently resettled overseas. To do so, they need to provide proof that they are permitted to reside abroad.

In 2021, Chinese authorities said they would no longer recognise British National Overseas (BNO) passports as valid travel documents or forms of identity.

This was seen as retaliation after the Government said Hong Kongers with BNO passports could apply for a new visa, letting them settle in Britain.

BNO was a special status of passport issued to Hong Kongers before the territory was handed to China by the UK in 1997.

Since the visa scheme was launched four years ago, more than 166,300 BNOs have moved to Britain, human rights group Hong Kong Watch claims.

Many fled to the UK to escape repressive national security laws. Beijings order to freeze the funds has left thousands in dire financial straits.

HSBC and Standard Chartered have argued that they cannot act because of the Chinese governments directive.

But campaigners want the banks and the Government to push for the decision to be reversed, arguing it has no basis in law.

Brickells comments came ahead of Business Secretary Peter Kyles arrival in Beijing today for trade talks with the Peoples Republic.
Miner Anglo American will move its headquarters out of London after agreeing a 40billion merger with a Canadian rival that creates one of the worlds largest copper producers.

The FTSE 100 giant, which last year fended off a 39billion bid from BHP, is joining forces with Teck Resources in the sectors second-largest deal ever.

Anglo Teck will be based in Vancouver, Canada, but maintain its primary share listing on the London Stock Exchange.

The proposed deal was welcomed by shareholders in both companies and could spark counter-offers from rival suitors and a wave of consolidation across the sector, according to analysts.

It is even thought BHP could return with a new offer for Anglo.

Under the terms of the merger announced yesterday, Anglo will own 62.4 per cent of the combined group while Teck will hold 37.6 per cent.

Copper deal: The FTSE 100 mining giant Anglo American, which last year fended off a 39bn bid from BHP, is joining forces with Teck Resources in the sectors second-biggest deal ever

Anglo shareholders will receive a special dividend of $4.19 per share, totalling $4.5billion (3.3billion). Shares in the mining giant rushed up 9.1 per cent in London.

The deal comes as Anglo bears a major restructuring under chief executive Duncan Wanblad following the BHP bid.

It has sold its nickel and platinum businesses and is in talks to offload iconic diamond firm De Beers  though the 2.8billion sale of its steelmaking coal business fell through last month.

Wanblad will become Anglo Tecks chief executive with Tecks Jonathan Price serving as his deputy.

We are all committed to preserving and building on the proud heritage of both companies, said Wanblad.

We have a unique opportunity to bring together two highly regarded mining companies whose portfolios and capabilities are deeply complementary.

Anglo told investors the merger is expected to generate annual cost savings and efficiency gains worth 600million four years after the deals completion.

The union  the second largest in the sector behind Glencore and Xstratas 66billion merger in 2013  creates the worlds fifth-largest copper company.

The firms operate Quebrada Blanca and Collahuasi, adjacent copper mines in Chile.

The metal is used in the power and construction sectors and is poised to benefit from burgeoning demand from the electric vehicle sector and other new applications including data centres for artificial intelligence.

Miners are racing to dominate the copper market, though many attempts to strike big deals have fallen through. Teck rejected a 17billion takeover offer from Glencore in 2023.

Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the special dividend sweetens the near-term picture for Anglo American investors.

A host of investors with holdings in the firms welcomed the plans, including Legal & General, the Church of England Pensions Board, Aberdeen and Ninety One.

This is a consolidation that makes sense and brings complementary cultures together, said Adam Matthews, of the Church of England Pensions Board.

George Cheveley, a fund manager at Ninety One, added: Its a deal that makes a lot of sense.

Analysts at Berenberg said Glencore and BHP could launch counter offers of their own.

Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, said: Its interesting to see two companies who have been bid targets find refuge in each others arms, snubbing their suitors and going their own way.
The duo behind Ben & Jerrys have demanded the brand be released from its parent business ahead of a planned market listing.

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield have called for it to become independent again.

But The Magnum Ice Cream Company, which is splitting off from conglomerate Unilever, insisted the brand was not for sale. Magnum will list in Amsterdam in November.

But Cohen and Greenfield wrote to the board saying: We no longer believe Ben & Jerrys can thrive as part of a conglomerate that fails to support its founding mission.

Unilever bought Ben & Jerrys in 2000 but has long had a tense relationship with the ice cream firm, which is outspoken on social and political issues.

Ben & Jerrys claimed last year that Unilever had urged the brand to stop public criticism of Donald Trump.

Ice-cool: Eva Longoria for Mangum ice creams which is splitting off from conglomerate Unilever

Cohen and Greenfield said in the letter: We no longer believe Ben & Jerrys can thrive as part of a conglomerate that fails to support its founding mission, and which is reducing the companys value by undercutting one of the critical reasons why customers love and support the brand.

It came as Unilever said it expects sales to grow by between 3 per cent and 5 per cent a year from 2026 at the Magnum-led ice cream spin-off ahead of its planned IPO.

The London-listed consumer group, which also owns Marmite and Dove, will retain a 20 per cent stake but expects to reduce this over time.
Zara owner Inditex unveiled a slowdown in revenue growth for the second quarter, as Donald Trump's tariffs and a strong dollar hit its US operations.

In the Americas, including the US, its second biggest market, Inditex saw sales fall 3.8 in the first half, citing a 'complex' market.

The company's investor relations director, Gorka Garcia-Tapia, told analysts the 'complex' comment referred to US tariffs and trade wars, as well as foreign exchange swings.

Donald Trump has implemented a 15 per cent levy on goods imported from the EU.

Inditex, which is the world's largest fashion retailer, said second quarter sales rose to 10.08billion in the three months to the end of July.

While an improvement on the previous quarter, analysts had been expecting growth of around 3.4 per cent.

But Inditex said sales accelerated in recent weeks after the successful launch of its latest autumn and winter clothing lines. The business said its new collections had been 'very well received' by shoppers.

New ranges: Zara owner Inditex said new autumn and winter clothing ranges were proving popular with shoppers

The group reported a 9 per cent rise in sales across its stores and online between 1 August and 7 September

The Spanish retail firm, which also owns the Pull & Bear and Bershka brands, revealed total sales grew by 1.6 per cent to 15.9billion in the first half, with sales rising 5.1 per cent after adjusting for currency rates.

Sales for the groups Zara business grew slightly to 11.4billion, but represented a slowdown in growth amid pressure on consumer finances.

Oscar Garcia Maceiras, chief executive of Inditex, said: 'We have again achieved a solid performance in this first half of 2025, with satisfactory sales in a complex market environment and keeping strong levels of profitability.

'The efficient execution accomplished by our teams demonstrates the strength of Inditexs business model.'

Separately on Wednesday Primark owner Associated British Foods said the retail chain saw trading improve in recent months despite 'consumer caution', as its UK and stores recovered ground.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said Inditex was 'navigating a challenging path.'

He added: 'Its products are more expensive [than Primark's], which means the goods must sparkle to convince cautious shoppers to part with their cash.

'The difference between Inditex and Primark is that the former is more upbeat about current trading, explaining why its shares jumped on its update.

'Both Inditex and Primark have US operations and theyre having to contend with tariffs and unfavourable foreign exchange rates.

'Life is never easy as a retailer as there are so many things out of their control  be it the wrong type of weather, economic weakness or taxes. It currently feels like a perfect storm for the retail sector and management must be adept at spinning multiple plates.'
The boss of Wetherspoons has called for simplified taxes on pubs to protect the social fabric of the nation.

Tim Martin, who founded the pub giant in 1979, yesterday became the latest business voice to tell the Chancellor hospitality businesses pay wildly excessive taxes.

Mr Martin, who has long been a critic of how supermarkets are taxed compared to pubs, said venues are disadvantaged by a perverse tax system.

And he joined a chorus of bosses to ask Labour to provide respite for the sector through tax reforms at the upcoming Budget on 26 November.

He said supermarkets and pubs should be charged the same rate of VAT and business rates to encourage punters to drink at venues instead of at home.

In a plea published on the London Stock Exchange news service, the 70-year-old said: This tax disparity is harming businesses and high streets, but also the social fabric of the nation - where, other than pubs, can you temporarily escape the attentions of your own family?

Tim Martin has long been a critic of how supermarkets are taxed compared to pubs

A consequent anomaly is that food for posh dinner parties in Notting Hill or the Cotswolds is VAT-free, whereas fish and chips at your local pub attracts the full 20 per cent. Just ask Jeremy Clarkson.

The hospitality industry was hit by a 500million increase in business rates in April alongside a barrage of other costs imposed by Labour. That included the national insurance hike and a sharp increase in the minimum wage.

It has been revealed that some 89,000 jobs in the sector have been axed since Rachel Reeves Budget last October, according to analysis of official figures by UK Hospitality.

In particular, Mr Martin takes issue with the 20 per cent VAT rate charged on food sales at pubs and restaurants. As supermarkets pay nothing, he says they can effectively subsidise the selling price of beer, wine and spirits.

He added: It's a basic principle that taxes should be fair and equitable. All we're asking for is equality with supermarkets, which are doing an excellent job for their customers - the same rate of VAT and the same business rates per pint.

And he claims pubs pay nearly 20 times more in business rates - which are a commercial levy charged on brick-and-mortar firms - than grocers.

Mr Martin said the sector had made a strong case that the multiplier rate paid by hospitality businesses should be reduced, resulting in lower bills for hard-up venues.

Ms Reeves is facing building pressure from High Street bosses over her proposed rates reforms, which are theoretically designed to level the playing field between bricks-and-mortar businesses and online rivals.

But she has angered big supermarkets by increasing taxes for larger premises, with grocers arguing the changes will also hit anchor stores that draw in shoppers to other businesses.

Retailers fear around 4,000 shops could be forced to pay higher rates.

There are also worries that the Budgets timing will weigh on already dire consumer spending in the golden quarter  the run-up to Christmas.

Kate Nicholls, chair of UKHospitality, said: 'Hospitality businesses all agree that the current business rates system is completely broken and unjustly penalises bricks and mortar businesses, like those in hospitality.

'Reforming the system to level the playing field is the right thing to do and Im pleased that the Government has legislated to do just that.

'Now, it must follow through on its commitments by introducing the maximum possible business rates discount for hospitality businesses, which will deliver lower bills for pubs and hospitality.'
Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (C, rear), also head of the National Cultural Heritage Administration (NCHA), attends a press conference held by the State Council Information Office (SCIO) on high-quality development of the cultural heritage sector during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 10, 2025. (Xinhua/Jin Liangkuai)

The State Council Information Office (SCIO) holds a press conference on high-quality development of the cultural heritage sector during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 10, 2025. (Xinhua/Jin Liangkuai)

The State Council Information Office (SCIO) holds a press conference on high-quality development of the cultural heritage sector during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 10, 2025. (Xinhua/Jin Liangkuai)

Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan, also head of the National Cultural Heritage Administration (NCHA), speaks at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office (SCIO) on high-quality development of the cultural heritage sector during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 10, 2025. (Xinhua/Jin Liangkuai)

The State Council Information Office (SCIO) holds a press conference on high-quality development of the cultural heritage sector during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 10, 2025. (Xinhua/Jin Liangkuai)

Journalists work at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office (SCIO) on high-quality development of the cultural heritage sector during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 10, 2025. (Xinhua/Jin Liangkuai)
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 70 shipping containers plunged into the water Tuesday morning when a cargo vessel was docked at Southern California's Port of Long Beach, authorities said.

According to a press release from the port, approximately 67 containers toppled from the cargo ship Mississippi at Terminal G shortly after 9:00 a.m. local time. Several of the falling containers struck and damaged a smaller clean-air barge moored alongside the vessel.

Footage posted online captured the dramatic moment as containers tumbled from the vessel like a sea glacier collapsing, crashing into the harbor waters and leaving some twisted and partially submerged. The Mississippi had last docked in China two weeks earlier, according to VesselFinder, a shipping tracker.

A Unified Command has been established to coordinate the response, involving the U.S. Coast Guard, Long Beach Fire Department, Long Beach Police Department, the Port of Long Beach and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

"No injuries have been reported, and no other terminals or port operations have been impacted," the port said in a statement.

The Coast Guard has enforced a 500-yard safety zone around the vessel and is issuing hourly safety broadcasts to alert nearby maritime traffic.

The Port of Long Beach is one of the busiest container gateways in the United States. It handled about 9.6 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2024 and set a new record in July 2025 with 944,232 TEUs. 
BEIJING, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- China, Russia and Mongolia held their joint border defense exercise on Monday and Tuesday, staging drills in a frontier area where the three countries meet.

The exercise, code-named "Border Defense Cooperation 2025," focused on strengthening coordination against terrorist and sabotage activities in border regions, the People's Liberation Army Daily reported Wednesday.

The live joint exercise aimed to bolster the three countries' ability to respond to border security threats while deepening strategic trust, according to the report.

During the drill, the three sides set up a joint command post in China and carried out activities including joint planning, reconnaissance and strikes, testing a new model of border defense cooperation, it said.

After the exercise, the three militaries exchanged views on border management and control. 
MANILA, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines has deplored an Israeli attack on the Qatari capital of Doha, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday.

The attack was a grave violation of international law, particularly the fundamental principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity enshrined in the United Nations Charter, it said in a statement.

"The Philippines highlights the need for parties to the conflict in Gaza to agree to an immediate and permanent ceasefire, uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law, ensure the protection of civilians, and work toward a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East," the department said.

Israel launched an unprecedented airstrike on Doha on Tuesday, targeting a building housing senior Hamas officials in what Israeli authorities described as an attempt to assassinate leaders of the group. 
VILNIUS, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- A major fire broke out Wednesday at a liquefied gas filling station in Vilnius, igniting eight rail cars loaded with gas and triggering multiple explosions, Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT) reported.

Interior Minister Vladislav Kondratovic said the blaze was likely caused by "violations of working conditions," citing preliminary data. Police have activated the Shield Plan, and the State Border Guard Service is monitoring the site from the air with a helicopter. 
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A dilapidated former Mayo dance hall brimming with redevelopment potential is up for an online auction at 11am 25 September, 2025.

The advised starting point for the bidding is 70,000.

The derelict property features 11 beds, sheds and outbuildings.

The house and surrounding buildings are situated in North Mayo, on the wild Atlantic way.

Read More: 'They will take your money' - Leading economist David McWilliams warns of 'awful' scam

The property is half an hour's drive from Belmullet, and an hour away from Ballina town, county Mayo.

The listing states that the property is a rare opportunity for buyers.

Over the years, the property previously operated as an undertakers and a shop.

The listing reads: Carrowteige is renowned for its rugged beauty, walking trails, beaches, and strong sense of community, making this an ideal location for a holiday home, artist retreat, or small business base.

Whether you're a first-time buyer seeking a rural escape, a developer with vision, or a local returning home, this is a project that will benefit from Vacant Property Refurbishment Grants and SEAI Grants (subject to approval).

The full site is 0.65 acres and is available to view in full at Daft.ie.
For close news readers we share a collection of news that confirms the "traditional: end of Summer crime spike has arrived and continues to plauge local streets.

Accordingly, we share info from police updates, court cases, public safety notices and, of course, community outreach.

Check TKC news gathering . . .

Man's death Monday in KCMO ruled a homicide after medical examiner found victim was shot The death of a man found early Monday morning in Kansas City, Missouri, is being investigated as a homicide after a medical examiner found evidence the victim had been hit by gunfire.

Kansas City police looking for suspect accused of aggravated assault in August KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Police are asking the public for help identifying a suspect accused of an aggravated assault that happened in August in Kansas City. According to the Kansas City Police Departmen...

Another member of Kansas City motorcycle gang pleads guilty to brutal attack Another member of a Kansas City motorcycle gang has pleaded guilty to a brutal attack.

Man charged in stabbing death of Kansas City, Kansas, man A 29-year-old man is charged with second-degree murder in the Sept. 4 stabbing death of a man in a Kansas City, Kansas, residence.

Officials mum about Wyandotte County inmate's death after homicide ruling A final autopsy ruled Charles Adair's July 5 death in the Wyandotte County Detention Center a homicide, raising new questions about deputies' actions and possible charges.

Police identify man fatally shot Saturday night in 8200 block of Bannister Road The Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department is investigating a Saturday night homicide in the 8200 block of Bannister Road.

Additional charges filed against owner of Metro Towing A court filing late last week has added 16 charges against the owner of Metro Towing.

Man charged with murder after man stabbed to death in Kansas City, Kansas The Wyandotte County District Attorney on Friday charged Troy Ford, 29, with second-degree murder.

USPS employee charged in life-threatening shooting at coworker's home A Kansas City woman has been charged in connection with a life-threatening shooting.

Accused Jackson County killer's escape ended Tuesday in an arrest in Cass County An accused murderer's flight from justice ended Tuesday when he was arrested by officers from several law enforcement agencies.

Man with prior DWIs accused of crashing company truck through yard, walking away Court documents state that, without being asked, the truck's owner claimed her employee was not drinking before he crashed the company vehicle.

'It's just pathetically simple to steal property': Leaders look for ways to crack down on deed theft Story after story, elderly resident after elderly resident, showing up at TerriLois' door.

Clay County deputies warn of VIN swapping on stolen vehicles Clay County deputies recovered a Dodge Charger that had been reported stolen over a year ago, despite the thief changing the vehicle's VIN.

Lee's Summit Police Ofc. Jared Timbrook shot 4 times in June, shares story of survival Lee's Summit Police Officer Jared Timbrook spoke Tuesday about being shot four times as he responded to a domestic disturbance call June 1, 2025, during a press conference at LSPD Headquarters.

Developing . . .
This story has a couple of implications . . .

We're actually surprised at the level of push back in suburban Kansas.

Moreover . . .

The response was unequivocal and takes a more "progressive" tone than so many other nearby suburbs.

Check-it . . .

Many people in Overland Park took issue with some of the language in the $500,000 grant.



It includes directives on Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.



The new language in the grant could mean local officials would have to cooperate with ICE in immigration enforcement.



City Manager Lori Curtis Luther made it clear before the vote that there will be "no change" with the city's interactions with ICE and DEI programs.



Curtis Luther went on to say the city "will not and cannot" enforce immigration policies.

Take a look via www.TonysKansasCity.com embed . . .
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BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. Only a few days left until the start of the Formula 1 Qatar Airways Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2025, which will be held in Baku on September 19-21, the Baku City Circuit Operations Company told Trend.

As race week rolls around, the engines will be revving and the streets of Baku will be buzzing, turning our capital into the beating heart of world motorsports.



Over 12,000 foreign tourists are set to flock to Baku during the race days, making it a real hive of activity.

By the looks of the official figures, it seems that over 80 percent of the crowd last year was made up of folks from abroad. Many guests even showed up in our capital without a ticket to their name, just to soak up the buzz of Formula 1.



As per the numbers crunched by Formula 1, a whopping 55 percent of fans are all in when it comes to recommending the Azerbaijan Grand Prix to their pals, and a solid 72 percent are itching to return in the next couple of years.



The writing's on the wall, as the average foreign fan is shelling out over $2,200, turning the Grand Prix into a golden goose for tourism and entrepreneurship.

In 2024, the crowd tuning in to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix live soared past 86 million, while the buzz around the race on various platforms reached a staggering 3.9 billion viewers.



With the buzz surrounding the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, two new stands sprang up in 2025, hitting the ground running.



Tickets for 10 out of the 12 stands have flown off the shelves and are now as scarce as hen's teeth.



The total capacity is set to soar past 20,000 people, which will only bolster Baku's standing on the Formula 1 map.



A multitude of folks have rolled up their sleeves and thrown their hats in the ring for the race preparations. Over 2,000 engineers, technicians, assemblers, and logisticians are rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands dirty in the construction and installation work.

To keep the peace and avoid ruffling any feathers, the work is done mostly under the cover of darkness.



During race week, the team swells with an extra 1,500 employees, 2,000 volunteers, and 1,400 marshals, making it a real hive of activity.



In the early days, the lion's share of the work went to foreign companies, but nowadays, the ball is in the court of local contractors who handle the whole shebang.



This paves the way for new job opportunities and boosts the know-how of local experts.



Thus, the Grand Prix is not just a game of ball, but also a golden opportunity for the country's economy to hit the ground running.

Magsud Farzullayev, CEO of Baku City Circuit Operations Company, is calling on fans to soak up the thrilling race and take in the warm Azerbaijani hospitality.

"The previous year was a record-breaking year. The Azerbaijan Grand Prix has become one of the most anticipated races on the Formula 1 calendar as a result of the widespread interest. In addition, 2025 will be even more incredible. Two new structures will enable the event to reach its highest capacity ever. An exclusive Formula 1 Champions Club will be operational for the first time, providing guests with the opportunity to experience paddock excursions, pit lane views, and other distinctive experiences. This will provide an additional opportunity for spectators to witness the Azerbaijan Grand Prix live.



Baku is once again the destination for the world's most formidable drivers, and they are promising unforgettable experiences. Baku City Circuit is primed for surprises, as is customary. If the track's tempo appears to be too sluggish for your liking, simply anticipate the evening: On September 19, DJ Anyma and Glass Animals, two international superstars, will deliver an exceptional performance to attendees," he said.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. New laboratories in Azerbaijan will participate in studies within the framework of the Euro-Asian Cooperation of National Metrological Institutions (COOMET), COOMET President Lazizbek Saidoripov told media on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of seven new laboratories of the Azerbaijan Institute of Metrology, Trend reports.

"Today we are witnessing a unique eventthe opening of new laboratories of the Azerbaijan Institute of Metrology. These laboratories serve not only the development of industry in Azerbaijan, but also science, technology, and the economy.

The Azerbaijan Institute of Metrology plays a very important role in COOMET, participating in all projects. And yesterday we held a meeting of the COOMET committee and discussed cooperation issues between the participating countries. Azerbaijan, Turkiye, and Uzbekistan are promoting new initiatives within COOMET," he said.

Saidoripov believes that this provides an opportunity to receive international recognition of the measurements carried out at this institute.

"In this way, we help both the economy and the development of technology. If an institute receives international recognition, it enters international markets without duplicating some processes and procedures. Close cooperation is underway in the development of employee potential and the introduction of new technologies, such as quantum metrology and information transformation.

In this area, we also discussed key points today, such as knowledge transfer, mirror internships, and testing new standards. Today, these seven new standards, which we solemnly opened, will participate in studies within the COOMET framework, thereby confirming equivalence at the international level and conducting interlaboratory studies with developed institutes.

The uniqueness of these laboratories is that very precise measurements are carried out here, which directly affect the quality and safety of products manufactured in Azerbaijan. Thus, the Azerbaijan Institute of Metrology contributes to attracting new investments and helps develop the country's economy," he concluded.

COOMET serves as a collaborative nexus for metrology professionals within the Euro-Asian domain, functioning as a proficient regional metrology organization that adeptly executes its objectives in alignment with sanctioned long-term strategic frameworks. Collaboration within COOMET and its resultant outputs empower member nations to effectively navigate metrological challenges encountered by national economies in the context of a globalized marketplace, which is essential for optimizing and expediting the transnational flow of goods and services.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. Head of the Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration and Assistant to the Azerbaijani President Hikmet Hajiyev held a number of meetings in Washington, Trend reports.

"In meetings with Senator Steve Daines and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, the sides underlined the strategic importance of the August 8 Washington Summit between President Ilham Aliyev and President Donald Trump and its positive outcomes for Azerbaijan-US relations and regional peace. I emphasized the importance of repealing Section 907 and extended an invitation them to visit Azerbaijan," Hajiyev's publication on the X page said.

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Wang Zhiying (3rd L), a volunteer of China's multinational technology company Lenovo, gives an AI-themed lecture at a computer classroom at Yanchuan school of Zhangxian County, Dingxi City of northwest China's Gansu Province, on Sept. 10, 2025.

With computers donated by Lenovo and volunteers of the company, a computer classroom was built up at Yanchuan school of Zhangxian County.

During a public welfare event held at the school on Wednesday, students and faculty were able to dip themselves into the realm of AI technology via a lecture designed by experts of Lenovo. (Xinhua/Chen Bin)

Children interact with a volunteer of China's multinational technology company Lenovo during an AI-themed lecture at Yanchuan school of Zhangxian County, Dingxi City of northwest China's Gansu Province, on Sept. 10, 2025.

With computers donated by Lenovo and volunteers of the company, a computer classroom was built up at Yanchuan school of Zhangxian County.

During a public welfare event held at the school on Wednesday, students and faculty were able to dip themselves into the realm of AI technology via a lecture designed by experts of Lenovo. (Xinhua/Chen Bin)

Chen Mingjin, an AI expert of China's multinational technology company Lenovo, gives an AI enlightenment lecture at Yanchuan school of Zhangxian County, Dingxi City of northwest China's Gansu Province, on Sept. 10, 2025.

With computers donated by Lenovo and volunteers of the company, a computer classroom was built up at Yanchuan school of Zhangxian County.

During a public welfare event held at the school on Wednesday, students and faculty were able to dip themselves into the realm of AI technology via a lecture designed by experts of Lenovo. (Xinhua/Chen Bin)

Children attend an AI-themed lecture at a computer classroom at Yanchuan school of Zhangxian County, Dingxi City of northwest China's Gansu Province, on Sept. 10, 2025.

With computers donated by Lenovo and volunteers of the company, a computer classroom was built up at Yanchuan school of Zhangxian County.

During a public welfare event held at the school on Wednesday, students and faculty were able to dip themselves into the realm of AI technology via a lecture designed by experts of Lenovo. (Xinhua/Chen Bin)

Children pose for photos with AI-generated images of their dreamed careers at Yanchuan school of Zhangxian County, Dingxi City of northwest China's Gansu Province, on Sept. 10, 2025.

With computers donated by Lenovo and volunteers of the company, a computer classroom was built up at Yanchuan school of Zhangxian County.

During a public welfare event held at the school on Wednesday, students and faculty were able to dip themselves into the realm of AI technology via a lecture designed by experts of Lenovo. (Xinhua/Chen Bin)

A boy signs his name on an AI-generated image of his dreamed career at Yanchuan school of Zhangxian County, Dingxi City of northwest China's Gansu Province, on Sept. 10, 2025.

With computers donated by Lenovo and volunteers of the company, a computer classroom was built up at Yanchuan school of Zhangxian County.

During a public welfare event held at the school on Wednesday, students and faculty were able to dip themselves into the realm of AI technology via a lecture designed by experts of Lenovo. (Xinhua/Chen Bin)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. The Heydar Aliyev Foundation, the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and the Bambino Gesu Pediatric Hospital of the Holy See have signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation, Trend reports.

The signing took place as part of the Assistant to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Executive Director of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Anar Alakbarovs visit to the Holy See. The document was inked by Anar Alakbarov and Tiziano Onesti, Head of the Bambino Gesu Hospital.

The memorandum envisages the implementation of training and educational programs with Europes largest pediatric medical institution, the conduct of joint research in the fields of molecular genetics and personalized medicine, as well as cooperation in the diagnosis and treatment of complex clinical cases that cannot be treated in Azerbaijan, together with Bambino Gesu Hospital.

The main areas of cooperation also include enhancing the professional knowledge and skills of medical personnel working in pediatrics in Azerbaijan, organizing joint scientific and clinical activities in molecular genetics, clinical diagnostics, and rare diseases, as well as expanding the application of genomic diagnostics and personalized medical approaches in Azerbaijan.

Founded in 1869, Bambino Gesu Hospital is today the largest pediatric hospital and research center in Europe. It is also one of the European centers authorized to perform all types of pediatric organ, cell, and tissue transplants. In addition, the hospital serves as the Italian headquarters of Orphanet, the worlds largest database for rare diseases, which brings together participants from more than 40 countries.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. Today, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, Jeyhun Bayramov, received Brendan Hanrahan, the Senior Bureau Official for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs (EUR) at the U.S. Department of State, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Trend.

According to the ministry, the meeting focused on Azerbaijan-U.S. relations, issues arising from the Memorandum of Understanding on the establishment of a Strategic Working Group to prepare the Strategic Partnership Charter, the Azerbaijan-Armenia normalization process, as well as regional and international security matters of mutual interest.

The officials exchanged views on the historical development of bilateral relations and mutually beneficial cooperation in areas such as security and energy. Particular emphasis was placed on high-level visits and contacts held in August of this year, which have played a significant role in advancing relations.

The historic Washington meeting and subsequent agreements, including the initialing of a peace treaty and steps to dismantle structures remaining from the previous conflict, were highlighted as key milestones in promoting the Azerbaijan-Armenia peace agenda initiated by Azerbaijan.

Other issues of mutual interest were also discussed during the meeting.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. The travel of Brendan Hanrahan, the Senior Bureau Official for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs (EUR) at the U.S. Department of State to Baku and Yerevan builds on President Trumps historic August 8 meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, ushering in a new era of peace in the South Caucasus region, the U.S. Embassy told Trend.

During his trip, SBO Hanrahan announced plans to convene inaugural working groups with both governments before the end of the calendar year to implement the bilateral MOUs signed by President Trump and his counterparts, said the embassy.

Reportedly, in Baku, SBO Hanrahan shared the initial draft of the U.S.-Azerbaijan strategic working group charter, which will launch the first-ever U.S.-Azerbaijan Strategic Partnership to advance our cooperation on regional connectivity, economic investment, and security cooperation.

He also addressed the future of bilateral security cooperation following President Trumps decision to waive section 907. We welcome the news of the latest round of substantive discussions between Armenian and Azerbaijani officials on border delimitation, demining, and infrastructure development in support of TRIPP. U.S.-led initiatives, coupled with these efforts, will attract private investment and usher in a new era of prosperity for Armenia, Azerbaijan, and beyond, the embassy said.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. A delegation from the Azerbaijani Parliament Administration, led by Chief of Staff Farid Hajiyev, held a meeting in Tashkent on September 10 with Kudrat Nurullayev, Chief of Staff of the Senate of the Supreme Assembly of Uzbekistan, as part of its official visit to the country, Trend reports.

During the meeting, Nurullayev stressed that relations between Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan have reached the level of strategic partnership, underscoring the role of both heads of state in strengthening bilateral ties. He pointed to the opening of Uzbekistans new embassy building in Baku, the foundation of Uzbekistan Park, and joint projects as indicators of the strong relationship.

Farid Hajiyev conveyed greetings from Speaker Sahiba Gafarova to Senate Speaker Tanzila Norbaeva, highlighting that historic ties between the two nations have reached new heights under the leadership of Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Shavkat Mirziyoyev. He emphasized the importance of parliamentary cooperation, including reciprocal visits by speakers and mutual support within parliamentary organizations.

Hajiyev also expressed gratitude for the high-level hosting of the Non-Aligned Movement Parliamentary Network conference in Tashkent earlier this year, as well as the first Uzbekistan-Azerbaijan interparliamentary forum in Khiva. He voiced confidence that constructive cooperation and exchanges between parliamentary administrations would continue to grow.

The Azerbaijani delegation also toured the Senates administrative building, becoming acquainted with the press center, library, printing facilities, and working conditions of senators and staff. Later, they held discussions with officials from oversight, budget, and regional development departments of the Senate, exchanging views on institutional practices and cooperation.

The delegation included Mehman Gayibov, Head of the Press and Public Relations Department of the Parliament, Rauf Mammadov, Assistant to the Speaker, Samad Sultanov, Deputy Head of the State-Building and Military Legislation Department, and Ilkin Gahramanov, Sector Head of the Secretariat of the Parliaments Leadership.

The delegation of the Azerbaijani Parliament also held meetings with staff from the Control and Analytical Department of the Senate of the Supreme Assembly of Uzbekistan, the Information and Analytical Division, the Department for Socio-Economic Development and Budget of Territories, and the Center for the Study of the Activities of Territorial Representative Bodies, where they were briefed on the work of these departments.

Prior to the meetings, the delegation, led by the Chief of Staff of the Azerbaijani Parliament, Farid Hajiyev, visited the Senates administrative building as part of an exchange of experience between the two parliaments. During the visit, the members familiarized themselves with the activities of the Press Center, library, printing house, and various departments, and reviewed the working conditions created for senators and staff.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. The United States remains committed to supporting Azerbaijan and Armenia in advancing the peace process, Amy Carlon, Charge dAffaires at the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan, said at a reception in Baku, Trend reports.

Today, we are witnessing a historic period. The meeting held on August 8 between the US, Azerbaijan, and Armenia has opened a new page in relations, said the charge d'affaires.

She noted that the US will continue its efforts to promote peace between Baku and Yerevan.

According to her, achieving peace will allow to fully unlock the potential for economic cooperation in the South Caucasus.

Carlon stated that lasting peace is possible within the framework of broader cooperation.

In turn, Michael Hackett, head of the public affairs section at the US Embassy in Azerbaijan, noted that the meeting on August 8 was very inspiring.

This meeting demonstrated that dialogue is important and leads to real change. As leaders of countries find common ground, so too can people learn from each other and strengthen each other, he said.

Hackett added that he hopes to launch joint cultural projects in the coming period.

By working together, we can open up new opportunities for the younger generation and deepen relations between countries, he said.

Deputy Head of Public Relations Anthony Dean Tranchina emphasized that he had returned to Baku after a short time.

I feel at home here. I have very fond memories of Azerbaijan: celebrating Novruz in Shaki, climbing to the Alinje peak in Nakhchivan, walking along the Boulevard every weekend, he said.

In conclusion, Tranchina emphasized that the meeting on August 8 opened up the possibility for lasting peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia, while also creating new opportunities for the development of relations between the US and Azerbaijan.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 11. The Permanent Mission of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva delivered a statement at the 60th session of the UN Human Rights Council, Trend reports.

After restoring its territorial integrity and sovereignty, Azerbaijan has been carrying out large-scale restoration, reconstruction, and urban development works in Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur.

Within the framework of the Great Return State Program, initiatives are being implemented to create a network of social services, develop infrastructure, provide housing and employment opportunities, as well as ensure access to quality healthcare and education for former internally displaced persons returning to their native lands. As a result of these efforts, more than 50,000 former IDPs have already returned to their ancestral lands, the statement said.

Special emphasis in the statement was placed on the significant progress achieved in the process of normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia. It was noted that on August 8, 2025, in Washington, with the participation of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, the Prime Minister of Armenia, and the President of the United States as a witness, a Joint Declaration was signed, paving the way for the normalization of bilateral relations and the establishment of lasting peace in the region.

One of the key provisions of the Joint Declaration is the commitment to open transport and communication links between the two countries. In addition, Azerbaijan and Armenia have initialed a draft Agreement on Peace and Inter-State Relations, which sets the parameters for building friendly neighborly relations. We call on member states to support these efforts, the statement emphasized.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. The final day of the forum on the theme "Resonance of Development and Security: Regional Cooperation and Governance in the Institutional Transformation of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA)" held in Baku today, Trend reports.

The event is jointly organized by the Center for Analysis of International Relations (CAIR) and the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS).

Today, discussions were held on the theme "CICA as an International OrganizationTransformation and Capacity Building."

On the first day of the forum, discussions were held on the topics "Promoting Security through DevelopmentExploring New Approaches to Security Management in Asia," "Cooperation in Supply Chains in the Era of Green and Digital Transformation," and "Strengthening Eurasian Connectivity: The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Middle Corridor, the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), and Other Projects."
BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. The opening ceremony of the International Water Management Exhibition and Conference "Baku Water Week" was held in Baku, Trend reports.

The exhibition, organized with the support of the Azerbaijan State Water Resources Agency (ADWRA), will demonstrate the latest technologies, innovative mechanisms, and modern world experience in the field of water management.

The exhibition will bring together state agencies, international companies, experts, and professional visitors.

The Baku Water Week exhibition will demonstrate large-scale work done and to be done in the country's water supply sector.

The event, which is of strategic importance for Azerbaijan and the region and creates opportunities for open dialogue and practical cooperation in the field of water management, is preparing to provide concrete benefits and real opportunities for local and foreign participants this year as well.

The Baku Water Week will provide an opportunity for state agencies, the private sector, and specialists to find innovative ways to address problems based on new ideas, as well as establish new initiatives and effective business relationships, and make new contributions to increasing the efficiency of water resources management in our country.

More than 60 companies and delegations representing Azerbaijan, Germany, the US, Austria, Belarus, the UK, the Czech Republic, Israel, Switzerland, India, Hungary, Turkiye, Serbia, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore are participating in the exhibition.

The products and services to be presented at the exhibition are diverse: analysis and laboratory technologies; banking services; pipes and pipeline equipment and products; cloud seeding technologies; flood protection technologies and shoreline reinforcement works; drainage equipment; scientific research institutes; hydraulic installations; drinking water treatment; water supply and sewage; construction and drilling equipment and machinery in water supply and water management; measurement, regulation and control technologies in water supply and water management; design and construction of water management facilities; information and communication technologies in water management; artificial intelligence in water management; education, scientific research in water management; irrigation systems; water desalination technologies; waste and rainwater discharge and treatment systems.

On the first day of the event, presentations on "Integrated solutions for water treatment" and "Achieving guaranteed results through integrated engineering of water supply and wastewater facilities" will be held in the presentation zone, along with a case session on "Global climate change: Managing drought risks in Azerbaijan," an expert session on "Current state of the Caspian Sea, problems and solutions," and a session on "Sustainable wastewater managementtowards the goals of COP29."

To note, the Baku Water Week will continue until September 12.

The Azerbaijan State Water Resources Agency (ASWRA) was instituted via a presidential decree on March 30, 2023, to optimize hydrological resource governance and mitigate the challenges associated with water scarcity within the national context. The agency was established through the amalgamation of antecedent hydrological governance bodies into a singular, cohesive framework.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. The Baku Network expert platform rolled out the next part of the analytical video series "Dialogue with Tofig Abbasov", Trend reports.

The guest of the program was People's Artist of Azerbaijan, member of the Association of Artists of Germany, and Chairman of the European Association of Cultural Workers of Azerbaijan, Ashraf Heybatov, who shared his views on the role of art in a turbulent world, cultural diplomacy, and his own projects aimed at preserving historical memory.

Heybatov noted that humanity has entered an unstable and largely unpredictable period.

According to him, it is in times like these that the activities of artists acquire special significance.

"My mission is to promote only positive things, our homeland, Azerbaijan. Art is essentially international, and it is artists, writers, and musicians who should become bridges between peoples," he said.

He emphasized that hostility and hatred cannot be permanent categories, because people inevitably get tired of them.

Therefore, the task of culture is to build new bridges, stronger and more durable than before.

The artist recalled that his exhibitions were held at prestigious international venues - from the Vatican to NATO and the OSCE.

He met with world politicians and public figures, including former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, and was also invited to the anniversary of Nobel laureate Gunter Grass, whose portrait he painted with his own hand.

According to Heybatov, such contacts give him the opportunity to pronounce the word "Azerbaijan" more often in the international arena and remind the world community of the richness of Azerbaijani culture.

Answering the host's questions, the artist noted the growth of radical right-wing sentiments in Europe.

According to him, this is especially noticeable in East Germany, where the Pegida movement originated.

Heybatov emphasized that fascist ideology should not get a second wind, recalling the sad lessons of the 20th century.

In this regard, he drew attention to the alarming manifestations of nationalist marches in Yerevan, including at the monument to Garegin Nzhdeh.

Heybatov also spoke about the difficulties associated with the position of Armenian radicals who do not want reconciliation with Azerbaijan.

He recalled that in the Soviet years, cultural ties between Azerbaijani and Armenian artists were close and devoid of nationalist overtones, however, already in the 1980s, foreign Armenian circles actively tried to prepare the ground for the separation of Karabakh.

According to the artist, today, cultural figures should look for new opportunities for peaceful dialogue and the restoration of bridges, relying on humanistic values.

Heybatov paid special attention to the topic of historical memory.

He emphasized that Armenian extremists continue to elevate figures whose names are associated with crimes against Azerbaijanis into symbols, mentioning Khankendi in this context.

The artist also spoke about his project - a series of graphic works dedicated to the March genocide of 1918.

According to him, the artist's mission is not only to create landscapes and still lives, but also to convey the truth about the tragic pages of the history of Azerbaijan.

Heybatov pointed out that he recently held a master class in Lachin, where he painted pictures dedicated to his native land together with children.

In his opinion, the cultivation of love for the homeland should begin from an early age.

He also spoke about his exhibitions within the framework of the "Turkic World" both in Azerbaijan and abroad.

In Berlin, Heybatov's projects were repeatedly opened by Turkish diplomats, which became an important contribution to strengthening cultural ties.

Summing up, he emphasized that an artist cannot be cut off from the times.

"We must convey the truth about our country, about our history, build bridges between cultures, and cultivate patriotism through art. This is the mission of an artist of the 21st century," he added.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. In accordance with the training plan for 2025, practical sessions were conducted in the Azerbaijan Army, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense told Trend.

The units executed a strategic redeployment from fixed operational nodes to designated assembly zones and accomplished mission objectives in alignment with established protocols.



Throughout the operational sessions, the primary emphasis was on sustaining the forces' tactical preparedness at an elevated echelon and guaranteeing a robust, uninterrupted, and effective command and control of the units.



The personnel exhibited exemplary proficiency throughout the operational training modules.

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BEIJING, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- China has made significant strides in green development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), with increased forest coverage, improved biodiversity, and closer harmony between humans and nature.

According to a press conference held on Wednesday, China completed 549 million mu (about 36.6 million hectares) of land greening in the period, including 185 million mu of afforestation.

With its forest coverage rate rising to 25.09 percent, up nearly two percentage points from 2020, China contributed roughly one-quarter of the world's newly added greenery. China's forest stock volume has reached 20.99 billion cubic meters, hitting the 2030 target ahead of schedule.

China boasts the fastest and largest growth in green coverage worldwide, Guan Zhi'ou, minister of natural resources, told the press conference.

Efforts to restore key ecosystems have also yielded results. China has rehabilitated more than 2.4 million mu of abandoned mines, restored 820 kilometers of coastline, and repaired 760,000 mu of coastal wetlands.

Guan emphasized that the area of mangroves has expanded to 465,000 mu, making China one of the few countries in the world to record a net increase in mangrove coverage.

Biodiversity protection has also advanced through the establishment of the first five national parks, which consolidate over 120 existing protected areas and encompass nearly 30 percent of the country's key terrestrial species.

Wild giant pandas now enjoy a larger and more comfortable habitat, and wild populations of tigers and leopards are growing, said Liu Guohong, head of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration (National Park Administration).

Liu noted that Hainan gibbons in the National Park of Hainan Tropical Rainforest, once critically endangered, are now the only gibbon population in the world that continues to increase in number. Meanwhile, Wuyishan National Park has emerged as the most complete mid-subtropical forest gene bank at its latitude.

Between 2021 and 2025, China has also deepened global cooperation in green development. It signed the international agreement on marine biodiversity, hosted the 14th meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, and participated in the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030).

The country has championed major global science projects, including the Deep-time Digital Earth, and jointly built more than 30 international cooperation platforms, such as the International Mangrove Center.

These efforts have generated both environmental and economic benefits, officials said.

The establishment of the country's first five national parks has created nearly 50,000 local jobs. In Wuyishan National Park, eco-friendly tea plantations have contributed to a 15 billion yuan (about 2.11 billion U.S. dollars) increase in the value of the tea industry. In Anji, east China's Zhejiang Province, the bamboo industry achieved a total output of 19.2 billion yuan, increasing incomes for nearly 40,000 local bamboo farmers.

There has been a win-win outcome for ecological conservation and people's livelihoods, Liu said.

In 2024, China's forestry and grassland industries generated over 10 trillion yuan in output, supporting employment and income growth for more than 60 million people, official data showed.

The marine economy, contributing 7.8 percent of GDP, also surpassed 10 trillion yuan in output last year, representing a 34 percent increase from the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), and serving as a significant driver of economic growth. 
BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. It's important to create mechanisms for financing the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA), said Mohammad Ashique Rahman, senior researcher at the Institute of International and Strategic Studies in Bangladesh, at the 13th Meeting of the CICA Think Tank Forum on the theme "Resonance of Development and Security: Regional Cooperation and Governance in the Institutional Transformation of CICA" in Baku today, Trend reports.

"Back in 2004, five years after its establishment, the CICA determined measures to strengthen trust and key priority directions. These directions exist even now, but for their successful implementation, the organization must show an innovative approach, because this is the main sphere of its activity.

For this, the CICA needs a clear structure and sufficient resources. Financing remains a problem. Therefore, it's important to build mechanisms and structures that will provide the organization with the necessary means to fulfill its tasks," he said.

Besides, according to the expert, CICA as a regional organization should use the potential of youth as much as possible. Young people must be involved in the process of the organization. In many member countries, the share of youth is significant, and it is important to turn this group into a resource for increasing the potential of member states.

"Additionally, a more effective working plan for the forum of think tanks is necessary. Think tanks of the CICA member countries should be more actively engaged in research," stressed Rahman.

At the 1992 UN General Assembly, Kazakhstan's then-President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA). The Declaration on Principles Guiding Relations between CICA Member States and the Almaty Act, approved in 1999 and 2002, respectively, are the organization's basic texts. Asian nations welcomed the CICA plan. The interested countries met for seven years to explore CICA modalities and create basic papers. On September 14, 1999, 15 member states attended the first CICA Ministers of Foreign Affairs meeting. CICA Member States adopted the Declaration on Principles Guiding Relations during this meeting.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. Modern challenges and threats can only be addressed through dialogue, Bakhtiyor Mustafaev, deputy director of the Institute of Strategic and Regional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, said at the 13th Meeting of the CICA Think Tank Forum on the theme "Resonance of Development and Security: Regional Cooperation and Governance in the Institutional Transformation of CICA" in Baku today, Trend reports.

"Modern challenges and threats can only be overcome through dialogue, taking into account each other's interests and observing recognized norms of international law. In these conditions, the willingness to bear collective responsibility for prosperity and sustainable development, as well as to develop a unified approach to current issues of regional and international security, is becoming more acute than ever," the analyst said.

According to Mustafaev, special attention is required to consolidate efforts to ensure long-term and sustainable peace in Afghanistan.

Restoring the socio-economic situation and implementing major infrastructure projects in this country will open up new strategic opportunities for all countries in the region.

The analyst also noted that the transformation process that the CICA is currently undergoing should receive practical content.

He emphasized the need to strengthen commitment to the fundamental principles of the organization, including mutual trust, equality, respect for cultural diversity, the desire for joint development, and the immutability of the consensus principle in decision-making.

At the 1992 UN General Assembly, Kazakhstan's then-President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA). The Declaration on Principles Guiding Relations between CICA Member States and the Almaty Act, approved in 1999 and 2002, respectively, are the organization's basic texts. Asian nations welcomed the CICA plan. The interested countries met for seven years to explore CICA modalities and create basic papers. On September 14, 1999, 15 member states attended the first CICA Ministers of Foreign Affairs meeting. CICA Member States adopted the Declaration on Principles Guiding Relations during this meeting.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. The Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) is planned to be held in Baku in October 2026, CICA Secretary General Kairat Sarybay said at the 13th Meeting of the CICA Think Tank Forum on the theme "Resonance of Development and Security: Regional Cooperation and Governance in the Institutional Transformation of CICA" in Baku today, Trend reports.

"Informal consultations have already taken place with the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS) to hold a follow-up meeting at the upcoming summit in October 2026 in Baku to discuss outstanding issues, possibly including ideas for transformation," he noted.

The secretary general emphasized that the discussions held on September 9-10 significantly enriched the collective understanding of how the transformation of CICA into a full-fledged international organization can be based on inclusive governance, confidence-building measures, and the development of a common strategy for prosperity for our diverse region of Asia.

Sarybay also recalled that the adoption of the organization's charter is planned in Baku in 2026.

At the 1992 UN General Assembly, Kazakhstan's then-President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA). The Declaration on Principles Guiding Relations between CICA Member States and the Almaty Act, approved in 1999 and 2002, respectively, are the organization's basic texts. Asian nations welcomed the CICA plan. The interested countries met for seven years to explore CICA modalities and create basic papers. On September 14, 1999, 15 member states attended the first CICA Ministers of Foreign Affairs meeting. CICA Member States adopted the Declaration on Principles Guiding Relations during this meeting.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. The Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) will benefit from the ideas on the transformation of the organization expressed at the think tank forum in Baku on September 9-10, Madina Igibayeva, a military-political analyst of the CICA Secretariat said, Trend reports.

She made the remark at the 13th Meeting of the CICA Think Tank Forum on the theme "Resonance of Development and Security: Regional Cooperation and Governance in the Institutional Transformation of CICA" in Baku today.

"This panel turned out to be extremely interesting; we heard a lot of valuable ideas and professional proposals on how to turn the CICA into a full-fledged international organization. One of our speakers also talked about the new headquarters, which was opened in July this year by President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokaev. All ideas on the transformation of the CICA were heard, and we'll definitely take them into account when planning future initiatives," she said.

The analyst expressed gratitude to the organizers, especially the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies and the Center for the Analysis of International Relations.

To note, at the 1992 UN General Assembly, Kazakhstan's then-President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA). The Declaration on Principles Guiding Relations between CICA Member States and the Almaty Act, approved in 1999 and 2002, respectively, are the organization's basic texts. Asian nations welcomed the CICA plan. The interested countries met for seven years to explore CICA modalities and create basic papers.

The Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS) was founded in 1960. It is a government-associated think tank focused on research pertaining to international politics, economy, security, and China's foreign policy. For the last sixty years, SIIS has been instrumental in executing strategic research, offering policy suggestions, and enhancing the comprehension of international politics, economics, security, and other domains.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. Bosnia and Herzegovinas Foreign Minister Elmedin Konakovic visited Paris, where he participated in the work of the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe  the body responsible for monitoring the fulfillment of member states obligations, Trend reports.

Addressing the Committee members, the minister presented his views on the current political and social situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, emphasizing the importance of preserving democratic institutions, the rule of law, and European values.

He particularly highlighted the importance of implementing European Court of Human Rights rulings and the role of the Venice Commission in the reform process. During his address, the minister also pointed to destabilizing actions by political actor Milorad Dodik, including announced referendums that represent a direct challenge to the constitutional order and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while simultaneously posing a serious threat to peace and stability in the country and the region.

The ministers visit to Paris is of particular importance, as it precedes a planned mission by Council of Europe rapporteurs, who will visit Bosnia and Herzegovina in early November to prepare a report for the January session of the Parliamentary Assembly.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. During the official visit of the Bulgarian government delegation, led by Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov, Montenegros Minister of Tourism Simonida Kordic held a constructive meeting with Bulgarian Minister of Tourism Miroslav Borshosh, Trend reports.

This continues the dialogue on enhancing bilateral cooperation and establishing a direct flight route between Montenegro and Bulgaria, which Kordic initiated during her official visit to Sofia in February this year.

This is an extremely important visit and the result of months of work and cooperation between our respective ministries and the tourism and transport ministries of Bulgaria. Todays visit represents the first concrete step toward establishing a direct flight route between our countries, which is of great significance for Montenegrin tourism. The Bulgarian market accounts for around four million tourist trips annually, and it is important for Montenegro to secure its place on that map, Kordic stated.

She also recalled a joint regional project officially promoted in Rome in July this year, which, in addition to Montenegro and Bulgaria, involves cooperation with Greece, Italy, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Albania, and North Macedonia.

The aim of the project is to create a unified tourism offer that allows tourists to visit multiple countries in the region through unique package deals. This approach brings benefits to all participating countries and represents a significant contribution to the development of the regional tourism industry. This is our joint strategic measure to respond to the global trend of shorter tourist stays in a single location, and through synergy and integration of regional capacities, ensure longer stays and richer experiences for all visitors, Kordic emphasized.

Bulgaria was also among 24 European countries that supported Montenegros election to chair the Europe Commission of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

Thanks to that support, Montenegro today holds a leading role in the tourism sector within multilateral organizations, which represents a special achievement and confirms good international cooperation, Kordic added.

Bulgarian Minister of Tourism Miroslav Borshosh emphasized the importance of joint activities and the visit to Montenegro.

This is just part of the good cooperation with Montenegros Minister of Tourism. We began cooperation in Bulgaria to develop a strategy on our shared goals We exchanged valuable experiences and I am confident that our collaboration will continue to grow. Your minister is extremely competent, and for that reason, we strongly supported her for the presidency of the European UNWTO Commission. This is a significant position that brings great prestige to your country, Borshosh concluded.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. The European Commission has allocated funds under the new Security Action for Europe (SAFE) instrument, aimed at strengthening the defense capabilities of EU member states, Trend reports citing the Ministry of National Defense of Lithuania.

Lithuania has been allocated 6.375 billion euros. This exceeds the minimum requested amount of 5 billion euros indicated in the application submitted by the Ministry of National Defense.

New NATO commitments require not only the largest investments in the development of our capabilities but also their faster readiness. Our main goal is to fully prepare Lithuanias Land Forces division by 2030, equipping it with combat, support, and logistics systems, as well as the necessary ammunition reserves. This requires additional financial resources, and one of the most attractive tools to achieve this goal is the SAFE mechanism created by the European Commission, whose conditions are particularly favorable for Lithuania, said Deputy Minister of National Defense Karolis Aleksa.

Lithuania plans to use SAFE funds to accelerate the development of its defense capabilities. The funds will be directed to the Land Forces division, the Baltic Defense Line  counter-mobility measures and mines  as well as the maintenance and development of other Lithuanian Armed Forces capabilities.

Lithuania also plans to allocate part of the SAFE funds to support Ukraine. Various measures are planned  joint procurements with Ukraine, military equipment purchases from Ukraine or EU suppliers for Ukraines needs.

SAFE is a temporary loan instrument created by the European Commission, operating until the end of 2030, with a total capacity of up to 150 billion euros. The instrument will enable EU member states to carry out joint defense procurements in priority areas, from ammunition and land forces capabilities to air defense systems, naval forces, cyber, space technologies, and artificial intelligence.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. A total of approximately 250 billion cubic meters of gas and 51 million tons of condensate have been obtained from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field since the first production until the end of the second quarter of 2025.

The data obtained by Trend from bp shows that natural gas produced from the field is transported from the Caspian to Europe, covering a distance of approximately 3,500 km via the Southern Gas Corridor.

The "Exploration, Development, and Production Sharing Agreement" on Shah Deniz was signed on June 4, 1996, and entered into force on October 17 same year.

Located in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, Shah Deniz, discovered in 1999, is one of the worlds largest gas-condensate fields, with an estimated one trillion cubic meters of gas and 243 million tons of condensate. The successful implementation of the Shah Deniz gas project has established Azerbaijan as a global gas exporter.

After the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline was commissioned in 2006, Azerbaijan began exporting natural gas to the Georgian and Turkish markets.
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, September 10. There are currently 54 enterprises operating in Uzbekistan with French capital, including 19 joint ventures and 35 companies with 100 percent French ownership, a source at the Ministry of Investments, Industry, and Trade of Uzbekistan told Trend.

"French enterprises persistently exhibit robust engagement in Uzbekistan, recognizing it as an emerging market characterized by escalating potential." Discourse is presently in motion to amplify synergies in pivotal domains including renewable energy (solar and wind initiatives), infrastructural frameworks and transport logistics, agribusiness and processing methodologies, alongside pharmaceuticals and digital innovations," the source underscored.



As articulated by the ministry's spokesperson, strategic focal points for forthcoming capital allocations encompass sustainable energy initiatives and high-value-added manufacturing ventures. This is in complete congruence with the overarching objectives of Uzbekistans sustained developmental trajectory and the strategic imperatives of French enterprises. The proliferation of French enterprises within these sectors is anticipated to escalate substantially in the forthcoming years.
Photo: The Ministry of Investments, Industry, and Trade of Uzbekistan

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, September 10. The Minister of Investment, Industry, and Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Laziz Kudratov, held a meeting with Alfred Benedict, Chairman of the Board of Allied Green Ammonia, to discuss the prospects and practical aspects of implementing a major industrial project in the Khorezm region for the production of aviation fuel, Trend reports.

In August of this year, a term sheet was signed in Tashkent, establishing the legal framework for the projects implementation.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the parties emphasized the strategic importance of this project for the development of renewable energy and industrial cooperation in Uzbekistan and expressed readiness for consistent cooperation in its realization.

The projects implementation will significantly strengthen Uzbekistans energy security, increase export potential, and create new jobs. Moreover, the introduction of advanced technologies in the field of green energy will mark an important step towards achieving carbon neutrality and diversifying the national economy.

Allied Green Ammonia is a global company specializing in the development and production of low-carbon and green ammonia solutions, focusing on sustainable energy and decarbonization technologies. The company is recognized for pioneering projects in renewable energy and green hydrogen, aimed at supporting global efforts toward carbon neutrality.

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TEHRAN, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani condemned Israel's attack on Hamas leaders in Doha during a phone call on Tuesday night.

The phone conversation was held a few hours after Israel launched the unprecedented airstrike on a building where senior Hamas officials were discussing a U.S.-proposed ceasefire plan.

Pezeshkian said Iran stands with Qatar and would take any necessary action to support its "neighbor and close friend."

He said Israel respects no recognized international framework or global legal norms, and its modus operandi was backed by the United States.

Under the pretext of defending its security, Israel has disrupted the region's security, stability and peace and does not hesitate to perpetrate any crime, the president said.

Pezeshkian called on Muslim countries to adopt a "united" position and seriously condemn Israel's "blatant aggression and crime" both verbally and in action to prevent a repeat.

The Qatari emir, for his part, agreed with the Iranian president, noting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows no boundaries for his "crimes" and would attack and bomb wherever he wanted and however he wanted, without facing any obstacles.

The emir said Hamas officials had informed Qatar that they would respond positively to the ceasefire plan, but their meeting came under the Israeli attack.

The emir expressed hope that his country's contacts with Iran and other Muslim countries would continue in the coming days so that effective actions would be taken to stop Israel's "crimes." 
Iran maps out Qazvins export destinations in new report

From March 21 through August 22, 2025, Qazvin Province exported 365,000 tons of goods worth $213 million, mainly to the UAE, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkiye, and Russia. Imports during the same period totaled 79,000 tons valued at $471 million. Customs revenue reached 52.6 trillion rials (about $91.5 million), marking a 186% increase compared to the same period in 2024.

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Kazakhstan deploys artificial intelligence for smart monitoring of energy networks

Photo: Official information source of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan

Kazakh Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov chaired a meeting of Kazakhstans Digital Headquarters, focusing on implementing AI technologies as part of a national digital transformation. Key initiatives include using AI for diagnosing electric and heating networks, integrating healthcare IT systems, and establishing a cybersecurity center for the energy sector.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. The Khizi-Absheron wind power plant in Azerbaijan is expected to be commissioned by the end of this year, an informed source told Trend.

The source indicated that a total of 12 wind turbines have been operationally deployed in Gobustan as part of the aforementioned plant initiative.



"These turbines are currently functioning in a diagnostic operational state." The blades have been operationally deployed and are now in active service.



A cumulative deployment of 18 turbines has been executed in the Khizi district. A segment of the system is slated to initiate operational protocols in a testing phase by the conclusion of October in the current calendar year.



Generally speaking, the Khizi-Absheron wind energy facility is slated for operational deployment by the conclusion of December in the current fiscal year," the source elaborated.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. TotalEnergies has strengthened its position in U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports by signing agreements with NextDecade to acquire a 10% stake in the joint venture developing Train 4 of the Rio Grande LNG project in South Texas, Trend reports.

Through its 17.1% shareholding in NextDecade, the French energy company will hold an additional indirect stake of nearly 7% in the project.

Alongside NextDecade (40%), Global Infrastructure Partners (36.9%), GIC (7.9%), and Mubadala (5.2%), TotalEnergies has also joined in taking the Final Investment Decision (FID) on Train 4.

With a planned capacity of about 6 million tons per annum (Mtpa), Train 4 will lift Rio Grande LNGs total production capacity to around 24 Mtpa when it becomes operational in 2030. The development will be financed through a mix of approximately 40% equity and 60% debt.

This project from which we will offtake 1.5 Mtpa strengthens our LNG export capacity from the United States, said Stephane Michel, President of Gas, Renewables & Power at TotalEnergies. The LNG from this fourth train will increase TotalEnergies U.S. LNG export capacity to over 16 Mtpa by 2030, further enhancing our ability to contribute to gas supply and building on our 10% market share worldwide.

NextDecade Chairman and CEO Matt Schatzman welcomed the development, noting TotalEnergies continued support: We are pleased to have TotalEnergies, our largest LNG customer and equity partner for Phase 1 of Rio Grande LNG, extend their commitment to our project through Train 4.

TotalEnergies is already a partner in Phase 1 of Rio Grande LNG, holding a 16.7% interest and committed to offtake 5.4 Mtpa of LNG. Phase 1, which includes three trains currently under construction, is expected to begin operations in 2027.
Within the framework of the visit of the Azerbaijani delegation to China, led by Deputy Prime Minister and Co-Chair of the Azerbaijan-China Intergovernmental Commission Shahin Mustafayev, an Investment Agreement was signed on September 9 in Chengdu between the Alat Free Economic Zone Authority and one of Chinas leading high-tech companies, Sichuan Sunsync Photovoltaic Technology Co., Ltd., for the establishment of a solar panel production facility in the Alat Free Economic Zone.

The document was signed by Valeh Alasgarov, Chairman of the Alat Free Economic Zone Authority, and Xie Yi, Founder and Chairman of Sichuan Sunsync Photovoltaic Technology Co., Ltd.

According to the Agreement, the company will develop three modern manufacturing facilities on a 23-hectare ready-to-use industrial land plot equipped with necessary infrastructure and utilities. The facilities will produce solar panels with an annual production capacity of 3 gigawatts (GW), as well as silicon crystals and components. The solar panels manufactured at the facilities will also be used in the construction of a Solar Power Plant by the company within the Alat Free Economic Zone. A substantial share of the manufactured products will be exported to global markets, further reinforcing Azerbaijans position as a strategic hub for renewable energy production.

The project represents an important milestone in the development of the Alat Free Economic Zone and will further contribute to the strengthening of economic cooperation between Azerbaijan and China. Its implementation also reflects the growing interest of Chinas high-tech companies in the Alat Free Economic Zone.

It should be noted that with total assets of USD 1.7 billion, Sichuan Sunsync has rapidly become a leading company in the field of solar panel production. Earlier this year, during his business trip to China, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev received the Chairman of the company, and discussions were held regarding the establishment of a state-of-the-art solar panel production facility in the Alat Free Economic Zone that meets the highest technological standards.
ASTANA, Kazakhstan, September 10. Kazakhstan views the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as an important partner on the African continent and is interested in comprehensive development of bilateral cooperation, said Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev during a limited-format meeting with the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, who is on a state visit to the country, Trend reports.

The President of Kazakhstan also thanked Felix Tshisekedi for accepting the invitation to visit Astana.



Your first state visit is very important. It will give new momentum to the development of relations between Kazakhstan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Your country, with a population of over 110 million people, is rich in human and natural resources. Moreover, its authority is growing at the international and regional levels. In this regard, I believe that today's talks will contribute to strengthening ties between Central Asia and Africa. Expanding cooperation with African countries is one of the key directions of Kazakhstan's foreign policy, noted Tokayev.

The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo expressed confidence that the results of today's talks would help deepen the ties between the countries.



Allow me to thank you and, through you, the entire people of Kazakhstan for the very warm reception extended to me personally and to my delegation. I am here to strengthen ties and cooperation not only between our countries but also between the African region and Central Asia as a whole. These are two worlds separated by distance, but it seems to me that such visits allow us to come closer and better understand each other. We had the opportunity to work with your country through the ERG company, which is very active in the mining industry, but we believe there are many other areas where we could exchange experience and enhance our cooperation, said Tshisekedi.

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ASTANA, Kazakhstan, September 10. The Mazhilis of Kazakhstan (the lower house of the Parliament of Kazakhstan) ratified the intergovernmental Kazakhstan-Qatar Agreement on the regulation of employment of workers from Kazakhstan in Qatar, concluded on February 14, 2024, in Doha, Trend reports via the Mazhilis press service.

The document grants citizens of Kazakhstan the opportunity to officially work in Qatar and guarantees the protection of their rights.

Under the agreement and the standard employment contract, employers in Qatar are required to provide Kazakhstani workers with:

airfare from Kazakhstan to Qatar and back;

furnished housing (or a housing allowance);

transportation from the place of residence to work (or reimbursement of transportation expenses);

annual paid leave of at least three weeks, as well as an additional three-day leave.

Rules are also established for the return of Kazakhstani citizens in the event of contract termination, disputes, or emergencies.

To coordinate actions for the implementation of the agreement, to consider employment opportunities, exchange information, and resolve disputes, a joint committee will be created, consisting of three representatives from each party, the statement says.

The authorized bodies for implementing the agreement are the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Ministry of Labor of the State of Qatar.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, since the beginning of 2025, 710 citizens of Kazakhstan have officially been working in Qatar.

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TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, September 10. The first container train along the multimodal route UzbekistanKyrgyzstanChina was ceremoniously dispatched from Tashkent to Lanzhou, China, Trend reports.

The event also marked the launch of a new logistics hub in Uzbekistan by Gansu International Logistics Group Co. Ltd. The hubs operation, together with the establishment of regular container shipments along this route, is expected to significantly enhance the regions transit capacity.

This achievement was made possible following agreements reached with Gansu International Logistics Group during the working visit of Mirxamidov Mirziyod, Chairman of the Board of Uztemiryoulkontainer JSC, to China in July.

The newly established nexus and routine cargo consignments are poised to enhance logistical throughput, reduce lead times, and foster conducive environments for the advancement of eco-friendly freight modalities along the GansuKashgarCentral Asia conduit.

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ASTANA, Kazakhstan, September 10. Presidents of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Felix Tshisekedi held expanded-format talks, during which special attention was paid to the development of bilateral trade, cooperation in transport and logistics, mining and agricultural sectors, as well as IT and digitalization, Trend reports.

The president of Kazakhstan called the first visit of the president of the DRC to Kazakhstan a historic event and emphasized that his arrival in Astana with a representative delegation is a sign of special respect for the Kazakh people.

"Since the establishment of diplomatic relations, only a short time has passed. However, our cooperation, based on trust and friendship, is steadily developing. Todays talks will elevate relations between Astana and Kinshasa to a new level and lay a solid foundation for effective partnership. The Democratic Republic of Congo is an important partner of Kazakhstan in Africa. I am convinced that our bilateral relations have a great future," said Tokayev.

President Tokayev also expressed confidence that the agreements reached and documents signed will give new momentum to mutually beneficial ties. In this context, he called for the establishment of regular consultations and working contacts between the foreign policy departments of the two countries to maintain a sustainable dynamic of partnership.

During the conversation, Tokayev stressed that trade and economic cooperation should take a priority place on the bilateral agenda. In his opinion, Kazakhstan and the DRC, having rich natural resources and significant economic potential, can become reliable partners in implementing mutually beneficial projects.

He expressed a profound recognition of the DRC's latent capabilities within the domain of essential raw materials, emphasizing that the distinctive georesources of this nation significantly influence international supply chain dynamics.

The DRC accounts for about 76 percent of the worlds cobalt production, 14 percent of copper, 8.3 percent of tin, 42 percent of tantalum, 40 percent of coltan, and also has deposits of other strategically important minerals necessary for high-tech industries.

The president reported that, with the support of the DRC leadership, the Kazakh company ERG is successfully operating in this country.

Tshisekedi thanked Tokayev for the warm welcome and confirmed his countrys readiness to deepen cooperation.

"Our peoples, despite geographical distance, share common fundamental values: respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, and a commitment to peace through dialogue. The Democratic Republic of Congo will never forget the support of the international community, including Kazakhstan, in the most difficult moments. It was thanks to Kazakhstans active position within the UN that it stood by the people of Congo. Therefore, allow me to express our sincere gratitude to you," said the president of the DRC.

Tshisekedi articulated that Kazakhstan, by eschewing nuclear armaments and steadfastly advocating for diplomatic engagement to uphold tranquility, serves as a paradigm of inspiration, as it unequivocally exemplifies the critical nexus between security and developmental trajectories.

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ASTANA, Kazakhstan, September 10. President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, and President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, adopted a joint statement, Trend reports.

The presidents held talks in an expanded format. After wrapping up the negotiations, the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, and the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, came together to put out a joint statement.

Furthermore, intergovernmental instruments were executed pertaining to diplomatic dialogues, alongside collaborative frameworks in the domains of mineral extraction and geological sciences.

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Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, meets with Peter Kyle, British Secretary of State for Business and Trade, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 10, 2025. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

BEIJING, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng met with Peter Kyle, British Secretary of State for Business and Trade, in Beijing on Wednesday.

He, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that China will work with the UK to implement the important consensus reached by the Chinese president and the British prime minister.

He noted that China will promote the sustained, stable and healthy development of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries, ensuring the steady and long-term development of bilateral relations.

China remains committed to high-standard opening up and encourages British businesses to maintain confidence in investing in China, continue to expand their operations in the Chinese market, and share in the benefits of China's super-sized market, He said.

Kyle said that the UK attaches great importance to economic and trade cooperation with China. The UK is willing to deepen trade and investment relations between the two countries, he added. 

Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, meets with Peter Kyle, British Secretary of State for Business and Trade, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 10, 2025. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)
ASTANA, Kazakhstan, September 10. The President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, awarded the President of the DR of Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, the Order of Dostyk (Friendship) 1st degree, Trend reports.

The President of Kazakhstan emphasized that today is a historic day in the chronicles of cooperation between the two countries. According to him, relations between the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Democratic Republic of Congo are developing at a dynamic pace.

Our bilateral relations are based on ties of strong friendship and mutual respect. Kazakhstan is interested in deepening cooperation with the DRC in various fields. All the prerequisites exist to give this cooperation a new impetus. We are united by a high level of political will, significant trade and economic potential, as well as common goals in the cultural and humanitarian sphere. Important agreements have been reached that serve the interests of both countries. The readiness to further strengthen interaction on the international stage has been confirmed. We have also agreed to jointly make efforts to ensure global security and stability. Overall, there is every reason to assert that the multifaceted partnership between Astana and Kinshasa has great potential and broad prospects, Tokayev stated.

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev also highly appreciated Felix Tshisekedis historic contribution to the development of cooperation between the two countries. The President of Kazakhstan further stressed that he regards him as a genuine leader who, relying on the support of his people, leads his country forward.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is achieving significant successes and strengthening its position on the international stage. Your countrys economy demonstrates steady growth. On your initiative, new projects in various fields are being successfully implemented. Undoubtedly, these achievements have been made possible thanks to your efforts. I am confident that under your leadership, the country will continue to achieve even higher results. On this path, Kazakhstan is ready to provide your country with comprehensive support, he said.

The President announced that he had decided to award Felix Tshisekedi the Order of Dostyk (Friendship) 1st degree for his significant contribution to strengthening cooperation between Kazakhstan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, developing friendship between the two peoples, and ensuring international and regional security and stability.

In turn, the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, thanked Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and expressed readiness to expand fruitful cooperation.

I undertake the obligation to make even greater efforts to promote ties between our countries and our peoples. We will strive to further strengthen them, as well as to find new areas of cooperation in the interests of my country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the entire African continent. Central Asia is still insufficiently known in Africa, so developing and strengthening our interaction can mark a new milestone in the history of relations between our continents, Felix Tshisekedi stressed.

President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, is on a state visit to Kazakhstan. Earlier, following expanded talks, the parties adopted a joint statement. In addition, intergovernmental documents on diplomatic consultations and cooperation in the field of mining and geology were signed.




























ASTANA, Kazakhstan, September 10. Deputy Chairman of the Board of Kazakh Invest, Madiyar Sultanbek, and Deputy Director of the Projects Department, Alzhan Yestemesov, held a meeting with the General Director of the joint venture with South Korea, Seoyon E-Hwa Kazakhstan, In Je Cho, Trend reports.

The parties discussed a project to localize the production of auto components in the Kostanay region, Kazakhstan, the products of which will be supplied to the Kia Kazakhstan plant currently under construction. The total investment volume in the project adds up to $27 million, with production set to kick off in 2027.

At the Kostanay enterprise, the plan is to produce door panels, seats, bumpers, consoles, ceiling covers, and other interior and exterior car parts.

Sultanbek noted that localizing auto component production in the Kostanay region will be an important step in developing Kazakhstans automotive cluster. According to him, the implementation of the project will create new jobs, expand cooperative supply chains, and increase the level of localization in the automotive industry.

The establishment of the Kia manufacturing facility in Kostanay is generating a significant multiplier effect, as ancillary Korean enterprisesproviders of automotive componentsare penetrating the Kazakh market. This initiative will facilitate the establishment of a comprehensive automotive ecosystem, generating employment opportunities and enhancing the localization quotient, Sultanbek emphasized.

In Je Cho noted that the company sees great potential not only in supplying auto components for the Kia plant in Kostanay but also in supplying products to other factories in Kazakhstan. According to him, the projects implementation will create a strong manufacturing base that will serve as a platform for exporting products to countries in the region.

Seoyon E-Hwa is a global auto parts manufacturer with a network of plants in South Korea, the US, China, India, Mexico, Brazil, Slovakia, Poland, and other countries. The company is a key partner of Hyundai Motor and Kia, supplying a wide range of interior and exterior parts for leading global automakers.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. Kyrgyzstan will achieve a transport breakthrough thanks to the railway connecting it with China and Uzbekistan, the Chief Expert, National Institute for Strategic Initiatives under the President of the Kyrgyz

Republic, Kamilia Igrebaeva said, Trend reports.

She made the remark on the sidelines of the 13th meeting of the SCO Think Tanks Forum on Resonance of Development and Security: Regional Cooperation and Governance in the Institutional Transformation of CICA.

"First of all, it should be noted that Kyrgyzstan is in a transport dead end: we have no access to the sea, and the railway network is only sporadically connected to neighboring countries. This is a border area with Kazakhstan and a zone with Uzbekistan, where the length of the tracks is small. Most freight is transported either by road or in small batches on existing railway lines. What we have planned, the construction project of the century involving China, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, has already begun. This project will enable us to break the transport deadlock, as goods from China will be able to be transported through Kyrgyzstan to Uzbekistan and from there on to Europe," she said.

According to her, this will significantly increase cargo traffic and bring considerable economic benefits to the country.

"Uzbekistan also has no access to the sea, so the railway route is extremely important. Chinese lines are narrow gauge, while the roads through Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan are broad gauge. Technological solutions allow trains to be adapted: the wheels are rearranged, and trains run on broad gauge tracks through Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. This reduces transportation time by 8-10 days, which is especially important for perishable goods and creates significant economic opportunities. This is also important for Uzbekistan, and China gets a shorter route to Europe, bypassing the Far East or southern regions," Irgebaeva said.

She noted that in the future, the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway could connect with the Middle Corridor.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has named Darya Dougans as its first Head of Benin, following the countrys recent accession as an EBRD member, Trend reports.

Dougans will be based in Cotonou, leading the establishment of the Banks operations and business in the country. She will report to Heike Harmgart, Managing Director for sub-Saharan Africa.

Benin became an EBRD country of operation earlier this year, after the Banks Governors approved amendments to its founding agreement at the 2023 Annual Meeting in Samarkand. These changes allow the Bank to operate in sub-Saharan Africa and Iraq.

It is an honour to take on this role and to launch our activities in the country, Ms Dougans said. I look forward to working closely with our partners, the business community and stakeholders to build on the countrys existing strengths, unlock new investment opportunities, and contribute to economic growth and the sustainable development of Benins vibrant private sector.

The EBRD, active in 39 economies across three continents, focuses on private-sector development to foster competitiveness, inclusivity, good governance, sustainability, resilience, and integration. Since its founding in 1991, the Bank has invested more than 215 billion euros, with nearly 80% directed to the private sector.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. The European Investment Bank (EIB) has appointed Czech Deputy Finance Minister Marek Mora as its new Vice-President, effective October 20, Trend reports.

Mora will succeed Kyriacos Kakouris of Cyprus and join the banks Management Committee.

Mora, who has held the Deputy Finance Minister post since April 2023, previously served as Deputy Governor of the Czech National Bank for over four years. He also held senior roles at the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union, including heading the cabinet of the secretary-general and running the department for budget, tax, and regional policy. He will be the first Czech national to serve as EIB Vice-President since 2007.

With his broad experience in national and European financial governance, Marek Mora will strengthen our capacity to drive impactful investment and promote economic resilience across the EU, said EIB President Nadia Calvino. Mora commented: I look forward to contributing to the EIBs mission of fostering sustainable development and economic cohesion. Joining the bank is a privilege.

The EIB Group, including the European Investment Fund, has been active in Czechia since 1992, providing nearly 30 billion euros in financing for public and private projects, including green energy, SMEs, and major transport infrastructure.
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, September 10. The Ministry of Investment, Industry and Trade of Uzbekistan held a meeting with Naoki Shova, President of Japans Sansei Corporation, to discuss the implementation of the second phase of a grant project worth $6.5 million, Trend reports.

This stage of cooperation provides for the delivery of an additional four mobile medical containers to Uzbekistan.

The first phase of the project, carried out in 2022 with grant support from the Government of Japan, enabled Uzbekistan to receive its first mobile medical container equipped with a state-of-the-art computed tomography scanner. This experience demonstrated the practical benefits of advanced Japanese medical technologies and created a foundation for further strengthening bilateral cooperation in the healthcare sector.

The continuation of the project is expected to make a tangible contribution to the modernization of Uzbekistans healthcare system, enhancing the capacity to deliver timely, high-quality medical services to the population, particularly in remote regions.

Meanwhile, economic ties between the two countries are also steadily expanding. According to Uzbekistans Statistics Agency, trade turnover with Japan reached $188.2 million in the period from January through May 2024, reflecting a remarkable 162 percent increase compared to the same period last year ($71.7 million).
Photo: The Agency for Strategic Reforms of Uzbekistan

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, September 10. The Agency for Strategic Reforms of Uzbekistan has presented a draft resolution for developing the night-time economy through 2030, Trend reports.

The plan includes creating 320 24-hour streets with 8,000 cafes and restaurants and 14,000 service facilities. This initiative is expected to boost the service sector, attract more tourists, and create new jobsover 11,000 positions and around 200,000 additional visitors annually.

The proposal includes a Night-Time Economy Development Concept, analyzing existing challenges, defining goals and priorities, and outlining innovative solutions, funding measures, and coordination mechanisms. A roadmap for 20252026 implementation is also planned.

Meanwhile, support for entrepreneurs is a key focus. A unified electronic register will track local brand owners, who may receive partial compensation for staff training and some loan interest expenses when opening branches on 24-hour streets, especially in regional areas.

Other measures include reducing costs for advertising and lighting, and organizing a Night-Time Economy Forum to share best practices and promote successful initiatives.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. Sika LLC, a player in the Sumgayit Industrial Park under the watchful eye of the Economic Zones Development Agency (EZDA) from the Ministry of Economy, has started exporting a range of construction products to Georgia for the first time, Trend reports.

The company has sent out over 100 tons of products to the country in the initial phase.

According to EZDA, Sika LLC was registered as a resident of Sumgayit Industrial Park in 2016. The Swiss-owned company is putting its money where its mouth is with an investment volume of 10.3 million manat ($6 million) and is creating around 70 permanent jobs to boot.

Since 2018 and through the first half of 2025, Sika LLC has racked up sales of products totaling 80 million manat ($47 million).

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. Azerbaijani Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov met with a delegation led by Serhat Koksal, President of the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB), the country's Minister of Economy wrote on X page, Trend reports.

"We held a meeting with the delegation led by Serhat Koksal, President of the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank. During the discussions, we underscored the importance of deepening cooperation between the BSTDB and Azerbaijans private banking sector in order to support entrepreneurship and stimulate business development.

We also reviewed the Banks potential involvement in upcoming initiatives, including publicprivate partnership projects to be implemented in Azerbaijan, and explored broader avenues for collaboration," the post reads.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. Representatives from CRCT Kazakhstan, a subsidiary of the China Railway Container Transport Corporation (CRCT), visited Baku Port this week to explore ways to strengthen rail trade links with Azerbaijan, Trend reports.

The delegation, led by CRCT Kazakhstan CEO Dai Hansheng, met with Eldar Salahov, director of Baku International Sea Trade Port under Azerbaijan Railways Closed Joint-Stock Company (CJSC), on September 10.

During the discussions, officials emphasized expanding bilateral cooperation, identifying strategic initiatives for rail connectivity, and exploring new opportunities in the transport and logistics sectors.

The visit included a tour of Baku Ports terminals and operational facilities.

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MINSK, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Belarus reported shooting down several drones over its airspace overnight, the Defense Ministry said Wednesday.

Belarus informed Poland and Lithuania about drones approaching their territories, said Chief of the General Staff and First Deputy Defense Minister Pavel Muraveiko.

During drone exchanges between Russia and Ukraine, Belarusian air defense tracked drones that veered off course due to electronic warfare, with some being shot down over Belarus, he said.

Belarus shared air and radar data with Poland and Lithuania between 11 p.m. (2000 GMT) Tuesday and 4 a.m. (0100 GMT) Wednesday, enabling Polish forces to respond. Poland also alerted Belarus to unidentified drones near its border from Ukraine, Muraveiko said.

The Belarusian side emphasized that such exchanges strengthen regional security and trust, and pledged continued cooperation with Poland and the Baltic states on airspace monitoring.

Poland also claimed it shot down several of "a large number of Russian drones" that violated its airspace overnight. Addressing the Polish parliament on Wednesday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that a number of the drones flew into the country from Belarus. 
BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. Azerbaijan Air Navigation Services Department (AZANS) of Azerbaijan Airlines CJSC (AZAL), one of the AZCON Holding companies, represented Azerbaijan at the 3rd Summit of the Heads of Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) of the International Air Navigation Services Organization (CANSO) for Europe and Asia, held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, a source in Heydar Aliyev International Airport told Trend.

The event brought together leading ANSP heads on the development of safe, efficient, and coordinated airspace in the region.

The first Summit of the Air Navigation Service Providers of the Civil Air Navigation Services Organization (CANSO) for Europe and Asia was held in Baku in 2023, organized by Azerbaijan.

Civil aviation is one of the main pillars of the global transport system, and the role of ANSPs is crucial in the safe, uninterrupted, and effective management of flights.

At the summit, the AZANS delegation contributed to strategic discussions on regional flight safety, digitalization, the application of innovative technologies, and strengthening coordination between ANSPs.

This participation reaffirmed AZANSs important role in the development of a safe and coordinated regional airspace and Azerbaijans commitment to innovation and cooperation in the aviation sector.

The proliferation of transit operations in recent years has significantly bolstered Azerbaijans strategic standing within the global aviation landscape.



In the year 2024, an estimated 50 million individuals traversed the national airspace via a staggering 230,000 operational transit flights.



The synergistic interplay of bilateral and regional collaboration, cutting-edge technological advancements, and state-of-the-art infrastructure-driven airspace governance has catalyzed Azerbaijan's evolution into a pivotal regional nexus, facilitating enduring air connectivity with Central Asia.

The commissioning of Fuzuli, Zangilan, and Lachin international airports and their equipping with modern communication, navigation, and surveillance systems are key milestones in this strategic development. These measures enhance Azerbaijans geopolitical and economic stature, fortifying our nation not merely as a transit nexus but also as a facilitator of regional aerial linkages.

AZANS, in close cooperation with international organizations and partners, contributes to the formation of a unified and modern air navigation infrastructure in the region and continues its commitment to building a safer, smarter, and more connected Eurasian sky together with regional and global partners.

AZANS, established in 1996, manages ATC within Azerbaijan's 165,400 sq. km airspace, including 86,600 sq. km of land and 78,000 sq. km above the Caspian Sea. Azerbaijan represents the easternmost ECAC member state, delineating its geographical periphery with Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Russia to the northern and eastern flanks, while the Islamic Republic of Iran occupies the southern boundary. To the west, it interfaces with Georgia, Armenia, and Turkiye, establishing a complex geopolitical landscape.

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TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, September 10. Governor of Uzbekistans Fergana Region, Khayrullo Bozorov, met with the head of one of Kazakhstans leading manufacturers of environmentally friendly passenger transport, Falcon Euro Bus, to discuss the potential procurement of electric buses, Trend reports.

The company specializes in electric buses, offering models that have no analogues on the global market and meet high European standards for safety, energy efficiency, and comfort.

During the meeting, it was emphasized that all models are equipped with advanced control systems and intelligent monitoring features, and can be adapted to the climatic conditions of Central Asia. The Almaty-based enterprise has a production capacity of up to 1,000 electric buses per year, and its products are currently exported to Mongolia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Germany.

Meanwhile, the discussions included the possibility of procuring electric buses for the Fergana Region. To facilitate this, local specialists will be sent to Kazakhstan, and negotiations will continue. Both parties also agreed on measures to further develop bilateral cooperation.

Trade turnover between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan exceeded $1 billion in the first quarter of 2025, marking a 10 percent year-on-year increase.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. A delegation of the German Chamber of Commerce visited the Baku port today, Trend reports via Baku International Sea Port LLC.

The main purpose of the visit was to present advanced technologies applied in the German maritime industry, identify and develop potential cooperation opportunities with Azerbaijani companies operating in this field, as well as with the Baku port.

Within the framework of the visit, Eldar Salahov, director of the LLC of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, one of the AZCON Holding companies, met with Nico Hans Siebert, managing director, lawyer of the German UNITRON company.

In the course of the meeting, the delegation was presented with information on the port's technical capabilities, development plans, and statistical indicators, and their questions were answered.

During the inspection of the terminals, the expansion of the port's operational capabilities and possible cooperation opportunities with German companies in this process were also discussed.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. Wastewater measures will reduce CO emissions by 36 percent by 2030, Head of the Environmental Management Planning Department of SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan), Head of Office Madina Hajiyeva said at the 2nd International Water Management Exhibition and Conference - Baku Water Week held in Baku, Trend reports.

"If we use the potential for reducing emissions from wastewater, we can achieve a reduction of 218 million tons of CO equivalent by 2030, or 36 percent," Hajiyeva explained.

She noted that, however, wastewater treatment is a very expensive initiative and requires large financial investments.

"Therefore, only a 35 percent reduction is possible by 2030, and only one percent of them are considered profitable solutions. And the 35percent part requires more than 30 percent of costs per ton of CO," the official said.

Hajiyeva pointed out that one-fifth of the world's watersheds are affected by either floods or droughts, and Azerbaijan is also part of that process.

"We are experiencing the largest glacier losses in the last 50 years. As many as 90 percent of people affected by the effects of disasters and 95 percent of infrastructure losses are related to water-related disasters.

There are also threats related to water quality. When floods occur, Azerbaijan is not left out. In recent years, especially this year and last year, there have been major floods, as a result of which sand and various pollutants were mixed and discharged into reservoirs," she also said.

The SOCAR official touched on the issue of wastewater and highlighted a number of points on climate change.

"Wastewater is also a source of methane emissions and accounts for 5percent of non-CO emissions globally. By 2030, it is expected to reach 609 million tons of CO equivalent, which will account for 5percent of non-CO emissions. The largest share is accounted for by countries such as China, Mexico, India, the US, and Nigeria - 356 million tons of CO equivalent, while the rest of the world accounts for 42percent. The reason for this is clear: as the population increases, more wastewater is generated, and as a result, more methane emissions occur," Hajiyeva mentioned.

The official, emphasizing that wastewater and water services account for approximately 3-4 percent of the total electricity consumption in the world, said that this is also associated with significant greenhouse gas emissions.

"Azerbaijan and in general, globally, although Azerbaijan is among the developing countries, it must report its emissions within the framework of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement. The preparation of national greenhouse gas inventories is important for all economic sectors, and wastewater is no exception in this process as a major source of methane (CH) and nitrous oxide (NO) emissions.

All large wastewater treatment plants in Azerbaijan are located on the coast of the Caspian Sea and discharge directly into the Caspian Sea. Climate-related problems, for example, problems with discharge lines, arise when the level of the Caspian Sea drops. That is, wastewater must be discharged into the Caspian Sea at certain depths, but due to the decrease in the sea level, it is not possible to reach the level of mixing of waste. Therefore, treatment and discharge standards are not achieved," she further explained.

According to Hajiyeva, the amount of precipitation has increased in Azerbaijan, especially on the Absheron Peninsula and in the central regions.

"However, the rainwater collection system is weak. As a result, rainwater mixes with sewage and ends up in wastewater treatment plants. The result is a decrease in the efficiency of waste treatment, since it is impossible to effectively treat large volumes of mixed water. In some cases, these mixed waters are discharged directly into the Caspian Sea. As a result of poor management, the amount of greenhouse gases, especially emissions, generated during waste treatment increases.

Design standards and emergency response plans that take into account climate factors should be developed. It should be understood that the mixing of wastewater treatment plants with flood waters is already at the level of an emergency," Hajiyeva added.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. Rashad Nabiyev, Azerbaijans Minister of Digital Development and Transport, met with Brendan Hanrahan, a Senior Bureau Official for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs (EUR) at the U.S. Department of State, the Ministry told Trend.

The meeting focused on work to be carried out based on documents signed in Washington on August 8, as well as prospects for cooperation between the two countries in transportation, transit, artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure, cybersecurity, and other areas.

The sides also discussed ways to enhance the potential of the Middle Corridor and explored opportunities for collaboration in the launch and operation of the Zangezur Corridor.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. Azerbaijans Minister of Economy Mikayil Jabbarov held talks with Brendan Hanrahan, a senior official at the U.S. Department of States Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs (EUR), to discuss enhancing bilateral economic ties and exploring new investment opportunities, the Ministry of Economy told Trend.

According to the ministry, the sides expressed satisfaction with the current trajectory of Azerbaijan-U.S. economic relations and discussed measures to elevate cooperation to a new level.

The officials highlighted the significance of the Intergovernmental Memorandum on the creation of a Strategic Working Group for drafting a Strategic Partnership Charter. The initiative aims to strengthen the institutional foundations of economic collaboration between the two countries.

During the meeting, Azerbaijan presented its economic priorities, emphasizing ongoing reforms, improvements to the business environment, and strategic infrastructure projects that create attractive opportunities for U.S. companies.

The discussions followed previous talks in Washington with institutions such as the U.S. Export-Import Bank (US EXIM Bank), SpaceX, and Exxon Mobil, focusing on new cooperation mechanisms and investment initiatives.

The dialogue also addressed ongoing work on the Zangezur Corridor under the Trans-Caspian Regional Development and Partnership Platform (TRIPP) and the potential economic benefits of regional transport and logistics projects.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. Azerbaijans Minister of Finance and Country Manager for the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB), Sahil Babayev, hosted a delegation led by BSTDB President Serhat Koksal during their visit to Azerbaijan, the Ministry of Finance told Trend.

The meeting focused on the Banks recent activities, existing partnership ties with Azerbaijan, the countrys representation in the Bank, and future avenues for collaboration.

The Ministry noted that the BSTDB maintained a cautious consolidation approach amid a complex geopolitical environment, successfully implementing the first phase of its Medium-Term Strategy and Business Plan for 20232026. The Banks results in 2024 and early indicators for 2025 underscore its operational capacity and financial resilience.

Babayev briefed the delegation on Azerbaijans current economic performance and positive trends, highlighting steady progress in non-oil sectors, including agriculture, information and communication technology (ICT), manufacturing, logistics, and green energy. He emphasized that these reforms enhance the countrys economic stability and promote inclusive, long-term growth.

The Minister praised the launch of the second phase of the Medium-Term Strategy and Business Plan, expressing confidence that expanding the resource base and fully forming the Banks management board would enable greater achievements in the coming years. He also stressed the importance of BSTDBs investments in transport and logistics infrastructure, particularly in the context of opening new transport corridors and rehabilitating territories liberated from occupation.

During the visit, the signing of agreements with two banks was highlighted as a positive step, facilitating increased operations in Azerbaijan and direct lending to the private sector.

Koksal underscored that Azerbaijan represents a strategic partner for the Bank. He noted that ongoing reforms in the country create new opportunities for financial institutions, and expressed BSTDBs interest in participating in larger-scale projects and supporting joint initiatives in Azerbaijan.

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Kazakhstan and Pakistan set ambitious goals to expand trade cooperation

Photo: Kazakhstans Ministry of Trade and Integration

Kazakhstan and Pakistan plan to boost trade to $1 billion and expand cooperation in 40 product categories. Ahead of President Tokayevs visit to Islamabad in November, both sides are preparing a trade exhibition, business forum, and a transit trade agreement. Trade reached $89.6 million in the first 7 months of 2025, up 2.5 times from last year.

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BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, September 10. The World Bank (WB) is ready to continue supporting projects in Kyrgyzstan, Regional Director for Central Asia, Najy Benhassine, said at a meeting with Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers and Head of the Presidential Administration of Kyrgyzstan, Adylbek Kasymaliev, Trend reports via the Kyrgyz government.

Benhassine praised the strong level of cooperation with Kyrgyzstan and highlighted that the countrys rapid economic growth has drawn significant interest from international investors.

In turn, Kasymaliev thanked the WB for its long-standing partnership and emphasized its key role in financing major national projects.

The World Bank is a leading financier of our projects, and this support makes it possible to achieve our strategic goals, Kasymaliev said.

He pointed to sustained economic growth, noting that GDP expanded by an average of 9 percent over the past three years and rose 11.5 percent from January to July this year. Kyrgyzstan aims to raise GDP to at least $30 billion by 2030, he added.

Kasymaliev also outlined the countrys 2030 development program, which prioritizes industrialization, creation of a regional hub, agricultural and tourism development, green energy, and the strategic construction of the Kambarata-1 hydropower plant.

The sides expressed confidence in strengthening and expanding cooperation between Kyrgyzstan and the World Bank.
Photo: Cabinet of the Ministers of Kyrgyzstan

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, September 10. Kyrgyzstan is ready to deepen cooperation with Chinas Jiangxi province in the fields of economy, investment, and humanitarian exchange, Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers Edil Baisalov said at a meeting with a Jiangxi delegation led by Chen Xingchao, Deputy Chairman of the provincial Political Consultative Conference, Trend reports via the Kyrgyz government.

Meanwhile, the talks focused on prospects for Kyrgyz-Chinese cooperation, with particular attention to strengthening interregional ties.

Baisalov noted that Kyrgyzstan and China are bound by relations of good neighborliness, trust, and strategic partnership, stressing Bishkeks readiness to expand engagement with Jiangxi.

In turn, Chen Xingchao highlighted Jiangxis economic and cultural potential, pointing to its natural resources, developed industries, and rich historical heritage. He expressed interest in closer cooperation across multiple areas and invited Kyrgyz officials to visit Jiangxi.

The sides reaffirmed their commitment to further developing mutually beneficial cooperation.
HARARE, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa's recent visit to China has further solidified relations between the two nations, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Amon Murwira said Tuesday.

Speaking at a post-cabinet media briefing in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, Murwira hailed the elevation of bilateral ties to an all-weather community with a shared future, saying it would boost cooperation across all sectors.

Commending China for its high-impact investment projects in Zimbabwe, Murwira said Harare is seeking to expand trade with Beijing. He noted that during his visit last week, he signed an agreement allowing Zimbabwe to begin exporting blueberries to the Chinese market.

"China is by far one of the largest economies, the most advanced economies in the world, and we believe that our deep relations with China can only increase the wealth of Zimbabwe and the Chinese together," he said.

Mnangagwa last week attended the commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, where the two sides agreed to upgrade their ties to an all-weather community with a shared future. 
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, September 10. Kyrgyzstans parliament has approved a law to rename the city of Jalal-Abad in Jalal-Abad region as Manas, Trend reports via the parliament.

The draft law was presented by Kudaibergen Bazarbaev, Director of the State Agency for Public Service and Local Self-Government under the Cabinet of Ministers. He said the renaming aims to strengthen national identity by honoring Manas, a historic figure and national hero known for defending the Kyrgyz people.

During the parliamentary debate, deputies Kamila Talieva and Mirgul Temirbaeva voiced support for the bill, noting that the initiative came from local residents. Temirbaev also suggested erecting a monument to Manas in the city. Deputy Akylbek Tumonbaev proposed gathering additional public opinions.

The bill was adopted in three readings, officially approving the citys new name.
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, September 10. Kyrgyzstan and Malaysia plan to establish a parliamentary friendship group to strengthen inter-parliamentary ties, Malaysian Senate Deputy Chair Nur Jazlan Mohamed said during a meeting with President Sadyr Zhaparov in Bishkek, Trend reports via the presidential administration.

Mohamed highlighted Malaysias interest in further enhancing cooperation with Kyrgyzstan, describing the country as having significant potential.

The sides discussed key areas of bilateral cooperation, focusing on expanding parliamentary engagement and implementing previously agreed measures.

President Zhaparov stated that Kyrgyzstan regards Malaysia as a significant partner in Southeast Asia and appreciates its contributions to ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and other regional organizations. He acknowledged Kyrgyzstan's desire to expand cooperation with Malaysia in political, trade, investment, financial, educational, tourist, and cultural-humanitarian domains, while also enhancing the legal framework for bilateral relations.

He also referenced his recent visit to Malaysia, where talks with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim covered key cooperation areas and resulted in the signing of several documents. He emphasized that inter-parliamentary collaboration is a strategic component of long-term partnership and that coordination among all branches of government, especially parliaments, is crucial for implementing agreements.

The president briefly highlighted Kyrgyzstans recent development achievements, including positive economic growth, the integration of digital technologies across sectors, infrastructure improvements, road construction, and the development of education and healthcare.

He added that bilateral trade with Malaysia has gradually increased since the intensification of cooperation in 2024 and reaffirmed the readiness of both countries to engage on regional and international platforms.

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ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, September 10. Turkmenistans Deputy Foreign Minister Myakhri Byashimova met with UNODC Regional Representative Oliver Stolpe to discuss strengthening cooperation, Trend reports via Turkmen MFA.

The talks focused on expanding cooperation in countering modern challenges and threats within the framework of the UNODC Program for Central Asia 2022-2025, which has been extended until June 2027. Particular attention was paid to cybersecurity, with both sides underscoring the importance of the forthcoming UN Convention on Cybercrime, scheduled to be signed in Vietnam on October 25-26.

The Turkmen side reaffirmed its readiness to deepen cooperation with the UNODC in combating synthetic drugs and human trafficking. In this context, the National Action Plan of Turkmenistan for 2025-2029 to combat human trafficking was highlighted as a key step.

The meeting also addressed organizational aspects of upcoming joint events. Both sides confirmed their mutual interest in continuing close coordination to effectively tackle contemporary security challenges.
Iran's non-oil exports to Azerbaijan taking hit

From March 21 through August 22, 2025, Irans non-oil exports to Azerbaijan totaled $224 million and 346,000 tons, down from $298 million and 364,000 tons. Trade turnover dropped to $228 million and 348,000 tons, from $307 million and 376,000 tons. Exports of agricultural, food, and industrial goods were valued at $224 million.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 10. The recent cooperation agreement signed in Egypt between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) does not include provisions allowing inspectors to enter nuclear sites, said Iranian Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi, Trend reports.

Speaking to Iranian media, Araghchi stated that, accordingly, IAEA inspectors will not be authorized to access any of Irans nuclear facilities.

Araghchi noted that IAEA inspectors have only observed the fuel replacement process at the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, which was allowed by Irans Supreme National Security Council. He articulated that deliberations concerning ingress to nuclear installations will transpire subsequent to Iran's submission of documentation pertinent to its nuclear agenda. At this juncture, there has been an absence of discourse pertaining to the modalities of IAEA ingress to Irans nuclear facilities.

I believe a new step has been taken in the right direction between Iran and the IAEA. This step completely removes all pretexts, Araghchi said.

A new agreement to restore cooperation between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was signed in Cairo, the capital of Egypt, on September 9.

Iran has significantly curtailed its collaborative engagement with the IAEA, reducing it to a bare minimum subsequent to the military airstrikes targeting its nuclear infrastructure in June.

On July 2, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian approved the implementation of the parliamentary law that effectively suspends IAEA inspections. In accordance with regulatory frameworks, IAEA inspectors are precluded from accessing Iranian territory unless there is an affirmative endorsement from the Supreme National Security Council affirming the integrity and safety of the nations peaceful nuclear operations and installations.

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BEIJING, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Wednesday marked China's 41st Teachers' Day. While educators across the country received warm wishes from their students, many people are grappling with a pressing question: will the profession become obsolete some day?

In the age of rapid artificial intelligence (AI) development, their concern is far from groundless. While AI has revolutionized knowledge acquisition through scalability and cost reduction, it seems that the age-old role of teachers now stands at a crossroads between evolution and extinction.

"I prefer querying an AI model over sitting through fluffy lectures," one college student remarked. "It delivers well-reasoned answers in seconds. Why would I spend an entire class waiting for the same?"

China has placed significant emphasis on AI development and is keenly aware of its disruptive potential in the education sector. Rather than resisting the trend, the country has actively promoted the integration of AI into teaching and learning.

This commitment has been reflected in guidelines rolled out to cultivate high-quality teachers on educational digitalization, accelerate the development of large-scale AI education models to deepen integration of teaching and learning, and encourage schools to expand their AI education teaching teams.

Influenced by the authorities' call, Chinese schools and teachers are adopting a more open and adaptive mindset.

At Beijing Guangqumen Middle School, for instance, students applied their newly acquired knowledge of the rectangular coordinate system to map out boundary stones along Beijing's Central Axis during a field trip.

Their math teacher, Qi Xueran, seamlessly incorporated AI and digital assistants into the lesson, creating an immersive learning experience that blended mathematical concepts with cultural and historical insights.

In many regions, technology is making education both more engaging and enriching.

Zhi Mei, principal of Beijing Fengtai No. 2 High School, shared how teachers used generative AI to create a video message from Yang Gensi, a Chinese martyr who fell in the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, addressing today's children and reenacting his heroic sacrifice.

"It was meaningful, emotionally powerful, and highly effective," Zhi noted.

Experts agree that as AI becomes further embedded in education, teachers must redefine their roles.

Luo Weidong, a professor at Zhejiang University, noted that with intelligent platforms providing students with unprecedented access to information, a teacher's value no longer lies in how much they know, but in how well they can guide students in their learning.

This shift is already prompting educators to rethink their approaches.

Tang Weiwei, a lecturer at Guangzhou Maritime University, uses AI as a powerful assistant in her workflow.

"It processes information at scale, serves as my search engine, and even helps design final exam questions," she said.

The time saved allows her to focus on what truly matters: refining the curriculum and connecting with students.

For her, this means bridging theory and practice so that lessons become tools for real-world problem-solving and staying attuned to the needs of a new generation of learners.

"Post-2000s students are different," Tang observed. "They want closer relationships with their teachers."

Yuan Wen, the president of Shanghai Normal University, believes that teaching transcends mere knowledge transmission.

AI may excel in information delivery, but it cannot replace the human touch in shaping values and nurturing social-emotional skills.

"Teachers should focus on creating knowledge, not just conveying it; on inspiring exploration, not just lecturing," Yuan emphasized.

She is confident that educators will not become obsolete, so long as they proactively evolve.

Even DeepSeek, a popular homegrown Chinese AI model, expressed optimism when asked whether AI would replace teachers:

"AI cannot fully replace educators, but it will profoundly transform their role and the educational landscape. After all, there will always be a need for a living presence on the podium; one who can convey the charm of proses like 'a setting sun and a lone wild duck flying together' with heart and soul." 
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Malegaon Teachers Scam: Three Top Education Officers Arrested



Continuing its actions in the case related to bogus teachers recruitment scam in Malegaon, the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) Wednesday arrested three top officers of the Education Department Nashik.

Thursday September 11, 2025 0:48 AM , Staff Reporter

Malegaon: Continuing its actions in the case related to bogus teachers recruitment scam in Malegaon, the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) Wednesday arrested three top officers of the Education Department Nashik.

The three officers have been identified as Nashik Zilla Parishad Deputy Director (Education) Praveen Patil, Deputy Education Officer Uday Deore and Office Superintendent Sudhir Pagar.

The latest arrest in Malegaon teachers scam came over a week after five teachers of the Malegaon High School & Junior College were arrested .

The three officers were summoned for interrogations Tuesday afternoon, and were later arrested by the Police and produced in the Court Wednesday morning.

Deputy Education Officer Uday Deore has been arrested in the case related to bogus appointment of teachers in Y N Jadhav School whereas Zilla Parishad Deputy Director (Education) Praveen Patil and Office Superintendent Sudhir Pagar have been arrested in the case related to bogus appointment of teachers in the Malegaon High School and Junior College.

All three were produced in the Malegaon Court Wednesday. The court sent them in Police Custody till September 13, 2025.

Malegaon Bogus Teachers Case Details

Malegaon teachers recruitment scam involves the appointment of 13 teachers by the management of the school run by Anjuman Moinut Tulba, and appointment of 11 teachers by the management of Y. N. Jadhav School, Sangmeshwar.

Following a complaint lodged at Pawarwadi Police Station in Malegaon by Zainab D/o Mohammad - a teacher in the same school, a case was registered against Ishaque Zariwala, Chairman Anjuman Moinut Tulba, and other members of the management.

The teacher in her complaint alleged that the appointment of the 13 teachers was bogus. She also alleged that their appointments were shown in 2012 though they were recruited in 2024. This, she alleged, was done to claim the difference amount worth hundreds of thousands of rupees from the state government.

As per the complaint lodged against, Y. N. Jadhav management, Sandip Jadhav was appointed in 2012 and at that time he had not even passed HSC or Class 12th exams. It is alleged that Sandip Jadhav's apointment was illegal, despite this he received salary from the government.

Following the FIR, arrest warrants were issued against Ishaque Zariwala and other members of the management. They applied for anticipatory bail which was rejected. They have now approached the Bombay High Court.

Meanwhile, the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) summoned the five teachers to Nashik. Following their interrogation, they were arrested on September 03, 2025.

Talking to media, Defence Lawyer Azim Khan said the names of the five teachers are not in the FIR. However, they have been arrested based on the statements of the retired Head Master and some retired teachers who said the accused teachers were not in the school during their tenure.

Charges Raised in Maharashtra Assembly

Malegaon teachers bogus appointment case also figured during the Monsoon Session of the Maharashtra Assembly in July this year.

The case was raised in the Maharashtra Assembly by Malegaon MLA Mufti Ismail and other MLAs. Incidentally, Maharashtra Education Minister Dada Bhuse is also MLA from Malegaon.

Raising the issue in the Maharashtra Assembly, Mufti Ismail directly addressed Dada Bhuse and alleged that corruption in schools and education department is taking place right under his nose.

The Education Department officials in Malegaon and Nashik district are involved in corrupt practices right under your nose, Mufti Mohammed Ismail said while directly addressing Education Minister Dada Bhuse.

Following a heated debate, the government announced the formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the matter. Nagpur's Zone 2 Deputy Commissioner of Police Nityanand Jha is currently leading the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed in Nagpur. So far 24 officers and principals have been arrested from Nagpur, Bhandara , Gondia and Chandrapur districts.

FIRs and complaints have also been lodged against three other schools of the City besides The Malegaon High School and Junior College.



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Watch: Gen Z protesters loot, vandalize Nepal billionaire's luxury home



The Gen Z protesters, this is how anti-government activists in Nepal define themselves, Wednesday vandalized and looted the luxury home of billionaire Upendra Mahato

Wednesday September 10, 2025 8:22 PM , ummid.com News Network

The Gen Z protesters, this is how anti-government activists in Nepal define themselves, Wednesday vandalized and looted the luxury home of billionaire Upendra Mahato.

Angry protesters also targeted properties of other businessmen in different parts of Nepal, including the capital Kathmandu and Pokhara on Wednesday after two days of targeted attacks on politicians and the countrys top leadership.

Upendra Mahato is Nepal's 3rd richest businessman with an estimated net worth between USD 250 to 900 million.

Video footage viral on different social media platforms showed protesters throwing stones inside Mahatos luxury home while some others capturing the looting on their mobile phones.

Watch Video

Nepal protests:



Robbery & arson at businessman Upendra Mahato's house too



pic.twitter.com/ugnzNKFol7  War & Gore (@Goreunit) September 10, 2025

A video of protesters, that included a good number of women, looting a supermarket in broad daylight has gone viral on social media.

Anti-Government Protest in Nepal

The protest in Nepal started Monday morning when hundreds of thousands people hit the streets in capital Kathmandu and other cities of Nepal against corruption and crackdown on social media.

The KP Oli Sharma government had asked the social media companies active in the country to register and open their offices in Nepal.

However, except TikTok and Viber, other companies  including Facebook, WhastApp, Twitter, Instagram, refused to comply with the government guidelines.

Their refusal resulted in the ban on as many as 26 social media companies active in Nepal.

Attacks on Nepal PM, President

The violent mobs on the second day of anti-government protest Tuesday , attacked Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, President Ram Chandra Paudel and other ministers and stormed the Parliament.

Following the violence, Prime Minister Oli, President Paudel and other ministers announced their resignations.

In the worst violent protest seen in recent days, Rajyalaxmi Chitrakar, wife of Nepal's former Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal, died on Tuesday after their home was set afire.

According to the local media reports, Rajyalaxmi Chitrakar was trapped inside when the home in Dallu area of Capital Kathmandu was set on fire by protesters led by Gen Z.

Search on for a new leader

Meanwhile, a search is on for a new leadership in Nepal after the collapse of the government following the violent protests.

Former Chief Justice of Nepal Sushila Karki is seen as someone who will lead an interim government. Sushila is a graduate from Banaras Hindu University (BHU).

Another name that surfaced to lead the new government is of Balender Shah. Shah, who is famous as Balen, is credited to have brought the latest anti-government wave in Nepal. A section in Nepal sees him as the Interim Prime Minister of Nepal.

In another shocking video, Minister Sarad Singh is seen leaving his paralyzed wife behind to escape from the wrath of angry protesters.

Some Nepali youth later rescued and shifted her to a safer place.

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By Cary Shimek, UM News Service

MISSOULA  A national organization recently named the University of Montana the No. 1 Military Friendly college in the United States. The ranking is for top tier-1 research institutions.

The Military Friendly Schools list is compiled each year from data collected from 8,800 schools nationwide. Input is provided by student veterans and a Military Friendly survey by participating institutions.

The top showing wasnt a surprise for Tanner Liermann, a Marine Corps veteran and UM wildlife biology major preparing to graduate this spring. A native of Bonners Ferry, Idaho, Liermann came to UM on the G.I. Bill in 2022.

When I think about my decision to come to UM, Im extremely grateful, he said. Its the best decision Ive made so far  right up there with my decision to join and really commit to my time in the Marine Corps. The opportunities Ive been presented with here at UM have been almost unfathomable.

One of his campus mentors is Patrick Beckwith, director of UMs Military and Veteran Services Office. Beckwith said UM currently serves about 1,000 military-affiliated students.

We feel this Military Friendly recognition is important because it highlights UMs unwavering commitment to inclusive prosperity, Beckwith said. It shows how UM is dedicated to the hard work necessary to create a welcoming and successful environment for military and veteran students.

He said UM ranks highly because military-friendly practices have become woven into the identity of campus.

So many different sectors of campus are doing things to positively impact our military and veteran families, Beckwith said. People all across campus are taking the initiative to learn and improve our military-friendly practices.

UM is led by President Seth Bodnar, a West Point graduate, Rhodes Scholar and veteran of the Iraq War. Beckwith also is a West Point graduate and warzone veteran, and in 2023 he temporarily left his family and UM duties for a deployment to Iraq as part of the Montana Army National Guard.

When he was a Marine, Liermann deployed to the western Pacific with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, with stops in Okinawa, Australia and South Korea. The whole emphasis was to ensure freedom of the seas in the Indo-Pacific region, he said. He enjoyed his often-nomadic service, which lasted from 2017 to 2021.

Afterwards the first-generation student tried college in Boston, but it wasnt a good fit. Liermann then decided on UM because of its proximity to his Idaho hometown. It was close enough for a weekend trip to visit family, but far enough away to maintain his independence.

I didnt know then I would join one of the greatest Wildlife Biology programs in the United States, he said with a laugh. Sometimes things just work out.

Liermann believes UM is attractive to veterans like himself because of its unique location on the urban-rural interface. He said Missoula  in the middle of the mountains  has all the advantages of a small city with a lively downtown.

But then you can drive 30 minutes and be in the Rattlesnake Wilderness and just disappear off the grid for a weekend  just like I did over winter break, he said.

Liermann intentionally worked to find community when he arrived on campus. Always a strong student, he joined UMs Davidson Honors College, which provides a focused and rigorous learning environment with smaller classes for top students. He also attended a meeting in the University Center, where he met Beckwith working to launch a new Student Veterans Organization on campus.

Liermann wound up becoming an officer with the student vets group, serving as vice president in 2022-23 and president in 2023-24. He also was recruited by Beckwith to work at the veteran services headquarters, a homey retrofitted house located on the edge of campus at 1000 E. Beckwith Ave. The residence offers military and veteran students their own home base at UM.

But what he really fell hard for was research. He took three courses at UMs Flathead Lake Biological Station, which turned him on to fieldwork and collecting, analyzing and reporting data in a wilderness setting. Later he took a class with Dr. Andrew Whiteley, which spurred an interest in genetics work with a case study on grizzly bears.

From a genetic standpoint, grizzlies in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem are on a genetic island, with restrictions on what kind of new genes come in, Liermann said. This story inspired me, so I applied to be a grizzly bear technician for Idaho Fish & Game this past summer. We set up barbed-wire corrals and scratching posts, and I went out and collected the hair for genetic samples. Ill be doing that again this summer.

He said his campus connections helped him get that job. UM also helped him land research experiences working at hunter check stations with Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks. That work connected him with Bitterroot Valley FWP biologist Rebecca Mowry, who took him on expeditions to dart bighorn sheep.

UM allowed me to pursue something Im passionate about and know that I would love, he said.

Liermann believes the Universitys Military Friendly ranking resulted from Beckwiths ability to communicate across campus and forge relationships. He said top institutions like UM also concentrate on graduation and career outcomes, work on support and retention for military-affiliated students, and focus on financial aid and loan repayments.

I feel like this honor is a pat on the back for our entire campus, he said. There are a lot of everyday heroes out there who make things easier for us  people like Lucy Logan over in student accounts. They are all part of it.

Liermann will graduate from UM on May 10, but his grizzly adventures will continue. His next stop is a doctoral ecology and evolutionary biology program at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

The veteran will conduct collaborative research, integrating genomics into long-term diversity monitoring of grizzly bears.

###

Contact: Dave Kuntz, UM director of strategic communications, 406-243-5659, dave.kuntz@umontana.edu; Patrick Beckwith, director, UM Military and Veteran Services Office, 406-243-2744, patrick.beckwith@mso.umt.edu.
BEIJING, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese mainland spokesperson on Wednesday applauded Taiwan compatriots who, in spite of intimidation and obstruction by the island's authorities, came to Beijing for commemorations, including a military parade, marking the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.

Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said while some Taiwan compatriots attended the commemorations in person, many more people in Taiwan followed the event via live broadcast.

"The parade demonstrated our determination and ability to safeguard peace and justice, uphold national unity, and oppose 'Taiwan independence,'" Chen said. 
CANBERRA, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Researchers have developed advanced organoid cell cultures that speed up virus testing for controlling destructive rabbit populations in Australia.

The breakthrough accelerated development of new virus strains to overcome resistance in invasive rabbits, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia's national science agency, said Wednesday.

CSIRO researchers have developed improved organoid cell cultures, 3D cellular structures mimicking rabbit organs, that now support more efficient rabbit calicivirus replication and testing outside live rabbits, a CSIRO statement said.

"The goal is to greatly reduce the number of animals needed for virus testing and to increase the speed of biocontrol research," said Tanja Strive, CSIRO senior principal research scientist.

European rabbits have severely impacted Australia's environment and agriculture since their introduction in 1859, the statement said.

Biological controls like myxoma and rabbit calicivirus viruses have reduced populations by more than 90 percent, saving over 70 billion Australian dollars (46.26 billion U.S. dollars), but evolving resistance requires new virus strains, it said.

Experts say the current dominant virus strain's effectiveness may wane soon, prompting urgent development of next-generation biocontrol agents.

Strive said the organoid system will also aid in vaccine development for pet and commercial rabbits, deepen understanding of virus biology, and enhance future biocontrol strategy efficacy.

This advancement forms part of Australia's Rabbit Biocontrol Pipeline Strategy, a long-term plan to maintain control over invasive rabbit numbers, according to the CSIRO. 
A new University of Wyoming study reveals Wyoming residents are eager to discuss how to plan for different water scenarios that may arise in the future.

The team of nine researchers from multiple disciplines, led by Mary Keller, a UW senior lecturer in religious studies, aimed to create a roadmap for engaging rural communities in conversations about their lived experiences and local knowledge related to climate and water-related risks, such as drought.

A recently published paper from the teams work, Unwinding the spiral of silence in rural America: Looking backward with stories to plan forward, was inspired by the idea that there are few opportunities for rural Wyoming residents to discuss water-related risks face-to-face.

The team conducted a representative survey of 557 Wyoming residents and found that, even though respondents expressed concerns about water-related hazards --78.1 percent reported that drought is increasing, and 75.2 percent reported wildfire is increasing -- they rarely communicated about water-related risks and how to deal with them, with only 16.3 percent of respondents communicating about water-related hazards more than sometimes.

With that in mind, research team members coordinated with UW Extension personnel and traveled to Powell, Sheridan and Torrington to discuss past drought events that community members faced and potential future water scenarios that community members may need to confront, such as a drier or wetter climate conditions.

Our workshops allowed Wyoming community members to think about the ways they adapted in the past and could apply those strategies to the future, Keller says. We learned so much from participants about their resilience and wits, including the value of their neighbors and communities when facing previous drought. As the workshop ended, participants were still eager to continue their conversations with one another.

The research groups statewide survey also revealed that many residents observed summer (56.7 percent), fall (52.2 percent) and winter (54.9 percent) are getting warmer, with half of respondents also agreeing that rivers, lakes and reservoirs are warmer in the summer compared to the past.

Participants in the scenario planning workshops expressed similar observations as those found in the survey and connected these changes to risks in the communitys safety and well-being; risks to family income and livelihood; risks to crops and animals; and risks to local ecosystems.

Wyoming residents highlighted fluctuations in water availability as a vulnerability to the states major economic sectors and expressed concern about agricultural adaptations. Changes in the availability of water in late summer were of special concern.

Despite the potential challenges that Wyoming communities may face, they expressed hopefulness.

In all three workshops, we heard versions of the phrase, Weve always gotten through the challenges, and we always will. This sentiment reflected the resilience of the communities and their shared pride in personal independence, coupled with neighborly cooperation as the source of their strength, says J.J. Shinker, a UW professor of geology and geophysics. As a professor, it was great to learn from people in our state, how they have experienced drought in the past and how they use those experiences when considering future droughts.

Keller adds that workshop participants engaged enthusiastically in conversations.

Once people started telling stories about their past experiences, time just slipped by, Keller says. People shared memories about previous challenges and expressed surprise when they hadnt realized what others had gone through.

She also notes her own feeling of relief as someone born and raised in Wyoming to hear from Wyoming voices that she innately trusts in conversation with evidence-based science.

Kristen Landreville, a co-author of the paper and researcher at UW, expresses excitement about the momentum their workshops created in communities: We got people talking, which is the first step to community planning and action.

Other co-authors of the research include Kristiana Hansen, Kathryn Cooper, Emily Donaldson, Michelle Kim, Ginger Paige and Anders van Sandt.
Vietnam Briefing has developed into a premium source for insight on doing business in Vietnam. It publishes business news concerning foreign direct investment into Vietnam, including the most important tax, legal and accounting issues. The Vietnam Briefing Magazine was first published in 2009, and is contributed to by investment professionals based in Vietnam.
GUANGZHOU, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- A world-class airport cluster is rapidly taking shape in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), marking a significant milestone in regional infrastructure development. This ambitious project integrates multiple major airports to create a cohesive and efficient aviation network.

On July 30, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport completed test flights on its fifth runway, becoming China's second and the GBA's first five-runway airport. Shortly after, on Aug. 3, Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport concluded flight calibration for its third runway, paving the way for its operational launch within the year.

Following the November 2024 commissioning of Hong Kong International Airport's three-runway system, the GBA currently operates 13 runways and is soon set to expand to 15. Beyond these major hubs, other airports across the GBA are also advancing their expansion projects simultaneously.

The GBA's aviation landscape comprises three hub airports (Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong), two major airports (Zhuhai and Macao), and two regional airports (Huizhou and Foshan), collectively serving over 200 global destinations.

The Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, released in February 2019, proposes the construction of a world-class airport cluster. It emphasizes the need to consolidate and enhance Hong Kong's status as an international aviation hub, strengthen its function as an aviation management training center, and improve the international hub competitiveness of Guangzhou and Shenzhen airports.

Additionally, the plan aims to enhance the functions of airports in Macao and Zhuhai, while promoting complementary development and positive interaction among airports in the area.

In 2024, the total passenger throughput at the seven airports in the GBA exceeded 200 million, reflecting the enhanced vitality of the urban agglomeration and the steady, positive economic development of cities in the region. This robust performance strongly endorses the ongoing airport expansion projects in the region.

In the meantime, substantial progress has been made in infrastructure, including the construction of new terminals and the development of transportation links connecting the airports. Advanced technologies are being implemented to streamline operations and improve passenger experiences across the network.

The International Air Transport Association forecasts that by 2030, the air passenger and cargo demand in the GBA will reach 387 million passenger trips and 20 million tonnes.

The GBA airport cluster is forming a multi-layered network featuring "Hong Kong as an international transit hub, Guangzhou as an Asia-Pacific hub, and Shenzhen as a hub for direct flights to emerging markets," covering major global economies and emerging markets and demonstrating strong global connectivity.

Hong Kong International Airport can reach major cities in the Asia-Pacific region within a 4-hour flight radius, and its 5-hour flight radius covers over half of the global population.

Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport operates approximately 75 international passenger routes and 46 international cargo routes weekly. Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport has over 50 international and regional destinations, with more than 800 weekly flights serving these routes.

Wang Guowen, director of the Institute of Logistics and Supply Chain Management at Shenzhen-based China Development Institute, said that the expansion of the airport cluster will not only make the GBA an aviation logistics hub connecting China and the world, but will also reduce corporate logistics costs within the region, promote the free flow and efficient allocation of economic factors, and propel the transformation of the GBA from a "world factory" to a "world market." 
BRUSSELS, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) and the United Nations, as well as several European governments, have this week hardened their stance on Israel's escalating military campaign across the Middle East after it launched airstrikes on Qatar on Tuesday afternoon.

Israel's attack on Doha targeted a site allegedly used by senior Hamas leaders. Although Hamas reported that its delegation had survived, six people were killed, including escorts and a Qatari security officer.

The attack drew swift condemnation worldwide. On Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called it a "flagrant violation" of Qatari sovereignty, while the EU Foreign Affairs spokesperson Anouar El Anouni said it violated "international law and Qatar's territorial integrity, and risks a further escalation of violence in the region."

Spain, so far, has issued its strongest condemnation of Israel yet. Within hours of the Doha raid, the Spanish government approved a decree formalizing its arms embargo, banning ships carrying weapons or fuel to Israel from docking at Spanish ports and Israeli defense aircraft from Spanish airspace, and stepping up humanitarian aid to Gaza. Spain also barred Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir from entering Spanish territory.

A day earlier, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had previewed the measures in a televised address, calling them "a necessary step to alleviate Palestinian suffering." He said Spain was determined to lead Europe's response.

Several other European countries have joined Spain in denouncing Israel's military action against Qatar. Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide described it as "a serious violation of international law." British Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the strike in talks with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul called Israel's attack "unacceptable" and warned that it jeopardizes the negotiations for the release of hostages held by Hamas. The Slovenian Foreign Ministry condemned the attack on social media, expressing solidarity with Qatar.

Portugal's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on social media platform X on Tuesday night that the attack violates Qatar's sovereignty and risks further escalating violence: "We stress that an immediate ceasefire and release of hostages are urgent. A two-state solution remains crucial for lasting peace," it added.

Meanwhile, the UN has stepped up its criticism of Israel's ongoing military campaign in Gaza, with High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk telling the Human Rights Council on Monday that he was "horrified by the open use of genocidal rhetoric" by Israeli officials.

Turk accused Israel of mass killings, obstructing aid, and committing war crimes, and urged governments to halt arms transfers, press for a ceasefire, and support Palestinians' right to self-determination.

On Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also hardened Europe's stance against Israel. "What is happening in Gaza has shaken the conscience of the world. Man-made famine can never be a weapon of war. This must stop," she said at a Plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, northern France.

Under new measures announced by von der Leyen, Europe will put bilateral support to Israel on hold, sanction extremist ministers and violent settlers, partially suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement on trade-related matters, and set up a Palestine Donor Group for the reconstruction of Gaza.

Rights groups and UN experts have warned that Israel's campaign in Gaza has created famine conditions and amounts to collective punishment, with more than 64,000 Palestinians killed since October 2023, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.

Public opinion is adding to the pressure over Israel's aggression against Palestinians in Gaza. On Sunday, an estimated 70,000 people marched in Brussels under the banner "Red Line for Gaza," representing one of the largest demonstrations in Belgium in years.

Similar rallies took place in London, Paris, and Stockholm, with thousands calling for a ceasefire and the recognition of a Palestinian state.

In recent weeks, Israel's widening military campaign - from Gaza and the West Bank to Qatar - has forced Europe to recalibrate its Israel policies. Spain set a precedent by deploying measures unprecedented at the European level. Meanwhile, France, Britain and Belgium have joined Canada and Australia in announcing their plans to formally recognize a Palestinian state at the UN's General Assembly later this month. 
JERUSALEM, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli military struck another multi-story building in Gaza City on Wednesday, as Israeli officials vowed to continue targeting Hamas leaders even if Tuesday's airstrike in Qatar failed to kill them.

The military expanded its offensive in the city, home to nearly 1 million people. Photos showed the Tayba II Tower, a residential building near the Rimal neighborhood, reduced to rubble after the attack.

The military confirmed it had struck the building, claiming Hamas had installed intelligence-gathering equipment there.

It was the latest in a series of high-rise towers, many sheltering displaced families, hit in recent days. Israel says Hamas mounted surveillance cameras on the buildings to monitor troop movements.

Residents were given less than an hour's warning before the strike, with Avichay Adraee, a military spokesman, urging their evacuation in a post in Arabic on the social media platform X.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday's attempted assassination of senior Hamas figures in Qatar was part of an operation dubbed "Fire Summit" aimed at killing the group's top leadership. "Israel's security policy is clear: Israel's long arm will act against its enemies everywhere. There is no place for them to hide," he said.

Katz said Israel will continue to pursue all Hamas members involved in the attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that left about 1,200 people dead. He warned that unless Hamas accepted Israel's conditions for ending the war -- which he said were primarily the release of all hostages and disarmament -- "they will be destroyed and Gaza will be destroyed."

The strike in Qatar cast doubt on Gaza ceasefire talks, after Qatar, a key mediator between Israel and Hamas, announced it was suspending negotiations.

Israel's assault has killed more than 64,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities, and reduced much of the enclave to rubble and pushed the population toward famine. 
Flotilla organisers report second drone attack.

Demonstrations were held on Tuesday evening in Rome and other Italian cities in protest against a drone attack on the Global Sumud Flotilla which is carrying aid to Gaza.

Thousands of people gathered in Rome's San Lorenzo district, in a march organised by pro-Palestinian groups and students of La Sapienza University, with reports of isolated scuffles with police.

"We're the ones blowing the wind in the sails" - protesters shouted into megaphones - "If they stop the ships, we'll blockade the city."

The rally came after a torchlight procession on Sunday night when tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Rome in support of the humanitarian mission.

Flotilla organisers said on Tuesday night that one of their boats had been hit by another drone attack while docked off the Tunisian coast, the second such strike in two days.

The flotilla is set to resume its voyage on Wednesday after weather conditions and other issues delayed the mission by several days.

The boats will attempt to break through the Israeli naval blockade to deliver food and other humanitarian aid to civilians in the Gaza Strip, however Israel has vowed to prevent the flotilla from reaching its destination.

Asked about the first drone attack on the flotilla, Italy's foreign minister Antonio Tajani on Tuesday specified that the incident occurred in "Tunisian territorial waters" and involved a "Portuguese-flagged vessel".

"There were no Italians involved or injured, so we can't do anything" - Tajani said - "We're waiting to see what happens. Our embassy in Tunis is alerted to the presence of Italian citizens there... It's not up to Italy to investigate."

He stressed it was a "risky" mission and reiterated the government's position that the best way to deliver aid to Gaza is via "institutional" channels.

Tajani said he will call his Israeli counterpart Gideon Sa'ar in the coming days to discuss the flotilla, adding: "We can't do anything other than guarantee full consular support to the Italians [on board the flotilla] who may encounter problems, if and when they arrive on Israeli soil".

Photo credit: Adriano Cirasa / Shutterstock.com.
In July this year, the Minister and Department for Transport met with Mary Butler and John Cummins, as well as Waterford City and County Council to discuss Waterford Airport.

Following that meeting, Minister Mary Butler took to WLR to update the public, while Minister Cummins spoke to the Waterford News and Star.

Those conversations yielded bombshells and promises.

The public learned that the 2019 business case submitted by the airport was not, in fact, a business case.

The project was effectively back at square one in terms of applying for government funding.

But the airport and local ministers, at least, were confident they could get the documents together and keep the project on track.

The Waterford News and Star has obtained, under the Freedom of Information Act 2014, the draft minutes of that meeting.

The minutes show the accusations, frustrations, jibes and concessions made by all parties.

Here is what we learned about the July 2 meeting.

In July this year, the Minister and Department for Transport met with Mary Butler and John Cummins, as well as Waterford City and County Council to discuss Waterford Airport.

Following that meeting, Minister Mary Butler took to WLR to update the public, while Minister Cummins spoke to the Waterford News and Star.

Those conversations yielded bombshells and promises.

We learned that the 2019 business case submitted by the airport was not, in fact, a business case.

The project was effectively back at square one in terms of applying for government funding.

But the airport and local ministers, at least, were confident they could get the documents together and keep the project on track.

The Waterford News and Star has obtained, under the Freedom of Information Act 2014, the draft minutes of that meeting.

The minutes show the accusations, frustrations, jibes and concessions made by all parties.

Here is what we learned about the July 2 meeting.

CONDITIONS NOT MET

In June 2019, it was announced that the government would provide 5 million in funding for the runway extension, which was at the time projected to cost 12 million.

However, according to the minutes obtained by this paper, Secretary General Ken Spratt said that while there had been an approval in principle, the conditions for the funding had not been met by the airport.

The minutes do not say what conditions were not met.

The Secretary General acknowledged the impact of Covid-19 but said the airport needed to comply with the Public Spending Code.

The minutes say: All that is being asked of the Airport is to go through the same process as all of our projects- the c. 586 departmental projects at various stages under the Infrastructure Guidelines in the Quality Assurance Process 2023 Report was referenced for context.

The CEO of WCC said it was the boards view that everything that had been asked of them had been provided and wasnt aware of the 2021 correspondence from Minister Naughton in which she advised that the airport needed to comply with the Guidelines.

The minutes show that Minister OBrien agreed that the conditions were not met and that the most expeditious route to a decision was for the airport to provide the preliminary business case, as the next step under the Infrastructure Guidelines.

Following the meeting in July, Minister Mary Butler told WLR that the Department of Transport was of the view that what was submitted by the airport in 2019 was not a business case.

This was met with shock locally, as the document had been referred to as a business case by local representatives as well as ministers for the past five years, and even at one public engagement by the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

The minutes refer to the 2019 document as the Project Outline Document.

DISAPPOINTMENT AND FRUSTRATION

The minutes show that both Ministers Mary Butler and John Cummins were noted to have expressed disappointment and frustration throughout the meeting.

John Cummins felt that the only thing that had changed since 2019 was the cost of the project and that the 2019 agreement should stand.

Minister Mary Butler felt that going through the steps of the infrastructure guidelines was wasting time.

The minutes show that Minister Cummins tried to push for a decision either negative or positive by the start of November.

This, he said, would mean work on the runway could start in the spring.

But, Transport Officials are recorded as saying they could not guarantee a decision by November.

They said all projects are treated equally in assessment and timelines vary.

The officials referenced Cork Airport, which required 6 million in Exchequer funding and took around a year to develop the final business case.

The Department advised that while the ball was in Waterford Airports court, it would continue to assist the airport in developing the documents required as it had done in relation to the development of the Project Outline Document.

Minister Butler said WCCC was indicating three to six months was all that was needed to provide the preliminary business case.

The minutes also say: Minister Butler queried whether the Department had a fundamental objection to the terms of the proposed restructuring or around the investors and indicated that there was a perception that if WCCC had a bigger equity stake, the proposal might be looked on more favourably, said the minutes.

Minister OBrien rejected the idea and said that investors were not his concern and that he was not aware of any specific concerns in that regard. This is usually assessed at a later stage, but he would review the proposed model and give an initial view to aid in the progress.

Redacted section of minutes.

ACTIONS

It was decided that the meeting would consider the proposal in terms of equity and ownership.

The airport are to submit a preliminary business case as that is the next step inn the Governments Infrastructure Guidelines.

The department will consider the preliminary business case as a matter of priority, but the minutes note it had to stack up.

THE MEETING

The meeting took place between 5:15pm and 7:15pm on Tuesday, July 2, 2025.

In attendance for the Department of Transport was the Minister for Transport Darragh OBrien, Secretary General Ken Spratt, Assistant Secretary Ethna Brogan and Principal Officer Nicola Hanes.

For Waterford City and County Council and the airport, CEO of WCCC and Director on the board of Waterford Airport, Sean McKeon, Director of Services for Economic Development at WCCC, Michael Quinn, and Ministers Mary Butler and John Cummins, were present.

The title of the meeting was Minutes of Ministerial Meeting on Waterford Airport.

And the purpose was to discuss the next steps regarding the Waterford Airport Development Proposal.

The meeting opened with the minister acknowledging the passing of the Chair of Waterford Airport, Dan Browne, and his commitment to this project.

A NOTE ON THE RELEASE

A small section of the minutes (11 lines) was redacted under Section 36(1)(b) of the act.

These were under a section of the minutes marked CEO of WCCC and seemed to relate to the airport board, stakeholders and commercial viability.

In their letter for the FOI request, the Department of Transport Deciding Officer said they had redacted the section as it related to commercially sensitive information.

They said they did not have permission to share the information and were of the opinion, the redacted information could reasonably be expected to prejudice their competitive position.

However, with the exception of this section, the minutes were provided in full.
Recent reported incidents of fireworks and bonfires in parts of Waterford City has left locals shocked and distressed.

Gardai in Waterford are tackling the illegal use of fireworks as part of Operation Tombola.

A local resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, told Waterford News and Star that while incidents like these "have been going on for years", in recent times the situation has appeared to escalate.

The resident claimed they witnessed children throwing objects at fire brigades entering areas where bonfires and fireworks had been set.

The resident said: "Someone will get hurt. They're literally playing with fire."

As young as 11

The source said that children as young as 11 are out on the streets getting caught up in such activity, as well as men in their 20s, who can be seen drinking and smoking.

According to the resident, there are a number of "escape routes" where individuals run down whenever Gardai arrive

The local said that the anti-social behaviour has impacted their everyday lives.

They said: "I just want to sit down of an evening with a cup of tea and watch Eastenders. It's an absolute nightmare. We're afraid to go anywhere because we don't want to leave the house alone."

Helicopter

The resident became extremely concerned over the weekend when Rescue 117 was flying over the area, searching for a missing young woman (the woman was later found safe and well).

Fireworks were being set off in the area while the helicopter was flying above, potentially disrupting the rescue service's mission. The local said: "On the night I spoke to two young boys and told them 'that's not right!'".

Inspector Garda Shay Keevans is encouraging anyone who witnesses fireworks, bonfires or any other anti-social behaviour in their area to call their local Garda Station or the

Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111.

There are a number of Community Policing Teams in Waterford City, and they can be contacted at (051) 305300.
Waterford City and County Council has been allocated 1.5 million in funding to take families out of long-term emergency accommodation.

Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, James Browne, announced 50 million in funding for housing acquisitions.

The fund is to be divided among the eight local authorities that have the highest number of families in emergency accommodation for more than 24 months in the Dublin region and 12 months in the remaining four regional authorities.

We are in a housing crisis, and a crisis calls for swift and targeted measures that get to those who are most vulnerable as quickly as possible. I want to see children off our homelessness list, full stop.

"But todays action is about getting children who are in emergency accommodation for an extended period into safe, secure and permanent homes, as all children deserve.

"This is just one part of a significant and ongoing wider work to tackle Irelands levels of homelessness, experienced particularly acutely in our capital city, which requires decisive interventions like this, said Minister Browne.

The new funding will support larger families with children and Housing First clients to exit long-term homeless emergency accommodation.

HIGH FIGURES

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage publishes a monthly homelessness report.

However, that report only gives regional family figures and not county totals.

And it gives no indication of how many families have been in emergency accommodation for long periods of time.

In July, the report showed 68 families in the south east region were in emergency accommodation.

That figure consists of 94 adults and 116 children.

Todays funding allocation shows that Waterford has some of the highest numbers of families in emergency accommodation over 12 months.

I am instructing local authorities to specifically target this additional tranche of funding support at family households in emergency accommodation that are being supported to exit emergency accommodation into housing.

"I want a reduction, on an urgent basis, in the number of families in long-term emergency accommodation.

This targeted 50m acquisition programme will complement local authority efforts to exit families from homelessness using other delivery streams and the Housing Assistance Payment.

"A particular focus will be the acquisition of four-bedroom properties, which have not been available through other delivery streams, said Minister Browne.

The other local authorities to receive funding are Cork City (2 million), Dublin City (22 million), Dun Laoghaire Rathdown (2.5 million), Fingal (10 million), Galway City(4 million), Limerick City and County (3 million) and South Dublin (5 million).

Waterford City and County received the lowest allocation.

Progress will be monitored and funding will be reallocated as needed to maximise the impact of the funding for homeless households.

AQUISITION PROGRAMME

325 million has already been allocated for the second-hand acquisitions programme in 2025.

The minister confirmed that there is enough funding remaining available from the original 325m allocation to allow all local authorities to complete whatever priority acquisitions they have on hand for 2025 delivery.

It is estimated that local authorities might potentially complete around 850 acquisitions this year.

This includes hundreds of Tenant-in-Situ purchases.

The Tenant-in-Situ acquisitions scheme, which was introduced as a temporary funding measure as part of the Departments second-hand acquisitions funding programme, remains in place.
DHAKA, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh has unequivocally condemned an Israeli attack on Qatar, saying that such an action constitutes a clear violation of the gulf state's sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as international law and principles of the UN Charter.

"We call upon the international community, particularly the United Nations and relevant stakeholders, to take appropriate measures to ensure accountability and uphold respect for international law and the UN Charter," Bangladesh's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday.

In a statement, it said Bangladesh stands in steadfast solidarity with the government and people of the brotherly state of Qatar in the face of this unlawful and unprovoked attack.

This incident is yet another indication of Israel's continued disregard for regional stability, international peace, and established international norms. Such an action undermines global efforts toward peace and security, the statement said. 
Waterford College of Further Education has said a fond farewell to two staff members who retired recently.

In a post on social media, the college thanked Deputy Principal Gerry Doyle, who worked at WCFE for 25 years, and Maria Hayes, who built the Beauty Therapy Department and retired after 28 years.

It's hard to measure the contribution of someone on the human level, as friends or colleagues.

"Much easier to wonder at their legacy in the college itself, the equation of passion and time devoted to the service of teaching.

There would be no shortage of students to testify to the life-changing work of our two colleagues, students whose dreams came true, students who were scaffolded by these two wonderful people.

"Quantifiable success that can be traced back to professionalism, drive, and the creation of courses that opened the world up to those who studied them.

But on this September day, as the evening basks in the last of a summer's passing, we take a moment to say thanks to Gerry and Maria for who they are.

That essential magic that brings people together inspires the human connection. The unquantifiable brilliance of your being; what two great friends you are.

You always go the extra mile, you always help, you always listen. You are foundational to the essence of WCFE.

"Enjoy your retirement and new projects. Thanks a million for everything you did for us! wrote WCFE.
James Cox

The European Parliament has sent a "serious signal" to the European Commission on Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), according to Fianna Fail MEP Barry Cowen.

MEPs voted overwhelming in favour of the Agriculture Committees own-initiative report on the future of farming and the post-2027 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the report was adopted by 393 votes to 145 and 123 abstentions.

The report, led by Spanish European Peoples Party MEP Carmen Crespo Diaz, sets out the Parliaments political priorities ahead of upcoming negotiations on the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and next CAP post-2027.

Fianna Fail MEP for Midlands North-West Barry Cowen, a member of the agricultural committee, served as lead negotiator for the Renew Europe group on the report.

In preparing for negotiations around the report, Mr Cowen engaged with hundreds of stakeholders across Europe and published his own position paper in May.

Mr Cowen welcomed the text, and said many of his proposals - paritcularly on food security, environmental rewards and simplification - had been included.

He added that while the Commissions recent proposals to cut the CAP budget by around 20 per cent and remove its standalone status were disappointing, they are only a starting point.

Key elements of the report

Defence of CAP budget and two-pillar structure

Central to the report is a defence of the CAPs current ring-fenced budget and two-pillar structure, and a demand that food security be treated as a pillar of Europes strategic autonomy. This directly challenges the Commissions current MFF proposal, which would slash the CAP budget by approximately 20 per cent. The text stresses that the CAP must remain a standalone EU policy and not be folded into broader national funding envelopes, as is being touted by the Commission.

Review of the Nitrates Directive

The report calls for a review of the Nitrates Directive to bring it into line with the latest scientific evidence on the safe use of processed manure products, including RENURE, and to ensure best agricultural practice is supported rather than penalised. Inclusion of this point was a priority for Mr Cowen.

He said it is of particular significance to Ireland  with the countrys Nitrates Derogation due to expire at the end of 2025.

Cutting red tape and promoting generational renewal

The report also presses for a clearer approach to generational renewal and continued support for part-time and small-scale farmers. The text also outlines the need for urgent simplification and reduced bureaucracy, including a CAP one-stop-shop to address farmer concerns raised in recent protests across Europe. It insists that farm-level impact assessments must be carried out before introducing new obligations.

Speaking ahead of the vote at midday, Mr Cowen said The Commission would be wise to treat todays vote on the AGRI Committees report, which received overwhelming support, as a serious signal  both of what Parliament wants and what farmers expect. This vote will send a clear message to the Commission ahead of its upcoming MFF and CAP negotiations: agriculture is not a footnote to Europes security  its central to it. If we are going to ask for more from our farmers, we must match that with meaningful support.

The message were delivering to the Commission is clear: farmers across Europe are demanding fairness, certainty and respect  and this report reflects that. A properly funded, ring-fenced CAP must be the foundation of Europes food and rural policy, not a bargaining chip in budget negotiations. Farmers from across Europe, including Ireland, have protested for a reason  and today, the Parliament stands with them."
Visit Waterford is to host a live Podcast recording to celebrate this year's Culture Night.

The organisation will celebrate the night with an evening of rich history, stories, and culture, highlighting Irelands oldest city.

The event will take place at the House of Waterford, The Mall, on Friday, September 19, at 6.30pm.

Attendees can reserve their place for free online at eventbrite.ie.

The evening will feature a 10-minute presentation followed by a lively panel discussion, forming part of a live podcast experience that explores Waterfords remarkable heritage.

A spokesperson for Discover Waterford highlighted that the celebration will also mark 1,111 years of history in Waterford. Visit Waterford launched its podcast series Dig Into Waterford.

The series is already available online and features expert insights on the county's incredible history, and the forthcoming live event will expand on those stories.

"The captivating podcast is designed to showcase the rich history, hidden gems, folklore, and storytelling traditions of County Waterford, with each episode delving into the county's unique heritage, offering listeners an immersive experience into its cultural tapestry," said the spokesperson.

The 1111 historic milestone will be celebrated and showcased live at the upcoming special event titled '1,111 Years of History in 111 Minutes: A Whirlwind Journey Through Waterfords Incredible Past'.

Chrissy Knight-O'Connor

Historian Chrissy Knight-OConnor will present 'Revolutionary Women and Community Archaeology in Waterford'.

She has has contributed to Waterford County Museum and Abbeyside Heritage Archives, co-authored 'Waterford Women of the Revolution 191423' (2022) and 'Up the Village: A Social History of Abbeyside' (2024), and has coordinated the Gallowshill Community Archaeology Project since 2015. The project uncovered centuries-old burials and traced the mounds origins to the 6th7th century, reshaping local history.

Chrissy also shares Waterfords stories through radio, talks, and articles, and is pursuing a masters in Gaelic Literature and Culture with UCC.

Dr Ben Spillane

Dr. Ben Spillane, archaeologist, will discuss Irelands later prehistory, focusing on the Bronze Age in the Suir Valley. He works with the UCD School of Archaeology on Project Radiocarbon, safeguarding Irelands radiocarbon record. His research includes Bronze Age sites in southeast Ireland, such as the defended settlement at Knockhouse Lower in Co. Waterford, cremation cemeteries in Co. Wexford, and notable artefacts, including a Bronze Age sword from Christ Church and a nearby gold collar.

Cliona Purcell, Head Curator at the House of Waterford, will guide the evening, bringing her extensive experience in museum curation and heritage interpretation to ensure that the citys history comes vividly to life for audiences of all ages.

Clare Barrett, Chair of Visit Waterford, said: Culture Night is a wonderful opportunity for people to engage with the stories, heritage, and culture that make Waterford so unique. This live podcast event brings together experts and the public in a shared celebration of our citys 1,111-year history, and we are delighted to welcome everyone to join us for this free and immersive experience.

The Visit Waterford Culture Night event will be free to attend, offering a unique opportunity to explore Waterfords 1,111-year history, hear from leading experts and take part in a live podcast recording. Those wishing to attend can register for free online at eventbrite.ie though the booking link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/culture-night-1111-years-of-history-in-111-years-tickets-1673284331479?aff=oddtdtcreator
A very special night of theatre will take place in Waterford next month when local playwrith, Keith Dunphy, will stage his play, 'Word Against The Word' in Garter Lane frpm October 21 to 25.

The play was produced by Watering Hole Productions with Michael Grant and Padraig OGriofa, and is being staged in association with the Imagine Arts Festival.

Keith left Waterford in 1996 to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

Funded by his hometown, he dreams of performing Shakespeare in his own accent.

'Word Against The Word', is a one-man play exploring how an Irish actor with dyslexia navigates show business, hoping but never knowing if he'll ever get to play the king that once visited Waterford - Richard II.

'Word Against the Word' will be staged in Garter Lane in October.

The play explores Keith's relationship with his nationality, dyslexia and the challenges of classical theatre.

It sets his life growing up and becoming an actor, while still unable to read, against Richard's speech as he sailed up the River Suir in 1399.

A spokesperson for Garter Lane said the work is a hugely entertaining, life-affirming story of the struggles, pain and joy Keith encountered on his journey from Doyle Street to classical acting.

'Word Against the Word' will be staged in Garter Lane in October.

"It will make you laugh; it will make you cry; it may make you angry, but it will also make you proud of the human spirit," said the spokesperson.

"Its a great story told and performed by an even greater actor," he added.

Booking for the show is now open with tickets available through garterlane.ie or by phoning 051 855038.

This is Keiths first devised show, which he is proud to be bringing to his hometown.

A very busy actor, he recently filmed, 'The Winter King', for Sony/Badwolf productions.

A formidable actor with an incredible portfolio or work behind him some of his credits include: Feature Film: 'The Banishing', 'Rogue One', 'The Spoiler', 'Les Miserable', 'Black Death', 'Children of Men', 'The Wind That Shakes The Barley' and 'Inside I'm Dancing'.

His TV credits include: 'The Winter King', 'Rebellion', 'No Offence', 'Beowulf', 'The Hollow Crown', 'Peaky Blinders', 'Life Begins', 'Ultimate Force' and 'Professor T'.

Meanwhile, his stage work is just was impressive and includes: 'A Woman Walks Into A Bank' (Theatre 503, London); 'Under the Black Rock' (Arcola Theatre); 'Fighting Irish (Belgrade Theatre); 'The Lovely Bones' (Birmingham Rep, Liverpool Everyman, Northern Stage); 'Easter Rising And There After' (Jermyn St. Theatre, London); 'The Rivals' (Bristol Old Vic); 'The Birthday Party (Royal Exchange Theatre), 'One For The Road & Victoria Station' (Young Vic Theatre and the Print Rooms London); 'Macbeth' (The Globe Theatre London); 'Romeo and Juliet', 'The Grapes of Wrath & Catastrophic Sex Music' (Mercury Theatre).
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BusinessCompaniesCompany mergers This was published 3 months ago Opinion The copper wars are here: Mega merger could trigger battle of the mining giants Stephen Bartholomeusz Senior business columnist September 10, 2025  10:06am

September 10, 2025  10:06am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share 1 View all comments

Theres a $75 billion-plus question mark hanging over the $US50 billion merger of Anglo American and Canadas Teck Resources unveiled overnight. Which one, or ones, of the mining sectors heavyweights will attempt to gatecrash their party? With both Anglo and Teck having been targeted unsuccessfully in the past  Anglo by BHP last year and Teck in 2023 by Glencore  and all the miners in a scramble to lift their copper exposure, it is inevitable that BHP, Glencore and Rio, among others, will have opened their M&A playbooks in response to this merger. Everyone wants copper. So which of the mining sectors heavyweights will attempt to nix Anglo and Tecks deal? AP Between them, Anglo and Tech produce about 1.2 million tonnes of copper a year. Given that it has been structured as a nil-premium deal, the proposed mergers pricing provides no deterrent. There are, however, obstacles to an acquisition of either of the merger parties, or, for a more ambitious predator, both of them. The attempt by BHP to acquire Anglo and Glencores tilt at Teck both failed because of issues that had nothing to do with price.

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Anglo rejected a bid that had been complicated by its ownership of a number of poison pills  its South African platinum, iron ore and diamond assets  ostensibly because of the deals complex structure, with BHP proposing to spin off the platinum and iron ore assets ahead of a completed bid. Anglo instead preferred to pursue its own restructuring of its operations, which have chalked up massive losses in recent years. Demand for copper is booming and will continue to boom as investments in renewable energy, electric vehicles and data centres for artificial intelligence soar. Teck rejected Glencores overtures (although it did sell Glencore its metallurgical coal assets) because the companys founding family opposed it. The Keevil family holds about 55 per cent of A-class super-voting shares in Teck, each of which carries 100 votes. The family is backing the merger with Anglo, under which the combined company will be headquartered in Canada (although its primary sharemarket listing will be in London) and chaired by Tecks chair, Sheila Murray. Teck shareholders would own 37.6 per cent of the merged entity. The other obstacle to any rival offer for Teck is Canadas resources nationalism. Canada said last year it would only approve foreign takeovers of its miners involved in critical minerals in the most exceptional of circumstances.

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The tie-up with Anglo will trigger a government review but, perhaps because it has been framed as a merger rather than a takeover and the headquarters of what will be Canadas biggest mining group will remain in the country, the initial response from the government appeared receptive. Related Article Opinion

Company mergers BHP walks after Anglo breaks off the engagement  but never say never Stephen Bartholomeusz Senior business columnist The Canadian governments stance isnt necessarily an impenetrable obstacle to a rival bidders ambitions. BHP (potash), Glencore (base metals and coal) and Rio (aluminium) all have important, substantial and long-standing resources interests in Canada. None, however, would be likely to agree to move their headquarters to gain Canadas approval. The family behind Teck and its 87-year-old patriarch, Norman Keevil, might be the more difficult hurdle, although Keevil indicated during the talks with Glencore that he wouldnt stand in the way of an overwhelmingly attractive deal for Teck shareholders. The more vulnerable of the two merger partners is probably Anglo, which is still valued at significantly less than BHP offered last year  $US39.6 billion versus BHPs $US49 billion  and which is still racking up heavy losses, including $US1.96 billion in the first half of this financial year.

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It has offloaded/demerged its platinum business, which is now listed separately, but a deal to sell most of its metallurgical coal assets to Peabody Resources for $US3.8 billion fell through after a fire halted production from the Moranbah North mine in Queensland. Its 85 per cent stake in De Beers is on the market but, even after it has written down its value by more than $US4.5 billion over the past two years, it hasnt landed a buyer in a very depressed market for natural diamonds. With Anglo planning to shift its headquarters to Vancouver, and the labour-intensive platinum business now independent, the South African government  which sided with Anglo last year  might be more open to a new bid for Anglo from BHP or another major miner. The larger copper-hungry miners would be derelict in their duties to shareholders if they didnt at least consider whether and how to intervene. Teck, with its very attractive copper assets in Canada and Chile, would be a cleaner buy if the Keevil family could be brought/bought onside, although its Quebrada Blanca 2 (QB2) project in Chile is now undergoing a major operational review, and growth projects have stalled after the company experienced problems with its tailings management facility. Certainly, the merger announcement has put both Anglo and Teck in play and, given the dearth of significant copper-exposed opportunities available, the larger copper-hungry miners would be derelict in their duties to shareholders if they didnt at least consider whether and how to intervene.

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If there werent multiple potential bidders for the merging companies, an obvious strategy might be to wait until the merger was completed and then bid for the lot. Related Article Updated

Mergers & acquisitions Rio-Glencore merger could create a copper powerhouse Anglos Collahuasi copper project is close to Tecks QB2  they are essentially mining the same ore body  so it makes sense for those companies and anyone seeking a big boost to their copper resources to bring those projects together. Glencore, incidentally, has a matching 44 per cent interest with Anglo in Collahuasi. The potential for $US800 million a year in synergies (from the fourth year after the merger) from combining their Chilean interests is clearly a major motivation for the Anglo and Teck deal. It would also be appealing to Glencore, or anyone prepared to wait and bid for the combined entity. Demand for copper is booming and will continue to boom as investments in renewable energy, electric vehicles and the data centres for artificial intelligence soar. The supply of new projects, however, is quite constrained and the grades and production volumes at existing established projects are under pressure.

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Thats why the announcement of the merger could be a catalyst not just for someone to gatecrash the Anglo and Teck party, but to trigger deals elsewhere as the big miners scramble to secure larger access to the most critical metal of the 21st century. The Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the days trading. Get it each weekday afternoon.
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BusinessCompaniesMurdoch family case This was published 3 months ago Opinion Whats to become of Murdochs corporate orphans? Elizabeth Knight Business columnist September 10, 2025  12:52pm

September 10, 2025  12:52pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

Now the Murdoch succession fix has been inked, we can usher in a new chapter and introduce a new family WhatsApp group  the multibillionaire Murdoch sibling refugees. The members of this unity ticket of Elisabeth, James and Prudence have freedom from any constraints imposed from their former roles as shareholders in the family trust that owns the controlling stake in News Corp and Fox Corp. The Murdoch familys multibillion-dollar feud has come to an end. Rupert Murdoch and his four eldest children (from left), Lachlan, Elisabeth, Prudence and James. SMH The $US1.1 billion ($1.7 billion) they will each receive from this weeks settlement for them is just a top-up from the payment of about $US1.7 billion in Disney shares they received when the empire sold assets to Disney in 2019. Murdochs two youngest children, Chloe and Grace from his marriage to Wendi Deng, received an equivalent payment from the Disney deal. Sure, they wont be Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg rich, but they will be billionaires at least two times over.

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But this middle-aged trio  especially James and Elisabeth  dont possess the obscurity gene, having been members of arguably the most talked about family outside the British royals. While, other than Prudence, each of them has lived their lives in a large game of succession chess, they can now spend the remainder of their time pursuing other goals. So intriguing was the family drama that it formed the basis for an HBO hit drama, Succession. For the public, tuning in to the real-life soap opera family drama has been every bit as entertaining. Over the decades, the epic tale has seen brother Lachlan pitted against brother James, and sister Elisabeth against both brothers, and at various times all at odds with their father, Rupert.

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Billionaires Arise, King Lachlan! A new era for the Murdoch media empire has begun Elizabeth Knight Business columnist James, who at one point looked like he had front running, was embroiled in the UK hacking scandal and ultimately returned to the US, where he was sent to the empires metaphorical gulag. Elisabeth has been viewed by many to be the most commercially savvy and independently successful of the Murdoch siblings but was cursed with one too many X chromosomes to be considered an appropriate heir to the throne by her conservative father. While, other than Prudence, each of them has lived their lives in a large game of succession chess, they can now spend the remainder of their time pursuing other goals. Having claimed the empires throne, Lachlan will be judged by the performance of Fox and News Corp and his ability to manage financial and political relationships spanning the US, Australia and the UK, following on from the mastery of his father.

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Over the past six years, James has been chief executive of a private investment company he founded, Lupa Systems, and an active philanthropist alongside his wife, Kathryn Hufschmid. Related Article Analysis

Murdoch family case Captain Lachlan may be News Corps master and commander but troubled waters lie ahead Controversially, he is also on the board of Elon Musks Tesla. Elisabeth Murdoch is a successful businesswoman in her own right, having founded production house Shine (creator of MasterChef), which she sold to her father in 2011, and more recently co-founded another production company, Sister. She is also the co-founder and chair of Locksmith Animation and is heavily involved in philanthropy. She has been married three times and has been no stranger to holding strong views, having famously declared at the height of the UK hacking scandal that James had f---ed the company.

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The refugee Murdoch siblings have opinions, vast wealth and, thanks to their heritage, a large stage. It remains to be seen whether they can resist using that stage. Loading The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.
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NationalNSWCBD This was published 3 months ago DJ Albo is in da house  but orchestra left worrying about funding Linda Morris, Matt O'Sullivan and Charlotte Grieve September 11, 2025  3:00am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

DJ Albo, better known as PM Anthony Albanese, is partial to his vinyl record collection, Toto (the dog, not the band) and Radio Birdman, but it seems time in the top office might be rounding out his musical tastes. He penned a glowing tribute in the program notes to the elite musicians who performed last week with the Australian World Orchestra. Think of the AWO as classical musics answer to the Olympics. Some 100 of the best Australian orchestral musicians fly in from the four corners of the world to play together on home soil each year. Schedules are so tight artistic director and chief conductor Alex Briger needs a spreadsheet to co-ordinate these international superstars. Take Nick Deutsch, one of the countrys most sought-after oboists of his generation. He flew into Sydney and Melbourne last week and back the next morning bound for the Hochschule fur Musik und Theater in Leipzig, Germany where he is professor of oboe, no less. Anthony Albanese at Melbournes Corner Hotel.

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The Australian World Orchestra receives not a skerrick of funding from the federal government arts funding body, Creative Australia, reliant as it is on the box office and private donations. Related Article CBD Gai Waterhouses bizarre spray about Randwick irks Peter Vlandys The PMs stirring words of support for AWO have raised hopes the feds might turn flattery into financial support. The sector could do with some good news as Albos former political foe Julie Bishop is busy slashing the music department of the Australian National University. The cutbacks have angered the usually mild-mannered maestro Richard Tognetti, whos the latest name in the arts world to join the barricades. Australian writers are still fuming at Melbourne University Publishings shock axing of Meanjin, one of Australias second-oldest literary journals, and plan protests on Thursday.

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For arts sake CBD donned a jaunty beret in honour of the late John Olsen to crash the VIP preview at the Sydney Contemporary art fair. Among the early arrivals was former television news presenter Anne Fulwood, Museum of Contemporary Arts Suzanne Cotter and board director Bridget Grant Pirrie, as well as Carriageworks Fergus Linehan. Related Article Art For a princely sum, this drawing by a king is for sale at Sydneys contemporary art fair Artspaces Victor Wang came for the art, as did philanthropists Andrew Rothery, Andrew and Cathy Cameron, and fund manager Will Vicars. Art Gallery of NSW chair Michael Rose was expecting director Maud Page to join him, both preoccupied of late with managing the gallerys $7.5 million shortfall threatening 51 jobs. Affected staff intend to leaflet art lovers over the course of the art fair to draw attention to the budget cuts.

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Clutching an empty chequebook, we could only admire Untitled (1993) by Emily Kam Kngwarray. Its one of only 12 paintings produced by Emily in the style of long vertical panels with large florettes. Utopia Art Sydney director Christopher Hodges was a long-standing art dealer of Emily. He prefers the spelling Emily Kame Kngwarreye, used exclusively throughout her career. Untitled has an asking price of $1.5 million, equivalent to a box-sized apartment in inner Sydney. Lead balloon The wineries dotting the rolling countryside around Mudgee in NSWs central west are a drawcard for Sydneysiders keen for a weekend escape. It turns out if the company proposing a controversial open-cut lead, silver and zinc mine east of Mudgee gets its way, visitors might have another stop on the tourist trail.

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That is, if staring into a massive pit takes your fancy. Bowdens Silver has had the idea tourists could visit a viewing platform at the mine site. Yet winemakers and prominent identities from the world of thoroughbred racing are unconvinced  to put it mildly. Cattle producer and William Inglis & Son director Jamie Inglis reckoned it was an insane idea. We are talking about a lead mine. You couldnt chase people to the site to view it. Who wants to look into a pit? he said.

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Inglis has joined winegrowers and tourism operators fighting against the mine due to fears about lead contamination decimating their businesses. Prominent local winemaker David Lowe said, with tongue firmly placed in cheek, that it could help Mudgee rival Mount Isa as a tourist mecca. I could add a mine to my winery, he quipped. Bowdens said a viewing platform was raised as a potential enhancement project, and remained only a potential idea. Tourism might not be nearly as lucrative as open-cut mining, after all.

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Betootas News Corp revelation Satirical website Beetoota Advocates editor-at-large Errol Parker (real name Charles Single) turned heads on Wednesday with news of a takeover offer by News Corp. Single published a photograph on LinkedIn of what appeared to be a News Corp letterhead titled Expression of Interest regarding a potential acquisition. We recognise Betootas unique market position as a highly trusted and widely read masthead, with particular success in engaging younger audiences who are otherwise challenging for legacy media to reach, the letter stated, next to an asthma puffer. Betoota pranks media industry, again... LinkedIn

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This capability has been noted with interest at Holt Street. Single wrote a caption next to the photograph: Fs sake, didnt take Lachlan very long. Should we do it? Or no way? The post went viral and triggered industry chit-chat about whether the site was really up for grabs, after the media mogul settled a long-running family feud worth billions with his children. So, we know hes smart then, firebrand broadcaster Libbi Gorr wrote. CBD went straight to the source with questions. There are always barbarians at the gate in this industry, Single responded. Reaction has been mixed but Im not able to provide further comment at this time.

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News Corp were contacted for comment. Start the day with a summary of the days most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
A driver who was speeding through Kings Park when he struck and killed a woman on her morning walk has pleaded guilty to aggravated dangerous driving causing death.

Lucas Martins Da Silva, 30, was captured on CCTV reaching speeds of around 104km/h in a 60km/h zone, and swerving and overtaking cars, in the West Perth park when he hit university academic Brenda Walker, 67, as she walked across the road at a median strip.

Lucas Martins Da Silva leaves Perth Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to dangerous driving causing death. 6PR

The incident occurred just before 7am on December 10, when Martins Da Silva was on his way to work.

Police confirmed there were no drugs or alcohol detected in his system at the time, and that Martins Da Silva stopped, called 000, and tried to help Walker after the crash.

The Brazilian national, who is in Australia on a working visa, pleaded guilty in Perth Magistrates Court this morning and will be sentenced in November.

He declined to comment outside court.
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Exclusive NationalMiddle East at war This was published 3 months ago Why Jules from Hobart joined a flotilla bound for Gaza Stephen Brook September 9, 2025  5:11pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

A scientist from Hobart who has travelled to Tunisia to join an aid flotilla bound for Gaza that also includes Swedish activist Greta Thunberg has said the decision to leave her young family was really difficult. Julia Henry, who has four children aged three, five, 18 and 19, said she was not an activist but a normal suburban mum. Julia Henry: I am a protector. I was taught, and I teach my children, that is the right thing to do. Im Jules from Hobart, the 47-year-old said. I am a really normal suburban housewife, I am a professional, I am a scientist. I am basically a really normal mum. I do have a high level of empathy, and I do find it difficult when there are obvious injustices. Henry travelled to Tunisia via Barcelona to join a small crew on board Polish-flagged boat, the Huga, as part of a non-aligned, multinational flotilla set to carry aid to Palestinian families in Gaza.

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She spent the night on land in the capital, Tunis, as her ship required repairs. It was then when she heard that the Family Madeira ship in the flotilla, which was docked off the Tunisian port of Sidi Bou Said, had been rocked by an explosion. A statement from the Global Sumud Flotilla said all six people aboard the Family Madeira vessel were safe and claimed the boat had been hit by a drone. Tunisian authorities said the damage had been caused by an internal explosion. Sam Edwards (pictured with his wife, Julia Henry, and two of their children) says he is very concerned about his wifes safety. When the news was filtering in last night, I was pretty shocked, said Henry, adding she had to think through every scenario before leaving Australia. While I am not an activist, I have always been someone who will stand up to a bully and intervene in something that I think is not right. I am a protector. I was taught, and I teach my children, that is the right thing to do. This feels like this will be the biggest thing I will ever do, knowing that this is a very small thing on the scale of whats occurring.

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When the flotilla arrived in Africa from Spain, Henry said she was struck by the families who came out to greet it. It was hard leaving my family  yes, it was, she said. Every time I do a video call [with my family], I want to burst into tears. Henry said she was aware that the European Union had recommended the aid flotilla not proceed towards Gaza. I hear that, she said. We have seen that in the past two years, the UN and other organisations have been trying to help. It has not been successful. Aid is not being allowed in [to Gaza].

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The flotilla of about 50 boats carrying 400 people from across the world was refuelling in Tunisia, before a planned final journey east to Gaza. Julia Henry, husband Sam Edwards and their two youngest children The flotilla was entirely peaceful and carried no weapons, Henry said. It would not land in Gaza but wanted to create an aid corridor, she said. A spokesperson for the flotilla later contradicted this, saying that while landing in Gaza is the goal, it is unlikely they will be able to. In a letter sent to politicians  including Julie Collins, Andrew Wilkie, Jacqui Lambie and Anne Urquhart, and Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff  on Tuesday, Henry wrote: I am not a typical activist or campaigner. When I see suffering, Ive always acted, and I have marched for causes I believe in, but I have never taken direct action, let alone travelled to the other side of the world do it.

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I could no longer look away or ignore the relentless images of innocent men, women and children caught up in the endless horror. Henrys husband, Sam Edwards, said he was deeply concerned for Henry. I didnt want her to go, as the risks of even reaching Gaza were already significant  and that was before confirmed reports of drones being used against vessels, he said. I urged her to reconsider, but she understood the potential consequences, and I respect her commitment. My only wish is for her to return safely. Experts have said that Gaza is in the grip of famine. The territory was invaded by Israel after the Hamas massacres of October 7 two years ago, which killed about 1200 people in Israel. The Gaza Health Ministry says about 64,000 people have died in the military assault against Hamas.

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Henry called upon the Australian government to show compassion to the people of Gaza. Yes, my gesture is small in the scheme of things, but I hope it at least makes someone in a position of power sit up, take notice and act, she said. Start the day with a summary of the days most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter
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NationalWAPerth This was published 3 months ago Morley Markets businesses face ruin as uninsured families rely on donations Carla Hildebrandt September 11, 2025  3:00am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share 4 View all comments

Business owners devastated by the fire that gutted Morley Markets last week have walked through their charred shops for the first time, only to find decades of work reduced to rubble. The midnight blaze on September 3 affected dozens of businesses and caused millions of dollars in damage. Loading On Wednesday, owners were accompanied by firefighters to enter their store and take what was left. Bishop St Newsagency owner Peter Nguyen said he had hoped to salvage shelving and counters but instead only found warped metal in the wreckage.

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It was heart-wrenching. I thought Id reuse whatever was upstanding, but everything is burnt to the ground, Nguyen said. The inside of Bishop St Newsagency after the blaze. Peter Nguyen The fire was initially labelled suspicious by WA Police after a reflection on a car mistakenly looked to be someone throwing a Molotov cocktail into a window, but it was later determined there was no criminality involved. The Department of Fire and Emergency Services has since closed its investigation, with a spokesperson confirming the level of destruction made it impossible to determine a cause. Uncertainty hangs over the market, with 30 separate owners needing to vote on any redevelopment plans, and whether the site should be bulldozed.

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A lot of the owners are older, and dont have it in them to reopen, Nguyen said. We will have to see what happens. Voting is long and arduous as there are many people, so it will take time. Firefighters on scene at the Morley Markets. Peter Nguyen While the building itself was covered by strata insurance, individual tenants were not unless they had their own cover, leaving many relying on GoFundMe appeals. A total of $45,000 has been raised so far. These include Bella Skin Clinics owner, a mother of two who had no fire insurance, who has received $3700 in donations.

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And more than $13,400 has been raised for Camera House Morley owners Warren and Kerry Forder, who poured their hearts into serving the local community. Related Article Perth Morley Markets businesses face ruin as uninsured families rely on donations Neighbouring business Big Dons Smoked Meats has also jumped on board, announcing a one-day charity cook-off with an ambitious $100,000 fundraising goal. City of Bayswater Mayor Filomena Piffaretti said the city was also looking at ways to support local business owners. The City is fast-tracking financial hardship applications from business owners to provide some

relief, Piffaretti said.

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We are in discussions to find appropriate spaces for impacted businesses within the City where possible and are making space available at Morley Library for affected business owners to meet with service providers as required. Start the day with a summary of the days most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.

Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Share License this article More: Perth

Burswood Carla Hildebrandt is a journalist with WAtoday. She previously worked on ABCs Four Corners and as a court reporter at The Daily Telegraph in Sydney. For secure contact: carlahildebrandt@proton.me. Connect via email
ADDIS ABABA, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- African Union (AU) Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf has condemned Israel's strike in the Qatari capital of Doha, warning against further escalation.

On Tuesday, Israel carried out an unprecedented airstrike in Doha, targeting a building used by senior Hamas officials in what Israeli authorities described as an assassination attempt on the group's leaders.

In a statement issued late Tuesday, the AU Commission chief expressed "deep concern" over the Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, noting that the attack "risks endangering an already fragile situation in the Middle East."

The head of the 55-member continental body also reaffirmed the AU's call for restraint, respect for sovereignty, and the protection of civilians.

Highlighting Qatar's "longstanding role in peace, mediation and diplomacy," Youssouf stressed the urgent need for renewed dialogue to achieve a just and lasting peace in the region.

Hamas said Tuesday evening that the strike occurred while its delegation was discussing a new cease-fire proposal presented by the United States. According to the group, its five members and a Qatari security officer were killed during the strike, while key members of the negotiating team survived.

In a joint statement, the Israeli military and the Shin Bet security agency said the strike targeted Hamas leaders "directly responsible for the Oct. 7 massacre" and used "precise munitions and intelligence" to limit civilian harm. 
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Exclusive PoliticsFederalDefence This was published 3 months ago Ghost Sharks and a historic defence treaty to China-proof our nearest neighbour Matthew Knott Updated September 10, 2025  3:43pm ,first published September 10, 2025  12:00pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share 198 View all comments

Australia and Papua New Guinea will vow to defend each other if they come under attack in a historic defence treaty that will elevate the relationship to a top-tier alliance. As the Albanese government spends almost $2 billion on underwater drones called Ghost Sharks to compete with Chinas rapid military build-up, it is also deepening ties with Pacific neighbours to prevent Beijing from gaining a permanent security foothold in the region. PNG Prime Minister James Marape and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in December. Kate Geraghty Sources familiar with the Australia-PNG defence treaty, set to be signed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and counterpart James Marape early next week, said it will include a clause obliging the two nations to act together to meet a common danger, language echoing Australias existing military alliances with the United States and New Zealand. Papua New Guineans will also be allowed to serve in the Australian Defence Force and put on a path to Australian citizenship under the treaty.

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The move would represent a major foreign policy victory for the government after Vanuatu abruptly scuttled plans to sign a 10-year security and economic pact with Australia this week because of concerns it could curtail Chinese investment in the Pacific nation. Albanese revealed on Wednesday he was also in talks with Fijian counterpart Sitiveni Rabuka about signing a new treaty as Australia strives to embed itself, rather than China, as the Pacifics top security partner. The ANZUS treaty that Australia signed with the United States and New Zealand in 1951 committed the nations to consult each other in the event of an armed attack or threat to their territorial integrity. The ANZUS treaty also states that an armed attack in the Pacific Area on any of the Parties would be dangerous to its own peace and safety and declares that it would act to meet the common danger in accordance with its constitutional processes.

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Mihai Sora, Pacific Islands program director at the Lowy Institute, said the Australia-PNG defence treaty was shaping up to represent a flagship achievement for Australia in the Pacific. This would represent the highest level of mutual commitment between Australia and any Pacific island nation, he said. Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy at the unveiling of the Ghost Shark at Garden Island in Sydney. Janie Barrett It would also be a historic shift away from PNGs traditional non-aligned, friends-to-all policy. Sora said he expected some ambiguity in the way the treaty obligations are phrased, including respect for each nations parliamentary processes, but said this would not undermine the significance of the pact.

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The government revealed on Wednesday that it will buy dozens of high-tech, locally made submarine drones under a $1.7 billion plan to boost the militarys autonomous capabilities. The navy has awarded US defence firm Anduril a contract to develop and manufacture a fleet of Ghost Shark extra-large underwater drones, with the first vehicle scheduled to enter service in January. Ghost Shark vessels made in Australia could then be exported to the US and other nations in a significant win for the Australian defence industry. The undersea vehicles, which do not carry any crew, can be used to strike enemy targets such as submarines and ships while also conducting surveillance and reconnaissance missions.

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This is the highest tech capability in the world, Defence Minister Richard Marles said in Sydney, describing the Ghost Shark as a profoundly important capability for the Royal Australian Navy. Asked how the technology compares to the military capabilities displayed by Chinas Peoples Liberation Army at a lavish military parade in Beijing last week, Marles said: I mean, we are really confident in standing here today and saying that Ghost Shark is the best underwater autonomous military capability on the planet. The Ghost Shark will cost the Australian Defence Force $1.7 billion. Janie Barrett Marles said he had to be careful about detailing the Ghost Sharks exact specifications and capabilities, but the black, boxy vehicles are based on a 5.8-metre-long and 2.7-tonne prototype. They can operate autonomously for up to 10 days at a depth of up to 6000 metres, allowing them to conduct missions too difficult or dangerous for crewed vessels.

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Developed for the Royal Australian Navy, the prototypes were manufactured in Sydney. Marles said the Ghost Shark was designed to work alongside the navys crewed ships and submarines, including the nuclear-powered submarines Australia will acquire under the AUKUS pact. Anduril, founded by American entrepreneur Palmer Luckey, said in a statement that the Ghost Sharks entry into full production marks the start of a new era of sea power through maritime autonomy. Related Article Opinion

Drones Ukrainian drone strikes show up Australias out-of-date defences Mick Ryan Military leader and strategist For years, Australia has faced the persistent and threatening presence of Chinese naval assets in its home waters, the company said, adding that autonomous vehicles can directly address this challenge through coastal defence patrols.

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A Chinese naval flotilla circumnavigated Australia in March and conducted live-fire exercises in the Tasman Strait, raising questions about Australias maritime surveillance capabilities. Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said the Ghost Shark would be able to provide strike at extremely long distances from the continent of Australia. Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.
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PoliticsFederalParis Agreement This was published 3 months ago Germany the winner if Australia and Turkey deadlocked on bid for climate summit Nick O'Malley September 9, 2025  9:51am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share 14 View all comments

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has conceded there is no formal mechanism to resolve the diplomatic impasse between Australia and Turkey over which nation will host key United Nations climate talks next year. Australian climate advocates have been growing increasingly frustrated that Australia has been unable to convince Turkey to withdraw its bid, given the overwhelming support the Australian bid has among the group of UN nations set to make the decision. Ive already had discussions with President Erdogan of Turkey, and we hope to meet on the sidelines [of this months United Nations General Assembly]  clearly we need to have a discussion to sort through the issues, Albanese said. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, pictured at the 2023 Pacific Islands Forum, has the groups backing for Australias bid to host UN climate talks. AAP United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon wrote the foreword of a report on the Australian COP published over the weekend by the Smart Energy Council, which some are reading as encouragement for the bid by Australia to co-host the talks in 2026 with its Pacific neighbours.

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Holding the Presidency of a Conference of Parties  a key forum for dealing with perhaps the worlds greatest challenge of our generation  is a huge task. It is a task that comes with great responsibility to deliver the highest possible ambitions and to fully utilise the pathway presented by the Paris Climate Agreement, he wrote. Previous COPs have demonstrated varying degrees of success over the years and I believe Australia has the potential to partner with its Pacific neighbours and be the kind of stewards of the international process for those whom climate change is a daily reality and desperately need the strong leadership. Related Article Food sustainability Jody fought drought for 20 years and now, her worst fears are confirmed The host of the international climate summit is selected by a consensus of nations within UN groups on a rotating basis. Australia and Turkey are members of a group known as Western Europe and Others, the members of which overwhelmingly support the Australian bid. If Turkey does not retract its bid before this years talks in Brazil in November, the hosting duties will revert to Bonn in Germany, the headquarters of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

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Climate advocates in Australia have grown increasingly frustrated that the Albanese government has been unable to finalise its bid despite months of effort and broad international support. Some fear that securing the talks, to be held in November next year, so late will harm efforts to develop an ambitious agenda. The signals sent by Albanese, as well as Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen over the next four weeks, are seen as a critical demonstration of the governments willingness to host the talks. As the Coalition battles internally over climate politics, the government has a packed and complicated agenda. Albanese has travelled to Solomon Islands this week for the Pacific Islands Forum, with climate and climate security expected to take centre stage, before he attends the United Nations General Assembly along with Wong and Bowen. In the coming weeks, the government is expected to release a long-delayed National Climate Risk Assessment, which insiders have warned will make for grim reading, before it announces its 2035 climate targets before the Brazil COP. Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.
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Analysis PoliticsFederalPolitical leadership This was published 3 months ago Ley had little choice, but sacking Price could cost her Paul Sakkal September 10, 2025  5:42pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share 115 View all comments

What started as a clumsy statement from Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price in a TV interview last week has, through political mismanagement, spiralled into a test of Opposition Leader Sussan Leys authority. Ley had little choice but to sack the darling of conservative Australia. The Coalition was losing support each day the Indian migrants saga went on. Until an unusually late snap press conference in Tasmania at 6.30pm on Wednesday, Ley was reluctant to be too hard on Price. Jacinta Price addresses the media in Perth on Wednesday. Nine News Since becoming leader, Ley has tried to correct the excesses of the previous era, chiefly the command-and-control model that vested near-total authority in former leader Peter Dutton and his office. The new Coalition leaders more collaborative style looked good on paper but made it hard to keep the troops in line.

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That Price as a frontbencher felt bold enough to stare down Leys wish for her to apologise for inflammatory remarks on Indian migration spoke volumes about Leys control over sections of her party room. Related Article Political leadership Sussan Ley sacks Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price from Liberal frontbench To rub salt into a wound, Price decided on Wednesday afternoon to kick the saga along by holding a press conference, insisting she would not be silenced, and then repeatedly saying those matters are for our party room when asked if she had confidence in Ley as leader. A leader in a more authoritative position would have demanded an immediate apology from Price last Wednesday after she falsely claimed that Indian migrants were getting visas because they voted for Labor. Instead, Leys key ally, Alex Hawke, handled the dirty work. Ley did ask Price to say sorry in a phone call on Monday, worried about the reaction of Indian Australians, who Prices colleagues know are plentiful and quite open to voting for the Coalition, contrary to false suggestions that 85 per cent vote Labor.

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In a previous era, Prices days of defiance would have seen her plonked on the backbench much earlier. But political standards have dropped. Ley had motivations to keep Price in the tent. She is one of the few opposition MPs with a support base outside the Canberra parliamentary party and the state branches that elect its members. Shes a fundraising machine, fights for values (unlike some of her more robotic colleagues) and lights up conservative forums. Ley could still kill off Prices career by pushing the NTs Country Liberal Party, already frustrated with Prices defection from the Nationals, to push Price off the 2028 Senate ticket. Doing so would earn even more ire from Prices media backers, former prime minister Tony Abbott, and a number of serving MPs and party members. They may cast Price as a martyr who held the line on the key conservative issue of migration, viewing Ley as too weak and woke.

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Immigration Liberal MPs apologise to Indian community as colleagues, PM add to pressure on Price Nationals leader David Littleproud is privately happy to be rid of Price, so a move back to the junior Coalition party is hard to see. Shifting to One Nation  which would give it five senators, more than the Nationals  is unlikely because Price would kill off her hopes of leading a major party. Hanson talked to Price years ago about joining forces, but the idea went nowhere. Some of Prices closest right faction allies were until Wednesday morning begging her to apologise and put the saga to bed. One joked that MPs were hoping Israel bombed another country to divert attention. Leys office was on Wednesday morning hopeful Price was getting closer to an apology before an early afternoon press conference blew that prospect apart. Price, according to her friends, insists she wasnt trying to create a leadership crisis. There is no leadership challenge in the offing and Ley comfortably has the numbers. But what started as an isolated feud could still escalate.

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Prices allies say she decided to dig in because she was still angry about the alleged lashing she received from Hawke. Opposition Leader Sussan Ley confirms Prices demotion to the backbench. Nine News Conservative figures such as Abbott and Peta Credlin, Prices biggest backers, have a special distaste for Hawke and his small but influential centre right faction in NSW that helps keep moderates in power. Typically, a frontbencher who refuses to back the leader quits their position immediately and launches a swift coup. Prices move appeared less strategic. She almost stumbled into her own sacking. Ley took the drastic but necessary step to prove her chops as leader.

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The star power Price earned during the Voice campaign has faded. But she remains a darling on the right, and on the backbench she will be free to say whatever she wants, whenever she likes. Photo: Matt Golding Politics is never fair. Her sacking was necessary but now it will unleash conservative anger. If Ley faces a coup down the track, this night will be viewed as the first domino. Leys move is another sign that the conservative faction doesnt run the post-Dutton parliamentary party. Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.
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PoliticsFederalPolitical leadership This was published 3 months ago Sussan Ley sacks Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price from Liberal frontbench Natassia Chrysanthos and Paul Sakkal Updated September 10, 2025  5:39pm ,first published September 10, 2025  10:04am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share 335 View all comments

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has sacked Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price from the Coalitions frontbench after a week of infighting engulfed the Liberal Party over the firebrands inflammatory comments about Indian migrants. Ley asked Price to resign from the shadow ministry on Wednesday afternoon after the senator refused to back Ley and declined to apologise to the Indian community in a six-minute press conference, aggravating the dispute that has rocked the opposition for eight days. Despite being given sufficient time and space to do so, Senator Nampijinpa Price failed to apologise for remarks which have caused Australians of Indian heritage significant hurt, Ley said in a statement on Wednesday night. She also refused to provide confidence in my leadership of the Liberal Party and sadly, that has made her position untenable in my shadow ministry. The Liberal Party I lead will respect, reflect and represent modern Australia.

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The past week has emerged as a test of Leys leadership and new direction for the Liberals after the election as Prices claims made on the ABC  that Labor was bringing in Indian migrants to win votes  derailed her efforts to rebuild trust in multicultural communities. Related Article Analysis

Immigration Ley promised a new Coalition with a new tone. She was sabotaged by her own side While Price walked back her remarks, she did not say sorry. She then accused Leys key backer, Liberal MP Alex Hawke, of cowardly and inappropriate behaviour and suggested Ley was not standing up for women in the Liberal Party. The saga upset many Indian Australians and infuriated colleagues. The allegations against Hawke deepened the fallout, while Prices ongoing defiance undermined Leys leadership and led other MPs to question why it had been allowed to drag out so long. After Price made her Wednesday comments, Liberal senator Dave Sharma said she ought to resign. What are you doing in the shadow ministry if you dont support the leaders direction? I just dont think the two positions are compatible, he told Sky News.

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In the press conference preceding her axing, Price conceded her comments to the ABC were certainly clumsy but that she would not be silenced on the issue of mass migration. She did not apologise despite repeated calls from her colleagues, but thanked her supporters. Price then refused three times to say whether she backed Leys leadership  saying those matters are for our party room  in a provocative move that ultimately led to her sacking. Ley said she called Price shortly afterwards. My call to her was to advise her of the decision that I have made and to advise her that today, critically, she refused to express confidence in my leadership of Liberal Party, the opposition leader said on Wednesday night. Confidence in the leader is a requirement for serving in the shadow ministry.

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Former prime minister Tony Abbott, a prominent supporter of Price, said she would be a big loss to the frontbench but Im confident that she will continue to make a strong contribution to our public life. Price vowed to keep speaking out from the backbench but accepted Leys request to quit the shadow ministry as the defence industry spokeswoman. I have accepted the leaders decision. And I reiterated my regret in not being clearer in my comments on the ABC last Wednesday, she said in a statement. Nevertheless, I took the opportunity to express to the leader my disappointment that some colleagues disregarded the key point I was making about the damaging impacts of mass migration. And that some colleagues instead chose to indulge agenda-driven media commentary on this matter. To reiterate comments from my earlier statement: I never intended to be disparaging towards our Indian community. And I wish no ill-will whatsoever to the Indian community  or any other migrant group.

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Pollster clarifies murky numbers used in migration debate Price last week justified her claims about Indian migrants by pointing to unpublished figures from Kos Samaras, a former Labor strategist and commentator who runs the RedBridge polling company. Related Article Updated

Immigration Liberal MPs apologise to Indian community as colleagues, PM add to pressure on Price A recent Redbridge poll told us that 85 per cent of those who have Indian ancestry  85 per cent voted for Labor, Price said last Thursday, as she clarified her earlier suggestion that Labor was bringing in Indian migrants to win votes. So these were the facts that I was pointing out. But Samaras clarified those figures when asked by this masthead. He said a more appropriate characterisation of the Indian diasporas vote for Labor across Australia in the May election was in the mid-60s on a two-party preferred basis, according to his research.

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The vote is as high as 85 per cent in some places, but can be as low as in the 60s in others, he said. Photo: Matt Golding That refers to which major party receives a vote after preferences are distributed. The national two-party-preferred vote at the May election was 55 per cent to Labor. Samaras first raised the 85 per cent figure on an X livestream hosted by controversial political activist Drew Pavlou, who frequently comments about immigration on his account. It had not been published in any report. Eighty-five per cent of the Indian diaspora voted for the Labor Party at the last election, or thereabouts. It varies across the country, Samaras said. In our polling, whenever we poll them, theyre about that, two-party preferred.

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The figure has since been quoted by far-right social media accounts and in posts by March for Australia, the group that organised last months anti-immigration rallies and targeted Indian Australians in their promotion flyers. Hawke, earlier on Wednesday, had privately urged the Coalitions shadow cabinet to challenge the polling Price had used to claim that Indian Australians overwhelmingly favoured Labor, and warned about the ongoing public demonisation of the community. He texted his senior colleagues on Wednesday morning with a Twitter link to that alternative data. Related Article Analysis

Political leadership Ley had little choice, but sacking Price could cost her Veteran polling analyst Peter Brent on X described Samaras initial claim as preposterous and cited data from former YouGov pollster Shaun Ratcliff showing about 45 per cent of Australians with South Asian heritage gave their first preference vote to Labor at the last election, and 34 per cent to the Coalition. Another data set from the Australian Election Study shows that, between 1987 and 2022, 45.7 per cent of the Indian diaspora voted Liberal and 42.4 per cent voted Labor. Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.
Home prices are rising faster at the bottom end of the market, which experts say will further worsen falling home ownership rates even as new housing affordability policies become available.

Domain data shows house prices in the bottom quarter of the market have recorded more growth than the top quarter over the past three years in most capital cities. Domain chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell said this growth had flipped conventional economic wisdom on its head.

Thats quite unusual because the upper end of the market usually leads the price cycle, she said. What it demonstrates is there is a dwindling pocket of affordability. More people are competing for those affordable homes because there is a lack of them.

Powell said it would result in fewer relatively affordable homes for the growing cohort who did not own their own home. What it shows is really that affordability is at a breaking point, she said. It takes a significant time to save a deposit, but it also takes a significant amount of money to pay the repayments.
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 Reviews & adviceAirport reviews Cramped, chaotic: One of the worlds busiest airports can only get better Michael Gebicki September 11, 2025  3:00am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

The airport: Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL), Delhi The flight Singapore Airlines SQ403 from Delhi to Singapore The Terminal 3 complex at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi. iStock The arrival

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Its a 75-minute journey from my hotel in New Delhi through evening peak-hour traffic that thins out as we approach the airport, on the southern outskirts of the capital. Departure is from Terminal 3, which handles international as well as many domestic flights. Security is tight from the get-go. Passengers only are allowed into the terminal, and they need to show a print-out of their booking or an e-ticket plus a passport to the military personnel at the gate. The look Bland but functional. Signage is good, and its relatively compact as major-league airports go, so no long walks to gates. Terminal 3 was opened in 2010 as part of a huge infrastructure overhaul to coincide with Delhis 2010 Commonwealth Games. Today its the ninth-busiest airport in the world, according to UK-based air consultancy firm OAG, and it feels crowded, with seating well short of passenger numbers. Checking in Im flying premium economy, the queue is short, and when Im called over to the business class check-in my heart skips a beat, but theres no upgrade on offer. Staff on the Singapore Airlines desk are speedy, and Im given boarding passes to Singapore and for my connecting flight to Sydney. Baggage is checked through.

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Security Security screening  everyone is frisked. Getty Images Once past the immigration desk theres a long, snaking queue to get to the scanners. Plastic trays for phones and coins are at a premium, supply isnt keeping up with demand, but this level of chaos will be familiar to anyone who has spent more than a day or two in Delhi. Once again, its the military doing the checking, and theyre thorough. Its empty pockets, laptops, phones, liquids and lithium batteries out and belts off. There are separate queues for men and women and everyone gets the hand-scanner treatment and a light frisk, front, back and sides. Food + drink Located on the mezzanine floor, there are several bars, Costa Coffee, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, KFC, Starbucks and a McDonalds. Options at the Asian food stalls include dosas, rotis and biryanis, but youre not coming here for a memorable meal. Previous visits have inspired caution, and Ive preloaded with a late lunch at my hotel.

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Retail therapy When it comes to shopping, its all the usuals at Indira Gandhi International. Alamy Its the usual suspects: WHSmith, Levis, Lacoste, Tommy Hilfiger, Marks & Spencer and Hugo Boss. The Indian presence is limited to a Fabindia outlet, which sells colourful block-printed fabrics and bags, and Pantajali, for ayurvedic products and supplements. Passing time There are two Encalm lounges, one on the ground floor, which is accessible to some upper-echelon credit card holders and also for anyone prepared to pay for entry. Another Encalm Lounge, on the mezzanine floor, is for business class flyers travelling aboard airlines without a dedicated lounge of their own. The business version is enormous; its open plan, there are no quiet and calm spaces and the buffet food is under a perpetual state of siege. For those with a long layover, there are sleeping pods as well as a transit hotel. Since I dont have a local phone number, I cant access the terminals free Wi-Fi, but I still have plenty of credit on my eSIM.

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Air travel It has one of the worlds best airlines  and one of the worst airports Ben Groundwater Travel writer The verdict It feels cramped, and the facilities are well short of international standards, particularly in its food and beverage choices. However, major upgrades to Terminals 1 and 2 are due for completion in 2025, as well as a second international and domestic airport opening at Noida, which should see some easing of the capacity constraints that have affected Indira Gandhi International Airport over the post-pandemic years. Our rating out of five  The writer travelled at his own expense.

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Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Share License this article More: Airport reviews

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South Asia Michael Gebicki is a Sydney-based travel writer, best known for his Tripologist column published for more than 15 years in Traveller. With four decades of experience, his specialty is practical advice, destination insights and problem-solving for travellers. He also designs and leads slow, immersive tours to some of his favourite places. Connect via Instagram @michael_gebicki Connect via email
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Reviews & adviceSavvy traveller Lips or no lips? The rules of kissing hello in Europe Brian Johnston September 11, 2025  3:00am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share 29 View all comments

The demise of the greeting kiss was falsely predicted during the coronavirus pandemic, but this cultural habit is too ingrained in Europe to be abandoned, so be prepared to proffer a cheek  but leave your lips for more adventurous occasions. To kiss or not to kiss? That is the question. Greg Straight Cheek-kissing is common across much of Europe and has made inroads into places formerly keen only on handshakes, such as Britain and Germany. In those countries, however, a single kiss is the limit and, with its overtones of Frenchified culture, usually only practised among the middle and upper classes. Who Europeans kiss, as well as when and how many times, can depend on many things: their family relationship, length of acquaintance, type of social occasion and level of formality. Europeans dont just kiss in greeting. A cheek kiss may also be congratulatory or respectful and is also often expected again on departure, even among people whove been chatting for only a few minutes.

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However, a few simple rules should help you navigate this cheeky culture. You shouldnt kiss anyone on the first meeting, or in a business context. Kissing implies some level of familiarity, though often a second or third meeting is enough to qualify you on social occasions. If youre a man, you should always wait for a woman to initiate the kiss  offer a hand or nod instead. The norm is male-female and female-female kissing. Male-male kissing is less widespread, though common in southern Italy, southern France, Spain and some parts of the Balkans. Male-male kissing also has a ceremonial purpose  you might see European male presidents and monarchs kissing at summits  or is confined to men within the family, or old friends who havent met for a considerable time. Related Article Opinion

Travel tips Of all the stereotypes of Europeans, this one is the most unfair Ben Groundwater Travel writer Dont attempt a literal kiss by planting your lips on someones cheek. Lean forward and merely brush cheeks  especially if wearing lipstick  while making a faint kissing sound. Place your hands lightly on the other persons arms or shoulders. Dont be stiff or awkward. A single kiss on each cheek is common in southern European countries such as Spain, Italy, Greece and Romania, while in the Low Countries, Switzerland and certain regions of the Balkans you should go for three on alternating cheeks.

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France is most famous for its cheek kissing, with the number of kisses varying between one and four depending on the region: three in Burgundy and an exasperating four in Normandy and the Loire Valley, for example. You wont go wrong if you stick to two, the norm in Paris. Which side to start on has yet to be codified by the European Union, but youll be OK most of the time if you start with the right cheek. A notable exception is Italy, where the left is favoured. No need to stress. Most people overlook the faux pas of foreigners, and the worst that will happen is that you go in for the lean only to be rejected with an out-thrust hand.

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Updated WorldEuropeNATO This was published 3 months ago Poland at its closest to open conflict since WWII, says PM after Russian drone incursion David Crowe Updated September 10, 2025  7:27pm ,first published September 10, 2025  7:50am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

London: Poland scrambled fighter jets to shoot down drones that crossed into its territory in what it called an act of aggression during a Russian attack on Ukraine, marking a dangerous escalation of the war in Europe. NATO air defences were mobilised and major airports grounded flights as Polish authorities restricted airspace to intercept the drones, leading the Polish government to invoke the NATO security pact and call for urgent talks with allies. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk holds an extraordinary government meeting following the drone incursions. AP During todays attack by the Russian Federation targeting objects on the territory of Ukraine, our airspace was repeatedly violated by drone-type objects, Polands military said in a statement. This is an act of aggression that posed a real threat to the safety of our citizens.

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Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told parliament there had been 19 intrusions into the countrys airspace overnight, with many of the drones entering from neighbouring Belarus, adding that three drones, and perhaps a fourth, were shot down. I have no reason to claim were on the brink of war, but a line has been crossed, and its incomparably more dangerous than before, he told parliament, the BBC reported. This situation brings us the closest we have been to open conflict since World War Two. In a major step to call on help from allies, Tusk formally invoked Article 4 of the NATO Treaty, which calls for military discussions when the territorial integrity, political independence or security of a member state is threatened. Earlier, Tusk had convened an extraordinary meeting of Polands Council of Ministers, and said he was in constant communication with the secretary general of NATO and our allies.

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A NATO source told Reuters the Russian drones entered Polish airspace shortly after midnight on Tuesday night (8am Wednesday AEST), and initial indications suggested it was an intentional incursion. The incident marks the first time NATO aircraft have engaged potential threats in allied airspace, a NATO spokesperson said. Polish F-16 fighters, Dutch F-35s, Italian early warning aircraft and NATO midair refuelling planes were involved in the operation. The NATO council is meeting on Wednesday for a regular session and will discuss the response to the drone incursion, the spokesperson added. French President Emmanuel Macron said the drone incursion into Poland was simply unacceptable, adding that he would speak soon to NATO chief Mark Rutte.

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A Shahed drone flies during a Russian air strike on Kyiv last Sunday. Bloomberg We will not compromise on the safety of our allies, Macron wrote in a post on X. European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said early indications suggested the incident was intentional and described it as the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began in early 2022. View post on X The EU stands in full solidarity with Poland. Russias war is escalating, not ending. We must raise the cost to Moscow, strengthen support for Ukraine and invest in Europes defence, she said.

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Kallas said that she was in contact with NATO and Polands foreign minister and was following developments. The Polish military said efforts were under way to locate the drone crash sites and warned members of the public not to touch wreckage or fragments. A drone or similar object hit a residential building in Wyryki in eastern Poland, but nobody was injured, the local mayor told state-run news channel TVP Info, and Polish police said a damaged drone had been found in the eastern village of Czosnowka. Firefighters work to recover remnants of a drone shot down near Czosnowka in eastern Poland. AP A Russian diplomat said Poland had not provided any evidence that the drones were of Russian origin, Russias RIA state news agency reported.

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We see the accusations as groundless. No evidence that these drones are of Russian origin has been presented, Andrey Ordash, Russias charge daffaires in Poland, was quoted as saying. Moscow always pushes the boundaries Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian forces sent 415 drones and more than 40 cruise and ballistic missiles into Ukraine in the latest attacks. He said that at least two of the Russian drones that entered Poland had used Belorusian airspace and that around two dozen drones might have entered Polish airspace as part of a bigger group flying along the border of Ukraine and Belarus. Moscow always pushes the boundaries of what is possible, and if it does not encounter a strong reaction, it remains at the new level of escalation, he said on X.

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Related Article Russia-Ukraine war Close our sky: Ukraine PMs plea to allies after record attack Today there was another step of escalation  Russian-Iranian Shaheds [drones] operated in the airspace of Poland, in NATO airspace. It was not just one Shahed that could be called an accident, but at least eight strike drones aimed toward Poland. Russias version of Irans Shahed-136 drone is a small, delta-winged aircraft guided by GPS to hit a target with a warhead of up to 50 kilograms of explosives. The propeller-driven drone has a range of about 2500 kilometres. Zelensky said the incident was an extremely dangerous precedent for Europe and called for tougher sanctions against Russia from Western allies, although he did not name US President Donald Trump or make any direct criticism of American policy. The Russians must feel the consequences. Russia must feel that the war cannot be expanded and will have to be ended.

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Russias Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The emergency over Poland came after a wave of Russian missiles and drones struck areas across Ukraine, including a strike that killed 24 elderly people who were collecting pensions in a village in the countrys east. Unplanned military activity Polish and NATO aircraft were scrambled about midnight on Tuesday after the Ukrainian Air Force warned on social media that Russian drones had entered Polish airspace. Flight tracking accounts on X reported that NATO aircraft, including F-35 fighters, were operating over Poland. A Dutch Air Force A330 tanker aircraft used to refuel fighter jets appeared to be flying in a holding pattern over the east of the country, Flightradar24 data showed.

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Four airports in Poland, including the countrys largest, Chopin Airport in Warsaw, were closed due to unplanned military activity related to ensuring state security, notices posted to the US Federal Aviation Administrations website said. Chopin Airport reopened early on Wednesday, the airport said in a statement on X, but warned that disruptions and delays might last throughout the day. Overnight, most of Ukraine, including the western regions of Volyn and Lviv, which border Poland and are far from the Russian-Ukrainian war front line, were under air raid alerts for several hours, according to Ukrainian air force data. Police and medics evacuate Olha Trush, 86, from Yarova, a village hit by a Russian airstrike that killed dozens of civilians, in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, on Tuesday. AP

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In a separate development, Poland announced it would close its border with Belarus on Thursday at midnight (Polish time) as a result of Russia-led military exercises taking place in Belarus amid escalating tensions between Minsk and Warsaw. Related Article Aviation Welcome to the era of the affordable cruise missile Russia and Belarus large-scale military exercises, known as the Zapad drills, have raised security concerns in neighbouring NATO member states Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Zapad-2025 (West 2025) will be held in western Russia and Belarus. NATO is holding drills on its side of the border about the same time. Poland and Lithuania began exercises this month, with allied troops taking part. Russian troops have pressed a grinding offensive across much of the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

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Updated WorldNorth AmericaViolence This was published 3 months ago You all caused this: US faces bitter reckoning as police search for gunman Michael Koziol and Josefine Ganko Updated September 11, 2025  2:24pm ,first published September 11, 2025  3:10am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

Washington: The US faces another bitter reckoning over political violence and gun rights after a prominent conservative activist and supporter of US President Donald Trump, Charlie Kirk, was shot dead while speaking at a university in Utah. The shooter was still at large overnight, with a manhunt under way and armed officers going door to door in the community bordering the campus of Utah Valley University. A person of interest was detained and questioned after the shooting but was subsequently released. Loading Kirk, 31, was hit on the left side of his neck while speaking to a large outdoor audience from a tent emblazoned with the slogans: The American Comeback and Prove Me Wrong. People in the crowd screamed in horror as a single shot rang out and Kirk recoiled. Witness Justin Hickens told NBC News: We heard a big loud shot. I saw a bunch of blood come out of Charlie. I saw his body kind of kick back and go limp, and everybody dropped to the ground.

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Kirk was shot about 12.20pm on Wednesday, Utah time (4.20am AEST), and rushed to a hospital, where he was declared dead. The assassination was captured on a graphic video that was widely circulated on social media. Trump was among the first to confirm Kirks death on social media. Later, he delivered a video message to the nation in which he praised the conservative influencer as a patriot and a man of deep faith who devoted his life to open debate and the country he loved. He fought for liberty, democracy, justice and the American people. Hes a martyr for truth and freedom, and there has never been anyone who was so respected by youth, Trump said. Charlie was the best of America, and the monster who attacked him was attacking our whole country. It was a dark moment for America, the president said. Its long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonising those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible.

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But the political fallout began immediately. Trump went on to blame the radical left for comparing Kirk to Nazis and mass murderers  rhetoric he said was directly responsible for the terrorism we are seeing in our country today. And what was supposed to be a bipartisan moment of silence on the floor of the House of Representatives quickly descended into chaos as Republicans and Democrats yelled at each other across the floor after far-right Colorado representative Lauren Boebert asked for a spoken prayer, rather than a silent one. A screen grab from a video shows security personnel carrying Kirk after he was shot. AFP Representative Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, a former conservative influencer and close ally of Kirk, stood up to blame Democrats for the shooting. You all caused this, she said, pointing angrily at the Democrats side of the chamber. The yelling escalated again, with one Democrat yelling at the Republicans to pass some gun laws. At a press conference, Utah public safety commissioner Beau Mason said the CCTV footage was of poor quality, but a suspect dressed in dark clothing had been identified. The shot came from here on campus, from a location, potentially from the roof. [It was a] longer distance shot, he said.

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University authorities said the shot was fired from the Losee Centre, a building a little less than 200 metres from the courtyard where Kirk was speaking. Video obtained by The New York Times showed a person rushing away from a spot near the edge of the buildings roof immediately after the shooting. Utah Governor Spencer Cox characterised the shooting as a political assassination. This is a dark day for our state; its a tragic day for our nation, he said. Loading Cox said it was thought the gunman acted alone, and there was no information that would lead us to believe that there is a second person involved. Another man arrested immediately after the shooting was charged with obstruction of justice and later released.

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Utah Valley University police chief Jeff Long said there were six police officers acting as security at the time of the shooting, as well as Kirks travelling private security team. We had some plain-clothes police officers that were in the crowd. We train for these things, Long said. You think you have things covered ... you try to get your bases covered. And, unfortunately, today we didnt, and because of that, we had this tragic incident. Long estimated that the event was attended by about 3000 people. It was open to members of the public; attendees included university students, children and families. Witnesses told Fox News there were no security checks on entering the outdoor venue. Immediately before the shooting, Kirk was taking questions from an audience member about mass shootings and gun violence, AP reported.

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Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years? an audience member asked. Kirk responded: Too many. The questioner followed up: Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years? Counting or not counting gang violence? Kirk asked. Then the shot was heard. Kirk co-founded the conservative political advocacy group Turning Point USA, as well as a political action committee by the same name. He was an evangelical Christian, and the group conducts a lot of its work with Christian communities and students on campus.

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During last years election, Kirk appeared with Trump at various rallies, and the Trump campaign outsourced a significant amount of its voter turnout work to Turning Point Action and other groups, rather than using the Republican National Committee. The event at Utahs largest public university was Kirks first stop on a new college campus tour that involved the Prove Me Wrong Table, where audience members were invited to debate Kirk in a public setting. Loading The event met with divided opinion on campus. An online petition calling for university administrators to bar Kirk from appearing received nearly 1000 signatures. The university issued a statement last week citing the First Amendment and affirming its commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue. On September 3, Kirk posted screenshots of a series of headlines about the controversy to X, along with the caption: What is going on in Utah?

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Vice President JD Vance, a devout Catholic, said he became friends with Kirk after the young man sent him a direct message on Twitter following a TV appearance. He said Kirk was one of the first people he called when considering running for the Senate in 2021, and Kirk introduced him to people who would run his campaign. Vance praised Kirk as a true friend, a family man and a person of profound faith who loved discussing ideas. The crowd reacts after Kirk was shot at Utah Valley University. AP Charlie was fascinated by ideas and always willing to learn and change his mind, he said. He would go into these hostile crowds and answer their questions  He exemplified a foundational virtue of our Republic: the willingness to speak openly and debate ideas. Former president Joe Biden said he and his wife, Jill, were praying for Charlie Kirks family and loved ones. There is no place in our country for this kind of violence. It must end now, he said.

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In a similar message, former vice president and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris said she was deeply disturbed by the shooting. Let me be clear: political violence has no place in America. I condemn this act, and we all must work together to ensure this does not lead to more violence. View post on X Australias acting Prime Minister Richard Marles said the shooting was an absolute tragedy and was rightly being condemned across the political spectrum in the US. Our thoughts go out to Charlie Kirks family, he said. There is no place for political violence. Kevin Rudd, the Australian ambassador to the US, said Kirks death was deeply distressing. There is no place for political violence in any democracy.

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Photo: Matt Golding As the news of Kirks death circulated, another shooting in the neighbouring state of Colorado was unfolding. A male student at Evergreen High School, about 50 kilometres west of Denver, wounded two fellow students before turning the gun on himself, officials said. He died of self-inflicted injuries. Dr Brian Blackwood, head of trauma at CommonSpirit St Anthony Hospital, said one of the wounded students was in a critical condition, while the other students injuries were non-life-threatening. With AP, Reuters Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on whats making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.
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WorldNorth AmericaForeign relations This was published 3 months ago They like the chaos: Australians caught up in sudden US visa changes Michael Koziol September 10, 2025  3:41am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share 98 View all comments

Washington: Australians have been caught up in a sudden and chaotic change to US visa rules by the Trump administration that saw several people turned away from scheduled appointments before a change of heart. The State Department issued a directive over the weekend stating all applicants for non-immigrant visas to the US should schedule their interview appointments at the embassy or consulate in their country of nationality or residence. The Trump administration has pursued stricter rules about who can come into the US and procedures around visa applications. Getty Images For Australians in the US on a visa, such as the popular E3 work visa only available to Australians, it is common to travel to a nearby US embassy or consulate in Canada, the Bahamas or the United Kingdom for a renewal or extension appointment, rather than making the trip to Australia, where there are sometimes long waits. But the new ruling appeared to nullify that practice. Immigration lawyer Jonathan Grode, who works with many Australians on visa matters as managing partner of Green & Spiegel, said embassy and consular staff found out about the directive at the same time as he did.

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Everybody woke up Monday and didnt know what to make of it, and thats what led to a lot of confusion, he said. Related Article Opinion

USA An Australian was denied US entry for bizarre reasons. Hes not alone Anthony Dennis Editor, Traveller They make these policy changes, and then its up to the officers to interpret them, and they have to do it quickly. Grode said he had five Australian clients who were in London to renew their US visas on Monday but were refused. However, this morning they got called back, and they got to reapply, he said on Tuesday. The ABC, which first reported on the changes, spoke to an Australian woman on Monday who lives in the US on an E3 visa but was already in Europe for her renewal appointment, and feared she would have to go back to Australia and schedule one there.

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Grode said part of the problem was the imprecise language in the directive, such as stipulating visa applicants should schedule their appointment in the country of their nationality, not that they must. Thats a big difference and theres not really any guidance on that yet, he said. Thousands of Australians receive an E3 visa each year, which have no limit on extensions. But many prefer to do this at a closer embassy or consulate. Getty Images There are a lot of holes in the way that it has been presented. I do think this is pretty par for the course in this administration  they like the chaos. Grode will speak at an emergency webinar on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST) with corporate talent agency Aussie Recruit. Founder Amy Meyer said in a video there was quite a lot of confusion and uncertainty attending the apparent procedure changes.

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This masthead has sought more information from the State Department and from Australias Department of Foreign Affairs. The E3 visa was made available to Australians in 2005 as a byproduct of the Australia-US free trade agreement under President George W. Bush. The visa is valid for two years, with unlimited extensions in most cases. Up to 10,500 visas can be issued each year, though in 2023 the total was about 4500. The Trump administration has implemented stricter conditions on entry to the US and peoples visa applications. AP Josh Pugh, an Australian who has lived and worked in the US for nearly 10 years and acts as a key community organiser for Australians in America, confirmed most people he was in contact with had been invited to fresh interviews or asked to send in their passports. It seems more positive today than yesterday, he said. The biggest frustration is the unknowing because it all happens and changes so quickly  This impacts their futures in the US and their lives.

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Pugh is organising a separate webinar for concerned Australians with immigration attorney Zjantelle Cammisa Markel. Grode said a clarification from the administration could relieve the uncertainty and noted there appeared to have been a decrease in the number of horror stories from people being detained and interrogated at the US border. But the feeling, the concern, the trepidation, the hesitation  that has persisted, he said. The latest changes to visa rules were going to be problematic but to what extent is unknown at this juncture. Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on whats making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- A federal judge on Tuesday blocked U.S. President Donald Trump from firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, and ruled she must be immediately reinstated, local media reported.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb ruled that Trump's effort to fire Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud that predated her time on the Fed board violated a federal law meant to insulate the interest-rate-setting body from political pressure.

Only Cook's conduct on the job could be grounds for removal, Cobb ruled. "The public interest in Federal Reserve independence weighs in favor of Cook's reinstatement."

On Aug. 25, Trump fired Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook over allegations that she had committed mortgage fraud in connection with documents she signed for two residential properties she owns in Georgia and Michigan.

Cook denied any wrongdoing and filed a lawsuit on Aug. 28, seeking to block Trump's attempt to remove her from her position. 
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WorldOceaniaCrime This was published 3 months ago Evidence at bush camp shows fugitive father had outside help, NZ police say Samantha Hayes Updated September 10, 2025  11:02am ,first published September 10, 2025  9:57am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

New Zealand police say a search of the remote bush camp where fugitive father Tom Phillips was hiding out with his children has revealed he clearly had outside help during his almost four years on the run. Phillips, who went into hiding with his three children in December 2021, was killed on Monday during a shootout with police on a remote country road south of Auckland. A police officer suffered several gunshot wounds in the incident, including to the head. He is recovering in hospital after surgery. New images from police appear to show a camp kitchen at the remote bush spot where Tom Phillips children were found on Monday. NZ Police A shelter had been erected at the remote campsite. NZ Police Phillips eldest child, Jayda, 12, was with her father during the shootout and was taken into police care. She then helped police find her two younger siblings, Maverick, 10, and Ember, 9, at a bush camp hidden two kilometres off the road where Phillips was killed.

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Since the children were reunited in emotional scenes on Monday and settled into state care, police have been scouring the campsite to determine how the Phillips family managed to survive for so long in the remote and rugged environment. On Wednesday morning, police released further images that appeared to show a camp kitchen and sleeping area, about 200 metres from where the children were found on Monday. Police said officers were working in steep and uneven terrain to document evidence from the scene. A shelter at the campsite, build on steep terrain in dense bushland. NZ Police Its a very grim, dimly lit area, surrounded by dense bush. The tent was well covered and dry, Detective Senior Sergeant Andrew Saunders said. Its not a camping trip for a couple of nights. Its very dirty, cramped conditions  not very nice for children.

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We are currently looking at a number of items at the site. Aside from the burglaries we are now able to link to Tom, it is apparent that he had outside help. He also said police did not believe it was the main site where the children had been living for the past four years, and they had probably moved to the camouflaged spot a few months ago. A garage-style area at the campsite where Tom Phillips children were found south of Auckland. NZ Police The childrens mother, Cat, has told New Zealand outlet Mata that she is yet to be told when she will be reunited with her children, who were aged eight, seven and five when she last saw them four years ago. New Zealand Police Minister Mark Mitchell said it was a complex situation and that the authorities were governed by court orders.

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We dont know what theyve fully been exposed to, but we know that theyve been put in a fairly bad position by their father, he said. We know that one of them has witnessed him trying to kill a police officer and then having been killed himself ... I think everyone at the moment is just focused on trying to settle the children and figure out what is the best thing for them in terms of what theyve been exposed to. The Phillips children Jayda, Maverick and Ember, with their mother, Cat, a month before they were taken by their father, Tom Phillips, in 2021. On Tuesday night, New Zealand Police Commissioner Richard Chambers said police were liaising with Cat. My staff were talking to her a number of times yesterday, but there are court matters in place, which need to be considered before any access to the children may be considered, as far as Im aware, he said.

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Chambers said once police recovered the children at the campsite, they were fairly quickly handed over to welfare authorities to ensure that they had the care and the protection that they deserved. Chambers sympathised with their mothers plight and understood that she would be desperate to see them, but said that was not up to the police. I totally appreciate that as a parent, and as a parent myself, however thats something that [welfare authority] Oranga Tamariki will need to consider, he said. Theres obviously things that need to be considered first. Police approached the campsite carefully to recover the children because Jayda had told them there were guns and ammunition there, and said they had to negotiate with the children once they got there.

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Ive got very skilled negotiators, and they kicked in and did what they do so incredibly well and were able to ensure that those children were safe, Chambers said. Of course, they were pleased to see another one of their other siblings, who had been with us since the morning, and so we were very delighted that they were in our care. The scene where Tom Phillips was killed in a shootout with police. Mark Taylor/Stuff.co.nz When asked whether the children seemed relieved at the time of rescue, Chambers said that he had no doubt that there was emotion present when the young children were reunited with their older sibling. Their reintegration to society is probably going to take some time, he said.

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Tom Phillips was shot dead by police on Monday. I have no doubt that theyre good Kiwi kids. So Im sure that a nice warm shower, a home-cooked meal and to engage with society in the way they deserve to engage, that will be something that they look forward to, he added. But its certainly going to take time and our job as police is to support Oranga Tamariki and anybody else to ensure that those kids are given the best opportunity going forward. Chambers confirmed all the children were aware that their father had been killed in the confrontation with police, and they were being helped to process their grief. Yes, they are being supported. So too is the wider family, Chambers said.

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Its not an end that any of us wanted, but, you know, for four years, we have known that Mr Phillips is armed, hes dangerous, and hes been very motivated. Related Article Crime Its just left everybody flat: Locals deflated after fugitive shot dead by police We had hoped, of course, that all persons would be safe and well, without harm, but my staff are trained to deal with these situations. They did everything that I would expect them to do, given the threat that was presented to them. Its quite remarkable actually that  and thank heavens  that one of my staff has not lost their own life. Chambers said it was too early to tell if the officer hurt in the shootout with Phillips would have permanent injuries as a result of being shot multiple times in the head and shoulders by a high-powered rifle, at close range.

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This experience for my colleague has been extremely traumatic, he said. Hes a young father as well himself. I have no doubt that there will be injuries that hell deal with  probably both physical and in terms of the trauma  for many years to come. The officer has been undergoing surgery on his eye and Chambers said it was too early to tell if he would lose his sight. He spent most of [Monday] in surgery, therell be more surgery to come, his injuries are significant. Its gonna take a lot of time and it was very, very confronting. Chambers said that if others were found to have been involved in helping Phillips over the past four years, police would apply the full force of the law, calling the childrens treatment appalling and stressing that no loving father would do such a thing.

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Phase II activities of the SECO-WCO Global Trade Facilitation Programme (GTFP) in Uzbekistan are ongoing, with recent support provided through a virtual assistance session on integrity. The two sessions, held on 26 and 27 August, focused on reviewing and refining priority areas of the Customs Committee of Uzbekistan (CC) Integrity Action Plan, strengthening understanding of the WCO tools available to support implementation, and reinforcing the foundation for sustained integrity development within the Customs administration.

During the sessions, the participants reviewed the progress of integrity and anti-corruption initiatives in the country and identified the Customs units that will participate in the Integrity Working Group.

Furthermore, the participants assessed the status of CC against the first four key elements of the WCO Integrity Development Guide checklist. Discussions focused on integrity and corruption risks, key implementation challenges, areas requiring improvement, as well as strategic and operational recommendations with related mitigation measures.

Through these sessions, the CC aims to strengthen institutional alignment with the principles and instruments of the WCO Integrity Development Guide, enhance the effectiveness of anti-corruption measures by identifying weaknesses and implementing targeted actions, and foster a culture of ethical conduct to combat illicit activities within the administration.

The WCO will continue supporting Uzbekistan in its efforts to review their Integrity Action Plan.

For more information on the SECO-WCO Global Trade Facilitation Programme (GTFP), please contact Capacity.Building@wcoomd.org.
Brussels, 10 September  The World Customs Organization (WCO) and the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH) today announced the release of the updated Guidelines on Cooperation between Customs and Port Authorities. Building on the success of the first edition launched in 2023 at the World Ports Conference, the new version strengthens publicprivate cooperation across the global maritime supply chain and introduces valuable contributions from the World Shipping Council (WSC).

The Guidelines serve as a practical tool to foster closer collaboration, better data sharing, and enhanced risk management between customs and port authorities. They are designed to help national governments, port authorities, customs services, and private sector stakeholders navigate the increasingly complex challenges of global trade.

The release coincides with the WCO global conference A collective response to safeguarding maritime supply chains from criminal threats taking place at the WCO headquarters in Brussels. The conference brings Customs authorities, ports, terminal operators and shipping lines together with the international law enforcement community and governments to discuss the results of a two-year WCO-led global analysis into illicit trade.

WCO Secretary General, Ian Saunders, said: This joint document reflects evolving priorities, including digitalization, coordinated risk management, and joint enforcement efforts. The guidance it contains reaffirms our commitment to strengthening collaboration at the border in an increasingly complex and data driven trade environment.

IAPH Managing Director Patrick Verhoeven added: Ports sit at the nexus of trade, sustainability, and security. The revised Guidelines reflect the importance of engaging all stakeholdersincluding shipping linesto ensure both efficiency and resilience in global maritime logistics.

The revised Guidelines provide governments, ports, and customs services with actionable best practices that balance trade facilitation with safety, security, and sustainability. By expanding the scope to include shipping line perspectives, IAPH and WCO aim to further strengthen trust, cooperation, and innovation across the global maritime community.

New input from the World Shipping Council

The updated Guidelines incorporate new contributions from the World Shipping Council (WSC), representing global liner shipping companies. WSC underscores the vital role of cooperation between shipping lines, Customs, and port authorities to ensure secure, efficient maritime trade.

Key recommendations include establishing robust consultation mechanisms with port stakeholders when introducing new data or regulatory frameworks, ensuring that business realities are taken into account. Shipping lines emphasise the importance of timely, accurate data exchangecovering vessel, crew, and cargo informationin alignment with international standards such as IMO FAL.14(46).

Additionally, the new section recommends and supports the adoption of Single Window Environments to simplify and harmonise data submission, reducing duplication while enhancing security and compliance. The contribution also highlights the need for trusted publicprivate partnerships to tackle illicit trade, drawing on lessons from cross-border, multi-stakeholder global operations such as Tin Can,* which resulted in 43 arrests and 158 drug seizures of approximately 100 tonnes of narcotics in 2022. Finally, WSC calls for clear international practices to address abandoned and uncleared containers, which pose both safety and security risks.

Through these inputs, WSC reinforces the importance of continuous dialogue and collaboration with authorities to improve trade facilitation, enhance risk management, and strengthen the collective fight against illicit trafficking.

Available in multiple languages

Thanks to the efforts of WCO and IAPH teams as well as the support of Members, the updated guidelines have also been translated into French and, for the first time, has been made available in Latin American Spanish.

One of the key contributors, Mariela Gutarra Ramos, Leader of Government and Digital Transformation and Chief of the Office of IT of the National Port Authority of Peru commented: having these guidelines translated into Spanish makes a significant difference in terms of accessibility of use when it comes to bringing all the relevant stakeholders around the table to discuss how the best practices and recommendations can be applied in practice.

For the English version, click here

For the French version, click here

For the Spanish version, click here

*For details about Operation Tin Can see pages 50  52 of the guidelines (Eng)

About the WCO

The World Customs Organization (WCO), established in 1952 as the Customs Co-operation Council (CCC) is an independent intergovernmental body whose mission is to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of Customs administrations. Today, the WCO represents 186 Customs administrations across the globe that collectively process approximately 98% of world trade. As the global centre of Customs expertise, the WCO is the only international organization with competence in Customs matters and can rightly call itself the voice of the international Customs community.

About IAPH

Founded in 1955, the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH) has developed into a global alliance of 200 port authorities as well as 173 port-related businesses. Comprised of over 94 different nationalities across the worlds continents, member ports handle over one third of the worlds sea-borne trade and well over 60% of the world container traffic. IAPH leads global port industry initiatives on de-carbonisation and energy transition, risk and resilience management, and accelerating digitalisation in the maritime transport chain. The IAPHs World Ports Sustainability Program has grown into the reference database of best practices of ports applying the UN Sustainable Development Goals and integrating them into their businesses - iaphworldports.org.
CARACAS, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has warned about the presence of U.S. military ships in the Caribbean Sea, saying "the U.S. empire is playing a dangerous game" not only for the region but also for itself.

In an interview conducted by former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa for Russian news network RT and broadcast Tuesday by local media, Maduro said the United States is playing "an extremist card" by creating a "false narrative."

"What the current U.S. government is doing is creating a false narrative to justify military action, to start a war in South America for regime change," he said.

The United States aims, through "military intimidation," to back Venezuela's far right, which has been defeated domestically "on all fronts," he added.

Maduro reiterated that, contrary to accusations made by Donald Trump's administration, which seeks to link his government to the drug cartels, "Venezuela is a free country, completely free from the phenomenon of drug trafficking."

"All drug trafficking in South America and the world is directed from the United States ... it is in the United States that the mafias are located, that the real cartels are located," he said.

Washington's real concern "is oil, not drug trafficking," he said, adding it also aims to take control of the South American country's other natural resources. 
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa responds to questions in the National Assembly in Cape Town, South Africa, Sept. 9, 2025. Ramaphosa said on Tuesday that his government is actively engaging the United States to secure a fair trade and investment deal, but emphasized that the country will not "go on bended knee" in the negotiations. Responding to questions in the National Assembly on Tuesday afternoon, Ramaphosa told lawmakers that South African government representatives are currently in the United States for further formal negotiations. (Photo by Xabiso Mkhabela/Xinhua)

CAPE TOWN, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday that his government is actively engaging the United States to secure a fair trade and investment deal, but emphasized that the country will not "go on bended knee" in the negotiations.

Responding to questions in the National Assembly on Tuesday afternoon, Ramaphosa told lawmakers that South African government representatives are currently in the United States for further formal negotiations.

"Our people, who are in the United States, now are fully fired up with this type of approach," he said, adding that ministers of trade and industry and international relations will join them to advance the discussions.

"They are meeting a number of stakeholders, including representatives in the administration, legislators, business people, and others," he added.

The president said that the objective of the continued engagement with the United States is to secure a mutually beneficial trade and investment deal, noting that the government has chosen the route of engagement after consultations with exporters, importers, trade unions, and the private sector.

"Our option is informed by what we want to gain. And what we want to gain is to continue exporting to the United States as much as possible, and to enable companies also to invest in the United States, but to also get U.S. companies to invest in us," Ramaphosa said.

Meanwhile, the president stressed that South Africa entered talks with significant leverage, pointing to the country's mineral wealth and processing capacity.

"The discussions that we are having now with the United States also revolve around that the critical minerals that South Africa has, and the capacity that we have to process those minerals ... something that we take to the table and use as leverage," he said

Ramaphosa acknowledged that the U.S. administration can at times be "unpredictable" and "retaliatory," but said he was confident that the strategy of engagement would deliver positive outcomes.

"It is a strategy that we have opted for, a strategy of engagement, and a strategy which we believe will yield results, notwithstanding the fact that we are obviously dealing with the United States administration that at times is unpredictable and that at times just retaliates -- without being supplicants, without going on bended knee, which we have never done and which we will never do," Ramaphosa said.

"We have said we will not be bullied. We will stand as a sovereign country and negotiate and get the best deal for South Africa. That's precisely what we do," he noted. 

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa responds to questions in the National Assembly in Cape Town, South Africa, Sept. 9, 2025. Ramaphosa said on Tuesday that his government is actively engaging the United States to secure a fair trade and investment deal, but emphasized that the country will not "go on bended knee" in the negotiations. Responding to questions in the National Assembly on Tuesday afternoon, Ramaphosa told lawmakers that South African government representatives are currently in the United States for further formal negotiations. (Photo by Xabiso Mkhabela/Xinhua)

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa responds to questions in the National Assembly in Cape Town, South Africa, Sept. 9, 2025. Ramaphosa said on Tuesday that his government is actively engaging the United States to secure a fair trade and investment deal, but emphasized that the country will not "go on bended knee" in the negotiations. Responding to questions in the National Assembly on Tuesday afternoon, Ramaphosa told lawmakers that South African government representatives are currently in the United States for further formal negotiations. (Photo by Xabiso Mkhabela/Xinhua)
For this nontraditional zoology student, WSU offers collaboration and exploration

September 10, 2025

OGDEN, Utah  For 27-year-old Weber State University student Davis Swanson, pursuing a degree in zoology isnt just about academics but understanding life in all its forms.

An avid outdoorsman, Swanson always knew he wanted to work with wildlife. But after graduating from Clearfield High School and a couple short stints at other colleges, he decided to take a long break before enrolling in classes at WSU.

Now on track to graduate in spring 2026, he feels that time gave him the ability and renewed sense of purpose to make the most of his education this time around.

Im really grateful I came back when I did, Swanson said. I have more discipline and appreciation for my education than I did at 18 and I am much wiser.

Swanson was drawn to the zoology program and its emphasis on hands-on experience.

Our zoology department is really well regarded, he said. Everyone I have spoken to outside the university is very complimentary of the work we do here.

Some of that work includes WSUs bird banding station and undergraduate research.

Swanson first got involved in research by assisting with a study on microplastics in the Ogden River, with hopes to be published soon. This experience helped him realize that undergrad students could be actively involved with research.

You sort of have this notion that its going to be more difficult or you have to wait for someone to give you a project, Swanson said. But being able to help on the Ogden River research showed me I could do it and gave me the confidence I needed to start my own project.

With funding from the Office of Undergraduate Research, Swanson launched his own project studying how lazuli buntings  small, vibrant blue songbirds  choose perching spots to sing.

Theyre these gorgeous, charismatic birds, Swanson said. Theyre the ones I credit with getting me into birds in the first place.

Swanson also helped monitor snowy plovers at the Great Salt Lake, home to the largest inland population of the species, under the mentorship of zoology professor John Cavitt earlier this year. He also continues to mentor new students at the bird banding station.

But science isnt his only outlet. As a creative writer, Swanson believes fiction pairs well with his scientific pursuit  things he considers flip sides of the same coin.

Though currently considering graduate school in wildlife ecology, Swanson is equally as excited about working in the field. Either way, hes proud of how far hes come.

Viewing science as a collaborative effort, Swansons education hasnt been about knowing everything.

Its about getting other people excited about what youre excited about, he said. Its caring more about learning than knowing.


BERLIN, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday condemned the Israeli airstrike in the Qatari capital of Doha as a violation of Qatar's sovereignty and territorial integrity and "unacceptable."

According to a statement from the German federal government, Merz made the outcry during a phone call with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

Merz also stressed that the war "must not expand to the entire region."

The German government is in close contact with the Israeli government regarding the situation, the statement noted.

On Tuesday, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul also called Israel's attack "unacceptable" and warned that it jeopardizes the negotiations for the release of hostages held by Hamas.

In a press statement, Wadephul expressed his concern for the life and safety of the hostages, especially those of German nationals. 
Leesville, LA (71446)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy this afternoon. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 73F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Areas of dense fog. Low near 55F. Winds light and variable.
A local councillor has accused Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) of failing to honour its commitment to realign a dangerous exit from the grounds of a South Mayo GAA club.

Cllr Damien Ryan told last week's meeting of Mayo County Council's strategic policy committee (SPC) for roads that the exit at Kilmaine GAA club is hazardous for motorists due to a lack of visibility onto a road where the speed limit is 100km per hour.

This matter has been on the agenda for a long time and TII had given a firm commitment it would meet us half-way in solving the exit from the GAA pitch. The municipal district has stepped up to the mark and funded the acquisition of the ground. TII was to fund the alignment."

After learning that there had been no response from TII or the Department of Transport on the matter, Cllr Ryan called for a meeting with TII and was backed by committee cathaoirleach Cllr Annie May Reape.

Mayo Co Council's Acting Head of Roads, Conrad Harley, said the council was working with TII on the project but that there was a particular issue with adjacent land which had been holding things up but that was now "almost fully resolved". He promised to come back to members with an update.

- Published as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
BEIJING, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese defense spokesperson said on Wednesday that defense and military leaders from over 100 countries, including Vietnam, Singapore, Russia, France, Nigeria and Brazil, have confirmed their attendance at the 12th Beijing Xiangshan Forum to be held in mid-September.

The attendees will also include representatives of international and regional organizations, said Jiang Bin, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense, at a regular press conference.

Jiang noted that this year's forum has drawn participants from a broader range of countries, demonstrating its commitment to inclusivity and openness.

He said that preparations for the forum are basically complete. The event will feature four plenary sessions and eight parallel sessions, focusing on global security governance, Asia-Pacific security cooperation, safeguarding the international order and building regional peace.

According to Jiang, the forum will also host academic activities commemorating the 80th anniversary of victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, as well as the 80th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations.

These events aim to encourage countries to work together to safeguard the victorious outcome of the World Anti-Fascist War and the post-war international order, and to explore effective ways to resolve conflicts, he said. 
LONDON, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Britain's Student Loans Company (SLC) has urged new and returning university students to remain vigilant against scams as the 2025/26 academic year begins.

In September, SLC will distribute about 2.2 billion pounds (about 2.99 billion U.S. dollars) in maintenance payments to nearly 1 million students. Officials warn that this period often coincides with a rise in fraudulent activities, particularly text message scams.

"The methods used by fraudsters are constantly evolving, especially around the start of the academic year when the first payments are made," said Alan Balanowski, risk director at SLC. He added that criminals frequently impersonate the agency or students through phone calls, emails and text messages.

According to SLC, its fraud prevention measures stopped 45.5 million pounds from being stolen from students last year. The agency stressed that while it is committed to protecting students, individuals must also take steps to safeguard their personal and financial information.

SLC reminded students that genuine communications will never request personal or banking details via email or text message, nor use social media platforms such as WhatsApp. Suspicious messages should be reported immediately to the agency's Economic Crime Unit.

The company also published practical tips, including checking for poor spelling or grammar in communications, being wary of generic greetings such as "Dear Student," and avoiding urgent messages that threaten account closures.

Telecom and online fraud have become a growing concern in Britain in recent years. Official data show young people are among the most frequent targets, particularly around major financial transactions such as tuition and maintenance loan payments. (1 pound = 1.36 U.S. dollar) 
Annalena Baerbock (C), president of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), strikes the gavel to signal the opening of the 80th session at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 9, 2025. The 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) was declared open by Annalena Baerbock, the new president of the General Assembly, at the UN headquarters in New York on Tuesday afternoon. (Xinhua/Xie E)

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- The 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) was declared open by Annalena Baerbock, the new president of the General Assembly, at the UN headquarters in New York on Tuesday afternoon.

The theme of the 80th session of the UNGA, which marks the 80th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, is "Better Together: 80 years and more for peace, development and human rights."

"The 80th session of the General Assembly is no ordinary session," Baerbock said in her opening remarks at the first plenary meeting of the 80th session.

"80 years. Longer than the average human lifespan. Normally this would be a moment to celebrate, but are we really in a mood for celebration?" the new UNGA president asked.

Parents in Gaza are watching their children starve, Afghan girls are banned from school, women in Darfur are hiding their daughters from being raped, Pacific Islanders are watching seas rise and waves lap against their homes, and 808 million people are still trapped in extreme poverty, she said.

"Instead of celebrating, one might rather ask: where is the United Nations, which was created to save us from hell?" Baerbock asked.

However, the world needs the United Nations, and it remains the only organization capable of bringing together every country in the world, and the only one capable of acting on a truly global scale, she pointed out.

This is the year to adapt, to evolve, and to build the United Nations we need for the next 80 years -- for the lifetimes of our children, said the UNGA president. "It is a moment to show eight billion people why this organization still matters."

Speaking at the meeting, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that eight decades ago, the founders of the United Nations gathered in San Francisco, U.S. state of California, and envisioned "something different" -- a global-problem-solving body that could not only prevent calamities like war, but could forge solutions to other age-old problems haunting humanity -- poverty, hunger, illness and inequality.

These efforts, built by the world for the world, and grounded in the values and principles of the UN Charter, are what this Assembly is all about, Guterres said.

"The United Nations provides the place. The Charter provides the tools," stressed the UN chief, adding that the Pact for the Future, adopted last September, provided a shot in the arm for the multilateral system and the values that have defined this organization from day one.

The UN Charter "is not self-executing," Guterres pointed out, adding that by design, it requires countries looking beyond their national interests and re-building trust and faith in one another, and in what the international community can accomplish through collaboration and solidarity.

"And it requires realizing that, while we cannot solve all the world's problems here, we can unite behind solutions that will ultimately move humanity closer to a better, fairer, more peaceful and equal world for all," he said.

A high-level week will kick off on Sept. 22 and run through Sept. 30, during which world leaders will gather to attend the General Debate and a series of conferences, including the High-level Meeting to Commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the United Nations, the SDG Moment, the High-level Meeting on the 30th Anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, the Climate Summit, and the High-level Meeting to Launch the Global Dialogue on AI Governance.

Baerbock was sworn in as president of the 80th session at the closing of the 79th UNGA session on Tuesday morning. 

Annalena Baerbock, president of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), speaks at the opening of the 80th session at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 9, 2025. The 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) was declared open by Annalena Baerbock, the new president of the General Assembly, at the UN headquarters in New York on Tuesday afternoon. (Xinhua/Xie E)

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks at the opening of the 80th session at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 9, 2025. The 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) was declared open by Annalena Baerbock, the new president of the General Assembly, at the UN headquarters in New York on Tuesday afternoon. (Xinhua/Xie E)

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks at the opening of the 80th session at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 9, 2025. The 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) was declared open by Annalena Baerbock, the new president of the General Assembly, at the UN headquarters in New York on Tuesday afternoon. (Xinhua/Xie E)

Annalena Baerbock, president of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), speaks at the opening of the 80th session at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 9, 2025. The 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) was declared open by Annalena Baerbock, the new president of the General Assembly, at the UN headquarters in New York on Tuesday afternoon. (Xinhua/Xie E)

Annalena Baerbock (C), president of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), strikes the gavel after it was handed to her by Philemon Yang (R), president of the 79th session of the UNGA at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 9, 2025. At the closing of the 79th UNGA session, Annalena Baerbock was sworn in as president of the 80th session, which will open Tuesday afternoon. (Xinhua/Xie E)

Philemon Yang (R), president of the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), passes the gavel on to Annalena Baerbock (C), president of the 80th session of the UNGA, as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres looks on at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 9, 2025. At the closing of the 79th UNGA session, Annalena Baerbock was sworn in as president of the 80th session, which will open Tuesday afternoon. (Xinhua/Xie E)

Philemon Yang, president of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), speaks at the closing meeting of the 79th UNGA session at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 9, 2025. At the closing of the 79th UNGA session, Annalena Baerbock was sworn in as president of the 80th session, which will open Tuesday afternoon. (Xinhua/Xie E)

Annalena Baerbock is sworn in as the president of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) during the closing meeting of the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 9, 2025. At the closing of the 79th UNGA session, Annalena Baerbock was sworn in as president of the 80th session, which will open Tuesday afternoon. (Xinhua/Xie E)

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks at the closing meeting of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 9, 2025. At the closing of the 79th UNGA session, Annalena Baerbock was sworn in as president of the 80th session, which will open Tuesday afternoon. (Xinhua/Xie E)
HANGZHOU, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- As the back-to-school season kicks off, the streets of east China's Zhejiang Province have come alive with shops brimming with colorful stationery.

Their vibrant hues and intricate designs catch the eye of passersby, reflecting the growing "China-chic" stationery trend that has been grabbing attention around the world.

This unique blend of traditional Chinese elements and modern design has not only captured the hearts of domestic consumers but has also become a new favorite among international buyers.

In Zhejiang Yizheng Cultural Supplies Co., Ltd., an enterprise that integrates the production, sales and research and development of stationery, the excitement is palpable.

"In recent years, as Chinese cultural IPs have gained more attention globally, we started to try our hand at exporting our own brands last year," said Zhang Ying, the company's director of human resources and administration. "Our design team has also grown from just four or five people to over 20 now."

The company holds the official licenses for several popular IPs such as "Sanrio," "Ultraman" and "Transformers," and has also independently developed a range of stationery IPs like "Carrot," "Akun Bear" and "Unicorn."

These products have found their way into more than 20 countries and regions, including Europe, the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Southeast Asia. From January to July this year, the company achieved an export turnover of over 30 million yuan (about 4.2 million U.S. dollars), up 50 percent year on year, with about 40 percent of the total coming from its own brands, according to Zhang.

This remarkable growth is not an isolated case. Yiwu, a city often dubbed "the world's supermarket" for its expertise in consumer goods manufacturing, exported stationery products worth 410 million yuan from January to July this year, up 12.3 percent year on year.

Home to more than 3,000 stationery and cultural creativity enterprises, Yiwu has embraced an innovative model that connects source factories directly with buyers during product ordering meetings.

Recently, 65 stationery and cultural creativity enterprises from Yiwu held a product ordering meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, showcasing more than 10,000 stationery items that drew over 200 Thai wholesalers.

At the meeting, Zhang Liangjie, a purchasing officer, dispatched six specialists to conduct a thorough search for high-quality source factories. Within just two hours, they had added more than 20 exhibitors on WeChat. Her company operates more than 70 chain stores in Thailand.

Giant panda-themed stationery developed by Chinese companies is very popular overseas. Some companies have developed stationery products based on the ancient Chinese myth, "Classic of Mountains and Seas," in order to gradually open up the European and American markets, said Huang Changchao, president of the Yiwu Cultural Products Industry Association.

Thanks to ongoing advancements in AR technology, scanning the cover of a notebook can now even trigger an English explanation of animations from the four great classical novels in Chinese literature, Huang said.

"China-chic cultural products have performed well in overseas markets. Small stationery items can serve as a big window to showcase Chinese culture," Huang added.

Data from local customs showed that from January to July this year, Zhejiang exported stationery products such as ballpoint pens, pencils and erasers worth 10.54 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.9 percent. 
Apply now for the exciting AI & African Music pilot project

The project aims to support ground-breaking music ideas that harness AI and champion African creativity, and build new futures for AI in music.

With a goal to build new futures for AI in music, shaped by African sounds, language and innovation, the AI & African Music project pilot invites applications from musicians across the continent.

Offering tangible financial, project management and technical assistance, the initiative will support musicians to develop unique, transformative ideas over a six-month process, culminating in a showcase event in Johannesburg in April 2026.

The project is hosted by the Wits Innovation Centre (WIC) in partnership with the Machine Intelligence and Neural Discovery (MIND) Institute at Wits University and funded by Charles Goldstuck, a South African-born, USA-based music executive, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. All musicians, producers, composers, and music educators of African nationality, living in an African country, working in any genre are invited to apply. Projects can range from:

Using AI to co-create, perform and teach music in African traditions

Recording, transcribing and preserving African musical works  from oral heritage to digital formats

Reimagining local traditional, indigenous or contemporary genres

Building and localising AI tools that understand African sounds, languages, and workflows.

Selected awardees will receive ZAR 30,000 per month for four months and will be teamed with an AI engineer and a programme advisor to support project development. All teams will attend an industry exchange and launch workshop in early November 2025 as well as a project culmination showcase event in April 2026, both in Johannesburg at Wits University.

As a dedicated partner to the continents music ecosystem, Billboard Africa is thrilled to support the Wits MIND Institutes AI & African Music initiative. Weve seen countless examples of how the marriage of African creativity and innovation not only propels culture forward, but also changes lives, and nowhere has this been more evident than across Africas vast and rich musical landscape. Technological projects which centre African creativity allow for more opportunities to transmit culture, to create new pathways for discovery and collaboration, and to influence the global music and creative industries. We look forward to supporting and amplifying the exciting work the candidates produce.  Nkosiyati Khumalo, Editor-in-Chief, Billboard Africa

Unlocking new forms of expression

AI & African Music, a pilot in a long-term strategic investment to develop an artificial intelligence and creative sector initiative within the Wits MIND Institute, is set to unveil ground-breaking music innovation ideas and contribute to transformation for creators.

The project is driven by Professor Christo Doherty of the Wits Innovation Centre and MIND Director, Professor Benjamin Rosman, and takes interdisciplinary research and innovation straight to those on the front lines of the music industry.

African musical creativity offers tonalities, textures, and traditions that challenge and expand todays AI toolsmost of which are trained on Western data. This project takes a bold step toward placing African creators at the centre of global technological transformation.  Professor Christo Doherty, Acting Angela and David Fine Chair in Innovation, Wits Innovation Centre

The MIND Institute is committed to driving homegrown innovation that reflects Africas diverse cultural landscape. Through this project, were not just participating in the global AI conversationwere leading it. By supporting musicians to experiment with AI, were unlocking new forms of expression and ensuring Africa is a creator, not just a consumer, in the future of artificial intelligence.  Professor Benjamin Rosman, Director, Wits MIND Institute

Apply now!

To learn more about the application process and entry requirements, visit https://www.wits.ac.za/aiam/

To enter, visit https://forms.office.com/r/6iZJz5g8RY (deadline for Expression of Interest: Sunday 14 September 2025)

About the Wits Innovation Centre (WIC)

The Wits Innovation Centre (WIC) is a dynamic hub of creativity and ingenuity that seeks to develop an innovation mindset across all disciplines and boundaries, and strives to assist researchers and students to transform their ideas from research outputs to innovation and enterprise.

About the Machine Intelligence and Neural Discovery (MIND) Institute

The Machine Intelligence and Neural Discovery (MIND) Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand is an African-based interdisciplinary AI research hub that aims to advance the scientific understanding of both natural and artificial intelligence, foster breakthrough research and technological innovation, invest in developing a crucial mass of African AI expertise, and establish responsible policies for systemic, sustained impact both locally and globally. Core programmatic activity focuses on three strategic workstreams: the fundamental science of AI, application in society and industry, and African AI governance and leadership, while developing research capacity and talent across sectors.
Labour tenants of Bushy Park Farm relocated successfully

CALS represents several families who faced eviction after their employment was terminated

Mr Sindisile Rodolo and his family have been moved to a new property following an attempted eviction by the owners of Bushy Park Farm in the Eastern Cape. The family were assisted in negotiations by the Centre for Applied Legal Studies.

In 2020, Mr Rodolo and three other occupier families approached the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) for legal advice and assistance after facing eviction. Mr Rodolo had been a labour tenant since his employment in 2003 on a dairy farm known as Bushy Park and his family lived with him in a cottage on the property. When the dairy farm started to struggle financially, Mr Rodolos employment was terminated, and he and his family were expected to leave their home. When the residents of the cottage failed to leave voluntarily, the owners of Bushy Park Farm instituted eviction proceedings against them.

CALS assisted the family to defend the eviction in terms of the Extension and Secure Tenure Act  otherwise known as ESTA. After entering into negotiations with the farm on behalf of the occupiers, in 2021, one of the families accepted a monetary settlement while Mr Rodolo and the remaining family rejected the farm owners initial offer on the basis that it did not provide long-term security of tenure for them and their families.

Following this, CALS successfully negotiated a settlement agreement with the owners of the farm on behalf of Mr Rodolo. Our clients agreed to vacate the cottage on the condition that they be relocated to a new property by the owners. Mr Rodolo took occupation of the new property on 17 July 2025. In terms of the agreement, the owners have undertaken to have the new property transferred and registered in Mr Rodolos name without any cost to him.

Everyone in South Africa has the right to access adequate housing, says Thuto Gabaphethe. In fact, the Constitution specifically makes provision for communities whose land tenure is insecure as a result of past discriminatory laws or practices. This provision is given effect by the Extension and Secure Tenure Act and the Labour Tenants Act which protect the rights of people such as our clients to equitable redress. This includes secure land tenure and a home should they no longer be employed as labour tenants. This settlement agreement is a victory for our clients who will now enjoy security of tenure on their new property.

Asked for a comment, Mrs Rodolo on behalf of the family said: This case isuka kude from 2012 till now  ithi lonto basekhona abantu abasawalwelayo amalungelo abantu. Once this house transfer is in our names, we say victory is true and we will start to rejoice in our beautiful new home.

Negotiations continue on behalf of the remaining family as well as for the transfer of the new home to the Rodolos name.

For inquiries, please contact:
A Kazakh trainee (L) takes a test under the guidance of Zhang Yao (R), an instructor from Tianjin Rail Transit, during a light-rail driver training session in north China's Tianjin Municipality, Sept. 5, 2025. A batch of 29 drivers from Kazakhstan have recently qualified as light-rail drivers after finishing immersive training sessions in China's Tianjin.

Held by Tianjin Rail Transit, the three-month program provided customized technical solutions for driving on a light-rail line in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue)

Zhang Yao (C), a trainer from Tianjin Rail Transit, answers questions from Kazakh trainees during a light-rail driver training session in north China's Tianjin Municipality, July 14, 2025. A batch of 29 drivers from Kazakhstan have recently qualified as light-rail drivers after finishing immersive training sessions in China's Tianjin.

Held by Tianjin Rail Transit, the three-month program provided customized technical solutions for driving on a light-rail line in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue)

Kazakh trainees attend a light-rail driver training session in north China's Tianjin Municipality, July 14, 2025. A batch of 29 drivers from Kazakhstan have recently qualified as light-rail drivers after finishing immersive training sessions in China's Tianjin.

Held by Tianjin Rail Transit, the three-month program provided customized technical solutions for driving on a light-rail line in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue)

A Kazakh trainee (R) gets on a subway train for taking a test during a light-rail driver training session in north China's Tianjin Municipality, Sept. 5, 2025. A batch of 29 drivers from Kazakhstan have recently qualified as light-rail drivers after finishing immersive training sessions in China's Tianjin.

Held by Tianjin Rail Transit, the three-month program provided customized technical solutions for driving on a light-rail line in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue)

A Kazakh trainee takes a test during a light-rail driver training session in north China's Tianjin Municipality, Sept. 5, 2025. A batch of 29 drivers from Kazakhstan have recently qualified as light-rail drivers after finishing immersive training sessions in China's Tianjin.

Held by Tianjin Rail Transit, the three-month program provided customized technical solutions for driving on a light-rail line in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue)

A Kazakh trainee (C) operates a full-function driving simulator during a light-rail driver training session in north China's Tianjin Municipality, July 17, 2025. A batch of 29 drivers from Kazakhstan have recently qualified as light-rail drivers after finishing immersive training sessions in China's Tianjin.

Held by Tianjin Rail Transit, the three-month program provided customized technical solutions for driving on a light-rail line in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue)

A Kazakh trainee (L) operates a full-function driving simulator during a light-rail driver training session in north China's Tianjin Municipality, Aug. 11, 2025. A batch of 29 drivers from Kazakhstan have recently qualified as light-rail drivers after finishing immersive training sessions in China's Tianjin.

Held by Tianjin Rail Transit, the three-month program provided customized technical solutions for driving on a light-rail line in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue)
SEOUL, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Seven people were injured Wednesday in an explosion at a military unit of South Korea, according to Yonhap news agency.

The explosion occurred at an army unit in Paju, Gyeonggi province, at about 3:30 p.m. local time (0630 GMT), leaving seven people wounded.

The military was investigating the cause of the accident based on reports that an educational bomb exploded. 
WARSAW/BRUSSELS, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told the country's lower house of parliament (Sejm) on Wednesday that he has formally requested the invocation of Article 4 of the NATO founding treaty, after Polish airspace was violated 19 times overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday.

Noting that the drones entered from Belarus for the first time, Tusk said invoking the NATO article was a joint decision taken with Polish President Karol Nawrocki.

Article 4 of the Washington Treaty (the North Atlantic Treaty) allows for consultations whenever a member believes its territorial integrity, political independence, or security is threatened.

Tusk said Poland will ask for greater support from allies in defending its airspace.

Citing the record of Poland's Operational Command, Tusk said the drones' incursion into Polish airspace has lasted the entire night, bringing Poland closer to open conflict than it has been since World War II. However, he added, "There are no grounds today to claim that we are at war."

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Wednesday that the alliance has responded to Poland's request for consultations under Article 4 and is now conducting a comprehensive assessment of the situation.

NATO will continue to closely monitor the situation in the east, with its air defense systems kept on standby, he added.

Earlier on Wednesday, Poland concluded its overnight air defense operation after the drone threat had been neutralized. Although Poland and NATO both accused Russia of launching the drones, Russia has denied any involvement and called the accusation "groundless."

Rutte said NATO condemns Russia's "reckless behavior," adding that the drone incursion is not an isolated act, and that the intentions behind it are under study.

Russia's Defense Ministry said Wednesday that it is ready to hold consultations with the Polish Defense Ministry over "reports of drones allegedly crossing into Polish territory," adding that none of the targets of its large-scale overnight strike on Ukrainian military facilities were located in Poland.

According to Russia's RIA Novosti news agency, the Charge d'affaires of the Russian Federation Andrei Ordash has been summoned to the Polish Foreign Ministry. However, Ordash said Poland had presented no evidence of the drones' alleged Russian origin. 
An aerial view of a refugee and migrant cemetery with graves of the people who lost their lives in the Aegean Sea while crossing from Turkey to Greece, on Thursday, May 15, 2025. [AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris]

Refugees will in future be treated like criminals in Greece. That is the essence of the tougher asylum law that the Greek government, under the right-wing New Democracy (ND), pushed through parliament a week ago.

Those seeking protection who are denied asylum and remain illegally in the country now face heavy prison sentences and fines. These people have usually endured a life-threatening escape route and often given up their familys entire savings to flee war, persecution and poverty in their homeland. Now, in Europe, they are not only treated like cattle, but also imprisoned if they do not voluntarily return to the misery from which they have just fled.

The new law was passed overnight September 2-3 with the votes of the ruling party, which has a majority in parliament. In July, the government had already decided to suspend all asylum applications from refugees from North Africa for three months, completely nullifying the right to asylum.

The pseudo-left opposition party Syriza criticised the toughening of the law, while carefully concealing the fact that during its own four years in government it had implemented the EUs inhumane policy against refugees, thereby paving the way for todays government.

The asylum reform includes a whole package of measures designed to deprive refugees of their rights, terrorise and persecute them:

The deadline for voluntary departure is reduced from 25 to 14 days, meaning a rejected asylum seeker has only two weeks to leave the country.

If they remain illegally in Greece, they face imprisonment of two to five years without parole as well as fines of at least 5,000 and up to 10,000 for illegal re-entry.

Migrants without papers will no longer receive legal status after seven years of residence in Greece, as was previously the case. In practice, this means they can be arrested at any time as illegal migrants and remain excluded from the health system, labour market and housing market.

New arrivals without valid documents will be locked up in closed facilities. This administrative detention is extended from 18 to up to 24 months.

Rejected asylum seekers will be monitored by electronic ankle tags during the departure period so that they can be immediately arrested if they do not leave.

The list of so-called safe countries of origin will be expanded so that people can now also be deported to third countries in which they first applied for asylum.

For the first time, the law establishes an entry ban for people classified as a threat to public order and securitya regulation that can be broadly interpreted and arbitrarily applied.

These attacks directly affect the great majority of refugees, since ever fewer of those seeking protection in Greece receive a proper asylum procedure, let alone asylum itself. According to figures from the EU asylum agency, the recognition rate in the EU has fallen to 25 percentthe lowest level ever recorded. There are no exact figures for Greece, but the rate is likely to be even lower.

It is no coincidence that Thanos Plevris, the new migration minister since June, is pushing through this brutal law. Plevris is a notorious far-right figure with close links to neo-Nazis. Until he joined ND in 2012, he was a member of parliament for the far-right party Laos (Popular Orthodox Rally). His father, Konstantinos Plevris, whom he once defended in court as a lawyer, is an antisemite and considered an ideological forerunner of the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn.

What Plevris is now implementing as migration minister has long been on his political agenda. In 2011 he openly called for the killing of refugees. At an event, to the applause of his fascist supporters, he declared: There is no border protection without deaths. Migrants had to be deterred from entering Greece: Hell should look like paradise to them, after what they have experienced here!

The countrys refugee policy of recent yearsfrom pushbacks at sea to concentration campshas long since turned Greece into a hell for most refugees. But that is not enough for Plevris. He also wants to jettison the last remnants of human rights, which, at least on paper, still existed for refugees.

In his parliamentary speech last week, Plevris boasted, I say this with great pride: I am glad to be a minister of this government that criminalises illegal residence in the country. He addressed the refugees with a direct threat:

If your asylum application is rejected, you have two options. Either you end up in prison or you return to your homeland. The Greek state does not accept you. You are not tolerated because you entered illegally. You have only one choice: to return. You are not welcome.

With his rabid rhetoric, Plevris emulates the anti-immigrant tirades of Donald Trump, whom he openly admires. After Trumps election in November 2024, Plevris congratulated the new American president on X for his great victory, citing among other things his stance against illegal immigration. He described his election as an important message for the EU and invoked Greeces good cooperation with Trump.

Like Trump, Plevris has no interest in cloaking his criminal migration policy in humanitarian concerns. Rather, he brags about setting the tone in the EU. He dismissed criticism from many human rights organisations of his plans as irrelevant in a television programme in August: Migration policy is determined by the government. Returns, both forced and voluntary, are the great concern at both national and European level. And Greece plays a leading role in this debate.

Indeed, the latest toughening of the law is not a unilateral national measure by the ND government, but an integral part of European anti-refugee policy. At a meeting of EU interior ministers in Copenhagen at the end of July, where further attacks on refugees were discussed, Plevris promoted his plans.

According to a report by Politico, he held several bilateral backroom talks with EU representatives. The newspaper quotes a Greek government official, who wished to remain anonymous, as saying: The new Greek legislation has attracted particular interest among ministers, as it is considered the strictest ever presented at EU level.

Plevris met with his counterparts from Austria, France and Germany, as well as with representatives of the EU border protection agency Frontex, to discuss sealing off the external borders and further deterrent measures against refugees.

The European bourgeoisie fully supports the toughening of asylum law in Greece and has already begun implementing similar far-right attacks on migrants in their own countries.

Last Wednesday, shortly after the vote on the Greek asylum law, the German government cleared the next hurdle in toughening its refugee policy: Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (Christian Social Union, CSU) pushed two laws through the cabinet to implement the reform of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) in Germany. This allows for even stronger EU border fortification, faster deportations and the detention of refugees in camps at the external borders.

Germany has also resumed deportations of refugees to Greece this year. In previous years, there had been a de facto halt to deportations due to the devastating situation faced by refugees in Greece. Although the situation has further deteriorated, the Federal Administrative Court ruled in a landmark decision this April that there were no inhuman or degrading living conditions for refugees there.

In Britain, a far-right campaign is currently being waged by the government and establishment media against so-called asylum hotels in which refugees are accommodated. Tory politician Robert Jenrick, who could become the next leader of the Conservative Party, recently welcomed the proposals of far-right figure Nigel Farage to herd asylum seekers into concentration camps, but then tried to outflank him from the right: these camps should be rudimentary prisons, Jenrick said.

The attacks on refugees serve the ruling class in all countries to undermine democratic rights and prepare a broad offensive against all the social gains of the working class. Parallel to the latest asylum law, the Greek government is pushing ahead with military rearmament and toughening capitalist exploitation with the new labour law.

In order to divide and set workers against each other, the weakest and most defencelessthe refugeesare being targeted first and made scapegoats for social problems that are in fact the result of the capitalist crisis.

The working class must oppose the outright war on refugees with its own programme: the consistent defence of its immigrant colleagues and neighbours, and the international unification of all workers in a socialist movement.
The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has entered a new phase of its judicial operation targeting fundamental democratic rights and the Kemalist (CHP), which emerged as the leading party in the March 2024 local elections. This operation, targeting the CHPs elected mayors, reached its peak in March with the arrest of Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor and the partys presidential candidate Ekrem Imamoglu on corruption charges, sparking mass protests.

On September 2, the Istanbul 45th Civil Court of First Instance issued an interim ruling that the CHP Istanbul provincial administration, elected two years ago, should be provisionally removed from office. A five-member trustee board was appointed to the Istanbul Provincial Administration, with former MP and one of the former CHP administrators, Gursel Tekin, as chair. This decision came ahead of another hearing on September 15 regarding the cancellation of the congress that elected the CHP central administration, on the grounds that the election was tainted. At the congress held in November 2023, Ozgur Ozel defeated the former party leader, Kemal Klcdaroglu.

CHP leader Ozgur Ozel (left) and CHP's dismissed Istanbul chair, Ozgur Celik (right) on the Taksim Square, Istanbul, September 9, 2025 [Photo: @herkesicinCHP/X]

The Socialist Equality Group and the World Socialist Web Site, despite their irreconcilable political differences, oppose the appointment of a trustee to the Istanbul administration of the CHP and the threat to remove its elected leadership as an attack on fundamental democratic rights. The right to vote and be elected, and the current, extremely limited multi-party democratic politics, are under threat. However, this attack, which essentially stems from the crisis of the global capitalist system and bourgeois rule, can only be stopped by building a working-class movement that is completely independent of the CHP, which is part of and defends this system.

Following Tekins announcement that he would come to the Istanbul provincial office on Monday to take up his post, CHP members gathered in front of the provincial building on Sunday evening to protest the appointment of a trustee. Party members were met with a police blockade and prevented from entering the building of their own party. While many people were detained, the Istanbul Governors Office imposed a four-day ban on rallies, marches, and events in six districts. Arbitrary restrictions were also imposed on messaging and social media applications, and dozens of social media users were detained.

On Monday, Tekin arrived at the CHP Istanbul provincial office, where police had surrounded the area and attacked protesters with pepper spray, and entered the building accompanied by hundreds of police officers.

CHP Chairman Ozgur Ozel said in a statement Monday, A process has been initiated to coup the future ruling party and the next president. March 19 [Ekrem Imamoglus arrest] is the day this became concrete. For 173 days, a coup against Turkeys future has been ongoing, and we are resisting it. That is why they are attacking our party. They are sending police to our provincial office. I am addressing Erdogan: You are throwing the nation into the fire for your own interests. Is it worth it? You will go down in schoolbooks as a coup leader.

The imprisoned Imamoglu stated, There is no internal conflict within the CHP; there is a clear intervention by the ruling power against the CHP through judicial and police force.

Meanwhile, faced with the threat of the CHP leadership under Ozel being removed from office at the September 15 hearing, over 900 delegates, the majority of those who attended the 2023 congress, applied for an extraordinary congress to be held on September 21. The CHP also applied to hold the Istanbul Provincial Congress on September 24.

Efforts to use the governments influence over the judiciary to portray the CHP as criminals began last October with the appointment of Akn Gurlek as Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor. Gurlek had previously served as Deputy Minister of Justice in the Erdogan government.

The intensifying political crisis and the building up of a dictatorship in Turkey are integral to the global rise of authoritarian and far-right tendencies. The inauguration of the fascist President Donald Trump in the US, and his attempts to establish a presidential dictatorship that serves the interests of the financial oligarchy, have inspired and emboldened similar tendencies in Turkey and around the world.

On the same days that the CHPs Istanbul provincial administration was unlawfully removed from office and police were deployed to the region, nearly 900 anti-genocide protesters were detained in Britain, and Trump threatened to send military troops to Chicago after already doing so in Washington DC.

The increasing political pressure exerted by the Erdogan government stems from the objective requirements of the ruling class. The building up of a police state, which has been reinforced for years with the support of the CHP, primarily targeting the Kurdish movement and the left opposition, is escalating in 2025 with Trumps arrival in office. This occurred amid intensifying war in the Middle East (in which Turkey is deeply involved), an ongoing NATO war with Russia, and severe austerity measures against the working class at home.

At the same time, both the Kurdish nationalist DEM Party and the CHP and their pseudo-left supporters are helping to present this as an effort toward peace and democratization by participating in the commission established by the Erdogan government in parliament as part of its attempt to negotiate with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). In reality, the Ankara-PKK agreement represents a reactionary effort by the Turkish and Kurdish bourgeoisie to reconcile their interests in alliance with the US in the Middle Easts war of redivision.

It is impossible for the CHP, which is under pressure from the Erdogan government, to consistently defend democratic rights and respond to this attack in a progressive manner. The reason for this is that the CHP, like Erdogans Justice and Development Party (AKP), is a pro-imperialist, right-wing bourgeois party.

During the protests in March, Ozel addressed Keir Starmers Labour Party, which heads Britains most right-wing government and has abolished fundamental democratic rights by declaring the anti-genocide movement in Gaza criminal, saying, We feel abandoned... How is this friendship, how is this a sister party? How is this on defending democracy together?

Ozel, in an interview with CNN around the same time, defended NATO imperialism, the force behind Israels genocide in Gaza and the war against Russia in Ukraine, stating, We support a strong alliance with NATO.

The CHP leader said in an interview with the Financial Times Tuesday that if the governments pressure politics intensify, we can carry out peaceful but effective acts of civil disobedience that will bring life in Turkey to a standstill. We have the power to bring together not millions, but tens of millions of people.

Millions, even tens of millions, of workers and youth in Turkey are ready to take action against the Erdogan governments police state repression and social attacks, as demonstrated by the protests in March. However, just as much as Erdogan, the CHP and its allies in the union bureaucracy, who ended this movement, fear a mass working-class movement targeting the capitalist systemthe source of dictatorship and are fundamentally opposed to it.

The CHP, which is deeply tied to NATO, follows the same policies as the Erdogan government in the municipalities it runs, opposes strikes with violence and is incapable of waging the struggle for democracy which requires opposition to imperialism and austerity. Therefore, the critical task is to ensure the political clarification of the working class, which is the social base of this struggle, and to build the mobilization of the working class, independent of all capitalist parties, including the CHP, against the authoritarian regime, austerity, and imperialist war, based on an international socialist program. This means the building of the Socialist Equality Party.
London Underground workers interviewed on the picket lines have spoken up against Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan, government funding cuts to Transport for London (TfL), and the devastating impact of job losses, rostering practices, and de-staffing on their conditions and passenger safety. They also defended colleagues targeted by the Starmer governments expanding dragnet of anti-immigrant measures and deportations

The week-long rolling strike by more than 11,000 Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) members on the Tube and Docklands Light Railway (DLR) began on Friday. The DLR was shut down entirely today, with trains idled in stabling sidings. The following comments are from striking train drivers, station and revenue staff at stations on the Northern and Jubilee Lines.

Docklands Light Railway trains stabled at Poplar DLR Depot as strike shuts down services in East London and the Docklands financial district

Defence of immigrant colleagues, opposition to Labours pro-business agenda

Several workers condemned the threat of deportations facing more than 60 of their colleagues due to the Starmer governments changes in visa sponsorship rules, moving them to the medium skilled category making them ineligible to remain in the UK. One worker, reflecting on the September 4 RMT protest outside Parliament, said:

It would have been great if the London Mayor Sadiq Khan was there. He wasnt. Effectively, he is our boss. He likes to pander about being the son of a bus conductor. Where are you in this fight for the working class who actually need you? Where are you when a lot of these people look like you, just like your father?

Workers criticised Khan over cuts to TfL and the pro-market model for London Underground:

TfL has had a very awkward relationship with the government. Before, we could have three- or four-year deals; now we dont. People forget he is technically our boss. He doesnt get involved. Hes a massive disappointmenthes hung us out to dry. He needed to sort out how were funded and perceived in the media, but he hasnt.

A third worker, who had voted for Khan three times, said he felt let down:

It would be nice if he said, as Mayor, Im going to rip up everything and make you a public service again. Right now, we rely on tenants and advertisers, whereas metro systems worldwide are government-funded. London Underground is one of the most expensive systems in the world. Public transport should be free and properly funded.

TRansport for London (TFL) sign notifying that the London Underground and DLR will be "severely disrupted" during the industrial action

Gambling with safety through cuts to station staff

Workers described the impact of 2,000 job losses on the London Underground system, leaving large parts of the network unstaffed:

We now cover zones one to nine. We see how many stations are unstaffed. Revenue officers have no place of safety from assault. If you go to the west end of the Jubilee line now, most stations between Finchley Road and beyond are unstaffed. More stations are unstaffed than ever before.

Another explained: If something goes wrong at an unstaffed station, there is no one to help. For customers with additional needs, visually impaired or mobility impaired, theres no one to assist. If theres an issue with the train service, there is no supervisor to support the train operator or emergency services. Its a much less safe network. TfLs approach is to wait until something goes wrong, until theres an uproar.

Lone working was raised as a major danger:

We do work alone on the gate line (ticket barriers) for an extended period, and you dont feel safe, especially late at night. Ive been assaulted several times.

A colleague added, Staff numbers are constantly being run down. In zone one (central London) Ive not had it as bad, but for those further out its much worse. You see people drunk late at night and think what it must be like for colleagues working alone. It impacts everyones safety.

Exhaustion with no work-life balance

Workers repeatedly raised the strain of gruelling rosters:

Some rosters are a disgrace. You come off seven nights to two rest days, then straight onto seven lates or another seven or eight nights. Station assistants start at 4:30am then finish at 1:30am. People cant have work-life balance or work safely.

Merging areas means fewer staff and exhausting days. I have no energy left for my family. Fatigue is extreme. One week youre up at 3am, the next finishing at 1am. Its unmanageable.

A younger worker said:

The biggest thing is fatigue. After cuts and reorganisation, rosters are worse than ever. You can be on dead earlies, up at 3am seven days in a row, or finishing at 1am for a week. The body clock doesnt know whats going onit feels like jet lag. Somethings got to give.

A long-serving train driver added:

Ive driven almost 20 years. It affects you physically and mentally and messes up your social life. Management offers so-called four-day weeks, but these are compressed 9-hour days, pushing 4550 hours a week. That means job losses. All we need is fewer hours on the same terms.

Pickets out at London Kings Cross-St Pancras

Tube workers call for class unity against media smears

Workers rejected right-wing media attacks portraying them as privileged:

The media vilify TfL and London Underground for everything. Were not the bad guys. Were fighting for our own pay and conditions like everyone should. Obviously, we dont come out here to lose a days pay. Im losing two days pay this week to stand on picket lines. We dont do that lightly. Were not doing this for the good of our health. Were doing it because we need change. Weve talked about fatigue and safety and all the other issues in which TFL could make our lives better and have the money to do so, but they deny that they can do it.

Another said: The way we talk about class has changed in this country. TfL jobs are seen as middle-class when they are working-class jobs. Were vilified and told were greedy when all workers should be fighting for their rights. The government and media pit workers against each other. Im losing two days pay this week. We dont do this lightly. But were painted as villains for asking for more than a 3.4 percent pay rise and better rostering, while billionaires hoard wealth untaxed.

Several stressed the need for solidarity action:

With DLR staff striking, its positive. We need coordinated action with them and the buses. We should show solidarity with other workers like nurses.

Another concluded:

Im proud of everyone on the picket line. Were standing up together against fatigue, cuts, attacks on colleagues visas, and for proper funding of public transport. Thats what this strike is about.

The WSWS article circulated by the reporting team during the discussion called on Tube and DLR workers to form strike committees to take full control of the dispute, ensuring members oversee all negotiations between the RMT and TfL on pay, conditions, staffing, and pensions:

Workers must reject all claims that there is no money to fund their demands. Billions must be allocated to upgrade and expand the Tube, DLR and national rail system, improving pay, conditions and pensions for staff and making public transport affordable. This means a political struggle against the Starmer government, which is funnelling billions to military rearmament and war, with workers footing the bill through brutal austerity.
Acting as a cultural arm of Canadas imperialist ruling elite, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) will be rolling out the red carpet Wednesday for the world premiere of a film about the events of October 7, 2023 that provides propaganda cover for Israels genocide against the Gaza Palestinians.

The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue, from director and producer Barry Avrich, is entirely silent about the Israeli states decades of brutal oppression and dispossession of the Palestinian people, and the violence and terror it has inflicted on the residents of Gaza and the West Bank over the past two years. The documentary films lens is exclusively focused on the efforts of retired Israeli Major General Noam Tibon to rescue family members caught up in the October 7 Gaza Palestinian uprising against the Zionist regime, which for more than 15 years had subjected them to a brutal and ongoing economic blockade.

Retired Israel Defence Forces General Noam Tibon in The Road Between Us-The Ultimate Rescue

The film presents Tibon as an heroic figure. While Avrich emphaticallyand laughablyclaims the film is non-political, the not-so-subtly inferred message is that Tibon personifies the plight and courage of the Israeli people.

The documentary centers on Tibons obstacles in reaching his family, who had come under fire during the attack, when Palestinian fighters entered Kibbutz Nahal Oz, which lies less than one kilometer from the Gaza border. Tibon responded to a text from his son and, as the films website breathlessly puts it,

With no time to spare, Noam and his wife, Gali, embarked on a ten-hour mission across a country under siege to save their family Noam navigated ambushes, roadblocks, and a collapsing security system in a relentless race against time.

The film is described in the synopsis given by TIFF as a profoundly human story about courage, family, and the power of love in the face of unimaginable terror.

This is foul Zionist propaganda. The constructed and entirely contrived narrative treats the events of October 7 entirely outside of historyas if they fell from the sky. Its narrative frame conforms to a T with that of the Israeli state and its western imperialist backers: the Hamas-led uprising was unprovoked. Indeed, Avrich submitted his film to TIFF under the title Out of Nowhere. It was the festival organizers, clearly in the interests of obscuring the films pro-Zionist line, who persuaded him to rename it The Road Between Us.

Anyone who has followed the decades-long persecution of the Palestinians by the Israeli regime can only feel outraged by claims that Israel, which has been armed to the teeth by Washington and its allies, was a country under siege in October 2023. Since 2006, Israel had effectively maintained Gaza as an open-air prison, repeatedly bombing and terrorizing its population, not to mention the systematic seizures of Palestinian land and episodes of mass ethnic cleansing going back to the very formation of Israel in 1948.

Nor can there be any other legitimate response but hostility to complacent references to courage and family after almost two years of a non-stop genocidal onslaught by Israel, backed by the imperialist powers, on the Palestinians, whose families have been torn apart, massacred, starved and left destitute. The only unimaginable terror is that carried out by the IDF against Gazas population.

The attempt by TIFF to wash the blood of the Palestinian people from the IDF by finding a hero among its senior ranks could not have served as a better piece of propaganda for the Netanyahu regime if they had paid for it themselves. To tout such a film as a legitimate artwork is as repugnant today as claiming that Leni Riefenstahls propaganda efforts were a legitimate expression of life during the Third Reich.

There are many issues a serious documentary about October 7 could have taken up, including interrogating the conditions that caused hundreds of Palestinian fighters to embark effectively on a suicide mission, and the reasons for the alleged and thoroughly unconvincing state of unpreparedness of the Israeli military and intelligence.

The Zionist state and military boast about their technological capability and skill at every turn when it serves their ideological and political purposes. But world public opinion is supposed to believe they found themselves entirely blind-sided in October 2023.

Extensive evidence suggests that elements high up in the Zionist regime were aware of the Islamist Hamas plans for October 7 well in advance, and chose to ensure that Israels security forces stood down to create a pretext for a long-planned onslaught on Gaza to ethnically cleanse its population and seize the tiny enclave, to implement, in fact, the Final Solution of the Palestinian question. After the uprising began, the IDF invoked the so-called Hannibal Directive, which allows the military to kill Israeli civilians rather than let them be taken hostage.

The decision to screen the film at TIFF, which has reserved the 1,800-capacity Roy Thompson Hall for Wednesdays premiere, has nothing to do with questions of artistic merit. On the contrary, the sordid process by which the film, initially excluded from one of the worlds most important film festivals, became aif not themarquee event of TIFF 2025 underscores the central role that financial and Canadian imperialist foreign policy interests play in the festival managements decisions and those of the countrys other major cultural institutions.

The phony furor over TIFF censorship

On August 12, media reports emerged that TIFF had reversed its decision to screen The Road Between Us at this years festival, citing legal concerns that some of the footage recovered from captured GoPros by Hamas fighters had not been cleared for use, as well as a potential threat of significant disruption.

These reports met with an immediate outcry of protest from the Zionist lobby in Canada, quickly joined and encouraged by the political elite and right-wing press.

On August 13, Toronto City councillors James Pasternak and Brad Bradford issued a joint statement on X, declaring, TIFF should not be banning or censoring films and should respect the freedoms of the arts community, and concluding that the decision to cancel was a moral failure.

Barry Avrich, director and producer for The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue

The very next day, TIFF capitulated to this reactionary campaign, now less than 48 hours old, and announced it would ensure the film would be screened during what is the festivals 50th edition. With The Road Between Uss producers, explained TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey, We have worked together to find a resolution to satisfy important safety, legal, and programming concerns.

This quick retreat did next to nothing, however, to appease the films ruling class promoters, who in the name of denouncing TIFF censorship, lashed out at the supposed intolerance of anti-Gaza genocide protesters.

The National Post gave feature coverage to an op-ed penned by Sharren Haskel, who self-identifies as Israels Canadian-born deputy foreign minister. She voiced her outrage that TIFF sought the approval of terrorists, who carry out murders, rapes, and kidnappings, and charged the festival with complicity in silencing the truth. She also slammed the Carney government for its empty announcement it would recognize a Palestinian state.

Canada, like the US and the other imperialist powers, is a key supporter of the Gaza genocide. Whether under Mark Carney or Justin Trudeau before him, the Liberal government has backed Israels genocidal campaign against Gaza and rampage across the Middle East to the hilt, shipping tens of millions of dollars in weaponry to Israel, while clamping down ruthlessly on anti-genocide protests at home.

Within Canadas film industry the most prominent public statement of support for the screening of The Road Between Us came from Susan Reitman Michaels, sister of the late producer/director Ivan Reitman, whose family is a major benefactor of TIFF. The family donated land for the home of the festival, the TIFF Lightbox complex in downtown Toronto.

In an open letter Michaels wrote, The irony is unbearable. My familys gift of land to TIFF was intended as a memorial to my parents faith in freedom of expression, only to see that very principle eroded... What it looks like, and feels like, is the silencing of a Jewish voice at a time when Jewish voices are already being marginalized. As intended, the letter elicited a thoroughly stage-managed torrent of outrage, with the festival reportedly receiving 60,000 emails objecting to the initial cancellation of the film.

The hypocrisy of Michaels and the other would-be warriors for free speech is staggering. None of them batted an eyelid, but on the contrary cheered on the political establishment when it systematically smeared and sought to intimidate hundreds of thousands of Canadians who participated in anti-genocide protests over the past two years. Anti-genocide activists calling for an end to Canadian imperialisms supply of military equipment to Israel have faced arrest and harassment by the police, and in some cases the loss of their employment. The few voices who raised any criticism of the genocide within the political establishment, like former NDP member of the Ontario legislature Sarah Jama, were politically sidelined and silenced.

Moreover, the claim to be defending rights of freedom of expression on the one hand, while invoking the special rights of wealthy benefactors to influence programming decisions, reveals the class character of the objections.

In announcing the festivals renewed commitment to screen The Road Between Us, TIFF CEO Bailey issued a cowardly mea culpa. I want to apologize, he declared, for any hurt, frustration, or disappointment that our communication about the film has caused, and for any mischaracterizations that have taken root. Were working nowand we will be for a whileto clarify things and to repair relationships.

Bailey offered his fawning and, frankly, disgusting reassurance:

I want to be clear: claims that the film was rejected due to censorship are unequivocally false. Both TIFF and the filmmakers have heard the pain and frustration expressed by the public and we want to address this together.

The pain and frustration were not expressed by the public, but by TIFFs wealthy donors, the Zionist lobby, and powerful sections of the corporate and political elitemany of them the very same forces who last year demanded that TIFF cancel screenings of a documentary that humanized Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine.

It should be remembered that TIFF has a record of celebrating Zionism and Israel. In 2009, eight months after one of the Israeli militarys murderous assaults on Gaza, the film festival decided to honor Tel Aviv as the first city to be the subject of its new program, City to City. The decision provoked widespread outrage and protest.

Press conference organized by protesters during the 2009 Toronto film festival (David Walsh, WSWS)

Avrich, a Montreal-based filmmaker, has less than convincingly sought to talk his way out of any political intention behind his decision to make the film. Avrich told an interviewer for Deadline, This film is not about politics, its about humanity, family and sacrifice.

Avrich and the IDF Major General Tibon used a joint interview with the Globe and Mail, published September 6, as an opportunity to double down on this transparent falsification, presenting their film, in the postmodernist jargon so prominent in artistic and academic circles, as simply one story among others. In a remark that reveals at best his indifference towards and more likely support for the greatest crime of the 21st century so far, Avrich blandly told the Globe that he was just a guy in Canada who is attracted to a great story I didnt see anything outside that story. The same line was taken by Tibon, who adds in the same interview that we didnt say one word of politics. Anyone who believes a word of this rubbish ...

When the Globe interviewer gave them the opportunity, to say something about the plight of the Palestinians and the ongoing genocide, both Avrich and Tibon pointedly refused to do so.

An artist unmoved by genocide and who, in the face of the systematic destruction of an entire people, didnt see anything outside the fate of a senior officer in this machinery of mass murder and his immediate family, deserves only contempt. This is not a matter of artistic freedom. Rather, it reflects a tendency to revel in a kind of cold indifference to mass human suffering cultivated within a privileged layer of the middle class, whose expanding stock portfolios and bank balances are tied up with the eruption of imperialist wars over the past three-and-a-half decades, culminating in the Gaza genocide as part of a rapidly developing third world war.
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Mass protest in front of The Pantheon in Paris, France.

Last night, President Emmanuel Macron named his close associate, Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu, his fifth prime minister in less than two years, after Prime Minister Francois Bayrous minority government fell Monday. Bayrou had proposed 44 billion in social cuts to fund Frances sovereign debt and its military build-up. Now, with a hung parliament, a divided electorate, and record 85 percent disapproval of Macron, yet another weak government will confront the workers.

As the union bureaucracies call protest strikes for next week protests are erupting today, as workers and youth across France take to the streets in Block Everything protests. This loose coalition of local protests, organized on the Telegram app, calls to blockade key infrastructure and for Macron to resigna demand supported by two-thirds of the population. Against them, far-right Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau is mobilizing 80,000 riot police.

The working class is entering into struggle against a universal turn by the capitalist oligarchy towards fascistic forms of rule. As Trump orders military units to occupy Washington and Chicago, and Britains Labour Party launches mass arrests of anti-Gaza genocide protesters, French workers are facing a police state. Calls to Block Everything reflect a developing sense that only a general strike, mobilizing the full strength of the working class, can fight back against austerity and repression.

There will be no way out of this crisis without the independent mobilization of the working class, based on socialist policies for the expropriation of the capitalist oligarchy. No such response can be expected, however, from any organization embedded in the existing political system. For workers and youth seeking a way to fight, the key issue is building new organizations of struggle among rank-and-file workers, based on a socialist program and revolutionary perspective of ending capitalist rule and establishing workers power.

There must be a reckoning with organizations that have blocked struggles against Macronabove all, the party and union bureaucracies of the New Popular Front (NFP) led by Jean-Luc Melenchon. Yesterday, its social democratic, Green and Stalinist members briefly and unsuccessfully offered themselves as ministers to Macron, as its union officials refused to support todays protests.

Melenchon has affected a more radical posture, endorsing calls for a general strike and demanding Macron resign. However, he proposes to use workers struggles only as a tool to install a new capitalist government. As he said on a prime-time TV interview after Bayrous fall, he wants new policies after Macron falls, to give the good people, the entrepreneurs of this country  visibility on what will happen.

This is a political trap for the workers. Any capitalist government taking office after Bayrou will wage war abroad and rule by dictatorship and class war at home. Under pressure from Trumps trade war, French imperialism is arming itself and plunging headlong into war, even as the banks demand France pay down its gigantic debt (114 percent of GDP) via deep austerity.

The French state has 330 billion in yearly tax revenues; 71 percent of its spending is on social programs like pensions, healthcare, education and family benefits. But Paris has pledged to spend 100 billion more on the military, 100 billion in interest on the debt, and tens of billions more to pay down Frances debt. This means virtually eliminating social programs and building a fascistic police state to crush mass opposition this would provoke.

The bourgeoisie is making such plans. Indeed, Jordan Bardella, the president of the neo-fascist National Rally (RN), recently addressed a letter to Frances CEOs. Discarding the RNs cynical, xenophobic rhetoric on protecting the French people from foreigners, he bluntly promoted the RN as the party best placed to restore order and slash social spending by not 44 but 100 billion.

Even if Melenchon became president, however, his policy would not be fundamentally different. The NFPs program pledges to send troops to Ukraine, bolster the police, and defend capitalist property. In power, it would soon resort to brutal repression to crush opposition to its measures to stabilize French capitalism.

One must recall the role of the NFPs Greek affiliate, SYRIZA (the Coalition of the Radical Left). Elected in 2015 on promises to end EU austerity, it responded to financial speculation against Greek debt by capitulating, imposing deep austerity and building concentration camps for refugees.

The working class finds itself at a historic turning point, at which the lessons of the 1930s and the struggles of the working class against the rise of fascism must urgently be learned. Two stark alternatives are presented. Either the capitalist oligarchy builds a fascistic dictatorship to crush the working class, or the working class wages a revolutionary struggle on a socialist program to expropriate the oligarchs. This requires breaking through the straitjacket of the union bureaucracies and building genuine, rank-and-file organizations dedicated to prosecuting the class struggle.

The International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) calls for the transfer of power from the trade union bureaucracies to the workers in all factories and workplaces. Such new forms of class organization, uniting workers in France and throughout Europe, are necessary to organize resistance to and defeat the corporate-financial oligarchys program of fascism, genocide and war.

The Parti de legalite socialiste proposes the following demands, on which a political offensive can be waged in the working class to build support for the IWA-RFC:

Impound public bailout funds, expropriate the capitalist oligarchy!

Workers must reject the lie that there is no money for social programs and jobs. The trillions of euros of public funds monopolized by the capitalist oligarchy in France and across Europe must be impounded and used to fund jobs and social programs. This requires a struggle by the working class to expropriate the oligarchy and turn Europes major enterprises into a network of public utilities, serving the interests of the people.

Bring down Macron, abolish the Fifth Republics executive presidency!

The French bourgeoisie rules against the people by police repression and mass arrests of strikers. The executive presidency of Frances 1958 constitution, the nerve center of plots against democracy, must be abolished. Ultimately, ending attacks on democratic rights will require the transfer of power to organizations of the working class: Just as there can be no socialism without democracy, there can be no democracy without socialism.

No to imperialist war, dismantle NATO! End the military build-up!

Plans to send French troops to Ukraine, rejected by the overwhelming majority of the people, must be stopped. France must leave the imperialist NATO alliance, which threatens to trigger a nuclear war with Russia, as part of an international struggle by the working class to dismantle NATO and end its wars. Not a penny should go to military spending increases for high-intensity war, that is, mass killing like the current fratricidal slaughter of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers.

Stop the Gaza genocide! No persecution of opponents of genocide!

Workers in France and internationally must block the production and delivery of arms to Israel. The prosecution of opponents of the Gaza genocide on bogus anti-terrorism or antisemitism charges must end. Israeli officials responsible for the genocide, like French and NATO officials complicit in it, must be prosecuted.

Stop the persecution of immigrants! For the international unity of the working class!

The struggle for socialism is inseparable from the struggle for the international unity of the working class. Workers must oppose the persecution of immigrants, the setting up of mass detention camps for refugees, and humiliating laws like those banning Muslim clothing in French schools. This is essential to overcoming attempts by the ruling elite to divide workers along national lines and thus block a European struggle against war and capitalism.

For the United Socialist States of Europe!

Workers and youth in France have powerful allies in the millions of workers across Europe and internationally opposed to war, fascism, genocide and austerity. Bureaucrats and parliamentarians will stand in the way. Workers must build rank-and-file organizations of struggle and a political movement to transfer power to the working class in France, across Europe and internationally, replacing the capitalist European Union with the United Socialist States of Europe.
Israel carried out an airstrike on the Qatari capital of Doha Tuesday in an effort to kill the Hamas negotiators with whom it is nominally carrying out ceasefire talks. While the Hamas negotiators survived, the attack killed six people, including the son of Khalil al-Hayya, Hamass chief negotiator, as well as civilian bystanders.

All factions of the Israeli political establishment endorsed the attack. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted about it, saying, At the beginning of the war, I promised that Israel would reach those who perpetrated that horror. Today that was done.

The attack on Qatar is the second major act of international perfidy carried out by Israel in recent months. In June, Israel and the United States used negotiations over Irans nuclear program as cover to assassinate large portions of Irans military and civilian leadership.

The attempt to murder Hamas negotiators exposes, once again, the complete fraud of US and Israeli claims that they are seeking a negotiated settlement of the genocide they refer to as a war. In reality, the negotiations are a fiction, invoked by the US media to cover up the fact that the war being waged by the US and Israel is merely a pretext to conquer the entirety of Gaza and kill or expel the Palestinian population.

On Sunday, Trump said he was giving Hamas a final warning to accept the US-Israeli terms of surrender. I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting. This is my last warning, there will not be another one! Trump said. The Hamas negotiators were holding a meeting to discuss the terms laid down by Trump.

The strikes targeted the Qatari capital of Doha and occurred near schools and embassies. Qatar is a key regional ally of the United States, and thousands of American soldiers are stationed at the countrys Al Udeid Air Base.

Doha has served as the location of ceasefire negotiations throughout the course of the genocide.

The Times of Israel, citing Israeli officials who spoke to Israeli broadcaster Channel 12, reported that US President Donald Trump gave the green light for the Israeli strike in Qatar.

Trump confirmed receiving advanced warning of the attack and said that the US had informed the Qatari government that Israel was attacking Hamas in the capital. Trump claimed, This was a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, adding, It was not a decision made by me.

While Trump said the strike does not advance Israel or Americas goals, he stopped short of condemning it outright, declaring, eliminating Hamas, who have profited off the misery of those living in Gaza, is a worthy goal.

A week ago, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the Israeli militarys chief of staff, said that Israel would seek to murder Hamas members throughout the Middle East. We are operating across the entire Middle East, he told reserve soldiers. Hamas will have no place to hide from us. Wherever we locate them, whether they are senior or junior figureswe strike them all, all the time.

In May, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened Hamass chief negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya.

In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attempted to distance the United States from the attack on Qatar, saying, Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility.

In a statement, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the strike as a flagrant violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar.

What happened today is state terrorism and an attempt to destabilize regional security and stability, and Netanyahu is leading the region to an irreversible level, said Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in a televised address. He added, These missiles were used to attack the negotiating delegation of the other party. By what moral standards is this acceptable?

In a statement, Turkey said the attack on Qatar marked the embrace of terrorism as a state policy, amid media speculation that Israel could carry out attacks in other countries, including Turkey.

Just hours before the strike on Qatar, the Israel Defense Forces ordered the evacuation of the entirety of Gaza City as it accelerates its campaign to fully occupy the city. Approximately one million people remain in Gaza City, and Israel hopes to drive them to the south, where they will be interned in concentration camps near Rafah in preparation for their forcible expulsion from Palestine.

I say to the residents of Gaza, take this opportunity and listen to me carefully: you have been warnedget out of there! Netanyahu said Tuesday.

Last month, the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) hunger monitor officially pronounced a famine in Gaza. To date, hundreds of people have already died of starvation and malnutrition, and the number is only expected to climb higher.

Meanwhile, representatives of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which is seeking to break Israels blockade of Gaza and deliver food, said its ships were struck by two separate drone attacks over the past 24 hours, although no injuries were reported. Among the participants in the flotilla is climate activist Greta Thunberg.
A portion of the Clairton Coke Works, a U.S. Steel plant, is seen Monday, Aug. 11, 2025 in Clairton, Pennsylvania. [AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar ]

It has now been more than four weeks since the explosion at US Steels Clairton Coke Works that killed steelworkers Timothy Quinn and Steven Menefee and injured 10 others, yet the United Steelworkers union has remained almost completely silent.

The International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) has initiated an independent, rank-and-file investigation into the August 11 explosion at US Steels Clairton Coke Works to uncover the truth about the conditions that led to this disaster.

Such an independent rank-and-file investigation will follow in the example of the IWA-RFC investigation into the death of the April 7 death of Dundee Engine skilled trades worker Ronald Adams Sr. Initial results of the IWA-RFC investigation found that among other items, the company, with the United Auto Workers blessing, distributed cheater keys that bypass lockout/tagout protections, which allowed the accident to happen.

The IWA-RFC investigation at US Steels Clairton Coke Works is completely independent from corporate management and the United Steelworkers bureaucracy, which works hand in hand with US Steel management to push production and profits at the expense of the health and safety of steelworkers.

The United Steelworkers have only made a perfunctory statement on the day of the explosion, not even acknowledging the death of their members, while pledging to work with government and company investigators:

The USW has occupational health and safety experts and other representatives on the ground at the Clairton Works assessing the situation and aiding our members. While we are still determining the scope of the tragedy, we are aware that multiple workers are receiving medical treatment for their injuries. In the coming days, we will work with the appropriate authorities to ensure a thorough investigation and to see that our members get the support they need.

The USW held a token rally in downtown Pittsburgh on August 22 of no more than 100 people, mostly USW officials and staff members, opposing the gutting of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration undertaken by Trump. The USW press account of the rally does not even mention the explosion and death of the workers at Clairton Coke Works.

In fact, a search of the USW website, USW.org, does not turn up any mention of the death of either Timothy Quinn or Steven Menefee.

According to the USW, the health and safety of workers will need to give way to keep the mills profitable. Workers at the Clairton Coke Works have been told that if they want Clairton to survive, they must work six days a week, 12 hours a day repairing the damage to the blast furnaces.

The WSWS referred to this explosion and the death of Timothy Quinn and Steven Menefee as social murder, referring to the push for profits at the expense of safety, the elimination of government regulations by both Democrats and Republicans in the name of increasing production, the gutting of safety regulations and inspections over the past 50 years and the need to promote US production for war at the expense of workers.

The WSWS wrote:

It is a marriage pact between the authoritarian state and corporate monopoly, in which deregulation, profit and war preparation advance hand in hand. Politicians from both capitalist parties vow to slash job-killing regulations in the name of fueling military production. In practice, this means boosting corporate earnings while dismantling the hard-won protections secured by past generations of workers.

The USW bureaucrats long since stopped representing the interests of steelworkers, even in the most minimal sense of the word. Instead they function as a second layer of management, working to enforce production and profitability at the expense of workers health, safety and livelihood.

The USW is itself a giant organization with over $1.8 billion in assets and a 2023 revenue of half a billion dollars, mostly coming from members dues, but also from interest and stock market earnings.

Meanwhile, the USW lists expenses of nearly half a billion dollars a year, mostly going to staff, offices and property. While holding a $500 million strike fund, the USW pays out a minimal strike benefit of only $250 a week, and then only after 4 weeks on strike.

The US Steel-United Steelworkers (USW) Joint Labor-Management Health and Safety Committees (JHSCs) are another form through which the company and union collaborate against the interests of the workers.

Positions on the JHSC go to chosen officials or members who receive paid time off for monthly meetings, plant inspections and four training days per year.

Steelworkers are supposed to be given a STOP WORK card, but many never received them when hired, or they get destroyed during normal conditions in the mill. According to the USW contract, workers are supposed to be allowed to refuse work if they believe it is unsafe.

The small print, however, makes this mechanism generally ineffectual and virtually useless. The contract states that safety hazards must be beyond normal hazards and that the worker is acting in good faith and based on objective evidence in making their refusal.

And even then, the employee must notify their supervisor, who may demand the employee do the work or, or give them the right to be relieved from duty, starting the grievance process, which can take years to resolve.

What is known so far about the explosion

A faulty valve in the reversing room for the 13 and 14 batteries had been leaking for 2 to 4 weeks before the explosion.

According to USW Local 1557 Vice President Richard Tikey, the valve was patched and a contractor over-pressurized the valve during maintenance, causing it to split, releasing the gas that then ignited.

As he (Tikey) understands it, KDKA reported, contractors significantly overpressurized the valve with water as they were flushing it ahead of planned maintenance, causing the valve to split, releasing gas that would eventually ignite.

Steelworkers have pointed out that the valve should have been replaced, not patched, and that the proper practices would have been to first isolate and purge the pipes of explosive gas by pumping in nitrogen gas.

Furthermore, two steelworkers told the WSWS that the foreman overseeing the process was a production foreman rather than the safety foreman. According to one worker, no more than 50 psi of pressure was to be applied, but the production foreman told the vendor to apply full pressure before the valve ruptured.

The fact that contractors are now routinely in the mill, working on the batteries, doing maintenance and other work formerly done by steelworkers is itself the product of a long history of betrayals by the USW, which has allowed US Steel to replace members in the name of remaining competitive.

The investigation has so far determined that this was not an isolated accident, but part a series of practices by the company and allowed by the union which put the profits of US Steel above the health and safety of workers.

Many workers stated:

 That in general problems exist throughout the mill that are at best only patched, not fixed.

 That the B battery is in particular disrepair.

 That coal dust is allowed to accumulate throughout the plant.

 That welding is done in areas of high gas.

 That workers are required to work without the proper safety equipment.

Furthermore, workers from US Steels Irvin and Edgar Thomson works report dealing with similar issues.

There are still many questions that need to be answered and that can only be achieved through a fully independent workers inquiry into the explosion, the conditions that led to the explosion and the record of safety at US Steel Clairton Coke Works as well as all US Steel facilities.

The role of the USW can only be understood as part of the long process of transformation.

As part of the massive upsurge of workers struggles during the depression of the 1930s, the Steelworkers Organizing Committee (SWOC) was formed in 1936 and in 1937 received recognition and improved conditions at US Steel.

A bitter battle was conducted later that year to organize Bethlehem Steel and Republic Steel, including violent confrontations known as the Memorial Day Massacre. Known as Little Steel, Bethlehem, Republic and others did not recognize the union until 1941.

The following year, 1942, SWOC was disbanded and the United Steelworkers of America, later renamed United Steelworkers, was formed.

At the end of World War II, steel production in the United States was at its peak and accounted for over 50 percent of world production. The trade unions, though led by anticommunist bureaucrats who supported American capitalism, were able to win improvements in wages as well as health benefits and pensions. At work locations, important standards for health and safety were also established.

But when the US began to lose its dominant role, the ruling class could no longer pursue a policy of class compromise and began a relentless assault on the working class.

The trade union bureaucracy responded to this assault on the working class, not by mobilizing the strength of the working class against the capitalist system, but by integrating themselves with the corporations.

The massive closure of mills throughout the 1980s and 1990s left hundreds of thousands of steelworkers and related workers out of work. Steel mills were shut throughout southwestern Pennsylvania, Buffalo, Youngstown, Cleveland, Detroit, Gary and Chicago, as well as Baltimore and Philadelphia. Workers at US Steel, Bethlehem, LTV, Republic, National, Inland, Wheeling-Pittsburgh and others lost their jobs, pensions and health benefits.

Today, the USW is playing the same rolethey are completely integrated with the company and the government in their attack on the workers.

While silent on the Clairton explosion, for the past two years the USW has sent scores if not hundreds of text messages to their members, with written statements, op-eds and speeches, against the Nippon Steel purchase of US Steel.

Their central preoccupation was that the sale of US Steel to Nippon Steel would undermine the national security of the United States, in reality the interests of US capitalism against foreign competition. This they falsely equated with the defense of jobs in the United States, at the expense of jobs everywhere else.

While the USW has not endorsed Trumps decision to sign off on the Nippon Steel purchase, they have supported Trumps tariffs and the unions are endorsing his America First trade war measures. They are making their pitch to help the ruling class to convert the United States and North America into a fortress for launching world war.

Steelworkers must reject the toxic nationalism of the USW in favor of a global strategy uniting steelworkers in every country against the corporate oligarchs in each country. Workers must reject the slogan of America First in favor of the slogan, Workers of the World, Unite!

This requires a fight against the corrupt union apparatus, building the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) as the new organizing center in a fight to transfer power from the union officialdom to the shop floor.
On Monday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, chaired by Trump stooge James Comer (Republican-Kentucky) released several documents related to the sex trafficker of children Jeffrey Epstein. The most noteworthy is the birthday book compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell, Epsteins long-time associate and partner in crime.

The book is divided into separate chapters including: Girlfriends, Children, Girl-friends, Friends and Special Assistants. In a section of the book titled Girlfriends there are various photos of Epstein on beaches and on ski slopes, pictured with expensive cars and different women, including Ghislaine Maxwell. The section Children includes drawings, letters and pictures, including of what appears to be a prepubescent girl playing the piano.

In releasing the book, Comer made clear his intent was to try and protect Trump. Its appalling Democrats on the Oversight Committee are cherry-picking documents and politicizing information received from the Epstein Estate today, he wrote in a statement.

Comer denounces Democrats for cherry-picking the Epstein files, but the real bipartisan consensus is to cover up. The Democrats have taken up the Epstein crisis not to expose the crimes of the ruling class, but to divert mass opposition to Trumps ongoing couphis mass deportation operation, his military occupation of major American cities, his open embrace of fascist methods. Republicans, for their part, defend Trump outright. Neither party represents the interests of Epsteins victims or of the working class.

The book is titled The First Fifty Years and is filled with lewd letters, drawings, pictures and poems from some of the worlds richest people, whom Epstein considered Friends. Many of the lewd letters penned by Epsteins rich associates leave no doubt that Epsteins friends, including Trump, were well aware and accepting of his lust for young women and girls.

One letter begins: Birthday greetings to Degenerate One, noting there were so many girls, so little time.

The Friends listed in the book include presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.

Bill Clinton's birthday greeting to Epstein.

Clinton wrote:

Jeffrey Happy 50th. Its astonishing, isnt it, to have lived so long, across all the years of learning and knowing, adventure and work, and still to have your irresistible curiosity, the drive to make a difference, and the need of friends. Bill Clinton

One of the most damning entries in Epsteins birthday book comes from Donald Trump himself. In a grotesque parody of a film script, Trumps note is printed inside the outline of a naked female torso, a dialogue between himself and Epstein, including the line, Enigmas never age, have you noticed that?

Trumps birthday note to Epstein.

The disgusting poem ends with the words: A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthdayand may every day be another wonderful secret. Beneath this appears Trumps unmistakable signature. The entry, with its references to the pairs certain things in common, drips with a tone of shared complicity.

In July 2025, Trump sued the Wall Street Journal for $10 billion for first reporting on the lewd and incriminating birthday greeting. At the time Trump claimed he didnt write drawings. Following the release of the book, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed Monday evening on social media, without any evidence, that the drawing was a forgery. She wrote that its very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it.

Seeking to protect Trump, several Republican congressmen likewise claimed on Monday that the signature itself was a forgery. From what I see, its not his signature, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds said.

Last week, prior to the release of the book, two Republicans, including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, claimed that Trumps close association with Epstein was due to the fact that he was acting as an FBI informant. Johnson said Trump was an FBI informant to try to take this stuff down.

Rep. Nancy Mace (South Carolina) similarly claimed that Trump was an FBI informant who talked to the feds to get his guy turned over. Asked on Monday if he stood by his comments, Johnson retreated, saying, I dont know if I used the right terminology.

Another entry in Epsteins birthday book implicates Trump. In a photograph, Epstein is shown grinning while holding an oversized check made out to him for $22,500 and signed D. Trump. Beneath it, the caption boasts that Epstein was showing early talents with money + women, describing how he sells fully depreciated women to Trump.

A birthday greeting in the book in which the author claims he sold a "fully depreciated" woman to Donald Trump for "$22,500."

The author gloats that Epsteins people skills were evident even then, though he himself didnt get any of the money on the girl! The casual treatment of women as commodities to be traded between Epstein and Trump, presented as a joke worthy of commemoration, underscores how normalized sexual exploitation was within this layer of the financial and political elite.

Other friends listed in the book include Leon Black, former Apollo Global Management CEO and a client of Epstein. Black paid Epstein over $150 million between 2012 and 2017 for alleged financial advice.

Another is Les Wexner, the former CEO of Victorias Secret. In his letter to Epstein, Wexner wrote: I wanted to get you what you want so here it is Underneath is an illustration of a womens breast.

In his birthday greeting to Epstein, William Elkus, founder of the venture capital firm Clearstone, recalls Epstein visiting him in Iowa. He begins his letter by noting, Its no secret that Jeffrey appreciates beautiful women. After claiming its hard to tell the difference between the girls and the hogs in Southeast Iowa, Elkus commends Epstein for making acquaintance in Iowa with a spectacular tall blonde woman, adding, Ill admit to wondering at the time whether Jeffrey somehow arranged the whole episode through some long distance escort service.



In a statement to the New York Times Monday, Elkus claimed the letter was a joke, adding that Epsteins charisma was palpable.

Others who sent less salacious but nevertheless warm greetings to Epstein include two former CEOs at Bear Stearns, where Epstein at one time worked, Alan Ace Greenberg and James Jimmy Cayne. Mortimer Zuckerman, billionaire and editor-in-chief of US News & World Report, also sent greetings.



Several sections of the book have names, pictures and faces redacted, yet what is included paints a vivid and disgusting picture of not just one man, but the entire criminal US ruling class.

In his birthday letter to Epstein, Nathan Myhrvold, a former Microsoft executive and associate of Bill Gates, according to Business Insider, frets that he is unable to come up with anything profound nor funny. So he sends several pictures of animals with engorged genitalia having sex.

One unsigned note titled Castaways Vol. 1 begins:



I was porking some girl in bed and Jeff brings in the maid to make bed. She left screaming and never came back. We [were] both in bed porking some girls. I said what do you think, while hes shoving penicillin down my throat.

Another letter sent to Epstein by Nick recalls an incident that always had you [Epstein] howling with laughter. Nick recalls Epstein and friends purchasing a prostitute and assaulting her in the back of a car.



One of the more disturbing and highly incriminating drawings in the book is a cartoon-like drawing divided into two panels. The left panel, labeled 1983, features what looks like Epstein handing balloons and a lollipop to young girls.

A cartoon in the book depicting Jeffrey Epstein grooming young girls.

The right panel is labeled 2003, what a great country! It features Epstein reclining on a lounge chair surrounded by scantily-clad women massaging his naked body. In the background his estate on the US Virgin Islands is pictured along with his plane. One of the women in the 2003 panel has a tattoo of a heart and the initials J.E. on her buttocks.

The release of Epsteins birthday book is not simply another lurid scandal. It is a window into the true character of the ruling class. Here are not only Wall Street speculators, venture capitalists and Silicon Valley financiers, but two presidents of the United Statesone Democrat, one Republicanoffering warm tributes to a man whose entire existence was bound up with the sexual exploitation of children. Their words, preserved in their own hand, strip bare the fraud of bourgeois morality.

Epstein was not an aberration. He was an organic product of a social order in terminal decay. His network was nothing less than the American and international bourgeoisie itself: billionaires, politicians, celebrities; all of them bound together by money, privilege and complicity in crime. The joking tone of the bookwomen described as fully depreciated, Trump celebrating wonderful secrets inside the outline of a naked body, Clinton praising Epsteins irresistible curiosityreveals the utter corruption of this stratum.
Takuta Ferris, a MP for Te Pati Maori (TPM, Maori Party), published a blatantly racist social media post on September 4, which denounced white people, black people, Asians and Indians for supporting the Labour Partys candidate in a by-election in the Tamaki Makaurau electorate in Auckland.

Social media post by Takuta Ferris, September 4, 2025 [Photo: Takuta Ferris]

The by-election was triggered following the death in June of TPM MP Takutai Tarsh Kemp, who narrowly won the seat in the 2023 election. On September 6, TPM candidate Oriini Kaipara was declared the winner of the by-election, beating senior Labour MP Peeni Henare.

Tamaki Makaurau is one of seven reserved Maori seats in parliament, which people who identify as Maori can vote for. The seats have historically been won by the Labour Partycurrently the biggest opposition partybut more recently by TPM, a Maori nationalist party representing tribal capitalists.

In the lead-up to polling day, Ferris posted a photograph of Henares multi-ethnic campaign team along with the statement: This blows my mind!!! Indians, Asians, Black and Pakeha [white people] campaigning to take a Maori seat from Maori.

In other words, the Tamaki Makaurau electorate belongs to the Maori race, and therefore to TPM, which portrays itself as the only party that genuinely represents Maori and is not contaminated by other races.

Following a backlash in the media and from the Labour Party, TPMs leaders issued an apology saying the party does not condone the language used by Ferris and had instructed him to remove the post. The statement declared: Our movement is, and always has been, for the people. We leave nobody behind.

None of this is credible. Ferris social media post was not an aberration; it is entirely consistent with TPMs toxic and divisive racialist identity politics.

In the lead-up to the 2023 general election, for instance, TPM co-leader Rawiri Waititi defended the racist statement: It is a known fact that Maori genetic makeup is stronger than others, which had been published on the partys website.

Hone Harawira, a prominent former TPM MP and leader of its now-defunct offshoot the Mana Party, repeatedly agitated against Chinese migrants. He launched Manas 2017 election campaign with a demand for the death penalty to be reintroduced specifically for Chinese drug smugglers.

The aim of such statements is to stoke divisions between Maori workerswho are among the poorest and most exploited in New Zealandand working people of other ethnicities and nationalities, in order to prevent a unified struggle against the capitalist system.

Ferris racist outburst was embarrassing for Labour and the Greens, which see TPM as a potential partner in a future coalition government. Labours prominent Maori MP Willie Jackson was forced to denounce Ferris comments as racist but struck a conciliatory note in an interview with Waatea News, saying Ferris was better than that and was a good advocate for Maori.

Takuta Ferris in Waiwhetu, New Zealand on September 9, 2024 [Photo: US Embassy NZ]

The middle class, pseudo-left International Socialist Organisationwhose members previously joined the Mana Partyalso fraudulently portrays TPMs racial politics as progressive.

In a July article, the ISO described TPM as a more radical opposition voice in comparison to Labour and claimed that the partys initiatives increasingly intersect with class politics, particularly as Maori communities disproportionately face precarity and labour exploitation.

In fact, the Maori population is deeply divided by class. TPMs program intersects, not with the aspirations of workers, but with the interests of a small, privileged layer of Maori capitalists.

The partys central demand is for increased payments to Maori tribes through the Treaty of Waitangi settlements processsupposedly as reparations for the crimes of colonisation. Since the 1990s, hundreds of millions of dollars have been handed over by National Party and Labour Party governments in order to create lucrative tribal-based businesses, with interests in fisheries, agriculture, tourism, property and other sectors. None of this has benefited the Maori working class.

TPM also calls for a separate Maori parliament, healthcare and judicial systemsin short, a parallel state structure based on race. This separatist agenda, which is hailed by the ISO, would do nothing to improve the lives of Maori workers but would create new opportunities for upper middle class bureaucrats.

Over the past two years, TPM has led protests against the right-wing National Party-led governments anti-Maori demagogy. It has also called for a modest increase in tax on the rich and for ending the military alliance with the USpolicies that the party would immediately discard should it enter government.

For nine years, from 2008 to 2017, TPM was part of a National-led coalition government, which attacked the working class following the 2008 financial crisisincluding by privatising electricity companies and raising the goods and services taxand repeatedly deployed troops to the criminal US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In exchange for TPMs support, National made record payouts to Maori tribes.

Because of its record, TPM remains deeply unpopular: it received 3 percent of the votes in the 2023 election. TPMs Kaipara won the Tamaki Makaurau by-election with approximately twice as many votes as Labours Henare, but voter turnout was just 27.1 percentabout 12,000 people out of more than 44,000 enrolled. This reflects widespread distrust of both parties among working class Maori.

As the social crisis worsens, New Zealands capitalist parties are all, in one way or another, seeking to scapegoat immigrants and minoritiesand, in TPMs case, white peoplefor the soaring cost of living, over-crowded hospitals, rising homelessness, poverty and unemployment.

Nationalism and xenophobia are also being promoted in order to prepare the country to join future US-led imperialist wars, particularly against China.

The right-wing nationalist NZ First Party leader Winston Peters, foreign minister in the National-led government, delivered an anti-immigrant tirade on September 7 at the partys annual conference. Channelling US President Donald Trump, he declared there were too many migrants who dont salute our flag, dont honour the values of our country, dont respect the people living here Changing a few details, Peters poisonous rhetoric is essentially no different from Ferris social media post.

Meanwhile the libertarian ACT Party (also part of the coalition government) is denouncing identity politics from the right, falsely claiming that all Maori have been given special privileges under previous Labour-led governments. ACT, which advocates the driving down of wages, privatisation of health and education and ultra-low taxes for the rich, ludicrously pretends to support equal rights for all New Zealanders.

As for the Labour Party, it has sought for decades to deflect blame onto migrants, especially those from Asia and the Pacific, for unemployment, the housing crisis and other social problems. Labour and the Greens formed a coalition government with NZ First from 2017 to 2020, which adopted Peters demands for major restrictions on immigration. The Greens had no difficulty working with the overtly racist NZ First, declaring that the two parties had much in common.

Workers and young people who want to oppose racism and xenophobia must reject all forms of nationalism, including the Maori nationalism of TPM. They must fight for workers of all countries and backgrounds to unite based on their shared class interests. This means fighting for a socialist and internationalist program to put an end to the capitalist system, which is the root cause of social inequality, war and all forms of racism and national chauvinism.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, left, and New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani hold hands during a town hall on Saturday, September 6, 2025, in New York. [AP Photo/Olga Fedorova]

At an event Saturday that had the character of a changing of the guard, New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani joined Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders at the latest stop on the national Fighting Oligarchy tour, held at Brooklyn College.

For decades, Sanders, who turned 84 this week, has been at the forefront of efforts to shore up the Democratic Party, channeling mass anger over growing social inequality while promoting the lie that it can serve as a vehicle for improving the conditions of the working class. This included his two failed presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2020, in which he ultimately threw his support behind the pro-corporate candidacies of Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.

At Saturdays event, Mamdanithe 33-year-old fresh face of the Democratic Partys so-called left wing and a frontrunner to become the next mayor of Americas largest cityshowed that he is every bit as committed to the same fundamental political function as Sanders. Far from leading a fight to break the power of the oligarchy or resist Donald Trumps developing dictatorship, Mamdani and Sanders are laying a political trap that will betray the aspirations of their supporters.

Nowhere was this more evident than in what was left unsaid on Saturday. In nearly 40 minutes of combined remarks, neither Mamdani nor Sanders explicitly mentioned Trumps deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C. Both remained silent on his plans to expand military occupation to major urban centers, including New York, even after Trump issued a fascistic threat earlier that day to unleash the renamed Department of War on Chicago.

It was only at the very end of the program, when an audience member asked how Mamdani would respond to the National Guard entering New York, that the issue was even raised. Mamdani acknowledged the inevitability of Trumps illegal deployment of troops, stating: We have to be prepared, and we have to be clear-eyed. And we have to understand that it will take every single tool at our disposal.

And what exactly are those tools, according to Mamdani? He pointed to California, saying: We saw in California the mayor of LA, the attorney general of the state, and the governor work together to fight back against the White Houses deployment of the National Guard. They filed a lawsuit. A federal judge just recently found in their favor.

Mamdani continued: I use this example because partnership is critically important in fighting back against Donald Trump. Can you imagine Andrew Cuomo working together with [New York Attorney General] Tish James and [Governor] Kathy Hochul to fight back against the deployment?

Mamdanis response amounts to a dangerous downplaying of the threat of dictatorship and a cover-up of the Democratic Partys role in enabling Trumps authoritarian measures. In California, the Democrats so-called fight back consisted primarily of asserting that the LAPD was fully capable of suppressing protests, a task they took up with no small amount of violence. Officers charged at protesters and journalists alike, assaulted them with rubber bullets, flashbangs and tear gas. Meanwhile, the mayor imposed a curfew to quell protests and protect Trumps immigration Gestapo.

Since winning the primary, Mamdani has launched a charm offensive to court sections of the corporate and financial elite, highlighted by his demonstrations of loyalty to the NYPD. In recent weeks, he has met with police groups, said he would consider retaining the current NYPD chief and publicly distanced himself from earlier abolish the police rhetoric.

Mamdanis plan to oppose Trump through partnership with New York Democratsmany of whom still refuse to endorse their partys own primary victorfalsifies the record of their acquiescence. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, also from New York, struck a deal with Trump in March to finance the government, enabling massive cuts to social programs and laying the groundwork for dictatorship.

Governor Kathy Hochul likewise paved the way for Trumps current National Guard deployment by doing the same in 2024, invoking the fraudulent pretext of fighting subway crime, despite the fact that crime in the transit system was near historic lows by several measures. After the re-election of Trump, Hochul called the fascistic president to congratulate him on his victory and to have what she called a productive discussion.

In response to a question about defending immigrants from ICE abductions, Mamdani again stressed faith in the legal system. One of the key things that we can do here in New York City is to actually start to provide legal representation to New Yorkers, he said. Just the mere act of having legal representation in that proceeding increases your likelihood to go home to your family by elevenfold.

The bankruptcy of this strategy was underscored on Monday, when the Supreme Court allowed Trump to resume roving ICE raids in Los Angeles targeting anyone who speaks Spanish or appears Latino. Even if the courts were to consistently rule against Trump, Mamdani himself admitted, We cannot try and convince ourselves that because something is illegal, Donald Trump will not do it.

Another notable omission from Saturdays speeches was the word genocide. This silence is especially striking as Israel, with full US backing, is currently accelerating the ethnic cleansing of Gaza through its assault on Gaza City. Unlike Sanders, Mamdani has in the past described events in Gaza as genocide. But throughout his campaign he has carefully shifted his language, seeking to tap into popular outrage at US-Israeli war crimes while signaling to the ruling class that he can be trusted.

This week, for instance, on Al Sharptons MSNBC program, Mamdani spelled out the pro-imperialist content of his rhetoric, saying he discourages the use of the slogan globalize the intifada because it might offend proponents of Zionism.

Following Sanders lead, Mamdani above all seeks to block the emergence of an independent struggle that mobilizes the power of the working class against inequality, dictatorship and war, working instead to contain it within the Democratic Party.

Supporters of the Socialist Equality Party campaigned among the 2,000 attendees at Saturdays Fighting Oligarchy event, emphasizing the need to reject Mamdanis and Sanders efforts to channel opposition back into the Democratic Party and sabotage a genuine fight against the oligarchy. They distributed hundreds of statements, which concluded:

These are serious times, and they demand serious politics. The capitalist oligarchy is carrying out a political and social counterrevolution in the United States. Every social gain won by the working class over the past century is under attack. Medicare, Medicaid, and public education are being gutted; workplace deaths mount by the day; and an aggressive campaign against public health will sicken and kill millions. The oligarchs who control the state have given their blessing to Trumps presidential dictatorship. Immigrant families are being rounded up by paramilitary thugs, while the National Guard and active-duty troops occupy Washington, D.C. and prepare for deployment to other cities. Internationally, the ruling class is preparing for world war, seeking to reimpose colonial domination on the oppressed nations. Gaza is being razed, millions expelled or starved, as part of a broader war in the Middle East. The fight against oligarchy and dictatorship is necessarily a fight against capitalism itself. It requires the independent mobilization of the working class, in the United States and internationally. It requires a complete break from the Democratic Party, which paved the way for Trump. And it requires the development of a genuine socialist leadership. The Socialist Equality Party says openly what Sanders and Mamdani will not: Trump is implementing a fascist dictatorship, with the complicity of the Democrats, and only the working class, armed with a socialist program, can stop it. Do not let your opposition be misdirected or suffocated. Join the fight to build a real socialist movement of the working class. Study the lessons of history. Read the World Socialist Web Site. Take up the fight for socialism.
JERUSALEM/DOHA, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Israel launched an unprecedented airstrike in the Qatari capital of Doha on Tuesday, targeting a building housing senior Hamas officials in what Israeli authorities described as an attempt to assassinate leaders of the group.

Five members of Hamas and a Qatari security officer were killed during the strike, while key members of the negotiating team survived.

The attack occurred while its delegation was discussing a new U.S. proposal presented by U.S. President Donald Trump, Hamas said, accusing Israel of attempting to sabotage international mediation.

The group condemned the strike as "an assault on the sovereignty of Qatar, which, along with Egypt, has played a central role in ceasefire and prisoner exchange mediation." It held Washington "jointly responsible due to its continued support for Israel."

The attack drew swift condemnation from Qatar, a key mediator in the conflict that hosts Hamas's political bureau. The Qatari Foreign Ministry condemned the strike as a "serious threat to the security of Qatari citizens and residents" and a violation of its sovereignty, announcing that an investigation was underway.

Hussein al-Sheikh, a senior Palestinian official, echoed the sentiment, denouncing the assault as a "serious violation of international law."

Qatar has denied being informed in advance of the Israeli strike, which is believed to be the first of its kind carried out by Israel in the country.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei described Israel's action as "extremely dangerous, criminal," in "flagrant violation of all international laws and regulations, Qatar's national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and an attack on Palestinian negotiators."

"We are closely examining the events that have occurred. However, in any case, from the perspective of international law, all international law regulations have been violated," he added.

Tunisia on Wednesday condemned in the strongest terms the "treacherous and vicious attack" committed by Israel in a flagrant violation of all international laws and covenants.

According to a statement issued by the Tunisian Foreign Ministry on its Facebook page, Tunisia expressed its full solidarity and support for the brotherly state of Qatar and its efforts to defend its sanctity, sovereignty, national security, territorial integrity and citizens, and expressed its sincere condolences to the families of the victims of this attack.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the attack in a readout on social platform X.

"I condemn Israel's strikes on Doha, which violate Qatar's sovereignty and risk further escalation across the region," said Starmer. "The priority must be an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages, and a huge surge in aid into Gaza."

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul called Israel's attack "unacceptable" and warned that it jeopardizes the negotiations for the release of hostages held by Hamas.

The Slovenian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs said on social media that "Slovenia strongly condemns the attack on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar," expressing solidarity with Qatar, calling it a key mediator for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it "a wholly independent Israeli operation." "Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility," he said in a statement released by his office on Tuesday after the attack.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters later in the day that the Trump administration was informed by the U.S. military that Israel was striking Hamas targets, "which very unfortunately, was located in a section of Doha, the capital of Qatar."

Leavitt said that Trump "immediately directed Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to inform Qatar of the impending attack, which he did."

However, Qatar denied having prior knowledge, calling such claims "baseless." "The call from a U.S. official came during the sound of explosions caused by the Israeli attack in Doha," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed bin Mohammed Al Ansari said in a post on X. The ministry announced the suspension of ongoing negotiations.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the strike as a "flagrant violation" of Qatar's sovereignty. "We are just learning about the Israeli attacks in Qatar, a country that has been playing a very positive role to achieve a ceasefire and the release of all hostages," he told reporters in New York.

"I condemn this flagrant violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar. All parties must work towards achieving a permanent ceasefire, not destroying it," he said.

Other countries and organizations, including Norway, Jordan, Turkiye, and the Arab League, also condemned the Israeli attack. 
Anutin Charnvirakul, from the right-wing Bhumjaithai Party (BJT), was officially appointed last Sunday as Thailands new prime minister following his election by the House of Representatives on September 5.

Thailands new Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul talks to media members after receiving a royal letter of endorsement for the post at Bhumjai Thai party headquarters in Bangkok, September 7, 2025. [AP Photo/Arnun Chonmahatrakool]

The appointment of the third prime minister in just two years is an expression of the growing instability of the Thai political system. The two previous prime ministers were removed by the Constitutional Court on the bogus grounds of ethical violations.

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was removed from office in late August on the basis that she had shown a lack of unity with the military over remarks she made in a leaked phone call with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen following a border skirmish.

The collapse of Thailands unstable Pheu Thai-led coalition government quickly followed after several parties broke away. The coalition was formed after months of horse-trading in the wake of the 2023 election after the party that had won the most seatsthe Move Forward Partywas blocked from forming government and later dissolved by the Constitutional Court.

In August last year, the court ousted Pheu Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin on trumped-up ethics violations. The Constitutional Court, which was stacked by the military following its 2014 coup, has routinely been used by the countrys conservative elites to remove governments and dissolve parties on spurious grounds.

The BJT was founded in 2008 after a right-wing faction representing the rural bourgeoisie split from the Thai Rak Thaithe forerunner of Pheu Thai led by the multi-billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra. It has consistently aligned itself with military and royalist forces to prop up capitalist rule. It maintains its presence in parliament primarily through networks of brokers, vote buying and construction contracts.

Anutin is one of the wealthiest politicians in parliament, with declared assets of more than 4.3 billion baht ($US115 million) that include three private jets, two speed boats and a luxury residence in Bangkok.

He is the son of wealthy construction tycoon and ex-Prime Minister Chavarat Charnvirakul, who founded Sino-Thai Engineering & Construction (STECON) in 1952. Despite the BJTs close ties to the company, it obtained the Transport Ministry between 20192023, which oversaw the control of highways, rail and airports.

Anutins previous ministerial posts include deputy prime minister and public health minister in the military-led government of Prayut Chan-o-cha, the 2014 coup leader, formed after the 2019 election. The electionthe first since the couptook place on the basis of a constitution and rules written by the military, and amid widespread allegations of vote rigging.

As health minister, Anutin oversaw the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He scapegoated dirty tourists while delaying the rollout of vaccines, rejecting early offers from Pfizer and Moderna in favour of those of Siam Bioscience, a company owned by the monarchy. Only 10 percent of the population had been fully vaccinated in August 2021 at the height of the Delta surge, resulting in 300 deaths a day.

Anutin now heads a minority government lacking in popular support. Even after gathering the support of 11 other minor parties, his coalition can only muster 146 seats in the 500-seat lower house of parliament. These parties include Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) and United Thai Nation (UTN), which both derive from the 2014 military junta and the party it established.

Anutin and his BJT have only been able to form government with the backing of the Peoples Party (PP)the reincarnation of the dissolved Move Forward Partywhich holds 151 seats and had pledged to block no-confidence motions and support the budget. In return, the BJT has promised to dissolve parliament within four months for a new general election, and to initiate the tortured process to revise the military-written constitution.

The Move Forward Party came to prominence amid the mass protests in 202021, particularly by young people, against the military junta, the 2019 rigged elections and the monarchy. Protesters demanded major democratic reforms, including the abolition of the draconian lese majeste law, under which anyone deemed to be insulting the monarchy can be jailed for up to 15 years. Anutin was a particular target over his handling of the pandemic, with the hashtag # (Oust Anutin) trending on Twitter.

Now the Peoples Party has helped the right-wing, pro-military and pro-monarchy BJT into office on vague promises of fresh elections and constitutional revision. The PP has embraced the BJT for the same reason that its predecessor meekly accepted being blocked from office in 2023 and then dissolvedit is terrified of mobilising mass opposition that would inevitably draw in support from workers and threaten the basis of bourgeois rule.

The Peoples Party, like Pheu Thai, is a capitalist party representing sections of big business whose interests are impeded by the political and economic domination of conservative layers of the ruling class centred on the military and monarchy. The PP traces its roots to the Future Forward Party (FFP)also dissolved by the Constitutional Courtfounded by Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, a top executive of the Thai Summit Group, established by his father and the largest auto parts manufacturer in the country.

In explaining the decision to back the BJT, PP leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut said, The party fears that if we abstain, no one will secure a majority, opening the door for someone outside the system to take poweran obvious reference to another military coup.

In reality, by blocking the emergence of an oppositional movement of workers and youth, the PP is making another military coup more likely, not less. The collapse of the Pheu Thai coalition government, followed by the installation of the weak minority BJT government, only highlights the deep divisions in the ruling class amid a slowing economy, growing social crisis and the potential for major class struggles.

As has already been demonstrated over the past two years, the so-called progressive parties will quickly join hands with the right-wing parties of the military and monarchies to prop up capitalism and the tawdry facade of parliament amid rising social tensions. Their real fear is not of a military coup, which they will passively embrace, but the eruption of opposition in the working class.
Sharp divisions are erupting inside Australias opposition Liberal Party and its coalition with the rural-based National Party, producing a potentially existential crisis for one of the mainstaystogether with the Labor Partyof post-WWII capitalist rule.

Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price speaking at Alliance for Responsible Citizenship in Greenwich, UK, 2023 [Photo: ARC Forum]

The immediate trigger for the latest public rifts were comments by Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, one of the Liberals most strident advocates of Trump-style far-right authoritarianism. She accused the Albanese Labor government of bringing in migrants because they voted Labor, and she nominated people from India as an example.

Despite demands from other Liberal leaders, worried by the impact on their already decimated voting base (almost two million people of Indian origin now live in Australia), Price has refused to apologise to Indian voters for her remarks, instead claiming they were taken out of context.

Price was clearly making a pitch to the efforts of far-right forces to make immigrants, along with refugees and international students, scapegoats for the continuing cost-of-living, housing affordability and social crisis affecting millions of working-class households. Her remarks followed far-right rallies, given extensive media coverage, featuring anti-immigrant racism, across Australia on August 31.

For all the criticism of Price for being so blatant in singling out Indian immigrants, she is far from alone in promoting anti-immigrant sentiment, thus providing fodder to far-right groups. The Labor government itself has slashed university enrolments by international students, rushed through plans for mass deportations to Nauru and announced plans to halve overseas migration to 235,000 annually for the next three years.

Nevertheless, Prices stance has further exposed the intensifying tensions within the Liberal-National Coalition following its crushing defeat at the May 3 federal election, which saw the Liberals reduced to a parliamentary rump, holding only a handful of seats in urban areas.

Price has become a spearhead of moves to shift the Coalition into a more Trump-like formation. During the campaign for the May 3 election, she was particularly open in her embrace of Trump, declaring it was necessary to make Australia great again at campaign events.

The then Liberal leader Peter Dutton appointed her the shadow minister for government efficiency, a position modelled on the destruction of government services conducted by Trump and Elon Musk. Dutton was later compelled to withdraw the keynote policy associated with Prices ascensionthe sacking of more than 41,000 federal public sector workersbecause of widespread hostility.

As soon as the election was over, however, Price jumped ship from the National Party to the Liberals and immediately sought to continue the Trump-aligned push. She put herself forward as a candidate for the partys deputy leadership, on a mooted ticket with Angus Taylor from the partys most right-wing faction.

In Trumpian fashion, Price blamed the Liberal and Coalition defeat on media lies. She declared that the Liberals had to return to values of liberty, individual freedom, minimal government intervention and most of all, love for our nation, Australia.

Taylor failed by just a few parliamentary party room votes to defeat Sussan Ley, the candidate of the partys so-called moderate and centre-right factions, who is currently the Liberal leader.

Leys tenuous hold on the leadership has since also been shaken by moves within the National Party, including by former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce, to match the Trump administration by overturningin the interests of the mining giantsthe previous bipartisan policy of supposedly achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

These splits are emerging amid an historic crisis in the political establishment that has already deepened since the May 3 election.

Labors win was a negative one. It obtained only a third of the primary vote, a near record low vote for Labor, but gained a large parliamentary majority by associating the Coalition with the trade war, war and the fascistic agenda of Trump.

The Liberals electoral disaster also followed years of factional conflict, with its moderate wing weakened by the emergence of green industry-backed Teal independents who have captured parliamentary seats in affluent former Liberal strongholds.

The wipeout further demonstrated the breakup of the middle-class constituency on which the Liberals had been based since World War II, shattered by the enormous growth of social inequality. Despite being a party of big business, the Liberals could appeal to middle-class layers during the relatively stable period in which home ownership grew. Now professionals, including doctors and teachers, are being proletarianised, and small businesses are under intense financial pressure, while billionaires fortunes soar.

These processes have riven apart the Liberals as a broad church conservative party. There has been a protracted conflict between hard right tendencies within the party and so-called moderates, many of whom have left and/or supported the Teals.

The last moderate Liberal leaderinvestment banker Malcolm Turnbullbecame prime minister in 2015 in an inner-party coup, but lasted less than three years before being ousted by the right-wing Scott Morrison prior to the 2019 federal election.

Four months on from this years election, there is rising popular opposition to Labors pro-corporate, anti-immigrant and militarist program, including its continued support for the intensifying US-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza and alignment behind the Trump administrations war drive against China.

Under these conditions, sections of the ruling class are seeking to develop vehicles for more far-right and authoritarian forms of rule to exploit and divert the social and political discontent, along the lines of Trumps fascistic takeover of the Republican Party, Nigel Farages Reform UK, Marine Le Pens National Rally in France and the AfD in Germany.

These efforts are continuing despite the failure, so far, of openly far-right parties to garner substantial votes. These have included Senator Pauline Hansons anti-immigrant One Nation and billionaire Clive Palmers two efforts, the United Australia Party and his most recent Trump-style Trumpet of Patriots.

Among the billionaires pushing for such a political shift is mining magnate Gina Rinehart, who issued a statement to the Daily Mail after the May 3 election, accusing the Liberals of being too frightened to pursue Trump-style make Australia great policies via cutting government tape, government bureaucracy and wastage, and hence being able to cut taxes.

At the same time, there is nervousness in ruling circles, reflected in Leys elevation as Liberal leader, at the danger of the break-up of the two-party Labor-Coalition system on which capitalist rule has long relied. This concern found expression in a column yesterday by Greg Sheridan, the foreign editor of the Murdoch medias Australian newspaper.

Berating Prices unbelievably ill-advised remarks, and bemoaning the Liberals mess, Sheridan wrote: The Coalition seems to confront two stark choices, both of which they must reject. One is to become a party of milksop centrists, Labor-lite, merely going along with the zeitgeist and fighting no big political battles, especially battles of principle.

The other is to try to become a populist party, a la Farage or Donald Trump. That would be an unmitigated disaster for the Coalition, ensuring electoral impotence and needless community division for absolutely no benefit to anyone, least of all the Liberal Party.

One of the reasons for such reservations is that, as in other parts of the world, the globalisation of economic life has produced an increasingly diverse population in Australia. About one-third of its residents were born overseas and more than half have parents born overseas.

The disintegration of electoral support for the Liberal Party makes the capitalist class especially reliant on the Labor Party and its trade union partners to enforce its agenda of militarism, austerity and suppression of dissent.

Amid the global turmoil fuelled by the Trump administrations Make America Great Again aggression and tariffs, that program includes deepening cuts to social spending to boost corporate profits and a vast military expansion in preparation for war, above all for a US-led conflict with China.

Albaneses government and the union bureaucrats, already widely distrusted by workers, will face mounting working-class opposition. Explosive struggles lie ahead, posing ever-more the necessity for workers and young people to turn to the only alternative to the capitalist agenda of war and austeritythe socialist program advanced by the Socialist Equality Party.
Taher Mohammed Taher Hasan

Taher Mohammed Taher Hasan, a 22-year-old Palestinian, has been held in a high-security ICE detention facility for 16 months, despite never being convicted of a crime.

Hasan first arrived in the US in September 2023 on a six-month visitor visa, intending to visit his cousin in Florida and return to Palestine before its expiry. However, after the launching of the US-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza in October of that year, as well as the increased violence across the West Bank and in his hometown of Nablus, Hasan grew increasingly fearful of returning home.

He made the decision to remain in the US, staying with friends in Texas, as any effort to return home would have posed life-threatening dangers. Hasans visa expired in March 2024.

While working as a locksmith around Waco, Texas, he received a call to assist someone locked out of their car. The client was located within a local military base. Upon entering the base, Hasans identification was checked, leading to his arrest and transfer to ICE custody.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) immediately initiated proceedings to remove him from the US. However, 16 months later, Hasan remains confined in an ICE detention facility, without any clear explanation for why he has neither been deported nor released.

I lost two years of my life, my best years of life, without doing anything, without being charged [with] anything, Hasan told the news organization Zeteo from the detention facility.

Hasans concerns about returning home to Nablus were completely justified. Just days after the Israeli onslaught on Gaza in October 2023, five of his close friends were brutally killed. According to the report in Zeteo, in October 2024, the Israeli military reportedly destroyed his familys olive grove in Nablus, exploding grenades and obliterating trees that had been cultivated for generations.

The report also said the tragedy deepened in December 2024 when an Israeli soldier allegedly shot and killed one of his cousins and shot another, a 12-year-old girl, in the head while she was on her way to a medical appointment. During that same month, Israeli soldiers allegedly invaded Hasans familys home, brutally beating his father and 17-year-old brother, and ransacking their house.

These acts of Zionist terrorism and violence against his community and family support the legitimate fear that compelled Hasan to seek safety outside his homeland. To suggest he should have returned to such a violent environment is to ignore the fundamental right to safety and life.

The treatment of Taher Mohammed Taher Hasan extended beyond his initial arrest and into interrogation tactics while in the custody of the US government that recall the violation of fundamental rights carried out by the US government against so-called enemy combatants at CIA black sites around the world during the administration of George W. Bush.

According to a petition filed by his attorneys in federal court, shortly after his detention, Hasan was forcibly woken in the middle of the night, taken to an off-site location, and subjected to hours of questioning by officers who identified themselves as FBI agents.

These agents delved into intrusive and politically motivated questioning, asking about his family, his presence at the military base, whether he was part of a terrorist group, and if he was attempting anything illegal.

Most significant, Hasans petition reveals that he was questioned about his political affiliations and pressured to become an informant, to report to authorities about the activities of his friends and family in the West Bank. The agents allegedly demanded he name everyone in his immediate family, offering, We can help you if you help us.

Hasan steadfastly refused, maintained his stance and insisted he had no information to share, reiterating that his presence at the base was solely for his locksmith job.

The petition further alleges that his refusal to become a stooge for the US government and its Israeli proxy was met with punishment, saying, after Hasan was sent back to the detention center, he was transferred to the high-security part of the prison in retribution for his refusal to become an informant. This punitive transfer reveals his captors attempt to coerce and punish, turning a supposed immigration issue into political persecution.

Hasans detention has included conditions that his legal team describes as akin to Guantanamo creep into the domestic detention environment. Confined to a high-security section, he is forced to wear a red shirt identifying him among other high-security detainees, living in a cell infested with cockroaches and bugs on the floors, walls, and beds. Twelve men share a single room with him, all reliant on one toilet and one shower.

Beyond the squalor, Hasan lives in constant fear. The facility typically houses individuals deemed a risk or violence, assault, or other forms of abuse, leading Hasan to worry constantly about being assaulted by his cellmates, who grow angry at him when he prays.

He has also endured racial and religious abuse from guards. During Ramadan, when he and other Muslim detainees complained about inadequate food for fasting, the warden allegedly responded with a chilling query: Why dont you convert to Christianity? This blatant religious bigotry underscores the dehumanizing environment he is forced to endure.

Meanwhile, Hasan has struggled to receive basic medical attention. He uses outdated prescription lenses, hindering his vision and exacerbating his stress amidst safety concerns. He has also suffered from a persistent toothache, causing him significant pain. The impact of these conditions on Mr. Hasans long-term mental well-being is exacerbated by the extraordinary hardship his family is enduring in Palestine, his petition states.

Hasan has been trapped in a detention limbo because, during the initial removal process, he designated Palestine as his deportation destination and sought asylum, a protection status under the Convention Against Torture (CAT), and statutory withholding of removal.

These latter two statuses are crucial protection mechanisms, preventing deportation to places where an individual faces torture or a risk to his life. His appeals for these vital protections were denied.

In late September 2024, an immigration judge ordered Hasans removal to Palestine. However, ICE could not proceed with this order because he was protected by Deferred Enforced Departure (DED), a status designation implemented by former President Joe Biden in February 2024 to defer the removal of Palestinians from the US.

While DED, which expired on August 13, 2025, does not explicitly protect individuals from detention, immigration experts find Hasans confinement unusual given his non-removable status and lack of criminal conviction.

The US governments own guidance mandates that DHS must remove or release detained aliens within 90 days of a final order of removal, unless their release poses a special danger to the public. Yet, Hasans lawyers emphatically state they have received no notification of any determination that he poses such a danger.

The absurdity of the situation was exposed in June 2025 when, despite his DED status, ICE transported Hasan and 25 other Palestinians, handcuffed and shackled, to an airport in Dallas. They were given no information about their destination, but Hasans petition describes them being brought near a plane with its engines running, bearing the fuselage label Oman.

Hasan overheard one ICE official telling another Palestinian detainee they were being sent to Israel. Ultimately, only migrants of African and Latin American descent were boarded, and Hasan was later informed the departure was cancelled due to escalating tensions between Israel and Iran.

This highlights the chaotic and arbitrary nature of the detention regime and its willingness to attempt deportations to war zones or hostile territories. Hasans legal team has launched a vigorous campaign to win his freedom, filing a petition in federal court challenging his detention.

They are appealing for a range of measures, including his immediate removal from high-security detention, his ultimate release, a clear statement from the authorities regarding his intended deportation destination, and clarification on whether adequate efforts were made to send him to Palestine before attempting to send him elsewhere.

Central to their argument are grave due process concerns. His lawyers contend that his continued detention no longer bears a reasonable relation to any legitimate, nonpunitive government purpose. They cite Supreme Court precedent affirming that immigration law does not permit indefinite detention. Yet, after 16 months, this is precisely what Hasans lawyers believe he is enduring.

Eric Lee, Hasans attorney, articulates the chilling implications:

There is definitely an element of indefinite detention. It just feels like theyre making this young Palestinian suffer more or less indefinitely based on a false hunch that in addition to being a visa overstay, he poses some sort of security risk.

Speaking from the detention center, Taher Mohammed Taher Hasan expressed a relief that he wasnt facing the immediate danger from Israeli soldiers and settlers in Palestine. He also expressed deep sadness at not being able to be with and help his family, frustration in being unable to finish university and in being neither free nor deported home, and anger that hes been detained for this long.

Hasan also said, Two years of my life for nothing. He further emphasized the pain of absence during his familys time of greatest need: Those two years, thats when my family needed me, and I was gone for two years, wrongfully [detained].
This statement will be distributed throughout Britain this month during welcome week and freshers fairs.

Students across the UK are returning to campus under conditions that have no precedent since the 1930s and World War II. Hundreds are being arrested for defending the democratic right to protest Israels imperialist-backed genocide of the Palestinians.

The Labour government is backing to the hilt a war of annihilation, with mass starvation used as a weapon of war, and a campaign of military terror to obliterate all that remains, forcing the Palestinians out of their land. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has declared: Let them die of hunger or surrender.

Palestinians run for cover during an Israeli airstrike on the Mushtaha Tower in Gaza City, September 5, 2025 [AP Photo/Yousef Al Zanoun]

Israels genocide was launched with the full backing of Washington and London. It is the implementation of imperialist plans for a New Middle East ruled by the United States and its client state Israel, backed by Britain, France and Germany. This is the meaning of a strategy document drawn up by Israels Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the Boston Consulting Group and the Tony Blair Institute which outlines plans for a post-war Gaza.

According to the Washington Post, the plan envisions the relocation of all of Gazas more than 2 million population, either through what it calls voluntary departures to another country or into restricted, secured zones inside the enclave during reconstruction. The 38-page slide deck translates the concepts of forcible ethnic cleansing from the language of fascist mythology into the jargon of the corporate boardroom.

Genocide and imperialist war

Israels genocide is a symptom of an underlying disease: imperialism, the final stage of capitalism, characterised by monopoly, the domination of finance capital, economic parasitism and political reaction all along the line. It is a period of history in which the imperialist powers seek constantly to divide and redivide the world among themselves by force.

Gaza is one theatre of an expanding global war targeting Iran, Russia and ultimately China. In Europe, NATO is waging a proxy war against Russia through Ukraine. Its involvement has nothing to do with Ukrainian sovereignty or democracy, but with sacrificing Ukrainian workers lives to try and force the collapse of the Russian state, dominate its territory and seize control of both countries strategic resources.

Putins invasion of Ukraine is a reactionary nationalist response to these plans. He represents a capitalist oligarchy that emerged from the Stalinist dissolution of the USSR and is hostile to the unification of the international working class against imperialism. His actions underscore the bankruptcy of all hopes for multipolar national counterweights to the US.

More wars are planned. Global military spending increased by 37 percent between 2015 and 2024, led by the US at a staggering near $1 trillion. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has committed the UK to spending 3.5 percent of GDP on the military by 2035, tens of billions of pounds more, with demands growing to go further, faster.

Capitalism and dictatorship

Driving the explosion of militarism is a spiralling economic crisis. Public debts have been run up while growth has stalled, with financial investors preparing to bring down the axe.

Capitalist governments are responding by waging and preparing new wars of conquest and plunder and with a war at home against all the social gains won by the working class through decades of struggle.

Labour is preparing a new austerity budget this November to make up a 20-50 billion overspend. The French ruling class is seeking at least 44 billion in cuts. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has declared that Germany, the richest country in Europe, can no longer afford the welfare state. US President Donald Trump is slashing whole government departments to pieces.

These policies cannot be implemented democratically. Trump is openly establishing a presidential dictatorship, trampling over the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and deploying the military to Los Angeles, Washington, D.C, followed by Chicago. Immigrants have been targeted first, with Gestapo-like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in working-class neighbourhoods.

Starmer is following suit with the mass repression of political opponents and demonisation of asylum seekers. The rise of Reform UK, the National Rally in France and the AfD in Germany is only one expression of a lurch to the right by all capitalist parties and governments.

Police carry off a man during the mass arrests of 857 peaceful protesters in London. At least six police officers are involved in this arrest which took place at 6:50 p.m (almost six hours after the arrests operation began), September 6, 2025

Political forms of rule are being brought into alignment with the underlying socio-economic reality: the domination of society by a tiny, super-rich elite.

The 50 richest families in the UK hold more wealth than 50 percent of the population. Globally, the top 1.6 percent of the worlds population own more wealth than the bottom 48.1 percent, and the worlds richest 1 percent have increased their wealth by more than $33.9 trillion since 2015.

These figures make clear that the fundamental division in society is not race or gender, but class. No serious problem facing humanity can be solved without tackling the monopolisation of societys wealth by the capitalist oligarchy.

The fight for socialism

Among millions of people there is a growing opposition to capitalism, led by the younger generations who have never known the slightest prosperity under this system. Our futures are blighted by war, unemployment, collapsing social services and living standards, ecological catastrophe and dictatorship.

Recent polling places support for socialism at over 50 percent among 1835-year-olds in the UK, with support for capitalism barely reaching 25 percent. However, the leftward movement of workers and young people everywhere confronts the obstacle of the official left: the trade union bureaucracy, radical-talking reformists and semi-reformist parties.

Figures like Jeremy Corbyn, Jean-Luc Melenchon in France and Bernie Sanders in the US win a following with verbal jousts at inequality and war but defend the capitalist system which produces these evils. They advocate reforms without politically preparing a challenge to the oligarchys grip on wealth and state power, disarming their supporters.

Jeremy Corbyn speaking at the Palestine Coalition rally on September 6, 2025

The ruling class cannot be pressured. It views its policies not as choices but as a life-or-death struggle to defend its interests against the existential threat posed by the working class. Its defeat is a revolutionary task. For this reason, the new party being founded by former Labour leader Corbyn and former Labour MP Zarah Sultana is a political trap.

As Labour leader, Corbyn refused to drive out the partys right-wing, and went into two elections committed to NATO membership and the maintenance of Britains nuclear weapons. He instructed Labour councils to implement cuts demanded by the national Conservative government. His refusal to defend his supporters against the left-wing antisemitism witch-hunt paved the way for a campaign which is claiming victims to this day.

This was not an isolated example. Pseudo-left parties elected to power such as Syriza in Greece, Podemos in Spain and the parties of the Pink Tide in Latin America all followed the same trajectory. Their hostility to the class struggle and espousal of a reformist programme based on the preservation of the capitalist system paved the way for a betrayal of mass left-wing movements.

Join the IYSSE!

The International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) is the youth movement of the International Committee of the Fourth International, represented in the UK by the Socialist Equality Party.

We stand in the tradition of Leon Trotskys fight for socialist internationalism. Trotsky, co-leader of the Russian Revolution of 1917, founded the Fourth International in 1938 to organise the vanguard of the working class against the counter-revolutionary betrayals of the Stalinist and reformist parties which allowed Nazism to come to power, strangled revolutions in China, Britain, France and Spain, and paved the way for World War II.

In the founding programme of the Fourth International, Trotsky wrote:

All talk to the effect that historical conditions have not yet ripened for socialism is the product of ignorance or conscious deception Without a socialist revolution, in the next historical period at that, a catastrophe threatens the whole culture of mankind. The turn is now to the proletariat, i.e., chiefly to its revolutionary vanguard. The historical crisis of mankind is reduced to the crisis of the revolutionary leadership.

The strength of the working class has grown enormously since these lines were written, as globalisation has linked billions together across national borders, continents and time zones in a world system of production and communication. Only this enormous social force has the power to defeat genocide, war and dictatorship.

We urge students and young workers who are determined to prevent world war and fascism to join the IYSSE and take your place in the fight for the socialist future of mankind.
BEIJING, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun held a video talk with U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday.

Dong said that it is imperative to uphold an open attitude, maintain communication and engagement, and build a sound, stable China-U.S. military relationship that is based on equality, respect and peaceful coexistence.

Dong stressed the importance of respecting each other's core interests.

Any attempts or acts of interference to support "Taiwan independence" separatism with force or use Taiwan to contain China are doomed to fail, Dong said.

He said that China is committed to working with other countries in the region to safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea, and firmly opposes acts of infringement or provocation by certain countries, as well as attempts by certain countries outside the region to stir trouble.

China always focuses on its own development, and firmly defends its legitimate rights and interests, Dong said, adding that acts of containment or deterrence against China will not succeed, nor will interference in China's affairs.

Both sides also exchanged views on other issues of mutual concern. 
LISBON, Sept.10 (Xinhua) -- Portugal has condemned Israel's strike in the Qatari capital of Doha, saying it violated the country's sovereignty and risked further escalation of violence in the region.

In a statement posted on the social media platform X Tuesday night, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it condemns the Israeli strike in Doha, which violated Qatar's sovereignty and risked further violence escalation. "We stress that an immediate ceasefire and release of hostages are urgent. A two-state solution remains crucial for lasting peace," it added.

Several European nations, including France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain, also condemned Tuesday's Israeli strike in Doha. According to Qatari and Hamas sources, the attack killed at least six people, including five Hamas members and one Qatari police officer.

Hamas said the victims included the son of senior negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, his chief of staff, and three bodyguards. The Qatari government confirmed the death of a police officer and reported several injuries among its security forces.

The Palestinian group also said the airstrike targeted Hamas officials who were taking part in ceasefire negotiations with Israel over the Gaza conflict.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation was carried out in retaliation for a shooting in Jerusalem on Monday, when two Palestinians from the occupied West Bank opened fire at a bus stop, killing six people. Hamas' armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for that attack on Tuesday. 
LONDON, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Britain's Security Minister Dan Jarvis has pledged stronger measures to combat cyber crime and fraud, describing the issue as one of the country's most pressing security threats.

Speaking at the City of London Police Authority Board on Tuesday evening, Jarvis cited official figures showing more than 4 million incidents of fraud in England and Wales in the year ending March 2025, accounting for 44 percent of all crimes recorded by the Crime Survey. He added that one in five British businesses and 14 percent of charities had fallen victim to at least one cyber attack last year.

"The statistics paint an alarming picture," Jarvis said. "Fraud and cyber crime devastate individuals and businesses, and their proceeds fuel organized crime, terrorism and hostile state activity."

Jarvis outlined steps the government has already taken, including the launch of a National Fraud Squad with 400 specialist investigators, the implementation of the Online Safety Act holding tech companies accountable, and investment in regional cyber security centres to support small businesses. He also highlighted a new Domestic Corruption Unit and Britain's first fraud memorandum of understanding signed with Nigeria.

The warning comes shortly after several major companies were hit by cyber incidents. On Sept. 2, Jaguar Land Rover said it had been forced to shut down its global systems following a cyber attack, severely disrupting retail and production activities. The automaker added there was no evidence that customer data had been stolen, and it was working to restore operations in a controlled manner. 
YAOUNDE, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Leaders of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) convened on Wednesday in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic (CAR), to discuss ways to deepen regional integration and strengthen security.

Maxime Balalou, the CAR's minister of communication and government spokesperson, said the 16th summit of CEMAC heads of state would focus on economic policy convergence aimed at driving sustainable growth and reducing poverty in the subregion.

"Heads of state want to make CEMAC not only a region of peace and security but also a place where states need to work in synergy to address challenges, especially economic challenges facing the region. This is the opportunity to show that we are forever united," Balalou told reporters on the eve of the summit.

CEMAC Commission President Baltasar Engonga Edjo'o said the summit would take concrete measures to revive efforts toward a genuine common market in the region.

While free movement of citizens of CEMAC member countries is now effective, major obstacles remain, he noted.

"The first (obstacle) concerns the weakness of transport and communication infrastructure, which limits trade and increases travel costs. The second obstacle is administrative red tape and the persistence of unjustified barriers at borders and on road corridors," Engonga Edjo'o said in an interview published on the CEMAC website.

CEMAC covers six countries, namely Gabon, Cameroon, the CAR, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, and Equatorial Guinea. 
Blake Lively is seeking millions from Justin Baldoni over his "baseless" lawsuit against her, and one of the declarations her team has provided is likely of interest.

Bryan Bedder / Getty Images for Vital Voices Global Partnership, Sean Zanni / WireImage

The general gist of the legal drama thus far is that in December 2024, Blake filed a California Civil Rights Department complaint against Justin, her It Ends With Us costar and director, who she then went on to sue. She alleged that Justin and his colleagues ("The Wayfarer parties") engaged in sexual harassment and a subsequent retaliatory smear campaign. Justin then sued her in response, alleging, among other things, defamation for her claims.

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Related: 21 Celebrity Facts That Are, Like, Really, Really, Really, Really, Really, Really, Really, Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Shocking

Then, in June of this year, Justin's countersuit was dismissed. The judge ruled that Blake's sexual harassment claims against him constituted "privileged" speech under California law. Basically, California has a rule that you can't be sued for defamation if you make a serious allegation of sexual harassment. It's designed to protect victims from being further abused by the legal system, such as a scenario where someone might keep quiet due to fears of never-ending legal fees.

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It's California Civil Code Section 47.1, for the law nerds out there.

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Yesterday, Blake's lawyers filed a motion arguing that, as Justin's countersuit was dismissed, she counts as a "prevailing defendant" under the California code and is entitled to a lot of money. Specifically, the attorneys' fees and costs she incurred while defending herself from the countersuits, "treble damages for the harm" caused for the "retaliatory 'defamatory action,'" and "punitive damages" to deter similar behavior in the future.

Nicole Rivelli / Sony Pictures Releasing /Courtesy Everett Collection

Related: Just 24 Of The Wildest Looks In VMAs History

Her team argues, "The Wayfarer Parties defamation action against Blake Lively was baseless from the start. Despite repeated warnings about the impropriety of their legal claims, and the consequences of continuing to pursue them, the Wayfarer Parties refused to back down. Instead, they stoked the flames of public sentiment, posting their retaliatory lawsuit on a public website alongside dozens of heavily redacted and context-free exhibits masquerading as 'receipts,' to flood the zone with vicious character attacks on Ms. Lively designed to damage her credibility and to conceal their own unlawful acts."

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Related: "All We Did Was Look In His Direction": People Are Opening Up About The Worst Celebs They've Ever Encountered, And I Did NOT Expect To See Some Of These Names

They then provided a signed declaration in support of their motion. It is signed by someone who alleges, "I had repeated, negative interactions with Mr. Baldoni and his associates, including verbal abuse by Mr. Baldoni...[Redacted] Mr. Baldoni not be permitted on set during the majority of production as a result of those experiences."

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The declaration continues, "I requested that he not be involved in [redacted] marketing or public relations efforts." They then provide alleged evidence, which is currently under seal. A source close to the case told BuzzFeed that the declarant is likely to testify in the trial.

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Related: From Florence Pugh To Zoe Kravitz, Here's All The Celebrities Who Rocked Sheer Or Naked Dresses

In reference to the motion for attorney's fees, a spokesperson for Blake told BuzzFeed, California law expressly prohibits suing victims who speak out against sexual harassment or retaliation, whether in court or in the press. The statute also includes a mandatory fee-shifting provision, requiring those who file frivolous defamation claims to pay damages. The Wayfarer Parties failed plan to sue Blake Lively into oblivion has only created greater liability for them, and rightly so. Sadly, Ms. Lively is not alone in facing a retaliatory defamation suit after speaking out about harassment at work. That is precisely why California enacted AB 933: to make clear that survivors are protected when they speak up, and that those who weaponize the legal system to silence them will be held accountable, not just for attorneys fees, but for treble damages and punitive damages as well.

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BuzzFeed has reached out to representatives for Blake and Justin respectively for comment.

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To say Ive missed Michaela Coel on the red carpet would be an understatement. Her absence was felt  especially as her Vogue UK September issue cover had already reminded us of her presence in Alaia Fall 2025. So when she appeared at the premiere of The Christophers during the Toronto Film Festival, the joy was layered.

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First, the obvious: she was back. But what moved me more was the purpose behind her look. Michaela chose a traditional Sudanese toub, handmade by Sudanese designer Hiba Rahma, as a tribute to those who have long stood on the frontlines of change  including the 2019 womens uprising.

The espresso shade wasnt a fashion coincidence; it was deliberate. It spotlighted the beauty of dark-skinned women in Sudan, a community facing prejudice and persecution, reframing their skin tone as something to celebrate, not condemn.

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Her accessories deepened the message. Designed by Sudanese creative Nisreen Kuku, the Al Qamar Boba earrings carried symbolism of sacrifice and protection. Gold in Sudan isnt just adornment; its history, resilience, and survival in times of crisis.

This wasnt styling for spectacle. With the guidance of Ebaa Elmelik, co-founder of Media for Justice in Sudan, Michaelas ensemble became an act of storytelling. Fashion with intention, worn with grace.
Oliver Laurence North, or simply Oliver North, is a retired United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel and a member of the Republican Party. He was born in San Antonio, Texas. After serving as a lieutenant colonel in the United States Marine Corps, he is pursuing a career as a television host, political commentator, military expert, and author. This article will delve into the details of Oliver Norths net worth in 2025.

What is Oliver Norths net worth in 2025?

Oliver North has an estimated net worth of $6 million in 2025.

Norths net worth in 2025 consists of his earnings from his thriving career as an American political commentator, public speaker, author, television host, and military expert.

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Oliver North is most famous for his crucial role in the IranContra scandal of the 1980s. The scandal led to major political outrage in the U.S. and sparked debates about his involvement and accountability in the scandal.

What does Oliver North do for a living?

Oliver North is a political commentator, television host, military expert, and former United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel.

Most recently, North was in the news for marrying Fawn Hall, his secretary, during the infamous Iran-Contra scandal. Oliver North married Fawn Hall on August 27 in a hush-hush ceremony in rural Virginia, away from the prying eyes of the media. When contacted by various media outlets, he declined to confirm in the affirmative.

Oliver Norths earnings explained  how do they make money?

Oliver North earns money from his military pension and multi-faceted political and media career.

North earns a military pension for his service to the United States as a retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel. It is a steady source of income for him. Once his military career was over, he branched into television, offering his expert opinion on military matters and current political issues.

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He is also a member of the Republican Party, which contributes to his income. He generates income through public speaking, detailing his life in the military and pressing political matters. Additionally, he is an author and earns revenue from the sales of his books.

The post Oliver North Net Worth 2025: How Much Money Does He Make? appeared first on Reality Tea.
Originally appeared on E! Online

Rosie ODonnell is reflecting on difficult moments from her friendship with Ellen DeGeneres.

The A League of Their Own actress recalled a heartbreaking moment from the early aughts when she said the Finding Dory star denied knowing her during a TV interview, despite having what Rosie described as a decades-long friendship.

"That was one of the most painful things that ever happened to me, in show business and my life," Rosie said on the Sept. 8 episode of the No Filter podcast. "I couldn't believe it. I have photos of her holding my newborn babies. I knew her for 30 years."

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The 63-year-old remembered the friendship denial so well" that she "had T-shirts printed and I gave them to my staff that said I dont know Rosie. Were not friends.'"

Rosiewho came out as a lesbian in 2002, nearly five years after Ellenfelt the sleight more deeply given that she had shared a memorable moment with Ellen on her eponymous Rosie ODonnell Show in the 90s, where the pair joked about the Ellen star coming out as Lebanese.

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She was all of a sudden in the position I was in where she was starting a show and wanted it to be successful and get the money and the accolades that came with it, Rosie explained of the Ellen Degeneres Show host. Instead of deciding to stand next to me and hold my hand, which is what I did to her, she did the opposite. And I couldn't believe it.

Since then, Rosie said that she and Ellen have never gotten over it and she has not received an apology.

Chris Polk/FilmMagic

I would have said, I'm really sorry I hurt you that much and I don't know why I did that. It was a mistake and I hope you can forgive me, Rosie shared. That's what I would have done. I think in her mind, she thinks I keep rehashing it for pleasure."

However, she sees herself and the comedian as fundamentally different people.

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My desire to create family is the biggest force in my life, Rosie continued. I do it everywhere I go and I don't think that she's similar to me in that way.

While Ellen has not publicly spoken out on her friendship with Rosie, earlier this year she defended the Harriet the Spy actresswho relocated to Ireland in January for political reasonsafter President Donald Trump threatened to revoke her citizenship, writing to Rosie on Instagram, Good for you.

And amid their alleged feud, Rosie has found her community in other ways, building a family with ex-wife Kelli Carpenter, with whom she shares kids Parker, 30, Chelsea, 27, Blake, 25, and Vivienne, 22, as well as late ex-wife Michelle Rounds, with whom she shared child Clay, 12. Meanwhile, Ellen married Portia de Rossi in 2008.

E! News has reached out to a rep for Ellen for comment and has not yet heard back.

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Read on for more stars who have had public feuds.

Tan France vs. Bobby Berk

Bobby (pictured second from left) addressed rumors of a falling out with Tan (middle) in January 2024, two months after he announced his exit from Queer Eye after eight seasons. "I want people to know that Tan and Iwe will be fine," he told Vanity Fair. "There was a situation, and that's between Tan and I, and it has nothing to do with the show. It was something personal that had been brewingand nothing romantic, just to clarify that." In March 2024, Tan responded to allegations that he had campaigned to replace Bobby on Queer Eye with his friend Jeremiah Brent. "Netflix and the production companies did a full-on casting. I didn't put my friend up for the job. They ended up getting it because they were the best person for the job," he said on Instagram. "But I didn't get them hired by getting rid of somebody else."





Shannen Doherty vs. Alyssa Milano

Following years of rumors of a feud between the two, on a December 2023 episode of her podcast Let's Be Clear, Shannen's former Charmed costar Holly Marie Combs alleged that Alyssa had once made an ultimatum to a show producer to choose between herself and Shannen, which ultimately led to the latter leaving the show in 2001. In February 2024, Alyssa said on Instagram, "I did not have the power to get anyone fired" and that "this was so long ago that any retelling of these stories from anyone is just revisionist history." A day later, Shannen said at a panel event at MegaCon Orlando, "There is no revisionist history happening in the truth that I know we told." Shannen passed away in July 2024 after a yearslong battle with cancer.





Sharon Osbourne vs. Ashton Kutcher

In September 2023, while playing a game called Stir the Pot with her daughter Kelly Osbourne on E! News, Sharon said the That '70s Show alum was the rudest celebrity she had ever met, branding him, a "rude, rude, rude, rude little boy" and a "dastardly little thing." He did not respond to her remarks publicly. Five years prior, Sharon told Larry King that when Ashton appeared on The Talk in 2014, he had an "attitude" after she got his name wrong. "He goes, 'What are you, what have you done in this industry?'" she recalled. "And I was like, 'Kid, don't start with me, because I'm gonna eat you up and s--t you out.' So I was just like, 'You don't know what you're dealing with, kid.'"





Maren Morris & Cassadee Pope vs. Brittany Aldean

In August 2022, Cassadee and Maren traded harsh words with Brittany, wife of fellow country star Jason Aldean, after she shared an Instagram Reel of herself applying makeup on Aug. 23, writing, "I'd really like to thank my parents for not changing my gender when I went through my tomboy phase. I love this girly life."

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JoJo Siwa vs. Candace Cameron Bure

During a 2022 TikTok challenge, JoJo Siwa described Candace Cameron Bure as the "rudest" celebrity, later explaining that she felt snubbed when Bure once refused to take a picture with her on a red carpet. Shortly after the dig, however, the Full House alum apologized: "I kind of broke your 11-year-old heart. I didn't take a picture with you. Ugh! I feel crummy, I feelJoJo, I'm so sorry." The two made amends. But months later, Candace was asked if she expects the Great American Family network, of which she serves as chief creative officer, to feature same-sex couples as leads in holiday movies. She said no, adding, "I think that Great American Family will keep traditional marriage at the core." JoJo, who came out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community in 2021, wrote on Instagram that the actress' comment is "rude and hurtful to a whole community of people."





Courtney Love vs. Olivia Rodrigo

Back in June 2021, Courtney Love accused Olivia Rodrigo of copying her band Hole's album cover for a promotional photo without giving credit. Olivia responded, "Love u and live through this sooooo much." Courtney then replied, "Olivia - you're welcome. My favorite florist is in Notting Hill, London! Dm me for deets! I look forward to reading your note [winking face emoji]."





Henry Winkler vs. Tom Hanks

During an appearance Watch What Happens Live, the Happy Days actor was asked why he didn't get along with the Forrest Gump star on the set of the 1989 flick Turner & Hooch. "I was directing that movie for 13 days and then I was called into [producer] Jeff Katzenberg's office and he said, 'You have everything with you? Go home,'" he said. Winkler did, however, seem to get along with Hanks' four-legged co-star. "I got along great, great with that dog," he said. "Love that dog." He also refused to admit if he's even seen the flick.





Heidi Montag vs. Lauren Conrad

"You know what you did!" Fans of The Hills will remember that iconic line, delivered by Lauren on the season three premiere. Their feud began when Heidi started dating her now-husband Spencer Pratt, and hit its peak when Lauren accused Heidi and Spencer of starting a rumor that she had made a sex tape with Jason Wahler.

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Dwayne Johnson vs. Tyrese Gibson

The costars reignited their ongoing feud when Tyrese publicly called out Dwayne on Instagram after the Fast and Furious 9 release date was pushed back to April 2020. That same day, it was announced that a Fast and Furious spinoff starring Dwayne and Jason Statham would hit theaters in 2019. The following month, Tyrese threatened to quit Fast 9 if Dwayne was in the movie. Tyrese then opened up about the feud, telling Van Lathan on The Red Pill podcast, "I have yet to talk to The Rock to this day, and we will have a conversation." He shared that he did have a conversation with the former wrestler's producing partner, but not the actor himself. "I found myself being the messenger on behalf of various people associated to the franchise, but stupid me was the only one who went public about those feelings, which is my own fault," Tyrese said. "It's not professional, it's not cool."





Taylor Swift vs. Katy Perry

No more bad blood here. Taylor and Katy had been in a feud for years, even allegedly inspiring Taylor's song "Bad Blood." The drama, which reportedly started over a backup dancer and competing tours, came to an end after Perry sent Taylor a literal olive branch before her Reputation Tour kickoff. "So I just got to my dressing room and found this actual olive branch," Taylor said in an Instagram video. "This mean so much." Taylor captioned the video, "Thank you Katy."





Kim Cattrall vs. Sarah Jessica Parker

Sex and the City costars Kim and SJP had dodged feud rumors for years. But they were reignited after Kim decided not to return for a third movie and made comments about her costar that raised eyebrows. "What was your reaction to Kim Cattrall telling Piers Morgan that you were never friends just colleagues?" Andy Cohen asked SJP on a Sept. 2017 episode of Watch What Happens Live. As she explained, "Just...heartbroken. I mean that whole week, you and I spoke about it because I was just...I don't know I found it really upsetting because that's, you know, that's not the way I recall our experience." "So...it's sad but I'm kind of...I don't know, I always think that what ties us together is this singular experience is the thing. It was a professional experience but it became personal because it was years and years of our lives. So I'm hoping that that sort of eclipses anything that's been recently spoken," she continued. "That many years spent doing something so special that people had a connection with is such a privileged." And though they didn't film scenes together, Kim did make a small appearance on And Just Like That.





Madonna vs. Elton John

The iconic singers have been feuding since 2004. While accepting the Classic Songwriter Award at the Q Awards that year, Elton said to attendees, "Madonna, best f--king live act? F--k off! Since when has lip-syncing been live? Sorry about that, but I think everyone who lip-syncs in public on stage, when you pay like 75 quid to see them, should be shot."

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Shonda Rhimes vs. Katherine Heigl

The former Grey's Anatomy star sparked a feud with the series creator in 2008 when she removed her name from the Emmy Awards consideration. The actress stated that her reason for the move was because she wasn't "given the material to warrant a nomination." Shonda later opened up about Katherine's decision during an interview with Oprah Winfrey on Oprah's Next Chapter in 2012. "On some level it stung and on some level I was not surprised," she said. "When people show you who they are, believe them. I carry that [mantra] with me a lot. It has served me well."





Nicki Minaj vs. Cardi B

It was the New York Fashion Week fight heard 'round the world when Nicki and Cardi got into a heated altercation at the Harper's Bazaar Icon party. The following month, Cardi opened up about the catalyst for the fight with Nicki. "For a while now she's been taking a lot of shots at me," Cardi said in W magazine's Art Issue. "I spoke to her twice before, and we came to an understanding. But she kept it going." The real spark of the fight came when Cardi saw that Nicki had allegedly liked and then unliked a tweet about Cardi's parenting skills, which Nicki has denied. "I was going to make millions off my Bruno Mars tour, and I sacrificed that to stay with my daughter," Cardi continued. "I love my daughter. I'm a good-ass f--king mom. So for somebody that don't have a child to like that comment? So many people want to say that party wasn't the time or the place, but I'm not going to catch another artist in the grocery store or down the block."





Kanye West vs. Taylor Swift

Tension between Kanye and Taylor first started in 2009, when the "Stronger" rapper took the stage during her acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards. Years later, the two would make up and even become friends, but that came to an end in 2026 after the release of his song "Famous," in which he name-checks the "End Game" singer. In February 2025, one day before the Grammys, Kanye updated his Instagram to follow only Taylor. He added no further comment, and the fellow musician did not respond publicly to the move.





Mariah Carey vs. Jennifer Lopez

"I don't know her." It's been over 15 years since Mariah and J.Lo's "feud" has been going on. It all started when the Queen of Christmas was asked to give her opinion on several singers during an interview. When asked her opinion on Jennifer, she replied, "I don't know her."

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Savannah Chrisley and Grayson Chrisley were over the moon when their parents were released from prison  but the moment didnt bring the entire family together.

During the Tuesday, September 9, episode of Lifetimes The Chrisleys: Back to Reality, Chase Chrisley revealed that he was excluded from picking up dad Todd Chrisley and mom Julie Chrisley from prison after they each spent 28 months in jail for bank fraud, wire fraud and tax evasion charges.

His younger brother, Grayson, however, was fully in the loop and part of the pickup crew for Julie, 52, in Kentucky. Savannah, 28, was in charge of retrieving Todd, 56, in Florida.

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Inside the Chrisley Family Dynamic After Todd and Julie Went to Prison: Docuseries Revelations

Chase was supposed to be included, but Chase left the house for some reason, Grayson, 19, explained during the episode, which documented the day in May that both Todd and Julie were granted a presidential pardon from Donald Trump. At that point thats on him. If youre not there, youre not there.

Chase, 29, revealed during episode 6 of the reality show that he received a call from his sister Savannah prior to their parents release making the news.

When he got to their family home, he attempted to help coordinate Todd and Julies transport, but Savannah had it handled.

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Chase has been nonexistent during this entire process, Savannah claimed. I was at the house and thats when Grayson said he would go get mom, I would go get dad. That was the best way for it to play out.

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She further alleged, No one really had the emotional capacity or want to have to deal with Chase and all of his crazy emotions. Trying to dictate or not help.

Chase Chrisley Details Beautiful Reunion With Todd and Julie Chrisley After Prison Release

Savannah quipped, You also dont get to have a say if youre not financially helping to contribute to this whole process.

While Savannah was in Florida waiting for Todd and Grayson was in Kentucky preparing for Julies release, Chase was home in Tennessee with Nanny Faye. During a heart-to-heart with his grandmother, Chase admitted he was pissed off at how the travel arrangements were handled.

Courtesy of Lifetime

Savannah was the one who got to make the decision on who was going to pick up my parents. I dont think it was handled well, he confessed.

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Julies mom, Pam Hughes, was also upset that she wasnt there to hug her daughter outside of the prison.

Chase Chrisley Says Todd and Julies Pardon Is the Best Birthday Gift I Could Ask For

I did want to [be involved]. Ive said that since day one, Pam said during a confessional.

When asked why she wasnt able to go, Pam responded, That is just a situation I dont want to talk about.

Courtesy of Lifetime

Grayson, for his part, claimed that his grandparents werent included because it wouldve been too much for them. He noted that they had to sleep in cars and wait for hours, so it wasnt the right scenario for their elders.

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Yall should've been the main priority, Chase told Todds mother, Nanny Faye, noting that it didnt sit well with him that Savannahs friend was there and one of their cousins, but not him or the grandparents.

Once Todd and Julie were home, Chase was able to embrace them and have his moment. However, he later took issue with the fact that so many of Savannahs friends were in their house for the reunion.

Todd Chrisley Says Its Heartbreaking Seeing the Family Divided on New Docuseries

I think my mom just needed a second, Chase said during a confessional. Savannah has all of her friend group at the house. It is a very intimate thing, so Im not sure why all these people are in the house.

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Pam agreed with her grandson, saying, To me it was very overwhelming and chaotic.

Grayson, meanwhile, didnt like the fact that Chases girlfriend, Jodi Laine Fournerat, met her parents for the first time that evening.

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Im just not sure thats something she shouldve been included on, Grayson told the cameras. Hes grown, you can only include him so much.

Earlier this season, Chase claimed that Savannah put a little wedge between him and Grayson after their parents went to prison. Savannah, meanwhile, revealed that she and Chase were at odds after he allegedly didnt help her with their family or the finances amid their parents legal issues.

The Chrisleys: Back to Reality series finale airs on Lifetime Tuesday, September 16, at 8 p.m. ET with two back-to-back episodes.
Two-time Oscar winner Ben Proudfoot returned to his native Canada last week to debut his latest documentary, The Eyes of Ghana, a powerful feature about the African countrys buried cinema history and the 93-year-old filmmaker who has dedicated his life to restoring it.

That filmmaker, Chris Hesse, was the personal cinematographer to Kwame Nkrumah, the African revolutionary who became the first president of Ghana. Thus, Hesse had a front row seat to the dawn of African independence from colonialist rule and he captured it all on film  including Nkrumahs rise and fall, as the politician was eventually overthrown by a coup. Much of that footage was ordered to be destroyed amid the political turmoil but the negatives were preserved in a secret archive in London. In the decades since, Hesse has worked to rescue and repatriate the collection.

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We really wanted to write a love letter to the power of cinema. That is at the core of what this movie is. Proudfoot says of the film, which his Breakwater Studios produced alongside Barack and Michelle Obamas Higher Ground Productions.

It is not a hardcore historical documentary, Proudfoot explains. We wanted to make a film that was full of love that could introduce folks to a period of history that they may have never heard of before and rally people behind the importance of preserving that part of history and preserving celluloid.

The Eyes of Ghana also sees Hesse pass on his legacy to a younger Ghanian filmmaker, Anita Afonu. In 2013, Afonu made a short documentary called Perished Diamonds, which chronicled the history of Ghanian cinema and the decay of the countrys film archive and industry, and shes since joined Hesses mission.

Having the opportunity to go through [the archive], oh my God, it was incredible. Because I went to four years of film school and Ive never ever seen these films, Afonu says. It is so important for us to be able to access these films. We need to be able to see what was done. We need inspiration for our own filmmakers in Ghana.

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Here, Proudfoot and Afonu discuss the making of the documentary, its potential impact on the Ghanian film industry and what Hesse makes of the patriotic project.

How are you feeling after the premiere?

Anita Afonu: Oh, its been such a relief. Just how its been talked about and this being the biggest public film festival, it does feel like a real privilege and I cant wait for more people to see it.

Ben Proudfoot: As a Canadian and a proud Nova Scotian, to be here for the first time and opening the festival is an extraordinary honor. It just mean the world to have my mom in the audience and just be here with my people. Its been extraordinary. Ive overwhelmed, honestly.

It struck me that you are filmmakers making a movie about the power of cinema where your lead subject is also a filmmaker. How did you wrap your heads around this meta nature of this production?

Proudfoot: Yes, it is that meta thing of filmmakers making a movie about filmmakers  and for our cinematographer, Brandon Somerhalder, shooting a film about a cinematographer. Its essential in the next 20 years that we invest major time and resources to make sure films like Chris Hesse managed to protect and preserve dont go away. So, I am extraordinarily energized as a filmmaker because who knows where well be 60 years from now. What shelf will our films be on? We need to carry the torch for each other as filmmakers. Thats what bonded us as young filmmakers to the 93-year-old filmmaker that is Chris Hesse.

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Afonu: Im incredibly grateful that Ben was willing to take everyones suggestions. He didnt just put me in it as a storyteller, but he also invited me to consult on the use of the archival material, to advise and watch the film, to add notes. It wasnt just Ben making a film, but we told Ben a story and Ben helped carry it. That is the beauty of this collaboration. In the end, of course Ben directed it, but everybodys input was so important.

Theres only 15 minutes of archive footage in the film, but theres more than 300 hours that have not yet been seen. Chris has been fighting to get that footage digitized for decades and now the proceeds of this film will be devoted to that effort. Why was that important?

Proudfoot: Its our mission. As documentary filmmakers, we get behind people with important missions and [the film archive used in the film] is the tip of the iceberg. Its a tiny if you watch the whole movie you see these images that Ive never been seen before.

Its just the tiniest part of this much larger vision. We are so grateful in our partners at Higher Ground in the Obamas, who joined hands with us and said, How could we ever put a dollar in the piggy bank before putting a dollar towards digitizing all these films? And we shook hands and said lets put every dollar we can muster into digitizing these films and into restoring Rex cinema, which is a big part of this movie and endowing that in perpetuity. So, Chris Hesses mission has become our mission.

What was it like going through the archive with Chris? Were there certain films that he wanted to make sure to include in the documentary?

Proudfoot: Chris had meticulously created a list of the films; we just went through them and he picked out the ones that he thought we should digitize. We basically kept scanning them until the credit card backed up. We got to like 45 films. Some of them were important  heres when Nkrumah visits Harlem or heres when he delivered this very important speech where he introduced the idea of the United States of Africa. Other times, Chris remembered shooting things that didnt make it into movies; like the end of the film, which are these images of incredible fabrics and patterns, those were end credit plates he had shot for a movie called Panoply of Ghana that hadnt been used. His memory was extraordinary! He had shot it 60 or 65 years prior, and there they were in a beautiful 35mm celluloid. They were just as vibrant as the day they rolled through the camera.

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Afonu: Having the opportunity to have a firsthand look at this newly-digitized material, you have no idea how great the feeling was. I cant wait for all of these films to be digitized and repatriated, to be sent to Ghana and to be made accessible to researchers, to filmmakers, to anybody that is interested.

The film captures a special screening of some of the archival footage at the Rex Cinema in Ghana. Its an incredibly powerful scene to watch. What do you imagine it will be like to screen this documentary in Ghana?

Afonu: It will create a sense of urgency in government to take this seriously. Because in the last decade, I have been chasing, writing to and trying to impress on government and doing so much advocacy that these films need to be digitized. Its important that we got to see them. I take one step forward and then ten steps back. Government changes hands and then we have to start the process all over again. This film, once seen by people in power in Ghana, I strongly believe it will create a sense of urgency in them to get this going.

I also feel it will create a huge resurgence in wanting to know more about Kwame Nkrumah for the young generation of Ghanians who dont know him that well. This film shows a nuanced political figure. You get to see him giving powerful speeches. You get to see him very playful. Those are images of Nkrumah we have never seen before. Its going to make a huge impact.

Nkrumah was well-aware of the power of cinema to market Ghana, the same way Hollywood was marketing America through films. What do you hope international audiences will learn about Ghana through this film?

Afonu: The film for me is full circle. Once upon a time, like Chris said, there was a man called Kwame Nkrumah, and he inspired the liberation of the African continent. He does this, which extends to Barack Obama Sr. [a Kenyan economist], which then extends to the United States having the first Black president, Barack Obama, who is now an executive producer for this film. It goes to show you Kwame Nkrumahs impact on the continent.

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It also tells you that there was a time in Ghanas life where filmmaking was actually a thing. There was a president who was so interested in cinema, who understood the power of cinema, that he made effort to have Ghana be the space for filmmaking on the continent. It is beautiful and inspiring to see that that was a time when something like this actually did exist. When people watch this, and see that we had a charismatic leader like Kwame Nkrumah and it was because of him that that the continent changed, its gonna bring about a resurgence. People are going to know more about Ghana, more about in Nkrumah and essentially take more interest in cinema on the continent.

This film underlines a larger conversation about how cinema and art are an important tool to tell our stories in a time when much of history is being erased, especially in America. Ben, what it is like to have this film debut in this current political climate?

Proudfoot: We live in the time when people have risen to the highest seats of power in the world who aim to erase history. To change the facts and to gaslight the public. Thats where we are right now. As documentarians, we have a choice: we can shy away from it and say, Well, Im not going to upset the apple cart or Theres no money in documentaries right now. I say, Screw that. Nows the time to be courageous. Now is the time to be brave.

If Chris Hesse could do what he did  and it was a dangerous job; he survived multiple assassination attempts on Kwame Nkrumahs life  and then spent 60-plus years preserving and protecting his films, so that we now can see that part of history and be the beneficiary of that. If he can do that, surely, we can continue to keep on filming, as Chris says. Surely we can keep the torch of truth burning in our time when others seek to erase and suppress history. Its the essential message of our movie. Keep on filming. It is a moral duty that we all have a documentary filmmakers in 2025.

What did Chris think of the movie?

Proudfoot: We showed him a cut and he was overwhelmed. I mean, can you imagine? Ninety-three years old and out of nowhere here comes this coalition of international filmmakers to tell your story and help make your wishes come true. I think hes overwhelmed. Hes extremely excited about this premiere; he couldnt make it from Ghana because its such a long trip. Hes in the evening of his life, as he said. But were really hopeful that hell be able to make the U.K. premiere at the BFI London Film Festival. Were excited to shower him with the love and celebration that he deserves.

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Afonu: Before I came to Toronto, I went to him and I read him the press releases to him, and he was just so happy. Im incredibly grateful that this film has been made while he is still with us because it would be such a shame if this became a posthumous celebration. Because he has worked quietly and diligently and its now time for the world to see the work he has done. Im just so grateful that he is still with us, he has seen a cut and hell be seeing the film with an audience. I cant wait to see him be celebrated for the person that he is.

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WARSAW, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Wednesday on social platform X that the Polish airspace was violated by a "huge number of Russian drones," and some posed a "direct threat."

Citing an airport source, the Polish Press Agency (PAP) said that the airspace over Warsaw Chopin Airport has reopened.

"Due to the restrictions and closure of airspace, disruptions and delays that may last all day should be expected," Warsaw Airport said. It added that passengers should check the current flight status on the airport website and obtain detailed information directly from the carriers.

According to local media RMF24, the airspace over the airports in Modlin and Rzeszow has also reopened, but remains closed over Lublin.

LOT Polish Airlines spokesman Krzysztof Moczulski announced this morning on platform X that due to the temporary closure of airspace, some LOT flights were redirected to other airports in Poland.

Polish military shot down drones over Poland after Polish airspace was repeatedly violated overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, according to a statement from Polish Armed Forces Operational Command.

According to PAP, the Polish Armed Forces Operational Command has activated all necessary procedures. Polish and allied aircraft are operating in Polish airspace, and ground-based air defense and radar reconnaissance systems have reached the highest level of readiness.

Poland on Tuesday night closed four airports, including its largest Chopin Airport in Warsaw, due to "unplanned military activity related to ensuring state security," according to notices posted on the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's website.

The closure of key Polish airports came after Warsaw claimed that "drone-type objects" had violated its airspace from neighboring Ukraine.

Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said on Wednesday that the country's air force has used weapons against hostile objects that have entered Polish airspace. 
It's an understandable, if rookie, mistake to think that all dried pasta brands at the supermarket are the same. Just like any other store-bought ingredient, recipes and preparation methods vary, and all these differences can show in your final product. This can be especially true of simple pasta dishes like cacio e pepe, where there's little room for cut corners to hide. When it comes to common boxed pasta brands, shoppers often reach for De Cecco.

A top-ranked Reddit comment sums up much of the appeal: "I don't think it's considered the 'highest quality,' but it's more than adequate." Others in the thread mirrored the sentiment, noting that the brand markedly improved their dinner outcomes. De Cecco is so reliably good, it's one of Ina Garten's two favorite brands of store-bought pasta. For more luxurious plates, the Barefoot Contessa prefers Cipriani, an artisanal brand from Venice. But for less-frilly plates, she prefers De Cecco for the simple reason that it's a high-quality dry pasta that doesn't cost much.

Read more: 25 Aldi Store-Brand Pastas, Ranked Worst To Best

De Cecco's humble roots spurred its quality pasta

Maiella National Park in the Abruzzo region of Italy - Francesco Riccardo Iacomino/Getty Images

De Cecco's accessible brand of quality pasta has rich roots in the heart of pre-unification Italy. In 1831, Nicola Antonio De Cecco began making exceptionally good pasta in Faro San Martino, a commune in Abruzzo, a region to the west of Rome. After teaching the craft to his son, Filippo founded the family pasta factory in 1886. Among the innovations that would help De Cecco grow to where it is today was Filippo De Cecco's new method to dry pasta within 24 hours, faster than the traditional sun-dried method. This would enable much faster production and distribution to markets around the world.

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In World War II, the factory was destroyed by Nazi airstrikes, but the De Cecco family built a new, larger factory in Faro San Martino, which is still key to company operations. De Cecco has production facilities in other locations, but the company headquarters is still where it all began in Abruzzo.

Why De Cecco is the best store-bought pasta brand

Boxes of De Cecco cavatappi pasta on a grocery store shelf - ZikG/Shutterstock

When Daily Meal compared Barilla to De Cecco to see which brand is the better buy, one of the big reasons we selected De Cecco is its bronze cutting method. Each piece of pasta is cut with bronze-tipped tools, a technique known in Italian as trafilata al bronzo. The metal makes microtears on the pasta surface, allowing the sauce to adhere better. A telltale sign of this technique is dry pasta that appears somewhat dusty, from the rougher cuts. When we ranked 16 brands of boxed penne, though, De Cecco came second to Barilla, for the only reason you might think twice about this Abruzzo classic: it's roughly a dollar more expensive per box than the competition. However, some Redditors would say the quality is worth the price.

Surprisingly, one area where you can probably do better than De Cecco is pasta sauces. Daily Meal ranked 12 store-bought pestos, and De Cecco placed a disappointing 9th thanks to what some customers say is a dry, grainy texture. De Cecco's excellent dry pasta deserves better than a mediocre sauce.

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Unlike date nut and tutti frutti, old-school ice cream flavors that have nearly vanished, strawberry is an old stand-by that might not be quite as popular as chocolate or vanilla but still manages to hit the spot. Food Republic recently did a taste test and ranked 13 store-bought strawberry ice cream brands, and the winner was no surprise if you know anything at all about good dairy  it was Tillamook's Oregon Strawberry.

Our taste tester wrote, "It's decadent yet light, creamy yet overrun with chunks of strawberry, and well, to put it plainly, it's downright perfect." I would have to agree, having picked up a 1.5-quart carton recently and finished it off within a few days. It was sweet without being overpoweringly so, and somehow Tillamook has managed to make a nationally available ice cream taste fresh  like it was just churned, using newly picked strawberries (the titular Oregon strawberries are indeed picked at their peak ripeness and are renowned for their sweetness).

This ice cream is extremely delicious, and every time I finished a bowl of it (which I could have licked clean, but restrained myself), I was left looking forward to the next day's dessert. Tillamook's Oregon Strawberry ice cream is truly a premium experience, unlike some of the posers who didn't rank nearly as high on our taste test, like Kroger Deluxe.

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Read more: Store-Bought Vanilla Ice Creams Made With The Highest And Lowest Quality Ingredients

Creative ways to use Tillamook Oregon Strawberry ice cream

A fancy red glass bowl of Tillamook strawberry ice cream sits next to an open carton - Emily M Alexander / Food Republic

If you enjoy Tillamook Oregon Strawberry ice cream scooped into a bowl or topping a cone, that's a totally classic way to eat it. But if you were to use it to enhance other desserts, well you'd have something very special indeed. Case in point? Chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches typically feature vanilla ice cream, but if you were to use Tillamook's strawberry flavor instead, not only would the sweet fruitiness complement whatever type of chocolate chips are contained in the cookies, they'd also be a cute pink color (making them a perfect dessert for birthday parties, or wedding and baby showers).

There are also plenty of chocolate and vanilla ice cream cakes out there, but you can really wow your family or guests with a strawberry version (see pro tips for crafting a perfect ice cream cake here), garnished with fresh strawberries. Tillamook's Oregon Strawberry flavor is also perfectly suited for making homemade strawberry crunch ice cream bars, a DIY version of the classic ice cream truck favorite. Picture it: Real strawberry pieces and the creaminess that Tillamook imbues into its ice cream, under a layer of crunchy golden Oreos and freeze-dried strawberries. Texture (and flavor) heaven!

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GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP)  One person is in the hospital after a shooting in Greensboro on Tuesday, according to a Greensboro Police Department news release.

At 9:45 p.m., officers responded to the 100 block of East Seneca Road when they were told about an aggravated assault.

Officers located one victim who had been shot. The victim was then taken to a hospital.

The extent of the injury is unknown at this time.

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There is no suspect information available at this time.

The investigation is ongoing.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX8 WGHP.
DES MOINES, Iowa  The U.S. Department of Agriculture released a new report where net farm income projections are expected to increase in 2025, but the margins are expected to grow thinner for farmers.

According to the Economic Research Service for the USDA, crop receipts are expected to drop year over year. Farmer income in 2024, at a national level, for corn was $63.4 billion, and the forecast in 2025 is $61 billion. Soybean farmer income in 2024 was at $46.8 billion to the projected $43.5 billion in 2025; and for wheat in 2024 an $11.2 billion farmer income level is expected to drop to $10.1 billion in 2025.

When it comes to selling into the market, you may not have as much of an ability on the market selling side, which can be a challenge, said Jennifer Zwagerman, Director of the Agricultural Center at Drake Law School. And really, I think for a lot of farmers its trying to figure out how to do something differently. Its the idea of, you know, everybody says the next year it improves, but even if prices go up, then everything else goes up.

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Marshall County residents want answers after 34 cases of Legionnaires Disease confirmed

With the drop in price projections, there is an increase in production costs for farmers, according to the USDA. Labor costs, livestock/poultry purchases, interest, property taxes and net rent are all on the rise. Where feed, fertilizer, seed, pesticides and fuel costs are staying close to 2024 levels, if not a slight decrease.

With smaller operations, you have less of a safety net. You also may have fewer resources to try and attract or negotiate or get some of the better deals for things you can buy, said Zwagerman. Its reducing either the crops you grow, or maybe if you own land, maybe needing to lease it, foregoing improvements that might improve efficiency or help increase production, it is just not affordable to farms at that size.

Zwagerman added that bankruptcies are spiking in the agricultural sector on a nationwide scale. Filings in the first quarter of 2025 are almost double the filings from the first quarter of 2024.

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The USDA report does highlight that the farm income projections are set to increase, but in large part due to Direct Government farm program payments. These payments are direct to consumers to help mitigate rising input costs and the falling prices of crops. In 2024 there were $10.1 billion in these payments and in 2025 there is an estimated $40.5 billion, a 300% increase in a years time.

Iowa news

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to who13.com.
DELHI, N.Y. (WIVT/WBGH)  The Delaware Academy Bulldogs are fresh off their first Section IV Class D title since 2006, and are looking to get back there, with the excitement of a brand new field driving the team to go back-to-back.

The team is coming off a season where they finished 9-3, topping Tioga in overtime of the Sectional title game and taking their first crown in 18 years before falling in the state regional. Following their success of last season, they will now be playing on a new home turf, which is just another reason to try and run it back.

Its almost indescribable, just the feeling that we can all come together and play on the new field, said Senior left guard/defensive end Abraham Pettit.

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Despite having won the title just a year ago, the team knows not to look past anyone, given the gauntlet that Section IV presents.

Section IV is always tough, so we just try to each week, focus on one opponent, and know that theyre the team to beat, said Senior running back/middle linebacker Adam Cook.

The team enjoys being together and being part of a team thats looking to harness that motivation to strive for excellence.

Everybodys hyped up to be here, said Junior right guard/defensive end Connor McVitty. Everybody wants to be here and play hard.

The Delaware Academy Bulldogs opened their season with a win over Burke Catholic, 56-13. In their Week 1 game, they will face Trumansburg on September 12th at 7:00 pm.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WIVT - News 34.
NEED TO KNOW

Logan Sampson, 24, went missing from his New Prague, Minn., residence on Sunday, Sept. 7

He was last seen on a doorbell camera at 1:30 a.m.

His parents, Nicole Tietz and Rob Sampson, believe he could be in medical distress as he was hospitalized after a seizure two weeks ago

A 24-year-old man who may be in medical distress has been missing for two days.

Logan Sampson was last seen on a doorbell camera at 1:30 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 7, at his residence on Bernas Lane in New Prague, Minn., according to a New Prague Police Department news release.

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Sampson is said to be traveling on foot and was last seen wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and black jogger pants, per the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

His mother, Nicole Tietz, told Fox 9 that he was hospitalized after a seizure two weeks ago. "Hes never taken off like this before, so its mind-boggling, she told the outlet.

His father, Rob Sampson, added to CBS News that Logan has only had two seizures, but could be vulnerable without his medication. He also explained that after seizures, Logan gets disoriented and has memory loss, gets confused and does strange things."

Looking for Logan/Facebook Logan Sampson Logan Sampson

Despite that, Logans family believes there is no reason he would hurt himself and that he does not have access to guns.

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Logan's cousin, Sophie Camilli, said that when they inform people hes missing, they ask what his mental state is," per CBS News. "For certain, know he's not angry, not a threat to anyone, just lost."

On Monday, Sept. 8, Camilli and hundreds of others began a search for Logan. A Facebook page was created to provide updates on the search.

The New Prague police asked the nearby public to check their security cameras for any sign of Logan. The authorities obtained a search warrant on Sept. 8 to search his home for potential leads to his whereabouts.

Anyone who wants to join the search for Logan Sampson can visit Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in New Prague.

Looking for Logan/Facebook Logan Sampson Logan Sampson

"We are deeply grateful for the combined efforts of all agencies, partners, and community members who assisted in the search and supported the family during this difficult time," the New Prague Police Department said in an press release obtained by PEOPLE.

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Anyone with information on Sampson's whereabouts is asked to call the New Prague Police Department at 952-758-2791.



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SACRAMENTO, California  Kip Lipper is a name rarely uttered outside inner circles of Sacramento, but the powerful Senate adviser is at the center of this sessions climate logjam  and people are ready to point fingers if Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers ambitious package doesnt get done.

Lipper, whos served as the top climate and environment whisperer for decades worth of Senate leadership, counts groundbreaking laws like the California Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act and AB 32, which established the states carbon emissions trading program, among his achievements since joining the legislature in 1976. His power was once so pronounced that lobbyists, activists and even lawmakers referred to him as the 41st senator of the 40-member upper chamber.

And his decades of experience have translated into deep deference from the lawmakers who are supposed to oversee him  and instead trust him to negotiate the complicated policies that term limits sometimes keep out of their own grasp.

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But giving all the cards to one person has irked lobbyists and even some lawmakers who are finding themselves cut out of the last-minute negotiations over a host of big energy issues that Newsom and legislative leadership have pledged to get done this session. Frustration is permeating the Capitol, where lawmakers are still hashing out measures on cap-and-trade, refineries, wildfire liability and electric bills with little to show as the 72-hour deadline for bills to be introduced in time for floor votes Friday night approaches.

More than a dozen lawmakers, staffers and lobbyists complained on background to POLITICO. Few wanted to go on the record for fear of blowing up their own legislative talks.

Hes holding up every one of these things, said one lawmaker whom POLITICO granted anonymity to avoid jeopardizing sensitive relationships and negotiations.

Lipper declined to comment and directed questions to Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuires office.

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McGuire dismissed the concerns Tuesday, framing them as expected end-of-session gossip.

There are three things for sure in life, he said in a statement. Death, taxes and end of session rumors. All legislators and the Governor are working hard to get the job done for Californians.

But the frustrations are spilling out to broader political circles. Tom Steyer, the climate-minded financier and former presidential candidate who came out with a Substack essay Monday blaming politicians in Sacramento for the gridlock around cap and trade, declined to point fingers but said, Ive heard the stories too. Ive not been in those rooms. I dont exactly know what his role is. Of course Ive heard the rumors too."

The high-stakes nature of all the energy and climate items converging this year has fed into the logjam  and the political urge to keep things in play until the very last minute. The Senates cap-and-trade language was so closely guarded as late as last week that lawmakers had to go into a secure room to view it and werent allowed to leave with it, one confirmed to POLITICO.

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This months negotiations echo the ones in 2017, when the Senate also pushed for deep changes to the cap-and-trade program that critics said would turn it more into a carbon tax. The Assembly and the Governors office eventually overrode the Senate when then-Gov. Jerry Browns chief of staff Nancy McFadden ordered Lipper to leave the room.

But legislative staffers and lobbyists say Lipper has been largely unchecked this year in rebuffing versions of legislative proposals to extend cap-and-trade, establish a West-wide energy grid and address planned refinery closures, often making the Senate the sole hold-out on policy details the Assembly and the governors office have converged on.

He is a chaos agent, said an environmental group leader, granted anonymity to avoid jeopardizing their relationship with Lipper. He doesnt seem to be interested in actually getting things done and making deals. He seems interested in throwing bombs, and thats exactly what hes doing.

Business, labor and oil groups cited backroom secrecy in withdrawing their support of an extension of cap-and-trade this year on Monday, arguing that negotiating the legislation without full policy and fiscal hearings undermines public trust and program durability.

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Still, others in the building say Lipper is an easy scapegoat and instead pointed at McGuires and Newsoms offices for contributing to the dysfunction. Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris said that the upper chambers top-down approach makes it really hard when you need to make decisions about a lot of big things.

One lobbyist and former legislative staffer called McGuire a micromanager, who requires all major bills to run through his office, meaning Lipper is inextricably involved.

People love talking about Kip like he's the boogeyman, the lobbyist said. But when it comes down to it, Kip doesnt have power unless the pro tem and the other members give it to him."

And the frustration with Lipper isnt universal. Some in the building say his decades of institutional knowledge are crucial in a body thats suffered from brain drain as scores of longtime lawmakers and staffers have turned over because of the states strict term limits.

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From a government standpoint, you want more Kips in this world, not less, said a former legislative staffer. If Kip wasnt there, who would run amok? I say this as a lobbyist now, its the third house. The members are totally reliant on the third house for the institutional memory.

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A portion of High Plains Processing in Mitchell is pictured during its grand opening on Sept. 9, 2025. (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight)

MITCHELL  As China boycotts U.S. soybean purchases, a $500 million processing plant south of Mitchell that will turn more of the states crop into oils and livestock meal opened its doors Tuesday.

Tom Kersting, the CEO of South Dakota Soybean Processors, which manages the plant, said it will help stabilize prices and create local demand.

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If it wasnt for demand sources like this facility, itd be very, very tough out there, Kersting said, calling China, until now, the number one buyer of South Dakotas exported beans.

China is avoiding U.S. soybeans this fall in response to tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump.

Tom Kersting, the CEO of South Dakota Soybean Processors, left, and South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden participate in the Sept. 9, 2025, grand opening of High Plains Processing in Mitchell. (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight)

The High Plains Processing Plant is designed to crush about 35 million bushels of soybeans per year. South Dakota farmers produced about 238 million bushels last year. Kersting said the facility will produce soybean meal (animal feed) and soybean oil. The oil can be refined on-site into vegetable oil or a soybean-based diesel fuel, called renewable diesel.

Theres great demand for soybean oil from the renewable fuels industry, he said. And soybean meal is the preferred high-protein feed additive for hogs, poultry, dairy  you name it.

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Craig Weber is the president of the South Dakota Soybean Processors board. He said the projects impact will be most immediate on the gap between the bean price and what farmers actually receive. That gap is significantly impacted by transportation costs, and the new plant being in Mitchell reduces those costs for farmers in the region.

Still, farm advocates cautioned that one facility cannot fully offset the loss of the worlds largest soybean buyer.

No, its not going to be enough, said Doug Sombke, president of South Dakota Farmers Union.

Sombke and a delegation of about 40 farmers were in Washington, D.C., earlier this week to express their concerns to Congress.

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It helps, yeah, but its going to take a lot more, Sombke said. Farmers are in a lot of trouble. Were going to lose farmers if we dont do something quick.

Governor Larry Rhoden, who spoke at the opening, called the project an example of the kind of value-added agriculture South Dakota should pursue.

Were talking about enhancing our number one industry, which is agriculture, he said.

He also praised the plants ability to process other oilseeds, like sunflowers, offering farmers more flexibility depending on circumstances in the crop markets.

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TYLER, Texas (KETK)  A 54-year-old man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison after he was found guilty of killing a man at a taqueria in Tyler in 2024.

Tyler man sentenced for impersonating 10-year-old online, sharing child porn

Scott Goble, photo courtesy of the Smith County Jail.

Scotty Lee Goble, 54 of Frost, was arrested for murder on Oct. 11, 2024, after witnesses told Tyler Police Department officers that he fatally shot Heriberto Ramirez, 38 of Tyler, at a taqueria on SSW Loop 323. Witnesses told officers that the shooting happened after Goble and Ramirez got into a verbal argument that turned into a physical altercation.

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Officials said that Goble had been a repeat customer of the taqueria and that there were disagreements that had happened prior to the shooting.

Goble was found guilty after a jury trial in the 241st Judicial District Court and sentenced to 18 years in state prison on Tuesday. Goble will also have to pay a $10,000 fine as a part of his sentence.

You can now stream KETK and FOX51 News live 24/7 on your smart TV with KETK+, our brand-new app! No antenna, cable, or satellite neededwatch for free, anytime. Just download it on your Roku, Apple TV, or Fire TV and start streaming.

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CANBERRA, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government has condemned Israel's airstrike targeting Hamas officials in the Qatari capital of Doha on Tuesday.

Penny Wong, Australia's minister for foreign affairs, said on Wednesday morning that the Australian government believes the strike was the "wrong thing to do."

She told Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) television that the strike, which targeted a building used by senior Hamas officials, risked undermining ceasefire negotiations.

"Qatar has been one of the parties seeking to mediate a ceasefire," Wong said.

"This is a violation of Qatar's sovereignty. It perils that work on the ceasefire, and it risks escalation."

Asked if Australia would take stronger action against Israel in response to the airstrike, Wong said that the Australian government has a limited ability to stop the war but would continue to support calls for a ceasefire.

"Obviously, we're not the central player, but we can work with others to try to do what we are able to do to end the suffering in Gaza, and to support a ceasefire and a pathway to peace," she said.

Speaking earlier on Wednesday, Assistant Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Matt Thistlethwaite told ABC radio that it was "encouraging" to hear Qatari leaders reaffirm their commitment to brokering a ceasefire agreement. 
Thousands will gather at the 9/11 Memorial in NYC on Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025 for the annual commemoration ceremony and reading of the names of those who died in the worst terrorist attacks in American history.

It's been 24 years since terrorists hijacked four planes, crashing two into the World Trade Center's Twin Towers, and one each into the Pentagon and in an open field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The 9/11 Memorial and Museum in NYC, built atop the fallen Twin Towers in Lower Manhattan, will hold its annual memorial service to bring together the families of the nearly 3,000 killed, including the victims of the 1993 WTC bombing.

The 9/11 commemoration ceremony is for family members of the victims who are invited to participate in the reading of the names. The ceremony will take place at Memorial Plaza starting at 8:30 a.m. ET, with TV coverage beginning at around 8:25 a.m. ET.

Where to watch 9/11 memorial live

The 9/11 memorial ceremony will air live at on cable TV channels CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, and CW affiliates in the New York City market. You can stream on Hulu + Live, Fubo, and other streaming platforms that offer those channels, but be sure to check your local listings.

How to stream 9/11 memorial free

The 24th annual Commemoration Ceremony in NYC will be streamed live for free on the 9/11 Memorial and Museum website beginning at 8:40 a.m. Access that stream here.

NYC 9/11 memorial timeline

The 24th annual Commemoration Ceremony in NYC will begin at 8:30 a.m. and will conclude at 1:30 p.m. The ceremony will begin with the reading of the 2,983 victims of the 9/11 attacks and victims of the 1993 WTC bombing. Six moments of silence will be embedded throughout the full reading of names  each moment representing the events that occurred on 9/11.

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A complete list of the names can be found on the memorial's website.

9/11 moment of silence timeline

The 9/11 ceremony in NYC will feature six moments of silence, all linked to tragic events of the day. Americans are also encouraged to participate. The first moment of silence begins at 8:46 a.m., with all times Eastern Daylight Time.

8:46 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 11 strikes the North Towner of the World Trade Center

9:03 a.m .: United Flight 175 crashes into the South Tower of the World Trade Center

9:37 a.m .: American Airlines Flight 77 crashes into the western face of the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia

9:59 a.m. : The South Tower collapses

10:03 a.m. : United Flight 93 crashes into an empty field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after crew members and passengers storm the cockpit, forcing hijackers to crash

10:28 a.m.: The North Tower collapses

Is 9/11 a federal holiday?

September 11 was designated Patriot Day by resolution of the U.S. Congress on Dec. 18, 2001. Patriot Day is not a federal holiday; rather, it's a resolution that calls for the president to issue a proclamation recognizing the day as a National Day of Service and Remembrance.

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On 9/11, banks will open, as will schools, government offices and the post office, although some workplaces may offer paid days off for employees.

What happened on 9/11?

On September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked four planes, crashing two into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, one into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virgina, and the fourth in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to retake control of the plane. The 9/11 Commission Report determined this plane was likely headed to Washington, D.C. or the White House.

How many people died in 9/11?

The 9/11 terrorist attacks claimed the lives of 2,977 people, not including the 19 hijackers, and most were in New York. All 246 passengers aboard the four planes were killed, as were 125 people killed at the Pentagon. At the Twin Towers, 2,606 people died  either on Sept. 11 or later on from injuries.

According to the FDNY, more first responders died from 9/11-related illnesses than were killed on the day of the attack.

How to visit the 9/11 Museum in NYC

The National 9/11 Memorial Museum, filled with media, narratives and a collection of artifacts, is open Wednesday through Monday, and select Tuesdays, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. You can sign up for tours, or explore at your own pace, which takes between 45-90 minutes, per the website. Tickets for adults are $24, with discounted prices for youth, young adults, seniors, college students, U.S. veterans, and FDNY/NYPD/PAPD members. Active or retired U.S. military members and children 6 and under are free.

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Lori Comstock is a New Jersey-based journalist with the Mid-Atlantic Connect Team.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: 9/11 Memorial ceremony live: How to watch ceremony, moment of silence
LANSING, Mich. (WLNS)  54-A District Court Judge Kristen D. Simmons has decided to dismiss all charges against 15 Michiganders accused of acting as fake electors for Donald Trump following the 2020 presidential election. Supporters say the situation shouldnt have gone so far, while Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel says the decision was wrong.

The charges were originally brought on by AG Nessel who claims the group met covertly in December 2020 and deliberately attempted to interfere with and overturn the election.

The courtroom. (WLNS)

Dana Nessel is a criminal, said State Rep. Matt Maddock (R-Milford). She needs to go to prison for what she did to these people. This is a travesty to the United States.

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Rep. Maddock made his opinions known to the court immediately after his wife Meshawn Maddock and 14 other accused Michiganders had their charges dismissed.

These people are gonna get what they deserve, said Maddock.

Demonstrators in support of the defendants. (WLNS)

Despite the decision, supporters say the situation shouldnt have ever gotten to this point.

The evidence, or I should say really, the lack of evidence was just astonishing, said defense attorney John Freedman. Were going to evaluate whether there is a viable case for malicious prosecution.

Judge Kristen D. Simmons. (WLNS)

One of the defenses main talking points was a statement by Nessel that they say negates her claims.

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It was from day one, you have the prosecutor concede on live TV, or whatever it was, it was a webcast, she says they couldnt plead guilty if they wanted, said criminal defense attorney Nicholas Somberg. She conceded her entire case. We actually brought this up day one and unfortunately the prosecutors statement is not counted as evidence.

They also say she used the case as political intimidationwhich Nessel denies.

Demonstrators in support of the defendants. (WLNS)

Now, its been claimed that these charges were vindictive or political, and I will say this: nothing can be further from the truth, said Nessel. As prosecutors, we have a moral and ethical obligation to bring charges when there is evidence of a crime, and despite todays very wrong decision, the evidence is clear and overwhelming.

Nessel says to not have brought these charges because of possible political accusations would actually be the most political thing a prosecutor could do.

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Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson also released a statement in response to the ruling, saying, in part:

In 2020, Michigan was ground zero for a nationally organized, concerted effort to overturn a legitimate presidential election. The attempt to subvert the results of a free and fair election is an affront to our Constitution and a betrayal of American values. Since these individuals signed these false certificates more than four years ago, we have worked with lawmakers to pass additional laws and protections around the certification process.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WLNS 6 News.
SPRINGFIELD -- Several events on Sept. 11 and over the weekend in and around Springfield will commemorate the 24th anniversary of those lives lost that day to terrorist attacks in the U.S.

In 2009, Sept. 11 was set up as a National Day of Service and Remembrance encouraging Americans to transform the anniversary into a day of kindness, service and reflection. More information is available at 911day.org.

Since 2002, it also has been known as Patriot Day.

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Here is a rundown of things going on in the Springfield area.

More: 'Historic day in Sangamon County': Senor-Moore first Black woman to serve as Seventh Circuit judge

Carry the Load

Volunteers will clean headstones and beautify the grounds of Camp Butler National Cemetery in Springfield from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Patriot Guard of Illinois member Kenneth Carlock holds a American flag during the Camp Butler National Cemetery Unclaimed Service on Wednesday Dec. 18, 2024.

It is part of Carry the Loadsannual nationwide Patriot Day event.

The non-profit hosts volunteer events each Memorial Day, Patriot Day and Veterans Day at national cemeteries across the country.

According to its website, it is a way to provide "active ways to honor and remember our nations heroes by connecting Americans to the sacrifices made by our military and first responder communities."

Ride to Remember

The annual Ride to Remember will go from Halls Harley-Davidson, 2301 N. Dirksen Pkwy., to the 9/11 Monument at the Illinois State Capitol on Sept. 14.

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A brief ceremony will take place at 10:30 a.m. before a police escorted procession leaves the dealership at approximately 10:45 a.m. Lineup begins at 9 a.m. and all vehicles are welcome.

The fundraiser will support two local charities this year, Salvation Army and the 100 Club of Illinois. Commemorative t-shirts are available for purchase at Halls Harley-Davidson.

Ride to Remember was created to remember those who lost their lives and to honor the first responders and heroes of that day.

UIS care packages

University of Illinois Springfield students will assemble care kits for active-duty military personnel as part of the Sept. 11 day of service.

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The student-led volunteer event is in support of Operation: Care and Comfort and takes place in the Student Union Ballroom from noon to 6 p.m.

Springfield Cool Cruisers

Springfield Cool Cruisers will hold its 9/11 Memorial Cruise at Route 66 Motorheads Bar & Grill, 600 Toronto Road, from 1 to 5 p.m. on Sept. 14.

There will be door prizes, a 50/50 drawing and an OReilly Auto Part gift card drawing.

ALPLM free admission

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, 212 N. Sixth St., will honor first responders with free admission on Sept. 11.

Police, fire, medical and military personnel can present their employee ID at the ticket counter and no advance registration is required.

Former U.S. Marshal Robert Moore serves as chair of the criminal justice committee for Illinois branches of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and is a consultant on police procedures and community relations.

Robert Moore book signing

Robert Moore, a distinguished and nationally recognized leader in the practice of law enforcement, will sign copies of his autobiography, "Off My Neck" at the Illinois State Library, 300 S. Second St., from 5 to 7 p.m. on Sept. 11.

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Moore, a former U.S. Marshal and police chief, spent five decades in law enforcement.

Moore has been a facilitator of community policing initiatives and done historical research of Blacks in law enforcement.

The 9/11 Memorial on the grounds of the Illinois State Capitol on Sept. 8, 2025.

Jacksonville remembrance ceremony

Jacksonville will host a 9/11 remembrance ceremony on the Central Square at 6 p.m. on Sept. 11.

It is sponsored by WJVO-WJIL radio.

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Patriot Day events in and around the Springfield area
SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage)  Tensions ran high at the San Angelo ISD board meeting on September 8, as parents walked out and one was even removed by police after a heated debate over Lake View High Schools closed-campus lunch policy.

Meals for the Elderly to host Night Out for a Cause: Dinner & Dueling Pianos

Students and parents told board members that lunch portions were not enough, and that the cafeteria often ran out of food before all students were served.

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Geneva Rodriguez, a parent, said, I have a six-foot, very large eighth grader who was very excited about getting macaroni the other day and was in line and was offered a piece of toast with cheese because he ran out of macaroni. And that is supposed to carry him for the rest of the day.

Others accused the board and superintendent of dismissing their concerns. Community advocate Virgil Pacetti said, You know, actions are louder than words. And you know, after our last board meeting, seeing students, parents, advocates come up fighting for these kids, what were the two actions, our superintendent came up told the news, its a non-issue, because to him, it is. Hes got bigger fish to fry. Hes got things to do, and hed worry about this a non-issue.

Pacetti also criticized board compensation, adding, You all are out here fighting for your kids, fighting for nutrition, fighting for room, and you say, You know what, lets go give this guy a raise, and then he can go tell him its a non-issue. That is horrible guys.

Five board members observed lunch at Lake View last week, but Trustee Karla Cardenas said many students were absent, making it difficult to see how the cafeteria operates on a normal day. We had over 100 students, right, that were not there, so I couldnt see exactly how the flow went. So Id like to go back on the whole campus to see how that works, she said. Cardenas also raised concerns about communication and disparities between Lake View and Central. But the fact of the matter is that when youre choosing to close campus when the high school on the other side of town is not is not fair. Im just speaking on my experience. Im born and raised hereTo relay a drastic change like this, for families, a couple of weeks before school starts, is not fair, and its not right either.

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Board Secretary Gerard Gallegos clashed with concerns over inequality, saying, This whole thing is this disparity thing. Let it go. Ive been hearing it for 20 years.

During the meeting, boos erupted and dozens of parents and students walked out, frustrated that their concerns remained unresolved. One parent told the board, We want them to be taken seriously and not just be shut down. Im a bit disappointed in some of the board members that feel that this isnt important, that whatever the students say, its lies and its not important.

Superintendent Dr. Christopher Moran defended the districts actions, emphasizing student safety and compliance with nutrition laws. Important thing for the board to know is that the reason food trucks cannot be out there is because if students purchase those and eat in the same areas that our students who receive cafeteria foods eat, we are in violation of school nutrition laws, and we can be penalized by losing funding for that, Moran said. He added that all students at Lake View receive free breakfast and lunch and that the district would continue working to ensure students are served adequately.

Moran also addressed how lunch operations are being managed. Additional deli-style tables are being added, and the library remains available as a quieter eating area, he said. He said he would follow up with the nutrition department on portion concerns raised by trustees and speakers, but signaled no reversal. Ive got no intentions of changing course, Moran said.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ConchoValleyHomepage.com.
BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First)  After Governor Jeff Landry introduced The Louisiana Lockup at Angola, which is set to house over 200 criminals in the country illegally, many community organizations are speaking out.

Tia Fields with the Baton Rouge NAACP said theyll be met with harsh conditions, or worse.

When we talk about the carceral economy, were looking at bed quotas. Were looking at slave labor. The same things that the current inmates that are normally housed in Angola are facing are now being expanded to include more bodies, more harm, said Fields.

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Landry declared a state of emergency, allowing him to move funds to help rebuild the prison. Fields said this is a red flag.

His choice prioritizes expansion over community resilience when it comes to natural disasters. So, the fact that you are willing to take state dollars allocated for natural disasters and were at the peak of hurricane season, it raises alarm that there are ready-to-profit bodies over the states resilience when it comes to climate, she said.

Now, theyre asking for a better and clearer understanding of how people are going to be treated, including public records.

We are asking that the state, as well as DHS and ICE, release the contracts to determine what the bid guarantees are going to be and if there is a quota attached to the number of individuals being brought in as civil detainees, said Fields.

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She said theyre way of wanting to get involved is to provide help, regardless of status.

Were looking at using community-based organizations such as those a part of this coalition to assist with case management, to assist with attorneys. We know that one community has the input and influence on those who need that representation. You have a higher turnout of individuals appearing in court, said Fields.

She said, as this continues to happen, with the growing numbers of people being thrown in the Louisiana Lockup, she said she hopes this opens the eyes of those outside looking in.

The way we treat civil detainees is the way that we will determine how we as everyday individuals will be able to access due process, said Fields.

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Landry claims the facility has the capacity to house 400 criminals within the next few months.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Louisiana First News.
HOLYOKE, Mass. (WWLP)  Advocacy organizations came together in Holyoke to protest a proposed city council measure that they believe would impact the safety of the citys immigrants.

Holyoke, Northampton named on DOJs sanctuary jurisdiction list

A large group of advocates from organizations like the Real Majority of Holyoke and Indivisible Northampton-swing left western Massachusetts showed up in front of Holyoke City Hall on Tuesday, demanding that the city of Holyoke not work or collaborate with ICE.

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We figure it is a matter of what happens with us; we need to show up in large numbers just to show that the city of Holyoke is watching. And this doesnt represent the wishes, said organizer and Real Majority Holyoke Member, Claire McGale.

This protest was held just before the councils Development and Governmental Relations Committee upcoming meeting, where the proposal was expected to be discussed. Holyoke City Councilors Kevin Jourdain and Linda Vacon introduced a resolution on June 17th seeking to affirm Holyokes status as a non-sanctuary city.

As I have stated previously, to my knowledge, there is no universally accepted definition of a sanctuary city, and Holyoke is not  by any definition  a sanctuary city, said Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia.

This resolution also asks the citys departments to fully comply with all federal laws and regulations, and for the Department of Homeland Security to notify the city of any violations and what steps are needed to remedy.

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Local and state officials resist expanded ICE operations in Massachusetts

Councilors say they are looking out for taxpayers and protecting the city from losing out on $10 million in federal funding by being compliant with federal laws. The vast majority of those funds are in the schools, so it would result in layoffs, massive cuts in programs that would be devastating to the city, said Jourdain.

The order put forward by the two City Councilors also advocates cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security and directives from the federal government, Mayor Garcia said. I want to make clear that it is not up to the City Council to declare such a policy. That decision is up to the mayor. I also want to make clear that we do not do the work of the Department of Homeland Security and ICE.

Below is the full resolution:

Holyoke is not a sanctuary city. Mayor Joshua Garcia has publicly declared that Holyoke is not a sanctuary city. The City Council hereby declares that Holyoke is not a sanctuary city. Holyoke adopted Ordinance 2-68 No elected official, department head or other city employee shall issue any order that shall knowingly violate any law or regulation of the federal, state or local government or the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts or the Charter of the City of Holyoke, or any lawful order of a court of competent jurisdiction. No such order given shall be valid or shall be enforced by the City of Holyoke or its departments. To the extent that Holyoke has been deemed a sanctuary city by the federal government for failing to comply with any federal law or regulation, the Department of Homeland Security should notify the Holyoke City Council and Mayor of its specific violation and what steps are needed to remedy. The City of Holyoke and all of its employees and agents hereby agree to fully comply with all federal laws and regulations. To the extent the city, its employees, or agents have or are violating any federal law or regulation, they shall immediately cease and fully comply. The City of Holyoke requests removal from any identification of our city as a sanctuary city by any federal department or agency.

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ICE begins Operation Patriot 2.0 to target undocumented immigrants in Massachusetts

Mayor Joshua Garcia stated, My administrations position, as reflected in my reissuance of the 2014 Executive Order Relating to the Enforcement of Civil Immigration Detainers in January 2025, is clear: Holyoke police will not honor or enforce civil immigration detainer requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP) if a person would otherwise be released, said Mayor Garcia. This policy, originally established by former Mayor Alex B. Morse, is rooted in Massachusetts law, as affirmed by the 2017 Supreme Judicial Court ruling that local law enforcement cannot detain individuals solely for immigration violations.

My priority as Mayor is to ensure the safety and well-being of all Holyoke residents, regardless of their background. This includes fostering trust between our community and local law enforcement. I have expressed concerns that federal immigration actions, such as the recent Department of Homeland Security announcement allowing ICE and CBP to conduct operations in sensitive areas such as schools and churches, could undermine public safety by making residents hesitant to call 911 or cooperate with police due to fear of deportation.

Holyoke has a proud history of compassion and inclusion, welcoming newcomers and supporting those in need. This does not equate to sanctuary city status; rather, it reflects our commitment to humanitarian values while adhering to state and local laws. My administration is actively monitoring guidance from Governor Maura Healeys office to navigate these complex issues, ensuring we balance our legal obligations with our moral responsibility to protect all residents.

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The proposed order from the councilors is under review. I look forward to engaging in further dialogue with the City Council and our community to ensure our policies reflect both our legal framework and our values as a welcoming city. Public safety depends on trust, communication, and cooperation, and I remain committed to upholding these principles, said Mayor Garcia.

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Leaders at the Second Africa Climate Summit stressed unity ahead of COP30. Credit - Getty Images

The final day of the Second Africa Climate Summit focused on climate finance and African-led solutions as the continents leaders look to present a unified voice ahead of COP30 negotiations in Belem, Brazil in November.

During a conversation on Africas climate finance demands ahead of COP30, panelists discussed the strategy and messages the continent should present at the convention.

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Panelists stressed that Africa should work to keep the momentum seen over the last few years. The creation of the Loss and Damage Fund, which aims to provide financial support to developing countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, was a major victory for developing countries during COP27 in 2022, while the following annual COP28 and COP29 saw countries around the world make financial pledges to the fund.

Richard Sherman, co-chair for the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage noted that funding priorities have changed in much of the global north. He urged countries to be upfront about their funding capacities. A key message that must cometo the developed economy countries, do what you say you will do, he said. And if you do not do that, and you cannot do it, then say so.

In a panel on reforming global climate finance to serve African priorities, panelists spoke about the urgency of moving from a system driven by donor priorities into one that addresses the needs of those impacted.

As more communities around the world face the impact of climate change, financing is only becoming more critical. But our current global financial system is struggling to rise to the challenge, said Hans Olav Ibrekk, special envoy for climate and security with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The current financial system is not fit for the purpose, he said. It's fragmented, it's slow, it's risk averse, and its misaligned with Africa's priorities, and misaligned with many developing countries priorities at large.

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Adaptation solutions, which are crucial to reducing a communitys vulnerability to climate change remain underfundedthough the issue could not be more pressing. The problem lies in a lack of urgency, said Jacob Thoppil, head of partnerships at the Climate Investment Funds: There needs to be an acceptance that we are in a climate crisis.

The summit concluded with a closing plenary, during which Taye Atske Selassie, President of Ethiopia, shared his hopes that Africa will be not just at the table, but setting the global agenda as a continent that is greener, prosperous, and more united.

The momentum shown throughout the days, from financial contributions to conversations that centered climate solutions made by and for Africa, proved that the continent is moving in that direction. Africas future is in Africas hands, said Selassie. And we are building it now.

Coverage of the Second Africa Climate Summit is presented by the Pan Africa Climate Justice Alliance.

Write to Simmone Shah at simmone.shah@time.com.
Sep. 9How contaminated is it? That's one of the questions the New Mexico Environment Department plans to answer with an initial $2.8 million in funding to investigate the newest Albuquerque Superfund site.

NMED will get the federal funds by November to investigate how to clean up the site of two former dry cleaners, where the soil is contaminated by grease removers. With Environmental Protection Agency oversight, NMED will determine what processes can be used to clean up the Simms Avenue site.

The former Carlisle Village Cleaners location was added to the EPA's Superfund National Priorities List in July, making it eligible for federal dollars and marking it as a priority for cleanup. The pollution potentially affects 257 people.

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The first chunk of those federal dollars is on its way, in the form of Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act dollars, according to the office of Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M. It's too early to estimate total cleanup cost, but it is expected to be in the millions of dollars, according to NMED spokesman Jorge Estrada.

Heinrich celebrated the funding award Monday. The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which he supported, put more dollars toward Superfund sites.

"This site hits close to home for me  it was in my city council district, just a few blocks from where I lived," Heinrich, a former Albuquerque city councilor, said in a statement. "That's why I'm proud to welcome $2.8 million to begin investigating and cleaning up the former Carlisle Village Cleaners site."

Why is it contaminated?

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Carlisle Village Cleaners and L&M Laundry and Cleaners operated at the Southeast Albuquerque location from 1953 until 2017, according to an EPA site profile. Those dry cleaners likely used tetrachlorethylene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE), chemicals to remove grease.

Both chemicals are part of an underground gas plume in the area and can be released into the indoor air of homes and businesses. There are 21 single-family homes, 80 ground-floor units in multifamily buildings, 16 commercial structures and two religious institutions that could be affected.

In 2022, the EPA installed air purifiers in Albuquerque properties where the level of PCE was a risk to human health, according to the site profile.

Exposure to high concentrations of PCE can cause dizziness, headache or death, while low-level concentrations can affect mood, memory, attention and vision, according to an EPA fact sheet. Many PCE uses were banned by the EPA in 2024, with a 10-year phaseout for using the chemical in dry cleaning.

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Drilling could start soon

NMED plans to start the investigation in November, and it could take two years, or longer, depending on what the agency finds, according to Estrada.

NMED will start by drilling new wells to monitor soil vapor and groundwater, helping define the extent of the contamination. Previously, contamination was found as deep as 250 feet underground.

The agency also plans to test a cleanup technique by seeing if they can extract soil vapor. That will help them decide if the contamination can be safely removed from the ground and treated on the surface.

NMED has begun planning, and on-site drilling could begin as early as November, depending on federal funding, Estrada said in a statement.
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has asked the US Supreme Court to hear his appeal of the $1.4 billion judgment a Connecticut jury and judge issued against him for calling the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting a hoax staged by crisis actors.

The Infowars host is arguing that the judge was wrong to find him liable for defamation and infliction of emotional distress without holding a trial on the merits of allegations lodged by relatives of victims of the shooting, which killed 20 first graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut.

Judge Barbara Bellis, frustrated at what she called Jones repeated failure to abide by court rulings and to turn over certain evidence to the Sandy Hook families, issued a rare default ruling against Jones and his company in late 2021 as a penalty.

Alex Jones has asked the Supreme Court to hear his appeal of a $1.4 billion ruling against him from a Connecticut judge and jury for calling the Sandy Hook school shooting a hoax. AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File

That meant that she found him liable without a trial on the facts and convened a jury to only determine what damages he owed.

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A six-person jury in Waterbury issued a $964 million verdict in October 2022 in favor of the plaintiffs  an FBI agent who responded to the shooting and relatives of eight children and adults who were killed.

Bellis later tacked on another $473 million in punitive damages against Jones and Free Speech Systems, Infowars parent company that is based in Austin, Texas.

Jones filed his request to the Supreme Court on Friday and it was released by the court on Tuesday.

Jones lawyers  Ben Broocks, Shelby Jordan and Alan Daughtry  insist in the petition that state courts cannot determine liability based only on sanctions such as default rulings.

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They say that constitutional law and Supreme Court precedent require public figures such as the Sandy Hook families to prove their defamation claims against journalists such as Jones.

Plantiff Robbie Parker dropping his head as the verdict awards were read in the Alex Jones defamation trial in Waterbury, Conn. on Oct. 12, 2022. Brian A. Pounds/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP, Pool

They also say that the Connecticut judge imposed the default ruling on Jones based on trivial reasons and that Jones had substantially complied with the courts orders  which the Sandy Hook families lawyers deny.

Jones attorneys further cite First Amendment protections for free speech, saying Jones comments about the school shooting being a hoax were not defamatory but rather expressions of constitutionally protected opinion.

Jones has since said he believed the shooting was 100% real.

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The media landscape is rife with groups challenging various events, including Holocaust denial, moon landing skepticism, 9/11 conspiracy theories, and even flat Earth claims, the petition says. However, such statements critique or dismiss the events themselves, not the character, conduct, or reputation of those associated with them.

Among other claims, Jones petition says the $1.4 billion judgment is excessive punishment under the Eighth Amendment.

If the judgment is allowed to stand, Jones lawyers said it would chill the reporting of news and result in self-censoring fear of suits.

Police responding to the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School as parents evacuate their children on Dec. 14, 2012. AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File

Lawyers for the Sandy Hook families disputed Jones arguments.

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There is no legitimate basis for the US Supreme Court to accept this last gasp from Alex Jones and we will oppose it in due course, Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the families, said in a statement.

A mid-level appellate court in Connecticut upheld all but $150 million of the $1.4 billion judgment in December, and the state Supreme Court declined to hear Jones appeal of that ruling in April.

In a similar defamation lawsuit filed in Texas by the parents of another Sandy Hook victim, Jones was found liable without a trial as punishment for failing to turn over documents. In that case, which also is being appealed, a judge and jury issued a $49 million judgment against Jones in August 2022.

Jones filed for bankruptcy in late 2022.

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In those proceedings, an auction was held in November to liquidate Infowars assets to help pay the defamation judgments, and the satirical news outlet The Onion was named the winning bidder.

But the bankruptcy judge threw out the auction results, citing problems with the process and The Onions bid.

The attempt to sell off Infowars assets has moved to a Texas state court in Austin.

Jones is now appealing a recent order from the court that appointed a receiver to liquidate the assets.

Some of Jones personal property is also being sold off as part of the bankruptcy case.
MOSCOW, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Russia on Wednesday condemned Israel's Tuesday attack on Qatar's capital of Doha as a gross violation of international law and the UN Charter.

"Russia views the incident as a gross violation of international law and the United Nations Charter," Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement, calling the attack a threat to stability in the Middle East.

It said the attack on Qatar, a key mediator in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, strongly undermined international efforts for a peaceful resolution.

Russia calls on all parties involved "to demonstrate a responsible approach and avoid actions that could lead to the degradation of the situation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone," the ministry said.

Moscow further calls for an early ceasefire in Gaza, it said, stressing the importance of a comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue in accordance with international law. 
An Allegheny County man was sentenced to prison for a bank robbery in West Virginia.

According to the United States Attorneys Office, Frank L. Morrison, 59, of Braddock Hills, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Tuesday.

Investigators said Morrison robbed a United Bank in Elm Grove in Wheeling for $4,200 in September 2018.

Police identified him as a suspect after matching DNA evidence with a discarded mask and other items that were found in a nearby dumpster.

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The FBI, West Virginia State Police and Wheeling Police worked together to make the arrest.

Morrison had been convicted of armed bank robbery, robbery and access device fraud in the past.

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American Airlines has announced that it will have non-stop service to Bimini, Bahamas starting next year, making it the only U.S. airline offering non-stop service to the island.

Starting next Valentines Day, travelers looking to experience the islands unique attractions and marine life will be able to fly directly from Miami to Bimini on the airline.

Related: Alaska Airlines launches new route to Reykjavik, Iceland

Heres what you need to know about the new routes.

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Gold Rock Beach on Grand Bahama Island is one of the most beautiful beaches you can visit on a Bahamas cruise.Image source: Alisha dos Santos/TravelHost

American Airlines' new adventure in the Bahamas

According to American Airlines, travelers will be able to book its weekly nonstop flights to Bimini from Miami starting Feb. 14, 2025.

American knows that travelers are looking for unique and varied experiences, and thats why weve added destinations like Bimini to our network, Brian Znotins, Americans senior vice president of network planning, said in a statement.

Related: Everything to know about Frontier Airlines' unlimited flight pass

Travelers looking to take advantage of the new service can look forward to Biminis stunning beachfront resorts, dolphin sightings, snorkeling adventures and world-class big game fishing.

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When the new service launches, American will operate round-trip flights Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays from Miami. Customers can also connect to more than 80 destinations in the U.S. and Canada through those flights.

According to the airline, this will be its seventh destination in the Bahamas including Nassau, North Eleuthera, Marsh Harbour, George Town, Freeport and Governors Harbour.

The airline has also recently added flights to new destinations, including Destin-Fort Walton Beach, Florida; Milan; and Sarasota, Florida, and increased service to Rome and Turks and Caicos.

We recently announced new routes for travelers to explore unique architecture in Prague or Budapest or ski down exciting slopes in Sun Valley, and now were offering a new island option in the Bahamas, Znotins added.

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This story was originally reported by TravelHost on Sep 10, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add TravelHost as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN)  Last year, a settlement agreement with AMR for ambulance service allowed for one EMT and one paramedic to staff some ambulances as a way to improve response times.

But during a board briefing on Tuesday, Multnomah County commissioners received an update on this practice and heard about many troubles.

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Complaints from EMS leaders are that training is not what it should be, response time goals are not being met, and safety events are rising.

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AMR has racked up millions of dollars in fines for delayed response times to 911 calls, but the county has not collected any of that money.

AMR has also increased the number of ambulance crews available and hired more EMTs, but it is struggling to hire more paramedics  saying they have even reached out and recruited paramedics from Australia to fill some of the gaps.

The board heard from some longtime paramedics who believe safety is being compromised without enough training for many new hires.

Training in particular has suffered due to accelerated timelines and compliance pressures, Paramedic Hillary Davis said. EMTs are being placed in the field with as little as eight days of training, often against the recommendations of FTOs, or field training officers. Paramedics with less than a year of experience are being placed into leadership roles before they feel ready  again, by a need to meet numbers rather than readiness.

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Cluster of earthquakes strikes off Oregon Coast within 24 hours

County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson and her EMS staff are proposing to continue their settlement agreement with AMR.

But Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards said she is frustrated by the chair and staff recommending to continue with the settlement agreement when so many concerns were brought up.

Brim-Edwards is pushing for accountability and added that the main goal of increasing response times for critical care is not where it should be.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com.
(Corrects transposed words in the first paragraph)

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than a week after President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. military had blown up a boat off Venezuela, the operation - which killed 11 people - largely remains a mystery to many in Washington.

Trump's team released a video of the Sept. 2 strike and said it killed members of a Venezuelan gang transporting drugs. Still, officials have not identified who was on board, what illicit drugs were on the boat or how the attack was carried out.

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Some experts questioned whether the decision to summarily kill people merely on suspicion of smuggling drugs violated international law. Trafficking in an illegal substance is not normally considered a capital offence.

Officials have given changing versions of where the boat was going. Shortly after the attack, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that the boat was probably headed to the Caribbean nation Trinidad & Tobago and Trump said it was headed for the U.S.. Rubio later amended his comment.

In a break with tradition, Congress was not briefed in the week following the strike, beyond a legally mandated written notice. This angered Democratic lawmakers, and analysts said it was unusual.

"Usually, you see much more robust engagement" from a presidential administration, said Scott Anderson, a fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution. "A week after, if they still have not given a briefing on what happened and why... that is strange."

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Critics said the action in international waters was the latest example of Trump testing the limit of the law as he expands the scope of presidential power. The U.S. Constitution requires that Congress, not the president, must declare war.

In the notice to Congress, Trump cited the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans due to drug trafficking and said the vessel "was assessed to be affiliated with a designated terrorist organization and to be engaged in illicit drug trafficking activities."

Trump has accused Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of running the Tren de Aragua gang, which Washington has designated a terrorist organization. Maduro has denied any connection to the gang, and Caracas says it was rendered inactive two years ago.

But experts said Trump's explanation did not address concerns that the strike violated international law. They noted that civilians were killed, while the Trump administration provided no evidence of what the vessel was carrying and did not establish that those on board threatened armed attack.

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"Using the word 'terrorist' doesn't change the facts," Tess Bridgeman, a co-editor-in-chief at Just Security and a senior fellow at New York University law school, said in a social media post.

"If this is what it seems - laying the ground for using force in Venezuela, or elsewhere, without consent - it could portend an illegal and unnecessary war of choice," she wrote.

FEW DETAILS

The sketchy details about the killing of the alleged cartel members contrasted with how the Trump administration has handled other military actions, even since the start of his second term in January.

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After the June bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities, the administration held briefings for members of Congress and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff met with the press to explain the operation.

Experts noted that drug interdictions normally would involve the U.S. Coast Guard disabling a boat, which would then be seized and its crew arrested and tried.

"We don't even know what drugs are on this boat, what evidence there is," said David Smilde, a Venezuela expert at Tulane University.

Smilde said the "go-fast" boats typically used in the drugs trade normally would carry far fewer than 11 people, making it possible that at least some of those on board were refugees.

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Tensions between Venezuela and the U.S. have escalated in the wake of the Republican president's new approach to what he says is a war on illegal narcotics.

Trump has ordered the deployment of 10 F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico to conduct operations against drug cartels, and has sent at least seven warships to the Caribbean, carrying more than 4,500 sailors and Marines.

Marines and sailors from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit have also been carrying out amphibious training and flight operations in southern Puerto Rico.

FURTHER MILITARY ACTION POSSIBLE

U.S. officials have not ruled out further action. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told the troops on Monday that they were not deployed to the Caribbean for training but instead sent to the "front lines" of a critical counter-narcotics mission.

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Members of Congress who typically would have been briefed about a major operation said they had been provided with little or no information.

"We have not received any sort of detailed explanation from the White House as to who the target was, what the intelligence was behind it, why the strike was taken," Representative Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said on Monday.

Smith noted that an administration briefing for Congress on the incident had been scheduled for Friday, but was postponed until this week.

Republican Senator Rand Paul said it was a "worrisome policy" to blow up suspected drug dealers, without trial.

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"Here we're just assuming there'll not be any problems, just by blowing up boats? Does anybody know people's names? Is anybody going to present evidence as to what they are doing?" Paul told reporters on Monday evening.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; additional reporting by Idrees Ali, Richard Cowan and Simon Lewis; editing by Don Durfee and David Gregorio)
Whole troll-caught king salmon offered for sale is seen on June 23 at New Sagaya Market in Anchorage. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

Last year, Alaska and Canada set a new goal for the number of king salmon returning up the Yukon River and into Canadas Yukon Territory.

Now, fish counters show 2025 returns have again failed to meet that target after missing in 2024 as well.

Through Aug. 28, when officials at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game stopped counting, an estimated 23,806 Chinook salmon  informally known as kings  had been counted by workers at the sonar site at Eagle, just west of the Yukon border.

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Under international agreements, the United States is supposed to allow a minimum number of fish to travel upriver and into the Yukon to maintain the king salmon run and allow fishing in the territory.

Last year, following years of poor returns, officials in Alaska and Canada agreed to restrict king salmon fishing, including Indigenous subsistence fishing, of king salmon on the river until stocks rebound.

The ultimate goal of the agreement is to rebuild the number of king salmon returning until 71,000 kings reach Canada each summer.

This years figures are slightly lower than they were last year, when 24,183 kings reached Canada, but are nearly double the low of 2022, when only an estimated 12,025 kings returned.

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King salmon returns on the Yukon River have steadily declined since 2017, when 73,313 fish passed the sonar at Eagle.

Attention now falls on the Yukon Rivers much larger chum salmon run, which is also expected to fail international treaty obligations. As of Sept. 7, ADF&G estimates 276,000 fall chums in the Yukon River, less than a third of the historical run size.

A run size below 300,000 fall chum salmon is not anticipated to be large enough to meet U.S. tributary goals or Canadian treaty objectives for fall chum salmon, the department said in an estimate published Tuesday.

As a result of the shortfall, subsistence fishing for chum salmon, a vital part of Alaska Native traditional culture, continues to be suspended.

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Changes in deep-ocean conditions caused by climate change, warming river conditions caused by climate change, commercial fishing, and endemic disease have all been cited as possible reasons for the declining salmon runs.

Correction: The new king salmon escapement goal enacted in 2024 was higher, not lower, than the prior figure. This article has been updated.
NBCUniversal is the latest company to bring workers back to the office.

The company is now requiring its workers to come into the office at least four days a week starting at the beginning of 2026.

The return to office directive comes just days after rival Paramount ordered its employees to be in the office five days a week.

According to an NBCUniversal memo obtained by Business Insider, workers who refuse to comply with the return to office mandate can get a voluntary exit assistance package.

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Heres what you need to know about the return to office directive for NBCUniversal.

What are the details of NBCUniversals return-to-office memo?

Starting Jan. 5, 2026, NBCUniversal employees would be required to be in the office four days a week, with the option to work remotely on Fridays, according to the company.

Employees who refuse to comply with the upcoming mandate were instructed to contact human resources, with whom they can discuss the possibility of a buyout.

NBCUniversals return to office mandate is similar to its parent company Comcast, where employees have been mandated to appear in the office four days a week since Sept. 2023.

Comcast is also splitting its cable network channels into a new company called Versant, which includes networks such as CNBC and MSNBC, by the end of 2025.

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The employees going to Versant were not affected by this return to office memo.

What will NBCUniversal workers who take the severance package receive?

NBCUniversal workers who opt not to return to the office at least four days a week will have the option to take a severance package.

According to Business Insider, the employees who discuss the severance package with their manager by Oct. 3, 2025, will get eight weeks of base pay, three months of healthcare coverage with medical, dental and vision after they leave the company, as well as full bonus eligibility.

The severance package is available to all NBCUniversal employees at VP level or below who work on a hybrid schedule and are based in the U.S. or the U.K.

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Those who are on collective bargaining agreements, employees located outside the U.S. and U.K. and employees hired on a contract basis are possibly exceptions to the buyout.

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Joint Performance Review Committee Co-Chair Sen. Terry Rice watches recorded video of previous testimony given by Joe Profiri, former corrections secretary and current staffer for Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, at a hearing on the Franklin County prison on Sept. 9, 2025. (Photo by Ainsley Platt/Arkansas Advocate)

A motion to subpoena the former secretary of the Arkansas Department of Corrections failed on a voice vote of senators on the Joint Performance Review Committee during a hearing Tuesday on alleged impropriety in the site selection process for the Franklin County prison.

Multiple legislators voiced anger over Joe Profiris absence at the hearing, which was called in response to a petition by Adam Watson and Natalie Cadena, members of a coalition of opponents to the location of the 3,000-bed prison near Charleston.

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The committee did not take any action during the four-hour hearing, with JPR Co-Chair Sen. Terry Rice of Waldron saying the hearing was primarily informational and for the sake of transparency. He thanked Watson and Cadena for their presentation.

Joe Profiri

The Board of Corrections fired Profiri at the beginning of 2024 after weeks of tensions between him and board members. After he was fired, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders hired him to advise her on corrections matters  but Watson and Cadena alleged in their petition and during the hearing that Profiri is still deeply involved in running the department. Sanders tapped Lindsay Wallace, Profiris then chief of staff, as his replacement, and the board agreed to hire her.

Watson said Profiris continued involvement in the proposed prison after Wallaces appointment amounts to duplication of two high-salaried positions.

Rep. Jim Wooten, R-Beebe, expressed frustration over water supply issues at the site and anger over Profiris failure to appear before the committee despite being invited by committee co-chairs Rice and Rep. Bruce Cozart of Hot Springs. Wooten said he is for the prison, but after hearing the detailed presentation from Watson and Cadena, he said the location we picked is the wrong one. He criticized selecting the site without the many preliminary tests necessary to determine if the site was truly viable, such as soil testing.

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Somebody needs to kick the chair back and tell the governor how it is, Wooten said. For one, Im furious about the fact that Mr. [Profiri], whatever his name is, from Arizona, didnt get here.  Committee members, thats a slap at every one of you that the governors office is not here.

I think it is a slap at this body not to even answer us and say he cannot be here, Rice said.

Sam Dubke, a spokesperson for Sanders, said her office would continue to meet with legislators to answer questions and get the prison built.

The Governors Office provided the committee with two experts [from the Division of Building Authority] who have been intimately involved in the Franklin County prison project, and since the announcement of the new prison, the Governors team has held a town hall in Franklin County to answer questions from the community and has been in contact with Franklin County leaders, Dubke said in a text message.

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Many local community members, however, remain adamantly against the prisons location, accusing the state of not talking with them nor listening to their concerns. That anger drove the petition submitted by Watson and Cadena. Their complaint argues that:

It is improper for Arkansas taxpayers to be burdened with supporting the salary of two leaders of the Department of Corrections.

It is an improper use of taxpayer funds to pay a consultant for a task while simultaneously having an unqualified state agency perform the same task.

Expending taxpayer funds on a capital project without funding for such [a] project is irresponsible and improper.

Failing to conduct proper due diligence on real property prior to its purchase is irresponsible and improper.

Watson and Cadenas presentation primarily focused on point four  whether the state had done proper due diligence when selecting the site. They argued the area didnt have sufficient infrastructure  from water sources to suitable roads to a sufficient workforce  to support a prison for 3,000 people, and that the state didnt conduct any adequate testing until after the purchase of the 810-acre property.

They presented legislators in attendance with internal communications and documents obtained via the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act that they said showed due diligence had not been done. By the end of the presentation, some lawmakers expressed their concerns, but many remained silent.

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Rep. Jon Eubanks, R-Paris, who represents parts of Franklin County, said that if half of what Watson and Cadena presented to the committee was accurate, then he didnt believe the state had done what it needed to do.

I dont think we should expect our state employees necessarily to have the expertise to make these decisions, Eubanks said, adding that he wasnt blaming state employees for that. There seems to be an unwillingness to even consider another site at this point, and I dont understand that either.

Rep. Brit McKenzie, R-Rogers, asked Anne Laidlaw, director of the Division of Building Authority, and Shelby Johnson, who heads the geographic information services office, whether they had been asked to consider other sites for the prison since Sanders announced the decision to locate the prison in Franklin County last year. They said no.

Republican Sen. Jimmy Hickey Jr. of Texarkana said he was at the hearing to find a way to vote to fund the prisons construction, but all Im doing is getting further and further and further away. An appropriations bill to fund prison construction, authored by Republican Sen. Jonathan Dismang of Searcy, was voted down in the Senate five times before the 2025 regular session ended earlier this year. Hickey voted no each time.

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Obviously, with whats come out, this isnt going to work, Hickey said. I heard you say earlier that an existing water line had the potential to supply the prison, well, the potential is going to cost how much more now?

Some of the criticism relating to the prison site came from allegations that the state didnt follow its own site selection criteria. Watson pointed to criteria for community buy-in as a chief example of this. Watson and Cadena also argued that DBA staff were not qualified to do the site selection.

Johnson and Laidlaw said they made recommendations on the site, but didnt make the final decision. And Johnson pushed back on Watsons assertion that his staff wasnt qualified, rattling off the academic credentials of the eight staffers who worked on evaluating sites for the prison.

I have one registered forester on staff. I have one person on my staff thats a level four certified appraiser from the Assessment Coordination Division. And I also have two licensed surveyors, Johnson said, in addition to multiple masters and bachelors degrees in a variety of fields. When we put that team all together, I have over 100 years of combined experience  I would like to make sure that the committee is aware that we, we did have experience.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.  Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced Monday that the Arkansas National Guard will begin supporting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with immigration enforcement across the state  a move drawing both strong support and vocal opposition.

Under the Title 32 program, up to 40 unarmed Arkansas National Guard personnel  including 27 Air National Guard Airmen and 13 Army National Guard Soldiers  will be deployed to assist with logistical and administrative duties. The guardsmen will not be involved in making arrests but will help transport detainees, process paperwork and provide clerical support to ICE agents.

1,700 National Guard troops to assist ICE in 19 states, including Arkansas

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Personnel will be stationed in Little Rock (18), Fort Smith (10), Fayetteville (10), and Camp Robinson (2) for command and control operations. The federal government will fully fund the mission.

Violent, criminal illegal immigrants have no place in Arkansas, Sanders said in a statement. I signed the Defense Against Criminal Illegals Act to hold these criminals accountable and I look forward to our guardsmen working with the Trump administration to enforce federal immigration law.

The announcement comes following a May request from the Department of Homeland Security for National Guard support nationwide. The Department of Defense approved the request in July, contingent on approval from individual governors.

The decision has sparked mixed reactions from Arkansas residents and civil rights groups.

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I for one embrace the service, said Levester Boyland III of Little Rock. To have them here on the ground and doing what needs to be done to fulfill the obligation and what the governor says needs to be done  I think is an awesome thing.

Boyland, who has lived in Arkansas for 30 years, acknowledged the plan would be controversial.

Its going to suck in a lot of ways, because a lot of Americans have made good alliances and friendships with people that are going to have to depart, Boyland said. But were prepared for it.

Gov. Sanders announces National Guard deployment to assist in ICE operations in Arkansas

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Others expressed concern over the plans intent and implications.

It seems like pretty overkill, said Macon Brewer of North Little Rock. I feel like not all, but some immigrants that arent supposed to be here help push the economy in different ways. I just dont feel its necessary for the Arkansas National Guard to be out there.

Brewer also questioned whether the funds and resources allocated to this mission could be better used elsewhere, such as in education or improved police enforcement. I dont think certain groups of people are more likely to be violent, he said. Wild things are done by all kinds of people  they should be punished, regardless of immigration status.

The ACLU of Arkansas condemned the move, calling it a misuse of state military resources and a threat to civil liberties.

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This is an abuse of power that jeopardizes Arkansans rights and safety, said Holly Dickson, executive director of the ACLU of Arkansas in a statement. Governor Sanders is using our states servicemembers to advance a fear and race-based political agenda at the expense of civil liberties, Arkansas families and our most fundamental constitutional principles.

Dickson also raised concerns about the legal jeopardy guardsmen could face and the potential for civil rights violations, despite their limited role in enforcement.

The deployment is part of a broader effort by Republican-led states and the Trump administration to strengthen immigration enforcement nationwide. Since returning to office in January, President Donald Trump has declared a national emergency at the southern border. According to federal data, illegal border crossings fell to 8,300 in February 2025  a 94% decrease from the same time last year.

In Arkansas, recent high-profile cases have heightened political attention on the issue. In January, Arkansas State Police arrested Luis Danielle Valdez-Reyes, an undocumented immigrant accused of assaulting a trooper. In another case, Elias Avila Bustillo, wanted in El Salvador for gang activity, was arrested in November, all according to the Governors press release on the deployment.

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Cornhusker Clink: What to know about the newest DHS migrant detention center

Sanders has previously deployed Arkansas National Guard troops to the southern border and has visited Texas to show support for border security efforts. Earlier this year, she signed the Defense Against Criminal Illegals Act, which increases penalties for undocumented immigrants who commit crimes, expands the states sanctuary city ban and mandates local law enforcement participation in federal immigration programs.

Despite the support from state leadership, debate continues locally over the National Guards role in immigration enforcement  and whether it will increase safety or deepen community divides.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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WELLINGTON, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand recorded a rise in international travel in July, with overseas visitor arrivals reaching 236,600, up 14,700 from a year earlier, the statistics department Stats NZ reported Wednesday.

Visitor arrivals from Australia surged by 17,700 to 126,700, the highest ever for a July month, coinciding with school holidays, Stats NZ said.

July's overseas visitor arrivals were 93 percent of pre-pandemic levels in 2019, it said

Of all overseas visitors in July, 55 percent came from Australia, 10 percent from China, 6 percent from the United States, and 3 percent each from Britain and Japan, statistics show.

New Zealand-resident traveler arrivals reached 321,900 in July, up 8,000 from July 2024, or 95 percent of July 2019 levels, Stats NZ said.

Arrivals from Australia increased by 9,300 in July 2025, while more residents travelled from Japan and the Philippines. Travel from Indonesia hit a record 14,100 for the month, it said.

For the year to July 2025, overseas visitor arrivals totaled 3.39 million, up 169,000 from the July 2024 year, led by strong growth from Australia, Britain, and the U.S., it said, adding resident traveler arrivals rose to 3.05 million in the July 2025 year, up 111,000 annually, with China a record annual destination.

Border crossings in July totaled 1.08 million, or 91 percent of the pre-pandemic July 2019 volumes, statistics showed. 
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP)  Residents of Nepal's capital rushed to buy groceries Thursday morning when the army briefly lifted a curfew it imposed to quell violent protests that toppled the country's government, as confusion set in about who would govern the Himalayan nation.

Nepal army, which took control of the capital Tuesday night after two days of protests that burned government buildings and businesses, lifted the curfew for four hours Thursday morning. People rushed to buy rice, vegetables and meat, while others took the opportunity to pray at Hindu temples.

Armed soldiers were guarding the streets, checking vehicles and offering assistance to those in need.

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It remained unclear who would take control of the government as the search for an interim leader continued.

Nepalis wonder who's in charge

When the protests prompted Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli to resign Tuesday, the countrys ceremonial President Ram Chandra Poudel asked him to lead a transitional government until a new one could be put in place. But Oli fled from his official residence, and his whereabouts were not clear.

Residents of the capital wondered who was in charge. "I feel there should be an election soonest and new leaders who are able to work for the country should be elected, said Sanu Bohara, a shop owner. After all this what we need is peace. I feel there should not have been so much destruction, but that has already happed.

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Anup Keshar Thapa, a retired government officer who was looking at the charred official residences of ministers, said it was not clear who would lead the country and if people would actually listen to them. If the protests had gone in an organized way, it would be clear who was leading," he said.

Representatives of the protesters met with military officials at the army headquarters in Kathmandu on Wednesday to discuss a transitional leader, with some of them pushing for Sushila Karki, a popular former chief justice.

Rehan Raj Dangal, a representative of the protesters, said his group has proposed to military leaders that Karki head an interim government. Karki, the only woman to serve as chief justice of Nepals Supreme Court, was a popular figure when she served in the post in 2016 and 2017.

However, other protesters among a crowd gathered outside the army headquarters opposed Karki.

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Anger at social media ban triggered protests

Demonstrations by thousands of protesters were sparked Monday by a short-lived government ban on social media. platforms including Facebook, X and YouTube, which the government said had failed to register and submit to oversight.

The protests drew a police crackdown in which officers opened fire, and escalated Tuesday with attacks on government buildings.

The social media ban was lifted on Tuesday, but the demonstrations continued, fueled by rage over the deaths of protesters, which protesters blamed on police.

The protests spiraled to reflect broader discontent. Many young people are angry about nepo kids of political leaders who seem to enjoy luxury lifestyles and numerous advantages while most youth struggle to find work.

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With youth unemployment running at about 20% last year, according to the World Bank, the government estimates that more than 2,000 young people leave the country every day to seek work in the Middle East or Southeast Asia.

Protesters set fires at the the parliament building, the presidential residence, the central secretariat that houses the offices of the prime minister and key ministries, and the prime ministers official residence.

Smoke was still rising from those buildings on Wednesday.

The building of Kantipur publication, Nepals biggest media outlet, also was torched and damaged. Car showrooms were also torched and burned-out vehicles dotted the streets.

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The military takes control

The military is rarely mobilized in Nepal, and soldiers initially stayed in their barracks as police lost control of the situation. Late Tuesday, the security forces started to mobilize, saying they were committed to preserving law and order.

The overall death toll in the violence has reached 30, the Health Ministry said Wednesday, with 1,033 people injured. The death and injuries were rising as reports were trickling in from other parts of the country about the casualties.

On Wednesday, soldiers quelled a jailbreak in the heart of Kathmandu. Inmates at the main jail had overpowered guards, set fire to buildings and tried to escape. Soldiers fired into the air, apprehended the escaping inmates and transferred them to other jails. No injuries were reported.
The City of Atlanta has opened Azalea Fresh Market, its first municipal grocery store, in Downtown Atlanta through a unique public-private partnership.

The store, which opened Monday, aims to address food insecurity and promote economic growth in the area.

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This grocery store is not just a place to shopit is a community hub that will serve neighborhood residents, said Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens.

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Dr. Eloisa Klementich, president and CEO of Invest Atlanta, stated, The opening of the citys first municipal grocery store will not only enhance access to fresh, affordable food but also stimulate local job growth.

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Azalea Fresh Market is located in the historic Olympia Building. Organizers aim to provide affordable, fresh and healthy food options to a community where 14% experience food insecurity.

The store is expected to serve more than 5,500 people per month and has an estimated total economic impact of more than $6 million a year.

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The design and operations of the store were a collaborative effort involving Invest Atlanta, the Mayors Office of Cultural Affairs, Savi Provisions, and students from the Savannah College of Art and Design.

Azalea Fresh Market offers a wide range of products, including fresh produce, dairy, meats and pantry staples, with a focus on sourcing from local farmers and suppliers.

The store also features prepared food, sushi from Atlantas High Roller Sushi and an in-store coffee shop by Dope Coffee.

Paul Nair, founder and CEO of Savi Provisions, expressed his commitment to making Azalea Fresh Market a truly accessible and homegrown concept.

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John Ross, CEO of the Independent Grocers Alliance, highlighted the role of independent grocers in providing access to fresh, affordable food in underserved neighborhoods.

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HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT)  In less than 48 hours, two Huntsville Police officers were arrested and charged with DUI over the weekend.

Both arrests came after separate car crashes involving the officers, who were off-duty at the time.

Huntsville Police Chief release statement following two officers arrest for DUI

The Huntsville Police Department said HPD Officer Scott Hartman was arrested and charged with DUI after a crash early Saturday morning. HPD said the crash happened around 2:30am at the intersection of Church Street and Wheeler Avenue, less than .3 miles from HPD Headquarters.

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HPD said the driver of the second vehicle involved in the crash was taken to the hospital for minor injuries. Officer Hartman, who was off-duty during the crash, has been placed on administrative leave.

Sunday night, around 11:30 p.m., another off-duty HPD officer was involved in a crash. HPD said Officer George Wheeler III crashed his car in a neighborhood off Bailey Cove Road.

A spokesperson for HPD said the crash happened near the intersection of W Tuliptree Dr SE and Nadina DR SE. The Huntsville Police Department said Wheeler III was charged with Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol.

Second Huntsville police officer charged with DUI while off-duty

Hunter Garnett, an attorney with Garnett Patterson Injury Lawyers LLC, applauds HPD for arresting two of their own.

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I think it takes courage as a police officer to arrest one of your own colleagues, Garnett said.

News 19 reached out to Garnett to learn more about the consequences of a DUI arrest.

If its your first offense, you could be facing jail time; its not typical to serve much jail time, as well as a fine and some restrictions on your drivers license, Garnett said.

HPD arrest off-duty officer for DUI following wreck

While these two cases are still under investigation, Garnett said its possible that prosecutors could factor in a harsher punishment for the officers if they are found guilty.

If I was a prosecutor and a police officer was arrested for DUI and was found guilty for DUI, I would be strongly considering a punishment thats a little more aggressive, Garnett said.

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One thing that concerns me is as a police officer, you see the most awful accidents and crime imaginable, Garnett said. Theres no doubt that these officers have worked DUI accidents where people were seriously injured or even killed.

Im disappointed in these police officers because if the allegations are true and he was drinking and driving, despite seeing all these accidents and the effects of drinking and driving, thats concerning to me, it shows a lack of remorse, Garnett added.

At this time, HPD has not responded to News 19s question asking if either officer was driving HPD vehicles at the time of the crashes. Tuesday, HPD Chief Kirk Giles released a statement on the incidents. Click here to read that.

Giles said internal investigations are underway in both cases.

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The arrests of the two officers come just days after HPD wrapped up its Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over DUI awareness campaign. HPD arrested 53 people during that more than two-week effort.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHNT.com.
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF)  Augusta park goers are on camera, and every picture tells a story.



There was one park, cant remember the name of it, where the only person who showed up there was somebody mowing the grass. Those particular parks, you would actually close, said Abie Ladson of I.S.M. Engineering.



For the past month or so, 136 cameras have been documenting activity in Augusta parks.



The ISM Engineer is telling commissioners its analysis of usage will be ready by the end of this month as commissioners look to consider closing underused parks.



We got some really nice parks in Augusta, and we talk about maintaining and making things look good in Augusta. Lets make those parks look good. Let them shine. Get rid of the others, said Commissioner Catherine Smith Rice.



The usage survey will allow city leaders to see what parks are popular and those that arent but even with this data closing parks will be easier said than done.



Its not going to be an easy thing to do and its not something we should take lightly because it is there community, a park is a community. You take away their park, you take away their community, said Commissioner Francine Scott.

The city is facing a $7 million-dollar shortfall in next years budget after COVID money ran out. So a decision on closing parks could come sooner rather than later.



By divesting in parks that are underutilized, it gives the commission more dollars to invest in parks that are more utilized. That means more money for your favorite places, said Commissioner Jordan Johnson.

By the end of September, commissioners will have a good picture of what parks are peoples favorites.

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By Christine Chen and Stefica Nicol Bikes

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A vaccine to protect Australia's koalas against chlamydia has been approved for the first time, a development that scientists believe could stop the spread of the deadly disease that has ravaged populations of the beloved endangered animal.

Chlamydia, which also affects humans, accounts for up to half of all koala deaths in the wild.

"Some individual colonies are edging closer to local extinction every day," Peter Timms, professor of microbiology at the University of the Sunshine Coast said in a statement on Wednesday. His team spent more than a decade developing the single-dose vaccine.

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Transmitted through direct contact such as mating and sometimes to offspring during birth, chlamydia can cause infertility and blindness in koalas as well as severe urinary tract infections where the marsupials end up so dehydrated that they can't climb trees to get their food.

In some populations in the states of Queensland and New South Wales, infection rates are often around 50% and sometimes as high as 70%, Timms said.

The vaccine could reduce the likelihood of koalas developing symptoms of chlamydia during breeding age and cut mortality among wild koalas by at least 65%.

"It offers three levels of protection - reducing infection, preventing progression to clinical disease and, in some cases, reversing existing symptoms," he said.

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Microbiologist Samuel Phillips, who worked with Timms on the vaccine, told Reuters it took 15 years to refine the formula, combining three chlamydia protein targets and an adjuvant into a single dose.

That means "we don't have to catch the koalas multiple times and bring them back to the hospitals," he said.

Phillips said up to 500 doses were being made so that they could be rolled out by early next year, but more funding was needed to ramp up production.

"We've already been getting calls from wildlife hospitals asking for the vaccine," he said.

"We estimate that they'll need at least 1,000 to 2,000 doses per year, and that's not including the programme to go out and try and protect koala populations."

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Development of the vaccine has been supported by A$749,000 ($495,000) from the government's A$76 million fund to save koalas. Much of the rest of the fund has been allocated to large habitat restoration projects and the national monitoring program.

Koalas were listed as endangered in 2022 in Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. Australia's national koala monitoring program estimates that between 95,000 and 238,000 koalas are left in those areas.

Another 129,000 to 286,000 koalas are estimated to live in the states of Victoria and South Australia.

Koala numbers have halved in the past two decades due to infectious disease, habitat loss, climate change and bushfires, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature.

($1 = 1.5156 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Christine Chen and Stefica Nicol Bikes in Sydney; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
By Kirsty Needham

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia said it will spend A$1.7 billion ($1.1 billion) on a fleet of "Ghost Shark" autonomous undersea vehicles, developed by its defence force and U.S. startup Anduril Industries, for surveillance and strikes.

Defence Minister Richard Marles told reporters on Wednesday the Ghost Shark will complement Australia's navy surface fleet and submarines to provide "a more capable and more lethal navy".

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Dozens of Ghost Sharks will be built in Australia, with opportunities to export to allies, Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said.

"It has the capability to conduct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and strike at extremely long distances from the Australian continent," Conroy said, adding that the first Ghost Sharks will be in service from January 2026.

Australian defence officials declined to give details on how far the Ghost Shark can range, or how many will be built at Anduril's Australian factory.

Australia separately plans to buy and build nuclear-powered submarines with Britain and the United States from the early 2030s under the AUKUS programme to counter China's rapid navy build up in the Indo-Pacific region.

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Chief of Navy Mark Hammond said the Ghost Shark can operate over long distances from Australian bases, navy vessels and also be transported by military aircraft to "be deployed forward".

"The undersea battle space will continue to be increasingly contested and increasingly congested, but ultimately that is the most opaque environment on the planet and I believe our allies and partners will continue to enjoy a capability advantage in that space," Hammond said.

As the U.S. presidential administration under Donald Trump reviews AUKUS it has urged Australia to increase defence spending; however Marles said the Ghost Shark fleet is funded within the existing defence budget.

The contract with Anduril Australia covers the delivery, maintenance and continued development of the Ghost Shark over the next five years, officials said.

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Anduril has been readying a facility in New South Wales for production ahead of any contract. It began working with Australia's defence force on the development of the Ghost Shark in 2022.

The Ghost Shark had gone rapidly from concept to production in three years because the Royal Australian Navy had taken on shared risk, Anduril Industries said in a statement.

"For years, Australia has faced the persistent and threatening presence of Chinese naval assets in its home waters. Ghost Shark ...can directly address this challenge through coastal defence patrols and area-wide domain awareness powered by artificial intelligence at scale," the Anduril Industries statement said.

Australia's Defence Science and Technology Group has said it wants to incorporate autonomous technology into the defence force because Australia has a vast coastline and up to 3 million square kilometres (1.2 million square miles) of northern ocean that needs to be defended, but only a relatively sparse population.

($1 = 1.5168 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Kirsty Needham; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Louise Heavens)
Baltimore City Community College faculty, staff, union leaders, students and other supporters rally at the college Tuesday in support of fair and timely wages. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters)

Laura Pope will teach an eight-week class at Baltimore City Community College through Oct. 17 this semester, but said she wont get paid until May 2026.

Were basically working without getting paid, said Pope, who has worked at the college since 2013 and is currently a professor of English, communications and humanities. Administration started a policy where, instead of getting paid in the semester when we teach a class, we dont get paid until later in the school year.

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Hers was one of many grievances that professors brought to a rally Tuesday to protest the fact that almost a year after unionizing they still have no contract with the college. A few dozen faculty, students, union leaders and other supporters at the rally had a simple message: Pay staff fair and timely wages.

For the past several years, rallygoers said, some faculty have received pay that was a few weeks to several months late. Union leaders said some employees endure inaccurate payments, or none at all. When classes started on Aug. 25, union leaders said, more than 50 had no instructor.

Laura Pope, a Baltimore City Community College professor, speaks at a rally Tuesday for fair and timely wages, among other demands to college leadership. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters)

This is unacceptable and causes unnecessary disruptions and barriers to the academic progress of our students, said Angelique Cook-Hayes, an assistant professor of English at the college for more than 12 years.

These issues have damaged our college community and have occurred for far too long. It is time for the community to stand together and speak out, Cook-Hayes said.

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To address the problems, full-time faculty at the college certified United Academics of Maryland in October 2024, an affiliate of American Federation of Teachers-Maryland.

AFT Maryland President Kenya Campbell said Tuesday she hopes college administration does right by the staff.

We want to be a partner in this work. We have a couple of ideas, but again, were not the ones cutting the check, she said. But I think we have enough experience and ideas that we can talk it through and find a really, really good, effective resolution to the problem.

After rallying for about 25 minutes, faculty and supporters walked to the administration building to deliver a list of demands to College President Debra McCurdy. They were greeted instead by Michael Thomas, the vice president of workforce development and continuing education, who took the list from Ryan Castle, AFT Maryland higher ed organizer, before everyone left the lobby.

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The list of requests includes:

Timely and accurate pay for all faculty, including overload and adjunct work;

Transparent communication and accountability from BCCC administration;

Hiring and staffing solutions to fill vacant courses and reduce student impact; and

Support for all faculty and respect for collective bargaining rights.

Shortly after the rally, the college released a statement to acknowledge and respect the faculty unions right to rally to express its priorities.

The College remains committed to the collective bargaining process and is negotiating in good faith to reach a fair and sustainable agreement that recognizes the invaluable contributions of our faculty, the statement said. We believe that a successful resolution must be one that not only provides competitive wages and benefits but also ensures the long-term financial health of the College for the benefit of all members of our community  including our students, staff, and taxpayers.

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SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE

But it went on to say that we firmly believe the most productive path forward is at the bargaining table. We urge the unions leadership to continue engaging with us constructively so we can conclude these negotiations and provide stability for our faculty and the entire College community.

McCurdy was not a focus of the rally  her name was only mentioned once, as rallying faculty walked to deliver the list of demands  but she was clearly on the minds of some union leaders Tuesday.

I dont know if the president or the leader of this institution is missing paychecks, but I highly doubt it, said Baltimore AFL-CIO President Courtney Jenkins. I bet if they did, this issue would not be an issue.

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One particular issue is the lack of specialized supplies, like jackets, for students in the dental hygiene program, said Gwen Farmer, a clinical instructor in the dental hygiene clinic. Farmer, an adjunct professor at the college, also recalled being paid about two months late.

I come here not for the money. I come here to teach and educate, and like to be compensated and get a little something for doing it right, said Farmer, a 2000 graduate of the college who works in a dental office and does dental hygiene work at nursing homes.

Campbell, the AFT president, said she remains hopeful.

Im hoping that they have heard our loud voices. They have seen our presence and, more importantly, the demands that we had in writing that we handed over to them, she said.
NEW YORK CITY (PIX11)  As the number of mosquitoes that test positive for West Nile Virus continues to rise, the New York City Department of Health will conduct another round of pesticide spraying.

The Department of Healths data shows that over 1,200 mosquitoes have tested positive across the five boroughs since July. The most positive hits have come in Queens, according to officials.

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While the number of positive mosquitoes has risen gradually, only two human cases have been confirmed, both coming in Queens.

The next round of sprayings will be conducted in parts of Brooklyn and Staten Island, officials announced. Heres when and where:

Brooklyn

Tuesday, Sept. 9: Between 8:30 p.m. and 6 a.m. Wednesday

Zip Codes: 11204, 11209, 11214, 11219, 11223, 11235, 11228 and 11229

If delayed for weather, spraying will be on Wednesday between 8:30 p.m. and 6 a.m. Thursday

Staten Island

Thursday, Sept. 11: Between 8:30 p.m. and 6 a.m. Friday

Zip Codes: 10301, 10302, 10304, 10310 and 10314

If delayed for weather, spraying will be on Monday, Sept. 15, between 8:30 p.m. and 6 a.m. Tuesday

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Health officials suggest staying indoors whenever possible during sprayings and washing skin and clothing if exposed to pesticides.

Spencer Gustafson is a digital content producer from Long Island who has covered New York state and city news since 2023. See more of his work here.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11.
Ding Xuexiang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, and vice premier of the State Council, delivers a keynote speech at the Global Trade in Services Summit of the 2025 China International Fair for Trade in Services, in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 10, 2025. (Xinhua/Ding Lin)

BEIJING, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Global Trade in Services Summit of the 2025 China International Fair for Trade in Services was held in Beijing on Wednesday.

A congratulatory letter from President Xi Jinping was read out at the summit by Yin Li, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee.

Ding Xuexiang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and vice premier of the State Council, delivered a keynote speech at the summit.

Amid a notable rise in unilateralism and protectionism, China has steadily advanced institutional opening up in trade in services, which has provided strong momentum for its own development while also creating greater room for global economic growth, Ding noted.

China is willing to work with all countries and parties to strengthen opening up and cooperation in services trade, and promote growth in global trade and world economy, Ding said.

Ding made proposals on upholding high-standard opening up and reducing barriers to trade in services; pursuing all-around innovation and enhancing international cooperation in areas like artificial intelligence and big data; and adhering to the principle of mutual benefit and win-win results, working to promote the signing of more high-standard free trade agreements, and advancing common prosperity through mutually beneficial cooperation in services trade.

The summit attracted about 800 participants from home and abroad.

Ding and Yin also inspected the exhibition venues of the fair after the summit. Ding said that China will actively expand imports and exports of quality services and provide more development opportunities for both Chinese and foreign companies. 
Belarus has significantly expanded military infrastructure near the Ukrainian border since 2022, raising concerns about Russian missile deployment and growing regional militarization, an investigation by Schemes (RFE/RL) has found.

An analysis of dozens of Planet Labs satellite images reveals accelerated construction across Belarus and the rebuilding of several military sites, one of which may be intended to host the Russian Oreshnik intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM).

The timeline of developments begins shortly after Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when Belarus rapidly deepened its military cooperation with Moscow and allowed its territory to be used by Russia's invading forces.

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Satellite photos from 2023 and 2024 revealed extensive construction efforts across Belarus, including the two new southern complexes.

One site south of Minsk is being rebuilt on the grounds of a former Soviet missile base, and analysts believe it could house Oreshnik.

The second is located near Homel, just 30 kilometers from Ukraine. Images show land clearance, new roads, and foundations for military infrastructure alongside a planned training ground.

These developments could increase the risk of Belarus becoming a staging ground for Russian forces, shrinking the buffer zone between Ukraine and potential missile launch sites to only a few dozen kilometers.

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The new facilities are expected to play a role in Zapad-2025, large-scale joint Russian-Belarusian military exercises scheduled for September 1216, which observers see as both a training event and a show of force.

Read also: Skyranger mobile air defense systems are heading to Ukraine  heres what they can do

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MOSCOW (Reuters) -Belarus said on Wednesday that it had shot down some drones which went astray due to electronic jamming during an exchange of strikes between Russia and Ukraine, and that Minsk had informed Poland and Lithuania of the approach of the drones.

The statement by Belarus Chief of the General Staff Major General Pavel Muraveiko did not say whose drones - also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) - went astray.

"During the night-time exchange of strikes by UAVs between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, the Air Defence Forces and assets of the Republic of Belarus on duty continuously tracked UAVs that had lost their track as a result of the impact of the parties' electronic warfare assets," Muraveiko said in a statement issued in English.

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"Some of the lost drones were destroyed by our country's Air Defence Forces over the territory of the republic," he said.

Poland said a large number of Russian drones had violated its airspace during the incident, and those that posed a direct threat had been shot down.

Muraveiko said Poland and Lithuania were informed of the approach of the drones.

"This allowed the Polish side to respond promptly to the actions of the drones by scrambling their forces on duty," Muraveiko said.

"The Republic of Belarus will continue to fulfil its obligations within the framework of the exchange of information on the air situation with the Republic of Poland and the Baltic countries."

(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Mark Trevelyan)
RYEGATE, Vt. (ABC22/FOX44)  A woman is dead after her electric bike was hit by a truck while she was crossing the highway, say Vermont State Police.

The collision reportedly happened around 1:07 p.m. on Tuesday. First responders quickly took Kathryn Mabey, 64, of Newbury, to the nearby Cottage Hospital in Woodbury, N.H., but she was unfortunately pronounced dead.

According to authorities, Mabey was traveling east on the Scott Highway  U.S. Route 302 in South Ryegate and tried to cross from the shoulder to a parking lot on the opposite side of the road. A truck driver from North Carolina was traveling east at the same time, and tried to avoid a collision but was unable to, say police. That driver was not reported injured in the crash.

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The road was closed for more than four hours Tuesday afternoon following the crash, and drivers were told to take alternate routes.

Police say that neither impairment nor speed appear to be factors, but are investigating. Anyone who may have witnessed the crash is asked to call Vermont State Police, St. Johnsbury Barracks at (802) 748-3111.

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Credit - Alex Aronson

Health experts, advocates, and industry leaders gathered for an evening of conversation at the second annual TIME100 Health Leadership Forum in New York City on Sept. 9.

The evening featured three panel discussions, delving into the need to support and protect health care professionals mental health, reimagining how innovation and a new approach to primary care could help people live longer at lower costs, and bridging gaps in womens health.

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Three experts joined TIME deputy editor Kelly Conniff on stage for the first panel to discuss burnout among health care workers: Todd Maron, chief legal and impact officer of FIGS, which sponsored the event; Farida Labaran, a registered nurse and mental health advocate; and Corey Feist, co-founder and chief executive officer of the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes Foundation. The panelists cited multiple causes for provider burnout, including the overwhelming administrative burden placed on health care workers and workplace violence.

Its really so many branches, but for us here, were tackling a few at a time, Labaran said. All of these are part of this tree, and it goes deep and it goes wide.

The panelists stressed the importance of people coming together to better support health care workers, such as the need for Congress to reauthorize a landmark law that expired last year: the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, which included several measures meant to improve health workers mental health and well-being.

Read More: Protecting the People That Protect the Rest of Us: Experts Discuss Solutions for a Stronger Health Workforce

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The second panel, moderated by TIME senior health correspondent Alice Park, focused on the skyrocketing costs associated with the transformative but complex care required for people to live longer with illness or even be cured altogether. It featured actor Selma Blair, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2018, in dialogue with Blood Cancer United CEO Dr. E. Anders Kolb and Amazon One Medical CMO Andrew Diamond. Amazon One Medical and Blood Cancer United are also sponsors of the TIME100 Health Leadership Forum.

Panelists discussed frustrations with seeking and accessing treatments as well as the financial burdens that can come with care for chronic conditions. In the beginning, my entire life was searching for a cure of what ailed me, Blair said. Doctors didnt take me seriously as a young girl. I couldnt get a diagnosis for so many years, because theres so many variables.

But the panelists also offered solutions, like bolstering primary care networks to deburden specialists and offer patients more direct care, educating providers on how to identify malignant symptoms earlier, especially for at-risk populations, and encouraging patients toward more preventative interventions to reduce personal and system burdens.

Read More: How Innovations in Health Tech and Reimagining Primary Care Can Help People Live Well, Longer

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The event concluded with a panel on womens health, moderated by TIME senior correspondent Charlotte Alter. Alter was joined on stage by Kalahn Taylor-Clark, head of social impact and sustainability at the biopharmaceutical company Merck, which also sponsored the event; Dr. Shelley Hwang, professor of surgery at Duke Cancer Institute who was on the TIME100 Health 2025 list; and Dr. Jennifer Ashton, an ob-gyn, obesity medicine physician, and founder of the women-focused wellness company Ajenda.

The experts discussed recent policy changes affecting womens health access and research, including the Trump Administrations crackdown on diversity, equity, and inclusion and rollbacks to the Affordable Care Act, as well as federally promoted vaccine skepticism.

They also talked about the rise in medical and science misinformation. When Alter asked Hwang how she approaches patients who visit her and cite information from the internet, Hwang replied that health care providers in those situations should be able to combine humility along with their training and experience.

I dont think that I would ever recommend that the patients go to Dr. Google instead of coming to a licensed physician, but I think we have to have a fair amount of humility about what people dont know and what patients are interested in hearing about, Hwang said. I think thats really the best way to meet patients halfway.

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Read More: Why Everyone Should Care About Womens Health

The TIME100 Health Leadership Forum was presented by Merck, Amazon One Medical, Blood Cancer United (formerly The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society), FIGS, and NMDP.

Write to Charlotte Hu at charlotte.hu@time.com.
Theyre hurting people: New speed bumps at South Shore state park prompts warning from cyclists

Newly implemented speedbumps in Wompatuck State Park are causing concern for bikers  citing multiple injuries as a result of the safety measures.

Bikers and pedestrians in the area told Boston 25 Tuesday the speed bumps were installed in July on Union Street.

I think theyre horrible, said experienced biker Chris Lyons. I think theyre dangerous... A few people have already gone away in ambulances.

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Lyons and others said three yellow speed bumps were put in across Union Street this summer. They say the second is the most dangerous to bikers.

He added, If you didnt know what you were doing and you were coming down the street on them, youd probably get hurt on it.

The second speed bump is at the intersection of Union Street and South Pleasant Street.

One guy shattered his knee or something, said Leif Thornton Tuesday at Wompatuck State Park. Another woman, I guess, got scrapes on her face and elbows.

Brian Lamb, a Hingham resident, said he and his wife were walking in the park Saturday when they found a woman injured and laying on the ground next to her bike 15 feet away from the second speed bump.

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She hit the speed bump on her bike and was knocked unconscious, he said. We heard sirens soon after.

Lamb said that woman was rushed to the hospital with injuries.

Hingham Firefighters Local 2398 shared a picture of their emergency response at the intersection of Union Street and South Pleasant Street Saturday.

They wrote partly in the post, There have been a few incidents in this area recently and we advise everyone to be aware of the new speed bump at this location!

Bikers said the lack of signage near the speedbumps makes them look like crosswalks.

It looks like a crosswalk and it looks flat, said Thornton.

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Signs were flashing warning park-goers of the speed bumps at the parks entrance Tuesday.

The park is overseen by Massachusetts State Police and DCR. Neither had anything official to offer Tuesday.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

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ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo.  A billion-dollar industry in Missouri could soon face new rules in St. Louis County.

Councilmembers are debating whether hemp-derived products that can mimic marijuana should be treated just like cannabis sold in dispensaries.

The proposal would regulate intoxicating hemp cannabinoids like Delta-8 THC, products made legal under the 2018 farm bill, which was originally meant for industrial hemp like textilesnot products that get people high.

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They say this is a dangerous loophole. Councilwoman Lisa Clancy is claiming theyre outside of any testing or labeling system and says its about public health and keeping kids away from packaging that looks cartoonish and appealing.

Clancy even showed off bags of products bought legally from stores in every district and compared them to Missouri cannabis packaging, which bans the use of more than two colors and any images like animals or peopleanything that could appeal to kids.

Supporters argue many of these items are untested for pesticides, mold, or potency. But business owners pushed back, saying they already check IDs and could be forced to close if the bill passes.

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Farmers, scientists, medical professionals and business owners from around the Midwest showed up this afternoon to speak about this on both sides, with advocates pointing to more than a billion dollars in sales statewide last year, including $240 million in taxes.

Time did run out so most of the speakers didnt wrap up in committee, so the council will schedule a Committee of the Whole before any vote is taken.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 2.
Authorities believe a search and recovery team has found the body of a Minnesota man who went missing while kayaking in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park.

Wesley Dopkins, 43, of St. Paul, had been last seen on June 15, 2024 during a mid-afternoon paddle on Jackson Lake, traveling from Elk Island towards Waterfall Canyon, according to the National Park Service.

As a search began, rescuers found Dopkins' foldable Oru kayak, paddle and dry bag floating off Moose Island on Jackson Lake, near Leeks Marina. Officials said he was not wearing a life jacket when he and a friend encountered rough waters and high winds and got separated.

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National Park Service rangers conducted an extensive search with the help of other agencies, using boats, sonar technology, ground teams, dog teams and a helicopter, but the search was unsuccessful.

Months later, park officials confirmed that Dopkins was presumed dead, though rangers planned to continue searching while on regular patrols in the area and following up on new information.

Wesley Dopkins went missing on June 15, 2024 while kayaking on Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park.National Park Service

Wisconsin-based nonprofit search and recovery organization Bruces Legacy, which uses specialized sonar technology to locate drowning victims, conducted a four-day search for Dopkins last fall at the request of his family.

Bruces Legacy recently returned to the search area, where its searchers located and recovered human remains Monday from a depth of more than 400 feet and a mile and a half from the shore. The organization's director, Keith Cormican, told the Jackson Hole News & Guide that a remote operation vehicle was used to find the remains after another four days of searching.

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This is not a normal search and rescue setup, he said. Its very sophisticated equipment.

The remains are believed to be those of Dopkins based on their characteristics and the location where they were recovered. The Teton County Coroners Office is making an official identification of the remains.

Jackson Lake is a sprawling reservoir on the Snake River at the base of the Tetons.Grand Teton National Park | Facebook

Jackson Lake is a scenic but notoriously difficult body of water due to dangerous conditions caused by sudden storms, frigid temperatures, and extreme depths, which have contributed to multiple drownings over the years, according to Teton Gravity Research.

Water temperatures were below 45 degrees when Dopkins went missing, so it's possible he experienced hypothermia, a common hazard in Wyomings alpine lakes.

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Wearing a properly fitted life jacket is the most important step you can take to stay safe on the water, the park said in a previous statement. Even experienced paddlers and swimmers are at risk without one.

This story was originally reported by Bring Me The News on Sep 10, 2025, where it first appeared in the MN News section. Add Bring Me The News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Former national security adviser John Bolton said early Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has acted as if he had a free hand since the summit in Alaska with President Trump.

Putin has acted like he has a free hand since the Alaska summit, Bolton, who also previously served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, wrote on social platform X.

Hes ignored any further conversation on a ceasefire, the Russian military is expanding its operations, and hes received the political support of his friends Xi Jinping, Narendra Modi, and Kim Jong Un, he continued, referring to the leaders of the Kremlin allies China, India and North Korea.

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Boltons statement came just hours after Polish leaders said they shot down multiple Russian drones early Wednesday morning that had breached their airspace during an attack on Ukraine.

The incursion prompted NATO to scramble fighter jets and left leaders in the U.S. and across the globe warning that Russia was risking escalating the conflict in Europe.

The ex-national security advisers latest post echoed sentiments he expressed in an earlier interview on Tuesday, when he warned that Russia was expanding some of its targeted drone attacks.

Theres talk about movements of new Russian forces near the Ukrainian border, he wrote at the time.

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Last week, Putin also met with Xi and Modi in China, where the world leaders reestablished their diplomatic friendship.

Bolton during the interview said the meetings were a real sign that Putins got friends who are going to have his back for continuing the war in Ukraine.

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Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, target of the Trump administration, will face Josh Kraft in fall election

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, a frequent target of the Trump administration, advanced in Tuesdays preliminary election and will face Josh Kraft, the son of the Patriots owner, in November.

Wu, the citys first Asian and female leader, has been bolstered in part by her defense of the city against attacks from the Trump administration. Members of the administration, often led by President Donald Trumps border czar Tom Homan, have accused the city of not doing enough to crackdown on illegal immigration and threatened a surge in arrests. Boston is commonly known as a sanctuary city, and Wu has repeatedly said she wants it to be a welcoming place for immigrants.

Just last week, Trumps U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Wu, the city of Boston and its police department over its sanctuary city policies, claiming theyre interfering with immigration enforcement. In response, Wu accused Trump of attacking cities to hide his administrations failures.

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On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security put out a statement announcing the arrests of seven people as part of a crackdown in Massachusetts.

Sanctuary policies like those pushed by Mayor Wu not only attract and harbor criminals but protect them at the peril of law-abiding American citizens, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

Speaking to her cheering supporters Tuesday night, Wu repeatedly took aim at Trump as well as Kraft and said the results showed that Boston was not for sale and that the mayor should answer to the people of Boston, not a handful of billionaire donors.

The next eight weeks are about the remaining two names on the ballot. Its a test of who we are. Its a test of whether we believe in our city as a place of possibility and promise, whether Boston will keep going as a home for everyone, she said. Its a test of whether Boston can still be that beacon of freedom, whether 250 years later, with tyranny again at our door, whether Boston still got it.

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Kraft, a fellow Democrat and a nonprofit leader, injected millions of his own personal money into his campaign and set records for spending in a Boston mayoral preliminary election. He has also been critical of Trumps attacks and has pushed Wu particularly hard on housing, saying she hasnt done enough to increase options and affordability in Boston.

Speaking to Ironworkers Local 7 in South Boston, Kraft said he was running because residents deserved to have a mayor who listened to them and would deliver better streets, better schools, and a better future for them today. He argued Wu was talking about Trump to distract from her record.

I got into this fight because every day, I heard that too many people across Boston felt like that they dont have a seat at the table, he told supporters. This campaign has never been about chasing headlines or currying favor with the political chattering class. Its been about listening.

Wu and Kraft bested two other candidates in the preliminary election: former school district committee member and veteran Robert Cappucci and community activist Domingos Darosa.

Wu highlights housing, crime and climate change

While visiting polls Tuesday, Wu said the Trump administration is targeting Boston because it represents all that is good about our democracy.

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We are proof of whats possible when people come together, and were proof of everything that shows why they are wrong, she said.

Wu, who often works with her infant daughter at her side, has also benefited from widespread support on the City Council and a string of endorsements from Democratic leaders. She also has used the pulpit of her position to highlight her successes around housing, combating climate change and reducing crime, rolling out a series of initiatives all summer.

David Woodruff, a retired research support specialist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said he was supporting Wu because he wants people who are progressive and are strengthening democracy in office.

I like the way she stands up to Trump, I like what shes been doing on the national scene, he said.

Kraft struggles to find message that resonates with voters

Kraft, who heads the Kraft Family Philanthropies and the New England Patriots Foundation, has targeted everything from bike paths to the cost of living in the city to his concerns about homelessness and drug addiction in one section of the city known as Mass and Cass.

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Last week, Kraft and two top campaign advisers mutually parted ways, according to a statement from his campaign.

As of the end of August, Kraft had outspent Wu, $5.5 million to about $1.1 million, thanks in large part to more than $5 million in loans from the candidate to his campaign. Wu entered the final days of the campaign with much more cash in the bank, $2.4 million to about $1.3 million for Kraft.

Jeffrey Berry, a Boston political analyst and professor emeritus at Tufts University, said money is good for creating name recognition, but its not enough on its own to win an election. He said Wu has become a symbol of democratic resistance to the president, and that will be hard for Kraft to overcome in a city like Boston.

Kraft has switched between attacking Wu and portraying himself as someone who wants to bring positive change to the city.

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In an interview with The Associated Press, Kraft said his conversations with voters indicate to him that Wu doesnt have as strong a grip on the mayors seat as some might think.

Everywhere we go, myself, our team, throughout the neighborhoods of this city  regardless of race, socioeconomics, ethnicity, language  we hear the same thing: People dont feel listened to, people dont feel connected to the mayor and the mayoral administration, he said. Some of the polls have a big margin, but let me tell you something: Polls dont decide elections. People decide elections.

Kraft supporter Remy Lawrence said shes been impressed by his commitment to Bostons young people. Kraft was CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston and worked with the organization for decades. Lawrence said Kraft personally reached out to her after her 13-year-old son, Tyler, who participated in Kraft family youth programming, was murdered by a gunman in 2023 while walking near his grandparents home in the Mattapan neighborhood.

I believe we need change in this city  I know we need change in this city, she said. We need a leader who is accessible, whos accountable, whos connected.

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MOSCOW, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Poland has yet to present any evidence that the drones shot down over its territory were of Russian origin, Russia's Charge d'Affaires in Poland Andrey Ordash said Wednesday.

"We consider the accusations to be groundless," Ordash said.

Meanwhile, Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovile Sakaliene said she believes that the drones' entry into Polish airspace was most likely accidental.

"We do not have precise data at this point. There is a high probability that these drones 'got lost,'" Sakaliene said.

The Belarusian Defense Ministry said Wednesday that it had downed several drones over its airspace overnight. Poland and Lithuania were informed about drones approaching their territories, said Chief of the General Staff and First Deputy Defense Minister Pavel Muraveiko.

During drone exchanges between Russia and Ukraine, Belarusian air defense tracked drones that veered off course due to electronic warfare, with some being shot down over Belarus, Muraveiko said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on social media platform X that Polish airspace was violated by a "huge number of Russian drones," and some posed a "direct threat."

Polish military shot down drones over Poland after its airspace was repeatedly violated overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, according to a statement from the Polish Armed Forces Operational Command. 
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and challenger Josh Kraft will move on to Novembers mayoral election after they secured the most votes in Tuesdays preliminary top-two election, NBC News projects.

The two candidates who get the most votes for mayor, regardless of political party, move on to the municipal election on Nov. 4.

See live results here

Wu is going for her second term after she won the 2021 mayoral election, becoming the first woman and person of color to be elected as the citys mayor. (Acting Mayor Kim Janey was the first Black woman to hold the seat, which she assumed when then-President Joe Biden selected previous Mayor Marty Walsh to serve in his administration.)

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During this years campaign, Wus website highlighted her record on housing, combating gun violence, climate and other issues. She secured a slew of high-profile endorsements, including those of Massachusetts Democratic senators, Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey, as well as Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who represents a Boston-area district.

Kraft most recently was the president of the nonprofit New England Patriots Foundation. He is the son of Patriots owner Robert Kraft. The younger Kraft also previously was the president of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, a charity.

Boston mayoral candidate Josh Kraft on July 1. (David L. Ryan / Boston Globe via Getty Images)

Both Wu and Kraft are Democrats. The two have split over issues like White Stadium, and local journalists have documented Wus administrations championing renovations for the stadium as critics like Kraft argue the price tag was too high. Kraft has also criticized Wu over her response to drugs, addiction and other issues, as well as personnel management.

Former police officer Robert Cappucci and Domingos Darosa were also on the ballot Tuesday.

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The preliminary race comes just days after the U.S. Justice Department sued the city, Wu and others, alleging that Bostons sanctuary city laws interfere with the federal governments enforcement of its immigration laws.

The City of Boston and its Mayor have been among the worst sanctuary offenders in America  they explicitly enforce policies designed to undermine law enforcement and protect illegal aliens from justice, Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a news release last week.

Shortly after the lawsuit was announced, NBC Boston and other outlets reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement began a new operation in Massachusetts.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu won Bostons preliminary election for mayor in commanding fashion, results revealed on Sept. 10 with 99% reporting.

There were little surprises as both she and main challenger Democrat Josh Kraft, son of Patriots owner Robert Kraft, were the top two vote getters in Bostons nonpartisan preliminary election.

But Wu won 72% of the vote to Krafts 23.1%, holding a convincing lead as they both advance to the November election.

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The next eight weeks are about more than the remaining two names on the ballot, Wu said in her speech following the results on Sept. 9. Its a test of whether Boston can still be that beacon of freedom, whether 250 years later, with tyranny again at our door, whether Bostons still got it.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu gestures during a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing to examine the jurisdiction of "sanctuary cities" and its impact on federal immigration policy, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 5, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

In his address, Kraft said that he would push forward harder, louder, and stronger than ever.

Let me be clear: we are still in this race, he said. The only poll that matters is in November.

Little known challengers community organizer Domingos DaRosa and former Boston police officer Robert Cappucci garnered 2.6% and 2.3% respectively, knocking them out of the race.

Trumps place in the election

Much of Wus momentum with voters has been driven by her pushback to the Trump administrations scrutiny of the city. In March, Wu's defense of sanctuary city policy, which limits how much local police cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, at a congressional hearing earned her national attention.

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Shortly after, her support began to rise. Between its February and September polls, Emerson saw a 30% uptick in people who planned to vote for Wu.

That really elevated her in the eyes of voters because they know she will stand up for Boston, said Mary Anne Marsh, a local Democratic political analyst.

Wu mentioned Trump in her address after her win.

Today, she said, You sent a message to Josh Kraft, to Donald Trump, and to all their enablers: Boston is not for sale.

On the other hand, Kraft has had to distinguish himself from his father, who has had a longtime friendship with Trump, and struggled to sway voters in the same way through housing, education and public safety issues.

Josh Kraft, Mayoral candidate, talks to the press during a pro-immigration rally, as Boston Mayor Michelle Wu testifies in Congres, in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., March 5, 2025.

Were seeing threats to democracy as the top issue in the city and having Wu take on Trump on these issues has given her kind of a different opponent, Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, told USA TODAY. Kraft is almost an afterthought.

When is the general election?

The general election will take place on Nov. 4.

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Oct. 25 is the last day to register to vote for that election, and early voting will take place from Oct. 25-31.

How do I register to vote?

In order to vote in the Boston mayoral election, you must be:

A US citizen

A resident of Boston

At least 18 years old

There is no same day voter registration in Massachusetts. So, to register to vote, you must do so in advance. You can check your voter status here.

If you arent registered, you can do so online, in person or by mail.

Contributing: Karissa Waddick

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Boston mayoral primary results: Wu wins, Wu and Kraft advance
BRISTOL, Va. (WJHL)  Bristol, Virginia, city leaders set up an agreement between the city police department and the city housing authority Tuesday evening that will help support safe housing for community members.

According to the group Beyond Housing, it has a mission to provide safe, attractive and affordable housing and housing assistance to families in the city in need of a higher standard of living.

The partnership would provide one part-time, qualified police officer to conduct safety patrols at different housing complexes.

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Our police chief is very forward-thinking, Vice Mayor Jake Holmes said. He tries to tackle projects and problems before they kind of cause us issues. And the housing authority is the same way. Theyre very much wanting to find ways to meet the needs of the residents in the community. So, I know theyve worked together on projects and theyre going to work together on this.

Holmes added that bridging the gap between a public and private entity can help alleviate issues that could arise in residential areas within the city.

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Brockton third grader saves friend who was having an allergic reaction at lunch

Sierrah Frederic was eating lunch with her friend at Downey Elementary School in Brockton last Friday when she noticed her friend was having an allergic reaction.

She was eating one of these fruit snacks that her cousin gave her, said Sierrah. Her face was like red, it was like a reddish pinkish.

Sierrah, whos in third grade, says she knows her friend is allergic to oranges, so she got worried when she saw her eating a fruit snack.

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I was like, did you eat the orange, and she said yes, said Sierrah.

Sierrah then brought the packaging to the cafeteria worker to show her the ingredients, and then that cafeteria worker along with the assistant principal rushed the student to the nurses office.

We were able to get her the help she needs because of that student, in time, said Jennifer Colburn, Assistant Principal at Downey Elementary School.

Colburn says the school nurse administered an EpiPen and that student was taken to the hospital as a precaution.

Colburn says they have a lot of kids with allergies at school and Sierrah was a great role model for other students.

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The packaging had an orange and a lemon on it, and she knew those are two things shes not supposed to have, so, so smart, so observant for a little girl  an extraordinary friend Id say, said Colburn.

As a thank you, Sierrah got to pick out a large stuffy at the school store.

A sweet recognition for her act of heroism and bravery.

We are so grateful and thankful for her, said Colburn.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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Two Washington State University students previously accused Bryan Kohberger of stalking in the months leading up to the Idaho college murders.

The two female students reportedly told officers that Kohberger would show up at their works daily, according to People. According to the outlet, the stalking progressed with Kohberger visiting their homes.

One of the students told Idaho State Police that she was home alone one night, changing in her room, and someone knocked on her window. This incident occurred in August or September 2022.

Another time, after she had started working she heard someone moving around on her porch at approximately 7:00 in the evening. Her husband came home again and saw a white car leaving the area, the police report continued.

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The other female student reportedly worked in the criminology department with Kohberger.

She was not the first person to have problems with Kohberger, the police report stated. Kohberger made eye contact with her when she looked out, which seemed strange because you would have to be looking directly at the window where she worked to make eye contact.

According to the first student, Kohberger seemed very used to being put off by women.

Kohberger accepted a plea deal for the November 2022 murders of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, and Xana Kernodle in Moscow, Idaho. He agreed to plead guilty to four counts of murder and waive his right to appeal. He was sentenced to four consecutive terms of life in prison.
(NewsNation)  NewsNation has obtained never-before-seen images of Bryan Kohberger after the 2022 murders of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.

The photos include a series of selfies that were found on Bryan Kohbergers Android, the forensic experts who analyzed his phone told NewsNation.

A wound on Kohbergers ring finger is visible in some images, potentially from the victims fighting back before they were murdered Nov. 13, 2022.

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Kohberger was seen emotionless in the majority of the selfies, with some others taken while he was shirtless and flexing.

Credit: Latah County Sheriffs Office Credit: Latah County Sheriffs Office Credit: Latah County Sheriffs Office Credit: Latah County Sheriffs Office

Bryan Kohberger stalked other women

According to Idaho State Police reports cited by People, Kohberger stalked two female undergraduate students at Washington State University, where the convicted killer was a teaching assistant.

Two women told police they were suspicious of Kohberger stalking them before the 2022 murders. The women told Idaho State Police that Kohberger would visit their place of work daily.

This extended to home visits, with one woman noting that in August or September of 2022, months before the murders, someone knocked on her window as she was changing while home alone.

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Portland faces rising homelessness, ongoing ICE protests

Once her husband was called, the man ran away. But that did not stop it from occurring again.

Another time, after she had started working she heard someone moving around on her porch at approximately 7:00 in the evening. Her husband came home again and saw a white car leaving the area, the report read.

The woman also added that Kohberger asked for her by name when she was certain she never told Kohberger her name, and knew her work hours, even making remarks about them.

The other female worked in the criminology department at Washington State with Kohberger and denied his advances, but he still sought her out almost daily at work.

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She told police of a night when she worked late and saw the murderer walking outside as she locked up.

Kohberger made eye contact with her when she looked out, which seemed strange because you would have to be looking directly at the window where she worked to make eye contact, the report read.

A neighbor told the woman they saw someone very close outside her window and to make sure to lock the door.

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The second day of the Senate session in Harrisburg ended with no budget deal and no public debate on the issue, as Pennsylvania lawmakers remain without a decision more than two months past the states budget deadline.

We are 71 days past due, and we still dont have a budget, said state Sen. Lindsey Williams, D-Allegheny. We are here in Harrisburg, we arent talking about a budget, we arent voting on a budget.

Williams expressed frustration over the lack of movement, saying the delay is creating real-world consequences. She said her office has been inundated with calls from constituents concerned about future funding.

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Ive heard of a rape crisis center in another county shutting down already, Williams said. People are struggling; they were already struggling with flat funding over years.

On the other side of the aisle, Sen. Devlin Robinson, R-Allegheny, said fiscal responsibility is the GOPs top priority.

We want to make sure that we dont spend more than we are taking in  thats just basic math, Robinson said. If you do spend more, you have to raise taxes, and we are here to make sure that doesnt happen.

Robinson said he doesnt believe the state is yet at risk of a shutdown, after conversations with residents and organizations in our area.

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Ive reached out to a lot of my school districts to make sure they are in good fiscal shape, Robinson said. We even passed the budget last month, which was last years budget, to make sure we could get everyone over the hump.

However, that bill was ultimately voted down in the House, sending both chambers back to square one.

The Senate has one more scheduled day in session this week, but multiple lawmakers said they do not expect a budget deal to be reached before the end of the week.

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Every year, in the middle of summer, hundreds of Hong Kong construction workers and engineers walk up some 200 steps to Ching Lin Terrace in the seaside neighborhood of Kennedy Town.

There, in one of the citys temples, they gather and pay their respects to Lo Pan, a legendary Chinese carpenter from the Zhou dynasty and patron saint of builders and contractors.

Even in the sweltering heat, workers cram into the tiny temples smoke-filled foyer with incense and candlesticks in hand. Bowing several times, they chant slogans in honor of the construction deitys birthday and pray for a stable year of work.

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I always tell people that Lo Pan is like our Michelangelo. He is a designer, an architect and an engineer, said Lawrence Ng, president of the Hong Kong Construction Sub-Contractors Association, which represents the citys waterproofing, metalwork and scaffolding professionals, among others.

We must pay respects to the workers who came before us, and Lo Pan is our sifu (master).

Worshipping Lo Pan has taken on a particular significance in todays precarious economy, Ng said.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the city has seen a decline in large scale construction projects, leaving many laborers without steady, long-term employment. Among them are the citys spidermen  thousands of construction workers trained in the ancient technique of bamboo scaffolding.

Part of the citys visual language

On a slope behind Lo Pan temple is a towering residential building covered in a familiar sight to those whove walked Hong Kongs streets: bamboo poles arranged in a distinct grid-like formation.

Residential buildings encased with bamboo scaffolding and protective mesh at a site, in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong on July 30, 2017. - Anthony Kwan/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The crisscrossed structures, in which each pole is fastened with nylon ties, are ubiquitous across the citys dense, vertical urban landscape. These scaffolds are erected on skyscrapers, hundreds of feet high, and encased in fabric safety nets forming colorful cocoons of green, blue and purple.

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Smaller bamboo contraptions often poke out of windows, or cover air conditioning units and balconies.

Bamboo scaffolding is not only used in the construction of new buildings, but the renovation of thousands of high-rises and historic tenements (tong lau) every year.

Popular in Hong Kong for over a century, the techniques origins in Chinese construction date back to at least the Han dynasty, around 2,000 years ago. The method was also widely used in mainland China until government regulations started calling for steel and aluminum scaffolds, in keeping with international norms, in the 1990s.

Bamboo, however, remained the go-to material in Hong Kong, and has been used to build some of the citys tallest skyscrapers, like Norman Fosters HSBC headquarters and parts of the 88-floor International Finance Centre.

The construction of the HSBC headquarters in Hong Kong by Foster + Partners in the 1980s. Bamboo scaffolds are seen around the building's distinctive exoskeleton. - Ian Lambot

Aside from helping develop Hong Kongs modern structures, bamboo has also played an integral role in building temporary Cantonese opera theaters.

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These traditional theaters, made entirely out of the plant, are built on special occasions like the birthdays of local deities or the Hungry Ghost Festival.

A drone view of a Cantonese opera theater on Hong Kong's Po Toi Island. The structure was built for the celebration of Tin Hau Festival on April 17, 2025. - Tyrone Siu/Reuters

Attendees enter a bamboo theater on August 1, 2018. Cantonese opera is recognized by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage. - Vernon Yuen/Pacific Press/Shutterstock

Scaffolding has, in turn, become part of the citys visual language. Being lightweight, customizable and relatively affordable, bamboo stands in stark contrast to its mainstream counterpart, metal.

Steel is relatively stiff and strong, but its less flexible than bamboo, said Goman Ho, a structural engineer at British engineering firm Arup, who has more than three decades of experience overseeing the development of tall buildings in the city, including the 283-meter (928-foot) tall Cheung Kong Center.

Bamboo on the other hand, has its own craftsmanship, he added. You can build a lot of beautiful scaffolding in ways youd never think of.

Its culture we need to maintain

Whether in traditional or modern construction, handling the long poles requires specific skills and intuition, which can take months or years to achieve.

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Sometimes people spend one, two, three or even four years learning bamboo scaffolding and may not become masters, said Ho Ping-Tak (no relation), Chairman of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Bamboo Scaffolding Workers Union.

But with metal, the technical requirements are lower. If you have the strength, you can generally meet the requirements in a much shorter time.

Arup's Goman Ho said that bamboo's lightweight and flexible properties make it best suited for wrapping around fragile, irregularly shaped facades. - Anthony Kwan/Getty Images

Bamboo is not unsafe, Ho Ping-Tak, the chairman of the workers union, said, emphasizing the importance of workers securely attaching themselves to bamboo structures. - Tyrone Siu/Reuters

The largest member of the grass family, bamboo is combustible, susceptible to deterioration and weaker in rain, raising legitimate questions about its durability, Arups Ho said.

We need to find ways to overcome it, he said of these challenges, suggesting that poles could be coated with epoxy or plastic solution to prevent erosion.

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Its culture we need to maintain, Ho added.

But keeping the tradition alive is challenging. The industry comprises an aging workforce  many, like 78-year-old Leung Siu Wai, among the dozens of senior bamboo scaffold workers paying respects to Lo Pan, are close to retirement. New talent is also lacking, said Ng.

Its hard to get young people to enter, he added. Young people in Hong Kong dont want to do physically demanding work, or work that gives them an identity they feel uncomfortable with.

Discussions on safeguarding the practice resurfaced earlier this year when the Hong Kong governments Development Bureau announced that 50% of new public building projects erected from March onwards would need to use metal scaffolding to better protect workers and align with modern construction standards in advanced cities.

The entrance to Lo Pan Temple in Kennedy Town, Hong Kong on July 6, 2025. - Noemi Cassanelli/CNN

Leung Sin Wai, a veteran bamboo scaffold worker, poses for a portrait at Lo Pan Temple in Hong Kong on July 7, 2025. - Noemi Cassanelli/CNN

The notice sparked concern among some Hong Kong residents, even though the policy will only impact one or two new building projects this year, according to the statement.

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The bureau later confirmed to CNN that only one public project would be affected in 2025. Nonetheless, some residents have taken to social media to lament what they believed to be the beginning of the end of bamboo scaffolding.

This is your sign to film bamboo scaffolding while you still can, wrote a Hong Kong videographer in an Instagram post that garnered over 20,000 likes. Truly one of Hong Kongs quiet wonders. And soon, itll just be part of the past.

The storied building technique has also been celebrated on the global stage, presented as part of the Hong Kong pavilion at this years Venice Biennale  the worlds largest architecture exhibition.

In May, a sprawling bamboo scaffold was built in the courtyard of Venices Campo della Tana, as part of a showcase exploring the diverse and often juxtaposing aspects of public space in Hong Kong, with a focus on threatened heritage.

Workers set up a bamboo scaffold inside the Hong Kong pavilion at the 2025 Venice Biennale. The structure is part of a showcase about Hong Kong's threatened heritage and public space. - Oliver Law

Its curators said their proposal for the pavilion was finalized in January, two months before the government announced its move to adopt more metal scaffolding in construction.

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We were a bit shocked, to say the least, because we had planned for this without knowing (the governments announcement) was coming, said Ying Zhou, an architect and one of the curators.

So immediately, we were like, Oh what does our thing now say? It takes on a whole different kind of importance, especially when we bring it to a place like Venice.

Eleven bamboo sifus, or masters, traveled to Venice to build the structure. Watching them in action, Zhous Italian counterparts were, she said, impressed with the way the material was assembled so quickly and precisely  without much calculation.

These pre-modern technologies are never recognized in a standardized world, because you have steel, you have concrete, you have numbers that are calculable, she said.

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And here we have something that even the Italians are like, Oh, we need your structural engineer to certify (it).

Safety concerns

Thirty-six-year-old Over Chan, a bamboo scaffold worker who builds structures for external repair work, claims that recent industry-wide discussions about fatal accidents on construction sites have prompted more government intervention. (There were 24 deaths related to bamboo scaffolding from January 2018 to August 2025, according to Hong Kongs Labour Department).

When I was starting out as a worker, we didnt even have to wear shirts, but now, were required to wear our uniform, have good manners, and so on  this ultimately allows us to rise above the competition.

Bamboo is not unsafe, Ho, the chairman of the workers union, said, emphasizing the importance of workers fastening themselves to the wooden structures.

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Its fine to use metal scaffolding  were not saying that metal scaffolding is a competing technique, but if (the government) makes an announcement without much explanationit gives the public the wrong impression that bamboo is unsafe, which has huge implications.

Hong Kongs Development Bureau told CNN that adopting metal scaffolding in construction is just one of many ways to improve site safety.

Provided relevant legislative requirements on bamboo scaffolds and metal scaffolds are fulfilled, both types of scaffolds are safe, the bureau said in an email, adding that the government has no intention to phase out the adoption of bamboo scaffolds.

A construction worker pictured in 1991 on the top floors of the 1,227 foot-tall Central Plaza building in Wan Chai, Hong Kong. - Gerhard Joren/LightRocket/Getty Images

Many large-scale construction projects in Hong Kong already incorporate a hybrid of bamboo and steel scaffolding, the union leader Ho said, with metal bars fixed to the ground supporting wooden structures higher up.

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He estimates that, currently, 80% of scaffolds are created using bamboo, while 20% use metal or a hybrid of materials.

Chan, who remains eager and optimistic about the trade, said he has started taking courses on metal scaffolding to stand out in the workforce, despite his belief that bamboo isnt going anywhere.

Over the past few years, theres been this feeling in Hong Kong about needing to preserve whats left of the citys identity, he said.

Cynthia Chan contributed to this report.

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A video of a private jet landing at Burning Man has left many people upset, saying it betrays the spirit of what made the festival popular.

The video, posted by TikToker Ivoryringlord (@ivoryringlord), shows what a speaker says is the first private plane to arrive at this year's festival, which took place from Aug. 24 to Sept. 1 in Nevada's Black Rock Desert.

"Private jet in Burning Man?" one commenter asked. "Isn't that completely against the whole idea of [what] Burning Man is about?"

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It would seem that way, looking at the festival's principles.

Festival co-founder Larry Harvey wrote 10 principles that, according to the Burning Man website, act "as a reflection of the community's ethos."

One of those is "Leaving No Trace," which states the Burning Man community is committed to respecting the environment and leaving places in a better state than they were found.

"Leaving No Trace is not just about the playa; it's our ethic about the whole planet," the website says. "Burners are environmentalists. It's just our nature."

Private planes, however, seem to contradict that guiding principle.

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Aviation accounts for more than 2% of global pollution. And although private jets make up a small percentage of all flights, each one of those trips has a big environmental impact.

Studies show that, per passenger, private flights produce up to 14 times more pollution than commercial flights. And in the past five years, carbon pollution from private planes increased by 46%.

Should the government ban gas-powered lawn equipment? Absolutely Not yet Only for commercial use Nope Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.

This isn't the first environmental controversy to surround Burning Man. In 2003, the Seven Circles organization blockaded the road leading into the festival, accusing it of greenwashing and failing to live up to its commitment to reduce carbon pollution.

Many commenters were outraged at the sight of a private jet at Burning Man, with some going so far as to say that, in their minds, it marks the end of Burning Man.

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"There's no offsetting flying in on a (private jet)," one commenter wrote. "There's no offsetting the damage done by holding it in the middle of a desert with no infrastructure.

"Any event has a footprint but that doesn't mean you need to make it an enormous footprint."

Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.




This photo taken on Sept. 9, 2025 shows the 60th session of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. China stands ready to actively participate in improving global human rights governance, Chen Xu, China's permanent representative to the United Nations Office at Geneva and other international organizations in Switzerland, said here on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Lian Yi)

GENEVA, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- China stands ready to actively participate in improving global human rights governance, Chen Xu, China's permanent representative to the United Nations Office at Geneva and other international organizations in Switzerland, said here on Tuesday.

Chen made the remarks when addressing the 60th session of the UN Human Rights Council. He elaborated on China's position and proposals in the field of global human rights governance.

Chen noted that this year marks the 80th anniversary of the founding of the UN, and that global governance still faces severe challenges.

The China-proposed Global Governance Initiative aims to promote international order toward greater fairness and justice, he said. On human rights governance, Chen underscored three key principles:

First, China upholds sovereign equality and the rule of international law. All parties should abide by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, respect the sovereignty of countries and their right to independently choose their own human rights development paths, and oppose interference in internal affairs under the pretext of human rights. For instance, China supports the just cause of the Palestinian people in restoring their legitimate national rights.

Second, China advocates multilateralism and more robust international cooperation. There is no universally applicable model for human rights development, Chen said, adding that the diversity of world civilizations should be respected, and dialogue and cooperation should be prioritized. China firmly opposes unilateral coercive measures and other acts of unilateralism.

Third, China calls for a people-centered and action-oriented approach. People are both participants in and beneficiaries of global governance. It is necessary to reaffirm the founding mission of the Human Rights Council to promote and protect human rights, give equal attention to all categories of rights, and advance rights in a balanced manner, while accelerating the realization of economic, social, and cultural rights and the right to development.

Chen emphasized that China is prepared to actively participate in efforts to enhance global human rights governance and collaborate with all parties to promote the advancement of global human rights. 

United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk speaks at the 60th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, Sept. 9, 2025. China stands ready to actively participate in improving global human rights governance, Chen Xu, China's permanent representative to the United Nations Office at Geneva and other international organizations in Switzerland, said here on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Lian Yi)

Chen Xu, China's permanent representative to the United Nations (UN) Office in Geneva and other international organizations in Switzerland, addresses the 60th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, Sept. 9, 2025. China stands ready to actively participate in improving global human rights governance, Chen said here on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Lian Yi)
OWENSBORO, Ky. (WEHT)  High Attendance Day celebrations were held throughout schools in Daviess County. In Kentucky, the celebration is a long-standing tradition meant to promote school attendance and students academic success.

Burns Elementary school not only celebrated today but they are celebrating all week as a part of their Super September Month. To celebrate High Attendance Day, students and faculty dressed as their favorite superheroes for todays theme Superheros for High Attendance Day.

The schools faculty and community have planned a full month of super activities for students. They also incorporated the Kentucky Department of Educations theme You Belong Attendance Matters.

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Burns Elementary principal Heather Newman believes that this will cause students to get excited and in a routine for a better lifestyle. She also believes that over time children will develop good habits that lead to consistency.

At the end of the year the schools have a competion of who had the highest attendance rate for the day, and Principal Newman believes that her school is leading.

Her faculty also plays a crucial role in the day and keeps the students excited. Working with the community they planned a full day with inflatables and Little Cesares Pizza for lunch just to let them see just how special the day was.

The school had almost perfect attendance with faculty and staff attendance at 100 percent and student attendance at 98 percent.

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The school has an itinerary of super activities for both the students and faculty. Next week there will be a family movie night as well as a professional learning day for teachers to help them make Burns Elementary school a successful school.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Eyewitness News (WEHT/WTVW).
BRISTOL, Va. (WJHL)  The Bristol, Virginia, Police Department (BVPD) is speaking out about a decision they made to post body camera footage of an incident that happened over the weekend at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Bristol.

The body cam footage from September 6 shows Bristol, Va., police officers approach Stephanie and Josh Williams in a lounge at the Hard Rock Casino before escorting them out of the restaurant.

Our officers were contacted by members of Hard Rock staff about coming in and assisting them with an individual and her body camera was turned on as soon as the officer made contact with the individual that was identified to them, said BVPD Chief Byron Ashbrook.

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Ashbrook said officers normally work as extra security during the weekends at the casino.

The footage shows both Williams becoming frustrated with the situation as they go to the front desk.

The video later shows the couple walking away from officers after speaking to the worker at the front desk. The officer then goes after them and grabs Stephanie Williams arm.

She pulled away, as you know, once or twice, Ashbrook said, and then she stated that she was going to leave.

Ashbrook said he made the decision to post the footage after Stephanie Williams made multiple videos on TikTok about the incident, alleging her arm was injured during the confrontation.

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In a situation like this where theres allegation of misconduct, I believe the community has a right to know, and theres no better way to do it than just release the body cam footage, Ashbrook said. I released that body cam footage in its entirety.

Its our stance here at the Bristol, Virginia, Police Department, as much as possible, when it doesnt interfere with an ongoing investigation, we want to be as transparent, as quick as possible with what did or didnt happen at a given location.

News Channel 11 also confirmed with a representative of Axon, the company that makes the body cameras used by Bristol, Va., police, that the footage was not altered in any way.

Ashbrook said he supports the decision made by his officers.

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I back my officers actions, and I really want to stress that she did a very good job maintaining her cool, her composure, Ashbrook said. So did the other officer in trying to de-escalate a situation that could have really gotten out of control.

Police officers today, unfortunately, have to deal with a lot of escalated people, Ashbrook said. They have to do their job. Sometimes they have to ask questions. Sometimes they encounter people that may be guilty, maybe not guilty, but they have to do their job.

News Channel 11 reached out to Stephanie Williams to set up an interview. However, the interview was canceled and has yet to be rescheduled.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJHL | Tri-Cities News & Weather.
In mid-August, a special issue of BYUs alumni magazine devoted to the schools Sesquicentennial landed in the mailboxes of many of its 460,219 former students around the world.

A couple of weeks later, the school unveiled a new flavor of ice cream, 150 Swirl  the dining services website calls it the best ice cream in 150 years  during the annual University Conference for faculty and staff.

And Tuesday, BYU held its Sesquicentennial Kickoff devotional, a day before students flood Brigham Square at lunchtime to play games, eat treats and pick up swag related to the 150th anniversary.

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The schools founding in 1875 wasnt directly mentioned at the devotional. Instead, BYU is firmly looking forward through the lens of a speech given during its centennial celebration in 1975.

Advancement vice president Keith Vorkink played a clip of the late President Spencer W. Kimballs Second Century Address, in which the then-president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints called on BYU to be a unique school dually devoted to secular learning and spiritual growth.

Now, Vorkink said, the second century is half spent. What have we become? And, more importantly, what are we still becoming? Do our eyes remain fixed on the destiny described by prophets?

President Kimball taught that BYU would distinguish itself, not simply because of the size of its student body or its beautiful campus, but because of the unique light BYU can send forth into the educational world.

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President Kimball said BYU faculty and students in its second 100 years should have a double heritage and dual concerns with the secular and spiritual.

BYU vice president Keith Vorkink introduces a video of the late President Spencer W. Kimball at BYU's Sesquicentennial Kickoff devotional at the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah, on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. | Christi Norris/BYU

As LDS scholars, you must speak with authority and excellence to your professional colleagues in the language of scholarship, and you must also be literate in the language of spiritual things, he said in the clip played at the devotional. We must be more bilingual in that sense, to fulfill our promise in the second century of BYU.

Halfway through that second century, Vorkink said this year is a natural moment of reflection.

A kind of midterm assessment, and Im sorry for using that phrase so early in the semester, he said to laughter.

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On its own, this milestone carries with it a weight and a sacredness brought by the words of prophets, seers and revelators who have seen the destiny of this place, and who have taught us about your role in that destiny, Vorkink said to 13,702 students at the Marriott Center.

The cover of the August 2025 issue of the BYU alumni magazine, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the university. | BYU

BYU President Shane Reese couldnt attend the devotional, but in a video he told students that President Kimballs talk was a prophetic map of what BYU would become.

When faith in Jesus Christ is paired with a world class education cultivated here at BYU, it sets you apart in ways that people see and notice, but more importantly, it equips you to serve others more effectively, he said.

When we rise to that sacred stewardship, you and I will do more than honor the past, Reese added. Together, we will hasten the fulfillment of the prophetic promises to become the Christ-centered, prophetically directed university of prophecy, 150 years in the making.

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Reeses wife, Sister Wendy Reese, said in the same video that BYU students dont make it to the school by accident.

You are not here only to earn a degree, you are here to become a beacon of light in your discipline and in your discipleship. Your light is unique. Only you can shine it, and the world needs it, she said.

At the start of the devotional, Vorkink led the students in singing Happy Birthday to church President Russell M. Nelson, the chairman of BYUs board of trustees, who turned 101 on Tuesday.

As we think of President Nelson, we think of the prophetic influence that has always set the course for this university, Vorkink said. President Nelsons emphasis on education and the pursuit of knowledge, so that we can serve the world better, is ever with us as it echoes through the spirit of support given to Church Education and to BYU over the many years of its long history.

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Vorkink also played a clip of President Kimball speaking about the students of BYUs second century.

BYU students sing "Happy Birthday" to President Russell M. Nelson on his 101st birthday during a campus devotional at the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah, on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. | Christi Norris/BYU

Its students are idealistic, and they have integrity, who love to work in good causes, he said. These students will not only have a secular training, but will have come to understand what Jesus meant when he said that the key of knowledge which had been lost by society centuries before was the fullness of the scriptures. We understand, as few people do, that education is a part of being about our Fathers business, and that the scriptures contain the master concepts for mankind.

Vorkink issued an invitation to BYUs students related to President Nelsons teaching on service and President Kimballs call for BYU to be a unique light to the educational world.

I invite you to think about the responsibility that each of you has, first to kindle, then to strengthen and then to share that light, to become, in fact, beacons of light to the world beyond these walls, he said.

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The devotional included videos from several alumni and several students were assigned to take to the stage on the Marriott Center floor to read quotes from church and BYU leaders read by students.

Sharon Eubank, director of Humanitarian Services of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, described the way she was affected when, for the first time in her life, her education was a single whole that included scripture, labs and English literature.

Sharon Eubank, director of Latter-day Saint Charities, is shown speaking via video to BYU's Sesquicentennial devotional at the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah, on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. September 9, 2025 Photo by Christi Norris/BYU photo.byu.edu | Christi Norris/BYU

She said she braided the experiences together in her mind and learned what it felt like to combine them all.

I was really grateful for my education at Brigham Young University, because it strengthened my faith  my faith in secular knowledge, my faith in the temple, my faith in the scriptures, my faith in my experiences, because they were all together," she said.

To learn more about upcoming activities related to BYUs Sesquicentennial, visit 150.byu.edu.
Sep. 9Though the annual State of the City speech has run on broadcast airwaves for several years, it's now come under fire as temperatures rise in the upcoming mayoral race.

Mayoral candidate and former Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White alleged in a letter to local television stations that the planned airing of Mayor Tim Keller's State of the City address within weeks of the election constitutes political speech and violates Federal Communications Commission guidelines.

The city began paying to air the annual speech on local stations during the pandemic to make it available to the public, city spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos said Monday.

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"We got great feedback as a result of the format and continued to invest in broader access since then," Gallegos said. "The only criticism we've received is from political candidates who are trying their best to get media attention."

In past years, airing the speech on multiple local channels has cost the city between $20,000 to $30,000 per year, Gallegos said. He did not state the cost for this year's airtime.

The 30-minute speech is scheduled to run five times on five different stations, KRQE-TV, KRQE FOX, KASY-TV, KOAT-TV and KWBQ-TV, starting in mid-September. The latest rerun is set for Oct. 5 on KRQE, two weeks before the start of widespread early voting.

White's latest allegation comes after he filed a complaint with Albuquerque's Office of the Inspector General, calling on it to investigate the money spent on the event and Keller's rhetoric.

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To White, the State of the City address was a campaign event paid for by taxpayers.

"While cloaked as an official act, the language clearly enters the realm of electioneering, serving as a political appeal and rallying cry to his supporters to reelect him," White wrote in his letter. "... Coupled with (the) timing of this broadcast so many weeks from the original speech and in such close proximity to the election, makes the political nature of this broadcast that much more transparent."

In his original complaint, White asked the OIG to require Keller's campaign to repay the city for the event's cost if it's found to be out of policy.

However, the fate of any such complaints remains in limbo without an Inspector General. After the city's last Inspector General, Melissa Santistevan, was placed on paid leave and subsequently quit, her planned replacement William Hoffman also turned down the job offer due to pay issues.

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In his letter, White also cites the Communication Act of 1943, the governing document of the FCC, which states that if a licensed broadcaster allows a candidate for public office to use its station, it must allow all candidates an equal opportunity to do so.

White concluded his letter by asking the television stations to provide equal airtime to each candidate. With seven qualified candidates in the mayoral race, running an equal airtime of 30 minutes each would take up a total of 17 hours and 30 minutes across the five stations.

"We understand that this year's broadcast has generated a range of opinions and inquiries, including legal and political questions regarding the nature of the event," wrote Jeff Miller, the general manager of KRQE and station manager of KWBQ and KASY, in a statement Tuesday. "As a media company, we are not in a position to adjudicate campaign finance issues or evaluate the content of candidate messaging."

He wrote that, in compliance with the FCC, the stations are prepared to work with all candidates who would like to purchase airtime.

KOAT declined to comment.
Video: Central Arkansas Library System main library announces major remodel

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.  The grand reopening of the main branch of the Central Arkansas Library System was set back, library officials said.

CALS officials said the CALS Main Library will now reopen on Monday, Sept. 29, with a grand reopening celebration set for Saturday, Oct. 4.

CALS Mini Main to close ahead of main library reopening

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Officials noted that the celebration will feature games, crafts, food trucks and music, including the return of the Six Bridges Book Festival.

The location closed to the public in September 2023, with construction continuing into 2025. Changes to the library include a video production studio, podcasting rooms, teaching kitchens, a rooftop patio and more.

The reopening was originally scheduled for Sept. 20.

Central Arkansas Library System main branch reopening

For more information on the CALS Main Library reopening, visit CALS.org.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KARK.
PIKE COUNTY, Ill. (WCIA)  A man and a woman from Champaign were arrested in Pike County after law enforcement said they crashed a car  which contained items like used hypodermic syringes, digital scales, and other drug-related paraphernalia  and ran away from the scene.

In the evening of Sept. 5, the Pike County Sheriffs Department responded to a single-vehicle accident on Interstate 72 eastbound, near mile marker 18. When law enforcement arrived, they found that the people inside the vehicle had fled.

Danville man sentenced to 9 years in prison after fourth felony gun conviction

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Witnesses told police that a male and female, later identified as 40-year-old Matthew G. Lawrence and 28-year-old Jessica K. Pope, were involved in the crash. The witnesses offered to provide help, both both Lawrence and Pope declined.

The vehicle was towed from the scene, and authorities found crack cocaine, heroin, additional controlled substances, used hypodermic syringes, digital scales, and other drug-related paraphernalia inside of it.

On Sept. 6, a concerned citizen told law enforcement that two individuals had come to their home, and said that they had been left alongside the roadway. Both Lawrence and Pope were found and arrested by deputies the next day, with the help of Pike County Crimestoppers and local residents.

Deputies also recovered a loaded handgun when they arrested Lawrence. He was taken into custody on charges of unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon and unlawful possession of a controlled substance. Lawrence was also wanted on warrants in Douglas and Peoria Counties.

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Champaign Police shares Labor Day traffic enforcement results

The sheriffs office said Pope is facing charges including leaving the scene of an accident, unlawful possession of a weapon, unlawful possession of a controlled substance and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia.

Additional controlled substances and drug paraphernalia were found when Lawrence and Pope were arrested, the sheriffs office said. Both Lawrence and Pope were brought to the Pike County Jail.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com.
Murfreesboro will be gaining a Char steakhouse by 2027 near the Trader Joe's off Medical Center Parkway and Robert Rose Drive, a developer announced.

The future restaurant will be part of The Exchange project with 232 apartments and 17,000 square feet of retail, including 6,600 for the restaurant, said Ross Bradley, the chief development officer for Murfreesboro-based TDK.

"We've got several more restaurants and retailers that we're excited about that well be announcing soon," Bradley said.

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"We look forward to breaking ground on Sept. 17."

The Exchange part of the development for the apartments and retail spaces will be in four buildings called, Vintage 1959. The date commemorates the founding of TDK. The company has been based in Murfreesboro since 1986 after starting in Robards, Kentucky, Bradley explained.

Vintage will provide four-story buildings with retail spaces on the bottom floors that sit behind the Trader Joe's that TDK built and sold to the California-based specialty grocery store chain, Bradley said.

TDK also built a shortcut connector road that stretches from Robert Rose Drive to The Avenue Murfreesboro shopping center.

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The Exchange also is near the Clari Park commercial and residential development that includes restaurants and 300 apartments that's also off Medical Center Parkway across from The Avenue.

Economic development: Medical Center Pkwy drivers will gain shortcut road option, Trader Joe's from TDK project

Nashville-based 4Top Hospitality will bring Char to Murfreesboro

This rendering shows what the one of the four Vintage 1959 apartment buildings will look like in Murfreesboro that are are part of the commercial and residential project called, The Exchange, off Medical Center Parkway and Robert Rose Drive in Murfreesboro. The bottom floor retail spaces of the four stories for the apartment buildings will include a Char restaurant by 2027. The 1959 date commemorates the founding of TDK development that's been based in Murfreesboro since 1986 after starting in Robards, Kentucky.

A Sept. 9 news release from John Iaccheri on behalf of Nashville-based 4Top Hospitality also announced the future Char as the sixth location of "the modern Southern-style steakhouse."

Char Murfreesboro will entertain diners, the news release suggested, with a "signature piano bar, menu of modern takes on Southern favorites, Wine Spectator award-winning wine list and private dining space."

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The news release also provided a comment from Doug Hogrefe, partner of 4Top Hospitality, an employee-owned, multi-concept independent restaurant group.

Were excited to bring our steakhouse to the rapidly-growing Rutherford County area, Hogrefe said. Guests can expect the same great menu, wine selection, live music and hospitality theyve experienced at our Nashville location.

Speciality grocery store: Trader Joe's continues Tennessee expansion with Murfreesboro store

Murfreesboro Char will be similar to future Franklin restaurant

Ross Bradley Vice President of Development for TDK stands near the construction of a new development at the corner of Robert Rose and Medical Center Parkway on Friday, July 12, 2024, the site of a new specialty grocery store that Murfreesboro Mayor Shane McFarland confirmed to be for a Trader Joe's.

4Top Hospitality also plans to open a Char in 2026 in Franklin within the mixed-use Canteen on Carothers development, according to the news release.

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Similar to the Franklin location, the Murfreesboro restaurant will be in an area where guests live, work and play, the news release said and noted that Char will bring an estimated 50 jobs to the Medical Center Parkway area.

Char will offer flexability for people to enjoy a working lunch, afterwork drinks, a go-to dinner spot or a date night destination, the newss release touts.

Ali Buchanan, 4Top Hospitality director of strategy, said the company had been eyeing Murfreesboro as a location for a while.

We've been considering a location in Murfreesboro for quite a while. Liz Craig and the Foundry Commercial team have been instrumental in supporting our expansion endeavors in the areas surrounding Davidson County. The Exchange development offers everything we look for in a new Char site, and we're thrilled to become part of the Murfreesboro community.

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Dining opportunties: Clari Park residential-commercial project adds 4 more restaurants for new total of 10 'to create a community'

Reach reporter Scott Broden with news tips or questions by emailing him at sbroden@dnj.com. To support his work with The Daily News Journal, sign up for a digital subscription.

This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: Char 'Southern-style steakhouse' announces plans for Murfreesboro site
A prominent conservative activist who has campaigned heavily in Wisconsin in recent election cycles was fatally shot Wednesday, prompting state Republicans and Democrats alike to call for prayers across the state.

Charlie Kirk, leader of Turning Point USA, was shot during a question-and-answer session with students at an event held on Utah Valley University's campus.

He later died after being taken to a nearby hospital, President Donald Trump confirmed. Utah Valley University was the latest stop on Kirks The American Comeback Tour with his organization. The event was scheduled for 12 p.m. local time on Sept. 10.

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"Please join me in praying for Charlie Kirk, the students in attendance, and our first responders. Theres no place for political violence," Republican candidate for governor Josh Schoemann said in a post on X.

Charlie Kirk speaks during Day 1 of the Republican National Convention at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 15, 2024.

Details of the murder, including a motive, has not yet been released by police. Kirk's shooting comes about a year after Trump was shot at a rally ahead of his reelection in November 2024.

U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, a Republican who represents the 3rd Congressional District, said "this leftwing political violence must stop now." "I am praying fervently for @charliekirk11 and his family," Van Orden said in a post on X. "Whoever does not condemn this is part of the problem. The gloves are off."

In response to the shooting, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said, "Violence against anyone because of their political beliefs is wrong.""Violence against others is wrong. Violence is never the answer for resolving our differences or disagreements," he said.

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Republican Party of Wisconsin chairman Brian Schimming said in a statement that the "political violence that we have seen in recent years must come to an end.""We at WisGOP are holding Charlie Kirk in our thoughts and prayers. As Americans, we need to stand against these violent attacks," he said.

State Sen. Julian Bradley, a Republican from New Berlin, said "Political violence is against everything our country stands for."

"We settle our disagreements through discourse and debate. Choosing violence is never the answer!!! Join me in praying for Charlie." he wrote on X.

Democrats condemned the homicide, as well."There is no two ways about this: political violence has no place in America. I am keeping Charlie and his family in my thoughts in this truly horrifying moment," U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat from Madison, said in a post on X.

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Kelda Roys, a Democratic state senator who is expected to run for governor in 2026, said, "I dont agree with Charlie Kirk on virtually anything, but I fully support his right to speak freely."

"Violence is NEVER an acceptable way to solve our political disputes."

Devin Remiker, chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, said "This sort of violence will continue until all of us, regardless of party, condemn these sorts of heinous actions  no matter where it comes from or who it is directed at."

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, a Democrat who this week announced a campaign for governor, said "there is no justification for political violenceperiod."

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"What happened to Charlie Kirk in Utah is unacceptable. We dont have to agree, but we must reject hate and violence in every form," Crowley said.

Kirk's organization Turning Point began as a youth-focused group active on college campuses and has since expanded its voter outreach operations, particularly in Wisconsin. The group was criticized earlier this year by some state Republicans for attempting to have more influence in how Republicans handle campaigns.

Kirk has been present in Wisconsin during past campaign seasons in the battleground state. He and Donald Trump Jr. visited Oconomowoc in March to rally for Brad Schimel, a conservative state Supreme Court candidate who lost the race.

He also delivered remarks at the 2024 Republican National Convention held in Milwaukee and appeared at events for conservatives around the city during the week-long event.

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Kirk visited the University of Wisconsin-Madison in September 2024 as the first stop on his "You're Being Brainwashed" tour, according to the Daily Cardinal, a student newspaper at the university.

About 150 people attended that event, where Kirk debated with students on issues like abortion, gay marriage and affirmative action. No counter-protestors were present, according to the Badger Herald, another newspaper at the university.

Other conservative speakers that visited the campus in previous years, including Matt Walsh, which drew protests and vandalism on university property.

The College Republicans chapter at UW-Madison in a statement said Kirk's work has "injected life into the conservative movement and made free thinkers on campus feel that they are not alone."

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"Charlie Kirk has dedicated his life to changing the culture and helping young conservatives make a difference on college campuses," the chapter said.

(This story was updated to add new information.)

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Charlie Kirk, conservative influencer active in Wisconsin, is killed
A prominent conservative activist who has campaigned heavily in Wisconsin in recent election cycles was fatally shot Wednesday, prompting state Republicans and Democrats alike to call for prayers across the state.

Charlie Kirk, leader of Turning Point USA, was shot during a question-and-answer session with students at an event held on Utah Valley University's campus.

He later died after being taken to a nearby hospital, President Donald Trump confirmed. Utah Valley University was the latest stop on Kirks The American Comeback Tour with his organization. The event was scheduled for 12 p.m. local time on Sept. 10.

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"Please join me in praying for Charlie Kirk, the students in attendance, and our first responders. Theres no place for political violence," Republican candidate for governor Josh Schoemann said in a post on X.

Details of the murder, including a motive, has not yet been released by police. Kirk's shooting comes about a year after Trump was shot at a rally ahead of his reelection in November 2024.

U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, a Republican who represents the 3rd Congressional District, said "this leftwing political violence must stop now." "I am praying fervently for @charliekirk11 and his family," Van Orden said in a post on X. "Whoever does not condemn this is part of the problem. The gloves are off."

In response to the shooting, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said, "Violence against anyone because of their political beliefs is wrong.""Violence against others is wrong. Violence is never the answer for resolving our differences or disagreements," he said.

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Republican Party of Wisconsin chairman Brian Schimming said in a statement that the "political violence that we have seen in recent years must come to an end.""We at WisGOP are holding Charlie Kirk in our thoughts and prayers. As Americans, we need to stand against these violent attacks," he said.

State Sen. Julian Bradley, a Republican from New Berlin, said "Political violence is against everything our country stands for."

"We settle our disagreements through discourse and debate. Choosing violence is never the answer!!! Join me in praying for Charlie." he wrote on X.

Democrats condemned the homicide, as well."There is no two ways about this: political violence has no place in America. I am keeping Charlie and his family in my thoughts in this truly horrifying moment," U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat from Madison, said in a post on X.

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Kelda Roys, a Democratic state senator who is expected to run for governor in 2026, said, "I dont agree with Charlie Kirk on virtually anything, but I fully support his right to speak freely."

"Violence is NEVER an acceptable way to solve our political disputes."

Devin Remiker, chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, said "This sort of violence will continue until all of us, regardless of party, condemn these sorts of heinous actions  no matter where it comes from or who it is directed at."

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, a Democrat who this week announced a campaign for governor, said "there is no justification for political violenceperiod."

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"What happened to Charlie Kirk in Utah is unacceptable. We dont have to agree, but we must reject hate and violence in every form," Crowley said.

Kirk's organization Turning Point began as a youth-focused group active on college campuses and has since expanded its voter outreach operations, particularly in Wisconsin. The group was criticized earlier this year by some state Republicans for attempting to have more influence in how Republicans handle campaigns.

Kirk has been present in Wisconsin during past campaign seasons in the battleground state. He and Donald Trump Jr. visited Oconomowoc in March to rally for Brad Schimel, a conservative state Supreme Court candidate who lost the race.

He also delivered remarks at the 2024 Republican National Convention held in Milwaukee and appeared at events for conservatives around the city during the week-long event.

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Kirk visited the University of Wisconsin-Madison in September 2024 as the first stop on his "You're Being Brainwashed" tour, according to the Daily Cardinal, a student newspaper at the university.

About 150 people attended that event, where Kirk debated with students on issues like abortion, gay marriage and affirmative action. No counter-protestors were present, according to the Badger Herald, another newspaper at the university.

Other conservative speakers that visited the campus in previous years, including Matt Walsh, which drew protests and vandalism on university property.

The College Republicans chapter at UW-Madison in a statement said Kirk's work has "injected life into the conservative movement and made free thinkers on campus feel that they are not alone."

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"Charlie Kirk has dedicated his life to changing the culture and helping young conservatives make a difference on college campuses," the chapter said.

(This story was updated to add new information.)

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Charlie Kirk, conservative influencer active in Wisconsin, is killed
Georgia leaders and politicians reacted Wednesday to the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, all condemning the violent actions.

Kirk was shot and killed during a rally at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.

He was known for his outspoken support of President Donald Trump and was often on major road tour rallies giving speeches, passing out Make America Great Again hats and emphasizing Trump's issues.

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Kirk founded Turning Point USA, a nonprofit organization that advocates for conservative politics on high school, college, and university campuses.

Here's how Georgians reacted.

Georgia politicians react to Charlie Kirk death

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp tweeted a message of prayer for Kirk shortly after the shooting. "Please join us in praying for Charlie Kirk. Political violence is never the answer!"

Please join us in praying for Charlie Kirk. Political violence is never the answer!  Brian Kemp (@BrianKempGA) September 10, 2025

He later retweeted the Republican Governers Association's statement saying "We are absolutely devastated by the news that America has lost Charlie Kirk."

Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock

Warnock, a Democratic senator from Georgia, condemned the violence in a Tweet Wednesday, saying "The attack on Charlie Kirk this afternoon is awful and deeply appalling. I'm praying for him and his family. Political violence is NEVER acceptable and we must condemn it in every."

The attack on Charlie Kirk this afternoon is awful and deeply appalling. Im praying for him and his family. Political violence is NEVER acceptable and we must condemn it in every form.  Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (@SenatorWarnock) September 10, 2025

Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff

Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff said in a Tweet that he was "shocked and horrified by the news Charlie Kirk was shot in Utah and pray for his recovery."

I am shocked and horrified by the news Charlie Kirk was shot in Utah and pray for his recovery, as well as the community at Utah Valley University. Political violence is unacceptable.  Jon Ossoff (@ossoff) September 10, 2025

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Georgia Rep. Mike Collins

The representative who will run next year for Warnock's seat in the Senate lauded Kirk as a political activist, saying, in part, "The conservative movement lost a generational leader today. Charlie was a visionary, a motivator, and a proud patriot who fought every day to make this country better for future generations."

The conservative movement lost a generational leader today. Charlie was a visionary, a motivator, and a proud patriot who fought every day to make this country better for future generations. What began as a young college students far-fetched idea turned into a legacya global  Rep. Mike Collins (@RepMikeCollins) September 10, 2025

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene

Greene, a strong supporter of Trump and the MAGA movement, said in a Tweet "Charlie Kirk was a loving husband and father who inspired young people across America to get married, have children, end abortion, and live boldly for God."

Charlie Kirk was a loving husband and father who inspired young people across America to get married, have children, end abortion, and live boldly for God.



He believed deeply in our God-given First Amendment rights and would speak with or debate anyone, no matter their politics. pic.twitter.com/JTvbUbL1az  Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (@RepMTG) September 10, 2025

Rep. Andrew Clyde

The Georgia representative called Kirk a "legend" and "true patriot" who "devoted his life to America's future generations."

America lost a legend today.



Charlie Kirk was a true patriot who deeply loved this nation. He devoted his life to Americas future generationsfighting for truth, faith, and freedom.



May God bless his beautiful family.



Rest in Peace, Charlie.   Rep. Andrew Clyde (@Rep_Clyde) September 10, 2025

Georgia Rep. Buddy Carter

"My heart breaks for the Kirk family," Carter's tweet begins. "Charlie Kirk was a beacon of conservative politics, a patriotic American who engaged young people on issues that mattered and encouraged critical thinking."

My heart breaks for the Kirk family.



Charlie Kirk was a beacon of conservative politics, a patriotic American who engaged young people on issues that mattered and encouraged critical thinking.



This senseless act of violence will be met with the full force of the law.  Buddy Carter (@RepBuddyCarter) September 10, 2025

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Ryne Dennis is the Deep South Connect Team Editor for Gannett/USA Today. Find him on X @RyneDennis and email at rdennis@onlineathens.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Charlie Kirk death. Reactions from Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, Warnock, more
BEIJING, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- A mainland spokesperson on Wednesday warned Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities that seeking "Taiwan independence" by relying on external forces is a dead end.

Chen Binhua, spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, made the remarks in response to a question about a recent visit to the Philippines by Lin Chia-lung, head of Taiwan's so-called foreign affairs authorities. Following Lin's trip, the Philippines issued statements that reiterated the country's adherence to the one-China policy, reaffirming that it does not recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state.

"No matter how the DPP authorities attempt to collude with external forces to instigate separatism, they cannot change the fact that Taiwan is part of China, nor can they shake the international community's broad consensus and established framework of adhering to the one-China principle," Chen said.

He stressed that the mainland firmly opposes any form of official exchanges between Taiwan and countries that have diplomatic relations with China, and strongly opposes providing platforms for "Taiwan independence" separatists to stage political stunts. 
Charlie Kirk, a leading voice in right wing politics who drew thousands of supporters and protesters to his college events, was shot and killed during an event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.

Viral videos of the event on social media showed massive amounts of blood pouring from his neck wound as he slumped over in his chair seconds after a single shot rang out as he was speaking to the crowd.

President Donald Trump, of whom Kirk was a huge supporter and often appeared at events with, confirmed his death.

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The 31-year-old media personality was at the campus kicking off his "The American Comeback Tour," where he was hosting his prominent "prove me wrong" table, where audience members debate the activist in a public setting.

Kirk visited Oklahoma State University back in April 2025 on the same tour, which was met with a huge crowd of supporters but also many protestors.

Oklahoma reacts to Kirk's shooting

Before his death was confirmed, reaction to the shooting in Oklahoma was strong and immediate. Oklahoma State University's Turning Point USA chapter shared that they were praying for Kirk and ask that others continue to pray for his health.

Governor Kevin Stitt, too, shared that he was praying for the figure in this moment.

Im praying for Charlie Kirk.  Governor Kevin Stitt (@GovStitt) September 10, 2025

Superintendent of Schools Ryan Walters continued these remarks, noting Kirk as a friend and "an incredible Christian man" as he extended prayers for him and his family.

Prayers are with my friend and incredible Christian man Charlie Kirk and his family.



Pray for Charlie  Ryan Walters (@RyanWalters_) September 10, 2025

Senator Markwayne Mullin, R-Oklahoma shared a video stating he events "make me sick" and advocated that individuals pray for he and his family.

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He extended the prayer to the country, saying, "We've gotten to the point where we can't have a conversation anymore."

Pray for Charlie Kirk. pic.twitter.com/Niquncsip5  Markwayne Mullin (@SenMullin) September 10, 2025

In addition, Lt. Governor Matt Pinnell, Attorney General Gentner Drummond, Senator James Lankford and Representatives Stephanie Bice and Josh Breechen posted they too were praying for Kirk.

Vigil for Charlie Kirk to be held on OU campus

A vigil for Charlie Kirk is scheduled Wednesday night on the University of Oklahoma campus, according to a Turning Point USA Instagram post.

The vigil will be held at 7:30 p.m. at the South Oval.

Who was Charlie Kirk?

Charlie Kirk was the founder and president of Turning Point USA. He was named Forbes 30 under 30 in 2018 and spoke at the 2016, 2020 and 2024 Republican National Conventions.

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He has had numerous media interviews and appearances, including on Fox News, The Washington Times, and The Washington Post.

As a published author, he has penned a New York Times best-seller, The MAGA Doctrine: The Only Ideas that Will Win the Future.

Kirk also had a substantial social media following on many platforms, including YouTube, with almost 3.1 million subscribers. Most recently, Kirk sat down for an interview with California Governor Gavin Newsom.

In September, Kirk also appeared in a viral YouTube video on Jubilee that garnered 27.5 million views, where he debated with 25 liberal college students.

Kirk's visit to Oklahoma State University has gained over 1 million views.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Who is Charlie Kirk? Activist who visited OSU killed in Utah shooting
Conservative influencer Charlie Kirk was shot and killed during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah on Sept. 10.

Kirk, 31, was attacked during a question-and-answer session with students. The university had said a suspect was taken into custody as of 1:15 p.m. MT. However, Scott Trotter, a university spokesman, told the New York Times police have determined the person who was taken into custody was not the shooter. Campus police declined to comment when reached by USA TODAY.

During a Sept. 10 press conference, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said a person of interest was arrested and being questioned by authorities.

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The university said the campus would be closed and classes canceled until further notice. "Police are investigating. Leave campus immediately. Follow police instructions," the school said in a post on X.

President Donald Trump issued a statement on Truth Social at 3:40 p.m. Sept. 10 announcing Kirk's death.

"The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead," he stated. "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. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!"

FBI Director Kash Patel said he is closely monitoring the reported shooting.

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Agents will be on the scene quickly and the FBI stands in full support of the ongoing response and investigation, Patel said on social media.

Utah Valley University was the latest stop on Kirks The American Comeback Tour with his organization Turning Point USA. The event was scheduled for noon local time. More than 6,800 people had signed a petition prior to the event requesting that faculty prevent Kirk from speaking.

Allowing him to speak on our campus would not only misrepresent the values we hold dear but also create an environment where divisive rhetoric could flourish, the petition read.

"UVU, including its leaders speaking on behalf of the institution, does not take official positions on political, social, or cultural controversies unless they directly impact our mission, operations, or core values," the statement said. "This neutrality ensures that our campus remains a true marketplace of ideas, where faculty, staff, and students are empowered to express viewpoints without institutional bias."

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Kirk was slated to speak at the Culture & Christianity Conference on Sept. 19-20 at the World Outreach Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

He was recently at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in March for his American Comeback Tour, where he was greeted with a large crowd of students and took part in his signature debates.

He posted an overview of those debates last week on his Youtube channel.

Kirk went viral in 2023 for statements made following the Covenant School shooting in Green Hills that left seven dead, including the shooter, stating that it is "worth to have a cost of...some gun deaths every single year" in trade for Second Amendment rights.

Local lawmakers, advocates react

Prior to the announcement of his death, U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, U.S. Rep. David Kustoff, R-Tennessee, as well as U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tennessee, posted on X with calls for prayer for the conservative speaker.

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"Please join me in wrapping Charlie Kirk and his family in prayers," Blackburn stated. "This is horrific."

Pete Hegseth, the U.S. Secretary of War, lives in Goodlettsville, similarly called for prayers on the social media platform.

"An incredible Christian, American, and human being," he said. "May the healing hand of Jesus Christ be upon him."

Hegseth refers to himself on social media as the U.S. Secretary of War after Trump signed an executive order on Sept. 5 declaring the name "Department of War" to be the Department of Defense' "secondary name."

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More: Trump signs order renaming Department of Defense the Department of War

Gov. Bill Lee posted on X that he and his wife Maria "offer our heartfelt prayers for Charlie Kirk, and ask that the Lord be near his family right now."

The Tennessee Democratic Party condemned the attack in an official statement, stating that "any and all violence has no place in our society. We are shocked by the horrific situation unfolding in Utah and are keeping Charlie Kirk and his loved ones in our prayers."

Today another act of senseless violence occurred in Utah. Violence has no place in a civil society and we condemn this act of terrorism in the strongest possible terms. said Rachel Campbell, TNDP chair.

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The Davidson County Republican Party on the social media account GOP Nashville, shared a video of the shooting and stated that "liberal violence must stop."

The World Outreach Church called Kirk's death "a tragic loss. We are praying for the family, Turning Point USA and our nation."

There are no known motives for the alleged shooter as of publication.

The Knox County Democratic Party sent an official statement following the attack, condemning "political violence in all forms," adding that "democracy prevails when we settle our differences civilly and at the ballot box."

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We condemn the attack on Charlie Kirk and our thoughts and prayers are with Charlie and his family," said Knox Dems Chair Stuart Hohl, in the official statement. "We also extend our concern to everyone present at the event. This act of terror has no place in our country.

Rep. Mark White, R-Memphis, stated that his "thoughts and prayers are with the family of Charlie Kirk and his wife, Erika"

Sen. Brent Taylor, R-Memphis, called for prayers "for the family of Charlie and Erika Kirk" in light of the "devastating" event.

"May they find peace and comfort during this time," he stated.

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Conservative commentator Candace Owens, a Nashville resident, also called for prayers in a post on social media.

She followed the statement up later with a post stating "I can't process this."

Who is Charlie Kirk?

Kirk became a national figure as a conservative influencer and as the founder of Turning Point USA, an organization that pushes for conservative politics on high school and college campuses.

In 2024, he spoke at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where he gave a speech focusing on what Kirk says he heard from young people around the U.S. He was married to Erika Kirk, an entrepreneur. Their daughter was born in August 2022 and their son in 2024.

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Contributing: Craig Shoup, N'dea Yancey-Bragg, Bart Jansen, Karissa Waddick, Fernando Cervantes Jr., Dinah Pulver, Aysha Bagchi, Josh Meyer and Joey Garrison

The USA TODAY Network - The South region's coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners.

Have a story to tell? Reach Angele Latham by email at alatham@gannett.com, or follow her on Twitter at @angele_latham

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Charlie Kirk death: Federal officials, TN lawmakers react
Conservative media personality Charlie Kirk was shot at an outdoor event in Utah on Sept. 10.

Kirk, 31, was the founder of the Arizona-based conservative group Turning Point USA and a top ally of President Donald Trump.

At the time he was shot, he was hosting an event at Utah Valley University titled "Prove Me Wrong," where he challenged students who disagreed with him to a debate.

Video posted on social media showed thousands of students gathered around Kirk, who was seated in a stool under a tent and speaking into a microphone. The sound of a gunshot could be heard and a bullet could be seen entering the side of Kirk's neck. Blood gushed from the wound.

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Trump announced Kirk's death on Truth Social a few hours later.

Kirk grew Turning Point into a national heavyweight

Kirk had been a rising star within the Republican Party over the past ten years, growing his own online profile and expanding Turning Point USA into a power broker within the GOP.

A speech he delivered at the 2016 Republican convention helped introduce him to a national audience.

Then 22 years old, Kirk energized the Cleveland crowd with an applause line that the GOP was the party of youth and diversity." He volunteered a to-the-point slogan irreverent for its time: Big government sucks.

In the two presidential election cycles since then, Kirk's organization has become a political heavyweight in Arizona and nationwide. Turning Point's campaign wing regularly hosted Trump's presidential campaign events in Arizona, a swing state, during the 2024 election cycle.

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The group is controversial even among Republicans. Its leaders have sought to oust those they disagree with. During the 2024 election cycle, Kirk publicly criticized the leadership of former Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel and called on his donors to stop giving to the national party. McDaniel stepped down months later.

Kirk himself has pursued provocative political positions, such as a social media campaign to discredit the civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. He has encouraged traditional gender roles, praising the values of "marriage and motherhood" for young women.

Turning Point now boasts allies at the very top of the GOP's chain of command.

"Charlie Kirk and Turning Point have been a major reason why the conservative movement is finally growing a spine," Donald Trump Jr. said in a written comment to The Arizona Republic in 2024.

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"Turning Point's influence has grown because they pick the right fights, work their butts off, and they don't apologize for it. ... That inspires people."

Kirk has two young children

Kirk was born in Illinois and raised in the Chicago suburbs.

He got involved in politics as a high school student and later dropped out of Harper College to pursue political activism.

Kirk was 18 years old when he co-founded Turning Point USA with conservative activist Bill Montgomery in 2012. The political group is headquartered in Phoenix.

Kirk married Arizona native Erika Frantzve in 2021. They have two young children, a son and a daughter.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Who was Charlie Kirk, the Turning Point USA leader killed in Utah?
Charlie Kirk, the founder of the conservative youth activist organization Turning Point USA, has died after he was shot during an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, President Donald Trump said.

"The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead," Trump said on social media. "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. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!"

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called the fatal shooting a "political assassination."

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The manhunt for the suspected shooter is still underway and the investigation is still ongoing, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.

The Utah Department of Public of Safety said in an update Wednesday night that two people were initially taken into custody after the shooting but later released.

The first was released and later charged with obstruction by university police. The second person was taken into custody and released after an "interrogation" by law enforcement, the department said.

Utah authorities said "there are no current ties to the shooting with either of these individuals."

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The FBI said it is working alongside state and local law enforcement to "to fully investigate and seek justice in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk" and asked for tips from the public, urging anyone with information, photos and video from the incident to share it with investigators.

Jim Urquhart/Reuters - PHOTO: Law enforcement officer works at Utah Valley University, where right-wing activist, commentator, Charlie Kirk, an ally of President Donald Trump, was shot during an event, in Orem, Utah, Sept. 10, 2025.

A single shot was fired on Utah Valley University's Orem campus toward Kirk, a visiting speaker, shortly after noon, the school said.

"He was hit and taken from the location by his security," the university said.

Kirk, 31, was taken to a hospital after being shot, according to Turning Point USA, which said, "with a heavy heart that we confirm that Charles James Kirk has been murdered by a gun shot" during the campus event.

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"We ask that everyone keep his family and loved ones in your prayers," the organization said.

Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune via Reuters - PHOTO: U.S. right-wing activist and commentator Charlie Kirk appears at a Utah Valley University speaking event in Orem, Utah, U.S. September 10, 2025.

Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason called the shooting a "targeted attack," and said the scene is a "very large area."

Mason said the "only information" they have on the possible shooter was taken from CCTV on campus, and that the person was dressed in all dark clothing. The shot was fired on campus from a "longer distance," potentially from a roof, he said.

There is no evidence that anyone else was involved, according to authorities.

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Salt Lake City FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Bohls said the investigation is in the early stages.

"We are following all the leads and all the evidence," he said during the press briefing on Wednesday.

Trump, Vance, other lawmakers react to shooting of Charlie Kirk

The father of two young children was a Trump confidant at the forefront of a burgeoning conservative youth movement. Known as the "Trump whisperer," Kirk was deeply involved in vetting top positions for the administration following the election and was in constant communication with top advisers and the president himself.

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"It's horrific. It's one of the most horrible things I've ever seen," Trump told ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl.

"He was a great guy," Trump said. "He was a good man. He was an incredible guy. Nobody like him."

FBI and ATF agents are on the scene, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Patel said earlier the agency "stands in full support of the ongoing response and investigation."

Jim Urquhart/Reuters - PHOTO: A tent bearing the slogan 'The American Comeback Tour' is cordoned off after U.S. right-wing activist, commentator, Charlie Kirk was fatally shot during an event at Utah Valley University, in Orem, Utah, September 10, 2025.

There was a discussion about shootings when the single shot was fired during the event.

Utah Valley student Luke Pitman, who witnessed the shooting, told Salt Lake City ABC affiliate KTVX that he heard a "big bang."

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"We thought it was confetti. Then, everyone started ducking down," he told the station. "And then, I look over at Charlie Kirk and I see blood coming from his neck."

Utah Sen. Mike Lee said he is "tracking the situation at Utah Valley University closely."

"Please join me in praying for Charlie Kirk and the students gathered there," he said on social media earlier Wednesday.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images, FILE - PHOTO: In this July 15, 2024, file photo, CEO of Turning Point USA Charlie Kirk speaks on stage on the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wis.

Vice President JD Vance called Kirk "a genuinely good guy and a young father" while urging prayers in the aftermath of the shooting.

Cox said earlier he was being briefed "following the violence directed at Charlie Kirk" during the conservative political activist's visit to the campus.

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"Those responsible will be held fully accountable. Violence has no place in our public life. Americans of every political persuasion must unite in condemning this act," he said on X.

The university was the first stop this fall for Turning Point USA's "The American Comeback Tour," which is traveling to multiple college campuses around the country. The tour has planned stops in Utah, Colorado, Minneapolis, Virginia and elsewhere, according to its website.

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images, FILE - PHOTO: In this May 28, 2025, file photo, Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk stands in the back of the room as President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C.

An event featuring Kirk at Utah Valley University on Wednesday was expected to include a "prove me wrong" table, according to the tour's website.

Ahead of Kirk's visit to Utah Valley University, some students started an online petition asking university administrators to stop him from coming.

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Though Kirk's visit was controversial on campus, police were tracking no specific or credible threats before the fatal shooting, Utah law enforcement sources told ABC News.

More than 3,000 people were estimated to be at the event, according to the university's police chief, Jeff Long. There were six police officers, along with Kirk's private security, according to Long.

"We trained for these things, and you think you have things covered, and these things, unfortunately, they happen," Long said during Wednesday's press briefing.

'I was in total shock': Witness to fatal Charlie Kirk shooting recounts gruesome scene

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Utah Valley University's campus is closed and classes have been canceled until further notice, the school said.

"We are shocked and saddened by the tragic passing of Charlie Kirk," Utah Valley University Vice President Val Peterson said during Wednesday's press briefing. "We express our sincere condolences to the Kirk family. We grieve with our students, faculty and staff who bore witness to this unspeakable tragedy."

Peterson said the university's Turning Point USA student group invited Kirk to speak on the campus, which he said is seen as a "place to share ideas and to debate openly and respectfully."

"Any attempt to infringe on those rights has no place here," he said. "We do not condone any form of violence at UVU and seek to make our campus a safe place for all."

Jim Urquhart/Reuters - PHOTO: Law enforcement officers work at Utah Valley University, where right-wing activist, commentator, Charlie Kirk, an ally of President Donald Trump, was shot during an event, in Orem, Utah, Sept. 10, 2025.

There is no call to shelter in place at this time, according to Orem Mayor Dave Young, who urged people to report anything suspicious to police.

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"We are devastated by today's events," Young said in a statement. "This type of violence should never happen anywhere, let alone in our community. This is in direct opposition to our values, which include family, unity, respect and faith."

The incident sparked immediate condemnation from leaders on both sides of the political aisle.

"There is no place in our country for this kind of violence. It must end now," Former President Joe Biden said. "Jill and I are praying for Charlie Kirk's family and loved ones."

Jim Urquhart/Reuters - PHOTO: Utah Governor Spencer Cox speaks at a press conference after right-wing activist, commentator, Charlie Kirk, an ally of President Donald Trump, was fatally shot during an event at Utah Valley University, in Orem, Utah, Sept. 10, 2025.

"The attack on Charlie Kirk is horrifying and this growing type of unconscionable violence cannot be allowed in our society," Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said on X.

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Fellow Democratic governor, California's Gavin Newsom, said on X that the "attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible. In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form."

Republican Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo said the "attack was sickening and heartbreaking, and there is no place -- ever -- for violence in American politics."

Trump has ordered all American flags throughout the country to be lowered to half-staff through Sunday evening in Kirk's honor.

Kirk had two children, a 3-year-old girl and a 1-year-old boy, with his wife, Erika.

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He was considered a huge star on the far right by many conservative pundits and seen as leading the next generation of Trump's MAGA movement.

Charlie Kirk's influence, reach helped propel Donald Trump into office

He founded the conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA in 2012, at the age of 18.

The group helped to promote Trump, especially with high school and college-age voters. The group and Kirk had a huge following with conservatives, particularly men, and he was able to parlay that popularity into support for Trump's campaign.

During the 2016 Republican National Convention, Kirk spoke to an enthusiastic crowd as one of the youngest speakers. He was the opening speaker at the 2020 RNC.

"Charlie Kirk was a father, husband, and dedicated patriot who spent his life defending conservative values and inspiring young Americans," Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters said in a statement. "Our hearts break for his wife, children, loved ones, and countless supporters across the country. The horrifying violence at Utah Valley University that took the life of Charlie Kirk is utterly appalling. Republicans and Democrats alike must stand united in condemning this brutality that has no place in America."

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin called the shooting "yet another horrific act of targeted political violence."

"Though were still awaiting further details, in all likelihood, he was murdered for expressing his beliefs," Martin said in a statement. "Let me be clear: even if you disagree with someone's beliefs, even if you stand against every single thing they stand for, the path of disagreement must never lead to what happened today at Utah Valley University."

ABC News' Aaron Katersky and Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
MAGA star Charlie Kirk was reportedly killed after being shot at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.

Bystanders reported spotting Kirk getting shot near his neck during a Q&A session with students, according to the Deseret News.

President Donald Trump issued a statement on Truth Social following reports of the shooting. "We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot. A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM!" Trump said.

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Kirk, who owns a condo on Longboat Key, has been taking his "American Comeback Tour" to universities across Florida, starting at the University of South Florida in Tampa in February before heading to the University of Florida in Gainesville and then Florida State University in Tallahassee. He was greeted at each university with adoring fans and crowds of protesters.

At his campus stops, Kirk, conservative activist, author, radio talk show host and cofounder and chief of the conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA, debates students who challenge him at an open mic.

Americas students are still only given one side of the story, the leftwing side, so we intend to continue balancing the scales and equipping local students to fight for their values, he said in a statement. If youre a progressive, you get to come to the front of the line and make your best argument, and Ill make mine.

In 17 Politifact fact-checks over Kirk's statements, 87% were found to be at least "Mostly False" with 17% coming in as "Pants on Fire."

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Kirk has been a powerful fundraising force in the GOP and is regularly name-dropped by President Donald Trump, who invited him to speak at a viewing event at the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC, following the inauguration. According to an Arizona Republic story last year, Turning Point "and its allies have become the conservative movements youth mobilizers-in-chief and, in some states, top enforcers of loyalty to former President Donald Trump. Plus, adds its spokesperson Andrew Kolvet, "Were fun.' 

Most recently, Kirk made news following pop megastar Taylor Swift's engagement to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce when he advised the self-made billionaire to "submit to your husband."

Who is Charlie Kirk?

Charlie Kirk addresses a Turning Point USA event on Dec. 22, 2024, in Phoenix.

Illinois native Charles James Kirk, 31, cofounded the nonprofit Turning Point USA in 2012 when he was 18. The organization's stated goal is to "build the most organized, active, and powerful conservative grassroots activist network on high school and college campuses across the country." TPUSA claims to be on over 3,500 campuses and has spawned other activist measures, including, among others, an online academy, Turning Point Faith, and Turning Point Action, a political advocacy group that heavily involved itself, without results, in the 2022 cycle in Arizona and other swing states.

Among Turning Point USAs first initiatives was creating a professor watchlist, a listing of those it said advanced leftist propaganda or were hostile to conservative students.

U.S. Vice President-elect JD Vance (C), Bettina Anderson (L), and Charlie Kirk (R), co-founded of Turning Point USA, during the Turning Point USA Inaugural-Eve Ball at the Salamander Hotel on January 19, 2025, in Washington, DC. Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 47th U.S. president on January 20. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

Turning Point USA had its own turning point in 2016 when it began enthusiastically promoting Trump's 2016 campaign and Kirk served as a personal aide to Donald Trump Jr. Kirk's compensation soared from $27,000 in 2016 to more than $407,000 by 2021, according to The Associated Press, while other Turning Point officials collected large salaries and enjoyed lavish perks.

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A 2020 ProPublica investigation found irregularities with TPUSA's auditor and how the group is run, and in 2017 The New Yorker exposed racial text messages from the group's former field director.

Kirk also hosts "The Charlie Kirk Show" on Salem Media's "The Answer" radio channel. In 2021, it was ranked as the 21st most popular podcast on Apple podcasts. Apple currently lists it as No. 9 for U.S. news podcasts, eight above NPR.

Conservative activist Charlie Kirk speaks at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025 for President Donald Trump's inauguration.

Kirk is married to Erika Kirk, an entrepreneur, and the couple has two children. Their daughter was born in August 2022, and they had a son in 2024.

Charlie Kirk controversies

Kirk has spoken out against the validity of the 2020 election and said he didn't think Black History Month deserved a whole month and that only married heterosexual couples should be able to adopt children.

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Kirk has called for an immediate end to immigration and abortion, spread misinformation on COVID, suggested that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had issued a stand-down order when Hamas militants attacked in 2023 to justify an assault on Gaza, and does not consider climate change to be a real threat.

Kirk and TPUSA focus on removing what he calls critical race theory and DEI, programs. Earlier last year Kirk kicked off more outrage when he focused on DEI in commercial flying, saying, "If I see a Black pilot, I'm going to be like, 'Boy, I hope he's qualified.'"

In April, Kirk declared that women in their 30s were past their prime and blamed birth control for making them "angry and bitter."

"And birth control like really screws up female brains, by the way," he said, according to mediaite.com. "Every single one of you need to make sure that your loved ones are not on birth control."

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He told FOX News' Laura Ingraham in September that young women who voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris "don't value having children, and this is one of the reasons why we are seeing a fertility collapse in the West."

Does Charlie Kirk live in Florida?

In 2024, AP reported that Kirk owned three properties, including a Spanish-style mansion near Phoenix, Arizona (although he put it up for sale), a nearby apartment and a two-bedroom, two-bath beachside condo on Longboat Key on the Gulf Coast of Florida he bought for $855,000, according to property records.

N'dea Yancey-Bragg, USA TODAY, contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Longboat Key's Charlie Kirk shot in Utah conservative firebrand
CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY)  The Chesapeake Police Department request the publics assistance in the search for a man who robbed a bank Tuesday morning.

According to Chesapeake Police, the suspect has been identified as Carlos Nixon Jr. The robbery took place at Southern Bank in 3343 Western Branch Boulevard at 9:45 a.m. Nixon approached a bank teller, demanding money from the drawer after threatening to have a gun. Nixon Jr. later ran with an unknown amount of money.

If anyone has any further information, Chesapeake Police advises them to call the Chesapeake Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.

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Continue to check WAVY.com for updates.

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CHICAGO (WGN)  A popular Mexican Independence Day celebration is back on after being postponed last week due to concerns over immigration enforcement.

El Grito Chicago will proceed as planned after being postponed, along with other events, due to potential Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity and the possibility of National Guard deployment. The celebration was initially scheduled for Sept. 13 and 14 at Grant Park in downtown Chicago.

El Grito translates to the cry or the scream in English, as historically, it has marked the start of Mexicos war for independence. Organizers in Pilsen say it symbolizes the fight against oppression, which is why they add that it is paramount that the event continues as planned.

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El Grito Chicago, other events postponed due to potential ICE activity, National Guard deployment

This is going to be one of the safest places for our community. We dont want to put anyone at risk, said Omar Lopez, vice president of Comite Cultural Mexicano de Chicago.

While organizers in Pilsen say the El Grito celebration will proceed as planned, it will take on a different look from years past. This year, a church in the Pilsen area will host the festival.

The Mexican community is going to reaffirm its presence in the city of Chicago, but nationwide, Lopez said.

The festival was postponed in early September due to concerns over immigration enforcement. This week, the Department of Homeland Security announced it is launching an immigration crackdown in chicago called Operation Midway Blitz. According to a post on X, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation will target the criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois.

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Chicago Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez disagrees.

Operation: Midway Blitz launched following weekend of ICE sightings in Chicago

Were not detaining criminals or violent criminals, we are detaining workers, someone selling flowers in the streets was detained, someone trying to make a living for their families, Sigcho-Lopez said.

It will now take place on Monday, Sept. 15. at St. Paul Catholic Church, near 22nd Place and Hoyne Avenue.

It will be called a solidarity celebration.

Organizers say the original Grito was marked by the ringing of a church bell. It has long symbolized the fight against oppression, and in its currency, it is seen as a rallying cry for freedom, dignity, and justice.

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We are living in dark times in our country, but in Chicago, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. If there is any beacon of hope, its here in Chicago, Sigcho-Lopez said.

Organizers say the event will be an interfaith celebration with music, cultural performances, and speakers from immigrant justice organizations.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV.
Authorities said that three children in New Zealand are doing well after they were found with their fugitive father, Thomas Phillips, who was shot to death after being on the run with them for four years.

Phillips disappeared with his children, Jayda, 12, Maverick, 10, and Ember, 9, in December 2021 following an alleged dispute with their mother, Cat. It was believed that he and the kids were hiding in the wilderness, while New Zealand Police confirmed Phillips had been fatally shot on Monday, September 8, in Waikato following a suspected burglary.

While one of the children was with Phillips at the time of the incident, the other two were also found unharmed and are now safe, according to a news release shared on September 8.

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The Home Edits Clea Shearer Undergoes Yet Another Emergency Surgery as Breast Cancer Journey Continues

Acting Deputy Commissioner Jill Rogers shared a following update about the children on Tuesday, September 9, and revealed theyre in the care of Oranga Tamariki (Ministry for Children), according to People.

"I want to assure the community here in the Waikato, and also the wider public of New Zealand, that my team here in this region have been planning and preparing for the return of these children from when they went missing, Warwick Morehu, Oranga Tamariki and Whanau Services Regional Commissioner Waikato and Bay of Plenty, said in an additional statement obtained by People.

"I can confirm the children had a settled night, they are doing well under the circumstances and engaging with the staff supporting them.

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Morehu continued, Going forward, I have an experienced and dedicated team of staff assigned to this, they are prepped and ready to respond to whatever needs these children might have.

LAPD Make Gruesome Hollywood Discovery Inside Pop Star D4vds Car

"We are joined up with our partner agencies across the childrens system to respond to those needs," he said. "We have clinical professionals whove put their hands up to assist if required. I want to assure you that these children will be provided with whatever help or assistance they may need, for however long they may need it."

After noting that the young children experienced an unprecedented set of circumstances, he said that everyone is doing their best to ensure we can return them to some of form of a normal daily life."

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"We dont know exactly what that looks like yet, or how long that may take, we will be guided by the needs of these children," Morehu concluded, asking that people respect the children's privacy despite the "huge public interest" in the case.

After the children were found safe, their mother told RNZ that she was deeply relieved that for our (children) this ordeal has come to an end.

They have been dearly missed every day for nearly four years, and we are looking forward to welcoming them home with love and care, she said. At the same time, we are saddened by how events unfolded today. Our hope has always been that the children could be returned in a peaceful and safe way for everyone involved.
Chris Hayes declared on Tuesdays All In that Donald Trump has been caught dead to rights by the latest released documents connected to Jeffrey Epstein.

Among those documents was a copy of the letter Trump wrote for Jeffrey Epsteins 50th birthday in 2003, which, as Hayes explained, was part of a birthday book created for the billionaire sex offender that also included messages from dozens of luminaries and friends of Jeffrey Epstein.

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As Hayes explained, this included Trumps intimate, cryptic, icky message to Epstein, quote framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand drawn with a heavy marker.

Of course it did, Hayes said. It belonged to the estate.

Hayes then described the contents of the book, which was made public by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on Monday. Theres a pencil and marker drawing on one page. On the left, an image labeled 1983 that appears to show Epstein giving candy and balloons to little girls. Right, another image of a group of girls, maybe the same ones, maybe a new crop in 2003 massaging an unclothed Epstein above the caption, what a great country, with Mar a Lago seemingly in the background.

Hayes noted that theres actually an entire section of the Epstein book labeled children, includes redacted photos of a prepubescent girl with the pajamas, posing and playing the piano, as well as a hand drawn picture of a wedding with a children, [which] includes the inscription, here comes the bride, all dressed in white. Where is the groom? Hes in the ladies room. Theres a series of dirty limericks on page 164, including one that ends with this quote. Listen to this one: Jeffrey in half a century, with credentials, plenipotentiary, though up to no good, whenever he could, has avoided the penitentiary.'

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The next page, as Hayes noted, was Trumps message, which as Hayes reminded his audience, was precisely as The Wall Street Journal described. Typewritten lines about enigmas, wonderful secrets, inside the silhouette of a naked girl more than a woman, frankly, and the future Presidents signature below her waist kind of mimicking pubic hair.

Hayes also mentioned the letter from another of Epsteins friends that joked about Epstein selling a woman, who had grown too old, to Trump.

Its very, very hard not to be, like, physically disgusted, and its very, very hard not to come to the very obvious conclusion, they all knew, right? Hayes said. I mean, at least the people writing those parts in the book, they made jokes about it that were then bound as a present. In this book, there are dozens more pages like what you just saw. We spared you the six pages of wild animals with erections. I mean, look, if this book were given to someone who wasnt subsequently revealed to be the most prolific sexual predator and insatiable pedophile, probably in recent memory, maybe you could be like, Oh, well, he just seems like a body guy, but it isnt that, right? We do know what he did. And so together, the whole thing is worse than we thought, much worse, because it is exactly what it looks like.

Every single page seems to convey what Donald Trump, on the record in print, told New York Magazine about Epstein back in 2002, the same kind of wink, wink, nudge nudge, right? Hes a lot of fun to be with. Its even said he likes beautiful women as much as I do. A lot of them are on the younger side. Huh? What more evidence you need to know that as president, Donald Trump has been lying to cover up something about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the nature of it, the things they did together, their shared interests, Hayes continued.

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But now hes been caught red handed, and hes pushing Republicans to just keep lying their way out of it, Hayes added, at which point he dove in, at length, with examples.

Eventually, Hayes circled back to something he argued was crucial to understanding the matter  Trumps own statements about dating significantly younger women, including the sexualized comments hes made about his own daughters. This included statements Trump made during a TV interview, when asked What does Tiffany [Trump] have of yours? What does Tiffany have of her moms?

Trumps answer: Well, I think that shes got a lot of Marla [Maples]. Shes a really beautiful baby, and shes, shes got Marlas legs. We dont know whether not shes got this part yes, but time will tell.

When Trump said this part, he mimed large breasts.

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Hayes ended there, noting this was a normal thing to say about your baby daughter, right? A normal thing to say about your baby daughter, if youre also a guy who hangs out with Jeffrey Epstein, talks about how he likes them young, and also writes that letter to him, right? Normal stuff, and all of that is what Donald Trump and Republicans want you to forget. Theres a reason that theyre failing miserably.

Watch the clip below:

The post Chris Hayes Says Donald Trump Has Been Caught Dead to Rights by Latest Epstein Reveals | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
DOHA, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Qatar condemned the Israeli strike on Doha as a violation of its sovereignty and international law, and said it is working with the United States to prevent a recurrence.

In a program aired on Al Jazeera on Wednesday, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari stated that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had shown "absolutely no respect for his partners and allies," making it clear that mediators in the peace efforts would be scapegoated rather than protected. He stressed the attack would not deter Qatar from continuing to reach a peace deal.

He noted Washington informed Doha only after the bombing, but said U.S. President Donald Trump later assured the Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani such incidents would not happen again. The Emir warned the attack would not go unanswered and pledged all legal and diplomatic measures in response.

Qatar is a major non-NATO ally of the United States and hosts the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East. 
CHRISTIAN COUNTY, Mo.  A Clever woman was arrested Tuesday, Sept. 9, in connection with a 1992 cold case in Iowa involving the death of a newborn baby.

Christian County Sheriff Brad Cole said his office first assisted Johnson County, Iowa investigators in 2022 after they reopened the case of Baby John Doe. The infants body was found Dec. 21, 1992, at an Iowa City landfill.

Its approximately three years ago. We get into contact from the law enforcement agency in Iowa requesting our assistance in a homicide investigation that they were working on, Cole said. We assisted them in writing and executing the search warrant here in Christian County about three years ago. Thats when our first involvement happened. They sent some investigators down here from Iowa. We assisted them in those interviews, and ultimately at that time, this is when the information was gained from the suspect about her involvement.

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The suspect, identified in Missouri as Cindy Sue Elder, also known in Iowa as Cindy Sue Eckrich, was connected to the case through DNA technology.

Investigators determined Baby John Doe was full-term with no abnormalities but showed signs of extensive blunt-force injuries after death. The placenta was still attached and wrapped around the childs neck. The babys body was traced back to a trash receptacle near an apartment building in Coralville, Iowa, before being transported unknowingly to the landfill.

In 2020, advances in DNA allowed investigators to develop a profile linking the child to Elder, who was living in Clever. Elder reportedly told police the baby was born alive but she did not know how he died. She said she placed the newborn in a plastic bag and then into a trash receptacle.

Elder told investigators she hid the pregnancy in 1992, did not want the child, and had tried to induce a miscarriage. Investigators later said Elder actually kept the baby in the trunk of her car for several days in freezing temperatures before leaving the bag in a Coralville receptacle near her fathers apartment.

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Authorities allege DNA results show a 99.9999% probability that Elder is the childs mother. Investigators said the babys father was unaware of the pregnancy.

Cole said no arrest was made in 2022, since it was up to Iowa authorities to pursue charges.

That is completely up to the Iowa authorities as to what they wanted to do at that time with the information they took, the information they had back, ultimately filed a report with their prosecutors office, and thats when charges were filed, Cole said. I cant answer why it took three years to do that. I just dont know. Typically, thats not something that we would be looking at here in one of our investigations if we had all the information and evidence, but different jurisdictions work differently.

Cole said his office learned this week that a warrant had been issued for Elder, and she was taken into custody early Tuesday morning.

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When you get that call and you know that the warrant has been issued and they filed charges on a case that youve been involved in, especially with a small child who obviously cant do anything to help himself or defend himself in a situation like this, you know, theres a little bit of satisfaction that comes to knowing that youve done something good to help bring justice to the person responsible, Cole said.

We made the arrest. We actually had been doing surveillance on the home where she lived at to make sure she was home, and when she tried to leave early this morning, around 6 a.m., we took her into custody. She did not offer anything to our investigators and deputies that took her into custody, and to be honest with you, she was very quiet and somber this morning with nothing to say. I dont know what she was thinking or what was on her mind, but after 30 some years, I would suspect, being arrested and told youre under arrest for the murder of your baby, that it all came to fruition and that its over with.

Cole said Elder does not have a criminal record. He was unsure if she has other children. Elder will remain in the Christian County Jail until she is extradited to Iowa.

Some of that lies in her hands, Cole said. If shes willing to sign an extradition waiver, then that could happen very quickly within a few days. If she fights extradition, then it could take a few weeks. Shes just being held at this point. I would assume that she probably will have an out-of-state fugitive court hearing in front of the judge here and be held on that charge until extradition.

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Cole called the case an example of delayed justice but said new DNA technology often helps bring resolution to cold cases.

Let me just say this. Were talking about a baby here that obviously is vulnerable and has no way at all to take care of themselves. Anytime that somebody makes a decision to do what she did with this baby, it just appalls me, Cole said. You know, theres many people in many families out here that that cant have children for medical reasons, that that could have gave this baby a good home, a good life, and it just it brings tears to my eyes sometimes to think about these situations where a life is lost needlessly that could have had a loving family.

Anytime that you can bring somebody to justice that has committed a crime like this, its obviously a good day. You know, its unfortunate that it took so long, but with the new technology and DNA, some of it was brought forward because of that, and we see that happen quite often in cold cases across this country that have been outstanding for many, many years. Its always a good day when you can bring somebody to justice in these situations.

Cole added that resources exist for people who do not want to keep a child.

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Personally, I would definitely describe her as being selfish, knowing that theres so many resources out there. Even 30 years ago. You know, if you have a child, you dont want to keep that child, theres so many things that you can do besides just discarded it into the landfill, Cole said. You know, it is heartbreaking that this child that was just discarded into the trash could have been a productive citizen and had a wonderful life had just been given that opportunity.

If youre in a situation like this, just know that theres resources out there, theres people willing to help you and take care of a child that you may not necessarily be able to care for and need some assistance with.

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Cincinnati City Council is expected to vote Sept. 10 on spending an additional $5.4 million on police and public safety.

Crime in Cincinnati has come under a national spotlight after a viral brawl on Fourth Street and stabbing death of a downtown business owner and resident in his home. It's led to a parade of local and national Republican politicians criticizing the city's Democrat-led government.

The spending package up for a vote puts more money toward police overtime, drones, street cameras and lighting, among other crime-fighting measures.

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Cincinnati City Council will meet at 2 p.m. at City Hall, 801 Plum Street.

This story will be updated.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Will Cincinnati City Council spend $5.4 million more on police?
(COLORADO SPRINGS)  The City of Colorado Springs recently changed the qualifications for the City Auditor with the goal of increasing the citys capacity for accountability.

The City said, Residents of Colorado Springs expect accountability, transparency, and responsible stewardship of public resources. That is why City Council recently updated the qualifications for City Auditor.

According to the City, the change shifts the requirement from a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) to a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA). The city said the change does not lower the bar but increases it.

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A CPA is trained to prepare and audit financial statements, which the City said is essential, but the City Charter already requires external CPA firms to perform all the citys financial audits, which is not changing. The City wants the City Auditor role to be different, a position about leadership, not accounting.

The City Auditor would lead a department that conducts performance audits, evaluates risk, and ensures the city government operates with integrity. The job would require independence, vision, and the ability to guide a team in holding the city accountable, according to the City.

The City said that is why the CIA credential matters. A CIA designation is the nationally recognized standard for professionals who lead internal audit functions. The designation is endorsed by the Institute of Internal Auditors, the Government Accountability Office, and the Association of Local Government Auditors. According to the City, cities across the country rely on it as the benchmark for strong internal oversight.

The City said the change strengthens its capacity for accountability. The Citys finances will still be audited by outside CPA firms, while the City Auditor will provide independent, risk-based oversight of city operations.

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The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department is searching for a 59-year-old who has been reported missing.

Derrick Jay Proctor was last seen at his home on the 10100 block of Shaffer Valley Way on Monday around 8 p.m.

ALSO READ: Deputies use drones, bloodhounds to find missing Statesville woman

Police said he left in a black 2015 Honda Civic with a North Carolina license plate that reads EMC-5525.

That vehicle was last seen traveling south on Bradford Drive in Charlotte around 3 p.m. on Tuesday.

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According to police, Proctor has been diagnosed with a cognitive impairment and may become lost or confused. He also has difficulty walking and uses a cane.

Anyone with information regarding his whereabouts is asked to call 911 immediately.

VIDEO: Iredell County deputies search for missing 73-year-old woman
Gov. Wes Moore (D) officially announced his reelection campaign Tuesday, saying that any challengers should "be prepared to defend their record," including when it comes to President Donald Trump (R). (Photo by Christine Condon/Maryland Matters)

It isnt clear who hell be up against come November 2026, but Gov. Wes Moore (D), who formally announced his reelection bid on Tuesday, already has a message for the eventual challenger.

Whoever it is, they should come ready, because we have a very real record to run on  and a record that were very proud of, said Moore, adding that he intends to make any GOP challengers ties to President Donald Trump (R) a campaign issue in deep-blue Maryland.

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Whether its Republican Ed Hale or Republican Steve Hershey or Republican Larry Hogan or Republican Andy Harris or Republican John Myrick  theres a lot of people who are making a similar type of noise, Moore said.

Only one of the people he named, Myrick, has officially entered the race. Hershey, the Senate minority leader who represents the Upper Shore, announced last week that he had formed a gubernatorial exploratory committee  partly in response to Hale, a businessman and lifelong Democrat who recently switched parties after acknowledging he was unlikely to beat Moore in a Democratic primary.

Hogan, the states first two-term Republican governor in decades, who served from 2014 to 2022, has been coy about his 2026 plans. Harris, the only Republican in the states congressional delegation, has not indicated that he plans to run for governor.

During Tuesdays news conference outside the State House, Moore touted the economic side of his record, pointing to job growth since he took office, and arguing that his administration has slowed out-of-control spending in Maryland. It comes after a uniquely tough budget year, during which the General Assembly had to cut spending and raise fees to overcome a $3.3 billion deficit projected for fiscal 2026.

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But Moore also pointed to historic reductions in violent crime, even as he continues to feud with Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to deploy National Guard troops to Baltimore to crack down on criminal activity. With the city experiencing a dramatic decline in homicides, Moore and others say federal troops are not needed, although the governor did announce a heightened deployment of state police in the city Friday.

Whichever Republican Moore faces in the 2026 general election in 2026, its clear that Trump will loom large. Moore said Tuesday that Republican candidates should also come prepared to explain why they have been so dead silent, when were watching the ravages of Donald Trump coming to the state.

On Tuesday, Moore was quick to attack the president on everything from tax policy to federal job cuts  including in a video announcement that officially kicked off his candidacy. There, he argued that Trump is bending over backwards for billionaires and big corporations.

The video garnered a social media response from at least one Moore opponent in Myrick, who finished a distant fifth to Hogan in a seven-candidate Republican primary field for U.S. Senate in 2024.

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What a crock, Myrick wrote of Moores announcement. Maryland deserves better.

Myrick, a Prince Georges County resident who chose former state Del. Brenda Thiam as his running mate, has targeted Moore on economic and tax issues in particular, and argued that steep cuts to Marylands federal workforce are a result of Moores refusal to work with the Trump administration.

In addition to Myrick, the only other Republican to officially file for governor is Carl A. Brunner Jr., a Carroll County firearms instructor. Moore does have one Democratic challenger, Ralph Jaffe, who has run unsuccessfully for governor or U.S. senators in eight previous elections going back to 1992.

Moores campaign kickoff also drew a response Tuesday from the conservative Maryland Freedom Caucus, which pointed to the fact that Moore signed a budget with $1.6 billion in taxes and fees. It also said some of the spending cuts claimed by Moore were merely gimmicks, that included declining to fill vacant government jobs, transferring funds from special accounts and shifting some costs to local governments.

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Governor Moore has presided over the largest tax hike in Maryland history and a relentless barrage of new fees on working families, read the caucus statement. No speech can spin those facts away.

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On Tuesday, Moore held up the taxes, fees and spending cuts as an example of fiscal discipline, though it came out of necessity in his third year in office. The General Assembly convened in January  less than two weeks before Trumps inauguration  with the knowledge that it would need to resolve the $3.3 billion gap between spending and revenue before it could adjourn 90 days later.

We were able to make those smart, strategic cuts while also giving the middle class a tax cut  and yes, asking those who have done very well to invest a little bit more so we could actually have the best public schools and have safe streets, Moore said of tax increases on higher-income earners.

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Moores reelection announcement comes amid persistent rumors that he plans to run for president in 2028  a rumor that Moore has repeatedly dismissed, including on a Sunday appearance on Meet the Press.

I have never once said that I am interested, Moore said Tuesday of the presidency. So when people say Are you ruling it out? my point is Ive never ruled it in. Ive been focused on this job. And I appreciate the fact that people in Maryland and that people around the country are paying attention to the progress weve made.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE)  Leanne, the Knoxville-based Netflix show starring comedian Leanne Morgan, is returning for a second season.

Nearly a year and a half after it was first reported that Morgan had landed her own sitcom, she posted on her social media Monday announcing that the series had been renewed. Morgan thanked all the viewers who watched season one of the series, saying Yall did this for me, so thank yall.

Knoxville widow gets new home after house was destroyed in 2023

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The first season dropped on Netflix earlier this year, and follows along the comedians life as husband leaves her for another woman and she starts over as a grandmother. The show is based in Knoxville and works in some humorous mentions of places and things that only Knoxvillians and those from the surrounding area can truly appreciate.

On top of Morgan playing the shows main character, the show also includes Whose Line Is It Anyway comedian Ryan Styles in the role of Murphys ex-husband. In the first season, the show also delves into the relatable, loving and delightfully-chaotic family relationships the main character has with her sister, played by Emmy award winner Kristen Johnston, her parents, played by Celia Weston and Blake Clark, and her adult children, portrayed by Graham Rogers and Hannah Pilkes.

Big Ears 2026 lineup announced, see when tickets go on sale

Its also worth noting that Leanne isnt Morgans first time on Netflix. In 2023, she also had a stand-up special called Im Every Woman debut on the streaming service. The special earned a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is described by IMDb as Morgan showcasing life via intimate tales about her upbringing in a small town in Tennessee, her almost 20 years of marriage, the challenges of parenting her three children, and her first experience as a grandmother.

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Morgan is a University of Tennessee graduate and also performed during the University of Tennessee Medical Centers Comedy for a Cause event to raise awareness and funds for those with ovarian and gynecological cancer. In 2020, she also offered virtual cooking lessons to benefit Make-A-Wish East Tennessee.

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Comedian and TV host Rosie ODonnell has shared that she did not travel to the US to attend her daughters college graduation, saying that her bitter war of words with Donald Trump impacted her decision.

ODonnell shared the news during a recent appearance on the No Filter podcast, explaining: My daughter graduated college and I didnt go back because the security people said to me they didnt think it was wise. She added: I think Trump will use me to rile his base."

Her ongoing rivalry with Trump has been well documented.

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In 2006, ODonnell criticized Trump for remarks he made about a winner of his Miss USA beauty pageant, saying he had no right to be a moral compass for the beauty queen.

That unleashed a series of barbs from Trump, who called ODonnell a loser and slob, among other insults. In turn, ODonnell questioned his business skills and compared him to a snake oil salesman.

In 2015, during Trumps first presidential campaign, ODonnell said: Its a nightmare, and further took him to task over his crude remarks about women.

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Then, in July, we reported that Trump was considering removing ODonnells US citizenship, writing: Because of the fact that Rosie ODonnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.

Trump said she was a threat to humanity and should remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her, after ODonnell moved there following his re-election.

She has said she's in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage, and that she would only return to the US "when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America".

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Responding to Trumps threat, ODonnell wrote on social media that Trump has always hated the fact that I see him for who he is - a criminal con man sexual abusing liar out to harm our nation to serve himself - this is why moved to Ireland - he is a dangerous old soulless man with dementia who lacks empathy compassion and basic humanity.

She also posted a photograph of Trump with Jeffrey Epstein on Instagram, adding: "You are everything that is wrong with America and I'm everything you hate about what's still right with it. She added: "I'm not yours to silence. I never was."

The US State Department notes on its website that US citizens by birth or naturalization may relinquish US nationality by taking certain steps  but only if the act is performed voluntary and with the intention of relinquishing US citizenship.

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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, noted the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the Fourteen Amendment of the Constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.

The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen," Frost said. In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.
ODESSA, Texas (KMID/KPEJ)- Today at the commissioner court meeting, the commissioners held their second of two required hearings on both the 2025-2026 budget as well as the tax rate to go along with it. Many came out during the meeting to voice their opinions.

A few community members asked the commissioners court not to increase the budget or the tax rates, questioning whether they could cut from other areas in the budget to keep tax rates the same or lower.

Ector County Judge Dustin Fawcett gave an explanation to the community on how the budget and tax rate will work.

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I know it gets a little bit wordy, but M&O has been in operation, Judge Fawcett said. The cost of funding government, that tax rate has stayed exactly the same. Now, we did increase the amount of revenues, but those revenues that were increased did not go over the threshold that the state set out of 3.5%. We stayed beneath that rate.

Judge Fawcett explains that the INS is increasing. It is a nine-cent increase per $100 valuation due to the courthouse and other projects around the city.



That service isnt subject to that 3 and a half percent approval rate, Judge Fawcett.

By the end of the commissioner court meeting, the commissioners decided to table the 2025-2026 budget and tax rate for their next meeting, making sure the numbers are right and everything is set to finalize.

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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO)  Severe weather declines sharply in the month of September, but it does happen. Meteorologist Scot Mundt has a look at some of the numbers.

Former state worker gets 2 suspended years for medical marijuana card fraud

Showers and storms moved through eastern KELOLAND this morning. While not everyone got wet, we did have a couple of stronger storms that contained heavy rain and even an isolated severe thunderstorm warning in northeast South Dakota.

Over the past 5 years, South Dakota averages 1 tornado report, 18 severe wind reports, and 6 severe hail reports.

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Of course, this doesnt take in account the Sioux Falls tornadoes from 2019. Thats when three EF-2 tornadoes moved through southern Sioux Falls just before 11:30 p.m. on the night of September 10th. These tornadoes were within a line of thunderstorms that also brought straight-line winds to the southeast side of Sioux Falls. While their time on the ground was brief, they left a lasting impression.

With temperatures above average and high humidity for this weekend, I wouldnt be surprised if we pop severe weather.

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THURSDAY, Sept. 11

FREE PLANETARIUM SHOW: A free show will be offered at 7 p.m. at the Clark Planetarium in the Advanced Technology Center on the campus of Shawnee State University. Free shows are offered on Mondays and Thursdays. Learn more about the planetariums shows at www.shawnee.edu/planetarium.

COUNTY COMMISSIONERS: The Scioto County Commissioners will meet in regular session at 9:30 a.m., on the third floor of the Scioto County Courthouse, 602 Seventh St., Portsmouth. The commissioners meeting is also livestreamed on their Facebook page.

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FRIDAY, Sept. 12

MINECRAFT TRIVIA: The Lucasville Library will host Minecraft Trivia at 4 p.m. You will need to bring a smart device to play. The Lucasville Library is located at 103 State Route 728, Lucasville.

SATURDAY, Sept. 13

BIGFOOT PRESENTATION: The Portsmouth Public Library will host the Ohio Night Stalkers at 1 p.m. They will be sharing their Bigfoot research, sound clips, photographic evidence, footprint casts and more. The program will be followed by a Q&A session. The Portsmouth Public Library is located at 1220 Gallia St, Portsmouth.

MONDAY, Sept. 15

CLAY TOWNSHIP: The Board of Trustees of Clay Township will hold a regular board meeting on the 15th at 7 p.m. in the Senior Center at 107 N. Arrowhead Drive.

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TUESDAY, Sept. 16

COUNTY COMMISSIONERS: The Scioto County Commissioners will meet in regular session at 9:30 a.m., on the third floor of the Scioto County Courthouse, 602 Seventh St., Portsmouth. The commissioners meeting is also livestreamed on their Facebook page.

ADAMHS BOARD MEETING: The Adams, Lawrence, Scioto Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board will hold their Finance Committee Meeting at 5:30 p.m. and their Board of Directors Meeting at 6 p.m. at 919 Seventh Street, Portsmouth.
Zhao Leji, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, attends the second plenary meeting of the 17th session of the 14th NPC Standing Committee at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 10, 2025. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)

BEIJING, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese lawmakers met on Wednesday to deliberate reports during an ongoing session of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee.

Zhao Leji, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, attended the plenary meeting of the session.

The meeting heard a report on the inspection of the implementation of the Trade Union Law. The report introduced the overall situation regarding the implementation of the law, as well as various difficulties and problems. It put forward suggestions for further comprehensive and effective law implementation.

Lawmakers reviewed a report on the implementation of the 2025 plan for national economic and social development, which pointed out that the overall implementation of the plan has been satisfactory. Noting that China's economy has maintained an upward and positive trend in the first half of the year, the report outlined key points of work for the second half of this year.

The meeting also heard a report on the budget execution. The report put forward the key fiscal work arrangements, including leveraging more proactive fiscal policies, and making every effort to stabilize employment and foreign trade.

Lawmakers reviewed a report on government debt management in 2024, and a supervisory research report on government debt management in 2024.

The meeting heard a report on advancing the integrated development of culture and tourism, which proposed the improvement of institutional mechanisms and support systems, developing innovative products and services for deeper integration, and further promoting cultural and tourism exchanges and cooperation.

Lawmakers reviewed a report addressing climate change and advancing carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, which outlined tasks for the next stage of work, including improving market mechanisms to build a more effective, dynamic carbon market with international influence.

The meeting also heard a report on the pilot reform of water resource taxation, and a report on the research into several major issues concerning the drafting of the outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030).

On the same day, Zhao also chaired a meeting of the Council of Chairpersons. During the meeting, senior lawmakers heard reports on the deliberation of bills. 

Zhao Leji, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, presides over the 49th meeting of the Council of Chairpersons of the 14th NPC Standing Committee at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 10, 2025. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD)  In response to a recent string of homicides, community members and leaders gathered Monday evening for an emergency meeting aimed at addressing violence in Grand Rapids neighborhoods.

The meeting, organized within hours, was led by the Baxter Neighborhood Association. The executive director said the urgency reflected the seriousness of the ongoing situation.

The conversation followed several recent killings, including the Aug. 10 murder of 38-year-old Randy Campbell, the Sept. 2 murder of 41-year-old Marcus Jerome Jones  both near Diamond Avenue  and the most recent, Sept. 6 homicide of 23-year-old DaShawn Guyton.

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GRPD places camera in neighborhood where two men shot dead

Community advocates, including an organization called Cure Violence, outlined strategies to prevent future tragedies.

Theres three components of Cure Violence, said Executive Director Jeff Ridgeway. That is to detect and interrupt the violence before it happens, to mediate once it happens and also to change societal norms.

The Grand Rapids Police Department also highlighted its efforts to respond, including relocating trailer cameras to crime hot spots and increasing officer presence in certain neighborhoods.

We refuse to accept this as normal, Capt. Cathy Williams said. We have to keep shouting that we will not accept that as, Oh thats just how it is in the Baxter neighborhood. No, that can never come out of our mouths, and it will never come out of my mouth.

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Speakers emphasized that building safer neighborhoods would require all hands on deck, urging residents to get involved in spreading the message and working together.

Chief: Family wants answers after man shot dead at GR park

Its not a one-size-fits-all to dealing with these issues it takes people like yourself who are committed, said Marian Barrera-Young, the director of Baxter Neighborhood Association.

If we touch five or 10 other people here with the message thats going on and that five or 10 touch another five or 10, then were going to make an impact, said Ridgeway.

The Urban League of West Michigans Cure Violence program is hosting another event Tuesday evening. Community members will canvass neighborhoods with signs and conversations calling for an end to gun violence. The event begins at 6 p.m. at Ellnoras Kitchen.

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ST. LOUIS  With several large cities eyed for President Donald Trumps list of National Guard deployment, some are questioning if St. Louis may end up on the list.

Just this past weekend, the city saw over four shootings in just one hour on Sunday, Sept. 7. According to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department (SLMPD), one person was fatally shot, and eight others were injured.

In January, St. Louis officials reported that crime was on the decline in the city, referencing a report on crime statistics in 2024.

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At the time, St. Louis Police Chief Robert Tracy credited the decline in crime to a modern, data-driven approach to fighting crime and the introduction of new transparency tools, such as crime mapping and an updated website.

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The men and women of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department are dedicated to seeing our positive progress continue into 2025, Tracy said previously.

With other metropolises like Chicago, Baltimore and New Orleans being considered for National Guard deployment, Tracy was asked if the City of St. Louis may be added to that list.

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In Mondays news conference regarding gun violence in the city over the weekend, Tracy said he did not hear any conversations that the National Guard will be deployed to St. Louis.

I did not hear any talks of them coming to St. Louisat this time, Tracy said to reporters. Sometimes when things like that happen, theyre not a decision of the chief of police.

Marge Amighetti, creator of iconic STL sandwich, dies at 97

Tracy did assure that if there are potential talks about National Guard control in St. Louis, he will have more clarity of what that scenario looks like for the city.

But at this time, its not something thats talked about, Tracy said.

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On Sept. 2, Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe rescinded all of his picks on SLMPDs Board of Commissionerswhich oversees operations of the departmentto instead focus on redistricting and initiative petition reform.

Since Kehoes decision, SLMPD told FOX 2 that Tracy will continue overseeing the department.

And in Mondays news conference, Tracy said that he wants the public to know that there is stability in the transition process and that there is confidence in his leadership.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 2.
ROME  Poland is set to utilize almost one-third of a European Union 150 billion ($176 billion) debt fund for defense spending, reflecting the countrys concerns about Russian aggression.

Warsaw has been allocated 43.7bn in loans by Brussels for arms purchases under the EU SAFE program, the blocs Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said.

Set up in March, the Security Action For Europe (SAFE) plan involved an offer of 150bn in low-cost loans to EU member states and allies to quickly beef up defense capabilities in light of Russias invasion of Ukraine and growing reluctance by the U.S. to shore up Europes defense.

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On Tuesday Kubilius said that all the 150bn of loans had been subscribed to by 19 member states, and called the plan a European success story.

Behind Poland, Romania has been granted 16.7bn in loans while France and Hungary each took 16.2bn and Italy signed up for 14.9bn, he said.

Belgium will receive 8.3 billion, Lithuania 6.4 billion, Portugal 5.8 billion and Latvia 5.7 billion, while other loan cash recipients are Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Slovakia and Spain.

As well as low interest payments, the loans also come with a ten-year grace period for repayment.

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I would like also to remind that when SAFE was announced early in spring, here was a lot of skepticism about possible low interest to take the loans. The contrary is true. The interest from the member states have been a resounding success, he said.

Loans would also be available to Ukraine, to EU candidate countries and countries with security deals with the EU.

Bilateral technical agreements with Great Britain and Canada on their participation in SAFE Programme will be negotiated very soon, he said.

Loans will be approved for spending which supports the European defense industry and promotes joint procurement between states, with a focus on air/missile defense, ground combat, space, strategic capabilities, cyber and space capabilities, Kubilius said.

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When I visited Washington D.C. before summer, one well known U.S. expert told me that right now, worldwide, SAFE is the biggest financial package to be invested into defense with such a speed. It is also important that we are sending a strong message of support to the frontier countries, when the US is announcing that they will reduce their support, he said.

Member states must now submit an investment plan for their loan cash by Nov. 30, with loan agreements due to be signed in the first quarter of 2026 if approved.
LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  The College of Southern Nevada is making state history by launching the first-ever funeral service program.

The program is designed to train the next generation of professionals who will guide families through lifes most difficult moments. Until now, Nevadans had to go out of state for funeral service training. CSNs new program changes that.

To have a program on-site now that allows students to get educated, to get a job right after, its making the system a lot better for our city, said program director and instructor Dr. Raymond Louis Giddens Jr.

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Dr. Giddens said bringing the program in-state not only cuts costs but also makes the career path more accessible. From funeral planning and embalming to grief counseling, students are equipped with the skills, knowledge, and compassion necessary to serve families right here in the valley.

The best funeral director is an educated funeral director and thats what we teach our students as well too, Giddens said. Families need to navigate wills, trusts, cemetery costs, veterans paperwork, so all these things that theyre piled up with at one time, you have a funeral director coming in, assisting them through that long process.

The inaugural class has 11 students.

This is state history and honestly, Im really honored to be able to do this and to be there for the families, student Kristen Frye said.

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Frye is a funeral service assistant at Palm Mortuary and hopes to one day become a funeral director.

I already have a degree in anthropology from CSN. Anthropology and funeral service sort of go hand-in-hand, Frye said. I wanted to incorporate my love of world religion, different cultures, and to help people at the same time.

CSNs new program has been nearly eight years in the making.

Ive been waiting for it, student Rochell Crenshaw said. When I heard the program was going to happen, I was eager.

Crenshaw dreams of opening her own funeral home one day, specializing in services for children.

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Funeral services have always been a passion of mine, Crenshaw said. Ever since I was 12 years old, I wanted to get involved in funeral services  assisting the families, assisting with the burial planning, and the celebration of life.

Careers within the funeral industry are in high demand, including embalmers, funeral managers, and funeral directors. Salaries start at around $62,000.

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DANVILLE, Ill. (WCIA)  The case of a Danville teens murder is still open two months after her death. On Wednesday, the community will rally for both justice and support of her family.

18-year-old Aniyah Davis was shot and killed at Winter Park the night of June 21. Her family said she was there with 300 other people in the park when shots rang out, hitting her and two other people. The other victims survived.

Danville man sentenced to 9 years in prison after fourth felony gun conviction

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It was a crime that promoted an outpouring of grief in the community, calls for an end to violence and municipal change. The Danville City Council approved new security measures, such as cameras in city parks.

The Davis family believes that had cameras been present, Aniyahs killer would have been caught by now. But September has arrived, and her case remains unresolved.

Along with DROC  Danville Restoring Our Community  the Davis family will host a rally on Wednesday in her memory and in support of all unsolved crimes of gun violence in the Danville area.

We stand united in love, strength, and the demand for answers, DROC said in a Facebook post. This is a peaceful rally  a time to lift Anyiahs name, support her loved ones, and show that our community will not stay silent. Together, we seek truth, accountability, and healing.

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The rally will take place at Temple Plaza in Danville, starting at 6 p.m.

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The daughter of a family that owns a Sayreville strip club has filed a federal lawsuit claiming she was wrongfully arrested during an investigation into her familys business.

Angela Mancini, 35, of Colts Neck, says in court papers she was used as leverage to pressure her parents and brothers into pleading guilty to prostitution and tax charges tied to Club 35, the Route 35 strip club her family owns.

Stories by Anthony G. Attrino

Read the original article on NJ.com. Add NJ.com as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
KANSAS CITY, Mo.  A Kansas City woman is suing the nursing home she claims is responsible for her mothers death.

In September 2022, Alice Mason died after getting sepsis from a wound that went untreated while she was a resident of the nursing home Redwood of Kansas City South, now called Rehab of Kansas City South.

Masons daughter is suing the nursing home, claiming neglect led to her mothers death.

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Preliminary report reveals new details about deadly plane crash in Clay County

The lawsuit claims Mason developed an avoidable skin condition that got infected, turned into sepsis, leading to her death in September 2022.

On July 18, 2022, the lawsuit says Mason was evaluated, and it was discovered that she had developed a wound on her coccyx. The wound was noted in a weekly report on July 27, 2022.

Despite this report, the lawsuit claims that a nursing note indicated that Masons skin was intact.

On Aug. 2, 2022, Masons wound was examined, and it was noted in her medical records that the wound was not improving, the lawsuit states. That same day, Mason was transferred to Truman Medical Centers emergency department after a nurse said the wound was obviously infected.

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The lawsuit says doctors determined that Mason had developed sepsis as a result of the infection from the wound. She underwent surgery on Aug. 6, 2022, according to the lawsuit.

Hospital staff reported to the nursing home suspicion of neglect, the lawsuit states.

On Sept. 24, 2022, Mason died.

The lawsuit alleges wrongful death as a result of neglect. Masons daughter is demanding a jury trial.

Man who owned nursing home at time of Masons death linked to several similar lawsuits

FOX4 investigative reporter Bella Caracta discovered that at the time of Masons death, the nursing home operated under a group called Polaris Healthcare  which oversaw multiple nursing homes in the area.

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Samuel Goldner previously had ownership ties to several Polaris Health and Wellness skilled nursing facilities in Missouri. In 2022, Goldner was the second-biggest owner of nursing homes in Missouri with 15 facilities.

As of February 2023, Goldner held an indirect ownership interest in the nursing home now called Rehab of Kansas City South, data shows.

Goldners attorney told FOX4 in December 2023 that Goldner no longer operated any nursing homes in Missouri.

From 2020 to 2023, at least four wrongful death lawsuits had been filed against Goldner-operated nursing homes in Missouri.

Goldner has ownership ties to three of the businesses listed as defendants in this latest lawsuit:

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This isnt the first time one of Goldners nursing homes was sued after a resident died.

In 2023, 79-year-old Bradford Williams died outside on a hot August day. He was found on the ground next to his wheelchair with scratches, bruises and bugs crawling out of his mouth and nose, according to the findings of a state investigation.

The lawsuit filed by Williams family alleged that, by the time staff found him, more than four hours had passed. He was found lying on the ground face down in tall grass.

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At the time of Williams death, the nursing home  Liberty Health and Wellness, previously named Polaris Health & Wellness of Liberty  was operated by 27-year-old Goldner and Goldner Capital Management, FOX4 previously reported.

Its not uncommon for these nursing homes and their owners to change names  or to be interconnected  which can make them harder to track down. And the company website for Polaris Healthcare no longer exists.

FOX4 is working to get in touch with the people being sued in this latest lawsuit.

You can read the full lawsuit filed by Masons daughter below.

Lawsuit against KC nursing homeDownload

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM)  People rallied outside the Dauphin County Administration building in Harrisburg Tuesday evening.

It comes ahead of Wednesday mornings Dauphin County Commissioners meeting where they will vote on a major immigration resolution.

We have people being treated inhumanely in our community, our friends, our family members, coworkers, people that we see every day and we know that are good people that mean and cause no harm to our communities, said Dom Holmes from Lancaster County.

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They believe individuals are being unfairly targeted simply because they are immigrants.

Weve seen with whats happened in Los Angeles, whats been purported to happen in Chicago, whats happening in Washington D.C., these things impact all of us and all of our communities, if we do not take a stand now, Holmes added.

These advocates hope the commissioners will vote in favor of whats being called A Welcoming County Resolution, which would guarantee that resources and personnel in Dauphin County are not used to support federal immigration operations, which some said could intimidate immigrant communities.

Im an immigrant, inclusion advocate, Im a mom and Im a naturalized immigrant, said Laila Martin Garcia of Lower Paxton Township. For me, Im here today because I think its very important that we make sure that our county is not spending our taxpayers money, their services and their resources to cooperate with immigration enforcement.

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Mirna Miranda, organizing director for CASA, which advocates for the immigrant community, told abc27 news she believes whats happening to immigrants is inhumane.

Chicagoans change routines as immigration crackdown looms. Some carry passports and avoid stores

It is sad and heartbreaking situation that we want to have to unite over and make it make the difference, Miranda shared.

Some of the people at the rally are also planning on attending the meeting to share public comments and to be present for that vote.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27.
BEIJING, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- China is always a force for peace, stability and progress in the world, a Ministry of National Defense spokesperson said on Wednesday.

Spokesperson Jiang Bin made the remarks at a press conference while responding to a query regarding international think tanks' and foreign media outlets' reaction to China's military parade on Sept. 3 to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. Many focused on the country's land-, sea-, and air-based strategic forces as the nuclear triad, unmanned warfare equipment and cyberspace warfare equipment on display.

The parade was an important part of the commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, Jiang said.

Many of the weapons and equipment on display are the latest ones representing the evolution of modern warfare forms, showcasing the combat capabilities, new-domain and new-quality capabilities, and strategic deterrence strength of the Chinese military system, the spokesperson said.

China has always adhered to a national defense policy that is defensive in nature, and never seeks hegemony or engage in expansion, Jiang said.

China is always a force for peace, stability and progress in the world, said Jiang, adding that the stronger China's army becomes, the more powerful the peaceful forces that restrict wars will be, and the peace and development will be better safeguarded, Jiang said. 
WASHINGTON (DC News Now)  D.C. police said that a group of individuals assaulted a man who was waiting at a bus stop on Monday.

Police said that the man was standing at a bus stop in the 600 block of 8th Street NE, around 12:50 a.m. A group of suspects walked up to him and assaulted him before escaping, police said.

D.C. Fire and EMS transported him to a hospital for treatment.

Prince Georges County police chase stolen car into DC, multiple cruisers struck

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The Metropolitan Police Department shared the following images of the suspects.

Investigators are looking for the publics help in identifying these individuals. Anyone with any information is asked to text 50411 or call 202-727-9099.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | DC, Virginia, Maryland News, Weather, Traffic, Sports Live.
Conservative leader Charlie Kirk has died after being shot at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, on Sept. 10.

Kirk, who was the co-founder of the conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA and a key ally of President Donald Trump, was shot in the neck at a debate hosted by the organization. He was 31.

"It's a tragedy," Delaware Senate Minority Whip Brian Pettyjohn said. "Such a bright, shining life has been snuffed out, and... I pray for his family [and] I pray for the community, for the people that had to witness this, and I hope that the person responsible for this is found quickly and is brought to justice."

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House Minority Leader Tim Dukes told Delaware Online/The News Journal he echoed this, calling Kirk's death "a senseless act of violence."

FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed on social media hours after the shooting that "the subject for the horrific shooting today that took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody." He later said the "subject in custody" had been released after an interrogation by law enforcement.

More on Charlie Kirk: Conservative leader shot and killed in Utah as authorities hunt for gunman

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Lauren Witzke, the 2020 Delaware Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, called for the apprehension behind this incident in an Instagram post, adding prayers to Kirk's family, who have "now lost a father and husband."

The University of Delaware had a Turning Point USA chapter that was active last school year. However, it remains unclear if that chapter remains active today, as the group's webpage is no longer live.

The organization held an event on the university's campus in 2022.

More on Charlie Kirk: Flags across Delaware lowered to half-staff in wake of conservative leader's death

Several other Delaware leaders spanning both sides of the political aisle also issued statements following the shooting.

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Gov. Matt Meyer has also ordered the Delaware and U.S. flags at state buildings and other facilities to be lowered from now until Sept. 14, in concurrence with President Donald Trump's proclamation.

Delaware House Minority Leader Tim Dukes and House Minority Whip Jeff Spiegelman

"We are deeply saddened by what happened this afternoon at Utah Valley University. We extend our condolences and prayers to Charlie Kirk's family as they walk this very difficult grief journey...

"It is a significantly troubling day when someone is killed because of their political beliefs... With that said, it is our hope that the political influence and excitement Charlie had among college-aged young adults will continue with vigor and purpose."

"There is no place in our country for this kind of violence. It must end now. Jill and I are praying for Charlie Kirks family and loved ones."

Gene Truono, Delaware Republican Party chairman

"We are praying for Charlie Kirks family during this difficult time. Let us all come together to honor Charlies memory and make it clear that political violence will never be tolerated in America."

"Horrified by the shooting of Charlie Kirk and praying for his recovery. Political violence has no place in this country. It must be condemned in all forms."

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"From Utah Valley University to Evergreen High School in Denver, we have seen tragic shootings at multiple schools, minutes apart. It's reprehensible. We owe our kids a future free from the fear of gun violence."

"As Americans, we can and should be able to debate ideas vigorously without turning to violence, because violence is never the answer.

"Lauren and I are praying for the loved ones of Charlie Kirk, who are now faced with an unspeakable tragedy. We condemn these actions in the strongest possible manner."

Matt Walsh, conservative political commentator

"I'm totally devastated. Charlie was a friend and a very good man. I always worried that it would come to this eventually. I never thought it would be Charlie. He will be dearly missed. I'm praying for his family."

"This afternoon, Charlie Kirk, the co-founder of Turning Point USA and popular conservative political commentator, was shot at an event at Utah Valley University. Our prayers are with Charlie, his wife, and two children."

"My prayers are with Charlies wife Erika and his two young children as they carry this grief and mourn this horrifying loss. I grew up during a time in our country when political violence became shockingly routine. America cannot backslide once again into that dark era."

"There is absolutely no place in the United States of America for political violence. Im praying for Charlie Kirk and his family."

"Tragically, gun violence is a daily reality across America. In just one afternoon, we've heard news of yet another school shooting in Colorado and an assassination ... of a high-profile political commentator  and we know that there are countless acts of violence that don't make headlines.

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"We should not have to live this way. Students should feel safe on their campuses, whether its just a regular day of school or if they are in a crowd at an event."

(This story has been updated to add new information.)

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Following Charlie Kirk's shooting death in Utah, statements pour in
James Walkinshaw, a Fairfax Board of Supervisors member, faced off against Republican Stewart Whitson in Virginia's 11th Congressional District special election on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025 and decisively won the contest. (Photo courtesy of Walkinshaw campaign)

Democrat James Walkinshaw decisively won a special election Tuesday to replace former U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly in Virginias 11th Congressional District, narrowing Republicans majority in the House of Representatives to six seats. The Associated Press called the race in Walkinshaws favor at 7:36 p.m., with the Democrat taking roughly 75% of the vote compared to Republican contender Stewart Whitsons 25%.

Connolly endorsed Walkinshaw, his former chief of staff, before he died in May.

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Addressing a crowd of supporters Tuesday night, Walkinshaw said his victory marked a political turning point, calling President Donald Trumps administration the most corrupt in American history.

This is the beginning of the end for Donald Trumps reckless agenda, Walkinshaw said.

Walkinshaw, who also serves on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, defeated Whitson in a suburban Washington D.C. district that Democrats have held since Connolly first won the seat in 2008.

Trump figured heavily into Walkinshaws campaign. In one ad, Walkinshaw described the election as our first chance to send a Democrat to Congress since Trump took office again. He has presented himself as a counterweight to Trumps agenda on everything from DOGE to the presidents Big Beautiful Bill.

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The districts proximity to the capital loomed large in his race, with Walkinshaw denouncing Trumps cuts to the federal workforce and his deployment of National Guard troops to D.C.

Whitson, an Army veteran who works for a conservative think tank, faced daunting odds in a district Kamala Harris won by more than 30 points last year. He was also outflanked in fundraising, capturing less than a quarter of the more than $1 million raised by Walkinshaw.

Republican Stewart Whitson unsuccessfully faced off against James Walkinshaw, in Virginias 11th Congressional District special election on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. (Photo courtesy of Whitson campaign)

Whitsons rhetoric followed Trumpian themes, calling for an end to waste, fraud and abuse and describing the U.S. Department of Education as a failed experiment.

On Tuesday night, Whitson conceded, pledging his continued commitment to the state and nation.

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I congratulate my opponent and extend my gratitude to every voter who participated in this important election, Whitson wrote.

Walkinshaws election puts a coalition of Democrats and a handful of Republicans one vote closer to forcing a full House vote on the release of records related to disgraced financier Jeffery Epstein.

Like Walkinshaw, Connolly was a former Congressional staffer turned Fairfax supervisor. He won a 2008 race to replace longtime Republican Rep. Tom Davis, fended off a close Republican challenge in 2010, and won the ensuing elections by large margins as Northern Virginia became more solidly Democratic.

Connolly announced hed been diagnosed with esophageal cancer in November, 2024, days after being reelected. In April, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee said he would not run for re-election and endorsed Walkinshaw shortly thereafter. Connolly died a few weeks later.

Walkinshaws campaign briefly drew national attention after Connollys social media accounts reiterated those endorsements after the Democrats death, in the midst of the ensuing nine-person primary. Walkinshaw emerged with nearly 60% of the vote.

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As a supervisor, Walkinshaw voted against adopting Gov. Glenn Youngkins model policies for public schools which aimed to limit transgender students access to bathrooms aligned with their gender identity. He backed a plan to replace a county parking lot with 279 units of affordable housing, and drove a successful effort to replace the countys gas-powered leaf blowers with electric ones.

In Congress, Walkinshaw has pledged to work to ban assault-style weapons, expand federal non-discrimination protections, protect victims of sexual assault and eliminate partisan gerrymandering.

Walkinshaw differs from his former boss on at least one policy item: crypto. Walkinshaw received a $1 million boost in broadcast ads from the crypto lobbying group Protect Progress, Axios reported in June, and touts blockchain as a transformative technology on his campaign website. Connolly consistently voted against industry-backed legislation.

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Discount retailer Ocean State Job Lot is planning to open its 11th New Jersey store and second location Atlantic County this fall.

The grand opening date for the store at Hamilton Commons in Mays Landing has not yet been announced.

The 34,120-square-foot store, located at 4215 Black Horse Pike, Unit 31, will occupy a former Big Lots space.

Ocean State Job lot announce plans earlier this year to take over Big Lots stores throughout several states after Big Lots filed for bankruptcy and closed all of its locations.

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This opening represents the companys second location in Atlantic County, following its existing store in Somers Point.

Opening our new Mays Landing store is an exciting opportunity for us to bring our unique value-driven shopping experience to residents and visitors alike, Mark OConnor, director of real estate at Ocean State Job Lot said in a statement.

Were proud to invest in Atlantic County and, with our new Mays Landing store complementing our recently opened Somers Point location, we look forward to having an even bigger presence in the community.

The new store is expected to create up to 60 new jobs in the community, including store leadership, supervisory, full-time, part-time, and seasonal positions, company officials said.

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The company offers competitive benefits including medical, vision and dental insurance for eligible employees, profit participation, paid time off, and a 30% store discount.

Shoppers can expect to find the retailers signature closeout deals on a variety of merchandise including seasonal products, household goods, apparel, pet supplies, and gourmet pantry staples, according to the company.

The current locations in New Jersey include:

Ocean State Job Lot operates 176 stores across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.

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Generative AI was used to produce an initial draft of this story, which was reviewed and edited by NJ Advance Media staff.

Read the original article on NJ.com. Add NJ.com as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
WASHINGTON, Arkansas (KTAL/KMSS)  Historic Washington State Park is hosting Frontier Days.

Join blacksmiths at Washington State Park for free hands-on workshop

The event starts at 9 a.m. The park will host homeschool groups on September 19 and other visitors on September 20.

The experience will feature programming at multiple locations around the park, replicating the early settlement period of southwest Arkansas in the early 19th century.

(Image courtesy of Historic Washington State Park)

There will be a frontier encampment on the grounds between the Blacksmith Shop and the large magnolia tree.

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Explore history, architecture on evening tour in Washington State Park

Reservations are recommended. Admission is $5.50 per person plus tax. Contact the park visitor center at (870) 983-2684 to register.

Historic Washington State Park is a restoration village whose design aims to recreate the Arkansas town as it was in the 19th century. Daily tours are provided to sites and museums such as the B.W. Edwards Weapons Museum and Blacksmith Shop.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTALnews.com.
WASHINGTON, Arkansas (KTAL/KMSS)  The staff of Historic Washington State Park is hosting Dances of the Past, an evening of dance and fellowship on September 20, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Discover 19th-century Arkansas at Historic Washington Park Frontier Days

Come with or without experience, alone or with a partner, to Dances of the Past. Learn about different dances from history.

Throughout history, dance has been used to socialize, romance, exercise, make friends, express emotions, and as an art form. Learning how people danced in the past can connect people to history in a fun way.

(Image courtesy of Historic Washington State Park)

Reservations are required. Attendance costs $15 for individuals or $25 for couples. Comfortable shoes are recommended, casual or period dress is welcome.

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To register, contact the park visitor center at (870) 983-2684.

Join blacksmiths at Washington State Park for free hands-on workshop

Historic Washington State Park is a restoration village whose design aims to recreate the Arkansas town as it was in the 19th century. Daily tours are provided to sites and museums such as the B.W. Edwards Weapons Museum and Blacksmith Shop.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTALnews.com.
NEED TO KNOW

DNA evidence linked a man to multiple unsolved sexual assaults in Arizona that date back to 1994, police say

Authorities indicted 55-year-old Abraham Ramirez on multiple counts

Even decades later, testing these kits can uncover the truth and give survivors their voices back, the Ventura County District Attorney said

DNA evidence linked a man to multiple decades-old unsolved sexual assault cases, Arizona police said.

Abraham Ramirez, 55, was indicted in Maricopa County Superior Court on 11 counts of sexual assault and kidnapping, the Ventura County District Attorneys Office and the Ventura County Sheriffs Office said in a Monday, Sept. 8 press release.

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Forensic work conducted as part of the Ventura County Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (VCSAKI) connected Ramirez to the unsolved cases.

The earliest unsolved case was in 1994, when deputies with the Ventura County Sheriffs Department responded to a report of a woman who escaped from Ramirez after she was sexually assaulted. Although a sexual assault kit was collected, the case was dismissed due to insufficient evidence, police said.

However, advances in technology helped authorities not only link Ramirez to the 1994 case but also indict him on four previously unsolved sexual assault cases in the Phoenix area. The first two other unsolved cases happened in 1998 and 1999, per court documents obtained by AZ Family. Ramirez was also linked to two unsolved cases from 2013.

The 1994 victim's kit was tested under the VCSAKI and Ramirez's DNA profile was uploaded to the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) by the Ventura County Sheriff's crime lab. Police said there was a match to the 1994 case and the other unsolved cases. Maricopa County prosecutors then filed charges related to the other cases.

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This case proves that no matter how much time has passed, we will use every tool available to pursue justice and stand with survivors, Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryhoff said in a statement. It is a powerful example of why we remain committed to testing every sexual assault kit in Ventura County.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko stressed the importance of using forensics to solve cases no matter how much time may pass.

This outcome underscores the power of DNA testing and the critical role of our crime lab in bringing long-delayed justice, he said. Even decades later, testing these kits can uncover the truth and give survivors their voices back.

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VCSAKI launched countywide in 2022 and aims to test every sexual assault kit for the presence of DNA to investigate unsolved cases.

Ramirez was indicted by a Maricopa County grand jury in August, NBC News reported Tuesday, Sept. 9, citing court records.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.

Read the original article on People
ST. LOUIS  It was a brush with death outside Cardinal Glennon Childrens Hospital.



A security officer was run down while protecting the campus. Doctors told his family he wouldnt survive but four years later, after serving his country and now surviving the unthinkable, he shares his story of survival.



I was given an 80% chance to not even wake up from the coma and if I did, Id basically be a vegetable for the rest of my life, Robert Schwartzman said.

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Schwartzman went to investigate a suspicious car. Moments later, he was run over and left clinging to life.

Breakthrough leads to charges in 2019 murder of 7-year-old



I went out there and when I caught up with them, I got in front of the car. He went forward, put me on the hood, and ran over my feet, Schwartzman said. I pulled out my revolver when I was on the hood and thats when I shot him.



The suspect was shot and killed.

Doctors didnt think Schwartzman would survive either, as part of his skull had to be removed, and he spent weeks in a coma. But Rob, a Marine veteran, relied on the discipline he learned in the service and the love of his family to pull through.

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Well, theres one thing for sure. They never worked on the Marine before. And then also I went from that to wheelchair to walker to cane to nothing, Schwartzman said.



Four years later, the scars remain. Rob still battles memory issues and goes through therapy. But he says every small step forward is proof that miracles can happen.



And through the pain, he still tries to keep a sense of humor.



When the first time that they even told me that they had to take out my skull, my skull was actually still in St Louis and I was up in Chicago at the time, Schwartzman said. I was like, Well, darn it. Not everyone can say there are literally two places at once.



For Rob, the focus isnt on the suspect; its on the second chance he was never supposed to have.

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A marine. A father. And now, a survivor. Three years after his brush with death, Rob Schwartzman Jr. says his story is about resilience, faith and familythe things that gave him the strength to keep going.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 2.
REYKJAVIK, Iceland  Iceland is an island nation with about 400,000 residents located in the middle of the northern Atlantic Ocean more than 2,000 miles from both the United States and the capital of the European Union, Brussels. But Icelands geographical isolation offers little protection from the increasingly sharp winds of geostrategic reality  especially the new direction of the United States, Icelands longtime military protector and ally, during President Donald Trumps second term.

Since his second inauguration, Trump has neither mentioned Iceland by name nor sought to change the terms of the two countries longstanding military partnership. But even before he took office, Trump set his sights on Greenland, Icelands similarly strategic Arctic neighbor to the west, for possible purchase, or for the exploitation of its natural resources. Hes also kicked off a round of global tariff hikes.

Icelanders  despite their isolated location  have taken notice.

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We have relied completely on the U.S. for our defense, said Vilborg Asa Gujonsdottir, a PhD candidate in international affairs at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik. Theres the hope that the strong U.S.-Iceland alliance will continue. But obviously, things are changing quite quickly at the moment. Just as Europe needs to be more responsible for their own defense, we need to consider all options.

One of those options is closer ties between Iceland and Europe.

The current government could put more emphasis on forging defense ties with European NATO and E.U. members and Canada, beyond the soft security arrangements with the Nordic countries, the UK, and Canada that already exist, especially if the Trump Administrations commitment to Europe dwindles further or if it resorts to an anti-European foreign policy course, said Valur Ingimundarson, a professor of contemporary history at the University of Iceland.

While there is not yet majority support in Iceland for joining the European Union  an April Gallup poll found 44% in favor of joining the E.U. and 36% in opposition  there is clear majority backing for restarting talks towards that end. Icelands coalition government, which includes several pro-E.U. parties, plans a referendum on restarting talks to join the E.U. by 2027. Such talks had been scrapped more than a decade ago.

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Until a vote happens, analysts here said, Iceland has had to tread carefully around the United States under Trump.

Icelands government has taken a firm pro-NATO line without doing anything that would disturb the status quo in the defense relationship with the United States, Ingimundarson said.

Iceland is very serious on strengthening our defense cooperation, Foreign Minister orgerur Katrin Gunnarsdottir told reporters this summer. Gunnarsdottir said her country wants to be a respected and reliable ally, both in NATO and also  with the EU.

Sources in Icelands Foreign Ministry characterized engagements with the Trump Administration on defence issues as positive. They said meetings have been good and mutual understanding about the close ties between the two countries.

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Officials highlight that relations with the U.S. have always been absolutely key for Icelandic interests.

The U.S. State Department declined an opportunity to comment for this article.

Multiple analysts here said, only half-jokingly, that the key to surviving the Trump era has been to remain out of sight, something Greenland  for whatever the reason  was unlucky enough to do.

You could say Icelandic policy towards the U.S. has been to try to keep under the radar, said Pia Elisabeth Hansson, director of the Institute of International Affairs at the University of Iceland.

Traditionally, Icelanders have maintained strong ties to the United States, dating back to World War II, when Icelands government invited U.S. troops into the country. In 1949, Iceland became a founding member of NATO, and in 1951, the two countries signed a bilateral defense agreement that still stands.

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Its location  in the middle of the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom gap, a strategic naval choke point  means that Iceland, despite its lack of a standing military, is geographically important for both North America and Europe. Some have likened Iceland to one big aircraft carrier, although some Icelanders chafe at the analogy.

In 2006, the U.S. gave up its permanent troop presence at the Keflavik Air Base  a 45-minute drive south of the capital of Reykjavik  but U.S. troops still rotate through, and Icelandic civilians now handle key NATO tasks such as submarine surveillance and operations at four radar sites on the nations periphery. Iceland also makes financial contributions to NATO trust funds and contributes a small number of technical and diplomatic personnel to NATO operations.

Iceland, which has fewer residents than the city of Tampa and covers about the same square mileage as Kentucky, has committed itself to increasing its investment in infrastructure projects to 1.5% of its gross domestic product, in line with NATOs target. This could mean additional funding for the countrys respected but strained Coast Guard, as well as investments in dual-use projects such as ports and roads, and cybersecurity. Iceland also has begun servicing nuclear submarines

Iceland,, is now looking at how can we do even more, Hansson said.

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Icelands concern about its own security posture had already risen before Trump was elected to his second term, following Russias invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Iceland joined the international alliance supporting Ukraine, signing an agreement for long-term security cooperation.

Newfound attention to Icelands security is definitely very noticeable at the political level, said Silja Bara R. Omarsdottir, an international affairs professor who now serves as rector, or president, of the University of Iceland.

This concern has also filtered down to the general public, according to Omarsdottirs polling.

Between 2020 and 2023, the percentage of Icelanders saying that NATO is the best tool for ensuring Icelands security rose from about 36% to more than 63%. In the 2023 survey, no other option for maintaining Icelands security exceeded 15%.

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Historically, Icelanders have not been that interested in foreign affairs, Gujonsdottir said. That was part of being an island  you dont have to deal with neighbors. But now, she said, the public is following foreign policy more closely than before.

Aside from a small  if anecdotally growing  faction aligned with Trumps MAGA movement, most rank-and-file Icelanders seem to remain ill at ease with Trump and his political approach.

Arnor Bjornsson, a young tour guide in Reykjavik, said Trump is still generally unpopular among his 20- and 30-something peers. People here noticed in February when Trump appeared to stab (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy in the back in the Oval Office. That was a very scary time for us. But at the end of the day, I think that the USA views Icelands security as their security. (Zelenskyy received a warmer reception at the White House on Aug. 18.)

Another sign of popular concern about the U.S. here is tourism. A Gallup poll released in June found that interest among Icelanders in traveling to the United States had declined significantly since Trump took office for more than half of respondents, and declined somewhat for another 11%.

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I can speak personally of this, and I know many others in the same boat, Gujonsdottir said. It doesnt feel as safe. You dont want to risk being taken away by border control.

Analysts here say that Icelands increased responsibility for security duties since the U.S. departure from Keflavik in 2006 has been valuable. But one path seems far-fetched: Creating a military from scratch.

There is no political backing for the idea of establishing a military, Ingimundarson said. The Icelandic prime minister reiterated at the Hague NATO summit earlier this year that Iceland is an unarmed country. Icelands unarmed status is considered by many to be sacrosanct and part of our national identity.
Spencer McBride was walking across campus with his doctoral advisor in Baton Rouge, following a class in religious history, when his advisor said, Spencer, youre a smart guy, but can you really believe all these stories of visions and angels and gold plates?

You know, Dr. Burstein, yeah, I do, McBride said.

When his advisor asked him how, the doctoral student explained that in addition to things known because of more conventional evidence, there are other things believed because of spiritual experiences  and those are in the realm of faith.

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And I believe that the two are not mutually exclusive.

McBride, who is now the senior managing historian with the History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, joined two others with the Church History Department, including historian Brittany Chapman Nash, co-author of the four volumes of Women of Faith in the Latter Days, and history curator Scott Hales who was the literary editor for the Saints histories, in a panel discussion last Friday. Moderated by Petra Javadi-Evans, church history editorial manager, the discussion focused on Methods to See the Redeemer in the Churchs Past as part of a two-day conference, "I Am in Your Midst: Jesus Christ at the center of Church History, held in Salt Lake City and sponsored by the Church History Department.

The strangeness of divorcing reason and faith

Although a fusion of faith and reason motivates these historians, Javadi-Evans acknowledged at the outset, theres a common concern in academic circles that too much emphasis on Christ or overly Christ-centered language can make a work seem less vigorous or scholarly, asking the panelists, how do you keep Christ central in your work while still meeting scholarly standards?

We live in a time where faith is seen as antithetical to rigor, Nash agreed, but that was not always the case in the broad spectrum of history. We just happen to live in a time where thats the way it is.

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She went on to suggest that historians of the past would probably look at secular historians today and think, theyre pretty misguided. They feel like they need to separate faith and reason.

Writing about history with charity

Writing from a standpoint of faith changes a lot, these historians say. Speaking as a museum curator, Hales describes learning how important framing a painting is: When youre framing the painting, or youre hanging a painting, sometimes the frame matters a great deal, and it can really, really help improve the experience of looking at a painting.

And I think thats true with how we write about church history too. Its all about how we contextualize the history and how we put that frame on it. He went on to describe two books written about the martyrdom of Joseph Smith  one portraying him as courageous in a reverential way, and the other which represented the account cynically in a way that impugned his character.

One way we can bring Jesus Christ in with our making things visible is by drawing on Christs attributes and how we approach history, Brittany Chapman Nash said, echoing the remarks of other historians earlier on Friday. With a particularly difficult historical situation, Nash, author of Lets Talk about Polygamy, described reaching to Christ to offer her some patience to work through a particular historical situation.

A man takes notes during the Church History Conference at the Conference Center Theater in Salt Lake City on Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. The theme of the conference was I Am in Your Midst: Jesus Christ at the Center of Church History. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

Always approach the past as a Christian, Scott Hales agreed, with that charity and that compassion and empathy. I think thats part of what it means to be a Christian historian.

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Hales later elaborated on the importance of writing with a great deal of charity, recognizing that that were all human beings, we all make mistakes, that we are all striving to be better through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

By keeping that in mind, he said, I can do my best not to judge those I write about, but rather to see them as children of God, as brothers and sisters.

Nash described this as bringing the two great commandments into scholarly work, and to somehow be able to treat historical characters, with compassion, with charity, even while we strive for understanding and to be truthful in our portrayal of history.

Writing about history with forthrightness

McBride suggested that plain-spoken directness could be another way historians bring Christian attributes into writing about the past. Acknowledging that answering some questions requires a lot of complexity, he encouraged teachers and writers to be very direct as they state the controversial fact.

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By contrast, he said, if you begin with mental gymnastics, if you begin apologizing before youve even explained the controversial issue, theres a good chance youre never going to get the trust.

If youre sitting with a bunch of youth, just state the issue clearly, upfront. And all of a sudden it will send a message, Oh, this persons going to be very straightforward. McBride said we can then give them the information that will empower them to work through it in their own faith journey.

Yet while explaining why this may not need to cause the concern, McBride encouraged teachers to not send a message making invalid the concern with people inadvertently taking away a message, oh, somethings wrong with me for feeling this way.

Its more helpful, McBride suggested, for people to feel empathy from a teacher who recognizes instead, I understand why this is a cause for concern.

Mourning with past suffering

A man checks in for the Church History Conference at the Conference Center Theater in Salt Lake City on Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. The theme of the conference was I Am in Your Midst: Jesus Christ at the Center of Church History. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

If history always makes you feel good, you are probably not learning a real history, McBride often tells his students. If the historical record always backs up your political point of view, like every single time history backs you up, youre probably not drawing from objective history. Its messy.

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History will not always make us feel good.

Rather than discomfort being a bad thing, McBride encouraged normalizing discomfort and grief and sadness as part of Christian discipleship. Similar to the grief people might feel while ministering to someone who is currently suffering for choices theyve made, its okay to feel that grief with the people of the past in the same way.

Along with the uplift scripture provides, McBride mentioned some passages in the Book of Mormon and in the Bible where the people are making bad choices, and it can make you really sad. And its OK that grief and sadness come along with the happiness and the triumph of life and history as well.

Rather than aberrations that people ought to be concerned about or to panic about, McBride spoke of the value of realizing these painful feelings are part of life now, just as it was part of life then.

History as an exercise in faith

Even with the most comprehensive account of a difficult moment in history, there are always going to be important things we dont know, these historians emphasized. In some ways, studying history is really a great exercise in faith, Hales said  pointing to natural gaps in the historical record where we dont know certain things about difficult and sensitive questions.

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It can be really hard sometimes, he admitted, when we dont have a great answer to give about something that happened in the past.

But we are not commanded to know. We are commanded to believe and to hope.

Whenever we find gaps in the historical record, he said that hes come to see that as an opportunity for faith, trusting God that things will work out and that we will eventually find the answers that we need.

Bring Christ more to the foreground

An attendee holds a program during the Church History Conference at the Conference Center Theater in Salt Lake City on Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. The theme of the conference was I Am in Your Midst: Jesus Christ at the Center of Church History. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

By approaching history with faith, charity, compassion, honesty and humility, a writer, student or teacher of history can practice embodying the attributes of Christ. As the panel discussion closed, Scott Hales reiterated the theme of the history conference, reflecting on his own experience trying to ensure the Saints books reflected the same witness.

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At the end of drafting Saints, Hales described receiving some important feedback that stood out: bring Christ more to the foreground in this volume.

In response, as one of the general editors, he said, Well, wait a second, weve got Jesus Christ in the story. Hes everywhere in the devotion of the Saints. But after a keyword search of the entire manuscript, he was surprised to see that in fact, we really did not have a whole lot of references to Jesus throughout the book.

And what that caused us to do is to dig a little deeper and to look a little closer and to examine the sources more carefully, to find ways to bring Christ more to the center of that story.
JOHANNESBURG, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- The South African government on Wednesday condemned the "illegal and unprovoked attack" carried out by the Israel Defense Force in Doha, Qatar.

The attack targeted a civilian building in a residential area, which purportedly housed members of the Political Bureau of Hamas, according to a statement issued by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO).

DIRCO said the strike constituted a blatant violation of international law, undermining the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the protection of civilians outlined in the United Nations Charter and international humanitarian law.

"This flagrant violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the State of Qatar comes against the background of the government of Qatar playing a prominent role as facilitator to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all hostages held by Hamas," the statement said.

The statement reiterated South Africa's call for an immediate ceasefire in "Israel's genocidal war against the Palestinian people," urging an end to military actions so that negotiations toward a just peace could begin. 
A fire early Tuesday morning tore through the Jefferson Apartments in Squirrel Hill, leaving dozens of people without a home and destroying much of the building.

RELATED COVERAGE >>> Massive fire destroys apartment building in Pittsburghs Squirrel Hill neighborhood

Fire officials say the structure is unsafe and is expected to be demolished within 48 hours.

Battalion Chief John Gardell said the buildings owner has been notified of the demolition plans.

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He could not confirm the exact number of families displaced, but residents say they are now unsure of what comes next.

Shariful Islam is an international student at Carnegie Mellon University.

I was taking a shower and I heard the sound of fire trucks, so I was not sure what was going on, Islam said.

Moments later, he realized his apartment building was on fire.

Islam told Channel 11 that he left behind important documents, including his passport, as well as all his furniture and clothing.

As you can see, this is how I got out, he said. Everything that you see, this is me. I have nothing else.

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His brother, who lives in Baltimore, drove to Pittsburgh to help.

Hes my brother, by the way, so he lives in Baltimore, Islam said. After that happened, he started driving and he came here.

Islam is now staying with his brother temporarily and CMU offered on-campus living arrangements.

Gardell told Channel 11 that no one will be allowed back inside the building due to safety concerns.

He added that the Jefferson Apartments were built in 1928 and did not have a sprinkler system.

Its my understanding the building was built in 1928, Gardell said. That wouldve been prior to any type of code requirements for a sprinkler system.

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Fire crews initially encountered heavy flames in multiple third-floor apartments, according to Gardell.

Crews reported fires in a number of different units, all in the ceiling level above them, Gardell said.

The exact cause of the fire is still under investigation.

The American Red Cross has opened an overnight shelter at the Greenfield Recreation Center to help displaced residents.

The shelter will provide a place to sleep and assist people in retrieving important documents.

For Islam, starting over will not be easy.

I dont know how Ill move forward, but I have to, he said. I know I can do that.

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Forward Avenue remains closed as fire crews continue to work at the scene.

Officials say the road will stay shut down until all fire units have cleared.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo.  One person was seriously injured after a single-vehicle crash in Kansas City on Tuesday evening.

According to Kansas City police, the crash was reported just after 5:50 p.m. in the area of E. 31st Street and Bales Avenue.

Police say the driver of a maroon Chevrolet Traverse was traveling westbound on 31st Street when the driver went across the eastbound lanes, just west of Bales, and crashed into a utility pole.

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See the latest headlines in Kansas City and across Kansas, Missouri

The driver was taken to a hospital in critical condition.

The investigation into the crash is ongoing.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
POLK COUNTY, Texas (KETK) Two men were arrested after opening fire in a Polk County neighborhood on Sunday evening.

Drunk driver gets 40 years after killing Longview pedestrian in 2024

According to the Polk County Sheriffs Office, they received a report late on Sunday evening that gunshots were fired at a residence in the Indian Hills subdivision, which is located off of FM 2457. Once on the scene, the victim told authorities that an unknown vehicle drove by and fired multiple rounds towards the home, striking the residence.

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Detectives identified the two suspects involved as 18-year-old Abraham Saenz and 18-year-old Ivan Rangel, both of Livingston. Saenz and Rangel were both arrested and charged with deadly conduct and discharge of a firearm, according to officials.

Mugshot of Ivan Rangel, courtesy of Polk County Sheriffs Office

Mugshot of Abraham Saenz, courtesy of Polk County Sheriffs Office

Following the arrest, both men were taken to the Polk County Jail, where they remain in custody, and additional charges are pending as the investigation remains open.

Anyone with information regarding the case is asked to contact the sheriffs office at (936) 327-6810. Anonymous tips may also be submitted at p3tips.com, or through the Polk County Crime Stoppers at 936-327-STOP.

You can now stream KETK and FOX51 News live 24/7 on your smart TV with KETK+, our brand-new app! No antenna, cable, or satellite neededwatch for free, anytime. Just download it on your Roku, Apple TV, or Fire TV and start streaming.

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JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL)  The Tennessee Early Childhood Training Alliance (TECTA) is an organization that provides training and tuition assistance. The group said on Wednesday that state funding for the program has been cut, which may keep some students from earning their degree.

East Tennessee State University (ETSU) serves as a hub for the Eastern region, where the group supports 150 early childhood students across ETSU, Northeast State Community College and Walters State Community College.

ETSUs Director of the Center of Excellence of Early Childhood Learning and Development, Christy Isbell, said they provide tuition, support and textbooks to students.

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The massive cut of this program, were unable to support them in their education and their desire to become early childhood educators or in their desire to become more educated in their practice of working with young children, said Isbell.

Isbell said at ETSU, they have three full-time employees for TECTA, where they provide education to high schoolers, support and educate childcare providers, as well as traveling to community colleges where they provide support.

Once Sept. 30 hits, those three ETSU employees will lose their jobs.

As of September 30, they have all lost their full-time employment, said Isbell. But across the state, theres many more professionals that were working for TECTA as trainers, who will now no longer have jobs.

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Students and faculty arent the only ones affected by this funding cut, according to the organization. Department Head & Coordinator of Early Childhood Education for Walters State Community College, Kimberly Cassidy, said this cut will provide a ripple effect across multiple industries.

They think, well, this doesnt really affect me because I dont have young children, but it does, said Cassidy. If we dont have enough early childhood educators in the field, then we dont have spots for these children to go to while their parents go to work.

Another thing people dont think about is if you own a business and you have employees, those employees have children, said Cassidy. So you may have employees calling in saying, I cant come into work today because I dont have childcare for my kids.

Cassidy claims she has witnessed students having no idea how they will be able to pay for their spring semester without TECTAs assistance.

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Walter State Community College is currently trying to find other routes to help support these students by getting the students who are funded by TECTA signed up for FAFSA as early as possible.

Cassidy said they will be holding a FAFSA night, and she hopes students who are involved in the program can receive other financial aid to continue their education after the deadline of Sept. 30.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJHL | Tri-Cities News & Weather.
EAST HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH)  East Hartford police said they are still searching for a suspect after a bank customer was robbed of $1,600 on Tuesday afternoon.

Police said the initial call came in at 2:23 p.m. for reports of a robbery at Santander Bank on Silver Lane where a male and female suspect were involved.

West Hartford police search for suspect in armed bank robbery

According to police, the man took the money and they are currently trying to locate him.

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The woman was found in the area of the old Showcase Cinema property and taken into custody. Police say she did not steal any money during the incident.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTNH.com.
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  A group of local students has launched an initiative to support area shelters.

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Leonardo Gomez, the Area 2 vice president of Texas Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) and student leader at Del Valle High School, along with his group, has launched a community service initiative called Operation WaterSpring.

The initiative focuses on collecting water bottles and hygiene kits for adults and children in local shelters.

Through this project, we hope to bring relief and dignity to families in need while inspiring other young leaders to take action in their communities, Gomez said in a news release.

As part of the groups efforts, they are also fundraising to donate an air conditioning unit to a shelter.

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If you would like to donate, refer to the flyer below. You can also contact Gome at (432) 284-0598 or email area2vp@fblatx.org for more information.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KREX)  The ongoing discord between federal and Colorado state directives surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine has left many Coloradans wondering if they can even get the shot as we approach COVID and flu season.



The answer to that question is yes, depending on which Colorado pharmacy you go to.



To understand why, lets rewind to June, when the US Department of Health and Human Services, run by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., terminated the sitting Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP), who make recommendations on the safety and efficacy of vaccines to the CDC.

Without that recommendation, pharmacies werent willing to dole out the COVID-19 vaccine for anyone who didnt meet the recently limited FDA standards, which now only include people over 65, or those with an underlying condition putting them at risk for severe disease.



That is, until the Colorado Department of Public Health took matters into their own hands on September 3rd, issuing a public health order enabling pharmacies to administer the COVID vaccine to anyone asking for it. The order was necessary, CDPH claims, because the FDAs limited approval created confusion by seemingly conflicting with previous recommendations from the CDC and other major expert organizations.



But, dont roll up your sleeve yet. Just because pharmacies can administer the vaccine, doesnt mean they will.



Representatives for Walgreens and CVS told WesternSlopeNow their pharmacies will only be vaccinating people who meet recently updated FDA requirements, while Safeway and Albertsons will be taking their cues from the states public health order and giving the vaccine to those under 65 or without the required predisposition for serious illness.



WesternSlopeNow reached out to the Mesa County Public Health clinic to know what their vaccine protocol is and have yet to receive word. A spokesperson for MCPH says the department is still working to understand the impacts of federal and state decisions surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine and declined comment at this time.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WesternSlopeNow.com.
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (WAVY)  Elizabeth Citys City Council has appointed Interim Police Chief Eddie Graham Jr. as the Chief of Police, according to the City of Elizabeth City.

Having 25 years of experience in law enforcement, Graham began his career in May 2000 at the Bertie County Sheriffs Office, joining the Elizabeth City Police Department in November 2005. Graham became the Interim Chief of Police on May 13. Graham has also served on many boards, a town commission and the North Carolina Homicides Investigators Association.

For more information, you can visit the City of Elizabeth Citys website here.

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Continue to check WAVY.com for updates.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WAVY.com.
Elon Musk left the White House DOGE office in May.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO said he hasn't been to Washington since then.

"That was a hell of a side quest," Musk said of his time in government.

Elon Musk said he has not visited Washington, D.C., since stepping down from his role at the White House DOGE office.

"I haven't been to D.C. since May. That was a hell of a side quest," Musk said during an interview at the All-In Summit.

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The All-In Summit, which featured other business leaders such as Mark Cuban, took place in Los Angeles from September 7 to September 9. A recording of Musk's interview was uploaded to the "All-In Podcast" YouTube channel on Tuesday.

"The government is basically unfixable," Musk said when asked about the lessons he learnt from running DOGE.

"If you look at our national debt, which is insanely high, the interest payments exceed the War Department budget," Musk added. "So, if AI and robots don't solve our national debt, we are toast."

Musk and the White House did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

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Musk was a huge backer of President Donald Trump during the latter's 2024 election campaign. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO spent at least $277 million supporting Trump and other GOP candidates.

After Trump was elected, Musk joined the Trump administration as a special government employee, leading DOGE. Musk continued to run his businesses while working in government. His 130-day stint as a special government employee ended in May.

In January, Musk was optimistic about what he could accomplish with DOGE. He told political strategist Mark Penn during a livestream on X that DOGE had a "good shot" at saving $1 trillion.

The government is "a very target-rich environment for saving money," Musk told Penn.

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"It's like being in a room full of targets. Like, you could close your eyes, and you can't miss," he said.

It is unclear just how much money DOGE saved for the federal government. In April, Musk said the cost cutting outfit was on track to cut nearly $150 billion in spending for the 2026 fiscal year.

In June, Musk's relationship with the president imploded publicly after they posted heated messages to each other on X and Truth Social, respectively.

Musk took aim at Trump's signature tax bill, calling it a "MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK." He also took credit for Trump's victory in the 2024 presidential election.

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"Such ingratitude," Musk wrote in an X post on June 5.

Trump had earlier threatened to cancel the government's contracts with Musk's businesses, but has since taken a more conciliatory tone with Musk.

Last week, Trump said during an interview on "The Scott Jennings Show" that Musk was a "good man."

"He's got 80% super genius, and then 20% he's got some problems. And when he works out the 20%, he'll be great," Trump said of Musk.

Read the original article on Business Insider
GOP Sen. Joni Ernsts retirement has opened up a U.S. Senate race in Iowa, a race Democrats see as a long-shot pickup opportunity in 2026.

Ernst, first elected in 2014, announced on September 2 that she would not seek a third term in 2026, citing wanting to spend more time with family. Ernst, who joins a growing number of U.S. senators heading for the exits, has faced criticism from both sides of the political spectrum this year. She received immense pressure from the right to vote to confirm Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, which she ultimately did despite early reservations. She was also slammed by Democrats for saying that we are all going to die in defending cuts to Medicaid in Republicans domestic policy megabill.

Sen. Joni Ernst introduces Republican presidential candidate former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley during a campaign event on January 14, 2024, in Ames, Iowa. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

GOP Rep. Ashley Hinson, widely seen as a rising star in Republican politics, launched her campaign for Senate on the day of Ernsts retirement announcement. Shes earned endorsements from top congressional leaders, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Sen. Tim Scott, chair of the Senate Republicans campaign arm. Former state Sen. Jim Carlin had announced in April that he would run against Ernst in the Republican primary, challenging her from the right.

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Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird and U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker, who served as acting attorney general in President Donald Trumps first term, have also been floated as potential Republican candidates.

The main Democratic candidates running in the race are state Sen. Zach Wahls, state Rep. Josh Turek; Nathan Sage, a U.S. military veteran and executive director of the Knoxville, Iowa, Chamber of Commerce; and Jackie Norris, the chair of the Des Moines School Board, who previously served as chief of staff to former First Lady Michelle Obama.

Iowa, a onetime presidential battleground state, has trended increasingly Republican in recent years  Trump won the state in the past three presidential elections, carrying it by 13 points in 2024. The states only statewide Democratic elected official, state Auditor Rob Sand, is running in the open race for governor to succeed Gov. Kim Reynolds, who announced in April that she was retiring after serving out her second term.

But Democrats are hoping Ernsts retirement will give them a better chance of capturing the seat.

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Republicans currently control the Senate by a three-seat majority, 53 to 47, and senators serve six-year terms, meaning a third of the Senate is up every election cycle. For Democrats to win back the chamber in 2026, theyd need to hold on to every seat they have, including competitive ones in Georgia and Michigan. They also would have to flip four GOP-held seats  targets include Maine, North Carolina and even more Republican-leaning states such as Iowa, Ohio, Nebraska and Texas.

The post Ernsts retirement opens up Iowa Senate race appeared first on The 19th.

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MEXICO CITY, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum on Tuesday once again criticized the latest raids against migrants in the United States as "unjust," reiterating that her government has protocols in place to aid affected Mexican nationals.

At her regular daily press conference, Sheinbaum said that following such incidents, an alert has been issued to Mexico's envoys in the United States, who immediately contact local officials to verify whether any Mexican nationals have been detained.

She stressed that the raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection are "unjust."

Sheinbaum, who believes comprehensive immigration reform is urgently needed to recognize migrants' contributions to the U.S. economy, has strengthened Mexico's consular network in the United States to better aid citizens detained or deported.

At least 26 Mexicans were detained during the latest immigration raids in the southern U.S. state of Georgia, said the Mexican government. 
By Lili Bayer and Andrew Gray

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission will propose sanctioning extremist Israeli ministers and the suspension of trade-related measures in a European Union agreement with Israel, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday.

The proposals, announced by von der Leyen in a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, reflect growing EU criticism of Israel's conduct of the war in Gaza and increased pressure on the bloc's executive body to take action.

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The proposals would need broad or unanimous support among the EU's member states, which is likely to be hard to achieve as the bloc is deeply divided on the Middle East. But von der Leyen made clear the proposal was also meant to be a political signal.

"What is happening in Gaza has shaken the conscience of the world," von der Leyen said in her State of the Union speech, an annual address setting out her priorities for the year ahead.

Von der Leyen acknowledged the divisions within Europe on Gaza but pledged the Commission would do what it can on its own.

"We will propose sanctions on the extremist ministers and on violent settlers. And we will also propose a partial suspension of the Association Agreement on trade-related matters," she said.

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She did not name the ministers or outline which "trade-related matters" the Commission would propose to suspend.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Wednesday that von der Leyen's comments were "regrettable", adding that the president is aware of Israel's efforts to assist humanitarian aid and that suffering in Gaza is due to Hamas.

The European Union is Israel's biggest trading partner, with trade in goods between the two amounting to 42.6 billion euros ($49.9 billion) last year, according to the EU.

According to a July options paper prepared by the EU's diplomatic service, a suspension of the entire trade chapter of the Association Agreement governing relations with Israel would withdraw trade preferences for Israeli products entering the EU.

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It would require a qualified majority vote among EU governments - the support of 15 out of 27 EU members representing 65% of the EU population.

DIVISIONS ON ISRAEL POLICY

EU members including Ireland, Spain, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands have called for the suspension of an EU free trade pact with Israel. But others such as Germany, Hungary and the Czech Republic have opposed such steps.

EU sanctions on individuals require unanimous backing from member states. Hungary has blocked an existing proposal to sanction violent settlers.

"I am aware it will be difficult to find majorities. And I know that any action will be too much for one, and too little for others. But we must all take our own responsibility," von der Leyen said.

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Von der Leyen also said that the Commission will put its bilateral support for Israel on hold, without affecting work with Israeli civil society and Yad Vashem, Israel's main Holocaust memorial centre.

A Commission spokesperson said future allocations of an average of 6 million euros that Israel is set to receive annually from an EU instrument will be suspended, and that the bloc will also put on hold approximately 14 million euros intended for ongoing projects.

The Commission had previously proposed curbing Israeli access to its flagship research funding programme but failed to garner sufficient support from EU member countries for the move.

The Commission chief said the body will set up a Palestine Donor Group next month, including an instrument for Gaza reconstruction, without giving details.

(Reporting by Lili Bayer and Andrew Gray in Brussels and Emma Pinedo Gonzalez in Madrid; Editing by Benoit Van Overstraeten and Ros Russell)
Starting November 1, 2025, child care bills in New Mexico will drop to $0 for every family in the state. Whether youre a single parent finishing school, a mom returning to work after maternity leave, or a family juggling multiple kids in care, eligibility will no longer depend on income. Family copays are waived, replaced with the promise of predictable, universal access.

New Mexicos Early Childhood Education and Care Department estimated families will save $12,000 on average per child each year.

Child care is essential to family stability, workforce participation, and New Mexicos future prosperity, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a press release. By investing in universal child care, we are giving families financial relief, supporting our economy, and ensuring that every child has the opportunity to grow and thrive.

At a glance: What parents need to know

Who qualifies: Every family in New Mexico, regardless of income (via Child Care Assistance).

When it starts: Nov 1, 2025.

What families save: About $12,000 per child each year (state estimate).

Whats changing: Family copays are waived; income limits removed.

Supply boost: $12.7M loan fund ; home-provider recruitment.

How to apply: Families can apply through nmececd.org (Apply for Services); contact details are provided there.

Why this matters for families

Child care is often a familys second-largest expense after housing. For some, it costs more than college tuition. Eliminating that bill gives parents freedom to make choices based on what works for their family, not what they can afford.

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Until now, free child care was available to mostbut not allfamilies, with eligibility capped at four times the federal poverty level (about $124,000 for a family of four). The new policy removes that cap, guaranteeing access for every family in the state.

Parents who already received child care support through New Mexicos earlier program say it changed everything. As one New Mexico mom told The Guardian, the support allowed her to finish college, enroll in nursing school, and buy groceries for my family.

Starting this fall, every family in the state can share that sense of stability.

Related: Summer break is costing parents more than just timeheres how debt is becoming the new normal for child care

How families are reacting

The announcement is sparking pride and relief across New Mexico. On Governor Michelle Lujan Grishams Facebook post celebrating the milestone, parents and community members shared what this shift means to them:

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New Mexico should be incredibly proud of this!!! May they be the first of all 50!  Jake Tyler

This is so life changing for us!! Couldnt be more proud to be a New Mexican.  Jasmine Garcia

Thank you Michelle we are so lucky to have you as our governor!!!!!!  Peggy Thompson

This is a tremendous accomplishment Governor. Thank you so much for your diligence and for fulfilling your promise to New Mexicos children and families. I am delighted that we have the bragging rights for being 1st!!  Patricia Evans

Together, these reactions reflect whats at stake for parents: more stability, more choice, and more hope for their childrens future.

Related: Child care costs over 50% of income in some statesand moms are done staying quiet

Why providers are paying attention

Universal child care doesnt work unless classrooms stay open. Thats why New Mexico is pairing family relief with major provider investments:

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Establishing a $12.7 million low-interest loan fund to build, expand, and renovate facilities (with an additional $20 million requested in the Fiscal Year 2027 budget).

Launching a statewide campaign to recruit licensed and registered home providers.

Partnering with employers and school districts to expand child care options.

Raising wages and reimbursing providers based on the actual cost of care.

Incentivizing programs that pay entry-level staff at least $18/hour and provide full-day care.

The state estimates an additional 5,000 early childhood professionals are needed to fully achieve a universal system.

Early childhood care and education is a public good, said ECECD Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky in a press release. By providing universal access and improving pay for our early childhood workforce, we are easing financial pressure on families, strengthening our economy, and helping every child learn in safe, nurturing environments.

Why other states are watching

New Mexico is the first state in the U.S. to make child care free for all, and the way its paying for it is turning heads. Instead of relying on limited federal funds, the state uses:

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The Land Grant Permanent Fund , expanded by voters in 2022.

An Early Childhood Trust Fund, seeded with oil and gas revenues.

That dedicated, long-term funding is why experts call this a generational change and why policymakers elsewhere are studying it closely. If outcomes show stronger child development, higher workforce participation, and greater financial stability for families, other states could follow.

New Mexico is creating the conditions for better outcomes in health, learning, and well-being, said Neal Halfon, professor of pediatrics, public health and public policy at UCLA. Its approach is rooted in data, driven by communities, and becoming a model for the nation.

The bigger picture for parents everywhere

Even if you dont live in New Mexico, this moment matters. It signals a growing recognition that child care is essential infrastructure, as critical to the economy as roads or electricity.

For now, families in New Mexico can apply through nmececd.org. For the rest of us, the state offers a glimpse of whats possible: a world where every parent has the freedom to work, study, or stay home by choicenot by cost.
It may have big implications, but the principle we should support is that Israel has the right to strike terrorists who are trying to kill Israelis and destroy the State of Israel, Abrams said.

WASHINGTON  Elliott Abrams, a veteran American diplomat and former US special representative for Iran and Venezuela, said Tuesday that Israel was within its rights to target Hamas leaders in Doha and urged that Egypt, not Qatar, serve as the main intermediary in hostage and ceasefire negotiations. He spoke to The Jerusalem Post on the sidelines of the MEAD Summit in Washington.

It may have big implications, but the principle we should support is that Israel has the right to strike terrorists who are trying to kill Israelis and destroy the State of Israel, Abrams said. They dont gain immunity just because they are in one capital as opposed to another.

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Abrams welcomed reports that Washington had prior notice of the operation. Im very glad at the reports that the United States had advance notice and gave a green light, he said. The White House, however, characterized the strike in Qatar as an unfortunate incident that does not advance US or Israeli goals; officials said they warned Doha the attack was coming but distanced Washington from the decision to hit a close allys capital.

American diplomat Elliott Abrams speaks during the United Nations Security Council meeting about the situation in Venezuela, in New York (credit: SHANNON STAPLETON / REUTERS)

He predicted limited political fallout and said the episode should push Doha to reconsider hosting Hamas leaders. Qatar as negotiator or intermediary is not trustworthy. Id much rather see Egypt as the interlocutor, he said, adding that talks can and should continue without Doha.

Israels strike in the Qatari capital on Tuesday targeted Hamas leaders as they discussed a US-backed ceasefire proposal, according to officials and media reports. Hamas said senior leaders survived while confirming fatalities among aides and relatives, including the son of negotiator Khalil al-Hayya; a Qatari security officer was also killed. Qatar condemned the attack as a violation of its sovereignty and international law.

Qatar to continue as mediator

The United Nations secretary-general and several governments criticized the strike, warning it could complicate mediation. Qatars prime minister said Doha reserves the right to respond but will continue efforts to broker a hostage-for-ceasefire deal.

Abrams, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former deputy national security adviser in the George W. Bush and Trump administrations, argued that shifting mediation to Cairo could preserve momentum in the talks. The notion that this means there cant be a negotiation is wrong, he said.
By Neha Arora and Naw Betty Han

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India is working to obtain rare-earth samples from Myanmar with the assistance of a powerful rebel group, according to four people familiar with the matter, as it seeks alternative supplies of a strategic resource tightly controlled by China.

India's Ministry of Mines asked state-owned and private firms to explore collecting and transporting samples from mines in northeastern Myanmar that are under the control of the Kachin Independence Army, three of the people said.

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State-owned miner IREL and private firm Midwest Advanced Materials - which received government funding last year for the commercial manufacturing of rare-earth magnets - were among those involved in the discussions, the sources said.

New Delhi hopes to test the samples in domestic labs to ensure they contain sufficient levels of heavy rare earths that can be processed into magnets used in electronic vehicles and other advanced equipment, according to the people.

The ministry made the request - signalling a rare instance of Delhi engaging with a non-state actor - at an online meeting in July, according to two of the people. The meeting was attended by representatives from IREL, Midwest and at least one other company, one of the sources said.

The KIA has started gathering samples for India's analysis, said the fourth person, who is an official with the armed group. The rebels have also agreed to assess if bulk exports to India are possible, according to the KIA official, who like the other sources spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

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Details of India's engagement with the KIA are reported by Reuters for the first time.

India's foreign and mining ministries did not respond to Reuters' questions. IREL and Midwest also did not return requests for comment.

A spokesperson for the KIA did not respond to calls and messages.

CHINESE CONTROL

Although rare earths are relatively abundant, China has near-absolute control over the technology that processes the minerals into magnets.

Beijing has sharply restricted exports of processed rare earths to major economies like India this year as it seeks to shore up geopolitical leverage amid its trade war with the United States.

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Delhi has made moves to shore up supplies. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Aug. 31 that he had discussed rare-earth mining during a meeting in China with Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, whose forces are battling the KIA. He did not elaborate.

No deal was publicly announced and the junta did not return a request for comment.

India is also seeking to address its lack of industrial-scale facilities to process rare-earth elements to high purity levels. IREL has sought partnerships with Japanese and Korean companies to begin commercial production of rare-earth magnets, Reuters reported last month.

Asked by Reuters about India's engagement with the KIA, an Indian official familiar with deliberations in Delhi said that the country's interest in critical minerals was not a secret. "We naturally encourage commercial cooperation on a business-to-business basis for securing rare earth minerals from available suppliers globally," the official said, without directly referencing interactions with the rebel group.

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IREL sent a team to Kachin state in December to study resources, Reuters previously reported. U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has also heard proposals for tapping Myanmar's supplies of rare earths, including one that would involve cooperation with India, the news agency reported.

China has an ongoing relationship with the KIA, which also supplies Beijing with heavy rare earths, said Angshuman Choudhury, a Singapore-based independent analyst of India-Myanmar relations.

"If China is liaising with the KIA to secure access to rare earths, why should India be left behind?" he said. "That competition also frames this outreach."

A spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry said in response to Reuters' questions that Beijing was not aware of the KIA potentially working with India, but "all relevant parties in northern Myanmar appreciate and thank China for its constructive role in maintaining peace and stability in the region."

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LONG-TERM DEAL?

The KIA was formed in 1961 to secure the autonomy of Myanmar's minority Kachin community and has since expanded to become one of the most formidable armed groups in the country.

After Myanmar's military ousted an elected civilian government in a 2021 coup, triggering a nationwide uprising, the KIA emerged as a bulwark of the resistance against the China-backed junta.

Last year, it seized from junta-aligned forces the Chipwe-Pangwa mining belt in Kachin state that produces the bulk of the global supply of heavy rare earths like dysprosium and terbium.

While the KIA continues to supply China with the minerals, their relationship has run into friction over the KIA's ongoing battle with junta troops over the strategically vital town of Bhamo.

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Beijing sees the junta as a guarantor of stability in its backyard and has pressured the KIA to back down. The militia, in turn, is ramping up engagement with neighbouring India.

Officials in Delhi are interested in a long-term arrangement with the KIA to build a supply route for rare earths but there are concerns over the logistical challenges of bringing large quantities of the material across remote and under-developed mountainous regions, two of the people said.

Minerals are transported to nearby China via a road network.

IREL is involved in some of those discussions, but it wants a private company to take responsibility for the transportation, according to three people familiar with the matter.

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Even if the KIA and India were able to work out an arrangement over sending rare earths to India, the parties would face challenges processing the minerals without Chinese assistance, said Belgium-based rare-earths expert Nabeel Mancheri.

"Theoretically, if India gets these materials, they could separate and make useful products," he said. "But it would take time to scale this up to produce meaningful quantities catering to international markets."

(Additional reporting by Devjyot Ghoshal in Bangkok, Shivam Patel in New Delhi, Shoon Naing, Rishika Sadam and the Beijing newsroom; Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Katerina Ang)
A fast-spreading invasive plant known as Japanese stiltgrass has been discovered in Rock County, raising alarms among ecologists and conservationists across southern Wisconsin, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.

Experts warn that this non-native species poses a significant ecological threat, potentially fueling more severe wildfires, displacing native plants, and degrading local wildlife habitat. With just one other known infestation in the state, found in La Crosse County in 2020, officials are urging residents to help detect and report the weed before it becomes widespread.

Japanese stiltgrass was discovered in private woodland near Beloit. The grass is suspected to have arrived via contaminated equipment or materials.

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Although it is not harmful to humans, stiltgrass is considered a major ecological threat. It can disrupt soil health, outcompete native plants, and increase the risk of wildfires.

"It just completely changes the whole system from a diverse, complex system to one that's just a monoculture," said Christopher Evans, a University of Illinois Extension forester who identified the plant.

The Wisconsin DNR and UW-Madison Extension are now surveying the area and asking residents in southern counties to help detect and report sightings. With its ability to spread quickly and self-fertilize, experts say early detection is key to preventing a long-term infestation.

Invasive species, like Japanese stiltgrass, threaten local ecosystems and can take over yards, costing homeowners time and money to remove. They crowd out native species, disrupt soil health, and reduce biodiversity.

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Landscaping with native plants is a smarter, eco-friendly alternative. Natives need less water and upkeep, lower your water bill, and support pollinators vital to our food supply.

Low-maintenance options include clover, buffalo grass, and xeriscaping. These choices protect the environment while creating a healthier, more sustainable yard.

Fighting invasive species starts at home, with plants that give more than they take.

Commenters have been debating how Japanese stiltgrass came to Wisconsin. One asked, "How did it get here?" and another replied, "Turns out it's been in the US for a while. It was initially used as packing material for porcelain in the early 20th century and spread from there."

Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
MEMPHIS, Tenn.  A Memphis city councilman wants to put a halt to the new Regional One facility until a meeting between the county mayor, hospital, business leaders, and local philanthropies is held.

Councilman Jeff Warren says hes been calling for a meeting for months, before the county spends nearly two billion dollars to build the new hospital.

Warren believes there could be better options that would cost taxpayers less money.

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The resolution was scheduled for a vote at the full council meeting on Tuesday night, but it was delayed for two weeks.

If there was a way to get the functions that we want to get Regional One to improve without spending that money and talking about it and looking at alternatives might be. Seems to be reasonable, said Councilman Jeff Warren.

Councilwoman Jerri Green, who works for the county mayor, said she made calls to ensure money would not be spent on the project until the council can hold the vote next month.

The plan was to spend $67 million on architecture and engineering on October 1.

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The county has already spent $30 million on the property and land, which is $27 million more than what it sold for three years ago.

WREG will keep you updated.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
Did the UK government begin enforcing a daily bank withdrawal limit of 3,000 on individual accounts on September 1, 2025? No, that's not true: No such policy has been announced by either of the UK's banking and banker regulatory authorities. No such law, let alone regulation, has been adopted by Parliament and no credible news organization has reported such a government-enforced limit. A representative of the UK's bank industry association said there was no such change adopted.

The claim was made in a September 5, 2025 post on X.com (archived here) on the @JamesWynnReal account in which the text of the tweet began "Get out, and get out now." It continued:

The UK is finished. This is real btw.

PRA

Lead Stories also searched the website of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), a UK consumer protection agency with authority over financial services firms. The FCA's website search engine found no announcements (archived here) of limits on daily withdrawals from individual accounts.

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Lead Stories used keywords from the post to search The Google News index of thousands of news sites. That index search (archived here) yielded no reports that the UK would enforce limits on withdrawals from individual bank accounts.

The same search on Yahoo! News, which indexes coverage by its partner organizations and news services, (archived here) yielded several versions of the scare headline on non-credible sites. In the first set of search results was one report from a credible news site, which noted that banks were, if anything, relaxing some self-imposed limits on withdrawals from individual accounts.

Lead Stories conducted a wide search of the official record of parliamentary action in the UK. From 2024 through September 9, 2025, no limits on bank account withdrawals was made law (called "Royal Assent") during that time (search archived here):
Claim:

A large construction company in Denmark has returned its fleet of Tesla cars, citing Elon Musk's politics.

Rating:

Rating: True

Context:

"We do not want to be associated with the values and political direction that currently accompany the Tesla brand," the company said in a May 2025 LinkedIn post. The post added they would "replace our Tesla cars with European alternatives." A spokesperson for the company confirmed in September 2025 that they had "returned and sold" all of their Tesla cars.

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In September 2025, a rumor spread that Denmark's largest construction company had returned its fleet of Tesla cars, citing the politics of Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

For example, a post by Facebook page Tech Viral shared the claim, adding it was an example of a "trend in corporate purchasing" in which the values associated with a brand and its leader "are just as important as the quality of the products" (archived):

(Facebook page The Tech Viral)

Denmark's largest construction company, Tscherning, has returned its entire fleet of Tesla vehicles, not due to any issues with the cars' performance, but as a direct response to CEO Elon Musk's political stances. The company emphasized that leadership values are as crucial as the technology itself, and by switching to European-made electric vehicles, it seeks to ensure its fleet aligns with its core business principles. This decision highlights a significant trend in corporate purchasing, where a brand's reputation and the personal values of its leaders are becoming just as important as the quality of its products.

The post had nearly 90,000 reactions and 10,000 shares. The claim appeared elsewhere on Facebook and on Instagram. Snopes readers also searched the website for information and emailed us asking whether the claim was true.

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The rumor was true. Construction company Tscherning A/S announced the move in May 2025 in a LinkedIn post (archived), and confirmed it in an email to Snopes in September 2025.

Tscherning's May 13, 2025, LinkedIn post included a video of a car-carrying trailer driving away several Tesla cars away:

It read, translated to English:

Tscherning changes gears and drives in a new direction At Tscherning we not only consider how we drive  but also who we drive with. That's why we've chosen to hand over the keys to our Tesla company cars  not because Tesla has become a bad car, but in light of Elon Musk's political commitment and the opinions he has publicly expressed (and which are increasingly hard to overlook), we as a company have chosen to say "thank you for the ride." We do not want to be associated with the values and political direction that currently accompany the Tesla brand. Therefore, we have chosen to replace our Tesla cars with European alternatives.

In a Sept. 10, 2025, email, Tscherning spokesperson Nathalie Cunin Tscherning confirmed the move. "Yes we have indeed returned and sold our Tesla vehicles as stated in our LinkedIn post," she wrote.

This decision followed months of Musk's leadership at the Department of Government Efficiency, which U.S. President Donald Trump created by executive order when he took office. Musk also contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to Trump's 2024 campaign. The two later fell out over the so-called "Big Beautiful Bill Act," of which Musk disapproved.

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However, contrary to an assertion in several social media posts, "Tscherning is by no means the largest construction company in Denmark," Cunin Tscherning said.

The privately held company announced record revenue of 1 billion Danish kroner (roughly $157 million as of this writing) in 2024-25, a 48% increase from the previous year. "The Tscherning Group rank among the larger companies in the demolition and building sector in Denmark, and among the 1000 largest companies overall in Denmark," Cunin Tscherning wrote.

Sources:

Deng, Rae. "9 Rumors We've Investigated about Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill.'" Snopes.com, 3 July 2025, www.snopes.com/collections/big-beautiful-bill-collection/. Accessed 10 Sept. 2025.

Taija PerryCook. "Every DOGE Rumor We've Fact-Checked so Far." Snopes, 15 Mar. 2025, www.snopes.com/collections/doge-rumors-collection/. Accessed 10 Sept. 2025.

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The White House. "Establishing and Implementing the President's 'Department of Government Efficiency'  the White House." The White House, 21 Jan. 2025, www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/establishing-and-implementing-the-presidents-department-of-government-efficiency/. Accessed 10 Sept. 2025.

"Tscherning Achieves Record Results and Reaches DKK 1 Billion in Revenue - Tscherning." Tscherning, 27 June 2025, tscherning.dk/en/nyheder/tscherning-lander-rekordresultat-og-runder-1-mia-kr-i-omsaetning/. Accessed 10 Sept. 2025.

"Tscherning Groups - Tscherning." Tscherning, 18 Feb. 2025, tscherning.dk/en/om-tscherning/tscherning-gruppen/. Accessed 10 Sept. 2025.
PHNOM PENH, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia exported 10.37 million tonnes of agricultural products in the first eight months of 2025, up 35.6 percent compared to the same period last year, said a Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries report on Wednesday.

The Southeast Asian country earned a total revenue of 3.62 billion U.S. dollars from the commodity exports during the January-August period this year, the report said.

Main agricultural items for exports included rice, rubber, cassava, mangoes, yellow bananas, pepper, cashew nuts, longans, and corn, among others.

Agriculture is one of the four pillars supporting Cambodia's economic growth, in addition to garment, footwear, and travel goods export, tourism, and construction and real estate.

Cambodian Ministry of Commerce's Secretary of State and Spokesperson Penn Sovicheat said China is a huge market for Cambodian products, particularly potential agricultural produce.

"Under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement and the Cambodia-China Free Trade Agreement, a number of Cambodian products, especially high-quality agricultural produce such as milled rice, yellow bananas, mangoes, longans, peppercorn, and durians, as well as some wild aquatic products, have been exported to China with preferential tariffs," he told Xinhua. 
FALL RIVER, Mass. (WPRI)  The Fall River Firefighters Union said it has finalized an agreement with the city to bring staffing up to national standards on all ten of its fire trucks.

We do give our lives willingly, union president Michael OReagan said. It feels good that people appreciate us enough to make us safe enough, that we can go home at the end of every shift.

Conversations about staffing ramped up within the city after Massachusetts deadliest fire in decades killed 10 residents of the Gabriel House assisted living facility back in July.

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Just hours after the smoke cleared, firefighters and union leaders gathered outside the building and called for change.

Lives would have been saved if the Fall River Fire Department was adequately staffed, said International Association of Fire Fighters General President Edward Kelly.

We did the best we could: Firefighters union decries staffing after deadly Fall River fire

A 2010 study from the National Institute of Standards and Technology found fire trucks manned by four firefighters were 25% faster than those manned by three.

At the time of the Gabriel House fire, union leaders said only two of the citys ten trucks were up to that national standard.

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But two days later, Mayor Paul Coogan vowed to change that.

When its slammed in your face like this crisis, it brings it to the forefront, Coogan said.

OReagan said the department now has six firetrucks up to the national standard, and its already helping.

It made an appreciable difference, a noticeable difference with the quick knock down to the fire. The quick overhaul and the turnaround in property damage, he said.

OReagan said the new deal finalized this week will lock in the citys commitment to increase staffing for the final four trucks.

The mayors office did not respond to a request for comment on the new agreement.

Old stations the next priority for Fall River firefighters

But union leaders say the state can do more to support firefighters, such as investing in fire stations.

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In Fall River, Lieutenant Jason Burns said five out of the six fire stations need repairs, including the Central Fire Station on Bedford Street, which Burns said was built in the 1930s.

Three out of the four showers dont operate, Burns said. That doesnt help us clean off the carcinogens.

Burns said the building is also contaminated with asbestos. Union leaders said the city will begin removing the asbestos soon in preparation for an upcoming $2 million repair project.

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Coogan told CBS Boston the project is expected to start in the next five months, but union leaders said they need more help.

We have other stations, theres one from the 1800s, OReagan said. I wish that the community would reinvest in their fire departments. They expect the best from us, and we work in the worst.

OReagan and Burns said this is not just a problem in Fall River, but across the state, and said theyre looking for a statewide solution. Theyre calling for lawmakers to pass a bill that would establish a building authority for public safety buildings.

Burns said the firefighters want the building authority to create a revolving fund that would invest in fire station repairs across Massachusetts.

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Lawmakers on Beacon Hill are scheduled to hear testimony on the legislation on Wednesday as part of a joint committee hearing.

All over the state, well reimburse cities and towns to build new schools, to repair schools, Burns said. I know that type of commitment is required from the state at this time.

Burns said the legislation was proposed before the Gabriel House fire, but he hopes state leaders are finally listening when it comes to investing in local firefighters.

This is a call to action, not just for Fall River, he said. Its a call to action for every city and town to really take a deep dive, look at their firehouses, and start prioritizing that spending.

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Several people were recently honored for rescuing kayakers in Sidney, according to a spokesperson with the city.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Sidney police and fire were called to a water rescue at the Stolle Bridge near Custenborder Park on May 17.

TRENDING STORIES:

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A man and three young girls were kayaking when they got trapped in the dangerous boil of a low-head dam, the spokesperson said.

This is one of the most hazardous situations that can occur on a river.

Upon arrival, first responders found the group struggling to stay above while holding onto their kayaks, the spokesperson said.

They were all wearing life jackets, but in danger of being pulled under by the current.

Sidney police officers Gabriel Shroyer, Noah Curl, and Joshua Bayer immediately got equipment from their cruisers and helped Sidney fire crews with the throw rope rescue technique.

Responders were able to pull all three girls and their family friend, Daniel Faber, to safety, the spokesperson said.

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If the first responders on scene hadnt acted with urgency and without hesitation, the outcome could have been tragic, Sidney police chief Mark McDonough said. Their quick thinking and teamwork saved lives that day.

The spokesperson added that Fabers actions played a crucial role in the water rescue.

Throughout the incident, he ensured the children remained together, in contact with their kayaks, and when the throw bag was deployed, he secured the rope and assisted each child in positioning for safe removal, the spokesperson said.

The following honors were awarded for the rescue:

Sidney police officers Gabriel Shroyer, Noah Curl, and Joshua Bayer got the departments Medal of Valor and the American Police Hall of Fame Life-Saving Award

Daniel Faber received the Civilian Life Saver Award

Firefighter Jaron Kelly received the Fire Chiefs Commendation for his accurate and skillful throw of the rescue rope under extreme pressure

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS)  The family of Iryna Zarutska, the woman who was murdered on the Blue Line train on Aug. 22, is calling for justice and public safety reform.

The 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee was stabbed to death while riding the light rail, just minutes from her home. The suspect, Decarlos Brown Jr., was charged with first-degree murder, and on Tuesday, the federal charge of causing a death on a mass transportation system.

Zarutskas family is being represented by the Charlotte law firm Tin Fulton Walker & Owen. The statement comes a day after a wave of national attention and criticism of Charlotte officials, more than two weeks after the crime occurred.

MORE FROM QUEEN CITY NEWS

Light Rail Stabbing

They said she had built a new life in Charlotte after moving here three years ago. She was working full-time at a local pizzeria  she was wearing a shirt for it at the time of her killing  while attending community college to improve her English.

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That night, she texted her boyfriend that she would be home soon, they said. Her loved ones became alarmed when she did not arrive at her apartment at the anticipated time, and her phones location alerted them that she was still at the station. Upon arriving at the station, they were devastated to learn that Iryna had died at the scene.

The trains surveillance footage was released to the public on Friday. The family is urging the public and media to respect Irynas dignity and their grief by not sharing the footage of her killing.

We are heartbroken beyond words, said a family spokesperson. Iryna came here to find peace and safety, and instead her life was stolen from her in the most horrific way. No family should have to go through this.

Seeking change

The familys immediate priority is to ensure the man responsible for Zarutskas murder is brought to justice and remains behind bars. However, they are also calling attention to public safety, sharing concerns over a perceived lack of:

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Security presence on the CATS Blue Line

Oversight in the contract between CATS and Professional Security Services (PSS), and

Further safety measures

The family is demanding a full investigation into the circumstances leading up to Zarutskas death, alleging lapses in security protocols and failures within the public transportation system.

This could have been anyone riding the light rail that night, said the family. We are committed to making sure this never happens again.

On Monday, Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles announced immediate changes to security on CATS properties, including adding Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officers.

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These changes will allow CATS to fully execute the transit system policing plan, including the Blue Line, she said.

Brown is being held in the Mecklenburg County jail without bond.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News.
Farmers across the country are looking at record yields during their fall harvest. They may have nowhere to sell them.

As a result of President Donald Trumps trade war with China, crop farmers have lost a significant export market, driving down the price of top U.S. crops like soybeans and corn, even as Trumps tariffs drive up the cost of farm equipment and fertilizer.

Now, as they approach the end of growing season, those farmers, farm groups and Republican lawmakers from agriculture-heavy states are warning of a looming crisis: crops piling up with nowhere to put them and farmers ending the year deep in the red.

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Theyre still not ready to blame Trump and his trade policies, however, a sign of just how much grace the agriculture community continues to grant Trump, even as his ambitious efforts to restructure the global trade economy clash directly with their economic interests. This fall could prove the stiffest loyalty test yet, as the administration struggles to make progress in trade negotiations its promised will finally bring the ag industry some relief.

When our members are in the fields harvesting, they will be staring at a visual representation of this economy and this looming farm crisis. They will be looking at literal piles of corn and other row crops, said Lesly Weber McNitt, vice president of public policy at the National Corn Growers Association. They dont know where its going.

Farmer sentiment dropped in June, July and August, according to Purdue Universitys Ag Economy Barometer, a monthly survey that measures the health of the agricultural economy, but its still higher than when former President Joe Biden was in office.

I think the farmers realize, particularly crop producers, this is not going to be a good year by any stretch of the imagination, said Michael Langemeier, the director of Purdues Center for Commercial Agriculture. But when you ask things about the long-term policy environment, theyre always positive related to those questions.

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That faith in the Trump administrations long-term policy objectives hinges, in large part, on the administrations promises to ink new trade agreements with other countries that could pave the way for more sales of U.S. agricultural goods abroad.

Rep. Mark Alford (R-Mo.), who represents a mix of suburban and rural areas between Kansas City and Jefferson City, acknowledged in an interview that farmers in his district are hurting.

Theyre going to have one of the biggest corn crops in history, but the input prices are so high, and the commodity prices are so low, that a lot of farmers are just kind of hanging on, Alford added.

But Alford, who had a contentious back-and-forth with a farmer over tariffs at an August town hall, has continued to defend Trumps trade policies as a way to pressure other countries to open up their markets  particularly China, the largest foreign purchaser of U.S. soybeans over the past decade and a major buyer of other American ag products, as well.

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China is the linchpin in all of this, Alford said. And Im trusting that President Trump is going to strike a deal that is going to equalize our trade with China and also restore some of the imports theyve had for our grains, our beans and our meat.

Other farm state Republicans are toeing a similar line.

Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran said farmers see this effort by the president to work tariffs in a way thats to their favor. But Moran also had a warning: The need for those issues to be resolved is quick. Its soon.

Trumps trade negotiations, however, arent poised to offer any immediate breakthroughs to ease farmers pain. The talks with China have proceeded particularly slowly, with the president last month granting another extension for negotiations  to Nov. 12. The U.S. legal battle over Trumps tariffs, which is likely to be decided by the Supreme Court in the coming months, gives the Chinese government even more incentive to slow-walk the talks.

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As it stands now, Washington and Beijing are frozen in a low-grade trade war, with double-digit tariffs on each others exports. While not as high as the 100-plus percent duties the two sides briefly imposed in May, the tariffs, coming on top of levies imposed during Trumps first term, have forced both countries to look for other sources of key goods.

In 2024, for example, China purchased $12.64 billion in soybeans. But China has not yet made any orders for soybeans since May, according to the American Soybean Association, as it shifts more purchases to Brazil and other countries.

Corn growers, meanwhile, appear hurt by their own success. Record yields are driving the price of corn down, and they havent been able to secure new export markets. Corn sales to China rose sharply in 2021 and 2022, making it the countrys top export market at the time, as it attempted to fulfill its promise to purchase an additional $200 billion in U.S. agricultural product as part of a trade agreement in Trumps first term.

But those purchases fell sharply in 2023 and 2024.

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Even as the Trump administration has promised to rejuvenate agriculture exports to China, its pointing to preliminary trade agreements with other partners it says will open up alternative ag markets.

As we have seen deal after deal after deal hit the world stage, with more announcements coming in the next few weeks, even more exciting deals, [sinking farmer] sentiment, we believe, will turn from unease with the current farm economy, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told Fox Business Network on Thursday.

In July, Trump shook hands on agreements with the EU, Japan and South Korea, as well as smaller countries like Indonesia and the Philippines, all of which have agricultural components. Japan, for example, pledged to purchase $8 billion in agricultural goods from the U.S. per year (although that is less than the $14.3 billion in agricultural purchases it averaged between 2020 and 2024, according to data collected by the Agriculture Department).

They still havent come close to making up for the loss of the massive Chinese market.

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Combined, Japan and the European Union purchased $3.4 billion worth of soybeans in 2024  a quarter of the $12 billion China purchased. And while both trading partners purchased more corn than China in 2024, the combined amount was still smaller than what China was able to purchase in its 2022 peak.

Hopes that the administration would be able to open major new markets, like India, have also failed to come to fruition. Instead, the administration slapped a 50 percent tariff on the worlds fourth-largest economy last month, souring the relationship and pushing New Delhi closer to China.

In Trumps first term, the White House paid out $28 billion in financial relief for farmers hurt by his trade policies. Officials at the Agriculture Department have privately started to prepare for a similar bailout fund for this term but are unlikely to roll out any tariff relief payments this fall, according to three people with direct knowledge who were granted anonymity to discuss the private plans. Thats also around when lawmakers will be looking at replenishing USDAs pot of money designated for emergency situations, Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden has told reporters.

In a written statement, a USDA spokesperson said the administration is working to provide assistance to farmers and pinned the blame on the Biden administration, saying it squandered a strong farm economy.

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"Secretary Rollins is working to reorient the department to be more effective at serving the American people and put farmers first," the statement said. "Fortunately, President Trump is taking strong action to support farmers by executing new trade deals and quickly rolling out programs like the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program that provides $10 billion in direct assistance to producers."

But that $10 billion came from a short-term spending bill passed in December and was a patchwork attempt to help farmers amid stalled negotiations on the massive legislative package known as the farm bill. Republicans also cut into Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funding in order to give farmers a $60 billion boost in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, but that won't take effect until the next crop year.

Ive not seen any evidence that theres any proposal coming from the administration for direct financial aid, Moran said. Farmers have always told me, and I think they believe it, that they want markets, not payments. And we need markets.

That need is about to become a lot more tangible, as farmers start to harvest their crops and top out their grain storage.

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We, as a government, should be recognizing that and trying every way we can to do the next trade deal ... because what is going to happen, sure as Im sitting here, is corn will be stacked in the streets, said Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.). Truly, I dont know how were going to stop it.

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.
A federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump's attempt to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb issued a preliminary injunction requiring the Federal Reserve to let Cook continue serving in her role as a governor of the Federal Reserve System as her lawsuit moves through the courts.

Cobb's decision comes one week ahead of the Federal Reserve's next meeting, which is scheduled to begin on Sept. 16.

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While the Trump administration asked the judge to delay her decision to allow an appeal, she denied their request, in part, because the public interest favors Cook staying in her role.

MORE: Justice Department opens criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook: Sources

"Cook is one of seven members of a Board that is, by design, not intended to be susceptible to policy pressure, let alone tasked with implementing the President's agenda," Cobb wrote.

Mark Schiefelbein/AP - PHOTO: Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, left, talks with Board of Governors member Lisa Cook, right, during an open meeting of the Board of Governors at the Federal Reserve, June 25, 2025, in Washington.

Cobb concluded that Trump's attempted firing of Cook likely violated the Federal Reserve Act, which limits the basis for firing a Governor to their behavior in office, and ran afoul of Cook's due process rights.

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"President Trump has not stated a legally permissible cause for Cook's removal," Cobb wrote.

She added that Cook demonstrated that her removal would cause irreparable harm, writing that the independence of the Federal Reserve is "critical in helping the nation's 'banking system to promote stability.'"

Cobb also criticized the Trump administration for advancing an "absurd" argument about the scope of the president's power, which they argued allowed Trump to not only remove Cook but also barred a court from reviewing his action.

Cook's attorney applauded the Tuesday evening ruling, saying it "recognizes and reaffirms the importance of safeguarding the independence of the Federal Reserve from illegal political interference."

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The statement added that Cook will "continue to carry out her sworn duties as a Senate-confirmed Board Governor."

MORE: Here's a list of the individuals, including Lisa Cook, targeted so far by the Trump administration

Last month, Trump called on Cook to resign on the same day that Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, posted on X part of an Aug. 15 letter sent to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi accusing Cook of falsifying bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, "potentially committing mortgage fraud," the letter stated.

In a statement provided to ABC News at the time, Cook said she learned from the media about Pulte's letter seeking a criminal referral over the mortgage application, which predated her time with the Federal Reserve.

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"I have no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet," Cook said in the statement last week. "I do intend to take any questions about my financial history seriously as a member of the Federal Reserve and so I am gathering the accurate information to answer any legitimate questions and provide the facts."

Cook was nominated to serve on the board of governors in 2022 by former President Joe Biden. Her term runs until January 2038. Cook is the first Black woman in history to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
PROVIDENCE  What leads someone to call Rhode Island's 988 suicide prevention and crisis hotline?

Stephanie Clifford, clinical supervisor for Rhode Island's 988 Call Center, told a packed audience at the Rhode Island State House that the calls vary "from teens calling because they are being bullied to elders calling just to hear another human voice."

"Imagine that it's 2 in the morning," she said. "There's a young student calling, whispering in their dorm room. They're terrified, not of the monsters under the bed, but of the thoughts in their own mind.

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"They say, 'I don't want to die, but I don't know how to keep living like this.'

"Picture a veteran who's never spoken with anyone about what they've seen, they call us after seeing a commercial for 988. ... They cry sometimes for the very first time, and although that call might only last for 20 minutes, it could be the beginning of a path forward that they didn't see before.

"We hear from parents exhausted, overwhelmed who say, 'I love my kids, but I feel like I'm drowning.' Or teens who text us from school bathrooms saying I'm being bullied and I don't know what to do.

"An elderly woman in her late 80s will call for the first time on a Sunday afternoon, her voice soft and apologetic: 'I'm sorry to bother you. I just haven't spoken to anyone in three days.' Or an older gentleman who's deeply grieving, telling a counselor, 'I just wanted to hear another voice.'"

Concerns about cuts to mental health care

These are the moments where empathy becomes a lifeline. We listen. We validate. We help them find the one reason to hold on," Clifford said at the Sept. 8 event to mark Suicide Prevention Month and raise concerns about what the Trump administration and congressional Republicans have done to health care.

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"The Trump administration is making massive cuts to health care across the board, including mental health," said U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island, who co-authored the law creating 988.

Close to $800 billion in approved cuts to Medicaid will over time "lead to 15 million people losing their health insurance," he said. "Now, how are we supposed to get people who call 988 in crisis into treatment if they have no insurance, if they have no way to pay for it?"

"If that's not bad enough, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ... has proposed eliminating SAMHSA ... the [Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration]," Reed said.

"The Trump administration is also cutting funding for the LGBTQ+ specialized services within 988, which President Trump ... supported in his first term when he signed my bill, the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act into law in 2020."

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"And we know that LGBTQ+ youth are more than four times more likely to commit suicide than their peers," Reed said.

"This is about helping people, not cheap political gimmicks," he said of the federal law that directed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to designate 988 as the universal telephone number for a national suicide prevention and mental health crisis hotline.

Put another way: "988" used to be (800) 273-TALK (8255).

"I drew on my experience as an Army officer and the acronym we always use  K-I-S-S  which means 'keep it simple, stupid,'" Reed said. Instead of a long "800" number, "we've given people something they can remember, something they can do easily ... particularly in a crisis."

Hotline use is soaring

Help has been only a phone call away for many years for Rhode Islanders in the grips of a crisis and, in some cases, contemplating suicide.

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This past Monday, Sept. 8, state officials  and the director of the Rhode Island Indian Council  gathered to celebrate the success of the most recent  the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline  as measured by the number of calls received and in many if not most cases, "answered within two seconds."

On this national "988 Day," they hailed the "212% increase" in the number of calls the 988 call center in Rhode Island received from people seeking help in July 2025 (1,530) over the month it launched three years ago.

And that was on top of the 1,285 calls that 988 counselors received in July via the "BH link"  which is the shorthand for Rhode Islands behavioral-health triage center and 24-hour hotline (401-414-LINK)  for a total of 2,815 calls.

"These are not just calls. Theyre moments ... of connection,'' Clifford said. "988 isnt just a number. Its a promise: that no one has to go through a mental health crisis alone," she said.

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"988 is more than a number; it's a lifeline for Rhode Islanders in need," echoed Gov. Dan McKee, as he thanked the staff.

Many others spoke to the packed gathering in the State Room, including Darrell Waldron, executive director of the Rhode Island Indian Council, who spoke about an upcoming powwow on mental health awareness.

"We are probably the most misunderstood community in the country," he said. "We represent 1% of the United States population right now. At one time we were 99%. We [have] suffered from historical trauma," he told the audience.

"It was a breakthrough 20 years ago when we started really looking at the suicide numbers," which are higher for Native Americans than for any other racial or ethnic group, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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"We brought together 15 psychoanalysts and mental health folks, and we kind of dove in on it. And [found] it has to do with war and historical trauma and what happens to a person in war ... when they come back and make families."

The "Indian Wars, the Civil Wars, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf Wars. Just about every child born in the United States may have touched someone who had combat or had trauma from those wars. ... So we started focusing on that."

"We are an isolated community. ... So I'm so happy that we have an opportunity to do a powwow and talk about suicide and mental health," he said.

Suicide-prevention resources: Where to turn if you are considering suicide

Anyone in immediate danger should call 911.

Other resources:

988: Call or text. 988 improves on The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: (800) 273-TALK, or (800) 273-8255. This number, however, will still be answered.

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BHLink: For confidential support and to get connected to care, call (401) 414-LINK (5465) or visit the BHLink 24-hour/7-day triage center at 975 Waterman Ave., East Providence. Website: bhlink.org

The Samaritans of Rhode Island: (401) 272-4044 or (800) 365-4044. Website: samaritansri.org

The Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741 from anywhere in the USA, anytime, about any type of crisis. Website: https://www.crisistextline.org/

Butler Hospital Behavioral Health Services Call Center: Available 24/7 to guide individuals seeking advice for themselves or others regarding suicide prevention. (844) 401-0111

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Thrive Behavioral Health's Emergency Services: 24-hour crisis hotline (401) 738-4300.

Prevent Suicide in Rhode Island: a Rhode Island Department of Health resource. If you are in crisis, call (800) 273-8255 or text TALK to 741741. Website: preventsuicideri.org/

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Suicide prevention hotline: How RI's 988 crisis line is saving lives
NEED TO KNOW

An exotic zoo in the U.K. is gaining international attention after experiencing a rare birthing event from one of its reptiles

Eight casquehead iguanas were recently born, despite their mother having no male contact

"Its not just exciting, its important for science and conservation education too, a zoo spokesperson said

A female iguana in the U.K. earned international attention after a rare birthing event left her with babies despite having no contact with a male partner.

In a social media post shared to Telfords Exotic Zoo in mid-August, the wildlife park revealed that casquehead iguanas were hatching, before sharing why this time was a bit more magical than any birth before.

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Check out the pictures of them coming out of their eggs over the last 24 hours, the organization wrote in a Facebook post, adding, And these babies are EXTRA special.

According to Telfords Exotic Zoo, the babies were born without a dad thanks to a process called parthenogenesis.

Fish, snakes, lizards, and even birds have all been observed to be able to reproduce without fertilization, the Smithsonian Ocean says of parthenogenesis. In Greek, it means the virgin creation.

The Exotic Zoo added that the babies are genetic clones of their mum.

"This is one of the rarest events in the animal kingdom," Scott Adams, the zoo's director, said in a statement shared with CBS News on Tuesday, Sept. 9.

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While parthenogenesis is a documented occurrence, Adams told the outlet it caught the zoos staff by surprise, with many "thinking, what's going on here?"

"When we confirmed the eggs were fertile without any contact with a male, our jaws hit the floor. These babies are essentially mini-mum clones, and seeing them thrive is incredible. For us, it's a powerful reminder that life finds a way in the most unexpected circumstances," Adams said.

USA Today reported that eight casquehead iguanas were born from the set of eggs laid.

The babies are not on public display yet, the outlet reports. Instead, they are being kept in a specially designed enclosure at the zoo's specialist reptile nursery, where staff monitor the temperature and humidity levels.

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Photos posted to the Exotic Zoos Facebook account showed their head keeper, Ryan, smiling outdoors as he held one of the casquehead iguanas.

The Eastern casquehead iguana species is from Mexico and Central America. The iguanas are known for their distinctive casque (helmet-like crest) and long, thin limbs.

Never miss a story  sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

They live in trees and feed on insects and get water from drops on leaves. Females are known to reproduce asexually.

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"This story gives us an amazing opportunity to talk with our visitors about genetics, evolution, and the challenges that reptiles face in the wild," Adams told CBS News. "Its not just exciting, its important for science and conservation education too."

Adams also said all of the hatchlings are females, jokingly telling the BBC that they all speak at exactly the same time."

Read the original article on People
The Village of Cambridge has announced the second and final installment of the new Sounds of the Village concert series on Thursday, Sept. 11 at College Square Park in Cambridge, Illinois. The free community concert will begin at 6:30 p.m. and run about two hours, featuring performances from acclaimed Americana/rock songwriter Zach Pietrini and local blues-rock favorites Jerm Theory.

Guests are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets to enjoy the show under the open sky. This is an all-ages, family-friendly event, and attendees are welcome to bring their own food and drinks.

About the Artists

Zach Pietrini  based in Milwaukee, Pietrini is known for his heartfelt Americana and rock songs that blend Midwestern grit with a refreshing honesty. With influences ranging from Tom Petty to Wilco, Pietrini has been praised for his ability to create music that feels both deeply personal and universally relatable. Named Best Live Act in Milwaukee by the Shepherd Express, Pietrini has toured extensively across the U.S., connecting with audiences through his engaging stage presence and storytelling.

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Jerm Theory  Hailing from the Quad Cities region, Jerm Theory brings a high-energy fusion of blues and rock that has been electrifying audiences across Illinois and beyond. Known for soulful vocals, driving guitar riffs, and an irresistible groove, the band delivers dynamic performances that bridge classic blues traditions with modern rock energy. With a growing fan base and reputation for passionate live shows, Jerm Theory has become a rising name in the regional music scene.

About Sounds of the Village

The Sounds of the Village concert series launched in 2025 with the goal of bringing free, high-quality live music to the heart of Cambridge. This concert will mark the final event of the 2025 season, but the village plans to expand the series in 2026 with more dates and more opportunities for the community to come together through music.

Live music has always had the power to connect people, said John Taylor of Crossroads Cultural Connections, who has worked closely with the village to help develop the series. With Sounds of the Village, were creating a tradition in Cambridge that celebrates great artists while strengthening the social and cultural fabric of our community.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHBF - OurQuadCities.com.
A firefighter battling a large blaze on the Grand Canyon's North Rim died in the line of duty, according to park and fire command officials.

On the afternoon of Sept. 8, a firefighter working to suppress the Dragon Bravo Fire near the North Rim entrance station suffered a "cardiac emergency," fire command officials said in a news release on InciWeb, a federal wildfire tracker.

First aid was provided by a paramedic, but attempts to resuscitate the man were unsuccessful, according to the fire command. The identity of the firefighter had not yet been released, as of Sept. 9. His death was being investigated by the National Park Service alongside the Coconino County Medical Examiner, according to fire command.

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"We deeply appreciate this firefighters dedication to his profession and to the communities threatened by wildland fire," the news release said, adding that support was being provided to the man's fellow firefighters and friends.

As of Sept. 9, the Dragon Bravo Fire had grown to 145,504 acres and was 80% contained, according to InciWeb. The fire remained the seventh largest in Arizona history.

The Dragon Bravo Fire has been burning for over two months after it was ignited by a lightning strike and was fueled by powerful winds, dry air and above-normal temperatures. The blaze, which fire officials allowed to burn for land management purposes, grew unruly and ravaged the North Rim, destroying dozens of structures, including the historic Grand Canyon Lodge.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs paid tribute to the fallen firefighter on social media.

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"Arizona mourns the tragic loss of a firefighter who made the ultimate sacrifice while battling the Dragon Bravo Fire near the Grand Canyons North Rim," Hobbs said. "We honor their bravery, and I extend my deepest condolences to their family, loved ones, and the entire firefighting community."

Hobbs visited the burn area of the Dragon Bravo Fire in July and had called for further investigation into its cause.

An investigation by The Arizona Republic, part of the USA TODAY Network, found that the fire was allowed to burn for seven days after a July 4 lightning strike touched off the blaze  even as fuel and weather conditions repeatedly reached the brink of critical thresholds for fire risk.

Officials repeatedly minimized fire risks and touted the benefits of letting the fire burn, according to The Republic's findings. National Park Service spokesperson Rachel Pawlitz maintained the fire was "expertly handled" and said the quick response by firefighters saved hundreds of lives.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Firefighter dies battling fire at the Grand Canyon's North Rim
BEIJING, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese authorities on Wednesday announced a nationwide campaign to crack down on online misconduct concerning the auto industry.

The campaign will run for three months, targeting behaviors such as illegal profit-making, false advertising and malicious defamation, according to a circular jointly issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and five other government departments.

The move aims to help regulate auto enterprises' marketing and promotional activities, foster a positive public opinion environment and promote the high-quality development of the auto sector, it said.

Specific issues include creating fake images and videos to spread negative information about auto companies, conducting false or irregular product evaluations, manipulating online opinions, and executives using their influence to attack competitors online.

The circular urged auto companies and online platforms to conduct self-inspections and rectify any irregularities. It also pledged efforts to investigate public relations and marketing companies behind the misconduct and take legal action against violators. 
This article was first published in the State of Faith newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Monday night.

When researchers study peoples relationship with religion and faith, they cast a wide net of questions that get at both inner beliefs and outward practices.

Some questions focus on attitudes and identity: Do people see religion or spirituality as important? Do they identify as Christian? Do they believe animals have spirits  or do they believe in God? Other questions explore lived practices: How often do they pray, attend church, meditate, light candles or read scripture?

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Together, these answers sketch the contours of how individuals, and entire nations, experience religion and spirituality.

Pew Research Center asked some of these questions in a recent study about the religiously unaffiliated, or nones, held across 22 countries. The findings show that many people who dont identify as religious still hold different beliefs or engage in spiritual practices, but the strength of those ties varies widely.

In Brazil, for example, 92% of the unaffiliated say they believe in God, compared to just 10% in Sweden. Similar divides are seen between Latin America and South Africa on one end of the spectrum and much of Europe and Australia on the other.

Its because some countries are in a different secularization stage than others, researchers note.

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Religion decline happens in three stages, according to a paper in Nature Communications academic journal highlighted by the Pew Research Center. Researchers call this trajectory: Participation-Importance-Belonging.

First, religious practices like service attendance decline, often among younger generations. In Senegal, for instance, 78% of older adults still attend services, but participation among younger people is 14 percentage points lower. Other countries in this first stage include Guatemala, India, Tunisia, Egypt and South Africa.

In the second stage, people are questioning religions personal importance and weakening their sense of belonging. The United States fits this pattern today: younger adults attend services less often and are 45% less likely than older generations to claim a religious affiliation, although a recent report from Barna Group challenged this pattern with its finding that Gen Z and millennials now go to church more often than older adults. Mexico, Brazil, Thailand, Greece, Italy and Canada are also in this middle secularization stage.

The final stage marks the shedding of religious identity altogether for the younger generations. Many European countries fall here: In Denmark, 79% of the overall population is religiously affiliated, but only 53% of adults under 40 say the same. Researchers also place France, Sweden, Estonia, Australia and China in this group.

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These religious transitions show that secularization isnt a single story of religious decline. It also reveals the many ways faith lingers through belief, identity and practice. Tracing these patterns may help us understand how faith still influences broader values, culture and politics  even as religious affiliation fades.

For leaders of congregations, understanding how secularization works may point to a central challenge in halting it  how to create religious communities where more young people feel that they belong.

Fresh off the press

On Sunday, the Vatican named Carlo Acutis, a 15-year-old computer whiz and devout believer, the first millennial saint. I asked Brett Robinson from the University of Notre Dame about the significance of this event. Hes very relatable and for a lot of young people today  given that hes grown up in the same era of internet and video games, he played sports, Robinson said. Sainthood and holiness  these arent just reserved for some austere select few. Its actually all of us that are called to this.

What do the nones actually believe? New report reveals spiritual diversity among religiously unaffiliated around the world

A generational reversal is underway: Gen Z and millennials are now the most church-going groups, a study from the Barna Group found.

Person of the week: Pier Giorgio Frassati

Alongside Carlo Acutis, Pope Leo also canonized Pier Giorgio Frassati, a Catholic Italian layman who lived a century earlier and died in 1925, at age 24, from polio while serving the sick.

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Born in Turin, Italy, and raised in a family of agnostics, Frassati became an active member of Catholic Action, a lay Catholic organization, and is widely regarded as the patron of young Catholics, social activists and those devoted to charity and justice. His legacy is celebrated in numerous pilgrimage sites across Turin, including the Church of the Holy Trinity and his family home.

Frassati was known for his unwavering commitment to the poor and marginalized. Once, when a mother knocked on his door with her child, he took off his shoes and gave them to her. He often visited the sick, volunteered at hospitals and supported organizations that helped working-class families.

Frassati stood against the rise of fascist leader Benito Mussolini and was jailed in Rome after joining the protest of the Catholic Workers Association, according to EWTN.

Much of his personal wealth was quietly given away to help those in need.

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Frassati also loved the outdoors. He was an avid mountain climber, skier and cyclist, often combining his adventures with prayer and acts of service.

What Im reading and listening to:

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett just released a new book titled Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution. And after years of media silence, she has given at least two major interviews  with CBS News and the Free Press.

I wrote a profile of Justice Barrett last year for Deseret Magazine, for which she declined an interview, and after talking to people who know her well and trying to understand what she believes, its fascinating to hear her thoughts on the role of the highest court today, the influence of President Donald Trump, and whether were in a constitutional crisis.  Extended Interview with Justice Amy Coney Barrett, CBS News.

President Russell M. Nelson, the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, penned a short, yet inspiring piece in Time magazine urging respect for human dignity and peaceful dialogue, despite disagreements.

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These may have been my favorite few lines in the piece: Life can be terrifying, and I have watched many  especially young people struggle with anxiety about whether they belong or have value. But a heart that knows it is loved and remains focused on its purpose beats with steadiness, confidence and hope no matter what is happening  or not happening  in life.  Russell M. Nelson: We All Deserve Dignity and Respect, Time

Religious studies programs are on the chopping block for some universities, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, partly as a shift toward a more career-centered education. Among casualties mentioned in the article are the religious studies faculty at the University of Oregon and Virginia Tech. Others are worried. The challenge of religious studies, to me, is how to study material that still strikes faculty as interesting, but to do it in a way that students understand the wide application of what they learn, said Russell T. McCutcheon, professor at University of Alabama. Its not difficult to find scholars who still talk about the life of the mind and about how we are the last bastion of it.  Why Religious Studies Is in Trouble, The Chronicle of Higher Education

Odds and ends

There is a new book out that Im excited about  Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination by Mark Vernon, who is a British philosopher and psychotherapist. William Blake, a deeply spiritual poet, artist and mystic, may have some timely wisdom for us on how to keep our imagination alive when tech seems to be slowly chipping away at our ability to feel and think.
BOSTON (WWLP)  Tuesday brought the first-ever Sustainability Day at the State House, bringing climate change back into focus for lawmakers.

CVI Awareness Day brings vision education to the State House

This planet-palooza, organized by South Hadley native Bella Yee, drew 30 tables and 40 table attendants to the Great Hall, showcasing initiatives spanning from compost pick-up services, to chemical-free soap to climate-neutral home improvements.

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The states first-ever climate chief spoke at the event, saying the time for action is now.

We dont really get anything done unless we have healthy ecosystems and a stable climate. And weve lost our stable climate, said Climate Chief Melissa Hoffer.

The state took a climate loss last week, as President Trump cancelled funding already earmarked for an offshore wind farm. At an unrelated press conference, the governor told reporters this cut is not just bad for the environment and energy costs: its bad for jobs.

The threat of shutting down these wind projects is a job killer. President Trump is killing jobs when he shuts down a wind project, said the governor.

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The governor mentioned a bright sideanother offshore wind project, Vineyard Wind, already powers 200,000 Bay State homes with more to come. All this while Governor Healey announced plans to cut down on environmental regulations for housing projects to speed up production.

This plan has the approval of the states climate chief, and officials say it will not affect Massachusetts high environmental standards.

Local News Headlines

WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com.

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Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP.
(This story was updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.)

A long-running inheritance dispute tied to one of Turkeys wealthiest families has played out in Palm Beach County courts for more than 15 years. The case centers on the estate of Dr. Mehmet Salih Tatlici, a billionaire businessman who died in 2009, and a lawsuit brought by his biological sons against their stepmother, Nurten Tatlici, and their half-brother, Ugur Tatlici.

Court filings and jury proceedings in Florida have focused on questions about property transfers and financial accounts and whether Tatlici's heirs received their lawful shares under Turkish inheritance law. Recent developments have brought renewed attention to the case and its cross-border legal implications.

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More: Florida jury orders billionaires widow, son to pay $535 million after years-long inheritance war

Mehmet Tatlici appears in an undated photo.

Stepmom accused of hiding inheritance, includes real estate in Boca Raton

When Mehmet Salih Tatlici died in February 2009, he left behind an estate worth more than $3 billion, including Istanbuls iconic Tat Towers, hundreds of properties across Turkey and real estate in Boca Raton.

Assets moved while father, Dr. Mehmet Salih Tatlici, was still alive

Under Turkish inheritance law, biological children are entitled to a protected share of their parents estate that cannot be overridden either by wills or asset transfers.

Attorneys for Tatlicis estate say his three sons discovered that substantial assets had been moved out of his name starting in about 1995. The estates attorneys argued these transfers were made deliberately to prevent the sons from receiving their legally protected inheritance.

Why was this case brought to Palm Beach County?

Although much of Tatlicis wealth was in Turkey, the dispute landed in Palm Beach County because several of the contested assets were based here, including a waterfront mansion in Boca Raton, bank accounts with Wachovia, investment portfolios with Merrill Lynch and other U.S. business holdings.

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Under Turkish inheritance law, if allegedly fraudulent transfers involve assets outside Turkey, they must be resolved in the courts where those assets are located, which is why the case was heard in West Palm Beach, more than 6,000 miles from Turkey's capital city of Ankara.

Who was Dr. Mehmet Salih Tatlici?

Tatlici built his fortune by opening a battery factory that grew into one of Turkey's largest. He later shifted into real estate development, using his industrial success to acquire more than 200 properties across Turkey and the United States. By the time of his death in 2009, his empire was worth more than $3 billion.

Defendants failed to show up in court

Nurten and Ugur Tatlici have long denied any wrongdoing. But after repeatedly violating court orders, including failing to appear at required mediation hearings, Circuit Judge Jaimie Goodman struck their pleadings and entered a default judgment against them.

That ruling meant the allegations in Mehmet Tatlicis complaint were legally treated as true, leaving the jury to decide only the amount of damages.

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The mother and son, represented by the law firm of Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton, have said they plan to appeal the verdict.

Palm Beach County jury orders mom and son to pay half a billion dollars

Jurors deliberated for about three hours on Aug. 27 before awarding $525 million in damages against both defendants and an additional $10 million in damages against the stepmother, totaling $535 million.

Attorneys Jeremy Friedman, Craig Downs and David Durkee of The Downs Law Group, the same firm that had represented the plaintiff since the case began in 2009, helped secure the verdict. Circuit Judge Bradley Harper, the latest of several judges assigned to the case in its 15-year history, entered a final judgment against the defendants on Sept. 3.

Diamond Walker is a journalist at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at dkwalker@gannett.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida jury: widow must pay millions in Mehmet Tatlici inheritance
Flags will be flying at half-staff Thursday, Sept. 11, across Florida and the United States for Patriot Day.

Twenty-four years ago, on Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists launched an attack on American soil, killing almost 3,000 people in New York City, Washington, D.C., and in a Pennsylvania field.

The attacks were "by far the deadliest terrorist attacks ever launched against the United States."

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Patriot Day honors the memory of those victims and recognizes the courage of the first responders and service members who served in the wake of the attacks.

What happened on Sept. 11, 2001? Planes hijacked, nearly 3,000 Americans killed

On Sept. 11, 2001, extremist group al-Qaida launched a series of coordinated terrorist attacks upon the United States, killing almost 3,000 people.

Terrorists hijacked and crashed four passenger planes into two towers at the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon outside Washington, DC.

A fourth plane crashed into an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after hijackers plans were foiled by a group of passengers who tried to take control of the aircraft before hijackers were able to crash into another "important symbol of democracy and freedom."

Why are flags flying at half-staff on Sept. 11?

Security personnel take up positions beneath the national flag at half-staff atop the White House on Sept. 11, 2001, in Washington, D.C., following terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center in New York and damaged the Pentagon.

The U.S. flag should be flown at half-staff across the country at all governmental buildings on Thursday, Sept. 11, in observance of Patriot Day.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a proclamation ordering all Florida flags to be flown at half-staff from midnight to midnight Sept. 11 to observe the day.

Is Patriot Day a federal holiday?

No. Patriot Day is not a federal holiday. Government offices will be open and mail will be delivered.

Florida Gov. DeSantis proclaims Patriot Week Sept. 11-17, 2025

On Sept. 9, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the 2025 Patriot Day Proclamation.

"Florida will always remember and honor the 2,977 innocent lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001, as our national experienced a series of airline hijackings that led to the worst terrorist attack in United States history.

"We owe a debt of gratitude to our military, law enforcement officers, firefighters, first responders, and other emergency personnel for the selfless courage they demonstrated in the face of terror while defining our nation's cherished freedoms," DeSantis said in the proclamation.

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"As Americans and Floridians, we must work together to defend our national security, uphold our founding principles of liberty, and ensure that our nation remains the land of the freewhere such atrocious attacks can never again occur."

The proclamation:

Proclaims Sept. 11-17 as Patriot Week

Proclaims Sept. 11 as 9/11 Heroes Day

Asks all residents to observe a moment of silence at 8:46 am. ET to honor those killed on Sept. 11, 2001.

Directs the U.S. and Florida flags to be flown at half-staff from midnight to midnight at all local and state buildings on Sept. 11.

Observe a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. 'to honor the innocent victims'

Americans have been encouraged to observe a moment of silence beginning at 8:46 a.m. ET to honor the victims who died as a result of the attacks.

Public law passed in US to designate Sept. 11 as Patriot Day

In December 2001, a law was passed to designate Sept. 11 as Patriot Day. The law requests the president to issue a proclamation calling on:

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All state and local governments to observe Patriot Day with programs and activities.

Everyone to fly the U.S. flag at half-staff in honor of those who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001.

Everyone to observe a moment of silence to honor those who were killed.

 Read Public Law 107-89

New law designates Sept. 11 as National Day of Service, Remembrance

In 2009, Public Law 111-13 was passed, designating Sept. 11 at the National Day of Service and Remembrance.

 Read Public Law 111-13

Volunteer at national cemeteries in Florida on Patriot Day

Carry The Load, national non-profit veteran and first responder service organization, will partner with the National Cemetery Administration and Department of Veterans Affairs, to offer a way for Americans to honor those who have served the U.S.

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A National Day of Service and Remembrance offers volunteers an opportunity to clean headstones and beautify national cemeteries across the U.S. "in tribute to our military, veterans, first responders, and their families."

Patriot Day is a powerful reminder of the courage and sacrifice shown by our first responders and military on 9/11 and beyond, said Stephen Holley, co-founder, president, and CEO of Carry The Load and veteran U.S. Navy SEAL.

By coming together to serve our communities and honor stories of the fallen, we ensure their legacy lives on, and we remind ourselves that freedom is never free.

Florida National Cemeteries participating in the National Day of Service and Remembrance include:

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How to correctly fly your flag at half-staff

On days when the flag is flown at half-staff, it should first be raised to the top of the pole for an instant and then lowered to the half-staff position, according to the U.S. Flag Code.

Before lowering the flag, it should again be raised to the top before being lowered for the day.

Do flags fly at half-mast or half-staff?

On ships and at naval stations ashore, flags are flown at half-mast.

On shore, flags are flown at half-staff.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Flags to fly half-staff in Florida, US for 9/11 Patriot Day
By Tarek Amara and Enas Alashray

SIDI BOU SAID, Tunisia (Reuters) - The Global Sumud Flotilla, an international aid initiative to deliver vital supplies to Gaza, said on Wednesday that one of its boats was attacked by a drone at a Tunisian port, the second such strike in two days.

The GSF, which is seeking to break Israel's naval blockade and deliver humanitarian aid to war-torn Gaza using civilian boats, said in a statement that all passengers and crew were unharmed.

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GSF reported the first attack on Tuesday, saying one of its vessels had been struck by a drone in Tunisian waters at the Sidi Bou Said port, reports Tunisian authorities said were false.

A Tunisian Coast Guard spokesperson did not respond to a call from Reuters on Wednesday.

One of the flotilla's organisers accused Israel of carrying out the attack.

"Israel continues to breach international law and terrorise us. We will sail to break the blockade on Gaza no matter what they do," Saif Abukeshek, a member of the GSF steering committee, told Reuters.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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The flotilla posted a video on Instagram of the alleged attack, showing a luminous object hitting the boat and fire erupting on board. Reuters was not immediately able to verify the video.

Following the strike, hundreds gathered near the port, where the flotilla's boats were located at the time of the incident, waving Palestinian flags and chanting slogans against Israel and the United States.

The group said that the British-flagged Alma sustained fire damage to its top deck and an investigation was underway.

Several ambulances rushed to the port, while a Reuters witness reported coastguard boats near the Alma.

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The flotilla is supported by delegations from 44 countries, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and Portuguese left-wing politician Mariana Mortagua.

Israel has maintained the blockade on the coastal enclave since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007, saying it is needed to prevent weapons smuggling.

The blockade has remained in place through the current war, which began when Hamas attacked southern Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, Israeli tallies showed.

Israel's subsequent military assault against Hamas has killed over 64,000 Palestinians, Gaza's health ministry said, while a global hunger monitor said part of the enclave is suffering from famine.

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Israel sealed off Gaza by land in early March, letting in no supplies for three months, leading to the widespread shortage of food. Israel has said Hamas was diverting the aid.

Multiple rights experts and scholars say Israel's military assault on Gaza amounts to genocide.

In June, Israeli naval forces boarded and seized a British-flagged yacht carrying Thunberg, among others. Israel dismissed the aid ship as a propaganda stunt in support of Hamas.

"These repeat attacks come during intensified Israeli aggression on Palestinians in Gaza, and are an orchestrated attempt to distract and derail our mission. The Global Sumud Flotilla continues undeterred," the GSF said.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara, Enas Alashray and Ahmed Tolba; Editing by Stephen Coates and Saad Sayeed)
Sep. 9A former Alabama Law Enforcement Agency trooper was arrested Tuesday in Limestone County on charges of solicitation of prostitution and computer tampering, according to ALEA.

Former Senior Trooper Paul Richey, 38, of Athens, turned himself in to the Limestone County Sheriff's Office and was booked into the Limestone County Jail, ALEA said in a statement. The charges stem from an ongoing investigation led by ALEA's State Bureau of Investigation.

Richey resigned from ALEA on Monday, one day before his arrest, and is no longer employed with the agency.

According to an affidavit in the tampering case, Richey accessed a state crime database without authorization.

ALEA said the investigation is ongoing.

 eric@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2435
Susan Monarez, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who was ousted by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last month, will now testify in front of Congress.

Monarez and other high-level officials who have since resigned from the CDC over her firing are expected to testify on Sept. 17 at 10 a.m., ABC News reported Tuesday night.

They will testify before the Senate committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee, chaired by Rep. Sen. Bill Cassidy, a doctor himself.

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Childrens health must be the top priority. I thank President Trump and Secretary Kennedy for making radical transparency a priority, Cassidy said in a statement to announce the hearing.

To protect childrens health, Americans need to know what has happened and is happening at the CDC. They need to be reassured that their childs health is given priority. Radical transparency is the only way to do that, Cassidy said.

Upon Monarezs firing last month, she said she was being pushed out because she wouldnt agree to rubber-stamp Kennedys agenda or fire high-ranking scientists.

Kennedy said the fired CDC director was untrustworthy, stood by his past anti-vaccine rhetoric, and disputed reports of people saying they have had difficulty getting COVID-19 shots.

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Kennedy has made sweeping changes to agencies tasked with public health policy and scientific research by laying off thousands of workers, firing science advisers and remaking vaccine guidelines.

Kennedy came under fire last week during his own hearing in front of the Senate Finance Committee, receiving criticism from both sides of the aisle.

His remarks were met with criticism from several senators, including Sen. Maria Cantwell, (D-WA), who accused him of conflating chronic disease with the need for vaccines.

Youre a charlatan. Thats what you are. Youre the ones who conflate chronic disease with the need for vaccines. The history on vaccines is very clear. This is the 20th century, Cantwell said.

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Senators questioned Kennedy about the upheaval at the CDC, including the firing of Monarez, whom Kennedy had previously praised.

Sen. Ron Wyden, (D-OR), pressed Kennedy on whether he had instructed Monarez to support vaccine recommendations regardless of scientific evidence.

Did you, in fact, do what Director Monarez has said you did, which is tell her just go along with vaccine recommendations, even if you didnt think such recommendations aligned with scientific evidence that? Wyden asked Kennedy.

No, I did not, Kennedy said.

So, shes lying today to the American people in the Wall Street Journal? Wyden asked Kennedy.

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Yes, sir, Kennedy replied.

Georgia U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock flat-out told Kennedy that he should resign.

You are a hazard to the health of the American people, Warnock said. I think that you ought to resign. And if you dont resign, the president of the United States  who put forth Operation Warp Speed, which worked  should fire you.

Kennedys testimony also included questioning the data on COVID deaths and the effectiveness of vaccines, despite the CDC reporting over 1.2 million American deaths from the virus.

We at HHS are enacting a once-in-a-generation shift from a sick care system to a true health care system that tackles the root causes of chronic disease, Kennedy said.

ABC News and the Associated Press contributed to this article.
Then-state Rep. Mesha Mainor argues in support of a school voucher bill. Ousted from the Legislature after switching parties, Mainor is running as a Republican to be the next state school superintendent. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder (2024 file photo)

A former state representative who switched parties over Georgias school voucher plan is joining the race for Georgia School Superintendent as a Republican.

Former Democrat Mesha Mainor became the state Legislatures first Black Republican woman when she joined the GOP in 2023 following friction over her full-throated support of a proposed voucher bill that passed with her support. The program, which began this year, allows some parents to receive $6,500 in state funds from their local school district if they take their child out of public school and place them into private school or educate them at home.

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Im running to give parents a voice, protect our children, and make Georgia the number one place to educate a child no matter where the child lives, Mainor said in a statement announcing her candidacy. Excellence in Georgias classrooms will no longer be a vision. Together with the phenomenal teachers of Georgia in every classroom, school administrators, all school staff, and policy leaders  Georgia will be the number one state to live, work, and educate.

2023 file photo: Republican State Rep. Mesha Mainor, formerly a Democrat, announces her new party allegiance at a press conference near the Capitol. Party chairman John McKoon stands behind her. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder

Kemp signed the controversial voucher bill last April, and Mainor lost her seat the following November, receiving only 16% of the vote in her heavily Democratic district. Mainor and other voucher supporters say they help children in low-performing districts attain a good education that would otherwise be out of reach. Opponents say the program shuffles state dollars into private institutions with little oversight or quality control.

In a phone call Tuesday, Mainor said if she is elected, she will consider expanding the states voucher program and work to promote curriculum transparency. She said she will promote workforce readiness in addition to academics, and ensure children are not indoctrinated in the classroom, a common concern among rightwing education advocates.

Three other Republicans also have their eyes on becoming Georgias next top educator, but they will all have to first convince GOP voters that a change is needed. Three-term incumbent Richard Woods announced his re-election campaign earlier this summer.

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Mainor said shes the best person for the job because of her experience, including founding a language immersion school.

No other candidate can say Ive been a legislator before, and right now, right at this moment, I know what its like to be a parent for a K-12 child and one that just recently went to college, she said.

Mainor said GOP primary voters can trust her to carry out a conservative agenda despite her past membership with the Democratic Party because she has the zeal of a convert.

Its those new Christians that often have more faith than old Christians, she said. So to say that I just switched parties, what it means is that I understand what the value systems are of the Republican Party, and thats why I made such a dramatic switch. It was not easy to make the switch. I was ridiculed. I had racist attacks put on me. I mean, if you look back at my social media after I switched parties, that was a very trying and traumatic time for me, but I stood strong because I was convicted in why I was changing parties.

Superintendent Richard Woods. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder

Woods, who was first elected in 2014, previously worked for three decades as a teacher and school administrator. Next year will represent the first time Woods has faced multiple primary challengers since he came into office. In 2018 and 2022, he faced off against former state superintendent John Barge but won by comfortable margins both times.

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As State School Superintendent, I have focused on transforming the Georgia Department of Education from a compliance-oriented agency to one centered on service and support for school districts, Woods said in a June statement announcing his candidacy. That vision will continue and, as I seek a fourth term, I am committed to expanding the resources and supports we provide directly to teachers.

Woods is one of Georgias few statewide office holders not restricted by term limits or seeking higher office in 2026, but hes still attracted a line of people hoping to take his job.

Among the Republicans competing with Mainor to take Woods seat in Mays GOP primary will be Fred Bubba Longgrear, a 29-year educator who currently serves as superintendent in Candler County, Randell Trammell, president and CEO of the Georgia Center for Civic Engagement, a nonprofit focused on expanding civics education, and businesswoman Nelva Lee.

Woods enters the race with more than $58,000 cash on hand, according to financial disclosures. Trammell, the only other candidate to have filed a financial disclosure, reported just over $51,000 in his pocket after loaning his campaign $20,000.

No Democrat has so far announced or filed paperwork to run.

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Two former Meta employees alleged in sworn congressional testimony Tuesday that the companys virtual reality products have exposed children to adult content such as nudity, sexual propositions and live masturbation.

The former employees, Jason Sattizahn and Cayce Savage, worked as researchers who specialized in studying the welfare of underage users of Meta VR products. They told members of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law that Meta disregarded their findings, censored their attempts to do further research and, in at least one instance, deleted evidence of a youths being sexually harassed.

Their testimony added to years of controversy around CEO Mark Zuckerbergs company and how minors are treated on his social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. Spurred by testimony from earlier whistleblowers and by news reports, lawmakers, class action lawyers and state attorneys general have been pushing for changes at Meta, as well as compensation for those who say theyve been hurt.

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Sattizahn and Savage both worked in various departments at Meta over several years before they focused on the topic of minors and virtual reality. Meta has poured billions of dollars into developing virtual reality spaces and the headsets used to access them, but the two former employees said Meta has not devoted sufficient resources to online safety.

Meta is aware that children are being harmed in VR, Savage testified at the hearing.

I quickly became aware, she said, that it is not uncommon for children in VR to experience bullying, sexual assault, to be solicited for nude photographs and sexual acts by pedophiles, and to be regularly exposed to mature content like gambling and violence, and to participate in adult experiences like strip clubs and watching pornography with strangers.

Savage, who said she left Meta in 2023, said she was stymied when she wanted to find out how common the problems were.

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I wish I could tell you the percentage of children in VR experiencing these harms, but Meta would not allow me to conduct this research, she said.

Sattizahn said that, according to his observations, some adults use Metas virtual reality products during masturbation in situations in which minors can hear.

The audio thats transmitted isnt just solicitation, he said. There will also be instances  that we have seen  where you can hear people sexually pleasuring themselves, transmitted over audio in a spatial sense, as you are being surrounded and brigaded and being harassed.

Sattizahn said Meta fired him last year after he complained internally about limits on his research.

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Meta disputed aspects of their testimony, saying they were being selective in talking about it.

The claims at the heart of this hearing are nonsense; theyre based on selectively leaked internal documents that were picked specifically to craft a false narrative, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement.

Stone denied the allegations of internal censorship at the company, saying there was never any blanket prohibition on conducting research with young people. He said that, since 2022, Meta had conducted about three dozen studies on social issues related to young people and hundreds more on other youth-related matters.

Zuckerberg has embraced virtual reality as part of Metas future  even rebranding his corporate umbrella from Facebook to Meta in 2021 in a nod to the metaverse. He has also invested billions of dollars into the development of VR headsets, eyeglasses and software since 2014, when he acquired VR headset maker Oculus for $2 billion.

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But there have been long-standing concerns about the safety of kids who use virtual reality. Experts have documented various examples of sexual content, racism and abuse that affect children in the metaverse.

Whistleblowers and former Meta researchers Jason Sattizahn and Cayce Savage testify Tuesday. (Frank Thorp V / NBC News)

A 1998 federal law, known as the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act, makes it difficult for internet companies to collect data about children younger than 13. But Sattizahn and Savage said that many children under 13 use Metas apps and that the company does not try hard to stop them in order to keep its user metrics high.

Children drive profits, Sattizahn said in an interview after Tuesdays hearing. If Meta invests more in safety to get kids off of them, engagement goes down, monetization goes down, ad revenue goes down. They need them.

He said that he tells his own family not to use Meta apps and that he did so even while he was an employee.

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Some of the allegations were first reported Monday by The Washington Post. The newspaper said four current and former Meta staffers went to Congress as a group this year to describe what they saw as corporate wrongs and provide internal documents.

Sattizahn and Savage are the latest in a long line of Meta and Facebook former employees to testify before Congress as whistleblowers, criticizing the company where they previously worked. The former employees include Frances Haugen, who testified in 2021 after having released internal documents about teens suicidal thoughts and other subjects, and Sarah Wynn-Williams, who testified this year after she wrote a bestselling book about Facebooks internal culture and its impact on democracy.

Sattizahn testified Tuesday that, in the wake of earlier allegations, Meta has focused on damage control.

Metas immediate response to congressional concern was not to do the right thing but rather roll out new processes and policies to manipulate control and erase data, he said. We researchers were directed how to write reports to limit risk to Meta. Internal work groups were locked down, making it nearly impossible to share data and coordinate between teams to keep users safe.

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He told the senators that when his team uncovered that underage children using Meta VR in Germany were subject to demands for sex acts, nude photos and other acts that no child should ever be exposed to, Meta demanded that we erase any evidence of such dangers that we saw.

Stone, from Meta, said that U.S. and European privacy regulations govern how the company handles data about younger children.

Global privacy regulations make clear that if information from minors under 13 years of age is collected without verifiable parental or guardian consent, it has to be deleted, he said.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers said they had lost patience with Meta and Zuckerberg.

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The two witnesses, Sattizahn and Savage, were hired to purportedly make the platform safer for children, but what they found was a company that knew their products were unsafe and they just did not care, said Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., chair of the subcommittee.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said Meta blocked, manipulated, hid and deleted research that showed that its virtual reality products were frequently used by underage kids who were exposed to real and significant harm.

Several senators said they wanted to see Congress pass legislation this year to try to hold tech companies accountable. Last year, the Senate passed a pair of bills aimed at protecting children online  including one that would have imposed a duty of care on internet companies  but those proposals stalled in the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said they implicated free speech.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who is running a separate investigation into how teens have used Metas artificial intelligence chatbots, said at Tuesdays hearing that he wants Americans to be able to sue tech companies more easily for alleged damages.

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We need to open the courtroom doors and allow victims to have their day in court, he said.

In her testimony, Savage said most parents are not informed about the potential harm in virtual reality.

A lot of parents in my research indicated that they werent aware that their children were interacting with strangers, she said.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
LANSING  Roberto Anselmo used to drive by the former Walter French Junior High School, wishing he could reside in one of the apartments after a multi-million-dollar revamp construction was done.

His wish was granted, and the 64-year-old showed off his first-floor apartment - neat, colorful and decorated with his own art work - on Sept. 10. The tour was part of an event with local officials visiting the historic, 100-year-old Walter French to celebrate the transformation of an old school building into 76 residential units dubbed "affordable" and having income limits.

"All of us have had hardships," said Anselmo, who has been "houseless." "But this allows us to start over. I'm grateful and overall been blessed. I think I'm not going to move anymore."

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There's still more to come. The Residences at Walter French, 1900 S. Cedar Street, is hosting another open house from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 13, to recognize the building's centennial birthday and new life.

Besides the residential units, which became homes for people in January, the building also houses the Monarch Early Learning Center, a childcare facility set to open this month or next month to serve more than 100 children, and the new headquarters for the Capital Area Housing Partnership. The nonprofit's staff will make the official move later this year, said Emma Henry, CAHP's executive director.

"I remember walking through it for the first time, when there were holes in the roof and pigeons flying out of every door and every hole that you could see in the walls," Henry told the people gathered for Wednesday's event. "I've seen this come to fruition. There were a lot of points in this project that we didn't know if we would make it through. But we turned to the community. People stepped up.

Roberto Anselmo of Lansing talks about his new apartment space inside The Residences at Walter French, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, at the former Walter French Junior High School.

"This project is a representation of something that actually happened because the community chose to invest in itself. Thank you to everyone who has been part of this."

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Walter French had been closed for years when it hosted Walter French Academy  a Central Michigan University-authorized charter school  from 1996 to 2004 before closing again to students.

In 2018, the Eyde Company, the longtime owners of the property, announced that the company's founders  Louis and George Eyde  were donating the site to CAHP, the nonprofit that works to develop affordable housing.

CAHP's project broke ground in June 2023, and cost estimates swelled from about $25 million to approximately $40 million, prompting CAHP to seek help from the community. At Wednesday's event, a placard said the project was "made possible in partnership with" at least 20 entities including the city of Lansing, the Ingham County Housing Trust Fund and some state agencies.

Henry said the project was essentially a 50-50 mix of public and private investors. Noteworthy funding included $1.5 million in Ingham County housing trust dollars, $5 million from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation's Revitalization and Placemaking program and $2.5 million in state enhancement funds.

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The city has OK'd tax credits for the project and $1.2 million in community development block grant funds. Also, a $5 million state MEDC grant came through the city's application, said Rawley Van Fossen, Lansing's economic development and planning director.

"Happy birthday to Walter French," Lansing Mayor Andy Schor told the audience gathered Wednesday. "It looks pretty good for 100."

A resident of south Lansing for about 30 years, he said where Walter French sits - at Cedar Street and Mt. Hope Avenue - is the city's physical center. And for years, the building was a place of blight.

Until now.

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"This is such an important corridor," Schor said. "This is not just good for the building. It's not just good for the residents. This is good for the city. People see this, they see that we, as a community, are willing to jump in and revitalize. When we do that, we are willing to do it to help those of all incomes. We are doing the affordable. We are doing market rate. We have done all of that in this building."

Income limits at Walter French range from $51,700 for a single person to $85,700 for a household of six. Monthly rent ranges from about $700 for a one-bedroom apartment to about $1,600 for a three-bedroom apartment, Henry said.

Nineteen apartments at Walter French are for those coping with previous homelessness, domestic violence and special needs, and another 20 are for people with vouchers from the Lansing Housing Commission to help pay the rent. The other apartments are for people who meet the income requirements or have vouchers through the state or as veterans.

About 85% of the residents have some type of voucher, Henry said.

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With housing assistance, 52-year-old Angie Kaszubowski's rent is a few hundred dollars a month. She's lived in a third-floor Walter French apartment since Jan. 23.

"I was the first one in here," she said. "I just love it here. People are really nice. They take care of their property."

Lansing Mayor Andy Schor speaks Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, during a grand-reopening celebration and ribbon cutting for The Residences at Walter French at the former Walter French Junior High School at the corner of Mt. Hope Avenue and South Cedar Street in Lansing.

Contact editor Susan Vela at svela@lsj.com or 248-873-7044. Follow her on Twitter @susanvela.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Former Walter French school, once an eyesore, has new life in Lansing
BEIJING, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- China sternly condemns the airstrike in the Qatari capital of Doha and firmly opposes Israel's violation of Qatar's territorial sovereignty and national security, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on Wednesday.

Lin said at a daily press briefing that China is deeply concerned that the attack could lead to further escalation of regional tensions and is dissatisfied with actions of relevant parties that deliberately undermine the Gaza ceasefire negotiations.

He stressed that force cannot bring peace to the Middle East while dialogue and negotiation are the fundamental way out.

Noting that the conflict in Gaza has now persisted for nearly two years, Lin said that China strongly urges all relevant parties, particularly Israel, to make more active efforts to cease fighting and resume negotiations, rather than the other way around.

When asked about China's comment on Israel's notification to the United States before the airstrike on Hamas' site in Doha, Lin said "we are deeply concerned about the relevant reports."

"This is inextricably linked to the long-term serious imbalance in the position of certain external countries on the Middle East issues," Lin added.

"We advise certain major countries to prioritize regional peace and stability, uphold a fair and responsible attitude, and work with the international community to play a constructive role in promoting a ceasefire, ending the war, and easing regional tensions," the spokesperson said. 
After South Carolina Republican lawmakers rebuffed a female public defender seeking a York County Circuit Court judge seat earlier this year and left the seat vacant to seek a more conservative candidate, seven lawyers are now seeking the open slot on the bench.

The race comes as a national spotlight on judges releasing people on bail is focused locally after a suspect freed without bond killed a woman on a Charlotte light rail train, according to court records.

One of the candidates is the same woman who lost the uncontested election in the S.C. General Assembly in February when many GOP members voted against her as they sought a more conservative judge.

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Another is a veteran female prosecutor and former magistrate judge who would, if elected, be the first African-American circuit court judge in York County.

York County in its history has only had white male judges. It has never has had a female circuit court judge, nor one of color.

The 16th Judicial Circuit  made up of York and Union counties  has two resident judge seats. The open seat came with the retirement of 16th Circuit Judge Dan Hall. Judge Bill McKinnon, the other 16th Circuit resident judge, is not up for election this year.

Voters dont elect judges in South Carolina. The legislature chooses them after a review process by the Judicial Merit Selection Commission, which is made up of legislators and other appointees. South Carolina is one of only two states where judges are elected by the legislature  Virginia is the other.

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The election by legislators is set for March.

The 7 candidates: 4 women, one person of color

The candidates names were recently released publicly by the commission. They are, in alphabetical order:

Christopher E.A. Barton is a former city of Rock Hill senior solicitor who prosecuted city cases and spent more than two decades as a lawyer in the S.C. National Guard.

Thomas L. Bowen Jr. is a lawyer at the 16th Circuit Public Defenders Office. He also worked previously as a prosecutor with the 16th Circuit Solicitors office.

P. John Freeman is an attorney who works for the public defenders office in neighboring Lancaster County. He handles cases up to homicides.

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Melissa A. Inzerillo  who lost the uncontested race in February  is running again. She is a senior deputy attorney at the 16th Circuit Public Defenders Office handling felony cases up to murder.

Chisa J. Putman, city of Rock Hill Solicitor, was the first Black full-time magistrate judge in York County.

Leslie Robinson is a senior solicitor at the 16th Circuit Solicitors Office who handles violent crimes, including recently prosecuting a woman in a decades old homicide by child abuse case where a baby was left dead in the Catawba River.

Misti Shelton is assistant deputy at the 16th Circuit Solicitors Office for over 20 years who has prosecuted cases including homicides, sex cases and other violent crimes, including a recent stabbing death of a woman at the hands of her boyfriend.

Why Circuit Judges are crucial to public safety

Circuit court judges handle criminal cases and sentence criminal offenders who are found guilty by a jury or plead guilty. That is thousands of criminal cases each year.

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They also set or deny bail to the accused if the person has been sent to the county jail after arrest, addressing concerns of seriousness of the crime, danger to the community, public safety or flight risk. That happens dozens of times a week in court.

Their decisions  especially on sentencing and bail  are often scrutinized by the public because courts are open and judicial decisions are public record.

Judicial decisions to release suspects is an ongoing national discussion with local ties after a Charlotte man with a criminal record and mental health problems was released earlier this year without having to post any bail in a case alleging he misused the 911 system. He is now charged with stabbing a woman on a light rail train in August. Critics from President Donald Trump to local politicians have questioned why he was not in jail at the time the killing happened.

Thousands of York County residents work in nearby Charlotte.

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Three times since 2017, male York County domestic violence suspects released on bail or subject to court restraining orders later killed the female victim while free on bond.

Circuit judges also handle civil lawsuits and approve civil settlements.

Circuit judges serve six-year terms and make $221,925 per year. They have statewide jurisdiction and often travel to other counties.

Political process for picking a judge

Inzerillos failed bid for the seat earlier this year showed the politics that is part of how judges are picked in South Carolina.

She was the only candidate to run after another lawyer dropped out after initially filing for the seat. Candidates have to submit lengthy questionnaire answers about their legal qualifications, then are interviewed in person. Inzerillo was found qualified by the judicial merit commission and lauded publicly by several of its members, but several York County Republicans spearheaded a statewide push to vote against her.

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Inzerillos supporters earlier this year  including S.C. Rep. John King, the only Democrat and Black member of the York County legislative delegation  called the failure to choose the sole qualified candidate appalling and shameful.

Republicans  including state Sen. Wes Climer who is now running for Congress  said the vote against Inzerillo gives the county a chance this year to select a more conservative judge who will be attentive to crime victims.

Veteran Republican S.C. Rep. Tommy Pope of York  York Countys former top prosecutor  said the public deserves a full list of candidates to choose from.

What happens next?

Judge candidates in South Carolina generally are barred by judicial rules from pushing their candidacy or engaging in politics during the process.

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Candidates are subject to interviews by the S.C. Bar Association  made up of the states lawyers  and citizens committees. The public also has a right to send in complaints about candidates to the commission by noon on Nov. 3.

After the candidates have in-person interviews in November that will be live-streamed on the legislatures website, the judicial merit commission will have to pick no more than six to become official candidates. State law changes that took effect in July raised the cap on the number of finalists from three up to six.

The finalists also cant seek legislators support until Feb. 10.

Several other judge seats across the state are up for election next year, including one South Carolina Supreme Court seat.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Chisa Putman is the first African-American candidate to file for York County Circuit Court judge. Another person filed to run for judge in previous races.
French President Emmanuel Macron has named Sebastien Lecornu as the country's new prime minister, the Elysee Palace said on Tuesday.

The 39-year-old, who had been serving as defence minister, is considered a close confidant of Macron.

The move came a day after prime minister Francois Bayrou lost a vote of confidence in the National Assembly, toppling his centre-right minority government. It was the second time a government had been ousted in less than a year.

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Bayrou officially tendered his resignation on Tuesday.

Bayrou had staked his government's survival on passing austerity measures worth nearly 44 billion ($51.6 billion), including the abolition of two public holidays. The deeply unpopular proposals were rejected by lawmakers and the public alike.

France faces EU pressure over budget deficit

France, heavily indebted, is under EU pressure to rein in its 5.8% budget deficit, with Brussels launching an excessive deficit procedure in July 2024.

The Elysee said Lecornu will first consult political parties to finalize the urgently needed budget before proposing his Cabinet. His mission will focus on defending France's independence and strength, while seeking common ground across party lines, a statement said.

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"The President of the Republic is convinced that on these foundations, an agreement between the political forces is possible while respecting the convictions of each," the palace said.

It is unclear how a new government will be able to get the country's finances in order and get a budget passed given the widely divergent positions in France's divided parliament.

Lecornu is said to have ties across the political spectrum, including respect from right-wing nationalist leader Marine Le Pen.

Backlash from opposition

While Macron expressed confidence Lecornu's appointment could form the basis for political consensus, opposition parties reacted sharply.

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The far-left LFI said Lecornu should face a no-confidence vote, while the Greens called his appointment a provocation.

The Socialists said Macron was pursuing a course they would not join, and the far-right warned Lecornu would meet the same fate as his predecessors if he did not break with Macron's policies. Le Pen reiterated her demand for new elections, saying her protege Jordan Bardella would then become prime minister.

Macron's centrist allies welcomed the choice, while the conservative Republicans voiced hope for co-operation.

Deep division in the National Assembly

Since last year's parliamentary elections, the National Assembly has been deeply divided.

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Macron's centrists, Le Pen's right-wing nationalists and the left-wing camp face each other as three large blocs. None of them have a majority of their own.

The government of former premier Michel Barnier depended on the right-wing nationalists and collapsed in December; Bayrou was initially tolerated by the Socialists, but then lost their favour.

Cross-party coalitions are unusual in France. Instead of seeking compromise, parliament is more likely to pursue a course of confrontation.

The crisis also sees Macron in a tight spot.

The right-wing nationalists called on him to clear the way for new elections by dissolving parliament. The far-left LFI even want him to resign.

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Analysts say Macron's swift choice of Lecornu is aimed not only at containing the budget crisis but also at easing pressure on his own presidency.

Germany's Pistorius congratulates Lecornu

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius congratulated Lecornu on his appointment, saying he was confident Lecornu would continue to strengthen European security and Franco-German relations.

Pistorius said he was very pleased that Lecornu had been given the honour of becoming prime minister and thanked him for his friendship, saying those who knew him were aware he would devote himself to the wellbeing of France and to Franco-German ties.
Paris-based Mistral AI has achieved Europes largest fundraising round in artificial intelligence to date, securing 1.7 billion and bringing Dutch semiconductor giant ASML on board as a strategic partner in a deal seen as bolstering Europes drive for technological sovereignty.

Frances homegrown artificial intelligence champion Mistral has cemented its place among Europes tech leaders, announcing on Tuesday that it has raised 1.7 billion in fresh capital  a record for a French start-up.

The fundraising drive has brought the value of the company to 11.7 billion, almost double its worth just over a year ago.

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The deal also brings in a heavyweight new ally  Dutch technology giant ASML, the worlds most important supplier of advanced semiconductor equipment, which is directly investing 1.3 billion in Mistral.

ASML emerged from the round as Mistrals leading shareholder, in a move set to link Europes most prominent AI developer with the linchpin of global chip production.

Could European AI create a more unified European identity?

European tech alliance

The partnership is being hailed as a milestone for European technological sovereignty at a time when the EU is seeking to reduce its reliance on US firms, especially under the renewed presidency of Donald Trump.

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By joining forces, ASML and Mistral are positioning themselves to explore joint research and innovative solutions at the intersection of AI and advanced chipmaking.

ASML said its investment was designed to generate clear benefits for ASML customers through innovative products and solutions enabled by AI, while also holding out the prospect of deeper collaboration in research.

Arthur Mensch, Mistrals co-founder and chief executive, struck an equally confident note.

He said Mistrals technology could help ASML tackle current and future engineering challenges, boosting both the hardware that underpins semiconductors and the AI systems that rely on them.

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ASML will take between an 11 to 15 percent stake in Mistral and secure a seat on its board, although neither company has confirmed the details.

France's Mistral AI teams up with UAE-backed developers as Le Chat app launches

From start-up to heavyweight contender

Mistral was founded in 2023 by Mensch, a former researcher at Googles DeepMind, alongside Guillaume Lample and Timothee Lacroix, who both cut their teeth at Metas AI division.

In just two years, the Paris-based company has carved out a reputation as Europes most promising AI start-up.

Its flagship product, Le Chat, is a large language model chatbot pitched as a rival to OpenAIs ChatGPT.

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Beyond text, Mistral has also rolled out generative models capable of creating images and computer code.

The company has expanded quickly, with offices now open in Paris, London, Luxembourg, New York, Palo Alto and Singapore.

Along the way, it has struck a string of headline-grabbing partnerships  from teaming up with Nvidia to develop a cloud computing platform, to joining forces with Saudi investment fund MGX on an AI campus outside Paris.

Mistral has also signed a deal with Agence France-Presse, allowing Le Chat to draw on AFPs extensive multilingual news archives to answer users queries on current and historical events.

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AFP strikes deal for France's Mistral AI to use news articles

Playing catch-up with US rivals

Despite its rapid rise, Mistral remains a relative lightweight compared with American competitors.

Earlier this month, US firm Anthropic secured fresh funding at a staggering $183 billion valuation, underscoring the scale of investment flooding into AI across the Atlantic.

Yet Tuesdays announcement marks a clear statement of intent.

For France and Europe more broadly, Mistrals success is being held up as evidence that the continent can nurture its own champions in a sector increasingly seen as strategic.

With ASML now on board, Mistral has secured both deep pockets and a powerful partner at the heart of global chipmaking.

For Europes bid to assert itself in the AI race, that combination may prove invaluable.
The government of France has collapsed, with the countrys prime minister set to resign after losing the support of the countrys legislature. As the country deals with financial crises that have seen multiple ruling coalitions fall apart in the last few years, this latest political turnover places pressure on the countrys president to sort things out and leaves Frances political future even less certain.

France loses its fourth prime minister in less than two years

French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou offered his resignation to President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday, a day after Bayrou lost a vote of no-confidence in the countrys legislature. French lawmakers voted 364-194 against Bayrou, effectively firing the prime minister. Macron has announced that he will appoint a new prime minister in the coming days. The search commences after four others have held the prime minister role in the past 20 months, demonstrating the political turmoil that has faced the government of Macron during his final term in office.

Economic struggles are at the heart of the French political crisis

The political rejection of Bayrou is largely rooted in Frances struggling economy and disagreements about how to fix it. France has operated under a large budget deficit for years, partially because of its extensive social welfare spending. The countrys public debt stands at 3,345 billion, over 100% of the countrys annual GDP; among the 20 countries that use the euro as their sole currency, only Greece and Italy have worse debt to GDP ratios. The problem appears to be getting worse for France, as its aging population means a smaller percentage of French citizens are paying taxes while a larger percentage are using social services. Bayrous solutions  such as cutting pensions and other benefits and canceling some public holidays  have been unpopular, leading to opposition from both the left and the right.

Divided political landscape leaves challenges for Macron

The collapse of the government highlights the political turmoil facing Macron, who is set to leave office in 2027 due to term limits. Macron has, in recent year,s been occupied with trying to influence international crises such as the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. He has also struggled to govern France as its legislature remains divided into left, centrist and right factions. Macron, a centrist, may appoint another centrist or a leftist as the next prime minister, but someone from either faction will likely face limited support, as was the case for Bayrou. Meanwhile, the far right has gained influence in France with the popularity of the right-wing National Front party. The National Fronts leader, Marine Le Pen, finished second to Macron in the last two presidential elections. Though she is banned from running for public office for the next five years due to being convicted of embezzlement, Le Pen continues to lead her party and promote its right-wing agenda; for example, Le Pen has blamed immigrants for Frances financial crisis.

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As Macron serves out the last portion of his final term as president, he continues to face very challenging political and economic circumstances. And now, he is yet again faced with the prospect of dealing with Frances problems with a new prime minister; whoever is chosen for the job will have their work cut out for them as they navigate the economic constraints and political divisions that have caused French politics to grind to a halt.







The post French Government Collapses In The Midst Of Economic Crises, Political Divisions appeared first on Blavity.
BECKLEY, WV (WVNS)  Funding cuts to career and technical programs have raised concerns from lawmakers.

WV State Treasurer Larry Pack announces decrease in Hope Scholarship budget

Members of the state legislature returned to the Capitol for Interim Sessions. A meeting of the Joint Education Committee addressed cuts to HEAPS funding for career education programs. These changes have affected programs across the state for welding, practical nursing, phlebotomy, and many others.

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Director with the Academy of Careers and Technology, Charles Pack told 59News these cuts could negatively impact student access to affordable career and technical education.



Losing that funding already, thatll jeopardize our ability to offer our programs completely free, he said. Contact your local legislature and local senator at the state level and then ask them to ensure that funding remains in the school system where we can provide that excellent education we have for 70 years.

The Academy of Careers and Technology has been a fixture in the Raleigh County community for decades. The program was recently recognized as one of the top 100 vocational schools in the nation by USA Today. Raleigh County representative, Senator Rollan Roberts called the funding cuts egregious and publicly called on members of the Raleigh County Board of Education to speak out against the decision.



I think it is totally inappropriate, and other legislators are equally alarmed, he said. Its just wrong and Im so disappointed. They just were nationally ranked in the top 100 technology schools in the nation.

Senator Roberts said if cuts to funding continue, it will hurt workforce training and employment across southern West Virginia.

He encouraged constituents to reach out to Chancellor of West Virginia Higher Education Sarah Tucker, State Superintendent Michelle Blatt, and members of the legislature to share concerns about cuts to program funding.

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Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard reportedly retracted intelligence on the Trump administrations dealings with the Venezuelan government.

Special envoy Richard Grenell was listed as a subject in the memo, which detailed in-depth conversations with his counterparts overseas, according to The New York Times.

Grenell, who also oversees the Kennedy Center, reportedly negotiated with top officials in the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in an effort to secure benefits for American energy companies, the Times reported.

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The report is accurate and in accordance with all [National Security Agency (NSA)] policy, directives and guidance; however, the D.N.I. directed N.S.A. to recall the report, the recall notice said, according to the outlet.

The Times said the report was ultimately retracted to protect Grenell, which is frequently done to preserve the identity of Americans in intelligence reports.

Grenells conversations, documented by the spy agency, were steered toward formulating an agreement that would have boosted Chevrons oil operations in Venezuela, which in part serves as a large funding source for the government, per the Times. The agreement would have been in exchange for hostages.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly opposed the deal and opted for a militaristic approach to the Maduro regime.

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The White House did not immediately respond to The Hills request for comment.

Alexa Henning, Gabbards deputy chief of staff, told The Hills sister station NewsNation that the retraction has nothing to do with the contents and is about the unmasking of Americans, and protection of civil liberties, something the previous administration abused and used as a political tool.

Making administrative edits to existing reports is an extremely common practice, a senior administration official with the National Security Agency told The Hill. This report is still available to the intelligence community  calling it a retraction is sensationalism.

The reported retraction comes as the U.S. has increased its presence in the Caribbean, turning up the heat against drug cartels in the region. Maduro described the deployment of several U.S. ships, a submarine and Marines as an extravagant, unjustifiable, immoral and absolutely criminal and bloody threat.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego will soon offer a resolution to block the Pentagon from offering military funeral honors for Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran and pro-Donald Trump rioter who was shot and killed after breaching a sensitive area of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, according to a person familiar with the effort.

Gallegos move comes after the US Air Force told Babbitts family last month that it would provide military funeral honors for her  a request that was initially denied under the Biden administration.

Gallego is expected to make the procedural move sometime on Wednesday, when he will also deliver floor remarks, the person said. Senate Republicans are expected to block the measure.

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Gallegos resolution states, Ashli Babbitts actions on January 6, 2021, constitute disqualifying conduct under section 985 of title 10, United States Code, the rendering of military funeral honors to her would bring discredit upon the Air Force, and she is not eligible for such honors.

The measure would also reaffirm that the Senate rejects efforts to glorify or legitimize the actions of those who sought to overturn the Constitution of the United States.

The Arizona senator, who served in the US Marine Corps, blasted the Trump administrations decision in August.

I served in combat with 23 Marines that died for their country and deserved full military honors. Ashli Babbit deserves nothing, certainly not full military honors, Gallego wrote on X.

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Babbitt was shot by a Capitol Police officer while she was attempting to climb through a broken window inside the Capitol leading to the Speakers Lobby. The officer involved was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing related to the shooting.

In May, the Trump administration agreed to pay nearly $5 million to Babbits family in a wrongful death settlement.

Babbitt spent four years on active duty from 2004 to 2008 and then served in the Air Force Reserves from 2008 to 2010, and the Air National Guard from 2010 to 2016. She deployed to Afghanistan in 2005, Iraq in 2006, and the United Arab Emirates in 2012 and 2014. She was a member of the 113th Security Forces Squadron, 113th Wing, DC Air National Guard. The 113th Wing is charged with defending the National Capital Region and is nicknamed the Capital Guardians.

Gallego was among dozens of House members who were barricaded inside the chamber during the attack on the US Capitol, and he has been vocal about the Trump administrations handling of the riot, including the presidents pardoning of January 6 defendants who assaulted Capitol Police officers.

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Organizers of the pro-Palestinian flotilla hoping to carry aid to Gaza said late on Tuesday one of their boats was targeted by a drone attack while it was docked in Tunisian waters, the second attack on the flotilla in about 24 hours.

The Global Sumud Flotilla, which set off from Barcelona last week with hundreds of activists on board, including Greta Thunberg, said that the Alma was "attacked by a drone" and "sustained fire damage on its top deck."

The group said in a statement late on Tuesday that the fire had been extinguished and all crew and passengers were safe.

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The flotilla published a video on its social media channels early on Wednesday showing a flash emerging from the sky and hitting the boat, causing a fire. It also posted a video purporting to show damage from the drone on its upper deck.

"This marks the second such attack in two days," the group said in a statement.

"These repeat attacks come during intensified Israeli aggression on Palestinians in Gaza, and are an orchestrated attempt to distract and derail our mission. The Global Sumud Flotilla continues undeterred.

"Our peaceful voyage to break Israel's illegal siege on Gaza and stand in unwavering solidarity with its people presses forward with determination and resolve."

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About 24 hours earlier, another one of the flotilla's boats, the Family, also sustained damage while off the coast of Tunisia in what the group said was a drone attack.

There were no injuries reported in this case either. The vessel sustained fire damage on the main deck and below deck storage, according to the group.

Tunisian authorities on Tuesday, commenting on the earlier incident, rejected claims of a drone attack and said a fire on board was caused by a burning life jacket.

Citing the Interior Ministry, the Tunisian state news agency TAP reported that security forces investigated the fire on the Family and determined that it started from a burning life jacket due to a cigarette or lighter.

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There were no casualties or damage to property, apart from several burnt life jackets, the agency said.

However, the flotilla published videos on social media showing what appears to be an incendiary object striking it.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, said of the earlier incident that it had caused "shock" and warned that the flotilla has faced threats, including from Israel.

She also highlighted the "history of attacks on the flotilla."

At a press conference following the incident, one of the activists on board the boat that was targeted described hearing the drone.

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"I was on the deck on the back part of the ship, and I heard a drone," he said. "I came out of the cover of the deck to see a drone hovering about 3 or 4 metres above my head, called my fellow crew members."

"Two of us stood there with the drone, exactly 3 or 4 metres above our head," he added. "Then we saw the drone move to the forward part of the deck. It stood a few seconds on top of a bunch of life jackets and then dropped a bomb. The bomb exploded and there was a big flame."

The Global Sumud Flotilla is aiming to breach the Israeli sea blockade of the Gaza coast to deliver humanitarian aid to the population of the war-torn territory. "Sumud" means steadfastness in Arabic.

Organizers say that it is the largest action of its kind to date.

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Israel has in the past thwarted a number of attempts to breach its sea blockade. An attempt by an Italian vessel in July was also prevented.

Thunberg, the Swedish climate activist, participated in a similar voyage aboard the Madleen vessel earlier this year as part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.

In May, activists from the coalition reported a drone attack near the Mediterranean island of Malta.

Israeli troops boarded the Madleen 200 kilometres off the coast of Gaza on June 9 and took it to Ashdod, an Israeli port to the north of the territory. Thunberg and other activists were then deported.
Israeli strikes killed at least 34 people in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, including 26 in Gaza City alone, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

Israel has said it plans to take full control of the strip's largest city, where around 1 million people  roughly half of the territory's population  were still believed to be sheltering.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that about 100,000 Palestinians had so far left the city. Aid groups warn the offensive will worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian situation.

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The Israeli military said it struck a high-rise building in Gaza City that was being used by Hamas. Residents had been warned beforehand, according to the army.

The claims cannot be independently verified.

For the first time on Tuesday, Israel's military called on all Gaza City residents to evacuate.

Troops have sent voice and text messages and dropped leaflets urging civilians to leave, warning: "Staying in this area is very dangerous."

Israel, which has been waging a war against Hamas for nearly two years, says it aims to root out militant fighters holed up in the city.

Families flee toward 'humanitarian zone'

Since Israel's appeal, witnesses said thousands of families have fled, some on foot, toward Al-Mawasi in the south-west of the territory, which Israel has designated as a "humanitarian zone."

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The area has nonetheless been hit in previous Israeli strikes on Hamas targets.

Among those leaving was 42-year-old Mohammed al-Attar, who said he could no longer risk his childrens lives. Pulling blankets and clothes on a small cart, he told dpa: "I have no choice."

He said leaving was dangerous, but better than risking the loss of his children.

Others have decided to stay. "The south is bombed just like the north," said 36-year-old Amina Abu Jmisa, who lives in Gaza Citys Rimal district.

"This is where my children's memories are," said the 36-year-old of the family home her husband had built. "If I have to give all of this up, who will I be then?"

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Witnesses said many Palestinians fear losing their homes permanently, while elderly residents cannot make the journey south without assistance.

The prospect of mass displacement also revives memories of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and the 1967 Six-Day War, when many Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes.

Khaled al-Masri, 55, who grew up in tents and poverty after his family was displaced, said he was staying in Gaza Citys Al-Zaytoun district, "whatever the cost."

UN, aid groups warn evacuation call is dangerous

The United Nations and humanitarian organizations on Wednesday criticized Israel's call for Palestinians to leave Gaza City.

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Israel has not taken the necessary steps to ensure safety in the designated humanitarian zone, they said. Supplies are already insufficient for those sheltering in the area, they warned, let alone for additional arrivals from Gaza City, located in the north.

The UN-led Humanitarian Country Team (HCT), which brings together UN agencies and more than 200 aid groups working in Gaza, said residents cannot afford the costs of repeated displacement. Roads are barely passable, shelters for the displaced are overcrowded, and access to food, water and medical care is severely limited.

The dead body of elderly Palestinian, Mohammed Arif Qaffa, a resident of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip shrouded ahead of his funeral. The Ministry of Health in Gaza said, "We recorded five deaths due to starvation and malnutrition within 24 hours, bringing the death toll from malnutrition to 404, including 141 children. Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
BEIJING, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- A People's Liberation Army Air Force Y-20 transport aircraft set off from China for the Republic of Korea (ROK) on Wednesday afternoon to carry out a mission to repatriate the remains of another 30 Chinese People's Volunteers (CPV) martyrs, who lost their lives during the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea.

The remains and relevant artifacts of the martyrs are scheduled to be returned to the Chinese side by the ROK on Friday, according to China's Ministry of Veterans Affairs. This will mark the 12th repatriation of CPV martyrs' remains since the signing of a handover agreement between the two countries.

From 2014 to 2024, China and the ROK, in accordance with international laws and humanitarian principles, successfully completed 11 handovers involving the remains of 981 CPV martyrs in the ROK, along with related artifacts.

Both sides have agreed to continue cooperation in these efforts.

Nearly 200,000 CPV soldiers were confirmed killed in the war that lasted from 1950 to 1953. 
A Camden County couple has been arrested in Louisiana on charges of defrauding grieving pet owners through their crematory business.

The arrests follow an investigation by Kingsland police into Compassionate Care Pet Crematory Services, where Nader and Amanda Rayan allegedly mishandled animal remains and scammed families out of thousands of dollars.

Becky Morris of Hortense told WJCL-TV that her family lost about $10,000 to the crematory.

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Theres just stickers with names scribbled on it. Some of them had Ziploc baggies. Three pets didnt even return, Morris said.

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The Kingsland Police Department, in collaboration with other agencies, executed a search warrant at the crematory on Aug. 26.

Investigators reported finding evidence of mishandled remains behind the business.

This is not the first legal issue for the Rayans, who were previously arrested in 2016 in Florida in connection with a funeral home fraud scheme, the TV station reported.

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Police described the case as one of the most disturbing they have handled.

The Rayans face multiple fraud charges as the investigation continues, leaving affected families seeking justice for their lost pets.
By Markus Wacket

Berlin, September 10 (Reuters) -The German government approved new rules on Wednesday that legally oblige operators of critical infrastructure in the country to protect their plants and networks.

The rules come in response to a sharp deterioration in the security environment since Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine and a growing awareness of Europe's vulnerability to natural disasters and sabotage or terrorist attacks on infrastructure.

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The KRITIS law, which implements a European Union directive, obligates companies in sectors like energy, transport, finance, health and water to secure their installations.

That could include measures like building barbed-wire fences around power stations or installing security cameras and motion detectors. Companies must prepare inventories of vulnerable infrastructure and register them.

Authorities have been warning of the growing risks to critical infrastructure of sabotage by Russia or cyberattacks from China. They have blamed Russia for a series of firebomb attacks on mail infrastructure in Germany and Poland.

Both countries deny they conduct such campaigns.

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At a minimum, German companies would have to examine their risk exposure, prepare resilience plans and report major outages to authorities, who can impose fines on entities that fail to follow the rules.

Under the law, infrastructure that provides services to at least 500,000 people counts as critical.

(Reporting by Markus Wacket; Writing by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Wednesday said he does not believe Russia's alleged violation of Polish airspace with a significant drone incursion was an accident.

Merz said he shares Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk's assessment that "the Russian government's claim that this was a coincidence or an oversight, so to speak, is not credible."

Like Tusk, he sees the incident as "a very serious threat to peace throughout Europe," Merz said in Berlin at a press conference with European Council President Antonio Costa.

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Hours after Poland said it shot down more than a dozen Russian drones over its airspace with support from NATO forces, Merz spoke of a "new quality of attacks that we are seeing from Russia."

NATO's air defence worked, but not as well as it should have, the chancellor argued. "This will trigger discussions in NATO. Of course, this will also trigger discussions in the European Union."

"We are and will remain ready to defend ourselves and we are and will remain determined to significantly increase the defence readiness and defence capability of the European part of NATO," Merz added.

Tusk meanwhile said late on Wednesday that he had spoken about the incident with Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte.

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Following the incursion, Tusk said he had received more than mere expressions of solidarity from his fellow leaders. However, he did not give any details of the support that was offered.

Polish President Karol Nawrocki has held a phone call with US President Donald Trump, the PAP news agency reported.

Nawrocki has also summoned the Polish national security council for Thursday afternoon.

Polish Interior Ministry reported that by Wednesday evening, the debris of 16 unmanned aerial vehicles had been found, a few of them far from the border with Ukraine.

One was found near Korytnica, east of Warsaw, PAP reported.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Wednesday suggested the government could ease the pace of renewable energy expansion in order to contain costs and safeguard supply security.

Speaking at a conference of works councils from energy companies in Berlin, Merz mentioned the forthcoming release of a monitoring report on the status of the energy transition by Economy and Energy Minister Katherina Reiche next week.

"My assumption is that we can do a little less in terms of expansion. And that will, of course, trigger significant changes in costs," said Merz.

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"We want to put the issue of security of supply in the context of grid expansion, the expansion of renewable energies, digitalisation and the ramp-up of hydrogen."

Reiche had already made it clear that she is seeking a change of course in energy policy, placing a stronger focus on costs and security of supply.

Her predecessor, Robert Habeck, from the Green Party, had promoted the expansion of renewable electricity, primarily from wind and solar. But the unchecked boom in small solar installations has increased pressure on the grid, requiring costly interventions to avoid overloads.

Environmental organizations are already accusing Reiche of wanting to slow down the expansion of green electricity from wind and solar power.

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Merz said the governments goal remains a secure, affordable and clean energy supply, with cost efficiency a top priority. He reaffirmed Germanys commitment to climate neutrality by 2045 but stressed the need to safeguard the countrys industrial base.

To back up renewables, new gas-fired power plants are planned as reserves. The projects are set to receive state subsidies worth billions, with the first tenders expected by year-end, according to Reiche.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius has sharply condemned the night-time intrusion into Polish airspace by military drones suspected to have been launched by Russia.

There was no reason to believe that the drones had ended up in Polish airspace by accident, the minister said in parliament on Wednesday.

"These drones were clearly deliberately set on this course. To fly to Ukraine, they would not have had to fly this route," Pistorius said.

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"According to Poland, they were obviously well-armed. So something could have happened at any time," the minister added.

According to Pistorius, it appeared that the drones were launched from Belarusian territory.

Pistorius described the incident as further evidence of a constant threat from provocations by Russian forces in Baltic airspace, in the Baltic Sea, and also in central Europe through hybrid attacks or drone flights, adding that Germany was preparing to counter those threats.

Meanwhile, the German Defence Ministry said that two German fire units of the Patriot air-defence system stationed at the Polish airfield in Rzeszow had "immediately increased their alert status" during the night.

The German contingent in Rzeszow, like other NATO allies, subsequently contributed to the overall situation assessment, it said, adding that there had been no direct use of the Patriot systems in response to the intrusion.
The mastermind and owner of a porn website who exploited women on camera for profit and ended up on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list has been sentenced to federal prison.

Michael James Pratt, 42, who operated the website GirlsDoPorn, was sentenced in a San Diego federal courtroom Monday to 27 years in prison after pleading guilty in June to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; and committing sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion.

Forty women, all exploited by Pratt and his accomplices, testified for roughly five hours Monday before his sentencing.

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According to federal prosecutors, the victims detailed how they were lured to San Diego hotel rooms with promises of well-paid modeling gigs but were instead coerced and forced to perform sex acts in front of cameras.

One woman testified that when she was a 21-year-old law student, she was forced to perform in a video that later appeared on the GirlsDoPorn website.

I am not your victim. Im your reckoning.  I am the girl who took you down, the woman said in court, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Look around! We are an army of survivors sharing our truth and we have won.

Another victim was 19 years old at the time she was forced to appear in one of the videos. She worked as a dance teacher for children but was later fired after the video was posted online.

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"You are evil. You are a predator. You are a rapist," the woman said in court. "This is who you are. Your ego was too big to believe youd ever get caught, but karma comes around. It is your turn now to suffer.

The modeling advertisements on social media and Craigslist promised good pay, according to the victims, but it was only at the last minute that it became clear they were expected to perform sex acts on camera, according to prosecutors.

The exits out of the hotel rooms were often blocked, prosecutors said. Pratt and the other accomplices promised the videos would not be uploaded online. They then threatened the women with lawsuits, canceled air travel and exposing the videos online if they did not continue to perform.

Most of the victims were between the ages of 18 and 21 when they were forced to appear in the videos.

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In court, the women shared the fallout they suffered over the years.

Some were disowned by their families, dropped out of school, and attempted suicide. Many of them suffered post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depression, according to prosecutors. Their identities were shared widely online and they were stalked, harassed or threatened.

Some of the women testified that they had cosmetic surgery to change their appearance, changed their names and others discussed substance abuse and other long-lasting effects from being raped and recorded on video.

For years I carried shame that never belonged to me," one woman testified. "Today I will walk out of this courtroom an empowered woman. You will walk out in shackles.

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Pratt admitted in court to coming up with the idea for GirlsDoPorn, recruiting women to appear in the videos, sometimes transporting them to and from the site of a video shoot and sometimes manning the camera, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors say Pratt made more than $17 million in profits from 2012 to 2019 from GirlsDoPorn. But in mid-2019 he liquidated his assets and fled the country. He was named one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted and was arrested in late 2022 while living in Spain. He was extradited to San Diego in March 2024 and pleaded guilty.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
When Gov. Josh Shapiro implemented automatic voter registration for Pennsylvanians renewing or obtaining a driver's license or state photo ID in 2023, he contended it would help ensure free, fair and secure elections and save taxpayers money.

Then-former and future president Donald Trump complained it was "scam" and accused the Democratic Party of somehow attempting to steal the 2024 election.

Fellow Republicans joined Trump in his chorus of complaints about Shapiro's unilateral move, which did not require the General Assembly's approval.

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More: Election 2025: Important dates, deadlines for registering to vote, mail-in ballots in Pa.

Just over a year ago, the conservative Pennsylvania Freedom Caucus asked Republican state Auditor Tim DeFoor to audit Department of Transportation records to assess whether the Department of State has been "maintaining an accurate voter registration database." That audit, which DeFoor launched in September 2024, is ongoing.

But in the nearly two years since automatic voter registration took effect, Republicans have fared better than Democrats with the method, according to data supplied by the Department of State on its website.

Some 92,707 new voters registered with the GOP between Sept. 19, 2023, when the automatic registration process kicked in, through Sept. 1, compared to 87,926 Democrats.

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The biggest victor, though, is no party at all  at least not one of the two major political parties.

More than 100,538 voters have chosen political independence or a minor third party through automatic voter registration in Pennsylvania, through Sept. 1.

In the two years before automatic voter registration took effect, it was Democrats, with 64,803 registrations, who led the way, followed by independents, with 62,743, and Republicans with 56,211.

Who's benefitting, who's not?

While Democrats supported Shapiro's shift to automatic voter registration, some believe he didn't go far enough.

The New Pennsylvania Project, a nonpartisan voter registration and voting rights organization, is pushing for automatic voter registration to be expanded beyond PennDOT driver license centers to state social service agencies that also offer clients the opportunity to register to vote.

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Kadida Kenner, executive director of the New Pennsylvania Project, said those agencies serve populations with traditionally low percentages of registered voters.

"Right now it's just an opt-out," Kenner said. "It's just folks hearing that you have an opportunity to opt-out if you don't want to be automatically registered to vote. But this doesn't impact the communities in particular that we center, because so many of the folks that we center  communities of color, immigrant communities, the youth  they're not going to the DMV."

Kenner and others propose an expansion of automatic voter registration as part of a push for a state voting rights act, legislation that would also allow same-day voter registration, early in-person machine voting and other protections.

The Shapiro administration did not respond to questions about the potential expansion of automatic voter registration.

Other uses for DOT registration data

In all, there were 281,171 new voters registered over the past two years at PennDOT centers. That's about 100,000 more than the 183,757 who registered in the prior two-year period of Sept. 14, 2021 through Aug. 29, 2023.

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It's not just new voters who are growing as a result.

Automatic voter registration is also being used to update addresses and change party affiliation, according to Matt Heckel, press secretary for the Department of State. There were 581,506 instances of a voter registration being used to make such changes, compared to just 241,336 in the two years before the change.

Legal concerns

This issue alone, however, prompted the state Supreme Court to question whether a voter's address could be changed based on a change made to their vehicle registration.

The court was ruling on a matter about provisional ballots cast in Luzerne County in the 2024 House primary. One of the provisional ballots that was in question in the case had been cast by a voter who had his vehicle registration changed to a Schuylkill County address of a home he owned and was planning to move to but not yet residing in. The voter knew to ask for a provisional ballot to vote in Luzerne County because he had not moved to his new address in Schuylkill County.

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The court noted in its majority opinion that "any administrative decision by PennDOT or the Pennsylvania Department of State to transfer an electors voter registration without that persons affirmative consent in conjunction with a PennDOT application to change a vehicle registration, as opposed to a drivers license, is therefore of questionable validity, particularly where, as here, no party has identified a valid administrative regulation authorizing such action."

'Absense of any legislative directive'

Justice David Wecht issued a concurring opinion on the matter, indicating "it would be troubling if PennDOT has a practice of making such a transfer without statutory authorization, or even the voters consent."

Such changes were being made, Wecht wrote, "in the absence of any legislative directive."

The Shapiro administration noted at the time that a person's address on their voter registration was not being automatically changed when they transferred their vehicle registration to a new address.

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In a letter to Shapiro, 65 members of the House Republican Caucus called on the governor to halt automatic voter registration. They noted that the voter whose address was in question in the case knew to ask for a provisional ballot.

"How many other Pennsylvanians in the same situation know to do the same?" the group of Republicans asked in their Oct. 3, 2024, letter to Shapiro. "We fear many more instances like this are waiting to be discovered  likely at the polls on election day."

The deadline to register to vote in the Nov. 4 municipal election is Oct. 20.

Matthew Rink is a USA TODAY Network Pennsylvania investigative journalist.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: PA's automatic voter registration favors one party more than another
The House is set to vote on an amendment that would repeal two laws authorizing the use of military force (AUMF) in Iraq after three members of the House Freedom Caucus broke with Republican leaders in the House Rules Committee on Tuesday.

The move came as the House Rules Committee, which sets the terms of debate for major legislation on the House floor, decided which votes would be in order for the National Defense Authorization Act for 2026.

Reps. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) voted in favor of a motion from Rep. Jim McGovern (Mass.)  the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee  to allow a vote on an amendment repealing the AUMFs from 2002 and 1991.

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While Republicans routinely vote down Democratic amendments in the Rules Committee, this amendment was made in order in a 7-4 vote, with all other Republicans voting against and all Democrats voting in favor.

The move amounts to a rare rebellion on the Rules Committee, an organ of GOP leadership whose GOP members are all appointed by the Speaker  but which for the past few years has had enough hard-line rebels on the panel to subvert GOP leadership because of a concession from former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as he scrambled to be elected Speaker.

Norman said GOP leadership was likely unaware the vote would be coming, and that the three rebels would support it.

Typically, you dont have the Democrats and the Republicans on the same level of agreement, Norman said, adding he was not sure if he would vote for the amendment on the House floor.

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Roy, who has co-sponsored a bill with House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) to repeal the AUMFs, said there should be a new AUMF to replace the old ones to allow the U.S. to adequately combat terrorists in the region.

The AUMF repeal is strongly opposed by the, Ill call it, defense hawk community, Roy said. Maybe, just crazy talk here, 23 years after the AUMF was passed in 02 to deal with Iraq and Saddam Hussein and that guys been dead . and were now still running under an 02 AUMF. Thats insane. We should repeal that.

One of those opposing the AUMF repeals is Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), who posted on social media that it would tie the Presidents hands in going after Iranian puppet militias in Iraq, endangering American families, noting it is the same provision that President Trump used for the authority to kill terrorist leader Qassem Soleimani.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said there will be a healthy discussion about the AUMF repeal on the House floor.

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AUMFs always have been heated discussions, and weve had them a number of times in the past. I think its a healthy discussion to have about the difficult decision on when to engage and what are the rules of engagement, Scalise said. Im sure were going to have a heated debate on the floor.

A bill to repeal the 2002 AUMF passed the House in 2021, and a bill to repeal both the 2002 and 1991 authorizations passed the Senate in 2023.

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Republican Sen. Ted Budd blasted FEMA for stonewalling funds to his state to recover from Hurricane Helene and said that he plans to use his leverage in the chamber to stall Department of Homeland Security nominees until the issue is addressed.

The North Carolina lawmaker voted to filibuster a top DHS official Tuesday, and his spokesman issued a statement saying that the senator is deeply concerned over the relief effort.

Sen. Budd is deeply concerned by the slow approval and distribution of funding from the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA for Hurricane Helene recovery, said Budds spokesman Christian McMullen.

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Budd, whose state was hit hard by Helene last year, was the only Republican to vote with Democrats in a failed bid to block Robert Law from being under secretary for strategy, policy and plans at DHS.

Later, Budd told CNN that he will put holds on all DHS nominees until this issue is resolved. He said a main problem in getting funds to his storm-struck constituents is that Secretary Kristi Noem must personally sign off on any expenditure over $100,000. He said has pressed them to change that policy and is flummoxed why they wont.

A hold would prevent quick action to confirm a nominee without Budds consent.

Weve let leadership know were going to place holds on all DHS nominees until we get an appropriate dialogue and response on the outstanding invoices that have not been paid to western North Carolina from FEMA, he said. So, its been very slow. But going back to December is when we appropriated the money, when we voted for the money and approved it there. But now here we are, nine months later, we still havent seen the reimbursements.

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I know that in each county, every item almost is over $100,000. Thats every single thing that runs through a rather significant agency. I just dont think thats the way you navigate this. I think there are very competent, even Senate-approved people that can share the load and approve things, he said. Choke holding this thing or stonewalling states that are hurt by hurricanes is not the way to get rid of waste fraud and abuse.

CNN has reached out to DHS for comment.

Asked if he had reached out to Noem to encourage her to change the policy, Budd noted that they were former colleagues in the House but said its been difficult to arrange a meeting.

Weve been reaching out for quite a while and have had some difficulty, he said. Weve reached out multiple times to schedule. It shouldnt be difficult. And I can tell you that every other Cabinet secretary has been wonderful to work with and very easy to work with, and I look forward to that from Sec. Noem.

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In June, CNN reported Noem was tightening her grip on her departments purse strings, ordering that every contract and grant over $100,000 must now cross her desk for approval.

A DHS spokesperson said at the time that Secretary Noem is delivering accountability to the U.S. taxpayer, which Washington bureaucrats have ignored for decades at the expense of American citizens.

In July, CNN reported that FEMAs response to flooding in Texas was slowed by Noems cost controls, according to officials inside the agency  an assertion that DHS pushed back on.

The enormous devastation of Hurricane Helene became a political flashpoint during the 2024 presidential election.

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Donald Trump criticized then-President Joe Biden and then-Vice President Kamala Harris over the federal response, while vowing to help those impacted by the hurricane.

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JUBA, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan's Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation on Tuesday signed an agreement with the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) to implement a 9.98 million U.S. dollar flood mitigation and water infrastructure project.

The one-year program, part of the World Bank-financed Regional Climate Resilience Program for Eastern and Southern Africa, will benefit flood-affected and water-stressed communities in Eastern Equatoria, Jonglei, Lakes, and Upper Nile states. Planned activities include rehabilitating dikes and drainage systems, restoring hand pumps and water yards, distributing fishing nets, and creating short-term local jobs.

Under the agreement, the UNOPS will oversee technical assessments, procurement, construction, and community engagement, while ensuring environmental and social safeguards.

Achier Manyuat John, undersecretary of the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, reaffirmed the government's commitment to transparency and accountability.

Petronella Halwiindi, UNOPS country manager in South Sudan, said the project would deliver sustainable infrastructure to protect communities and enhance climate resilience. 
MCKINLEY COUNTY, N.M. (KRQE) People who worked for the McKinley County District Attorney described her as belligerent, mean, stubborn, and unprofessional. Creating a hostile work environment is one major reason behind the Attorney Generals push to remove Bernadine Martin from office.

KRQE Investigates has been digging into the dysfunction inside DA Martins office for months  dysfunction law enforcement, the attorney general, and the community say has led to criminals getting off the hook. Our coverage convinced three former employees to speak up. We are not showing their faces or sharing their names because they are afraid of retaliation. We have labeled them Anonymous Former Employee One, Two, and Three.

AG: Cases uncovered by KRQE Investigates are more evidence for DAs removal

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Shes fighting everything she can just to try and get her way. And I feel like once we come out, shes going to try to do the same thing to us. And we dont have, like, the resources I feel like she uses, Anonymous Former Employee Three shared. Youre still scared of her? Investigative Reporter Ann Pierret asked. Yeah, yeah I am, she responded.

The vindictiveness, Anonymous Former Employee One added.

All three described what they experienced as emotional and mental abuse, perpetrated for years, they said, by their boss, McKinley County District Attorney Bernadine Martin.

Its been a few years, but I can never forget. Its like a film that I can still see. What she did. What she said. Its something you dont forget. I dont forget it, Anonymous Former Employee Two said.

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The truth needs to be told, Anonymous Former Employee One explained. And its, its been too long that we have kept quiet.

Martin was elected to serve the McKinley County community, to hold people accountable for their actions. But people who worked for her said she will never hold herself accountable.

At a press conference Martin held in August, Pierret asked about the allegations of a hostile work environment. Theyve said that you belittle them, Pierret said to Martin. Thats not true, the DA replied.

A few weeks later, after the New Mexico Attorney General used those accusations to take the drastic step of requesting the state Supreme Court remove Martin, Pierret questioned the DA again. She responded, Im shocked at the comments made about a hostile work environment because I always believe everybody got along. The work is moving. People are showing up. People are smiling. People get their breaks. They get their lunches.

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Martin took office in January 2021. Since then, personnel records obtained by KRQE Investigates show at least 45 employees quit or were fired by Martin. That includes both support staff and assistant prosecutors. A few wrote in their resignation letters that they could no longer stand the hostile work environment Martin created.

We would hear her coming down the hall, and it was like everybody just kind of froze, Anonymous Former Employee Two said. You know, we just, uh. We got scared, actually, because we didnt know which  who in the office was going to be get yelled at.

All three former employees served as support staff for the DA and assistant prosecutors. Two of the women held their positions for years before Martin was elected. We took care of each other, Anonymous Former Employee One shared. We backed each other up. Even with the attorneys, we had no problems. No problems with them. And then all of a sudden, theyre all of a sudden disappearing.

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Because the former employees explained, with Martin in charge, no one felt respected as members of a team anymore. If it wasnt her done her way, she didnt want to hear it, Anonymous Former Employee Three said.

She added that Martin also kept close tabs on her. I guess she tried looking for me one day, and I was like, I was out printing subpoenas, she shared. And she sent out an email, and she told me, you have to let me know when you go on break and when you come back. Shes like youre away from your desk too much. I dont know what youre doing.

At another point, the same former employee shared that she asked Martin for a raise because of the increase in workload with everyone leaving. She said Martin accused her of making mistakes, without any proof, and then told her people who work late dont make mistakes. But Anonymous Former Employee Three added, She would tell us you have to leave at five because youre not going to get paid for overtime.

Another former employee accused of messing up said she never even received training. I was just thrown in there, and they kept telling me, were going to help you But that never happened, Anonymous Former Employee Two said. And then she says, well, why didnt you come ask me? And I said, I tried.

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Martin fired her during the probationary period. Its a move, records show, the DA made with ten other employees within three years. It hurt. It really hurt, Anonymous Former Employee Two said. And now I just see her being by herself and struggling, you know? And all I can say is karma.

Another pattern? Documents also revealed that when Martin got upset with a long-term employee, she put them on administrative leave for a time and then fired them. That happened to Anonymous Former Employee One. This wasnt just a job that Im going to go to and just  Oh, I got a paycheck. No, it was my career. I worked hard to get there, she said.

Each former employee referred to their roles in the DAs Office as a dream job. Anonymous Former Employee Three said thats why she tried to hold out, not expecting Martin would be reelected for a second term. I think if she did leave, I would go back, she said. Because I loved what I did there. When a victim cant speak for themselves, youre there to process and make sure their case gets through the system and that theyre heard through the justice system. And I feel like she took that all away from them.

The Attorney Generals request to the NM Supreme Court to remove Martin was filed last month. In it, we learned Martin retaliated against her former assistant prosecutors by filing complaints against their licenses to the state disciplinary board. Investigators called the complaints frivolous and a vindictive practice that has likely discouraged other attorneys from working in McKinley County.

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Transmission lines. States Newsroom file photo

Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte announced Wednesday he is launching a task force to provide recommendations and strategies for Montana to unleash American-made energy.

A press release from the Governors Office said Department of Environmental Quality director Sonja Nowakowski will chair the task force and Gianforte will appoint members of the task force in the coming days, with its first meeting planned for Sept. 22.

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With increasing demand on our energy grid, we must meet the challenge head-on to ensure affordable, reliable power for Montanans now and into the future, Gianforte said in a statement. After four years of failed Biden energy policies that drove up energy costs, we need innovative ideas to unleash American-made energy in our state. Montana is ready to lead, and this task force will build on our natural strengths as a state rich in energy resources.

The task force is charged with providing shot- and long-term recommendations and strategies for the state to increase the supply of affordable and reliable energy options.

In the executive order establishing the task force, Gianforte emphasizes that Montana follows an all-of-the-above approach to energy, supporting the expansion of energy production in every sector and avoiding market distortions by not picking winners and losers.

Gianforte cited a report from the Western Electricity Coordinating Council that says electricity demand in the western states is expected to grow 20% during the next decade, a growth rate almost twice what was forecast in 2022. It is also four times the historical growth rate from 2013 and 2022.

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Montana has historically been a net exporter of electricity, but that shifted in recent years. In 2023, NorthWestern Energy noted in its annual report that the monopoly energy company is predominantly a net importer, especially during peak demand.

Gianfortes executive order highlights the states diverse energy portfolio, which includes coal, oil, natural gas, hydropower, wind and solar.

Roughly 37% of Montanas in-state electricity production is generated from coal-fired power plants, while 57% is generated from renewable energy sources  primarily hydropower  according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Gianforte has repeatedly stated that Montana stands ready to help President Donald Trumps efforts towards unleashing Americas energy resources.

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In his first days back in office, Trump declared a national energy emergency which he partially defined as an inadequate energy supply and infrastructure which led to high prices.

Both the nation, and Montana, have reached all-time energy production numbers in recent years. The Energy Information Administration reported that U.S. production from all sources reached consecutive all-time highs in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Montana Electric Power Generating Capacity by Fuel Type, 1970-2024 (Total MW Capacity)

Chart by DEQ.

In Montana, DEQ data mirrors that with the state reaching its highest electric power generating capacity in 2024.

The increase in capacity over the last decade is primarily due to additional wind power, which makes up 27% of the states electricity capacity. Coal capacity makes up roughly 23%, natural gas 8% and solar 3%, according to DEQ.

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Montana has a long history of responsible energy development, Nowakowski said. As we face growing demand for electricity, its time to build on that legacy with innovation and investment in energy resources. This task force will convene leaders in Montanas energy sector to identify the barriers and develop a strategy to deliver affordable, dependable energy for Montana families and the businesses ready to invest in our state.

A recent vote by the U.S. House overturned a Biden-era resource management plan which blocked new coal leases on millions of acres of land across eastern Montana, including the Powder River Basin, which contains close to a third of the nations accessible coal reserves.

In a letter sent to the Trump administration, Gov. Greg Gianforte urged the federal government to maximize the availability of federal coal in Montana, including by reopening Bureau of Land Management acreage to coal leases, to benefit national security, provide reliable energy and boost Montanas educational systems.

The governors office stated that while the governors task force may recommend any strategy increase the supply of affordable, reliable energy, Gianforte expressly asked the task force to provide recommendations that provide Montana energy producers and consumers with greater certainty in the market, stable delivery systems for electricity, efficient permitting and regulatory systems, and an end to frivolous litigation designed to delay or thwart responsible, environmentally-sound energy development.

Gianfortes energy task force will hold its first meeting on Sept 22 and is expected to produce a written report with recommendation and strategies by Sept. 15, 2026.
CHICAGO (WGN)  U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are on the ground in the Chicago area, and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker says he doesnt think the city has seen the full force of what ICE is calling Operation Midway Blitz just yet.

Pritzker said Tuesday he thinks ICE will have more than 200 agents on the ground at some point, with more than 100 vehicles standing by, as the stepped-up immigration crackdown gets underway.

Read more: Latest Chicago news and headlines

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The latest ICE operation is putting Chicagos immigrant community on guard, and local leaders are working to remind people of their rights.

Heres what we do know: ICE is somewhere on the ground here, Pritzker said. They already have been effectuating their plans. We have not seen the bulk of those ICE agents yet in communities, but we have seen some.

Immigrant rights groups and elected leaders issued a warning to the community Tuesday, the governor saying hes worried for Illinois and that federal agents have terrible plans for communities.

People are frankly afraid in our communities, Pritzker said. Theyre afraid to come out of their homes, theyre afraid to go shopping, theyre afraid to take their own children to school.

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On Tuesday, the Trump administrations border czar, Tom Homan, confirmed to reporters that additional boots are the ground in Chicago, with President Donald Trump increasing his focus on the city in recent weeks.

VIDEO: Heres how ICE agents operate at courthouses, inside jails

Weve got more resources in Chicago, Homan said. We know theyre releasing public safety threats back into the community every day. Well go where the biggest problems are. The biggest problems are sanctuary cities.

Homan also insisted that ICE operations are targeting criminals.

Were prioritizing public safety threats and national security threats, he said. Were not out sweeping neighborhoods, and were not out looking for non-criminals.

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However, WGN Investigates found that 70% of people currently in ICE custody nationally dont have a criminal conviction.

Pritzker, meanwhile, met with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights on Tuesday afternoon at the National Museum of Mexican Art.

The reason that Tom Homan, the reason that Donald Trump, the reason that so many people are upset and want to attack Chicago, is because were winning, Pritzker said.

 ICE needs to take it down about three notches, and we need Tom Homan to focus on something other than his failures in Illinois.

The nationwide legal battle continues, however.

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On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a judges order prohibiting federal agents in Los Angeles from questioning people about their immigration status based solely on their ethnicity, clearing the way for federal enforcement to continue aggressive immigration sweeps.

Chicago braces for more ICE raids as immigration enforcement intensifies

We know the Supreme Court decision (Monday) that, frankly, takes away rights from people across the United States is something that Tom Homan cheers, Pritzker said.

But Homan insists his federal agents respect constitutional rights.

ICE agents arent racially profiling, he said. The law says youve got to establish a reasonable suspicion to detain and question somebody.

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ICEs stepped-up immigration crackdown led to a protest rally downtown Tuesday night, with a number of coalitions and local groups marching from Congress Plaza Garden to Trump Tower and back.

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Sep. 9SANTA FE  Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said she initially wanted a broad buffet of issues on the agenda for a special legislative session, but agreed to a pared-back menu after negotiations with top lawmakers.

The governor announced last week she will call legislators back to the Roundhouse for a special session starting Oct. 1. She said Monday that part of that agreement involves a commitment that Democratic leaders will fast track a package of high-profile bills to her desk during the 30-day session that starts in January.

That package could include proposals dealing with road funding, interstate medical compacts, juvenile crime and New Mexico's three federal immigration detention facilities, the governor said.

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Lujan Grisham initially wanted those issues on the special session agenda, along with a state-level funding package in response to federal budget changes approved by the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress.

But she said Democratic leaders in the House and Senate expressed a preference to focus on the federal budget impacts in the special session, and keep working on the other issues in the run-up to the 30-day legislative session that starts in January.

"It's not a reflection that they're unwilling to debate and give us good ideas," Lujan Grisham said during a news conference at the state Capitol.

Instead of a robust special session agenda, the plan is to split the governor's agenda between the special session, which is likely to last no longer than a few days, and the regular session, she said.

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Lawmakers used a similar fast-track approach during this year's 60-day session, sending a behavioral health package and a crime omnibus bill to Lujan Grisham's desk by the session's midway point.

But Republican lawmakers criticized Democrats for not passing many other crime-related bills during the second half of the session, including any bills dealing with violent juvenile offenders.

Since the end of the 60-day session in March, lawmakers have heard testimony from judges, prosecutors and others during interim committee hearings, and Lujan Grisham said she's optimistic legislation dealing with juvenile crime could win approval during the 30-day session.

"I think there's actually some good momentum by our Democratic leaders in that space," she said.

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House Speaker Javier Martinez, D-Albuquerque, said Tuesday that a bill dealing with juvenile offenders that passed the House but stalled in the Senate during this year's session could be repackaged during the 30-day session.

He also said a group of bills dealing with interstate compacts for doctors, counselors, physical therapists and other health care professionals could also move quickly through the House of Representatives.

The interstate compact bills are intended to make it easier for out-of-state practitioners to work in New Mexico, but ending up stalling in a Senate committee during this year's session due to legal concerns.

"There's no reason not to fast track those bills," Martinez told the Journal.

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But he said the decision to narrowly focus the special session agenda on issues like rural hospitals, health care coverage and food assistance makes sense, given the outsized impacts New Mexico could face under a federal budget bill signed by President Donald Trump in July.

"The function of a special session should always be focused on the most immediate matters," Martinez said.

He specifically cited possible premium increases that roughly 75,000 New Mexicans who get health care coverage through the state's online insurance exchange could face, starting in January.

However, state Republicans have criticized the special session plan, saying issues like violent crime, child welfare and the state's medical malpractice laws should also be added to the agenda.

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New Mexico GOP Chairwoman Amy Barela described the special session as "political theater" and said the targeted issues could have already been addressed.

"If rural health care, affordable coverage, and food assistance were truly the priorities (the governor) claims, they would have been addressed years ago  not just now, under the cover of 'emergency,'" Barela said.

Next year's 30-day session will be Lujan Grisham's final regular session as New Mexico governor, as she is barred under the state Constitution from seeking a third consecutive term in 2026.
The Snohomish County Sheriffs Office continues to search for seven guitars after they were stolen from a storage facility in Bothell in February.

Tyler Campbell, the owner of those guitars, says five of which were eight-string guitars and the other two were bass guitars. He says the guitars are customized to fit the genre he plays, which is death doom metal.

These were very specific instruments that Ive spent the last two decades catering to the music that I make, Campbell said.

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Campbell says not only was he moving when the theft happened, but he was set to tour with his band, too.

On top of the emotional and financial distress of where are my guitars, I had shows that were booked, Campbell said.

He shared security video of the theft at his storage unit at a Trojan Storage in Bothell. In the video, two thieves are spotted with carts hauling his guitars out. He says combined, the seven guitars are worth around $13,000; however, he says when he filed an insurance claim for theft, he only received $2,000 in damages.

I fought it. I did my best to put my foot down and said this isnt acceptable. This doesnt solve anything, Campbell said.

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A few weeks after the theft in late February, Campbell says he was able to track one of the guitars through an AirTag he placed in it and followed it to an apartment building in Everett. He says he reached out to Everett Police about it and met up with him to confront the potential thieves.

We knocked on the door. Spoke with someone who was uncooperative, not willing to help, Campbell said. And then I got a shrug from police saying I guess we have to come back with a warrant which never happened, he continued.

Although he did purchase a replacement guitar, Campbell is out thousands. With that said, he says his bandmates and musicians within the death doom metal scene have shown huge support.

As unpleasant the whole thing was, there was a silver lining. I was able to kind of see that there are good people, Campbell said.

A GoFundMe has been set up to help Campbell purchase new instruments.
HARTSELLE, Ala. (WHNT)  The Hartselle Police Department is providing new details into its investigation into a deadly wreck that happened after a police chase ended in the city.

HPD said that the chase started around 8:30 Saturday night when Priceville Police attempted to stop a suspect, later identified as Archie Brandon Hale, for suspicion of DUI. That chase eventually entered Hartselle city limits from I-65 and went west on Highway 36. It ended when the Hales vehicle entered the intersection and hit a minivan on the side.

Priceville police officer placed on leave after deadly chase identified as son of Dog the Bounty Hunter

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That wreck led to the death of 17-year-old Tristan Holis and the injury of three others in the van. Hale and a passenger in his car were also injured.

HPD said investigators have gathered video from the surrounding area, along with police video, including chase video from Priceville Police.

Hartselle Police Chief Alan McDearmond said after a review of this video, Hales vehicle can be seen entering the intersection at a high speed, and that the traffic light was red for his vehicle at the time of the crash.

He said his department is committed to bringing a thorough investigation before the Morgan County District Attorneys Office. To do so, McDearmond said Hartselle Officials have been in contact with Alabama State Troopers to utilize some specialized equipment and collaborate with their Traffic Homicide Investigators.

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Hartselle teen killed in weekend wreck identified, several businesses raising funds for families of those involved

This tragedy has deeply impacted multiple families, as well as first responders and hospital staff who worked tirelessly at the scene and behind the scenes, the chief said. In my career, I have investigated crimes of every nature, but this is by far the most egregious example of willful disregard for human life that I have encountered. We are committed to presenting a complete and evidence-based case to the District Attorneys Office and will pursue justice relentlessly on behalf of the victims and their loved ones.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHNT.com.
The Hawaii Department of Health has confirmed another case of travel-related dengue on Oahu, bringing the total in the state to 13 so far this year.

The latest case comes about a month after the of dengue, which was also on Oahu. To date, the state has counted 12 cases on Oahu, and one case on Maui.

The affected individual in this current case was exposed to the virus while traveling in a region where dengue is common and is not connected to prior cases,  said DOH in a news release. DOH teams have been deployed to conduct inspections and implement mosquito control measures in the affected area.

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is a viral illness spread through mosquito bites. While Hawaii is home to Aedes mosquitoes, which can carry dengue, the disease is not endemic in the state.

Dengue outbreaks are reported frequently in the Caribbean, Central America, South America, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, transmission in these areas remains high this year.

Dengue outbreaks declared in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands last year continue into this year, and Puerto Rico has extended its outbreak declaration through December. Additionally, , including Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa, and Tuvalu, have declared dengue outbreaks this year.

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In the U.S., local transmission of dengue was reported in California, Texas and Florida last year. Florida reported local dengue transmission again this year.

DOH said anyone who has recently visited or plans to travel to an area with dengue risk is vulnerable to infection.

The public is encouraged to reviewon dengue risk and prevention measures at least four to six weeks before traveling. Upon returning from dengue-endemic areas, residents should try to prevent mosquito bites for three weeks.

If dengue symptomssuch as fever, nausea, vomiting, rash and body achesdevelop within two weeks of return from dengue-affected areas, residents should seek medical evaluation.

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Anyone who suspects a dengue infection should call the DOH Disease Reporting Line at 808-586-4586.

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HARTSELLE, Ala. (WHNT)  The Hartselle community is grieving after a deadly crash, and 17-year-old Tristan Hollis family describes it as horrific and senseless.

Tristan Hollis, identified to News 19 by his grandmother, was killed after Priceville Police said suspect Archie Brandon Hale did not pull over for officers. Police chased Hale until he crashed into a minivan in Hartselle that Hollis was riding in.

Hartselle Police provide update on investigation into deadly crash after police chase

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Hollis mother, Rachel Moore, posted to Facebook saying that Hollis was her only child.

I am Rachel, Tristan Holliss mother, the 17 year old that was killed in this senseless, horrific accident. He was my only child. I have my own opinions and thoughts about all of this, but I digress. Please pray for all the young men that were involved in this accident. Also, I ask for everyone to pray for the man, Archie Brandon Hale, that killed my sweet, precious son. Yes, he selfishly and maliciously took my sons life, but in the end, my son is in a far better place than what is about to be bestowed amongst him. Rachel Moore

Hartselle Police told News 19 that six individuals were injured in the crash, including Tristan, suspect Archie Brandon Hale, Hales passenger, and three other boys also in the minivan.

Hartselle teen killed in weekend wreck identified, several businesses raising funds for families of those involved

According to GoFundMe, those boys are Braxton Wales, 16-year-old Noah Prater and 14-year-old Gavin Prater.

News 19s Peyton Newman reached out to Kevin Pylant, Waless uncle, who said the family is shattered. He shared the following statement.

We are deeply shattered by this tragic event. One child has lost his life, and three teenagers lives have been changed forever. My heart goes out to all of the families affected by this unimaginable tragedy, and I want to express my deepest respect for every family involved. I am also truly thankful for the way the Hartselle community has come together in support during this difficult time. There are mixed opinions surrounding this case, but the one undeniable truth is that in times of heartbreak, our community has shown its strength and compassion by standing together. Out of respect, I will not comment on the conditions of those involved. What I can share is that Braxton Wales is recovering. This will be a long road, not only for Braxton, but for all of the families impacted. Surviving something this terrible can take a heavy toll on ones mental health, and the journey forward will require healing not just physically, but emotionally as well. Continued prayers and support are needed for everyone whose lives have been forever changed. Kevin Pylant

Gavin and Noah Praters grandmother also took to social media, saying tears were streaming down her face. She said the two brothers are being treated in different hospitals. She is at Noahs bedside while Gavins father is with him at another hospital. She said she wants Tristans family to know how broken-hearted she is over their loss.

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Hollis grandmother said his burial service is on Thursday at Hartselle City Cemetery.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHNT.com.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN)  An elderly married couple said they were forced out of their home, leaving heirlooms, their grandsons toys and medical equipment piled on the street in Vancouver.

Marlene Berg, 83, admits they owed money and expected to leave but never thought theyd be forced to literally pick up the pieces of their livelihood in the process.

First of three suspects arrested in Gresham teens murder

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Very hurt. Its starting all over, Marlene said after being evicted from her home after 15 years without missing a payment.

Her husband, Tom Berg, 82, is a veteran who has become bedridden with multiple disabilities. They lived in the home with their adult son and 9-year-old grandson.

Marlene Berg (left), and her husband, Tom Berg, are in their 80s and facing eviction in Vancouver. September 9, 2025 (KOIN).

When the couples water heater broke in January, Marlene said they fell behind on rent after Toms extended stay in a nursing facility.

Ive been praying for over two months to bless them, then to be treated like that, Tom said.

Despite investing about $20,000 in repairs, Marlene said the courts ordered them out by September 2. Days later, they watched as their belongings were tossed to the street.

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Its heartbreaking just watching them throw stuff, just throw stuff, Marlene said.

The couple is not alone. Washington state data shows eviction filings continue to rise since the sunset of moratoriums in 2021. Washington is already on track to outpace the record-breaking eviction filings seen in 2024.

Clark County is the single largest rise in eviction filings in Washington state, said Washington Office of Civil Legal Aid Eviction Defence Program Director Philippe Knab.

Reckless driver with IG account gets license suspended

Since launching statewide right-to-counsel for low-income tenants in 2021, Knab said the program has represented over 30,000 people. However, despite increased tenant protections, he said cases continue to climb.

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What were seeing in places like Clark County is that evictions are literally 100% what they were pre-pandemic filings. What that means is an incredible number of people in Clark County are facing displacement, Knab said.

Marlene is now left to care for Toms disability without his medical equipment, which was lost in the eviction.

There are health issues. I dont know where stuff is. I dont have all this medicine. I dont have the money to get it. Its so, its hard, Marlene said.

Washington law does require landlords give residents 45 days before tossing their items out. KOIN 6 News reached out to the Bergs landlords but we did not hear back.

An elderly couple in Vancouver is facing eviction, with their items thrown to the street. September 9, 2025 (KOIN).

The National Womens Coalition Against Violence and Exploitation (NWCAVE) is now working to temporarily house the Bergs and connect them to resources. Theyve also launched a fundraiser to help support the family.

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Evictions happen. We get that everybody is on hard times these days, but it doesnt appear that the laws were followed by evicting them and throwing their stuff out inhumanely, said NWCAVE President and Founder Michelle Bart.

Bart said NWCAVE is now partnering with Odyssey World International to help connect the family to shelter, medical care and other critical resources.

AMR struggling with response times despite new model

All that stuff is broken, its rained on, people were going through it, She said. We need to come together as a community and help this family and help all the other families that are going through the same. Because at the end of the day, its not about the eviction, its about humanity.

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Clark County has more information about eviction diversion programs, including free legal assistance for qualifying low-income renters.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com.
BISHKEK, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- The 2025 China International Fair for Trade in Services underscores China's commitment to high-level opening-up, according to one expert.

"It is these areas that today determine the transition from traditional services to high-tech and knowledge-intensive solutions," Tolonbek Abdyrov, a professor of economics and vice rector of the International Higher School of Medicine in Kyrgyzstan, told Xinhua, noting China's push in cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, fintech, digital healthcare and online education.

This year's fair, scheduled from Wednesday to Sunday in Beijing, will highlight how digital and intelligent technologies are reshaping the sector.

"For the international community, for many countries of the world, this means there is an opportunity not only to access modern technologies, but also to participate in new standards of the global market," he said.

Abdyrov said China continues to improve systems and mechanisms for opening its economy to the world. For developing countries, the professor added, cooperation with China in services offers clear advantages.

"Firstly, this opens access to the world's largest market, where demand for innovative solutions continues to grow. Secondly, China creates conditions for cross-border cooperation, which reduces barriers to entry and exit," he said. That also includes opportunities to advance green and sustainable services, laying the groundwork for long-term partnerships aligned with global development goals.

According to China's Ministry of Commerce, service imports and exports in the first half of 2025 topped 3.8 trillion yuan (533 billion U.S. dollars), up 8 percent year on year. The growth, Abdyrov said, highlights how services are emerging as a strategic sector even as global goods trade slows.

The professor pointed to China's institutional reforms, such as streamlined rules for foreign-funded companies, pilot free trade zones and new digital standards, as examples of how Beijing is promoting openness and innovation.

"These steps not only strengthen China's competitiveness, but also create a platform for equal participation by partners, including emerging economies," Abdyrov said.

He added that the fair will serve not only as a showcase of China's achievements but also as an invitation for other countries to help shape a new generation of global trade rules grounded in innovation, digitalization and sustainable growth. 
Spending time outside and enjoying nature can be one of the best ways to disconnect from our everyday lives, even for just a few hours. However, it can be difficult to truly appreciate the natural beauty of the outdoors when widespread litter takes over the environment.

For one Reddit user, their "beautiful hike" in Goa, India, was soured by the presence of heaps of garbage scattered in the beachside area. They took to r/Goa to share their experience and workshop ideas on how to prevent mass littering in the future.

While walking through Chapora Beach, the hiker couldn't help but record the sheer amount of trash that had inundated the lush landscape. "Beautiful day out yesterday till I saw this pile of unhappiness," the original poster wrote while sharing their footage. (Click here to watch the video if the embed does not appear.)

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Although it was unclear how long the trash had been collecting in the area or who it all belonged to, it was crystal clear that littering had spiraled out of control. "I don't know if it's all tourists who did this, but I'm sure 80% of the accountability lies with them," the OP added. "Telling the tourists not to come over is definitely not the solution  What other ideas do we have?"

Littering has become a significant problem in Goa, especially at popular tourist sites such as beaches. With a large influx of visitors, plastic waste and discarded food packaging can quickly accumulate and negatively impact the environment. This can ultimately have a serious impact on wildlife and even on human health.

In an effort to curb the amount of litter in the region, the Goa government recently bolstered its environmental protections with the Goa Tourist Places (Protection and Maintenance) (Amendment) Act, 2025. The legislation aimed at increasing penalties for littering and other "nuisances" to encourage tourists to avoid using items such as single-use plastics and to properly dispose of their waste.

Rohan A Khaunte, Minister for Tourism in Goa, explained the importance of the amendment. "This legislation is a step in the right direction to address growing concerns and to maintain Goa's reputation as a responsible and world-class tourism destination," Khaunte told the Economic Times.

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In the comments section, many users shared the same frustrations as the OP.

"Its so aggravating to see such beautiful places just littered with garbage," one user wrote.

"This is heartbreaking. I try to leave a place in a better shape than I found it. Pick up just 3-4 pieces of garbage and dispose of them properly," another commenter suggested.

"Same with every place. People think they own everything. But nature has its way to return it," a third user quipped.

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HOLYOKE  Nearly 50 demonstrators gathered Tuesday evening on the steps of City Hall to protest a City Council resolution they say threatens immigrant protections and encourages unconstitutional cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

The rally, Holyoke Against ICE-Holyoke Contra ICE Demonstration, was timed to coincide with a scheduled council meeting. A resolution that seeks to declare that Holyoke is not a sanctuary city was on the agenda.

Although the measure has been tabled for months, organizers said the protest was a desired show of solidarity.

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Claire McGale, one of the events organizers, said the demonstration was about more than opposing the resolution. It was about standing with residents who feel overlooked and unsupported.

They feel oppressed. Theyve had the short end of the deal, McGale said. This shows people that we care and have their backs. Thats just as important as showing the City Council we dont approve of what theyre doing.

The resolution, introduced in June by councilors Kevin Jourdain and Linda Vacon, urges city departments to fully comply with federal immigration laws, especially when applying for federal grants. It also calls on the Department of Homeland Security to notify the city of any violations.

Jourdain and Vacon argue that Holyoke could lose up to $10 million in federal funding for schools and public safety if it is perceived as noncompliant by the federal government. They cite a 2017 ordinance passed during the first Trump administration which states that city officials must not knowingly violate local, state or federal laws.

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While some protesters accused the councilors of misrepresenting city policy and stoking fear, others expressed more nuanced views on immigration enforcement.

Jose Estrada, 56, of Holyoke, said he understands both sides of the debate. Raised in New York, he recalled overcrowding and said some deported individuals are criminals.

If theyre not appreciating being here and are causing problems, then whats the point? Estrada said. It just leads to more crowding and fighting.

Others, like Devon Tomlinson, 54, and Maria Jimenez, 56, emphasized the importance of compassion. Tomlinson said the government shouldnt bar people from staying in the U.S., especially if they were born elsewhere. Jimenez added that immigrants who work, raise families and start new lives should be allowed to stay  but criminals should be deported.

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Mayor Joshua Garcia has stated that Holyoke is not a sanctuary city, noting the term has no legal definition. He emphasized that the city follows state and local laws while remaining committed to compassion and inclusion.

In a statement released ahead of the rally, Garcia clarified that while the councils proposal calls for cooperation with Homeland Security, setting such policy is the mayors responsibility  not the councils.

I also want to make clear that we do not do the work of the Department of Homeland Security and ICE, Garcia said.

Garcia reaffirmed his administrations stance in January by reissuing a 2014 executive order originally signed by former Mayor Alex B. Morse. Under the policy, Holyoke police do not honor or enforce civil immigration detainer requests from ICE or Customs and Border Protection if the individual would otherwise be released.

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This policy is grounded in Massachusetts law, as affirmed by a 2017 Supreme Judicial Court ruling that local law enforcement cannot detain individuals solely for immigration violations.

McGale said Garcias position aligns with other mayors across the state who rejected the sanctuary city label after the U.S. Department of Justice released a list of such cities.

A lot of mayors said the term isnt legal  its subjective, McGale said. They stood by their communities but didnt care what label was used. Vacon and Jourdain took that out of context to say the mayor declared were not a sanctuary city, so now we need to tell Homeland Security.

She also criticized the council resolutions wording, saying it misuses a city ordinance about following federal and state laws and the Constitution.

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McGale warned that while the resolution might help secure federal funding, it could increase fear among students.

Sure, you might fix the roof, but there will be fewer kids under it, she said. And the ones who stay will have seen their friends terrified.

She said national politics are seeping into local government  and that residents should push back.

If we stand against that nationally, we should stand against it here, McGale said. The fight is local.

In May, the Trump administration listed Holyoke as one of 11 Massachusetts cities that block federal immigration enforcement. Garcia publicly disputed the claim, and the list has since been revised. Now, only Boston is considered a sanctuary city.

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Jourdain and Vacon previously told The Republican they introduced the resolution to support Garcia and to avoid losing federal funding.

Jourdain said losing up to $10 million would be devastating for Holyoke, a city of about 38,000 residents. The citys $70 million tax base wouldnt be enough to make up the difference, he said.

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Taiwan and Honduras once enjoyed a close and constructive relationship. For decades, Taiwan supported agricultural development, infrastructure resilience, educational exchanges, public health and small business programs across Honduras. In return, the Central American country remained a steadfast diplomatic ally of Taipei even as many of its neighbors shifted their recognition to Beijing.

That changed in 2023, when the current president, Xiomara Castro of the left-wing Libre party, established formal relations with Beijing. Because the Chinese Communist Party does not recognize Taiwan and does not allow countries to maintain formal relations with both, this necessitated cutting ties with Taipei. Now, ahead of Honduras hotly contested presidential election coming up in November, a debate is unfolding over whether to reverse the decision.

Castro initially framed the policy pivot as an economic opportunity, but high expectations quickly gave way to disillusionment. Chinese companies flooded Honduran markets with ultra-low-cost goods, undercutting local vendors. Local business owners in Tegucigalpa, the nations capital, have reported drops in sales of up to 70 percent, attributing the losses to the influx of Chinese discount stores. The two sides have struggled to finalize promised trade agreements, although with Honduras presidential election coming up in November, they recently accelerated the pace of talks.

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Meanwhile, Taiwan, once a large buyer of shrimp from Honduras, has shifted its purchases to Belize, decimating a key industry in Honduras. Thousands of jobs have been lost in coastal communities as shrimp exports fell by 20 percent between 2023 and 2024, forcing over 60 farms to close. This has spurred criticism by Honduran commentators that the countrys shift to China has not yielded the promised economic benefits, and has even backfired in some ways.

To get more in-depth news and expert analysis on global affairs from WPR, sign up for our free Daily Review newsletter.

In the upcoming election, Castros defense minister, Rixi Moncada, will face off against the centrist Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party and Nasry Asfura of the conservative National Party. Asfura ran unsuccessfully in 2021 to succeed former President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who upon leaving office was extradited to the U.S. and convicted of crimes related to drug trafficking, for which he was sentenced to 45 years in prison.

Hernandez maintains his innocence, and his case is under appeal. Meanwhile, Castro has also come under suspicion of involvement with major drug cartels, though she denies all allegations. Polling shows a tight race, with each of the three candidates leading in different surveys.

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On the campaign trail, corruption and economic issues rank among voters primary concerns, but China policy is also a frequent topic. Asfura has pledged to restore ties with Taiwan, triggering a direct rebuke from the Chinese Embassy in Tegucigalpa. Without mentioning him by name, it issued a lengthy statement calling Asfuras comments erroneous and suggesting he correct them before its too late. Nasralla made the same pledge last year, but did not face the same pushback.

Honduras diplomatic alignment has become a frontline issue in a larger contest over foreign influence and great power engagement in the Global South.

As indicated by the Chinese Embassys statement, the current debate over Honduras China policy is about more than economic development. It is about election integrity, sovereignty and foreign influence, as well as Honduras position in the intensifying global competition between democratic and authoritarian powers. Honduras diplomatic alignment has become a frontline issue in a larger contest over influence, standards of governance and the nature of great power engagement in the Global South.

As co-authors, we are active participants in this debate from both sides of the Pacific. One of us is a Honduran congressional candidate from the National Party who has traveled to Taiwan on a Foreign Ministry scholarship program. The other is a Taiwan-focused policy analyst who has long studied the pressures facing Taiwans remaining diplomatic partners. We view Honduras election as an inflection point not only for its own foreign policy, but also for the broader effort to defend international partnerships grounded in mutual respect and democratic values.

In this context, Asfura has not only proposed restoring diplomatic ties with Taiwan but also deeper engagement with the United States after years of strained relations under Castro. He has put forth a business-friendly economic platform that he argues would tap the skills of returning migrants, unlock foreign investment and rebalance trade policy toward transparent, long-term development.

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These priorities reflect a broader regional conversation as Latin America becomes a strategic battleground for influence between Beijing and the democratic world. While China expands its footprint through trade and infrastructure diplomacy, Taipei offers a competing model grounded in transparency, accountability and institutional resilience.

Beijing has initiated high-profile agreements with Honduras in strategic sectors like education, energy and infrastructure, but on-the-ground delivery of aid remains limited. Similarly, in nearby countries like El Salvador and the Dominican Republic, promised investments from China have sometimes been delayed or delivered without local oversight. By contrast, Taiwan has emphasized long-term partnerships based on mutual need. This difference in approach matters not only for governance, but for the health of democratic institutions that thrive on accountability and public trust.

Taiwan has signaled it is open to the possibility of restored ties. Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung stated in April that Honduras would be welcomed back as a diplomatic partner. Taipei is now promoting its Diplomatic Allies Prosperity Project, which prioritizes cooperation in agriculture, health care, digital infrastructure and vocational training. The initiative aligns with Honduras needs and provides a contrast to Beijings opaque lending practices. In Latin American countries that recognize Taiwan, like Paraguay and Belize, the Prosperity Project has already helped launch joint ventures and skill-building programs that serve as practical models for renewal.

The United States, too, has a stake in how Honduras repositions itself. Through legislation like the TAIPEI Act, Washington has made clear that it supports countries that maintain ties with Taiwan and seek transparent, rules-based cooperation. Honduras foreign policy orientation could shape the future of joint security efforts, trade flows and infrastructure development in Central America.

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None of this implies that Honduras should serve as a pawn in a larger geopolitical contest. On the contrary, the choice ahead is about reclaiming agency. For small democracies like Honduras, the ability to select partners based on shared priorities, not pressure, is essential to national sovereignty.

Restoring ties with Taiwan would be more than a mere diplomatic adjustment. It would be a statement that Honduras seeks a foreign policy rooted in reciprocity and cooperation, not dependence and conditionality. Such a move could also inspire other countries that are considering similar realignments, sending a message that dignity and sovereignty remain viable paths in global affairs.

This vision also demands responsibility from Taiwan and the United States. Taipei must approach renewed ties not with nostalgia, but with a clear understanding of what Honduran communities need today: fair trade, stable jobs and respect for dignity. That means listening closely to partners, investing in public-facing programs and avoiding transactional diplomacy. Washington must support the process without overly politicizing it, offering consistent engagement and a regional strategy that listens before it leads. Coordinating these efforts with Taiwan can enhance shared goals without undermining Honduras agency.

Ultimately, Honduras choice in November will shape its place in the international order and offer a glimpse of how democracies can build lasting partnerships in a divided world. The outcome will not only impact the foreign policy of an Asian liberal democracy under threat of attack from China, but also signal what kind of future Honduras envisions for its people and the region.

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Howard Shen is an independent analyst on Taiwanese and Indo-Pacific political and security affairs. He was foreign press secretary to Hou Yu-Ih, the 2024 presidential candidate of Taiwans Kuomintang party. He has been published in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and War on the Rocks, among other outlets.

Frank Alley is a Honduran congressional candidate for the national capital region (Francisco Morazan department). He served as chief of staff to the minister of the presidency and executive assistant to the minister of social inclusion under former President Juan Orlando Hernandez.

The post Honduras Election Is a Referendum on Its China Ties appeared first on World Politics Review.
LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  The city of Henderson, along with KB Home, broke ground on a new housing development with plans to build over nine hundred homes near Stephanie Street and Galleria Drive right by the Galleria at Sunset.

I like to call the location the hole in the doughnut; we have everything we want right around us here for a great, successful community, KB Home division president Jim McDade said.

The Meriden Community will feature a mix of two- and three-story townhomes totaling 940 units and single-family residences designed to be affordable for first-time and move-up buyers.

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McDade promises to build a neighborhood that blends affordability, sustainability, and Hendersons signature quality of life.

Weve had a great track record in Henderson, and the city has been a really great partner for years from our time in Inspirada, so this was just a natural fit for KB Home, McDade said.

Along with the new housing, KB Home has plans for a community park and walking trails, adding to Hendersons reputation as one of the fastest-growing and most livable cities in the valley.

Henderson Councilwoman Carrie Cox said projects like Meriden are a sign Henderson is growing, but with an eye on livability.

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This new complex will also help the mall, retail in the area and be able to benefit the economy, Cox said.

Mary Powers whose been living in Henderson for over thirty years, said the Meriden groundbreaking signals not just growth, but opportunity.

Its great for first-time home buyers, and also the mortgage rates are going down a little bit so that will help also, Powers said.

Home models will start in ninety days, and the grand opening will take place between February and March of next year.

Prices start from the mid-three-hundred-thousand-dollar range to the mid-four hundred-thousand-dollar range.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
HONOLULU (KHON2)  The Honolulu Police Department has introduced a new online page for its Public Affairs Office.

The page  which went live on Tuesday, Sept. 9  is designed to make it easier for the public and media to find information in one place.

The webpage gathers resources that were once spread across different areas of HPDs website with the goal of improving access and increasing trust between the department and the community.

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Our Public Affairs Office was built with a simple but powerful goalto strengthen trust, said HPD Communications Director Claudette Springer. This new online hub reflects our commitment to speak with purpose, communicate with transparency and ensure every message reflects the humanity and accountability that defines HPDs mission. Whether its a public safety update, a community campaign, or a critical incident, we want the media and public to have a clear and reliable connection to our department. Every message mattersand were here to make sure it reaches the heart of the people we serve.

Get Hawaiis latest morning news delivered to your inbox, sign up for News 2 You

The new page features four main tools:

The Criminal Highlights section shows key cases from the past 72 hours. Traffic Information reports on critical and fatal crashes. A Calls for Service log records 24 hours of police responses. News Releases and Press Conferences are stored in a searchable archive, with video available in one location.

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Were excited to provide quick access to this information to our partners in local media, said Interim Chief of Police Rade Vanic. We truly appreciate them helping us get important information out there, and were eager to find more efficient ways to work together.

You can click here to access the webpage.

Get news on the go with KHON 2GO, KHONs morning podcast, every morning at 8

HPD leaders, including Interim Deputy Chiefs Aaron Takasaki-Young and Ryan Nishibun, said the page is part of a wider effort to keep the community informed with timely updates.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KHON2.
LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  Business tycoon, aviator, moviemaker, and philanthropist Howard Hughes left a lasting mark on Las Vegas, from buying resorts on the Las Vegas Strip, airports and acres of land now known as Summerlin to investing in local news.

During his time in Sin City, he bought a house located right behind Channel 8. A house that has many myths and legends surrounding it, much like its famed former owner.

Hughes was a frequent visitor to Las Vegas in the 1940s and 1950s and is said to have lived in a small ranch-style home in the television stations parking lot, informally known as The Hughes House, for a short stretch between the spring of 1953 and early 1954. At the time, it was adjacent to the Desert Inn Hotel and stood on the grounds of what was called the Sun Villa Motel, and later the Blair House Motel.

The Howard Hughes house is located right behind 8 News Nows studio. (KLAS)

While some say Hughes did in fact live in the house, Geoff Schumacher, author of Howard Hughes: The Power, Paranoia and Place Intrigue, told 8 News Now in an interview in Oct. 2024, We dont believe that Howard Hughes actually slept in the house, we dont believe he had people over where whether that be women or others.

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Howard Hughes: The man behind the magic at KLAS

Hughes leased the house in 1953 and would hold meetings there, and later bought the home and KLAS from the television stations founder, Hank Greenspun. The story goes that Hughes loved movies and wanted them to play all night and into the morning. However, he would often fall asleep in his hotel suite while watching the films airing on KLAS.

He would then place late-night calls to the stations owner, Greenspun, to pester him into restarting the movie, just for him. Greenspun, a longtime friend of Hughes, was exasperated after a while and suggested that Hughes simply buy the station. Hughes did just that, for $3.6 million.

A blowup of a photo of Howard Hughes behind him H.M. Hank Greenspun, publisher of the Las Vegas Sun, talks as he is interviewed for the ABC-TV news special In Search of Howard Hughes- An unauthorized Biography, which was televised nationally February 5, with the segment featuring Greenspun deleted.

When he became the owner, he ordered the station to restart movies so he could watch the parts he had missed. Hughes invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into KLAS and turned it into a state-of-the-art broadcast facility. At one point, he reportedly wanted to build the studio on wheels so the station could be portable.

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Today in history: Howard Hughes, who changed the face of Las Vegas, dies

In 1974, the TV station expanded, and they kept the house in the back parking lot. The house even made it to the big screen in the classic Las Vegas mobster flick Casino.

FILE  Howard Hughes smiles as he sits in the witness chair before reading a statement at the Senate War Investigation Subcommittee hearing in Washington, Nov. 15, 1947. Hughes played a supporting role in the CIAs effort to retrieve part of a sunken Soviet submarine in 1974 with a specialized ship that was built to retrieve the sub and was called the Hughes Glomar Explorer. (AP Photo/File)

Hughes had the house hermetically sealed when he left town in 1954, and it wasnt reopened until the frantic search for his will after he died in 1976.

$1.5M approved to move Howard Hughes Las Vegas home

In October 2024, Clark County Commissioners approved $1.5 million dollars to help move the home to the Clark County Museum in Henderson.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has expressed his country's "full solidarity" with Poland following the intrusion of drones into Polish airspace.

"The violation of Poland's territorial integrity is unacceptable," Orban wrote on Facebook on Wednesday.

The right-wing populist did not mention that, as Warsaw alleges, the drones were Russian and that Moscow is the aggressor in the Russian-Ukrainian war.

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Orban's government maintains good relations with the Kremlin and has repeatedly tried to block EU sanctions against Russia.

Orban wrote that the latest incident proves that Hungary's "peace-promoting policy is justified and reasonable."

The war must be ended, he continued, "which is why we support [US] President [Donald] Trump's efforts to achieve peace."

Several drones entered Polish airspace overnight during Russian attacks on targets in Ukraine. Poland, a NATO member, on Wednesday requested consultations with its allies under Article 4 of the NATO Treaty.
KUNMING, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- In the early morning mist in Jinglai Village in Menghai County, southwest China's Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, villager Yu Ying'er loaded freshly picked vegetables onto her three-wheeled vehicle.

Within an hour, the dew-covered produce will pass through a designated "green channel" for cross-border trade, heading to markets in neighboring countries.

Yu, who has long sold vegetables across the border, said Chinese produce enjoys strong demand in Myanmar thanks to its variety and quality. The sight of tricycles shuttling to and from the border has become common in this area.

In recent years, fruits and vegetables from Yunnan have gained popularity across ASEAN markets. Grapes, citrus, mushrooms and other specialty products have emerged as leading exports.

According to Kunming Customs, Yunnan's agricultural trade with ASEAN reached 18.6 billion yuan (about 2.62 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of 2025 -- up 23.5 percent year on year. Fruit exports alone increased by 44.3 percent in this period.

Experts attribute this growth to Yunnan's unique geography and climate. "Yunnan's low-latitude plateau offers abundant sunlight and biodiversity, allowing year-round production of tropical and temperate fruits," said Zhang Shengping, deputy director of the Institute of Vegetables and Flowers at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Yunnan's fruit harvests, notably, complement ASEAN production cycles, filling seasonal gaps. From fruit stalls in Thailand to supermarkets in Indonesia -- grapes, citrus and apples from Yunnan have become familiar sights.

The province is also a major vegetable producer. Its southern valleys produce summer vegetables in winter, while its highlands yield winter vegetables in summer. "This allows continuous supply throughout the year," said Wang Tao, an official with the provincial department of commerce.

In addition, logistics upgrades have further boosted exports. The China-Laos Railway and streamlined customs procedures have cut transport times nearly in half compared with road freight.

In early August, a "Luliang Vegetable" cold-chain freight train departed from Luliang Station in the city of Qujing in Yunnan, carrying fresh produce to Bangkok, capital of Thailand. Return trips transport durians and other tropical fruits to China, thereby creating a two-way trade corridor.

The China-Laos Railway, integrated with the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor and the China-Europe Railway Express, now covers 31 provincial-level regions in China and 19 countries and regions including Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. This network has opened a fast track for Yunnan's highland produce to reach global markets.

Later in August, another cold-chain train delivered more than 400 tonnes of vegetables from the city of Yuxi to Thailand -- requiring just three days to complete the trip. Multimodal transport by rail, road and sea now also enables Yunnan produce to reach Singapore and beyond.

"Proximity to Laos, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries gives Yunnan a natural advantage in exports," Zhang said. With the China-Laos-Thailand Railway fully connected and new distribution centers under construction, more high-quality "Yunnan-brand" products are expected to enter international markets.

Efficient logistics and streamlined customs help ensure freshness. "Citrus exported from Mengzi can reach Vietnamese consumers the same day it's shipped," said Zhao Ziqi, head of Honghe Dayou Trading Co. Honghe, another city in Yunnan, sees Orah citrus harvested from December through July, giving ASEAN markets year-round access to fresh fruit.

Policy measures are also supporting growth. In August, Yunnan introduced steps to optimize tax administration and expand exports of highland specialties including tea, flowers, coffee, mushrooms and nuts.

New rules for the China (Yunnan) Pilot Free Trade Zone took effect in September -- encouraging innovative trade models, closer cooperation with neighboring countries, and cross-border labor pilot programs.

China is the world's largest fruit producer and consumer -- and agricultural trade with ASEAN has expanded under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the Belt and Road framework. As a key production and export base, Yunnan's rapidly growing fruit and vegetable trade illustrates how regional advantages can align with national strategies to reach global markets.

While exporting fruits to ASEAN countries, Yunnan also imports fruits from those countries, especially Thailand and Vietnam, creating a two-way fruit corridor. With faster logistics and new rail links, more Yunnan fruits and vegetables are now reaching ASEAN markets fresh from China's southwestern highlands, said Wang Tao. 
CENTRAL ILLINOIS (WCIA)  The Illinois Pork Producers Association is launching a new apprenticeship program at five Illinois community colleges that will prepare students for a career in swine care.

The program was recently registered with the U.S. Department of Labor with the help of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. Participating apprentices will be prepared for a career as a Swine Animal Care Technician, and they will receive competitive compensation that increases with their skills.

City of Sullivan starting text messaging system for communication with residents

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They will also receive a debt-free education and livestock certificate from one of the five participating community colleges:

Illinois Central College in East Peoria

John Wood Community College in Quincy

Kaskaskia College in Centralia

Lake Land Community College in Mattoon

Lincoln Land Community College in Springfield

These five community colleges were initially selected to participate because they have strong agriculturally based programs and geographically represent a large portion of the swine production in the state, said Jennifer Tirey, IPPA Executive Director. When I contacted each of the community colleges to gauge interest, they were all very excited to participate and work alongside our association to increase job creation within the pork industry.

Career seekers or producers interested in learning more about this apprenticeship opportunity should reach out to Tirey at jennifer@ilpork.com.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com.
A day after President Donald Trumps Department of Homeland Security launched Operation Midway Blitz, its latest immigration crackdown, area politicians and immigrant rights groups said it was relatively subdued on the ground Tuesday with minimal arrests.

But theyre preparing for more.

Speaking before more than a dozen cameras on a quiet street in Pilsen, Gov. JB Pritzker on Tuesday said the federal immigration enforcement agency has plans to send in more than 200 agents and 100 vehicles in its Chicago immigration blitz.

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Heres what we do know. (The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is somewhere on the ground here, Pritzker said, standing in front of the National Museum of Mexican Art. They already have been effectuating their plans.

We have not seen the bulk of those ICE agents yet in communities, but we have seen some, and we know that they are gathering steam, added Pritzker, a two-term Democratic governor.

As of Tuesday afternoon, no cases related to the immigration enforcement push had appeared in Chicagos federal court. A law enforcement source told the Tribune that the main operation run out of the Naval Station Great Lakes has yet to begin in earnest.

The governor also said Tuesday he believed Gregory Bovino, the border patrol official who led immigration operations in Los Angeles this summer, had not yet arrived in Illinois but has been on his way. CBS News reported Tuesday that the Trump border official had arrived in Chicago.

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When asked if Bovino was in Chicago, a DHS spokesperson told the Tribune to stay tuned.

This week there have been multiple reports of federal immigration agents walking around the Southwest Side, said Brandon Lee, spokesperson for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. He said they havent confirmed any arrests apart from the handful on Sunday, which included a street vendor selling flowers in the Archer Heights neighborhood.

Theyre certainly making the rounds, and were just trying to confirm whether anyone was taken from those stops, Lee said.

Lee said the numbers of arrests and sightings havent yet come close to reaching those from the January federal immigration effort. He expects that to change, however, as reports of ICE sending hundreds of agents to a North Chicago naval base and activity at an ICE processing center in Broadview trickle in.

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Evanston officials also said theres a good chance immigration agents will come into the north suburb. The mayor said he was alerted that a helicopter operated by the Department of Homeland Security flew around Evanstons lakefront Monday afternoon.

DHS officials have said the operation will target criminal illegal aliens who have taken advantage of the city and states sanctuary policies. A Tribune analysis found, however, that many immigrants who were previously arrested under Trump didnt have a criminal record. There have been few details released on how long this latest operation may last, or if Trump will deploy the National Guard to assist, as hes previously suggested.

Trump on Tuesday, meanwhile, continued his plea that Chicago residents and city and state leaders ask for his help to deal with crime, using the Aug. 22 stabbing death of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte, North Carolina, transit car as an example of Democrat-run cities that set loose savage, bloodthirsty criminals to prey on innocent people.

All we want is, Please, Mr. President, we need help. Chicago needs help, Trump said. Other cities needs help. Well do what has to be done because were going to make America safe again. And that includes our big cities. Were going to make those cities safe.

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Decarlos Brown Jr., the suspect in the North Carolina stabbing, faces a federal charge of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system. Brown has a lengthy criminal history that includes felony breaking and entering and robbery with a dangerous weapon, for which he served a five-year prison sentence.

Over the weekend, Trump had seemingly set the stage for heightened enforcement in Chicago with an AI-created social media post of military helicopters flying over Chicagos lakefront with the title Chipocalypse Now. He quickly downplayed the controversy, but said were going to clean up our cities. His administration has repeatedly gestured toward sending in federal agents over the past two weeks.

Pritzker also condemned the Supreme Court ruling this week clearing the way for federal agents to conduct sweeping immigration operations for now in Los Angeles, saying it takes rights away from people across the United States. But he also acknowledged that federal law trumps state law, period, end of sentence.

And so what we can do is make sure that people know their rights, that theyre staying out of the way, he said.

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Lee also called the courts decision so frustrating, but said it doesnt change much of their preparation, since its not as if we viewed ICE as an agency that follows the law, by the book anyway.

We are trying to stay ready in terms of making sure our rapid response teams are ready and making sure our (family support) hotline is ready, Lee said, adding that the hotline received its highest volume of calls since Trump took office on Monday.

Other advocacy groups have set up trainings on how to respond to ICE in their neighborhoods.

By Tuesday evening, hundreds of people gathered again in downtown Chicago to protest Trumps immigration action, this time in Congress Plaza with plans to march along Michigan Avenue.

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Since Saturday, protests and rallies against Trump and federal immigration agents have popped up all over the suburbs and city, including outside the ICE processing center in Broadview and near the Naval Station Great Lakes.

Mary Kate Turek, of West Town, attended Tuesdays protest to stand up for her neighbors, she said.

Im not going to take (this) sitting down, the 28-year-old said as demonstrators chanted around her. To see my neighbors  who are simply trying to go to work, go to church, make a living to protect their family  risk their livelihoods and their lives by just stepping outside of their door? Thats not the kind of country, (one) of fear and domination, that America should be representing.

Chicago Tribunes Rick Pearson, Jason Meisner and Tess Kenny contributed.
India will continue to look at ways to work with the Taliban, including hosting its UN sanctioned leader Amir Khan Muttaqi in New Delhi, officials said.

Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Talibans acting foreign minister, was due to make his first trip to India in August but failed to secure a waiver on his existing travel ban by the United Nations Security Council.

He was sanctioned by the UNSC in 2001 over the acts and activities of the Taliban in Afghanistan during the hardline Islamist groups previous rule in the 1990s.

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On being asked about Muttaqis planned visit to India, Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Singh Jaiswal told reporters that India continues to engage with Afghan authorities.

As you are aware, we have longstanding ties with the people of Afghanistan. India continues to support the aspirations and developmental needs of the Afghan people. We continue to have engagements with Afghan authorities, he said last week.

According to officials in New Delhi, a waiver for Muttaqi was sought from the UNSC but it was not given clearance, in a move reportedly blocked by Pakistan.

The 1988 sanctions committee  a subsidiary body of the Security Council to oversee the implementation of sanctions  is currently led by Pakistan. It is overseeing the travel bans imposed on the Taliban leaders along with assets freeze and an arms embargo.

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The Indian side will continue to look into ways to host the acting foreign minister and the visit is expected to proceed in the coming months after the waiver on the travel ban is addressed in the interest of regional cooperation, sources told The Independent.

If the waiver is granted, the visit from Muttaqi will bump India into a brief list of nations that have hosted the sanctioned Taliban leader  joining the ranks of China and Russia who have engaged with the fundamentalist group despite censure.

The India visit, seen as problematic over the Talibans policies banning almost half of its population of girls and women from schools, colleges, and workplaces on top of curtailing their basic human rights, will grant legitimacy to the groups senior leader.

India has gradually ramped up its cautious yet increasingly diplomatic approach in engaging with the Taliban by meeting with the groups senior officials in Qatar and also in Kabul.

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In January this year Indias foreign secretary Vikram Misri met with Muttaqi and discussed diplomatic relations, security concerns, and humanitarian aid with Afghanistan at its highest-level talks till then in Dubai.

The two sides discussed expanding bilateral ties, with an increased focus on Indias security concerns, boost in trade through the Chabahar Port in Iran, and Indian investments in several development projects inside Afghanistan, which remain a key concern for Delhi.

In May this year, Indias external affairs minister S Jaishankar held a telephonic conversation with Muttaqi where the Afghan leader condemned the terrorist attack in Kashmirs Pahalgam.

The exchange marked the highest level of contact between New Delhi and Kabul after the exit of Nato forces from Afghanistan in August 2021, even though India has not granted any official recognition to the Taliban.

The two spoke again last week in the aftermath of deadly 6.0 magnitude earthquake in Afghanistan, which killed at least 2,200 people even as authorities warned that the actual death toll could be higher as more bodies in remote areas were recovered.
ILLINOIS (WCIA)  Some Indiana lawmakers are hoping several Illinois counties will join their state. Now a newly formed commission will take a closer look at making it happen.

Clay Andrews has spent almost his entire life in western Indiana and he grew up just a hundred yards away from the Illinois border. But now, he is hoping to see that border pushed back and Indianas Governor Mike Braun has asked him to join the effort.

Illinois joins 23 other states in opposing rule change that could cut homecare workers pay

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I got a call from a guy from Brauns office and I have met Braun a few times. He knows where we live and what I do and I guess he thought that I would be a good fit, Andrews said.

Andrews is one of the new members of a new Indiana-Illinois boundary adjustment commission.

The group has one goal: re-draw the state borders so that rural-conservative Illinois counties can join the more conservative leaning Indiana.

You know, they wake up, work hard and do what they can for their families, and theyre just kind of tired of feeling like theyre not being represented by their state government, Andrews said.

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Parts of one state leaving to join another state hasnt happened since West Virginia split from Virginia during the civil war. But, University of Illinois Springfield professor Kenneth Owen said that hasnt stopped states from trying.

At almost any time in American history, you will find some parts of the country, sometimes several parts of the country, in which these movements take place, Owen said.

But Owen said there is something unique about this commission that other movements have lacked  the support of a states government.

DHS begins Operation Midway Blitz in honor of woman killed in Urbana crash

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Very often this is something thats formed by county boards, local officials, but it doesnt really get that stamp of statewide approval, Owen said.

Andrews said the next steps for the commission arent exactly clear. Their first meeting will be in October. He said what their conversations will be, or when any new maps could come out is still up in the air.

It is fun to be on the, so to speak, front line, to look into it. You know, have discussions and hopefully we can serve this commission well and give the governor and the legislature what they want, Andrews said.

Illinois officials have been mostly opposed to the commission. Earlier this year, Governor JB Pritzker called the commission a stunt and said it was not going to happen.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com.
A highway is pictured under construction. (Courtesy Indiana Department of Transportation)

Indianas Department of Transportation has asked its federal counterpart to temporarily excuse it from diverse contractor requirements, which the states attorney general has dubbed unconstitutional.

The Hoosier State is the first to request a waiver, filing with the U.S. Department of Transportation late last month, according to a Tuesday news release. The move was prompted by a preliminary injunction in a federal case featuring a disgruntled Indiana subcontractor.

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I am a firm believer in offering equal opportunity for all to compete and succeed, Gov. Mike Braun said in the release. If granted, this waiver will further position Indiana as a state one would want to do business with and as a place to grow your business.

U.S. Department of Transportation regulations require state and local transportation agencies that receive highway, transit and airport assistance to establish contracting goals for the participation of disadvantaged business enterprises that are majority owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals.

Anyone can qualify as disadvantaged  subjected to racial, ethnic or cultural prejudice  on a case-by-case basis. But some are presumed to be disadvantaged: women and Black, Hispanic, Native and Asian Americans.

There are personal net worth, business size and gross receipts standards, however.

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Forcing INDOT to prioritize contractors based on race or gender is unconstitutional and undermines fair competition, said Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, who authored a Friday letter in support of the agencys waiver request.

The letter, also signed by the attorneys general of 16 other states, argued that white or male business owners dont benefit from the race and gender presumption. Thats plainly discriminatory and therefore unconstitutional, the letter added.

In the release, Rokita said a granted waiver would be a critical step toward ensuring that Indianas transportation projects are awarded based on merit, not arbitrary classifications, and aligns with our constitutional duty to uphold equal protection under the law.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita speaks at an environmental deregulation event at an Indianapolis truck dealership on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Leslie Bonilla Muniz/Indiana Capital Chronicle)

Under its proposed waiver, INDOT would go race- and gender-neutral.

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A new methodology for setting goals and certifying businesses would consider how available economically disadvantaged small businesses are in certain geographies and industries, according to the release.

The agency asked for a three-year exemption, which would end around the time the agencys next disparity study is expected to be complete. The results will be used to create a new disadvantaged business goal based solely on economic criteria.

INDOT will keep offering business development programming, virtual learning, forums and networking events to DBEs across Indiana.

Its the latest step state officials have taken against diverse contracting efforts.

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Brauns Department of Administration is also seeking an opinion from Rokitas office about the legality of the Governors Commission on Supplier Diversity and the Minority and Womens Business Enterprises Program.

That agencys Division of Supplier Diversity has called off its next meeting until the review is completed, although opinions are non-binding. The division has also canceled its annual Business Conference and B2Bloom Expo, which showcases opportunities for underrepresented companies to contract with state government.

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HENDERSON, Ky (WEHT)  Although we are still a long time away from any state borders changing, Indiana is starting to put together the pieces that could make a split happen.

The conversation over Illinois counties joining Indiana began back in 2020. That year, several counties passed non-binding referendums to split from the rest of Illinois. Now, 33 counties have passed several referendums.

This past year, Illinois and Indianas legislatures introduced bills to form a commission to discuss the split. The bill in Illinois never got off the ground, but in Indiana, a state boundary commission has been formed and will meet soon.

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Their goal is to figure out how to get at least a few Illinois counties to join the Hoosier state. The Indiana commission will hold its first meeting in October.

While Indiana is putting in the leg work, Illinois support still needs to get off the ground. There are five open seats on the commission for Illinois representatives.

Illinois governor JB Pritzker would be the one to appoint them. He says the move is a stunt that isnt going to happen.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Eyewitness News (WEHT/WTVW).
Two Quinlan firefighters are in stable condition after injuries they sustained Tuesday when the engine they were in rolled over while on their way to investigate a fire.

The accident happened shortly after 1 p.m. when the firefighters were en route to investigate the site of an already-extinguished fire off of Farm-to-Market Road 36. A press release from Quinlan Fire Department says that while the engine was rounding a corner on that road, control of the vehicle was lost and it rolled over an unknown number of times.

After the accident, the driver was flown out via Air Evac and a passenger was transported in an ambulance for treatment.

While the department had no further updates on the incident or the firefighters condition as of Tuesday afternoon, they extended their gratitude to the emergency workers who responded to it including: Department of Public Safety, South Hunt County Fire Department, Union Valley Fire Department, Hunt County Sheriffs Office, American Medical Response, Hawk Cove Police Department and AirEvac.
Iraq appears to want to wring concessions for having freed her. It took 900 days, but authorities in Baghdad are making it seem as if they did what was expected.

The Iranian-backed Kata'ib Hezbollah militia in Iraq is trying to spin the release of Princeton researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov. It wants to make it seem that the militia released her to spare Iraq conflict and to get US forces to withdraw from Iraq.

Meanwhile, the Prime Ministers Office in Iraq also released a statement making it seem like Iraqs government had done everything correctly over the last 900 days as she was held in the country.

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Tsurkov holds Israeli and Russian citizenship. She was kidnapped in March 2023 and held for more than 900 days. US President Donald Trump announced her release on September 9.

Iraqs Prime Minister Office put out a statement ascribed to the Spokesman for the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. It said in late March of 2023, a group of outlaws kidnapped the Russian citizen Elizabeth Tsurkov while she was in the capital, Baghdad, in a crime that does not reflect the reality of the security situation in all Iraqi cities.

The statement ignores the fact that Tsurkov was also Israeli. She was kidnapped by the Iranian-backed Kata'ib Hezbollah, part of the Iraqi paramilitary Popular Mobilization Forces. As such, Kata'ib Hezbollah is actually closely linked to the government.

US Army soldiers keep watch on the US embassy compound in Baghdad, Iraq January 1, 2020 (credit: DOD/LT. COL. ADRIAN WEALE/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)

Iraq claims that our security services have continued their work and movements away from the media, to preserve the confidentiality of the information, and to ensure the safety of the kidnapped Russian citizen.

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Iraq claims it used intelligence efforts and also also coordination with several internal parties at a great level of national and humanitarian feeling, the competent authorities were able on September 9, [2025] to reveal the place of her detention and access to it, and later hand her over to the United States Embassy, which in turn will take care of delivering her to her sister who holds American citizenship.

Iraq pretends that its security forces did what was required and that they will pursue those involved in the crime of kidnapping her.

This is strange, since it is widely known she was held by Kata'ib Hezbollah which has forces and offices openly in Iraq. Iraqs government portrays her as being liberated or freed, against the will of the militia. The Iraqi spokesman for the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces says this is about the reputation of Iraq, its security and stability, and we confirm that our armed forces and all our security services and formations will not slacken in the performance of their duty in imposing the authority of the law and defending the state and its institutions, and holding accountable those who try to harm security.

How Iraqi media is spinning the release of Elizabeth Tsurkov

However, sources in Iraq are also spinning this for media to make it seem this will prevent conflict in Iraq.

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Al-Akhbar media in Lebanon, which is generally seen as pro-Iran, includes a report on Tsurkovs release where Kata'ib Hezbollah claims that Tsurkov was not freed by the government. Instead, Kata'ib Hezbollah claims to have freed Tsurkov.

For his part, a source in the Hezbollah Brigades told Agence France-Presse that Tsurkov's release was made on the condition that Iraq be spared any conflict.

This is part of the spin.

While the Kata'ib Hezbollah did not claim responsibility for Tsurkov's kidnapping, the source said, The operation that took place was a release, not a liberation. No military operation was carried out to free her, but she was released in accordance with conditions, the most important of which was to pave the way for the withdrawal of US forces without a fight, sparing Iraq any conflict or fighting.

Iraq appears to want to wring concessions for having freed her. It took 900 days, but authorities in Baghdad are making it seem as if they did what was expected.
DAKAR (Reuters) -Islamic State-affiliated militants have stepped up attacks in western Niger, killing more than 127 people in five separate strikes since March and highlighting authorities' failure to protect civilians, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.

A report by the rights group provides the most detailed accounts available of attacks carried out by Islamic State in the Sahel Province (ISSP) in the Tillaberi region, near the border with Burkina Faso and Mali. Niger does not typically comment on such incidents.

The tri-border region is known as a hub of jihadist activity in West Africa linked to Islamic State and al-Qaeda.

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Witnesses identified the perpetrators of the attacks as members of ISSP based on their attire and because of threats the group had made beforehand, HRW said.

Witnesses also said Niger's army did not adequately respond to warnings of attacks and ignored villagers' requests for protection, according to the report.

The government and a military spokesperson could not be reached for comment ahead of the report's publication.

Reuters could not independently verify HRW's accounts of the attacks.

Niger's junta, which came to power in a coup in 2023, cited persistent insecurity as justification for overthrowing the government.

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But an analysis of data on attacks and casualties in the country had shown an improvement in security ahead of the coup, owing to government tactics and help from French and U.S. forces.

The resurgence in attacks in Tillaberi underscores the threat posed by jihadist groups at a time when West African governments are estranged from former Western military allies

HRW urged Niger's government to investigate and prosecute abuses it described as apparent war crimes. The group said Niger's justice minister did not respond to questions about its findings.

(Writing by Anait MiridzhanianEditing by Robbie Corey-Boulet and Gareth Jones)
Tunisian President Kais Saied (R) meets with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud in Tunis, Tunisia, Sept. 9, 2025. Tunisian President Kais Saied on Tuesday received visiting Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud to discuss bilateral ties and regional issues, the Tunisian presidency said in a statement. (Tunisian Presidency/Handout via Xinhua)

TUNIS, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Tunisian President Kais Saied on Tuesday received visiting Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud to discuss bilateral ties and regional issues, the Tunisian presidency said in a statement.

According to the statement, discussions focused on the current state of bilateral cooperation and the joint efforts to further expand it across all sectors. Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to overcoming obstacles and accelerating the completion of ongoing projects.

During the meeting, Saied praised the strong ties and shared cultural bonds between Tunisia and Saudi Arabia.

The Tunisian president also reaffirmed Tunisia's unwavering support for the Palestinian cause, condemning attacks on civilians, blockades, and other actions by Israeli forces, and rejecting the forced displacement of Palestinians.

He added that global protests against Israel's war in Gaza signal a growing international push for justice and freedom, which will reshape the current world order.

Speaking at a press conference after the meeting, the Saudi foreign minister highlighted the importance of the visit, saying that it reflects the two countries' shared commitment to strengthening ties and coordinating positions on key regional and international issues to promote peace and stability in the region. 

Tunisian President Kais Saied (R) meets with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud in Tunis, Tunisia, Sept. 9, 2025. Tunisian President Kais Saied on Tuesday received visiting Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud to discuss bilateral ties and regional issues, the Tunisian presidency said in a statement. (Tunisian Presidency/Handout via Xinhua)
As the worlds attention was focused on Israels attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, Israeli forces continued their unrelenting bombardment of Gaza, killing more than 50 people on Tuesday.

Among the dead are nine Palestinians, who had gathered in the enclaves south seeking aid. Israel pressed on with its offensive in Gaza City after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened Palestinians to flee to the south for their lives.

The Wafa news agency reported that a drone strike on a makeshift tent sheltering displaced families at Gazas port killed two civilians and injured others. Warplanes also hit several residential buildings, including four homes in the al-Mukhabarat area and the Zidan building northwest of Gaza City, it reported.

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Another house was reportedly bombed in the Talbani neighbourhood of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, while two young men were killed in an attack on civilians in the az-Zarqa area of Tuffah, northeast of Gaza City.

Al Jazeeras Sanad fact-checking agency confirmed footage showing an Israeli strike on the Ibn Taymiyyah mosque in Deir el-Balah. The video captured a flash of light before the mosques minaret was enveloped in smoke. Despite the blast, the minaret appeared to remain standing.

Israel issued new evacuation threats on Monday, releasing maps warning Palestinians to leave a highlighted building and nearby tents on Jamal Abdel Nasser Street in Gaza City or face death. It told residents to move to the so-called humanitarian area in al-Mawasi, a barren stretch of coast in southern Gaza.

But al-Mawasi itself has been repeatedly bombed, despite Israel insisting it is a safe zone. At the start of the year, about 115,000 people lived there. Today, aid agencies estimate that more than 800,000 people  nearly a third of Gazas population  are crammed into overcrowded makeshift camps.





Philippe Lazzarini, the chief of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, described al-Mawasi as a vast camp concentrating hungry Palestinians in despair.

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There is no safe place in Gaza, let alone a humanitarian zone. Warnings of famine have fallen on deaf ears, he said.

The Palestinian Civil Defence warned that Gaza City is burning, and humanity is being annihilated.

The rescue agency said that in just 72 hours, five high-rise towers containing more than 200 apartments were destroyed, leaving thousands of people homeless.

More than 350 tents sheltering displaced families were also flattened, it added, forcing nearly 7,600 people to sleep in the open, struggling against death, hunger, and unbearable heat.

More than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed, some 20,000 of them children, in the Israeli offensive, which has been dubbed a genocide by numerous scholars and activists. The International Criminal Court has also issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu for alleged war crimes.

The crime of forced displacement

The Government Media Office in Gaza said that more than 1.3 million people remain in Gaza City and surrounding areas, despite Israeli attempts to push them south. It described the evacuation orders as an effort to carry out the crime of forced displacement in violation of all international laws.

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More than 90 percent of Gazas 2.3 million people have been displaced multiple times in 23 months of genocidal war, and an Israeli curb on aid entry, including food items, has led to starvation deaths. Last month, a UN agency declared famine in Gaza, affecting half a million people.

On Tuesday morning, Palestinians in central Gaza staged a protest against the latest evacuation orders.

Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeeras Hind Khoudary said that demonstrators carried banners reading, We will not leave, and Not going out.

The primary goal of the [Israeli] occupation is displacement, said Bajees al-Khalidi, a displaced Palestinian at the protest. But theres no place left, not in the south, nor the north. Weve become completely trapped.

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Violence also flared in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces killed two teenagers in the Jenin refugee camp, according to the Wafa news agency.

Mourners on Tuesday buried 14-year-old Islam Noah, who was shot while attempting to enter the besieged refugee camp. A funeral was also held for another 14-year-old, Muhammad Alawneh. Two others were wounded in the same incident.

Israel targets Hamas leaders

Israel sent missiles at Doha as Hamas leaders were meeting in the Qatari capital for talks on the latest ceasefire proposal from the United States to end the war in Gaza. Hamas said five people were killed, while Qatar said a security official was also among the dead. Hamas said its leadership survived the assassination attempt.

Qatars Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani condemned Israels reckless criminal attack in a phone call with US President Donald Trump. Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani called the attack state terrorism.

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The Qatari prime minister said Doha would continue to work to end Israels war on Gaza, but raised doubts about the viability of the most recent talks. When it comes to the current talks, I dont think there is something valid right now after weve seen such an attack, he said.

Qatar has sent a letter to the UN Security Council, condemning what it calls a cowardly Israeli assault on residential buildings in Doha.

The Doha attack has drawn global condemnation, with the UN chief calling it a flagrant violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar.

The White House claimed that the US had warned Qatar of the impending strike, but Doha rejected that account, insisting the warning came only after the bombing had begun.

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Trump later said he felt very badly about the location of the attack and that he had assured Qatar that it would not happen again.

This was a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me, Trump wrote on Truth Social. Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a Sovereign Nation and close Ally of the United States, that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker Peace, does not advance Israel or Americas goals.
Assuming President Donald Trumps claim that he couldnt stop Israels strike on Hamas officials in a Qatar residential district is true, hes just suffered another devastating blow to his international credibility.

Trump hurriedly made clear that Tuesdays raid, which killed five Hamas members but not the top team negotiating a new US ceasefire plan for Gaza, was not his decision and that hed rushed to inform Qatar when he learned of it.

Im not thrilled about the whole situation, Trump said as he went for dinner at a Washington, DC, steakhouse. Its not a good situation  we are not thrilled about the way that went down.

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That seemed a rare Trumpian understatement.

The strike  in which Israel ignored profound implications for vital American interests  is a new embarrassment for Trump at a time when hes also being taken for a ride by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who grinned through their summit in Alaska, then escalated attacks on Ukrainian civilians.

Trump seems sincere in his desire to be a global peacemaker, and if he succeeds, he could save many lives and leave a valuable legacy. He returned to the White House in January insisting hed quickly end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. But eight months later, both are even more bloody. And Putin, Chinas leader Xi Jinping and Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi openly defy him.

Events in the Middle East are unlikely to do much to hurt Trumps political fortunes at home, as his crime crackdown plays out amid worries about a slowing economy. But Israels attack in broad daylight in Doha could be ruinous to his self-image as a hard-power-wielding strongman who is feared abroad.

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Thats because the strike flagrantly trampled the sovereignty of a vital US ally that hosts the largest US base in the Middle East and was negotiating with Hamas at the behest of the White House on a plan Trump predicted would soon yield a deal.

Not only was this a personal affront to Trump, but it also puts Netanyahus goals over the critical security priorities of the United States  even after the last two US administrations rushed to defend Israel from two sets of attacks by Iran. CNN reported that some White House officials were furious that it took place after one of Netanyahus advisers, Ron Dermer, on Monday met Trumps envoy Steve Witkoff but made no mention of an operation sure to humiliate the US president.

The attacks take place at a very sensitive moment in the ceasefire negotiations where the Trump administration, the president, and his envoy Witkoff have made clear that the president is looking for a comprehensive ceasefire, the release of all hostages, prisoner exchange and moving forward and ending the war in Gaza, former US ambassador to Israel Edward Djerejian told Richard Quest on CNN International.

Israel is not obviously paying much attention to US national security interests, said Djerejian, who served in eight administrations, starting with that of President John F. Kennedy and ending with that of President Bill Clinton.

Smoke rises from an explosion in Doha, Qatar, on September 9. - AP

Huge ramifications for US foreign policy

The reverberations of the strike seem certain to end any hope of a negotiated peace to end Israels war in Gaza  one reason why it may have recommended itself to Netanyahu. There may be horrific ramifications for the remaining Israeli hostages who are still alive after nearly two years of torment in tunnels under Gaza.

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Its also the latest evidence that the Israeli prime minister places more importance on the total eradication of Hamas  a potentially impossible task  than the hostages return. And the almost certain result is an intensification of Israels offensive in the Gaza Strip, which has already killed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians and alienated most of Israels foreign allies.

For the United States, there are also serious ramifications.

 The fallout could sour the relationship between the US president and the Israeli prime minister and sow distrust between Israel and its vital ally the United States.

 It will shatter any credibility that the Trump had in posing as a distant mediator between Israel and Hamas and may cause Qatar to pull out of peace talks. The emirates prime minister accused Israel of conducting state terrorism.

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 Some US observers accuse Qatar of playing a double game by hosting Hamas leaders. But Doha will see the attack by Americas closest Middle East ally as a betrayal after its years working to advance US diplomatic priorities, not just in the Middle East, but in hostage release deals beyond the Middle East as far away as Afghanistan and Venezuela.

 There could also be adverse consequences for Trumps personal and political interests in the wider Arab world, which he energetically pursued during the first Gulf trip of his second term, including a lavish welcome in Qatar.

 And the administrations hoped-for expansion of the first-term Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and some Arab states  and which is key to Trumps push for a Nobel Peace Prize  is now more distant than ever.

 Leaders of other states in the Gulf, a thriving business and leisure hub, will wonder  if Israel can strike with impunity at Qatar, under the noses of the US garrison  whether they will be next.

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Its a pretty big bill for the Israelis to have conducted this strike, retired Admiral James Stavridis, a former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, told CNNs Kasie Hunt. He added that Netanyahu has been in power forever by US standards. And over time, hes gotten very comfortable in doing exactly what he wants to do.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the scene of a shooting in Jerusalem on September 8. - Ronen Zvulun/AFP/POOL/Getty Images

Israel insists it acted alone

Many US analysts will interpret Israels attempt to kill negotiators considering a US peace plan a day after they met with Qatari government officials as new proof that Netanyahu wants to prolong the war. The prime minister has succeeded in postponing inevitable investigations into the security lapses after the October 7 attacks on Israeli civilians by Hamas in 2023. And his personal legal woes can be kept off the boil as long as he stays in power atop his far-right coalition.

Israels justification for the strikes was that it will pursue terrorist leaders wherever they are. Netanyahu has waged war on multiple fronts throughout the region, and conducted devastating strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon; Houthis in Yemen; and Iran. He said Tuesday that the days when the heads of terror enjoyed immunity anywhere are over.

Many Israelis viewed the Hamas attacks nearly two years ago not just as a strike against Israel but also as the most heinous attempt to wipe out Jews since the Nazi Holocaust. Yet many also now oppose the total warfare on Gaza waged by Netanyahu and are desperate to see the return of the hostages after a negotiated settlement.

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Netanyahu was quick to make clear that the attack on Doha was a wholly independent Israeli operation, seeking to offer Trump some diplomatic cover. But the Middle East loves conspiracy theories. And the US faces a hard sell over its claim that it knew nothing as Israel got 10 fighter jets and their munitions  possibly American-made F-35 planes  within range of the target.

Some will suspect that Trump gave a green light, or at least tacitly condoned the attacks. The White House, however, said that the US military in Qatar alerted Trump, and he ordered Witkoff to tip off the Qataris. But the government in Doha said it only got a heads-up when the attack, which caused panic in the capital, was already over.

The White House damage-control effort does seem to bolster Trumps claim that he couldnt do anything to halt the strike.

Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a sovereign nation and close ally of the United States that is working very hard in bravely taking risks with us to broker peace, does not advance Israel or Americas goals, said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

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It was exceedingly rare criticism of Israel from the Trump administration. The president later said on Truth Social that this was a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me. Trump also said hed ordered Secretary of State Marco Rubio to finalize a defense cooperation pact with Qatar.

A Qatari Boeing 747 sits on the tarmac of Palm Beach International airport after President Donald Trump toured the aircraft on February 15. - Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images

How Trumps new Air Force One complicates his response

There are geopolitical reasons to take the presidents comments at face value. But there is a complication. Trump earlier this year accepted a Boeing 747 from Qatar to serve as a new Air Force One in violation of any previous understanding of presidential ethics. How can Americans therefore be convinced that hes acting on his perception of their vital security interests on this matter  and not his own desire to pay back Qatar for the personal gift of a jet worth hundreds of millions of dollars?

That aside, Trumps credibility with Qatar will need serious repair work.

What of the US security umbrella supposed to be provided by its vast Al Udeid Air Base in the desert outside Doha? It didnt prevent a deeply humiliating violation of Qatari sovereignty by an enemy the US would like them to engage. By extension, how can other Gulf states and other US allies worldwide be sure that Trumps security guarantees will be any more airtight than they were for Qatar?

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The attack on Qatar will also cement an already widespread belief throughout the Middle East that Trump lacks any influence over Netanyahu despite the leverage of US defense sales to Israel and its vital role in the Jewish states defense. There was no public talk from the White House on Tuesday about consequences for the Israeli leader.

The loss of Trumps credibility is especially critical since the new US peace plan envisages the release of Israeli hostages by Hamas in Gaza in return for a ceasefire. Trump would then guarantee to Hamas that Israel would stick to the deal while negotiations continue. Tuesdays attacks in broad daylight in Doha suggest thats an empty promise.

So yet again, Trumps self-proclaimed role as the president of peace is thrown into question. And his foreign policy teams understanding of ruthless global strongmen was left badly exposed.

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Mohammeds view

With the five-year anniversary of the Abraham Accords approaching, what was once billed as the start of broader Israeli integration into the Arab world is instead marked by a hardening of positions. Israels strike on a Hamas compound in Doha this week drew swift condemnation from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Europe, and even the US, which said the bombing violated Qatars sovereignty.

For Gulf leaders, the strike underscored the limits of their American security agreements, which have failed to deter Iranian, Houthi, and now Israeli aggression within their borders.

Behind closed doors, sympathy for Hamas is scarce. Most Gulf leaders share Israels hostility to the group that carried out the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre and which claimed responsibility for killing six civilians in Jerusalem on Monday. Where they diverge is over what comes next: how to end the Gaza war, consolidate Israels battlefield gains against Irans proxies, and stabilize the region.

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During a visit to Israel last week, I spoke with officials, soldiers, and civilians from across the political and religious spectrum. (I didnt visit Gaza or the West Bank.) While views differed, I was struck by a shared sense of isolation and anger over why global opinion has turned on Israel, from the outrage over Oct. 7 to alarm over Israels militarized approach in Gaza, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and now Qatar.

The other takeaway was the hardening of Israeli society itself. Just a few years ago, there was a clearer split over the creation of a Palestinian state and the pursuit of regional peace. Today, theres deep mistrust of all Palestinians. Many Israelis I met were eager to improve ties with Arab states  those who visited Dubai raved about it  but their views towards Palestinians, not just Hamas, suggests a schism that summits in New York or negotiations in Doha cant easily heal.

Israels new recipe for security extends beyond restoring deterrence and building up physical defenses. There are now plans  which many would deem improbable  for de-radicalizing Palestinians, hoping future generations will abandon from the river to the sea aspirations and accept Israels existence. In theory, Gulf states and the US could endorse such a vision if it translates to regional stability and security. In practice, it is a multi-decade project, and perhaps one lesson of the Abraham Accords is how much can change in a fraction of that time.

Room for Disagreement

Israels strike in Doha was based on intelligence that senior Hamas leaders were gathering, offering a rare chance to eliminate some of the groups last officials, writes Joe Truzman in the pro-Israel think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies Long War Journal. The timing  as they discussed a US ceasefire plan  raises questions over whether the proposal was intended to draw them together, he noted.

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That Hamas leaders in Qatar were targeted, even though the country isnt at war, shouldnt be surprising, The Wall Street Journal argued in an editorial. Hamas chiefs filmed themselves celebrating the Oct. 7 massacres, and there is no distinction between its political and military wings. Theres a reason we dont allow al Qaeda or ISIS leaders to act as statesmen, immune from attack, while their death squads go about their work, the editorial board wrote.

Notable
Israel launched a series of strikes targeting Hamas leadership in the Qatari capital Tuesday, in an unprecedented attack inside the territory of an important US ally and key mediator in the Gaza ceasefire talks.

Israel took the unusual step of swiftly claiming responsibility for the strikes saying it was part of an operation dubbed Summit of Fire.

Hamas said six people were killed, including five of its members but the strike failed to assassinate the negotiating delegation.

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Several nations have condemned the attack, with Qatar calling the strikes state terrorism. US President Donald Trump said he was not thrilled about the whole situation.

Israels latest attack on the soil of another nation has threatened to derail renewed ceasefire talks as well as efforts to secure the release of the remaining Israeli hostages held in Hamas captivity. The strike came hours after Israel ordered the complete evacuation of Gaza City, where thousands of people are living in man-made famine conditions, ahead of its planned military takeover.

Heres what to know.

What happened?

Israels strikes in Doha hit the upscale residential neighbourhood of West Bay Lagoon that, according to Qatars foreign ministry spokesperson, housed several members of the Hamas political bureau.

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Hamas leaders have openly used the Qatari capital as a headquarters outside of Gaza for years, and at the time the militant group said its negotiators were reviewing a recent ceasefire proposal backed by Trump.

One of the main targets of the strike was Hamas chief negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya, but he was not listed among the dead.

A damaged building following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, on September 9, 2025. - Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters

Five Hamas officials were killed in the strike, including Al-Hayyas son and the director of his office, the group said. A Qatari security official died in the strike as well.

The attack was months in the making, and involved more than 10 fighter jets which fired more than 10 munitions, Israeli sources told CNN. Qatars Prime Minister said that Israel used weapons that went undetected by radar.

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The jets required mid-air refueling for the long-range strike, an Israeli official said, and they all struck a single target in Doha.

Why was the attack controversial?

The nature of the attack was unprecedented.

Qatar has long history of being neutral territory for thorny diplomatic negotiations, including hosting an office for the Afghan Taliban during secretive talks with the US.

The emirate is one of only two regional mediators leading the sole diplomatic track trying to bring an end to the war in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. It maintains direct channels with the US, Israel and Hamas and has hosted countless rounds of negotiations.

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Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari denied receiving prior notification of the strike, calling reports that suggested otherwise baseless.

Israels strikes on Qatar are the first known attack by Israel on a Gulf Arab state. CNN global affairs analyst Brett McGurk said the strike was against a location known to the US and Israel in the capital of a country that works closely with both.

Qatar is also host to the largest US base in the Middle East and has enjoyed a very strong relationship with the US for decades.

The attack could have a chilling effect in the region and raises concerns that if a close US ally, such as Qatar, can come under attack by another US ally Israel, who might be next?

What will this mean for ceasefire talks and hostages?

Israels strike threatens to derail negotiations to end the war in Gaza which, according to some sources, were reaching an inflection point.

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A top Qatari diplomat, Hamad Al-Muftah, said the strike was clearly designed to undermine the peace negotiations in the enclave. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani said the attack has changed the landscape of current ceasefire talks.

I wouldnt be surprised if it brings the mediation to a standstill, Hasan Alhasan, a senior fellow for Middle East Policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) told CNN.

Hamas said that the strike would not change its demands for a ceasefire deal.

This weekend, the US proposed a new ceasefire framework, which Israel has accepted.

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Meanwhile, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said family members were following developments in Doha with deep concern and heavy anxiety. The mother of one Israeli hostage said the strike could serve as a death sentence for her son.

What has the US said?

President Trump has sought to distance himself from Israels attack in Qatar. The White House initially said the decision was made by Israels leader and that the US learned of it too late to intervene.

Trump was informed of the strike only shortly before it began  and not by Israel itself, but by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to a US official.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said attacking inside Qatar does not advance Israel or Americas goals.

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But the US president did not explicitly condemn the attack.

Im not thrilled about the whole situation. Its not a good situation. But I will say this, we want the hostages back, but we are not thrilled about the way that went down, Trump told reporters this evening outside Joes Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab in Washington, DC.

How has the world reacted?

Qatars Prime Minister Al-Thani was visibly angry as he described the attack, which he called state terrorism. He said his countrys tradition of diplomacy wont be deterred, but implied that current talks on Gaza have an uncertain path.

This attack and this targeting has surpassed not just international law but moral standards, Al-Thani said.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, portrayed the attack as a peacemaking action that can open the door to an end of the war in Gaza. His office earlier clarified that the strike was a wholly independent Israeli operation.

Globally  and in stark contrast to the US response  Israel is facing growing backlash.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres condemned the attack, as did several European leaders and Asian nations. Numerous Arab countries also warned such attacks could undermine regional security. Vice President of the Palestinian Authority Hussein Al Sheikh said the strike constitutes a serious violation of international law and Qatars sovereignty.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that Israels attack on Doha directly imperil efforts to advance peace and security in the region.

What does this mean for Gaza?

With a ceasefire agreement now on rocky ground, Israel continues to push ahead with its expanded assault on Gaza, in defiance of domestic and international opposition.

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The strikes came as Israel on Tuesday ordered a complete evacuation of Gaza City, home to around a million Palestinians, ahead of its planned military takeover which it said is key to defeating Hamas.

Palestinians in Gaza City are facing further mass displacement as starvation rapidly spreads through the densely-populated city.

The UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk has warned that an Israeli escalation in Gaza City would lead to more massive forced displacement, more killing, more unbearable suffering, senseless destruction and atrocity crimes.

CNNs Mostafa Salem, Mohammed Tawfeeq, Max Saltman, Sarah El Sirgany, Abeer Salman, Tal Shalev, Dana Karni, Kristen Holmes, Kevin Liptak, Andrew Potter, Kylie Atwood, Christian Edwards, Paula Newton and Billy Stockwell contributed reporting.

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The IDF said that among the targets were Houthi military camps, the headquarters of the Houthi propaganda department, and a fuel storage site that was used for the regime's military activity.

Israel Air Force fighter jets struck Houthi regime targets in Yemens capital, Sanaa, on Wednesday, the military confirmed.

The IDF said that among the targets were Houthi army camps, the headquarters of the Houthis propaganda department, and a fuel storage site that was used for the regimes military activity.

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According to the military, the strike on Sanaa was a response to recent attacks by the Houthis against Israel, specifically drones and surface-to-surface missiles that were launched at Israeli territory. This includes the Houthi drone attack on Ramon Airport in Eilat, which led to the brief closing of the airspace and to passengers being wounded by shrapnel.

The Houthi-run Health Ministry said that 35 people were killed and 131 others were wounded in Israels retaliation.

According to the Arab media television network Al-Araby, the strike also targeted Houthi government offices, including the Finance Ministry and the Defense Ministry in central Sanaa.

Military base belonging to the Houthi terrorist organization that was struck on September 10, 2025. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Israeli airstrike in Sanaa, Yemen, September 10, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/KHALED ABDULLAH)

Saudi outlet Al-Hadath reported that the attack struck six Houthi targets, with the main one being a defense complex in the city center.

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The strike represented the longest flight made by an Israeli pilot since the beginning of the war, covering a total of 2,350 km. to complete the mission.

A Houthi military spokesperson said that their air defenses attempted to intercept the attack, Reuters reported.

Sanaa residents told Reuters that the attack was on a hideout between two mountains that is used as a Houthi command and control center. The extent of the damage was not immediately clear.

According to Army Radio, among the targets were Houthi headquarters and military camps.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented on the attack.

A few days ago, we eliminated most of the members of the Houthis terror government. In response, the Houthis fired on Ramon Airport two days ago. That did not weaken our resolve, he said.

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We promised more strikes, and today we prepared another painful strike against the Houthis in Yemen, Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.

Israel's previous attack on Yemen

Houthi prime minister Ghalib al-Rahawi and several other ministers were killed in the IAF strike in Sanaa in August, the news agency run by the terrorist group said on Saturday, citing a statement by the head of the Houthi Supreme Political Council, Mahdi al-Mashat.

The other 11 ministers who were killed included culture and tourism minister Ali Qasem Hussein al-Yafei, foreign affairs minister Jamal Ahmed Ali Amer, information minister Hashem Ahmed Abdulrahman Sharaf al-Din, justice minister Mujahid Ahmed Abdullah Ali, as well as government chief of staff Mohammed al-Qubaisi, and cabinet secretary Zahad al-Amadi.

Yonah Jeremy Bob, Amichai Stein, and Reuters contributed to this report.
(NewsNation)  Following an airstrike in Doha, Qatar, Israels defense minister has said the country will continue to go after its enemies everywhere.

Israel Katzs statement comes as Israel launched another airstrike in Yemen on Wednesday, this time targeting Houthi rebels in Sanaa, the countrys capital. The Doha strike on Tuesday targeted Hamas leadership and killed six people.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has said it will retaliate against Israel for the strike, according to The Hill.

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Israeli strike on Hamas was well-played: Hamas founders son

The IDF said they specifically hit Houthi infrastructure like fuel storage facilities and military camps. For the last few weeks, Israel and the Houthis have been engaged in back-and-forth attacks with each other. Sirens sounded around the Jerusalem area after the Houthis launched a ballistic missile that was intercepted.

Earlier in the week, more than a handful of drones were launched at Israel, all of them being intercepted except for one that hit a small airport in the south of Israel, causing minor damage.

Katz, in a post on social media platform X, said in part: Israels security policy is clear  Israels long arm will act against its enemies anywhere. There is no place where they can hide. He was referring to Operation Summit of Fire, which included the Doha strike.

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The strike in Qatar, also a U.S. ally, has not yet been deemed a success because Israel has not confirmed whether it killed the senior Hamas leaders. However, reports from Israeli media indicated that they were not in the building the IDF hit, leaving minutes before the strike.

Israeli military urges full evacuation of Gaza City

Meanwhile, Hamas said five of its members were killed, but failed to assassinate the five senior leaders. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee spoke on how this may affect negotiations.

The honest answer is we simply dont know. Hamas has rejected everything so far; they continually reject every offer thats put on the table, Huckabee said. They rejected one the other day that pretty much has been the position of the president throughout [this], and that is that they have to surrender and cannot have a future in Gaza.

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Huckabee added they also must let the remaining Israeli hostages go. Since the strike, President Donald Trump has spoken with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump previosuly stressed that he was not thrilled about Israel hitting Qatar.

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At least nine people were killed and more than 100 wounded in Israeli airstrikes on Yemen on Wednesday, the Houthi movement said.

The Houthi-run health authority described the toll as preliminary, saying strikes hit both the capital, Sana'a, and Al-Jawf province.

Residents said casualties in the capital resulted from bombing that targeted the Ministry of Defence's Moral Guidance headquarters in the capital's Al-Tahrir neighbourhood, a densely populated area where old houses were damaged by the blasts.

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The Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV channel earlier reported strikes on a government complex in Al-Hazm, the capital of Al-Jawf province.

The Israeli military confirmed it had struck targets in both areas, including military camps, the Houthis' Military Public Relations headquarters and a fuel storage facility.

It said the Public Relations Department was responsible for disseminating propaganda, including speeches by Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, and that the camps were used to plan and carry out attacks against Israel.

The Iran-aligned Houthis have repeatedly launched rockets and drones at Israel since the war in Gaza erupted in October 2023, describing the attacks as acts of solidarity with Hamas.

Earlier this week, the Houthis said their prime minister and several ministers were killed in an Israeli strike. On Tuesday, the Israeli military reported intercepting a rocket fired from Yemen and downing a Houthi drone.
Israeli-Russian academic and Princeton University student Elizabeth Tsurkov has been freed in Iraq after spending more than two years in the custody of an Iraqi armed group, US President Donald Trump has announced.

I am pleased to report that Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Princeton Student, whose sister is an American Citizen, was just released by Kataib Hezbollah (MILITANT Hezbollah), and is now safely in the American Embassy in Iraq after being tortured for many months. I will always fight for JUSTICE, and never give up. HAMAS, RELEASE THE HOSTAGES, NOW! Trump posted on TruthSocial on Tuesday, referring at the end to the captives held in Gaza, who were taken from Israel during Hamass October 7, 2023, attack.

Kataib Hezbollah, which is a separate entity from the armed group Hezbollah in Lebanon, is part of Iraqs security apparatus under the umbrella of the state-funded Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), a Shia paramilitary dominated by Iran-backed armed groups.

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Tsurkov, who was accused of being a spy, disappeared in Baghdad in March 2023, while conducting academic research. She was last seen in the Karrada district before reports surfaced that Kataib Hezbollah had abducted her. Her case remained secret for months until Israels prime ministers office confirmed in July 2023 that she had been abducted. It said the Iraqi government was responsible for her safety.

The 37-year-old holds both Israeli and Russian passports and had entered Iraq on her Russian travel documents, according to Israeli authorities.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani confirmed that Tsurkov had been released and said, We reaffirm, once again, that we will not tolerate any compromise in enforcing the law and upholding the authority of the state, nor will we allow anyone to undermine the reputation of Iraq and its people.

In November 2023, Iraqi state television aired footage of Tsurkov in which she claimed to be working for both Mossad and the CIA, allegations her family rejected as coerced confessions.





The precise terms of her release remain unclear. Earlier this year, reports suggested that Washington and Baghdad were engaged in negotiations over her case.

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There were reports of a possible deal for the release of Tsurkov in January.

After Trumps announcement, her sister Emma Tsurkov, who has campaigned publicly for her freedom, expressed relief in a post on X.

My entire family is incredibly happy. We cannot wait to see Elizabeth and give her all the love we have been waiting to share for 903 days. We are so thankful to President Trump and his Special Envoy, Adam Boehler. If Adam had not made my sisters return his personal mission, I do not know where we would be, she wrote.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also confirmed her release, crediting months of work led by Gal Hirsch, Israels coordinator for captives and missing people. Through a team effort  after great efforts, we succeeded in bringing about her release, Netanyahu said.
(NewsNation)  The son of a Hamas founder told Chris Cuomo that Israels strike on the terrorist group was well-played.

Mosab Hassan Yousef joined CUOMO on Tuesday night, hours after Israel targeted Hamas leadership with an airstrike in Qatar.

Israel struck the headquarters of Hamas political leadership in Qatar on Tuesday as the groups top figures gathered to consider a U.S. proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

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Hamas said in a statement that its top leaders survived the strike but that five lower-level members were killed, including the son of Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas leader for Gaza and its top negotiator.

RFK Jr.s commission releases Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy

Trump says US was aware before strike

The United States said Israel alerted it before the strike, but American officials sought to distance the U.S. from the attack.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump feels badly about the location of the airstrike and views Qatar as a strong ally.

I would say thanks to President Trump, Yousef said. I think its well-played, because he made them believe that there is a deal on the table, and this is why they gathered. And as they were meeting, some Israeli missiles came from the sky and wiped them out, and I think this is totally legitimate.

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Yousef believes the strike could lead to the release of the hostages, and hopes it means an end to the war can occur soon.

In a post to Truth Social on Tuesday, Trump said the decision was taken by Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,

The president said the strike did not advance Israel or Americas goals. However, eliminating Hamas, who have profited off the misery of those living in Gaza, is a worthy goal.

Teump added that he directed Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to inform Qatar of the attack, but it was too late to stop the attack.

I want ALL of the Hostages, and bodies of the dead, released, and this War to END, NOW! I have directed Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, to finalize the Defense Cooperation Agreement with Qatar, he added.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NewsNation.
A staff member inspects trains before operation in Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei Province, Sept. 9, 2025. As of the first half of 2025, the Shijiazhuang Metro has operated a total of 2.0083 million train trips, safely transporting 942 million passengers. Initiated in June 2017, the city's metro system now stretches 78.2 kilometers with 60 stations in service. (Photo by Zhang Xiaofeng/Xinhua)

Passengers are seen at a metro station in Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei Province, Sept. 8, 2025. As of the first half of 2025, the Shijiazhuang Metro has operated a total of 2.0083 million train trips, safely transporting 942 million passengers. Initiated in June 2017, the city's metro system now stretches 78.2 kilometers with 60 stations in service. (Photo by Zhang Xiaofeng/Xinhua)

Constructors work at the construction site of a metro station in Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei Province, Sept. 7, 2025. As of the first half of 2025, the Shijiazhuang Metro has operated a total of 2.0083 million train trips, safely transporting 942 million passengers. Initiated in June 2017, the city's metro system now stretches 78.2 kilometers with 60 stations in service. (Xinhua/Yang Shiyao)

An aerial drone photo taken on Sept. 7, 2025 shows the construction site of a metro station in Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei Province. As of the first half of 2025, the Shijiazhuang Metro has operated a total of 2.0083 million train trips, safely transporting 942 million passengers. Initiated in June 2017, the city's metro system now stretches 78.2 kilometers with 60 stations in service. (Xinhua/Yang Shiyao)

Passengers are seen at a metro station in Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei Province, Sept. 8, 2025. As of the first half of 2025, the Shijiazhuang Metro has operated a total of 2.0083 million train trips, safely transporting 942 million passengers. Initiated in June 2017, the city's metro system now stretches 78.2 kilometers with 60 stations in service. (Photo by Liang Zidong/Xinhua)

Metro trains are seen before operation in Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei Province, Sept. 9, 2025. As of the first half of 2025, the Shijiazhuang Metro has operated a total of 2.0083 million train trips, safely transporting 942 million passengers. Initiated in June 2017, the city's metro system now stretches 78.2 kilometers with 60 stations in service. (Xinhua/Yang Shiyao)

Constructors work at the construction site of a metro station in Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei Province, Sept. 9, 2025. As of the first half of 2025, the Shijiazhuang Metro has operated a total of 2.0083 million train trips, safely transporting 942 million passengers. Initiated in June 2017, the city's metro system now stretches 78.2 kilometers with 60 stations in service. (Xinhua/Yang Shiyao)

Constructors work at the construction site of a metro station in Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei Province, Sept. 7, 2025. As of the first half of 2025, the Shijiazhuang Metro has operated a total of 2.0083 million train trips, safely transporting 942 million passengers. Initiated in June 2017, the city's metro system now stretches 78.2 kilometers with 60 stations in service. (Xinhua/Yang Shiyao)

An aerial drone photo taken on Sept. 7, 2025 shows the construction site of a metro station in Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei Province. As of the first half of 2025, the Shijiazhuang Metro has operated a total of 2.0083 million train trips, safely transporting 942 million passengers. Initiated in June 2017, the city's metro system now stretches 78.2 kilometers with 60 stations in service. (Xinhua/Yang Shiyao)

Metro trains are seen before operation in Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei Province, Sept. 9, 2025. As of the first half of 2025, the Shijiazhuang Metro has operated a total of 2.0083 million train trips, safely transporting 942 million passengers. Initiated in June 2017, the city's metro system now stretches 78.2 kilometers with 60 stations in service. (Xinhua/Yang Shiyao)

Metro trains are seen before operation in Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei Province, Sept. 9, 2025. As of the first half of 2025, the Shijiazhuang Metro has operated a total of 2.0083 million train trips, safely transporting 942 million passengers. Initiated in June 2017, the city's metro system now stretches 78.2 kilometers with 60 stations in service. (Xinhua/Yang Shiyao)

Constructors work at the construction site of a metro station in Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei Province, Sept. 7, 2025. As of the first half of 2025, the Shijiazhuang Metro has operated a total of 2.0083 million train trips, safely transporting 942 million passengers. Initiated in June 2017, the city's metro system now stretches 78.2 kilometers with 60 stations in service. (Xinhua/Yang Shiyao)

Passengers are seen at a metro station in Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei Province, Sept. 8, 2025. As of the first half of 2025, the Shijiazhuang Metro has operated a total of 2.0083 million train trips, safely transporting 942 million passengers. Initiated in June 2017, the city's metro system now stretches 78.2 kilometers with 60 stations in service. (Photo by Liang Zidong/Xinhua)
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO)  South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley has put his name in the hat to run for Congress.

KELOLANDs Tyler Louder spoke with Jackley earlier Tuesday before his campaign officially gets underway.

After four terms as Attorney General, Marty Jackley is looking to lead South Dakota as its next representative for Congress.

Former state worker gets 2 suspended years for medical marijuana card fraud

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Serving as South Dakotas United States Attorney and Attorney General has prepared me for Washington. It has prepared me to be able to work with other former Attorney Generals who serve in Washington to better protect South Dakotans, Jackley said.

While the campaign for Congress gets underway, Jackley still has 16 months left of work as the Attorney General. He says that his history and experience shows that hes able to balance both roles, thanks to the great teams he has both on the campaign side and on the side of his Attorney General team.

The fight for what is near and dear to us in South Dakota is in Washington. As South Dakotas conservative choice Ill strengthen public safety, Ill secure that southern border, Ill work to build and maintain a strong national defense. Ill strengthen our economy, and Ill hold the Government accountable and protect the taxpayers dollars, Jackley said.

Jackley has already been seeing a lot of statewide support as he prepares for this next move.

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It has been overwhelming. The support across South Dakota has been strong. People want to have a strong conservative voice in Washington and Ill be that strong voice for South Dakota, Jackley said.

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JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV)  During a press briefing on Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt brought up the City of Jackson when discussing crime.

The Trump administration has said theyre working to crack down on crime in cities across the United States. President Donald Trump has threatened to send National Guard troops into more American cities after deploying soldiers in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles this year.

Gov. Tate Reeves (R-Miss.) approved sending 200 Mississippi National Guard soldiers to Washington, D.C., in order to support President Trumps effort to return law and order to our nations capital.

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Democrats have argued that red states see the highest crime rates, but Republicans countered that the problems are in cities run by Democrats.

Trump sending National Guard to New Orleans in next crime crackdown

A reporter asked Leavitt on Tuesday about crime in the red states, and the press secretary used Jackson, Mississippi, as an example.

If you look at a red state, Mississippi, but a Democrat-run city in that state, Jackson. And in 2019, Jackson, Mississippi, eliminated cash bail for virtually all misdemeanor cases. And while Jackson is not formally a sanctuary city, the state of Mississippi formally banned sanctuary cities, and this city has acted as a de facto sanctuary city for criminals and illegal aliens since 2017, Leavitt stated.

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Jackson Mayor John Horhn responded to the statements made during the White House press briefing.

Jackson is committed to protecting the rights and privileges of every resident. I look forward to hearing from President Trump on how he can support our citys revitalization through federal resources, said Horhn.

On Friday, President Trump announced that he will soon be sending the National Guard to New Orleans after previously teasing that he would be targeting the city in his next federal crime crackdown.

Below are the 10 big cities with the highest rate of crime per 100,000 people, based on FBI data from 2024 on murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault:

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Memphis  Memphis, the second-biggest city in the red state of Tennessee, tops the list with 2,501 violent crimes per 100,000 people, according to data from the FBI.

Detroit  Detroit closely trails Memphis with a violent crime rate of 1,781 per 100,00 and a rate of 31.2 homicides per 100,000 residents.

Baltimore  Baltimore had 1,606 violent crimes and 34.8 homicides per 100,000 people last year.

Kansas City  Kansas City, Mo., saw 1,547 violent offenses per 100,000 people in 2024. Last year, the city saw a 12 percent increase in nonfatal shootings and tallied 144 homicide cases.

Milwaukee  The city of Milwaukee had 1,431 violent crimes per 100,000.

Albuquerque  The FBI reported that 1,182 violent crimes occurred per 100,000 residents in Albuquerque, the largest city in the blue state of New Mexico.

Houston  Houston saw 1,148 crimes per 100,000 people last year, and violent crime in the red state of Texass largest city increased by about 4.5 percent from 2023 to 2024, Fox 26 reported.

Nashville  Tennessees capital and its largest city, Nashville reported 1,124 violent crimes per 100,000 people; local police face a shortage of 100 officers, and leaders have struggled to increase staffing, the Nashville Banner reported.

Denver  Denver saw 993 violent crimes per 100,000 people, according the FBI.

Washington, D.C.  Violent crime was recorded at 926 per 100,000 in the nations capital, which is governed by Mayor Muriel Bowser (D). Officials said violent crime is down by 27 percent and at a 30-year low after reaching all-time highs during the pandemic.

The Hill contributed to this report.

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JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (WNCT)  An elderly fisherman fell of a dock at Wilson Bay Park after a guardrail broke. Julian Santiago is being deemed an a hero after saving the man from the alligator infested waters.

The older man was struggling trying to stay above water and get to safety, but Santiago fortunately saw the man and immediately helped. I heard someone screaming, it was a guy like 72 years old, Santiago said. There was nothing to do but get him out.

While tragedy was luckily avoided, Jacksonville officials are using this as a reminder to inspect older equipment in public parks and other areas. For more information, click on the video above.

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Vice President JD Vance has said that he wants the Trump administrations crackdown on violent crime to go nationwide following the federal takeover of Washington, D.C.

After President Donald Trump deployed the military in the nations capital last month and launched Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago this week, Vance suggested the same sweeping action could be rolled out across the U.S.

Vance chatted Tuesday night with disgraced former congressman-turned MAGA host Matt Gaetz on One America News, where the failed attorney general nominee threw softball questions at the vice president.

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Gaetz asked the vice president what his message was to the Americans living in crime-ridden cities like Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago and what hope the Trump administration can give them.

If you just do some common-sense law enforcement, you can give the American people back their streets, Vance said. I would love if we did this in every big American city, because I think that American citizens deserve to live safely in these big cities.

After President Donald Trump deployed the military in the nations capital last month and launched Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago, Vice President JD Vance suggested the same sweeping action could be rolled out across the U.S. (OAN/X)

The vice president, who went unchallenged throughout the 13-minute sit-down with Gaetz, blamed weak leadership for allowing criminals to take over the streets.

We've all had this, this experience where you pass somebody on the street who's obviously crazy, who's screaming and yelling at your kids, you cross to the other side of the street to avoid that person, Vance said.

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He said the solution was to just throw those people in jail and keep them in prison.

Vance earlier hit out at Democrats on violent crime and accused them of lying about the root causes of violent crime.

The big lie the Democrats told about violent crime is that it's "systemic" and therefore no one's really responsible, Vance said in a post on X. If the "system" is to blame then you fund a bunch of nonprofits that don't do anything besides give jobs to underqualified radicals. The reality is that the gross majority of violent crime is committed by a very small group of people and we should be throwing them in prison.

President Donald Trump dined out at swanky D.C. eatery, Joes Stone Crab with members of his Cabinet, including Vance, to demonstrate how the citys restaurants are now booming (Getty Images)

Trump reinforced the same message Tuesday when he dined out at swanky D.C. eatery, Joes Stone Crab with members of his Cabinet, including Vance, to demonstrate how the citys restaurants are now booming.

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The president claimed that people havent gone out to dinner for years until now.

We're standing right in the middle of D.C., which, as you know, over the last year, was very unsafe place over the last 20 years, and now it's got virtually no crime, Trump said. The restaurants now are booming. People are going out to dinner where they didn't go out for years, and it's a safe city.

The president said an announcement was due Wednesday about another city the administration was targeting on violent crime.

During the vice presidents sit-down, Gaetz did not ask Vance for his take on the latest development in the Epstein files saga after the House Oversight Committee released a sexually suggestive letter Monday, allegedly signed by the president in 2003, and sent to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday. Trump has denied authoring the letter.

The president said an announcement was due Wednesday about another city the administration was targeting on violent crime (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

The letter, which the White House has repeatedly dismissed as fake news, is at the center of a $10 billion lawsuit filed by Trump against the Wall Street Journal.

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Trump snapped back at reporters who quizzed him further about the Epstein birthday note during his Tuesday night outing.

No, that's not my language. It's nonsense, Trump said. And frankly, you're wasting your time.
TRENTON, N.J. (PIX11)  To expand access to COVID-19 vaccinations, the New Jersey Department of Health issued an executive order, allowing anyone six months or older to receive a vaccine.

The NJDOH also issued a standing order to authorize pharmacists to administer the vaccinations without a prescription.

More Local News

At a time when COVID-19 cases are increasing across the country and as part of my Administrations dedication to evidence-based public health action, I am committed to ensuring everyone in New Jersey who wants to receive a COVID-19 vaccination can receive a dose this fall from trusted health professionals, said Gov. Phil Murphy.

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The decision comes after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. directed the FDA to restrict vaccine access.

U.S. regulators approved updated COVID-19 shots but limited their use for many Americans  and removed one of the two vaccines available for young children.

The revamped vaccines target a newer version of the continuously evolving virus and are set to begin shipping soon. But it could be days or weeks before many Americans know if theyll be able to get one, with access dependent on decisions by federal health advisers, health insurers, pharmacies, and state authorities.

CVS Pharmacy awaits CDC approval to offer COVID-19 vaccines in New York

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New Jersey now joins several other states, including New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, in either mandating their own COVID vaccination policy or putting formal plans in motion to do so.

This story comprises reporting from The Associated Press.

Ben Mitchell is a digital content producer from Vermont who has covered both local and international news since 2021. He joined PIX11 in 2024. See more of his work here.

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By Nate Raymond

BOSTON (Reuters) -A federal judge on Tuesday quashed a subpoena the U.S. Department of Justice had issued to Boston Children's Hospital as part of a wide-ranging investigation into doctors and clinics that provide gender-affirming care to transgender youth.

U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston wrote that the subpoena was too broad and reflected the wider goals of Republican President Donald Trump's administration, which "has been explicit about its disapproval of the transgender community."

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He said the administration had been clear that it seeks to bring an end to medical providers like Boston Children's Hospital, one of the nation's largest pediatric hospitals, providing gender-affirming care to patients.

The real goal of the subpoena, Joun said, was to interfere with Massachusetts' right to protect gender-affirming care within its borders, to intimidate the hospital to stop providing such care and to dissuade patients from seeking it.

"The Government may be correct that it need not provide probable cause for its investigations, but it cannot use its subpoena power to go on a fishing expedition," Joun wrote.

Boston Children's Hospital in a statement welcomed the ruling, "which safeguards the privacy of our patients, their families, and the healthcare professionals who provide their care."

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The Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment.

The ruling appeared to mark the first time a judge had blocked the Justice Department from subpoenaing records as part of a crackdown on providers of medical treatments to transgender minors. The Justice Department has said it sent subpoenas to more than 20 clinics and doctors.

Trump in January issued an executive order directing an end to all federal funding or support for healthcare that aids the transition of transgender youth, calling it a "dangerous trend."

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi subsequently in an April memo directed the department to investigate medical providers and pharmaceutical companies that manufacture and distribute puberty blockers and hormones prescribed by doctors "to facilitate a child's so-called 'gender transition.'"

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Boston Children's Hospital received its administrative subpoena in June. It challenged the subpoena in court, arguing it was issued for the improper purpose to block a medical treatment legal in Democratic-led Massachusetts.

Joun, an appointee of Democratic former President Joe Biden, agreed, saying the Justice Department was seeking an "astonishingly" broad array of documents "while not offering an iota of suspicion that BCH is actually engaging in fraudulent billing practices or off-label promotion."

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Richard Chang)
A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration's attempt to subpoena medical records of transgender patients who received gender-affirming care at Boston Children's Hospital.

In a ruling on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Myong Joun said the administrative subpoena served by the U.S. Department of Justice was improper and motivated only by bad faith.

The Justice Department said the information was needed to investigate possible fraud or unlawful off-label promotion of drugs, but the information requested  including actual patient records  seemed to be unrelated, the judge said. Phone messages left with the Justice Departments attorney Ross Goldstein and with a Justice Department public affairs officer were not immediately returned.

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The Administration has been explicit about its disapproval of the transgender community and its aim to end GAC, Joun wrote, referring to gender-affirming care. The judge later continued, It is abundantly clear that the true purpose of issuing the subpoena is to interfere with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' right to protect GAC within its borders, to harass and intimidate BCH to stop providing such care, and to dissuade patients from seeking such care.

Just eight days after taking office, President Donald Trump issued an executive order aimed at restricting access to medical care for transgender youth. In June, the Justice Departments Civil Division announced the division would use all available resources to prioritize investigations of doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and other appropriate entities, in an effort to investigate what it called radical gender experimentation.

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced in a statement July 9 that the Justice Department had sent more than 20 subpoenas to doctors and clinics that provide care to transgender patients under 18. Bondi said the requests were part of investigations into healthcare fraud, false statements, and more. But the requests did not just seek information on policies or billing practices  they also demanded information about individual patients who had been prescribed puberty blockers or hormone therapy.

Boston Children's Hospital asked the federal court to quash the subpoena on July 8, saying the Justice Department was seeking practically every document related to the provision of gender-affirming care over the past five and a half years, including highly sensitive and personally identifiable information about young patients.

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But the Justice Department contended the subpoena was proper and a valid way for the agency to investigate potential violations of off-label prescription drug rules.

Gender-affirming care includes a range of medical and mental health services to support a person's gender identity, including when it's different from the sex they were assigned at birth. It may include counseling, medications that block puberty, hormone therapy to produce physical changes or surgeries to transform chests and genitals, although those are rare for minors.

Most major medical groups say access to the treatment is important for those with gender dysphoria and see gender as existing along a spectrum.

At least 27 states have adopted laws restricting or banning the care for minors, while several others have adopted laws or policies protecting access to transgender health care.

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Massachusetts' state constitution protects the right to gender-affirming care, the judge said, making it difficult to understand exactly what the Justice Department was trying to investigate.

___

Associated Press reporter Geoff Mulvihill contributed to this story.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP)  A federal judge who ruled last week that the Trump administration broke federal law by sending National Guard troops to the Los Angeles area said Tuesday he will not immediately consider a request to bar the ongoing use of 300 Guard troops.

In a court order, Senior District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco said he was not sure he had the authority to consider California's motion for a preliminary injunction blocking the administration's further deployment of state National Guard troops. That's because the case is on appeal before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the judge said.

Breyer indefinitely paused all proceedings related to the state's motion, though he suggested California officials could file the request with the 9th Circuit.

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An email to the California attorney general's office late Tuesday was not immediately returned.

Breyer's Sept. 2 ruling took on heightened importance amid President Donald Trump's talk of National Guard deployments to other Democratic-led cities like Chicago, Baltimore and New York. Trump has already deployed the Guard as part of his unprecedented law enforcement takeover targeting crime, immigration and homelessness in Washington, where he has direct legal control over the District of Columbia National Guard.

The Trump administration sent troops to the Los Angeles area in early June after days of protests over immigration raids.

Breyer ruled the administration willfully broke federal law, saying the government knew they were ordering troops to execute domestic law beyond their usual authority while using armed soldiers ( whose identity was often obscured by protective armor) and military vehicles to set up protective perimeters and traffic blockades, engage in crowd control, and otherwise demonstrate a military presence in and around Los Angeles.

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He did not require the 300 remaining soldiers to leave but pointed out that they received improper training and ordered the administration to stop using them to execute the laws. The order that applies only to California was supposed to take effect Sept. 12, but the 9th Circuit has put it on hold for now.

California later sought a preliminary injunction blocking an Aug. 5 order from the administration extending the deployment of the 300 troops for another 90 days.

The further deployment would ensure that Californias residents will remain under a form of military occupation until early November, including while voting on Nov. 4 on whether to adopt new congressional maps  an election with national attention and significance, state officials said in a court filing.
A commemorative event is held to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War in Belgrade, Serbia, Sept. 9, 2025. Organized by Serbia's Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs, the Association of Veterans of the People's Liberation War, and the New Belgrade district government, the ceremony gathered more than a hundred attendees. (Photo by Nemanja Cabric/Xinhua)

BELGRADE, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- A commemorative event was held in Belgrade on Tuesday to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.

Organized by Serbia's Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs, the Association of Veterans of the People's Liberation War, and the New Belgrade district government, the ceremony gathered more than a hundred attendees.

The program included a photo show honoring the sacrifices of the Chinese people during the war, as well as the memory of the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. A children's choir, Horic, performed the Chinese folk song Mo Li Hua, meaning Jasmine Flower.

Chinese Ambassador to Serbia Li Ming paid tribute to the courage of both the Chinese and Serbian people, stressing the decisive contribution of China's resistance to the global fight against fascism. "Combat solidarity, forged in blood, became a traditional spiritual bond connecting the peoples of China and Serbia," he said, noting that the two nations have always stood together.

Deputy Speaker of Serbia's National Assembly Marina Ragus highlighted the immense cost borne by China, which lost nearly 35 million people during its 14 years of resistance. She emphasized the importance of safeguarding historical truth and alliances, adding that Serbia is proud to maintain its closest relations with China.

President of the Socialist Movement Aleksandar Vulin and former Yugoslav foreign minister Zivadin Jovanovic also attended the event. 

A commemorative event is held to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War in Belgrade, Serbia, Sept. 9, 2025.

Organized by Serbia's Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs, the Association of Veterans of the People's Liberation War, and the New Belgrade district government, the ceremony gathered more than a hundred attendees. (Photo by Nemanja Cabric/Xinhua)
A Fulton County judge said Tuesday that he is likely to toss out racketeering charges brought against dozens of opponents of a new police training center in Atlanta. Stanley Dunlap/Georgia Recorder

A Fulton County judge says he is likely to throw out racketeering charges filed against 61 people in connection with an alleged conspiracy to stop the construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center because the Georgia Attorney Generals office lacked authority to bring the charges.

Georgia law specifies the circumstances when the Attorney Generals office may engage in criminal prosecution that might otherwise be handled by a local district attorney. To prosecute charges under Georgias Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute, the attorney generals office must seek authorization from the governors office. Deputy Attorney General John Fowler acknowledged that step had not been taken.

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However, Fowler argued that it was not required due to a state agency, the Georgia State Patrol, being a victim in two acts that the prosecution claims are related to the alleged conspiracy  a 2020 fire at a Georgia State Patrol building that the prosecution claims was set by protesters and the 2023 shooting of a Georgia State Patrol trooper in the South River Forest near the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. A protester, Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, was killed by the Georgia State Patrol in the same incident.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kevin Farmer was unconvinced that these two incidents gave the attorney generals office jurisdiction without the governors authorization. Farmer said the 2020 fire alone does not give the attorney generals office authority to pursue the racketeering charges. He additionally noted that while the 2023 shooting is mentioned in the indictment, it is not claimed to be an act that furthered the alleged conspiracy to stop construction of the training center.

Gov. Brian Kemp praised the indictments at the time.

I think it would have been real easy to ask the governor, let me do this, give me a letter, Farmer said from the bench Tuesday. The mechanisms were in place. And the steps just werent followed. Its not that he couldnt have gotten that letter, there are mechanisms in place whereby he could have brought this.

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Tuesdays hearing dealt another blow to the indictment following a difficult hearing for the prosecution on Monday. Farmer compared parts of the indictment to a bad political science paper and repeatedly scolded the states attorneys on their unfamiliarity with parts of the indictment.

The sprawling indictment, pending since September 2023, also includes charges of domestic terrorism and arson brought against five of the 61 defendants. Court resumes Wednesday morning to discuss how, or if, Farmer will dismiss those additional charges.

Fowler stated in court that the courts findings are wholly incorrect and that the attorney generals office intends to immediately appeal the courts ruling once it is finalized.

The Attorney General will continue the fight against domestic terrorists and violent criminals who want to destroy life and property, Kara Murray, spokesperson for the attorney generals office, said in a statement Tuesday. We strongly disagree with this decision and will appeal immediately.

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The Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, often called Cop City by its opponents, formally opened in 2024 following years of protests both in the streets and in front of the Atlanta City Council. Opponents to the project have long criticized it as a symbol of what they see as an increasingly militarized police force, and on environmental grounds. Gubernatorial candidate and current Attorney General Chris Carr has long been a strong supporter of the project.

The Southern Center for Human Rights, which paired many of the defendants in the case with an attorney through its First Amendment Lawyer Bridge program, applauded the decision.

We are grateful for the zealous representation provided by the attorneys in this case in defense of their clients and the First Amendment right to dissent. Whether paired by the Bridge or not, SCHR depends on our colleagues in the bar willing to stand firm in the face of political repression, Tiffany Roberts, director of the centers public policy unit, said in a statement.

The case is believed to be the largest criminal racketeering case ever filed against protesters in U.S. history.

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Police are investigating a hit-and-run crash involving a juvenile on a bicycle on Tuesday morning in West Hartford.

West Hartford Police and Fire Departments and EMS were dispatched to the area of Albany Avenue and Lindy Lane around 7:01 a.m. for a report of a bicyclist that had been struck by a vehicle, according to Capt. Aaron Vafiades of the West Hartford Police Department.

Vafiades said the bicyclist, a juvenile male, was alert and conscious at the scene. He was transported to an area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

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According to Vafiades, the vehicle that struck the bicyclist fled the scene heading east on Albany Avenue and was described as a dark-colored SUV or hatchback.

The West Hartford Police Departments Traffic Division is investigating the incident.

The West Hartford Police Department would like to thank the West Hartford Fire Department and AMR for their efforts on scene, Vafiades said.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact the West Hartford Police Department at 860-523-5203 or use the anonymous West Hartford Police Department tip line at 860-570-8969 or by email at whpdtips@westhartfordct.gov.
(FOX40.COM)  Deputies from the Butte County Sheriffs Office responded to a reported shooting near Concow, California, on September 6.

The BCSO said it happened at a remote swimming area off Big Bend Road, where a juvenile suspect allegedly brandished and discharged a firearm during an altercation.

Stockton heroin trafficking ring: Man pleads guilty, faces life in prison

The juvenile reportedly pointed the weapon at several people and fired multiple shots, according to witnesses.

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Physical evidence and video surveillance collected during the investigation helped identify the suspect.

On September 8, it was confirmed that the juvenile suspect was attending a school within the Paradise Police Departments jurisdiction. BCSO, along with PPD, detained the suspect.

The juvenile is being charged with assault with a firearm, negligent discharge of a firearm and criminal threat and was booked into Butte County Juvenile Hall.

According to the BCSO, deputies and detectives executed a search warrant at the juveniles residence in Chico that same evening.

Anyone with information related to this investigation is encouraged to contact the Felony Investigations Unit at (530) 538-7671 or submit information via email at infosheriff@buttecounty.net.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX40 News.
US President Donald Trump announced that Israeli-Russian citizen Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Princeton student, was released by Kata'ib Hezbollah on Tuesday evening.

US President Donald Trump announced that Princeton researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov has been freed in Iraq. She was held by the Iranian-backed militia group Kataib Hezbollah.

It kidnapped Tsurkov in March 2023, and she was held hostage for over 900 days. The Trump administration decided to prioritize trying to free her.

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Tsurkovs sister, Emma Tsurkov, campaigned tirelessly to bring her home. The sister even confronted Irans prime minister during his visit to Washington in 2024, demanding that Tsurkov be freed.

Trumps administration has been a game-changer in terms of bringing hostages home. It has brought many Americans back, seeking to do the same for Israelis.

Tsurkov is an Israeli and a Russian citizen.

I am pleased to report that Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Princeton student, whose sister is an American citizen, was just released by Kataib Hezbollah (MILITANT Hezbollah), and is now safely in the American Embassy in Iraq after being tortured for many months. I will always fight for JUSTICE, and never give up. HAMAS, RELEASE THE HOSTAGES, NOW, Trump wrote on social media on Tuesday.

Kataib Hezbollah Iraqi militia gather ahead of the funeral of the Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was killed in an air strike at Baghdad airport, in Baghdad, Iraq, January 4, 2020. (credit: REUTERS/THAIER AL-SUDANI/FILE PHOTO)

That day was already a momentous one because of the unprecedented Israeli strike on Hamas in Doha. Now, the freeing of Tsurkov has made it an even more important day.

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My entire family is incredibly happy, Tsurkovs sister wrote on social media. We cannot wait to see Elizabeth and give her all the love we have been waiting to share for 903 days. We are so thankful to President Trump and his Special Envoy [for Hostage Response], Adam Boehler.

Boehler had worked hard to get Tsurkov freed from Iraq.

Tsurkov family welcomes Elizabeth home

If Adam had not made my sisters return his personal mission, I do not know where we would be. We also want to thank Josh Harris and his team at the US Embassy in Baghdad for the support they provided to our sister and the team at the nonprofit Global Reach, who advocated relentlessly for my sisters safe return, Emma wrote.

Iraq had not been forthcoming in freeing Tsurkov. Kataib Hezbollah is an Iranian-backed militia in Iraq. It is also part of the Popular Mobilization Forces, which is a group of militants.

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Furthermore, the PMF is an official paramilitary force in Iraq, meaning it receives funding from the state and functions as one of its arms. The fact that Tsurkov could be kidnapped in Baghdad and held there for 900 days, and that the Iraqi government refused to find her, is a stain on Baghdad.

The Iraqi prime minister and other officials have informed the United States that they are searching for her. However, they could have freed Tsurkov. The weakening of the Iranian axis over the last year may have contributed to her freedom.

Importantly, the Iraqi government wants to please the US. It does not wish for high tariffs to be imposed on it. Baghdad wants other deals from Washington.

As such, it was in Iraqs best interests to do the right thing. However, for the better part of 2025, it claimed that it was trying to do something while doing nothing.

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Kataib Hezbollah had released a video of Tsurkov after Hamass October 7 massacre. The footage proved that the researcher was still alive. Yet, the Iraqis did not do anything in 2024 to help her.

Baghdad claimed to have tasked various individuals to assist in the negotiations for her release. Kataib Hezbollah, meanwhile, made all sorts of demands.

Iraqi officials were in contact with the US, and these interactions increased in January with the arrival of Trump in office. By May 2025, though, the reports that a breakthrough was near had ended.

As spring turned to summer, many were despondent. Then came the Israel-Iran 12-day war in June. By July, it was clear that there might be a new pressure point: US tariffs.

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On August 2, I wrote about the possibility that tariffs might help. Emma noted that Iraq could do the right thing and finally release her sister. However, more days went by, and nothing advanced.

Tsurkovs initial kidnapping in March 2023 was not disclosed for months. In fact, it appeared to be a closely guarded secret for a while. It was likely that some thought that if it was downplayed, then she might be released.

Nevertheless, Kataib Hezbollah did not budge. Eventually, publications found out, and in July 2023, the Prime Ministers Office said that Elizabeth Tsurkov is an Israeli Russian dual citizen who has been missing in Iraq for several months and is being held by the Shiite militia Kataib Hezbollah.

The PMO further said at the time, Tsurkov is still alive. We hold Iraq responsible for her safety and well-being. She is an academic who visited Iraq on her Russian passport, at her own initiative, to conduct doctoral research and academic work on behalf of Princeton University in the US.

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The matter is being handled by the relevant parties in the State of Israel out of concern for Tsurkovs security and well-being, it added.

In October, 250 Israelis were taken hostage, and this became a significant priority for Israel, adding to the challenge of trying to free Tsurkov from Iraq.

Her release is an essential step for the US and Iraq. Baghdad may receive something in return. It is not clear why Kataib Hezbollah decided to change its position. Perhaps it is afraid that, eventually, the long arm that has struck other Iranian proxies will come for it one day.

Maybe other wheels are in motion. Iraq is already in the spotlight because the war on ISIS is winding down, and US troops are possibly moving primarily to Kurdistans autonomous region.

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There are many issues involved. What matters is that the efforts of Emma Tsurkov, Adam Boehler, the Trump administration, and many others behind the scenes finally resulted in freedom for Tsurkov.

Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.
Two murder suspects from Kentucky are behind bars after law enforcement agencies across the county located the vehicle they allegedly carjacked at gunpoint in Louisville.

The vehicle, a white Chevrolet Traverse, was initially spotted Monday morning by license plate readers on State Route 109 in Lebanon, prompting Lebanon Police to initiate a pursuit which entered Interstate 40. Mt. Juliet Police set up spike strips near the Golden Bear Gateway exit and the vehicle exited I-40 as LPD was terminating its pursuit.

MJPD officers were not in a position to visually confirm the direction the Chevy Traverse traveled. However, a few minutes later, a Mt. Juliet license plate reader on southbound Golden Bear Gateway near Beckwith Road detected the vehicle. Around the same time, a Wilson County Sheriffs deputy spotted the suspects vehicle traveling down Beckwith Road. Authorities say the deputy was unable to keep up with the vehicle and lost sight of it around the Beckwith Road and South Rutland Road intersections.

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According to MJPD, no officers were ever in a position to pursue the vehicle. No other LPRs detected the vehicle, which led MJPD officers to believe it was still inside of Mt. Juliet. Officers began a search of nearby neighborhoods. The vehicle was located on Syler Drive in the Beckwith Crossing neighborhood, but the suspects abandoned it and fled on foot.

Descriptions of the two suspects, Jeremiah James, 23, and Madison Greenwell, 21, both of Shelbyville, Kentucky, were sent out to residents using the MJAlert system and a post to X (formerly Twitter). WCSO deputies assisted in the search, and Metro-Nashville Police offered air assistance with a helicopter.

Police said a witness on Collier Road spotted the suspects behind their home, and shortly after authorities were able to take them into custody.

James and Greenwell are wanted out of Shelby County, Kentucky, for a murder which occurred in August, and the Chevy they were driving was reported stolen during an armed carjacking on Sept. 5 in Louisville. A dog was in the suspects possession and safely located and secured by Mt. Juliet Animal Care and Control and will remain in their care until a family member can retrieve it.

A spokesman for LPD said the department is grateful for the collaboration with neighboring agencies. An MJPD spokesman also released a statement crediting the strategic response from officers, the use of technology and the strong partnerships with the other agencies which led to the apprehension of the suspects.
Democrats scored a win in the race to replace former Rep. Gerry Connolly (D) in Virginias 11th Congressional District, narrowing the Republican majority in the House of Representatives.

Fairfax County Supervisor James Walkinshaw (D) handily defeated Republican Stewart Whitson, a former FBI agent, in the heavily Democratic-leaning district Tuesday. The race offered some insight on what to watch out for ahead the states gubernatorial elections in November.

Additionally, Boston held its nonpartisan mayoral primary, setting up a November showdown between incumbent Mayor Michelle Wu (D) and nonprofit executive Josh Kraft (D), the son of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.

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Here are key takeaways from Tuesdays special elections:

House Republican majority narrows

While Walkinshaws victory is no surprise, its notable because it will impact the Republican majority in the House of Representatives. The late Connollys seat was one of three Democratic vacancies, leaving Republicans with a 219-212 majority.

Those vacancies have helped Republicans during crucial votes this year, including the vote to pass the GOP spending megabill, also known as President Trumps big, beautiful bill, in May. That legislation passed by just one vote.

However, Walkinshaws victory will narrow the GOP majority to 219-213 once hes sworn in, meaning Johnson will only be able to lose two votes from his conference. Johnson and House Republicans are already grappling with an upcoming government funding deadline.

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The remaining two Democratic vacancies in the House are the seats previously held by former Reps. Sylvester Turner (D-Texas) and Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who both died earlier this year. Former Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) resigned earlier this year, leaving Republicans with one vacancy.

Democrats add to their special election streak

While Democrats have struggled to unify during the first year of Trumps second administration, the party has seen a number of special election wins across the country.

Like in Virginias 11th Congressional District, the party has seen widely expected wins in safe Democratic strongholds. In January, Democrats predictably came out on top in two special state Legislature elections in Northern Virginia.

But Democrats have also pulled off some upsets this year, winning contested state legislature races in Iowa and Pennsylvania, as well as a Wisconsin state Supreme Court race. The next contested special election to watch will take place later this month in Georgia, where a Democrat will face off against a Republican in a runoff election to fill a state Senate seat. The Republican in that race, however, is heavily favored.

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Democrats argue the string of special election wins prove there is enthusiasm from their base despite frustrations with their party.

Rep-elect Walkinshaws victory continues the dominant trend were seeing so far this year  Democrats are massively overperforming in nearly every race, Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said in a statement.

However, Republicans note off-year special elections are rarely indicative of turnout in major election years.

Win adds to Dem enthusiasm for governors race

While the margins in the race are likely to change slightly after Tuesday, Walkinshaws win appeared to surpass former Vice President Kamala Harriss (D) margin of victory in the district last year.

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Harris won the district by 34 points in November, but as of Tuesday night, with 57 percent of the vote reported, Walkinshaw led Whitson by more than 50 points.

Its a promising sign for Virginia Democrats running in Novembers races, which include contests for governor and lieutenant governor. While Northern Virginia is not considered the most competitive portion of the state, strong Democratic turnout in the region is essential for a statewide win for the party.

The District of Columbia suburbs, as well as other portions of Virginia, have been heavily impacted by the Trump administrations cuts to the federal workforce under the Department of Government Efficiency. Virginia Democrats, including Walkinshaw and gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger, have made the impact of the cuts one of the central parts of their campaign messaging. Tuesdays special election win for Democrats could be the first sign that messaging is energizing the Democratic base.

Boston readies for Dem face-off in November

Wu will face off against Kraft in the citys mayoral race this November after both Democrats advanced to the general election.

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Wu, who is seeking a second term, and Kraft each advanced out of Tuesdays nonpartisan primary.

Wu held a commanding 65 percent lead Tuesday evening, while Kraft trailed at 30 percent. Candidates Robert Cappucci and Domingos DaRosa came in at 3.2 and 1.7 percent support, respectively.

An Emerson College survey released last week showed Wu leading Kraft 72 percent to 22 percent. Another 24 percent said they were undecided.

The election comes as the Department of Homeland Security targets Massachusetts in an immigration crackdown dubbed Patriot 2.0. The department has said the operation is aimed at targeting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens living in the state of Massachusetts.

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Wu has vocally spoken out against the Trump administrations efforts in Boston, saying she will push back against federal immigration enforcement in the city.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Israels military described its attack on a residential complex in central Doha, Qatar, as a precise attack.

In an official statement on Tuesday, the Palestinian movement Hamas said the attack killed five of its members, and a Qatari officer, but did not eliminate its negotiating delegation or any of its senior leadership.

Here is what we know about the victims, and the senior leaders who were targeted  but who appear to have survived the attack:

Who is Khalil al-Hayya?

Reports say the strike targeted senior Hamas figures, including Khalil al-Hayya, the groups exiled Gaza leader and main negotiator.

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Al-Hayya rose in importance after the killings of top Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Yahya Sinwar in Gaza, and military commander Mohammed Deif last year. Sinwar, who had taken charge in Gaza after Haniyehs death, was killed later in 2024.

With those losses, al-Hayya is now one of five leaders steering Hamass leadership council.

The leadership council is the temporary, five-member ruling committee formed in late 2024 to govern the group during the war.

Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya sits at a mourning house for assassinated Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Doha, [File: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters]

Born in the Gaza Strip in 1960, al-Hayya has been part of Hamas since it was established in 1987. He became especially important on the diplomatic front, based mainly in Qatar, which became the main hub for mediation with other countries, including Israel, Egypt, and the United States.

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Operating outside Gaza allowed him to travel and coordinate between neighbouring countries without the constraints of the Israeli blockade on Gaza. Al-Hayya has also led Hamass delegations in mediated talks with Israel to try to secure a Gaza ceasefire deal.

Al-Hayyas family has suffered as a result of Israeli attacks: During the 2014 war, an Israeli strike destroyed the house of his eldest son, Osama, killing him, his wife, and three of their children, and during Tuesdays attack, his son, Humam, was killed.

Who else is believed to have been targeted, and who was killed during the attack?

According to reports, Zaher Jabarin is also believed to have been a target of Israels attack. He currently serves as the movements chief financial administrator.

In 1993, Israel arrested Jabarin and sentenced him to life imprisonment. He spent almost two decades in prison before being released in 2011 as part of a prisoner exchange.

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Following his release, Jabarin rose quickly through Hamass ranks. He became head of the groups financial bureau, managing and overseeing an extensive investment and funding network. He currently also heads Hamas in the occupied West Bank, and is one of the five members of the leadership council.

Those killed during Israels attack in Qatar were:

Jihad Labad  director of al-Hayyas office

Humam al-Hayya  al-Hayyas son

Abdullah Abdul Wahid  bodyguard

Moamen Hassouna  bodyguard

Ahmed al-Mamluk  bodyguard

The sixth person killed, according to Qatar, was Corporal Bader Saad Mohammed al-Humaidi al-Dosari, a member of the Internal Security Force (Lekhwiya).

Who are the current leaders of Hamas?

With many of Hamass leadership killed since Israels war on Gaza began in October 2023, the group formed a five-man leadership council  which includes al-Hayya and Jabarin  and also has a senior military figure in Gaza.

Izz al-Din al-Haddad

Al-Haddad became the most senior Hamas military leader in the Gaza Strip after Sinwars death. Israel considers him one of the masterminds behind October 7 and has placed him on its most-wanted list. He is not a member of the five-man leadership council.

Khaled Meshaal

Khaled Meshaal, 68, has been a senior political leader of Hamas, a Palestinian resistance movement, since the 1990s. In 1997, Israeli agents attempted to inject a slow-acting lethal chemical into his ear on a public street in Jordan, but the operation was botched, and the men were soon arrested. He is now based in Qatar, serving on the leadership council.

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It is true that in reality, there will be an entity or a state called Israel on the rest of Palestinian land, Meshaal has said. But I wont deal with it in terms of recognising or admitting it.

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal speaks during an interview [File: Fadi Al-Assaad/Reuters]

Mohammad Darwish

He is also based in Qatar, and is the nominal head of Hamass leadership council. According to reports, in early 2025, he met Turkiyes President Erdogan and publicly endorsed the idea of a technocratic or national unity government for post-war Gaza.

Nizar Awadallah

Awadallah is a long-time Hamas leader. He is seen as one of Hamass original members and has held several important positions, including in its armed wing. Since the October 7 attacks, he has not spoken publicly or appeared in the media.
Kiko remains a tropical storm and is heading westward just to the north of the western Hawaiian Islands, producing life-threatening surf and rip currents.

According to the 11 p.m. HST advisory from the National Hurricane Center on Wednesday, Sept. 10, Kiko was located about 90 miles east of Honolulu with maximum sustained winds near 40 mph with higher gusts.

Forecasters said slow weakening is expected during the next couple of days, with Kiko forecast to become a tropical depression on Wednesday, Sept. 10, and a post-tropical remnant low by Thursday night, Sept. 11.

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The National Weather Service in Honolulu said on social media the "threat of direct impacts continues to lower," although interests in the western Hawaiian Islands should continue to monitor Kiko's progress.

The NHC said in the advisory swells generated by Kiko will peak across the exposed waters of the western Hawaiian Islands, producing life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.

Hawaii will continue to feel indirect impacts today from moist air Kiko brought into the area and a weak wind field left in its wake, the National Weather Service said. An inch or two of rain an hour could occur in isolated locations.

The wind may produce rain over Oahu and in Kauais higher terrain, the weather service said and has increased showers on the windward side of the Big Island and Maui. The weather service said it would hold off on a statewide flood watch, but added it will closely monitor in case any isolated areas receive 2 to 4 inches of rain that might cause downstream flooding issues.

Kiko is forecast to pass north of the western Hawaiian Islands tonight through early Wednesday. The threat of direct impacts continues to lower, although interests in the western Hawaiian Islands should continue to monitor Kiko's progress. pic.twitter.com/yXf2pA2rKq  NWSHonolulu (@NWSHonolulu) September 10, 2025

NHC tracking another tropical wave in the Pacific that could become a tropical depression

Elsewhere in the Pacific, the hurricane center said it is tracking a tropical wave located a few hundred miles offshore of the coast of southern Mexico that is producing a "large area of disorganized showers and thunderstorms."

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Forecasters said environmental conditions are favorable for the development of this system, and a tropical depression is likely to form by late this week as it moves west-northwestward, roughly parallel to but offshore of the Mexican coast.

The NHC gives this system a 90% chance of formation through the next seven days.

More news: Why September 10 is an infamous day in the Atlantic hurricane season

Tropical Storm Kiko path tracker

This forecast track shows the most likely path of the center of the storm. It does not illustrate the full width of the storm or its impacts, and the center of the storm is likely to travel outside the cone up to 33% of the time.

Tropical Storm Kiko spaghetti models

Illustrations include an array of forecast tools and models, and not all are created equal. The hurricane center uses only the top four or five highest-performing models to help make its forecasts.

How do hurricanes form?

Hurricanes are born in the tropics, above warm water. Clusters of thunderstorms can develop over the ocean when water temperatures exceed 80 degrees. If conditions are right, the clusters swirl into a storm known as a tropical wave or tropical depression.

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A tropical depression becomes a named tropical storm once its sustained wind speeds reach 39 mph. When its winds reach 74 mph, the storm officially becomes a hurricane.

Prepare now for hurricanes

Delaying potentially lifesaving preparations could mean waiting until its too late. "Get your disaster supplies while the shelves are still stocked, and get that insurance checkup early, as flood insurance requires a 30-day waiting period," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recommends.

Develop an evacuation plan . If you are at risk from hurricanes, you need an evacuation plan. Now is the time to begin planning where you would go and how you would get there.

Assemble disaster supplies . Whether youre evacuating or sheltering in place, youre going to need supplies not just to get through the storm but for a possibly lengthy aftermath, NOAA said.

Get an insurance checkup and document your possessions . Contact your insurance company or agent now and ask for an insurance checkup to make sure you have enough insurance to repair or even replace your home and belongings. Remember, home and renters insurance dont cover flooding, so youll need a separate policy for those. Flood insurance is available through your company, agent or the National Flood Insurance Program. Act now, because flood insurance requires a 30-day waiting period.

Create a family communication plan . NOAA says you should take the time now to write down a hurricane plan and share it with your family. Determine family meeting places and make sure to include an out-of-town location in case of evacuation.

Strengthen your home. Now is the time to improve your homes ability to withstand hurricanes. Trim trees and install storm shutters, accordion shutters and impact glass; seal outside wall openings.

Contributing: Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAY

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Gabe Hauari is a national trending news reporter at USA TODAY. You can follow him on X @GabeHauari or email him at Gdhauari@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tropical Storm Kiko path tracker, spaghetti models, latest forecast
Kilmar Abrego Garcia faces an uncertain future.

The Trump administration wants to deport him to the African nation of Eswatini. Abrego Garcia wants to apply for asylum to stay in the U.S.

Either path could begin with a long journey through the legal system.

Abrego Garcia, 30, became a flashpoint over President Donald Trumps immigration crackdown when he was wrongfully deported to his native El Salvador. The Trump administration claimed he was a member of the MS-13 gang, an allegation that Abrego Garcia denies and for which he wasnt charged.

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The administration returned Abrego Garcia to the U.S. in June, but only to face human smuggling charges. Abrego Garcias lawyers have called the case preposterous and vindictive.

Abrego Garcia was released from a Tennessee jail to await his trial last month. He was taken into immigration custody three days later and remains in a Virginia detention center.

Heres a look at what could happen next:

Fears of other countries

The Trump administration has proposed sending Abrego Garcia to Eswatini because it cannot legally send him to El Salvador.

Abrego Garcia fled El Salvador around 2011 because a local gang had extorted and terrorized him and his family, according to court documents. Abrego Garcia had settled in Maryland without documentation to join his older brother, who had become a U.S. citizen.

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One day in 2019, Abrego Garcia sought work as a day laborer outside a Home Depot. A confidential informant told police that Abrego Garcia and other men outside the store were in MS-13 because of their clothing and tattoos, according to court documents.

Abrego Garcia was never charged but was turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He applied for asylum, but was denied because his request came more than a year after he entered the U.S.

However, an immigration judge granted him protection from being deported to El Salvador after Abrego Garcia demonstrated that he had a well-founded fear of gang persecution there.

Six years later, in the early days of the second Trump administration, ICE deported Abrego Garcia to a notorious El Salvador prison, violating the immigration judges order. Following a Supreme Court order, the Trump administration returned him to the U.S., but only to face charges of human smuggling.

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The Trump administration said last month that it intended to deport him to the African country of Uganda. Abrego Garcia notified the U.S. government that he fears being sent there over concerns of persecution or being sent on to El Salvador.

Last Friday, the Trump administration said it now intends to deport him to Eswatini.

A letter from ICE said his fears are hard to take seriously, especially given that you have claimed (through your attorneys) that you fear persecution or torture in at least 22 different countries.

Trumps immigration court

The U.S. is supposed to follow a multi-step process for deporting someone to a nation that isnt their home country, according to immigration attorneys.

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For example, an immigration officer is supposed to conduct a reasonable fear interview, during which Abrego Garcia can raise concerns about persecution and torture. If the officer disagrees, Abrego Garcia can ask an immigration judge to review the decision. From there, Abrego Garcia can go to the Board of Immigration Appeals.

Immigration judges are part of the Justice Department and under the Trump administrations authority. Trump has been firing immigration judges, many appointed by former President Joe Biden, as part of his immigration crackdown.

However, Abrego Garcia can contest a Board of Immigration Appeals decision in the federal courts, which are part of the nations independent judiciary.

You cant win every case

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Even if Abrego Garcia thwarts deportation to Eswatini, he likely will face attempts to remove him to another country and then another, according to Memphis-based immigration attorney Andrew Rankin.

By the law of averages, you cant win every case, he said.

Asylum, however, could place the focus solely back on El Salvador, where Abrego Garcia has previously shown a credible fear of gang persecution.

Abrego Garcia has filed a motion to reopen his 2019 immigration case and apply for asylum. His lawyers will likely argue hes eligible because hes been in the U.S. less than a year, Rankin said.

Asylum could provide a green card and a path to citizenship. But hes taking a risk, Rankin said. If Abrego Garcia loses his bid, an immigration judge could remove his protection from being returned to El Salvador.

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A traffic court setting

Abrego Garcias motion to reopen his immigration case is still pending. If its denied, he can appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals. From there, he can go to the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia.

If he is allowed to request asylum, hell get a hearing. His lawyers and the government can present evidence and call witnesses.

A very famous saying about immigration court is Immigration court has death penalty consequences in a traffic court setting, said Rankin, the attorney.

For example, immigration judges have much wider discretion on scheduling, admitting evidence and issuing judgments, Rankin said. There can be little consistency between individual immigration courts.

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In traffic court, youre deciding a speeding ticket, which at most affects insurance purposes, Rankin said. Whereas in immigration court, youre deciding in this particular case whether someones going to go home to die. Or if theyre going to stay in the U.S.

Attorney general could rule

Attorney General Pam Bondi has the authority to decide Abrego Garcia's immigration case as the head of the Justice Department, immigration experts say. Such decisions are rare, but the Trump administration has shown a willingness to break with precedent.

Abrego Garcia's attorneys in his Tennessee criminal case have criticized Bondi for what they say are prejudicial statements, claiming he can't get a fair criminal trial.

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Cesar Cuauhtemoc Garcia Hernandez, an Ohio State University law professor, said a hypothetical ruling from Bondi would likely be appealed to the 4th Circuit.

The smartest thing for Bondi to do, the professor said, is to work with a good group of Justice Department lawyers who are going to explain the factual basis for your conclusion.

Rankin, the attorney in Memphis, said Abrego Garcia's attorneys likely would attack any decision made by Bondi to deport him as "a political hit job."

It would destroy any credibility that this is a prosecution for the American people and not a prosecution for Donald Trump, Rankin said.
WARSAW, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Poland said Wednesday that 19 objects had entered its airspace overnight during drone exchanges between Russia and Ukraine, with several that posed a direct threat being shot down.

Although Poland claimed the incident was the first reported downing of Russian drones over NATO territory, Moscow dismissed the accusation as "groundless."

The Polish Armed Forces said Wednesday morning that multiple drone-type objects had "repeatedly violated" Poland's skies. An overnight air-defense operation saw Polish F-16s and Dutch F-35s bring down at least three drones, before radar and ground systems returned to normal.

Four airports in Poland, including Warsaw's Chopin Airport, were briefly closed for military operations, with three later reopened.

Polish President Karol Nawrocki said he would convene the National Security Council within 48 hours after the airspace breach.

Before a special government meeting on Wednesday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that "procedures worked, the danger was eliminated," with no casualties reported and "no reason to panic."

Tusk added that he had invoked Article 4 of the Washington Treaty (the North Atlantic Treaty), seeking consultations with NATO allies over a threat to national security.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the alliance has responded to Poland's requests, adding that NATO will continue to closely monitor the situation in the east, with its air defense systems kept on standby.

On Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa expressed their support for Poland. Several European leaders called the alleged incursion "unacceptable," while Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico emphasized the need to establish whether the incident was intentional or accidental.

Although Poland, the EU, and NATO accused Russia of launching the drones, Russia has rejected the claim.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that none of its strike targets were in Poland, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the EU and NATO "accuse Russia of provocations on a daily basis" without evidence.

Earlier in the day, Russian Charge d'affaires in Poland Andrei Ordash told RIA Novosti news agency that he had been summoned to the Polish Foreign Ministry over the drones, although Poland had presented no evidence of their alleged Russian origin.

Belarus said its forces had tracked drones that strayed off course during overnight Russian-Ukrainian exchanges, likely due to electronic warfare.

Belarus shot down some drones near its territory and notified Poland and Lithuania of their approach, Belarusian state news agency BelTA quoted Chief of the General Staff Pavel Muraveiko as saying. 
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS)  A survey with over 3,000 respondents says Charlotte-based Krispy Kreme Doughnuts is the most loved homegrown brand by North Carolinians.

The survey performed by MarketBeat.com, a financial media company, asked NC residents to name the products that make them beam with state pride.

The results are:

Anyone who stops by a U.S. store can get a free glazed donut and an I Voted sticker. (Photo illustration by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

#1: Krispy Kreme (Charlotte)

The iconic glazed doughnuts have people running when the Hot Now sign is on. Originally based in Winston-Salem, the company moved its headquarters to Charlotte in 2017.

#2: Burts Bees (Durham)

Natural personal care products that came from a North Carolina beekeepers hobby and later became a worldwide brand.

Why dont major pickle brands write pickle on the front of the label? (Michael Bartiromo/Nexstar)

#3: Mt. Olive Pickles (Mount Olive)

Truly a North Carolina staple. Mt. Olive Pickles remains the largest privately held pickle company in the U.S.

#4: Biltmore Wines (Asheville)

Wines are produced from grapes grown on the famous Biltmore Estate. The winery offers tastings of over 20 handcrafted reds, whites and roses.

Philip White, of Los Angeles, claims he was under the impression that Texas Pete hot sauce was produced in Texas when he purchased a $3 bottle at a Ralphs supermarket in Sept. 2021, according to class-action lawsuit. (Getty Images)

#5: Texas Pete Hot Sauce (Winston-Salem)

Dont be fooled by the name; this hot sauce is North Carolina through and through since the 1920s.

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Check out this infographic that shows the top choices for each state.

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The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday reinstated an $80,000 reward that was previously offered to anyone who could provide information related to three homicides in East Los Angeles, but was never given to those who came forward to ensure a conviction.

The case involves three slayings involving residents in a tight-knit neighborhood in East L.A., all of whom were connected to the same solitary man and his enabling father.

For years, detectives suspected Anthony Velasquez and his father, Manuel Velasquez, were responsible for the killings. The Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department had ballistic evidence and a vehicle description potentially tying them to the crime, and the younger suspect had personal relationships with all three victims, according to the Los Angeles Times.

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But there was never enough concrete evidence to secure their arrest; not until the Board of Supervisors first offered the reward.

In February 2014, 33-year-old Jesse Avalos was found shot to death in his SUV near the intersection of Telegraph Road and Arizona Avenue. He was in the area after receiving a call from an acquaintance to help jump-start a car.

Hours earlier, Avalos and Anthony Velasquez were involved in a backyard brawl that was sparked after a previous conflict over a woman. Avalos pummeled Velasquez but then cooled things off with a hug, dinner and beer, homicide detective Ray Lugo said.

But Velasquez had apparently not accepted the truce and stormed out of Avalos home. It was later revealed that the original caller that lured Avalos to his death was likely the elder Velazquez, according to the Times, citing phone records shown during the trial.

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That was the first of at least three murders linked to the father-son duo.

Another, which happened in July 2015, involved 38-year-old Eduardo Robles, a friend of Avalos, who believed Anthony Velasquez was responsible for his friends death.

After a confrontation, Anthony Velasquez hopped a fence and slashed the tires of Robles vehicle. He returned minutes later to fatally shoot Robles. Witnesses confirmed to detectives that it was Velasquez who damaged Robles vehicle, but stopped shy of identifying him as a gunman.

Anthony Velasquez, convicted in the killings of three people in East Los Angeles from 2014-2018, is shown in this mugshot from the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department.

Detective Lugo had long believed that it was an open secret whom the gunman washe did not wear a mask at the time of the shooting. But neighbors and acquaintances apparently lived in fear of the killer among them.

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Years later, a third victim tied to Velasquez was found dead. In 2018, Amanda Nicole Lopez, a mother to a four-year-old boy, was found shot to death in a tent near the East L.A. Civic Center.

The two were acquaintances, officials said, with Velasquez allowing Lopez to shower at his home, do laundry and drive her around town. But the relationship turned deadly due to a romantic feelings from Velasquez that were not reciprocated, L.A. County Deputy District Attorney Negin Mostadim told the TImes.

On the morning of April 22, 2018, Velasquez walked through a homeless encampment searching for Amanda Lopez. He eventually found her sleeping in a tent and shot her with a shotgun.

Despite suspicion from investigators, again there was not enough evidence to secure an arrest of Anthony or Manuel Velasquez.

The Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department released these suspect sketches of the two men wanted in connection with a string of homicides in East L.A. from 2014-2018.

In August 2021, the Sheriffs Department released details about the unsolved killings alongside an offer of $80,000 for information leading to their arrest. Fliers were put up near the Velasquez family home which featured composite sketches of the suspects that looked eerily similar to both men.

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Eventually, that reward offer proved to be what was needed to encourage two eyewitnesses to come forward and provide the last piece of the evidentiary puzzle.

Anthony and Manuel Velasquez were later arrested in connection with the crimes during an early morning SWAT raid at their home. The elder Velasquez eventually pleaded no-contest to manslaughter and accessory to murder and was sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison.

L.A. County sheriffs deputies take Manuel Velasquez into custody after serving a search warrant on his home in East L.A. (Matthew Ormseth / Los Angeles Times)

Anthony Velasquez was later convicted in all three slayings and sentenced to 150 years in prison. While held in custody in a wired jail cell, Anthony Velasquez bragged about the killings and hinted at his involvement in others. He also claimed that witnesses were too afraid of him to come forward.

Eyewitnesses did eventually tell their story, but the $80,000 was never awarded to them due to a time constraint that led to the offers expiration. Typically, those rewards expire after about a year, officials said.

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On Tuesday, Supervisor Hilda Solis, who helped originally establish the reward, reinstated it so that those who courageously came forward could claim it.

While East Los Angeles will continue to feel the profound losses of Jesus Antonio Avalos, Eduardo Robles, and Amanda Nicole Lopez, it is clear that this took a collective effort with our community and law enforcement working bravely together to ensure justice and closure for the families of the victims, Solis said ina. release. Todays motion honors that commitment to justice.

Detective Ray Lugo, whose world revolved around this case for years, thanked Solis and the County Supervisors for unwavering support in closing the case, and reminding the public about the importance of speaking up in times of crisis.

The information we received after the reward offer was announced was critical to solving this case and ensuring the culprit does not go on to harm anyone else in our community, Lugo said.

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According to the Los Angeles Times, Anthony Velasquez maintains his innocence and plans to appeal his conviction.

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Amid growing fears of renewed mass deportations , the beloved L.A. band La Santa Cecilia hopes its upcoming musical performances can provide moments of joy and humanity for Angelenos.

"As musicians, we get the chance to open up a space like that for people to feel, to dance and feel happy," says La Marisoul, the band's lead vocalist, in a recent phone call with De Los. "From that joy, we replenish ourselves to continue on in life."

Best known for its blend of Pan-American rhythms  including bossa nova, cumbia, rancheras and more  La Santa Cecilia will perform Sept. 13 and 14 at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex at Cal State LA, kicking off the theater's 2025-26 season.

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The upcoming event series will also usher in Hispanic Heritage Month, which begins Sept. 15 and is dedicated to celebrating the contributions of Hispanic and Latino people in the U.S. Yet, this year's festivities may be subdued, as many Latinos across the country fear racial and ethnic profiling ; on Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that U.S. immigration agents may stop and detain anyone they suspect is in the U.S. illegally based on their appearance, language and location.

Many Angelenos are expecting human rights conditions to worsen  including members of La Santa Cecilia, for whom immigrant rights have been central to their message. Earlier this summer, the band's members attended the No Kings p rotests against President Donald Trump and the mass ICE raids taking place across Southern California.

"I'm concerned about relatives, I'm concerned about myself  I'm brown and Oaxacan," says Pepe Carlos, the band's accordion and guitar player, about the new Supreme Court ruling. "It's sad that I can be asked for my citizenship, for my residency  my humanity is not being respected."

One of the quartet's most famed songs, "Ice el Hielo," which was released in 2013, seems to underscore the current political dynamics at play. The song was inspired by real-life fears, then released as Arizona passed its controversial bill S B 1070 into law  which allowed police to stop and detain individuals suspected of being in the country unlawfully.

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Sung over a swaying bossa nova beat, the verses detail the plight of three undocumented immigrants who work toward a better life, but who are swept up by ICE officials: "Ahora los ninos lloran a la salida, lloran al ver que no llegara mama." ("Now the children cry when they leave, they cry when they see that Mom isn't coming.")

"Unfortunately, people do not understand that Mexicanos and Latino Americanos are indigenous to these lands. We're not illegal in any way, shape or form," says Miguel "Oso" Ramirez, the band's percussionist.  We'll continue to play that song and we'll continue to use our platform to speak up on behalf of our community."

"We have to show strength more than anything in these times if we are in a position of privilege," Ramirez adds. "We have to be strong and we have to question: What is legal?"

The track was part of their hit 2013 album, "Treinta Dias," which went on to win the Grammy for best Latin rock, alternative or urban album the following year. In the group's acceptance speech , La Santa Cecilia dedicated the award to "the more than 11 million undocumented people that live and work really hard ... and that still need to live a more dignified life in this country."

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"As a band from Los Angeles, we experience so many things as immigrants living here, growing up and becoming strong in our duality of being Latin American, Mexican American," says Alex Bendana, the band's bass player. "I want people to feel proud of who they are and where they come from."

The band has yet to issue a follow-up to its 2023 LP, "Cuatro Copas Bohemia En La Finca Altozano," but have released three singles since  including the new track "Hojas en el Aire," a wind and brass-heavy orchestra track inspired by the group's time in San Andres Solaga, Mexico.

The homecoming L.A. concert is part of La Santa Cecilia's 2025 world tour, which includes stops in U.S. cities like San Jose, Seattle, New York City and Phoenix, as well as three dates in Spain and a first-time visit for the band in Finland for Womex, an international music industry exhibition.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
BURLINGTON, Vt. (ABC22/FOX44)  New legislation and a changing economic climate mean many people looking to do business in Vermont are faced with uncertainty.

The Lake Champlain Chamber, a regional organization that promotes entrepreneurship, is hosting accountants and legal experts from the Burlington area on Friday who will break down the controversial One Big Bill act section by section.

Vermont launches website to simplify starting a business

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Topics to be covered are changes to tax credits and business deductions, long-term planning to align with the new law, and other reforms introduced by the bill.

The event is presented with help from South Burlington accounting firm Gallagher, Flynn & Company and Burlington law firm Downs Rachlin Martin.

The free event is at 12:00 p.m. Friday, and registration is at the link here.

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HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH)  Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont visited the Connecticut Emergency Operations Center Tuesday to discuss emergency preparedness and view a demonstration of software used to simulate fires.

The Connecticut Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security held its annual Governors Emergency Planning and Preparedness Initiative Tuesday, during which Gov. Lamont and the department reviewed emergency preparedness plans and simulated a fire caused by drought.

Photo: CT Emergency Management & Homeland Security, X Photo: CT Emergency Management & Homeland Security, X Photo: CT Emergency Management & Homeland Security, X

Naugatuck Valley residents invited to review drainage project designs

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September is National Preparedness Month, and the department is recommending Connecticut residents put together an emergency plan as well as an emergency kit. A personal preparedness guide in multiple languages can be found on the states website.

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Lapid discussed the need to create a new organization of "democratic nations", while he pointed out the bias that exists towards Israel currently in the UN.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid called the United Nations treatment of Israel the diplomatic equivalent of a psychotic episode, in an op-ed written for Fox News on Wednesday.

The idea for the United Nations was born out of a desire by democratic nations to promote liberal values and human rights," Lapid explained, but criticized the body for A mix of post-colonial guilt and ideological laziness led the UN to admit more and more non-democratic states.

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"Today, in every vote, on every budget, in every resolution, non-democracies hold an automatic majority. And they use it without the slightest qualm.

The Yesh Atid chairman said, The fact that the UN meets and votes against Israel is like rain in London: thats just what it does. They gather, deliver the same speech as last year, vote the same way as last year, and then head to dinner at Wolfgangs on Park Avenue.

According to him, this made the UN resolutions something irrelevant for the Israeli cabinet. Nobody cared. No one burst into my office waving a piece of paper in panic. We didnt huddle in front of the television, holding sweaty hands and waiting for the vote. Israels UN ambassador didnt call me, choking back tears, to confess he felt like a failure, he expressed.

Head of opposition and head of the Yesh Atid party MK Yair Lapid leads a faction meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, on June 9, 2025. (credit: CHAIM GOLDBEG/FLASH90)

Lapid also noted, In 2023, the year Hamas launched the October 7 attack on Israel, the General Assembly passed 15 resolutions against Israel, and only eight against all other countries combined. This was no anomaly.

Lapid: It's time for democracies to exit the UN

Iran sat on the UN Commission on the Status of Women in 2022, as Mahsa Amini was murdered. Syria chaired the Conference on Disarmament in 2018 while gassing its own citizens. North Korea presided over that very same disarmament conference in 2022 while openly brandishing nuclear weapons and firing ballistic missiles at Japan, Lapid explained in the op-ed.

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In his eyes, this represents the failure of the UNs main objective: to spread democracy worldwide. It [The UNs Charter] only lacks five words: Or you wont be admitted, he added.

Wth this in mind, Lapid proposed, We need a UN of democracies. I suggest calling it DAWN (the Democratic Alliance for World Nations), though perhaps something less poetic would do. We dont need to reinvent its goals.

The opposition leader concluded, "We just need to clarify the terms of membership: a commitment to democracy; a willingness to confront authoritarian leaders who make a mockery of everything we hold sacred; and a focus on fighting the great threats of our age.
LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  Residents at an east Las Vegas valley senior community were shaken after they said they discovered a series of racist messages in and around their building over the past few months.

It said monkeys behaving badly on the second floor again,  a resident who wanted to remain anonymous shared with 8 News Now.

She said she found the note outside her door on the ground and took action by bringing it to the management office.

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I knew it was a racist comment attacking our black community here, she explained. Its not the first incident that weve had here.

Another woman living at the complex, who also wanted to remain anonymous, showed 8 News Now a photo of one of the alleged notes left on someones door, which read [expletive].

The apartment complex responded to resident complaints on August 18 with a letter posted on their doors, acknowledging the complaints.

The letter is provided below:

Somebody should address this, beyond the scope of its not our responsibility,  the anonymous woman said after reading the letter.

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Micah Hill, another resident at the complex, expressed that he was also surprised by the apartments response.

Their representatives sent out this letter to null it a bit, to protect themselves, Hill said.

Im definitely uncomfortable with it, General Gray, who has lived at the complex for a decade said. Im not really surprised its going on. This is just a small piece of whats going on around the country.

8 News Now reached out to the complexs management company for comment and is awaiting a response.

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LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  A federal judge sentenced a Las Vegas woman Tuesday to 10 years in prison for selling fentanyl pills that resulted in a mans death.

In March, Danielle Partington pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance.

From fall 2019 to January 2020, Partington was the victims pill supplier, and she sold pills to the victim multiple times. On Jan. 20, 2020, the victim called and texted Partington asking to purchase pills, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Partington then coordinated with a co-conspirator to deliver 80 pills containing fentanyl to the victim. Three days later, on Jan. 23, 2020, the victim overdosed on the fentanyl sold to him by Partington and her co-conspirator, according to the DOJ.

Illicit fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. Just two milligrams, about the size of a few grains of salt, can be lethal. It is the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 45, and it kills at an unprecedented rate, the DOJ said.

Partington was sentenced Tuesday by United States District Judge Richard F. Boulware II to 10 years in prison followed by four years of supervised release. The government recommended a prison sentence of 144 months.

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ADDISON, Ill. (WGN)  Troubling new allegations have surfaced against the owner of a suburban ice cream shop charged with secretly filming customers and employees.

Attorneys have filed a civil lawsuit accusing Steven Weisberg, a 58-year-old Buffalo Grove father of four, of trying to groom a teenage girl.

Im sure anybody who has heard these facts is absolutely appalled, said attorney Richard Pullano, with Pullano & Siporin, speaking about the civil suit filed on behalf of the now 19-year-old victim who previously worked at Flavor Frenzy.

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I felt sick: Teen employee speaks out after Addison ice cream shop owner was arrested for allegedly hiding camera in bathroom

The pain is so justified, but shes also reflecting inward, Could I have done something sooner?' Pullano added.

An anonymous tip to police in August sparked the investigation. Eventually, it led to a search of the suburban ice cream shops bathroom located on West Lake Street, which opened in 2019.

An undercover police officer from Addison did an investigation and discovered a hidden camera in the bathroom, Pullano revealed.

Weisberg placed the camera inside the shops bathroom, police said. Prosecutors in DuPage County criminally charged the 58-year-old in August. Authorities allegedly uncovered 11 videos on Weisbergs cell phone, depicting six individuals, of whom at least three were store employees. One of the individuals depicted was as young as 16 years old, according to police.

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Since then, four other teen employees have come forward.

He hired high school girls to work in his shop, Pullano said. This scheme, he had, is that he wanted them to try on shirts and tank tops, with the business name on front, Flavor Frenzy, and said he was either going to use these t-shirts to sell to customers or to promote them on his website.

Pullano said that Weisberg groomed his client and built up trust, even taking her to pickleball.

She got the best schedule, she got the best assignments that paid the most money, he said.

Trips to Weisbergs family home followed, Pullano added, which is where, he says, police found another camera in his childrens bathroom.

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Prosecutors: Addison ice cream shop owner secretly recorded employees in the bathroom

He told [my client] that his daughter was home and she could shower, and then they would go to work together. And thats what she did, with no idea there would ever be a hidden camera, Pullano said

The mother of one of the other girls talked with WGN-TV when police first announced charges against Weisberg.

I mean, hes clearly sick, said Jennifer Ashrafi. Beyond even the employees, like, how many little kids use that bathroom just as customers? Its so disturbing.

Richard Pullano said the alleged crimes shock the conscience, illustrating a surreal moment of broken trust. Now, the search for more answers and accountability appears headed to a courtroom.

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They want a full investigation, Pullano said. They want to know everything that happened and why it happened. Sometimes we never get to the why, but were going to try.

Read more: Latest Chicago news and headlines

Weisberg remains in custody at least until his next court appearance, scheduled for Monday, Sept. 15.

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A government attorney said at a hearing Wednesday that the administration has "no immediate plans" to deport additional unaccompanied minors, following the near deportation of 76 Guatemalan minors over Labor Day weekend.

A judge over the weekend temporarily blocked the deportation of the 76 unaccompanied minors without due process, just as they were sitting on the planes preparing to depart.

Justice Department officials have said the 76 minors were being removed in accordance with the law and at the request of the Guatemalan government and the minors' legal guardians, but attorneys for the minors say some of children did not have parents who had requested their return, and that some minors expressed a fear of returning to Guatemala.

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MORE: Judge blocks deportation of 76 Guatemalan minors after questioning government's argument

At a hearing Wednesday, attorneys for the minors asked a federal judge to issue a preliminary injunction blocking such deportations.

During the hearing, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly pressed Justice Department attorney Sarah Welch on the government's plans for additional deportations of unaccompanied minors.

"There are no immediate plans," Welch responded.

Asked about a Guatemalan government report that contradicted the administration's claim that the parents of the minors had requested their children be returned, Welch said that "parental request" is not a requirement for removal.

Anadolu via Getty Images - Eighty migrants from Guatemala are deported to their country with a United States military plane at the Fort Bliss facility in El Paso, Texas, on Jan. 30, 2025.

"The government of Guatemala made this request," Welch said. "The U.S. has been working with the government of Guatemala."

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Welch conceded that "everyone agrees it was unfortunate children were frightened" during the removal attempt, but said the procedure followed by the government "was sufficient for due process." She said that because the minors are in government custody, any notice of removal goes to the caregiver, not to the child.

Efren Olivares, an attorney representing the minors, argued that a request for voluntary departure must be granted by an immigration judge and said that while the government has stated it has no immediate plans to remove children, it did not deny that children may be removed "eventually."

Judge Kelly did not rule on the preliminary injunction during Wednesday's hearing.

Olivares argued during the hearing that a preliminary injunction is needed for the entire class -- including minors who are from other countries -- because they are at "imminent risk."

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The attorney said evidence submitted to the court shows that recent actions by government officials "tracks" with the removal attempt over the weekend. In court filings prior to the hearing, the minors' attorneys argued that immigration officials are interviewing unaccompanied minors from other countries with an eye toward removing them in the same manner.

MORE: 'I feel totally traumatized': Unaccompanied minors from Guatemala describe attempted deportation

"We provided enough evidence that other children are being targeted," another attorney representing the minors said at the hearing.

The attorneys' filings included declarations from immigrant advocates and minors from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.

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"I recently received a visit from HSI [Homeland Security Investigations], but they never asked me if I wanted to go back to Honduras," said a 17-year-old from Honduras, whose name was redacted in the declaration.

The teenager, who said they are afraid to return to their home country, said that at an immigration hearing last month, a judge said he had a list of minors who had agreed to voluntary removal, and that the teen's name was on it.

"I do not know why I was on the list," the 17-year-old said.

According to a declaration filed by Roxana Avila-Cimpeanu, deputy director of the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, a number of Honduran children have been questioned by Department of Homeland Security officials.

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"We have no details as to how these children were chosen, or who is in charge of the plan," she said. "We have no information as to whom we need to reach out to share that children have expressed fear or have possible relief."

In another declaration, a 16-year-old from El Salvador, who said they fled their home country because they fear they will be "harmed or killed by the police," stated they have been asked to participate in interviews with government officials.

According to several declarations, many of the minors who immigration attorneys and advocates believe are being targeted for removal have pending immigration proceedings. The attorneys argued that the Trump administration is violating the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, which outlines specific procedures for unaccompanied minors, including ensuring they are placed in immigration proceedings.

"Defendants' argument that they can expel hundreds of children in the middle of the night with two hours' warning relies on the fallacy that they were acting pursuant to authority to 'reunify' them with their parents," attorneys representing the minors said in the filings. "That argument is illogical and illegal."

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MORE: Many parents of Guatemalan minors nearly deported from US did not want children returned: Memo

In the filings, the attorneys also argued that the Trump administration does not have authority to transfer unaccompanied minors from the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement to DHS.

They said the court should reject the Trump administration's "invocation of nonexistent statutory authority," arguing that the administration is putting hundreds of children "at risk of imminent, irreparable harm if they are expelled with no remedy."
GAZA, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- At the al-Saraya intersection in central Gaza City, hundreds of Palestinian families gathered in defiance of the Israeli military's latest evacuation order. They held banners and shouted chants, insisting they had no safe place left to go.

The demonstration captured the exhaustion and anger of residents who have endured nearly two years of war that has killed tens of thousands, displaced the vast majority of Gaza's population, and left the enclave's infrastructure in ruins.

Men, women, and children marched together, some carrying signs that read "We will not leave our homes" and "The south is not safe." Others held photographs of relatives killed in recent airstrikes.

Ahmed Salim, a father of five from Gaza City's al-Rimal neighborhood, said his family's home had been damaged but he would not abandon it. "Israel claims the south is safe, but the planes are bombing everywhere," he said. "There is no real shelter there, only crowded tents and a lack of food and medicine."

For Nawal al-Khatib, 27, the protest was an act of resistance. "We want to tell Israel and the world that we are civilians, not fighters," she said. "Every day they tell us to evacuate to already overcrowded areas, but displacement means hunger and thirst. We are fleeing from death to death. I would rather wait for death in my city, hoping the world will wake up and save us."

The Israeli military has intensified its campaign in recent days, striking residential and commercial towers across Gaza City. Witnesses and local officials said the attacks had destroyed major buildings and displaced thousands more families.

Among them was Samer Abu Hussein, who lost his home in the Al-Roya Tower in southern Gaza and now lives in a tent with his wife and seven children. "Even in the tent, we don't feel safe," he said. "The warplanes are constantly overhead, and the bombing is everywhere."

On Tuesday, the Israeli army ordered all residents of Gaza City to evacuate, warning that those who stayed behind faced grave danger. "The army will act with great force in the area," military spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote on X, urging nearly a million people to move to Al-Mawasi, a narrow coastal strip Israel has designated a "humanitarian zone."

The order came as Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israeli forces had destroyed dozens of high-rise buildings, accusing Hamas of using them as surveillance posts. Gaza health officials said Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours had killed 83 people and wounded 223, bringing the death toll since Oct. 7 to more than 64,600.

Conditions in the south, however, are dire. Shelters are overflowing, with families crammed into schools, tents and public buildings. Aid workers warn of severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine. "The capacity to absorb new waves of displaced families is exhausted," said Rawan Ahmed, a humanitarian worker in Khan Younis. "Many people are forced to sleep outdoors."

Residents say those conditions make evacuation an impossible choice. "If I die here, I will die within my walls," said Mohammed Zaqout of the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood in western Gaza City. "But if I am displaced, I will die of hunger and thirst in the camps. All of Gaza is being targeted. There is no safe place."

Hospitals in the south are already overwhelmed with casualties from recent airstrikes, according to health officials. Shortages of fuel and medicine have further strained the system, raising fears that a wider assault could push Gaza's fragile medical network past the breaking point.

Still, many in Gaza say they feel abandoned by the world. "Perhaps the world will wake up and try to save us," said Mariam al-Khatib, one of the young women who joined the protest. "But for now, we have no choice but to stay in our homes and hold on to survival." 
Le Creuset is in hot water with customers over a highly anticipated Connecticut event that enormously missed the mark.

The beloved cookware brand hosted a Factory To Table event at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford from September 4-7. VIP tickets were available for $35, while General Admission cost $15.

It seems customers couldn't wait to attend, as tickets sold out within 30 minutes after going on sale at noon on August 4, the CTPost reported.

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VIP attendees who spent at least $150 at the event could purchase a $50 "Mystery Box" that was promised to contain at least $300 worth of products, per the French-Belgian company's website.

Le Creuset's "Mystery Box" description states, "What's in the box? That's the fun of it! Each Mystery Box is packed with at least $300 worth of Le Creuset products, but the contents are a surprise  no peeking and no guarantees on specific categories or colors.

"Every box is one-of-a-kind, and that's what makes them so exciting!"

However, many Hartford customers didn't find the items "fun" or "exciting" as they opened up disappointing boxes that fell below the promised $300 value.

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Per the CTPost, one woman even claimed that her "Mystery Box" contained a fondue set without sticks.

Another woman shared her experience on TikTok, saying that while she had "a great time overall" at the event, she was "very disappointed at everyone's box."

"Mostly was paper inside with one ECI and a stoneware, a spatula if you were lucky like me. Ended up trading the braiser because the lid was scuffed all around," she continued, in part.

Le Creuset's Lengthy Apology

On September 8, Le Creuset issued a long apology to customers on social media, writing in part, "First and foremost, we owe you an apology. We are a brand rooted in 100 years of hospitality, and we fell short when the ticketing platform and Mystery Boxes did not live up to expectations for all FTT guests.

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"We're truly sorry for the disappointment in not achieving the standards expected at our events."

The popular brand continued, in part, "Your passion is what makes these events so special, and we don't take that for granted. We appreciate you holding us accountable, and we're committed to doing better in the future."

Le Creuset also encouraged "anyone who received a Mystery Box below the guaranteed $300 value, or damaged product" to contact the company email provided in the apology.

Customers React to the Apology

Many customers are dissatisfied with both Le Creuset's Hartford event and subsequent apology, with one commenting on TikTok, "I wasn't even there and this statement still feels insulting."

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"I'm upset for the fondue sticks lady tbh," another wrote.

"So lower the expectations? Got it," a third said.

"Wow. Y'all need a new PR team. I've officially been de-influenced from buying any Le Creuset [products]," a fourth commented.

"That's ridiculous! You've set a precedent of overflowing boxes [with] values well above $300 now u want to stick to the $300 value! I hope people stop supporting to send a strong message. That's absurd," a fifth wrote.

Le Creuset previously hosted two other 2025 Factory To Table events. The first was held in April in San Jose, California, while the second took place in Columbus, Ohio, in June.

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The third and final Factory To Table event of 2025 took place in Hartford.

This story was originally reported by Parade on Sep 9, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
A 44-year-old Lebanon man was sentenced to a minimum 25 years of incarceration for sexually assaulting three minor children for nearly 17 years with help from his wife.

Christopher Longo was sentenced Sept. 9 before Lebanon County Court of Common Pleas Judge Charles Jones Jr. on charges for all three victims. Longo plead guilty on April 9 to charges that included rape of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, unlawful contact with a minor, corruption of minors, and endangering the welfare of children.

During the hearing, Jones told Longo that he made a choice "to cause people pain and suffering that will last for the rest of their lives."

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"Quite possibly, if I had to sit through a trial of this and hear the testimony, you might get a sentence that clearly indicates you are not getting out," he said. "But that was not chosen."

Senior Deputy District Attorney Amy Muller read prepared letters from two victims to Jones during the Sept. 9 hearing. One victim said they could not forget weekly sexual abuse, times they felt uncomfortable and told to "just relax."

"No matter what happens after today, I will still have to live with the pain, anger and trauma with everything that's occurred," Muller read during the hearing. "I just hope that moving forward, today I can leave with the piece of mind knowing that no more children will fall victim to (Longo's) addiction."

Muller told Jones that the statements spoke to the nature of the traumatic experiences suffered by the victims, and the courage it took to speak to law enforcement about the abuse.

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"I think they have summed up exactly the horrors they have lived," she said during the hearing. "I am proud of them coming forward, and I think they should be proud of themselves for coming forward and standing up for themselves."

Longo said little during the Sept. 9 hearing besides answering direct questions. His lawyer, Joshua Harshberger, told Jones that his client hopes that incarceration will provide the treatment for Longo's own abuse at an early age.

"He understands he is sick, he understands he needs help ... and is very, very remorseful for the crimes and the harm he has cause for the victims," Harshberger said.

During sentencing, Jones told Longo that the fact that he was an abuse victim does not excuse his actions for sexually assaulting three children for years.

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"You were a victim, you became an adult and you had the ability to get help," Jones said. "You chose not to."

One of Longo's victims testified before Jones during the April 9 hearing, and said Longo "took what was not his" when he attacked her. She added that Longo hopefully will understand that his actions caused a lot of pain to the ones he disrespected and hurt.

"I survived because I did what I needed to do to keep myself safe, and not for a second do I regret my choice," she said.

In early October 2024, the Lebanon City Police Department charged Longo and his wife, Kelly, with multiple counts relating to the sexual assault of children. Court officials said that incidents occurred between January 2007 and October 2024 at the Longos' home in the 1100 block of Buttonwood Street.

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The Lebanon County District Attorney's Office said police had responded to a middle school for a report of sexual abuse by a student, and the student was referred for a forensic interview at the local Childrens Resource Center. The victim, a teenage girl, reported to police that Christopher Longo had sexually abused her since the age of 5. During their investigation, police interviewed an adult victim who said she was abused starting at the age of 5 until she turned 18.

A third victim was also interviewed and told police she was assaulted starting at the age of 12, according to the DA's office.

Officials added that one victim said Kelly Longo allegedly participated in the sexual assaults committed by her husband. According to court documents, Kelly Longo also failed to report the sexual abuse to law enforcement and accused the victims of lying.

Kelly Longo pled guilty on Feb. 26 to charges of endangering the welfare of children, corruption of minors, indecent assault and conspiracy.

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The Department of Human Services operates a 24/7 hotline about the welfare of a child and to report suspected child abuse. ChildLine can be reached at 800-932-0313.

Matthew Toth is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at mtoth@ldnews.com or on X at @DAMattToth.

This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: Lebanon man sentenced 25 years to rape, sexual assault of 3 children
RANTOUL, Ill. (WCIA)  The Illinois Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) is investigating Lincolns ChalleNGe Academy in Rantoul.

A spokesperson with DCFS confirmed to WCIA that the agency is investigating the educational institution but declined to provide further details because this is an open investigation.

Woman arrested for aggravated battery after DCFS, police respond to home in Charleston

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WCIA reached out to the Illinois National Guard, who advises Lincolns ChalleNGe Academy. A spokesperson for the National Guard confirmed that a staff member has been terminated for policy violations.

We are cooperating with DCFS as it conducts an investigation into allegations made by a former cadet. In the course of our cooperation with DCFS we have terminated a staff member for policy violations. We cannot comment further because it is an open investigation, but we will continue to make every effort to ensure our cadets have a safe and healthy environment for learning and achieving their goals, the Illinois National Guard spokesperson said in a statement sent to WCIA.

This is a developing story.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com.
Members of the 15th Judicial District Child Advocacy Center gathered for an annual meeting on Thursday, Sept. 4, and also held a recognition ceremony for local legislators who supported the Savannah Grace Copeland Act.

Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) provide services to children who are victims of abuse and non-offending family members to receive the proper care and assistance needed to reduce trauma and facilitate the healing process. The 15th Judicial District covers Wilson, Smith, Jackson, Macon and Trousdale counties.

Heather Wamble, Executive Director of the local CAC, opened the meeting and announced the Pillar of Hope awards to local legislators who represent the aforementioned counties.

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The Pillar of Hope award is named for [the] four pillars on the front porch [of the CAC], because when a child and their family come into our center, the first thing they see is our porch and theyre welcomed in, Wamble said.

State Senators Paul Bailey, Ferrell Haile, Mark Pody and Ken Yager were recognized as well as State Representatives Clark Boyd, Michael Hale, Kelly Keisling and Susan Lynn.

Due to scheduling conflicts, Bailey, Hale, Keisling and Lynn were unable to attend. Pody had to leave early due to prior commitments. The meeting was originally scheduled for Aug. 14, but moved to Sept. 4 to not conflict with the Wilson County  Tennessee State Fair.

The Savannah Grace Copeland Act was recently signed into law by Gov. Bill Lee, which will provide more than $4 million annually to CACs across the state. The law is named in honor of Savannah Copeland, a 13-year-old East Tennessee girl who was killed in October 2024.

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As part of the funding increase, the 15th Judicial District CAC will receive a $120,000 increase yearly. Wamble said its a big deal and it will make a difference.

Jason Lawson, 15th District Attorney General, sits on the Board of Directors for the local CAC, along with prosecutor Tom Swink. The DAs office refers children victims of abuse to the CAC for counseling needs and calls forensic interviewers as witnesses in court for prosecutions.

The Child Advocacy Center coordinates between the Department of Childrens Service, Law Enforcement Agencies, and community services providers to ensure that the investigation and prosecution of these cases is as gentle on the child victim as possible, Lawson said. The professional staff at the CAC perform other functions, such as community education, and the CAC director coordinates the Child Protective Investigation Team meetings to make sure that all agencies are sharing information and working together as they do their respective jobs, as well as making sure that all of the families seen at the center have access to the appropriate community resources available to them.

The meeting concluded with a motion for members of the board to continue serving in their positions.
Slain conservative influencer Charlie Kirk's organization Turning Point USA wielded political influence in Wisconsin.

The group began as a youth-focused group active on college campuses and has since expanded its voter outreach operations, particularly in Wisconsin where Republicans have made gains on college campuses.

Kirk, who was shot and killed Sept. 10 during a campus event in Utah, has been present in Wisconsin during past campaign seasons in the battleground state. He and Donald Trump Jr. visited Oconomowoc in March to rally for Brad Schimel, a conservative state Supreme Court candidate who lost the race.

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He also delivered remarks at the 2024 Republican National Convention held in Milwaukee and appeared at events for conservatives around the city during the week-long event.

Kirk visited the University of Wisconsin-Madison in September 2024 as the first stop on his "You're Being Brainwashed" tour, according to the Daily Cardinal, a student newspaper at the university.

About 150 people attended that event, where Kirk debated with students on issues like abortion, gay marriage and affirmative action. No counter-protestors were present, according to the Badger Herald, another newspaper at the university.

In the 2024 presidential election, Kirk's group established a broad get-out-the vote operation in Wisconsin, opening an office in Waukesha and training hundreds of "ballot chasers" to boost turnout of conservative but low-propensity voters.

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Later, during the spring 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court race, Republicans worried that a "turf war" for influence over party infrastructure and leadership between Turning Point and the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

More: Top Wisconsin Republicans urge easing of party divisions. 'You're not going to win being disunified'

In the wake of Kirk's death, Wisconsin political figures on both sides of the political aisle called for prayers and condemned the act of political violence.

President Donald Trump shared on social media: "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."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: A look at Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA's influence in Wisconsin
ST. LOUIS  From the street, the 6900 block of Oleatha Avenue in the citys Lindenwood Park neighborhood looks like your standard southside block. But the view from above reveals a backyard that neighbors say resembles a junkyard.

Its just sad that when I walk out, thats what I have to look at, Shelia Wentzel said.

Neighbor Mary Marx said, I feel this is going to have a bearing on my property value if it is not addressed sooner or later.

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Marx and Wentzels homes flank the property.

The piles have continued to grow wider and taller, and so its not like they can be hidden by a six-foot privacy fence any longer, Marx said.

Marge Amighetti, creator of iconic STL sandwich, dies at 97

Its just a haven for mosquitoes, rodents, and were justweve just been let down, Wentzel said.

Wentzel and Marx say theyve sought help from aldermen, the St. Louis Building Division, the Health Department, the Citizens Service Bureau, and police.

My frustration is that I just dont find that the city governance, as its intended to be, I dont find a lot of collaboration and cooperation between departments, Marx said. Oh, well get back to you. And thats been the course that we have played past four years.

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According to court records the property owner, Joe Patzius, has been cited and fined at least three times by the city for unlawfully allowing the accumulation of litter. He has warrants out for his arrest after failing to appear in court for those violations.

The city has also cited him for stagnant water in his pool and housing standard violations. In July, the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District filed a lawsuit against Patzius, alleging he owes nearly $4,000 in usage, late fees, and lien charges.

He says its not his problem. He feels now that the city, after four and a half years, has not done anything. So, hes free, Wentzel said.

FOX 2 News showed Mayor Cara Spencer photos of the property after a recent news conference. She agreed to look into the situation. A few weeks later, she sat down for an interview with us.

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The reality is that property owners still do have rights, and we are being mindful of that, and we do want to make sure we are doing everything by the books and were being very careful to do that, Spencer said.

That being said, at this point, we do have all departments who can possibly be engaged on this issue, fully engaged and we are moving as quickly as we can. I can assure you and the residents there that were taking it as seriously as we can and at the end of the day, the buck stops with me. Well continue to push on this issue until we get resolution.

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Two days after the interview, the citys Water Division shut off water service to Joe Patzius home, rendering it condemned for occupancy. Its the first step the citys taken since we intervened. Well continue to follow what happens next.

Patzius did not want to be interviewed on camera, but Colombo spoke to him for an hour on the phone. He told Colombo he hated the condition of the backyard and agreed with his neighbors that it needs to be cleaned out. He said hes been struggling with depression after getting divorced and losing his job.

He told Colombo that not everything in the yard belonged to him. He said a friend hes since cut ties with dumped some of the stuff off and left it. He said hes been trying to clean the mess, but its hard to do by himself and hauling it away costs money he doesnt have.

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Colombo asked if hed accept help clearing it out, but Patzius wouldnt give a straight answer.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 2.
Sep. 9After years of pushback from advocacy groups, small amounts of radioactive gas can be released into the air as early as Saturday from waste containers stored at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The goal is to move the four containers to a different location for permanent disposal. But there's pressure building in them and a risk for a flammable, pressurized mix of hydrogen and oxygen within them. If too much pressure builds up, there could be an uncontrolled release of the radioactive gas.

That risk of an uncontrolled release is why the New Mexico Environment Department approved a request from the Department of Energy, the National Nuclear Security Administration Los Alamos Field Office and Triad National Security LLC to vent the containers, and potentially release tritium gas into New Mexico's air.

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Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen gas. It rarely occurs naturally on Earth and is a key component in nuclear weapons.

Although NMED approved the release, state Environment Secretary James Kenney was critical of hazardous waste handling at Los Alamos.

"The primary reason the permittees requested a temporary authorization stems from the permittees' failure to properly manage hazardous waste at the time of generation," Kenney wrote in his approval letter.

The four waste containers were packaged in 2007.

NNSA and Los Alamos National Laboratory will start depressurizing the containers on Saturday. The depressurizing is scheduled to take place over a two-week period and avoids feast days of neighboring pueblos. The timeframe also takes into account weather conditions, according to a notification from NNSA.

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"We're pleased to be on our way to successfully completing this project and addressing this safety issue," said Toni Chiri, spokeswoman for the NNSA Los Alamos Field Office.

NMED had an outside expert check the release plan to make sure it was sound, said Hazardous Waste Bureau Chief JohnDavid Nance. The process includes ways to capture and filter out the tritium as gases are released from the containers.

Only one container at a time will be vented, according to a Los Alamos National Laboratory guide on the containers.

NMED staff will be at air monitoring stations during the release, and collecting samples to confirm if any tritium is released into the air and at what concentration, Nance said. The Environmental Protection Agency will also be on-site doing risk modeling with real-time data.

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Several advocacy groups are strongly opposed to venting the containers.

"The violence of building the world's most destructive weapons in our backyard has desecrated our lands, our waters, and our Indigenous land-based spirituality and traditions since the Manhattan Project," Kathy Sanchez with Tewa Women United said in a statement. "That violence continues today with projects like tritium venting, plutonium pit expansion, the Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade transmission line project, and the increasing risks from piling up radioactive waste."

One concern advocacy groups like Tewa Women United have pointed to is that tritium exposure could pose more risk to vulnerable populations like children, the elderly and pregnant women.

In response to that concern, NMED required a lower maximum level of tritium release than the Energy Department originally asked for.

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A millirem is a measure of radiation dose. In the U.S., the average person is exposed to approximately 620 millirem per year, according to an Environmental Protection Agency radiation calculator.

Los Alamos National Laboratory is allowed to release a maximum of 10 millirem in a calendar year. DOE asked for approval to release between 0 millirem and 8 millirem when venting the tritium containers. NMED set the maximum allowed release to 6 millirem.

In the approval letter, Kenney also criticized DOE, NNSA and Triad for a "failure to meaningfully engage with concerned individuals." Much of the feedback NMED received from the public was that they had trouble making comments during a public meeting on the release, Nance said.

The NMED approval requires the agencies to meet with the public after the tritium containers are vented.
(The Center Square)  Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has endorsed one of the citys previous mayors, Antonio Villaraigosa, in the 2026 California gubernatorial race.

Bass announced her endorsement when she and Villaraigosa, Democrats who have known each other a long time, appeared together at a televised news conference Tuesday in the citys Crenshaw District.

I made the decision to endorse the minute Antonio Villaraigosa stepped in the race, said Bass, who was supported by Villaraigosa when she ran successfully for mayor in 2022. What were doing today is making it public.

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She said in a statement, reported on Studio City station KCAL-TV, that they have worked together to advance social and economic justice and that she believes Villaraigosa will stand up to the Trump administration and protect California.

Villaraigosa said he and Bass are like brother and sister.

Weve always understood that together we are stronger, not just us as individuals, but the communities we represent, he said during the news conference, televised on Glendale station ABC7.

Before leading Los Angeles as its 41st mayor from 2005 to 2013, Villaraigosa served as the Assembly speaker in 1998-2000.

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The primary for the governors race is scheduled for next June, and the field is crowded with candidates, most of them Democrats. The two candidates with the highest number of votes, regardless of party affiliation, will advance to the November 2026 general election.

In addition to Villaraigosa, the Democrats in the race are U.S. Rep. Katie Porter (who represented Orange County in Congress), former California State Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, former state Controller Betty Yee, former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Diamond Resorts International founder Stephen J. Cloobeck.

The Republicans running for governor are Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and former Fox News host Steve Hilton.
Loved ones are searching for a Southern California girl who has been missing for days.

Jesuandyuli Alejandra Gonzalez Vargas, 17, was reported missing on Sept. 5, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department.

Vargas was last seen on the 3900 block of Tracy Street in the Los Feliz neighborhood around 8:10 a.m.

She is described as a Hispanic girl who stands at 5 feet 2 inches and weighs 95 pounds. She has brown eyes and long, straight auburn-colored hair. She was last seen wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans and white shoes.

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She may have been heading to the 200 block of North Vermont Avenue in L.A. when she was reported missing. Her family said she does not have any health issues that would contribute to her disappearance.

Jesuandyuli Alejandra Gonzalez Vargas, 17, was last seen in Los Angeles on Sept. 5, 2025. (Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department)

They have not heard from her since and are very concerned for her well-being.

Anyone who may know Vargas whereabouts or has information on the case can call LASDs Missing Persons Detail at 323-890-5500.

Anonymous tips can be provided to L.A. Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at lacrimestoppers.org.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
The News

As Malawi prepares to vote in next weeks presidential polls, analysts predict that no candidate will secure a majority in the first round of voting after an election campaign dominated by the state of the economy.

President Lazarus Chakwera, seeking a second term in the Sept. 16 election, highlighted his governments achievements in rolling out megafarms and creating more than 2 million jobs for young people, during his partys manifesto launch in July. But he also emphasized the challenges his government had faced, pointing to the COVID-19 pandemic, a cholera outbreak, 2023s Cyclone Freddy, and a drought induced by El Nino climate patterns.

Despite Chakweras promises to bring down the cost of farming and restart Malawis agriculture-dependent economy, ahead of taking office in 2020, his tenure has been marked by skyrocketing prices of fertilizer and maize, a staple food. With depleting foreign exchange reserves, some businesses have been forced to close as entrepreneurs and farmers turn to the black market in search of hard currency. And in May, the International Monetary Fund suspended a $175 million loan program in Malawi over the governments inability to fulfill loan review requirements.

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Chakwera faces an unprecedented 16 opposition candidates including two former Malawi presidents, Joyce Banda and Peter Mutharika, and Atupele Muluzi, the son of former President Bakili Muluzi. The messages of the opposition candidates vary, but all are calling for radical change.

Hannington Gondwe, CEO of the UK-Malawi Chamber of Commerce, told Semafor that the economy was at the heart of voters concerns. Malawis extremely bad economic state will influence the electorates decision for change or not, he said.

Know More

A lingering concern ahead of the Sept. 16 election is if any candidate will be capable of attaining a majority on the first run. In 2019, Malawi implemented 50+1 electoral law  where a candidate has to secure more than half of all votes to win the election.

Chakwera only won after an unprecedented election rerun as the first polls were annulled by the countrys top court. His party ended up forming an alliance with the United Transformation Movement (UTM) party, whose leader, the former Vice President Saulos Chilima, died in a plane crash last year. That tragedy gave way to discord within the UTM and the exit of key leaders, as well as a dent to the partys popularity.

Step Back

Malawis presidential candidates are not communicating with voters as well as they could, according to some local analysts. The government is seen as failing to deliver, while the opposition are not clearly outlining what they are going to do, Wonderful Mkhutche, a Lilongwe-based political scientist, told Semafor.

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He thinks the election is likely to spark a second round of voting, which will lead to politicians and their teams negotiating alliances to survive: Were going to see parties trying to discuss how they can make it during the second round.

There are also more deep-seated challenges that go beyond the political offering. Our problems are mostly structural, said Bertha Bangarla-Chikadza, president of the Economics Association of Malawi, pointing to the need to grow more valuable crops and boost exports.

The View From Zimbabwe

Countries across southern Africa will be watching Malawis election, said Lazarus Sauti, a Zimbabwean media researcher and political commentator. Our hope is that there is going to be transparency and accountability, he told Semafor.

Notable
WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Three former FBI officials who were dismissed last month filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Trump administration, alleging that it launched a "campaign of retribution" targeting FBI officials who showed insufficient loyalty to U.S. President Donald Trump, and unlawfully fired them for political reasons.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Defendants include the FBI and FBI Director Kash Patel, the Justice Department and Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Executive Office of the President, and the federal government.

Defendants initiated "a campaign of retribution" against the three for what defendants deemed to be "a failure to demonstrate sufficient political loyalty," the complaint said. Plaintiffs were the targets of defendants' retribution for "their refusals to politicize the FBI."

On Aug. 8, the FBI director fired the three officials with "cursory, single-page letters sent to each Plaintiff," which "violated federal law and the Constitution," according to the complaint.

The complaint also noted that the three former FBI officers have served the country for decades.

"Patel not only acted unlawfully but deliberately chose to prioritize politicizing the FBI over protecting the American people," the complaint said. "His decision to do so degraded the country's national security by firing three of the FBI's most experienced operational leaders, each of them experts in preventing terrorism and reducing violent crime."

One of the plaintiffs, Brian J. Driscoll, briefly served as acting FBI director earlier this year. According to the complaint, on Jan. 29, Driscoll was directed to provide a list of FBI personnel involved in the investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot. Under pressure, he ultimately handed over a list of approximately 6,000 individuals.

According to the complaint, Patel stated that all FBI employees who they identified as having worked on the cases against President Trump would be removed from their jobs, regardless of their retirement eligibility status. He then stated that Driscoll needed to understand that "the FBI tried to put the President in jail and he hasn't forgotten it."

The FBI has conducted multiple investigations involving Trump, including whether Russia influenced the 2016 election in President Trump's favor, the investigation related to the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot, and the 2022 Mar-a-Lago classified documents investigation.

Trump has repeatedly accused the Justice Department and the FBI of conducting these investigations with political motives and unfairly targeting him. In public statements, interviews and social media posts, Trump has often described these investigations as a "witch hunt." 
Scioto County Sheriff David Thoroughman announced through a press release that his office has been working with the Minford and Wheelersburg School Districts after bomb threats were made against their schools.

On Friday, Sept. 5, the Scioto County Sheriffs Office received a call from the FBI indicating that Minford and Wheelersburg School Districts may be receiving bomb threats. Both Minford and Wheelersburg School Districts contacted the sheriffs office indicating that they had received threats, which were posted on Facebook. Both school districts have deputies working as School Resource Officers.

Thoroughman said that with the assistance of the FBI, the threats were traced and identified in approximately five minutes to a Franklin Furnace address. According to a press release, with the assistance of family members, the suspect was located and advised to come to the residence. Just prior to his arrival at the residence he stopped his vehicle and fled into the woods.

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With the continued assistance of the family the suspect was taken into custody around 6 p.m. The suspect did admit to detectives that the allegations that he made against all students and staff were lies, Thoroughman said in the release.

Arrested was Brian Austin Sampson, age 26, of Possum Hollow Road in Wheelersburg, Ohio. Sampson has been charged with terroristic threats, a felony of the 3rd degree, and inducing panic, a felony of the 2nd degree. Sampson was scheduled to appear in Portsmouth Municipal Court on Monday, Sept. 8, and is currently being held in the Scioto County Jail on a $30,000 bond as of press time.

The case is still under investigation and will be forwarded to the Scioto County Grand Jury. Anyone with additional information should contact Detective John Cart at (740) 354-7327.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo.  A Nebraska man has been arrested in Springfield after making terrorist threat calls to the Nebraska State Patrol (NSP).

Bealls mugshot, photo courtesy of Greene County Jail.

According to the Greene County Jail, Justin Beall, 42, of Omaha, Nebraska, has been charged with second-degree terrorist threat.

The probable cause statement says the Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP) was alerted by NSP of a man believed to be in the Springfield area making threats of shooting a school on Monday, September 8.

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NSP forwarded voice messages to MSHP, where Beall identified himself and his phone number. Beall stated in the voice messages that I am walking around with my rifle right now, and school on High Road, that Im going to f****** hit tomorrow, and I am crossing state lines like I told you.

NSP pinged his phone number and found that he was in the area of W. Commercial St. and N. Broadway Ave. in Springfield. MSHP discovered that the man had been staying at the Victory Shelter for Men.

MSHP was alerted around 8 p.m. on Monday that Beall had returned to the shelter. Law enforcement confirmed his identity through his Nebraska drivers license, and he was taken into custody.

Beall is currently in the Greene County Jail with no bond.

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NEW ORLEANS (WGNO)  Cedrick L. Marshall pled guilty on Tuesday, Sept. 9 for a drunk driving crash that left an Edna Karr student in a vegetative state.

According to the Orleans Parish District Attorneys Office, Marshall was convicted for first-degree vehicular negligent injuring and given the highest sentence, which according to the Louisiana State Legislatures website is 10 years. The crash left Jamal Jackson critically injured, who was 15 at the time.

Woman facing several charges, accused of striking co-worker with vehicle in Slidell

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The DAs office said Marshall had a blood-alcohol level that was three times the legal limit when he crashed his vehicle into a home in New Orleans East.

At the time of the crash, Jamal was asleep on the couch inside his home. The collision caused catastrophic injuries, leaving Jamal requiring round-the-clock medical support.

Stay up to date with the latest news, weather and sports by downloading the WGNO app on the Apple or Google Play stores and by subscribing to the WGNO newsletter.

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CHICAGO (WGN)  A man was shot and killed Tuesday night in the citys Grand Crossing neighborhood.

Chicago police said the incident happened just before 8 p.m. in the 7400 block of South Kimbark Avenue.

A 31-year-old man was on the sidewalk when an unknown suspect inside a white vehicle drove up and fired multiple shots at him. The man was hit in the head and taken to University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition before dying from his injuries, according to investigators.

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Police said the suspect vehicle drove off after the shooting, heading northbound from the scene.

No arrests have been made and Area One Detectives are investigating.

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Sep. 9A man will spend more than a decade in prison in connection to the fatal drive-by shooting of a 15-year-old girl in Harrison Twp.

What was he sentenced to?

Darrell Bostic Jr. was sentenced to 11 to 16 and a half years in prison, according to the Montgomery County Prosecutor's Office.

What was he convicted of?

Bostic pleaded guilty of one count of complicity to commit involuntary manslaughter.

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He was previously indicted on two counts of murder, three counts of felonious assault and one count each of discharge of a firearm on or near prohibited premises, improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle and having weapons while under disability in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court.

Who was involved?

Bostic is one of four people charged in connection to Heaven Washington's death.

Baretta Byrdsong was sentenced to two and a half years for endangering children and aggravated assault.

Tommy Moreland was sentenced to 37 to 46.5 years to life in prison, according to court records.

A jury found Moreland guilty of two counts each of murder and tampering with evidence, three counts of felonious assault and one count each of discharge of a firearm on or near prohibited premises, improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle and failure to comply with the order or signal of a police officer.

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Moreland's sister, Denisha Taylor, is facing three counts of tampering with evidence and one count of obstructing justice, according to court records.

What were they accused of?

On Nov. 13, 2023, Byrdsong allegedly drove Washington to an ATM get money for a field trip later that day. Washington was in Montgomery County Children Services' custody and living at a group home where Byrdsong worked, according to the prosecutor's office.

On their way back to the group home, a vehicle pulled up next to them near Turner Road and Philadelphia Avenue. Moreland and Bostic were allegedly in the vehicle.

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Multiple shots were fired into Byrdsong's vehicle, striking Washington, according to prosecutor's office.

He drove Washington to Miami Valley Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Montgomery County Sheriff Rob Streck said Washington was not the target of the shooting.

Moreland had an ongoing feud with Byrdsong, who was the apparent target, according to the prosecutor's office.

A license plate reader showed a rented 2023 Toyota RAV-4 was in area of the shooting when it occurred, according to Vandalia Municipal Court records.

Detectives found the SUV near the Englewood Meijer and began surveilling it in unmarked vehicles. The Toyota fled, resulting in a chase with patrol vehicles.

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The pursuit continued onto Interstate 70 with the SUV averaging speeds of 109.8 mph, according to an affidavit. The chase went through New Lebanon and into Farmersville before the SUV was abandoned in a field off Havermale Road.

Surveillance video showed Moreland driving the Toyota immediately before the chase, according to municipal court documents.

Deputies arrested Moreland on March 7, 2024.

Taylor allegedly tried to cover up the crime. The SUV was rented in her name, according to court records.

What happens next?

Taylor has a motion to suppress hearing scheduled for Sept. 24.

Washington's estate has a civil lawsuit pending against Byrdsong and Reflections Group Home LLC. The lawsuit claims the group home was negligent in hiring Byrdsong and failed to supervise him, leading to Washington's death.

A pretrial conference is scheduled for Oct. 2, 2026, and the jury trial is scheduled for Oct. 12, 2026.
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (WTAJ)  A Florida man was sentenced in federal court after he, along with his wife, ran a rental property scheme in Western Pennsylvania.

Paul Andrew Gulbronson, 59, of Hudson, Fla., was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, on his conviction of wire fraud conspiracy. Acting United States Attorney Troy Rivetti announced.

According to information presented in court, Gulbronson and his wife, Kelly Bonilla, operated Citrona homes from Florida and Johnstown, Pa., between 2017 and 2019. The couple used Citrona as a housing scheme where investors were solicited to purchase Citrona-owned homes or properties in Johnstown by promising to rent fully renovated properties to Section 8 tenants.

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Rivetti said Citrona bought distressed properties and sold them to mostly out-of-state investors at greatly inflated prices. The properties were said to have been fully renovated, tenant-occupied and managed by Citrona.

Sheetz alerts customers of higher candy prices due to Hersheys cost increase

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) records showed that between 2017 and 2019, Citrona purchased over 100 homes for approximately $2 million and resold them for $6 million.

It was revealed that many of the properties were uninhabitable, and some were just vacant lots. Records also showed over $5.3 million that Citrona received from investors, with the investors losing $5 million of that, according to Rivettis release.

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Over the course of several years, Paul Gulbronson misled investors regarding the condition and status of their Citrona Homes properties in order to swindle millions of dollars from those victims, and thenupon learning that he was under investigation for these crimesfled the United States, leaving dozens of dilapidated properties in his wake, Rivetti said. As a result of the outstanding work of our law enforcement partners, Gulbronson has been brought to justice and held accountable for his egregious criminal activity.

Stay up to date with the latest news in the palm of your hand. Click here to download the WTAJ app for Apple and Android devices.

Gulbronson and Bonilla operated Citrona offices in the Holiday, Fla., area from at least June 017 to May 2019, including call centers complete with employees placing calls to investors.

Between October 2017 and May 2019, Citrona also had a management office located on Market Street in Johnstown, which acted as the property management side of the scheme.

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Rivetti noted in the release that Gulbronsons wife, Bonilla, is currently a fugitive in Panama.

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Israel launched an airstrike targeting Hamas's leadership in capital of Qatar on Tuesday, widening its campaign against the militant group.

Hamas said of its leaders survived the attack but that five lower-ranked members were killed, and Qatar said a security official died and others were wounded.

The attack drew fierce condemnation from a string of countries, including the UK, Egypt, Germany, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Canada. The EU said the airstrike was in breach of international law.

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Benjamin Netanyahus office said the Israeli military had carried out a wholly independent operation against the top terrorist chieftains of Hamas and that the strike was justified.

An Israeli official told Israels Channel 12 that US president Donald Trump had given the green light for the strike.

The White House said it had warned Qatar before the attack, but the Doha government denied this.

Click here to follow the latest updates on Israels attack on the Hamas leadership in Qatar.

The latest Israeli airstrike targeted Doha in Qatar

Qatar condemned what it describes as a "blatant violation" of international laws and a "serious threat" to civilians.

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"The State of Qatar strongly condemns this attack, and affirms that it will not tolerate this reckless Israeli behaviour and the continuous tampering with the security of the region and any action aimed at its security and sovereignty," said Dr Majed Al Ansari, a spokesperson for Qatars foreign ministry.

Hamas claimed the airstrike confirmed that Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu did not want to reach any agreement and were deliberately seeking to fail all opportunities and international efforts, disregarding the lives of their prisoners.

Several blasts were heard in Doha on Tuesday, and black plumes of smoke were seen rising into the skyline. Images showed a building blackened and destroyed.

Qatar is the sixth country Israel has attacked since the Hamas massacre on 7 October 2023, when around 1,200 Israelis were killed and 251 taken hostage. The terror attack prompted a major onslaught on Gaza in which Israel has killed around 65,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and destroyed large parts of the strip.

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Attacks on the occupied Palestinian territories - which includes Gaza and the West Bank - have been aggressive and constant for nearly two years, barring periods of temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Soon after Israels bombardment of Gaza began, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel in what it said was solidarity with Palestinians suffering in the war in Gaza. This continued until a ceasefire agreement was made in late 2024.

The Houthi militant group from Yemen also fired rockets towards Israel to support the Palestinians, while attacking ships in the Red Sea which it deemed were assisting Israels war effort. Israel has targeted Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, including airports and power stations, designed to weaken Houthi military capabilities.

Israel opened an aerial bombardment campaign just days after the rapid collapse of the rule of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, seeking to destroy Syrias military infrastructure, airports, and other targets.

In June, Israel launched a major attack on numerous sites across large parts of Iran, including military installations, nuclear targets and weapons depots. The US later joined these strikes.
MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa  The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services announced there are now 34 cases of Legionnaires Disease in Marshall County, including one death, as of Tuesday afternoon. Thats four more than a day ago.

HHS is in charge of investigating the cluster of cases in the county.

On Monday night, Marshalltown held a city council meeting where officials with Marshalltown Water Works and Marshall County Public Health spoke. They both said the water is safe to drink and passes all tests and standards.

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So, residents want to know how and why this is happening and where its coming from.

Legionnaires Disease is not spread person to person. The disease thrives in water environments and typically spreads through the spray of water droplets, like mist.

One Marshalltown resident, Shona Pennington-Otto, said she knows two people that have contracted the disease. One was fairly asymptomatic; the other was hospitalized.

Caught off guard, came on quick and she ended up going to the hospital by ambulance, Pennington-Otto said. Shes mainly really a homebody and so thats why my point is, why hasnt anybody been to her house to check? They are in two different towns, but their stories are completely different. Theres nothing in common.

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Seahorses make their debut at Blank Park Zoo

Its not knowing that has people concerned. You worry more about what you dont know. So I am really hoping that the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services is doing what it needs to do. Im hoping they bring in the CDC if that needs to be done on something like this, Marshalltown Mayor Joel Greer said.

People 50 or older and those with a weakened immune system are more vulnerable to Legionnaires Disease. Some possible symptoms are cough, fever, shortness of breath, muscle aches, chest pain and nausea.

Health officials say it can be treated with antibiotics when diagnosed early.

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Pennington-Otto is thankful her friends parents are doing okay now, but they want more information on how they contracted it.

Neither one of them has been given any answers at all. My friend has been asking what has happened or what can be done. And the hospitals are absolutely doing everything they can, you know, by doing the antibiotics and such for that, she said. But as a county, I think we need to come together a little bit more and find out whats going on here, because these are older folks.

Pennington-Otto is also concerned for herself and her mom who both have MS.

If we were to come in contact with this, it would greatly affect our life. And its scary, she said.

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Its a concern for all in the area, especially as the case numbers continue to rise.

That is scary to me. Thats way more than we should be seeing in a normal thing like this, Greer said. The quicker we can pinpoint where people got it or the exposure was, the better off well be.

For more information on Legionnaires Disease, visit HHS.Iowa.gov.

Iowa news

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CARROLL COUNTY, Md. (DC News Now)  Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers said they intercepted a Caterpillar (CAT) bulldozer on its way to Ghana, having been stolen out of the Carroll County Sheriffs Office (CCSO).

The dozer was valued at about $237,000, authorities said in a news release on Wednesday.

Homicide investigation underway after man shot in Prince Georges County

The CBP said that the dozer was intercepted on Sept. 3 and that Ghana is a popular destination for stolen vehicles. About 60% of the stolen vehicle exports that CBP officers in Maryland recovered last year were destined for West African nations, including Ghana.

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Usually, however, those vehicles are SUVs, sedans, vans and pickup trucks  not a typical day in the office when you recover a 2015 Caterpillar D8T Dozer.

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Jordan's King Abdullah II (C) meets with visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (2nd L) in Amman, Jordan, Sept. 10, 2025. During his meeting with Abbas on Wednesday, King Abdullah II condemned the Israeli Doha strike, rejected Israeli plans to expand control over Gaza and settlement activity in the West Bank, stressed the need for a ceasefire in Gaza and unhindered humanitarian access, and for implementing the two-state solution, according to a Royal Court statement. (Royal Hashemite Court/Handout via Xinhua)

CAIRO, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Regional countries on Wednesday reaffirmed their condemnation on Israel's Doha strike, and voiced their support for and solidarity with Qatar, as Israeli officials vowed to continue fighting Hamas leaders "everywhere" and targeting countries failing to act against them.

On Tuesday, Israel launched an unprecedented airstrike in the Qatari capital of Doha, targeting a building used by senior Hamas officials in what Israeli authorities described as an attempt to assassinate leaders of the group who were "directly responsible for" the attack on Oct. 7, 2023 that left about 1,200 people dead.

Hamas said later that the strike occurred while its delegation was discussing a new ceasefire proposal presented by Washington. According to the group, the negotiating team survived, but six others were killed.

On Tuesday evening, Qatar said it will adopt a "comprehensive" approach to respond to the Israeli strike and deter future attacks, noting that the country will not tolerate any violations of its sovereignty.

However, Qatar confirmed that mediation on a ceasefire and prisoner exchange in Gaza will continue.

On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the Doha strike was part of an operation dubbed "Fire Summit" aimed at killing Hamas's top leadership.

"Israel's security policy is clear: Israel's long arm will act against its enemies everywhere. There is no place for them to hide," he said, adding that Israel will continue to pursue all Hamas members involved in the October 2023 attack.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that countries hosting Hamas leaders or other groups regarded by Israel as enemies could themselves become targets if they failed to act against them.

Amid the latest developments, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, deputy prime minister and foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), said in a meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty in Abu Dhabi that the UAE backs all measures Qatar may take to safeguard its security and safety.

Respecting national sovereignty is a cornerstone of international relations, and any violation constitutes a blatant breach of international law and the UN Charter, he was quoted as saying by a statement released by the UAE Foreign Ministry, urging global actions in halting "Israeli aggressions."

In a phone call on Wednesday between Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the two leaders voiced "full solidarity" with Qatar, and called the Israeli strike an unacceptable encroachment on Qatar's sovereignty.

They "expressed their categorical condemnation of this assault, considering it a flagrant violation of international law and the UN Charter," the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.

The two sides also reiterated their "absolute support" for Qatar's efforts to safeguard its security and stability, particularly in light of its joint mediation efforts with Egypt to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and end "the catastrophic humanitarian tragedy caused by the Israeli war."

During his meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman on Wednesday, Jordan's King Abdullah II condemned the Israeli Doha strike, rejected Israeli plans to expand control over Gaza and settlement activity in the West Bank, stressed the need for a ceasefire in Gaza and unhindered humanitarian access, and for implementing the two-state solution, according to a Royal Court statement.

Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, in a phone call on Wednesday with his Qatari counterpart Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, condemned Israel's "terrorist aggression" against Qatar, and voiced Iran's solidarity with and support for Qatar.

Given Israel's "ongoing genocide in Gaza, frequent aggressions and terrorist actions against Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, criminal attack against Iran and now military aggression against Qatar," Israel has become a "real and immediate threat" to regional and global peace and security, Araghchi said.

Condemning the "treacherous and vicious attack" in Doha, the Tunisian Foreign Ministry in a statement on Wednesday voiced full solidarity with and support for Qatar and its efforts to defend its national sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security.

It is important to materialize a common vision for Arab security as an unavoidable strategic choice to confront all threats posed by Israel to regional and global peace, security and stability, it said.

Algeria's official APS news agency reported Wednesday that Algeria has made a request together with Qatar to hold an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council on the "Israeli aggression" on Qatar.

Algeria believes that Israel's expanded attacks, including on Hamas negotiators in ceasefire talks in Qatar, prove it disregards international norms and wants no peace, APS reported, adding that Algeria urges global actions to deter Israel, end its "crimes" against Palestinians, and prevent further regional escalation. 

Jordan's King Abdullah II (R) shakes hands with visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman, Jordan, Sept. 10, 2025. During his meeting with Abbas on Wednesday, King Abdullah II condemned the Israeli Doha strike, rejected Israeli plans to expand control over Gaza and settlement activity in the West Bank, stressed the need for a ceasefire in Gaza and unhindered humanitarian access, and for implementing the two-state solution, according to a Royal Court statement. (Royal Hashemite Court/Handout via Xinhua)
A Salisbury man was arrested Tuesday for making a series of bomb threats online, according to police.

Scott Merchant, 36, has been charged with making a bomb threat and threatening to commit murder, Salisbury police said in a press release. He pleaded not guilty to the charges during his arraignment in Newburyport District Court on Tuesday.

On Tuesday morning, FBI Boston special agents informed Salisbury police that they were actively investigating ongoing threats involving explosives and guns, Salisbury police said. The suspect was believed to be located in Salisbury, but was making the threats via a social media platform.

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Out of an abundance of caution, Salisbury police asked a regional law enforcement task force with specially trained and equipped officers to assist with serving a warrant for Merchants arrest, police said. He was arrested without incident shortly 12:45 p.m. on Tuesday and then taken to his arraignment.

At his arraignment, Merchant was ordered held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing on Thursday, according to court records. The judge also ordered that he undergo an examination to determine his competence to stand trial.

Salisbury police are still investigating the incident, but say there is no threat to the public.

Merchants lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening.

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No further information about the incident has been released.

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Massachusetts political leaders denounce assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk

The deadly shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk Wednesday at Utah Valley University sparked strong reactions from officials across the country.

Republicans and Democrats are underscoring the hostility that political public figures are currently facing.

Kirk was not an elected official but had an influential following and close relationships with President Donald Trump and other top Republican leaders.

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Cell phone videos show the 31-year-old speaking into a microphone when a single shot rang out at the college event on Wednesday.

I was praying and hoping he would get through it. I know him, said Massachusetts Republican National Committeewoman Janet Fogarty. I cant believe it. Its devastating.

Fogarty knew Kirk through his involvement with the RNC.

She said she was impressed by his ability to energize young conservatives ever since launching his organization Turning Point USA in 2012.

He certainly had a large following here in Massachusetts, and many have traveled to wherever he was speaking, she told Boston 25 News. He listened to everyones viewpoints.

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Governor Maura Healey said the growth of political violence in the country must be stopped:

Violence has no place in our politics  ever. What happened to Charlie Kirk is horrific and we condemn it in the strongest possible terms.



The growth of political violence in our country must be stopped.  Governor Maura Healey (@MassGovernor) September 10, 2025

MassGOP Chair Amy Carnevale said the chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party reached out to her to offer condolences on Kirks death.

She believes thats telling on where political leaders across the board stand in Massachusetts.

The MassGOP is devastated to learn that Charlie Kirk has died. Through his work engaging young people, Charlie had the pulse of college campuses like no one else. His aim was to bring thoughtful and civilized discussions to our young people. Tonight and forever he will be missed.

Steve Kerrigan, Chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, said in part:

"Our hearts go out to the family of Charlie Kirk. We are deeply saddened and horrified by his murder. This political violence must be condemned in all forms. Regardless of political party or ideologies we must be able to come together to address our differences peacefully. We join with leaders and voices from across the political spectrum in stating unequivocally that acts of violence have no place in our politics ever."

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Senator Elizabeth Warren spoke with reporters hours after the deadly shooting.

We cannot be a country that turns to violence when we disagree with people, said Warren.

She was asked, What do you say to people who are saying the Democrats need to lower the temperature?

Oh please. Why dont you start with the President of the United States, right?, Sen. Warren responded. And every ugly meme he has posted, and every ugly word.

This shooting is nothing short of horrific. I'm praying for Charlie Kirk and thinking of the students at the event in Utah. Political violence has no place in our country  it's never ok.  Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) September 10, 2025

Senator Ed Markey shared similar sentiments:

We must denounce political violence in all its forms. I condemn the shooting of Charlie Kirk. There must be no place for this heinous violence in America.  Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) September 10, 2025

President Trump and Donald Trump Jr. both expressed sympathies:

I love you brother. You gave so many people the courage to speak up and we will not ever be silenced. pic.twitter.com/PcghpcnYKX  Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) September 10, 2025

Former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama condemned the killing, and expressed prayers for the Kirk family:

There is no place in our country for this kind of violence. It must end now. Jill and I are praying for Charlie Kirks family and loved ones.  Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 10, 2025

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We dont yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlies family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.  Barack Obama (@BarackObama) September 10, 2025

The crowd reacts after Charlie Kirk is shot during Turning Point's visit to Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP)

The co-founder and CEO of the youth organization Turning Point USA, the 31-year-old Kirk is the latest victim in a spasm of political violence across the United States.

Videos posted to social media from Utah Valley University show Kirk speaking into a handheld microphone while sitting under a white tent emblazoned with the slogans The American Comeback and Prove Me Wrong. A single shot rings out and Kirk can be seen reaching up with his right hand as a large volume of blood gushes from the left side of his neck. Stunned spectators are heard gasping and screaming before people start to run away.

The suspect is still at large.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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BOSTON (SHNS)  The Committee for Public Counsel Services has reached out to 50 law schools and hired 22 new attorneys over a 17-day span in August as it moves forward with the largest staffing expansion in the agencys history.

In a mandated update filed with the Legislature, CPCS said the hires were scheduled to begin training Monday.

The Legislature and Gov. Maura Healey this summer agreed to a law requiring the CPCS Public Defender Division to hire 320 attorneys over two fiscal years. The law also granted raises to part-time bar advocate attorneys, and its passage came after some bar advocates stopped accepting cases to protest pay levels.

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The supplemental budget signed by Healey included a $40 million reserve to help fund the hiring. The law also required that the hiring expansion prioritize efforts to ensure that clients are timely represented by counsel and directed the committee to prioritize hiring in areas with unrepresented individuals awaiting counsel assignment, including counties with a recent history of private bar advocate work stoppages.

Before the expansion mandate, CPCS had already hired 20 attorneys for its fall 2025 class, and the number rose to 42 with the recent additions. Nearly 80% of the expansion hires were assigned to represent indigent clients in Middlesex and Suffolk counties, according to the update, and CPCS reported that those two counties are among the most impacted areas and where the need for counsel is most urgent.

In addition to continued hiring in fiscal year 2026, plans call for a single hiring initiative in fiscal year 2027 that will feature 100 new attorneys and will require a nationwide recruitment campaign targeting law schools and public interest networks across the country, according to the update.

This expansion represents a transformational investment in the public defense system, CPCS said in its update. It provides not only a significant number of additional attorneys but also the supervisory, investigative, and administrative infrastructure to sustain a modern and effective indigent defense practice. By structuring growth around proportional staffing ratios and investing in training, CPCS is helping to build a sustainable, system designed for long-term stability and long-term impact for the communities we serve.

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SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP)  The Healey-Driscoll administration has awarded $800,000 in grants to school districts and colleges throughout the state, aiming to enhance early learning through program partnerships.

This funding was awarded to 17 school districts and 14 colleges, and will support over 350 teacher candidates during the school year as they complete their teacher preparation programs. Pre-K-12 educators will also get the opportunity to learn from each other and gain new practices while tackling early literacy instruction.

Westfield public schools address nationally declining student performance

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All Massachusetts students deserve high-quality literacy instruction, said Governor Maura Healey. Through the Early Literacy Consortium program, were making sure our teachers are well prepared to teach evidence-based early literacy and help students develop critical reading and writing skills.

The grant program is part of DESEs Early Literacy in Educator Preparation initiative, helping to teach educators in Massachusetts about evidence-based early literacy instructional practices for students of all abilities.

The following school districts received grants during this round of funding:

Hadley Public Schools with University of Massachusetts Amherst: $10,000

Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District with Agawam Public Schools, the Dudley-Charlton Regional School District, Gateway Regional School District, West Springfield Public Schools, American International College, Springfield College, Western New England University, and Worcester State University: $190,000

Smith College with the Frontier Regional School District, Northampton Public Schools, Shutesbury Public Schools, South Hadley Public Schools, and Mount Holyoke College: $199,284

Springfield Public Schools with East Longmeadow Public Schools, American International College, Elms College, and Springfield College: $190,000

Stonehill College with Braintree Public Schools, Milton Public Schools, Randolph Public Schools, and Curry College: $190,716

Waltham Public Schools with Brandeis University: $10,000

Worcester Public Schools with Assumption University and Clark University: $10,000

Local News Headlines

WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com.

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The mayor of South Orange said on Tuesday that ICE is terrorizing communities after the agency made arrests in two neighboring suburbs in two days.

In a social media post on Tuesday evening, Mayor Sheena Collum said that a person in the village had been taken into custody by the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. This came just a day after two people in the neighboring community of Maplewood were taken into custody.

Following the arrest on Tuesday, Collum was able to speak to the family of the individual with assistance of Capt. Adrian Acevedo, who is bilingual. In the social media post, the mayor condemned the Trump administrations recent immigration enforcement actions.

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The Trump Administration and ICEs subsequent actions are terrorizing communities, as you have all witnessed, the post reads. Their tactics are nothing but thuggery that thrives on threatening the vulnerable. Please keep looking out for one another.

Collum declined to release further details or identify the person who was arrested.

On Monday, Maplewood Mayor Nancy Adams similarly condemned the arrest of the two people in her town.

This is not who we are, Adams said. Our town stands for dignity, safety, and belonging  not intimidation. Our police were not notified, nor do we cooperate with ICE. I will be demanding accountability from state and federal leaders."

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The two men were arrested about 11 a.m. on Prospect Street between Courter and Oakview avenues, MaplewoodGreen.com reported.

A state law implemented by the New Jersey Attorney Generals Office in 2018 prohibits law enforcement from stopping, questioning, arresting, searching or detaining a person simply because they are suspected to be undocumented.

On Tuesday evening, Adams said reports surfaced of an unmarked SUV with strobe lights and several ICE officers stationed near Jacoby Street. The mayor said she had not yet confirmed whether there were additional arrests.

ICE has not yet released details on the Monday and Tuesday arrests.

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Last month, 29 people were arrested during an ICE raid at a warehouse in Edison.

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UPDATE: 9.9.2025

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation says three people are dead, including the suspect, after a several-hour-long standoff in Blanchard.

An OSBI spokesperson says the two deceased victims are an adult male and an adult female. OSBI believes both victims were shot.

OSBI says the suspect was found dead in the house after an officer-involved shooting escalated the standoff to its conclusion. OSBI says the suspect appeared to have been shot but could not say whether it appeared that it was self-inflicted.

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OHP: 18 people on Minco school bus during crash

OSBI also did not identify the agency involved in the shooting or how many officers discharged their firearms. News 4 asked the McClain County Sheriffs Office if there would be any further local agency updates, but a spokesperson deferred further updates to the OSBI.

OSBI says the relationship between the suspect and the victims is under investigation. No names have been released at this time, but they are expected sometime Tuesday night.

ORIGINAL STORY:

BLANCHARD, Okla. (KFOR)  The McClain County Sheriffs Office says a several-hour-long standoff is underway at a home in Blanchard with possible victims inside.

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The sheriffs office told News 4 that deputies responded to a welfare call at 11:53 a.m. near 300th Street and Coyle Drive. Deputies say a neighbor had reported a possible shooting at a home in the neighborhood.

According to McClain County Sheriffs office spokesperson Cary Bryant, when deputies tried to enter the home, they found two individuals who authorities believe are likely dead and a man armed with a gun.

Standoff in Blanchard with possible victims. (KFOR)

Standoff in Blanchard with possible victims. (KFOR)

Bryant said deputies pulled back to plan a tactical response, and the suspect had barricaded himself inside the house.

No names have been released in connection with the incident.

Authorities have not shared whether they believe there is a connection between the armed suspect and the potential victims.

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The public is being asked to avoid the area.

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AUSTIN (Nexstar)  U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon toured an Austin private school on Tuesday, which claims it helps students Learn 2x in 2 Hours.

Alpha School Austin

Alpha School Austin is part of an upstart network of Alpha Schools across the country, focused on using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help students progress through their coursework faster.

Fundamentally, we believe that kids are limitless, co-founder MacKenzie Price said. When kids receive personalized learning that goes at their pace and level, their learning is able to go exponentially faster than in a traditional classroom.

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Instead of teachers, students at Alpha School Austin are supervised by guides, who help lead them through their abbreviated coursework. During the course of McMahons tour, students were completing rapid-fire math problems, designing a mini gold course and cooking.

[Teaching two hours a day] begs the question, what do you do with the rest of the school day?' Price said. We want our students to learn life skills, the skills that are going to help them be successful when theyre out in the real world.

Despite having one-third of the classroom instruction, Alpha said their students are showing high levels of student achievement.

We provide NWEA MAP (Northwest Evaluation Association Measures of Academic Progress) testing assessments three times a year in order to measure our students progress, Price said. Our classes are ranged in the top 1% in all subjects, all grade levels, with the exception of fifth grade mathwhich was 93rd percentile.

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The AI part of learning only accounts for about 10% of a students success, Price admits. It also isnt for everyone, with Price saying it works for about 80-90% of students.

Sometimes we see families who prefer a classical education model, or we see students who maybe want a more traditional experience, Price said. But its very rare.

Head of U.S. Education and Head of Texas Education visit

After the tour, McMahon and Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath attended a roundtable featuring Price and several other Alpha school stakeholders. They heard from current parents, students, guides and an alumna.

I was very impressed, McMahon said after the visit. Its just incredibly inspirational to see how quickly they can learn.

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McMahon and Morath are the heads of public education at the federal and state level, respectively. However, they hope to draw inspiration from the $40,000-a-year private school.

What Im doing right now is going around the country to see best practices, McMahon said. What I would like to do is to develop tool kits to leave behind with schools or with states and say these are some best practices I think that Ive come in contact with around the country. Not that I would write thembut there would be people knowledgeable to write them so they could be utilized and say this is not a mandate. You dont have to do this. This is where its worked.

If you look at the Texas Constitution, it calls for a general diffusion of knowledge, Morath said. Our goal is to make sure that children have access to great schools regardless of how who runs it, regardless of the label on the outside of the building. And so there are lessons to be learned in a school like Alpha that were visiting today. There are lessons to be learned from traditional public schools. If you look across the spectrum of the 9,000 public schools that run in Texas, you see tremendous diversity of educational models, of curricular design, of the way that teachers are supported and provide support to students we have to learn these lessons. How else do we improve the quality of education for our young people?

Of course, not everyone can afford a school as expensive as Alpha. Even with the full amount provided for families through Texass incoming Education Savings Accounts would only cover 1/4th of the annual tuition cost. However, Alpha School officials argue the model can be implemented in other schools at a low cost.

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I could do this model of education in a tent as long as I had internet, Price said. Its not about the building. Its about what happens inside the building. Thats the thing that matters. I think its time for us all to hold ourselves accountable for delivering better to these kids and I think using artificial intelligence is what enables us to raise human intelligence.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin.
Packages of Mifepristone tablets are displayed at a family planning clinic on April 13, 2023 in Rockville, Maryland. (Photo illustration by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The passage of a major bill in Texas threatens the national safety net that has allowed tens of thousands of Americans to get around abortion bans.

House Bill 7 targets health care providers in states such as California, New York and Massachusetts that have, since the fall of Roe v. Wade, used telehealth to prescribe abortion pills. Interacting with patients virtually, those providers never leave their home states, which have laws explicitly protecting them from out-of-state prosecution. Those protections hold even if the patient is located in a state with a ban, like Texas. Only eight states  California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington  have those protections in place for health providers.

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This report was originally published by The 19th. The Illuminator is a founding member of The 19th News Network.

House Bill 7 gives anti-abortion activists a new tool that heightens the risk for medical professionals. It says any private citizen can bring a civil lawsuit, with a minimum payout of $100,000, against anyone who makes medication abortion available to a Texan. That includes prescribing, mailing and distributing pills. The bills authors have also said it would allow suits against drug manufacturers.

The Texas bill is yet to be signed by the states Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and would not take effect until the first week of December. But if it successfully lowers the number of abortions done in Texas, its likely to inspire similar legislation in other states with bans.

We need to be thinking about this as a blueprint, said Jessica Waters, a legal scholar at American University who specializes in reproductive rights. Texas is taking this unprecedented action. Its the first of its type to really target out-of-state abortion providers, and I think we will see more states do this.

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Some experts and shield law providers told The 19th that the bill could stop some abortion pills from being mailed to Texas. The legal risks to shield law providers mean that relatively few health professionals offer telehealth abortions to people in states like Texas  amplifying the possible consequences if any decide to stop.

There probably will be some shield providers who stop sending pills into Texas because of the law because theyre taking great personal risk to do so, said Elisa Wells, who runs the website Plan C, a clearinghouse of telehealth abortion options.

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Already, the election of President Donald Trump has deterred some health providers from offering telehealth abortions to people living under bans, said Rebecca Nall, who runs the website INeedanA, a comprehensive database of abortion providers.

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Some policy analysts argued that if HB 7 drives out just a few more health providers, it could seriously limit who in Texas can get abortions.

Even if its just a small impact on the availability of care or availability of medication abortion in the state, it can have a really big impact, said Kimya Forouzan, who tracks state policy for the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights.

A week before the bills passage, one California-based telehealth provider told The 19th that the recent onslaught of lawsuits against providers has left her increasingly unsure of how long she will be able to continue offering abortions to people in other states. She declined to speak further after HB 7 passed.

Every day it feels like its very tenuous, said the doctor, who asked that her name be withheld because of the risk of incurring a lawsuit. It feels like things are ramping up.

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Debra Lynch, a nurse who runs the shield law practice called Her Safe Harbor, said she is now in regular communication with other health professionals who worry HB 7 will make it too dangerous to continue offering telehealth abortions to Texans, despite the protections of their state laws.

Were hearing from other providers that have large on-the-ground practices: Is it worth it for them to continue to take this risk by providing a telehealth service, if its going to pose a risk to their on-ground practice? she said. Theyre concerned. If they continue to do the telehealth abortion, is that going to, through civil action, pose a big threat to their ability to maintain their in-person clinics?

Still, several shield law providers said that they intend to continue offering telehealth abortions to Texans, even after the new legislation takes effect.

Were talking with lawyers and other stakeholders, but right now we dont anticipate changing anything about our practice, said Dr. Angel Foster, who runs the Massachusetts Medication Abortion Project. We believe our shield law protects us from these civil lawsuits.

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Health providers are only one component of the telehealth abortion ecosystem, and its not yet clear how others, such as drug distributors or pharmaceutical manufacturers, will react to the threat of new financial penalties. Both Danco and GenBioPro, the two main U.S. manufacturers of one of the key drugs used in medication abortions, declined to comment on how they intend to respond to HB 7.

That said, the legislation is aimed at disincentivizing online pharmacies and manufacturers from sending medications into the state altogether, said Nimra Chowdhry, senior state legislative counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights.

John Seago, the head of the anti-abortion group Texas Right to Life, said in a statement that he believes HB 7 can offer a blueprint for other states seeking to block telehealth abortions. The largest state to ban abortion, Texas has for more than a decade served as a testing ground for restrictive policies that, when effective, have been copied around the country. Texas was also the first state to outlaw most abortions, enacting a six-week ban in 2021  months before the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe.

Despite sustained pressure from national abortion opponents, the White House has not taken action to block telehealth abortions. If this law is effective at doing so  a key goal for abortion opponents, who remain frustrated over the large swath of patients still able to access care  similar legislation is likely to emerge in conservative-led statehouses across the country.

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It certainly is a shot across the bow, to be very public and loud about taking on shield laws and ending mailed medication abortion in the state of Texas, said Rachel Rebouche, a professor of law at the University of Texas Austin. Im not sure it changes whats happening yet  and thats what I think were all waiting to see.

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Abortion opponents across the country have been focused on finding a way to stop telehealth abortions. Dr. Margaret Carpenter, a New York-based physician, is a defendant in criminal and separate civil lawsuits put forth by the Louisiana and Texas attorneys general. Two Texas individuals  both represented by the anti-abortion lawyer Jonathan Mitchell, who helped craft HB 7  have also filed wrongful death suits against out-of-state health care providers. One suit targets California-based Dr. Remy Coeytaux, and the other is against the telehealth organization Aid Access.

Lawmakers from states with shield laws have suggested that they will defend organizations and individuals making telehealth abortions available to Texans.

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A spokesperson for California Attorney General Rob Bonta said that states chief law enforcement officer stands ready to enforce Californias robust laws that protect patients, providers, and those assisting in abortion access. This week, New York Attorney General Letitia James intervened in a Texas-based lawsuit that argues the Empire States shield law is unconstitutional.

Texas lawmakers are divided on whether their new bill passes constitutional muster, with several state Democrats arguing that its provisions could violate the U.S. and state constitutions. And abortion opponents disagree on how successful it will be in stopping telehealth abortions.

Seago said in a statement that the bill is the most effective Pro-Life defense against out-of-state companies and activists that send abortion pills to Texas. But another anti-abortion activist, Texans for Life head Kyleen Wright, called it vastly oversold in its ability to halt telehealth. She pointed out that Texas law already offers a mechanism to sue people who help residents get abortions  the six-week abortion ban that took effect in 2021  but that nobody has used that laws civil suit offering to try to block telehealth.

In Texas, women like Raquel are grappling with what the end of telehealth would mean. The mother of two living near Houston discovered last fall that she was pregnant, despite using contraception. She feared for her life  the last time she had given birth, her postpartum depression had been so powerful that she had required hospitalization.

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I never want to be back in that situation where I wanted to end my life because of how I felt  I couldnt do that to my children, I couldnt do it to my husband, I couldnt do it to my family in general, she said. It was life or death.

Raquel, who asked to be referred to by her middle name because few people know about her abortion, ordered medication from Aid Access. Beyond talking with someone at the organization, Raquel discussed her decision with her doctor and her therapist. Her husband, whose job often requires months of travel at once, took time off from work to stay home with her during the abortion.

But even without a telehealth option, she said, she would have found a way to end her pregnancy: driving 15 hours to Colorado, or finding a way to Mexico for care. She expressed anger about the states effort to eliminate that path  and fear about what it could mean for other people in situations like hers.

It pisses me off because its really nobodys business but your own, she said. And its sad because now these women  and potentially me  we have to go through twice as much to receive care if thats what we so choose to do. And thats just not right. Its not fair, and were going backwards in time.

This story was originally reported by Shefali Luthra of The 19th. Meet Shefali and read more of her reporting on gender, politics and policy.

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MESA COUNTY, Colo. (KREX)  On Tuesday, a teacher from Mesa County Valley School District 51 was surprised with the news that she is a finalist for 2026 Colorado Teacher of the Year.

Liz Fitzgerald, who teaches first grade at Mesa View Elementary School, is one of eight finalists, selected from 22 semifinalists announced in June.

This is truly a passion for me, and it does mean the world to me because I know how important learning is and your education is, Fitzgerald said after being surprised with the news in her classroom.

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Fitzgerald tells WesternSlopeNow she was surprised when she learned she was selected.

It was shocking, I think. Also overwhelming because it wasnt expected I think its an honor. Its something that I never thought would happen. Coming from the background that Ive come from, Im a first-generation college student so its something that I never thought possible.

Mesa View Principal Stacey Cohen, who nominated Fitzgerald, says the decision to nominate her was a no-brainer.

Liz Fitzgerald is one of those rare, magical teachers that comes along so infrequently that the choice was easy, Cohen told WesternSlopeNow.

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Fitzgerald has been an educator for 17 years and a teacher at Mesa View for 6 years. Cohen says Fitzgerald is an extraordinary teacher and human.

Liz is an extraordinary teacher leader, but her relationships that she builds with children and the work that she does on behalf of the community are unmatchable, and she is all about inclusivity and equity shes about elevating the profession and she cares so much about the future of every single kid in this valley. Shes just an extraordinary human being. I feel very lucky to know her, Cohen said.

When asked about teaching practices shes proud of, Fitzgerald also mentioned her ability to form relationships with her students.

I think that it would be the ability that I have to form relationships with lots of different students, even some of those ones that are more challenging in the classroom. By the end of the year, theyre my buddies and theyre my friends and they keep coming back year after year to give me hugs and tell me about their life.

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Fitzgerald says win or lose, one of the many things shell take away from this process is how much goes into education.

It takes a village to work together and help our students thrive in the future that we have for them. Its not just one person. It takes the whole building to make sure that we are a National Blue Ribbon School. It takes a whole community to help us with our curriculum and making sure that were making the best choices for our students and it takes a whole state to offer those equal opportunities for students across the state and make sure that they are able to get what they need to succeed in their life.

To see a list of the rest of the finalists, visit the Colorado Department of Educations website.

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A Collinsville man who admitted to making two pipe bombs has been sentenced to serve nearly four years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorneys Office announced Tuesday.

Jeremy Barr pleaded guilty in May in federal court in East St. Louis to possessing a destructive device and was given a 46-month sentence on Sept. 3, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office.

The two bombs were spotted in March 2023 by Barrs ex-girlfriend . They were in a car on a street near her home and a school in Wood River, according to information from court records and the news release.

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The bombs were made with PVC pipe, black powder, and fragmentation that included bbs, pellets and marbles, according to court records. One device had an improvised electrical detonation fuse consisting of two strands of copper wire through an end cap. The other device had a pyrotechnic fuse such as those found in commercial fireworks, the court record states.

It is not clear what the defendant intended to do with the pipe bombs, stated a report by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Burke. However, given his preoccupation with his ex-girlfriend, the attempt to enter her house on March 3, 2023, and his damage to her vehicle, its not unreasonable to infer that he had at least vague notions of using the devices to harm her or her property.

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives analyzed the bombs and determined they could have caused serious injury or death upon detonation, according to the news release.

A year after the bombs were spotted, Barr was indicted in the case in March 2024. He has been in custody since shortly after the grand jury issued the indictment and was represented in his sentencing hearing by Ankoor Shah of the Federal Public Defenders Office for the Southern District of Illinois.

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Shah could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Chief U.S. District Judge Nancy J. Rosenstengel imposed the 46-month sentence, as is recommended by the government guidelines.

Improvised explosive devices are inherently unpredictable, unstable and indiscriminate, said U.S. Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft in a statement Tuesday. Jeremy Barr threatened innocent lives near a Southern Illinois school, endangering kids and our community.

Along with his sentence, Barr was ordered to pay $15,000 in restitution to his former landlord for damage to the residence caused by the Illinois State Police during execution of a search warrant to determine if other devices might be in the home, the news release stated. According to court documents, there were no additional devices, but evidence of bomb making was found in the basement.

Rosenstengel recommended that Barr be held in a prison in the New Mexico area since he wants to relocate to this area once his sentence is served, according to court records.
Demonstrators attend a rally in Istanbul, Turkiye, on Sept. 10, 2025. Tens of thousands of people rallied in Istanbul on Wednesday to protest a court decision that removed the leadership of the main opposition party's provincial branch, a move opponents have decried as politically motivated. (Xinhua/Liu Lei)

ISTANBUL, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Tens of thousands of people rallied in Istanbul on Wednesday to protest a court decision that removed the leadership of the main opposition party's provincial branch, a move opponents have decried as politically motivated.

Demonstrators, called to protest by the Republican People's Party (CHP), gathered at the port in the Kadikoy district on the Asian side of Turkiye's largest city. They were joined by other political groups and civil society organizations, waving Turkish flags and party banners.

The CHP estimated the turnout at 125,000. There were no official police figures available.

The rally followed a court decision last week that voided the CHP's 2023 Istanbul provincial congress over alleged procedural irregularities. The ruling removed elected provincial chairman Ozgur Celik and his team and installed former CHP deputy leader Gursel Tekin as trustee. Tekin, who was later expelled from the party, took office on Monday under police guard.

The Istanbul branch is seen as a key asset for the opposition. Turkiye's economic and cultural hub delivered major victories for the CHP in the 2019 and 2024 local elections, when Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu defeated President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party.

Speaking after a cabinet meeting on Monday, Erdogan defended the judiciary's independence and called on the opposition to respect the court's decision.

"No one in Turkiye is beyond the reach of the law," Erdogan said. "Criticizing court rulings is one thing; refusing to recognize them is another. Legal avenues for challenging decisions you believe are wrong are wide open."

Imamoglu, a key rival of the Turkish president and the CHP's candidate for the next presidential elections, has been jailed since March 19, and more than a dozen other mayors and municipal officials have also been detained on fraud charges. 

This photo taken on Sept. 10, 2025 shows a rally in Istanbul, Turkiye. Tens of thousands of people rallied in Istanbul on Wednesday to protest a court decision that removed the leadership of the main opposition party's provincial branch, a move opponents have decried as politically motivated. (Xinhua/Liu Lei)
MEXICO BEACH, Fla. (WMBB)  Mexico Beach City Council members say theyre worried about mixing e-bikes and people on public sidewalks.

They discussed new regulations for electric bikes during Tuesdays city council meeting. The proposed ordinance would prohibit e-bikes on sidewalks, moving them to designated bike lanes.

They believe the change would improve pedestrian safety.

There were discussions about public notifications and proper signage. There are also concerns about the speeds e-bikes can travel.

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JCSO: Update on investigation that led to seven arrests

Theres no way that the majority of people, when they see these three miles of pathway, theyre going to get on that and sooner or later they are going to fly down there. Theres no way, realistically, you can say go 15 miles an hour, the people are not going to pay attention to that, Lisa Logan said.

Council members also addressed shark fishing regulations. They say most shark fishermen are aware of existing rules and typically prioritize safety.

Most shark fishing in Mexico Beach occurs during evening and night hours.

The council considered limiting fishing hours, but ultimately recommended no further action.

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Shown are children at the Downtown Childrens Center in St. Louis. (Photo by Rebecca Rivas/Missouri Independent)

This story was originally reported by Chabeli Carrazana of The 19th. Meet Chabeli and read more of her reporting on gender, politics and policy.

In an unprecedented move, New Mexico is making child care free.

Beginning in November, it will be the first state in the nation to provide child care to all residents regardless of income, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced this week.

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The state has been working to lower child care care costs since 2019, when it created the Early Childhood Education and Care Department and started to expand eligibility for universal child care. This latest change removes income eligibility requirements from the states child care assistance program altogether and waives all family copayments.

The initiative is expected to save families $12,000 per child annually.

Child care is essential to family stability, workforce participation and New Mexicos future prosperity, Lujan Grisham said in her announcement. By investing in universal child care, we are giving families financial relief, supporting our economy, and ensuring that every child has the opportunity to grow and thrive.

The United States allocates some federal funding to states to lower the cost of child care for low-income kids, but eligibility for that funding is very limited and by and large, most families are paying an average of $13,000 on child care annually. Its much higher in many states.

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In the absence of a federal universal child care system, some states have worked to build their own systems, and New Mexico has been a leader in that effort over the past several years.

The states Early Childhood Education and Care Department got a budget increase of $113 million in the most recent legislative session, taking its total operating budget to nearly $1 billion. Half of that money goes specifically to child care payment support.

The state also established a fund in 2020 with money earmarked for early childhood education. Thanks to tax collections from the oil and gas industries, the fund has grown from $320 million to $10 billion. Latinas in New Mexico led the charge in 2022 to help pass a constitutional amendment in 2022 that ensured a portion of that fund went specifically to universal child care. Funding for the new initiative will come at least in part from there, and Lujan Grisham will also be requesting an additional $120 million in state funding next year, a spokesperson for the governor said.

The news also comes with improvements for child care facilities and, potentially, raises for their staff. As part of the rollout, the state will establish a $13 million loan fund to construct and expand facilities, launch a recruitment campaign for home-based providers and incentivize programs to pay staff a minimum of $18 an hour.

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The state hopes the initiative will lead to the creation of 55 new child care centers and 1,120 home-based child care options.

Still, response to the initiative so far has been mixed. Republican state Rep. Rebecca Dow told the Albuquerque Journal that she believes child care vouchers should be reserved for children most at risk for child abuse and neglect. Since the states child care assistance program expanded eligibility over the past five years, fewer low-income families have participated in the program, the Journal reported.

But Thora Walsh Padilla, the president of the Mescalero Apache Tribe, praised the initiative, saying during a press conference Monday that it addresses various challenges the tribe has struggled with, including raising wages for providers. There are only three child care facilities on the 463,000 acre reservation.

It is so timely and it answers so many needs, she said. A building? Oh my goodness, well be one of the first to apply.
New Mexico is the first state that will offer free child care for every family  a move that could save households roughly $12,000 per year per child, according to an estimate from the Governors office.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced the policy  set to take effect in November  on Monday.

News: Boy Shot 2 Other Teens Then Himself At Suburban Denver High School: Authorities

By investing in universal childcare, we are giving families financial relief, supporting our economy, and ensuring that every child has the opportunity to grow and thrive, Lujan Grisham said in a press release.

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The policy will allow families  regardless of income level  to qualify for waivers for co-pays of child care costs and could help alleviate a key financial burden that many have long shouldered.

According to the Center for American Progress, the median cost of child care for an American family is $800 per month. It is often one of the top expenses in a households budget.

Previously, New Mexico enabled families below a certain income threshold to receive assistance for child care, but the latest iteration of the proposal expands its reach.

Also Read: My 8-Year-Old Was Suffering From Cancer. To Keep Her Alive, I Made An Unthinkable Choice.

In addition to covering the costs of child care, the state announced that the policy will include significant investments in expanding the availability of offerings.

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New Mexico will establish a $12.7 million fund dedicated to constructing and expanding child care facilities and it will also focus on recruiting more providers.

The proposal will be paid for using both state and federal funds, according to KRQE News. Some of that money will come from a fund thats been bolstered by taxes on oil and gas companies, The 19th reports.

A spokesperson for the New Mexico governors office didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

News: A Disturbing Image In Epstein's 'Birthday Book' Shows The Depths Of His Depravity

This policy is the only one of its kind in the U.S., as proposals vary by state, and no such program exists at the federal level.

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Its benefits are significant: New Mexicos prior child care subsidies had already helped lift families out of poverty, The Guardian reports. And the governors release noted that financial stability and more time to focus on children were key gains.

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Sep. 9New Mexicans will face some of the highest Affordable Care Act rate increases in the country next year, when the cost of some plans will spike by as much as 52.2%, according to the state Office of the Superintendent of Insurance.

The average price increase for individual plans sold through BeWell, New Mexico's health insurance marketplace, will be 35.7%, the OSI said  the fourth-highest average ACA rate increase of any state in the nation, according to a Journal analysis of marketplace data compiled by health policy nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation.

The agency said in a news release the price hikes were caused by increased medical and prescription drug costs, high demand for health care services, and the expiration of Biden-era enhanced ACA tax credits that Congress chose not to renew.

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"This is very unfortunate, and it's going to impact every New Mexican," said the director of OSI's life and health insurance division, Viara Ianakieva. "This is impacting everyone, all Americans across the country."

Ianakieva said while multiple factors could have contributed to the rate surges  rising costs, post-pandemic instability, cybersecurity attacks on insurers, Medicaid redeterminations  the major driver in New Mexico was that insurance companies' actual expenses last year ended up being much higher than initially predicted.

"Uncertainty impacts the market, and this year we have had a lot of uncertainty," she said.

United Healthcare of New Mexico is raising its prices the most of any of the state's ACA insurers  its rates will go up 52.2%, affecting 12,325 people, the company said in a report to the state. United's New Mexico rate hikes are in the top five highest increases of any ACA marketplace plan nationwide, according to KFF data.

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Ianakieva attributes United's major rate hikes to its relatively new status on the state's health care marketplace, where New Mexicans can buy insurance via the ACA if they don't qualify for Medicare or Medicaid and don't have coverage through their jobs.

"This was the first year when they had actual experience which they could look back and make assumptions based on," she said. "This is when they actually saw that the expenses were a lot higher than assumed, and they had to adjust their rates accordingly."

BlueCross BlueShield of New Mexico will raise its rates by 38.6%, Presbyterian Health Plan by 27.1%, and Molina Healthcare of New Mexico by 15.3%, according to OSI reports.

"The team has worked really, really, really hard to ensure that rates are as low as possible without compromising the solvency of the insurance companies," Ianakieva said.

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OSI officials said 75,000 New Mexicans buy health insurance through the BeWell marketplace, and 88% of them qualify for federal and state premium assistance. More than half of New Mexico's ACA enrollees pay less than $10 a month for health coverage with help from subsidies from the federal and state government, the agency said.

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, authorized under former President Joe Biden, made ACA tax credits available for more households, cheapening marketplace health care premiums. Enrollment in ACA plans more than doubled in the four years since the tax credits were introduced, according to data from KFF.

The tax credits are set to expire at the end of 2025, unless the Republican-controlled Congress opts to renew them.

On Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters for The Hill there was "a lot of opposition" to renewing the tax credits.

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"I'm not going to forecast that right now," Johnson said.

"Fortunately," Superintendent of Insurance Alice Kane said in a statement, the state "had the foresight" to prepare for the loss of federal premium subsidies, and will use New Mexico's Health Care Affordability Fund to cover the loss for households with income under 400% of the federal poverty level.

For a single person, this means anyone making less than $62,600 annually, or less than $128,600 for a family of four. Households making more than the 400% threshold are not eligible for state subsidies.

Even with the help of state funds, New Mexicans will see "significant rate increases," Ianakieva said, which will depend on a policyholder's age, location and plan.

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Rural areas will bear the brunt of the price hikes, she said  policies will end up more expensive because of fewer providers and poorer access to health care.

"The loss of funding from the federal government is a real hardship for New Mexico," said Mary Feldblum, executive director of the Health Security for New Mexicans Campaign, a health care reform advocacy group.

When people lose their insurance, it ultimately costs the government more money, Feldblum said, because people tend to delay care until their condition is much more serious, and the state foots the bill.

"It's just good policy to have people insured," she said.
For decades, La Ermita de la Caridad, a Catholic shrine near Biscayne Bay, has stood as a symbol of hope and freedom for many, especially South Floridas Cuban exile community.

On Monday, the Catholic community honored Cubas patroness, Our Lady of Charity, and marked the 25th anniversary of the Miami shrines national designation through a day of celebratory events.

Clergy members stand at the ready for mass during the annual celebration of the feast day of Cuba's patroness, Our Lady of Charity, at Ermita de la Caridad..

This years special service had a theme: Mary, Beacon of Freedom which, the Archdiocese of Miami said, was meant to highlight the role the patroness has played as a guiding light for the Cuban people.

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Many devotees endured the rainy weather to honor the statue and attend a mass led by Archbishop Thomas Wenski in the evening. In a ceremony broadcast live on Facebook, hundreds of Catholics can be seen singing, praying and honoring the shrine by laying yellow sunflowers as offerings.

The alter during the annual celebration of the feast day of Cuba's patroness, Our Lady of Charity, at Ermita de la Caridad.

The celebrations began back in August, when Wenski unveiled two sculptures by artist Timothy Schmalz: Angels Without Knowing It and Being Welcoming, which pay tribute to the humanity of migrants and refugees throughout history.

For decades, Cuban exiles and those of Catholic faith have visited the National Shrine, which reflects a long and storied Cuban-American history.

Archbishop Thomas Wenski celebrates mass with congregants during the annual celebration of the feast day of Cuba's patroness, Our Lady of Charity, at Ermita de la Caridad.

Cubans have honored the Virgin of Charity since the early 1600s, when according to tradition, three farmworkers found a floating statue of the Mother of Jesus in stormy waters with the inscription I am the Virgin of Charity.

A congregant holds a program guide from during the annual celebration of the feast day of Cuba's patroness, Our Lady of Charity, at Ermita de la Caridad.

In 1961, as Cuban exiles fled communism to enter the United States, a replica was brought with them, smuggled through the Panamanian embassy, according to the history on the shrines website.

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The shrine was built by Cuban refugees on land donated by Archbishop Coleman F. Carroll in 1966, and sits near the same waters that flow to Cuba.

Congregants stand for the Pledge of Allegiance inside Ermita de la Caridad.

The architecture of the building, which was dedicated in 1973 and designated as a National Shrine in 2000, also holds meaning.

A congregant wears a pin for Our Lady of Charity.

The six columns supporting the 90-foot tall mantle represent Cubas six traditional provinces. Under the altar is a stone made from a blend of earth, stone and sand from the island, cast with water brought from a Cuban refugee raft. Behind the statue of the patroness is a mural painted by Teok Carrasco, a native of Nipe, where the original statue was found.

This story was produced with financial support from Trish and Dan Bell and from donors comprising the South Florida Jewish and Muslim Communities, including Khalid and Diana Mirza, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH)  The Mid-Ohio Food Collective celebrated World Hunger Action Day on Tuesday, highlighting the work the group does with state and local governments.

The group also used the opportunity to thank the Franklin County Commissioners for the $7 million contribution for the food banks freezer expansion, which will allow the group to take in more frozen foods and get them out to those in need in the community

Mid-Ohio Food Bank President and CEO Matt Habash said the freezer expansion is especially important now because demand for help is up 58% from 2020.

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There are a lot of people struggling right now, and for us to be able to find food from all over the country, bring it in here, fresh food so that we can actually improve peoples lives, improve their health, while were also making sure they get enough to eat, Habash said.

The Mid-Ohio Food Collective has 600 partners who help distribute food in 20 counties across the state.

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New military bases are being built in Belarus, one of which, near Minsk, may be of strategic importance to Russia in the war against Ukraine, as experts believe Russian Oreshnik ballistic missiles may be deployed there.

Source: Skhemy, an investigative reporting project by Radio Liberty, in cooperation with journalists from Radio Libertys Belarusian Service and Estonian outlets Delfi Estonia and Eesti Ekspress

Details: Working together, the journalists analysed satellite imagery from Planet Labs and created a map of Belarusian military facilities which includes both brand-new and modernised former military bases and training grounds, some of which will be used during the Zapad-2025 (West-2025) joint exercises with Russia scheduled for 12-16 September.

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The first base is being built near the village of Pavlovka, south of Minsk. Construction began in June 2024, and as of September 2025, the construction site covers over 2 sq km. The experts believe that Russian Oreshnik ballistic missile systems may be deployed there.

A Soviet military base, Military Camp No. 25 Pavlovka, was formerly located on the site and hosted the Slutsk-based 306th Strategic Missile Regiment. The regiment operated Soviet R-12 intermediate-range ballistic missiles, along with mobile systems such as Pioneer and Topol.

After Belarus joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1993, the Slutsk 306th Regiment was withdrawn from combat duty and relocated to Russia, where it was later disbanded. The base itself was completely destroyed, although Radio Liberty reports that some fortifications, missile launch pads, silos, bunkers, warehouses and other military structures remain in a dilapidated state.

Satellite images show that tree clearance and earthworks began on the site in June 2024.

Pavlovka on 29 August 2023 and on 17 August 2025

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Photo: Skhemy

Within a year, more than a square kilometre of forest in the western part of the area had been cleared and 13 ammunition depots measuring 30 by 20 metres were constructed behind defensive walls, along with three warehouses each 100 metres long. Foundations for various other buildings were also laid, linked by a network of mostly paved roads.

The new facility consists of four separate sections  a main one and three others of almost equal area located side by side. They are all connected by new roads. The satellite images show the foundations of future structures (likely warehouses), the frame of a building nearly 150 metres long, and earth embankments.

The Belarusian authorities have not officially commented on the construction. The journalists also found no reference to the facility in public records or on official land registry (cadastral) maps.

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The second new facility has appeared on the outskirts of the city of Gomel, less than 40 km from the border with Ukraine. The journalists believe this is a future military base. Construction began here in late 2023, with trees cut down, the site cleared and infrastructure actively being built.

Planet Labs imagery from 4 September shows numerous construction machines and the foundations of several buildings. A new road is being laid through the forest, and trees are being cleared in several nearby locations. One of these, according to cadastral data, is designated as a training and tactical field.

The Gomel military base on 22 June 2023 and on 4 September 2025

Photo: Skhemy

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In state tenders and cadastral records, the facility is referred to as a "military town in Gomel Oblast with a training and tactical field". Belarusian media outlets have reported that it will include a parade ground, barracks, and a canteen for up to 680 people.

Radio Liberty notes that the size and infrastructure of the facility correspond to existing military bases in Belarus, meaning it could potentially accommodate a military brigade of about 3,000 personnel.

"There is currently no official information about which unit will be based there, but given that the Belarusian authorities have created a new formation  the 37th Separate Air Assault Brigade of the Belarusian Special Operations Forces  to reinforce the southern area, it may be intended for them," the article states.

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The party of the workers sometimes behaves as if its members had never actually been to work. Surely no one with any experience of office politics would have come up with the idea of day one rights?

The Employment Rights Bill currently en route through Parliament will make it possible for employees to sue for unfair dismissal from their very first day in the job. (Currently, bosses have a two year period of grace during which they can sack an employee without the risk of getting tangled up in litigation.)

Obviously this will be bad for the economy, because it will make businesses reluctant to take on new employees. But it also spells misery for the workers themselves.

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Bosses, being human, make mistakes. Every hire is a leap of faith, because you cant know what someone is like at work until youve given them a good try. Sometimes employees who look good on paper turn out to be really irritating, or a bit mad, or just not quite right for the job. Either way, its their co-workers who bear the brunt.

I once had a colleague who was, to use the technical term, a lazy toerag.

There was nothing wrong with her, physically or mentally, but she was always calling in sick and leaving the rest of us to pick up her slack. When she came in the next day, she would put on a hammy display of convalescence  feeble coughing, back of the hand to the brow  as if to forestall our evident suspicions. Somehow she always managed to stay just the right side of what HR would consider professional misconduct, and this too  the ease with which she gamed the system  drove everyone mad.

If our bosses had tried to discipline her through formal warnings, it would have become a he-said-she-said pantomime about whether or not she really had this virus on that date. But the fundamental point would have been unsayable: We dont trust or like you any more. So our bosses did the kinder and more efficient thing, and sacked her before her statutory rights kicked in.

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Not all failed hires are down to bad behaviour. Talented and likeable people sometimes prove the wrong fit for a particular role. In such cases, too, its better to swing the axe so they can get on with finding a job that suits them better.

Working relationships (like all relationships) are largely dependent on intangibles. Does this person have the right values, attitude, sense of humour, the right chemistry for the job? Soon, it will be too risky to find out.

The new(ish) pope is to allow a Latin mass to be celebrated at St Peters, reversing the policy of his modernising predecessor. Pope Leo XIV is American, you see, and in recent years American Catholics have become obsessed with the Latin mass. They think only snowflakes and libtards take their religion in English. Latin is the real deal: purer, more muscular, closer to the source. Make the liturgy great again!

This is unnerving for a lapsed but romantic Catholic like me. I too love the Latin mass: preferably chanted in a monotone and accompanied by tinkling bells, clouds of incense and shafts of light streaming through Gothic windows. All this beauty and mystery transports the soul, even  or rather, especially  if you dont understand a word of Latin. It means you are spared the religious mumbo-jumbo that would otherwise spoil the moment.

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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.  A controversial mid-decade redistricting plan is now in the hands of the Missouri Senate after the state House approved a new congressional map Tuesday afternoon.

The proposed changes could have sweeping political consequences, particularly for Kansas City and Democratic Congressman Emanuel Cleaver.

Missouri Republicans advance Trump-backed plan to redraw US House districts

The Missouri House passed the redistricting bill shortly after 12:30 p.m. during a special legislative session called by Gov. Mike Kehoe.

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The plan, backed by former President Donald Trump, aims to split Missouris 5th Congressional District  currently centered around Kansas City  into three separate districts.

Supporters say the move could help Republicans secure an additional seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

While the House also debated a controversial IP or Initiative Petition bill that would make it harder for voters to amend the state constitution, it was the redistricting map that drew the most attention.

This is not a good fit for Jackson County, said Missouri House Speaker John Patterson, a Republican who represents parts of Lees Summit and voted against the map.

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In many respects, in a lot of different parts of the state, they got a better map  which is why a lot of the members were for it. But as someone from Jackson County, it was ultimately not something I could support, Patterson said.

Patterson, who leads the House GOP majority, emphasized that his role is not to dictate votes but to foster consensus  something that wasnt possible in this case.

Democrats have accused Republicans of blatant gerrymandering, pointing out that Congressman Cleavers heavily Democratic district would be carved up, weakening the voice of voters in Jackson County, especially the voices of people of color.

The maps passage comes after direct pressure from Trump seeking to expand Republican control in Congress.

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Missouri Democratic Party plans to protest redistricting at State Capitol Wednesday

The fight over the map is far from over. Democrats, led by House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, are planning a large protest on the steps of the Capitol Wednesday morning, as the Senate takes up the bill during its annual veto session.

It remains unclear when the Senate will vote, as lawmakers brace for potential procedural battles, including the use of the so-called nuclear option a legislative maneuver known as a previous question (or PQ) that allows the majority to end debate and override a filibuster.

The use of the PQ is rare in Missouri but was deployed twice during the last session. If used again, it could clear the way for a swift vote and set the stage for even deeper political division.

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Photo taken on Sept. 10, 2025 shows a view of the Board of Governors meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Austria. China explicitly opposes the move by France, Britain and Germany (E3) of using the snapback mechanism to reinstate sanctions on Iran, and calls for further diplomatic efforts on the Iran nuclear issue, Li Song, China's permanent representative to the IAEA, said on Wednesday. (Chinese Permanent Mission to UN and other International Organizations in Vienna/Handout via Xinhua)

VIENNA, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- China explicitly opposes the move by France, Britain and Germany (E3) of using the snapback mechanism to reinstate sanctions on Iran, and calls for further diplomatic efforts on the Iran nuclear issue, a Chinese envoy said on Wednesday.

Li Song, China's permanent representative to the IAEA, made the remarks at the Board of Governors meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Li said such move will not help rebuild trust and resume talks, and may instead lead to disastrous consequences and destroy diplomatic efforts.

The Iran nuclear issue can only be properly resolved on the premise of fully respecting Iran's right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy, ensuring the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program, and supplemented by strict international inspection under the framework of the IAEA, Li said.

On Aug. 28, the E3 countries notified the United Nations (UN) Security Council that they had triggered the "snapback" mechanism under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, raising the possibility of reinstating UN sanctions on Iran in 30 days.

Li also noted that in June this year, the United States and Israel blatantly launched military strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities subject to IAEA safeguards, which seriously undermined diplomatic efforts on the Iran nuclear issue and seriously interfered with Iran's safeguards cooperation with the IAEA. China firmly opposes hegemonic bullying and urges the United States and Israel not to abuse military force, Li said.

The Chinese envoy said China will continue to work with all parties in a principled, responsible and constructive manner to bring back on track the political and diplomatic process of the Iran nuclear issue, and firmly safeguard the international nuclear non-proliferation regime.

The snapback mechanism is a clause in a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the world powers that would allow the other parties to re-impose all international sanctions if Iran fails to comply with the agreement.

Iran signed the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in 2015 with six countries -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States. Under the deal, Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

The United States unilaterally withdrew from the accord in 2018 and reimposed sanctions, prompting Iran to gradually reduce compliance with its nuclear commitments. 

Li Song, China's permanent representative to the IAEA, makes the remarks at the Board of Governors meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Austria, Sept. 10, 2025. China explicitly opposes the move by France, Britain and Germany (E3) of using the snapback mechanism to reinstate sanctions on Iran, and calls for further diplomatic efforts on the Iran nuclear issue, Li Song said on Wednesday. (Chinese Permanent Mission to UN and other International Organizations in Vienna/Handout via Xinhua)
NEW YORK (PIX11)  Because one of every four people in the U.S. wasnt yet born on September 11, 2001, teaching about the terror attacks and their effects is an evolving challenge as that fateful day moves further into the past.

A history teacher who writes curriculum and a professor who trains social studies instructors both say that connecting the situation from 24 years ago to the lives of young people now is the key to helping students understand the relevance of what happened. Students are also talking about what resonates with them in relation to the tragedy.

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According to U.S. Census figures, just over 25 percent of the population  or virtually everyone through college age and a few years beyond  was born after the terror attacks.

Teacher Sari Beth Rosenberg shared with PIX11 News what that means in terms of classroom instruction now.

Its something else in the history book, said the U.S. History teacher who wrote curriculum for New York City Public Schools, and is also a multimedia influencer.

Rosenbergs first day of student teaching was September 11, 2001. That school day was, obviously, canceled, but subsequently, she said, The first five or so years, we would ring an alarm, a bell, for each time one of the towers fell.

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That practice changed at her school and most schools over time. Now, the students she had during her first years of teaching are in their 40s or late 30s. Some of them have their own children in high school.

Its harder now teaching it to kids who dont have that same personal connection, Rosenberg said.

Agreeing with that statement were recent high school graduates who spoke with PIX11 News. We encountered them on the campus of Baruch College.

Samia Leslie looked back on the historical instruction she got in high school regarding September 11 with skepticism. It was not like deep with how they taught us about 9/11, she said. It was just like, Yeah, bombing, twin towers, and that was it, basically.

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Her friend, Paulina Bonsu, whos also a Baruch student, said that while college-level instruction about the terror attacks is more comprehensive, she regrets that its part of a history curriculum that students have to opt into, rather than it being taught universally.

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As for high school, said Kassandra Ramphal, another student, The public education system did a pretty decent job of giving you the bare minimum.

It was those last three words  the bare minimum  that were a theme among young people who spoke with PIX11 News.

They said that not enough was being taught about 9/11.

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A big reason for that, they said, was the chronological placement of the terror attacks in the U.S. History curriculum.

Its modern history, said Sean Sanchez, who graduated from high school three months ago. Modern history isnt talked about as much as other history, he continued, and as the years go by, it becomes more and more important.

He was referring to the fact that in the official New York State U.S. History curriculum, the course of the countrys history begins four centuries ago. It then proceeds across subsequent eras as the school year progresses. As a result, 9/11 is typically taught at the very end of the school year.

However, said Prof. Stacie Brensilver Berman of NYU, A lot of classes just dont get there.

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Berman directs social studies teacher training at the university. She said that an important way to educate students about the effect of the terror attacks involves thinking about what is different, just on a visual level, on an aesthetic level, about the city before and after 9/11.

She said that having students see what looks and feels different as a result of the attacks is an instructive way to help students understand the effects of the tragedy.

The 9/11 curriculum written by Sari Beth Rosenberg, the history teacher and influencer, reflects Bermans guidance. Rosenberg uses a slide deck that begins by showing the twin towers, in contrast to the World Trade Center now.

More: Latest News from Around the Tri-State

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Also, Rosenberg doesnt wait until the end of the school year to do her lessons about the attacks.

Im just pushing it in now, she said.

Also included in her curriculum are various ways to connect the political and national security situation in 2001 to how things are now. For example, she said, I have a couple quotes, various quotes, about ICE when it was first founded. It was founded as a result of 9/11.

Arielle Kasindorf, another Baruch College student, illustrated another important aspect of educating about the attacks.

My dad on 9/11 went to Ground Zero, she said, [and] helped clear up all the damage, as an ironworker on site. He also took videos of some of his and his colleagues work, Kasindorf said, that hes since shown to her.

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That kind of connectivity that links people like Kasindorfs father, who remember the 9/11 attacks, to the young people who make up a quarter of the population who have no memory of them, is vital for instruction, according to educators.

When something is real to someone you care about, said Stacie Brensilver Berman of NYU, it also can become a little bit more real to you.

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Moldovan President Maia Sandu told European lawmakers that Russia is carrying out extensive interference in an attempt to pull her country back into its orbit ahead of this months crucial parliamentary elections.

"On 28 September 2025, Moldova will hold the most consequential election in its history," Sandu said in a speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

"Today we face an unlimited hybrid war on a scale unseen before the full invasion of Ukraine - the Kremlin's goal is clear, to capture Moldova through the ballot box, to use it against Ukraine and to turn us into a launch pad for hybrid attacks in the European Union."

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Sandu and her European allies have repeatedly accused Moscow of attempting to destabilise the former Soviet republic of 2.6 million people that lies between war-torn Ukraine and EU and NATO member Romania.

A vocal critic of Russia, in particular since the start of its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Sandu has steered Moldova to official EU accession talks that started in June 2024.

"Our European path is not just a matter of values, it is a matter of survival, and precisely because we have advanced greatly on this path, Russia has unleashed its arsenal of hybrid attacks against us," Sandu said.

'Unprecedented interference': how Russia is attempting to shape Moldovas future

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"The battlefield is our elections."

The Moldovan leader detailed a raft of alleged Russian tactics from illicit cryptocurrency financing, through disinformation campaigns on social media to direct vote buying.

"Moldova is not alone in protecting its democracy. The European Union has stood with us financially, technically and politically, and we are deeply grateful," she said.

The EU has thrown its weight behind Moldova ahead of the election, with the leaders of Germany, France and Poland making a highly symbolic joint visit last month.

(with newswires)
The Moline-Coal Valley School District will partner with Western Illinois University to support Lincoln-Irving students and staff a phase of the districts long-range facilities plan, according to a news release.

Moline-Coal Valley School District (molineschools.org)

At the Board of Education meeting on Monday, a lease with Western Illinois University (WIU-Quad Cities), was approved. This lease allows the district to use buildings A and B of the

WIU-Quad Cities campus for the relocation of the Lincoln-Irving students and staff while the

school undergoes major renovations and a new addition.

The lease is for the 2026-2027 school year with early entry this spring to ensure a smooth transition. Staging and construction for the expansion project are slated to begin in late spring, and the new elementary school is scheduled to open in August of 2027.

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This is an incredible example of local organizations coming together to serve children and

families, said Superintendent Rachel Savage. By partnering with Western Illinois University, we are keeping resources in our community, protecting tax dollars, and ensuring students have the learning environment they deserve during this important transition.

Savage also applauded the strong partnership the district has with MetroLINK, their support of this relocation plan, and their willingness to help with the transportation needs of students to the WIU campus. This plan simply does not happen without MetroLINK and we are incredibly grateful for all that they do.

Western Illinois University was founded to fulfill the needs of our communities and we are proud to once again be able to answer that call through our partnership with the Moline-Coal Valley School District, said WIU President Kristi Mindrup. The agreement to host Lincoln-Irving students both meets a need for the school district and also provides clinical opportunities for WIU students.

Strong partnerships are the foundation of strong communities, and were proud to support

students and families with essential transportation services during this transition period, said Jennifer Hirsch, manager of administration, MetroLINK. Working alongside the Moline-Coal Valley School District and WIU, we are dedicated to supporting our communitys needs while ensuring safe and dependable travel to and from school.

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Once the renovations at Lincoln-Irving Elementary are complete, Willard Elementary students will also transition into the newly transformed school. This milestone will mark the retirement of the historic Willard Elementary, which has served the community for more than 127 years.

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In a news release posted to Facebook, Toulon, Illinois, Police express their thanks to Moline Police for their help in a case involving child-pornography, threat of physical harm and other charges.

Alex Nowlan (Toulon Police Department)

On Aug. 13, Toulon Police received a report of a possible violation of an order of protection. The investigation revealed the victim received a threatening phone call from an unrecognized number, the release says.

The victim and a witness identified the callers voice as Alex R. Nowlan, of Toulon.

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Because of an immediate and credible threat to the victims life, police obtained a search warrant for Nowlans residence to locate electronic devices capable of generating calls from alternate numbers, according to the release. During the execution of the warrant, investigators recovered evidence, weapons, and narcotics.

The release says that, pursuant to the Illinois SAFE-T Act, a detention hearing was held, and Nowlan was released under electronic GPS monitoring.

An additional warrant was issued for seized devices. With technical assistance from Moline Police, digital evidence was extracted. A review off the data uncovered suspected child pornography saved on one of the devices. Further investigation confirmed the victims were juveniles. An arrest warrant was obtained for Nowlan.

About 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Nowlan was seen operating a vehicle in Toulon. After a brief pursuit, he was taken into custody after a brief resistance. He was transported to the Bureau County Jail pending a detention hearing.

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On Monday, a hearing was held at the Marshall County Courthouse. A special prosecutor, States Attorney Patrick Murphy, successfully petitioned to revoke Nowlans pretrial release. Nowlan was remanded into custody.

Nowlan is being held on:

Harassment through electronic communications, a Class 4 Felony

Intimidation/Threat of physical harm, a Class 3 Felony

Violation of an order of protection, Class A Misdemeanor

Unlawful possession of a controlled substance a Class 4 Felony  three counts

Possession of ammunition without a FOID, a Class 3 Felony

Unlawful possession of nitrous oxide, a Class A Misdemeanor. (Nitrous oxide can be used on patients to create a state of euphoria, which is why it is sometimes called laughing gas.)

Violation of pretrial release, a Class A Misdemeanor

Child pornography, a Class 3 Felony, 36 counts

Fleeing or attempting to elude a peace office, a Class A Misdemeanor

Obstructing a peace officer, a Class A Misdemeanor.

Police ask anyone with information about the case to contact Toulon Police at 309-286-0066 or email here.

The Toulon Police Department extends its gratitude to the Stark County Sheriffs Office and the Moline Police Department for their invaluable assistance throughout this investigation, the release concludes.

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The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (Photo by Eric Seidle/ For the Daily Montanan).

Montanas Department of Public Health and Human Services will remove references to gender identity, and transgender and gender non-conforming individuals in federally-funded sex education programs following a federal threat to pull grants.

The Trump administration in August demanded 46 states and territories remove all references to gender ideology in a federally-funded program that provides health education to adolescents, or risk losing grants.

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Montana has 60 days to remove the flagged content and submit a copy of modified materials for approval, or could forfeit up to $539,601 according to Department of Health and Human Services data.

Jon Ebelt, spokesperson for DPHHS, told the Daily Montanan in an email that the department did not develop the programs educational materials, and would comply with the federal request.

In the coming weeks, we will ensure that the curriculum is modified by our grantees in accordance with ACF guidance, Ebelt said. In addition, the Gianforte administration does not believe that minor children should be taught gender ideology.

The Personal Responsibility Education Program was authorized by Congress in 2010 to help reduce teen pregnancies to the tune of $75 million annually. The programs are administered on a state level and are expected to be evidence-based, provide education on both abstinence and contraceptive use, and educate youth on at least three of six adulthood preparation topics, according to the federal Administration for Children and Families.

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Earlier this year, the administration requested each state, tribal and competitive grant recipient to provide curriculum and programmatic materials related to their respective PREP grant programs for a medical accuracy review and program compliance.

ACF has a statutory duty to ensure the content being taught in federally funded PREP programs is medically accurate and age appropriate, ACF Acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison said in a press statement in April. Parents have a right to know what their children are being taught, and the American people deserve transparency about how their tax dollars are being spent.

After reviewing the programs, ACF requested 46 states and territories, including Montana, update their programmatic materials to remove references to gender ideology or risk forfeiting their federal funding.

California already lost its grant  worth $12.5 million  after the state refused to comply with the orders.

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In Montana, the Department of Public Health and Human Services administers a PREP program called Optimal Health for Montana Youth.

The program defines optimal health as encompassing five different areas  physical, emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual  and the program uses that framework to approach sex education and teen pregnancy prevention.

According to DPHHS, local county public health nurses and educators work with schools to teach healthy relationship and communication skills, adolescent development, and other life skills through the Optimal Health program, and around 1,400 students are served through the program annually.

An ACF overview of Montanas PREP program indicates that the target population is American Indian and white youth, ages 10 to 19, in the juvenile justice system, alternative schools, Job Corps and youth who are pregnant/parenting under 21 years of age. The curriculum is implemented in schools, reservations, juvenile justice, addiction services and community based settings in Silver Bow, Custer, Rosebud, Deer Lodge, Flathead and Missoula Counties.

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In a letter to DHPPS Community Health Section Supervisor Darla Dexter, Acting Secretary Gradison stated that references to gender ideology fell outside the scope of authorized subjects.

Among the specific issues the federal government found in Montanas curriculum was a recommendation against dividing classes by gender that stated it can cause trauma for transgender, gender non-conforming, and nonbinary youth; emphasizing how teens of all sexual orientations and gender identities need to learn how to draw the line to resist sexual pressure and protect themselves; and discussions on preferred pronouns, and respecting the differences in each individual, including their gender identity and gender expression.

The letter states that such references are both irrelevant to teaching abstinence and contraception and unrelated to any of the adult preparation subjects, allowed in PREP curriculum.

The statute neither requires, supports nor authorizes teaching students that gender identity is distinct from biological sex or that boys can identify as girls and vice versa; thus, gender ideology is outside the scope of the authorizing statute and any expenditures associated with gender ideology are not allowable, reasonable, or allocable to the PREP grant, the letter states.

Previous curricula for Montanas PREP programs had been approved by the federal government, which Gradison described as an error in the prior administration.
LEBANON COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM)  Dozens of fire companies from multiple central Pennsylvania counties battled a massive fire at a Lebanon County saw mill this week.

By the time firefighters made it to Weaber Lumber, located at 1231 Mount Wilson in Lebanon, on Monday night, the fire had a good head start.

The fire was way ahead of us, Lawn Fire Company Chief Dylan Wilson said.

Flames had already engulfed the 180,000-square-foot block and metal building, a news release from Lawn Fire Company states. Firefighters didnt go inside the building due to safety concerns and instead set up a collapse zone for the building.

Courtesy of Neversink Fire Company Courtesy of Neversink Fire Company Courtesy of Neversink Fire Company Courtesy of Neversink Fire Company

Wilson said they were connected to a hydrant that uses water from a nearby pond that holds around 1 million gallons. They knew to hook up to it because of fires that had broken out at the mill in years past in 2016, 2017, and 2021.

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They went through all of that while fighting the massive blaze. Additional tanker trucks were requested to truck water from other fill sites in the area.

More than 30 fire companies from five different local counties came to the aid and assisted, the release states.

The site will remain active, but there is no emergency present, according to the release.

The cause of the fire is under investigation by a Pennsylvania State Police Fire Marshal. No injuries were reported.

Wilson said that the fire load, or whatever is inside the building that fuels the fire, is massive.

The fire load in this building is massive, probably one of the largest. Its completely full of stacks of lumber, all of which were on fire, Wilson said.

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Weaber Lumber filed for bankruptcy on August 1, and shortly before that, it filed a WARN Notice that it would lay off 145 workers from Aug. 26 to September 2. The company was founded in 1941.

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Lawn Fire Company thanked all first responders who helped out with the multi-alarm fire.

Sincere thank you to all Fire, EMS, Police, and Salvation Army personnel that assisted with this large incident, the company said in a statement.

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Trump doubled and tripled down on his denials about his alleged Epstein birthday letter, saying it's a "dead issue" and "not my signature." And as Republicans stand by their leader, an attorney for the Epstein estate says they hope to produce more documents soon. Meanwhile, where does Trump's threat to send troops into American cities stand? Jeff Mason, Melanie Zanona, and former Sen. Doug Jones join Stephanie Ruhle on The 11th Hour.
MEMPHIS, Tenn.  Memphis-Shelby County Schools is giving more insight into a new gun safety curriculum that was announced last week.

The school district announced plans to launch a new course following a law passed in the state.

They said per Tennessee state law (Tenn. Code Ann.  49-6-1016 requires all students in grades K12 to receive annual firearm safety instruction. The firearm safety curriculum will begin in the 20252026 school year.

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Instruction will be delivered by licensed physical education classroom teachers in alignment with state standards, said MSCS Media Relations. Teachers will be trained to use a prepared, viewpoint-neutral curriculum, and no outside certifications are required beyond their professional educator licensure and the district-provided training.

Gun expert lays groundwork for MSCS gun safety curriculum

MSCS said the gun curriculum is important because firearms are now the leading cause of death among children and teens in Tennessee.

They said their students regularly encounter risks both in person and online.

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Just as we prepare students with fire drills and tornado drills, firearm safety instruction equips them with practical, age-appropriate steps that can save lives, said MSCS Media Relations. Its about empowering students to make safe choices at school, at home, and in the community.

Students will learn four key rules if they encounter a firearm: Stop, Dont Touch, Leave the Area, and Tell an Adult.

MSCS launch new gun safety curriculum

The school district said teachers will receive the following training:

Review of state law and compliance requirements

Word-for-word teaching scripts to ensure consistency and neutrality

Guidance on age-appropriate delivery across grade bands (K2, 35, 612)

Procedures for handling student questions and sensitive discussions

Collaboration with community safety partners where appropriate

They said parents will be fully informed of what is taught and will be able to preview curriculum materials. They said each grade band kindergarten to 2nd grade, 3rd to 5th grade, and 6th to 12th grade will have an age-appropiate lesson once a year. Lessons typically last one standard class period, with reinforcement opportunities available through school safety programming and extension activities, said MSCS Media Relations. MPD: Memphis overall crime drops to 25-year low While there is no broad opt-out provision under state law, the District is committed to transparency, communication, and partnering with families throughout implementation, said MSCS Media Relations.

Gun training expert Bennie Cobb, on the Gun Safety Curriculum Committee, told WREG the committee met to lay the groundwork for the new course.

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Cobb said that the new course is very necessary not only because its a state-mandated thing, but its also necessary because guns are becoming more available.

As part of the rollout, MSCS will host two community forums on September 18-19 to give families, educators, and community members an opportunity to learn more, share feedback, and discuss strategies to reduce gun violence.

Families will also receive resources through the MSCS newsletter to help continue the conversations at home.

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Washingtons population is growing  with more than 1 million new residents arriving in the state in the past 10 years.

The Evergreen State gained more than 79,000 people from April 2024 to this April, according to the Washington State Office of Financial Management.

Net migration  people moving in minus people moving out  (was) the largest driver of population growth, state officials explained, accounting for 61,700 new residents.

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Where did those new Washington residents come from? And where are people moving when they choose to leave the state?

A new study from U-Haul sheds some light on the answer.

The rental company recently released its report on the latest moving trends in 2025, tracking migration between the largest metropolitan areas in the nation.

Many of the largest U.S. metros are in growth mode  a change from what was seen following the COVID-19 pandemic when people took advantage of remote work and migrated to less-crowded markets, U-Haul said in its July 16 report. More recently, big cities and their expanding suburbs are back to greeting a robust inflow of U-Haul equipment.

A U-Haul report shows where people are moving to the most.

People are moving to Washington. Where are they coming from?

In its 2025 Midyear Migration Trends report, U-Haul focused on moves to and from Seattle.

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The metro area encompassing Seattle, Tacoma and Bellevue had a population of more than 4 million people in 2020, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

According to U-Haul, people were most likely to move to Seattle from the following 10 states:

Oregon

California

Texas

Arizona

Idaho

Colorado

Utah

Nevada

Montana

Florida

U-Haul said its customers were mostly moving to Seattle from cities including Denver, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Portland, Oregon.

Seattle also drew new residents from the San Francisco Bay Area, the moving company said.

People are moving to Seattle from Spokane, Vancouver and Bellingham, Washington, according to a 2025 U-Haul migration trends study.

Which Washington cities are sending the most people to Seattle?

People are also moving to Seattle from other parts of Washington state, according to U-Haul.

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According to the moving company, these were the most common cities of origin for people looking to relocate within the state:

Spokane

Vancouver

Bellingham

Yakima

Bremerton

U-Haul released data on which cities its customers are moving to and their states of origin. Heres what it said about Washington.

Where are Washington residents moving in US?

Although Washington saw a significant population increase from April 2024 to the same month the following year, the state recorded its lowest net migration total since 2021, the state Office of Financial Management said.

According to the 2025 report by U-Haul, people from Washington state are mostly moving to other metro areas in the West.

The U.S. cities that have gained the most Washington residents include Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Portland, Oregon.

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California cities attracted the lions share of people moving out of Washington state, with residents leaving the Evergreen State for Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose and Riverside.

Specifically, U-Haul said, Seattle residents relocated to the following cities in the United States:

Los Angeles

Phoenix

Portland, Oregon

Riverside, California

Sacramento, California

San Diego, California

San Francisco and San Jose, California

Spokane was the fifth most common starting point for people moving to Portland, Oregon, the U-Haul study said.

Washingtons population rose by more than 79,000 people from April 2024 to April 2025.

How did U-Haul come up with findings?

In order to determine where people are moving in the United States, U-Haul looked one-way moves from January through July  checking the cities where its trucks, trailers and moving containers were rented and the destinations where movers were headed.

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The moving company focused on the 35 metro areas with populations greater than 2 million.

Many of the largest U.S. metros are in growth mode, U-Haul said, which is a change from what was seen following the COVID-19 pandemic when people took advantage of remote work and migrated to less-crowded markets.
Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, visits Dongfang Electric Corporation in southwest China's Sichuan Province on Sept. 8, 2025. Zhang made an inspection tour in southwest China's Sichuan Province from Monday to Wednesday. (Xinhua/Wang Xi)

CHENGDU, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing has stressed the importance of integrating sci-tech breakthroughs deeply with industrial innovation and continuously enhancing industrial innovation capabilities.

Zhang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks during an inspection tour in southwest China's Sichuan Province from Monday to Wednesday.

Zhang has also urged efforts to nurture new quality productive forces tailored to local strengths and continue generating momentum and new competitive advantages for high-quality development.

After visiting local enterprises, he called for efforts to cement the role enterprises play as the main drivers of innovation, and to steer them to increasing spending on research and development.

Zhang emphasized that industrial innovation must be driven by sci-tech advances and anchored in the real economy, and that both applied basic research and frontier research should be geared toward the pressing needs of industries.

Zhang also visited labs and factory production floors during his tour, as well as a food manufacturer, where he inspected food-safety work, stressing the need to strengthen oversight across the entire food production to ensure food safety. 

Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, visits an intelligent manufacturing industrial park of Changhong in southwest China's Sichuan Province on Sept. 10, 2025. Zhang made an inspection tour in southwest China's Sichuan Province from Monday to Wednesday. (Xinhua/Wang Xi)

Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, visits Sichuan Teway Food Group to inspect food-safety work in southwest China's Sichuan Province on Sept. 8, 2025. Zhang made an inspection tour in southwest China's Sichuan Province from Monday to Wednesday. (Xinhua/Wang Xi)
Mother pleads for communitys help after sons in-custody death is ruled a homicide

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  Angelica Lujan, the mother of 30-year-old Xavier Hernandez, is asking for the publics help with photos or videos of the incident that resulted in the death of her son.

As reported, Hernandez was shocked with a stun gun multiple times by an El Paso police officer and later died. According to an autopsy report obtained by KTSM, Hernandezs death was ruled a homicide. His cause of death determined to be asphyxia due to chest compression while being subdued and restrained by law enforcement.

With the first few words that were coming out of his mouth, you could tell he was not well. My son started asking for his badge number for the officer and he just switched, and, just turned immediately, and it escalated as if my son was a criminal. Hes unarmed and ultimately was face down on 130-degree asphalt. Burning asphalt. Handcuffed. Beaten. Tased. And ultimately, you know, passed, Lujan said.

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EPPD released body camera footage of the responding officer that shows the officer approaching Hernandez and using the stun gun on him.

Watch: Police release footage where man shocked with stun gun, later dies

In the footage, a struggle ensues before two other men and another officer assist in subduing Hernandez. However, in the video released by EPPD there is a portion missing from when Hernandez is placed into handcuffs and when EMS arrives.

We dont know the full truth. Yes, they released body cam footage of one officer. There was more than one officer there on scene. Why hasnt any of that footage been released? And why was the footage that they did release, why was there a huge portion missing? I want to know about crisis intervention. I want to know were they dispatched, Lujan said.

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Sgt. Robert Gomez, a spokesman for the El Paso Police Department, said the body-camera footage was released in the interest of the department being transparent.

Gomez said three investigations are looking into the incident: one criminal by the Departments Crimes Against Persons Unit, an independent one by the Texas Rangers and one by the Police Departments Administrative Unit.

As the multiple investigations continue, Lujan is asking for anyone with information to reach out to her familys legal team.

According to the law firm, tips will be kept confidential. Photos and videos can be sent to tips@justiceforxavier.com with a 24/7-hour tip line available by calling 888-707-1911.

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My world forever changed that day. Everything I believed in no longer exists. Im not saying that people are bad, but its just people make mistakes. Its understandable. It happens. But its like, own up to it, Lujan said.

I need to know the truth. We, as a community, need to know the truth. The only ones that know that are the cops that were there, that were present, the bystanders that were watching and my son. My son is no longer here, so I cant ask him. Thats why Im asking anybody else that they have seen anything to please come forward with it, she said.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.
Mississippi politicians joined national figures, including former President Joe Biden and current Vice President JD Vance, in reacting to the news of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk's death.

President Donald J. Trump confirmed Kirk died Wednesday, Sept. 10, after being shot in the neck during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.

"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," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

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USA Today reported that a livestream video of the event showed crowds of people running from the universitys courtyard where Kirk, 31, was speaking when the shooting occurred.

The university said the campus is closed and classes are canceled until further notice.

A calendar posted on the University of Mississippi's website shows Kirk had been scheduled to speak at the Sandy and John Black Pavilion in Oxford on Oct. 29. The slated event was a stop on the "Charlie Kirk: The American Comeback Tour."

The event was to be hosted by the University of Mississippi's Turning Point USA Chapter, as well as the Declaration of Independence Center for the Study of American Freedom.

Mississippi politicians react to Kirk's death

Live updates: Charlie Kirk killed in shooting at Utah campus event, Donald Trump says

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Mississippi politicians reacted to the news Wednesday via various social-media platforms.

Gov. Tate Reeves

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter: "This is a truly dark day for America. Charlie Kirk led discussionsdebating in good faith with his political opponents. He didnt have a cruel or violent bone in his body. He was the perfect example of what civil political engagement should look like.

"The left has decided that assassination and violence is their response to debate. Its hard to even process what that will mean for America. This is not the only examplebut it is a striking and heartbreaking one. Today, it is enough to say that it will not mean anything good. Righteous anger is proper in response to this turn, in addition to deep grief.

"Elee and I join with all the people of our entire state praying for Charlies wife Erika, their young children, and the entire Kirk family. God blessed Charlies family with an incredible young leader who changed the world while he was with us. He blessed our country with his Christian evangelism, class, perseverance, and intelligence. He was a great man."

U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith

U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith wrote in a post on Facebook: "Please join me in praying for Charlie Kirk and his family."

U.S. Rep. Bennie G. Thompson

U.S. Rep. Bennie G. Thompson wrote in a post on X: "This is a deeply troubling act of violence and a reminder of the toll gun violence takes on our communities. My thoughts are with Charlie Kirk and his family. There is no place for political violence in our society, and we must reject it in all its forms."

U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker

U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker wrote in a post on X: "Join me in praying for Charlie Kirk. Political violence has no place in the United States."

Who is Charlie Kirk?

USA Today reported Kirk became a national figure as a conservative influencer and as the founder of Turning Point USA, an organization that pushes for conservative politics on high school and college campuses.

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In 2024, he spoke at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where he gave a speech focusing on what Kirk said he heard from young people around the U.S.

He was married to Erika Kirk, an entrepreneur, and the father of two children. Their daughter was born in August 2022, and they had a son in 2024.

Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk walks on stage on Aug. 23, 2024, at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Ariz.

Pam Dankins is the breaking news reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Email her at pdankins@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: MS governor, political leaders on Charlie Kirk killed in Utah shooting
MT. JULIET, Tenn. (WKRN)  New numbers show crime is trending down in Mt. Juliet.

The Mt. Juliet Police Department credits the drop in crime to vigilant officers and license plate readers.

Now, theyre launching a drone program to keep a birds eye view of the community.

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The proof is in the numbers, according to Mt. Juliet police.

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They said vehicle burglaries are down by 59% from 2022, and violent crime is almost zero.

Mt. Juliet is a safe community, and we rarely have robberies, Mt. Juliet Deputy Police Chief Tyler Chandler said. Last year, we had two, and this year we havent had any.

Police said hard work and technology are helping them fight crime.

On Tuesday, license plate readers tracked a stolen jeep, and officers then found cocaine in the car.

In a separate incident, officers noticed a window tint violation on a parked car and arrested the driver for theft.

On Monday, LPRs helped them catch two murder suspects from Kentucky.

 Read todays top stories on wkrn.com

Officers said that most of the people theyve arrested arent from Mt. Juliet.

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To keep the community and officers even safer, theyre launching drones in December.

So far, they plan on having two: one stationed at a fire department and another at police headquarters.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2.
Tube drivers in London earn more than resident doctors, The Independent can reveal, as strike action brings services to a halt in London in a dispute over pay.

Salaries for fully qualified Transport for London (TfL) drivers start at around 71,000 in the nations capital  matched only by their counterparts in Denmark  and they are paid more than drivers in Japan, France, and Germany.

London Underground (LU) services are suspended this week, as Tube drivers and other LU staff began a five-day strike on Sunday over pay and working conditions, causing travel misery for commuters.

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The RMT (rail, maritime and transport) union has rejected a 3.4 per cent pay rise offer made by TfL and is asking for a 32-hour working week  or four days  down from 35 hours.

Nick Dent, London Undergrounds director of customer operations, said union demands for a cut in the 35-hour week were simply unaffordable and would cost hundreds of millions of pounds.

Economists have also voiced concern that the union action could deliver a 230m blow to the capitals economy, with small businesses hardest hit.

Most of London Underground services are suspended due to a five-day strike action by members of the RMT (AFP via Getty)

RMT warned that fatigue and understaffing are a dangerous mix, sharing in a post on X (Twitter): The Tube is operating with 2,000 fewer staff than before the pandemic so our members are working more extreme shifts (4 am starts, 1 am finishes) to keep London moving.

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A Transport for London spokesperson has responded: The RMTs claim that fatigue is being driven by 2,000 fewer people on London Underground (LU) is completely untrue. It is a wilful misrepresentation to suggest that numbers have reduced by that level. The vast majority of those 2,000 have merely been restructured into TfL divisions - for example, TfL Engineering - rather than London Underground divisions.

The actual reduction in LU roles is just over 200 compared to March 2019 and that is more than made up for by new roles elsewhere - for example, on the Elizabeth line. So, there are actually more, not fewer, staff working on TfL services than before the pandemic.

Strikes are expected to continue on every London Underground line until Thursday 11 September. The DLR will also be disrupted by a strike on 9 and 11 September.

Underground lines affected are: Bakerloo, Central, Circle, District, Hammersmith & City, Jubilee, Metropolitan, Northern, Piccadilly, Victoria and Waterloo & City.

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The Overground, Elizabeth line, buses, trams and National Rail services will continue to operate as usual, but as a result have been more overcrowded.

How much are Tube drivers paid by TfL?

According to the TfL, the average Tube driver has a starting salary of 71,160.

Station staff, who are also striking, start on 35,270 and within a few months can qualify for a salary of 44,140.

Tube drivers do not require prior qualifications other than GCSEs in Maths and English grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent.

They must then undergo training, which can last from six months to two years, after completing a number of assessments, medical checks, and interviews to be accepted onto the scheme.

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Tube drivers have some of the highest-paid starting salaries in the public sector.

Resident doctors, previously known as junior doctors, start on between 38,831 and 44,439, according to the latest NHS figures  nearly half (53 per cent) of the starting salary of a qualified Tube driver.

A doctor starting specialist training will earn between 52,656 and 73,992. This is on par with the starting salary for Tube drivers, despite doctors having to complete several more years of training.

Teachers in England and Wales can earn between 31,650 and 49,084, according to jobs site Prospects, while salaries can go up to around 60,000 for more senior teachers and headmasters in London.

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In comparison, social workers earn between 32,000 and 48,000, while refuse collectors have a salary range of 24,000 and 30,000, as listed on the gov.uk national careers website.

In comparison, the starting salary for train drivers in the UK is much higher than that of their European counterparts, according to data collected by global research company Salary Expert.

A Metro driver in France is likely to earn an average of 50,409 (43,674), whilst in Germany the average income of a U-Bahn driver is 71,217 (61,563).

In the United States, the average pay for a subway driver is $79,541 (58,589), whereas in Canada, it can average $88,364 (47,191).

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In Japan, which boasts one of the fastest and most efficient public transport systems in the world, a train driver in Tokyo could earn an average of around 9m (45k).

London Tube drivers salaries are only matched by workers in Denmark (71,927), where pay is generally higher than in the UK.

Claire Mann, TfLs chief operating officer, said: We are bitterly disappointed that the RMT has chosen to go ahead with this action despite our fair, affordable pay offer.

We have been clear that their demand for a reduction in the working week is unaffordable and impractical, and we urge them to put our offer to their members.
A Little Elm man was arrested Tuesday on a murder charge, according to county jail records.

The Denton County Sheriffs Office booking log shows Corey V. Green, 37, was taken into custody just after midnight on September 9. Green was booked into the county jail on one count of murder. His arresting agency was the Little Elm Police Department.

It was not clear if Greens booking is connected to a shooting that Little Elm police reported late Monday night. In that incident, it was reported that one person is dead and a suspect is in custody after an overnight shooting, according to a report from WFAA. Police said they responded to a call around 9:04 p.m. September 8 in the 2300 block of O Keefe Drive, where they found a victim with a gunshot wound who later died at a hospital. The suspect left the area before police arrived but later turned themself in, WFAA reported, citing a police press release.

Corey V. Green

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Green has had previous run-ins with the law this year, according to Denton County court records. In July, prosecutors filed misdemeanor cases against him for driving while intoxicated and assault causing bodily injury stemming from January 24 arrests. Both cases remain active, and court filings show arraignment hearings were set for September 9, the same day he was booked into jail on the murder charge.

Green hired attorney Michael Casillas from Frisco for the earlier cases, according to court filings. Casillas did not respond to a request for comment. Little Elm police have not yet responded to calls and text messages from DX seeking information about Greens arrest or any connection to the reported overnight shooting.

Green remained in custody as of Tuesday afternoon with no release date listed, according to Denton County jail records.
NAPA COUNTY, Calif. (KRON)  Prosecutors charged a man with murdering six passengers who were riding in his van when the van crashed into a tree along Pope Valley Road in Napa County.

The Toyota Sienna minivan driver was identified by prosecutors as Norberto Celerino, 53, of Stockton. California Highway Patrol officers found six people deceased inside the van Sunday evening.

The minivan driver and one passenger were the only survivors. Napa County Sheriffs Office officials said the eight men in the van were farmworkers who resided in Stockton.

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Two of the six deceased victims were identified by a coroner late Tuesday afternoon as Fernando Silverio, 34, of Stockton, and Loreto Ricardo Hernandez, 42.

On Tuesday morning, the Napa County District Attorneys Office filed 13 charges against Celerino, including six counts of first-degree murder, six counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, and DUI.

Celerino admitted that he drank alcohol before the deadly wreck, according to a CHP investigation report obtained by KRON4.

A CHP officer who questioned the driver in a hospital said he could smell an odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from his breath, and noted Celerinos slow and slurred speech, the CHP report states.

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The deadly collision happened at 6198 Pope Valley Road, about 12 miles north of St. Helena, when the van veered off the pavement and slammed into a tree at 5:50 p.m. Sunday.

No other vehicles were involved in the wreck, CHP officers said.

Celerino did not have a drivers license, officials said, and his criminal record includes DUI convictions in 2020 and 2010 in San Joaquin County. According to Department of Motor Vehicles officials, Celerino is not allowed to drive until October of 2029.

Prosecutors said Celerino goes by several names, including Beto Celerino-Bialva, Roberto Salvaringo-Diabla, Grabien Martinez, and Norberto Celerino. The CHP said the driver also goes by the name Norberto Celerino-Novillava.

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Officer Francisco Lopez described in a CHP report what he found when he arrived at the crash scene. I noticed a brown Toyota van with major damage to the front and top end. It was stationary against a tree off the road. I also noticed several passengers that were deceased and seated in their seats, Lopez wrote.

I observed the evidence on scene and determined the driver was at fault for the crash, Lopez added.

Despite being airlifted from the crash scene to a hospital, CHP Sgt. Andrew Barkley said hospital workers determined that the driver was not badly injured.

This is a horribly tragic example of when somebody makes the bad decision to drive impaired, Sgt. Barkley told KRON4.

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Officer Lopez said evidence at the scene, his interview with the driver in the hospital, and the DUI investigation revealed that Celerino crashed while driving drunk, and as a result, caused the death of his passengers.

Celerino was arrested and booked into jail. He is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday for an arraignment to enter a plea.

The Napa County Sheriffs Office said it was still working on Tuesday to identify the remaining victims and notify their families. The surviving passenger is still recovering in a hospital and receiving treatment for severe injuries, prosecutors said.

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LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  The nations newly released education report card shows students are falling behind in math, reading, and science, and fewer twelfth graders are ready for college.

In fact, high school seniors are reporting the lowest scores in math and reading since national test assessments began.

If America is going to remain globally competitive, our children must be able to read proficiently by the third grade, U.S. Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a video statement. In 2024, 78% of high school seniors were not proficient in math, and 65% of them were not proficient in reading.

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Sec. McMahon stated the current structure of the education department hasnt helped students for decades.

Despite billions in federal spending and countless well-intentioned programs, the achievement gap between students is widening, not shrinking, McMahon said.

According to the National Assessment of Education Progress, 32% of twelfth graders scored below NAEP basic in reading. That means a third of high school seniors cant reliably explain the main point of a passage or define a key word used in a sentence.

45% of twelfth graders scored below NAEP basic in math, which means nearly half of them cant determine probabilities of simple events from two-way tables and verbal descriptions.

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Nevadas last report card showed that only 19% of CCSD high schoolers were proficient in math, and another 47% were proficient in reading.

CCSD Superintendent Jhone Ebert previously discussed what she expects from this years test scores.

I fully expect this time next year, were going to be way above the pre-pandemic scores, Ebert said. Well wait for the official ones this year. But yes, upward trend. Fully expect it.

The Nevada Department of Education is expected to release this years report card with the 2024 scores sometime next week.

In a statement, the White House said the Trump Administration is moving forward to return education to states and provide every available opportunity for parents to educate their kids through individual choice.

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CCSD released a statement regarding the nations report card:

The Clark County School District (CCSD) values the results of the NAEP test (often referred to as the nations report card). Lets put these results in context: The national scores released today are from 2024, and the declines reported are in comparison with scores from the 2019 school year  before the pandemic. Districts around the country saw steep declines in test scores during and immediately after the pandemic. CCSD is proud of the progress we are making in catching up to pre-pandemic scores on our state assessments. However, we must accelerate our academic progress to ensure every child is prepared for their future. Superintendent Ebert has laid out the Core Four academic priorities for the 2025-26 school year, which include a focus on early literacy and middle school mathematics.

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If the updated Nations Report Card was an individual students report card, a Parent-Teacher Conference Requested comment would likely be in order.

The National Assessment of Education Progress, or NAEP  aka the Nations Report Card  is reporting declining scores for the nations eighth graders in science and 12th graders in math and reading.

The updated 2024 results, released Tuesday by the National Center for Education Statistics, or NCES, are the first post-pandemic NAEP scores for each assessment.

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These results are sobering, NCES acting Commissioner Matthew Soldner said in an NAEP news release. The drop in overall scores coincides with significant declines in achievement among our lowest-performing students, continuing a downward trend that began even before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Among our nations high school seniors, were now seeing a larger percentage of students scoring below the NAEP Basic achievement level in mathematics and reading than in any previous assessment.

Tuesdays findings also prompted a quick response from Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon.

Todays NAEP results confirm a devastating trend: American students are testing at historic lows across all of K-12, McMahon said in a DOE release.

So how are Utah kids faring?

In Utah, this years report card marks are better than most, but theres still cause for concern, with reading scores among the states eighth graders continuing to decline.

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According to data released by the NAEP in January, Beehive State students performed significantly higher in math than the national public average for both fourth and eighth graders in 2024.

And Utahs fourth and eighth graders also outperformed their national counterparts, on average, in reading.

Key Utah results: Math

In 2024, the average math score of fourth grade students in Utah was 242  higher than the average score of 237 for students in the nation.

The average score for Utah fourth grade students in 2024 (242) was not significantly different from their average score in 2022 (240).

The average math score for Utah fourth grade male students was 245. For female students, 238.

In 2024, the average math score of eighth grade students in Utah was 282  higher than the average score of 272 for students in the nation.

The average math score for Utah eighth graders (282) was not significantly different from their average score in 2022 (282).

The average math score for Utah eighth grade male students was 283. For female students, 280.

Key Utah results: Reading

In 2024, the average reading score of fourth grade students in Utah was 219  higher than the average score of 214 for students in the nation.

The average reading score for fourth grade students in Utah in 2024 (219) was not significantly different from their average score in 2022 (221).

The average reading score for fourth grade female students in Utah was 223. For male students, 216.

In 2024, the average reading score of eighth grade students in Utah was 261  higher than the average score of 257 for students in the nation.

The average reading score for eighth grade students in Utah (261) was lower than their average in 2022 (265).

The average reading score for eighth grade female students in Utah was 265. For male students, 258.

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When the 2024 results revealed declining reading scores for eighth graders earlier this year, the Utah State Board of Education signaled their commitment to identifying the causes of declining reading scores  while implementing targeted efforts and proven strategies.

Our focus is on ensuring measurable improvements in reading outcomes by working with schools to equip educators and students with tools and targeted training, said Darin Nielsen, deputy superintendent of student learning, in the state board report.

We are committed to implementing evidence-based programs that address reading challenges early, providing intensive support where its needed most, and tracking progress to make sure every student has the opportunity to improve and succeed.

A sixth grade student raises his hand during Utah studies class at Evergreen Junior High School in Millcreek on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

Absenteeism: A nationwide battle

The latest results from the Nations Report Card, according to the NCES, also reveal longer-term trends among American students.

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The most recent data released Tuesday  which includes newly released results from the NAEP 2024 science assessment at grade 8 and mathematics and reading assessments at grade 12  did not provide specific data regarding Utah students.

When examined alongside results from previous decades, the 2024 national scores reveal longer-term trends. Compared to the findings from the first year of each assessments trend line:

The grade 8 science score in 2024 was not measurably different than in 2009.

The grade 12 mathematics score in 2024 was lower than in 2005.

The grade 12 reading score in 2024 was lower than in 1992.

The latest NAEP results also provide new information about students educational experiences. Of note, the 2024 results are the first national indicator of post-pandemic absenteeism rates among 12th graders.

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Nearly a third (31%) of 12th graders reported missing three or more days from school in the previous month in 2024, up from 26% in 2019.

The findings reflect similar patterns seen in previously released NAEP results for fourth and eighth graders.

Grade 8 science findings

The NAEP science assessment measures students knowledge of three broad content areas (physical science, life science, and Earth and space sciences) and four science practices (identifying science principles, using science principles, using scientific inquiry and using technological design) that describe how students use their science knowledge.

The 2024 results mark the first time that the average science score for eighth graders fell since the current assessment began in 2009, according to the NCES.

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Lower-, middle- and higher-performing students saw score declines from 2019 to 2024.

Scores for lower-performing students at the 10th percentile and 25th percentile were lower in 2024 than in all previous assessment years. As a result, the gap between the lowest- and highest-performing students was also larger in 2024 than in any previous assessment.

In 2024, average science scores declined compared to 2019 for many reported student groups. In addition to average score declines, scores were lower at the 25th and 75th percentiles in 2024 compared to 2019 for the following groups:

Male and female students

Students who were identified as economically disadvantaged and students who were not identified as economically disadvantaged

Students whose parents graduated from high school and students whose parents graduated from college

Students attending public schools

Students attending public, noncharter schools

Students attending schools in suburban locations

Students attending schools in the South region

Students who were not identified as students with disabilities

Students who were not identified as English learners

Grade 12 mathematics findings

The NAEP mathematics assessment measures students knowledge in four content areas (number properties and operations; measurement and geometry; data analysis, statistics and probability; and algebra) as well as students ability to solve problems in mathematical and real-world contexts.

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In 2024, according to the NAEP, the average grade 12 mathematics score was the lowest it has been since the current assessment began in 2005.

Scores declined between 2019 and 2024 for all but the highest-performing students at the 90th percentile. With declining scores for lower-performing students at the 10th and 25th percentiles, the achievement gap between the highest- and lowest-performing students continued to widen and was larger in 2024 than in all previous assessments.

Average math scores in 2024 were lower for 12th graders in the following student groups compared to 2019:

Black, Hispanic, and white students

Male and female students

Students who were identified and not identified as economically disadvantaged

Students with parents across all levels of education

Students attending public schools and public, noncharter schools

Students attending city, suburban, and town schools

Students attending schools in the South and West regions

Students who were not identified as students with disabilities

Students who were not identified as English learners

Grade 12 reading findings

The NAEP reading assessment uses literary and informational texts to measure students reading comprehension skills, particularly as they relate to students abilities to locate and recall information, integrate and interpret what they have read, and critique and evaluate the text.

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The average grade 12 reading score was lower in 2024 than in all previous assessments. Similar to the findings for grade 12 mathematics, only scores for the highest-performing students at the 90th percentile did not decline from 2019 to 2024, and scores for lower-performing students at the 10th and 25th percentiles continued declines that began before the COVID-19 pandemic, the NAEP reported.

Average reading scores in 2024 were lower for 12th graders in the following student groups compared to 2019:

White students

Female students

Students who were not identified as economically disadvantaged

Students whose parents had some education after high school and students whose parents graduated from college

Students attending public schools

Students attending public, noncharter schools

Students attending schools in suburban locations

Students attending schools in the Midwest and South regions

Students who were not identified as students with disabilities

Students who were not identified as English learners

DOE Secretary Linda McMahon: Test results confirm devastating trend

McMahon spoke more about the troubling testing trend, especially for older students.

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At a critical juncture when students are about to graduate and enter the workforce, military, or higher education, nearly half of Americas high school seniors are testing at below basic levels in math and reading.

Despite spending billions annually on numerous K-12 programs, the achievement gap is widening, and more high school seniors are performing below the basic benchmark in math and reading than ever before.

A seventh grade student writes during English class at Evergreen Junior High School in Millcreek on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

Success in Americas schools, she added, is not about how much money is spent on education  but who controls the money and where the money is invested.

Thats why President Trump and I are committed to returning control of education to the states so they can innovate and meet each school and students unique needs.

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In March, the president signed an executive order seeking the elimination of the Education Department.

Trump has called the federal agency a big con job and has long vowed to move everything back to the states where it belongs.

Dismantling the department would require an act of Congress.
DELAWARE, Ohio (WCMH)  As central Ohio continues to grow, leaders said connecting people with career opportunities is more important than ever.

The Ohio National Guard and the Ohio Department of Transportation hosted a career expo in Delaware on Tuesday.

Around 40 employers and state agencies took part, offering jobs in industries like construction, healthcare, technology, and business.

Organizers said the goal isnt just to help match people with jobs, but to keep talent here in Ohio as the region rapidly grows.

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The event gave attendees the opportunity to network and sit down for one-on-one interviews with companies.

The purpose of the National Guard is that community-based organization, so were always thinking about how do we tie into our communities because our service members live here and serve here, Ohio Adjutant General of the National Guard Brig. Gen. Matthew Woodruff said. So, whether theyre an airman or whether theyre a soldier, theyre part of the Ohio community, and we make us stronger when we all work together.

Organizers say this was the first of what they plan to make an annual event, anticipating more employers will be involved next time.

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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO)  The graduation rates for Native American students in Sioux Falls and statewide are about half of the district and state averages. However, improvements to Native American education make officials hopeful for the future.

During a recent school board work session, these numbers were presented by the Office of Indian Education Supervisor Anna Brokenleg, whos been with the Sioux Falls School District for 19 years.

Former state worker gets 2 suspended years for medical marijuana card fraud

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The state average graduation rate is 84% with Sioux Falls coming in slightly higher at 86%. However, for Indigenous students, that number is 46% statewide and 44% in Sioux Falls.

Dawn Marie Johnson, a school board member and member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, took to social media to share her thoughts on the data.

These arent just statistics, Johnson said in a social media post. Behind every percentage point are young peopleour relatives, our community members childrenwhose potential is being constrained by systems that havent been designed with their success in mind.

Johnson said the improvements to Native American education in recent years gives her hope that these numbers will change in the future, improvements that Brokenleg extrapolated on during the work session.

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Brokenleg said during the school boards work session that there are between 1,756 and 2,202 Native American students in the district, depending on what tribe theyre affiliated with, a parent or guardians tribal status and whether they self-identify as Native American. This is around 9% of the school districts population, Brokenleg noted.

The Office of Indian Education has implemented a program to help Indigenous students connect with their culture and language in a classroom setting. The program, Oceti Sakowin Owauspe (OSO), roughly translates to Seven Council Fires classroom.

In the district, there are 23 OSO facilitators in elementary schools who focus on curriculum and lesson planning at appropriate grade levels, mainly around Native American Day and Thanksgiving.

Those were two areas where we had a lot of concerns from some of our indigenous families about lessons historically that were being taught in schools, Brokenleg said. Being able to have OSO facilitators who have been provided with additional training and Oceti Sakowin history and culture allows them to design appropriate, culturally relevant lessons.

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There are 10 OSO facilitators for middle and high school students. Stand-alone classes are offered for middle school students, including a focus on creation stories in sixth grade, history in seventh grade and federal Indian policy in eighth grade.

(OSO facilitators) have contact with every Native American student in their buildings, Brokenleg said. Whether they choose to take the OSO and Indigenous language studies or not, those teachers case-manage every single Native student in the building. They can assist with any behavior concerns, academic concerns, attendance concerns.

A full credit OSO class is offered to Indigenous students in high school, as well as a half-credit Indigenous studies class for all students. High schools also offer two, full-credit Oceti Sakowin language courses.

Johnson is hopeful for the future of Native American children in Sioux Falls schools based on the OSO program and connecting Native students with their cultures in the classroom.

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The challenge isnt that we dont know how to help students succeed, Johnson said in her social media post. The challenge is ensuring these proven approaches reach every student, including those in alternative placements where many of our Native students are concentrated.

Shes hoping they can extend their approach to other areas where Native students learn.

Every Native child who walks through our school doors carries the dreams of their ancestors and the potential to shape their communitys future. Our job is to ensure our systems support those dreams rather than constrain them, Johnson said.

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KIGALI, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- The fifth edition of the Renewable Energy for Sustainable Growth Conference and Exhibition opened Tuesday in Kigali, Rwanda's capital, with calls for advancing Africa's renewable energy transition.

The event, held under the theme "Empowering Africa's Energy Future: Innovation, Transition, and Sustainability," has brought together policymakers, investors, and researchers for high-level dialogues, technical sessions, and networking aimed at boosting clean energy adoption across the continent.

Michelle Umurungi, chief investment officer at the Rwanda Development Board, underscored the importance of public-private partnerships, highlighting the role of the Energy Private Developers association in facilitating knowledge transfer, linking Rwandan opportunities with global investors, advocating for enabling policies, and strengthening local supply chains and expertise.

Jean de Dieu Uwihanganye, Rwanda's minister of state for infrastructure, reaffirmed the country's ambition to expand installed generation capacity to 615 MW by 2030, increase the share of renewables in the energy mix to 60 percent, and achieve universal access to clean, reliable, and affordable energy.

Ivan Twagirashema, chairperson of Rwanda Energy Private Developers, stressed the private sector's central role in shaping Rwanda's sustainable energy future. "Together, we aim to create opportunities that will drive investment, innovation, and inclusive growth," he said.

Running through Friday, the forum features more than 10 Rwandan exhibitors showcasing innovations in solar, hydro, wind, biomass, energy storage, and digital energy solutions. Organizers say it will serve as a platform for business matchmaking, investment mobilization, and knowledge exchange among governments, private sector actors, and development partners. 
Nato fighter jets shot down Russian drones over Poland in the first ever direct engagement between the Western alliance and Moscow.

Polish, Dutch and Italian fighter jets were scrambled to intercept a wave of Russian drones, in what the European Union said was a reckless and unprecedented violation.

Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, said the drone wave had brought the West and Russia closer [to conflict] than at any time since the Second World War as he called an emergency meeting of Nato allies.

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No one was killed or injured during the incident, in which about 19 drones, including Gerbera decoy UAVs, crossed into Polish airspace during a raid on neighbouring Ukraine.

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Nato forces shot down at least four of the drones, whereas others ran out of fuel or crashed, with impacts and debris reported in at least five villages in eastern and central Poland.

A Nato source said of the incident: It was the first time Nato aircraft have engaged potential threats [in] allied airspace.

Warsaws Chopin airport was temporarily closed during the incident, with Polish citizens urged to stay at home and await further instructions. In the village of Wyryki, eastern Poland, a drone caused damage to the roof of a building.

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Later on Wednesday morning, Nato sources said they were not treating the incident as a deliberate attack, and there were no immediate signs of Poland triggering Article 5, the alliances mutual defence pact.

A Nato source told The Telegraph the mood inside the alliance was keep calm and carry on after a successful air defence mission.

As the alliances national ambassadors met this morning, there was little cause for concern as things had worked as they should.

We responded quickly and with resolve, the source added.

Warsaws Chopin airport was temporarily closed during the incident - AP

However, Poland is reportedly considering a move to invoke Nato Article 4, which requires member states to discuss a perceived danger.

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Speaking ahead of an emergency cabinet meeting, Mr Tusk said: Tonight there was a violation of airspace  Polish airspace  by a large number of Russian drones. Those drones that posed a direct threat were shot down.

He added: We are most likely dealing with a large-scale provocation, but at the same time we are in consultations with our allies. This is the first case of Russian drones being shot down over the territory of a Nato state and that is why all our allies treat the situation very seriously.

A damaged drone was found in Wyryki-Wola in eastern Poland

Mr Tusk also said that there was no need for Poles to panic, adding: At this moment I can say that this first test of our army, our allies and also the procedures prepared for such an eventuality  this test has been passed and the procedures, the plans prepared for such a case are working.

Since Donald Trump, the US president, met with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, Russia has significantly increased its aggression in Ukraine. Last Sunday, Russia launched its biggest aerial bombardment of Ukraine in the war so far, firing 810 drones and 13 missiles.

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Missiles have also struck Kyiv government buildings for the first time, as well as European and British diplomatic offices in the capital.

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There was no immediate Russian response to the incident in Poland but Belarus, Moscows key regional ally, claimed on Wednesday that it also shot down a number of drones which had been pushed off-course by signal jamming.

EU leaders immediately condemned the drone wave, with Emmanuel Macron, the French president, urging Moscow to put an end to this reckless escalation.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, described the drone attack as a reckless and unprecedented violation of Poland and Europes airspace.

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Gazeta Wyborcza, a Polish newspaper, reported that an elderly couple was sleeping on the ground floor of the house that was hit by the drone in Wyryki.

Stanisaw Staszewski, a neighbour, told the newspaper: A military plane flew over here, spun around twice, and then there was a gunshot. And the drone fell onto the roof. When the gunshot went off, I flew out in front of the house. There was a huge cloud of smoke and the stench of sulphur.

Its good that they were on the ground floor, because if they had slept upstairs, it would have been bad.

An unnamed elderly man told Gazeta Wyborcza: It was a huge, terrible bang, it knocked me out of bed. I didnt know what was happening, I ran out of the house, I saw a plane in the sky.

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Another neighbour, Joanna, said: I was lying in bed. First there was this whistling sound, then such a bang that I didnt know what had happened. I got out of bed and ran to the window. I saw that the neighbours had come out of their houses.

Soldiers patrol the street after a drone struck a residential building in the Wyryki municipality in Poland - Jakub Orzechowski

Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, suggested that the drone attack on Poland was deliberate. He wrote on X: Increasing evidence indicates that this movement, this direction of strike, was no accident.

Petr Fiala, the Czech prime minister, said: Putins regime threatens all of Europe and systematically probes how far it can go. It is reassuring that Polands air defence systems responded effectively.

Kaja Kallas, the EUs chief diplomat, said: Last night in Poland, we saw the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began, and indications suggest it was intentional, not accidental.

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Russias war is escalating, not ending.We must raise the cost on Moscow, strengthen support for Ukraine, and invest in Europes defence.

Wednesdays incident was not the first time that Polish airspace has been violated since the invasion of Ukraine.

Two people were killed in Poland during the Przewodow missile incident in November 2022, in which a stray Ukrainian missile struck a village in Polish territory.

The US previously battled the Russian mercenary group Wagner at the Battle of Khasham in 2018, during the Syrian civil war. At least 200 Wagner fighters were killed by US forces. However, Wagner is not part of the Russian regular army and the US was not operating in Syria as part of a Nato mission.

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Editor's note: The story has been updated with additional details.

Poland confirmed downing Russian drones in its airspace during a mass aerial attack on Ukraine overnight on Sept. 10 in what is the first case of a NATO member engaging Moscow's military assets over its territory during the war.

In the wake of the incident, Warsaw requested consultations with NATO allies under Article 4, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.

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"The situation brings us the closest we have been to open conflict since World War II," he told the Polish parliament.

The incident occurred as Russia launched waves of drones and missiles across Ukraine overnight, primarily targeting central and western regions and inflicting civilian casualties.

"Last night the Polish airspace was violated by a huge number of Russian drones," Tusk said on X, adding that those "that posed a direct threat were shot down."

Polish authorities temporarily closed Warsaws main Chopin Airport and placed the countrys air defenses on high alert overnight after what they described as "an unprecedented violation of Polish airspace by drone-type objects."

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The Polish Armed Forces Operational Command said it had activated all necessary procedures to protect national airspace and scrambled both Polish and NATO aircraft in response to the threat.

Earlier, Tusk confirmed that a military operation related to multiple violations of Polish airspace was underway without initially naming the drones' origin. The prime minister added that he has informed the NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte about the situation.

Russian drones and missiles have repeatedly violated the airspace of Poland and other NATO members during strikes on Ukraine, but until Sept. 10, there had never been a confirmed case of local defenses shooting one down.

Read also: Russias gains speed up in Ukraine ahead of high-stakes autumn

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Polish fighter jets have been scrambled before in response to the war, but previous deployments primarily involved monitoring or escorting Russian drones that briefly entered Polish airspace en route to targets in Ukraine  not engaging or shooting them down.

The Polish military later said the Polish and allied aircraft, including Dutch F-35 fighters, concluded their operation by 7:42 a.m. local time, and air defenses and radar systems resumed normal activity. The search for impact sites and wreckage is ongoing.

Italian AWACS (Airborne early warning and control) surveillance planes and a refueling aircraft jointly operated by NATO were also involved in the operation, according to Reuters.

Addressing the Polish parliament, Tusk said that 19 airspace violations were recorded, while three or four drones were shot down by Polish and allied planes  the last one at 6:45 a.m. local time.

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However, the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita reported that up to 23 Russian drones were detected and were fired upon primarily by the Dutch F-35s.

A damaged drone was discovered in a field near the village of Czosnowka in the Lublin region, around 60 kilometers (40 miles) from the Ukrainian border, local law enforcement officials said.

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A Russian drone also hit a house in Wyryki (around 20 kilometers, or 12 miles from the Ukrainian border) in the same region, damaging the roof and a car parked on the property, Polsat News reported, citing a local police official. No casualties were reported.

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Another drone was found in a field in the central Lodz region near Mniszkow, a village roughly 250 kilometers (150 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

As of the evening of Sept. 10, emergency services had recovered debris from 16 drones launched by Russia the previous night at the crash site. In addition to the drone remnants, a projectile fragment of unknown origin was also discovered at the scene, according to RMF FM.

Polish authorities urged residents in the Podlaskie, Mazowieckie, and Lublin regions to stay indoors.

The Lublin region borders Ukraine directly; Podlaskie is about 5070 kilometers (30-43 miles) from the border at its closest point, while Mazowieckie is located roughly 120150 kilometers (75-93 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

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Polish President Karol Nawrocki said he has been in constant contact with Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz since the start of the incursion and held a meeting of the National Security Bureau with Tusk.

Read also: As Poland builds Europes largest military, Russias tactics reveals its gaps

"Our homeland's security is the highest priority and requires close cooperation," Nawrocki said on X.

NATO spokesperson Allison Hart noted that the alliance is "consulting closely" with Warsaw. An undisclosed source told Reuters that the alliance does not treat the incursion as an attack.

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A notice published on the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) website confirmed that Warsaws main international airport was temporarily unavailable due to "unplanned military activity related to ensuring state security," as well as three other airports.

The RzeszowJasionka Airport in southeastern Polanda key hub for passenger travel and arms shipments to Ukraine  was among the airports temporarily closed, according to the FAA.

A Kyiv Independent reporter at Warsaws Chopin Airport said all flights were delayed, but airport officials were making no reference to Russian drones, only saying that the airspace was closed without providing further details.

Officials later said the Warsaw airport resumed operations but warned that all flights might be delayed during the day, according to the reporter.

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Meanwhile, U.S. Congressman Joe Wilson called the Sept. 10 attack an "act of war."

Russia is attacking NATO ally Poland with Iranian shahed drones less than a week after President Trump hosted President Nawrocki at the White House. This is an act of war, and we are grateful to NATO allies for their swift response to war criminal Putins continued unprovoked  Joe Wilson (@RepJoeWilson) September 10, 2025

Senator Dick Durbin echoed Wilson's comments, adding that "repeated violations of NATO airspace by Russian drones are fair warning that Vladimir Putin is testing our resolve to protect Poland and the Baltic nations."

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been reportedly briefed on reports of Russian drones over Poland, according to CNN. U.S. President Donald Trump has not commented on the incident when asked by a reporter.

"Putin just keeps escalating, expanding his war, and testing the West. The longer he faces no strength in response, the more aggressive he gets," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha commented.

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"A weak response now will provoke Russia even more  and then Russian missiles and drones will fly even further into Europe."

Sybiha also said the case underscores why neighboring partner countries should intercept Russian projectiles already in Ukrainian airspace and help bolster Ukraine's own air defenses.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said that according to "updated data, around two dozen Russian drones may have entered Polish airspace during the night." He added that the number suggests the incursion was likely not an accident.

First drones crossed the Ukrainian-Polish border at around 0:50 a.m. Kyiv time, while at least two unmanned aircraft entered Polish airspace via Belarus, according to Zelensky.

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"An extremely dangerous precedent for Europe. Whether there will be further steps depends entirely on the coordination and strength of the response," the president said.

Zelensky offered to provide Poland with all relevant data on the latest attack and assist with setting up an effective alert and protection system.

Kaja Kallas, the EU's top diplomat, called the incident "the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began." She added that there are indications the incursion "was intentional, not accidental."

The Russian Embassy in Warsaw has denied the accusations as "unfounded."

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Earlier that night, Ukraines Air Force reported on Telegram that Russian drones were moving westward and posed a potential threat to Zamosc, a Polish city located about 70 kilometers (43 miles) from the Ukrainian border. The post was later deleted.

The incursion took place just a few days before the planned start of the Russian-Belarusian Zapad 2025 drills. Poland has raised an alarm over the upcoming exercises  set to begin on Sept. 12  and announced plans to close its borders with Belarus for their duration.

Russian drones flying into Poland during the massive attack on Ukraine show that Putins sense of impunity keeps growing because he was not properly punished for his previous crimes.



Putin just keeps escalating, expanding his war, and testing the West. The longer he faces no  Andrii Sybiha  (@andrii_sybiha) September 10, 2025

The developments come amid one of Russias largest aerial assaults in recent weeks, targeting multiple Ukrainian regions and prompting alerts in neighboring countries.

Several waves of explosions were heard overnight in Ukraine's central and western regions, including Vinnytsia, Lutsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Lviv.

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Ukrainian defenses intercepted 386 of the 415 strike and decoy drones and 27 of the 43 missiles launched by Russia overnight, according to Ukraine's Air Force.

A drone and missile strike against western Zhytomyr Oblast killed one person and injured five, Governor Vitalii Bunechko reported. Several enterprises and houses were damaged.

In neighboring Khmelnytskyi Oblast, three people were wounded in the strikes. A sewing factory, a gas station, houses, and cars were damaged, according to Governor Serhii Tiurin.

It remains unclear whether Russia hit or targeted any military or other strategic targets in the attack on Ukraine, as Ukrainian authorities largely do not disclose such information for security reasons. This makes the full extent of casualties and damage impossible to verify.

The Sept. 10 incident came just days after Russia launched its largest overnight attack, which killed at least four people and injured more than 40 across Ukraine, drawing swift condemnation from Kyiv's European partners.

Russia launched a record 810 drones and 13 missiles into Ukraine overnight on Sept. 7, including four Iskander-M (KN-23) ballistic missiles and nine Iskander-K cruise missiles.

Ukrainian air defenses intercepted 747 drones and four cruise missiles, but several others struck 33 locations across the country during the Sept. 7 attack. For the first time, the Russian strike damaged a major government building in Kyiv.

Yuliia Taradiuk contributed reporting.

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Bob Kuzelka of ProRail Nebraska speaks at a town hall co-hosted by State Sen. Margo Juarez of Omaha in North Platte. It's the third of five town halls she and the organization are holding to educate and to gauge interest Nebraskans have in expanding passenger rail in the state. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)

NORTH PLATTE, Neb.  Railroads built Nebraska and helped usher in some of the states earliest economic benefits, ProRail Nebraska leader Bob Kuzelka told a group gathered Tuesday night at the towns public library.

And now they can do it again, he said, advocating for expanded passenger rail in the state to increase transportation options and grow tourism and commercial development along rail routes. At every stop, lots of people get on, people get off.

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Kuzelka was among a trio of speakers on the third leg of a five-stop town hall tour organized by State Sen. Margo Juarez of Omaha and ProRail to educate Nebraskans on the possibilities and benefits of passenger rail options, gauge interest and broaden support. ProRail is associated with the Rail Passenger Association and seeks improved passenger rail and other forms of surface public transportation serving Nebraska.

Dan Bilka of All Aboard Northwest was among a trio of speakers at a town hall Tuesday in North Platte aimed at gaining momentum for extended passenger rail in Nebraska. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)

The feedback the group and Juarez seek is for a legislative interim study also evaluating existing passenger rail infrastructure in Nebraska. Juarez and other advocates say they recognize the cost and that resistance by some, including state officials, signals a tough road ahead for expanded passenger rail options.

The Nebraska Department of Transportation has told the Nebraska Examiner that passenger rail currently is not viable in the state, because the development of such a route would pose a significant cost, and there is currently no mechanism to pay for such a project with existing state revenue.

Speakers told the group of nearly 10 people at the North Platte Library that they hope the series of town halls will shed a positive light on passenger rail. A Lincoln town hall Friday drew about 60 people. The next one is at 6 p.m. Sept 16 at the Grand Island library.

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Kuzelka and Dan Bilka of All Aboard Northwest said they hope public sentiment might nudge Nebraska officials to develop a new state rail plan they said hasnt been updated in a couple of decades.

Bilka said a goal is for Nebraska and other states to become better connected through true interconnected national rail system. He and other speakers advocated for Nebraska to rejoin the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission (MIPRC) to promote that goal and not get left behind.

Nebraska helped establish the regional commission, but it withdrew years ago under a legislative proposal that said membership benefits do not outweigh the expenditure of tax dollars on dues.

State Sen. Margo Juarez of Omaha co-hosted a public meeting Tuesday in North Platte as part of her effort to expand passenger rail in the state. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)

State Sen. Dan Quick of Grand Island has introduced legislation to rejoin the commission. Juarez told the North Platte meeting she would attend a regional passenger rail conference later this week. She said that even though Nebraska is not a member, she was invited to attend and plans to stay updated on the issues.

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We want to do more for getting Nebraskans on track, said Kuzelka, sporting a shirt that says, Id rather be on the train.

Bilka referred to the three Es in laying out what he saw as benefits of passenger rail: economic, environmental and (especially for rural communities) equity.

Though few in number, the group engaged with comments and questions.

Tony Peal said he was retired and enjoyed trips on the Amtrak, which is the limited passenger rail service currently offered in Nebraska. The California Zephyr route stops in Omaha, Lincoln, Hastings, Holdrege and McCook on its way from Chicago to Emeryville, Calif. Nebraska stops are typically in late night early morning hours, not geared toward workers or a daily event.

But Peal called an expanded passenger rail system through other Nebraska towns such as North Platte a pipe dream. It would require use of Union Pacific Railroad tracks, he said, and he didnt think the company would be involved or take on the liability.

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He said he didnt believe the population base in cities outside of Omaha and Lincoln could support the effort financially.

Macey Schroeder, 28, said she thought expanded passenger rail makes just really common sense.

The teacher said passenger rail was the equity that western Nebraska deserves. She envisions Nebraskans spending a 45-minute commute reading or working on computers instead of focusing full attention on driving a personal vehicle on a highway.

Live your life instead of everyone having to drive themselves, she said.

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The Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) headquarters at 101 Friendship St., Providence a little after midnight on Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)

The bat could not be located.

That was the conclusion of a Big Blue Bug Solutions technician who spent over two-and-a-half hours last month inside the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) Providence headquarters searching for a flying intruder.

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In the Aug. 23 service inspection report obtained by Rhode Island Current, technician Michael Brooks wrote that he checked cubicles, ceilings, staircases, and any where the winged mammal may still be hiding after being spotted the night before, just as contractors were set to seal the building. But the only evidence he found were two bat droppings on the windowsill of a corner office. Brooks noted a gap in the ceiling the bat could have reentered.

At this time, it is likely that the bat made its way back into a void space through one of the various gaps around the beams and ceilings, Brooks wrote.

It was the third reported sighting in August. The sightings added to a list of health and safety concerns from unionized workers who are urging state officials not to renew the DCYFs 10-year lease for the converted factory building, which expires at the end of November. DCYF has already missed a key deadline to renew the lease for another 10 years.

One bat was seen Thursday, Aug. 14, and another on Sunday, Aug. 17, which led to the building being closed for a week while pest control technicians tried to deal with the situation.

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That also meant a third $350 bill for building manager Ron Varone, whos grown frustrated over having to deal with the repeated sightings and payments to pest control technicians.

Every time they came, they charged my credit card, he said in a phone interview. Bats have been in every building in downtown Providence this summer  but for some reason its a big deal.

Matthew Gunnip, president of SEIU Local 580, which represents about 300 of the 460 workers in the building, wrote an email to DCYF Deputy Personnel Administrator Cheryl Mammone the night of the Aug. 22 bat sighting

There are people who work at DCYF who have autoimmune diseases and you are making us return to work in an unsafe and unhealthy environment! Gunnip wrote. I thought the company secured the building?

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But since the Aug. 23 pest control visit, no bats or bat droppings have been seen within the five-story office building in Providences Jewelry District, DCYF spokesperson Barb Francella confirmed in an email Tuesday afternoon.

Gunnip hasnt heard of any unwanted flying visitors either. Its good news, but in the big scheme of things this bat stuff was a new and additional concern for us, he said in an interview.

The State Properties Committee was set to consider and vote on a renewal of the office buildings lease on July 22, but the unions pushback led the panel to pause the process while it awaited the results of an air quality test. The committee postponed another vote on July 29 in order to hold a public hearing that has yet to be scheduled as of Wednesday.

I will let you know when its been scheduled, Karen Greco, a spokesperson for the Rhode Island Department of Administration, said in an email. She said the hearing would be scheduled after normal business hours to ensure workers and DCYF administrators can equally have their say.

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The lease terms required the state to sign a new lease by July 31 in order to extend it for another 10 years after it expires Nov. 30. At the July 29 meeting, the State Properties Committee members suggested that in the interim, DCYF officials could negotiate new terms with its landlord, New York-based Provident Property.

Francella said officials are in close contact with Provident Property but are unable to discuss a potential lease or its terms until a deal is approved by the State Properties Committee.

After the Aug. 22 bat sighting, Gunnip emailed Mammone a list of 40 questions ranging from concerns over use of cleaning chemicals, the last time the buildings HVAC was inspected, and perceived communication issues from state officials.

Why did we not hear of the office closure until many of the employees we[re] already in the building? Gunnip wrote. Our health and safety does not seem to be prioritized.

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As of Tuesday, he said his email was still unanswered. Francella said officials are still collecting the information requested by the union.

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Sep. 9Spokane County residents will have the opportunity to hear from the three attorneys interested in becoming the next Spokane County prosecutor at a public meeting Tuesday.

The deadline for the Spokane County Commission to select a replacement for former Prosecutor Larry Haskell is fast approaching, and ahead of their final selection, the commissioners plan to interview the interested candidates at their 2 p.m. Tuesday meeting.

That decision could come immediately following the public interviews and a brief closed-door discussion between the commissioners, according to the meeting's agenda.

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When an elected official leaves a partisan office before the end of their term, state law mandates that the outgoing official's party nominates up to three individuals to serve the remainder of the term. The county's governing board has 60 days from the date of vacancy to select someone to fill the role from the nominees advanced by the outgoing official's party.

Haskell, a Republican, resigned in July with a year to go in his third term. The Spokane County GOP met just a few weeks later to make their nominations. Chief Criminal Deputy Attorney Preston McCollam received the most support among Republican Precinct Committee Officers, drawing nearly 80% of the ballots cast for the top nominee spot.

McCollam, who was named acting Spokane County prosecutor by the commission as the process has played out, is joined on the nominee list by Assistant Washington Attorney General Steve Garvin and attorney Marshall Casey. Garvin was a deputy Spokane County prosecutor for 15 years prior to his departure for the attorney general's office in 2022.

Garvin and McCollam have been clear about their intentions to run for the position when the choice of the next Spokane County prosecutor comes to the voters in fall 2026. The two former colleagues have an early jump on the many months of campaigning ahead of them; between them, Garvin and McCollam have secured tens of thousands in donations, several prominent endorsements and lobbed their respective fair share of accusations about the other.

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Casey, a former Court of Appeals judicial candidate currently with Sweetser Law Office, acknowledged during the August GOP meeting he is in the running mostly to help the party round out the list of nominees.

The county commissioners will interview McCollam, Garvin and Casey at the tail end of their legislative meeting that starts at 2 p.m. on Tuesday. The meeting will be held in the lower level of the Spokane County Public Works Building at 1026 W. Broadway Ave.

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the date of the interviews with the nominees for Spokane County prosecutor. The interviews will be conducted Tuesday, Sept. 9.
The annual Breakthrough T1D Walk is approaching on November 2, 2025, and the hype has already begun.

On Saturday, the national nonprofits local Breakthrough T1D chapter hosted its HYPE Party.

HYPE stands for How You Prepare & Engage, and its meant to help participants in the walk, new and veteran T1D walkers, coordinate and support their walk teams.

The HYPE Party incentivizes the walkers to reach out to their neighbors, friends, colleagues, co-workers and start fundraising.

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Breakthrough T1D funding funds research for the latest technology and therapy management tools for type 1 diabetics and research for a cure.

FOX 5 and KUSI Anchor Danica McAdam emceed the HYPE Party and will be co-emceeing the Breakthrough T1D Walk in November.

At the HYPE Party, she introduced her Breakthrough T1D Walk co-emcee, FOX 5 Evening News Anchor, Andrew Luria. Both McAdam and Luria have type 1 diabetes, and so do their mothers.

McAdams mother, Beverley Lawrence, passed away in 2018. She had T1D for 57 years before her death from a sudden heart attack. It was her dream for there to be a cure for type 1 diabetes in her daughters lifetime.

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More than 1.6 million people have been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, which is not the same as type 2 diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition that prevents the pancreas from producing insulin, which is needed to break down and regulate sugar from food in your bloodstream.

Without insulin in the body, people cannot live and must rely on insulin injections or wearing an insulin pump 24/7 and a continuous blood glucose monitor to help manage and control their blood sugars.

Breakthrough T1D Walk Chair, Samantha Ecks Kearney, spoke at the HYPE Party and visited the KUSI studio Saturday evening to discuss the excitement building up to this years Breakthrough T1D Walk.

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Kearney also has T1D. She was diagnosed at 11 years old at Rady Childrens Hospital in San Diego. This year will be her 15th walk.

 The HYPE Party is all about bringing these families together, and how to increase fundraising every year, coming together as a community and making sure no one feels alone with type 1 diabetes Kearney said.

The website to join a walk team or to start your own is Breakthrough T1D Walk, San Diego, CA: Event Details  BreakthroughT1D Walk.

The walk is on November 2 at 8:30 a.m. at NTC Liberty Station.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News.
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (MyValleyTributes)  With deep love and tender hearts, we celebrate the beautiful life of Norma Jean Irwin Burnett, who passed peacefully on Sunday, September 7, 2025, at the age of 95.

Born on March 15, 1930, in Youngstown, Ohio, to Mable and Robert Irwin, Norma was a lifelong daughter of the Mahoning Valley, her roots planted deeply, her legacy enduring.

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She was a graduate of South High School.

Norma was a lifelong member of Western Reserve United Methodist Church and active in the Eastern Star Mau-Mil Club. But those affiliations only hint at the woman she was, a true force of nature, driven by vision, hard work and care.

In 1950, she married Thomas Burnett, beginning a 68-year love story built on teamwork, creativity, and shared dreams. Together, they remodeled every home they lived in across the Valley, filling them not just with new walls and floors, but with warmth, color, and character. Norma often said she spent half her married life standing in sawdustbut she loved every minute of it. Those homes became the backdrop of countless family gatherings, filled with laughter, love, and the unmistakable scent of her spaghetti sauce welcoming guests at the door.

Norma had an eye for detail and a talent for transformationwhether in a room or with a needle and thread. A gifted seamstress with great fashion sense, she made Easter outfits for her children (even suit coats for her young son and husband), and gifted friends and family with hand-sewn dresses, dolls, and quilts. Later in life, she poured her skill and compassion into making smocked memorial gowns for the NICU at St. Elizabeth Hospital, where her daughter worked as a nurse a quiet act of love that touched countless families.

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She was the familys accountant, organizer, and driving forceno one ever wondered where Norma stood on anything. She lived with intention and raised her children to do the same. She and Tom built a life full of purpose, humor, and deep-rooted love. When Tom passed in 2018, it marked the end of an extraordinary partnershipbut we now take comfort knowing they are reunited once more, just as it should be.

Norma leaves behind a legacy of strength, generosity, and commitment to family. She is survived by her brother, Rev. Bruce Irwin (Barbara); sister-in-law Dorothy MacNaughton; daughter Marsha Hamilton; son James Burnett (Rebecca); sons-in-law Kurt Kridler and Mark Hanley; her grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and a wide circle of nieces, nephews, and cousins who loved and admired her.

She is now joyfully reunited in Heaven with her beloved Tom; her parents; in-laws Dorothy and William Burnett; cherished daughters Holly Burnett-Hanley and Connie Kridler; and grandsons Theodore Nosek and Mitchell Hanley. After a long-awaited embrace from Tom, we imagine Norma taking her place at the table with the strong women who came before her laughing, reminiscing, and raising a cup of tea.

Calling hours will be held at Western Reserve United Methodist Church, 4580 Canfield Road, Canfield, Ohio, on Monday, September 15, from 10:00  11:00 a.m., followed by a funeral service at 11:00 a.m. A luncheon will be held immediately afterward in the churchs fellowship hall.

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The family would like to extend their heartfelt thanks to the Memory Care Units of Copeland Oaks and Crandall Medical Center, as well as Hospice of the Valley, for the loving and respectful care they provided to Norma in her final years. In lieu of flowers, donate in Normas memory to the Hospice of the Valley or Western Reserve United Methodist Church.

Arrangements are being handled by the Lane Family Funeral Homes.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Norma, please visit our floral store.

A television tribute will air Thursday, September 11 at the following approximate times: 7:10 a.m. on FOX, 12:22 p.m. on WKBN, 5:08 p.m. on MyYTV and 7:27 p.m. on WYTV. Video will be posted here the day of airing.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com.
The suspect in the grisly slaying of a young woman on a Charlotte, North Carolina, light rail train now faces a federal charge in a case that has turned into a political lightning rod in the country where she had come to seek safety.

Iryna Zarutska fled Ukraine in 2022 with her mother, sister, and brother to escape the war with Russia and she quickly embraced her new life in the United States, her obituary states.

But on the night of August 22, moments after she texted her boyfriend to say she would be home soon, a man sitting behind her on the train stabbed her three times in the throat in an unprovoked attack.

Iryna Zarutska posted this photo to her Instagram page on June 9, 2025. She was fatally stabbed two months later on a light rail train in Charlotte, North Carolina. - from Iryna Zarutska/Instagram

The suspect, 34-year-old Decarlos Brown, had a long rap sheet and now faces a state charge of first-degree murder and a federal charge of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system.

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The federal charge comes with the possibility of the death penalty  a punishment President Donald Trump said he supports in this case. Prosecutors were still investigating, the US attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, Russ Ferguson, said Tuesday.

Democratic and Republican leaders have traded barbs over whom or what is to blame in this case  and for violence nationwide. The debate simmers against the backdrop of the Trump administration vowing to fight crime by deploying federal troops in predominantly Democratic cities.

Heres what we know about the case polarizing opinion across the country.

Death penalty on the table as officials trade blame

While the attack occurred last month, the case reached a national audience last week with the release of surveillance video showing the killing.

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In the wake of the killing, Charlottes Democratic mayor, Vi Lyles, initially released a statement that did not significantly address the victim and instead focused on offering empathy to the suspect and addressing homelessness and mental illness. A follow-up statement notably thanked the media outlets for not sharing video of the stabbing.

But under mounting criticism and after the videos released by transit officials, the mayor this week released another statement that blamed the attack on a tragic failure by the courts and magistrates and announced increased security on the transit system.

We need a bipartisan solution to address repeat offenders who do not face consequences for their actions and those who cannot get treatment for their mental illness and are allowed to be on the streets, Lyles wrote.

On Wednesday morning, North Carolina Republicans, including from its 12th congressional district, spoke at a light rail station in Charlotte to criticize what they called the soft on crime politics in the Democratic-led city.

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Remember, Iryna Zarutska survived in Ukraine in a bomb shelter, said Kyle Kirby, chair of the Mecklenburg County Republican Party. In war-torn Ukraine, she made her way from that country to Charlotte, seeking refuge and promise, and she was given the edge of a knife.

Local, state and national Republicans have accused Lyles and other Democrats who lead Charlotte of installing criminal justice policies at the expense of public safety. They said a man with Browns record shouldnt have been on the streets at all.

The US Department of Transportation on Wednesday opened an investigation into the light rail transit system in Charlotte to determine whether they are taking the necessary actions to keep riders and transit workers safe.

In response, the Charlotte Area Transportation System said it remains fully committed to working collaboratively with our local, state, and federal partners. These relationships are essential to our mission, and we value the trust and cooperation they represent as we continue working together to support our regions transit system.

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The mayor said Wednesday the transportation system will add 30 more security personnel and will deploy new security teams including bike patrols and urban terrain vehicles in the coming weeks.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said hes investigating the possibility of cutting federal funding from Charlottes light rail system.

I cant pull money today from their transit system, Duffy told Fox News Sean Hannity on Monday. We start that investigation tomorrow, and I guarantee all your viewers that if I find what I think Im going to find, they are not going to have your federal tax dollars going to their public transportation system.

Suspect said victim was reading my mind, his sister says

For years, loved ones struggled to find the defendant in the case the care he needed, family members said.

Decarlos Brown is charged with murder for the death of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska. - Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office

Brown had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and suffered hallucinations and paranoia, his sister Tracey Brown said. She said her brother told her multiple times the government had implanted a chip in him.

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I knew he was battling something, but I wanted to know what it was, she said.

Brown was sometimes aggressive and attacked his sister in 2022, Tracey Brown told CNN. Though her brother was arrested that night, she decided to drop the charges out of concern for his mental health issues.

But it wasnt Browns only run-in with the law. He has several convictions on his record, including for armed robbery, felony larceny and breaking and entering.

Brown spent more than five years behind bars for robbery with a dangerous weapon, state records show. After he was released in 2020, he didnt seem like himself and struggled to hold conversations and jobs, his sister told CNN.

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Their mother had tried to get him placed in a long-term facility, Tracey Brown told CNN, but her attempts failed because she wasnt his guardian. She said she talked to her brother after his arrest and asked him why he attacked the woman on the train.

Because she was reading my mind, he told her.

His January release stokes controversy

Earlier this year, Brown was charged with misuse of 911, a class 1 misdemeanor, after he allegedly asked officers to investigate a man-made material that controlled when he ate, walked and talked, court documents state.

Officers told Brown the issue was a medical issue, and there was nothing more they could do. Brown became upset and called 911, the records state.

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A condition of his release was his written promise to appear for his next hearing, according to court records. The White House said his release left him free to slaughter an innocent woman just months later.

CNN has reached out to Browns public defender, the Mecklenburg County District Attorneys Office and the magistrate judge who ordered his release for comment.

Mecklenburg County Chief District Court Judge Roy Wiggins said he would be reviewing local bond policy as a result of the case, according to a letter addressed to North Carolinas Republican Congressional delegation and obtained by CNN affiliate WBTV.

Wiggins also wrote he would evaluate to make sure procedures were followed properly.

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Wiggins letter was in response to a Tuesday request by North Carolinas Congressional delegation calling for the removal of the magistrate judge who allowed Browns release.

Furthermore, I, along with other leaders in our system, intend to continue to educate our magistrates on the impact of their decisions regarding pretrial conditions of release as set out in NCGS 15A-535.

Even though Charlottes mid-year stats show a 25% decrease in violent crime compared to the same time last year, Trump said North Carolina needs reform.

North Carolina, and every State, needs LAW AND ORDER, and only Republicans will deliver it!, Trump said on Truth Social.

The refugee had a heart of gold

From Ukraine to the US, those who knew Zarutska said she brimmed with potential. The talented artist quickly became fluent in English, found work at a pizzeria and dreamed of becoming a veterinary assistant.

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Zarutska graduated from Synergy College in Kyiv with a degree in art and restoration, her obituary says.

She shared her creativity generously, gifting family and friends with her artwork. She loved sculpting and designing unique, eclectic clothing that reflected her vibrant spirit.

Zarutska also had a deep love for animals, the tribute states. She often cared for her neighbors pets, and many fondly remember seeing her walking them through the neighborhood, always with her radiant smile.

She attended Rowan-Cabarrus Community College from 2023 to 2025, a spokesperson told CNN. She was also a beloved coworker at Zepeddies Pizzeria.

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We lost not only an incredible employee, but a true friend, the restaurant posted on social media. Iryna, we miss you more than words can say.

Despite the horrors of war in her home country, Zarutska just had a heart of gold, a family friend told CNN affiliate WCNC.

She was always very helpful, very supportive, said the friend, identified only as Lonnie. She was a sweetheart. And it makes me sick to think that shes gone.

Lonnie described the daily bombing Zarutska endured in Ukraine and the agony of not knowing if youre going to live or breathe another day. But no one expected Zarutska to die so young in Charlotte. Its very, very sickening and sad that we have such evil in our society today, Lonnie said.

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Zarutska was a kind, hardworking young woman who had built a new life in Charlotte, her family said in a statement.

We are heartbroken beyond words. Iryna came here to find peace and safety, and instead her life was stolen from her in the most horrific way, a family spokesperson said. No family should have to go through this.

The grieving family is now demanding change, citing a lack of visible or effective security on the Charlotte Area Transportation System Blue Line. CNN has reached out to CATS for comment.

The family also called for a full investigation into her death, for city officials to enact reforms and for the media to stop spreading footage of the stabbing.

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This could have been anyone riding the light rail that night, the family said. We are committed to making sure this never happens again.

CNNs Mia Blackman, Sophia Peyser, Dianne Gallagher and Eric Levenson contributed to this report.

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Opponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline camp north of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation on Dec. 3, 2016, outside Cannon Ball, North Dakota. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

A North Dakota judge rejected a request from the developer of the Dakota Access Pipeline to pause a free speech lawsuit filed against it overseas by the environmental group Greenpeace.

The Amsterdam-based Greenpeace International brought the case in response to Energy Transfers lawsuit accusing it of engaging in conspiracy, defamation and other crimes to stop the pipeline from being built. That lawsuit, pending in North Dakota district court, was also filed against two other Greenpeace entities: Greenpeace USA and Greenpeace Fund.

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Greenpeace denies all of Energy Transfers allegations and says the pipeline companys true motivation for bringing the suit is to punish and intimidate the activists who participated in the Indigenous-led protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016 and 2017. In this vein, Greenpeace International in early February counter-sued Energy Transfer in the Netherlands under a European Union directive that provides recourse to those targeted by frivolous lawsuits for exercising their free speech.

Greenpeace International in the Dutch case accuses the energy company of abusing the legal system to waste its time and money and of making defamatory statements about the environmental group. It ultimately wants the Netherlands to order Energy Transfer to award it monetary damages.

The Dutch lawsuit was filed shortly before the North Dakota case against Greenpeace went to trial. After sitting through more than three weeks of testimony from dozens of witnesses, a Morton County jury in March found the environmental group at fault for more than $660 million.

Greenpeace has indicated it will appeal the decision if its allowed to stand, though Southwest Judicial District Judge James Gion has yet to enter a judgment in the case.

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Energy Transfer says that Greenpeace Internationals lawsuit in the Netherlands is an unlawful attempt to overturn its unfavorable ruling in North Dakota. It asked Gion in July to order that Greenpeace put the Dutch case on hold until its own lawsuit wraps up, arguing Greenpeaces overseas litigation threatens to undermine the jurys findings.

Gion on Tuesday denied the request.

He wrote that while the subject matter of the two lawsuits overlap, the fundamental legal claims they consider are different. For that reason, Gion said the Dutch case is not an attempt to relitigate the North Dakota lawsuit.

He also said its unlikely that the Netherlands court would act quickly enough to affect anything in the North Dakota case.

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Admittedly this court has no familiarity with the civil procedure in the Netherlands, and therefore, no idea how quickly the Dutch court moves on civil matters, he added.

Gion has yet to enter a judgment following the jurys verdict. Greenpeace has requested that he overturn the decision or reduce the $660 million award.

Gion wrote in his Tuesday opinion he expects to rule on those issues within the next week or so.

He also noted that attorneys for Energy Transfer previously indicated that if he did not halt the Dutch case, they may appeal his decision to the North Dakota Supreme Court.

North Dakota Monitor reporter Mary Steurer can be reached at msteurer@northdakotamonitor.com.

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Pooyan Vahidi Pashaki, a graduate student in North Dakota State University's biomedical engineering program, works in a lab in Sugihara Hall. Officials at NDSU and the University of North Dakota say the research universities expect to lose millions in federal research dollars. (Photo courtesy of NDSU)

Representatives of North Dakotas two largest universities say Trump administration efforts to curb federal spending have already cost the state millions in research funding  and their institutions expect to lose millions more in the coming years.

The executive branch is attempting to slash research spending by terminating existing grants and appropriating less money for research in the upcoming budget.

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Scott Snyder, the University of North Dakotas vice president for research, told a legislative committee on Aug. 21 that the Trump budget proposal cuts research funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation by 50%.

Big time cuts, Snyder said.

Snyder and Heidi Grunwald, interim vice president for research at North Dakota State University, pointed to an Aug. 7 executive order from President Donald Trump titled Improving oversight of federal grantmaking with several stipulations on which grants can be approved.

Grunwald said the order will likely mean fewer grant opportunities and could slow the release of money.

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It could have devastating effects on total awards for 2026, Grunwald said during the Legislatures Higher Education Institutions Committee meeting in Dickinson, North Dakota.

Trumps executive order is critical of National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation research. It said one 2024 study claimed that more than one-quarter of new National Science Foundation grants went to diversity, equity, and inclusion and other far-left initiatives. It did not name the study.

It also noted that a substantial portion of some grants goes to university facilities and administrative costs.

Awards must, where applicable, demonstrably advance the Presidents policy priorities, the order stated, and cant promote anti-American values.

Grant cancellations

UND has already had eight awards canceled, resulting in the loss of more than $3 million, mostly from the Department of Health and Human Services, Snyder said. This includes three National Institutes of Health grants.

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One funded a program called U-RISE, which trained eight undergraduate students to become biomedical researchers.

The program provided students with a stipend for their work, though that money dried up in February when NIH canceled the grant, Snyder told the North Dakota Monitor. UND lost roughly $900,000 that it expected to receive over the next three years for the program.

My office went ahead and covered their pay for the rest of the semester, Snyder said in an interview. We wanted to make sure that these students had a way to eat, they had a way to drive their cars.

UND also lost a little less than $150,000 in grant money from the NIH for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Health Equity Ambassador program, which supports CDC employees in sharing information about public health careers and promoting healthy behaviors, according to the university.

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The NIH also terminated a grant that supported mentorship and training opportunities for predoctoral students. The award  which funded a graduate students research on breast cancer  was in its last year, so UND did not lose any money from the cancellation, according to the school.

Keeping the lights on

Snyder and Grunwald told lawmakers about the impact of potential changes on facilities and administrative costs that federal funding will cover.

Universities negotiate how much money can be applied to keep the lights on, keep buildings maintained and pay for some salaries for people not directly involved in research, such as custodians and finance staff.

Grunwald said the Trump administration is trying to cap the rate at 15%.

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UND calculated the potential loss at $15 million per year; NDSUs estimate was $9 million per year.

Snyder said there is more than $1 million at risk in funding for the Energy and Environmental Research Center and the College of Engineering and Mines at UND.

The Department of Energy is where were having our biggest challenges in getting the money to flow, Snyder told committee members.

EERC Director Charles Gorecki said in an interview that the Department of Energy is slow to announce new projects.

Snyder told the legislative committee that UND is 30% to 40% behind the pace of federally funded projects compared with last year.

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Grunwald said NDSU, in fiscal year 2024, had 799 awards worth $142 million, and that dropped to 693 awards worth $92 million in fiscal year 2025.

This is in part due to inaction by agencies from January 2025 to the present, she said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture research funding is shrinking, Grunwald said, but the tax break and spending cut measure that Republicans call the big, beautiful bill does have money for agricultural research facilities like NDSU through the USDA.

Snyder said there is some reason for optimism. Members of some Senate subcommittees are pushing back on research cuts and trying to keep funding rate for facilities and administrative costs flat.

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The 15% would be very damaging to our institutions, Snyder said.

North Dakota Monitor Deputy Editor Jeff Beach can be reached at jbeach@northdakotamonitor.com. Reporter Mary Steurer can be reached at msteurer@northdakotamonitor.com.

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Donald Trump told the media that he was not thrilled and very unhappy after Israels strike targeting Hamas leadership in Doha, Qatar, but offered only mild condemnation of the attack itself as the United Nations called it a flagrant violation of international law.

Israel confirmed that it struck a target in Doha on Tuesday in an effort to kill Hamas negotiators and leaders. Initial statements from Hamas indicated that only junior members of the militant group were killed.

The president made his first on-camera remarks about the strike during a gaggle with members of the White House press pool Tuesday evening as he stepped into a swanky D.C. eatery, Joes Stone Crab. Hed previously issued a statement on Truth Social, and told reporters that more complete remarks would come on Wednesday.

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I'm not thrilled about the whole situation, not a good situation, but I will say this, we want the hostages back, but we are not thrilled about the way that went down, said Trump. I'll be giving a full statement tomorrow, but I will tell you this: I was very unhappy about it. Very unhappy about every aspect; weve got to get the hostages back. But I was very unhappy about the way that went down.

On Truth Social, the only other tidbit of note was the presidents declaration that hed informed Qatari leaders that such a strike wouldnt be carried out again.

Donald Trump told members of the media on Tuesday evening that he would issue a full statement regarding the Israeli strike in Doha on Wednesday (Getty Images)

But its unclear how Trump will do that, given his total unwillingness thus far to take any noticeable measure to rein in Israel, which remains his administrations closest political ally in the Middle East.

Tuesdays development likely did more than just figuratively blow up peace talks (less than 48 hours after the U.S. president raised hopes for a deal)-- it also likely killed any lingering momentum for an expansion of the Abraham Accords and could very well set back efforts for normalization of relations around the region for years.

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Trump, speaking to reporters on Sunday evening after returning from the U.S. Open, renewed optimism around the idea that a deal could be reached to secure both the return of living Israeli hostages held by Hamas as well as the remains of those killed by the militant group or dead in captivity. Hed threatened on Truth Social that Hamas was facing his last warning: accept a deal to end the war, or else.

I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting, he posted. This is my last warning, there will not be another one!

Israels targeting of Hamas negotiators on Tuesday will once again force the president and his team to answer whether Benjamin Netanyahu and, by extension, his U.S. allies truly support a peace deal. Netanyahus government has faced scathing criticisms from families of hostages for focusing on eradicating Hamas and securing territory over securing the return of hostages; it has been months since a ceasefire deal led to the return of 25 hostages in February.

At Tuesdays White House press briefing, spokesperson Karoline Leavitt read from an official statement as she condemned the strike as running counter to the interests of both Israel and the United States, while stopping short of any further criticism of the Netanyahu government or insinuating that it was not approaching peace talks in good faith.

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Her statement also indicated that the U.S. was now running damage control to protect its relationship with the Qatari government, which Trump and Leavitt both indicated was only notified minutes before the strike took place.

The president feels very badly about the location of this attack, said Leavitt almost apologetically on Tuesday.

Trump spoke to the Amir and Prime Minister of Qatar and thanked them for their support and friendship to our country, and assured them that such a thing will not happen again on their soil, she continued.

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of Qatar, meanwhile, said that the attack constitutes a blatant violation of all international laws and norms, and poses a serious threat to the security and safety of Qataris and residents in Qatar.

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The U.S. presidents frustration with the two main focuses of his campaign for a Nobel Peace Prize, the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, could be on the verge of boiling over.

As the White House issued statements about the Israeli strike on Tuesday, news also broke that the president had reportedly phoned in to a call with European leaders with a startling demand: raise tariffs on India and China to 100% in a move to pressure Vladimir Putin.

That news broke just hours after another post from the president on Truth Social claimed that the U.S.-India relationship was strong, that Trump would be speaking with Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon, and that trade barriers between the two countries would potentially disappear.
ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO)  A search is underway for a new nursing aide clinical supervisor for nursing students at RPS 205.

If we dont find someone soon, then it impacts the number of our students could obtain, explained RPS executive director, explained RPS executive director, Bridget French.

High school students from across the district visit The Quads College and Career Education Center for part of their day to gain hands-on experience in specific career pathways, including nursing.

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It feels amazing being in this program, shared Guilford senior, Talal Razick.

The program needs a nurse supervisor, a role that is essential to students receiving practical training with real patients. Clinical sessions start in two weeks.

They have to have a certain amount of hours that is required by the Department of Public Health in order for them to get their CNA license. We want to make sure that they meet that goal. Thats the purpose of the program, so its really important that we find someone soon, said French.

High school seniors in the medical science program work in a nursing lab where they can graduate with a certified nursing assistant license and earn seven college credits

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It feels amazing being in this program, shared Guilford senior, Talal Razick.

Razick is in the program and hopes to be a certified registered nurse anesthetist.

A lot of people they tell me you should be a doctor; you should do this. But nurses get to bond with their patients a lot more than doctors do. So thats just the main thing, helping people in many ways.

Razick said he hopes they find a position quickly.

They have to interact with real patients to learn. Most students dont like to learn from a textbook; most students like to learn hand-to-hand, explained Razick.

French said they do have several candidates that they are interviewing.

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The citys Board of Elections on Tuesday approved putting housing measures to fast-track development on the November ballot, after Gov. Hochul  who has the power to remove BOE commissioners  got involved in the matter.

The ballot proposals, which were pushed forward by Mayor Adams Charter Revision Commission, have been at the center of a fight between the Council and the mayor, as the Council would stand to lose some authority over new housing developments if the questions are adopted by voters.

Council leadership had pushed for the BOE to stop the questions from appearing on the ballot, arguing they were misleadingly worded. Among other reforms, the mayors ballot proposals would allow developers of some housing projects to bypass Council review in the citys land-use process.

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Ahead of Tuesdays meeting, members of Gov. Hochuls staff called BOE commissioners directly, urging them to approve the mayors ballot questions, according to sources directly familiar with the outreach.

Specifically, the sources confirmed Karen Persichilli Keogh, Hochuls top aide, spoke to Frank Seddio, the BOEs Democratic Brooklyn commissioner who had previously voiced concern about the mayors ballot proposals being worded in a misleading way.

After speaking to the Hochul adviser, Seddio voted to approve the ballot proposals at Tuesdays meeting. The proposals passed by a vote of 7 to 1 overall, with two BOE commissioners absent.

Im glad the Board of Elections listened to the voices of New Yorkers  myself included  who want to see these critical initiatives brought to voters in November, Hochul said in a statement after the vote.

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Nonetheless, late Monday night, Seddio adamantly denied to the Daily News that he had spoken to Persichilli Keogh. He said The News could instead write about the size of his manhood.

During Tuesdays board meeting, Seddio repeated the same denial to reporters, saying he hadnt spoken to anyone from the governors office about the ballot questions before the vote.

Trying to deceive voters into giving away their power in a democracy through misleading ballot proposals that hide their true impact is fundamentally undemocratic, Julia Agos, a spokesperson for the Council Democrats, said in a statement after the meeting.

Mayor Adams called the Councils push for the killing of the proposals an illegal attempt to usurp democracy.

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New Yorkers prevailed, Adams said in a statement. I am pleased that the Board of Elections did not bend to pressure and did the right thing by following the law, allowing New Yorkers to vote on important proposals to address our citys historic housing crisis.

Ahmit Singh Bagga, director of YES on Affordable Housing, a PAC formed in support of the proposals, said housing advocates scuttled a Trumpian, too-cute-by-half attempt to rob democracy from the hands of New Yorkers by the BOE.
MANHATTAN, N.Y. (PIX11)  The NYPD is warning New Yorkers about a potential terror threat against some of the citys East River crossings.

At a Tuesday evening news conference, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said, We are monitoring threats against New York City critical infrastructure, including bridges and tunnels, connecting Queens and Manhattan. As always, we take all threats seriously and we are working with our federal partners through our joint terrorism task force as we investigate.

Tisch also said it was based on threat reporting, which typically increases this time of year around the anniversary of 9/11, the UN General Assembly, and the Jewish high holidays.

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An NYPD official said off-camera that the threat is uncorroborated and unsubstantiated at this point.

Still, Commissioner Tisch said, out of an abundance of caution, we are surging resources and you can expect to see an increased police presence at critical infrastructure locations.

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New Yorkers, during your evening commute  especially across bridges and through tunnels  you may notice an increased police presence. As we do every year around this time, were closely monitoring for any potential threats to NYC infrastructure. The NYPD, in coordination with federal partners, is taking all threats seriously and has enhanced security at key locations. You can be confident that New York City remains safe and well protected. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch

During the Tuesday evening rush hour, PIX11 News cameras recorded extra officers standing outside police cruisers at the entrance to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, as well as patrol cars with flashing lights on the Manhattan side of the 59th Street Queensboro Bridge.

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NEW YORK CITY (PIX11)  The National Guard and increased NYPD patrols will remain in the New York City subway system despite the safest summer in over a decade, Gov. Kathy Hochul said.

July and August were the safest summer months in recorded history for the citys subway system, officials said. So far this year, transit crime is down 2.6%. But Hochul said shes not ready to scale back law enforcement presence on trains and platforms.

Summer of subway woes: MTA report reveals 5 most delayed train lines

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In January, NYPD officers were put on every overnight train in the city. This was initially meant to be a temporary fix, but it will remain for months to come, Hochul said.

We dont back down, we double down, she said. Statistically, theres a very low percentage chance now of something happening, you still worry about your loved ones.

The National Guard will remain as well, Hochul said. Last March, the governor announced that 750 National Guard members would be deployed to combat crime in the subway system. A few months later, an additional 250 National Guard members were deployed.

Transit crime has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels, NYPD data show. There was a major dip during the pandemic and then a sharp rise in 2022. Transit crime has decreased slightly every year since, according to NYPD data.

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Overall transit crime was down 22.8% in August compared to 2024, and felony assaults were down 40.4% compared to last year, according to NYPD statistics. Robberies were down 34% in the subway system in August compared to 2024.

Compared to 2019, were dramatically better, Hochul said. That says a lot.

Statistics from the MTA, NYPD and the governors office show subway ridership is up 9%.

Emily Rahhal is a digital reporter who has covered New York City since 2023 after reporting in Los Angeles for years. She joined PIX11 in 2024. See more of her work here and follow her on Twitter here.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11.
By Jennifer Rigby

LONDON (Reuters) -Globally, obesity is likely now more prevalent among school-aged children and adolescents than being underweight, according to a new report from UNICEF which blamed increasingly unhealthy food environments worldwide for the shift.

The UN children's agency based its estimates on data from 2000-2022 compiled by academics in countries around the world, who first predicted in 2017 that this "tipping point" would be reached in the coming years.

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UNICEF used the data to project what has happened since 2022, based on trends since 2010. It found that 1 in 10, or roughly 188 million, school-aged children and adolescents have obesity based on the World Health Organizations criteria, putting them at risk of lifelong health problems including diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Obesity rates in that age group have more than tripled, from 3% in 2000 to 9.4%, UNICEF said. That compares with a decline in the prevalence of underweight children among those aged 5-19, from nearly 13% in 2000 to 9.2% - meaning this is also still a significant problem, the report acknowledged.

When we talk about malnutrition, we are no longer just talking about underweight children, said UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell.

Obesity now exceeds underweight in all regions of the world other than sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, UNICEF added.

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In some Pacific Island countries like Niue and the Cook Islands, the worst-affected globally, nearly 40% of 5-19-year-olds have obesity, the report said. Rates are at 21% in the United Arab Emirates and the United States, it added. In some countries like the U.S., doctors now back using the recently developed weight-loss drugs for teens.

UNICEF said ultra-processed foods high in sugar, salt and fat, and near ubiquitous marketing of unhealthy products, were a key factor in the rise in obesity.

"Obesity is not a failure of parents or children. It's the result of toxic food environments," said Chris Van Tulleken, professor of global health at University College London, UNICEF backer and author of the book "Ultra-Processed People".

In a UNICEF poll of 64,000 young people aged 13-24 from 170 countries, 75% of respondents said they had seen adverts for sugary drinks, snacks or fast food in the last week. Even in conflict-affected countries, 68% of young people reported seeing this type of advert.

UNICEF said action was urgently needed from governments worldwide, including marketing restrictions and bans on junk food in schools.

(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
KAMPALA, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Uganda on Wednesday welcomed the International Criminal Court's (ICC) hearing of evidence against rebel leader Joseph Kony but said real justice will only come when he is arrested and tried.

Henry Oryem Okello, Uganda's state minister for foreign affairs in charge of international cooperation, told Xinhua by telephone that while the confirmation of charges was significant, it still fell short of delivering justice to thousands of victims of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency.

A panel of three judges at The Hague on Tuesday began a three-day hearing of evidence on 39 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed by Kony between 2003 and 2004 in northern Uganda. The proceedings are being held in absentia, as Kony has so far evaded arrest.

"This is just symbolic, and I do not think that whatever happens in The Hague will bring justice to the victims for crimes that Joseph Kony and his goons committed against the people in northern Uganda, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic," Oryem said.

"I think justice will only be served when Kony is apprehended, brought before the courts of law, tried, jailed, and locked away," he added.

Kony, indicted in July 2005, faces charges of murder, enslavement, forced marriage, rape and torture. Other charges include intentionally directing attacks against civilians, pillaging, sexual slavery, conscription of children, and the use of children in hostilities, all allegedly committed between 2003 and 2004 in northern Uganda.

The LRA fled Uganda in 2006, retreating into neighboring South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic.

In May 2021, Dominic Ongwen, one of Kony's top commanders, was convicted by the ICC and sentenced to 25 years in prison on similar charges, including crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in northern Uganda between 2002 and 2005. 
ODESSA, Texas (KMID/KPEJ)  The Odessa City Council has decided not to move forward with a 1.5% increase that was proposed for water, sewer, and solid waste services. If approved, the adjustment would have generated $1.35 million in additional revenue for the city.

Were trying to do what we can to lessen the impact on our citizens, Odessa Mayor Cal Hendrick said.

As part of the approved budget, the property tax rate will see a very slight increase, less than half a penny, from 0.466275 to 0.470700 per $100 of home value. For the average Odessa home valued at $193,000, this equates to just $8.54 per year, or about $0.71 per month.

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NEED TO KNOW

Federal investigators with the National Institute of Standards and Technology found that the 2021 Champlain Towers South condo collapse in Surfside, Fla., likely began in an area of the pool deck

Investigators initially had 12 hypotheses, and have found mounting evidence pointing to the pool deck

The collapse killed 98 people, and the investigation will conclude at the end of 2025

Federal investigators have shared the preliminary results of their ongoing investigation into the deadly 2021 Champlain Towers South condo collapse in Surfside, Fla., which likely began in the building's pool deck.

The partial collapse of Champlain Towers South determined that the collapse likely began from the pool deck, which began collapsing before the rest of the tower, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) said in a statement on Tuesday, Sept. 9. The collapse killed 98 people.

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The agency said it used "large-scale structural testing and computer analyses" of video to determine that the collapse progressed from the pool deck through the tower, NBC News reports.

"It is more likely that the failure started in a pool deck slab-column connection," the NIST said in a statement, adding that the findings also suggest "the building was in distress in the weeks before the collapse."

The building fell at 1:22 a.m., when the vast majority of residents were asleep.

The points of collapse were concentrated in a portion of the pool deck and a street-level parking deck. The NIST said the parking deck "has been confirmed to have begun collapsing at least seven minutes before the tower."

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Water leaked from the ceiling of the garage in an area that had many cracks and repairs over the years, according to the NIST. The flow of water "dramatically increased" in the hours before the collapse.

Associate Lead Investigator Glenn Bell acknowledged during the meeting that this has been a difficult investigation since there were pretty widespread problems with the building, both in design and construction," ABC News reports.

CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty This aerial view, shows search and rescue personnel working on site after the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, north of Miami Beach, on June 24, 2021. This aerial view, shows search and rescue personnel working on site after the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, north of Miami Beach, on June 24, 2021.

"Our team has worked tirelessly to find the causes of this disaster and we are on the home stretch, but much of the very hard work of bringing about change is still in front of us," Bell continued, per the outlet.

Martin Langesfeld, who lost several family members to the collapse, told ABC News, "Four years. 98 dead. Nearly $40 million tax dollars spent, and we still have no answers and no accountability. That should be the media headline."

Never miss a story  sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Investigators initially had 12 hypotheses about what caused the deadly collapse, per The Miami Herald.

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The investigation has also identified indications of the buildings distress that were visible in the weeks before the partial collapse of the building in Surfside, Florida, the NIST's statement read.



The agency has been investigating the collapse for more than four years, and will officially conclude the inquiry at the end of 2025. Investigators first found early evidence pointing to the pool deck in 2024.

PEOPLE has reached out to the NIST for comment.

Read the original article on People
A Pakistani province is trying to tackle its waste problem by banning plastic bags.

The decision was made in August by the government of Balochistan, 24NewsHD reports. Balochistan is the largest Pakistani province by area, but the smallest by population.

Sarfaraz Bugti, Balochistan's chief minister, announced the ban after meeting with the waste management division of Quetta, the province's capital and largest city. Officials told Bugti that 1,000 tons of garbage are collected daily from the city.

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Earlier this summer, Pakistan's most populous province, Punjab, also banned thin, single-use plastic bags.

Pakistan has struggled for years with how to control its plastic-bag waste. A 2019 report estimated that the country used upwards of 112 billion single-use plastic bags each year, and without consistent waste-management services, much of that ended up washing into the Arabian Sea.

Another report found that the Indus River, which flows through Pakistan, is responsible for the second-most plastic pollution into oceans of any river, trailing only the Yangtze.

Plastic-bag bans have become more common across the globe, as countries try to reduce the amount of plastic waste that pollutes our planet. And the good news is, these bans work.

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In the U.S., only nine states have banned plastic bags so far, but those bans have produced immediate results. New Jersey's 2022 ban, for example, has resulted in 5.5 billion fewer plastic bags being used each year, and a 38% reduction in bag-related carbon emissions.

Overall, bans are estimated to eliminate 300 single-use bags per person, per year.

This illustrates the importance that seemingly small actions can have on our environment. Buying a reusable grocery bag is just one step people can take to reduce the amount of plastic they use. And if we can use and produce less plastic, that results in fewer fossil fuels that get burned, and less toxic, heat-trapping gases are released into our atmosphere.



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Iran's Lake Urmia, once the largest lake in the Middle East, has shrunk to historic lows  and new satellite images suggest it may be on the brink of collapse.

What's happening?

The European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 satellites showed the dramatic shrinkage of Lake Urmia from 2020 to 2025. Image compilations featured in Newsweek, the United States Geological Survey, and NASA highlighted the drastic decline in the lake's size.

In August 2025, officials confirmed that Urmia hit its lowest water level at about 1,270 meters. Meanwhile, its water volume dropped to half a billion cubic meters, down from 2 billion in 2024.

Why is this concerning?

Experts said human factors and increasing global temperatures have led to extreme weather worldwide, including longer and more intense droughts. In Lake Urmia's case, higher temperatures caused it to dry up more quickly.

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More than natural causes, overexploitation of resources also played a big role. A study published in the Journal of Arid Land revealed that, similar to the crisis in the Northern Hemisphere, excessive groundwater extraction for agricultural demands was a leading contributor to Urmia's shrinkage.

Additionally, research published in the Environmental Development journal and Soil Security suggested that dam construction accelerated drying, while soil exposure to salt deposits likely reduced fertility.

Meanwhile, a study published in BMJ Open linked dust and particles from salt beds to respiratory diseases and drinking water contamination.

Urmia's water level decline has also led to a drop in resident bird population, according to Cambridge University Press research. Aquatic birds around California's Mono Lake have also experienced the same fate.

What's being done?

To save Lake Urmia, the government has implemented water transfer projects through the Lake Urmia Restoration Program. The Financial Tribune shared that a 40-kilometer tunnel diverts water from the dams on the Zab River to the lake.

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Similar initiatives for other drought-stricken water bodies  such as Kazakhstan's water diversion project  show recovery is possible through sustained effort.

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Meanwhile, the United Nations Development Program chose the lake to pilot its Conservation of the Iranian Wetlands Project. It reduced the amount of lake water drawn for irrigation by 30% without affecting crop yield and quality in the Urmia basin.

Even without participating in efforts to refill dried-up lakes, small actions such as fixing faucets or using low-water landscaping can help reduce water waste at home.

Staying updated about critical climate issues, including how to support areas experiencing drought, also makes a difference.

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Rising sea levels are forcing governments to get creative to protect their residents.

What's happening?

Suisun City is "one of the Bay Area's top sea level rise hot spots," KQED reported. It could be partly underwater in decades, and a budget crisis is generating uncertainty at a time when action could mean the difference between forging on and retreating.

Officials may annex land to expand the community's tax base and add safer ground, but there is debate about this approach and who will benefit. Owned by California Forever, the acreage is farther inland from the marsh that borders the city, and the company plans to build tens of thousands of homes there.

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The Fairfield-Suisun Sewer District is working on an adaptation plan for the city of 30,000 and others. It includes sea walls, levees, and pumps, but not the area being considered for annexation.

"It's really hard to hear the same individuals tell us that our downtown will be flooded in 50 years [and] also tell us, 'But don't look for higher ground,'" Mayor Alma Hernandez said. "We absolutely need to look for higher ground."

Why is this important?

One expert told the outlet that there is no way the land would provide a solution to Suisun City's plight. University of California, Davis, environmental science and policy professor Mark Lubell said the cost could be too high, displaced residents may not have access to homes, and the city could spend the tax revenue on anything.

That leaves little room for the people who will be impacted by about a foot of sea level rise by 2050 and up to 6.6 feet by 2100. This issue is linked to human-caused rising global temperatures from the burning of dirty energy sources, which release heat-trapping pollution into the atmosphere.

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If Suisun City can't hold back waters from San Francisco Bay and the ground, infrastructure, businesses, and community buildings could be unusable. It has agreed to negotiate annexation with California Forever.

"Many residents and advocacy groups, however, do not trust California Forever to work in their best interests, partly because of its rocky history of quietly acquiring land, suing farmers and pushing  and then pulling  a ballot initiative last year," KQED reported.

What's being done about rising sea levels?

Coastal communities around the country and world are navigating this problem, and their plans often feature managed retreat  or abandoning homes by paying residents with government money.

But most people don't want to leave their homes, and those who are most affected are often left out of the discussion, which requires "time and effort, a scarce resource for people working multiple jobs or commuting long distances," as KQED noted.

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No matter these short-term debates, the long-term solution is to reduce reliance on the dirty fuels that are at the root of the problem. You can help by modernizing your home, eating cleaner, and using public transit  all steps that will also save you money.



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COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH)  Tuesday is the last day to make a donation to the Central Ohio Bobcat Networks Bobcat Blitz donation drive.

For about a week, central Ohio Bobcats have been collecting donations for the Linden Community Center ahead of this weekends game between Ohio University and Ohio State University.

Central Ohio Bobcat Network president Katie Arnold said this is a way for them to give back to their home while they are away from their Ohio University home.

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Donation items include basic needs like toiletries, new clothes, and socks.

We will then deliver those and have a dance, dine and Play Night with the Linden Community Center on Thursday evening, Arnold said. So well be also eating with them, doing line dancing, playing games to get more involved with our community.

To find a drop-off location, click here.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV.
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR)  After a Minco school bus crash left several students injured, top state leaders and business executives are renewing calls for Oklahoma to require seat belts on school buses, pointing to safety benefits and stalled legislation.

The crash left six people injured, one critically, and has prompted leaders, including Attorney General Gentner Drummond and businessman Harold Hamm, to call on lawmakers to act.

Drummond posted on social media Tuesday, asking, What is the argument against requiring seat belts in school buses? and said the legislature should take action.

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Minco Public Schools resume classes, softball season ends after bus crash

Oklahoma businessman Harold Hamm raised the same question in an op-ed on Tuesday.

For more than 40 years, Oklahoma has required seat belts in cars, Hamm wrote. We all know why: seat belts save lives. And yet, every day, thousands of Oklahoma children ride to and from school on buses without that same basic protection. That doesnt make sense.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, school buses already come with some built-in safety features.

The seats are designed so that if the bus slams on its brakes, a passenger falls into the padded seat in front or behind them, cushioning the impact.

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The seats are built tall and padded to essentially form a cushioned box around the person sitting in them.

The concept is called compartmentalization.

But while those seats can help in a sudden stop, there is nothing stopping a passenger from flying out of their seat in a rollover.

OHP: 18 people on Minco school bus during crash



Video from bus seat manufacturer IMMI shows the difference in a rollover test, with belted dummies staying in place while unbelted dummies are thrown through the bus.

Another issue preventing many schools from getting buses equipped with seat belts is the cost.

Buses with seat belts traditionally can cost up to $10,000 more than buses without them.

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But last year, manufacturer Blue Bird announced it would be partnering with IMMI to manufacture three-point seat belts on all its new buses moving forward, saying studies had proven seat belts improve safety.

Now, every Blue Bird bus comes standard with seatbelts and driver airbags, at no additional cost to school districts.

Every new school bus purchased in Oklahoma should come equipped with lap-shoulder seat belts as standard equipment, Hamm wrote.

State Rep. Judd Strom ran a bill this year that would have added Oklahoma to the list of eight states requiring seat belts on new buses, but it did not make it out of committee.

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Strom told News 4 on Tuesday that the bill is still active and its important to keep this conversation moving forward.

Hamm ended his op-ed with a call for action.

It is past time. Every child deserves the protection of a seat belt, Hamm wrote.

He also said school districts should retrofit current buses with seat belts, starting with those that travel high-speed routes.

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House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that Democratic mayors who run the cities President Donald Trump is threatening with troops should stop resisting. Yield, man, said Johnson, R-La. Let the troops come into your city and show how crime can be reduced. Its a morale boost for the country, and its safe and right for everybody involved.

Not since Vice President Dick Cheney told us that U.S. troops invading Iraq in 2003 would be greeted as liberators have we heard a Republican make the preposterous claim that a people  in this case Americans!  would welcome a U.S. military occupation. And, to be clear, an occupation is what Trump has been promising. As a characteristically tasteless social media post from Trump over the weekend put it, Chicago is about to find out why its called the Department of WAR.

If Speaker Johnson believes that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson  or Chicagoans in general  should bend the knee to a president promising such aggression, then hes telling us that he doesnt believe that they are fully American, that he doesnt believe theyre rightful heirs to the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the traditional American ideas of freedom. Land of the free for us, but not for yall is not an argument a white Southern Republican should expect Black Democrats farther north to accept.

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Its not surprising that a Trump loyalist like Johnson is supporting the presidents military occupation plans, but even former Ohio Gov. John Kasich  a Republican Never Trumper  suggested last month that Democrats should be less opposed to Trumps unprecedented power play.

Referring to parts of the Windy City, Kasich told MSNBCs Alex Witt, I just got a text from a from somebody that says, Englewood, West Garfield Park, South Chicago, their kids are dying. Research has shown many dont expect to grow up. Shame on citys leaders for not taking all the help they can get.

Kasich then conceded, Look, we dont want to have to see the military barge in into these cities. But, he said, if youre a mayor, why not go down to the White House and why not to admit we have a problem with crime ... and say to the president the United States, Look, you have a lot of resources, and weve got a lot of needs?

The former governor makes several assumptions. One, that Democrats who lead cities with high crime rates havent admitted to such, nor made it a priority to address the problem. Two, that Democrats havent asked the federal government (including the White House) for help. And three: that Trump is genuinely interested in reducing crime and that his chief goal isnt humiliating Democrats and expanding executive power.

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Speaker Johnsons statement suggests that only cities led by Democrats have crime problems. But a Republican leads his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana, (Johnson still lives in the metro area) and the murder rate there is higher than it is in Washington  and higher than it is in Chicago. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, has said hed welcome Trumps assistance against crime from New Orleans to Shreveport. But that welcome was extended only after criticism emerged that Republicans seemed more obsessed with taking down Democrats than crime. So we can be forgiven for doubting the governors sincerity.

Last week, as Trump was threatening America cities with military occupations, a Trump-affiliated political action committee sent out a fundraising email with the subject line: Do not tread on our safety. That email called out the California judge who correctly ruled Trump had illegally used the military in a domestic law enforcement capacity.

Its the height of irony and absurdity for that PAC  Never Surrender Inc.  to allude to the DONT TREAD ON ME Gadsden flag that small-government devotees love to wave even as Trump is trampling on the wishes of Americans and their elected officials.

Many Americans, including conservatives, are fond of quoting Ben Franklins remark Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. The argument from those who generally use that phrase is that, in the United States, liberty is paramount.

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And yet, the Republican speaker of the House is telling his fellow Americans to surrender to their own government, to accept less than their due as citizens and to treat the troops Trump might send in as their liberators. Johnson says hes just asking for common sense.

No, hes asking for capitulation.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC)  Did you know that you can hunt inside the city limits? Now, before you hunters grab your gear and head out the door, there are some details you should be aware of. With dove hunting season in full swing, many are out during the morning and evening hours, with some limited in their options of land they can hunt on. With that in mind, the State of Texas put into place State Ordinance 229.902, which allows individual to hunt on their land inside the city limits. Game Warden for Taylor County, James Cummings, explained the details behind this law.

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If its an air gun, archery equipment, or shotgun. If you have ten acres or more continuous, its still in its repairing state. That means there are still trees and stuff, and it was annexed after 1981; you can hunt it, and you can target shoot. Now, it has to be greater than 150 feet from a residence or other occupied building, and the projectile cant pass across the property line, Cummings explained.

GALLERY: Abilene Zoo debuts renovated Caribbean Cove

Abilene has seen substantial residential growth in the past few years, which means the city limits have continued to expand into what was once rural farm, ranch and hunting land. Dede Lemen has been living in a newer Wylie neighborhood for the past few years and said a recent incident where hunters had inadvertently peppered several houses with birdshot had them seeking shelter and calling the law.

Every fall during dove season, weve experienced gunshots. We had four or five houses. It was just raining down on us, and we did call the police, and they helped us out because none of us knew what to do, Lemen recalled.

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Hotel bookings in Abilene skyrocket, leaving rooms scarce

Lemen said the hunters were young and received a lesson in hunter safety from law enforcement, but Game Warden Cummings said this hunting situation should be approached with the needs of both sides being considered.

With the expansion of housing around the area, I would ask both parties, hunters and homeowners, just to be more tolerant and try to be respectful and be safe, Cummings shared.

This state ordinance allows municipalities, like Abilene, the option to choose if they want to allow hunting within the city limits. Additionally, if you are allowed by the City of Abilene to hunt on your property under these strict conditions, you are not required to notify the city when you do go hunting, but law enforcement says it is a good idea to take that extra step to avoid complicated situations.

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Utah Sen. Mike Lee walked off the convention stage in Florida after his speech condemning wokeism and the COVID-19 lockdowns. Lee, the constitutional lawyer who had just published a book defending the institution of the U.S. Supreme Court, was about to undergo a rebrand.

It was July 2022, and Lee found himself in the middle of a general election showdown with independent candidate Evan McMullin. Lees track record as one of the most conservative senators in America was being put to the test, and he wanted a better way to connect with his Beehive State constituents.

Also at the Turning Point Student Action Summit in Tampa, Florida, were some of social medias biggest influencers on the right  and they wanted Lee to take a page from their book. Turning Point Action COO Tyler Bowyer, political commentator Benny Johnson and online personality ALX huddled with Lee and got right to work.

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The group suggested that Lee should shed the layers preventing him from engaging the public more directly, Bowyer told the Deseret News. Lee already had more than one official account with a significant following on what was then known as Twitter. But the senators new advisers thought he should offer voters a more candid opinion.

They said, Nah, we want something different, something thats not part of your campaign, and not part of your Senate office, something that gives us a more unfiltered view, Lee said in an interview with the Deseret News. Thats where the idea was planted.

According to Bowyer, he, Johnson and ALX told Lee to open his phone on the spot to create a new account. But what to call it?

At the time, the term based had become pervasive in conservative media as a way to describe provocative views that were expressed unapologetically despite the blowback they might receive.

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And so @BasedMikeLee was born.

What does Lee post on X?

Over the subsequent three years Lees personal account has gained more than 610,000 followers through his prolific commenting  totaling dozens of posts per day, sometimes per hour  on everything from White House headlines, congressional controversies and defense of his Latter-day Saint faith.

His growing online presence has earned the senator new allies and critics.

As Elon Musk  the owner of X, and the author of its most-followed account  increased his output on the platform, he and Lee began a reciprocal relationship, frequently sharing each others content. Lees constant engagement with the grassroots also made him one of the favorite senators of MAGA megastars Tucker Carlson and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

Our rights come from God



Not government https://t.co/xi0GPWV81y  Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) September 5, 2025

From the beginning, the senator took advice from the online influencers, according to Bowyer. Lee learned the craft of constructing viral posts and gaming the algorithm with punchy and polarizing commentary, just as often in response to breaking news as in support of the latest meme or trend trolling the libs.

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We started just giving him ideas, Bowyer said. And to his credit, he went after it. And hes like, I need to do this every day? Were like, Yes, you need to do this every day. Anything thats coming to mind, you just need to put it out there so people can see.

Bowyer has called Lees X persona a huge success. The group present that day in 2022 still text Lee cheering him on, or helping him with posts, Bowyer said. But the senators investment in internet outreach has also received rebukes from those who say the change in tone is unbefitting a U.S. senator.

Lee in the hot seat

In June, Lee took down two social media posts following a firestorm of pushback. After two state lawmakers were assassinated in Minnesota, Lee posted that their murder was what happens when Marxists dont get their way, and called the tragedy Nightmare on Waltz Street, in an apparent reference to Democratic Gov. Tim Walz.

Lee was subsequently confronted in the halls of the Capitol by both of Minnesotas senators, who called the posts brutal and cruel and not at all funny, before Lee removed the messages without providing a statement or apology. Beyond the content of Lees posts, others have criticized the senator for spending so much time on social media.

Yet another judge is trying to thwart Trump



The Uniparty has countless soldiers working with a single, all-consuming objective: preserve the swamp by derailing all attempts to reduce the governments size, scope, & cost



Time to expect more



Time to drain the swamp https://t.co/Af83AYOEus pic.twitter.com/OTkWMi3D7s  Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) September 4, 2025

While direct contact with constituents is a good thing, spending too much time on social media can take away from legislative activities, like developing new bills and dealmaking with fellow lawmakers, according to James Curry, a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame and co-author of The Limits of Party: Congress and Lawmaking in a Polarized Era.

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(T)he more time Sen. Lee spends on his social media posts, the less time he has for other important parts of the job, Curry told the Deseret News.

The other trade-off lawmakers face on social media is that posting a constant stream of policy views and reactions can make collaboration back in Washington, D.C., more difficult, Curry said, because (l)awmakers who go public with hard line stances have a harder time backing off of them, and engaging in meaningful negotiations and compromise.

When asked whether the senator should be using his time more wisely, Kirk told the Deseret News that senators typically have an extremely light work schedule, and laughed at the idea that Lee could be disregarding his duties as a senator. Kirk said Lee had simply adapted to the way people are communicating now.

What could be more important than communicating with your voters, right? Kirk said. And like explaining stuff, and heres my position, and Im open, Im reading comments, and Im accessible.

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Bowyer, who runs Kirks campaign operations across the country with a focus on Arizona, said other politicians should follow his example. Not only has it done wonders for (Lees) relationship with power players like Musk, Kirk and others, Bowyer said. It has also given voters the sense that they can interact with the senator one-on-one.

Everyone should be like Mike Lee and go do that, Bowyer said. Every single elected official, every congressman, should be that direct.

Correction: An earlier version of the story misidentified where James Curry is a professor. He is now at the University of Notre Dame.
TUNIS, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- A fire on a Gaza-bound vessel docked at a Tunisian port was the result of a planned assault, Tunisia's interior ministry said on Wednesday, adding it was launching an investigation into the incident.

The blaze broke out early Tuesday on the "Family," the largest ship in the Global Sumud Flotilla, while it was moored at Sidi Bou Said port.

Earlier statements from Tunisian authorities said that the fire started in a stack of life jackets and was quickly contained, with no injuries and only minor damage. Flotilla organizers said the Portuguese-flagged ship was struck by a drone in an attempt to sabotage the mission.

Also on Wednesday, the flotilla said another of its boats, the British-flagged "Alma," was also attacked by a drone on Tuesday, damaging its top deck. The group said the fire was extinguished and no one was hurt.

The Global Sumud Flotilla, which left Barcelona on Aug. 31, plans to send more than 20 vessels with activists from over 40 countries to Gaza, with the number expected to grow to 60 after joining boats from Tunisia, Libya, and Italy. Organizers say more than 1,000 activists will take part in what they call the largest maritime challenge yet to Israel's blockade of Gaza.

In June, Israeli forces intercepted another vessel, the Madleen, carrying 12 activists who attempted to breach the blockade. The activists, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and Brazilian rights advocate Thiago Avila, were deported after being escorted to Ashdod, Israel's largest port.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which organized that mission, accused Israel of acting unlawfully, saying the Madleen was "kidnapped" in international waters. It alleged that passengers were subjected to psychological pressure, including the use of irritant spray, jamming of communications, and disruptive radio noise.

Israel imposed a naval blockade on Gaza in 2007 after Hamas seized control of the enclave. The restrictions were tightened following Hamas's deadly cross-border assault into southern Israel in October 2023.

The war, now in its 23rd month, has devastated Gaza's infrastructure and pushed its 2.3 million residents into a deep humanitarian crisis. UN agencies warn of impending famine, with the entire population facing acute food insecurity. 
BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First)  A New Orleans man was taken into custody after being accused of murder and attempted robbery.

Keith Augustine, 19, was arrested on several charges, including first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, and attempted armed robbery.

According to an arrest warrant, East Baton Rouge Sheriffs Office deputies were called to a reported shooting in the 8600 block of Old Hermitage Parkway in January 2024. When they arrived, deputies found a man with gunshot wounds in the doorway of an apartment in the area. The man was identified as Malaakk Ross, 22. Another victim was taken to a local hospital after being hit in the leg by the same gunfire.

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Detectives found a gun, a bag of marijuana, a cell phone, and multiple spent shell casings near Ross. Witnesses confirmed that Ross was on the phone as he was exiting the apartment before the gunfire erupted.

Surveillance footage revealed that Ross conducted several alleged hand-to-hand drug transactions in the parking lot of a local business. Detectives gained a description of the suspects involved in the shooting. A co-accused was developed as a person of interest.

On Jan. 31, 2024, detectives assumed an investigation where social media was used to commit a robbery near the co-accuseds last known address. During the investigation, the co-accused was positively identified in a photographic lineup.

During an interview with investigators, the co-accused identified himself and a suspect named Tray from still shots from the investigation. He said he and an additional suspect met Ross outside of a local business, where the victim tried to sell them marijuana but declined. He also confirmed that the additional suspect discussed the possibility of acquiring pills. The co-accused noted that Ross had a substantial amount of marijuana with him.

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The co-accused met with Tray and the additional suspect as they went to meet Ross later that night. Before arriving at Rosss location, the three planned to rob him. Before the robbery took place, the co-accused learned that Tray had a verbal altercation with Ross, which led to him shooting him.

The co-accused told investigators that he did not witness the shooting because he was standing at the front with a gun to prevent Ross from escaping. After the shooting, the three went to a nearby residence to talk about what had happened.

An affidavit said the co-accused had known Tray for over a year and could positively identify him.

During the investigation, detectives learned that Rosss method of contact was Instagram. Detectives obtained a search warrant for Rosss phone and found a conversation with an unknown account. In the conversation, the owner of the account asked for Rosss location around 10:59 p.m. on the day of the incident.

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A search warrant gave detectives access to the email address linked to the Instagram account. They learned the email account was linked to Augustine.

On Sept. 2, the co-accused identified Augustine as the third suspect, the affidavit states.

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NEW ORLEANS (AP)  New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell pleaded not guilty Wednesday to conspiracy, fraud and obstruction charges stemming from an alleged romantic relationship with her bodyguard.

The Democrat appeared in federal court for the first time since a grand jury last month returned an 18-count indictment against Cantrell and her bodyguard, Jeffrey Vappie, outlining what prosecutors described as their yearslong scheme to conceal an affair while the two traveled, wined and dined together on taxpayers dime.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Wells Roby ordered the mayor to surrender her passport and restricted her travel, instructing her to seek approval from probation officers to leave southeast Louisiana. Roby also told Cantrell she was not allowed to be in contact with Vappie.

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Vappie has already pleaded not guilty to charges of wire fraud and making false statements after he was indicted in July 2024. He is scheduled to appear in court Friday for the additional charges.

Cantrell, the first female mayor in New Orleans 300-year history, was elected twice but now becomes the citys first mayor to be charged while in office in a state with a reputation for public corruption. She has only four months before she leaves office under term limits.

The mayor once known for her outspoken persona has kept quiet about the charges in the weeks since the 18-count indictment against her and Vappie was announced in mid-August. She did not acknowledge the indictment during public appearances to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina late last month.

While walking into the court building, Cantrell remained silent as a mob of reporters pressed her with questions. After the arraignment, her attorney, Eddie Castaing, declined to comment on the case but said it would not affect the mayor's ability to govern the city.

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She can continue to work with city employees, she just couldn't talk about the case so that's not going to impede any of the city operations, so it's business as usual," Castaing said.

Cantrell, who exited court through a side door to avoid reporters, was already receding into the background of city affairs over the past year and offered no apparent resistance to President Donald Trump's suggestion earlier this month to send the National Guard and federal agents to New Orleans even as other Democrats bristled.

She's also been cast as a pariah by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, who announced on Sept. 3 that Cantrell was suspended from involvement in federal transactions with HUD. The City Council issued a statement last week saying it had reassured the Housing Authority of New Orleans and the Office of Community Development that other city officials could sign federal contracts instead.

At times, she and her allies have said the blowback she is experiencing is tinged by double standards she faces as a Black woman. Cantrell said earlier this year, before to the indictment, that she has faced very disrespectful, insulting, in some cases kind of unimaginable treatment.

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Cantrell and Vappie used WhatsApp for more than 15,000 messages, where they professed their love and plotted to harass a citizen who helped expose their relationship, delete evidence, make false statements to FBI agents and ultimately to commit perjury before a federal grand jury, acting U.S. Attorney Michael Simpson said. Vappies 14 trips with Cantrell cost taxpayers $70,000, not including Cantrells own travel costs, according to the indictment.

In a WhatsApp exchange, the indictment says, Vappie recalled accompanying Cantrell to Scotland in October 2021 on a dreamy trip where it all started.

Cantrell, whose husband died in 2023, has denied having anything more than a professional relationship with Vappie. She lashed out at associates who raised questions about the amount of time she spent with her bodyguard, including on wine-tasting trips and in a city-owned apartment, court records show.

Cantrell joins the ranks of more than 100 people brought up on corruption charges in Louisiana in the past two decades, said Rafael Goyeneche, a former prosecutor who is president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a watchdog group.

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___

Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB)  Panama City commissioners say they want to save a long-vacant, historic building in downtown Panama City.

After Hurricane Michael wrecked it in 2018, the old Panama City Grammar School is now at the center of a preservation effort.

Commissioners say theyre hoping to force the owner to take some responsibility.

A century-old building in the heart of Panama City may soon get the attention it needs.

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Built in 1914, the Panama City Grammar School has stood through generations.

In the 80s, the school district sold it to the First Presbyterian Church across the street.

After Michael, the church sold it to pay for the repairs to the main sanctuary.

The building was put on the market about a month ago, listed for $1.75 million.

But city leaders say it may not survive much longer without immediate action.

For the last two years, its been in code enforcement, and what were saying is, hey, we need all our partners to come to the table because we need to go mitigate this nuisance and save it from demolition, Panama City Commissioner Josh Street said.

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On Tuesday, the city commission unanimously voted to request help from the Downtown Improvement Board and CRA Board in financing some repairs.

They need an estimated $1.25 million to put on a new roof and stabilize the rest of the structure.

City officials also say there is a plan to recoup that money.

If that number was determined by May of 2026 or the 1st of June, it could be on the tax bill in November of 2026 as a nuisance assessment for the property owner. The property owner, then, if it pays its taxes, would have to pay the full assessment of $1.2 million, Panama City City Attorney Nevin Zimmerman said.

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If the property owner doesnt pay its taxes by May 2027, the city could put the tax certificate up for sale.

There are risks.

A person may not buy the tax certificate if a person feels that the property isnt worth $1.2 million; in other words, the tax certificate will be paid first. But if the propertys not worth $1.2 million, nobody may buy the tax certificate, Zimmerman said.

After the third year, the commission could pursue a tax deed or file a foreclosure of the nuisance assessment claim if it wasnt paid.

The current owner had plans to turn the building into an apartment complex, but its unclear if hell follow through on those plans.

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Youve got a blighted home or blighted commercial property or anything thats surrounding that property, it automatically brings down the property values. Those around them, and so not only that, it can encourage illegal activity, all sorts of different things. And this is a very prominent location, and its a very important building that a lot of people have a lot of sentimental value towards. And so, I think this was the right step, Street said.

The city commission also wants to look into naming it a historic building on a registry so it cannot be demolished.

They will still need to vote on financing at a later date for final approval.

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Editors note: A lawsuit only portrays one side of a story.

RIVERTON, Utah (ABC4)  The parents of a man who was killed during a traffic stop after a 4th of July fireworks show last year have filed a lawsuit against Riverton Police and the officers involved in his death, alleging that excessive force was used and that police tampered with evidence.

On July 4, 2024, Ryan Ludeman, 23, left the Riverton fireworks show in a side-by-side vehicle, and he collided with a car, swiping it. Riverton Police officers pulled Ludeman over, and they suspected that alcohol had been involved, so they requested Ludeman perform a field sobriety test.

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PREVIOUS COVERAGE: One dead in Riverton officer-involved shooting

According to the lawsuit, Ludeman refused, and when officers attempted to arrest him, Ludeman was holding a pocketknife. After a struggle, Ludeman dropped the knife, and an officer shot Ludeman twice in the neck and then once in the head, killing him.

His parents, Luke and Janelle Ludeman, have filed a lawsuit against the officers involved in his death and the Riverton Police Department. The suit alleges that the officer used excessive force and violated the first amendment, that the Riverton Police Department was complicit in his death with inadequate policies and training for officers regarding deadly force, and that the officers involved manipulated the scene and falsified evidence.

In April of 2025, after conducting an independent Officer Involved Critical Incident (OICI) Review, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill declined to file criminal charges in the case. The lawsuit alleges that falsified evidence was given to the DA in the course of their OICI review.

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The Ludemans have requested a jury trial in this case, and they are seeking punitive damages, alleging that the defendants actions were motivated by evil motive and intent and involved reckless or callous indifference to Ryans federally protected rights. They are seeking at least $30 million in compensatory and punitive damages.

Details from the lawsuit

First, the lawsuit alleges that the officer who shot Ryan used excessive force, violating the fourth amendment. In the case of a suspect being armed with a knife, a law enforcement officer cannot use deadly force unless the suspect charges the officer making slicing or stabbing motions towards the officer. According to the suit, Ludeman only held the knife in his right hand, and he did not charge at the officer or make any motions towards him.

Woman who lost husband and brother-in-law to suicide in less than 48 hours creates suicide awareness campaign

Additionally, before using deadly force, an officer must give some kind of warning. The lawsuit cites body camera footage that shows that the officer did not issue any warning, and that he shot Ludeman three times at close range after Ludeman had dropped the knife and was forced into an all-fours position beneath the officer several feet away from the knife.

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The first two shots to Ludemans neck were survivable, and the lawsuit states that he was completely incapacitated by them. The officer allegedly paused for a second before shooting Ludeman a third time in the back of the head. With that evidence, the lawsuit argues that the use of deadly force was objectively unreasonable and violated Ludemans fourth amendment rights.

Second, the suit states that Riverton Police Departments policies and conduct were a direct link in Ryans death, and that they did not comply with Tenth Circuit Fourth Amendment protocol. Rivertons force policies were purchased from a company and were intended to be a starting point for local departments to develop.

These policies did not include language about deadly force in relation to a suspect holding a knife, and there was no requirement for officers to withhold deadly force after an initial threat has passed. The policies also do not comply with industry standards, according to the suit.

Based on these policies, the lawsuit claims that the officer who killed Ludeman was not properly trained. He also did not search Ludeman for any weapons before attempting to take Ludeman into custody, which goes against proper search procedures.

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Firefighter who died in line of duty at Dragon Bravo Fire was from Idaho

Knowing that [the officer] would be simultaneously armed and improperly trained to kill without training in alternate uses of force and de-escalation, Riverton was deliberately indifferent to the deaths that would necessarily follow, the lawsuit states.

Finally, the lawsuit states that Riverton Police officers began manipulating the scene and falsifying evidence immediately after Ludemans death. The officer who killed Ludeman allegedly moved Ludeman closer to the location of the pocketknife on the ground after his death. Another officer reportedly told EMS employees to move Ludemans body without prompting from EMS, and they moved him even closer to the knife.

That officer had been involved in a police shooting earlier that year, so the lawsuit argues that he should have known how to behave in an officer-involved shooting investigation. He also muted his bodycam while he took photographs of Ludemans body.

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No photographs were taken of the body before it was moved closer to the knife, other than footage from the bodycam. Other officers on the scene did not intervene, until another officer arrived on scene and attempted to turn the bodycams microphone back on.

Those false photos were provided to Ludemans previous lawyers, knowing they would be provided to the family and knowing the false photographs would lie to a grieving mother and father, the lawsuit states. It also alleges that those were the photos provided to the Salt Lake County District Attorney.

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Charges are allegations only. All arrested persons are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

PAYSON, Utah (ABC4)  A Payson man is facing kidnapping and other charges after he allegedly trapped several people in his home and threatened to shoot them if they left.

Joshua Solis, 43, has been charged with child kidnapping, two counts of aggravated kidnapping, three counts of aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm as a restricted person. These charges all have the habitual violent offender enhancements, making them first-degree felonies. He is also facing misdemeanor charges of possession of methamphetamine and threat of violence.

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Parents sue Riverton Police officer who killed son during traffic stop for use of excessive force

Solis has a criminal history. He was previously charged with first degree felony kidnapping on two separate occasions. In both of those cases, he was convicted of aggravated assault and sentenced to prison. When this incident occurred, Solis was on parole.

According to the charges, Solis allegedly trapped three people, including a child, in his home after they came to help him with a mental health issue. When they entered, he slammed the door shut behind them and threatened to shoot them if they left.

At one point, Solis went into another room, the three victims went outside, but Solis chased after them and stopped them. He allegedly pulled out a gun from behind his back and told them they were not free to leave.

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Cottonwood Heights woman charged with manslaughter for death of 77-year-old mother

When the victims went back inside, Solis took their phone away so they couldnt call for help and barricaded the door using a ladder.

Police learned of the situation on September 1 when a Utah County Jail inmate notified them that Solis had threatened to burn down the inmates house while he was babysitting a child. He also allegedly threatened to kill her father and any officers who came to the house to check on it.

Solis told police that he was alone, but police learned that the three victims were in the home with him. As they spoke to Solis on the phone, he reportedly allowed the three victims to leave the house.

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Solis was arrested on September 3, and police executed a search warrant on his home, finding a syringe with methamphetamine in it and a gun box with a magazine in it but no gun. He later admitted to police that he took the gun apart and spread the pieces throughout the county.

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PENDER, Neb. (KCAU)  Pender Community Hospital has proudly announced the installation of its new CT scanner.

Following a month of dedicated construction and installation efforts, the new system is already transforming diagnostic imaging at the hospital. The scanner offers high-speed and high-resolution scanning, which is particularly beneficial for cardiac, trauma, and neurological imaging.

Rural hospital unveils life-saving maternal safety initiative

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The system is also designed to reduce anxiety and create a more relaxed environment for their patients.

And bringing the health care closer to home, I think, is a great benefit, said Melinda Strehle, a lab radiologist with Pender Community Hospital. You know, like she said, people have to travel out of town. We have a large elderly population, and so now, they dont have to worry about finding transportation. How am I going to get here? And it eliminates the stress on their family members as well.

Health officials also said they plan to receive a new MRI machine in the spring of 2026.

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GRANDVILLE, Mich. (WOOD)  One of West Michigans most prized historic sites has been tainted by a sliver of 20th century science. The Michigan PFAS Action Response Team has confirmed PFAS contamination at the Grand River Indian Mounds.

Testing done by MPART and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy has found elevated levels of PFOS  perfluorooctane sulfonate  in fish harvested from a pond near the mounds.

MPART: Site of Michigans PBB disaster also contaminated with PFAS

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The results were announced Tuesday as part of the findings at a new area of interest: the Chicago Drive and Lee Street AOI. MPART and EGLE have been evaluating several areas around the AOI since May 2023, when they received a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to evaluate fish from waterbodies in Environmental Justice areas.

Test results in fish harvested from the pond at Wyomings Battjes Park encouraged MPART and EGLE to expand testing. Since then, fish from four other nearby bodies of water have shown levels of PFAS above advisory levels, including the pond near the mounds.

A photocopy of Edmond P. Gibsons map of the Norton Mounds Group. (Courtesy Grand Rapids Public Museum) Ezra Holmes, one of Wright L. Coffinberrys colleagues at the Kent Scientific Institute, is photographed at the Norton Mounds. (Courtesy Grand Rapids Public Museum) A catalogued photo of seven projectile points recovered from the Norton Mounds during past excavations. (Grand Rapids Public Museum/Public Domain)

According to MPART, the average PFOS in bluegill harvested in the pond was 50.2 parts per billion. MPART advises people against eating fish with more than 1.5 ppb of PFOS. Do Not Eat warnings are issued once levels cross 49.6 ppb.

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The Grand River Indian Mounds is one of the best-preserved sites of Hopewell Indian culture in the country. The Hopewell Indians emerged in the Middle Woodland Period  approximately 450 B.C. to 450 A.D. The Hopewells are considered the ancestors to the tribes Michigan knows today: the Chippewa, Odawa and Potawatomi. Together, they form the Anishinabek  the Council of the Three Fires.

An illustration showing test results from fish harvested in late 2024 from several bodies of water around Grandville and Wyoming. (Courtesy EGLE/MPART)

Over the last 150 years, four major excavations have been performed on the mounds, unearthing Hopewell artifacts and human remains. The digs yielded a lot of information about Michigans forebearers, albeit at a high cost. Today, only 11 mounds stand in their original shape. Evidence found at the Norton Mounds site and past surveys estimate the group once held nearly 50 mounds.

The other mounds: Lost history is a part of West Michigans story

In addition to the pond at the mounds and Battjes Park, testing showed elevated levels in fish at three other places: Porter Lake, Spelman Lake and the pond at Lamar Park.

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Spelman Lake had the highest PFOS readings in the tests. Fillets of largemouth bass averaged 599.4 ppb. Bluegill averaged 382.1 ppb. Largemouth bass in Porter Lake averaged 200.4 ppb and bluegill averaged 115.5 ppb. Numbers were notably lower but still elevated at Lamar Park. Largemouth bass averaged 61.2 ppb, bluegill averaged 13.7 ppb and pumpkinseed averaged 11.6 ppb.

There were more results from the Battjes Park pond. Largemouth bass had the highest results (173 ppb), followed by black crappie (111.3 ppb), bluegill (99.6 ppb) and common carp (27.4 ppb). MPART is still waiting on results for tests at Luvis Lake, Georgetown Lake and the pond at Heritage Park in Grandville.

Are gut bacteria the key to overcoming the PFAS problem?

PFAS  or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances  are a large group of compounds first developed in the 1940s and incorporated into all sorts of products for waterproofing and heat resistance.

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Decades later, research showed that PFAS compounds take a long time to break down organically and can build up in the human body, causing serious health problems, including cancer. According to the National Institute of Environmental Health Services, there are more than 15,000 known PFAS compounds.

The Environmental Working Group says there are now more than 9,000 confirmed PFAS-contaminated sites across the United States, including at least one in all 50 states, Washington D.C. and two American territories. MPART is tracking 365 confirmed contamination sites or areas of interest in Michigan.

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ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) The Abilene Zoo has shared new plans for its next round of renovations, featuring TAS-compliant areas, expanded habitats, and new species.

PASSED! Voters say yes to $15 million bond for Abilene Zoo upgrades

Following the completion of the upgraded Caribbean Cove exhibit, attention now turns to the Africa section of the zoo. Upcoming projects include a new multi-species habitat, upgraded spaces for lions, meerkats, hyenas, and cheetahs, plus a two-story cafe and event lawn.

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GALLERY: Abilene Zoo unveils drawings for nearly $24.5 million expansion plan, including cafe overlooking exhibits

These improvements are funded through a multi-million-dollar 2023 bond and were outlined in the agenda packet for the Mayors Advisory Board for People with Disabilities. All exhibits will feature TAS-compliant viewing areas and concrete sidewalks along their perimeters.

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Courtesy of the City of Abilene

Abilene Zoo reopens Caribbean Cove with new animals

Highlights of the next phase include:

Eastern Black Rhino Exhibit: Additional warm holding, three large yards, and a 285-degree viewing area.

Meerkat Exhibit: New tunnels, including one designed for wheelchairs with room to turn around.

Two-Story Cafe: A mothers room, braille signage, an elevator, TAS-compliant restrooms, a green room, and more.

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WUHAN, China (AP)  A dozen sleek grey Yangtze finless porpoises glide inside a vast pool at the Institute of Hydrobiology in Wuhan as scientists find ways to protect and breed the rare mammals in Chinas longest river.

The Yangtze River is one of the busiest inland waterways in the world with 16 major ports. Cargo shipping volume along the river topped 4 billion metric tons (4.4 billion U.S. tons) in 2024, according to state media.

The finless porpoise has become a barometer of the rivers health. The population of the critically endangered species plunged from over 2,500 in the 1990s to just 1,012 in 2017 due to pollution, boat traffic and illegal fishing that depleted food supplies, researchers said.

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The change alarmed the scientific community, including veteran researcher Wang Ding. He led an international team on a 2006 search for Baiji dolphins, another species that was nearing extinction. Despite a nine-day search, not a single dolphin was found and the Baiji was declared functionally extinct. The last captive Baiji dolphin hangs at a museum along with other rare aquatic species.

We feared that if this animal cannot survive in the Yangtze, the other species will, like dominoes, disappear one by one from the river, Wang said.

Conservation efforts sprung into place. The Yangtze River Protection Law was enacted in 2021, banning fishing for 10 years, relocating factories and prohibiting sewage and chemical runoffs into the river. Today, the population of Yangtze finless porpoises is edging upward at around 1,300.

To protect the Chinese sturgeon, also a critically endangered species, scientists began artificially breeding and releasing thousands of the fish into the Yangtze with the hope of restoring the wild population.

Scientists have called for additional measures to regulate shipping and for an extension of the 10-year fishing ban.

___

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.
FOLKSTON, Ga. (AP)  A South Korean charter plane arrived in Atlanta on Wednesday to take home Korean workers detained in an immigration raid in Georgia last week. Its planned return the same day was canceled, and South Korea's Foreign Ministry later said the flight would take place Thursday at noon, without giving further details.

A total of 475 workers, more than 300 of them South Koreans, were rounded up in the Sept. 4 raid at the battery factory under construction at Hyundais sprawling auto plant. U.S. authorities released video showing some being shackled with chains around their hands, ankles and waists, causing shock and a sense of betrayal among many in South Korea, a key U.S. ally.

South Koreas government later said it reached an agreement with the U.S. for the release of the workers.

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Workers expected to be brought back home after days of detention

South Korean TV footage showed the charter plane, a Boeing 747-8i from Korean Air, taking off at Incheon International Airport, just west of Seoul, and it landed in Atlanta on Wednesday morning.

The Foreign Ministry said the plane was not able to depart from the U.S. the same day, as South Korea wished, due to an unspecified reason involving the U.S. side.

During a visit to Washington on Wednesday, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun met U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and told him that his country's people were left with big pains and shocks because the video of the workers' arrests was publicly disclosed, his ministry said in a statement.

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Cho called for the U.S. administration to help the workers leave as soon as possible  without being handcuffed  and to make sure they do not face problems in future reentry to the U.S., the statement said.

The workers were being held at an immigration detention center in Folkston, in southeast Georgia. South Korean media reported that they would be freed and bused 285 miles (460 kilometers) to Atlanta to take the charter plane. Three empty buses were parked at the detention center.

South Korean officials said they have been negotiating with the U.S. to win voluntary departures of the workers, rather than deportations that could result in making them ineligible to return to the U.S. for up to 10 years.

The workplace raid by the U.S. Homeland Security agency was its largest yet as it pursues its mass deportation agenda. The Georgia battery plant, a joint venture between Hyundai and LG Energy Solution, is one of more than 20 major industrial sites that South Korean companies are currently building in the United States.

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Many South Koreans view the raid as a source of national disgrace and remain stunned by it. Only 10 days earlier, President Lee Jae Myung and U.S. President Donald Trump held their first summit in Washington, on Aug. 25. In late July, South Korea also promised hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. investments to reach a tariff deal.

Experts say Seoul is not likely to take any major retaliatory steps against the U.S., but the raid could become a source of tensions between the allies.

South Korea calls for improvement in US visa systems

U.S. authorities said some of the detained workers had illegally crossed the U.S. border, while others entered legally but had expired visas or entered on visa waivers that prohibited them from working.

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But South Korean experts and officials said Washington has yet to act on Seouls yearslong demand to ensure a visa system to accommodate skilled Korean workers, though it has been pressing South Korea to expand industrial investments in the U.S.

South Korean companies have been relying on short-term visitor visas or Electronic System for Travel Authorization to send workers who are needed to launch manufacturing sites and handle other setup tasks, a practice that had been largely tolerated for years.

LG Energy Solution, which employed most of the detained workers, instructed its South Korean employees in the U.S. on B-1 or B-2 short-term visit visas not to report to work until further notice and told those with ESTAs to return home immediately.

During his meeting with Rubio, Cho proposed the creation of a joint South Korea-U.S. working group to introduce a new visa category for South Korean workers, according to his ministry.

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Cho met the previous day with representatives of major Korean companies operating in the U.S. including Hyundai, LG and Samsung. Cho told them South Korean officials are in active discussions with U.S. officials and lawmakers about possible legislation to create a separate visa quota for South Korean professionals, according to the ministry.

Trump said this week that the workers were here illegally and that the U.S. needs to work with other countries to have their experts train U.S. citizens to do specialized work such as battery and computer manufacturing.

Atlanta immigration attorney Charles Kuck, who represents several of the detained South Koreans, told The Associated Press that no company in the U.S. makes the machines used in the Georgia battery plant. So they had to come from abroad to install or repair equipment on-site  work that would take about three to five years to train someone in the U.S. to do, he said.

The South Korea-U.S. military alliance, forged in blood during the 1950-53 Korean War, has experienced ups and downs over the decades. But surveys have shown a majority of South Koreans support the alliance, as the U.S. deployment of 28,500 troops in South Korea and 50,000 in Japan has served as the backbone of the American military presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

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During a Cabinet Council meeting on Tuesday, Lee said he felt big responsibility over the raid and expressed hopes that the operations of South Korean businesses will not be infringed upon unfairly again. ___

Hyung-jin Kim and Kim Tong-hyung reported from Seoul, South Korea. Associated Press writer Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed.
COLOMBO, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's Education Ministry has allocated 500 million rupees (about 1.66 million U.S. dollars) for 2025 under the Secondary Education Sector Improvement Program (SESIP) to purchase equipment and chemicals for Category 1AB and 1C school laboratories nationwide, the Department of Government Information announced on Wednesday.

Funds are being credited to the accounts of School Development Societies, with allocations based on student enrollment. Each school will receive up to 1 million rupees (about 3,333 dollars), with a minimum allocation of 40,000 rupees (about 133 dollars), the department said.

The initiative aims to strengthen practical science education and upgrade laboratory infrastructure in line with the government's broader education reforms, the department said. 
Channel 2 Action News has learned that a plane is now on its way to Atlanta to pick up the South Korean nationals detained in a massive immigration raid in South Georgia last week.

South Korean TV footage showed what it said was the charter plane taking off at Incheon International Airport, just west of Seoul, on Wednesday morning South Korean time. It is expected to land at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport by Wednesday afternoon local time. The plane will then return to South Korea with the detained workers on it by Thursday afternoon Korea time, media reports said.

A total of 475 workers, more than 300 of them South Koreans, were rounded up in the Sept. 4 raid at the battery factory under construction at Hyundais sprawling auto plant west of Savannah. Some were shown shackled with chains around their hands, ankles and waists in video released by U.S. authorities.

RELATED NEWS:

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South Koreas government later said it reached an agreement with the U.S. for the release of the workers.

Only weeks ago, South Korea promised hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. investments to reach a tariff deal. U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung held their first summit in Washington on Aug. 25.

Trump said this week the workers were here illegally, and that the U.S. needs to work with other countries to have their experts train U.S. citizens to do specialized work such as battery and computer manufacturing.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces has officially confirmed a violation of the country's airspace and urged people to stay at home until the military operation is over.

Source: Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces on X (Twitter); Polish Deputy Defence Minister Cezary Tomczyk

Quote: "Please note that during today's attack by the Russian Federation, which is striking targets located on Ukrainian territory, our airspace has been repeatedly violated by unmanned aerial vehicles.

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An operation is under way to identify and down these objects. On the order of the operational commander of the Armed Forces, weapons were used and actions are ongoing to search for downed objects.

We emphasise that the military operation is ongoing and urge people to stay at home. The highest risk is in Podlaskie, Masovian and Lublin voivodeships.

The Armed Forces Operational Command is monitoring the situation and the forces and assets under its command are on full alert for immediate response."

Details: Tomczyk said the president and the prime minister had been informed.

"All services are active. We ask that people follow the instructions of the Polish forces and police," he added.

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Previously: Joe Wilson, Republican congressman and member of the US House Armed Services Committee, stated that Russian attack drones had entered Polish airspace. He stressed that such actions amount to a direct attack on a NATO ally.

Background:

At around 01:30 on 10 September, Ukraine's Air Force reported a likely incursion of Russian attack drones into Polish airspace.

Poland closed several airports because of the likely drone intrusion.

A Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) stated that the airports had been closed "due to unplanned military activity related to ensuring state security".

Polands Operational Command reported that not only Polish fighter jets but also allied aircraft had been scrambled. In addition, ground-based air defence forces were put on high alert.

Data from Flightradar showed that an Airborne Early Warning and Control (AWACS) Saab 340 AEW&C aircraft was operating in Polish airspace near the border with Ukraine. Its extended patrol came amid the nighttime large-scale Russian drone attack on Ukraine.

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LONDON -- The shooting down of multiple drones over Poland on Tuesday night into Wednesday came after months of sporadic violations of NATO airspace by Russian drones and other munitions.

The repeated incursions have prompted questions all along NATOs eastern flank as to how allies should handle the threat of Russias long-range strike capabilities, which are continuously evolving with deadly effect during Moscows war in Ukraine.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at least 19 Russian drones entered the country's airspace, of which at least three were shot down.

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The country's military command described the violations as "unprecedented," saying they amounted to "an act of aggression that posed a real threat to the safety of our citizens."

Indeed, the incursions represent a major escalation in tensions along NATO's eastern border. Previous airspace violations have been sporadic, most often involving single drones or missiles. The mass entry of Russian craft on Tuesday night into Wednesday hinted at a new era in the standoff between Brussels and Moscow.

MORE: NATO downs Russian drones over Poland after 'unprecedented' aggression

Current and former national defense officials from Baltic countries told ABC News that their countries were also taking steps to prepare for potential Russian drones over their territories. Those interviews took place prior to Polands action on early on Wednesday.

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It is unclear whether Wednesdays or other previous airspace violations were intentional. Russian and Ukrainian drones both routinely go off course due to electronic warfare measures employed by both sides.

But the Polish military on Wednesday accused Moscow of an "act of aggression." European Union foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas said the incursions appeared to be "intentional, not accidental."

Evgeniy Maloletka/AP - PHOTO: A Shahed drone flies during a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sept. 7, 2025.

Lithuania was already "ready" to shoot down any more drones that enter its airspace, the country's defense minister told ABC News last month.

In July, two Russian Gerbera drones -- one of which was carrying more than 4 pounds of explosives -- crossed into Lithuania from Belarus, sparking a national inquest as to the country's readiness to safeguard its airspace.

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Regardless, the violation prompted officials in Vilnius, the capital, to write to NATO requesting assistance in defending against Russian aircraft. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said the situation was "a concern of all NATO," adding, "This is not just Lithuanian airspace, not just Lithuania's security -- it is NATO airspace, NATO security and also EU security."

Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovile Sakaliene told ABC News that the latest incidents prior to Wednesday's jogged a significant response.

"We changed our algorithm, we changed certain decision-making procedures to adapt them to make them more flexible and faster, we're changing our legislation, we have deployed additional forces close to our border," Sakaliene said.

"Currently, we are in a stance where we would be ready to shoot it down," the defense minister added when asked if Lithuania would be prepared to fire at drones violating the nation's airspace.

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Ukraine cabinet building hit in largest Russian strike of war, Zelenskyy says

Asked if fellow NATO nations would start doing the same, Sakaliene said, "We are coming to that moment. Our legislation is going to be finalized very soon. Certain decisions have already been made and certain measures I'm hoping will be also employed by the alliance."

The government in Vilnius is already working with a NATO expert team, Sakaliene said, adding that she would raise the issue when meeting with NATO's supreme allied commander Europe -- U.S. Air Force Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich -- this month.

Vilnius also took the decision to close its airspace along the border with Belarus until Oct. 1, coinciding with joint Russian-Belarusian military exercises planned through September.

NATO's porous flank

Lithuania is not the only NATO nation struggling to respond to such incidents. The remnants of Russian drones have been discovered in Romania and Latvia, while unidentified drones were already suspected of crashing in Poland.

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Poland has also reported multiple violations of its airspace by Russian missiles.

Missile and drone violations have also occurred in neighboring Moldova, which is not a NATO member. And in May, Finland -- one of NATO's two newest members alongside Sweden -- alleged that two Russian aircraft violated its airspace.

Estonia last month reported a Ukrainian drone crashing and exploding on its territory. Estonian police said the drone was likely en route to attack targets inside Russia, with which Estonia shares a border. Tallinn blamed Russian jamming measures for the craft going off course.

A second Ukrainian drone crashed into the Russian portion of Lake Peipus, which forms part of the Estonia-Russia border.

Kacper Pempel/Reuters - PHOTO: Polish defense and aw enforcement officials gather for an extraordinary government meeting following violations of Polish airspace during a Russian attack on Ukraine, in Warsaw, Poland, on Sept. 10, 2025.

Russia has not explicitly threatened to use drones against nearby NATO nations. But officials in Moscow -- and nationalist, pro-Kremlin public figures -- have repeatedly hinted at Russian aggression against the Baltic states.

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In April, for example, Russias Foreign Intelligence Service chief Sergey Naryshkin told RIA Novosti that "Poland and the Baltic republics are particularly aggressive, at least in words, they are constantly rattling their weapons."

In the event of a conflict, he continued, "damage will certainly be inflicted on the entire NATO bloc, but to a greater extent the first to suffer will be the bearers of such ideas among the political circles of Poland and the Baltic countries."

The Defense Ministry in Moscow denied targeting Poland in a statement released on Wednesday after the multiple incursions overnight.

Russia and Ukraine exchange massed drone and missile strikes on a nightly basis.

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The NATO aircraft stationed along the alliance's eastern edge have been busy -- jets based in Poland and Romania are often scrambled to monitor ongoing strikes in western Ukraine, where Russian drones and missiles have hit targets within sight of NATO borders.

Scale of Russia's long-range attacks on Ukraine eases in August despite major strikes

But some munitions have made it through into NATO airspace regardless. Allied governments have defended their decision not to shoot them down, citing potential danger to civilians and infrastructure on the ground.

After the drone incidents in Lithuania, NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said in post to X that the alliance "takes these incidents very seriously. We remain vigilant and ready to defend every inch of NATO territory."

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Sakaliene spoke to ABC News via a video call during a visit to Kyiv, where she said she met with Ukrainian counterparts to explore what NATO nations can learn from Ukraine's nightly battles with Russian drones and missiles.

The defense minister said NATO is not standing still, despite its apparent hesitance to take down Russian munitions violating its airspace.

Recent incidents have highlighted apparent gaps in detection and decision-making procedures. Lithuania, Romania and Latvia have recently clarified their legislation to enable law enforcement and defense forces to shoot down drones entering their airspace.

Estonian Defense Forces spokesperson Maj. Taavi Karotamm told ABC News that the country's armed forces are allowed to "to engage hostile targets that have entered the Estonian airspace," both under Estonian law and under NATO's Integrated Air and Missile Defence rules of engagement.

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With Putin 'stalling' peace talks, NATO minister says US has 'powerful leverage'

Karotamm said that the shoulder-fired Polish-made Piorun missile and the French-made Mistral -- which can be mounted on vehicles or fired from a seated position -- are the most suitable weapons in the Estonian arsenal for shooting down drones like Shaheds. Heavy machine guns and electronic warfare measures could also be employed, he said.

The EDF has also already procured the IRIS-T medium-range air defence system -- which has proven its capabilities in Ukrainian hands -- plus "various radar systems," to be combined with long-range air defense and anti-ballistic missile systems, Karotamm said. "All this will form a multi-layer air defence system."

A 'low and slow' arms race

NATO nations are facing an arms race -- one in which Ukraine is leading the way, with the help of European and U.S. leaders. Kyiv's guidance will be key for NATO, Sakaliene said, given the country's vast and growing experience with Russian drone and missile attacks. But Moscow is tweaking its designs all the time.

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"Regretfully, there is no silver bullet yet," Sakaliene said when asked how allies should respond.

"All nations, both those who are participating now directly in military actions and those who are just preparing, have not yet found a perfect solution," she said.

Kusti Salm, previously the permanent secretary at Estonia's Defense Ministry and now the CEO of defense company Frankenburg Technologies, told ABC News that the "biggest problem" facing Western nations is "the cost to kill ratio discrepancy that is so strongly in favor of Russia."

Radoslaw Jozwiak/AFP via Getty Images - PHOTO: This file photo shows an F-16 fighter jet taking part in the NATO Air Shielding exercise near Lask, Poland, on Oct. 12, 2022.

Various estimates for the cost of Russia's Iranian-designed Shahed strike drones -- and subsequent Russian variants known as the Gerans -- range from around $10,000 to $100,000. Gerbera decoy drones -- which are intended to distract defenders from the more destructive Shaheds or Gerans but can themselves also carry explosives -- are estimated to cost as little as $10,000.

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Missiles fired by the U.S.-made Patriot system cost about $4 million each. IRIS-T interceptors cost $470,000 each.

The gap in NATO defenses offers Moscow a window of opportunity, Salm said. "This is why they are investing into low- and slow-flying drones, because there are no solutions for how to take it down at scale and at the price point that would be favorable for the defender."

"At some point, Russia will possess capabilities to shoot hundreds of thousands at us," Salm added. In 2022, Salm recalled, NATO officials described 100 Shaheds as a mass attack. "I think now what we need to call a mass is 100,000," he added.

Poland says airspace 'repeatedly violated by drone-type objects' amid Russian strikes on Ukraine

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Frankenberg is developing missile systems capable of downing drones at lower cost -- 10 times less than current methods, Salm said. The company wants its system to be able to defeat 97% of threats at ranges out to 2 kilometers -- around 1.2 miles.

For now, Salm said, NATO nations do not have the radar equipment, anti-air weapons or manpower to ensure full anti-drone coverage of their territories. "There's a technical challenge of tracking something that is flying low and slow," he said.

"And then there are also legal aspects," he continued. NATO nations can down drones over their territories, but "according to the rules of engagement that have been widely agreed in NATO, then it will be very difficult politically to tolerate -- to shoot them down over the urban areas, residential areas, over key national infrastructure."

Ukraine, unlike the Baltic states, is a large country with significant strategic depth, Salm said. "They tolerate hundreds of aerial targets in their airspace every day," he continued. Kyiv is also on a full war footing, with its government and population steeled against the damage and human losses that come with a major conflict.

"There would be zero nations in Europe or throughout NATO that would be able, as a country, to suffer these types of losses as the Ukrainians do," Salm said.

Gleb Garanich/Reuters - PHOTO: Explosions are seen in the night sky as Ukrainian servicemen fire towards drones during a Russian drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sept. 10, 2025.

Russia's drone arsenal and reach have expanded exponentially since its invasion began in 2022. An estimate cited by the Atlantic Council think tank in July suggested Russia is producing some 5,000 long-range drones each month.

Europe is behind, Salm said. "It's a new chapter in the strategy of warfare and conventional deterrence is a little bit of a forgotten art, and definitely something that no European nations are ready to do right now," he said.

"This is why all this increase of defense expenditure and increased manufacturing are becoming at the forefront of all defense actions, because this is ultimately what guarantees victory and deterrence," Salm added. "Wars are fought in trenches, but they're won in factories."
Poland, NATOs eastern frontline state, is facing its most serious security challenge in decades. At least 19 Russian drones violated Polish airspace on Sept. 10 during a large-scale attack on Ukraine, prompting Warsaw to invoke NATOs Article 4 and convene emergency consultations. Western officials have warned of the risk of a direct confrontation with Russia in the coming years, but are Poland  and NATO  truly prepared for such escalation?

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
NATO fighter jets shot down multiple Russian drones in Polish airspace on Sept. 10, 2025, sparking fears of an expanding Russia-Ukraine war.

The incident represented the first such incursion by unmanned Russian aircraft into the territory of a NATO member since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Moscow said it did not target Poland, raising the possibility of the drones unintentionally straying off course. But several European leaders indicated that they believed the incursion to be intentional.

Poland responded with a rare move, invoking Article 4 of the NATO treaty. The Conversation turned to John R. Deni, a nonresident Senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and author of NATO and Article 5: The Transatlantic Alliance and the Twenty-First-Century Challenges of Collective Defense, to explain what invoking these articles means  and what might happen next.

What is Article 4 of the NATO Treaty?

Article 4 can be invoked by any NATO member that feels threatened. Under its terms, a member state can request a consultation of the North Atlantic Council, or NAC  the highest political decision-making body in the NATO alliance.

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A NAC meeting in itself isnt unusual. Every NATO summit is a NAC meeting at the level of heads of states. And a NAC meeting takes place every Wednesday at ambassadorial level in Brussels.

But what Article 4 does is open the way for a special meeting of the NAC to consult over the next steps that the alliance should take.

While invoking Article 4 is a big deal, it doesnt carry the same weight as invoking Article 5.

What is Article 5?

Article 5 really is the heart and soul of the NATO alliance. It is the part of the treaty that says that if one member is attacked, then all of the other members will treat it as an attack on them. In effect, it calls for a collective response once requested by any of the current 32 members of NATO.

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The NATO treaty was signed in April 1949, and Article 5 is central to it. In the immediate aftermath of World War II, Western European countries sought a way to defend themselves in the event Germany again arose as a security challenge. By the late 1940s, concerns shifted toward the threat posed by the Soviet Union, which stationed large military forces across Eastern Europe, staged a coup in Czechoslovakia and blockaded Berlin.

Initially, the United States was skeptical of joining any kind of postwar alliance in Europe, but Soviet actions convinced American leaders to sign on as a way of maintaining Western Europe as free and open.

Article 5 doesnt automatically get triggered once a NATO member is attacked; the country attacked needs to request that the alliance invoke it. In this case, that would mean Poland, should Polish officials conclude that Russian missiles were sent deliberately.

What does triggering either require of the US?

Under Article 4, all NATO members, including the U.S., are required to join discussions at the North Atlantic Council, the alliances main decision-making body. That could be followed by a joint declaration or plan of action.

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Invoking Article 5, however, has more serious consequences. It means that the United States would be called upon to help defend any European ally, or Canada, if attacked.

But there is an important caveat. Article 5 was written in such a way that it allows each ally to decide for itself the best course of action to take  there is no prescribed response once the article is invoked.

In the case of the U.S., the executive branch  that is, the president  would need to consider the views and responsibilities of Congress. If the president were to decide on direct military action, then Congress would likely be involved in some capacity  and, of course, only Congress has the power to declare war.

But Article 5 doesnt necessarily require a military response. In fact, there is enough flexibility in the language of the treaty for a more nuanced response.

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This is vital. Each member of NATO remains a sovereign state and cant be compelled into military action. Decision-making over the use of force remains at the national level; such choices are not simply handed over to a supranational organization.

When have articles 4 and 5 been triggered in the past?

Article 4 has been invoked several times over NATOs lifetime. It was invoked by Turkey amid concerns over cross-border terrorism as a result of the Syrian War. More recently, it was invoked by eight NATO members in Eastern Europe after the Feb. 24 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Article 5 has been triggered only once before in the seven decades of NATOs existence. That was on Sept. 12, 2001  the day after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

The European allies came to the U.S.s defense on that occasion. They did this by deploying patrol aircraft in U.S. airspace. Additionally, when the decision was made to invade Afghanistan, several NATO countries in which American troops are based  especially Germany  provided guards for U.S. military bases overseas so that American soldiers could deploy.

What does Poland hope to achieve in invoking Article 4?

Article 4 allows any member country that perceives a serious security threat to bring it to the attention of all the allies. Taking this step allows Poland to make its case to all NATO members and get across its concerns and the level of threat from Russia it perceives.

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I would expect Poland to use an Article 4 meeting to highlight the many times Russian military forces have violated the airspace of allies all along the eastern frontier and especially in northeastern Europe.

In some instances, these violations can be chalked up to pilot or operator error, but in recent years the regularity of violations has led many observers in the West to conclude Russia is purposefully violating allied airspace.

The intent of these violations is varied. Sometimes, as in the case of these drones over Poland, it may be to take a circuitous route to the intended target  likely Ukrainian civilians and military facilities in Western Ukraine  so as to avoid Ukrainian air defenses. In other cases, Russia is likely trying to intimidate smaller NATO allies or probing Western defenses to test reaction times and means of response.

Regardless, Poland, like many allies in Eastern Europe, has justifiably lost patience with Moscows repeated violations. By invoking Article 4 and bringing this to NATOs table, Warsaw likely hopes to secure the unequivocal backing of its allies in responding more aggressively, as it did, in coordination with the Dutch, in shooting down these Russian drones.

How might we expect the US to respond?

The United States is likely to stand firmly behind Polands efforts to defend itself in the wake of this egregious violation of Polish airspace.

President Donald Trump and Polish President Karol Nawrocki walk down the colonnade on the way to the Oval Office on Sept. 3, 2025. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

Polish President Karol Nawrocki had what was regarded as a highly successful meeting at the White House in early September, during which President Donald Trump said the U.S. commitment to Poland  both political as well as the military presence  would remain and could in fact grow. The U.S. sees Poland as a staunch ally in a special category of particularly close partners. Beyond that, its at least theoretically possible that U.S. air defense assets based in Germany, including Patriot air defense battalions, might be deployed to Poland to beef up defenses there, but its unclear whether such a request has been made.

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The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of any organization he may be affiliated with.

Sections of this article were originally included in a story published by The Conversation on Nov. 16, 2022.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: John Deni, US Army War College

Read more:



John Deni does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
NEW YORK and LONDON -- Polish airspace was violated by at least 19 Russian drones overnight, the country's prime minister said, in a torrent of activity that triggered a response from the NATO country's air force, which scrambled and downed several of the drones.

"Those drones that posed a direct threat were shot down," Prime Minister Donald Tusk said early on Wednesday on social media. "I am in constant communication with the Secretary-General of NATO and our allies."

Two Polish F-16s and two Dutch F-35s were deployed to "help ensure safety in Polish skies," the military said. The operations ended early on Wednesday, Warsaw said, adding that the search continued for downed drones and potential impact sites.

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The country's military command described the violations as "unprecedented," saying they amounted to "an act of aggression that posed a real threat to the safety of our citizens."

Jakub Orzechowski/Agencja Wyborcza.pl via Reuters - PHOTO: People watch as a house is damaged after a drone or similar object struck a residential building according to local authorities, in Wyryki municipality, Poland September 10, 2025

As Poland downs drones amid Russia strike, NATO braces for new era on eastern front

Polish authorities did not report any casualties related to the drone incursion.

Tusk said this marked the first time in history that Russian drones had been shot down on NATO territory, which he said "changes the political situation."

Tusk told parliament on Wednesday that Warsaw had requested the invocation of NATO Article 4. The clause allows a NATO member to convene a meeting of allies to consult on an issue that could threaten its security.

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"Today we must say very loudly and clearly to the entire Western world and all our allies -- Article 4 is only the beginning of deeper cooperation for the security of our skies and our border, which is NATO's border, and words alone are by no means enough," Tusk said.

"This is not just a war for Ukrainians," he added. "This is a confrontation that Russia has declared against the entire free world."

Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, meanwhile, said during a press conference that Russian President Vladimir Putin "laughs at President Trumps peace efforts."

"Since Alaska he has only intensified the war," Sikorski said, referring to last month's in-person meeting between the American and Russian presidents.

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"I hope that he backs his words with action," Sikorski said of Trump, referring to recent remarks made by the president when welcoming his Polish counterpart to the White House on Sept. 3.

At that meeting, Trump said, "We're with Poland all the way and we will help Poland protect itself."

Kacper Pempel/Reuters - PHOTO: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk holds an extraordinary government meeting at the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, in Warsaw, Poland, September 10, 2025.

Scale of Russia's long-range attacks on Ukraine eases in August despite major strikes

Sikorski said in a video statement later Wednesday that Poland, the European Union and NATO "will not be intimidated" and will continue to stand by Ukraine.

"It's time for the leadership of Russia to understand that the attempt to rebuild Europes last empire is doomed to fail," he said.

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Polish officials said 19 Russian drones entered the country's airspace late Tuesday and into early Wednesday, some of which crossed over from Belarus. Four were subsequently shot down by Polish and NATO forces, according to Sikorski.

"The assessment of Polish and NATO air forces is that they did not veer off course, but were deliberately targeted," Sikorski said of the drones that entered Poland's airspace.

No one was injured, but property was damaged, he said.

Poland previously invoked Article 4 on Feb. 24, 2022, the day Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which triggered urgent NATO consultations at the time.

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NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said in a statement Wednesday morning that allies had held discussions after Poland's Article 4 request. "Allies expressed solidarity with Poland and denounced Russias reckless behavior," Rutte said. "A full assessment of the incident is ongoing. What is clear is that the violation last night is not an isolated incident."

Rafal Niedzielski/AP - PHOTO: Police and Military Police secure parts of a damaged object shot down by Polish authorities at a site in Wohyn, Poland, Sept. 10, 2025.

"Allies are resolved to defend every inch of allied territory," Rutte added. "We will closely monitor the situation along our eastern flank, our air defenses continually at the ready."

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to speak with Polish President Karol Nawrocki on Wednesday, a White House official told ABC News. The official added that Trump and the White House are "tracking the reports out of Poland."

In a brief post on social media, Trump responded to the incident, saying, "What's with Russia violating Poland's airspace with drones? Here we go!"

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NATO's Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, or SHAPE, said in a statement to social media that German Patriot surface-to-air missile systems based in Poland were placed on alert and that an Italian airborne early warning aircraft was deployed during the incursion. A NATO aerial refueling aircraft was also launched.

Col. Martin L. ODonnell, a spokesperson for SHAPE, said in a statement, "This is the first time NATO planes have engaged potential threats in Allied airspace."

TVN via Reuters - PHOTO: Parts of a damaged UAV shot down by Polish authorities lie at a site, after Russian drones violated Polish airspace during an attack on Ukraine, near Zamosc, Jaroslawiec region, Poland, September 10, 2025, in this screengrab obtained from a video.

Russia says it was aiming at Ukrainian targets

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday referred journalists' questions to Russia's Defense Ministry.

"This is not within our competence, it is the prerogative of the Russian Ministry of Defense," Peskov told reporters.

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Asked to comment on accusations by Europe and NATO that the incident was a Russian provocation, Peskov replied, "The EU and NATO leadership accuse Russia of provocation on a daily basis, most often without even attempting to present any arguments."

Peskov added that Russia had not received any requests for contact from Poland's leadership.

In a post to Telegram, Russia's Defense Ministry said its "massive strike" was only aimed at targets within Ukraine. "No targets on the territory of Poland were planned," it said.

Wojtek Radwanski/AFP via Getty Images - PHOTO: Police and army inspect damage to a house destroyed by debris from a shot down Russian drone in the village of Wyryki-Wola, eastern Poland, September 10, 2025.

European leaders react: 'Simply unacceptable'

French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the incident as "simply unacceptable." He in a post to X, "I call on Russia to put an end to this reckless escalation. I reiterate to the Polish people and their government our full solidarity."

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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in post to X, "Europe is in a fight. A fight for our liberty and our ability to determine our destiny for ourselves."

"Today, we have seen a reckless and unprecedented violation of Poland and Europe's [airspace] by more than 10 Russian Shahed drones," von der Leyen added. "Europe stands in full solidarity with Poland."

Kacper Pempel/Reuters - PHOTO: General Wieslaw Kukula, chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces and Commander-in-Chief of Police Marek Boron stand at the Chancellery of the Prime Ministe in Warsaw, Poland, September 10, 2025.

Ukraine drone hits Black Sea Russian city of Sochi after Putin holds meeting there

European Union foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas described the incident as "the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began," adding that "and indications suggest it was intentional, not accidental."

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U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker, meanwhile, said in a post to X, "We stand by our NATO allies in the face of these airspace violations and will defend every inch of NATO territory."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy early on Wednesday described the violation as "another escalation step."

"An extremely dangerous precedent for Europe," he said in Ukrainian on the messaging app Telegram.

Zelenskyy calls for consequences against Russia

It was not immediately clear whether Russia had intended to send the drones into NATO airspace. Russian and Ukrainian drones have been known to go off course during long-range strikes due to electronic warfare measures employed by the combatants.

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The incursions occurred during a major Russian strike on Ukraine, which the air force in Kyiv said consisted of 415 drones and 35 missiles. Of those, 386 drones and 27 missiles were intercepted or suppressed, the air force said.

Marcin Rozpedowski/Getty Images - PHOTO: F-16 Jet Fighter of Polish Air Force

NATO scrambles jets as Russia launches more than 500 drones, missiles at Ukraine

Zelenskyy positioned the violation as anything but an accident -- saying it might have been considered one if it had been just one drone that crossed the border.

Zelenskyy called for consequences for Russia, saying Moscow "must feel that the war cannot be expanded and must be ended."

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Military officials in Poland earlier said the country's airspace was "repeatedly violated by drone-type objects" in the overnight hours amid Russian strikes on targets in Ukraine.

"An operation is underway aimed at identifying and neutralizing the objects," the Polish military said in one of its initial statements, each of which urged people to stay at home.

The most threatened areas had been Podlaskie, Mazowieckie and Lubelskie, Poland said. Polish security services said they sent an SMS message to cellphones in the area -- sending the type of alert that's become a nightly occurrence in neighboring Ukraine.

Jakub Orzechowski / Agencja Wybo/Agencja Wyborcza.pl via Reuters - PHOTO: A soldier is pictured after a drone or similar object struck a residential building, according to local authorities, in Wyryki municipality, Poland, on Sept. 10, 2025.

Russia hits Kyiv power facility as Trump says he's 'not happy' with Ukraine attacks

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Earlier, the Polish military said it had scrambled jets and was taking "preventative" action during the "massive attack" carried out by Russia on facilities in Ukraine.

"Polish and allied aircraft are operating in our airspace, and ground-based air defense and radar reconnaissance systems have reached the highest state of readiness," the military said in the earlier statement.

Tusk, the Polish prime minister, convened an extraordinary government meeting early on Wednesday, bringing together the country's emergency and military officials.

Before that, Sikorski met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha. Jacek Najder, Poland's representative to NATO, was also present, the country's Foreign Ministry said.

"The security of Polish women and men is the greatest priority," the ministry said prior to the meeting.

Tusk in the emergency cabinet meeting said the there was "no reason to panic," according to the Chancellery.

"The procedures were implemented correctly, the decision-making process was flawless, and the threat was effectively eliminated thanks to the resolute actions of commanders, soldiers, and our allies," Tusk said during the meeting, according to his office. "I am deeply grateful."

Jakub Orzechowski/Agencja Wyborcza.pl via Reuters - PHOTO: Soldiers patrol the street after a drone or similar object struck a residential building according to local authorities, following violations of Polish airspace during a Russian attack on Ukraine, in Wyryki municipality, Poland September 10, 2025.

Putin's Ukraine drone barrages are increasingly backfiring on his closest ally

Belarus says it also downed drones

The Defense Ministry in Belarus -- which is aligned with Russia and has assisted its invasion of Ukraine -- said in a statement that its forces also downed drones that went off course "as a result of the impact of the parties' electronic warfare assets."

Minsk said it shared information with neighboring Poland and Lithuania regarding the incoming drones. "This allowed the Polish side to respond promptly to the actions of the drones by scrambling their forces on duty," the ministry said.

The ministry added that Polish forces had also notified Belarusian forces of incoming unidentified aircraft from Ukrainian territory.

A Lithuanian Defense Ministry official told ABC News that there were no violations of Lithuanian airspace overnight.

In Romania -- which borders Ukraine to its southwest -- the Defense Ministry said two F-16 fighter jets were scrambled in response to a "group of aerial drones in the area of the Ukrainian town of Valcov, on the border with Romania."

No drones entered Romanian airspace, the ministry said in a statement.

Polsat News/Reuters - PHOTO: A Polish police officer stands near a unmanned aerial vehicle fragment, after Russian drones violated Polish airspace during an attack on Ukraine and some were shot down by Poland, in Czesniki, Lublin Voivodeship, Poland, September 10, 2025.

ABC News' Dada Jovanovic, Morgan Winsor, Natalia Popova, Oleskiy Pshemyskiy, Patrick Reevell, Anna Sergeeva, Anne Flaherty, Michelle Stoddart and Tomek Rolski contributed to this report.
The Polish Armed Forces said its airspace was repeatedly violated by drone-like objects during a Russian attack on Ukraine, adding that a military operation was underway to neutralize the objects.

Attention, during todays attack by the Russian Federation carrying out strikes on targets located in the territory of Ukraine, our airspace was repeatedly violated by drone-type objects, the Polish Operational Command of the Armed Forces said in a statement early Wednesday local time, according to a translation.

An operation is underway aimed at identifying and neutralizing the objects, the statement continued. On the orders of the Operational Commander of the Polish Armed Forces, weapons have been deployed, and services are actively working to locate the downed objects.

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The statement urged the public to stay home as the military operation continued.

We emphasize that the military operation is ongoing, and we urge people to stay at home. The most threatened areas are the Podlaskie, Mazowieckie, and Lubelskie voivodeships. The Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces is monitoring the current situation, and the forces and resources under its command remain fully prepared for immediate response.

An earlier statement said the Polish Armed Forces had activated all necessary procedures as the massive attack on Ukraine was underway.

Polish and allied aircraft are operating in our airspace, and ground-based air defense and radar reconnaissance systems have reached the highest state of readiness, the earlier statement read, noting that These actions are preventive in nature and are aimed at securing the airspace and protecting citizens, especially in areas adjacent to the threatened region.

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Multiple airports in Poland, including the largest one in Warsaw, were temporarily shut down amid reports of Russian drones in Polish airspace, according to local reports.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed in a social media post that an operation is underway related to multiple violations of Polish airspace.

The military used armaments against the objects. I am in constant contact with the President and the Minister of Defense. I received a direct report from the operational commander, Tusk added in his statement.

The development sparked concern about the potential for Russian encroachment on NATO territory.

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Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), who sits on the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees, called the drone activity an act of war and urged President Trump to respond with sanctions.

Russia is attacking NATO ally Poland with Iranian shared drones less than a week after President Trump hosted President Nawrocki at the White House, he wrote on the social platform X. This is an act of war, and we are grateful to NATO allies for their swift response to war criminal Putins continued unprovoked aggression against free and productive nations.

I urge President Trump to respond with mandatory sanctions that will bankrupt the Russian war machine and arm Ukraine with weapons capable of striking Russia, he added.

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said the incident cannot be ignored.

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Repeated violations of NATO airspace by Russian drones are a fair warning that Vladimir Putin is testing our resolve to protect Poland and the Baltic nations. After the carnage Putin continues to visit on Ukraine, these incursions cannot be ignored, he wrote on X.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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WOHYN, Poland (AP)  Multiple Russian drones crossed into Poland in what European officials described Wednesday as a deliberate provocation, causing NATO to send fighter jets to shoot them down. A NATO spokesman said it was the first time the alliance confronted a potential threat in its airspace.

The incursion, which occurred during a wave of strikes by the Kremlin on Ukraine, and the NATO response swiftly raised fears that the war could spill over  a fear that has been growing in Europe as Russia steps up its attacks and peace efforts go nowhere.

Poland requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the drone incursion. South Korea's U.N. Mission, which holds the council presidency this month, said the time was being discussed.

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Russia's Defense Ministry said it did not target Poland, while Belarus, a close ally of Moscow, said it tracked some drones that lost their course because they were jammed.

However, several European leaders said they believed the incursion amounted to an intentional expansion of Russia's assault against Ukraine.

Russias war is escalating, not ending, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters in Brussels. What (Russian President Vladimir) Putin wants to do is to test us. What happened in Poland is a game changer, and it should result in stronger sanctions.

Polish airspace has been violated many times since Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but never on this scale in Poland or anywhere else in NATO territory.

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Poland said some of the drones came from Belarus, where Russian and Belarusian troops have begun gathering for war games scheduled to start Friday.

It was not immediately clear how many drones were involved. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told parliament 19 violations were recorded over seven hours, but he said information was still being gathered. Polish authorities said nine crash sites were found, with some of them hundreds of kilometers from the border.

There are definitely no grounds to suspect that this was a course correction mistake or the like, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told parliament. These drones were very clearly put on this course deliberately.

Dutch fighter jets came to Polands aid and intercepted some drones. Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski later thanked the Dutch government for the magnificent performance of Dutch pilots in neutralizing" the drones.

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NATO met to discuss the incident, which came three days after Russias largest aerial attack on Ukraine since the war began.

Poland says some drones came from Belarus

Tusk told parliament that the first violation came at approximately 11:30 p.m. Tuesday and the last around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. Earlier, Defense Minister Wadysaw Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote on X that more than 10 objects crossed into Polish airspace.

What is new, in the worst sense of the word, is the direction from which the drones came. This is the first time in this war that they did not come from Ukraine as a result of errors or minor Russian provocations. For the first time, a significant portion of the drones came directly from Belarus, Tusk said in parliament.

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The Russian Defense Ministry said its overnight strikes targeted Ukraines military-industrial complex in the western regions of the country  which border Poland  with no planned targets on Polish territory.

In an unusual message of outreach, the ministry said it was ready to hold consultations with Poland's Defense Ministry.

Belarusian Maj. Gen. Pavel Muraveiko, the chief of the country's general staff and first deputy defense minister, appeared to try to put some distance between his country and the incursion.

In an online statement, he said that as Russia and Ukraine traded drone strikes overnight, Belarusian air defense forces tracked drones that lost their course after they were jammed, adding that Belarusian forces warned their Polish and Lithuanian counterparts about unidentified aircraft approaching their territory.

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A house was hit in the village of Wyryki in the Lublin region near the Ukrainian border, Mayor Bernard Blaszczuk told the TVP Info television news channel. The roof was severely damaged, but no one was hurt.

Rattled NATO members vow support

NATO air defenses supported Poland in what spokesman Col. Martin ODonnell called the first time NATO planes have engaged potential threats in Allied airspace. That included the Dutch F-35 fighter jets that intercepted drones, according to Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans.

The alliance is committed to defending every kilometer of NATO territory, including our airspace, ODonnell said.

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Tusk told parliament that consultations took place under Article 4 of the NATO treaty  a clause that allows countries to call for urgent discussions with their allies. The consultations happened Wednesday at a previously planned meeting. They do not automatically lead to any action under Article 5, which is NATOs collective security guarantee.

Mark Lyall Grant, U.K. national security adviser from 2015 to 2017, said the incursion was an obvious escalation of Russias war in Ukraine, but there was not yet enough evidence to say it was an attack on a NATO member.

But many European leaders expressed deep concern, including those in the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia that are the NATO members most nervous about Russian aggression.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it an extremely dangerous precedent for Europe and called for Russia to feel the consequences.

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Moscow always tests the limits of what is possible and, if it does not encounter a strong response, remains at a new level of escalation," he said.

By midday in Washington, U.S. President Donald Trump's only public comments about the incursion was a short post on social media: Whats with Russia violating Polands airspace with drones? Here we go!

Trump was set to speak later Wednesday to Polish President Karol Nawrocki, according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Phillips OBrien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, said the incident underscored the failure of NATO member states to accurately assess the threat posed by Russia and properly prepare for war.

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NATO states, even front line ones, have clearly not prepared for war of the type that is happening now, he said in his Substack newsletter.

Poland has complained about Russian objects entering its airspace during attacks on Ukraine before.

In August, Polands defense minister said that a flying object that crashed and exploded in a cornfield in eastern Poland was identified as a Russian drone, and called it a provocation.

In March, Poland scrambled jets after a Russian missile briefly passed through Polish airspace on its way to a target in western Ukraine. And in 2022, a missile that was likely fired by Ukraine to intercept a Russian attack landed in Poland, killing two people.

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Russian attacks hit central and western Ukraine

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian air force said Russia fired 415 strike and decoy drones, as well as 42 cruise missiles and one ballistic missile overnight.

Ukrainian air defenses intercepted or jammed 386 drones and 27 cruise missiles, according to the report.

One person was killed and at least five wounded, while several homes and businesses were damaged, according to local officials.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in its morning report Wednesday that it had destroyed 122 Ukrainian drones over various Russian regions overnight, including over the illegally annexed Crimea and areas of the Black Sea.

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___

Ciobanu reported from Warsaw, Poland. Novikov reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. Associated Press writers Vanessa Gera in Milan, Lorne Cook in Brussels, Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Danica Kirka in London and Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Polish airspace was violated by a "huge number of Russian drones" after the Polish armed forces said they had shot down numerous drone-type objects that "repeatedly violated" the country's skies overnight on Wednesday as Moscow's forces attacked parts of Ukraine bordering Poland.

Polish Defence Minister Wadysaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said that more than 10 objects crossed into Polish airspace and those that constituted a risk to Polands security were neutralised.

The Polish military has been brought to the "highest state of readiness," it said in a post on X.

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Local police confirmed that debris believed to be from a damaged drone was found in the village of Czosnowka in eastern Poland, close to Poland's border with Belarus.

Warsaw's Chopin Airport said it remained open but "there were no flight operations for the time being." Warsaw Modlin, Rzeszow-Jasionka and Lublin airports also suspended flights.

Tusk was "present at the scene", officials said, with an emergency cabinet meeting called at 8 am on Wednesday.

The operation marks the first time NATO member Poland has directly engaged with Russian assets since the start of Moscow's full-scale invasion in February 2022. In a post on X, Tusk said he was in "constant contact" with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

'Act of aggression'

The country's operational command listed three regions vulnerable to the intrusion: Podlaskie, Mazowieckie, and Lublin, all located in the eastern part of Poland bordering Belarus and Ukraine.

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It said that some of the drones had been shot down, with efforts to work out the crash sites of the objects under way.

The incident marked an "unprecedented violation of Polish airspace" and "an act of aggression that posed a real threat to the safety of our citizens," it said in a post on X.

Neighbouring Lithuania  which has also registered Russian drones on its territory  said it stood in "full solidarity" with Poland.

Kestutis Budrys, Lithuanias foreign minister, said in a post on X that "Russias repeated reckless violations of NATO airspace pose a direct threat to the security of the people and critical infrastructure."

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Poland's fellow NATO members, including Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, said Russia's violations of Polish airspace was "unacceptable".

"Poland has every right to defend its airspace. We give our full support to Poland, as a NATO ally and EU member. Sweden and Poland stand united in our support for Ukraine," he said.

Poland on high alert

Speaking in front of the European Parliament to deliver her State of the EU speech on Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen condemned the Russian incursion into Poland's airspace.

"Just today, we have seen a reckless and unprecedented violation of Poland and Europe's airspace by more than 10 Russian Shahed drones. Europe stands in full solidarity with Poland," she said, prompting a standing ovation in the hemicycle.

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"Putin's message is clear. And our response must be clear too," von der Leyen stated.

"We need more pressure on Russia to come to the negotiating table. We need more sanctions. We are now working on the 19th package in coordination with partners," the Commission chief announced.

"We are particularly looking at phasing out Russian fossil fuels faster. We're looking at the shadow fleet and at third countries."

Warsaw's operation comes as much of Ukraine, including the western regions of Volyn and Lviv, which border Poland, were under air raid alert for Russian missile and drone attacks overnight through Wednesday.

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Three people were injured in Ukraines western Khmelnytskyi region, its head Serhii Tiurin wrote on Telegram early Wednesday morning. He said a sewing factory was destroyed, a gas station and vehicles were damaged, and windows in several houses were blown out.

One person was killed and one injured in the Zhytomyr region overnight, with multiple residential buildings in the Vinnytsia and Cherkasy regions damaged.

Poland remains on high alert for drones entering its airspace as a result of its proximity to Ukraine and Belarus.

On Sunday, Poland's border guard said it found the remains of a drone with Russian markings after it crashed approximately 300 metres from the country's border with Belarus.

In July, a Russian military drone crashed in a cornfield and exploded in eastern Poland in what the country's defence ministry said was a "provocation." In 2022, a Ukrainian missile killed two people when it struck a village in southern Poland.
SYDNEY, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Australia has approved the world's first vaccine to protect endangered koalas from chlamydia, a disease that has devastated wild populations of the iconic marsupial.

Developed over more than 10 years by Australia's University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC), the vaccine's approval by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority marks a major step to protect endangered koalas from chlamydia infection and death, according to a UniSC statement released Wednesday.

The disease, spread through breeding, can cause painful urinary tract infections, infertility, blindness and even death, with infection rates reaching as high as 70 percent in some cases, the statement said.

A UniSC-led study found the vaccine reduced the likelihood of koalas developing symptoms of chlamydia during breeding age and decreased mortality from the disease in wild populations by at least 65 percent.

The single-dose vaccine was cleared by the veterinary medicine regulator for use in wildlife hospitals, veterinary clinics and in the field, UniSC Professor of Microbiology Peter Timms said.

"We knew a single-dose vaccine, with no need for a booster, was the answer to reducing the rapid, devastating spread of this disease, which accounts for as much as half of koala deaths across all wild populations in Australia," he said.

Until now, antibiotics were the only treatment available for koalas infected with chlamydia, but they can disrupt a koala's ability to digest eucalyptus leaves, its sole source of food, leading to starvation and, in some cases, death. They also often fail to prevent future infection.

A decade of clinical data, gathered through multiple vaccination trials, confirmed the vaccine's safety and effectiveness, according to the statement. 
A 38-year-old pedestrian, whose remains were found near New Castle by first responders heading to another call on Sept. 8, has been identified by Delaware State Police as Antonio Almanza Leon.

Almanza Leon of the New Castle area was killed in a hit-and-run crash, police said.

TAKE NOTE: Google rolls out preferred sources feature. How to add Delaware Online

Almanza Leon was northbound in the southbound lanes of South Dupont Highway, just south of Pulaski Highway, about 8 p.m. when police said he was hit by an unknown vehicle heading south on South Dupont Highway.

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The impact threw Almanza Leon into a wooded area off the road, where Emergency Medical Services found him a short time later while responding to another call.

BACKGROUND: EMS heading to another call find pedestrian killed in hit-and-run crash near New Castle

Anyone who has information about the crash should contact investigators at (302) 365-8417. Information may also be provided by sending a private Facebook message to the Delaware State Police or contacting Delaware Crime Stoppers at (800) 847-3333.

DON'T MISS A BEAT: Sign up for our Daily Briefing newsletter to stay on top of Delaware news

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Send tips or story ideas to Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299 or eparra@delawareonline.com.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware police ID body of man found by EMS heading to another call
MAUMELLE, Ark.  Police in Maumelle are investigating a threat that was made towards a middle school this week.

Authorities said they were made aware of a written threat focused on Maumelle Charter Middle School after school was dismissed on Tuesday.

The Police Department is working in conjunction with the Maumelle Charter School Administration to ensure the safety of our students and teachers, police said.

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Maumelle Police Department officials noted that there will be an increased presence of officers at the school on Wednesday.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Maumelle PD at 501-851-1337.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KARK.
UPDATE @1:40 p.m.

Both Caidence Gill and Maleek Carroll have been located, according to Hamilton police.

FIRST REPORT:

Do you recognize these missing 16-year-olds?

[DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Hamilton Police wrote in a social media post that they are searching for two 16-year-olds, Caidence Gill and Maleek Carroll.

Caidence left Hamilton with her boyfriend, Maleek. They were last seen in Williamsburg, Ohio, the department said.

TRENDING STORIES:

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Caidence Gill is listed as 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighs around 155 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes. Gill was last seen wearing black shorts and block crocs.

Maleek is 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighs around 160 pounds. He has dreads and brown eyes. Gill was last seen wearing pajama pants and black crocs, and is from Portsmouth, according to the Hamilton Police.

Contact Detective Kate Johnson at 513-868-5811, extension 1265, if you have any information on their whereabouts.

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EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  El Paso Police have confirmed that they have a suspect in the killing of a woman in far East El Paso back in 2022.

Police told KTSM that they are looking for Rafael Sanchez, whom they believe is connected to the murder of 51-year-old Marisela Velez.

Sanchez was featured in Crime Stoppers weekly Most Wanted fugitives feature this past weekend.

Most Wanted fugitives for week of Sept. 5, 2025

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In July 2022, police were called out on a welfare check along the 2100 block of William Caples Street.

When they arrived, they found the woman dead.

At the time, police said there were signs of a struggle and they believed that an attack was directed at her.

EPPD update: Womans suspicious death now ruled a murder

If you you know anything about this case or the whereabouts of Sanchez, you are asked to call Crime Stoppers at (915) 566-8477. You will remain anonymous and if your tip leads to an arrest, you may qualify for a reward.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.
The Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces has stated that it was Russian drones that had violated the country's airspace, calling the incident an act of aggression.

Source: Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces on X (Twitter)

Quote: "Last night's Russian Federation attack on Ukraine led to an unprecedented violation of Polish airspace by drones. This is an act of aggression that poses a real threat to the safety of our citizens."

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Details: "Defence procedures were immediately initiated" on the order of the operational commander.

"Polish and allied radar surveillance tracked several objects and the operational commander decided to destroy those that could pose a threat. Some of the drones that entered our airspace were downed. The search for and identification of possible crash sites is ongoing," the statement read.

The Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces stressed that they are monitoring the current situation and that Polish and allied forces and assets remain "fully ready for further action".

Background:

At around 01:30 on 10 September, Ukraine's Air Force reported a likely incursion of Russian attack drones into Polish airspace.

Poland closed several airports because of the likely drone intrusion.

A Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) stated that the airports had been closed "due to unplanned military activity related to ensuring state security".

Poland's Operational Command officially confirmed the violation of the country's airspace and urged people to stay at home until the military operation was over. It was reported that not only Polish fighter jets but also allied aircraft had been scrambled. In addition, ground-based air defence forces were put on high alert.

Joe Wilson, Republican congressman and member of the US House Armed Services Committee, stated that Russian attack drones had entered Polish airspace. He stressed that such actions amount to a direct attack on a NATO ally.

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Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has stated that he had informed the NATO secretary general about the violation of Polish airspace by "objects" and the measures taken against them, but once again did not mention that these "objects" were Russian.

Source: Tusk on X (Twitter)

Quote: "I have informed the NATO secretary general about the current situation and the actions we have taken against the objects that violated our airspace. We are maintaining constant contact."

Background:

At around 01:30 on 10 September, Ukraine's Air Force reported a likely incursion by Russian attack drones into Polish airspace.

Poland closed several airports because of the likely drone intrusion.

A Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) stated that the airports had been closed "due to unplanned military activity related to ensuring state security".

Poland's Operational Command officially confirmed the violation of the country's airspace and urged people to stay at home until the military operation was over. It was reported that not only Polish fighter jets but also allied aircraft had been scrambled. In addition, ground-based air defence forces were put on high alert.

Joe Wilson, Republican congressman and member of the US House Armed Services Committee, stated that Russian attack drones had entered Polish airspace. He stressed that such actions amount to a direct attack on a NATO ally.

Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Multiple global leaders released comments regarding an Israeli strike that targeted Hamas officials in Qatar.

Western leaders slammed the IDF's strike on the Qatari capital of Doha, whichtargeted senior Hamas officials during ceasefire negotiation meetings on Tuesday.

Pope Leo XIV expressed concern regarding the strike and its potential ramifications. In a spoken statement, he said,

"We do not know how things will go. It is really serious," and emphasized that international bodies must continue working and insisting on peace."

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Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, accused Israel of destroying efforts made towards reaching a permanent ceasefire in the ongoing Israel-Hamas War with what he called a flagrant violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar."

Additional actions on Israel's part would "directly imperil efforts to advance peace and security," according to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the strikes are unacceptable, whatever the reason. Expressing his solidarity with Qatar, Macron reaffirmed that under no circumstances should the war spread throughout the region.

World leaders condemn Israeli strike on Qatar

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned that Israels strike may trigger escalation and urged that the sole preventive measure against further violence "must be an immediate ceasefire, release of the hostages, and a huge surge in aid into Gaza."

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The Turkish Foreign Affairs Ministry called the strike heinous and "evidence that Israel has adopted the spread of instability and terrorism in the region as official state policy in a statement on X/Twitter. The statement called on the international community to exert strong pressure to stop Israels attacks on Palestine and the region.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul and the Spanish Foreign Ministry both released statements decrying the Doha strike as a violation of Qatars sovereignty.

The Chinese Embassy in Qatar issued a safety advisory in response to the strike. Chinese nationals in Qatar were warned to reduce unnecessary outings and avoid going to high-risk areas," according to Reuters.

Japan strongly condemned Israel's attack on Qatar as a threat to Qatar's sovereignty and regional security, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Wednesday.

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Hayashi called the attack a "hindrance to diplomatic efforts" for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages, expressing solidarity with Qatar and urging Israel to return to negotiations.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also condemned the attack, stating that Italy "remains opposed to any form of escalation that could lead to a further worsening of the crisis in the Middle East," and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani reaffirmed Italy's solidarity with Qatar, saying that "diplomacy and dialogue remain the main road to a just and lasting solution" to the Israel-Hamas War.

Will Qatar continue brokering negotiations?

Qatar has offered a divided response on whether or not it will be further involved innegotiations between Hamas and Israel.

"Qatar has spared no efforts and will do everything it can to stop this war in Gaza, but for current talks, I do not think there's something valid right now after what we saw from today's attack," Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said in a press conference.

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However, a foreign ministry spokesperson said that "The State of Qatar strongly condemns the cowardly Israeli attack that targeted residential buildings housing several members of the political bureau of Hamas in the Qatari capital, Doha."

Qatari officials had been mediating talks regarding a Gaza hostage deal and a ceasefire deal. The leader of Hamas, Khalil al-Hayya, was one of the main targets of the operation.

Russia on Wednesday condemned an Israeli attack against Hamas members in Qatar's capital Doha and urged all parties to refrain from actions that would further escalate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"Russia considers this incident a gross violation of international law and the UN Charter, an encroachment on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of an independent state, and a step leading to further escalation and destabilization of the situation in the Middle East," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

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"Such methods of fighting those whom Israel considers its enemies and opponents deserve the strongest condemnation."

China's foreign ministry on Wednesday condemned the Israeli strikes on Doha, saying it firmly opposes Israel's violation of Qatar's territorial sovereignty.

China is deeply worried about the possible escalation the strikes could lead to, China foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a regular press conference.
NEED TO KNOW

Meteorologists John Morales and Todd Gross are speaking with PEOPLE about misinformation circulating on social media about hurricanes and forecasting

It is easy to spread lies today, much easier than it was before smartphones and social media platforms were invented, Morales says

Additionally, the experts are opening up about how forecasting works and all the problems with just getting storm information through social media

Social media is rife with misinformation and falsehoods about weather forecasting  especially during hurricane season.

Now, PEOPLE is speaking with seasoned weather experts about how hurricane forecasting works, problems that social media users face when getting their information on the internet and how to access the most accurate information  including in online spaces.

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It is easy to spread lies today, much easier than it was before smartphones and social media platforms were invented, says John Morales, a hurricane specialist for NBC affiliate WTVJ who has also worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service (NWS). Everybody has a bullhorn, which was not the case in the past.

Todd Gross, a New England-based meteorologist who was portrayed by Christopher McDonald in the award-winning film The Perfect Storm, is particularly familiar with the problems social media is causing in the weather world  as he actively creates weather content on TikTok.

When [weather content] is put in the hands of irresponsible people, then it just blows that problem way out of proportion, he explains.

MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP via Getty A damaged house and docks are pictured after Hurricane Helene made landfall in Keaton Beach, Florida, on September 27, 2024 A damaged house and docks are pictured after Hurricane Helene made landfall in Keaton Beach, Florida, on September 27, 2024

How hurricane forecasting works

Hurricane forecasting begins with hurricane monitoring, according to Morales, who has spent more than four decades as a meteorologist. We have to know what's out there, and that starts all the way back when it's not even a hurricane, he explains.

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There are several ways to monitor for hurricanes, Morales says, including satellites, radar, ship reports and weather observations. Many of those observations then get fed into computer-based forecast models, which Morales says have greatly improved over the decades as science and technology have advanced.

However, forecasters still struggle somewhat with forecasting the intensity of storms.

Models can only offer accurate predictions up to a certain point, too. Morales and Gross say the accuracy of forecasts quickly diminishes around five days out. Computers do allow for models to predict beyond that, but those predictions are not nearly as accurate.

That is why hurricane forecasting utilizes what is known as the cone of uncertainty, which only extends for five days. The cone increases in size each day, to account for the errors in the forecast models that increase by the day.

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Spaghetti charts are one of the most common tools used to predict the most likely path of a storm. The chart earns its name from the variety of different computer models shown on the graph with each possible storm path looking like a strand of spaghetti  and helps forecasters get a sense of what a storms most likely track may be. Outlying data points on the map are not fully discounted either.

It's going to make us think and it's going to make us say, Well, we cannot discount that possibility. It is a low chance, but we're not going to discount that possibility. And that has improved our forecasting in great ways," Morales explains.

Problems with social media and forecasting

Data from the Pew Research Center shows that the number of people who get their news from social media is rapidly increasing. However, that leaves many more people prone to forecasting and weather content that may not be as accurate as possible.

One problem, according to Gross, who has spent more than four decades as a meteorologist, is the drive to monetize content. This incentive pushes some creators to focus on more sensational content, rather than producing something accurate.

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They know that to get the views that they can actually get paid for, if they do something more dramatic  they know that that's going to catch attention and that's going to get folks to watch, Gross explains.

And when it's put in the hands of irresponsible people, then it just blows that problem way out of proportion and it creates forecasts from people that aren't even qualified to give those forecasts, he adds.

NASA A spaghetti model for Hurricane Rita A spaghetti model for Hurricane Rita

One of the biggest keys to successful TikTok content in particular is creating a hook that grabs viewers attention instantaneously. Without one, content does not perform nearly as well as it could  giving weather creators more incentive to sensationalize their content.

Now, many creators will cherry-pick the most concerning data  like an outlying model in a spaghetti chart  and share it, oftentimes completely out of context, in hopes of making money. These kinds of posts help stoke unnecessary fear in users seeking legitimate information about a possible disaster.

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When it comes to things like that, just complete misinformation, that's just unfair, Gross tells PEOPLE, because you're creating anxiety and panic and you're not getting the preparations where it needs to be.

Gross also points out different users have different experiences on TikTok due to how the app pushes out its content. Some people get more accurate information while others see more sensational stuff, likely due to previous content they have interacted with.

Conspiracy content also helps fan the flames, which can cause people to seek out information on social media sites, though the information may not be as accurate.

Alejandro Granadillo/Anadolu Agency via Getty Debris lies around a damaged home in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian on September 10, 2019 in Grand Bahama, Bahamas Debris lies around a damaged home in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian on September 10, 2019 in Grand Bahama, Bahamas

Concerns with forecasting

Morales has covered some of the most devastating hurricanes to impact the U.S. over the last few decades  including Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

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Morales even referenced his coverage of Hurricane Dorian in a June 3 broadcast in which he warned viewers that, due to cuts at NOAA and the NWS made by the Trump administration, it may be more difficult to predict the strength and track of storms moving forward.

During the broadcast, Morales reminded viewers that he was able to confidently predict that the storm would turn away from the U.S. just before it had the chance to slam into the Florida peninsula. But now, he is less confident in his ability to do so.

Never miss a story  sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

You could mark me as concerned, Morales tells PEOPLE. I am not throwing the National Hurricane Center's forecast out the window. Of course I'm not. I'm not throwing the ensemble forecast out the window. I'm not. But I'm certainly a little wary of [whether] they might be slightly more inaccurate than last year.

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Gross  who has also covered several major storms, including Hurricane Frederic in 1979, Hurricane Gloria in 1985 and of course, the Perfect Storm that absorbed Hurricane Grace in 1991  also expressed concern about the recent cuts at both NOAA and the NWS.

Despite this, Gross also says the NHC and NWS are still far superior to anything else that's out there, in terms of reliability, adding, the defunding hasn't really affected it to that extent yet by any means.

HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Residents of San Juan, Puerto Rico, deal with damages to their homes on September 20, 2017, as Hurricane Maria batters the island Residents of San Juan, Puerto Rico, deal with damages to their homes on September 20, 2017, as Hurricane Maria batters the island

Best place to find your information

Both Gross and Morales insist that the National Hurricane Center (NHC), a division of NOAA, is the best place to get the most accurate information about hurricanes.

They're so responsible there, that's really the best bet, Gross tells PEOPLE. Social media is fine to learn about something perhaps, or see another angle, but you really need to go by what your local authorities are telling you and what the National Hurricane Center is telling you. There's no conspiracy behind that, they're just trying to save lives.

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The NWS is a great place to get weather information beyond hurricane forecasting, according to both Gross and Morales. They also encourage people to seek out local sources as well, from meteorologists on local television stations to local authorities, including police, fire and public works departments. Many of these sources can be found on social media, including TikTok.

In the meantime, Morales encourages social media users to use common sense, think critically and question everything they see on social media  especially weather content. You can't be lazy and simply depend on whatever was fed to you, he explains, later adding, If it sounds fishy, it probably is.

Read the original article on People
WASHINGTON (DC News Now)  Families across the DMV are having trouble getting COVID-19 vaccines and boosters.

A delay in the CDC recommendation means some pharmacies are turning people away.

Some pharmacies require prescriptions from a doctor to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Typically, you can just walk in and get a shot, but now the complication has some worried about not only access but supply.

Floridas plan to drop school vaccine rule wont start for 90 days, wont cover all diseases

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The FDA approved updated COVID-19 vaccines last month for all seniors, but only for younger adults and children who have at least one high-risk health condition.

My son just started school, so obviously thats always ramping up exposure and whatnot. So usually I would like to have it by mid-October, said Lindsay Mosher.

Several independent pharmacies told DC News Now they wont have COVID vaccines until the CDC advisory board puts out its recommendations.

Its September, right? So were in the midst of flu and COVID season. We needed to have a game plan for this months before, said Dr. Virginia Milner, internal medicine physician.

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Milner said people are having problems with the big pharmacy chains, too.

A couple of my family members and patients have had issues. They would normally be able to get it to like age over 60, some with medical comorbidities and have been rejected from certain pharmacies that have asked them to present a prescription, Milner said.

CVS Pharmacy awaits CDC approval to offer COVID-19 vaccines in 16 states

CVS said state pharmacy laws govern where they can vaccinate. Based on FDA approval, theyre offering COVID-19 vaccines in Maryland without a prescription. But a prescription is required in D.C. and Virginia.

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On the other hand, Walgreens said no prescription is needed for patients in Virginia and Maryland, but in D.C., a prescription is needed.

If we need to go the extra step to get a prescription, well follow through with it, Mosher said.

In Georgetown, Morgan Care Pharmacy is offering the updated vaccine.

We started COVID vaccinations today, and we have been very busy with administering shots and contacting patients and doctors with prescription requests. I believe we are the only independent pharmacy administering COVID shots as of right now, said Dr. Sahar Kassem, President, Morgan Care Pharmacy.

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Milner said if you want it now, message or call your doctor.

The best way to protect yourself and everyone else is to go ahead and get it. I think theres few downsides, Milner said.

The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is scheduled to meet on September 18 and 19.

Walgreens and CVS said once the CDC gives the green light, they wont require prescriptions anymore.

All CVS Minute Clinic locations are offering the vaccine without a prescription.

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ROBERTSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN)  Thanks to an online tour, the history behind Robertson Countys historic churches is just a click away.

The number of churches that we have in the county is just sort of a representation of the moral compass, historic church tour creator Kevin Ragland said.

On almost every corner, churches of every denomination line Robertson County streets, showing the communitys roots run deep.

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It didnt matter what the denomination was; it was a community church. They would all go there together, historic church tour creator Lisa Ragland said. Wherever your churches were at, then the people would build around it, and that would start a lot of our communities and our little towns that weve got here.

Each historic church holds its own unique story.

NEWS 2 ON TOUR | Robertson County company fabricating a worldwide legacy

Every one of these churches that you go into is just peace and calm and the presence of God, Lisa explained.

Springfield First United Methodist Church recently celebrated its 190th anniversary this year.

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The church was set on fire to take care of a distraction so that a murder could be taking place over some family issues, Kevin described. As the men came running, they went into the church and saved a few items. One of the stained glass windows is from the original.

The oldest public building still in use in the county is part of the Springfield First Presbyterian, now Springfield United Church.

During the Civil War, the Union soldiers used it to house their horses as a stable, and you can still see some of the hoof prints, Kevin said.

(Photo: WKRN) (Photo: WKRN) (Photo: WKRN) (Photo: WKRN) (Photo: WKRN) (Photo: WKRN) (Photo: WKRN) (Photo: WKRN) (Photo: WKRN) (Photo: WKRN) (Photo: WKRN) (Photo: WKRN) (Photo: WKRN)

First Baptist Missionary Church  was built after the Civil War, and the church itself was built after 1914, Kevin said. Their congregation started about 1888.

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But its the stories inside these churches that one local couple is making sure arent forgotten.

It was about three years ago that we created the tour here of the map, Lisa said.

Walking through these churches historic doors is like stepping back in time, but now you can take the same tour with a phone or computer.

News 2 On Tour | Explore the communities that shape Middle Tennessee

We get in our own little niche  in our own little corner, Lisa said. So like I said, when we got around driving and looking at that, hopefully it expands people and they look at the whole county and kind of expand your horizons.

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In 2019, Lisa and Kevin Ragland toured 150 churches in Robertson County, narrowing it down to 29 featured on the online historic church tour hosted by the Robertson County Historical Society.

Of course, a lot of it was personal preference  churches and campuses that just spoke to us, Kevin said. Some of them arent really ornate.

As they plan to expand the tour with a booklet, the couple hopes people will remember that the church is still a community centerpiece.

If a church is having a crisis like fire damage or storm damage or needing something, other churches people still help each other, while we have our own church, Lisa said.

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This photo provided by Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) shows debris of a crashed helicopter in Central Papua, Indonesia, on Sept 10, 2025. A helicopter with four people on board crashed on Wednesday in Indonesia's Central Papua province. (Basarnas/Handout via Xinhua)

JAKARTA, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- A helicopter with four people on board crashed on Wednesday in Indonesia's Central Papua province.

The aircraft went down at around 1:40 p.m. local time while flying from Ilaga Airport in Puncak Regency to Mozes Airport in Mimika Regency, said I Wayan Suyatna, head of the search and rescue office in Mimika.

"The helicopter has been located. The occupants are the pilot, co-pilot, and two passengers," Suyatna told Xinhua, adding that their conditions remain unknown.

He said evacuation efforts will continue on Thursday, subject to clear weather and other favorable conditions. 
PRINCE GEORGES COUNTY, Md. (DC News Now)  Police officers in Prince Georges County tried to stop a stolen vehicle on Tuesday, resulting in a chase that didnt end until it crossed into the District.

The Prince Georges County Police Department (PGPD) said that officers first tried to stop the vehicle in the 2600 block of Shady Side Ave. in Hillcrest Heights, Md.

The car did not stop and instead drove off, hitting a couple of cruisers in the process.

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Police: Guns found after police chase from Prince Georges County to DC; 5 charged

PGPD said that the chase continued into D.C. It ended at the intersection of Minnesota and Pennsylvania avenues in Southeast.

Officers apprehended three individuals.

Police said that nobody was injured.

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A Princeton University graduate student who was kidnapped in Iraq in 2023 while doing research there has been freed and turned over to U.S. authorities, her family and officials said Tuesday.

Elizabeth Tsurkov, who holds Israeli and Russian citizenship, spent more than 900 days in custody after disappearing in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, as she was pursuing a doctorate focused on sectarianism in the region.

She was turned over to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad after having been tortured for many months, President Donald Trump said in a social media post in which he identified her captors as from Kataib Hezbollah , part of a coalition of Iranian-backed militias that are officially part of Iraqs armed forces but in practice often act on their own. The U.S. government listed the group, which has not claimed the kidnapping, as a terrorist organization in 2009.

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Tsurkovs sister, Emma, a U.S. citizen who has campaigned for her release, said she was in Washington for meetings this week when she heard the news from Adam Boehler, the U.S. special presidential envoy for hostage affairs.

The sisters were able to connect by phone and expect to be reunited in the next 24 hours, though the details were still being worked out, Emma Tsurkov said.

I heard her voice for the first time in 2 1/2 years and still couldnt believe it, and I just melted on the floor, she said in an interview with The Associated Press. I heard her voice and she heard mine, and it was the most joyous experience of my life, and we both started sobbing and screaming.

What Iraqi officials say about Tsurkovs release

Two Iraqi militia officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case, said Tsurkovs release came about as a result of negotiations and not through a military operation to free her.

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The officials said one of the conditions for her release had been the withdrawal of U.S. forces currently stationed in Iraq  which had been agreed upon between Washington and Baghdad last year  and that the U.S. and Israel would not launch strikes on Iraq.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he spoke with Tsurkovs family and told them the entire state of Israel is happy to see her return home.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani said in a post on X that Tsurkovs release was the culmination of extensive efforts exerted by our security services over the course of many months.

We reaffirm, once again, that we will not tolerate any compromise in enforcing the law and upholding the authority of the state, nor will we allow anyone to undermine the reputation of Iraq and its people, he said.

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Al-Sudani came to power in 2022 with the backing of a coalition of Iran-linked Shiite parties, but since then has sought to balance relations between Washington and Tehran. In a recent interview with the AP, he said he sought closer ties with the Trump administration.

One of the most complicated issues for al-Sudani is how to handle the Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of mostly Shiite, Iran-backed militias that formed to fight the Islamic State group. This coalition was formally placed under the control of the Iraqi military in 2016, although in practice it still operates with significant autonomy. Kataib Hezbollah is part of the PMF.

The Iraqi parliament was recently considering legislation that would solidify the relationship between the military and the PMF, drawing objections from Washington. The legislation has not moved forward to a vote.

An Iraqi army spokesperson said in a statement that following exceptional security and intelligence efforts, authorities were able to locate the place where Tsurkov was being held, reach it, and subsequently hand her over to the United States Embassy, which will in turn arrange for her reunion with her sister, who holds American citizenship.

Tsurkov disappeared in March 2023

An expert on regional affairs widely quoted over the years by international media, Elizabeth Tsurkov entered Iraq on a Russian passport to pursue her research.

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She made her last post on Twitter, now known as X, on March 21, 2023, when she recirculated a photograph of pro-Kurdistan protesters in Syria. Emma Tsurkov said it was her understanding that her sister went to a coffee shop in Baghdads central neighborhood of Karradah, days after having spinal cord surgery, and did not return.

The only direct proof of life of Elizabeth Tsurkov during her captivity was a video broadcast in November 2023 on an Iraqi television station and circulated on pro-Iranian social media purporting to show her. But officials from multiple countries have confirmed in recent months that she was alive.

There were reports last spring that negotiators were close to a deal, with talks having centered on an exchange, but Emma Tsurkov said at the time that no agreement appeared imminent.

Trump on Friday signed an executive order allowing for the U.S. to designate nations as state sponsors of wrongful detention, using the threat of associated sanctions to deter countries from taking Americans into custody.

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One of the provisions specifically noted that the order would apply to cases in which a government is responsible for or complicit in the unjust or unlawful detention of third country nationals in which cases the United States has a national interest.

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A Princeton University doctoral student who was kidnapped by a militia group in Iraq in 2023 and was held for more than 900 days has been released, President Trump announced Tuesday.

Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli and Russian citizen whose sister is an American citizen, is now safe at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq after she had been held captive by the Iran-backed, U.S.-designated terrorist group Kata'ib Hezbollah, Mr. Trump said in a Truth Social post.

"I will always fight for JUSTICE, and never give up. HAMAS, RELEASE THE HOSTAGES, NOW!" the president wrote, referring to the terrorist organization Hamas that's holding 48 hostages, 20 of whom are believed to be alive, who were taken during Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

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"My entire family is incredibly happy. We cannot wait to see Elizabeth and give her all the love we have been waiting to share for 903 days," Tsurkov's sister Emma said Tuesday in a statement, The Associated Press reported.

In a statement to CBS News on Tuesday, Princeton President Christopher L. Eisgruber said, "The release of Princeton graduate student Elizabeth Tsurkov brings relief and joy to the University community, and we celebrate that she will be reunited with her family."

"We thank President Trump for securing Elizabeth's release. We are also grateful to those who worked tirelessly to bring an end to her terrible ordeal, including her family, friends and advocates," Eisgruber said.

In addition to her studies at the Ivy League school, Tsurkov was a fellow at the Washington-based think tank New Lines Institute and wrote for New Lines Magazine before her kidnapping.

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Tsurkov has over a decade of experience working with human rights organizations in the Middle East, according to colleagues. She was also a fellow at the American think tank Foreign Policy Research Institute.

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President Trump and the Iraqi government on Tuesday announced that Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli-Russian citizen, U.S. permanent resident and Princeton graduate student, was released after being held captive for over 900 days by the terrorist group Khataib Hezbollah in Iraq.

Trump said in a Truth Social post that Tsurkov is in the American Embassy in Iraq. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said her release was the result of efforts exerted by our security agencies over many months.

Tsurkov was kidnapped in Baghdad in March 2023 by the Iran-backed militia group when she was in the country for academic research.

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Emma Tsurkov, Elizabeths sister and an American citizen, said the entire family is incredibly happy. She served as a high-profile advocate for her sisters release, confronting the Iraqi prime minister during an event at the Atlantic Council in April 2024 and issuing a personal appeal to Trumps special envoy for peace missions, Steve Witkoff, during an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee in February.

Emma Tsurkov credited Adam Boehler, Trumps special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, as critical to securing Elizabeth Tsurkovs release.

We cannot wait to see Elizabeth and give her all the love we have been waiting to share for 903 days, she said in a statement.

We are so thankful to President Trump and his Special Envoy, Adam Boehler. If Adam had not made my sisters return his personal mission, I do not know where we would be. We also want to thank Josh Harris and his team at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad for the support they provided to our sister and the team at the nonprofit Global Reach who advocated relentlessly for my sisters safe return.

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Global Reach is a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing home Americans who are wrongly held abroad.

Its CEO Mickey Bergman said it is a day we have all been waiting for and credited U.S. involvement.

Elizabeth is a Princeton graduate student  an innocent researcher who was doing doctoral field work when she was kidnapped by Khataib Hezbollah. When others were unwilling to help her, the US government stepped up, in particular Special Envoy Adam Boehler and the team at the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs. The Trump Administration deserves credit for taking action and bringing this young woman home to her family.

The Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., did not immediately return a request for comment.

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DOTHAN, Ala (WDHN)  Dothan High School has a new principal.

The Dothan City Schools Board of Education approved the hiring of Brian Riviere during the board meeting on Tuesday night.

According to Dothan City Schools, Riviere has 27 years of experience in education and has spent the last 12 years as a principal.

The Dothan High School website shows Riviere was an assistant principal before his appointment.

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We are excited to welcome Mr. Riviere as the new leader of Dothan High School, said Dothan City Schools Superintendent Dr. Garrick Askew. His wealth of experience, academic excellence, and passion for education will be instrumental in guiding our students and staff toward continued achievement.

The role became vacant after Dr. Keith Bland turned in his resignation in May of this year.

Dothan High principal resigns

Riviere earned his Bachelor of Science in Education from Florida State University before attending the University of West Florida, where he graduated with a Master of Science in Educational Leadership.

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A Yelm man is now behind bars, accused of the murder of a Tacoma-area woman who disappeared more than four years ago.

James Daniel Lewis appeared in court via video Tuesday afternoon.

Lewis is accused of killing 36-year-old Amanda Green, who went missing in May of 2021.

Thurston County Sheriffs investigators believe they found Greens buried remains near Mt. Rainier over the weekend.

We got lucky this weekend and he (Lewis) was found by the Department of Corrections, who brought him in so we could interview him, said Lt. Mike Brooks with the Thurston County Sheriffs Office.

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According to court documents, when Green went missing, investigators had a person of interest, but not enough evidence to make an arrest.

The investigation picked back up last March.

Its believed Green was killed in Yelm, at a home where Lewis was living.

Last Friday, investigators say Lewis led them to a spot in Lewis County near Mt. Ranier where they found human remains in a shallow grave along a secluded road.

As far as a motive, Lewis told investigators he was at his home where he and a friend got into an argument with Green, then admitted shooting her, claiming she intended to take guns and ammo from the property.

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The dynamics of what specifically was taking place at the time this occurred isnt overly clear to us yet, said Brooks.

In court, the judge denied bail, as Lewis violent past was brought up  a conviction for rape of a child and assault with a deadly weapon.

Its very clear that the defendant demonstrates a propensity for violence and this, along with all of his charges, find that bail is not appropriate or warranted in this case, said Emily Dawson, the deputy prosecuting attorney.

Lewis is facing charges of second-degree murder and unlawful disposal of human remains.

Investigators believe the remains are those of Green, but are waiting for positive identification.

This allows us to find her, bring some closure to the family, and without his cooperation, we probably would have never gotten there, said Brooks.

An arraignment is set for September 16.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH)  A new development proposed in far southwest Columbus has some residents worried about the impact of more people sharing the infrastructure in an area they said cant handle the increase.

Paul Pope is the vice president of the homeowners association for the Holt Park development. He understands Columbus is a growing city with a need for more housing, but noted the development could cause unnecessary problems for the neighborhood.

Cheesecake bakery relocates on Columbus East Side

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Its like its falling on deaf ears and there are hundreds and hundreds, maybe thousands, of people that are objecting to this, Pope said.

He, along with other residents in the area, are voicing concerns over a proposed development by Fairway Companies. It calls for more than 300 units in 16 buildings on 20 acres near Holt and Alkire roads.

I have a sense that some people in the community may be moving out because of that, Pope said.

The proposal calls for the area to be rezoned to a limited apartment residential district. The proposal was rejected by the Westland Area Commission in July. Its now set to go before the Columbus Development Commission in the coming days.

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Hot Chicken Takeover down to one central Ohio restaurant after closing another location

For Pope, the main concern is increased traffic.

The infrastructure is not ready for this, Pope said. The traffic is absolutely horrible right now. I mean, we cant turn in and out of our development. During school hours, we have four schools right down the street. Theyre adding one development already proposed that is being built right now. Then there is one, another one right on this same street.

He also talked about the schools possibly being overcrowded, and the fact the Holt Road has a single lane in each direction. He explained that with more cars added to the community, it could be a nightmare.

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Im not against improvement or adding homes and such to the community and especially to Columbus because we need them, Pope said. Its absolutely needed, but thats almost close to, I would say, 800 to 1,000 cars additionally coming in and out of Holt Road. When are they going to expand Holt Road?

Amphitheater, splash pad among suggested improvements to Creekside Plaza in Gahanna

Pope said residents will continue to write letters and send emails to officials urging them to pause this development.

NBC4 has reached out to Fairway Companies for comment, but has not heard back.

Editors note: A previous version of this story erroneously identified the location of the proposed community as Grove City.

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BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET)  The sheriffs office is cracking down on copper wire theft.

For years copper wire has been a prime target for low-grade thieves looking to make a quick buck on the backs of local businesses. County supervisors today adopted revisions to a proposed ordinance in response to demands by business owners to get tough on wire theft.

The new ordinance would target those who arent connected to legal businesses and 10 pounds or more of commercial grade scrap metal, which highly correlates with theft, according to a letter sent by the sheriffs office to the Board of Supervisors.

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The objective is to stop people from stripping copper wire out of different areas, telephone poles, pumps, said Sheriff Donny Youngblood. They go out and they strip copper wire and cause hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage and sell it for two or three thousand.

The new ordinance would prohibit the stripping, transportation, and selling of commercial grade scrap metal and copper wire unless you can prove its your property or connected to a legitimate business.

The proposed ordinance would also ban people from removing the protective sheathing over commercial grade wire or even possessing commercial grade wire with sheathing removed.

Metal thieves typically remove the sheathing that coats the wires by stripping or burning them off as the sheathing usually contains markings that identify the type of wire or cable and its owner, making it harder for law enforcement to find out who the lawful owner is.

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Its extremely important, it puts some businesses out of business. I know of one business that had to close for a week to do the repairs, and if you lose a week of revenue it could be catastrophic to the business, said Youngblood.

In a letter to the board, the sheriffs office says metal thefts are estimated to have inflicted over $1.25 million in loss or damage in Kern County since January.

One downtown business, Brooks Brothers interiors, was stripped of wire in their electronic vehicle charging stations in June.

Two thieves used a hacksaw to cut the wire to the stations. The owner Tamara Montana, is overjoyed the county is stepping up the laws against the thefts.

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This is not a victimless crime, I mean businesses are really hurt by this. We love being able to have that stop or that place that leads the charge, said Montana.

The board is slated to consider the proposed ordinance for enactment on Sept. 23.

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Drugs developed to reduce levels of a protein found at high levels in Alzheimers patients could lead to treatments aimed at curbing the disease before symptoms show up, a new study suggests.

A growing body of studies suggests that many people may start living with Alzheimers years before they even spot signs of the disease. They start to experience erasure of memories, language and thoughts without even realising, and once they do spot the symptoms, it may be too late to reverse or stop the degenerative disease.

Researchers assessed one of the earliest signs of the condition and found that targeting a brain protein could be a promising way to thwart chronic, damaging inflammation and curb the progression of Alzheimers.

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The brain protein TSPO, or Translocator protein 18 kDA, is detectable even before memory loss or cognitive decline are evident, and influences the onset of Alzheimers, according to the study, published in the journal Acta Neuropathologica.

If we can use TSPO to detect it early, right at the beginning stages of the disease, it could mean slowing progression or delaying symptoms by five or six years, said Dr Tomas R Guilarte, one of the authors of the study, from Florida International University.

Thats five or six years where someone has a better quality of life, Dr Guilarte said.

TSPO levels are normally very low in the brain, but when inflammation is present, they tend to keep increasing, scientists say.

TSPO levels have been found to be higher in active and recently retired NFL players ranging in age from 23 to 39 (JAMA Neurology/Florida International University)

The latest study narrowed down where and when TSPO initially appears in the brain.

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Researchers found that its appearance coincides with small scatterings of amyloid plaques, known to be a smoking gun sign of Alzheimers.

Probing further, scientists found that TSPO signals were given off by specific brain cells  microglia and astrocytes  which are responsible for protecting neurons. Microglia cells in the closest proximity to amyloid plaques appeared to have the highest concentration of TSPO, the study found.

TSPO signals could be seen in one-and-a-half-month-old mice  the equivalent of an 18- to 20-year-old human, researchers say.

What we believe is happening is that something goes wrong with the microglia. They stop doing their job in removing the plaques and just keep sending out TSPO signals, Dr Guilarte said. This constant signal of neuroinflammation is like adding wood to a fire, he explained.

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Scientists found the same pattern in human brain samples donated by patients from Colombia with a rare form of Alzheimers disease, who showed symptoms as early as their thirties and forties, and died in their fifties.

One of the biggest problems with Alzheimers is people see it as a disease of ageing, and that impacts when people get diagnosed, said Dr Daniel Martinez-Perez, another author of the study. But the reality is that the disease starts decades before diagnosis, and the more biomarkers and therapeutic targets our global community of scientists are finding, the closer we all get to physicians having a whole panel of diagnostics to be able to deliver more personalised, tailored treatments.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI)  Candidates looking to enter the special election for the newly vacant Ward 2 seat on the Providence City Council have until Sept. 26 to do so, according to the city.

The Providence Board of Canvassers and Registration issued a warrant to hold a special election to fill the vacancy left by Helen Anthony. The council formally accepted Anthonys resignation last week.

BACKGROUND: Providence city councilor to resign to focus on health

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The board announced on Tuesday afternoon that the special election will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 2, with a primary scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 4.

Anyone seeking to run is required to file a declaration of candidacy with the Board of Canvassers between Sept. 25 and Sept. 26 at 4 p.m., the city said.

Additionally, nomination papers will be available beginning on Oct. 2 and must be returned by Oct. 7 with at least 50 signatures of eligible voters in Ward 2.

As of Tuesday night, just two candidates  David Caldwell and Jeff Levy  had formally announced they were running for the seat. Jill Davidson, the director of development and communications at the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council, told 12 News she plans to formally announce her campaign later this week.

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NEXT: Helena Foulkes promises new leadership, slams McKee in kickoff for RI governor

Alexandra Leslie (aleslie@wpri.com) is a Target 12 investigative reporter covering Providence and more for 12 News. Connect with her on Twitter and on Facebook.

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NEW DELHI, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- One worker was killed and over a dozen others were hospitalized on Wednesday following a toxic gas leak at a chemical factory in the western Indian state of Gujarat, officials said.

The incident took place at the Gujarat Fluorochemical Limited factory in Ghoghamba area of Panchmahal district.

The workers -- some of whom were unconscious -- have been moved to the nearest hospitals.

Officials said following the gas leak, the company's in-house medical team immediately administered antidotes to the affected workers and shifted them to hospitals, while five critically affected workers were later moved to Vadodara for advanced treatment.

Local police and health department teams rushed to the spot.

Reports said villagers living near the plant were evacuated as a precautionary measure.

The police have registered a case and ordered an investigation to ascertain the reasons for the leak. 
Sep. 9The nine candidates vying for seats on the Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education will have the chance to make their case to voters at a forum Wednesday at the district's headquarters.

This November, voters in APS Districts 3,5, 6 and 7 will elect representatives to the governing body of the largest school district in New Mexico.

Among those nine are two incumbents: District 3 Board Member Danielle Gonzales, the board's president, and District 7 Board Member Courtney Jackson, the board's vice president. The current District 5 and District 6 representatives are not seeking reelection.

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The forum will be held at the Alice and Bruce King Educational Complex, 6400 Uptown NE, in the John Milne Community Board Room from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

At stake is control of the board by either union or corporate interests.

The Albuquerque Teachers Federation has endorsed a candidate in each race except for District 5. The Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce has endorsed a candidate in all races, including the two incumbents.

Currently, each faction has three members on the seven-member board. There is one board member, elected in 2023, who was not endorsed by either faction.

The candidates will answer questions submitted by the public.

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"All nine candidates will answer the same questions. Because there will only be enough time for about 10 questions, similar questions will be combined to allow for the greatest variety of questions," according to APS' website.

Until 2019, the district held its own elections separate from the general local elections in November. Then, the Legislature passed the Local Election Act, requiring school board elections to take place in conjunction with other municipal races.

As a result of that change, the landscape around school board races has changed, said Brian Sanderoff, a longtime local pollster and the president of Research & Polling.

"Under the old system, when the school board candidates were running in a separate APS election, there were so few people who voted that you could actually gain access to those people who traditionally vote in those 5%-10% turnout races," Sanderoff said. "Now, with an estimated turnout of one-third of the voters in the district, it's harder to reach them."

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He added that because of the broader scope of people turning out, the campaign cost has increased. As the cost and voter turnout have changed, so has the balance of power on the board.

Historically, endorsements and funding from the local teachers union or the metro area's business community power players have been key in the battle for power on the APS board. Before the charter change, the teachers' union had an easier time getting its candidates on the board.

"Under the pre-2019 system, where voter turnout was much smaller, I think APS employees comprised a larger proportion of the voters, and oftentimes the APS employees were supporting the teacher federation candidate," Sanderoff said. "I don't think the business community was as mobilized. The teachers' unions were mobilized, and the proportion of the electorate was much smaller."

In 2021, when Districts 3,5, 6, and 7 were last up for grabs, the business community backed candidates won three of the four open seats, gaining a majority on the board. Prior to the 2021 election, union backed candidates held the board majority for at least a quarter-century.

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District 3 covers the city's north-central corridor and stretches across the river to Corrales, bordering Rio Rancho Public Schools. District 5 encompasses the city's central and far West Side, bordered on the east by District 3.

District 6 accounts for the foothills, part of Uptown and the lower end of the Northeast Heights, stretching to the East Mountains. District 7 covers the northern part of the foothills and the north end of Northeast Heights. It is bordered on the west by Interstate 25.

Election Day is Nov. 4. Early voting begins Oct. 7 and ends Nov. 1.
Washington, DC  Hours after United States President Donald Trump promised that Israel would not attack Qatar again, the Israeli ambassador to the US suggested that his country could repeat its attempt to kill Hamas officials within the Gulf country.

Speaking to Fox News late on Tuesday, Yechiel Leiter said if Hamas leaders had survived the Doha bombardment, Israel would target them again.

If we didnt get them this time, well get them the next time, the Israeli envoy said.

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Israel launched air attacks in Doha targeting a Hamas delegation that was meeting to discuss Trumps Gaza ceasefire proposal on Tuesday.

But Hamas said its top leaders  including its Gaza chief Khalil al-Hayya  survived the assassination attempt, which killed six people, including a Qatari security officer.

Countries across the world, including some of Israels Western allies, condemned the attack.

The Israeli air raids appear to have violated several provisions of international law, including the United Nations Charters prohibition on aggression against sovereign states.

Qatar described the strikes as state terrorism and called for a regional response against the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.





Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani accused Netanyahu of undermining regional stability and peace in pursuit of narcissistic delusions and personal gains.

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Working to violate the sovereignty of nations without any care must not be overlooked and must be confronted by all means, he said.

Trump, a staunch supporter of Israel, also expressed misgivings with the attack, but stopped short of publicly condemning it.

Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a Sovereign Nation and close Ally of the United States, that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker Peace, does not advance Israel or Americas goals, he wrote in a social media post.

Qatar is a major non-NATO ally of the US, and it has helped mediate several international agreements involving Washington. The Gulf country also hosts one of the largest US military bases in the region.

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The US president added on Tuesday that he spoke to Qatars emir and prime minister and assured them that such a thing will not happen again on their soil.

But Leiter dismissed the US and international concerns, saying that Israel  which attacked at least five Arab countries over the past month  is changing the region for the better and working to defeat Islamic extremism.

Right now, we may be subject to a little bit of criticism. Theyll get over it, he said.

Israel receives billions of dollars in US military aid annually.
Thani added that US officials first warned Qatar of the Israeli attack 10 minutes after the attack began, describing the attack as "treacherous."

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said during a press conference on Tuesday that the mediation efforts are part of the Qatari identity and nothing would deter its role in that regard, hours after Israel attacked Hamas leaders in Doha.

"Qatar has spared no efforts and will do everything it can to stop this war in Gaza, but for current talks, I do not think there's something valid right now after what we saw from today's attack," Thani said at a news conference.

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Earlier on Tuesday, the Gulf state announced that it was officially suspending negotiations for a hostage and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

In the press conference, Thani blamed Israel for sabotaging what he said were chances for peace, sharply criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he said practiced "state terrorism."

Israeli sources told The Jerusalem Post that the strike, targeting a gathering of senior Hamas officials, will actually help advance negotiations for a hostage deal.

"At first, Hamas will likely declare that there will be no negotiations and no deal, but in the end - the talks will resume," a source knowledgeable about the matter said.

A damaged building, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders, according to an Israeli official, in Doha, Qatar, September 9, 2025 (credit: REUTERS/IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA)

Thani added that US officials first warned Qatar of the Israeli attack 10 minutes after the attack began, describing the attack as "treacherous."

Qatar says it will respond to Israeli attack

"Qatar reserves the right to respond to this blatant attack and will take all necessary measures to respond," he added, saying a legal team has been formed to handle the Gulf country's response to the attack.

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However, Army Radio reported shortly afterwards that the Qatari foreign minister said that the "message Israel is sending is that no one in the region is safe.

The State of Qatar strongly condemns the cowardly Israeli attack that targeted residential buildings housing several members of the political bureau of Hamas in the Qatari capital, Doha, said Majed Al-Ansari, a spokesperson of the Qatari Foreign Ministry.

This criminal assault constitutes a blatant violation of all international laws and norm and poses a serious threat to the security and safety of the residents in Qatar, he added.

While Qatar strongly condemns this assault, it confirms that it will not tolerate this reckless Israeli behavior and the ongoing disruption of regional security, nor any act that targets its security and sovereignty.

Amichai Stein contributed to this report.
A company based in Davenport has new technology that is considered a game-changer for customers who need more electric power for their vehicles and boats, and even equipment used by the military.

American Power Systems, which specializes in alternators, is a Quad-City company with a growing global impact.

An alternator basically turns mechanical energy into electrical energy, said Keith Stein, program manager for the commercial division at American Power Systems. If the engine is idling low then youre not getting a lot of power generated from that alternator.

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Now American Power Systems has created a new line of ultra-performance-at-idle, or UPI, alternators.

The UPI series is an alternator that we developed that will give you that power at the low end, said Stein. Plus were able to get you more power on the top end. And when I say top end, its when youre headed down the highway going to your next destination.

That allows for longer power use without the motor running or at low idle.

Youve got a battery pack within that system to provide your refrigeration for your food storage, things like that, said Stein.

That can run a vehicle with less gasoline and save the end-user money because they are not spending it on fuel. They then can charge these batteries off of our alternators, said Stein.

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American Power Systems also provided the alternator to Sebestien Simon, a French sailor who finished third in a cross-globe yacht race.

The company has been in business in Davenport since its founding in 2006. The new alternator system has been on the market only a short time, and is being marketed to customers around the world.

For more information about American Power Systems, visit here.

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Superyacht and megayacht culture are usually not welcomed warmly by the general population of the internet, who often find these straightforward displays of wealth ostentatious.

A Reddit post on the subreddit r/RoyalsGossip is gaining significant attention, which shared photos of Queen Camilla on what is said to be a 30 million yacht.

Phto Credit: Reddit

The post highlights that while Camilla has not done anything wrong, the superyacht on which she was seen belonged to a billionaire Tory donor.

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"While there is no suggestion the King's 78-year-old wife has done anything wrong, accepting hospitality from someone so influential in the world of politics is not a good look," the post reads, quoting an article by The Mirror.

The post also highlights how millions of British citizens are struggling to afford everyday necessities, making the gallivanting on the outrageously priced boat feel like a slap in the face.

"This is not a good look for Camilla, especially when the relationships between the royals and their associates are rightly called into question," the post added.

Superyachts are essentially humongous yachts. Bloomberg defines them as luxury motorized boats over 100 feet long.

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Other superyachts have gained attention, such as one that cost $270 million to build and is already falling apart. Meanwhile, other public figures have been scrutinized for owning superyachts, which is comparatively more dramatic than the queen taking a vacation on someone else's boat. Among these superyacht owners are Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos.

These yachts do more than cost the amount of a small country  the environmental implications are stark. On top of needing excessive amounts of dirty fuels to run, a lot of these fluids get dumped into the ocean, creating marine pollution.

Some companies have created more sustainable alternatives to the typical superyacht. For example, Silent Yachts, an Austrian company, uses solar power to run the ships.

Reactions to Queen Camilla on the superyacht were in line with other superyachters.

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"Gross," one user commented.

Another expressed their disappointment, adding, "Sigh."

Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
BELLEROSE, Queens (PIX11)  A parolee wanted in connection with a double murder in Queens on Monday has a string of violent robberies, including one where he was convicted of sexually assaulting a worker in a Manhattan store 20 years ago, authorities said Tuesday.

In November 2005, Jamel McGriff, 42, robbed a 34-year-old man at knifepoint on an F train near the Delancey Street-Essex Street subway station in Lower Manhattan, according to the NYPD. McGriff took the victims $200 watch and $40 in cash, police said.

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Nine days later, he was armed with a knife when he stole $300 from a Manhattan business near 16th Street and Seventh Avenue and sexually assaulted a woman who worked in the store, cops said. The 23-year-old woman was injured during the attack, according to state records.

McGriff was arrested for the store robbery in December 2005 and stabbed an inmate at Rikers Island while in custody, sources said.

He was convicted of both crimes in 2006 and served 16 years before he was released. McGriff failed to register as a sex offender in 2024, which was a parole violation, authorities said.

Cops said the suspect was wanted for robberies at a GameStop and Verizon over the summer. In the Verizon robbery on Aug. 31, he allegedly forced a worker into the back room and threatened them with a fake gun, police said.

Police are searching for Jamel McGriff, 42, who they say has a lengthy criminal history, including two recent robberies in Manhattan in July and August. (Credit: NYPD)

The NYPD is still searching for McGriff after authorities found 76-year-old Frank Olton and his 77-year-old wife, Maureen Olton, dead in their burnt-down Bellerose home on 254th Street on Monday afternoon.

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In a press conference on Tuesday, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the suspect had been going from door to door, asking for assistance, claiming his phone battery had died.

He was initially denied entrance at the first home, so he moved to a second house, which was the Olton home. Surveillance video showed him speaking with a man at the second house, who allowed him into the backyard, police said.

McGriff was seen entering the rear door at around 10:18 a.m. and exiting at around 3:08 p.m. The couple was found dead inside the home after officials responded to the fire reported by a family member, police said.

The Oltons paramedic son was part of the emergency personnel crew that responded to the scene, sources said.

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Frank Olton was found tied to a pole in the basement with multiple stab wounds. His wife was found burned beyond recognition.

There is no known connection between McGriff and the victims, police said.

McGriff was last seen on surveillance video on Tuesday, pawning cell phones at 384 Fordham Rd. in the Bronx, police said. He was seen wearing a black t-shirt.

Submit tips to police by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), visiting crimestoppers.nypdonline.org, downloading the NYPD Crime Stoppers mobile app, or texting 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577. Spanish-speaking callers are asked to dial 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).

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Mira Wassef is a digital reporter who has covered news and sports in the NYC area for more than a decade. She has been with PIX11 News for two years. See more of her work here.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11.
BECKLEY, WV (WVNS)  A man from Raleigh County was sentenced for violating the Federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.

According to a press release from the United States Department of Justice, 61-year-old Anthony Broadnax, of Beckley, was sentenced on Tuesday, September 9, 2025 to one year and six months in prison, followed by five years of parole, for failure to register as a sex offender, as required by the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), after he moved from Virginia to West Virginia.

Local school administrator arrested for allegedly being drunk while at school

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The press release stated that according to statements made in court, after moving from Virginia, Broadnax lived in the Beckley area of Raleigh County from around May 2021 to approximately July 26, 2021 but reportedly did not register in West Virginia or update his registration in Virginia after the move, which is required by SORNA.

According to the press release, due to convictions for aggravated sexual battery on August 25, 1990, and rape on February 7, 1991, both in Prince William County, Virginia, Broadnax needed to register as a sex offender and comply with SORNA. A previous conviction for failure to register as a sex offender is part of Broadnaxs criminal history.

It is vitally important that sex offenders are tracked and communities are kept aware through the enforcement of these registration and notification requirements. Prosecuting SORNA violators is a top priority of this office and would not be possible without the outstanding investigative work of the United States Marshals Service (USMS) and its coordination with other law enforcement agencies in these cases. Lisa G. Johnston | Acting United States Attorney

Illinois man sentenced for role in scheme to use a drone to get contraband into FCI McDowell

The press release stated that SORNA, which gives a detailed set of minimum standards for sex offender registration and notification in the United States, is part of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006.

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According to the press release, SORNA aims to reinforce sex offender registration and notification programs across the nation by making it necessary for sex offenders to register and keep their registration updated where they live, go to school, or work.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WVNS.
For years, politicians and the American public have clamored for more disclosures about the activities and connections of the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who surrounded himself with powerful, famous friends while trafficking hundreds of young women and girls for sex with the help of his now-imprisoned accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. As yet, records from a sprawling array of court cases and a vast trove of FBI materials related to their investigation of Epstein  together colloquially known as the Epstein Files  have not seen the light of day.

But on Monday, the House Oversight Committee did release select documents provided by Epsteins estate, including the terms of a 2007 nonprosecution agreement  the so-called sweetheart plea deal that allowed Epstein to avoid federal charges at the time  and his last will and testament. The real bombshell was a birthday scrapbook that Maxwell put together for Epsteins 50th birthday, full of doodles, poems, photos, and letters from people in his life. One such person was Donald Trump, who allegedly contributed an abstract drawing of a nude woman and an imagined dialogue between the two men that concluded, Happy Birthday  and may every day be another wonderful secret. Trump and the White House denied the existence of such a letter when it was first reported on by The Wall Street Journal in July; now they claim the letter itself is fake.

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The presidents years of close association with Epstein before they fell out sometime in the mid-2000s (the birthday book was created in 2003) have come in for renewed scrutiny during his second term as president, in part because the MAGA faithful have been particularly vocal about the need for full government transparency on Epstein, believing that this will hurt prominent Democrats and Hollywood elites rather than Trump. This has largely backfired, with Trump continually seeking to move past the Epstein story and convince his supporters that its a dead issue while more and more details of his friendship with the financier trickle out.

Whats remarkable about the birthday book, though, is that Trumps alleged letter is hardly out of place with its creepy innuendos and suggestive sketch. In fact, the three-volume scrapbook  totaling over 200 pages  is full of such veiled references from Epsteins pals, direct commentary about his insatiable lust and countless girlfriends, and redacted photos of Epstein with scantily clad or partially nude women. There are also drawings that allude to his travel by private jet (his Boeing 727-100 aircraft, on which he allegedly had sex with teenage girls, has been dubbed the Lolita Express) and nods to his illicit behavior. A collection of limericks written by his art adviser, Stuart Pivar, for example, notes that Epstein, though up to no good/whenever he could/has avoided the penitentiary.

The book has an introduction by Maxwell and is organized by categories of relatives and acquaintances, opening with a Family section featuring recollections from his parents and his brother, Mark Epstein. This is followed by letters from people who knew him as he grew up in Sea Gate, a private New York community in Coney Island, Brooklyn, in the 1950s and 1960s. One unsigned, handwritten portion by a Brooklyn friend recalls how the author, Epstein, their friend Warren Eisenstein, and Mark Epstein picked up girls on the beach and took them out on a boat, where the author claims to have taken out a knife and told them to strip off their bathing suits. The same author describes himself and Jeffrey Epstein in bed porking some girls while Epstein is shoving penicillin down my throat. He further recounts going out with Epstein and two very young girls probably just 17. The typewritten letter after that, signed by a Johnny Boy Kafka, describes Epsteins parents conceiving him in extremely graphic detail.

Next comes one of two separate portions titled Girlfriends, which leads with a letter from an acquaintance whose name is redacted. The writer states that in the 1970s, Epstein participated in peace marches because they were the easiest places to get laid, and joked that this was a truly unique perspective on political activism. There are more intimate pictures of Epstein with women whose faces are redacted, and multiple shots of him luxuriating in bathtubs, including one where his genitals appear to be censored, and another captioned waiting for my foot massage. In another photo, Epstein appears to be buying something from a specialty grocer  the caption is Are you sure this will make my winkie grow? A photo of Epstein with a woman whose face is redacted is labeled with the quote We think he works for the CIA. (Rumors of Epsteins links to intelligence services, while widespread, have never been substantively confirmed.) There are also pictures of Maxwell: one in which she appears to be speaking with a woman whose image is redacted, bearing the caption He promised you what?!! In another partially redacted image, she and Epstein appear naked in a pool, with him holding her from behind.

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Then there is a section titled Children. It includes a short story, in what appears to be a childs handwriting, about a character named Uncel F attempting to use a toilet to defecate but eliminating on the floor instead. The subsequent pages include a childlike drawing of a wedding and redacted photos of young children in bed, playing piano, and evidently posing for the camera, with captions in what appears to be Maxwells handwriting. Epstein was not known to have fathered any children himself, though he reportedly talked about a plan to impregnate multiple women at his New Mexico ranch to seed the human race with his DNA.

The Friends chapter of the birthday book, which includes the letter that Trump denies writing, is perhaps the most disturbing. It begins with a photo of what appears to be Epstein and another man in hooded masks, and text that reads in part: Jeffrey unveiled his plan. To some it may have seemed a get-rich-quick scheme, but to me it was pure genius: Rob and Kill was the name of the plan. The first victim, to be attacked and brutally plundered (would she want more than that?) on the boardwalk in Venice Beach. Broad daylight. The dastardly thieves were never caught. Another letter addresses Epstein as Degenerate One and is signed Degenerate II. Alan Dershowitz, the famed attorney who once counted Epstein as a client, submitted a spoof cover of Vanity Fair, tweaked as Vanity Unfair, with fake headlines speculating that Epstein was Jack the Ripper and had financed the terrorist group Al Qaeda. Dershowitz joked that he had talked them into changing the focus of the issue from you to Bill Clinton. (Clinton, too, appears in the scrapbook, with a brief scribbled note commending Epstein for his childlike curiosity.)

Other friends rehashed lewd incidents and wrote of his luxurious homes he likes to share with his friends (yum yum). Nathan Myhrvold, former Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft, noted that he was ill prepared to comment on Epsteins lifestyle in any detail, and instead appended pictures from a recent trip to Africa that showed zebras and lions having sex. Joel Pashcow, former chairman of a New York real estate company, contributed clip art of an airplane and women in bathing suits. The illustration following that page includes comic-book style drawings of Epstein: in the first panel, labeled 1983, he is shabbily dressed and offering girls balloons at a birthday party. In the second, labeled 2003, Epstein is seen relaxing at an oceanside mansion, his private jet overhead, as he is massaged by four practically naked blonde women, one sporting a heart tattoo with the letters JE on her buttocks. What a great country! reads the text on this half of the page.

Trump comes up a second time in the Friends collage, with Epstein seen in a photo holding a large novelty check that bears his name. Jeffrey showing early talents with money + women! the caption says. Sells fully depreciated [name redacted] to Donald Trump. Epstein is posing with Pashcow, a third man, and a woman whose face is censored. (Trump in July made the remarkable claim that he and Epstein eventually parted ways because the financier stole spa workers from his Mar-a-Lago club.) Another letter included an illustration of breasts, with the note I wanted to get you what you want, and painted designs with the impression of a nipple on the page  captioned as tit prints and specially commissioned by the late economist Henry Rosovsky.

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A follow-up Girlfriends chapter includes a letter from a woman who wrote that her life was forever changed after she was hired by Maxwell to massage Epsteins feet and was then ushered into his world. With you, dear Jeffrey, I laugh like a little girl and feel like a woman, she wrote, attaching a photo of her buttocks in a bathing suit. Another woman supplied photos of her breasts, which are redacted, as well as a bra. A third recalled how she had gone shopping with Epstein at Bloomingdales, where he inquired if she were a virgin and then threw her down on the floor right smack in the middle of the shoe dept. and started kissing and tickling me all over!! This author included a photo of herself, face redacted, in her underwear, labeled: Visiting you down in Palm Beach Cant get a second of privacy with you and a camera around ha ha! Yet another woman wrote that she wanted to cut Epstein into bird-head pieces and chew them between my molars until I suck all the blood and juice out of you. Letters from supposed Assistants were no less salacious: Like the Girlfriends, they included plenty of bikini shots and other winks at sexual relationships.

One of the last shocking items in the book comes in the Business chapter, from Elliot Wolk, who worked at Bear Stearns when Epstein was at the investment bank in the 1970s. Jeffrey I remember in the mid 1970s you being a star salesman for our tax advantaged strategies and hedged option program, he wrote. I was running an account for Bob Maxwell. That would be the media mogul Robert Maxwell, father of Ghislaine Maxwell. You always had the ability to know everyone and be charming, wrote Wolk. Was that when you first discovered the Maxwell teen-age daughter Officially, Epstein and Maxwell did not date until 1991. In 1976, when Epstein joined Bear Stearns, he would have been in his early twenties, while Maxwell would have been in her mid-teens.

All told, while the birthday book adds to the public knowledge of Epsteins social life, it will unlikely precipitate further prosecutions, coded as it is in the various authors oblique language and cryptic references. A few contributors have already died, some of them long before Epstein himself was found hanged in his jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. Nevertheless, it paints a chilling picture of power and wealth, and an aristocratic clique seemingly unfazed or even amused by Epsteins proclivity for very young women.

MAGA conspiracists are sure to keep pressing for the release of a purely hypothetical client list that names people Epstein supplied with children for sex, but this is likely as close as they will ever get.

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COLOMBO, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- The role of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as a driver of peace, prosperity and stability across the region is growing, Indian experts have said.

The organization's multidimensional agenda marks a decisive step in institutional maturity and offers a fresh paradigm for global governance, they noted.

B. R. Deepak, a professor and the chair of the Center of Chinese and Southeast Asian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, described the SCO as a "holistic yet distinctive regional institution," which he said is integrating security, economic and cultural cooperation within its framework.

Deepak highlighted the SCO's multidimensional approach, saying this allows the organization to address the interconnected issues of the region, such as security, development and cross-cultural communication.

He cited examples such as the SCO's Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) and Peace Mission joint military exercise, practical economic cooperation among Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) participating countries, and cultural initiatives, including the SCO university network.

Deepak believes that outcomes of the recent SCO Summit in Tianjin, China, which intensify cooperation in finance, energy, digitalization and education, are crucial to institutionalizing economic collaboration in the SCO.

The decision to establish an SCO development bank was achieved at the summit. Deepak said the bank is expected to mirror the success of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New Development Bank, providing financing without political preconditions.

"This would not only expand the organization's role but also strengthen its legitimacy as a long-term driver of peace, prosperity and development in the region," he said.

Mohammed Saqib, secretary general of the India-China Economic and Cultural Council, said that the SCO has become "indispensable" for the region's stability and prosperity, rooted in the Shanghai Spirit.

The Shanghai Spirit underpinning the SCO embodies the principles of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diversity of civilizations, and pursuit of common development.

The SCO's strength lies in coordinating diverse interests, Saqib said. "It acts as a security facilitator through RATS, a platform for economic collaboration through the Belt and Road Initiative, and a cultural link through programs like the SCO University."

He noticed the SCO's records in countering terrorism, including extraditing over 200 suspects and seizing large caches of explosives, as well as helping stabilize the security situation in Afghanistan through the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group.

On the economic front, he pointed to initiatives such as the local currency settlement of transactions and infrastructure projects like the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway.

Saqib underscored that setting up an SCO development bank and cooperation platforms on green industry, digital economy and energy could be "game-changers," unlocking long-stalled projects and advancing sustainable development.

These steps, when implemented, will represent a significant jump in the SCO's capacity to enhance the region's security and prosperity, he said.

Adding a perspective from the Global South, Atul Chandra, a researcher at the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, said that the SCO's unique value lies in its being both inclusive enough to shape outcomes and allow for disagreements.

He said the Tianjin summit was evidence of the group's desire to turn "multilateralism from rhetoric into tools." Supported by a development bank and cooperation platforms in green industry and digital economy, the SCO can finance small but high-impact projects, align standards for sustainable technologies, couple power markets, and promote academic and vocational mobility, Chandra noted.

"Concrete projects, interoperable rules, and people-to-people mobility -- this is how the SCO can deliver lasting peace, universal security, common prosperity, openness, inclusiveness, harmony, and real friendship among our peoples," he added.

For Robinder Sachdev, founder president of The Imagindia Institute, the SCO's value lies not only in its strategic and economic roles but also in its contribution to shaping global governance through civilizational wisdom.

"No other global forum places culture, philosophy and civilizational harmony at the center of its identity in the way the SCO does," Sachdev said.

By embedding principles for peaceful coexistence and pluralism in its institutional design, the SCO provides "a new paradigm for international governance at a time of systemic turbulence," he noted. 
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Ross Edgley has completed his toughest challenge yet. | Credit: Wasserman

A British endurance athlete has made history by becoming the first person to swim around Iceland's entire coastline.

Ross Edgley, 39, began the mammoth journey in May and has covered more than 1,000 miles (1,610km) in the months since, encountering violent storms, unpredictable currents, and chilly temperatures.

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On Monday, September 8, he arrived on Nautholsvik Beach in Reykjavik to jubilation from friends, family, and support staff gathered at the scene.

This has been the toughest and most ambitious challenge I have attempted yet, said Edgley, who previously swam all the way around mainland Britain, and holds the record for the world's longest non-stop river swim, covering 317 miles (510km) down Canadas Yukon River in 2024.

Iceland provided an incredible opportunity to test my physical and mental limits - the country has provided some insane experiences I will never forget," he added.

Edgley and team used a 68ft (21m) expedition yacht as a floating base throughout the journey. On board, Ross was fed, hydrated, and given medical attention to deal with the various injuries he sustained in the water.

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He also partnered with local scientists and researchers to monitor the impact of climate change in the North Atlantic and collected more than 100 eDNA microplastic samples, which will be used for further research on land.

"We wanted to help scientists understand how these waters are changing," he continued.

"Swimming day in and day out gave us a completely unique perspective on the ocean, and it was a privilege to support real-time research that could aid in future conservation efforts."

Want to watch Ross's latest challenge for yourself? He was filmed throughout by a crew from the UK's Channel 4, who will be turning his mammoth effort into three one-hour documentaries, due to air later this year.
ST. LOUIS  September is National Preparedness Month and the American Red Cross of Greater St. Louis urges everyone to prepare prior to the unknown.

The American Red Cross hopes people will have important conversations with their families about their preparedness if severe weather, an earthquake, or a fire happens.

This past spring is a brutal reminder of the increasing frequency and intensity of natural disasters across the country.

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One of the important things that people can do now is to take the time to sit down as a family and talk through Where is our safe place? especially when it comes to tornadoes and severe weather. Where in the house are we safe? When it comes to severe weather and tornadoes, thats going to be your lowest-level indoor room without windows, said Ann Vastmans, communications coordinator with the American Red Cross.

Creating an emergency kit with essential items, including clothing, non-perishables, water, and medications, is essential, according to the American Red Cross.

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They say these items can be easily accessible for families if they need to shelter in place or evacuate.

The Red Cross has an emergency app, and we highly encourage everybody to download that. It has steps that will guide you through making that emergency plan with your family so you can look at the different disasters and the different types of severe weather that we have in the St. Louis area, and it provides you with guidelines that you can follow to prepare with your family to have those conversations.

For more information, visit here.

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BOSTON (WPRI)  A Rehoboth man has been sentenced to prison for his role in a bribery scheme to falsify records, allowing unqualified applicants to receive commercial drivers licenses (CDLs).

A judge sentenced Scott Camara, 44, on Monday to one month in prison, followed by one year of supervised release. He pleaded guilty in April to one count of conspiracy falsify records and perjury.

In January 2024, six people, including two retired Massachusetts State Police (MSP) troopers and two active troopers, were each indicted on the following charges:

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Three counts of conspiracy to falsify records

Three counts of extortion

Three counts of conspiracy to commit extortion

Six counts of mail fraud

31 counts of falsification of records

27 counts of false statements,

Perjury

BACKGROUND: Massachusetts state troopers among 6 charged in CDL scheme

Camara worked in October 2021 with Gary Cederquist  an MSP sergeant at the timeto hand out passing scores to four troopers who applied for CDLs, without actually taking the test.

That test, which prosecutors described as demanding, consists of a vehicle inspection, basic control skills and a road test.

Instead of properly administering it, prosecutors said Camara drove the applicants around in a truck cab without a trailer, which did not qualify as the appropriate vehicle. He also filled out false information on their applications and signed off as their sponsor.

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Camara was additionally sentenced for lying to a federal grand jury two years ago, when he testified under oath that he had not filled out or signed the forms.

Former MSP trooper Perry Mendes, 64, of Wareham, was also sentenced last month to prison for his involvement in the conspiracy. He was reportedly part of MSPs CDL Unit, which is responsible for ensuring only qualified applicants meet federal safety standards.

MORE: Former Mass. state trooper sentenced in CDL bribery scheme

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REHOBOTH, Mass. (WPRI)  For Faith Monteiro, the last month has been a blur.

But she will never forget the last words her 18-year-old sister Kylee Monteiro said to her.

I love you so much,' Faith recalled her sister telling her over the phone. We dont talk like that. Usually, were just like, I love you and Ill talk to you later. But she was just like, I love you so much, and I remember in my head thinking, Why so much?'

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Faith told 12 News that Kylee was the youngest of their fathers five children.

My sister was one of my best friends, Faith said. She was amazing. I cant even put it into words. Youd have to know Kylee to understand that she had the biggest personality  bigger than you could possibly imagine.

Kylee was reported missing on Aug. 7 by her boyfriend, 22-year-old Gregory Groom. Faith didnt even know Kylee had disappeared until their other sister reached out regarding Grooms report.

My sister does not walk off. She doesnt do that, Faith explained. Shes always in contact with somebody.

Faith spent the better part of two weeks driving around looking for her missing sister.

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I was driving down those streets for hours, she said. I wasnt eating. I wasnt sleeping. I was constantly driving around looking for her.

Faith told 12 News she was with Groom at the Rehoboth Police Department on Aug. 19, the same day investigators extensively searched his property. She rushed over to his County Street home after detectives told her Greg wouldnt be leaving anytime soon.

In my heart I was like, They have her, they finally have her,' Faith recalled.

Her suspicions would prove to be true.

Rehoboth man charged with girlfriends murder after human remains found

Police said Groom admitted to stabbing Kylee to death before burying her body in the woods and covering the freshly disturbed dirt with brush. He then voluntarily drew a map of his property that pointed to where he buried Kylees body.

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Faith was there when the state medical examiner took her sisters body away.

That was the moment I finally let myself break down, Faith said. Throughout it all, I was trying to stay strong for the family, and for her  When they found her, it was closure in a way. I was able to let it out.

Up until that moment, Faith acknowledged she was still clinging onto hope that her sister was still out there.

I knew my sister was not alive, but I couldnt get the idea out of my head that maybe I was wrong, she continued.

Prior to her death, Kylee had just graduated from Attleboro High School and wanted to be a welder. But she was forced to put her plans on hold after learning she was pregnant.

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She wanted to get her life together and give the baby everything she could. That was her goal, Faith said.

Kylee Monteiro (Courtesy: Faith Monteiro)

Kylee lived with Groom and his grandparents in the months leading up to her graduation, according to Faith. She said thats when their relationship started going downhill.

In an attempt to find stable housing and work her way toward getting her own apartment, Kylee sought refuge at the Bethesda House. But Faith said her sisters two-week stint at the shelter was not what she was expecting.

She tried to give it a chance, but she wasnt happy, Faith recalled, adding that her contact with Kylee was limited over those two weeks because she wasnt allowed to use her cell phone throughout the day.

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Faith said her sister was required to wake up at a certain time and had a curfew while at the Bethesda House. Kylee was asked to leave the shelter after spending the entire night at the hospital, where Faith said she was treated for vaginal bleeding.

She got back to the house at six in the morning, Faith recalled. She had fallen asleep, and they came in to wake her up around nine to tell her that she had to leave.

The shelter gave her two days to pack up her belongings and find a new place to stay. Though Faith told Kylee she could live with her for the time being, her sister was determined to rekindle her relationship with Groom.

She was adamant that she wanted to stay [with Groom], Faith said. She thought that there was a chance they could make it work for the babys sake.

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Faith told 12 News her sister later texted her and said that Groom had put his hands on her.

He threw me on the ground, he pulled my hair and strangled me, Kylee told Faith via text message the day before she was reported missing. My phone is at 4% and if I die, it was Greg.

If I die, it was Greg: Texts from missing woman read during murder arraignment

Faith spoke with her sister and Groom by phone regarding what happened, but everything seemed fine. She never thought it would be last time shed ever talk to her little sister.

Nobody saw this coming, she said. I didnt know this was going to lead to what it did.

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Faith told 12 News she has harbored a lot of guilt regarding what happened to her sister and wishes she had done more.

The relationship was on good terms for the most part, there were no major signs, Faith said. Thats the scariest part for me, because its hard to trust anyone now.

Faith said she had expressed concern about their relationship moving quickly. But other than that, Groom treated her well.

Things moved so fast between them, but she had never been in a relationship like that with anyone before, she said. The way he treated her made her feel like the most special person in the world and she just fell in love with him.

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Groom was also looking forward to being a father, according to Faith.

Thats why none of this makes sense, she said. Whether they were together or not, he was going to step up and do what he had to do as a father.

Groom has been charged with murder, assault and battery on a pregnant victim, aggravated intimidation of a witness, and domestic assault and battery. He was ordered held without bail.

Faith told 12 New she does not blame the Bethesda House for Kylees murder, but still takes issue with how her sister was let go. Shes made it her mission to make sure it never happens to other women in similar situations.

Kylee Monteiro (Courtesy: Faith Monteiro)

None of us know what happened the night that she died, but theres a chance that it wouldnt have happened, Faith added. I want to make a change. I dont have the ability to help Kylee anymore, but if I can help other women  then that is my new goal and Im not going to stop.

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12 News reached out to the Bethesda House regarding Kylees situation, to which the founders explained in a statement that it is not just a shelter.

Bethesda House is a private, faith-based, structured program; an opportunity for young women to escape poverty and change their lives and their childrens future, the statement reads. It takes hard work, dedication, and commitment. We understand that the program we offer at Bethesda House is not a right fit for everyone. Unfortunately, there are some women who are unable or unwilling to take advantage of this opportunity for a variety of reasons.

The statement noted that those seeking refuge at the shelter are required to start their day at 8:30 a.m., but missing programming for medical reasons is obviously excused.

After 11 days of trying to engage her in the program, Kylee was notified that she needed to find a place that was right for her, the statement continues. Suggestions were made for other options to explore, including reaching out to family, friends and other shelters, and she was given two days to finalize a plan.

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Bethesda House also stressed that the shelter is heartbroken over her tragic death and cant even imagine what her family is going through.

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ALTOONA, Kan. (KSNW)  The remains of a Kansas airman killed during the Vietnam War are returning home more than five decades after he was declared missing in action.

Technical Sergeant Willis Jim Rozelle Hall, born in Rose, Kansas, was one of 11 U.S. Air Force personnel killed on March 11, 1968, when North Vietnamese soldiers attacked a U.S. navigation site in Laos. His remains were not recovered at the time, but the military has since accounted for him.

Governor: State of disaster declared for flood-hit Kansas counties

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Hall will be brought back to Kansas on Thursday, Sept. 11. A visitation is planned for Saturday, Sept. 13, from 9 to 11 a.m. at Verdigris Valley Christian Fellowship Church in Altoona, followed by a memorial service at 11 a.m. He will be buried at Altoona Cemetery.

Halls service was recognized with multiple honors, including the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star with Valor.

For more Kansas news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news by downloading our mobile app and signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track 3 Weather app by clicking here. To watch our shows live on our website, click here.

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Darren Bailey, the downstate Christian conservative farmer and former state lawmaker who was the Republican Partys unsuccessful 2022 candidate for governor, will seek the nomination next year to once again challenge Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, Baileys planned running mate said.

Aaron Del Mar, the Cook County Republican chairman who also had been considering a bid for governor, said Tuesday he had agreed to serve as Baileys lieutenant governor candidate. Del Mar said the two will be campaigning more as a regional partnership, with Bailey focused south of Interstate 80 and Del Mar concentrating on Chicago and the collar counties.

A formal campaign announcement is expected by the end of the month, Del Mar said.

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I think that we can repackage and rebrand and have a more comprehensive strategy and forecast a better perspective for Illinois than theyre currently getting with the current governor, said Del Mar, who was the lieutenant governor candidate of businessman Gary Rabines unsuccessful 2022 GOP primary campaign.

A 2026 run for governor would be the third consecutive major race for Bailey, a wealthy farmer from Louisville in tiny Clay County. Last year, he narrowly lost his Republican primary challenge against veteran U.S. Rep. Mike Bost of Murphysboro for the GOP nomination in the 12th Congressional District, which encompasses nearly the bottom third of the state.

In 2022, Bailey won the GOP nomination in a six-man race with an assist from Pritzker, who viewed Bailey as the most beatable in the general election. Pritzker funded millions of dollars in ads through the Democratic Governors Association that promoted Bailey in the primary as the most conservative candidate in the race. Pritzker, an entrepreneur and billionaire heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune, easily defeated Bailey 55% to 42% in winning reelection.

Bailey lost heavily in the Chicago area  particularly among socially moderate suburban women, a key voting constituency. At various times in his losing campaign, Bailey labeled Chicago a hellhole, a descriptor President Donald Trump has used in recent weeks as hes discussed the possibility of sending federal authorities and potentially the National Guard to Chicago over crime.

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Running a campaign based on the evangelical, charismatic Christianity that is common in rural southern Illinois, Bailey regularly posted daily devotional readings on Facebook and touted his religious convictions in opposing abortion and LGBTQ rights. He recently referenced how he and his wife, Cindy, had been praying about whether he should launch another campaign for governor.

At the same time, Bailey is an ardent supporter of Trump, though Bost got the presidents backing in the congressional race. At the end of last month, Bailey posted on social media appearances hes shared with Donald Trump Jr. at two suburban events.

Bailey totally looked at it from a standpoint of what was good for southern Illinois. And I think that I can bring him a perspective on whats important in Cook County, Del Mar said of Baileys first gubernatorial bid.

We had to put our egos aside to form the ticket, Del Mar said. And I honestly had to put my ego aside because I was looking at running for governor and trying to do what I thinks best for the party. And I think this is the only real opportunity we have to turn out unreliable voters and to build a base with suburban and urban voters in Chicago and the suburbs.

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Bailey would instantly have more name recognition among Republican primary voters than the rest of the early field. Other contenders include Ted Dabrowski, a former vice president of the right-leaning Illinois Policy Institute and former president of Wirepoints, a conservative advocacy group, and DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick.

Mendrick last week filed a defamation suit in DuPage County Circuit Court against Joseph Severino, a little-known, fringe candidate who is a rival for the nomination.

In the suit, Mendrick alleges Severino is disseminating through third parties unequivocally false, derogatory and defamatory content against him. Specifically, Mendrick alleged Severino sought to hire a campaign vendor to produce a deep fake artificial intelligence video of Mendrick smoking meth with minors.

The suit seeks an order that Severino publicly retract his statements and seeks in excess of $250,000 in damages.

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Severino lost congressional bids in the 10th Congressional District in 2022 as a Republican and in 2024 as an independent, write-in candidate. He received 238 votes.

Severino has used social media to spread conspiracy theories about GOP candidates and party operatives, including calls to take back our party from criminals, perverts, pedophiles and informants.

In July, during an appearance before Rock Island County Republicans, Severino said, Ive been fighting the fight against the establishment. Theyre scared to death of me. The surveillance state that exists in Illinois is right now, its predicated upon stymying my voice.

At the event, he made repeated references to traveling down here and made pledges not to forget about the southern end of the state and southern Illinois. Rock Island County is 180 miles west of Chicago along Interstate 80 and has never been considered part of southern Illinois.
Colorado state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Weld County Republican, announced her 2026 run for Colorado governor on Sept. 9, 2025, in Fort Lupton. (Photo by Lindsey Toomer/Colorado Newsline)

Colorado state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer announced her 2026 run for governor Tuesday.

Kirkmeyer, a 66-year-old Weld County Republican, currently serves on the powerful Joint Budget Committee in the Colorado Legislature. She ran to represent Colorados 8th Congressional District in 2022.

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Colorado is ready for a new direction, Kirkmeyer said at a campaign launch event Tuesday in Fort Lupton. Its ready to chart a new path. Its ready for a common sense conservative leader who will roll up her sleeves, work with people, and deliver real results, not play political games.

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Before she was first elected to the state Senate in 2020, Kirkmeyer served as a Weld County commissioner, when she helped lead a plan among several northern Colorado counties to secede from the state. She lost her bid to represent the 8th District to Democrat Yadira Caraveo by less than a full percentage point.

As a member of the JBC, she is heavily involved in crafting the states budget each year and is typically a bipartisan sponsor of many budgetary bills. She also sponsored a bipartisan measure this year that reformed Colorados process for filling vacancies in the Legislature, and she touts her work on major property tax cuts during the 2024 legislative session.

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Colorado is ready for a new direction ... It's ready to chart a new path. It's ready for a common sense conservative leader who will roll up her sleeves, work with people, and deliver real results, not play political games.

 State Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, Colorado governor candidate

If elected, Kirkmeyer said she would defend Colorados Taxpayers Bill of Rights, which restricts state tax revenue collection and spending, and ensure taxes are not raised. She criticized the Legislatures most recent special session, which she said was not a special session about fixing the budget but was about increasing taxes. She also wants to see the state support small businesses without government red tape.

Colorado Republicans supporting Kirkmeyer at her campaign kick off included state Reps. Carlos Barron of Fort Lupton, Ryan Gonzalez of Greeley and Dan Woog of Erie, as well as state Sen. Byron Pelton of Sterling and Colorado State Board of Education member Yazmin Navarro.

Colorado state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Weld County Republican, announced her 2026 run for Colorado governor Tuesday in Fort Lupton. (Photo by Lindsey Toomer/Colorado Newsline)

Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, who has been in office since 2019, is term-limited in 2026. U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser are running on the Democratic side of the race. Whoever wins the Democratic nomination will be favored to win the general election. Colorado hasnt had a Republican governor since Gov. Bill Owens left office after the 2006 election, and Polis won reelection in 2022 by nearly 20 percentage points.

A different vision for Colorado

Kirkmeyer is loyal to Republican President Donald Trump, not Colorado families, Ben Waldon, Bennets campaign manager, said in a statement.

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She backed Trumps reckless bill that will strip health care from tens of thousands and shut down Colorado rural hospitals and nursing homes, and shes all in on Trumps economic agenda, already a disaster for Colorado families, workers, and small businesses, Waldon said, referring to the GOPs domestic policy megabill, which Trump signed in July.

Weiser said Kirkmeyer tried to stop him from defending our state against Trump administration policies, but he welcomed her to the race and said he looks forward to a debate about the values and leadership Colorado needs and deserves in this moment.

I have a different vision for Colorado  focused on freedom and opportunity for all  and will fight hard for it, Weiser said in a statement.

Colorado Democratic Party Chair Shad Murib said Kirkmeyer is eager to please Republican party donors and blasted her defense of Colorado Republicans in Congress for supporting the Republican megabill.

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Other prominent Republican candidates who have announced a run for governor include state Sen. Mark Baisley, state Rep. Scott Bottoms, former U.S. Rep. Greg Lopez and Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell, among several others. Kirkmeyer said her experience leading a state agency under Republican Gov. Bill Owens, as a county commissioner, and as a member of the JBC sets her apart from other Republican candidates in the race.

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Scientists teamed up with rice farmers in Japan to harvest a new kind of crop from their fields  solar power.

According to Interesting Engineering, University of Tokyo researchers helped install a slate of solar panels three meters (about 10 feet) above farmers' rice paddies in Miyada, a village in the Nagano Prefecture. The pilot study's findings suggest a bright future for this kind of teamwork between agriculture and energy projects.

The main push to combine solar power with farming is about available space. Feeding a country and building solar fields both require acres of open area, which is a particularly scarce resource in Japan, as Interesting Engineering explained.

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However, if solar projects can piggyback on farmland without disrupting its crops, then the nation can still leverage solar in its transition to cleaner, cheaper energy  and farmers could earn extra income along the way.

Plus, innovative collaborations like this one help conserve crucial natural resources and replace polluting energy sources, such as coal and gas, with a safer alternative.

To work out the kinks in this kind of agrivoltaic system, researchers monitored the panels and crops for two straight growing seasons. During that time, they flexed and tilted the equipment every day to change how much light reached the rice underneath.

Interesting Engineering reported that in the first season, the rice yield matched 75% of a neighboring field. The team made refinements in the second season, and that number shot up to 85%. Both harvests met Japan's highest grain quality grade.

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Meanwhile, the solar panels were hard at work just above the paddies. In one year, the field efficiently produced almost 44,000 kilowatt hours of electricity, Interesting Engineering reported.

That amount of power could have supplied a full year of electricity for at least five Japanese citizens in 2024, who generated roughly 22 kilowatt hours per day that year, per Our World in Data.

These results show the potential of layering different land uses on top of one another. The study comes at a good time, as Japan looks poised to lean hard on solar in the coming years, Interesting Engineering reported.

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The research team is not done yet, either. They aim to improve the system even further, possibly by using AI to optimize the changing angles of the solar panels throughout the year. Making the equipment out of more transparent or efficient materials is also under consideration, per the outlet.

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"We hope this work serves to show high potential for agriPV systems both as a renewable energy source and revenue growth opportunities," the researchers wrote in the study.

The full findings are published in the Journal of Photonics for Energy.

Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
GRANT CITY, Mo. (News-Press NOW)  The search continues for a missing ram in Northwest Missouri, with the reward now raised to $10,000 for his safe return.

The ram, named Panic, disappeared from his pen the night of Sept. 1 in Grant City, Missouri. His owners believe he may have been stolen.

Picture of the missing ram during the 2025 Oregon State Fair. Photo courtesy Christie Anderson

Emily Anderson, who has been raising naturally colored sheep since she was nine years old, spent the last decade raising the small flock Panic belongs to.

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She's preparing for her last junior show at the North American International Livestock Exposition, now without the most elite sheep she's ever raised.

Friends, family and members of the community quickly came together to raise funds, which boosted the reward for Panic's return.

We feel very supported by our community," said Christie Anderson, co-owner of Anderson Farms and the missing ram, "It shows that there are far more good people than bad.

The missing ram as a baby. Photo courtesy Christie Anderson

Panic has been competing all over the country this year and has won several titles, including National Champion, natural colored sheep for medium wools in Albany, Oregon.

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The family said Panic will be worth the full $10,000 reward if returned alive and able to breed by Sept. 22. If he is returned in non-breeding condition or deceased, the reward will be $6,500.

While the owners have alerted sale barns, they say it is unlikely he would show up at one. They are asking anyone with possible leads, no matter how small, to call Anderson Farms at 660-988-3503, day or night.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI)  The Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission convened for a hearing Tuesday evening regarding this winters proposed electric rate.

Rhode Island Energys proposed electric rate includes a net monthly increase of roughly 16%  or $22 each month for the average customer.

Several residents attended the hearing to speak out against the proposed rate hike.

I see everyone here as a human being, and I really hope that you can see us as human beings too, Lee Wilder told the commission.

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RELATED: RI Energy proposes lower winter rates, more relief for customers

Melissa Bubble echoed that sentiment.

The rate increase will drastically affect us, and I may have to choose whether I put food on the table or pay the utility bill, she said.

Rhode Island Energys Brian Schuster told 12 News the proposal for gas rates is a net annual decrease of roughly 10%. He also stressed that the electric rate increase is expected.

In the winter, we change those rates based on the winter market conditions, Schuster explained. The increase this winter is actually lower than the increase last winter.

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Rep. David Morales strongly opposes the electricity rate hike and will be once again introducing legislation in an attempt to lower residents utility bills.

[The legislation] would cap the profit margin that a company can receive as it relates to the delivery services of utilities, Morales said. That would be capped at exactly 4%. We need to cap the utilities profit margin so we can sustain utility rates in a way that is a lot more conducive to a working persons salary.

The commission will host an evidentiary hearing on Sept. 15 before deciding whether to approve the proposed winter rates. If approved, the electric and gas rates would go into effect Oct. 1 and Nov. 1, respectively.

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ALMATY, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Kazakhstan has issued its first 10-year residence permit under the Digital Nomad Residency program, designed to attract high-tech professionals, the Kazinform news agency reported Wednesday.

According to Kazakhstan's Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry, the program, launched in January 2025 at the initiative of Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, has already proven to be an important tool for bringing leading global experts in digital technologies and artificial intelligence to Kazakhstan.

So far, more than 270 applications have been submitted from 20 countries, including the United States, Canada, France and Turkiye.

The Digital Nomad Residency offers information technology specialists a simplified path to permanent residence in Kazakhstan. It builds on the Digital Nomad Visa, which allows foreign professionals to live and work in the country under similar terms. 
A California woman who said she was sexually assaulted after getting kicked out of an Uber filed a lawsuit against the ride-share, claiming the company is partially responsible for the circumstances that led to the attack.

The woman, who threw up in the car because she was drunk, says she was left eight miles from her drop-off location in Sacramento without a phone to call for help when she encountered an assailant, she claims in the lawsuit, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Attorneys for the woman, who filed the suit in San Francisco on Monday under the pseudonym Jane Doe, say the Uber drivers actions go against the companys public messaging on rider safety. The company, which has partnered with organizations that advocate against drunk driving, has positioned itself as a safe alternative, the suit says.

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However, the victim says she has never felt less safe in her life.

Ive never felt more vulnerable in my life, and it never would have happened if I didnt get in that Uber, she told the Chronicle through her attorneys. I hope no other woman has to feel how I felt  abandoned, scared and destroyed.

A California woman is suing Uber, claiming she was sexually assaulted after being kicked out of her ride and abandoned in a strange location. (Getty Images)

On the night of the attack, May 28, the woman had been at a concert in Sacramento and used the Uber app to call for a ride home in nearby Rosemont, the lawsuit says.

Because Jane Doe had drank too much, she vomited in the vehicle during the ride, her attorneys said in the complaint. After she vomited, Jane Does Uber driver made the choice to abandon her at a random and unsafe location.

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After she was dropped off near a parking lot of a gas station, Doe says she was approached by a man and woman who offered to help her, according to the lawsuit.

Instead, the pair took Doe to an apartment where the man held her captive, choking her and sexually assaulting her at knifepoint. She escaped the next morning through a window after her attacker fell asleep, according to the report.

After finding the opportunity to escape, Jane Doe immediately sought help at a local school, and she was subsequently taken to a hospital and interviewed by local authorities, the lawsuit claims.

A criminal investigation is pending, and no arrests have been made, her attorneys said.

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Does mother reported the drivers actions to Uber, but it was not immediately clear if the company took any disciplinary action against the driver. According to the lawsuit, Uber did not escalate the report or follow up with Doe or her mother.

Instead, Uber sent her mother a generic email thanking her for reaching out with her experience and included links to the Uber Resources Hotline, the National Sexual Assault Hotline and law enforcement reporting.

One of Does attorneys, Sarvenaz Fahimi, says that Uber allows its drivers to cancel the ride at any time, but that there is no guidance given to the drivers on when its appropriate.

In a statement to The Independent, Uber said, What this individual experienced is heartbreaking, and our thoughts are with them. While we cannot comment on pending litigation, we are committed to the safety and well-being of everyone who uses the Uber platform."

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Fahimi also noted that the company allows its drivers to charge passengers a cleaning fee if they vomit or otherwise soil the vehicle.

So as much as thats not fun for a driver, theres a remedy for it, Fahimi said.

Fahimi continued: And the drivers should be prepared for that, considering that Uber partners with Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Anheuser, and is profiting off of someone in this situation.

Uber allows its drivers to charge passengers a cleaning fee if they vomit in the car, but the driver still kicked Jane Doe out, according to the womans lawyers. (AFP via Getty Images)

The ride-share giant has long been plagued by sexual assault and harassment allegations.

Uber received reports of sexual misconduct every eight minutes from U.S. riders from 2017 through 2022, The New York Times reported last month. According to the report, over six years, more than 400,000 Uber trips in the U.S. resulted in reports of sexual assault and sexual misconduct.

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Ubers 2022 safety report disclosed 12,522 sexual assault and misconduct reports over the same time period. The tech company addressed the large discrepancy in a statement posted on the company website after the Times published its report.

While addressing the report, Ubers Head of Safety for the Americas said that the vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of misconduct reports were less serious and non-physical in nature, like flirting or staring.

Most of these 400,000-plus reports have not been subjected to a rigorous process that vets allegations and weeds out false reports made with the goal of getting a refund, Nilles said.

Uber claims that 99.99 percent of trips end without any issue. Roughly 0.006 percent of the 6.3 billion trips in the U.S. in the six-year span ended with a sexual misconduct or assault report, according to Nilles. The most serious reports accounted for 0.00002 percent  or 1 in 5 million trips  she said.
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU)  A much-talked-about new interchange on Interstate 29 south of Sioux City is one step closer to welcoming traffic.

On Tuesday, the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) approved up to $4,796,168 from the county share of the RISE Fund for construction just south of the Sergeant Bluff rest area.

Once built, the interchange will provide improved access to the Southbridge Industrial Park and more than 2,000 acres of developable land.

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The project has an expected completion date of December 2027.

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The Iowa DOT is also funding a major street project in Spencer, Iowa. A grant of more than $800,000 from the city share of the RISE Fund will help to provide access to 10 lots totalling approximately 52 acres.

This construction would be about 865 feet of 4th Ave W and 955 feet of 37th Ave W. The Iowa DOT expects this project to be completed by November 2026.

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According to the Iowa DOT, the RISE program, also known as the RISE Fund, was initially available as economic support throughout Iowa for the construction and improvements of roads. RISE Funds are available to Iowa cities through grants, loans, or some combination of the two. There are two RISE project types: Immediate Opportunity and Local Development.

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NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY)  The future of delivery is autonomous and already taking over Old Dominion University. It comes as the institution has introduced this fall a modern approach to bringing its students a bite to eat.

Old Dominion is one of three universities in the Commonwealth to implement the robot-run service on a college campus. ODU has a total of 11 Starship-created robots bringing food from six on-campus restaurants via the Grubhub app.

They have to choose the delivery location and then pick what they want, Shannon Hurt, ODU assistant vice president for Campus Life Services. So, if they want Chick-Fil-A, if they want Starbucks, if they want Qdoba, Steak n Shake, they can choose that. Our staff member loads it into the little robot and then the robot goes on its way.

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Students unlock the robot with their smartphone with an access code once it arrives, grab their food, shuts the robots lid and then its off to the next delivery. The robots can hold up to four meals at a time and wait times range from 15 to 20 minutes depending upon a students location. All deliveries run into midnight.

Right now, they go all the way to 38th Street, past Melrose and down to Killam, Hurt says. And then of course, to Elizabeth River. They charge wirelessly outside right behind our student center. And but the charge lasts for 18 hours. Once theyre charged, youre good to go all day.

As for the traffic laws, Hurt says the robots follow the same rules.

So they have to wait till the walk sign is on and then they can cross, she says. When theyre crossing Hampton Boulevard, someone is actually controlling it. Okay. The rest of the campus, its automated. Yeah. Its geofence basically.

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If the robots have technical issues, ODU will have its engineering students who they hire to fix them. ODU hopes to add more delivery robots in the future with the possibility of offering delivery services from on-campus convenience stores.

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Rosie ODonnell has revealed she missed her daughters college graduation amid security concerns over her feud with President Donald Trump.

The actor and comedian, 63, moved to Ireland in January with her youngest child, Clay, in response to Trumps return to the White House. Her elder daughter Vivienne, 22, graduated from the University of Delaware in May.

During a recent interview on the No Filter podcast, ODonnell said: My daughter graduated college and I didn't go back because the security people said to me they didn't think it was wise.

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She added: Because I think Trump will use me to rile his base."

Trump, 79, recently used social media to post a distorted photograph of the star and claim: We are giving serious thought to taking away Rosie ODonnells Citizenship.

Rosie O'Donnell and Donald Trump (Getty)

In response to Trumps post threatening to take away her citizenship, ODonnell wrote on Instagram: Banishing me again? Logan Roy would be proud, in a reference to Brian Coxs media mogul in Succession.

The president made similar comments about ODonnells citizenship on Truth Social in July.

Because of the fact that Rosie ODonnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship, he wrote. She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her. GOD BLESS AMERICA!

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It didnt take long for ODonnell to respond.

She posted a photo of Trump with the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein to Instagram, and wrote: Hey Donald youre rattled again? 18 years later and I still live rent-free in that collapsing brain of yours.

She continued: You want to revoke my citizenship? Go ahead and try, King Joffrey with a tangerine spray tan.

Elsewhere in the interview, O'Donnell said that Trump had "created a lot of problems" for her dating back to his first administration.

She claimed that people would confront her on the street, swearing at her with no regard to Clay, who was then five years old.

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"[Trump's] ability to denigrate people and dismiss them and humiliate them encouraged other people to do the same," said ODonnell.

The comedians long-running feud with Trump stretches back to 2006 when she was a host on The View.

Touching briefly on her relationship with the current president back in March, she said: I knew that it would really tax me emotionally to have to do that [live in Trumps America]. So I'm very happy that we made the decision that we made.

ODonnell said that it is heartbreaking to see what's happening politically in the United States but thanked the people of Ireland for welcoming her. It's been pretty wonderful, I have to say. The people are so loving and so kind, so welcoming. And I'm very grateful.
For the latest updates on the Roth's Fresh Markets strike, go here.

(This story has been updated to include additional information)

Roths Fresh Markets employees plan to strike on Sept. 11 as contract negotiations continue.

"The members have overwhelmingly authorized a strike because they refuse to accept a deal that disrespects their work, denies them fair pay, and weakens their pensions," said Miles Eshaia, communications director for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 555.

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The union is the largest private sector labor union in Oregon and represents more than 30,000 workers in Oregon, southwestern Washington, Idaho and Wyoming.

Roth's Fresh Markets has nine locations, including five in Salem, one in Monmouth, one in McMinnville, one in Silverton and one in Stayton.

The union represents 60 Roth's employees in the meat and deli departments. It launched a "Don't Shop Roth's" campaign in August, which includes billboards in the Salem area encouraging the public to take their business elsewhere.

Eshaia said Roths has refused to match wage increases of nearby competitors, including Safeway and Fred Meyer, "attempting to undermine the gains made by grocery workers throughout Oregon," after Canadian billionaire Jim Pattison bought it.

The Pattison Food Group acquired Roth's Fresh Markets in 2021, which operates grocery stores in western Canada, including Buy-Low Foods, Quality Foods and Choices Markets.

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Roth's Fresh Markets has nine locations, including five in Salem, one in Monmouth, one in McMinnville, one in Silverton and one in Stayton.

Roths is attempting to undermine the fair wage and benefit standards set by its competitors here in Oregon. The company has rejected our reasonable proposals for retirement security and wages that meet that standard," added Dan Clay, president of UFCW Local 555. "A strike is avoidable, but only if they return to the table with an offer that values their employees, not one that tries to drag the whole industry down."

The next bargaining session was set to continue on Sept. 10.

UFCW 555 notified Roths on Sept. 10 that members covered by their collective bargaining agreement will go on strike as of 6 a.m. Sept. 11 unless demands are met. The strike is scheduled to end at 2 p.m. on Sept. 13.

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It was not immediately clear what impact the strike would have on operations at Roth's stores.

In a statement, Roth's said the company continues to bargain in good faith with UFCW Local 555, and those discussions have yielded multiple tentative agreements.

"The company has a long history of securing fair and mutually beneficial outcomes with our union partners and team members, and we are confident that these negotiations will be no different," the email said. "During these ongoing discussions, store hours and service will not be impacted. Roths remains firmly committed to reaching an equitable agreement for all parties involved."

Dianne Lugo covers the Oregon Legislature and equity issues. Reach her at dlugo@statesmanjournal.com or on X @DianneLugo or Bluesky @diannelugo.bsky.social

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Roth's Fresh Markets workers plan to strike amid contract negotiations
A visit to Royal Caribbean's private destination in Haiti won't be coming off your bucket list this year.

The cruise line announced it has canceled scheduled visits to Labadee, its private destination in Haiti, until spring 2026 out of "an abundance of caution."

The U.S. State Department has listed Haiti as a "do not travel" area, giving the country the highest rating possible: Level 4.

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Here's what you should know.

Royal Caribbean cruise ships cancel stops in Haiti 'out of abundance of caution'

Out of an abundance of caution, we have paused our upcoming visits through April 2026, the cruise lines parent company, Royal Caribbean Group, told USA TODAY in an emailed statement. We are communicating with our guests directly.

The cruise line previously scrapped stops there until October, amid ongoing violence in the country.

Royal Caribbean ships last visited Labadee in the first quarter of this year, after temporarily suspending calls there in 2024.

What is Labadee, Royal Caribbean's private destination?

Located on Haiti's northern coast, Labadee is Royal Caribbean's private destination where "beachside meets mountainside."

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"Here youll find pristine sands, coral reefs and jungle-covered hilltops nestling lagoon-like bays. Theres no shortage of places to relax and recharge across five stretches of beach. Or dial up the thrills on an active adventure like a half-mile-long zip line ride over the ocean."

 See map of Labadee, Haiti and activities

Haiti under Level 4, do not travel advisory

The State Department lists Haiti under its highest travel warning, a Level 4.

Do not travel to Haiti due to kidnapping, crime, terrorist activity, civil unrest, and limited health care, the State Department said.

How far is Haiti from Florida?

Miami is about 600 miles from Mole Saint-Nicolas, a city in northwestern Haiti, or about 700 miles from the country's capital, Port-au-Prince.

Royal Caribbean sails out of 7 Florida ports

According to its website, Royal Caribbean sails from seven Florida ports:

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Port Miami

Port Canaveral

Port Everglades

Port of Palm Beach

Jaxport

Port Tampa Bay

Port of Key West

Port Canaveral, PortMiami and Port Everglades are home to three of the busiest cruise ports in the world, Royal Caribbean said.

Why is Haiti so dangerous?

"Haiti has been under a State of Emergency since March 2024," the State Department said.

"Crimes involving firearms are common in Haiti. They include robbery, carjackings, sexual assault, and kidnappings for ransom."

Dangers listed by the State Department include:

Kidnapping : Kidnapping is widespread. U.S. citizens have been victims and have been hurt or killed.

Demonstrations : Protests, demonstrations, and roadblocks are common and unpredictable. They often damage or destroy infrastructure and can become violent.

Toussaint Louverture I nternational Airport : Exchanges of gunfire with criminal gangs, organized crime, and terrorists have occurred in the neighborhood just outside the Port-au-Prince International Airport. Travelers are sometimes followed and violently attacked and robbed shortly after leaving the airport, or while entering or leaving hotels in Port-au-Prince.

Crime and terrorism : There is widespread violent crime and organized crime in the country, and local law enforcement has limited ability to respond to serious crimes.

Transportation and travel: Do not cross the border by land between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. There is a risk of kidnapping and violence.

Port security: U.S. Coast Guard has concerns about security in the ports of Haiti. Until those are addressed, the Coast Guard advises mariners and passengers traveling through the ports of Haiti to exercise caution.

Limited emergency response: The U.S. government is very limited in its ability to help U.S. citizens in Haiti.

'Do not travel to Haiti for any reason'

While the State Department advises U.S. resident not to "travel to Haiti for any reason," if you do, here is a partial list of precautions you should follow:

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Avoid demonstrations and crowds.

Arrange airport transfers and hotels in advance, or have your host meet you upon arrival.

Have evacuation plans that do not rely on U.S. government assistance.

If you are being followed as you leave the airport, drive to the nearest police station immediately.

Develop a communication plan with family or your employer or host organization so they can monitor your safety.

Establish a proof of life protocol with your loved ones so that if you are taken hostage, your loved ones can know specific questions (and answers) to ask the hostage-takers to be sure that you are alive (and to rule out a hoax).

Draft a will and designate appropriate insurance beneficiaries and/or power of attorney, put your financial affairs in order.

Leave DNA samples with your medical provider.

 See full list of precautions

Contributing: Nathan Diller, USA Today

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Royal Caribbean stops cruises to Labadee, Haiti. Level 4 warning
King County prosecutors say a man stabbed two women dozens of times each in retaliation for one reporting that he had allegedly sexually assaulted them.

One of those women died from her injuries.

According to police, the stabbing happened around 11 p.m. Sept. 4 at the Kirkland Heights Apartments on NE 132nd Street.

A woman called 911, saying she and her mother had been stabbed by someone who broke in. The woman said there was blood every where and dispatchers heard sounds of someone groaning in pain in the background of the call, according to court documents.

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The 54-year-old woman who called 911 was stabbed about 40 times, according to court documents. Her 78-year-old mother was stabbed around 17 times, docs said.

The 78-year-old woman was pronounced dead at Harborview Medical Center.

The woman who called 911 was able to say what sounded like the name Farvin to dispatchers.

Investigators were able to quickly pull up previous incidents at that apartment involving a 60-year-old Fardin Salehiyan. In July, there was a domestic violence call involving the 54-year-old and Salehiyan, court documents said.

Snohomish County Sheriffs deputies were able to find Salehiyan shortly after the stabbing. When they detained him, deputies said he had obvious blood all over his clothing and apparent blood on his car, according to court docs.

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From her hospital bed, the woman who survived the attack spoke with detectives about what happened.

According to court documents, she was watching videos in her room when Salehiyan barged in with a knife. He began stabbing her dozens of times and said: you cant call the police. You ruined my life because you called the police, court documents said.

The day before the knife attack, the woman had come forward to police to report that Salehiyan had allegedly sexually assaulted her, according to court documents. Less than 12 hours before the attack, a detective contacted Salehiyan to tell him of the investigation into the allegations of sexual assault.

When the womans mother began screaming during the attack, the victim said Salehiyan went for her next, according to court documents.

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She stated that after Salehiyan said you ruined my life, all he said was goodbye, and left, the police report recounts.

The 54-year-old told her brother that Salehiyan had serious problems and was not a stable person, and that he was dangerous and had threatened her, court documents said. Her brother said she had voiced concerns and wanted to go back to Iran because she did not feel safe with him.

Salehiyan has been charged with first-degree murder and first-degree attempted murder.

Prosecutors asked that bail be set at $10 million based on the likelihood that the defendant will fail to appear in response to a summons, and the likelihood that he may commit a violent offense.

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Salehiyan has no known criminal history, according to prosecutors.

Furthermore, there is some evidence that these crimes were committed in an attempt to avoid prosecution on another offense. If the defendant is willing to commit murder in order to avoid facing justice, he would certainly be willing to flee, court documents said.

Salehiyan is scheduled for arraignment on Sept. 12.
PENDER, Neb. (KCAU)  Pender Community Hospital has recently partnered with Nebraska Perinatal Quality Improvement on a new life-saving maternal safety initiative.

Nebraska perinatal quality improvement collaborative is an organization that has been started in the state to help improve maternal mortality numbers in the United States, said Bethany Sedivy, the Pender Community Hospital OB Coordinator. Currently, Nebraska is ranked number 17th in the United States, and thats a huge deal. We want to take care of our moms and babies.

The Postpartum Alert Initiative provides new mothers with pamphlets and various reading materials to help identify potential warning signs during the six weeks following delivery.

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So important ones would be a headache that does not get better with Tylenol or ibuprofen when you go home, Sediv said. Sudden severe chest pain, pain in the abdomen, specifically in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen, and then heavy bleeding. So bleeding and saturating more than one pad an hour and passing clots larger than the size of an egg.

Patients are also given a teal wristband and are encouraged to wear it during those six weeks to help signal healthcare providers.

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Just provides awareness to the patient, to the family members, to friends, and different EMS providers in our area, said Sedivy. Its just like a visual reminder, like, hey, this patient is within the six-week postpartum period and we need to take an extra look at these moms.'

According to the World Health Organization, over 250,000 women died following pregnancy and childbirth in 2023. Sedivy said this program helps other people realize that moms need the same amount of attention as their child after a pregnancy.

When moms are having babies, everybody is so focused on that baby, and rightly so, said Sedivy. Were so excited to meet this new little one, weve never seen before. But what we have to remember is that mom went through a lot, too, you know? And as shes going home, we cant just forget about her.

Since starting this program, Sedivy has seen that turn around.

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I have worked a number of shifts since then, and we have had probably three or four moms call just on my shifts alone, reporting some of these warning signs, Sedivy said. So, I think its extremely effective, and Im so grateful for this opportunity to work with NPQIC (Nebraska Perinatal Quality Improvement Collaborative).

Health officials said they plan to add more OB suites in the near future.

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TALLINN, Estonia  The last time Russia and Belarus held major joint military drills in 2022, Moscow sent its troops into Ukraine just days later. Now the two close allies are conducting war games again, raising tensions anew in the region

The war games, dubbed Zapad 2025, or West 2025, take place in Belarus starting Friday and will last until Sept. 16. Troops from both countries will simulate repelling an attack, including airstrikes and sabotage, according to official reports.

The aim is to showcase the close links between Moscow and Minsk, as well as Russian military might amid its 3-year-old war in neighboring Ukraine.

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The war games have drawn concerns in Kyiv and its Western allies of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, which border Belarus. Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops rolling into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, many of them crossing from Belarus.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said this years exercise hinders peaceful efforts by U.S. President Donald Trump to end the war and poses an immediate threat not only to Ukraine, but also to Poland, the Baltic states and all of Europe.

On Wednesday, tensions in the region spiked even further after Poland said multiple Russian drones entered its territory and were shot down with help from NATO allies. A significant number came from Belarus, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.

The Russian military said it wasnt targeting Poland, and Belarus suggested drones went off course  but several European leaders said it appeared intentional.

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What to know about the exercise:

Belarus plays down the scale

Belarusian defense officials initially said about 13,000 troops would participate in the exercise that was to take place near its western border. In May, however, its Defense Ministry said the number would be cut nearly in half, and that the main maneuvers would take place deeper inside the country. Parts of the exercise will also take place inside Russia.

Last month, Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin said most of the exercise will happen around the city of Barysaw, about 74 kilometers (46 miles) northeast of Minsk, although some small units will carry out practical tasks to repel a hypothetical enemy in areas close to the border with Poland and Lithuania. Two of five new fortifications that have been erected for the drills also are located in those areas, Khrenin said.

Belarus also sent formal invitations to all member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and nine countries with NATO military attaches in Minsk to monitor the drills.

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Authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko recently signaled willingness to mend his relationship with the West, which has been severely strained for years over his brutal crackdown on dissent and his support for Russias war in Ukraine.

The past year has seen regular releases of political prisoners and public calls for a rapprochement with the West. Lukashenko spoke by phone last month with Trump, who called him a highly respected President in a social media post. Thats a stark contrast from other Western leaders, who have largely shunned the Belarusian.

Lukashenko has ruled Belarus with an iron hand for over 30 years and has relied on Kremlin subsidies and support. He allowed Russia to use his countrys territory as a staging ground to send troops into Ukraine and to host some of Moscows tactical nuclear weapons.

Now, Lukashenko is pushing a narrative of de-escalation, promising to influence Putins actions and make concessions such as releasing political prisoners, said Ryhor Astapenia, the Belarus Initiative director at Chatham House, in a recent commentary.

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Another reason is that Russia, bogged down in a war of attrition across a roughly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front in Ukraine, cant spare a sizable number of troops for the drills, and Belarus numbers also are limited, says Belarusian analyst Alexander Alesin.

Western estimates varied. Some suggested the number of troops involved could be around 30,000, while others said up to 150,000. In September 2021, the last time the Zapad drills were held, about 200,000 troops took part, according to Russian authorities.

Tanks participate in Russian-Belarusian military drills at the Obuz-Lesnovsky training ground in Belarus on Feb. 19, 2022. (AP)

Practicing plans for nuclear weapons

During this years drills, the troops will practice planning the use of Russian nuclear weapons and nuclear-capable intermediate range missiles that Moscow has promised to supply to Minsk, according to Khrenin.

In December, Lukashenko and Putin signed a treaty giving security guarantees to Belarus, including the possible use of Russian nuclear weapons to help repel any aggression.

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At the time, Lukashenko asked Putin to deploy more advanced weapons in Belarus, including the nuclear-capable Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile that Russia used for the first time in November against Ukraine.

Putin responded that Oreshnik missiles could be deployed to Belarus in the second half of 2025, adding they will remain under Russian control but Moscow will allow Minsk to select targets.

The treaty followed Moscows revision of its nuclear doctrine, which for the first time placed Belarus under Russias nuclear umbrella amid tensions with the West.

Russia hasnt said how many tactical nuclear weapons it deployed to Belarus, but Lukashenko said in December that his country had several dozen. The deployment extends Russias capability to target several NATO allies in Eastern and Central Europe.

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Andrey Baklitskiy, senior researcher at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, said both countries announced that only the decision-making about the nuclear weapons was to be practiced in the drills  not their physical deployment.

With Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus, much needs to be worked out in terms of procedures, Baklitskiy said.

You have dual subordination, you have your own superiors.  In order to understand how this should work, there may well be an exercise aimed at this, he said.

NATO members remain wary

Despite the seemingly toned-down rhetoric from Belarus about Zapad 2025, NATO members are still wary.

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Even before the drone incursion, Tusk said Tuesday the Zapad exercises constituted very aggressive military maneuvers very close to his countrys border, accompanied by provocations by Russia and Belarus.

Poland is responding with its own military exercises.

Tusk added that the Suwalki Gap  a strategic stretch of land in Poland and Lithuania that separates Belarus from Russias Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad  was one of the targets of Zapad, and he suggested there was a fear in Poland that they might be practice for a later attack.

The Suwalki Gap has long been considered a potential flashpoint in a standoff between Russia and NATO. Lukashenko has brushed aside the idea of attacking the Suwalki Gap during the Zapad drills as utter nonsense.

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President Gitanas Nauseda of Lithuania said in June that even though the drills looked to be two to three times smaller than those in 2021, Vilnius and its allies are ready for any kind of surprises. Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovile Sakaliene added that it would carry out exercises in parallel with Zapad 2025.

Germany is leading its own major military exercise, Quadriga 2025, over several weeks in September, with parts expected to coincide with Zapad 2025.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy repeatedly has warned that Russia might be plotting another attack during the drills.

Baklitskiy said it was not obvious that a sizable, combat-ready contingent could be amassed in Belarus at this point, and there are no indications of that happening. Still, when theyre exercising to fight, it always elicits concerns, it always elicits negative reaction, he said.

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Associated Press writers Geir Moulson in Berlin and Claudia Ciobanu in Warsaw contributed.

The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP)  Russias violation of Polands airspace with drones on Wednesday marks the most serious cross-border incident into a NATO member country since the war in Ukraine began.

But other alliance countries have reported similar incursions and drone crashes on their territory since 2022.

The overnight incident in Poland has been labelled an act of aggression and drew a military response by NATO in shooting down multiple drones, as several European leaders said they believed Moscow was intentionally escalating the war.

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But since Russia fully invaded Ukraine in 2022, Croatia and Romania, and non-NATO member Moldova  the latter two of which share long borders with Ukraine  have reported multiple airspace violations and have found drone fragments on their territory.

Poland's experience is not the first time NATO airspace has been violated.

String of airspace violations since war started

Romania found several drone crash sites on its territory in 2023, including one that caused a crater near a village across the Danube River from the Ukrainian port of Izmail. That crash site finding followed several other similar incidents that left many Romanians near the border nervous that the war could spill over.

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In February 2024, Moldova destroyed explosives discovered in a part of a Shahed drone that crashed on its territory in the southern town of Etulia. Moldovas Foreign Minister Mihai Popsoi called it a stark reminder of the violence and destruction sown by the Kremlin.

Since 2023, numerous airspace incursions and drone fragment findings have been reported in both countries, and while no one has been hurt in any of the incidents and the origin not always determined, the proximity has often highlighted how easily the war could cross over the Ukrainian border.

Just weeks after the war in Ukraine started, a 6-ton Soviet-era military drone armed with explosives drifted uncontrolled from the Ukrainian war zone over NATO members Romania and Hungary, before entering Croatia and crashing in the capital, Zagreb. About 40 parked cars were damaged in a large explosion, but no one was injured. Croatian investigators never made public whether the aircraft belonged to Ukraine or Russia.

In early February this year, Russian drones crashed within a day in Moldova and Romania as the two eastern European neighbors reported aerial vehicles entered their airspace during Russias overnight attacks on neighboring Ukraines Danube port.

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Both countries determined that the drones were Shahed unmanned aircraft that Moscow uses in its war on Ukraine. Moldovan President Maia Sandu said at the time that the violations put Moldovan lives at risk," and the head of the Russian diplomatic mission in Chisinau was summoned. Days later, two more drones entered Moldovan airspace near the border.

In March, Romanias Ministry of National Defense said that fragments of a Russian drone carrying explosives were found in southeast Galati county, just 500 meters from a border crossing with Moldova. Investigators determined the fragments were of Russian origin. It was subject to a controlled detonation.

Romania adopts legislation to down errant drones

Airspace violations have become so commonplace in Romania in recent years that lawmakers adopted legislation in February allowing the army to shoot down drones that enter its airspace, as a last resort if other measures fail. Romanias hard-right parties opposed the law.

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Analysts have long viewed such incidents in Romania as potential tests by Russia to see how NATO would react. Romania is frequently scrambling fighter jets  as it did early Wednesday  to monitor its airspace for potentially encroaching drones.

Radu Tudor, a defense analyst in Bucharest, says military provocations from Russia have become commonplace on the eastern flank and that Russia is behaving more and more aggressively.

Here is the threat: on air, on the land  in the Black Sea, he told The Associated Press. Also huge, huge cyber attacks and hybrid attacks, so its a multi-dimensional attack from Russia on the eastern flank of NATO.

Russia must be stopped

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After the incident on Wednesday in Poland, Romanian President Nicusor Dan said Russias latest airspace violation of NATO-member Poland proved that Moscow is constantly testing our limits and shows it is not interested in peace in Ukraine.

Russia must be stopped and pressured to come to the negotiation table, Dan wrote on X. We are united to make NATO and especially the eastern flank, from the Baltic to the Black Sea, more secure.

After Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, NATO bolstered its presence on Europes eastern flank by sending additional multinational battlegroups to Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia.



Stephen McGrath reported from Warwick, U.K; Dusan Stojanovic reported from Belgrade, Serbia.
VILNIUS, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- A major fire broke out Wednesday at a liquefied gas filling station in Vilnius, igniting eight rail cars loaded with gas and triggering multiple explosions, Lithuanian National Radio and Television reported.

Interior Minister Vladislav Kondratovic said the blaze was likely caused by "violations of working conditions," citing preliminary data. One person was reported injured.

Police have activated the Shield Plan, and the State Border Guard Service is monitoring the site from the air with a helicopter, the minister said, adding that a transit train bound for Russia's Kaliningrad region was halted and will be rerouted.

Vilnius Mayor Valdas Benkunskas announced on Facebook that traffic has been closed on Kirtimu Street and the Eisiskes highway.

Fire and Rescue Department spokesperson Edita Zdaneviciene told the Baltic News Service that seven fire engines, two water tankers and two ladder trucks were deployed to fight the blaze.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Fire and Rescue Department announced the evacuation of people within a one-km radius due to fears of a possible large explosion.

Authorities also warned residents of potential air pollution, urging them to remain indoors, keep windows and doors shut, and switch off ventilation or air conditioning. 
The latest massive aerial attack on Ukraine hit a new milestone in the continuing escalation of Russian bombardments, after Poland announced that it had closed airports and downed Russian drones in its airspace overnight on Sept. 10.

"Last night the Polish airspace was violated by a huge number of Russian drones," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on X, adding that those "that posed a direct threat were shot down."

As Russia continues to improve its drones  which Ukrainian intelligence has said it can churn out to the tune of 2,700 units each month  their range and deadliness continue to grow.

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While the exact range of the drones is not confirmed, various intelligence services and experts have tried to estimate their reach.

Originally manufactured by Iran and called Shahed-136, the drones had a claimed range of 2,500 kilometers and carried a 50-kilogram warhead.

Russia now builds its own analogue versions called Geran-2, and according to Ukraines military intelligence (HUR), it also has the same range.

But there are different variations of the Geran-2  in February, HUR said an upgraded version carried a 90-kilogram warhead, making it far more deadly but reducing its range to about 650 kilometers (404 miles).

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Russia has recently started using a rocket-powered version of the Geran-2 in mass attacks on Ukraine.

Samuel Bendett, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security think tank, told the Kyiv Independent in July that these have the same 2,500 kilometer range of the regular version but can cover the distance in far less time and are far more difficult to intercept.

The estimated upper range of Russian Geran-2 drones puts almost all of Europe within range (Nizar al-Rifai/The Kyiv Independent)

Among the locations from which Russia launches its drones, Russias far-west city of Byransk is nearest to Western Europe, lying just north of Ukraine and less than 600 kilometers from the Lithuania and Latvia borders.

Further South, Russia also launches drones from occupied Crimea.

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The estimated distance they can cover would put nearly all of Europes NATO countries within range of Russian attack drones like the ones that entered Polish airspace on Sept 10.

While Russias drones or fragments of downed drones have previously entered the airspaces of Poland, Latvia, Moldova, and Romania in the course of past attacks on Ukraine, Tusks announcement marks the first confirmed instance where a NATO country has engaged with Russian military assets on its territory since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine.

People cover a Russian Shahed-type drone shot down by Ukrainian air defense in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on April 30, 2025. (Ivan Samoilov / AFP via Getty Images)

Alicja Wesolowska (L) and her husband Tomasz Wesolowski (R) stand in front of their house damaged by debris from a Russian drone shot down in Wyryki-Wola, Poland, on Sept. 10, 2025. (Wojtek Radwanski/AFP via Getty Images)

In the past, Poland has scrambled its jets and readied its air defense systems but did not act to intercept the aerial drones.

Poland, Latvia, and Romania are all NATO countries, while Moldova has refrained from joining the security bloc because of a constitutional neutrality requirement.

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Moldova nonetheless has friendly relations with NATO and cooperates with the bloc on military drills.

In response to the growing threat from Russian drones that stray into its territory, Romania has constructed air raid shelters and has announced plans to deploy drone defense systems near its border with Ukraine to protect its citizens.

"Putin just keeps escalating, expanding his war, and testing the West. The longer he faces no strength in response, the more aggressive he gets," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said after the most recent overnight attack.

"A weak response now will provoke Russia even more  and then Russian missiles and drones will fly even further into Europe."

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Read also: In largest drone breach into NATO territory, Russia appears to be probing Polish resolve

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
RUTHERFORD COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN)  The Rutherford County Planning Commission has officially approved its Plan Rutherford blueprint for the county.

Rutherford County is expected to surpass 550,000 residents by 2045. On Monday, planning commissioners approved a plan to help the county manage that growth over the next two decades.

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The whole idea of the plan was to encourage growth in areas where it makes sense, Rutherford County Planning Director Doug Demosi said. So, this is certainly not a plan where were trying to stymie any growth or try to discourage growth; we just want to see it in places where it makes sense.

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The plan takes a look at what kind of density an area can handle when it comes to development. It considers factors such as available roadways, whether theyre paved and how close a property is to things like schools, police and fire services.

This plan does not say you can never build a large-scale, high-density neighborhood in the rural reserve part of the county, Rutherford County Planning Commissioner Michael Shirley said. What it says is that if youre going to do that, youre going to have to prove that the infrastructure is in place in order to get a higher density than what is allowed in the plan.

However, the plan also takes into consideration almost three years of public feedback and works to preserve the countys character, especially when it comes to rural and farmlands.

We came to at least a general consensus; nobodys going to get everything that they want, but I like the fact that I think were doing a little bit more preserving in the rural areas than we did under our current plan, and I think that overall theres more focus on that in this plan, Demosi said.

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The plan will now head to the Rutherford County Commission for consideration. They can choose to approve it in its entirety or call for adjustments.

Shirley urged residents to visit planrutherford.org and review the plan and let their county commissioners know what they think.

 Read todays top stories on wkrn.com

It is a response to the constituents of Rutherford County that went to these planning meetings out in the local areas, this is what they said they wanted, and then we took that feedback and tried to find a plan that would also balance the needs and developers in our county, and people that live in our county and are moving to our county, this plan seeks to address all of their concerns together, Shirley said.

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Planning commissioners will present the updated Plan Rutherford outline to the County Commission on Oct. 7.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2.
DENVER (KDVR)  Safeway has just announced the closure of 10 stores within Colorado, including some Denver Metro area locations.

On Tuesday, a Safeway spokesperson told FOX31 that the 10 stores are expected to cease operations before or on Nov. 7, which comes after a strategic consolidation through merging the Intermountain and Denver division into a Mountain West Division.

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We continuously evaluate the performance of our stores, and occasionally, after long and careful deliberation, it becomes necessary to make the difficult decision to close certain locations. We are working to place affected associates in nearby stores wherever possible, said the Safeway spokesperson.

The spokesperson also listed the 10 Colorado locations, which are as follows:

201 E Jefferson, Englewood

500 E. 120th Ave, Northglenn

1653 S. Colorado Blvd., Denver

12200 E. Mississippi, Aurora

3657 S. College Ave, Fort Collins

860 Cleveland Ave., Loveland

5060 North Academy Blvd., Colorado Springs

1425 S Murray Blvd., Colorado Springs

315 West 2nd St., La Junta

906 E. Olive St., Lamar

In a statement from UFCW Local 7 provided to FOX31, it said that it represents workers at 8 of the 10 stores being closed in Colorado.

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The Companys decision to close these stores represents new evidence that Albertsons is more interested in lining the pockets of its Wall Street investors as opposed to serving Coloradans, stated the union.

UFCW Local 7 also noted that the closures to the Safeway locations in the cities of La Junta and Lamar were already the only full-service grocer in town and that the impacts of the closures will force community members and customers to drive at least 60 miles to get to the nearest full-service grocery store.

Lamar Mayor Kirk Crespin told FOX31, While this is a significant loss, Lamar is a resilient and strong community. We will continue working closely with our economic development partners to recruit new businessesespecially one that can provide similar goods and services to meet the needs of our residents.

The announcement of the closures also includes other stores within New Mexico and Nebraska; however, both states have only one store closing.

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The spokesperson with Safeway also noted that the decision to close the stores was not made lightly, citing that the closure would allow for the company to continue investing in its store network and evolving with customer needs.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver.
Rowan County bishop accused of sexually abusing minor more than 30 years ago

A bishop in Rowan County has been charged with child sex crimes following a three-month investigation.

According to police, the charges stem from an incident that occurred in 1991, in which King is accused of forcing himself on a minor in several locations, including his church, the Damascus Emmanuel Pentecostal Church.

On Tuesday, King was taken into custody and charged with one count of indecent liberties with a minor, one count of second-degree rape, and one count of rape by a custodian.

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ASLO READ: Man wanted by INTERPOL for child rape arrested in Gaston County

Channel 9s Ken Lemon spoke with Tiffany Summers, who has known the Salisbury preacher for a long time, even before he stepped into the role of minister.

Im just sad to hear this, said Summers. Regular man and everything. You wouldnt think hed do something like this behind closed doors.

King has since been booked into the Rowan County Detention Center and is currently being held on no bond. He is expected to appear in court for the first time on Thursday.

The hard work of our investigators in bringing this case forward deserves recognition. At the same time, it is profoundly concerning when a person in a position of trust is accused of violating that trust, said Salisbury Police Chief P.J. Smith.

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Investigators believe King used his position of authority to take advantage of the girl. However, they have not provided details about why this case came to light 34 years later or the factors that led to the charge after decades.

The Salisbury Police Department is encouraging anyone who may have been victimized by King to come forward. The department can be reached at 704-638-5333, at 704-638-5211, or by email at investigations@salisburync.gov .

VIDEO: Man wanted by INTERPOL for child rape arrested in Gaston County
SALISBURY, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS)  A Salisbury man has been charged following a three-month-long investigation into reports of child abuse.

On Tuesday, September 9, around 5 p.m., Salisbury Police Departments Criminal Investigation Unit arrested Michael Lee King, 65, with the following charges:

One count of indecent liberties with a minor

One count of second-degree rape

One count of rape by a custodian/guardian

Queen City News is tracking CRIME in your area  >> Latest stories here

Police say the alleged incidents occurred at multiple locations, including the Damascus Emmanuel Pentecostal Church.

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King is being held at the Rowan County Detention Center under no bond.

The hard work of our investigators in bringing this case forward deserves recognition. At the same time, it is profoundly concerning when a person in a position of trust is accused of violating that trust, Chief P.J. Smith said.

The department has identified one victim at this time, but believes there may be more. Anyone who may have been victimized by King or has additional information is urged to contact Detective McDaniel at 704-638-5333, the departments main line at 704-638-5211, or by email at investigations@salisburync.gov.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News.
A new study has experts warning of the dire consequences for the Antarctic if drastic action to reduce harmful emissions at a global scale isn't taken.

What's happening?

Research conducted by the Australian National University and the University of New South Wales has found evidence of abrupt and irreversible sea ice loss in the Antarctic. As the study notes, the plight of the Antarctic is less understood than the catastrophe unfolding in the Arctic. The picture painted by the research is grim. Even in the best-case scenario for warming temperatures, the crucial West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) could be unsalvageable.

The study's lead author, Dr. Nerilie Abram, warned that the collapse of the WAIS would have "catastrophic consequences for generations to come."

Why is the WAIS important?

The loss of the WAIS could cause sea levels to rise by up to three meters, devastating coastal communities and erasing critical habitats, such as wetlands, which help mitigate the impact of extreme weather events. In a vicious cycle, the effects accelerate and worsen as more ice is lost. Sea ice absorbs and reflects the sun's heat, and the more the surface area shrinks, the worse the problem becomes.

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It's not just people who will suffer the consequences; the wildlife that depend on stable sea ice will face an existential threat. Some emperor penguin colonies are already suffering the effects, and whales are facing disruptions to their food supplies.

What can be done to protect the Antarctic?

Desperate times may call for desperate measures to buy more time to get those planet-heating emissions under control. There have been some experiments aimed at thickening sea ice during the winter, but research is still in its early stages. It's not yet clear if such geoengineering projects are viable and at the massive scale required.

Warnings mustn't go unheeded, and that requires staying informed about the issues and taking individual and community-based actions to mitigate the impact of dirty energy. The problem is global, the solutions are local.



How concerned are you about the plastic waste in our oceans? Extremely I'm pretty concerned A little Not much Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.

Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Most stars in the Milky Way move at steady speeds, orbiting the galactic center in regular paths. But astronomers have uncovered rare stars so fast they can escape the galaxys gravity altogether. These speedsters are called hypervelocity white dwarfs (HVWDs), the dense remnants left behind when stars like the Sun run out of fuel.

Unlike ordinary white dwarfs, which drift along quietly, HVWDs rocket through space at over 2,000 kilometers per second. Thats fast enough to cross the United States in under two seconds.

The puzzle has long been what force could fling such compact stars into intergalactic space. Traditional theories pointed to powerful supernova explosions, but the details never matched up. A new study published in Nature Astronomy and led by Dr. Hila Glanz of the Technion  Israel Institute of Technology offers an answer.

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Using advanced computer simulations, her team discovered that when two unusual white dwarfs smash together, the result can be both a peculiar supernova and the creation of a runaway stellar core moving at record-breaking speeds.

WD disruption and shock propagation. (CREDIT: Nature Astronomy)

Rethinking Old Explanations

For years, astronomers leaned on a model called the D6 scenario. In this setup, two white dwarfs spiral together, and the heavier star siphons helium from the lighter one. The buildup ignites, triggering a type Ia supernova that blasts the lighter star away at high speed. Clever as it sounded, this explanation struggled to line up with real data.

The D6 theory required a rare, very massive white dwarf, greater than one solar mass, to work at all. Even then, it didnt explain why some runaway stars glow hotter and puffier than expected. And the rate of such explosions predicted by the theory far exceeded the number of HVWDs astronomers have actually found.

Dr. Glanzs team proposed a new route. Instead of one massive star and one small donor, they modeled a pair of hybrid heliumcarbonoxygen white dwarfs, or HeCO dwarfs. These stars contain layers of helium and carbon-oxygen, making them structurally different from the pure carbon-oxygen dwarfs assumed in older models. When they collide and disrupt one another, the result matches the puzzling brightness and high speeds astronomers see.

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A Cosmic Collision in Action

To test the idea, the researchers used the Arepo simulation code, designed to model extreme astrophysical events. They created a virtual binary system with two HeCO white dwarfs, one with 0.68 solar masses and the other with 0.62. Over time, the smaller star was stretched by the gravity of its partner and began spilling material onto it.

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The helium piled up until a detonation ripped across the larger stars surface. The shockwave ignited its carbon-oxygen core, triggering a second, more violent blast. The primary star was destroyed in a thermonuclear explosion, while its companion was partly shredded but survived. What remained was a lightweight but blazing-hot stellar core, hurled away at more than 2,000 kilometers per second.

The simulation showed the runaway dwarf shining brighter and larger than a normal one, thanks to the heat and stretching from the explosion. This fits with puzzling observations of stars like J0546 and J1332, which didnt make sense under older models.

Production of radioactive elements throughout the merger. (CREDIT: Nature Astronomy)

Unusual Supernova Fireworks

The supernova triggered by this merger was also unlike typical type Ia blasts. The explosion released 1.13  10^51 ergs of energy and created about 0.072 solar masses of radioactive nickel-56. This isotope normally powers the bright glow of supernovae, but in this case the smaller amount of nickel would make the blast appear faint and strange compared to normal events.

Such explosions could help explain rare underluminous supernovae, sometimes called 91bg-like events. These faint outbursts are spotted in older galaxies but have been difficult to trace back to a cause. The debris from the simulated explosion also sped off at high velocities, meaning astronomers might one day spot both a hypervelocity white dwarf and the remnants of its partners explosion, confirming the model.

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What happens to a hypervelocity white dwarf after its launch into space? To answer that, the researchers used the stellar evolution code MESA to follow its long-term development. At first, the star spins rapidly and shines brightly, inflated by the blast. Over millions of years it cools, shrinks, and slows its rotation, but it remains hotter and puffier than a typical white dwarf of the same mass.

Left: The HR diagram for our model compared with the observed values. The error bars depict the 1 and 2  uncertainties. The black arrow marks the point when the star is 104 years old. Right: The radius and temperature evolution of the model as a function of its age. (CREDIT: Nature Astronomy)

When compared to real stars observed by the Gaia mission, the match was striking. Known hypervelocity dwarfs like J0546 and J0927 lined up neatly with the predictions, including their unusual sizes and speeds. For the first time, a model explained not just how fast these stars move, but also why they look the way they do.

A Broader View of Stellar Explosions

The new work goes beyond explaining a few runaway stars. Type Ia supernovae are vital tools for measuring the expansion of the universe, yet their origins are still debated. If some of them come from HeCO mergers, as this study suggests, then astronomers may need to refine how they interpret supernova data.

Prof. Hagai Perets of the Technion, a co-author of the study, said, This discovery doesnt just help us understand hypervelocity stars  it gives us a window into new kinds of stellar explosions.

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Because hybrid white dwarfs may make up a quarter of all white dwarf pairs, this pathway might be more common than once thought. Even if only a fraction of these systems end in hypervelocity remnants, they could explain the handful astronomers have found so far.

The panels show the time evolution from the time of the partial disruption of the secondary WD (left panels) to the time of the He detonation (second left) when the shock converges in the CO core of the primary WD (third from the left), and f inally the ejected remnant in the right panels. (CREDIT: Nature Astronomy)

Future surveys and Gaia data releases are expected to uncover more of these stellar cannonballs streaking across the galaxy. Each new detection will help confirm the role of HeCO mergers and reveal more about the violent processes shaping stars and galaxies.

Practical Implications of the Research

Understanding hypervelocity white dwarfs has implications well beyond curiosity about fast stars. These objects serve as test cases for theories of supernova explosions, which are key to measuring cosmic distances and the universes expansion rate.

The findings also shed light on rare underluminous supernovae, helping astronomers piece together how elements are forged and spread through galaxies.

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By tracing the origins of runaway white dwarfs, scientists gain not only a solution to a long-standing puzzle but also a deeper window into stellar life cycles and the forces that shape the cosmos.

Note: The article above provided above by The Brighter Side of News.

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Axon brought a mobile tactical simulator to the Arizona Capitol on March 4, 2025, as part of its effort to back legislation that would stop a ballot referendum in Scottsdale brought by residents opposed to the company's plans to build a 74-acre campus near the Loop 101 and Hayden Road. Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy | Arizona Mirror

The Scottsdale City Council on Tuesday scrapped plans to move forward with a lawsuit over a new state law that cancels a public vote on the proposed headquarters for law enforcement technology company Axon, opting instead to pursue negotiations with the company, which said earlier this year that it is done negotiating.

After the council met with its attorneys for about 90 minutes behind closed doors in executive session on Tuesday, Scottsdale Mayor Lisa Borowsky motioned to vacate the agenda item which would have had the interim City Attorney file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the new law.

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Axon came to the state Capitol in 2025 aiming to bar voters in every city and town in Arizona from being able to challenge zoning and development decisions. But that bill failed to garner enough support, so the company and its allies pivoted instead to merely stripping away the right of Scottsdale voters to challenge the police weapons manufacturers HQ project near Hayden Road and the Loop 101.

In addition to the firms international headquarters, the project will include a luxury hotel and roughly 1,900 apartments. Governor Katie Hobbs signed Senate Bill 1543 into law in April.

The measure says that any municipality with between 200,000 and 500,000 residents  Scottsdale had 241,000 residents in the 2020 census  must allow hotel use and multifamily residential housing for land zoned like the Axon parcel without requiring any type of application that will require a public hearing if certain criteria is met.

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The Scottsdale City Council chambers were packed with Axon employees Tuesday, so much so that the room reached capacity and people were sent to overflow areas. Axon has often brought many of its employees, donning yellow Axon t-shirts, to events to support the legislation or council votes.

After returning from the lengthy executive session, Borowsky made the motion to vacate the agenda item, leading to a tense interaction between herself and Councilmember Barry Graham.

Councilman Graham, lets not debate it, Borowsky said after Graham requested to speak on the motion.

Eventually, Graham was allowed to speak.

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There is no guarantee this will come back to the Council, Graham said of the original motion. I am stunned and I am shocked that we are vacating this motion or withdrawing it.

Graham said that voting to vacate was essentially a vote for the 1,900 apartments and to disallow Scottsdale residents their right to referendum. Arizona residents have the constitutional right to refer matters to the ballot.

Local activists, backed by a signature-gathering effort linked to a California labor union, gathered more than 25,000 signatures to send the rezoning decision made by a lame-duck city council  the votes for the project came from councilors who had been voted out of office  to the ballot in a voter referendum, which must happen by November 2026.

Councilmember Adam Kwasman called Graham the greatest peoples champion this city has ever had but said he disagreed with Grahams assessment of the situation.

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I want to be very clear to those at home that the black-or-white story is not correct, and my deep respect towards Councilman Graham in this instance is a difference in strategy and not in policy, Kwasman said, adding that ditching the plan to sue will allow them to negotiate better, adding that lawyering is complicated and lawyering is hard.

Borowsky said that Graham had distorted the situation but was glad that he was able to speak his piece about the situation.

There were too many unanswered questions on the next steps, Borowsky said. This story is not over, unfortunately, and for now it is a we are not going to make a decision on this agenda item.

Vice-Mayor Jan Dubauskas said that they value Axon and thanked the company for coming out to Tuesdays council meeting.

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We value the tools that you bring into our community and the world, Dubauskas said, adding that the issue they have is with SB1543, not Axon.

Dubauskas, Graham and Councilmember Kathy Littlefield all voted to reject the motion to vacate, but it passed with the support of Borowsky, Kwasman and Councilmembers Maryann McAllen and Solange Whitehead.

This matter will come back around, Im certain of it, Borowsky said as the crowd began to disperse at the end of the vote.

Axon praised the councils decision to defer litigation on the new law that the company championed.

It would be a shame  and a tremendous waste  to force residents to bankroll politically motivated litigation that has virtually no chance of success, given the clear authority of the state to legislate on matters of economic development and zoning, Axon spokesperson David Leibowitz said in a statement to the Arizona Mirror. Equally importantly, this lawsuit would threaten more than 5,500 high-paying jobs and tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue. If Axon leaves, the alternative for this site wont be another innovative employer. It will be a massive truck depot and 24-hour traffic. It would have made zero sense to kill thousands of jobs and damage local residents quality of life.

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SCRANTON  When the next flash flood strikes, city firefighters will be even better prepared to respond because of increased training and rescue inflatable boats, officials said Tuesday on the two-year anniversary of a stormwater deluge that swamped parts of the city and the Abingtons.

Scranton Fire Department held a media event at the citys Serrenti Center emergency services facility at 1801 Pine St. to showcase firefighter water-rescue capabilities and publicize the departments recent designation as a Swiftwater Type 2a Team through the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Bureau of Emergency Medical Services and the Office of the State Fire Commissioner.

Swiftwater rescue certifications for firefighters and fire departments are not new, but standards to attain them recently have been updated and the city department is among the first, if not the first, to meet the new standards, Judge said.

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The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency could call upon Scrantons swiftwater rescue members to assist elsewhere in the state if needed, and some members also are certified as instructors, Judge said.

Now, we actually meet a standard and thats important for us. Were building up that team, Judge said, noting the department also is working toward attaining the Type 1, or top, designation.

With more severe storms arising and causing flash floods, swiftwater rescue capabilities and equipment have become more necessary, Judge and members of the citys swiftwater rescue team said.

Its one of the most dangerous things we could probably get involved in, Assistant Fire Chief Tom Irwin said. You cant control Mother Nature. You cant turn the water off. Its ever-increasing, the severity of things.

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The greatest risks and dangers to responders involved in technical rescue operations generally have been shifting from structural collapses to swiftwater rescues, Firefighter Erik Wells said.

Its just the way the weather is and how fast the storms are dropping 2-3 inches of rain in an hour, Wells said.

Since 2020, under the administration of Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti, the city has acquired three rescue inflatable boats and has another one on the way, Judge said. The orange boats, which have rigid hulls and inflatable bottoms, can be rolled up into a bag and stored.

The boats were used in the city to rescue people from their homes during the flash flood of Sept. 9, 2023, when stormwater swamped the Abingtons and parts of the city and caused millions of dollars in damages to homes and infrastructure and claimed the lives of two people whose car got flooded on Shady Lane Road in South Abington Township.

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Scranton firefighters from Rescue 1 arrive in a boat Saturday at Jackson Street and South Merrifield Avenue with a woman rescued from a flooded home on Sept. 9, 2023. (TIMES-TRIBUNE / FILE PHOTO)

CHRISTOPHER DOLAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Scranton firefighters from Rescue 1 arrive in a boat at Jackson Street and South Merrifield Avenue in West Scranton with a woman rescued from a flooded home on Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023.

The swiftwater team also was out a few weeks ago, when flash flooding struck and swamped about 10 vehicles in different parts of the city, Wells said.

Theyre great assets for the city to have, Judge said.

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The Scranton Fire Departments three rescue inflatable boats on display at the citys Serrenti Center on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)

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One of the Scranton Fire Departments swiftwater rescue boats at the citys Serrenti Center on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)

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Scrantons Serrenti Center on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)

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The Scranton Fire Departments three rescue inflatable boats on display at the citys Serrenti Center on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)

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More people are moving into South Carolina than out. And even more are coming for a visit.

From July 2023 to July 2024, the Palmetto State's population grew at a rate of 1.7%, according to the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce (SCDEW). As of July 2024, 91,000 more people now reside in the state, with a population total of 5,479,000.

Jasper County was the third fastest growing county in the nation with a 5.9% population growth. Six S.C. counties made the top 100 out of 3,000 across the nation.

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"Growth was primarily concentrated in coastal areas of the state, such as Horry County, and in the Upstate, particularly in Spartanburg, Greenville, Lancaster, and Laurens counties," said the state agency, which also said S.C.'s recent population growth has been primarily driven by domestic migration.

Locally, tourism is boosting Greenville's economy, per VisitGreenvilleSC's annual visitation data report. Here's how much visitors are investing in the city and what impact it is having on residents' quality of life.

Highlights from VisitGreenvilleSC's 2024 annual visitation report

Total visitors' impact on Greenville County was $2.5 billion, driving spending into nearly every business sector.

15% year-over-year hotel growth.

Visitors are paying $201 million in taxes annually ($106 million in state taxes, $95 million in local taxes). This spending positively impacts the quality of life for residents and is used by local government for parks, festivals, public safety, etc.

Visitors support 1 in every 25 jobs in Greenville County, funding $655 million in personal income.

Visitors look at the Reedy River falls at Falls Park, during the Greenville Jazz Festival in Greenville, S.C. Saturday, May 31, 2025.

SCDEW's percent change in population by metro area, 2023-2024

SCDEW is a state agency that provides resources and services to job seekers and employers in S.C. Its mission is to help job seekers find employment, providing unemployment insurance benefits, offering vocational rehabilitation, and gathering labor market information to identify economic trends.

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All ten metropolitan statistical areas in the state recorded population growth from 2023 to 2024. Here are their growth rates and national rankings:

Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach: 3.8% change, 3 (national rank)

Spartanburg: 2.7% change, 10 (national rank)

Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, North Carolina, S.C.: 2.2% change, 25 (national rank)

Charleston-North Charleston: 2.1% change, 28 (national rank)

Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal: 2.1% change, 31 (national rank)

Greenville-Anderson-Greer: 1.7% change, 40 (national rank)

Columbia: 1.3% change, 82 (national rank)

Augusta-Richmond County, Georgia-S.C.: 0.9% change, 148 (national rank)

Sumter: 0.4% change, 270 (national rank)

Florence: 0.3% change, 276 (national rank)

Why are tourists choosing to travel to Greenville?

Jonathan Scales performs with his band, Jonathan Scales Fourchestra, on the Reedy Stage near Falls Park at the inaugural Greenville Jazz Festival that took over downtown on Saturday, June 3, 2023.

Jonathan Smith, director of research for VisitGreenvilleSC, pointed out that a few reasons why visitors are traveling to Greenville, according to Travel and Tour World. The city being an idyllic destination to escape and relax, may be one of them, but Greenville's restaurant scene, fun-filled events, and natural, picturesque surroundings have also given it a competitive edge over other Southern cities.

"The citys blend of urban and outdoor experiences attracts travellers year-round. Dining and culinary experiences increased by 38% as a primary travel reason. Greenvilles food culture now draws nearly half of its visitors," said Travel and World Tour. "Unique scenery inspires 44% of visitors to choose Greenville. This blend of comfort, flavour, and beauty makes Greenville stand out."

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Nina Tran covers trending topics for The Greenville News. Reach her via email at ntran@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: SC, Greenville growth means more tourist dollars. How much they spend
MOSCOW, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- The drones, which penetrated the Polish airspace and were intercepted, were from Ukraine, Russia's Charge d'Affaires in Poland Andrey Ordash said Wednesday.

The Polish foreign ministry summoned the Russian diplomat on Wednesday over the alleged violation of the country's airspace by Russian drones.

"We know one thing, these drones flew from Ukraine," said Ordash, cited by the TASS news agency. He previously claimed that Warsaw's accusations were completely groundless.

He received a protest note from the Polish side, said Ordash, noting that "no evidence was presented that these drones were of Russian origin."

The Russian defense ministry said Wednesday that no targets on the Polish territory were planned for destruction, clarifying that the maximum flight range of the Russian drones used in strikes on Ukraine does not exceed 700 km.

"Nevertheless, we are ready to hold consultations with the Polish Defense Ministry on the issue," the Russian ministry said.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Wednesday on the social platform X that the Polish airspace was violated by a "huge number of Russian drones" and some posed a "direct threat."

The Polish air forces shot down multiple drones in the country after detecting repeated airspace violations overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, according to a statement from the Polish Armed Forces Operational Command. 
A Seattle man says his car was stolen overnight, used in a series of burglaries, and then deliberately crashed and flipped before police recovered it.

Kelley Juett wrote that he was woken up around 3 a.m. Friday by Seattle police officers at his front door.

They told him they had found his Kia Soul on its side after it had been involved in a multi-car crash.

GoFundMe: Support Needed After Car Theft and Crash

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When he stepped outside, he realized his car was gone.

Juett said the vehicle had been stolen from outside his home around 2 a.m.

While it was in the hands of the thieves, he said, neighbors reported a string of break-ins.

According to his account, security video collected by the community shows the suspects committing crimes throughout the neighborhood.

In what he described as the final act, his car was shifted into drive and rolled down a hill, striking several vehicles before flipping on its side.

The crash totaled his car, which he said is not covered by insurance.

Never in my life would I feel I would be in a situation like this, but here I am with no vehicle, no insurance settlement to help towards a new vehicle and I need help, Juett wrote.

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He has since launched an online fundraiser seeking support to replace the car.

Ive never gone without a vehicle since I was 14. I always took that as a prideful thing, Juett told Seattle Red 770 AM Tuesday afternoon. I dont want to be down too long, so Ive been blessed with friends and family donating to my GoFundMe.

Seattle police records confirm officers were dispatched to a report of an auto theft and recovery at about 3:48 a.m. on Aug. 30.

The vehicle, a blue Kia Soul with Texas plates, had last been seen parked outside Juetts home around 10 p.m. the night before.

Police notified him after finding the car involved in a collision nearby.

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Juett told officers that he and his wife were the only ones with access to the vehicle and that a neighbor might have footage of the theft.

Police said he allowed them to search the car and that he was given a case number for both the theft and the crash.

The incident remains under investigation.

Juett said he is hopeful that the security video gathered by him and his neighbors will help police identify those responsible.
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW)  September is known as National Hunger Action Month, and Second Harvest is working to bring awareness to the nationwide campaign.

Created in 2007 by the Feeding America network of food banks, the Hunger Action Month movement is a nationwide movement to end hunger in local American communities.

Second Harvest's Mackenzie Bally talks about how to get involved in this nationwide movement.

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You can donate through our website at shcfb.org, or there are also many volunteer opportunities, which you can give us a call or sign up for events through our website, said Bally.

Bally said that getting involved will help around 41,000 people in the local area who face food insecurity.
The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs will convene a Business Meeting on Wednesday, September 10, 2025 at 2:30 p.m. ET to consider the nomination of Mr. William Billy Kirkland to be Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Immediately following the Business Meeting, Murkowski and Schatz will hold an Oversight Hearing entitled: Unleashing Indian Energy  Examining Federal Programs at the U.S. Department of Energy.

Never miss Indian Countrys biggest stories and breaking news. Click here to sign up to get our reporting sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning.

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Expert witnesses include:

Mr. David F. Conrad, Acting Director and Deputy Director, Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs, U.S. Department of Energy

Dr. Anna Maria Ortiz, Director, Natural Resources and Environment, U.S. Government Accountability Office

Ms. Jocelyn Fenton, Director of Programs, Denali Commission

The Oversight Hearing and the Business Meeting will webcast live on the Committees website; an archived video will be available shortly after the hearing concludes. Witness testimony will be available on the website at the start of the hearing.

Event Details:

WHAT:

Murkowski and Schatz to lead Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Business Meeting and Oversight Hearing

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WHEN:

Wednesday, September 10, 2025 at 2:30 p.m. ET

WHERE:

Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room: 628

Live video of the event will be available here.

About the Author: "Native News Online is one of the most-read publications covering Indian Country and the news that matters to American Indians, Alaska Natives and other Indigenous people. Reach out to us at editor@nativenewsonline.net. "

Contact: news@nativenewsonline.net
An Arizona senator has sought to block military funeral honors for pro-Trump rioter Ashli Babbitt, who was killed on January 6, 2021, when she stormed the U.S. Capitol building.

Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran, was fatally shot by a Capitol police officer when she tried to climb through a broken window to get to the Speakers Lobby. The officer was not charged in the shooting.

Late last month, the Air Force announced Babbitt would receive military funeral honors after that type of service was reportedly denied under the Biden administration.

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But Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego, a Marine vet who was inside the Capitol during the January 6 riot, is expected to introduce a resolution to block the military funeral honors on Wednesday, CNN reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

An Arizona senator has sought to block military funeral honors for pro-Trump rioter Ashli Babbitt, who was killed on January 6, 2021, when she stormed the U.S. Capitol building (AP)

Gallego wrote on X after news broke that Babbitt would receive military funeral honors, I served in combat with 23 Marines that died for their country and deserved full military honors. Ashli Babbit deserves nothing, certainly not full military honors.

The senator's resolution states, per CNN, Babbitts actions on January 6 constitute disqualifying conduct.

The Senate rejects efforts to glorify or legitimize the actions of those who sought to overturn the Constitution of the United States, according to the resolution.

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But its very unlikely the resolution will pass in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego, a Marine vet who was inside the Capitol during the January 6 riot, is reportedly expected to introduce a resolution to block the military funeral honors on Wednesday (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

Trump  who falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen from him after former President Joe Bidens victory, leading the rioters to try and fail to overturn the results  has been sympathetic to Babbitts family and other January 6 rioters.

When he returned to office, the Trump administration agreed to pay Babbitt's family nearly $5 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit. Trump also pardoned about 1,500 people charged or convicted of crimes relating to the Capitol riot.

Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group who pushed to get Babbitt military funeral honors, said in a statement late last month, Ashli Babbitts family is grateful to President Trump, Secretary Hegseth and Under Secretary Lohmeier for reversing the Biden Defense Departments cruel decision to deny Ashli funeral honors as a distinguished veteran of the Air Force.
It sounded like freedom, like a world of possibility beyond the orphanage walls.

Maria Pires was getting adopted. At 11, she saw herself escaping the violence of the Sao Paulo orphanage, leaving Brazil for America.

A single man in his 40s, Floyd Sykes III, came to meet her. He signed paperwork and brought Maria home.

She arrived in suburban Baltimore in 1989. She was, she believed, officially an American.

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But what happened there would come to haunt her.

My father  my adopted father  he was supposed to save me, Pires said. Instead, he tortured and sexually abused her.

After nearly three years, Sykes was arrested. Pires entered foster care.

By then, she was consumed with fury. In the worst years, she beat a teenager at a roller rink, leaving him in a coma. She attacked a prison guard and stabbed her cellmate with a sharpened toothbrush.

In prison, she discovered that no one ever completed her immigration paperwork. That oversight would leave her without a country, but immigration officials let her stay in the country.

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In President Donald Trump's second administration  with its promise of mass deportations  everything changed. Trump's unyielding approach to immigration enforcement has swept up tens of thousands of immigrants, including many like Pires who came to the U.S. as children and know little, if any, life outside America.

Pires was detained during a routine check-in, sent to one immigration jail after another, and ultimately deported to a land she barely remembers. The Associated Press conducted hours of interviews with Pires and people who know her and reviewed Maryland court records, internal ICE communications, and adoption and immigration paperwork to tell her story.

U.S. immigration officials say Pires is a dangerous criminal whos no longer welcome in the country.

Pires, now 47, doesnt deny her criminal past.

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But little about her story is straightforward.

A new chapter of childhood, marked by abuse

Pires has no clear memories from before entering the orphanage. The organization that facilitated her adoption was later investigated over allegations it charged exorbitant fees and used videos to market children.

Pires remembers a crew filming a commercial. She believes thats how Sykes found her.

In his custody, the abuse escalated over time. He'd lock her in a room, chained to a radiator. He overpowered her when she fought back. She started cutting herself.

In September 1992, someone alerted authorities. Sykes was arrested. Child welfare officials took custody of Maria, then 14.

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Maryland Department of Human Services spokesperson Lilly Price said the agency couldnt comment on specific cases because of confidentiality laws but noted in a statement that adoptive parents are responsible for applying for U.S. citizenship for their children.

Court documents show Sykes admitted sexually assaulting Maria but he claimed the assaults stopped in June 1990.

He was convicted of child abuse. In the end, Sykes spent about two months in jail.

Sykes' sister Leslie Parrish said she's often wondered what happened to Maria. Parrish said her brother seemed committed to fatherhood.

In hindsight, she sees it differently. She believes sinister motives lurked in the back of his sick mind.

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Years in prison, with progress and setbacks

During her teenage years, Pires was kicked out of school for fighting. She ran away from foster homes, sometimes ending up homeless.

At 18, she pleaded guilty to aggravated assault for the roller rink attack. She served two years in prison. It was then that authorities  and Pires herself  discovered she wasn't a U.S. citizen.

Her criminal record meant it would be extremely difficult to gain citizenship. Suddenly, she faced deportation. Pires said she hadn't realized the potential consequences when accepting her plea deal.

A team of volunteer lawyers and advocates argued she shouldnt be punished for something beyond her control.

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Ultimately, the American judicial system agreed: Pires would be allowed to remain in the U.S. if she checked in annually with ICE.

Pires didnt immediately take advantage of her second chance.

She was arrested for cocaine distribution in 2004 and check fraud in 2007. While incarcerated, she picked up charges for stabbing her cellmate in the eye, burning an inmate and throwing hot water on an officer.

Her 2017 release marked a new beginning. Through therapy and other support services, she learned to manage her anger and stay out of trouble. She started working long days in construction. She checked in yearly with immigration agents.

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But in 2023, work dried up. She fell behind on rent and felt her mental health slipping. She applied for a womens transitional housing program in Baltimore.

Pires thrived there. With no high school diploma and only second-grade reading skills, she qualified for a state-run job training course to polish and refinish floors. Photos show her smiling broadly in a blue graduation gown.

This year, on March 6, Pires showed up at the Baltimore immigration office for her annual check-in. Instead of receiving a compliance report, she was handcuffed and detained.

That sparked a journey across America's immigration detention system. From Baltimore, she was sent to New Jersey and Louisiana before landing at Eloy Detention Center in Arizona.

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A deportation priority, and starting from scratch in Brazil

On June 2, in an email exchange obtained by AP, an ICE agent asked to have Pires prioritized for an upcoming deportation flight to Brazil.

Her lawyer tried to stop the deportation. He received terrified calls from Pires, who was transferred to a facility near Alexandria, Louisiana, a common waypoint for deportation flights.

Finally, Pires said, she was handcuffed, shackled, put on a bus, driven to the Alexandria airport and loaded onto an airplane.

I was just praying to God, she said. Maybe this is his plan.

After two stops to drop off other deportees, they arrived in the Brazilian port city of Fortaleza.

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Brazilian authorities later took Pires to a womens shelter in the eastern part of the country.

She's spent months trying to get Brazilian identification documents. Most of her belongings are in a Baltimore storage unit. She tries to remain hopeful.

Ive survived all these years, Pires said. I can survive again.

Her attorney filed an application for U.S. citizenship. But federal officials say thats not happening, citing her "serial criminal record.

Pires applied for Brazilian work authorization. In moments of optimism, she imagines herself working as a translator, earning a decent salary and renting a nice apartment.

She wonders if Gods plan will ever become clear.

_____

Mauricio Savarese contributed from Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Sherrys Hope received a $7,000 donation from a Lebanon business and announced this years Sherrys Run 5k Run/Walk is being held in the memory of a local ER physician.

Buckeye Drugs presented the check as part of its sponsorship for Sherrys Run. The pharmacy has been a longtime supporter of the nonprofit and its mission.

Cory and his team are always eager to step in and help our patients, and their faithful support of our organization means so much. We are deeply grateful for Buckeye Drugs, Alisa Eakes, Sherrys Hope Patient Assistance Director, said.

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Additionally, Sherrys Hope is remembering Dr. Scott Giles, an ER physician who battled colon cancer. He passed away last June, so Sherrys Hope is dedicating the Run/Walk in his memory. Giles used an at-home screening test then received a diagnosis after a follow-up doctor appointment.

Giles continued his work and used his own battle as a means to raise awareness for colon cancer and early detection measures. According to Sherrys Hope, Giles often told people God has blessed me with this cancer so I can tell people to get tested.

Sherrys Hope was founded in memory of Sherry Whitaker, who passed away from colon cancer at 44 years old. The nonprofit emphasizes colon health and proactive measures to provide test kits to increase early detection rates.

Even before his cancer diagnosis, Giles supported Sherrys Hope and often volunteered at the Sherrys Run 5K Run/Walk. Last year, Sherrys Run was held in his honor.

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Dr. Giles or as I call him, Doc, was a tremendous supporter of Sherrys Run by volunteering to oversee our first aid tents for the race each year, and his passion for medicine was met by providing the best experience for our run participants, Scott Jasper, Sherrys Hope Executive Board Member and Sherrys Run Race Director, said. Even though he was going through treatments in 2024, he still made the time to support our organization and tell his story. It was a pleasure to work alongside him each year, and he will be missed as we carry on the fight.

The 22nd Sherrys Run 5k Run/Walk will be held this Saturday.
The shooting was deemed to be criminally motivated, Sdot-Negev regional council later announced.

A shooting occured at the Yad Mordechai intersection in the Gaza border communities, Israel Police stated on Tuesday night.

The shooting was deemed to be criminally motivated, Sdot-Negev regional council later announced.

The council also noted that there have been no changes to the area's security guidelines.

The vehicle that sustained a direct hit from a rocket near Yad Mordechai (credit: POLICE SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Criminally motivated attack

No injuries were reported, though according to Army Radio, the victim's car was significantly damaged.

Security checkpoints were set up throughout the area amid the search for the shooter.

Israel Police have launched an investigation into the incident.

This is a developing story.
PEORIA  OSF HealthCare will receive $750,000 of federal funds to expand health care access in rural Illinois, according to U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen.

Sorensen, a Democrat who represents Illinois' 17th District, said in a news release Tuesday that the funding was necessary to combat cuts to Medicaid enacted by Republicans in the federal government.

Having visited OSF HealthCare in Peoria, I know how essential they are to their community and why we must do whatever we can to keep them afloat," Sorensen said. "By expanding access to healthcare in rural areas, this funding will improve healthcare for thousands in the district.

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More: US News ranks best universities in Illinois. See which schools made the list

OSF HealthCare said it was "incredibly grateful" to receive the grant and said it would allow it to expand mobile health services into rural communities.

"This initiative marks a significant step forward in our OSF Mission to improve health equity and expand access to care," said Jennifer Junis, president of OSF OnCall Digital Health. "We are honored by the opportunity to serve more patients and make a lasting impact in the communities that need it most. Together, were breaking down barriers and building healthier communities.

The grant, which comes from the United States Department of Agriculture, will be used by OSF HealthCare to equip three mobile units to serve Fulton, Knox and Livingston counties. Approximately 16,000 people could benefit from the expanded services, according to the news release.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: OSF Healthcare receives federal dollars to expand rural health care
Sinwar tied Oct. 7 to a prophetic desert generation vision, aiming for 2028, but his faith-driven plan miscalculated Israel, Hezbollah, and US reactions, MEAD heard.

WASHINGTON  Yahya Sinwar cast the October 7 attack as part of a divine plan, a senior Middle Eastern security official said at the Middle East-America Dialogue in Washington, speaking under MEADs non-attribution rules.

The official described Sinwar as a believer first and a strategist second, guided by a prophetic timeline pointing toward independence around 2028. Drawing on teachings attributed to Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin about a desert generation, Sinwar divided modern history into three phases: 1948-1988 as humiliation, 1988-2028 as buildup, and a culminating phase he believed could begin near 2028.

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Within that religious frame, the October 7 blueprint was internally labeled the next promise, the official said on Tuesday.

The goal was not a limited kidnap-and-escape raid but one meant to instill fear and trigger social collapse inside Israel through extreme brutality. That calculation, the official added, was a strategic error that carried a heavy international price for Hamas and shocked many Palestinians, including Arab Israelis, who did not rally as Sinwar expected.

According to the official, faith-based certainty fed a series of misreads. Sinwar anticipated Israeli deterrence from invading Gaza and expected full Hezbollah entry into the war. He believed a widening rift between Israel and the United States would leave Jerusalem isolated and that the operation would derail normalization with Saudi Arabia.

Illustrative image of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in front of a Hamas tunnel in the Gaza Strip. (credit: Anas-Mohammed/Shutterstock, REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)

Instead, Israel invaded, Hezbollahs involvement was limited, and the Israel-US relationship proved more durable than Sinwar assumed.

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Operationally, he treated internal Israeli tensions and flashpoints around the Temple Mount as divine cues to move from vision to action. He exploited a holiday period with thin manpower along the Gaza border after months of IDF focus on the West Bank when selecting the date, the official said.

Leadership shift from Doha to Gaza

Looking ahead, the official assessed that Hamass decision-making may shift from Doha to Gaza after recent leadership losses abroad, with a Gaza-based figure who previously oversaw the groups northern command now driving the military track. Negotiations over hostages and ceasefire terms can continue via other avenues, despite the shake-up, the official said.

Placing Sinwars worldview within the regions broader dynamics, the official urged policymakers to keep their eyes on the ball, namely, Irans proxy network and missile program, not only its nuclear file. He called October 7 an Iranian massacre carried out by Palestinian hands and warned that focusing solely on the nuclear track would invite future conflict.
WARSAW, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Poland on Tuesday night closed four airports, including its largest Chopin Airport in Warsaw, due to "unplanned military activity related to ensuring state security," according to notices posted on the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's website.

The closure of key Polish airports came after Warsaw claimed that "drone-type objects" had violated its airspace from neighboring Ukraine.

Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said on Wednesday that the country's air force has used weapons against hostile objects that have entered Polish airspace. 
SIOUX COUNTY, Iowa (KCAU)  One person was killed and another was injured in a two-vehicle crash in Sioux County on Tuesday.

Iowa State Patrol said that at around 2:40 p.m., troopers responded to a crash at the north junction of U.S. 75 and U.S. 18.

Story continues below

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Crash reports indicate that an SUV pulled out from the stop sign, and a semi hit the vehicle.

Authorities said the SUV stopped in the east ditch, and the semi came to a rest in the middle of the road north of the intersection.

ISP said a 17-year-old who was wearing a seatbelt was pronounced dead at the scene. While another 17-year-old was transported by helicopter to a Sioux Falls hospital. Both were wearing their seatbelts and were the only two reported injuries.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to SiouxlandProud | Sioux City, IA | News, Weather, and Sports.
The Trump administration is reviewing material about slavery, the destruction of Native American culture, climate change and more at federal parks after employees flagged information that could be disparaging to Americans, according to screenshots shared with The Associated Press.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March directing the Interior Department  which manages parks, monuments and other designated land  to ensure public property doesn't contain elements that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living." Instead, it said to focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people and the beauty, abundance, and grandeur of the American landscape.

The National Park Service had until July 18 to flag inappropriate signs, exhibits and other material, according to a document shared with the AP by the National Parks Conservation Association, which obtained internal information from an anonymous source within the Interior Department. The public was also encouraged to participate.

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As we carry out this directive, well be evaluating all signage in the park along with the public feedback weve received," said Elizabeth Peace, spokesperson for the Interior Department. This effort reinforces our commitment to telling the full and accurate story of our nations past." The department said any signage inconsistent with the executive order will be removed or covered and reinstated once edits are made. The administration said it would remove all inappropriate material by Sept. 17, according to The New York Times, citing internal agency documents.

The directive has raised concerns about sanitizing and erasing dark sides of American history.

Pretending that the bad stuff never happened is not going to make it go away," said Alan Spears, a senior director with the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonpartisan group separate from the national parks system that advocates for it. We need to be able to talk about these things if we're going to have any hope of bringing people together."

A look at some of the material that was flagged for review:

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North Carolina: Climate change, pollution

WHAT'S IN DISPUTE: A sign titled The Air We Breathe was flagged because it discusses the importance of clean air. Pollution from human-caused ozone, it explains, threatens people's health and vegetation, and power plants, cars and industries that burn fossil fuels are the pollutant's primary sources.

In North Carolina's Cape Hatteras National Seashore, there are signs about sea level rise due to climate change. We do not believe it to be in violation, but would like someone to review if messaging of climate change and sea level rise reduces the focus on the grandeur, beauty and abundance, one employee wrote.

THE BACK STORY: Emissions from burning fossil fuels are heating the planet, causing ice sheets and glaciers to melt and seawater to expand. Rising seas threaten the people and ecosystems that live by the coast.

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THE REACTION: Carlos Martinez, climate scientist for the Union of Concerned Scientists, thinks the agency should be educating the public about the threats national parks face.

These public parks are places to learn about pollution, climate change and environmental degradation, he said, and eliminating this information limits the ability for our population, especially for the younger generation, to understand these issues that allow them to then take action.

South Carolina and Pennsylvania: Enslavement of Black people

WHAT'S IN DISPUTE: At a gift shop in Charles Pinckney National Historic Site in South Carolina, marked for review were books for sale, including Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs. Similar books were flagged elsewhere, including at the Washington Monument, where someone identified a book discussing George Washington as a slave owner.

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In Pennsylvania's Independence National Historical Park, flagged were descriptions of the whipping, kidnapping, rape and other brutality slaveholders inflicted on Black people. At another, an employee identified an exhibit about Black Americans escaping to freedom that names slave owners.

THE BACK STORY: The legacy of slavery and racism has laid the foundation for the inequalities Black people face in the U.S., including greater rates of poverty, disease and illness, and incarceration at more than five times the rate of white people.

THE REACTION: Slavery is not a side story. Its the engine of American economic growth for more than two centuries, said Cedric Haynes, vice president of policy and legislative affairs with the NAACP. And there are individuals who played a part in this.

It's important to name the people who perpetuated slavery's atrocities, he said, because that legacy is embedded in American laws, institutions and the nation's wealth.

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Alaska and Florida: A complex history with Native Americans

WHAT'S IN DISPUTE: At Sitka National Historical Park in Alaska, an employee flagged a panel about missionaries who sought to destroy the language and culture of Alaska Natives and forcefully remove them from their lands. The concerning text says: The history of this land includes a series of actions that attempted to remove the Sheetka Kwaan from their land, culture, and language which includes forced relocations under both Russian and American governance.

In Florida's Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, tagged was a panel discussing imprisonment of Plains Indians. Text of panel needs review for language referring to tribes having choice of extinction or assimilation. Language of U.S. Government giving the choice of extinction could be considered negative towards the United States," they wrote.

THE BACK STORY: The relationship between the United States and Indigenous nations has been fraught, violent, dispossessive and complex over the centuries, and the national parks are part of that story, said Jessica R. Cattelino, American Indian studies professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. To cut off parts of those stories because they might make someone uncomfortable, thats a disservice to the ecological and cultural value of these lands.

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Brenda Child, a Red Lake Ojibwe tribe member and American and American Indian studies professor at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, said it's only been about two decades since we started telling the accurate history of the United States and Native Americans.

THE REACTION: It's sad to think about efforts to rewrite it now, she says, at a time when more accurate portrayals of Indigenous history in the U.S. finally exist. "But the way I always look at these things is: You can try to suppress it, but the cats out of the bag. We know what happened. The books have been written.

Florida: A slight to Industrial America?

WHAT'S IN DISPUTE: Is Floridas Everglades National Park a slight to industrial development in America? Stories of the lands urbanization, agriculture and more presented across the park could be conceived as being disparaging to the development of Industrial America, one employee wrote.

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THE BACK STORY: The Everglades is a subtropical wilderness that protects 1.5 million acres of habitats and biodiversity and is a vital source of drinking water for millions. The Seminole and Miccosukee tribes have called these lands home for centuries.

Decades of urban and farming development degraded the ecosystem, until, in 1947, the park was established to protect what remained. Underway is a massive state-federal project, approved by Congress in 2000 with bipartisan support, that aims to undo the damages.

THE REACTION: People committed these harms generations ago without knowing better. And we know better now, and we cannot lose sight of the lessons learned, said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades. If we dont keep in clear view that history and the mistakes that we made in our past, then we are doomed to repeat them.

___

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of APs environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
Portions of Oregon are under heightened alert as slow-moving storms track the region, bringing potential for heavy rainfall and flash flooding, particularly across areas scarred by recent wildfires.

Burn scars are especially vulnerable because the vegetation that normally absorbs rainfall has been destroyed, leaving the soil more prone to rapid runoff and erosion  and forcing flash flood advisories across much of the state.

Local authorities warn that even moderate rain can trigger dangerous flash floods and mudflows in these areas.

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The National Weather Service advises residents in affected zones to monitor weather updates closely and avoid driving through flooded roadways, which can be deceptively deep and fast-moving.

"Showers with isolated to scattered thunderstorms will persist through Thursday, mainly during daytime hours," according to the National Weather Service office in Pendleton. "Activity will simmer down Friday and Saturday (Sept. 12-13) with showers and storm chances decreasing.

Will the rain help with wildfire containment in Oregon?

The storms are expected to bring significant rainfall to some areas, but showers will be scattered and uneven. In locations that receive measurable rain, the precipitation could help tamp down existing fires and temporarily improve air quality. However, the amounts are unlikely to be enough to fully contain larger fires, especially those in rugged terrain or with heavy fuels.

Meanwhile, if some storms turn out to be dry thunderstorms  producing little rain but lightning, as expected in parts of Washington  they could ignite new wildfires. Over the weekend, the Washington Cascades saw more than a dozen new wildfires sparked by lightning alone.

When will the flood advisory expire?

Heavy rainfall of 1 to 1.5 inches could trigger flash flooding of low-lying areas, and debris flows in and near numerous recent wildfire burn scars, according to the National Weather Service.

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Portions of central and northeast Oregon, including central Oregon, John Day Basin and Ochoco-John Day Highlands and Southern Blue Mountains of Oregon will remain under flood watch through Thursday evening, Sept. 11.

What is a flash flood?

Flash floods can develop within six hours of heavy rain, dam or levee failure. They can uproot trees, destroy buildings and bridges and trigger mudslides. Flash floods are usually characterized by raging torrents after heavy rains.

Flash floods can even occur in areas that aren't receiving rain, the NWS warns.

Warning vs watch: What is a flash flood warning?

A flood watch is issued when conditions are favorable for flooding, according to the NWS. It doesn't guarantee flooding will occur, but it means flooding is possible.

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A flash flood warning is issued when a flash flood is imminent or already happening, USA TODAY reported. If youre in a flood-prone area during a flash flood warning, move to higher ground immediately.

Remember: Turn around, don't drown.

What to do during a flood warning

If advised to evacuate, do so immediately.

Use a battery-powered radio or TV to get the latest emergency information.

Do not walk through floodwater  just 6 inches of moving water can knock you off your feet.

Turn around, dont drown: Never drive into a flooded street. Two feet of moving water can sweep away a car, and roads may be washed out.

Watch for fire hazards.

Move to higher ground.

Stay alert and keep weather notifications on.

Keep children away from floodwaters  they can hide rocks, trees, and debris.

Medford area radar loop

Pendleton area radar loop

Oregon weather watches and warnings

Oregon wildfire map

Stay informed. Get weather alerts via text

Brandi D. Addison covers weather across the United States as the Weather Connect reporter. She can be reached at baddison@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Storms bring flash flood potential to Oregon. Track storms here
Sep. 9Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (SMIF) is currently accepting applications for its Taylor Rural Improvements Grant program. Towns, or the Native nation, with populations under 10,000 in SMIF's 20-county region that provide essential services to underserved populations are eligible. Nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations, public institutions and units or agencies of local, state, federal and tribal government are encouraged to apply. Requests of up to $30,000 for eligible projects will be considered.

The Taylor Rural Improvements Grant seeks to support capital projects that provide essential services to underserved populations within the community. Projects considered will fall under the following essential services categories: food, clothing, shelter, transportation or internet accessibility.

Applications are due to SMIF by Oct. 15, 2025. Awardees will be notified by Nov. 14. For the application and guidelines, visit smifoundation.org/taylorruralimprovements. For questions, contact Sarah Scheffert, communications and community vitality specialist, at 507-214-7015 or sarahs@smifoundation.org.

 Austin Daily Herald
TYLER, Texas (KETK)  Smith County Animal Control and Shelter supervisor Amber Greene has been fired from her position after an internal investigation found she encouraged an employee to use racial slurs.

East Texas teacher resigns after racially insensitive statements resurface

Termination records from Smith County describe that the county launched an internal investigation after an animal control employee submitted a letter describing an Aug. 7 meeting where Greene had allegedly made derogatory comments and allowed her employees to use racial slurs.

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After a thorough internal investigation, and your own admission, it was found that you made derogatory comments in the workplace and, more concerningly, permitted employees under your supervision to use racial slurs, Smith County chief human resources officer Esmeralda Corona wrote in Greenes termination letter dated Sept. 9. This behavior is in direct violation of Smith Countys anti-discrimination and harassment policies, as well as the ethical responsibilities entrusted to you as a leader.

In the original complaint, the employee claims that one of her female coworkers used a racial slur in reference to recent building repairs. When asked to clarify what the coworker allegedly said, the letter claims their coworker used the racial slur again. The complainant alleges that Greene encouraged these remarks by adding to the conversation.

Photo of Amber Green, courtesy of Smith County.

The employee wrote that they were hurt all day after that because they felt that their race was made into a joke. They described having to pray to God at night so they could go to sleep.

As a leader, your actions set the tone for the entire team. Making disparaging or inappropriate comments undermines the culture of respect and integrity we strive to uphold, Corona wrote to Greene. Your behavior has been found to be inconsistent with the expectations of your role and the responsibilities entrusted to you.

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KETK News obtained copies of disciplinary actions taken against Greene in the weeks before her termination on Sept. 9. Smith County first took disciplinary action on Aug. 18, 11 days after the meeting referenced in the employees letter.

The first disciplinary action against Greene resulted in a written reprimand being placed in her personnel file, a 3-month probationary oversight period and mandatory one-on-one communication sessions. The first disciplinary action lists the following non-exclusive list of reasons supporting Smith Countys decision at that time:

In several occasions when issues have been addressed, you become abrasive and

defensive.

Instead of finding solutions to problems, you have made excuses.

Failure to properly manage staff and provide a customer service approach to the public.

Poor communication with peers, public, and local organizations.

Later on Aug. 25, a level 2 disciplinary action was filed against Greene by Smith County. This second action provided similar reasoning as the first action and added that Greene reportedly failed to ensure all animal control duties were being completed during a shortage of staff.

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We were disgusted Civil Rights activists call for Tyler Police resignations

As a result of the second action, Smith County added another reprimand to Greenes file, required her to attend leadership training and removed her final say over hiring and employment actions.

Then just four days later, on Aug. 29, Greene was placed on unpaid administrative leave during the course of Smith Countys internal investigation. According to Greenes termination letter, she was officially terminated from her position as animal control and shelter supervisor on Tuesday.

KETK also obtained the termination letter of the female employee who allegedly used the racial slur on Aug. 7. She was terminated on Sept. 2, after an internal investigation found she used derogatory and inappropriate language in the workplace, according to Smith County.

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Greene spoke with KETK on Tuesday and she said she believes a complete investigation wasnt done in her case.

I feel like a thorough investigation wasnt conducted. I dont believe that you can take just one employees word about what all was said, Greene said. Ive worked in the animal control field for 15 years, and I have worked very hard to get where Im at. I want my job back, I love my job.

Angelina College settles race discrimination lawsuit, pays former Black employee $315k

Smith County Judge Neal Franklin said Smith County officials directed their human resources department to handle this case. We directed HR to handle it, and thats how thats how its supposed to be, Franklin said. It really is supposed to be done that way.

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Smith County Animal Shelter coordinator Anglec Reynolds told KETK that she thinks the shelter would fall apart without Greene.

I think it would fall apart without her because theres no one thats ever going to be replaceable for her, no one that can handle the stress that we have in our shelter and I feel like our entire department is going to fall apart, Reynolds said.

Franklin told KETK he had spoken with Greene about building a new animal shelter.

I would love a new shelter, Franklin said. In fact, I was the first one that went to Amber and we talked about it and I said, I would like to see us have a new animal shelter. When we first spoke of it, we were talking about $3.5 million and now were looking at around $7 million as the latest price.

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Greene told KETK that she plans to file a grievance with Smith County in regards to her termination.

You can now stream KETK and FOX51 News live 24/7 on your smart TV with KETK+, our brand-new app! No antenna, cable, or satellite neededwatch for free, anytime. Just download it on your Roku, Apple TV, or Fire TV and start streaming.

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By Gopal Sharma and Adnan Abidi

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Soldiers guarded Nepal's parliament and patrolled deserted streets on Wednesday with the capital Kathmandu under a curfew, after two days of deadly anti-corruption protests forced Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli to resign.

The upheaval in the poor Himalayan nation was unleashed by a social media ban that was announced last week, but was rolled back after 19 people were killed on Monday as police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to control crowds.

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The death toll from the protests had risen to 25 by Wednesday, Nepal's health ministry said, while 633 were injured.

Nepal's army said that relevant parties were coordinating to tackle the situation after the protests and resolve the issue. Media also said preparations were being made for authorities and protesters to hold talks, without giving details. Reuters could not independently confirm the information.

Most of the protesters were young people voicing frustration at the government's perceived failure to fight corruption and boost economic opportunities, leading to the demonstrations being dubbed the "Gen Z protests".

The young agitators want former Chief Justice Sushila Karki as the interim prime minister, said Raman Kumar Karna, the secretary of the Supreme Court Bar Association, who was consulted by the protesters.

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"When they requested me, I accepted," Karki told Indian TV news channel CNN-News18.

"Gen Z" representatives told reporters that they met army officials later and proposed Karki as their choice to head an interim government.

SEVERAL MINISTERS' HOMES SET ABLAZE

Burnt-out vehicles and twisted metal littered the area around parliament, where army firefighters battled to douse a blaze in the main hall, while the building's exterior was charred after protesters set it ablaze on Tuesday.

TV footage showed youths cleaning up some damaged buildings and clearing debris from roads and the areas near parliament.

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Several other government buildings, from the supreme court to ministers' homes, including Oli's private residence, were also set ablaze in the protests, with the unrest subsiding only after the resignation.

Armoured vehicles kept vigil in streets that were largely deserted, with shops and markets shut. Firefighters were engaged at different locations, while the process of clearing roads was also under way, army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet said.

"We are trying to normalise the situation first. We are committed to protect the life and property of people," Basnet said, adding that prisoners had set Kathmandu's Dilli Bazar Jail on fire before the army controlled the situation.

The main airport in Kathmandu also reopened on Wednesday, an airport spokesperson said, more than 24 hours after flights had been suspended.

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ARMY WARNS OF 'STRICT ACTION' AGAINST VIOLENCE

In a post on X, the army said prohibitory orders imposing a curfew would remain in force until Thursday morning.

"Any demonstrations, vandalism, looting, arson, and attacks on individuals and property in the name of protest will be considered punishable crimes and strict action will be taken by security personnel," the post said.

For years a lack of jobs has driven millions to seek work in countries such as Malaysia, the Middle East and South Korea, mainly on construction sites, so as to send money home.

"If shedding blood is good for our future, then it was right for me to participate in the protests," Suman Rai, 20, who suffered injuries during the demonstrations, said as he lay on a hospital bed with his head and left wrist heavily bandaged.

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Wedged between India and China, Nepal has struggled with political and economic instability since protests led to the abolition of its monarchy in 2008.

"It is highly condemnable to kill and injure hundreds without addressing the genuine demands of the youths. This is against the values of the peace-loving Nepali society," King Gyanendra, the last of Nepal's monarchs, said in a statement.

In a post on X, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to Nepal's citizens to maintain peace and order, while Beijing also said it hoped social order and national stability will be restored as soon as possible.

(Reporting by Gopal Sharma, Adnan Abidi and Navesh Chitrakar; additional reporting by Sarita Chaganti Singh, Hritam Mukherjee and Tanvi Mehta in New Delhi; Writing by Sakshi Dayal and Sudipto Ganguly; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Alex Richardson)
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR)  Students at Southeast High School on Tuesday celebrated with a ribbon-cutting of a new state-of-the-art facility designed to pave careers for students in the aviation and aerospace sector.

According to Southeast High School officials, the space seeks to provide students with hands-on training and direct pathways into the aviation industry, with a bond by OKC Public Schools approved by voters in 2022.

Oklahoma City Police release safety tips ahead of state fair

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The high school has partnered up with Metro Tech for Aviation programming, says Southeast High School leaders.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City.
WARSAW/MINSK, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Poland will completely close its border with Belarus starting at midnight on Thursday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said.

"For national security reasons, we will close the border with Belarus, including railway crossings ... on Thursday at midnight, from Thursday to Friday," Tusk said ahead of a government meeting on Tuesday.

According to the Polish Press Agency, the closure will apply to all crossings, notably those of railways.

In response, Belarus has protested the Polish decision to halt border crossings during the period of Russia-Belarus military drills Zapad-2025, according to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday.

The Belarusian side has summoned Poland's charge d'affaires Krzysztof Ozanna in Minsk and issued a verbal protest.

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said Poland's unilateral move is expected to affect the entire EU-Belarus border, disrupting the movement of people and goods. 
House Speaker Mike Johnson has a bit more room in his narrow House majority after Republican Matt Van Epps was sworn in following a special election win in Tennessees Seventh Congressional District.

The partisan breakdown in the House is now 220 Republicans and 213 Democrats, with two seats vacant. As a result, Johnson can lose three Republicans on any party-line vote  still needing the near-unanimous support of his party to advance legislation.

But the expanded majority will be short lived. Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene will resign in early January and another vacancy will be filled at the end of the month, when two Democrats will face off in a Texas runoff. A special election for the New Jersey seat held by former Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill, who was recently elected to serve as the states next governor, will be held in April.

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At the start of the 119th Congress, Johnson was already facing the narrowest House majority in nearly 100 years. The tight margin has created a major challenge for congressional Republicans as they seek to enact Trumps legislative priorities, leaving little room for error.

Republicans won 220 House seats in the November elections, while Democrats won 215, the most narrowly divided House majority since the outset of the Great Depression, almost a century ago.

At the start of the new session of Congress, however, the partisan breakdown stood at 219 to 215, because former GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida opted not to return to Congress.

Passing a bill in the House requires a majority of all members present and voting. The magic number is 218 if every member shows up to vote and all 435 seats are filled, but that can change if there are vacancies or absences. A tie vote in the House is a fail.

How the House majority ranks in history

The last time a minority in the House held 215 or more seats was after the 1930 elections, when Republicans won 218 seats, Democrats won 216 and the Farmer-Labor Party won one.

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The 72nd Congress  which took place in the early years of the Great Depression era  officially started in March 1931, but did not actually convene to conduct legislative business until months later, in December 1931.

At the official start of that term, in March, the House margin had narrowed even further  to 217 seats for Republicans to 216 for Democrats with one seat for the Farmer-Labor party and one vacancy as a result of the death of one Republican.

In an unusual turn of events, however, the partisan breakdown changed significantly by the time Congress convened when a series of additional deaths and ensuing special elections flipped control of the chamber to Democrats, though the margin remained narrow.

According to House historical records, the 65th Congress had the closest party split in American history, but in that case, the partisan division was so narrow that neither party secured an outright majority in the House based on election results, which left Republicans with 215 seats and Democrats with 214. As a result, a handful of third-party lawmakers played a decisive role when the House convened to elect a speaker.

Challenges created by a narrow majority

Johnson won the speakership in a nail-biter of a vote at the start of the 119th Congress.

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The election took place with the majority at 219 to 215, which meant that Johnson could only lose a single Republican vote if every lawmaker voted and all Democrats voted against him.

The partisan breakdown in the House has shifted several times since then as a result of vacancies that have arisen due to lawmaker deaths and resignations.

Johnson has at times had a bit more breathing room and congressional Republicans have gone on to pass major legislation  most notably Trumps massive tax and spending cuts package in July  but not without challenges uniting their conference.

GOP leaders lost two Republican votes on final passage of the tax and spending cuts bill in the House. Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania voted alongside Democrats against the measure.

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This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

CNNs Veronica Stracqualursi and Zach Wolf contributed to this report.

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Incumbents held onto their seats in Tuesdays preliminary election that narrowed down the field of candidates in two City Council wards and one School Committee race.

Winners were incumbent Victor Davila and lawyer Mary Johnson in Ward 6. Incumbent Malo Brown came in first, followed by Willie James Naylor in the four-way race for City Council in Ward 4.

In the District 3 School Committee race, 16-year member Christopher Collins finished first, followed by educator Rosa Valentin. Newcomer Steven Carosello was knocked out of the race.

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Although most candidates worked hard on grassroots campaigning, going door-to-door to talk individually to voters, the preliminary race was marked by an exceptionally low turnout of 3.4% of eligible voters.

A total of 1,508 of the 44,407 registered voters in the four wards where there were contested races cast ballots.

I definitely want to get out and thank the voters for supporting me. I appreciate the support from the community, said Brown, who received 210 votes to finish first.

Naylor followed in second place with 154 ballots. The other candidates who will not move on to Novembers general election are Kenneth Barnett, who received 58 votes, and Beverly L. Savage, who finished with 51 votes.

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Brown said he was a little disappointed to see Savages totals, saying he would have liked to see a woman get a better chance to serve on the City Council. He said he will reach out to her to talk about her ideas.

This is where the second level of engagement begins to expand on my platform and to listen to what the major issues are in the community, Naylor said, thanking his family, his church family and the community for their support.

In Ward 6, Davila received 267 votes while Johnson received 205 to move forward to Novembers election. First-time candidate Charles Whitaker Battle finished third with 60 votes.

Im so grateful for all the supporters and volunteers. It shows where we can get when we work together, Johnson said. Im excited to get out the word that we have a new message and new ideas for Ward 6.

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She said she and her volunteers have a lot of hard work ahead of them to try to unseat Davila, a three-term councilor, but she said she wouldnt have it any other way.

Davila also thanked all his volunteers and his constituents who continue to believe in him.

We will continue to work hard to make Springfield better, he said, adding at the same time that he will continue the work he has been pursuing for more than a year to push non-profits to boost the tax base by making in-lieu-of-tax payments.

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In the School Committee District 3 race, which combines Wards 6 and 7, Collins came out on top with 553 votes while Valentin received 343 ballots. Steven Carosello finished third with 94 votes.

Novembers race will leave voters to decide between two experienced educators. Collins, who is now retired, was a Springfield teacher and principal, while Valentin has 35 years as an educator serving in different roles.

I will redouble my efforts to get my message out and especially to try to get people to get out and vote, Collins said. This has got to be the worst voter turnout in the city of Springfield.

Valentin agreed and pledged to work harder, especially to make sure the Hispanic voters come out in the general election since roughly 70% of the students in the schools are Latino.

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My next move is to work harder and smarter to make sure we have our Hispanic community come out and vote, she said. I will work for every kid in the district.

Caroline Herrera spent all day holding signs in front of Forest Park Middle School, holding signs to show her support for Valentin. She said she was impressed with her long experience as an educator and said she knows Valentin personally.

Herrera said when she first moved from Puerto Rico, Valentin stepped in and helped her and her son with some school issues. Now she is helping my grandchildren.

Im glad to see new people are getting involved and there is some active campaigning both for City Council and School Committee, said Jan Burdewik, who voted at Forest Park Middle School in Ward 6.

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She said Davila and Johnson both knocked on her door and wanted to talk about issues. She also attended Johnsons kick-off party held in a restaurant in Ward 6.

I think I appreciate when people understand the complexity of issues and the time it takes to get things accomplished, Burdewik said.

At least six members of the Carpenters Union Local 336 came to the polls after work to hold signs to show support for Davila.

We are supporting Victor. He stands behind the working class and the legislation we are trying to get passed, said Arthur Cook.

The bill is to prevent salary theft and ensure the union members are paid prevailing wages on the job, Cook said.

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Jynai McDonald cast a ballot with her son, Ruben Sullivan, a seventh-grader who has developed an interest in politics and is running for class president. McDonald said she never misses an election, but the Ward 4 City Council race is especially important to her since she unsuccessfully ran for the seat in 2019 and again in 2021.

Im always happy to see the status quo challenged, McDonald said. But she admitted the three challengers all seemed like good people, but their platforms didnt excite her.

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(The Center Square)  States are gearing up to deliver more votes for their favored political parties in a rare, mid-decade overhaul of voting maps that threatens to frustrate voters ahead of the 2026 midterms.

President Donald Trump led calls for Texas to redraw its congressional map in July. Texas Republicans bluntly said the process was aimed at increasing their party's power in Washington. Blue states, including California, are pushing back with their own redistricting.

Politicians used to save battles over political boundaries for a once-a-decade update from the U.S. Census Bureau. However, that's not the case this year.

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Trump kicked off a recent wave of state-level redistricting, which hasn't been seen since the post-Civil War era.

The Republican-controlled Texas legislature passed the party's new congressional maps in August and sparked a nationwide scramble over redistricting. In states across the country, Democratic and Republican governors are working to get their party more votes at the federal level.

Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute's Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, said after the Civil War, politicians would often redistrict when they thought it could give them an advantage. But over time, that practice ended and gave way to the once-a-decade update.

"The norms were there partly because it was thought that politics was not as bare-knuckle, and partly because it was thought that people would be embarrassed having the public see them do this," Olson told The Center Square. "Because, as a number of people have observed lately, if you're in the middle of the decade, you don't have new census numbers, and you haven't been given some sort of court order that you have to change. That sort of rules out pretty much all of the likely motives, except for the sheer naked politics of doing so."

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State political leaders no longer seem embarrassed or concerned about how voters might react, Olson said.

"Trump, like a bulldozer, just can apparently override the local political judgment in different states that would never have done this," he said.

While some states, like Ohio, had to redraw political boundaries due to a 2018 constitutional amendment, most states, including Texas, California, Florida, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, New York, New Jersey, and Maryland, are doing so voluntarily.

New polling commissioned by Common Cause and done by Noble Predictive Insights found voters don't like it. The poll found 51% of Republicans, 70% of Democrats, and 60% of Independents oppose allowing political parties to engage in mid-decade redistricting. Those numbers moved even higher when the redistricting is done by one party.

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"This data makes it clear: Republicans and Independents are just as tired of partisan gerrymandering as Democrats," said Virginia Kase Solomon, president and CEO of Common Cause. "The White House and Congress need to follow the data and listen to their own voters: No more mid-decade redistricting."

The poll found more than three-in-four voters support a boundary-drawing process that puts community interests ahead of political advantage (78%), and having independent commissions draw electoral districts (77%).

Olson said some of the new maps could face legal challenges. However, he said the states that are redrawing their maps likely have lawyers well-versed in election law, including the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which prohibits racial discrimination in voting.

With all the focus on power in Washington, some voters could be left frustrated by all the mid-decade redistricting.

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"Voters aren't being listened to at all," Olson said. "They are just completely being moved around. I won't even call them pawns on a chess board, because you don't want to lose a pawn."

Voters, he said, should be frustrated.

"Voters should be dissatisfied when this sort of thing happens because it's a very clear message that voters' interests have been demoted to the bottom," he said.

However, politicians won't get exactly what they want, Olson said.

"They can't squeeze the orange too hard without restoring some competitiveness in some seats," he said.

Furthermore, states can't gerrymander the governor's office, which is statewide, Olson noted.
GIBSON CITY, Ill. (WCIA)  Its been one month since a chaotic situation in one Ford County city, and the suspect still hasnt been found.

In August, Illinois State Police said that David Jordan shot a police officer and a sheriffs deputy in Gibson City. Law enforcement responded to reports of a naked man. As they were trying to approach the 70-year-old, he opened fire.

PREVIOUSLY: Possible sighting of David Jordan reported in Sibley; avoid the area, State Police says

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State Police said that he still has not been caught. A month later, theres still crime tape up. Jordans house caught fire shortly after shots were fired, and now theres very little left of what once was a home.

It was chaos, said Chad Hinshaw, a Gibson City resident. People were freaking out and locking their doors more than they should because usually we dont around here. I mean, its a good community, but people are really paranoid and scared.

Even though State Police said that they havent found Jordan, people who live in Gibson City have started to make their own guesses.

Its been a talk of the town, Hinshaw said. So, everybody thinks hes dead, but I think hes gone, like he got away.

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Well, it could be either way, said Goldie Slaughter, another Gibson City resident. Hes either not in Gibson anymore or he is somewhere, like, passed away.

Despite Hinshaw thinking Jordan is still alive, he hasnt been living his life any differently.

PREVIOUSLY: Search for David Jordan continues in Central Illinois

I dont think hes no harm, Hinshaw said.

However, thats not the case for everyone.

At first, I felt it was scary because we didnt know where he was, Slaughter said. And now, since we still dont know where he is, it still is scary, especially at night.

The officer and sheriffs deputy have been released from the hospital. Slaughter said that the commotion in the city has quieted.

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It was really crazy at first when it first happened and now its just fizzled out, she said.

WCIA reached out to city officials, and they are offering no comments. Illinois State Police said they do not have any updates, and the case is still ongoing. Their tip line is still open however, and theyre encouraging anyone with information to contact them.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com.
Storm chances increase across parts of New Mexico into the end of the week with cooler air by the weekend. The heaviest rain will fall in northwestern parts of the state.

A few more storms have developed Tuesday afternoon across New Mexico. A couple of these storms have turned strong to even severe down around the Sacramento Mountains. Showers and storms will continue to drift east through this evening as they will eventually end later tonight. It has been another warm day across the state as well, with high temperatures back above average for early September.

A couple showers may stick around overnight into Wednesday morning in northern New Mexico where moisture is streaming into. This is also where we will see the best chance for heavier rainfall Wednesday afternoon, along with southwest Colorado. Scattered storms will also pop up across most of western and northern New Mexico, along with central parts of the state, down to the Sacramento Mountain, and in eastern New Mexico. Some showers will stick around overnight and into Thursday morning in central and northern parts of the state.

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The most active weather days of the week will be Thursday and Friday as an approaching low pressure system draws more moisture into western New Mexico and southwest Colorado. This is where the focus for the heaviest rain will be again, especially in the San Juan Mountains. A cold front will sweep east across the state Friday evening into early Saturday morning, bringing higher rain chances to northern and central New Mexico. Some of the showers will continue through mid morning on Saturday. The cold front will also leave temperatures cooler this weekend.

Drier air returns to western New Mexico Saturday afternoon, but thunderstorms will pop up again in northern and eastern parts of the state. Temperatures will be cooler all across the state as well with highs back down to around average for this time of year. It looks like the active weather will continue with another round of showers and thunderstorms across parts of New Mexico next week.

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WASHINGTON (DC News Now)  Student-led protests broke out at several District universities on Tuesday, as students demonstrated against President Donald Trumps federalization of the D.C. police.

Hundreds of students packed the Quad at American University. Students from George Washington University shouted free D.C. as they took their message to the streets around campus and delivered it to the front door step of the universitys president.

Its very clear theyre targeting neighborhoods that are predominantly filled with immigrants, predominantly with people who are of color, GWU student Ryan Kersey said.

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As DC crime emergency is set to expire, community leaders demand action with persistent violence

But not all students agreed with the protestors.

We have a city thats safer than ever. Students are feeling better around campus, Kieran Laffey, chairman of the George Washington College Republicans, said.

The demonstrations started outside the Red Square at Georgetown University, which staged the first student walkout. A couple of hundred people turned out to deliver their messages to President Trump.

Were living through a time in which Trump can deploy federal officers to our cities. And our school doesnt guarantee us the right to have free speech.

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DC Council calls on House GOP members to reject bills infringing on Home Rule

A slightly smaller crowd showed up at the Yard at Howard University for the final demonstration, with more messages for the Trump administration.

We are seeing federal agents and police throughout the city. And now Trump is threatening to go after other cities, including Chicago and New York, said an unidentified student speaker.

Students said they could not remain silent any further. They have not ruled out more protests.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | DC, Virginia, Maryland News, Weather, Traffic, Sports Live.
Rising global temperatures made deadly wildfires that raged across Spain and Portugal during a summer heat wave 40 times more likely than they previously would have been, the Guardian reported on Thursday.

The shocking figure was revealed as part of a new study examining the blazes, which also found that higher temperatures from human causes made the fires 30% more intense than they would have been in preindustrial times.

"The sheer size of these fires has been astonishing," said Clair Barnes, a co-author of the study, per the Guardian. "Hotter, drier, and more flammable conditions are becoming more severe with climate change, and are giving rise to fires of unprecedented intensity."

What's happening?

As of Sept. 1, wildfires in Spain and Portugal had burned over 900,000 acres of the land, accounting for 1% of the entire Iberian Peninsula, the researchers found. This was the fifth most acreage burned in a single year since record-keeping began in 1961.

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"The fires in Spain in 2025 were the worst in 30 years, almost quadrupling the average annual area burned during that period," the study's authors wrote. "In Portugal, the area burned was 2.3 times larger than the annual average since 1980."

Before humans began releasing heat-trapping pollution into the atmosphere at the onset of the industrial revolution, the extreme weather conditions that fueled the blazes would have been expected to occur once every 500 years on average.

Today, amid rising global temperatures, they are expected to occur once every 15 years, the study found.

While experts have long urged the world to take significant steps to reduce heat-trapping pollution, political action remains difficult.

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"The problem that we're now facing is that there are traditional rightwing parties that perhaps don't deny the scientific reality, but which act and behave as if climate change doesn't exist," said Pedro Sanchez, Spain's prime minister. "And this is the biggest problem."

Why is it important?

For decades, experts have warned that releasing heat-trapping pollution into the atmosphere would cause global temperatures to rise, making extreme weather events like heat waves and the resulting wildfires more severe.

Wildfires take human lives while destroying homes, businesses, and crops, making insurance premiums and food prices increase far beyond the affected areas.

Further, the health impacts of toxic wildfire smoke can be felt hundreds if not thousands of miles away from the fires themselves, according to Climate.gov.

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Even short-term exposure to wildfire smoke can cause serious respiratory and cardiovascular problems, particularly among vulnerable populations, found a report posted on AirNow.gov.

What's being done about it?

In the immediate term, people can better protect themselves and their families from the risks of wildfires by taking steps like establishing vegetation-free fire breaks around homes in high-risk areas and heeding official evacuation warnings.

When it comes to wildfire smoke, wearing an N95 mask and using indoor air purifiers can help reduce the health risks of smoke exposure.

However, over the long term, the only way to reverse the trend of rising global temperatures and the resulting wildfires is to significantly reduce the amount of planet-heating pollution entering the atmosphere. This will require transitioning the world away from dirtier, extracted fuels like coal and natural gas and toward cleaner, renewable sources of energy like wind and solar.

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You can help make a difference at the political level by encouraging your elected officials to take climate action and by voting for pro-climate candidates.

Taking things a step further, you can directly reduce heat-trapping pollution while saving money on gas and electricity by driving an EV and installing solar panels on your home. Pairing solar panels with a home battery system can also make your home more resilient in the event of weather-related power outages.

EnergySage offers free, powerful tools that make it easy to find a solar installer in your area, while also saving customers up to $10,000 through tax credits and other incentives.

With federal tax credits for EVs ending Sept. 30 and incentives for home solar expiring Dec. 31, it is important to act quickly to take advantage of the savings.

Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
WASHINGTON, Sept.9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the decision to attack Hamas in the Qatari capital was made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, not by the White House.

"This was a decision made by (Israeli) Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

Trump said he immediately directed Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to inform the Qataris of the impending Israeli attack when notified by the U.S. military on Tuesday morning, but "unfortunately, too late to stop the attack."

By the time Witkoff reached them, the Israeli bombs had already hit their target in Qatar, reported local U.S. media outlets, citing a U.S. official.

"Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a Sovereign Nation and close Ally of the United States, that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker Peace, does not advance Israel or America's goals," Trump reiterated in his post.

He said that he views Qatar as a strong ally and friend of the United States, and feels "very badly about the location of the attack," but calls eliminating Hamas "a worthy goal."

Trump confirmed that he spoke to the emir and prime minister of Qatar following the attack, and "assured them that such a thing will not happen again on their soil," adding that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was directed to finalize the Defense Cooperation Agreement with Qatar.

The Israeli action infuriated some of Trump's top advisers, as the White House is expecting to receive Hamas's response to Trump's latest proposal for peace in Gaza by the end of this week, reported Axios, a U.S. media outlet.

U.S. officials were particularly upset that they were notified so late that they had no opportunity to weigh in on Israel's plans, said the report.

One day before the strike, Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer met with Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner in Miami, but didn't say anything about the attack plan, it said, citing a source with direct knowledge.

The strike in Qatar reportedly took place not far from the biggest U.S. military base in the region. Hamas said that its negotiating delegation survived the strike, though six were killed, including members of the group's escorts and a Qatari security officer.

Hamas said the attack occurred while its delegation was discussing a new U.S. proposal presented by Trump, accusing Netanyahu's government of attempting to sabotage international mediation. 
More than a dozen people were injured on Delta Airlines Flight 56 after an unexpected bout with turbulence, CNN reports.

The aircraft was not near thunderstorms at the time, and the turbulence reportedly came on suddenly and with little warning on the July 30th flight from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam.

The seatbelt sign was off when the incident occurred near Creston, Wyoming. The turbulence lasted about 2.5 minutes, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). It sent unsecured service carts, flight attendants, and passengers toward the planes ceiling.

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The severe up and down motions disengaged the planes autopilot system. The turbulence also damaged the aircrafts interior. Everything that wasnt strapped down was sent flying.

The plane, an Airbus A330, made an emergency landing in Minneapolis. There were 275 passengers and 13 crew members on board. Eighteen passengers and seven Delta employees were taken to the hospital.

According to an NTSB report, the pilots had been aware of the potential for adverse weather prior to take off, and had adjusted their route to avoid storms. Prior to the incident, pilots only observed light cirrus clouds, and the turbulence indicator on the crews iPad was green, according to NTSB.

The agency says the investigation is ongoing.

NTSB issues its preliminary report for the ongoing investigation of the July 30 accident in which a Delta Air Lines Airbus A330 airplane encountered severe turbulence while flying over Creston, Wyoming: https://t.co/nePLvS5S80 pic.twitter.com/vk8PAh0EPz  NTSB Newsroom (@NTSB_Newsroom) September 9, 2025

What is turbulence?

In aviation, turbulence is one of the most unpredictable atmospheric events, and while most events are just a minor inconvenience or jolt, it can be significant enough to cause damage to the aircraft or severe anxiety and even injury to its passengers on board, writes Weather Network meteorologist Nadine Powell.

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Turbulence can be described as the chaotic flow of air, with its most common causes being thunderstorms, weather fronts, mountains, or even daytime heating.

Sometimes, it can be hard to predict, especially when conditions are clear. In aviation, this is known as clear air turbulence, or CAT, Powell explains.

RELATED: What is turbulence and how do experts detect it?

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The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the Trump administrations appeal of its sweeping tariff regime, much of which was declared unlawful by two lower courts.

On Tuesday, the high court announced it would weigh the legality of the presidents International Emergency Economic Powers (IEEPA) tariffs, along with 25 percent duties on Mexico and Canada related to fentanyl smuggling and mass migration. Should it choose to uphold the recent rulings of a New York Court of International Trade (CIT) and a Washington, D.C.-based United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the cornerstone of the administrations trade strategy could unravel.

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The Supreme Court has asked both the government and the plaintiffswhich include more than a dozen state attorneys general and a handful of American businessesto expedite the filing of case briefings and submit them by Sept. 19.

On Sept.3, the Department of Justice appealed to the Supreme Court, and they asked them to go quickly. They said, Look, we need to look at this. We want you to move as fast as you can, said Nicole Bivens Collinson, International Trade and Government Relations Practice Leader with Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A., during the law firms monthly tariff update.

The Supreme Court heeded the administrations request. The case will be argued the first week of November, with the court allotting an hour to the hearing.

According to Collinson, the Supreme Court will closely examine the rulings of the two lower courts, which decidedand then affirmed the decisionthat the president overstepped his executive authority in leveraging the wide-ranging, far-reaching tariffs using IEEPA.

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When you look at the statutewhen you look at that lawthe word tariffs is not included as part of a remedy, she said. The President absolutely is entitled to take action and to try to remedy whatever the emergency is. But the courts looked at it and said, You can take action, but it doesnt say you can take tariffs.

While the legal drama plays out, companies are still on the hook for the duty bill. Until this happens, until theres decision somewhere, were still paying these tariffs, Collinson said. So even though the initial court cases ruled that these tariffs are illegal, we dont know if were going to get the refunds back yetor when.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said over the weekend that forcing the federal government to pay back hundreds of billions of dollars in already collected duties would be a terrible outcome for the Treasury. He previously estimated that if the tariffs at play in the case now headed to the Supreme Court are found to be unlawful, the government would be responsible for coughing up about half of its tariff revenue.

Asked how he arrived at that percentage, Collinson posited that the Treasury Secretary was likely looking at a tariff pie made up of existing Section 301 tariffs, Section 232 tariffs, IEEPA tariffs and specific border taxes on Mexico and Canada when he made that statement. Only IEEPA tariffs and the 25 percent duties on North American trade partners are up for debate in this case.

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If the Supreme Court says, yes, these are illegal, the next thing would be that the decision that was put forward in the Court of Appeals, which was instructing the lower court (the Court of International Trade) to review its decisionthats when we would see what the scope is, as to what might be ruled illegal or what might be refunded, Collinson said.

Collinson believes that although the CIT decided that the global IEEPA tariffs were unlawful, the scope of the outcome could change during the review process. We might see less than the full refund of those tariffs. But its not necessarily the case that thats all the refunds were going to see. So we just got to watch and see what the courts do, she said.

With his trade agenda under scrutiny from the nations highest court and trade partners decrying the administrations protectionist policies, Trump has faced criticism both at home and abroad.

On Monday, leaders from BRICS Alliance nations including Brazil, Russia, India and China gathered virtually for the blocs annual summit, with much of the discussions between the worlds sourcing superpowers centered on strengthening trade ties absent the support and cooperation of the U.S. Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar was adamant that Increasing barriers and complicating transactions will not help promote fair and sustainable trade.

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With respect to India, they do have a 25 percent tariff from the IEEPA reciprocal They were also issued in August a provision to assess an additional 25 percent because they are purchasing Russian oil, Collinson said. So in net effect, they have two IEEPAs.

Trump appears to have heard the message loud and clear. On Tuesday afternoon, the presidentwho has liberally lambasted India for its trade deficit with the U.S. and its Russia tiessaid he was pleased to announce that India, and the United States of America, are continuing negotiations to address the Trade Barriers between our two Nations.

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 of our Great Countries! he Truthed.
NEED TO KNOW

Iryna Zarutska was fatally stabbed on Friday, Aug. 22, on the light rail train in Charlotte, N.C.

Suspect Decarlos Brown Jr., 34, was arrested on Thursday, Aug. 28, for first-degree murder

On Tuesday, Sept. 9, the Justice Department announced that he would face a federal charge of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system

The man suspected of fatally stabbing Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte in late August has been charged with federal charges, the Justice Department said on Tuesday, Sept. 9.

Decarlos Brown Jr., 34, was arrested on Friday, Aug. 22, after the fatal stabbing of Zarutska, 23, on the light rail train in Charlotte, N.C. He was first charged with first-degree murder in connection with the attack on Thursday, Aug. 28.

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On Tuesday, Brown was charged with committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system, the Justice Department said in a statement. He could face the maximum sentence of the death penalty. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Odulio, U.S. Attorneys Office in Charlotte, will be prosecuting Brown.

"This brutal attack on an innocent woman simply trying to get to her destination is an attack on the American way of life. Of course, crimes like this affect the victim the most -- Iryna deserves justice, and we will bring justice to her and her family," U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson said in a statement.

Ferguson also called the attack a "terroristic act" during a press conference on Tuesday. He also said that he and North Carolina FBI Special Agent James Barnacle Jr. had already alerted Zarutskas family that the suspect is facing federal charges.

Iryna Zarutska/instagram Iryna Zarutska Iryna Zarutska

The charges against Brown come one day after Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles told the city that an increase in security presence for the Blue Line platforms begins immediately.

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"No one should sit in fear while on the light rail," Ferguson said during the Tuesday press conference.

Iryna Zarutska was a young woman living the American dream  her horrific murder is a direct result of failed soft-on-crime policies that put criminals before innocent people, U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said.

Bondi said she directed her attorneys to federally prosecute Brown, whom she claimed is a repeat violent offender with a history of violent crime, for murder.

We will seek the maximum penalty for this unforgivable act of violence  he will never again see the light of day as a free man," Bondi said.

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FBI Director Kash Patel also called the attack a disgraceful act that should never happen in America. He said the FBI wants to ensure justice is served and the perpetrator is never released from jail to kill again.

"[The charges] are the first step toward delivering justice for Iryna and her family  as well as the millions of Americans who deserve to live in our great American cities free from being targeted by violent criminals," Patel's statement read.

Brown was previously charged with larceny and breaking and entering. He also served a five-year prison sentence beginning in 2015, after he was found guilty of robbery with a dangerous weapon. He was charged with an additional 11 charges  which included his most recent January arrest when he repeatedly called the 911 emergency hotline from a hospital, per the BBC.

Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office Decarlos Brown Jr. Decarlos Brown Jr.

On Friday, Aug. 22, at 9:55 p.m., Zarutska was seen sitting in an aisle seat directly in front of her attacker when the suspect pulls a knife out of his pocket, unfolds the knife, pauses, then stands up, and strikes at the victim three times, according to an affidavit obtained by ABC News.

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Blood visibly drips on the floor as the defendant walks away from the victim. The victim goes unresponsive shortly after the attack, the affidavit states, per CNN.

She was pronounced dead at the scene, and a witness told authorities Brown's location, the affidavit said, per ABC News.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

Before the artist was fatally stabbed, she emigrated from Kyiv to the U.S. with her mother, sister and brother to escape the war, and she quickly embraced her new life in the United States, according to her obituary. Ferguson said her family said she will be buried in the U.S., because she loved America.

Brown's next court appearance is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 19.



Read the original article on People
BLANCHARD, Okla. (KFOR)  The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation has identified the suspect and two victims in Tuesdays several-hour-long standoff at a Blanchard home.

Just before 12 p.m. on Tuesday, deputies responded to a welfare check at a residence near Coyle Drive and 300th Street in Blanchard. A neighbor had reported possible shots fired at the home.

ORIGINAL COVERAGE: McClain Co. Sheriff: Blanchard standoff over, 3 dead including suspect

Blanchard standoff. (KFOR)

Standoff in Blanchard with possible victims. (KFOR)

Blanchard standoff. (KFOR)

When the deputies arrived, they made contact with the suspect, who has now been identified as 56-year-old David Zimmerman. While at the scene, deputies found two people dead inside the home. They have been identified as 82-year-old Alan Zimmerman and 80-year-old Barbara Zimmerman, Davids biological parents, according to OSBI.

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An officer-involved shooting escalated a standoff with David to its conclusion.

Deputies eventually made their way inside the home before finding him dead with an apparent gunshot wound.

OSBI said that investigators also found that the two victims suffered from gunshot wounds.

The investigation is still going.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City.
It will be al-Sharaas first appearance before the UN since taking office, lending the speech both political and symbolic weight.

Senior Syrian diplomatic sources told The Media Line that the US has granted Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa an entry visa to visit the country from September 21 to 25, a notable step reflecting new dynamics in Syrias regional and international relations.

According to the sources, al-Sharaa will be accompanied on the trip by Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and Syrias new envoy to the United Nations, Ibrahim al-Albi.

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He is scheduled to deliver an official address to the United Nations General Assembly on September 24 during the 80th session of the organization.

It will be al-Sharaas first appearance before the UN since taking office, lending the speech both political and symbolic weight.

Preparations are also underway for a bilateral meeting between al-Sharaa and President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the General Assembly, the sources saida session drawing close attention for what it may signal about the future of ties between Damascus and Washington.

The UN General Assembly, September 24, 2024. (credit: PERRY BINDELGLASS)

The Syrian leader is additionally slated to visit New Yorks Turkish Housethe headquarters of several Turkish diplomatic missions and a center of Turkish cultural activitytogether with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, signaling increased coordination between Damascus and Ankara on regional issues.

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Recent Saudi and Turkish diplomatic efforts at the United Nations have aimed to support al-Sharaas government, as Riyadh and Ankara have jointly pressed Washington to adopt a firmer stance toward alleged Israeli violations on Syrian territory.

Reclaiming Syria's spot on the international stage

Taken together, these moves are viewed as part of a broader regional attempt to recalibrate international approaches to the Syrian file and give Damascus greater space on the world stage.

While the visit is expected to mark a milestone in Syrian foreign policy, questions remain about whether it will lead to practical understandings that advance SyrianUS relations or remain largely a protocol step conveying symbolic messages.

Analysts argue that the anticipated speech is meant to help Damascus restore its standing even as the country continues to face Western sanctions, stalled reconstruction, and debates over reintegration into the Arab world.

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Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Syrias presence at the United Nations has largely been limited to foreign ministers and permanent representativesa pattern widely read as a sign of isolation. Al-Sharaas decision to attend in person is seen as a deliberate shift.

Al-Sharaa is expected to seek reconstruction aid, the lifting of sanctions, and broader regional cooperation. Western and Arab capitals are likely to scrutinize his remarks for signs of political flexibility in exchange for economic relief.

If he adopts a conciliatory tone, the speech could mark the beginning of Syrias return to the international stage. If it is defiant, analysts warn that any return will remain mostly symbolic.

Nearly six decades since the last Syrian presidential address at the United Nations, al-Sharaas appearance raises a central question: Is Damascus preparing for a genuinely new chapteror merely a symbolic return?
CLEVELAND (WJW)  A sweeping crackdown by U.S. Marshals and the Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force (NOVFTF) nabs more than 130 violent criminals while also rescuing 10 missing children.

U.S. Marshal for the Northern District of Ohio Pete Elliott said the 30-day mission was called Operation Trident because it was a three-pronged approach to arrest violent fugitives, find missing kids and arrest sexual predators.

A little bit of everything, said Elliott. From murder to rape to robbery and sexual predators preying upon kids.

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See how drone is used to find missing local woman

Members of NOVFTF worked 14 hours a day and spread out across Northern Ohio with a focus on Cleveland.

They arrested five homicide suspects, 46 felonious assault suspects and 10 sex offenders while also recovering 10 missing children.

Some were taken by mentally ill non-custodial parents and others by strangers.

It was all different ages and kids in all different situations, said Elliott.

John Armstrong, 50, was wanted by the Summit County Sheriffs Office for rape of a juvenile and wanted by East Cleveland police for homicide. Investigators tracked him to an apartment in Dayton.

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When we went to capture him, he fired at our officers, said Elliott. But we were able to arrest him.

Shon Turner, 34, was also among those captured.

Elliott said he was wanted by Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority Police Department for pushing a 6-year-old from a three-story window. The child survived but has severe injuries.

In the middle of the operation, the task force also played a big part in the apprehension of 24-year-old Aaron Sharp out of East Cleveland.

Sharp is accused of killing two family members and then shooting and injuring two East Cleveland officers on August 7.

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He then led law enforcement on an early morning manhunt but was finally caught with help from the task force.

We were able to bring our teams in from Lorain, Ohio, from Toledo, Youngstown, Canton, the Akron team, we had support from our Washington office, brought in our special operations group, our K-9 unit that helped out a lot, said Elliott.

Woman seriously injured in Ohio Turnpike crash in Lorain County

In a press release, Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and Cleveland Police Chief Dorothy Todd both praised the task force and operation.

On any given day, two to three coordinated teams were actively engaged across the citya coordinated effort to achieve the operations mission. Im proud of the collaboration and professionalism demonstrated throughout this operation, said Todd.

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There were also 20 firearms-related cases.

Eleven firearms and over 3,000 rounds of ammunition were seized.

A highly successful operation that they said should put criminals on notice that there are more to come.

We want to do our best out there to make sure families are safe and communities are safe, said Elliott.

Anyone with information concerning a wanted fugitive can contact the Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force at 1-866-4WANTED (1-866-492-6833), or you can submit a web tip. Reward money is available, and tipsters may remain anonymous.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Fox 8 Cleveland WJW.
Sep. 9MORGANTOWN  Tottico, inspired by the Greek word meaning "local, " is the name of a company committed to 100 % locally designed and manufactured garments.

That's the description the brand offers on its website, and it's part of the pitch the company's founder  WVU research assistant professor Yihong Li  will make on Nov. 12 in Clarksburg's Robinson Grand Theater.

Li and Tottico have been selected as one of five new businesses to present before judges and a voting audience at the third annual The Tank Entrepreneur Pitch Contest organized by the Harrison County Chamber of Commerce.

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Yihong Li This is the first year the competition is open to would-be magnates from beyond the borders of Harrison County. The chosen contestants will represent Harrison, Marion, Monongalia and Preston counties.

The winner of The Tank will take home $10, 000 in cash and more than $30, 000 in financial guidance, mentorship, advertising and other business services.

Li said she heard of the competition through a monthly West Virginia Entrepreneurship Ecosystem meeting and felt compelled to give it a shot.

"I worked in the textile industry for over 10 years and also led some committees within the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists, so that helped me know a lot of U.S.-based manufacturers. Especially after the COVID time and with all the travels overseas to see the manufacturers on the other side, I do feel that urgency and importance to bring the textile manufacturers back into the country, " Li said. "That was my heartfelt motivation to start this company. On the flipside, I think the customers also want to have some high quality, uniquely designed garments to wear. That's what I'm going to present."

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Li said she initially started Tottico in North Carolina less than two years ago before moving to Morgantown. She said her investment into the company initially waned following the move, but the entrepreneurial enthusiasm has returned following recent time spent in China.

"Since I came back, I really want to start to focus my energy on entrepreneurship. That's why I started again, " she said. "Besides the textile business, I'm also planning to start an energy business."

The company is part of WVU's Vantage Ventures business startup program.

This winter, Tottico is launching a limited-edition beanie collection designed by WVU fashion students. In the spring, the brand will begin developing a series of garments for the 2026 graduation season.

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As part of the company's promotional materials, Li says it's critical the clothing industry move away from outsourced mass production and toward sustainable, ethical, locally rooted manufacturing.

"For me, Tottico is more than a business  it's a movement to restore pride in American textiles and empower the next generation of creators."
WASHINGTON (AP)  Labor unions representing millions of educators and school employees are suing President Donald Trump's administration over its immigration crackdown, saying arrests near school campuses are terrorizing children and their teachers, leading some students to drop out.

At the start of Trump's second term, his Republican administration said it would allow immigration arrests at schools  long considered off limits. That violated the law, argues the lawsuit from the two largest U.S. teacher unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, which represent more than 4 million school employees nationwide.

Also joining the lawsuit are educators from an Oregon preschool where masked agents broke a car window and dragged a student's father from his car shortly after the child had been dropped off. The arrival of police prompted the school to go into a lockdown, with teachers playing music so students couldn't hear the commotion outside.

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Teacher Lauren Fong, who teaches the child whose father was arrested that day, said she was troubled by the decision to confront the father in the school parking lot, which is private property.

Why a school? Why not someplace else, any place else?" Fong said in an interview. It was in the parking lot, where it could be witnessed by so many young children.

The educators are joining a lawsuit filed in April by an Oregon farmworker union and a group of churches, challenging the Trump administration's decision to open houses of worship to immigration enforcement as well. The amended lawsuit was filed Tuesday in federal court in Eugene, Oregon.

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said immigration officers use discretion when making arrests at schools or churches.

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Officers would need secondary supervisor approval before any action can be taken in locations such as a church or a school, McLaughlin said. We expect these to be extremely rare.

A policy reversal opened the door to arrests at schools

For nearly three decades, immigration agents were instructed to steer clear of sensitive locations like schools, hospitals and places of worship, except under extraordinary circumstances. Homeland Security, according to a 2021 memo, could accomplish (its) enforcement mission without denying or limiting individuals access to needed medical care, children access to their schools, the displaced access to food and shelter, people of faith access to their places of worship."

A day after Trump took office, the department rescinded the memo and instead urged agents to use common sense when operating near schools and churches. In a statement, officials outlined their reasoning behind the move: "Criminals will no longer be able to hide in Americas schools and churches to avoid arrest.

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The lawsuit describes several instances of masked agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement making arrests in and around school and church grounds. In Los Angeles, masked border patrol officers descended on a car parked next to a high school and ordered a 15-year-old boy with disabilities out at gunpoint while searching for a man with gang ties. They handcuffed him and only released him when they discovered they had the wrong person.

School attendance dropped in some districts

In the months following Trumps inauguration, some school districts reported lower attendance as immigrant families kept their children home or, in some cases, left the country. In Californias Central Valley, immigration raids in January and February coincided with a 22% spike in student absences compared with the previous two school years, according to a study from Stanford University economist Thomas Dee and Big Local News.

The lawsuit includes testimonials from unnamed teachers who report seeing increased anxiety and decreased participation and attendance from students who are either immigrants or the children of immigrants.

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High school teachers in Pennsylvania and Virginia said some students stopped showing up in the spring, fearful they would be arrested on campus. A speech pathologist at a California elementary school said immigrant parents were reluctant to sign up their children for special education services because it would mean giving more information to the school. A Texas high school teacher for students learning English said enrollment in her classes has dropped precipitously.

Americas classrooms must be safe and welcoming places of learning and discovery, said Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT.

Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, said the Trump administration is creating fear and chaos and "our students, schools, and communities are paying the price.

Leaders in the heavily immigrant churches that sued also described increased anxiety and a drop in Mass attendance.

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Lawyers argue Trump's decision to open up churches to immigration enforcement violates the First Amendment rights of parishioners because it makes them too fearful to attend church. Rescinding the sensitive-locations memo, the lawsuit says, violates the Administrative Procedure Act, which bars agencies from implementing policies that are arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with the law.

___

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CLEVELAND (WJW)  Unofficial election results show voters in Cleveland Heights decided to throw Mayor Kahlil Seren out of office in a landslide.

On Tuesday, voters went to the polls for a special recall vote.

Election results: Some races decided, many more ballots still to come

As results trickled in, we saw the votes in favor of the recall trending four to five times higher than those against it. By the end of the night, 6,829 ballots (82%) had been cast to recall Seren, while 1,478 ballots (18%) had been cast to keep him in office.

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We found a group of recall backers celebrating together while watching the vote totals.

They said residents had enough of the mayor and his wife making headlines and being targeted by investigations.

This means a new day in Cleveland Heights. This means democracy won. This means the people spoke. The people were heard, Cleveland Heights watchdog James Bates said.

Council President Tony Cuda is expected to take over by Oct. 1 after the recall votes are certified.

The mayor remains under investigation for going into the Law Department after hours. And, Cuyahoga County prosecutors indicted his wife for going into a strangers home.

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Both the mayor and his wife denied any wrongdoing.

The FOX 8 I-Team also won a court order for police video of an incident with the mayors wife  yet the city still has not released that video.

On Tuesday evening, we called a number for the mayor listed on county records for comment, but a woman answered the phone and said we had the wrong number. We also texted.

Results: Voters deciding Cleveland City Council candidates

In the meantime, before the polls closed, the mayor released a statement saying, in part,  removing a sitting mayor with three months left in the term is not the best choice for Cleveland Heights.

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Weve also shown you a change in the Cleveland Heights Mayors Office had already been guaranteed. Seren didnt even make it on the ballot to run for re-election in November. He did not come up with enough valid signatures to run again.

Now, the mayor has been booted out of office early. Recall backers couldnt wait.

Were gonna stay involved in this community. Its a new day in Cleveland Heights, Bates added.

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SPRINGFIELD  Students who complete Tech Foundrys popular computer-science workforce training programs will be able to claim 15 credits  a semesters worth of work  through the UMass University Without Walls.

The partnership is a pathway for the non-traditional student who turns to Tech Foundry for training and a leg up toward an entry-level job in information technology and computing, said University of Massachusetts Amherst Chancellor Javier Reyes.

And then decide that, oh, I do want to go for that four-year degree, he said. Now we have the alignment to make that happen.

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Tech Foundrys courses are free and supported by the government and by local employees looking to grow their IT workforce. Programs cover technical skills including hardware troubleshooting, soft skills like customer service, professional development and career readiness Students can earn credentials from Google and others in the industry, said Tech Foundry Chief Executive Officer Tricia Canavan.

Programs include the nine-month Tech Bridge program, aimed at recent high school graduates who dont have a set plan for their futures, and the 18-week Tech Foundry program, which is open to older students.

To claim the credit, students from either Tech Foundry or Tech Bridge must also earn at least 12 credits elsewhere, either at UMass or at another institution like a community college. Those 12 credits can be earned either before or after Tech Foundry or Tech Bridge.

Students also pay to transfer the credit, according to UMass. But the $450 cost is equivalent to what just one credit earned through the University without Walls would cost.

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The 54 students enrolled in the programs now are only in their first few weeks.

Madina Ly of, Wilbraham, said she worked in the tech sector before leaving the work force to care for her family. An immigrant from Guinea whose been in the country for 30 years, she said she is looking forward to the internship experience at the end of Tech Foundry.

Just to pick up all these skills Ill need in the work force is exciting, she said, I cant wait.

Dondre Scott, of Springfield, said hes already learning hardware troubleshooting and how to load operating systems. A college graduate looking to change fields, he recently bought a computer and loaded the Linux operating system on it.

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Some people are going to know what that is and its kind of cool, he said.

Hes excited about training.

It is the only thing I think about most days and its going by so fast, he said. And I know for a fact that the partnership between tech foundry and UMass is going to do the same thing that Tech Foundry is trying to do. Get non-traditional people and give them a pathway to careers that they are excited for.

Stories by Jim Kinney

Read the original article on MassLive. Add MassLive as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
MEXICO CITY, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Fifty-seven people were injured after a gas tanker truck exploded on Wednesday in Mexico City, local authorities said.

Emergency teams headed toward the Concordia Bridge, where the accident occurred, to respond to a fire derived from the explosion, said Clara Brugada Molina, head of government of Mexico City, on social media platform X. 
A Harnett County teenagers charges in the January killing of a Durham Uber driver have been temporarily dismissed.

Trayvian Trevel Brown, 19, of Dunn was arrested Jan. 15 on charges of first-degree murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon in the Jan. 12 death of Emmanuel Kwame Gbedee, 57, The News & Observer previously reported.

Gbedee was found fatally shot in the backseat of his car in Benson early that morning, the Johnston County Sheriffs Office said. Brown was arrested three days later after police searched his home, according to court documents.

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The teen was committed to Central Regional Hospitals Butner campus March 24 after his attorney expressed concerns about his mental health, court records show. Brown reportedly showed a flat affect and was virtually non-verbal, his lawyer wrote; he was transferred to Central Prison from the Johnston County jail after refusing to eat.

Superior Court Judge Keith Gregory ruled Friday that Brown, by reason of mental illness or defect, could not assist in his own defense and did not have the capacity to proceed with a trial, according to court documents. That ruling was based on a forensic evaluation from the hospital, the order states.

The Johnston County District Attorneys Office also indicated Friday it will not seek the death penalty against Brown. Assistant District Attorney Keith Gordon told The N&O on Tuesday that the state could pursue charges against Brown again if his competency is restored.

How police found Brown

Other than describing Gbedee as Browns Uber driver that night, authorities have released few details on a possible motive in the killing. Recently released search warrants and Gbedees autopsy report indicate Gbedee may have been robbed.

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Gbedees wife told detectives shed last seen him about 5:30 p.m. the evening before he was found, according to the search warrant application for Browns home. She last heard from her husband about 11:30 p.m. via text message, the warrant states.

Gbedees wallet, credit/debit cards and cellphone were not in his car or on his person, according to the warrant. Investigators believe they were stolen.

The initial crime scene appeared to be in the road near the intersection of Holly Grove Road and Denn Field Lane in Benson, just over a mile from where Gbedees body was ultimately found, according to search warrants.

Data from Uber showed Gbedee picked up a rider at 11:49 p.m. in that area, and GPS data indicated the riders cellphone was moving in tandem with Gbedees phone until both phones reached the scene of the shooting, the warrants state. Then, the riders phone began moving on its own back down Holly Grove Rd. toward Denn field Ln., according to the warrant.

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The riders phone last pinged at Browns address about 1:45 a.m., according to court documents. Bank data showed the rider paid with a CashApp card registered to Brown.

The sheriffs office was called to a sweet potato warehouse in the 2500 block of Holly Grove Road about 1 a.m. after the owner saw a suspicious male on the security camera, according to search warrants. The State Highway Patrol received a call around the same time when a passerby saw Gbedees Nissan Altima against the warehouse with its hazard lights on.

A state trooper arrived first, discovering Gbedees body just before 1:15 a.m., the warrants state. His car was parked at the corner of the warehouse with the emergency flashers activated and doors closed, with Gbedee dead in the backseat, according to the warrants.

Investigators found the glove box and center console had been rifled through and Gbedees pants pocket was turned inside out, a search warrant states. A 9 mm cartridge casing was found underneath the passenger seat, with a projectile found in the front door by the rearview mirror, according to Gbedees autopsy. He had been shot twice in the head at close range.

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Police recovered a 9 mm magazine, a 9 mm handgun and a black ski mask from Browns home, according to court documents.

Gbedee, a native of Liberia, was an N.C. Central University graduate who worked as a financial adviser, his obituary states. He was a member of River Church Durham and a number of other community organizations, including Liberia Community of the Triangle.

Emmanuel was a charismatic and dedicated individual who lived his life with resilience and dedication, his obituary states. Emmanuel had a knack for making people laugh, his charm and charisma lighting up any room he entered. He was a beacon of positivity, resilience, and inspiration.

Gbedee is survived by his wife of 30 years, four children and a host of extended family members, according to his obituary.
SIOUX COUNTY, Iowa  A teenager was killed and another was injured in a crash in northwest Iowa on Tuesday afternoon.

The crash report from the Iowa State Patrol said the incident happened around 2:27 p.m. at the north junction of Highway 75 and Highway 18, about six miles east of Rock Valley.

Des Moines police seek help in locating attempted murder suspect

A Cadillac Escalade driven by a 17-year-old was stopped at a stop sign on Highway 18, facing east, and then pulled out in front of a semi that was northbound on Highway 75. The semi struck the Cadillac, which came to rest in the east ditch.

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The ISP said one 17-year-old in the Cadillac was transported to the Sioux Center Hospital, where they were pronounced dead. Another 17-year-old was transported by air ambulance to Avera McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls. Their condition is unknown.

Both teens are from Rock Valley.

The ISP report did not list injuries to the driver of the semi.

The crash remains under investigation.

Iowa news

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MT. JULIET, Tenn. (WKRN)  Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti announced Wednesday that his office has filed a lawsuit against the former owners of Dynamic Therapy Center, LLC, a defunct therapy clinic in Mt. Juliet, for defrauding Tennessees Medicaid program.

According to Skrmettis office, the lawsuit filed in the Wilson County Circuit Court accused Karyn Kurth and Michelle Hill  who owned and operated Dynamic Therapy Center from 2020 to 2023  of knowingly submitting false claims to TennCare.

Former nurse accused of taking controlled substances from Franklin nursing home residents

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Kurth and Hill allegedly billed TennCare for individual physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy sessions while actually providing group therapy to children in sessions they called camps. Officials said this fraudulent scheme led to a substantial amount of overpayments to Dynamic Therapy Center since TennCare reimburses individual therapy sessions at higher rates than group sessions.

Fraudsters who abuse our trust to rip off TennCare are stealing from Tennessee taxpayers and will be held accountable, said Skrmetti. As always, our Office is grateful to fight for Tennessee taxpayers and TennCare patients alongside our partners at the TBI.

Trump administration investigates Medicaid spending on immigrants in Democratic states

The AGs office said Tennessee wants to recover more than $300,000 in fraudulent payments; treble damages as allowed under state law; civil penalties of $14,308 to $28,619 per violation; and additional remedies the court deems appropriate under the Tennessee Medicaid False Claims Act.

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You can read the complaint provided by Skrmettis office below. News 2 has redacted the defendants home addresses for privacy reasons.

Dynamic Therapy Center lawsuitDownload

Officials said a referral from TennCares Office of Program Integrity sparked the joint investigation by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Civil Medicaid Fraud Division at the AGs office.

 Read todays top stories on wkrn.com

Were committed to doing our part to protect the tax dollars meant to support our most vulnerable, said TBI Director David Rausch. This case is another great example of how partnership among law enforcement agencies can work to hold accountable those abusing the TennCare system.

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After months of repair, Tiffanys Treasures, 4211 N. Ripley St., Davenport, plans to re-open Oct. 1. This date not only marks the 10-year anniversary of Tiffanys Treasures, but also holds personal significance for the business owner.

Tiffanys Treasures is an antique/resale store in Davenport that sustained damage from the flooding back in July. The small business endured structural damage and countless vintage items were ruined.

That storm almost two months ago shut down the business, but owner Tiffany Hunt says shes on track to re-open in a few weeks. The flood damages caused other home and business owners like Tiffany Hunt to start repairing, and shes still recovering.

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We survived COVID-19, we survived the derecho, and now were going to survive this flood, says Hunt.

But how much did Tiffanys Treasures really lose?

Because I had so much help getting things out of there, I wasnt the only one throwing things in the dumpster or breaking up furniture pieces, says Hunt. Im really not going to know until we start moving back in. Im kind of afraid to know.

Since Friday, July 11, Hunt has been waiting for the water to dry. She had basement walls repaired twice, and the store had to pass an air quality test to ensure it was safe to enter the downstairs.

Unfortunately, it wasnt just like someone dropped a bottle of water, says Hunt. It was every kind of water coming in from the streets and the drains. So, we wanted to make sure it was safe for us and our customers to come back in.

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It wasnt until two weeks ago that Hunt was able to re-enter her building. But once she did: I got all clear and was like boom, lets go, says Hunt.

They say theres seven stages of grief. Im pretty sure Ive hit 42 of them, says Hunt. I am retired from the Army National Guard here in Iowa, so Ive done flood duty. Ive lived here, born and raised here, Ive seen flood. But Ive never had it personally done to myself.

She can see light at the end of tunnel.

Like I say, with a little TLC, everything deserves a second chance. And our store is that, absolutely.

Hunt is also known for the blessings she gives back to the community. She has plans to host a coat drive in late October.

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Hunt asks the community to hold onto gently used coats until they have space upon re-opening to collect them.

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WASHINGTON (WCBD)  Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) on Tuesday defended President Trumps decision last month to deploy National Guard troops in Washington, DC, as part of a broader crackdown on crime.

I look at it as a strategy around safety, Scott told reporters during an appearance with members of the South Carolina National Guard in the capitals Navy Yard neighborhood. The truth of the matter is when communities feel safer, the nation prospers, and were seeing more of that every day.

Trump declared a crime emergency in the nations capital on August 11, arguing local leadership had lost control and the city had come under siege from violent crime. He invoked Section 740 of the Home Rule Act, which allows the president to take control of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) for up to 30 days.

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Five days later, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster authorized the deployment of 200 state National Guardsmen to support federal law enforcement efforts, joining Republican governors in several other states in sending troops.

Congressional Democrats have pushed back against the takeover, while Republicans have deemed it necessary to restore law and order.

Figures released Sept. 1 by MPD showed a 14 percent decrease in overall crime in DC since the federal law enforcement surge began compared to the same period in 2024. The department also reported a 39 percent decrease in violent crime, including an 83 percent decrease in carjackings, and an 11 percent drop in property crimes.

In one DC neighborhood after federal intervention, the notion of more authority is a mixed bag

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Scott said he has noticed a difference in his own neighborhood.

If you live in the Navy Yard, youre celebrating the fact that you can walk to work with a high level of peace and confidence, he said. At nighttime, you see more people walking around, enjoying their evening, so what I see is a lot more activity and a lot more calm, and thats good news from my perspective.

The 30-day period tied to Trumps order ends on Sept. 10, and Congress is expected to let the order expire without granting an extension. DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has pledged to maintain close coordination with federal law enforcement.

Still, House Republicans plan to move forward with a raft of bills that would tighten federal control over the city, including tougher sentences for criminals and a Trump-led effort to beautify the district by removing graffiti and restoring public monuments.

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National Guard troops are expected to stay in the city through later this year, including those sent by states. How long they stay, however, is up to each individual governor.

As long as we can afford to have them here, they provide an excellent service to the community, Scott said, calling the soldiers a stabilizing force.

The South Carolina National Guard will conduct a relief-in-place with the Georgia National Guard and expects its Soldiers to return home to South Carolina before the end of the month, Maj. Karla N. Evans said in a statement to News 2.

Trump has signaled he intends to expand federal intervention efforts in other states across the U.S., pointing to Democratic-run cities like Chicago and New Orleans as potential next targets.

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It comes as a federal judge in California ruled that the Trump administration broke the law when it deployed National Guard troops to Los Angeles following days of immigration protests.

The White House has indicated the government plans to appeal.

Scott, meanwhile, encouraged local governments across the country to take their own steps to make communities safer and welcome federal support.

The safer it gets, the less likely youll need the National Guard in those communities, but until then, may the good Lord bless us with safe communities, whatever that takes, he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Photo illustration by Getty Images.

Montana homeowners property taxes were complicated before the 2025 Legislature convened in January.

Now, theyre, according to one state senator, the most complicated in the nation.

Yep, you read that right: More  not less  complicated. (With taxes, most people prefer less.)

To determine your residential property taxes, youll now need a compass, protractor, sextant and slide rule to connect the dots to decipher what lawmakers did. And suppose you do unlock that Da Vinci Code: Then youll need a lawyer and accountant to challenge your homes rising taxable value and tax liability, a cardiologist to place a stent to prop open your coronary artery, and a priest to impose penance to absolve your state sins.

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Welcome to this edition of the Homeowner Property Tax Shell Game, hosted by Gov. Greg Gianforte and most of your legislators, and led by the Pied Piper of Complicated Legislative Legerdemain, Rep. Llew Jones, the Conrad Republican who serves as de-facto director of much of the Republican and Democratic caucuses in the state House and Senate.

First, some background: In 2023, the Legislature and Gianforte raised the state portion of homeowners property taxes by about $219 million over two fiscal years. Then they proceeded to spend your hard-earned money.

Montanans expressed outrage, and county commissioners sued Gianforte over a state tax hike as he tried to blame elected county officials for raising state property taxes.

Democrats and Republicans waited until the very end of the 2025 Legislature to pass an even more complicated residential property tax system that requires more  not fewer  taxpayer dollars to hire new state employees to administer the program.

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Yep, they cobbled together a more complicated tax system and added bureaucracy under a Republican administration.

Some lawmakers  Democrats and Republicans  have been crowing about this so-called residential property tax relief. Dont believe them. Its a way of saying, We picked lots of cash out of your pocket in 23, passed complicated legislation this year that gives you some dough back, and raises taxes on select Montana homeowners.

Right-wing Republicans and some Democrats tried to call out the hypocrisy of the last-minute legislation, which includes rebates that dont necessarily pay you back for the built-in 2023 residential property tax hike.

The new law, meanwhile, creates a tiered tax-rate system for residential property that generally will result in urban homeowners in high-growth areas paying more property taxes in coming years. Families that own a second home, like a family cabin, will pay even more in property taxes (an estimated 68% more by 2026) because so-called second homes are exempt from relief.

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The new law doesnt distinguish between family cabins owned by Montana residents and luxury real estate owned by out-of-state residents, the Montana Free Press noted.

The 2023 property tax hike socked homeowners while big corporations, railroads and utilities got tax breaks. Now, some lawmakers are complaining that some commercial and industrial businesses will see property tax hikes under the new system. But one lawmaker noted these business entities will just pass their tax increases on to consumers. (Utilities, for instance, didnt cut consumer rates when they got property tax breaks in 2023.)

Montana voters didnt think the 2025 Legislature addressed this issue well: In a May 2025 poll, 64 percent of Montanans told Middle Fork Strategies that lawmakers did not well in addressing property taxes; 25 percent said they did well  a negative 39-percentage point difference.

Couple that with the biennial reappraisals that raise your homes taxable value (national surveys rank Montana poorly in housing affordability). Consequently, the 2025 Legislature gets low marks in addressing that issue. To wit: 74 percent of Montana voters polled said legislators performed not well in addressing housing affordability; 14 percent said lawmakers did well  a negative 61-percentage point difference.

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If lawmakers wont fix the complicated property tax system, citizens can act and pass a ballot initiative like the constitutional amendment (CI-130) being proposed by a former Bozeman legislator that would cap increases in residential property assessed valuations to 2% annually.

Its time for legislators to overhaul this complicated property tax system, bring it into the 21st century, and provide real tax relief to Montana homeowners. Leave code breaking to Da Vinci  or Morse.
KILGORE, Texas (KETK) In late August, an eighth-grade student at Kilgore Middle School suffered a severe head injury after being body-slammed in the school cafeteria, causing controversy between community members and the district.

East Texas middle school student suffers skull fracture in cafeteria altercation; parents demand answers

From the severe head injury and recovery, to the districts review of safety measures and family members speaking out, KETK News has created a timeline of the incident that has caused parents to demand answers.

The incident: Aug. 21

During the afternoon of Aug. 21, Lukas Hardeman was talking with friends at the lunch table when another student picked him up and slammed him headfirst into a steel chair.

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Hardeman was rushed to a local emergency room, then transferred to a Dallas hospital, where he spent five days in the ICU. The surgeons had to remove two parts of his skull to stop the bleeding and relieve swelling, then they replaced the two parts.

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Photos courtesy of Catom L Hardeman

Doctors later confirmed he had a six-inch skull fracture, though there were no signs of permanent brain damage.

School board presidents statement: Aug. 25

On the morning of Aug. 25, the school board president, Jason Smith, released a statement about the limitations on what they can share about their students and staff.

I know that when an incident happens in our schools, families want timely and clear information. At the same time, there are limits to what the District can share. Federal privacy laws, including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), require the District to protect the personal educational and health information of students and staff. This means that while the District cannot release certain details, it can  and will  communicate openly about what steps are being taken to keep our campuses supportive and safe to the extent that can be done without compromising campus security. Kilgore ISD School Board President, Jason Smith

Smith explained that going forward, the community can expect the district to:

Provide updates as quickly and clearly as possible.

Share what actions the school is taking to protect students and staff.

Be transparent about what the school can release, while honoring the privacy of those involved.

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Student detained after weapon found on Kilgore ISD bus

I am confident that I speak on behalf of the whole board when I say that we appreciate your trust and understanding as the district balances transparency with the responsibility to protect individual privacy, Smith said. Together, we will continue working to make Kilgore ISD a safe and thriving place for every student to learn and grow.

School board meeting: Aug. 25

At the school board meeting before Hardemans return home, several community members expressed their criticism of the districts policies.

Kilgore ISD is minimizing it and stating it has been blown out of proportion, David Trussell, the victims uncle, said. It has not been blown out of proportion. We want answers, and we want change.

A parent also prompted the Kilgore ISD to follow its own policies: Not reporting bullying is not just negligent, it is a direct violation of state law and district policy. The principal is responsible for documenting all reports, and none of these steps were taken.

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After the meeting, Hardemans family drove him through the streets of the town, where he was welcomed with cheers and support as he began his recovery.

District statement: Aug. 26

Just one day after community members attended the school board meeting to share their concerns, the district released a statement stating that the safety and security of their students and staff are their highest priority.

In regards to last weeks student assault that occurred at our Middle School Campus, please know that the KISD School Board of Trustees and our KISD District fully understand and accept the importance of ensuring the safety and well-being of every student entrusted into our care. The event from last week has left us all shaken, it was both unexpected and deeply troubling, and our thoughts and prayers remain with our student who was injured. The safety and security of our students and staff members continues to be our highest priority. No student should feel uncertain, afraid, or anxious about attending school. This week we have begun a thorough review of our campus safety measures, our district communication practices, security protocols, and programs that the District and our campuses have in place to keep everyone safe. KISD is committed to taking every necessary step to keep our students and staff safe, to improve upon our current safety practices, and to restore the trust of our students, parents, and Bulldog Community. Kilgore ISD

Review of safety measures: Aug. 29

Kilgore ISD announced on Facebook that they have been conducting a thorough review of its campus safety measures, district communication practices and programs.

It is our goal to provide consistent, effective, and timely communication to keep our Bulldog parents and Kilgore community informed and engaged, the district said in the statement.

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Their new measures include email updates through ParentSqaure, which allows parents to anonymously report incidents and receive monthly newsletters.

Former Kilgore ISD aide arrested for improper relationship with student

The school has also implemented the Crisis Go  Safe 2 Speak Up reporting system as an online campus notification tool where reports can be made anonymously for the students safety and privacy.

More information about these tools can be found on the Kilgore ISD website.

Speaking out and next steps: Sept. 9

It has been almost three weeks since Lukas Hardeman was slammed headfirst into a steel chair, and his parents are now speaking to KETK News about the incident and the next steps in his recovery process.

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Lukass step-mom, Catom Hardeman, explained that a lot of people have spoken about how they have reported bullying multiple times to the district, and nothing has happened: It shouldnt take something like this to bring change. It should have never gotten to that point.

Despite the familys desire for changes within the district, Catem said that Lukas will not be returning to Kilgore ISD. Hes not going to go back to that school, Hardeman said. Were going to homeschool and then maybe eventually do a private school. It kind of just depends on whether he wants to be around other students. Right now, were just trying to focus on him healing and not rushing it, and well eventually pick up some homeschool.

The family said that they have a long recovery process ahead with Lukas set to visit a brain injury clinic in the coming months.

Community members who wish to support Lukass recovery can donate on their GoFundMe.

You can now stream KETK and FOX51 News live 24/7 on your smart TV with KETK+, our brand-new app! No antenna, cable, or satellite neededwatch for free, anytime. Just download it on your Roku, Apple TV, or Fire TV and start streaming.

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The unnamed cybercriminals trying to scam seniors out of their money got more than they bargained for when they targeted Tejasvi Manojs grandfather back in February 2024. Tejasvi, then a 16-year-old junior at Lebanon Trail High School in Frisco, Texas, was driving home from Scouting America camp with her father when he suddenly noticed five missed calls on his phoneall from his 85-year-old father. He called back, and the older man reported that he had received an urgent email from another relative, Tejasvis uncle, asking for $2,000 to settle an unexpected debt. Given the apparent emergency, Tejasvis grandfather was prepared to transfer the fundsbut her father urged him not to and the grandfather, at the suggestion of his wife, then called the uncle to see if the request was legitimate.

I never asked you for money, came the response. Please dont send anything until I can look into whats going on.

It was a near miss for the unsuspecting senior. The fact that criminals would seek to take advantage of an old mans lack of sophistication about the workings of the internet galled Tejasvi. When she got home she went to her room and immediately began researching how common such scams are. Very common, it turns out.

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In 2024, the FBIs Internet Crime Complaint Center received nearly 860,000 reports of scams, with potential losses exceeding $16 billion. Of those, acts of fraud targeting people over the age of 60 accounted for nearly $5 billion, a 32% increase over the previous year. Seniors represent a target-rich cohort for the bad guys. Theyre typically retired, sitting on pensions and 401(k)s, and may be naive to the techniques favored by con artists and reprobates who run riot on the internet. According to the Federal Trade Commission, the number of older adults who lost more than $10,000 to online scams increased fourfold from 2020 to 2024. For those who lost $100,000 or more, the increase was seven-fold, for a total of $445 million in 2024 alone. And none of those figures includes losses victims were too embarrassed to report.

Photograph by Zerb Mellish for TIME

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Tejasvi was surprised that there was such a lack of awareness among her grandparents, says Aishwarya Manoj, her mother. It was like, Why did you not know? Thats when she went on with her research and found out that it was not an isolated case with her grandparents, but a much larger problem.

Older Americans clearly need protection, and Tejasvi was determined to provide it. Within the year she had built and launched Shield Seniors, a website designed to educate the 60-plus demographic about what online scams look like, analyze suspicious emails and messages users upload, and, if the communications prove fraudulent, provide links to report them. The site is currently available in a private preview mode only, pending more R&D and fundraising, but is alreadylike its creatormaking itself known. Tejasvi was recognized with an honorable mention in the 2024 Congressional App Challenge; delivered a 2025 TEDx talk in Plano, Texas, about the need to build digital bridges to all demographics; and makes occasional appearances at local assisted-living facilities, demonstrating her website and teaching seminars about cybercrime.

Tejasvi trying her hand in Taekwondo / Karate in 2014. Courtesy Photo

Tejasvi working on her Aviation badge in Scouting in 2023. Courtesy Photo

I remember going to my first seminar and I was super nervous, says Tejasvi, whose work has earned her recognition as TIMEs Kid of the Year for 2025and as the first such honoree to also be a TIME for Kids Service Star, taking part in our sister publications program highlighting young people making a positive impact. What if no one shows up? What if I totally mess up? She didnt mess uptotally or otherwise. There were so many people who were really interestedtaking notes on their notepads, which was really nice. At the end some of them came up to me with questions, and I was able to help them.

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Shield Seniors didnt come easy. For one thing, Tejasvi had a lot of other activities to attend to. She is active in Scouting Americarecently receiving her Eagle Scout rankand plays violin in her school orchestra. She tutors Bhutanese refugees online in math and English through an organization called Vibha, a nonprofit involved in workforce and scholastic development in India. She also does volunteer workserving on the leadership board of the North Texas Food Bank Young Advocates Council and packing meals, with the social-enterprise company TangoTab, for families facing food insecurity.

I started volunteering in sixth grade, she says. I think its really important; if youre lucky yourself, you want to make sure other people feel loved and lucky too.

Shield Seniors presented another way to do that, and Tejasvi was well prepared to do the coding that would make the project possible. Both of her parents work in the IT domainin fact, her father Manoj Ganapathy adds, everyone in my family is into techand she grew up fluent in the language of computers.

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Tejasvi began coding in eighth grade, taking cybersecurity classes and attending summer programs sponsored by the nonprofit Girls Who Code. She has also gotten involved in Cyber-Patriot, a joint Air Force and Space Force program to spark interest in cybersecurity and STEM disciplines among young people.

I code mostly in Java and Python, and a bit of HTML, Tejasvi says. I really love the fact that you can solve problems with your computer, and I really like creating.

Throughout the development of the site she tapped her on-site expertsher parentsfor help, and reached outside the home too. Aarathi Rajamanickam, a neighbor and software-engineering manager in the banking sector, has served as Tejasvis mentor for several years and regularly provided counsel.

Because I work in cybersecurity I see these kinds of [fraud] cases come by on an almost daily basis, says Rajamanickam. For Shield Seniors Ive been a mentor, Ive been a guide, Ive been a sounding board.

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Then, in February, after an early version of the site was ready, a story about Shield Seniors and Tejasvi appeared in the Dallas Observer, bringing her to the attention of the people at AARP. They set up a meeting where I walked them through the website, and they were very impressed, Tejasvi said in a follow-up email to TIME. They provided feedback and guidance, and shared my work on LinkedIn, helping me connect with a wider network of people.

Tejasvi Manoj hosting a "Cybersecurity for Seniors" seminar at an older adult community in 2025. Courtesy Photo

The website that has resulted from all of this work is equal parts intuitive, smart, and artful. Shield Seniors is divided into four principal sections. The first is labeled Learn, and helps users master the basics of internet security, such as the importance of creating strong passwords, understanding privacy settings, knowing what information to share and what not to share, and, most important, recognizing what a scam looks like. Make sure to be aware of common tactics used to scam seniors, such as by creating fake charities, the website reads. Be careful with unexpected messages, especially those that rush you or seem too good to be true.

The second section, labeled Ask, takes users to a chatbot that answers questions. Interacting with a population that was already approaching middle age when the internet appeared, Tejasvis bot keeps its answers simpleholding them to two sentences or even less.

If you ask ChatGPT or Gemini questions about cybersecurity, they are going to give you, like, 10 paragraphs of answers with very hard-to-understand terminology, she says. That works for some people, but it doesnt work for most older adults.

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What her portal does, for lack of a better word, is to dumb it down, says Rajamanickam, to kind of make it very simple.

The third section, labeled Analyze, is where the true brains of the site live. When users click this tab theyre directed to a page that allows them to upload a suspicious text or email, which an AI system will then analyze with what Tejasvi says is 95% accuracy at determining whats a scam and whats not a scam. Then, it goes beyond just providing a digital thumbs-up or down.

It will also explain why, she says, because our goal for Shield Seniors is to make sure older adults are independent and know what to look for. We want to make sure theyre able to navigate the online world confidently, with independence, and with dignity.

Finally, the site includes a Report section that allows users to rat the fraudsters out. The site provides links to 14 private and government groups that accept and act on complaints, including the FBI, the Better Business Bureau, the Social Security Administration, AARP, the SEC, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Just which group is the right one to contact depends on just which kind of fraud was committed. The FBI, for example, is a sort of one-stop-shopping site for all manner of cybercrime, including identity theft, computer intrusions, investment fraud, phishing, and ransomware. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau responds to complaints involving financial products and services including bank accounts, credit reports, and payments made or requested.

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This is supposed to bring people a sense of Youre not alone, says Tejasvi. A lot of people are embarrassed that they got scammed, but this isnt something you should be embarrassed about. Its just a learning experience. You should report it to help make sure it doesnt happen to anyone else.

Tejasvi used her coding skills to help build her website to protect older adults from cybercrime. Zerb Mellish for TIME

Shield Seniors is a formidable site, with a formidable array of resources provided to give users redressor at least the satisfaction that theyve blown the whistle on bad actors doing bad things in what should be a safe public space. The site itself is made to feel safe too. Tejasvi designed it with large-font type to make text easier to see and read, and a soft, blue theme intended to be soothing to people who may come to the site fresh from a scam and be fearful or frazzled. Tejasvi test-drove early versions of the site with her grandparents and other older members of her community before she settled on its current design.

Still, Shield Seniors is very much a work in progress. It currently relies on a free AI engine, which limits its power and the size of the audience it can hosthence its private preview status. Tejasvis fundraising work is partly devoted to allowing her to transition to a larger, commercial AI platform. We plan to open it to a wider audience once we secure funding to support broader access, she said.

Tejasvi's finalist presentation of Shield Seniors at the Texas High School Ideas Challenge, hosted by the McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship, Texas A&M. Courtesy Photo

Meantime, like every other high school senior, Tejasvi is looking ahead. For college, she plans to apply to at least one school close to homethe University of Texas, Austinas well farther afield, with her eye on schools ranging from Georgia Tech to Purdue. No surprise, she intends to major in computer science and minor in AI or cybersecurity.

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And shell keep working to expand and improve Shield Seniorsand her personal footprint as well, hoping especially to be welcome in more assisted-living facilities where she can interact with seniors face-to-face. For now, shes had the opportunity to visit just a few, with others telling her to come back when shes had a little more experience. Im a bit young, I guess, she says.

But thats not stopping her from getting the message out as best she can, as she continues to advocate for seniors to become savvy and independent in cyber-space, and for their family members to help them gain the necessary experience and confidence.

Just make sure to check up on your loved ones, Tejasvi says, asked if she has any advice for those who want to join her in that quest. Make sure that theyre staying safe online.

Write to Jeffrey Kluger at jeffrey.kluger@time.com.
(NewsNation)  Border czar Tom Homan said Illinois Gov. JB Pritzkers allegation that he racially profiles individuals is disgusting and hes asking for an apology.

Earlier Tuesday, Pritzker said Homan long ago acknowledged he was racially profiling and that his agency is attacking our Latino communities amid ICEs increased presence in Chicago.

Homan told The Hill Tuesday evening that he will be waiting for his apologies, denying he has ever said that.

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Republicans call for judges removal after light rail stabbing

The border czar said Pritzker misconstrued what he had previously stated.

Homan told NewsNation that an individuals appearance is one of the many factors you consider, noting that you cant arrest somebody just based on appearance.

Reasonable suspicion is based on a multitude of facts that the officer, through his observations, takes into consideration, for instance, appearance. If you got somebody with MS-13 tattooed across their face, that is one factor out of many you have to consider, but not the only factor, Homan said.

FDA sends warning letters, 100 cease-and-desist orders to drugmakers

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That is what I said, ICE officers do not racially profile. To him to say that its disgusting on every level, the ICE officers take a Fourth Amendment training every six months, theyre well-trained.

Speaking to protests against the agencys increased presence, Homan told NewsNation, They can protest all they want, matter of fact, those streets are safer to protest in because of what ICE has done since President Trump has taken back the White House.

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NEW YORK (PIX11)  Since the launch of the congestion relief program, New York City has seen a decline of nearly 17.6 million vehicles entering the congestion relief zone, officials announced on Tuesday.

Gov. Kathy Hochul called the program nothing short of transformational, citing reduced traffic and improved travel times through Manhattan.

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With summer coming to an end, the benefits of congestion pricing are clearer than ever, Hochul said. This program has been nothing short of transformational, making streets safer, reducing gridlock across the region, and unlocking generational upgrades to mass transit, benefitting millions. Congestion pricing is working, it is legal, and the cameras are staying on.

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The federal government has attempted to halt New York Citys congestion pricing program multiple times, with U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warning Hochul of potential serious consequences.

Hochul has been steadfast in defying the federal governments requests, repeatedly saying that cameras are staying on.

Hochul and MTA officials say that the program has made commutes faster by reducing gridlock on bridges and tunnels crossing the East River and Hudson River. They also reported that transit ridership increased in 2025, with subway ridership up by 9 percent and bus ridership up by 13 percent.

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Despite the revenue generated by the program, which will be used to make transit improvements, the MTA is proposing to raise the base fare for subways and buses from $2.90 to $3.

The agency has been holding public hearings on its proposal to increase the fares, and is currently accepting written comments from those unable to attend the hearings.

Public comments are being accepted through Sept. 14.

Ben Mitchell is a digital content producer from Vermont who has covered both local and international news since 2021. He joined PIX11 in 2024. See more of his work here.

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AUSTIN (KXAN)  The trash panda is at it again in Cedar Park, after the police department said it responded to its third raccoon rescue this week. This is also the sixth racoon rescue in the past month.

Our Animal Control Officers want to remind you that this time of year, juveniles are out exploring and dumpsters look like an all-you-can-eat buffet, the Cedar Park Police Department said on social media.

The Cedar Park Police Department said this is the third raccoon rescue from a dumpster this month. (CPPD Photo)

The Cedar Park Police Department said this is the third raccoon rescue from a dumpster this month. (CPPD Photo)

Police said the problem is that the raccoons climb in but dont always climb out of the dumpsters.

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Do us (and them) a favor: keep those dumpster lids closed and locked if you can. A secure dumpster = fewer raccoons stuck, fewer rescues needed, and happier trash pandas living their best wild lives, police said.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO)  The case involving an Edgerton, Minnesota, man accused of murdering a Sioux Falls woman is one step closer to going to trial.

Defense lawyers and prosecutors appeared before the judge Tuesday in a video conference hearing in Minnesota.

There is no plea deal in the state of Minnesotas case against Joseph Benson. The case will be set for trial.

Guns seized at Pierre school across from Capitol

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Benson is charged with one count of 2nd-degree murder in the death of Samantha Koehne, 38, of Sioux Falls in November of 2024. Prosecutors say Benson strangled her.



According to court documents, police responded to a report of a possible domestic assault that took place at a home in Edgerton where Benson was staying with his girlfriend. When they got there they noticed Benson had scratches on his face and all down his arms. They later discovered Koehne lying face up on the bathroom floor with an extension cord around her legs and lying across her body.

Benson has pleaded not guilty.

In April, he was ordered to be examined by a psychologist, after a lawyer said he suffers from mental illness and is cognitively impaired.

In court on Tuesday, both sides told the judge they were ready to proceed to a jury trial. So the judge said she would look for an appropriate date for the trial which is expected to last a week to a week and a half.

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Benson has a lengthy criminal history in South Dakota, and at least one of the crimes involved the same woman hes now accused of killing.

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BOSTON (WWLP)  A man who worked for a truck-driving school was sentenced to prison for his involvement in the Massachusetts State Police commercial drivers license (CDL) bribery scheme.

In a news release from the Department of Justice, in January 2024, 44-year-old Scott Camara of Rehoboth was charged in a 74-count indictment along with five others for giving out false passing scores to numerous CDL applicants in a years-long conspiracy.

Former Mass. State Police Sergeant convicted of extortion in CDL scheme

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Court documents alleged that Camara conspired with then-MSP Sergeant Gary Cederquist to give passing scores to four MSP troopers who had applied for Class A CDLs, but who did not actually take the required CDL skills test.

Camera pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to falsify records and one count of perjury. He was sentenced to one month in prison, to be followed by one year of supervised release.

Co-conspirators involved in CDL scheme

Former Trooper Calvin Butner, was sentenced to three months in prison, to be followed by one year of supervised release with the first three months in home confinement.

Former Trooper Perry Mendes was sentenced to one month in prison, to be followed by one year of supervised release with the first two months on home confinement.

Eric Mathison was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release.

Gary Cederquist was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to commit extortion, one count of extortion, six counts of honest services mail fraud, three counts of conspiracy to falsify records, 19 counts of falsification of records and 17 counts of false statements. He is scheduled to be sentenced on September 29.

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WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com.

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When Justice Department officials anonymously floated the idea of prohibiting gun possession by transgender people last week, they may have hoped to score points with President Donald Trump's base or get a rise out of "woke" Democrats. Instead, they elicited howls of outrage from every major gun rights group.

It is not hard to see why. This half-baked proposal, which has no obvious statutory basis, is flagrantly inconsistent with "the right of the people" to "keep and bear arms"a right that Trump claims he is keen to protect.

The immediate impetus for internal discussions of disarming transgender Americans was the August 27 shooting that killed two children and injured 21 other people at the Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis. Police identified the perpetrator, who killed herself after attacking the worshipers, as a 23-year-old transgender woman.

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CNN reported that "Justice Department leadership is seriously considering whether it can use its rulemaking authority" to "declare that people who are transgender are mentally ill and can lose their Second Amendment rights to possess firearms." It quoted an unnamed Justice Department official who explained that the goal would be to "ensure that mentally ill individuals suffering from gender dysphoria are unable to obtain firearms while they are unstable and unwell."

The implication was that Congress had given the Justice Department broad authority to strip "mentally ill individuals" of their Second Amendment rights. The impact of such a power could be sweeping, since survey data indicate that half of all Americans will qualify for a psychiatric diagnosis at some point in their lives, while a quarter of them do in any given year.

Under current law, however, someone described as "mentally ill" loses his gun rights only if he has been "adjudicated as a mental defective" or "committed to a mental institution," both of which require a court order based on an individualized assessment. That rule is unreasonably broad, since it applies to anyone who has ever been subjected to involuntary psychiatric treatment, no matter how long ago that happened, whether or not he was ever deemed a threat to others, and regardless of his current psychological state.

Still, even that provision is not broad enough to justify a policy of disarming people based solely on a psychiatric label. "Red flag" laws, which authorize court orders that suspend people's gun rights, also require more than that: a judicial determination that someone poses a threat to himself or others.

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The latter process is plagued by due process problems, which explains why it raises the hackles of Second Amendment advocates. So it is not surprising that the National Rifle Association took a dim view of the Justice Department discussions, saying it "does not" and "will not" support "sweeping gun bans that arbitrarily strip law-abiding citizens of their Second Amendment rights without due process."

Under "federal statutes and binding Supreme Court precedent," the Firearms Policy Coalition warned, "the government cannot impose a categorical ban on an entire class of peaceable people." The Justice Department's trial balloon elicited similar objections from Gun Owners of America, the Second Amendment Foundation, the National Association for Gun Rights, and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

Even if Congress approved a ban like the one the Justice Department is contemplating, it is hard to see how it would be "consistent with this Nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation"the Second Amendment test that the Supreme Court established in 2022. Since then, several federal appeals courts have ruled that categorical statutory bans on gun ownership, whether based on illegal drug use or criminal convictions, may be unconstitutional as applied to specific individuals.

In one of those cases, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit held that "nothing in our tradition allows disarmament simply because [someone] belongs to a category of people" that "Congress has categorically deemed dangerous." Such a ban would be even more constitutionally questionable if it were imposed by bureaucratic fiat.

 Copyright 2025 by Creators Syndicate Inc.

The post The Trump Administration's Half-Baked Plan To Disarm Transgender People Is Legally Bankrupt appeared first on Reason.com.
Some advisers to President Donald Trump are angry over Israels decision to strike Hamas leaders inside Doha, Qatar Tuesday morning, with many particularly frustrated that they werent able to weigh in or warn the Qataris.

Trump was informed of the strike only shortly before it began  and not by Israel itself, but by Chairman of the Joint Staff Gen. Dan Caine, according to a US official. He immediately told White House special envoy Steve Witkoff to brief them, according to another US official. Witkoff has a longstanding relationship with the Qataris.

However, by the time Witkoff was able to reach them, it was too late, a US official told CNN. Adding to the ire, Witkoff had met Monday with one of Netanyahus top advisers, Ron Dermer, but was not alerted of the impending strikes during those talks.

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Im not thrilled about the whole situation. Its not a good situation. But I will say this, we want the hostages back, but we are not thrilled about the way that went down, Trump told reporters Tuesday evening. He added that hed be giving a full statement on Wednesday.

Hamas leaders have used the Qatari capital as a headquarters outside of Gaza for years. The strike targeted residential buildings housing several members of the Hamas political bureau, according to Qatars foreign ministry.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday afternoon that Trump immediately directed special envoy Witkoff to inform the Qataris of the impending attack, which he did. But Qatar said shortly after her statement it was not informed of the strike in advance. By the time they learned of the attack, bombs could be heard falling in Doha, a senior Qatari official said.

Journalists raise their hands to ask questions, as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, US, September 9, 2025. - Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Trump later posted an updated statement on Truth Social that noted Witkoffs call with the Qataris was unfortunately too late to stop the attack. He also took pains to specify that the decision to launch the strike was made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu  and was not a decision made by me. The statement reflected a deep sense of frustration that Israel was acting against Trumps own goals for the region.

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The days events underscored the fragile nature of Trumps attempts to broker peace in Gaza, his often-frustrating relationship with Netanyahu and his efforts to maintain strong ties with the United States allies in the Gulf. The White Houses response to Tuesdays strikes was carefully calibrated to both distance Trump from Netanyahus decision while also avoiding open rupture with Israel, according to a White House official.

Still, its not the first time Trump has been surprised and irritated by Israels actions outside its own borders  he was similarly caught off guard in July when Israel launched strikes on the Syrian capital Damascus. And he expressed frustration with Netanyahu after Israel struck a Catholic church inside Gaza earlier in the summer.

The fact the strikes occurred in Qatar only contributed to the sense of betrayal inside the White House. Trump became the first sitting US president to visit the country in May, when he underscored the important military ties between the two countries by visiting al-Udeid air base.

Qatar, too, has worked to cultivate Trump  including by gifting the US a luxury Boeing 747 jet to use as Air Force One.

CNNs Haley Britzky contributed to this report.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

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Trump administration Border Czar Tom Homan went on offense Tuesday, accusing Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey of falsely claiming that immigration agents were targeting worshippers at a Sunday service.

"Shame on Gov. Healey and Mayor Wu, Homan said outside the White House on Tuesday, according to The Boston Herald. Shame on both of them. They should be calling the White House, thanking Trump, thanking ICE for making the community safer. Instead, they go on TV and lie about ICE and make these accusations.

During an appearance on MSNBCs Morning Joe program earlier in the day, the Democratic governor said ICE agents were targeting worshippers during a Spanish-language mass at Saint Ignatius of Loyola Parish in Chestnut Hill.

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Why the hell are they there? Healey said. Theyre there to intimidate, right? Theyre there to sow fear, she said. Theyre there to scare people. In the same way the Trump administration is about scaring corporations and universities and law firms.

Spokespeople for the Archdiocese of Boston and Boston College, where the church is located, told The Herald that an ICE van was spotted on Saturday.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Homan asserted that the federal agents are clear to target people in the country illegally at churches, schools and courthouses, according to The Herald.

Homan said ICE, which launched a promised surge of immigration raids in Boston over the weekend, is not conducting operations at Boston-area churches, the newspaper reported.

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He dismissed Healeys claims as bold-faced lie, The Herald reported.

The effort, dubbed Operation Patriot 2.0, is a continuation of Mays Operation Patriot. In June, ICE announced it had arrested almost 1,500 people across Massachusetts who were in the country illegally during the monthlong effort.

An unnamed senior spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement to MassLive on Sunday afternoon.

Sanctuary policies like those pushed by [Boston] Mayor [Michelle] Wu not only attract and harbor criminals but also place these public safety threats above the interests of law-abiding American citizens. ICE is arresting sex offenders, pedophiles, murderers, drug dealers and gang members released by local authorities, the statement read.

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Wu released a statement to MassLive Sunday afternoon, responding to the recent surge: As ordered in the Boston Trust Act, no Boston police or local resources will be co-opted into federal immigration enforcement and their mass deportation agenda, the Democratic mayor said.

For months, ICE has refused to provide any information about their activities in Boston and refuses to issue warrants, while we hear reports of ICE agents taking parents as they are dropping their kids off at school, Wu continued. That does not make our community safer. We expect that federal law enforcement will abide by the constitution and laws of this city, commonwealth and country, and we are prepared to take legal action at any evidence to the contrary.

Homan defended the administrations immigration hardline, saying ICE agents are targeting the worst of the worst and making this country safe again.

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Donald Trump has said he is prepared to hit India and China with even more sweeping tariffs if Europe is willing to cooperate with him on squeezing Russian economically to stop the war in Ukraine.

The US president made the demand after dialling into a meeting between senior European Union and US officials in Washington on Tuesday to discuss the ways to pressure Russia to come to the negotiating table, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the discussions.

Mr Trump has called for a 100 per cent tariff on the two Asian countries for their energy imports from Russia, saying the US will mirror the levies imposed by the European countries.

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Were ready to go, ready to go right now, but were only going to do this if our European partners step up with us, a US official said.

On the same day, Mr Trump reassured New Delhi that trade talks were progressing smoothly and would likely yield a successful deal, signalling double messaging from the Trump administration that has mounted pressure on India in recent days for trade with Russia.

Mr Trump said that the US and India are continuing negotiations to address the Trade Barriers and he is looking forward to speaking with his good friend prime minister Narendra Modi in the coming weeks.

US president Donald Trump shakes hands with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on 13 February 2025 (AFP via Getty Images)

However, a meeting between the two leaders is unlikely as Mr Modi is sending his foreign minister S Jaishankar to address the United Nations General Assembly on 27 September.

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I feel certain that there will be no difficulty in coming to a successful conclusion for both of our Great Countries! he wrote on Truth Social on early Wednesday Indian time.

The US presidents upbeat tone follows months of turbulent trade negotiations that have strained relations between Washington and New Delhi. The Trump administration has already doubled tariffs on India, taking it to 50 per cent, including a 25 per cent penalty for purchasing Russian weapons and oil, which Washington says helps finance Russias war in Ukraine.

Mr Modi reciprocated the optimism in a social media post on Wednesday, saying Washington and New Delhi "are close friends and natural partners."

"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," Mr Modi said.

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Mr Trumps tariff on India for purchasing Russian crude oil is in contrast to a softer stance towards China, which is the largest buyer of Russian energy amid ongoing trade talks to secure a deal with the second-largest economy.

New Delhi has said it has been selectively targeted for purchasing Russian oil while the EU continues to import liquefied natural gas from Russia.

Despite mounting US pressure, New Delhi and Moscow intend to increase their annual trade by 50 per cent to $100bn (74bn) over the next five years.
Washington  President Donald Trump had dinner Tuesday night at a seafood restaurant near the White House, promoting his deployment of the National Guard and federalizing the police force in an effort to crack down on crime in the nation's capital.

His motorcade drove the short distance to Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab on 15th Street, NW, in D.C., following weeks of the president boasting about mobilizing federal authorities and the military that he says have made Washington "a safe zone."



Cheers were heard as the president stepped from his limo - though there was also a smattering of boos and chants from protesters opposing U.S. policy in support of Israel in its war with Hamas in Gaza.



"We're standing right in the middle of D.C., which as you know about, over the last year, was a very unsafe place  over the last 20 years  and now it's got virtually no crime," Mr. Trump told reporters.



He added that he wouldn't have stood out "in the middle of the street" as recently as a couple of months ago. The suggestion was farcical, however, and didn't actually reflect whether crime levels had changed in Washington, since the president is always surrounded by heavy security wherever he goes.



After entering the restaurant, video on social media showed him shaking hands with some diners inside. But he also stared for an extended period at a small group of protesters who held up miniature Gaza flags and chanted: "Free D.C.! Free Palestine! Trump is the Hitler of our time!"



The president moved closer to them and could be seen gesturing briefly but didn't appear to speak.

Seconds later, Mr. Trump gestured for the area to be cleared out, then gestured again.



Secret Service agents removed the protesters, saying repeatedly, "Time to go. Time to go." Some protesters waved banners of the Palestinian flag as they were leaving.

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Others in the restaurant could be heard booing or chanting "U-S-A! U-S-A!"

President Trump departs after having dinner at Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab, a restaurant near the White House, on Sept. 9, 2025. / Credit: Alex Brandon / AP

The feminist group Codepink said it had the protesters in the restaurant.

Some restaurants have reported drops in reservations since Mr. Trump first announced the federal crackdown on Aug. 7, while there have been frequent street protests decrying his actions. Increased military and police presence also has occasionally sparked standoffs between residents and authorities in normally quiet neighborhoods.



Mr. Trump has nonetheless said repeatedly that he's spoken to friends who tell him local restaurants are full and that people have noticed a drop in crime. He says he's also heard that people appreciate crews working to remove homeless encampments as part of the crackdown.



Accompanying the president for dinner were Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as well as Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff. In his comments before going into dinner, Mr. Trump said, "The restaurants are booming."



"People are going out to dinner where they didn't go out for years," he said.



After Mr. Trump returned to the White House after 10 p.m., press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who was also among those who dined with him, said he'd eaten crab, shrimp, salad, steak and dessert.



The excursion was notable since the president rarely dines away from the White House when he's in Washington. And such outings have gotten even less common since he sold the hotel bearing his name a few blocks away, which was a key meeting point for administration officials and supporters during his first term.



The White House reported Tuesday that there had been nearly 2,200 arrests since Mr. Trump first announced the Washington crackdown on Aug. 7.



Mr. Trump has also deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles in June and has threatened to send troops to other, largely Democratic cities, including Baltimore, New Orleans and Chicago  where state and local authorities already are bracing for operations to sharply increase immigration enforcement.



He said Tuesday night, "We're going to be announcing another city that we're going to very shortly," adding it could be as soon as Wednesday. He added that the mayor of that city and the governor of the state it is in "would love us to be there."



That follows Trump posting over the weekend a parody image from "Apocalypse Now" featuring a ball of flames as helicopters zoom over the lakefront and skyline of Chicago, the nation's third-largest city.



"'I love the smell of deportations in the morning,'" Trump wrote on his social media site. "Chicago about to find out why it's called the Department of WAR."



In the post, Trump offered no details beyond the label "Chipocalypse Now," a play on the title of Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 Vietnam War film, in which a character says, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning."



Last week, Trump signed an executive order seeking to rename the Defense Department as the Department of War - even after months of campaigning to be considered for the Nobel Peace Prize. The renaming requires congressional approval.



In his own post in response, Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker called Trump a "wannabe dictator." He has joined state and city officials - and many Chicago residents  in decrying the idea of a federal crackdown as unnecessary.

NIH whistleblower says she was ousted after clashing with Trump officials on vaccines

Kamala Harris says letting Biden run for reelection was reckless

Trump, lawmakers react to Russian drones violating Polish airspace
Key Points

Dogecoin ETFs could be approved quite soon.

They could give the coin easier access to new capital inflows.

Shiba Inu doesn't have any way of getting the same exposure.

10 stocks we like better than Dogecoin 

Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) and Shiba Inu (CRYPTO: SHIB) look nearly indistinguishable. They're both dog-themed meme coins, and, while one is larger than the other in terms of market cap, neither seems to have any value-generating flywheel or reason to gain in value aside from speculation.

Nonetheless, there is actually one reason to expect Dogecoin to grow faster than Shiba Inu, at least for the moment.

Image source: Getty Images.

This pipeline is real for Dogecoin and absent for Shiba Inu

An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a financial instrument that holds an asset and issues shares that trade on stock exchanges. Funds are easy for all types of investors to buy and sell, and they can plug straight into retirement accounts as easily as they can be added to a serious portfolio manager's thematic fund.

On Sept. 8, CoinDesk reported that a Dogecoin ETF could launch in the U.S. as soon as this week, offering exposure to Dogecoin through traditional brokerages. That particular ETF, which would be issued by Rex-Osprey, constructs its exposure via a combination of derivatives rather than giving investors direct exposure to the coin's spot price, which means it's following a different legal avenue for approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) than other Dogecoin ETFs.

On that note, the coin also has multiple spot ETF filings awaiting rulings from the SEC, which are scheduled to be evaluated later this year. Bitwise amended its Dogecoin registration statement on June 26, signaling active engagement with the SEC. And 21Shares submitted the forms on April 9 for a U.S. Dogecoin ETF. So there are two parallel ETF approval streams that could cause Dogecoin's price to increase if the SEC gives the green light.

In contrast to that visible pipeline of opportunity, there is no mainstream asset-manager spot ETF application for Shiba Inu.

Why would this asymmetry matter for performance? In short, look at the precedent.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted roughly $37 billion of net inflows during their first year, thereby establishing that crypto ETFs can mobilize very large pools of capital if there's interest in the underlying asset. Another useful data point to consider is that when Ethereum ETFs launched, early inflows were much more modest for the first year or so before accelerating, demonstrating that new crypto ETFs can catalyze fresh demand over time even if their immediate reception from the market is tepid.
Its Job-blehead Night at Yankee Stadium.

Mayor Eric Adams and President Trump could meet during a game at Yankee Stadium this week instead of at the White House as speculation grows over the future of Hizzoners long-shot re-election bid, The Post has learned.

Adams wants a face-to-face with Trump  who is set to attend the Yanks-Tigers matchup Thursday  before he potentially takes the unprecedented step of ditching his campaign for a cushy job in the Republican administration, insiders said.

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Gigs including the ambassadorship to Saudi Arabia have been floated by the White House in a bid to entice Adams to drop his likely doomed bid and narrow the field against socialist frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, sources said.

Trump and Adams schedules ultimately didnt align for a tentative meeting Monday in Washington, DC, sources said.

Mayor Eric Adams wants to hear about any job offers from President Trump himself, sources said. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post

Sources said the MLB game could now be the best time for Adams to hear directly from the president, whos visiting the city on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks  although nothing has officially been scheduled.

Not tracking a meeting at this time, but if that happens, Im sure the New York Post will be the first to know, said Karoline Leavitt, the White Houses press secretary, quipped on Tuesday.

President Trump will be attending a Yankees game Thursday. REUTERS

Trump will be watching the 7:05 p.m. game from the Yankees-owning Steinbrenner familys box  which is where any meeting with Adams would unfold, sources said.

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Adams longtime ally Frank Carone and Trumps special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff have acted as middle men in the talks, according to sources.

Trump and his advisers have been maneuvering to thin the crowded Big Apple mayoral race of Adams and, to a lesser extent, GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa in an attempt to create a one-on-one race between Mamdani and ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Sliwa has flatly rejected any suggestion hell drop out.

Adams, while he has insisted hell stay in the race, has been publicly and privately more receptive, according to sources.

But the sources said Adams considers an ambassadorship  such as the one to Saudi Arabia floated by Witkoff  to be a no-go, given hell have to be confirmed by Congress and is thus not a guaranteed job.

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An envoy or another position appointed by Trump would be more likely to sway Adams, the sources said.

Some Trump allies, however, believe its too late to derail Mamdani  noting that polling shows the Democratic nominee with close to majority support and that many Republican and independent voters consider Cuomo corrupt and a creep, according to sources.

Leavitt, when asked if Adams will be offered a job, said Trump has made it clear he wants the mayoral race to move forward.

Trump and his advisers have been trying to thwart socialist Zohran Mamdanis election as mayor. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post

He doesnt want communists to be running New York City, she said, referring to Mamdani. But as for weighing in on other individual candidates, Ill leave that to the president to do himself.

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Adams campaign team and City Hall both had no meeting penciled in for Thursday.

Mayor Adams has not requested a face-to-face with Trump while he is in New York City and has been clear that being the mayor of New York City is the only job he wants, said the mayors press secretary Kayla Mamelak.

A law-enforcement source said Adams security detail always makes plans for the mayor to abruptly change their schedule when any president is in New York City, and has contingency plans to make it work on the fly.

 Additional reporting by Matthew Fischetti
President Trump on Tuesday said he wasnt thrilled by Israels attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, but he told reporters he wasnt caught off guard when it happened.

Im not thrilled, Im not thrilled about it, he said. Im not thrilled about the whole situation, its not a good situation.

But, I will say this, we want the hostages back, but we are not thrilled about the way that went down, he added.

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When asked if he was surprised by the attack, Trump said: Im never surprised by anything, especially when it comes to the Middle East.

The president said he will give a full statement on the situation on Wednesday, adding that he was very unhappy about every aspect.

Earlier on Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt read a statement from Trump in the press briefing, saying Israels strike in Qatar was not in the U.S.s interests and that he feels very bad about the location of the attack.

The administration was notified of the strike by the U.S. military, Leavitt said, and the president directed special envoy Steve Witkoff to inform Qatari officials of the attack. Qatar has dismissed the comments, saying officials were informed once missiles hit the building.

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Hostage talks stalled after Witkoff walked away from negotiations in July, with Hamas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blaming each other for stalling negotiations.

The president spoke with Netanyahu after the attack and reiterated he wants peace, Leavitt said Tuesday.

Also while speaking with reporters Tuesday night, Trump said he will speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week or early next week.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
WASHINGTON (AP)  President Donald Trump on Wednesday offered an ambiguous initial response to Russia's drone incursion into Poland's airspace, a provocative act by Moscow that has put the United States' NATO allies in Europe on edge.

Whats with Russia violating Polands airspace with drones? Here we go! Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social platform late Wednesday morning, nearly a half-day after Poland announced that several Russian drones entered its territory over the course of many hours and were shot down with help from NATO allies.

White House officials did not immediately respond to queries about Trumps cryptic comments about the incursion. It was the first time the transatlantic alliance has confronted a potential threat in its airspace, scrambling jets to shoot the Russian drones out of the sky.

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But Trump's comment stood in sharp contrast to the strong condemnation by several European leaders and was notably less robust than that of his ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker.

We stand by our @NATO Allies in the face of these airspace violations and will defend every inch of NATO territory, Whitaker posted on X.

The incursion occurred as the U.S. leader is struggling to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to engage in direct peace talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to end Russia's more than 3-year-old war in Ukraine.

Trump spoke Wednesday with Polish President Karol Nawrocki, who was at the White House last week for talks in which the two leaders discussed expanding the U.S. military presence i n Poland. Following the call, Nawrocki posted on X that the conversation confirmed the unity of our alliance."

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French President Emmanuel Macron said in an X post that he also spoke by phone with Trump about the worrying developments in the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, in particular following the incursion of Russian drones in Poland. The leaders also discussed Israel's strikes in Qatar on Tuesday targeting Hamas' leadership, a stunning escalation that risked upending a Trump administration-led effort at winding down the Gaza war and freeing hostages.

The U.S. president last month held a summit with Putin in Alaska and then met with Zelenskyy and key European allies about finding a pathway to end the war  something that Trump vowed to get done quickly during his 2024 White House campaign.

Trump emerged from those high-level talks to announce he was arranging a Putin-Zelenskyy meeting and potentially a three-way summit in which he would take part. But Trump's confidence in arranging a peace summit has fizzled as Putin has only intensified air strikes on Ukraine over the past few weeks.

After Wednesday's incursion, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina urged Trump to move forward with new sanctions on Moscow.

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Mr. President, Congress is with you, Graham posted on X. We stand ready to pass legislation authorizing bone crushing new sanctions and tariffs that can be deployed at your discretion. Our goal is to empower you as you deal with this mounting threat.

Poland said some of the drones came from Belarus, a close Moscow ally, where Russian and Belarusian troops have begun gathering for war games scheduled to start Friday. Russias Defense Ministry said it did not target Poland, while Belarus said it tracked some drones that lost their course and entered Poland because they were jammed.

But European officials did not accept Moscow's explanation and argued the incident suggests Putin is escalating his war on Ukraine. Polish airspace has been violated many times since Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but never on this scale in Poland or anywhere else in NATO territory.

What Putin wants to do is to test us, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters in Brussels. What happened in Poland is a game changer. She added that the Russian action should result in stronger sanctions.

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NATO allies swiftly held talks Wednesday on the incursion with the alliances 32 member states. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told Parliament that the consultations came under Article 4 of the treaty that founded NATO in 1949 in the aftermath of World War II.

Article 4, the shortest of the NATO treatys 14 articles and infrequently invoked, states that: The Parties will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.
President Donald Trump rushed to explain why he failed to stop Israels attack in Qatar, the country that recently gifted him a $400 million jet.

Israel launched a strike on senior Hamas officials in Qatars capital, Doha, on Tuesday morning. Qatar is a key mediator in ongoing negotiations for ceasefire in Gaza and maintains a close relationship with the Trump administration.

Trump distanced himself from any responsibility for the bombing in a Truth Social post, writing, This was a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me.

Qatar condemned Israel's strike as a blatant violation of international law. Hamas said six were killed but that its leadership survived the attack. / Jacqueline Penney/Getty Images

Using uncharacteristically careful language, he said the strike, does not advance Israel or Americas goals, though he called eliminating Hamas a worthy goal.

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Trumps post was nearly identical to the statement Karoline Leavitt read at her news briefing earlier in the daywith one notable change, apparently in response to Qatari officials disputing the press secretarys account that Trump had immediately directed Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to inform the Qataris of the impending attack.

The statements being circulated about Qatar being informed of the attack in advance are baseless, a spokesperson for Qatars Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared after Leavitts briefing. The communication received from one of the American officials came during the sound of explosions resulting from the Israeli attack in Doha.

Qatar condemned the bombing as a blatant violation of all international laws and norms.

In his Truth Social post, Trump explained that his attempt to notify Qatar was unfortunately, too late to stop the attack.

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U.S. officials told Axios that Israeli missiles were already in the air by the time the country responded to the U.S. militarys query about why its jets were en route to the Gulf.

The president continued, I view Qatar as a strong Ally and friend of the U.S., and feel very badly about the location of the attack.

During his middle east tour in May, President Donald Trump met with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. / Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images

He said he had spoken to Qatars emir and prime minister, saying, I assured them that such a thing will not happen again on their soil.

The Trump administration controversially accepted the unconditional donation of a Boeing 747 from Qatar in July. When Trump traveled to the wealthy emirate in May, he was welcomed with a Cybertruck-led motorcade.

Israels strike came as the U.S. was waiting for Hamas to respond to Trumps new proposal that would see all 48 remaining hostages released in return for a ceasefire and the end of Israels operation to occupy Gaza. The attack infuriated some of Trumps top advisers, Axios reported.
Britain is poised to deploy fighter jets and an air defence system to Poland after Nato shot down Russian drones over allied territory for the first time in its history.

The Telegraph understands John Healey has instructed the military to explore dispatching RAF Typhoons to police the skies above Eastern Europe, or a Sky Sabre missile battery and its ground-based radar.

The Defence Secretary said he had asked Britains armed forces to look at options to bolster Natos air defence over Poland after 19 Russian drones entered Polish airspace early on Wednesday.

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At least four were shot down in a Nato operation involving Polish and Dutch fighter jets, an Italian early warning AWACS aircraft and a German Patriot air-defence system.

Warsaw described the incursion as an unprecedented violation of its territory after the drones slipped across the border with Belarus during a seven-hour Russian barrage on Ukraine.

After European leaders rallied to criticise Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump wrote online: Whats with Russia violating Polands airspace with drones? Here we go!

Hours later, the US president held a call with Karol Nawrocki, the Polish president, to speak on the serious clash between Russia and the US-led alliance.

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No injuries were sustained during the lengthy barrage, which started at around 11pm on Tuesday, with the final drone downed at 6.45am the next morning.

A spokesman at Natos military headquarters said it was the first time allied fighter jets had intercepted potential threats over its airspace.

Donald Tusk, Polands prime minister, told his countrys parliament that allies had successfully headed off a large-scale provocation from Russia.

It was a very difficult and risky operation, and very effective, he told MPs. This success for Nato forces also changes the political situation.

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In response, Sir Keir Starmer joined a phone call with European leaders, including Mr Tusk, Nato secretary general Mark Rutte, Frances Emmanuel Macron, Italys Giorgia Meloni, Germanys Friedrich Merz, the Netherlandss Dick Schoof and Ukraines Volodymyr Zelensky.

Following their deliberations, Mr Tusk said he had received proposals for concrete support for the air defence of our country.

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Sir Keir told his Polish counterpart that Britain stood ready to support Nato and Poland to continue to defend the Alliance in the coming days and weeks.

The group of leaders also pledged to continue supporting Kyivs air defence needs in the coming weeks and months.

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Britain recalled one of its six Sky Sabre air defence systems from Poland late last year after it had spent almost three years protecting the Eastern European country.

The battery, and its Royal Artillery operators, were sent to the country to protect Natos eastern flanks months after Putin invaded Ukraine.

Poland is the Wests main logistical hub for shipments of vital military aid going into the wartorn country.

The RAF has also contributed several Typhoon fighter jets to a Nato air policing mission out of Malbork airbase in northern Poland, where the Dutch F-35s were scrambled from late on Tuesday.

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Mr Rutte denounced Russias reckless drone assault, which he said was not an isolated incident.

He warned Putin to stop violating allied airspace and know that we stand ready, that we are vigilant and that we will defend every inch of Nato territory.

On Wednesday morning, the North Atlantic Council  Natos political decision-making committee  met after Poland requested Article 4 consultations.

Diplomats and officials decided the incident was not severe enough to merit using Natos Article 5 mutual defence clause.

We should see this for what it appears to benot an attack, an alliance source told the Telegraph.

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A second source said allies were buoyed that they had successfully seen off the first direct Russian threat to Nato in its 76-year history.

Things had worked as they should, the source said. We responded quickly and with resolve.

The Ukrainian president said the assault was part of a wider attack on his country, involving 415 drones and 40 missiles.

But he later slammed Western leaders for their lack of action over Russias drone incursion.

There have been more than enough statements, but so far there has been a lack of action. The Russians are testing the limits of what is possible. They are testing the reaction. They are recording how the armed forces of NATO countries act, Mr Zelensky said in his daily address.

Thats all for today

Thank you for following our live coverage.

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Here is a reminder of what happened today:

Nato fighter jets shot down Russian drones over Poland in the first ever direct engagement between the Western alliance and Moscow

Polish, Dutch and Italian fighter jets were scrambled to intercept a wave of Russian drones, in what the European Union said was a reckless and unprecedented violation

Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, said the drone wave had brought the West and Russia closer [to conflict] than at any time since the Second World War as he called an emergency meeting of Nato allies

No one was killed or injured during the incident, in which about 19 drones, including Gerbera decoy UAVs, crossed into Polish airspace during a raid on neighbouring Ukraine

Nato forces shot down at least four of the drones, whereas others ran out of fuel or crashed, with impacts and debris reported in at least five villages in eastern and central Poland

Poland is reportedly considering a move to invoke Nato Article 4, which requires member states to discuss a perceived danger

Well be back soon with more updates.

Poland is showing feeble Europe how to confront the Russian bear

It is surely no coincidence that, with European leaders giving serious consideration to establishing a military presence in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin should choose this precise moment to test Natos defences, writes Con Coughlin.

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That was undoubtedly the reason behind Moscows repeated violation of Polands airspace during its latest overnight bombardment of Ukraine.

In what amounts to the most serious military confrontation between Russia and Nato since Putin launched his so-called special military operation three-and-a-half years ago, Polish, Dutch and Italian warplanes were scrambled to intercept more than 10 Russian drones that had entered Polish air space.

Britain considering more air defence for Poland

Britain should reinforce Natos air defences over Poland after Russian drones entered its territory, the Defence Secretary said on Wednesday.

Speaking alongside the E5 defence ministers, John Healey branded Russias actions dangerous, reckless and unprecedented which reached a new level of hostility against Europe.

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He continued: We saw across Natos eastern border a serious violation of Polish airspace deep enough for Warsaw Airport to be closed and NATO jets shooting down Russian drones in what is the first defensive action of its kind since Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale attack on Ukraine.

Reaffirming the alliances commitment to help protect Ukraine, he said the UK must look at options to bolster Natos protection of Polands airspace and said Putin was testing us.

John Healey joined a meeting of defence ministers from E5 nations, including France, Italy, Poland, Germany, and the UK. - PA

Here we go! Trump reacts to drone incident

Donald Trump has reacted to the violation of Polish airspace with Russian drones.

He posted on Truth Social: Whats with Russia violating Polands airspace with drones? Here we go!

Warsaw says Russian drone intrusion not accidental

Polands foreign minister said on Wednesday that the overnight intrusion of several Russian drones into the Nato members airspace was not an accidental event.

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Poland had identified 19 violations of its airspace overnight and shot down at least three drones, the government said earlier, adding that no one was harmed in the Russian action.

We have no doubt that this was not an accidental event, Radoslaw Sikorski told reporters.

We are dealing with an unprecedented case of an attack not only on Polands territory but also on the territory of Nato and the European Union, he added.

Mr Sikorski said that Russian drones had veered into Polish airspace before, but said this situation was different.

When one or two drones does it, it is possible that it was a technical malfunction, he added.

Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Radoslaw Sikorski - Shutterstock Editorial

Russia dismisses drone incident as a myth

Russias foreign ministry has described allegations that its drones deliberately crossed into Polish territory as a myth.

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Russias defence ministry said earlier that its drones had carried out a major attack on military facilities in western Ukraine but stressed that there were no plans to hit any targets in Poland.

The ministry also expressed readiness to hold consultations with its Polish counterpart to address the issue.

Trump to speak to Polish president

Donald Trump plans to speak with Karol Nawrocki, the Polish president, on Wednesday after Poland shot down Russian drones in its airspace overnight, a White House official has said.

President Trump and the White House are tracking the reports out of Poland, and there are plans for President Trump to speak with ... President Nawrocki today, the official said.

Poland finds remains of seven drones

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Polish investigators say they have found the remains of seven drones, out of a total of 19 which violated Polish airspace.

The latest discovery of debris, on Wednesday afternoon, was in the eastern village of Wielki an where a drone crash-landed and caused no damage or injuries.

Local officials said residents were taking the nights events in their stride as, due to living near the Ukrainian border, air activity has become the norm.

Recently, this has become the norm. Sounds of impacts and explosions have been heard in some parts of the commune. Were not seeing panic among residents; theyre taking it all in stride, regional commune secretary Andrzej Cwirta told the Polish press agency.

UK to look at bolstering Nato air defence

Britains armed forces will look at options to bolster Natos air defence over Poland, Defence Minister John Healey said just now.

Speaking alongside E5 defence ministers, Mr Healey said: As your NATO ally, we will support you, our Polish friends. As your NATO ally, we will play our part to help secure the safety of your people, Healey told a press conference after a meeting with representatives from France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Ukraine.

Following our discussions today, Ive asked our UK armed forces to look at options to bolster NATOs air defence over Poland, he said.

Pictured: More Russian drone debris is found

Fragments of the drone are seen in the village of Wohyn in eastern Poland, where one of the Russian drones that breached Polish airspace last night - Shutterstock Editorial

At least 19 drones breached Polands air space, and authorities have warned the public to stay away over fears of unexploded ordinance - Shutterstock Editorial

Q&A: Is Nato sliding towards war with Russia?

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Nato was posed a series of existential questions overnight when dozens of Russian drones crossed into Polish airspace.

For months, the Western military alliance has witnessed errant projectiles launched by Russia stray into its territory.

But for the first time on Wednesday morning, politicians declared that Moscow had deliberately attacked Nato.

It is the first time in the history of Nato that the alliances forces have had to engage an incoming Russian projectile.

In our Q&A below, Joe Barnes answers the key questions: What happened in Poland? Is this normal? Will Nato invoke Article 5? Are we close to a third world war?

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Russia insists it had no plans to hit Polish targets

In Russias first official comment on its drones violating Polish airspace, its defence ministry claimed it had no plans to hit targets in the Nato country.

The strike objectives have been achieved. All designated targets were hit, the ministry said in a statement. No targets on the territory of Poland were planned for striking.

In an apparent further denial of responsibility, it said: The maximum flight range of the Russian UAVs used in the strike, which allegedly crossed the border with Poland, does not exceed 700km.

The ministry added that it was ready to hold consultations with Poland on the issue.

The Kremlin earlier declined to comment on the matter.

Vladimir Putin pictured in the Kremlin today - Pool Sputnik Kremlin

Russia testing Nato with very serious drone incident, says Germany

The German government accused Moscow of testing Ukraines allies after Russian drones violated Polish airspace in what it called a very serious incident.

The incident once again shows the threat that we face and how much Germany and other Nato countries are being tested by Russia, Sebastian Hille, a government spokesman, told reporters.

Boris Pistorius, the defence minister, meanwhile said the drones were clearly set on this course and did not have to fly this route to reach Ukraine.

There is absolutely no reason to believe that this was a course correction error or anything of the sort, Mr Pistorius said.

Berlin joins several Nato and EU members that have accused the Kremlin of deliberately targeting Poland in order to probe the military alliances response.

What does a Gerbera drone look like?

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Pictured: Russian Gerbera drone crashed in Poland

Newly-released images show a Russian-made Gerbera drone that crashed in Poland.

The drone was found in central Poland, more than 180 miles from the border, by authorities who confirmed it was downed by air defences.

The Gerbera is designed to mimic Iranian-designed Shahed-type attack drones, but is far more simple and affordable. Its shell is often made from polystyrene and plywood, but it can have a similar payload to a Shahed, or Russias version, a Geran.

Its low cost has made it an effective weapon in Russias arsenal, allowing it to be deployed en masse in strike packages to terrorise Ukraines skies and exhaust its air defences.

It is unclear how many Gerbera-type drones were among the 19 that violated Polands airspace.

Photos have emerged of a Russian Gerbera drone that crashed in a field in Poland, roughly 300 km from the Ukrainian border.

Mapped: Known impact sites of Russian drones

Mood inside Nato is keep calm and carry on

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A Nato source has told The Telegraph that the mood is keep calm and carry on after a successful air defence mission.

As the alliances national ambassadors met this morning, there was little cause for concern as things had worked as they should.

We responded quickly and with resolve, the source added.

Natos Rutte condemns absolutely reckless Russia

Mark Rutte has described the Russian drone incident in Poland as absolutely reckless and called on Vladimir Putin to stop his war in Ukraine.

A full assessment of the incident is ongoing. What is clear is that a violation last night is not an isolated incident, the Nato secretary general said.

The official was speaking after a routine, long-arranged meeting of the North Atlantic Council, Natos political committee, on Wednesday morning.

The Supreme Allied Commander will continue to actively manage our deterrence and defence posture along the entire eastern flank, allies are resolved to defend every inch of allied territory. We will closely monitor the situation along our eastern flank, he added.

He confirmed that Polish and Dutch fighter jets were used in the successful air defence mission, as well as an Italian Awacs surveillance aircraft and a German Patriot air-defence system. It remains unclear what exactly was used to down the four Russian drones confirmed destroyed by Polands military command.

Kremlin declines to comment

The Kremlin has declined to comment after Russian drones violated Polish airspace.

We wouldnt like to comment on this, says Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in his daily call with journalists.

This is not for us to do so. Its a matter for the [Russian] defence ministry.

Peskov continued: The leadership of the EU and Nato accuse Russia of provocations on a daily basis, usually without backing this up.

Pictured: Inside the Polish home struck by a drone

A part of a Russian drone landed in the roof of a Polish home in an eastern border town - Telegram

The room was sprayed with debris and dust, but no injuries were reported - Telegram

How Russias drone attack over Poland unfolded

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At around 10pm local time (9pm BST) on Tuesday night, the Polish military received its first reports of a massive drone attack being launched by Russian forces on Ukraine.

There was nothing untoward, the number of drones and missiles were normal, but nonetheless the Polish raised their awareness levels.

Ground systems were activated and surveillance aircraft were dispatched into the skies with the help of Nato allies.

Two Dutch F-35 and two Polish F-16 fighter jets were dispatched to the area, along with a series of helicopters.

Around 11:30pm, the first violation of Polish  and therefore Nato  airspace was recorded by the forces watching on.

For the first time during this war, they came not from over Ukraine as a result of errors, disorientation of drones or small Russian provocations on a minimal scale. For the first time, a significant portion of these drones flew into Poland directly from Belarus, Donald Tusk, Polands prime minister, said.

Around 19 Russian drones, modelled on the Iranian-designed Shahed system, entered Polish airspace during the unprecedented onslaught.

Polish sources describing the scale of the air raid said the last Russian drone to cross the border did so at 6.30am (5.30am) on Wednesday and was destroyed 15 minutes later.

Military officials in Warsaw have so far confirmed at least three drones were downed, with a fourth being investigated. Others simply crashed into the ground on their own fruition.

Search parties have been working through the night to find the crash sites, and ensure there is no danger to the public from unexploded munitions.

In pictures: Russias overnight strikes on Ukraine

The aftermath of a Russian drone strike on a sewing workshop in Volochysk, in western Ukraine

Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia launched 415 drones overnight and 40 missiles

A wounded woman is helped to an ambulance

Hungary stands in full solidarity with Poland

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Viktor Orban, Hungarys pro-Putin prime minister, said Budapest stood in full solidarity with Poland after the recent drone incident.

The Trump-endorsed Mr Orban is an outlier among Nato and EU members. He has called for an end to Western sanctions on Russia, signed new energy deals with Moscow and met Putin, opposes Ukraine joining the EU and demanded an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.

The violation of Polands territorial integrity is unacceptable, Mr Orban, who is beloved by some US conservatives, said on X.

But he added, The incident proves that our policy of calling for peace in the Russia-Ukraine war is reasonable and rational.

Living in the shadow of a war is fraught with risks and dangers. Its time to make it stop! To this end, we support the efforts of President Trump aimed at achieving peace.

Pictured: Polish army inspect home damaged by Russian drone

The Polish army inspect the site after a Russian drone damaged the roof of a home in Wyryki, eastern Poland - Shutterstock Editorial

A view of the house hit by one of the 19 Russian drones that entered Polish airspace - Jakub Orzechowski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Starmer decries Russias reckless move

Sir Keir Starmer has described the violation of Polands air space by Russian drones as an extremely reckless move by Russia that underscores Vladimir Putins disregard for peace.

Joining the widespread condemnation from European capitals, the Prime Minister said: This mornings barbaric attack on Ukraine and the egregious and unprecedented violation of Polish and NATO airspace by Russian drones is deeply concerning.

This was an extremely reckless move by Russia and only serves to remind us of President Putins blatant disregard for peace, and the constant bombardment innocent Ukrainians face every day..

Sir Keir made clear the UKs support for Poland and thanked the Nato forces who rapidly responded to protect the Alliance.

With our partners  and through our leadership of the Coalition of the Willing  we will continue to ramp up the pressure on Putin until there is a just and lasting peace, he added.

Pictured: Russian drone shot down in eastern Poland

The moment a Russian drone is shot down near Czesniki, in eastern Poland, close to the Belarus border

Analysis: Europe hoping drone attack will be last straw for Trump

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The drone attack on Poland is the moment Europe has been waiting for; the chance to convince Donald Trump that Vladimir Putin was never serious about the peace in Ukraine.

European leaders have been going along with the US presidents push for ceasefire negotiations but dont believe Putin is serious about them.

They hope Trump will eventually realise that Putin is simply tapping him along, turn on him, impose sanctions and back Kyiv with all the might of the US.

Convincing Mr Trump that Putin cant be trusted, while showing him that plans are afoot for European peacekeepers in a post-peace Ukraine is a diplomatic tightrope.

Polish President Karol Narwocki was given a warm welcome by Mr Trump when he visited the Oval Office just last week.

Mr Trump offered to station more US troops in Poland, which leads European Nato allies on defence spending, to protect it from Russia.

The president is showing signs of growing impatience with Putin and has recently stepped up his threats of sanctions on the Kremlin.

Will Mr Trump see what Volodymyr Zelensky has suggested is a deliberate Russian attack as a personal affront?

European capitals will pray the attack will prove to be the final straw for Mr Trump, who will finally get tough with Putin and get closer to Zelensky.

Polands allies react:

Polands allies have widely condemned the drone incident, with several European countries calling it an intentional move by Russia.

France

Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said that the incursion of Russian drones into Polish airspace was simply unacceptable, adding that he would speak soon to Nato chief Mark Rutte.

Finland

Finlands Alexander Stubb warned the situation underlines the gravity of the security situation and is unacceptable.

Lithuania

Lithuanias president, Gitanas Nauseda, accused Russia of deliberately expanding its aggression, posing an ever-growing threat to Europe.

Latvia

Latvias president, Edgars Rinkevics, said the incident was a clear testimony that Russian aggression in Ukraine affects us directly.

Czech Republic

Petr Fiala, the Czech prime minister said, said todays incident demonstrates how Vladimir Putins regime threatens all of Europe and systematically probes how far it can go.

Ireland

Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin called it a reckless and unprecedented act that serves as a stark reminder of the threat posed by Russia to Europes security.

Analysis: Putin has a dangerous new appetite for risk

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Nato jets shooting down Russian drones. The closure of Polands version of Heathrow airport. Late night emergency calls between Warsaw and Nato headquarters.

There is simply no precedent for what happened in Poland last night as Russian drones violated the countrys airspace en route to targets in Ukraine. The overnight crisis triggered by Vladimir Putins latest act of aggression was the kind of scenario that could have ended with Nato and Russia exchanging lethal blows involving actual loss of life.

That it didnt  this time at least  was down to the fact that none of Russias killer drones seems to have inflicted any casualties in Poland. Had they not been shot down in an air defence operation that included F-35 jets from the Netherlands, the story might have been different.

Poland requests to invoke Article 4 of Nato treaty

Speaking to parliament, Donald Tusk has requested the Article 4 of the Nato treaty to be invoked.

Article 4 allows member states to raise an issue to its main political decision-making body.

Consultations are then held to determine whether the territorial integrity, political independence or security of a member country has been threatened.

The fact that these drones, which posed a security threat, were shot down changes the political situation. Therefore, allied consultations took the form of a formal request to activate Article 4 of the NATO Treaty, Mr Tusk said.

This is not just a war for Ukrainians. This is a confrontation that Russia has declared against the entire free world, he added.

Tusk: Poland is the closest to conflict since Second World War

Donald Tusk, Polands prime minister, revealed that 19 drones had violated Polish airspace overnight as part of an attack on western Ukraine.

Seeking to reassure citizens, he said there is no reason to claim Poland is in a state of war but the situation is significantly more dangerous than all previous ones.

He said the prospect of a large military conflict is closer than at any time since the Second World War.

Mr Tusk added that a large number of drones flew in from Belarus and the last one was shot down at 6.45am local time (5.45am BST).

Donald Tusk holds an extraordinary government meeting at the chancellery with military and emergency services officials - REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

Belarus shot down drones over its airspace overnight

Belarus, Moscows key ally in Europe, said it had shot down drones over its airspace overnight after Poland said drones had flown into its airspace.

Belarus army said it had destroyed drones that had lost their track as a result of what it said was electronic jamming and interception by both Kyiv and Moscow.

It did not say if the drones it downed were Russian or Ukrainian, but added that it had informed Polands air force about drones that were heading towards the country.

What are Telegraph readers saying?

Pictured: Debris outside Polish home hit by Russian drone

Debris outside a home in an eastern Polish border town after it was hit by a downed Russian drone

EU condemns reckless and unprecedented violation of Polands airspace

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen has condemned Russias attack as a reckless and unprecedented violation of Polish airspace.

Just today, we have seen a reckless and unprecedented violation of Poland and Europes airspace by more than 10 Russian Shahid drones, she told EU lawmakers.

Europe stands in full solidarity with Poland, she said, adding that the bloc was working on a new sanctions package to pressure Russia to come to the negotiating table.

What is Article 5?

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Article 5 serves as Natos mutual defence clause, deliberately vague in its definition.

Most people would say, if triggered, it means an attack on one member state is an attack on the whole alliance, obliging others to come to their aid.

It has only been trigged once after the 9/11 terror attack on the United States, so the bar is considerably high for its use.

Nobody is discussing it being a possibility in the case of the Russian drones in Poland.

Instead, Article 4, which obligates member states to discuss a perceived danger is the course of action being discussed.

Nato not treating Russian drones as attack

Nato is not treating the drone incursion into Polish territory as an attack, a source from the alliance said, who added initial indications suggest six to 10 drones were involved.

It was the first time Nato aircraft have engaged potential threats [in] allied airspace, the source told Reuters, adding Natos Patriot air defence systems in the region had detected the drones, but not engaged them.

Polish F-16 fighter jets, Dutch F-35, Italian AWACS surveillance planes and mid-air refuelling aircraft jointly operated by Nato were involved in the overnight operation, the source added.

Analysis: How will Poland respond?

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So far, there have been no reports of any deaths or injuries following the repeated violations of Polish airspace, which forced Polish jets to shoot down the Russian drones.

In contrast, two people were killed in Poland during the Przewodow missile incident in November 2022, in which a stray Russian missile targeting Ukraine struck a village in Polish territory.

But there are several key differences which underline how tense this moment is for Europe.

As Polish leader Donald Tusk himself has said, this is the first time that Russian drones have been shot down over Nato territory.

And perhaps more significantly, it is very hard to imagine that this was an accident: eight Russian drones violated Polish airspace overnight. One might be an accident, but eight? At the same time?

Another important factor is the closure of Warsaw airport this morning, while the drone attack was ongoing. The closure of Polands national airport is not just hugely disruptive for flights, but reflects how Russias aggression last night impacted the lives of Polish civilians.

This is something the Polish government will no doubt take into account when measuring its response.

Pictured: Drone debris in eastern Poland

Russian drone debris has been found in the eastern Polish village of Czosnowka - Telegram

Police have cordoned over the area around the downed drone - Telegram

Ukraine: Putin is testing the West

Andrii Sybiha, Ukraines foreign minister, accused Vladimir Putin of using drones that entered Polish airspace to expanding his war in Ukraine and probe Nato.

Russian drones flying into Poland during the massive attack on Ukraine show that Putins sense of impunity keeps growing because he was not properly punished for his previous crimes. Putin just keeps escalating, expanding his war, and testing the West.

He called on Kyivs allies to harden their response to Russia to avoid more Russian missiles and drones flying even further into Europe.

Russian drones flying into Poland during the massive attack on Ukraine show that Putin's sense of impunity keeps growing because he was not properly punished for his previous crimes.



Putin just keeps escalating, expanding his war, and testing the West. The longer he faces no  Andrii Sybiha  (@andrii_sybiha) September 10, 2025

EU must develop drone wall along eastern flank

The EU must develop a drone wall along the eastern flank of its shared borders, Andrius Kubilius, the blocs defence commissioner said after Poland shot down Russian drones.

Once again Russia tests frontier states, EU & NATO, Mr Kubilius wrote in a post on social media platform X. We shall work together with Member States, frontier countries and Ukraine. Russia will be stopped.

Mapped: Russias latest attacks on Ukraine

This is the map of the latest Russian attack on Ukraine during the night. The main targets were in frontline Donbas, and in Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Lutsk, Odesa, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr regions. Also some drones left the territory of Ukraine to Poland.



The map source is mon1tor_ua pic.twitter.com/MvXeNTBBoB  Hromadske Int. (@Hromadske) September 10, 2025

Tusk: Polands airspace violated by huge number of drones

Donald Tusk, Polands prime minister, said that Polish airspace last night was violated by a huge number of Russian drones.

Those drones that posed a direct threat were shot down. I am in constant communication with the Secretary General of NATO and our allies, he wrote in a statement.

Polands armed forces were on a heightened state of alert overnight and early Wednesday because of what they described as further massive airstrikes against targets located in Ukraine.

Wadysaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, the countrys defence minister, said that more than ten objects crossed into Polish air space and those that constituted a risk to Polands security were neutralised.

Analysis: One drone is a mistake, a dozen is a deliberate test to the West

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One or two Russian drones drifting into Polish airspace could be put down to a navigational error.

But a dozen or so appears to be a more deliberate ploy to test Warsaw and the Wests resolve for building bases on Natos eastern borders in support of Ukraine.

Frankly not very plausible, Dmitri Alperovitch, chairman of Silverado Policy Accelerator, said of Polands attempts to downplay Wednesdays attack.

One theory for the Russian drones encroaching into Nato territory could be described as probing, or a test of Natos response ahead of possible western troop deployments in Ukraine.

Vladimir Putins forces have been known to test escalatory limits from time to time, whether it be hitting a British Council building or the seat of Ukrainian government.

This is the Kremlins way of showing it is not down and out in the war with Ukraine, and it still has muscles to flex.

Eight Russian drones aimed towards Poland, says Zelensky

Volodymyr Zelensky said that at least eight drones targeted in Poland during Russias overnight attacks that included 415 drones and more than 40 missiles.

Today there was another step of escalation  Russian-Iranian shaheds operated in the airspace of Poland, in NATO airspace.

It was not just one shahed that could be called an accident, but at least eight strike drones aimed toward Poland, the Ukrainian leader wrote on X.

He also reported one civilian was killed in the Zhytomyr region, west of Kyiv, as a result of shelling.

Rescuers are now working in Volochysk, Khmelnytskyi region, where the Russians struck an ordinary sewing workshop with a missile. As of now, three people are reported injured. This is just one of the sites of today's massive Russian attack: about 415 drones of various types and pic.twitter.com/FdC880IDwn  Volodymyr Zelenskyy /   (@ZelenskyyUa) September 10, 2025

Polish jets finish intercepting hostile drones

Polands army has now said it has finished intercepting hostile drones in its airspace.

The operation of Polish and allied aircraft related to violations of Polish airspace has ended. The search and location of possible crash sites of objects that violated Polish airspace is ongoing, the army said on X, thanking Nato and the Dutch air force for their support.

Russian drone struck home in eastern Poland

A drone struck a residential building in Wyryki, a village in eastern Poland but nobody was injured, according to local media reports, citing police.

Poland shot down drones that entered its airspace during a widespread Russian attack in western Ukraine this morning, with the Nato member calling the incursion an act of aggression.

Warsaw airspace comparison between Sep 9 and 10

Credit: FlightRadar24

Emergency government meeting underway

Donald Tusk is currently meeting with ministers responsible for state security.

A meeting of the Council of Ministers will also be held at 8am local time (6am GMT), a government spokesman confirmed on Wednesday.

Damaged drone found in Polands east

Police have discovered a damaged drone in the eastern Polish village of Czosnowka, in the Lublin region.

At 5.40am in the village of Czosnowka, police officers confirmed the discovery of a damaged drone, the police force said on X.

Flights cancelled at Polands main airport

Polands main Chopin International Airport has issued a statement saying flights have been paused for the time being.

Airspace violation act of aggression

Polands army called the violation an act of aggression that threatened the safety of the public as drones had to be shot down.

Following todays attack by the Russian Federation on Ukrainian territory, an unprecedented violation of Polish airspace by drone-type objects took place, the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces said on X.

This is an act of aggression that has created a real threat to the safety of our citizens.

Aircraft fired at hostile objects

Polands defence minister said that its aircraft fired on hostile objects during the violation.

Aircraft have used weapons against hostile objects, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said on social media, adding: We are in constant contact with Nato command.

Polish defence minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz - Shutterstock

Lviv no longer under threat

Lviv was no longer under threat from Russian drone strikes, Andriy Sadovyi, the citys mayor, posted on social media.

Air raid alert cancelled in Lviv and the region. We thank our air defence forces for getting us through this night!

Tusk: Military operation ongoing

Donald Tusk, Polands prime minister, has said the army used weaponry to shoot down the drones and that a military operation was ongoing.

Stay at home, Poland tells citizens

Polands armed forces have told citizens to stay at home because a military operation is underway.

Warsaws operational command said Polands airspace was violated by drones that appeared to be from Russia and added that downed targets were being sought after the military fired upon aircraft.

Cezary Tomczyk, the deputy defence minister, said all Polish services are on alert.

Drone wave attacks Lviv

The mayor of Lviv has warned that a wave of Russian drones are attacking the city.

Andriy Sadovyi posted on Telegram: Explosions were heard in the city. Do not write about the consequences on social media, but report them to the citys hotline.

A short time later, he posted: Another enemy target in the direction of the city.

Earlier, he had warned residents in the city  which is in the west of Ukraine, near Polands south-eastern border  to be careful as drones approached.

US congressman: Russian drones are act of war

A US congressman has claimed that Russia is attacking Poland with drones in an act of war.

Joe Wilson, a Republican representative for South Carolina, posted on X that Putin was using Iranian Shahed drones in an unprovoked aggression.

However, it has not been verified whether Russia has intentionally targeted Poland  and the Warsaws air force has suggested the scrambling of aircraft and closure of airspaces are precautionary.

These actions are preventative in nature and aimed at securing airspace and protecting citizens, especially in areas adjacent to the threatened area, Polish Operational Command said on X.

Mr Wilson urged President Trump to toughen sanctions on the Kremlin.

Russia is attacking NATO ally Poland with Iranian shahed drones less than a week after President Trump hosted President Nawrocki at the White House. This is an act of war, and we are grateful to NATO allies for their swift response to war criminal Putin's continued unprovoked  Joe Wilson (@RepJoeWilson) September 10, 2025

Warsaws main airport closed due to unplanned military activity

The US Federal Aviation Administration has said that Warsaws main airport has closed due to unplanned military activity related to ensuring state security.

Four airports in Poland have been shut, including the countrys largest Chopin Airport in the capital.

The other three closed airports are the RzeszowJasionka Airport, the Warsaw Modlin Airport and the Lublin airport.

Reports of drones over Polish airspace

Good morning. Welcome to our live coverage of reports of Russian drones over Polish and Nato airspace.

We are monitoring the latest developments.

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President Trump said Tuesday he's "not thrilled" and is "very unhappy" after Israel's military said it targeted senior leadership of the Hamas terrorist organization in strikes in Qatar's capital of Doha. The strikes drew condemnation from the Qatari government and pushback from the White House.

The Israel Defense Forces told CBS News the operation was dubbed "Summit of Fire" and targeted leaders of Hamas who the IDF said had for years "led the terrorist organization's operations, are directly responsible for the brutal October 7 massacre, and have been orchestrating and managing the war against the State of Israel."

The move put the Trump administration in an unusual position because both Israel and Qatar are close U.S. allies, with Qatar hosting the Middle East's largest American military base. Qatar has also hosted Hamas' political offices for years, and the Gulf monarchy has been involved in mediating ceasefire talks between the Israeli government and Hamas.

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Speaking to reporters Tuesday night outside a restaurant in Washington, D.C., Mr. Trump said he was "not thrilled about the whole situation," calling it "not a good situation."

"I was very unhappy about it, very unhappy about every aspect," the president said.

The president also emphasized that he is aiming to secure the release of the remaining hostages that Hamas captured during the group's Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel.. Mr. Trump has pressed Hamas and Israel to reach a ceasefire deal that could pause fighting in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of dozens of Israeli hostages who are still in the Palestinian enclave. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said 20 of those captives are still believed to be alive.

In a joint statement Tuesday on the strikes, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said they "believed that the action was completely justified in light of the fact that this Hamas leadership was the one who initiated and organized the October 7 massacre, and has not stopped launching murderous actions against the State of Israel and its citizens since then."

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Netanyahu said Israel takes full responsibility for the strike.

Hamas said in a statement that five of its members died, but "the brothers in the negotiating delegation" were not killed, as the group reviews a ceasefire proposal floated by the Trump administration. It called the strike "a heinous crime." The IDF said that "measures were taken in order to mitigate harm to civilians, including the use of precise munitions and additional intelligence."

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Trump administration was notified by the U.S. military of the strikes. A senior U.S. official and a diplomatic source familiar with the strikes told CBS News that Israel notified the U.S. of the attack as it was about to happen. Two other U.S. officials told CBS News the U.S. did not coordinate with Israel on planning the strikes. A senior U.S. intelligence official told CBS News that the U.S. told Qatar about the strike after being informed about it by Israel.

In a Truth Social post earlier Tuesday, Mr. Trump called the Qatar strike an "unfortunate incident" and emphasized that the U.S. was not involved.

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"I view Qatar as a strong ally and friend of the U.S., and feel very badly about the location of the attack," the president wrote.

The Qatari government called the strike "cowardly" and argued it violated international law.

NIH whistleblower says she was ousted after clashing with Trump officials on vaccines

Supreme Court to tackle two major cases challenging Trump's tariffs

South Korean plane to retrieve workers detained at Hyundai plant in Georgia
Donald Trump closed out a turbulent Tuesday night with a glowing Truth Social post to a supporter, just hours after his Washington, D.C. dinner stunt was hijacked by activists.

The president shared a Newsmax story about Leonard Lenny Amicola, 67, a disabled Vietnam veteran who has flown pro-Trump banners since 2021. The Village of Croton-on-Hudson in New York had hit Amicola with a zoning violation over his Trump Is My President flag, citing a banner restriction.

Late Tuesday, officials confirmed the violation had been rescinded. Trump quickly seized on the win, writing: Thank you Lenny. Great to be a WINNER, and that is you, a WINNER and a CHAMPION!!! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DJT.

UNREAL. Croton-on-Hudson, NY, is SUING long-time resident Leonard Amicola for displaying a Trump flag on his own property, citing "Village Code violations."



This is a blatant attack on Free Speech. pic.twitter.com/p4o6KTL38S  s  (@MrChrisArnell) September 4, 2025

The midnight message came after a high-profile disruption during Trumps dinner at Joes Seafood, a steak-and-lobster mainstay blocks from the White House. The gathering with his cabinet was intended to showcase a safer capital following his deployment of the National Guard to curb crime.

Trump did not enjoy the disruption to his dinner. / Code Pink / X

Instead, activists from the feminist group Code Pink stormed the restaurant, chanting: Free D.C., free Palestine, Trump is the Hitler of our time. Video captured Trump glaring at the hecklers while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Vice President JD Vance stood frozen at his side.

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Trump eventually directed his security detail to eject the protesters. On X, Code Pink celebrated the ambush: Trump looked us in the eyes, we made sure he will never dine in peace while communities are under siege.

The clash drew immediate attention across social media, with clips of the chants ricocheting around X and Instagram within minutes. By nights end, Trump was back on his platform, rallying around Amicolas banner fight, perhaps in a bid to deflect from the restaurant showdown.

Protesters descend on 'Joe's' seafood restaurant. / Win McNamee/Getty Images

Amicola, who began flying Trump-themed flags from his suburban New York property in 2021, has described his displays as an act of loyalty. Village officials initially issued him an appearance ticket for violating zoning code limits on banners, but on Tuesday night, they reversed course.

Croton-on-Hudson Mayor Brian Pugh had defended the ruling as a straightforward code enforcement matter, after the issue was painted as politically motivated enforcement action.

Amicolas attorney, Roseann Schuyler, said: I think that if Lenny had a Joe Biden flag or a Black Lives Matter flag, or a pride flag, that he would be allowed to fly his flag and would not be harassed by the village administration at all.
President Donald Trump is aiming to ramp up scrutiny on pharmaceutical ads  both on TV and social media  as his administration accuses companies of misleading the public about medications and their side effects.

A directive Trump signed Tuesday tasks the US Department of Health and Human Services and other agencies with greater enforcement of existing regulations governing direct-to-consumer drug advertising that administration officials say companies have increasingly flouted in recent years.

In another potentially significant move, administration officials said the US Food and Drug Administration will craft new regulations that would effectively eliminate a decades-old provision that officials have blamed for fueling an explosion of drug ads on television and elsewhere.

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Its another attempt by Trump to follow through on his long-held pledge to crack down on the pharmaceutical industry. His administration is already pushing drug makers to sell more of their products directly to consumers, in an effort to lower prices. Trump wrote a letter to 17 drug company CEOs in July directing them to participate in programs to sell certain drugs directly to consumers or business at Most Favored Nation prices, a phrase that refers to the lowest price paid for a drug in a peer country.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has also made it clear he is no fan of drug ads on TV, posting on X last year that he would seek to ban pharmaceutical advertising if Trump won the election.

The memorandum stops well short of seeking a total prohibition. But administration officials earlier on Tuesday argued that the effort to bolster enforcement and eventually require more extensive disclosures amounted to the strongest, boldest action that we can take to ensure patients have adequate safety information on pharmaceutical ads.

Current regulations specify that drug ads cannot create a misleading impression and must provide a fair balance of information. But FDA enforcement in recent years has been lax, a senior administration official told reporters ahead of the Oval Office announcement. Only one enforcement letter was sent in 2023, and none were issued last year.

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The FDA is issuing about 100 cease-and-desist enforcement letters and thousands of warning letters to companies on Tuesday, informing them that it plans to enforce existing regulations, the official said. They declined to name any of the companies receiving letters, but pointed to a Super Bowl ad for weight loss drugs  which drew criticism from senators and others for not including safety and side effect information  as one example of the problem.

Also, the agency will expand its oversight to social media platforms, including social media influencers who may be paid to promote drug products without providing proper disclosures or following the same rules as drug makers.

People are seeing ads sometimes not even realizing that theyre pharmaceutical ads when a paid social media influencer is touting a product, the senior official said. Theyre seeing ads that have zero mention of any side effects, even though there are very real side effects.

Plus, the administration plans to issue new regulations to close a provision created in 1997 that permitted pharmaceutical companies to include only a short overview of a drugs side effects in their advertisements, so long as consumers were directed to a fuller rundown published elsewhere. That change, Trump administration officials said, drove a sharp increase in pharmaceutical marketing because it allowed companies to more easily create shorter television spots.

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Officials offered few specifics on what exactly the overhaul would look like, or whether the goal was to effectively make it impossible for drug companies to advertise on television. But the second senior administration official said that the regulations would require companies to make far more extensive disclosures.

Absolutely the ads will need to be longer, the second official said.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a leading trade group, said that direct-to-consumer advertising gives patients information they need to make informed decisions about their care in consultation with their doctors.

Truthful and non-misleading DTC advertising is protected under the First Amendment and has documented evidence of advancing patient awareness and engagement, Alex Schriver, senior vice president at PhRMA, said in a statement.

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This is not the first time Trump has directed his attention to drug advertisements. During his first term, a federal judge nixed the administrations effort to require drug makers to include their list prices in TV ads, saying HHS had overstepped its authority.

TV ads are a key way for pharmaceutical companies to raise awareness of their products, though some physicians say the spots can provide patients with misleading information.

Drug makers spent a whopping $5.15 billion on national TV ads in 2024, according to research firm eMarketer. They continued to open their wallets in 2025, spending just shy of $3 billion on national TV ads during the first half of the year, a 12.2% year-on-year increase.

The health care and drug industry is currently No. 4 in terms of total TV ad spending by industry, accounting for 11.1% of the market, according to eMarketer data shared with CNN.

CNNs Liam Reilly contributed to this report.

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Donald Trump has told European allies to impose sweeping tariffs on Russias trading partners, pledging the US will follow suit if they do.

The president urged the EU to place 100 per cent secondary sanctions on India and China in order to ramp up pressure on Moscow, according to a report.

Mr Trump is said to have made the request during a call in which officials were discussing ways to force Vladimir Putin to strike a peace deal with Ukraine.

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Were ready to go, ready to go right now, but were only going to do this if our European partners step up with us, one US official told The Financial Times.

A second official said Washington would mirror sanctions placed on India and China by the EU, raising the prospect of further hiking American import taxes on goods from both countries.

The proposal is likely to aggravate tensions between the US and India, after Mr Trump slapped the country with a 25 per cent punitive tariff for buying Russian oil, bringing the total levies on India goods to 50 per cent.

In response, Narendra Modi, Indias prime minister, allegedly ducked phone calls from the president, according to The New York Times, and attended Chinas president Xi Jinpings military parade in Beijing, alongside Putin and Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader.

Narendra Modi talks with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping ahead of the military parade in Beijing earlier this month - SUO TAKEKUMA/REUTERS

Following the parade  Chinas biggest display of force ever  Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social that India and Russia had been lost to deepest, darkest, China.

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Mr Trump has in recent weeks grown increasingly frustrated with Moscow, as Putin continues to bombard Ukrainian cities despite US efforts to forge a peace agreement.

Following Russias heaviest strikes on Ukraine since the war began on Sunday, the US president said he was not happy and suggested he was ready to move into a second phase of punishing Moscow, without going into detail.

The White House has stepped up its rhetoric against Putin, with Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, suggesting that EU sanctions on countries buying Russian oil could cause the countrys economy to enter total collapse.

We are in a race now between how long can the Ukrainian military hold up, versus how long can the Russian economy hold up, he told NBC.

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A US official confirmed the strategy, saying the presidents plan is to impose dramatic tariffs to stop China buying Russian oil.

The official told The Financial Times: The president came on this morning and his view is that the obvious approach here is, lets all put on dramatic tariffs and keep the tariffs on until the Chinese agree to stop buying the oil. There really arent many other places that oil can go.

The White House was approached for comment.

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WASHINGTON (AP)  President Donald Trumps aggressive trade and immigration policies are undermining relationships that have been cornerstones of American foreign policy to counter China's growing influence, eroding years of diplomatic investments spanning administrations.

The latest fracture came Friday, when hundreds of South Korean workers were detained at a Hyundai manufacturing plant in Georgia, a facility that had been a showcase for closer economic ties between the two countries. Some of the workers, who were being investigated for visa issues, were shackled.

Administration officials insist that trade will not be impacted, but foreign policy analysts have watched deteriorating relationships with alarm. Instead of following the conventional wisdom of building coalitions as a bulwark against China, Donald Trump has reveled in turning the screws on friend and foe alike.

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Treaty allies are developing fallback options if the United States disengages from the region, said Zack Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he studies U.S. strategy in Asia. Some partners are hedging by cultivating better relationships with China.

Ties with India also have cooled despite a previously cordial friendship between Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Trump, a Republican, imposed tariffs on India as punishment for buying Russian oil during the war in Ukraine, and he's grown closer with Pakistan, a bordering rival.

Modi was recently photographed with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping during a security summit in Tianjin, prompting a social media jab from Trump.

Looks like weve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China," he wrote. "May they have a long and prosperous future together!

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It's possible that recent spats could blow over. Trump called Modi my very good friend" when announcing trade talks between the two countries would continue in a Truth Social post. I feel certain that there will be no difficulty in coming to a successful conclusion for both of our Great Countries, he wrote.

Modi responded by calling the two countries close friends and natural partners" and said he was confident that our trade negotiations will pave the way for unlocking the limitless potential of the India-US partnership.

But concerns among Asian nations may not be temporary, especially if there's a sense that Trump's skeptical view of foreign engagement will linger after he's no longer in office.

Most countries in the region believe that Washingtons protectionist policies, unilateral tendencies and greater skepticism of overseas engagement will outlast the Trump administration, Cooper said.

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In a statement, the Chinese embassy in Washington said the country never engages in zero-sum games or geopolitical confrontations where one wins and the other loses but is committed to maintaining world peace, stability and development, sharing development opportunities with countries around the world.

Trump has occasionally talked tough toward China, and he risked a trade war between the world's first and second largest economies by announcing steep tariffs. However, both sides have stepped back from that confrontation, and Trump has been focused on seeking a summit with Xi.

After a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi over the summer, the State Department said both sides agreed to explore areas of potential cooperation, while seeking to manage differences.

The tension between Trump and Modi has been particularly surprising given their closeness during Trump's first term. However, Modi has declined to indulge Trump's attempt to claim credit for brokering a recent ceasefire between India and Pakistan, although Pakistan has nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize that he covets.

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In addition, India has been caught in the crossfire of Trump's efforts to resolve the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In order to put indirect pressure on Moscow, Trump increased tariffs on India for buying Russian oil during the war.

Eric Garcetti, who served as U.S. ambassador to India under President Joe Biden, said years of diplomacy won't be reversed but said a lot of damage can be done, and he warned that it would be a very lonely world if India and U.S. are not on the same page.

This is one of the most critical relationships for our success and for the world," he said.

Rick Rossow, a senior adviser focused on India and emerging Asia economics at the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the U.S.-India relationship is at a low point but such moments always feel like they are more significant than they actually are.

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However, tensions could jeopardize a planned visit by Trump to India to attend a summit that would also include leaders from Japan and Australia. The strategic grouping, known as the Quad, is viewed as a mechanism to counter Beijings military and political influences in the region.

The raid at the Hyundai facility stands out as a highly public display of the Trump administration's willingness to enforce its aggressive immigration policy, even if it also comes at an economic cost, sparking anger and a sense of betrayal in South Korea, less than two weeks after a White House meeting between Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung.

Damage has already been done as anti-American sentiment is clearly on the rise, said Bong Youngshik, a professor at Seouls Yonsei University, citing public shock in South Korea over the detentions and U.S. authorities releasing video showing the workers being chained and taken away.

Trump has pushed Seoul to expand U.S. industrial investments, but without a visa system to support enough skilled workers to establish new manufacturing facilities.

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Theres a growing perception among South Koreans that the United States is engaging in bullying behavior, not only about this case but also with their aggressive push to increase tariffs," Bong said. "Theres a widespread feeling that it is taking things too far."

Bong said the issue would remain a ticking time bomb" and it will become extremely difficult for South Korean companies to send their employees to the United States.

___

Kim reported from Seoul.
This story was originally published on Construction Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Construction Dive newsletter.

Dive Brief:

In one of the highest profile immigration raids of President Donald Trumps second term, hundreds of federal agents arrested 475 workers at a construction site in Georgia, the Department of Justice announced Sept. 5.

Meanwhile, White House border czar Tom Homan told CNNs State of the Union Sunday the administration will continue to ramp up raids on U.S. workplaces.

The Ellabell, Georgia, facility is the future home of a $4.3 billion electric vehicle battery facility co-owned by Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution. The vast majority of the arrested workers were South Korean, The New York Times reported.

Dive Insight:

The effort to find and deport immigrants present in the U.S. illegally has been a priority for the Trump administration. Once Immigration and Customs Enforcement was able to mobilize, the jobsite raids began.

Its no secret construction employs many foreign-born workers, though its hard to know how many for certain. Some estimates place the total share of undocumented construction workers at about 23%.

As a result, the industry is feeling the impact of those ICE raids. Immigration enforcement has affected about one in three construction firms, according to a survey released Aug. 28 by the Associated General Contractors of America and the National Center for Construction Education and Research.

And contractors are desperate for labor; roughly nine in ten firms report having openings for craft construction workers. The lack of skilled workforce has been the largest cause of project delays, per the AGC survey.

Hyundai and LG invested $4.3 billion to establish the HL-GA Battery Company plant, with plans to begin production of EV batteries in early 2026, per the project website. Both of the owner firms are based in South Korea.

No Hyundai employees were arrested, the company said in a statement, and 47 LG employees were detained, the company confirmed for Construction Dive. Most of those arrested were employed by subcontractors.

In its statement, Hyundai said it had zero tolerance for those who do not follow the law and would expect the same of project partners.

We are reviewing our processes to ensure that all parties working on our projects maintain the same high standards of legal compliance that we demand of ourselves. This includes thorough vetting of employment practices by contractors and subcontractors, the statement said.
U.S. President Donald Trump has called on the European Union to impose tariffs of up to 100% on China and India as part of a coordinated effort to increase pressure on Russia over its war against Ukraine, three officials familiar with the discussions told the Financial Times (FT).

Trump made the request while dialing into a high-level meeting in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 9 between senior U.S. and EU officials. The talks focused on ways to raise the economic cost for Moscow as Ukraine continues to endure Russian attacks.

"We're ready to go, ready to go right now, but were only going to do this if our European partners step up with us," one U.S. official said, according to FT.

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A second U.S. official added that Washington would be prepared to "mirror" any EU tariffs on China and India, which could lead to a further escalation of existing U.S. trade barriers against both countries.

Frustration within the White House over stalled peace efforts and Russias intensified aerial assault on Ukraine helped drive the latest U.S. proposal.

"The president came on this morning and his view is that the obvious approach here is, lets all put on dramatic tariffs and keep the tariffs on until the Chinese agree to stop buying the oil. There really arent many other places that oil can go," the first official said.

Trump told reporters later on Sept. 9 that he expected to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin "this week or early next week."

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The proposal follows a summit last week in which Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed their ties.

Last month, the U.S. raised tariffs on Indian imports to 50% in response to India's continued purchases of Russian oilstraining relations between the two countries.

On Sept. 9, Trump posted on Truth Social that trade talks with India were ongoing and expressed optimism about the outcome.

"India, and the United States of America, are continuing negotiations to address the Trade Barriers between our two Nations. I look forward to speaking with my very good friend, Prime Minister Modi, in the upcoming weeks," he wrote.

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While the U.S. has not directly targeted China over its Russian oil purchases, Trump hiked tariffs on Chinese imports in April, only to reduce them weeks later after a severe market reaction.

The Washington talks included senior U.S. Treasury officials and EU representatives led by the blocs sanctions chief, David OSullivan. EU diplomats confirmed that discussions on secondary sanctions targeting countries buying Russian oil and gasincluding China and Indiahave been taking place. But many EU member states remain cautious due to close trade ties with both countries.

U.S. diplomats in Europe have made clear that the Trump administration will not impose sanctions on Russian oil buyers without full EU backing.

"Its a question of, do the Europeans have the political will to bring the war to an end?" said the first U.S. official. "Any of these things will of course be costly, and for the president to do it, we need our EU partners and ideally all of our partners with us. And well share the pain together."

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Read also: In first for NATO, Poland downs drones amid mass Russian attack on Ukraine as Putin tests Western resolve

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President Donald Trump announced conservative activist Charlie Kirk died on Wednesday after being shot at a university campus event in Utah.

"The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. 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. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!" Trump wrote on his social media platform.

Before the announcement, Trump told ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl, "It's horrific. It's one of the most horrible things I've ever seen."

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"He was a good man. He was an incredible guy. Nobody like him," Trump told Karl.

MORE: Charlie Kirk dies after shot while visiting Utah university, Trump says; suspect still at large

First Lady Melania Trump released a statement on Wednesday, sharing her grief for Kirk's two young children, calling for more "compassionate awareness."

"Charlie's children will be raised with stories instead of memories, photographs instead of laughter, and silence where their father's voice should have echoed. Charlie Kirk's life should serve as a symbolic reminder that compassionate awareness elevates family, love, and country," she wrote.

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Kirk, the founder of the conservative youth activist organization Turning Point USA, was a close ally to Trump and many members of his administration. Several top officials issued messages of support for Kirk and his family as news of the shooting first spread.

Vice President JD Vance shared Trump's announcement of Kirk's death and wrote on X, "Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord."

Donald Trump Jr., who worked closely with Kirk on the 2016 campaign, posted online: "I love you brother. You gave so many people the courage to speak up and we will not ever be silenced."

Trump ordered all American flags throughout the country to be lowered to half-staff through Sunday evening in honor of Kirk.

Nathan Howard/Reuters - PHOTO: A U.S. flag files at half mast, after right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, was fatally shot at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, in Washington, September 10, 2025.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers condemned the shooting.

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The House of Representatives held a moment of silence for Kirk on Wednesday afternoon.

House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters the shooting "detestable" and said political violence "has to stop."

"Utterly devastating. Charlie was a close friend and confidant," Johnson later said in a statement on Kirk's death. "He will be sorely missed by so many. Every political leader must loudly and clearly decry this violence. Our prayers go out to his wife and young children. May he rest in peace."

"There is no place in our country for political violence. Period, full stop," Senate Majority Leader John Thune wrote on X.

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images - PHOTO: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, makes remarks in the U.S. Capitol about the shooting of media personality Charlie Kirk, September 10, 2025.

Utah Sen. Mike Lee, a close friend of Kirk, mourned his "dear friend" who he "deeply admired and respected" on Wednesday evening.

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"I had been texting him in just the last 24 hours. He was excited to visit Utah, he told me about this trip many weeks ago -- invited me to come. I told him we would almost certainly be in session; I wouldn't be able to be there, but wished I could join him," Lee said. "I've known him for a long time. I've known him, I believe, since he was a teenager when he first started this effort. He's a dear friend. There's nobody else like him."

Lee described Kirk as someone with "boundless energy and great love for his country."

"Whether you agree with him or not, you have to respect his boundless energy, his commitment to making the world a better place," Lee said. "The genuine decency and respect that he showed to other people, even while disagreeing with them, even while they were yelling at him. I don't think I can ever remember ever seeing him respond back to hatred with hate, or with anything other than respect. And he had the ability to explain complex concepts to people in very simple, understandable terms, even people who hadn't historically been involved in politics or historically thought of themselves as conservatives or one way or another. And I think that's his legacy. And it's a legacy that's been cut far too short."

Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune via Reuters - PHOTO: Right-wing activist and commentator Charlie Kirk throws hats to the crowd shortly before he was shot at a Utah Valley University speaking event in Orem, Utah, Sept. 10, 2025.

Former President Joe Biden said "there is no place in our country for this kind of violence."

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"It must end now. Jill and I are praying for Charlie Kirk's family and loved ones," Biden said in a post on X.

"I am deeply disturbed by the shooting in Utah," former Vice President Kamala Harris wrote on X. "Doug and I send our prayers to Charlie Kirk and his family. Let me be clear: Political violence has no place in America. I condemn this act, and we all must work together to ensure this does not lead to more violence."

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who earlier this year hosted Kirk for the first episode of his new podcast, called the attack "disgusting, vile, and reprehensible."

MORE: Charlie Kirk's influence, reach helped propel Trump into office

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"In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form," California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on X.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement, "I am shocked by the murder of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University. Political violence of any kind and against any individual is unacceptable and completely incompatible with American values. We pray for his family during this tragedy."

Alex Goodlett/AP - PHOTO: Joseph Vogl stands outside Timpanogos Regional Hospital, Sept. 10, 2025, in Orem, Utah.

Gabrielle Giffords, a former Democratic congresswoman who was shot in the head during a public event in 2011, shared a message condemning acts of political violence. Giffords later founded and led a national gun violence prevention group.

"I'm horrified to hear that Charlie Kirk was shot at an event in Utah. Democratic societies will always have political disagreements, but we must never allow America to become a country that confronts those disagreements with violence. Mark and I are praying for Charlie's recovery," Giffords wrote.

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Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, whose husband was violently assaulted in their California home by an invader looking for Pelosi, called the shooting "horrific."

"Political violence has absolutely no place in our nation," Pelosi wrote on X. "All Americans should pray for Charlie Kirk's recovery and hold the entire UVU community in our hearts as they endure the trauma of this gun violence."

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
President Donald Trump has waded into the brutal murder of a Ukrainian refugee on a train in North Carolina to lay the blame at the door of Democrats, whom he accuses of refusing to put bad people in jail.

Iryna Zarutska, who had only recently arrived in the U.S. from her war-torn homeland, boarded the train in South End, Charlotte, just after 9.45pm on Friday August 22 when she was attacked by another passenger.

In security footage of the incident, a man can be seen rising up from the seat behind Zarutska and fatally stabbing her with a switchblade before fleeing through the carriage at the next station. Decarlos Brown Jr, a 34-year-old homeless man reportedly suffering from schizophrenia, was arrested six days later and charged with first-degree murder.

Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, who was stabbed to death in Charlotte, North Carolina, last month (GoFundMe)

I have seen the horrific video of a beautiful, young Ukrainian refugee, who came to America to escape the vicious War in Ukraine, and was innocently riding the Metro in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she was brutally ambushed by a mentally deranged lunatic, President Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday.

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The perpetrator was a well known career criminal, who had been previously arrested and released on CASHLESS BAIL in January, a total of 14 TIMES. What the hell was he doing riding the train, and walking the streets? Criminals like this need to be LOCKED UP.

Trump, who is currently promoting an anti-crime message, continued: The blood of this innocent woman can literally be seen dripping from the killers knife, and now her blood is on the hands of the Democrats who refuse to put bad people in jail, including Former Disgraced Governor and Wannabe Senator Roy Cooper.

North Carolina, and every State, needs LAW AND ORDER, and only Republicans will deliver it! Additionally, where is the outrage from the Mainstream Media on this horrible tragedy? VOTE FOR MICHAEL WHATLEY FOR UNITED STATES SENATE, HE WONT LET THIS HAPPEN AGAIN!

The presidents attack on the states former Democratic governor Roy Cooper, who is now running for the U.S. Senate, comes after the likes of Republican National Committee adviser Danielle Alvarez took to conservative media to accuse him of being soft on crime during his two-term tenure. A spokesperson for Cooper told Politico Zarutskas killing was a heartbreaking, despicable act of evil.

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As Trump suggests, the suspect in the case does have an extensive criminal history that includes armed robbery, breaking and entering and larceny convictions dating back to 2011.

He spent six years in jail from 2014 to 2020 and was most recently arrested in January 2025 for misusing the 911 system after he allegedly submitted a complaint about police officers not taking a medical issue seriously. He had been awaiting a court-ordered mental health examination since July.

Surveillance footage shows the suspect sat behind Zarutska moments before the fatal attack (Charlotte Area Transit System)

Since the shocking incident was first reported, GoFundMe has been forced to take down a number of fundraisers in support of Browns legal defense, started on the basis that he had been failed by the states public-facing institutions, following an outcry.

GoFundMes Terms of Service explicitly prohibit fundraisers that raise money for the legal defense of anyone formally charged with an alleged violent crime, a spokesperson for the platform has said.

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Consistent with this longstanding policy, the fundraisers have been removed from the platform, and the donors who contributed have been fully refunded.

Conservatives on social media have meanwhile attempted to politicize the case along racial lines, accusing the media of failing to cover the murder of a white woman by a Black assailant with the same degree of zeal it showed when George Floyd was killed by white police officers in Minneapolis in May 2020.

Others have hit back by arguing it is grossly insensitive to attempt to exploit a tragedy of this nature for political gain.

Stop using a dead Ukrainian woman as fodder for your rage baiting, your conspiracy theories, one user wrote on X Monday. Say her name. This was Iryna Zarutska. She had an art degree from a Kyiv college and was working on her English to become a veterinary assistant. Her life was cut short by pure evil, and her story of joy and hope should be told.
President Donald Trumps immigration policies are casting a pall over a typically joyful period of celebration and cultural festivities in the Chicago area.

Historically, the city and surrounding towns host a number of events commemorating Mexican Independence Day, which takes place on Sept. 16 and is observed by hundreds of thousands of people around this time each year.

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Mexican Americans comprise one of the largest immigrant groups in the city, and about one-fifth of Chicagos residents.

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In anticipation of the surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the area, however, organizers have either cancelled or postponed multiple events, while others intend to forge onward with more muted gatherings.

It was a painful decision, but holding El Grito Chicago at this time puts the safety of our community at stake  and thats a risk we are unwilling to take, the organizers of a popular annual festival shared in a statement announcing the postponement of their two-day event.

Coordinators of a parade in Waukegan and a Latin Heritage Fest in Wauconda have also announced that they intend to delay or cancel gatherings as a precautionary measure.

People wave flags during the 2025 Pilsen Mexican Independence Day parade on Sept. 6, 2025, in Chicago. AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

Trump officials have zeroed in on Chicago as one of the next major cities where theyre ramping up a brutal immigration crackdown by flooding the region with ICE agents.

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Margaret Carrasco, president of Fiesta Patrias, the sponsoring organization in Waukegan, told Fox 32 that a Homeland Security official had warned that large public celebrations could be a focal point for immigration enforcement.

News: MAGA Influencer Who Got Epstein Binder From White House Now Mocks His Sexual Assault Victims

Trumps ICE surges have been chaotic, violent and disruptive, fueling fears of targeting and racial profiling in immigrant communities regardless of peoples legal status.

A Supreme Court decision this week that gives federal agents free rein to profile those they detain has only heightened concerns about the tactics that these officers will employ.

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Anyone who knows me knows that Im most proud of being Mexican, of being from Oaxaca, and I want everyone to be able to experience our rich culture. But right now, our community is living in fear, under threat from the federal administration, Erendira Rendon, an immigrant rights advocate at The Resurrection Project, said at a press conference this past weekend, ABC News reported.

The effects on Mexican Independence Day are just the latest instance of Trumps immigration enforcement marring otherwise celebratory occasions: In Los Angeles, there were widespread cancellations of Fourth of July events due to fears of raids, and people even refrained from attending graduation ceremonies.

News: U.S. Job Growth Was Actually Weaker Than Previously Estimated, BLS Revision Shows

According to Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D), the timing of the immigration crackdown in Chicago could well be by design.

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We have reason to believe that Stephen Miller chose the month of September to come to Chicago because of celebrations around Mexican Independence Day that happen here every year, Pritzker said in remarks last week, referring to Trumps deputy chief of staff.

Some event organizers have said they intend to hold gatherings regardless, in a show of defiance and pride for their community.

This past weekend, Chicagos Pilsen neighborhood proceeded with a vibrant parade where some attendees wore whistles to alert others about ICE sightings.

Were scared, but were here, Isabel Garcia, a dancer in Saturdays parade, told Reuters. Were Mexican. We have to celebrate, and theyre not going to stop us.

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Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Wednesday that he had spoken to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte after more than a dozen drones entered Polish airspace during Russian attacks on Ukraine.

"I have informed the NATO secretary general about the current situation and the actions we have taken against the objects that violated our airspace. We maintain constant contact," Tusk said in a post on the social media platform X.

According to the Ministry of Defence in Warsaw, all ministries responsible for the country's security were to take part in an emergency meeting on the situation.

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President Karol Nawrocki said he has been briefed by the Polish Armed Forces and that he would chair a national security briefing soon.

"The security of our country is our top priority and requires close cooperation," Nawrocki said in a post on X.
Two British men have been arrested in the tourist island of Bali for allegedly smuggling more than a kilo of cocaine into Indonesia.

The Bali National Narcotics Agency said the men were members of an international drug trafficking syndicate, according to the Indonesian Antara news agency.

The men, who are only named in local reports by their initials KG, 29, and PE, 48, appeared at a press conference in the city of Denpasar on Tuesday, dressed in orange prison uniforms.

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Rudy Ahmad Sudrajat, the head of the Bali Narcotics Agency, said the men smuggled the cocaine from Barcelona, and that both had met in Spain a week before their arrest.

PE travelled to Bali first and waited for the shipment, Mr Sudrajat was quoted as saying.

The men appeared in prison uniforms at a press conference in Denpasar (EPA)

Custom officers at Balis Ngurah Rai airport reportedly intercepted KG during a security check on Wednesday after becoming suspicious of his behaviour. A subsequent X-ray of his luggage revealed 1.3kg of cocaine, Antara reported.

KG reportedly admitted he was transporting the drugs to PE, and investigators suspect the pair, who live in Thailand, were offered $5,000 (3,700) each to traffic the cocaine into Bali and sell it to foreign nationals.

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Indonesia has some of the strictest drug laws in the world. People convicted of possession, smuggling or use of illegal drugs face long prison sentences, life imprisonment and even the death penalty for major drug trafficking offences.

In July, three British people were sentenced to one year in jail on drug offences after a charge that could carry the death penalty was dropped, the AP news agency reported.

Jonathan Christopher Collyer, 28, and his partner Lisa Ellen Stocker, 29, were arrested in February by customs officers in Bali after nearly a kilo of cocaine was found hidden among sachets of powdered dessert mix. Two days later, Phineas Ambrose Float, 31, was arrested in a sting operation.

During their trial, they argued they were unaware that the food given to them in England contained cocaine.

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Hundreds of people are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes, including many foreign nationals. The most recent execution occurred in July 2016, when an Indonesian citizen and three foreigners were shot dead by firing squad.

A British woman, Lindsay Sandiford, now 69, has been on death row in Indonesia for more than a decade, AP reported. She was arrested in 2012 with 4.8kg of cocaine in her luggage.
TYLER, Texas (KETK)  A 25-year-old Tyler man was sentenced to 34 years in prison on Tuesday for the 2024 fatal stabbing of Noe Luna.

54-year-old man gets 18 years in prison for 2024 Tyler taqueria murder

Letierus Drew, 25 of Tyler, was arrested for murder on Jan. 21, 2024 after Smith County Sheriffs Office deputies responded to a reported stabbing at a home in the 400 block of County Road 34.

Deputies learned that 43-year-old Noe Luna of Tyler had been stabbed and taken to a local hospital before they arrived at the scene. Luna died at the hospital a few hours later.

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Authorities said that Drew was identified as a suspect in the stabbing after witnesses at the scene said he had forced his way inside the home and got into a physical fight with Luna.

Drew allegedly pulled out a knife and stabbed Luna in the chest, officials said in a press release. Luna immediately fell to the floor and was unresponsive to family members.

Drews arrest warrant described that he was staying at the home but had been locked out after his girlfriend left and he was told he couldnt enter the home without her.

After a jury trial in the 475th Judicial District Court, Drew was found guilty and sentenced to serve 34 years in state prison. His prison sentence started on Tuesday.

You can now stream KETK and FOX51 News live 24/7 on your smart TV with KETK+, our brand-new app! No antenna, cable, or satellite neededwatch for free, anytime. Just download it on your Roku, Apple TV, or Fire TV and start streaming.

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Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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CHAMPAIGN-URBANA, Ill. (WCIA)  Everyone impacted by cancer has a story to tell. Now, a team of researchers at the University of Illinois is trying to bring those stories together into a project called Cancer Voices  and theyre looking to the community for help.

Craig Richard, a postdoctoral researcher, and Azlan Guttenberg Smith, a PhD candidate, joined WCIA 3s Kelly Finley in the studio to talk about their project.

Memorial Stadium gets new name after $100 million donation from Larry Gies

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The Cancer Voices project team is working to interview cancer survivors, family members, doctors, administrators and other medical professionals about their story. Then, the team will weave the stories together into a video clip. Latter, it will be turned into a live performance which will be performed in Central Illinois.

As a scientist Im helping other scientists to develop tools to study cancer, but I really wanted to understand how patients experience this, how they experience cancer research, how they understand cancer care, Richard said.

The focus is on people whose stories often go untold.

I think its a focus on hearing from people whose stories arent usually shared and then also on helping stories move to different places. A cancer doctor might not often get to hear from their patient and the deep experiences of their patient. Or, a patient might not get to hear about the true busy, crazy life of a cancer doctor. So this project aims to improve cancer care for everyone. Smith said.

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Interviews will be conducted until the beginning of April. Anyone impacted by cancer  including patients, survivors and family members  are encouraged to contact Cancer Voices if interested in sharing your story. You can learn more here.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com.
United Arab Emirates (UAE) President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan visited Doha on Wednesday, becoming the first head of state to arrive in Qatar following Israel's attack on senior Hamas members in the Gulf country.

Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani received Mohammed and his accompanying delegation, which included ministers of defence, interior and the national security adviser, at Doha airport.

"[We welcome this] solidarity visit, during which we discussed the repercussions of the blatant Israeli aggression on our countrys sovereignty and regions security," the emir wrote on X.

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During the brief visit, Mohammed held talks with Tamim, where he "reiterated the UAE's full solidarity with Qatar and its support for all the measures it takes to preserve its sovereignty, territorial integrity, and safety of its people," the UAE's official WAM news agency reported.

He said the Israeli aggression constitutes a violation of Qatar's sovereignty, international laws and norms, and undermines regional security, stability and prospects for peace.
Andy Briggs, the chief executive of Phoenix Group, Britains biggest pension provider - Eddie Mulholland for The Telegraph

Britains biggest retirement provider has pulled a 20bn investment contract with Aberdeen after concluding it could manage the money better in-house.

Phoenix Group said it had cancelled a seven-year-old agreement with Aberdeen, which had seen the funds group manage a portfolio of bonds backing thousands of annuity policies for British retirees.

The decision is a blow for Aberdeen, which has been left reeling from a string of problems such as its disastrous rebrand to Abrdn  which it reversed earlier this year  and hundreds of redundancies.

Andy Briggs, the chief executive of Phoenix, said: Before, we used to have a model where all of our asset management was outsourced across everything we do. We have about 40bn of assets backing our annuity business and what weve announced today is that were bringing 20bn of that in-house.

Thats quite a big step forward for us. It enables us to achieve a better return on those assets as were running them ourselves, and is more cost efficient as well. Its one of the drivers of the very strong financial performance we have today.

Phoenixs in-house fund manager was already managing about 5bn of the 40bn annuity portfolio and the additional 20bn is a major boost for the manager, led by Mike Eakins.

Cutting out Aberdeen from the process means it will stop paying fees to the funds group, saving money in the process.

Aberdeen currently manages about 370bn, so 20bn is a sizeable reduction to its assets under management. Still, it is understood to reflect only 1pc of its annual revenues.

Despite the loss, Aberdeen also still runs a significant chunk of money for Phoenix of about 140bn which generally pays higher fees than the annuity assets. About 90pc of the funds Aberdeen managed for Phoenix are these higher paying assets.

Aberdeen has been struggling to regain momentum after a widely mocked rebrand under former chief executive Stephen Bird removed the vowels from the companys name. A senior executive of the group later accused rivals and the media corporate bullying by mocking the lack of vowels.

Investors backed cost-cutting plan

Performance had steadied under Jason Windsor, the new chief executive, who won plaudits for to reverting back to the original Aberdeen name.

A cost-cutting plan  Aberdeen unveiled plans to save 150m by cutting 500 roles  has won the backing of the stock market with shares in the FTSE 250 group rising more than 30pc this year.

However, in July the group revealed a further 900m of outflows.

The shake-up partially unwinds a 2017 mega merger between Aberdeen and Standard Life, which created the modern day Aberdeen group and radically reshaped the fund management industry.
LONDON  The United Kingdom and Norway joined the Patria-led European program for a six-wheeled armored personnel carrier, bringing the number of participating countries to seven, the Finnish company announced at the DSEI UK defense show here on Tuesday.

Patria and British defense firm Babcock International additionally signed an agreement to manufacture the armored carrier in the U.K. under the program, called Common Armoured Vehicle System or CAVS, the companies said.

The Finnish defense company is the lead designer of CAVS, based on the Patria 6x6 wheeled platform and manufactured in Finland but also locally in Latvia, with plans for production in Germany. The APC costs between 1.1 million and 1.5 million (US$1.3 million-1.8 million) per vehicle, based on recent purchases by Latvia and Sweden.

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As European security needs to be strengthened, multinational collaboration is increasingly important for interoperability, interchangeability and security of supply among allies, Patria CEO Esa Rautalinko said in a statement.

Patria says its received orders for nearly 1,000 6x6 vehicles, and delivered more than 250 through the CAVS program, making it the current best-seller in the Finnish companys portfolio.

Separately, Patria announced a new tracked APC at DSEI UK on Tuesday for all-terrain troop transport, which it aims to have ready for serial production in 2027.

Babcock will manufacture the Patria 6x6 vehicles for the British Army, under the agreement announced on Tuesday, after the U.K. Ministry of Defence officially joined the CAVS program.

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Our partnership brings clear benefits, said Jussi Jarvinen, Patrias executive vice president for protected mobility. The UK needs a proven ready-to-use vehicle platform, and the Patria 6x6, already operational in NATO countries, will be locally built and supported to meet British Army requirements.

Babcock said CAVS is being used by a growing number of countries in the Joint Expeditionary Force alliance, of which the U.K. is a member, with JEF members Finland, Latvia, Sweden, Denmark and Germany all buying the APC.

We are proud to be working with Patria as their official build partner on the 66, and as a strategic partner of the British Army, we are perfectly positioned to deliver a large fleet of formidable, proven armored personnel carriers, said Tom Newman, the CEO for Babcocks land sector.

CAVS has Stanag level 2 ballistic and mine protection, designed to withstand armored-piercing rifle rounds, and can be upgraded to level 4 for protection against high-caliber AP rounds. The vehicle can carry up to 10 soldiers in the rear, in addition to the driver and commander.

The all-wheel-drive, diesel-powered APC has a maximum combat weight of 24 metric tons, including a maximum payload of 8.5 tons, and has a top speed of more than 100 kilometers per hour and a range of more than 700 kilometers.
Key developments on Sept. 10:

NATO engages Russia for first time ever as Poland downs drones amid mass attack on Ukraine

Belarus expands military infrastructure near Ukraine, may host Russian Oreshnik ballistic missiles

Trump sees no reason to economically isolate Russia outside war in Ukraine, Vance says

Russian military losses near 300,000 in 2025, Syrskyi says

Poland confirmed downing Russian drones in its airspace during a mass aerial attack on Ukraine overnight on Sept. 10 in what is the first case of a NATO member engaging Moscow's military assets over its territory during the war.

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In the wake of the incident, Warsaw requested consultations with NATO allies under Article 4, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.

"The situation brings us the closest we have been to open conflict since World War II," he told the Polish parliament.

The incident occurred as Russia launched waves of drones and missiles across Ukraine overnight, primarily targeting central and western regions and inflicting civilian casualties.

"Last night the Polish airspace was violated by a huge number of Russian drones," Tusk said on X, adding that those "that posed a direct threat were shot down."

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Polish authorities temporarily closed Warsaws main Chopin Airport and placed the countrys air defenses on high alert overnight after what they described as "an unprecedented violation of Polish airspace by drone-type objects."

Read also: In largest drone breach into NATO territory, Russia appears to be probing Polish resolve

The Polish Armed Forces Operational Command said it had activated all necessary procedures to protect national airspace and scrambled both Polish and NATO aircraft in response to the threat.

Earlier, Tusk confirmed that a military operation related to multiple violations of Polish airspace was underway without initially naming the drones' origin. The prime minister added that he has informed the NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte about the situation.

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Russian drones and missiles have repeatedly violated the airspace of Poland and other NATO members during strikes on Ukraine, but until Sept. 10, there had never been a confirmed case of local defenses shooting one down.

Polish fighter jets have been scrambled before in response to the war, but previous deployments primarily involved monitoring or escorting Russian drones that briefly entered Polish airspace en route to targets in Ukraine  not engaging or shooting them down.

The Polish military later said the Polish and allied aircraft, including Dutch F-35 fighters, concluded their operation by 7:42 a.m. local time, and air defenses and radar systems resumed normal activity. The search for impact sites and wreckage is ongoing.

Italian AWACS (Airborne early warning and control) surveillance planes and a refueling aircraft jointly operated by NATO were also involved in the operation, according to Reuters.

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Addressing the Polish parliament, Tusk said that 19 airspace violations were recorded, while three or four drones were shot down by Polish and allied planes  the last one at 6:45 a.m. local time.

However, the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita reported that up to 23 Russian drones were detected and were fired upon primarily by the Dutch F-35s.

Belarus expands military infrastructure near Ukraine, may host Russian missiles

Belarus has significantly expanded military infrastructure near the Ukrainian border since 2022, raising concerns about Russian missile deployment and growing regional militarization, an investigation by Schemes (RFE/RL) has found.

An analysis of dozens of Planet Labs satellite images reveals accelerated construction across Belarus and the rebuilding of several military sites, one of which may be intended to host the Russian Oreshnik intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM).

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The timeline of developments begins shortly after Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when Belarus rapidly deepened its military cooperation with Moscow and allowed its territory to be used by Russia's invading forces.

Satellite photos from 2023 and 2024 revealed extensive construction efforts across Belarus, including the two new southern complexes.

One site south of Minsk is being rebuilt on the grounds of a former Soviet missile base, and analysts believe it could house Oreshnik.

The second is located near Homel, just 30 kilometers from Ukraine. Images show land clearance, new roads, and foundations for military infrastructure alongside a planned training ground.

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These developments could increase the risk of Belarus becoming a staging ground for Russian forces, shrinking the buffer zone between Ukraine and potential missile launch sites to only a few dozen kilometers.

The new facilities are expected to play a role in Zapad-2025, large-scale joint Russian-Belarusian military exercises scheduled for September 1216, which observers see as both a training event and a show of force.

Read also: Russian drones have entered several NATO countries airspace. Far more may be within their range

Trump sees no reason to economically isolate Russia outside war in Ukraine, Vance says

U.S. President Donald Trump does not believe Russia should be cut off from the global economy beyond the context of its war against Ukraine, Vice President JD Vance said in an interview with One America News Network published on Sept. 10.

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The statement comes as, despite Trump's repeated threats, his administration has imposed only limited penalties on Russia and, in some cases, has rolled back restrictions.

"The president's been very open with the Europeans and the Russians that he doesn't see any reason why we should economically isolate Russia except for the continuation of the conflict," Vance said.

The vice president added that Russia remains a resource powerhouse.

"Let's be honest, whether you like or dislike Russia, whether you agree or disagree with their underlying arguments for the conflict, the simple fact is they've got a lot of oil," Vance said.

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"They've got a lot of gas. They've got a lot of mineral wealth."

According to the vice president, once a settlement is reached, Washington could have "a very productive economic relationship" with both Kyiv and Moscow.

His remarks come as Trump's peace proposals allegedly include lifting sanctions on Moscow, sparking concerns in Kyiv and Brussels that the West might lose leverage over the Kremlin.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Sept. 8 that Europe must cut purchases of Russian oil and gas if it wants Washington to step up sanctions to push Moscow toward meaningful negotiations.

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In August, Washington imposed tariffs on India, one of Russia's biggest oil buyers, but stopped short of broader action. Indian officials said the tariffs would not halt their imports of Russian crude.

European Council President Antonio Costa announced on Sept. 5 that a delegation would travel to Washington to coordinate a new package of joint sanctions.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the following day that Washington is ready to expand secondary tariffs on countries buying Russian oil, though no further measures have been announced.

Read also: Russias gains speed up in Ukraine ahead of high-stakes autumn

Russian military losses near 300,000 in 2025, Syrskyi says

Russia has lost nearly 300,000 troops in 2025, Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi reported Sept. 9.

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"The Russian army's losses since the beginning of the year have already reached almost 300 thousand (299,210) people," Syrskyi wrote on social media.

Although Moscow does not publicly disclose casualty figures, Ukrainian officials say Russian losses are roughly three times higher than Ukraine's.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia has lost more than one million troops, with about 30% of those casualties occurring in the past nine months, according to Ukrainian military estimates.

Western intelligence has largely supported Kyiv's estimates, with British intelligence reporting in August that Russia's troop losses surpassed one million.

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Despite experiencing heavy losses with only incremental gains, Russia remains committed to its maximalist demands in Ukraine, which include full control of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.

Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly told the White House that he intends to occupy Ukraine's eastern Donbas region by the end of 2025, even though Russia has occupied less than 1% of Ukraine's territory since November 2022.

Note from the author:

Ukraine War Latest is put together by the Kyiv Independent news desk team, who keep you informed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you value our work and want to ensure we have the resources to continue, join the Kyiv Independent community.

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
The United Nations and humanitarian organizations on Wednesday criticized Israel's call for Palestinians to leave Gaza City, describing it as a dangerous escalation.

Israel has designated an area in the south of the Gaza Strip as a humanitarian zone, but aid groups said the necessary steps to ensure safety there have not been taken. Supplies are already insufficient for those sheltering in the area, they warned, let alone for additional arrivals from Gaza City, located in the north.

On Tuesday, Israel urged all Gaza City residents to evacuate the city of around 1 million people as it prepares to expand operations against Hamas militants.

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The UN-led Humanitarian Country Team (HCT), which brings together UN agencies and more than 200 aid groups working in Gaza, said residents cannot afford the costs of repeated displacement. Roads are barely passable, shelters for the displaced are overcrowded, and access to food, water and medical care is severely limited. Toilets are also in short supply, it warned.

"Do something," the HCT appealed to the international community. "Demand a ceasefire."
The United Nations on Tuesday allocated an additional $9 million in emergency funds to Haiti amid the countrys worsening gang violence and a growing hunger crisis.

The funds were directed by Tom Fletcher, the under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, after he spent the day visiting a site packed with 5,000 people forced to flee from their homes and the only public hospital still functioning in a capital largely in the grips of armed gangs.

At LHopital Universitaire La Paix, Fletcher found a well-run, pristine facility where nurses and doctors cared for malnourished children and women in labor. But he also heard about funding challenges, including how the last affordable healthcare option for most Haitians may soon be hitting a critical junction.

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It could lose most of its emergency ward staff by the end of the month.

It would be heartbreaking if this hospital that so many people depend on, the only functioning hospital in this area, were to cease to function when theyve done such immense work with such courage and tenacity, and expertise to make it work, he said. We cannot fail here.

LHopital Universitaire La Paix in Port-au-Prince, Haiti is the only public hospital functioning in the capital. Tom Fletcher, the United Nations under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, visited the hospital on Tuesday, September 9, 2025.

Fletcher, in charge of the UNs humanitarian crisis response, arrived in Haiti on Monday with several goals. He wants to see for himself the effects of Haitis gang violence, which is driving people from their homes, leaving millions hunger and exposing girls and women to attacks.

He also wants to determine what more the U.N. can do as it deals with its own budget cuts. His visit comes as the U.N. faces shortfalls from foreign aid donors, including the United States. As a result, Haitis humanitarian crisis, with half the population estimated being hungry, is the least funded in the world.

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When you look at where the red lights are flashing, the warning lights are flashing, he told the Miami Herald in an interview at the end of his visits. its often around those big gender-based violence, protection of women and girls programs in these more neglected crises and so thats the logic of using these emergency funds.

As he toured La Paix, located not far from areas recently under gang attacks, Fletcher heard not just about how the spiraling crisis, but also about how agencies within the U.N. system like the Pan American Health Organization and UNICEF were working with Haitian authorities to provide healthcare. PAHO, for example, provides essential medicines and health supplies, and allows for some of the most vulnerable to receive free healthcare, while UNICEF has improved access to care and nutrition services with the rehabilitation of the hospitals pediatric unit.

Still, the threat of impending budget cuts couldnt be ignored.

Its really terrifying, Fletcher said, adding that he was really impressed with the way the hospital was run, organized.

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Haitis health system has long been on life-support. But with more than 1.3 million internally displaced by armed groups, and half of the population hungry, the system is buckling under the pressure.

United Nations Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher, left, visits LHopital Universitaire La Paix in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Tuesday, September 9, 2025. Fletcher met with hospital staff including Dr. Jean Philippe Lerbourg, the medical director.

Healthcare workers are routinely kidnaped and ambulances targeted and looted. Gang attacks have forced the closure of most hospitals across the capital, including its largest public hospital, the Hospital of the State University of Haiti, also known as the General Hospital. It served the majority of the population until repeated looting and attacks by gang forced its closure last year.

La Paix, the staff told Fletcher, has been the one lifeline  even with its lack of modern equipment and dependence on generators for electricity. The hospital performs nearly 3,600 surgeries annually. The emergency department last year, alone had more than 20,600 cases, a 43% increase in cases from the previous. Nearly all are trauma-related emergencies.

It was here journalists were rushed to in December when they were ambushed during a press conference called for by the health ministry, and its where injured policemen are routinely provided with healthcare. Its neighbor is one of the largest displacement camps, the former public health ministry now home to 5,000 people forced out of their homes by armed gangs.

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Whatever the social category of those who are victims, Dr. Paul Junior Fontilus, the director general said, when we arrive at the operating room, the person is operated on.

For Fletcher, who started the day hearing the desperate pleas of displaced Haitians, La Paix is one more reason why the world needs to care, should care abou the unfolding crisis in Haiti.

When you come to a hospital like this that is well-run, efficient, its hugely encouraging, he said afterward. Every day here you are seeing thousands of people getting treatment.

Women who suffered horrific sexual violence are giving birth, he added. Men who are coming with bullets in their chest. Kids who are malnourished and treated. But all of this is in jeopardy because of crucial funding that will run out at the end of September.

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In announcing the additional funds on Tuesday, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for Secretary General Antonio Guterres told journalists the money from the U.N.s Central Emergency Response Fund is to help the U.N. and its partners step up life-saving support to the most vulnerable, including those who have fled their homes and host communities in the Center and Artibonite regions.

They are facing acute shortages of food, water, shelter, healthcare, sanitation and protection, Dujarric said.

This additional funding comes at a critical time, with the humanitarian response continuing to face drastic shortfalls, he noted. Only $105 million of the $908 million required for the Haiti humanitarian appeal have been received.
A spokesperson for NATOs Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) says it has no force posture changes to announce after an unprecedented flurry of Russian drones violated Polish airspace overnight. Authorities in Poland say they have assessed that the incursions were not accidental. Polish and Dutch fighters shot down several of the intruding uncrewed aircraft. The alliance has described this as a first-of-its-kind event, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has warned that the risk of a broader conflict in Europe is now greater than at any point since the end of World War II.

NATO planes shot down Russian drones that violated Polands airspace on Tuesday



Russias drone incursion into Poland marked the first time in its history that NATO planes have engaged potential threats in allied airspace, Col. Martin L. ODonnell told @NatashaBertrand @halbritz https://t.co/blFilvt87v  Alayna Treene (@alaynatreene) September 10, 2025

Polish authorities say Russian drones began to violate the countrys airspace at around 11:30 PM local time last night. The last incursion was reported at 6:30 AM local time this morning. The intrusions came amid a new round of Russian drone and missile attacks on neighboring Ukraine.

Exactly how many Russian drones, and of what specific types, made their way into Polands airspace is unclear. Polish Prime Minister Tusk said that between 11 and 19 violations of Polish airspace were recorded overnight, many of them crossing the border from Belarus. He said that at least three, and likely four, drones were shot down. In his Polish-language statements, Tusk used the term kilkanascie, which means a number between 11 and 19, and has no direct English translation.

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Radoslaw Sikorski, Polands Foreign Minister, subsequently said there had been 19 total airspace violations. He also said Poland has assessed that the drones did not veer off course but were deliberately targeted.

Last night, Polands airspace was breached 19 times by drones manufactured in Russia. Our assessment is that they did not veer off course but were deliberately targeted.



Poland, EU and NATO will not be intimidated and we will continue to stand by the brave people of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/prAEqrIUKX  Radosaw Sikorski   (@sikorskiradek) September 10, 2025

Polands Tusk has also said that while at least three to four drones were shot down, another three to four appeared to have simply crashed in Polish territory. According to Karolina Gaecka, a spokesperson for the Polish interior minister, the remains of seven drones and an unidentified rocket have been recovered so far. Speaking at a briefing today, the spokesperson for the Polish Armed Forces Operational Command, Jacek Goryszewski, said debris currently categorized as being of unknown origin may turn out to be from an interceptor fired by NATOs air defenses.

Pictures that have emerged so far show the drones that have been retrieved look to be Gerberas, a cheaper and simplified Russian-developed complement to variants and derivatives of the Iranian-designed Shahed-136s. Gerbera can be configured as kamikaze drones or decoys, and it is unclear whether the ones that flew into Poland were armed. With an estimated range of just under 373 miles (600 kilometers), it is not immediately clear where Gerberas may have been launched from that put them within reach of Polish territory.

New Russian Gerbera drone found in Wohyn, Poland. 60 km from the border. https://t.co/9eIPyqq2Xu pic.twitter.com/AS6fKjG5zh  Special Kherson Cat   (@bayraktar_1love) September 10, 2025

Russian Gerbera attack drone, sitting in a Polish field in the town of Czosnowka.



Shot down by Polish/NATO forces early this morning. pic.twitter.com/jtiVpcIskb  OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) September 10, 2025

 Breaking: More than 20, most likely 23, Russian drones were detected in a nighttime violation of Polish airspace,  Polish media Rzeczpospolita reported, referring to the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces. pic.twitter.com/piwOkFrwqt  Special Kherson Cat   (@bayraktar_1love) September 10, 2025

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The debris has been found mostly in areas in eastern Poland, relatively close to the countrys borders with Ukraine and Belarus, but some has also been discovered much further north and west. The drone incursions had also led to the temporary closure of four Polish airports, including the countrys main Chopin Airport in the capital Warsaw, although this has since reopened and flights have resumed. One of the other airports closed was Rzeszow-Jasionka in Polands south-east, which is a major hub for arms transfers to Ukraine.

Locations in Poland where Russian drones were found today shown on a map:



Czesniki (Zamosc County, Lublin Voivodeship)  1 drone,

Czosnowka (Bialski County, Lublin Voivodeship)  1 drone,

Wyryki Wola (Wodawa County, Lublin Voivodeship)  1 drone and a damaged building, pic.twitter.com/tVfugCeOrA  Special Kherson Cat   (@bayraktar_1love) September 10, 2025

NOTAMs for closures at Modlin and Warsaw are set to expire at 0330 UTC (~60 minutes from now), while NOTAMs for Rzeszow and Lublin are scheduled to end at 0600 (all times preliminary and subject to change). Transit traffic over Poland continuing to stay west of normal routes. pic.twitter.com/QRd97Nw4Bv  Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) September 10, 2025

At the time of writing, there have been no reports of casualties, but at least one Russian drone hit a house when it came down.

 7 drones and rocket debris of unknown origin found in Poland



This was confirmed by the spokesperson of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration, Karolina Gaecka, during a press conference. "We have found 7 drones and one piece of a rocket," she confirmed. https://t.co/EnsxzMOe6upic.twitter.com/u6V2jz0iQj  NEXTA (@nexta_tv) September 10, 2025

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Poland had already put its forces on high alert ahead of the first airspace violations last night. Polish and Ukrainian authorities have also confirmed they were actively coordinating throughout the night as Russian drones were tracked heading west.

Another report from the Commander of our Air Force. We are clarifying all available data and analyzing the details of this Russian strike.



Already during the night, Ukrainian forces were informing the Polish side through the relevant channels about the movement of Russian  Volodymyr Zelenskyy /   (@ZelenskyyUa) September 10, 2025

More information is coming in about the intrusion of Russian attack drones into Polish territory. As of now, its known about 8 drones. Increasing evidence indicates that this movement, this direction of strike, was no accident. There have been previous incidents of individual  Volodymyr Zelenskyy /   (@ZelenskyyUa) September 10, 2025

Prime Minister Tusks office has confirmed that assets that were directed to the anticipated area of operation included two Polish F-16s, as well as Polish Army Mi-24 Hind, Mi-17 Hip, and S-70 Black Hawk helicopters. At least one Polish Saab 340 Erieye airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft also appears to have participated in the operation last night, based on publicly available flight-tracking data. The look-down capability offered by the Erieyes radar would have been particularly valuable for spotting small, low-flying drones. Polands armed forces also have extensive ground-based air defense capabilities.

After a major 9+ hour mission hunting Russian drones and coordinating air defenses overnight, Poland's SAAB 340 airborne early warning aircraft is heading for home. pic.twitter.com/L1McAqVWz1  OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) September 10, 2025

1x Polish AEW&C aircraft over Poland currently monitoring the eastern border.

Additionally, 1x NATO refueling aircraft was over Polish airspace supporting fighter jets, including at least one F-35, in the task of neutralizing Russian drones that have crossed the Polish border. pic.twitter.com/Dek3DwGFLb  Amelia Smith (@ameliairheart) September 10, 2025

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Polish authorities also said that two F-35 Joint Strike Fighters took part in the response to the Russian drone incursions. The Netherlands has separately said that its F-35s were among the assets that helped secure Polands skies overnight. The Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) currently has Joint Strike Fighters stationed at Malbork in Poland, to help bolster the countrys air defenses.

Dutch F-35s have intercepted Russian drones over Poland.



Within the NATO framework, our F-35s make a significant contribution to the defence of our collective security. This is precisely what we stand ready to do.



This is how we keep the escalating Russian threat at a distance. pic.twitter.com/fxZDbAXuTG  Ruben Brekelmans (@DefensieMin) September 10, 2025

NATO has further confirmed that an Italian Air Force AEW&C plane, which would be one of that countrys modified Gulfstream G-550 aircraft, as well as at least one A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) from a fleet the alliance operates collectively, were launched in response to the incursions into Polish airspace.

German Patriot surface-to-air missile systems forward-deployed in Poland were also at least placed on alert. A NATO source separately told Reuters that Patriot surface-to-air missiles in the region detected the drones with their radars, but had not engaged them.

Exactly what Polish and other NATO assets were used to shoot down Russian drones is unclear. The Dutch Minister of Defense, Ruben Brekelmans, has confirmed that Polish and Dutch fighters were among them.

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Video, seen immediately below, has emerged that is said to show a Russian drone being downed by a Polish Air Force F-16, but this remains unverified. A picture of debris from an AIM-120C-7 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) that is said to have been found in Poland earlier today is also circulating online, but this is also unconfirmed. Both F-16s and F-35As could have employed AIM-120s, as well as AIM-9 Sidewinder variants, and even potentially their internal guns.

NAGRANIE STRACENIA ROSYJSKIEGO DRONA W CZESNIKACH:

ps. piekne "Fox two"  jakis AiM-9 polecia do celu jak po sznurku. Ciekawe czy nasz F-16 czy F-35 holenderski. https://t.co/k2OmwebfIr pic.twitter.com/wlxp9gUCJH  Jarosaw Wolski (@wolski_jaros) September 10, 2025

Doczekalismy sie momentu w ktorym Polak moze w swoim ogrodzie znalezc resztki naszego albo holenderskiego pocisku powietrze  powietrze AIM-120 C-7 AMRAAM ktorym strzelano do rosyjskich dronow.



Gwoli jasnosci, tonie jest powod do radosci



1/ pic.twitter.com/MavfmjGF4L  Dawid Kamizela (@DawidKamizela) September 10, 2025

Polands Tusk thanked both his countrys armed forces and NATO allies for shooting down drones overnight.

My thanks and congratulations to the Polish Operational Command and our NATO pilots for shooting down Russian drones over Poland. Actions speak louder than words.  Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) September 10, 2025

Regardless, it is important to note here that NATO jets, including Dutch F-35s in Poland, have scrambled in response to Russian drones into the airspace over alliance members in the past. However, they had not fired any weapons in response to those intrusions until last night.

A stock photo of a Dutch pilot running toward an F-35 during a scramble. Royal Netherlands Air Force

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This is the first time NATO planes have engaged potential threats in Allied airspace, Col. Martin L. ODonnell, a spokesperson for NATOs Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) told ABC News.

Last night showed that we are able to defend every inch of NATO territory including its airspace.



 @SecGenNATO Mark Rutte on the violation of Polish airspace by Russian drones  NATO (@NATO) September 10, 2025

Though the immediate response to the Russian drone incursions overnight has concluded, Polish Minister of Defense Wadysaw Kosiniak-Kamysz confirmed that the search for downed drones was still underway as of Wednesday.

We ask for calm and to share only the announcements of the military and state services. In case of encountering object fragments, please do not approach them and inform the police, Kosiniak-Kamysz said on X.

Nad Polska trwa operacja neutralizacji obiektow, ktore naruszyy granice RP. Prezydent i Premier zostali powiadomieni. Wszystkie suzby dziaaja. Prosimy o stosowanie sie do komunikatow Wojska Polskiego i Policji. Samoloty uzyy uzbrojenia przeciwko wrogim obiektom. Jestesmy w  Wadysaw Kosiniak-Kamysz (@KosiniakKamysz) September 10, 2025

The Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces called the overnight violations unprecedented and an act of aggression that posed a real risk to the lives of our citizens.

 W wyniku dzisiejszego ataku Federacji Rosyjskiej na terytorium Ukrainy doszo do bezprecedensowego w skali naruszenia polskiej przestrzeni powietrznej przez obiekty typu dron. Jest to akt agresji, ktory stworzy realne zagrozenie dla bezpieczenstwa naszych obywateli.



Na pic.twitter.com/w9ygKlRh8V  Dowodztwo Operacyjne RSZ (@DowOperSZ) September 10, 2025

The Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces called the overnight violations unprecedented and an act of aggression that posed a real risk to the lives of our citizens.

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There is no reason to claim that we are in a state of war but the situation is significantly more dangerous than all previous ones, Polands Prime Minister Tusk said. He further warned that the prospect of a large-scale conflict in Europe is now closer than at any time since the Second World War.

Warsaws immediate response included the foreign ministry summoning Andrey Ordash, Russias charge daffaires in the Polish capital. However, Ordash told the Russian RIA Novosti news agency that Poland has not offered any evidence that the drones were of Russian origin.

Poland has also now invoked Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which forms the legal basis for NATO. Article 4 states that the Parties [to the alliance] will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.

NATOs article four calls on allies to consult in case of a threat. It was last invoked in 2022 after the Russian invasion by several Eastern European countries. Among other things, it would be a test of Trumps approach to the alliance. Just a week ago Trump had said: We are https://t.co/yddJZAcP4U  Shashank Joshi (@shashj) September 10, 2025

Since NATO was created in 1949, Article 4 has only been invoked seven times. The last of these was in 2022, in response to Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The North Atlantic Treaty also includes a collective defense provision, Article 5, which has only ever been invoked once, following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

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As noted, a spokesperson for NATOs Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) told TWZ that there are no force posture adjustments to announce at this time. U.S. European Command (EUCOM) declined to comment.

It remains to be seen what kind of response NATO might formulate following the Article 4 consultation.

A White House official told TWZ that President Donald Trump and the White House are tracking the reports out of Poland, and there are plans for President Trump to speak with Polands President Karol Nawrocki today.

Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers have been swift to condemn Russias actions. Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said that the repeated violations of NATO airspace by Russian drones were fair warning that Vladimir Putin is testing our resolve to protect Poland and the Baltic nations.

Repeated violations of NATO airspace by Russian drones are fair warning that Vladimir Putin is testing our resolve to protect Poland and the Baltic nations. After the carnage Putin continues to visit on Ukraine, these incursions cannot be ignored.  Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) September 9, 2025

Republican congressman Joe Wilson, a senior member of the foreign affairs committee, went further, describing the incursions as an act of war.

Russia is attacking NATO ally Poland with Iranian shahed drones less than a week after President Trump hosted President Nawrocki at the White House. This is an act of war, and we are grateful to NATO allies for their swift response to war criminal Putins continued unprovoked  Joe Wilson (@RepJoeWilson) September 10, 2025

Wilson called upon President Donald Trump to respond with sanctions that will bankrupt the Russian war machine.

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Increasingly, questions are being asked at the highest levels as to whether the drone incursion was a deliberate act, although the Kremlin has denied this.

German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius said the Russian drones were clearly set on this course and did not have to fly this route to reach Ukraine.

German Defense Minister Pistorius:



There is definitely no reason to assume that [Russian drones violating Polish airspace] was a matter of course correction errors or anything of that sort. These drones were quite obviously deliberately directed on this course.



According to the https://t.co/Qw8C7h9wtQ pic.twitter.com/71AAh3x8Yz  Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) September 10, 2025

There is absolutely no reason to believe that this was a course correction error or anything of the sort, Pistorius told the German parliament. He added that, according to the Polish government, the drones were armed with warheads, although this claim doesnt seem to be otherwise supported.

The Russian Ministry of Defense, meanwhile, claims that there were no intentions to engage any targets on Polish territory, but has provided no further information to substantiate that assertion. The type of drones used are also indicative of this being a probing action to give Russia a valuable opportunity to observe NATOs response. It could also serve as a form of intimation.

Same outward public signaling as if they had used larger Geran drones, but with a much lower risk to Russia of any actual NATO response given the much smaller warhead (if they even carried any and weren't the decoy variant).  Oliver Alexander (@OAlexanderDK) September 10, 2025

The Russian government already stands accused of an escalating campaign of hostile activities short of all-out war across Europe since it launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Even before then, Russia had a long history of so-called hybrid or gray-zone warfare operations. Poland has previously accused Russia, as well as its ally Belarus, of deliberately fomenting crises along their shared borders.

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Altogether, the full scale and scope of the response from Poland and the rest of NATO to last nights Russian drone incursions, as well as whether that is the start of a trend of escalating airspace violations, remains to be seen.

Update: 2:00 PM Eastern 

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says he has now received not only expressions of solidarity with Poland, but above all proposals for concrete support for the air defense of our country following conversations today with the leaders of other NATO members in Europe and the alliances Secretary General. Tusk did not elaborate on what that support might entail. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte had previously said that allies expressed solidarity with Poland and denounced Russias reckless behaviour.

Allies expressed solidarity with Poland and denounced Russias reckless behaviour.



Following a North Atlantic Council meeting, @SecGenNATO Mark Rutte delivered a statement to the media on the violation of Polish airspace by Russian drones



Tap to watch his full statement   NATO (@NATO) September 10, 2025

It is worth reiterating here that Poland has significant air defense capabilities itself and has been making major investments to expand and improve them. This includes plans for a new aerostat-based elevated airborne early warning system that would be especially useful for spotting and tracking incoming low-flying threats like drones and cruise missiles.

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Whats with Russia violating Polands airspace with drones? Here we go! U.S. President Donald Trump has now written in a post on his Truth Social social media network, but what actions he may be looking to take are unclear. Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and major political ally of Trumps, has said the U.S. Congress is prepared to help impose new sanctions and tariffs on Russia in response.

I completely agree with President @realDonaldTrump's sentiment in response to Russias insane violation of Polish airspace for hours, deploying multiple drones.



Mr. President, Congress is with you. We stand ready to pass legislation authorizing bone crushing new sanctions and pic.twitter.com/LIqYmS4rG7  Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) September 10, 2025

Fox News has reported that no U.S. forces were involved in the response to the drone incursions overnight. A report from CNN says that Keith Kellogg, Trumps special envoy for Ukraine, had been on his way to Poland at the time.

A NATO spokesman tells @LucasFoxNews there was 'no U.S. military involvement' in shooting down the Russian drones.

This is the first time NATO planes have engaged potential threats in Allied airspace.



Attributable to U.S. Army Col. Martin L. ODonnell, Supreme Headquarters https://t.co/FSDcqYsp8h  Jennifer Griffin (@JenGriffinFNC) September 10, 2025

US President Trump's special envoy, Gen. Keith Kellogg was en route to Poland when the Russian drone incursion was taking place, a source familiar with his travel told CNN.https://t.co/gKEKf3jCZq pic.twitter.com/NUubXD0kOC  Status-6 (Military & Conflict News) (@Archer83Able) September 10, 2025

More imagery of Russian drones that came down in Poland also continues to emerge.

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This remains a developing story.

Howard Altman contributed to this story.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com
BUCKHANNON, W.Va. (WBOY)  An Upshur County custodian received statewide honors Tuesday night for his service to his school, students and fellow staff members.

Washington District Elementary custodian Brandon Kelley was announced as the winner of this years West Virginia School Service Personnel of the Year award, according to a release from the West Virginia Department of Education.

Kelley was commended for his work ethic, professionalism and integrity in his position as a custodian, as well as his roles as a student mentor and on the Superintendents Advisory Council and the Staff Development Council.

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Huttonsville Correctional Center inmates build tiny homes for hurricane victims

Mr. Kelley demonstrates why school service personnel are essential parts of our school communities. He is recognized as an effective role model for staff and students, and he eagerly serves others with humility, superintendent Blatt said. His title is custodian, but his voice represents his peers and others with his service on various councils in the county. Mr. Kelley embodies what it means to be an ambassador for our state.

Kelleys tenure as the West Virginia School Service Personnel of the Year will begin on Jan. 1, 2026.



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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBOY.com.
The Trump administration rolled back key protections for government climate researchers, raising fears that political interference could undermine the scientific evidence Americans need to prepare for extreme weather events, according to a Washington Post report.

What's happening?

Officials recently reverted scientific integrity policies at the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration to versions from January 2021. The changes eliminate safeguards that scientists have fought to strengthen, including assurance that independent arbiters  rather than political appointees  would oversee enforcement of scientific integrity policies.

The administration also thinned the government's scientific workforce by thousands and proposed eliminating many climate research centers and labs. Trump's budget proposals would cancel studies and data collection that could inform policies to protect communities from flooding, extreme heat, and other weather-related events.

Why are these changes important?

"We're going to see scientists lose protections from retaliation. We're going to see the loss of professional or appointed scientific integrity officers," said Jennifer Jones, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists' Center for Science & Democracy, per the article. "They will now basically be replaced with political appointees."

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The tightened safeguards stemmed from the "Sharpiegate" incident in 2019, when Trump displayed a hurricane forecast map altered with a marker to suggest Hurricane Dorian threatened Alabama. An investigation found that NOAA's acting administrator violated scientific integrity policies by releasing a statement backing Trump's warnings and contradicting meteorologists.

This reversal could leave families and communities nationwide without accurate information about weather emergencies and long-term environmental threats that affect public health and safety.

What's being done about these rollbacks?

The EPA union is fighting the administration's cancellation of collective bargaining agreements in court. Scientists and advocacy groups continue pushing for stronger federal protections for researchers.

Meanwhile, several states have strengthened their own climate research programs. California recently expanded its climate monitoring network, while scientists are developing new tools to monitor our oceans and climate for changes. These state-level efforts help ensure that communities still receive the critical environmental data to make informed decisions about their health and safety, especially during storm season.

Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
By Casey Hall

SHANGHAI (Reuters) -Political tensions, fierce domestic competition and China's slowing economic growth are sapping the confidence of U.S. businesses in the country, with optimism about their five-year outlook falling to a record low, a survey showed.

Only 41% of U.S. firms were optimistic about their five-year China business outlook, a drop of six percentage points from last year, according to the survey published on Wednesday by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai. This was the weakest level of optimism reported since the AmCham Shanghai Annual China Business Report was introduced in 1999.

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The survey of 254 member companies representing a range of industries was conducted just after U.S. President Donald Trump announced his sweeping so-called "Liberation Day" tariffs, which led to a tit-for-tat tariff escalation with China. A pause in trade hostilities has since temporarily lowered tariff levels.

Geopolitics remains the biggest issue cited by companies, with 66% of respondents saying U.S.-China tensions are the top challenge facing their business over the next three-to-five years.

"We love this 90-day pause, but the issue is not going away, it's still here," said Eric Zheng, president of AmCham Shanghai, adding that the current uncertainty made it difficult for companies to plan for the future.

"Hopefully the two governments will work together to sort out their differences and hopefully there will be a deal soon," he said.

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Domestic competition from rising Chinese players was the second-biggest challenge cited by businesses, overtaking China's economic slowdown.

The number of profitable firms picked up from last year's record low, with 71% posting profits. Revenue performance also improved, with 57% of members, up from 50% the year before, achieving year-on-year growth.

This said, only 45% of surveyed members expect revenue to grow in 2025, which would be a record low if it comes to pass. A majority of companies, 64%, expect new U.S.-China tariffs to drag on this year's revenue.

On a positive note, there was a significant 13-percentage-point uptick from last year - to 48% - in businesses that reported believing China's regulatory environment is transparent. The number confident that China's regulatory environment would open up further rose to 41% from 22% last year.

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Only 12% of respondents ranked China as their firms' top investment destination, another record low in the survey's history.

In the past year, 47% of companies have redirected investment that had been earmarked for China, the AmCham report said, with Southeast Asia remaining the top pick for rerouting investment.

(Reporting by Casey Hall; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
The United States death rate decreased by 3.8% in 2024 as COVID fell out of the top 10 leading causes of death for the first time in four years, new provisional federal data shows.

The overall rate declined from 750.5 per 100,000 people in 2023 to 722 per 100,000, according to the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

This marks the lowest death rate recorded since 2020, during the first full year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and follows declines that began in 2022.

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MORE: US life expectancy rose in 2022 as deaths due to COVID dropped: CDC

The report also found that overall deaths fell from 3.09 million in 2023 to 3.07 million in 2024.

Additionally, the report showed the three leading causes of death stayed the same from 2023 to 2024, with heart disease as the leading cause, followed by cancer and unintentional injury, respectively.

Suicide replaced COVID-19 as the 10th leading underlying cause of death, knocking the disease off the top 10 list for the first time since 2020.

STOCK PHOTO/Adobe - PHOTO: An elderly person in the hospital in an undated stock photo.

"'It's pretty noteworthy that COVID-19 fell off the top 10 and suicide, which had been had fallen off in recent years, is  ranked again," Farida Ahmad, corresponding author of the report and health scientist at NCHS, told ABC News. "I think that's a pretty interesting finding given where we spent the last five years."

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Ahmad said fewer deaths from COVID in 2024 compared to 2023 may be a reason behind the 3.8% decline.

"Ever since it came onto the scene in 2020, COVID was one of the top 10 leading causes of death," Ahmad said. "It started off as a third-leading cause and, in 2024, we see that it's not ranked at all, actually. So, it's still among the 15 leading causes, but not in the top 10."

Dr. Sharonne Hayes, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, agreed that fewer cases of COVID-19 are likely driving the reduction in mortality.

"I think there's a little less COVID, right? I mean, that's part of it," she told ABC News. "I think that the pandemic was such a time of both COVID-related deaths, but also just rising risk factors, particularly around cardiovascular disease, people's lifestyles were less healthy. And maybe we are coming back to more of where we are before."

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Ahmad said another driver for the drop in deaths could be the decline in drug overdose deaths.

A CDC report published in May found that U.S. drug overdose deaths fell by nearly 27% in 2024 to the lowest levels seen in five years.

Dr. Katie Schmitz, a visiting professor of medicine in the department of medicine and cancer epidemiologist at the University of Pittsburgh, told ABC News that leading causes of death continue to be cardiac disease and cancer-related deaths due to an aging population, as well as underlying factors such as obesity.

Schmitz noted that we have an increase in proportion of the population with these co-morbidities and it's important to highlight that access to health care can be limited, particularly for rural populations.

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MORE: Rural Americans are at higher risk of early death than urbanites: CDC

Other leading causes of death in the report included stroke, chronic lower respiratory disease, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, kidney disease and chronic liver disease and cirrhosis.

The report also found that death rates decreased from 2023 to 2024 among all racial/ethnic groups. Rates in 2024 were lowest for multiracial people at 332.3 per 100,000 and highest for the Black population at 884 per 100,000.

Death rates decreased from 2023 to 2024 for all age groups except infants younger than one year old, according to the report. Death rates in 2024 were lowest for children between ages 5 and 14 at 14.4 per 100,000 and highest for people age 85 and older at 13,835.5 per 100,000.

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Schmitz said investments should be made that focus on prevention -- such as addressing rising obesity rates -- and early screenings, which can vary with socioeconomic status and geography.

Hayes said making lifestyle changes is hard, but it is one of the best ways to lower the risk of some of the leading causes of death, including heart disease and cancer.

"Whether it's eating more vegetables, [decreasing] saturated fat, maintaining a healthy weight is going to help stroke, cancer, and heart disease risk as well as liver disease, kidney disease, and diabetes," she said. "Aside from unintentional injury and suicide, virtually every other thing of that list would be impacted by lifestyle."

Dr. Megha Gupta is a Neurology Resident Physician at Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University in St. Louis and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.
PixeloneStocker / Getty Images AI's long-term impact on U.S. jobs won't be clear for some time.

Key Takeaways

The recent slowdown in hiring may at least partially be due to the adoption of AI, which threatens to displace workers in some professions, especially younger workers in white collar jobs.



Economists at Goldman Sachs estimate 6% to 7% of U.S. jobs could be replaced by AI.



In the past, technological change has led to improvements in living standards, and obsolete jobs have been replaced by new ones. But there is no guarantee that this will happen again.



Jobs are disappearing just as companies incorporate more artificial intelligence into their businesses, raising the question: Is work going to chatbots instead of people?



There's no doubt the job market is slowing down. The last three months of job growth have been one of the worst stretches for the labor market since the pandemic hit, leading some experts, including Moody's Chief Economist Mark Zandi, to declare the U.S. has entered a "jobs recession."

Many analysts have blamed President Donald Trump's economic policies, especially his controversial tariffs, for the slowdown in the job market. However, recent analyses have found some evidence that AI is also contributing to the slowdown.



Businesses Say They're Hiring Fewer Workers

At least two federal reserve bank surveys indicate businesses are hiring fewer people because the work is being done by AI.



Among service firms that use the technology, 12% said they had hired fewer workers in the past six months due to its use, and almost 25% of those that plan to use AI expect to hire fewer workers because of it, according to a New York Fed survey released last week. Separately, a survey by the Dallas Fed found 10% of businesses said AI decreased their need for workers.



There was some good news for workers: Some firms in the survey said they were retraining staff to use AI, and others even said they were increasing hiring.



However, AI salespeople are quick to tout the job-killing potential of their technology.



Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, one of the leading AI companies, told Axios in May that the technology could lead to a world where "Cancer is cured, the economy grows at 10% a year, the budget is balancedand 20% of people don't have jobs."



Young Workers Hit Hardest

Early-career workers in white-collar industries may be the hardest hit. Among jobs most affected by AI so far, such as software developers, employment for 22- to 25-year-olds has fallen 6% since ChatGPT launched in 2022, a Stanford University study published last month found.



More evidence for the AI's impact on tech jobs came Tuesday with the release of a Bureau of Labor Statistics report showing the economy added nearly a million fewer jobs in the 12 months through March 2025 than previously estimated. The information sector suffered the largest downward revision relative to its size, adding 67,000 fewer jobs, or 2.3% of the total.



"The revised data show more clearly that AI is automating away tech jobs," Bill Adams, Chief Economist for Comerica Bank, wrote in a commentary.


Kids having access to clean drinking water in schools might seem like a basic necessity, but in many regions across the globe, that can be easier said than done.

New Hampshire is addressing this issue in its school system by implementing a statewide program to test for lead in drinking water. The Get the Lead Out of Drinking Water program aims to locate schools with lead issues in their water and remedy the situation.

Run by the state's Department of Environmental Services, the program has seen enrollment by 575 of the 633 eligible schools. As noted by New Hampshire State Representative Bill Boyd, the program addresses a growing concern that many might not be aware of. "Let's be honest, it's a pediatric public health issue that has largely gone under the radar," Boyd told WMUR9.

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Elevated levels of lead in drinking water can potentially cause several serious health issues, including neurological and cardiovascular issues. Young children can often be the most vulnerable population to prolonged lead exposure.

The DES reported that more than half of the schools in New Hampshire could have drinking water fountains that test above the state's minimum levels. However, many of these schools may not even be aware that their drinking water poses a potential health hazard to their children.

Patrick Connors, the principal of Epsom Central School, revealed that it came as a shock to find out that his school had several fixtures that showed higher levels of lead. In fact, 13 of 82 tested fixtures had lead levels above five parts per billion in 2024, the state's legal limit that requires reporting and remediation.

"You have it from the pipes," Connors said. "You could have it from the fixtures. It could be coming into the building. So, it's not one solution that will fit them all." Thankfully, the school wasn't required to foot the bill to fix the issue.

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Epsom Central School was able to secure an $11,000 grant from the program to replace four drinking water fixtures as well as add 13 water filters throughout the building. According to WMUR9, the New Hampshire Drinking Water and Ground Water Trust Fund has already contributed $1 million to help cover costs for the statewide program.

How often do you worry about the quality of your drinking water? Never Sometimes Often Always Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.

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TYLER, Texas (KETK) As the new semester begins, the University of Texas at Tyler is celebrating a record-breaking enrollment year.

Marshalls curbside recycling restarts with new sorting plant

According to the university, there are currently 11,602 students enrolled in classes this fall, representing a 10.07% increase over the same period last year, which is the highest total enrollment in the universitys history.

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The university has seen a significant increase in first-year students enrolling at UT Tyler, as the freshman class is currently made up of 1,561 students, which is a 9.47% increase from last fall. Additionally, UT Tylers graduate programs saw their largest enrollment ever, with a

preliminary enrollment of 3,264.

It is exciting to see these historic enrollment numbers for fall, UT Tyler provost and chief academic officer Dr. Barbara K. Haas said. We also saw the largest semester credit hours generated in university history for a second consecutive year. This growth is a testament to our commitment to teaching excellence, student success and offering programs that meet the needs of our community.

Courtesy of the University of Texas at Tyler

As enrollment continues to increase, UT Tyler continues its mission to improve educational and healthcare outcomes for East Texas and currently offers more than 90 undergraduate and graduate programs to over 11,500 students.

This milestone reflects the dedication and hard work of so many across our campus community, said UT Tyler President Julie V. Philley, MD. Our focus continues to be on meeting the needs of our students and our region. We are committed to giving them our best so that they can reach their full potential.

You can now stream KETK and FOX51 News live 24/7 on your smart TV with KETK+, our brand-new app! No antenna, cable, or satellite neededwatch for free, anytime. Just download it on your Roku, Apple TV, or Fire TV and start streaming.

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(The Center Square)  Some University of Wisconsin campuses have a few more students this fall after the system released its preliminary enrollment numbers.

"New freshman enrollment is up 3%, or nearly 900 students, according to the preliminary estimates  with eight universities showing new freshman enrollment increases of 5% or more," the university said in a statement. "Overall, enrollment is 164,340 in fall 2025, according to the preliminary estimates, down 96 students from the final 2024 fall enrollment counts."

The university credits its Direct Admit program, where UW campuses accept students who graduate from Wisconsin high schools without requiring them to apply first, for some of the enrollment jumps at some campuses.

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We are seeing positive signs on enrollment for the third straight year, Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman added. New freshman enrollment is particularly promising. Its a win when our states public universities continue to attract and retain talent Wisconsin will need to prosper.

The university is blaming a drop in international students for some of the enrollment decline across the UW system.

UW-Madison continues to be the largest campus in the UW System, with 51,550 students this fall. That's 250 or so students less than last fall. UW-Green Bay saw the largest year-over-year enrollment increase. The Green Bay campus has nearly 300 more students this fall. Both the Stevens Point and Whitewater campuses have about 350 more students this year.

UW-Eau Claire and UW-Oshkosh saw the biggest drops in the UW System. Both campuses have about 500 fewer students than last fall.

"Eight of 13 universities showed increases under the preliminary enrollments. The Universities of Wisconsin have been providing enrollment estimates based on day one counts since fall 2020. Official enrollment counts will be released later this fall based on the 10th day of enrollment," the university said.
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI)  The U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins made a stop in San Diego on Tuesday to visit the VA Hospital in La Jolla and meet with veterans, staff and students of University of San Diego. He said since being sworn into this position in February, hes visited about 100 VA facilities in 24 states, and said San Diego consistently ranks as one of the best in the nation.

One of the reasons Im out here today is because this is one of the best in our system, this is one of the top 5 across our whole platform, he added, compared to the 170 facilities in the nations largest healthcare network. This is one we can point to and say this is one thats doing it right, this is one thats getting a lot done.

These are the 10 fastest-growing jobs over the next decade

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The VA San Diego Healthcare System essentially getting the stamp of approval from Collins. He visited with staff and patients, and passed out several Secretary coins to some of the staff. This isnt his first time in San Diego. He said more than 30 years ago he started his military career here.

After being sworn in, Collins led a workforce reduction that resulted in about 30,000 fewer positions, but he is disputing any claims that this weakened the VA.

VA studies how psychedelic therapy can help veterans

Nobodys been laid off and nobodys been fired, our reduction came from those who took voluntary retirement, Collins added, getting emotional at one point talking about his daughter and saying that he does not plan to cut any of the summer/winter games for disabled veterans.

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Im the father of a 33-year-old spina bifida child, shes never walked. Ive had to deal with her being in a wheelchair. We cried when she pushed that wheelchair for the first time, because that was her first step. For any of our disabled veterans who are getting the opportunity to do clinics like that, whether it be winter, summer, wheelchair games, warrior games, were going to be there to support that. Im not going to let anyone take that back, because I see what the value of it is, Collins said.

Daylight saving time: Does California want to stop changing the clocks?

Collins said in his time in office so far he has cut the backlog of disability claims, helped wait times and maintains a focus on veteran care, but said there is still more work that needs to be done.

Ive tasked all of our VA to say, what are we doing that we shouldnt be doing, what has been put in for some reason before that we can now lose so that we have a cleaner line of communication, and a cleaner line of work so we can get our veterans the help that they need, Collins said. Referring to the San Diego location, this is a great facility .. this one is actually one thats very good.

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It was a huge surprise and its a very special honor because those arent given out very frequently, Cindy Abair, the associate medical center director said. She was one of the few employees who received the Secretarys coin.

Its a special honor for him to come to the area, because we spent some time with him this morning and he was talking to us about the initiatives and some of his goals about what he wants to do and changes that he wants to make for the benefit of the organization, Abair added.

The Secretary was also scheduled to talk with veteran students at University of San Diego on Tuesday afternoon.

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Vice President JD Vance is defending the Trump administration's use of military force against suspected drug traffickers  while acknowledging the "due process concerns" that earned him a rebuke from a fellow Republican.

Vance said in an interview Tuesday he believes the U.S. should treat drug traffickers as if theyre combatants in a war, defending the administration's military strike on a vessel off Venezuela.

I think the rules of engagement should be similar to what they are in war, because we are, in fact, in a war against these drug cartels, Vance told One America News.

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Vance addressed criticism from Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who criticized the vice president for endorsing the killing of the people on the boat without any kind of judicial process, and then dismissing concerns about human rights.

I understand the concerns about due process, I understand some of the criticisms that have been raised, but this is not a situation where we can send the Navy SEALs into these places, arrest them and give them a proper civil trial or criminal trial," Vance said in the interview.

The president announced Sept. 2 that the U.S. conducted an airstrike against a suspected drug boat off the coast of Venezuela, killing 11 people. Vance defended it at the time as the highest and best use of our military while dismissing accusations the strike amounted to a war crime.

Vances earlier comments drew the ire of the Libertarian-leaning Paul, who questioned the lack of due process for the suspected drug traffickers killed in the strike and called Vances comments a despicable and thoughtless sentiment.

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Legal experts have questioned the legal basis for the strike and have warned about the precedent it sets for future actions against suspected criminals outside the country. Democrats have joined Paul in raising concerns over the legality of the strike.

Despite a long history of isolationism, Vance has inched toward a more aggressive foreign policy approach since taking office alongside Trump. He has become a key messenger for some of the presidents high-profile foreign policy actions, including the U.S. strike on Iran and the efforts to negotiate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.


Before he was ordering the extrajudicial killing of South American civilians and before he was offering up $50 million in U.S. taxpayer funds for the head of his authoritarian counterpart in Venezuela, Donald Trump wasnt so sour on Nicolas Maduro and his fossil fuel-rich country. They were never close spa buddies, like he and the convicted child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, but the U.S. president and three-term strongman did share a love language.

In 2016, a month before Trump was first inaugurated, Maduro and his government donated some $500,000  just under $670,000 in todays money  so that the man who would be king, who would go on to imprison, abuse and even kill Venezuelan nationals without trial, could throw one hell of a party. According to the Federal Election Commission, Venezuela, via its state-owned oil company, PdVSA, and its U.S. subsidiary, CITGO, was indeed one of the single largest donors to Trumps first inaugural committee; so much money was raised that nearly $26 million was left over to pay an event planning company founded about 30 days prior by an aide to his wife, Melania.

Thats pretty neat. With the 79-year-old president also lashing out at his former benefactor, moving F-35 stealth fighter jets to the region (It looks to me like the US military is going to war, observed a Fox News correspondent) after just unilaterally accusing, convicting and then slaughtering 11 purported drug traffickers off the coast of Venezuela, its also pretty relevant.

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The charge is not that Mr. Maduro bought himself anything meaningful and lasting with that half-million-dollar donation. The contribution was a reflection of the times, when pundits and some foreign ministers confused Trumps opportunistic criticism of his predecessors and America First rhetoric with a less militaristic approach to foreign affairs, as well as the general incompetence of the political leadership in Caracas, which in the run-up to the 2016 election used its English-language state media to promote Trump as the candidate less likely to engage [America] in needless wars.

The accusation, rather, is that Trump took money from a man who is, in the words of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, effectively a kingpin of a drug narco state  or as Trump himself put it, a man responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere.

Sounds like a monster, if true. Here, then, is a complementary question that may be asked by any sentient member of the Washington press corps: Why did you take so much of that blood-soaked money?

Students of history will recall that, about nine months ago, taking money from a foreign energy firm was once deemed scandalous by Americas ruling party. Burisma, a natural gas company in Ukraine, had put the then-vice presidents son on its board, Hunter Biden trading on his dads name and pocketing tens of thousands of dollars in return. Although no evidence ever emerged that the father had acted improperly  an FBI informant with claimed connections to Russian intelligence, cited by congressional Republicans, ultimately pleaded guilty to concocting a phony bribery story involving the Biden crime family  the mere appearance of impropriety was sufficient to generate years of hearings and innumerable headlines in conservative media.

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Following the lead of Republicans and an assortment of right-wing hacks, Democrats and whats left of the free press could ask some questions.

Start your day with essential news from Salon.

Sign up for our free morning newsletter, Crash Course.

Is Trump, whose first inaugural committee pocketed drug money from a terrorist sex trafficker (by the presidents own claim)  and whose company, in 2015, allegedly sold ocean-view property in the Dominican Republic to a shell company for a powerful Maduro ally  have something personal to gain from a lawless strike on purported narcos in the Caribbean Sea?

Or was Trump repaying a bribe when he canceled legal status for hundreds of thousands of people who fled the Maduro regime, allowing Venezuelans to now be deported back to an economically devastated nation that is desperate to stanch the exodus of its middle class?

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[I]ts clear that allowing Venezuelan nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is not in Americas best interest, the Department of Homeland Security announced last week. Is that because its not in Venezuelas interests, either?

The answers are almost certainly no, Maduro, despite his sizable contribution to Trumps inaugural slush fund, treated no better than a contractor on a Trump hotel. But if it were any other president, the questions would almost certainly be asked. What, Mr. President, did you do with all that blood money, and why did you ever think it was fine to accept it in the first place?

What appears to have been missing over the past decade are political reporters and a Democratic opposition up to the task.

The post Venezuela gave Trump $500,000. What did he do with it? appeared first on Salon.com.
President Donald Trump chided Israel on Tuesday over its attack targeting Hamas leadership in Qatar, a country that has hosted Gaza peace negotiations and a military base for thousands of U.S. troops.

Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a Sovereign Nation and close Ally of the United States, that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker Peace, does not advance Israel or Americas goals, Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the decision to carry out the attack.

He added, I view Qatar as a strong Ally and friend of the U.S., and feel very badly about the location of the attack.

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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt read a similar statement at Tuesday's briefing.

Speaking to reporters later that night, Trump said, "Im not thrilled about it."

"I was very unhappy about it, very unhappy about every aspect, and we got to get the hostages back. But I was very unhappy about the way that went down," he said of the attack.

Trump has largely supported Netanyahu during ramped-up Israeli military operations in Gaza, which in recent days have led to the demolition of several high-rise buildings and dozens of deaths in the densely populated urban environment of Gaza City.

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Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the military strike in Qatar targeted the planners of Hamas-led attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which saw 1,200 people killed and around 250 people taken hostage.

"These are the same terrorists, terrorist chiefs, who planned, launched and celebrated the horrific massacres of October 7th," he said.

Trump's criticism may have stemmed from his being kept in the dark about Israels attack plans. He wrote on Truth Social that the U.S. military informed his administration that "Israel was attacking Hamas which, very unfortunately, was located in a section of Doha, the Capital of Qatar."

President Donald Trump and members of his Cabinet and administration arrive for dinner at Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab in Washington on Tuesday. (Win McNamee / Getty Images)

The attack could easily derail all diplomatic efforts for a peace deal. On Friday, Trump said the United States is in very deep negotiations with Hamas.

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At the same time, Trump wrote Tuesday that eliminating Hamas, who have profited off the misery of those living in Gaza, is a worthy goal. The comment made his public criticism of Israel even more unexpected.

The attack leaves the status of the talks to end the conflict in Gaza  and the fate of the remaining hostages  in limbo, particularly after Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatars prime minister, called the Israeli strike an act of treachery.

Trump spoke to Al Thani and the emir of Qatar on Tuesday to reassure them that such an attack would not be repeated.

Still, it is clear that the attack has created some friction between the United States and Qatar. Al Thani was not shy about disputing Trumps account of the events leading up to the attack.

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Trump posted that he had immediately instructed his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to inform Qatar about the impending attack. Al Thani said the first call the Qataris received from a U.S. official was 10 minutes after the attack.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
TOPEKA (KSNT)  Todd Lagasse devoted 15 years of his life serving in the U.S. Air Force as an airplane mechanic. Now, two decades into retirement, the Kansas native says he puts what he learned during that time to use each and every day.

After meeting up with an old friend who had signed on with the Air Force Reserve Officers Training Corps program, Lagasse found himself interested in getting involved. Lagasse entered the Air Force in 1990 after speaking with a recruiter about signing up.

When it came to choosing his specialty, aptitude testing helped point him in the right direction.

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Veteran Salute: Emporia veterans experience in historic Vietnam War evacuation

When I tested in the ASVAB, they said I could go open mechanical, and I like mechanics and all that. So thats what I chose. And I dont regret it, Lagasse said. I made some really good pilot friends and I still keep in touch with and coworkers and stuff. I enjoyed every aspect of it.

This job, like many, led to Lagasse to find both challenges and very memorable moments. But something he has taken pride in is seeing his son follow in his footsteps all these years later.

I would say my whole career, but the proudest Ive felt is my son just graduated from basic training earlier this year in the Air Force, Lagasse said. He is an engine mechanic stationed up in Dover, Delaware. So, he kind of followed my footsteps.

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With his own military career now behind him, Lagasse was assigned one final mission.

The Honor Flight that I took two years ago, I got to go to D.C. with a bunch of Vietnam Vets, Lagasse said. It was so heartwarming to see them actually get the welcome home that they deserved back in the Vietnam era. I mean, it was phenomenal. You know, I didnt feel I deserved the Honor Flight, but I got nominated and I got selected. My guardian, her and I are very close to this day. I mean, that was the most shocking experience Ive ever seen, is to see the Vietnam veterans so excited and happy.

After retiring from the military in 2005, Lagasse settled down in Emporia with his wife where he now works as a method tech at Michelin. Just like those military planes from his youth, he continues to keep the machines up and running for his team.

For more Veteran Salutes stories, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here.

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The legislation will be named after Marisol Fuentes-Huaracha, the 25-year-old who police say was killed in July by her ex-husband, Michael Gleason, outside the restaurant where she worked. (Getty Images)

Months after a high-profile murder-suicide in Berlin, the states leading domestic violence advocacy organization is working on legislation for next year to address victims rights.

The New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence is helping to cobble together a set of bills named after Marisol Fuentes-Huaracha, Amanda Grady Sexton, director of public affairs at the coalition, told a roundtable of state officials last week. Fuentes-Huaracha was killed in July by her ex-husband, Michael Gleason, outside the restaurant where she worked, police say.

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The goals of the bills: strengthening statutory protections for victims of domestic and sexual violence, enhancing judicial education, and deepening communication within the courts and between branches of state government, Sexton said in a statement Tuesday.

Sexton did not provide further details about the content of the bills, which she says the coalition is helping craft with prosecutors, law enforcement, and legislators in both parties.

To accomplish this, the Coalition is partnering with Marisols loved ones, survivors of abuse, and key stakeholders who serve victims of crime  all with the shared goal of reducing violence in the Granite State, she said.

But the promised legislation is one of several proposals for reform in the wake of the Fuentes-Huaracha case that could affect lawmakers work. Public officials and lawmakers, many of them Republicans, say the tragedy should be an impetus to improve transparency and accountability in the courts. And some say the bail laws themselves  which were strengthened this year at the urging of Gov. Kelly Ayotte  should be tightened more.

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Democrats are more wary. Many had already opposed the stricter bail law, which takes effect Sept. 21, arguing it will deprive defendants of rights.

The new law will repeal the fledgling magistrate system and require that people charged with a serious offense be held behind bars before their arraignment in court. Most significantly, it will lower the standard of proof by which a judge must determine the dangerousness of a defendant in order to deny the defendant bail. Currently, that standard is clear and convincing evidence; on Sept. 21, it will be reduced to probable cause.

A 2018 effort to advance statutory protections for victims of domestic and sexual violence failed to advance in the New Hampshire Legislature after civil rights groups, including the Americans Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire, argued it would detract from the rights of defendants.

But those urging further legislative changes are pointing to a litany of failed opportunities listed in a review of the Fuentes-Huaracha case by the judicial branch in a report released late last month.

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What Im seeing, and continue to hear, is the issue of discretion being abused in terms of bail decision-making at the court level, said Executive Councilor John Stephen, a Manchester Republican, in an interview Tuesday.

Asked about any future changes to the bail laws, Ayotte said this years legislative fix should be sufficient to change courts behavior.

I was proud to sign a bipartisan law this year to end the failed bail reform social experiment and shut the revolving door for violent criminals in our state, Ayotte said in a statement Tuesday. When that law takes effect this month, we will be able to keep violent offenders off our streets and stop preventable tragedies like the murder of Marisol Fuentes in Berlin. I will continue to work every day to protect victims and hold criminals accountable so we can keep New Hampshire the safest state in the nation.

Calls for accountability

From the coalitions perspective, the Fuentes-Huaracha case exposed a number of flaws in the judicial system that should be addressed through legislation.

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The number of trainings conducted by the judicial branch to inform judges about the signs of abuse and coercion against victims of domestic violence should increase, they say, especially ones to help judges know the signs of abuse when determining whether to issue a protective order or grant bail to a defendant.

The information on an arrested person, including past arrests and any stalking or domestic violence protective orders they may be subjected to, should be more easily available to law enforcement issues, the coalition says.

And the coalition has said that the statutory definition of abuse in New Hampshire, which hinges on a victims fear for his or her safety or well-being, should apply to situations of emotional coercion, not just physical danger.

Stephen has his own wishlist of changes. Since the murder, Stephen and fellow Executive Councilor Joe Kenney, a Wakefield Republican, have conducted a series of forums and listening sessions across the state designed to bring law enforcement and judicial officers together to discuss lessons and solutions.

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Stephen, a former homicide prosecutor and assistant attorney general, has arrived at a clear takeaway: The public needs more information about how judges make bail decisions. Speaking Tuesday, he said there is not enough information for people to know how often individual judges are granting bail  and whether there are patterns of leniency.

Stephen also agreed with the coalition about the need for better systems to share information among actors within the system.

But he has stopped short of calling for the bail statute itself to be changed. The changes put in place by this years bail reform rollback bill, House Bill 592, should be enough to ensure more people are held that should be held, Stephen argued  particularly with the lowered standard for dangerousness. The key next step, he said, is accountability.

I agree wholeheartedly with the governor that we have addressed the significant issue here, Stephen said.

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 I do believe, with the probable cause standard in meeting those offenses, that those dangerous criminals will be taken off the road, he said. But again, I want to be assured of that.

An unfinished debate

While Stephen is content to let this years bail changes play out, other Republican lawmakers support tightening them further.

Rep. Douglas Trottier, a Belmont Republican, said he would support a bill that would further tie judges hands when it comes to setting bail for people repeatedly charged with the same crime.

One time can be a mistake or a poor judgment for whatever reason, but people that make mistakes, in my opinion, learn from their mistakes, he said. If you keep doing it, its not a mistake. So we need to hold these people without bail on preventative detention.

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Trottier said he would wait to see how the latest bail reform clawback succeeds, but that he thinks it will likely not be enough.

Rep. Mike Bordes, a Laconia Republican, also said more legislation to prevent a revolving door is necessary. I think where we started was excellent, he said Tuesday. I think it was a step in the right direction. But I do think we do need some more reforms put in place.

But neither Trottier nor Bordes said they are aware of any specific plans for legislation next year to do so.

House lawmakers may begin filing bill requests Monday. The final text of any bills is generally not available until early January.

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Democrats, meanwhile, are opposing further changes. Many point to falling crime rates in the state, and raise the risk that stricter bail will mean people will be stuck behind bars for no reason before their trials.

Rep. David Meuse, a Portsmouth Democrat and a longstanding member of the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, declined to comment directly on the potential victims rights legislation until he had seen a copy.

But in an interview Tuesday, he said he would be skeptical of any further changes to the bail statute.

One of the things that does concern me is we have seen a trend, especially over the last couple of years, to take more and more discretion out of the hands of judges, he said. We put judges in that position for a reason.

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The new standard by which judges must establish a defendants dangerousness for the purpose of determining bail  probable cause  is already very low, Meuse said.

Meuse said he supports increasing information-sharing between police departments and courts so that law enforcement and prosecutors have up-to-date information about a defendants arrest and bail history.

He is more cautious about any efforts to increase accountability of judges, though.

I dont want us to get into a situation where every time a judge doesnt happen to make the right call and cant predict the future like in (the 2002 film) Minority Report, that somehow theyre being censured or disciplined or being threatened with impeachment by the Legislature, he said. I think accountability is fine, but lets see what that looks like.
Alphabet Inc. (GOOG), headquartered in Mountain View, California, is one of the worlds largest and most influential technology companies. As the parent of Google, it dominates global markets in search, digital advertising, YouTube, Android, and cloud computing, while advancing innovation through subsidiaries like Waymo, DeepMind, and Verily.

Companies valued at $200 billion or more are generally labeled as "mega-cap stocks, and Alphabet not only fits this category but surpasses it by a wide margin, boasting a market capitalization well above this threshold. With a massive market capitalization of about $2.84 trillion, Alphabet commands the tech industry with its expansive ecosystem spanning artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and cutting-edge innovation.

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GOOG stock is holding on to solid gains at the moment. Over the past three months, its shares have gained 33.9%. The stock had reached a 52-week high of $238.40 on Sept. 8, and is down only 1.8% from this high. Over the same period, the broader Vanguard Communication Services Index Fund ETF Shares (VOX) has gained 13.4%. Therefore, GOOG has outperformed the communication services sector over this period.

www.barchart.com

On a year-to-date (YTD) basis, Alphabets stock has gained 23%, while over the past 52 weeks, it is up by 53.9%. In contrast, the Vanguard Communication Services ETF gained 20% and 39% over the same periods, respectively.

On the technical side, Alphabet has remained consistently above its 50-day and 200-day moving averages since late July, signaling sustained upward momentum.

www.barchart.com

On July 23, Alphabet reported solid second-quarter results. The companys quarterly revenues grew 13.8% year-over-year (YOY) to $96.43 billion. Alphabet is optimistic about AI, which has had a favorable impact on every part of its business. Its EPS for the quarter was $2.31, which was 22.2% higher than the EPS for the same period in the prior year.

Recently, Alphabet escaped a harsh antitrust ruling when U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta issued the verdict in a landmark case involving an alleged internet search monopoly. While Judge Mehta reaffirmed that the company has a monopoly in the internet search sphere, the punishment was not severe. Instead of being forced to divest key businesses, such as Chrome, the company faces narrow restrictions. Following the news release, GOOGs stock gained 9% intraday on Sept. 3.
Sep. 9BEMIDJI  Damage was plainly obvious following the

derecho that struck the Bemidji area on June 21.

Just as obvious were the recovery efforts as emergency response crews and community members worked through the rubble wherever they could.

For Bemidji resident Steve Sassano, his work zone was and is the Greenwood Cemetery.

Among the estimated 9 million downed trees in total from the event, the cemetery clocked well over 100 across 40 acres.

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Among the lumber, roughly 50 tombstones were completely knocked over and around 200 experienced some level of tilting from the Category 3 hurricane wind speeds. Depending on size and material, some tombstones can weigh over 1,000 pounds, demonstrating the ferocious nature of the event.

Even with continued volunteer efforts throughout the summer, Sassano estimates that restoring the cemetery to its pre-storm condition could take two years or more.

As such, the lookout for more volunteers is ongoing and recruitment efforts have diversified. Anyone with any availability and equipment  chainsaws, rakes, backhoes or just their hands  are welcome to join the effort.

"I spent (Thursday, Sept. 4) bringing a letter to different churches so that the ministers would ask their congregations if they want to help," Sassano said. "Some students (at Bemidji State) are required to do community service for their degrees. ... I went to the sheriff's department, the police department asking for volunteers. It's been really hard as some people who worked over the summer got burned out."

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Despite the difficulty, Sassano and other volunteers have exhibited tenacity.

"I'm 71, have a bad back, Type 2 diabetes and a torn rotator cuff," Sassano said lightheartedly, "and I've been out here cutting wood every day."

As the winter months close in, Sassano hopes to grow the cemetery's volunteer pool to "as many people as we can possibly get."

Doing so could expedite the recovery process for a property with longstanding historical relevance to the Bemidji area as Sassano noted graves dating back to the Civil War.

Also included on its grounds is a memorial for Shaynowishkung, nicknamed Chief Bemidji, who is recognized as the first permanent settler of Bemidji. Despite the memorial's placement, Shaynowishkung's exact burial location remains unknown.

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Above all else, Sassano aims to alleviate distress for families with loved ones buried at Greenwood, a selfless act from a Connecticut native.

"Everybody asks me, 'Do you have any relatives buried here?' And I tell them no," Sassano left off. "They say, 'Why are you doing this?' I tell them I'm doing it for my late wife, and for those people who are buried here and their families. We're just trying to give these people their dignity back."

Those interested in volunteering can contact Sassano at

(218) 940-0602.
As health care systems expand medical services in the Lowcountry, finding enough physicians to serve the areas growing population is a major concern.

Beaufort County is currently short about 70 providers, Beaufort Memorial Hospital president and CEO Russell Baxley said, including specialists in gastroenterology, urology, neurology and rheumatology. These shortages have led to a backlog of appointments for new patients, he said.

Its a similar situation at Novant Health, which acquired Coastal Carolina Medical Center in Hardeeville and Hilton Head Medical Center last year. Recruiting primary care doctors has been a challenge, physician executive for South Carolina Dr. Robert Harrington said, and the need will likely increase as the areas population continues to grow.

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Weve done some market analysis in terms of the primary care deficit in the market, and I would say weve got a lot of opportunity there, Harrington said.

The problem isnt unique to the Lowcountry, or even South Carolina. The U.S. is projected to face a shortage of up to 86,000 doctors by 2036, according to a 2024 report from the Association of American Medical Colleges. But in South Carolina, an aging and growing population and a scarcity of medical residency programs contribute to the national problem, experts said.

Filling open positions is especially difficult in the Lowcountry, where the cost of living is high compared to other parts of the state.

Greenville and Columbia are desirable, but have a lower cost of living. That is a bit of a challenge, Baxley said. Its just really competitive. I dont think you can look to a state or area that isnt hurting for providers.

How did we get here

South Carolina is projected to be short by about 3,000 physicians by 2032, Baxley said. Thats roughly the same figure cited by the Cicero Institute, a conservative think tank based in Texas that also ranks South Carolina 36th in the nation for total physician supply.

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The state has four medical schools: Medical University of South Carolina, the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM), University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville and the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Columbia. MUSCs primary residency program is based in Charleston, but the school also recently said it expanded its Florence residency program for a total of 24 doctors.

The South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has a physician residency incentive program that gives hospitals Medicaid funding if they train doctors in determined high-need specialties, including obstetrics and gynecology, family medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry and internal medicine.

Those training funds are needed, said Lara Hewitt, vice president of workforce and president of Solvent Networks at the South Carolina Hospital Association. But they dont address the issue of physician retention. In 2024, just 132 out of 474 South Carolina medical school graduates were placed in an in-state residency, which is a problem because doctors tend to set up their practices close to their residency placement, Hewitt said. Graduates also understandably gravitate towards programs that will help them pay off medical school.

Debt is a big concern for them, and they need help trying to figure out, am I going to stay in the state of South Carolina, or do I go somewhere where theres loan forgiveness and establish my practice there? she said.

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The current generation of medical school graduates also values work-life balance more than their predecessors, Hewitt said. Because of that, replacing a retiring doctor with a new medical school graduate isnt a one-to-one exchange, she said.

A lot of them are looking to not be a traditional, more seasoned physician who works 80 hours a week and takes weekend calls. They are looking for employer policies that are going to allow them to be more balanced as human beings, she said. Its not like I have Dr. Jones about to retire and Im going to replace him with Dr. Lara, because Dr. Lara is not going to want to come in and work the same way Dr. Jones did.

It can also be tough to recruit physicians to largely rural South Carolina because physicians tend to gravitate towards urban areas, said Brad Wright, professor and chair of Health Services Policy and Management at the University of South Carolinas Arnold School of Public Health.

Supply side-wise, youre always going to see issues with limited workforce in rural areas, and we have a lot of rural areas in the state, Wright said.

Whats in development?

Both Beaufort Memorial and Novant Health are building new hospitals in Bluffton to expand health care access south of the Broad River. Blufftons population grew by about 15,000 between 2010 and 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and both health care networks have said theyre trying to meet that need.

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New South Carolina hospitals must obtain a certificate of need from the state before construction begins, a regulatory go-ahead that prevents too many hospitals from being built at the same time. Beaufort Memorial opposed Novants certificate of need, after Tenet Health, the former parent company of Hilton Head and Coastal Carolina hospitals, opposed a Beaufort Memorial hospital plan that was ultimately withdrawn.

Staffing, Baxley said, is a big reason why.

We were already trying to build a hospital in a location that actually needs a hospital, Baxley said. When you have two hospitals within a short radius in a health care professional shortage, unless we double the number of nurses and respiratory therapists, I think we will continue to struggle on the staffing side of things.

Both health systems are also attempting to address housing as a barrier to recruitment by building workforce units near their facilities.

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Beaufort Memorial is building LiveWell Terrace, a 120-unit apartment building for people making up to 80% of the Area Median Income. Novant in January said it is building a 140-unit complex on Hilton Head Island; at least 30% of the units will be set aside for medical staff, according to the company.

The idea is to make it easier for Hilton Head Medical Center staff to get to work, said Joel Taylor, the local market president at Novant Health.

Beaufort Memorial also opened a new on-site childcare facility for its employees last year on the hospitals main campus.

The hospital is being proactive in its response to the workforce issue, Baxley said, but theres still a lot to be done.

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How do you balance that rapid and extreme growth, and the need for more health care, but supply the workforce to do it? he said. We are really struggling, but trying to make inroads and improvements in partnerships and new facilities.

This story has been corrected to clarify that it is Beaufort County, not Beaufort Memorial Hospital, that is short about 70 physicians.
WALTON COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB)  The Walton County Commission voted to approve a new youth library in a meeting earlier Tuesday.

Walton Countys Library Director, Katelyn Cerice, says the library system has not gained any additional footage since 2001.

According to Cerice, the state assigns roughly .60 square feet of library space per capita, yet Walton remains at .25 per capita. In total, she says the system is 30,000 square feet in deficit.

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To give them more space, the board voted to approve a new library center for children and teenagers, located at the Freeport Commons.

The library is already budgeted in for the year, and Cerice says a $26,000 donation from the Friends of Freeport Public Library will help cover any costs.

In addition to Cerice, local children showed up to support the new center. Christine Bacon, a member of the Library Advisory Council, along with her granddaughter, Evelyn Valenzuela, spoke out during public comment.

I would ask that the board consider voting for a youth center to be built so that I can have a space that is set aside for safe gathering and learning, Valenzuela said.

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Last night, people were rattling about on Facebook about how theres no place for teenagers, and theyre roaming about and everything, and one of the problems is theres no space to go or nothing to do . . . There is a 36% risk reduction when students use the library in drug and alcohol problems. That is very, very vital to what is happening throughout our United States right now, Bacon said.

While one person expressed concern that the center could become a free daycare center or descend into chaos, Cerice said the library would be enforcing a code of conduct and that no child under 12 was allowed to be left without a parent. If parents would like to stay, Cerice says there will be a lounge for adults.

The new library is expected to open in the Spring of 2025. Upon completion, the city is expected to meet again and prepare a budget for hiring three full-time employees.

Walton County Housing Agency limited by budget shortfall | mypanhandle.com

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In other news, Walton Countys Housing Director Tom Baker said the organization was still struggling with funding shortfalls, which could have disastrous effects if not resolved by December.

Since September of 2024, the Walton County Housing Dept. has not been able to accept new applications, leaving 1,400 on a waiting list, unable to receive vouchers.

In 2025, Baker said the organization may be $117,000 short in allocated funding. If the problem is not resolved by December, the housing agency may be unable to fully cover the rent of its 300 families.

While the Walton County Housings funding is reportedly the federal Governments responsibility, Baker says they havent responded, except for telling Baker to apply for more funding.

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Additionally, Baker said the office of Jimmy Patronis also inquired about receiving federal funding for the agency, but did not receive a response.

According to Baker, roughly 50% of Florida housing agencies are facing similar situations.

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Gov. Tim Walz spoke with reporters after meeting with legislative leaders on Sept. 9, 2025. The governor said he will call a special session on gun control. (Photo by Michelle Griffith/Minnesota Reformer)

Gov. Tim Walz said he will call a special legislative session to push for gun control in the wake of the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church, even if he isnt able to strike a deal with lawmakers.

I will call a special session one way or another, Walz told reporters Tuesday after meeting with Republican and Democratic legislative leaders behind closed doors. Just have the hope. Just bring it up. Have the discussion  Maybe it doesnt pass because the numbers arent there but at least were going to know.

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The governor typically calls a special session once lawmakers agree on what bills will be passed and the duration of the session. Walz has the sole ability to call a special session, but only lawmakers can gavel themselves out, which is typically why the governor and lawmakers come to an agreement beforehand.

By pushing ahead with what could be a quixotic effort in the face of GOP intransigence on new gun laws, Walz is signaling that hes looking to get Republicans on the record on gun proposals  and especially an assault weapons ban  even if theres no hope for legislation, which could translate into a rancorous session.

Walz said he will propose a gun control package in the coming days. It will include a ban on the heavy weaponry frequently used in mass shootings and often referred to as assault weapons.

Republicans  who are strongly aligned with the gun rights movement and led by Speaker Lisa Demuth  have 67 members in the Minnesota House, while Democrats have 66 in their ranks following the June assassination of Democratic-Farmer-Labor caucus leader Melissa Hortman. After a Sept. 16 special election, the House is expected to return to a tie.

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The Minnesota Senate also has two absences after the death of Sen. Bruce Anderson, R-Buffalo, and the resignation of Sen. Nicole Mitchell, DFL-Woodbury. Any bill needs 34 votes to pass, meaning all 33 Democrats would need to vote together with at least one Republican joining them.

This means that any legislation proposed in a special session will need bipartisan approval.

Senate Democrats voting in a unified bloc for gun control is no sure thing; at least three Democratic senators  Grant Hauschild of Hermantown, Rob Kupec of Moorhead and Judy Seeberger of Afton  have been difficult to pin down on where they stand on an assault weapons ban.

Walz is hoping that the shooting of a church filled with schoolchildren will pressure at least a few Republicans to vote for gun control, perhaps suburban members concerned about voters anger with their inaction. Demuth said she would need to look at specific bill language before she could say if her caucus would vote for it.

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House Republicans are committed to making sure that we are keeping our schools and our communities safe, Demuth said.

Her caucus last week released a school safety agenda in response to the Annunciation shooting that didnt include any proposals on gun control. Instead, they called for increased funding for school safety at private schools, boosting funding for more mental health treatment beds and increasing penalties for repeat firearm offenders. Their agenda also includes reversing a conversion therapy ban for minors, which would allow therapists to try to change a persons sexual orientation or gender.

DFL Rep. Zack Stephenson, whose caucus elected him their new leader Monday, said in his first appearance that he hopes Republicans will listen to the families affected by gun violence because they are demanding lawmakers take action.

The reason Im standing before you all right now is because of an act of gun violence, said Stephenson, referring to Hortmans assassination. Thats the reason Im here. Hortman had been a mentor to Stephenson since he was a young man.

Walz and legislative leaders will continue to meet behind closed doors to see if they can come to a pre-session agreement. Walz said he would like to call a special session sooner rather than later but didnt give specifics.
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EAGLE MOUNTAIN, Utah (ABC4)  The Utah County Sheriffs Office has released bodycam footage of their response to an Eagle Mountain apartment fire in which one person was trapped.

On August 26, 2025, shortly after 1 a.m., an apartment fire broke out at the Willow Springs Condominium complex in Eagle Mountain. Building J, which had 12 condos, quickly went up in the flames and its occupants were displaced.

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PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Residents react after apartment fire leaves several displaced, one in the hospital

Additionally, an individual on the third floor was hiding in a closet and became trapped. Fire crews with the Unified Fire Authority were able to rescue them through the window. That individual was life flighted to the hospital with injuries.

The body camera footage shows deputies running up the stairs, going door to door, and knocking and calling out to ensure that everyone has gotten out of the building. At one point, they break down a door and smoke comes out. The deputies begin coughing, and fire can be seen engulfing the side of the building.

The entirety of the third floor was destroyed along with significant water damage underneath. Fire officials confirmed the fire was out as of 6 a.m. on August 26. Many residents lost all of their belongings.

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Jose Villarreal, a resident, said the Red Cross did pitch in to help, but was still upset about the fire. At the time, he said, We dont know what is going to happen next. Its kind of heartbreaking.

Hardest thing we have gone through: Couple speaks out after Eagle Mountain apartment fire

We had our kids in our arms and basically everything else we could carry, and we just had to run out of our apartment, Jaxon Adams, another resident, recalled, As we ran out onto the street, we looked back, and we could see the roof was just on fire. And it was surreal, you know, looking up and just seeing all the smoke and these huge flames.

Besides the individual who was trapped, there were no other injuries reported.

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More than 60 containers toppled off a vessel at California's Port of Long Beach.

The containers fell off the Mississippi, an 837-foot-long, Portugal-flagged ship.

No injuries were reported from the incident.

Dozens of containers fell off a vessel docked at Southern California's Port of Long Beach on Tuesday morning.

The US Coast Guard confirmed to Business Insider that it received a report about 67 shipping containers falling into the water.

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The vessel in question was the Mississippi, an 837-foot Portugal-flagged ship, per a report by Reuters. According to data from Vessel Finder, a ship tracking platform, the ship is a year old and had arrived in Long Beach from Yantian, China, on Tuesday.

The Coast Guard told the AFP that the incident had occurred at about 9 a.m. local time on Tuesday, and no injuries had been reported.

A representative of the port did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

67 containers toppled into the water surrounding the barge

The Coast Guard confirmed to BI that 67 containers fell into the water. Apu Gomes/Getty Images

Helicopter footage by ABC Los Angeles' affiliate KABC showed dozens of containers floating in the waters surrounding the barge.

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Some appeared to be half-submerged. Several containers that remained on the vessel had big dents.

Photos show a stack of leaning containers on the barge

A stack of leaning containers seen on the affected vessel. PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

Photos of the scene show that several containers that remained on the ship were leaning precariously off the ship.

AFP said in a report that while it was not clear what was in the containers, journalists on the ground saw shoes and clothes floating in the water.

Port of Long Beach is one of the US's busiest ports

The containers were seen floating in the water at the port. Screengrab/Alan Devall, Sarah Wemy/ Reuters

The incident happened at California's Port of Long Beach, a 3,200-acre container port near Los Angeles. It is one of the busiest ports in the country.

Per its website, the port moves $300 billion worth of cargo annually. It has six container terminals and 73 gantry cranes.

Read the original article on Business Insider
(The Center Square)  Despite pushback from the free-market Washington Policy Center think tank, the Washington State Department of Ecology is standing by its official rebuke of the Trump administrations rollback of federal climate regulations.

The report grossly understates both the impacts of climate change we already observe in Washington State and the role of greenhouse gas emissions in causing these impacts, a Sept. 2 letter to U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright from Ecology Director Casey Sixkiller states reads, referencing a U.S. Department of Energy draft report, A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emission on U.S. Climate, published last month.

The letter continues: This so-called science review report lacks scientific integrity, ignores current climate impacts on Washington communities and fails to protect Americans from what we know is coming. It is a means crafted to justify a predetermined end. I urge you to withdraw this report as it will only serve to justify increasing greenhouse gas pollution, accelerating climate change impacts, furthering economic hardship, and intensifying extreme weather events on Washingtonians.

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Ecology claims its experts reviewed the U.S. Department of Energys report and found factual errors and inconsistencies with the latest national and international peer-reviewed research.

In July, Ecology put out a 91-page report on anthropogenic climate change and recommendations for limits on greenhouse gas emissions in Washington.

Todd Myers is WPCs vice president of research. He recently posted a blog critical of Ecologys criticism of the Trump administration, noting that the state agency has failed to produce emissions data to prove whether or not Washington is meeting its climate goals.

By law, they are required to release CO2 emissions data for the state, and they haven't, Myers told The Center Square on Tuesday. Currently, we're in September of 2025, and the most recent data we have is from 2021. That's completely useless if you're a policymaker and trying to determine how we're doing in meeting our goals.

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As Myers mentions in his blog, WPC has sued Ecology for its failure to release emissions data in a timely manner. The case was dismissed in June.

The Department of Ecology can find the resources to quickly release this report while claiming they do not have the resources to release accurate and timely emissions data, Myers wrote in his blog. The release of this new report makes it clear that Ecology has enough resources to attack political opponents but not to comply with the law and meet their own obligations to address the risks of climate change in Washington state.

Myers noted in his blog, According to EPA data, which account for most but not all state CO2 emissions, Washington states emissions increased in 2022. Incomplete data from the state also indicate emissions increased in 2022 and 2023.

Myers doesnt think Ecology is hiding anything.

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I think that they just don't care, he speculated. They know the policies they want, and they know what they want to do, and no matter what is happening in terms of the actual data, it doesn't matter. So, it's just not a priority. But dunking on the Trump administration is a priority. It is political, and it is fun for them. So that's where they put the resources.

Myers contends Ecology and the University of Washington repeatedly misstate snowpack data related to climate change.

Consistently, they have claimed that snowpack is declining, and that's false. Snowpack as measured by the federal government and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has actually been above normal for 14 of the last 20 years, he explained.

He argues that if climate change is the existential crisis that Ecology claims, the department should be closely monitoring results.

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So that you can come up with a policy approach that reduces CO2 emissions effectively, Myers noted. The fact that they don't care indicates that their action doesn't match their rhetoric. They care more about policies and symbolism than they do results.

The Center Square reached out to Ecology for comment on Myers' criticisms.

The Washington Policy Center is conflating unrelated issues. Our report was co-developed with the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group and is an objective analysis of the best available science, Ecology Communications Director Andrew Wineke emailed The Center Square. Washingtonians deserve to know the truth, and we wont stand by as our federal government attempts to downplay the threat of climate change. As we continue taking action at the state level, Ecology is putting out the most current emissions data available to gauge our progress  a recent court ruling affirmed this.
Ten Israeli fighter jets struck Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday.

The strike was intended to target senior Hamas leaders. The White House said it issued a warning to Qatar ahead of the strike through Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East.

But Qatars foreign minister declined to receive any communication from Washington, D.C., according to the White House.

President Donald Trump weighed in on the attack Tuesday afternoon in a Truth Social post.

Donald J. Trump Truth Social 09.09.25 04:20 PM EST



This morning, the Trump Administration was notified by the United States Military that Israel was attacking Hamas which, very unfortunately, was located in a section of Doha, the Capital of Qatar. This was a decision made by  Fan Donald J. Trump Posts From Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) September 9, 2025

The U.S. military notified the president of the attack in Doha earlier in the morning, he wrote in the post, adding that the decision to strike was solely Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus.

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I immediately directed Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to inform the Qataris of the impending attack, which he did; however, unfortunately, too late to stop the attack, Trump wrote. He also said the attack didnt advance the goals of Jerusalem and Washington, D.C., but he considered eliminating Hamas a worthy goal.

Trump called Qatar a strong ally and friend, adding he felt very badly about the location of the attack. The president called for the release of the hostages and a ceasefire in the region.

I also spoke to Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu after the attack. The Prime Minister told me that he wants to make Peace. I believe this unfortunate incident could serve as an opportunity for PEACE, Trump wrote in the post.

I also spoke to the Emir and Prime Minister of Qatar, he wrote. I assured them that such a thing will not happen again on their soil.

In this framegrab taken from video Qatar Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani addresses the press in Doha, Qatar, Tuesday Sept. 9, 2025. | Associated Press

Trump said he directed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to work on a Defense Cooperation Agreement with Qatar.

What are Israeli and Qatari officials saying?

Netanyahu said that Israel takes full responsibility for the operation.

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Israeli President Isaac Herzog revealed one of the targets behind the strikes: Khalil al-Hayya, a high-level Hamas official who is a certain figure in both the ceasefire talks with Gaza and the negotiations to release the remaining hostages.

Khalil al-Hayya, a high-ranking Hamas official who has represented the Palestinian militant group in negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage exchange deal, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press, in Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, April 24, 2024. | Khalil Hamra, Associated Press

Qatar strongly condemned the attack, criticizing Israel for targeting residential areas where members of the Political Bureau of Hamas live, the nations foreign ministry said in a statement.

The State of Qatar strongly condemns the cowardly Israeli attack that targeted residential buildings housing several members of the Political Bureau of Hamas in the Qatari capital, Doha. This criminal assault constitutes a blatant violation of all international laws and norms,  .    Dr. Majed Al Ansari (@majedalansari) September 9, 2025

Hamas released a statement after the attack. We confirm the enemys failure to assassinate our brothers in the negotiating delegation. However, a number of our martyred brothers have ascended to the highest ranks of glory, the statement said, as per CNN.

Hamas reported that five of its members were dead.

World leaders react

United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the Israeli strike, as did Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, French President Emmanuel Macron and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

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I condemn Israels strikes on Doha, which violate Qatars sovereignty and risk further escalation across the region, said Starmer in a post on X.

The priority must be an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages and a huge surge in aid into Gaza.
The Instagram account for former UFC heavyweight champion and Arizona State University All-American wrestler Cain Velasquez, 43, recently posted a photo of him in a prison facility, prompting many to wonder why he is serving time.

Velasquez was sentenced in March to five years in prison for a 2022 vigilante shooting in San Jose, California, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Velasquez, who was raised in Yuma, was arrested on 10 felony charges, including attempted murder, premeditated attempted murder and weapons charges.

Why was Cain Velasquez sent to prison?

The charges came after Velasquez chased and shot at a car carrying Harry Goularte, who was accused of molesting Velasquezs 4-year-old son.

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Goulartes stepfather was also in the car and was struck by gunfire. He suffered an arm injury but survived, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Velasquez pleaded no contest in August 2024, and the premeditated attempted murder charge, which carried a potential life sentence, was dropped.

How much time has Cain Velasquez served?

Velasquez is still incarcerated. He was admitted to prison on March 27, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

After sentencing Velasquez to five years in prison on March 24, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Arthur Bocanegra credited him with three years served, including nearly a year in jail and almost two years under house arrest, according to MMA Junkie.

When can Cain Velasquez be released?

He is parole eligible in March 2026, according to the California Department of Corrections.

Where is Cain Velasquez now?

Velasquez is in California's Correctional Training Facility in Soledad, which is about 40 miles inland from the coastal city of Monterey.

What happened to the man Cain Valesquez targeted?

Goulartes Santa Clara County criminal case was ongoing. He faced one felony charge of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor and had been released on bail, according to a Santa Clara County news release.

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Goulartes mother, Patricia Goularte, was present for Velasquez's sentencing, MMA Junkie reported. She runs the daycare where prosecutors said that Velasquezs son was abused by Goularte.

Patricia Goularte argued that Velasquez's sentence was influenced by the charges her son faces and that they intended to prove his innocence, MMA Junkie said.

In 2022, Velasquez filed a civil lawsuit against Goularte, according to court records.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Why is Cain Velasquez in prison? What to know
Kinto, a blockchain project operating on Arbitrum, has announced that it will cease operations at the end of September, following a catastrophic $1.6 million hack in July that rendered the platform insolvent.

The decision essentially represents a bankruptcy for the start-up, which had touted itself as a safer version of traditional DeFi because it verified users and insured wallets.

The crash is the result of a smart contract loophole on Kinto's chain, which was exploited by attackers to mint 110,000 fake tokens.

Those tokens were leveraged to siphon nearly $1.55 million from lending pools, backwaters of the project's reserves. With that, Kinto's native token fell 95%, which gutted both confidence and liquidity on the network.

Photo of hack. Source: Getty Images

Kinto's failed recovery

In the weeks following the attack, the team mounted a Phoenix recovery program that raised $1 million to reboot trading and repay users. Although it allowed Kinto to buy some time, the effort was not enough to fix Kinto's financial problems.

On Sept. 7, the team threw in the towel, saying, "It is time to face reality and shut down responsibly.

The Kinto group, however, confirmed that a major breach (CPIMP attack) had been discovered and was mitigated by the security company Dedaub. Weimar Bug Bugs spread across multiple DeFi protocols, threatening tens of millions, and hiding in plain sight by playing as though it was part of normal activity.

The team said, 100% of remaining Safe assets will repay Phoenix lenders, who took the risk to help us relaunch. Theyll recover ~76% of the principal, and are continuing to make further efforts to trace and recover the assets that have been stolen.

More news:

Kinto promises to compensate victims

As a last-minute gesture of goodwill, Kintos founder, Ramon Recuero, promised $55,000 out of his own pocket to the victims' compensation fund.

Related: What are tokenized stocks? Explained

According to the plan, each eligible wallet address will receive up to $1,000 to cover the full amount for about 80% of depositors.



This will ensure that 80% of all depositors receive their full amount back, the team said in its statement.

Kinto faces backlash

News of Kintos shutdown was met with dismay by some in the crypto community. One user on X, posting under the handle Purefier, accused the team of cashing out before folding: You came, make money, and now youre shutting down Didnt expect much.
Why is that? Couple sees nearly $1,000 electric bill after getting zero balance for months

A couple said they dont know if they will have a place to live next month due to their electric bill.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

As reported on News Center 7 at 11:00, John and Thersine Beatty said they got an AES Ohio bill for almost $1,000 after getting a zero-dollar balance for months.

He was stunned with it and its just outrageous, Thersine said.

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They moved into their Montgomery County apartment in January and realized they werent getting charged for their utilities.

John said when he called AES Ohio, they said he didnt have a balance.

He called back every month until June.

I keep telling them, Why is that? I should have a balance. I should have a bill to pay. But they keep on saying I have no balance, John said.

John added that the company told him to make a payment, as if he had a bill.

AES Ohio told News Center 7 the same thing over the phone Tuesday evening.

Im not going to pay for something (that) I dont know what Im paying for. I mean, it says zero. How do I know if that money will go to my account? John said.

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Their first bill came in July.

In six months, I havent paid. You sent me a bill, you said I owe zero, you know. So I told him Ill send what I can, John said.

He said he paid $150 in July and $150 in August.

On Monday, the couple got a letter from AES. It said their power would be shut off because they still owe $750.

To prevent that from happening, they would need to pay more than $150 by Sept. 17.

John said he doesnt get paid until Sept. 18, and not having electricity goes against their lease.

If I lose it, I could get kicked out. Thats breaking my legs, John said.

News Center 7 reached out to AES Ohio, but was asked to give specific customer information to look into this couples account. By the time we were able to provide it, the customer center had closed.

AES Ohio said it will continue its investigation on Wednesday.

News Center 7 will continue to follow this story.

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Gov. Tony Evers has ordered flags across Wisconsin to fly at half-staff on Sept. 10 in remembrance of U.S. Army Pvt. First Class Leon R. Karwacki, who died during World War II at 27.

Born in Milwaukee, Karwacki was killed in an attack near Stolberg, Germany on Sept. 17, 1944, according to a Sept. 9 news release. He posthumously received the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart and other honors.

Karwacki's remains were sent to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency in June 2024. He was positively identified and officially accounted for on Sept. 26 of that year, according to the agency.

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"Private First Class Leon R. Karwacki was a hero who selflessly answered the call to serve and gave his life defending the values and freedoms we hold most dear, Evers said in a statement. "We are forever grateful for his service and sacrifice, and it is an honor to welcome Private First Class Karwacki back to his home state so that he may be finally laid to rest."

Karwacki will be buried in Milwaukee on Sept. 10 with full military honors, the release said. Evers previously ordered flags to fly at half-staff Aug. 9 in honor of U.S. Army Air Forces Pvt. Herbert E. McLaughlin, who also died during World War II at 31.

How long will flags be at half-staff in Wisconsin?

Flags across Wisconsin are ordered to fly at half-staff from sunrise to sunset on Sept. 10, according to Evers' executive order.

Where will flags be at half-staff in Wisconsin?

Per Evers' executive order, American flag and the Wisconsin state flag will fly half-staff at all buildings, grounds and military installations belonging to the state of Wisconsin.

Why do flags fly at half-staff?

Flags typically fly at half-staff after national tragedies or deaths of government officials, military members or other first responders. They may also be flown at half-staff for Memorial Day and other national days of remembrance, including 9/11, according to USA.gov.

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"The United States flag flies at half-staff or at half-mast when the nation or a state is in mourning," USA.gov says. "The president, a state governor, or the mayor of the District of Columbia can order flags to fly at half-staff."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Why are flags flying at half-staff in Wisconsin today?
CATO, N.Y. (WSYR-TV)  A woman watched the ICE raid unfold outside a Cato factory on September 4. That was also the last time she saw her husband, who was taken away by agents.

I couldnt get to him. I couldnt give him a hug; they wouldnt let me hug him or nothing, she said.

She said her husband, Eddie, was in the process of getting his legal status.

They both work at the factory that was raided. She said she was outside on her break when ICE agents showed up. She said her husband was then deported back to Guatemala.

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I couldnt leave my husband in there, she said. I have children with him; hes been here for 20 years.

She married her husband in 2014. She said the raid was the last time she and her two kids saw him before she said he was deported to Guatemala.

My son is having nightmares, she said. Please just please give me my kids dad back.

We had already gone through the appeal process where the case was denied, said the familys Attorney, Jose Perez. We were in a motion to reopen his status, where a court had already said he had not met the elements of his claims, and had already decided he could be removed.

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Perez tried to challenge that removal order with a motion to reopen.

There is no due process right now, Perez said. There are violations of everyones rights.

Federal prosecutor cant yet prove detained Cato workers had criminal past

She said her kids miss him and have been calling him on the phone whenever they can to give him hope.

Just please give us our families back, please, please, the woman said.

She and others in the family continue to hope to be reunited with Eddie soon.





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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WSYR.
WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Texas (KXAN)  The Williamson County Commissioners Court discussed and approved funding towards renovating a facility for emergency dispatchers on Tuesday.

Back in 2024, the commissioners approved purchasing a facility off US Highway 183 from Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) for $18,000,000.

Last year, we spent money buying property in the lake creek area, and that was with the intent of making it our 911 training facility, said Valerie Covey, Williamson County Commissioner for Precinct Three. It will also serve as a backup 911 communication center, if something were to happen to our, our main facility.

On Tuesday, the commissioners approved funding $4.6 million for renovations to the facility for the dispatchers.

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A second location allows us to have some geographic diversity. [It] allows us to operate out of multiple centers simultaneously at some point and allows our dispatchers to collaborate in a dedicated environment for training, said Richard Semple, who oversees technology services for Williamson County. I think this investment shows that the county is committed to safety and security of the citizens and our ability to take 911 callsregardless of physical locationand our ability to expand as the county grows.

The facility is expected to be completed in about one year according to Williamson County. This project was one among the many projects discussed in commissioners court as a part of the 2026 Capital Improvement Program.

READ MORE: Williamson County Commissioners Court approves property tax increase and budget

The money used for funding the Capital Improvement Projects are from cash ending ($20 million), tax levy from the 2026 fiscal year budget for Capital Improvement Projects ($17.9 million), and money left over from prior year allocations that came in under budget ($3.9 million).

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The Williamson County commissioners will continue conversations on other projects to be funded in the next commissioners court meeting.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin.
WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN)  Williamson County Schools is reporting a slight drop in enrollment this year.

That number is 41,374 students, which is down from 41,750 last year.

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Williamson County Schools Superintendent Jason Golden told the school board the decline is the most noticeable in the youngest grades.

Our rising kindergarten class was substantially smaller than our rising senior class, he said. This is year three of that trend.

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Despite the dip, the district maintains a 97.8% graduation rate. Last year, students accepted more than $110 million in scholarships.

 Read todays top stories on wkrn.com

Officials said smaller kindergarten classes could shape long-term planning, from staffing to school growth, in one of Tennessees fastest-growing counties.

For more information on Williamson County Schools enrollment, follow this link.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2.
FORSYTH COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP)  Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools will have yet another interim superintendent before they find a permanent replacement for former Superintendent Tricia McManus.

Interim Superintendent Catty Moores last day is scheduled for Nov. 30.

This will happen as the district is still working to deal with the previous years fiscal year deficit, which is now roughly $37 million.

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The initial plan had been to find someone to fill the permanent position this December. Now, the board has decided to extend the search.

Board Chair Deanna Kaplan said the idea to extend it came after meeting with their contracted partner, Summit Search Solutions. After a discussion among the board, they agreed and will employ help from the North Carolina State Board of Education to help find an interim superintendent, so we can now expect the spring semester to be under different leadership than the fall.

The deficit update stems from payments made.

We made $1.1 million in payments to ESS. We made the $7.9 million to DPI, so our revised deficit estimate is  just over $37 million. That figure will be finalized after we get the 24-25 audit, Moore said.

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But thats not so easy either.

There is now the issue of overlapping audits.

The North Carolina Office of the State Auditor asked the NCSBoE to mandate a forensic audit, and the state auditors report found no evidence of fraud, embezzlement or anything criminal, but the state auditor wants a very deep and detailed audit.

The district was already contracted to have its annual audit before Dec. 31. The state board has now mandated the district come back to Raleigh for a Nov. 4 meeting and present its audit and plan to repay the remaining $3.4 million in state debt.

Now, the contracted company, Forvis Mazars, has sent over a new contract and agreed to give as much as they can before that date, including a full update to the WS/FCS board during their Oct. 28 meeting.

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Now, they say they cannot finish their report until the audit the state ordered is complete, so they can review that, too. That could mean a bit of deja vu.

If theyre changing the due date, based when it is due according to the LGC and the state board, it means potentially the final audit report that we are looking for in October or November is now sometime in the spring, and we did that last year, Moore said.

Moore also said they are still working with the IRS to get final numbers on what the district could owe the federal agency.

She said they had a phone call as recently as Monday in which the IRS asked for more documentation.

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The reduction in force was reduced by 46 jobs, affecting 222 people who will work their last day on Friday.

Those reductions were made by some people resigning and by taking a different approach with an allotment, according to Moore, which resulted in some late notices for people whose jobs were affected.

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LA MESA, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI)  A 61-year-old woman crossing a street outside of a marked crosswalk was hit and killed by a vehicle Monday in La Mesa, authorities said.

The incident occurred around 9:49 p.m. in the 5600 block of Baltimore Drive, the La Mesa Police Department said in a news release Tuesday.

When officers arrived on scene, they found the pedestrian unresponsive and lying in the roadway, according to police.

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First responders took the woman to a hospital where she died.

Recent San Diego crashes claim lives of eight people

Authorities determined the pedestrian was crossing Baltimore Drive from east to west outside of a marked crosswalk.

The driver of the vehicle did remain at the location and cooperated with law enforcement.

Driving under the influence is not believed to be a factor in the crash.

Anyone with more information about the incident is encouraged to call 619-667-1400.

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Arlington police responded quickly to a road rage incident outside the Arlington School Districts main office.

Police say the incident happened on Sept. 8 in the parking lot.

It appears two people got into a fight following a road rage incident, and a bystander pulled a gun out.

Following the incident, Presidents Elementary School independently activated a precautionary lock-out, underscoring our partnership with the school district in prioritizing the safety of students and staff, Arlington PD wrote on Facebook.

It doesnt appear that anyone was seriously injured.

Its unclear if this incident occurred during school hours.
BRADFORD COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU)  Officials say a woman will be behind bars for several years after she participated in the sexual assault of an unconscious, pregnant victim.

Bradford County Criminal Court stated 36-year-old Ashley M. Hamm, also known as Ashley Butler, from New York, was sentenced to serve at minimum six years and four months, or 76 months, to at most 15 years in state prison for felony offenses listed below:

Involuntary deviate sexual intercourse of an unconscious person

Criminal intent to commit possession with intent to deliver or manufacture methamphetamine

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Bradford County Drug Task Force Detective Michael Lamanna charged Hamm after evidence was discovered of her involvement in producing methamphetamine on Linden Street in Sayre Borough.

DA, PSP investigating Lackawanna County inmate death

Amid the investigation targeting Hamm and Sean Hall, officials say detectives uncovered hundreds of hours of videos of sexual assault involving Hall.

For his part in those crimes, Hall was previously sentenced to at least 98 years up to 200 years.

The release explains that one of the assaults caught on video showed Hamm participating with Hall in the sexual assault of an unconscious, pregnant woman.

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I am thankful that our Bradford County Drug Task Force uncovered these crimes and successfully investigated them, allowing us to bring Ms. Hamm and Mr. Hall to justice, District Attorney Richard Wilson stated.

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Apple unveiled a panoply of updated gadgets at this year's biggest product launch on Tuesday, with its ultra-thin iPhone Air grabbing much of the limelight.

Customers in mainland China, one of Apple's most lucrative markets, however, may be less inclined to join the scramble for the new model because of regulatory uncertainties related to the new phone's adoption of eSIM technology in place of physical SIM cards.

The release of the iPhone Air may be limited or staggered in the country in its initial few weeks or months, as only one of its three main cellular service providers supports the technology. eSIM, which allows for thinner devices, also lets users manage subscription plans or switch carriers more easily.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

Chinese regulators need more time to approve and encourage the adoption of eSIM standards, according to analysis by iFanr, a market consultancy and consumer electronics news portal based in southern China's Guangzhou.

Some observers say the time frame may give a competitive edge to other domestic mobile phone producers. No domestic Chinese mobile phone model uses the eSIM technology yet.

"The consideration [slowing the process] may be that allowing eSIM too quickly may affect the revenues and business models of China's SOE telecom carriers, if subscribers can easily change plans or switch with just a few taps," said iFanr analyst Fei Bo.

People walk past an Apple store in Beijing on August 11. Photo: EPA alt=People walk past an Apple store in Beijing on August 11. Photo: EPA>

Apple has said that only one carrier, China Unicom, will support the eSIM for the iPhone Air in mainland China, without saying when support will be available.

China Mobile, the dominant service provider with the largest cellular subscriber base in the country, is yet to announce its support for eSIM, as is China Telecom, the second-largest carrier by user base.

Uncertainties surrounding wider eSIM support may dampen sales and, therefore, iPhone Air's initial shipment in China may be slow, Fei said.

The Post also reported this week that shop assistants at some Apple-authorised resellers in Foshan and other major cities in southern Guangdong province said they had not received training regarding eSIM support. In comparison, staff at European resellers were asked to complete a relevant course, MacRumors, an Apple news aggregator, reported last week.
Former German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock emphasized the United Nations' essential role in addressing global crises as she officially took office on Tuesday as president of the UN General Assembly.

Baerbock, 44, took over from Philemon Yang, the former prime minister of Cameroon, at the start of the assembly's 80th session in New York.

In her opening remarks, Baerbock emphasized the UN's enduring relevance amid global crises. She cited the plight of Afghan girls denied education, children starving in Gaza, and Pacific islanders threatened by rising seas, saying "the world needs the United Nations. In no way would we be better off without it."

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"When diplomacy fails and consensus eludes us. We will unite to deliver for the people of the world," she said, urging members to act on peace, development, and human rights - in line with the UN session's theme.

Baerbock pledged impartiality and inclusivity in her opening remarks, saying she would consult and listen to all 193 member states, particularly those often overlooked.

In a statement, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he looked forward to working with Baerbock "as we continue seeking global solutions to global problems."

Baerbock was elected to the position in June by an overwhelming majority, despite a campaign by Russia to derail her bid.

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The Green Party politician, who served as Germany's foreign minister until May, is only the fifth woman to hold the post.

The position is largely ceremonial and should not be confused with the role of the UN secretary general. As president, Baerbock will chair General Assembly sessions and help determine the agenda and procedural rules for meetings.

Former German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (R) speaks during a press conference after being sworn into her new office as President of the UN General Assembly. Christina Horsten/dpa
PARSONS, W.Va. (WBOY)  West Virginia University President Michael T. Benson stopped in Tucker County on Tuesday as part of his effort to visit all 55 counties in West Virginia by next summer.

Local leaders showed President Benson the Tucker County Courthouse, telling stories of the county along the way. As a former professor of history, President Benson appeared to take a special interest in the records room of the county clerk.

Huttonsville Correctional Center inmates build tiny homes for hurricane victims

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When asked what he hopes to accomplish in his time as the President of WVU, Benson said he wants the university to be a source of pride for the state. He added that WVU is a university for the entire state through aspects of the university like WVU Medicine, WVU Extension, West Virginia 4-H and regional campuses throughout West Virginia.

After visiting Tucker County, Benson spent the remainder of his Tuesday visiting Pendleton and Grant counties. He said that after this trip, he will have been to 22 of West Virginias 55 counties, adding that everywhere Ive gone, Ive talked to folks about their affinity for their home counties, for their home cities. And its no different here in Tucker County.

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ALFRED, Maine  Each law enforcement agency in York County is autonomous, but they have much in common. They often work together, each doing their part to contribute to a case, helping bring perpetrators of crime to justice.

We count on each other, said York County Sheriffs Office Chief Deputy Jeremy Forbes of the countys law enforcement agencies.

So, it only makes sense they train together, and that is poised to happen in the spring of 2026 when the specially built York County Regional Training Center for first responders is expected to begin offering programs in a brand new space off Layman Way in Alfred.

Saco Police Chief Jack Clements, York County Fire Administrator Roger Hooper, Chief Deputy Jeremy Forbes of the York County Sheriffs Office, and Old Orchard Beach Police Capt. Anthony Ciampi tour the York County Regional Training Center construction site in Alfred. The facility is slated to open in spring 2026.

Saco Police Chief Jack Clements put it this way: York County has a county-wide mutual aid agreement. We all need to train together so we can operate together when a critical incident happens anywhere in the county. The training center will provide uniform training for all of us. This facility is exactly what we need in York County.

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And while the need for local centralized training is true for all first responder disciplines  policing, corrections, fire, EMS, dispatching and emergency management providers  until now, it hasnt been possible. In the law enforcement arena, departmental training managers schedule sessions at their own agencies at times and accommodate some of their counterparts from other agencies if there is space.

Other times, officers travel elsewhere  upwards of 100 miles in some cases, to receive required training  the latter resulting in extended hours of travel for the officer taking a mandatory class and the expense to the department of replacing that officer while theyre away.

The new multi-discipline training center will sport a tactical center, a drill tower, a 120-seat auditorium, classrooms, a cafeteria, showers, a K9 wash station, and more  like the ability for virtual reality scenarios.

Construction on the new regional training center is ongoing. Where heavy equipment cleared land 10 months ago, there is now a 44,000-square-foot building with walls, floors, and stairs. Electrical wiring is continuing, drywall is being hung, sprinklers are being installed, and more.

The new multi-discipline training center will sport a tactical center, a drill tower, a 120-seat auditorium, classrooms, a cafeteria, showers, a K9 wash station, and more  like the ability for virtual reality scenarios.

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There will be classes like the second phase of Maines law enforcement preservice training requirement that includes 80 hours of instruction on investigative procedure, arrest procedures, use of force and other topics.

As well, an enriched collaboration with York County Community College that began several years ago is expected.

"The county and the college are in discussions to strengthen the partnership and are looking at several education and training possibilities, said County Fire Administrator Roger Hooper, who has been organizing hundreds of aspects of the training center.

What the training center brings to law enforcement and the other disciplines is consistency and predictability, and a location easily accessible to all users in York County and in the region beyond.The countys proximity to large population centers like Boston makes it more attractive to instructors who may be bringing training to other New England locations and could easily add Alfred to their repertoire, officers say.

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A location in southern Maine can draw a lot of training entities, said Old Orchard Beach Police Capt. Anthony Ciampi, his departments in-house training coordinator. The center takes the burden off individual agencies to hunt out and provide instruction, and it brings us together.

There is definitely a need, said Wells Police Capt. Kevin Chabot, who chairs the law enforcement District 1 Training Council.

Police trainings have risen exponentially in the last 20 years, said Chabot. Aside from the basic law enforcement class of 720 hours and the field training, which is typically 480 hours, we have 16 hours of mandatory annual Maine Criminal Justice Academy training for certified officers. There are incident command classes, crisis intervention instruction, and a long list of required training on an array of other topics.

Forbes, Ciampi, Chabot, and Clements are among the members of the countys training center committee, established after York County Commissioners approved a slate of projects funded by the countys $40.3 million allocation from the American Rescue Plan Act, designed to stimulate the post-COVID economy. The new training center and a separate residential substance use recovery and treatment facility are the two largest initiatives supported by ARPA funds. Both projects have also received additional support through congressional appropriations and grant funding.

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We deal with folks who are enduring some of the toughest days of their lives, whether it be mental health, substance abuse, or just confrontational, we need to prepare for the many directions a call for service can head, Chabot said.

Whats in it for all of us is a state-of-the-art training facility available to everyone in the region to have contemporary training that covers all facets of first responders, said Ciampi.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: York County first responders to train as one at new regional center
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN)  After the deaths of at least 17 people in Nepal who were killed by police during protests, the Nepalese student community at YSU is demanding change in their home country.

YSU Nepalese students are worried about their home country after the protesters were shot.

When it comes to corruption in Nepal, there are people who have not even seen a book, a pen, who dont even know ABCD, said Christina Shrestha, a YSU student.

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On Tuesday night, a group of Youngstown State University students, many from Nepal, gathered around the fountain on campus Tuesday night to mourn those killed in the protests.

Nepals government briefly banned social media. Though the ban was reversed, Nepalese youth say they are also protesting corruption in the country, leading demonstrations at the capital in Kathmandu.

Demonstrations led by young people angry about the blocking of several social media sites gripped the capital, and police opened fire on the crowds, killing 19 people.

The ban was lifted Tuesday, but the protests continued, fueled by rage over the deaths and accusations of political corruption in the nation wedged between China and India.

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The ordeal prompted the resignation of the countrys prime minister.

Nepalese students at YSU lit candles, mourning the deaths of their peers back home.

This is not the end. We are far from home, but our voice is still here, said Jagdish Joshi, vice president of the Nepalese Student Association.

We are just giving condolences and showing our respect to the brave people who lost their life fighting for their country, said Sushan Biwari, a sophomore at YSU.

If it was my country, I would definitely go and join them because they are not only fighting for their right, they are fighting for our upcoming generations, said Khushbu Adhikari, a sophomore at YSU.

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The students say the situation makes them worry about their friends and families back home.

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Following through on a pledge made earlier this month, President Trump ousted 18 members of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts board, replacing them with a Trump-aligned majority that on Wednesday appointed him chairman effective immediately.

The fallout from the changes has been swift as prominent artists canceled performances and key board members resigned in protest, and on Thursday evening, dozens of D.C. residents gathered outside the Kennedy Center to denounce Trumps changes.

Philadelphia-based rock and soul band Low Cut Connie announced Thursday it was canceling a scheduled March 19 performance.

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I was very excited to perform as part of this wonderful institutions Social Impact series, which emphasizes community, joy, justice and equity through the arts, band founder Adam Weiner wrote on Instagram. Upon learning that this institution that has run nonpartisan for 54 years is now chaired by President Trump himself and his regime, I decided I will not perform there.

Adam Weiner of Low Cut Connie. (David A. Smith/Getty Images)

Similarly, Issa Rae canceled her sold-out show, An Evening With Issa Rae, at the venue after hearing about Trumps new role.

Unfortunately, due to what I believe to be an infringement on the values of an institution that has faithfully celebrated artists of all backgrounds through all mediums, Ive decided to cancel my appearance at this venue, she wrote on Instagram.

Musician Ben Folds, a longtime artistic adviser to the National Symphony Orchestra, resigned his post immediately following Trumps installation as chairman. He was soon joined by Renee Fleming, the world-renowned soprano who had served as an artistic adviser at large at the center.

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Ive treasured the bipartisan support for this institution as a beacon of America at our best, Fleming said in a statement. I hope the Kennedy Center continues to flourish and serve the passionate and diverse audience in our nations capital and across the country.

Shonda Rhimes, the producer behind the television hits Greys Anatomy and Bridgerton, had served as treasurer of the Kennedy Centers board after being appointed by President Barack Obama. She resigned within hours of Trumps takeover.

How Trump took over the Kennedy Center

In early February, Trump announced on Truth Social his plan to immediately terminate board members appointed by President Joe Biden, saying they do not share his vision. He then replaced them with a roster of White House officials, administration insiders and wealthy donors. On Wednesday the new board appointed him chairman.

It is a Great Honor to be Chairman of The Kennedy Center, especially with this amazing Board of Trustees, Trump responded in a statement. We will make The Kennedy Center a very special and exciting place!

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CNN's Jake Tapper obtained audio from a recent meeting between Trump and the new board, during which the president called the leadership changes "a very exciting development," saying, "I think we're going to make it hot."

Trumps new Kennedy Center board members include:

Usha Vance, second lady of the United States

Susie Wiles, White House chief of staff

Cheri Summerall, Wiless mother

Dan Scavino, White House deputy chief of staff for national security

Sergio Gor, White House director of presidential personnel

Allison Lutnick, wife of commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick

Pamela Gross, former White House adviser to the first lady

Patricia Duggan, major Trump donor

Emily May Fanjul, wife of sugar magnate and Trump donor Pepe Fanjul

Dana Blumberg, wife of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft

Mindy Levine, wife of New York Yankees president Randy Levine

Perhaps the most dramatic move was Trumps appointment of Richard Grenell, his former ambassador to Germany and former acting director of national intelligence, as interim president of the Kennedy Center  ousting long-serving Kennedy Center president Deborah Rutter months before her planned departure.

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The Kennedy Center board has historically been evenly divided between Republican and Democratic appointees, according to the New York Times. Board members typically serve six-year terms, and it is unusual for an incoming president to dismiss appointees en masse.

Looking ahead, Trumps allies are likely to reshape the Kennedy Centers programming to align with the presidents values, steering away from what he views as woke culture, sources told CBS News. Already the Kennedy Center has removed an LGBTQ Pride concert scheduled for May from its website.
On Aug. 22, Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee, was stabbed to death by Decarlos Brown Jr.  with no apparent warning or provocation  while riding a light-rail commuter train in Charlotte, N.C. Since video of the attack emerged Friday, Zarutskas death has become the latest flashpoint in a national debate over whether cities are adequately addressing violent crime, mental illness and transit safety.

North Carolina, and every State, needs LAW AND ORDER, and only Republicans will deliver it!, President Trump said Monday on Truth Social, describing Brown as a career criminal.

About two hours before right-wing activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed on Wednesday, he wrote on X that it was "100% necessary to politicize the senseless murder of Iryna Zarutska because it was politics that allowed a savage monster with 14 priors to be free on the streets to kill her."

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That was Kirk's final post.

At the same time, Browns family has highlighted his history of hallucinations, paranoia and schizophrenia, speculating that he may have attacked Zarutska because he thought she was reading his mind.

A person that is hearing voices in their head and believes the world is against them, theyre going to break, Browns mother told CNN. And I think that night he broke.

Heres everything you need to know about the case  and the reaction to it.

What happened on the train

CCTV footage shows that Zarutska boarded a Lynx Blue Line train late Saturday night at the Scaleybark station, a few miles outside downtown Charlotte in the citys lively South End neighborhood. Her blonde hair was tucked under a cap from Zeppedies Pizzeria, the nearby restaurant where she worked. She was also wearing a black Zeppedies T-shirt. She sat in an empty row and started to scroll on her phone, earbuds in.

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Brown, 34, was sitting behind her.

Four minutes later, a fidgety Brown pulled what appeared to be a pocketknife from the pocket of his red hoodie and paused briefly to rest his head on his hand, before suddenly springing to his feet and swinging his arm over Zarutskas seat.

Brown reportedly stabbed Zarutska three times, including at least once in the neck. He walked past Zarutska as she covered her face with her hands. Moments later, she slouched to the ground.

Zarutska died on the train from her injuries as passengers kneeled over her, trying to help. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has charged Brown with first-degree murder in her killing.

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The Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) confirmed earlier this week that there was no security present in the car where the attack occurred and that Brown did not have a ticket to ride the train.

What we know about Zarutska

Zarutska was born on May 22, 2002, in Kyiv, Ukraine. She earned a degree in art and restoration from Kyivs Synergy College. Zarutska fled Ukraine with her mother, sister and brother six months after Russias 2022 invasion; a family friend told WCNC that she could no longer endure not knowing if youre going to live or breathe another day. Zarutska eventually settled in Charlotte, where she attended Rowan-Cabarrus Community College and hoped to become a veterinary assistant.

According to Zarutskas obituary, she loved sculpting and designing unique, eclectic clothing; was a homebody at heart, happiest when surrounded by family and loved ones; and had the ability to sleep for wonderfully long stretches  something [her mother] affectionately called an artists gift.

On Tuesday, Zarutskas family released a statement saying they are committed to making sure this never happens again through systemic change.

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Iryna came here to find peace and safety, and instead her life was stolen from her in the most horrific way, the statement reads. The family is demanding a full investigation into the circumstances leading up to Iryna's death, including lapses in security protocols and failures within the public transportation system.

On Wednesday, Zarutska's boyfriend Stanislav Nikulytsia, 21, shared a photo on Instagram of the two of them in bathing suits. The image was accompanied by a broken heart emoji  Nikulytsia's first public statement since Zarutskas killing. Nikulytsia was described as Zarutska's "life partner" in her obituary.

On Friday, Zarutska's uncle (who asked not to be named) told ABC's Good Morning America that she was "the glue of the family." He went on to call Zarutska a "comforter" and "confidant."

What we know about Brown

Brown had previously been arrested 14 times and convicted of larceny, breaking and entering and robbery with a dangerous weapon. He spent more than five years in prison on the robbery charge.

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According to his sister, he didnt seem like himself after his release in 2020.

He started saying weird things, Browns mother told WSOC in Charlotte. He started saying that he wasnt in his body.

Suddenly, Brown was struggling to conduct simple conversations, his sister told CNN. He couldnt keep a job. And sometimes he would become aggressive  even going so far, in 2022, as to bite her and break the hinges off a door. Browns sister decided not to file charges because she knew he was battling something.

Instead, Browns family tried to get him help for his mental health issues  but their attempts failed. Browns mother told WSOC that after her son became aggressive, she got an involuntary commitment order from the courts. Brown was monitored for two weeks and diagnosed with schizophrenia. But she was unable to place him in a long-term facility because she is not his legal guardian. Soon he had become so violent and erratic that she was left with no other choice but to kick him out of her home.

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In January, Brown asked Charlotte police to investigate a man-made material that controlled when he ate, walked and talked, according to court documents. The officers told Brown the issue was medical, insisting there was nothing more they could do. Upset, he called 911 from a local health center.

Police then charged Brown with misuse of 911, a class 1 misdemeanor.

He was released after promising, in writing, that he would appear for his next hearing, according to court records. But in July, Browns public defender made a motion questioning Browns capacity to contribute to his own defense. The judge ordered a psychological evaluation.

Meanwhile, Brown was living on the streets. Days before the stabbing, he showed up at his mothers house, according to CNN. He asked to stay the night. The next morning, Browns mother dropped him off at a shelter a few miles from the Scaleybark station. She hugged him and told him she loved him, then headed to church.

A frame from security footage shows Iryna Zarutska, front right, and Decarlos Brown, Jr., standing. (Charlotte Transit System)

In a recording of an Aug. 28 phone call between Brown and his sister shared with the Daily Mail, Brown can be heard telling his sister it was the material in his body that had killed Zarutska.

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I hurt my hand, stabbing her. I dont even know the lady. I never said not one word to the lady at all. Thats scary, aint it. Why would somebody stab somebody for no reason? Brown reportedly says on the call.

Out of all people, why her? his sister responds. Shes from the Ukraine, shes from Russia, and they had a war going on against the United States, so Im just trying to understand, of all people, why her?

They just lashed out on her, thats what happened, Brown says. Whoever was working the materials, they lashed out on her. Thats all there is to it. Now they really gotta investigate what my body was exposed to.  Now they gotta do an investigation as to [who] was the motive behind what happened.

Browns sister told the Daily Mail that her brother was high risk and should not have been free to ride the train that night.

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He was not in his right mind, she said. He was not safe for society. We know what he has been dealing with the last three years. And now an innocent woman is dead.

Whats next

Earlier this week, the U.S. Attorneys Office in the Western District of North Carolina charged Brown with causing death on a mass transportation system, which carries up to life in prison or the death penalty. Authorities said additional charges could be brought as the investigation continues.

The federal case will run parallel with the state case charging Brown with first-degree murder.

The ANIMAL who so violently killed the beautiful young lady from Ukraine, who came to America searching for peace and safety, should be given a 'Quick' (there is no doubt!) Trial, and only awarded THE DEATH PENALTY," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "There can be no other option!!!"

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"I have directed my attorneys to federally prosecute Decarlos Brown Jr., a repeat violent offender with a history of violent crime, for murder, Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. We will seek the maximum penalty for this unforgivable crime, and he will never again see the light of day as a free man."

As thousands of National Guard troops patrol the streets of Washington, D.C., over the objections of local officials and residents, Trump and his allies have been citing Zarutskas killing to justify further federal crackdowns on crime  particularly in cities run by Democrats.

Speaking on Fox News, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy agreed with Trump that evil people are to blame for violent crime  but added that its also evil politicians.

This monster had a track record longer than a CVS receipt, including prison time for robbery with a dangerous weapon, breaking and entering, and larceny, Duffy wrote on X on Sunday. By failing to properly punish him, Charlotte failed Iryna Zarutska and North Carolinians.

In their statement Tuesday, Zarutskas family said their immediate priority is to ensure the man responsible for Iryna's murder is brought to justice and remains behind bars. But they also called attention to systemic failure on the local level, including a lack of visible or effective security presence on the CATS Blue Line.
Popular late-night show Jimmy Kimmel Live! has been taken off the air in response to comments made by its host about Charlie Kirk's killing, multiple media outlets report.

In his opening monologue on Monday's show, Kimmel accused the "MAGA gang" of trying to characterize the alleged shooter "as anything other than one of them.

ABC reportedly chose to remove the show from its schedule "indefinitely" after Nexstar Media, which owns many local TV stations throughout the United States, threatened to preempt it from airing on any of its ABC affiliates.

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The decision comes a day after 22-year-old Tyler Robinson was formally charged with murder in the death of the 31-year-old conservative activist.

Robinson was charged with aggravated murder, discharge of a weapon causing serious bodily harm, obstruction of justice and witness tampering. He briefly appeared in a virtual court hearing on Tuesday afternoon, and his next court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 29.

Speaking at a press conference earlier on Tuesday, Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray said he plans to pursue the death penalty against Robinson. "I do not take this decision lightly, and it is a decision I have made independently as county attorney, based solely on the available evidence and circumstances in nature of the crime," Gray said. "Because we are seeking the death penalty, the defendant will continue to be held without bail in the Utah County Jail."

Robinson is accused of firing a single shot from a rifle that killed Kirk while he was speaking at an event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.

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According to Gray, Robinson's mother saw photos of the suspect that were released by the FBI and spoke to her husband about how the suspect looked like their son. Robinson turned himself in to the police in Washington County, Utah, the day after the shooting.

New details about the process that led to Robinson's surrender were shared by Washington County Sheriff Nate Brooksby, who told reporters on Wednesday that Robinson's fear of being shot by police played a role in his decision to turn himself in.

Meanwhile, FBI Director Kash Patel  facing criticism for the confusion that ensued during the manhunt for the gunman  testified before Congress for the second straight day on Wednesday. Patel defended his actions to lawmakers and provided some new information about the ongoing investigation.
By Scott Murdoch

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's sovereign wealth fund, the Future Fund, said on Tuesday its valuation had reached A$252 billion ($166.22 billion) as it pared back its U.S. market exposure to boost investments in Germany and Japan.

The fund delivered a 12.2% return in the year ended June 30, which the Future Fund said was double its government-mandated target of 6.1%.

The portfolio update for the June quarter published on Tuesday showed the Future Fund now had A$65.13 billion invested in developed markets, accounting for a quarter of the fund's total investments. It was up from A$46.83 billion at the same time in 2024.

The Future Fund's Australian equity investments stood at A$27.2 billion, up from A$23.1 billion.

Future Fund CEO Raphael Arndt said while the U.S. remained the fund's largest international investment recipient, volatility and political uncertainty there had prompted a paring back of exposure.

"The government there is making changes to the regulatory structure with tariffs and changes to taxation, that is something we are watching closely and the budget is not balanced and there's no plans to balance it," he told reporters.

"These are risks we have to take into account and we have made the decision to modestly reduce our U.S. exposure and diversify the portfolio."

The Future Fund does not publish a breakdown of its investments other than providing an update on the valuation of each asset class.

"The areas which look most interesting to us are continental Europe, particularly Germany with some of the announcements that the government has made about stimulating and investing in its economy," Arndt said.

"We have been moving money for quite some years to Japan and both those markets seem somewhat cheaper than U.S. or Australian equities markets."

The Future Fund's property investment portfolio was reduced from A$12 billion to A$11.1 billion and its credit investments were worth A$22.4 billion, down from A$24.82 billion last year.

Arndt said the fund had raised its exposure to developed market currencies and commodities, including gold.

($1 = 1.5161 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Scott Murdoch; Editing by Jamie Freed)
A crowd of about 120 people bless a totem pole and 10 cedar masks carved by the Lummi Nations House of Tears outside of the Capitol building in Olympia on Sept. 8, 2025, as part of the Indigenous-led campaign Xaalh and the Way of the Masks. The totem and masks will travel 1,700 miles between rally sites in Washington and Oregon before being given to the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe west of Port Angeles on Sept. 20.
Backpacks crypto exchange will likely debut in the U.S. this year, starting with spot trading in several states, according to CEO Armani Ferrante.

The firm established by employees of defunct crypto exchange FTX has been focused on establishing itself within Japan and the EU, but its getting closer to attaining money transmitter licenses needed to operate on American soil, he told Decrypt.

The U.S. has always been a priority for us, the California native said from Japan. It's the biggest market. It's my home market. It's probably the one that I know best.

Backpacks self-custodial wallet has been available in the U.S. since the company was established in 2022, but as the firm expanded into crypto trading, Ferrante said the company targeted regions like Dubai where it could operate as the business was being built.



Backpacks European arm is registered in Cyprus, and earlier this week, it began offering perpetual futures in the EU under the organizations MiFID II framework. Backpack acquired FTX EU earlier this year, salvaging part of Sam Bankman-Frieds lost crypto empire.

In the U.S., Ferrante thinks Backpacks focus on trust minimization will give it an edge. The company provides daily proof-of-reserve updates on its website, a method for verifying Backpacks crypto holdings that people dont care about, until its too late, he added. Its obviously inspired by FTX, where Ferrante and others sustained fraud-induced losses.

We should be pushing finance to be transparent, verifiable and privacy preserving on the order of not months or quarters or years, but on the order of days, minutes or seconds, he said. Time and time again, we've seen how dangerous and brittle opaque financial systems are.

Industry proponents have argued that regulators focus on enforcement actions during the Biden administration pushed jobs and innovation overseas. At a roundtable in France on Wednesday, SEC Chair Paul Atkins said the approach was not only ineffective, but injurious to the U.S.

But self-custodial wallets arent regulated in the U.S., so Backpack never technically left. In fact, the U.S. is already home to more Backpack employees than any other country, Ferrante said.

Bitcoin Price Gets a Boost From Producer Price Index Print

Were a bit of a weird example because we have two products, he said, noting that users of Backpacks wallets are mostly based within the U.S., too.

Backpack says its exchange has facilitated $170 billion in trading volume since 2024. If it can enter the U.S. soon, Ferrante thinks that could change quickly.

Its the market where we can get the most market share in the least amount of time, he said, noting that he also has friends and family there.
The founders of Ben & Jerrys have called on parent company Unilever to allow the ice-cream brand to operate as an independently owned company.

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, who set up Vermont-headquartered Ben & Jerrys in 1978 before Unilevers acquisition in 2000, have penned a letter to Unilever ahead of the targeted separation of ice cream in mid-November.

The planned spin-off was first announced early in 2024 and the entity then proclaimed as The Magnum Ice Cream Company (TMICC), which will be listed on exchanges in London, Amsterdam and New York post the separation in November.

As well as Ben & Jerrys, the new set up includes other global ice-cream brands such as Solero, Cornetto, Twister and Carte D'Or.

Cohen and Greenfield said they now feel compelled to speak out, suggesting Unilever has not honoured the 2000 takeover agreement, which purportedly guaranteed the companys [Ben & Jerrys] autonomywith the freedom to pursue its social mission.

The founders added in the letter: We are deeply concerned that the commitments made to us, our employees and our customers are being eroded.

For several years now, the voice of Ben & Jerrys has been silenced by Unilever, particularly when the brand has tried to speak out about social justice and unjust wars. That is not the Ben & Jerrys that we founded, or the one that we envisioned when we agreed to join Unilever 25 years ago.

Cohen and Greenfield have a history of agitating with Unilever under their social mission agenda since the 2000 acquisition.

Earlier this year, Ben & Jerrys filed a case in a New York court accusing the FMCG giant of ousting its then-CEO Dave Stever in what was deemed as Unilevers attempt to silence the mission agenda.

In another court filing in 2024, Ben & Jerrys said Unilever had tried to ban it from publicly criticising President Donald Trump. The ice-cream maker also filed a lawsuit that same year claiming Unilever had tried to stop it from expressing support for Palestinian refugees.

Unilever had sold its ice-cream operation in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in 2022 in an attempt to draw a line under a diplomatic row stemming from Ben & Jerrys halting sales in the territory the previous year. In retaliation, Israel had threatened a boycott of the companys products.

In their latest salvo, the founders said: We no longer believe that Ben & Jerrys belongs under the umbrella of a corporate entity that fails to support its founding missionMagnum may be a new company, but it retains the legacy, leadership and investment of Unilevers ice-cream business and the history of its actions against Ben & Jerrys.




VILLANOVA, Pa. (September 9, 2025)The Rev. Joseph L. Farrell, OSA, STL, STD, 85 VSB, 19 MS has been elected Prior General of the Order of St. Augustine at the Orders 188th General Chapter on Sept. 9. Father Farrell, who will serve a six-year term, is the second Prior General elected from the Augustinian Province of St. Thomas of Villanova and 98th Prior General of the Order since the position was first assigned in 1256, shortly after its founding.

Prior to his election, Father Farrell served two consecutive six-year terms as the Vicar General of the worldwide Order, and as assistant general for North America beginning in 2013.

A Drexel Hill, Pa., native and graduate of Monsignor Bonner High School, Father Farrell completed his undergraduate studies at Villanova School of Business in 1985, earning a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration before joining the pre-novitiate program at the St. Augustine Friary in Villanova. Following the novitiate, he earned a Master of Arts in Theology from the Washington Theological Union.

Ordained in 1991 at Our Mother of Good Counsel Church in Bryn Mawr, Pa., Father Farrell was first assigned to the St. Augustine Parish in Lawrence, Mass., before returning to Pennsylvania to serve as chaplain at Monsignor Bonner and as a member of their St. Ambrose Friary Community. From 1996 to 2003, he was assigned as campus minister of Merrimack College, an Augustinian institution in Massachusetts, before pursuing studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he earned both his Licentiate in Sacred Theology and Doctorate in Sacred Theology.

Upon his return to the United States, Father Farrell was assigned to the St. Thomas of Villanova Monastery and held the position of director of Programming and Outreach in Villanova Universitys Office for Mission Effectiveness, while also serving as an adjunct professor of Theology. During this time, he worked with undergraduate and graduate students to introduce them to St. Augustine and his teachings both inside and outside of the classroom.

From 2008 to 2010, Father Farrell was assigned as prior to Blessed Stephen Bellesini Friary, the house of formation for pre-novitiates to the Order in Ardmore, Pa. At the Provincial Chapter of 2010, he was elected a counselor of the Province.

In 2019, just prior to his re-election as Vicar General, he completed his Master of Church Management at Villanova.

Founded in 1842, Villanova University is one of only two Augustinian Catholic institutions of higher learning in the United States, sharing this common heritage with Merrimack College. As an Augustinian Catholic university, Villanova is rooted in the values of truth, unity, and love (Veritas, Unitas, Caritas), inspired by the teachings of St. Augustine. For more on Villanovas Augustinian mission and tradition, click here.

About Villanova University: Since 1842, Villanova Universitys Augustinian Catholic intellectual tradition has been the cornerstone of an academic community in which students learn to think critically, act compassionately and succeed while serving others. There are more than 10,000 undergraduate, graduate and law students in the University's six collegesthe College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Villanova School of Business, the College of Engineering, the M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing, the College of Professional Studies and the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. Ranked among the nations top universities, Villanova supports its students intellectual growth and prepares them to become ethical leaders who create positive change everywhere life takes them. For more, visit www.villanova.edu.
This story was originally published on Food Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Food Dive newsletter.

The founders of Ben & Jerrys are pushing parent company Unilever to allow the popular brand to once again operate independently and exclude it from the CPG giant's upcoming spinoff of its ice cream business in November.

In an open letter to The Magnum Ice Cream Company, the ice cream operation Unilever is divesting, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield wrote they agreed to sell their Vermont-based ice cream brand in 2000 with the understanding that the Cherry Garcia maker would have the freedom to pursue its progressive social mission.

Instead, the founders say Unilever has broken that promise and has silenced the brand, particularly when it speaks out on social justice and war.

We no longer believe Ben & Jerrys can thrive as part of a conglomerate that fails to support its founding mission, and which is reducing the companys value by undercutting one of the critical reasons why customers love and support the brand, the cofounders wrote. We urge the board to allow Ben & Jerrys to operate once again as an independently owned company, supported by socially-aligned investors and free to honor its mission without compromise.

Unilever and Ben & Jerrys have been mired in a multi-year battle that has pitted the top-selling ice cream brand against the London-based food and personal care products giant. Ben & Jerry's claims Unilever demanded it stop publicly criticizing U.S. President Donald Trump and tried to block it from making public statements advocating for a ceasefire in Gaza.

That is not the Ben & Jerrys that we founded, or the one that we envisioned when we agreed to join Unilever 25 years ago, Cohen and Greenfield said.

Ben & Jerrys recently criticized Unilever for firing the ice cream brands CEO, saying the move was due to his support of its social mission rather than his job performance. The brand also claimed it wasnt allowed to interview candidates for the open role and was excluded from the appointment process. Unilever denied the allegations and said it acted properly.

In a statement, a Magnum Ice Cream spokesperson said Ben and Jerrys is a proud part of the company and will remain within the portfolio, which also includes Klondike, Breyers and Talenti.

We remain committed to Ben & Jerrys unique three-part mission  product, economic and social  and look forward to building on its success as an iconic, much-loved business, the Magnum spokesperson added.
True prosperity can only exist in a democracy, so when people protest for democracy, they are also protesting for their livelihoods, independent lawmaker Akos Hadhazy said at a protest.

He said in Dunaujvaros, central Hungary, that the protest usually held in Budapest demanding the repeal of the amendment to the law on assembly and against the adoption of the bill on transparency in public life, was organized this time in the city in Fejer County in order to draw attention to the "tragedy of Dunaujvaros", the closure of Dunaferr, which once employed thousands of people.



Hadhazy said that there were some who question that true prosperity can only be achieved in a democracy: the Hungarian government, for example, says that China is prosperous and that this requires a dictatorship.



He added that prosperity was not just about GDP, but about a place where it is good to live, and this can only be found in "boring" democracies, where it is possible to ensure that it is not just a small circle of people who live well. "That others are not left by the roadside, and that entire cities are not demolished on the grounds that the money is needed for something else," he added.



He said they want real change, real democracy, and that they are protesting to achieve that "things have consequences."



Hadhazy called the national consultation on the opposition Tisza Party's tax plans election fraud, arguing that it would be carried out from taxpayers' money. Taxpayers have spent hundreds of billions on propaganda campaigns in recent years, and it's all fraud, he said.



At the end of the event the demonstrators marched to the entrance of the Danube Ironworks to "draw attention to the disgrace that this government has done to Dunaujvaros."



Hadhazy said he was organising another demonstration in Budapest's Ferenciek Square next week, and was also planning another trip to Hatvanpuszta.





Source: MTI  Hungarys national news agency since 1881. While MTI articles are usually factual, some may contain political bias, and readers should be aware that such content does not reflect the position of XpatLoop, which is neutral and independent.



Since the goal of XpatLoop is to keep readers well briefed, right across the spectrum of opinions, MTI items are shared to ensure readers are aware of all narratives within the local media.



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Hungary has signed an agreement with Shell on the purchase of 2 billion cubic metres of gas over ten years, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said in Milan.

In a statement issued by his ministry, Szijjarto said the deliveries from Shell would start in 2026.



After meeting with Shell VP Bob Kijkuit, he said the contract was the biggest and the longest one Hungary had ever signed with a Western supplier. "This is genuine diversification, that doesn't replace existing sources, but adds new ones to those we have," he added.



Szijjarto said Shell was a "dependable partner" with a hundred-year presence in Hungary and around 200 petrol stations.



Szijjarto: Hungary seeks to add to, not replace energy sources



Hungary's government aims to add new sources of energy to its supply, not replace existing ones, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said at the Gastech conference in Milan on Tuesday, his ministry said in a statement.



"Do we want to buy more energy from more sources? Yes. Today we will announce the signing of a new long-term contract with Shell," Szijjarto said.



"The contract will be for the largest volume and for the longest term of any Hungary has ever signed with a Western supplier," he added.



Szijjarto said the European Union's REPowerEU programme, in its current form, would "completely ruin" the security of Hungary's energy supply as infrastructure attributes did not allow the country to cut off its Russian energy.



He explained that Hungary was land-locked and pipeline capacity from other directions could not ensure sufficient supply. "The reasons are geographical and physical, not political or ideological," he added.



He highlighted efforts Hungary had made to build energy interconnectors, resulting in ones with six of its seven neighbours. He also noted that the European Commission had rejected a request made several years earlier by Hungary and other countries to expand pipeline capacity in Southeastern Europe.



"Gas is not in fashion, they want to gradually phase it out," he added.



Fidesz MEP: EU displaying double standard in readiness to finance Ukraine's Russian gas purchases



Double standards in Brussels are "in the stratosphere" as the European Commission underpins the financing of Ukraine's purchases of Russian natural gas, Fidesz MEP Andras Gyurk said on Monday.



In a statement, Gyurk noted that the commission announced in August that Ukraine will receive a 500 million euro European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) loan guaranteed by the EU for purchasing gas, adding that the most Ukrainian gas imports ultimately came from Russia.



Banning Russian gas imports into the European Union at the same time, he said, was "absurd", adding that he had turned to the commission with questions aimed at clarifying the matter



The commission, Gyurk said, not only harmed the competitiveness of EU member states with measures which put upward pressure on energy prices, it also subsidised the purchase of energy by countries outside the EU.



Brussels, he said, was endangering the energy supply security of several member states, including Hungary, while financially supporting Ukraine's purchase of natural gas of Russian origin. "This is an obvious double standard," the MEP declared.



As well as answering Hungary's questions, "we expect Brussels to review its proposal to ban Russian gas imports," Gyurk said.



Source: MTI  Hungarys national news agency since 1881. While MTI articles are usually factual, some may contain political bias, and readers should be aware that such content does not reflect the position of XpatLoop, which is neutral and independent.



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The government has updated the national Artificial Intelligence Strategy, adopted in 2020, to reflect technological advances, the National Economy Ministry said.

The strategy, which covers the impact of AI on society, technology and businesses, maintains overarching goals and outlines new measures for the period until 2030.



It sticks to benchmarks in the 2020 strategy targeting AI-driven increases in GDP growth and productivity of 15pc and 26pc, respectively.



In view of the pace of AI's advance, the strategy will be reviewed annually, the ministry said.



Full document in Hungarian available here





Source: MTI  Hungarys national news agency since 1881. While MTI articles are usually factual, some may contain political bias, and readers should be aware that such content does not reflect the position of XpatLoop, which is neutral and independent.



Since the goal of XpatLoop is to keep readers well briefed, right across the spectrum of opinions, MTI items are shared to ensure readers are aware of all narratives within the local media.



XpatLoop believes in empowering readers to form their own views through complete and comprehensive coverage. To facilitate this XpatLoop has a balanced range of news partners, as you can see when you surf around XpatLoop.com

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VideoKhaby Lame Kicks off China Travel!

Khaby Lame is now in China. He is known as "Speechless Bro" in China. He was detained by ICE in Las Vegas back in June and granted voluntary departure from the US.

  




Once a favourite for Indian study-abroad aspirants, Canada rejected 80% of student visa applications in 2025. It is the highest number in a decade. Only 9% of Indian students now see it as their top choice. Amid uncertainty and rising challenges, new global destinations are emerging on students radar.
France Violence: After the death of a 17-year-old teenager in a police shootout, France has been burning in the fire of riots for the past several days. Till now thousands of rioters have been arrested. But the fire is not taking the name of extinguishing. In the midst of all this, the problems of Pakistan have also increased. A news is going on about France, according to which some Pakistani journalists have claimed that the entry of Pakistani citizens is closed amidst the riots.
Nepal protests feature the iconic One Piece anime flag, symbolizing youth resistance and the fight against government corruption and censorship.
Key Points

This ultra-high-yield stock has a 6.2% yield that is 4.5 percentage points higher than the healthcare average.

The company has increased its dividend annually for 15 years.

The dividend coverage is very strong at around 57%.

10 stocks we like better than Alexandria Real Estate Equities 

There's more than one way to invest in the healthcare sector. In fact, if you are looking for dividend income, you'll probably need to consider your alternatives, given the sector's measly 1.7% average yield.

One option today is to look at out-of-favor drug makers, but there's another, more subtle choice to consider: Alexandria Real Estate (NYSE: ARE). And this healthcare-focused real estate investment trust's huge 6.2% dividend yield is just the start.

Image source: Getty Images.

What's going on with drugmakers?

A number of drug makers have very high yields today, including Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY). They are perfectly fine companies, offering attractive yields of 6.9% and 5.2%, respectively, today. There's just one problem -- drug makers are in the hot seat with the government thanks to the change in administration.

Given that the healthcare sector has become even more politicized than usual, it is hard to predict where things go next. Now add in the fact that drugmakers also face the normal risk of patent protections on their drug discoveries ending, and you can see why investors might want to look elsewhere. But the patent cliffs that drugmakers are staring down highlight why Alexandria and its 6.2% yield is so attractive, relatively speaking.

What does Alexandria do?

Making drugs is an expensive affair, since drug companies have to find, develop, and get drugs approved. This expense isn't optional, given that the patent protection on new drugs is only available for a short period of time. Research and development is always taking place, and not just in the pharma niche of the healthcare industry. All of the R&D that's taking place across the entire healthcare sector has to be performed in some physical location. Alexandria is focused on owning those properties.

So the REIT is a bit tangential to the healthcare industry, but its business is almost completely dependent on the sector. And the most exciting part of the sector: research and development. (Note that Bristol Myers Squibb is the REIT's third largest tenant.)

However, investing in Alexandria helps bypass the lumpy nature of healthcare discoveries. That's because rent on its vital research space has to be paid regardless of the results of a company's research efforts.
Dewald Brevis signs with Pretoria Capitals for a record R16.5 million, becoming the most expensive player in SA20 history. Aiden Markram secures a high-profile move to Durban Super Giants for R14 million, strengthening their batting and leadership lineup. SA20 2025-26 squads showcase a perfect balance of experienced internationals and emerging talent across all six franchises.
Income tax rates have been a subject of debate in India. Even in the recent budget, when the Finance Minister did not announce a relief for the taxpayers, the middle class was most disappointed. But do you know that while many countries have either no or very low tax rates, income tax in some countries is as high as 59%, which is almost double compared to India's top slab of 30%?
Malayalam rapper Vedan, accused of rape on the false promise of marriage, appeared before police for questioning after receiving conditional anticipatory bail from the Kerala High Court.
Investing is big business, and a lot of people make a lot of money telling other people what to do with their money. Many investors are convinced they need to pay someone smarter than they are for financial advice.

Read More: Self-Made Millionaires Suggest 5 Stocks You Should Never Sell

Consider This: Mark Cuban Says Trump's Executive Order To Lower Medication Costs Has a 'Real Shot' -- Here's Why

Morgan Housel, author of The Psychology of Money, has a different take. Heres what she has to say about the biggest investing mistake smart people make.

Its Not That Complicated

Part of the allure of investing is that there are so many theories about when and what to buy. There are charts, metrics and patterns that can make investing a full-time job. Do you buy or sell when you see a double top? What about head-and-shoulders or cup-and-handle? Some investors spend a lot of time analyzing data to inform their investing decisions.

Housel said you dont need to follow any of these to be a successful investor.

The more complicated you make it, the worse youre probably going to do, said Housel. She suggests that investors make it as brainless and simple and boring as you can.

Trending Now: Robert Kiyosaki Is Dumping Gold and Silver  Heres What Hes Buying Instead

How To Invest in the Most Boring Way Possible

While mutual fund managers and professional investors try to beat the market indices, those who invest in the S&P 500 are usually doing better.

According to Morningstar, fewer than half of active fund managers outperformed the index in 2024. Over the past 10 years, just 7% of large-cap equity funds outperformed their passive rivals.

You dont have to pick and choose different socks and be really strategic, said Housel, because that often doesnt work out very well, at least for most investors.

Buy and Hold and Hold and Hold

Rather than buying the next big thing, and selling when it starts to show signs of weakness, you can buy an S&P 500 index fund, hold it virtually forever, and be in pretty good shape.

If you can be an average investor for an above-average period of time, just earn(ing) average market returns every year for the next 20 years, youll do amazing, said Housel. The simple people who can be simple and average for 50 years are the ones who end up doing the best.

Committing to a buy-and-hold strategy takes a lot of the emotion out of investing, keeping you in the market over the long term.

The question you want to ask when investing is not, What are the highest returns that I can earn? Rather, its, What returns can I keep going for the longest period of time?' Housel said.
BlackRock is preparing to list its iShares Bitcoin ETP (BTCN) on the London Stock Exchange to coincide with an FCA rule change. | Credit: SOPA Images / Getty Images.

Key Takeaways

An impending FCA rule change will let retail investors in the U.K. access crypto exchange-traded notes.

ETNs differ from ETFs, which are required to diversify their portfolio under European regulation.

Bitwise, WisdomTree, and 21Shares currently list Bitcoin ETNs on the London Stock Exchange, but only for qualified investors.

BlackRock is reportedly set to list its iShares Bitcoin ETP (BTCN) on the London Stock Exchange when the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) lifts an embargo on crypto exchange-traded notes (ETNs) on Oct. 8.

The rule change will open the U.K. market up to ETNs that track the price of Bitcoin as the cryptocurrency breaks new ground above $114,000.

FCA Rule Change To Allow Bitcoin ETNs

In October, U.K.-based retail investors will once again be permitted to buy crypto ETNs, marking the end of a ban imposed in January 2021.

These instruments are debt securities that track the price of underlying crypto assets like Bitcoin. Unlike ETFs, investors hold a claim on the issuer, not the fund itself

The looming rule change wont open the door to Bitcoin ETFs, which fall outside of the UCITS (Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities) framework that regulates ETFs in the U.K. and EU.

Under UCITS, ETFs must follow the 5/10/40 rule.

This dictates that a fund can only invest up to 5% of its net asset value in securities from a single issuer. The limit can rise to 10% per issuer, but the total exposure above 5% cannot exceed 40% of the funds assets.

This prevents asset managers in Europe from structuring Bitcoin ETFs the same way they have in the U.S.

Bitcoin Funds on the London Stock Exchange

Alongside BlackRock, Bitwise, WisdomTree, and 21Shares have also used the ETN format to bring BTC-tracking products to the London Stock Exchange. However, these vehicles are currently restricted to qualified investors.

21Shares CEO Russell Barlow called the lifting of the retail ban extremely significant, but he did not explicitly confirm whether the firm will begin offering its products to retail investors.

The same goes for WisdomTrees Director of Digital Assets Research, Dovile Silenskyte, who described the move as a pivotal moment for integrating digital assets into the financial system, but didnt commit to expanding retail access.

Elsewhere in Europe, asset managers including BlackRock, Bitwise, WisdomTree, 21Shares, Coinshares, and Global X already offer various crypto ETPs.

For example, BlackRocks BTCN is currently available to retail investors in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.
BNP Paribas and HSBC have joined the Canton Network, a permissioned and privacy-centric blockchain popular with banks and large financial institutions.

Their addition comes after Goldman Sachs, Hong Kong FMI Services and Moodys Ratings joined in March. The Canton Network hosts more than $3.6 trillion in tokenized assets, according to the foundation. It functions as a permissioned blockchain with a Global Synchronizer that allows trades and settlements to occur across different networks without compromising data control.

BNP Paribas said joining reflects its digital transformation strategy and intent to collaborate on blockchain applications in client services. HSBC framed the move as a way to improve liquidity in digital asset markets and support transactions that span multiple assets.

The Canton Foundation counts more than 30 members, including Broadridge, Tradeweb and Digital Asset. By uniting banks, fintech firms and service providers under neutral governance, the foundation aims to create infrastructure for tokenized finance that mirrors the trust and operational standards of traditional markets.
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Dive Brief:

A former employee of chicken restaurant Bojangles had her disability accommodation request denied and was terminated in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, she alleged in a lawsuit filed Monday (Wilhite v. Bojangles Restaurants, Inc.).

According to the complaint, the worker disclosed her sickle cell anemia and pregnancy to a manager and requested to work six-hour shifts instead of eight-hour shifts. Her request was denied, according to the lawsuit.

One week after disclosing her pregnancy, the worker was allegedly told she was not a good fit for the restaurant because [she has] sickle cell and [is] pregnant and was fired.

Dive Insight:

The worker alleged violations at the intersection of several laws safeguarding employees rights.

For one, she said she experienced discrimination and retaliation due to her pregnancy, a violation of Title VII as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. She also alleged Bojangles discriminated against her, failed to accommodate her and retaliated against her in violation of the ADA. Finally, she alleged the restaurant failed to accommodate her pregnancy and retaliated against her in violation of the PWFA.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recommends employers participate in an interactive process when a worker discloses disability and need for accommodation. Through the process, employers and employees work together to determine an appropriate accommodation.

While employers are not required to procure or allow the accommodation the worker suggests, primary consideration should be given to the preference of the individual involved, EEOC said in a publication on its website. Employers must provide an accommodation regardless unless doing so would constitute an undue hardship.

The PWFA, which took effect in 2023, extends employers obligation to provide reasonable accommodation to pregnant workers with known limiting conditions related to pregnancy.

Bojangles did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

Recommended Reading
Mackenzie, 26, from Melbourne, FL, works four or five jobs and side hustles. She considers herself an entrepreneur, but shes drained her retirement savings and emergency fund  racking up thousands of dollars in debt  in the process.

Must Read

She told Caleb Hammer on a recent episode of Financial Audit that she used to work as a project manager at Walmart, making around $50,000 a year before she quit [1]. She took money out of her 401(k) to buy a car, drained $14,000 in savings and racked up debt as she starts a nail salon business  all of which she blames on girl math.

Girl math is a term that emerged from TikTok as a way to describe the seemingly intricate and often ridiculous ways women justify an extravagant or unnecessary expense, according to a social media glossary from Later [2].

Hammer was opposed to her using the phrase, saying, Youre going to make everyone hate women  Why bring to your entire gender this negative connotation that youre unable to manage money?

Now, Mackenzie is making about $500 a month as a nail technician  a business she just started  splitting $742 a month in rent with another technician. That works out to $6.25 an hour for 20 hours per week. She also spent a few thousand dollars on startup costs because the old salon stuff had bad energy.

Well, I girl-mathed the hell out of it and it made sense to me in the moment, she told Hammer.

Mackenzie also has a part-time job at a burrito restaurant, working an average of about 20 hours a week at $15 an hour plus tips.

So to be clear, you make three times what you make [doing] nails  and you work just as many hours doing that, said Hammer.

Heres why her girl math doesnt add up.

4 mistakes to avoid in entrepreneurship

There are about 31 million small businesses in the U.S., according to the Small Business Administration. The vast majority, or 25.7 million, have no employees.

While 26% of entrepreneurs started their own business because they were passionate about a business idea or saw a unique opportunity, according to a HubSpot survey, 54% cited struggles with earning and maintaining financing as the most pressing issue they run into [3].
Shengsheng He, a California man who helped launder nearly $37 million stolen from U.S. investors through a global cryptocurrency scam, was sentenced Monday to 51 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $26.9 million in restitution, federal prosecutors said.

A resident of La Puente, California, He pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.

According to the Justice Department, He co-owned Axis Digital Limited, a Bahamas-based company used to receive and transfer victim funds.

The scheme relied on unsolicited messages, phone calls, and dating app conversations to build trust with victims.

The co-conspirators then promoted fraudulent digital asset investments to the victims, the DOJ wrote. Scammers would tell victims that their investments were appreciating in value when, in fact, the funds the victims sent to the scammers had been stolen.

Once victims sent money, the funds were funneled into a single Axis Digital account at Deltec Bank in the Bahamas, then converted into the Tether (USDT) stablecoin and moved to wallets controlled by the scammers.

Authorities said the funds were routed through shell companies and overseas accounts to obscure their origin.

DOJ Seeks Forfeiture of Bitcoin Tied to 'Chaos' Ransomware Group

Prosecutors said the scam operated out of Cambodian pig butchering centers, where criminals use social engineering to defraud victims.

Pig butchering scams are typically high-volume digital fraud schemes, and in 2024, netted $9 billion according to Chainalysis. Victims believed they were investing in legitimate digital assets, but their money was being laundered across a network of accounts spanning multiple countries.

The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment by Decrypt.

Tornado Cashs Roman Storm Faces 5 Years for a Crime DOJ Now Says It Wont Prosecute

Hes case is part of a broader crackdown on crypto-related fraud. In recent months, the Justice Department has seized digital assets linked to terrorist financing, returned millions to victims of investment fraud, and targeted offshore exchanges used to launder illicit funds.

In March, prosecutors seized $201,000 in crypto linked to Hamas. In July, the DOJ began returning $7.1 million to victims of a $97 million oil and gas fraud scheme.

Authorities have also taken down domains tied to Russian-run exchanges accused of processing more than $800 million in illicit transactions.

Eight co-conspirators have pleaded guilty in the Axis Digital case, including Jose Somarriba and Jingliang Su, two of Hes business partners. Su, a Chinese national, helped convert and transfer stolen funds.
US firm Charcuterie Artisans has been acquired by an investment fund managed by Industrial Opportunity Partners.

In a statement, Charcuterie Artisans, the parent company of Creminelli Fine Meats and Daniele, said IOP is making a significant new investment into the business.

The financial terms of deal and investment were not disclosed.

In the statement, the company said the investment would be used to expand capacity, strengthen customer partnerships, and drive innovation.

Charcuterie Artisans markets a range of Italian-style meats under the Creminelli Fine Meats and Del Duca brands.

Jeff Tripician, a former Niman Ranch and Perdue Farms executive, has been named Charcuterie Artisans CEO. He joins the business from Dutch cultivated-meat firm Meatable.

Daniele, founded in 1945, is known for its meats such as prosciutto and salami.

Creminelli Fine Meats, established in 2007, focuses on selling charcuterie and protein snacks to retail and foodservice customers.

In 2020, the two companies merged with the backing of another US private-equity firm, the Chicago-based Entrepreneurial Equity Partners.

Cristiano Creminelli, founder of Creminelli Fine Meats, said yesterday (9 September): With IOPs support and our experienced leadership team, we can continue to strengthen relationships, ensure supply, and bring new innovations to the category."

Based in Mapleville in Rhode Island, Charcuterie Artisans operates with almost 700,000 square feet of space, spread between its HQ location and another facility in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Commenting on his appointment, Tripician said: This is a natural fit for me, having been both a customer and a vendor with these companies in past roles.

That experience gives me a unique perspective on how to deliver what matters most: consistent supply, trusted relationships, and products that help our customers succeed.

"Charcuterie Artisans gets new private-equity owner " was originally created and published by Just Food, a GlobalData owned brand.




That effectively closes the Chinese market to the Canadian canola industry. So, those impacts are felt right across the canola industry value chain, starting at the farm gate, he told Automotive News Canada.

Chris Davison, CEO of the Canola Council of Canada, said the two sets of duties will hit the sector hard.

But the move placed Canada in the crosshairs of the Chinese government, which opened an anti-discrimination investigation in response in fall 2024 and placed 100-per-cent tariffs on Canadian canola oil and meal in March. A separate anti-dumping investigation into Canadian canola seed ran concurrently, leading to preliminary duties of 75.8 per cent on the major agricultural export in August.

The tariffs stopped shipments of China-made EVs and hybrids into Canada virtually overnight, affecting Tesla, Polestar, Ford and Volvo. It also put an end to BYD Auto Co.s plans to expand into the country.

The federal surtax enacted on China-made EVs last fall kept Canada aligned with the United States, which had quadrupled its own tariffs on EV imports from China a few months earlier.

We have begun more intense engagement with China with respect first and foremost to canola and other agriculture and seafood products, he told reporters at an event in the Toronto area. Im sure those discussions will branch out, but its too early to come to any conclusions.

The assessment comes as Ottawa reengages with Beijing on trade. But on Sept. 5, Prime Minister Mark Carney said it was too early to say whether renewed talks could lead to EV tariff changes.

The results are due by Oct. 1, one year after the federal government imposed the punishing tariffs on China-built EVs and hybrids, citing Chinas unfair auto sector practices, ranging from oversupply to poor labour standards and a lack of environmental protections.

Officials are currently undertaking work on this review, including an assessment of Chinas policies and trade practices, and whether the scope of the surtaxes, as well as the surtax rate, remain appropriate, a Finance Canada official told Automotive News Canada.

The Canadian government has begun a review of its 100-per-cent tariffs on electric vehicles imported from China, as it tries to maintain support for two key local industries and find a balance between the worlds two largest economies.

Story Continues

China is the second-largest market for Canadian canola after the United States, and the largest market for seed.

The industry group is calling on Ottawa to engage with China and make headway on resolving bilateral tensions.

These are political issues that require political solutions, Davison said.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith were more explicit.

In August, the leaders of Canadas two top canola producing provinces said Ottawa should remove the tariffs on China-built EVs.

The auto sector, meantime, maintains that the tariffs are necessary to shield the local industry from unfair competition.

Flavio Volpe, CEO of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association, told reporters Sept 5 that Canada should continue to engage with China, but maintain the tariffs.

Any loosening of the tariff for the Chinese has to come with an opportunity for Canadian suppliers, or minerals and raw materials, or dealers, or Canadian workers. Right now, thats not the prospect.

The Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association and Global Automakers of Canada, groups that represent the five automakers that assemble vehicles in Canada, also back the China tariffs, saying allowing unfairly subsidized vehicles into the country would undermine the sector.

Numerous EV advocates, on the other hand, say removing the barrier to China-made EVs would give Canadians access to cheaper vehicles and provide Ottawa a clearer path to hitting its environmental goals.

Canada wedged between worlds two largest economies

Staying onside with the United States adds another challenge for Ottawa, said Philippe Rheault, director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta.

Every time you do something with China, theres a risk  thats going to upset your engagement with [Washington] D.C.

Canadas new government under Carney inherited a poisoned chalice from its predecessor, Rheault said, making the tariffs difficult to walk back without risking further fallout.

If the Trudeau government had been a little bit more nuanced, they would have been able to come up with a response that would have on the one hand signaled to the Americans that we were all in on Fortress North America, but at the same time, not use such a blunt instrument that now you have nowhere to go.

Unlike in the European Union, where policymakers conducted a monthslong investigation into Chinese vehicle imports, and eventually assigned automakers tariff rates of between nine and 45 per cent, depending on the subsidy levels the investigation found each received, Canada imposed the catch-all tariffs after a 30-day consultation with industry.

It was just a very quick consultation and a number thrown out there. I think that was grating [to China], Rheault said.

Eliminating the tariffs or substantially lowering the rate would likely placate Beijing, which has been transparent about the tit-for-tat nature of its response, Rheault said. But it would also be certain to catch Washingtons attention at a time Ottawa is working to shore up its relationship with the United States.

Whether the Carney team decides to break with the Americans and chart its own path on China will likely depend on whether the Prime Ministers Office sees a trade deal with Washington as achievable, Rheault said.

But as the tariff exchange with China stokes uncomfortable internal divisions, Ottawa is up against the clock to find a way forward, he added.

Stakes high for both auto, canola industries

Within Canada, the issue has pit Western farmers against Eastern industrial interests.

When calling for EV tariffs on China to be dropped last month, for instance, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said the federal government must not sacrifice canola farmers to protect Canadas auto sector.

Citing statistics from a Canola Council of Canada report released in August 2024, he said the canola sector is significantly larger than the steel industry, the aluminum industry and the car manufacturing industry combined.

The report found canola contributes $43.7 billion to the Canadian economy and helps employ about 200,000 Canadians, but analysis of those tallies by the Trillium Network for Advanced Manufacturing found they were at best an overreach and at worst overblown.

The organization that advocates of behalf of Ontario manufacturing said canola farming and processing contributed $5 billion to Canadian GDP in 2024 and directly employed 21,576 people. That compared with the far larger automotive parts production and assembly, which together contributed $19.1 billion to Canadian GDP and directly employed 118,120 last year. All figures were derived from Statistics Canada publications.

Brendan Sweeney, the Trillium Networks managing director, said presenting the broadest possible view of an industrys economic contribution distorts its true scale.

If I had the latitude to do that, I could make it $240 billion in automotive industry GDP.

Sweeney said canola is an important part of the Canadian economy, but it is not as big a component as the Saskatchewan premier claims.

The Canola Council of Canadas Davison said the group has been transparent about its report including direct, indirect and induced benefits. He would not comment on Moes use of the statistics.
By Gus Trompiz

PARIS (Reuters) -European pork producers face a squeeze on profit margins after China, their largest market, imposed anti-dumping duties of up to 62.4% on imports of EU pork products.

The provisional tariffs, effective on Wednesday, target over $2 billion worth of annual exports and threaten to erode margins across the European Unions pork sector.

China accounts for a quarter of EU pork exports. Shipments to China rose 4% in the first half of 2025 after a three-year decline.

Offal products  such as pig ears, noses and feet  make up more than half of these exports, according to Rabobank. These items are popular in China but have limited demand elsewhere, leaving European producers few alternative markets.

Well continue exporting but at lower value, said Thierry Meyer, vice president of French pork industry group Inaporc.

He warned that the duties, combined with a stronger euro, could pressure exporters and reduce farmgate prices, potentially slowing pig production in Europe.

The sector had recently begun recovering, helped by falling input costs for feed and energy. The new tariffs now threaten that rebound.

On Friday, Chinas Ministry of Commerce said a preliminary investigation found evidence of dumping that harmed its domestic producers.

The investigation and duties are widely viewed as retaliation for EU tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, escalating trade tensions that have also seen Beijing investigate European brandy and dairy.

European pork producers had hoped that Beijings decision to extend the investigation for six months in June meant a resolution to the broader EV dispute was within reach.

FEW ALTERNATIVE MARKETS FOR OFFAL

Initial Chinese tariffs on EU pork products, to be paid as deposits, range from 15.6% to 32.7% for companies cooperating with the probe, while others face the full 62.4% rate. The investigation is set to conclude in December.

Although trade will continue, downward pressure on EU pig prices is expected, said Eva Gocsik, global animal protein strategist at Rabobank. She noted that alternative markets like pet food offer limited margins for offal, while diverting non-offal meat could intensify price competition in other markets.

Spain is the most exposed EU country, accounting for nearly half of pork exports to China, followed by the Netherlands, Denmark, and France. Spanish pork group Interporc and the Danish Agriculture & Food Council, which represents agri-food sectors including pork, said they would continue engaging with Chinese authorities during the investigation.
China's healthcare sector is on track to secure record fundraising this year, driven by robust global investor demand and growth momentum, according to analysts.

Several Chinese biopharmaceutical companies have tapped equity capital markets - mainly in Hong Kong - for initial public offerings (IPOs), follow-on deals and block share placements this year.

Year to date, the fundraising reached US$10.6 billion (HK$82.5 billion), more than the combined total from 2022 to 2024, according to Dealogic data.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

Recent months saw Wuxi AppTec, Asia's leading contract pharmaceutical research provider, raise about US$980 million via a Hong Kong share placement, while Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group secured US$500 million in a new shares issue.

Biotech firms Akeso and Innovent raised US$449 million and US$548 million, respectively. On the IPO front, Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals achieved one of Hong Kong's largest deals this year with US$1.3 billion in May.

Further strong issuances totalling "several billion more" in the second half across the sector are expected, according to Citigroup.

"There has been strong global investor interest in the China healthcare sector across a range of areas," said Ling Zhang, Hong Kong-based head of healthcare investment banking for Asia North, Australia and Asia South at the US bank. "Issuers will continue to tap into that strong demand to raise financing to support their growth."

Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals achieved one of Hong Kong's largest deals this year with US$1.3 billion in May. Photo: Getty Images alt=Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals achieved one of Hong Kong's largest deals this year with US$1.3 billion in May. Photo: Getty Images>

So far this year, the MSCI China Healthcare Index and the Hang Seng Healthcare Index have rallied more than 70 per cent and 100 per cent, respectively.

"Global investors want access to companies at the leading edge of healthcare technology," Zhang said. Investors were focusing on companies that address cardiovascular, cancer and other life-threatening conditions, as well as chronic diseases such as cardiometabolic and obesity diseases.

Some companies in these areas saw their shares soar, including Innogen Pharmaceutical Group, a maker of drugs for diabetes and other metabolic diseases, whose shares jumped almost fourfold before closing 206 per cent higher on the first day of trading in Hong Kong.
Australia's Cobram Estate Olives (CBO) has received commitments for funding of A$175m ($115.6m) to fund its US expansion.

CBO said it had completed a share placement with institutions priced at A$3.2 per share.

The company plans to raise an extra A$10m through a non-underwritten "share purchase plan".

In a statement yesterday (9 September), the producer of the Cobram Estate olive-oil brand said the funds will be directed towards buying land on which it would develop around 1,600ha of olive groves.

CBO aims to complete the project by the end of 2027.

Non-executive chair and co-founder Rob McGavin said the company sees significant potential for the US "to replicate  and ultimately surpass  the success of our Australian business.

CBO wants to grow its total freehold land in California to approximately 4,500ha, with planted grove areas expected to increase to around 3,600ha.

At full maturity, the groves are anticipated to yield more than nine million litres of extra virgin olive oil a year. At present, the companys US groves produce 0.5 million litres per year.

The US has become increasingly significant for CBO, accounting for over a quarter of its olive oil sales.

For the 12 months ended 30 June 2025, the companys revenue increased by 22.1% to A$335.4m.

CBO reported a net profit after tax of A$49.6m, a substantial increase of 168.1% from FY2024.

The companys EBITDA increased by 74.8%, to A$116.6m.

In FY2025, CBO's US operations reported an EBITDA of A$6.6m, marking a 14.7% increase from the previous year.

CBO attributed the growth to strong sales of Cobram Estate branded products, leading to an increase in the overall gross sales price per litre.

Sales of Cobram Estate products in the US more than doubled to A$42.3m, up from A$21m in FY2024, accounting for 65.4% of total US sales.

"Cobram Estate Olives completes share issue to fund US expansion" was originally created and published by Just Food, a GlobalData owned brand.




December ICE NY cocoa (CCZ25) on Wednesday closed up +73 (+0.99%), and December ICE London cocoa #7 (CAZ25) closed up +68 (+1.33%).

Cocoa prices moved higher on Wednesday, supported by weather concerns in West Africa. Heavy rain in the Ivory Coast has kept farmers out of cocoa fields and reduced the movement of cocoa from plantations to ports. Also, dryness in Ghana and Nigeria has damaged some crops, as cocoa pods have withered from a lack of precipitation.

More News from Barchart

Tighter cocoa inventories are also supportive for prices as ICE-monitored cocoa inventories held in US ports fell to a 4-month low of 2,115,411 bags on Wednesday.

Cocoa prices fell to 1.5-month lows on Tuesday on expectations of growing supplies amid weakening demand. Cocoa prices have been under pressure over the past four weeks amid fears that high cocoa prices and tariffs could dampen chocolate demand. Chocolate maker Lindt & Sprungli AG lowered its margin guidance for the year in July due to a larger-than-expected decline in first-half chocolate sales. Additionally, chocolate maker Barry Callebaut AG reduced its sales volume guidance for a second time in three months in July, citing persistently high cocoa prices. The company projects a decline in full-year sales volume and reported a -9.5% drop in its sales volume for the March-May period, the largest quarterly decline in a decade.

Also weighing on cocoa prices is optimism about this year's cocoa crop harvest in West Africa. Chocolate maker Mondelez said last Thursday that the latest cocoa pod count in West Africa is 7% above the five-year average and "materially higher" than last year's crop.

Cocoa prices previously rallied to two-month highs last month, on concerns that cold and dry weather across West Africa's cocoa-producing regions is slowing down plant development in the Ivory Coast and proliferating black pod disease in Ghana and Nigeria. According to the Commodity Weather Group, the past 60 days for West Africa cocoa were the driest on record since 1979. The lack of rain could impact the retention of cocoa pods on trees before the main crop harvest that starts in October.

The slowdown in the pace of cocoa exports from the Ivory Coast is bullish for cocoa prices. Monday's government data showed that Ivory Coast farmers shipped 1.81 MMT of cocoa to ports this marketing year from October 1 to September 7, up +5.8% from last year but down from the much larger +35% increase seen in December.
In interviews with Fortune, Pineau, new CFO Francois Chadwick (who was previously acting CFO at Uber) and cofounder Frosst emphasized Coheres focus on the enterprise market. While rivals race toward human-like artificial general intelligence (AGI), Cohere is betting that businesses want something simpler: tools that deliver ROI today.

Unlike peers that have tied themselves closely to Big Tech cloud providersor, in some cases, sold outrightCohere has resisted acquisition offers and avoided dependence on any single cloud ecosystem. Acquisition is failureits ending this process of building, Gomez, Coheres CEO, recently said at a Toronto Tech Week event. The company also leans into its Canadian roots, touting both its Toronto headquarters and lucrative contracts with the Canadian government, even as it maintains a presence in Silicon Valley and an office in London.

Cohere was founded in 2019 by three Google Brain alumni  Nick Frosst, Ivan Zhang and Aidan Gomez, a coauthor on the seminal 2017 research paper, titled Attention Is All You Need, that jump-started the generative AI boom. According to Frosst, in May the startup reached $100 million in annual recurring revenue. Its an important milestone, and there have been unconfirmed reports that Cohere projects doubling that by the end of year. But it is still a fraction of what larger rivals like Anthropic and OpenAI are generating.

Pineau announced her departure from Meta in April, just weeks before Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a sweeping AI reorganization that included acquiring Scale AI, elevating its cofounder Alex Wang to chief AI officer, and launching a costly spree to poach dozens of top researchers. For Cohere, her arrival is a coup and a reputational boost at a moment when many in the industry wondered whether the company could go the distanceor whether it would be acquired or fade away.

Cohere, the Toronto-based startup building large language models for business customers, has long had a lot in common with its hometown hockey team, the Maple Leafs. They are a solid franchise and a big deal in Canada, but theyve not made a Stanley Cup Final since 1967. Similarly, Cohere has built a string of solid, if not spectacular, LLMs and has established itself as the AI national champion of Canada. But its struggled for traction against better-known and better-funded rivals like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind. Now its making a renewed bid for relevancy: Last month the company raised $500 million, boosting its valuation to nearly $7 billion; hired its first CFO; and landed a marquee recruit in Joelle Pineau, Metas longtime head of AI research.

Story Continues

A focus on ROI over AGI

We have been under the radar a little bit, I think thats fair, cofounder Nick Frosst said. Were not trying to sell to consumers, so we dont need to be at the top of consumer mindsand we are not. Part of the reason, he added with a laugh, is cultural: Were pretty Canadian. Its not in our DNA to be out there talking about how amazing we are.



Frosst did, however, tout the billboards that recently debuted in San Francisco, Toronto and London, including one for Coheres North AI platform that says AI that can access your info without giving any of it away.

That quiet approach is starting to shift, he said, a reflection of the traction its seeing with enterprise customers like the Royal Bank of Canada, Dell and SAP. Coheres pitch, he argued, is pretty unique among foundation model companies: a focus on ROI, not AGI.



When I talk to businesses, a lot of them are like, yeah, we made some cool demos, and they didnt get anywhere. So our focus has been on getting people into production, getting ROI for them with LLMs, he said. That means prioritizing security and privacy, building smaller models that can run efficiently on GPUs, and tailoring systems for specific languages, verticals and business workflows. Recent releases such as Command A (for reasoning) and Command A Vision are designed to hit top of their class performance while still fitting within customers hardware budgets.

It also means resisting the temptation to chase consumer-style engagement. On a recent episode of the 20VC podcast, Frosst said Cohere isnt trying to make its models chatty or addictive. When we train our model, were not training it to be an amazing conversationalist with you, he said. Were not training it to keep you interested and keep you engaged and occupied. We dont have engagement metrics or things like that.

Lack of drama is wonderful

For Pineauwho at Cohere will help oversee strategy across research, product, and policy teamsthe companys low-key profile was part of the appeal. The absence of drama, she said, is wonderful  and a good fit for my personality. I prefer to fly a little bit under the radar and just get work done.

Pineau, a highly-respected AI scientist and McGill University professor based in Montreal, was known for pushing the AI field to be more rigorous and reproducible. At Meta, she helmed the Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) lab, where she led the development of companys family of open models, called Llama, and worked alongside Metas chief scientist Yann LeCun.

There was certainly no absence of drama in her most recent years at Meta, as Mark Zuckerberg spearheaded a sweeping pivot to generative AI after OpenAI debuted ChatGPT in November 2022. The strategy created momentum, but Llama 4 flopped when it was released in early April 2025at which point, Pineau had already submitted her resignation. In June, Zuckerberg handed 28-year-old Alex Wang control of Metas entire AI operations as part of a $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI. Wang now leads a newly formed Superintelligence group packed with industry stars paid like high-priced athletes, and oversees Metas other AI product and research teams under the umbrella of Meta Superintelligence Labs.

Pineau said Zuckerbergs plans to hire Wang did not contribute to her decision to leave. After leaving Meta, she had several months to decide her next steps: Based in Montreal, where Cohere is opening a new office, Pineau said she had been watching the company closely: Its one of very few companies around the world that I think has both the ambition and the abilities to train foundation models at scale.

What stood out to her was not leaderboard glory but enterprise pragmatism. For example, much of the industry chases bragging rights on public benchmarks, which rank models on tasks like math or logic puzzles. Pineau said those benchmarks are nice to have but far less relevant than making models work securely inside a business. Theyre not necessarily the must-have for most enterprises, she said. Cohere, by contrast, has focused on models that run securely on-premise, handle sensitive corporate data, and prioritize characteristics like confidentiality, privacy and security.

In a lot of cases, responsibility aspects come late in the design cycle, she said. Here, its built into the research teams, the modeling approach, the product. She also cited the companys small but mighty research team and its commitment to open science  values that drew her to Meta years earlier.

Pineau considered returning to academia, but the pace and scale of todays AI industry convinced her otherwise. Given the speed at which things are moving, and the resources you need to really have an impact, having most of my energies in an industry setting is where Im going to be closer to the frontier, she said. While I considered both, it wasnt a hard choice to jump back into an industry role.

Her years at Meta, where she rose to lead a global research organization and spent 18 months in Zuckerbergs inner leadership circle, left her with lessons she hopes to apply at Cohere: how to bridge research and product, navigate policy questions, and think through the societal implications of technology. Cohere is on a trajectory to play a huge role in enterprise, but also in important policy and society questions, she said. Its an opportunity for me to take all Ive learned and carry it into this new role.

The Cohere leadership moved quickly. When we found out she was leaving Meta, we were definitely very interested, Frosst said, although he denied that the hire was intended as a poke at Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. I dont think about Zuck that often, he said. [Pineau is] a legend in the community  and building with her in Montreal, in Canada, is particularly exciting.

A move to growth and path to profitability

Pineau is not Coheres only new big league hire. It also tapped Chadwick, an Uber alum who served there as acting CFO. I was the guy that put Uber in over 100 countries, he noted. I want to bring that skill set hereunderstanding how to scale, how to grow, and continue to deliver.

What stands out to him about Cohere, he explained, is the economics of its enterprise-focused business model. Unlike consumer-facing peers that absorb massive compute costs directly onto their own balance sheets, Coheres approach shifts much of that burden to partners and customers who pay for their own inference. Theyre building and implementing these systems in a way that ensures efficiency and real ROIwithout the same heavy drag on our P&L for compute power, he said.

That contrasts with rivals like Anthropic, which The Information recently reported has grown to $4 billion in annualized revenue over the last six months but is likely burning far more cash in the process. OpenAI, meanwhile, has reportedly told investors it now expects to spend $115 billion through 2029an $80 billion increase from prior forecaststo keep up with the compute demands of powering ChatGPT.

For Chadwick, that means Coheres path to profitability looks markedly different than other generative AI players. Im going to have to get under the hood and look at the numbers more, but I think the path to profitability will be much shorter, he said. We probably have all the right levers to pull to get us there as quickly as possible.

Daniel Newman, CEO of research firm The Futurum Group, agreed that as OpenAI and Anthropic valuations have ballooned to eye-watering levels while burning through cash, there is a strong need for companies like Cohere (as well as the Paris-based Mistral) which are providing specialized models for regulated industries and enterprise use cases.

I believe Cohere has a unique opportunity to zero in on the enterprise AI opportunity, which is more nascent than the consumer use cases that have seen remarkable scale on platforms like OpenAI and Anthropic, he said. This is the intersection of software-as-a-service companies, of cloud and hyperscalers, and some of these new AI companies like Cohere.

Still, others say its too early for Cohere to declare victory. Steven Dickens, CEO and principal analyst at Hyperframe Research, said the company has a ways to go to get to profitability. That said, he agreed that the recent capital raise from some storied strategic investors is a strong indication of the progress the company has made and the trajectory ahead.



Among those who participated in the most recent $500 million venture capital round for Cohere were the venture capital arms of Nvidia, AMD, and Salesforce, also of which might see Cohere as strategic partner. The round was led by venture capital firms Radical Ventures and Inovia Capital, with PSP Investments and Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan also joining the round.

Vindication in vibe shift away from AGI

For his part, Frosst sees some vindication in the rest of the industrys recent vibe shift away from framing AGI as the sectors monocular goal. In a way, the rest of the industry is moving towards the position Cohere has already staked out.



But Coheres skepticism about AGI hasnt always felt comfortable for the company and its cofounders. Frosst said its meant that he has found himself in disagreement with friends who believe throwing more computing power at LLMs will get the world closer to AGI. Those include his mentor and fellow Torontonian Geoffrey Hinton, widely known as the godfather of AI, who has said that AGI is the most important and potentially dangerous technology of our time. 

I think its credibility-building to say, I believe in the power of this technology exactly as powerful as it is, Frosst said. He and Hinton may differ, but it hasnt affected their friendship. I think Im slowly winning him over, he added with a laugh  though he acknowledged Hinton would probably deny it.

And Cohere, too, is hoping to win over more than friends  by convincing enterprises, investors, and skeptics alike that ROI, not AGI, is the smarter bet. The Toronto Maple Leafs of AI thinks it might just win the Stanley Cup yet.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
This story was originally published on Payments Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Payments Dive newsletter.

Dive Brief:

Corpay, which provides payments services to corporate clients, may divest its unit that aids companies in managing hotel expenses for employees if it cant jump-start sluggish revenue growth, according to comments by its top executives.

The company will definitely look to divest the lodging business if revenue growth doesnt return from a downdraft over the past couple years, Corpays new chief financial officer, Peter Walker, said at the Jefferies Fintech investor conference last Wednesday.

Chief Executive Officer Ron Clarke also noted during an earnings call last month that the unit, which is the companys third-largest, could be sold, in addition to a couple non-core vehicle businesses that are already up for sale.

Dive Insight:

Atlanta-based Corpay provides its payments software services for managing corporate lodging expenses mainly to companies in North America and the United Kingdom. That includes to airlines and cruise lines managing hotel and housing expenses for crews and stranded passengers, as well as to insurance companies providing accommodations for policyholders who leave their homes in emergency situations.

Corpays biggest unit, which delivers payments services for managing large vehicle fleet expenses, generated about $2 billion last year, while its second-biggest segment, which provides corporate payments services, generated about $1.2 billion, according to Corpays annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in February. The lodging segment generated $489 million.

Corpay caters to the office of the chief financial officer, Walker noted, seeking to enable companies to better manage their expenses and payments. He joined the company in July as CFO after being appointed in June.

The lodging unit weakness showed up in the companys second-quarter results and its expected to keep being a drag in the second half of the year, Walker said. Our view was that lodging would improve in the back half, and now were expecting it to go a little bit more negative than what it was in Q2, he said at the Jefferies conference.

Corpay has been trying to revive mid-single-digit to 10% revenue growth for the lodging segment after business declined due to fewer weather emergencies and airline flight snafus.

We are dependent on emergency and weather events  that drives a lot of volume in lodging, and its just been a slower year, thankfully, Walker said. It's just coming in less volumes than we thought. Thats obviously potentially subject to change, because nobody controls it.
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An Ohio federal court has dismissed a complaint brought by mega-RIA Mariner Wealth Advisor against upstart Savvy Advisors for allegations of poaching advisors without regard to contractual obligation.

In a ruling issued last Friday, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio Western Division dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning it cannot be brought before the court again.

Mariner filed the initial complaint in June 2024, suing Savvy Wealth, the parent of Savvy Advisors, and advisors Brad Morgan, Nate Kunkel and Tim Gerard. The lawsuit included accusations of Savvy and the advisors taking Mariners confidential customer information, customer lists and customer contact information and soliciting Mariner customers, which the plaintiff said amounted to bringing over $60 million in managed assets.

A Savvy spokesperson said the firm was pleased with the resolution of the case.

We have long opposed the use of restrictive covenants to bind advisors and their clients to firms, the spokesperson wrote via email. Advisors should be free to make career decisions that reflect their best interests and those of their clients. Savvy remains committed to empowering advisors to grow their practices and deliver exceptional client servicewithout unnecessary restrictions or interference.

New York-based fintech Savvy Wealth was founded in 2021 by Ritik Malhotra as a platform for RIAs, and has been growing its RIA practice steadily, both by advisors and AUM. In July, the firm announced that a team of eight advisors had left Focus Financial Partners to join with $270 million in client assets, bringing its total to 68 people overseeing over $2.2 billion in AUM.

Mariner declined to comment on the court dismissal.

According to the original complaint, Savvy advisor Morgan had been an equity owner in Mariner, starting in 2014, and Kunkel and Gerard joined the RIA in 2018. The trio, also according to the allegations, specialized in working with Procter & Gamble employees based in Cincinnati, which they sought to bring over to their accounts with Savvy.

Indeed, rather than cultivate customers through fair competition, Savvy seeks out experienced wealth managers from across the country to poach their books of business from competitors, Mariners complaint read. Savvy does this without regard to contractual obligations these wealth managers owe to their employers.

According to their LinkedIn profiles, Morgan and Gerard both worked at Proctor & Gamble before joining Mariner.
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Creative Planning has hired another plus-$1 billion Silicon Valley area registered investment advisor as it looks to expand in the market.

Peter Grassi, managing partner of San Jose-based Grassi Investment Management, is joining Creative Planning with his four-person staff, including financial consultant Kenneth Cervantes.

Grassi, who co-founded the firm with his father, has helped build the business over more than two decades to $1.3 billion in assets across individuals, families, foundations and institutions, according to its most recent Form ADV. Through the deal, Grassi gains an equity stake in Creative Planning.

We are excited about this as he and his team are in one of our strongest markets, Creative Planning CEO Peter Mallouk said of the deal via email. We continue to focus on expanding our presence in the region.

Its at least the second plus-$1 billion deal Mallouk has made in the region this year, announcing the acquisition of Monterey Private Wealth in April. Creative Planning also acquired a $290 million RIA near what is officially considered Silicon Valley with a February deal for Maxwell Wealth Strategies in Pleasanton, Calif.

Creative Planning, which is backed by minority investors TPG Capital and General Atlantic, has now penned seven deals this year, according to Fidelity Investments wealth management M&A tracker.

According to LinkedIn, Grassi is a San Francisco native and attended the University of California, Berkeley. He started in investing as a vice president at Davis, Skaggs and Company and later became a senior vice president at Smith Barney and its predecessor firms.

Grassi worked alongside his father, also Peter, when he was at Davis, Skaggs and Company, and later started Grassi Investment with him, according to his fathers obituary. The elder Peter Grassi passed away in 2024 after working with clients for over 50 years.

We pride ourselves on selecting our own stocks and bonds for the investment portfolios and design portfolios that are invested in companies that we see as undervalued, the firm writes on its website. We enjoy helping clients to establish goals for retirement and financial independence and working with clients to ensure success.
October WTI crude oil (CLV25) today is up +1.09 (+1.75%), and October RBOB gasoline (RBV25) is up +0.0452 (+2.31%).

Crude oil and gasoline prices today are sharply higher on concern that the conflict in the Middle East could widen after Israel conducted a strike in Qatar targeting Hamas leaders. Also, Ukraine said it has stepped up attacks on Russian refineries and oil infrastructure, which is reducing Russian crude production capabilities. Dollar strength today is limiting the upside in crude prices.

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Crude prices jumped today after Israel launched a strike on Doha, Qatar, targeting the senior leadership of Hamas. Qatar said the attack by Israel violated international law and threatens to widen the conflict in the Middle East, the source of about one-third of global oil supplies.

Crude prices also have support after OPEC+ agreed on Sunday to raise its crude production by 137,000 bpd, starting in October. This is less than the 547,000 bpd increase the group decided to boost output in September and August. OPEC+ also said restarting the remainder of the 1.66 million bpd crude production it had idled will be contingent on "evolving market conditions."

Reduced Russian crude output is tightening global oil supplies and is supportive of prices. Ukrainian drone and missile attacks on Russian refineries have curbed Russia's crude-processing runs to 5.09 million bpd in the first 27 days of August, the lowest monthly average in over 3.25 years.

Crude prices have support on concerns that the ongoing war in Ukraine could lead to additional sanctions on Russian energy exports, reducing global oil supplies. US Treasury Secretary Bessent said last Tuesday that the US "will be examining sanctions on Russia very closely" due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. President Trump has threatened "very big consequences" if Russia doesn't come to the negotiating table. Last Friday, German Chancellor Merz and French President Macron called for secondary sanctions on Russia for its war in Ukraine. They said they will push for measures targeting "companies from third countries that support Russia's war."
Valued at a market cap of $54.9 billion, D.R. Horton, Inc. (DHI) is a homebuilding company. Headquartered in Arlington, Texas. it acquires and develops land, and constructs and sells residential homes across a wide range of buyer segments.

Companies valued at $10 billion or more are typically classified as large-cap stocks, and D.R. Horton fits the label perfectly, with its market cap exceeding this threshold, underscoring its size, influence, and dominance within the residential construction industry. As one of the largest homebuilders in the U.S., the company benefits from significant economies of scale, enabling cost efficiency and competitive pricing.

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This homebuilding company has dipped 7.9% from its 52-week high of $199.85, reached on Sep. 19, 2024. Shares of DHI have climbed 52.4% over the past three months, substantially outpacing the SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETFs (XHB) 8.8% returns over the same time frame.

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In the longer term, DHI has fallen 1.1% over the past 52 weeks, considerably underperforming XHBs 18.9% uptick over the same time frame. Moreover, on a YTD basis, shares of DHI are up 31.6%, compared to XHBs 5.4% loss.

To confirm its bearish trend, DHI has been trading above its 200-day moving average since mid-June and has remained over its 50-day moving average since mid-July.

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D.R. Horton shares gained over 2% on Sept. 5, rallying alongside other major homebuilders as the continued decline in the 10-year Treasury yield pushed mortgage rates lower and boosted sentiment in the housing sector.

DHI has outpaced its rival, KB Home (KBH), which declined 14.5% over the past 52 weeks and has returned 3.2% on a YTD basis.

The stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy from the 20 analysts covering it, and it currently trades above its mean price target of $164.33.

On the date of publication, Kritika Sarmah did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Barchart.com
As CFO, McGill has drawn attention for her work related to AI. I echo Michaels gratitude for Yvonnes notable leadership during her time at Dell, most recently as CFO helping us rapidly scale our AI business, said Jeff Clarke, vice chairman and COO, in a statement included in the release. McGill also was named  CFO AI-Champion of the Year  by the consulting firm Gartner, awarded for demonstrating exceptional leadership and innovation in integrating artificial intelligence into the finance function and across the enterprise.

Given that Dell hired McGill from within for the post, Josh Crist, co-managing partner of the executive search firm Crist Kolder Associates, said the company appears to have strong succession planning and will likely tap an insider for the CFO role this time around too. Id be shocked if they dont promote from within, but maybe they have lost talent, Crist said in an email.

Back in 2023 McGill, then the companys corporate controller, was tapped to succeed Dells longest-serving CFO, Tom Sweet . At the time, Dell and other players in the technology space were already grappling with waning customer demand for electronic products such as PCs and uncertainty stemming from recent breakthroughs in generative artificial intelligence .

Michael Dell, the CEO and founder of the company originally known as PCs Limited  which he started while a student at the University of Texas in 1984  said in a statement in the release that McGill has been a tremendous contributor as finance chief and in her prior leadership roles including as corporate controller, ISG CFO and chief accounting officer. Yvonnes leadership has made a lasting mark, and we wish her all the best in whats next, Dell said.

The Round Rock, Texas-based company, which said it has begun a search for McGills permanent successor , appointed David Kennedy, senior vice president of Dell Global Business Operations, Finance, to serve as interim CFO, effective Tuesday, according to a release. Like McGill, Kennedy, 48, is a long-time Dell executive, having worked there since 1998.

Dell Technologies CFO Yvonne McGill is resigning from the tech company where she has worked for nearly 30 years and stepping down from the finance chief seat she has held for about two years, according to a Monday securities filing.

Story Continues

But despite signs of strength in the companys AI server space, Dell still faces financial pressures, according to an Aug. 29 Morningstar report on Dells fiscal second quarter earnings. While Dell is generating solid sales momentum within AI servers, the dip in margins calls into question exactly how much will fall to the bottom line, analysts led by Morningstar Director Eric Compton wrote.

In the latest fiscal quarter ended Aug. 1, the company reported record revenue of $29.8 billion, up 19% year-over-year, driven by AI server shipments; however, gross margins declined to 18.3% in the quarter from 21.4% in the year-earlier period, according to a company presentation and earnings material.

Looking ahead, McGill said on a recent company earnings call that fiscal year 2026 revenue is expected to be between $105 billion and $109 billion, up 12% YOY at the midpoint of $107 billion. We expect the demand environment we saw in the second quarter for traditional servers and storage to persist into the second half, McGill said on the Aug. 28 call, according to a transcript. In CSG, as the PC refresh cycle continues, we are focused on improving our execution to grow revenue and gain share. Overall, we expect profitability to improve in the second half across CSG and ISG and specifically within AI servers.

McGills decision to resign was not a result of any disagreements with the company on any matter relating to its financial statements, internal control over reporting, operations or practices, the securities filing states. The company, which declined to comment on the reason for McGills move, has reaffirmed its guidance for fiscal Q3 and the full year that it gave last month.

McGill, who will remain a full-time employee at the company through Oct. 31, entered into a separation agreement that provides a waiver of claims against the company and other matters relating to the termination of her employment, according to the filing. Subject to the conditions in that agreement, McGill will receive a cash payment with a pro rata bonus for fiscal 2026 of about $562,500.

McGills compensation totaled $7.16 million in fiscal 2025, including $692,308 in salary and $5.6 million in stock awards, according to Dells May proxy filing.

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Delphi Alliance, a multi-practice global professional services alliance, has appointed Ozgur Demirdoven as an independent board member.

Demirdoven's responsibilities will include guiding the alliance's growth strategy and promoting collaboration among its international member firms.

He brings nearly three decades of executive experience, having held leadership roles at multiple companies such as PwC, GE, Prysmian Group, Turkcell Group, MED Group, and IAPA International.

His most recent role was as executive vice president of Global Commerce at Allinial Global, during which he oversaw the expansion of the network's country coverage and an increase in revenue.

Demirdoven said: This is a long-term partnership role, not an executive position. I will serve Delphi Alliance as an independent board member, helping to shape its strategy, global reach, and member collaboration. I am especially excited to deliver the keynote address at the upcoming Annual Conference in Malta, where we will share the Alliances renewed vision for growth.



Delphi Alliance CEO Christos Christodoulou stated: We are delighted to welcome Ozgur to our Board. His track record in expanding global networks and building cross-border partnerships is second to none. At a time when Delphi Alliance is accelerating its international growth, his insight and leadership will be invaluable to our members worldwide.

Delphi Alliance integrates firms from 13 different disciplines, encompassing a range of professional services.

These disciplines are marketing and advertising, information technology, human resources, fiduciary and administration, audit and assurance, accounting, payroll and taxation, financial and monetary, business and management advisory, compliance, real estate, reporting, translation and interpretation, professional training and education, legal services, and venture capital and funding.

"Delphi Alliance appoints Ozgur Demirdoven board member " was originally created and published by International Accounting Bulletin, a GlobalData owned brand.




Dallas, Texas-based Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (DLR) is a real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on data centers. Valued at a market cap of $55 billion, the company owns, develops, and operates data center, colocation, and interconnection facilities that support the growing demand for cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and digital transformation.

Companies valued at $10 billion or more are typically classified as large-cap stocks, and DLR fits the label perfectly, with its market cap exceeding this threshold, underscoring its size, influence, and dominance within the REIT - specialty industry. Serving a wide range of customers, including technology companies, financial institutions, and global enterprises, DLR provides secure and scalable infrastructure solutions that enable businesses to store, manage, and exchange critical digital information worldwide.

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Despite its notable strength, this specialty REIT has slipped 18.6% from its 52-week high of $198, reached on Nov. 29, 2024. Moreover, shares of DLR have declined 8.8% over the past three months, considerably lagging behind the S&P 500 Indexs ($SPX) 8.3% return during the same time frame

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In the longer term, DLR has gained 8.8% over the past 52 weeks, underperforming SPX's 20.1% uptick over the same time period. Moreover, on a YTD basis, shares of DLR are down 9.1%, compared to SPXs 10.4% surge.

To confirm its bearish trend, DLR has been trading below its 200-day moving average since early August, with slight fluctuations, and has remained below its 50-day moving average since late July.

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Digital Realty Trust delivered better-than-expected Q2 results on Jul. 24, yet its shares plunged 1.2% in the following trading session. The companys total operating revenue of $1.5 billion grew 10.1% year-over-year and topped the consensus estimates by 3.5%. Furthermore, its core FFO came in at $1.87 per share, up 13.3% from the year-ago quarter and 3.5% ahead of Wall Street's expectations. Additionally, DLR raised its fiscal 2025 guidance, now expecting revenues in the range of $5.9 billion to $6 billion, and core FFO to be between $7.15 and $7.25 per share.
Brown Advisory, an investment management company, released its Brown Advisory Mid-Cap Growth Strategy second-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The strategy underperformed its benchmark, the Russell Midcap Growth Index, in the second quarter of 2025, which increased 18%. High tariff levels announced on Liberation Day triggered a sudden spike in the Volatility Index (VIX). However, fear quickly gave way to strong gains as tariffs were partially rolled back, and corporate first-quarter earnings showed resilience. In addition, please check the funds top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.

In its second-quarter 2025 investor letter, Brown Advisory Mid-Cap Growth Strategy highlighted stocks such as Voyager Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:VOYG). Voyager Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:VOYG) is a defense technology and space solutions company. The one-month return of Voyager Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:VOYG) was 1.57%. On September 08, 2025, Voyager Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:VOYG) stock closed at $29.42 per share, with a market capitalization of $1.735 billion.

Brown Advisory Mid-Cap Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Voyager Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:VOYG) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:

"Voyager Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:VOYG) is a unique player in the early-stage space and defense technology sector, with capabilities spanning propulsion, signal intelligence, communications, and guidance systems. The company also holds a 67% stake in Starlab, a contender for NASA funding to help replace the International Space Station. Voyager recently secured a key contract for its propulsion technology in a next-generation missile defense system, further validating its innovation and unlocking a new source of near-term profitability. With several high-profile program wins already in place, we believe there's substantial long-term upside if its early stage initiatives continue to progress."

Is HEICO Corporation (HEI) The Most Crowded Hedge Fund Stock That is Targeted by Short Sellers?

Voyager Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:VOYG) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 34 hedge fund portfolios held Voyager Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:VOYG) at the end of the second quarter, which was 0 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Voyager Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:VOYG) as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.
Salesforce's (CRM) 25% decline in 2025 has allowed investors to buy the dip and gain exposure to a quality company at a lower multiple. However, investors should carefully weigh the company's artificial intelligence (AI) transition challenges against its improving fundamentals before diving in.

Salesforce's recent struggles reflect structural challenges beyond typical market volatility. Revenue growth has stagnated in single digits for four consecutive quarters, with the latest 10% increase barely meeting expectations.

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The core CRM market is showing signs of saturation. At the same time, AI automation threatens its traditional service agent modela dynamic that CEO Marc Benioff acknowledges has already reduced internal workloads by 30-50%.

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The disappointing guidance, despite beating earnings estimates, suggests that management lacks visibility into near-term catalysts. While Agentforce has secured 6,000 paid deals, Wells Fargo analyst Michael Turrin notes it's "not significant enough to move the needle" given Salesforce's scale.

However, the selloff in CRM stock may have created an attractive entry point. The company's enterprise value-to-free cash flow ratio has reached a 10-year low, suggesting that the tech stock has overcorrected.

Salesforce demonstrated operational discipline by expanding margins ahead of schedule following activist pressure while maintaining its innovation pipeline through the $8 billion acquisition of Informatica.

The $20 billion share buyback expansion signals management confidence, and Agentforce represents a technological differentiation rather than "repackaged ChatGPT," according to Benioff.

How Did Salesforce Stock Perform in Fiscal Q2?

Salesforce's "Customer Zero" approach demonstrates tangible benefits from its AI strategy. The company has processed 1.5 million customer support conversations through agents, achieving a 77% resolution rate while maintaining equivalent customer satisfaction scores to those of human interactions.

After years of letting prospects go uncontacted, Salesforce's new sales agents have engaged tens of thousands of inbound leads in just seven weeks, setting appointments and closing deals. This represents scalable revenue generation that traditional CRM couldn't achieve.
Ecco is adding to its American leadership team.

Last week, the Danish footwear and leather company named footwear industry veteran Matt Feiner as chief commercial officer of Ecco Americas.

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In his new role, the company said that Feiner will lead wholesale, retail and e-commerce across North America. Key to the role, is managing the omni-channel landscape, ensuring best in class partnership for Eccos wholesale accounts and profitability through its direct-to-consumer channels. The company added that Feiner will also have a strong influence on the product creation and go-to-market strategies.

In a statement to FN, Feiner said that he is thrilled to join the company. Ecco is a brand Ive long respected for its craftsmanship and innovation, and I see tremendous potential to build on its legacy and help drive growth across the region, Feiner noted.

The executive joins Ecco from The SG Companies, where he most recently served as president and chief executive officer since January 2017. While at The SG Companies, Feiner spearheaded innovation and revitalized the Rugged Shark brand, driving revenue growth from $85 million to $140 million.

Prior to this role, Feiner served a senior vice president and general manager of the wholesale division at Stride Rite Childrens Group. But Feiner spent most of his career at Reebok. Startin in 1991 as a retail sales representative for the mountain states region and worked his way up to vice president of U.S. merchandising. He left Reebok in 2010.

For Neal Taylor, who joined Ecco as chief executive officer of the Americas in March, he is excited to welcome Feiner to the team. This role is a sign of the commitment, Ecco has to drive its North America business, Taylor told FN. His relentless will to win combined with his knowledge across the go to market spectrum will help us accelerate as we lay the foundations for our turnaround.

This comes as Ecco continues to build its U.S. business. In an interview with Taylor in March, the CEO said that his mandate was working to unlock the potential of the brand in the U.S.

Ecco is a family-owned legacy business that has this unique angle in terms of end-to-end go-to market products, so its about communicating that to the customer here, Taylor said in March. You know, we have stores and an e-commerce presence both in the U.S. and Canada as well as key wholesale partners. So, its about trying to unlock that potential of this great product that hasnt reached its full potential within the U.S. and North America.

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By Francesca Landini and Giancarlo Navach

MILAN (Reuters) -Italian gas and electric utility Edison plans to replace some gas volumes from pipeline contracts with liquefied natural gas to gain more flexibility in managing demand, its CEO said on Wednesday.

The company earlier announced a 15-year agreement with Shell to purchase around 0.7 million tonnes a year of U.S. LNG starting in 2028.

European companies are stepping up LNG purchases to gain flexibility, so they can resell cargoes to other markets when demand is low. Edison said this approach would help it adapt to uncertain consumption trends in Italy and across Europe.

Speaking with Reuters at the sidelines of Gastech conference in Milan, Edison CEO Nicola Monti said the group had two pipeline contracts that would expire in the next two years - one from Algeria for around 1 billion cubic metres a year, and one for around 4.4 bcm partly from Libya.

"We will probably reduce the overall volumes from these two contracts, with the intention of replacing those volumes with more LNG," Monti told Reuters, adding that the Shell contract was part of this strategy.

He said the best strategy for the company is to be more flexible with LNG, "able to either move that gas to the Italian or European market, or to divert volumes to emerging economies".

The agreement signed with Shell follows another long-term gas contract inked with U.S. group Venture Global LNG.

Since Venture Global started shipping gas last April, deliveries have been regular, Monti said.

But Edison has been pursuing an arbitration case against Venture Global for allegedly failing to start delivering LNG shipments in late 2022, when Europe was grappling with Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Monti said Edison expected the case to be decided by year-end.

Last month Venture Global prevailed in a similar complaint from Shell. "We were very, very surprised with the result of Shell's arbitration," Monti said. "Our arbitration case is different, because the court is different."

Monti also said Edison's contract with Venture Global was not same of Shell's.

Other companies including BP and Galp have also filed claims against Venture Global, accusing it of profiting from the sale of LNG on the spot market instead of providing them with contracted cargoes from the Calcasieu Pass export facility Louisiana.

Venture Global has denied the allegations and said in August that it expected to win all the pending arbitration cases.

(Additional reporting by Marwa Rashad, Emily Chow; Editing by Jan Harvey)
(Reuters) -Italy's energy company Edison on Wednesday signed an agreement with Shell to purchase liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States, expanding its long-term portfolio.

The Italian subsidiary of France's EDF will receive around 0.7 million tonnes per annum of LNG starting in 2028 and continuing for up to 15 years, it said in a statement.

(Reporting by Romolo Tosiani in Gdansk; Editing by Matt Scuffham)
Ethiopia has launched the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which is claimed to be the largest hydroelectric facility in Africa, reported Reuters.

The development is likely to intensify existing tensions with Egypt, its downstream neighbour.

The GERD, which has cost approximately $5bn, is situated on a tributary of the Nile and is viewed by Ethiopia as a vital element of its economic growth strategy.

With a total capacity of 5,150MW, the dam has now reached its full operational output, placing it among the largest hydroelectric projects worldwide.

At the inauguration event held in Guba, Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed addressed an audience that included leaders from Somalia, Djibouti, and Kenya.

To our (Sudanese and Egyptian) brothers; Ethiopia built the dam to prosper, to electrify the entire region and to change the history of Black people," Ahmed remarked.

"It is absolutely not to harm its brothers," he added.

Since the start of construction in 2011, the dam has been a contentious issue for Ethiopia's neighbouring countries, according to the news agency.

Egypt, which depends significantly on the Nile for its water supply, has said that the GERD could restrict its access to water during drought conditions.

The Egyptian foreign ministry has communicated to the UN Security Council, claiming that the dam's inauguration breaches international law.

Ethiopia contends that the reservoir created by the dam, which covers an area larger than Greater London, will ensure a consistent water supply for irrigation downstream, as well as reduce the risks of flooding and drought.

Ahmed highlighted that the dam will improve electricity access for nearly half of the countrys population, who lacked power as recently as 2022, while exporting the excess to the region.

As the GERD begins its operations, the geopolitical ramifications of this project remain a focal point of concern, particularly for Egypt, which views the dam as a potential threat to its water security.

"Ethiopia launches Africas largest dam amid regional disputes" was originally created and published by Power Technology, a GlobalData owned brand.




By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Starboard Value has nominated four directors, including one of its partners, to the board of BILL Holdings, said two people familiar with the matter, as the activist investor pushes the financial automation software company to improve shareholder returns.

Starboard, with an 8.5% stake in BILL Holdings, said in a regulatory filing last week that it would like to see the company unlock value for shareholders and is prepared to shake up the board to achieve that goal.

Four of the company's 12 directors will stand for election at this year's annual meeting. Starboard may nominate as many as four director candidates before the Saturday deadline, Reuters reported last week. BILL Holdings stock surged nearly 10% after Reuters reported Starboard's stake last week.

Starboard nominated four executives who will bring expertise in financial technology, payments, operations and corporate governance, said the people, who asked not to be identified to discuss private matters.

We have had constructive conversations with Starboard and intend to continue engaging with Starboard to understand their views as we do with other shareholders. We will consider Starboards nominees pursuant to established processes, BILL Holdings told Reuters.

Starboard's nominees are Peter Feld, a managing member at Starboard who heads research and has served on more than a dozen boards, Liat Ben-Zur, Nancy Disman and Frank Young, the people said.

Ben-Zur is a former Microsoft executive who serves on the board of Compass Group, while Disman had been the chief financial officer at Shift4 Payments until this month and is now rejoining the company's board. Young is a former executive at Global Payments and an adviser at Boston Consulting Group. None of the three independent candidates have been nominated to other boards by Starboard.

Since its initial public offering in 2019, the San Jose-headquartered company's shares have gained 30%. This year, however, they are down nearly 40%. The company acknowledged that its stock is undervalued when it announced a $300 million share repurchase plan in August.

Earlier this year, Starboard reached a settlement with software design company Autodesk to add two independent directors to its board. In March, consumer health company Kenvue, the maker of Tylenol and Band-Aids, reached an agreement with Starboard to add its partner and chief investment officer, Jeff Smith, and two independent directors to the board.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss in New YorkEditing by Dawn Kopecki and Matthew Lewis)
By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will terminate its investigation into EchoStar's 5G buildout obligations in the country, according to a letter from the agency's chair.

The expected move follows EchoStar's $17 billion deal to sell wireless spectrum to billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX and two weeks after it announced a $23 billion spectrum sale to AT&T.

FCC Chair Brendan Carr wrote in a letter to EchoStar Chair Charles Ergen on Monday that he had asked the agency staff to close the investigation and conclude that EchoStar has satisfied its buildout obligations.

Carr told reporters Tuesday the deal could be a "potential game changer for the American consumer."

He said it promises to free up new spectrum and bring new sources of competition to the wireless market, noting EchoStar's Boost Mobile brand has lost 2 million consumers in recent years.

Carr said he did not think Boost was putting much competitive pressure on the wireless market.

"I think that status quo wasn't working," Carr said. "We have a chance now to do something different... I think you can make a case that this is much more competitive."

Carr told EchoStar in May that the FCC was investigating the company's compliance obligations to provide 5G service in the United States, questioning EchoStar's buildout extension and mobile-satellite service.

Carr said he also directed the staff to confirm EchoStar's exclusive rights to a key spectrum block for ground and satellite use.

EchoStar, co-founded by telecommunications entrepreneur Ergen, faced the probe over slow deployment of 5G services.

SpaceX had also asked the FCC to review EchoStar's spectrum holdings, saying the telecommunications company might be "warehousing" valuable spectrum, which is not used to provide services.

The transactions with AT&T and SpaceX are still subject to FCC approval.

In June, President Donald Trump prodded EchoStar, parent of Dish TV, and Carr to reach a deal over the fate of the company's wireless spectrum licenses.

U.S. satellite TV provider DirecTV terminated its agreement to acquire EchoStar's satellite television business last year, which includes rival Dish TV, over a failed debt-exchange offer.

(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing Franklin Paul and Lisa Shumaker)
Fidelity Investments has rolled out its tokenized money market fund on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, marking the Boston-based investment management giant's entrance in the rapidly growing tokenized asset field.

Some $202 million in Fidelity Digital Interest Tokens (FDIT) were minted blockchain in early September, blockchain data on Etherscan shows. FDIT is the token representation of the Fidelity Treasury Digital Fund (FYOXX), the on-chain share class of the Fidelity Treasury Digital Fund (FYHXX), which seeks to provide yield to investors by holding U.S. Treasury bills. The asset manager first unveiled the facility in March in a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The key investor in the offering is tokenization platform Ondo Finance, holding $202 million in FBIT as a reserve asset for its OUSG yield-generating token, Ondo's daily report shows. OUSG uses a range of tokenized money market funds including BUIDL by BlackRock and Securitize, Franklin Templeton's BENJI and WisdomTree's WTGXX to back the token's value.

Tokenized Treasury boom

Tokenization of government debt, a crucial collateral asset in global markets, is part of a broader push to bring financial instruments, or real-world assets (RWA), onto blockchain rails. Global banks and asset managers like Fidelity Investments explore tokenization to cut settlement times, increase transparency and keep markets open around the clock.

The market of tokenized U.S. Treasuries is growing rapidly, more than tripling in the last year to $7.5 billion, RWA.xyz data shows. BlackRock and tokenization specialist Securitize dominates the market with the $2.4 billion BUIDL token, followed by offerings by Franklin Templeton and WisdomTree.

These tokens are increasingly used as a key piece of infrastructure for yield-earning strategies and collateral in the crypto economy.

Read more: Nasdaq Seeks Nod From U.S. SEC to Tokenize Stocks
a radiant Solana vault absorbing torrents of capital from Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin monoliths as bullish charts surge upward.

Forward Industries (FORD) stock price more than doubled after the company revealed plans to launch a $1.65 billion Solana treasury program.

The rally followed news that Forward Industries had secured private placement commitments in cash and stablecoins from several industry giants, including Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, Multicoin Capital, and C/M Capital Partners, LP, one of its largest shareholders.

Following the news, FORDs stock surged 101% in pre-market trading to about $33 on Sept. 9, according to Google Finance data.

Notably, the deal also helped push SOLs price up by over 5% in the last 24 hours to $214 as of press time.

Largest Solana treasury company

At Solanas current trading price, the $1.65 billion allocation would translate into more than 7.7 million SOL tokens.

Data from CoinGecko shows that the scale would make Forward Industries the largest publicly traded Solana treasury, overtaking Upexis 2 million SOL holding.

Considering this, Forward Industries says the program is designed to generate differentiated on-chain returns and strengthen long-term shareholder value.

As a result, Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin Capital will each provide strategic and technical support alongside their financial commitments. Galaxy will advise on structuring, while Jump Crypto will help develop the infrastructure to manage treasury operations.

Leadership changes

As part of the PIPE agreement, Multicoin co-founder Kyle Samani will become Chairman of Forward Industries Board of Directors.

Chris Ferraro, President and Chief Investment Officer at Galaxy, and Saurabh Sharma, Chief Investment Officer of Jump Crypto, will join as Board observers.

These individuals bring extensive experience in investing in and building within the Solana ecosystem.

Samani argued that Solana remains undervalued despite its strong developer and user activity, making this an opportune moment to build a large-scale treasury.

He added:

Real economic value is being generated on Solana. An institutional-scale treasury can be deployed in sophisticated ways within the Solana ecosystem to create differentiated value and increase SOL per share at a faster rate than simply being a passive holder.

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Futu Holdings Limited FUTU shares have performed remarkably over the past year. Prices have grown a whopping 221.8%, outperforming the 87.6% surge of its industry and the 20.1% rise in the Zacks S&P 500 Composite.

Over the past year, the company has outperformed its industry peers, Mogos MOGO 53.9% rally and Vimeos VMEO 6.1% fall.

1-Year Price Performance

Zacks Investment Research

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

The year-to-date price performance also shows that FUTU has outperformed Mogo and Vimeo. While Futu Holdings has skyrocketed 135.1%, Mogo has rallied 30.1% and Vimeo has declined 24.9%.

Investors may find the strong increase in FUTU share prices appealing, prompting them to create a long-term position. Whether it is a sound idea to buy the stock now needs to be assessed. Let us delve deeper to arrive at a conclusion.

FUTUs Big 3: Expansion, Innovation & Client Engagement

In the second quarter of 2025, Futu Holdings reached a milestone in its international expansion with more than 50% of funded accounts from clients outside of Futu Securities Hong Kong. The United States and Singapore are FUTUs largest international markets. That being said, the company is expanding swiftly in Japan and Malaysia, with Australia and Canada showing promising growth.

The growth narrative across the countries that are conventionally not Futu Holdings primary target is a testament to FUTUs successful international expansion strategy. This expansion results in the creation of a broad client base, which boosted new funded accounts by 32% year over year. Furthermore, marketing partnerships with the New York Mets are instrumental to improving FUTUs brand image and recognition, primarily in the United States.

The product and service innovation front looks impressive, with Futu Holdings determined to provide a one-stop trading platform to its clients with diverse offerings, including IPO financing in markets like Malaysia, crypto-trading, fixed income products to Singapore and Hong Kong and principal-protected structured products.

AI has been a vital part of FUTUs product and service strategy. Post the successful launch of Futubull AI in Hong Kong, the company rolled out moomoo AI across the international markets. This product provides global investors with smart and efficient investment tools.

The companys international expansion strategy and product and service innovation strategy have improved its client engagement and retention. In the June-end quarter, total client assets surged 68.1% year over year, with the daily average client assets jumping 59.9%. FUTUs client retention rate stayed well above 98%, suggesting strong client loyalty.
Genesis has secured the Stage 1 Mining Proposal and Mine Closure Plan approval from the Department of Mines, Petroleum and Exploration for its Tower Hill project in Western Australia.

This milestone aligns with the company's development timeline for stage one mining, ensuring that the project is on track for mine development in fiscal year 2027 (FY27) and the extraction of first ore in FY28.

Genesis anticipates that agreements with rail users regarding the shortening of the rail line for stage two will be finalised by the end of this calendar year.

Tower Hill is a significant open-pit mining prospect with abundant, near-surface, high-grade ore, situated just 2km north of the companys Gwalia mine.

The site has seen sporadic mining activity since 1898. The most recent mining efforts at Tower Hill concluded in 2003, with the site having produced around 220,000oz during its historical operations.

The Leonora processing plant is located just 1km away from the project and is currently undergoing an expansion study.

Genesis plans to provide more details on the Tower Hill project in its updated long-term plan, set for release in the June half of 2026.

The mine plan for Tower Hill includes a single open pit with a one-million-ounce ore reserve at two grams per tonne, a strike length of 1.4km and a 9:1 strip ratio. Additionally, Genesis is advancing an underground transition study.

Genesis managing director Raleigh Finlayson said: The Stage One approval is an important piece of our accelerated ASPIRE 400 growth jigsaw.

It ensures we have the flexibility to align the start of mining at Tower Hill with the mill expansion strategy, enabling us to optimise the timing of costs and revenues. When combined with the recently acquired Focus assets at Laverton, we have a pipeline of organic growth opportunities which in turn give us very valuable processing flexibility.

"Genesis receives approval for Tower Hill stage one project in Western Australia" was originally created and published by Mining Technology, a GlobalData owned brand.




By Saeed Azhar

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Goldman Sachs' "small investment" of up to $1 billion in asset manager T. Rowe Price is aimed at giving investors broader access to private markets, CEO David Solomon said on Monday.

Solomon was explaining the rationale for the investment announced last week, including their partnership to offer retail investors private market products.

"This is about our partnering in retirement and in other areas to give investors access to some very, very unique products," Solomon told investors at a conference in New York. "When you think about alternatives broadly, we're still in the early innings of the secular growth of alternatives and the participation by investors in these products."

Solomon reiterated that Goldman could look at a deal in asset or wealth management to accelerate growth, but cautioned the bar for such a transaction is "very high."

The bank is seeing a pickup in strategic mergers and acquisitions, but noted that activity from financial sponsors is relatively muted.

Solomon also said the Federal Reserve's policy rate is not "extraordinarily restrictive" to deter risk appetite.

Goldman, the world's top-ranked adviser for mergers and acquisitions, has benefited from a revival in deals that bolstered its second-quarter profits.

Global M&A has reached $2.6 trillion, the highest for the first seven months of the year since the 2021 pandemic-era peak. Corporate boards are seeking growth, and optimism about an artificial intelligence boom has offset the uncertainty over U.S. tariffs.

(Reporting by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Lananh Nguyen and Richard Chang)
There is no I in team. But there are plenty in public-private investments.

As access to and demand for alternatives continues to ramp up, Goldman Sachs and T. Rowe Price are joining forces. The high-powered Wall Street investment bank plans to invest up to $1 billion in T. Rowe stock with the intention of acquiring up to 3.5% of shares, the firms announced last week. Through the new partnership, the two companies will offer mass affluent and high-net-worth clients wealth and retirement products that have access to private markets.

The team-up marks the latest collaboration between Wall Street giants in public-private investments and comes after T. Rowe experienced multiple years of outflows while Goldmans retail ventures have floundered. Its a bit of a shotgun wedding, said Jake Miller, co-founder of private markets platform Opto Investments. Goldman may find a $1 billion investment far cheaper than building out this distribution directly and organically.

READ ALSO: What Does the Feds Rate Cut Mean for Clients? and Advisors and Clients Just Dont See Eye-to-Eye on the Economy

Keep it Private

Under the partnership, Goldman and T. Rowe will offer target-date strategies, model portfolios, multi-asset products and a platform for advisors with managed retirement accounts, all of which will have access to private markets.

Private markets have traditionally been exclusive to high-net-worth clients and institutional investors due to the higher costs of entry and potentially greater risk. However, asset managers see plenty of opportunity in the mass affluent and retail investor space where access to alternatives is increasing, especially with the Trump administrations moves to get private assets in 401(k)s.

On the path to private market dominance, many asset managers have teamed with a travel buddy or two:

Blackstone, Vanguard and Wellington partnered for an interval fund that invests in public equities, bonds and private markets, in an effort to capture more retail investors.

Capital Group and KKR teamed up to launch two public-private credit funds, specifically targeting retail investors.

State Street and Apollo also launched two private credit ETFs this year.

Time Horizons. Miller said demand for private assets is growing somewhat among retail investors, and alternatives can have a meaningful place in 401(k)s, thanks to the accounts long time horizons and tax advantages. However, he argued many of the partnerships were seeing today arent delivering exactly what the average plan participant is looking for.
Last Tuesday, Kraft Heinz announced plans to split into two companies, effectively undoing much of the $46 billion merger from a decade ago that had created one of the worlds largest food firms. Warren Buffett, the legendary investor whose Berkshire Hathaway is Kraft Heinzs largest shareholder, told CNBC that he was disappointed with the move. The companys shares ended the trading session down roughly 7% after Buffetts comments.

Shares of the food company have dropped 12.8% on a year-to-date (YTD) basis, with much of the decline driven by Warren Buffetts expression of disappointment over Kraft Heinzs recent decision to split. Zooming out, KHC stock has been on a downtrend over the past year amid sluggish sales impacted by changing consumer behavior and economic uncertainty.

With a market cap of $32.3 billion, Kraft Heinz is a global food and beverage powerhouse. The company produces and sells a broad range of products, including condiments, sauces, cheese, meals, meats, and beverages, under well-known brands such as Kraft, Oscar Mayer, Heinz, Philadelphia, and Lunchables. It distributes its products through multiple channels, including supermarkets, convenience stores, and e-commerce platforms, with a substantial share of revenue generated from key customers such as Walmart.

So, is Kraft Heinzs surprise split a red flagor a rare chance to grab a Buffett-backed dividend stock on the cheap? Lets dive deeper into the story and weigh the potential risks and rewards for investors today.

The move didnt just surprise investorsit also drew a rare public expression of dissatisfaction from none other than Buffett himself. The legendary investor, whose Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) (BRK.B) owns more than a 27% stake in Kraft Heinz and remains its largest shareholder, admitted he was disappointed with managements decision to pursue the breakup, arguing that it will be costly, disruptive, and ultimately not the right course for shareholders. However, while Buffetts critique pushed KHC stock down about 7% in a single session, the announcement has reignited a broader conversation about whether Kraft Heinz could be at an inflection point.

When Warren Buffett speaks, Wall Street listens. And when one of his portfolio companies makes a headline-grabbing move, investors cant help but take notice. Thats precisely what happened last week when Kraft Heinz (KHC) shocked the market with a bold plan to split into two separate companies.

Story Continues

Under the split, one global company would sell sauces, spreads, and seasonings, while the other would focus on grocery staples in North America. Kraft Heinz CEO Carlos Abrams-Rivera will lead the $10 billion North American grocery business, which will encompass brands like Oscar Mayer, Kraft Singles, and Lunchables. The other business, generating about $15 billion in annual sales, will have a global focus on taste elevation, featuring brands such as Heinz ketchup, Philadelphia cream cheese, and Kraft Mac & Cheese, according to the company.

Kraft Heinz stated that the move is intended to establish more focused, less complex businesses, further reinforcing a shift away from the food industrys longstanding strategy of pursuing scale through mergers and acquisitions. Scale by itself is not the answer, but having scale along with focus creates opportunities, said CEO Abrams-Rivera. The split is anticipated to be completed in the second half of 2026.

In recent years, Kraft Heinz has faced challenges as demand has weakened for several of its core products, including Lunchables, Capri Sun, macaroni and cheese, and mayonnaise. Abrams-Rivera also noted that Kraft Heinzs complexity has been a hurdle, as its nearly 200 brands spanning around 55 categories and 150 countries have made it difficult to invest fully in each one. That said, he believes the split will allow executives of the North American staples business to focus on a narrower market and pursue growth in channels such as convenience stores that have not yet been a priority.

However, Mr. Buffett, who, together with Brazilian private equity firm 3G Capital Partners, orchestrated the merger of Kraft and Heinz in 2015, believes the split is not the right decision. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, the Oracle of Omaha said that Kraft Heinzs breakup plan would be both costly and disruptive, adding that shareholders should have gotten a vote. He noted that Greg Abel, who is set to succeed him as CEO in January, recently told Kraft Heinz representatives that Berkshire Hathaway does not support the split. It doesnt create value, and it involves lots of expenses, Buffett said.

Meanwhile, Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway holds a stake of over 27% in Kraft Heinz, making it the companys largest shareholder. Berkshire hasnt made any changes to its stake since the 2015 merger. Mr. Buffett told the WSJ that he doesnt know what the future holds for that stake. Ten years ago, we said great things were going to happen because you put the two together. If youre honest about it, whats happened has not been impressive, he said.

Its also worth noting that such breakups are not new to the food and beverage industry, as more major food companies pursue divisions to shed slower-growth categories and regain investor confidence. In August, Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) revealed plans to unwind the 2018 merger that combined a coffee company with the owner of 7UP. And two years ago, Kellogg separated its snacks division into Kellanova (K) and rebranded itself as WK Kellogg (KLG).

TD Cowen analyst Robert Moskow said that food megamergers have generally seen low success rates. The analyst noted that the skills and investments needed to succeed across various areas of the grocery store often differ, and companies with more focused portfolios tend to have better long-term success than highly diversified ones. However, he acknowledged that dividing Kraft Heinz into two separate companies could be complicated.

Kraft Heinz Sales Fall Again in Q2

As noted earlier, Kraft Heinz has struggled recently from weakening demand for some of its core products, a trend clearly reflected in its latest earnings report. The company reported a 1.9% year-over-year (YoY) decline in net sales to $6.35 billion and a 2.0% drop in organic net sales to $6.33 billion. The decline was mainly driven by an unfavorable volume/mix that outweighed the benefit of higher pricing. With that, the core issue facing Kraft Heinz is that many of its mature brands have reached saturation in most of the companys key markets. And this is arguably the very issue that the recent push to split the company aims to tackle.

Kraft Heinz has been reshuffling its portfolio and directing investments toward healthier products that better align with shifting consumer preferences. Also, to drive sales, the company has recently introduced initiatives such as offering a larger box of macaroni and cheese designed to serve a family of five for under $2 and upgrading the quality of cookies and crackers in Lunchables. In July, KHC stated that it anticipates costs to increase by 5% to 7% this year, though only part of that rise is being passed on to consumers.

Meanwhile, Kraft Heinz reported a GAAP loss of $6.60 per share for the quarter, weighed down by a $9.3 billion noncash impairment charge, which the company attributed mainly to a prolonged decline in its share price and market capitalization.

Looking ahead, management reaffirmed its downbeat full-year guidance, projecting adjusted EPS of $2.51 to $2.67, a YoY decline of 13% to 18%, and organic net sales to fall between 1.5% and 3.5% compared to the previous year.

KHC Analysts Estimates, Valuation, and Dividend Yield

Analysts tracking the company predict a 15.04% YoY drop in its adjusted EPS to $2.60 for fiscal 2025. Also, Wall Street expects KHCs revenue to fall 2.46% YoY to $25.21 billion in FY25.

In terms of valuation, priced at 10.50 times forward adjusted earnings, the stock trades at a discount compared to the sectors median of 16.77x and its own five-year average of 12.75x. I believe the stock is cheap at its current levels, even when factoring in its declining top and bottom lines. With that, the potential for further downside in its share price seems relatively limited.

KHC stock could even be seen as an appealing option for income-focused investors, given its high yield. Kraft Heinzs annualized dividend of $1.60 per share translates into a dividend yield of 5.86%, which is well above the sector median of 3%.

What Do Analysts Expect for KHC Stock?

Wall Street analysts maintain a cautious stance on KHC stock, as evidenced by its consensus Hold rating. Of the 22 analysts covering the stock, 20 recommend holding, while one rates it a Strong Buy and another a Moderate Sell. Notably, KHC stock currently trades near its average price target of $28.62.

Its also worth noting that analysts had mixed reactions to the companys plan to split. Last Wednesday, Morgan Stanleys Megan Alexander upgraded the stock to Equal Weight, noting that the sharp decline in Kraft Heinzs share price has brought the food giant to a reasonable valuation as it moves closer to splitting into two separate companies. At the same time, analysts from Wells Fargo, Stifel, BofA, and UBS lowered their price targets on the stock following the news.

The Bottom Line on KHC Stock

Putting it all together, I believe Kraft Heinzs split could ultimately be a positive development. It seems logical to me to have one company focused on a global reach while the other concentrates on the North American market, given the differences in culinary preferences across regions. With that, if a North American company can curb sales declines through greater concentration on its home market, while a globally oriented company targets international growth opportunities, investors could benefit over the long run. And the current valuation leads me to believe that KHC stock is too cheap to ignore, particularly when factoring in its solid dividend yield.

www.barchart.com

On the date of publication, Oleksandr Pylypenko did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Barchart.com
Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (HLT), headquartered in McLean, Virginia, is a hospitality company that manages, franchises, owns, and leases hotels and resorts. Valued at $65.3 billion by market cap, the company provides hospitality services through various hotel brands, such as Waldorf Astoria, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Home2 Suites by Hilton, and more as well as owns over 8,300 properties across 138 countries.

Companies worth $10 billion or more are generally described as large-cap stocks, and HLT perfectly fits that description, with its market cap exceeding this mark, underscoring its size, influence, and dominance within the lodging industry. Hilton's diverse brand portfolio, featuring Hampton and Hilton, showcases its robust market presence with a vast room network. The Hilton Honors loyalty program, boasting 195 million members, drives customer retention and attracts new guests, ensuring a steady revenue flow. With a growth in loyalty program membership, Hilton's customer base and market reach continue to expand.

More News from Barchart

Despite its notable strength, HLT slipped marginally from its 52-week high of $279.81, achieved on Sep. 5. Over the past three months, HLT stock has gained 9.9%, outperforming the S&P 500 Indexs ($SPX) 8.3% gains during the same time frame.

www.barchart.com

In the longer term, shares of HLT rose 12.4% on a YTD basis, underperforming SPXs YTD gains of 10.4%. However, the stock climbed 30.4% over the past 52 weeks, outperforming SPXs solid 20.1% returns over the last year.

To confirm the bullish trend, HLT has been trading above its 50-day and 200-day moving averages since early May, with slight fluctuations.

www.barchart.com

Shares of HLT plummeted 2.6% on Jul. 23 following its Q2 earnings report. The company's total revenue increased 6.3% year-over-year to $3.1 billion, driven by an 8.1% rise in franchise and licensing fees. Additionally, adjusted EBITDA grew 9.9% to $1 billion compared to the same quarter last year, and adjusted EPS of $2.20 rose 15.2%, exceeding consensus estimates of $2.04. Despite these favorable results, investor sentiment was likely dampened by lower system-wide occupancy rates and a decline in revenue per available room.
India is leaning against introducing a comprehensive crypto law and will instead maintain partial oversight of the sector, a government document shows. Officials fear that integrating digital assets into the countrys mainstream financial system could heighten systemic risks.

The document, prepared this month and reported by Reuters, shows the Reserve Bank of Indias (RBI) longstanding skepticism. The central bank argued that effective regulation would be difficult in practice and that granting cryptocurrencies legitimacy could fuel wider adoption, making the sector systemic.

While an outright ban could curb the alarming risks from speculative assets, the government acknowledged it would not prevent peer-to-peer transfers or activity on decentralized exchanges.

India has relied on heavy taxation and compliance requirements to contain crypto activity. A 30% tax on profits and a 1% tax deducted at source on transactions have sharply reduced domestic trading volumes.

However, global exchanges are permitted to operate if registered with the Financial Intelligence Unit, as seen when Bybit resumed services after paying a 9.27 crore rupee ($1.06 million) penalty for earlier violations.

Despite these restrictions, crypto adoption remains robust. The government estimated that Indians hold roughly $4.5 billion in digital assets, with limited adoption and strict rules helping to contain risks to the wider financial system.

Officials said the current framework discourages speculative trading and penalizes fraud, even as India continues to rank at the top of the global crypto adoption index, ahead of the United States.

The government also raised concerns about the role of stablecoins, noting that while they are designed for price stability, they remain vulnerable to market shocks.

Their widespread use, the document said, could fragment domestic payment systems and undermine Indias widely adopted Unified Payments Interface (UPI). With most stablecoins pegged to the U.S. dollar, their growth could also pose challenges to global financial stability.

For now, India is maintaining its cautious approach: tightening oversight without granting digital assets the legal recognition that could make them systemic.

India Crossroads: Crypto Industry Pushback Against Central Bank Skepticism

While the Reserve Bank of India has maintained deep skepticism toward digital assets, demand has persisted among Indian investors despite some of the worlds toughest tax rules. Other arms of government have also pushed for clarity.

Indias Supreme Court recently urged the government to establish clear regulations, arguing that the 30% tax on crypto gains and the 1% TDS levy amount to implicit recognition of the sector.
Semiconductor giant Intel continues to shake up its senior leadership since Lip-Bu Tan took the helm as CEO in March.

Intel announced Monday that Michelle Johnston Holthaus will depart the company after more than three decades. Johnston Holthhaus was most recently chief executive officer of Intel products and will remain a strategic adviser.

The company also announced the creation of a central engineering group that will build a new custom silicon business for outside customers, according to Intel. This group will be helmed by Srinivasan Srini Iyengar who joined Intel from Cadence Design Systems in July.

Intel also said that Kevok Kechichian, formerly of ARM, will join the company as head of its data center group. Jim Johnson has been appointed senior vice president and general manager of Intels client computing group. Naga Chandrasekaran, the chief technology and operations officer of Intel Foundry, the companys business unit that builds custom chips for outside customers, is also taking on an expanded role.

With Srini leading Central Engineering, were aligning innovation and execution more tightly in service to customers, Tan said in a company press release. We are laser-focused on delivering world-class products and empowering our engineering teams to move faster and execute with excellence. Kevork, Jim, and Srini are exceptional leaders whose deep technical acumen and industry relationships will be instrumental as we continue building a new Intel.

This news comes just a few weeks after the U.S. government announced a plan to convert existing government grants into a 10% stake in Intel. The deal was structured to penalize Intel if the company dropped below 50% ownership of its foundry unit.

These werent the only leadership changes at Intel this year.

Tan taking over as CEO in March is a notable one. In July the company announced that it hired four new people for sales and engineering roles including Greg Ernst to serve as Intels chief revenue officer.

Intel declined to comment.
Reports of a surprise Israeli strike on Hamas targets in Qatar jolted markets, lifting Brent briefly above $67/bbl as traders priced in a higher Middle East risk premium and potential supply-security disruptions.

Gas Markets Brace For Generational Supply Glut



- Following four years of tightness, global LNG supply is set for a prolonged period of oversupply as the United States, Qatar, Canada and even Russia all add hefty volumes of incremental supply from 2026 onwards.

- Simultaneously to the US ramping up Plaquemines and Corpus Christi III, Qatars largest expansion since 1997, the 32 mtpa North Field East, will start producing LNG mid-next year.

- Higher supplies should also mean higher LNG demand as the boil-off tends to disincentivize storing gas for long stretches of time, with the IEA expecting a 7% year-over-year increase.

- Whilst LNG prices for October-delivery cargoes now hover within the $11.00-11.50/MMBtu range, leading banks anticipate both JKM and TTF prices to dip into single digits by Q4 2026 and stay below $10/MMBtu for the rest of this decade.

- Russia could become the LNG markets black swan factor over the upcoming years as China starting to buy sanctioned gas from the 19.8 mtpa Arctic LNG 2 plant could add to the oversupply.

Market Movers



- UK oil major BP (NYSE:BP) signed a memorandum of understanding with Egyptian authorities to drill five new gas wells in the Mediterranean Sea, boosting the countrys exploration efforts.

- Canadas Strathcona Resources (TSO:SCR) raised its offer for peer oil sands producer MEG Energy (TSO:MEG), now offering $30.86 per share as it seeks to trump Cenovus Energys $27.79 per share bid.

- UK-based energy major Shell (LON:SHEL) farmed out a 55% interest in its offshore Block 04 in Sao Tome and Principes territorial waters to Brazils Petrobras and Portugals Galp.

- Speaking at the 2025 APPEC conference in Singapore, Chevron (NYSE:CVX) top executive Brant Fish said that the U.S. oil major will invest heavily in petrochemicals in South Korea and cut down on its refining presence in Singapore.

Tuesday, September 09, 2025

OPEC+ pulled off a deft bit of expectations managementletting chatter build around a large output hike, then delivering far less. Even with an extra ~137,000 b/d coming from the group, Brent has rebounded to around $66.50/bbl, and it briefly jumped above $67 after reports of a surprise Israeli strike on Hamas targets in Qatar. Near-term upside risk also lingers if President Trump follows through on renewed talk of Russia sanctions.
We recently published 15 Stocks Jim Cramer Discussed As He Said CEOs Were Afraid Of Hiring. American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) is one of the stocks Jim Cramer recently discussed.

Throughout his morning show appearances in 2025, Jim Cramer has praised American Express Company (NYSE:AXP). One key aspect that has caught his attention is the growing popularity of the firms payment cards with younger customers. American Express Company (NYSE:AXP)s shares have gained 9% year-to-date and are up by 40.6% since their disastrous 15% dip in April following the Liberation Day tariff announcement. The shares have gained 7.4% after American Express Company (NYSE:AXP)s latest earnings, which is important since Cramer did recommend buying them after the post-earnings dip. This time, he discussed American Express Company (NYSE:AXP)s earnings multiple:

Well look, I think that, right now I would say that people love American Express. . . because numbers were boosted today. Thats at 21. So its one turn below the average stock.

Jim Cramer Says People Love American Express Company (AXP)

Photo by DocuSign on Unsplash

In his earlier comments about American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), Cramer continued to praise the firms popularity with younger users:

I like American Express if it keeps getting hit. They had a dynamite quarter. And they had by the way big Gen Z, amazing, amazing, the Gen Zrs are really proud. . .Id buy that stock if it gets hit another three, five points.

While we acknowledge the potential of AXP as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an extremely cheap AI stock that is also a major beneficiary of Trump tariffs and onshoring, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.

READ NEXT: 30 Stocks That Should Double in 3 Years and 11 Hidden AI Stocks to Buy Right Now.
Kazakhstan has officially entered the global crypto race with plans to establish a National Digital Asset Fund, accumulating Bitcoin and other strategic digital assets to strengthen its economy and hedge against fiat instability.

The initiative includes building CryptoCity, a plot zone for digital payments using crypto, stablecoins, and the digital tenge. It also expands Kazakhstans role as a Bitcoin mining powerhouse with growing state revenues.

This move signals a larger trend of emerging markets embracing crypto reserves, aiming to diversify away from volatile commodity exports and attract foreign investment while competing with developed nations for financial innovation leadership.

DISCOVER: 9+ Best High-Risk, High-Reward Crypto to Buy in 2025

Bold Move by Kazakhstan Entering the Crypto Economy

On September 8, 2025, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced Kazakhstans plan to create a National Digital Asset Fund, marking one of the most significant national-level crypto strategies since El Salvadors Bitcoin adoption.

The fund will be built from seized digital assets, revenues from state-backed Bitcoin mining, and potentially allocations from the countrys sovereign wealth fund. This move cements Kazakhstans status as a top global mining hub, leveraging its cheap energy resources and newly streamlined regulations.

As part of the plan, Kazakhstan is launching CryptoCity in the Alatau region, a regulatory sandbox for blockchain innovation, tokenized assets, and crypto-based everyday payments.

The country will also expand the digital tenge (CBDC), approve stablecoin payments for regulatory fees, and debut Central Asias first spot Bitcoin ETF on the Astana International Exchange.

With over 4,000 fintech firms already operating in the Astana International Financial Centre, this ecosystem could significantly boost foreign direct investment and GDP.

Social media is already comparing Kazakhstan to El Salvadors Bitcoin play, with analysts predicting that sovereign BTC accumulation could drive the price above $150K if other nations follow.

DISCOVER: Next 1000X Crypto: 10+ Crypto Tokens That Can Hit 1000x in 2025

The Rising Power of Emerging Market Crypto Reserves

Emerging markets like Kazakhstan are increasingly viewing crypto reserves as both a financial hedge and a growth engine. Traditionally reliant on gold or U.S. dollars, these nations now see Bitcoins fixed supply and portability as strategic advantages in a de-dollarizing world.

For Kazakhstan, crypto reserves provide a buffer against volatile oil and uranium markets, while mining revenues, projected to grow 22% by 2027, offer a sustainable funding source.
U.S. labor market data is flashing warning signs, with the Conference Boards Employment Trends Index falling again in August and temporary hiring shrinking. Economist Mitchell Barnes said the weakness could mark a turning point, though ClearBridges Jeff Schulze argued underlying resilience should support a rebound in 2026.

While many economists acknowledge the labor market has held up remarkably well over the past few years, analysts are beginning to fear its luck has run out.

Fridays labor market data showed the U.S. job market added a measly 22,000 roles last month, managing not to slip into the territory of unemployment on account of immigration and retirement figures rising.

And this week two further datasets raised eyebrows, including a whopping downward revision of 911,000 jobs from the Bureau of Labor Statistics nonfarm payroll reporting for the year ended March 2025. That data, released Tuesday, showed a contraction of 0.6% compared to previous estimates.

Further data released Monday supports the notion the American job market may be at a turning point, with early data from jobseekers suggesting its getting increasingly more difficult to land a role. In fact, they feel the employment landscape hasnt been this tough in four years.

In its Employment Trends Index (ETI) released yesterday, the Conference Board reported its benchmark had declined in August to 106.41, from a downwardly revised 107.13 in July. If the index is charting up, that bodes well for the labor market; if it declines, it signals tougher times ahead.

Among the components of the index is the share of consumers who report jobs are hard to get, which rose to 20% in August from 18.9% in July and is the highest share since early 2021, the height of the COVID pandemic.

An alarm bell can also be heard in the marker of the temporary-help industry, which fell by 9,800 in August. This is a useful signal, the Conference Board notes, as temporary workers are often laid off before permanent roles are axed. As such, this signals job cuts are happening but are yet to hit full-time, permanent employment.

While the decline in the ETI is an ongoing trend Mitchell Barnes, an economist at The Conference Board, noted the changes in temporary help and job sentiment are warning signs. He said: The ETI peaked two or three years ago and has been falling ever since, where the decline likely captured normalization of the distorted post-pandemic labor market, not weakness. However, the degree of weakness among Augusts components is disconcerting.
By Alexander Marrow and Lisa Jucca

LONDON (Reuters) - Magnum dismissed talk of selling Ben & Jerry's on Wednesday and said its focus was on reclaiming market share and growing sales as Unilever's spin-off of the Magnum Ice Cream Company approaches.

Unilever expects the ice cream business, which includes brands such as Magnum, Ben & Jerry's, Wall's and Cornetto, to command just over a fifth of the around $88 billion global ice cream market and compete with rivals such as Nestle-backed Froneri.

Magnum is already operating separately to Unilever and after years of declining ice cream market share and stagnant profits, CEO Peter ter Kulve said the shift has allowed the company to invest in supply chains, sales and distribution.

"Last year, we had a massive (market) share step up," ter Kulve said.

Ben & Jerry's seized the spotlight at an investor day ahead of the mid-November listing on Tuesday, renewing a call for its own spin-off after years of clashes over the U.S. brand's vocal position on Gaza.

Asked about an approach led by co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield to buy the brand last year, ter Kulve said: "I have not been privy to any discussion between Unilever and Ben & Jerry."

"Ben & Jerry's is not for sale."

Unilever will retain a less than 20% stake after the Magnum listing. Asked whether a 15 billion euro ($17.55 billion) valuation, as reported by some media outlets, was accurate, ter Kulve said: "The market will decide."

Magnum CFO Abhijit Bhattacharya said the split would give Unilever more focus and Magnum the opportunity to improve margins.

Bhattacharya said the terms of the demerger, under which every Unilever shareholder gets a relative stake in Magnum, shields the company from market volatility that an initial public offering might face.

The new ice cream business will test investor appetite for a sugar-heavy product at a time when U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is pushing to "Make America Healthy Again" in its biggest market.

Ter Kulve said Magnum had removed most artificial colouring and that Magnum was working to reduce sugar content as long as there was no compromise on taste.

"It has to taste fabulous because actually making very healthy ice cream products that nobody likes is a useless exercise," ter Kulve said.

($1 = 0.8547 euros)

(Reporting by Alexander Marrow and Lisa Jucca; Editing by Joe Bavier, Elaine Hardcastle)
MegaETH, an Ethereum scaling network designed for transactions that process so quickly it calls itself a "real-time" blockchain, said on Monday it is launching a native stablecoin with fast-growing DeFi protocol Ethena (ENA).

The token, dubbed USDm, will be embedded closely into applications and protocols built on top of the network and aims to help keep transaction costs low on the chain by redirecting revenues from the reserve assets to subsidize sequencer costs, according to a blog post.

"USDm means lower fees for users and a more expressive design space for applications," MegaETH co-founder Shuyao Kong said in the blog post. "We are excited to work with Ethena to enable a win-win scenario for all stakeholders in our ecosystem."

The token will be backed in the beginning by Ethena's USDtb, a yield-generating token backed by BlackRock's tokenized money market fund BUIDL. Later, other and future Ethena-issued tokens may be added such USDe, MegaETH said in a blog post.

Ethena's governance token, ENA (ENA), gained 7% over the past 24 hours, outperforming the broader crypto market.

Stablecoins are a fast-growing, $270 billion group of cryptocurrencies, predominantly with prices tied to the U.S dollar. They serve as a primary liquidity and trading pairs on crypto venues, and are also increasingly used for cross-border payments promising faster, cheaper transactions on blockchain rails compared to traditional banking channels. They received a regulatory boost earlier this year in the U.S. when President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act, the first major piece of crypto legislation in the country, into law.

MegaETH's stablecoin is the latest example of crypto ecosystems making steps to issue a proprietary stablecoin with a service provider instead of solely relying on the existing stablecoin offerings, currently dominated by Circle's USDC and Tether's USDT.

Popular crypto wallet MetaMask recently announced the launch of its own stablecoin with infrastructure providers M0 and Stripe's Bridge, while Hyperliquid, a layer-1 network known for its popular on-chain perpetual swaps exchange, is holding an audition for a stablecoin issuer partner for its own token.

MegaETH's token plan also highlights Ethena venturing into the stablecoin-as-a-service business, helping other crypto ecosystems to issue their own stablecoins. The protocol is behind the $13 billion digital dollar USDe, which provider yield by holding spot crypto like bitcoin and ether while selling (shorting) an equal amount of derivatives to harvest the funding rate.

Read more: Hyperliquid Faces Community Pushback Against Stripe-Linked USDH Proposal
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Advertisers using Amazons demand-side platform (DSP) are about to get a new perk: The ability to programmatically buy premium Netflix inventory, per an announcement shared with Marketing Dive.

The partnership could welcome an influx of ad spending to Netflix while expanding the streamers advertiser base as it chases scale. The integration will go live in Q4 in the U.S., U.K., France, Spain, Mexico, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Italy, Germany and Australia, the companies said.

Netflix has been busy stepping up its overtures to Madison Avenue, including by launching an internal ad-tech platform in more markets. The news also speaks to Amazons rising power in the digital landscape, with its tendrils extending further into spaces outside of the traditional retail media wheelhouse and Amazon DSP appearing increasingly formidable in that conquest.

Amazon and Netflix are technically competitors in the streaming wars. Netflix made its first foray into advertising in late 2022 while Amazon brought commercials to its Prime Video service last year. The two companies held competing upfront presentations, where broadcasters lock in major ad-spending commitments with brands and agencies, in the spring.

But Amazon wields a more mature ad-tech stack than comparative newcomer Netflix  one powered by troves of shopper data that are increasingly valuable for ad targeting and measurement. Amazons data power is paired with clean room technology that aims to improve campaign efficiency and performance in a privacy-safe fashion. Streaming and connected TV are experiencing a broader convergence with retail media, which has become one of the fastest-growing categories in digital.

This partnership with Amazon perfectly aligns with our commitment of bringing advertisers even greater flexibility in their buys to achieve their marketing goals, said Amy Reinhard, president of advertising at Netflix, in a statement. By integrating Amazon DSP and enabling even more advanced capabilities together over time, were making it easier than ever to connect with Netflix's global engaged audience.

Netflix has steadily added to its partnership roster as it looks to round out know-how in a notoriously complex industry, including through DSPs like The Trade Desk and Google Display & Video 360. Magnite, Experian and Acxiom are among the other firms working with the streamer.
Nvidia stock (NVDA) has looked weak since the company released its fiscal Q2 2026 earnings last month. As has invariably been the case over the last few quarters, NVDA stock fell despite the company beating on both the top line and the bottom line.

Contrary to what I had expected, Nvidia stock has continued its losing streak and came closer to abandoning its coveted $4 trillion market cap amid the recent selloff. While the stock has faced much worse drawdowns over the last three years, its rally is currently facing a reality check, as well explore in this article.

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Why Nvidia Stock Is Going Down

As I have noted previously, Nvidia faces several risks. These include a slowdown in artificial intelligence (AI) capex or tech companies inability to monetize their AI capex, the possibility of other chipmakers rivalling its dominance in the AI chip market, and uncertainty over its China business.

As things stand today, tech companies are only doubling down on AI capex and have shown encouraging signs of monetization, even as these are arguably early days. That said, the other two risk factors are pretty much in play right now.

While Nvidia has literally had a home run in AI chips, competition might finally be catching up, and Broadcom (AVGO) has signed a $10 billion deal for a custom AI chip, reportedly with OpenAI. Hyperscalers, including Amazon (AMZN), have been working on custom AI chips for quite some time now, but Broadcoms deal with the officially unnamed customer is perhaps the first warning sign for Nvidia.

On a similar note, Chinese companies like Cambricon, Alibaba (BABA), and Huawei are aspiring to fill Nvidias role in the Chinese market. Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, which created waves with its cheap AI model earlier this year, has hinted that its latest AI model will be supported by domestic chips.

Nvidias China Business Is in the Doldrums

Notably, China is the worlds second-largest market for AI chips, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang sees it as a $50 billion opportunity this year. Importantly, he foresees the Chinese AI chip market growing by 50% annually, which is much faster than the global average.
Ondo Finance hires ex-SEC official Peter Curley to lead global regulatory strategy. | Credit: Getty Images.

Key Takeaways

Ondo Finance hires Peter Curley, a former SEC, U.S. Treasury, and Coinbase executive, to lead global regulatory affairs.

RWA tokenization has surged to over $28 billion but still lacks uniform regulatory clarity.

Governments worldwide are accelerating efforts to release explicit frameworks for tokenized assets.

Ondo Finance, one of the leading players in the real-world asset (RWA) tokenization market, has appointed Peter Curley, a former U.S. Treasury and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) official, as its new head of global regulatory affairs.

Curley, who most recently worked in policy at Coinbase, will spearhead Ondos engagement with regulators and policymakers as the company navigates the fast-evolving market for tokenized securities.

Ondo Eyes Regulatory Clarity

There has never been more consensus that bringing tokenized products to market should be an immediate regulatory priority. I look forward to advancing Ondos vision and contributing to global dialogue on regulation, Curley said in a statement shared with CCN.

RWA tokenization has been one of the defining narratives of the 2025 bull market, with more than $28 billion worth of assets now on-chain, according to industry trackers.

Initially dominated by real estate-backed securities and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), tokenization has matured into a broader financial trend.

Today, tokenized private credit accounts for nearly 60% of the market, while U.S. Treasury debt makes up another third. These segments have grown rapidly thanks to greater regulatory clarity in key jurisdictions.

Despite this progress, the sector still lacks consistent rules, leaving major platforms like Ondo Finance to push for a unified global standard that institutions can follow.

Governments Race to Define Rules

The regulatory outlook for tokenization is diverging across regions:

United States : Regulators generally apply the Howey Test to tokenized assets, treating most as securities. This places them under SEC jurisdiction, requiring registration or exemptions.

European Union : The blocs MiCA framework offers a clearer path, classifying asset-backed tokens as either securities or crypto-assets depending on their structure.

Dubai: The Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) has emerged as a global pioneer, licensing large-scale tokenization projects such as MultiBank Groups $3 billion real estate tokenization deal with MAG and Mavryk.

These efforts underscore both the global appetite for tokenization and the lack of uniformity that continues to pose challenges for market participants.
This story was originally published on Restaurant Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Restaurant Dive newsletter.

Name: Nicole Thaung

New title: Chief financial officer, The One Group Hospitality

Previous title: Chief financial officer, Benihana

Thaung spent over 15 years at Benihana working through leadership roles up to CFO, a position she has held since 2018, according to her LinkedIn profile. Prior to Benihana, she spent over seven years as manager at Ernst & Young. Thaung succeeds Tyler Loy, who is leaving The One Group Hospitality to pursue other opportunities, according to a Monday press release.

Thaung was instrumental in integrating Benihana into The One Group, which acquired the Japanese chain in 2024 for $365 million.

Nicoles expertise will be invaluable as we continue realizing the $20 million in expected synergies from this transformative acquisition, which now represents over 55% of our total revenues, Emanuel Hilario, The One Groups CEO, said in a statement. We remain on track to capture the full value of these synergies by the end of 2026.

Benihana struggled with same-store sales growth last year, with the metric down 1.8% for 2024, according to an earnings release. However, the first two quarters of this year saw a turnaround, with same-store sales up 0.7% and 0.4% in Q1 and Q2, respectively. Benihanas restaurant operating profit grew to over $43 million during the first half of the year, more than double what it was in the year-ago period. The chain currently has the greatest operating profit of any of the holding companys concepts.

But The One Groups overall financial performance may pose something of a challenge for the incoming CFO. Combined same-store sales for the company were down 4.1% during the second quarter despite Benihanas modest growth. That decline is an improvement from Q2 2024, when comparable sales were down 7%. The companys grill concepts saw a 14.6% drop, the steepest decline among all of its categories.

The One Groups key priorities include boosting same-store sales, and it has been working toward that goal by emphasizing operational excellence, culinary innovation and relevant and timely marketing, Hilario said during the companys August earnings call.

The company continues to see demand grow on Fridays and Saturdays and has been using value-focused programming, like prix fixe menus, to entice customers during the week. It also is enhancing menus, like adding Wagyu beef at Benihana, which met expectations. The holding company plans to add new premium menu items across its portfolio, Hilario said.
OpenAI's (OPAI.PVT) torrid pace of growth is poised to keep on going right into 2026.

"Revenue this year will grow over 3X. So about $13 billion in revenue from about $4 billion last year. So it's tripling on a very big base as well," OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar told me at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference on Tuesday.

"It is a wild pace that we're on. You're defining a whole new era of AI," Friar said. She declined to put a timetable on OpenAI becoming a public company.

It's been an eventful year for OpenAI. The release of ChatGPT 5 in early August was met with mixed reviews as users complained about the interface's less-human responses. CEO Sam Altman acknowledged the company "screwed up" on the rollout.

A few weeks removed from this episode, Altman reportedly said the AI market was in a bubble.

Around the same time, the New York Times reported OpenAI was in talks to sell $6 billion in shares by current and former employees to investors. The deal would value OpenAI at about $500 billion, up from a $300 billion valuation in March.

Careful scrutiny remains, too, about the health of OpenAI partner and major investor Microsoft (MSFT).

OpenAI wants Microsoft to ease up its hold on its AI offerings as it ramps up growth. The pact between the two is slated to last until 2030 but could end earlier if OpenAI's board declares it has developed artificial general intelligence (AGI).

Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman downplayed any tension in the partnership in an interview with me in June.

"The relationship's in pretty good shape," he said. "It's one of the best technology partnerships there has been, and it will continue for at least another five years, hopefully many decades after that."

Meanwhile, investors question how long the AI hyper-growth cycle can last.

"We're in the first inning, a lot of people have compared the AI era to things like the railway build-out, because it is a very capital-intensive build-out. But I think we are just beginning. We've maybe laid some track from New York to Baltimore, but we're ultimately going to blanket the US and ultimately blanket the world," said Friar.

"And so anyone who thinks this cycle is, you know, at a zenith is not seeing what I'm seeing."

Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor and a member of Yahoo Finance's editorial leadership team. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com.
Novo Nordisk, the Danish pharmaceutical titan behind Ozempic, revealed today a sweeping global restructuring plan to cut roughly 11% of its total workforce, as rival weight-loss drugs flood the market.

Novo Nordisk faces increasing competition from Eli Lilly, the U.S. firm behind Mounjaro, and a new wave of cheaper, compounded alternatives. By cutting around 9,000 positions  more than half of which are based in Denmark  the company anticipates annualized savings of roughly $1.25 billion by the end of 2026, with the funds earmarked for reinvestment in its diabetes and obesity therapy areas.

Our markets are evolving, particularly in obesity, as it has become more competitive and consumer-driven. Our company must evolve as well, Mike Doustdar, Novo Nordisk president and CEO, said in the announcement. This means accelerating a performance-based culture and prioritizing investment where it will have the most impact  behind our leading therapy areas, he added. The savings will be redirected to growth opportunities in diabetes and obesity, including both commercial execution initiatives and R&D programs, the company said.

"Novo Nordisk, which had grown fat on the spoils of its weight loss drugs, has been feeling the effects of rivals marching into the space. Uncertainty over American tariffs has also been a risk that continues to cast a shadow over the industry, Susannah Streeter, a Hargreaves Lansdown analyst, told The Guardian. By becoming a leaner machine, Novo hopes to redirect more funding to R&D to bolster its pipeline of products.

The workforce reduction also signals a dramatic reversal of a hiring spree that saw its headcount grow by 75% over the last five years, as the global popularity of its weight-loss drugs soared. The layoffs bring its headcount back to early-2024 levels, Redburn Atlantic analyst Simon Baker told Reuters.

Novo Nordisk estimates it will incur one-off net restructuring costs of about $1.25 billion, largely during the third quarter of this year. The company lowered its full-year 2025 operating profit growth forecast from 10-16% to 4-10% due to the restructuring's impact.

The announcement came just weeks into Doustdars tenure as CEO. He signaled that this restructuring is one of his first major actions to reposition the company for long-term success.

While Novo Nordisks shares dipped following earlier profit warnings, investors responded positively to the restructuring plan: Its Danish-listed stock rose approximately 3%, while U.S. shares climbed around 1.7% in pre-market trading.
Pi Networks token PI is testing a key resistance zone at $0.34, and a sustained close above this level could trigger a major price rally. The token has mostly been trading sideways in the past week, but analysts are watching to see if bulls can potentially reverse this weakness.

This price optimism comes at a time when Pi Networks founder, Dr. Chengdiao Fan, is set to speak at TOKEN2049 in Singapore on Oct. 12, 2025. The session will explore how blockchain technology can create real-world utility and leverage Web3 opportunities.

Fans high-profile presence adds to the anticipation surrounding Pi Networks future. The network secured Gold sponsorship status for the event last week, enhancing its visibility among investors and developers.

Notably, the conference is expected to attract more than 25,000 community members from all over the world. The events speaker lineup includes top executives such as Binance CEO Richard Teng and TRON founder Justin Sun.

Prominent figures like members of the Trump family are also expected to attend the event.

Community reacts

While many community members welcomed this development, others remained skeptical, arguing that the project should prioritize strengthening its fundamentals. This comes as Pi price has been facing major downturns in recent times.

Users report that the testnets transaction activity is almost nonexistent and mirrors the underused mainnet.

Meanwhile, PI exchange volumes are declining, liquidity is drying up, and governance participation remains low. These frustrations have resulted in a loss of $16 billion in the new crypto tokens market cap over the last six months.

Still, some analysts remain optimistic, forecasting a potential parabolic rally in the mid-term. At the time of writing, PI is trading around $0.346, showing no major movement over the past day.

Pi price outlook

On the daily PI price chart, the Bollinger Bands are narrowing with the price consolidating around the mid band (20-day SMA). This suggests low volatility and a potential breakout soon.

A close above the upper band near $0.35 could confirm bullish momentum, leading to $0.40 as the next target.

The RSI is indicating that PI is neither oversold nor overbought, leaving room for either direction. If the price breaks below the $0.32 support, bearish pressure could extend toward $0.30.

Read original story Pi Coin Set to Explode? Founders TOKEN2049 Talk Sparks Rally Hopes by Parth Dubey at Coinspeaker.com
With a market cap of $51.7 billion, Public Storage (PSA) is the largest owner and operator of self-storage facilities. Structured as a REIT, the company acquires, develops, owns, and operates storage properties that provide month-to-month leasing options for personal and business use.

Companies valued at more than $10 billion are generally considered large-cap stocks, and Public Storage fits this criterion perfectly. As of June 30, 2025, Public Storage managed 3,432 facilities across 40 states, along with a 35% equity interest in Shurgard Self Storage Limited, which operates 321 facilities in Western Europe.

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Despite this, shares of the Glendale, California-based company have dipped 20.5% from its 52-week high of $369.99. PSA stock has decreased 2.8% over the past three months, lagging behind the Pacer Benchmark Industrial Real Estate SCTR ETFs (INDS) 1.1% rise during the same period.

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Longer term, Public Storages shares have fallen 1.8% on a YTD basis, underperforming INDS' 5.8% gain. Moreover, the self-storage facility REIT stock has dropped 16.3% over the past 52 weeks, compared to INDS's nearly 12% decline over the same time frame.

The stock has been trading below its 200-day moving average since mid-December last year.

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Despite Public Storage's better-than-expected Q2 2025 core FFO of $4.28 per share and revenues of $1.2 billion on Jul. 30, same-store occupancy declined 0.4% year over year to 92.6%, same-store NOI slipped 0.6%, and expenses rose 2.9%, signaling margin pressure. Additionally, managements updated guidance implied muted same-store growth and highlighted higher costs, which overshadowed the earnings beat and drove the 5.8% share drop the next day.

In comparison, its rival, Extra Space Storage Inc. (EXR), has shown less pronounced decline than PSA stock. EXR stock has dipped 1.7% on a YTD basis and 15.9% over the past 52 weeks.

Despite the stocks underperformance, analysts are moderately optimistic, with a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from 22 analysts. The mean price target of $323.31 is a premium of 9.7% to current levels.

On the date of publication, Sohini Mondal did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Barchart.com
Googles ad tech monopoly is still in the crosshairs of antitrust regulators, with remedy orders from a US judge expected later this month. But competitor Pubmatic grew weary of waiting.

On Monday, the online ad firm filed a lawsuit against the search titan, seeking billions of dollars in damages it says have been caused by Googles illegal monopoly.

READ ALSO: Amex Puts a Platinum Price Tag on Signature Luxury Card and Meta Wins Wall Street Votes of Confidence With Cl-AI-rvoyant Glasses

Ad It All Up

After successfully arguing that Google held an illegal monopoly in the search industry, antitrust regulators at the US Department of Justice pushed for radical solutions such as a forced divestiture of its Chrome browser. Instead, a federal judge last week ordered comparatively light-touch remedies, including a ban on exclusive search engine deals with third parties and forcing the company to make available one-time snapshots of its treasure trove of search data. The remedy orders for Googles search monopoly were essentially an admission that the DOJs recommendations were roundabout solutions, and that shifting market dynamics  in this case, primarily the rise of AI chatbots  could crack Googles search monopoly better than regulators ever could (light touch or not, Google has vowed to appeal the remedy orders).

Breaking up Googles ad tech business, however, appears more clear-cut:

Googles ad tech unit consists of three pieces: One platform that allows advertisers to buy ad space, an ad server side that allows publishers to sell ad space, and software that connects ad buyers with sellers, the ad exchange known as AdX.

The company was found to be illegally maintaining a monopoly in the latter two spaces in April; in one smoking gun email found amid the lawsuit, a Google executive compared the companys ad tech market power to Goldman or Citigroup owning the New York Stock Exchange. Since the monopoly ruling, the DOJ has pushed for Google to divest AdX and make its tools able to interact with rivals ahead of remedy orders later this month.

Enter Pubmatic. The company says it is routinely victimized by the current monopoly. Googles systematic abuse of its vast resources and immense power has harmed our business and distorted a marketplace that should have rewarded innovation and fueled transparency and competition, CEO Rajeev Goel said in a statement Monday. Instead, anticompetitive practices limited monetization for publishers, raised costs for advertisers and ultimately reduced choice for consumers. Pubmatic is preceded by OpenX Technologies, another ad exchange that filed a similar lawsuit last week.
PwC is taking on fewer entry-level hires in the UK.

Marco Amitrano, the Big Four firm's UK boss, explained why in an op-ed in The Sunday Times.

In August, Business Insider reported the US division was also lowering its graduate hiring goals.

American graduates are facing a tough job market, and things aren't much different across the pond.

The UK branch of the Big Four accountancy firm PwC confirmed to Business Insider that it had lowered entry-level recruitment this year.

PwC will take on 1,300 entrants to its graduate and school leaver programmes, compared with 1,500 last year, the firm said.

The news was first reported in an op-ed published in The Sunday Times by Marco Amitrano, PwC's UK chief.

"PwC will always be a large employer and training ground for young people in the UK," but the impact of AI and a sluggish economy are changing the firm's hiring practices, Amitrano wrote.

The UK's economic slowdown and the resulting drop in investment, hiring, and dealmaking in the UK are the "single biggest factor behind a lower graduate intake at PwC this year," Amitrano said.

AI is also reshaping roles, Amitrano said. For now, the development of new tools and investment in skills was offsetting more serious disruption to jobs, but that balance was likely to change in the future, he said.

The PwC chief said consistent policy, regulatory reform, and a more predictable tax environment would help create jobs. He was also optimistic about AI's potential, saying the technology could create new industries if there was "sustained and serious investment in tech, infrastructure, and training."

"Most technologies, if not all, have boosted both productivity and wages," Amitrano said.

Entry-level hiring is also set to slow at the firm's US branch.

In August, BI obtained part of an internal presentation showing that PwC US planned to cut graduate hiring by a third over the next three years.

A bullet point on the presentation slide said leadership's decision to slow down associate-level hiring related to "transformation efforts, the impact of AI, and further AC integration"  with AC integration referring to PwC's acceleration centers, or offshoring hubs.

In his Sunday op-ed, Amitrano addressed offshoring, saying the global labour market was "more competitive and accessible than ever before."

"Where it makes sense, and where it helps us remain competitive, we must draw on a global dimension," he said.

Deloitte UK has also lowered its intake for graduate and apprentice hires in recent years.
A dramatic legal battle in which 94-year-old media mogul Rupert Murdoch tried to change an irrevocable trust to bar his more liberal children from majority control of Fox News and The Wall Street Journal has ended in a multibillion-dolllar settlement that leaves the outlets in the hands of his conservative son, Lachlan Murdoch.

Rupert Murdochs decades-long, high-stakes battle over the future of his media empire has ended with a sweeping settlement, transferring control of Fox News and The Wall Street Journal to his eldest son, Lachlan Murdoch, while other heirs exit a family trust that controlled the outlets in exchange for huge payouts.

The multibillion-dollar deal brings an end to legal conflicts that captured global attention and cements a clear future for the companies at the center of American and international news.

The settlement restructures the Murdoch Family Trust, a so-called irrevocable trust at the center of the litigation that pitted Rupert and Lachlan on one side and other children of Ruperts, Prudence MacLeod, Elisabeth Murdoch and James Murdoch, on the other. The legal dispute arose when Rupert went to court to attempt to change the trust, moving from a structure of equal voting shares held by the four siblings into one with control held by Lachlan.

Under the settlement, voting control for the trusts stakes will rest with Lachlan, who will remain chairman and CEO of Fox Corporation and will assume the managing director role for a newly created entity. Rupert, now 94, will continue in a figurehead capacity as chairman emeritus of the companies, maintaining ceremonial leadership but no direct voting control.

According to a News Corp. statement, MacLeod, Elisabeth Murdoch and James Murdoch will exit as beneficiaries of any trust holding shares in the core public companies. Each will receive a substantial cash consideration funded in part by the proceeds of the public sale of approximately 16.9 million Fox Corporation Class B shares and 14.2 million News Corp Class B shares that were formerly held by the MFT.

At current market values of $56.81 for Fox and $29.94 for News Corp, the proceeds would be approximately $1.4 billion each. But The New York Times, first to report on the resolution of the dispute, cited a person familiar with the matter who said the entire deal comes to $3.3 billion, with each of the three siblings getting $1.1 billion.

The remaining core value of the old trust will be allocated to new trusts benefiting Lachlan Murdoch and Rupert Murdochs youngest daughters, Grace and Chloe (children with ex-wife Wendi Deng), creating control through their vehicle, LGC Holdco, LLC.
MADRID (Reuters) - Sabadell Chief Executive Cesar Gonzalez-Bueno expects BBVA to submit a higher offer for his bank, he said on Tuesday, adding that its Spanish competitor's hostile takeover bid undervalues the lender.

His comments came after BBVA on Monday formally launched its around 14.9-billion euro ($17.5 billion) takeover for Sabadell, with some analysts expecting it will have to raise its offer as shares in its smaller rival have surged above the original price.

"This offer is most probably not the last one, because everybody agrees that this offer lacks merits," Gonzalez-Bueno told a financial event hosted by Barclays.

BBVA said on Friday it was not planning to change the offer.

Gonzalez-Bueno said that the board already rejected an offer 16 months ago, but did not say what the board might decide in coming days. Sabadell's board has 10 working days from September 8 to issue a formal opinion on the bid.

Gonzalez-Bueno also said that BBVA's assumptions on the new cost-saving target of 900 million euros in 2029 rather than 850 million in 2028 were over-optimistic after the Spanish government blocked a full merger of the two banks for at least three years.

Sabadell shareholders will have until October 7 to tender their shares, with the results of the offer expected by October 14.

($1 = 0.8518 euros)

(Reporting by Jesus Aguado; additional reporting by Emma Pinedo, editing by Inti Landauro and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
This story was originally published on Manufacturing Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Manufacturing Dive newsletter.

Dive Brief:

Sodium-ion battery manufacturer Natron Energy has ceased operations, according to its website, halting plans for a giant factory in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.

The Santa Clara, California-based company did not immediately respond to requests for comment about what happened. The Raleigh News & Observer reported that Natron had unresolved funding issues, and investor Sherwood Partners is expected to sell the assets.

This comes about a year after the battery maker said it would build a gigafactory in northeastern North Carolina with an investment of $1.4 billion, creating more than 1,000 jobs for the area.

Dive Insight:

Beyond the companys plans for North Carolina, Natron operated two U.S. battery facilities. In a letter dated Aug. 28, the company informed Michigan officials that it would permanently close its facilities in Holland, Michigan, and Santa Clara, California, on Sept. 3, affecting 95 employees across both states.

Prior to the closure, Natron was seeking out capital from new and existing investors, as well as new purchase orders that would have resulted in future revenue, the company said in its letter. However, on Aug. 27, its board of directors determined Natrons efforts were unsuccessful, sparking the layoffs and ultimate shuttering of the company.

Established in 2012, Natron designed its batteries for a range of customers in the industrial power space, including for data centers, electric vehicle charging, telecommunications and more.

Unlike competing batteries made of lithium-acid or lithium-ion, Natrons sodium-ion batteries did not require expensive materials such as lithium, cobalt or nickel, according to Natrons website.They also had a stronger battery life due to its Prussian blue electrode structure, the company said.

The 1.2 million-square-foot plant would have produced 14 gigawatts of sodium-ion batteries in North Carolina, expanding Natrons production 40 times over. The Michigan location began operations in April 2024.

Typically, companies provide a 60-day notice prior to plant closures. Following this rule would have required Natron to disrupt operations and harm its chances of securing funding from investors and customers, the company said in its letter. Sherwood Partners did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Accordingly, Natron is providing this noticeas soon as practicable, wrote Elizabeth Shober, Natrons head of team and talent.
Domestic sales rose by 0.4% to 58,330 units last month from 58,087 a year earlier, resulting in a 2.1% increase to 469,457 units in the first eight months of the year from 459,800 previously. Overseas sales increased by 0.5% to 336,395 units in August from 334,905 units a year earlier, while year-to-date volumes were down slightly to 2,269,384 from 2,272,243 units, despite strong growth in North America.

Hyundai Motor s global sales rose by just 0.4% to 336,395 vehicles in August 2025 from 334,905 a year earlier, with domestic and overseas sales both slightly higher. In the first eight months of the year, the company sold a total of 2,738,841 vehicles globally, slightly higher than the 2,732,043 units sold a year earlier.

Global sales by the countrys big-five automakers, including vehicles produced overseas, increased by less than 1% to 5,278,279 units in the first eight months of 2025 from 5,238,115 units a year earlier  with overseas sales also up slightly to 4,367,401 units from 4,349,795 units.

In the first eight months of the year, the countrys five main domestic vehicle manufacturers reported a 2.5% increase in domestic sales to 910,878 units, up from 888,320 units in the same period last year. Hyundai reported a 2.1% rise to 469,457 units, while Kias sales increased slightly to 368,102 units. GM Korea was the worst performer, with sales plunging by 39% to 10,554 units, while KG Mobility reported a 17% drop to 26,832 units. Renault Korea was the best-performing brand, with domestic sales surging by 156% to 35,933 units, following the recent launch of the Geely-based Grand Koleos Hybrid and the Scenic E-Tech.

The domestic vehicle market last month continued to be supported by the recent roll-out of new products, particularly by the countrys largest automakers, Hyundai and Kia. Overall vehicle demand in the country remains sluggish, however, due to high household debt and weak sentiment. The countrys GDP expanded by 0.6% in the second quarter, according to preliminary government data, after shrinking by 0.2% in the first quarter, helped by a further 25 basis point interest rate cut to 2.50% in May  the fourth cut in the last year from a peak of 3.50%.

Domestic sales by South Koreas five main automakers combined increased by 5% to 111,523 units in August 2025 from 106,149 units a year earlier, according to preliminary wholesale data released individually by the manufacturers. The data do not include sales by South Koreas low-volume commercial vehicle manufacturers, including Tata-Daewoo and Edison Motors, while import brands are covered in a separate report later in the month.

Story Continues

The companys new EV plant in the US state of Georgia became operational last October, producing the Ioniq 5, followed by the Ioniq 9 earlier this year. A Kia model is also set to go into production in 2026. The automaker said it will expand capacity at the plant to 500,000 units per year later in the decade, from 300,000 at present.

Earlier this year, Hyundai set a target of 4,174,000 global vehicle sales for 2025, including its Genesis luxury brand, representing a slight increase over 2024 volumes. This includes 710,000 domestic sales and 3,464,000 overseas sales. The automaker last month said it will increase its planned investment in the US by 24% to US$ 26 billion to help it increase local production and content, in support of South Koreas recent import tariff negotiations with the US government.

Kias global sales increased just slightly to 253,950 vehicles in August from 251,920 a year earlier, supported by recently-launched battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and hybrid models, and strong demand for core SUV models such as the Sportage and Seltos, with 44,969 and 27,805 deliveries, respectively. In the first eight months of the year, Kias global sales rose by 1.7% to 2,104,293 units from 2,069,415 a year earlier.

Domestic sales rose by 7.4% to 43,501 units last month from 40,510 units a year earlier, with the Sorento its best-selling model 6,531 domestic deliveries, followed by the Carnival with 6,031 units and the Sportage with 5,755 units. Domestic sales in the first eight months of the year increased slightly to 364,941 units from 361,760 a year earlier. The company sold a further 3,161 special purpose vehicles (SPVs) in this period, down from 3,300 a year earlier, most of which were military vehicles delivered domestically.

Overseas sales fell slightly to 209,887 units in August, from 210,765 a year earlier, but were up by almost 2% to 1,736,191 units year-to-date from 1,704,355 units. The Sportage was the brands best-selling model overseas last month with 39,214 deliveries, followed by the Seltos with 23,567 units. In August, the company began production of its EV4 hatchback at its manufacturing hub in Slovakia, its first BEV to be produced in Europe.

Kia is targeting a 4% increase in global sales to 3,216,200 units in 2025, including 550,000 domestic sales, 2,658,000 overseas sales, and 8,200 SPV sales, supported by the recent launch of the new K4 and revamped K5 sedans and the Syros SUV in India. In the first quarter of the year, the company rolled out its new Tasman pickup truck and the EV4 battery-powered sedan, with the PV5 and EV5 models set to follow later in the year. The companys medium-term plan is to sell 4.3 million vehicles globally by 2030, including 1.6 million BEVs.

GM Koreasglobal sales rose by 35% to 21,059 units in August from 15,634 units a year earlier, reflecting sharply higher overseas sales, while deliveries in the first eight months of the year were 2% lower at 302,658 from 307,620 units. The locally-produced Trailblazer SUV and Trax crossover vehicle remain by far the companys best-selling models, with most output shipped overseas.

Domestic sales continued to plunge last month, falling by 25% to 1,207 units from 1,614 units a year earlier, with year-to-date sales dropping by 39 % to 10,554 units from 17,270 units, as the automaker struggled with rising competition from other domestic manufacturers and from importers.

Exports surged by almost 42% to 19,852 units in August from 14,020 a year earlier, but were just slightly higher year-to-date at 292,104 units from 290,397 units. Around 85% of output was shipped to the US last year, making the company particularly vulnerable to US import tariff hikes.

KG Mobility (KGM) reported a 9% increase in global sales to 8,860 vehicles in August from 8,128 units a year earlier, reflecting stronger domestic sales and exports. Total sales in the first eight months of the year were 2% lower at 71,752 units, compared with 73,006 a year earlier. The company, previously known as Ssangyong Motor, was acquired in late 2022 by a consortium led by local steel and chemicals firm KG Group.

Domestic sales rose by 3% to 4,055 units last month from 3,943 a year earlier, helped by the recent launch of the Actyon Hybrid, but were down by 17% to 26,832 units year-to-date from 32,158 units, as the automaker struggled to keep up with rising competition from other domestic manufacturers and from importers.

Overseas sales increased by 15% to 4,805 units in August from 4,185 a year earlier, resulting in a 9% rise to 44,920 units year-to-date from 40,848 units a year earlier, as the company continued to expand its global market coverage.

KGM plans to further expand its zero-emissions vehicle range, following the launch of a new minivan version of the Torres EVX battery-powered SUV last September and the new battery-powered Musso EV pickup truck earlier this year. The company has entered into a strategic partnership with Chinas Chery Automobile Company, involving vehicle and platform sharing aimed at helping it strengthen its SUV line-up. The deal will also give KGM access to readily available new energy vehicle (NEV) technologies. The automaker recently said it aims to introduce at least eight new models by 2030.

Renault Koreas global sales fell by 24% to 6,437 units in August from 8,451 units a year earlier, reflecting a sharp drop in overseas sales. In the first eight months of the year, global sales rose by just over 8% to 60,735 units from 56,031 previously.

Domestic sales surged threefold to 3,868 units last month from 1,350 units a year earlier, resulting in year-to-date volumes rising by 156% to 35,933 from 14,032 units  following the recent launch of the new Geely-based Grand Koleos Hybrid SUV and the Scenic E-Tech BEV. Exports plunged by 63% to 2,589 units in August from 7,101 a year earlier and were down by 41% to 24,802 units in the first eight months of the year from 41,999 units.

The company recently restructured its assembly plant in Busan, resulting in more production being allocated for the local market. A model based on the battery-powered Geely Polestar 4 is scheduled to go into production later this year.

"South Korea report: domestic vehicle market up 5% in August" was originally created and published by Just Auto, a GlobalData owned brand.




Soybeans are trading with 1 to 2 cent loses so far on Tuesday morning. Contracts rallied off some early Monday steady trade, to close out the session 6 to 7  cents higher. Preliminary open interest suggested a rotation of ownership, down 223 contracts. There were another 46 deliveries reported overnight. The cmdtyView national average Cash Bean price is up 7 cents at $9.56 3/4. Soymeal futures were $1.00 to $4.20 higher in the front months. Soy Oil futures are steady to 17 points higher. The CME reported another 22 deliveries issued overnight.

NASS tallied 97% of the US soybean crop setting pods by Sunday, with 21% dropping leaves, 1% behind normal. Condition ratings were down 1% to 64% gd/ex, as the Brugler500 was 1 point lower to 365.

More News from Barchart

USDA tallied soybean export shipments at 452,151 MT (16.6 mbu) during the week ending on September 4, with 203,576 MT for the old crop year and 248,575 MT on the new crop side. That was down 8% from last week but was still 23.78% above the same week last year. Of that total, 134784 MT was headed to Mexico, with 75,160 MT on its way to Indonesia and 58,617 MT to Japan. Marketing year exports for 2024/25 were 49.97 MT according to the FAS data, with the Census data running 48.95 MMT through July, with the weekly inspections data showing 2.116 for August.

Sep 25 Soybeans closed at $10.13 1/2, up 7 cents, currently unch

Nearby Cash was $9.56 3/4, up 7 cents,

Nov 25 Soybeans closed at $10.33 3/4, up 6 3/4 cents, currently down 1 cent

Jan 26 Soybeans closed at $10.52 3/4, up 7 1/4 cents, currently down 1 1/4 cents

On the date of publication, Austin Schroeder did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Barchart.com
Renewable energy producer Statkraft has completed the divestment of its 49% minority stake in the hydropower joint venture (JV) Malana Power Company to the Indian conglomerate LNJ Bhilwara Group.

The sale encompasses Statkraft's interests in the 86MW Malana and 192MW Allain Duhangan hydropower plants, both situated in Himachal Pradesh, India.

These plants were jointly managed by Statkraft and LNJ Bhilwara Group since 2004 under a 49:51 ownership structure.

With the deal now complete, Bhilwara Energy, a subsidiary of LNJ Bhilwara Group, becomes the sole owner of the hydropower assets.

Statkraft international executive vice-president Fernando de Lapuerta said: Our partnership with the LNJ Bhilwara Group has been a cornerstone of our Indian hydropower operations.

We are confident they will continue to operate these assets with commitment and dedication, contributing to clean energy generation and sustainable regional development.

This transaction is part of Statkraft's previously declared strategy to divest its Indian operations, reflecting its focus on investments in markets where it can achieve scale and sustain long-term competitiveness.

de Lapuerta added: Statkraft remains committed to play a significant role in the global energy transition. By reallocating capital to core markets in Europe and South America, we are positioning ourselves to deliver even greater value creation and impact.

Statkraft, a Norwegian state-owned company, first entered the Indian market in 2004 through its JV with SN Power, marking the first foreign investment in India's hydropower sector.

Earlier this year, Statkraft signed a deal to sell its Colombian renewables portfolio to Ecopetrol, Colombia's national oil company.

The deal, expected to close this quarter, includes the transfer of personnel, eight projects in development, and the 130MW Porton del Sol solar plant.

"Statkraft sells 49% stake in Indian hydropower JV" was originally created and published by Power Technology, a GlobalData owned brand.




A Bitcoin treasure chest glows as two-thirds are marked by Strategy and Metaplanet logos, symbolizing their control of supply - Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate.

Bitcoins supplydemand balance narrowed further last week as corporate treasuries captured a dominant share of new issuance.

Last week, two publicly traded firms, Strategy and Tokyo-listed Metaplanet, purchased more than $230 million worth of BTC.

According to their separate announcements, their combined acquisitions, totaling 2,091 BTC, represented about two-thirds, or 66%, of all coins produced by miners during the reporting period.

Strategy expands holdings despite S&P 500 snub

On Sept. 8, Strategy confirmed it had purchased 1,955 BTC for $217.4 million, translating into about 62% of all coins mined during the week.

Following this purchase, Strategys Bitcoin stash has climbed to 638,460 BTC, which is valued at $71.6 billion at current market prices. This equates to an unrealized profit of roughly 51.8% from the firms total investment of $47.17 billion.

The company disclosed in its Form 8-K filing that the latest purchase was funded through proceeds from its at-the-market equity program, which raised capital across Strife, Strike, and MSTR stock issuances. In 2025, Strategy has raised more than $19 billion for Bitcoin purchases.

Strategy Bitcoin Fundraise (Source: Strategy)

Meanwhile, famed short seller Jim Chanos pointed out that the firms Bitcoin fundraising is increasingly relying on its MSTR stock issuance rather than the preferred stock options to fund recent Bitcoin purchases.

For context, he noted that the firm raised 92% of its latest capital through common equity while selling just $16.8 million in preferred stock. The same trend was observed last week when the firm raised 90% of its Bitcoin purchase fund through MSTR.

Notably, the latest Bitcoin purchase comes days after Strategy failed to secure a place in the S&P 500 index. Instead, the index committee added Robinhood, AppLovin, and Emcor Group stocks to its list.

Metaplanet strengthens presence in Asia

While smaller in scale, Metaplanets latest buy reinforced its reputation as Asias counterpart to Strategy.

The Tokyo-listed firm acquired 136 BTC for $15.2 million at an average price of $111,666. That raised its year-to-date yield to 487% in 2025, emphasizing its aggressive accumulation strategy.

The company now holds 20,136 BTC, purchased for $2.08 billion at an average of $103,196. As of Sept. 8, that stash was worth roughly $2.26 billion, giving Metaplanet a 9.3% unrealized profit.

Stay ahead of the crypto curve  subscribe to CryptoSlate's Substack newsletter now.
SwissBorg shield faces a cracked API pipe spilling Solana tokens toward a vault on a dark network grid, symbolizing the partner compromise and fund drain.

Swiss crypto platform SwissBorg suffered a $41 million theft when attackers compromised a partner API, draining approximately 193,000 SOL from the companys Earn program and affecting roughly 1% of users.

CEO Cyrus Fazel addressed the incident during a Sept. 8 live broadcast, confirming that SwissBorgs main application remains secure while emphasizing the companys commitment to full user compensation.

The breach occurred through what Fazel described as one of the best partners in the world for staking services. He added:

SwissBorg has not been hacked. There is an external attack from a provider that was unfortunately compromised.

According to Fazel, the stolen funds represent approximately 2% of SwissBorgs total assets under management (AUM).

The company immediately allocated treasury funds to cover user losses, with Fazel stating the company possesses sufficient resources for complete reimbursement.

The platform also engaged white-hat hackers and security partners to recover the compromised funds through blockchain analysis and exchange cooperation.

Multiple exchanges blocked transactions linked to the attack, preventing some stolen funds from being liquidated. Fazel noted that various entities, including Fireblocks, Solana Foundation, and blockchain investigators, assisted in tracking the stolen assets across multiple wallet addresses.

The incident exclusively affected users participating in SwissBorgs SOL Earn strategy, leaving other staking programs and platform funds untouched.

Fazel stressed that the companys financial health remains stable despite the significant loss.

Despite due diligence on partner selection, external vulnerabilities can expose user funds to sophisticated attackers. Fazel framed the incident as a learning experience while acknowledging the emotional toll on affected users.

He stated:

Its never easy to be like, oh shit, I just lost some of your funds. But its in these times that we realize who has our trusted community.

The CEO promised regular updates throughout the recovery process and committed to transparent communication regarding fund retrieval efforts.

SwissBorg plans to implement additional security measures to prevent similar incidents while collaborating with law enforcement agencies worldwide.

Stay ahead of the crypto curve  subscribe to CryptoSlate's Substack newsletter now.
Switzerland's Hero Group has added to its business in Brazil with the acquisition of a majority stake in local snack company Super Saude Nutricional.

Founded in 2013, Super Saude Nutricional markets more than 30 snack products under the Pinati brand.

CEO Waldemiro Pinati will stay on as the CEO of Super Saude Nutricional and as a minority shareholder of the company.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Hero Group CEO Christian Schierbaum said: "This acquisition continues our strategy to expand our snack business and enter regions with high snack penetration."

Super Saude Nutricional's products include protein bars, crisps and a range of chocolate-covered snacks. Some 60% of the company's revenues are generated from sales of protein and nut bars.

The company, based in Campo Largo in Curitiba, has a presence in the north-east, south-east and south of Brazil.

Hero already has a presence in Brazil, where a local venture markets jams and spreads under its namesake and Queensberry brands.

The venture, Hero Brazil, has a factory in Itatiba in south-eastern Brazil, employing 170 people. Hero Group owns 51% of the venture.

From this acquisition, we will be present in a new business front that grows every year, in full line with the global strategy of the Hero group, Cristiano de Moraes, the CEO of Hero's business in Brazil, added.

It is, therefore, an important step for us to expand our presence and competitiveness in the national market.

Schierbaum was promoted from the position of Hero chief business officer to CEO in April, succeeding Rob Versloot, who stepped down after over 12 years at the helm.

Last year, Hero, the owner of brands such as Schwartau, Semper and Freche Freunde expanded its footprint in the UK by acquiring local business Deliciously Ella.

"Switzerlands Hero acquires Brazil snack company Super Saude" was originally created and published by Just Food, a GlobalData owned brand.




We recently published 10 Stocks With Eye-Popping Gains  1 Surges 3,000%. Teck Resources Ltd. (NYSE:TECK) is one of the top performers on Tuesday.

Teck Resources extended its winning streak to a third straight day on Tuesday, jumping 11.28 percent to close at $39.07 apiece after gaining shareholder support for its planned $53 billion merger with Anglo American PLC that would create the fifth largest copper producer globally.

In a statement, Teck Resources Ltd. (NYSE:TECK) said that it officially reached an agreement to merge with Anglo American and form a new company called Anglo Teck PLC.

Teck Resources (TECK) Gets 11% Boost From $53-Billion Anglo Merger

Under the agreement, Class A and B common shareholders of Teck Resources Ltd. (NYSE:TECK) will be able to receive 1.3301 ordinary shares of Anglo American.

Upon closing of the transaction, owners of Teck Resources Ltd. (NYSE:TECK) will own 37.6 percent of Anglo Teck PLC, while the remaining 62.4 percent is owned by Anglo American shareholders.

According to the company, the proposed merger is expected to offer investors more than 70 percent exposure to copper.

It said the merger firm will also work with key stakeholders and partners at two mining sites in Collahuasi and Quebrada Blanca in Chile that would generate some $26.6 billion in EBITDA from 2030 to 2049, or equivalent to $1.4 billion annually.

While we acknowledge the potential of TECK as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an extremely cheap AI stock that is also a major beneficiary of Trump tariffs and onshoring, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.

READ NEXT: 30 Stocks That Should Double in 3 Years and 11 Hidden AI Stocks to Buy Right Now.
Its been a forgettable 2025 for Tesla (TSLA) so far, shaped as much by the chatter around its CEO as by the numbers on its income statement.

Elon Musks political endeavors and clashes with labor groups led to widespread European protests early this year, hurting brand equity just as its Chinese rivals turned up the heat.

By mid-summer, the cracks showed up in its fundamentals.

Q2 deliveries tanked nearly 14% to 384,000 vehicles, with sales slipping 12% to $22.5 billion, and operating income dropping 42%.

Consequently, Wall Street punished the stock, currently down 20% year-to-date, underperforming both the S&P 500 and other tech juggernauts.

That nosedive isnt just about weaker margins but also over the mounting investor fatigue with Teslas constant turbulence.

That said, a brand-new report is flashing red flags regarding customer behavior on Teslas home turf, which raises even tougher questions ahead.

New data reveal a surprising trend among Tesla owners that Wall Street is watching closely.Image source: TheStreet/Shutterstock

Teslas EV dominance in the U.S. is slipping fast

Teslas iron grip on the U.S. EV market is unraveling fast.

A new report from Cox Automotive shows Teslas market share dipped to just 38% in the U.S. in August, its lowest level since 2017.

Thats a mighty fall from the 80%+ dominance it once commanded, and it couldnt have come at a worse time.

Related: Qualcomm just made a massive leap into Teslas turf

Were seeing legacy automakers like Hyundai, Honda, Kia, Toyota, and Volkswagen digging deeper into the EV niche with more incentives and newer models.

According to Stephanie Valdez Streaty, Coxs director of industry insights:

"These legacy manufacturers are all benefiting from this sense of urgency, and they're able to have attractive offerings for their vehicles  and it's working."

For more perspective, in July alone, Teslas market share decreased from 48.7% to 42%, resulting in its sharpest single-month drop since March 2021, when Ford rolled out the Mustang Mach-E.

More News:

Meanwhile, sales for its competition skyrocketed between 60% and 120%, a trend thats likely to accelerate through September before tax credits expire.

Emerging themes regarding Tesla's market share:
Tether, the firm behind the stablecoin USDT, met with officials from the South Korean financial heavyweight Shinhan Bank on September 8.

The South Korean media outlet MoneyS reported that Tether officials are in the country to attend a domestic blockchain conference.

But the executives are also reportedly planning meetings with a range of domestic fintech companies, including the neobank Toss.

The headquarters of Shinhan Bank in central Seoul, South Korea. Tether officials met senior Shinhan executives at the building in the morning of September 8, with stablecoins on the agenda. (Source: Mobius6 )

Tether, Korean Banks Hold Stablecoin Talks

The media outlet wrote that several Tether executives attended the Shinhan meeting, including Vice President Marco Dal Lago, the firms head of Global Expansions and Strategic Partnerships.

Quynh Le, Tethers Regional Expansion Lead in the APAC area, and Andres Kim, the firms Bolivia-based Expansion Manager, were also in attendance.

The summit is Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Jin Ok-dongs second meeting with a major US stablecoin issuer in the space of a month.

Jin and several rival South Korean bank heads met Heath Tarbert, the head of the USD Coin issuer Circle, during the latters visit to Seoul late last month.

A Shinhan Financial Group official told media representatives that Shinhan and Tether plan to continue discussing ways to build mutual networks.

South Korean lawmakers continue to push forward with plans to regulate KRW-pegged stablecoins. Evidently sensing an opportunity, both Tether and Circle have recently sent delegations to Seoul.

Cho Young-seo, the Vice President of KB Kookmin Bank, is also set to meet Tether representatives on September 10.

KEB Hana Financial Group and Woori Financial Group officials have already spoken to Tether officials about stablecoins. The parties held meetings on August 26.

While there are no immediate plans for further meetings during the Tether officials visit to, the possibility of more talks remains open, MoneyS wrote.

Another major financial group, Nonghyup (NH), has also previously sent its blockchain and cryptoasset division chiefs to meet Tether executives.

Legislation at an Impasse

South Korean lawmakers are currently divided on the question of whether they should let major tech firms and IT startups issue stablecoins, in addition to large financial groups.

The USDT market cap over the past 12 months. (Source: CoinGecko)

Conservative voices believe that only the commercial banking sector should be allowed to issue KRW stablecoins.
Agreement Propels Texas LNG Toward a Final Investment Decision

HOUSTON, September 10, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Texas LNG Brownsville LLC, a four million tonnes per annum ("MTPA") liquefied natural gas export terminal to be constructed in the Port of Brownsville, Texas, has signed a definitive 20-year Sales and Purchase Agreement with Gunvor Singapore Pte Ltd for 0.5 MTPA of LNG from Texas LNG on a Free on Board basis. The agreement converts a previous non-binding Heads of Agreement between the two companies. Texas LNG Brownsville LLC is a subsidiary of Glenfarne Energy Transition, LLC, and Gunvor Singapore Pte Ltd is a subsidiary of Gunvor Group.

"Texas LNG is moving rapidly towards a targeted year-end Final Investment Decision," said Glenfarne Chief Executive Officer and Founder Brendan Duval. "Our agreement with Gunvor continues our progressing of successfully completed commercial contracts, sufficient for FID, for Texas LNG. Together with the advanced state of project financing and completion of the FERC process last month, this project is poised to unlock the superior benefits of clean, reliable U.S. LNG for Gunvor and our other partners."

"As one of the foundation customers of Texas LNG, we are pleased to complete this agreement and open up new sources of U.S. LNG to meet the growing demand for secure energy in overseas markets," said Kalpesh Patel, Co-Head of LNG Trading of Gunvor.

The majority of Texas LNGs offtake volume will be sold under long-term binding agreements. Texas LNG is in the process of converting HOAs with Macquarie and another highly experienced, investment-grade global LNG player into definitive agreements. Kiewit is leading the engineering, procurement, and construction of Texas LNG under a lump-sum turnkey structure.

About Texas LNG

Texas LNG is an LNG export facility to be constructed in the Port of Brownsville, Texas and a subsidiary of global energy transition leader Glenfarne Energy Transition, LLC. Texas LNG is led by an experienced team committed to creating one of the cleanest, lowest emitting LNG export facilities in the world through electric motor drives. Additional information about Texas LNG may be found on its website at www.texaslng.com.

About Glenfarne

Glenfarne Group is a privately held developer, owner, and operator of energy infrastructure assets based in New York, New York and Houston, Texas, with offices in Anchorage, Alaska; Panama City, Panama; Santiago, Chile; Bogota, Colombia; Barcelona, Spain; and Seoul, South Korea. Through its subsidiaries, Glenfarne owns and operates over 60 energy infrastructure assets through three core businesses: Global LNG Solutions, Grid Stability, and Renewables. The companys seasoned executives, asset managers, and operators develop, acquire, manage, and operate energy infrastructure assets throughout North and South America. For more information, please visit www.glenfarne.com.
Indivior (INDV) moved up 11 positions on Monday into the 46th spot on Barcharts Top 100 Stocks to Buy. The opioid-treatment pharmaceutical company was one of only eight stocks in the top 50 to gain at least 10 spots in yesterdays trading.

The Barchart Technical Opinion is a Strong Buy. Up nearly 13% in the past month and 139% over the past 12 months, momentum is definitely on its side.

More News from Barchart

UK-based consumer products company Reckitt Benckiser (RBGLY) spun off Indivior in December 2015. Its shares began trading on Nasdaq in June 2023. Indivior dropped its secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange at the end of June.

While Im not too familiar with Indivior, I am very intrigued by its mission to help treat opioid addiction, which continues to devastate families in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Profitable and growing, its momentum looks justified. Heres why you might consider buying its stock.

As I Said, Its Profitable

In the first six months of 2025, Indiviors net profit was $65 million, 281% higher than a loss of $36 million in the same period a year earlier. On a non-GAAP basis, it earned $121 million in the first six months, down from $138 million.

However, the adjusted earnings from a year ago included $160 million in litigation expenses from its July 2020 settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, and U.S. state attorneys general. Ill get into this further in the next section.

For all of 2025, it now expects top-line revenue of $1.055 billion at the midpoint of its guidance, up from its previous estimate of $990 million. The 2025 estimate is down from $1.18 billion in 2024. The decline is primarily due to increased competition leading to lower market share for its Suboxone products worldwide.

However, the company estimates its Sublocade revenue in 2025 will be $775 million, up 3% from 2024, and $3o million higher than its previous guidance.

On the bottom line, it expects adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of $288 million, up from $240 million previously.

Indiviors Transformation Progressing

The companys multi-year plan to deliver value for shareholders while growing its business starts with its U.S. Sublocade revenue. Sublocade accounts for 70% of its annual revenue, with the U.S. accounting for 93% of Sublocade revenue.
(Reuters) - Trump Media (DJT) and Technology Group announced the filing for five new exchange-traded funds with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.

These filings, made on behalf of Trump Media by Yorkville America Equities, add to the requisitions earlier in the year for ETFs that track digital assets such as bitcoin and ethereum.

The ETFs will be America First themed, the company said, adding that all the ETFs under the brand will be collectively known as the "Truth Social Funds."

The five thematic ETFs include the Truth Social American Icons ETF, American Security & Defense ETF, American Next Frontiers ETF, American Energy Security ETF and American Red State REITs ETF.

The ETFs are expected to launch later in the year, and shares will be listed on NYSE Arca. The announcement did not disclose the proposed fees.

Yorkville America Equities will serve as the sponsor and registered investment adviser to the ETFs.

(Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey has agreed liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply deals with international energy companies, securing around 15 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas for the 20262028 period, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Wednesday.

The deals were announced over two days during the Gastech 2025 conference in Milan, where Turkey's state energy company BOTAS signed contracts with eight suppliers.

Initial agreements with BP, ENI and Shell covered 8.7 bcm, while five additional deals signed on Wednesday expanded the portfolio to include deliveries from companies based in Britain, the U.S., Germany, Japan and Norway.

Among the suppliers, UK-based Hartree will deliver 600 million cubic meters over two years. U.S. LNG producer Cheniere will supply 1.2 bcm within a year, while Germany's SEFE agreed to provide 1.8 bcm over three years, Bayraktar said.

Separately, Japan's JERA will deliver 600 million cubic metres under a one-year contract, and Norway's Equinor will supply 1.5 bcm over three years, he also said.

Turkey imported around 50 bcm of natural gas last year, including 14.3 bcm in the form of LNG. The newly signed contracts represent a significant portion of domestic consumption and are expected to strengthen supply security ahead of the winter season.

Bayraktar said the agreements reflect Turkey's strategy to build a flexible, multi-sourced and secure energy structure adding that the deals will enhance predictability in the country's medium-term gas portfolio.

(Reporting by Ezgi Erkoyun and Can Sezer; Editing by Tomasz Janowski, Editing by Louise Heavens)
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) in the UK has released two new factsheets aimed at assisting entities in the application of FRS 102 The Financial Reporting Standard (FRS) applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

These documents are intended to provide clarity on specific aspects of accounting standards.

The first factsheet, FRS Factsheet 12 Presentation of the financial statements, details the options available to entities, including small entities, for presenting financial statements.

It focuses on the statutory and adapted formats for the balance sheet and profit and loss account.

The second factsheet, FRS Factsheet 13 The Going Concern Basis of Accounting for Small Companies and Micro-entities, is designed to support directors of small companies and micro-entities in conducting their going concern assessments and in disclosing their conclusions, including the basis for these conclusions.

Additionally, both factsheets provide considerations for entities applying FRS 101 Reduced Disclosure Framework or FRS 105 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable to the Microentities Regime.

Factsheet 12 is relevant to the FRCs ongoing consultation on FRED 87 Draft amendments to FRS 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland  Adapted formats.

This consultation proposes amendments to ensure continued alignment with IFRS Accounting Standards when applying the adapted formats.

Stakeholders are invited to comment on the proposed amendments until 10 October 2025.

Factsheet 13 is associated with the FRCs recently published Guidance on the Going Concern Basis of Accounting and Related Reporting, including Solvency and Liquidity Risks, which serves as a practical guide for companies of different sizes to prepare company-specific disclosures regarding their going concern conclusions.

"UKs FRC unveils new factsheets to clarify FRS 102 compliance" was originally created and published by The Accountant, a GlobalData owned brand.




By Siddharth Cavale

NEW YORK (Reuters) -A handful of apparel retailers including Levi Strauss are teasing more full-priced products, testing how much wealthier shoppers are willing to pay despite the sobering effect of tariffs.

They have not been disappointed so far.

Levi's raised prices on some products in July but saw no slowdown in demand, the denim maker's chief financial officer, Harmit Singh, said at the Goldman Sachs Global Retailing Conference in New York on Wednesday.

"We are making a full-court press in selling higher full-price sales than we have done in the past," he said. "The Levi's consumer largely earns $100,000 and over. And that consumer we are seeing is generally resilient."

Ralph Lauren RL.N, Under Armour UAA.N and Abercrombie & Fitch ANF.N are also leaning into a more full-price strategy, they said, in recent earnings disclosures.

While lower-income households are hunting for bargains as U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war has forced companies to raise prices, wealthier consumers are buying steadily, largely unaffected by the cooling labor market.

Stock market gains and low credit card debt have bolstered the finances of the affluent. According to Moody's Analytics, the richest 10% of Americans - those earning at least $250,000 a year - now account for half of all consumer spending.

"We've been shifting our business towards a more elevated full-price consumer base, and this has served us well as our core consumer around the world remains resilient," Ralph Lauren CEO Patrice Louvet said in early August.

Under Armour's CEO Kevin Plank said in August the company was considering bumping up prices for the "embedded consumer who we do have pricing power with," referring to loyal customers. "We're seeing success testing new key items at full price, including our $45 Self-form hat and our heat gear collection are both strong examples."

And if that strategy doesn't work, better consumer-tracking technology now allows retailers to pivot quickly and offer targeted promotions, helping them generate higher profit margins, said Kate McShane, managing director at Goldman Sachs.

"In the old school way of doing things, you would get a circular saying everything is 25% off ... Now if they're selling North Face fleece jackets and it's 60 degrees, say, in New York, they can offer it on sale only for a couple of days in New York" while keeping prices the same elsewhere, she said.

Many companies have absorbed a lot of the tariff costs already, analysts said, and will try to discount as little as possible through the holiday shopping season, compared to years past when they discounted any extra items held in inventory.
By Marianna Parraga

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A Delaware court is inclined to deny a motion made last month by miner Gold Reserve to disqualify a rival bid for the parent of Venezuela-owned refiner Citgo Petroleum from an affiliate of hedge fund Elliott Investment Management, Judge Leonard Stark said in a filing on Wednesday.

The court is set to begin the final sale hearing next week in the court-organized auction of shares aimed to pay creditors for past expropriations and debt defaults by Venezuela.

The hearing will follow the preliminary selection last month of a $5.9 billion bid from Elliott's affiliate Amber Energy as the best offer submitted in the auction so far. The choice triggered objections from several parties and Gold Reserve's motion to strike.

A competing bid from Gold Reserve's affiliate Dalinar Energy was not recommended by the court officer overseeing the auction, even after it was raised to $7.9 billion last month.

Gold Reserve, lawyers representing Venezuela and other creditors have submitted objections to Amber's bid, saying an included agreement to pay $2.1 billion to holders of a defaulted Venezuelan bond would deprive some creditors in Delaware of auction proceeds.

Parties to attend the hearing were encouraged "to focus instead on the merits of the Amber Energy bid, the objections to it and the Dalinar bid," the judge said in the filing.

In the 4-day hearing, to begin on Monday, creditors, witnesses and experts will expose arguments supporting or objecting to bids on the table. A second set of testimonies could be presented in October, the court said.

(Reporting by Marianna Parraga; Editing by Nathan Crooks and David Gregorio)
By Rachel More

MUNICH (Reuters) -Introducing a minimum requirement for European content in cars sold in the EU is vital for keeping the region's auto sector competitive, Christophe Perillat, chief executive of French car parts supplier Valeo, said on Wednesday.

The European Commission is in talks with carmakers and their suppliers on ways to secure the sector's future as it navigates an expensive shift to electric vehicles, stiff competition from China and tariff uncertainty.

For car executives, the focus has been on revising an EU ban on new combustion engine vehicles from 2035, which they say is too narrow-sighted, while suppliers have pushed Brussels for minimum content requirements, asking for a quota of 80%.

"Such a mechanism would strengthen European sovereignty while at the same time protecting competitiveness," Perillat said at the IAA auto show in Munich, pointing to similar incentives in the United States and India.

He said he looked forward to discussing the proposal further during the next round of talks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Friday.

The European Commission has said it plans to gradually introduce European content requirements for battery cells and components.

Perillat said there was work to be done on the issue in Europe, with some companies still opposed to such requirements, particularly in Germany.

"We still need to convince here about the importance of local content," he said.

Germany's VDA car lobby has previously said European resilience must not come at the cost of excessive regulation such as local content requirements.

(Reporting by Rachel More; Editing by Christoph Steitz and Bernadette Baum)
Fast-growing e-commerce parcel carrier Veho on Wednesday announced the expansion of its delivery footprint to Southern California, underscoring how competition in the parcel sector is heating up.

Parcel shippers have increasingly turned to alternative carriers like Veho for lower delivery costs as FedEx, UPS and the U.S. Postal Service raise rates and surcharges.

Veho is now providing delivery services to much of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Orange Country and the Inland Empire, allowing e-commerce brands to reach about 8 million residents. New distribution centers in Santa Fe Springs and Ontario will enable more than 100,000 parcel deliveries per week, the company said.

Spokesman Evan Wagner said Veho is starting Southern California operations with about a dozen clients.

Earlier this year, Veho began serving St. Louis, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, New York City, Richmond, Virginia, and Louisville, Kentucky, a UPS stronghold.

Vehos network now covers 38% of the U.S. population in 56 major markets.

New York-based Veho said additional coverage and distribution centers across California are planned in the coming months.

The company, which provides last-mile delivery for retailers such as Macys, Sephora, Lululemon, Saks, Stitch Fix, Hello Fresh, Nespresso, Warby Parker and logistics providers like Flexport, ShipBob, ShipHero and Stord, says volume has more than doubled in the past six months compared to the 2024 holiday peak season.

Co-founder Fred Cook explained in a LinkedIn post why it took longer than anticipated for Veho to open for business in California.

Huge number of client fulfillment centers, enormous metro areas, fair weather all made it perfect for our model. But between the cost and client demand, we got pulled East. And in every one of the 7 years since then as weve done the same math, our expansion continued to tend toward building dense regions in the middle of the country and East Coast, he wrote.

Veho went to market in 2018 with a different business model than most delivery startups. Instead of using dedicated independent contractors, it relies on 85,000 crowdsourced drivers and a tech platform to match them to packages for delivery.

Vehos delivery network (Source: Veho)

Its core product is Ground Plus, with transit times of one-to-three days. In January, Veho began offering a two-to-five day Premium Economy service.

The companys platform gives e-commerce consumers control over their deliveries, including the ability to provide delivery instructions, communicate with their delivery driver, reschedule or reroute deliveries and receive photo proof of delivery. A client portal enables shippers to track shipments in real time and proactively address issues before they become problems.
This story was originally published on CFO Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily CFO Dive newsletter.

Dive Brief:

Walmart CFO John David Rainey has a new pre-arranged plan for selling some of his stock in the retailer under which, as part of his own long-term financial planning strategy, he is scheduled to sell 20,000 shares of companys stock on two dates, Feb. 2 and March 2, at market prices, according to a securities filing Friday.

Designed to comply with Rule 10b5-1 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the plan follows an existing one entered into on Sept. 6, 2024, which expires when the last trade in it is set to occur on Dec. 1, according to the filing. The maximum to be sold under Raineys new plan is 40,000, lower than the 95,800 maximum total scheduled under the old plan.

Mr. Rainey continues to be subject to the Companys stock ownership guidelines, under which he is required to hold Company stock equal in value to at least five times his base salary, the filing states. Upon the conclusion of each sale transaction under the Plan, Mr. Rainey will continue to satisfy the requirements of the Companys stock ownership guidelines.

Dive Insight:

Rainey joined Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart in 2022 from San Jose, California-based payment processor PayPal. In the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2025, Raineys compensation totaled about $13.5 million, including a $1 million salary and $9.96 million in stock awards, according to the companys April proxy filing. His compensation totaled $13.2 million in the year earlier period.

Walmart declined to comment beyond the filing on Raineys trading plan.

An increasing number of public companies reported using such trading plans, according to a Morgan Stanley report this year. Nearly all (97%) of companies surveyed in January and February said they used the plans in the most recent fiscal year compared to 74% in 2021, the report found, noting that the uptick follows 2022 amendments to the rules that introduced stricter requirements and greater transparency.

For companies, requiring or encouraging 10b5-1 plan use as part of an overall insider trading policy can signal to investors and regulators that the company takes compliance seriously and that insider sales will be disciplined, the report states. For executives, these plans provide a structured approach to diversifying concentrated stock positions over timeIn addition, their preset nature protects insiders from emotional selling and mitigates potential negative signaling from liquidating their holdings.
Sound Shore Management, an investment management firm, has released its investor letter for the second quarter of 2025. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The funds Investor Class (SSHFX) and Institutional Class (SSHVX) delivered 3.06% and 3.10%, respectively, in the second quarter of 2025 compared to a 3.79% return for the Russell 1000 Value Index (Russell Value) and 10.94% return for the Standard & Poor 500 Index (S&P 500). Sound Shores 35-year annualized returns were 14.92% and 15.14% for SSHFX and SSHVX, respectively, as of June 30, 2025, and were ahead of the Russell Value at 12.76% and trailed the S&P 500 at 19.71%. In addition, please check the funds top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.

In its second-quarter 2025 investor letter, Sound Shore Management highlighted stocks such as Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (NYSE:TEVA). Headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (NYSE:TEVA) engages in the development and distribution of generic and other medicines and biopharmaceutical products. The one-month return of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (NYSE:TEVA) was 15.02%, and its shares gained 10.22% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On September 09, 2025, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (NYSE:TEVA) stock closed at $19.68 per share, with a market capitalization of $22.71 billion.

Sound Shore Management stated the following regarding Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (NYSE:TEVA) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:

"In our first quarter letter, we discussed how some of our healthcare holdings impacted performance due to still undetermined regulatory policies. This uncertainty continued in the second quarter. Eventually, a clearer picture will emerge, but the myriad of proposals regarding Medicaid reimbursement, pharmaceutical pricing and tariffs have all contributed to a cloud over the group this year. As always, when there is a macro-led market drop, as we saw in March/April, we often take advantage of price dislocation and add to positions where we have the highest conviction. For example, drug manufacturer Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (NYSE:TEVA) was a name we added to as the company continues to execute on its plan to accelerate growth, primarily through the success of its pipeline."

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (TEVA): Among Small-Cap Healthcare Stocks Hedge Funds is Buying

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (NYSE:TEVA) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 57 hedge fund portfolios held Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (NYSE:TEVA) at the end of the second quarter, which was 64 in the previous quarter. In the second quarter of 2025, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited's (NYSE:TEVA) revenue increased 1% year-over-year to $4.2 billion. While we acknowledge the potential of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (NYSE:TEVA) as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.
GlobalData research shows that younger consumers in the UK are more likely to hold pay-as-you-go (PAYG) or usage-based (UBI) car insurance policies. However, the latest Consumer Intelligence Car Insurance Price Index indicates that this group is facing rising premiums, with reports suggesting telematics providers are becoming less willing to offer competitive rates to younger drivers.

GlobalDatas 2024 UK Insurance Consumer Survey shows that 14.4% of consumers aged 18 to 24 have a PAYG or UBI car insurance policy. This is significantly higher than the 2.8% of consumers aged 25 and over. The findings highlight the stronger appeal of telematics and flexible insurance models among younger drivers, who tend to be more cost-conscious and open to alternatives to traditional policies. By contrast, uptake among older consumers remains very limited.

UK drivers with PAYG/UBI car insurance policies by age group, 2024

Source: GlobalDatas 2024 UK Insurance Consumer Survey.

Meanwhile, the latest Consumer Intelligence Car Insurance Price Index shows that quoted premiums in the UK have fallen by 10.5% over the past year. However, drivers under the age of 25 have experienced the opposite trend, with premiums rising by 3% in Q2 2025, while the overall market recorded a 1.4% decline. The data highlights that the sharpest increases are being felt by drivers aged 17 to 19. At the same time, telematics providers that monitor driving behaviour appear to be showing less appetite for offering competitive rates to this group.

Despite younger drivers facing rising premiums and reports that telematics providers are showing less interest in offering competitive rates to this group, they remain more likely and more willing to engage with this technology. Insurers should recognise this openness by continuing to invest in telematics propositions tailored to younger consumers. Doing so can help strengthen brand loyalty, improve risk assessment through data-driven insights, and position insurers to capture long-term value from this segment as their insurance needs evolve.

Overall, the findings suggest that younger drivers remain a key audience for telematics and UBI. While younger customers continue to face challenges around affordability and limited competitiveness in pricing, their willingness to adopt new models highlights an opportunity for insurers to adapt their propositions and build stronger, long-term relationships with this segment.

"Younger drivers show stronger engagement with telematics and usage-based insurance" was originally created and published by Life Insurance International, a GlobalData owned brand.
Benelux Prime Ministers' Summit Joint Declaration Luxembourg Wednesday, 10 September 2025

We, the Prime Ministers of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, reaffirm our enduring commitment to the principles and values that unite our three countries in the Benelux Union. Rooted in a shared history of cooperation, trust, and solidarity, the Benelux partnership stands as a model of regional integration and forward-looking governance in Europe. Together, we stand for the rule of law, democratic governance, and the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms. We value open societies, inclusive economies, and sustainable development that respect both people and planet.

The year 2025 marks 65 years since the implementation of the Treaty establishing the Benelux Economic Union, which laid the foundation for the free movement of persons, goods, services, and capital  a cornerstone of our regional cooperation and a catalyst for European integration. Over these six and a half decades, our three countries have not only deepened their collaboration across numerous domains but have often served as pioneers and a source of inspiration within the broader European project. As we look ahead, we remain firmly committed to further strengthening the European Project, ensuring it remains a driver of competitiveness, innovation, and social cohesion.

Ukraine

More than three years after the full-scale invasion as a part of the unprovoked and unjustified aggression of Russia, we reaffirm our steadfast support for Ukraines independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders. We will continue to provide political, humanitarian, military, financial and reconstruction assistance. Russias aggression against Ukraine - including the attacks on Ukraine's cultural heritage and cultural identity - constitutes not only a blatant breach of the UN Charter and international law but also poses the most serious threat to peace and stability in Europe since the Second World War. As countries committed to upholding international law and convinced that State leaders must be held accountable for their crimes, the Benelux countries welcome the efforts made to establish a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression with jurisdiction over the Russian aggression against Ukraine within the framework of the Council of Europe. Ukraines fight for core values such as freedom and democracy, as well as its respect for the rule of law and the fight against corruption, deserves our enduring support.

Defence

We reaffirm our commitment to strengthening our defence cooperation in particular through the Benelux Steering Group. As founding members of NATO, we remain strong and reliable Allies, committed to bolstering the security and defence of the Euro-Atlantic area. It is imperative to enhance the European defence technological and industrial base to secure long-term geopolitical stability. We stress the importance of drawing on the full range of expertise and manufacturing capacity across our countries, from advanced materials and precision engineering to innovative dual-use technologies. Cross-border supply chains and specialized research centers are key assets to be leveraged, ensuring that our joint defence capabilities remain both competitive and strategically autonomous. We will continue to establish cross-border collaborations, including in the domains of capabilities, operations and industry, as we ramp up Europes defence readiness and implement the NATO capability targets. Investing in our defence industries means boosting European and transatlantic technological innovation, supporting European competitiveness, promoting regional development and powering economic growth.

Security, Safety& Resilience

We reaffirm our commitment to advancing societal preparedness and resilience across the Benelux region. In an era marked by increasingly complex threats - from hybrid challenges to natural disasters - it is vital to foster unity, readiness, and shared solutions.

Embracing a whole-of-government and whole-of-society perspective, by cooperating in the Coalition for civil preparedness and resilience, the Benelux countries aim to ensure that all partners are prepared to respond effectively and cohesively in times of crisis. In this light, we pay particular attention to our collective security architecture and to strengthening civil-military cooperation, including optimized EU-NATO complementarity; preventing and combating terrorism and violent extremism; addressing organized and cross-border crime such as drug trafficking and organized crime; strengthening our resilience against cyber and hybrid threats; and securing our energy supply and our national infrastructures in general.

In this context, the Benelux countries already developed a non-paper on EU baseline requirements, which was co-signed by 11 other EU Member States. In that respect, we also welcome the Preparedness Union Strategy and the holistic vision it proposes. We underline the essential role of education, culture, and media in building societal resilience, by fostering critical thinking, intercultural dialogue, and civic engagement across borders. Strengthening cooperation in these fields enhances our collective capacity to respond to crises and preserve democratic cohesion. Nevertheless, we also want to be vigilant in safeguarding the subsidiarity and autonomy of European Member States and regions in rolling out the Preparedness Union Strategy. European actions must therefore focus on where EU involvement presents an added value, avoiding duplication and seeking efficiency gains and synergies.

Europe-Competitiveness

Considering intensifying geo-economic competition, it is essential to build a more competitive European economy to guarantee long-term growth, job creation and quality of life. To this end, we need to build on the EU's open strategic autonomy and further reduce strategic dependencies in critical areas like energy, technology including AI, food security, and raw materials, while safeguarding open markets and international cooperation. A secure and more resilient Europe, based on a borderless single market will allow us to foster and attract investment, research and innovation. It will also help businesses, including small and medium enterprises to thrive. We are committed to interregional and cross-border cooperation in this field. Together with North Rhine-Westphalia, we reaffirm our support for the Euregion Maas Rhine's candidacy to host the Einstein Telescope.

Europe-Internal Market

The Internal Market is one of the Union's greatest assets and our main source of growth, prosperity, competitiveness and cohesion. We call for renewed ambition to unlock the many opportunities of our Internal Market, in service of a stronger, more competitive and resilient Union. By ensuring the free movement of goods, services, people, and capital across the 27 EU Member States and beyond, it tangibly shapes the daily lives of our citizens and the dynamism of our businesses. Still, intensified efforts remain necessary to remove unnecessary burdens, including territorial supply constraints, regulatory divergences, and impediments to mutual recognition. Key levers we must activate, are reducing fragmentation - through mutual recognition as well as harmonisation - strengthening our labour markets and simplifying rules. In this light, we welcome the Horizontal Single Market Strategy as presented by the European Commission and call for its ambitious implementation. Clear, coherent, and effectively enforced rules are essential to enable our businesses to grow beyond national borders and scale up, to stimulate growth, and ensure the effective implementation of the EU acquis. The implementation of the Savings and Investment Union remains a priority in order to work towards a financing ecosystem matching our investment needs while assuring a level playing field.

Mindful of their historic role as pioneers of European integration, the Prime Ministers of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg reaffirm their commitment to deepening cooperation within the framework of the European Union and strengthen its competitiveness.

The 40th anniversary of the signing of the Schengen Agreement, commemorated earlier this year in Luxembourg, serves as a timely reminder that the smooth functioning of the Schengen area remains vital to facilitate economic synergies between the Benelux countries.

Europe-Rule of law

The rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights are deeply rooted in our citizens' perception of the EU. The Benelux countries underline that protecting and strengthening the rule of law ensures legal certainty and is a prerequisite for the effectiveness of the Single Market and the good functioning of the EU. We therefore support the Commission to make full use of the rule of law toolbox at its disposal and to take decisive action when the principles of the rule of law are violated. The Benelux countries reiterate their steadfast commitment to collectively uphold and promote a strong rule of law framework within our Union.

Europe-Enlargement

The Benelux countries recognise the importance of a merit-based and predictable EU enlargement process to be a geostrategic investment in peace, security, stability and prosperity. Fostering the values on which the Union was founded and based on rigorous reforms, a credible enlargement process offers European citizens a pathway to improved economic and social conditions, while bolstering resilience against external challenges. Candidate countries must meet the Copenhagen criteria and deliver on key reforms in the area of the Fundamentals (rule of law, functioning judiciary and public administration).

Advancing on these core reforms is essential for the credibility of the process and for ensuring that enlargement strengthens both the candidate countries and the Union as a whole. The Benelux countries await the Commission's new pre-enlargement policy reviews as announced by President von der Leyen.

The Benelux countries will continue to provide support to candidate countries in carrying out necessary reforms on their respective paths towards EU accession.

Benelux Union

We, the Prime Ministers of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, reaffirm our deep and longstanding commitment to the Benelux Union as a cornerstone of regional cooperation, solidarity, and innovation in Europe. Our cooperation builds on a combination of national initiatives and European financial instruments, including regional development funds, which help translate our shared ambitions into tangible projects for citizens and businesses.

By removing border obstacles, improving citizens' cross-border mobility, and strengthening our common digital ecosystem, our collaboration has delivered tangible results across key areas of strategic importance.

We enhanced cross-border law enforcement and cooperation between judicial authorities, notably in the fight against organized crime, trafficking, and cyber threats. The Benelux Police Cooperation Treaty remains a benchmark for operational security cooperation in Europe.

We advanced the Benelux Climate Platform by aligning national policies for climate neutrality and implementing cross-border infrastructure for renewable energy. Joint initiatives on hydrogen development, energy storage, and sustainable transport have reinforced our region's role as a leader in the European Green Deal.

Cooperation on cross-border mobility remains an area of key importance, with the seamless implementation of digital travel documents and interoperable public transport systems as tangible examples. The Netherlands-Flanders cross-border contact point has also become operational, working in close cooperation with the Benelux Union to remove legal and administrative obstacles to integration. Finally, through joint planning and infrastructure upgrades, we facilitated more sustainable, efficient, and inclusive travel for our citizens.

We signed a partnership between the Benelux and Hauts-de-France for enhanced cross-border cooperation to support citizens and businesses. This is a valuable addition to our long-standing and close partnership we enjoy with North Rhine-Westphalia.

With the Treaty on automatic recognition of Higher Education qualifications, the Benelux countries and the Baltic countries mutually and automatically recognize their higher education diplomas covered by the Treaty. Graduates no longer face lengthy recognition procedures, and we look forward to collaborating with countries that have shown an interest in joining the Treaty.

In continuity with this commitment to recognition and mobility, the Benelux will also maintain a strong focus on skills, with certification of competences  particularly in the preservation of digital data.

We jointly reaffirmed our commitment to protecting democratic institutions, media freedom, and the rule of law. Through educational exchanges and civic engagement initiatives, we are investing in the next generation of engaged and informed citizens.

As we look ahead, we remain united in our belief that the Benelux model  built on trust, pragmatism, and a shared future  offers lasting value to our citizens and to the European Union

Dick Schoof, For the Netherlands Bart De Wever, For Belgium Luc Frieden, For Luxembourg
Norwegian cable operator Altibox Carrier has demonstrated what it claims is the worlds first 1.6 Tb/s single-carrier wavelength transmission on an in-service subsea cable.

The trial was conducted using US optical networking systems developer Cienas WaveLogic 6 Extreme (WL6e) coherent optics on the Altibox Carrier's NO-UK subsea cable system, that runs between Norway and the UK.

Ciena says he live 1.6 Tb/s channel ran error-free on Altibox Carriers production network between Norway and the UK, proving that next-generation terabit wavelengths are ready for real-world subsea operations.

In addition, says Ciena, the trial saw WL6e perform effortlessly at 1.6 Tb/s over an in-service submarine cable and demonstrated a spectral efficiency greater than 9 b/s/Hz.

According to Ciena, the result underscores Altibox Carriers ability to scale efficiently and sustainably as traffic surges from AI, content distribution, video, and cloud applications.

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Altibox Carrier and Ciena have once again joined forces to reinforce Norways position as a leading data centre hub, said Thomas Soerensen, Vice President, Global Submarine Solutions, Ciena.

This industry-first milestone and planned deployment of WaveLogic 6 will allow Altibox Carrier to efficiently scale its network and address surging bandwidth demands driven by AI, cloud and data centre expansion.

Altibox Carrier says by incorporating WL6e into its roadmap, the cable operator is further enhancing network scalability and intelligence.

The global data center market, especially in Norway, is undergoing historic expansion," said Svein Arild Ims, CEO of Altibox Carrier.

"This positions us to deliver higher-capacity, resilient pathways across Europe and to key international hubs."

The announcement follows Altibox Carriers 800G network upgrade utilising Cienas Waveserver 5 platform powered by WaveLogic 5 Extreme and 6500 flexible grid open line system to connect Norway to digital hubs in Amsterdam, Brussels, London and Hamburg.
Cisco promised not to "mess up Splunk" when acquiring the popular SIEM/SOAR platform. This week the multinational tech firm demonstrated Splunk is serious business, putting it right at the core of its data fabric vision. The combined Cisco+Splunk solution goes beyond mere "big" data, targeting "ludicruous" scales of data volume.

Mergers and acquisitions happen; sometimes they are a natural fit (think Oracle's acquisition of Netsuite); sometimes they alienate customers and partners (think a major silicon vendor and a virtualisation platform). Splunk has always impressed iTWire as having a strong community who hold great affection for the product. At the time Cisco acquired the business for $US 28 billion CEO Chuck Robbins promised not to "mess up Splunk." Well, any concerned Splunkers can let out a sigh of big relief with the major announcement of the Cisco Data Fabric. The vision solidly unites Cisco hardware and Splunk software in a massively, massively scalable AI-centric platform that delivers predictive insights and proactive resilience capable of handling "ludicrous" scales of data, using pre-trained AI models that leverage the seriously vast amounts of Cisco telemetry data.

The vision was outlined by Splunk SVP and GM Kamal Hathi alongside Cisco president and CPO Jeetu Patel, both taking the stage at Splunk .conf 2025 held in Boston this week.

Splunk, it was made clear, is most certainly not going anywhere, and nor will it be absorbed into a faceless element of Cisco. Indeed, branding at the event still put the Splunk moniker front-and-centre, with a simple "A Cisco company" underlining it. "This is the new Splunk," Hathi said. Specifically, "this Splunk is ready to help you make the transition into the AI era."

While you may be forgiven for having AI fatigue, the Cisco Data Fabric builds on top of the combined strengths of Cisco - with its hardware well entrenched around the globe - and Splunk - with its strong heritage of rapidly ingesting machine data from highly disparate sources and providing high-speed, highly-accessible searching across so many different types of structured and unstructured data.

In a nutshell, the Cisco Data Fabric is all about amassing huge - nay, vast - nay, ludicrous - data from anything and everything on your network, and analysing and visualising it in Splunk. Of course, for ludicrous scale of data you're going well beyond anything humans can dream of keeping on top of. Hence, the AI models will cut cost and complexity, will correlate multiple streams of data, will identify what's good and what's not, and surface things to human operators that need to be looked at further while keeping the noise out.

"Our goal is to give customers the fastest, most secure path from data to action," Hathi said.

That's the big picture of the Cisco Data Fabric, but there's a lot more in the detail - and which necessitated some Splunk re-engineering to truly bring it to life.

For one, Splunk has long been the place where you ingest all your machine data into. To truly handle data of the size Cisco and Splunk are talking about something different had to be done. Specifically, to handle data stores here and there and elsewhere too, but yet all be accessible and searchable from within a single Splunk pane of glass. Splunk is calling this federated search and analytics, announcing this new capability also at Splunk .conf 2025.

In essence, you don't need to ingest everything into Splunk. If you have data in other sources you can federate it so it is transparently available within Splunk as if it had been ingested, but remains where it is.

Alongside this, Splunk also announced a partnership with Snowflake that leverages the new federated search to help businesses mesh their machine data with their business data for even greater correlations. For example, the business data shows a drop in sales in one retail store; the machine data shows a point-of-sale system is offline. With Splunk federated search and the Snowflake collaboration your machine data and business data combine to show the full story.

Cisco SVP and GM of infrastructure and security Tom Gillis explained that for decades everyoine thought about network security as a box. "It's expensive, sits on the edge, and only sees a slice of traffic," he said.

"Imagine taking that box and defining it in software and breaking it into a million pieces - a million little tiny perimeters for every server, web server, database, Kubernetes cluster ... each get its own little perimeter."

Having perimeters around every app lets you see when one process initiates or terminates a connection and dig deeper into specific metrics around that app.

"This is a really big deal," Gillis said. "In today's world when an attacker has stolen a credential it's not enough to check a user has a password."

"Why hack if you can steal, and move through legitimate pathways?" he asked.

But, instead, what if you could see process-level behaviour and observe a connection terminating in a SQL database but it's not actually a SQL daemon? "Process-level data shows amazing things," Gillis said, "but the volume of correlating every process and every flow is far more data than ingesting from a firewall. It's 1000 times or more."

In fact, Cisco is working on smart switches leveraging another acquisition, Isovalent - like Splunk, that's "Isovalent, a Cisco company." With Isovalent software on the host you have a magical and transformative experience, Gillis said, combining a traditional network device with a security device. One uses an NPU, the other a DPU. One is ultra stable and primarily set-and-forget; the other is looking deep into packets.

This smart switch, Gillis said, is analysing and interpreting data as it happens. This analysis is "not in the data centre, but in the capilleries of the network."

And, here's the magic; all these Cisco devices around your network form the data fabric, with Splunk's federated search and analytics binding them all together intuitively and simply, despite how geographical far apart the data actually is.

"With Cisco data fabric you can apply analytics on data stored in place like a local log repository and don't need to ingest it into Splunk at all," he said.

Further, Gillis announced this will be possible for all of Cisco's portfolio, not just the firewall.

That said, Hathi announced the combined Cisco/Splunk organisation will now allow free Cisco log ingestion into Splunk for up to 5GB per device per day, with the caveat you need the appropriate Cisco and Splunk software licenses. Nevertheless, for customers using Cisco and Splunk there's an immediate cost reduction, while ultimately Cisco's Data Fabric vision means you won't need to ingest at all.

Further, Hathi and Patel announced a raft of new Cisco integrations for Splunk ranging from Thousand Eyes to AppDynamics and everything else.

The messaging is clear; Cisco truly sees Splunk as an important part of its future and while other tech industry acquisitions have alienated customers, this one is being executed in a way that delivers a superior overall product and does so in a way that benefits customers and is respectful of them. Announcement after announcement from the stage continued to offer more and more good stuff without it being hidden behind new pricing tiers or complex clauses. You just get it.

Going further, Hathi and Patel announced the Cisco Data Fabric will also embrace agentic AI. This goes beyond using AI to identify and surface concerns, or to use LLM capabilities to handle natural language. Instead, agentic AI can take actions for you. The Cisco Data Fabric vision sees AI remediating network and security threats as they occur, finding problems, correlating data, analysing, thinking, and resolving - on volumes of data and with speeds that go way beyond human ability.

Additionally, while the Cisco Data Fabric brings its own pre-trained AI models, Patel said enterprises will be able to build their own models with their own enterprise data.

"By embedding AI across the platform and embracing open standards, were not just helping organisations analyse information fasterwe're enabling them to anticipate change, scale innovation without unnecessary complexity, and deliver digital services that are more resilient, adaptive, and responsive to the needs of their users," Hathi said.

With the Cisco Data Fabric, organisations will be able to operate on machine data at extreme scale; simplify the transformation of data across the edge, cloud, and on-prem into real-time actionable insights while optimising for cost and efficiency; quickly search and analyse data where it resides including sources like Amazon S3 and Snowflake (with more sources coming in 2026); and provide a flexible open architecture with plug-and-play integration.

Additionally, a time series foundation model is coming that will power advanced pattern analysis and temporal reasoning on time series data enabling advanced anomaly detection, forecasting, and automated root cause analysis. The model will be listed on Hugging Face in November 2025.

The Cisco Data Fabric - built on top of Splunk Enterprise and Splunk Cloud Platform - is available today and will incorporate future advances across data management, federation, and AI. Additional features will become available across 2026.

See all the announcements here:
GUEST OPINION: Cybercrime has become a structured, global enterprise, operating at a scale that rivals some of the worlds largest economies and influencing strategic risk conversations across government and industry.

Many threat groups have adopted commercial structures, offering ransomware kits, stolen credentials, and remote access tools through established distribution models. This level of professionalisation has lowered the technical threshold for participation and significantly increased the volume and complexity of attacks.

Australia continues to attract a growing share of this activity. Its advanced digital economy, strategic position in the Indo-Pacific, and close alignment with global powers heighten its visibility to both cybercriminal networks and state-aligned actors. The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) receives a report of cybercrime every six minutes, indicating sustained, deliberate targeting by well-resourced adversaries, rather than an isolated trend.[1]

Craig Searle, director, consulting and professional services (Pacific) and global leader of cyber advisory, Trustwave, said, Much of the activity Australia sees is politically motivated. The nations position within alliances such as Five Eyes, AUKUS, and ANZUS increases its strategic value to state-aligned actors, as these groups actively pursue intelligence from governments, defence contractors, and critical infrastructure (CI) providers. Attackers have previously compromised multiple contractor systems connected to sensitive national projects, using those footholds to attempt deeper infiltration.

These operations are rarely fast or noisy; they are slow, methodical, and deliberate. Most aim to gather information without being detected, making access the objective, not damage. Maintaining that access lets attackers monitor developments, steal data over time, and prepare for future disruption if needed.

Cybercriminals are equally persistent. Their focus often falls on sectors with high-impact potential, including health, energy, telecommunications, and research. These industries rely on complex systems and multiple third parties, which creates opportunities for compromise. Attackers exploit gaps in network segmentation, software supply chains, and remote access controls, with many also targeting operational technology (OT) and connected devices that lack modern security controls. Compromising these systems can shut down essential services, damage CI, and create serious safety risks for the public.

However, not all threats come from outside, and a significant number of incidents begin with internal error. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) reports that 30 per cent of data breaches result from human mistakes.[2] In some cases, these involve misdirected emails or misconfigured permissions. In others, staff provide access to malicious actors unknowingly through phishing or insecure credentials. These small lapses often create the initial opening that external attackers need to move deeper into critical systems.

Craig Searle said, The goals remain consistent: financial gain; access to intellectual property; insight into political or military strategies; and long-term influence. What has changed is the method, as threat actors now use artificial intelligence (AI) to create convincing phishing messages. Some attackers purchase credentials from dark web marketplaces, while others exploit new vulnerabilities before security teams can respond. These campaigns are well-funded and highly targeted."

Australias growing influence within global defence, policy, and technology development will also increase its appeal to foreign intelligence services. These actors will continue to seek footholds in systems that control CI and store sensitive data. Many will also target organisations connected to government, defence, or emerging technology programs, including research institutions, contractors, and consultancies. Access to these environments can provide insight into strategic plans, defence capabilities, or innovations that offer a competitive advantage.

Craig Searle said, This means that cybersecurity must now be treated as a core business issue. Board members and senior executives need to understand the direct relationship between cyber risk and operational resilience. Strong governance, real-time threat intelligence, and cultural change are essential, and security must become part of daily operations across every level of an organisation.

Australia holds a central position in global security partnerships and advanced digital development. That visibility creates opportunity and risk in equal measure. Protecting national interests demands a coordinated response that includes government, private enterprise, and critical service providers. The threat will continue to escalate; however, proactive leadership can determine the outcome.

[1] https://www.cyber.gov.au/about-us/view-all-content/reports-and-statistics/annual-cyber-threat-report-2023-2024

[2] https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/notifiable-data-breaches/notifiable-data-breaches-publications/notifiable-data-breaches-report-january-to-june-2024
Nozomi Networks, the global leader in OT, IoT and CPS security, and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TOKYO: 6503) today announced they have signed a definitive agreement whereby Mitsubishi Electric will acquire Nozomi Networks. Upon close, Nozomi Networks will be a wholly owned subsidiary, operating independently of Mitsubishi Electric. This acquisition accelerates Nozomis industrial cybersecurity innovation while maintaining the companys heterogeneous approach to supporting customers and partners.

Mitsubishi Electric participated in Nozomis $100M Series E funding round, announced in March 2024, and the two companies have collaborated on innovation and go-to-market since. This combined history informed the foundation of this transaction.

The acquisition of Nozomi Networks brings Mitsubishi Electric a strong and growing AI-powered, cloud-first cybersecurity software business with an award-winning track record of scalable innovation. Nozomis world-class leadership and engineering teams, as well as its history of financial success, will strengthen Mitsubishi Electrics ability to deliver cutting-edge solutions to customers worldwide.

With more than 100 years of global industrial operational technology (OT and IoT) experience, Mitsubishi Electric will support Nozomis continued cybersecurity innovation and strong track record of business growth, as well as enable both companies to accelerate digital transformation for critical infrastructure and industrial organisations worldwide.

The companies share a strong vision around the power of data and context from OT/IoT environments, paired with robust artificial intelligence to deliver more effective cyber defences and material operational improvements for customers. Both companies also share a deep commitment to customer success, a partner-first business model, and fostering a strong corporate culture that values and supports employees.

Nozomi Networks is committed to serving all its customers and partners by maintaining its brand, leadership, teams, and operations. There will be no disruptions to current operations, roadmaps, or partnerships. Nozomis teams, offices, and points of contact remain unchanged, ensuring a seamless experience for all its stakeholders. 

Quote from Satoshi Takeda, Mitsubishi Electric Senior Vice President, CDO, Chief Information Officer, Board Member at Mitsubishi Electric Corporation

We are excited to welcome Nozomi to the Mitsubishi Electric family. Their cutting-edge OT security technology and rapid development philosophy have earned them a strong reputation. By combining Nozomi's strengths with Mitsubishi Electric's extensive expertise and capabilities in OT, I believe we can achieve even more. This acquisition will enable us to co-create valuable new services while supporting Nozomi's commitment to innovation and customer flexibility. Together, we can help our customers achieve their digital transformation goals while enhancing security, efficiency, and resilience.

Quote from Edgard Capdevielle, President and CEO of Nozomi Networks

This marks an exciting new chapter for Nozomi Networks. By becoming part of Mitsubishi Electric, we will combine our strengths to drive the next generation of industrial security and innovation to bring additional value for customers around the world. Nothing will change in our day-to-day engagement with Nozomi customers and partners  they will continue to receive the same support and service, and the same cutting-edge OT and IoT cybersecurity platform they have come to trust. With the combined global reach and resources of both companies, we can supercharge our innovation engine, helping industrial organisations secure and accelerate their own digital transformations. 

Quote from Andrea Carcano, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Nozomi Networks

By combining Mitsubishi Electrics century of global industrial expertise with Nozomi Networks innovations in data science, AI/ML and industrial cybersecurity, we have a unique opportunity to create a new generation of AI-powered solutions that will strengthen cyber and operations through power new innovations for customers across all OT/IoT use cases and industries around the world. Together, well make the worlds critical infrastructure safer, more resilient, and more efficient.

The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth calendar quarter of 2025. Upon close, Nozomi will maintain headquarters in San Francisco, California, and research and development in Mendrisio, Switzerland.

EY Strategy and Consulting Co., Ltd. is serving as financial advisor and White & Case LLP is serving as legal advisor to Mitsubishi Electric. Barclays is serving as exclusive financial advisor, and Gunderson Dettmer is serving as legal advisor to Nozomi Networks. 
Asahi Kasei Microdevices Corporation (AKM) has announced the commercial availability of its AK581xAIM Antenna-in-Module (AiM) millimeter wave (mmWave) radar modules for the high-precision sensing of human presence, breathing, position, and posture, as well as fall-detection, all without the use of cameras.

These complete sensing solutions will enable product developers to accelerate proofofconcept (PoC) development and integrate advanced sensing features quickly, without the need for antenna or radar design expertise.

As a growing number of adults over 50 plan to age in place as many as 75% in the United States, according to a 2024 AARP survey the demand for privacyconscious monitoring in consumer electronics, smart homes, and IoT healthcare applications is increasing. Asahi Kasei Microdevices AiM radar modules address this need by combining compact radar modules with readytouse evaluation kits, and provide customers a streamlined path from concept to deployment.

AiM Radar

AKMs new AiM modules (AK5816AIM / AK5818AIM) integrate their AK581x mmWave radar IC and a 4-in/4-out antenna array into a single compact package (23 mm  23 mm). The antenna integration eliminates the need for custom RF design, reducing engineering effort and shortening timetomarket. Multichannel measurement and high angular resolution enable precise 3D sensing to accurately detect human location, motion, posture, and falls, while distinguishing between people, pets, and objects.

Privacy-sensitive solution for a broad range of applications

The AK581xAIM mmWave radar modules provide an unobtrusive, privacy-preserving solution for a broad range of applications such as vital signs sensing, posture estimation, and fall detection, which are especially relevant among older individuals. The lack of cameras makes it possible to offer these features even in bedrooms or restrooms, where safety monitoring is often limited by the need for privacy, and thus allow for faster response time and reduced caregiver burden. Additionally, these modules may help to increase energy efficiency when used for occupancy-aware control of HVAC systems, lighting, and more.

Evaluation kits available for testing

To simplify evaluation and accelerate development, AKM offers two development kits. The AIMEZ V is optimized for rapid proof-of-concept and implementation testing and features USB, Ethernet, Wi Fi, and Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity. The LUMI is designed for advanced algorithm development and is equipped with a high-performance System-on-Chip (SoC) for large-scale data processing and machine learning applications. Both kits include a baseline software environment for quick setup and support for integrating proprietary algorithms, enabling a smooth transition from evaluation to product development. Asahi Kasei has designated Electronics as a First Priority business focused on electronic materials and electronic components. The development of AKMs new AiM mmWave radar modules and evaluation kits emphasizes the organization's commitment to continuing its proactive investment and innovation for growth.

About Asahi Kasei Microdevices (AKM)

AKM, a Japan-based company, operates an electronic components business as a member of the Asahi Kasei Group's Material Sector. AKM provides customers with unique products by combining the compound semiconductor technology used in magnetic sensors with the ASIC/analog circuit technology used in silicon semiconductors. AKM's unique products and solutions are featured across a wide range of markets, including mobile communication devices and consumer products, as well as automotive electronics, home appliances, and industrial equipment. Additional information is available on https://www.akm.com/global/en/.

About Asahi Kasei

The Asahi Kasei Group contributes to life and living for people around the world. Since its foundation in 1922 with ammonia and cellulose fiber business, Asahi Kasei has consistently grown through the proactive transformation of its business portfolio to meet the evolving needs of every age. With more than 50,000 employees worldwide, the company contributes to sustainable society by providing solutions to the worlds challenges through its three business sectors of Healthcare, Homes, and Material. For more information, visit www.asahi-kasei.com. Asahi Kasei is also dedicated to sustainability initiatives and is contributing to reaching a carbon neutral society by 2050. To learn more, visit https://www.asahi-kasei.com/sustainability/.
Tacos at at Taqueria La Fonda (Photo by Luis Samayoa/Stripes Japan)



I have a random habit of saying Osaka Osaka when Im visiting here and I enjoy exploring around and seeing what theres to do.

As Japans third-largest city, there is plenty to do, see and especially eat. Dont miss a trip to Osaka if you get the chance. If youre like me, youll find yourself returning here often, even for a day trip.

On one of my last visits, I managed to make a reservation for a nice onsen to soak in for the first time and also unexpectedly found a delicious Mexican restaurant. Youll be surprised how much a good soak and tasty food can help you recharge.

Soaking the stress away at Nobuta123 onsen

Ive always wanted to visit a Japanese onsen, but having tattoos has barred me from partaking in this must-do activity. Luckily in Osaka, Nobuta123 is an onsen that allows people with tattoos in their private baths. The only requirement is to cover the tattoos before entering the establishment. This was remedied with pants and a long-sleeve t-shirt.

Ahead of our visit, we made a reservation online. The calendar day opens three days in advance and rooms sell out within minutes, so make sure to be ready! I had to stay up late until midnight struck to reserve my time slot.

There are 11 types of rooms for reservation, I went with the Aoi room for a scenic feel. The cost for any room with a 2-hour reservation was 9,200 yen (about $59). The price is a bit expensive, but you have the entire room and bath to yourself for two full house, so its definitely worth it.

The room came also had a thermostat for adjusting the water temperature avoiding feeling like a lobster in a pot. All the private rooms were different from each other, so I can try a new one next time Im back.

It was nice to relax and soak away the pains of active duty. This was my first onsen experience, although it wasnt a public bath, I truly enjoyed bathing and boiling under the autumn sun in the privacy of my room. We went in the afternoon, which was a little busy but not too bad since we werent in the general bathing areas.

Our two hours flew by in the blink of an eye. I didnt realize how easy it is to sleep in these areas. I wish we had stayed longer. If you try to extend, all I can say is good luck. This place is popular and rooms are strictly on a time schedule, so the chances are very low.

I would come back here again for a special occasion especially since the cost per hour did feel a bit pricey. If you dont have tattoos, you can use the public onsen which, at 950 yen for weekdays and 1,050 for weekends and holidays, is considerably cheaper.

Things to know

Address: Tamazu, Higashinari-ku, Osaka 3-13-41

Payment: If reserving a private onsen, payment is made online. If youre using a public onsen it can be done at the counter.

- Parking is available. You will need to give the staff your parking ticket during checkout for free parking validation.

- By train, it is about a 15-minute ride from Osaka Station to Tsuruhashi Station and then, a 5-minute walk to the onsen.

Nobuta123: https://www.nobuta123.co.jp/nobehatsuruhashi/

Mexican mood at Taqueria La Fonda

(Photo by Luis Samayoa/Stripes Japan)

(Photo by Luis Samayoa/Stripes Japan)

(Photo by Luis Samayoa/Stripes Japan)



We were in a mood for some Mexican food during our day trip visiting Osaka. We got lucky and managed to find a restaurant online with good reviews near Osaka Castle, a main attraction in the city.

We entered the small restaurant with an equally small menu. We ordered a small bowl of birria soup, a tostada topped with Lettuce, onions beans and chicken, and my fiancee ordered a taco set. The set included Chicken and Pork tacos. They serve drinks but we stuck with water. They do serve Horchata and beer if you crave a tasty beverage.

The soup consisting of soft, slow-cooked tender beef and seasonings, was quite filling and had a mildly spicy touch that warmed us. The tostada was crisp, the toppings generous and did not disappoint. I was surprised that this was better than some of the Mexican food Ive had back home in San Diego.

My fiancee loved her taco set and guarded her plate so I couldnt steal a bite. Her occasional umais gave a strong sense of how I shouldve ordered my own.

While we were there, we overheard the owner say he took special order requests with a week advanced notice. One patron ordered an off-menu enchilada plate which was promptly prepared.

Special dish requests may be accommodated with a week or more advanced notice, the owner said. Additionally, price and availability may vary depending by season and other factors. The regular menu items we tried made me nostalgic for my mothers home cooking, so if youre interested in something particular, you should definitely give it a shot.

On our next visit to Taqueria La Fonda, we made sure to reach out to the owner and requested Cheese birria tacos and birria Enchiladas. Fortunately, we were greenlit and were served the tastiest and most delicious tacos and enchiladas that Id had in a while.

My only gripe was that the tacos were served with only one corn tortilla, Im used to two per taco like in San Diego. Despite the personal preference issue, I will keep returning to Taqueria La Fonda whenever Im in Osaka. Try it out for yourself!

Do note the restaurant is small, so they might not be able to accommodate large groups. They take reservations over the phone only, but you can also walk in or do take out.

(Photo by Luis Samayoa/Stripes Japan)

(Photo by Luis Samayoa/Stripes Japan)

(Photo by Luis Samayoa/Stripes Japan)

(Photo by Luis Samayoa/Stripes Japan)

(Photo by Luis Samayoa/Stripes Japan)



Things to know
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JACKSON, Miss.  Defendants who appear in this capital city's dilapidated county courthouse often wait more than a year to have cases heard, a backlog that local officials blame on too few judges and a shortage of police and other resources.

Since January, though, some individuals charged under the same statutes have gotten their version of justice in a spacious new court nearby, a parallel operation created by the Republican-run legislature. It has a much smaller caseload, no delays and new computers.

And unlike the Hinds County judges, who are elected, this court's judges are chosen by the Republican chief justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court. Its prosecutors come from the office of Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch (R).

State leaders defend the new system as necessary to address a spike in crime and Jackson's court backlogs. Critics say it was imposed by White GOP lawmakers on an overwhelmingly Black, majority-Democratic city, with funding - more than $730,000 this fiscal year - that would have been better spent on additional Jackson police officers and an additional elected county judge.

Other red states have made similar moves in blue cities even as crime in those cities has decreased sharply from pandemic-era highs. And now President Donald Trump is borrowing from the playbook, having sent federal agents and National Guard troops to patrol the nation's capital and threatening to do the same elsewhere.

"It's part of the narrative that these cities are incapable of administering public safety even though crime is on a downswing since the pandemic," said Jorge Camacho, an associate research scholar in law at Yale Law School. "You still need a foil to blame for problems that are real and imagined. I expect to see that wielded for the foreseeable future."

In Texas, for instance, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) deployed thousands of National Guard troops and Department of Public Safety troopers in anticipation of immigration-related protests in Houston and other cities where federal deportation raids had occurred. On social media, Abbott framed his action as necessary to "ensure peace & order."

In neighboring Louisiana, Gov. Jeff Landry (R) created a contingent of state troopers he dubbed "Troop NOLA" to police New Orleans, then used emergency powers in the wake of a deadly New Year's Day truck attack in the city's French Quarter to surge state police into the city, patrol the neighborhood and sweep homeless people from downtown.

The president indicated last week that he might send the National Guard to New Orleans, calling the city "a very nice section of this country that's become  quite tough, quite bad." Landry, a former police officer and prosecutor, said he'd welcome "Trump's help from New Orleans to Shreveport."

Missouri lawmakers, citing an increase in homicides and case backlogs, voted in March to take over the police department in St. Louis and voted two years ago to allow the Republican governor to appoint a special prosecutor there.

Georgia and Indiana, meanwhile, expanded the state police presence in blue cities and created state boards to investigate and discipline local prosecutors. In Indiana, that action was largely seen as a response to a Democratic prosecutor in Indianapolis who refused to enforce the state abortion ban and low-level drug offenses.

But Mississippi has arguably gone the furthest: Four years before the state-run court debuted, the legislature expanded the reach and staffing of the Capitol Police force in Jackson, building an agency that today is more than half the size of its municipal counterpart. Legislators empowered those officers to enforce the law anywhere in the city.

The risk of such moves, say national policing experts, is that resources are diverted from the local agencies that are most accountable to communities. The result is separate but unequal systems, according to Phillip Atiba Solomon of the Center for Policing Equity, a group that studies the effects of policing and its alternatives.

"We're creating, increasingly, systems that remove the resources from local cities and remove local control," he said.

Recent Economist-YouGov polling suggests such efforts can be broadly popular with Republicans: 49 percent of poll respondents overall opposed the idea of Trump sending troops into cities to fight crime, compared with 42 percent who supported it. But 85 percent of Trump voters liked the idea, compared with only 9 percent of voters who supported Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.

In Jackson, the Capitol Police district includes not just the statehouse and surrounding downtown, but also the historically White, wealthy neighborhoods of Belhaven, Eastover and Fondren north of the Capitol. The department's SUVs have become commonplace on those streets, patrolling at all hours.

Some Jackson residents - Black and White - say they appreciate the greater numbers and presence.

"You have some people who see that as good news for businesses and creating a space where people feel more comfortable coming downtown," said Cliff Johnson, director of the MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law.

Yet others are concerned, he said, noting allegations of excessive force and racial profiling by Capitol Police. Black residents, in particular, "don't want to come into north Jackson, because they don't want the hassle."

The Capitol Complex Improvement District Court prompted protests and litigation as it was being created, with more protests and complaints when it opened in January. Civil rights advocates focused on the three new judges' unique powers, including the ability to sentence those convicted of misdemeanors to state prison. (To date, none has.)

Johnson leads a legal team that regularly monitors the proceedings. During a week this spring when he attended sessions, the judges heard both misdemeanors and felonies, ranging from disorderly conduct to auto theft, drug possession and domestic assault.

A young man in a red jumpsuit was among the defendants one morning, charged with simple assault on a health care worker. He refused a lawyer and began to rant about his case. Judge James Holland, a former defense attorney, quickly stopped him.

"I'm working very hard to make sure you don't harm yourself or your case," he said before assigning the 18-year-old a public defender.

Johnson praised the court's professionalism but said that doesn't justify its existence. He noted that the state resources supporting its operations could have been provided to local officials to improve local courts.

"Ideally, you would have a situation where a concerned state government that cares about the capital city and realizes that a high-functioning Jackson benefits the whole state would lean into the process of supporting its existing structures," Johnson said.

Gov. Tate Reeves (R) has supported state lawmakers' interest in controlling the new Jackson court and its funding.

"It is our capital, it is our seat of government, it is a cultural hub for our state," Reeves said in a social media post on the day he helped to launch the court in January, calling it "another major addition to ensuring law and order in our capital city."

Holland and his colleagues on the court also have argued that it's necessary and fair.

"We are not in competition with other courts, we're supporting them," Holland, who lives in the Fondren neighborhood, said during a break in hearing cases this spring. He explained that one of his goals is to reduce the backlog in other local courts.

"Our charge from the legislature was to address crime and the appearance of crime," he said.

The legislature began increasing funding and staffing for the Capitol Police in Jackson in response to a record-shattering 160 homicides in 2021, at the time the highest per capita homicide rate in the nation. The murder rate has dropped significantly since, with 111 homicides in 2024 and 48 this year as of Sunday.

As of this month, the Capitol Police have 148 officers. They patrol about 24 square miles, a fraction of Jackson's 114 square miles. The city police have 258 officers.

As of this month, the Capitol Police have 148 officers. They patrol about 24 square miles, a fraction of Jackson's 114 square miles. The city police have 258 officers.

Earlier this year, a current and a former Capitol Police officer were charged with manslaughter stemming from a 2022 car chase in which a young father was fatally shot. The current officer and another former officer also were charged with aggravated assault after a mother of five was shot during a traffic stop in 2022. In a separate case, that former officer was charged with civil rights violations alleging he beat a motorist after a pursuit that same year.

Mayor John Horhn (D), who took office July 1, was a state senator when the legislation to create the state-run court was approved. He voted against the bill, which he described then as an inappropriate intrusion into local control. "The question has been raised whether the state is trying to take over the city of Jackson," he told WAPT-TV. "Well, if it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck - it's a duck."

Just before taking office this summer, Horhn called the expansion of the powers of the Capitol Police "a necessary evil."

"Unfortunately, the resources that the city police department has are not enough to enforce and ensure that there's order and safety throughout our community," he told WLBT-TV.

Sean Tindell, a Republican former judge and prosecutor, oversees the Capitol Police as commissioner of the state's Department of Public Safety and acknowledges that the agency has faced "growing pains." After lawmakers expanded the force and added the court, Tindell said, he attended town hall meetings where residents asked how they can hold the officers accountable. He advised them to contact legislators.

Overall, Tindell considers the Capitol Police's expansion and the creation of the new court a success. Lawmakers had considered deploying the Mississippi National Guard in Jackson or using state police like Louisiana did in New Orleans, he said, but Mississippi's governor conferred with Louisiana's and ultimately decided against that.

"I don't think we wanted to take over the underlying system. But we wanted to see a thriving system," Tindell said. "If they just give money to the city of Jackson for police officers, they lose control over how that money is spent."


Knives are being used in an increasing number of violent crimes,

putting the lie to the belief that guns are the problem.

The gruesome fatal stabbing of a Ukrainian refugee on a commuter train in Charlotte, N.C. is just the proverbial "tip of the iceberg" in what may be a growing violent crime phenomenon which may be troublesome for gun control proponents because these attacks demonstrate that evil people, not guns, are the responsible.

Brutally murdered in Charlotte was Iryna Zarutska, 23. Her slaying was captured by a security camera and it has become national news. The BBC is reporting how the murder has "sparked ongoing concerns about crime in the U.S."

A writer at the Free Press is reporting that "a number of Wikipedia editors don't want you to know about the attack. Since the online encyclopedia's article "Killing of Iryna Zarutska" was created on Saturday, Wikipedia editors have fought to have it deleted."

But the Zarutska case is not the only stabbing incident around the country which should be raising alarms, while also signaling that violent criminals don't need guns to cause mayhem. 
When I began my internal medicine residency in 1987 at Boston City Hospital, all new interns were enrolled in the Housestaff Association, the residents union. Some of my resident peers were active leaders in the union. Coming from Minneapolis and moving to Boston, I was trying to absorb all the new things (such as Fenway Park and the jinxed Red Sox, in the pre-world-champion days) and keep my head above water to do best by my patients, while also learning more about everything else, including the housestaff union.

Union activities at that time focused on minimizing the dreaded scut work (such as difficult blood draws) and how often interns really had to accompany patients from the emergency room to the floors (we routinely pushed them, on their gurneys). Our duty hours were usually well over eighty hours per week, and there were times we worked thirty-two hours or more straight and did it again a day or two later. Duty hours were not under discussion, and we just accepted them as what we do (although certainly they were not easy and many of us were quite miserable, and tired).

What has happened since then? The tragic Libby Zion case in New York City drew massive attention to resident duty hours and supervision. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) issued duty hour regulations for residents. The ACGME also created a confidential (and needed) ombudsperson, so any resident in any program could report a concern or complaint, anytime. Today the focus is on quality resident education, wellness, and excellent patient care, with some lingering tension between the old days (though not as much as before) and this new paradigm.

What has happened to physician unions? While hospitals in New York City, as well as Boston City Hospital, were some of the early adopters to embrace resident physician unions, more have popped up around the country. The recently established resident union at Harvards Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston was big news. Resident concerns that prompted its formation were things like low resident stipends (in the expensive city), a desire for increased support for childcare, and more equipment for patient care. Resident unions have also cropped up at the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, and George Washington University, amongst others, all prompted by similar concerns. In addition, we now hear of employed physicians joining unions, something relatively rare until recently.

So why are we seeing this? ACP provides insights on this issue in its thoughtful and powerful policy paper published earlier this year, Empowering Physicians through Collective Action. ACP asserts that physicians today have experienced increasing administrative burdens, the erosion of the patient-physician relationship, and diminished agency, all leading to a sense of physician disempowerment and low professional fulfillment. Physicians have begun to explore collective action to enhance their ability to deliver high-quality care to patients, regain control of their profession, and improve their well-being.

As we all know, the longstanding position in medicine has been that physicians should never abandon their patients by participating in collective actions such as work stoppages, thereby limiting or denying care to patients. Today, a majority of physicians are now employed and many, particularly primary care physicians, report they have been rendered increasingly powerless to advocate for the requisite working conditions that would allow them to provide quality care for their patients. In other words, consideration of some type of physician collective action may be an avenue to ultimately benefit patients. Physicians are trying their best to uphold their oath, and some are feeling like their backs are up against the wall. It has been asserted by some that health care today depends upon the exploitation of physicians and their commitment to their patients.

Some key recommendations from the paper include the primary objective of collective empowerment actions by physicians should be to ensure that patients have access to safe, affordable, high-quality care  ACP supports using collective empowerment actions to improve quality of care, health equity, the patient-physician relationship, and physician well-being. In addition, ACP supports research into the effects of physician collective empowerment actions on patient care and physician well-being.

Practicing physicians must be included in executive positions and have voting privileges on hospital and health system governing boards

Physicians must be protected from retaliation, and stepwise actions should only be considered once all other negotiating tactics have been exhausted and efforts have been made by all involved parties to ensure safe patient care.

The paper contains eight explicit recommendations and valuable background information. Please do take a look.

Physician unions have been around for decades and are continuing to evolve. We know patients come first. And today, physician collective action may provide an avenue to ensure that patients and improving patient care remain there, as number one. That, is something we can support.

Janet A. Jokela, MD, MPH, completed her term as ACP Treasurer at IM 2025. She serves as professor and senior associate dean of engagement at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, Urbana, IL. She may be reached on BlueSky @drjanetj.bsky.social.

The American College of Physicians is the largest medical specialty organization in the United States, boasting members in over 145 countries worldwide. ACPs membership encompasses 161,000 internal medicine physicians, related subspecialists, and medical students. Internal medicine physicians are specialists who utilize scientific knowledge and clinical expertise for diagnosing, treating, and providing compassionate care to adults, spanning from those in good health to individuals with complex illnesses. Stay connected with ACP on X @ACPIMPhysicians, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram @acpimphysicians.
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23:59 India-US trade talks underway in positive atmosphere: Goyal Negotiations between India and the US on the proposed trade agreement, which began in March, are progressing in a positive atmosphere and both the countries are satisfied with the progress, Commerce and Industry Minister Piysuh Goyal said on Thursday. He said that in February this year,... Read more >

23:49 Punjab floods: Death toll climbs to 55 With two more deaths, the toll in the Punjab floods climbed to 55, according to official data. Relief operations are underway across the state and special measures are being taken to prevent the outbreak of diseases as floodwaters have started receding, officials said on Thursday.One... Read more >

23:46 Freida Pinto, Siddharth in Netflix adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri's 'Unaccustomed Earth' Actor Siddharth will feature alongside Freida Pinto in Unaccustomed Earth, the upcoming series adaptation of author Jhumpa Lahiri's short story collection of the same title. Described as an epic, soapy, and culturally vibrant drama about a tight-knit Indian American community navigating... Read more >

23:29 HAL to deliver 2 Tejas Mark-1A jets next month Two Tejas Mark-1A fighter jets will be delivered to the Indian Air Force next month by state-run aerospace major Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), officials said on Thursday. HAL said it received one jet engine from American defence major GE Aerospace and another engine will be... Read more >

23:28 Tension flares in Manipur ahead of Modi's visit Representative image Miscreants clashed with security forces at two places in Kuki-majority Churachandpur district of Manipur on Thursday evening, days ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the northeastern state, officials said.They tore apart banners and cut-outs installed on roads, and vandalised... Read more >

23:18 Muslim countries need to unite to stop Israel: Pak PM Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Thursday urged Muslim countries to unite against Israeli aggression as he met the Qatari emir and expressed solidarity following Tel Aviv's recent attacks targeting residential areas in Doha.Shehbaz Sharif, who travelled to Qatar on a day-long visit, held a... Read more >

22:59 Caller warns of blast in sea near Mumbai coast Photograph: Sahil Salvi for Rediff.com Coastal security was stepped up on Thursday and a search operation was conducted after the police received a call warning of a blast in the sea off Mumbai coast, an official said. The call was received at 112 helpline control room situated at Mahape in Navi Mumbai in the morning, said... Read more >

22:54 India-Pakistan ties must improve before engaging in cricket: Bhajji Former spinner Harbhajan Singh on Thursday said relations between India and Pakistan must improve before the two nations face off against each other on the cricket field. Traditional rivals India and Pakistan are set to clash in Dubai for the first time since Operation Sindoor, which... Read more >

22:52 Infosys board approves record Rs 18,000 cr share buyback program IT services giant Infosys on Thursday said its board has approved the company's largest-ever share buyback programme worth Rs 18,000 crore. Infosys will buy 10 crore fully paid-up equity shares of a face value of Rs 5 each, representing up to 2.41 per cent of the total paid-up equity... Read more >

22:18 Charlie Kirk killing: FBI releases picture of 'person of interest' The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Thursday released picture of 'person of interest' in Charlie Kirk's assassination, seeking public's help in identifying the suspect.The two photos released show a person wearing a cap, sunglasses and a long-sleeve black shirt.We are asking for the... Read more >

21:56 Mahindra says its petrol vehicles safe to drive with E20 fuel Photograph: Hitesh Harisinghani/rediff.com Automaker Mahindra & Mahindra on Thursday said it has issued an advisory to customers and dealers asserting its petrol engines are fully compliant with standards and all petrol vehicles can be operated safely with E20 fuel.In a statement, Mahindra said it will honour all warranty commitments... Read more >

21:49 India is a strategic partner: Trump's envoy pick for India India is a strategic partner whose trajectory will shape the region and beyond, United States ambassador-designate to Delhi Sergio Gor said on Thursday, underlining that he is committed to advancing America's interest in this important partnership.Last month, President Donald Trump promoted Gor,... Read more >

21:43 Rupee tumbles to fresh record low at 88.36 vs US dollar The rupee slumped 24 paise and closed for the day at an all-time low of 88.35 against the US dollar, as ongoing tariff issue between India and the US weighed heavily on the domestic currency's vulnerability. Forex traders said a recovery in the US dollar ahead of the inflation data and... Read more >

21:14 At 160 kmph, Namo Bharat on Delhi-Meerut corridor is India's fastest train The Namo Bharat train, operating at its highest speed of 160 kmph on the 55-km section of Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System, has become the fastest running train in the country. Earlier, Gatiman Express, launched in 2016, was the country's first semi-high speed train, which... Read more >

20:45 Trump announces US's highest honour for Charlie Kirk United States President Donald Trump has announced the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States, for slain right-wing activist and influencer Charlie Kirk.Charlie Kirk, 31, was shot dead when he was speaking at an event in Utah on Wednesday.Charlie was a... Read more >

20:35 Modi to visit Manipur on Sept 13, to unveil projects worth Rs 8,500 cr Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to lay foundation stones and inaugurate various development projects worth Rs 8,500 crore in Manipur on September 13, officials said on Thursday.This will be his first visit to the state after ethnic violence broke out between Kukis and Meiteis in May... Read more >

20:33 Boy dies by suicide over refusal by mother to buy him smartphone A 12-year-old boy allegedly died by suicide in his house in Jharkhand's Dumka district on Thursday over refusal by his mother to buy him a smartphone, police said.The incident took place at Mathakesho village under Seraiyahat Police Station. The boy used to frequently quarrel with his... Read more >

20:25 Low intensity blast in J-K's Doda; 2 persons detained Representative image A teacher and another individual were detained in Doda on Thursday after a low-intensity explosion occurred at his house, triggering fresh panic in a district already on edge from political unrest. Police and forensic experts are investigating the blast, which is believed to have been caused... Read more >

20:21 UK PM sacks envoy to US over Jeffrey Epstein links British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday sacked his Ambassador to the United States, Lord Peter Mandelson, over scandalous emails linking him to convicted American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.In a statement in the House of Commons, Foreign Office Minister Stephen Doughty informed members... Read more >

19:58 SC to hear bail pleas of Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam on Sep 12 The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on September 12 bail pleas of activists Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam and Gulfisha Fatima after failing to get the reprieve from the high court in the UAPA case related to the alleged conspiracy behind the February 2020 riots in the national capital. ... Read more >

19:41 'Paid campaign against me': Gadkari on E20 petrol row Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said the social media rage over blending of 20 per cent ethanol in petrol fuel was a 'paid campaign to target him politically. There has been clarity on the E20 (20 per cent ethanol blended petrol) with the stakeholders,... Read more >

19:23 At least 8 Naxals killed in encounter in Chhattisgarh's Gariaband At least eight Naxalites were killed in an encounter with security personnel in Chhattisgarh's Gariaband district on Thursday, a police official said. The gunfight broke out in the forest under Mainpur police station limits when security personnel were out on an anti-Naxalite... Read more >

19:01 Sachin Tendulkar to be next BCCI Prez? Legend reacts Batting legend and former India captain Sachin Tendulkar on Thursday rejected speculation that he is in contention to be the next BCCI President with his management firm describing all such talk as unfounded. The 52-year-old's management firm issued the statement on his behalf to put... Read more >

18:52 Modi announces Rs 1,200 cr for flood-hit Uttarakhand Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday announced a financial assistance of Rs 1,200 crore for flood and rain-affected areas of Uttarakhand. He also announced an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh for the families of the deceased and Rs 50,000 for those left injured in a series of natural calamities... Read more >

18:35 Dissolve Parliament, amend Constitution: Nepal Gen Z group Youth-led Gen Z group, which spearheaded the anti-government protests in Nepal, Thursday said that Parliament must be dissolved and the Constitution should be amended to reflect the will of the people, as the death toll from the demonstrations increased to 34.The Gen Z protesters organised a... Read more >

18:34 Robbers masquerading as I-T officers loot Rs 5 lakh at gunpoint in Bihar A group of armed men posing as Income Tax officers on Thursday looted jewellery and cash worth a total of Rs 5 lakh from a house in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district, police said.The incident took place barely 200 metres from the local police station.Around 5.20 am, six men came in an SUV and entered... Read more >

18:17 Nitish Kumar 'medically alive' but 'brain dead': RJD MP Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is only medically alive but brain dead, and imposing him on the people of Bihar would be an insult to them, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Sudhakar Singh said, expressing confidence over the Mahagathbandhan getting a two-thirds majority in the upcoming Bihar... Read more >

18:15 Punjab CM Mann discharged from hospital Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was discharged from Fortis Hospital in Mohali on Thursday, days after he was hospitalised following exhaustion and low heart rate. On Wednesday, the hospital authorities said Mann had shown significant improvement and doctors were evaluating the... Read more >

17:53 Radhakrishnan to be sworn in as Vice-President tomorrow Vice-President-elect C P Radhakrishnan will be administered the oath of office by President Droupadi Murmu on Friday, officials said. Former Maharashtra Governor Radhakrishanan will be sworn in as the next VP at a ceremony scheduled to be held at 10 am at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, they... Read more >

17:47 Woman falls to Sadhguru's deepfake video, loses Rs 3.75cr Photograph: Courtesy @SadhguruJV/X A 57-year-old retired woman was duped of Rs 3.75 crore by fraudsters who allegedly used an AI-generated deepfake video of spiritual leader Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev to trick her into investing in an online trading platform, police said on Thursday. The woman, a resident of C V Raman... Read more >

17:34 Ahead of Modi visit, several Manipur BJP leaders resign At least 43 BJP members on Thursday resigned in Phungyar constituency of Manipur's Ukhrul district, days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's likely visit to the northeastern state, a party functionary said. Those who stepped down from the party's Phungyar Mandal in the Naga-majority... Read more >

17:25 Man hangs self after killing daughter over family dispute Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com A man committed suicide allegedly after hanging his three-year-old daughter to death in Beed district of Maharashtra, apparently as a result of a family dispute, police said on Thursday. His body was recovered from Imampur village in Beed on Tuesday, while the minor daughter was... Read more >

17:11 Nifty extends winning run to 7th day on firm global trends Benchmark BSE Sensex climbed 123 points while broader Nifty settled above 25,000 on Thursday, tracking a rally in global peers amid Fed rate cut hopes.Rallying for the fourth day in a row, the 30-share Sensex climbed 123.58 points or 0.15 per cent to settle at 81,548.73. During the day, it... Read more >

17:08 Heavy rain warning issued for Himachal Pradesh The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast heavy rainfall across several parts of Himachal Pradesh in the coming days, as light showers followed by fog enveloped the state's capital, Shimla, on Thursday.The IMD has issued a warning for rainfall across Himachal Pradesh over the next... Read more >

16:31 Making every effort for solution: Nepal Prez to protestors Charred remains of a bus in Kathmandu Amid ongoing unrest in the country for the past several days, Nepal President Ram Chandra Paudel on Thursday appealed to maintain peace, asserting that he is making every effort to find a way out of the current situation.President Paudel said, Respected Nepali brothers and sisters, I am making... Read more >

16:21 Telangana BJP chief makes ageist remark against Kharge Telangana BJP President N Ramchander Rao on Thursday slammed Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge for his remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.Speaking to ANI, Rao claimed that Kharge is making objectionable remarks due to his growing age.Due to growing... Read more >

16:03 NIA plea for polygraph, narco analysis of Pahalgam attack accused rejected The Baisaran meadow where the attack took place A special court in Jammu has rejected the NIA's plea for a polygraph test and narco analysis of the two men arrested in connection with the Pahalgam terror attack, ruling that the scientific techniques would violate the right against self incrimination. The National Investigation Agency,... Read more >

15:51 Nepal police ask protestors to return guns, vehicles, armor The Nepal Police has urged the public to return any weapons, vehicles, communication devices, body armor, uniforms, or other items that were seized or found during the protests held from September 8-10, reports the Himalayan Times. Officials have requested that such items be handed over to... Read more >

15:43 Truck operators stranded at Bengal-Nepal border Several truck operators were stranded at the West Bengal-Nepal border at Panitanki, Darjeeling district, on Thursday. A truck driver who is stranded at Panitanki, said that they are facing a huge monetary loss. I have been here for the last three days. The load of poultry food and... Read more >

15:39 Hooliganism: Kejriwal as Farooq Abdullah denied permission to meet Sanjay Singh Sanjay Singh clambers on the gate to talk to Farooq Abdullah Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor Arvind Kejriwal took a jibe at the Centre after former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah was not allowed to meet MP Sanjay Singh, who went to Srinagar to protest AAP MLA Mehraj Malik's arrest. Sharing an X post, Kejriwal called the Jammu and... Read more >

15:21 Anna Wintour shares what she really thinks about The Devil Wears Prada Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt in a scene from the film Now that she's named her successor as Vogue's top editor, Anna Wintour seems a bit more relaxed. At the very least, she's more willing to talk about the hit 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada.Based on the 2003 bestselling novel of the same name by Lauren Weisberger, who had previously worked as... Read more >

15:12 Boarding passes issued to 154 Indian tourists in Kathmandu Security personnel outside the former Nepal PM's home The rescue operation initiated by the Andhra Pradesh Government continues to gain momentum, as 154 boarding passes were issued to Indian tourists in Kathmandu on Thursday. From Simikot, the charter plane carrying 12 Telugu tourists has successfully landed in Nepalganj, where the arranged cars... Read more >

14:51 SpiceJet's Kathmandu-bound plane faces suspected tailpipe fire Inside the SpiceJet flight SpiceJet's Kathmandu-bound plane faced a suspected tailpipe fire at the Delhi airport on Thursday and returned to the bay. The airline said the aircraft underwent detailed engineering checks and no abnormalities were found. The flight SG041 was being operated with a Boeing 737-8 aircraft,... Read more >

14:24 We're not capable of taking leadership: Nepal Gen-Z leaders Gen-Z leader Diwakar Dangal Voices from Nepal: Gen-Z leader Anil Baniya says, We did this movement after getting fed up with the old-aged leaders. We had called for a peaceful protest, but the political cadres caused the arson and then vandalised the infrastructure. Through online surveys, the Gen-Z leaders voted for... Read more >

14:15 Gujarat guv to act as governor of Maharashtra Vice-President CP Radhakrishnan demitted office today Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan demits office due to his election as Vice-President. Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat to discharge functions of the Governor of Maharashtra. Read more >

14:09 India nab 60 inmates who escaped in Nepal jailbreak Security was upped at the Indo-Nepal border The Sashastra Seema Bal that guards the India-Nepal border has caught about 60 persons from various locations along the international front, officials said. Most of them are Nepalese who are suspected to have escaped in jailbreaks during the unrest in their country. SSB troops caught... Read more >

13:54 No Change of Guard Ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan on these days The Change of Guard Ceremony will not take place on September 13, 20, and 27 at the Forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan, as the Ceremonial Battalion will be engaged in rehearsals for the presentation ceremony of the diamond jubilee Silver Trumpet and Trumpet Banner to the Presidents Bodyguard. Read more >

13:52 Not just partners, we are family: Modi to Mauritius PM Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with his Mauritian counterpart, Navinchandra Ramgoolam on Thursday where the two leaders held a bilateral meeting and exchanged several documents. PM Modi highlighted the special relationship between India and Mauritius and reiterated how the Indian Ocean... Read more >

13:49 Hi-tech security net, sniffer dogs for PM's Manipur visit Security measures have been tightened in Imphal and Churachandpur district headquarters town ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's likely visit to Manipur on Saturday, officials said. Both state and central forces personnel have been deployed in large numbers in and around the nearly... Read more >

13:42 Amazon rolls out 10-min delivery service to select pin codes in Mumbai E-commerce major Amazon on Thursday said it has expanded its 10-minute delivery service, Amazon Now, to select parts of Mumbai, following successful rollouts in Bengaluru and Delhi. Amazon has opened more than 100 micro-fulfilment centres across the three cities to enable faster deliveries and... Read more >

12:57 Wife of former Nepal PM survives arson, but is critical An inside view of the former PM's gutted home. The wife of former Nepalese PM Khanal, who reports said was burnt alive when her house was set on fire by protestors, is in fact alive but critical. The Kathmandu Post reported that despite earlier reports stating that she was killed in the arson attack, Ravi Laxmi Chitrakar, the wife of... Read more >

12:42 Nepal Gen Z protests toll rises to 31, over 1,000 injured Nepali army patrol the VVIP Singha Durbar office complex The death toll from the ongoing Gen Z protests in the Kathmandu Valley has climbed to 31, The Kathmandu Post reported, citing officials from the Department of Forensic Medicine at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, where the deceased have been brought for postmortem examinations.As per The... Read more >

12:27 Elgar case accused released on temporary bail Activist Ramesh Gaichor, accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, has been released from jail, pursuant to the temporary bail granted to him, the prison authorities informed the Bombay High Court on Thursday. Gaichor, who was granted three-day temporary bail by the HC on August 26 to... Read more >

12:09 India detains 35 prisoners escaped from Nepal Prisoners burn furniture at a jail in Kathmandu to escape The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) has apprehended 35 inmates who escaped from various prisons in Nepal in recent days, officials confirmed on Thursday. Of these, 22 were caught along the India-Nepal border in Uttar Pradesh, 10 in Bihar, and three in West Bengal. Officials, privy to the... Read more >

11:51 Why a miffed Trump reached out to India after SCO The PM with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin at the SCO Senior journalist and columnist Nitin Gokhale writes on X on the thaw in the relationship between India and the US:More than 48 hours after the Trump-Modi exchange on X lowering the heat in India-US relations, many questions remain on why and how it happened, who were involved and what... Read more >

11:23 SC refuses urgent listing of plea against India-Pak match The Supreme Court on Thursday refused urgent listing of a plea seeking cancellation of the cricket match between India and Pakistan in the upcoming Asia Cup. The matter was mentioned before a bench of Justices J K Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi by a lawyer for urgent listing. What is the... Read more >

11:08 Talks underway on interim govt leadership in Nepal The gutted Parliament building in Kathmandu Negotiations are set to take place today between the Nepali Army, President Ram Chandra Paudel, and Gen Z youth representatives to decide the leadership of an interim government amid ongoing political turmoil, says the Himalayan Times. According to sources, Gen Z protest leaders have... Read more >

10:55 Nilekani's VC Firm To Focus On Scale-Up Market Fundamentum Partnership, the venture capital firm co-founded by Nandan Nilekani, said its flagship growth fund had been generating 35 per cent internal rate of return, performance that had prompted the firm to launch a dual-track investment strategy targeting the country's underserved scale-up... Read more >

10:53 Bihar Gets Rs 7,616 cr Infra Boost Aiming at expanding capacity in election-bound Bihar, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved two major infrastructure projects -- a Rs 3,169 crore railway line and a Rs 4,447 crore highway.The doubling of the 177-kilometre Bhagalpur-Dumka-Rampurhat single railway line and the construction of an... Read more >

10:48 Charlie Kirk murder: Two suspects released Charlie Kirk Two people who were considered suspects in the shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk were later released as neither have current ties to the shooting, the Utah Department of Public Safety said in a statement.One person was charged with obstructing university police, as they previously... Read more >

10:29 12 inmates wounded in firing by Nepal army to stop escape The gutted house of the former Nepal PM Around 12 to 13 inmates were injured after the Nepalese Army fired shots on Thursday morning to stop a mass escape attempt at the Ramechhap District Prison, The Kathmandu Post reported, citing officials.According to The Kathmandu Post, citing the Chief District Officer of Ramechhap, Shyam Krishna... Read more >

10:10 CBI extradites wanted criminal from Kuwait The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has coordinated the return of Munawar Khan from Kuwait through INTERPOL Channels. Munawar Khan is a wanted subject of the CBI in the case of forgery and cheating. The International Police Cooperation Unit (IPCU), CBI, in collaboration with MEA and... Read more >

10:02 Trump blames 'radical left' for Charlie Kirk's killing US President Donald Trump has described the killing of right-wing political commentator and conservative activist Charlie Kirk a dark moment for America and accused the radical left of inciting such political violence across the country.In an address late Wednesday (local time), Trump paid... Read more >

09:46 Public movement allowed for few hours in violence-hit Nepal Nepal Army on Thursday extended prohibitory orders in three districts of Kathmandu Valley while allowing public movement during specific windows even as the Himalayan nation gradually returned to normal after violent demonstrations forced Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli to resign.Even as the troops... Read more >

09:37 RJD leader Rajkumar Rai shot dead in Patna Representational image Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Rajkumar Rai, also known as Aala Rai, was gunned down in Patna's Munna Chak area under Chitragupt Nagar police station, according to Parichay Kumar, SP East.According to police, Rai was shot by criminals who were chasing him in an ambush.The deceased, a resident... Read more >

09:31 Urban Company IPO Booked 3x On First Day Urban Company's Rs 1,900 crore IPO got lapped up within hours of launch.On the first day, the share sale -- through which the company is raising Rs 472 crore in fresh capital -- was subscribed more than 3x, with the retail portion already seeing over seven times more demand than shares on offer.... Read more >

09:30 Outbound FDI Down To $2.1 Bn Y-o-Y In August India's outward foreign direct investment (FDI) in August moderated to $2.1 billion from $3.4 billion in the same month a year ago.Sequentially, it declined sharply against $4.1 billion in July, according to RBI data.Outbound FDI, expressed as a financial commitment, comprises three components:... Read more >

09:28 Mittal's Family Office Walks Away From Haier India Deal Billionaire Sunil Mittal's family office has withdrawn from discussions to acquire a 49 per cent stake in Haier Appliances (India) after failing to reach an agreement on valuation.Haier India's Chinese parent company Haier group was seeking a valuation of about $2 billion (Rs 17,100 crore).... Read more >

09:24 Singapore-bound Air India passengers face grueling time at Delhi airport More than 200 passengers on a Singapore-bound Air India plane had a harrowing time at the Delhi airport as they were first deboarded from the aircraft due to cabin temperature issue and were later flown to their destination after a delay of nearly six hours. The flight AI2380, to be operated... Read more >

09:13 'Nepal needs knowledgeable person to ensure peace' A day after Nepalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned, leaving a leadership vacuum in the country amid heightened political tensions following violent protests, youth in Kathmandu voiced support for law and order.Amid the tense atmosphere, discussions have begun over who should lead the... Read more >

08:59 Countdown has begun: Rahul slams Bihar govt after protesters baton-charged Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has slammed the National Democratic Alliance government in Bihar after police baton-charged protesters in Patna. However, it was not clear whether he was referring to the reported baton charge of workers protesting the state government's move to suspend 16 land... Read more >

08:40 Trump ally shot dead at Utah Valley University event United States President Donald Trump announced on social media that conservative activist Charlie Kirk has died after he was shot in the neck while speaking at a Utah Valley University event.Trump said that Kirk 'was loved and admired by ALL.'In a post on his social media platform Truth Social,... Read more >

00:31 Mauritius PM Ramgoolam arrives in Varanasi, receives ceremonial welcome Prime Minister of Mauritius, Dr. Navinchandra Ramgoolam, landed in the spiritual and sacred city of Varanasi on Wednesday, receiving a ceremonial welcome and Guard of Honour.He was warmly received by the Governor of Uttar Pradesh, Anandiben Patel.In a post on X, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal... Read more >

00:12 Two children among three killed as house collapses in Jharkhand File image Three people, including two children, were killed after a dilapidated house collapsed in Jharkhand's Dhanbad district on Wednesday evening following heavy rain, an official said. The incident occurred at a quarters in BCCL under the jurisdiction of Lodna police outpost. At least seven... Read more >
Nepals government responded to escalating violent protests over a ban on popular social media platforms with deadly force. The public outrage over the ban and the deaths of 19 protesters led to the resignation of the prime minister and exposed deep discontent over corruption.

Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli also rolled backed the short-lived ban after protesters turned their anger on politicians by setting fire to homes of some of the countrys top leaders.

Led by mostly teenagers and young adults, the protests revealed a broader resentment in Nepal, where many people have increasingly become angry with the government over a range of issues, mostly to do with corruption and frustration over nepotism in the countrys politics.

Protests over the social media ban were just a catalyst. Frustrations over how the country is being run have long been simmering under the surface. People are very angry and Nepal finds itself in a very precarious situation, said Prateek Pradhan, editor of Baahrakhari, a Nepalese independent news website.

Discontent over social media ban, corruption

Demonstrations in Nepal have been called the protest of Gen Z, which generally refers to people born between 1995 and 2010. They were largely in response to the ban that went into effect last week and governments larger attempt to regulate social media through a bill that requires platforms to register and submit to local oversight and regulations.

The bill, which has not yet been fully debated in parliament, has been widely criticized as a tool for censorship and punishing opponents who voice their protests online. Rights groups have called it an attempt by the government to curb freedom of expression and violate fundamental rights.

At the same time, the protests were also a tipping point of a longstanding sentiment against politicians, their families and concerns over corruption.

In the weeks before the ban, a social media campaign  particularly on video-sharing platform TikTok  spotlighted the lavish lifestyles of politicians children, highlighting disparities between Nepals rich and poor. Protesters criticized them of flaunting their luxury possessions in a country where the per capita income is $1,400 a year.

Widespread criticism over governments failure to pursue some major corruption cases and create more economic opportunities for the youth also added to the anger. The youth unemployment rate in Nepal was 20% last year, according to the World Bank.

All these issues have made the youth of Nepal dissatisfied. They saw no other option but to take to the streets, said Pradhan.

Worst violence in decades

The unrest is the worst in decades in the Himalayan nation that is wedged between India and China. It is also far violent than the one in 2006, when an uprising forced Nepals former king to give up his authoritarian rule. At least 18 people were killed in the violence. Two years later the parliament voted to abolish the monarchy.

Over the years, many Nepalis have grown frustrated with the republic, saying it has failed to bring about political stability.

Earlier in March, two people were killed when supporters of Nepals former king clashed with police during a rally in Kathmandu to demand the restoration of the monarchy.

Even though Oli resigned yesterday, it is unclear if the protesters would stop, as many of them have also been calling for the government to dissolve. Such a move could create further instability in Nepal, which has had 13 governments since 2008.

Protesters demand bigger change

The security forces violent response appears to have further exacerbated tensions. Yesterday, protests spread to other parts of Nepal, including suburbs of Kathmandu.

Protester Nima Tendi Sherpa, 19, was shot in the arm by police on Monday. He said the protests began peacefully but turned violent when security forces started firing at the protesters who were trying to break the police barricades.

I dont have any harsh feelings toward the policemen. They were just doing their duty by following orders. But I am angry and enraged at the ones who gave those orders, Sherpa said. Now that the fire has already started, I believe it must continue until we achieve true freedom.

Pradhan, the news editor, said the latest protests seem to have a larger purpose and are mirroring youth-led uprisings in neighboring Bangladesh and Sri Lanka that toppled both the governments.

It appears people are just done with how things have been going on. They want a change, he said. SHEIKH SAALIQ & NIRANJAN SHRESTHA, KATHMANDU, MDT/AP

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Chinese President Xi Jinping and Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro met in Beijing yesterday, emphasizing the strong historical ties between China and Portugal and stressing Macaus role in fostering bilateral relations.

President Xi noted that both countries share a long history and rich cultural heritage, with peoples who are open, inclusive, enterprising, and self-reliant, as cited in a Xinhua report.

He praised the way China and Portugal resolved the Macau issue through friendly consultations, describing it as a successful example of cooperation between countries with different political and social systems.

Chinas top official noted that Macau serves as a bridge between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, facilitating cultural, educational, and economic exchanges.

The two leaders marked the 20th anniversary of the China-Portugal comprehensive strategic partnership, with Xi emphasizing the importance of deepening strategic communication and maintaining the strong trajectory of bilateral relations.

He highlighted key areas for cooperation, including innovation, green development, maritime affairs, and healthcare, while also encouraging people-to-people and cultural exchanges.

Xi said that the two regions should give full play to Macaus role as a bridge and make good use of mechanisms like the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes at a higher level.

He further noted the turbulent international landscape and stressed the need for closer China-Europe communication and cooperation.

Xi noted the 80th anniversaries of Chinas victory in the Peoples War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the World Anti-Fascist War, and the UNs founding, emphasizing Chinas intent to cooperate with Portugal on multilateral matters.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Montenegro conveyed greetings from Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and reaffirmed Portugals commitment to the one-China policy.

He commended the success of the SAR over the past 25 years, noting that it demonstrates the effectiveness of the friendly resolution of the Macau issue.

Montenegro said that Portugal values the support China provided during critical periods of our economic development and will continue to respect the one-China principle.

Montenegro also expressed Portugals willingness to strengthen political mutual trust, enhance economic and trade cooperation, and align with Chinas Global Governance Initiative.

He acknowledged Chinas role as a strategic partner for Europe and Portugals commitment to fostering stable EU-China relations.

The reappointed Prime Minister arrived in Macau yesterday and is scheduled to meet with Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai during his two-day visit, which lasts until September 10, according to the Government Information Bureau (GCS).

In his first official visit to China as Prime Minister, Montenegro accepted an invitation from Chinese Premier Li Qiang, with Macau serving as one of the stops on his trip.

At 10 a.m. today, the official is set to visit the Portuguese School of Macau.

Stronger Ties Ahead

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Portuguese Minister of State and Foreign Affairs Paulo Rangel in Beijing on Monday.

Wang mentioned the 20th anniversary of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Portugal, saying Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegros upcoming visit is an opportunity to expand cooperation and advance bilateral relations.

Meanwhile, Rangel thanked China for its preparations for the visit and said Portugal values its relationship with China.

He added that the visit is expected to support further cooperation and communication, including within multilateral mechanisms such as the United Nations, following the principles of the Global Governance Initiative. Times Reporter

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Maritime travel between Macau and mainland China resumed yesterday following the passing of Tropical Storm Tapah. Services had been suspended since Sunday evening and were restored yesterday, the Marine and Water Bureau said after coordinating with operators.

Connections between the Inner Harbor and Wanzai Port (Zhuhai), as well as routes from the Outer Harbor and Taipa to Shekou (Shenzhen) and between Taipa and Fuyong (Shenzhen), all returned to their regular schedules.

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A Hong Kong judge ruled yesterday in favor of a lesbian couples parental recognition of their son born through reciprocal in vitro fertilization in a landmark case.

The couple, identified as B and R, underwent the medical procedure in South Africa in 2020 after getting married in the country. During the treatment, an egg was extracted from R and was fertilized with sperm from an anonymous male donor to create an embryo, which was then transferred to Bs womb. The boy was born in Hong Kong in 2021, but only B was listed as his mother on his birth certificate.

Judge Russell Colemans ruling over the judicial challenge was a step forward for the LGBTQ+ movement in a city that does not endorse same-sex marriages but is working toward a framework to recognize same-sex partnerships.

Coleman said in a written judgment that parts of Hong Kongs Parent and Child Ordinance significantly impede the boy from representing his relationship with R to the outside world.

He agreed that if one gets to an analysis, a reasonable balance is not struck between the societal benefits of the measure and the inroads made into the rights of the affected individuals.

The constitutional challenge is made good, he said.

He added that although he found a proper basis for a directive to address the matter, he stopped short of handing that down because he hoped to first hear further arguments on what the relief should be.

It is unclear how many couples would benefit from Colemans ruling. MDT/AP

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Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai met this morning with Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro at Government Headquarters to discuss strengthening ties between Macau and Portugal and reinforcing the citys role as a bridge in relations between China and Portuguese-speaking countries.

Sam welcomed Montenegro on his first official visit to China, noting that the stop in Macau reflects Portugals long-standing ties with the city.

The Portuguese officials stop in the SAR is part of his China visit, which runs from Sept. 8 through today.

As cited in a statement issued by the Government Information Bureau (GCS), Sam said Macau has played an active role in promoting cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking nations, supported by the One country, two systems framework.

According to GCS, the SARs top official noted that Macau has safeguarded the rights, customs, and traditions of its Portuguese community while promoting Portuguese language education.

Also, the Chief Executive pointed to the work of the Macau-Portugal Joint Commission, which has facilitated bilateral exchanges and agreements across multiple sectors.

He expressed appreciation for Portugals consistent support of Macaus stability and prosperity since its return to China, particularly in relation to cooperation within the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP).

Meanwhile, Montenegro praised Macaus preservation of Portuguese cultural heritage.

Portugal seeks to strengthen cooperation through the Joint Commission and supports Macaus role as a bridge between China, Portuguese-speaking nations, and the CPLP, he said.

The Portuguese PM also expressed hope for a future visit by Sam to Portugal.

Further, both sides acknowledged the outcomes of six prior Joint Commission meetings and agreed to hold the seventh in February 2026 to expand pragmatic cooperation.

The meeting was attended by senior officials from China, Macau, and Portugal, including Foreign Ministry Commissioner Liu Xianfa, Chinese Ambassador to Portugal Zhao Bentang, Portuguese Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel, and Portuguese Consul-General in Macau Alexandre Leitao, among others.

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Sands China has received recognition in the PATA Gold Awards 2025, winning in the Best Printed Marketing Campaign (Industry) category for its publication In Search of Its Roots  An Illustrated History of Rua das Estalagens.

This project involved collaboration with local cultural and artistic professionals, including the Macao Artist Society, author Siguo Chen, and illustrator Shirley Lu.

Local professionals handled all aspects of the publication, including interviewing, translating, editing, photography, illustrations, printing, and layout.

The author conducted in-depth interviews with neighborhood associations, merchants, and residents, capturing oral histories that highlight the streets past characters, historical moments, and cultural anecdotes.

The book serves as a record of Rua das Estalagens and acknowledges the contributions of those who shaped Macaus history. It has been included in school and public library collections across Macau, providing younger generations with insight into local history and encouraging the preservation of community heritage.

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The Unitary Police Service (SPU) clarified in a statement that rumors circulating on social media, suggesting that an elderly person fell and was injured due to a speech mishap during tropical storm Tapah, are false. The Force noted that the accident involving an 80-year-old resident occurred about 30 minutes before the speech mishap mentioned. In the speech, a high-ranking SPU official mistakenly said it was unsafe to stay home while attempting to state the opposite, a mistake the SPU acknowledged and apologized for. Later, police authorities announced the arrest of a 50-year-old man accused of creating and spreading such a rumor.

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At her wedding, Jaedyn Yu felt her fathers tears marked a subtle yet touching shift in his attitude toward love between two women.

Yus family initially struggled to accept her partner after they fell in love in 2019. Seeking both family recognition and legal rights, the couple decided to marry.

But rather than waiting for Hong Kong to establish its framework for recognizing same-sex partnerships, citing the uncertain timeline, they opted to marry via Zoom with a U.S. officiant in May and held their ceremony in Bali, Indonesia.

Their concern proved prescient. Despite the top court ruling in favor of recognizing same-sex partnerships in 2023, the governments proposed framework, unveiled in July, has met fierce opposition in the legislature.

If passed, the bill would allow residents who already have formed unions overseas to register their partnerships locally and receive rights in handling medical and after-death matters. Lawmakers are set to resume the debate Wednesday, with their vote determining the future of the citys same-sex couples.

Yus wife, Gloria Tsang, said while the proposal was better than nothing, it would only benefit those who are privileged enough to afford overseas marriages and navigate foreign marriage policies.

The original purpose of law is to protect everyone, Tsang said.

Decades of progress

The fight for same-sex rights has taken years to gain traction in Hong Kong. The city decriminalized gay sex in 1991.

Prominent gay rights activist Jimmy Sham said that in the past some gay and lesbian people stayed on the sidelines or concealed their identities at events about gay rights.

But in 2005, after groups upholding traditional family values ran newspaper advertisements deemed to undermine gay and lesbian rights, more people emerged to mark International Day Against Homophobia, he said.

Pride parades,among other events, later took to the streets and gained support beyond the LGBTQ+ community.

In 2009, the government introduced a cohabitation relationship definition in a revision to the domestic violence law, extending protection to same-sex couples, in a move that Sham said showed political wisdom.

Some celebrities have come out publicly and now many same-sex couples are seen holding hands in the streets, he said.

Surveys showed 60% of respondents supported same-sex marriage in 2023 in Hong Kong, up from 38% in 2013, according to a report by university researchers. The city also hosted Asias first Gay Games in 2023.

LGBTQ+ activism in Hong Kong is still making considerable progress despite a government crackdown following massive protests in 2019.

In recent years, multiple judicial challenges have won same-sex couples equal rights in some areas including dependent visas, civil service and subsidized housing benefits.

In 2023, the top court ruled in a legal challenge brought by Sham that the government should offer a framework for recognizing same-sex partnerships by October 2025. It did not grant full marriage rights to same-sex couples.

That victory mattered deeply to Sham who, at the time, had been in jail since 2021 for the citys biggest national security case. The court ruling showed he could still make an impact even behind bars, he said.

Suddenly, I felt those emotional issues being swept away, and Im back, said Sham, who was released from jail in May.

Bill faces fierce resistance

While many same-sex couples and advocates find the governments proposed framework for recognizing same-sex partnership limiting, some still support its passage in the face of opposition from various lawmakers.

Pro-Beijing lawmaker Priscilla Leung described the bill as opening a paradox box, while her colleague Holden Chow worried the framework would effectively amount to recognizing same-sex marriages. Another legislator, Junius Ho, said the bill would harm countless generations of our descendants.

The government also reported 80% of 10,780 public opinion submissions opposed the bill, mainly citing concerns over traditional family values and the marriage system. Those backing the bill agreed the government should respect the spirit of the rule of law.

Hong Kong Marriage Equality, a non-governmental organization, said the submissions did not accurately reflect public sentiment. It noted about half of the publicly viewable submissions against the bill used standardized templates, which suggested strong mobilization by specific groups.

The government maintained the framework would not equate to marriage and argued that requiring overseas registration would provide an objective way to verify committed partnerships. It said the proposal represents the greatest common denominator deemed acceptable to the public.

Erick Tsang, the secretary for constitutional affairs, told lawmakers that the government must fulfill its positive obligations under the ruling, otherwise it would violate the rule of law.

The cost of rejection

Sham warned vetoing the bill could damage Hong Kongs international status.

It would make the whole world question Hong Kongs human rights stance, whether it wont even accept such basic protections for sexual minorities, he said.

Pro-Beijing lawmaker Paul Tse, who is inclined to support the bill, said the opposition seen in the legislature was greater than he had expected given the bills limited scope.

If lawmakers vote the bill down, the city would face a mini constitutional crisis as the judicial, administrative and legislative branches would be in a deadlock. The government would then need to report to the top court and seek time to work out other solutions, he said.

Sham previously proposed decoupling the registration system from overseas marriages to address concerns from conservative groups, but Tse cautioned that such a mechanism might trigger more concerns as some people might consider it closer to local marriage.

Equality distant for same-sex couples

In Hong Kong, the daily life of same-sex couples is still in many ways different to that of their straight peers.

Yu has to think carefully about telling colleagues about her wife, unlike some of her foreign friends who share such details casually, while Tsang ponders whether to introduce her partner to those who are not close to her. Picking a place for getting married overseas also was a challenge.

The pair dont hold high expectations about the bills passage. Tsang likened the lawmakers comments to a return to antiquated mindsets, saying the acceptance level might be lower than she had imagined.

Despite the bill not being perfect, she said it would be a pity if it were vetoed as it would mark a step backwards after taking a step forward.

Equality means providing safeguards regardless of your background, your gender, or your position, Yu said. KANIS LEUNG, HONG KONG, MDT/AP

Judge rules in favor of lesbian couples parental recognition

A Hong Kong judge ruled yesterday in favor of a lesbian couples parental recognition of their son born through reciprocal in vitro fertilization in a landmark case.

The couple, identified as B and R, underwent the medical procedure in South Africa in 2020 after getting married in the country. During the treatment, an egg was extracted from R and was fertilized with sperm from an anonymous male donor to create an embryo, which was then transferred to Bs womb. The boy was born in Hong Kong in 2021, but only B was listed as his mother on his birth certificate.

Judge Russell Colemans ruling over the judicial challenge was a step forward for the LGBTQ+ movement in a city that does not endorse same-sex marriages but is working toward a framework to recognize same-sex partnerships.

Coleman said in a written judgment that parts of Hong Kongs Parent and Child Ordinance significantly impede the boy from representing his relationship with R to the outside world.

He agreed that if one gets to an analysis, a reasonable balance is not struck between the societal benefits of the measure and the inroads made into the rights of the affected individuals.

The constitutional challenge is made good, he said.

He added that although he found a proper basis for a directive to address the matter, he stopped short of handing that down because he hoped to first hear further arguments on what the relief should be.

It is unclear how many couples would benefit from Colemans ruling. MDT/AP

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Globe Business has teamed up with Blackpanda, a leading Asian cyber first responder company, to offer affordable, enterprise-grade cyber incident response (IR) and digital forensics to businesses in the Philippines.

The two companies said their collaboration would provide next-level cyber resilience through fixed-cost incident response, continuous vulnerability and dark web scanning and streamlined access to cyber insurance. The goal is to give businesses a cyber fire department to quickly detect and neutralize threats.

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Cyber threats continue to challenge businesses of all sizes, and AI is amplifying both their frequency and sophistication, said KD Dizon, head of Globe Business.

Through our partnership with Blackpanda, immediate and expert incident response, once prohibitively expensive, is now accessible, said Dizon.

By leveraging our ICT ecosystem, we provide organizations with a practical and affordable way to stay secure, remain prepared, and build lasting customer trust, she said.

Cyber risks are intensifying across the Philippines and Southeast Asia due to low cybersecurity readiness and AI-related threats, according to the companies.

This highlights the urgent need for better threat intelligence, skilled incident responders, and advanced security technologies.

A staggering 85 percent of local firms faced AI-related attacks in the past year, and 84 percent suffered supply chain breaches. Nearly a third of these firms were unable to detect the breaches, emphasizing the need for flexible and prepared incident response.

The financial impact of these threats is escalating. Data breach costs in ASEAN climbed to an average of $3.23 million in 2024, with financial services seeing the highest losses at $5.57 million. The region also recorded a 29-percent jump in cyber incidents in 2024, along with increased ransomware and phishing activities.

Blackpanda is a Singapore-headquartered cyber IR and digital forensics firm with operational hubs in Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Manila.

It provides 24/7 breach containment, investigation and recovery across key Asia-Pacific markets.

Traditionally, incident response services can be costly, with hourly rates of up to $500 or retainers starting at $25,000, making them financially unfeasible for many organizations.

Blackpandas flagship solution, IR-1, combines incident response services, continuous vulnerability scanning, and access to cyber insurance. This model aims to lower the cost of response while enhancing operational resilience.

Globes reach and trust in the Philippine market make them the ideal partner to scale our IR-1 cyber assurance subscriptions nationwide, said Gene Yu, chief executive of Blackpanda.

Were setting a new standard for how cyber solutions should work after an attack, said Yu.
The Philippines is preparing to import more Cambodian agricultural products to strengthen bilateral trade and food security, Department of Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said Wednesday.

Following talks with Cambodian Agriculture Minister Dith Tina on Tuesday, Tiu Laurel said the meeting was a step forward to flesh out the agreement signed earlier this year by the Philippines and Cambodia on agricultural trade, cooperation and knowledge transfer.

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The meeting, held during President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.s state visit to Cambodia, focused on expanding market access for farm goods, boosting agricultural trade and enhancing food supply resilience.

Dith expressed optimism that Cambodias exports, particularly premium aromatic rice, would see stronger demand in Manila and other urban centers, noting that Philippine consumers are increasingly open to Cambodian rice and other farm products.

Tiu Laurel said rice, fish, meat and vegetables from Cambodia could help meet the needs of the Philippines expanding population, highlighting the importance of greater agricultural cooperation between the two Southeast Asian neighbors.
During the 3-day weekend, customers getting a Ford vehicle can avail of additional cash discounts on top of existing deals available for this month with Super September

Ford Philippines is taking the Ford Island Conquest for the first time to SM Megamall in Mandaluyong City on September 12-14, 2025, with the New Ford Everest Wildtrak headlining an 8-vehicle display. This is part of Fords commitment to bring its vehicle line-up to more customers outside the dealership.

Now on its eighth year, the Ford Island Conquest provides a good opportunity for customers and enthusiasts to learn more about Ford vehicles and various ownership packages. Joining the New Ford Everest Wildtrak on-display are the New Territory Hybrid and All-New Mustang Mach-E together with the Ranger Raptor 3.0L V6, Bronco, Explorer and Mustang.

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Customers reserving a Ford vehicle during the 3-day weekend will get up to P100,000 cash discount under the Super September deals and have the opportunity to bring home exclusive Ford merchandise with their purchase.

The Ford Island Conquest is happening at the Ground Floor, Mega Fashion Hall in SM Megamall from 10:00am to 10:00pm. The event is open to the public and admission is free.

Additional Cash Discounts with Super September Deals

During the same 3-day weekend, Ford Philippines is also extending additional cash discounts of up to P100,000 as part of its Super September deals available in all Ford dealerships nationwide.

The additional cash discount is on top of existing promos available for the month of September, which include cash discount of up to P220,000 for the Territory, up to P90,000 for the Everest, up to P100,000 for the Ranger, P500,000 for the Bronco, and P600,000 for the Explorer.

Fords newly-launched vehicles  the Everest Wildtrak, Territory Hybrid Trend, and Mustang Mach-E are also part of the Super September promotions with special deals available to customers who reserve these vehicles during the 3-day weekend.

We are excited to bring the New Ford Everest Wildtrak with the rest of our line-up in one of the citys biggest shopping centers to reach more customers and enthusiasts, says Ryan Lorenzo, director, retail product marketing and business growth, Ford Philippines. With this leg of the Ford Island Conquest combined with our special deals for the month, we aim to make our vehicles more accessible to Filipinos who are looking to own their dream Ford vehicle.

For more information, visit the Ford Philippines website, its official social media pages, or a Ford dealer nearest you.
Protesters have set fire to the federal parliament, Supreme Court, political party officers and homes of senior politicians. The Prime Minister has resigned, along with a whole host of cabinet ministers. The army is evacuating politicians from their homes. After putting up with years of crushing poverty, the Nepalese youth have had enough. They have entered the stage of history.

Karl Marx once described how under capitalism, accumulation of wealth at one pole is, therefore, at the same time, accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality, and mental degradation at the opposite pole. Nepal is a textbook example of this process.

Average wages in the country are $1,400 per year with around one in five living in poverty. To add to this, unemployment is at 10.7 percent, whilst youth unemployment stands at 20 percent. The top 10 percent of households hold 40 percent of the land whilst a huge proportion of the population hold little to no land.

This desperate situation forces around 1,000 people per day to leave the country looking for work abroad. In total, there are around 2 million Nepalese in this position. They send home remittances worth 26 percent of the countrys total GDP, with half of all Nepali families relying on financial support from relatives living abroad to get by.

#Nepal: Drone footage showing Nepal's parliament still burning following today's riots.



Authorities (or what remained of them) imposed a nighttime curfew starting at 10 p.m., stating that the army will be deployed to enforce security in the capital.



( via @comrawire) pic.twitter.com/m4rlH1s4g4  POPULAR FRONT (@PopularFront_) September 9, 2025

Whilst the masses scramble around to get by, a tiny privileged few in the country live the lives most of us could only dream of. This has provoked a huge amount of anger, which has been reflected in a social media trend over the recent period. Video after video has appeared on TikTok showing the contrast between the lives of the rich and those of the vast majority. It focuses in particular on so-called nepo babies: privileged children of politicians and businessmen.

The son of the politician Bindu Kuma Thapa (from the ruling Nepali Congress), who has been accused of corruption, is pictured standing next to a Christmas tree. This tree, however, is not made out of bark and leaves; it is made out of Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Cartier boxes!

There is no more parliament in Nepal. pic.twitter.com/79Ew4634vh  RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) September 10, 2025

It went viral, with the hashtag #PoliticiansNepoBabyNepal. Similarly, one video of the son of the former Supreme Court Chief Justice Gopal Parajuli, shows this individual next to various cars and in expensive restaurants with the caption: Openly flexing luxury cars and watches on social media. Arent we tired of them by now?

There have been countless high-profile scandals over the recent period, which have exposed the flagrant corruption of those at the top of Nepalese society. Last year, several top officials were convicted of embezzling up to $10.4 million in a 2017 deal with Airbus.

The year before, several former cabinet ministers were charged in the Bhutanese refugees scandal. This involved squeezing huge amounts of money out of poor Nepalese individuals. Desperate for work, they were presented as Bhutanese refugees so they could be sent to the US. There are endless examples of these gangsters plundering the resources of the people for their own gain.

Social media ban

In this general context, on Thursday 4 September the government banned 26 social media companies including WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

This was a measure, it was claimed, taken to deal with fake news, hate speech and online fraud. This government of crooks and gangsters claimed that individuals with fake IDs were committing cybercrime and disrupting social harmony. They therefore demanded social media companies appoint a liaison officer in the country. Those that failed to do so were banned from the country.

At least 19 people were killed in Nepal when police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters attempting to storm parliament over a social media ban and alleged corruption https://t.co/eiMLGH6WRN pic.twitter.com/WVle2tAjlD  Reuters (@Reuters) September 8, 2025

These excuses were, however, immediately seen for exactly what they are: barefaced lies used to cover up the suppression of democratic rights.

Given the fact that just under 8 percent of the population live abroad, this sudden measure meant that many Nepalese people were suddenly cut off from any communications with their loved ones.

Engels described bourgeois democracy as the best possible shell for capitalism because people believe they have the chance to change things. However, in order to maintain bourgeois democracy, you have to actually be able to offer the masses something. With no bread to offer the masses, the Nepalese government clearly therefore resorted to restricting the democratic rights of the masses to try and prevent opposition.

Events

On Monday 8 September at 9am Nepalese time, an event was called that was meant to be a peaceful protest with cultural events and fun, according to one of the organisers. Whilst it had been sparked by the social media ban, the anger of the protesters was directed far beyond this single measure by the government. As one demonstrator explains, rather than [the] social media ban, the main aim of the demonstrators was to stop corruption.

One demonstrator, Aayush Basyal, described how there were huge numbers of young people present. He pointed out that they were inspired by protests in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as well as the TikTok videos exposing the enormous inequality in the country. Another protester said that he was there because he was standing for our future. He wanted the country to be corruption-free so that everyone can easily access education, hospitals, medical [facilities] and for a bright future.

Over a long period of time, there has been a gradual build up of frustration in Nepalese society.

In 2006, following a growing Maoist insurgency, a big protest movement erupted, forcing the end of the two-century-old monarchy, which was officially abolished two years later. Since then, there have been 14 different governments, none of which has improved the living standards of the mass of the population, and none of which has completed its full five-year term.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli of the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) who resigned yesterday, was the fifth prime minister in five years. He was in a coalition government with a bourgeois party. This has been a common feature in Nepalese politics since 2008. The main opposition party, Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), was in power until 2022 in coalition with the Monarchist party!

9 youth died in the Gen_Z protest in Nepal against socialist government ban on 26 social media apps including Facebook, youtube and @X .



Youths demand complete change of leadership in the country most deaths are due to police firing. #Nepal #genznepal #genzie pic.twitter.com/XEuh6yk8ts  Tulsi For President (@TulsiPotus) September 8, 2025

There are plenty of so-called Communist parties, but whenever any of these have come to power they have only managed capitalism and the austerity that the ruling class requires. Additionally, much like the rest of the establishment, they have their own nepo babies. The granddaughter of Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the leader of the Maoist Centre party, drew the ire of Nepalese workers and young people for an extraordinarily grand wedding recently. All of this has discredited them in the eyes of the masses.

The overthrow of the monarchy was a great step forward, but it has not really changed anything as far as the living standards of the majority of Nepalis are concerned. Therefore, growing anger, bitterness and frustration built up a huge quantity of inflammable material in Nepalese society. All that was needed was a spark, which was provided on 8 September.

At the protest, The New York Times described how thousands of young people marched towards parliament. They were stopped, however, by a line of police. The demonstrators could see members of parliament were watching [them] from the roof of the building.

A few days beforehand, Prime Minister Oli had said that demonstrators cant independently think, and they want to talk about independence. The majority of demonstrators would have perceived the corrupt and out of touch politicians as mocking them. All the crowd wanted was a decent standard of living, but they were being treated like mindless fools. This, according to an unnamed demonstrator, fuelled an insane rage.

Rather than quelling the anger, these acts of repression only fired people up / Image: Twitter

The crowd snapped. They pushed through the barbed wire, forcing the police to retreat as they surrounded the parliament building. The police responded by firing tear gas and water cannons, but they were outnumbered and powerless to stop the crowd. By 1pm, the protest site was chaos, with tear gas shells and rubber bullets flying around the heads of protesters.

Another protester described watching someone screaming at the police and after two seconds he dropped dead on the floor. The police had escalated, firing live ammunition on the crowd.

Rather than quelling the anger, these acts of repression only fired people up. The protesters fought back with anything they could lay their hands on, whether that was branches of trees or water bottles. Some eventually managed to storm the parliament building. The protest movement then began to spread beyond Kathmandu to Biratnagar, Bharatpur and in Pokhara in West Nepal, and was met with widespread repression from the authorities. In total, it seems that 19 were killed and up to 400 wounded.

In a complete panic, the government then attempted to impose a curfew, preventing people from gathering outside the parliament and other government buildings. This order was completely ignored. That evening, demonstrators gathered outside the parliament and government buildings. As one 23-year-old protester explained, nearly 20 people were murdered by the state. It was time, therefore, for the murderers to take responsibility.

Like a stick of dynamite that is lit and then explodes, the pent-up rage of the masses was released. Every meal skipped, every month of delayed wages, every video demonstrating the wealth of the ruling class added to the enormous anger that was unleashed in righteous revenge.

Having managed to storm parliament, the protesters burnt it down. To punish all political parties for almost two decades of failure, multiple party offices were burnt down. Rejecting the unfair legal system, which allows systematised corruption, they torched the Supreme Court. Wanting to exact vengeance for the organised corruption, they proceeded to set alight the homes of the Prime Minister and other politicians. Hearing that politicians were being evacuated by the army via helicopter, they broke into the airport to burn that down too. The nights events showed that, when the masses move, there is no power on earth that can stop them.

Having stared into the abyss, the ministers of state pulled back. Realising they were unable to stop the protests through force, they then tried to make concessions. The government lifted the ban on social media, promised a committee to investigate the violence and even to pay relief for the families of the dead as well as free treatment for the injured people. In floods of crocodile tears, Prime Minister Oli said he was deeply saddened by the deaths. But the protests continued.

When a revolutionary movement is on the upward curve, there is very little that can stop it. If the government attempts repression, this only angers the masses and provokes them into further action. If they carry out concessions, however, this only encourages further action; it is, after all, getting results!

The bourgeoisie and the government, at this stage, were in blind panic. A succession of government ministers resigned, like rats fleeing a sinking ship. On top of this, there was disquiet in the Prime Ministers own party. This party is called the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) yet all it has done whilst it has been in power is to participate in the management of the capitalist system.

A number of members of the party at a local and central leadership level have begun resigning in protest over what was taking place. Some may have a conscience, but others clearly resigned only due to fear of the wrath of the masses.

Youths inside burning Parliament in Nepal pic.twitter.com/QkvJdmW9js  jim Njue (@jimNjue_) September 10, 2025

Eventually, on Tuesday morning, Prime Minister Oli finally gave in. He explained that in view of the adverse situation in the country, he was resigning in order to resolve matters politically in accordance with the constitution. In fact, this was far from a voluntary resignation. He had to be evacuated in a helicopter by the army.

This is a fantastic victory. The masses of Nepal have faced down the forces of repression, forced a reversal of the governments policy and then the collapse of the government itself.

What must be emphasised, however, is that this is one victory in one battle. The war remains to be won. And the enemies of the Nepalese masses are licking their wounds and regrouping. The President, who remains in post, has called for national unity. He urged everyone, including protesting citizens, to cooperate for a peaceful resolution of the situation. He appealed to all parties to exercise restraint. The President talks of national unity, but the rich and poor in Nepal are not part of the same nation; given the unbelievable inequality, the rich are living on another planet!

Nepal govt was getting exposed for corruption, so they banned social media apps. But with almost 14 million young people, they cant ignore Gen Z. This generation wont stay silent.

pic.twitter.com/Ic0QHuMGMa  sangwan (@SangwanHQ) September 8, 2025

Additionally, the Nepalese Army has ordered a nationwide curfew and also released a statement urging people to exercise restraint. The fact that the President and the Army are having to beg the protesters themselves to exercise restraint is an indication that they are not in control of the situation. In fact, as one journalist described, for some time there seemed to be no one in charge whatsoever. The masses could not be stopped by the forces of repression, but equally, there was no force guiding and organising this elemental force.

Yesterday evening, the security services issued a joint call for a peaceful resolution through dialogue to restore order and stability. As Marx explained, ultimately, the state is nothing but armed bodies of men in defence of private property. The officers, chiefs of police and top bureaucrats in the state have been carefully selected and educated to represent the interests of the bourgeoisie, nothing more and nothing less.

Those fighting for a change in Nepal should pay close attention to the words of these people. What do they wish for? Do they wish to end corruption or to use the wealth of Nepal collectively? No! They want to restore order and stability. In other words, they wish to go back to the situation as it was on Sunday 7 September, perhaps with a change of personnel at the top. That would mean the same poverty, the same unemployment and the same corruption.

Another element in the mix is the geopolitical situation. Nepal cant be seen in isolation. There is also a power struggle taking place in the region. India had traditionally been the main power dominating Nepal, but Prime Minister Oli was seen as closer to China. With his removal, the imperialist powers will be circling, looking to get their guy into power.

What next?

One individual who has been thrust to prominence over the recent period is Balendra Shah, the Mayor of Kathmandu. Originally gaining fame as a hip-hop artist who produced songs railing against corruption, he won the election in 2022 standing against all the political parties.

It is excellent that the Nepalese masses have taken inspiration from what happened in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka / Image: fair use

He won precisely because he was seen as an outsider candidate. He has again called on the masses to show restraint. He implies that victory is already at hand because your murderer has resigned. From now on, he says, it is your generation that must lead the country.

Similarly, an NGO called Hami Nepal, formed by another rapper named Sudhan Gurung, has released a list of demands. These include:

First  The immediate resignation of this government.

Second  The resignation of all ministers across every province.

Third  Swift and uncompromising prosecution of those who ordered the shooting of our innocent brothers and sisters.

Fourth  The formation of an interim government led by the youth, with a vision for a just and accountable future.

It must be said to anyone who is inspired by the events in Nepal: this is not enough! It is excellent that the Nepalese masses have taken inspiration from what happened in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. However, as well as inspiration, these examples provide a stark warning. The sad fact is, despite the amazing heroism and bravery of the Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi masses, nothing has really changed in these countries.

In Bangladesh you also had a youth-led movement against poverty, oppression and inequality. This movement removed the government of Sheikh Hasina and a number of the leaders of the revolution were brought into government. However, whilst the faces in the government changed, there was no break with capitalism. This means that poverty, oppression and inequality remain in the country.

Fundamentally, it is the capitalist system that is the root cause of the troubles of the masses. This is especially the case in the less economically advanced countries which are dominated by imperialism.

As one protester correctly states, the Prime Ministers resignation alone is not enough. It is time to break the cycle of the various national parties coming to power and changing nothing fundamentally for the masses.

Ultimately, to be victorious, the Nepalese masses must not be fooled by an attempt to bring in certain leaders of the movement without overthrowing capitalism.

The need for leadership

Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Indonesia are all examples of revolutions that have taken place in the last few years. In normal times, the mass of the population dont pay attention to politics. Either they dont have the time, after long working hours, or they dont have the inclination (because nothing ever changes), and usually it is a case of a combination of both.

There are times, however, when the rage of the masses builds to such a crescendo, that they break through all barriers and involve themselves in politics directly. That is how Trotsky defines a revolution.

When the masses first enter politics in a revolution, however, they do so with a certain amount of inevitable naivety. They quite rapidly learn things, such as the state being a force of repression in defence of private property. They do so not by reading The State and Revolution, but by being blasted by water cannon.

The trouble is the masses will not keep struggling forever. Seeing your friends shot dead, being choked by tear gas or running in terror from police is very tiring. It is often the case, therefore, that the masses are unable to fully realise exactly what path forward is necessary in time.

There are times when the rage of the masses builds to such a crescendo, that they break through all barriers and involve themselves in politics directly / Image: Rahul Raut, Twitter

That is where revolutionary leadership comes in. Revolutions will happen whether revolutionary Marxists are there or not. You only need to watch the news these days for proof of that. What determines whether a revolution will be successful or not, however, depends on whether it has the correct leadership.

If there was in Nepal at present a genuine communist party that had roots in the masses and was big enough to be heard by the masses, the entire situation could be transformed. This party could act as a catalyst that would speed up the learning process of the masses. They could, step by step, win over the leadership of the working class and lead them to power.

Essentially, what we have seen in Nepal is much like the February Revolution of 1917 in Russia. The masses have demonstrated their power by overthrowing the Prime Minister. But they do not yet appear conscious enough to go the whole way towards the overthrow of capitalism. What is missing in Nepal at present is precisely a Bolshevik Party which could lead the masses to the overthrow of the capitalist system.

The ruling class is at present unable to quell the movement either through repression or concessions. The masses, however, do not know the way forward. If there was a party that was big enough to be heard and which called on workers and peasants to form committees in defence of the so-called Gen Z Revolution in every town and in every neighbourhood. If each of these committees was to then elect representatives to a national coordinating committee, this would be the first step in creating a completely different form of rule.

Rather than changing which set of politicians would manage this corrupt system, you could have a workers government. If that happened, they could easily call out to the workers and peasants of Indonesia to do the same. It would set the entire Asian continent ablaze.

Revolutionaries around the world should pay close attention to Nepal. One journalist in Nepal said that everyone is surprised and shocked at what has happened. No one thought it would escalate to this level. The motto of today, however, is expect the unexpected. In pretty much every country around the world right now, there is immense pressure on living standards and a hatred of the status quo, the political leaders and institutions, with no real big defeats of the workers in memory.

We cant know exactly where or when the next revolutionary explosion will happen. But the conditions in Nepal exist right now across most of the planet. Nepal today will be Britain, France, the US and elsewhere tomorrow.

Revolutions are to be expected. What will determine their success is if revolutionary parties are built in time to lead them to victory.
Morocco has strongly condemned Israels aggression on Doha as a heinous attach and denounced the violation of the sovereignty of the brotherly State of Qatar.

Morocco reiterated, in a statement issued this Tuesday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, its full solidarity with the State of Qatar against anything liable to jeopardize its security, its territorial integrity, and the peace of its citizens and residents.

Qatar has condemned the cowardly Israeli attack, calling it a flagrant violation of international law.
Residents of Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, are grappling with a severe cash shortage that has forced them to rely on perforated and damaged banknotes. Since the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group captured the city in February, banks have been closed, leaving the population dependent on old notes that were originally marked for destruction. Many residents complain that businesses often refuse to accept the patched-up bills, sparking tensions in daily transactions.

The shortage has had dire consequences for families, such as that of fridge technician Alain Mukumiro, who says his family goes without food when his notes are rejected. Some residents suspect that the defective banknotes were looted from banks during the rebel takeover. On the black market, people are exchanging the notes for intact bills at a rate of about 10-to-1. Meanwhile, business owners like Zihalirwa Rutchababisha refuse the damaged currency altogether, fearing losses that would make it impossible to restock supplies.

Economic activity in Bukavu, once a vibrant hub, has sharply declined. The crisis has compounded an already dire humanitarian situation in eastern Congo, where seven million people are displaced due to fighting. While a few state employees now receive online transfers, most residents depend on cash payments from informal work and remain trapped in the chaos. The lack of a consistent policy on the acceptance of damaged banknotes has left people confused and increasingly desperate.

Attempts to address the crisis have faltered. The M23-appointed governor briefly launched an exchange scheme but was forced to suspend it after banks were overwhelmed by demand. Meanwhile, Congos government in Kinshasa has refused to reopen banks or supply cash to rebel-held territories, citing insecurity and international sanctions. As the stalemate drags on, residents like Mukumiro fear being abandoned by both the central authorities and the rebels, lamenting that no one is taking responsibility for their plight.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has opened its first-ever in absentia confirmation of charges hearing against Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony, founder of the Lords Resistance Army (LRA).

Prosecutors began presenting evidence on September 8, nearly 20 years after the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Kony over war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in northern Uganda in 2003 and 2004.

Kony faces 39 counts, including murder, rape, sexual enslavement, and conscripting child soldiers. While he remains at large, he is being represented in court by a defence lawyer. Judges will decide whether to confirm the charges, though Kony cannot be tried unless taken into ICC custody.

The case has drawn international attention as a precedent-setting moment for the court, which may in future pursue similar in absentia proceedings against figures such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Survivors in Uganda have welcomed the move but expressed frustration that Kony has not been captured despite decades of pursuit and a $5 million bounty. Critics, however, argue that trying a fugitive without securing his arrest undermines justice for victims. Kony and the LRA, which once operated across Uganda, Congo, Central African Republic, and South Sudan, are notorious for atrocities including mass abductions, mutilations, and the use of child soldiers.
At least 23 suspected terrorists were killed in a fierce gunfight with Nigerian troops in Katsina State, according to reports from the state-owned News Agency of Nigeria on Monday, September 8.

The clash occurred on Saturday in Pauwa village, within Kankara local government area, where troops also freed 26 kidnapped victims, including women and children.

During the operation, security forces destroyed motorcycles, farm machinery, auto spare parts, lubricants and foodstuffs recovered from the suspects. A military source said the army remains committed to sustaining its offensive against terrorists and criminal gangs nationwide until lasting peace is restored.
A coalition of forty countries delivered unified support for Moroccos sovereignty over its Sahara provinces during the UN Human Rights Councils 60th session in Geneva, with the Central African Republic presenting the joint statement on behalf of the group. This diplomatic demonstration represents significant international backing for Moroccos territorial integrity and autonomy initiative.

We reaffirm our constant and unwavering support to the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Morocco over its southern provinces, the Central African diplomat declared, emphasizing the coalitions endorsement of Moroccos autonomy proposal, which the Security Council has recognized as serious and credible. The statement reflects growing international consensus around Moroccos sovereignty and the viability of its proposed solution.

The representative stressed maintaining the bilateral nature of interactions between member states, the Human Rights Council, and the High Commissioner, warning against attempts to exploit the forum for unproductive political debates. This position directly challenges efforts to politicize human rights mechanisms for territorial disputes, defending the councils primary mission of addressing genuine human rights concerns.

The forty-nation coalition spans multiple continents, demonstrating Moroccos successful diplomatic outreach beyond traditional allies. This broad support includes African, Arab, Caribbean, and Pacific nations, reflecting Moroccos strengthened international partnerships and the effectiveness of its diplomatic strategy.

The statements timing proves particularly significant as international momentum builds around Moroccos autonomy plan. Recent recognitions from major powers, including the United States and several European nations, have shifted the diplomatic landscape decisively. This collective declaration at the UNs primary human rights body reinforces Moroccos position while challenging opposing narratives attempting to instrumentalize international forums.
Forbes has named Morocco the 6th best destination in the world to visit in 2025, highlighting the countrys diverse attractions, rich culture and growing international recognition.

The ranking, published in collaboration with travel search engine Kayak, mentions Moroccos emerging and underappreciated travel hotspots, ranking the Kingdoms tourist appeal just behind Zimbabwe, Lithuania, Sri Lanka, South Korea, and Argentina.

Forbes describes Morocco as a shimmering mirage, offering travelers a unique blend of desert dunes, snow-capped mountains, and vibrant cities.

Among the destinations spotlighted within Morocco are: Fes, with its labyrinthine medina and centuries-old tanneries.

Forbes also zoomed on Marrakech, known for its bustling souks and rooftop cafes, Essaouira and its coastal gem with historic ramparts and artistic flair, in addition to the blue city Chefchaouen, the iconic blue-hued town nestled in the Rif Mountains.

The countrys growing cultural footprint is also reflected in Essaouiras selection as host city for the UNESCO Creative Cities Conference in 2026, further cementing Moroccos status as a global cultural hub.

Up to July this year, the country had a record 11.6 million tourist arrivals, marking a 16% increase compared to the same period in 2024.

In 2024, Morocco had a record 17.4 million tourist arrivals, marking a 20% increase compared to 2023 and surpassing pre-pandemic levels.
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Studying how people are injured inside buildings during earthquakes could improve safety and survival.

In 2023, the city of Antakya in southern Turkiye was one of the hardest hit by a M7.8 temblor, part of the Kahramanmaras earthquake sequence that devastated the region and neighboring Syria. In Turkiye alone, tens of thousands died, millions were left homeless, and tens of thousands of concrete buildings were destroyed.

Now, scientists are studying this cataclysmic seismic event with the goal of devising new ways to reduce casualties in the future. According to Luis Ceferino, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, that work begins with understanding how people are injured inside buildings during major earthquakes.

This summer, Ceferino and a team of researchers traveled to Antakya to interview survivors of the Kahramanmaras earthquake. Using this data, they aim to build models that can more accurately predict casualties and provide guidance for retrofitting seismically vulnerable buildings.

"By combining engineering and public health approaches, we hope to better understand how injuries happen during earthquakes, how people respond, andmost importantlyhow to design policies that can save lives," said Ceferino. "This includes soft interventions, like awareness and education. It also includes hard interventions focused on strengthening the infrastructure, such as retrofitting non-ductile concrete buildings, including the many in California built prior to the 1970s and considered at risk."

According to Ceferino, while typical structural models allow researchers to understand the effects of an earthquake on a building, there is not enough data to produce models that can accurately predict earthquake fatalities. California, he noted, has not faced a truly catastrophic earthquake in the modern era, only moderate ones in the past century. He's hoping the data from Turkiye will allow scientists to close the loop between structural models and fatality predictions.

"The data we have doesn't tell us the whole story," said Ceferino. "We need to understand the effects of large earthquakes and what will happen when the San Andreas Fault or the Hayward Fault ruptures. That's why this work in Turkiye is important for the entire earthquake engineering community. It's an opportunity to learn how catastrophic these events can be for people living and working inside concrete buildings."

In addition to Ceferino, the U.S.-based team consists of co-principal investigator, Kimberley Shoaf, a professor in the Division of Public Health at the University of Utah; Yvonne Merino, a postdoctoral researcher in UC Berkeley's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; and Megan Petersen, a Ph.D. student at the School of Medicine at the University of Utah.

In Turkiye, they partnered with Mustafa Kemal University, where professors Necati Ozpinar, Ali Utku Sahin and Bircan Kara led a team of student researchers conducting field work. To collect data, the research team developed a questionnaire that was then loaded onto tablets and used by the Mustafa Kemal University students as they interviewed survivors of the 2023 earthquake.

"As part of the survey, we asked people to draw where they were and why they moved to where they moved, so that we could then model that," said Ceferino. "By mapping how people in an apartment behave and move during those one or two minutes of the earthquake, we want to understand how they get injured from collisions of different elementsas well as their likelihood of getting injured."

The team now has enough data to reconstruct these two minutes for a hundred households, or about 400 people. Ceferino said collecting this data would not have been possible without the assistance of the students, who worked closely with the local community.

They will now need six months to a year to completely process their findings, but, so far, they have observed some patterns.

"We've learned that human behavior drives a lot of what happens during an earthquake, and it's something that we haven't documented before in a systematic way," said Ceferino. "The responses of people tend to be super social, meaning they move around to go take care of otherstheir kids, their parentsinstead of doing what we think they would do: drop, cover and hold on."

He added that, given these findings, there is a lot to learn about how people follow protective measures in the moment. This improved understanding could lead to the development of more effective approaches and policies for earthquake safety.

"We need to understand that people are going to react in certain ways to protect their loved ones, no matter what we propose," said Ceferino. "When you have an early warning signal, for example, people are not going to automatically seek a safe spot. Instead, they're going to get their kids, and together they are going to seek a safe spot. So all these policies need to take that into account."

Data collected from survivors also highlighted the seismic vulnerability of partition walls. These types of walls, typically built of masonry, are extremely heavy and, for many years, have been used to divide living spaces within concrete buildings. During the major earthquake in Turkiye, they often collapsed on people and blocked access to exits and stairs.

Next, the researchers will work to make this qualitative data on structural damage and human behavior more quantitative, so they can refine their models to better understand risk and provide specific recommendations for earthquake safety.

According to Ceferino, this last step also includes building computational models of concrete buildings in California to drive policy changeand save lives.

"At local levels, especially in California, we have a list of older concrete buildings that we need to make stronger. But this work is expensive, and we haven't built enough momentum to put policies in place to retrofit them," he said. "Using the data from Turkiye, we can model how people in those buildings are at greater risk of injury from a major earthquake than we originally thoughtand potentially build that momentum."
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Immunofluorescent imaging of the muscle biopsy regions of interest (ROIs). (A-E) Representative fluorescent images of ROI types selected for sequence analysis and associated staining markers: (A) control muscle; (B) JDM muscle ROI with no infiltrating immune cells; (C) JDM muscle enriched with immune cells (CD 45+ ); (D) CD68+ macrophage-enriched region. (E) Segmented CD68+ cells in the same region shown in (D). Staining antibodies: laminin (green), DNA nuclear stain (blue), CD68 (red), and CD 45 (cyan), indicating muscle fibers, nuclei, macrophages, and leukocytes, respectively. (B-E) are derived from patient JDM 3 . JDM, juvenile dermatomyositis. Credit: Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.ard.2025.07.015

Children with a rare, debilitating muscle disease could benefit from the findings of new research by experts at UCL and Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH).

For the study, published in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, the scientists closely analyzed muscle samples from three children with juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM) and discovered the mitochondria, small energy-producing structures inside cells, were not functioning correctly.

It is hoped that this research will enable future treatments to be identified, especially for children who do not respond well to current treatment.

William Magee, father of one of the children who took part in the study, welcomed the breakthrough, saying that it "opens the doors to a whole new type of treatment."

Juvenile dermatomyositis

JDM is a rare condition that causes muscle weakness and skin rashes. It inflames the capillariesthe body's tiny blood vesselscausing a rash on parts of the body like fingers and elbows. In some cases, the disease causes calcium deposits under the skin or deeper in tissues, which can restrict the movement of the joints.

It often causes problems with muscles, which can make everyday activities like walking or playing very difficult. JDM can also cause problems with other organs, like lungs or intestines, and in turn lead to organ damage.

There are two to four new cases per million children a year. However, this is incidence (new cases); the actual prevalence of the disease is hard to estimate.

Under the microscope

Researchers were able to closely analyze muscle samples from children with JDM and compare them to healthy muscles. They used a special new technology called spatial transcriptomics, which is like a super-powered microscope that can identify which genes are active in tiny parts of the muscle. This helped researchers understand what was happening inside the muscles of children with JDM.

They identified two differences in the muscles of children with the condition. The first was mitochondrial dysfunction. Researchers found that the mitochondria in the cells of children with JDM were not functioning correctly, even in muscles that didn't seem weak.

The second difference they found was that the body's immune system goes into overdrive, through a process known as interferon activation. Essentially, the immune system tries to fight off an infection that isn't there, which can make children feel weak. While this process is already well known in JDM, this study was the first time it's been mapped in such detail directly within the muscle.

Interestingly, the scientists found that these two problems don't always occur together.

Senior author and consultant pediatrician Professor Lucy Wedderburn (UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health) said, "While more research into JDM is needed, this is a big step forward. It shows that looking at tiny details in muscle tissue can reveal important cluesand might help us find better ways to treat JDM in the future, for example by focusing on fixing the mitochondria, not just calming the immune system. This is an important finding as current treatments mostly focus on reducing inflammation."

Lucia's story

Five-year-old twin Lucia, from Twickenham in southwest London, was diagnosed with JDM in August 2024. However, her identical twin sister Isabella does not have the condition.

Lucia's parents, William and Caitriona, noticed something wasn't quite right when she had a red rash on the joints on her fingers and toes during a trip to New Zealand at Christmas 2023.

They thought it might be related to cold weather, but when it got worse despite the warm weather, they began to grow concerned.

On returning to the UK, they went to see their GP and began the process of seeing several specialists until they were seen by now-retired GOSH doctor Clarissa Pilkington, who had set up a specialist unit for conditions like JDM at the hospital.

Lucia was diagnosed with JDM and started on two treatments in August 2024, a steroid and an immune-suppressing treatment called methotrexate.

Dad William Magee, a management consultant, said, "We were pleased to have an early diagnosis which was crucial to Lucia starting treatment quickly. However, the steroids weren't as effective as hoped, so Lucia was moved onto intravenous immunoglobulin, which involves being admitted to hospital for two days each month for a transfusion of antibodies to boost her immune system.

"This research suggesting the link to mitochondria is so important because it opens the doors to a whole new type of treatment.

"It's very reassuring to know that it could lead to treatments that address the underlying causes, not just the symptoms of the diseaseit is common for children with JDM to go into remission and then have flareups in the future. We'd like Lucia and children with this condition to spend as little time as possible in hospital, so any research which leads to potentially more effective treatments can only be a good thing."

He praised the skill of the GOSH clinicians, adding the treatment Lucia had received had been excellent. He said, "We were luckythe doctors caught Lucia's condition early. Not everyone with this condition is so fortunate."

Study co-lead Dr. Merry Wilkinson (UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health), said, "This new and exciting research has shown us that there are mitochondrial problems in the muscle of JDM patients.

"We now need to investigate in the lab the use of existing drugs or developing new ones to improve mitochondrial health in JDM. There is a dire need for better treatments with fewer side effects and hopefully this research will start to address this problem.

"We are extremely privileged to work on the Juvenile Dermatomyositis Cohort and Biobank study, one of the largest databases of both clinical and biological JDM samples in the world, and very grateful to all the patients and families who donate samples to research like ours."

Patients and families were involved at every stage of this research, including study conception, delivery and analysis through patient and public involvement and engagement group.

More information Aris E. Syntakas et al, Spatial transcriptomic analysis of muscle biopsy from patients with treatment-naive juvenile dermatomyositis reveals mitochondrial abnormalities despite disease-related interferon-driven signature, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.ard.2025.07.015 Journal information: Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases

Key medical concepts Methotrexate
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Credit: Rutgers University

CenteringPregnancy is a prenatal care model combining education and individual health assessments in group settings for women at similar stages of pregnancy. A new evaluation by the Rutgers School of Public Health demonstrates that Centering fosters important social ties among expectant parents and provides opportunities for developing greater trust between health care providers and patients.

"I think for me, being that first-time mom, I had a lot ofcould I say misconceptions?and I had this anxiety, fear," one participant said. "I already had two miscarriages, so it's been a journey. But being in CenteringPregnancy, I have this peace of mind"

As part of efforts to reduce maternal health inequities in New Jersey with a focus on eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in outcomes, the Burke Foundation is making strategic investments to expand CenteringPregnancy throughout the state.

A private grantmaking organization based in Princeton, the Burke Foundation provided support to the Rutgers School of Public Health to design and implement a comprehensive evaluation of CenteringPregnancy in New Jersey. The evaluation included observations of sessions, focus groups and surveys with patients, interviews with providers and other healthcare site stakeholders, and an analysis of emergency medical record data for a subset of sites throughout the state.

"The Burke Foundation is proud to partner with the Rutgers School of Public Health on this evaluation of CenteringPregnancy, which is helping to shape the future of prenatal care in New Jersey," said Atiya Weiss, executive director of the Burke Foundation.

"The findings confirm that group prenatal care strengthens maternal health and builds trust, support, and confidence for families during one of life's most vulnerable momentsand points to the changes needed to expand equitable access so more families can benefit."

In the Rutgers report, "Centering Pregnancy in New Jersey: Results of a Mixed Methods Evaluation," the researchers found that CenteringPregnancy is a highly valued model of care among patients and health care providers as it increases patients' social support and trust in their health care providers.

Health care providers and staff involved in CenteringPregnancy reported experiencing higher job satisfaction and reduced burnout as a result of participating in this model of care. An examination of emergency medical record data from a subset of evaluation sites showed higher rates of breastfeeding and postpartum visits among patients who completed five or more sessions compared to those who completed fewer than five sessions.

Members of the evaluation team, led by Leslie M. Kantor, a professor and chair of the Department of Urban-Global Public Health at the School of Public Health, said their team benefited from the participation of community researchersall of whom are Black mothers from New Jersey who have received research training and participated in past research projects.

"Our team of faculty, staff and community researchers had the opportunity to gather data from many perspectives and found overwhelmingly that group prenatal care has benefits for patients as well as for health care providers and staff," said Kantor, who also is principal investigator for the evaluation. "We hope that the broad array of patient and provider voices in the report will inspire other sites to launch this model of care and that Centering will become a more widely available option for pregnant women."

According to researchers, while the CenteringPregnancy model is largely regarded with enthusiasm, the evaluation also highlighted areas for improvement and common challenges to scaling the modelincluding current reimbursement rates, health care provider and staff turnover, and space constraintsthat stakeholders can work to address.

More information CenteringPregnancy in New Jersey: Results of a Mixed Methods Evaluation, sites.rutgers.edu/march/wp-con  September-2025_1.pdf

Key medical concepts Breastfeeding
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Distribution of H129-EGFP+ cells within the thoracolumbar (TL) spinal cord dorsal horn following colorectal HSV-1 H129-EGFP inoculation. Credit: Journal of Neurochemistry (2025). DOI: 10.1111/jnc.70211

An Adelaide-based research collaboration has identified the specific nerve pathways responsible for relaying pain signals from the bowel to the brain, paving the way for new irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) treatments.

About 12% of Australians currently live with chronic pain related to IBS or IBD, conditions that cause nerves in the gut to become overactive or hypersensitive. Despite the prevalence of these conditions, therapy options remain scarce.

Recently published in the Journal of Neurochemistry, the SAHMRI-led study was a joint effort involving researchers from the University of Adelaide, the University of Melbourne and Flinders University.

Lead author, Dr. Andrea Harrington, says the findings revealed two distinct neural pathways in the spinal cord that act as "gatekeepers" in transmitting pain from the colon and rectum into the brainstem.

"We've discovered that the sensory information from the colorectum is transmitted into the brainstem through two distinct regions of the spinal cord," Dr. Harrington said.

"One region in the thoracolumbar spinal cord was shown to relay noxious information into brainstem pain-related circuits, while the other spinal region in the lumbosacral spinal cord carried a broader range of signals into brainstem circuits involved in normal gut motor function and pain modulation."

"By pinpointing these pathways, we now know how signals from the gut are being transferred and processed in the nervous system appropriately, giving us a clear guide of what neural pathways to target to help understand and manage abnormal pain."

The study was made possible by world-class imaging support from Adelaide Microscopy at the University of Adelaide, and histology services that enabled the team to visualize these pathways in unprecedented detail.

Building on this discovery, researchers will now investigate how these pathways are altered in IBS and IBD, with the aim of then discovering new therapies to target the faulty pathways directly.

More information QingQing Wang et al, Splanchnic and Pelvic Spinal Afferent Pathways Relay Sensory Information From the Mouse Colorectum Into Distinct Brainstem Circuits, Journal of Neurochemistry (2025). DOI: 10.1111/jnc.70211 Journal information: Journal of Neurochemistry
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Neuronal activity promotes metastatic SCLC progression in the brain. Credit: Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09492-z

Small cell lung cancer cells that metastasize to the brain cozy up to neurons and form working electrical connections, called synapses, according to a study led by Stanford Medicine researchers. The pulse of electrical signals to the cancer cells strongly promotes tumor growth, the researchers found.

The study is published in Nature.

Although interactions between neurons and cancer cells have been shown to occur in primary brain cancers (cancers that originate in the brain rather than traveling there from elsewhere in the body), the study is the first to show a similar interaction with lung cancer cells.

The discovery highlights the importance of neural signaling in cancer growth and the crafty way cancer cells co-opt cellular processes to their advantage. It also suggests the possibility of novel cancer therapies that interrupt this neuron-to-cancer cell signaling, or the repurposing of existing psychiatric or neurological medications that affect neural activity.

"We have seen metastatic cancer cells near neurons in the brain," said Michelle Monje, MD, Ph.D., professor of neurology.

"But here, we show that in small cell lung cancer there are direct, bona fide, electrophysiologically functional synapses forming between neurons and the cancer cells, and these interactions are central to the cancer cells' growth. It's becoming ever more clear that the nervous system plays an important role in many types of cancers."

Monje, who is the Milan Gambhir Professor in Pediatric Neuro-Oncology, shares senior authorship with former postdoctoral scholar Humsa Venkatesh, Ph.D. Venkatesh is now an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. Stanford School of Medicine student Solomiia Savchuk and Kaylee Gentry, MS, of Harvard Medical School, are co-lead authors of the study.

A new approach to cancer research

"Understanding the emerging influence of neuronal activity has transformed how we think about brain-derived cancers, and we're now thrilled to expand this insight to a completely new group of malignancies," Venkatesh said.

"For the first time, we find that metastatic cancers integrate with neuronal circuitry. This discovery has clear clinical relevance and opens promising new avenues for treatment."

The researchers collaborated with small cell lung cancer expert Julien Sage, Ph.D., professor of pediatrics and of genetics and the Elaine and John Chambers Endowed Professor in Pediatric Cancer.

His laboratory published results in 2023 showing that small cell lung cancer cells in the brain not only begin to emulate surrounding neuronsgrowing long, thin protrusions called axons and becoming less roundedbut they also recruit other brain cells called astrocytes to secrete protective factors normally used to promote the survival of developing neurons.

Monje and Venkatesh's work now shows that the cells do more than just masquerade as neuronsthey form functional connections that help them grow.

"Small cell lung cancer remains one of the most fatal forms of human cancer," Sage said. "I am excited about this work because it provides some new therapeutic directions to inhibit the growth of brain metastases, including molecules that have been used safely in patients with neurological disorders."

Small cell lung cancer accounts for 15% of all lung cancers and causes more than 200,000 deaths worldwide each year. More than half of these cancers have already metastasized at the time of diagnosis, and most often these metastases are to the brain. They arise from a neuroendocrine cell that releases hormones in response to signals from the nervous system.

As such, the cells have similarities to both neurons and endocrine cells and are a critical part of the communication between tissue types throughout the body.

Monje and researchers in her laboratory have spent the past 15 years studying primary brain cancers called gliomas, which include a rare, rapidly fatal pediatric brain tumor known as diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma. Their discoveries of the critical role of neural signaling in brain cancer growth launched the field of cancer neuroscience.

"We've discovered that the nervous system is crucial in driving the growth and progression of primary brain cancers," Monje said.

"Humsa wondered how nerves in the lung might influence the pathophysiology of small cell lung cancer, which has some neural features, and how the interactions with neurons in the brain might enable and promote growth of the brain metastases."

Effects on tumor growth

Venkatesh and Savchuk turned to a model of small cell lung cancer in laboratory mice developed in Sage's laboratory. They found that interrupting the signaling from one of two vagus nerves that run from the brain to the lungs prior to inducing the development of lung cancer had a marked effect on cancer development and growth.

In some cases, no primary tumors formed at all, and no animals experienced metastasis to the liver. In contrast, control animals developed multiple lung tumors and liver metastases.

"We saw a profound effect on the tumor burden in the animals," Venkatesh said, "from the initiation of the tumor and its spread."

Blocking the function of the vagus nerve after tumors had formed slowed the growth of early-stage tumors but had little effect on more advanced cancerssuggesting that the impact of nerve signaling is most important during disease initiation and development and less important for tumor maintenance.

The researchers, including postdoctoral scholar Fangfei Qu, Ph.D., then investigated the growth of mouse and human small cell lung cancers implanted into the brains of laboratory mice.

They found that tumors arising from cancer cells implanted near neurons became infiltrated with neurons and were dividing more quickly than tumors with less neuronal involvement. Studies of brain biopsies from nine patients with metastatic small cell lung cancer showed similar results: Neuronal axons were intermingled with cancer cells, and those cells were replicating more quickly than those in axon-free regions of the tumor.

The researchers then used a technique called optogenetics to stimulate neurons in the cortex of living animals. Optogenetics was developed by Karl Deisseroth, MD, Ph.D., the D.H. Chen Professor, professor of bioengineering and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.

"When we stimulated these neurons, the lung cancer placed in the cortex grew much larger and invaded more," Venkatesh said. "Further investigation showed part of this growth is mediated by growth factors secreted by the neurons in response to stimulation, but a large part of it is mediated by these functional synapses between cancer cells and neurons."

Growing the cells together in a laboratory dish showed that a drug that blocks the ability of the neurons to send electrical signals slowed the rate of growth of the cancer cells. Furthermore, genes expressed by cancer cells growing in tandem with neurons encoded proteins involved in synapse development, which was confirmed in tumor biopsies from the brains of small cell lung cancer patients.

Finally, electron microscopy clearly showed that the cancer cells structurally participate in synapses with neurons, and electrophysiological studies confirmed that a subpopulation of cancer cells generate an electrical current across their membranes in response to signaling by their partner neurons.

An anti-seizure drug that interferes with signaling across synapses significantly reduced cancer cell growth and tumor burden in mice with small cell lung cancers as compared with control animals.

"It's humbling, as a clinician, to think about all of the ways that the cancer is taking advantage of the patient, and how much of this pathophysiology we have yet to understand," Monje said.

"The electrical communication that drives this membrane depolarization is triggering some form of voltage-sensitive signaling and promoting growth in a way that, as oncologists, we haven't been thinking about enough. But now we know an important direction we need to pursue to achieve effective therapies for these currently intractable cancers."

Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute contributed to the work.

More information Neuronal activity-dependent mechanisms of small cell lung cancer pathogenesis, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09492-z Journal information: Nature
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

A study conducted by the University of Eastern Finland and Fimea found that the Finnish news media has given GLP-1 agonists used to treat obesity, such as semaglutide, a great deal of attention while many other new medicines have been ignored. Based on preliminary results, media visibility is not evenly divided between medicines intended for different indications, and the amount of visibility does not always correspond to such things as the user-specific costs of medicines or the prevalence of indications.

A joint research project between the School of Pharmacy at the University of Eastern Finland and the Finnish Medicines Agency Fimea examines the manner in which the media reports on new medicines. Media visibility of new medicines may have an impact on people's perceptions of medicines, their decision-making concerning medicine use and the medicines to which public funding is allocated.

The study selected ten different therapeutic drugs for examination: GLP-1 agonists for the treatment of obesity, prostate cancer medicines, Alzheimer's medicines, ADHD medicines, migraine medicines, antidepressants, Duchenne muscular dystrophy medicines, multiple sclerosis medicines, medicines used for the treatment of cystic fibrosis, and anticoagulants.

A total of 266 news articles both in online and print media discussed one or more of the examined medicines during the period 20132024. The majority, a total of 151 news items concerned GLP-1 agonists, especially semaglutide. The medicine group that was second most commonly reported on was prostate cancer medicines, which were discussed in 40 news articles. Of these, 39 discussed darolutamide.

The average total cost of most of the examined medicines reimbursed from health insurance exceeded EUR 1,000 per patient annually. The annual costs per patient of the most commonly reported on medicines, GLP-1 agonists, were approximately EUR 1,200EUR 1,300.

Ataluren used for treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy has the highest annual cost per patient, totaling approximately EUR 442,000. This medicine was discussed in five news items. Vortioxetine, which is used as an antidepressant, has the lowest patient-specific annual cost, totaling approximately EUR 300, and this medicine was discussed in two news items.

Of the medicines examined, vortioxetine also has the largest number of users, with an average of 57,000 users per year. For example, semaglutide had approximately 31,000 users per year, whereas ataluren has only had a few individual users in Finland.

The first results of the research project were presented at the FIP World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, which was held in Copenhagen 31 August3 September 2025. The results provide a reference for the indications of medicines that were highlighted in particular by Finland's journalistic media, how much was reported on these medicines, and the user-specific costs of these medicines in Finland. The study examined the media visibility of medicines that have been granted market authorization since 2014.

The next phase of the study will focus on the content and means of communicating about new medicines in the media.
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Providing timely pain relief may reduce chances of hospitalization for children presenting to the emergency department with a sickle cell crisis, according to a study published online Sept. 2 in JAMA Pediatrics.

Ibrahim Gwarzo, Dr.P.H., M.B.B.S., from Nemours Children's Health in Wilmington, Delaware, and colleagues examined whether timely administration of opioids (within 60 minutes) in the emergency department is associated with hospitalization for sickle cell disease (SCD) pain. The analysis included 2,538 children (younger than 19 years) seen at 12 children's hospitals with comprehensive SCD centers (9,233 emergency visits from 2019 through 2021).

The researchers found that first-dose timeliness of opioid administration evaluated alone was associated with decreased hospitalizations (odds ratio [OR], 0.84). For the 7,853 visits (85.1%) with two or more opioid doses, first-opioid timeliness was associated with reduced odds of hospitalization, even when the second dose was outside 30 minutes (OR, 0.85) or 45 minutes (OR, 0.84). The lowest odds of hospitalization were seen for first-dose timeliness combined with a second dose within 30-minute (OR, 0.62), 45-minute (OR, 0.70), and 60-minute (OR, 0.78) intervals.

"We demonstrated in our research that ensuring pain relief and providing comfort to patients prevents complications that could arise from prolonged pain and stress, and reduces the likelihood of hospitalization," Gwarzo said in a statement.

Several authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

More information Ibrahim Gwarzo et al, Opioid Timeliness in the Emergency Department and Hospitalizations for Acute Sickle Cell Pain, JAMA Pediatrics (2025). DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2025.2967 Journal information: JAMA Pediatrics

Key medical concepts Analgesics, Opioid Hospitalization

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The AUC of (A) model 1 (HRR, PLR, and monocyte count): 0.798; and (B) model 2 (HRR, PLR, monocyte count, malignancy, cardiovascular disease, and autoimmune disease): 0.8372. AUC, Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve; HRR, hemoglobin-to-red blood cell distribution width ratio; PLR, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio. Credit: National Taiwan University

Standard blood tests can help physicians predict the risk of mortality in patients with drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS), a rare but potentially life-threatening reaction to certain medications. Due to its severity, early recognition and risk assessment are critical.

In contrast to other severe drug reactionssuch as StevensJohnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN)for which several prognostic models exist, there are still limited tools to predict the clinical course of DRESS. Moreover, few proposed markers of DRESS rely on specialized laboratory tests that may not be available in all health care settings.

Professor Chia-Yu Chu's team explored whether common blood tests could help fill this gap. The researchers focused on novel inflammatory markerssuch as the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and red blood cell distribution width (RDW)which are readily obtained from a standard complete blood count.

These markers are commonly used to reflect the body's inflammatory status and have been suggested to have prognostic value in various diseases. Since DRESS involves immune system dysregulation and inflammation, the team hypothesized that the blood markers might provide valuable insights into a patient's risk of poor outcomes.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, enrolled a cohort of Asian patients diagnosed with DRESS from hospitals in Taiwan, Singapore, and Japan. The researchers analyzed their blood test results taken within three days of diagnosis, looking for patterns that distinguished patients who survived from those who did not.

They found that several of these basic blood measures were indeed significant predictors of mortality. Specifically, a lower hemoglobin-to-RDW ratio (HRR), a higher PLR, and a lower monocyte count were associated with an increased risk of death.

Based on these findings, the team developed a prognostic model incorporating these inflammatory markers alongside underlying comorbidities. The model demonstrated good accuracy in predicting mortality, with internal validation confirming its reliability.

These easily obtainable markers offer a practical tool for clinicians, enabling early identification of high-risk DRESS patients who may benefit from intensified treatment or closer monitoring. This represents an important step toward more personalized and timely care in the management of DRESS.

Tyng-Shiuan Hsieh, a dermatologist at National Taiwan University Hospital and the first author of the study, said, "We've long been searching for better ways to stratify risk in patients with DRESS. Our findings demonstrate that by combining information on patients' underlying conditions with routine blood tests, we can develop a prognostic model to predict mortality in DRESS."

Professor Chia-Yu Chu, head of the Department of Dermatology at National Taiwan University Hospital and the study's corresponding author, added, "This approach enables more accurate risk stratification in DRESS patients, paving the way for tailored treatment strategies based on individual risk profiles."

These findings may facilitate earlier interventions and enable more personalized treatment strategies for this severe cutaneous adverse reaction (SCAR).

More information Tyng-Shiuan Hsieh et al, Development and validation of prognostic models using novel inflammatory markers for drug reactions with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms: An international multicenter cohort study, Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.jaad.2025.06.051 Journal information: Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Neurocognitive impairments are classified by pathological changes with potential for destruction of neural tissue. One change known to occur in neurodegenerative disorders is an accumulation of proteins causing pathological damage.

While prior reports have suggested a link between Slit Guidance Ligand 2 (SLIT2) protein levels and late-onset dementia and Alzheimer's disease, these findings have not been validated by a current commercially available SLIT2 immunoassay. Additionally, there is no currently published data on SLIT2 protein levels in an early-onset dementia population.

A new study by researchers at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center has shown that in middle-aged individuals, there is a significant association between levels of SLIT2 protein in both vitreous humor (the gel-like substance in the eye) and plasma (blood) and neurocognitive test scores. This is the first study to report relative concentrations of SLIT2 in vitreous and plasma and establish an association between SLIT2 levels from both sources with cognitive function.

"The association between SLIT2, which is highly expressed in the eye's retina, and cognitive status has not been previously investigated. Our findings demonstrate the potential of ocular fluids as a sampling source for early detection and diagnosis of neurodegenerative disease," explains co-corresponding author Manju L. Subramanian, MD, associate professor of ophthalmology at the school.

Seventy-nine individuals with an average age of 56 underwent eye surgery along with neurocognitive assessments. Samples of their vitreous humor and plasma were collected and then analyzed by a custom-designed highly sensitive Meso Scale Discovery (MSD) SLIT2 electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. Immunoassays use antigen-antibody reactions to measure the presence and concentration of specific substances in biological samples. Associations between SLIT2 levels in vitreous humor and plasma were analyzed using GraphPad Prism.

The researchers found lower levels of SLIT2 in vitreous humor to be associated with lower scores on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), a screening tool for cognitive impairment, as well as the Immediate Recall Verbatim z-score, a measure of verbal memory. Conversely, higher levels of SLIT2 in plasma were associated with lower MoCA scores.

Notably, the vitreous humor contains up to seven times more SLIT2 than plasma. The levels of SLIT2 in the vitreous humor and plasma did not show a correlation with each other.

"We found the association between SLIT2 levels and neurocognitive scores remains significant even after accounting for various demographic factors like age, sex, race, and health conditions such as diabetic status, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and Apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype," says Weining Lu, MD, associate professor of medicine, pathology and laboratory medicine at the school.

These findings appear online in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. The abstract was presented at the 2025 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Salt Lake City, Utah, this past May.

More information Sara I Shoushtari et al, The association between SLIT2 in human vitreous humor and plasma and neurocognitive test scores, Journal of Alzheimer's Disease (2025). DOI: 10.1177/13872877251374287 Journal information: Journal of Alzheimer's Disease
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This map illustrates the regional division of North America into distinct cultural nations as proposed by Colin Woodard in his 2011 book "American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America". The model divides the continent into several "nations," each with its own unique cultural identity shaped by the settlement patterns, historical events, and prevailing ideologies of the first settlers in those regions. Credit: Samson et al., 2025, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Northeastern and Midwestern residents tend to have higher physical, social, and financiali.e., "traditional"wellness, while Southern residents have higher "existential" wellness, involving a sense of purpose and community identity, per an analysis of survey data from more than 325,000 U.S. residents.

David Samson of the University of Toronto, Canada, and colleagues present these findings in PLOS One.

A growing body of research explores factors that may be linked with traditional and existential wellness. Many such factors, such as health care access and economic opportunities, vary according to where one lives. Meanwhile, scholars have proposed that the first settlers to colonize a region may play a major role in shaping its future cultural trajectory.

On the basis of these ideas, Samson and colleagues hypothesized that wellness may vary between U.S. regions that have distinct cultural norms and ideologies resulting from distinct colonization settlement patternsan idea called the "First Settler Wellness Effect." To explore this possibility, they analyzed data on the wellness of 325,777 U.S. residents who participated in surveys as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index between 2009 and 2016. The analysis followed the American Nations Model, which divides the U.S. into different cultural regions stemming from early settlement patterns.

The researchers found that wellness levels varied among different regions as defined by the American Nations Model. For instance, the Northeastern and Midwestern regions had higher traditional wellness, while the Southern regions had higher existential wellness. The researchers propose that these differences may stem from stable health infrastructure and economic security in the Northeast and Midwest, and an honor-based emphasis on personal autonomy, loyalty, and social reputation in the South.

Taking a closer look at minority racial populations, Black and Hispanic residents also had relatively higher traditional wellness in the Northeast and Midwest and had higher existential wellness in Southern regions. Compared to white residents, Black residents consistently exhibited lower traditional wellness across regions, and in the Northeastern and Midwestern regions, they also fared particularly poorly in existential wellness. The researchers say these findings may reflect limitations of material wealth, and suggest that systemic disparities may be offset in Southern regions by robust cultural or community support.

This work could help inform public health efforts and policies to boost well-being. Future research could examine what mechanisms may underlie the observations.

The authors add, "Our analysis shows that first-settler cultural legacies still shape how Americans feel and function today. These regional 'folkways' predict both traditional well-being (social support, community trust) and existential wellness (purpose and meaning) even after accounting for socioeconomic factors."

"What struck us most was the durability of culturecenturies-old settlement patterns continue to forecast modern lived experience. This doesn't imply destiny; it suggests policy works best when it aligns with local cultural ecologies."

More information Wellbeing across the American Nations: First Settler Effects influence traditional and existential wellness, PLOS One (2025). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0327972 Journal information: PLoS ONE

Key medical concepts public policy on health
Vloggers from home and abroad are embarking on an exciting trip to Urumqi, Xinjiang. After receiving their invitations, they hopped on a plane and set off to explore all the city's eye-opening offerings, from factories to museums and scenic spots!
As each fall semester gets underway, hundreds of Emory students, faculty and staff join together on the Atlanta campus with one common goal  to offer a day of volunteer service to the university community and nonprofit organizations throughout the metro area.

This popular tradition is Emory Impact Service Day. In partnership with Campus Lifes Center for Civic and Community Engagement (CCE), this student-led initiative offers opportunities to the entire Emory community to underscore the universitys mission of service to humanity by contributing a day of service.

On Saturday, Aug. 30, more than 700 students from the Atlanta and Oxford College campuses gathered with 30 faculty, staff and alumni in the Emory Student Center (ESC), looking forward to a day of volunteer service and shared community. The volunteers represented 45 recognized student organizations and several university departments.

After arriving at the ESC at 9 a.m., volunteers were divided into teams before departing  some by shuttle bus  to 36 service sites on Emorys Atlanta and Oxford campuses and throughout the Atlanta area. By the end of the day, volunteers had contributed more than 1,900 hours of service.

Organizations that volunteers assisted during Impact Day 2025 included Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve, a community-run urban green space committed to preserving natural spaces in the South Peachtree Creek watershed; Furkids, Georgias largest no-kill animal rescue and shelter, which has saved thousands of homeless animals; and Restoring Ones Hope of Atlanta, which assists the unhoused population and people experiencing food insecurity.

Other organizations and projects served by Impact Day volunteers are the Letter Writing Project, where volunteers wrote thoughtful, uplifting letters for hospitalized children, isolated elders, individuals experiencing hardship and others in need; Women's Resource Center to End Domestic Violence, which supports survivors of domestic violence and their children for the immediate and long-term; and A Few Cooks, an Emory student organization that fights food insecurity by preparing meals in the Few Hall test kitchen and distributing them to food pantries around Atlanta.

Students describe their Impact Service Day 2025 experience

A survey of Impact Day of Service student volunteers received a 68% response rate. Students overwhelmingly reported that they had a good experience, with 94% agreeing or strongly agreeing with the statement, I made a positive impact in the community; 95% responded that they are interested in participating in additional civic and community programs and/or events.

Its just overall a positive experience. The impact is also very meaningful to me. I like feeling that Im involved in my community rather than being sheltered away, says Iman A. Mohamed, a first-year Emory College student who plans to major in neuroscience and behavioral biology. So, it makes me feel more bonded and enhances that feeling of connection. Thats something that I was especially looking forward to since this is my first year.

For the organization Im in, the Brotherhood of Afrocentric Men, one of our key aspects is service. The goal is to give back because at the end of the day, we are all human, and we are all trying to live our lives as happily as we can, says Zabriel Baptiste, a second-year computer science major. Giving back to others doesnt cost anything. In fact, it gives me joy.

Impact Service Day 2025 is the first event of the new academic year hosted by Volunteer Emory, an initiative of CCE.

When students volunteer together to serve others, they also build community with one another and forge close bonds, even lifelong friendships, says Byron Jones, CCEs director for student-led community engagement and the staff lead for the event.

Impact Service Day introduces new students to Emorys tradition of service and enables other members of our university community to recommit to that tradition, Jones says. Service is an especially important part of the Emory experience. It teaches students lifelong skills and sows seeds of community service that will blossom again and again throughout their journey through life.

About Volunteer Emory
Ruby Lal didnt plan to write a book for young people. But sometimes, a work finds its author, rather than the other way around.

Lal, Emory professor of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies, had already written about Nur Jahan, the 17th-century Mughal ruler, in her book Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan.

The book explored how the brilliant, compassionate sovereign led a life of intrigue and defied the odds to become the only woman to serve as empress of the Mughal empire between 1611 and 1627  a long period in the history of an empire that reigned over much of present-day north, west and east India from 1526-1707.

But as Lal researched, wrote and promoted that work, everyone  from readers, to students, to her own nieces  kept asking the same question: When would she write a version for young adults?

By the time she met Molly Crabapple, a New York artist and illustrator who admired Mughal art and was fascinated by Lals research, the project felt nearly fated. Its almost as if I was just connecting the dots, says Lal.

Tiger Slayer: The Extraordinary Story of Nur Jahan, Empress of India, brings together Crabapples lavish watercolor illustrations with Lals text to tell Jahans story to teen audiences. The book is a 2025 Junior Library Guild selection. Booklist calls it deeply satisfying, while Kirkus says it sets a new standard for works celebrating overlooked historical figures.

Tiger Slayer is the latest in a series of works in which Lal has sought to spotlight the stories of historical individuals shuffled to the margins.

Empress was a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist in history and won the Georgia Author of the Year Award for biography in 2019. Her book Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan, was shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize in biography, longlisted for the Cundill History Prize and was a finalist for the 2025 Georgia Author of the Year Awards in the category of biography.

Clues of a powerful reign

It was widely known that, after becoming Emperor Jahangirs 20th and final wife in 1611, Nur Jahan rose in authority to join his inner council of advisors before becoming his co-sovereign.

But the few essays and scholarly articles written about her, while sometimes highlighting her bravery and power, tend to focus on her passionate romance with Jahangir. And they end with their marriage, claiming it as a vital explanation for Nurs rise.

As Lal told an audience in her 2025 John F. Morgan, Sr. Distinguished Faculty Lecture, her reign was locked up in legends of irrational love, a besotted and drunken emperor bewitched by a scheming woman. And thus, we knew her, but knew nothing about her.

Lal scoured primary sources, including Mughal painting, poetry and architecture, as well as court chronicles and memoirs by Emperor Jahangir. She found more than 30 mentions of Nur Jahans hunting prowess, including of tigers.

And heres the thing about hunting, says Lal. Only kings hunted tigers, not ordinary people.

Not only did slaying tigers symbolize the ultimate in authoritarian machismo; hunting trips allowed emperors to meet locals, gather intelligence and put a stop to local injustices. Nur Jahan did all these things.

Poets at the time celebrated her abilities as a slayer of tigers. A famous tale relates how, during one hunt, she killed four tigers with six rifle shots while seated on the back of an elephant. Another story describes how she killed a marauding tiger that was slaughtering people in a Benghal village.

A famous painting by court painter Abul Hasan tells us everything we need to know about the unique power and prowess of the Mughal empress. Hasan was a great portrait maker, says Lal, but in this this one painting, he breaks from his own oeuvre to show Nur in action, loading a musket.

A thrilling ascent to power

Tiger Slayer shares Nur Jahans story in rich detail, full of twists and turns.

Readers learn that by the time Nur arrived in Jahangirs harem, she had already experienced a degree of drama rivaling the most thrilling of modern-day TV series.

During a first marriage to a Mughal courtier that began when she was 17, Nur was posted along with her husband in Benghal, which Lal notes was like the wild west of the Mughal dynasty.

She actually had to be really independent while he was away, working, Lal says. So, she had experienced all sorts of political tension, and the murder of her husband by the time she was 30.

Thats when she was brought to the harem of Emperor Jahangir: the man who, according to legend, had her husband killed.

But history shows the truth to be a little more complicated, notes Lal. Nur was the daughter of Jahangirs prime minister. Families of all employees were under the care of the emperor. And Jangahirs marriage to Nur demonstrated that care.

Practiced in political survival and intrigue, Nur was eventually making royal decrees of her own. In a climactic scene, she greets her people from the balcony of the royal palace, a Hindu practice first instituted by her husbands father.

As Lal writes: Now Nur appeared where no other Mughal queen had before, or would after. The empress showed herself on a balcony, at a distance, like a goddess.

She was an empress now, in full command of her power.

Respecting her readers

From the start, Lal knew that Tiger Slayer would be more than a version of Jahans story simplified for young readers.

I decided I was not going to tamp down the story, she says. Instead, she shares its full drama in a way thats accessible to teen readers, without sacrificing accuracy or detail.

Lal spent a lot of time discussing craft with experienced young adult, or YA, writers, including strategies for breaking down complex information.

In Tiger Slayer, sidebars serve as signposts, identifying key characters and historical events.

And paintings by Crabapple work in concert with Lals text to bring the story vividly to life.

An illustration of Nurs first, fateful tiger hunt expresses the motion and excitement of the moment while accurately depicting everything from her style of dress to the manner in which she would have sat on the elephants saddle.

We worked together very closely, says Lal, and in the end, the words and images are speaking to each other.

I really think young people are looking for these different kinds of stories told with depth, she adds, stories that illustrate powerful women.

Lal notes that Nurs tale showcases the surprising forms power can take  benevolence, for one. Nur was very compassionate. She gave huge donations to the poor, including dowries to 500 underprivileged girls.

She even designed an inexpensive, fashionable wedding dress for those girls.

Acts like these demonstrate a non-masculinist model of power that we could learn from today, says Lal, adding, I think the job of an historian is to bring to light what power looks like, right? And there is power in somebody protecting their subjects.

The roots of a diverse culture

Lal finds great inspiration in the diversity of Mughal society.

These were [Muslims] not only of the Sunni faith, but also Shia, inspired by many forms of Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Christian life, says Lal.

Meanwhile, following Jahangir, many Mughal princes were sons of Rajput Hindu women. And the emperors were really interested in the faith practices that surrounded them, from Hinduism to exchanges with Jesuit princes, to Jainism. This was a truly multi-denominational culture, and it showed: in their architecture, in all kinds of things.

Today, Indias diverse culture bears the beauty and mark of that pluralistic influence, says Lal.

If you look at Bombay, say, on the same street, youll see a mosque, a Sikh temple, a Jewish Temple, a Farsi temple  and the people who walk by bow in front of everything.

She considers her work as an historian, drawing attention to historical details and their throughlines to the present, the work of civilization.

Next up, Lal will write a book about the Taj Majal  one of the seven wonders of the world  which was inspired by the marble mausoleum that Nur Jahan designed for her parents. Shes also planning a comprehensive history of the Mughal Empire.

Teaching history is about continuing to share the rich and complex layers of the past, which is important to the making of future citizens, she says. That's what we do at Emory. And its what education in the humanities is really about: Who will be our future citizens?

The inspiration goes both ways; Lal says shes grateful to her students, from whom she continues to learn.

I will always teach a freshman seminar, she says. I will do it every year, because you learn so much. I mean, I never would have written this book without the invitation of young people.

All illustrations used with permission by artist, Molly Crabapple.
This September marks the first National Science Popularization Month. On September 7th, reporters learned from the Anhui Association for Science and Technology that during this period, our province will host a rich array of diverse science popularization activities, totaling over 5,000 sessions. The key events of this Science Popularization Month include flagship main venue activities, frontier insights shared in popular science reports, exploring future prospects at science communication venues, creating popular science content with millions of IPs, bringing scientific culture to grassroots communities, an online exhibition titled "Light of Science Popularization," and science-themed study tours. These initiatives will deliver a splendid feast of technology and culture to the public across the entire province. During the National Science Popularization Month, our province will focus on cutting-edge technologies, mobilizing scientists, technicians, and industry experts to deliver popular science lectures for groups including young scientific talent, university students, entrepreneurs, and civil servants, explaining new technologies and achievements. Furthermore, various innovation entities within the provincesuch as tech companies, universities, and research instituteswill actively open their exhibition halls, laboratories, and production lines, fully leveraging the role of various popular science "Spark Museums." Anhui will release its second batch of curated science popularization study tour routes, launch an online provincial map for science popularization study tours, and unveil the Hefei Future Grand Science City Science Popularization Study Tour Center. Through creating these "walking science classrooms," Anhui aims to promote the deep integration of science popularization with culture and tourism. Led by the Anhui Association for Science and Technology, initiatives include organizing a "Million University Students from Hundred Institutions Science Popularization Creativity & Innovation Competition," as well as launching calls for entries in the "Ten Million IPs Create Science Popularization" and "Beautiful Anhui Science Equipment" campaigns. Units such as the Health Commission of Anhui Province, Anhui Earthquake Agency, and Anhui Meteorological Service will also conduct their own science popularization content creation activities, leveraging their respective fields and institutional strengths. Cities like Bengbu and Wuhu will host short video competitions focused on science popularization. These efforts aim to actively encourage participation from scientists, science communication enthusiasts, university students, and other groups in creating popular science materials, thereby transforming scientific resources into accessible knowledge and increasing the supply of high-quality popular science content.

Source: Anhui Daily
The government is targeting to increase the exports of steel manifold to whopping 50 million tonnes in couple of years from 4 million tonnes currently, Minister of Commerce Piyush Goyal said . "We have set goal of exporting 50 million tonnes steel not by 2030 but in couple of years. It's a big heavy audacious goal," he said while addressing the ISA Steel Conclave on Tuesday. India's steel exports experienced a significant downturn in fiscal year 2025 (FY25), with a roughly 30-33 per cent year-on-year decrease, resulting in a 10-year high trade deficit of 4.5 million tonnes. A total of about 5 million tonnes were exported in FY25, as Indian steel faced challenges from weak global demand and cheaper imports from China. India, the world's second-largest steel-producing country, was a net importer of steel, mainly due to unbridled and cheap imports from China and Japan. The prohibitive tariff of 50 per cent the US has imposed on Indian and other countries except UK, may not have much impact on the country's steel exports since the US accounts for only 3 per cent. Steel goes in every walk of life and its demand is expected to grow in coming years, the minister said, adding that "the steel industry has a big role to play in India's growth". Currently, per capita consumption of steel in India is at 100 kg nearly half of the world level. The government is also aiming to increase the production capacity of steel in the country to 500 million tonnes by 2047 against 200 million tonnes currently, Goyal said. Naveen Jindal, President India Steel Association, and Chairman Jindal Steel lauded government initiatives and said the Industry is grateful for government's support. As of now, the industry is reeling under the 50 per cent tariffs slapped by the US government. This will not lower the spirits of the industry but to achieve the target of producing 500 million tonnes, the industry has to focus on availability of the raw ingredients specially iron ore, coking coal and limestone, Jindal added. (ANI)
A high-level delegation of 10 Finnish healthcare companies will travel to India, for the first time, with official engagements in Delhi and Mumbai on 15-19 September 2025. The program includes meetings with leading hospitals, government institutions and industry players to explore joint initiatives. The delegation represents key healthcare domains, including advanced diagnostics and disease detection (Nightingale Health, Tezted, Danvantar Biophotonics), digital health and AI-powered prevention (Metabite), biopharmaceuticals and biologics manufacturing (Paras Biopharmaceuticals, Elomatic), infection control and hospital infrastructure (Halton, Serres, Cleamix), and healthcare workforce solutions (Viiom). "India and Finland share a vision of building smart, sustainable, and inclusive healthcare. This visit marks a new chapter where Finnish innovation meets India's scale and ambition," said Kimmo Lahdevirta, Ambassador of Finland to India in a statement. Finland is uniquely positioned to partner with India; the Nordic nation is consistently ranked among the world's best healthcare systems, combining cost efficiency with high-quality outcomes, and supported by one of the most digitalized societies. Nearly all patient data in Finland is stored electronically, enabling seamless, secure, and efficient care throughout the entire healthcare system. Sonali Saigal Kapur, Senior Advisor at Business Finland, emphasized the strong fit between the two countries: "Over the years, we have seen an increasing number of Finnish healthcare companies engage with the Indian market. This delegation represents a significant next step, bringing Finnish innovation and a strong commitment to collaborate closer with India's dynamic healthcare sector." Finland invests heavily in research and development, fostering collaboration between universities, hospitals, and industry. This ecosystem has produced breakthroughs in diagnostics, medical devices, and health data analytics, many of which are already in use internationally. In addition, Finland boasts a thriving startup scene, with healthtech and medtech entrepreneurs scaling globally in many fields. The Finnish healthcare delegation is organized by Business Finland, the Embassy of Finland in New Delhi and the Consulate General of Finland in Mumbai. The delegation is led by Ambassador Kimmo Lahdevirta in Delhi on 15-17th Sept and by Consul General Erik af Hallstrom in Mumbai on 18-19th Sept. (ANI)
VMPL New Delhi [India], September 10: Delhi and Mumbai to host high-level export dialogues, connecting Indian manufacturers to global demand across Pharma, Construction and Building Materials, Interiors, Electronics, and Food & Agriculture. 10th & 12th September 2025, Delhi/Mumbai, In a move that could reshape India's export landscape beyond oil and commodities, global exhibition leader ITE Group is bringing its international roadshow to India this September, with two high-impact B2B showcases in Delhi (10th September) and Mumbai (12th September). The agenda: to connect Indian exporters, particularly small and mid-sized players, to real-time market opportunities emerging across Russia and the CIS. The initiative arrives at a time when India-Russia bilateral trade has crossed USD 68 billion, and supply chain shifts are opening new avenues for Indian manufacturers across pharmaceuticals, construction materials, food processing, interiors, packaging, and electronics. ITE and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) also forecast a surge in business opportunities for BRICS+ nations, with industry growth in Russia alone projected to rise by over 30% by 2030. "This is more than a trade showcase. It's a signal shift in where the world is heading," said Dmitry Zavgorodniy, CEO of ITE Group. "India has become a trusted partner across the BRICS+ landscape. Growing demand in Russia and the CIS is creating new opportunities, and Indian SMEs are uniquely equipped to respond. What's needed is clarity, access, and confidence. That's what these roadshows will deliver." ITE Group, known for hosting over 30 large-scale exhibitions annually across Russia and its neighbouring markets, will use the India roadshows to bring together government representatives, industry bodies, and Indian exporters to share insights on how its exhibitions serve as gateways to connect with buyers in Russia and the CIS. Among the participating organisations are: FICCI, FIEO, Chemexcil, NDDB, PHDCCI, Indian Dairy Association, ICIB, and representation from the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Russia India Trade House (Balaji Group), Orient Electric Limited (CK Birla group company) and other relevant chambers. Each event is designed as a focused evening session featuring curated dialogues, access to trade insights, and direct matchmaking with ITE's international market advisors. "In fast-growing economies, exploring new markets is natural; sustaining them takes access. We provide both," said Katerina Filunets, General Manager, ITE Dubai. "Our partnerships with India's leading trade councils allow us to shape these roadshows not just as promotional platforms--but as working hubs for actual trade conversion. That's where our credibility lies." What's Driving the Momentum: - India's non-oil exports to Russia have tripled since 2021 - Key sectors facing global demand gaps include pharma, packaging, construction materials, electronics, food processing, and interiors - ITE's platforms draw over 500,000 business visitors and 10,000+ exhibitors annually - Tools like ITE Connect, the Group's digital networking platform, extend trade opportunities beyond the physical events ABOUT ITE GROUP: ITE Group is Russia's leading B2B exhibition organiser, renowned for its commitment to fostering international trade and business development. With a robust portfolio of 30 high-profile events annually, ITE Group also creates bespoke Digital Connect platforms for all major events helping to drive economic growth and collaboration. Established in 1991, ITE Group has organised Russia and CIS's largest industry exhibitions for over three decades, providing transformative platforms for essential dialogue between businesses and government, ensuring substantial outcomes. (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by VMPL. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
Mohali (Punjab) [India], September 10: Epique Real Ventures, the premium real estate consultancy arm of RAAH Realogics, continues its ascent in Northern India's property advisory scene, securing top honours at the prestigious BizNEXT Summit organized by News18 Punjab & Haryana. The firm was awarded "Fastest Growing Real Estate Advisory Firm in the Region," a testament to its rapid expansion, strategic acumen, and notable impact on Punjab's evolving real estate sector.

The event was graced by Mr. Sanjeev Arora, Cabinet Minister, Government of Punjab, who presented the award to the firm's leadership team.

Dual Recognition

Further affirming its market leadership, Epique Real Ventures, under the stewardship of Mr. Himanshu Pant, was also recently conferred the "Emerging Start-Up of the Year Award" in real estate advisory and consulting. Mr. Pant -- a Global Indian Award recipient and an industry veteran with over 20 years of experience -- has been the driving force behind Epique's meteoric journey, combining deep market insight with trust-driven consulting.

Transforming Real Estate Advisory

Operating in Mohali and Ludhiana, with imminent expansion targeting Amritsar, Epique Real Ventures delivers premium consulting, builder advisory, sales enablement, and specialized NRI services. Under the umbrella of RAAH Realogics, the company pioneers its Integrated Value Architecture, blending project conceptualization, investment advisory, regulatory facilitation, and rigorous due diligence to set new standards in transparency and accountability.

Quote from Mr. Himanshu Pant

Accepting the recent accolades, Mr. Himanshu Pant, Founder & Managing Director, remarked:

"This honour reaffirms our commitment to transform Punjab's real estate landscape with clarity, credibility, and client-centricity. We dedicate these awards to our clients, partners, and our agile team -- it is their trust and hard work that power our vision for a world-class, transparent, and future-ready advisory ecosystem.".

Setting New Benchmarks

With both awards placing Epique Real Ventures firmly at the forefront of regional innovation, the firm stands as a catalyst for growth, transparency, and premium service standards in Punjab and beyond.

(ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
The United States' tariff action on Indian exports may not significantly impact the current financial year, but prolonged duties could affect investment sentiment, Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) to the Government of India, V Anantha Nageshwaran, said on Wednesday. "For the first five months of the current financial year, exports to the US have almost already achieved half the number of last year. So in other words, in this financial year, the impact may be relatively limited depending on the assumptions one makes," he stated. Speaking at the AIMA 52nd National Management Convention, Nageshwaran explained that quantifying the exact impact of tariffs or GST is difficult. "Trying to be very precise about the quantitative impact of either the tariff or the GST is definitely fraught with a wide margin of uncertainty," he said. He noted that while it is easy to estimate the immediate effect of higher tariffs on India's exports to the US, the broader consequences would depend on how long the penal duties, including the 25 per cent tariff, remain in place. "In the event that it is slightly longer than we want it to be, the second and third round effects will become more pronounced, which is the uncertainty with respect to investments, capital formation, overall sentiment in the economy," the CEA said. However, Nageshwaran highlighted that GST reforms would soften the blow by generating domestic demand. "By substituting domestic demand for whatever the export demand that may not materialize from the United States, what GST reform does is to alleviate the second and third round effects by creating domestic demand and therefore removing the uncertainty which will come in the way of capital formation," he said. Speaking about job creation, the CEA said India must strike a careful balance between adopting new technologies such as artificial intelligence and protecting jobs in a country with a young population. "We have estimated that eight million jobs have to be created," he said. While technology boosts productivity, it must be aligned with social stability in the medium term. Nageshwaran described labour reforms as a "two-sided partnership" between the government and the private sector. While governments are focused on making it easier for businesses to operate, he said companies must also maintain a balance between technology adoption and labour inclusion to avoid social disruption. "In the very short run, there is a trade-off between technology deployment and labour deployment. But in the medium run, there is no trade-off," he said, adding that an economy cannot enjoy productivity gains if job creation is ignored. He cautioned businesses to use technology to augment, not replace, labour. The CEA said the changes may not appear as headline developments but are being steadily rolled out across states. "Labour is a concurrent subject. Although the four labour codes are being implemented at varying speeds by different governments around the country, state-level deregulation activities have been underway since the beginning of the calendar year," he said. He pointed out that several states have relaxed rules restricting women from entering certain occupations once considered hazardous. "Over time, rules and restrictions relating to overtime are being relaxed. The creation of third shifts and the duration of shifts themselves are being relaxed," he added. According to him, labour reforms should not be viewed as measures against worker rights but as a balancing act. "It is about balancing the rights of those who have a job and the rights of others who don't have one to have one," Nageshwaran said, calling it "a tango that both governments and the private sector have to do." (ANI)
India is fast emerging as a major beneficiary of global supply chain realignments, according to a new report by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The report, titled "Evolving Landscape of Global Value Chains," underlined that scale and efficiency, though still crucial, must now be matched by resilience, adaptability, and compliance to withstand shifting trade flows. India is among the biggest beneficiaries of shifting trade flows. The US's USD 150 billion import cuts from China have already created nearly USD 23 billion in new exports for India, the report asserted. "Global trade flows are shifting from single-country dependence to multi-region networks. Blocs like IPEF, BRICS+, and ASEAN are pushing near/friendshoring alliances to reduce dependence on other countries. USA import cuts from China (USD 150 billion) reshaped regional trade, with India gaining USD 23 billion in new exports," the report read. India's relatively low export dependence (20-21 per cent of GDP; the US share 2 per cent) provides short-term insulation from tariff shocks, the report has asserted. Further, the joint report said India's Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes are further boosting the shift. Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes have attracted over USD 20 billion in investments, generating USD 191 billion in output across the electronics, IT, and pharmaceutical sectors. The report points to new trade corridors as trillion-dollar opportunities for India. The India-UK Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which is expected to provide duty-free access for 99 per cent of tariff lines, can potentially unlock a USD 98 billion market. Additionally, a potential India-EU agreement, expected before the end of 2025, could give India access to nearly USD 570 billion in trade flows, which China currently dominates. The report, though, warns that India continues to rely heavily on imports for critical sectors. Over 70 per cent of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), more than 50 per cent of solar wafers, and several key electronic components are still sourced from abroad. Initiatives such as the PLI scheme, the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM), and large-scale semiconductor projects are described as important first steps toward building secure and resilient domestic value chains. Industries must make decisive bets on indigenizing inputs in critical sectors to cut dependence and secure their value chains, the report read. Rahul Jain, Managing Director and Senior Partner at BCG, says, "The new rules of trade are reshaping value chains, shifting from cost-only to multi-variable design, single-country hubs to regional blocs, reactive exports to agile trade hubs, and paper compliance to digital traceability." Reflecting on the report, Ms. Jyoti Vij, Director General, FICCI, says, "The evolution of global value chains is both a challenge and an opportunity. With the right balance of efficiency, resilience, and sustainability, India can play a central role in shaping the future of trade." The report also outlined four imperatives as the way forward for India in this new environment: Make in India for India; Make in India for the World; Move Up the Value Chains; and Build Digital and Green Value Chains. (ANI)
In a regulatory filing to exchanges, the company said the agreement has been made under Regulation 30 of SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015.

The plan envisages an initial monthly production target of 25,000 to 30,000 semiconductor wafers, subject to feasibility studies, regulatory clearances, and successful negotiations.

"The purpose of this MOU is to establish a framework under which "MIC "shall engage "Top2" to explore, identify, and finalize a semiconductor fabrication partner from Taiwan. The objective is to initiate semiconductor wafer production with an monthly target capacity of 25,000 to 30,000 wafers, subject to feasibility, negotiations, and regulatory compliance," the company stated in the exchange filing.

MIC clarified that there is no shareholding involved in the entity with which the MoU has been signed, nor does the agreement confer any special rights, such as board appointments or preferential capital rights. The company also confirmed that the agreement does not fall under the category of related party transactions.

The government has rolled out multiple incentive schemes in recent years to attract global semiconductor players and encourage local manufacturing.

For MIC Electronics, traditionally engaged in LED displays and electronic solutions, the move marks a diversification into a highly strategic and technology-intensive domain.

The semiconductor industry has emerged as one of the most critical sectors worldwide, with demand surging across automotive, consumer electronics, industrial automation, and emerging technologies like 5G and artificial intelligence. Taiwan, which houses leading global foundries, remains central to the global semiconductor value chain.

The company added in the exchange filing that any amendment, termination, or changes in the MoU will be duly disclosed to stock exchanges, in line with regulatory requirements.

India is projected to become a USD 100 billion semiconductor market by 2030. (ANI)
VMPL New Delhi [India], September 10: When it comes to investing, most of us want two things: steady growth and peace of mind. We want our money to work hard, but without the constant stress of chasing the 'next big stock'. That's where value investing comes in - a strategy trusted by some of the world's most successful investors. Now, with the launch of the Bajaj Allianz Life BSE 500 Enhanced Value 50 Index Fund, available through ULIP plan, you can tap into this strategy in a simple, transparent, and disciplined way. Want to invest smartly without second-guessing the market? This new fund might be just what you're looking for. What is the BSE 500 Enhanced Value 50 Index? At the heart of this fund lies the BSE 500 Enhanced Value 50 Index. Sounds technical? Let's break it down. This index selects the top 50 value companies from the BSE 500 universe. But what makes a "value company"? The selection is based on three tried-and-tested financial ratios: -Book-to-price ratio - Compares a company's actual asset worth with its market price to identify undervalued opportunities. -Earnings-to-price ratio - Measures company profits against market price, showing how much earnings you get for each invested rupee. -Sales-to-price ratio - Compares total sales with share price, highlighting businesses selling at attractive valuations relative to their revenues. In simple terms, these ratios help identify companies that are undervalued in the market - businesses with strong fundamentals that may be trading at a price lower than their true worth. By tracking this index, the fund allows you to own a portfolio of carefully screened, undervalued companies across sectors --making it a smart choice for ULIP plan and other systematic investment plans. Why choose value-focused index funds? If you've ever felt overwhelmed by stock market noise, here's the good news: value investing cuts through it. Instead of buying into hype, this approach focuses on finding hidden gems - companies with strong potential available at attractive prices. Here's why this matters: -Disciplined wealth creation - You don't need to guess which stock will rise next. A rules-based system does the selection for you. -Lower downside risk - Since value companies are already priced attractively, they tend to be more resilient in tough times. -Long-term growth - Historically, value stocks have rewarded patient investors For investors, it means you're building wealth steadily, not speculatively. And when included in ULIP structures or curated investment plans, this approach adds both discipline and consistency to your financial journey. Key features of the Bajaj Allianz Life BSE 500 Enhanced Value 50 Index FundNow let's look at what makes this NFO stand out: -Available at just Rs. 10 NAV** - Fresh entry point for new investors, open from September 6-18, 2025. -Potential returns up to 35.4%^ - Built on historical performance of the index. -Tax benefits - Investments qualify for deductions, and gains may enjoy exemptions as per prevailing laws. -100% digital process - Invest anytime, anywhere with complete ease. -Passive yet powerful - No active stock-picking needed; you simply ride on the systematic index strategy. With these features, the fund brings together the strength of value investing and the trust of Bajaj Allianz Life. How to get started with this BALIC NFOIf you're interested, here's what to do: 1) Mark your calendar for the launch: September 6-18, 2025 2) Visit Bajaj Finserv website or talk to an advisor 3) Select a monthly premium based on your financial plan and coverage needs 4) Complete your KYC digitally 5) Sit back -- you're in And the best part? You don't need to worry about picking stocks. The index does the heavy lifting for you. Who should consider investing?This fund is well-suited for: -Long-term investors who want to create wealth over 10-15 years. -Value-conscious investors looking for disciplined, systematic exposure to undervalued companies. -First-time investors who want to start with a simple, transparent product. -Diversifiers who already have equity exposure but want a value-focused allocation in their portfolio. If you prefer ULIPs, this fund is a strong addition for anyone aiming at steady, long-term growth. ConclusionValue investing has always been about patience, discipline, and smart choices. With the Bajaj Allianz Life BSE 500 Enhanced Value 50 Index Fund, you don't need to study financial ratios or pick individual stocks. The fund does it for you through a systematic, rule-based approach. Available at Rs. 10 NAV** till September 18, 2025, this is a chance to add a value-focused strategy to your portfolio in a simple, digital, and tax-efficient way. Ready to invest smartly? Explore the NFO today and start your value investing journey with Bajaj Allianz Life! NFO details:Bajaj Allianz Life BSE 500 Enhanced Value 50 Index Fund: -Available @ Rs. 10 NAV** from September 6-18, 2025 -Potential returns up to 35.4%^ -Tax benefits& -100% digital process Disclaimer: Disclaimer- *T&C Apply - Bajaj Finance Limited ('BFL') is a registered corporate agent of third party insurance products of Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company Limited, HDFC Life Insurance Company Limited, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company Limited, SBI General Insurance Company Limited, ACKO General Insurance Company Limited, HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company, TATA AIG General Insurance Company Limited, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Limited, New India Assurance Limited, Chola MS General Insurance Company Limited, Zurich Kotak General Insurance Co. Limited , Star Health & Allied Insurance Co. Limited, Care Health Insurance Company Limited, Niva Bupa Health Insurance Company Limited , Aditya Birla Health Insurance Company Limited and Manipal Cigna Health Insurance Company Limited under the IRDAI composite registration number CA0101. Please note that, BFL does not underwrite the risk or act as an insurer. Your purchase of an insurance product is purely on a voluntary basis after your exercise of an independent due diligence on the suitability, viability of any insurance product. Any decision to purchase insurance product is solely at your own risk and responsibility and BFL shall not be liable for any loss or damage that any person may suffer, whether directly or indirectly. Please refer insurer's website for Policy Wordings. For more details on risk factors, terms and conditions and exclusions please read the product sales brochure carefully before concluding a sale. ^ As on 31st July 2025, Please note that the fund aims to replicate the performance of benchmark index fund, subject to tracking error. Past returns of a fund are not necessarily indicative of the future performance of the fund. **Not available if policy issued after 18th Sept 2025. &Tax benefits as per prevailing Section 10(10D) and Section 80C (under old tax regime) of the Income Tax Act shall apply. URN No. BFL/Advt./24-25/824 (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by VMPL. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
HT Syndication Kattankulathur (Tamil Nadu) [India], September 10: "Wars today are not fought only on the battlefield but also in the realm of technology; engineers are the new soldiers," remarked Dr. Sridhar Vembu, Founder and Chief Scientist of Zoho Corporation, during Aaruush, the flagship techno-management fest of SRM Institute of Science and Technology (SRMIST), Kattankulathur, which concluded its 19th edition today with record participation from across India. Since its inception in 2007, Aaruush has grown into one of the country's premier student-led innovation platforms, bringing together over 50,000 students, academia, and industry leaders to exchange ideas and collaborate on solutions for tomorrow. This year's edition was inaugurated by Dr. Sridhar Vembu, Founder and Chief Scientist of Zoho Corporation, and Dr. A. Sivathanu Pillai, Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awardee, CEO of BrahMos Aerospace, and veteran of DRDO and ISRO. Their presence underscored the fest's stature as a national platform for visionary thought and youth-driven innovation. Addressing the gathering, Dr. T. R. Paarivendhar, Founder Chancellor of SRM Group, recalled that Dr. Vembu had studied at the Nightingale School, West Mambalam, during the 1970s and highlighted SRMIST's commitment to nurturing innovators. He remarked, "Aaruush is conducted for celebrating the research work done by SRMIST. Our management cannot do everything by itself, which is why we rely on the right set of young minds to set a clear vision and carry it forward." Dr. Nitin M. Nagarkar, Pro Vice Chancellor (MHS), also emphasized SRMIST's pioneering culture, noting that "SRMIST is the living ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship for students." Delivering his keynote, Dr. Sridhar Vembu drew attention to the critical importance of technological self-reliance in the modern world. He observed, "Our national sovereignty today comes down to technology and self-reliance. We cannot depend on GPS, operating systems, or platforms like ChatGPT, which can be taken away in an instant. That is why we must build on our own." He further elaborated on the challenges and opportunities facing India's engineers: "Wars today are not fought only on the battlefield but in the realm of technology; engineers are the new soldiers. From semiconductors and permanent magnets to advanced compilers and medical devices, India must invest in building these technologies indigenously. R&D is not expensive, but it is time-intensive, it requires patience, perseverance, and a culture of continuous learning." Reflecting on Zoho's journey, Dr. Vembu remarked, "Zoho has followed a Japanese-inspired model of discipline and innovation. It took decades of focused R&D to build world-class products. The good news is that India has the human talent, we have the people, the creativity, and the resolve. What we need is the attitude to make the best in the world." Held under the theme "Rising in the Spirit of Innovation" with the motto "Towards Infinity" and tagline "Bridging Aspirations, Harmonising Unity," Aaruush 2025 celebrated the limitless possibilities of youth-led creativity, technology, and leadership. Highlights of Aaruush 2025: -Hackathons & Technical Challenges - Innovative solutions in AI, sustainability, and emerging tech. -Entrepreneurship Bootcamps & Startup Showcases - Encouraging students to transform ideas into ventures. -Policy Dialogues & Expert Lectures - With jurists, industry leaders, and academics on law, technology, and governance. -Sustainability Drive - SRM RUN 9.0 (August 31) - A 10K run themed "Run for Zero Waste," promoting awareness on sustainable practices. -Cultural Evenings & Leadership Talks - Celebrating unity, diversity, and youth leadership. In the run-up to the fest, SRM RUN 9.0 reaffirmed Aaruush's commitment to sustainability, mobilising students and the community to advocate for responsible environmental practices and a greener future. Over nearly two decades, Aaruush has become more than a fest, it is a transformative ecosystem where youth, academia, and industry converge to foster innovation, leadership, and collaboration. Hosted by SRMIST, with over four decades of academic excellence, 50,000+ students, and 4,000 faculty, Aaruush continues to embody SRM's vision of empowering India's next generation of innovators and change-makers. With Aaruush 2025, SRMIST once again reaffirmed its position as a hub for youth-led innovation, proving that the future of technology and leadership lies in the spirit of collaboration and boundless imagination. ABOUT SRMIST SRM Institute of Science and Technology (SRMIST-KTR) is a multi-disciplinary university recognised with an A++ accreditation by NAAC and classified as a Category I university with 12B status by UGC/MoE. In the 2024 NIRF rankings, SRMIST secured the 12th position nationally and holds a global '4 Star' rating from QS, along with the India-centric QS IGAUGE Diamond rating. Driven by a commitment to academic excellence, research innovation, and global outlook, SRMIST-KTR has emerged as one of India's most vibrant knowledge ecosystems. With over 500 active labs, 270+ crore in external funding, 600+ funded projects, and more than 53,000 research publications, SRMIST is a research-intensive institution. SRMIST operates six campuses located at Kattankulathur (Chengalpattu district, Tamil Nadu), Ramapuram and Ramapuram Part (Vadapalani) in Chennai, Tiruchirapalli (in Tamil Nadu), Modi Nagar in NCR New Delhi, Sonepat (in Haryana), Amaravati (in AP), and Gangtok (in Sikkim). More details are available at www.srmist.edu.in. For more information, please write to: Devadeep Konwar, Director - Communications Email: director.communications@srmist.edu.in (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by HT Syndication. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
VMPL New Delhi [India], September 10: Axis Max Life Insurance Limited ("Axis Max Life"/ "Company), formerly known as Max Life Insurance Company Limited and India Post Payments Bank ("IPPB") has announced a strategic partnership aimed at delivering affordable life insurance solutions beyond Tier 1 into emerging regional markets across rural India. This partnership leverages IPPB's robust network of 650 banking outlets and over 1.64 lakh access points through Post Offices to deliver a comprehensive suite of need-based life insurance solutions to customers across Tier 3, Tier 4 and rural markets. This also aligns with the government's financial inclusion objectives and supporting the IRDAI's vision of achieving 'Insurance for All by 2047'. Making life insurance more accessible and convenient, Axis Max Life will offer a range of tailored products, including its flagship Smart Wealth Advantage Guarantee Plan (SWAG), Smart Vibe Plan, and various Term Insurance Plans. These products are designed to meet diverse financial needs, from instant income and whole-life income options to essential protection and contemporary savings linked solutions for younger customers. The distribution model will be managed by Axis Max Life's Regional Heads overseeing each zone driving execution and coordination in every state of India. Additionally, Axis Max Life's teams' will engage stakeholders at IPPB's Circle Offices through regular training and structured engagement to deepen local relationships and ensure consistent association. Sumit Madan, Chief Distribution Officer, Axis Max Life, commented, "This partnership with India Post Payments Bank reinforces our commitment to take life insurance beyond metros into India's emerging regional and rural markets, where penetration has traditionally been low. While we continue to serve urban India, our priority is to expand reach and build deeper trust in communities that represent the next frontier of growth. By offering our life insurance and guaranteed products through IPPB's extensive postal network, the partnership will help reach new-to-bank and first-time insurance customers leveraging a trusted government institution like IPPB." Shri Gursharan Rai Bansal, CGM & CSMO, India Post Payments Bank, added, "IPPB is committed to supporting the government's financial inclusion objectives, and our partnership with Axis Max Life Insurance is a significant step in that direction. Leveraging our unparalleled reach, especially in rural and remote areas, we are confident that this collaboration will bring much-needed life insurance solutions to a vast population that has historically been underserved. This initiative will not only enhance the financial security of individuals and families but also contribute to the overall economic well-being of the nation." The partnership is expected to lead to a massive expansion in geographic reach and rural market penetration for Axis Max Life, providing access to millions of IPPB customers, including new-to-insurance segments. Customers will also benefit from seamless policy servicing through Axis Max Life's digital platforms, including its mobile app and website, which allow for real-time tracking, premium payments, policy modifications, and issuance of relevant documents. About Axis Max Life Insurance Limited (https://www.axismaxlife.com) Axis Max Life Insurance Limited, formerly known as Max Life Insurance Company Ltd., is a Joint Venture between Max Financial Services Limited ("MFSL") and Axis Bank Limited. Axis Max Life Insurance offers comprehensive protection and long-term savings life insurance solutions through its multi-channel distribution, including agency and third-party distribution partners. It has built its operations over two decades through a need-based sales process, a customer-centric approach to engagement and service delivery and trained human capital. As per annual audited financials for FY2024-25, Axis Max Life has achieved a gross written premium of INR 33,223 Cr. Axis Max Life has recently transitioned to a new domain, https://www.axismaxlife.com, as part of its rebranding exercise. This migration has no impact on existing policyholders who will continue to receive all policy benefits and services as earlier. About India Post Payments Bank India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has been established under the Department of Posts, Ministry of Communication with 100% equity owned by Government of India. IPPB was launched on September 1, 2018. The bank has been set up with the vision to build the most accessible, affordable and trusted bank for the common man in India. The fundamental mandate of India Post Payments Bank is to remove barriers for the unbanked & underbanked and reach the last mile leveraging the Postal network comprising ~1,65,000 Post Offices (~140,000 in rural areas) and ~3,00,000 Postal employees. IPPB's reach and its operating model is built on the key pillars of India Stack - enabling Paperless, Cashless and Presence-less banking in a simple and secure manner at the customers' doorstep, through a CBS-integrated smartphone and biometric device. Leveraging frugal innovation and with a high focus on ease of banking for the masses, IPPB delivers simple and affordable banking solutions through intuitive interfaces available in 13 languages to 11 Crore customers across 5.57 lakh villages & towns in India. IPPB is committed to provide a fillip to a less cash economy and contribute to the vision of Digital India. India will prosper when every citizen will have equal opportunity to become financially secure and empowered. Our motto stands true - Every customer is important, every transaction is significant and every deposit is valuable. Reach us at: www.ippbonline.com; marketing@ippbonline.in (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by VMPL. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
India and Israel are on their way to sign a new trade agreement in the near future, and negotiations in this regard are underway, Shmuel Abramzon, Chief Economist, Ministry of Finance, Israel, said on Wednesday. "We signed an investment agreement, and the next step would be a trade deal sometime. India hasn't announced yet. We started the negotiations. There are relationships between the two, and hopefully, it will materialise in the near future," Abramzon told ANI on the sidelines of FICCI LEADS 2025. Israel's Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, who was in India, and India's Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, signed a Bilateral Investment Agreement (BIA) in New Delhi on Monday. "Diplomatic and trade relations are wonderful between India and Israel and are showing very positive trends," Shmuel Abramzon said. According to Abramzon, it reflects the commitments of both nations in trade and commerce. Talking about Trump's trade tariffs, the Chief Economist said that both Israel and India are dealing with these complicated issues. "We both experience higher tariffs, and I believe this issue will be resolved. I have trust in the bonds of the US with Israel and India," Abramzon said. Given the strong bond between India and the United States, as well as between the Israeli leadership and US President Donald Trump, he said that things will settle down over time. "I think we should wait and be patient. It will be okay," he said. "Excellent cooperation is seen between India and Israel in terms of trade and commerce, and is likely to continue," he said. Showing solidarity with India's semiconductor mission, he said that Israel is not a big manufacturer of semiconductors. "It is more on the research and development side," Abramzon said. "Any advancement in the production of semiconductors is much welcomed by Israel," he said. (ANI)
In a week's time, chances are high that India and Oman will ink a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to boost trade and commerce between both countries, Minister of Commerce Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday. "Oman and India are talking on an FTA, and it may happen in a week," he said while addressing the 'FICCI LEADS' event in New Delhi, adding that efforts will be made to expedite the discussion. The FTA would be under the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. Negotiations for a comprehensive trade deal between India and Oman, which commenced in 2023, have been concluded recently. "India wants to be a part of the developed world. We want to work with friendly countries," he said, adding that India wants to engage actively with its trade partners. In the event, he said that "we have aligned interests and we can truly create partnerships." Goyal informed that more FTAs with other countries are also in the offing, and it will take some time. A meeting with the EU Commissioner is scheduled today on different FTAs, the minister added. India's trade deal negotiations gained momentum this week with multiple bilateral engagements underway, including fresh rounds with the European Union (EU). India has, over the past five years, inked several trade deals, including the India-Mauritius Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA) implemented in 2021, the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and the India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) in 2022, the India-European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) in 2024, and the India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) signed in 2025, which is yet to come into force. The India-European Union Free Trade Association (EFTA) Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) is expected to be implemented later this year once all parties complete their ratification processes. Meanwhile, India is in talks for several other agreements, including the India-EU FTA, India-Australia Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), India-Sri Lanka Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement, India-Peru FTA, India-Chile CEPA, India-New Zealand FTA, and a bilateral trade agreement with the United States. (ANI)
Sharing the information in a post on X, Governor Reynolds stated, "Led the India trade delegation to Pune in Maharashtra State today. Enjoyed the collaboration with @PrajIndustries, discussing ethanol production and technology."

https://x.com/IAGovernor/status/1965795275609686256

Praj Industries started three decades ago and is today India's most successful company in the field of bio-based technologies and engineering, with a worldwide presence. Praj started as a supplier to ethanol plants; currently, it offers sustainable solutions for bioenergy, high-purity water, critical process equipment, breweries, and industrial wastewater treatment.

Headquartered in Pune, Praj has a global presence with over 1,000 references in more than 100 countries across all five continents.

Gov Reynolds also visited Mr. Milk's dairy farm, run by the Mittal family, and appreciated their warm reception and hospitality in hosting the delegation.

"Ended the day on the farm visiting @mrmilk_india dairy," she stated. "Run by the Mittal family, I appreciated their warm reception and hospitality in hosting us.", the post further read.

Mittal Happy Cows Dairy Farms delivers farm-fresh Desi Cow Milk.

Earlier, Gov Reynolds met with Minister of Commerce Piyush Goyal in New Delhi to discuss India-Iowa economic ties and potential future partnerships.

In a post on X, Governor Reynolds said, "Pleasure to meet again with Minister of Commerce @PiyushGoyalOffc in New Delhi today. Discussed India-Iowa economic ties and the potential for future partnership. (ANI)
Actor James McAvoy was unexpectedly attacked by a stranger at a bar in Toronto on Monday night, while in the city for the premiere of his directorial debut, California Schemin', reported PEOPLE. The 46-year-old actor, known for his roles in the X-Men franchise and Atonement, had attended the world premiere of his film at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on September 6, along with his wife Lisa Liberati. Two days later, while spending an evening with the film's producers at Charlotte's Room bar, McAvoy was struck by a man who was reportedly being escorted out of the establishment. According to a source close to the actor, the man had been drinking heavily and was being escorted out of the bar. "James' back was to him and the man just punched him," the source told the outlet. Despite being caught off guard, McAvoy remained calm as bar staff and patrons quickly intervened. Following the sudden attack, McAvoy chose to stay at the bar. Sources told PEOPLE he even laughed off the incident and continued chatting with patrons and staff. McAvoy's directorial debut, California Schemin', is inspired by the true story of two Scottish men who pretended to be Americans to chase their dream of becoming hip-hop stars. The film stars Seamus McLean Ross, Samuel Bottomley, Lucy Halliday, and Rebekah Murrell. Speaking about his experience directing for the first time at TIFF, McAvoy told PEOPLE, "I've loved telling stories as an actor for 30 years. It's an extension of that. I now love telling stories as a director because I get more tools with which to tell those stories. It was a privilege." (ANI)
BJP MP Hema Malini on Wednesday met with flood-affected people in Mathura. She also distributed food to victims living in relief camps. Speaking to the media, Hema Malini said, "Very good arrangements have been made. Separate tents have been set up. There are many cows, goats, camels here. They are also getting fodder. All of them are being taken care of... What happened is not good that they had to leave their homes and come here. But the officials and the administration have made good arrangements. There are 12 more such camps..." Earlier, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday flagged off 48 trucks carrying relief materials for flood victims of Uttarakhand, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. Speaking at the flag off, the CM stated that Rs 5 crore from the Chief Minister's Relief Fund was also sent to the Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh governments for relief assistance. "I have just flagged off 48 trucks from here for Uttarakhand, Himachal and Punjab to provide relief to the people affected by floods and cloudbursts...We are also sending Rs 5 crore each from the Chief Minister's Relief Fund from the Uttar Pradesh government to support the Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh governments in relief work..." the CM said while talking to the reporters here. In a post on social media X, the CM wrote that the assistance was sent under 'One India-Excellent India' initiative under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "In line with the concept of 'One India - Excellent India' of the Honorable Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi ji, in this hour of crisis, we all stand united together. On behalf of the 25 crore people of Uttar Pradesh, vehicles carrying relief materials for the flood victims of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand states were flagged off today from the sacred land of Mother Shakumbhari Devi in Saharanpur," the post read. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand on September 11, according to an official press release. (ANI)
Vice President-elect CP Radhakrishnan's victory in the Vice Presidential election has drawn congratulatory messages from leaders across the country, with Chief Ministers and Deputy Chief Ministers of BJP-governed states hailing the win. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami extended his wishes, calling the victory a boost for democracy. "Congratulations and best wishes to CP Radhakrishnan on becoming the 15th Vice President of India. We are confident that your experience, dedication and leadership will further strengthen democracy and the nation will continue to move forward on the path of progress... This is a strong victory for NDA," CM Dhami said. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta also lauded the victory, calling it a democratic milestone. "On becoming the Vice President, heartfelt congratulations and best wishes from Delhi to C.P. Radhakrishnan. This is the victory of democracy, we are all delighted," she said. Odisha Deputy Chief Minister Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo congratulated Radhakrishnan and highlighted the NDA's strong numbers in the polls. "I congratulate C.P. Radhakrishnan on winning the Vice Presidential election. I congratulate all the leaders of the NDA for securing the victory of C.P. Radhakrishnan by giving him 452 votes, while the opposing candidate received 300 votes... I especially congratulate the newly elected Vice President C.P. Radhakrishnan," he said. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met CP Radhakrishnan in the national capital and congratulated him on his victory. PM Modi was joined by Union Ministers Kiren Rijiju, Pralhad Joshi and JP Nadda. Radhakrishnan defeated INDIA bloc nominee Justice B Sudershan Reddy by 152 votes in the Vice Presidential elections held between 10 am and 5 pm on Tuesday. A total of 98.20 per cent voter turnout was found in the Vice Presidential elections, wherein 767 MPs cast their vote out of 781. NDA nominee CP Radhakrishnan received 452 first preference votes, whereas the INDIA bloc candidate Justice B Sudershan Reddy received 300 first preference votes. Fifteen votes were considered invalid. "NDA nominee and Maharashtra Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan got 452 first preference votes. He has been elected as the Vice President of India... Opposition's vice-presidential candidate Justice Sudershan Reddy secured 300 first preference votes," Secretary-General, Rajya Sabha, PC Mody said in his press conference. A total of 13 MPs abstained from voting in the Vice Presidential elections. The list includes seven MPs from Biju Janata Dal, four from Bharath Rashtra Samithi, one MP from Shiromani Akali Dal and one independent MP. The Vice President's seat has been vacant since July 21, 2025, as Jagdeep Dhankhar resigned from his position, citing health reasons. Chandrapuram Ponnusamy Radhakrishnan, who was serving as the 24th Governor of Maharashtra from July 31, 2024, before being announced as NDA's Vice Presidential nominee. He previously served as the Governor of Jharkhand from February 2023 to July 2024. He also held additional charge as the Governor of Telangana and Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry between March and July 2024. Radhakrishnan had earlier also served as the Governor of Jharkhand, Telangana and Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry. Radhakrishnan, who served as the two-time MP from Coimbatore, was born on October 20, 1957, in Tamil Nadu's Tirrupur. (ANI)
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Tuesday expressed happiness over CP Radhakrishnan's election as the Vice President of India, saying that "it is a matter of pride" for all of us. Speaking to ANI, Shinde said, "I am very proud, happy, and it is also a matter of pride for all the people of Maharashtra because C P Radhakrishnan has been the Governor of Maharashtra. We have also received his guidance and he reached the post of Vice President while being the Governor of Maharashtra. It is a matter of pride for all of us." The Deputy CM also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for entrusting MP Shrikant Shinde with responsibilities during the election. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met CP Radhakrishnan in the national capital and congratulated him on his victory. PM Modi was joined by Union Ministers Kiren Rijiju, Pralhad Joshi and JP Nadda. Radhakrishnan defeated INDIA bloc nominee Justice B Sudershan Reddy by 152 votes in the Vice Presidential elections held between 10 am and 5 pm on Tuesday. A total of 98.20 per cent voter turnout was found in the Vice Presidential elections, wherein 767 MPs cast their vote out of 781. NDA nominee CP Radhakrishnan received 452 first preference votes, whereas the INDIA bloc candidate Justice B Sudershan Reddy received 300 first preference votes. Fifteen votes were considered invalid. "NDA nominee and Maharashtra Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan got 452 first preference votes. He has been elected as the Vice President of India... Opposition's vice-presidential candidate Justice Sudershan Reddy secured 300 first preference votes," Secretary-General, Rajya Sabha, PC Mody said in his press conference. A total of 13 MPs abstained from voting in the Vice Presidential elections. The list includes seven MPs from Biju Janata Dal, four from Bharath Rashtra Samithi, one MP from Shiromani Akali Dal and one independent MP. The Vice President's seat has been vacant since July 21, 2025, as Jagdeep Dhankhar resigned from his position, citing health reasons. Chandrapuram Ponnusamy Radhakrishnan, who was serving as the 24th Governor of Maharashtra from July 31, 2024, before being announced as NDA's Vice Presidential nominee. He previously served as the Governor of Jharkhand from February 2023 to July 2024. He also held additional charge as the Governor of Telangana and Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry between March and July 2024. Radhakrishnan had earlier also served as the Governor of Jharkhand, Telangana and Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry. Radhakrishnan, who served as the two-time MP from Coimbatore, was born on October 20, 1957, in Tamil Nadu's Tirrupur. (ANI)
A new study has established a connection between the formation of Antarctica around 34 million years ago and the early evolution of the Indian monsoon system that allowed lush forests to flourish across the subcontinent, Ministry of Science & Technology said. The discovery of well-preserved fossil leaves from the Laisong Formation in Nagaland, dating back about 34 million years, suggested that the region once had a warm and wet climate. This led scientists from led by researchers from the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences (Lucknow) and Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (Dehradun), both autonomous institutes of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) to carry out a detailed climate reconstruction and the results revealed something even more striking--very high rainfall and temperatures. The scientists started exploring what could have caused such extreme tropical conditions at that time. They found the clue lay in the fossil's age, which matched the period when massive ice sheets first began forming in Antarctica. This timing pointed to a global connection--suggesting that the growth of Antarctic ice may have shifted wind and rainfall patterns, bringing intense monsoonal rains to Northeast India. Their research, published in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, revealed that the growth of Antarctic ice reshaped global wind and rainfall patterns by shifting the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ)--a major rain belt--from the South Pole toward the tropics. As a result, India experienced exceptionally higher rainfall and warmer temperatures and the resultant evolution of the India monsoon system. To uncover this story, scientists turned to an unusual witness: fossilized leaves found in the hills of Nagaland. Using a method called CLAMP (Climate Leaf Analysis Multivariate Program), researchers reconstructed past climates by studying the size, shape, and structure of these ancient leaves. Their findings showed that Nagaland once experienced much wetter and warmer conditions than today. Strikingly, these results matched the global timing of Antarctic glaciation--linking ice growth at the South Pole with tropical rainfall in India. This discovery is more than just a tale of Earth's deep past. It carries a warning for our future. As modern climate change accelerates Antarctic ice melt, the ITCZ may shift again, disrupting rainfall across the tropics. For India and its neighbors, this could mean profound changes in the monsoon--the lifeline for agriculture, water supply, and millions of people's daily lives. The study highlights that Earth's climate is a global web. What happens in one corner of the world--be it the icy deserts of Antarctica or the humid forests of Nagaland--can reverberate across continents. By learning how our planet responded to dramatic shifts millions of years ago, we can better prepare for the challenges looming in a warming future. (ANI)
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday congratulated C P Radhakrishnan on being elected the Vice President of India, saying that he is happy that a Mumbai voter has been elected. Slamming the opposition, CM Fadnavis said that the opposition was trying to create an atmosphere that the NDA votes would be divided but the opposite happened and they could not save their own votes. "Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan has emerged as the vice-president of India. I congratulate him and also express gratitude towards PM Modi for nominating him and all the NDA parties supporting him. I am particularly happy that a Mumbai voter has been elected as vice president of India...The Opposition was trying to create an atmosphere that the NDA votes would be divided. Clearly, the opposite happened, and the Opposition could not save their own votes, and it went to CP Radhakrishnan," he said. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met CP Radhakrishnan in the national capital and congratulated him on his victory. PM Modi was joined by Union Ministers Kiren Rijiju, Pralhad Joshi and JP Nadda. Radhakrishnan defeated INDIA bloc nominee Justice B Sudershan Reddy by 152 votes in the Vice Presidential elections held between 10 am and 5 pm on Tuesday. A total of 98.20 per cent voter turnout was found in the Vice Presidential elections, wherein 767 MPs cast their vote out of 781. NDA nominee CP Radhakrishnan received 452 first preference votes, whereas the INDIA bloc candidate Justice B Sudershan Reddy received 300 first preference votes. Fifteen votes were considered invalid. "NDA nominee and Maharashtra Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan got 452 first preference votes. He has been elected as the Vice President of India... Opposition's vice-presidential candidate Justice Sudershan Reddy secured 300 first preference votes," Secretary-General, Rajya Sabha, PC Mody said in his press conference. A total of 13 MPs abstained from voting in the Vice Presidential elections. The list includes seven MPs from Biju Janata Dal, four from Bharath Rashtra Samithi, one MP from Shiromani Akali Dal and one independent MP. The Vice President's seat has been vacant since July 21, 2025, as Jagdeep Dhankhar resigned from his position, citing health reasons. Chandrapuram Ponnusamy Radhakrishnan, who was serving as the 24th Governor of Maharashtra from July 31, 2024, before being announced as NDA's Vice Presidential nominee. He previously served as the Governor of Jharkhand from February 2023 to July 2024. He also held additional charge as the Governor of Telangana and Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry between March and July 2024. Radhakrishnan had earlier also served as the Governor of Jharkhand, Telangana and Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry. Radhakrishnan, who served as the two-time MP from Coimbatore, was born on October 20, 1957, in Tamil Nadu's Tirrupur. (ANI)
Congress MP Sukhdeo Bhagat on Tuesday congratulated NDA candidate CP Radhakrishnan on being elected as the Vice President of India, while stressing that the Opposition does not consider the result as its defeat. Speaking to ANI, Bhagat said the newly elected Vice President has an important constitutional responsibility. "I congratulate C.P. Radhakrishnan, and this victory is a responsibility. It is the responsibility to protect the constitutional values," he said. The Congress leader also expressed hope that former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, who resigned last month, would be present during the swearing-in ceremony. "We hope that when he takes the oath, the former vice president Jagdeep Dhankhar will be present there," Bhagat added. He further underlined that the Opposition's campaign in the Vice Presidential election focused on safeguarding democracy. "This is not our defeat. Our campaign is to save the Constitution, to preserve the constitutional values intact, and to maintain them is our responsibility, which Rahul Gandhi is fulfilling," the MP said. CP Radhakrishnan was elected as the 15th Vice President of India on Tuesday, succeeding Jagdeep Dhankhar, who resigned from the post citing health concerns. Radhakrishnan defeated opposition nominee Justice B Sudershan Reddy by 152 votes in the Vice Presidential elections. The election recorded 98.20 per cent polling, with 767 MPs casting their votes out of 781 eligible. Radhakrishnan received 452 first preference votes whereas the INDIA bloc candidate Justice B Sudershan Reddy received 300 first preference votes. Fifteen votes were invalid. Meanwhile, Congress MP Renuka Chowdhury congratulated NDA nominee C.P. Radhakrishnan on being elected Vice President of India while taking a swipe at his predecessor Jagdeep Dhankhar, who resigned last month. Speaking to ANI, Chowdhury said, "I wish the new Vice President all the very best and heartily congratulate him. I hope that he will complete his full tenure, unlike the last vice president who vanished." The Vice President's seat has been vacant since July 21, 2025, as Jagdeep Dhankhar resigned from his position, citing health reasons. (ANI)
The Yamuna River continued to flow close to the danger mark in the early hours of Wednesday, raising concerns among residents and authorities. Visuals from the Old Yamuna Bridge showed the current water level just below the 90-metre mark on the gauge, nearing the red warning line, which likely indicates the danger level. Meanwhile, floodwater from the Yamuna River has gradually begun to recede from the impacted areas in Delhi. Drone visuals from the Mayur Vihar area, shot at 6:55 am on Wednesday, showed signs of improvement. In Agra, the water level of the Yamuna River around the Taj Mahal area rose significantly on Tuesday following heavy rainfall in the region. Fresh visuals from near the monument showed a visibly increased water level. Several states across India are currently facing floods or flood-like conditions, with continuous downpours leading to waterlogging and rising river levels in multiple regions. In Mathura, Municipal Councillors distributed food items to flood-affected residents as part of relief efforts. Earlier, the water level of the Yamuna River in Delhi dropped below the danger mark in the early hours of Monday, bringing relief after several days of flooding concerns. Visuals from the Old Yamuna Bridge showed the river flowing below 205.30 meters. The danger mark for the Yamuna in the city is 205.33 metres, while the warning level is 204.5 metres. Evacuations are generally initiated when the level reaches 206 metres. With the level now receding, officials said the situation in the capital is gradually improving, though low-lying areas remain under watch. The river was flowing above the danger mark last week, following heavy rainfall, leading to inundation in areas such as Monastery Market, Yamuna Bazaar, Vasudev Ghat and nearby residential colonies. Pumps were deployed to clear floodwater, and residents of low-lying localities were shifted to relief camps near Mayur Vihar Phase-I as a precaution. On Friday, Delhi Minister Parvesh Verma urged people not to create unnecessary panic among citizens as he visited the Civil Lines area of Delhi amid the heavy rainfall in the national capital over the past few days. "There is not a drop of water in the Civil Lines area. The service road adjoining the ring road is 8 to 10 feet below the road level, and rainwater is being pumped out. It is not right to say that Delhi is submerged in the Yamuna River," he said. (ANI)
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan strongly criticised the Union Government's decision to host Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, calling it a "betrayal of India's historic solidarity with Palestine." In a post shared on social media platform X on Tuesday, the Kerala Chief Minister described Smotrich as a "far-right extremist" and a chief architect of Israel's "brutal occupation and expansionist agenda." "Strongly condemn the Union Government's decision to host Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right extremist and a chief architect of Israel's brutal occupation and expansionist agenda. At a time when a genocide is unfolding in Gaza, entering into agreements with representatives of the Netanyahu regime is nothing short of a betrayal of India's historic solidarity with Palestine," Vijayan said in a post. He further stated, "It is deplorable to maintain military, security, and economic ties with Israel while the path to a just and lasting peace for Palestine remains unpursued." https://x.com/pinarayivijayan/status/1965391295922536661 Meanwhile, India and Israel have signed a new Bilateral Investment Agreement (BIA) aimed at strengthening reciprocal investments and expanding economic cooperation between the two nations, according to an official statement by Israel's Ministry of Finance. At the center of the visit, Israel's Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich and India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman signed the agreement in New Delhi on Monday. The statement noted that Israel has become the first OECD member state with which India has signed such a strategic agreement, in line with India's new model for investment treaties. The agreement will promote reciprocal investments between investors from both countries, ensuring certainty and protection while contributing to enhanced trade and investment flows. It replaces the previous agreement signed in 1996, which was terminated in 2017 as part of India's broader policy on investment treaties, the Ministry of Finance said. The official statement added that the signing followed months of intensive work between the Chief Economist's teams at Israel's Ministry of Finance and their counterparts in India. Both ministers emphasised the robust economic relationship between the two countries, grounded in shared strategic interests, and reaffirmed their commitment to cooperation in areas such as innovation, infrastructure development, financial regulation, and digital trade. They also agreed to explore avenues for collaboration within regional development banks. Smotrich invited Sitharaman for a reciprocal visit to Israel, while both sides agreed to jointly examine the establishment of a bilateral financial protocol to improve financing conditions for Israeli exporters. The Israeli finance minister further noted that his ministry is considering opening a representation in India to strengthen institutional ties and advance joint economic projects, according to the Ministry of Finance statement. (ANI)
Karnataka BJP President BY Vijayendra has slammed the Congress government in the State over the stone pelting incident at Maddur in Mandya district during the Ganpati procession a day earlier. Vijayendra said he and other leaders of the party, including R. Ashoka, Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, CN Ashwathnarayan, will visit Maddur. "At 10 or 10:30 AM, I, along with R. Ashoka, Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, CN Ashwathnarayan, and other party leaders, will visit Maddur. The cases against anti-national elements who pelted stones at a police station and set it on fire have been withdrawn," Vijayendra told reporters. He asked whether the police had no information about thousands of Hindu activists participating in the Ganesha immersion procession in Maddur. "Why were senior police officers not present there? Why did the police allow some people to enter a mosque? Why did the government create such an opportunity?" he asked. Meanwhile, earlier in the day, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah accused the RSS and the BJP of disrupting peace in the state. He was reacting to the BJP delegation's proposed visit to Maddur. "The BJP's intention and work is to disturb peace. Earlier, they had organised a Chamundi Betta Chalo rally. RSS members and others from different places had come to Mysuru...They all gathered and worked to disrupt peace," Siddaramaiah told reporters in Bengaluru. "Now in Mandya's Maddur, violence has taken place...Before the BJP even said anything, we had already arrested 21 people. Be it Muslim, Christian, or anyone else, we will take action according to the law," he added. Asked about the BJP delegation's complaint to Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the law and order situation in Karnataka, the Chief Minister said," It is the state government's responsibility to maintain law and order. When farmer protests broke out in Delhi, wasn't law and order disturbed then? What happened to law and order in Manipur?" Meanwhile, there was a heavy police deployment in Karnataka's Maddur town on Tuesday morning after protests broke out on Monday evening against the stone pelting incident. Markets have been deserted as shops have not opened since last night with the imposition of prohibitory orders. Meanwhile, the Hindu religious organisations in the area are holding a meeting on the issue. A total of 21 people have been arrested following the stone pelting incident and the subsequent protest which broke out in response. Earlier on Monday, police lathi-charged the protesters in an effort to disperse the crowd. (ANI)
Amid the ongoing unrest in Nepal, the Uttar Pradesh government has directed the police administration to remain on high alert in the border districts of the state at all times. The state government has also issued helpline numbers to help the stranded Indian citizens. Acting on the instructions of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Director General of Police (DGP) Rajiv Krishan has ordered the police to remain on high alert 24 hours a day. To further strengthen the security in the border districts of Uttar Pradesh, an additional police force has been deployed. Patrolling and surveillance have been intensified to ensure a swift response in case of emergencies. Meanwhile, a special control room has been set up at Police Headquarters in Lucknow to help the stranded Indian nationals in Nepal. Three helpline numbers, including one WhatsApp number, will be operational 24x7 - (0522-2390257, 0522-2724010, 9454401674). The social media unit of the police has been instructed to continuously monitor sensitive information and posts related to Nepal and take immediate action if necessary. Meanwhile, Nepalese President Ram Chandra Paudel on Tuesday called on protesting citizens to pursue a peaceful resolution to the ongoing 'Gen Z' movement through dialogue, The Himalayan Times reported. President Paudel emphasised that with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's resignation already accepted, the nation must focus on resolving the crisis without further bloodshed or destruction, The Himalayan Times reported, citing an official statement from the President. "I urge all sides to remain calm, prevent further harm to the nation, and come to the table for talks. In a democracy, the demands raised by citizens can be addressed through dialogue and negotiation," he said. The appeal comes after days of violent demonstrations that left at least 19 people dead and hundreds injured when security forces opened fire on protesters outside the Federal Parliament. Demonstrators later stormed key government institutions, including the parliament building and the Office of the President at Shital Niwas. The Nepal Army had also issued a public request urging citizens, especially the youth, to exercise restraint and safeguard the nation's historical and cultural heritage, The Himalayan Times reported. Meanwhile, the District Administration Office in Dang has imposed a curfew in major market areas on Tuesday in view of the violent protest across the nation, The Kathmandu Post reported. Chief District Officer Bishwa Prakash Aryal informed that the order was issued after protests turned violent, leading to arson and vandalism of public property, government offices and private assets. The curfew bans movement, gatherings, rallies, demonstrations, meetings and sit-ins in an attempt to neutralise the protests, the Kathmandu Post reported. In the last few days, the Gen Z demonstrations have escalated sharply, resulting in at least 19 deaths and more than 500 injuries in clashes around the Federal Parliament and other parts of Kathmandu. The protests began on September 8 in Kathmandu and other major cities, including Pokhara, Butwal, and Birgunj, after the government imposed a ban on major social media platforms, citing tax revenue and cybersecurity concerns. Protesters have been demanding an end to institutionalised corruption and favouritism in governance. They want the government to be more accountable and transparent in its decision-making processes. The protesters are also demanding the revocation of the ban on social media platforms, which they see as an attempt to suppress free speech. A curfew was imposed in several cities, including Kathmandu, to control the situation. The government imposed a ban on 26 major social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and YouTube, citing concerns over misinformation and the need for regulatory compliance. Citizens saw this as an attack on free speech and a way to suppress dissent. (ANI)
In an official letter dated September 9, the Chief Minister extended his heartfelt greetings to the newly elected Vice President.

CM Rangasamy said, "It gives me immense pleasure to extend my heartfelt congratulations on your outstanding victory in becoming the Vice-President of our proud Nation, India".

He further added, "This victory is well-deserved and reflects the unwavering dedication, exemplary public service and strong leadership of the NDA Government under the esteemed stewardship of the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi Ji."

Meanwhile, National Democratic Alliance (NDA)-backed CP Radhakrishnan was elected as the 15th Vice President of India on Tuesday.

Radhakrishnan secured a decisive majority in the election, receiving support not only from NDA MPs but also from sections of the opposition.

Earlier on Tuesday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs called the election of CP Radhakrishnan as the Vice President of India a historic and unprecedented victory for the NDA, crediting the broad support he received across party lines.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Radhakrishnan in New Delhi and congratulated him on his victory. PM Modi was accompanied by Union Ministers Kiren Rijiju, Pralhad Joshi and JP Nadda.

Radhakrishnan defeated the INDIA bloc nominee Justice B Sudershan Reddy by 152 votes in the Vice Presidential elections held from 10 am to 5 pm on Tuesday.

The election witnessed a voter turnout of 98.20 per cent, with 767 MPs casting their votes out of 781 eligible voters.

NDA nominee CP Radhakrishnan received 452 first preference votes, whereas the INDIA bloc candidate Justice B Sudershan Reddy received 300 first preference votes. Fifteen votes were considered invalid.

Chandrapuram Ponnusamy Radhakrishnan was serving as the 24th Governor of Maharashtra from July 31, 2024, before being announced as the NDA's Vice Presidential nominee.

The Vice President's seat had been vacant since July 21, 2025, as former VP Jagdeep Dhankhar resigned from his position, citing health reasons. (ANI)
The Assam State Cabinet on Tuesday approved the framing of an SOP under the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950, to guide the District Commissioners (DC) and Senior Superintendents of Police (SSP) to expel illegal migrants from Assam and tackle the unabated illegal immigration from neighbouring countries. The decision was taken during the state cabinet meeting held at Lok Sewa Bhawan in Guwahati under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. After the cabinet meeting, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, "The Supreme Court, through the constitutional bench, has clearly indicated that the government of Assam is free to use the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act 1950 to detect and deport foreigners. Under this act, the Deputy Commissioner is empowered by the central government to evacuate any person who, in the view of the Deputy Commissioner, is considered to be a foreigner. On Wednesday, the State cabinet came out with a standard operating procedure to implement the act in the letter and spirit. Under the new SOP, the Deputy Commissioner will give 10 days to the suspected person to prove their citizenship. If the deputy commissioner, after a 10-day hearing, concludes that the person is a foreigner, then he will immediately pass an order of evacuation. The foreigners will be immediately evacuated or will be pushed back from Assam. However, if the Deputy Commissioner is not able to come to a proper conclusion, then the matter will be referred to the Foreigners Tribunal for further hearing. Under this act, as mandated by the Supreme Court, it will be much easier for the government of Assam to push back foreigners once he is detected and the Deputy Commissioner comes to the conclusion that they are indeed foreign nationals. So this is a landmark decision of the Assam Cabinet. Never before have we attempted this act. Now, as the Supreme Court has clearly mandated, we are going to implement this act..." If the Deputy Commissioner receives such information from the police or any other source that a person is suspected to be an illegal immigrant, he will direct the person to produce evidence of his citizenship within 10 days. If the DC finds that the evidence submitted by the suspected illegal immigrant is not sufficient or satisfactory to prove his citizenship of India, he will record his opinion in writing identifying the person to be an illegal immigrant, which shall consist of a concise statement of facts and the findings thereof with reasons. The DC shall pass an expulsion order under Section 2(a) of the Act of 1950 with the direction to remove the illegal immigrant from Assam within 24 hours and by the route so specified by him. In case of DFNs identified by the FTs, the DC will pass an expulsion order, since in their case, no identification process is necessary, as they may have already exhausted remedies available by approaching the High Court and the Supreme Court. Once a person is identified as an illegal immigrant and has been ordered to remove themselves, the DC will refer the illegal migrant to the SSP concerned for capturing their biometrics and demographic details on the Foreigners Identification Portal. If the illegal migrant does not remove himself despite the expulsion order, the DC, as per Section 4 of the Act of 1950, with the assistance of the SSP concerned, shall either keep such illegal immigrant in the Holding Centre or hand him over to the Border Guarding Force nearest to him for expulsion. Illegal immigrants, if detected near the zero line, or within 12 hours from his/her entry in the state, will be pushed back immediately without any further process. On the other hand, the State Cabinet has accorded the ex post facto approval for financial assistance of Rs. 5 crore, towards "Chief Minister Relief Fund Himachal Pradesh" from Chief Minister's Scheme for Public Emergency, Assam, to alleviate the suffering caused by the monsoon rains in the State of Himachal Pradesh. The State Cabinet has approved the correction of pay anomaly in respect of 20 physiotherapists, speech therapists, accountants and cashiers of Jorhat Medical College and Hospital under the Directorate of Medical Education, Assam and Model Hospitals under the Directorate of Health Services of Assam to fix benefits like other direct entry pay scales. The State Cabinet has approved the amendment of the Assam Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020 (AAPLM Act, 2020) on the lines of Model Act, 2017 circulated by Govt. of India, to align it with the evolving aspects of the state's agricultural marketing system, and enhance market access for small and marginal farmers, ensuring transparent and competitive bidding for better price realization. The State Cabinet has also approved to provide a scooty to 11250 meritorious students who secured 80 per cent or above marks in the Higher Secondary (Class 12) examination under the Dr Banikanta Kakati Merit Award. (ANI)
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday extended his best wishes to C P Radhakrishnan for being elected as the new Vice President of India. He recalled the very first Vice President, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan's words to act towards each party with fairness and impartiality, with ill-will to none and goodwill to all. In a post shared on X, the Congress leader said, "While extending its best wishes to Shri C. P. Radhakrishnan, the newly-elected Vice President of India who will also be the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, the Indian National Congress recalls the wise words of Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the very first Vice President and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha." Jairam Ramesh further stated that Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, on the opening day of the Rajya Sabha, said that he will uphold the highest traditions of parliamentary democracy and be fair and impartial towards each party. The former VP also said that a democracy will degenerate to tyranny if oppositions don't criticise government policies fairly and freely. "On the opening day of the Rajya Sabha on May 16, 1952, the very eminent philosopher-educationist-author-diplomat had said: "I belong to no party, and that means I belong to every party in this House. It shall be my endeavour to uphold the traditions, the highest traditions, of parliamentary democracy and act towards each party with fairness and impartiality with ill-will to none and goodwill to all....A democracy is likely to degenerate into a tyranny if it does not allow the opposition groups to criticise fairly, freely, and frankly the policies of the Government," Jairam Ramesh said in X post. Jairam Ramesh further said that Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan practised what he preached, both in letter and spirit. https://x.com/Jairam_Ramesh/status/1965618605615448189 Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi also congratulated C P Radhakrishnan on being elected as the Vice President of India and expressed his gratitude towards B Sudershan Reddy for contesting the elections with integrity and courage as the INDIA bloc's Vice-Presidential nominee. "Yesterday I participated in the Vice Presidential election along with my colleagues from Parliament. Exercising this responsibility is a reminder of the role each of us plays in protecting democratic institutions. I extend my congratulations to Shri C.P. Radhakrishnan on being elected as the Vice President of India," the Congress MP said in an X post. "I also convey my gratitude to Shri B. Sudershan Reddy garu for contesting with integrity and courage as the joint candidate of a united Opposition. His campaign reminded us that this election was not only about numbers, but also about defending the values enshrined in our Constitution," Gogoi added Gogoi also added that the Vice President, as Custodian of the Rajya Sabha and one of the highest Constitutional authorities in our democracy, holds a position of great responsibility. "The Vice President holds a position of great responsibility, both as the custodian of Rajya Sabha traditions and as one of the highest Constitutional authorities in our democracy. I hope the new Vice President will safeguard the dignity of Parliament, provide equal space to all voices, and act independently of political pressures," he said. https://x.com/GauravGogoiAsm/status/1965602771220267057 Meanwhile, C P Radhakrishnan defeated the INDIA bloc nominee Justice B Sudershan Reddy by 152 votes in the Vice Presidential elections held from 10 am to 5 pm on Tuesday. The election witnessed a voter turnout of 98.20 per cent, with 767 MPs casting their votes out of 781 eligible voters. NDA nominee CP Radhakrishnan received 452 first-preference votes, whereas the INDIA bloc candidate Justice B Sudershan Reddy received 300 first-preference votes. Fifteen votes were considered invalid. (ANI)
Delhi Police have arrested a cab driver for engaging in an obscene act. The cab driver was allegedly masturbating while driving in the presence of a female student passenger in the Maurice Nagar area of New Delhi. The accused, identified as Lom Shankar, was taken into custody following a complaint filed by the student who was in the vehicle at the time of the incident. According to the police, the car has been seized as part of the investigation. Delhi Police said, "A cab driver, Lom Shankar, was arrested by the Police for allegedly masturbating while driving the car, with a female student present as the passenger. The action was taken based on the complaint of the student. The cab has been seized. The incident occurred in the Maurice Nagar area". Further details are awaited. Earlier on Thursday, Delhi Police arrested a 31-year-old private airline pilot for allegedly filming objectionable videos of a woman using a hidden spy camera. The arrest was made by the staff of PS Kishangarh, South West District, a Delhi police statement read. The accused was identified as Mohit Priyadarshi, a resident of the Civil Lines area in Agra, Uttar Pradesh. Police recovered a lighter-shaped device fitted with a hidden camera from his possession. The incident reportedly took place at the Shani Bazar when the accused allegedly attempted to record the complainant without her consent using a hidden camera. The police registered a case against the accused under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). According to the police, "On the night of August 30, complainant Ms K, a resident of Kishangarh village, noticed the accused attempting to record her at Shani Bazar without consent. A case under sections 77/78 BNS was registered at PS Kishangarh."During the investigation, CCTV footage from the area was examined, and the suspect's image was circulated. With the help of local intelligence, the accused was tracked down and arrested. On sustained interrogation, he confessed to his involvement. Police added, "The accused, Priyadarshi, is unmarried and employed as a pilot with a private airline. He admitted he had been making such videos to satisfy his personal gratification." (ANI)
In a joint operation by Delhi Police Special Cell, Jharkhand Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and Ranchi Police, two suspected ISIS terrorists were arrested on Wednesday, according to Delhi Police. A suspected ISIS terrorist, Azhar Danish, was arrested from the Islamnagar area of Ranchi in Jharkhand. He had a case registered against him in Delhi, based on which the Delhi Special Cell was on the lookout for him. He is being questioned by the Delhi Police. Another suspect was arrested from Delhi, confirmed Delhi Police. Delhi Police Special Cell said, "Some arrests have been made by Delhi Police Special Cell in an ongoing operation." The raids are going on in collaboration with the Special Cell's central agencies at eight places, and so far, more than eight suspects have been detained. They are being questioned by the Delhi Police. The operation is still going on at different places. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the Delhi Police Special Cell busted an espionage module linked to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) with the arrest of a 43-year-old man accused of supplying SIM cards that were later used by operatives across the border. According to Delhi Police Special Cell, specific intelligence was received on August 28 about an individual associated with ISI handlers being present in Vijay Block, Laxmi Nagar. Acting swiftly, the team apprehended the suspect, identified as Prabhat Kumar Chaurasiya. During sustained interrogation, Chaurasiya revealed that he had procured 16 SIM cards using his Aadhaar credentials and sent them to Nepal, out of which 11 were being operated on WhatsApp from Lahore, Bahawalpur and other parts of Pakistan by ISI operatives. These were allegedly being used for espionage and other anti-India activities. Officials at the special cell said these SIMs were being used from across the border for espionage and other anti-India activities through the social media platform WhatsApp. A case was registered at PS Special Cell, Delhi, under Sections 61(2)/152 of the BNS. Further investigation is in progress to trace his associates, identify the courier network, and apprehend the foreign handlers who orchestrated this espionage module. (ANI)
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh on Wednesday criticised the arrest of party MLA Mehraj Malik under the Public Safety Act (PSA), calling it "unconstitutional". Malik, a legislator from Doda, has been detained under the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978, on grounds that his activities were prejudicial to the maintenance of public order, officials said. Singh, who arrived in Jammu earlier in the day, said he would meet party leaders in the region and review the next steps. He stated that the party would raise the issue on the "sadak" (streets), in the "sadan" (Parliament), and possibly in the Supreme Court as well. "It is unconstitutional to slap the Public Safety Act (PSA) on Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Doda MLA, Mehraj Malik. This is the government's anti-people mindset that a man was asking for a hospital, you slapped PSA on him," Sanjay Singh told ANI in Jammu. He further alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is targeting AAP leaders. "BJP, the Prime Minister is always after AAP, that is what is happening with us...We will take up this matter strongly, at the street and in Parliament, and we may also approach the Supreme Court," he added. Doda MLA Mehraj Malik was booked under provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act 1978 (PSA) on Monday on grounds of his activities being prejudicial to the maintenance of public order. Preventive detention under the PSA was found necessary in the interest of maintaining public order and safeguarding law and order in the region, according to officials. Shamas Din Malik, father of the detained AAP MLA, said that his son was wrongly charged under the Public Safety Act (PSA), mentioning that the court will decide the legality of his arrest. "The court will decide now...There was a fight with DC sahib (Deputy Commissioner of Doda)...He has been wrongly charged under PSA," Shamas Din Malik told ANI. Earlier, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah condemned the detention of Mehraj Malik under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA), saying that the MLA's detention affects the trust of people in democracy. "I am not able to understand what he did to get detained under such a strict law like the PSA? Was there any incident of stone-pelting? On the contrary, there is no action against those who played with our religious sentiments and spoiled the atmosphere at the Hazratbal Shrine. Only innocents are being harassed. But no action is being taken against those who hurt our religious sentiments," the J-K CM told reporters. AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal strongly reacted to the arrest, questioning the rationale behind the same, further stating that it was an attack on democracy. People's Democratic Party (PDP) MLA Waheed Para termed the arrest a "direct assault on democracy," while calling out the endorsement of PSA against an elected MLA by the Assembly Secretariat. Amid apprehensions of possible disturbances to peace and order, the district administration of Doda has imposed restrictions under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS)(ANI)
"On the birth anniversary of the great freedom fighter, eloquent orator, social reformer, and Bharat Ratna recipient, Pt. Govind Ballabh Pant Ji, countless salutations," stated his 'X' post on Wednesday.

"Your thoughts will forever continue to inspire us towards public service and national service," Dhami's X post read further.

Meanwhile, he also extended his wishes to CP Radhakrishnan on his victory in the Vice Presidential election.

"Congratulations and best wishes to CP Radhakrishnan on becoming the 15th Vice President of India. We are confident that your experience, dedication and leadership will further strengthen democracy and the nation will continue to move forward on the path of progress... This is a strong victory for NDA," CM Dhami said.

The Uttarakhand CM on Tuesday convened a review meeting via video conferencing from the Chief Minister's residence in response to the recent political developments occurring in the neighbouring country of Nepal.

According to the release, the meeting was attended by the district administrations of Champawat, Pithoragarh, and Udham Singh Nagar, along with officials from the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and the state police.

The overall security situation along Uttarakhand's international borders with Nepal was thoroughly reviewed. CM Dhami directed officials to launch intensive checking campaigns along the Nepal border and keep strict watch on the activities of any anti-social or disruptive elements.

He further emphasised the need for continuous monitoring of social media to curb the spread of rumours, misleading information, or provocative content, ensuring timely action when necessary.

He instructed the district administrations to maintain constant coordination with central security agencies and the SSB. He also stressed that surveillance systems should be strengthened through the collective participation of local villagers, gram committees, police forces, and forest department officials in the border areas.

He added that all entry routes along the borders must be regularly monitored, and special vigilance should be exercised on cross-border movement. (ANI)
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Satish Krishna Sail, MLA from Karnataka's Karwar Assembly constituency, in connection with an ongoing money laundering case, the agency said on Wednesday. The arrest was made by ED's Bengaluru Zonal Office on Tuesday night after a day-long interrogation of the legislator, who had deposed before the agency earlier that day. Officials privy to the development told ANI that Sail had been "avoiding summons" prior to his appearance. The MLA will be produced before the court later today. The move comes a month after the ED's Bengaluru zonal office conducted search operations at multiple locations in Karwar (Uttara Kannada), Goa, Mumbai and New Delhi under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, in connection with the case. The raids were carried out on 13th and 14th August. These operation was part of the ongoing investigation into Satish Sail, and others persons and entities, including Ashapura Minechem Ltd, Shree Lal Mahal Ltd, Swastik Steels (Hosepet) Pvt Ltd, ILC Industries Ltd, Sri Lakshmi Venkateshwara Minerals Ltd, who were convicted by a special court for MPs and MLAs Bangalore, for illegal export of iron ore fines carried out by Shree Mallikarjun Shipping Pvt Ltd in collusion of other persons and entities. ED initiated an investigation on the basis of a conviction order of the court for the offences under various sections of the Induan Penal Code, 1860 and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. ED investigation revealed that Satish Sail, MLA from Karwar Assembly constituency, in collusion with other business entities and Belekeri Port officials, had illegally exported iron ore fines weighing nearly 1.25 lakh metric ton during the period from April 19, 2010, to June 10, 2010, which were already under the orders of seizure of the forest department, Ankola. "The total value of the illegal exports carried out by Satish Sail, through this company, was Rs 86.78 crore," the agency has said in a statement earlier. The search action then resulted in the seizure of cash Rs 1.41 crore from the residence of Satish Sail and cash of Rs 27 lakh from the office premises of Sri Lal Mahal Ltd. Further, gold weighing 6.75 kg in the form of gold jewellery and bullion was also seized from the bank locker of Sail's family. Bank accounts of accused persons and entities-- Shree Mallikarjun Shipping Pyt Ltd, Satish Krishna Sail, Ashapura Minechem Ltd, etc, containing Rs 14.13 crore balance were also frozen during the search operations. Incriminating evidences in the form of documents, e-mails and records were also seized in the search operation. (ANI)
The victim, identified as Madhavi from Kulai, was riding her scooter towards Kuntikana around 8:30 AM on Tuesday. Her scooter hit a large pothole on the highway near the Royal Oak building in Kuloor, causing her to fall.

Mohammed Farooq, the driver of a lorry, ran over her, as the lorry was right behind the deceased.

Madhavi suffered severe injuries and died on the spot.

Police have filed a case against the lorry driver for negligent driving. Additionally, a case has been registered against officials of the NHAI for their failure to properly maintain the road and repair the potholes, which were a direct cause of the accident.

The case has been registered at the Mangaluru North Traffic Police Station under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Indian Motor Vehicles Act. (ANI)
Following the arrest of Karnataka MLA Satish Krishna Sail in an ongoing money laundering case, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar accused the Enforcement Directorate (ED) of targeting Congress party members. Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar questioned the arrest of MLA Satish Sail and said, "What was the need to arrest Satish Sail? They are targeting only Congress MLAs. They are going out of their way to target us." The comment by DK Shivakumar came after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Satish Krishna Sail, MLA from Karnataka's Karwar Assembly constituency, in connection with an ongoing money laundering case, the agency said on Wednesday. The arrest was made by ED's Bengaluru Zonal Office on Tuesday night after a day-long interrogation of the legislator, who had deposed before the agency earlier that day. Officials privy to the development told ANI that Sail had been "avoiding summons" prior to his appearance. The MLA will be produced before the court later today. The move comes a month after the ED's Bengaluru zonal office conducted search operations at multiple locations in Karwar (Uttara Kannada), Goa, Mumbai and New Delhi under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, in connection with the case. The raids were carried out on 13th and 14th August. These operation was part of the ongoing investigation into Satish Sail, and others persons and entities, including Ashapura Minechem Ltd, Shree Lal Mahal Ltd, Swastik Steels (Hosepet) Pvt Ltd, ILC Industries Ltd, Sri Lakshmi Venkateshwara Minerals Ltd, who were convicted by a special court for MPs and MLAs Bangalore, for illegal export of iron ore fines carried out by Shree Mallikarjun Shipping Pvt Ltd in collusion of other persons and entities. ED initiated an investigation on the basis of a conviction order of the court for the offences under various sections of the Induan Penal Code, 1860 and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.ED investigation revealed that Satish Sail, MLA from Karwar Assembly constituency, in collusion with other business entities and Belekeri Port officials, had allegedly illegally exported iron ore fines weighing nearly 1.25 lakh metric ton during the period from April 19, 2010, to June 10, 2010, which were already under the orders of seizure of the forest department, Ankola. "The total value of the illegal exports carried out by Satish Sail, through this company, was Rs 86.78 crore," the agency has said in a statement earlier. The search action then resulted in the seizure of cash Rs 1.41 crore from the residence of Satish Sail and cash of Rs 27 lakh from the office premises of Sri Lal Mahal Ltd. Further, gold weighing 6.75 kg in the form of gold jewellery and bullion was also seized from the bank locker of Sail's family. Bank accounts of accused persons and entities-- Shree Mallikarjun Shipping Pyt Ltd, Satish Krishna Sail, Ashapura Minechem Ltd, etc, containing Rs 14.13 crore balance were also frozen during the search operations. Incriminating evidences in the form of documents, e-mails and records were also seized in the search operation. (ANI)
Police said that a rifle and 40 bullets were recovered from their possession.

Mumbai Police further said that the arrested were being brought to Mumbai on a transit remand.

According to Mumbai Police Crime Branch, "Two people arrested from Asifabad district of Telangana in connection with taking away the rifle along with ammunition from a sentry post in the Navy's residential area in Mumbai. They are being brought to Mumbai on transit remand. A rifle and 40 bullets have been recovered from them".

Earlier on Tuesday, Mumbai Police had registered an FIR on a Navy official's complaint over the loss of a rifle and other items at PS Cuff Parade.

According to the Ministry of Defence PR, earlier, a Board of Inquiry was ordered to investigate the circumstances which led to this incident.

Earlier on the night of September 6, in an Indian Navy officer's residential area, a rifle, along with other ammunition, went missing from a sentry post.

As per the Ministry of Defence PR, a junior sailor, whilst on sentry duty, was allegedly approached by another person in naval uniform who relieved him of his duties.

However, the person who assumed sentry duties was found missing from his post along with the rifle and ammunition.

An extensive search operation was undertaken to recover the lost items in coordination with the Mumbai Police. (ANI)
West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose will visit the Panitanki Indo-Nepal border on Wednesday to attend a local programme. The Governor will be accompanied by Lady Governor Lakshmi Ananda Bose, ADC to the Governor of West Bengal, Rahul Pandey, OSD to the Governor, Shrikumar Bandopadhyay, PSO Rakesh Pandey, and attendants Abhijit Thakur and Amitava Bose. Meanwhile, amid the ongoing protests in Nepal, the Nepali Army on Wednesday announced the imposition of prohibitory orders and continuation of the nationwide curfew in response to the escalating unrest driven by the Gen Z-led protest in various parts of the country. In a statement released on Wednesday by the Directorate of Public Relations and Information, the Army stated that the prohibitory orders will remain in effect until 5:00 pm today. Following that, a nationwide curfew will come into force from 6:00 am on Thursday, Bhadra 26 (September 11). The Army noted that any further decisions will be made based on the developing security situation. The Army, in its statement, also expressed appreciation for the public's cooperation in helping maintain order, while offering condolences for the loss of life and property during the ongoing protests. The protests began on September 8 in Kathmandu and other major cities, including Pokhara, Butwal, and Birgunj, after the government imposed a ban on major social media platforms, citing tax revenue and cybersecurity concerns. Protesters are demanding an end to institutionalised corruption and favouritism in governance. They want the government to be more accountable and transparent in its decision-making processes. The protesters are also demanding the revocation of the ban on social media platforms, which they see as an attempt to suppress free speech. As tensions mounted, the situation quickly escalated on the ground. At least 19 people were killed and 500 were injured in clashes with security forces. A curfew was imposed in several cities, including Kathmandu, to control the situation. Two days after violence broke out in Nepal during protests, President Ram Chandra Paudel is expected to meet the protesting citizens today to pursue a peaceful resolution to the ongoing Gen Z movement in the country through dialogue. The call for the talks took place on late Tuesday, after the President accepted the resignation of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. Amid these grievances, Nepal's ongoing jobs crisis, with nearly 5,000 young people leaving the country every day to seek work abroad, has added to the unrest. (ANI)
Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin on Wednesday once again condemned AIADMK General Secretary and Leader of Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Edappadi K. Palaniswami for deliberately blocking an ambulance from passing in Vellore a few days ago. Deputy CM, in his speech, said, "The Opposition Leader Edappadi Palaniswami has been travelling around town to town in that campaign bus. At one place, when he was delivering a speech, an ambulance arrived. We saw how he and his men threatened the driver and even the doctors inside the ambulance. That video went viral. They went so far as to stop the ambulance repeatedly and even assaulted the ambulance drivers". "The public strongly condemned this, asking whether such behaviour was appropriate for a responsible Opposition Leader", Udhayanidhi said. "When our leader and I are speaking, if an ambulance comes by, we immediately give way. Our party workers also step aside to let the ambulance pass first. Only after the ambulance has gone does our leader resume his speech. That is how a true leader should conduct himself", Udhayanidhi added. The Deputy Chief Minister further added, "I said before that, your ( AIADMK ) party itself is in a situation where it has to travel by ambulance. Because of the BJP's surgery, the AIADMK movement will end up admitted to the ICU. And even then, it will only be our leader who comes as the doctor to save you". Recently, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami triggered a controversy after he shouted at an ambulance driver who attempted to pass through his campaign gathering in Anaicut, Vellore district. Health Minister Ma Subramanian strongly condemned EPS's remarks. Speaking at a political event on Monday, Udhayanidhi said, "This is a political event, and I do not wish to speak much about politics. However, when ministers were speaking, Mr. Ma Su gave a clear response to the allegations made by the Leader of the Opposition and his party. You know well that the Leader of the Opposition has been continuously going on tours. Just about ten days ago, you would have seen what happened". Tamil Nadu Dy. CM added that a few days ago, Edappadi Palaniswami deliberately blocked an ambulance from passing and kept doing everything possible to cause harm. "This was strongly condemned by the public," Udhayanidhi added. Udhayanidhi then warned that the people of Tamil Nadu would deliver strong action against Edappadi Palaniswami. "If Edappadi Palaniswami fails to understand this, then let me tell you: the people of Tamil Nadu will soon put your party, your movement itself, in a state where it will have to go in an ambulance," he said. (ANI)
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday paid a heartfelt tribute to Bharat Ratna Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant, the first Chief Minister of the state and former Union Home Minister, on his 138th birth anniversary. After offering floral tributes to Pandit Pant's portrait at the Gorakhnath temple office premises, the Chief Minister recalled his invaluable contribution, saying that in the challenging circumstances following independence, Pandit Pant took visionary and positive steps for the development of Uttar Pradesh. On behalf of the state government and 25 crore people of Uttar Pradesh, CM Yogi honoured the sacred memory of Pandit Pant, describing him as a true son of Mother India. He highlighted that Pt Pant, born in Almora, was a great freedom fighter who actively participated in the Independence Movement. After independence, he played a significant role as the first Chief Minister of the then United Province and later Uttar Pradesh following the first general election. As Chief Minister, Pandit Pant formulated farsighted plans for the state's progress at a time when the nation was struggling with the aftermath of centuries of slavery. Despite the disarray in governance, he took decisive steps to strengthen systems and placed Uttar Pradesh on the path of development. Later, in 1954, as the Union Home Minister, he carried forward the vision of national unity initiated by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and introduced the Rajbhasha sutra, further reinforcing the country's integrity. Earlier, CM Adityanath reviewed preparations for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh International Trade Show (UPITS), scheduled from September 25 to 29 at the India Exposition Mart in Greater Noida. According to the Chief Minister's Office, more than 2,500 exhibitors have registered, while over 500 foreign buyers are set to participate in the trade show, which will prominently display the Khadi materials and fashion through a fashion show. In a post on X, the CM's office said on Monday, "This time, more than 2,500 exhibitors have registered, while over 500 foreign buyers are coming to participate in this trade show. Among the attractions of the trade show, the Khadi-focused fashion show is prominent."\ According to the CM's office post, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to inaugurate the trade show with Russia participating as a partner country. "The annual event #UPITS, which introduces entrepreneurs, manufacturers, and traders from around the world to #UttarPradesh's #Craft, #Cuisine, and #Culture, is set to be held from September 25 to 29, 2025, at the India Exposition Mart in Greater Noida. This grand event will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Russia will participate as the partner country in the third edition," the post read. UPITS 2025 will be returning for its third edition this year, with the vision of highlighting the government's achievements while unveiling new initiatives to boost investment and establish the state as a global manufacturing hub. (ANI)
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday gave a stern warning to illegal infiltrators after the Assam State Cabinet on Tuesday approved the framing of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) under the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950. The SOP will guide the District Commissioners (DC) and Senior Superintendents of Police (SSP) to expel illegal migrants from Assam and tackle the unabated illegal immigration from neighbouring countries. In a post shared on X, the Assam CM said, "Illegal Infiltrators Beware! The Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950 is in full force and any intruder detected in our territory will be promptly PUSHED BACK." Sarma further said to take stern action, and no compromises will be made. He added that if an illegal infiltrator is caught near the zero line or within 12 hours of illegal entry, the intruder will be directly pushed back. The Assam CM also stated to capture the biometrics or demographic details of all detected immigrants prior to pushback. https://x.com/himantabiswa/status/1965678294583656707 Meanwhile, the decision was taken during the state cabinet meeting held at Lok Sewa Bhawan in Guwahati on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. After the cabinet meeting, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, "The Supreme Court, through the constitutional bench, has clearly indicated that the government of Assam is free to use the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act 1950 to detect and deport foreigners. Under this act, the Deputy Commissioner is empowered by the central government to evacuate any person who, in the view of the Deputy Commissioner, is considered to be a foreigner. On Wednesday, the State cabinet came out with a standard operating procedure to implement the act in the letter and spirit. Under the new SOP, the Deputy Commissioner will give 10 days to the suspected person to prove their citizenship. If the deputy commissioner, after a 10-day hearing, concludes that the person is a foreigner, then he will immediately pass an order of evacuation. The foreigners will be immediately evacuated or will be pushed back from Assam. However, if the Deputy Commissioner is not able to come to a proper conclusion, then the matter will be referred to the Foreigners Tribunal for further hearing. Under this act, as mandated by the Supreme Court, it will be much easier for the government of Assam to push back foreigners once he is detected and the Deputy Commissioner comes to the conclusion that they are indeed foreign nationals. So this is a landmark decision of the Assam Cabinet. Never before have we attempted this act. Now, as the Supreme Court has clearly mandated, we are going to implement this act..." (ANI)
The slogan of 'vote chor, gaddi chhor' is being proven across the country, and the Congress party will continue to prove it again and again, in more dramatic ways, Congress MP and leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said on Wednesday, while visiting his Raebareli constituency. "The main slogan 'Vote chor, gaddi chhor' is being proven across the country. We will prove it again and again in more and more dramatic ways," the Congress leader said. Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) protested against the congress leader, taking out a rally in Rahul Gandhi's constituency itself. The party took out a rally against the derogatory remarks made on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mother, which were made on the stage of the now-concluded 'voter adhikar yatra' in Bihar. The party workers carried BJP flags, placards and shouted slogans against the Congress MP, while police officials were trying to disperse the crowd and made an effort to move the protesters away from the road, after some people sat down. Uttar Pradesh minister Dinesh Pratap Singh took part in the protest too, and "We demand that Rahul Gandhi apologise to the nation," the UP minister told ANI. Rahul Gandhi will be holding a meeting with booth level workers of the party in Harchandpur constituency and Unchahar constituency. Later on he will interact with representatives from Prajapati Samaj at Shanti Grand Hotel. Around 1:30 he will unveil the Ashok Stambh in Sadar assembly constituency The Congress has continued their rallies and agitation against alleged "vote theft" in elections, as party's Chhattisgarh in-charge Sachin Pilot demanded in the state that those responsible for alleged electoral malpractices "leave the throne" immediately. Pilot announced the intensification of the 'Vote Chor, Gaddi Chhodd' campaign across Chhattisgarh. "We will take the 'vote chor, gaddi chhod' campaign forward across the entire state. We will raise awareness among the people. The campaign will be run in Chhattisgarh for many days, and we will force the government to listen to our voice..." he said. The call to intensify agitation against the alleged vote theft by Rahul Gandhi comes days after the conclusion of his 'vote adhikar yatra' in Bihar. The campaign began on August 17, with Rahul Gandhi and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav conducting the yatra together from Sasaram. From there, the rally spanned across 25 districts, to Aurangabad, Gayaji, Siwan, and others. On the concluding day on September 1, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders Yusuf Pathan and Lalitesh Pati Tripathi, Shiv Sena UBT MP Sanjay Raut, also joined the Rahul Gandhi-led Voter Adhikar Yatra in Patna. The INDIA bloc leaders visited around 110 assembly constituencies in the poll-bound state, covered over 1,300 kilometres, and saw the presence of multiple leaders. (ANI)
After the recent incident of stone-pelting during Ganesh visarjan in the Maddur region of Karnataka, Karnataka BJP President BY Vijayendra has accused the State government of appeasement and administrative failure, adding that anti-national elements are given free hand. Karnataka BJP President BY Vijayendra, who is leading a BJP fact-finding committee on the stone pelting incident in Maddur, accused the state government of a lack of law and order and said, "It clearly shows how few anti-national elements have been given a free hand by the local administration. Our local Hindus are not allowed to take out a procession before a mosque. What is happening in Karnataka? There is complete failure on the part of the police and the intelligence. When permission for a Ganesha procession was already granted, then why was there no proper deployment of police? Not a single woman police constable was there despite the presence of many women. Pelting stones at Hindus is intolerable." He also addressed the statement made by the Karnataka CM, accusing the BJP of disturbing peace. He said, "The statement by the CM saying that BJP is trying to disturb peace & harmony and district incharge minister blaming BJP and JD(S)...BJP had kept quiet all along, but appeasement politics by the Congress government has stooped to such a level. We demand that the CM take up the responsibility and order a judicial probe." He further showed his support to the "Hindu karyakartas" and said, "Hindu karyakartas were targeted...The SP himself said that stone pelting started from some muslim youths...We are here to instil confidence in Hindu karyakartas, not to disrupt peace & harmony...What action has the state government taken?..." BJP leader R Ashok also demanded a proper investigation into the stone pelting incident and said, " I am sure it is a pre-planned incident. We demand a proper investigation and invoke the Goonda Act against those who pelted stones." Meanwhile, there is a heavy police deployment in Karnataka's Maddur town on Tuesday morning after protests broke out on Monday evening against the stone pelting incident. Markets have been deserted as shops have not opened since last night with the imposition of prohibitory orders. Meanwhile, the Hindu religious organisations in the area are holding a meeting on the issue. A total of 21 people have been arrested following the stone pelting incident and the subsequent protest, which broke out in response. Earlier on Monday, police lathi-charged the protesters in an effort to disperse the crowd. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand on September 11, according to an official press release. In Varanasi, PM Modi will host the Prime Minister of Mauritius, Navinchandra Ramgoolam, who is on a State Visit to India from September 9 to 16. Thereafter, the Prime Minister will travel to Dehradun, where he will undertake an aerial survey of flood-affected areas in Uttarakhand and chair a high-level review meeting with officials. The meeting between the two leaders in the historic city of Varanasi underscores the enduring civilizational connect, spiritual bonds and deep-rooted people-to-people ties that have shaped the special and unique relationship between India and Mauritius. During the bilateral discussions, the two leaders will review the full spectrum of cooperation, with particular focus on development partnership and capacity building. They will also discuss opportunities for expanding collaboration in health, education, science & technology, energy, infrastructure, as well as in emerging domains such as renewable energy, digital public infrastructure and the blue economy. The visit builds upon the positive momentum generated by PM Modi's State Visit to Mauritius in March 2025, during which the two leaders elevated the bilateral relationship to an 'Enhanced Strategic Partnership'. As a valued partner and close maritime neighbour in the Indian Ocean Region, Mauritius is key to India's MAHASAGAR (Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Region) Vision and the 'Neighbourhood First' policy. The deepening cooperation between the two countries carries significance not only for the prosperity of the people of both countries but also for the collective aspirations of the Global South. The Varanasi Summit will mark a significant milestone in the shared journey of India and Mauritius towards mutual prosperity, sustainable development and a secure and inclusive future. (ANI)
The Madras High Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking directions to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to clarify allegations of large-scale voter list manipulation in the 2024 General Elections. The Court on Tuesday observed that the plea was "completely misconceived," lacking substantive evidence, and founded solely on political claims and counterclaims. It said the petition was vague, devoid of material particulars, and could not be a ground to compel the Election Commission to issue clarifications. Dismissing the petition, the Court imposed costs of 1,00,000 on the petitioner, payable to the Tamil Nadu State Legal Services Authority. It clarified, however, that it had not expressed any opinion on the merits of the allegations, and the Election Commission was free to take its own decisions on the matter. The allegations were earlier flagged by Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi in a PowerPoint presentation. On August 7, a press conference was held by Rahul Gandhi, where he claimed that the 2024 Lok Sabha elections were "choreographed" by the EC to benefit the BJP, which he said appeared "immune to anti-incumbency." Presenting Congress's research on voting in the Mahadevapura Assembly in Karnataka, Rahul Gandhi had alleged "vote chori" (vote theft) of 1,00,250 votes. Labelling Rahul Gandhi's claims as 'baseless", the Election Commission of India (ECI) had said that the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha was trying to "sensationalise" the issue instead of availing the legal processes. The poll body, in a statement, said that Rahul Gandhi repeated a "tired" script." The poll body had also asked Rahul Gandhi to sign the declaration by Chief Electoral Officers of Maharashtra and Karnataka or apologise for his "absurd" allegations. Meanwhile, the Congress MP continues to maintain his claim. On Wednesday, while on tour of his constituency Rae Bareli the Lok Sabh LoP claimed that the slogan of 'vote chor, gaddi chhor' is being proven across the country, and the Congress party will continue to prove it again and again, in more dramatic ways,. "The main slogan 'Vote chor, gaddi chhor' is being proven across the country. We will prove it again and again in more and more dramatic ways," the Congress leader said. (ANI)
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday paid floral tribute to Bharat Ratna Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant on his 138th birth anniversary and described his life as a source of inspiration for all. Remembering the social reformer and freedom fighter, Om Birla said that Pandit Pant dedicated his life to improving the lives of people living in difficult conditions, particularly in hilly regions. Speaking to ANI, the Lok Sabha Speaker said, "Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant dedicated his entire life to transforming the lives of people living in difficult conditions in the hilly areas through his social and political life, working for a long time for the welfare of all sections of society and for their social and economic upliftment.... We all draw inspiration from his life and guidance." Earlier in the day, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami also paid tribute to Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant on his birth anniversary. "On the birth anniversary of the great freedom fighter, eloquent orator, social reformer, and Bharat Ratna recipient, Pt. Govind Ballabh Pant Ji, countless salutations," stated his post on social media platform X. "Your thoughts will forever continue to inspire us towards public service and national service," his post further read. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also paid tribute to Pandit Pant, the first Chief Minister of the state and former Union Home Minister. After offering floral tributes at Pandit Pant's portrait at the Gorakhnath Temple office premises in Gorakhpur, the Chief Minister recalled his invaluable contribution, stating that in the challenging circumstances following independence, Pandit Pant took visionary and positive steps for the development of Uttar Pradesh. On behalf of the state government and 25 crore people of Uttar Pradesh, CM Yogi honoured the sacred memory of Pandit Pant, describing him as a true son of Mother India. He highlighted that Pt Pant, born in Almora, was a great freedom fighter who actively participated in the Independence Movement. After independence, he played a significant role as the first Chief Minister of the then United Province and later Uttar Pradesh following the first general election. As Chief Minister, Pandit Pant formulated farsighted plans for the state's progress at a time when the nation was struggling with the aftermath of centuries of slavery. Despite the disarray in governance, he took decisive steps to strengthen systems and placed Uttar Pradesh on the path of development. Later, in 1954, as Union Home Minister, he carried forward the vision of national unity championed by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and introduced the Rajbhasha Sutra, further reinforcing the country's linguistic and cultural integrity. (ANI)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Assam State Unit welcomed the decision taken by the Assam government's State Cabinet to strictly implement the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950, aimed at expelling foreigners residing in the state. In a press statement, State BJP Spokesperson Jayanta Kumar Goswami commented that this decision of the Assam government will empower the District Commissioners to identify foreign nationals present in Assam and expel them from the country within 10 days through a legal process, thus eliminating the delays and uncertainties associated with the current tribunal-based identification procedure. The spokesperson further mentioned that recently, during his visit to Assam, the Union Home Minister Amit Shah supported CM Himanta Biswa Sarma in obtaining the necessary central government approval for the proper implementation of The Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950, which has been in force since 1950. This achievement reaffirms the Chief Minister's prudence, farsightedness, and deep love for Assam. The statement highlighted that over 30,000 foreigners have already been expelled from the state through a systematic process with the support of the BSF, which marks a significant step towards providing a permanent solution to Assam's foreigner problem. The State BJP Spokesperson urged that, under the leadership of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, the expulsion of foreigners from Assam should progress more swiftly in the coming days. "It is noteworthy that since assuming office as Chief Minister in 2021, Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma has launched extensive operations against illegal occupation of government land by suspected Bengali origin Muslims in Assam, successfully recovering thousands of acres of land to date. Furthermore, due to strict surveillance by the Assam Police and BSF along Assam's border areas adjacent to Bangladesh, the number of illegal crossings from Bangladesh into Assam has been virtually eliminated," the spokesperson said in a statement. He stated that such decisions by the Chief Minister will ensure the security and future well-being of the state. (ANI)
In a swift action, the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) apprehended five prisoners who had escaped from a jail in Nepal and were attempting to cross into India, officials said. The prisoners were caught along the India-Nepal border in Uttar Pradesh's Siddharthnagar district while attempting to infiltrate into Indian territory. According to officials, the escapees were intercepted by SSB personnel during a check at the border outpost and were immediately taken into custody. Subsequently, these prisoners were later handed over to the local police for further investigation and legal action. Officials said the five were held as they could not show any valid identity proofs to the SSB troops deployed on the border. "During initial inquiry, it was found that they were among those prisoners who escaped from Nepal jail yesterday," the official, requesting anonymity, told ANI. A large number of inmates escaped the Dillibazar jail in Nepal's Kathmandu amid chaos during the ongoing anti-corruption protests. The SSB, one of the Central Armed Police Forces under the Ministry of Home Affairs, which is tasked with guarding India's 1,751-km-long open border with Nepal and the 699-km stretch along Bhutan, is vigilant since unrest following 'Gen-Z' led protests across Nepal. Officials said the prisoners were held due to vigilance by SSB troops. However, the Nepalese Army has been deployed in and around the jail to prevent further escalation, as law enforcement struggles to maintain control in the capital. This comes as the police reportedly withdrew from their post in Nepal, except for the police headquarters. (ANI)
In view of the prevailing situation in Nepal, the Andhra Pradesh State Government on Wednesday announced the helpline numbers for those Indians in Nepal. The AP Government asked Telugus stranded in Nepal to contact the Indian Embassy on +977-9808602881 and 9810326134. According to the Indian Embassy, in addition to regular calls, these numbers are also available on WhatsApp. If people from Andhra Pradesh are stranded in Nepal and require emergency assistance or face difficulties, they can also contact the AP Bhavan in New Delhi on mobile number +91 9818395787. Alternatively, the stranded people can call: Real-time Governance number 08632381000, Extn 8001 and 8005 or the APNRTS' 24/7 helpline numbers which are available at 08632340678. WhatsApp number +91 8500027678. They can also contact the authorities by email too using the email ids: helpline@apnrts.com and info@apnrts.com. Earlier, amid the unrest in Nepal, Andhra Pradesh Minister for Real Time Governance (RTG), Nara Lokesh, has taken charge of coordinating rescue operations for Telugu citizens stranded across various regions of the neighbouring country. On Wednesday, the Minister reached the Real Time Governance (RTG) Centre at the State Secretariat and held a review meeting with senior officials. AP Bhavan authorities briefed him on the ground situation, informing him that as many as 215 Telugu people have been reported stranded so far. Taking serious note of the situation, Minister Lokesh directed officials to initiate measures on a war footing to ensure the safe return of those trapped. The Minister instructed that immediate relief must be extended, stranded people should be shifted to safer locations, and regular updates should be provided. "Updates on their safety and well-being must be collected every two hours," the minister told officials during the meeting. The minister also interacted via video call with some of the stranded citizens, including Surya Prabha, who briefed him on the present situation in Muktinath, where several Telugu pilgrims are stuck in a hotel. Minister Nara Lokesh assured that the state government, in close coordination with the central government, is committed to bringing all Telugu citizens back home safely. Meanwhile, in Nepal, a large group of inmates from Kathmandu's Dillibazar Jail stepped out of the prison premises on Wednesday, demanding their release amid the ongoing unrest triggered by nationwide anti-corruption protests. The Nepalese Army has been deployed in and around the jail to prevent further escalation, as law enforcement struggles to maintain control in the capital. The situation unfolded as police personnel, who had been overseeing security at several detention facilities, reportedly withdrew from their posts except the Police Headquarters, following two days of violent demonstrations mainly led by Gen Z protesters. (ANI)
A team of Delhi Police has arrested a dreaded criminal, Lalan Kumar, who had been absconding for more than 13 years in connection with a sensational double murder case registered in 2012. A reward of Rs 1 lakh had been announced on his arrest. According to Delhi Police, the case was registered on the complaint of Ram Gupta regarding the abduction of his truck driver, Shamim and helper, Shera, along with the vehicle. During the investigation, the body of driver Shamim was recovered from Palwal in Haryana, while the body of helper Shera was found in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh. The truck was later traced to Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. Police said that the accused, along with his associates, had abducted the victims and the truck with the intention of committing robbery. When the victims resisted, they were brutally murdered. During the investigation, accused persons Sunil alias Rohit alias Tehaniya and Shatrughan were arrested, while the main accused, Lalan Kumar, managed to evade arrest. He was declared a proclaimed offender by the court on December 10, 2012. Since then, Kumar had completely vanished from the police radar. To trace him, Sub Inspector Nishant Nagar was tasked with gathering information about his whereabouts. The police team carried out extensive operations across seven states, including Delhi/NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Jharkhand. Over 20,000 kilometres were travelled, more than 500 call detail records (CDRs) were analysed, and about 1,000 people were interrogated during the manhunt. Inspector Dinesh Kumar and the team also deployed sources and monitored the movements of Lalan Kumar's family members in Bihar, his native state. The team worked day and night, developing intelligence and coordinating with senior officers to narrow down potential hideouts. After sustained efforts of over three years, police finally received specific information and apprehended Lalan Kumar from Shankarpur in Madhepura, Bihar, on September 4, 2025. (ANI)
Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) President Vijay has been granted permission to address a gathering at the Marakkadai area of Tiruchirappalli (also known as Trichy) district of Tamil Nadu, but with 23 strict conditions imposed by City Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Sibiin. TVK General Secretary Anand and Trichy District Secretary Karikalan have given written undertakings accepting the conditions, following which the official permission letter will be issued by the Deputy Commissioner of Police. Key conditions imposed by the Police include: "Vijay can speak for only 30 minutes between 10:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.; Party workers must arrive at the venue by 9:30 a.m.; Roadshows are not permitted; Vijay's convoy can have only five vehicles before and after his car; additional vehicles will not be allowed; TVK must arrange for medical facilities, ambulance, and fire service vehicles." Along with these, the other key conditions are: "Children, pregnant women, and differently-abled persons should not be brought to the event; Public traffic must not be disrupted; Cone-shaped loudspeakers are banned; Supporters cannot carry long flag poles; Special care must be taken not to obstruct school students, airport passengers, hospital-goers, and ambulances." The police made it clear that only upon written assurance from TVK leaders would the final permission letter be issued. Earlier on August 27, the Kannum Police had registered a case against actor and Tamil Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) chief Vijay and his bouncers based on a complaint by his supporter Sarathkumar at the Perambalur District SP Office. The complainant alleged that Vijay's bouncers mishandled him, and a case was registered against the TVK chief and his bouncers under three sections. Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tamil Nadu president K. Annamalai on August 22 said that although the BJP and actor-turned-politician Vijay were ideologically opposite, his political entry was welcomed. Speaking to reporters, Annamalai acknowledged the popularity of Vijay, who leads the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), but questioned whether he could sustain political engagement for a full term. "As far as Vijay is concerned, people may come today and applaud him when he comes for a rally. But people will think while voting. Can he effectively engage in politics for five years? People will think a lot when it comes to votes. All political parties claim that their main enemy is DMK, which reflects the prevailing mindset of the people. Although we welcome Vijay's political arrival, we are ideologically opposite," Annamalai said. Annamalai further claimed that the BJP, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had gained increasing public support in the state. (ANI)
Union Minister Jitendra Singh urged the elderly citizens and pensioners to approach the relevant department and clear doubts regarding the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS). Singh chaired the 14th All India Pension Adalat in New Delhi today. Speaking to the media, the Union Minister highlighted that this discussion had been going on for a long time regarding the welfare of pensioners. Highlighting PM Narendra Modi's vision, Singh emphasised the crucial role of senior citizens in achieving 'Viksit Bharat' by 2047. "PM Modi was also of the opinion that our elder citizens will play a big role in making 'Viksit Bharat' by 2047...Keeping in mind the simplification of their life, ease of living, the Unified Pension Scheme was announced. The rules and regulations related to the same have been officially issued today," he said. He encouraged pensioners and serving employees to visit the department's website or engage directly with officials to address any queries or concerns regarding the scheme. Singh added, "Along with this, we request through you that if anyone has any thoughts or doubts about this subject, then our elder citizens, our pension recipients, even the serving employees, should approach our website, and if they do not understand anything else, they can come to the department and talk face to face," he added. The Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) is a pension scheme for central government employees in India, introduced as an option alongside the National Pension System (NPS). The objective of the scheme is to provide a more predictable and secure retirement income for government employees. According to the Ministry of Finance, subscribers under the National Pension Scheme (NPS) who have retired on or before March 31, 2025, with a minimum of 10 years of qualifying service, or their legally wedded spouse, shall be eligible to claim additional benefits under the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS). These UPS benefits will be provided in addition to the NPS benefits already claimed by the subscribers. Recently, the Department of Financial Services has introduced a one-time, one-way switch facility for Central Government employees who have opted for the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) to revert to the National Pension System (NPS), under specified conditions. i. Eligible employees under UPS can switch to NPS only once, and cannot switch back to UPS. ii. The switch must be exercised at least one year before superannuation or three months before voluntary retirement, whichever is applicable. iii. The switch facility will not be allowed in case of removal, dismissal or compulsory retirement as a penalty or for cases where disciplinary proceedings are ongoing or contemplated. iv. Those who do not opt for the switch within the stipulated time will continue under UPS by default. v. Employees who choose to remain in NPS cannot opt for UPS after 30th September 2025. As per the Ministry of Finance, this initiative aims to provide informed choice to Central Government employees in planning their post-retirement financial security. By opting for UPS the employees retain their choice for swich to NPS at a later date. The last date for eligible employees and past retirees under NPS to opt for UPS is September 30, 2025. (ANI)
The Uttarakhand Police is on high alert amid heightened political instability in neighbouring Nepal due to the Gen Z protest. The police have conducted joint patrolling and surveillance with the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) in the border areas of Pithoragarh, the Uttarakhand Police Headquarters informed ANI. The state shares a direct border with Nepal. Meanwhile, several Indian nationals who crossed the India-Nepal border at Panitanki in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal were returned to India on Wednesday. Speaking to ANI, Kohila, a returnee from Assam, said, "The situation is out of control there...The strike will continue for 10-15 days...We are from Assam and are returning from Nepal. It feels good to return to India. Jaan wapas aa gaya." The situation in Nepal remains volatile amid the ongoing 'Gen Z' protests, a widespread movement largely led by students and young citizens demanding greater accountability and transparency from the government. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned on Tuesday as violent protests entered their second day in multiple parts of the country. His resignation was confirmed by his secretariat, local media reported. Four ministers had earlier stepped down from their posts. The protests began on September 8 in Kathmandu and other major cities, including Pokhara, Butwal, and Birgunj, after the government imposed a ban on major social media platforms, citing tax revenue and cybersecurity concerns. Building on this anger, protesters are demanding an end to institutionalised corruption and favouritism in governance. They want the government to be more accountable and transparent in its decision-making processes. As tensions mounted, the situation quickly escalated on the ground. At least 19 people were killed and 500 were injured in clashes with security forces. A curfew was imposed in several cities, including Kathmandu, to control the situation. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has issued a travel advisory for Indian citizens in view of the prevailing situation in Nepal. At the heart of the unrest was the government's decision to impose a ban on 26 major social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and YouTube, citing concerns over misinformation and the need for regulatory compliance. Citizens saw this as an attack on free speech and a way to suppress dissent. Public frustration deepened further when the "Nepo Babies" trend on social media exposed the lavish lifestyles of politicians' children, highlighting the economic disparity between them and ordinary citizens. This fuelled public frustration over corruption, nepotism, and economic inequality. Amid these grievances, Nepal's ongoing jobs crisis, with nearly 5,000 young people leaving the country every day to seek work abroad, has added to the unrest. (ANI)
The names of these four airports are expected to be revealed by the end of this week, as per sources.

Additionally, Digi Yatra is slated to receive the Gold Medal at the National Awards for e-Governance (NAEG), scheduled to be held on September 22-23 in Visakhapatnam, according to official sources.

In February, Digi Yatra, India's pioneering air travel app, achieved a significant milestone by surpassing 10 million downloads. This remarkable achievement highlighted the app's rising popularity and its transformative impact on air travel in India.

Established in December 2022, Digi Yatra is a Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI)-based ecosystem utilising facial biometric technology for contactless and seamless passenger processing at airports, delivering privacy-protecting and efficient travel experiences across 24 airports in India.

It has facilitated more than 45 million seamless journeys to date, providing a smooth experience for numerous travellers. With nearly 10 million users and an impressive daily average of 30,000 app downloads, the platform is setting benchmarks in digital travel solutions.

Digi Yatra has ambitious plans for 2025. The platform aims to support all 22 official Indian languages, breaking down language barriers and ensuring that every traveller can confidently navigate airport processes in their preferred language.

Digi Yatra also aims to conduct an international pilot project, enabling foreign passengers with electronic passports (e-passports) to experience its seamless ecosystem.

Digi Yatra Foundation operates and manages the Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem and the Apps built on a cutting-edge Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI)-based decentralised ecosystem utilising facial biometric technology for contactless and seamless passenger processing at airports.

With operations spanning 24 airports across India and serving about 10 million users, Digi Yatra continues to revolutionise air travel while maintaining the highest standards of data privacy and security. (ANI)
Assam Minister for Power, Prasanta Phukan, on Wednesday handed over a cheque of Rs 5 crore from the Assam CM's Relief Fund to Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, at Himachal Sadan in the national capital. Minister Phukan handed over the cheque to Chief Minister Sukhu on behalf of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and the people of Assam for the flood-affected people of Himachal Pradesh. In his 25-minute meeting with Chief Minister Sukhu, Minister Phukan said that the Government of Assam stood in solidarity with the people of Himachal Pradesh during their hour of distress. Chief Minister Sukhu expressed his heartfelt gratitude to Chief Minister Sarma and the people of Assam for the support extended to the flood-affected people at their time of crisis. "The goodwill gesture by the Chief Minister of Assam and its people toward the flood-hit people of the hill state is much appreciated and will help in relief and rehabilitation efforts," said Sukhu. Minister Phukan was accompanied by Assistant Resident Commissioner, Assam Bhawan, Bikram Newar. A truckload of essential relief materials, including utensils and mattresses, was flagged off from Assam House here on Tuesday. Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister of State for External Affairs, Pabitra Margherita and several MPs were present on the occasion. A day earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a financial assistance of Rs 1,500 crore for Himachal Pradesh after conducting an aerial survey of the flood-affected areas of the state. According to the Prime Minister's Office, there will be an advance release of the second instalment of SDRF and PM Kisan Samman Nidhi for the state to deal with the situation. PM Modi also announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to the seriously injured in the flood and natural calamity. (ANI)
Peethadheeshwar of Kalkaji Temple in Delhi, Surendra Nath Avdhut, on Wednesday, said that propaganda is being spread to discourage devotees from going to the temple ever since a sevadar of the temple was killed on August 29. He said that more police personnel are deployed at the temple premises, and that local administration is fully alert and prepared to provide smooth darshan to the devotees. "Misleading propaganda is being spread that there is an atmosphere of fear and insecurity among the devotees inside the temple. Whereas this is not the case at all," Avdhut told ANI. "The incident that happened on 29th August happened far away from the temple premises where the sevadaar died... The local administration is fully alert and prepared to provide smooth darshan to the devotees, and the entire system is well-organised. On the occasion of Navratri, a police post is built inside the temple premises and apart from that, some volunteers are also involved in it. An additional police force is also provided so that the devotees do not face any kind of inconvenience," he added. The victim, Yogendra Singh, was allegedly beaten to death on the evening of August 29 following an altercation over 'prasad'. CCTV footage of the incident shows him lying on the ground while at least three men attacked him with sticks. Police registered a murder case soon after and began pursuing the accused. Delhi police arrested three people in connection with the incident. They were identified as Mohan, alias Bhura, 19, and Kuldeep Bidhuri, 20 (both residents of Churiya Mohalla, Tughlaqabad), and Atul Pandey, a resident of Dakshinpuri. The opposition Aam Aadmi Party had criticised the BJP government, saying that it failed to maintain law and order in the city. "Didn't the hands of these miscreants tremble before they brutally murdered the sevadar inside the Kalkaji Temple? If this isn't a failure of law and order, then what is it?" former Delhi Chief Minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal had asked in a post on X after the incident. "The four engines of the BJP have brought Delhi to such a state that now such incidents are happening even in temples. Is anyone safe in Delhi or not?" he added. (ANI)
Opposition candidate B Sudershan Reddy on Wednesday arrived at Maharashtra Sadan in New Delhi to meet Vice President-elect CP Radhakrishnan. The meeting came a day after Radhakrishnan, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) nominee, won the Vice Presidential election. Earlier in the day, celebrations took place in Puducherry where BJP leaders and workers distributed sweets and raised slogans hailing Radhakrishnan's victory. Meanwhile, Congress MP Manickam Tagore stated that the Opposition's vote share increased from 26 per cent to 40 per cent in a Vice presidential election, with their numbers rising from 182 to 300. Tagore added that if some regional parties had supported their candidate, they could have reached around 350 votes. Speaking to ANI, Manickam Tagore said, "...In the previous elections in 2022, our numbers were 182...This time, we have increased our vote share from 26% to 40%, which is 182 to 300...If YSCRP, BJD, BRS, and SAD had not abstained and voted for Justice Sudarshan Reddy ji. We would have reached around 350 or something...We fought for an ideological position." A day earlier, Radhakrishnan, the NDA nominee, was elected as the 15th Vice President of India after securing 452 first preference votes. INDIA bloc candidate Justice (Retd) B Sudershan Reddy received 300 votes, while 15 votes were declared invalid. A total voter turnout of 98.20 per cent was recorded, with 767 MPs casting their votes out of 781. Following the announcement of results, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated CP Radhakrishnan and expressed confidence that the newly elected Vice President would strengthen India's constitutional values and contribute positively to parliamentary discourse. "Congratulations to Thiru CP Radhakrishnan Ji on winning the 2025 Vice Presidential election. His life has always been devoted to serving society and empowering the poor and marginalised. I am confident that he will be an outstanding VP, who will strengthen our Constitutional values and enhance Parliamentary discourse, Prime Minister Modi wrote on X. Furthermore, 13 MPs abstained from voting in the election. These include seven MPs from the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), four from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), one MP from the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and one Independent MP. The Vice President's post has been vacant since July 21, 2025, as Jagdeep Dhankhar resigned from his position, citing health reasons. (ANI)
Intelligence and security measures have been intensified along the India-Nepal border to prevent escaped prisoners from Nepal from sneaking into Indian territory, top officials said. As part of the move, the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), which guards India's 1,751-km-long border with Nepal, has strengthened checks at all entry points, and special focus is being laid on "verifying identity cards" of individuals crossing into India, as jail escapees from Nepal are unlikely to carry valid documents. "All the 26 mutual trade routes, 15 traffic routes, six integrated check-posts, and 11 border check posts are on high alert," an official told ANI, adding that SSB's intelligence wing is also actively monitoring border villages to prevent infiltration and curb the spread of misinformation. Meanwhile, the alert SSB personnel apprehended five prisoners who had escaped from a jail in Nepal and were attempting to cross into India. The prisoners were caught along the India-Nepal border in Uttar Pradesh's Siddharthnagar district while attempting to infiltrate into Indian territory. The escapees were intercepted by SSB personnel during a check at the border outpost and were immediately taken into custody. Subsequently, these prisoners were later handed over to the local police for further investigation and legal action. Officials said the five were held as they could not show any valid identity proofs to the SSB troops deployed on the border. "During initial inquiry, it was found that they were among those prisoners who escaped from Nepal jail yesterday," the official, requesting anonymity, told ANI. Women personnel of SSB have also been deployed on several checkposts to handle situations in case of a sudden influx from Nepal, including men and women. However, officials maintain that the situation is currently under control, and they emphasised that precautionary measures have been stepped up to deal with any potential crisis. In a show of presence, the SSB has conducted multiple flag marches in districts such as Maharajganj, Sitamarhi, Raxaul, and Supaul. "The force's Cyber Wing, set up in 2021, is also monitoring social media platforms to counter fake news being spread by miscreants." Senior SSB officers, including those at the DIG level, are visiting sensitive stretches of the border as part of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for heightened security situations. "From September 6, we had already tightened security along the border. Now, strict vigil is in place," an official said, clarifying that while the border has not been sealed, a "check-and-go" procedure is being implemented to prevent infiltration. As Nepal continues to witness unrest and curfew in certain areas, officials on the border said that the country's Armed Police Force has also restricted the movement of its citizens into India. A large number of inmates escaped the Dillibazar jail in Nepal's Kathmandu amid chaos during the ongoing anti-corruption protests. The SSB is vigilant since unrest following the 'Gen-Z' led protest across Nepal. Officials said the prisoners were held due to vigilance by SSB troops. However, the Nepalese Army has been deployed in and around the jail to prevent further escalation, as law enforcement struggles to maintain control in the capital. This comes as the police reportedly withdrew from their post in Nepal, except for the Police headquarters. Authorities, however, had issued an alert along the India-Nepal border in view of ongoing protests in Nepal in September. SSB has intensified vigilance and is closely monitoring the situation to prevent any spillover of unrest into Indian territory. The officials emphasised that the current alert is "preventive in nature", and the situation remains under control. The open India-Nepal border, stretching over 1,751 km across states like Uttarakhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Sikkim, allows unrestricted movement of citizens of both countries. While this arrangement fosters close socio-economic and cultural ties, it also requires heightened security whenever political unrest or protests erupt in Nepal. In the past, border alerts have been issued during periods of internal turmoil in Nepal, including the 2015 Madhesi protests, which had affected trade and cross-border movement. The SSB, one of India's Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) with a strength of over 90,000 personnel, continues to keep strict surveillance, with reports being regularly sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs. The force is on alert following the protest by thousands of youths in Nepal, as they broke into parliament the day unrest started, and then there were incidents of arson and loot against a social media shutdown and alleged government corruption. All started after Nepal government blocked access to several social media platforms, including Facebook, claiming social media users with fake IDs were spreading hate speech and fake news, and committing fraud and other crimes via some platforms. (ANI)
In a spectacular display of patriotism, Major Gen Suresh Bhambhu, YSM, SM, Inspector General Assam Rifles (East) unfurled a 72 feet high Monumental National Flag at HQ IGAR East, Srikona on Wednesday in the presence of Major Gen Ashim Kohli, SM (Retd), CEO, Flag Foundation of India. According to an official statement, the event was also attended by Assam Rifles ESM, School Children, NCC cadets, families and children of Srikona garrison. The unfurling of the Monumental Flag was followed by the singing of the National Anthem, during which, the large flag swayed majestically, filling the surroundings and audience with patriotic fervour and pride. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Assam Rifles organised an Ex-Servicemen Interaction Meet at Udaipur Training Node to strengthen bonds with its veterans and reaffirm commitment to their welfare. The event provided a meaningful platform for ex-servicemen to share their insights, experiences and problems. During the session, grievances relating to medical facilities, welfare claims, and dependent support were highlighted, said the press release. Each grievance was carefully documented with an assurance that appropriate measures would be initiated in a time-bound manner to solve the problem. The interaction reflected the organisation's continued endeavour to assist its veterans beyond active service. The meeting concluded with a pledge to prioritise veteran welfare, thereby strengthening the bridge between the serving and retired fraternity of the force. Earlier on August 13, in its ongoing efforts to reach out to veterans and reaffirm its enduring commitment to their welfare, the Indian Army conducted a series of programmes across Upper Assam, including Lekhapani, Digboi and Rupai. These initiatives stand as heartfelt tributes to the selfless service of ex-servicemen and Veer Naris, while addressing their key needs and concerns. The programme at Lekhapani brought together veterans and their families, offering a range of services including a medical and dental camp, a grievance redressal cell and a daily essentials stall. On-the-spot medical check-ups, dental consultations, advice and medication were provided. A special interaction was held with Assam Rifles veterans, many of whom did not possess Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) cards; they were briefed on its benefits and encouraged to obtain them at the earliest. (ANI)
On his first visit to India, Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, along with his delegation, visited Gujarat and paid a courtesy call on Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel in Gandhinagar. According to the Gujarat Chief Minister's Office (CMO), Bezalel Smotrich emphasised the shared heritage, traditions, culture, and technology between India, Gujarat, and Israel, and engaged in meaningful discussions on further strengthening these ties in the future. The Finance Minister of Israel stated that he visited Gujarat with the desire to see the birthplace of a distinguished leader like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and to explore opportunities for business relations and for Israel to operate in international financial hubs such as GIFT City. He noted that the close ties between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Prime Minister of Israel, along with their shared commitment to combating terrorism, have further strengthened relations between the two countries. Mr. Bezalel Smotrich also lauded India's consistent support for Israel and expressed interest in learning about the use of UPI and financial protocols. CM emphasised that under the visionary leadership of PM Modi, India's ties with Israel have grown stronger. He also noted Israel's firm stance and significant progress in upholding a zero-tolerance policy against terrorism. CM Patel stated that PM Modi is firmly committed to eradicating terrorism and that India stands ready to extend steadfast support to Israel in its fight against terrorism. CM Patel added that, under PM Modi's leadership, India has earned recognition as a trusted nation in the global community, while the Swaraj ( self-government) achieved by Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel has evolved into Surajya good governance. The Gujarat CM stated that Israel's expertise in drip irrigation has enabled high agricultural yields with minimal water use. He said that the state government is positively inclined towards collaborating on this, along with other developmental projects in Gujarat. Welcoming the deep interest shown by the Finance Minister of Israel in investments and business opportunities in GIFT City, CM Patel said that a joint team of officials from the Government of Gujarat and Israel could be formed to engage in discussions and explore further opportunities in this direction. During the meeting, CM Patel also conveyed his condolences to the citizens who lost their lives in the recent incidents in Israel. He further commended Israel's resilience and determination in facing challenges. Additional Chief Secretary to the Chief Minister, M. K. Das, Principal Secretary of the Finance Department, T. Natarajan, Additional Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, Avantika Singh, Secretary, Finance, Arti Kanwar, and Secretary to the Chief Minister, Vikrant Pandey were present for the meeting. (ANI)
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notice on a plea of Businessman Sushil Ansal against a trial court order. This matter pertains to a passport case. On August 4, Delhi's Patiala House Court had allowed victims of the Uphar tragedy to assist the Prosecution in a case against businessman Sushil Ansal. Justice Arun Monga issued notice to Delhi Police and the Association of Victims of the Uphar Tragedy (AVUT). The matter has been listed on November 25 for a hearing. The High Court has granted no stay on the proceedings. Plea of Ansal has submitted that it is evident that no injury of any nature has been caused to AVUT or its officials from the alleged acts of the Petitioner. In such circumstances, the right to prosecute vests solely with the State. "Permitting a third party to assist the prosecution in the Criminal Case would undermine the fairness of the trial, and grave prejudice would be caused to the Partitioner," the plea said It is further said that it is settled law that AVUT has no right to interfere in judicial proceedings since it is not an "aggrieved person". Only one who has suffered a legal injury can be permitted to approach the Court. Respondent AVUT, being a stranger with no connection to the matter and having suffered no legal injury, has no locus standi to raise any grievance or seek participation in the proceedings, the plea added. Ansal has been charge-sheeted in a Passport Act case. This case is at the stage of framing charges. This case was lodged pursuant to the order passed by the Delhi High Court on a petition moved by the Association of Victims of Uphar Tragedy (AVUT). The trial Court had ordered, "Accordingly, as opposed to being given the reins of the prosecution itself, the Association is at liberty to assist the prosecution in the present case, by accord of which participatory rights in view of settled jurisprudence on the subject, no prejudice would be caused to the accused." AVUT had moved an application through its president, Neelam Krishnamurthy, and arguements were heard on July 19. Senior Counsel Vikas Pahwa had appeared for the association. He argued that the Association should be permitted to prosecute the matter, considering the grievances underscored in the manner concerning the investigation and the manner in which the chargesheet was eventually filed, obviating certain offences which ought to have been part of the charge sheet. He had highlighted that the present case came to be registered pursuant to an Order passed by the High Court in a petition filed by the same Association, and therefore, the effective right of participation ought to be given to the Association. On the other hand, the plea was opposed by the counsel for accused Sushil Ansal, stating that the Association has no locus to lead the prosecution in the matter, considering the peculiar allegations in the present case, essentially concerning the offences under the Passports Act. The Association, in a restricted sense of the term, is not a 'victim' in the present case, nor can it espouse their cause, the counsel had argued. (ANI)
Mandhira Kapur Smith, the sister of late businessman Sunjay Kapur, on Wednesday welcomed the Delhi High Court's direction to Priya Kapur, the widow of late businessman Sunjay Kapur, to disclose all her assets following a plea by his children, Samaira and Kiaan, from his previous marriage to Bollywood actor Karisma Kapoor. The court's decision comes amid a heated inheritance battle over Sunjay's estimated 30,000 crore estate. Speaking with ANI, Mandhira expressed support for Karisma Kapoor's children and belief in the justice system in India and said that the Court's direction "will bring more clarity, more visibility and transparency to everything" regarding her brother's assets. "I'm very happy about it because finally the family will know something and have some knowledge about anything really. I believe in the justice system in India, so I'm hoping it will bring more clarity, more visibility and transparency to everything," Mandhira told ANI. Mandhira also supported Samaira and Kiaan, questioning why their father wouldn't include them in his will given their close relationship On plea by Karisma Kapoor's children, she added, "I stand by them because I do not think that if anyone knows the relationship they have had with their father and for their father not to have them a part of the will is just doesn't add up. Doesn't make sense. So I stand by them." On Wednesday, the High Court issued notice in the suit, directing Priya Sachdeva Kapur, Sunjay Kapur's widow, to file a comprehensive list of all movable and immovable assets of the deceased along with her reply. The Delhi High Court has directed Priya Kapur, the widow of late businessman Sunjay Kapur, to disclose all his assets following a plea by his children, Samaira and Kiaan, from his previous marriage to Karisma Kapoor. Priya Kapur has been ordered to disclose all movable and immovable assets of Sunjay Kapur as of June 12, 2025. The children, represented through their mother Karisma Kapoor, have alleged that Priya Kapur forged Sunjay Kapur's will to claim exclusive control of his assets. Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, for the children, argued that the will is unregistered, was never disclosed earlier, and was read "in haste" at the Taj Hotel. He further pointed to suspicious circumstances, noting that the executor admitted learning of the will only a day before and that its disclosure came from a family employee. Priya Kapur's lawyer mentioned the children received 1,900 crore from the Rani Kapur Trust, sparking debate over their entitlement. Senior Advocate Rajiv Nayar, representing Priya Kapur, countered that the suit is not maintainable. He stressed that the plaintiffs are already trust beneficiaries and had given Rs 1,900 crore just days before filing the case. "It's not as if these people are left on the streets. I am a widow with a six-year-old child. For 15 years, they were nowhere to be seen," he said. Nayar confirmed that the will is in his client's custody and placed it before the Court for examination, adding that it could be shared with the plaintiffs under a non-disclosure agreement. Sunjay Kapur's mother, Rani Kapur, also intervened through Senior Advocate Vaibhav Gaggar. "There's something unholy going on. I am 80 years old, concerned for my grandchildren. A trust set up by me has nothing for me? Despite repeated emails, I never received a copy of the will," she submitted. She further alleged that her rights under the trust had been eroded after Priya Kapur's marriage and raised concerns over the sale of Sona Comstar shares worth Rs 500 crore to a Singapore entity without her knowledge. She urged the Court to maintain the status quo on the estate. The children, who seek partition of the estate, rendition of accounts, and an injunction against the defendants, claim they were close to their father until his sudden death in Windsor, UK, on June 12. They allege that despite Sunjay Kapur's repeated assurances about their financial security, Priya Kapur restricted their access to trust documents and later produced a will dated March 21, which they believe is forged. The Delhi High Court will hear the matter next on October 9, 2025. (ANI)
Raising concern over the ongoing tumultuous situation in Nepal, the Supreme Court on Wednesday emphasised that it is proud of the Indian Constitution. "We are proud of our Constitution. If you look at what's happening in our neighbouring States. What happened in Nepal yesterday...", the Chief Justice of India (CJI) B.R. Gavai remarked, suggesting the nation's constitution is so formidable that it has continued to keep the democracy intact. The oral remark came on the 9th day of the hearing in the Presidential reference filed by the President of India, Draupadi Murmu, which had sought the top court's opinion over various constitutional questions, pertinently, whether courts can impose timelines on the Governor and the President to grant assent on State bills. During the hearing, the Solicitor General of India (SGI) representing the Union government submitted before a constitutional bench of the top court that out of the seventeen thousand bills that have been assented to by the Governors of various states since 1970, only twenty have been withheld by the Governor or the President. "More than 90% Bills are passed within one month. Second column is the bills that are passed within three months, and the third is the bills that are passed within six months", the SG submitted. The SGI stated that withholding a bill is an option, and not a power of the Governor. "Only the ones which are "atrociously unconstitutional" are withheld, the SGI added. The SGI sought the Court to take a look at empirical data in this regard. However, demurring on the SG's request, the top court stated that it would be unfair for it to consider data presented by one side after it had disallowed the other side to present data-based submissions. "If we have not permitted them to give any data, we can't let you give any data. That's not fair", the CJI said. SGI Mehta insisted that the Court consider the data for a minute at least. "90% of Bills have been passed since 1975, and only 20 have been withheld", the SGI asserted. However, the top court remained firm in its stance not to consider data-based submissions and was of the view that it is irrelevant in this regard, as the Court had not allowed the other sides to make any such submissions. At this juncture, Justice Vikram Nath, who is part of the five-judge constitutional bench, remarked, "The nation has been continuing to function for the last 75 years with the Constitution and the democracy, irrespective of whether 90%of Bills have been withheld or 50% bills have been withheld to...", suggesting that submissions based on percentage or data are irrelevant. Adding to Justice Nath's remark, the CJI Gavai said that we are proud of our Constitution, considering how India's neighbours have been plagued by political turmoil in recent years, specifically pointing to what happened in Nepal in the last couple of days. "And in Bangladesh...", added Justice P.S. Narasimha. The Court will continue to hear tomorrow the Presidential reference on the powers of the Governor and the President over assent to bills. (ANI)
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday lodged a prosecution complaint under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, against Sk Jinna Ali, also known as Jinna Ali, along with four associates, before the Special Court (PMLA). The complaint was filed on August 30, with the court taking cognisance on September 8. In a post on X, ED shared, "ED, Kolkata Zonal Office has filed a prosecution complaint (PC) in the Hon'ble Special Court, Kolkata against Jinna Ali and 04 others on 30.08.2025. The Hon'ble Court has taken cognisance of the PC on 08.09.2025. ED has provisionally attached movable and immovable properties worth Rs. 2.2 crore associated with SK Jinna Ali @ Jinna Ali under PMLA, 2002 on 27.08.2025. The attached properties include 10 immovable properties located in Bardhaman district owned by Jinna Ali and bank balances." Meanwhile, earlier on Wednesday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Satish Krishna Sail, MLA from Karnataka's Karwar Assembly constituency, in connection with an ongoing money laundering case. The arrest was made by ED's Bengaluru Zonal Office on Tuesday night after a day-long interrogation of the legislator, who had deposed before the agency earlier that day. Officials privy to the development told ANI that Sail had been "avoiding summons" prior to his appearance. The move comes a month after the ED's Bengaluru zonal office conducted search operations at multiple locations in Karwar (Uttara Kannada), Goa, Mumbai and New Delhi under the provisions of the PMLA, 2002, in connection with the case. The raids were carried out on 13th and 14th August. These operation was part of the ongoing investigation into Satish Sail, and others persons and entities, including Ashapura Minechem Ltd, Shree Lal Mahal Ltd, Swastik Steels (Hosepet) Pvt Ltd, ILC Industries Ltd, Sri Lakshmi Venkateshwara Minerals Ltd, who were convicted by a special court for MPs and MLAs Bangalore, for illegal export of iron ore fines carried out by Shree Mallikarjun Shipping Pvt Ltd in collusion of other persons and entities. (ANI)
A Delhi Court on Wednesday reserved its order on a complaint against Congress leader Sonia Gandhi over alleged forgery "over her inclusion in the voter list" in 1980, prior to her getting Indian citizenship. Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Vaibhav Chaurasia reserved the order after putting specific queries to the counsel for complainant Vikas Tripathi. Senior counsel Pavan Narang, who appeared for the complainant, said Sonia Gandhi was not an Indian citizen in January 1980. "How can her name be included as a voter if she was not an Indian citizen? What were those documents on which her name was included in the voter lists of the New Delhi constituency? Her name was deleted, which shows that there was something wrong. Her name was again on the voter lists in 1983 before acquiring Indian citizenship," he argued. A plea has been filed Rouse Avenue Court seeking an investigation into the circumstances of inclusion of Sonia Gandhi in electoral rolls before acquisition of Indian citizenship in April 1983. Narang had argued that the issue at hand is not political but legal, emphasising that the alleged acts constitute a cognizable offence that warrants a police investigation. According to the complaint, Sonia Gandhi, originally an Italian citizen, became an Indian national on April 30, 1983, under Section 5 of the Citizenship Act. However, her name appeared in the New Delhi parliamentary constituency voters' list as early as 1981-82, raising questions about the documents submitted to the Election Commission at the time. Narang pointed out that Gandhi's name, along with that of late Sanjay Gandhi, was later deleted from the rolls in 1982. He argued that such a deletion indicates that her earlier entry in the electoral roll was irregular, as only Indian citizens are eligible to be enrolled as voters. Narang submitted that "forged or falsified" documents may have been used to secure her inclusion in the voters' list before citizenship was granted. "A public authority has been misled, and a fraud appears to have been committed," he told the court. He further argued that despite approaching the Delhi Police and senior officers with a complaint, no action was taken, leaving the petitioner with no option but to approach the court. The plea seeks direction for registration of an FIR and investigation into the alleged offences. The complaint also relies on a 1985 Allahabad High Court judgment in Rakesh Singh vs Sonia Gandhi, which had examined the issue of her citizenship in the context of an election petition. While the court had then held that she became an Indian citizen on April 30, 1983, by registration, the present plea argues that any voter enrollment before that date was illegal. The petitioner has urged the court to direct the police to investigate, requisition records, and examine the documents submitted to the Election Commission during that period. (ANI)
Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Wednesday felicitated the successful candidates of the Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Combined Competitive Examination (APPSCCE)-2024 and presented them with their appointment letters at a centralised function in Itanagar. A total of 140 candidates have been recommended by the Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC) for key administrative and civil service posts. The Chief Minister congratulated the newly selected officers, describing the achievement as a proud milestone not only for the candidates and their families but also for the state. He reminded the officers of their responsibility as permanent pillars of governance, emphasising that while governments and politicians may change, officers remain constant in carrying forward government schemes and policies to the last citizen in the queue. Khandu highlighted that many of the officers are sons and daughters of the soil, which places on them a greater responsibility to serve their own people, preserve the state's unique traditions, and ensure inclusive growth across Arunachal Pradesh. As per a release, the prelims were held on December 15, 2024, with 22,731 candidates registered and over 17,000 appearing in each session. 1,658 aspirants cleared the preliminary examination, the results of which were declared on December 25, 2024. The main examination was conducted on April 6, 7, 9, and 10, 2025. Final results were declared on August 8, 2025, recommending 140 candidates for appointment. The selected candidates include 50 Circle Officers (APCS EG), 6 Deputy Superintendents of Police (APSS EG), 47 Assistant Section Officers, and several other key posts such as Child Development Project Officer, DIPRO, Labour Officer, and Assistant Protocol Officer. Expressing happiness over the fact that out of the 140 recruits, 68 were girls, Khandu hailed the 'girl-power' of the state. "Our girls are giving a tough competition to our boys in every field, which is a welcome trend. I congratulate the parents for keeping faith in them and supporting them through their journey," he said. This year, the Government made special arrangements for the recruits, including mandatory medical tests conducted at TRIHMS on September 8-9, with provision made on September 11 for those unable to attend earlier. Additionally, document verification and acceptance of appointment letters were conducted alongside the felicitation ceremony. Khandu informed the recruits that a comprehensive combined training programme will begin in the first week of October 2025 at the Administrative Training Institute (ATI), Naharlagun, followed by attachments in the Civil Secretariat, districts, and exposure visits to premier institutes such as LBSNAA Mussoorie, National Police Academy Hyderabad, ATI Guwahati, and ISTM New Delhi. "Keep these key guiding principles always on mind - integrity, innovation, dedication, compassion, and teamwork in your career, and you will serve the people well," he said. Assuring them of the Government's full support in their journey, he added, "Your service is not just a career, it is a commitment to the destiny of Arunachal Pradesh." (ANI)
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the Assam government to probe the alleged links of Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi with Pakistan on Wednesday submitted its report to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. According to an official statement, the Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted by the state government to probe the alleged links of MP Gaurav Gogoi with Pakistan, on Wednesday, formally submitted its report to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. The report was handed over at Lok Sewa Bhawan in the presence of SIT members Munna Prasad Gupta, Rosie Kalita, Pranabjyoti Goswami and Maitrayee Deka. In a post on X, CM Sarma said that the Assam Cabinet had constituted the SIT to investigate the "anti-India activities" and "have unearthed startling facts." He wrote, "On 17th February, 2025, the Assam Cabinet constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the anti-India activities of one Pakistani national, Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, and his associates. During the course of this exhaustive investigation, the SIT has unearthed startling facts which point towards a larger conspiracy aimed at undermining the sovereignty of our nation. He further said that the inquiry also shed light on how Pakistan's Ministry of Interior facilitated the visit of an Assam MP to the neighbouring country. He wrote, "The SIT has also established the involvement of a British national - who is also married to an Indian Member of Parliament - in the larger nefarious activities of Ali Tauqeer Sheikh. Furthermore, the investigation also sheds light on how the Ministry of Interior, Govt of Pakistan, facilitated the visit of an Hon'ble Member of Parliament from Assam in their country." The Chief Minister added that the state government will now examine the SIT's findings in detail "The Assam Government will now examine the report of the SIT in detail and place it before the State Cabinet. Once the matter is discussed in the Cabinet, the information gathered during the enquiry will be made public," the Assam CM wrote on X. CM Sarma has repeatedly levelled allegations against Congress leader Gogoi. Going back in May this year, Assam Chief Minister described him as a "deep-rooted Pakistani agent." The Assam Chief Minister claimed that Gogoi had only revealed 10 per cent about his visit to Pakistan and that he and his wife are deeply involved in anti-India activities. The Congress leader has rejected allegations made by the Chief Minister against him and said that these are all just "lies and slander". In August, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi also raised questions on the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led state government and sought to know why, despite the BJP government being in power for nearly a decade, there were infiltrators entering the State. The Congress leader stated that his party's stance was clear- no Bangladeshi should be illegally residing in the state. "The Congress party's position is clear, no Bangladeshi should stay illegally in Assam. It is the duty of both the Assam government and the Central government to ensure this. They have been in power for 10 years, and with border security under their watch, if infiltrators are still coming, then who is responsible?" Gogoi asked. (ANI)
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Arvind Sawant on Wednesday questioned the results of the Vice Presidential election, raising concerns over 15 invalid votes and the drop in support for the NDA's candidate compared to the last election. Sawant also pointed out that the opposition's vote share has increased from 26 per cent to 40 per cent. Speaking to ANI, Arvind Sawant said,"...He (C.P. Radhakrishnan) must have brought them (the votes)...How were 15 votes invalid?... Last time, Jagdeep Dhankhar received 528 votes; this time, they (the BJP) received 452 votes. Why did the number decrease? We (the opposition) received 26% votes last time and received 40% this time..." Earlier in the day, Congress MP Pramod Tiwari refused to comment on the probability of alleged cross-voting by the INDIA bloc MPs in the recently concluded Vice Presidential election, and said that parties in the opposition will have to review the same. Tiwari said that joint opposition candidate B Sudershan Reddy secured 40 per cent of the vote, which is 14 per cent more than the votes the opposition received last time. "I congratulate CP Radhakrishnan on his victory. As far as the results are concerned, the opposition got 26 per cent of the votes the last time. This time, it rose to 40 per cent. There is danger knocking at PM Modi's door. If cross-voting was made to happen, it is wrong. But I won't comment on it. There are several parties, and all of them will review it. Then I will make an official comment on it," Tiwari told ANI. A day earlier, CP Radhakrishnan, the NDA nominee, was elected as the 15th Vice President of India after securing 452 first preference votes. INDIA bloc candidate Justice (Retd) B Sudershan Reddy received 300 votes, while 15 votes were declared invalid. A total voter turnout of 98.20 per cent was recorded, with 767 MPs casting their votes out of 781. Following the announcement of results, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated CP Radhakrishnan and expressed confidence that the newly elected Vice President would strengthen India's constitutional values and contribute positively to parliamentary discourse. "Congratulations to Thiru CP Radhakrishnan Ji on winning the 2025 Vice Presidential election. His life has always been devoted to serving society and empowering the poor and marginalised. I am confident that he will be an outstanding VP, who will strengthen our Constitutional values and enhance Parliamentary discourse," Prime Minister Modi wrote on X. Furthermore, 13 MPs abstained from voting in the election. These include seven MPs from the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), four from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), one MP from the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and one Independent MP. The Vice President's post has been vacant since July 21, 2025, as Jagdeep Dhankhar resigned from his position, citing health reasons. (ANI)
It may be mentioned that on September 14, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the newly built bamboo-based ethanol plant at Numaligarh.

The Chief Minister on Wednesday inspected the arrangements for the public meeting to be held at the Tanker Stand within the Numaligarh Refinery campus.

To ensure the success of the PM's programme, Sarma also participated in an important review meeting with Cabinet Ministers, MPs, MLAs, district administration, and other concerned agencies engaged in the preparations.

During the visit, PM Modi will address a massive public rally at the Numaligarh Tanker Stand, which is expected to be attended by over one lakh people.

The Chief Minister directed the authorities to ensure adequate arrangements for drinking water, vehicle parking, sanitation facilities and first-aid services for the public.

In addition to security measures, he asked the police and district administration to ensure that traffic congestion does not occur near the venue during the PM's programme.

The Chief Minister informed that the bamboo-based ethanol plant has been constructed at a cost of around Rs 5,000 crore. Along with this project, on 14th September, the Prime Minister will launch projects worth over Rs 18,000 crore from Numaligarh and Mangaldai, marking a new era of socio-economic development in Assam.

Meanwhile, during his visit to Numaligarh today, Chief Minister Sarma planted a neem sapling along the Letekujan-Tanker Stand connecting road as a gesture of advance welcome to the Prime Minister's Assam visit.

"A special welcome for a special person. To honour Adarniya @narendramodi ji's visit to Assam next week, we are planting neem trees along the 2.2km stretch leading to Numaligarh as the 'PM Neem Corridor," CM Sarma posted on X. (ANI)
The Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday held a conference of Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of all States and Union Territories, and assessed the preparedness for the nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls. This was the third Conference of Chief Electoral Officers this year. The conference was inaugurated by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, in the presence of Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. A presentation on the strategies, constraints and best practices adopted was made by the CEO of Bihar so that the CEOs of the rest of the country learn from their experiences, said EC in a press note. "The CEOs provided detailed presentations on the number of Electors, the qualifying date of the last SIR, and the electoral roll in their respective State/UT, as per the last completed SIR. The CEOs also presented the status of digitisation and uploading of the Electoral Roll after the previous SIR on the State/UT CEO website," the EC said in the note. "They also provided the status of mapping current electors with those as per the last SIR in the State/UT," it said. To ensure that there is a uniform implementation of the Commission's initiative to ensure that no polling station has over 1,200 electors, the status of rationalisation of polling stations was also reviewed. The CEOs also provided suggested documents for the purpose of ensuring that no eligible citizen is left out of the Electoral Roll and no ineligible person is included in it. It was reiterated that these documents should promote ease of submission for the eligible citizens. The Commission also reviewed the status of appointment and training of DEOs, EROs, AEROs, BLOs and BLAs, said the EC in the press note. In its order on June 24, the EC had stated that SIR would be conducted across the country. (ANI)
Trump's Defense of Christianity: A Historic Window for Lebanon's Christians

President Donald Trump's public defense of Christian identity and traditions is growing louder. He has declared unequivocally that his administration will not tolerate any targeting or marginalization of Christians, whether inside the United States or abroad. These statements are part of a broader shift toward an explicit defense of Christian existence and the rights of believers, a development of immense significance for Middle Eastern Christians in general, and Lebanese Christians in particular. In today's Lebanese landscape, where Christians face existential anxiety amid shifting balances, American support becomes a source of reassurance and a guarantee for their historic role. Such US positions recall earlier chapters of special ties between Washington and Lebanon's Christians, such as the deployment of US Marines in 1982 to support the Lebanese government during a brutal civil war, and before that, in 1958, when US forces landed on Lebanese shores to support President Camille Chamoun's authority against leftist forces backed by Syria and Egypt.

Today, Trump's orientation may well constitute a ray of hope for Lebanese Christians to reinforce their presence and protect their political rights.

Trump's recent positions did not emerge in a vacuum; they align with a series of statements and decisions reflecting explicit defense of Christians and their values. The president has repeatedly told conservatives he knows they are under siege, pledging that one of his first actions in office would be to form a task force to root out bias against Christians. Indeed, Trump announced his intention to sign an executive order directing the Attorney General to establish a federal task force to confront discrimination against Christians within government agencies. The goal: to end all forms of targeting and bias against Christians in the federal government. This unprecedented step affirms that protecting believers has become official policy.

Trump has also stressed that religious freedom is a core part of American identity and must be defended globally. In one of his UN speeches, he called on governments worldwide to end the persecution of the faithful, declaring, "America stands with believers in every nation who simply seek the freedom to live according to their faith." He reminded the world that defending religious freedom has always been a priority of his foreign policy, highlighting his administration's role in launching an international alliance to protect freedom of belief. At home, he reassured Christians that his administration would safeguard their right to practice their faith and identity without fear or discrimination, often repeating, "We will defend American Christians and respect their faith," while describing Christianity as "under siege" and in need of protection. He did not shy away from restoring religious expressions in the public sphere -- such as openly celebrating Christmas -- as part of resisting what he calls the erosion of America's spiritual identity.

Other administration officials echoed this commitment. Vice President J.D. Vance affirmed that the administration would continue prioritizing religious freedom both domestically and abroad. Vance recalled that during Trump's first term, the US supported persecuted believers worldwide, rescuing imprisoned pastors and aiding religious groups terrorized by the Islamic State (ISIS). He stressed that the administration sees the defense of religious freedom not only as a legal principle but as "a living reality inside our borders and beyond." Together, these positions outline a clear narrative: the United States under Trump presents itself as an open champion of Christians worldwide and a defender of religious freedom as a pillar of a free and secure world.

A Historic Opportunity for Lebanon's Christians?

In light of this American shift, Lebanese Christians find themselves before a rare moment not seen in decades. The momentum generated by the Trump Administration in defense of Christian existence could serve as leverage for long-sought projects aimed at strengthening their status and securing their future in a country defined by multiple sects, agendas, and rivalries. Political and spiritual leaders of Lebanon's Christians must seize this moment with prudence and responsibility. Trump has raised the stakes by pledging to stand against prejudice toward Christians and by signaling his administration's readiness to defend them. The ball is now in the court of Lebanese Christian leaders, foremost the Maronite Patriarchate and major political actors such as the Lebanese Forces, to meet Washington halfway.

First, the Christian community must unify its vision and internal ranks around a clear political project that demonstrates to the world, and to Washington in particular, what Lebanese Christians truly seek. Long divided, Lebanon's Christians cannot expect external support to bear fruit without presenting a coordinated or at least coherent position. The federal project now circulating in Christian circles could become a key card in this context. The concept, which calls for redistributing power in Lebanon through a federal system granting each community greater self-rule and security, enjoys wide backing among Christians.

From this standpoint, Christian leaders must articulate a vision for federalism, confederalism, or another form of self-governance in terms of shared Lebanese and American interests, placing it on both the domestic and international agenda. The Maronite Church, in particular, can play a unifying role, having recently championed the concept of Lebanon's neutrality from regional conflicts as a means of protection. The "positive neutrality" advanced by Patriarch Bechara al-Rai could represent a first step toward new political arrangements and perhaps open the path to a federal solution, as some experts have suggested. The Patriarchate and leading Christian forces should together draft a reformist roadmap, beginning with the expanded decentralization outlined in the Taif Accord as a preparatory phase, and approach Washington to seek political and moral backing for self-governance projects. Such US support may be more diplomatic than financial, but it would be crucial in providing protective cover and pressure to realize reforms.

The Lebanese Forces and their allies, who fly the banners of sovereignty and reform, bear particular responsibility. Historically, Lebanese Christian parties have looked to the West, and especially the United States, as a partner and guarantor of their freedom in a turbulent region. Today, their interests align with the Trump Administration's agenda of curbing extremist groups and militias backed by rogue regimes. Leaders like Dr. Samir Geagea must capitalize on the favorable international climate by deepening engagement with Washington and presenting their cause, including the existential threat to Christians, as part of a wider battle to protect religious pluralism in the Middle East. At the same time, these leaders must show readiness to undertake bold domestic reforms, from fighting corruption to improving governance, in order to earn international trust. In short, Lebanon's Christians face a rare historic window, and they must prove themselves a serious partner who can be relied upon if given support.

Federalism to Safeguard Minorities in the Region

American policymakers increasingly recognize that rigid centralist models in the region have marginalized foundational communities of the Levant and left them vulnerable to violence and displacement. Hence, in recent years, federal and decentralized solutions have gained ground as serious proposals for conflict-ridden states fractured by sectarian divides.

In Iraq, after the defeat of ISIS, calls intensified, backed implicitly by US officials, for establishing an administrative region in Nineveh Plains for Christians, Yezidis, and others. The aim was to empower these communities to manage their affairs and ensure their safety within Iraq's federal framework, halting migration and preserving their historic presence. Even then, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi supported expanding decentralization, warning that without self-rule solutions, the country risked disintegration.

In Syria, despite complexities, federal or autonomous arrangements have also been floated as a way to preserve religious and ethnic diversity after years of war. The model in northeastern Syria, where Kurdish, Syriac, and other communities manage local administration, as well as in the Druze stronghold of Jabal al-Druze, shows that flexible governance can protect diversity, despite the Assad regime's refusal to accept such models. Western experts have long debated similar scenarios for Syria, Libya, and Yemen as potential paths to stability.

For Lebanon, observers read Washington's recent shift as openness to discussions of federalism as a way to prevent collapse. The US and France are increasingly concerned about the emigration of Levantine Christians and may not oppose any internal arrangement Lebanese agree upon to guarantee their survival and prosperity, even unconventional formulas such as federal cantons. What matters most is that the initiative comes from the Lebanese themselves, bringing us back to the imperative for Christian leaders to act quickly, offering solutions rather than waiting for them from abroad.

Lebanese Americans in Trump's Inner Circle

This American alignment with Christian concerns is reinforced by the presence of Lebanese-origin figures within Trump's inner circle. Over recent years, Trump has surrounded himself with many advisors and allies of Lebanese Christian heritage, creating informal channels of cultural and political communication with Lebanon's Christian community.

Given their backgrounds and awareness of Lebanon's intricate sectarian makeup, these individuals are able to convey Lebanese Christian concerns to US decision-makers in language they understand. Their presence near the centers of power has served as a soft channel of influence in favor of issues important to Lebanese Christians -- from checking militia dominance in Lebanon to encouraging regional reconciliation that eases pressure on minority groups. They have become a bridge between the aspirations of Lebanon's Christians and an American administration intent on defending religious freedoms.

A Call for Coordinated Engagement

In the end, Trump's positions and those of his administration in support of Christians represent a positive development that Lebanon's Christians must seize and build upon. When the US president publicly commits to combating bias against Christians and protecting their identity, he sends a strong message to both adversaries and allies that the international community, represented by Washington, will not stand idly by if Christians face systematic discrimination or exclusion.

This development provides Lebanese Christians with a moral and political card that could alter domestic dynamics, if used wisely. But external backing alone is not enough. It requires responsible domestic action that fills the void and puts forth solutions. If Christians present a unified vision for the future, whether federalism or another framework, and show readiness for reciprocal compromise with their partners under the constitution, US and international endorsement will follow. Disunity and passivity, by contrast, will only weaken their position further.

The current international climate offers Lebanon's Christians a rare chance to affirm their presence and historic role. The Trump Administration seems willing to extend support, while the Lebanese diaspora in America has proven its capacity to amplify their voice. The real test now lies in the wisdom of Lebanon's Christian leaders. If they can read the changes correctly and act with initiative, American support could translate into pressure for reforms and guarantees securing a free Christian presence. That would be a historic victory. But if the opportunity is squandered by narrow calculations or inaction, history will record that the hand of a great power was extended to Lebanon's Christians, and they failed to take it.

Ultimately, the defense of Christians' religious and cultural identity is inseparable from the defense of Lebanon's Christian identity itself. This, at last, is what the Americans have recognized. The question remains: will Lebanon's Christians recognize it too?

This article was originally published in Arabic by Nida al-Watana.
Officials identified the naxal as the PLGA Military Company 05 member who had a reward of Rs 8 lakh on his head. The encounter took place in the hilly jungle area of

the village of Gedabeda of Police Station Partapur.Forces also recovered a .303 rifle and a walkie-talkie from the site.

Inspector General of Police, Bastar Range, Sundarraj P, said that despite difficult geographical conditions and brutal weather, the police and security forces deployed in Bastar are working with complete devotion to protect life and property as per the intention of the Government of India and the Government of Chhattisgarh.

The Inspector General of Police appealed to the Maoist cadres to accept the reality that Maoism is on the verge of ending. "Now the time has come for them to abandon the path of violence and join the mainstream by taking advantage of the government's rehabilitation policy. If they continue illegal and violent activities, they will have to face severe consequences," he said. (ANI)
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav will transfer grants under the Free Scooty Distribution Scheme to 7,832 meritorious students of the government schools, who topped the Class 12th board examinations for the academic session 2024-25, on Thursday. The program will be held at the Kushabhau Thakre International Convention Center (Minto Hall) in Bhopal. According to an official release, the Free Scooty Distribution Scheme is being operated in the state from the academic session 2022-23. Under the scheme, students are eligible to avail the benefit if they have studied as regular students in the Government Higher Secondary School run under the School Education Department and Tribal Affairs Department of the state and have topped in their school, class 12th board exam of MPBSE. In girls-only schools, the topper girl student is eligible. In boys-only schools, the topper boy student is eligible. In co-educational schools, both the topper boy and the topper girl are eligible (two per school). For the academic session 2024-25, a total of 7,832 toppers will be awarded scooty funds, the release added. Additionally, CM Yadav will also transfer about Rs 61 crore to the bank accounts of 20,37,439 girls from class 7th to 12th in the year 2025 through DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) under the Sanitation and Hygiene Scheme of Samagra Shiksha. Under this initiative, girl students of government schools studying in Classes 7 to 12 are provided Rs 300 annually for personal health and hygiene. Furthermore, the Chief Minister will transfer a stipend amount of Rs seven crore to the bank accounts of 20,100 girls. Notably, under the Kasturba Gandhi Girls' School Type-IV Scheme, girls residing in hostels are provided Rs 3,400 annually per student for Teaching-Learning Material (TLM) and stipend. (ANI)
Ahmedabad District Administration on Wednesday issued a helpline number for its citizens stuck in Nepal amid the violent protests led by Gen Z, forcing Nepali Prime Minister KP Oli to resign. In a statement, Ahmedabad District Administration advised the citizens to contact the helpline number 079-27560511 for assistance. "If any citizens of Ahmedabad district are currently on a trip to Nepal, the district administration has requested their relatives to immediately inform the helpline number," the press release from the Resident Additional Collector stated. "In addition, if any Indian expatriate citizens residing/stuck in Nepal-Kathmandu are in touch, they are advised to contact the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu on the following helpline numbers. District Disaster Management Center - Ahmedabad:- 079 - 27560511, State Disaster Management Center - Gandhinagar :- 079 - 23251900/902/914. Indian Embassy, Kathmandu - Nepal :- +977 - 980 860 2881, +977 - 981 032 6134", it added. Meanwhile, the death toll in the September 8 protest led by Gen-Z in Nepal has risen to 30, the Ministry of Health and Population announced on Wednesday evening. Issuing a release, the Health Ministry stated that 1,033 injuries have been recorded nationwide, out of which 713 injured individuals have already been discharged, while 55 were referred to other facilities for further treatment. Another 253 patients remain newly admitted. The Civil Service Hospital in Kathmandu is currently handling the largest caseload, treating 436 people. The National Trauma Centre is caring for 161 patients, and Everest Hospital is treating 109. In all, 28 hospitals across the country are providing care to those affected, the ministry added. The protest under the banner of Gen-Z Nepal saw a spree of shooting by security forces as they tried to break into the parliament. Police indiscriminately fired upon protesters with live rounds, followed by tear gas.On Tuesday, KP Oli resigned from his PM's post as the protests turned violent in Nepal with demonstrators torching the Parliament Building, President's office and several other government buildings. The protests began on September 8 after the Nepal government imposed a ban on social media apps. However, the ban was just a triggering point to a widespread movemen that demanded an end to alleged institutionalised corruption and favouritism in governance. (ANI)
With opposition's candidate in Vice Presidential polls B Sudershan Reddy getting less than expected votes, Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Puri on Wednesday hit out the Congress and other opposition parties over their repeated "vote chori" allegations against the BJP and Election Commission and said they have "mastered the art of shoot and scoot politics". He also hit at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who has repeatedly made "vote chori" allegations and said effort is being made to "whip up hysteria based on fake data". NDA nominee in Vice Presidential polls, CP Radhakrishnan, was elected as the 15th Vice President of India on Tuesday. He secured 452 first preference votes. Justice (Retd) B Sudershan Reddy received 300 votes, while 15 votes were declared invalid. Voting for Vice Presidential polls is held through paper ballot. Puri said that in an election based on paper ballot, opposition leaders are unable to explain why nearly 35 of their MP's voted for the NDA candidate. He also took "Balak Budhi" jibe at Rahul Gandhi without taking his name. "It pains me to see that, driven by an inexplicable desire to run down India and our robust democratic system, politicians of a particular thinking and ideology, including those deeply influenced by the Balak Buddhi, hover on the brink of a different kind of mental state," he said a post on X. "One that compels them to eschew logic, utter falsehoods, and cast doubts about India's electoral system. One day they are proponents of paper ballot, on another when they lose an election based on paper ballot they are not able to explain how despite a paper ballot nearly 35 of their MP's voted for the NDA candidate in the vice-president election. They have mastered the art of shoot & scoot politics," he added. Puri said allegations of opposition parties "usually sans facts and are based on false data; and always come crumbling down at the first scrutiny". "Their modus operandi is clear - lose elections due to their incompetence and past linkages with corruption and scams, create imaginary reasons for the loss, never lodge official complaints despite being asked to do so by the ECI, refuse to submit proof backed by a declaration and eventually try to whip up hysteria based on their fake data. Every point they have raised about an imaginary 'vote chori' and electoral data has turned out to be a figment of their imagination," he said. "The data they have been quoting has turned out to be wrong. Their lie on new voter addition in Maharashtra was exposed where more voters were added in 2004 & 2009 when UPA won, than in 2024. Or, look at Wayanad which had 93,499 doubtful voters including 20,438 duplicate voters, or Rae Bareli with a whopping 2,00,089 doubtful voters including 19,512 duplicate voters or 71,977 with fake addresses," he added. Rahul Gandhi had on August 7 addressed a press conference in New Delhi in which he presented Congress' research on voting in the Mahadevapura Assembly in Karnataka, a part of the Bangalore Central parliamentary constituency. He alleged "vote chori" (vote theft) of 1,00,250 votes, including "duplicate voters, invalid addresses, and bulk registrations of votes" at single locations. The Election Commission had said that Rahul Gandhi should make his allegations in an affidavit or issue an apology. Rahul Gandhi and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav also held 'Voter Adhikar Yatra' in poll-bound Bihar opposing the manner in which Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls was being carried out and over their "vote chori" allegations. The Congress leader continued to level "vote chori" allegations against the BJP and EC during his visit on Wednesday to Raebareli, the seat he represents in Lok Sabha. "The slogan of 'vote chor, gaddi chhor' is being proven across the country, and the Congress party will continue to prove it again and again, in more dramatic ways,The main slogan 'Vote chor, gaddi chhor' is being proven across the country. We will prove it again and again in more and more dramatic ways," the Congress leader said Puri, in his post, also accused opposition parties of pursuing "vote bank" politics. "The real reason behind all this noise and imaginary claims of 'vote chori' is their sinister motive of vote bank politics. Of empowering the infiltrators, stealing the mandate of real Indians, and compromising national security," he said. With Radhakrishnan winning the Vice-Presidential polls by over 150 votes, BJP MPs on Tuesday took dig at Congress and opposition parties, claiming that 14 MPs from INDIA block indulged "in cross voting" and 14 other whose votes were cancelled are also from the opposition. BJP leader Bhagwat Karad told ANI that NDA has registered a win as expected."In fact, INDI bloc has got fewer votes with 14 people indulging in cross voting, 14 other votes which were cancelled were also from INDI bloc side," he alleged. BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal said they were fully confident that NDA candidate would definitely cross the figure of 450 votes. "We have shown how dominant NDA is in Parliament. We also thank Rahul Gandhi. Rahul Gandhi had said that one should vote by listening to the voice of conscience. His 40 MPs have voted for us," he said. (ANI)
In a gesture of solidarity and support, Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu has sanctioned an amount of Rs 5 crore from the Chief Minister's Relief Fund (CMRF) for providing assistance to the people affected by the recent floods in Himachal Pradesh. The sanctioned amount will be contributed to the Himachal Pradesh Aapda Raahat Kosh-2025, set up by the Government of Himachal Pradesh to mobilise resources and extend large-scale relief to those affected by the devastating natural calamity. Chief Minister Khandu expressed deep concern over the loss and hardship caused by the floods and reiterated Arunachal Pradesh's commitment to stand with fellow citizens in times of crisis, according to a release. "Natural disasters do not recognise boundaries. At such moments, it is our duty as Indians to extend a helping hand to our brothers and sisters in distress. This contribution is a humble step from the people of Arunachal Pradesh towards easing the suffering of those affected in Himachal Pradesh," he said. The Government of Himachal Pradesh has initiated a campaign to generate resources through the Aapda Raahat Kosh-2025 to provide timely assistance, rehabilitation, and relief to flood victims. The contribution from Arunachal Pradesh will bolster this collective effort to support the affected families and communities. Meanwhile, Assam Minister for Power, Prasanta Phukan, on Wednesday handed over a cheque of Rs 5 crore from the Assam CM's Relief Fund to Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, at Himachal Sadan in the national capital. Phukan handed over the cheque to Chief Minister Sukhu on behalf of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and the people of Assam for the flood-affected people of Himachal Pradesh. In his 25-minute meeting with Chief Minister Sukhu, Minister Phukan said that the Government of Assam stands in solidarity with the people of Himachal Pradesh during their hour of distress.Sukhu expressed his heartfelt gratitude to Chief Minister Sarma and the people of Assam for the support extended to the flood-affected people at their time of crisis. (ANI)
Former Indian diplomat Sukh Deo Mani on Tuesday said that Nepal's situation is "one of anarchy" as the nation reels under violent protests against the government. Speaking with ANI, Sukh Deo Muni, noting the resignation of Nepal Prime Minister KP Oli, said that the government has collapsed and suggested that Oli has left the country. "The situation is one of anarchy at the moment. But I understand that Oli has already left the country, or he's about to leave the country for Dubai, and the whole government has collapsed. What I'm worried about is the acts like burning of the parliament, and why should anybody be doing that kind of thing?" Sukh Deo Muni said. The former Indian diplomat further said that Kathmandu Mayor Balendra Shah 'Balen is being asked to be part of the interim management after the ousting of KP Oli. "I also heard that Balen Shah is being asked to join the interim management and to hold elections. Balen Shah has an independent image, and he has been raising his voice against corruption and inefficiency for a long time. So though his name is linked to Shah, which is the ruling family there, I hope that he is not a royalist to that extent, and he probably would try to put things together. But it's a major challenge; it's not an easy way out. I think even for Balen, it may not be easy," he said. The Gen Z demonstrations escalated sharply on Tuesday, forcing Nepal Prime Minister KP Oli to resign, while torching several government buildings, including the parliament building and the President's Office in Kathmandu. Meanwhile, Nepali President Ram Chandra Paudel on Tuesday called on protesting citizens to pursue a peaceful resolution to the ongoing Gen Z movement through dialogue, The Himalayan Times reported. President Paudel emphasised that with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's resignation already accepted, the nation must focus on resolving the crisis without further bloodshed or destruction, The Himalayan Times reported, citing an official statement from the President. "I urge all sides to remain calm, prevent further harm to the nation, and come to the table for talks. In a democracy, the demands raised by citizens can be addressed through dialogue and negotiation," he said. At least 19 deaths and more than 500 injuries have been reported in clashes around the Federal Parliament and other parts of Kathmandu. The protests began on September 8, 2025, in Kathmandu and other major cities, including Pokhara, Butwal, and Birgunj, after the government imposed a ban on major social media platforms, citing tax revenue and cybersecurity concerns. (ANI)
Nepali President Ram Chandra Paudel is expected to meet the protesting citizens on Wednesday to pursue a peaceful resolution to the ongoing Gen Z movement in the country through dialogue. He will be meeting with a delegation of the protestors, along with the Nepalese Army. The call for the talks by President Paudel came on late Tuesday after he accepted the resignation of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. According to The Himalayan Times, citing an official statement from the President, he called for resolving the crisis without further bloodshed or destruction through dialogue. "I urge all sides to remain calm, prevent further harm to the nation, and come to the table for talks. In a democracy, the demands raised by citizens can be addressed through dialogue and negotiation," the statement read, as quoted by The Himalayan Times. The appeal comes on day two of the violent demonstrations that left at least 19 people dead and hundreds injured when security forces opened fire on protesters outside the Federal Parliament. Earlier, four ministers had resigned from the government following Nepal's 'Gen Z' protest, a widespread movement led by young people, primarily students, to demand accountability and transparency from the government. The protests began on September 8 in Kathmandu and other major cities, including Pokhara, Butwal, and Birgunj, after the government imposed a ban on major social media platforms, citing tax revenue and cybersecurity concerns. Building on this anger, protesters are demanding an end to institutionalised corruption and favouritism in governance. They want the government to be more accountable and transparent in its decision-making processes. The protesters are also demanding the revocation of the ban on social media platforms, which they see as an attempt to suppress free speech. As tensions mounted, the situation quickly escalated on the ground. At least 19 people were killed and 500 were injured in clashes with security forces. A curfew was imposed in several cities, including Kathmandu, to control the situation. At the heart of the unrest was the government's decision to impose a ban on 26 major social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and YouTube, citing concerns over misinformation and the need for regulatory compliance. Citizens saw this as an attack on free speech and a way to suppress dissent. Public frustration deepened further when the "Nepo Babies" trend on social media exposed the lavish lifestyles of politicians' children, highlighting the economic disparity between them and ordinary citizens. This fuelled public frustration over corruption, nepotism, and economic inequality. Amid these grievances, Nepal's ongoing jobs crisis, with nearly 5,000 young people leaving the country every day to seek work abroad, has added to the unrest. (ANI)
Washington, DC [US] September 10 (ANI) David Goldwyn, a leading global energy and geopolitical expert and a former senior official in the US Department of Energy, called Peter Navarro, Senior Counsellor for Trade and Manufacturing under US President Donald Trump, a "fringe diplomat" who is being allowed to attack India on TV as part of a "public relations bullying campaign." In an interview with ANI, Goldwyn said, "He is an unserious person and ill-informed. And if the president's taking his advice, then he is ill-served. But I think he's being allowed to go on television and say these things as part of a public relations bullying campaign. I think we will know that negotiations are serious and that we're on the de-escalation path when we stop seeing Peter Navarro on TV." Goldwyn also mentioned that Navarro is being allowed to mouth off on things far beyond his brief. "Peter Navarro is an insult to wolf warrior diplomats. Navarro is a fringe diplomat, an economist, who is a senior advisor, not even a holder of a cabinet position, who is being allowed to mouth off on things far beyond his brief," he added. Goldwyn further said that in the trade negotiations hierarchy, Navarro comes in fourth. "You have the Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick. You have Jameson Greer, who's the US trade representative. You have Scott Besson, the Secretary of the Treasury, who is really leading these negotiations. Navarro is fourth." Navarro has repeatedly taken jibes at India in recent weeks. He has accused New Delhi of profiteering from Russian oil, and alleged that India's tariffs are costing American jobs. In his latest remarks on social media, Navarro wrote, "FACTS: India's highest tariffs cost U.S. jobs. India buys Russian oil purely to profit/Revenues feed the Russian war machine. Ukrainians/Russians die. U.S. taxpayers shell out more. India can't handle truth/spins @washpo Leftist American fake news." His comments came in response to a Washington Post report that said the Trump administration's inflammatory language towards India was worsening tensions in bilateral ties. He has previously gone further, describing India as a "laundromat for the Kremlin" and making casteist comments, including alleging that "Brahmins are profiteering" from the Russian crude oil. Goldwyn also criticised the Trump administration's approach towards India, calling Washington's sanctions on Indian imports of Russian oil a "deeply hypocritical policy." "It is a deeply hypocritical policy. So there's no question about that," he told ANI. This comes after the US imposed a steep 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods, 25 per cent applied earlier this month and an additional 25 per cent from August 27 as secondary sanctions, in response to India's continued purchase of Russian oil. By contrast, tariffs on China have been suspended until November, despite Beijing being one of the largest importers of Russian crude. (ANI)
A new report by Amnesty International on Tuesday has revealed that Pakistan's growing mass surveillance and online censorship infrastructure is being powered by a global web of technology companies based in China, Europe, North America, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The report, titled "Shadows of Control", documents how sophisticated surveillance tools are being deployed in the country with the assistance of foreign firms, allowing Pakistani authorities to monitor, censor, and control digital communication at an unprecedented scale. According to the report, the investigation, carried out over a year in collaboration with several international media and human rights organisations, exposes how Pakistani authorities are using two core systems, the Web Monitoring System (WMS 2.0) and the Lawful Intercept Management System (LIMS), to conduct broad surveillance and censor online content with virtually no oversight or transparency. According to Amnesty, Pakistan's WMS 2.0 operates as a nationwide firewall capable of blocking both access to the internet and specific online content deemed "unlawful" by the state. This system evolved from an earlier version installed in 2018, utilising technology provided by the Canadian company Sandvine, now operating as AppLogic Networks. Following Sandvine's exit from the Pakistani market in 2023, a newer and more advanced version of the firewall was deployed using technology from Chinese firm Geedge Networks and hardware and software supplied by US-based Niagara Networks and French company Thales, as per Amnesty's findings. Meanwhile, the Lawful Intercept Management System has been mandated by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to be embedded across telecom networks. It enables authorities, including Pakistan's Armed Forces and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), to intercept calls, read messages, and monitor the websites visited by citizens. The Amnesty report highlights that German company Utimaco and Emirati firm Datafusion were responsible for supplying the core technology that powers this system. LIMS allows authorities to carry out targeted surveillance on any individual, accessing real-time data from telecom providers and potentially tracking more than four million people at a time. Amnesty said the surveillance regime has become a key instrument in stifling dissent and repressing civil society, especially journalists and activists. The legal system in Pakistan provides limited protection against such surveillance, with safeguards such as judicial warrants often being ignored. One journalist interviewed for the report described the extent of the intrusion he faced after publishing a report on government corruption. He said he became the subject of constant surveillance, and even those he communicated with were questioned by authorities. Fearing for the safety of his family, he stopped speaking with them altogether. "Obviously, everything is monitored, be it email or calls...After the story, anyone I would speak to, even on WhatsApp, would come under scrutiny. [The authorities] would go to people and ask them, why did he call you? [The authorities] can go to these extreme lengths... now I go months without speaking to my family [for fear they will be targeted]," the journalist said, as quoted in the report. Amnesty International's Secretary General, Agns Callamard, said the situation in Pakistan has reached a dangerous point. She described the current reality as dystopian, where ordinary people are subjected to constant digital surveillance without their knowledge. She added that the tools of this surveillance regime are being funded by public money, enabled by foreign companies, and used to silence criticism, curtail expression, and punish dissent. "Pakistan's Web Monitoring System and Lawful Intercept Management System operate like watchtowers, constantly snooping on the lives of ordinary citizens. In Pakistan, your texts, emails, calls and internet access are all under scrutiny. But people have no idea of this constant surveillance and its incredible reach. This dystopian reality is extremely dangerous because it operates in the shadow, severely restricting freedom of expression and access to information," said Secretary General at Amnesty International, Agns Callamard. The report also criticised the role of the foreign companies and the countries in which they are based. Amnesty stated that while these companies are profiting from contracts with the Pakistani state, they are also failing to meet their responsibilities under international human rights law. Of the 20 companies contacted, only Niagara Networks and AppLogic Networks responded in full. Utimaco and Datafusion gave partial responses but did not engage with Amnesty's final findings. The Pakistani government did not respond to any of the letters sent by Amnesty. Export control authorities in Germany and Canada acknowledged receipt of queries but did not provide answers. Amnesty said the use of technology originally developed for legitimate law enforcement purposes has turned into a system of mass control, with little to no transparency or accountability. It pointed to the commercialisation of China's "Great Firewall" as an example, with components now being used in Pakistan via Geedge Networks to suppress digital freedom. The report concluded that Pakistan's surveillance infrastructure is not only illegal under international human rights standards but also morally indefensible. It called on the international community to enact stricter regulations on the export of surveillance technology and to hold companies accountable for their role in enabling repression in countries like Pakistan. (ANI)
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, has expressed deep concern over the violence in Nepal, which has resulted in the deaths of multiple people and injuries to hundreds amid ongoing nationwide demonstrations. In a statement issued on Tuesday, Turk said he was "appalled" by the level of brutality seen in recent days and called on Nepali security forces to exercise maximum restraint in their response to the unrest. "I plead with security forces to exercise utmost restraint and avoid further such bloodshed and harm... Violence is not the answer," he said. The protests, sparked by youth-led frustration over corruption and the government's controversial ban on social media platforms, have intensified in recent days. Demonstrators, mostly from Nepal's Gen Z demographic, have taken to the streets in major cities, demanding accountability and transparency. Turk emphasised that peaceful assembly is a right and that protesters should be allowed to express their frustrations freely and without fear and also raised alarm over "concerning reports" of excessive use of force by Nepali security personnel, urging authorities to launch an "urgent, thorough, transparent and impartial investigation" into the incidents. "Dialogue is the best and only way to address the concerns of the Nepalese people. It is important that the voices of young people are heard," he said. "I have received concerning reports of unnecessary and disproportionate use of force by the security forces... I call for an urgent, thorough, transparent and impartial investigation into such acts," Turk added. At the same time, the UN Human Rights Chief reminded demonstrators of their responsibility to uphold peaceful conduct, saying he was disturbed by reports of arson, attacks on public and private property, and physical violence against senior government officials. He also noted that the UN stands ready to assist Nepal in de-escalating tensions, offering support for dialogue and trust-building efforts aimed at restoring calm and confidence among the population. "I am disturbed by reports of public buildings, businesses and private residences being attacked and, in some instances, set ablaze. Equally, I am concerned by reports of physical attacks on senior government officials," he said. "Together with the United Nations system, my Office stands ready to support dialogue and trust-building measures that can help de-escalate tensions and restore confidence," the High Commissioner added. (ANI)
A province-wide shutdown and wheel-jam strike was observed across Balochistan on the call of the All Parties coalition, effectively bringing major cities and highways from Zhob to Gwadar to a halt, according to a report by The Balochistan Post (TBP). Security forces, including police and levies personnel, launched a sweeping crackdown, arresting numerous political leaders and activists belonging to various parties in Quetta and other districts. In Quetta alone, authorities reportedly detained over 100 demonstrators from areas such as Sariab, Airport Road, Brewery, Bypass, and the city's central districts. Among those arrested were prominent leaders from the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), Balochistan National Party (BNP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Awami National Party (ANP), National Party (NP), and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), TBP reported on Tuesday. Similar arrests took place in multiple districts across the province. In Surab, the BNP district president and three party workers were apprehended. In Mastung, BNP's district president and NP's district president were among 14 people detained. In Loralai, security forces arrested seven activists from ANP and PkMAP. Jafarabad saw eight arrests, while in Nasirabad, BNP's divisional president was among nine individuals taken into custody. In Duki, PTI's district general secretary and 15 others were detained. Additional arrests were also reported from Ziarat (Sanjawi), Qalat, and Chaman, where dozens of party workers were rounded up, TBP added. ANP's provincial president accused the authorities of attempting to undermine what he described as a peaceful demonstration, claiming that police used excessive force and arrested hundreds, including several senior leaders. He alleged that repeated tear gas shelling took place near PkMAP's office in Quetta. The ANP leader asserted that the strike was "the most successful in Balochistan's history", shutting down businesses and transport links across the province, and called it a "referendum" against what he referred to as an imposed government. The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) also condemned the crackdown, denouncing it as "an attack on democracy and human rights." The group criticised the government for failing to protect citizens from terrorism while simultaneously using force against peaceful demonstrators. "It raises the question of whether the people of this region are doomed to face violence from both terrorists and the state," BYC said in a statement, as reported by TBP. TBP's report also mentioned that the BYC further pointed out that political activists in Balochistan have been repeatedly targeted by crackdowns in recent months and warned that attempts to suppress public movements would only worsen the province's instability. The organisation urged all political groups and the public to remain united and resist what it described as oppressive policies. (ANI)
Hundreds of Chinese citizens, foreign tourists, and students remained stuck in Sost as demonstrators continued to block both entry and exit points of the Khunjerab Pass Immigration Office located on the Pakistan-China border on Tuesday for the second consecutive day, according to a report by Dawn. Authorities stated that a significant number of Chinese nationals, students, and international visitors were unable to cross into China through the Khunjerab Pass because protestors from Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan (PoGB) prevented any movement along the Karakoram Highway (KKH) that connects the two countries. The stranded travellers, including Chinese citizens and tourists, expressed anger and frustration, confronting local police officials over their failure to arrange safe passage to China. According to officials, many of these travellers protested and engaged in heated arguments with authorities over the situation. The ongoing demonstration is being led by residents and traders of PoGB, who have been holding a sit-in for 51 consecutive days, effectively blocking the KKH. They are protesting against the federal government's imposition of Sales Tax, Income Tax, and Excise Tax on the people of PoGB. The protesters argue that the imposition of any federal tax is illegal because PoGB residents lack representation in Pakistan's parliament, and, according to Pakistan's Constitution, the region is not officially a part of the country, Dawn reported. Those participating in the sit-in have accused the PoGB administration of preparing to launch a crackdown against them instead of addressing their legitimate demands. They warned the authorities of severe repercussions if such measures were taken. The protest, which has paralysed trade routes, was called by all major traders' associations across PoGB. Gulsher Khan, one of the protesters, accused both the federal and PoGB governments of showing no sincerity in resolving the dispute. He emphasised that protesters were demanding their constitutional rights, insisting that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had no authority to impose taxes on the people and traders of PoGB, as they are not represented in Pakistan's legislative system. Khan also revealed that more than 200 consignments imported from China have been lying idle at the Sost Dry Port for the past 10 months, causing traders in PoGB to suffer financial losses amounting to billions of rupees. Another protester, Ebad Nagari, said that the FBR's taxation policies have rendered thousands of residents jobless, as reported by Dawn. (ANI)
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly emerging as a central element of national security, with experts warning that powerful nations equipped with advanced AI infrastructure could weaponise the technology to pressure countries with weaker capabilities. At the 26th World Knowledge Forum (WKF) in Seoul, AI leaders stressed the growing importance of "Sovereign AI", a framework where nations independently develop, control, and operate AI systems, including data and computing infrastructure, within their own borders. Martin Kon, former president and chief operating officer of Canadian AI firm Cohere, explained that Sovereign AI extends beyond geographic borders. "It means having sovereignty within one's own data environment," he said, emphasising that sensitive information, such as national security data, should not be stored on foreign servers. Cohere, an AI startup specialising in enterprise-scale large language models (LLMs) and generative AI, has collaborated with Korean companies, including co-developing an inference-based LLM with LG CNS. Park Sung-hyun, CEO of Korean AI chipmaker Rebellions Inc., cautioned that even developing nations must act now to secure AI sovereignty. "Although we cannot precisely predict the potential of AI, since AI will surpass the level of chatbots, even developing countries must secure AI Sovereignty," he said. Experts suggested Korea's best path forward lies in strategic partnerships. Park noted that while Korea cannot develop all AI technologies independently, overreliance on a single country or company risks technological dependence. Instead, he advised diversifying partnerships to balance cooperation with autonomy. Kon added that Korea should tailor AI development to its own needs rather than replicate foreign models. "Just as Korean banks don't need to provide the exact same service as Kenyan banks, AI technologies don't have to be identical everywhere," he said. Beyond AI, global opinion leaders at the WKF also highlighted the need to safeguard the international community's core values of inclusion, resilience, and trust amid rising protectionism and geopolitical tensions. The forum also featured leading thinkers on the challenges facing modern states. James Robinson, University of Chicago professor and winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics, warned that political polarisation and declining public trust in institutions have left many democracies unable to mediate conflicts or solve pressing problems. "This represents an ideological crisis across modern liberal societies," Robinson said, calling for countries to honestly reassess their political and institutional frameworks. Jared Diamond, UCLA professor emeritus and author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, urged global consensus on shared threats, highlighting nuclear proliferation as one of humanity's gravest dangers. He stressed the urgency of a binding global treaty to reduce nuclear stockpiles, saying, "Excessive nuclear weapons do not help any of us." The 26th World Knowledge Forum is Asia's largest knowledge festival, organised by the Maeil Business Newspaper under the theme "New Odyssey: Navigating the Great Transition". (ANI)
The East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE) has strongly condemned a recent propaganda campaign by the Islamic State (ISIS), calling it a calculated attempt to support China's narrative and undermine the East Turkistani people's struggle for independence, according to the post by ETGE. The condemnation comes in response to a report by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which highlighted an ISIS poster urging Uyghurs to turn East Turkistan into an "ISIS province". The ETGE described the messaging as a direct effort to delegitimise the region's fight for sovereignty by framing it as linked to terrorism, the ETGE post stated. "This is a deliberate attempt to advance China's propaganda and objectives by undermining the legitimate national liberation struggle of the people of East Turkistan," the ETGE said in its post, adding that Beijing has long used "counterterrorism" as a pretext to justify its policies of mass surveillance, arbitrary detention, and systematic repression in the region. The group noted that the timing of the ISIS propaganda coincided with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin, where member states reaffirmed their commitment to combating terrorism, separatism, and extremism. According to the ETGE, Beijing's use of such language has historically been a tool to demonise Uyghur activism and independence efforts, as cited by the ETGE post. Rejecting any connection to ISIS, the ETGE emphasised that its struggle is a lawful anti-colonial liberation movement, grounded in international law, including Article 1(4) of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions. The statement reaffirmed that East Turkistan's fight has "nothing to do with religious fundamentalism, terrorism, separatism, or extremism" and is instead focused on ending foreign occupation and restoring sovereignty. The ETGE also dismissed any suggestion of becoming a "province" of another entity, stating, "Our sole objective is the restoration of the independent East Turkistan Republic, the complete liberation of all of East Turkistan, the restoration of full sovereignty, and the protection of our people." The group urged the global community to reject narratives that aid China's control over the region and called for stronger international measures to stop what it describes as genocide, crimes against humanity, and colonial rule in Occupied East Turkistan. (ANI)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday (local time) warned Europe and NATO of an escalating threat from Russia after a massive barrage of missiles and drones struck Ukraine, including Russian-Iranian "Shahed" drones, eight of which crossed into Polish airspace. The attacks targeted at least 15 regions, causing one death. Zelenskyy said rescuers were working in Volochysk, Khmelnytskyi region, after a missile hit a sewing workshop. "As of now, three people are reported injured. This is just one of the sites of today's massive Russian attack: about 415 drones of various types and more than 40 cruise and ballistic missiles. Fifteen of our regions were under attack. Sadly, one person was killed as a result of shelling in the Zhytomyr region. My condolences to the family and loved ones," he said. https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1965660426382831726 Using "Sahed's" breach of NATO airspace as a pretext, Zelenskyy also expressed concern that the conflict would spread further into NATO territory. "Today there was another step of escalation - Russian-Iranian 'shaheds' operated in the airspace of Poland, in NATO airspace. It was not just one 'shahed' that could be called an accident, but at least eight strike drones aimed toward Poland," he said. Calling it an "extremely dangerous precedent for Europe," Zelenskyy said a strong and joint response was needed. "The Russians must feel the consequences. Russia must feel that the war cannot be expanded and will have to be ended. The pause in sanctions has gone on far too long. Delaying restrictions on Russia and its accomplices only means increasing the brutality of the strikes. Sufficient weapons are needed to deter Russia. A strong response is needed - and it can only be a joint response by all partners: Ukraine, Poland, all Europeans, the United States. I thank everyone who is helping," the Ukrainian President added. Earlier, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also urged Western partners to step up sanctions against Moscow and strengthen Ukraine's air defence, warning that Russia's aggression is expanding into Europe. "Russian drones flying into Poland during the massive attack on Ukraine show that Putin's sense of impunity keeps growing because he was not properly punished for his previous crimes. Putin just keeps escalating, expanding his war, and testing the West. The longer he faces no strength in response, the more aggressive he gets. A weak response now will provoke Russia even more--and then Russian missiles and drones will fly even further into Europe," Sybiha said. He called on NATO members and neighbouring countries to act decisively and allow their air defence systems to intercept drones and missiles in Ukrainian airspace, including those approaching NATO borders. https://x.com/andrii_sybiha/status/1965643266046546067 "This situation shows that finally the decision needs to be taken to enable partner air defence capabilities in neighbouring countries to be used to intercept drones and missiles in the Ukrainian airspace, including those approaching NATO borders. Ukraine has suggested such step for a long time. It needs to be taken for the sake of collective security. This is also a call for partners to urgently strengthen Ukraine's air defense and better protect against a growing number of Russian drones and missiles attacking us on the regular basis," he said. The Foreign Minister also stressed that sanctions against Moscow must be toughened without delay. "Furthermore, sanctions must be ramped up without delay. Putin will only get serious about peace negotiations when he faces serious transatlantic pressure. The Russian War Machine must be stopped--and it can only be stopped by strength, not weakness," Sybiha said. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda also condemned Russia's "growing" aggression and warned of its threat to Europe, urging the world to break the "aggressor's war economy". "Russia is deliberately expanding its aggression, posing an ever-growing threat to Europe. The drone swarm over Polish territory is yet another proof, as is its threatening rhetoric towards NATO's Eastern flank. The world must stop the aggressor -- break its war economy and its ability to destroy and kill," Nauseda said. (ANI)
Poland's military said on Wednesday that it shot down drones which breached its airspace during a Russian strike on Ukraine, CNN reported. According to CNN, this is the first time Poland has taken such action, raising fears of a major provocation for Europe and NATO forces. "This is an act of aggression that posed a real threat to the safety of our citizens," Poland's Operation Command said in a post on X. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed that the country's airspace had been violated by "a huge number of Russian drones" which were shot down by its military. Tusk was in close communication with Poland's allies and the Secretary General of NATO regarding the incident, according to CNN. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also warned Europe and NATO of an escalating threat from Russia after a massive barrage of missiles and drones struck Ukraine. Among them were Russian-Iranian "Shahed" drones, eight of which crossed into Polish airspace. "The attacks targeted at least 15 regions, causing one death. Rescuers were working in Volochysk, Khmelnytskyi region, after a missile hit a sewing workshop. As of now, three people are reported injured. This is just one of the sites of today's massive Russian attack: about 415 drones of various types and more than 40 cruise and ballistic missiles. Fifteen of our regions were under attack. Sadly, one person was killed as a result of shelling in the Zhytomyr region. My condolences to the family and loved ones," Zelenskyy said. Using the drones' breach of NATO airspace as an example of rising risks, Zelenskyy addedn "Today there was another step of escalation - Russian-Iranian 'shaheds' operated in the airspace of Poland, in NATO airspace. It was not just one 'shahed' that could be called an accident, but at least eight strike drones aimed toward Poland." Calling the incident an "extremely dangerous precedent for Europe," he urged for stronger measures. "The Russians must feel the consequences. Russia must feel that the war cannot be expanded and will have to be ended. The pause in sanctions has gone on far too long. Delaying restrictions on Russia and its accomplices only means increasing the brutality of the strikes. Sufficient weapons are needed to deter Russia. A strong response is needed - and it can only be a joint response by all partners: Ukraine, Poland, all Europeans, the United States. I thank everyone who is helping," Zelenskyy said. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also pressed Western partners to act faster against Moscow. "Russian drones flying into Poland during the massive attack on Ukraine show that Putin's sense of impunity keeps growing because he was not properly punished for his previous crimes. Putin just keeps escalating, expanding his war, and testing the West. The longer he faces no strength in response, the more aggressive he gets. A weak response now will provoke Russia even more--and then Russian missiles and drones will fly even further into Europe," he said. Sybiha called on NATO members and neighbouring countries to let their air defence systems intercept drones and missiles inside Ukraine's airspace. "This situation shows that finally the decision needs to be taken to enable partner air defence capabilities in neighbouring countries to be used to intercept drones and missiles in the Ukrainian airspace, including those approaching NATO borders. Ukraine has suggested such step for a long time. It needs to be taken for the sake of collective security. This is also a call for partners to urgently strengthen Ukraine's air defence and better protect against a growing number of Russian drones and missiles attacking us on the regular basis," he wrote on X. He also stressed the need for tougher sanctions. "Furthermore, sanctions must be ramped up without delay. Putin will only get serious about peace negotiations when he faces serious transatlantic pressure. The Russian War Machine must be stopped--and it can only be stopped by strength, not weakness," Sybiha said. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda echoed the concerns, calling the Russian drone incursion a sign of wider danger for Europe. "Russia is deliberately expanding its aggression, posing an ever-growing threat to Europe. The drone swarm over Polish territory is yet another proof, as is its threatening rhetoric towards NATO's Eastern flank. The world must stop the aggressor -- break its war economy and its ability to destroy and kill," Nauseda said. (ANI)
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is set to convene an emergency session on Wednesday in New York, following an Israeli airstrike targeting senior Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar. According to a post on X by Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, the session is scheduled to start at 3 PM (local time or 12:30 am IST on Thursday). It comes after Israel hit residential buildings in Doha housing members of Hamas's Political Bureau, which has triggered sharp international reactions. The Israeli Ambassador also justified Tel Aviv's action, stating that there would be no immunity for terrorists and that Israel would continue to "act decisively against the leaders of terror." "The UN Security Council will convene today at 3:00 PM New York time (10:00 PM Israel time) for an emergency session following the strike on Hamas leadership in Doha. I intend to make it absolutely clear to the Council: there will be no immunity for terrorists - not in Gaza, not in Lebanon, and not in Qatar. We will not back down and we will continue to act decisively against the leaders of terror wherever they are hiding," Danon said in his post. This comes after Israel carried out a series of airstrikes on Tuesday targeting Hamas leadership in Doha, marking an unprecedented military action inside the territory of a key US ally and mediator in Gaza ceasefire negotiations, CNN reported. According to CNN, Israel immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, calling it part of an operation codenamed "Summit of Fire". According to Hamas, six individuals were killed in the strike, including five of its members. However, the group confirmed that its negotiating delegation survived. Among those killed were the son of Hamas' chief negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya and the director of his office. A Qatari security official also reportedly died in the attack, CNN reported. As per CNN, the strikes hit West Bay Lagoon, a high-end residential district in Doha where, according to Qatar's foreign ministry, members of Hamas' political bureau had been residing. At the time of the strike, Hamas said its representatives were reviewing a US-backed ceasefire proposal. While Al-Hayya was believed to be the main target, he was not among the dead. Following the strike, Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned the attack, calling it a "cowardly" and "criminal assault" that violated international laws and norms. The Ministry stated that the strike posed a serious threat to the safety of Qatari citizens and residents and emphasised that such actions were a blatant violation of Qatar's sovereignty and security. "The State of Qatar strongly condemns the cowardly Israeli attack that targeted residential buildings housing several members of the Political Bureau of Hamas in the Qatari capital, Doha. This criminal assault constitutes a blatant violation of all international laws and norms and poses a serious threat to the security and safety of Qataris and residents in Qatar," spokesperson for Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Majed Al Ansari said in a post on X. He added that investigations into the incident are underway at the highest level and that further details will be shared once available. Qatar also warned that it "will not tolerate this reckless Israeli behaviour and the ongoing disruption of regional security." "The Ministry affirms that the security forces, civil defense, and relevant authorities immediately began addressing the incident and taking necessary measures to contain its repercussions and ensure the safety of the residents and surrounding areas. While the State of Qatar strongly condemns this assault, it confirms that it will not tolerate this reckless Israeli behavior and the ongoing disruption of regional security, nor any act that targets its security and sovereignty. Investigations are underway at the highest level, and further details will be announced as soon as they are available," he added. French President Emmanuel Macron also condemned the Israeli strike, saying, "Today's Israeli strikes on Qatar are unacceptable, whatever the reason. I express my solidarity with Qatar and its Emir, Sheikh Tamim Al Thani. Under no circumstances should the war spread throughout the region," in a post on X. (ANI)
French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday (local time) condemned the incursion of Russian drones into Polish airspace during attacks on Ukraine, calling it "simply unacceptable" and a "reckless escalation". "The incursion of Russian drones into Polish airspace during an attack carried out by Russia against Ukraine is simply unacceptable. I condemn it in the strongest terms. I call on Russia to put an end to this reckless escalation. I reiterate to the Polish people and their government our full solidarity. I will soon speak with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. We will not compromise on the security of the Allies," Macron said in an X post. Reacting to the breach of Polish airspace by Russian drones, NATO spokesperson Alison Hart said, "Numerous drones entered Polish airspace overnight and were met with Polish and NATO air defences. @SecGenNATO is in touch with Polish leadership and @NATO is consulting closely with Poland." Earlier, Poland's military said that it shot down drones which breached its airspace during a Russian strike on Ukraine, CNN reported. According to CNN, this is the first time Poland has taken such action, raising fears of a major provocation for Europe and NATO forces. "This is an act of aggression that posed a real threat to the safety of our citizens," Poland's Operation Command said in a post on X. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed that the country's airspace had been violated by "a huge number of Russian drones" which were shot down by its military. Tusk was in close communication with Poland's allies and the Secretary General of NATO regarding the incident, according to CNN. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also warned Europe and NATO of an escalating threat from Russia after a massive barrage of missiles and drones struck Ukraine. Among them were Russian-Iranian "Shahed" drones, eight of which crossed into Polish airspace. "The attacks targeted at least 15 regions, causing one death. Rescuers were working in Volochysk, Khmelnytskyi region, after a missile hit a sewing workshop. As of now, three people are reported injured. This is just one of the sites of today's massive Russian attack: about 415 drones of various types and more than 40 cruise and ballistic missiles. Fifteen of our regions were under attack. Sadly, one person was killed as a result of shelling in the Zhytomyr region. My condolences to the family and loved ones," Zelenskyy said. Using the drones' breach of NATO airspace as an example of rising risks, Zelenskyy added, "Today there was another step of escalation - Russian-Iranian 'shaheds' operated in the airspace of Poland, in NATO airspace. It was not just one 'shahed' that could be called an accident, but at least eight strike drones aimed toward Poland." Calling the incident an "extremely dangerous precedent for Europe," he urged for stronger measures. "The Russians must feel the consequences. Russia must feel that the war cannot be expanded and will have to be ended. The pause in sanctions has gone on far too long. Delaying restrictions on Russia and its accomplices only means increasing the brutality of the strikes. Sufficient weapons are needed to deter Russia. A strong response is needed - and it can only be a joint response by all partners: Ukraine, Poland, all Europeans, the United States. I thank everyone who is helping," Zelenskyy said. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also pressed Western partners to act faster against Moscow. "Russian drones flying into Poland during the massive attack on Ukraine show that Putin's sense of impunity keeps growing because he was not properly punished for his previous crimes. Putin just keeps escalating, expanding his war, and testing the West. The longer he faces no strength in response, the more aggressive he gets. A weak response now will provoke Russia even more--and then Russian missiles and drones will fly even further into Europe," he said. Sybiha called on NATO members and neighbouring countries to let their air defence systems intercept drones and missiles inside Ukraine's airspace. "This situation shows that finally the decision needs to be taken to enable partner air defence capabilities in neighbouring countries to be used to intercept drones and missiles in the Ukrainian airspace, including those approaching NATO borders. Ukraine has suggested such step for a long time. It needs to be taken for the sake of collective security. This is also a call for partners to urgently strengthen Ukraine's air defence and better protect against a growing number of Russian drones and missiles attacking us on the regular basis," he wrote on X. He also stressed the need for tougher sanctions. "Furthermore, sanctions must be ramped up without delay. Putin will only get serious about peace negotiations when he faces serious transatlantic pressure. The Russian War Machine must be stopped--and it can only be stopped by strength, not weakness," Sybiha added. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda echoed the concerns, calling the Russian drone incursion a sign of wider danger for Europe. "Russia is deliberately expanding its aggression, posing an ever-growing threat to Europe. The drone swarm over Polish territory is yet another proof, as is its threatening rhetoric towards NATO's Eastern flank. The world must stop the aggressor -- break its war economy and its ability to destroy and kill," Nauseda said. (ANI)
Moscow's military operations in Ukraine are being funded through Russian oil sales to countries including India, China, and Brazil, claimed US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker on Tuesday (local time). During an interview with Fox News, Whitaker called for additional sanctions and tariffs on these countries to increase economic pressure on Moscow. He noted that the Russian economy is showing signs of strain and that only revenues from these oil exports are sustaining the war effort. He also stated that the additional sanctions and tariffs must be coordinated with the European Union and the broader free world to make it clear that Russia's continued aggression in Ukraine was unacceptable. "The government's (Russia's) funds coming in every month are diminishing, and there are cracks appearing in the Russian economy. The money that's paying for this war is coming from the sale of Russian oil to countries including India, China, and Brazil. I think the next stage involves applying additional sanctions and tariffs to continue increasing the cost of doing business for Vladimir Putin and reducing his revenue. This must be done in coordination with the European Union--it has to be the whole free world saying: this is not acceptable. The death and destruction we're seeing need to end. We need to continue increasing the pressure on Vladimir Putin to stop the war," the US Ambassador said. Whitaker further highlighted that while both sides will ultimately need to agree to a negotiated settlement, Ukraine has already demonstrated willingness to reach a deal, including freezing the front lines in exchange for security guarantees. "Both sides will have to agree, but Ukraine has demonstrated they are willing to make a deal--they're willing to freeze the front line if they receive the necessary guarantees. Now, we need to make sure that the deal actually takes shape," he added. The US has continued to accuse India of profiteering from Russian oil. At the same time, Indian officials have stated that the country is being singled out, as the EU buys Russian gas, and China is the largest importer. Despite Trump's recent softened approach towards India, New Delhi is facing global uncertainties due to the imposition of a 50 per cent tariff on Indian imports by the US, including an additional 25 per cent due to its purchase of Russian crude oil, which, according to Washington, fuels Moscow's efforts in its conflict with Ukraine. The Ministry of External Affairs had said that "targeting of India is unjustified and unreasonable," and like any major economy, India will take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security. The MEA statement issued last month noted that the European Union had a bilateral trade of EUR 67.5 billion in goods with Russia in 2024. In addition, it had trade in services estimated at Euro 17.2 billion in 2023. This is significantly more than India's total trade with Russia that year or subsequently. European imports of LNG in 2024, in fact, reached a record 16.5 million tonnes, surpassing the last record of 15.21 million tonnes in 2022. The MEA also said Europe-Russia trade includes not just energy but also fertilisers, mining products, chemicals, iron and steel and machinery and transport equipment. The United States also continues to import from Russia Uranium Hexafluoride for its nuclear industry, palladium for its EV industry, and fertilisers, as well as chemicals, the MEA stated in its statement. (ANI)
NATO spokesperson Alison Hart on Wednesday (local time) said that the NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is in touch with Polish leadership after "numerous" Russian drones entered Polish airspace and claimed that they were intercepted by Polish and NATO air defences. "Numerous drones entered Polish airspace overnight and were met with Polish and NATO air defences. @SecGenNATO is in touch with Polish leadership and @NATO is consulting closely with Poland," Hart said. Earlier, Poland's military said that it shot down drones which breached its airspace during a Russian strike on Ukraine, CNN reported. According to CNN, this is the first time Poland has taken such action, raising fears of a major provocation for Europe and NATO forces. "This is an act of aggression that posed a real threat to the safety of our citizens," Poland's Operation Command said in a post on X. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed that the country's airspace had been violated by "a huge number of Russian drones" which were shot down by its military. Tusk was in close communication with Poland's allies and the Secretary General of NATO regarding the incident, according to CNN. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also warned Europe and NATO of an escalating threat from Russia after a massive barrage of missiles and drones struck Ukraine. Among them were Russian-Iranian "Shahed" drones, eight of which crossed into Polish airspace. "The attacks targeted at least 15 regions, causing one death. Rescuers were working in Volochysk, Khmelnytskyi region, after a missile hit a sewing workshop. As of now, three people are reported injured. This is just one of the sites of today's massive Russian attack: about 415 drones of various types and more than 40 cruise and ballistic missiles. Fifteen of our regions were under attack. Sadly, one person was killed as a result of shelling in the Zhytomyr region. My condolences to the family and loved ones," Zelenskyy said. Using the drones' breach of NATO airspace as an example of rising risks, Zelenskyy added, "Today there was another step of escalation - Russian-Iranian 'shaheds' operated in the airspace of Poland, in NATO airspace. It was not just one 'shahed' that could be called an accident, but at least eight strike drones aimed toward Poland." Calling the incident an "extremely dangerous precedent for Europe," he urged for stronger measures. "The Russians must feel the consequences. Russia must feel that the war cannot be expanded and will have to be ended. The pause in sanctions has gone on far too long. Delaying restrictions on Russia and its accomplices only means increasing the brutality of the strikes. Sufficient weapons are needed to deter Russia. A strong response is needed - and it can only be a joint response by all partners: Ukraine, Poland, all Europeans, the United States. I thank everyone who is helping," Zelenskyy said. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also pressed Western partners to act faster against Moscow. "Russian drones flying into Poland during the massive attack on Ukraine show that Putin's sense of impunity keeps growing because he was not properly punished for his previous crimes. Putin just keeps escalating, expanding his war, and testing the West. The longer he faces no strength in response, the more aggressive he gets. A weak response now will provoke Russia even more--and then Russian missiles and drones will fly even further into Europe," he said. Sybiha called on NATO members and neighbouring countries to let their air defence systems intercept drones and missiles inside Ukraine's airspace. "This situation shows that finally the decision needs to be taken to enable partner air defence capabilities in neighbouring countries to be used to intercept drones and missiles in the Ukrainian airspace, including those approaching NATO borders. Ukraine has suggested such step for a long time. It needs to be taken for the sake of collective security. This is also a call for partners to urgently strengthen Ukraine's air defence and better protect against a growing number of Russian drones and missiles attacking us on the regular basis," he wrote on X. He also stressed the need for tougher sanctions. "Furthermore, sanctions must be ramped up without delay. Putin will only get serious about peace negotiations when he faces serious transatlantic pressure. The Russian War Machine must be stopped--and it can only be stopped by strength, not weakness," Sybiha added. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda echoed the concerns, calling the Russian drone incursion a sign of wider danger for Europe. "Russia is deliberately expanding its aggression, posing an ever-growing threat to Europe. The drone swarm over Polish territory is yet another proof, as is its threatening rhetoric towards NATO's Eastern flank. The world must stop the aggressor -- break its war economy and its ability to destroy and kill," Nauseda said. (ANI)
French police arrested nearly 200 people on Wednesday in the early stages of the "Block Everything" protests, organised by a loose left-wing coalition amid grassroots anger at President Emmanuel Macron's leadership and austerity measures, France 24 reported. The unrest coincided with the swearing-in of Sebastien Lecornu as France's new prime minister, the country's fifth in less than two years. An official handover is set to take place in Paris this afternoon between outgoing prime minister Francois Bayrou, who was ousted after losing a confidence vote, and his replacement, Lecornu, a close Macron ally and former defence minister. Reporting from Matignon, the prime minister's residence and office, France 24 reported that Lecornu faces a daunting challenge, pointing out that he has "an uphill task getting a budget passed in a divided National Assembly." According to police, "a thousand determined individuals" carried out an "attempted intrusion" at Gare du Nord station, which was thwarted. Demonstrations and attempted blockades were also reported outside Parisian secondary schools and in cities including Rennes and Montpellier. Around a hundred young people, some wearing hoods, gathered outside Lavoisier school, holding placards that read, "We are blocking because we care about our mental health" and "To fill their coffers, Bayrou is picking our pockets." Some medical staff were on strike, protesting against budget cuts and worsening working conditions, France 24 reported. Police fired tear gas in several cities as demonstrators blocked roads, while French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau confirmed that nearly 200 arrests had been made. Authorities deployed 80,000 police nationwide to maintain order. Protesters in Lyon blocked a highway and set bins on fire, while police in Nantes used tear gas to disperse crowds. In the suburbs of Paris, masked groups built barricades with dumpsters and threw rubbish at officers. "French President Emmanuel Macron's decision to name Sebastien Lecornu, a close ally, as prime minister 'is a slap in the face'," said Florent, a protester in Lyon. "We are tired of his successive governments; we need change," he added. The traffic on the Peripherique ring road around the capital was "virtually unaffected" by the "Block Everything" call, as per France 24. Meanwhile, Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure urged Lecornu to renounce the use of Article 49.3 of the Constitution, which allows bills to pass without a parliamentary vote, calling it a chance to show "a change in approach" from past governments. "There was no scenario in which the Socialist Party would participate in the new government," he told France Info, while adding he was not refusing talks but would not give Lecornu "a blank cheque." The unrest also spread to rail transport, with state-owned SNCF reporting disruptions on TER regional and Intercites services due to "two malicious acts" overnight. Damage to cables between Marmande and Agen in the Lot-et-Garonne region disrupted services between Bordeaux and Toulouse, while another incident near Toulouse also interrupted traffic. High-speed TGV trains remained unaffected. Lecornu, 39, enters office with the urgent task of forging a consensus on a new national budget after Bayrou's failed austerity drive. Macron named him prime minister late Tuesday, hours after Bayrou's resignation, in what protesters have called a "baptism of fire" amid the mass demonstrations. (ANI)
After Russian drones crossed into Polish airspace, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for stronger joint air defence cooperation with European allies. https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1965707153068449798 Sharing a post on X, Zelenskyy stated that Ukrainian forces alerted Polish authorities in real-time through established communication channels. "Another report from the Commander of our Air Force. We are clarifying all available data and analyzing the details of this Russian strike. Already during the night, Ukrainian forces were informing the Polish side through the relevant channels about the movement of Russian drones," Zelenskyy said. "The first recorded incursion into Polish airspace occurred at approximately 00:50 Kyiv time. Ukrainian authorities believe the drones used Belarusian airspace en route to Poland. "At around 00:50 Kyiv time, the first crossing of the state border between Ukraine and Poland by a Russian drone was recorded," Zelenskyy added. Further, Zelenskyy noted that, as per the latest data, around two dozen Russian drones may have entered Polish airspace during the night. "The number of Russian drones that traversed into Poland and penetrated deeply into its territory may be greater than the previously announced figure. According to updated data, around two dozen of Russian drones may have entered Polish airspace during the night," he said. "We are verifying this. Our air defence forces destroyed more than 380 Russian drones of various types. At least 250 of them were "shaheds." Precise information on the drone types will be determined after an analysis of the debris," he added. Further, Zelenskyy urged greater operational coordination and defence partnerships between Ukraine and its allies. "Ukraine is ready to expand our cooperation with partners for the reliable protection of the sky. So that we have not only information and intelligence data sharing, but also real joint actions that guarantee security of the neighbors," he said. The Ukrainian president concluded his remarks with a warning for Russia: "Russia must feel that Europeans know how to defend themselves." https://x.com/RepJoeWilson/status/1965571179986510169 Earlier, the US Representative Joe Wilson said that Russia is attacking NATO ally Poland with Iranian shahed drones, calling it an "act of war." Just last week, US President Donald Trump met with Polish President Karol Nawrocki at the White House. "Russia is attacking NATO ally Poland with Iranian shahed drones less than a week after President Trump hosted President Nawrocki at the White House. This is an act of war, and we are grateful to NATO allies for their swift response to war criminal Putin's continued unprovoked aggression against free and productive nations," he said. Wilson also urged President Donald Trump to respond to President Vladimir Putin with "mandatory sanctions that will bankrupt the Russian war machine." "I urge President Trump to respond with mandatory sanctions that will bankrupt the Russian war machine and arm Ukraine with weapons capable of striking Russia," he said. "Putin is no longer content just losing in Ukraine while bombing mothers and babies; he is now directly testing our resolve in NATO territory. Putin stated that "Russia knows no borders." Free and prosperous nations will teach Russia about borders," he added. Earlier, Poland's military said that it shot down drones which breached its airspace during a Russian strike on Ukraine, CNN reported. According to CNN, this is the first time Poland has taken such action, raising fears of a major provocation for Europe and NATO forces. "This is an act of aggression that posed a real threat to the safety of our citizens," Poland's Operation Command said in a post on X. (ANI)
The European Union and India held their 15th Meeting of the Joint Working Group on Counter Terrorism (CT) on Wednesday in Brussels. The Dialogue was co-chaired by Maciej Stadejek, Director for Security and Defence Policy in the European External Action Service, and KD Dewal, Joint Secretary (Counter-terrorism) in the Ministry of External Affairs of India, MEA stated. Both sides condemned the heinous terrorist attack on 22 April 2025 in Pahalgam, and the EU reiterated its condolences to India for the killing of innocent civilians. Further, the ministry stated that the two sides "reiterated their strong condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, including cross-border terrorism. " They agreed that terrorism is a global phenomenon and needs concerted action in a sustained and comprehensive manner. Against this backdrop, the EU and India stressed the importance of cooperation in multilateral fora, such as the United Nations, the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) and the FATF, as per MEA. The dialogue facilitated a comprehensive exchange on domestic, regional, and global threat assessments, according to the MEA. The participants emphasised that instability and conflicts in various regions of the world act as catalysts for terrorism and violent extremism. The ministry also noted that the "EU and India also shared updates on the key developments of their respective counter-terrorism policies and discussed important topics in the fight against terrorism." These include measures to counter the financing of terrorism, prevent online radicalisation, continued exchange on the designation of terrorists and terrorist entities and address the implications of emerging technologies, MEA added. The two sides also explored ways to strengthen their CT cooperation and identified areas of future collaboration. The next meeting of the Joint Working Group would take place in New Delhi on a mutually convenient date, MEA stated. https://x.com/EUAmbIndia/status/1965732457208299696 Ambassador Herve Delphin, Delegation of the European Union to India, shared a post on X and wrote, "The EU and India standing and working together in addressing the scourge of Terrorism. Fruitful meeting in Brussels on the occasion of the 15th EU-India Counter Terrorism Dialogue." (ANI)
The September 11, 2001, attacks changed US foreign policy, intelligence, and counterterrorism forever. One of the key changes in US foreign policy is a shift to counterterrorism. The US prioritised counterterrorism, launching the Global War on Terrorism, with military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Three days after the gruesome attack, President George W. Bush visited the World Trade Centre site to speak to rescue workers. Later, at the Washington National Cathedral, he promised to "answer these attacks, and rid the world of evil." He declared a national state of emergency, giving him more power to use the military. A week later, a second emergency declaration allowed the government to target terrorist financing worldwide. These emergency powers, renewed every year, are still in effect today. They created the basis for wide-ranging domestic and international counterterrorism measures that followed. On September 17, 2001, Bush allowed the CIA to detain anyone seen as a "continuing, serious threat" to the United States. This expanded the agency's detention powers and led to the creation of secret global "black sites." Abu Zubaidah, captured in Pakistan in March 2002, was the first detainee. The next day, letters with anthrax were sent to newsrooms and congressional offices, killing five people. At first, Iraq was suspected, but the FBI later blamed American scientist Bruce Ivins, who died by suicide in 2008. These events increased public fear and sped up both domestic and international security actions. Congress quickly authorised the president to use "all necessary and appropriate force" against those responsible for 9/11 or anyone who helped them. This Authorisation for Use of Military Force (AUMF) first focused on al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Later, it expanded worldwide and became the legal basis for U.S. military actions in at least fourteen countries, including drone strikes under President Obama. The AUMF linked the immediate 9/11 response to a larger global strategy against terrorism. On September 20, Bush declared a global "war on terror" in a speech to Congress. He announced the Office of Homeland Security to coordinate domestic security efforts. He also demanded that the Taliban hand over all al-Qaeda members, including Osama bin Laden, warning, "either you are with us or you are with the terrorists." Another aspect of the Bush Doctrine emphasised preemptive strikes against perceived threats, altering traditional notions of sovereignty and international relations. Moreover, the US strengthened alliances and partnerships globally for intelligence sharing, joint operations, and capacity building. Less than a month later, US and UK forces launched Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan with support from twenty-seven coalition countries. By December, the Taliban had fallen, though bin Laden was still at large. NATO took command of security operations in 2003, while US-led counterinsurgency continued for nearly twenty years. At home, the Patriot Act became law on October 26, 2001. It improved coordination between intelligence and law enforcement, increased surveillance, and tightened rules on terrorist financing. Critics said it was rushed and too broad, and later reports showed the NSA collected millions of Americans' phone records. In November 2001, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was created. It standardised airport security with passenger screenings, full-body scanners, and rules on liquids and electronics--measures that still affect air travel today. In 2003, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was established, combining more than 20 federal agencies to prevent intelligence failures similar to those that occurred before 9/11. The 9/11 attacks catalysed profound changes in US foreign policy and counterterrorism approaches, Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and prolonged conflicts with significant humanitarian and geopolitical consequences. It also impacted US relations with countries like Iran, with missed diplomatic opportunities. In February 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell presented Iraq's alleged WMD programs and terrorist links at the UN. Investigations after the invasion found no active programs or al-Qaeda connections. On March 20, 2003, US and UK forces launched Operation Iraqi Freedom, toppling Saddam Hussein. The war, occupation, and insurgency lasted nearly ten years. U.S. troop levels peaked at over 160,000 in 2008. The conflict killed about 5,000 U.S. soldiers and 500,000 Iraqis, costing around $2 trillion. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the invasion violated international law, showing the long-term costs of post-9/11 decisions. The 9/11 Commission released its final report on July 22, 2004. It cited intelligence failures, poor communication between agencies, and gaps in aviation and immigration security. The report led to the National Counterterrorism Center to coordinate the CIA, NSA, and other intelligence agencies. It also confirmed no Iraqi involvement in 9/11 and ruled out Saudi government complicity, conclusions that continue to be debated. Bush welcomed Afghan leader Hamid Karzai at the State of the Union and said, "our war against terror is only beginning," calling Iran, North Korea, and Iraq an "axis of evil." These statements set the direction for U.S. foreign policy in the following years. Bush linked Iraq to terrorism in September 2002, accusing Saddam Hussein of breaking UN resolutions, sheltering terrorists, and developing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). Congress approved a second AUMF in October, giving the president more authority. UN inspectors returned in November but found only old chemical weapons and no active WMD program. The counterterrorism strategies changed with drone warfare, increased use of drones for targeted strikes against high-value targets, raising ethical and efficacy questions. The intelligence was overhauled, with reforms aimed at improving interagency communication and threat analysis, including the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). There were also efforts to disrupt terrorist financing networks by initiating financial regulation. Meanwhile, America witnessed a rise in domestic extremism, including white supremacist threats, posing new challenges; Terrorists leveraging technology; and counterterrorism efforts incorporating advanced analytics and cybersecurity. In response to these challenges, the US focus has evolved, with great-power competition and domestic issues gaining prominence. However, questions emerged over the outcomes of counterterrorism strategies versus their financial and human costs, as well as concerns over surveillance and security measures impacting individual rights. At a cost of half a billion dollars per year, historically, Guantanamo is the most expensive detention camp on earth. It is the iconic example of the post-9/11 abandonment of the rule of law and continues to fuel and justify bigotry, stereotyping and stigma. On January 11, 2002, the United States opened the detention facility at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Nearly eight hundred Muslim men and boys have been held there over the years, all but a handful without charge or trial. Nineteen al-Qaeda members hijacked four planes. Two planes crashed into New York City's World Trade Center towers, one hit the Pentagon near Washington, DC, and the fourth crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers tried to regain control. The attacks killed 2,977 people and were the result of almost ten years of planning by Osama bin Laden, driven by radical Islamist beliefs. (ANI)
Geopolitics expert Pavneet Singh highlighted the complexities and challenges in US-India relations, with both countries navigating geopolitical interests and trade dynamics amid White House Trade Advisor, Peter Navarro's repetitive slander against New Delhi. Speaking exclusively with ANI, Pavneet Singh stated that Navarro's accusations that India is "funding" Russia's war in Ukraine by buying Russian oil, calling it a "laundromat for the Kremlin" could take two decades to rebuild trust between the two nations, as Indians "never forgive or forget." Singh suggested that US President Donald Trump wants a "sycophant" around him, and Peter Navarro is scoring very high with repetitive attacks on India to blame New Delhi for the Russia-Ukraine war, alleging that India is "funding" Russia by purchasing discounted crude oil. "Trump's kitchen cabinet is like this. You can see JD Vance when Trump speaks about anything. He claps like a servant. He wants to become the next president. Trump's psychology is like that. He wants sycophants around him, and Navarro is scoring very high," Pavneet Singh said. "What Americans don't realise is that we (Indians) people never forget and never forgive. It will take two decades to recover from the distrust that you are creating. Indians' trust in Americans is already relatively low because of the past, but with these kinds of activities and statements, the distrust for America will rise further," he added. Navarro has repeatedly criticised India for purchasing discounted crude oil from Russia, terming the Ukraine war as "PM Modi's war" while accusing India of acting as a "laundromat for the Kremlin." The White House Trade Advisor's meltdown also includes casteist remarks as he alleged that "Brahmins are profiteering at the expense of the Indian people" due to New Delhi's action, exposing Navarro's limited understanding of India. The US has imposed a 50 per cent tariff on Indian imports, including an additional 25 per cent due to its purchase of Russian crude oil. A few days after the tariffs came into effect, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tianjin and held bilateral meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. PM Modi's meeting with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin drew a concerned response from Donald Trump as he said, "Looks like we've lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China." Geopolitics Expert Pavneet Singh backed PM Modi's decision to attend the SCO Summit as he believed it sent a clear message that the US can't dictate India's engagements with other countries. "SCO was important to give a message to the Americans. They believed that they could puncture India's strategic autonomy. Our foreign policy has experienced this change, and we are not going to look at everything through an ideological lens. India has realised that today's world is geopolitically vulnerable and complicated, and you have to give an instant reaction," Pavneet Singh said. "A clear message has been sent by attending the SCO Summit that you (US) don't have any authority to puncture our strategic autonomy and dictate our engagements. I think the message was delivered to Americans," he added. However, in recent days, the leaders of both countries have signalled a willingness to improve the relations as New Delhi and Washington are engaged in trade negotiations. PM Modi on Wednesday described New Delhi and Washington as "natural partners" and said he was confident about the progress of the negotiations. The PM also expressed his willingness to speak to Trump. "India and the US are close friends and natural partners. I am confident that our trade negotiations will pave the way for unlocking the limitless potential of the India-US partnership. 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 wrote on X on Wednesday, which was reposted by Trump. Trump also expressed confidence in reaching a "successful conclusion" and looked forward to speaking with PM Modi in the upcoming weeks. (ANI)
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday visited the Abu Dhabi campus of IIT Delhi during his two-day visit to the United Arab Emirates. Pradhan also met with Sara Musallam, Chairperson, Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge (ADEK). He thanked Musallam and ADEK for all the cooperation extended in establishing IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi Campus, and also for the support being extended to Indian curricula schools in the UAE. Both sides engaged in fruitful exchanges on mutual educational priorities. Pradhan shared the success of Atal Tinkering Labs in fostering curiosity and creativity in schools across India, as well as the plans of Indian schools in the UAE for implementing Atal Innovation Labs. They also had productive conversations on further expanding cooperation in education, including the opening of more Indian curriculum-based schools in the UAE to meet the educational needs of the Indian diaspora, as well as facilitating two-way student exchanges from the school level, among other initiatives. He also appreciated Musallam's willingness to strengthen educational cooperation and to establish education as one of the strongest pillars of bilateral ties. In a post on X, Dharmendra Pradhan wrote, "Delighted to receive a hearty welcome at the @iitdelhi Abu Dhabi campus. My second visit to IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi, glad to see the institute evolve from concept to campus." https://x.com/dpradhanbjp/status/1965743571207918052 "With the prestigious legacy of IIT Delhi, this institution serves as a beacon of knowledge and research and a lighthouse of India-UAE knowledge partnership. Going through the digital wall showcasing IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi's journey from vision to reality was a personally satisfying moment," the post read. The next day, on 11 September 2025, the Minister will participate in the inauguration of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Dubai Campus, together with his counterpart, H.E. Dr. Abdulrahman Al Awar, UAE Minister of Higher Education. Both Ministers will also discuss in detail the ongoing collaborations in the education sector between the two countries. Later, he will attend a Round Table Conference of the Indian Higher Education institutions in the UAE. As part of his engagements in Dubai, the Minister will also participate in the 'Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam' plantation drive at the Consulate, interact with CBSE school principals during a Teachers' Day celebration, and launch Atal Tinkering Labs in Indian schools in the UAE. He will conclude his visit with interactions with the Indian diaspora in Dubai. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a conversation with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, reaffirming the commitment of both nations to strengthen the India-Italy Strategic Partnership and cooperate on pressing global challenges, including the conflict in Ukraine. https://x.com/narendramodi/status/1965757533152301338 In a post on X, PM Modi wrote, "Had an excellent conversation with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. We reaffirmed our joint commitment to deepen India-Italy Strategic Partnership, and shared interest in bringing an early end to the conflict in Ukraine." "Thanked PM Meloni for Italy's proactive support for concluding a mutually beneficial India-EU trade agreement and promoting connectivity through the IMEEEC initiative," the post added. According to Ministry of External Affairs, the leaders reviewed and positively assessed the developments in bilateral Strategic Partnership across sectors such as investment, defence, security, space, science & technology, education, people-to-people ties and counter-terrorism. Further, MEA noted that "both leaders reaffirmed their commitment towards further deepening of the Partnership, in line with the Joint Strategic Action Plan 2025-29." They also exchanged views on regional and global issues of mutual interest. They agreed on the need for an early and peaceful resolution of the conflict in Ukraine. PM Modi reiterated India's full support for efforts in this direction. Prime Minister Meloni reiterated Italy's strong support for the conclusion of a mutually beneficial India-EU Free Trade Agreement at the earliest and for the success of the AI Impact Summit to be hosted by India in 2026. The leaders also agreed on taking steps to promote connectivity under the India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor (IMEEEC) initiative, MEA stated. The leaders agreed to remain in touch. The two leaders recently met on the sidelines of the 51st G7 Summit in Kananaskis in June. During the meeting, Prime Minister Modi expressed his optimism about the growing friendship between India and Italy, stating that the bilateral relationship would continue to strengthen and bring mutual benefits to both nations. A video showed PM Modi greeting Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni with a handshake and engaging in a brief conversation with her during the summit. The camaraderie between PM Modi and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has been making waves on social media, with their interactions sparking a trending hashtag #Melodi. PM Modi and Meloni have showcased their friendly rapport in videos and selfies, including one taken during the COP28 summit in Dubai, where Meloni captioned the photo "Good friends at COP28, #Melodi." (ANI)
During the meeting, they reviewed the multi-faceted India-UAE Comprehensive Strategic Partnership covering the areas of trade, investment, defence, security, technology, energy, education, culture and people-to-people ties, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.

The discussions followed a similar engagement in June this year, when Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri met Reem Al Hashimy to review the progress of the India-UAE Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

During the June meeting, they assessed the current state of bilateral ties and explored opportunities for future cooperation.

Sharing pictures of the June meet on X, the Indian Embassy in UAE wrote, "Foreign Secretary @VikramMisri met UAE MoS for International Cooperation, HE Reem Al Hashimy, today for the Mid-Year Review of the growing and expanding Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. They took stock of the bilateral ties and discussed future partnerships."

Earlier in June, he also met with the Chairman of the Defence, Interior and Foreign Affairs Committee of the Federal National Council, Ali Alnuaim, discussing parliamentary cooperation.

"The Secretary of Foreign Affairs @VikramMisri met with His Excellency @Dralnoaimi, Chairman of the Defense, Interior and Foreign Affairs Committee of the Federal National Council. The two sides affirmed their commitment to combating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. They also discussed parliamentary cooperation," the Indian Embassy in UAE posted on X.

Vikram Misri also met with Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Tolerance Office, and expressed his gratitude for the warm reception.

"The Foreign Secretary @VikramMisri met His Highness Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan @uaetolerance in Abu Dhabi today," the India embassy wrote on X.

"He expressed his gratitude for the warm reception His Highness and the UAE had extended to the delegation, which included members of all political parties. They emphasised the shared spirit of harmony and tolerance between the two countries," the post added. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with the Amir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, and expressed India's concern over the recent attacks in Doha. In a post on X, Prime Minister Modi said, "Spoke with Amir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani and expressed deep concern at the attacks in Doha. India condemns the violation of the sovereignty of the brotherly State of Qatar. We support resolution of issues through dialogue and diplomacy, and avoiding escalation. India stands firmly in support of peace and stability in the region, and against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations." https://x.com/narendramodi/status/1965787289226788992 The developments came soon after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in her press briefing that the United States administration had informed the Qatari government about Israel's "impending strikes" on Doha. Qatar, however, denied receiving any prior information and termed the statement "baseless." Majed Al Ansari, Advisor to the Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani and spokesperson for Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the call came only after the explosions had already begun. "The statements being circulated about Qatar being informed of the attack in advance are baseless. The call from a US official came during the sound of explosions caused by the Israeli attack in Doha," Al Ansari posted on X. This comes after Israel launched an airstrike targeting top Hamas leaders residing in a residential neighbourhood in Doha, according to CNN. Addressing the press briefing, Leavitt said, "President Trump immediately directed Special Envoy Witkoff to inform the Qataris of the impending attack, which he did. The President views Qatar as a strong ally and friend of the United States and feels very badly about the location of this attack," she said, underlining the close ties between Washington and Doha. Israel carried out the attack against Hamas leadership in Qatar's capital, which has been a key mediator in Gaza ceasefire talks. Hamas said the strike killed five members but failed to assassinate the negotiating delegation. According to CNN, Qatar's Prime Minister called Israel a "rogue player" in the Middle East. "This attack ... we can only describe it as a state terrorism," Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani said. "This is a message to the entire region: that there is rogue player in the region," he said at a news conference, as per CNN. The Prime Minister further said that the US contacted Qatar only 10 minutes after the attack took place, and alleged that Israel used weapons that evaded radar detection, CNN reported. Israeli officials later confirmed that more than 10 fighter jets were involved in the operation. According to CNN, Israel has US-made F-35I stealth aircraft, which are designed to avoid radar detection. (ANI)
India took a strong stance against terrorism at the 44th meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's (SCO) Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) in Kyrgyzstan. Deputy National Security Adviser TV Ravichandran emphasised the need to hold accountable the "sponsors, organisers, and financiers" behind the brutal Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people, mostly tourists, in Jammu and Kashmir's Baisaran Valley on April 22, 2025. The meeting was held on Wednesday in Cholpon Ata, Kyrgyzstan, where member states condemned the recent Pahalgam terror attack in India. According to government sources, the Council of RATS SCO endorsed the statement on the condemnation of the Pahalgam Terror Attack in the Tianjin Declaration signed during the SCO Council of Heads of State (CHS) meeting held on September 1, in Tianjin, China. The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Kyrgyzstan. Deputy National Security Adviser TV Ravichandran led the Indian delegation. In his address at the council, Ravichandran appealed to hold accountable the sponsors, organisers and financiers of the inexcusable Pahalgam terror attack. NSA also stated that we must shun double standards and resolve to fight terrorism in all forms and manifestations, according to government sources. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently participated in the 25th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tianjin, where he brought attention to the dastardly Pahalgam terror attack and urged the group to hold countries that perpetrate and support cross-border terrorism accountable. According to an official statement by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the Summit witnessed productive discussions on the SCO Development Strategy, Reform of Global Governance, Counter-Terrorism, Peace and Security, Economic and Financial Cooperation, and Sustainable Development. Addressing the Summit, PM Modi highlighted India's approach to strengthening cooperation under the SCO framework. In this regard, he noted that India seeks greater action under three pillars - Security, Connectivity and Opportunity. Emphasising that peace, security, and stability remain key to progress and prosperity, he called upon member countries to take firm and decisive action to fight terrorism in all its manifestations. The Prime Minister underlined the need for coordinated action against terror financing and radicalisation. Thanking member countries for their strong solidarity in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack, he emphasised that there should be no double standards in dealing with terrorism and urged the group to hold countries that perpetrate and support cross-border terrorism accountable. (ANI)
The death toll in the September 8 protest led by Gen-Z in Nepal has risen to 30, the Ministry of Health and Population announced on Wednesday evening. Issuing a release, the Health Ministry stated that 1,033 injuries have been recorded nationwide, out of which 713 injured individuals have already been discharged, while 55 were referred to other facilities for further treatment. Another 253 patients remain newly admitted. The Civil Service Hospital in Kathmandu is currently handling the largest caseload, treating 436 people. The National Trauma Centre is caring for 161 patients, and Everest Hospital is treating 109. In all, 28 hospitals across the country are providing care to those affected, the ministry added. The Health Ministry said emergency services have been mobilised to cope with the surge in patients and instructed hospitals to remain on high alert. Thousands of Nepali youths took to the streets of Kathmandu on September 8, demanding transparency and the lifting of the social media ban. The KP Sharma Oli-led government at the time defended the ban as a means to curb the spread of fake news. However, the move was criticised by rights groups, who said it was a tool for censorship. The protesters, especially college and school-going students, highlighted broader frustrations over shrinking economic opportunities and persistent corruption. In a single day, at least 19 people were killed across the nation, with hundreds more injured. The protest under the banner of Gen-Z Nepal saw a spree of shooting by security forces as they tried to break into the parliament. Police indiscriminately fired upon protesters with live rounds, followed by tear gas. In Kathmandu, protesters marched from Maitighar to New Baneshwar, attempting to enter the Parliament building. The NHRC said Nepal's Constitution and international human rights law guarantee the right to peaceful dissent and called the escalation into vandalism and the use of excessive force by security personnel "regrettable." The commission directed the government to implement high security measures to prevent further harm, provide relief and compensation to victims' families, ensure free treatment for the injured, and conduct a fair and thorough investigation to hold perpetrators accountable. Protesters were also urged to maintain peaceful and disciplined demonstrations. (ANI)
Prime Minister of Mauritius, Dr. Navinchandra Ramgoolam, landed in the spiritual and sacred city of Varanasi on Wednesday, receiving a ceremonial welcome and Guard of Honour. He was warmly received by the Governor of Uttar Pradesh, Anandiben Patel. In a post on X, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, "PM Dr. Navinchandra Ramgoolam @Ramgoolam_Dr of Mauritius has landed in the spiritual & sacred city of Varanasi, to a ceremonial welcome & Guard of Honour. Warmly received by Governor of UP Smt. Anandiben Patel @GovernorofUp." https://x.com/MEAIndia/status/1965773824127086630 The visit underscores the strengthening diplomatic and cultural ties between Mauritius and India, with Varanasi serving as a key spiritual and ceremonial hub for international engagements. The holy city is being decked up with lights, decorations, and elaborate arrangements as it prepares to host Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Prime Minister of Mauritius on September 11. The Mauritius Prime Minister and his spouse, Veena Ramgoolam, are on an official visit to India from September 9 to 16. As part of the visit, both Prime Ministers are scheduled to meet in Varanasi on September 11. PM Ramgoolam began his visit with his arrival in Mumbai on September 9, followed by engagements in the city. On September 10, the delegation travelled to Varanasi to continue the programme. On September 11, the Prime Minister will hold a call with the Indian Foreign Secretary and meet the Prime Minister of India. Programmes are scheduled in Varanasi and Ayodhya on September 12, followed by engagements in Dehradun on September 13 and 14, and a visit to Tirupati on September 15. Later that day, the delegation will arrive in Delhi to continue the official programme. On September 16, the Mauritian Prime Minister and his spouse will lay wreaths at Rajghat and Sadaiv Atal, visit the New Parliament Building, and hold calls with the President and a Cabinet Minister. This marks the first overseas bilateral visit of Prime Minister Dr. Ramgoolam to India in his current term. He had earlier visited India in May 2014 as the only non-SAARC leader invited to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers. During the visit, Prime Minister Ramgoolam will hold discussions with PM Modi and call on President Droupadi Murmu to further the 'Enhanced Strategic Partnership' between the two countries. He will also attend a business event in Mumbai. India and Mauritius share a close and special relationship rooted in historical, cultural, and people-to-people ties. As India's key maritime neighbour in the Indian Ocean Region, Mauritius holds an important place in India's Vision MAHASAGAR (Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Region) and the 'Neighbourhood First Policy,' and is a key partner in the Global South. The visit of Prime Minister Dr. Ramgoolam to India, following the visit of the Indian Prime Minister to Mauritius in March 2025, aims to advance the strong and enduring bonds between the two nations, the MEA release said. (ANI)
Former Indian Ambassador to the US, Arun Singh, highlighted that the trade tensions between the US and India seem to be thawing, following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's reference to the United States as India's "natural partner" in a reply to a post by US President Donald Trump. Speaking with ANI Singh emphasised that despite challenges, both countries appear to recognise the importance of their relationship. "On Friday, he (Trump) commented publicly and in social media that the US-India relationship is a special relationship and there are moments that the two countries have on occasion but it will all work out all right and the Prime Minister had responded very positively and then this morning he has come out with another comment saying that he's happy to announce that trade negotiations have resumed and he's confident that soon some outcome will be there and the Prime Minister has responded. So I would say that I think from both sides, there is a recognition that the relationship is important to both and a renewed effort is now being made to stabilise the relationship...," Singh told ANI. President Trump publicly acknowledged the US-India partnership as "special," and Prime Minister Narendra Modi responded positively. Trade negotiations have resumed, with Trump expressing confidence in reaching a favourable outcome soon. Trump on Tuesday (US local time) said that the US and India will resume negotiations to address "trade barriers" between the two countries. In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump wrote, "I am pleased to announce that India and the United States of America are continuing negotiations to address the Trade Barriers between our two Nations. 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 of our Great Countries!" Responding to Trump, in a post on X, PM Modi described New Delhi and Washington as "natural partners" and said he was confident about the progress of the negotiations. The PM also expressed his willingness to speak to Trump. "India and the US are close friends and natural partners. I am confident that our trade negotiations will pave the way for unlocking the limitless potential of the India-US partnership. 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 in the X post. New Delhi is facing global uncertainties due to heightened economic tensions following the US imposition of a 50 per cent tariff on Indian imports, including an additional 25 per cent due to its purchase of Russian crude oil, which, according to Washington, fuels Moscow's efforts in its conflict with Ukraine. Singh also highlighted the irony of the situation, where the US, under the Biden administration, had actually encouraged India to purchase more oil from Russia to stabilise global energy prices. The Trump administration has imposed tariffs on India due to these very purchases, leaving Indian officials questioning the justification behind this move. Singh attributed this policy flip to Donald Trump's politics and his associates amplifying his stance. Interestingly, there are voices within the US criticising this approach, including statements from House Foreign Affairs Democrats and other senior leaders. "Indian officials have said that the tariff imposed because of purchases from Russia is not justified at all. Because in the Biden administration, it was the US that encouraged India to buy more from Russia to stabilise the global energy prices...Now, how do you build a relationship if the policy of your partner suddenly changes? So that was the dilemma. I think perhaps on the US side also that there was a recognition that, with whatever measures they were taking against India. I would say it's a measure taken by President Trump. Because all of this is emanating from the politics of Donald Trump and people around him who are essentially amplifying whatever he's saying. There are voices in the US criticising the administration for what they're doing. The House Foreign Affairs Democrats have come out with a statement, along with many other senior leaders...President Trump may have felt that they had gone too far in terms of the pressure and perhaps there was a need to move away a bit from that," said Singh. Earlier on Friday (local time), President Trump, while making an announcement in the White House, was asked by ANI, "Are you ready to reset relations with India at this point?". The US President replied, "I always will. I'll always be friends with (PM) Modi. He's a great Prime Minister. I'll always be friends, but I just don't like what he is doing at this particular moment. But India and the United States have a very special relationship. There is nothing to worry about. We just have moments on occasion." Meanwhile, the Indian stock markets continued their upward momentum, supported by positive global cues and the ongoing exchange of optimistic posts on social media by the two leaders. (ANI)
India on Wednesday slammed Switzerland's remarks on minorities at the 5th Meeting of the 60th Session of the Human Rights Council, urging them to focus on their own issues like racism, systematic discrimination, and xenophobia instead of lecturing India. Indian diplomat Kshitij Tyagi criticised Switzerland's comments as "surprising, shallow and ill-informed," highlighting India as the "world's largest, most diverse and vibrant democracy" with a strong tradition of pluralism, offering assistance to Switzerland on these matters. "We would also like to respond to the surprising, shallow and ill-informed remarks made by Switzerland, a close friend and partner. As it holds the UNHRC presidency, it is all the more important for Switzerland to avoid wasting the council's time with narratives that are blatantly false and do not do justice to the reality of India. Instead, it should focus on its own challenges such as racism, systematic discrimination and xenophobia. As the world's largest, most diverse and vibrant democracy, with a civilizational embrace of pluralism, India remains ready to help Switzerland address these concerns," said the Indian diplomat. This comes after Switzerland urged India to protect minorities and uphold freedom of expression and the media. Yesterday, Switzerland at the UN said, "In India, we call on the Government to take effective measures to protect the minorities and uphold the rights to the freedom of expression and the freedom of the media. (ANI)
Tel Aviv [Israel], September 10 (ANI/TPS): Israel strongly condemned remarks by the president of the European Commission on Wednesday after she proposed a partial suspension of the European Union's association agreement with Israel over the ongoing conflict in Gaza. "What is happening in Gaza has shaken the conscience of the world," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a State of the Union address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The measures under consideration include the suspension of the trade chapter of the EU-Israel association agreement, which would withdraw preferential access for Israeli goods to European markets. The EU, Israel's largest trading partner, accounted for nearly a third of the country's international trade in goods last year. Ending preferential access would lead to higher tariffs on Israeli goods and services, not an outright boycott. Implementing such a suspension would require the backing of 15 of the EU's 27 member states, representing 65 per cent of the bloc's population. Even without unanimous support, von der Leyen vowed that the Commission would take action where it could. She noted that bilateral support for Israel would be put on hold, though work with Israeli civil society organisations and the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial would continue. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar denounced von der Leyen's remarks. "The words of the President of the European Commission this morning are regrettable. Some of them are also tainted by the echoes of the false propaganda of Hamas and its partners. Once again, Europe is sending the wrong message, which strengthens Hamas and the radical axis in the Middle East," Sa'ar said. "Israel, the only Jewish state in the world and the only democracy in the Middle East, is fighting a war of survival against extremist enemies who are working to eliminate it. The international community must support Israel in this struggle," he added. Sa'ar also stressed Israel's ongoing humanitarian cooperation with the EU, pointing to efforts to stabilise Gaza's economy. "The results of this effort are evident on the ground, among other things, in the dramatic drop in the prices of basic products in Gaza. However, the main thing is missing from the President's statement: the suffering in Gaza--all of it is the work of Hamas. The war itself began with Hamas' invasion of Israel and the massacre of October 7. Its continuation is the result of Hamas' continued refusal to release our hostages and lay down its weapons." Sa'ar concluded with a warning that the Commission's stance could backfire. "Harming Israel will not help end this conflict. On the contrary, it fortifies Hamas and Israel's enemies. The President is wrong to give in to pressure from elements that undermine Israel-Europe relations. This is not an acceptable attitude between partners." Approximately 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas's attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 48 remaining hostages, about 20 are believed to be alive. (ANI/TPS)
Union Minister for Education, Dharmendra Pradhan, met Sara Musallam, Chairperson, ADEK, at the start of his two-day visit to the United Arab Emirates. Pradhan thanked her and ADEK for all the cooperation extended in establishing IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi Campus, and also for the support being extended to Indian curricula schools in the UAE. Both sides engaged in fruitful exchanges on mutual educational priorities. Pradhan shared the success of Atal Tinkering Labs in fostering curiosity and creativity in schools across India, as well as the plans of Indian schools in the UAE for implementing Atal Incubation Labs. They also had productive conversations on further expanding cooperation in education, including opening more Indian curriculum-based schools in the UAE to meet the educational needs of the Indian diaspora and facilitating two-way student exchanges right from the school level, among others. Pradhan appreciated Sara Musallam's willingness to strengthen educational cooperation and to establish education as one of the strongest pillars of bilateral ties. The Minister expressed delight at receiving a warm welcome at the IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi campus. He mentioned that it is his second visit to the institute and said he is glad to see it evolve from a concept to a full-fledged campus. He highlighted that, with its prestigious legacy, IIT Delhi serves as a beacon of knowledge and research, and a lighthouse for the India-UAE knowledge partnership. He also shared that going through the wall showcasing IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi's journey from vision to reality is a personally satisfying moment for him. Pradhan viewed a presentation on the academic activities and plans of IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi. He appreciated their emphasis on providing industry-relevant engineering programs and immersive educational experiences. He expressed that IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi will evolve into a world-class institution, nurturing global leaders in engineering, technology, energy, sustainability, AI, and other futuristic areas. The Minister was taken on a guided tour of the vibrant campus by the students, who comprised various students from India, the UAE, and other international students. During his tour, he interacted with students in the classroom and also at various laboratories. He said that the state-of-the-art facilities and holistic learning environment enhance the academic journey and contribute to the home-away-from-home experience for students. He appreciated the good mix of student communities at the IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi campus. Pradhan inaugurated the Atal Incubation Centre (AIC) at the IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi campus, a first-ever AIC hosted in an Indian institution overseas. Speaking on the occasion, Pradhan said that the AIC at IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi will nurture joint start-ups and research-led ventures by both Indian and UAE innovators and also promote bilateral collaboration in deep tech, AI, clean energy, healthcare and other sectors of mutual importance. The AIC, providing world-class incubation facilities, will also act as a gateway to the middle-east markets for Indian start-ups and innovators, he added. Pradhan launched BTech and PhD programs in Chemical Engineering and Energy & Sustainability at IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi. He congratulated the students for choosing IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi to pursue their studies and also on the new academic chapters that were added today. He expressed his confidence that the students at IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi will leave a trail and also create new milestones for global prosperity and well-being. The Minister appreciated the colourful and creative Rangoli made by the students at the campus. Later in the evening, he graced the 1st year Anniversary of the Dubai campus of Symbiosis University, which marked one year of successful operation in the UAE. The Minister congratulated them for their commendable efforts in expanding quality Indian higher education abroad and fostering academic excellence. (ANI)
Tel Aviv [Israel], September 10 (ANI/TPS): Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Wednesday evening that Israel would continue striking its enemies after the Air Force carried out a long-range attack against Houthi targets in Yemen. "A few days ago, we eliminated most of the members of the Houthis' terror government. In response, the Houthis fired on Ramon Airport two days ago. That did not relax our hands. We prepared for them from the air again today, at their terror facilities, at terror bases with a great many terrorists, and also at other facilities," Netanyahu said. "We will continue and strike. Anyone who hits us, anyone who attacks us--we will reach him." The Israel Defence Forces confirmed that fighter jets struck multiple sites in the capital Sana'a and in Al Jawf province in northern Yemen. The IDF said its targets included military camps used to plan and execute operations against Israel, a fuel depot serving Houthi forces, and the headquarters of the group's public relations department, which it described as a propaganda hub that broadcast speeches by Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi and other senior figures. The Air Force described the raid as its longest mission since the outbreak of the war, covering more than 2,350 kilometres. More than ten fighter jets participated, deploying over thirty munitions against fifteen separate targets. Several midair refuelling operations were required to complete the strike. "The IDF will operate against the ongoing and repeated attacks of the Houthi terrorist regime against the State of Israel, and remains determined to continue removing any threat posed to the civilians of the State of Israel, wherever it is required," the military said in a statement. Defence Minister Israel Katz praised the action, calling it "another painful blow" against the Houthis. "We promised more strikes and today we prepared another painful blow to the Houthi terrorist organisation in Yemen," Katz said. Arab media reported that the Yemeni Ministry of Defence compound in central Sana'a was among the sites hit, as well as government buildings in Al-Hazm, the capital of Al Jawf province near the Saudi border. The latter strike marked the first known Israeli attack in that region, which has been a staging ground for missile and drone launches toward Israel. The latest escalation follows a Houthi drone attack earlier this week that damaged the terminal at Ramon Airport in southern Israel, wounding five people. It also comes less than two weeks after an Israeli strike killed Houthi Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi and multiple senior ministers. Since March 18, when Israel resumed its campaign against Hamas following a temporary cease-fire, Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis have launched more than 70 ballistic missiles and over 23 drones at Israel. Most were either intercepted or fell short of Israeli territory. Since Hamas's October 7 attack, the terror group has fired more than 200 missiles and 170 drones. From bases along the Yemeni coast, the Iran-backed Houthis have attacked or harassed more than 100 ships in the Red Sea as they traversed the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a narrow maritime chokepoint between the Arabian Peninsula and Africa. Much of the world's oil passes through the Strait from the Indian Ocean toward the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea. The Houthi attacks have brought the Port of Eilat to a standstill. Approximately 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage, in Hamas's attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 48 remaining hostages, about 20 are believed to be alive. (ANI/TPS)
Tel Aviv [Israel], September 10 (ANI/TPS): A damning report by Israel's State Comptroller, released on Wednesday, revealed widespread government failures in protecting and assisting civilians during the June war with Iran, which left thousands of evacuated residents without proper support and compensation. The audit, prepared by State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman, found that no comprehensive government agency managed the evacuation of residents whose homes were damaged during 12 days of Iranian missile barrages. The attacks killed 31 people and damaged tens of thousands of residences, forcing around 11,000 to evacuate their homes to hotels and guesthouses around the country. The State Comptroller, also known as the State Ombudsman, periodically releases reports auditing Israeli preparedness and the effectiveness of government policies. The Public Complaints Commission operated a special hotline for 32 days, receiving approximately 700 inquiries related to the emergency. More than half of all complaints concerned shelter functionality, war-damage compensation, and evacuation procedures. The entities drawing the most complaints were the Tax Authority, the Bnei Brak Municipality, and the Bat Yam Municipality. Local authorities were left to handle evacuations independently under guidance from the National Emergency Authority, creating significant problems. "Each head of the authority decided on the hotels to which residents would be evacuated, without setting criteria and rules such as rates, distance from the city, [or] those eligible for evacuation," Englman wrote in the report. This led to payment gaps of up to three times between what different authorities paid hotels for the same services. The lack of coordination produced chaotic scenes. During one incident detailed in the report, elderly residents from a Tel Aviv assisted-living facility hit by a missile were shuttled between three different Jerusalem hotels. The first hotel had bathtubs instead of showers, unsuitable for their physical conditions -- while the second lacked wheelchair-accessible protective spaces. Only at the third hotel, outside Jerusalem, did they find appropriate accommodations. Evacuees faced additional hardships due to unclear timelines for their hotel stays. One single mother, who was 100 per cent disabled and receiving welfare, contacted the Ombudsman after being told by Bat Yam Municipality representatives that her hotel stay would be brief, causing significant anxiety about her housing situation. The compensation process proved equally problematic. From the war's beginning until August 10, 2025, the Tax Authority received 52,183 claims at compensation fund centers. Many complained about difficulties obtaining clear information and inconsistencies in assessor-determined compensation amounts. Bereaved parents whose Ramat Gan home was hit by a missile contacted the commission after being forced to vacate their hotel before receiving responses to their property-tax submissions. A pregnant woman evacuated from Petah Tikva with her family was required to leave her hotel before receiving basic equipment for an empty rental apartment, as her belongings remained trapped in her damaged home. Perhaps most troubling were reports of discrimination in emergency shelters. Ethiopian community families in Jerusalem complained that members of an extremist Haredi Orthodox faction prevented them from entering shelters. One complainant reported that police intervention only helped temporarily before harassment resumed. The Comptroller's office worked with Jerusalem's mayor to locate alternative shelter arrangements and promote dialogue between police and community rabbis to address the discrimination. The report also revealed that families of patients who died after being transferred to distant hospitals faced thousands of shekels in expenses to transport relatives for burial in their home cities. Only after commission intervention did the National Insurance Institute agree to cover these costs. MK Gilad Kariv, chairman of the Aliyah, Absorption and Diaspora Committee, criticised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly, stating that while he "boasts about the meticulous preparations for the operation in Iran that lasted months," the report proves "he has once again forgotten the citizens of Israel on the home front and abandoned them." Englman's report called on the government to appoint a dedicated official to manage resident evacuations and establish a national information centre for emergency communications with citizens. Israel launched preemptive strikes against Iranian nuclear sites in June, citing intelligence that Tehran had reached "a point of no return" in its pursuit of nuclear weapons. According to Israeli defence officials, Iran had developed the capacity to rapidly enrich uranium and assemble nuclear bombs, with sufficient fissile material for up to 15 weapons. Israeli intelligence also exposed a covert program to complete all components of a nuclear device.(ANI/TPS)
US President Donald Trump announced on social media that conservative activist Charlie Kirk has died after he was shot in the neck while speaking at a Utah Valley University event. Trump said that Kirk "was loved and admired by ALL." In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump wrote, "The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. 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. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!" The White House also informed that Trump has ordered that all American flags throughout the United States will be lowered to half-mast. The White House wrote in an X post, "In honor of Charlie Kirk, President Trump is ordering all American flags throughout the U.S. to be lowered to Half Mast." According to The New York Times, the shooting took place when Kirk was responding to a student's question about mass shootings during the university event. Utah Valley University confirmed that investigators are still searching for the gunman. "There is no suspect in custody, it is an active investigation," university spokesperson Ellen Treanor said in a statement, as per The NYT. The university added that multiple agencies are now involved in the probe, including the Orem Police Department, Utah Valley University Police, the FBI, and the Utah Department of Public Safety, the New York Times reported. (ANI)
In a few short years, AI in the classroom has gone from science fiction to daily reality.

Alongside schools, Cisco is exploring the powerful possibilities that AI brings. But like AI in science fiction, its not without its challenges.

For school districts, AI presents a unique dilemma. As they prepare their students for success in a fast-changing society, educators need to harness the potential of this groundbreaking technology. But they also must protect the integrity of learning, especially as more students may misuse AI to do the work they are supposed to be doing themselves.

Another fear is that students could lose reading, writing, and critical thinking abilities as they hand off more tasks to AI. However, given the growing importance of AI in so many walks of life and work, completely restricting AI does not seem like a viable option.

Thats why smart educators are learning to navigate this delicate balance. Many are getting important help from Cisco, which draws on its long history of collaborating with educational institutions around the world to provide the best networking, security, collaboration tools, and services, while building hybrid education opportunities.

However, as new challenges arise, conversations are shifting. Instead of asking whether AI belongs in schools, many schools are learning to work hand in hand with AI  to bolster student learning while preserving the creative, human touch thats essential for educators and students alike. And as institutions realize that banning AI does more harm than good, AI is increasingly being woven into the fabric of daily learning.

As powerful as AI is, it isnt magic. Behind every AI education solution lies teams of researchers, IT professionals, educators, and students working to solve key challenges.

One of those challenges is determining which tasks should be passed off to AI and which should be allocated to educators. Tackling this challenge will require a deep understanding of AIs potential and limitations.

AIs Potential in Schools

Administrative and grading efficiency. AI excels at automating tasks, thereby saving valuable time for teachers. By using AI to grade homework, do basic scheduling, figure out class plans, and draw up lesson outlines, educators can redirect their attention towards helping individual students and creating safe learning environments.

Around-the-clock help. Unlike humans, AI never sleeps. So, students can rely on it for late-night homework or research help. AIs ability to provide around-the-clock tutoring allows students to tailor their learning and enhance their understanding beyond classroom hours.

Identifying learning gaps. AI can offer alternative perspectives and identify changes or specific challenges in students learning. This could potentially help teachers detect where students begin to struggle and offer targeted advice.

AIs Limitation in Schools

Loss of reading and writing skills. By relying too heavily on AI for summarizing, writing essays, and completing other language-arts assignments, students may eventually lose their ability to read critically and write effectively.

Misuse concerns. If not taught how to properly utilize AI tools, students risk using the tool incorrectly, yielding inaccurate or unhelpful results.

Limited empathy and creative support. AI today cannot provide the full range of human support that students often need. In many educational settings, students go to teachers for reasons beyond academic help. For example, many turn to teachers for advice on personal situations. AI today simply cannot navigate these kinds of human complexities and emotions.

Ciscos role in the next wave of education

Like educators, Cisco is also on its own AI journey. Its successfully navigating these new waters by innovating new AI solutions for its own workforce and its global customers in industry, government, education, health care, and more. Cisco is also a leader in the safe and responsible use of AI  as underscored by its Responsible AI Framework, which operationalizes the Cisco Responsible AI Principles.

Within the educational space, there is much potential for AI, and Cisco continues to work alongside educators, supporting and building the educational foundation that enables them to integrate AI technologies. For example, the Cisco Networking Academy (NetAcad) is one of the largest technology education programs of its kind, empowering more than 25 million people globally with job-ready tech skills since 1994.

NetAcad has various entry-level courses relating to AI, including topics of AI Security, Data Science, and Modern AI. Through these resources, Cisco is empowering students and educators to leverage their AI knowledge in classroom settings.

By creating a robust, secure AI infrastructure, investing in research and development, and increasing accessibility of tools globally, Cisco is at the forefront of this AI-driven transformation. Proudly supporting schools, Cisco helps unlock new possibilities with AI.

Ensuring AI serves as a launchpad for lifelong learning and success will be a collective effort, with students, teachers, educational institutions, and technology innovators working together towards a better future.

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Cote dIvoires upcoming presidential election has taken a dramatic turn, as the Constitutional Council barred two major opposition figures  former President Laurent Gbagbo and ex-Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam  from contesting the 25 October vote.

The council cited both mens removal from the electoral roll: Gbagbo, due to a past criminal conviction, and Thiam, over nationality-related legal issues tied to his former French citizenship. Both had formally submitted their candidacies to challenge 83-year-old President Alassane Ouattara, who is seeking a controversial fourth term. The decision leaves just five approved candidates, including former First Lady Simone Gbagbo, and former ministers Jean-Louis Billon, Ahoua Don Mello, and Henriette Lagou.

Analysts say the exclusion of Gbagbo and Thiam, two of the most prominent challengers, significantly reshapes the electoral landscape. Thiam, both leader and nominee of the historically dominant and currently the largest opposition PDCI party, warned the vote risks becoming a coronation for Ouattara, whom he accused of seeking an unconstitutional mandate. Ouattara maintains that the 2016 constitution reset his term count.

The decision has stirred unease in the West African nation, which has a turbulent history of election-related violence. Gbagbos refusal to concede in 2010 had sparked a brief civil war that killed over 3,000 people. Though the government has pledged a peaceful vote, the narrowing of the field is already raising questions about the legitimacy and competitiveness of the upcoming election.
Moroccan foreign minister Nasser Bourita held on Tuesday a telephone conversation with his Russian peer Sergei Lavrov, focusing on bilateral relationship and political dialogue based on mutual respect and commitment to stability.

The Moroccan-Russian relations are gaining momentum under the leadership of King Mohammed VI and President Vladimir Putin, said the two ministers.

They recalled the importance of the royal visit paid to Moscow in 2016, a visit crowned with the signing of strategic partnership agreement, laying the foundation for closer cooperation across multiple sectors.

Lavrov and Bourita stressed the need to build on the progress achieved since the royal visit and pledged to advance partnership in all areas of common interest.

The ministers also discussed preparations for the upcoming meeting of the Moroccan-Russian Joint Commission and latest developments on the regional & international scene.
More than ten years after Muammar Gaddafis assassination, Libya remains trapped in chaos, its promises of liberation eroded by division, corruption, and broken institutions.

The 2020 ceasefire muted the sound of gunfire but did little to mend the nations political fractures. Ordinary Libyans endure hardship amid hunger, insecurity, and corruption, while the threat of renewed violence lingers over a State weakened by dueling Governments and militia dominance.

The political landscape is split between two rival administrations: the UN-backed Government of National Unity in Tripoli, led by Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, and the Government of National Stability in Benghazi, supported by General Khalifa Haftar and the House of Representatives. This duality has paralyzed governance, stalled elections, and deepened mistrust, leaving Libya a country united on paper but fractured in reality. Foreign powers and militias further entrench the divide, treating Libya as a battleground for influence.

Libyas vast oil wealth, meant to be its greatest strength, has instead fueled conflict and corruption. With over forty-eight billion barrels of reserves, oil remains the countrys economic lifeline, yet it is constantly weaponized by rival factions. Militias control production sites, while political leaders exploit revenues to strengthen their grip on power. Instead of building a future, oil profits enrich armed groups and foreign companies, leaving ordinary citizens excluded from their own nations resources.

Elections, seen as the pathway to legitimacy, have been repeatedly delayed since 2014. The failure of the December 2021 vote highlighted Libyas inability to agree on electoral laws or candidate eligibility, exposing the depth of mistrust between rival camps. With no shared legal or political framework, the democratic process remains suspended, silencing citizens eager for representation. Without credible elections, sovereignty is continually undermined by political elites and foreign actors.

The road ahead is fraught with uncertainty. International mediation efforts, including UN-led talks, have produced little progress, while militias and foreign interests remain dominant players. Libyas future hinges on whether its leaders can transcend factional divides, establish a framework for fair elections, and channel oil wealth into rebuilding the nation rather than fueling conflict. Until then, Libya drifts in limborich in resources, yet impoverished in peace, stability, and unity.
As Somaliland reportedly edges closer to potential U.S. recognition, reports of a controversial deal to resettle forcibly displaced Palestinians from Gaza have sparked widespread outrage and warnings of regional instability.

According to Israeli and U.S. media, Somaliland has been in talks with Israel over hosting Palestinians expelled during Israels ongoing war in Gaza  an act widely condemned as ethnic cleansing. In exchange, the U.S. may consider recognizing Somalilands decades-long claim to independence from Somalia. However, the idea is proving politically toxic at home. As a recent analysis in Middle East Eye points out, Somalilanders, historically staunch supporters of the Palestinian cause, see the forced relocation as betrayal. I am shocked to hear that, said Mohamed, a Hargeisa resident. Any attempt to forcefully bring them to Somaliland would mean the loss of their homeland.

Analysts, including a researcher at Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), Jethro Norman, warn the move could provoke a backlash from armed groups like al-Shabab and IS-Somalia, who may exploit anti-Israel sentiment and nationalist anger to boost recruitment. It could also turn Somaliland into a geopolitical flashpoint, attracting destabilizing attention from the Houthis [in Yemen] and other actors, warns Abdifatah Ismael Tahir, research fellow at the University of Manchester.

Even human rights advocates and local politicians caution the resettlement could breach international law and undermine Somalilands quest for legitimacy. Any forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza would not only violate that commitment but could also render Somaliland complicit in the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, said activist Guleid Ahmed Jama. While some Somaliland leaders welcome U.S. attention, silence on the relocation issue has only deepened public distrust. As debates rage, many in Somaliland warn that recognition based on Palestinian suffering may destroy the very peace they seek to preserve.
At least 60 people were killed in a brutal machete attack at a funeral in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Monday (8 September) night, in one of the deadliest recent assaults linked to the Islamic State-affiliated Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).

The victims were attending a mourning ceremony in the village of Ntoyo, Lubero territory, when the attackers struck under cover of darkness. Local officials report most were hacked to death with machetes, while others were shot or burned in their homes. They told people to gather in one place and started cutting them. I listened to people screaming and I fainted, said one survivor. The ADF, originally a Ugandan rebel group, has operated in the DRC for decades and aligned with ISIL in 2017. Despite lacking territorial control, the group continues to carry out mass-casualty raids using light arms, machetes, and improvised explosives. Experts estimate the ADF includes up to 1,500 fighters.

This attack follows a string of ADF atrocities in 2025, including a July church massacre that killed over 40 people and the murder of 52 villagers in August. The violence underscores the deteriorating security in North Kivu, where dozens of armed groups  including the Rwanda-backed M23  are active. UN investigators recently warned that widespread rights violations, including possible war crimes, are being committed by both militias and the Congolese military. ADFs latest assault highlights the groups intent to terrorize civilians, recruit child soldiers, and destabilize the region.
Libyas Acting Minister of Oil and Gas, Khalifa Abdelsadiq, has called for stronger international partnerships to enhance energy security, stressing that effective policies are essential for stabilising markets and advancing the global energy transition.

Speaking at the Gastech 2025 Conference in Milan, he emphasised the strategic role of natural gas in diversifying the energy mix and supporting the shift toward cleaner energy sources.

Abdelsadiq also highlighted rising global demand and ongoing geopolitical tensions as major challenges, urging the adoption of innovative financing models to boost investment and technology deployment. The Ministry of Oil and Gas said Libyas participation in the forum reflects its commitment to global energy security, sustainable development, and positioning itself as a reliable partner in the international energy sector.
In a moment of diplomatic clarity, UN Secretary-Generals Personal Envoy Staffan de Mistura has publicly acknowledged Algeria as a principal actor in the Sahara conflict.

Speaking to the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI), de Mistura made it clear that the Sahara conflict pits Morocco against Algeria, with the Polisario militias referred to simply as a group.

This subtle yet powerful reframing challenges decades of diplomatic ambiguity and signals a shift in how the international community may approach the conflict, moving forward.

For years, Algeria has maintained the narrative of being a neutral player on the Sahara issue. Yet de Misturas remarks  delivered with the precision of a seasoned diplomat  undermine this posture, aligning with the view that Algeria is not merely an observer but a strategic stakeholder.

His choice of words reflects a growing consensus that the Polisario operates as a proxy for Algerian interests in the Maghreb.

This recognition is not without precedent. UN Security Council Resolution 2756, adopted in 2024, explicitly names Algeria five times as a party required to engage in negotiations. Algerias abstention from voting on the resolution- its first during its tenure as a non-permanent member- was widely interpreted as a diplomatic setback.

The resolutions language, which calls for seizing recent momentum toward a mutually acceptable solution, implicitly supports Moroccos autonomy initiative under its sovereignty.

According to Moroccan media reports, including Le360, de Misturas statement has been welcomed in Rabat as a long-overdue acknowledgment of the conflicts true dynamics.

Analysts cited by the outlet argue that the envoys remarks dismantle Algerias long-standing attempt to internationalize the dispute while avoiding direct accountability. Moroccan diplomacy has often stressed that no progress towards a political solution can take place without the active participation of Algeria, as the main party perpetuating the conflict.

King Mohammed VIs Throne Day speech on July 29, 2025, reaffirmed Moroccos commitment to defending its territorial integrity while extending a hand to Algeria, calling for a consensual solution in which there will be neither victor nor vanquished.

This approach, centered around the autonomy plan as a win-win solution, offers a dignified exit from a conflict for Algeria which has stymied Maghreb integration and regional development for generations.
There are three reasons behind recent announcements from Iran that it is targeting big oil and gas production gains from its ultra-oil-rich West Karoun cluster of fields, comprising North and South Azadegan, North and South Yaran, and Yadavaran, among other lesser-known sites. The first is that the area contains one of the largest collective oil reserves in the world  well over 67 billion barrels of oil in place  and enormous associated gas deposits as well. An additional benefit to these oil reserves is that their average lifting cost is the joint lowest in the world (along with Iran and Saudi Arabia) at US$2-3 per barrel. The second reason is that several of these reservoirs are shared with neighbouring Iraq, which is key to Irans long-running ability to continue to export high volumes of its oil despite sanctions, as it is passed off as Iraqi oil instead, as analysed in full in my latest book on the new global oil market order. These shared fields include Azadegan (which sits on the same reservoir as Iraqs huge Majnoon site), Yadavaran (Iraqs Sinbad), Azar (Iraqs Badra), Naft Shahr (Iraqs Naft Khana), Dehloran (Iraqs Abu Ghurab), West Paydar (Iraqs Fakka), and Arvand (Iraqs South Abu Ghurab). And the third reason is that China and Russia have legacy commitments in various sites across the West Karoun region, covering both oil and gas developments, and they are prepared to continue on the sites, despite rising sanctions pressure from the U.S.. Both countries reiterated this to Iran at last weeks 25th Heads of State Council meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Tianjin.

Related: Israeli Surprise Strike on Qatar Sends Oil Prices Higher

China has always been the bigger presence of the two in West Karoun, particularly after it signed the landmark all-encompassing Iran-China 25-Year Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement with Iran, as first revealed anywhere in the world in my 3 September 2019 article on the subject and also detailed in my latest book. In the lead-up to that agreement, Irans then-Foreign Minister, Mohammad Zarif, and his China counterpart, Wang Yi, decided that Chinese companies would increase the then-355,000 barrels per day (bpd) output from West Karoun by another 145,000 bpd in the first phase (to 500,000 bpd) and then by another 500,000 bpd (to 1 million bpd). According to comments just over a week ago from the chief executive officer of Irans Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC), Nasrollah Zarei, the West Karoun fields now collectively produce over 500,000 bpd. Chinas development strategy for these fields at that time has become a template for a more cautious approach when it comes to oil and gas developments in countries that are subject to U.S. sanctions, and it remains in place to this day. Back in 2019, the U.S. had only recently unilaterally withdrawn from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA or colloquially the nuclear deal) with Iran and had reimposed sanctions on it. Washington and Beijing were also engaged in a Trade War at the time. The Chinese strategy involved a switch from huge exploration and development contracts that attracted a lot of publicity, to much lower-key contract-only awards on Irans major fields (and Iraqs as well), although nearly all of them went to Chinese-controlled firms. One early typical example of this the announcement by Irans Petroleum Ministry of US$1.3 billion of multiple development contracts to more than double oil production at West Karouns South Azadegan oilfield. In fact, various Chinese companies had been given 11 of these contract-only across South Azadegan, including contracts for drilling-only, field maintenance-only, engineering-only, construction-only, and technology-only, and so on. These added up to what was, in effect, a full exploration and development programme for the huge oilfield. In looking to reach the next collective West Karoun fields production target of 1 million bp,d more of the same strategy is expected, a senior oil industry source who works closely with Irans Petroleum Ministry exclusively told OilPrice.com last week. These will include contracts covering essential items, including central processing units in South Azadegan and gas collection and compression units there too, new drilling units for Yadavaran, and the latest hydraulic fracturing equipment for the Sepehr and Jofeir fields, he added.

Russia may well take the same lower-key approach to those areas of West Karoun in which it also has a legacy interest, said the source, partly for the same U.S.-related reason as China and partly because increasing financial pressure from its war with Ukraine limits the development funds at its disposal. Before Washingtons withdrawal from the JCPOA, Russia had multiple major memoranda of understanding (MoU) signed for seven big oil and gas fields in Iran  more than any other country. These were by GazpromNeft for the Changouleh and Cheshmeh-Khosh oilfields, Zarubezhneft for the Aban and Paydar Gharb fields, Tatneft for the Dehloran field, and Lukoil for the Ab Teymour and Mansouri oil fields. In the aftermath of its invasion of Ukraine, July 2022 saw Russian President Vladimir Putin visit his Iranian counterpart in Tehran to set the seal on a larger (US$40 billion) wide-ranging MoU signed just a few days before between the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and Russias Gazprom, as also fully analysed in my latest book. Among other deals contained in the MoU, Gazprom pledged its full assistance to the NIOC in the US$10 billion development of the Kish and North Pars gas fields with a view to their producing more than 10 million cubic metres of gas per day. The MoU also detailed a US$15 billion project to increase pressure in the supergiant South Pars gas field on the maritime border between Iran and Qatar. Gazprom further pledged assistance in the completion of various LNG projects and the construction of gas export pipelines, and crucially, to provide the technology and equipment to increase output from its holdings in the West Karoun oil fields cluster. Looking ahead, according to the Iran source, Moscow is to provide immediate advanced drilling rig assistance on Irans shared Azar field, and dual-lateral drilling technology for the Aban and Paydar Gharb fields. It will also provide new drilling equipment at Cheshmeh Khosh and desalting units at the same site.

How long it takes for these and related development improvements to allow the West Karoun cluster of oil fields to reach 1 million bpd output remains to be seen, but there is plenty of scope for this to be done. It is worth noting here that although the current rate of recovery across the site ranges from just 3.5% to 4.5%, before the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA in 2018 and the subsequent reimposition of sanctions against Iran, several international oil companies presented realistic plans to Irans Petroleum Ministry detailing how they would dramatically increase the average rate of recovery in very quick time, as examined in full in my latest book on the new global oil market order. Specifically, according to the Iran source who has seen the full proposal documents, the plans detailed a relatively easily achieved increase in the rate of recovery to at least 12.5% within one year, to 20% within two years and to at least 50% within five years. With over 67 billion barrels of oil in place across the West Karoun oil fields, the Petroleum Ministry has stated several times that each 1% improvement in the rate of recovery would increase recoverable reserves by 670 million barrels or some US$33 billion in revenues even with oil at US$50 a barrel.

By Simon Watkins for Oilprice.com

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Oil and gas producers worldwide are bracing for a prolonged downturn, with job losses and investment cuts spreading through the industry, according to a new report from Financial Times. ConocoPhillips, Chevron, and BP have all announced large-scale layoffs, while others are shelving or selling projects to conserve cash. This isnt just a Conoco problem, said Kirk Edwards of Latigo Petroleum. Its a flashing red warning light for the entire US oil and gas industry.

FT writes that the sector is under pressure as crude prices, which spiked after Russias invasion of Ukraine, have since dropped by half. Opec+ has shifted strategy, increasing output to regain market share, a move that adds further price strain. Analysts at Wood Mackenzie predict Brent could slide under $60 a barrel by early 2026 and stay there up to a few years. Below that level, western majors struggle to fund both shareholder payouts and new projects.

The cuts are hitting hardest in the US, where shale drilling requires around $65 a barrel to stay profitable, according to the Dallas Federal Reserve. ConocoPhillips has warned that as many as 3,250 staff may lose their jobs by Christmas, while Chevron has been working through 8,000 cuts since February. BP has already trimmed 4,700 positions. The way we protect the most jobs for the most people is by remaining competitive, said Chevrons Mike Wirth.

State-owned producers are also retrenching: Saudi Aramco raised $10bn by selling part of its pipeline network, and Malaysias Petronas shed 5,000 jobs. Capital spending worldwide is forecast to fall 4.3% this year to $341.9bn  the first decline since 2020  and US output is expected to contract for the first time since 2021.

Some companies are leaning on outsourcing and digital tools to offset the downturn. AI is giving operators new ways to optimise in a challenging market, said Andrew Gillick of Enverus. But industry veterans warn that shrinking investment may have long-term consequences. Domestic oil producers are finding it hard which is costing jobs, said Roe Patterson of Marauder Capital. The problem is that our domestic oil production may not be there when the country needs it in the future.

By Zerohedge.com

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Anglo American will merge with Canadas Teck Resources in a $50bn (36bn) deal, shifting its headquarters to Canada and reducing its London presence in a move criticised by shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith. The Tory MP said it represents a blow to UK business and confidence in London.

The new entity, to be called Anglo Teck, is expected to have roughly 70 per cent exposure to copper, as well as premium iron ore and zinc. Under the terms of the deal, Anglo will own 62.4 per cent of the combined group, with Teck shareholders owning the rest.

Anglo Americans share price rocketed up 7.75 per cent in early morning trading to 24.55, in response to the news.

HQ relocates to Canada

The company will be headquartered in Vancouver, but will retain its primary London listing with secondary listings in Johannesburg, Toronto and New York.

However, as a result, Anglo Americans London office, which employs up to 700 people, will be significantly downsized.

The merged company will be led by Anglo American chief executive Duncan Wanblad, while Teck chief executive Johnathan Price will move to the role of deputy CEO. However, the CEO, deputy CEO, CFO, and a significant majority of the executive management team will also be based in and reside in Canada.

Andrew Griffith told City AM, If we want the UK to be the best place in the world to do business, Labour must wake up fast.

He said: This is a clear signal that companies and investors are losing confidence in the UK and voting with their feet.

Taxing and regulating businesses into submission will not bring growth; it drives them away. What businesses need instead is a government that champions wealth creation and investment, not one that undermines our competitiveness.

The fact that a historic British mining giant is moving its headquarters to Canada is yet another signal of decline under Labour, the shadow business secretary added.

The deal, revealed to its shareholders on Tuesday, follows both companies rejecting takeover approaches from larger rivals, including BHPs failed 39bn pursuit of Anglo in 2024.

Wanblad said: Together, we are propelling Anglo Teck to the forefront of our industry in terms of value accretive growth in responsibly produced critical minerals.

Price added: This transaction will create significant economic opportunity in Canada, while positioning Anglo Teck to deliver sustainable, long-term value for shareholders.

Shareholder decisions and dividends

The companies said the shareholder vote for the deal would take place in the coming months, and if approved, antitrust approval could take an additional 12 to 18 months.

Anglo will issue 1.33 shares to existing Teck investors for each share they hold in the company.

The London company is also set to issue a special $4.5bn dividend to its own shareholders ahead of the merger.

The merger is expected to generate annual cost savings and efficiency gains of $800m by the fourth year after completion.

Commenting on the deal, AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said: It now remains to be seen whether it can complete the restructuring of its own business and then whether Anglo Teck delivers on its operational and financial targets, but at least the lowly valuation means there could be upside in the newly-formed companys share price if it does so, all other things being equal and providing commodity prices do not nose dive in the meantime.

By CityAM

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Amid the fanfare of back-to-back diplomatic gatherings in China last week hosted by Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Beijing and Moscow appeared to secure a massive breakthrough by unveiling a deal to build the long-awaited Power of Siberia-2 gas pipeline.

The September 2 announcement of a legally binding memorandum by Aleksei Miller, CEO of the Russian energy giant Gazprom, made headlines and sent a message that Beijing and Moscow's ties are deepening despite Western pressure.

But energy analysts who spoke to RFE/RL expressed doubts about the megaproject's future given that key details -- such as the price of gas, the volume that will pass through the pipeline, and who will foot the bill for its construction -- are still no closer to being decided.

"A legally binding memorandum is not a supply contract, so it does not constitute a green light on this project," Erica Downs, a senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, told RFE/RL. "This gives the illusion of progress, but it is not yet a done deal."

Rather, the recent agreement reached in Beijing appears to be part of ongoing negotiations over the ambitious pipeline that would bring gas from Russia's Yamal Peninsula to northern China via eastern Mongolia.

Beijing has increasingly gained leverage over Moscow since Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine and its loss of Europe as a primary energy market. China looks to be buying time to see if the Kremlin will cave in negotiations by providing favorable discounts and how the project will impact its complicated rivalry with the United States.

"China only committed to kicking the can down the road in case they decide they might need this pipeline," Downs said. "If Beijing can get a low price and flexibility on volume, then it becomes more appealing as an insurance policy. If not, they have other options to explore."

Does China Need The Power Of Siberia-2 Pipeline?

Moscow's need for the proposed 2,600-kilometer pipeline is clear: The Power of Siberia-2 would compensate for at least part of the European Union market it has lost due to fallout from the war in Ukraine.

China, on the other hand, is spoiled for choice.

As discussions with Moscow around the megaproject have stalled and restarted over the years, Beijing has followed a strategy of diversification when it comes to its gas imports as a way to avoid being overly dependent on a single supplier.

Russia is already the country's largest supplier of pipeline gas thanks to the Power of Siberia-1, which became operational in 2019 under a 30-year, $400 billion deal and is now the third-largest provider of liquefied natural gas (LNG) after Australia and Qatar, which ship LNG by sea.

Beijing has also moved to reduce its import dependence and taken moves in recent years to increase its domestic exploration and production of oil and natural gas. This has corresponded with a massive shift toward renewable energy inside China, with the country's companies becoming industry leaders in fields like solar energy and electric vehicle (EV) production.

As a result, demand for imported gas has been falling and is projected to tumble further in the next decade, lessening the need for the Power of Siberia-2, which could carry up to 50 billion cubic meters (bcm) annually. Beijing could also elect to make small increases to existing pipelines from Russia, something Miller also announced in Beijing, rather than build a new one.

"If it does get built, the most optimistic projection is that it starts by 2030," Joseph Webster, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Global Energy Center, told RFE/RL. "That's an additional five years of technological advancements in renewables and batteries that will continue to offset the need for this pipeline."

Adding to the uncertainty over the pipeline's future is that Beijing has yet to confirm the details of Miller's announcement.

Chinese officials have been notably silent on the pipeline, as have Chinese state media, who only referenced the negotiations by citing reporting by Russian or international media that quotes Gazprom's Miller. Following the meeting between Xi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh in Beijing, Chinese media quoted Xi as only saying that "hard connectivity" should be a focus on future relations between the three countries.

What Will It Take For The Pipeline To Get Built?

Benjamin Schmitt, a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, told RFE/RL that the commercial case for the new pipeline is thin and that he views Miller's recent comments as being more about optics as the Kremlin tries to show "the veneer of iron-clad cooperation between these two countries."

"Beijing doesn't need this pipeline," Schmitt, who is also a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), told RFE/RL. "But there is also no reason for them to say anything negative about it."

Two variables could still change that calculation: major concessions from Russia on pricing and volume, and shifting geopolitical conditions for China.

In terms of the price for gas, Miller said it would be lower than the price charged by Gazprom to European buyers due to the distances and terrain for the pipeline's potential route to China, but he offered no specifics.

China has reportedly asked to pay close to Russia's domestic prices, which are heavily subsidized. Beijing is also pushing to commit to buy a smaller fraction of the pipeline's planned annual capacity of 50 bcm of gas. According to some Russian energy insiders, China is looking to agree to only take 50 percent of the pipeline's total capacity, compared to the typical 80 percent.

With cheap pricing and flexible obligations from Russia, the pipeline could then become more appealing for China from a security perspective.

In the face of renewed conflict between Iran and Israel around the Strait of Hormuz, where many of China's LNG shipments transit, and a trade war between Beijing and Washington, the world's top supplier of LNG, Russian pipeline gas looks more secure than maritime routes.

China has effectively halted its imports of American LNG since early February, and access to cheap Russian gas would give Beijing a strong bargaining position with many of its other LNG contracts set to expire in the 2030s.

But in order to reach that point, Beijing and Moscow would first need to make Power of Siberia-2 a reality by breaking their longstanding stalemate.

"This is pure messaging until it is a real project," Schmitt said.

By RFE/RL

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India continues to buy cheap Russian crude oil, despite being punished for it by the United States, which in August imposed a 50 percent tariff on Indian exports to America, including a 25 percent penalty for importing Russian crude.

The US tariffs on India are some of the highest in the world. Citigroup estimates the combined 50 percent tariff poses between a 0.6 and 0.8 percent downside risk to Indias annual GDP growth.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Sept. 5 that the country will keep buying Russia oil, defying demands from US President Trump to halt the purchases due to Russias war with Ukraine.

Where we buy our oil from, especially a big-ticket foreign exchange item where we pay so much, highest in terms of import, we will have to take a call on what suits us best, Sitharaman said in a television interview on Friday, via Bloomberg. We will undoubtedly be buying.

India produces about 29.4 million tonnes of crude oil annually, which falls significantly short of demand, forcing the country to import about 85% of its oil needs. Indias production of oil and gas has been steadily declining since 2011.

Related: Israeli Surprise Strike on Qatar Sends Oil Prices Higher

According to Visual Capitalist (VC), Indias imports of Russian crude rose from less than 1 percent before the war in Ukraine to 37 percent in 2024. Iraq is the second-largest importer, at 21 percent of the total. The United States drives just 9% of Indias crude imports.

However, NPR notes the US is a major importer of Indian products made from Russian oil.

Last year, Indias imports of Russian crude surpassed 1.7 million barrels per day. Reliance Industries, the countrys largest conglomerate by market cap, buys about a third of this total, the VC website states.

A record 1.95 million bpd of Russian crude was purchased by India in May, bumping its import percentage to 40 percent. Imports from the Middle East fell to a record low of about 39% in May, versus 44% in April, with Iraqi imports down about 13.7 percent and supply from Saudi Arabia dropping by 15 percent.

Reuters notes the landed price of Russian crude oil is far cheaper than Middle East crude, with a barrel of Russian crude selling for $68.21 in April compared to $570 a barrel from Iraq and $637.40 a barrel from Saudi Arabia, citing government data.

OPEC's share of India's oil imports in May fell to a record low of 42.6 percent, Reuters added.

While US imports were only 158,000 barrels per day in 2024 less than a tenth of the total  major refiners like Indian Oil Corp and Reliance Industries bought five million barrels and 2 million barrels, respectively, in August, helping to narrow the US trade deficit with India.

An opposite trend sees India cutting its share of fossil fuel output. On Sept. 2 Reuters reported that Clean electricity production in India has surged by 20% to new highs so far this year, giving utilities a rare chance to cut fossil fuel-fired generation and reduce reliance on energy imports for power production.

India's clean electricity sources are also on track to provide a third of its utility electricity for the first time over the next month or so, thanks to record combined output from renewables, hydro and nuclear assets, data from Ember shows

Over the first half of 2025, India's utilities generated a record 236 terawatt hours (TWh) of clean electricity, data from Ember shows.

That total is 20% more than during the same months in 2024, and allowed utilities to curb generation from fossil fuels by 4% from the year before to around 691 TWh.

A 29% jump in wind generation (to 47.2 TWh) and a 25% rise in solar generation (to 85 TWh) were the main drivers of the advance in clean electricity supplies.

According to the International Energy Agency, coal was the largest source of Indias total energy supply in 2023 at 46 percent, followed by oil at 25 percent.

Coal provided 54% of the countrys domestic energy production, followed by biofuels and waste at 30.3 percent, crude oil at 4.7 percent, and renewables at 2.8 percent.

Nearly three-quarters of Indias electricity (74 percent) comes from coal, compared to 6 percent from solar, 7.2 percent from hydro and just 0.2 percent from oil.

By Andrew Topf for Oilprice.com

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Over the past couple of years, Egypt has seen its ambitions to become a regional natural gas supply and LNG export hub go up in flames, with a series of setbacks turning the country from a net exporter of the vital commodity to an importer.

Egypt's natural gas production has declined rapidly over the years due to the natural depletion of mature fields, including the Zohr gas field. Coupled with a lack of significant new discoveries since 2015, surging domestic demand for electricity, and past financial issues such as hard currency shortages and payment arrears to foreign companies, Egypt now finds itself in a tenuous position, becoming a net gas importer since 2022, and relying on imported Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as well as pipeline gas from Israel.

Last year, Egypt imported a record 981 million cubic feet per day of natural gas from Israel, good for 18.2% year-over-year increase. Egypt imports up to 20% of its gas from Israel.

Last month, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced that the $35-billion gas supply agreement signed with Israels NewMed Energy (OTCPK:DKDRF), a key partner in Israels giant Leviathan gas field, was extended until 2040. But the fate of these gas flows now hangs in the balance, with tensions in the Middle East escalating after the Israeli military ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate.

After spending more than a year constantly on the move, hundreds of thousands of people flooded back to Gaza City earlier in the year during the ceasefire. But now, Israel wants them to move out again. Last month, Netanyahu declared that he is "deeply committed to the vision of Greater Israel, encompassing parts of Arab countries stretching from the Euphrates to the Nile. According to the Israel Hayom, Netanyahu has instructed officials "not to move forward with the massive gas deal with Egypt without his personal approval.

However, Egypt is now daring Israel to cancel the lucrative deal, saying that it [Egypt] has other options.

"Netanyahu sees Egypt as an obstacle to his dream of Greater Israel and a danger to him, a thorn in his side, especially since Cairo is the first line of defense against Palestinian displacement, Diaa Rashwan, head of Egypts State Information Service (SIS), said in televised statements. The Egyptian administration has alternatives and scenarios for what may happen, and Netanyahu is trying to export a crisis to Egypt, he added.

Related: Israeli Surprise Strike on Qatar Sends Oil Prices Higher



But replacing Israels gas is likely to come at a big cost to Egypt. Under the latest deal signed in August, Israel will sell ~130 bcm of gas to Egypt through 2040, or until the contracted volume is fulfilled. The gas will be delivered via pipelines, making it considerably cheaper than LNG. According to commodity experts, LNG prices are currently averaging $13.5 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) excluding the cost of leasing floating storage (FSRUs), much higher than $7.75 for Israeli gas. On the other hand, Israel can use the impasse to negotiate higher prices for its gas, with Reuters reporting in May it intended to increase the prices of exported gas by 25%.

Discovered in 2010, the Leviathan Gas Field is located approximately 130 km off the shores of Haifa. The 330-square kilometer field holds ~22.9 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas, making it the largest natural gas reservoir in the Mediterranean, and one of the largest producing assets in the region. Production is facilitated by 4 subsea wells that are connected to an offshore platform via a subsea manifold and two 120 km long pipelines, where all processing of gas takes place.

The gas is then piped to shore into the Israeli national grid and distributed to clients in Israel, Egypt, and Jordan. NewMed is Leviathan's main operator with a 45.3% working interest; Chevron Corp. (NYSE:CVX) has a 39.7% working interes,t while Ratio Energies. (TASE: RATI) has 15%. Founded in 1992, Ratio Energy is one of Israel's leading energy partnerships, with a mission to develop and produce natural gas and oil.

Source: The United States Geological Survey (USGS)

With nearly 0.7 TCF produced by the end of 2021, the first phase of the fields development has been a resounding success. Last year, the three companies announced plans to ramp up gas production and exports in 2025 in a bid to meet growing demand. Currently, a maximum capacity of up to 1.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, or 12 billion cubic meters per year, can be piped from the Leviathan reservoir.

Chevron and NewMed Energy have also partnered in the Aphrodite Gas Field, with Anglo-Dutch oil major Shell Plc (NYSE:SHEL) a third partner. Chevron and Shell each have a 35% working interest in the field, while NewMed has 30%. Discovered in 2011, the Aphrodite natural gas field is located about 170 kilometers south of Limassol in Cyprus, just 30 kilometers northwest of Israels Leviathan gas reservoir. An appraisal well has already been drilled to confirm assessments regarding the nature and size of the Aphrodite gas deposit, and marks a significant step towards its development. The well is expected to serve as a production well following the completion of the development of the reservoir.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

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The leaders of the five Central Asia republics attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Plus meeting in Tianjin, China, which concluded on 1 September. Twenty-four countries and the United Nations, and other multilateral organizations were represented. (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan are founders of SCO; Turkmenistan, as a permanently neutral countr,y attended as a guest.)

The 80th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) opens on 9 September, and leaders of the republics may have an opportunity to meet U.S. President Donald Trump. (During his first term, Trump met the presidents of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.)

The Trump administration hasnt articulated a Central Asia strategy so all we have to go on is the Biden administration strategy that was premised on the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, though it declared Central Asia is a geostrategic region important to United States national security interests, regardless of the level of United States involvement in Afghanistan.

Well, theres no level of United States involvement in Afghanistan now, so what can the republics expect if the leaders meet Trump?

Trump is all about leverage, and that works if the target is a major trade partner of the U.S., but of the five republics, Kazakhstan leads in U.S. trade at #54, and Tajikistan is last at #208 - behind West Bank Administered by Israel at #182.

American motion picture director Woody Allen said, Eighty percent of success is showing up and its no different for politicians.

No U.S. president has visited Central Asia, but Russias Vladimir Putin and Chinas Xi Jinping do. Putin has made 76 visits, and Xi has made 15 visits.

President Joe Biden met the presidents of the republics at the 2023 UNGA meeting, but it was just a one-hour photo op. (Trump may be encouraged to spend some quality time with the Republicans leaders just so he can tweet he did better than Biden.)

Putin held more than 50 meetings (online and in-person) with the republics leaders in 2022.

In 2023, China hosted the leaders of the republics at the two-day China-Central Asia Summit in Xian, and in 2024 Xi visited Astana, Kazakhstan, for the 24th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO. In June 2025, Xi again traveled to Astana for the second ChinaCentral Asia Summit, and pledged Chinas eternal friendship with the region

At the recent SCO meeting, Xi met one-on-one with all the leaders of the republics, and Putin met the leaders of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. In the SCO meeting official picture, the five republics presidents share the front row, a clear signal of Chinas intent.

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan spoke to Trump shortly after the SCO meeting so he may be the regions point man as the leaders prepare for UNGA. Mirziyoyev also invited Trump to visit Uzbekistan in the near future.

Related: EU Court Upholds Green Label for Gas and Nuclear Energy

The republics are finally free of the Russian Empire (1721-1917), Soviet Empire (1917-1991), and the American empire (2001-2021) and will avoid any arrangement that limits their sovereignty.

The republics have language and business ties with Russia, have received significant investment from China, see Iran as a beckoning market and the host of needed transport routes, and are investing in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. The republics understand they are all neighbors forever and dont want to be the platform for Western revenge attacks on Iran or Afghanistan, or heavy-handed attempts to block Russia or China  at their expense.

The republics see SCO (and BRICS, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are Partner Countries) as ways to integrate into regional trade networks, increase opportunities for political cooperation, and cushion themselves from instability, an American specialty.

Trump said BRICS was formed for a bad purpose and threatened tariffs if its members moved to de-dollarize. This is because he sees groups like SCO and BRICS as a threat to American unilateralism, though SCO and BRICS may be more for avoiding America than undermining America.

Central Asian citizens will form positive opinions about U.S. intentions if their leaders meet the American president. Xi and Putin are busy guys, they may think, and they take the time to show respect to the republics leaders, so why not Trump? And local leaders can leverage the absence of top-level attention by Washington to draw closer to Russia and China (and SCO and BRICS), which will draw the attention of Washington, but by then it may be too late.

The republics may prefer to have to deal with three big powers, the U.S., Russia, and China, so if one of the players weaken,s they can still balance between two, than be trapped in a bilateral relationship with a single stronger player.

The U.S. does little trade with Central Asia, but the region is key to East-West trade between Europe and China. That said, U.S. investment in the region is increasing but economic relations are hobbled by the Cold War-era Jackson-Vanik Amendment. American politicians have been saying for years that they will do something about Jackson-Vanik, but have failed to deliver. Washington is, however, supporting Uzbekistans accession to the World Trade Organization. (Kazakhstan joined the WTO in 2015, with U.S. backing.)

There are opportunities to link Washingtons crusading impulses to crises in Central Asia: the drying up of the Aral Sea and methane emissions in Turkmenistan.

The desertification of the Aral Sea has had profound economic effects on the region: the collapse of the fishing industry and resulting widespread unemployment; agricultural decline and increased salinization of the soil; adverse health effects, including increased infant mortality, often caused by diarrheal disease, growth retardation and anemia in children, respiratory disease, and elevated occurrences of cancers.

The environmental and economic hardships have forced people to migrate in search of better living conditions, leading to depopulation of the region, further economic decline, and pressure for jobs and housing in urban centers. The republics have responded by retiring competition over scarce water resources and building trust and cooperation, modernizing antiquated irrigation systems, and making a priority of water diplomacy.

Turkmenistan is a significant emitter of methane, and leaks from the gas fields are substantial: over 2.9 million tons of methane, more than the United Kingdoms annual carbon emissions. (Turkmenistans population is less than 6.5 million, while the UKs is about 67 million.)

Washington can say, Do as I do, not as I say, if it works with Ashgabat to reduce methane emissions while it tackles Americas emissions that may be three times higher on average than the level predicted by official government estimates.

Trump likes high-visibility, big-dollar deals ,but he can help secure American influence in Central Asia by directing his officials to partner with the republics, the UN Multi-Partner Human Security Trust Fund for the Aral Sea Region, the Global Methane Pledge, and UN Water to flow the money, technology, and political support to help Central Asia repair the effects of these catastrophes.

By James Durso

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Saudi Aramco, the worlds biggest crude oil exporter and the Saudi state-owned oil giant, is back tapping the debt markets this year with an offering of dollar-denominated Islamic bonds, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing a source with knowledge of the plans.

Aramco is said to be offering Islamic bonds, the so-called sukuk, in five and ten-year issuances in what would be the Saudi oil firms second debt issue this year and Saudi Arabias third in one week.

In May, Saudi Aramco issued a total of $5 billion in five, ten, and 30-year bonds, in U.S.-dollar denominated international bonds under its Global Medium Term Note Programme.

Lower oil prices have reduced Aramcos cash flows in the first quarter of the year, and the second quarter showed even larger declines in cash flow and profits as prices slumped.

At the end of last year, Aramco slashed its performance-linked dividend as oil prices fell from the 2022 and 2023 highs, and Aramco struggled to pay with the cash flow the huge dividends to its shareholders, the biggest of which with over 90% is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Aramco plans to continue tapping the debt markets for more borrowings to fund growth, CEO Amin Nasser told Bloomberg TV in May after the worlds biggest oil firm issued the $5 billion bond.

Now Aramco prepares another bond issue, per Bloombergs source in the know.

The issue would be the third for Saudi Arabia in just a week after the Kingdom last week sold $5.5 billion in Islamic bonds, orders for which hit $17.5 billion, and the sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), sold earlier this week $2 billion of 10-year dollar bonds to fund part of its investment plans.

The busy bond issuance from Saudi Arabia in recent weeks suggests that the decline in oil prices this year is straining the Kingdoms finances. Saudi Arabias budget deficit is growing this year as oil prices are down from last years levels and well below the $90 per-barrel price the Kingdom is estimated to need to balance its budget.

By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com

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Chevron plans to increase its oil production in Argentinas shale play Vaca Muerta to about 30,000 barrels per day (bpd) by the end of the year, from around 25,000 bpd now, Ana Moneto, the U.S. supermajors Argentina country manager, said.

Vaca Muerta, one of the worlds largest shale formations, has enormous potential for development, Moneto said at the Argentina Oil & Gas conference in Buenos Aires.

However, the South American nation needs to become an attractive investment destination if Vaca Muerta is to fulfil its potential, the manager added.

The regulatory environment must be more stable and predictable, allowing for capital movements, which will be critical in the long term, respecting existing investments, keeping costs competitive and maintaining free market policies, Moneto said at the conference.

Chevron said last month it expects Vaca Muerta to play a larger role in its portfolio in the coming years.

We remain focused on Argentina and Vaca Muerta, where today we have an enviable unconventional resource position that can be scaled into a core asset within a relatively short time frame, said Javier La Rosa, previously managing director of Chevron Latin America, now president of Base Assets and Emerging Countries.

The booming Vaca Muerta shale play isnt immune to the decline in oil prices and company spending this year. Drilling activity is set for a near-term slowdown as foreign firms and the biggest domestic producer YPF SA are pulling out some frac crews amid lower international oil prices and a major asset reshuffle with mergers and acquisitions in recent months.

But the long-term prospects of the Vaca Muerta shale resources remain bright, and Argentina is looking to monetize both the oil and gas production.

In the first quarter of 2025, Vaca Muerta built on last years strong production performance, with oil output surging 26% and gas production rising 16% year-on-year, according to Rystad Energy estimates.

YPF says it can develop all of Vaca Muerta at oil prices as low as $45 per barrel.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Exxon expects European gas buyers to commit to long-term supply deals with U.S. sellers, the Financial Times has reported, as Europe has become the most important market for U.S. liquefied gas.

These contracts would be part of a broader commitment that the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen made to President Trump for the EU to buy $750 billion worth of U.S. oil and gas until 2028.

The European Union has been averse to long-term gas commitments for years, in the belief that gas would not be part of its energy mix over the longer term, so spot market purchases and shorter contracts of one to two years were the smarter bet. According to Exxons senior vice president of LNG, Peter Clarke, this was starting to change.

Earlier this year, Italys Eni inked a 20-year contract with Venture Global for the delivery of 2 million tons of liquefied natural gas annually. Venture Global scored another 20-year deal with Germanys state gas buyer SEFE, which also sealed an LNG delivery deal with Conoco, for a shorter period of 10 years.

Exxon itself is still building its Golden Pass LNG plant in a joint venture with QatarEnergy. The facility is expected to be commissioned in 2026 and later reach a peak capacity of 15 million tons. A lot of this could end up going into Europe in the context of the EC commitment and President Trumps recent call on the EU to give up all Russian energy imports.

The EU already imports 55% of its LNG from the United States, up by 20% from last year, according to Exxons Clarke. That number could go up to 66% with new long-term commitments and a further shift away from Russian energy, regardless of the cost differentials.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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Edison will buy U.S. LNG from 2028 under a 15-year agreement with a Shell subsidiary, as part of boosting Italys security of supply, the Italian energy group said on Wednesday.

Edison has signed an agreement with Shell International Trading Middle East Limited FZ to buy around 0.7 million tons per year of LNG from the United States, starting in 2028 and continuing for up to 15 years.

The Italian firm, part of Frances EDF Group, will purchase the gas on a Free on Board (FOB) basis, using its own fleet of LNG carriers, taking care of the collection of the LNG at source, its transport and unloading at destination.

The opening of this second channel from the United States is another piece in our industrial strategy, aimed at increasing the country's security of supply and strengthening the long-term competitiveness and flexibility of our long-term portfolio, said Fabio Dubini, Executive Vice President of Gas & Power Portfolio Management & Optimisation at Edison.

Edison aims to diversify gas supply by opening up new routes, the executive added.

This has enabled us to contribute to national energy security, providing rapid responses in recent times of crisis, thanks to the solid relationships we have built with sellers over the years, Dubini said in a statement.

Edison currently imports about 14 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year into Italy, with import contracts with Qatar, Libya, Algeria, Azerbaijan, and the United States, meeting 23% of domestic demand.

This long-term partnership underscores Edisons commitment to expanding and enhancing the flexibility of its LNG and gas portfolio, while consolidating the United States as a strategic supply source, the Italian company said.

Edison has supported the construction of the worlds first offshore regasification plant, off the coast of Rovigo in northeast Italy. The terminal has imported 6.4 billion cubic meters of gas per year from Qatar since 2009.

The deal with Shell for U.S. LNG will further diversify Italys gas supply and contribute to the EU buying more LNG from America, as per the trade deal.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Elliott Investment Management has emerged as a top-three shareholder in Kansai Electric Power, Japans second-largest utility and its leading nuclear operator. As reported by the Financial Times, the New York-based fund now holds between 4% and 5% of Kansai Electrics shares.

Elliott is pressing Kansai Electric to boost shareholder returns through larger dividends and buybacks. Its proposal hinges on the sale of non-core assets worth at least 150 billion ($1 billion) annually. According to Elliotts estimates, Kansai is sitting on more than 2 trillion ($13.5 billion) in non-essential holdings, including a sizeable stake in a construction company and property assets valued at over 1 trillion.

Shares surged in Tokyo on Wednesday following reports of Elliotts stake, climbing as much as 9.5% before easing slightly, underscoring investor optimism that the activist campaign could unlock hidden value.

In recent years, activists have targeted Japanese corporations that sit on vast real estate portfolios carried at historical book values rather than market prices. Selling such assets can deliver large windfalls, allowing companies to recycle capital into growth or shareholder distributions.

The move comes amid a broader push for corporate governance reform in Japan. Policymakers and regulators have been encouraging companies to improve capital efficiency, while investors increasingly demand justifications for maintaining sprawling non-core businesses.

Elliotts position in Kansai Electric follows its successful engagement with Tokyo Gas. After building a more than 5% stake last year, the fund persuaded the energy giant to implement a mid-term plan featuring 120 billion in buybacks, a dividend hike, and 100 billion in property sales. Tokyo Gas shares have since outperformed the broader Topix, rising nearly 50%.

Targeting Kansai Electric represents a step into more politically charged territory. Utilities  especially those operating nuclear plants  have traditionally been resistant to activist pressure. Memories of failed campaigns linger, including the UK-based Childrens Investment Funds abandoned 2008 effort to overhaul J-Power after facing stiff opposition from management, shareholders, and government officials.

Kansai Electric operates more nuclear reactors than any other Japanese utility and is even weighing the construction of a new unit. Activists have generally steered clear of the sector since the Fukushima disaster in 2011, which reshaped Japans energy policy and heightened sensitivities around nuclear power.

Nonetheless, Elliott believes Kansai Electric could further enhance profitability by optimizing pricing for corporate customers and leveraging low-cost nuclear power to attract industrial investment to the Kansai region, which includes Osaka and Kyoto.

Kansai Electric has not commented directly on Elliotts stake. A spokesperson told the Japan Times the company would continue to sincerely communicate with shareholders. Elliott declined to comment.

Whether the activist fund can replicate its Tokyo Gas playbook remains to be seen. Kansais shares had fallen 13% over the past year before the recent rally, including a steep 20% drop in November following an equity issuance. With Elliott now in the picture, investors will be watching closely to see if Japans governance reforms and Kansais vast property holdings create the conditions for another activist-driven turnaround.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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U.S. President Donald Trump has called on the EU to impose tariffs of up to 100% on China and India over their imports of Russian oil in an attempt to force Russias President Vladimir Putin to sit down for genuine peace talks for Ukraine.

President Trump told EU diplomats when he dialed into a meeting in Washington on Tuesday that the U.S. is willing to impose massive tariffs on India and China, but only if the EU agrees to do the same, the Financial Times reported, citing officials with knowledge of the matter.

Were ready to go, ready to go right now, but were only going to do this if our European partners step up with us, a U.S. official told FT.

President Trump and the White House appear to be increasingly frustrated with Putins lack of any engagement on peace despite the lapse of a U.S. deadline, and with the increasingly aggressive Russian attacks on Ukraine.

The idea of the massive tariffs on China and India would be to force them to stop buying Russian oil, according to U.S. officials.

However, the EU could face challenges in agreeing unanimously on such tariffs. First, thats not the typical EU policy and second, some EU member states such as Hungary and Slovakia have opposed sanctions on Russian energy unless they obtain some concessions or guarantees.

The EU is weighing options to impose fresh sanctions on Russias oil industry and exports by sanctioning major energy firms and erecting more barriers to Russian oil trade, sources with knowledge of the plans told Bloomberg earlier this week.

EU officials are discussing this week in Washington potential coordinated joint EU-U.S. sanctions on Russia to force Putin to negotiations on peace in Ukraine, according to Bloombergs sources.

On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, told NBC News the United States is open to partnering with Europe to impose more sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil to try to collapse the Russian economy.

We are prepared to increase pressure on Russia, but we need our European partners to follow us, Bessent said on NBC News Meet the Press.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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This an open letter to President Donald Trump. I write this with a huge sense of irony but also with sincerity as a teachable moment. Mr. Trump had commanded center stage as he seeks to pull back Americas great cities from the brink of economic ruin and virtual anarchism. For nearly three decades the far left wing of the Democrat part  the progressives  have dominated Democrat politics and by virtue of that Oregon government. It makes no difference that progressives policies have virtually destroyed Portland and left it a burning pest hole littered with bums, alcoholics, drug addicts, mental cases and dangerous psychopaths. The fact of the matter is that the progressives continue to increase their dominance through elections  albeit, with the single most corruptible electoral process (mandatory vote-by-mail) in the United States.

The point here is that it is apparent that the voters in the three county area surrounding Portland either desire, or dont care about, dysfunctional and costly government. They dont seem to care that the core of their city continues to be subject to yet another onslaught now in its second month which sees regular riots complete with arson, looting, property destruction, physical altercations and attacks on law enforcement. And they seem to wear as a badge of honor the almost daily ridicule from politicians and news media of the failings of the barely able running state and local government.

The point here is that it is that Portland represents very essence of what is wrong with the progressive philosophy in general and socialism in particular. It is seductive to those who do not believe that they can succeed and therefore they choose not to try. It reminds me of a relative who as a young man returned from Cuba extolling the virtues of a life of equality. He proclaimed that everyone existed equally  they had identical apartments, identical furniture, identical food and provisions. It made no difference whether your worked hard or not at all  everything was equal. Equal but on the edge of deprivation. I asked him whether he thought equality was better than opportunity. He answered equality even though it meant living without hope of ever getting better.

The newly risen savior of socialism/communism, Zohran Mamdani, when asked about the failures of socialist/communist governments noted that for every failure of a socialist/communist state, there were others that dream of yet another opportunity to try. Not that there were successful examples only that more nut jobs out there yearning to try it themselves using your money.

Okay, so back to the point of this article. In order for this to be a teachable moment on the failures of socialism/communism, there must be a demonstrable and ongoing observable trial  in this case Portland, or better yet Multnomah County. However, to understand the trues essence of the success or failure, the subject  Portland  must be freed from much of the economic control that comes with paying and receiving federal revenues. So in order to provide a real measurement of the effects of socialism/communism, all current tax revenues garnered from federal tax rules and regulations should be determined and bundled into a single package and returned to the Oregon state legislature in the form of a block grant. No other federal aid or payments would be forthcoming to Oregon  including those for health, education, public safety or transportation. Oregon would be on its own to determine how to spend that money and what additional monies needed to be raised for other public purposes. Oregon would sill be subject to the decisions of the federal government when it came to international trade and relationships. The essence of the proposal is to give Oregon as much freedom as possible without endangering the remainder of the country. In exchange the rest of the country will not have to fund any part of the Oregon government.

In order to provide residents and businesses of Oregon a chance to make their own choices, a notice period of one year would be required before implementation. That same notice period would apply to all of the free loaders, bums, alcoholics, drug addicts, mental cases, dangerous psychopaths and illegal immigrants wishing to embrace the Oregon experience the opportunity to move there  unfortunately it will be at their own expense. There is no duration to the experiment. Success or failure will be self-evident.

The importance of the experiment is to demonstrate once and for all the ability of socialism/communism to survive outside of a totalitarian regime.

Its never going to come to pass because outside of those who yearn for a system where they are not held accountable for their actions or lack of actions, there is less than zero chance of success.

So President Trump, leave Portland alone and lets see what they can do and how quickly they will fail.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

An artist's representation of the spin current generated in yttrium iron by the spin Seebeck effect and probed with resonant inelastic X-ray scattering at the Soft Inelastic X-ray Scattering (SIX) beamline at the National Synchrotron Light Source II. Credit: Valerie A. Lentz/Brookhaven National Laboratory

Spintronics is an emerging field that leverages the spin, or the intrinsic angular momentum, of electrons. By harnessing this quantum-relativistic property, researchers aim to develop devices that store and transmit information faster, more efficiently, and at higher data densities, potentially making devices much smaller than what is possible today. These advances could drive next-generation memory, sensors, and even quantum technologies.

A key step toward this future is the control of "spin currents," the flow of angular momentum through a material without an accompanying electrical charge current. However, spin currents have proven notoriously difficult to measure directlyuntil now.

In a new study, a research team led by scientists at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II)a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility at DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratoryused a technique called resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) to detect a current formed by the flow of magnons, quantized spin-wave excitations in a material's magnetic structure.

By applying a temperature gradient across a magnetic insulator, where heat moves from hot to cold, a spin current was induced by magnon transport, and these spin excitations were observed as they propagated under non-equilibrium conditions. Using this novel technique, the team can delve deeper into key transport properties, like how long magnons last before they scatter. These results were published today in Nature.

Measuring in uncharted territory

Spin currents have been studied for decades; however, this has primarily been through macroscopic techniques that only offer indirect insights. To detect a magnon spin current, scientists typically convert it into an electrical signal, a process that involves multiple interfaces and conversion steps, obscuring direct spin information.

"Those steps can be modeled, but not perfectly," explained Valentina Bisogni, lead beamline scientist for the Soft Inelastic X-ray Scattering (SIX) beamline and lead author on this research. "There are many unknowns and assumptions that can't be fully verified in this process. While these methods lay solid groundwork to prove the existence of spin currents, trying to derive accurate microscopic models from such indirect probes has been challenging."

"Our goal was to reveal the magnons involved in spin currents," said Yanhong Gu, former postdoctoral fellow in Bisogni's group. "These are not moving spins, but moving angular momenta forming a spin wave, while the electron charges remain still."

Conventional methods, like X-ray magnetic circular dichroism, offered some spin sensitivity, but not to the momentum distribution of the excitations within the spin current. "Magnons carry both energy and momentum. Identifying which magnon modes contribute to the current is essential for constructing a detailed, microscopic understanding," said Gu.

"It's a bit like looking at the ocean here on Long Island," said Johnny Pelliciari, a beamline scientist at SIX and a co-author on this research. "You can see the waves, but that doesn't mean you understand what water is made of. It's made up of countless tiny particles working together.

"Similarly, in magnon spin transport, you can detect the overall current, or the conversion process, but that doesn't necessarily mean you understand the underlying mechanisms: the energy and momentum of the fundamental magnetic excitations, like magnons, that give rise to it."

One of the critical parameters in this study is the magnon relaxation time. If the excitation decays too quickly, effective transport cannot occur due to dissipation. Many of these parameters are currently estimated, not measured, which motivated Bisogni and her team to pursue a more precise method for probing and characterizing spin currents using RIXS.

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If the right tool doesn't exist, build it

A challenge the team was tasked with was developing an experimental setup to combine RIXS measurements with transport measurements. They created a device that produces magnon spin current using the spin-Seebeck effect, a phenomenon that generates spin conductivity through a temperature gradient, within the sample environment of the SIX experimental endstation.

The sample chosen for this experiment was yttrium iron garnet (YIG), an electrically insulating ferrimagnet and one of the most promising materials for spintronic applications. Integrating the magnon spin current device into the endstation chamber presented another challenge, but persistence and innovation led the team to design exactly what they needed.

When the scientists applied a temperature difference across their sample, the magnons started moving, creating a spin current. RIXS proved sensitive enough to detect even very small imbalances in the magnon intensity, reflecting the underlying changes in magnon distributions. The team was able to observe which specific excitations were carrying the spin current and at what momentum, offering a true microscopic picture.

Using a mathematical model called the Boltzmann equation, the team was also able to calculate how long the magnons lasted and how they moved, important details for developing magnon-based spintronic devices in the future. This collaboration didn't just assemble a novel experimental device, though; it brought together the expertise of several key players in a very niche field.

For theoretical support, the team collaborated with Gerrit Bauer, a professor and principal investigator at the Advanced Institute for Materials Research at Tohoku University, and Joseph Barker from the University of Leeds. Bauer, a leading voice in the field, challenged some of the team's initial ideas, which only strengthened the team's resolve.

"Many doubted that RIXS would ever turn out a useful spectroscopic method, but the development of powerful X-ray sources and high-resolution detectors proved the philistines wrong," said a spirited Bauer. "The present results provide only a glimpse, be it a spectacular one, into the potential of the method to image non-equilibrium bosonic distribution functions in reciprocal space. You haven't seen anything yet!"

"It was amazing to see something that we have relied on as a theoretical concept for so long be measured directly," added Barker.

This research not only brought together researchers from across the country and the world but it also benefited from nearby collaboration with the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, a DOE Office of Science user facility at Brookhaven Lab. Technical associate Kim Kisslinger and scientist Fernando Camino were instrumental in preparing and supporting the device and sample used for this work alongside Takashi Kikkawa of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Eiji Saitoh of the University of Tokyo, and Dmitri Basov of Columbia University.

From an ambitious proposal to an exciting future

The result of this experiment reflects a key goal of Bisogni's DOE Early Career Research proposal: using RIXS to access non-equilibrium phenomena, ultimately guiding the path towards the next generation of electronics. Observing a magnon spin current is just the beginning.

"We can now detect changes in the excitation spectral weight as we drive a material out of equilibrium," said Bisogni. "That opens many other research directions, including other forms of non-conventional, charge-less transport, like phonons, orbitals, or plasmons, which hold promise of being faster and resilient to magnetic fields."

The group at the SIX beamline also developed a novel sample environment that replicates the working conditions of electrical devices called "Opera." This system came together thanks to the hard work and insight of Daniel Bacescu, a Mechanical Engineer at NSLS-II who helped engineer Opera.

An immediate follow-up is to replicate the results at various momenta and in thin films to compare with bulk crystals. In the longer term, they intend to use RIXS to study other forms of unconventional transport. They hope to find applications in systems like graphene and magnetic van der Waals materials.

More information: Valentina Bisogni, Observing differential spin currents by resonant inelastic X-ray scattering, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09488-9. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09488-9 Journal information: Nature
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Dr Heloise Stevance and Professor Stephen Smartt with the Asteroid Terrestrial Impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), in the Astrophysics Data Lab, University of Oxford. Credit: Caroline Wood.

A new AI-powered tool has reduced astronomers' workload by 85%filtering through thousands of data alerts to identify the few genuine signals caused by supernovae (powerful explosions from dying stars). The findings are published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Lead researcher Dr. Heloise Stevance, from the Department of Physics, University of Oxford, said, "The surprising thing is how little data it took. With just 15,000 examples and the computing power of my laptop, I could train smart algorithms to do the heavy lifting and automate what used to take human beings hours to do each day. This demonstrates that with expert guidance, AI can transform astronomical discovery without requiring enormous data sets or computational power."

Finding the needles in a cosmic haystack

Supernovae are rare, bright explosions marking the death of massive stars. They are events that help scientists understand the origin of chemical elements. These explosions appear unexpectedly across the night sky and must be spotted quickly before they fadeessentially a cosmic game of spot the difference.

A team of researchers led by Oxford University and Queen's University Belfast search for these using the Asteroid Terrestrial Impact Last Alert System (ATLAS). This system, originally built as an asteroid impact early warning system, scans the entire visible sky every 24 to 48 hours using five telescopes located around the globe. It is a project led by the University of Hawaii, and Oxford processes the data for high explosions beyond our galaxy. The search yields millions of potential alerts nightly, most of which are noise (either instrumental errors or known objects).

Even after applying standard filtering and automated image analysis techniques, the researchers were left with between 200 and 400 candidate signals each day that needed to be manually sifted through. Only a handful of these would be genuinely interesting phenomena such as supernovae or extragalactic transients (the optical counterparts to gamma ray bursts).

"This manual verification would take several hours each day," added Dr. Stevance. "Thanks to our new tool, we can free up scientists' time for what they do bestcreative problem solving and questioning the nature of our universe. It's the astrophysical equivalent of having a bot doing your laundry so you can focus on your art!"

The new tool, called the Virtual Research Assistant (VRA), is a collection of automated bots that mimics the human decision-making process by ranking alerts based on their likelihood of being real, extragalactic explosions. Unlike many AI-automated approaches that require vast training data and supercomputers, the VRA uses a leaner approach.

Instead of data-hungry deep learning methods, the system uses smaller algorithms based on decision trees that looks for patterns in selected aspects of the data. This allows scientists to inject their expertise directly into the model and guide the algorithms to key features to look for.

Crucially, the VRA updates its assessment each time a telescope revisits the same patch of sky. This means a signal is automatically re-checked and re-scored over several nights, with only the most promising candidates passed on to human astronomers to review.

In its first year of use, the VRA successfully filtered more than 30,000 alerts while missing fewer than 0.08% of real supernovae alerts. This ultimately reduced the number of alerts passed on to human "eyeballers" to verify by about 85%, while retaining more than 99.9% of genuine supernovae candidates.

Since December 2024, the VRA has been linked with the South African Lesedi Telescope so that it can automatically trigger follow-up observations for the most promising signals, even before a human has reviewed the data. This has already resulted in new supernovae being confirmed.

Study co-author Professor Stephen Smartt (Department of Physics, University of Oxford) said, "The speed and accuracy of this tool will supercharge our team's ability to find and study strange and rare phenomena in the cosmosfor instance, explosions from dying stars in distant galaxies, that can teach us how the chemical elements are created and how fast the universe is expanding.

"We will also be able to more efficiently match optical sources to emissions in the gamma ray, X-ray and radio frequencies and possibly gravitational waves. The speed and accuracy of the models are impressive."

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The future is bright

This achievement comes just in time, with the upcoming launch of the Vera Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) in early 2026. Over 10 years, this will survey the entire southern hemisphere sky every few days, ultimately generating more than 500 petabytes of images and data.

"The LSST is set to deliver more than 10 million alerts each night, finding everything from moving asteroids, supernovae, matter falling onto black holes, merging neutron stars and probably new phenomena as well. Our job as astronomers will be to keep up with this avalanche of data," added Dr. Stevance.

"Tools like our new Virtual Research Assistant will be invaluable in helping us to better understand how supernovae and their massive stars made all the chemical elements necessary for the world as we know itfrom hydrogen to apple pies."

Dr. Stevance is currently building Virtual Research Assistants for the U.K. and European LSST data brokers (Lasair, Fink) with her ambition being to use the LSST data to build bots that can pre-emptively hunt for supernovae by predicting when and where they will explode.

Dr. Stevance added, "In astronomy new knowledge is extracted from data, and LSST will be revolutionary: in its first year alone, it will capture more data than every survey ever. I feel so privileged to live and work at such a historic moment."

More information: The ATLAS Virtual Research Assistant, The Astrophysical Journal (2025). DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/adf2a1 Journal information: Astrophysical Journal
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Scientists say extreme wildfires have become larger, more frequent and more intense as Earth's climate has warmed in recent decades.

Canada's record-breaking 2023 wildfires exposed more than 350 million people in North America and Europe to air pollution that likely contributed to tens of thousands of deaths, according to new estimates published Wednesday.

The findings "underscored that severe wildfires do not have only local consequences" but can inflict real harm a continent away, said the scientists behind the world-first research.

Extreme fire conditions, supercharged by climate change, fanned thousands of blazes across Canada between May and September 2023 that torched around 18 million hectares (44 million acres)an area larger than England.

The five-month wildfires were unprecedented in size and scale, releasing massive plumes of acrid smoke that turned skies yellow and triggered health warnings across North America.

But the smoke drifted as far as Europe, causing spikes in harmful PM2.5 pollutants and a measurable decline in air quality thousands of miles from the heat and flames in Canada.

In North America and Europe, an estimated 354 million people were exposed to levels of PM2.5 above the World Health Organization's (WHO) safe limit, concluded a new study into the long-range impact of the wildfires, published in the journal Nature.

This contributed to nearly 70,000 premature deaths on both continentsmost from breathing polluted air over months and a smaller number from acute exposure to wildfire smoke.

The findings were "striking" and surprised even the research team behind them, said Qiang Zhang, a professor of atmospheric chemistry at Tsinghua University in Beijing who led the study.

"While we anticipated large impacts from the record-breaking 2023 Canadian fires, the magnitude of the population exposure and related attributable mortalities are higher than expected," he told AFP.

"These results underscore that such extreme wildfires are no longer just a regional environmental issue and they have become a global public health concern."

PM2.5 pollutants are fine, airborne particles small enough to enter the bloodstream through the lungs, and are linked to higher rates of chronic bronchitis, lung cancer and heart disease.

Widespread

The team separated acute and chronic premature deaths due to PM2.5 exposure because they represented two very different types of health impacts from wildfire smoke exposure, Qiang Zhang said.

Acute deaths, he said, captured the short-term health impacts during "smoke days" when daily PM2.5 levels spiked "well above" WHO guidelines and could immediately trigger fatal events, such as heart attacks or respiratory failures.

Some 4,100 acute deaths were estimated in the United States, downwind from the wildfires, and another 1,300 in Canada itself.

Chronic deaths reflected the health burden of longer-term exposure, which increases the risks of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and leads to premature death over time.

The study found that chronic health impacts from five months of breathing wildfire smoke were "substantial and widespread," with 41,900 deaths estimated in North America and 22,400 in Europe.

Such estimates were a first, Qiang Zhang said.

But that created limitations for researchers who lacked earlier references on the specific impact of wildfires on health, he said, forcing them to use broader evidence to base their estimates on.

The computer model they built, using satellite observations and machine learning, also could not account for the health impact of various pollutants in wildfire smoke, he added.

The authors said more research into this "underexplored" cost would be crucial as climate change made wildfires bigger, fiercer and more frequent.

More information: Qiang Zhang et al, Long-range PM2.5 pollution and health impacts from the 2023 Canadian wildfires, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09482-1 Journal information: Nature

 2025 AFP
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Typical stick-tip trajectories during an early and late training session. The crow cant reach the food reward without the stick-tool. Credit: University of Tubingen

Animal training can teach carrion crows to use a stick tool to retrieve food. With increasing practice, they not only demonstrate great skill and achieve their objective in a few steps, they also respond flexibly to varying conditions in the experiment. These were the findings from behavioral experiments with tame birds by Dr. Felix Moll, Julius Wurzler and Professor Andreas Nieder from the Institute for Neurobiology at the University of Tubingen.

Carrion crows do not habitually use tools in the wild. However, the researchers surmise that only modest evolutionary changes would suffice to turn them into habitual tool users, even without special training. Their study has been published in Current Biology.

"Tool use is very rare in the animal kingdom but relatively common in dexterous generalists such as primates, parrots and corvids," reports Moll. Only 2 of the roughly 40 species of crows use tools regularly: the New Caledonian crow and the Hawaiian crow. Crows are songbirds with exceptionally large brains and complex behaviors. The inherited motivation of New Caledonian crows to use objects as tools has fascinated researchers for a long time, he says.

"The motor-cognitive skills underlying this behavior, such as the level of cause-and-effect understanding and the precise but flexible motor control, have not yet been studied in depth." The research team wanted to investigate whether another species of crow can in principle grasp the use of tools just as welland how learning shapes the necessary skills.

High demands

For the study, the researchers first trained three carrion crows to pick up a stick in their beak. In the next step, the crows learned by trial and error to retrieve food pellets from a transparent Plexiglas box using a stick; they could not reach the pellets with their beak alone. Also, if the pellet was guided out too quickly, it could fall off the setup table, out of reach of the bird. The birds' training sessions were documented by recording the movements of the tip of the stick.

"The crows first picked the stick from a holder and adjusted it until they were grasping the stick such that it was precisely aligned with their beak, then they used it to guide the pellet within reach. During pellet manipulation, they closely observed how the stick-tip affected the pellet to correct any mistakes immediately," said Moll, explaining the actions of the trained carrion crows. They only ate the food once they had returned the stick to the holder.

Tool orientation. Credit: Current Biology (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2025.08.033

The recordings of early training sessions show how the birds start with broad, lunging movements of the stick which often only shoved the food pellet back and forth, requiring many attempts until they could reach it. "By comparison, recordings of later training sessions show extremely precise movement patterns. The movements of the stick vary little in the standard situations; the crows determinedly guide the food pellet to one side of the box and fish it out," reports Wurzler. At the same time, the birds are completely flexible if, for example, they drop the stick.

"Animal tool use is supported by a number of enabling factors: motivation, conceptual knowledge and advanced cognitive skills, as well as fine motor control," remarks Nieder. The carrion crows already met many of these requirements, and were able in the experiment to select effective strategies from a broad range of movements and deploy the tool as an extension of their body.

"If woodpeckers didn't alreadywith their highly-specialized long tonguesfish beetle larvae out of their burrows in dead wood, this nutritious source of protein might one day be exploited by carrion crows using tools," Moll adds.
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

The sun-drenched paradise of Thailand's Phi Phi islands isn't the usual starting point for a Ph.D. But for Sarah Sajedi, those soft, sandy beachesor rather, what she found under theminspired her pivot from a business career to an academic one.

"I was standing there looking out at this gorgeous view of the Andaman Sea, and then I looked down and beneath my feet were all these pieces of plastic, most of them water bottles," she says.

"I've always had a passion for waste reduction, but I realized that this was a problem with consumption."

Sajedi, BSc '91, decided to return to Concordia to pursue a Ph.D. with a focus on plastic waste. As the co-founder of ERA Environmental Management Solutions, a leading provider of environmental, health and safety software, she brought decades of experience to complement her studies.

Her latest paper, published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, looks at the science around the health risks posed by single-use plastic water bottles. They are serious, she says, and seriously understudied.

Sarah Sajedi and Chunjiang An. Credit: Concordia University

Tiny threats, little known

In her review of over 140 scientific articles, Sajedi writes that individuals on average ingest between 39,000 and 52,000 microplastic particles per year, and bottled water users consume 90,000 more particles than tap water consumers.

The particles are usually invisible to the naked eye. A microplastic particle can range between one microna thousandth of a millimeterto five millimeters; nanoplastics are smaller than one micron.

They emerge as bottles are made, stored, transported and broken down over their lifespans. Because they are often made from low-quality plastic, they shed tiny pieces every time they are manipulated and exposed to sunlight and temperature fluctuations. And unlike other types of plastic particles, which enter human bodies through the food chain, these are ingested directly from the source.

As Sajedi notes, the health consequences can be severe. Once inside the body, these small plastics can cross biological boundaries, enter the bloodstream and reach vital organs. This can lead to chronic inflammation, oxidative stress on cells, hormonal disruption, impaired reproduction, neurological damage and various kinds of cancer. However, the long-term effects remain poorly understood due to a lack of widespread testing and standardized methods of measurement and detection.

Sajedi identifies multiple methods researchers have used to measure nano- and microplastics, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Some, for instance, can detect very small particles but cannot identify their chemical composition. Others can provide details about their makeup but miss the smallest plastics. And the best, most advanced and most reliable tools are often extremely costly and not always available.

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Education is the best prevention

Sajedi is encouraged by the legislative action that has been adopted by governments around the world aimed at limiting plastic waste. However, she notes that the most common targets are single-use plastic bags, straws and packaging. Very few address the pressing issue of single-use water bottles.

"Education is the most important action we can take," she says. "Drinking water from plastic bottles is fine in an emergency but it is not something that should be used in daily life. People need to understand that the issue is not acute toxicityit is chronic toxicity."

Chunjiang An, associate professor, and Zhi Chen, professor, in the Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science contributed to this paper.

More information: Sarah Sajedi et al, Unveiling the hidden chronic health risks of nano- and microplastics in single-use plastic water bottles: A review, Journal of Hazardous Materials (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2025.138948 Journal information: Journal of Hazardous Materials
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A silky shark (Carcharhinus falciformis). Silky sharks are among the most common straddling stocks in the world  that is, a number of the species subpopulations straddle the borders of countries exclusive economic zones and international waters. Credit: Francois Baelen/Ocean Image Bank.

Fish and other marine organisms, though deeply affected by human activities, don't respect human borders. The ranges of many commercially important species in fact straddle the borders of countries' exclusive economic zones (EEZs) and international waters, known as the high seas. This arrangement, which makes fisheries management difficult, is set to get even more complicated as climate change continues to heat up the ocean, a new study says.

The study, published July 30 in the journal Science Advances, found that more than half of the world's straddling stocks will shift across the maritime borders between EEZs and the high seas by 2050. Most of these shifts will be into the high seas, where fisheries management is much more challenging and stocks are more likely to be overexploited.

"It's an important issue and an important paper that I think should make anyone concerned about fisheries or the seafood on their plate sit up and pay attention," Malin Pinsky, an associate professor of biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who wasn't involved with the study, told Mongabay.

"The shift towards the high seas that they document would have some really serious consequences, in part because fisheries management tends to be much less effective in the high seas," added Pinsky, an expert on climate-driven fisheries distribution shifts. "Climate change is sending a whole bunch of fisheries out into the lion's den because the high seas doesn't have a great reputation for sustainable fisheries management."

Among the most serious potential consequences is a loss of fisheries resources for many tropical countries that did little to create the climate crisis, Pinsky and other experts said.

Significant shifts

The new study deals with projections, but there's already empirical evidence that these types of shifts are taking place. A 2016 study in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science found that marine species were generally shifting to higher latitudes and deeper waters, among other responses to climate change.

Projections of distribution shifts of straddling fish stocks also aren't entirely new. A 2021 study in the journal Nature Sustainability found that in the southwest Pacific Ocean, where tuna are an economic lifeline, three key populations are likely to shift toward the high seas by 2050 and away from the EEZs of a set of small island developing states (SIDS) including the Solomon Islands and Kiribati. (EEZs generally extend 200 nautical miles [370 kilometers or 230 miles] from a country's coastline.)

The Science Advances study is, however, the first to assess climate-driven distribution changes of straddling stocks across the world. The authors, from the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada and other institutions, identified 347 commercially important straddling stocks worldwide, encompassing 67 species. (Many species have distinct subpopulations that generally don't interbreed.) Silky sharks (Carcharhinus falciformis), blue sharks (Prionace glauca), skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis) and yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) are among the most common straddling stocks.

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To determine which stocks would shift, they used a modeling system that was established in the late 2000s by a team that included William Cheung, a UBC professor and co-author of this study. The model accounts for factors such as water temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen.

Using the model, the authors found that more than one-third of the 347 stocks would shift into the high seas by 2050, while at least one-fifth would shift into EEZs. A shift, measured against a 19512014 baseline period, wouldn't necessarily mean that all fish in a population had crossed into or out of the high seas. Some fish would still remain in the original domain and perhaps continue crossing borders. But it would mean a statistically significant change in the relative share of the overall mass of fish.

The authors ran the model under a low greenhouse gas emissions scenario roughly consistent with keeping warming under 2Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) and also under a high-emissions scenario; the model found only slightly more shifting under the high-emissions scenario, perhaps because oceanic changes up until 2050 would be "very similar" either way, the study says.

Juliano Palacios-Abrantes, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries at the University of British Columbia and lead author of the study, said its aim was to encourage fisheries managers to do more detailed analyses of their stocks.

"It could actually be that [a given] shift is even more pronounced in the region, or it could be that it's not," he told Mongabay, calling for localized and specialized research to supplement the study's findings.

Palacios-Abrantes and co-authors cautioned that data collection for many species has long been weak, making firm conclusions difficult. Pinsky echoed this, saying that while there's decent catch data for highly valuable fish like tropical tuna species, the paucity of good data for other species generally makes analysis difficult. Independent survey data are especially rare in many regions.

"It's hard to get ready for the future when you don't know what's happening now," Pinsky said.

Still, Pinsky said, the model used by the authors is a "great way to start as a broad brush."

A school of barracuda in the Solomon Islands, a small island developing state in the Pacific Ocean. Image courtesy of Tracey Jennings/Ocean Image Bank.

Pinsky said empirical work on how much shifting is already taking place should be possible for some stocks, though he warned that catch and location data are sometimes closely guarded, creating impediments to such research.

Study co-author Rashid Sumaila, a UBC professor and co-winner of the 2023 Tyler Prize for the Environment, which has been likened to a Nobel Prize, has long called for a ban on high seas fishing. He said he believes the study's findings show why such a ban is necessary.

"This projected redistribution strengthens the case for a ban: The high seas could serve as a biodiversity refuge for migrating species, prevent inequitable capture of displaced resources by wealthy distant-water fleets, and avert a carbon-intensive escalation of long-distance fishing," Sumaila told Mongabay in an email.

Compounding injustices?

Tropical countries, many of which are low- or middle-income, have done relatively little to contribute to climate change but are especially vulnerable to its impacts. The study suggests that when it comes to fisheries, there may be an added layer of injustice: Straddling stocks are projected to generally move away from tropical EEZs and into international waters. In those cases when commercial stocks do shift into EEZs, it will primarily be in temperate waters, not the tropics, the study says.

Without governance mechanisms to protect their interests, tropical countries could find it harder to catch fish or gain revenue from their fishing rights.

"Coastal nations in the tropics don't really have the resources to go to the high seas," Palacios-Abrantes said.

Palacios-Abrantes cited Pacific SIDS as a "very concerning" example, given that many rely on fisheries revenues. Eight of them have formed a bloc that collectively sells access to tuna fisheries within their EEZs and shares revenuesa successful arrangement that's often been suggested as a model for other coastal nations. These are the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu; Tokelau, a New Zealand territory, also participates.

In the central Indo-Pacific region, which encompasses these SIDS, 58% of straddling stocks are projected to move into the high seas, while no stocks are projected to move into EEZs, the study says.

"These shifting stocks include important highly migratory species such as skipjack, yellowfin, and bluefin tuna (Thunnus obesus), as well as nonhighly migratory straddling species such as Japanese flying squid (Todarodes pacificus) and chub mackerel (Scomber japonicus)," the authors write.

Johann Bell, a senior director at the Conservation International Green Climate Fund Agency and lead author of the 2021 Nature Sustainability study on the redistribution of tropical tuna in the region, said the study underscores the need for stronger international management. There are two multilateral bodiesregional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs), as they're calledthat manage tuna and tuna-like stocks in the Pacific high seas: the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) and the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), which covers the eastern Pacific.

Bell told Mongabay in an email that the Science Advances study supports the idea that the two RFMOs "need to collaborate more closely to fulfill their conservation and management responsibilities under international law by commissioning further scientific research to develop climate-informed stock assessments and harvest strategies for shared tuna resources."

Bell pointed to two related studies that he's co-authored: a 2022 study in Frontiers in Marine Science that analyzes the role of the WCPFC and the IATTC in dealing with tuna stock redistribution and a new, broader study published this month in Fish and Fisheries that lays out the types of research that RFMOs should undertake to understand the effects of climate change on fish stocks.

"The results of this research will inform adaptations needed to enable Pacific Island tuna-dependent economies to retain the benefits they now receive from tuna, regardless of the redistribution of the fish," Bell said.

Ryan Orgera, global director of Accountability.Fish, a U.S.-based advocacy group, said that "RFMO governance is largely stuck in the 20th century" and change is "regrettably slow," but that it is important to adapt to shifting stocks.

"Most RFMOs, especially WCPFC, understand this and are trying to operationalize these concepts into their processes," Orgera told Mongabay in an email regarding the Science Advances study.

"[C]limate change can be an opening to retool RFMOs to manage and bridge the shifting sands we're standing on," he added.

Provided by Mongabay
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

The notorious pathogen that caused the Irish Potato Famine in the 1840s is still a major threat to potato and tomato crops worldwide. This oomycete water mold, Phytophthora infestans, can devastate entire fields, posing a constant threat to global food security. For decades, farmers have relied on fungicides like mefenoxam to manage the disease. But P. infestans is a cunning adversary.

Scientists have discovered that even strains considered sensitive to mefenoxam can rapidly develop resistance after a single exposure to a low dose of the chemical. Now, researchers at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) and Universidad de los Andes have uncovered the dynamics of this defense mechanism, revealing a foe that is far more adaptable than previously thought.

"We usually think of resistance as a genetic change that happens over generations," says Silvia Restrepo, co-lead author of the study and president of BTI. "What we're seeing here is different. It's a temporary survival strategy, a kind of biological toggle switch that the pathogen can activate in the face of a threat and deactivate when the danger passes."

To understand how this switch works, the researchers conducted a series of elegant experiments, as reported in Plant Disease. They took sensitive strains of P. infestans and exposed them to a low dose of mefenoxam. As suspected, this single encounter was enough to "flip the switch," allowing the pathogen to survive and grow even when later moved to a dish with a very high, normally lethal, concentration of the fungicide.

Once the resistance was activated, it was robust. Repeatedly exposing the newly resistant pathogen to high levels of the fungicide didn't make it any stronger or weaker; the switch was simply "on." However, the researchers noted a crucial detail: while the pathogen could now grow in the presence of the fungicide, it didn't gain a reproductive advantage. It wasn't making significantly more spores (the tiny structures it uses to spread). It was surviving, not thriving.

The most remarkable discovery came when the researchers moved the resistant pathogen to a clean, fungicide-free environment. After just one transfer away from the chemical threat, it lost its resistance and became sensitive again. The switch had flipped "off." A subsequent low-dose exposure was all it took to re-activate the resistance, confirming that P. infestans possesses an incredibly flexible defense mechanism.

Such rapid, reversible behavior points away from slow genetic mutation and towards a more dynamic process known as an epigenetic change. Co-first author and BTI scientist Juliana Gonzalez-Tobon explains, "Think of genetics as the permanent text in a cookbook, while epigenetics are like sticky notes you add or remove from the recipes. Rather than rewriting its DNA, the pathogen uses temporary 'notes' to quickly change its behavior in response to its environment."

The pathogen employs a defense mechanism known as pleiotropic drug resistance (PDR), which activates cellular pumps to eject the fungicide. However, this process requires significant energy, which likely explains why the pathogen readily abandons the resistance once it's no longer necessary.

This research sheds new light on the survival tactics of one of history's most devastating plant pathogens. The finding that resistance doesn't boost reproduction is good news for farmers, but the pathogen's ability to temporarily "hide" from fungicides complicates disease management.

By unraveling the secrets of the pathogen's survival mechanisms, BTI scientists are paving the way for innovative disease management strategies, helping to protect our vital food crops and advance a more sustainable agricultural future.

More information: Melissa Regnier et al, Mefenoxam sensitive isolates of Phytophthora infestans can quickly acquire and lose resistance to this fungicide, Plant Disease (2025). DOI: 10.1094/PDIS-05-25-1110-RE
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Comparison of the ANME-2 samples investigated in this study and the procedure of protein isolation by native purification and crystallization. Credit: Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-63387-1

Research by microbiologists Martijn Wissink and Cornelia Welte of Radboud University, among others, is helping us understand how microorganisms regulate the methane balance. The scientists have demonstrated how a methane-converting enzyme (MCR) works in detail. Their paper is published in the journal Nature Communications.

We want to keep methane out of our atmosphere as much as possible: it is a powerful greenhouse gas, more than 25 times stronger than carbon dioxide. To limit methane emissions, the researchers looked at the MCR enzyme, which can determine whether methane is released into the air or recycled into carbon dioxide in microorganisms.

Not much was known about the specific microorganisms studied in this research (ANME), because they are difficult to cultivate in the laboratory. Until now, only one MCR structure had been studied, originating from a microbial mat collected in the Black Sea.

"Since both methane-consuming (ANME) and methane-producing microorganisms (methanogens) depend on MCRs, we wondered whether they function in the same way in both directions of the methane cycle," says project leader Tristan Wagner of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen.

"To understand the differences between the MCRs of ANMEs and methanogens, we needed an image of the enzyme." Researchers from Radboud University supplied the MCRs from two different freshwater samples.

In these enrichments, researchers from Radboud University and the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid analyzed the microbial communities, which revealed the presence of MCRs.

Subsequent analysis showed that MCRs from both freshwater and saltwater ANME were very similar to the MCRs in methanogens, despite their metabolic differences. "The MCR enzyme is involved in both methane production and methane consumption, only working in the opposite direction," explains Welte of Radboud University.

This study underlines the importance of understanding enzymes in their natural context. "By knowing exactly how this works, we can understand the natural methane filter better," concludes Welte. "If we understand that methane filter better, we can use it in the future to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the waste sector, for example."

More information: Marie-C. Muller et al, Atomic resolution structures of the methane-activating enzyme in anaerobic methanotrophy reveal extensive post-translational modifications, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-63387-1 Journal information: Nature Communications
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Considerations related to environmental justice have risen to the forefront of policy discussions over the location of long-term infrastructure like power plants. These discussions have centered on ensuring equitable siting of planned infrastructure, but rarely account for its consequences over the long run.

In a recent study, researchers examined the relative contributions of siting decisions (i.e., where to locate infrastructure projects) and demographic shifts after projects are built to current disparities in exposure to polluting U.S. fossil fuel plants. The study found little evidence that plants were disproportionately located in counties with higher Black populations, on average. But it also found that the share of the Black population grew in the decades after the first fossil fuel plant was built in a county.

The study was conducted by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, Arizona State University, Universite de Montreal, and Boston College. It will be published in this year's NBER volume, titled "Environmental and Energy Policy and the Economy."

"Relatively little research has focused on estimating social lifecycle impacts of long-lived infrastructure because the effects can take many decades to show up," says Karen Clay, professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon's Heinz College, who led the study. "Our work highlights that the equity implications of siting long-lived infrastructure can differ significantly depending on the time period studied."

Researchers leveraged newly digitized data on the siting of power plants and their operations from 1900 to 2020, combined with spatially resolved demographics and population data from the U.S Census from 1870 to 2020. This extended time horizon allowed them to assess how demographics evolve over several decades after power plants are built.

The study also collected data on the potential determinants of power plant siting over time (e.g., population, transmission infrastructure, location of coal production, economic activity, railroads), which allowed researchers to determine the potential role played by pre-existing demographics in addition to other siting determinants.

Researchers found little evidence that power plants were sited disproportionately in counties with a higher share of Black residents, on average. Instead, siting decisions appear to have been influenced primarily by factors related to local demand for electricity and operating costs. The plants tended to be disproportionately located in counties that were more populous, had larger employment shares in manufacturing, and enjoyed better access to coal.

But researchers also discovered that openings of fossil fuel power plants led to long-term increases in counties' shares of Black populations, with an average rise in Black population share of 4% in the 50 to 70 years after the first plant was built. These longer-run demographic responses to early power plant openings likely reflect a number of interrelated mechanisms, the authors conclude, such as the Great Migration and local sorting within and across county boundaries based on air pollution and other factors.

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Between 1910 and 1970, millions of African Americans moved from the South to northern cities, population inflows that resulted in large outflows of white people from city centers to outlying suburbs and neighboring counties, especially between 1940 and 1970.

This historical evolution in the local costs and benefits of fossil fuel power plants underscores the importance of quantifying the short- and long-run demographic changes that follow power plant siting, suggest the authors. Long-term demographic shifts after siting likely play a much larger role in current disparities in power plant exposure than does inequity in initial siting decisions. In this way, even when plants are not sited inequitably, geographic mobility can lead to inequitable outcomes.

"Our findings have important implications for infrastructure investment, particularly in the context of environmental justice," says Akshaya Jha, associate professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon's Heinz College, who coauthored the study. "Because the equity implications of investments in long-lived infrastructure vary depending on the time period studied, it is essential to consider the full social life cycle of these investments to ensure equitable outcomes."

"While infrastructure projects like fossil fuel plants may promise short-term economic or energy benefits, their long-term implications often extend far beyond immediate gains," adds Noah Miller, postdoctoral research fellow in public policy and management at Carnegie Mellon's Heinz College, who co-authored the study. "The persistence of these disparities points to the need to incorporate a long-term perspective into decisions about infrastructure planning and policy."

The authors note that their analyses were done at the county level, so they likely underestimate the full demographic shifts after siting of power plants.

More information: Karen Clay et all, The Social Lifecycle Impacts of Power Plant Siting in the Historical United States, (2025)
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The frogs were released in a secret location near the NSW-Qld border. Credit: Southern Cross University

Southern Cross University has successfully made the first-ever release of captively reared mountain frogs in a remote area of Gondwana Rainforest near the NSW/Qld border, in Australia.

The speciesthe Red and Yellow Mountain Frog (Philoria kundagungan)were successfully reared as part of the University's Project GRASP (Gondwana Rainforest Amphibian Survival Program) before being returned to a secret location in the Tooloom National Park and released into a predator-free field enclosure.

"The day marks a significant milestone in a decade-long research program to save the Mountain Frogs from extinction," said Southern Cross University's Project GRASP lead, Associate Professor David Newell.

Together with Research Fellow Dr. Liam Bolitho, the pair collected eggs and adults from the field and have been raising these in captivity since December 2021 and, in a world first, have managed to get them to successfully breed.

"These frogs have a very specialized breeding biology, laying a small number of eggs in a burrow where the tadpoles develop from fertilized eggs without ever having a free-swimming tadpole stage," said Professor Newell.

"The tadpoles feed entirely from the yolk of the egg sack and then metamorphose into baby frogs about 23 mm in length. They are incredibly vulnerable. These ones took about four years to reach maturity."

The Threatened Species Commissioner Dr. Fiona Fraser praised the efforts of Southern Cross University's Project GRASP team.

"The Mountain Frog is one of the 110 priority species in the Australian Government's Threatened Species Action Plan 20222032. This project is a great example of applied research being put into on ground conservation action to save one of Australia's most endangered frogs," Dr. Fraser said.

Credit: Dr Liam Bolitho (R) and Associate Professor David Newell in the purpose-built GRASP lab on Lismore campus.

"We are proud to support the team through the Australian Government's Saving Native Species program, and delighted to see the ongoing partnerships and engagement to protect this species. The ability to establish new populations and supplement existing populations from individuals bred in captivity is a significant milestone for the Mountain Frog."

The Red and Yellow Mountain Frog (Philoria kundagungan) occurs in small patches of mountain top rainforests around NSW's Tooloom and Koreelah National Parks and across the border into Queensland's Main Range National Park.

It burrows in the mud within headwater streams and permanent soaks found in upland rainforest. The only way to detect this frog is when the male calls.

The Mountain Frog requires continually high moisture levels provided by a process called 'cloud stripping' and cool temperatures. Because these frogs cannot move far and are restricted to small areas of mountain top cloud forests, their populations have been hit particularly hard by climate change.

"We have witnessed localized extinctions in this species in recent decades as a result of climate change," said Dr. Bolitho.

Dr. Bolitho has been using automated acoustic recorders to undertake long-term monitoring of Mountain Frogs in an effort to help inform their conservation management.

"The Black Summer fires of 2019/2020 impacted 30% of their habitat and our field monitoring revealed declines and disappearances at fire affected sites," said Dr. Bolitho.

At the same time, an emerging threat to the frogs has been the proliferation of feral pigs within northern NSW rainforests. Pigs can destroy an entire population of mountain frogs within a matter of days. In response, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) staff have been conducting targeted trapping in several rainforest reserves and have also protected some important frog sites with fencing under the Assets of Intergenerational Significance Program. Landholders can help by reporting new sightings of pigs in adjoining properties to Local Land Services or National Parks staff.

To commemorate the release of the Mountain Frog, Southern Cross University's team of researchers in conjunction with Githabul Elders, WWF Australia, NPWS and Threatened Species Commissioner Fiona Fraser gathered at Tooloom National Park on Saturday September 6.
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Starting kindergarten is a big step for young children. It can also be a key time to spot which students might need some extra help with that life transition.

A new, free screening tool, created by researchers at the University of Missouri's College of Education and Human Development, is designed to help kindergarten teachers quickly identify which students could benefit from extra academic or social-emotional supportbefore small challenges become potential long-term setbacks later in life.

A paper describing this work is published in the Journal of Behavioral Education.

Intended to take just 1015 minutes per class, the simple three-question screener asks teachers to rate each child's academic and social-behavioral progress on a 0-to-4 scale (poorexcellent).

It's not meant to be used to make high-stakes decisions about young children. Instead, it's a tool for keeping track of progress and helping identify where support may be needed, said Melissa Stormont, the professor of special education at Mizzou who led the study.

"Success early on often leads to more success," she said. "You need to master the skills of kindergarten to be successful in first grade and so on. We don't serve children well by waiting for problems to surface or blaming what students come in with. This screener is about acting earlyout of care, not criticism."

Simple tool, big impact

From social adjustment and play to learning letters and academic skills, it's important to know which kindergarten students may need some more support from day one, Stormont said.

This screening tool gives teachers a simple baseline of what their students might need. It can also give them an idea of what additional resources and training they may need themselves as teachers.

"Think of it like a doctor taking vital signs at a checkup," she said. "It doesn't give you a full diagnosis, but it tells you where to look more closely."

Unlike costly and time-consuming evaluations that require extensive training, this screener is designed to be efficient and easy to use. And it's already shown its potential value as a useful "grab-and-go" tool.

In a recent study in a Missouri school district, 19 teachers used the screening tool with 350 kindergarteners. They found that about one in four students weren't fully prepared for school, based on teacher ratings of academic readiness, socialemotional readiness, or a combination of both factors.

"These aren't kids who are failingthey just need a little more of something, whether that's three minutes a day of extra practice or some help following directions the first time," Stormont said. "This extra attention can go a long way when it starts early."

Looking ahead

While it isn't currently part of any state-mandated system, Stormont hopes this free tool will encourage a broader shift in mindset from reacting to visible problems to noticing potential needs early and acting with care.

"Children come to kindergarten with very different experiencessome are cared for by grandparents, others are in daycare or preschool," she said. "That's why kindergarten is the right time to check in and see how they're doing. We know what works, so let's start using effective practices to help kids succeed from the beginning."

More information: Melissa Stormont et al, Characteristics of Children with Poor Readiness for Kindergarten: An Exploratory Study, Journal of Behavioral Education (2025). DOI: 10.1007/s10864-025-09590-y
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A crop field using flood irrigation. Credit: Colorado State University's Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering

Farmers near Meeker, in northwestern Colorado, have been diverting water from the White River to flood their fields for irrigation for more than 100 years.

Using a series of irrigation ditches, they divert huge amounts of water directly to their crops rather than relying on more efficient sprinkler systems to get the job done.

While the approach might seem wasteful, a new study led by Colorado State University researchers shows that about 75% of the water used in Meeker for flood irrigation eventually makes its way back into the river through groundwater recharge.

The work also highlights how the community's long-standing irrigation approach supports nearby natural wetland ecosystems that are central to wildlife habitat and recreation activity.

The comprehensive model at the heart of the research was described in the Journal of Hydrology and is now being used to help inform water management decisions in the area. And while every river basin and community are different, findings from the study on the relationships between agriculture, groundwater systems and rivers are applicable to future planning for water rights and the potential for changes in climate that could impact water-storage needs.

Professor Ryan Bailey led the published research through CSU's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He said the project started as a partnership with the White River and Douglas Creek Conservation Districts and has proven to be a small but solid test case to better understand the crucial hidden links among irrigation practices, a region's water table and the timing of river flow as a part of the larger water cycle.

"As we worked through this project, I realized just how dependent the White River is on this groundwater return flow that comes from flooding the fields," he said.

"Because of the extensive flood irrigation, the area is essentially saturated with water. That has elevated the water table over the years and has many implications for the region, including directly impacting the timing of the river's seasonal flows."

Groundwater recharge feeds White River

The study focuses on a 33-mile stretch of the river where water is diverted into a network of distribution ditches that then feed crop fields. The team combined data such as historic flow rates on the river as well as measurements of the water tables' elevation in the area through review of groundwater wells. Additional information about the area's geologyincluding soil types and their permeabilitywas also considered in the holistic model.

The White River in Colorado. Credit: Colorado State University's Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering.

Bailey said about 20% of the diverted irrigation water seeps back into the aquifer through the ditch beds before it even reaches the field. The rest is either used by crops, percolates down through the soil into the aquifer, or runs off the field and into lower elevation areas before re-joining the river.

All of this combines during the summer months to steadily recharge the region's aquifer, where water is stored, eventually flowing to nearby riverbeds before re-entering the White River.

In practice, only about 25% of the water from flood irrigation is used to maintain crops, while the other 75% returns to the river system in some way. A sprinkler irrigation system, by comparison, would more efficiently support plant growth. However, the team's model shows that approach would change the timing of the key seasonal river flows that are powered by groundwater recharge activity in the region.

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Bailey said in the fall months, when the river flow should be extremely low, it is instead moderate because of the groundwater entering the river from the fields.

These resulting late-season return flows are a product of irrigation that occurs during the summer and fall months. If sprinkler irrigation is instituted, he said, there might be higher river flow in the summer due to a decrease in ditch diversions, but then lower river flow in the fall and winter months due to a decrease in groundwater discharge to the White River. That could impact fish populations and downstream hydropower.

"The irrigation process keeps the water table high. That supports wetland development at the edges of the fields, along the ditches, and in the banks of the river that may not exist otherwise and creates a natural environment to store water for use later in the cycle," Bailey said.

"Our model shows how trade-offssuch as a switch to sprinklerswould negatively impact these zones and lower the region's water table by as much as 10 to 15 feet in some places over a five-year period."

Bailey added that the model offers the community an opportunity to make informed choices on water management practices that will likely need to span years and may change if there was a drought or more requests for water to flow down river.

He said he has created a simplified sheet for now, allowing stakeholders to work with the numbers to see how changes would impact water savings, crop yields and the downstream environment, among other variables.

Bailey said this research is broadly applicable to other communities that are looking ahead to understand how shifts in climate may change their agricultural and water management activities. He said the team is planning a similar project in the nearby Yampa River Valley and has also started talking to partners in southeast Wyoming.

Bailey Franklin is a district wildlife manager with Colorado Parks and Wildlife in the area. He worked with the CSU team on the project and said the work illustrates how important flood irrigation practices are for maintaining springs and wetland habitats in both the upland and riparian corridor, which benefit many different species of wildlife.

"Without flood irrigation, many of these springs and wetland habitats would simply dry up, thus the indirect benefits of flood irrigation to the landscape and to wildlife habitat are often not recognized," he said.

Ryan Bailey said service-based projects like this one that directly help Colorado residents are at the core of the university's land-grant mission.

"I think as CSU faculty we have an obligation to help people in the state by developing accessible solutions to shared challenges like water management," he said.

More information: Ryan T. Bailey, Quantifying hydrologic fluxes in an irrigated region characterized by groundwater return flows, Journal of Hydrology (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2024.132402
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Artistic representation of a ringing rotating black hole. Credit: Aurore Simonnet (SSU/EdEon).

Scientists have confirmed two long-standing theories relating to black holesthanks to the detection of the most clearly recorded gravitational wave signal to date.

Ten years after detecting the first gravitational wave, the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration has (10 Sep) announced the detection of GW250114a ripple in spacetime which offers unprecedented insights into the nature of black holes and the fundamental laws of physics.

The study confirms Professor Stephen Hawking's 1971 prediction that when black holes collide, the total event horizon area of the resulting black hole is bigger than the sum of individual black holesit cannot shrink.

Research also confirmed the Kerr nature of black holesa set of equations developed in 1963 by New Zealand mathematician Roy Kerr elegantly explaining what space and time look like near a spinning black hole. The Kerr metric predicts effects such as space being 'dragged' around and light looping to make multiple copies of objects.

Publishing their findings in Physical Review Letters, the international group of researchersincluding experts from the University of Birminghamnote that GW250114 was detected with a signal-to-noise ratio of 80. This clarity enabled precise tests of general relativity and black hole thermodynamics.

Geraint Pratten, Royal Society University Fellow at the University of Birmingham and member of the LVK paper writing team commented, "GW250114 is the loudest gravitational wave event we have detected to date, it was like a whisper becoming a shout.

"This gave us an unprecedented opportunity to put Einstein's theories through some of the most rigorous tests possiblevalidating one of Stephen Hawking's pioneering predictions that when black holes merge, the combined area of their event horizons can only grow, never shrink."

Left panel: Frequency and decay time (half-life) of the different ringdown tones measured in GW250114. The black markers indicate the values predicted for a Kerr black hole. Right panel: gravitational-wave signal (bottom spiral) emitted by the remnant black hole (bottom sphere) into the different tones, for a numerical simulation matching the measured parameters of GW250114. Credit: Dr. Keefe Mitman (Cornell University), Prof. Harald Pfeiffer (Albert Einstein Institute, Potsdam).

GW250114 was picked up by the twin detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the U.S.. LIGO operates in coordination with two international partners, the Virgo gravitational-wave detector in Italy and KAGRA in Japan, forming a gravitational-wave-hunting network, known as the LVK (LIGO, Virgo, KAGRA).

The LVK team, which includes members of the University of Birmingham, was able to establish that GW250114 was generated by the collision of two black holes with masses of about 32 times that of our sun.

LIGO detects a gravitational wave passing through Earth every few days, but GW250114 has turned out to be special. The data show that the initial black holes had a total surface area roughly the size of the United Kingdom (240,000 square kilometers) while the final area was about 400,000 square kilometers (roughly the size of Sweden).

In the 1970s, Hawking and physicist Jacob Bekenstein concluded that the black hole's area is proportional to its entropy, or degree of disorder, paving the way for later groundbreaking work in the field of quantum gravity, which attempts to unite two pillars of modern physics: general relativity and quantum physics.

After the black holes fused together, during what physicists call the ringdown phase, the final black hole vibrates, emitting gravitational waves at specific frequencies, like characteristic sounds a bell would make when struck, the 'voices' of the black hole.

Roy Kerr's solution predicts that a black hole, and its 'voices' when disturbed, are uniquely described just by two numbers: the mass and the spin of a black hole. The implications of this groundbreaking result single out black holes from any other celestial objects: a star can only be described by a very large set of complex properties, while even black holes heavier than a million times our sun are astonishingly described just by two simple numbers, mass and spin.

Infografic showcasing the advancements of gravitational wave observatories -- among the most precise measuring machines ever built by humankind -- in observing black holes cosmic collisions, with the registered signals shown in the bottom panel. These events are embedded in a multitude of celestial objects, which modern telescopes are also observing with ever increasing precision, producing the beautiful images displayed in the top panel. Credit: Dr. Derek Davis (Caltech, LIGO Laboratory).

Gregorio Carullo, Assistant Professor at the University of Birmingham and coordinator of one of the LVK analysis teams commented, "Given the clarity of the signal produced by GW250114, for the first time we could pick out two 'tones' from the black hole voices and confirm that they behave according to Kerr's prediction, obtaining unprecedented solid evidence for the Kerr nature of black holes found in nature."

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The results are released almost exactly ten years after the first landmark observation of gravitational waves. On September 14, 2015, a signal arrived on Earth, carrying information about a pair of remote black holes that had spiraled and fused together.

This historic discovery, to which Birmingham's researchers have made wide-ranging contributions by developing hardware for the LIGO detectors, highly accurate models of gravitational waves generated by merging black holes, and analysis techniques to tease out from the data the properties of black holes, meant that scientists could now sense the universe through three different means.

Patricia Schmidt, Associate Professor at the University of Birmingham and co-chair of the LVK analysis team, commented, "The detection of a black hole binary with parameters similar to those of GW150914, but three times louder, only a decade after the breakthrough discovery is owed to the tremendous technological improvements of our instruments, paving the path for precision astronomy with gravitational waves."

Amit Singh Ubhi, part of Birmingham's instrumentation team contributing key hardware that made such a discovery possible, added, "The exceptional signal-to-noise ratio of GW250114 showcases the collective advances in gravitational-wave instrumentation across our community.

"This unprecedented clarity allows us to probe black hole evolution with unmatched precision, showcasing the impact of cutting-edge technology on our understanding of the fundamental laws of nature."

More information: GW250114: testing Hawking's area law and the Kerr nature of black holes, Physical Review Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1103/kw5g-d732 Journal information: Physical Review Letters
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Dinaledi Subsystem map and detail showing floor space of the Dinaledi Chamber and Hill Antechamber. Credit: eLife (2025). DOI: 10.7554/eLife.89106.3

Anthropologist Lee Berger and his team at the University of the Witwatersrand, working within the Rising Star cave system in South Africa, have published their most extensive evidence yet of deliberate burial by Homo naledi, a small brained hominin that walked the Earth with several current modern human cousins over 240,000 years ago.

It began with a Facebook call for short, skinny and fit anthropologists who "must not be claustrophobic." There is a backstory to the beginning of course, but it is here in this Facebook advert for the smallest in stature and bravest of heart to drop everything and fly to South Africa where the team was assembled.

Their task: delve 30 meters down and explore an over 100 meter-long topography of a treacherous and at times impossibly narrow cave system.

The original announcement of the find in 2015 was met with amazement, some skepticism and a hint of controversy. Amazing because it was impossible to imagine the discovery of a new species of hominin, not by a single bone or fragmented skull, but by a trove of over 1,500 well-preserved fossilized bones from a minimum of 15 individuals, many articulated in place, buried in a cave that had been undisturbed for possibly more than 300,000 years.

With so many fossils awaiting excavation, the team dubbed the most concentrated area within the Dinaledi Chamber the "Puzzle Box."

Augmented virtual reality of the hill antechamber and the Dinaledi chamber. Credit: eLife (2025). DOI: 10.7554/eLife.89106.3

Naledi has a unique configuration, with feet, wrists and hands similar to a modern human, yet hips and shoulders more akin to a more ancient australopith form. Small-bodied, with an estimated height of under 5 feet tall and a brain around the size of a 3-month-old modern human infant, it sits well apart from other known hominins of its time.

Berger and his team announced their initial conclusions of naledi burial ahead of any publication or peer review, and so soon after the discovery that it raised concerns in the anthropology community.

Part of the concern comes from the lack of outside experts being invited to inspect the finds, something the current study has been more open to as the current paper includes authors from six countries and 28 institutions.

It was a monumental claim. Intentional burial had been considered a very current modern human act, one that had been weaved into a narrative of superior cognitive abilities, of symbolism, sentimentality and even supernatural beliefs.

Neanderthal burial sites were already in the midst of decades-long debates about whether or not they were intentional, with anthropologist Ralph Solecki's famous "flower burial" at Shanidar Cave in Iraq taking center stage.

Excavated fragments are shown in dark gray, in addition to the portions of mandible that are unambiguously identifiable within the site. Recording forms after Roksandic, 2002. Credit: eLife (2025). DOI: 10.7554/eLife.89106.3

Ultimately, flower pollen found below the interred Shanidar Neanderthals was determined to have most likely been placed there by burrowing bees, not remnants from offerings. But that scenario also would have required soil to have been dug out in advance of placement, a find that both confirmed the intentionality of the burial, and removed some layer of sentimental symbolism.

Since then, multiple other potential Neanderthal burial sites have been found, along with evidence of cave paintings, symbolic artifacts and advanced methods of manufacturing resins for attaching stone and bone hunting tools.

These discoveries, along with tool and possibly raft use among the small-brained hobbit height, Homo floresiensis, have set the stage for dramatically reassessing the cognitive capabilities of current modern humans' ancient cousins.

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In the study, "Evidence for deliberate burial of the dead by Homo naledi," published in eLife, researchers designed a minimal cultural-burial hypothesis to test against alternative noncultural processes across multiple contexts in the Dinaledi Subsystem, aiming to assess whether skeletal concentrations and their sediments reflect intentional interment.

Results identify two new areas with concentrations of naledi fossils. Around 90 skeletal elements and 51 teeth are described, with at least three late juvenile individuals identified by dental association and position.

Hill Antechamber Feature associated elements. Groups associated by spatial position, articulation, or clustering of contiguous anatomical elements. Credit: eLife (2025). DOI: 10.7554/eLife.89106.3

A substantially intact right foot and ankle with adjacent lower limb bones, partial right hand with wrist elements, a series of ribs, and mandibular and maxillary teeth in correct occlusal order are all from one individual.

Sediment evidence and clast morphology indicate dry-cave autobrecciation without water flow or size sorting, and spatial relationships exclude burial by slumping or spontaneous sediment movement.

A single stone object occurs within the Hill Antechamber Feature in an orientation discordant with both floor slope and bone positions, the context of which remains under analysis.

Broader subsystem mapping shows floor drains and constricted passageways that would obstruct mass sediment transport from the Hill Antechamber into the Dinaledi Chamber. Reworked areas lower on the slope contain scattered fragments and a cercopithecoid maxilla consistent with a baboon.

Authors conclude that cultural burial best fits the combined lines of evidence across features with whole bodies entering the subsystem, articulated elements far from any entry point, a lack of carnivore marks, and a dry cave environment ruling out water transport that could have carried bones to the location.

Rising Star cave system map. Credit: eLife (2025). DOI: 10.7554/eLife.89106.3

Many of the well articulated bones show signs of nearby disturbance, as though buried and then later digging partially disturbs part of the remains, perhaps as a new burial location is being sought.

Even with the large sample population the Rising Star cave offers, there are few other clues to their way of life. Within the Rising Star cave system is the only location where Homo naledi has been found, and it shows no signs of habitation, only a place to bury the dead.

As a burial site, the location is far from convenient, requiring the living to have carried the dead bodies deep into the cave, climbing and crawling their way to the burial location in absolute darkness, or perhaps guided by the light of fire. Even with the aid of fire, navigating so deep into the cave could be dangerous. So why risk it?

Could it be sentimentality, or a supernatural belief drawing the naledi back to the same location to deposit their dead? There are, of course, practical benefits to burial. It covers the smell of the decomposing body and prevents that smell from attracting predators. It also prevents former loved ones from witnessing the rendering or happening upon loose body parts as the carcass is taken apart by multiple carnivorous scavengers.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the find is that it exists at all. A previously undiscovered human species that once walked Earth, persisted long enough in the region to bury its dead over generations, and did so over 100 thousand years earlier than the first current modern human burial evidence.

That only a single cave site has preserved this knowledge, hints that for as much as we know about hominin evolution and origins, there could be still other archaic humans, still more ancient mysteries to uncover.

Written for you by our author Justin Jackson, edited by Sadie Harley, and fact-checked and reviewed by Robert Eganthis article is the result of careful human work. We rely on readers like you to keep independent science journalism alive. If this reporting matters to you, please consider a donation (especially monthly). You'll get an ad-free account as a thank-you.

More information: Lee R Berger et al, Evidence for deliberate burial of the dead by Homo naledi, eLife (2025). DOI: 10.7554/eLife.89106.3 Journal information: eLife

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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Fifteen pine martens were relocated from Scotland to Dartmoor, Devon, late last year in the first phase of a reintroduction to south-west England. This autumn, more of these domestic cat-sized mammals will be released into Exmoor as part of a long-term recovery strategy to restore pine marten populations.

Pine martens live primarily in woodland habitats, feeding on fruits, small mammals and birds. They were once found throughout Britain, until habitat loss from woodland clearance and increased predator control led to population collapse. It is thought pine martens lived in south-west England until the late 19th century.

In 2023, before plans for this release had been agreed upon, my colleague Kirsty Frith and I were commissioned by the Two Moors Pine Marten Projecta conglomeration of seven organizations, including the county's environmental charity Devon Wildlife Trust and Dartmoor National Park Authorityto independently capture perspectives of local people and interest groups on the proposals. This "social feasibility" assessment used an approach similar to one used previously for a release in Wales to determine how a pine marten reintroduction would be received in this area.

Our new study, published in Human Dimensions of Wildlife, outlines how we used a technique called Q-methodology. This method identifies shared perspectives and enables a rich understanding of subjectivity.

For participants, this involves a sorting exercise with discussion, placing written statements into a configuration to illustrate their levels of agreement with each. Once completed, their sorting arrangements are statistically compared and interpreted to identify perspectives which participants associate with.

Pining for martens?

Three main perspectives were identified. The anonymized participants included farmers, land managers, shooting representatives, conservationists and local residents.

Two of these perspectives supported pine martens and their reintroduction. Although similar, they exhibited some differences. The first viewpoint was more favorable to pine martens and reintroduction as a point of principle, with fewer reservations about introducing wild animals into the countryside. As one environmental farm advisor commented, "living around more nature and wildlife is a good thing."

Although the second viewpoint still agreed strongly with reintroduction in this region, emphasis was on the motivation to restore the native population of pine martens and natural habitats. Some people expressed concerns about whether there might be negative effects on threatened native wildlife, for example, bats or dormice.

Participants wanted further evidence about the effects pine marten would have on habitats and more information about future plans for monitoring them and dealing with any issues. One participant, an environmental professional and public official, held this viewpoint and agreed with the reintroduction of pine martens "if it is done well and it is well planned."

The third perspective was opposed to pine martens and their reintroduction. These participants were worried about introducing a predator like pine martens because they perceived them to be a threat to native wildlife, poultry and gamebirds.

They were also concerned about the availability of management support if there were negative effects from the reintroduction of pine martens. As one gamekeeper and conservationist viewed it, "they would add to the taking of wildlife when we have already lost more than 50%".

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What next?

Our new paper and previous research highlight two key challenges for any pine marten reintroduction project. By addressing those, the ability to coexist with pine martens can be improved.

People can have very different, polarized views. To minimize any conflict, reintroduction projects need to support inclusive dialogue around pine martens and how they can be monitored and managed. Unanimous support may be unlikely, but more collaborative relationships can be developed when people are involved in making plans for reintroduction.

It also really matters that people have contrasting understandings of predation. While supporters of reintroduction believed pine martens would contribute towards a functioning ecosystem, people who were less supportive were concerned that pine martens could kill threatened wildlife. Giving space for sensitive, nuanced conversations helps build trust and mutual understanding.

Our findings highlight the importance of assessing social feasibility before wildlife reintroductions take place. To ensure future success, that dynamic is just as crucial as ecological feasibility.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Matador bug (Bitta alipes, formerly Anisoscelis alipes), a leaf-footed bug (family Coreidae) with impressive, large, colorful flags on its hind tibia. Credit: Steven Paton

If you happen to be walking in the forests of Panama, you might just come across a bug that will wave at you, which scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) have been studying for a while. The matador bug (Bitta alipes) carries striking, reddish "flags" on its hind legs and performs an intricate leg-waving display. But the reason these bugs perform this behavior has remained a mysteryuntil now.

Sexual selection seemed a likely explanation. Males would wave their flags to attract females. Yet when scientists tested the idea, they found no evidence: both males and females waved their legs, and waving was unrelated to courtship or competition. That deepened the puzzle: if not for sex, why evolve such a conspicuous and seemingly costly behavior?

A study published in Current Zoology by STRI researchers Connor Evans-Blake, Juliette Rubin and Ummat Somjee offers an answer. These colorful "flags" appear not to attract mates, but to deter predators.

Scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama discovered that the matador bug's hind leg-waving display is more than just a showit helps protect it from predators. Credit: Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

The team exposed matador bugs to two different arthropods: predatory praying mantids and harmless katydids. They recorded nearly 3,000 leg waves. The results were striking: On average, bugs increased their waving behavior seven-fold in the presence of mantids, but barely responded to katydids. Even more telling, mantids never attacked bugs that were actively waving.

The findings show that waving is an anti-predator behavior, deployed specifically when danger looms. To document whether similar flag-waving behavior occurs in other species within the family, researchers used direct observations in Panama and searched for videos online. They found that at least five related flag-legged species display similar waving behaviors, hinting at a broader evolutionary strategy among these plant-feeding insects.

Matador bug (Bitta alipes) performing the flag-waving behavior in the presence of a predatory mantis. Credit: Connor Evans-Blake

All these flag-waving insects feed on passionflower vines, known to carry toxins, and may thus be advertising their own chemical defenses with these bold movements. But how does waving reduce predatory attacks? The precise mechanism remains a mystery. Is the waving communicating the bugs' likely toxicity, confusing predators' vision, or intimidating attackers with exaggerated motion?

"We're left with more questions than answers," said senior author Ummat Somjee. "But that's the beauty of studying insectsthere are hundreds of thousands of species, most of them completely unstudied, and every time we look closely we uncover behaviors that change the way we think about evolution."

Elaborate flag-waving behavior is found in at least five species of coreid bugs with tibial flags. All species that display this behavior possess conspicuous, elaborate tibial flags and are Passiflora specialists. a) Bitta lurida b) Bitta hymeniphera c) Diactor bilineatus d) Bitta gradadia and e) Anisoscelis foliaceus. Credit: B. lurida adel-fridus, iNaturalist observation:, accessed 17/03/2025; B. hymeniphera Erika Nathaly Bernal Morales, iNaturalist observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/48812802, accessed 17/03/2025; D. bilineatus tyski, 2023, iNaturalist observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/188839210, accessed 17/03/2025; B. gradadia photo by Ummat Somjee; A. foliaceus Cristian Serrano, iNaturalist observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/54789401, accessed 17/03/2025. Credit: Connor Evans-Blake, Juliette J. Rubin and Ummat Somjee

Research like this goes beyond solving quirky puzzles. Insects make up the majority of Earth's biodiversity and are foundational to terrestrial ecosystems worldwide, yet most of their behaviors remain undocumented. Understanding how prey defend themselves provides insight into how animals evolve and diversify into the many forms, sometimes bizarre, that make up complex ecosystems.

More information: FlagConnor Evans-Blake et al, Flag-waving behavior in matador bugs is an antipredatory strategy, Current Zoology (2025). DOI: 10.1093/cz/zoaf047
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Scuba divers in Liverpool, UK, among volunteers swimming around for science. Credit: Liverpool John Moores University

Volunteers are swimming in the sea to help science conserve some of the world's rarest fish. Scuba divers and snorkelers are among those helping to identify endangered species, such as giant guitarfishes, whip-stingrays and thresher sharks.

They are collecting environmental DNA which comprises billions of fragments of marine creaturesscales, blood, saliva, feces, and morewhich can help paint a picture of which creatures live close or have passed by.

Around 30 scuba diving and snorkeling volunteers have taken up the challenge, including British Sub-Aqua Club member Rosie Horner, who said, "It is great to contribute to scientific research by doing the thing I love mostscuba diving. These forensic techniques uncover species that we may have missed on our dives."

"Where the volunteers come in is we attach a plastic ball full of cotton to their wet suit; and as they swim, that little ball becomes completely soaked with water, trapping the eDNA fragments dissolved in it," explained Professor Stefano Mariani, a marine biologist at Liverpool John Moores University who coordinates the project.

"No-one has to take photographs, notes or even keep a look out. All they need do is swim around in the ocean to contribute to conservation science," he said.

Dr. Erika Neave, a Ph.D. researcher at Liverpool John Moores University, said, "The volunteers give us their seawater-soaked cottonor stick it in the post to the laband by sequencing what they collect, we can build up a picture of the local fauna."

The method, she says, is simple, inexpensive and saves complex scientific explorations and audits of marine life.

It is also effective, says Neave. "We were able to perfect the technique based on feedback from a small network of volunteers, who dived in a dozen locations in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans and detected 275 unique species from varied marine habitats. The swimming motion of divers was more effective than just dipping the cotton into the water."

"DNA Divers: Volunteer-based eDNA capture for local and global marine biodiversity monitoring" is published in Methods in Ecology and Evolution.